August 27, 2025 • 25 mins
Join Sahar, The AI Whisperer, on AI Café Conversations, where we navigate the complexities of AI for executives through a human-centered lens. This podcast offers AI leadership coaching insights designed for non-technical leaders eager to integrate AI without losing their human touch.
Discover practical strategies for AI adoption, neuroscience-backed approaches to combat tech anxiety, and tools that enhance your leadership effectiveness while embracing AI integration. Perfect for executives, HR professionals, and coaches seeking to gain a competitive edge in today's tech-driven business landscape, our episodes feature expert interviews and actionable frameworks that convert AI capabilities into real-world success.
Perfectionist brains and AI learning often mix like oil and water, but this conflict is rooted in neuroscience not personal shortcomings. High-achieving professionals expect linear progress and predictable outputs, while AI requires experimentation and iteration to deliver optimal results.
• Executive brains are wired for success through "executive efficiency pathways" that expect linear progress
• Perfectionist tendencies trigger the brain's error detection center when AI outputs aren't immediately perfect
• Many executives operate under an "AI omnipotence fallacy," expecting mind-reading capabilities
• AI should be approached like training a brilliant intern with no context about your business or goals
• The key shift is measuring learning velocity rather than output perfection
• First drafts from AI should be viewed as raw materials for your expertise to refine
• Each AI "failure" provides valuable data for improving future prompts
• Your perfectionist brain is actually perfect for AI when applied to the learning process
• The opportunity cost of not learning AI far outweighs the temporary discomfort of mediocre outputs
Email me at sahar@saharconsulting.com with questions or topic suggestions for future episodes. My book "The Coach's Brain Meets AI" is available on Amazon, and I'll send extra guides if you email me after purchasing. Follow me on LinkedIn (Sahar Andrade) and Instagram (Sahar the Reinvent Coach).
Subscribe now to start transforming your leadership with Human-Centered AI!
If you have any questions Email me at sahar@saharconsulting.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to AI Cafe
Conversations.
I'm Sahar, your AI Whisperer,and I am here again with one of
your favorite episodes thatwe're gonna go through today.
So I have been asking a lot ofpeople and throughout the week
(00:34):
what I have been doing.
I have been talking to myclients about AI.
Some are actually excellingwith AI, some are doing,
honestly, magic with AI, andsome are very, still very
skeptical and some they don'treally see the value of it.
I had a conversation with oneof my clients yesterday.
(00:57):
She's actually doing a productand it really helped her finish
all the research that wassupposed to take her six months
in less than a month.
And what I really helped herwith yesterday is trying to
create a GPT for her that willbe like her lab research agent
(01:18):
or can be her virtual assistantthat can help her go through it,
which is awesome.
I will try to have her as aguest in one of our podcasts
very soon.
But I have been also talking toa lot of people that are still
skeptical about it and I askthem questions and I love to
(01:40):
listen to them and most of thetime I play devil's advocate for
them.
Listen to them and I, most ofthe time, I play devil's
advocate for them.
But today I want to say that Iwant to go a little bit deeper
with uh analyzing and evensharing with you the questions
that I have been uh asking a lotof people around me that,
especially the ones that havebeen having ai frustrations.
So one of one of my clients,when I asked her what is your
(02:06):
latest AI frustration?
Show me how are you using itand I always like to share
screen when we are on Zoom so Icould see exactly the steps that
they go through and that givesme some light into how their
brain is working with their AIintelligence.
And when I asked the clientwhat is frustrating you?
(02:27):
He looked at me and he goeslike, really, where do I even
start?
He said that he spent threehours trying to get ChatGPT to
write the perfect projectproposal Three hours and he said
he could have written it,written it in like five minutes
and he could in the three hours.
(02:48):
He could have done fiveproposals in that time.
You know when someone tells youthat, oh, my phone just did this
, or Facebook just posted this,or like this, but I didn't do it
, you know I have to stop myself.
I'm like iPhone doesn't act onits own.
Iphone doesn't act on its own,facebook doesn't act on its own.
(03:08):
You must have triggeredsomething that triggered that
action.
But I didn't want to sayanything.
I said, okay.
So how did it turn out?
At the end of three hours andmy client said mediocre, generic
at best, nothing like he had inhis head that if AI was
supposed to be so smart, why canit read my mind with only a few
(03:33):
words and give me exactly whatI want?
And I had to stop for a second.
I remember I was coaching aclient in one of the cities and
he was like an executive in thatcity and everybody reported to
him and he was frustrated withthe reports that everybody was
(03:53):
giving him.
So when I asked him have youever shared with them what are
your expectations?
