Wait - ChatGPT can do that??

I was hunched over the kitchen table, laptop open, staring at a battlefield of half-finished board slides. I’d just overhauled the entire deck to tell a sharper story which meant every graph and chart had changed. 

My usual “slide guy” had dropped the ball, big time. The charts were clunky, unclear, and honestly, unusable. With two hours to go before my deadline, I was staring down a growing to-do list: finish the slides, polish the talk track, and somehow, now, create all of the new charts. 

In a moment of desperation, I looked at my husband and said, “Any chance you can help with the charts?”  He said yes (because he is amazing) and, to my shock, 30 minutes later he handed me exactly what I asked for.

I was grateful. And also curious.
“How did you do that?” I asked.

He smiled and turned his screen toward me.
“I just took a picture of the chart you gave me and uploaded it to ChatGPT,” he said.
Then he showed me his prompts:

Prompts:
"i want to make this chart in excel. please tell me how."

ChatGPT gave him step-by-step instructions - not just the formulas, but how to match the colors, layout, and formatting. He followed the steps, iterated a bit by uploading what he was getting along the way and asking:

“ok, here's what i have. can i make the actual and target columns overlap like in the original chart image?” 

and 

“one more thing. now, to match the original chart image, the bars for actual vs target series should be different widths. currently it looks like this” 

and boom. Done.

That was my aha moment. I knew I needed to start using Generative AI more.

Rewind for a second…

At the time, I was Chief Growth Officer at a small professional services company. That meant I was the head of sales, marketing, RevOps… and basically every other growth role between “front line” and “CEO.”

So when it came time to evolve how we told our growth story to the board, I was on the hook to translate all our complexity into clear visuals and insights. I had the vision, but I didn’t have the time, or the RevOps support, to build it from scratch.

Usually, our IT guy helped format slides, but this time he was out of his depth. And I was still wrangling data, writing the talk track, and nowhere near done. The clock was ticking.

So I pulled my husband into the chaos.

Within 30 minutes, he handed me exactly what I needed.

That moment changed everything for me.

It wasn’t just about the chart. It was the realization that there was a tool I had access to and if I put some time into learning how to use it, I would get better at my job and save time.

After that, I made it a mission to just start using it. I put a little sign next to my computer to remind me it was there to help (it is hard to change!!!):

• I screenshotted Salesforce dashboards I liked and asked:
  Prompt: “You are a Salesforce admin. Give me a step by step guide to create this dashboard?”
  

• I uploaded complex Excel formulas and asked:
  Prompt: “You are an Excel expert. Can you explain what this formula does and how to simplify it?”
  

• I snapped a picture of a chart I didn’t fully understand:
  Prompt: “Explain the meaning of this chart, the key takeaways and make it relevant for a Chief Growth Officer.”
  

Suddenly, I had an expert at my side. Not to replace me, but amplify me. Move faster. Learn as I go. And maybe get to bed before midnight. 

Takeaway:

Just start using it if you haven’t yet. Just scratch the surface and then learn more and more. Put a reminder somewhere - you have to work to change a habit! 

Try this:

Take a photo or screenshot of something you wish you could recreate or understand, something like a dashboard, a chart, or a slide.

Then open ChatGPT and say:

“Give me step-by-step instructions to build this in Excel / Canva / Salesforce.”
Or:
“Explain this chart and why it matters to a Chief Growth Officer / nonprofit leader / overcaffeinated human.”

That one moment - your “Wait, ChatGPT can do that??” - might change everything.