A LEADER UNLOCK PRODUCTION

Become

AI Fluent

A Microsoft Director's unfiltered journey from AI-curious to AI-fluent. Built in public. Every lesson. Every failure.

0DAYS
SINCE THE STICKY NOTE
30+
YEARS IN TECH
4
FORTUNE 500S
20+
YEARS PASTORING
1
STICKY NOTE
THE CONFESSION

"Six months ago, I used AI like a glorified search engine."

Chris Antonelli

I'm Chris Antonelli. Nearly 30 years leading at the highest levels of tech. Microsoft. Amazon. EMC. Cisco. I've navigated every major platform shift of the last three decades.

But four months ago, I realized I was falling behind the biggest wave of all. So I did something simple. I wrote a note on a sticky note. And that note changed everything.

"Become AI Fluent"
THE NOTE THAT STARTED EVERYTHING

This isn't my first unlock. I was there for the PC wave. I rode the internet emergence. I navigated on-prem to cloud. Every time, the leaders who moved first didn't just survive... they defined what came next.

That sticky note was me deciding to move first, one more time.
THE JOURNEY

From Rock Bottom to
Building the Future

01
1990s

Rock Bottom

Homeless. Living in a truck with a pet rat named Merlin. Eight years of addiction. No direction. No hope. But even in the darkest places, a door was about to open.

02
1994 — THE TURNING POINT

A New Beginning

A friend invited me to church. I raised both hands. Jesus met me and started rebuilding my life piece by piece. Marriage. Family. A career that would stretch 30 years and counting.

03
2000s — PRESENT

The Life That Was Built

Microsoft. Amazon. EMC. Cisco. Twenty years pastoring. A family that grounds everything. Thirty years of learning what leadership means under real pressure... and finding out it starts at home.

04
2025 — THE STICKY NOTE

The Moment Everything Changed

Wrote "Become AI Fluent" on a sticky note. Recognized the moment. This isn't my first wave... but it might be the most important one. Time to build in public.

MICROSOFT · AMAZON · EMC · CISCO
"AI fluency is not about better prompts. It's about building systems where AI reliably produces better outcomes inside real work."
Chris Antonelli
From homeless... living in a truck with a pet rat named Merlin
to a Director at Microsoft
to building the future with AI.
0DAYS BUILDING
IN PUBLIC
VIDEO PODCAST

Building AI Fluent

Every episode documents the real journey. No scripts. No filter.

PREMIERE EPISODE
EPISODE 1 · 18 MIN

"I Have a Confession"

Six months ago I used AI like a glorified search engine. Four months ago I wrote a sticky note that changed everything. This is the story of why I'm building in public.

Coming Soon
EP 222 min

I Built a Website With Claude

A non-technical executive builds a production web app using AI.

EP 320 min

The Business Nobody Sees

The real economics of AI-automated content.

EP 416 min

Going Live

Deploying my first AI-powered site.

EP 519 min

5 AM Failure

When the automation breaks at dawn.

EP 615 min

The Post That Changed Everything

One piece of LinkedIn content shifted everything.

Chris
CHRIS ANTONELLI
Director, Microsoft
North Bend, Washington

Three decades of tech. Twenty years of pastoring. One voice.

I leverage three decades of leadership at companies like Microsoft and Amazon, plus twenty years as a pastor, to help people lead with clarity, scale their influence, and build a legacy that outlives a job title.

Leader Unlock is where I write. This is where I build. Both are parts of the same story.

🔓 Leader UnlockLinkedInWork With Me
MICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDERMICROSOFTAMAZONEMCCISCO30 YEARSPASTORMENTORBUILDER
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