Hey Reader,

Last week Austin got hit with what felt like a tornado. Within five minutes, we went from sunny skies to huddling in a closet with two terrified dogs and a toddler. Lost power for 12 hours and a huge tree came down in our yard.

Funny how quickly a storm can remind you that all your fancy AI tools don't mean much without electricity. 😅

Here's what I'm sharing with you today:

• The most exciting product I've ever launched at BestSelf
• How I'm teaching my team to use AI (with my real video examples)
• My exact process for hiring an AI-powered developer & why

My first ever Sponsor (after being a customer and user of Brain.FM since 2017!)

This week we launched Helm - and I'm more excited about this than anything we've created before. It's a premium physical focus tool that transforms your relationship with technology through a simple tap.

Here's how it works: Place this beautifully designed disk on your desk, then tap your phone to it. Instantly, your phone shifts into focus mode - distracting apps blocked, only essential tools accessible. Another tap brings you back. It's that simple.

We're starting with phone addiction, but this is just the beginning. Future apps (already in pipeline) will let you use the same device for different behavior changes.

Getting Your Team to Actually Use AI

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Sure, AI helps me 10x my own productivity. But the real magic happens when your entire team levels up.

Here's what actually works: I created an "AI Playground" channel in our Slack where I drop Loom videos whenever I use AI for something interesting. Not polished tutorials - just me working through real problems, showing my messy thought process.

Why this works:

• They see the iterations and failed attempts (not just the wins)
• They understand WHY certain approaches work
• They start thinking "Could AI help with this?" during their own work

Example from this week: I spent 30 minutes crafting a product development prompt. My team watched the whole process - now they get why prompt engineering isn't just typing a question and hoping for magic.

Here's the kicker: After getting crystal clear on what I wanted, I assigned that prompt to Manus. It sent its agents out to do research that would've taken a team of 3 people a month to complete. I had comprehensive results in 60 minutes.

30 minutes of prompt engineering → 60 minutes of AI work → 1 month of human research saved.

My team watched it all happen in real-time.

Another one from today: Google just released Stitch, which generates app screens from a single prompt, ready to paste into Figma. Here's the Loom I dropped showing how we could use it to streamline our email designs:

The goal isn't to make them AI experts overnight. It's to plant seeds so next time they're stuck on something, they think "Wait, didn't Cathryn do something like this with AI?"

Here's a Loom I dropped in our AI channel this week showing how we're creating multiple ad voices from one recording using Eleven Labs.

You know how text-to-speech always sounds robotic? Here's the workaround:

1. I record myself reading the ad script with the RIGHT emotion and emphasis
2. Upload to Eleven Labs' voice changer
3. Swap my voice for different voices based on the target audience

Example: For Helm, we're testing this hook - "The average parent has just 940 Saturdays with their child from birth to college. You've already used half of them."

I recorded it once, then used Eleven Labs to test it with:

• A younger dad's voice for millennial parents
• An older voice for grandparents buying gifts
• Different accents for regional targeting

The best part? The voice library has real people's cloned voices (with permission), not perfect studio voices. Makes the ads feel more real. Here's the real loom I shared with team showing this (not polished, real-time sharing).

From "Vibe Coding" to Hiring an AI-Powered Developer

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Here's my problem: I have approximately 47 product ideas at any given moment. I can prototype, I can "vibe code" my way through an MVP, but there's a gap between my hacky prototypes and actual products people can use.

That gap? It's exactly why I just hired someone who can turn my chaos into reality.

Enter my newest hire - a full-stack developer who gets it. Not just the coding part, but the "let's use AI to build faster" part.

Here's exactly how I found them:

Step 1: The Job Description Despite never hiring for this role before, I used AI to craft an incredibly detailed job description. Not just "looking for a developer" but specifics about using AI tools, rapid prototyping, and being a thought partner.

Step 2: Recruiting Partner Sent it to Sagan (highly recommend them for recruiting). They know how to find quality candidates.

Step 3: First Filter When candidates came in, I had one of my team members who's worked with developers do the initial interviews. No point in me talking to someone if they can't pass the technical basics.

Step 4: Coding Challenge Before I even talked to them - can they actually do the job? Real-world coding test. No BS.

Step 5: AI-Powered Interview Prep For candidates who passed the coding challenge, I fed their recruiting video, resume, and our job description into Claude. It created a custom interview agenda for each person - what to ask, what to probe on, red flags to watch for.

Step 6: The Vibe Check Final call was all about connection. Used my AI-prepped questions to dig deep. Because here's what I really need:

• Someone who knows their stuff
• Uses AI to be the most efficient version of themselves
• Can brainstorm ideas with me and turn them into reality

The winner got a 95% recommendation from my AI analysis AND passed the vibe check.

The key insight? AI helped me hire better despite having zero experience hiring developers. It filled my knowledge gaps while still letting me make the human judgment calls that matter.

My AI Toolstack:

Since several of you have asked, here's what I'm using daily:

• ​Claude - My go-to for writing and coding (worth the paid tier)
• ​ChatGPT - General purpose workhorse
• ​Perplexity - Real-time research and fact-checking
• ​Manus - My AI operator assistant
• ​Eleven Labs - Voice cloning magic
• ​WisprFlow - For voice dictation (440k words so far:)

Okay, I realize this email is getting long and I've only scratched the surface of how I'm using AI daily.

Between the storm knocking out power, daycare for 2 days and the holiday break taking another 2 days, I'm reminded how impossible this all would be without a flexible schedule. Seriously, how do people with traditional jobs handle this?

I've been so deep in the AI rabbit hole that I have dozens of examples I want to share - specific prompts, workflows, the exact ways I use ChatGPT and Claude that still blow my mind daily.

Maybe I should just record a YouTube video going through my actual ChatGPT history? Or do a live workshop where we can geek out together?

Let me know - reply if you'd watch either. Because honestly, the more I use these tools, the more I realize we're living in the future and most people don't even know it yet.

Best,

Cathryn

P.S. Want to be one of the first to get Helm? Limited preorder available now - shipping next month. First app: phone-free time. Next apps: every behavior change you've been putting off (included!)

P.S. Don't forget to grab your free 30-Day Trial of Brain.FM here (I'm literally listening to it as I type this email.)

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