Aaron Norris Consulting

I’ve closed hundreds of millions in B2B revenue over the last 14 years — including 6 at Amazon — but none of that matters if you’re burning out, plateauing, or playing small.

I created a new model—one that lands new clients, scales revenue, builds real wealth, and fuels a life you actually want to live. There is no hustle hard, no fluffy methodology, just clarity, mindset, execution, and winning the right way.

Now I work with founders, leaders, and top performers who are done chasing and ready to dominate — in business, sales and life.

Founder / Exec Sales Coach

Jones Media Publishing

Author | Sales Life

Hard Skill Exchange

Train with the best, become the best: https://hardskill.exchange/coaches/5062/

Exec Sales Coach

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Enterprise Sales

Computacenter

Sales - Enterprise, Global & Major Accounts

The Elite Account Exec Accelerator 🚀 | Career, Earnings & Revenue Growth the Human & Healthy Way 📈 | Ex-Principal AE @ AWS☁️ | DM me ACCELERATE to learn more 💬

Sales success shouldn’t cost you your sanity.

Early in my career, I chased deals with no strategy or philosophy.

I was reactively trying to "close" everyone and anything, thinking I was doing everything that looked like success — but the results were mediocre.

Then, everything changed when I stopped trying to do it all myself and started building, inspiring and leading teams (most recently at AWS) to sell 6, 7, and 8-figure deals.

Since then, I've coached top leaders and performers across the UK, US, UAE, and Singapore.

I'm the author of Sales Life — a blueprint to building a successful sales career without sacrificing your health, time with your family, or life.

Today, I help high-performing sellers, sales leaders, and CXOs in B2B tech do three things:

1. Win career-defining deals
2. Lead with clarity, calm, and impact
3. Build systems that scale execution and align with their personal vision

This isn’t theory. This is what works in the real world — with the receipts to back it up.

I've worked directly with sellers and leaders at global brands including AWS, Salesforce, Daemon, Splunk, Sayari and Elastic.

“Aaron helped me lead my team more effectively and instil best practices that completely changed how I perform. The results speak for themselves: 330% of quota achieved, President's Club & Top Performance awards, and a 7-figure mega deal closed."
 — Major Public Sector Account Executive, Cybersecurity

“Aaron has really helped us rethink the way we drive our revenue. He's helped us grow a strong pipeline and confidence in enterprise sales."
 — Chief Growth Officer, Cloud Tech Consultancy

"I've worked closely with Aaron over the past 12 months. Together, we landed a 7-figure new logo and secured my dream role — but more importantly, I started thinking and operating at a completely different level."
 — US East Enterprise Account Executive, GenAI Platform

Here's what I offer:

✔ 1:1 coaching for the 1% of sellers and sales leaders
✔ Strategic consulting and team coaching for B2B sales orgs
✔ Creation and embedded sales systems that grow with your team, not around them

If you’re ready to lead better, sell smarter, and build a career (and life) that actually fits — let’s chat.

DM me "Sales" or book a call with me here: https://calendly.com/aaron-norris2023/20-minute-session

Aaron Norris 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️

BREAKING NEWS: Sales Life signs exclusive two-year partnership deal with 30FC Wolves U7s 🐺⚽️

In a landmark deal for the grassroots football team, "Sales Life" becomes the Official Performance Partner of 30FC Wolves U7s - helping the next generation of Mancunian footballers master a “think big” mindset, personal development, and bravery on the pitch.

The partnership will see the Sales Life logo proudly featured across matchday jackets, as well as the occasional sponsored bacon butty and bag of sweets for the Player of the Match.

In return, the Wolves have committed to:
- A 100% increase in effort (especially when it’s raining)
- Improved conversion rates on shots to goals in Q4
- Full adoption of the “Courage over Compliance” mindset

Early results?
Promising.

One young star was overheard saying,
“We don’t chase the ball… we stick to the Account Plan.”

