What I assumed everyone knew about ChatGPT

Hey there!

I was just wrapping up my bi-weekly AI tools update for the AI Solopreneur club and while I was writing about all the recent releases I am excited about (ChatGPT 5.1, Claude Skills, NotebookLM research and Canva AI) I had a reflection I want to share here.

If you are an OG here, you know that I love jumping into a good old rabbit hole with a new shiny AI tool (no surprises here😭) BUT I kind of lost track what I am paying for, so more often than not I get surprised that I forgot to cancel a tool I played around with just for fun 💸.

While I am hopeless and there is no cure (I’d rather spend money on new tools than on clothes) there is still hope for you and in this letter I want to help you avoiding ending up in the beautiful chaos I am in.

From the conversations I’ve been having lately, I know this - most people are ignoring massive leverage sitting right in front of them in the tools they already are paying for.

ChatGPT is the perfect example.

When I ask people how much have they personalized ChatGPT for their business, I get a “what are you talking about“ look way more often then not.

There is a set of features that are built right into ChatGPT that can turn it from a generic chatbot into a personalized assistant that actually understands your business, your voice, and what you're trying to build.

I'm talking about the difference between:

• Typing the same context over and over vs. having it remember automatically

• Getting generic business advice vs. responses tailored to your exact situation

• Spending 30 minutes crafting the perfect prompt vs. getting great outputs with minimal input

Once you set these up, you’ll stop fighting with ChatGPT and start actually using it as your co-founder or a top executive assistant.

So this week, I'm walking you through all four. Because I do believe that this is where the real leverage is and I can promise you if you do it you will 1000000x your ChatGPT outputs and stop complaining about it being too generic. Buckle up!

If you prefer watching over reading, I walk through all of it in my latest YouTube video.

Feature #1: Custom Instructions — Onboarding Manual

Think about this: when you hire an assistant, you don't just throw tasks at them and hope for the best. You explain your business, your audience, your goals, how you like to work.

Custom Instructions is exactly that - but for ChatGPT.

Go to your settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions.

Here's where you tell ChatGPT who you are and how you want it to respond. It needs real context:

• What you do

• What you're working on

• Your philosophy

• Your business and personal goals

• How you want responses

Once you set this up, ChatGPT stops giving you generic advice and starts responding like it actually knows your business.

If you're staring at a blank screen thinking "I don't know what to write":

Open ChatGPT and say: "I want to set custom instructions to get the best personalized experience. Ask me five questions to help me draft the custom instructions that would be most high-leverage for me."

Then use dictation mode to answer. Don't overthink it. Just talk like you're explaining your work to a friend. Once you get suggestion from ChatGPT, iterate it until you are happy and upload into relevant fields in your customazation settings.

Feature #2: Memory — The Game-Changer Nobody's Using

Here's where it gets really interesting.

Memory is like giving ChatGPT the ability to actually learn from your conversations over time.

Every time you chat with it, it's absorbing context about your business, your challenges, what you're working on. The good stuff gets saved to its memory—things it will always remember about you.

Enable it in Settings → Personalization → Memory. Make sure "Reference saved memories" is turned on.

Here's what most people miss: You need to regularly review and clean up these memories! Like in life, some things are not serving us anymore and we need to say goodbye and clean out the pace for something new.

Go to your saved memories and look at what's been stored. Sometimes ChatGPT saves the wrong thing (like that one time you asked a question for a friend and now it thinks that's part of your business strategy). Delete anything that doesn't fit.

The pro move: When you hit a breakthrough moment in a conversation with ChatGPT when something clicks and you get real clarity - tell ChatGPT: "Save this to my memories."

That way, the important stuff stays, and you're actively training your AI to understand what matters most to you.

This is why sometimes I can type a super basic prompt like "Give me 10 YouTube video ideas" with zero context, and it comes back with spot-on suggestions. It's pulling from months of conversations, my custom instructions, and everything it knows about my POV and audience.

That's leverage.

Feature #3: Projects — Your Organized Workspaces

If Memory is the muscle memory, Projects are the filing cabinets.

Each Project is a dedicated workspace for specific areas of your business. I have one for my membership, one for my YouTube channel, one for client work, one for personal development and so on.

You can control what memories and context flow into each project. Sometimes you don't want everything bleeding together.

Here's how to use it:

Create a project (like "Newsletter Writing")

Add instructions specific to this project: How you write, what style you prefer, what kind of value you want to provide. This layers on top of your Custom Instructions but gets super specific to the task.

Upload relevant files: Previous newsletters, examples you love, audience research, competitor analysis, anything that helps ChatGPT understand the context of this specific work.

For my newsletter, I start with a long voice memo of the ideas I want to talk about, I share what I’ve learned that week, what tools I'm testing, what's on my mind, what I found interesting, what didn’t work for me and so much more. Then I drop it into my Newsletter Project and ask to prepare a very first draft.

It pulls from my voice samples, any long-form content I’ve written, relevant youtube transcripts, articles I found interesting, my previous newsletters, and the context I've built in that project. The draft comes back and ready for me to iterate on.

The difference between Projects and Custom GPTs (which we'll get to next) is that Projects are for broader, more conversational and exploration work. You're still iterating together. You're still shaping things.

Custom GPTs are for when you want something more automated and consistent.

Feature #4: Custom GPTs — Your Specialist Team

Think of Custom GPTs as your specialized employees. Each one is trained to do one specific task really well, following your exact process every time.

I have a YouTube Description GPT. I hate writing video descriptions—the SEO optimization, the formatting, all of it. So I trained a Custom GPT aka my new AI Assistant to do it for me.

Now all I do is drop in my video transcript, and it gives me:

• An optimized description

• Title suggestions

• Hashtags

• Keywords

Every. Single. Time. In my style. Following my format. In seconds.

So to recap:

Projects = broader discussions, iterative work, exploring ideas together

Custom GPTs = pre-programmed for a specific task, consistent output, minimal input required

To create one (you will need a ChatGPT pro account): Click "Explore GPTs" → "Create" → describe the task you want it to handle.

Example: "I want to create a GPT that writes Instagram captions in my tone of voice."

Then it'll guide you through setting it up.

To make Custom GPTs actually useful, you need to upload your brand voice, examples of your writing, the exact format you want outputs and a bit more “rigid” instructions. This takes time upfront, but once it's done, you save hours every single week.

Some ideas for Custom GPTs:

• LinkedIn post writer (trained on your authentic voice, not that cringe "what my marriage taught me about B2B sales" nonsense)

• Social media caption creator

• Content repurposer (turning long-form into bite-sized posts)

The key is this: you set it up once with your voice, your standards, your style—and then you never have to explain it again.

I know this might feel like a lot. If you're just beginning, focus on Custom Instructions and Memory first. These two alone will transform how ChatGPT responds to you.

Projects come next - especially if you have distinct areas of your business where you need different context.

Custom GPTs are worth building when you have a repetitive task that follows the same process every time. Don't stress about these until you're ready.

Let me know which one are you going to set up this week?

Until next week,

Your AI Solopreneur Bestie,
Elena

🚀 If you want to join my membership with more practical resources and a supportive community of people on a similar journey - check out the AI Solopreneur Club.