Most beginners die from indigestion, not starvation.
Table of Contents
Master AI in 4 Steps — A No-Fluff Roadmap for Founders
If you’re a founder, you’re already feeling the pressure.
New AI tools launch every day. Everyone’s calling themselves an “AI expert.” The more you search, the more paralyzed you get. Sound familiar?
Here’s the truth: mastering AI isn’t about learning everything. It’s about cutting through the noise, focusing on what matters, and building leverage.
These are the 4 steps I use to teach non-technical founders how to master AI—so you can build faster, grow smarter, and never get left behind.
Let’s dive in.
1. Choose Your AI Toolkit
Stop collecting tools. Start solving problems.
Audit your task list: What are you doing manually that AI could handle?
Group similar tasks: Content, scheduling, lead gen—bucket them.
Pick two tools per task type and test them for 7 days.
Don’t chase the next shiny object. Pick one. Go deep.
Need the ROI math? Read How to Get Rich with AI Agents for a deeper breakdown.
Most beginners die from indigestion, not starvation... It’s the saying no to all the options and picking one and going hard in the paint.
2. Prompt Like a Pro (R.I.C.O.)
AI only works if you know how to talk to it. Learn to speak its language.
Dan’s 4-part prompt framework:
| Prompt Element | What to Include | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (R) Role | “Act like a [type of expert]” | “Act like a Silicon Valley CFO” |
| (I) Input | Relevant docs, background info | Budget, strategy, investor memos |
| (C) Command | Clear instruction | “Summarize key risks” |
| (O) Output | Preferred output style | PDF, spreadsheet, list, JSON |
No-code founder? Pair R.I.C.O. with my guide on building a successful software business without coding and let AI handle the heavy lifting.
You essentially need to become a prompt engineer... but I’ll show you how to get the same results without spending years trying to become one
3. Create a Learning Rhythm
Mastering AI isn’t a one-and-done thing. You need a system for staying sharp.
Daily feed refresh: Teach TikTok what you want to learn using FYP comments.
Weekly Zoom mastermind: Message builders and creators you admire. Trade ideas.
Monthly tool audit: What sucked your energy this month? Replace it with AI.
Quarterly events: Attend AI-specific workshops in your industry. Proximity = progress.
If you’re not feeding your brain, you’re falling behind. Start with this cheat code for making more money.
Fun fact: 21 % of employees now rely on gen-AI for most of their workday. Out-learn them or get left behind. For more tactics, see how to increase your productivity.
Schools don’t teach kids AI… once you stop learning, you start dying.
4. Become a Director, Not a Doer
This is the final unlock most founders miss: AI isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing less, better.
Here’s what you need to develop:
| Trait | Why It Matters With AI | How to Build It |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | AI can’t predict the future—you must | Write and review your future-state weekly |
| Taste | AI can generate ideas, you choose the best | Study winning patterns in top content & products |
| Care | AI lacks empathy—you don’t | Lead with EQ, build trust, coach with heart |
If you’re stuck doing instead of directing, AI won’t save you. Start with this cheat code for making more money.
People ask me, will AI replace me? Here's what I’ve learned—vision, taste, and care won’t be disrupted.
🚀 Don’t Just Use AI—Lead With It
You’re not reading this to understand theory. You’re here to stay ahead of 99% of founders.
So here’s your next step:
Pick one tool for one task and test it for 7 days.
Build prompts using the 4-part framework.
Schedule your weekly AI mastermind.
Shift your role from doer to director.
This isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about replacing labor with leverage, and using AI to scale your time, focus, and output.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many AI tools should I learn in 2025?
Two well-chosen AI tools per workflow give you the best ROI in 2025. Master one primary platform (e.g., ChatGPT for copy) and a secondary option for comparison or niche tasks. Going deeper boosts accuracy, speed, and integration quality, which beats juggling half-understood “shiny objects.” Dial in those tools, track your time saved, and move on—depth wins every day.
Do I need a CS degree to become an AI pro?
No. You can become an AI pro without a CS degree by leveraging no-code interfaces and free online courses. Platforms like Google’s Generative AI learning path, Coursera’s AI For Everyone, and OpenAI documentation teach prompt design, ethics, and deployment with zero coding prerequisites. Start with these structured playlists, build small proof-of-concepts, and layer skills as you grow. Credentials don’t ship product—execution does.
