Create your own A.I. Idea Sparring Partner

This is your quick-start guide to training your AI tool of choice to be your ideal assistant for routinely strengthening your ideas and ensuring they are both aligned with your premise and message AND built to resonate with your audience.

Simply follow these steps in order to create your AI Sparring Partner.

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1] Train your A.I. on your audience

Open your AI tool of choice and start a new chat thread. This is important to know: you train 1 chat thread, not the whole tool. So if you use Claude, your chat labeled “AI Sparring Partner” will retain the info you feed it using the prompts below, and if you want to start a NEW thread in Claude and have it understand your audience, then you need to ask the FIRST thread to give you copy/paste prompts to help you train a new chat. If you aren’t sure how this works or how to appropriately move context between chats to train each of them, just ask the AI tool for the best approach. It will know!

Before You Proceed:

Each ✍️ symbol below represents a prompt you can copy/paste into your AI tool (though many are prompts to YOU which require you to write out your own answers. You can see my completed example below.)
Always make sure you correct AI when you know it got something wrong or you don’t love the feel of what it said back. Pointing out both these things helps further train the chat to be useful to you, both because you shared the correct info (when it’s wrong) AND your preferences and style (when you didn’t love the feel of things).
If you ever get stuck, you can always find an example from someone else you admire, even if you can’t quite place it, and drop that into the AI tool, sharing lots of context about it and as much info about why you admire it as you can share, then asking it questions like (1) what do you notice about it? (2) what would my version with similar traits sound like?

I asked Claude to take many months of me training it on my own ideal audience persona and complete the template you will be using, found below.

Here is what Claude shared so you can see an example from MY work:

