For chiefs of staff & operators

You already have the seat. Now own it.

Become the AI Chief of Staff your CEO can't run without, and charge what you're worth. The July cohort starts Monday, July 6.

Join the Institute · $499 → Not ready? Watch the free replay ↓
The $499 founding offer ends Sunday · –d –h –m –s
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 02 · The problem
02

You create executive-level value. It's time to get paid what you're worth.

The gap between the value you create and what you take home: that's the villain of this story. And AI just made it wider: given the right context, AI now beats 14-year domain experts roughly nine times out of ten, and CEOs have stopped delegating it to IT. Someone is going to bring this to your CEO. The only question is whether it's you.

Out there
The market moved without you

The expert line has been crossed. CEOs want the result and don't want to do the work. You don't yet have the stack or the playbook to be the one they hand it to.

In your head
“I'm not technical. I'm not a salesperson.”

Everyone seems ahead of you. Michelle said those exact words, “I'm not a negotiator,” the year before she closed three six-figure deals.

The principle
The people who create the value should capture it

You run the company behind the scenes. It's simply wrong that the value you create keeps landing in someone else's column.

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 03 · The guides
03

We've been exactly where you are, and we know the way out.

“Two years posting into the void. 400 followers. I told Steve, ‘I'm not a negotiator.’ Last month I closed my third six-figure deal, at $3,333 an hour.”

Michelle Defouw
20 years a chief of staff

“AI came for my 20-year business. Rather than fight it, I rebuilt it, then took a thousand companies through the same transformation.”

Steve Cunningham
Founder, Humans + Agents
100K+
Leaders trained
1,000+
Companies transformed
3
Six-figure deals · Michelle
100+
Consultants with CEOs daily
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 04 · The plan
04

Three steps. One month.

1
This weekend
Join the July cohort

$499 before July 5. Your pre-week instructions arrive immediately, and the Black Belt training opens before the cohort even starts.

2
Weeks 1–4
Build the stack

Sprints and boot camps, Mon–Thu. Build your agent fleet, ACE your day, and prove tens of thousands of dollars of ROI, every single day.

3
Then
Close your first deal

The GTM OS full day, Michelle's deal frameworks, and a community that negotiates beside you: retainers, revenue share, exit participation.

The plan, on a calendar · July 2026
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
6SprintBoot camp
7SprintBoot camp
8SprintBoot camp
9SprintBoot camp
10
11
13SprintBoot camp
14SprintBoot camp
15SprintBoot camp
16SprintBoot camp
17
18
20
21
22
23
24Monthly forum · full day
25GTM OS day · full day
27SprintBoot camp
28SprintBoot camp
29SprintBoot camp
30SprintBoot camp
31
 
Daily AI coaching · 20 minAgent Builder SprintExecution OS boot campFull-day forum
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 05 · The ask
05

Everything in step one, stacked.

AI Transformation AcademyYours foreverCommercial license: 36 workshops you can sell at $1,000 each
$2,000
AI Black BeltYours foreverThe core training, personal use
$2,000
Elite AI OperatorOne month: the program that gets you to level nine
$1,000
The Go-To-Market OSThe full-day selling forum, updated monthly
Included
Michelle's deal frameworksRetainers, revenue share, bonuses, exit participation
Included
The communityLive forums, daily AI coaching, a full month inside
Included
Regular price
$5,000

Sell one Academy workshop and you've doubled your money. Decide before July 5.

If you decide before July 5
$499
Join the Institute →
$0

The no-questions money-back guarantee. Spend the month learning the edge of what's possible with AI, and the edge of what you can charge for it. If you still want your money back at the end of the month, it's yours. No questions asked. To date, we have refunded exactly $0 under this guarantee.

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 06 · The stakes
06

The window doesn't wait.

✗Stay at level 1–2, and stay replaceable.
✗Watch an outside consultant claim the seat next to your CEO.
✗Keep creating executive-level leverage without executive-level pay.
✗The arbitrage moment closes whether you move or not.
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteAct 07 · Where this ends
07

From invisible to indispensable.

Before
  • Invisible in the org chart
  • Paid for hours, not outcomes
  • Chasing tasks someone else assigns
  • “AI-curious,” stuck at prompting
  • Building someone else's roadmap
After
  • The operator beside the CEO
  • $1,000+ an hour, ten hours a month
  • A 20-minute morning runs the work
  • Level nine: running a portfolio
  • A business of your own, impossible six months ago

That right-hand column is Michelle's actual life, twelve months after saying “I'm not a negotiator.”

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteCoda · The replay

Not ready yet? Watch the replay.

The full workshop: the AI moment, the live daily-brief demonstration, and Michelle's deal-by-deal walkthrough. Posted your level in the chat during the live session? Your Agent Builder agent is on its way to your inbox.

The AI Chief of Staff InstituteFrom the Q&A

Before you ask, answered.

Do I need prior AI experience?
No. We assume no prior knowledge: if you can download a file, create a folder, and hold a conversation, you're ready. The real bottleneck is unlearning twenty years of how work is “supposed” to get done, and we start that on day one in the Agent Builder Sprint.
What do I keep after the month?
The commercial license to the AI Transformation Academy (36 workshops, sell them at $1,000 each, any company, forever) and personal-use access to the AI Black Belt training; both are yours to keep, no strings. The Elite Operator access, forums, and community run for the month; if you want to continue, we'll talk about the ongoing options then.
What do I need to bring?
Your AI setup of choice. We strongly recommend Claude Cowork: it's the easiest to use and requires a $20/month Claude subscription. We give you step-by-step setup instructions for the desktop app when you join.
I'm not in North America. Will the times work?
Most live programming runs mid-afternoon US Central, evening in the UK and Europe. We have members in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. Everything is recorded and turned into easy-to-review artifacts, so you never lose a session you can't attend live.
My company (or my clients) only allow Copilot. Does this still work?
Yes. The system underneath is model-agnostic: the file structure, the agents, and the operating loops all travel. We've deployed it inside Fortune 500 Copilot environments: one company took a ramp-up process from 18 months to two weeks, on Copilot. Claude is better; Copilot still works.
What if it's not for me?
Then you say so at the end of the month and we give you your money back, no questions asked. You'll still walk away with the commercial license, the Black Belt, and everything you learned. We've refunded exactly $0 under this guarantee so far.
When does it start?
Monday, July 6. The offer ends Sunday night, July 5. Join now and you get pre-week instructions immediately, plus access to the Black Belt training so you can start before the cohort does.
The AI Chief of Staff InstituteYour move

Own the seat. Charge what you're worth. Start Monday.

Join the Institute · $499 →
Starts Monday, July 6 · offer ends Sunday, July 5 · money-back guaranteed
The AI Chief of Staff Institute Steve Cunningham & Michelle Defouw · 2026