#SalesLife #GrassrootsFootball #Sponsorship #SalesLifeBook #30FCWolves

Aaron Norris

Still don’t understand why more Ent AEs and Sales Leaders aren’t using this…

Would be my #1 ask of the business if I were still an AE.

And if they said no?
I’d probably use it anyway and look forward to explaining how I hit the top.

Caught up on this golden 20 mins with Nate Nasralla and Peter Sheehan (VP @ Informatica) early this morning.
Easily some of the most relevant content for enterprise sellers I’ve watched this year.

Ps. this isn’t a sponsored post

Link to the recording: https://lnkd.in/eKShTVkb

“Oh… this isn’t just another sales rep.”

That’s what the SE told him she'd witnessed as they debriefed over airport beers.
And in ent sales, that realisation is a breakthrough moment...the exact second you know you’ve found a new level.

An Enterprise AE I’m working with secured an exec meeting with a PE-backed  software company trying to migrate a huge legacy customer base to more profitable SaaS products.

He didn’t lead with a product.
He didn’t talk features.
He didn’t try to “get to the demo.”
He didn’t do anything they’d expect from an AE.

He led with an executive, business-level point of view on their transformation... a narrative about their pressures, their economics, their next 5 years.
No slides.
Laptop stayed in the bag.

And the room responded instantly:
the entire mood change
They leaned in (he saw their physical posture change, and he knew he had their attention)

He held 90 minutes with an SVP who normally declines sales meetings
His predecessor never even got close to meeting them

This kind of approach didn’t just help.
It elevated him.
It changed who he was in that room.

This is the unlock most AEs never experience
Most won't even brave it

When your business perspective becomes the value…
you stop being “a seller”
and start being the person executives wants to listen to.

Executives don’t lean in for bits of tech.
They lean in for people who understand their world
and who can help architect a future of growth (the one they desire)

If you want to get to the 7/8-figure wins:
Ditch the decks.
Stop selling products.
Start offering perspective.

Someone wise (and undoubtedly wealthy) once said:
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.”
They were right.

Every Nov/Dec, I slow down.
Look up.
Decide what next year will look like before it begins.

I know the big leaps I’ll make starting in January.
Always did, back when I was selling (and closing Q4) too.

Most don’t.
They crawl exhausted to the finish line with underwhelming results,
Then act surprised when January feels like another mountain to climb.

By the time they’ve found their spark again,
They’ve already lost a month.
And the year starts in chase mode.

You don’t start the work in Q1.
You collect the compound interest of what you built in Q4
The prep you did while no one was watching.

Next quarter’s already being written.
Make sure it’s you with the pen.

I help AWS public sector customers innovate and use the cloud to transform the way they work. Change is hard, I inspire leaders and executives to realise the potential for their organisation. I run workshops, speak at events, write articles, and I am always open to new engagement ideas.

Manager - Customer Innovation Programs EMEA

I am responsible for executive visioning engagements in EMEA. I deliver enterprise strategy days for senior customer executives to help them frame their business challenges in terms of customers and plan achievable outcomes.

Executive Visioning Lead EMEA

Whether you’re looking for compute power, database storage, content delivery or other functionality, AWS has the services to help you build sophisticated applications with increased flexibility, scalability and reliability. Find out more here: https://aws.amazon.com/

Digital Transformation BDM

Rackspace, the #1 managed cloud company

In this consultative role I help customers and prospects develop a digital strategy, from the release of a new application to full business transformation. I have a strong focus on delivering outstanding customer experience and measurable business benefits. I call on a wealth of experience from working with large enterprises to high growth start ups. I am an advocate of automation and DevOps culture to deliver efficiency.

Chief Digital Technologist

Using proven cloud and virtualisation technologies I was responsible for designing high performance, resilient infrastructure solutions for transactional workloads. These were typically for ecommerce platforms such as Hybris, Magento, WebSphere and Oracle ATG.

