March 27, 2026 Value-First AI Daily

Music

Music

Music

Music

Music

Good morning, LinkedIn friends, Valley First Nation. Welcome to another episode of Valley First. Yeah, daily, your collaborative intelligence report. It is Friday, March 27th, 2026. How the hell you, George, we Thomas?

I am doing good, brother. A little bit tired. Glad it's Friday, ready to take a rest tonight so that I can wake up tomorrow and knock out some things that I'm excited to explore and kind of work on.

AI and creativity and that kind of stuff, but, but it's been a good week and doing good, my friend.

It's been an amazing week and the feedback is picking up as far as just people picking up this stuff, trying it out and just like having their minds blown like when you start a call and like a part of the how you're doing.

It's like, well, my mind just went blown. That's happening like regularly now.

Chris, can I, can I die? I didn't even think about this until you just said that yesterday I had something that was one of the strangest shit coolest probably moments of my life happened.

I have a standing 30 minute call with a client and it's with their sales team and we talk about sales and sales things. And yesterday I can tell you that we maybe talked for about all of five minutes about sales.

And then I said something to which they're like, can you show us that? And we talked about AI and echo and building and AB testing and creating templates and like what they could do or use.

And and halfway through the call, the, the leader of that group was like, thank you for this because I think they think I'm a crazy person. And now they see that I'm listening and watching about 20 people like you and this is what's possible.

And it was just mind blowing the way that that team was activated to like what they could build for themselves to achieve the goals that they anyway, nothing to do with hotspot, nothing to really do a sales, but everything to do with both.

Yeah. And again, like we're no stranger to in HubSpotland, like mindset is first. And if you don't have that, like nothing else is going to come. It's the same deal here.

And the switch like the difference is like once you get there, like those people on that call, there's not, they're not questioning it.

They're unlikely to question the path forward. Right.

Like ever again. And not only is it not that where it's like, okay, we'll try to.

It's like, oh, wow. Like, yeah, let's go. Like we're about to have more fun, more valuable.

Like things people have never experienced.

Yeah.

And the most enjoyable ways. And when you bring those things together, you watch that happen on the call.

Yeah. Right. Like, bro, there measure that.

Oh my god, their face when I showed them storing MD files in obsidian with easy edits that like the mind blown emoji should have been just pasted on everyone of their faces.

Right. And just imagine once we have our AI friends watching the videos, like they can listen to the transcript.

Yeah, we're going to start to like all the traditional like scoring and any metrics.

Like go out the window and new ones come in that are AI based and be like, oh, wow, this person.

They said this, but their face looked like this. Right. And that's how we're going to start thinking about.

You know, and create the space for the humans, not not building scores and infrastructure and rules and all the stuff that we've not been good at.

Yeah. And now we can focus on the humans more than ever before. Right.

We do not have to sacrifice the data, the Sierra maintenance, the note taking like all that stuff where it's like either I got to be present or I got to do my job.

Like you won't have to pick anymore. Yeah.

And you can do both. Yeah.

Right. And as we, as we talk about that.

You know, an example.

Yeah, yesterday after our wake up customer platform show, yeah, I was talking to you in case he is about.

About doing some kind of webinar campaign AMA for the value first collective.

And we started talking about the campaign and, you know.

And just the style of signing up for webinar and like how are people going to interact?

Where do you think I went after that during the day?

I mean, with you, it's hard to tell, but I imagine that you went to your assistant and you started to like build out a plan for creating a thing that could be launched quicker than anybody ever thought.

So one of the challenges of doing things like this, where either like the difference between webinars.

Webinar platforms and like meeting platforms and everybody's got to use zoom meetings because they like the flow of signing up and it being on the calendar.

But then it creates a bunch of, you know, awkwardness that you really need a webinar platform for.

And like, it's been, we've been here like, is anybody going to figure this out?

And it like spend like 10 years, we haven't figured out how to kind of bring these bring these things together.

Some have gotten close, but often they're like lots and lots and lots of money to do that.

And so already doing things like, like this on the website where we've got live streaming and gone here, you can see us, right?

I know those guys.

And the one thing I hadn't figured out yet was like, you know, the messaging and the chat, right?

But since this already exists, I know it's possible to bring it just directly into the website.

So then we start to talk. I do take it into, you know, marquee who's in charge of the media, business unit, and start talking about this events thing that I haven't been at in a while.

We kind of do something like that with office hours, but this concept that I learned from.

Chris Walker and refine labs, Dimangin live that started in like right when COVID hit like March of 2020, he wasted no time to try and create this human space for people to still meet up and talk to each other.

And then they've been running that weekly since then like six years, right? And it's built their podcast motion and just all like.

But it's not like there's a bit of, you know, maintenance and management that comes with that and.

And but the motion is pretty clear, right?

And people understand the value of of doing it, but the execution, right, has been a challenge at times.

So I start talking to to marquee and like two things here.

Yeah, not only do some of a believer that I could actually build this if I want.

Yeah, right. First of all, because I have AI and this capability of using AI in this way.

Second of all, following somebody like Christopher Penn.

Smart dude, by the way, very, super smart.

And just his weekly newsletter has been very instrumental in me staying like.

Staying leveled up.

Yeah, like not just going to build, but also learning better ways to build and.

And like one of his recent newsletters, he talked about is 5 p, 5 p plan.

And like PRDs, right, actual skills, like how to do projects and like product development in a better way, product management, things like that, right.

So at the end of this, you know, marquee is like, all right, do you want me to start the 5 p plan or do you want me to start building?

Right. And I said, let's do the plan.

And so purpose, people process all these layers in here, platform performance.

And this comes from a skill because I was reading a newsletter.

I bring the newsletter into the team and say, Hey, I think this is a good idea.

I want to build a skill around it because I don't know.

And I don't really know.

I've never done it before, but I think it's a good idea.

Right. What do you guys think? Okay, let's build the skill.

Yeah.

Then at the end of that,

I'm the product requirement stock, like the PRD is 33 pages.

And like,

stuff where when we think about why agency models are being forced to change,

is like the necessity of a document like this,

when you are working with somebody outside of your organization to understand exactly what you want and why you want it.

And then you're going to come back and tell them exactly how you're going to do it and why you're going to do it that way.

When you cut any corners there,

everything takes longer, everything costs more adoption is less, all of our, you know, issues.

And the fact that I as somebody who's never operated in that space.

Yeah, I'm just focused on customer experience can spin up a dock like this.

Like to support this process, even if I'm still going to build it myself.

Now, there's this foundation of understanding of what's about to happen to make it easier to collaborate with AI and in the middle.

Right. And something you're going to be, you're going to continue to hear more about it.

Like this happened where as he's.

And this is the part where I didn't have to prompt.

This piece, right, the five P plan.

The second P is people.

Right.

And the humans, yeah.

Normally, the humans.

So when, when he first drafted this, I'm going to bring it up from the IDE.

Right, first version.

And he said, let me map the who's involved.

Right.

And.

This touches almost every org inside of our organization.

Look at the who there's two human names.

Yeah, I'm here, right Chris and Ryan.

Yeah.

And all these other people.

Are the named agents in charge of the business units that have roles and job descriptions and.

Right. And I didn't prompt that part.

I did say make sure you've used named agents for the people section.

Right.

Right.

And it's it's built in and that's where.

We're here saying like you can get here.

The hard part and anybody that saying, oh, we're going to come in and implement it on brand new OS for you.

Like it's just going to be ready.

Right.

We've got all these agents and they're going to come in.

Like if you don't get consulting and coaching and support, like the hard part is the change management.

And understanding why this is a good thing happening that we're seeing on the screen right now.

That we're involving agents in this way.

Otherwise, OK, yeah, we'll implement the new agentic platform for you or OS for you are new tools and you'll be fine.

Right.

Right.

That's not how it's going in the real world.

The build.

This part is easy and I say that because.

You can take this transcript from the show and start to build something.

Yourself, you can.

You I could share the Google Doc with you about exactly how.

We're going to build out the webinar, you know, platform.

But without all this context working together, it can be very hard to.

You know, make it a reality and usable and like valuable for everybody.

Not to mention my context is different than your context, whether you're an individual or a business.

Right.

And the one thing I changed here.

Because this is always interesting, even though it.

We're in AI building with AI every day.

George and I were just talking about change logs and like how easy it like AI understands what it's doing.

And you just ask it to document it.

It will document the hell out of it.

Yeah, change logs is my new best friend.

Right.

We get here.

Question for you.

Is Ryan the primary builder here?

Or is this AI built with Ryan reviewing?

And it's like, come on, like, of course, we're building with AI.

Like, what do you talk about, bro?

Like, but even there, it's like, no, it's going to be AI built and AI reviewed humans will test by using the platform.

Right.

And that small change, like.

So I'm happy that he's asking the question, right.

But that question of is Ryan building this or is AI building this dramatically impacts.

The plan.

Right.

And these moments of.

Like.

Of just these planning phases and understanding what's happening on the screen and figuring out when it makes sense to put humans in a loop like that's all the skills and the learning curve.

Right now.

But yeah, to where we started, it's like.

As I start talking about it with with George and Casey yesterday.

It was like a burden.

As I like, I, I don't think you would, if you would disagree with that's how I was presented to you guys is like.

How long has a campaign need to be?

Like what?

Like I guess it's got to be webinar, but we really need to do what in the AMA.

And that like zoom doesn't make sense for that.

Yeah.

And I wasn't making it easy on either.

Like I was kind of giving it to you on the whole topic, but yeah, it's.

But that's strategy, right.

That's figuring out that's collaboration, which this might be like a masterclass in human and AI collaboration.

If people pull the threads that are possible for them to pull.

Right.

And but like the difference between.

I'm so excited to do it now.

Yeah, because.

And that's.

Like the challenging thing to describe.

And when you talk about it in terms of organizational dynamics.

And again, not different from software's always been just because we were sitting at the same table.

So the same thing on the screen, click the same buttons in front of us.

I'm.

I might be 100% more adopted and on board than than you are.

Right.

And we all just experienced the same exact thing, right.

I was coming at that conversation yesterday, even though.

We have built all these amazing things into the website.

I was still thinking in terms of OK, I got to set up a zoom.

I got to do this.

Right. Instead of like.

The default.

Okay, yeah, we'll just build for that now.

It still took me.

Like almost the whole day.

You have the realization.

Oh, maybe.

Maybe.

Let me just ask.

Let me ask if we can just do that.

Because because that friction that I'm feeling.

In having to use the tools that really weren't built for this activity.

Yeah, I don't have to deal with that friction.

I don't have to accept that anymore.

I go back to and I've been saying this for months.

If not years at this point, there is a true power of curiosity.

And asking questions.

And the one question that I keep coming back to for me is.

Is it possible?

Can I do this thing that I'm trying to do?

And when I find that I can, then it goes into now.

What do I need to iterate on the original question?

What do I need to?

What do I need to fix?

What do I need to tweak it?

And the good thing is we're not doing it alone.

And.

Like when you can do it in the context of the other ideas that you're having

because that chat that I was just showing started with.

Hey, marquee, new new business leader of new business unit leader of the media network.

Before you join the team, I was working on a plan V to move away from StreamYard

and I went in live and building out our own media execution platform locally.

Do you have visibility there?

I am looking for an HTML file that was walk through for my setup.

And true just in time value fashion, I need to get this done this weekend before the April 3rd cancellation deadline.

Thanks for your help.

That's how it started.

So he finds it.

Here's what you're looking for.

