Stop Asking for Ideas: Use AI Instead

Today on the podcast, we're going to look at how to use AI tools to search for business ideas and also to come up with career suggestions. My name is Tavishima Ayede, the host of the podcast. Making today's recording outside church because my kids are having catechism classes, so there will be noise in the background. If you'd love to connect, call, send a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So like I said today we're going to be looking at how to use AI

tools, Google, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude Perplexity. You know them, them, all of them, how to use them to search for business ideas and career suggestions. Why are we doing this today? It is because people keep asking me. You reach out from the podcast, they reach out over the radio show, and they keep asking me. So I'm making this podcast episode so that once and for all, if anybody asks me again, I will just carry this link, copy,

paste, send so they can listen to today's podcast and then have the solution to the query. And by the way, I'd like to point out this is not the best way to make use of a consultant's time if you have their attention. So I like to make myself accessible through the podcast and through the radio show. For those of you who get in touch with me, it actually is not the best use of your time to be asking me what career you're going to do next or what business idea that you're supposed to come up with.

Maybe you could do that in the past, but nowadays AI tools, artificial intelligence tools, although I prefer to call them augmented intelligence tools because they are not really intelligent. You are the one who is intelligent, but then you use these tools to augment your abilities. So AI tools have made ideation, the process of coming up with ideas, more easier than ever before. So the challenge nowadays for people is not idea, the challenge is execution.

I find that a lot of times, you know, people are stuck not because of a lack of ideas, but because they don't have the habit of execution. So you talk to one or two people, they already have kind of like an idea, like, OK, I just resigned, perhaps I should apply here or I have one or two skills. Perhaps I should try this or I'm interested in one or two things. Sorry about that. Some media just came out parked next to me.

Like I said, you know, hanging out in church here, So and they're setting up for events. So basically people already have that kind of inkling like I should be trying this, I should be trying that. So the reason why they're stuck is not because of lack of idea, The reason why they're stuck because of lack of execution. You have one or two ideas bubbling around in your head, but you know, you wake up today and for some reason you didn't try, then tomorrow you didn't try, and then next tomorrow you didn't try.

And then it's been 2 weeks and you haven't applied for another job or you haven't tried looking for something else. So my brother, my sister, I'm not trying to be rude here. I'm actually trying to help you. Your problem is not the idea you don't have the habit of executing. That's just your idea. Because if you did, since you resigned or since you graduated or whatever, you would have thought of one or you, like you would have tried and filled out a bunch of stuff.

I look at me and my brother and we're not even the greatest entrepreneurs in the world. We've tried making comics, we've tried exports, we've tried photography, we've tried consulting, we've tried what again? We've all tried a couple of things that Pride will not allow me to say on the air, but we're trying stuff. So idea is not the problem, execution is. For those of you who are in the habit of executing, you will quickly find that you know you've tried one or two things and you're on your way.

So use AI tools. Well, very well, then try executing on these ideas. Some of you will say he keeps coming up with rubbish, but like how is that my problem? If he keeps coming up with rubbish, it means you do not prompt well. And The thing is, even if you didn't prompt well and the thing comes up with eight ideas and six of them are rubbish, what about the two that makes sense. Take those two and run with it and see what happens.

Then when you try executing all these things and you run into problem, now is the best time to someone, the best time for you to reach out to a consultant or to reach out to you know someone else. When you have tried something, Are you experiencing some concrete difficulties? Is there someone like me? I can help you, Whether we do it for free or whether you pay, at least then I can help you. If you say I'm trying to do a catfish business, I want to be selling to restaurants in my area.

I have approached 10 of them. I cannot close a single sale. Now that is something concrete. We can now have a conversation. You can't just reach out to me and say, how do I start a fisheries business Like I mean in today, in today's age of Google and Shaji BT, I say, OK, let's have a meaningful a 15 minute phone call. That's the question you're going to ask me. How do I start a catfish Business Today in today's age? It was back in 1990.

You know what I understand information is out there right now. The problem is information is too much. See, even if you don't execute by at least you call up and say, I want to start a catfish business. These are the resources I found online. And I'm seeing some conflicting something here. Hey, we can have a conversation. Even if you haven't executed anything, at least you've done the research and you're confused about the ideas that you've seen and you don't know which is the next step.

