Chad’s Blog
Pragmatic Technologies for Life and Business Success®
Two members of the AI Insider Lab came in from different backgrounds, different skill levels, different expertise. They ran the same process and walked out with results that had almost nothing in common. One left with a metaphor that changed how he thinks about leverage. The other left claiming a tenfold jump in impact against effort. Neither outcome was promised. Neither was an accident. Together they prove something most people miss when they judge whether an AI program works.
The proof is not that the method produces a result. The proof is what your own thinking produces once you put the method to work with a real thinking partner.
The Ferrari and the 10x
Phil Symchych, founder of Grumpy CFO®, came into the Lab with decades of writing excellence and deep, successful business expertise. He ran through the Strategic AI Playbook exercise, the one I created, and every founding member completes, and what surfaced was a comparison that changed how he sees leverage entirely. Most people use AI, he said, like they are taking a Ferrari out for a test drive in a Walmart parking lot. They get the basics right, the car works, they drive it around the lot, and then they park it. The Playbook is what gets you on the actual racetrack.
Terry Schmidt, founder of ManagementPro, came in from a completely different angle. He described compressing what would have taken months of traditional work into days, and even commented about it on his own LinkedIn, unprompted: “As someone fortunate to be part of the foundational offering of the AI Insider Lab, I can only say WOW. This is a must for any professional who wants to 10x their impact with one tenth of the work.” Not the same outcome as Phil’s insight. A different category of result entirely. Same process, different thinking, different proof.
Why Two Different Results Are the Point
Here is the objection worth naming out loud: if the same process produces two unrelated outcomes, how do you know what you will get? Fair question. And the honest answer is the whole argument.
If every member walked out with the same result, the program would be a formula. Formulas are fragile, and they are also a tell: they mean the tool is doing the thinking. The Playbook does the opposite. It challenges your thinking, pressure tests your assumptions, and refuses to let you settle for the first answer. That friction is the engine. It is what turns AI from something that hands you output into something that sharpens your judgment. Different professionals bring different judgment, so they surface different truths. That is not unpredictability. That is the method doing exactly what it is built to do.
Which means the variable is not the process. It is you. The members who get the sharpest results are the ones who show up fully, sit in the discomfort of being challenged, and stay with the whole sequence instead of skimming it for a few good lines.
Feel It for Yourself
Open a new AI conversation and run this. Start with: “I am going to describe a decision I am making in my business. Do not validate it. Find the weaknesses. Argue against it directly, with no hedging.” Then describe the decision.
When it pushes back, fight back with the context only you have. Then flip it: “Now argue the opposite side. Defend the decision, and directly counter every objection you just raised.“
Read both sides. Then ask the question that does the real work: “Step outside both arguments. What did neither side address? What assumption are we both making that might be wrong?“
That is where the blind spot shows up, the one you cannot see from inside your own head. Notice what happened. The AI never handed you the answer. It just refused to let your first answer be your only answer.
What This Means for You
A program does not deliver results to you. You deliver results to yourself, and the program is the thinking partner that makes it possible. The quality of what you get depends on the quality of your thinking, the honesty of your engagement, and your willingness to be challenged before you reach clarity.
That is why the title of this piece is what it is. I can tell you the Playbook works. That is just a claim. Phil and Terry showing you two different wins from the same process is proof, and it is theirs, not mine. My part happens before you ever arrive: I build and test every exercise on my own business first. If it does not work on me, it never reaches you. What I hand you is not the result. It is a process already proven, waiting for your thinking to make it yours.
See It Happen
On Thursday, August 20 at 1:00 PM Eastern, I am running a free live working session. No slides. No theory. Real work, done live, the same way it happens inside the AI Insider Lab every month. Watch how I think, watch how I challenge AI, and watch how AI challenges me. You will see real workflows applied to real consulting problems, and you will leave with something you can use that same day, whether you join the Lab or not.
This is not a preview of the Lab. It is the Lab, for one hour, open to you.
Register for the Live Working Session at www.theaiinsiderlab.com.
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