So January Changed Everything. What Now?Here’s What to Implement Today.
I’ve spent the last two weeks writing about why the AI shift matters and what happens if you wait. Now it’s time to talk about what to actually do.
If you’ve been reading along, you know what the compounding gap is. If you’re new, here’s the short version.
The Compounding Gap
Most people think the distance between someone using AI and someone not using AI is a straight line. Like the person who started is just a little further ahead and you can catch up whenever you decide to start.
That’s not how it works. AT ALL.
The gap compounds. I’ve been deep in AI for three years now, obsessively for the last 18 months. This week I used AI to build out an entire content system that would have taken me two full weeks six months ago. I did it in an afternoon. The only reason that’s possible is because every week of learning stacked on top of the last one.
And if you haven’t started? You’re not just “a little behind.” You’re starting from zero while the tools changed, the learning curve got steeper, and the people who started earlier sorted out their mistakes when the stakes were low. That gap doesn’t close just by working harder.
That’s the hard truth. And the gap closes the same way it opens. One week at a time. You can start stacking today.
I want to give you three things you can actually do this week. Not theory. Actual moves.
Pick One Workflow and Use AI For It This Week
Not everything. One thing.
Most people either avoid AI entirely or try to use it for everything at once. Both approaches fail. Avoidance keeps you stuck. Overload overwhelms you and then you produce absolute trash (ask me how I know).
Pick one task you already do regularly. Something that eats your time but doesn’t require your deepest judgment. Something like content drafts, follow-up emails, or the research for your next post.
Then use AI to help you do that one thing faster. Let it assist you.
Example: If you spend two hours writing your weekly email to your list, try drafting it with AI first. Give it context about who you’re writing to and what you want to say. Take what it gives you and rewrite it in your voice. Time yourself. See what happens.
The goal isn’t to automate your whole business in a week. It’s to feel what it’s like when AI actually helps instead of just being another thing on the list of stuff you should learn.
Pick one workflow and start there this week.
Decide What AI Will Never Touch
This is the part nobody else is teaching, and it matters more than any prompt trick you’ll find on the internet.
AI can do a lot. That doesn’t mean it should do everything. Some things require human judgment, human presence, and human responsibility. If you hand those things to a machine, you will get bad output AND lose the trust of your audience. Your authority will take a hit and that doesn’t come back easily.
I have hard lines. AI never handles spiritual counsel or discernment in my world. Nothing gets published without my review and revision. I don’t let it make decisions for me or speak into situations that require wisdom I haven’t given it. Those are mine to steward.
Your lines will be different. But they need to exist.
Sit down and write out what AI will never do in your business. The areas where you stay fully human no matter how good the tools get.
If you’re not sure where to draw the line, ask yourself these questions:
Does this task require me to know something about this specific person that AI doesn’t have access to? Does a wrong answer here damage trust in a way that’s hard to repair? Is this something people come to me for specifically because it’s ME? Would I be uncomfortable if the person on the other end knew AI wrote this?
If the answer to any of those is yes, keep it human.
The people who lose credibility with AI are the ones who automated the wrong things. The ones who build trust figured out where the line was BEFORE they crossed it.
Draw your line before you need it.
Get Clear Before You Prompt
I see this constantly: someone opens ChatGPT, types a vague request, gets vague output, and decides AI doesn’t work for them.
The tool works fine. They just didn’t know what they were trying to say before they started.
AI can only work with what you give it. If you’re unclear on your offer, your audience, or your point of view, AI will reflect that confusion back at you in polished word-salad sentences that don’t make sense, and have no real value or substance so they won’t land with your audience.
Before you prompt anything, answer three questions: Who specifically is this for? What’s the one thing I want them to understand? And what do I want them to do after?
Get specific on all three.
If you can answer those clearly, your AI session will be focused and your output will be useful. Can’t answer them? Stop. Do the thinking first. AI will still be there when you’re ready.
Clarity before tools. Always.
The Compound Effect
These three actions are simple on purpose.
The compounding gap doesn’t close by learning every tool or mastering every prompt. It closes by starting. Build one workflow that saves you time. Protect what matters. Get clear enough that AI actually helps instead of just generating noise.
The people who are way ahead right now didn’t start with some secret system. They started with one task. One boundary. One clear thought. Then they did it again. And again. Every week stacking on the last one.
You can start that stack today. For real.
Go Deeper
If you missed the masterclass: I taught a full session on the compounding gap, what happened in AI in January, and how to build a framework for what to automate versus what to protect. The replay is $29.
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I’m not going to be the person who had this information and didn’t make it practical enough for people to act on. The window is open.