We're kicking things off with a topic that's absolutely everywhere right now - AI research tools. And who better to cut through all the AI hype than our resident tech wizard, Gail?
If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of competitor analysis, spent hours scrolling through websites trying to figure out what your ideal clients actually want, or wondered if your messaging is hitting the mark - this episode is your new best friend.
Gail breaks down exactly why AI research tools are game-changers for online entrepreneurs, course creators, and coaches. We're talking about turning what used to be days of manual research into minutes of targeted insights. Plus, she reveals her favorite platforms for deep research (and FYI - it might not be what you think!).
We also dive into:
💀 The AI showdown that changed Gail's mind about which platforms actually deliver
💀 Real client success stories (hello, 60,000 member database!)
💀 How to prompt AI for research that actually matters
💀 The future of AI assistants that can literally shop for your groceries
But here's the kicker - Gail shares how you can actually use AI to analyze YOUR OWN business and get brutally honest feedback about your messaging, audience, and positioning. No sugar-coating, no hurt feelings, just raw data that could transform how you show up online.
Join Gail's Free "AI for Content Creation" Facebook Group HERE
Join Gail's emailing list and keep up to date with the latest AI workflow and automation trends HERE
We're kicking things off with a topic that's absolutely everywhere right now - AI research tools. And who better to cut through all the AI hype than our resident tech wizard, Gail?
If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of competitor analysis, spent hours scrolling through websites trying to figure out what your ideal clients actually want, or wondered if your messaging is hitting the mark - this episode is your new best friend.
Gail breaks down exactly why AI research tools are game-changers for online entrepreneurs, course creators, and coaches. We're talking about turning what used to be days of manual research into minutes of targeted insights. Plus, she reveals her favorite platforms for deep research (and FYI - it might not be what you think!).
We also dive into:
💀 The AI showdown that changed Gail's mind about which platforms actually deliver
💀 Real client success stories (hello, 60,000 member database!)
💀 How to prompt AI for research that actually matters
💀 The future of AI assistants that can literally shop for your groceries
But here's the kicker - Gail shares how you can actually use AI to analyze YOUR OWN business and get brutally honest feedback about your messaging, audience, and positioning. No sugar-coating, no hurt feelings, just raw data that could transform how you show up online.
Join Gail's Free "AI for Content Creation" Facebook Group HERE
Join Gail's emailing list and keep up to date with the latest AI workflow and automation trends HERE
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Read Episode Transcript
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [00:00.3] Welcome to the Grit Reapers, the NoBS podcast for online entrepreneurs.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [00:04.8] I'm Gail.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [00:05.6] And I'm Candice. And we're here to cut through the crap and give you the real truth about what it really takes to be successful online.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [00:12.8] Let's get down to business.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [00:16.2] Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Grit Reapers. We took a bit of a break, and so we are so excited to be back for season three. And we are kicking off this season with a really, something that's really relevant and very topical at the moment, and that is AI and specifically AI tools for research.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [00:40.3] So this is Gail's spiel. This is where she plays best. And she, I'm sure has a lot to share with us today on this topic and hopefully something that she shares with you will be really helpful in your business.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [00:56.1] So we're going to start off and Gail, I'm going to ask you why. Let's start like, really simply, like, why would somebody want to use an AI model to do research?
