My Mom finally gets AI

Today, I went to help my mom with her taxes. She was overdue and worried that if she didn’t get them submitted, she wouldn’t get approved for her surgery. The stress was eating her alive.

I kept thinking about all those ambitious science projects and science fairs we won as children because my mom would stay up all night replicating Mesa Verde with styrofoam or Poverty Point with clay molding.

Here she was just like us as kids, at a deadline, feeling defeated and unsure how to get everything done. Except this time, she was the one in trouble, not us.

The stress it was creating for her was starting to hurt my heart.

I kept wondering how I could help. Maybe I could do the taxes for her?

But what if it took me longer because I’m not familiar with my parents’ business? Then it’s on ME if we miss the deadline. I was unsure of how to help…

Then it clicked.

What if I created an AI that could help my mom? This is EXACTLY why I bought Create & Go in the first place. If I can’t help my mom and dad improve their small business with these tools, how will I help others? One of my goals has always been to make tools “so simple my parents can use them.”

I figured this was a perfect mission. With backs against the wall now it was time to test my metal.

Despite my mom’s aversion to technology… No, I mean seriously, my mom talks about AI the same way Bobby Boucher’s mom talks about foosball in Waterboy.

“AI is the devil, Noah!’”

I’m over here trying to teach her how to automate her invoices, and she’s clutching her pearls like I’m attempting to summon Satan through a spreadsheet.

But with her back against the wall she didn’t really have a choice. Here we were at the proverbial Crossroads. In a bind, she was ready to make a deal and give this tool a go.

I sat down at their desktop, opened up Docker, downloaded Claude, started a new project, and began uploading all of their bank statements. We created an AI persona named “Tina the Tax Girlie” and gave her instructions that would get the AI to ask my mother questions in natural language that helped to categorize expenses, month by month. After each expense was clarified, the AI would add that as a rule to categorize under a document in her copy of CreateOS automatically.

It took about 4 hours for her to do January and February and categorize the transactions… but then the magic happened. It only took around 2 hours to do THE REST OF THE YEAR. Once the AI had built out all the rules, it was able to organize the monthly statements in just 1-2 messages back and forth and my mom was BLOWN AWAY.

She’s not a “tech person.” She still keeps paper receipts in a drawer, still writes her passwords in a notebook, and still gets nervous when the computer asks, “Are you sure?”

But this time, we opened Claude and I said,

“Just tell it what you need, like you’d ask me.”

She typed what she needed (actually voice dictated because her typing is ATROCIOUSLY SLOW).

(Sorry if you’re reading this Mom, I love you 😘 )

But seriously, it’s like watching someone do Morse Code. My mom and dad don’t have any typing ability. It takes them about three minutes to write a paragraph. Btw, if you’re wondering, three minutes feels like forever when you’re watching them hunt and peck with one finger. They can’t see the buttons, can’t see the screen clearly. Forget them having to type with capital letters or add special symbols, now we’ve added 20 seconds to the search. It’s painful to watch. God bless ‘em.

But after hitting send, in seconds, Claude responded with exactly what she needed.

No overwhelm.

She looked up and said, “That’s it?”

I laughed, but inside, something clicked. That’s exactly what I want to bring to the world through Create & Go.

The Time We’re In

We’ve reached a strange moment with technology. AI is being sold like magic and feared like fire. But I don’t see it that way.

To me, AI is just a mirror, a tool that reflects the data and context you give it. If you feed it noise, you get chaos. If you feed it your story, your goals, your examples, you get clarity.

That’s why I believe the future isn’t about “AI replacing humans.” It’s about AI amplifying humans.

That’s exactly what CreateOS was built for: a system where your data, your notes, ideas, stories, habits, and reflections, live in one vault you actually own. Because when you own your data, it can be used to help your AI to finally understand you. It becomes an extension of your mind, not a replacement for it.

The Problem Most People Don’t See

Here’s what I learned from watching my mom interact with AI for the first time:

The technology isn’t the barrier. The context is.

Most people are trying to use AI with generic prompts and no personal data. They’re asking it to be everything to everyone, instead of being specifically helpful to them.

It’s like trying to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t know your name, your goals, or your situation. Of course it feels generic and unhelpful.

But when you feed AI your actual context, your notes, your goals, your examples, your voice, or in this case your bank statements, something magical happens. It starts to be personalized to you. It starts to think like you. It becomes genuinely useful instead of just impressive.

The Moment Everything Changed

But here’s what really got me.

It was the first time I’ve ever seen my mother get into a flow state using a computer. She was dragging files here, copy and pasting prompts, pulling up Claude, dictating the things she wanted to change, clicking that, going over to Obsidian, exporting the PDF, saving the file, adding it to the AI memory base.

I was bewildered.

She kept looking back at me and smiling. Each time she finished a month in record time she would double-check the AI’s work and be like “no, no, no way.” She’d look through the statements for five minutes, ten minutes, checking all the work. Shocked, she kept saying “you gotta be kidding me.”

At one point she looked at me and said “if you would’ve told me that a robot could do my taxes when I was a child I would have laughed you out of the room. I never in all my days would’ve thought that it would be this easy to do my taxes and accounting every month.”

