🍳 AI Recipe: Turn Experts Into Mentors

Get personalized advice from top thinkers using new Discover Sources feature in NotebookLM

Imagine having a personal mentor like Oprah, Brené Brown, or Adam Grant—ready to answer your questions and offer tailored advice anytime you need it. With NotebookLM’s Discover Sources, you can simulate that experience in minutes. Just enter a topic or name, and it pulls together their most relevant ideas so you can learn from them as if they were coaching you one-on-one.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Difficulty Level: Easy

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Ingredients:

• A NotebookLM account with access to Discover Sources

• A topic or expert you're interested in (e.g., "Business advice from Jason Cohen")

• A challenge or question you'd like advice on (e.g., "How to build a sustainable solo business")

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Instructions:

1. Open NotebookLM: Log into your Google account and open NotebookLM. Click “Create”.

2. Find Your Sources: Click the Discover Sources button in the upper-right corner of the Add Sources modal.

3. Add Your Source: In the prompt field, enter a topic and the name of an expert you're interested in (e.g., "Business advice from Jason Cohen")

4. Review Curated Results: NotebookLM will search the web and present up to 10 curated sources, each with a summary explaining its relevance. You can click on each source to review it. Deselect any that you don’t wish to be included. Then, select Import.

This will create a customized view just for you to use as your coach.

5. Get Mentor Feedback: Pose your specific challenge or question and let NotebookLM respond based on your chosen expert’s thinking—as if they were giving you direct guidance (the numbers are the source links).

You can also create a podcast version if you prefer audio format:

6. Explore Deeper: Use features like Briefing Docs, FAQs, or Mind Maps to dive in further. These tools help you find patterns and get clearer guidance from the experts you admire.

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The content below is usually reserved for paid subscribers, but for a limited time, it's open to everyone. Enjoy the full experience and consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support this newsletter and gain exclusive perks!

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Serving Suggestions:

• Build a Mentor Library: Create multiple notebooks for different experts and use Discover Sources to revisit their thinking whenever you face a new challenge.

• Compare Perspectives: Explore contrasting viewpoints by running Discover Sources on two different thinkers with opposing philosophies, then use the summaries to see how each would advise you.

• Reflect on Your Own Content: If you've been featured on podcasts or have blog posts written about you, use Discover Sources to gather and analyze your public content. It will surface recurring themes, highlight your signature ideas, and give you a clearer view of how your thinking has evolved over time.

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Chef’s Insights: Pro Tips & Limitations

Pro Tips:

• Utilize the I'm Feeling Curious button to explore random topics and discover new areas of interest

• Upgrade to NotebookLM Plus to share your mentor notebooks with others

• Stack prompts to go deeper. After reading an initial insight, follow up with prompts like “Why would they think that?” or “What might they advise if I disagreed?” to mimic deeper dialogue.

Limitations to Keep in Mind:

• Feature Rollout in Progress: The Discover Sources feature is still rolling out, so availability may vary for the next couple of weeks.

• Dependent on Publicly Available Content: If someone hasn’t written or spoken much online, Discover Sources may return fewer or less relevant results.

• Not Always Fully Accurate: Discover Sources is AI-powered and can occasionally misrepresent or oversimplify nuanced ideas. Always cross-check original sources for critical insights.

• Surface-Level by Default: While summaries are helpful, they often require follow-up prompts and context-specific questioning to unlock deeper mentorship-style insights.

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User Reviews:

Have you tried using Discover Sources to turn experts into mentors? Share your experience and let us know who you chose as your mentor.