Will AI kill my job as a founder?
AI replaces repetitive execution, not entrepreneurial vision—founders who direct AI create new value. Delegate admin, data crunching, and boilerplate to models, then reinvest freed time into strategy, market sensing, and customer empathy. Companies that pair human insight with AI leverage grow faster and raise valuations [McKinsey, 2025]. Stop worrying about robots; start leading them.
What is the fastest AI habit to build?
A 3-prompt “daily reps” session stacked onto an existing routine is the quickest habit to cement. Immediately after your morning read or workout, fire three role-based prompts: one to ideate, one to refine, one to automate. Repeat for seven days, measure time saved, and iterate prompts. Consistency trains both you and the model. Treat prompts like push-ups—get your reps in, compound the gains, and watch leverage skyrocket.
More Resources
Tools Mentioned
ChatGPT – Used for advanced prompting, content creation, and task automation; a core AI tool in Dan’s daily workflow.
TikTok – Used to curate AI-focused content in your feed by searching and commenting with “FYP” to signal your interests to the algorithm.
Instagram – Dan’s platform of choice for sharing resources, offers, and connecting with followers via DMs.
Zoom – Mentioned as the tool used for hosting weekly mastermind lunches with other AI learners and creators.
Uber – Used as an example of disruption and opportunity in tech innovation — highlighting how new industries attract people from outside traditional roles.
Full Transcript
How I’d Learn AI in 2025 (if I could start over) – YouTube
Transcript:
(00:00) I’ve been programming since I was 17, and even I feel the pressure to keep up with AI. New tools drop daily. Everyone’s an expert, and the more you search for answers, the harder it gets to move forward. But after diving deep, learning everything I could about AI, building my own AI companies, I’ve realized something.
(00:19) The real problem isn’t that AI is hard to learn. It’s that you’re stuck in the noise. So today I’m going to break down a simple four- stage road map to go from AI beginner to AI pro even if you have zero technical background. Stage one, choose your AI toolkit. I’ve got a friend. He’s a freaking genius. His name is Chris.
(00:38) He literally goes chasing AI tool, knows them all, tells you how they all work. But when you look at his life, he’s the same Chris I met 10 years ago. And the reason why is he keeps resetting. See, most people get into this squirrel mentality of collecting information about AI. What’s more important is that you apply it and actually get a result from it.
(01:01) Most people have too many options. They think they don’t have enough. So, they’re worried that they’re going to fail by not saying yes to everything. I’m telling you, it’s the saying no to all the options and picking one and going hard in the paint. Instead of going a mile wide and an inch deep, go a mile deep and learn these tools.
(01:16) See, most beginners die from indigestion, not starvation. So, here’s how to pick your toolkit. First off, we have to audit your task list. We got to look at all the things that you’re doing every day that’s just sucking up your time that’s draining your energy that AI was specifically designed to help you overcome.
(01:35) Make that list and start looking for groups of activities that you can use AI to do for you. Next, you have to think about what is a bucket of things that you’re working on that AI could help you with and pick two tools for that specific task. If it’s copywriting, if it’s answering phone calls, if it’s writing emails, if it’s coming up with ideas, and you think there’s no way that AI can do it, trust me, it can.
(01:56) The reason we want two tools is so that we can figure out which one’s going to best accomplish it for the way we like. See, a lot of people don’t like AI cuz it doesn’t feel like the way I do it. Okay, guess what? Two tools, two different outcomes. Pick the one that feels most organic to you and run with it.
(02:12) Next, we want to commit to seven days in a row of doing the work, picking that one tool and applying it to that task until we figure it out. And I get it. You might overwhelm yourself. You might get frustrated. It may not initially do it exactly the way you want, but just play with it. The cool thing about AI, it gets better and better every freaking week.
(02:32) Finally, make it a habit. I call this habit stacking. See, most people have a hard time adding something new to their life because they don’t force themselves to wake up and stack that against another habit. So the way I do it is I find something that today I do no matter what. And then I add to that new behavior so that I stack it against something else.
(02:51) So I like to read every day in the morning. So when I really wanted to plug in this AI world of mine, I added prompting AI after I read in the same chair three prompts every day for months. Now my default is to go to AI. I’ve already used it 26 times today and it’s the first thing in the morning. Now that you’ve chosen which tool to use, it’s time to get really freaking good at how to use them.
