Beyond the prompt: Part 11 — How Gemini helps me go from a blank page to being a confident storyteller

Snapshot: In this post Scott shares how to: 

• Generate marketing proposals in minutes using gemini.google.com 

• Brainstorm more ideas with Gemini side panel in Docs

• Use gemini.google.com as a research assistant to gain confidence with complex topics

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As a marketer, I’ve seen the power of well-crafted stories that connect with an audience. But it can be challenging to find enough time to brainstorm, ideate, and research to create those big impactful narratives. As someone with ADHD, Gemini for Google Workspace has helped me boost my productivity and focus, turning 30-minute windows of time into impactful strategy sessions. Here’s how.

From an idea to action

As anyone with ADHD will tell you, getting started is often the biggest hurdle. Even if I know the topic or strategy, I can easily get sidetracked by things like formatting or section headers. Using Gemini has helped me focus on the strategic aspects of the task at hand — and my broader role — by reducing the time I spend on tangential or tedious tasks. Gemini helps me go from an idea to a well-formatted strategic document in minutes — not hours. 

Recently, I needed to create a new marketing plan to showcase how our product capabilities drive value for customers. I knew I wanted to spend my time thinking about the strategy and customer needs instead of going down the rabbit hole of how to format the document or reading dozens of articles and decks that may not be relevant. 

I started by creating a simple strategy outline in a Google Doc, including the business impact, customer pain points, and risks to consider. Then, I went to gemini.google.com with the high-level outline for my strategy and uploaded documents with additional context and relevant information. Instead of just asking for a "marketing brief," and generating a generic response from Gemini, I uploaded my initial outline with sections for goals, target audience, desired outcomes, and more. I prompted:  

Pretend you are a marketer who works for Google Workspace. You are drafting a 1 page proposal around the idea of having a series of webinars that are focused on product demos. The focus is to have a series of webinars, each that are about 20-30 minutes long that emphasizes a different topic. The topics could be things like highlighting a certain part of Google Workspace's products for a generic audience, or the topic could be focused on a specific problem. The benefit is that people can attend these short webinars to learn more and see the product in action and once the webinar and demo are built, the videos and demos can be repurposed to be used in later marketing campaigns.

Then I built on my initial prompt with a few follow-up prompts to create a refined draft proposal that included the relevant sections and even a project timeline that was ready for me to export to Google Docs (click Share & export then Export to Docs). 

Once I had the initial proposal in a Google Doc, I asked follow-up questions using the Gemini side panel in Docs, such as "What industries would my webinar resonate with and why?" This helped me dig deeper, uncover new insights, and ultimately create a stronger proposal as I continued to work on editing the draft.

Instead of spending days crafting a perfect proposal, I was able to create a solid draft ready for collaboration with the broader team in about 25 minutes. 

Gain the confidence of an expert

In my role at Google, I jump between a lot of different projects that require domain expertise. The learning curve can be steep as I switch between topics, often with rapidly approaching deadlines. 

For example, I recently led a campaign focused on security on behalf of Google Workspace. I needed to meet with executives at customers to pitch them on being webinar speakers and collaborate with them to tell their unique stories. I had relevant decks and blogs that my teammates had made in the past that I could leverage to understand Google’s security strategy and some customer stories. 

Because I’d previously used Gemini at gemini.google.com to help me craft my webinar descriptions, I could build off those old prompts by revisiting my previous conversations. Gemini retained the work I did on the webinar series in its transaction history, and I added several assets that could be used as additional source material and context. I went back into the previous conversation at gemini.google.com and uploaded multiple internal decks, customer stories, and a handful of security narrative pitches. I prompted Gemini to help me craft an outline based on the information provided. 

Help me prepare for a meeting with a customer of Google. I am working on a webinar and the customer is going to be a co-presenter, we expect them to cover about 7-10 minutes worth of content. The customer is [name], use the resources I am providing to help me figure out an outline and recommendation for what the customer could speak about. The customer, [name and title], will be discussing their approach to security and how Google Workspace has helped them to be successful with their goals.

Gemini analyzed the inputs, identified key themes, and even provided suggested talking points. Importantly, Gemini used my resources to tailor the output. Now, I could confidently present to the executive to get their feedback and have them identify ways we could go deeper or pivot their story for the right impact.  

In any given week, Gemini saves me hours of time on research and synthesizing information across a huge range of sources to figure out what’s relevant to my work. From there, I can make confident and strategic recommendations, whether it’s leading conversations with external stakeholders or pitching a big idea to a team at Google. I can take a 30-minute pocket of time and turn it into a powerhouse of productivity, moving past the blank page to craft strategy and stories that really move the needle.

Can’t wait for the next post in the series? Download the Prompting guide 101 ebook and get started with Gemini for Workspace today.