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The Dev-Inspired, AI-First Podcast Strategist

A framework for Dawson

The Core Insight​

Your prompts are software.

Before AI, developers wrote code to create apps. V1 was a set of files. V1.1 meant changing a few files here, a few files there. The code was the product.

Now you're doing the same thing. Your templates for titles, thumbnails, content strategy? That's your codebase. When you refine how you prompt AI based on feedback, you're shipping updates.

What This Means Practically​

1. Version Control Your Templates​

Put your prompts in GitHub (or similar). Not because you're a developer. Because you get:

  • Complete history of how your thinking evolved
  • The ability to see exactly what changed between versions
  • A backup that can't be lost
  • The option to roll back if something breaks

Your template for "great podcast title" today will be different in 6 months. You want to know why it changed.

2. Use Developer Tools for Non-Developer Work​

Cursor was built for writing apps. Turns out it's incredible for editing templates, SOPs, and process documents. The AI understands context. It suggests improvements. It catches inconsistencies.

The tools built for software development are now your tools too.

3. Each Client Gets a Fork​

Here's where it gets powerful for an agency:

  • Base templates: Your core system. The "Dawson Method" for titles, thumbnails, strategy.
  • Client fork: A clone of those base templates, customized through intake.
  • Intake process: The structured way you update each client's fork based on their brand, audience, goals.

Same underlying system. Client-specific customization. You're not managing 10 different chaotic approaches. You're managing one system with 10 configurations.

4. They Buy Into Your System​

This is the mindset shift. Clients aren't telling you their system and asking you to execute it. They're signing up for the Dawson System. They give you their specifics. You plug those into your proven framework.

McDonald's doesn't let each franchise invent their own burger recipe. They have a system. Customization happens within constraints.

The AI Apocalypse Survival Play​

Everyone can access GPT. Everyone can ask for "10 title ideas." That's table stakes now.

What they can't replicate:

  • Your battle-tested templates refined over hundreds of iterations
  • Your intake process that captures what actually matters
  • Your system for consistent quality across clients
  • Your version history proving what works

The agencies that survive are the ones that treat this like engineering. Systematic. Versioned. Repeatable.

Next Steps​

  1. Pick one template you use repeatedly (title generation, thumbnail brief, whatever)
  2. Put it in a repo
  3. Every time you improve it based on feedback, commit the change with a note on why
  4. Do this for 3 months
  5. Look back at V1 vs V47 and see how far the "software" has evolved

You're not becoming a developer. You're adopting the practices that make developers reliable.

The future belongs to professionals who treat their prompts like products.