His answer blew me away.
His answer was like I pay thema lot of money.
They're supposed to be expert,they should know how to present
their reports, and that blew mymind away.
It's just like how do you wantthem to read your mind on?
(04:14):
What exactly do you want?
And that's exactly.
That's parallel to AI.
Ai doesn't have a crystal ball,at least not yet Okay, doesn't
have a crystal ball, at leastnot yet okay.
So, ladies and gentlemen, thatclient made me feel like I'm
meeting the perfectionistexecutive brain at its natural
(04:35):
habitat.
He described and I couldn't sayit better okay.
He described the number onereason high achieving executive
struggle with ai and it's all inthe neuroscience, okay, and
that's what I keep going back.
They are not broken, butexecutive brains are just wired
(04:57):
for success in ways that workagainst ai learning.
Anyone say, oh really, againstAI learning.
Anyone say oh really, yeah,really.
Today we are exploring whyperfectionist brains and AI
learning are like oil and water.
But, most importantly, I'mgonna share with you how to fix
it.
So when I get something likethat, I always like to go to the
(05:20):
root.
So I always ask when someonetells me that I'm not getting
the results I want and I'm likewhy don't you take me to the
root?
So I always ask when someonetells me that I'm not getting
the results I want and I'm likewhy don't you take me to the
root?
Why don't you take me to?
How do you work a proposal?
What is your usual process like?
How do you create a plan?
How do you execute it?
Do you put predictable results?
You have KPIs.
(05:42):
How do you work it exactly?
And and why?
I ask that?
Because your brain was built onwhat neuroscience called
executive efficiency pathways.
Executive efficiency pathwaysyears of success have trained
(06:02):
your prefrontal cortex to expectlinear progress.
Input leads to predictableoutput, and that's not bad.
Actually, it's not bad at all,but it's just incompatible with
AI learning.
Ai works on iteration, notperfection.
(06:23):
Remember.
It's about pattern recognition.
Your brain expects mastery.
Ai requires experimentation toget you to the mystery.
So don't throw a fit right awaybecause you're not getting
perfect results immediately,because your interior cingulate
(06:47):
cortex or your brain's errordetection center goes haywire.
It interprets imperfect AIoutput as system failure, not
learning opportunities, and theyare two different things.
And that's why people getfrustrated, especially
(07:09):
executives that are used to boom, boom, boom.
Right.
They get frustrated veryquickly because it feels to them
like AI is broken.
But here is the fascinatingpart your perfectionist brain
actually has superpowers for AI.
You just need to redirect them,and I'm going to tell you how
(07:31):
to do it.
Perfectionists excel at patternrecognition and iterative
improvement.
You are not failing at AI, youare applying the wrong success
matrix.
Okay, blank eyes.
What does it mean?
It means that, instead ofmeasuring perfect output,
(07:56):
measure learning velocity.
How fast can you identify whatdoesn't work and adjust?
That's why we it's not onlyabout prompting, but it's about
prompt engineering.
And it's not only about promptengineering, it's about prompt
chaining.
Your power, your clarity, yourbrilliance will come in how well
(08:21):
you can do from training.
How far can you dig, what canyou implement, what can you ask
more to lead you where you want.
You know, they say all pathwayslead to rome.
Fine, find those pathways soyou can get to rome.
Okay, find those pathways soyou can get to Rome, okay.
So, and it's not about again,it's not about celebrating the
(08:47):
bad results, but it'scelebrating the fast feedback
loops that you're getting fromAI.
Your perfectionist brain lovesoptimization.
Ai gives you infiniteoptimization opportunities, and
I don't know really what peopleexpect when they use AI.
(09:09):
I really don't know when theyfirst try it.
Do they expect that it's goingto again read their mind?
I don't know Magic.
Maybe they would type asentence and get exactly what's
in their head, perfectlyformatted, ready to send.
And this is the most umsignaling, uh danger that I see.
(09:34):
A lot of people, includingexecutive, they say that they
use ai every day.
They're good at it, even in myclients, and once they tell me
that I kind of like grinch for alittle bit.
Because if you enter a prompt onAI and it gives you an answer,
people think that they areexperts at it.
(09:56):
But no matter what you put inas a prompt, if you put describe
a yellow cow for me, ai willgive you an answer.
So it's not about getting ananswer.
That makes you a good AI user.
It's about what you put in thatprompt and you're really
getting the results that youwant.
(10:17):
The gap between people that arejust using uh, ai or chat, gpt
or cloud or meta or whatever itis as a google search, is
widening between what we callnovice and actually the people
that really know how to use ai.
