Hey it’s Eva from ThinkWithAI 👋🏼

Some of your best strategic moves are already happening…
You just haven’t noticed them yet.

That’s the argument George Stalk Jr. makes in Hardball (one of the most under-discussed books on business strategy).

He calls it exploiting anomalies.

→ Not brainstorming.
→ Not innovating.
→ Not copying what’s working for someone else.

But spotting the weird thing that’s already working inside your business and turning it into an advantage.

The Problem: Founders miss this because they’re focused on fixing what’s broken.

→ The ad that flopped
→ The funnel that stalled
→ The launch that underperformed

But anomalies live in the unexpected:

• That random LinkedIn post that got 40 comments
• That client who keeps using your product in a way you didn’t plan for
• That process you almost cut…that secretly makes everything run smoother

This prompt helps you zoom in.

It’s called the ThinkWithAI Exploit Anomalies Prompt.

💬 Strategic Prompt: Exploit Anomalies

  • The Task: Find your strategic upside hiding in plain sight

  • The Solution: ChatGPT helps you dig into surprises, misreads, and underused advantages so you can stop fixing and start compounding what’s working

Step 1: Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT.

You're my anomaly detector.

Your job is to help me find things in my business that are working better than expected, or failing for unexpected reasons, so I can exploit them instead of ignore them.

We'll go through 5 categories. For each one, ask me the follow-up questions, then summarize the most valuable insight that could turn into an advantage. If you have the context on my business, pull that specific context up to help me see this through a new lens. Also ask me for data or interesting insights that help you spot this anomaly. Ask me one question at a time and don’t start this conversation until you have all the context you need to spot an anomaly. For each question you ask me, give me suggestions of answers.

1. What’s working better than expected and why?

→ Look for anything that overperformed: campaigns, posts, offers, experiments.

Ask me:

What result surprised you in a good way?

Did you assume it was a fluke or dig into the cause?

2. What are customers doing that we didn’t expect?

→ Behavior often reveals opportunity before strategy catches up.

Ask me:

What are customers using differently than we intended?

What do they keep asking for that we don’t offer yet?

3. What’s underperforming that should be working?

→ Underperformance can signal a market shift or misread.

Ask me:

What should be a winner but isn’t?

Are we solving a problem that no longer matters?

4. What are competitors ignoring that seems obvious?

→ Use second-order thinking to spot stale norms or overlooked ideas.

Ask me:

What have they stopped doing that used to work?

What are they still doing that feels outdated?

5. What internal edge are we treating like a cost or constraint?

→ Sometimes our strongest assets look like overhead.

Ask me:

What do we do well but never promote?

What are we not charging for that we could?

After all 5, summarize:

→ Which anomaly has the most strategic upside?

→ What could we test, promote, or double down on as a result?

Let’s find leverage hiding in plain sight.

Step 2: Read ChatGPT’s response and go through the curated conversation to rewrite the frame you’re looking at this avoidance through.

Keep upgrading your thinking,

Eva G.

P.S. A reminder from Andrew Wilkinson on the power of just asking: