You know, a question I hear again and again from
so many driven people is this constant thing.
How do I learn AI? Well, it feels like everyone's
looking for that perfect course, that ultimate
tutorial. But the truth is, that question, the
how, it might be the wrong one completely. Today,
we're kind of flipping it. We're going to ask
why. Your fundamental reason for even getting
into AI. That's your real compass here. in this
whole new landscape. Welcome to the Deep Dive.
We're here to help you get genuinely well informed,
cutting through the noise. Our mission today,
navigating this AI revolution, specifically for
you, the entrepreneur. We're pulling insights
from a really great source, how to learn AI for
entrepreneurs, three strategic paths. We'll explore
this choose your fighter idea, looking at three
distinct AI archetypes, the fortress builder,
the gold panner, and the phoenix, the goal. To
give you a focused path, a kind of custom GPS
for your AI journey. Let's get into it. So let's
unpack this core idea first. The source jumps
right in saying our obsession with how to learn
AI often misses the point entirely. It describes
this almost Groundhog Day feeling. Yeah. Where
successful founders, people running great businesses,
they feel this tidal wave of AI coming. And they
feel like they don't even have a floaty. It's
this sort of quiet panic setting in. Yeah. It's
fascinating how quickly they pivot the focus.
Right. Yeah. It's all about understanding your
why. That's the key. That's your compass. Without
it, you're just going to wander into like rabbit
holes of useless Python courses. It's kind of
lost effort. Reminds me that Warren Buffett quote,
you know, it's not about how hard you row. It's
about the boat you're in. And the point is. Getting
the how wrong doesn't just waste time. It burns
cash. It burns your energy, leaves you drifting
when you really need a plan. And that leads perfectly
into these three AI archetypes. As we go through
them, think about which one really clicks with
where you are right now with your mission. First,
there's the fortress builder. This is you if
you're applying AI to a business that's already
up and running, already successful. Your superpower
here. You've got a working business. Real customers,
real data. That's the raw material AI just loves.
Exactly. That's gold right there. Then you've
got the gold panner. This is someone looking
to sell AI solutions back into an industry they
know inside out, their old industry. And their
superpower is huge GE. Trust, access. deep, deep
domain knowledge, established relationships,
credibility. They know the people. They know
the problems. They're basically the missing link
for a lot of purely technical AI teams. They're
not just contacts. They get the pain points.
Right. And the third one, the phoenix. This is
for the entrepreneur who's ready to pivot. Completely.
Ready to build something AI native from the ground
up, reinvent themselves, their superpower, hunger,
agility, a clean slate. Plus, they often have
solid business fundamentals that maybe some deep
tech folks lack. It's a potent mix. Yeah. And
the critical thing, the absolute first step is
choosing your archetype. Your whole AI strategy
hangs on that choice. Everything follows from
it. So thinking beyond just the category. What's
the fundamental shift in mindset? How does each
archetype approach learning AI differently? It's
really about aligning the AI learning with what
you're already good at, with your specific business
goals. Purposeful learning. Okay, let's dig into
path one. This is for the fortress builders.
The source is pretty blunt here. It says, the
single worst piece of advice you can get is to
sign up for a six -month coding boot camp. Calls
it stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime.
Your business needs... You leading it strategically,
not, you know, messing around with Python basics.
Right. Exactly. The smarter, faster way. Hire
an AI transformation agency. Think about it.
Like if your office pipes burst, you don't spend
a month on YouTube, right? You call a master
plumber, need a new brand, creative agency. AI
is the same. Bring in the specialists who do
this day in, day out. And a good agency, it sounds
like, does a lot more than just sell you software.
It's a whole process, typically in four phases.
Phase one, the Jedi Council. That's about education,
strategy, workshops to demystify AI for the leadership
team, training for key people so they get it,
and building an actual strategic AI roadmap for
your business. Then phase two, the X -ray. Super
important. They basically map your entire business.
Find the top, say, three to five spots where
AI gives the biggest bang for the buck, highest
ROI. And they'll sort these into quick wins,
stuff you can deploy fast, versus the big swings,
the custom things that give you a real edge.
Okay, then phase three, boots on the ground.
This is where things get built and rolled out.
Implementing existing tools, maybe automated
customer service bots, smarter CRMs, things like
that. or building those custom solutions for
the bigger opportunities. And crucially, they
handle the training, the change management, making
sure the team actually uses it. Yep. And it doesn't
stop there. Phase four, the T -1000. Love that
name. It's all about optimization evolution.
