You're Already in the Pool. Let's Swim.
90 minutes. Laptops open. Real talk, real demos, real hands-on time.
Part 1: The Real Talk (25 min)
Intros & Where You're At
Quick round: your name, role, and what AI tools you've used so far. No wrong answers. You're here because you want more.
Who I Am (and Who I'm Not)
Sarah shares her actual story: not an AI expert, not an engineer. An ops person whose CTO basically forced her into this. The progression from “Claude as a reading buddy” to building real things, and how it changed her work and personal life. The honest version, not the LinkedIn version.
The Reframe: Why This Is a 15-Year Play
Forget “AI is taking your job.” Think about early Tumblr, early YouTube. The people just messing around with no playbook are the ones who built empires. We're in that moment right now. Plus: why you need to use AI in your personal life AND work life to actually get good (the “two-pronged approach”).
Part 2: The Landscape (15 min)
What's Out There & Where Things Sit
A quick, honest tour: LLMs (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini), platforms (Cursor, Replit), AI-native tools, the new ecosystem (Vercel, Railway, GitHub). Where does vibecoding fit? What's a plugin vs. a skill vs. an MCP? We'll speed-run the glossary, and then you'll realize you can just ask Claude to explain anything you don't get.
Sarah's Progression: How I Got Here
A quick visual walk-through: Oct 2024 (reading buddy) → Dec 2024 (Cursor moment) → early 2025 (connecting tools, building workflows) → today. Seeing the actual timeline makes the learning curve feel real and doable.
Part 3: See It, Then Do It (35 min)
Live Demo: Real Things I've Built
3-4 real examples, work and personal. Board update from bullet points, a tracker, a personal trip plan, automating a repetitive workflow. Sarah talks through her thinking as she prompts, so you can see the process, not just the result.
Your Turn: Hands-On Working Session
Everyone opens Claude. Guided exercises: (1) Paste something messy from your work and ask Claude to clean it up, (2) Describe your most repetitive task and ask Claude how it would automate it, (3) Ask Claude something personal you've been curious about. Sarah floats around helping.
Part 4: The Commitment (15 min)
The “Claude Everything” Challenge
Your homework for the next week: every time a thought crosses your mind (“I wonder when the subway was built,” “what does this ingredient do,” “am I supposed to do toner first?”), go to Claude. Build it into your muscle memory. When it's natural to open Claude for little things, you'll start opening it for big things.
Your 30-Day Roadmap
Walk through the week-by-week plan (see Roadmap tab). Commit to one specific thing you'll try this week.
Q&A + Biggest Surprise
Go around: what surprised you most today? And remember, if you don't know something after today, the answer is always “ask Claude.”