If Your Message Isn't Working, Change It

Changing and adapting your business strategy to new contexts can often feel like trying to turn a cargo ship. It's slow, resource-intensive, and often requires extensive planning and coordination. Or at least it did. That era is officially over, I learned this firsthand when I built a business in three hours.

When my role as a prompt engineer at Dondo came to an end, I faced a classic entrepreneur's dilemma. I have a big venture in the works, but I need to pay my bills right now. So I set myself a challenge, could I go from business idea to full deployment in the least amount of time possible just using AI?

Enter AI Sherpa, my consulting business which I built in about three hours of focused work spread across a few days. Everything, from idea, business model, website, the whole package, was created using AI tools. It was probably the fastest business deployment I've ever done, and it actually worked. I started getting clients almost immediately.

But there was a problem.

As feedback started rolling in from people close to me, I realized I have a major disconnect in my communication. I was trying so hard to appear "credible" that I'd fallen into the corporate consulting trap. My website read like I was pitching to Fortune 500 companies, but I specifically wanted to work with individuals, real people that are not AI savvy.

For example: my website proudly advertises that I use "no-code, low-code solutions." For those of us in the AI world, that's crystal clear. But guess what? The people I'm targeting aren't in the AI world, that's the whole point of my business. When they see the word "code," even with "no" in front of it, they get scared off. As one close friend bluntly pointed out after reading my website, "The moment I see the word 'code,' I assume it's not for me."

In the old world, this realization would have been very uncomfortable. Changing your entire business communication strategy used to be a massive undertaking. You'd need to:

• Audit all your touchpoints

• Develop a new brand voice

• Create new messaging guidelines

• Rewrite all your content

• Test with focus groups

• Implement changes gradually

Depending on your organization's size, this could take weeks, months, or even years. And that's exactly why most businesses stick with suboptimal messaging far longer than they should.

We're not in that world anymore.

When I realized my messaging was off, I didn't schedule a series of strategy meetings. I didn't hire a consulting firm. I didn't even pause to worry about it. Instead, I:

• Wrote down new communication principles

• Fed my entire website content into my AI tool stack along with these principles

• Rewrote everything in a matter of minutes

Total time invested? About an hour (Up until now)

This is the real power of AI that nobody's talking about. It's not just about automation or efficiency, it's about the ability to rapidly iterate and experiment with virtually no downside. Think about what this means:

• You can A/B test entire business strategies instead of just button colors

• You can adapt your messaging to different audiences on the fly

• You can completely reinvent your brand voice in a day

• You can test multiple market positions simultaneously

• You can iterate based on real feedback without waiting months

We're entering the age of perpetual iteration, where the companies that win won't be the ones with the perfect strategy, but the ones who can adapt and evolve the fastest.

But here's where it gets really interesting. This isn't just about businesses anymore. This same power is available to individuals, freelancers, and small teams. The tools that once cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and required entire departments are now accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a bit of AI know-how.

So what does this mean for you?

First, stop thinking about your business strategy, communication, or brand as something that needs to be "perfect" before you launch. Instead, think of it as a constant experiment. Your first version doesn't need to be right, it just needs to exist.

Second, start building your AI iteration muscle. Learn how to:

• Use AI to quickly generate different versions of your content

• Create frameworks for evaluating and comparing different approaches

• Set up simple systems for gathering and implementing feedback

• Build templates that make iteration even faster

Third, and most importantly, embrace the freedom this gives you. The cost of being wrong has never been lower. The penalty for experimentation has never been smaller. You can try things that would have been impossibly risky just a few years ago.

This is why I get so excited when I talk about AI implementation. Yes, it can help you write emails faster and create better presentations. But the real revolution is in how it changes what's possible. It's about being able to say "let's try it" instead of "let's think about it."

We're moving from a world where change was expensive and risky to one where the biggest risk is not changing enough.

So here's my challenge to you: Take something in your business that's not working quite right. Maybe it's your website copy, your service descriptions, your social media strategy, whatever. Now, instead of trying to perfect it, try to come up with three completely different approaches. Use AI to help you execute all three. See what works.

Because in a world where iteration is nearly free, perfection is the enemy of progress.

Want to see what I mean? Here's what rapid iteration looks like in practice. These are actual rewrites I'm planning to test on my website, from corporate consultant to real human being:

Homepage Intro

Value Proposition

Service Description

Notice how the language shifts from corporate-speak to actual human conversation? That's the beauty of rapid iteration. You can test completely different approaches to see what resonates best with your audience.

What used to be a months-long rebranding exercise is now something you can try over your lunch break.

About the Author: Santiago helps individuals and organizations harness the power of AI without coding. Through AI opportunity assessments and personalized consulting, he guides clients in finding practical ways to implement AI solutions that transform how they work. Visit AISherpa.me to learn more about working together.

This article: AIL 3 - Created using AI with extensive human structure and guidance