But people are unaware of thatand this is part of their bias,
(10:40):
and bias will never get youanywhere near the results that
you want or even near theresults that you can actually
succeed getting from AI.
So it's not about just typing asentence and AI will give you
whatever you want.
Give you whatever you want.
(11:05):
So what people describe as ananswer like you push a button
and you get a crystal ball atthe end is what we call ai
omnipotence fallacy.
Your brain confused aicapability with ai mind reading.
I just tried to explain in asimple manner with ai mind
reading.
I just tried to explain in asimple manner.
Yes, people are under theimpression that ai can do
(11:31):
anything and it does okay, butthis is what I call confirmation
bias that I was talking about aminute ago.
Working over time, your brainfiltered ai marketing through
your perfectionist lens,creating impossible expectations
.
And what does it do?
That sets you up for failure.
Your brain did what it alwaysdoes it applied your existing
(11:52):
success framework to acompletely different type of
tool.
It's like expecting a hammer towork like a screwdriver Between
both of us.
I can do that.
I have no idea how to use tools, so what should you expect
instead?
Right, I want you to think ofAI as a brilliant intern with no
(12:16):
context whatsoever about yourbusiness, your style or your
goals.
Incredibly capable, but needstraining.
So you need to actually manageAI like you manage people,
onboarding anyone.
(12:37):
If you get a new virtualassistant or executive assistant
, or even a manager or directoror a VP under you, it all you
know.
What all matters is youronboarding.
How do you onboard them to getto know your style, your
expectation, your goals, yourway, what we call rules of
(12:58):
engagement.
What are your rules ofengagement for them?
If not, they will be doingwhatever they think right and at
the end of the day, it mightnot be what you expect at all.
That's exactly the same analogy.
So you wouldn't expect a newhire to deliver perfect work on
day one.
Why do you expect it from AI?
It's a superpower.
Do you expect it from AI?
(13:24):
It's a superpower.
Yeah, but not in that way.
I hope that makes sense to you,because we usually spend
sometimes days and weeks toonboard new employees.
So your brain already hasneural pathways for developing
talent.
Apply those same pathways to AIdevelopment.
So you should give AI feedback,like you give employees
(13:46):
feedback Specific, actionable,iterative feedback.
Your perfectionist brain lovesrefinement process.
Ai thrives on them too.
I never take an answer rightaway.
Whatever ai gives me, I don'ttake it.
(14:07):
I push back, I keep pushingback, and I think I told you in
the last episode I kept pushingcloud so much because I wanted
to know how far I can go.
Ai is still in its infancy.
We are all experimenting.
Ai x is experimenting on us andwe are experimenting on ai.
(14:32):
I go using ai with an open eyefor the pros and cons.
I don't think it's wow, it'sfascinating.
It fascinating, it's the bestit is.
But there are also a lot ofcons.
I kept pushing Claude till ithad a meltdown.
Okay, it's a case study forwhoever wants it.
I can send you even a copy ofthe transcript that I had.
(14:54):
You know, the funniest part isthat two minutes later I started
a new conversation with Claudeand it had no idea, because it
doesn't have a memory.
It didn't carry that into thenew conversation, which was like
okay, kiss and makeup, hahaanyhow.
So, going back, that we need toactually really train AI on who
(15:16):
we are.
Ai thrives on onboarding andtraining as well.
In the beginning, someone askedme if we all use AI and it
gives the same exact answers.
Where is branding here?
Where is unique valueproposition here, and how will
anyone become different than theother?
I looked at that person and I'mlike it all depends on your
(15:38):
prompts.
It all depends on how youonboarding, because at the end
of the day, ai is garbage in,garbage out.
Whatever you feed is whateveryou get, and unfortunately, no
one talks about that.
People talk about AI either as atechnology or coding, which I'm
(15:59):
neither.
I'm no tech required in thispodcast and I am not a coder
either.
Obviously I'm not a techie,okay, but it's about how to
manage yourself around AI, tomanage AI to give you what you
want, right.
So people don't say that.
(16:22):
But again, they work eitheragainst tech or they talk about
prompting.
Like the internet is floodedwith people that take five
prompts that will make you do amillion dollars a week and all
the charlatans are coming up andI look at these prompts and
they are wrongly written promptsand they are wrongly written.
People that are wrongly written.
(16:44):
People are saying act as or asif you were, and they don't
understand that AI is soemotionally intelligent now that
when you ask it to act as itwill mimic a role.
It will never give you the realrole.
Ok, number one.
So most AI training focuses onthe tool, not the brain using
(17:07):
the tool, and that's what makesme different.