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [01:09.1] Okay, Cands and. Hello, everybody. It's good to be back for another season. So, I mean, that is a, as you say, let's start simply. But it's a huge topic because people would use these research tools for a number of different ways.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [01:29.2] But I'm thinking that because of what our podcast is and who we serve, I'm going to give you some ideas and for course creators, you know, online coaches, online business owners, as to why these research tools are so important.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [01:46.6] And the first one you can obviously think about. And it's stuff that you are told to do time and time and time again, but used to be really difficult to do. And that was like competitor analysis, like looking at the niche that you're in and seeing what other people are doing.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [02:06.2] You know, it used to take you hours of trolling through, you know, people's websites or Facebook groups or Reddit forums or anything, you know, just trying to glean information about what your, your ideal clients were saying, and things like that.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [02:26.2] And now you can literally ask one of the platforms to do a deep research, dive on your niche or your competitors, and it's done things again. Like, you know, people do research for, articles and for blogs.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [02:45.4] If they, if it's part of your business, maybe you need to write a white paper or something. Maybe you want to give a giveaway, you know, which might be like a research into the different AI platforms or a research into, you know, the different health, different health methods or something like that.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [03:07.0] So it can be used for that kind of thing. It can be used just for so much and at the click of a button, whereas it used to take you forever to do these kinds of tasks.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [03:22.9] So as a result, people just never really used to do them or used to do them half hearted. So, yeah, just some ideas on the deep research.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [03:32.5] Amazing. Do you, have you seen any kind of. What are the most common ones that you do yourself or when you're working with clients? Like what are you seeing practically that people are researching? Is it this kind of stuff like you've just mentioned?
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [03:47.9] Absolutely. And you know, the more kind of automated, you know, agents, bots, custom GPTs, whatever you want to call it, the more that people are turning to these, the more we can see how deep research and creating like really good training data, for these bots and how it's just elevated the way the bots respond.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [04:15.4] So that's definitely, you know, one of the, of the biggest use cases that I'm using it for at the moment. The other thing as well, and maybe not so much deep research, but just related. And it definitely, you know, you get, with some of the models, you get research, then you get deep research.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [04:35.0] You get deeper research. You get deeper research if you're on a paid model. But you know, the actual, when you starting to plan out workflows, when you're starting to plan out projects, you can, you can use these research tools to help you to actually plan it out.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [04:56.6] And they will go and gather information on different stages of the workflow so that you can have a really comprehensive like overview of what you're doing. So that's definitely one case. Customer, competitor analysis and looking for opportunities in what you might think is a saturated market.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [05:20.8] So whereas before it was very difficult when you were looking at the overall market to see these gaps because you didn't have a broad spectrum, you know, of websites or competitors or what people were doing.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [05:36.7] Now when you do a deep research on competitor analysis, you know, I've seen documents coming back 80 pages, 100 pages, and then you've got a great base to start with. You know, in your initial prompt you would tell it what you were looking for.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [05:53.7] So maybe you're looking to do a competitor analysis, you're looking to look at gaps in the market, you're looking to see, you know, where offers are overlapping, where like there's sort of a condensing of offers that a lot of people are using the same sort of thing and you can look for, for different things.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [06:15.1] That helps a lot in identifying gaps. I worked with a client where we did this, this analysis in her industry, in her country. And what came out really clearly was that there was nobody who was offering the information for these CPD points.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [06:36.1] So the continuous personal development points. And she went straight in and she contacted them, the bodies that oversee the professional development. And she got in with the one big body who now, sends her information to its database of like 60,000 members to say, and her, her lead magnet, gives them one CPD point and then she brings in from the one CPD point, like, if you join the program, you'll get your CPD points for the year.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [07:12.6] So that was like a really big thing that we, she didn't know that nobody else was doing it. So that was like a really great use case. So definitely in competitive, competitive analysis. And then the other thing that I'm doing a lot with my clients is personal analysis.