By Matt Plapp
Yes, I write every week about marketing—but not this week. Why? While I want you to build the ultimate marketing plan and use AI to help you, I first want you to optimize yourself with AI. Next week, we will explore using AI to turbo-charge your pizzeria’s marketing, but to do that, we must first focus on you.
Imagine having a business partner who knows everything you know about your restaurant, plus everything there is to know on the internet. Now, imagine this partner is also trained on the insights of the brightest business minds in the world, ready to challenge your decisions, help you strategize, and give you data-backed answers in real time.
That’s precisely what I’ve built with my MP VBOD (My Personal Virtual Board of Directors)—a Custom GPT that acts as my thought partner and co-CEO. And you can create one, too.
Before you start using ChatGPT for marketing or operations, you need to train it to think like you, understand your restaurant, and make intelligent recommendations based on your goals. In this article, I’ll walk you through the exact steps to build your own AI co-CEO, just like I’ve done for myself and my clients.
First, a disclaimer: I’m not an AI genius or claiming to know it all, but I’ve become pretty dangerous. I highly suggest you research topics like this on your own. Watch YouTube training videos, listen to podcasts and read books.
I did all of those things and was fortunate to have a team member, Lisa Bailey, who gave me massive insights. Here’s a link to a Facebook page she recently started to help others learn how to harness the power of AI. Please do me a huge favor and give her a follow.
I also want to credit Geoff Woods, an author whose teaching has helped me. His knowledge of AI is at the next level. His book, The AI-Driven Leader, is like a superpower when using ChatGPT. Click here to purchase his book on Amazon.
Real-World Success Stories Using Custom GPTs
Since 2008, I’ve owned this company, which can get lonely. You know what I mean? You don’t have anyone you can talk to and bounce ideas off. It’s brutal. But what if there was a way to fix that? What if there was a way to duplicate yourself? Well, that’s where a Custom GPT comes into the picture.
Recently, I sat down with two restaurant owners—Monty and Mike—looking for ways to optimize their businesses. Of course, we spoke about how you can use AI to automatically generate monthly marketing plans, content ideas and social media strategies. But before you take it to that level, you need to understand how to use it to optimize you!
Like many restaurant owners, Monty knew AI was powerful, but he didn’t know where to start. Instead of wasting hours brainstorming, he now has an AI-powered assistant who does the heavy lifting.
On the other hand, Mike was looking for ways to step away from the daily grind and focus on higher-level strategy. He set up his Custom GPT and trained it on his financials, hiring processes and business philosophies. Now, his AI helps him make key decisions, spot inefficiencies and analyze customer trends.
In both cases, these restaurant owners didn’t just use AI—they built an AI partner that thinks like them and scales their expertise across the business.
Step-by-Step Guide: How to Build Your AI Co-CEO
Here’s Geoff Woods’ hack for using AI:
- Context
- Role
- Interview
- Task
For the past two years, my use of AI has evolved. I started my journey using it like Google on steroids. Then I graduated to using data to train it and help with analysis. But then I learned Geoff Woods’ four-step hack. When using AI, Geoff teaches this: Always give it context, tell it who it’s acting as, and finally, have it ask questions to help you solve your problem.
For example, let’s say you want to use ChatGPT to help you build your Custom GPT and leverage the advice below. You might type a prompt like this:
“I’m looking to build a Custom GPT to act as my thought partner and virtual board of directors. Acting as Geoff Woods, the author of The AI-Driven Leader, ask me five questions, one at a time, to give me step-by-step instructions for building my Custom GPT.”
A huge pointer I got from Geoff’s teaching, which I used above, was instructing the bot to ask the questions one at a time. If you ask ChatGPT to ask you five questions, it will list them all at once, which can be maddening. Plus, asking one question at a time allows the bot to learn more for the questions that will follow.
Step 1: Define Your AI’s Role & Purpose
Before you start building, ask yourself:
- What do I want my AI to do? (Marketing? Operations? Financial analysis?)
- Who will use it? (Just you? Or your team?)
- What problems should it solve?
For example, if you want an AI that helps with marketing, it should know your brand voice, past promotions, customer data and sales trends.
Step 2: Train It With Your Business Knowledge
To make your Custom GPT truly valuable, upload the following:
- Your restaurant’s history and mission
- Marketing materials, past promotions and ad copy
- Your menu, pricing and food cost breakdowns
- Customer demographics and loyalty program data
- Your insights and decision-making process
This turns your AI into an expert on YOUR business—not just a generic chatbot.
Step 3: Build Your Virtual Board of Directors
One of the biggest game-changers in my AI strategy was creating MP VBOD—My Personal Virtual Board of Directors. You can do the same by training your AI on the business minds you trust. To build mine, I looked at the list of my favorite books and experts I highly respect. I also thought about the skills I could use a lot of help developing.
Here are the experts that I included in my virtual board of directors:
- Alex Hormozi – Sales, marketing and profitability
- Gary Vaynerchuk – Online marketing and branding
- David Scott Peters – Restaurant industry operations
- Dave Ramsey – Financial discipline and business growth
- Cameron Herold – Scaling businesses
- Joseph Sugarman – Persuasive marketing and sales copy
- Jon Spoelstra – Bold, outrageous marketing
- Duane Plapp – Relationship building (and he’s also my dad)
By uploading content, books or podcasts from these experts, your AI will start thinking like them, giving you high-level strategic guidance whenever needed. FYI, click here to check out my favorite books.
Step 4: Customize It for Your Restaurant’s Needs
Once your AI knows your business and has your virtual board, it’s time to fine-tune its responses:
- Set clear instructions on how it should communicate (e.g., professional, casual, detailed, concise)
- Program common questions and answers for your staff
- Teach it to analyze reports and provide recommendations
Step 5: Test, Improve and Scale
Once it’s built, start using it daily:
- Ask it marketing questions: “What should my March Madness pizza promo be?”
- Get financial insights: “Analyze my pizzeria’s sales data and find trends.”
- Use it for hiring: “What are the biggest gaps in my team?”
The more you use and refine it, the smarter it becomes.
Your Next Step: Build Your Custom GPT and Text Me When It’s Live
If you’re serious about freeing yourself from the daily grind and making smarter, data-driven decisions, your first step is to build your Custom GPT today.
Follow the steps above, and when you’re done, text me at 859-743-2408 when you’ve blown your mind with your new AI version of yourself.
Let’s revolutionize pizzeria operations—one Custom GPT at a time. Next week, we’ll discuss building the ultimate AI marketing director.
My name is Matt Plapp. I’m the CEO of America’s Best Restaurants. I’ve worked with thousands of restaurants since 2008 when I started this company, and over the next 12 months, we will help 2,500-plus restaurants with their marketing. This is the latest article in a new weekly column for PMQ to help restaurant owners understand the gold mine we have to market in 2025—and beyond.
