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Ella Christman
Hello and welcome to ASCP Estee Talk. I'm Ella Christman, licensed esthetician, forever student of the skin and content contributor for Associated Skincare Professionals.
Maggie Stasik
I'm Maggie Stasik, licensed esthetician and ASCP's program director.
Ella Christman
Hey Maggie. Oh my God, it's been forever. It's been a whole week. Oh my gosh. Do you know what command prompting is?
Maggie Stasik
I think I have a good sense, but tell me.
Ella Christman
Command prompting is the art of commanding or putting prompts into AI to get a result back. Okay, so let's be honest here. When you talk to AI.
Maggie Stasik
Yeah.
Ella Christman
Do you just type generally? Do you think about what you want to do? Do you type back and have a conversation?
Maggie Stasik
Yeah, we're having a conversation and I am telling AI who it is.
Ella Christman
Oh, good for you. Okay, good, good. I think a lot of people are intimidated by AI and just say for example, like where should I go for dinner?
Maggie Stasik
Yeah.
Ella Christman
Okay. So command prompting is the process of giving AI clear, specific instructions that define the role, the context, the goal is, and the outcome you want so that when it talks back to you, the response is accurate, usable and aligned with the intention that you're asking of it. So instead of saying where should I go to dinner? Saying chat where should I go to dinner? I've got five people with me, two of them have gluten allergies, three of them are budget conscious and we all like margaritas. Yeah, it's going to instead come back with very specific information. Yeah and okay, and one of us doesn't like tomatoes or whatever. So it's not asking a question. It's really directing an outcome. What you're telling AI is who it is, what it's doing, who it's for, and what success looks like. What success from the prompt, what you're asking for them to give you back would look like. So it's really no different than how we should be thinking in a consultation. Right?
Maggie Stasik
Yeah.
Ella Christman
Because if you're vague, then the results will be vague. And I see this a lot, Whether it's on LinkedIn or Facebook, I can tell that they just put in, I need a tagline for social media. And I, I can tell it because there's a specific cadence and there's the specific emojis. Usually it's the Starbright one or the green checks or something like that, and em dashes. I'm like, oh, they just put it in once and they were one and done. But you're missing an opportunity. Why these type of prompts, like these single prompts don't work is not AI's fault. It's really the lack of specificity. So lack of being really intent with what you're doing. Most people prompt like they search. So AI is not Google. They're. Let's just establish that. But they're searching or talking to AI as if it is. They're putting short things in there. It's very broad. There's no context. Have you ever done that?
Maggie Stasik
Yeah. So for instance, when you said I need a short tagline for social media, I have done that. I need to respond to this person, da, da, da, da, da. But generally speaking, I am saying, AI, you are a fill in the blank.
Ella Christman
Oh, she's a pro.
Maggie Stasik
And I want you to respond in this way, whatever it may be, warm, friendly, professional, blah, blah, blah. And I will say you do get different responses depending on how you are prompting chat.
Ella Christman
Oh, absolutely. And it gets you. It gets to know you. Do you ever get the prompt like, oh, oh, Maggie, that's so you. Or this is right on Maggie, this perfectly aligns with you. Like the question that you and oh, yeah.
Maggie Stasik
And then I say, don't placate me.
Ella Christman
You do. Oh, I do you yell at your chat?
Narrator/Advertiser
Yeah.
Ella Christman
Do you use chat mostly or other ones?
Maggie Stasik
I use chat mostly.
Ella Christman
Okay. Mine depend on what I'm after. But yeah, chat a lot. When I'm like, help me organize the thought. I use it like a diary. So it does know me pretty well. I'm like, I'm trying to Organize my thoughts. I'm. I want to think about it this way, but I'm feeling this way. And it's like, that's okay. I totally understand. I can see where you're coming from. I'm like, yeah, good. Yeah.
Maggie Stasik
I asked Chat to audit my closet, but I was like, I'm not sending you any images. Let's review what I have and what should I toss?
Ella Christman
What was the outcome? It was.
Maggie Stasik
It was pretty generic, but also gave me some good feedback.
Ella Christman
Nice. What'd you get rid of?
Maggie Stasik
Nothing.