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [07:33.0] So I always say to my clients, like, who do you serve? You know, how do you help them? And we'll look at their websites and then I'll say, you know what's going to be really interesting? Why don't we do a deep research run on you and your digital footprint across, all your social platforms and it will come back with a really nice analysis and then you can start interacting.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [07:58.7] That's the really nice thing. With these tools, you can then start interacting. So in your initial run, you could ask it things like, you know, could you tell me who you believe the ideal client for this business is? And why? You know, so that you can actually see its reasoning behind it.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [08:17.0] And then from there you can see, you know what, actually I thought I was serving this kind of person, my messaging and everything is attracting this kind of person. So maybe that's where the disconnects lie. It also just helps you to figure out if your messaging across your platforms is the same or perhaps if your website says one thing, your socials are saying one thing.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [08:44.1] So that's really helpful to do that kind of analysis. And again, because they're interactive tools, what I found is that the results that come back spark ideas for you to then ask further questions and find out more information.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [09:03.2] So, I mean, it kind of reminds me like, I've had two thoughts since you've been sharing this. It's like, I remember when I was at school and we were given a project and we had to go and do research, right? I mean, my mother had encyclopedias, printed encyclopedias.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [09:21.0] And then this thing called the Internet came out and it was like all of our brains were blown that you could go to this thing called Google and type in your question and then all this information would come, right? And it almost feels like the progression of that.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [09:38.1] It's like now AI is the next progression in going from an encyclopedia to Google and now taking it to a models that allow you to perform these deep, deep dive researchers in a matter of like nanoseconds, you know.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [09:56.0] Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [09:57.4] So incredible. The other thought I had, which is, you know, it's unbelievable to me, I had never considered doing what you just suggested. And I thought after this, I mean I'm definitely going to do that. I'm going to actually ask the model I use, which I'm sure we'll get and you'll tell us what you suggest.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [10:15.2] But you know, here are the social handles or here the URLs. Tell me what does this business do? Tell me about the audience. And I think what's so great about that is because they don't have human emotion, you're going to get like the raw truth, you know.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [10:31.5] Exactly.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [10:32.5] You are 100% trying not to hurt.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [10:35.1] Your feelings about your business.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [10:38.4] 100% sure. And you know, it's completely fact based.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [10:42.7] Yeah.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [10:43.2] So I had a client the other day again who is, is struggling a little bit with, you know, where she fits in, like what her audience actually wants. And so she's, she's done a little bit of deep diving. And the really nice thing with that is that, you know, if you want to compare prices of other people's offers, it's there in black and white.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [11:08.6] You know, it's, it's pulling it off, off of the online presence so you can actually see. Okay. So you know, just what I was thinking for my price is pretty accurate. It's pretty standard. It just gives you so much more information to, to work with.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [11:26.6] The thing is though is that it is a little bit, you have to, you have to know a little bit better how to prompt for deep research. You know, it's not as easy as just when we're using our AIs. You have to be quite, you have to know kind of what you want, even if it's just initially.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [11:47.5] Once the document comes out, once the report comes out, then it's great to be able to read through it and then you can start interacting with it. But yeah, definitely. And the other thing is the AIs are pretty good at helping you.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [12:03.4] So you, you, you're going to put in your, what you want to do your research on and most of them will give you a plan of what it's going to do and then you can say yes, let's, let's continue. The other thing that you can always do is if you're not 100% sure, you can always say to it, you know, this is what I want to do, ask me any questions that you.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [12:27.9] If I haven't given you enough information, ask me the questions and, and then we'll do it. So that's, that's a nice way as well. If you're a little bit stuck, you kind of know what you want to do, but you're not exactly sure how to like, explain it 100%.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [12:45.0] Okay. And Gail, so kind of what I was alluding to. What do you recommend? Like, in your experience, what have been the best? Platforms or models that are really good at performing this kind of deep research? What, what do you suggest?