I always concentrate on thehuman brain that uses artificial
intelligence.
At the end of the day, it'scalled human intelligence.
So when people get mediocreresults, what goes through their
brain is actually panic, panic,right, like what if someone
(17:30):
sees this.
What if my team thinks I'mlosing my edge?
What if I submit somethingsubpar?
Your amygdala, or your survivalcenter here is triggering a
reputation threat response Forexecutives.
Mediocrity feels existentialbecause your identity is tied to
(17:52):
excellence.
You have tied your identity toexcellence because why?
Reputation for you iseverything.
You can't afford to lookincompetent.
But here is what your brainisn't calculating the
opportunity cost of not learningAI is far greater than the
temporary discomfort of mediocreoutputs.
(18:14):
Remember, whatever makes usmove, whatever motivates us, is
when we feel that we are goingto lose more, when we stay where
we are, versus then taking theleap to move forward.
So what do I mean by that?
Your perfectionist brainfocuses on immediate quality
(18:34):
risk but ignores long-termcapability risk.
You are optimizing your today'sperfection while sabotaging
tomorrow's potential.
And it's not about acceptingbad work.
That's not what I'm saying.
It's not.
You should reframe what workmeans.
(18:56):
Ai outputs are not finalproducts.
They are raw materials for yourown expertise.
You are in control here.
Okay, so a first draft is not afinal draft.
All right, your brain excels atediting, refining and improving
.
You are the one with theexperience.
(19:17):
Use AI to generatepossibilities, then apply your
perfectionist superpowers topolish them.
So brainstorming yes, when youstart thinking brainstorming,
(19:38):
you are pushing towardsexcellence.
I don't like the wordperfection because perfection
has procrastination under it andprocrastination is rooted in
fear.
So when you think brainstorming, you are thinking exactly like
a neuroscience.
You are leveraging AI'sdivergent thinking with your
(19:58):
convergent thinking.
It's a perfect partnership andit's more strategic, obviously,
and it will make you feel lessthreatened because you're
working with your brain designinstead of against it.
Perfectionists make excellent AIeditor.
So, instead of expectingperfect result, what if you
(20:23):
expected perfect learning?
And there is a difference.
Perfect results focus onoutcomes.
Perfect learning focuses onunderstanding.
Your brain can control learning.
It can't control AI outputs.
So how do you understand AI?
(20:45):
Instead of how good the resultsare, ask yourself what did I
learn about how this AI thinks?
How can I improve my prompts?
What patterns am I noticing?
And now it becomes moremanageable, like you have
control over something, becauseyou actually do.
Your perfectionist brain lovescontrol.
(21:07):
Give it control over thelearning process, not the output
quality, and celebrate thatwhen something doesn't work.
It's a way of knowing what notto do, because each failure is
data about how to succeed nexttime.
Your brain is building AIintuition with every iteration.
(21:29):
Brain is building AI intuitionwith every iteration, so it's
more like problem solvinginstead of hoping for magic, and
problem solving is whatexecutive brains were designed
for.
You're just applying thoseskills to a new domain.
So perfectionism isn't a bug.
(21:49):
I, I write, talk.
Excellence is not a bug.
It's a feature and you need touse it right.
Excellence plus iterationequals ai mastery.
Your high standards become yourcompetitive advantage.
So what is your biggest takeawaytoday for perfectionist
(22:13):
executive?
To stop expecting AI to readyour mind and don't get
frustrated.
Start treating it like talentdevelopment, like if you would
learn a new language.
Would you wake up the secondday fluent in it?
No, it takes time and you learnhow to best retain words, how
(22:39):
to form phrases and how to soundlike a native.
Your perfectionist brain isactually perfect for AI if you
apply it to the learning processinstead of demanding perfect
outputs.
Remember, executives mediocre AIresults are not failures.
(23:00):
They are feedback.
Your perfectionist brainsuperpower is turning that
feedback into excellence.
So stop panicking when Chad GPTdoesn't nail it on the first
try.
Patience, grasshopper.
Next week we are diving into AIfeedback and why algorithm
(23:22):
criticism hits different thanhuman feedback.
So, and it's not about havingsomething wrong with our brain.
Nothing is wrong.
Everything is just optimizable.
So this is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, signing off from AI
Cafe Conversation.
If you have any questions oryou want me to go into certain
(23:47):
subject in the next episode,email me at sahar, at
saharconsultingcom.
Show me some love, likesubscribe, share this episode
with someone that needs to seeit.
My book is.
I have been asked a lot aboutmy book, the Coach's Brain Meets
(24:08):
AI.
