AI can be a lot to digest. The tools. The prompts. The logic. The process.

Most people don’t have time to climb that learning curve. So they stick to simple prompts, poke around the edges, and hope they’re not missing something important.

I get it. I was there too.

Then one day I decided I wasn’t coming out of the rabbit hole until I built something that solved a real problem I actually had. Not a demo. Not a toy. Something useful.

It worked. So I did it again. And again.

How I Approach AI

AI is a multiplier, not a proxy.

It produces confident output whether it’s right or not. That’s fine for experimentation. But inside real organizations, with real consequences, it requires more care.

With great power comes great responsibility, so I treat AI as a support system for good judgment and not a shortcut around thinking. Used well, it reduces friction and helps us do better work. Used poorly, it creates dependency and risk.

Everything I build has that tradeoff in mind.

Use My Tools. Please.

The tools below exist because I needed them myself.

If you’re wrestling with similar challenges, use them. Steal them. Learn from them. Don’t let my trial-and-error be for nothing.

These tools are meant to:

• model what responsible AI use looks like in practice
• give you something concrete to react to
• help you test-drive how I think
• spark ideas for what your team might need next

They’re not products. They’re proof.

AI Tools You Can Use Today

Each tool supports a specific type of work without replacing judgment.

SMART Goal Builder

A structured way to write, test, and strengthen SMART goals without turning planning into autopilot. What gets measured gets done. This helps you with both thinking and follow-through.

Best for:

• performance and project planning
• clarifying scope and success criteria
• aligning goals to real constraints

Set your own goal with my SMART Goal Builder

MarComms Budget Thinkerator

A scenario-thinking tool designed to support better conversations about priorities, tradeoffs, and constraints. Not false precision. Workshop ideas to see downstream impacts before you lock in your plan.

Best for:

• budget planning and reallocation
• leadership conversations
• making assumptions visible

Play a few scenarios with my Highered MarComms Budget Thinkerator.

Website Audit-o-Matic GPT

A structured way to review your website’s messaging, clarity, and priorities without defaulting to surface-level SEO or generic best practices. Grab relatively easy-to-access top level website and Google data, share it with the GPT and let this baby do its thing.

Best for:

• homepage and key page reviews
• identifying messaging gaps and friction
• sanity-checking structure before redesigns

Diagnose and improve your website with my Website Audit-o-Matic GPT

Student Persona Builder

A practical framework for examining audience assumptions, messaging, and decision friction without defaulting to lazy segmentation. Develop niche personas if you’ve got deep data and context or get a respectable persona mix with readily available data assets.

Best for:

• marketing and communications teams
• enrollment and outreach planning
• message clarity and consistency

Request free access to my Student Persona Builder GPT

Custom GPT Builder

A guided way to build a custom GPT for how people actually need to use it. Follows the same vibe as ChatGPT’s GPT wizard but with a more deliberate cadence and stronger emphasis on instructions and reference material.

Best for:

• teams experimenting with internal tools
• leaders trying to avoid tool sprawl
• clarifying use cases before building

Request free access to my Custom GPT Builder

Custom AI Development & Enablement

If you used one of the tools above and thought, “This is close, but it’s not quite right for us,” that’s usually the moment when custom work makes sense.

Sometimes off-the-shelf tools are enough. Sometimes they’re not.

I also work with teams to:

• design custom AI tools around real workflows
• train staff on confident, responsible usage
• establish norms and guardrails
• decide where AI belongs and where it doesn’t

This work often builds on the same thinking used in my workshops, applied where AI actually helps.

If your team needs stronger frameworks and confidence before tools, consider starting with my Workshops & Training.

If fundamentals aren’t solid yet, training comes first. Tools come second.

What Are You Trying to Solve?

If one of these tools helps, great.
If it sparks a better idea, even better.

If you’re trying to solve a real problem and want to talk through whether AI belongs in the solution, let’s talk.

We’ll start with the problem. Not the tool.

Reviews