Ella Christman
So suggestive, but not effective. Okay, nice. I love that. What you need to understand is what this does. AI it fills in the gaps when you don't. And it can fill them in wrong. I've had that happen too, where I'm like, whoa, wow, we're way off base here. So look at. Let's think about ways where really easy integration for estheticians is going to be social media. You should be using it to, um, kind of develop your. I shouldn't say you should be using it, but this is one really good place because it's confusing to know what to write or how often or something like that. So it's a great, great tool for that. So write me a caption versus build me a campaign. For this month, I'm going to be posting four times a week with a reel. And this. And this is the message around the theme of the month, which is June sun exposure or men's skincare month. And I really want to capture this audience and I want to direct it this way, these keywords. And so if you're doing something that specific, it's going to be getting the result you want. So if we had to give it an analogy in aesthetics, just doing lazy captions would be like just going straight to the treatment room and performing a protocol or a service and not having skin analysis, ignoring their history, guessing the goal of what they want. Like, you have to follow those things and be really informed before you start the service. Right?
Maggie Stasik
Yeah. Yeah.
Ella Christman
So most prompts fail because they lack that same level of detail that you would require in real practice. You're not giving the same intention and getting the similar outcome.
Maggie Stasik
That makes sense.
Ella Christman
Let's talk about a bad prompt. A bad prompt would be write me an Instagram caption for my skincare business. You're not talking about your audience. You're not talking about your service focus. You don't have a tone. You have no goal, no differentiation. So chat might pop out, oh, Brazilian waxing is amazing. And lash. Tense and lash Lifts are so good. That would be a nightmare for me and a waste of time and a waste of water resources in some server in some place. Right? Yeah, it's generic. It's going to come back with overused language, like super spectacular. You're not going to have authority and you're going to sound like everyone else. Can you agree? Like, are you seeing that on LinkedIn? Like everybody's sounding the same.
Maggie Stasik
Yeah, I do see that. I do know what you're talking about with the emojis as well. If something is generically posted, you can immediately catch it and call it out
Ella Christman
and I don't read it. Do you read it?
Maggie Stasik
Well, we know I'm not on social media, but, well, LinkedIn. So I said that I. I am not reading it.
Ella Christman
You're not exactly. You're not reading it. And so if we know this and we're like obviously a little bit more excited about these posts, the public are seeing it and they're seeing it outside of the skincare. They're seeing it in every other like aspect. I get emails from like supplement companies. I'm like, AI delete, AI slop delete. Because I'm like, I'm not interested. Because for whatever reason could be great content, but it just looks like they didn't try hard enough. Hold that thought. We'll be right back.
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Ella Christman
Okay, here we go. Let's get back to the podcast. So it's the business version of recommending a good product without an analysis and knowing why that you didn't give it enough direction to succeed. So nobody's gonna buy that product because they don't. For what. How is. How are you tying it back to me? Right.
Maggie Stasik
Yeah. Yeah.
Ella Christman
Anything else?
Maggie Stasik
No, you said it all. You said it all. I think what's really unfortunate though is that if something is worded nicely, it's worded with intention. Maybe it is. It is positive or whatever. The thing that somebody automatically assumes that's AI and I'm discrediting you. And I think that's really unfortunate because it's not necessarily the case.
Ella Christman
Instead of saying, write me an Instagram caption for my skincare, say act as a marketing strategist for a licensed esthetician. Write an Instagram caption for a corrective skincare business targeting clients struggling with acne and post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. The goal is to position the provider as results driven and encourage consultation bookings. Keep the tone professional but approachable. So what happened there?
Maggie Stasik
You gave it all the details.
Ella Christman
I put it in there. I was clear what their role was. I defined the audience. We created a specific condition focus. There was a business goal and we gave tone guidance. But what's missing there is my voice, my philosophy, my emotional connection and that differentiation. So this is better, but it still sounds like a good esthetician, not a distinct one. Better. Right. So let's talk about a Maggie prompt. This is a high level prompt. Building on the previous two examples, let's say act as a marketing strategist for a corrective esthetician with 20 plus years of experience. Write a conversation focused Instagram caption for clients who feel frustrated with inconsistent skin results and are tired of guessing. Emphasize clinical reasoning. That's what I love. It's my favorite thing. Barrier repair and long term skin function over trends include a strong hook, a short educational insight and a call to action to book a consultation. Avoid fluff, overuse skincare phrases and trend based language. If I could add anything on, it would be challenge the idea that trending products equal results. Ooh, does that differentiate me? Yes. Love that I was able to break it down that I'm an authority because I have over 20 years of experience. I added an emotional driver which is frustration and confusion with what's out there. I emphasized my philosophy, which is function over trends and I created a content structure that has hook, educate, and then a call to action. My voice was clear with no fluff, and so it sounded like me. It was clearly positioned, and it actually converts clients that way. Now, AI isn't guessing. We're removing the guesswork from it. What do you think?
