“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller

Interesting. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I-CKQ-sUdMoEOOOJ9snKwBl7XcMVZcxzDUwCPuR2dwE/edit?usp=drivesdk

Foundational AI Learning Paths - Learning AI is structured as an RPG-themed progression, beginning with a "tutorial island" that covers foundational skills before branching into specialized classes such as strategist, rogue, alchemist, crafter, sage, or machinist. (00:00:00) - A starter pack of essential skills includes understanding the basics of generative AI, mastering prompting techniques, and learning to use general tools like chat, deep research, and media generation. (00:00:46) - The Google Essentials combo on Coursera, consisting of the AI Essentials and Prompting Essentials courses, covers these foundational skills in under 10 hours through video-based learning with some interactive components. (00:01:17) - The Google AI Professional Certificate is a more recent alternative that spans eight courses, covering topics from AI fundamentals to app deployment, and takes approximately 13 hours to complete. (00:01:55) - While the Google AI Professional Certificate is more interactive than the Essentials combo, it focuses heavily on the Google ecosystem, whereas the Essentials combo is more tool-agnostic. (00:02:25) DeepLearning.AI and University Courses - The deeplearning.ai path, led by Andrew Ng, offers a "GenAI for Everyone" and "AI Prompting" course sequence that takes 12 to 15 hours to complete. (00:02:41) - The deeplearning.ai courses are free to audit, but accessing labs, quizzes, and certificates requires a subscription costing approximately $25 to $30 per month. (00:03:03) - The deeplearning.ai path is recommended for those seeking a tool-agnostic approach that emphasizes frameworks and high-level conceptual understanding. (00:03:08) - Certain instructors provide industry insights and specific skill training that are considered unmatched, though their teaching styles are highly specific and should be reviewed before committing to a course (00:03:19). - Learners are encouraged to choose a single path that fits their budget, time, and learning style rather than attempting multiple paths, as one comprehensive course can provide all necessary foundational skills (00:03:33). - The Elements of AI course, offered by the University of Helsinki, is an interactive, text-based program that takes approximately 30 to 50 hours to complete (00:03:47). - This University of Helsinki course is free, includes a certificate, and is recommended for those who prefer thorough, text-based learning (00:03:59)

Alright, DE fam. Grab your coffee. This one's long because I want you to end the hour with a finished list on your screen, not a plan to build one someday. 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜: 50 qualified local businesses, pulled from Google Maps and public directories, in one 60-minute sitting, with a visible gap written next to every single name. Right now your pipeline is a feeling. By tomorrow morning it can be a spreadsheet with 50 rows in it. Let's fix that. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮 𝗕𝗮𝗱 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Here's the version almost everybody is running right now: You open your AI of choice. You type "give me 50 plumbers in Fort Wayne with phone numbers, emails, and websites." You get a clean table in nine seconds. It's fiction. Not all of it. That's what makes it dangerous. The model has seen a million business listings, so it knows what one looks like. It knows Midwest plumbers get named things like "Hoosier Plumbing & Drain." It knows the area code. It knows websites end in .com. So it hands you a list that looks right and is partly invented. A language model produces the most likely next words. It does not automatically go look anything up. Unless it's running a live search and showing you the source, it is writing a list, not retrieving one. Two different activities, identical-looking spreadsheets. And here's the thing: you don't find out until you're on the phone. You call row 7 and the number rings a dentist. You email row 22 and it bounces. You pull up row 31 and the business closed three years ago. Worse, you reference "your Google reviews" on a live call and the business has none, because you trusted a column the model filled in for you. That last one doesn't cost you a minute. It costs you the deal. Say 18 of the 50 rows are wrong, and you spend three minutes each finding that out. That's 54 minutes auditing a list you generated in nine seconds, and you still don't have 50 real businesses. You have 32 and a bad mood. Here's the blunt truth. AI is excellent at the thinking part of prospecting and terrible at the sourcing part. Let it write your opener. Let it sort your gaps. Never let it tell you who exists without testing and reviewing.

"Get on retainers" is the advice everybody repeats. Recurring revenue, predictable cash, sleep at night. Fine. Now go look at how you actually bill. Most of us never picked a model. We inherited one. The first client asked what you charge, you answered with a number and either "per hour" or "for the whole thing" attached to it, and ten clients later that is the business. Here's the thing. That accident sets your ceiling. Hourly caps you at the hours you can stay awake for. Project pricing pays well and then goes quiet, so one month is feast and the next is panic. Retainers smooth the month out and hand the client a cancel button they can press on a bad week. Run your own numbers. Forty billable hours at $75 is $3,000. One $3,000 project is the same month with no cap on the hour. A $1,500 retainer is half that, every month, until it isn't. Scroll the feed and you only get one of those stories. Screenshots of signed retainers. Nobody posts the retainer that got cancelled in month three, or admits they are still billing $45 an hour in year two. So I want to break that pattern today. No "it's a mix." No "it depends on the client." Both of those are free to say. One answer, then tell me why you landed there. 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐥𝐲, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫? 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐭.