The More You Read About AI, The More Lost You Feel. Here’s Why.
There are so many tools. So many approaches. You don’t have time to become an expert in all of it, and honestly, you shouldn’t try.
It’s no wonder you’re confused.
And here’s the thing: a lot of what you’re reading doesn’t make sense…because it doesn’t work.
We’ve all sat in the software demos over the years for project management software, an ERP, or any of these new AI software demos that these companies do, and it looks miraculous, and it looks amazing. You’re like, “Wow, all the things that we could do inside of our business!”
Several years ago, we invested almost $30k in an agency management software. All those amazing integrations and beautiful reporting in the demo actually required us to completely change our workflow and organize data that we didn’t even have. At the end of the year, we burned a lot of time and cash only to revert back to our previous tool.
It’s no different with these new AI tools. All these demos look fantastic, but they just don’t work because they’re not built on the foundation and the infrastructure of what it takes to actually work for you and your business. Softwares (AI or not) just streamline and amplify what already exists.
Here’s What Actually Works: The MATSO Framework
After two years of implementation and hundreds of conversations, I reverse-engineered what consistently worked and what failed into the MATSO Framework.
And honestly? It came from getting really frustrated.
So many of the AI “thought leaders” out there are actually making it worse for leaders. They are doing an absolute disservice to those like you who are actually trying to use AI in their business.
Most of the AI thought leaders that are out there have never actually implemented or integrated it into a business. They’re talking from theory. They’re talking from observations. They’re talking from what could potentially happen.
There is a big difference between what works in a video and what actually works in a business.
It’s the same way when they’re slinging automation, agents, and tools. They’ve got it completely backwards.
At the beginning, the software is nearly irrelevant. It’s one of the last things to consider, not the first.
The first thing that we really have to dig into is Mindset.
Here’s how the framework breaks down:
M – Mindset
Stop looking for the silver bullet software. There isn’t one.
Mindset has a few key pieces:
You have to be willing to fail and learn. You have to look at your business and your work differently. You have to shift your language.
It’s not IF AI can help me with this, but HOW AI can help me.
Constantly reminding yourself: How could AI help me do this better? How could it help me do this faster? How could it help me do this more strategically, more aligned?
There’s also a required mindset of being willing to explore and experiment and have something fail and be okay with that. And then being like, “Alright, what did I learn from that? How can I make this better?”
Instead of seeing big, complex workflows, processes, and tasks, you start seeing them broken down into small, little building blocks. Then you can take your big business processes and systematically build training and tools from those building blocks.
A – Approach
This is where most people get stuck.
When you’re not getting what you want from AI, one of these three things is off:
Input – The contextual information you’re providing
Task – How you’ve broken down the project
Output – The format and structure you’ve requested
I call this the ITO Framework. Here’s how each piece works:
If you’re getting vague responses that don’t sound like you: Add more contextual depth to your Inputs. Think about it like you’re working with a really smart intern who knows nothing about you or your company, but knows a little bit about everything and a lot about nothing. You’ve got to provide the specific context.
If it’s skipping steps or feels an inch deep, mile wide: Slice up the project into smaller Tasks and stack them one after the next. Don’t try to do everything in one prompt or even in one chat.
If results are different from day to day or not in a usable format: Specify exactly what and how you want your Output to be given to you.
Once you master this, you can start ITO Stacking, using one chat’s output as the next chat’s input to really build depth and complexity in your workflows. This is when AI moves from helpful to transformational.
When you get that approach down, you start capturing these patterns for your Training documentation.
T – Training
This is where AI becomes genuinely useful.
This is where you capture your voice, your processes, your specific way of doing what you do. Most tools and leaders skip this step and wonder why AI sounds generic.
This is where the exponential compound returns are generated as you reuse and refine over and over, incrementally saving time and improving results time after time. Brick by brick, block by block.
The Lead With AI membership tools are built to walk users step-by-step through building detailed and impactful training documentation. These systematic tools guide you through creating the training files for Virtual Advisors, Business Advisors, Role Sidekicks, and Role Specialists.
What used to take me eight to ten hours to build the Training files (researching, distilling, formatting) now happens in a matter of minutes with these tools. You do 5% of the work, the wizard builder does 95% of the heavy lifting by providing the structure, process, and templates.