Solutions Architect (e-commerce specialist)

PEER 1 Hosting

In this role I was responsible for the UK technical pre-sales function at Peer1. I was responsible for developing high performance, redundant hosting solutions - primarily leveraging the VMware technology stack.

Solutions Engineer

IT Lab

Primary technical contact for contracted clients.
Responsible for technical support escalations, annual IT strategy, ICT solution design and technical pre sales.

IT Manager / Technical Project Manager

MITIE Group PLC

IT infrastructure project delivery, IT strategy, process development

Project manager

SITA

Provided seamless global support on a 24-hour basis, for a wide range of remote access software. Worked with Asian and US teams and supported foreign language customers.

Application Support Specialist

Innovation at Amazon • I post about work effectiveness • Follow me for daily productivity tips 🚀

Hi, I'm Mike 👋

I have 25+ years experience in the IT industry. Today, I help AWS customers innovate and transforming their culture so they can use technology effectively. I lead a high-performance team in EMEA.

You might find me speaking at executive briefings, conferences, or running team workshops. I share innovation insights and success stories that inspire others to experiment.

I'm going on a journey of self-discovery and personal transformation. I share everything that I learn in daily posts. If you are struggling to get things done or you want to take back control of your time, I'm here to help.

Say hello, I'd love to hear from you!

Mike Bainbridge

Did you miss me? The break is over.

The era of polite LinkedIn productivity content is over.

For the last three years, my daily posts focused on crushing procrastination and winning back 30 minutes in your day. Productivity was the game.

But the rules have fundamentally changed.

I recently spent time talking with friends and colleagues across the tech industry. We all agree: AI is rewriting the rules of professional value.

• A report that took a day to write can be done in an hour
• You can build a professional website from scratch with no coding skills
• Need a project name and logo? Done in minutes

I’m sure you’ve all been blown away by what is possible. Sometimes AI feels like magic.

But now, the real competitive edge isn’t finding 30 extra minutes. It’s figuring out how to survive the 20% headcount reduction your company is quietly planning with AI.

AI investment demands a clear return. Cost reduction, often through "staff optimisation", seems to be the name of the game. We are already seeing the cuts.

The good news? Everyone starts equal. Nobody has ten years of experience using this technology. Now is the time to act decisively.

My new content will focus on the three pillars you need to master for success:

1. Tactical AI Adoption: Moving past the free tier and building a clear, repeatable habit of using premium tools daily.

2. Continuous Learning: Why doing nothing is the biggest career risk, and how to build an experimentation and learning discipline.

3. Redefining your Value: Shifting your professional focus from predictable execution (which AI excels at) to human-led context, judgment, and connection.

Are you ready to talk about the reality of AI adoption?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. Let me know in the comments.

And I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #growth, #innovation, #leadership, #development, and #transformation

I remember the first time I facilitated a workshop.

I was terrified. 😬

It was the fear of the unknown:

• What if the content didn't land?
• What if the customer didn’t understand the activity and I couldn’t explain it clearly?
• What if we ran out of time and missed the key impact? 

In the end, it all worked out, but every time I run a new high-stakes session, I have to be ready to pivot and put in a ton of work in advance.

The best workshops are designed before the first attendee walks in the room. 🏗️

Before AI, pre-gaming an executive workshop meant painful internal rehearsal, second-guessing the agenda, and desperately trying to anticipate pushback. It was high-effort, high-anxiety work.

I recently built an AI workflow that turns that exhausting preparation into a focused 45-minute session. Here’s my approach:

(1) The Critical Co-Pilot: I feed the tool my full agenda, desired outcomes, and participant roles. I then ask it to "Act as the most sceptical CIO in the room and find three weaknesses in this plan." 🤖

(2) Facilitator Notes: I use the AI's output to create targeted facilitator notes and "if-then" scenarios for potential discussion deviations. These help me plan a smooth workshop with great transitions.

(3) Delivery Practice: The AI critiques my framing and even writes the harsh counter-arguments I need to be ready for. This forces me to sharpen my answers and means I'm ready for anything.

