Stop Talking, Start Building: My $500K AI Business Experiment

Hey friends,

A Navy SEAL once told me that you need to put your words to work. Stop talking. Start doing.

So I'm done just telling you about AI tools. Time to show you what they can actually do.

Starting next week, I'm putting $1,000 down and letting AI act as my business advisor with one goal: build a business worth $500,000 in 12 months.

Is this crazy? Probably.Is it possible? Maybe.Will it be fascinating to watch? Absolutely.

You'll get a front-row seat. The strategies, the failures, the wins – everything. No filters, no bullshit. Just a real-time case study on whether these tools can actually create real value or if they're just fancy toys.

To be fully transparent: you're all wildly successful business owners and entrepreneurs. And don't be surprised when I reach out to you for advice and feedback. I'll be tapping into your experience and wisdom as I build this thing.

Because that's what smart founders do – they use every advantage they have. So consider yourselves warned: your brain will be picked, your insights will be applied, and your feedback will shape this journey.

Message received, SEAL. Time to put these words to work.

But before we kick off that experiment - I want your feedback. Call me, text me, or email me. How do I make this even better?--Okay, let me share the AI developments that actually matter from the past few days. Because holy crap, it was a big week...

This week's launch of Claude 3.7 Sonnet was huge

Anthropic basically delivered what might be the year's most significant AI leap. I've been playing with it, and honestly? It's awesome!

The hybrid reasoning is what makes it special. It switches between quick answers when you need speed and deep thinking mode when you need depth. Imagine having both a sprinter and marathon runner in one brain.

It's sharper and genuinely context-aware. It actually understands your brand voice and objectives—not just pretending to.

The results speak for themselves. People are building entire games, 3D models, and web apps with single prompts. Not simple stuff either—we're talking fully functional products that would have taken development teams weeks.

For those of us running businesses, this is pure gold. Need social posts? Done. Industry report analyzed? Done. Consumer guide from raw data? Done.

This is especially valuable if you're a solopreneur or consultant. We're all expected to create more content, faster—Claude 3.7 Sonnet is like having an unfair advantage.Try it here: https://claude.ai/

Then there's Grok 3 from Elon's xAI.

They just implemented voice capabilities, which takes the experience to another level. Hearing it respond in real-time makes the interaction feel so much more natural.

And if you want to have some laughs, try the "unhinged mode." No joke, a friend of mine used it as a therapy session this week. Something about talking to an AI with no filter apparently unlocks things you wouldn't normally say.

Try it here: https://grok.com/

Amazon's Big Move: Alexa+

Amazon just announced Alexa+, and it's not just another upgrade - it's a complete overhaul built around large language models.

Here's what's interesting:

It integrates with your Amazon ecosystem (history, entertainment, smart home)

It can handle complex tasks like finding tickets or making restaurant recommendations

It works across devices (Echo, Ring cameras, Fire TV)

It analyzes your documents, emails, and files to create calendar entries or reminders

The clever part? Alexa+ uses both Amazon's Nova and Claude models, picking the best AI for each specific task. This "experts" system (which Amazon says will eventually have tens of thousands of specialized AI agents) is similar to what other companies are building.

Pricing: Free for Prime members or $19.99/month, rolling out in the US over the next few weeks.

Two tools launched this week that actually solve real problems:

ElevenLabs Scribe - A speech-to-text model that outperforms everything else on the market. It beats Gemini 2.0 and Whisper v3 in English, Spanish, Italian, and 96 other languages.

Hume AI Octave - The first LLM built specifically for text-to-speech. You can design custom voices through prompts and give acting instructions for emotional delivery - including sarcasm, whispering, and other nuanced speech patterns.

Mike's Time to Nerd Out

One of you asked me this week: "How do you decide which AI tool to use for what project?"

Great question. I think about my AI toolkit like a Swiss Army knife.

You wouldn't use the tiny scissors to cut down a tree, right? But they're perfect for snipping a loose thread. Same with AI tools – each one has its specialty.

I don't look for one "perfect" AI. I build a personal workflow around different tools' strengths. It's like having specialized team members rather than one overwhelmed generalist.

When I need deep research, I start with Perplexity. Nothing matches its ability to pull together information from dozens of sources. But then I might take that research and run it through Claude to help refine the language or structure.

For creative work, Claude 3.7 is my go-to as of today. Its ability to understand nuance and generate compelling content is unmatched. But for research? I'll use Perplexity, Google AI Studio or Grok.

Quick answers or conversational assistance? That's where the new Grok 3 or ChatGPT might be the right call, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish.

The key is experimentation. Spend time getting to know each tool's personality and strengths. Which one gives you the feedback you prefer? Which one seems to "get" what you're trying to accomplish?

Over time, you develop an intuitive sense for which blade to flip out for which job.

Here's the real insight though: the best AI users aren't the ones who know every feature of one model – they're the ones who've built a toolkit of specialists and know exactly when to deploy each one.

So don't stress about finding the "best" AI – build your personal AI toolkit and learn when to use each one. That's where the real magic happens.

Nerd Part 2: The Trust Game That's Changing Business

Something else I've been thinking about this week: how we break through in a world flooded with content.

Every business is creating content. Every platform is saturated. Every feed is overflowing.

So what actually separates you from the noise?

It's not more content. It's trust.

I've been watching this pattern emerge everywhere. In a world where anyone can create anything, people aren't making decisions based on who has the coolest ad or the slickest landing page.

They're looking for signals of trust. And nothing builds trust faster than a recommendation from someone they already trust.

Think about it. When your friend tells you "this product changed my game," you don't just hear the words - you feel something. There's an emotional transfer that happens. Their excitement becomes your curiosity. Their trust becomes your confidence.

That's why word of mouth is crushing paid acquisition right now. It's the ultimate trust shortcut.

The businesses that are winning aren't just pumping out more content. They're creating moments worth talking about. They're building products that solve real problems so effectively that customers become evangelists.

Your name, your brand, your reputation - these are becoming the most valuable assets in business. When people see your name attached to something, it should trigger immediate trust.

In practical terms, this means rethinking how we measure success. Instead of "how many impressions did we get?" the question becomes "how many people told someone else about us today?"

So ask yourself: What would make your customers feel something so strongly they can't help but mention you to others? What problem could you solve so completely that they'd look like heroes for recommending you?

That's the real differentiator in 2025 - not content volume, but trust creation.

Until next week,

Mike

P.S. - If you know someone who would genuinely add value to our group, send them here to join: https://form.jotform.com/250523773604152