Audience Persona Development Example: Jay Acunzo
Initial Information
I'd like to develop a comprehensive audience persona for my messaging and speaking strategy services. Let's collaborate to create a detailed profile that will help me understand my ideal client and improve my marketing messaging.
To start, my target audience consists of solo business owners and entrepreneurs who sell services and position themselves as thought leaders, storytellers, and experts to drive their business.
Step 1: Core Demographics & Context
- Job titles/roles: Independent consultant, Creative entrepreneur, Business coach, Business strategist, Small Business Owner, Thought Leader, Industry Influencer, Keynote speaker, Author
- Industry/sectors: Tech, Finance, Consulting, Media, Education, Startups
- Company size/type: Primarily solopreneurs or very small teams with contractors
- Income/revenue level: Six figures, often $200K-500K annual revenue
- Geographic location: Mainly North America, some Europe, some Australia (primarily working remotely)
- Age range: 30s-50s
- Education level: College educated mostly
- Career stage: Established in their field with expertise but seeking greater impact and differentiation
Step 2: Day-to-Day Reality
- Typical daily challenges: Balancing client work with lead generation, experiencing feast-or-famine cycles
- Professional responsibilities: Creating content, appearing as guest experts on media, delivering services to clients, developing intellectual property
- Key performance metrics: Client acquisition, content engagement, revenue stability, premium pricing ability
- Tools/systems they currently use: Content management systems, social media, email marketing, possibly CRM tools
- How decisions are made: Independently for business investments, sometimes consulting with spouse on larger financial commitments
- Relationship with other stakeholders: Primarily independent decision-makers, possibly working with contractors or small support teams
Step 3: Pain Points & Challenges
- Primary frustrations: Message isn't landing as powerfully as it could; feeling generic in a crowded market
- Obstacles preventing success: Lack of differentiation, difficulty articulating unique value proposition
- Common mistakes: Creating too much content without strategic focus, mimicking industry thought leaders
- Fears or anxieties: Fear of being forgotten or commoditized, concern about constantly needing to create content
- Gaps in current solutions: Most methodology-focused services push rigid systems rather than personalized approaches
Step 4: Goals & Aspirations
- Short-term professional goals: Increase client quality, command premium prices, reduce marketing effort
- Long-term career aspirations: Become recognized thought leaders, develop distinctive IP, build sustainable businesses
- How they measure success: Personal fulfillment, emotional impact on audience (qualitative feedback), attracting better clients
- What would make them a "hero": Building a business without resorting to "grimy tactics," having a distinctive voice that shapes their field
- Personal values: Integrity, authenticity, desire to build something they and others love
Step 5: Information Sources
- How they learn new information: Prefer "slow media" (podcasts, newsletters, books) over social media
- Publications/blogs they read: Industry-specific publications, thought leadership blogs
- Podcasts/shows they follow: Long-form interview shows, industry analysis podcasts
- Industry influencers they trust: Big-idea thinkers and nuanced communicators/strategists
- Events/communities they participate: Speaking at industry conferences, participating in masterminds
Step 6: Buying Journey
- Trigger events: Seeing peers successfully using similar methodologies, feeling frustrated with current marketing results
- Research process: Word of mouth, social proof, spending time with the service provider's ideas
- Decision criteria: Seeking personalized approach, practical techniques within strategic thinking, credibility with "people like me"
- Common objections: Price sensitivity ($10K-15K range), concerns about being forced into rigid systems
- Who influences decisions: Self-directed, possibly consulting spouse/partner on larger investments
Step 7: Transformation Desired
CLARITY
- FROM scattered → TO focused
- FROM cluttered → TO streamlined
- FROM fragmented → TO unified
- FROM uncertain → TO decisive
- FROM reactive → TO strategic
CONNECTION
- FROM broad reach → TO deep resonance
- FROM informing → TO inspiring
- FROM transmitting → TO conversing
- FROM generic → TO memorable
- FROM followers → TO advocates
DIFFERENTIATION
- FROM expected → TO distinctive
- FROM credentials → TO perspective
- FROM following → TO leading
- FROM similar → TO singular
- FROM noticed → TO sought-after
Step 8: Archetypes
The Analyst
- Strengths: Deep expertise, practical advice, instructional content
- Challenges: Lacks emotional connection, struggles with originality
- Communication style: Academic, credential-focused, dense content
- Frustrations: "Fluff," non-practical content
- My approach: Making their ideas meaningful, moving, and memorable
The Evangelist
- Strengths: Big ideas, creativity, enthusiasm, emotional connection
- Challenges: Lacks grounding, tactical execution, consistency
- Communication style: Colloquial, distinctive, story-driven
- Frustrations: When others ignore the "humanity" of situations
- My approach: Making their ideas crisp, clear, and coherent
Final Synthesis
Concise Audience Persona Summary
My ideal client is a solo business owner or entrepreneur (30s-50s) earning $200K-500K annually who sells services and positions themselves as a thought leader. They have established expertise but struggle with differentiation in a crowded market. Whether they're an Analyst (deep expertise lacking emotional connection) or an Evangelist (big ideas lacking focus), they seek to transform scattered ideas into a focused message that resonates deeply with their audience. They're tired of competing on marketing volume and want to build their business on the impact of their ideas instead.
Day in the Life Narrative
A day in my ideal client's life is packed with high-stakes meetings, public appearances, content creation, and servicing clients. They perpetually toggle between generating leads and executing client work, creating a feast-or-famine cycle that produces stress and existential dread throughout the year. This makes comparison games and promises of quick fixes tempting distractions.
When focused on work, they might be preparing for an industry conference, delivering a webinar, posting to social media, or pitching gatekeepers to guest on podcasts. Despite their expertise, they feel their message isn't landing as powerfully as it could. With a demanding schedule and evolving lifestyle (homeownership, children, multiple projects), they're increasingly frustrated with their business's performance. They seek expert guidance to elevate their marketing and messaging without resorting to "grimy" growth tactics that compromise their integrity.

Prompts to Use:

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I'd like to develop a comprehensive audience persona for [your product/service/cause]. Let's collaborate to create a detailed profile that will help me understand my ideal audience and improve my marketing, brainstorm ideas, spot holes in drafts of content, and strengthen my messaging to ensure it resonates with them. I’ll first train you to understand my audience, then I’ll share context on my own thinking and messaging. To start, here's some initial information about the target audience I'm aiming to serve: [Add 2-3 sentences about your general target audience AND 2-3 sentences sharing the basics of your business, what you sell, and what you help them achieve.]

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Core Demographics ⬅️[include these headers in your prompts]

[Here, you should share information you know, or information you can confidently assume, about your audience. If anything takes some explaining, go ahead and articulate that as you would to a peer.]

Job titles/roles
Industry/sectors
Company size/type
Income/revenue level
Geographic location
Age range
Education level
Career stage

Given this context, and recognizing I am going to share other categories of information about my audience with you shortly, are there any other types of demographic info that would be helpful for you to know, or is anything I shared unclear so far?

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