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Free guide
The 90-Day Founder's AI Playbook
The honest version of how to learn AI, pick the right tools, and decide what to automate. Built for SMB founders, not for the LinkedIn-doomscroll audience.
Most 'how to learn AI' content is marketing for the cohort the writer is selling. This is the working playbook we hand to SMB founders who ask 'where do I start?'. 90-day curriculum, tool decision matrix, plumber-rule framework, era-shift skill inventory. Distilled from 50+ engagements where AI is now part of the workflow.
What’s inside
- The 90-day curriculum. 30 minutes a day, 4 phases, a real capstone. Same playbook the FoxPro people used in 2003 when they had to learn .NET in 6 months and kept their clients.
- The tool decision matrix. Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Midjourney vs Ideogram. Where each one wins and where each one collapses. With the 4-step workflow we use on every client engagement.
- The plumber-rule framework. Three questions that tell you which tasks to hand to AI and which to keep human. AI bangs the pipe. You decide where.
- The era-shift skill inventory. Four skills that transfer across every tool era (Lotus → Excel, FoxPro → .NET, Flash → React, Photoshop → Generative). Three that don't.
- The 5 signs you're learning AI right, plus 5 signs you're stuck in the doomscroll trap.
- Concrete starter prompts for marketing, sales, ops, and customer-support workflows. Tested, not theoretical.
Frequently asked
I'm not technical. Will I actually be able to follow this?
Yes — that's the design constraint. The 90-day curriculum starts at 'what is a prompt'. No coding required. The capstone at day 90 is shipping a real workflow inside your business; the technical skill needed is roughly 'comfortable with a Google Doc'.
How does this compare to an AI cohort / bootcamp (~$2,000-$5,000)?
Cohorts are good if you want community and accountability. This Guide is good if you want the curriculum, the tool framework, and the working examples — free. You can do both. The difference is the bootcamp sells you community; this Guide sells you a working playbook.
How current is this? AI changes weekly.
The Guide is structured so the framework outlives any specific tool. Tool names get a version date and 'as of <month>' caveats. The 4 transferable skills, the plumber rule, the era-shift inventory — those are robust to the tool churn. We update the tool matrix quarterly.
I've already been using ChatGPT for a year. Is this still useful?
Yes, but skip phases 1 and 2 of the curriculum. Read the tool decision matrix and the plumber-rule framework. Most 'I've been using ChatGPT' founders we meet are stuck at the wrong use cases — the plumber rule reframes which tasks to actually delegate.
I run a service business, not e-commerce. Does this still apply?
Yes. The plumber rule, the curriculum, and the skill inventory are industry-agnostic. The starter-prompt section has separate workflows for services (proposals, intake forms, follow-up sequences) vs e-commerce (PDPs, support, lifecycle email). Both apply.
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Stop reading. Ship something.
The Audit beats the checklist.
This template covers the hero layer. The Activation Audit walks all four Activation Stack layers and lands a prioritized fix list in your inbox within 72 hours.
