💡 The Context Problem Everyone Misses

Let's talk about why your AI outputs often feel generic, slightly wrong, or like they're written for someone else's business.

It's not the AI's fault. It's not even your prompting. It's simpler than that: You haven't told the AI who you are.

The conversation you're not having

When you hire a human assistant, you don't just hand them tasks on day one. You spend time explaining your business, your voice, your clients, your preferences. You give them context about how you operate.

But with AI, most people skip this entirely. They jump straight to: "Write me a social media post" or "Draft this email" without establishing any foundation.

The AI doesn't know you run a coaching business for recovering perfectionists. It doesn't know your clients are primarily women in their 40s feeling stuck in corporate jobs. It doesn't know you value straight talk over corporate speak.

So it gives you generic business advice in generic business language.

What context actually means

Context is everything the AI needs to know about you, your business, and your audience before it can give you truly useful output.

Real example: Marcus asked AI to write a LinkedIn post about productivity. He got back something that sounded like it came from a Fortune 500 CEO talking to shareholders. Completely wrong tone for his audience of solo freelancers.

He tried again, but this time he started with: "I help freelance designers who are drowning in client work and have no time for their own projects. I talk to them like a friend who's been there, not a productivity guru. Write a LinkedIn post about..."

The output was immediately better. Not perfect, but actually usable. Same AI, completely different result, because of context.

The three types of context you're missing

✅ Who you are: Your role, your business model, your approach, your personality

✅ Who they are: Your audience's situation, their problems, what keeps them up at night

✅ What you want: The outcome, the feeling, the action you're trying to drive

Most people only provide the third one. They say what they want AI to create but not why it matters or who it's for.

Building your context library

Here's what we've learned works: Create a simple document that contains your context. Think of it as your AI briefing document.

Include things like:

A description of your business in plain language
Who your ideal clients are and what they struggle with
How you talk (formal, casual, somewhere in between)
What makes your approach different
Common objections or questions you get
Examples of your writing you really like

Once you have this, you can copy relevant sections into your prompts. Instead of "Write an email about my new program," you start with "I run [your context]. Write an email about my new program that..."

The before and after

Sarah used to get AI outputs that felt like they could have come from any business coach. They were fine, but they weren't her.

She built her context document. Now she starts every session with: "I'm Sarah, I work with burned-out nonprofit leaders who care deeply about their missions but are sacrificing their health. I use a trauma-informed approach and never use hustle culture language..."

Her AI outputs now sound like her. They resonate with her specific audience. She still edits, but she's editing for refinement, not complete rewrites.

The shift

Stop treating AI like a search engine where you type quick queries. Start treating it like a collaborator who needs to understand your world before helping you create for it.

The first two minutes you spend providing context will save you twenty minutes of editing generic outputs into something usable.

Your turn

Take five minutes right now and write a paragraph describing your business and who you serve. That's your starting point. Use it at the beginning of your next AI session and watch how much the outputs improve.

What's one piece of context you think AI needs to know about your business? Share below.

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