Announcing The AI Thought Leader School

Access 30 courses on using AI to facilitate human superintelligence, 6-figure prompting, and creating blockbuster content in 2025-2026

Why I’m Starting A School

I couldn’t be more excited to announce what I’ve been working up to for three years, ever since I bought the domain www.thoughtleader.school in 2022.

Ever since I was 16, I’ve been irrationally passionate about three things:

• Learning (past the current frontiers of human intelligence)

• Thought Leadership (sharing what I learn to maximize impact)

• Monetization (building long-term wealth while maximizing my curiosity)

For example, as soon as I discovered the power of knowledge, I read every book I could get my hands on. Books on everything from architecture, tennis, web design, graphic design, typography, and business to meditation, biography, yoga, dancing, and spirituality.

I spent hundreds of dollars every month to satisfy my curiosity. This money came from reinvesting the proceeds of a web development business that Cal Newport and I started.

One of my favorite purchases was from October 24, 1999, when I was 17. At the time, my #1 unrealized high school goal was to get a girlfriend. I was painfully shy. So, somehow, I came to the conclusion that if I learned how to dance, I would become the center of attention at dances, and girls would want me. Therefore, I bought videos on freestyle dancing, hip-hop dancing, and party dancing…

After school, before my mom got home, I would practice alone without any witnesses except my dogs, who gave me confused looks as I tried to follow along with the VHS tapes. Unfortunately, I never learned how to dance. Nor did I get a girlfriend in high school. But, I did learn the social skills to ask my future wife out soon after during my freshman year orientation at NYU.

Here’s a sampling of some of my other Amazon receipts from 1999 when I was 17:

Because of this Infinite Devotion over decades, my passion turned into unique, world-class expertise, and that expertise turned into results that I’m proud of:

• Learning. I’ve read thousands of books and then spent thousands of hours studying learning how to learn and mental models. From there, I’ve applied what I’ve learned to every area of my life—from career to parenting to my 25-year marriage to my health and to my personal growth. What I’m most proud of is that I’m not someone who has a good public image, but everything else is falling apart behind the scenes. I’m most proud that I’ve built a life that works for me and that feels revelatory every single day.

• Thought Leadership. I treat thought leadership as a rigorous discipline, just like studying to be a doctor. To that end, I broke down thought leadership into a multi-year skillset, and I’ve spent thousands of hours creating, learning, and applying that skillset. As a result, my writing has reached 100M+ people in publications like Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Inc., and TIME, generating millions in revenue.

• Monetization. I’ve earned 6-figures monetizing my expertise in 7 ways (books, course, newsletter, keynote speaking, events, consulting, and coaching) and millions of dollars through both events and courses. This has given me a deep understanding of the pros and cons of each approach.

Then, GPT-4 was released in 2023.

Over the past two years, I’ve been full-time focused on applying AI to amplify my ability to learn, share, and monetize knowledge, and I’ve been astonished by what’s currently possible. If you’ve been a reader of this newsletter, you know what I’m talking about. And the AI revolution is just beginning.

All of these experiences culminate in today’s announcement…

Announcing AI Thought Leader School

AI Thought Leader School offers 30 courses per year—all taught by me.

These 30 courses are based on using AI to learn, share, and monetize knowledge in order to live your passion, maximize your impact, and create wealth.

What Makes The School Special

• It WILL not be focused on simply making your “content marketing” workflow more efficient. This is boring, small-minded, and crowded. It’s a rat race dressed up in new clothes. Rather, the school is about fundamentally rethinking what it means to be a thought leader—how to map new frontiers that are so interesting and useful that others will follow you and pay you. It’s about how to have a process that you love so much that you would do it for free, not one that's a chore.

• My approach is fundamentally different than most so-called thought leaders who spend 80% of their time marketing and 20% of their time updating their programs so that they’re good enough. Unfortunately, this is the standard in the industry, and it gives the name ‘thought leader’ a bad reputation. I aim to bring the rigor, authenticity, and wonder back to thought leadership. I have built a model where I spent 80% of my time on learning and teaching (The Warren Buffett Time Management Method). As a result, the marketing happens as a byproduct.

• Over the last 8 years, I’ve spent thousands of hours teaching everything I know through live, small-group classes so that I could iterate on my teaching and curriculum to maximize the impact. Teaching the classes personally has given me tens of thousands of feedback loops to maximize my understanding of what aspiring thought leaders need and how I can help them.

• Most programs just give you short-term support. While many programs give you a quick boost in a 4-8 week program, there are almost no other comprehensive programs that support you over the course of an entire year.

