I want to try something with this community. I'm going to describe a real work scenario, and I want you to tell me how you'd categorize it. The scenario: Your boss asks you to create a presentation for the quarterly board meeting. The presentation needs to include: - Revenue numbers from last quarter (pulled from your internal finance system) - - A competitive analysis of 3 key competitors - - Strategic recommendations for next quarter - - An appendix with employee satisfaction survey results One task. Four very different components. Here's my take -- but I want to hear yours first: Some parts of this are clearly Green (let AI handle it). Some are probably Yellow (AI assists, you verify). And at least one might be Red (keep AI away entirely). How would you break this down? Which parts would you hand to AI, which would you verify carefully, and which would you keep AI away from entirely? And why? Drop your thinking below. There's no single right answer -- that's what makes this interesting. The way YOU think about it depends on your industry, your company, and your risk tolerance. I'll share my breakdown in the comments tomorrow.

If you're getting generic, could-have-Googled-that outputs from AI, try this before you do anything else: Before your next prompt, add one sentence about WHO you are and one sentence about WHO the output is for. That's it. Two sentences. Instead of: "Write an email about our project timeline change" Try: "I'm a project manager at a mid-size marketing agency. Write an email to my client (a VP of Marketing at a Fortune 500 company) about a 2-week timeline delay on their Q1 campaign." Same task. Completely different output. Why this works: AI defaults to the most generic version of any task unless you tell it otherwise. Those two sentences -- who you are and who the audience is -- immediately narrow the possibilities from "any email ever written" to "a specific email for a specific situation." It's not a hack. It's just context. And context is the single biggest lever you have. Try it on your next prompt and see what happens. What's one prompt you've been getting generic results from? Drop it below and I'll show you what two sentences of context could do.

I'll be honest about something. I use AI every single day. I've built systems around it. I teach a course on it. And about twice a week, I still get output that makes me want to close my laptop and go outside. Yesterday I spent 20 minutes trying to get Claude to write a simple client email. Twenty minutes. For an email. I could have written it myself in three. The problem wasn't the tool. The problem was that I was being lazy about context. I was rushing. I gave it a vague ask and expected a specific result. And every time it gave me something generic, I got more frustrated instead of stopping to think about what I was actually asking for. Here's what I've learned: AI frustration is almost always a mirror. When I'm frustrated with the output, it's usually because I haven't done the thinking work. I haven't been clear about what I want, who it's for, or what "good" looks like. That doesn't make the frustration less real. It just makes it useful information. What's your most recent AI frustration? And in hindsight, was the problem the tool -- or was it something about how you were using it?

I've been building this course for the last few months and it's ready. Not "ready enough to sell while I finish it" -- actually done. All 5 modules recorded, every exercise built, every framework tested. But before I open it up at full price, I want 20 people to go through it first. That's the founding member offer, and I want to be transparent about what it is and why it exists. What Connected Intelligence actually is: It's a 5-module course called AI Fluency built for non-technical professionals who've tried AI but aren't seeing the results everyone talks about. The core idea: most people treat AI like a search engine with personality. They ask a question, get a mediocre answer, and move on. The problem isn't the tool -- it's that nobody taught them how to think about AI. That's what this course fixes. Here's what you'll build (not just learn): Module 1: The AI Mindset Shift You'll categorize every task in your work week by what AI should handle, what it should assist with, and what it should never touch. Walk away with an AI Opportunity Matrix -- a map of where AI actually fits in YOUR job. Module 2: How AI Actually Works No code, no jargon. You'll learn the three levers you control in every AI interaction (Context, Task, Mode) and why most people only use one of them. You'll build a Personal AI Framework Map. Module 3: Building Your Context This is the module that changes everything. You'll build a Master Prompt -- a portable document that captures how you think, what you do, and what you need. It's the reason AI stops giving you generic answers and starts giving you useful ones. Module 4: Prompting That Works 7 Power Phrases. Progressive prompting techniques. A debugging checklist for when outputs are garbage. You'll build a Prompt Playbook with 5+ battle-tested prompts for your actual work -- not templates, YOUR prompts. Module 5: Choosing Your Tools A decision framework for which AI to use for which task. Not a features comparison that'll be outdated in 6 months -- a set of questions that work regardless of what new tool drops tomorrow. You'll map your Personal Tool Stack.

I’m Daniel Walters. I’ve spent 15+ years in operations and MarTech -- the space where marketing, technology, and operations collide -- and I’ve spent most of that time translating between people who build things and people who use them. A few months ago, I sat in an AI workshop and realized something that rewired how I think about my own career: the doing isn’t the work anymore. The thinking is the work. AI can draft your emails, research your competitors, analyze your data, and reformat your spreadsheets faster than you can open the file. That’s not coming. That’s here. And most professionals I talk to fall into one of three camps: 1. Paralyzed. They know AI matters but don’t know where to start. 2. Pretending. They’ve decided it’s not relevant to their role (it is). 3. Flailing. They’ve tried it, gotten mediocre results, and assumed they’re doing it wrong. If any of those sound familiar, you’re in the right place. This community exists because I got tired of watching smart people feel dumb about AI. What you’ll find here: - AI 101 (Free Course) -- Start here if you’re new. Covers the fundamentals without the jargon or the hype. Go to the Classroom tab to access it. - Connected Intelligence (Paid Course) -- A 5-module deep dive for professionals who want frameworks, not just tips. Mindset, mechanics, context-building, prompting, and tool selection. Every module produces something you’ll actually use. Details in the Classroom. - Community Discussion -- Questions, wins, frustrations, resources. Post what you’re working on. Share what’s working. Ask when something isn’t. The only rule is be real. - My Content -- I share frameworks, breakdowns, and the occasional rant about how AI is being marketed vs. how it actually works. How this community operates: This is not a hype chamber. Nobody here is going to tell you that one weird prompt will change your life. We also don’t gatekeep -- there are no dumb questions, just different starting points. What I ask: