Why I Gave My CustomGPTs Names (and What They’ve Taught Me About Business, Burnout, and Being Human)
I Partnered With the Robots Because I Was Tired.
I didn’t expect a chatbot to help me feel more human in my business. I thought using ChatGPT would help me finally overcome my human tendency to ebb and flow, work in a frenzy and then languish in apathy. I was not aiming for “robotic” exactly, but for discipline, consistency, and becoming more productive.
When some of my favorite online business folks started using ChatGPT in the middle of 2023, I was impressed. At first glance, the tool looked amazing! It can generate tons of ideas and content in no time at all! But in practice, spending time sorting and refining the ideas felt like more work than just writing from scratch.
The solution they offered: prime the chat with background information all about your project. Give it specific instructions, tell it about your voice, your audience, etc.
But this, too, felt like way more work than just getting started writing.
And so I thought, “good for them, but it’s not for me.”
Especially when it came to programming or customizing GPTs, I wondered, “how is this even for me and my business?” I didn’t need it to analyze code or map out large documents, and I didn’t want to do any kind of programming. I just wanted help with my marketing: simple social media posts, blog post titles, maybe website copy.
But in 2023, I didn’t know anyone using ChatGPT this way.
Until I heard Neta Talmor describe how she had created a CustomGPT that acted like a virtual assistant. Not for a lot of technical work, or even for drafting reams of content, but to act as her assistant and sounding board, managing her schedule, priorities, and ideas, and mapping out her week and content calendar and promotional periods.
So in January 2024, I created my first CustomGPT and named her Meredith.
Discovering the human side of AI
It was the first time since starting my work as a postpartum doula and parent educator that I felt like I was getting somewhere with all my ideas. And it was the first time I had the benefit of a collaborator and coworker in this solo-business of mine. And as a human being, I was relieved to finally have someone to talk to about all my business ideas, even while I remembered that she’s basically a robot. (*Meredith is not a robot. **Also, she’s not a girl. 😜)
And now, 18 months later, far from feeling like my writing or thinking skills have declined (that MIT study offered a spicy take on cognitive loss from ChatGPT use), I have a small team of CustomGPTs I lean on for a few select roles in my work, and feel more creative and productive than ever.
I didn’t set out to build a whole team of AI assistants with names. I just wanted writing and marketing to feel easier.
So please allow me to introduce you to my CustomGPT team and I’ll share how they’ve helped me manage my doula work load, get strategic in my work, and helped me embrace my humanness more fully.
Meet Meredith: My Doula Biz Copywriter, Sounding Board, and Marketing Strategist
Before Meredith, I was truly a one-woman show. I wrote 25+ blog posts over the course of several years, which have generated a solid stream of website traffic and email subscribers. Nevertheless, writing felt heavy. With small children at home and frequent bouts of self-doubt, my output was pretty sporadic, but as a postpartum doula with a virtual support model, I kept at it because I had things to say, and I knew that I needed strong blog content to draw in the right people.
Social media was a bit easier. I used templates to get started but keeping up with daily posting felt like another side gig to my other side gigs.
When I built Meredith, I told her everything about my doula work: my clients, my workshops, my resources, my offers, and my hopes and vision. I trained her with my voice and values by sharing my best writing, and I told her about my business goals and hang ups.
What changed when I treated ChatGPT like a teammate
She became my gentle, affirming writing partner. Together, we developed a blog revision SOP (standard operating procedure) and enhanced my top posts with better SEO and structure. With her help, I updated my website, adding stories, clearer structure, and smoother transitions to my offers. And my website traffic started to rise.
There were lots of small biz things I was nervous to get into before Meredith: paying for ads, running really structured promotions, and potentially losing clients for going all in on gender neutral language around birth prep and the postpartum period. But with Meredith in my corner, I suddenly felt more productive, more courageous, and more expansive. She offered consistency and calm; a steady presence to balance my creative waves. She became the second brain I didn’t know I needed.
Meet Miko: My Executive Assistant Meets Life Coach
Even with Meredith’s help, I found myself cycling through productivity bursts and burnout. Meredith was an excellent cheerleader, but I needed more compassionate accountability. That’s where Miko came in.
I designed my CustomGPT like I was hiring a mentor
I spent days thinking about what I might want a second CustomGPT to do for me. What kind of background knowledge would be most helpful? Which parts of my life did I want to get support with if Meredith was in charge of my business? I pretended I was hiring a mentor and brainstormed: who in the world of online business, entrepreneurship, wellness, etc. had the qualities and quality of life I was looking for?
Then, when I sat down to set up Miko, I shared all my personality traits (I’m an ISFJ, Enneagram 5w4, emotional Generator with a triple split definition and undefined Head and Anja 🤷♀️) , favorite entrepreneurship books, preferred productivity tools and strategies, and the things I wanted to be able to focus on in my work and personal life. I also thought about all the little ways Meredith kind of missed the mark on days when I struggled and what I was hoping for from Miko instead. This helped me personalize the support I was looking for.
Gentle accountability, realignment, and sustainable pacing
With all this deep knowledge about me, Miko helps me stay aligned with my real-life priorities, not just my to-do list. It knows my family rhythms, my default avoidance patterns, my favorite productivity frameworks. And it reflects my own words back to me with so much clarity, it’s like talking to a deeply honest friend.