Today she finished all of 2024 taxes and got caught up. She was so empowered. It truly was the first time I’ve been shocked by how much AI can empower someone.

At one point my mom looked at me and said “My life is going to be amazing now.”

It clicked… THIS is what I love to do, I love to empower others to solve the problems they didn’t think they could solve.

My mom’s not an accountant. She’s doing it all manually with receipts and strenuous systems.

Just setting up a flow that made that easy for her, teaching her how to use Obsidian and Claude, she was talking herself through it. It was difficult to pull her away!!

What’s Next

Next I’m setting them up a personal finance AI that talks to the accountant AI. This AI will focus on paying them a set salary every month from their business, maxing out their retirement accounts, putting money away for the grandbabies, and putting money aside for a new house.

Every time she gets a check, she’ll deposit it, the AI personal finance will tell her where to put everything and she’ll make the transfers. The AI will then tell the accountant AI where she transferred all that money, and at the end of the month, the AI accountant will get a summary of all their transfers, then the bank statement will automatically upload. It’ll process everything, text my mom with any questions, but it already has all the categories and all the rules now. She’ll answer them, and then the AI will do all of her tax accounting.

Boom. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, ya feel me?

(Btw. These are exactly the type of workflows I will be adding to the community in the future for you to take advantage of and use for your own business).

The Deeper Mission Behind Create & Go

That’s the deeper mission behind what I’m doing with Create & Go.

I don’t want to just teach creators how to “use AI.” I want to help them build systems that make life simpler, clearer, and truly theirs. I want to make this technology accessible to people who never thought they could use it, people like my mom, or like I used to be when I was buried under unfinished projects, burnout, and self-doubt.

Most people don’t need more information. They need a path to implementation. They need tools that remove friction, reduce decision fatigue, and make finishing feel inevitable.

That’s why inside our community, now that I have launched the behind the scenes and got that scheduled weekly (the first episode is already in the community classroom if you haven’t seen it) I will be introducing something new.

Another “Kit”(what I'm calling the Mini Courses in the community):

The “How to Use AI Tools” Kit

It’s not just a youtube tutorial or hype video. It’s a hands-on guide to using AI to handle real business functions: writing, planning, organizing, and automating, without losing the soul or story behind your work.

In this weekly course you’ll learn every week (starting with the basics, don't worry, my mom needs to be able to follow along):

How to build your own “AI workforce” one workflow at a time
How to use AI to plan content, manage projects, and improve your creative flow
How to feed your AI context so it sounds and thinks like you
And how to use these tools to buy back your most valuable asset: your time

Why This Matters More Than You Think

This is the beginning of something much bigger I'm building at Create & Go. This will be a platform for solopreneurs, creators, and everyday people to learn how to use AI and their knowledge their way.

Because I don’t believe AI belongs to Silicon Valley. I believe it belongs to the people who show up every day trying to make life work, the parents, the creators, the business owners doing it all themselves.

If you’ve ever looked at AI and thought, “That’s cool, but where would I even start?” this kit is where you start.

The first episode drops in the community tomorrow and will come out every Thursday (the behind the scenes of the new business is every Monday).

The Choice We’re All Making

I’ll leave you with this: AI isn’t the finish line. It’s the tool that helps us get there. And when used well, when paired with ownership, clarity, and intention, it becomes more than software. It becomes a companion that helps you build the life you actually want.

That’s the world I’m trying to build. And it starts with something as simple as helping my mom do her taxes.

The question for you is: Are you going to let Silicon Valley define what AI means for your life, or are you going to build your own relationship with this technology?

The choice is yours. But you have to make it.

I’m really looking forward to building the next system for my parents. I’m feeling super inspired. I’m really, really excited. Don’t worry, next week’s YouTube video will have some tips for using AI too so if the community isn’t for you there’s still a ton of value heading your way.

What I’m Most Grateful For

You know what hit me hardest today?

I still get to help my mom figure out problems that seemed impossible just hours before.

There’s something sacred about that moment when someone you love looks at you and says “My life is going to be amazing now” because of something you helped them discover. That’s not just about AI or technology, that’s about human connection. That’s about showing up for the people who matter most.

And here’s what I want you to know: I see this community the same way I see my family. Every person reading this email, every creator who’s ever felt stuck or overwhelmed or like they’re not “tech-savvy enough” to use these tools, you’re not just subscribers or customers to me.

You’re the reason I wake up excited to build things that actually matter.

When I think about what I’m building with Create & Go, I don’t just see a business. I see a place where people like my mom can finally feel confident using technology that was designed for them, not against them.

Something to Think About

Here’s what I want you to consider this week:

What’s the one thing in your life that feels overwhelming right now? The thing that makes you think “I’m not smart enough” or “I don’t have time” or “I’m not technical enough”?

Now imagine if there was a way to make that thing feel as simple as asking a question. Not because the problem got smaller, but because you got a tool that actually understood your context, your goals, your way of thinking.

That’s not some distant future. That’s what we’re building right now in our world.

The question isn’t whether AI will change everything. The question is whether you’ll be ready when it does.

Get out there and see what it can do.

Quote of the Week

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it might just save you.” - Me

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Talk soon,
Riggs

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