It's actually doing really goodon Amazon.
Go get yourself a copy if youget it, even if you get the
Kindle that is selling for $2.99.
Now, if you email me at Sahar,at Sahar consultingcom, I will
send you extra guides for itthat you can use it that are
really good.
Follow me on LinkedIn.
(24:28):
I'm Sahar Andrade.
Follow me on Instagram.
I am Sahar the Reinvent Coach.
On Instagram.
Actually, yesterday I justposted something a carousel
about how your brain habits arekilling your performance, how
(24:52):
you lead with better habits.
Doing AI and 98% of executiveperformance breakdown are not
strategic.
Your brain loves efficiency,but that often means what?
So follow me on Instagram.
Like I said, I hope you arewell and again, if you have any
(25:12):
questions, drop it in thecomments and I will see you next
week.
This is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, and I will see you
all next week.
By the way, happy and safeLabor Day.
I'll see you next Wednesday.
Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to AI Cafe
Conversations.
I'm Sahar, your AI Whisperer,and I am here again with one of
your favorite episodes thatwe're gonna go through today.
So I have been asking a lot ofpeople and throughout the week
(00:34):
what I have been doing.
I have been talking to myclients about AI.
Some are actually excellingwith AI, some are doing,
honestly, magic with AI, andsome are very, still very
skeptical and some they don'treally see the value of it.
I had a conversation with oneof my clients yesterday.
(00:57):
She's actually doing a productand it really helped her finish
all the research that wassupposed to take her six months
in less than a month.
And what I really helped herwith yesterday is trying to
create a GPT for her that willbe like her lab research agent
(01:18):
or can be her virtual assistantthat can help her go through it,
which is awesome.
I will try to have her as aguest in one of our podcasts
very soon.
But I have been also talking toa lot of people that are still
skeptical about it and I askthem questions and I love to
(01:40):
listen to them and most of thetime I play devil's advocate for
them.
Listen to them and I, most ofthe time, I play devil's
advocate for them.
But today I want to say that Iwant to go a little bit deeper
with uh analyzing and evensharing with you the questions
that I have been uh asking a lotof people around me that,
especially the ones that havebeen having ai frustrations.
So one of one of my clients,when I asked her what is your
(02:06):
latest AI frustration?
Show me how are you using itand I always like to share
screen when we are on Zoom so Icould see exactly the steps that
they go through and that givesme some light into how their
brain is working with their AIintelligence.
And when I asked the clientwhat is frustrating you?
(02:27):
He looked at me and he goeslike, really, where do I even
start?
He said that he spent threehours trying to get ChatGPT to
write the perfect projectproposal Three hours and he said
he could have written it,written it in like five minutes
and he could in the three hours.
(02:48):
He could have done fiveproposals in that time.
You know when someone tells youthat, oh, my phone just did this
, or Facebook just posted this,or like this, but I didn't do it
, you know I have to stop myself.
I'm like iPhone doesn't act onits own.
Iphone doesn't act on its own,facebook doesn't act on its own.
(03:08):
You must have triggeredsomething that triggered that
action.
But I didn't want to sayanything.
I said, okay.
So how did it turn out?
At the end of three hours andmy client said mediocre, generic
at best, nothing like he had inhis head that if AI was
supposed to be so smart, why canit read my mind with only a few
(03:33):
words and give me exactly whatI want?
And I had to stop for a second.
I remember I was coaching aclient in one of the cities and
he was like an executive in thatcity and everybody reported to
him and he was frustrated withthe reports that everybody was
(03:53):
giving him.
So when I asked him have youever shared with them what are
your expectations?
His answer blew me away.
His answer was like I pay thema lot of money.
They're supposed to be expert,they should know how to present
their reports, and that blew mymind away.
It's just like how do you wantthem to read your mind on?
(04:14):
What exactly do you want?
And that's exactly.
That's parallel to AI.
Ai doesn't have a crystal ball,at least not yet Okay, doesn't
have a crystal ball, at leastnot yet okay.
So, ladies and gentlemen, thatclient made me feel like I'm
meeting the perfectionistexecutive brain at its natural
(04:35):
habitat.
He described and I couldn't sayit better okay.
He described the number onereason high achieving executive
struggle with ai and it's all inthe neuroscience, okay, and
that's what I keep going back.
They are not broken, butexecutive brains are just wired
(04:57):
for success in ways that workagainst ai learning.
Anyone say, oh really, againstAI learning.
Anyone say oh really, yeah,really.
Today we are exploring whyperfectionist brains and AI
learning are like oil and water.
