Attention Factory

The 30-Day
AI Roadmap.

From zero to a portfolio of real AI projects. The exact path my bootcamp fellows followed to go from never building anything to shipping apps, sites, and agents in weeks.

A free guide by Mercy Thaddeus · @mercythaddeus_

Start here

One focused task a day. Thirty days to a portfolio.

This is not a course you watch. It is a build plan you do. Every day has one task you can finish in 30 to 60 minutes, and by the end you will have real projects with your name on them, not notes about projects you might make someday.

Three rules before you start. They matter more than any tool I name in here.

Done beats perfect.

A rough thing that exists is worth more than a polished thing in your head. Ship it ugly, fix it later. Every fellow who got a result shipped before they felt ready.

Build in public.

Post what you make as you make it. Feedback, opportunities, and clients only exist outside your drafts. The work is half the value, showing it is the other half.

Pick the tool, then move on.

You will be tempted to spend three days comparing tools. Don't. Pick the one I suggest, build the thing, and switch later if you outgrow it. Momentum is the real skill.

Days 1 to 7

Phase 1: Get fluent with AI

Before you build anything, you need to think with AI instead of just typing at it. This week is about reps, not theory.

Day 1

Set up your three assistants.

Open ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Ask all three the same hard question from your real work. You learn the differences by using them, not reading about them.

Day 2

Learn to actually prompt.

Write five prompts that each give context, a clear task, the format you want, and one example. Save the ones that work. This is the skill under every other skill.

Day 3

Hand off one real task.

Take something you do every week, an email, a summary, a plan, and give it fully to AI. Proof beats theory, and you need to feel the time it saves.

Day 4

Build a prompt library.

Save your ten best prompts in one doc you reuse. The point is to stop starting from scratch every time.

Day 5

Pick your lane.

Decide what you want AI to do for you: start a career, become the AI person at your job, or grow your own business. The next three weeks bend around that goal.

Day 6

Copy one workflow.

Find one person who already uses AI the way you want to, and copy their exact process once, start to finish. Modeling skips months of guessing.

Day 7

Audit your week.

List every repetitive task you did this week and circle the three AI could take over. This list becomes everything you build next.

Days 8 to 14

Phase 2: Create with AI

Now you make things people can see. Content, images, and video are the fastest way to a first win and the easiest to share.

Day 8

Make your first AI image.

Use a tool like Higgsfield, Ideogram, or Midjourney and recreate an ad you admire. You learn by copying first, then changing one thing at a time.

Day 9

Teach AI your voice.

Feed it three things you have written and have it draft in your style. Generic AI writing is the giveaway, your voice is the fix.

Day 10

Make one full piece of content.

Turn a single idea into a finished carousel or post, end to end. Finishing one beats planning ten.

Day 11

Make your first AI video.

Try Seedance, Kling, or Runway on a simple five-second clip. Video is where attention is, and it is finally within reach for one person.

Day 12

Make a UGC-style ad.

Script it, generate it, caption it. This is a sellable skill on its own, and brands pay for it.

Day 13

Set up a content system.

Build one repeatable flow: idea, draft, visual, post. Consistency comes from a system, not from motivation.

Day 14

Publish in public.

Post one thing you made this week. Feedback does not exist inside your drafts.

Days 15 to 21

Phase 3: Build real software

This is where it gets undeniable. You can ship working software now by describing it, no code required. This is the week most people stop believing they need permission.

Day 15

Build your first page.

Use Lovable, Bolt, or v0 and make a one-page site just by describing it. Watch software appear from a sentence.

Day 16

Build a real landing page.

For yourself, a friend's business, or an idea you have. Then make it live. Live always beats local.

Day 17

Learn to debug with AI.

When something breaks, paste the error into Claude and work through the fix. Building is mostly fixing, so get comfortable here.

Day 18

Build a simple app.

One tool that does one useful thing: a tracker, a calculator, a form. An app on your phone is proof no one can argue with.

Day 19

Add a database.

Connect Supabase so your app saves real data. This is the line between a toy and a tool.

Day 20

Build for one real person.

Ask someone what they would actually use, then build the smallest version of it. Real users show you what matters faster than guessing.

Day 21

Ship the link.

Send your build to five people for feedback. A shared link is a portfolio piece.

Days 22 to 28

Phase 4: Automate and build agents

This is the highest-leverage week. Automations and agents are where AI stops saving you minutes and starts saving you hours, or doing the work while you sleep.

Day 22

Map one workflow.

Pick a task with clear steps, like replying to inquiries or sorting leads. Automation needs a defined process before it needs a tool.

Day 23

Build your first automation.

Use n8n, Make, or Zapier to connect two tools so one triggers the other. This is where the real time savings live.

Day 24

Build an AI agent.

Have it read something and respond or take an action on its own. Agents are the most valuable thing you will build this month.

Day 25

Automate one daily annoyance.

Connect AI to your inbox or calendar and kill one recurring task you hate. The best automation is the one you feel every day.

Day 26

Try a voice agent.

Use a tool like Vapi or Retell to build something that can answer a call. Voice AI is a fast-growing space that very few people are building in yet.

Day 27

Document what you built.

Write one plain paragraph for each project explaining what it does. Being able to explain it is half its value.

Day 28

Pick your best build.

Choose the one you are proudest of and polish it. Depth on one project beats shallow on five.

Days 29 to 30

Phase 5: Ship your portfolio

Everything you built this month was leading here. This is the part that gets you paid, promoted, or hired.

Day 29

Build your portfolio.

Put your best three to five projects on one page with a line about what each one does. This single page is the thing that turns skill into opportunity.

Day 30

Share it and ask for the next step.

Post your portfolio, tell people exactly what you can build, and ask for work or feedback. Opportunity comes from being visible, not from being ready.

What happens next

If you do all thirty days, you will not be a beginner anymore. You will have a portfolio, a process, and proof. The fellows in my bootcamp followed this same arc, and within a week of finishing, some had been paid for a build, some got promoted, and some put AI to work inside their own business. The difference between them and most people is simple. They started, and they finished.