S – Software
Only now should you really be considering choosing your tools. If you start with the software and try to come backwards, it will fail almost every time.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini…whatever. It actually doesn’t matter, because if you’ve done the work on your Mindset, Approach, and Training, those are all platform agnostic. And in fact, it’s crucial for your AI strategy to be so.
If you were around in the late 90s, there would be no way that AOL and Yahoo would not be at the center of the internet. As time has shown again and again, the first-movers aren’t often the long-haulers. It is very unlikely that 5-10 years from now all the current leaders will still be dominant. Don’t hitch your wagon to the wrong basket of eggs.
The ones who follow this progression go from “this doesn’t work” to “I can’t imagine working without this.”
And now we get to the hardest part, and the most important:
O – Organization
The technology and the software? Those are actually the easier problems to solve. The real challenge is: How do you bring your team along on this journey?
Here’s what I’ve learned: Every leader must go through the Mindset, Approach, Training, and Software of each Experience Level before you can lead your team through that same progression.
You can’t skip this step. You can’t just hand your team a tool and expect transformation. You have to go first, figure it out, and then create the pathway for them to follow.
But here’s the thing. It starts with giving them permission to play. Give them space to mess around with it. I’m finding that oftentimes it’s easier if they play around with it on the personal side first where there’s less pressure of work performance and deadlines.
Once they start playing (moving from seeing AI as a threat to using it as an Assistant), then you can guide them to build their own tools. That’s when they start seeing AI as a Partner, a thinking collaborator, not just a glorified Google.
Then finally, they lead implementation in their own areas.
Notice the progression: Play moves them from seeing AI as a Threat to using it as an Assistant. Build moves them from Assistant to Partner, where AI becomes a thinking collaborator. Lead is when they take Partner-level capabilities and multiply them across their area of responsibility.
The results so far for us? Every single person in my company has built at least 3 CustomGPTs and Claude Projects.
They each went through the systematic progression: Play → Build → Lead and are now identifying and building Specialists on their own.
What This Actually Looks Like
We’ve added 30% more clients with the same headcount and have fewer resourcing issues now than we had in the past. We’ve got junior level employees doing senior level work in a quarter of the time. Work that we used to outsource for several thousand dollars a month, we’re now handling internally.
And here’s what really matters:
Employee satisfaction is higher. They’re doing more interesting work and less drudgery work.
Customer satisfaction is up. We’re delivering better results, faster.
Performance data backs it up. Our clients are seeing measurably better outcomes because our team is operating at a higher level.
And I know we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.
But here’s the thing. I learned all of this through trial and error. A lot of bashing my head against the wall. A lot of “this isn’t working” and getting really mad and frustrated.
There were multiple times where I was convinced I led our organization down a dead end road of wasted time, energy, and money. Those existential crisis moments of despair and a lot of frustration.
But each time I learned something. I’d step away, come back to it, and be like, “Oh, if I just tweak one of these three things…oh, there it is.”
That’s the journey. And that’s what I’m trying to help other business leaders avoid—helping you avoid the two years of fumbling around like I did.
Next Steps
If you’re feeling like this resonates with where you are, the Building Your Business Advisor + Role Sidekicks Workshop is on Wednesday, October 8th from 8:30-10:00am.
This is where we’ll work together to:
- Create your Business Advisor, the AI system that understands your company’s culture, processes, and standards you can use to work through strategic challenges
- Build custom Role Sidekicks that work like experienced managers for specific positions in your company
- Implement the Training component of MATSO systematically through proven wizard builders
After this workshop, I’ll be closing registration for the Q4 Membership cohort. The next cohort will open up for Q1 2026.
Special offer for the first 10 member companies that register: $499/month for your first primary member, then just $1/month for the first year for additional team members (regular $199/month after that).
Here’s why this matters: You being AI-powered is really impactful. When your team is AI-powered, that’s when the game changes.
This helps get those closest to the work and most interested in AI involved to become your early champions. When they start building their own AI systems and seeing real results, that’s when organizational transformation actually happens.
Which part of MATSO is your biggest obstacle right now – Mindset, Approach, Training, Software, or Organization?
Reply and let me know. Happy to share any experiences that may help get you over the hump in front of you.
Lead With AI,
Derek
P.S. If you want to assess where you currently are in your AI journey, I’ve built a 3-minute assessment at LeadWithAI.Us/Assessment. It’ll give you your current AI Experience Score and give you some ideas on what to focus on next based on where you are.