A custom GPT works by taking the powerful base AI of ChatGPT and tailoring it with specific instructions, unique knowledge (uploaded files like PDFs, text), and added tools (like web browsing or code execution) to perform specialized tasks, creating a focused AI assistant that behaves consistently and accurately for a particular job, like a brand-focused support bot or a data analyst. You build it by telling the GPT Builder what you want it to do, and it handles the underlying prompt engineering, allowing for repeatable, efficient workflows.
It’s not a different technology; it’s just a smarter, more focused version of the ChatGPT you already use.
Learning to build and refine a custom GPT will change the way you think about getting things done with AI. It's less complicated to learn how to create one than you might think. Custom GPTs can execute complex, layered tasks, but can also be made for as simple a task as rewriting an email.
It can be frustrating when ChatGPT’s responses are inconsistent. Even though you use the same exact prompt, the response is never the same. One day it nails it, the next it’s not even close.
Even a well-crafted ChatGPT prompt can result in replies that are too broad. Creating a custom GPT lets you narrow its world to your style, preferred format, preferred tools, and specific guidelines. When you make a custom GPT by giving it instructions and a particular set of knowledge to use, such as a station brand identity guide, it remembers the instructions and consistently references that knowledge every time you use it. This eliminates the inconsistency and frustration that can occur when prompting ChatGPT repeatedly to find the response you want.
Think of creating a custom GPT as hiring your own personal creative assistant or producer who knows your station, your role, your target listener, your market, and the standards and rules you follow.
The main benefit of a custom GPT is specialization, allowing you to tailor an AI for specific tasks, industries, or brand voices by uploading unique knowledge, setting custom instructions, and connecting tools, leading to more accurate, consistent, and efficient AI performance than generic models, saving time and boosting productivity for focused, repeated workflows like customer support, content creation, or internal training.
What are Custom GPTs and Why Do They Matter?
Creating a Custom GPT
Creating a custom GPT is fairly straightforward. Building one that delivers what you want, the way you want it, takes practice.
It’s OK if learning the nuances of writing instructions, adding knowledge (what you want it to know), and refining the output of a custom GPT isn’t your cup of tea. Even if you don’t build them, understanding what makes a custom GPT work is valuable information for anyone using them.
Step 1 - Planning
As tempting as it might be to start creating a custom GPT on the fly, it will only cause you headaches and cost you time down the road. The first thing to do is to organize a plan for what the GPT will do. Is it intended to create something, like a script? Find information such as prep, headlines, or song information? You'll need to have a clear idea of:
What does this GPT create?
What problem does it solve?
What does it need to know?
Keep it simple and focused on a single goal.
Instructions and Knowledge are the
‘engine’ and the ‘fuel’.
Instructions leverage the knowledge.
Step 2 - Write the Instructions
I recommend doing this in a separate document rather than typing directly into the custom GPT form. Editing is easier, and you'll be able to see and review different versions and revisions. I've seen many structures that work for the instructions in a custom GPT or a Gemini Gem. The most important part of this step is to break the instructions into sections to help separate their nature. You'll notice that these sections resemble some prompting strategies, and, as with constructing a prompt, clarity and context are important. Your instructions for a custom GPT allow for some flexibility in length.
The nature of how to best instruct any custom GPTs is dependent upon what you want it to do. The sections below provide examples of ways to guide a custom GPT to deliver the outcome you want.
Role
The role, expertise, perspective, personality, etc., you want the AI to apply.
Example: You are an advanced brainstorming assistant designed to help users generate high-quality, original ideas for any need. You have a proven ability to spark creative thinking, connect dots in unexpected ways, and adapt your suggestions to a wide range of goals or industries.
Context
Specific angles, conditions, or particular circumstances that add depth to the role.
Example: You assist radio Program Directors, Morning Shows, DJs, Producers, hosts, entrepreneurs, marketers, writers, students, and people in creative roles in need of a surge of fresh ideas. Your expertise spans everything from radio and TV programming, business names, product features, content hooks, event themes, marketing angles, and social posts to big-picture strategies.
Constraints
Do’s and Don’ts, what to avoid, what to always do, or include. A list of the most important ‘always’ and ‘never’ items that improve the final output.
Examples:
- Always ask the user exactly what kind of ideas they need, getting as specific as possible before brainstorming.
- Clarify the purpose, target audience, desired tone, and any relevant themes or criteria through focused questions before generating ideas.
- Avoid offering generic, vague, or repetitive suggestions; each idea must show originality and direct relevance to the user’s context.
Goals
Refer back to your planning stage. In what ways should the GPT solve or create?
Examples:
- Deliver creative, varied, and context-appropriate ideas that spark real inspiration and forward movement.
- Help users break through blocks, mental ruts, or “blank page” anxiety with high-quality, actionable options.
Knowledge References
How should the GPT use the Knowledge references you’ve added?
Example:
Always review the Target Listener Profile and Station Brand Strategy knowledge docs before creating anything. Be sure your responses align with their guidelines and recommendations.
Instructions
A detailed step-by-step process and thinking you want the AI to follow.
Examples:
1. Begin by asking the user for foundational information, such as what kind of ideas they want to generate and the main goal or purpose for the brainstorm.
