Power Prompt: The Two-Line Rule

About the Power Prompt Series

Each month, I’ll share a new “Power Prompt” designed to help travel advisors harness the power of AI — without the tech overwhelm.

These bite-sized guides turn AI into a friendly creative partner, showing you how to use simple, strategic prompts to grow your business, save time and spark inspiration.

Whether you’re crafting social media content, refining client communication or uncovering travel trends, each Power Prompt makes AI fun, approachable and human. Think of it as your monthly master key to working smarter — not harder — with the help of smart tech.

The Two-Line Rule Prompt

Open your inbox on your phone. See those little AI summaries under the subject lines? Your clients see them too — which means many of your clients now read an AI's summary of your email before they read your email.

Some of them never open the email at all.

Here's the uncomfortable question: if AI summarized your last newsletter, what would it say? Probably the facts — the dates, the price, the resort name. Stripped of your voice, your story and the reason you — of all advisors — sent it.

Summaries flatten everything into interchangeable facts. The advisor who sold the emotion loses to the advisor who happened to list the bigger discount.

But here's the twist: the summary isn't the enemy. It's the new subject line. And it only takes two lines.

This month's Power Prompt puts your email through the summary test — then rewrites your opening so it survives it.

The Prompt (Human-Optimized Version)

“You are an email strategist for a travel advisor. Most people don't realize this: AI email summaries (Gmail, Apple Mail) now compress a message to 1–3 lines before many clients ever open it. The summary decides whether the email gets opened at all.

Here is my email draft: [PASTE DRAFT HERE]

Do three things:

1. SUMMARY PREVIEW: Write the 2-line summary an AI would most likely generate from this draft. Be honest — write what the machine would actually extract, not what I wish it said.
2. THE TWO-LINE REWRITE: Rewrite my first two lines (subject line counts — suggest a stronger one if mine is weak) so that the AI summary of THOSE lines alone would make someone click. Rules: the offer or payoff must appear inside those two lines; keep my voice — [paste a sample of your writing here if you want the tone preserved; otherwise: direct, warm, no jargon]; no clickbait — the lines must deliver on what they promise later in the email.
3. SUMMARY VS. STORY CHECK: Tell me exactly what the summary will carry and what it will lose. Then recommend one line to add — placed right after the opening — that survives even if the summary only quotes two lines, and one thing to cut because it's invisible to anyone who doesn't open.

Keep the rest of the email intact; only adjust what's needed so the rewrite flows.”

Why This Power Prompt Works

✅ Starts from reality: The summary is no longer a side feature — for many readers, it is the email. This prompt designs for the reading experience your clients actually have.

✅ Makes the invisible visible: Most advisors have never read what AI says about their own emails. The Summary Preview step is often the wake-up call all by itself.

✅ Protects your voice: The rewrite brief demands your tone be preserved, because the moment the summary strips your voice is exactly the moment your voice matters most.

✅ Works on anything: Run it on newsletters, promo blasts, trip recaps, even follow-up emails. Any message with more than two lines has a summary problem.

Follow-Up Power Move

Once you see what summaries do to your writing, you'll want to apply it everywhere.

For supplier promos:

“Here's a supplier promo I need to email my clients. Find the three lines that contain the actual reason to book — not the fine print, the reason — and build me a two-line opening around them that an AI summary couldn't resist quoting.”

For subject lines:

“Give me five subject lines for this email, each under 8 words, each containing the payoff. Then tell me which one survives an AI summary best and why.”

One important trick: Test the prompt on an email you already sent. When you see what the summary would have said about it, you'll never write a slow opening again.

Takeaway Box

🧳 This Month's Power Lesson

Summaries don't kill emails — slow first two lines do.

Write every email as if only the first two lines get read. Increasingly, that's exactly what happens.

Then ask yourself the question that matters:

If AI had to sell my trip in two lines, did I give it anything worth selling?