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [13:00.8] Okay, so actually it's quite funny because the other day I was asked to take part in like an AI showdown and it was actually really, it was really interesting. So there was the host, and then there were, I think four of us, and we had, we had Chat GPT, we had Claude, we had Grok, and we had Gemini.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [13:24.5] Okay, so I was using Gemini because at the moment, Gemini is my favorite for deep research because. Yeah, I know. And you know what I had. I have never really used Gemini ever, but it is amazing for deep research.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [13:40.4] So we had those four and there was nobody doing Perplexity, which I think is also a good one for deep research. But so we were just comparing the four and it was amazing to see the differences. Right. And I think that there are definitely different use cases would suit the models, each model better.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [14:03.4] Claude was just like the overall overachiever. Like, we laughed because we went from like, simple things through to deep research through to like, like setting up workflows and everything.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [14:19.9] And we just laughed because Claude was just like your, your A student, you know, your, your actuary, your doctor, you know, like, Claude just blew.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [14:32.2] Well, you know, me and Claude are like that. So like, I, love my Claude. Don't you diss my Claude.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [14:40.3] The Claude was really good as an overall. For everything. Right. Grok, which I don't use often, but the lady who was demonstrating Grok is a big GROK user. And it seems like Grok has, which I didn't think because of Elon Musk and you know, the whole AI wars and everything, but apparently GROK has got a lot of security built into it.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [15:06.6] So, you know, it. It's quite a good one if you are working with clients, you know, if you are more concerned about security and, and using, inputs for training and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [15:21.8] And I think Grok 4 just, just dropped. So actually watching Grok, watching her use Grok was pretty impressive. It did pretty well, its sources were accurate, it did good deep research.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [15:38.9] ChatGPT was kind of just like, it's good, it's, it's what everybody uses, it's what everybody's kind of comfortable with. But it didn't really excel in, in anything.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [15:56.5] So you know, I think people stick with it because it's got some really nice features. And obviously you can build your custom GPTs very easily on chat. But I wouldn't use chat for deep research.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [16:14.4] I think, I think, I think chat they saying chat5chatgpt5 is about to drop and normally chat goes a bit like bad before it then the updates and it's just not doing well at the moment at all.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [16:32.4] So chat for deep research at this stage I wouldn't use Gemini is my favorite. I'm building a lot of custom GPTs. I'm building out a lot of workflow automations for people. And Gemini, the free, the Flash version as well as the Pro version are great for research.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [16:53.1] You do have to just be careful. It can tend to have a bit of fluff added into it. So you do need to just be quite careful with your prompting and just have like the structure that you want the training data to come out in and to tell it that you are doing it specifically for training data for bots, you know, so you want to give it the specific reason for the training, you know, the research.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [17:23.6] But I'm finding that my GPTs are just at the next level and maybe I can just quickly explain it was one thing I didn't really understand. So like for instance, Candice, you have an incredible framework for your content creation, right?
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [17:41.3] And so I've created that GPT bot that works on Candice's framework. So it's got all her different types of posts. Now if I had left it, just at that, it would pull Candice's, frameworks, but then it would pull its general knowledge about posting.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [18:04.0] Right now I've got a Facebook group and I want my post structured specifically for community for my Facebook group. Okay. So I would then go out and ask Gemini, to give me training data on things like, you know, community content inside of Facebook groups, best format for Facebook posting, and it might even have some information on like the, the algorithm and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [18:33.8] So you could do this research with Gemini explaining to it you building this custom GPT. You've got the frameworks for the actual posts, but now you want to give that GPT more specialization. Otherwise I could just take your framework, plug it into into a normal thread and say, you know, make me a post.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [18:55.8] What you want to do with your GPT is to make it the specialist. So that's when you would then go and get the deep research and get those documents to add like a, as a knowledge source.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [19:07.8] Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Gail. Wow. This showdown that you did, this AI showdown, that sounds incredible. Was it filmed, like if people want.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [19:17.4] To watch or listen? It was, it was in a, in another creator's community. And so it was live and she had invited the community. I believe she does know. She does lives in her community, fairly regularly.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [19:35.2] And yeah, she just got hold of me and asked if I, if I wanted to join in and it was just, you know, I've never actually done it sort of side by side, same prompt, different, different platforms. Yeah, yeah. And it was really amazing.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [19:50.8] And you know, from that I've actually started using Claude more. So I always thought that Claude, my, my experience with Claude was that it's great for copywriting. You know, it's really good conversationally, it's really good for, for writing copy, for emails, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [20:11.9] But it actually shone. It shone in like taking a, workflow, taking a project, breaking it down into pieces, giving you checklists.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [20:23.3] So you know, I, I am on the paid version of Claude.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [20:27.5] Yeah.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [20:28.0] And I would say the last three weeks, every time I log on I get a, like a pop up. And it's really pushing these new research features.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [20:39.4] Yeah. These new tools.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [20:40.7] So I realized, wow, like this is really going to the next level. But like I always say, you know, you need some time to learn how to use it. And I go there, I'm like, I don't have the time. I just need to do what I need to do. So that is so incredible. All right, so Gail, if people want to learn a little more, like about the prompting or this research stuff, where can they find you?
