TJ Walker shows how to use AI as a thinking partner, not just a question-answerer. He walks through rewriting a resume bullet with metrics, generating role-specific versions, and refining workplace emails for tone and clarity. The key: run your writing through AI with follow-up prompts, then edit it yourself to keep your voice.
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Today on Ultimize Discover, you're getting a short practical sample from the Ultimize universe. Use this on its own, take one idea and apply it today, or go deeper at ultimize.com. Ultimize is the world's largest personal development podcast, audiobook, and online learning network. Ultimize. What if the fastest way to improve your career had nothing to do with working harder and everything to do with working smarter. Welcome to The AI Advantage. I'm TJ Walker, and this show is designed for people who want to use artificial intelligence to get ahead, not in theory, but in real life. Every episode will give you one practical way to use AI to improve your work, your job prospects, and your career. You do not need a technical background. You don't need to learn how to code. You just need to know how to use the tools that are already available to you. Because right now there are people in your industry using AI to save time, make better decisions, and produce better work, and others who are not. This limited series podcast is about making sure you're on the right side of that divide. So if you want to think better, work faster, and stay competitive in a challenging world, you're in the right place. Most people use artificial intelligence like a lazy Google search. They type one question, get one answer, and copy-paste, move on. That is like hiring a world-class consultant and asking them just one question. The real advantage comes when you start thinking with AI. Let me show you exactly what that looks like. Imagine you're applying for a marketing job. You write a resume bullet point that says, manage social media accounts for a small business. That's what most people do. Now watch how a professional uses AI. You paste that line into AI and say, rewrite this to sound more results-driven. It gives you a stronger version like increased engagement across social platforms. That's better, but you're not done. Then you ask what metrics would make this even stronger. AI suggests follower grow. Engagement rates, or conversions. Now you think back and realize you increased followers by about 20%. You update that line again. Then you ask for 3 versions tailored for a marketing manager role. Then you ask which version is strongest and why. Then you ask, how would a hiring manager react to this line? Now you're no longer just using AI. You're thinking with it. Let me give you another example. You're writing an email to your boss explaining a delay on a project. Most people just write something quickly and send it. Instead, you paste your draft into AI and say, make this clearer and more professional. Then you ask, make it more concise. Then you ask, does this sound defensive or confident? Then you ask it to rewrite it to sound more accountable. In 5 minutes, your communication improves dramatically. This is what separates people who stay average from people who accelerate their careers. They're using AI to refine their thinking, not replace it. Your exercise is simple and concrete. Take one thing you wrote recently. It could be a resume line, an email, or even a LinkedIn post. Paste it into an AI. Ask for improvements. Then ask at least 3 follow-up questions. Don't stop after the first answer. Keep refining until it's clearly better, because that habit alone will make you better than most people using AI today. Again, let's not get overwhelmed here. You do not have to become an expert on Python or the ins and outs of coding for AI, but what you do need to do is learn two things. How are people in your industry currently using AI to be more effective? And two, how can you get ahead of that? How can you be at the cutting edge of how people in your field, in your industry, even your job, are using AI and doing it a little bit better? You do that and you'll really have the soft skills that that will help you throughout your career. Email is one of the most common forms of communication at work, and most people are not very good at it. Let's be real. They write emails that are too long, too unclear, or too vague. AI can fix that quickly. Let's walk through a concrete example. You need to email your manager about a delayed project. You write a draft that is long and seems a bit defensive. Now you paste it into AI and say, make this more concise and professional. Now you get a cleaner version. Then you ask the AI to make me sound more confident. Now the tone improves. Then you ask, remove any unnecessary words. It becomes sharp and clear. Let's do another example. You need to request a meeting. You write a basic email asking for time. Now you paste it into AI and say, "Rewrite this to be more persuasive." Now it includes a clear reason and a benefit. Then you ask, "Make this shorter." Now it becomes efficient. Always keep in mind though, really read it and make sure it sounds like a real person said it. Make sure it sounds like it's coming from you because people are getting better and better at saying, "This doesn't smell right. This looks like—" AI wrote it. Now, AI can be the greatest possible writing partner for you, but it can also be bad if you just let it do one draft and you cut and paste. So keep in mind, you have to be the final editor. Another example: you need to follow up with someone who's not responded. Most people either sound too aggressive or too passive. You paste your draft into AI and say, make this polite but firm. Now you get the right tone. Your exercise is very practical. Take one real email you need to send, write your draft, then write it through AI 3 times. Once for clarity, once for tone, once for conciseness. But also remember, it's got to go through a 4th loop, your own brain. You have to look at it and be happy that it truly represents you because then you'll have better communication and better communication leads to better results. By the way, quick question for you. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to consume content and how hard it is to actually do anything with it? I mean, you can listen to 100 episodes, read 10 books, and your habits are exactly the same. That's the gap most people never close. So if you're listening to this and thinking, yeah, I want to actually improve, go to ultimize.com. We've got free courses there for you, either on communication skills or building better habits, and it's designed to get you to actually use what you're learning, not just hear it once. No cost, no catch, just go to ultimize.com and start. Ultimize.