But, most importantly, I'mgonna share with you how to fix
it.
So when I get something likethat, I always like to go to the
(05:20):
root.
So I always ask when someonetells me that I'm not getting
the results I want and I'm likewhy don't you take me to the
root?
So I always ask when someonetells me that I'm not getting
the results I want and I'm likewhy don't you take me to the
root?
Why don't you take me to?
How do you work a proposal?
What is your usual process like?
How do you create a plan?
How do you execute it?
Do you put predictable results?
You have KPIs.
(05:42):
How do you work it exactly?
And and why?
I ask that?
Because your brain was built onwhat neuroscience called
executive efficiency pathways.
Executive efficiency pathwaysyears of success have trained
(06:02):
your prefrontal cortex to expectlinear progress.
Input leads to predictableoutput, and that's not bad.
Actually, it's not bad at all,but it's just incompatible with
AI learning.
Ai works on iteration, notperfection.
(06:23):
Remember.
It's about pattern recognition.
Your brain expects mastery.
Ai requires experimentation toget you to the mystery.
So don't throw a fit right awaybecause you're not getting
perfect results immediately,because your interior cingulate
(06:47):
cortex or your brain's errordetection center goes haywire.
It interprets imperfect AIoutput as system failure, not
learning opportunities, and theyare two different things.
And that's why people getfrustrated, especially
(07:09):
executives that are used to boom, boom, boom.
Right.
They get frustrated veryquickly because it feels to them
like AI is broken.
But here is the fascinatingpart your perfectionist brain
actually has superpowers for AI.
You just need to redirect them,and I'm going to tell you how
(07:31):
to do it.
Perfectionists excel at patternrecognition and iterative
improvement.
You are not failing at AI, youare applying the wrong success
matrix.
Okay, blank eyes.
What does it mean?
It means that, instead ofmeasuring perfect output,
(07:56):
measure learning velocity.
How fast can you identify whatdoesn't work and adjust?
That's why we it's not onlyabout prompting, but it's about
prompt engineering.
And it's not only about promptengineering, it's about prompt
chaining.
Your power, your clarity, yourbrilliance will come in how well
(08:21):
you can do from training.
How far can you dig, what canyou implement, what can you ask
more to lead you where you want.
You know, they say all pathwayslead to rome.
Fine, find those pathways soyou can get to rome.
Okay, find those pathways soyou can get to Rome, okay.
So, and it's not about again,it's not about celebrating the
(08:47):
bad results, but it'scelebrating the fast feedback
loops that you're getting fromAI.
Your perfectionist brain lovesoptimization.
Ai gives you infiniteoptimization opportunities, and
I don't know really what peopleexpect when they use AI.
(09:09):
I really don't know when theyfirst try it.
Do they expect that it's goingto again read their mind?
I don't know Magic.
Maybe they would type asentence and get exactly what's
in their head, perfectlyformatted, ready to send.
And this is the most umsignaling, uh danger that I see.
(09:34):
A lot of people, includingexecutive, they say that they
use ai every day.
They're good at it, even in myclients, and once they tell me
that I kind of like grinch for alittle bit.
Because if you enter a prompt onAI and it gives you an answer,
people think that they areexperts at it.
(09:56):
But no matter what you put inas a prompt, if you put describe
a yellow cow for me, ai willgive you an answer.
So it's not about getting ananswer.
That makes you a good AI user.
It's about what you put in thatprompt and you're really
getting the results that youwant.
(10:17):
The gap between people that arejust using uh, ai or chat, gpt
or cloud or meta or whatever itis as a google search, is
widening between what we callnovice and actually the people
that really know how to use ai.
But people are unaware of thatand this is part of their bias,
(10:40):
and bias will never get youanywhere near the results that
you want or even near theresults that you can actually
succeed getting from AI.
So it's not about just typing asentence and AI will give you
whatever you want.
Give you whatever you want.
(11:05):
So what people describe as ananswer like you push a button
and you get a crystal ball atthe end is what we call ai
omnipotence fallacy.
Your brain confused aicapability with ai mind reading.
I just tried to explain in asimple manner with ai mind
reading.
I just tried to explain in asimple manner.
Yes, people are under theimpression that ai can do
(11:31):
anything and it does okay, butthis is what I call confirmation
bias that I was talking about aminute ago.
Working over time, your brainfiltered ai marketing through
your perfectionist lens,creating impossible expectations
.
And what does it do?
That sets you up for failure.
Your brain did what it alwaysdoes it applied your existing
(11:52):
success framework to acompletely different type of
tool.
