How Jesse Cunningham Uses NotebookLM for AI Slides

0:00Google just upgraded Notebook LM with a new slide generation workflow powered by Gemini. In this video, I'm going to walk you through my exact workflow from start to finish, and more importantly, explain why each step matters so you're not just copying clicks, but actually using this tool at a professional level. Let's start from the beginning. Open your browser and go to notebooklm.google.com. Once you're inside, click Create New Notebook. The first thing I always do is name the notebook because once you start using this tool regularly, organization becomes critical. I'm going to call this one automation strategy brief. That name matters because notebook LM treats each notebook like a self-contained knowledge system, not just

0:39a chat session. On the left side of the screen, you'll see the prompt box where Gemini is embedded. This isn't just a chat input. This is the control center for how information gets pulled, structured, and interpreted. At the top of that prompt box, click the drop down and you'll see two options, fast research and deep research. Deep research is essentially Gemini doing hours of background work, pulling a large volume of sources, cross-checking information, and building a very dense knowledge base. That's incredibly powerful, but it takes longer. For this walkthrough, I'm selecting fast research, which is ideal when you want speed without sacrificing credibility. Now

1:15I'm going to enter a focus topic instead of something vague. I'll type automation workflows for local service companies and press enter. This specificity matters because Gemini doesn't just collect information, it clusters it. The clearer your topic, the better the structure of the sources it builds. At this point, notebook LM is scanning the web, pulling reputable material, and turning it into a private research library for this notebook. This replaces what would normally be dozens of tabs, bookmarks, and copy-paste chaos. Once the research completes, instantly, your notebook is populated with sources, summaries, and reference material.

1:53This is powerful because every slide, summary, or insight you generate from this point forward is grounded in real sources, not hallucinated text. If you see any sources highlighted in red, that just means they didn't load correctly. Click the three dots next to the source list, select delete all failed sources, and clean it up. This step ensures your downstream outputs are clean and reliable. Now we move to where the real leverage kicks in. On the right side of the screen, open the studio panel. This is where notebook LM turns knowledge into deliverables. You'll see options like audio overviews, video summaries, and slide decks. Each one exists for a different type

2:31of output, but right now we're focused on slides because slides are a universal business asset. Sales decks, client updates, internal training, investor briefs, they all start here. Find the slide deck card and click edit. This opens the configuration panel and this is where most people miss the power. The first setting is slide type. I'm choosing presenter slides. This matters because presenter slides are designed to support a human speaking. They prioritize clarity, visual hierarchy, and pacing instead of dumping text on the screen. If you've ever watched someone read directly from a slide, you know why this matters. Next, I'll leave the language as default and keep the length

3:09set to default. This allows Gemini to decide how many slides are needed based on the actual content instead of forcing an arbitrary number. Now we get to one of the most important parts, style instructions. This is not cosmetic. This is how you control the tone and usability of the deck. I'm going to type use a clean modern presentation style with neutral backgrounds, strong section headers, minimal text per slide, and simple visual diagrams where appropriate. Optimize for clarity in executive audiences. What this does is tell Gemini not just how the slides should look, but who they're for. That context influences layout, text density, and even visual choices. Now click

3:47generate. This step takes a minute or two and that wait time is important to understand. Gemini isn't just placing text on templates. It's interpreting the research, deciding what belongs on each slide, designing layouts, and generating visuals that match your instructions. This is the difference between automation and real assistance. Once it's done, click the generated slide deck card and expand it to full screen. What you're looking at now is a presentation that would normally take at least an hour to build manually, often longer. You can immediately present it by clicking the play button in the top right and navigating with your arrow keys. If you download it, it saves as

4:21a PDF. The key thing to understand is that this PDF is image based. It's meant for presenting and sharing, not pixel level editing. For most real world use cases, that's more than enough. Now let's talk about the more advanced workflow because this is where notebook LM really separates itself from other tools. Most of the time you're not starting from nothing. You already have content, reports, transcripts, strategy docs, research papers. So let's go back to the dashboard and click create notebook again. This time instead of entering a research prompt, upload a file. I'm going to upload a PDF called annual growth analysis. This is a long text heavy document.

4:58Normally turning this into slides would involve reading the whole thing, highlighting sections, extracting data and manually deciding what matters. That's exactly what we're about to skip. Before generating slides, I want to make sure Gemini understands the document properly. So I go to the chat interface and type identify the three most significant performance trends and the two biggest risk factors discussed in this report. This step is powerful because it forces the model to reason about the content before producing a deliverable. You're essentially calibrating it.

5:26Once the response comes back and it looks accurate, I know Gemini has the context. Now I go back to the slide deck panel and click edit. This time I select detailed deck. This is the option you use when slides need to stand alone like reports, briefings, or documentation. For style instructions I enter, use a professional corporate layout with white backgrounds, restrained accent colors, clear data visualizations, and structured bullet points for readability. Then I click generate. At this point Gemini is scanning the entire PDF, extracting key data, organizing it logically, and building a structured presentation around it. When the deck is ready and I open it,

6:01I can immediately see the difference. The slides are denser, more informational, and clearly designed to be read. This is ideal for stakeholders who won't be in the room with you. Now let's say the deck is good, but it's too long. This is where notebook LM really shines. Instead of deleting slides or starting over, close the preview and go back to the slide settings, keep detailed deck selected, but change the length from default to short. I'll also add one more instruction, prioritize only the most impactful financial metrics and decision critical insights, then click generate again. What happens now is not trimming. Gemini reevaluates the entire

6:36document with a new goal. It decides what can be removed, what must stay, and how to restructure the deck accordingly. When I open the new version, the result is a concise executive ready presentation that still preserves accuracy and structure. And that's the real power here. You're not generating slides, you're generating interpretations. You can reshape the same content for different audiences, time constraints, and goals without repeating work. Once you understand this workflow, notebook LM becomes less of a tool and more of a system. Now generating slides and notebook LM is just the beginning. If you want to learn how to leverage AI at scale to make your first $1,000 online,

7:13then join the Rank Expand Academy where hundreds are working together every day to reach their goals.