I walk into the room knowing where the pressure points are, and how to pivot smoothly when the discussion goes off-script.

The outcome is pure confidence. 💪

It's a great example of using technology to dramatically improve your human skills.

If you’re thinking, "but I don’t run workshops," you can apply the same approach to meetings, customer calls, or team brainstorming sessions.

The real difference is: Rather than telling your AI chatbot to build something, work with it to take a critical look at your work.

Have you tried using AI to push you and take on the role of a customer? I’d love to hear about your own experience. Let me know in the comments (or even DM if you're a little shy 😉)

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

The 3 step workshop plan

The real barrier to mastering AI isn't the skill set. 

It's the cost of a cinema ticket.

Most people I speak to (easily 3 in every 4) are not paying for a premium AI tool and just use the free tier. This is the first mistake.

A cinema ticket costs £10 for two hours of passive entertainment and we’re happy to pay, yet we’ll avoid a £20/month tool that could significantly change our career trajectory. 🎬

The irony is stark.

You might think I’m being a little dramatic with “significantly change our career trajectory” but I honestly believe this.

It's not about being cheap. It's about not appreciating how critical this investment is. This is like turning up to work with an old Nokia phone when everyone else is running the iPhone 17 Pro. 📱

You're at a strategic disadvantage from the start.

The hidden catch of the free tool is obsolescence, poor quality, and limits.

I currently subscribe to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to ensure I'm testing the best. My biggest advantage is reliability and cutting-edge features. 🚀

Premium tools unlock new models (like GPT-5.1), allow web access, and handle massive volumes of data. That translates directly to a faster, higher-quality output.

But the real benefit for me was the motivation hack.

When you commit money, you commit time. Just like booking a session with a personal trainer, paying for the tool forces you to show up and practise.

Commitment drives adoption.

When I'm paying, I want to make sure I get something in return!

Even if your company provides a paid tool for work, I'd encourage you to use your own paid environment for personal, risk-free experimentation and side-projects. This self-driven learning is how you build an internal moat.

The biggest career mistake is waiting for your employer to enable you.

Your colleague who commits the $20 today is building expertise that you are funding with your own inaction.

Stop waiting. Start acting.

I challenge you: Invest in the market leader today. Sign up for ChatGPT Plus. This is how I got started. It's $20 per month, you can cancel anytime, and it's the fastest way to get ahead.

(BTW This is not a paid promotion, sadly!) 😂

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

No alternative text description for this image

Welcome to the knowledge trap ⚠️

Your best competitive edge as a tech seller is dead.

For years, solution architects, business developers, and technical sellers built their careers on an informational edge. Knowing the products, understanding features, and sketching complex cloud architectures faster than anyone else. 

That knowledge was power.

And I should know - I’ve been doing it for over 10 years.

Today, your customer can prompt an AI chatbot 🤖 to instantly compare 15 vendor solutions, reference every public use case, and even draft a basic architecture.

Your hard-earned knowledge is now a commodity.

Your value is no longer about what you know. So what’s the new approach?

It’s about how well you understand your customer and their challenges 💡

The best SAs and tech sellers are transitioning their time from information recall to context and trust:

• AI handles the architecture. You handle the internal politics, budget cycles, and strategic needs that the model cannot see.

• AI provides the data. You provide the judgment and the empathy needed to translate that data into a credible, winning vision.

I know what you’re thinking. Hasn’t this always been the case? The best SAs and sellers have always done this.

Right - but with the power of AI your engagements are super-charged ⚡

The proof? A colleague I know used AI to do pre-meeting deep customer research. They synthesised public financial data, competitive analysis, and industry trends to understand the challenges their customer was facing. This information didn’t help them sell more, but allowed them to listen better on the call, join the dots, and demonstrate they could provide real contextual value.

The goal isn't just to be fast. It's to be more relevant.

Use the speed from AI to buy back time for deeper human connection 🤝

My suggestion on how to get started?