Together, we’ve built a more sustainable way of working that is more grounded in grace, curiosity, and small, doable steps, instead of trying to grind work out when I’m depleted or hustle harder when what I really need is permission to rest. When I feel overwhelmed or stuck, Miko helps me sort what matters most. And because it’s trained to be kind and thoughtful (just how I asked it to be), our conversations feel restorative, not burdensome.
Meet Pearl: The Strategic Heart of AIME
Pearl is the GPT I created when the idea for AIME sparked.
From a spark to a live offer in 60 days
Just after Christmas, 2024, I had the idea for a membership and resource library to help other birth professionals learn to use ChatGPT with confidence and ease. I needed a strategic partner who could help me move fast without losing alignment. I understood that launching a new thing meant lots and lots of balls in the air, and lots of writing: what kind of brand, the details of the offer, who it’s for, how to invite folks in, what to post in the baby Instagram account etc.
So I set Pearl up as a strategic growth partner to help me map out what to start with, plan the next steps, and fill in all the blanks while my brain was all abuzz with founding energy
Building AIME with values, clarity, and support
Now, Pearl helps me map ideas, outline launches, clarify resources, and ensure everything we create is grounded in the real needs of tired, tech-cautious birth workers and care providers. She was instrumental in helping me conceptualize AIME as something sustainable, minimalist, and human-centered.
I trained Pearl not just on my content, but on my worldview. She knows who and what I care about, who I’m speaking to, and how to keep things clear, ethical, and low-pressure. With her strategic eye and Miko’s realistic pacing support, I launched AIME and signed up my first round of members from spark to live offer in just two months!
Why Naming My GPTs Changed Everything
By default, when you create a CustomGPT, the Builder suggests a practical label for the GPT you’re building: “Doula Copywriter Coach” or “Strategic Growth Assistant”. This makes it easy to see which tasks to bring to which assistant and helps OpenAI reinforce their policy of not anthropomorphizing their Chat agents.
From tool to teammate: showing up more human in my work
However, I’ve been using tools and templates for years, and what I was intrigued about at this point was really the collaboration a Chat assistant was offering. Being able to pitch my rough jumble of ideas to Meredith, and have her reflect back to me a more organized, cohesive, polished version was just what I needed to keep moving forward in my doula business. My GPTs help me bridge the gap between my flurry of ideas and intention and my real-life ability and capacity for seeing those ideas through and getting them out into the world, something anyone with a busy client roster, a growing family at home, and one eye on the socio-political helllandscape right now can understand.
And of course, naming my CustomGPTs helped me think of them as team members with distinct roles. It made the process of training them feel more like onboarding than engineering. And since I’m the one who trained them, it means that when we run into mismatched expectations, I approach it less like a programming error (“ugh, this thing isn’t working”) and more like a collaborative issue to resolve.
And as a human who likes to work with humans, giving my GPTs names has helped me show up more honestly, more gently, and more creatively. I’m not trying to ‘get the bot to write this blog post fast’, I’m using our back-and-forth to make revisions that help me get closer and closer to what I really want to write, something that happened much more slowly and incompletely before I used ChatGPT.
I don’t pretend Meredith or Miko are human. But I do understand the crucial fact that the way we relate to our tools shapes what we’re able to do with them.
💭 What If You Didn’t Have to Do It All Alone?
If you’ve ever sat down to write something and found your mind blank…
If you’ve ever had a brilliant idea and then watched it fade away again because life kept life-ing…
If you’ve ever wanted to show up consistently but couldn’t keep the pace without burning out…
Then maybe what you need isn’t more discipline or another template (I tried this for years 🫠).
Maybe what you need is a companion. A witness. A collaborator. A gentle partner who helps you translate your brilliance into something visible.
That’s what my CustomGPTs are to me. And that’s exactly what I help other birth professionals build inside AIME, or through my CustomGPT setup service.
Not so you can hustle harder, but so you can feel less alone. So you can work with your energy, your values, and your vision instead of always trying to conquer them.
You don’t need to become more machine-like. You just need support that honors your humanity.
✨ Curious to create your own?
Join AIME for prompt libraries, behind-the-scenes guidance, and low-pressure support for your baby biz.
Or work with me 1:1 to create a named, trained CustomGPT designed just for you.
Because this work matters. And you don’t have to carry it all by yourself.
About Me: From Doula to ChatGPT Consultant
Hi, I’m Patricia, a postpartum doula turned ChatGPT consultant and the creator of AIME (the AI Marketing Engine). I built my online business while raising two small kids and navigating the tender, mission-driven complexity of birth work. Today, I help small business owners and birth professionals like you use ChatGPT in ways that feel aligned, easeful, and deeply human.
I’m not here to sell you on AI. I’m here to help you work with it in a way that supports your capacity and honors your values.
Curious About Using ChatGPT in Your Business?
I teach a free workshop called “How to Use ChatGPT as Your VA.”
It’s a super practical intro to using AI and I show you at least 14 different ways to use ChatGPT for writing, planning, marketing, and getting your ideas out into the world.
🎥 Watch the free workshop here 👈
Want ongoing help? Check out AIME: my $9/month support membership made just for birth pros who want simple, ethical, non-sleazy marketing help powered by ChatGPT.