(03:13) I call this prompt like a pro. The other day I was hanging out with my buddy and he’s like, I use AI. Look at this. Hey AI, tell me what the weather’s going to look like tomorrow. Isn’t that cool? I’m like, bro, do not think asking it to tell you what the weather is tomorrow is using AI. It can do way more.
(03:31) For example, I sit on a board. incredible company. I was busy with a lot of other projects. I got the board packed. This is all the information, the financial analysis, the update from the CEO, any other notes from anybody else on those executive teams. And I didn’t have a chance to look it over. So, what did I do? I took all that information and I plugged it into my own private AI cuz it’s private and it’s secure and it’s safe.
(03:51) And then I asked it, hey, act as an investor and tell me what are the five questions I should be asking the CEO based on this information. The call started, everybody starts asking questions, and then finally I get my turn. The first questions got the CEO looking at me like, “How did you know that?” That information around gross margin was on page 27 of the financial plan and I didn’t even know it and you asked me about it.
(04:15) The truth is, I don’t like to work hard. I like to work smart, and AI makes me wildly smart. You essentially need to become a prompt engineer, but I’ll show you how to get the same results without spending years trying to become one. So, this is my four-step prompting process to go from AI beginner to AI pro. The first one is the role. You have to tell it act like it.
(04:34) I literally get really fun with these. I tell it to act like the most eccentric version of the person because what that does is it allows the AI to look at all the information it has and discount or add things that it knows only that kind of person would be interested in. Next, we want to give it the context.
(04:51) I like using AI to help me with financial planning. So, what did I give it? I gave it everything. I gave it my bank statements. I gave it all of my past investments. I gave it all the legal documents. Then I ask it questions like based on my age and my goals, what do you think I should consider adjusting? These are things that people pay some other person to do for them that AI can not only do it better faster without the freaking attitude.
(05:17) Next, we want to give it the command. Essentially, we want to tell it what we want. So if you want it, for example, to draft a legal document, you have to give it the command for what it’s trying to accomplish based on what you gave it. Next, we want to give it the format. And this for me, I think a lot of people misunderstand how powerful this is.
(05:34) Format, yes, is a list, but format’s also a spreadsheet, a PDF, a JSON output for the nerds in the audience. You can literally ask it to write the code for your next idea and watch it spit back code. Now, this is a cheat code of cheat codes. At the end, once you’ve talked to AI and you’ve given all the prompt engineering, you gotten to an answer you like, here’s a really great way to get there faster, ask it to write the prompt that would have got you to that result faster and it will give it to you.
(06:02) And then all of a sudden, now you’re learning how to talk to AI in a more productive manner. Which, by the way, if you’re a business owner and you want my stepbystep prompting format for all areas of your business, just go find me on Instagram. It’s Dan Martell to Elsa Martell and follow me. then message me the word YouTube prompt and I will send it directly to you.
(06:22) So now you know which tools and how to use them. But with how fast everything’s changing, you have to create your own learning rhythm. Schools don’t teach kids AI. If anything, they get in massive trouble if they even consider using it. Now, I get it. Some teachers are like, “Yeah, but you don’t understand.
(06:38) If you let them use it, they’re never going to learn anything.” I completely disagree. I have been teaching my kids AI from the moment it was released. They use it every day for their creative projects. And what I’m supposed to pretend like the future doesn’t have AI in it. That’s like when before we had the internet, if people wanted to learn something, they had to like walk to the library to get a book and find the right book.
(06:58) They had the answer to their question. And then the internet came along and all of a sudden it got brought to us. AI is the exact same thing. And you’re telling me we shouldn’t let people use the internet and instead force them to walk to the library to learn? Not something I can support.
(07:13) Because once you stop learning, you start dying. This is the AI learning rhythm that’s going to turn you into a pro. First, it comes down to daily consumption. I’m a big fan of using my feed to feed my mind. So, I want to make sure that wherever I put my time and attention, it’s feeding me the things that I want to get better. So, here’s how I do it.
(07:31) I open up my phone and I go to Tik Tok and I search for AI construction or whatever your field is and then I give it a FYP in the comments of the videos that it shows me. So, it tells the algorithm to change my algorithm to only show me things that is relevant to what I’m doing. Whatever your role is, you literally do that. And now, when you go on TikTok, you will have a feed that’s going to teach you how to become an AI pro.