Next time you prep for a client meeting, write down 3 things that are not related to technology that could lose the deal (e.g. budget, politics, timing).

One for the tech sellers - what do you think?

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

The biggest career risk in 2025 isn’t AI replacing your job.

It’s you falling behind.

It’s your colleagues quietly becoming twice as valuable — without you noticing. ⚡

Most people imagine AI disruption as a dramatic, visible moment.

• A layoff announcement
• An automation replacing a team
• A new tool rolled out across the company 🛠️

In reality, the danger is far more subtle.

Last month, I watched a colleague transform the quality of his customer meetings. Not because he worked harder - but because he changed how he worked.

Here’s his workflow: 
• Every customer discussion is recorded.
• Transcribes the full conversation.
• Feeds it into an AI tool that analyses the transcript, extracts patterns, identifies risks, and highlights opportunities.

The output? 
A structured, strategic, insanely thorough report that would have taken hours to produce - if he ever had the time at all. 📑

Suddenly, he’s showing up with insights none of us were generating:

(1) His recommendations are sharper.
(2) His customer conversations go deeper
(3) His preparation looks world-class

He hasn’t just become faster. This is not about speed or saving time.

He’s producing a level of quality he never had time to reach before.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

• That quality advantage becomes a perception advantage. 
• He now appears more prepared, more thoughtful, and more valuable in every meeting.

And customers feel it.✨

Better insights lead to clearer decisions. 
Clearer decisions lead to trust. 
Trust wins deals.

This is value erosion in the real world. 
Your work stays the same - but the benchmark quietly moves upward.

The good news? 
Today, maybe 5–10% of people are doing this. 
There is still time to act.

Try this once: 
Record → Transcribe → AI Analyse → Synthesis Report. 
Do it this week. You’ll never prep the old way again.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

The typical approach to AI:

Find tool → Force it into workflow → Frustration 😱

It's typical human nature - we love solving problems, enjoy the challenge, and immediately focus on solutions.

You see this everywhere when you start to identify it.

And it's showing up in the way people are using AI:
• “Write this.”
• “Fix this.”
• “Summarise this.”
And then they’re disappointed when the output is average.

The problem isn’t the AI.
The problem is skipping straight to the solution without exploring the workflow and thinking about what you're trying to achieve.

The habit that actually builds AI fluency starts much earlier: 
👉 Break down the task first.
👉 Explore the problem.
👉 Then co-design the solution.

I call this the Workflow Discovery Conversation - and it’s the simplest, most effective daily habit you can build.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick a real task you’re already doing.
Don’t invent anything! For exampel: a reporting doc, a meeting summary, or a customer email.

2. Ask the AI to map your workflow.
Prompt:
“Walk me through the steps I would normally take to complete this task. Highlight the decision points, research steps, and areas where I usually get stuck.”
This reveals blind spots and structure you didn’t know you had.

3. Then ask: “Where could you help me reduce 80% of the effort?” 💡 
This is problem discovery. 
AI will help you uncover which part of the task is bottlenecking your progress.

4. Co-design a reusable prompt.
Prompt: 
“Based on that workflow, help me write a reusable prompt that reliably produces the output I want.”
Now you have a blueprint 📝 — not just a one-off prompt.

5. Test it in a clean chat (this is the pro-upgrade).
Try it out in a new chat to check the result. This eliminates hidden context and validates that your prompt actually works. 

Save your best prompts in a “Prompt Library.” 📚 
This becomes the foundation of your AI habit - small, structured, compounding improvements.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to build the experiment loop that keeps this habit improving every week.

Today?
Check out the Workflow Discovery in action with my 2025 reflection example.

A simple 15 minute task that will help you reflect on what you've accomplished in the year.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

AI Workflow Discovery: end of year review

Many people use AI for random tasks.
A prompt here. A draft there.

They get excited with the results, but don’t use an experimental approach to reuse their work and double-down on it.

No structure. No repetition. No improvement.

