081 | Stop Asking AI to be your business therapist

Stop asking AI to fix your decision paralysis.

It’s not here to validate your feelings, tell you you’re special, or magically solve your problems.

Here’s the trap I see founders fall into every day: dumping their overwhelm into ChatGPT like it’s a digital therapist. But AI isn’t your therapist — it’s your most patient strategic partner.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to stop seeking validation and start demanding solutions. I’ll show you how to use AI to structure priorities, evaluate options, and cut through emotional noise — so you trade paralysis for momentum.

You’ll discover:

• Why using AI as “therapy” keeps you stuck and slows your growth
• The hidden costs of pouring your overwhelm into chat instead of asking for strategy
• How to flip your prompts from feelings to frameworks — and get clarity fast
• Three ways to use AI as a strategic partner so you move forward instead of spinning in indecision
  
  

This episode at a glance:

[00:00] – Why AI is not your business therapist
[01:15] – How to ask for frameworks instead of feelings
[02:45] – The real cost of seeking validation instead of solutions
[05:00] – What to ask instead: strategic prompts that get real answers
[07:30] – Three steps to transform your AI relationship this week
[08:45] – Your business needs strategic decisions, not just validated feelings

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• AI for Founders Playbook – Tools and prompts to help you make clear decisions, not emotional dumps
• Join the AI for Founders Community
• Free Culture Audit Call

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Transcript

She's That Founder
081 | Stop Asking AI to be your business therapist

I need to say something that's gonna make some of you uncomfortable. 

Stop asking AI to fix your decision paralysis. It's not going to validate your feelings, tell you you're special or magically solve your business problems.

Welcome to She's That Founder Thursday edition.

These are the quick rants. Kick in the pants, velvet boot moments. That represent me standing in the future, pulling you towards the even stronger, better, more powerful version of yourself.

Let's get into it.

I'm watching brilliant founders dump their entire life story into chat, GPT, expecting it to become their emotional support chatbot.

Things like, I'm overwhelmed and I don't know what to focus on, and my team is struggling. I'm behind on everything and what should I do?

So. That's not a question, that's therapy.

And AI isn't your therapist, it's your strategic thinking partner, and there's a massive difference. 

And I know in previous episodes I've shared literally dumping that same kind of sentence into AI and having it give me some help. But this episode I'm giving you some distinctions of why it eventually was really useful.

So this is my real example from my retreat. I am having that founder panic. We all know three days left, four priorities, brain spinning, and I could feel the anxiety building that I'm behind.

But here's what I didn't do. I didn't open chat GPT and say, I'm feeling overwhelmed and anxious and I don't know what to do and I'm scared I'm failing, and can you help me feel better about this?

Here's what I did do.

I said it's Wednesday. I have three days left. Four competing priorities. Each one impacts my business. I need a framework or triage based on energy and ROI.

The difference one is seeking emotional validation from a robot. The other is seeking strategic solutions from a skilled thought partner.

And AI gave me exactly what I asked for.

A priority map that considered both business impact and my human energy patterns. Money moves when I'm sharp, assets, when I have strategic assets, when I have deep focus, creative work, when I'm energized and clean up, when I'm winding down, and I followed that framework and got more done in one day than I typically accomplish in a month.

But here's what I see happening everywhere.

Founders using AI as a digital shoulder to cry on instead of a strategic thinking tool. And there are studies already out that  when using Chad GPT for therapy in this way, it can cause psychosis in some people. 

I have a client who asked g Chad, why is my business not growing?

Which I understand the impetus for the question, but instead of that, why not? What are three specific growth levers I should test based on my current revenue and market position?

Two different questions. Right?

And then another founder who prompted, I don't know what content to create.

But instead, I'd shift the prompt to, given my ideal client's top three challenges, what content frameworks would address their most urgent needs.

So I'm giving away the secret sauce right here, you guys, with what I'm telling you, because this is the stuff that skilled business strategy coaches are teaching behind the scenes.

Because vague input gives you vague output and strategic input gives you strategic solutions. 

So why do we do this? Why are smart, capable leaders turning to AI for emotional support instead of as their strategic advisor?

 It's because we've confused seeking solutions with seeking validation.

Here's what's happening. You already probably know what you should do. Deep down, you know, your priorities or maybe you have them posted on a post-it right in front of your computer. You know what's working, you know what's not working.

You know which clients to focus on. You know which clients, which projects to prioritize and you know which systems to build. But knowing and doing are different things. And the gap between what you know and what you're doing can feel really overwhelming. 