It's like expecting a hammer towork like a screwdriver Between
both of us.
I can do that.
I have no idea how to use tools, so what should you expect
instead?
Right, I want you to think ofAI as a brilliant intern with no
(12:16):
context whatsoever about yourbusiness, your style or your
goals.
Incredibly capable, but needstraining.
So you need to actually manageAI like you manage people,
onboarding anyone.
(12:37):
If you get a new virtualassistant or executive assistant
, or even a manager or directoror a VP under you, it all you
know.
What all matters is youronboarding.
How do you onboard them to getto know your style, your
expectation, your goals, yourway, what we call rules of
(12:58):
engagement.
What are your rules ofengagement for them?
If not, they will be doingwhatever they think right and at
the end of the day, it mightnot be what you expect at all.
That's exactly the same analogy.
So you wouldn't expect a newhire to deliver perfect work on
day one.
Why do you expect it from AI?
It's a superpower.
Do you expect it from AI?
(13:24):
It's a superpower.
Yeah, but not in that way.
I hope that makes sense to you,because we usually spend
sometimes days and weeks toonboard new employees.
So your brain already hasneural pathways for developing
talent.
Apply those same pathways to AIdevelopment.
So you should give AI feedback,like you give employees
(13:46):
feedback Specific, actionable,iterative feedback.
Your perfectionist brain lovesrefinement process.
Ai thrives on them too.
I never take an answer rightaway.
Whatever ai gives me, I don'ttake it.
(14:07):
I push back, I keep pushingback, and I think I told you in
the last episode I kept pushingcloud so much because I wanted
to know how far I can go.
Ai is still in its infancy.
We are all experimenting.
Ai x is experimenting on us andwe are experimenting on ai.
(14:32):
I go using ai with an open eyefor the pros and cons.
I don't think it's wow, it'sfascinating.
It fascinating, it's the bestit is.
But there are also a lot ofcons.
I kept pushing Claude till ithad a meltdown.
Okay, it's a case study forwhoever wants it.
I can send you even a copy ofthe transcript that I had.
(14:54):
You know, the funniest part isthat two minutes later I started
a new conversation with Claudeand it had no idea, because it
doesn't have a memory.
It didn't carry that into thenew conversation, which was like
okay, kiss and makeup, hahaanyhow.
So, going back, that we need toactually really train AI on who
(15:16):
we are.
Ai thrives on onboarding andtraining as well.
In the beginning, someone askedme if we all use AI and it
gives the same exact answers.
Where is branding here?
Where is unique valueproposition here, and how will
anyone become different than theother?
I looked at that person and I'mlike it all depends on your
(15:38):
prompts.
It all depends on how youonboarding, because at the end
of the day, ai is garbage in,garbage out.
Whatever you feed is whateveryou get, and unfortunately, no
one talks about that.
People talk about AI either as atechnology or coding, which I'm
(15:59):
neither.
I'm no tech required in thispodcast and I am not a coder
either.
Obviously I'm not a techie,okay, but it's about how to
manage yourself around AI, tomanage AI to give you what you
want, right.
So people don't say that.
(16:22):
But again, they work eitheragainst tech or they talk about
prompting.
Like the internet is floodedwith people that take five
prompts that will make you do amillion dollars a week and all
the charlatans are coming up andI look at these prompts and
they are wrongly written promptsand they are wrongly written.
People that are wrongly written.
(16:44):
People are saying act as or asif you were, and they don't
understand that AI is soemotionally intelligent now that
when you ask it to act as itwill mimic a role.
It will never give you the realrole.
Ok, number one.
So most AI training focuses onthe tool, not the brain using
(17:07):
the tool, and that's what makesme different.
I always concentrate on thehuman brain that uses artificial
intelligence.
At the end of the day, it'scalled human intelligence.
So when people get mediocreresults, what goes through their
brain is actually panic, panic,right, like what if someone
(17:30):
sees this.
What if my team thinks I'mlosing my edge?
What if I submit somethingsubpar?
Your amygdala, or your survivalcenter here is triggering a
reputation threat response Forexecutives.
Mediocrity feels existentialbecause your identity is tied to
(17:52):
excellence.
You have tied your identity toexcellence because why?
Reputation for you iseverything.
You can't afford to lookincompetent.
But here is what your brainisn't calculating the
opportunity cost of not learningAI is far greater than the
temporary discomfort of mediocreoutputs.
(18:14):
Remember, whatever makes usmove, whatever motivates us, is
when we feel that we are goingto lose more, when we stay where
we are, versus then taking theleap to move forward.
So what do I mean by that?