I said, can you put this into the My Value Path Command Center as a true published page so I

don't have to go hunting for the HTML file later this weekend? He finds the Command Center,

right? Puts it there. Then, as this session is open, I can say, what would it take to build a

webinar-like experience into our website platform? And all of a sudden, it's like the right

this is the part where it's like the right amount of context with the right expertise. In this case,

I've picked a very specific agent who knows the plan and knows the strategy of media and things

related to the topic. It's not just some Hey Claude, right? It's not that, right? Like this combination

of things is what everybody's trying to learn and figure out right now. This is why it's different

between prompt engineering and context engineering. Everybody, Bill Barles, put together a really

really good, like from a technical perspective, trying to help clients he works with and people on

his team to just onboard a little faster into these, you know, terminal-like experiences,

man-line experiences. And his second page was called prompt engineering.

And it had a bunch of prompt templates. And I was like, I like it all except for that part, right?

I think like prompt templates and engineering are traps because if you just try and copy paste,

your context is completely different. You're going to have a different experience. And he's like,

okay, well, like what does the redraft look like? And I said, like, just go back to AI and frame it.

This needs to be a context engineering page. Like that's the framing we want. And that's probably

all you need to do to make the page like instantly better. Yeah. Right. And that's what I think that's

one of the major differences right now between like, I value in high success with AI. And

you know, just a little bit extra that people are getting when you just, you know, try and copy paste

prompts and not really understand or learn how this stuff works together. Yeah. I've said this,

um, again, a lot. I'll say it again, everything you learn about AI shouldn't be definitive. Like,

we've learned that that's red. That's blue. That's one. That's two little doctors who's on the AI

show. By the way, it should be a thread that you're pulling a learning should be a thread. So like,

if I go watch a YouTube video on Claude and Obsidian and Second Brain, it's not because I want to

completely reduplicate the thing that I just watch is because I need to take the learnings

and build it for me and my assistant or you and your assistant. Like, you got to start to think

about this thing of threads that you're pulling. And when you get help with AI, it will help you pull

apart the threads, uh, manage the threads, bring the threads back together, document all the threads

so that you can just keep pulling new threads in a way that's always within the context that you

already have so that like all this, like, the idea of focus, right, has, has shifted dramatically.

Like, you can pull a thread, decide that it's not relevant and leave it where it's at for now.

And then come back later and be like, oh, what do you think, um, you know, V, is that thread relevant?

I think it's relevant now. Like, this thing just happened. It's like, yep, let's bring it back in.

Let's keep pulling that thread, right. And that is the most amazing feeling for anybody that

has challenges with, but focus, um, like the ideation and the creativity related to this stuff.

Yeah, it's been fun to watch just, you know, mere mortal humans.

It's just access this, access this level. When they said, like, the week before, I was like, no, yeah, that's not over.

Right. And then next week, it's like, oh, something happened to some friction point, some piece of pain.

It was like, let me try it. And boom, all of a sudden, I can.

And there's not much better feeling in the world for me than

helping that, that moment, that shift. Yeah, I can't do. I can. Like,

man, every consultant that coach out there, I think that should be like your

no style. Like if you're trying to work and build a relationship with somebody,

and you get there, and that's the moment. Like,

like, and so much, it becomes possible. Like,

Oh, so it's amazing. Um, bro, like, it's funny because this whole conversation is putting me

in a reflective moment of like, because I just showed you some stuff in the green room that I'm like,

we're not going to talk about this yet. Um, and to think that four, five, maybe, maybe six,

but I think it's more around four or five, four or five months ago, I had an open terminal.

Five times in my life, six times in my life. And now sitting here, seeing what we can build and

how we can build it in the way that my brain works differently, even in the idea of building.

Um, based on this journey with AI and the unlock that you're talking about that I recall, like,

a Saturday for three hours with Chris and Nico and then boom, this is where we're at now. Again,

four months, five months. Uh, and we have things, we have things that would have historically

taken people years to even think about getting to these types of builds or levels.

Yeah. Yeah. And things that I don't know that anybody can see prior to us getting here.

Right. Yeah. That's the fun part among the many fun parts. Um, so it's been a fun week.

And, uh, I appreciate being on this journey with you and sharing that story and hopefully this

was helpful for folks. And we'll see you on Monday. Thanks so much for you then. You bet. Bye.