Maggie Stasik
I think it's brilliant. I think it sounds like Ella.
Ella Christman
It does. It came out. I, you know, came out good. I'll tell you about it later. But the real skill is the refinement. It's not a matter of what shot out after that, but that we were able to refine this. The first prompt is just the starting point. Then we moved into short promptings. So what you can do is you could start out with that first prompt of like, I need a thing for my skincare business, and then start prompting it more, make it shorter, adjust for new clients, turn this into an email, add more clinical authority. So this is what I've learned along the way. I didn't know that I was doing it until about a year and a half ago. I was talking to a computer person and I was like, this is what I'm saying. Oh, you're command prompting. And I felt so cool, like, I'm prompting. That's awesome. And then hearing. We both got to see Dr. Sri Tennessee talk a couple months ago on AI and how she uses it in the educational setting. And it was like, oh, wow, that's very cool. And her guidance was to be specific. So I'm so happy to pass this on here. It's something to think about. It's not just about content creation. It's about learning how to think clearly and communicate precisely with your audience. And it starts with the tools that you're using. So looking at posts won't improve your skill set. This will. For example, if you can't be specific, you're still guessing. And AI makes it obvious, as we said.
Maggie Stasik
I think that a lot of people get hung up on if I am using AI in some way, that's cheating. And with these prompts that you have guided us through it, first of all, it's not. Second of all, I would say in prompting AI to be specific, to use your tone of voice, and then it's not the first output that you get. You're continuing to refine by further prompting to ultimately get the result you're looking for. It is your messaging, it is your voice. It is exactly the outcome you want. You're just getting assistance from AI.
Ella Christman
You know what we. Yeah, you know what we should do? Let's do a. Because what you're saying is a hundred percent valid. It's not cheating. It's, it is absolutely not cheating if you're using more descriptive things. Because the technology is understanding you and it wants to make you, it wants to relay your voice and your things. So the more time you spend with it too, the more time it's going to get to know you and anticipate what you want to say and sometimes bring things forward that might not, that you might not have thought of. And so the long story short, or the, the, the advice, the takeaway is not to stop at that first prompt. The takeaway is to refine it and talk to it so it learns your language, your intention, and what you want to convey. That's what I would say. But you want to try a little fun thing? Yeah. Okay. Open up your Internet browser, find your preferred AI, and let's type that very first prompt that we talked about in the beginning. The prompt is write me an Instagram caption for my skincare business. So write me an Instagram post for my skincare business. And here's what we're going to say is like, Maggie's knows her, knows her voice, and it's going to have a completely different version than I am. So what does yours say?
Maggie Stasik
Your skin is always communicating. You just have to know how to listen. Breakouts, dryness, sensitivity, texture changes. None of it is random. It's your skin responding to what's happening internally. And ext. Jesus, this is long. That's why every treatment and recommendation here is fully customized. No guesswork, no one size fits all routines. Just intentional skincare designed around your skin's current needs and long term health. This goes on forever.
Ella Christman
This is gross. Here's mine. Your skin isn't acting up. It's responding. Does that sound just like yours? Redness, breakout, sensitivity, pigmentation. These aren't random. They're communication. Does that not sound like yours?
Maggie Stasik
Yeah.
Ella Christman
Most treatments try to quiet the symptoms, but if you don't understand the why the skin is responding, you're guessing. Does that not sound like yours? Yeah, I mean, we can go on and on and on. Uh, but it's, it's still our voice, right? They're slightly different, but it's, it's pretty much the exact same thing. So let me take this other prompt that I put in, the high level prompt, the Maggie prompt, and I'm gonna put it in and see what that comes up with. We'll just read the very first sentence. But so I put in that high level prompt, which was act as a Mardi marketing strategist for a corrective esthetician. The one that was about me. So here's the caption, here's the difference. If your skin only looks better, sometimes you don't have a skin problem. You have a strategy problem. Inconsistent results aren't random. They're what happens when treatments change faster than the skin can function. Way better. Yeah, way different. Oh, by the way, in my first one, there was that star emote. There was emojis in there. This one has no emoji. So it's, it's a lot different, um, cadence. It's more comprehensive. I could go on with what this says, but is a huge difference between that very first caption between yours and mine. There was not a lot of difference. It was very similar. And then when we put this in, this is really more about me and my business, so. And I could refine it from there too. So very interesting, Very interesting. So thanks for playing along with us, guys. The moral of this story is don't just stop with the first prompt. You are in control. You are in command and start command. Prompting. Now, listeners, we really want to hear from you. How are you using AI? Are you lazy prompting or high level leading like Maggie? Reach out via Instagram, Facebook or send us an email@getconnectedcpskincare.com we want to know all the details. In the meantime, thank you for listening to ASCP STTalk. For more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Maggie or myself, or to learn more about ascp, check out the show notes and stay tuned for the next episode of ASCP STTalk. Sam.
