Want to Use AI Like a Pro? Learn to Prompt Like a Coach
“What’s the Most Important Part of Learning to Use AI in Your Real Estate Business?”
It’s not knowing what tool to use.
It’s not being a tech expert.
It’s not about automating your follow-up.
The most important skill is learning how to prompt.
Because if you don’t know how to ask better questions, you’ll never get better answers — from AI or from your business.
As the #1 Coach and Speaker at Tom Ferry — the #1 real estate coaching company in the world — I coach agents daily on how to use AI to scale their systems, simplify their workload, and free up their time.
But here’s what separates the agents who get stuck from the ones who build real momentum:
They learn to think like a coach.
They learn to ask AI the way they’d ask a person.
They learn to prompt with purpose.
So let’s break down what that actually means — and how you can use it to level up your business starting today.
1. AI Is Only As Smart As the Prompt You Give It
Here’s the mistake most agents make:
They ask AI vague questions like:
- “Write me an Instagram caption.”
- “Give me a script to follow up with a lead.”
And what they get back is… bland. Generic. Off-brand.
Because prompting isn’t just typing something into ChatGPT.
It’s contextual thinking.
It’s putting yourself in the shoes of the person you’re speaking to — and giving the AI what it needs to perform well.
Think of it like training a new assistant.
You wouldn’t just say “go write me a blog.”
You’d give them:
- The audience
- The tone
- The goal
- The hook
- A few examples
That’s what great prompting does.
It gives AI your brain, not just your task list.
2. Prompting = Coaching Yourself
One of the most powerful mindset shifts I teach my clients is this:
Prompting is coaching — for your business.
Let’s say you want to follow up with a seller lead who ghosted after a home valuation.
Instead of saying:
“Write a follow-up email,”
Try this instead:
“Write a casual but confident follow-up email to a homeowner in Phoenix who requested a home value report 2 weeks ago but hasn’t responded. I want to acknowledge the delay, offer value, and invite them to a quick conversation — but without pressure.”
Boom. That’s a real prompt.
That’s clarity.
That’s strategy.
Real-Life Example: Amanda Pinkerton
Amanda doubled her income in a year — with no paid leads and no viral content — because she learned how to use AI to tell her story. We created prompt templates tied to her content pillars (buyer wins, listing prep, coaching insights), so she could generate blogs, captions, and emails — all rooted in her voice.
She wasn’t typing “write a post.”
She was saying,
“Here’s the win. Here’s the tone. Now help me scale it.”
3. Strong Prompts Create Repeatable Systems
Prompting isn’t a one-time skill — it’s the foundation of your AI system.
Once you write a great prompt, you can:
- Save it for reuse
- Tweak it for other scenarios
- Hand it off to a VA
- Build it into SOPs
- Layer it into your CRM
- Schedule it in your content calendar
This is what we’ve done with agents like Jenny Hensley, who built a 12-month pop-by and content system. We used AI to write captions, emails, and social posts — but the power came from repeatable prompts like:
“Write a playful IG caption to announce a Valentine’s Day pop-by with candy heart bags. Target: homeowners in Raleigh. Goal: build visibility and repeat referrals.”
Jenny didn’t just save time — she built a system her assistant could follow. And the result? A 79X return on her pop-by investment.
4. Prompting Helps You Find Clarity in Your Own Business
One of the most overlooked benefits of learning to prompt?
It forces you to clarify what you’re really trying to say.
If you’ve ever sat down to write content and thought,
*“What do I even post today?”
You’re not alone.
But when you start writing prompts like:
- “Write a story-style IG caption about a buyer who waived contingencies and got the house.”
- “Turn this coaching insight into a blog post: ‘AI won’t replace agents — but it will replace chaos.’”
- “Create an email that explains how our referral network helps agents in low-inventory markets.”
You’re not just generating content.
You’re clarifying your brand.
Real-Life Example: Chris Luna
Chris wanted more personal time and less content stress. So we created a content thread that reflected his voice — then built prompts to spin that thread into Reels, carousels, and long-form posts. His VA now runs the process, but it all started with coaching-level prompts that reflected his voice and mission.
5. How to Start Prompting Like a Pro
Here’s a quick 5-step framework I give clients when they’re building AI prompts:
| Step | What to Include | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who’s the audience? | Homeowner thinking about selling in 6 months |
| 2 | What’s the goal? | Build trust, move them toward a consult |
| 3 | What’s the tone or brand voice? | Calm, expert, non-pushy |
| 4 | What format do you need? | Short email, 3-paragraph blog, carousel caption, etc. |
| 5 | What’s the real message or CTA (if any)? | “Let’s talk through timing — no pressure” |
Try This Prompt:
“Write a 3-paragraph blog post for a Raleigh homeowner who’s unsure if it’s worth listing this fall. Tone: confident but educational. Goal: help them feel informed, not sold.”
Final Thought
If you want AI to actually help you grow your real estate business — not just save you time — you need to learn to prompt like a coach.
Because prompting isn’t just a tech skill.
It’s a business clarity skill.
It’s content strategy.
It’s marketing voice.
It’s systems thinking.
It’s delegation readiness.
It’s the core skill that makes AI worth using.
You don’t have to be a tech wizard.
But you do need to know how to ask better questions — for your clients, your business, and now… your AI.
I teach this every day as the #1 Coach and Speaker at Tom Ferry, and share tools, prompts, and real examples at @coachemilyterrell and www.coachemilyterrell.com.
Because the agents winning in 2025?
They’re not just faster.
They’re clearer — and they’ve taught their AI to think like they do.