You already use AI every day. ChatGPT for one thing, Claude for another, maybe Gemini when you're curious, plus notes in Google Docs and whatever your team keeps in their own tools. Every one of those places knows something different about your business. So every time you open a new chat, you're back to explaining who you are, what you sell, and who you serve before you get anything useful back.

In this post, we're getting into how to fix that once, then use it to take one video from idea to hook to title and thumbnail before you ever hit record. Five methods, and each one builds on the last.

I use AI the most as a thinking business partner. It's like having somebody on the team who's educated in your space and up to par on the most recent information. What used to sit on a legal pad until the team could get together, I can now take several layers deeper in seconds. But it only works like that when it actually knows your business.

Method 1: What should you set up before you cowork with AI on video ideas?

A brand identity document that lives in a Project.Before I start coworking with AI on video ideas, I want it to understand who we are, what we do, and who we serve. That one document is what gets you on-brand responses that are in sync with where your business is right now, so you stop re-explaining yourself in every chat.

I build mine in Google Docs so anybody on the team can reference it. It starts with the basics: my name, the name of the business, who we serve, and our products from the free offers up to the high ticket offers.

Then I get granular, because the details are what keep AI inside your world. If you're a real estate agent who works with first-time homeowners moving from Chicago into certain St. Louis zip codes, say exactly that, with the price range. Leave it out and you can ask for real estate ideas and get "here's how you can buy a house in California." I'm not in California. It didn't know, because you never gave it the parameters.

Once it's written, put it where your AI can always see it. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini all have Projects now, so add the document to your Project and every conversation inside it starts with your brand already loaded. Save it with a date, too. When your market or your offers shift, you update a few micro things instead of starting completely over from scratch.

That covers who you are. The next part of the same document covers who you're talking to.

Method 2: How do you get AI to understand your audience?

Give your ideal customer a persona inside that same document, in their own words.Demographics alone won't get you there. You and your coworkers can be the same age, drive the same kind of car, and live in the same neighborhood, and still want very different things.

So I describe my ideal customer as a person, and I give him a name. Mine is Streamline Steve. He's between 34 and 45, he has a wife and a 5-year-old, and I write down what he's afraid of, what frustrates him about the work he's doing now, and where he finds us first.

I also write the questions he types into search, in his language, not how you'd say it with your doctorate degree. Steve won't search "depth of field." He'll search "blurry background." AI picks up on those little details even when you don't spell them out, and it starts talking the way your audience talks.

This is also where all those AI conversations and old videos you already have start paying off. Tell AI what you've helped your audience with, list some of your past video titles, and paste in the transcripts. I promise you not too many people are doing this. Then ask what struggles they might run into next that you're not thinking about, and have it back up why.

Now your Project knows your business and your audience. The last piece of setup is how you use the chats inside it.

Method 3: Why should you keep one chat for one kind of work?

So AI keeps the same train of thought, the same way a person would.Your brand and your audience already sit in the Project, so every chat starts from that foundation. What throws it off is piling ten unrelated jobs into one thread.

I don't have one continuous thread of a ton of different random stuff. If I'm going from double checking an email to planning podcast episodes, the AI has to change gears, and I don't want it referencing an email that has nothing to do with the content we're working on. A podcast ideas thread stays the podcast ideas thread.

I keep a separate one for email replies, because I hate responding to emails. Since it knows who we are and who we serve, it can reply to an ad pitch that's out of line for our market and still sound like me. We don't usually cover windshield washer fluid as an ad spot on a show for marketers. It knows that.

Your video thread is where the next video starts. Brainstorm with a number. I go with seven, because once you ask for 50 or 100 ideas, it just gets watered down. If the video needs to support something you're selling, tell it what that is and that it needs to feel natural. Then list what you've already covered so it doesn't hand you an episode you already made.

Now you've got seven ideas, and you've picked the one. This is where most people open a fresh chat and start explaining everything all over again. Don't. That thread already knows your brand, your audience, and the idea you chose, so it's the best place to write your hook.

Method 4: How can AI help you write a better hook?

Borrow the structure of a hook that already worked and rebuild it for your new idea.If those first 5 to 8 seconds don't capture attention, the rest of the intro doesn't matter. They're not getting to it.

This is the part that gives me the tingles. Pick one of your videos that did really well, pull up the auto-generated captions, and copy the first 5 to 8 seconds. You don't have to clean up the spelling, it's smart enough to pick up the details. Give it the hook along with the title, the purpose of the video, and the call to action.

This was the hook, the title, the purpose, and the call to action for this video. I need seven more hooks that use the same kind of framework for this new video topic. Which one do you think would be best, and why?

It'll tell you something like, the first one is cool, the second one is okay, but the third one seems the most on brand based on our conversation. You're the expert, so you pick the one that really resonates.

Then keep going. Ask for the three main points you should cover that most people would overlook, based on what you want to sell for your call to action. If it brings up one you've never covered, ask why it thinks that's relevant and what you'd even say.

Now your video has an idea, a hook, and an outline, all from one thread. The only thing left before you record is getting people to click.

Method 5: How do you use AI for titles and thumbnails?

Brainstorm five to seven options, then have AI rate its own work.I want the title and thumbnail done before I ever hit record, and by now the thread knows everything it needs to get them right.

For titles, I ask for seven and tell it I want them readable on mobile and desktop before they get cut off. My pro tip is to show it what's working right now. I take a screenshot of the first four or five videos that come up when I search the topic and upload it.

Then my pro tip on top of the pro tip: I ask it to rate each title on a scale of 1 to 10 based on everything we've talked about, and justify every score. Sometimes it stands behind its pick. Other times it re-evaluates and says, now that you mention it, this one is more of a seven, and it tells you why.

Thumbnails work the same way, except I describe the emotion I want my ideal viewer to feel. I'll ask for concepts that would stop the scroll and make the video mouthwatering for them. Because the thread already knows Steve's pain points and the result he wants, the concepts match that feeling.

Then I type two amazing words: show me. It usually describes something that sounds amazing, but I don't have the picture in my mind for it, so "show me" gets it to generate the images. I did this for the cover of a PDF guide I gave away at a conference, then recreated it as best we could in Canva.

What changes once AI knows your business?

You stop re-explaining yourself, and every video starts from what's true about your business today.One document in one Project, one thread per job, and a single video goes from idea to hook to title and thumbnail without you starting over once.

AI will impact your industry either way, so it's a matter of what role you want to play. You can be in the driver's seat or get rolled over. I've watched people get caught on the tail end of this already, because what clients used to pay a pretty penny for, AI can do so much faster. What would take hours, weeks, or months can take seconds and minutes now, as long as it's working from your business and not a guess.

FAQ

What is a brand identity document for AI?

It's one document that tells AI who you are, who you serve, what you offer, and who your ideal customer is. You add it to a Project in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini so every conversation starts on brand.

How do I stop repeating myself to AI?

Put your brand identity document in a Project instead of pasting it into each chat, and update it with a date when things change. Then what AI knows about your business lives in one place instead of spread out across several tools.

How many video ideas should I ask AI for?

Seven. Once you ask for 50 or 100, the ideas get watered down.

Can AI write YouTube hooks?

Yes. Paste the first 5 to 8 seconds from the captions of a video that did well, then ask for seven new hooks that use the same structure for your next topic.

What's the next step?

AI makes the video faster. My book helps you pick which video. If you want help choosing the one video that matters most for your business before you bring AI into it, start with The One Right Video.

Watch the full interview

I walked through all five of these methods in my interview with Social Media Examiner. Watch the full interview here.