Being prepared is one of those things that sounds straightforward until you actually look at a leader's calendar. Back-to-back meetings, a constant stream of reports from different teams, and negotiations that require you to know the full history of a relationship before you've even said hello.

The pressure to be across everything is massive. The time to actually get there rarely is.

In this episode, I sit down with Joseph Lyons, President of ELMO Software, to talk about how he uses AI in genuinely practical, day-to-day ways. From personalised daily briefs for his exec team to turning a six-hour strategy workshop into clear, actionable outputs, Joe shares how AI is reshaping the way he prepares, thinks, and leads.

We also get into how he uses AI to prepare for tough conversations, role play negotiations, and synthesise complex information across teams into something actually useful. If you’re curious about how AI can go beyond simple productivity hacks and genuinely improve the quality of your thinking, this episode is full of practical ideas you can apply straight away.

Joe and I discuss:

• The ELT productivity agent Joe's team built, and how it delivers a personalised daily brief to each exec member every morning via Slack
• Why Zoom's AI summary wasn't enough for a six-hour strategy workshop, and what Joe used instead
• How he prepares for negotiations by feeding customer history, contract details, and commercial positions into AI to map out the game theory before the conversation begins
• Using Claude Voice in the car to think through difficult performance conversations and build a talk track before arriving at the office
• Why giving AI as much context as possible upfront is the key to getting useful output
• How Joe is using AI to synthesise reports from five or six different functions into a single, coherent weekly view with clear recommendations

Key quotes

"It's increasingly becoming my assistant in pretty much everything that I'm doing."

"We were really conscious while we were in the meeting, like no one needing to take notes. We would actively talk to the AI and make sure we were clear on capturing actions."

Connect with Joe Lyons on LinkedIn and check out ELMO Software at elmosoftware.com.au.

Today's podcast was brought to you by ELMO Software. And they have a gift for you.

If you work in HR, this free five-minute assessment is worth your time. ELMO Software's AI Maturity Assessment benchmarks you across two dimensions: whether you have the right foundations in place, and whether AI is actually delivering results. The assessment was built from research with 1,200+ HR leaders across Australia and New Zealand, so you're benchmarking against people navigating the same landscape as you. You'll get a personalised report with where you sit against ANZ peers, your biggest opportunities, and concrete next steps. Basically: it tells you whether your AI investment is paying off (or going nowhere).

Take it here.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Download Inventium.ai's anti-AI slop prompt here: https://amantha-imber.kit.com/d5f746bd3e

You can always tell when something's been written by AI. The LinkedIn post that opens with "in today's fast-paced world." The article that ends with "it's not about X, it's about Y." Technically fine, but somehow hollow. Like it was written by nobody in particular.

The frustrating part is that this can happen even when you're doing the real thinking. You write the ideas, hand it to AI for a cleanup, and it flattens your voice, packs it with em-dashes, and strips out everything that sounded like you.

In this How I AI episode, Neo and I get into the specific instructions you can give AI to keep your writing sounding human, and share some of the most overused AI words and phrases worth banning from your prompts entirely.

Neo and I cover:

• Why sounding like AI is a credibility problem, even when you've done the actual thinking and are only using AI to refine and edit your work.
• The single most important instruction to give AI when asking it to clean up your writing.
• Why em-dashes are so hard to eliminate from AI output, and the specific phrasing (including pasting in the actual dash character) that gives you the best chance of getting rid of them.
• Using a ninth-grade reading level as a brief to keep language plain, accessible, and free of jargon.
• Why it's fine to let AI start a sentence with "and" or "but" occasionally, and which stiff transition words (like "additionally" and "moreover") to ban outright.
• What "corrective antithesis" is, why AI overuses it, and how to cut it down with a simple instruction and example in your prompt.
• Amantha's process for building a mega anti-AI slop prompt.
• How to build your own personal banned-words list, so AI stops using words that don't sound like you.

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neoaplin/) and via inventium.ai (https://inventium.ai), where he leads Inventium's AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits: Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**Record a question for Amantha’s next Ask Me Anything here: https://www.speakpipe.com/howiwork **

It's Ask Me Anything time!

I asked listeners of How I Work to send in the biggest challenges they’re facing at work right now: from AI overwhelm to constant meetings to feeling busy but not actually making progress.

In this Ask Me Anything episode, I tackle questions like:

• Why AI is making some people busier, not more productive
• How to reclaim focus when your day is full of meetings
• The biggest productivity mistake I see smart people make
• What actually helps prevent burnout (hint: it’s not yoga at lunchtime)

Plus I share practical strategies you can start using immediately — including my LiPS prioritisation strategy, ways we reduce meetings at Inventium, and how to protect your energy at work.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, distracted, or stuck in “busy mode”, this episode is for you.

Amantha recommends:

These are a few of the tools we use at Inventium to reduce meetings, communicate more effectively, and get work done faster.

• Loom: http://loom.com/ Our go-to for async communication. Instead of jumping on a meeting, we’ll record a quick video to share updates, feedback, or walkthroughs.
• Tella: https://www.tella.tv/ A more polished version of Loom. I use this a lot for client-facing communication – especially when walking through proposals or ideas in a more engaging way.

If you’re looking to go beyond just “using AI” and actually start saving time with it, check out Inventium’s latest AI programs for 2026 - designed to help you use AI strategically and creatively in your work. https://www.inventium.ai/

Have a question you want me to answer in the next AMA episode? Reach out via email (amantha@inventium.com.au) or socials – I’d love to hear from you!

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe

Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:

Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.