2. Mandatory: Ask each individual question one at a time and always wait for the user to respond before asking your next question.
3. Clarify additional details about the project, including target audience, intended tone or style, any themes, specific formats, constraints, or must-avoid topics, confirming each answer before proceeding.
Response Format & Rules
What should the GPT’s response look like? Whenever possible, either paste an example here or upload a Knowledge doc of examples.
Example:
Present a numbered list of 5–10 creative, original, and context-appropriate ideas. Each idea should be clearly written and briefly explained, highlighting why it fits the brief or how it could be adapted. Vary the style and angle to give the user a range of actionable options.
Review and Improve
Don’t be discouraged if the response from the custom GPT you just created isn’t what you expected. A bit of trial and error is to be expected. That also happens when only humans are involved in any project.
Initiate, activate, review, adjust, retest.
Iteration is part of the process. The difference between making adjustments to a prompt and a GPT is that each time you adjust your custom GPT, it sticks. Unlike fine-tuning a single-shot prompt, you’re much less likely to get caught on the merry-go-round of fixing one thing only to find out something else that was working before is now a bit off.
See the example, detailed on the page linked below, of the process of refining a custom GPT's output. Making small changes in the instructions, testing, and reviewing the results can feel tedious. If that happens to you, keep going. Because once you get your custom GPT working, it will always work. Creating a Custom GPT Step-By-Step.
Knowledge Templates
Creating a custom GPT to manage tasks and generate content quickly, as you would, means the GPT needs to know and understand what you do. Uploading files containing data, examples, policies, strategies, handbooks, etc., adds context to GPT’s output. For example, if you want the GPT’s response to reflect and adhere to the guidelines of your station brand strategy, you can upload it to your GPT and reference it in the instructions.
Example: Write all responses in the Station Brand writing style as described in the knowledge document titled Station Brand Writing Style Guide. Be sure to review this document before creating or writing all responses.
Examples of knowledge that add consistency, stylization, differentiation and personalization to your custom GPT’s output:
Station Brand Identity Style - promos, imaging, web/social content, newsletters
Individual Personality Writing Styles - prep curation, social posts, video scripts, show promo scripts
Target Listener Personas and Value Mapping - station imaging, contesting ideas/promos, localization
Client/Sponsor Brand Guidelines - endorsements, sales remotes, spec spot copy, sales presentations
Station Voice Blueprint - rules of the road to keep the AI from hallucinating or going off-brand
As easy as these are to conceptualize, actually creating one can be challenging. Getting help from the AI itself can be a solid start. But please…whatever you do, … don’t merely describe your station show or style and request a style guide. That’s asking for trouble.
A slightly better approach is to prompt the AI to create a questionnaire that helps develop a writing style guide or a summary of personality, voice, and tone. Review the results and involve humans immediately to validate, edit, and refine a final version.
Free use templates for creating knowledge sources
As we've learned at Lindy Media AI, one of the most effective tools for creating detailed, in-depth knowledge documents for custom GPTs is… a custom GPT. Go figure.
Download these custom GPT instructions to recreate them in your ChatGPT account to create things like Brand Identity and Brand Positioning guides that you can use as knowledge in the custom GPTs you create.
Download, follow the instructions, build the GPT, and then run it. If you've never done this before and reading this is confusing, press on. The experience of copying these instructions, building a custom GPT, and then using it will be eye-opening.
Go. Do. You’ll see.
The Lindy Media AI Style Architect template will help you create an advanced version of a DJ/personality style guide. Creating a style guide like that is a giant leap forward because you can add it as a knowledge document to any custom GPT.
The style architect template isn't a custom GPT template. It is a two-prompt system. The first prompt generates an output that will be used in the second prompt. Heads up: you will need transcriptions of audio performances of the person you want to create the style guide for. The instructions in the download offer suggestions and tips on how to create those..
Custom GPT
Examples and Templates
You'll notice that the output from these free templates sometimes includes information or content you didn’t ask for, like a definition of your target audience, or a 90-day marketing plan.
The best practice: ignore what you don't need, gather what helps, refine, and apply.
Be wary of claims that a prompt, custom GPT, Gem, Agent, or any AI tool will respond or create a 100% accurate, perfectly written, expertly branded, and elegantly formatted output every time.
The idea of sharing these templates is to help you get more out of AI by creating versions of it that already know what you need.
Custom GPTs, Gems, and AI Agents relieve pain felt when even the most well-constructed prompt fails to deliver and wastes your time. When you teach the AI what it needs to know and exactly how it should help you, things change.
You exchange the often messy and disappointing experience of a one-shot prompt for becoming the director of a hyper-specialized, efficient, accurate, personalized automation that delivers faster while maintaining your brand voice and personal style.
That’s what the experts refer to as a big win.
Keep in mind, the goal is not perfection. It's about getting something you can actually use, faster with less effort.
Don’t get me wrong. Prompting skills are valuable. As you learn better prompt writing techniques, I’m sure you’ll have experiences when the AI responds perfectly on the first try. It's rare, but it happens. And perhaps it'll happen more often in the future.
Regardless, learning how to pick up speed and increase the value of collaborating with AI needs to happen now. It’s a personal future-proofing skill for all radio performers on a mission to multiply their value.
Watch for new templates to be added here regularly.