April 4, 2026 | Read online
You know the scene in The Matrix where Neo wakes up, plugs in, downloads kung fu directly into his brain, opens his eyes and says "I know kung fu"?
That's what the last two weeks have felt like for me.
I made the switch from OpenAI to Anthropic's Claude a few weeks ago. Some of you saw my LinkedIn post about it. The short version: Sam Altman's actions and words disgust me from a values standpoint so I asked my audience who they trusted related to AI platforms and Anthropic/Claude won by a landslide.
Claude.ai on its own was good. Better than ChatGPT in a lot of ways. But the real unlock came when I started using their Cowork product.
And I need to tell you what happened because I think this is the most important shift I've experienced in my career since I started my own business.
THE YOUTUBE NIGHTMARE
I had a project I'd been avoiding for years. My YouTube channel. Over 1,000 videos. Podcasts, live streams, shorts, and produced sales tips all mixed together. No strategy. No optimization. No consistency. The algorithm had no idea what my channel was about because I was sending it 10 different signals.
I hired two different consultants/companies to fix it. After spending thousands of dollars and countless hours, neither did what I wanted.
Last weekend I sat down with Claude Cowork and said: "Help me fix my YouTube channel. Optimize it like Alex Hormozi would."
Over the course of that weekend, we audited every single video. Identified which content actually performs (my short, tactical sales tips absolutely crush everything else on the channel). Archived 150+ low-performing videos that were dragging down the algorithm. Built optimized titles, descriptions, and tags for 38 produced videos. Created new thumbnails. Reorganized every playlist. Rewrote the entire channel description for SEO. Built an upload calendar with priority sequencing based on search volume.
Oh, and I was cleaning out my basement at the same time. Because Cowork runs the analysis, builds the assets, and presents them to you. You review, approve, and move on.
Two consultants couldn't get this done. I did it in a weekend, and the output was better than anything either of them delivered.
The results are already happening. People are finding my channel, watching the tips, clicking through to my on-demand training platform, and buying memberships. That was NOT happening before.
Do me a favor, if you haven't already, subscribe to my YouTube channel and let me know what you think. I've cleaned house and will be posting new tactical sales tips every other day. If you're in sales and you want short, actionable content you can use immediately, this is it.
https://www.youtube.com/@JohnMBarrows
THEN I KEPT GOING
YouTube was the test. The gnarliest project I had. Once I saw what Cowork could do with that, I went after everything else.
I built custom skills inside Cowork to help me prep for every sales call, follow up after every meeting, and prepare for every podcast interview. It pulls research, builds agendas, drafts follow-up emails, and tracks action items. All I do is review and hit send.
I mapped out an entirely new content strategy that integrates my podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn, newsletter, and training curriculum into one system.
And then I connected it to Apollo (#sponsor that I use).
For years I've trained a process called "How I Prospect into my Tier1 Accounts." You create a morning routine where you pick a Tier1 account/prospect, research them deeply, and build a 7-10 touch sequence specific to that person and company and execute it every day. It's what has helped me, as a business owner, keep my pipeline filled for years. But it used to take me about an hour per account to do it right.
Even though I've worked with almost all the cadence/sequence tools, I never used them myself. The main reason was because they were always so hard to get set up and structured the way I wanted them since my use case wasn't about sending mass cadences at scale.
I partnered with Apollo recently and they released their Claude plug in. Now I can do the entire setup in Claude Cowork and it does it all for me.
I set up my Tier 1 workflow inside Apollo using their Claude integration. Apollo's data engine finds the right people, enriches them with real intel, and Claude builds personalized multi-touch sequences with messaging that sounds like me. Not a robot. Not a template. Me.
Every morning I wake up to 3 new pre-researched Tier 1 prospects sitting in my task list. LinkedIn touches, emails, the full cadence. I review each one, make a quick edit if needed, approve it, and send. Takes me 10 minutes.
3 a day. 15 a week. 60+ a month. All with messaging I'd put my name on.
I still approve every single touch before it goes out. I don't believe in full automation for outreach. But Apollo does 98% of the work now. I wrote about this in more detail in a recent LinkedIn post with the full breakdown. You should really check out Apollo today. Their Claude connector is a legit game changer.
WHY I'M TELLING YOU THIS
I'm not sharing this to brag. I'm sharing this because I'm genuinely concerned for people who aren't paying attention right now.
This technology is going to change the math on every sales team. McKinsey estimated that 60-70% of the tasks workers perform today can be automated with current AI. That means if one person with AI can do the work of five, companies will figure that out fast.
You need to be on the leading edge of this so you can figure out how to use it before you get replaced by it.
I picked the hardest, ugliest task on my list and threw it at AI. I learned more in one weekend than I had in six months of reading about it. That's the move. Stop watching. Start doing.
I put together a free guide called "Getting Started with Claude AI and Cowork" that walks you through everything step by step: signing up, migrating from ChatGPT or Gemini, personalizing Claude, protecting your data, setting up Cowork, building your first skills, and connecting your tools. The best part? You can upload the PDF directly into Claude and it will walk you through the entire setup interactively.
BUILD YOUR OWN IRON MAN SUIT
Here's the thing. Everything I described above (the YouTube overhaul, the custom skills for call prep and follow-ups, the Apollo prospecting system) is not some genius-level technical build. It's knowing what problems to solve, what tools to connect, and how to set up the systems so AI does the heavy lifting while you stay in control.
I now feel like I'm building an Iron Man suit. Claude is Jarvis. Apollo is the armor. The skills I'm building are the weapons systems. And every week I'm adding a new piece.
That's exactly why I'm reopening the JB Sales Elite program.
Elite has always been built on my core frameworks, Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close, the same training I've delivered to teams at Salesforce, LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, and hundreds more. That foundation hasn't changed. But now I'm adding everything I'm building with AI into the program. The custom skills. The prospecting systems. The workflows that are transforming how I run my entire business.
If you come into Elite right now, you're not getting a course. You're getting a front-row seat to watch me build this in real time, and I'm going to help you build your own version. Your own Iron Man suit, customized to your role, your market, your sales process. 12 weeks of 1:1 coaching with me.
Anyone willing to put in the work, I will help you get through this transition. That's a promise.
Check it out here
#MakeItHappen
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