How I Choose Between Private and Public AI Tools for My Quilting Business Coaching Service (Recommendations)

AI tools are everywhere right now - and if you’re a quilt pattern designer, teacher, or service provider, you’ve probably wondered:

Where is my information going when I use these tools?

Is this safe for my ideas, my teaching frameworks, or my business assets?

That hesitation is healthy. I had the same concerns. This post is not about hype or fear, it’s about understanding how popular AI tools are designed to work, what their stated policies say, and how to use them intentionally - depending on what you’re working on.

We have all heard of ChatGPT and the Public Chatbots like Gemini for Google and Perplexity, what I want to share is the evaluation and comparison I did on Private AI workspaces also known as Private Chatbots like Google's NotebookLM (Free for any Google account), MindPal (Paid), and Public Chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

Then I get into which private Chatbots I used and recommend for what "job". My hope is to help educate and recommend a few secure AI workspaces you can use for your business.

Why I Moved My Custom GPTs Into Mindpal

I want to share one additional piece of context from my own business decisions, because it’s relevant if you’re building tools, teaching frameworks, or working with customer-facing AI resources. I built custom GPTs using my frameworks for Launching, Landing Pages, and SEO Evaluation for the Digital Marketing Magic Program (or DMMC) on OpenAI (aka ChatGPT).

After building several custom GPTs for my program and realizing that my members needed to pay an additonal membership for ChatGPT, I had a legal team review the published policies of the platforms involved - specifically the policies governing data usage, training, and access for tools hosted through OpenAI (which hosts ChatGPT), Perplexity, and Mindpal (MindPal was the platform I wanted to move them to, but was trying to figure out if it was more secure than CHatGPT and worth the cost).

This review was focused on:

• How user-provided data is handled

• Whether content may be used for model improvement or training

• The degree of isolation between user workspaces

• Suitability for client- and member-facing tools

Based on that policy review and recommendations from this legal team, Mindpal was identified as the most appropriate option for hosting customer-built AI tools in my business.

As a result, I chose to move my custom GPT-style tools from Open AI (better known as ChatGPT) into Mindpal.

This decision wasn’t driven by fear or speculation - it was about aligning the tool with the type of work I’m doing: paid programs, long-term intellectual property, and resources my customers interact with directly.

In practice, I’ve also found Mindpal to be user-friendly for both me and my clients in the Digital Marketing Magic Program (or DMMC), especially when it comes to using custom tools repeatedly without needing to re-explain context or rebuild prompts each time.

That combination - policy alignment plus usability - is what ultimately led me to make the switch.

Let's break this down clearly and then give you a practical “which tool should I use when?” framework you can actually follow.

The Big Picture: Not All AI Tools Are Built for the Same Job

One of the biggest misunderstandings I see is assuming all AI tools behave the same way.

They don’t.

Some tools are designed for research and synthesis.

Others are designed for secure, repeatable systems.

Understanding that distinction matters - especially if you create original content, teach, or sell intellectual property.

High-Level Comparison: Private Chatbots NotebookLM vs Mindpal

This table summarizes documented behavior and stated policies, not opinions.

Category	NotebookLM	Mindpal
Core purpose	Research and synthesis	Secure AI workspace
Content visibility	Private to your Google account	Private to your workspace
Training on your data	Stated no	No
Internet-connected model	Yes (Google-controlled)	No (sandboxed)
Best for	Thinking, summarizing, studying	IP protection, repeatable systems
Risk profile	Low	Very low
Control over prompts	Limited	High
Team or member use	Not designed for it	Designed for it

The Most Important Difference (This Is the Key)

This distinction explains why these tools feel so different in practice:

• NotebookLM is source-restricted

• Mindpal is environment-restricted

That difference matters more than feature lists.

How Secure Is NotebookLM, Really?

