This is the first session in every course on this platform. Read it once, start to finish, before you install anything. It takes fifteen minutes and saves you from guessing later.
Two questions get answered here: are you the right person for this, and what do you need before you start.
You run a small business or a nonprofit. You are comfortable with email, spreadsheets, and installing an app. You have never written a line of code. That is enough. That is exactly who this academy is built for.
Say it plainly: some basic computer knowledge is required. If you can open a browser, save a file, and find it again later, you have what it takes. You do not need to be a "computer person." If you are computer savvy but not a developer, you already have everything you need.
Who this is not for, yet: someone who has never used a computer beyond a phone. Get comfortable with a full keyboard, an open window, and a downloaded file first, then come back.
Four things, and you likely already have three.
Every course is a stack of short sessions. Each has three parts: a short video showing the whole thing done once, a written walkthrough with any command already typed out to copy and paste, and a template in the vault, a checklist or ready-made file that turns the session into something you keep.
Watch the video first, then follow the written page with the template open in another tab. Do not try to redo it from memory. The page is there so you never have to.
A few sessions from now you will install an AI coding agent: Claude Code, Codex, or Grok Build. All three do the same job, you type or speak a request and they do the work on your computer. Which one you pick depends on the subscription you already pay for.
You do not need to understand the differences today. It is a "pick one" choice, not a "learn all three" choice.
This habit matters more than any tool. Never run a command you do not understand, here or anywhere else.
Two checks, every time something looks unfamiliar:
Build this habit now, before your first real command. It costs ten seconds and beats a bad afternoon.
Every lesson page has an "Ask the teacher" panel. A real person answers it. When the teacher is away, an AI teaching assistant drafts a reply so you are not left waiting, and the teacher reviews it before it goes out. Use it whenever a step does not match your screen: that mismatch is normal.
The template vault is the other place to lean on. Every session's template lives there, and you can return to any of them anytime.
You can say, out loud, which of the three tools you are installing next, and you have written "verify before you run: ask a second AI, check the domain" on a sticky note where you will see it. That is the whole bar. Nothing to install, nothing to test, just a decision and a habit.
Template included: Members get a one-page "before you start" checklist: the four requirements, the three tools with their matching subscriptions, the two verify-before-you-run checks, the official domain list, and where to get help. Find it in your member dashboard under Templates.
Short on time? Alliance Optimal will implement this end to end, wired into your stack, and hand you the keys.