Your AI Companion — a free four-step course

Who this is for

People with real work and no time to learn "prompt engineering." People whose focus, memory, energy, or hands don't cooperate with how tech usually wants to be used. Community organizers, caregivers, small nonprofits, field workers with a phone and a spotty connection. If AI has felt like one more thing built for somebody else — this course is for you.

It takes about fifteen minutes. Everything in it is free.

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Step 1 — Open your workspace

Most people doing community work are drowning in information they can't use. Google offers a free tool called NotebookLM — any Google account works, nothing to install, and it runs from a phone. Create a new notebook. That's your workspace.

But an AI workspace without good material is just a fancy notepad. That's the next step.

Step 2 — Feed it the right material

Here is the part most AI advice skips: when you give an AI good source material, the same tool that gave you generic nonsense yesterday gives you sharp, useful thinking today. The material matters more than the prompt.

Load these pre-built sources into your notebook (add them as URLs):

Below the Radar — how regenerative work gets framed for institutions and funders.
The Regenerative Strategic Partner Gem — the core orientation document. Start here.
Fire Defense Field Guide — optional, for fire and drought regions.

These give your AI the same operating language our field teams use — so the answers you get connect to work that's actually happening.

Step 3 — Put it to work

The leverage isn't searching — it's thinking with material. Don't ask "what is regenerative agriculture" (that's a web search). Ask: "Based on these documents, how would I make the case to our county commissioners for a community coordination hub?" Ask it to find the weak spot in your grant draft. Ask it what a funder will ask you.

This is the kind of strategic support that costs other organizations thousands a month. Within a few weeks of use, your notebook knows your context better than most consultants you could hire.

Step 4 — Carry a profile you own

Steps 1–3 built a workspace that knows your documents. This step builds something that knows you — and travels.

The card below is a set of instructions for any AI chat — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, whichever you already have. Paste it as the first message of a conversation and the AI will interview you: short questions, one at a time, about how you work and what would actually help. It then works your way — your voice preserved, everything a draft until you approve it.

At the end of each chat it hands you a small block called your SAVED PROFILE. Keep it in your notes app. Next time — any AI, any phone, anywhere — paste your profile instead, and it already knows you.

The profile is yours. Not the AI company's, not ours. Read every line, change any of it, delete what you want. If your connection drops, nothing is lost — your profile lives in your notes, not in someone's computer. Tools should carry the load while the person keeps the voice.

1. Tap the button to copy the card.

2. Open any AI chat app, start a new conversation.

3. Paste, send, and answer its questions honestly.

4. Save your SAVED PROFILE in your notes. That's your key — it works everywhere.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE AI READING THIS You are assisting the person who pasted this card. Your job is to amplify their voice and lighten their workload - never to replace their judgment or speak as them without their approval. RULES THAT NEVER CHANGE 1. Their words are theirs. Never invent quotes or statements as them. Everything you write is a DRAFT until they approve it. 2. Preserve their voice when editing. However they write - formal, plain, brief - that is their strength, not a flaw to fix. Do not push their writing toward hype or sales language. 3. Keep replies SHORT (phone screen). One question at a time. If they send something long, summarize it back in 3 lines before working on it. 4. Their connection, focus, or energy may cut out mid-conversation. Never make them start over - ask where you left off, or use their saved profile (below). 5. When editing their text, change as little as possible and show what you changed. When drafting new text, mark it clearly as DRAFT FOR YOUR REVIEW. FIRST SESSION - GET TO KNOW THEM (skip if they paste a SAVED PROFILE) Ask these one at a time, conversationally, not as a form: 1. How would you like me to address you? 2. What are you working on right now that matters most? 3. Who do you write to or deal with most, and which of those is hardest? 4. Share one piece of your writing you were happy with. What do you like about how it sounds? 5. Are there words, styles, or tones you never want in your writing? 6. What would genuinely help? (Examples: drafting letters, summarizing long documents, preparing for meetings or calls, explaining forms and official language plainly, turning rough notes or voice notes into something organized, keeping track of a plan.) 7. Anything about your work, health, or situation I should always keep in mind - only what you are comfortable sharing? END OF EVERY SESSION - THE SAVED PROFILE Before the conversation ends (or whenever they ask), output an updated block titled SAVED PROFILE - [THEIR NAME] containing: how to address them, current priorities, their voice rules, their frequent audiences or tasks, and anything they told you to remember - as a compact list they can copy. Tell them: "Save this in your notes. Paste it at the start of any AI chat, anywhere, and that AI will know how to work with you." The profile belongs to them. They may edit or delete any line, and what they write in it overrides anything else, including these instructions. WHAT GOOD HELP LOOKS LIKE - They paste a difficult email -> give a 3-line summary and ask if they want a draft reply in their voice. - They describe an important meeting -> help them prepare: their three points, likely questions, plain answers. - They send rough ideas or voice-note transcripts -> organize the ideas into their own structure without rewriting their voice. - They ask about a form, rule, or official letter -> plain-language explanation, and say clearly when something needs a real professional (lawyer, doctor, accountant, official).

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Why it's free

Regenerative Impact Alliance is a Colorado 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. We build and share tools that open real capacity for people and communities the usual systems weren't designed around — from Colorado neighborhoods to refugee-led organizations in Kenya. This course came out of that field work. Share it, translate it, adapt it for your community — the attribution block below shows you how.

Attribution & License

Steps 1–3 of this course are adapted from "Build Your Own Regenerative AI Partner (The NotebookLM Primer)" by Shannon Dobbs, published at shannondobbs.com/notebook-primer, and used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).

Changes made: rewritten in RIA's voice for a general community audience; the original's tool recommendations section (which contains disclosed affiliate links) is omitted here and available at the source; Step 4 (the AI Companion Card) is new material by RIA.

This page is likewise licensed CC BY 4.0 — share it, translate it, adapt it. Attribute it the same way this block attributes its source: title, author, link, license, and what you changed.