That’s why they never see transformational results.

The 5–10% who are pulling ahead aren’t doing more with AI. They’re doing one high-leverage workflow deeply, consistently, and well.

Not sure where to start?

Here’s the one I recommend for everyone, it’s pretty universal:

Use AI to pre-plan every important customer meeting.
• It’s simple
• It’s fast
• And it helps you with repeatability.

Here’s the exact workflow (5 steps):

1. Paste your meeting description + context
> Give the AI the agenda, who’s attending, what you know about them, and the purpose of the meeting.
(Example - “This is a 30-minute call with a CIO exploring X. Here’s what I know...”)

2. Ask for “expected scenarios”
> AI will map 3–5 likely conversation paths, including the ones you’re not expecting.
This forces you to plan beyond the happy path.

3. Ask: “What are the critical questions they may ask that I’m not thinking about?”
> AI surfaces the uncomfortable questions you rarely prepare for - the ones that might usually catch you off-guard.
(This was the big change for me.)

4. Ask for “objections + counter-arguments”
> This gives you a cheat sheet of the hottest pressure points.
Use the AI to challenge you like your toughest customer would.

5. Generate a “Meeting Success Checklist”
> AI summarises your priorities, outcomes, risks, and signals to watch for.
You now have a 1-page plan that sharpens your thinking before you say a word.

The result?

You walk into the meeting confident, prepared, and already ahead.

This is what the top 5% are doing.
Not because it’s trendy - but because it works.

Try this workflow for your next call. You’ll feel the difference immediately.

BTW - no prompts today, just some guidance. If you need help, ask the AI and be amazed at the results.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

The fastest way to learn AI skills isn’t practice.

It’s people.

Most professionals treat AI like a solo learning project. They "tinker" alone.

• They watch a few YouTube videos.
• They try a prompt once, get mediocre results, and move on.
• Their AI skills never stick. Because they're alone.

The people who are quietly improving week after week have one thing in common:

They’re learning as part of a team.

But my experience with colleagues shows the ones who learn together move much faster.

I have two colleagues at AWS who experiment with AI constantly. They analyse their work and find use cases for automating and improving what they do. 

We've started to meet regularly. There is no fixed agenda but we share:

• “What are you trying this week?”
• “What did you build that actually works?”
• “What broke, and how did you fix it?”

Every time I walk away with something that raises my bar. ⬆️

But most importantly, it motivates me to learn more.

It’s the same principle every career mentor teaches:
 
• Work with people who are slightly ahead of you.
• You don’t need a course.
• You need a community. 🏡

Here’s how to build your own micro-community this week (2 or 3 people is enough):

1. Find two curious colleagues.
People who ask questions, try things, and don’t mind experimenting.

2. Plan a weekly breakfast or coffee meet, just 15 mins.
Keep it tiny and consistent.

3. Share one thing each.
A workflow, a failure, a prompt, or something you built.

4. Collect the best ideas in a shared doc.
This becomes your evolving “team prompt bank”.

5. Experiment with the lessons from your group.
This is where real skill is formed. ⭐

AI is not a solo sport.

Build with people who pull you upward.
Your progress will accelerate more than you expect.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

The greatest lie about learning a new skill?

That discipline comes first.

We're all told that mastering a new skill requires commitment, struggle, and discipline.

Ever heard the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks?"

We assume that learning is difficult, especially if you're comfortable or already have tenure.

The real first step to learning is getting interested and excited in the topic. And it's even more important for building your AI fluency.

If you rely purely on discipline, you quit the moment you hit the inevitable wall of complex features or confusing interfaces.

You need genuine curiosity to keep you interested and motivated.

I've broken down the practice of continuous AI learning into three key pillars:
 
• Be Interested and Excited (The Motivation) 🔥 
• Build a Daily Practice (The Habit) 🗓️ 
• Find Your Community (The Accountability) 🤝 

This week, let's focus on the first pillar. How do you hack your own motivation? 