So please, ideas are not the problem. So excuse me now, let's assume you still want me to come up with ideas. No problem. When we go on our call, be ready to pay for a consultation. I'm not going to be doing Jackie walk on this kind of something. Now there are people who dedicate, excuse me, their their time to these sorts of things and those people they call themselves life coaches or career coaches. And I am not one.

So honestly, I can't help you, at least until you have tried executing. You have tried executing one or two things, then I can help you. So AI tools, they can be really, really useful for coming up with business ideas, like I told you, career suggestions. But The thing is, we were using AI tools. Remember I told you guys in the beginning that AI people will be saying artificial intelligence, they think no intelligence,

nothing. All right. AI is not intelligence. It's just an algorithm doing its thing, using statistical probabilities to come up with a bunch of words, you know, that might, you know, that might reasonably make sense when they follow each other, basically. So think of it more like as an advanced calculator, let's put it that way. That's the reason why it comes up with things and people say that it is lying as it is lying,

how only a living thing is capable of lying. It has generated something that based on statistical probability, should make sense. It is up to you to verify what other thing is good or whether the thing makes sense or whether it doesn't make sense. But artificial intelligence tools, artificial intelligent, nothing. So I prefer to call them augmented intelligence is there to augment your own intelligence. So therefore use this thing as a brainstorming tool.

Simple, use this thing as a resource, as a resource. Research, research assistant does it. So let's come up with some small ideas or how to use AI to go up with the business ideas. Remember, I'm making this soda. When you listen to this thing, for those of you who are stuck at the ideation stage, you will take some of these ideas here, you execute on them and you know, hopefully you should be able to be on your way. All right, so business,

business, business. OK, let's see. Now when I say AI, I'm talking about the LLMS, large language models. What that means is tools like Gemini, like char, GBT, like Claude. The reason why I say those ones are because those are the ones that when you ask them question, they give you output, They give you results in text format. So they're easy to use. So people like me who are not to computer, you understand not to computer illiterate.

We can use this thing because you can type in Gemini, I want to make a Gucci soup, Give me 5 recipes for a Gucci soup. They think we give you text back and then you can read. So that's why. So that's why I'm referring to now LLMS, large language models. Then to make these things work, what you have to do is to prompt. I've already made podcast episodes about how to prompt before, so I'm not going to go into the philosophy behind it.

Let me just go ahead and give concrete examples and hopefully you will. How will I put it? You'll figure it out. So you can prompt something like Gemini. Dear Gemini, give me 10 business ideas for a side hustle in the sustainable fashion industry. Assuming that those are the kind of things you like, it will give you 10 things, even if 9 don't make sense. No problem. The one that made sense, take it and run with it. Then you can come back to me and say OK, I ran with one and this is where I talk busy.

So what's the way forward? What are some innovative business ideas that we can use in a home decor business? You know, something like that. Let's say you're stuck in your home decor business. Suggest a business idea that solves the problem of food waste in urban areas. Send. Because yes, I've met those kind of people, you know, sustainable business development, you know, environmental goals, you know, something, something, something.

There's plenty of food being wasted in communities. What can we do to solve that problem? Don't come and ask me. I'm not a sustainability expert. Go to Gemini. Suggest a business idea that solves the problem of food waste in urban areas. Send and you, you will see a bunch of stuff. You can use it, you know, for market research, you know, analyze the current market trends in blah blah blah blah blah. Insert whatever your field is.

Summarize the key challenges or opportunities in the blah blah blah industry. Put your own there. If you're a lawyer, you just graduated law, you don't want to work for an auger, you don't know if you'd be setting up a law firm, you have no idea what to do best summarize the key challenges and opportunities in the legal industry in Niger. But send let me see which other ones that I find again, OK. You can also use it to evaluate how viable your business concept is.

You know, I mean first year law student something something, this is my business idea, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Evaluate how viable this business is going to be in a place like Nigeria. I live in a no go eastern Nigeria. The character issues of the city are this, this and that that that that send and I see what it has to say, what I think is a good business idea or not. From there, you can also ask more questions to get other ideas about how you would start this particular business and then go ahead try and execute.

When you hang, when you hook, then you can now start asking people for help. You can also use it for career suggestions. Like I said, let me see. OK, I came up with some ideas. Let me see, let me see, let me see. Sorry. The idea is I want to myself. So I'm trying not to waste time because it's already 10 minutes. I don't want this to be a long episode because I know most people, if I send them 30 minutes, they will say anything.

