You're Still Using Someone Else's AI. Read This.

A few years ago, buying software felt like the answer.

Find the right app.

Pay the monthly subscription.

Learn how it works.

Hope it fits your business.

Sound familiar?

I don't know about you, but I've bought more software than I'd like to admit.

Some of it was great.

Some of it lasted a week.

Most of it fell somewhere in the middle.

Useful…

but never quite right.

It always felt like I was adapting my business to the software instead of the software adapting to my business.

Maybe you've felt that too.

A couple of weeks ago, we launched a new podcast.

Like every podcast, I wanted accompanying blog posts on the website.

The problem wasn't knowing how to write them.

The problem was knowing I didn't have time.

And honestly...

I wasn't willing to flood the internet with another AI-generated article that sounded like every other AI-generated article.

There's already enough of that.

So instead of asking Claude,

"Write me a blog post,"

I explained the real problem.

I described the kind of reader I wanted to reach.

The standard I expected.

The mistakes I never wanted published.

The voice I wanted it to sound like.

The things I believed good content should always do.

Then we talked.

For days.

Not one prompt.

Not a clever hack.

An actual conversation.

By the end of it, we had built someone.

I named him Herald.

Herald isn't a chatbot.

He isn't a prompt.

He isn't another piece of software I subscribed to.

He's an AI employee built specifically for how I work.

Here's what surprised me most.

Herald doesn't just write.

Another AI researches.

Another reviews.

Another grades.

If the content doesn't meet the standards I defined...

it never gets published.

Not edited.

Not "good enough."

It simply stops.

Because those are my rules.

Not someone else's.

That was the moment something clicked for me.

For years we've been shopping for software that promises to solve our problems.

But software has to work for thousands of businesses.

Your business only has to work for one.

Yours.

That's a completely different design problem.

And AI changes that.

Instead of asking,

"Which software should I buy?"

I'm finding myself asking,

"What would I build if it worked exactly the way I wanted?"

That's a much better question.

Because clarity has become more valuable than coding.

The more clearly you can describe your business…

your customers…

your standards…

your process…

the better AI can build with you.

Notice I didn't say for you.

I said with you.

There's a big difference.

I think that's where we're headed.

The future won't belong to the people with the most AI tools.

It'll belong to the people who understand their business well enough to build AI around it.

That requires something most people skip.

Not prompts.

Not coding.

Clarity.

The clearer you are about what "good" looks like…

the easier it becomes to teach AI to recognize it too.

That's why I don't think the biggest skill of the next few years will be writing better prompts.

I think it'll be thinking more clearly.

Because AI can't define your standards.

Only you can.

Once you do…

everything else gets a whole lot easier.

One thing I'd genuinely love to know...

If you could create one AI employee that worked exactly the way you wanted...

what job would you hire it for?

For me, it was writing blog posts that actually sounded like me, followed my standards, and refused to publish anything that wasn't good enough.

Just hit reply with one sentence.

I read every response, and I genuinely enjoy seeing the kinds of problems people are trying to solve.

💭 Can I ask you something?

What's one thing you keep doing... that you know you probably shouldn't be doing anymore?

Mine was reviewing every blog post myself.

I didn't want more AI content. I wanted content I could trust.

I'd love to hear yours. Just reply with one sentence.

👇 Want to see Herald in action?

I recorded a short video where I walk through how Herald works, why I built him, and why I think buying generic AI tools is becoming less valuable than building AI around your own business.

We've already started building something special for physicians 👨‍⚕️

Over the last several months, we've been building AiM (AI & Marketing) Rounds—a community where physicians explore what AI actually looks like inside a real practice.

Not headlines.

Not hype.

Just honest conversations about what's working, what isn't, and how doctors are using AI to save time, improve marketing, and rethink the way they run their practices.

It's become one of my favorite places because the best ideas don't come from presentations.

They come from doctors learning from each other.

If you'd like to join us, simply reply with "JOIN AIM" and I'll send you the WhatsApp link.

A few things worth checking out 👀

Just sharing a few things I've been exploring lately:

• 🤝 Let’s connect: I share more thoughts like this on LinkedIn

• 📘 Book I keep thinking about: The Delegation Trap

• 🤖 What we’re building with AI: A look at what we’re working on with AI

• 📖 Currently reading: The book on my nightstand right now

• 🛠 Tool I’ve been using: Simple, powerful, and keeps everything in one place.

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I'd love your quick feedback.

❤️ Loved it — I learned something new.
👍 Interesting — It gave me something to think about.
😐 I'm still figuring AI out — But this helped me see it differently.

Just reply with the emoji (or the words).

I read every response, and your feedback genuinely shapes what I write next.