The AI Second Brain

yep, you read that right: your fancy AI strategy is 95% useless

After helping 58 companies implement AI in the last 3 years, here are some things I noticed that will be useful to you and none of the gurus talk about.

(if you’re a business owner or a consultant, this will be useful)

First, practical AI leverage depends on your PEOPLE.

I've been in multiple situations where leadership has groundbreaking ideas of what to do with AI...

and it is completely irrelevant because their people are not in a position to execute.

They are blocked by IT or compliance or annoying managers, or they don't have the tools, or they don't even care.

If you're a leader reading this, I want you to ask yourself a question: Can my people innovate and change outdated processes? Do they care enough?

Second, are you willing to change processes to improve them?

One of the first things we do before we touch your tool stacks or put together automations or AI agents is to see where there are opportunities for improvement in your business.

Once we find them, do we have the green light to actually improve them?

Multiple times this was a block.

I would bring a plan for how to fix the process but management wasn't ready to invest the time to make that important change happen.

so the strategy and the planning did not matter ultimately.

Third, this isn't just a one-time workshop thing or a huddle for a couple of days.

"Now we are AI-first."

We usually work with companies between 2 and 6 months to start seeing a 20% productivity increase, a reliable one, where people feel confident about using these tools.

It's helping them in their daily work to do stuff faster and better, to connect platforms together, and to even build custom tooling.

So you can stop depending on B2B tool subscriptions that love to charge at least $100K per year. That time is finished.

As I'm saying throughout this post, it's the people who build this: your people.

I usually guide these innovation initiatives, train them, and provide clarity and practical steps.

AND I admit: strategy was not as impactful as people being open to implementing things. Action takers.

The AI gurus won't tell you this. Because strategy sounds smart, they charge a lot for it and skip the practical part of implementing lasting change.

One of my daily tasks when I work with teams is to literally message people to see what worked and what didn't. daily.

TLDR: skip the expensive AI strategy BS, invest in training winners.

More "boring" AND more results in the long term.

I can share more if you care, I did the reps. reply to this email with "team" or something

and yes, I often wear a golden tie when I speak at conferences