They'll say anything is too long and you listen to it. Imagine the insult. He asked me for resource. I send you resource. You said the thing was too long. I mean, some people really have the nerve. OK, yes. So I have five years experience in dot, dot dash, dash, dash. Then ask Gemini to now suggest three career paths that align with people in this profile. So that's the perfect one. You worked in the bank for 15 years.

You have resigned. You don't know what to do next. Say I have 5 years of experience in retail banking in Nigeria. I worked with so, so and so bank for 15 years where my responsibilities were this and this and that and that. While I was on the job, I received commendations for this and this and that and that and I enjoyed this particular part of the job and that particular part of the job. I just recently resigned from the bank because of conflicts in work life balance.

Suggest three career paths that align with this profile. With someone with a similar profile like me send you see a couple of stuff. So things like that. What else? I'm looking for different prompts because like I said, I tried to go online and check and of course plenty prompts and you guys will use it to optimize your your what's it called your CV. That's something I've done before. When I approached the radio station for the show, they asked me for all kinds of things.

They asked me for CV me could I remember my CV was eventually I searched and I found it. I saw some things out of date. I tried to patch it after a while I throw this in ChatGPT. I said ChatGPT. I beg give me suggestions. I'm trying to shop my CV. The thing gave me suggestions and I applied. I applied it and my CV started looking sweet. So when you try something like that and it's as if you can't make any heads or tails.

If you now see somebody on LinkedIn who is a career optimization specialist, what do they call themselves or, you know, ACV something, something, you know, at that stage, you know, even if you reach out and say, you know, I beg, I'm broke, help me out, at least it's it's an intellectually challenging problem or like saying, you know, you just come and say, help me rewrite my CV. So anyway, wow. Anyway, let me just say one more time, whatever it is that you call this thing, artificial intelligence like most people,

or augmented intelligence like I prefer to call it, this is a powerful tool. But The thing is not a replacement for your human judgement. This thing is not a replacement for human judgement. Hope you guys are listening. This thing is not smart in itself. You are the one that is smart. Use these AI tools just to start by giving you some suggestions that kind of make sense. Use it as a starting point. Then start executing, carrying out the best you can.

You run into one or two problems, then you can now start reaching out to help the people. Sorry, reaching out to people for help and people will be willing to help because, well, at least you have tried doing things by yourself. It is very what's the word on sexy and unappealing? When somebody approaches you because they're stuck and by the time you start having the conversation, you see that they have done nothing, they really want to sit down with you so that you will be the one to come up with a solution for them from beginning to end.

It is very, very unsexy and it is very, very unappealing. So please, if you're someone that has been doing that in the past, please do not do that again. Ideation is not a problem in 2025. AI tools are here. If you're listening to this podcast and you're listening to it in the year of 2038, I know that you will have even more amazing tools there. So ideation is not your problem from 2025 onwards. If you're listening to this podcast in the year 3006, if I,

if I listen to this podcast in the year 3006, I really think idea is your problem. You deserve a knock on the head. It's a good thing that you know, at the time you're listening to this in 3006, you know I'm already dead. So I can't knock you on the head, but use these tools. Please remember that the intelligence rests with you. Begin the execute when you hook, then reach out to someone. So that's it. If you'd love to connect, call,

send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Or please do not reach out to me and then say, how do I start a plant care business? I don't know. Use these tools, do the research so that by the time you hit me up, you say I have tried starting a plant care business. These are the difficulties I am running into. These are the customers I have tried targeting. And I'm wondering should I be looking at a different customer set or how can I sell better to these people?

And then reach out to me if I don't want to walk with you on that for free because it's interesting. I've never done that before. I don't make a hell, you know, a heck of an episode and people would like to hear to say in Nigeria people are doing plant care business. I did not know so for don't reach out to me, don't come and ask me. I resign from my so, so and so job. What career should I do next? I don't know. Use these tools, come up with some ideas when you're now running through some difficulties because you've been trying to migrate into this career, that career you're having this challenge you're having that they reach out to me if I don't want to walk with you for free.

Let's try and bring some some some ideas will be interesting. Then by the time we're done and I'll come and make a podcast episode about it so that people in your situation will be able to learn one or two things. Anyway, let me stop ranting. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.