You look for someone or something to make you feel better about that gap, and that's where the AI as therapist comes in, you dump your confusion, your anxiety, your decision paralysis into chat GPT, hoping it will magically organize your thoughts and tell you that you're doing fine.

That's different than doing a brain dump of your potential content ideas and having it sort that into a cogent blog post.

But  here's what happens when you dump your emotional shenanigans into ai.

AI reflects your confusion back to you in slightly different words. It gives you generic advice that applies to everyone and helps no one, it makes you feel heard without actually moving you forward.

Meanwhile, the founders who use AI strategically are getting frameworks, systems, and actionable steps. They're treating AI like the world's most patient, strategic consultant, not like a digital therapist.

And here's what your business therapy seeking approach is actually costing you time.

You could spend 20 minutes explaining your feelings instead of two minutes asking for a solution.

It's costing you clarity because AI is mirroring your confusion instead of cutting through it with structure. It's costing you action because you get validation for staying stuck instead of tools for moving forward.

It's costing you growth because you reinforce the pattern of seeking comfort instead of seeking progress and results while you're processing your overwhelm. With ai, your competitors are using AI to solve problems faster, but here's the deeper cost. You're training yourself to avoid making decisions.

Every time you seek validation instead of solutions, you're strengthening the muscle of indecision. AI can organize your thoughts, but it cannot organize your life. It can provide frameworks, but it cannot provide courage. It can give you options, but it cannot make your choices. Those are still your job.

So here's a reframe that I hope will change everything. AI is not your emotional support system as a business owner, it's your strategic thinking amplifier.

The quality of your AI output depends on the quality of your AI input. Vague problems get vague solutions, specific challenges, get specific strategies.

Instead of asking AI to make you feel better about your confusion, ask it to help you structure your way out of confusion instead of seeking validation for your overwhelm. Set frameworks for your priorities, and instead of explaining why you're stuck, describe what you want to build and ask for the next logical step towards your future.

When I was stuck on my AI for Founders' playbook, I didn't ask AI to validate my feelings about being behind or being stuck. I said, I have three module options, limited time, and I need to choose based on impact and effort. Help me evaluate which one to focus on.

When I was spinning on competing priorities, I didn't ask AI to make me feel better about having too much to do. I asked for a strategic triage framework based on my energy and ROI, the result, clear direction instead of comfortable confusion, action steps instead of emotional processing and progress instead of paralysis.

Your relationship with AI should mirror your relationship with the best strategic advisor you've ever worked with, someone who cuts through your story to get to the solution.

So here's how to transform your AI interactions this week. If you feel like it's given you a whole lot of love, but not a whole lot of solutions. First, before you even open chat, GPT, get clear on whether you want validation or solutions.

If you want validation, call a friend. If you want solutions, use ai. Second, rewrite your prompts instead of, I don't know what to do about x try. Given situation X, what are three strategic options for moving forward? Then review those options and gut check them with your best information and insight and your intelligence.

Third, give AI context, not confusion. Share the facts of your situation, your constraints, your goals. Skip the emotional story unless it's strategically relevant. And then finally ask for frameworks, not feelings. What decision making framework would help me choose between these options? Not, how do I feel better about this choice?

If this is hitting different and you're realizing that maybe you've been using AI as your digital therapist instead of your strategic partner, I wanna hear about it. Nothing wrong, we're adjusting, right? So send me a DM on Instagram at free range thinking, or a message on LinkedIn at free range thinking.

Share the prompt that you're gonna try this week. The strategic question instead of the emotional dump,

I read every message. I'm genuinely curious about what shifts when you start asking AI for solutions instead of sympathy

And listen, I get it. Building a business is emotional. Leadership is vulnerable.

Decision making can definitely feel isolating and overwhelming.

Your feelings about all of this, they are valid. They are human, and they absolutely matter, and your business needs more than validated feelings. It needs strategic decisions, clear priorities, and forward momentum.

You are too smart to stay stuck in confusion when clarity is absolutely available and you're too capable to keep seeking comfort when you could be seeking solutions.

I'm standing in the place of what's possible, and from here I can see the leader you become when you stop processing your overwhelm and start organizing your way through it. You don't need AI to tell you you're doing fine. You need AI to help you do better, and you don't need validation for your confusion.

You need frameworks that build clarity. The business that you're building deserves that strategic thinking, not all the emotional processing. I get it, you still need to do it, but don't do it with ai. Find your people. That's what they're there for, and they're ready for you. Your clients need your solutions and not your struggles.

So please stop asking AI to be your therapist and start using it as your strategic thinking partner, because the goal isn't to feel better about being stuck. It's to get unstuck and move forward. Is waiting on the other side of better questions. Take care, Lovies. See you next time.