The New Era of AI-Driven Business
Our world is going through some crazy times right now when it comes to AI. Many companies have a smaller headcount. Sales and marketing teams are getting smaller and not because of budget cuts. It’s because one person with ambition, taste, and the right tools using AI can now leverage and outship entire teams.
In this beginner’s guide, you’ll learn how to set up and build a full system to leverage these tools without hiring anyone. I’ll show you how to get set up, the fundamentals of what it takes to use these tools, and how to ultimately generate copy or content around what you want to do with your business, whether it is to generate emails, images, or videos.
And believe me, most people still have no idea this is even possible, which brings a total unfair advantage. So, if you’re a founder, freelancer, or just sick of learning the same outdated advice, this is for you. No BS, no gatekeeping, just pure knowledge drops.
Why You Need to Master AI Tools Like Cursor
I build enterprise AI and automation systems for a living. First and foremost, one of the biggest things that I talk about all the time is you really need to get into a platform that just really leverages the true power of AI, and that is none other than an IDE called Cursor.
Cursor is obviously a fork of VS Code or it’s an AI coder. So, it does a number of different tasks, namely building code in which you can pretty much do anything. The reason I love Cursor so much is because it’s easy. They ship fast. They ship all the time. They’re always updating and they really are helping a lot of AI coders build great things really quickly, such as myself.
You can also learn more about Cursor IDE for AI coding directly from their official website to explore its latest features, integrations, and use cases for developers and marketers.
Getting Started Inside Cursor
So, we’re at the Vibe Marketing empty repository or what used to be an empty repository. I basically restarted my entire project. I have a lot of projects that I usually like to work on specific to GTM and sales and marketing as well.
But one thing you’ll find here when you actually start in a code editor such as Cursor—the thing that you need to start with is just an empty folder on your hard drive.
I think one of the biggest and most challenging things for people that are not immediately coders is to conceptualize how an IDE (an Integrated Development Environment) such as Cursor actually works.
One of the key things here is all of these are nothing more than just files. And then we have our agent right here where it has access to these files. And then this is nothing more than actually opening up the files to be able to interact with it.
I can reference these files into the agent to actually understand context. It’ll actually read it, and we can manipulate and generate files and code and pretty much anything.
Why Cursor Over ChatGPT or Claude?
Right now you might ask me, “Well Brandon, why don’t you just start using Claude? Why don’t you use ChatGPT or Manis or whatever AI tool, right?”
The short answer is I use these every single day. Yes, I use Claude—I mean, I use Claude quite heavily, especially with MCP servers to be able to connect to different things. I also use ChatGPT. My wife and kids use ChatGPT, although they don’t use it for school because it would be really bad.
All of them are really wonderful.
So, what I would say is start with Claude. Definitely have it on your computer. I mean, I use it every day for small tasks. But if you’re really trying to stand up a good Vibe Marketing or Sales Intelligence or even GTM mastermind, you really should be building an overall repository or intelligence here around what we’re looking at.
How to Set Up and Explore Cursor
What I’m going to do is I’m going to get you acquainted with Cursor so that way you know how to poke around, you know what it means, you know kind of how to set it up.
By the way, this will be on my GitHub repository. So that way if you just want to fork it or clone it—if that speaks French to you—really all you need to do is just grab the URL to the GitHub repository, bring it up in Cursor and just say “Clone this repo”, and then put in the URL and it will pull it right away and you’ll be good to go.
The Four Core Ways We Work with Data
When it comes to marketing, when it comes to data, when it comes to even working on a computer, we are doing four things. That’s it. Four things.
I think this is always true. And when we use AI, even as of this recording, if I were to recommend tools to you, it’s probably going to be in a month that this is going to be outdated. So, like, what’s the point, right?
As of this recording, I use Claude 4.5 Sonnet, which is a total workhorse, but in a month or two, who knows? We might see Claude 4.7.
I would say the fundamentals still don’t change.
So, what are those fundamentals? Well, I put it in this beginner’s guide because what it actually means is exactly these:
- Get data — the acquisition of it.
- Consume data — analysis and reasoning of it.
- Generate data — the creation of it.
- Send data — the distribution.
Applying the Four Data Principles
When we get information, we now have to figure out what we’re going to do with it. There could be a number of tasks like scoring leads, analyzing things, reading content, reviewing customer feedback or consuming, right?
A large part of this world consumes data and there’s a lot of time wasted on consuming.
The third one is generating data, which is the creation of it.
The fourth thing is sending data, distribution, right? Could be sending a cold email, posting an image on Instagram, or publishing an X (Twitter) post. You’re feeding the machine, right?
