Show notes
I did the exact thing every AI expert tells you not to do. I opened a blank chat, dumped my entire brand into it, and expected magic. What I got back was a robot doing a bad impression of me. Bernadette Shepherd has a name for that feeling, and once she said it, I could not unhear it. She calls it AI aftertaste.
In this session from our AI That Sells Summit, she walks through the exact system she built to get rid of it for good, the same one she now uses to run actual AI employees inside her business.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
What AI aftertaste actually is: Bernadette defines AI aftertaste, that unmistakable feeling when AI is trying to sound like you but missing the mark. She explains why it happens: AI is trained on general knowledge, not on your specific brand, so it defaults to generic phrasing unless you give it structure to work from.
The Brand Brain framework: Bernadette walks through her Brand Brain, a system of documents that trains AI to write, think, and sound like you no matter which tool you use. I love that it treats AI like a new employee who needs real onboarding, not just a brain dump and a prompt.
Brand voice and platform playbooks: Bernadette explains how she captures brand voice at a general level, then builds platform specific playbooks using real samples of your writing.
The AI blacklist and negative prompting:
Bernadette describes her AI blacklist, a list of phrases and patterns you never want AI to use, plus how to add your own custom restrictions. She explains why telling AI what not to do matters just as much as telling it what to do.
Brand DNA, offers, and your ideal client: we discuss how the Brand Brain handles multiple offers and different transformations, as well as how the system captures brand DNA, offer details, and ideal client avatars (so AI stops guessing and starts writing with real specificity).
Content hills and your spicy takes: We cover content hills, the strong opinions and mic drop moments that are uniquely yours. Learn why capturing these gives AI a much clearer sense of how you actually think about your industry.
The story bank and phrase bank: Bernadette breaks down two of my favorite layers, the story bank that holds your wins, lessons, and transformations, and the phrase bank that captures the exact words and phrases you use so AI stops guessing your language and starts pulling it verbatim.
System messages and avoiding content rot: We dig into what Bernadette calls context engineering, the system instructions that tell AI exactly which part of your Brand Brain to use and when. She explains why this keeps your conversations from breaking down as they get longer.
Projects, skills, and where the Brand Brain lives: Bernadette and I compare notes on using projects versus skills inside Claude and ChatGPT, and how the right setup depends on your own workflow and how many brands or businesses you’re running.
Building AI employees: Finally, Bernadette demonstrates how she uses her Brand Brain to run actual AI employees, including her content manager (Maya), who researches, drafts, and even spins up sub agents to handle multiple platforms at once.
Resources Mentioned:
Grab Brainer, Bernadette’s tool for building your Brand Brain, the 8 layers of brand context that train AI to write like you instead of everyone else.
Learn more about Claude Cowork, the desktop tool I use to connect my Brand Brain files directly into my AI workflows.
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