The EDO Executive Mastermind

A 9 session AI transformation experience—designed exclusively for economic development leaders.

Join the Founding Cohort: AI Workflow Expert Certification for EDO Leaders Launches Oct 30th — Enrollment Now Open

Program Overview

The AI Workflow Expert Certification equips senior leaders with the skills, frameworks, and tools to integrate artificial intelligence into the real work of economic development.

Unlike traditional programs that emphasize theory before practice, this curriculum is structured around immediate application and measurable ROI. Participants use AI on their own work during the program—policy, operations, workforce, BRE, RFIs—so every hour invested produces tangible results.

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Who This Program Is For

This experience is designed for leaders who:

  • Serve as Executive Directors, CEOs, or Deputy Directors in an EDO, chamber, or public-private partnership.
  • Have the authority to mandate or champion AI adoption for their team, region, or department.
  • Are committed to leaving a legacy of transformative leadership and innovation.
“In under 60 minutes, Katie took us from AI theory to practical application with clarity and momentum.” – Meghan, Executive Director, MEDA

Why This Program Now

The AI landscape is noisy. Executives are inundated with webinars, dashboards, and hype that overpromise and underdeliver. Skepticism is natural—and warranted.

This program was built for that reality. We focus on:

  • Practical ROI: Workflows that deliver measurable returns inside of 30 days.
  • Implementation, not inspiration: Each session produces outputs you can immediately use in your organization.
  • Guardrails included: Ethics, compliance, and public-sector readiness are integrated into the curriculum—not left as footnotes.

Our goal is not to sell “shiny objects,” but to give leaders the confidence and capacity to make AI work for their organizations today.

Curriculum

A 9-module certification experience for economic development leaders ready to integrate AI into the real work of their organizations. This is not theory. This is workflow-level execution designed by and for EDO professionals.

You’ll leave this program certified as an AI Workflow Expert (AIWE) — a leader who doesn’t just use AI, but builds adaptive, efficient, and compliant workflows that actually get results.

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Pacing Note: The program runs over 13 weeks, Oct 30, 2025 - Jan 10, 2026, with 9 live modules and intentional breaks during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s to honor your energy, team responsibilities, and holiday rhythms.
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AI Workflow Expert (AIWE) Certification

The AI Workflow Expert (AIWE) track develops the capability to design, adapt, and scale workflows across your organization.

This advanced curriculum follows a nine-belt progression, each level unlocking new skills:

  • White Belt – Understanding what AI can do in your organizational context
  • Grey Belt – Mapping your role with AI for clarity and focus
  • Yellow Belt – Setting goals and action plans with AI support
  • Orange Belt – Adaptive learning: mastering new knowledge on demand
  • Green Belt – Partnering with AI for critical thinking and decision-making
  • Blue Belt – Moving from role ownership to process ownership (systems thinking, agentic AI prep)
  • Purple Belt – Creating AI workflows to replace redundant tasks
  • Brown Belt – Building multi-role, cross-functional processes
  • Black Belt – Tool and deliverable hacking: leveraging AI for efficiency and innovation

The AIWE certification signals that you are not just using AI workflows—you are capable of architecting them for your team, department, or region. This is the distinction between an informed practitioner and a true AI-enabled executive leader.

What Makes This Different

You’re not learning “about” AI. You’re building AI workflows specifically for Economic Development that:

  • Accelerate funding requests
  • Automate RFI responses
  • Align cross-sector stakeholders
  • Demonstrate measurable ROI within 30 days

Unlike typical executive education programs, this one is:

  • Built for public/private sector complexity
  • Grounded in EDO-specific use cases
  • Designed to create real organizational change

Program Components

The AI Workflow Expert Certification is built to accelerate fluency through a mix of live cohort education and coaching:

  • Weekly Live Group Coaching (60 minutes, Thursdays) 👥
    Four sessions per month, cohort-based, designed to tackle strategy, operations, workforce, BRE, and other live use cases. Every session is hands-on: you work on your work, not hypotheticals.
  • Replay & Resource Library 🎥
    Access to recordings and supporting materials, like the AI MBA (valued at $999 with over 3,000 plug and play AI workflows) so you can revisit key workflows, frameworks, and applications at your own pace.

The Power of Partnership

The AI Performance School is delivered in collaboration with Simple Academy, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and part of a global network of over 120 AI Transformation Experts working across diverse industries.

What makes this partnership unique is the integration of:

  • The AI MBA Software Platform: 3,276 pre-built workflows and a cutting-edge ROI Metrics Dashboard, designed to measure, present, and defend AI’s impact down to the individual level in organizations of any size.
  • The AI Workflow Expert Certification for EDOs: The only program built specifically for economic developers, chambers, and civic leaders, combining world-class tools with the lived expertise of practitioners who understand the unique dynamics of government, academia, and employers.

Together, this system ensures that leaders don’t just learn about AI in theory — they implement it, measure it, and prove its value to stakeholders.

Investment and Guarantee

  • Regular Tuition: $2,500 per seat
  • Founding Member Rate: $999 (for a limited time)
  • Software License: INCLUDED! (for a limited time) Covers teams of any size, valued at $999 — this serves as your required “textbook,” providing access to the AI MBA software platform and 3,276 workflows used throughout the program.

Included with Your Tuition:

  • AIWP Certification (Execution & Implementation)
  • AIWE Certification (Design & Development)
  • Weekly Live Group Coaching (4x/month)
  • Replay & Resource Library
  • AI MBA Tools

This rate will not be offered again. Founding members help shape the future of the program and receive lifetime recognition.

Beyond the Mastermind

The Mastermind is the gateway, but it is not the full extent of what we offer. As your fluency grows, you’ll gain access to advanced services that extend far beyond training. For example:

  • AI-Powered Strategic Planning: Generate organization-specific and industry-specific research in an afternoon, align stakeholders around a 90-day strategy, and cascade priorities through the entire org so every member knows their role and metrics.
  • Execution Support: Pair AI tools with behavior-change frameworks to ensure strategy is not just written but lived, creating unstoppable momentum.
  • 30-Day ROI Experiment: A low-cost, no-risk way to experience measurable AI impact with a 23% ROI guarantee for your team, department, or entire organization.
  • AIWE Graduates Program: Executive group coaching experience designed specifically for EDO leaders who have completed the AIWE training. This program helps graduates maximize their impact and efficiency by deepening their mastery of the AI tools and frameworks introduced in AIWE.

These solutions go beyond introductory training and are tailored to organizations ready to integrate AI into the fabric of their leadership and execution. Schedule a call to explore which path is right for you.

Enrollment

Enrollment is open now, with the first cohort scheduled to begin Thursday October 30, 2025. Save your seat.

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