(07:54) Next, you want to create your weekly mastermind. I’m a big fan of learning through osmosis. So, what I did months ago is I decided to do a weekly mastermind with people I saw online creating content. And it’s very simple. They don’t even know me. I reach out to them. them. I ask them if they want to come have lunch on Zoom and we just talk.
(08:13) One of my favorite questions to ask them right now is what do you think they’re going to release in the next frontier model. Talking to people that are doing it at the frontier that you find on social media using the first step is how you stay competitive. Next, we want to do a monthly tool audit. Go back to step one and go back to all the tasks that you’re working on and specifically the things that suck your energy that you really don’t want to do and ask yourself, can AI today replace that work? See what you can do today changes every 3 months in a massive way.
(08:43) Finally, a quarterly event or going to a workshop. At the end of the day, there’s no way that you on your own with your assistant can recruit and have these meetings every week and it’s going to give you coverage. What I want to encourage you to do is find the AI focused event in your industry or at least the industry event and hopefully they have a whole section on AI.
(09:03) I’d be a little bit concerned if they didn’t. And go sit in that room. Be around those people. That’s where you find potential peers, advisors or vendors that can help you solve the biggest problems you’ve got using AI so you can get leverage because you don’t want to default to labor. You want to look for leverage.
(09:18) But there’s one last shift, and honestly, it’s the one that will make sure you stay ahead because it’s not just about using AI to get stuff done. You need to become a director, not a doer. People ask me all the time, will AI replace me? How do I stay competitive? Here’s what I’ve learned. There’s only three things AI won’t replace. One, vision.
(09:40) Can you predict and see a future that doesn’t exist yet that should? taste. See, AI, just like great music, it doesn’t know when to stop taking things away to consider something complete. Your taste by reviewing 1,500 different Facebook ads, but understanding what the market’s going to resonate with. That is invaluable. And lastly, it’s care.
(10:01) A lot of people call this EQ, emotional intelligence. Your ability to care for people, to interact with people in a caring way that AI will not disrupt. So, you need to become a visionary. You need to become somebody that can predict and see around the corner because AI will take care of the last mile.
(10:18) So this is how you become a director, not a doer. First, we have to stop being busy. A lot of people confuse busyiness with motion. If most of your day is just busy task work, backto back. You have to step back and look for ways automating all of that stuff because in 10 years, AI will be doing 99% of your to-do list.
(10:38) Next, we have to upgrade our taste. This is about understanding what great output looks like. It doesn’t matter if it’s art or business or leadership. You want to study the best in the world. You want to look at what they’re doing and ask yourself, what’s the pattern that they’re all following that’s contributing to that success? Honestly, that’s why I love social media.
(10:58) A lot of people say it can be used for harm. I think it’s the most helpful thing in the world if you use it properly. So go find those examples, follow those people, study those videos on YouTube, and just go and bathe in worldclass mastery. Next, we have to simplify our thinking. See, to be a great director, you need to be able to explain complex problems in a simple way.
(11:19) Let other people go, “Oh, that makes sense.” So, being able to understand what’s available out there, but then create a plan that’s simple, but powerful, that’s going to make you an AI pro. And lastly, we have to practice self-reflection. A life unexamined is a life not lived. We have to look at ways that we can get feedback from other people. It could be our team.
(11:38) It could be our family members. You have to be willing to seek the feedback, the self-reflection to understand, is my calendar getting better? Am I becoming more effective? Is AI giving me more time back? I know AI is overwhelming, but honestly, if you follow this simple road map, you’ll stay ahead of 99% of the people.
(11:57) You’re watching this because you’re like, “Hey, I don’t want to be one of those people that wake up and go, hey, what happened to the horse and buggy and why is everybody driving around these cars?” But here’s what I’ve seen cuz I’m a technology guy. When Uber launched, are all the people that drive Uber’s previous taxi drivers or are they just normal people that shifted into new roles? Most of them never drove a taxi before they drove Uber.
(12:19) The truth is is as innovation creates new opportunity, we’re just going to have people migrate from one skilled area to another. That’s what happened in the industrial revolution and many other transitions along the way. But the difference is the people that were here ahead of the curve and wanted to take advantage, they sold the picks and shovels to all the people looking for gold.
(12:40) That’s the opportunity in front of you. Now, if you want to learn how to get rich in the new AI era, click the video and I’ll see you on the other