There is no school like this that exists in the world.

The Three Tracks

Each Track Has 10 Courses Per Year

The Tracks Happen Simultaneously

Classes are 11:00am-12:30pm EST.

The Unique Pedagogical Approach

Each class will revolve around unique blockbuster prompts created by me that help you get immediate results. Therefore, each class will be based on you learning, applying, discussing, and customizing that week’s prompt. No more lectures.

In a world of information overwhelm, the value of traditional courses is diminishing. Prompts help you unlock immediate value with minimal effort. They’re like hiring employees who do the work and who teach you what they’re doing as they go along.

Life-Changing Benefits

By the end of the year, you will be using 100+ new prompts to:

• Upgrade your intelligence with AI in ways that others can’t fathom.

• Launch a prompt newsletter where you: (1) Earn 5-figures in annual recurring income, (2) Build a library of prompt assets that you use and sell, (3) Master advanced prompting skills that aren’t taught anywhere else in the world, and (4) Create a library of blockbuster prompts that you monetize through a newsletter.

• 5x the quantity and quality of content you create with AI prompts based on thought leadership frameworks I’ve refined over thousands of hours.

• Become a master prompt engineer that is able to do things with AI that are in no ‘best practice guides’.

Synergy Between The Tracks

Rather than isolated skills, these tracks build upon each other, creating a synergistic effect that dramatically accelerates your progress in all domains:

• The AI blockbuster track helps increase the quality and quantity of content you create.

• The Human Superintelligence track gives you the ability to imagine ideas for content and prompts that others can’t even fathom.

• The 6-Figure Prompt Newsletter track helps you create a catalog of prompts you can monetize in your newsletter or as a consultant.

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Track #1: The 6-Figure Prompt Newsletter

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Overview

I first learned about the power of prompts when I released Augmented Reading: Learn 10x Faster And Better With AI on January 20, 2024.

For the first time, I decided to experiment with offering a prompt to paid subscribers. Just one prompt.

That single prompt brought in 143 paid subscribers. $16,618 in annual revenue.

From. One. Prompt.

But here's what most people missed:

This wasn't just about the money.

It was proof of concept.

Proof that the real opportunity isn't in just "using" AI...

It's in creating AI ASSETS that:

• Generate passive income

• Compound in value over time

• Position you as a leader in your industry

Since then, I’ve created dozens of prompts that I’ve shared in this newsletter, and the newsletter now earns $115,000+ per year and is increasing quickly.

Track Outcomes

• Create a paid newsletter on Substack where you sell prompts.

• Create 5 figures in annual newsletter revenue in year one with the goal of creating a 6-figure newsletter in 3 years.

Why I’m Creating The Track

• I believe that prompts will become the new and ultimate medium of thought leadership. Instead of just coming up with ideas and writing them down as content that readers can apply, I believe that thought leaders will also convert their ideas into prompts that directly help with the application.

• I believe that prompting is one of the most important skills a knowledge worker can learn for their future. Having a prompt newsletter creates a forcing function for its creators to rapidly improve at prompting. Not only that, as AI improves, prompt engineers will be able to create increasingly more results from their skillset.

• Prompts have a high perceived value. Because prompts are novel and can create so much value, people are willing to pay for high-quality versions of them.

• Prompts are assets that will increase in value. As AI improves, your library of prompts will increase in value. Not only that, but if you design your library of prompts correctly, the synergistic value of the library will be more than its parts.

The Opportunity Window

• There are only a handful of newsletters that provide AI prompts. While there are many “general” AI newsletters, there are only a few that consistently share high-quality prompts.

• There is a huge opportunity to be the first AI prompt newsletter in your industry. I believe that almost EVERY industry will have a successful AI prompt newsletter, just like every industry has an industry publication.

• Standout. The hardest thing to do in today’s crowded world is to stand out. The ability to stand out depends a lot on platform and medium shifts, where there are windows of opportunity. One of the best ways to stand out is to provide something no one else in your niche does. Prompts are your opportunity to do that today.

Key Courses In The Track

• Newsletter Positioning & Strategy. Discover how to identify your unique position in the emerging prompt economy and craft a newsletter strategy that stands out from the competition. You'll learn how to map the opportunity landscape in your industry niche, develop your distinctive value proposition, and create an editorial calendar that consistently delivers high-value prompts to your subscribers.

