Teenagers: Scents, Sense, & Cents

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” isn’t just a song. We’ve all been there. The squeaky voice, the gangly limbs, the sudden bursts of brilliance mixed with clueless confusion. Yes, the teenage years are a time of growth, change, and the occasional funky scent. Let’s face it: they smell funky sometimes. That scent is the smell of growth and change occurring at an incredible rate. Teens of the biological sort have yet to experience enough pain or pleasure to accurately calibrate their confidence. That’s why they know so much and are so good at everything.

Take driving, for example. At 16, I was absolutely the best race car driver in the world. Naturally, my first accident wasn’t my fault, but it still calibrated my confidence. You see, as a teenager, I was still developing what we grown-ups call common sense. Common sense comes from experience and emotion. How you feel about an experience will dictate what you do next time. So, as their scents fade, their common sense will grow to be a huge help with their cents (finances). The idea is that, over time, good behaviors are reinforced with rewards (pleasure), and bad ones are met with loss (pain), grooming us to make progressively better decisions. In other words, as we mature, our awkward scents slowly give way to sense and cents. Make sense?

If this makes sense, congratulations! You are definitely human! If not, you were either never a teenager or you are an AI bot…let’s find out.

As I’ve said before, AI is a teenager, an important fact we’ll keep front of mind as we explore the best ways to benefit from our new teen-age virtual assistant. Before we dive in, though, we need some boundaries to ensure our rewards:

3 RULES:

1. Think! You’re the grown-up! Use your head. Lead your teenage interns to where they need to be.
2. Add some human – YOU - to everything you do. Never just copy and paste!
3. Grow! AI learns fast. Keep up by using it often.

AI and MAGgie help you not stink at what you do and make sense of things. This leads to more cents in your pocket, a sense of satisfaction in doing so, and, ultimately, the sweet smell (scent) of success. Inevitably, you’ll make more money in less time as a travel agent with a little help from our young friend.

Making sense in business is challenging. There is too much information available. Just email, Google, and social media can make our job overwhelming. That’s okay. AI, or OutsideAgents.com’ s MAGgie , is here to help manage information so you can focus on developing the wisdom that will lead to your success. ping the wisdom that will lead to your success. Just like parents guiding a teenager, though, we must provide structure and nurturing to develop AI’s capabilities responsibly. Here are a few secrets to up your game with AI.

Secret 1:

The first secret is the “regenerate” button. If you don’t get what you want the first time, try it again. Even if you get what you want, regenerate just to be sure. The output will be different every time. You’ll know gold when you see it.

Secret 2:

The second secret is capturing successes by saving prompts. Once you write a prompt that gives you what you want, save it so you can use it in the future. You should build a library of prompts over time as a super-powered toolset. In fact. OutsideAgents.com’ s MAGgie features Prompt Genie features hundreds of prompts built by experts that you can copy, edit, tune, share, and save. Over time, your library will become one of your most important assets as it automates your creative and business processes.

Secret 3:

The third secret is that you need to talk to it very specifically. Set expectations and goals clearly. Provide examples of what you consider to be good results. Tell AI and MAGgie who they are and how to say things. For example:

GOOD: “You are an experienced travel agent.”

BETTER: “You are a travel agent in Jacksonville, Florida, with 22 years of experience.”

BETTERER: “You are a travel agent in Orlando, Florida, with 22 years of experience. You have recent certifications as a travel agent specialist for Globus, Princess, and Avalon Waterways. Your website is https://chadstravelhut.com and your most current specials can be found at https://chadstravelhut.com/specials. You include these specials where appropriate, relevant, and useful to your client based on your communication with them and their history with you. You inject light humor in your responses where appropriate. You reply in a confident and professional tone, avoiding industry-specific jargon where possible.”

NOTE: I didn’t say “BEST” because your prompts will always improve as you use them over time. If you think a prompt couldn’t possibly be improved, think again, and ask MAGgie!

Secret 4:

The fourth secret for today is to ask AI and MAGgie to help you improve your prompts. Tell it your goal and maybe even give it an example of what good output would look like. Ask it to evaluate your results for persuasiveness, or humor, or suitability to a specific target client. Go ahead and help MAGgie help you to achieve your goal.

Secret 5:

Now, the fifth and final “secret” for today: There are no secrets with AI and MAGgie. Only questions, prompts, and careful consideration of results ultimately lead to progressively better outcomes. There is no secret sauce that always gets you exactly what you need. The only trick is to try and try again, as you improve your prompts to get better results. If that final secret sounds familiar, it should. After all, it’s how we as humans learn and grow.

We’re basically a Roomba, bumping into walls, backing up, adjusting course, and trying again as we learn our way around. Luckily, just as you received help from interacting with a special teacher, your grandpa, your friends, and the society around you, so will MAGgie and AI benefit from their experiences with you. Like a Roomba, trial and error eventually give way to educated decisions. Unlike a Roomba, though, we eventually develop superpowers in the form of wisdom (which my grandpa called tomatoes). So don't delay. Start molding your AI today and realize the dream of responsible, capable artificial intelligence working for you like a super smart intern. Sure, the future looks bright, but the present still smells a bit like teen spirit. You need to take a moment to get to know AI and MAGgie. You will both be better off for it.

Author’s Note: When I grow up, I want less scent, more sense, and lots of cents. How about you? If so, take a peek at 250 Power Prompts for Travel Agents.

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[1] Use “oastrong” as the password

[1] My Agent Genie Generative Intelligence Engine