If you just paused to think, you're in the majority. Most business owners can't answer. Not because they're careless. Because the whole thing is built to be unanswerable. The bills are metered, the "productivity" is unmeasured, and the machine tells you every session was a great one. So you nod along in conversations about AI. You keep the subscriptions. You stay busy in the chats. And somewhere around 11pm a quiet voice asks: is any of this actually working, or am I the sucker at the table? Here's what I've learned after two years inside businesses wrestling with exactly this: it's not one big mistake. It's seven small sins. And the sin never feels like a sin. It feels like progress. 1) Greed. The meter running with nobody watching. One company burned $500 million in a single month. Nobody approved it. Nobody set a cap. 2) Pride. The machine telling you you're a genius until you stop checking whether it's right. 3) Gluttony. Hours consumed, nothing shipped. Amazon built a leaderboard for AI usage and employees gamed it with garbage tasks. 4) Sloth. "I'll handle it," said the machine, to a business that never wrote its processes down. 5) Envy. Buying agents because your competitor did, while your onboarding lives in your head. 6) Lust. Seven subscriptions. Three doing the same job. A new one every time the feed says so. 7) Wrath. Acting on confident answers nobody verified. Ask Deloitte, who refunded a government. Sound familiar? At least one of these is running loose in your business right now. Probably more. Not because you're bad at this. Because they're designed to feel like progress while they drain you. This Thursday, I'm walking through all seven, live. Real companies, real dollar amounts. And for each sin, one question that tells you whether it's active in YOUR business. Seven questions. That's the exam. It's free. You'll know in one hour what most owners never find out. The 7 Deadly Sins of AI. Thursday, July 16, 12pm ET. Register here: https://lnkd.in/e645rGEc

Parents know this feeling. You spend 45 minutes making dinner… and your toddler takes one bite, looks you dead in the eye, and silently informs you that you’ve wasted your evening. So when I accidentally stumbled onto a chicken recipe that both of my boys happily devoured, I immediately wrote it down. The inspiration came from our favorite local Mediterranean restaurant, Byblos. Their chicken shawarma is incredibly flavorful, juicy, and somehow simple enough that even toddlers love it. I wasn’t trying to make an exact copy—I just wanted to capture that same style of chicken at home. After a little experimentation (and a little help from ChatGPT), this version has officially made it into our family’s dinner rotation. Why this works Unlike a dry rub, this is a wet marinade. The yogurt gently tenderizes the chicken while the olive oil carries the spices into every bite. Lemon brightens everything without making the chicken taste sour, and garlic ties the whole thing together. The result is juicy chicken with a warm, aromatic flavor that isn’t spicy… just deeply savory. Ingredients For 2 pounds of chicken breast or chicken tenders Marinade - 3 tablespoons olive oil - 3 tablespoons plain yogurt - 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice - 2 tablespoons minced garlic - 2 teaspoons kosher salt - 2 teaspoons paprika - 2 teaspoons ground cumin - 2 teaspoons ground coriander - 1 teaspoon turmeric - 1 teaspoon onion powder - 1 teaspoon garlic powder - 1 teaspoon dried parsley - 1 teaspoon ground sumac - ½ teaspoon ground cardamom - ½ teaspoon black pepper - ¼ teaspoon white pepper Directions Step 1 Cut the chicken into bite-sized strips or chunks. This gives every piece more surface area for the marinade and cooks much more evenly than whole breasts. Step 2 Whisk together every marinade ingredient until smooth. Add the chicken and toss until every piece is coated. Cover and refrigerate overnight. At a minimum, give it four hours, but overnight is worth the wait.

New webinar this week focusing on How AI recommends you and your business. Hint: It’s the same principle from 250 years ago and it’s all about reputation and credibility. Join me this Thursday at 12pm eastern. https://empower-core.com/weekly-webinar-landing-page/

Good morning all! Here are my slides from last week's webinar.

I almost made a very expensive mistake last year. A client asked me to help them automate their intake process. They had the budget. They had the tools. They were ready to go. I said no. Not yet. Because when I looked at their intake process, there was no process. There were five people doing five different versions of the same thing, no documentation, no feedback loop, and nobody could tell me what "done" looked like. If I had plugged AI into that system, I would have made the chaos faster. That experience turned into something I now use with every client before we touch a single AI tool. I call it P.E.R.F.O.R.M., and it works like a gate. Seven questions, yes or no. One "no" anywhere and we stop. P - Do you have a clear PURPOSE for this system? E - Does it have a defined beginning and END? R - Does every person and tool have a clear ROLE? F - Do you have a way to collect FEEDBACK? O - Are there written OPERATIONAL standards? R - Have you defined the RESULTS you want? M - Do you MONITOR the output? Every "no" has a specific consequence. No purpose means mission misalignment. No endpoints means scope creep. No roles means people doing work that shouldn't be theirs. No feedback means a closed loop with no correction. No standards means everyone guessing. No results means activity for the sake of busyness. No monitoring means no growth is possible. One "no" anywhere in that chain and AI becomes an accelerant on a fire you haven't found yet. This Thursday at noon ET, I'm running this diagnostic live. I'll trace a real business system on screen, show you where the owner is trapped doing work AI should handle, and walk you through how to run P.E.R.F.O.R.M. on your own business. 45 minutes that change how you see your operations before you automate them. Register free here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yzhHXkrSQMCKilLH9JytAQ See you Thursday. Will