The job isn't done when you launch. They monitor
performance, tweak the AI models, help scale
what's working, maybe kill off what isn't. They
help build that muscle for continuous AI improvement
inside the company. So it sounds like it's really
about freeing up the fortress builder's focus.
How does delegating AI implementation really
let them concentrate on their main mission? It
lets them focus on leadership, vision, growth,
the big picture, while leveraging specialists
for the deep technical work, smart delegation.
Okay, let's shift gears to path two. For the
gold painter, the source uses this great image.
You're sitting on an untapped oil field, but
you might be busy trying to learn geology instead
of just partnering with the guys who have the
drills. It's so true. I see this all the time.
Brilliant AI tech teams, really sharp, but they
struggle to get clients because they just don't
know the industry. They don't speak the language.
Meanwhile, the gold panner, they've got this
amazing Rolodex, deep problem understanding,
and they're wondering if they should go back
to school for machine learning. No. Yeah, that
hidden superpower you mentioned. It's huge. Deep
domain knowledge. You know how things really
work in your field. Established relationships.
You're sending texts, not cold emails. Problem
fluency. You've felt the pain points yourself
for years. And that credibility. When you talk,
people in your industry actually listen. So the
smart move. Partner up. Find a hungry technical
team, maybe an AI agency that needs your expertise.
The source even gives a script, basically. Look,
I know your industry, spent 15 years in it. It's
kind of broken in places. I know five companies
losing money because of a specific problem. You
guys have the AI skills. I've got the contacts.
Let's team up, split the revenue. It's like that
Jerry Maguire, you complete me moment, but for
B2B tech partnerships. Right. And there's a timeline
for how this actually works in practice. Months,
one to three. You're the rainmaker, bringing
in warm leads, acting as the translator between
the tech team and the client. You're right there
with them, months four to six. You're learning
by doing, seeing AI applied in the real world,
figuring out what works, spotting patterns. Exactly.
Then month 7 -12. You've got some wins, some
case studies. You help the team package up a
specialized, repeatable solution. And year two
and beyond, you're potentially a co -founder
in a scalable business. You're earning while
you're learning, becoming a genuine expert through
actually doing it. That synergy feels really
powerful. What's the biggest strategic advantage
this partnership road gives the gold panner compared
to going it alone on the learning path? It massively
accelerates growth by combining strengths, market
access, and trust with deep technical skill.
It unlocks value fast. Okay, powerful stuff for
established folks. But what if you're not fortifying
or panning? What if you want to rebuild completely?
That brings us to the phoenix. Ready to burn
the boats, start fresh, build an AI native career,
highest ceiling maybe, but definitely needs the
most grit. And you face what the source calls
three major hurdles that kill 99 % of aspiring
AI businesses. Yeah, and these are killers. First,
the expertise gap. You got to actually know more
than your clients. That's tough when things change
daily. Second, finding customers regularly. You
need leads, a predictable stream, not just random
luck. And third, the who are you. problem. Building
authority, credibility from scratch, without
a track record. It's that classic chicken and
egg thing. Right. Most people try the slow, painful,
traditional approach. You know, lock yourself
away for six months learning tech, then three
months trying to sell, then six months building
a brand. You might land one client in a year,
maybe 18 months, if you haven't quit by then.
But the source offers the fast path, the chisel
framework. Yeah, the chisel framework. It's described
as this quick method for building an AI business
from scratch, like a sculptor carving themselves
out of the block. And the clever part is it's
designed to tackle all three problems, the expertise,
the leads, the authority at the same time, creates
this upward spiral. Okay, how does it work? Step
one, pick one AI skull and go deep. Just one.
Don't try to boil the ocean. Pick something that
genuinely interests you. It could be AI automation
using tools like NN that's basically getting
apps to talk to each other without code. Or maybe
voice AI agents with VAPI or 11 labs. AI video
generation with one -way ML. Even no -code app
development with bubble -building apps without
writing code. Pick one. Then, step two. Learn
it by applying it. For free. This is key. Don't
just watch videos. Build something for yourself
first. Automate something annoying in your own
life. Help a friend's small business. Maybe for
free initially. Tinker, break stuff, really get
your hands dirty. And here's the secret sauce.
Step three, document everything as public content.