Your perfectionist brainfocuses on immediate quality
(18:34):
risk but ignores long-termcapability risk.
You are optimizing your today'sperfection while sabotaging
tomorrow's potential.
And it's not about acceptingbad work.
That's not what I'm saying.
It's not.
You should reframe what workmeans.
(18:56):
Ai outputs are not finalproducts.
They are raw materials for yourown expertise.
You are in control here.
Okay, so a first draft is not afinal draft.
All right, your brain excels atediting, refining and improving
.
You are the one with theexperience.
(19:17):
Use AI to generatepossibilities, then apply your
perfectionist superpowers topolish them.
So brainstorming yes, when youstart thinking brainstorming,
(19:38):
you are pushing towardsexcellence.
I don't like the wordperfection because perfection
has procrastination under it andprocrastination is rooted in
fear.
So when you think brainstorming, you are thinking exactly like
a neuroscience.
You are leveraging AI'sdivergent thinking with your
(19:58):
convergent thinking.
It's a perfect partnership andit's more strategic, obviously,
and it will make you feel lessthreatened because you're
working with your brain designinstead of against it.
Perfectionists make excellent AIeditor.
So, instead of expectingperfect result, what if you
(20:23):
expected perfect learning?
And there is a difference.
Perfect results focus onoutcomes.
Perfect learning focuses onunderstanding.
Your brain can control learning.
It can't control AI outputs.
So how do you understand AI?
(20:45):
Instead of how good the resultsare, ask yourself what did I
learn about how this AI thinks?
How can I improve my prompts?
What patterns am I noticing?
And now it becomes moremanageable, like you have
control over something, becauseyou actually do.
Your perfectionist brain lovescontrol.
(21:07):
Give it control over thelearning process, not the output
quality, and celebrate thatwhen something doesn't work.
It's a way of knowing what notto do, because each failure is
data about how to succeed nexttime.
Your brain is building AIintuition with every iteration.
(21:29):
Brain is building AI intuitionwith every iteration, so it's
more like problem solvinginstead of hoping for magic, and
problem solving is whatexecutive brains were designed
for.
You're just applying thoseskills to a new domain.
So perfectionism isn't a bug.
(21:49):
I, I write, talk.
Excellence is not a bug.
It's a feature and you need touse it right.
Excellence plus iterationequals ai mastery.
Your high standards become yourcompetitive advantage.
So what is your biggest takeawaytoday for perfectionist
(22:13):
executive?
To stop expecting AI to readyour mind and don't get
frustrated.
Start treating it like talentdevelopment, like if you would
learn a new language.
Would you wake up the secondday fluent in it?
No, it takes time and you learnhow to best retain words, how
(22:39):
to form phrases and how to soundlike a native.
Your perfectionist brain isactually perfect for AI if you
apply it to the learning processinstead of demanding perfect
outputs.
Remember, executives mediocre AIresults are not failures.
(23:00):
They are feedback.
Your perfectionist brainsuperpower is turning that
feedback into excellence.
So stop panicking when Chad GPTdoesn't nail it on the first
try.
Patience, grasshopper.
Next week we are diving into AIfeedback and why algorithm
(23:22):
criticism hits different thanhuman feedback.
So, and it's not about havingsomething wrong with our brain.
Nothing is wrong.
Everything is just optimizable.
So this is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, signing off from AI
Cafe Conversation.
If you have any questions oryou want me to go into certain
(23:47):
subject in the next episode,email me at sahar, at
saharconsultingcom.
Show me some love, likesubscribe, share this episode
with someone that needs to seeit.
My book is.
I have been asked a lot aboutmy book, the Coach's Brain Meets
(24:08):
AI.
It's actually doing really goodon Amazon.
Go get yourself a copy if youget it, even if you get the
Kindle that is selling for $2.99.
Now, if you email me at Sahar,at Sahar consultingcom, I will
send you extra guides for itthat you can use it that are
really good.
Follow me on LinkedIn.
(24:28):
I'm Sahar Andrade.
Follow me on Instagram.
I am Sahar the Reinvent Coach.
On Instagram.
Actually, yesterday I justposted something a carousel
about how your brain habits arekilling your performance, how
(24:52):
you lead with better habits.
Doing AI and 98% of executiveperformance breakdown are not
strategic.
Your brain loves efficiency,but that often means what?
So follow me on Instagram.
Like I said, I hope you arewell and again, if you have any
(25:12):
questions, drop it in thecomments and I will see you next
week.
This is Sahar, your AIwhisperer, and I will see you
all next week.
By the way, happy and safeLabor Day.
I'll see you next Wednesday.
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