There’s always going to be a get, a consume, a generate, and a post.
To build a truly efficient AI-driven workflow, it’s helpful to follow AI marketing automation best practices that streamline how data is collected, processed, and distributed across marketing channels.
Human-in-the-Loop: When AI Needs You
The biggest thing is: at what point do those four things really mean something as far as getting it, and doing all those to actually automate, right?
For example, we might have a client that will bring in thousands and almost a million rows of a CSV.
We could have large amounts of data where frankly no one wants to read that stuff.
When it comes to maybe deduping, enriching, qualifying leads, or getting rid of junk — it’s a mess, right?
This is the current state of a lot of CRM systems.
So, you can use something like Cursor to be able to analyze this, have some true marketing intelligence, and then make a decision from there.
That is, in my opinion, the best use of AI.
Your use case might be different, but I think that’s where it comes into play.
And then the next thing here is where you use AI — where should you apply a human in the loop?
Because you want to start small, you want to iterate, you want to verify, you want to make sure that whatever that task was done, it was executed with high accuracy.
So if you expect any system to be built out, it’s really important when you start, you start small, start simple, don’t overengineer — and then just let it rip, right?
Understanding Context Engineering
Now we get into one of the most important concepts: Context Engineering.
Cursor is great because you can actually provide a lot of context no matter what you’re doing and it allows you to keep this contained.
If I were to go into Claude, sure I could go to settings and you can create a basic role of what you want to do. There’s always like a little bit of a role to define who you are and things like that.
But with Cursor I can just create a folder and then I could define roles and provide context and guardrails around exactly what you’re doing or what the agent should be doing.
There’s a doc cursor, and then there are rules. Claude Code has the same thing.
You’re defining roles around what the AI agent is allowed to do and what not to do — and what tools to actually use for the job.
The RTO Framework: Role, Task, Output
These are the big three frameworks in context engineering.
1. Role
The system prompt or persona.
Example:
- “You are a kindergarten teacher explaining why the sky is blue.”
- Versus: “You are a Harvard professor explaining why the sky is blue to graduate students.”
The output differs drastically depending on the role defined.
2. Task
The specific job you’re asking AI to perform.
The more articulate and logical your task instructions are, the better the outcome.
Include steps, examples of good/bad results, and logical flow.
3. Output
Be explicit about what form you want:
- Yes/No answers
- Scores
- JSON or Markdown
- Word limits
- Paragraphs or essays
Clarity determines quality.
Deep vs Surface Lexicon
Beyond basic prompting, there’s a psychological layer: deep lexicon vs surface lexicon.
Think of Steve Jobs or Simon Sinek — they pause before speaking.
They think deeply about the words they use.
That’s a deep lexicon — carefully choosing words to convey precise meaning.
Using a deep lexicon with AI makes your prompts more descriptive, articulate, and results in higher-quality outputs.
Connecting MCP Servers in Cursor
MCP servers are like a toolbox of AI integrations.
They act as universal connectors — like a USB-C port — enabling Cursor to interact with external platforms like ClickUp, HubSpot, GitHub, Reddit, or even browsers.
For example:
- Browser MCP: browses the web, clicks, types, takes screenshots.
- GitHub MCP: creates pull requests, issues, and syncs projects.
- Sora MCP: generates and saves videos automatically.
- Instantly MCP: automates cold email campaign creation.
These integrations form the backbone of Vibe Marketing automation.
Claude Skills: Expanding Your AI’s Capabilities
As of October 16, Claude introduced Skills — a new feature to improve how AI performs specific tasks.
You can create skills such as:
- Digital Marketer
- Cold Email Copywriter
- Brand Designer
Each skill can have custom rules, style guidelines, and output preferences.
Combine these with MCP servers and you can automate brand-aligned content creation, social posts, and marketing campaigns — all from within Cursor.
Bringing It All Together
All that to say, this is—in my opinion—the best way to leverage tools when it comes to MCP, the foundational elements of RTO (Role, Task, Output), and understanding the four ways we interact with data:
Acquire, Consume, Create, and Distribute.
Ask yourself:
- Which parts can AI handle autonomously?
- Where must a human stay in the loop?
When done right, you build a true AI-driven intelligence system — one that saves time, scales output, and keeps quality intact.
Final Thoughts: The Future of AI in Marketing
We have so many tools like Claude, Cursor, Gemini, Augment, and can run multiple agents at once, even in the background.
The possibilities are endless.
That’s the end of this beginner’s guide.
I truly hope you got something from this to inspire you to go out and do great things. Because at the end of the day, solving problems and providing true value is what matters most.