NotebookLM is designed as a closed, source-grounded AI notebook. It is not the same as:

• Public ChatGPT conversations

• Google Docs AI suggestions

• Browser-based AI tools

What NotebookLM Does Well

NotebookLM is excellent at:

• Keeping your notes out of public AI answers

• Preventing other users from accessing your content

• Reducing hallucinations by grounding responses in your documents

NotebookLM only answers questions based on:

• Files you upload

• Documents you explicitly connect

• Notes you write inside the notebook

It does not pull in outside data to “fill in gaps,” which significantly reduces accidental blending or misattribution also know as AI hallucination.

This is where the idea that it’s “impenetrable by chatbots” comes from.

In a practical sense:

• ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity cannot crawl or access your NotebookLM content.

• Your notes do not appear in AI answers elsewhere.

Where the Limits Are

NotebookLM still:

• Uses Google-hosted AI models

• Lives inside Google’s cloud ecosystem

• Is governed by Google’s security, compliance, and legal obligations

You do not control the model boundary.

A helpful way to think about it:

NotebookLM is like a private research room inside a very large public library.

Safe? Yes. Locked from strangers? Yes. Fully owned and controlled by you alone? Not entirely.

NotebookLM is best treated as a thinking partner, not a vault for sensitive or unpublished IP.

How Mindpal Handles Security Differently

Mindpal was designed specifically to address a question many creatives ask:

How do I use AI without my content becoming training data, prompts, or bleed-over?

According to its stated design:

Mindpal:

• Runs AI in a walled, sandboxed environment

• Does not train models on your content (unless you specifically go in and opt-in to that)

• Does not connect your workspace data to the public internet

• Allows you to create custom AI tools that only work on what you provide

• Separates your 'thinking' from public AI systems

This makes it especially useful for:

• IP-heavy work

• Teaching frameworks

• Custom GPT-style tools

• Client- or member-facing AI resources

• Reusable systems (like program materials or internal workflows)

A useful metaphor here is:

Mindpal is a private studio where you bring the tools inside - nothing leaks out.

How These Tools Compare to Public AI Systems

Here’s a practical comparison based on how data is handled, not performance.

Tool	Visibility Risk	Training Risk	Best Use Case
ChatGPT (public)	Medium	Medium–Low (opt-out dependent)	Ideation, drafting
Gemini (general)	Medium	Medium	Google ecosystem tasks
Perplexity	Medium–High	Higher (search-based)	Research summaries
NotebookLM	Low	Low	Private research and synthesis
Mindpal	Very low	Very low	Protected IP and systems

Which Tool Should You Use (and When)?

Here’s the non-marketing answer.

Use NotebookLM when you want to:

• Research trends

• Summarize planning sessions

• Study and synthesize information

• Think out loud with your notes

• Explore ideas safely but casually

Use Mindpal when you want to:

• Protect proprietary frameworks

• Build custom AI tools for your programs

• Store prompts you’ll reuse or teach

• Create member-facing AI resources

• Keep core business IP out of public AI systems

If you work with:

• Paid programs

• Teaching materials

• Long-term intellectual property

Mindpal is the safer home base.

NotebookLM is an excellent research sidekick.

They’re complementary.

A Simple Rule of Thumb You Can Use

This guideline holds up well in practice:

If it’s replaceable 'thinking' → NotebookLM

If it’s core IP → Mindpal

If losing it would annoy you, NotebookLM is fine.

If losing it would damage your business, use it in Mindpal.

Final Takeaway

NotebookLM is:

• More private than public chatbots

• Not accessible to random AI systems

• Designed to reduce content bleed

• Still a cloud-based tool, not zero-knowledge

Mindpal is:

• Purpose-built for IP protection

• Designed for custom tools and systems

• Stronger in containment and reuse

• A better fit for creator-led businesses

AI isn’t something to fear - but it is something to use intentionally.

There are more and more tools out there for you to use. The more informed you are on their Policies, the better you will know how they work and what to use them for.

If you need help with your digital marketing, check out the Digital Marketing Magic Coaching Program and we can start with a free 30-minute call.

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