Date: June 24, 2026
Hosts: Ella Christman & Maggie Stasik
This episode unpacks "command prompting" for AI—how estheticians (and anyone) can get better, more personalized responses from AI assistants. The discussion explores how to move beyond generic prompts, infuse your own voice and business goals, and use AI intentionally for content creation. Hosts Ella and Maggie share practical insights, real-life AI prompting examples, and parallels between a quality client consultation and effective AI interaction.
Definition: Giving AI clear, specific instructions, including role, context, goal, and desired outcome (02:01).
Analogy: Similar to a skincare consultation; specificity leads to better results (03:38).
Pitfall of Generic Prompts: One-line requests like “Write me a tagline for social media” yield bland, standard answers (03:38–04:37).
Critical Elements for Best Results:
Ella (on generic AI output):
"You're not talking about your audience. You're not talking about your service focus. You don't have a tone. You have no goal, no differentiation. So chat might pop out, 'Oh, Brazilian waxing is amazing.' ...That would be a nightmare for me..." (08:00)
Best use case: Social media content planning and caption creation (06:12).
Prompts Examples:
Ultimate Prompt ("Maggie prompt"):
Detail-rich, emotion-driven, focused on results, clear about voice and expertise. Includes structure (hook, educate, CTA) and intentionally avoids clichés (13:05–14:17).
Don’t settle for the first response:
Continuous refinement leads to content uniquely tailored to your brand (14:24–16:30).
Maggie:
"It's not the first output that you get. You're continuing to refine by further prompting to ultimately get the result you're looking for." (15:51)
AI learns your style: The more you interact, the better it anticipates your needs (16:30–17:50).
Experiment: Both hosts try identical simple prompts, get nearly identical, bland responses (17:50–18:32).
Maggie reads aloud:
"Your skin is always communicating. You just have to know how to listen. Breakouts, dryness, sensitivity, texture changes. None of it is random..." (17:51)
Ella’s version: Nearly identical with only slight wording changes.
High-level prompt result: When given a detail-rich prompt:
"If your skin only looks better, sometimes you don't have a skin problem. You have a strategy problem…" — clearly more personal and brand-specific, no generic emojis (18:34–19:00).
On using AI thoughtfully
"AI...fills in the gaps when you don't. And it can fill them in wrong." (06:17)
On the challenge of “AI Slop” in social feeds
"I get emails from supplement companies. I'm like, AI delete. AI slop delete… it just looks like they didn't try hard enough." (09:01)
On bringing humanity and differentiation
"My voice was clear with no fluff, and so it sounded like me. It was clearly positioned, and it actually converts clients that way." (14:17)
"I think it's brilliant. I think it sounds like Ella." (14:24)
On “cheating” with AI in the creative process
"If I am using AI in some way, that's cheating. And with these prompts...it's not. It is your messaging, it is your voice... you're just getting assistance from AI." (15:51)
Advice for listeners
"The moral of this story is don't just stop with the first prompt. You are in control. You are in command and start command prompting." (19:24)
| Time | Segment Description | |----------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 01:35 | Episode intro & what is command prompting? | | 03:38 | Comparison to client consultation: be specific | | 04:37 | Most people prompt like they search; why that’s a problem | | 06:12 | AI for social media: lazy vs. strategic content requests | | 08:00 | Why generic prompts fail & how they sound | | 12:02 | Upgraded/expert-level prompting explained | | 13:05 | The “Maggie prompt” example—layering details and voice | | 14:24 | The importance of refinement and real examples | | 15:51 | It’s not cheating—refining AI output is still your voice | | 17:50 | Live side-by-side AI prompt demonstration | | 18:34 | High-level prompt results vs. generic AI output | | 19:24 | Final lesson: don’t stop at the first prompt |
Listener Call to Action:
How are you using AI—are you “lazy prompting” or “high-level leading”? Share your stories with the ASCP team via Instagram, Facebook, or email at getconnectedcpskincare.com.