A lot of business owners, they think that they have a technology problem. But what they really do have is a memory problem. And what I mean by that is if your whole business runs on your memory or your teammates' memory or your employees' memory, like meaning that if you have to wait for them to come to work for you to know where the file is or how something works, adding AI is not going to help you. It's actually going to expose how fragile your operations are. I want you to sit with that just for a moment because that's not an AI problem. That is a clarity problem. And on Monday, we talked about why wanting AI and being ready for AI is two completely different things. So today we're not going to be shopping around for tools. We're actually putting pen to paper. We're building a plan. We're building your AI readiness blueprint. And I want to start off by asking you a question. After Monday's conversation, what did you notice? And I don't want you to think about what you noticed about AI. I want you to tell me what did you notice about your business? Because if you were really listening to me on Monday, you probably started seeing things that you have not paid attention to before. Maybe you realize one employee carries everything in their head. Maybe that's you that carries everything in your head. Maybe you realize that your follow-up gain depends on whether you remember to do it or not. Or maybe you had one of those moments where you said, um, yeah, we are really not as organized as I thought. And I'm here to tell you that that is okay. Because clarity isn't criticism. Clarity is what improvement begins. So in the last episode, I said something that I wanted to repeat today. And that is AI doesn't fix confusion, it processes confusion faster. So today, we're not going to be comparing ChatGPT to Claude and Co-Pilot or Gemini or whatever new tool that came out this week. We're not even going to be talking about prompts. We're building something that's going to be a little bit more valuable, something that is going to help you make sure that you're AI ready. So by the end of this conversation, I want you to have something that you can actually use. So here's what I want you to do: grab a notebook, open up your notes app on your phone, or if you're driving, just listen, come back to this message later. This conversation is not going to be about how perfectly you take notes. It is about seeing your business in a different perspective, seeing your business as it is, where you are right now. So let's start here. I want you to imagine that somebody walked into your business and their only assignment is to understand how your business actually works. Not trying to buy anything from you or invest or get a consultation. They're just coming to gather information on how your business works. Would that person be able to figure it out? Or would every answer be, let me go ask such and such? Well, Mike knows how to do that because if that is the case, your business is not running on systems, it's running on people remembering things. And people get sick. People quit. People take vacations. People forget. I mean, if you've been in business for yourself and you've been juggling every position, like you are the owner, the manager, the customer service rep, the IT. If you're everything, you know what it's like to forget things, even if you're using a calendar. That's that's real life. I want you to think about your pain. Think about the frustration. What is the one thing in your business that makes you sigh every single week? The one thing that always seems to take longer than it should to get done. Maybe it's you following up on leads. Maybe you have an issue creating reports or scheduling or onboarding, or maybe it's answering the same questions over and over again. And I'll tell you what my issue was. My issue was remembering to send invoices every single time. I had this contract with a company, and my intention was to send the invoice in the beginning of the month, like the first week. But I was sending the invoice two, three weeks, maybe even four weeks in when the month is already over. I'm just now remembering, like, oh my God, I forgot to send the invoice. And because I was keeping it in my mind as a task or something to do, nobody else knew that, hey, I didn't send that invoice. So then in turn, we are being paid late. And that's a whole delay. And what I've learned over the years is that the biggest problem in business, it usually isn't hidden. It's like right in your face. People talk about it every day. They complain about it, they work around it, and they just get used to things just being the way it is. That's just normal, you know? So nobody's questioning it, nobody's trying to make a change about it. So step one, I want you to think about your pain. What is it that frustrates you the most? And then step two, I want you to walk through the process with me. I want you to pretend that I am sitting right beside you asking you questions, okay? And think about it like this: a customer calls, then what happens? If someone fills out a form on your website, what happens after that? If your employee or your team member completes a job, what happens after that? I want you to think about the process. If a client signs a contract, then what? And I want you to keep going. Don't skip any steps, don't clean it up, just tell the truth. Where does your information go? What who is going to touch it? Who approves it? Who handles it? And where does it get stuck? At what point do you have an issue where there's a delay? Because somewhere in that process, there is a bottleneck. That's what we're looking for today. We're not looking for a million and one problems. We're looking for one problem. And then once you're done with that, we're going to move on to step number three. I want you to, before we even dive into step number three, circle that bottleneck that you discovered. That one place where everything slows down, where there is a huge delay, where the follow-up might take too long or the information is not entered in on time. I want you to think about it. If this problem disappeared tomorrow, like you solved it, you didn't never have this issue again. What would improve? Would your customers get better service? Would your employees get their time back? Would you be able to increase your revenue? What would improve? Because now we're going to talk about impact and not convenience. Step number four, I want you to think about this. Does AI even belong here? Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes what your business needs is documentation, it needs a checklist, it needs a better workflow, it might need a folder, you know, SOP, standard operating procedures. It might even need clear communication. Whatever it is, it may not need artificial intelligence. Technology isn't always the answer. I see this in a lot of companies where they want to jump on the first wave. Whoever's talking about this new AI thing, everyone wants to try it. But in reality, what they need is leadership. They need communication, they need discipline, not a new automation. If you haven't clearly defined your process, your systems, your vision, you don't need to automate anything. Which brings me to step five. If AI could help you, what exactly should it be doing? Write this down and be specific, not vague, like I just wanted to help my business. I want you to finish the sentence. I want AI to do X, Y, and Z. I want AI to summarize my board meeting notes. I want AI to draft my emails or organize my documents. I want AI to answer my clients' questions. AI is helping with a task. It's not replacing your thinking. It's not replacing your leadership. It's not even replacing your responsibility. You still get to make the decision. You use AI as your assistant. I promise you that we will start with the 30-day plan. I didn't want this to be complicated. I want you to be able to focus on understanding the process. I want you to be able to talk to people doing the work. I want you to document every single step. And that's going to be your week one. For week two, choose one tool, not six, one. And that is very important because what I've saw even with myself when I started diving into AI is that I was buying all the AI tools. I was getting every single one that somebody said made sense. As soon as I started using it, it was a huge learning curve. And then I realized that it didn't even make sense for my business. And there's a couple different sources that you can choose from, but you just need one. And you need one that you can test and that will make sense for your business. And then during week three, you're going to run a pilot. You have to make sure you test everything, make sure it works before you try to implement it and sell it to someone else or use it for all of your members. Collect feedback. Measure what's improved because you need to make sure that this AI that you're using is actually working for you. During week four, you get to decide am I going to keep this or not? Do I need to improve it or do I need to get rid of it? I really wish that more businesses understood this. Stopping a tool that isn't helping, that is not crazy. That's actually the smartest thing to do. It's crazy for you to continue to pay for software that nobody's going to use, that nobody understands how to use. So by now, your blueprint should answer these questions. What your problem is, what the current process is, where your bottleneck is, and who owns it? Who's going to be responsible and accountable for that part? You should be able to look at your list and walk away and say, can AI actually help in this area? And if it if the answer is yes, what should AI be doing for you? How are you going to measure your success over the next 30 days? That's your blueprint. But before we close, I want to leave you with one thought. The conversation that we're having right now was never about AI. It was about readiness. Because the businesses that succeed over the next five or 10 years, they're not necessarily going to be the ones with the newest technology. They're going to be the ones that know who they are and who they serve. They're going to be the ones who understand their people, their processes, their customers, their vision. They're going to know what problem they're solving before they buy another solution. And that is also true outside of business. That same way clarity matters in your company, it matters in your personal life. You cannot build the future that you've been praying for if you're not willing to be honest about where you are. Sometimes God doesn't give us the next instruction because we're still avoiding the current one. Sometimes the breakthrough isn't another tool, it is truth. So my challenge for you today is I don't want you to leave this episode thinking about AI. I want you to leave this episode thinking about one process that you're going to improve this month. Remember, it's execution time. Consistency beats complexity every single time. Technology may help you move faster, but your vision is going to determine where you're going. Your leadership is going to determine who comes with you. Your communication is going to tell you whether they understand the mission. And your mindset, that'll let you know whether you're going to keep going when it gets uncomfortable. How you handle your money will let you know if the investment creates value or if it's just another monthly subscription that you're wastefully spending on. So the five things that I gave you earlier, they'll matter long after today, next week, the next AI tool. I don't want you chasing technology. I want you to build the foundation that technology can actually stand on. And until next time, I'll see you next week.