• Foundations of Prompt Value. Master the fundamental principles that make prompts worth paying for, including the critical elements that determine a prompt's perceived and actual ROI. This module explores the different categories of valuable prompts, breaks down real-world case studies of prompts that generate significant revenue, and establishes the core framework for creating prompts that subscribers will gladly pay to access.

• Advanced Prompt Engineering. Elevate your prompting skills from basic instructions to sophisticated systems that deliver consistent, exceptional results across different AI models and use cases. You'll learn advanced techniques that are not taught anywhere else in the world.

• Prompt Monetization. Transform your prompt creation skills into multiple revenue streams through strategic pricing, tiered offerings, and subscription model optimization. This module covers the economics of prompt newsletters, including pricing psychology and subscription conversion tactics.

• Using Viral Prompts. Leverage the power of prompts themselves as your most effective marketing and growth tool to attract new subscribers and convert free readers to paid customers. You'll develop strategies for creating "viral prompts" that demonstrate immediate value, design free-to-paid conversion funnels, and implement cross-promotion tactics that use the inherent power of well-crafted prompts to sell themselves.

• Building Long-Term Prompt Assets. Create a sustainable business by developing a valuable prompt library that appreciates over time as AI capabilities improve. This module shows you how to architect your prompt collection for maximum long-term value, implement update protocols to keep your assets current with advancing AI models, and develop licensing and repurposing frameworks that generate additional revenue streams from your existing prompt library.

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Track #2: AI Blockbuster

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Overview

• I floundered during the first 10 years of my writing career.

• My life changed when I adopted the blockbuster approach to thought leadership.

• Over the last 10 years, I’ve spent thousands of hours learning how to create blockbuster articles through consulting, research, and experimentation. Then I spent hundreds of more hours distilling everything into mental models and sequenced micro-steps.

• During that time, my writing has reached 100M+ people in publications like Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, Inc., and TIME, generating millions in revenue.

• Over the last 5 years, via an intensive, annual, small group cohort, I’ve taught hundreds of experts how to become the recognized expert in their niche, attract a flood of leads, and build a 6-7 figure thought leadership business.

• More so, the system is more than a content marketing system; it’s a life transformation system focused on maximizing wonder, curiosity, personal growth, and joy in the thought leadership process.

Life-Changing Benefits

The focus of the track 5x cubed:

• 5x the quality of your articles so you stand above the noise.

• 5x the quantity of articles you create so you build deeper relationships.

• 5x the ease of creating articles, so you don’t have to spend years on mastery before you breakthrough.

Full Overview

Introducing A Year-Long AI Blockbuster Course

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Track #3: Human Superintelligence

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Overview

While almost everyone focuses on Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) and using AI to make their workflows more efficient, I believe that one of the most important, rewarding, long-term benefits of AI is actually to augment our potential as humans—Human Superintelligence.

This track is an exploration of:

• What hidden potentials exist in humans that we’re not aware of

• How to tap into those potentials with AI

• How to turn our potential into revelatory shifts in our experience of being alive and new heights in our career that we didn’t think were possible.

Special thanks to Anand Rao, creator of the Developmental Mastery Substack, for coining the phrase Human Superintelligence, sharing it with me, and living it.

Why I’m Creating The Track

• I’ve been fascinated by learning my entire adult life.

• When I was 16, I started spending hundreds of dollars per month on books.

• Since then, I’ve read thousands of books.

• I quickly became fascinated by personal improvement and started going to dozens of conferences and seminars when I was a freshman in college.

• In 2015, I started studying learning how to learn full-time, and I created the largest online community of learners in the world (200,000+ people).

• In 2017, I launched a Learning How To Learn course called the Learning Ritual.

• Between 2015 and 2020, I wrote dozens of blockbuster, research-backed articles on Forbes, LinkedIn, Medium, Quora, Fortune, the World Economic Forum, Inc., and TIME on learning that were collectively read 100+ million times.

• When I went all-in on AI in 2023, one of the primary use cases I focused on was increasing my own intelligence and tapping into more of my latent potential.

• I now believe that we humans are only tapping into a fraction of what we are capable and that AI can help us do so more than almost anyone realizes.

Key Courses In The Track

• Augmented Reading: Use AI to read faster and better

• Augmented Identity: Use AI as a multi-dimensional mirror for seeing ourselves in new ways.

• Augmented Thinking: Use AI to think better

• Augmented Experimentation: Use AI to systematically explore and iteratively respond to feedback.

• Augmented Development: Use AI to grow developmentally.

