Compile a massive document of successful marketing emails from competitors. Feed this file into an AI like Claude to train it as your personalized marketing expert. It can then boil down key learnings and generate campaign ideas based on these proven strategies.
Founders can get lost building complex AI systems and automations. This can become a trap, a "procrastination machine," that feels productive but doesn't contribute to the primary goal of generating revenue. Always ask if the AI work is actually making the business money.
The common view of AI is to increase efficiency or replace headcount. A more powerful approach is to maintain your team and leverage AI for abundance. Use it to triple your output, running five marketing campaigns instead of one and exploring numerous variations to dramatically increase growth.
It's tempting to spend weeks setting up complex AI systems and skills before starting. This is a form of procrastination. The most effective way to learn AI tools is to jump straight into building a real-world application, learn from the errors, and iterate.
Many founders believe their main job is to build the product. However, successful CEOs like OpenAI's Sam Altman dedicate at least half their time to promotion, which is the true engine of growth. Without it, even the best product will fail because no one will know it exists.
Building an audience isn't enough. The crucial, often-missed step is moving people from your content "holding pattern" to a dedicated "selling event." This is a specific activity like a live product demo, webinar, or email campaign designed explicitly to convert attention into revenue.
Don't push cold traffic directly to a sale. Instead, funnel users into a "holding pattern"—like an email newsletter or podcast—where you can build trust and maintain attention. This makes eventual "selling events," like a webinar or email campaign, far more effective.
A powerful AI workflow involves two stages. First, use a standard LLM like Claude for brainstorming and generating text-based plans. Then, package that context and move the project to a coding-focused AI like Claude Code to build the actual software or digital asset, such as a landing page.