Make short videos about what you're learning,
what you're building, write blog posts, share
screen recordings. The key is you're not pretending
to be the ultimate expert. You're positioning
yourself as a guide, documenting your journey,
maybe just one step ahead of others. People connect
with that authenticity. and that creates the
upward spiral effect your content gets views
people ask questions in the comments send dms
those questions turn into your first consulting
calls maybe start at a hundred dollars an hour
you solve a real problem for someone boom testimonial
now you make more content about that you've got
proof you can raise your rate the real world
problems force you to learn deeper which leads
to better content more authority more leads it
just keeps looping upwards it tackles the expertise
gap you learn by doing, the lead flow, content
attracts leads, and the authority problem, documenting
builds trust all at once. That public documentation
aspect feels, I don't know, counterintuitive
for building authority. How does showing your
learning process actually solve that credibility
challenge for a Phoenix starting out? It builds
authentic trust by transparently showing your
process, including the struggles and discoveries,
in real time. People follow the journey. Mid
-roll sponsor Reeve provided separately. Okay,
for those feelings who might want a bit more
structure, maybe less of the chisel frameworks,
creative chaos. The source also outlines an AI
university curriculum. It's a more comprehensive
plan to really become a technical force. Yeah,
it's pretty detailed, broken down into phases.
Months one, two, the foundation. You hit AI automation
basics tools like NEN, Zapier, Make. You max
your prompt engineering that's learning how to
talk effectively to large language models or
LLMs, you know, like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini.
getting them to give you what you actually want.
Intro to AI agents, no code 101 with tools like
Bubble. Okay, then months three, four, the intermediate
level, this gets deeper. Advanced automation,
working with APIs, application programming interfaces,
basically the way different software talks and
shares data. Developing custom AI agents, exploring
voice AI systems that get and produce human speech
using tools like VAPI 11 Labs. Plus an intro
to computer vision, teaching computers to see
and understand images or video, maybe with Runway
ML. Right, and then months 5 -6. The advance
guard. Now you're into enterprise AI strategy.
Intro to custom model training that's taking
existing AI models and fine -tuning them with
specific data to give them specialized knowledge.
Multimodal systems AI that handles text, voice,
images, video all together. And super important,
the business of AI itself. How to actually sell
and deliver this stuff. And beyond that, there's
the ongoing forever part. the business development
engine, content, client, service products that
never stops. And the source backs this up right
with, don't just take my word for it, examples,
real stories. For the Fortress Builder, they
mentioned a marketing agency owner, overhauled
his services using AI transformation, hired an
agency, tripled revenue in 18 months. became
a leader in his market. Wow. Yeah. And for the
gold panner, there's a manufacturing consultant.
Partnered with a tech team, leveraged his contacts
and knowledge, landed a huge contract doing AI
-powered quality control, generated over $2 million
in revenue year one. That's serious impact from
combining domain knowledge with tech. And for
the Phoenix, the example is a real estate professional.
used the chisel framework, documented his AI
journey publicly, built a consulting business
on the side, generating over $50 ,000 a month
just by sharing what he was learning as he went.
Those stories are pretty incredible across all
three paths, too. What do you think is the core
message these successes really drive home about
applying AI? I think they clearly show that combining
deep industry understanding or a focused learning
path with targeted AI solutions delivers really
significant tangible results. Okay, let's talk
about avoiding failure. The source lists the
seven deadly sins of a new AI entrepreneur, common
mistakes, and importantly, their cures. First
is lust or shiny object syndrome, getting pulled
in by every new AI tool that pops up, the cure.
Pick just three or four core tools. Go deep.
Become an expert in those. Depth over breadth.
Good advice. Then gluttony or tutorial purgatory.
Just watching endless videos, reading endless
posts, but never actually building anything.
The cure they suggest is the 2 .1 rule. For every
hour you spend learning, spend two hours applying
it. Building, tinkering, doing. Sloth. Learning
in a vacuum. Hiding away, trying to perfect your
skills before you put anything out there. The
cure. Build in public. From day one, your first
attempts will probably be embarrassing. That's
okay. It's actually feature shows growth. You
know, I still wrestle with prompt drift myself
sometimes or getting lost in just the sheer volume
of new tools. It's a real challenge to stay focused
and avoid that shiny object syndrome beat. Okay,
next sin. Pride. The tech is enough fallacy.
Thinking just having cool tech skills is enough.
Forgetting about sales and marketing. Cure. Spend
50 % of your time on the tech, 50 % on sales
marketing. Talking to customers. Balance is key.
Wrath. Trying to serve everyone. Creating generic
AI for small business type offerings doesn't
work. The cure is to niche down until it almost
hurts. Like AI powered inventory management specifically
for artisanal bakeries. Hyper specific. Ah, love
that. Then envy or imposter syndrome paralysis.