• Augmented Augmentation: Use AI to uncover new models and potentials of self-evolution

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Who The School Is For

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The school is designed for:

1. Forward-thinking knowledge workers who understand that AI proficiency is not optional but essential for future success

2. Content creators and thought leaders seeking to dramatically scale their output without sacrificing quality

3. Entrepreneurs and consultants looking to create sustainable income streams from their expertise

4. Lifelong learners fascinated by the untapped potential of human-AI collaboration

5. Industry specialists who want to become the go-to AI prompt resource in their field

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The New Membership Model

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• Basic

• Premium

• One-on-one / Mastermind

Basic ($20/month or $100/year)

Basic members keep access to all of the previous $2,500 in paid perks (7 courses, 3 books, dozens of prompts) already included in the membership. In addition, basic members also get:

1. 3 new prompts per week that come with supporting materials:

   1. What the prompt does

   2. Why it’s powerful

   3. When to use it

   4. Instructions on how to use it

   5. Follow-up questions to get more from the prompt

   6. Synthetic data so the prompt gives a better answer

   7. Related, synergistic prompts that multiply the prompt’s value

   8. Principles behind the prompt so you improve at prompting

2. Access to a limited on-demand version of each class:

   1. The first 30 minutes of the live class recording where I do a full walkthrough of the prompt (does not include any of the meet & greet from the live class)

   2. Text summary and key takeaways

3. Occasional blockbuster articles with special bonuses

4. Occasional surprise perks (exclusive interviews, pop-up classes, pop-up community, discounts on other newsletters )

Basic subscribers will NOT get access to the live classes in the three tracks of the Thought Leader School.

Total value: $2,500
Cost until May 16: $20/month or $100/year

Premium ($2,700/year)

You get all of the benefits of the basic tier in addition to:

1. Full access to all of the live classes. This is a $10,000 value based on what I have charged for the past five years for my flagship annual program, which includes 3 90-minute classes per week.

2. Access to all of my previous, evergreen foundation classes. This is a $6,000+ value, based on the price that each of the programs cost alone:

   1. Learning Ritual: Learn how to 5x your learning speed and quality while remembering more (refined over 2 cohorts).

   2. Seminal: Learn how to create blockbuster articles (refined over 5 cohorts with 25+ hours spent creating and improving each class)

   3. Mental Model Club: Learn the 50 most useful and universal mental models. Each model includes a manual and an on-demand class

3. One-on-one consulting call with me. This is a $1,000 value based on my actual consulting rate.

Total value: $17,000
Cost until May 16: $2,700

IMPORTANT: I’ve learned the hard way that Substack does not have a good system to upgrade to the premium tier. If you signed up over the past few days, you actually may not have. Please DM me to confirm your subscription.

Sign up here if you’re a free subscriber to the newsletter:

Step 1:

Step 2: Select the Premium plan

Sign up here if you’re a paid subscriber to this newsletter :

Step 1: Visit the account page

Step 2: Click on the change button

Step 3: Select the Premium plan

One-On-One + Group Mastermind ($10,000/year)

You get all of the benefits of the first two tiers in addition to:

#1. One-on-one feedback from me.

Get unlimited, personalized, laser feedback from me on your prompts, content, or thought leadership strategy via voice messages.

#2. Prompt feedback mastermind.

Testing and getting feedback is the most essential key to rapidly improving content once you have the fundamental thought leadership skills. That’s why I’ve performed 4,000+ title tests, and I get feedback from multiple people before I publish every article.

The problem is that getting feedback on longform articles is hard. It takes an hour and a lot of expertise. Prompting changes the game. Giving feedback on a prompt takes just a few minutes. What this means is that you can get fast feedback and double the value of your prompts rapidly.

In this exclusive mastermind group:

1. You give feedback on each other’s prompts and build deep relationships over the course of the year.

2. You connect with other members in a WhatsApp community where you can share knowledge and ask questions.

3. Get to know each other on quarterly calls.

This program is application-based. To request an application, DM me:

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Important Dates

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On Friday, May 16, the prices will increase:

• Basic annual plan will increase by $50/year to $149/year (50% increase).

• Premium annual plan will increase by $300/year (11% increase).

• One-on-one annual plan will increase by $2,000/year to $12,000/year (20% increase).

You can lock in the current prices forever by joining now.

Get basic plan:

Get premium plan:

The one-on-one program is application-based. To request an application, DM me:

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Questions

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If you have any questions about the AI Thought Leader School, the new membership model, or price changes, please feel free to comment on this post:

…or DM me with more personal questions:

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Start Date

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The three courses begin on the week of Monday, May 19. I will send more details next week.