If you can’t say the visual’s job in 10 words, you’ll keep shipping pretty nonsense. It’s because you’re asking for a picture, when you actually need a repeatable visual system. Do this the next time you need a graphic for a post, a deck slide, or a thumbnail (Gemini works great for this). Step 1: Decide the job of the visual in one sentence. Example: “Make this post skimmable for busy operators.” If you can’t say the job, you’ll keep generating pretty nonsense. Step 2: Pick one layout you can reuse for 30 days. Stop reinventing design every time. Pick one: - Big headline + simple icon - Numbered checklist card - 2-column “Problem / Fix” - Quote card with a strong border Step 3: Give Gemini a “visual spec” instead of vibes. Copy/paste this and fill it in: Asset: (LinkedIn 4:5 image, 1080x1350) Topic: (what this is about) Audience: (who it’s for) Message: (the one takeaway) On-image text: (max 10 words) Style words: (pick 3: clean, bold, calm, technical, playful, editorial) Colors: (2-3 hex codes) Fonts: (any preference, or “clean sans-serif”) Composition: (centered, lots of whitespace, left-aligned text, etc.) Brand element: (one repeated thing: thin border, corner tag, small icon style) Avoid: (no faces, no clutter, no gradients, no fake “3D”) Step 4: Generate a set, not a single image. Ask for 8 variations of the same spec: - 4 with icon-led layout - 4 with text-led layout You’re trying to find a “house style,” not win the lottery. Step 5: Lock the style with one keeper. When you get one that’s close, tell Gemini: “Use this exact style for 5 more images with different headlines. Keep the same layout, colors, and spacing.” Now you’ve got a system. Here’s a real example you can steal for your next ops post: Asset: LinkedIn 4:5 image, 1080x1350 Topic: Weekly team update Audience: founders + operators Message: Updates should reduce questions, not create them On-image text: “A weekly update that stops Slack chaos” Style words: clean, calm, structured

Huge Win as I continue to apply the 1% effort rule daily. The biggest lie I tell myself is "I'll do this when I have time." Time never shows up. Inertia does. The fix is the 1% rule. Not 1% better. 1% effort. The smallest deliberate action you can take on the thing you're avoiding. In practice: - Open the project you've been avoiding. Read one paragraph of the docs. Close it. - Send one outreach message to one prospect on your list. - Write one line of the email you've been drafting in your head for a week. - Refactor one function. One. Then stop. - Test one new tool you've been meaning to try. Hit one button. Done. That's it. No streaks. No accountability hacks. No new app. Three things this actually does: 1. Breaks the resistance loop. Starting is the hard part. The 1% bypasses resistance because there's nothing to resist. 2. Keeps the project alive. A task touched today does not decay into avoidance. A task ignored for two weeks becomes a different beast. 3. Compounds quietly. One paragraph a day is a finished doc by month-end. One outreach a day is a real pipeline by quarter-end. The point is consistency, not volume. The mistake is thinking you need a clear afternoon and full motivation. You don't. You need 90 seconds and the discipline to stop after. Try it on the thing you've been avoiding the longest. Set a 90 second timer. Do the smallest version of it. Close the laptop. What's the thing you'd run this on?

Built a newsletter for a friend's business using Claude Code, Nano Banana for free image generation and Groq for research. Honestly pretty happy with how it came together! 💡 What clicked for me today: Two things that genuinely changed how I work using a CLAUDE.md file to give Claude clear instructions upfront, and running plan mode before executing. Both saved a ton of time and tokens. Wish I'd known this earlier! 🔧 What I'd improve next time: Being more mindful of token usage from the start. I hit the daily limits mid-flow, which was a good reminder to plan around usage caps before diving in and not after! Would love to hear from the community, any tips or strategies you use to manage token usage efficiently? Whether it's structuring prompts better, breaking tasks into smaller chunks, or anything else --- all suggestions welcome! 🙏 Huge thanks to Nate for building this classroom and community, it's made jumping in so much easier. And to everyone taking time to encourage and support others here, that means a lot. Good luck to all the newcomers joining the challenge! 💪 #AISChallenge

I built the newsletter for seven day challenge. I learnt that in gets easier as you repeat. And also even though clause does most of the work for you it’s good to understand some of the process so you give the proper guidance Excited to keep learning and building in this community!!

Let’s take it back to the very beginning... What was your very first experience using AI? Was it ChatGPT? Midjourney? Some random AI voice assistant you asked about the weather in 2021? Here are a few prompts to get you going: - What tool did you use first, and why did you try it? - What did you think was happening behind the scenes? - Were you blown away? Confused? Skeptical?