Constantly comparing your messy chapter one to
someone else's polished chapter 20. The cure.
Reframe it. You're not an imposter. You're a
reporter. Documenting the frontier for people
just a little bit behind you. Your journey has
value. And the last one may be the biggest. The
sin of invisibility. Neglecting content. Just
hoping clients will magically find you. Cure.
Document your journey. Share insights. Teach
what you learn, even the basics. Your content
acts like your bad signal, attracting the right
people. The source also includes an AI Entrepreneur
Starter Pack. Kind of the essential toolbox,
no matter which path you're on. You've got the
core AI platforms, the power plants, open AI,
anthropic, Google meta, automation platforms,
the digital Legos, any, any Zapier make bubble
specialized tools, the sniper rifles like the
API for voice, 11 labs for speech synthesis,
runway ML for video and business operations,
the command center, things like Airtable, Slack,
Stripe, Calendly. Yeah, that's a solid list.
Even if you're not the one coding, why is it
so crucial for any entrepreneur in this space
to be aware of these foundational tools? Because
they're the building blocks. Understanding what's
possible enables smarter strategy and much more
effective collaboration, even if you hire help.
Okay, let's get down to brass tacks. The brutally
honest breakdown of the economics. Investment,
hidden costs, ROI, timeline, payoff. For path
one, the fortress builder using an agency. Upfront
investment could be $15 ,000, could be $100 ,000
plus. Depends on the scope. Hidden cost. Picking
the wrong agency, that could be painful and expensive.
Timeline to ROI. Usually three, six months for
noticeable efficiency gains or revenue lifts.
Payoff, often a solid 3x to 10x return on that
investment. Makes sense. Now, path two, the gold
panner doing the partnership route. Upfront investment,
mostly your time. Sweat equity, networking hours,
hidden cost, a bad partnership that can really
derail things, waste a lot of time and goodwill.
Timeline to ROI, maybe six, 12 months to land
those for significant clients. Payoff can be
a really good share of the revenue. Hitting $200k
plus in shared revenue in year one isn't uncommon.
And path three, the phoenix. using the chisel
framework. Upfront investment is mainly your
time, like 20, 40 hours a week for maybe six,
12 months. Serious commitment, hidden cost, burnout.
It's intense. Timeline to ROI, actually pretty
fast for first income. First few thousand bucks
could come in three, four months from consulting
gigs. A sustainable six -figure business, more
like 12, 18 months payoff, potentially unlimited.
The source mentions a clear path towards $1 plus
annually if you scale it right. And underpinning
all of this is the ticking clock. The source
really emphasizes this. It's described as this
temporary magical window of opportunity, an economic
gold rush. Right now, the demand for people who
can bridge the gap between AI capabilities and
actual business problems is massive. And the
supply, it's tiny. That won't last forever. Whoa,
because imagine scaling to a billion queries
or connecting disparate systems with such ease.
The potential for impact and value creation here
is truly immense right now. Two sec silence.
Exactly. It's like those other moments in tech
history. SEO back in 2005. Social media marketing
in 2010. Remember when you could build huge audiences
almost for free. Mobile app dev around 2012.
The people who jumped in early. They built category
defining businesses. If you wait too long, you're
not competing against other pioneers anymore.
You're up against established giants. So considering
that urgency, that fleeting window, what's the
real cost, the ultimate cost of inaction for
an entrepreneur looking at AI right now? It's
missing a fleeting, really significant opportunity
to fundamentally shape your own future in this
AI revolution. It's choosing to sit out the biggest
shift in decades. We started this deep dive thinking
about that Warren Buffett quote. Yeah. It's not
how hard you row, but the boat you're in. Your
why for getting into AI, your core purpose, that's
far more critical than the specific how. By choosing
your architect, fortress builder, gold panther,
or phoenix, you're choosing your vessel. fortifying
your kingdom, panning for gold in familiar territory,
or rising to build something totally new. Each
path offers a distinct strategy, different tools,
different economics, a unique way to navigate.
That's right. You've already proven you can row.
You have the drive, the work ethic. That's the
hard part, usually. This AI revolution, it isn't
just on the horizon. It's happening now, all
around us. The only truly wrong move here is
doing nothing, standing still while the ground
shifts beneath you. You know that old saying,
the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is today. The choice is
yours to make. Which path will you choose? Out
to row music.