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [21:05.0] Where?
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [21:05.3] What should they do? Should they come join your Facebook group? Is there a course you have? Like, what, how can we help people?
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [21:11.5] Okay, so they can come and join my free Facebook group because I cover all sorts of things and in fact a little bit related. Is that Perplexity? I spoke about Perplexity earlier, although it wasn't part of the AI showdown. But Perplexity have just launched their own browser called Comet.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [21:33.3] And Comet is not only a browser, Comet is a doer. So. So just to give you an example, you decide, okay? Here in South Africa we have Woolies Dash or we have Checker 6060 you decide which is a grocery delivery service for those who are like doordash.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [21:54.3] I guess, you know, people know doordash and stuff. So I can put into Comet into my browser. I can say I'm living in Howick in KwaZulu Natal. Please. I'd like to place an order with Woolworths Dash, I need broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin milk, whatever hit the go.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [22:16.7] And Comet will go to my Woolies Dash app. It will log in it ways put all those things in your basket and it will leave you, it will wait for you to check out. It's going to be able to book appointments, it's going to be able to go through.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [22:37.5] If you say I'm going traveling in Italy and I'm going to these places, please can you give me the hotels, Give me hotels. And then you say yes, I like that hotel. That hotel. That hotel. It's going to send the booking inquiry and everything for you.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [22:52.1] So I haven't got your own like personal assistant.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [22:57.9] Exactly. So I haven't got access to it yet. I'm busy on the wait list. I've like waited on the wait list like 17 times. But it looks incredible. So okay, this is the kind.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [23:10.8] Of stuff you talk about in your.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [23:11.9] Facebook stuff we talk about in the Facebook group. So it's broad. It's like I talk, I give prompts, I give tips, I give what's happening. Like all of this stuff. Okay. So that's the one thing. The other option would be to come and join my email list because I run a three day challenge where we actually build out your own custom GPTs.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [23:35.9] And then during that challenge we go into the deep research. So as we talk about the deep research, I give you the prompts, the correct prompts, the correct structure for your GPT, for your custom GPT training instructions and your knowledge sources.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [23:52.5] So they are, they can just. We'll drop that link. I've got a, I've got a email opt in link and they can just come on and get all the latest on AI online course creating all of that.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [24:08.4] So we're going to link the Facebook group. We'll also link how you can get onto Gail's list. But I mean this is the future. I mean I know there are very strong and polarized opinions on AI. That is not what this conversation is.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [24:23.6] It is for those that are interested in learning on like how and which models and how can you get this information so that you can use it in a positive propelling way for your business that is how you can do it. Get on Gail's email list or come and join her Facebook group.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [24:40.2] But, Gail, this has been, like, eye, opening, and I'm so excited to go try that little, like, I'm. I'm a little nervous, I have to say. Like, excited, but also nervous, you know? But I will keep you updated with what I get back.
SPEAKER 2 - Gail: [24:52.8] Cands. I'm gonna. I'm gonna send you the prompt that you will use for your. Your. Your personal deep dive.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [24:59.5] Yes, exactly. Okay. Amazing. Thanks so much, Gail, and thank you. Thank you, everybody, for listening. If AI is something that you are keen on hearing more about and you have, like, specific things you want to know about, please let us know. Gail, this is, like I said, it is her playground.
SPEAKER 1 - Candice: [25:16.8] She loves talking about it, and we are only too happy to give you what you want, so please reach out. Otherwise, we will catch you next week, and, we'll see you then.
