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10 Weeks in a Row!
I’ve ‘taught AI’ for about 500 hours now, celebrating my 10th week publishing content.
This episode is a highlight reel of my very best AI takeaways so far.
Today’s lesson:
Get up to speed on how AI works, and how it affects your business
Act I: The Wave is Coming
The Big Prediction:
"1 year from today, you will 'converse with an AI' hundreds of times per week. You will feel capable. It will make you lazy."
"You don't need to understand how an engine works to realize you're suddenly going 120 mph"
Why This Isn't Just Hype:
"We're conditioned to treat everything like a news cycle: 'Oh yeah, that AI thing.' It's not just big. It's permanent."
"AI is becoming a background presence in how we communicate, work, learn, conduct commerce. And most of us are just starting to notice that."
The Competitive Reality:
"Yeah, it's kind of like the bear situation. You don't have to be the fastest… Just don't be the slowest." - MindStudio CEO Dmitry Shapiro
"If you're under 50 and don't work with your hands, you should actually spend 1 hour per day on this."
Act II: Learning to Surf
My Teaching Philosophy:
"I'm not here to send you sh***y life hacks, or sell you a course. I noticed a big wave (AI) and decided to jump in."
"I put the cookies on the lower shelf, where anyone can reach 'em. I teach advanced concepts in simple, bite-sized chunks that anyone can understand."
"As we pour our hearts out to AI, I'll help you onboard AI into your life while maintaining your own creativity and core values."
Foundation (Episodes 1.5-2.5)
What is AI actually doing? (Generative AI, prompts, LLMs)
Prompts: "the clearer you are, the better the meal"
Should we trust it? (Ground truth, safety measures)
The key insight: "AI doesn't know anything. It's just mimicking patterns to appear intelligent. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. It just means you should be the one steering."
Evolution (Episode 4.2)
The iPod analogy: From static (LLM) to dynamic (RAG)
The RAG breakthrough: Real-time information retrieval
Deep research as the game-changer
Human Strategy (Episode 3.5)
From "users" to "humans in the loop"
The Upgrade: "Human is a huge upgrade from User"
The Strategy: "We learn AI concepts, so we can get behind the wheel rather than run over."
The HITL framework: When and how to stay in control
Act III: Riding the Wave
Following the Money:
The skills premium: 64% wage increase (if you have AI skills)
"I followed the money, scraped the sauce, and uncovered the most investable use cases"
The Big Four:
1. Customer Support
2. Content Generation
3. Internal Assistants
4. Data / Business IntelligenceSystems Thinking: "AI agents are the surfboard that makes the wave rideable"
Act IV: Catching My Own Wave - Right on Time
From Teaching to Building:
Moving beyond explaining AI concepts to actually building custom solutions
Training chatbots for real businesses
Creating custom GPTs that solve specific problems I encounter
Agents…
Content Evolution:
More video content!
Showing AI tools in action
Build + Deploy AI workflows
Agents…
AI-Capable Workshops:
Hands-on sessions for YOUR TEAM
AI Workflow Automation: Moving beyond single chatbots to complete business process transformation
Is Your Company AI-Capable?
How do I actually measure if this AI stuff is working?
What does my team structure look like in an AI-first world?
How do I move from pilot projects to full integration?
Getting Weird with AI:
Building fun AI tools for my own life and work
Fantasy football AI league (ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini…)
Custom tools for my businesses
Bottom Line: Time to practice what I preach and show you the (AI) sauce
Right on Time:
Publishing Stats:
17 articles published + 6 research articles
10,147 words
2,171 email opens
44.4% Open Rate
Misc. Stats:
1 AI Club started
10 AI Club Meetings
1 CEO interviews
“The first step is noticing” - and we’re past that now.
Stay tuned, keep reading, keep learning, touch some grass.
Oh, and you’re not late to AI. You’re Right on Time.
Here’s to the next 10 weeks!
-C
If you know someone who would enjoy this content,
Here’s what’s coming next :
Thursdays: We’ll cover LLM and AI concepts. (Don’t worry. I put the cookies on the lower shelf, where anyone can reach ‘em.) I teach advanced concepts in simple, bite-sized chunks that anyone can understand.