Do you trust AI to plan your marketing or help make big decisions?
A lot of founders do now. You dump your business details into ChatGPT, ask for a strategy, and it comes back with something impressive-looking.
Bonnie runs a seed cleaning equipment company. Twenty years in business. Makes good money from Google Ads.
She wanted to expand for 2025. Asked AI for recommendations.
The AI came back with a detailed plan. One section literally said: "This campaign is a gold mine because searches are not as competitive."
She booked a review with me before spending money on it.
Good thing.
I opened Google's Keyword Planner.
Those "gold mine" keywords? Zero monthly searches. Not low. Zero.
PROBLEM #1: The Gold Mine With No Gold
AI suggested "organic seed cleaner" and "cover crop seed cleaning" as expansion targets. Made sense, her machines do exactly that.
But nobody searches for those terms. At least not the way AI phrased them.
If she'd built campaigns around them, she would've burned $1,500+ showing ads to nobody.
PROBLEM #2: Missing 69% of Her Traffic
Her current campaigns for "seed cleaner" and "grain cleaner" were working. But running low on budget.
Google's data showed she was capturing only 31% of available searches.
AI's recommendation? Start new campaigns for different keywords.
Actual solution? Give the working campaigns more money.
PROBLEM #3: The 15-Hour Email Plan
Bonnie found a USDA database of organic farmers. Perfect prospects.
Her plan: manually copy 150 addresses per day into Gmail's BCC field.
That's 15+ hours per quarter of copy-paste work. Plus she would've violated Gmail's terms without knowing it.
Software exists that handles this in minutes. Costs $97/month. Stays compliant.
What Would’ve Happened
March through May is Bonnie's busy season. If she'd followed the AI plan:
$1,500 wasted on keywords nobody searches
Missed 69% of buyers actively looking for her products
15+ hours quarterly doing manual email work
Budget split across campaigns that don't perform
Possible email compliance violations
She would've worked harder and gotten worse results.
Why AI Gets This Wrong
I've tested hundreds of different AI marketing tools over the past three years.
AI doesn't check actual search volume. It generates what sounds logical based on your product description.
"Organic seed cleaner" sounds like a good keyword if you clean organic seeds. But search behavior doesn't work that way. People search "seed cleaner" and then filter results by organic certification.
Unless you know the right questions to ask or the right data to feed it, AI also can't tell you about email compliance, budget allocation strategy, or platform-specific technical requirements.
AI generates possibilities. You still need someone who knows which ones work.
The Red Line Approach
I spent 17 years as a mechanical draftsman before I got into marketing.
During design reviews, we'd red line drawings - circle problems, mark changes, catch mistakes before they got built.
Same process for marketing plans.
You send me what you're considering. I show you what the data says. We figure out what works before you spend money.
Bonnies Results
After 90 minutes:
Capture the 69% of existing traffic by increasing budget on working campaigns
Use a $97/month software for compliant cold email to the USDA database
Create YouTube content using Google Gemini that matches her Google Ads messaging
Switch from PayPal to another accounting software like Quickbooks, Wave or Freshbooks for better processing fees
Consider using Beehiiv ($) to build trust and keep her top of mind with leads and customers during the long gaps between purchases.
Time: 90 minutes
Cost: $150
Money not wasted: $2,000-3,000 first quarter
In Her Words
Here's what Bonnie said after the call:
"I had used AI to generate a list of ideas. AI stated that a couple of those suggestions were great and a goldmine for me. I was sold!! Then you dug deeper and discovered that these particular suggestions would be a waste of time and resources; I was very surprised!"
"Ultimately, AI is great to generate ideas and get you going down a path, however, human review and applying logic and reasoning will always be needed. We cannot blindly follow AI suggestions/recommendations."
"Like any tool, AI is a tool, not a replacement for a real marketing strategy. No matter how much information I feed into the prompt, it typically seems to miss the mark on some level."
That's the key insight:
AI is powerful for generating options. You need human judgment to know which options actually make sense for your business.
How This Works
Before the call: Send me your current marketing approach - Google Ads, AI strategy, agency recommendations, ideas you're considering.
During the call (60 minutes): I show you what the data actually says, where the gaps are, what's likely to work versus waste money.
After the call: You have a clear, prioritized action plan. No guessing. Just: do this, then this, then this.
Investment: $150
What you avoid: The $2,000-3,000+ in wasted ad spend, wrong software subscriptions, and strategies that sound good but don't work for your specific business.
Who This Is For
Red Line Reviews work best for:
Experienced founders running $500K-$5M businesses
Business owners who've been burned by marketing advice that didn't deliver
Gen X entrepreneurs who want straight talk from someone their own age, not jargon
Anyone with an AI-generated marketing plan who wants to know if it'll actually work before spending money
Who This Isn’t For
If you're just starting out, you need to test and learn through experience first.
If you want someone to execute without questioning, I'm not your guy.
If you're looking for magic bullets, keep looking.
But if you're an experienced founder who wants to cut through the noise and build marketing that actually works, without the rabbit holes or the steep learning curve, let's talk.
Not Ready To Book Yet?
Grab my AI Leverage Ladder. It’s a free framework showing where AI actually helps your marketing (and where it wastes time).
Most founders try building "autonomous systems" before mastering basic prompts. That's why AI feels overwhelming.
The Ladder shows you exactly where you are and what to focus on next.
No email course. Just the framework.
Book Your Red Line Review
I geek out on testing marketing tools and strategies so you don't have to waste time in the rabbit holes.
I've combined 16 years of mechanical drafting with 20 years of digital marketing. I test the tools. I verify the data. I red line the plans.
You get clarity without the overwhelm.
I only do a few of these per month because each requires real prep work.
Have a good one,
Corey