Try these:
(1) The Non-Work Test: Stop trying to solve your hardest spreadsheet problem immediately. Ask the AI to help you with a passion project, a fantasy sports team analysis, planning your next holiday or helping you write a short story. 🕺

(2) The Immersion Game: Actively seek out engaging content like short YouTube videos on new AI features or signing up to a mailing list. Consuming exciting, novel content fuels curiosity and motivation. 🔎

(3) The Tool Safari: Explore a new AI tool per week (e.g., a music generator, a creative image editor, or a NotebookLM project). The objective isn't mastery, but discovery and sparking ideas. There are hundreds out there! 🚀

Find the fun first. The commitment comes easily once the excitement takes hold. 

Next week, we build the daily habit. I'll tell you how I've done it. 

Here are some fun personal projects I've used AI to help me with:

• Rebuilding my approach to Spotify playlists (took a while but it helped me re-create iTunes smart-playlists and have fun discovering new music). 

• Planning a city tour with stops for rarely seen historic sights and coffee shops that offer great pour-over with a variety of different beans.

• Learning the rules to a new card game that you play in a restaurant bar while you're waiting for your table to be ready (I always get there early!) 

What about you? Do you use AI to help with things outside of work? 🤔

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

Have you noticed how fast "best AI practices" are becoming outdated? 🤔

We’re in completely uncharted territory.

New models, new capabilities, new behaviours, showing up every single week. ⚡

What felt cutting-edge in Q1 or Q2 2024 already feels strangely old.

And here’s my favourite example from my own workflow:

For most of 2024, my go-to prompting framework was 👇

Persona → Task → Context → Format → Example

It was everywhere.

• Every AI guide taught it.
• Every workshop included it.
• And for a while, it worked beautifully.

But now?

Half of that framework doesn’t matter anymore.

Modern models don’t need a persona.
They’re not "pretending" to be a strategist, advisor, or consultant anymore. They infer tone, intent, and voice from context.

In fact, persona prompting often hurts the output by over-styling it. 🚫

The big shift now is moving to deeper context and framing.

2025 Prompting:
Tell the model what you’re doing, why it matters, and exactly what "great" looks like. 🔑

The real skill now isn’t memorising a framework.
It’s adaptability. 🏃♂️

Because the tools are changing faster than any static method can survive.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

We love to talk about the success we're having.

Not so much the things that don't work.

Here’s a story from last week.

I tried to automate part of my calendar using AI (I have a work calendar in outlook and a personal one on Google).

The idea felt simple:
→ Take a screenshot of my schedule
→ Save it in a folder
→ Let AI extract the events
→ Push the data into a workflow
→ Create new events so I have a single calendar view

It failed miserably!

• The model misread half the text.
• It guessed events that didn’t exist.
• It struggled with time-zones.
• The Zapier automation broke.

And I realised I was trying to automate something the AI simply wasn’t ready for.

However, this failed experiment taught me more than any successful prompt.

It forced me try new things:
• Break the workflow into smaller steps
• Think like a systems developer
• Debug prompts line by line
• Learn how Zapier thinks

The people who are quietly getting ahead right now aren’t the ones avoiding failure, they’re the ones who are running experiments.

With a sense of curiosity. They're pushing the AI tools to the limits.

So here’s my suggestion for today:
• Pick one task.
• Try to automate just one step of it.
• Expect it to break.
• Ask the AI why.
• Let it teach you what’s missing.

Our new AI tools are great learning buddies!

Success builds confidence.
Failure builds capability.

And capability is what will matter in 2026.

👍 If you like today's post.
💬 To let me know what you think.
🔁 To help share.

taplio

The Battle

Aaron Norris 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️

Mike Bainbridge

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAaron Norris 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMike Bainbridge's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Aaron Norris 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️

Mike Bainbridge

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Aaron Norris 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️'s LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMike Bainbridge's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAaron Norris 🚴‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️'s LinkedIn Performance