Were talking AI and I'm ready to learn with you....
Chris and George B. Thomas discuss using AI tools like Claude to build educational content and reshape how businesses create value. They explore the mindset shifts needed as AI changes marketing, sales, and organizational roles, with a focus on practical applications for productivity and creativity.
Good morning, LinkedIn, friends, HubSpot Nation. Happy Friday, March 21, 2025. We're here with another episode of let's Build AI Skills with usually with Nico. George and Chris. Nicos not gonna make it today, so I guess it's on us.
George, just the two of us. We can make it if we. Okay, I'll stop. I'll stop my coconut water this morning. Cheers, everybody. I'm doing good. Chris, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great. You know, adhd, I'll say, has always been a struggle because you're always just like, okay, where's the next thing? Where's the next thing? Where's the next thing?
Yeah.
And you know, AI, is it quickly becoming a superpower? It is, it is. Because I'm getting away with some stuff I maybe shouldn't be able to, but instead of thinking about it like that, maybe it's like, okay, we can create a lot more value.
Yes.
With just real in the moment, like passionate feelings instead of, you know, trying to pre plan and, and, and ensure that, you know, all the, all the usual stuff.
And brother, there is power in capturing creativity in the moment.
Yes.
And being able to strike when the iron is hot. Right. Like, there are so many times in my life now where I'm using AI Assisted content creation in like moments of, we could call it genius or just moments of like, whatever. And then I look and I'm like, never in the history of man has this been able to happen at the rate of speed and the, and the, the goodness. Like, I. So listen, I did a thing this morning and I sent it to like, several of my closest friends who happen to also be slightly spiritual. And they were like, bro. One was like, thank you. I needed these words.
Like, that's all you need, just one, right? Yeah, man. And that's like, funny you mentioned it that way because later today I think it's in this value first communication part. But there's a couple of parts to that series like the advertising trap, lead magnet trap, like that relates to communication and content the way it's always been done versus when you can be in the community and active and just capturing it in the moment and responding to it in the moment. It's just a completely different ball game, without a doubt.
Hey, listen, and again, you're doing great at talking about a future show that you're going to do. I'm going to tell you right now, like going through and seeing conversations that people are having with my clone and immediately creating content to then put out on the Internet or give to back to the clone for like better. Like listen, learn, create, deploy value. Just write that framework down for the rest of your life. You won't have any revenue problems if you just do that to the planet.
Anyway, anyway, yeah, so what I want to share today is a little bit of a journey for me. It's what kind of peer collaboration looks like with AI and it relates to content and education and just creating some things I never or I've always dreamed of, but just never believed that I could actually get it done.
Yeah.
And it starts with the, the premise.
Of.
Like a lot of times when we talk about creation of content with AI, it's new, like it's new stuff. We got like all so many businesses and I preach this for a while, especially in the industrial space. Like there's all this content, this just amazing technical content sitting in PDFs and user manuals and things that everybody's done that just never gets repurposed. And so just that concept of going back and looking to see what you've got because. And as I mentioned, like the other side of ADHD is when I do sit down and plan, it's like six hour session and I get to stuff like this.
Yeah, right, yeah.
Where I created this.
Shocking some people watching this right now. I'm used to this because of just being close to you, but yes, right.
So I've used to the deer in headlights when people see this. But it's been amazing when I can walk people through for 15 minutes, especially leaders, because this was me on a Sunday, you know, six hours back in 2020. Like just everything related to like a content. So this is at the top it says contentful buyer journey diagram. Like all of the places that content naturally resides, that naturally gets created, but we don't always attach it to the plans of the business.
Right.
So I just got it all out of my head, right. And had success walking leaders through. Like, look, this is why this happens over here. And it supports customer marketing over here. But we never talk about that because we're so focused on leads and new, new, new, right? And then we never get to the customer marketing because we think we got to do new stuff for that.
Right?
And we're associating with, with processes. So I've always gotten the feedback like a, this, this could be a little better diagram.
Right?
So finally last year I'm like, hey Claude, can you read and understand the attached diagram?
Yeah, bro.
All right.
So it, it goes through and clearly understands it no matter how like complex it is. That's just a screenshot. Like, no other prep. This was even before, like, I had all the custom instructions and.
Yeah.
You know, so then I'm like, okay, you understand it. I'm interested in any insights that come to your mind based on this project knowledge.
All capitals, any.
And at this point, in my mind, like, so we're going to get to like a value first course that I. I've been building with the help of Manis, the new agent, is what See this we're gonna get to. But I want to show this because this is, this is collaboration. I'm not telling, I'm not telling us where to go yet.
Right.
I want to learn to see. Like, I think this is a cool diagram, but obviously I have trouble communicating it.
That's the part that I'm curious about of like when you said any and you started to read if you were the creator that actually started to learn about your creation.
Yes, exactly. In terms of like, in a common issue that I have and I still struggle with is like, I just have feel like I get these moments of brilliance and. And people tell me it's brilliant. Yeah. But it doesn't always come out brilliant.
Right, right, right, right.
Welcome to the club, brother.
Right.
So at this point I was already thinking of like, content first. Like, because at the end of the day, after listening to Marcus Sheridan, they ask you answer for years. I'm like, how do we get content as a part of the salesperson's job description? Like, why. Why are we having such a hard time getting there? So I started thinking of like, okay, let's do like a content first sales methodology. Content first marketing, Content first service.
Right.
So that was in my mind as this was happening.
Can I throw something in here?
Sure.
What I wish we could create is content first humans.
That's whatever.
Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. I'll shut up. I'll shut up.
So these insights happen to align with that because content first means like, in the best form of the content, it is education first.
Right.
So rise of educational first business models. This is where like, so keeping yourself keep, like keeping yourself in check as it reads this. It's it. It can treat it like it's some, like, oh, this is a best practice. And like, this is happening everywhere. And like, it's like, no, this has never been tried before. So the rise is no rise. This is just one diagram that that one dude created.
Right?
Yeah. Yeah.
But look at this traditional model. Create product service, add educational content to support, use education for marketing, convert to sales, new Model as suggested. Lead with educational value. Build trust through knowledge transfer.
Create.
Create community through shared learning.
Oh, yeah.
Monetize through enhanced capability. And I'm like, okay, I'm in love now. Like. Like, you get this. I just had to give you the diagram, and that's what you come out with, right? Emergence of trust Velocity.
That's great.
Content as infrastructure.
Right.
Integration of community and commerce. Okay, so I'm, like, locked in good.
Talking points just right there. That's like six months worth of content that we just scrolled.
Right?
And then I say, wow, this response blew my mind in terms of saying all the things I've never been able to explain clearly after I say F leads. And so it takes me in that direction and we build a narrative around, like, because that's coming from whenever I have a conversation about marketing, business growth, and we start to get towards leads focused, like, initiatives and goals. It just has never resonated with me. It's always rubbed me the wrong way.
Yeah, right?
Yeah. Conversions. I love conversations.
Right? Yep.
It's like, so. So we'll fast forward a little bit, because then I'm like, okay, content first. And I actually start to build a separate. Separate cloud project to support this. But then I'm like, okay, how do you get to that content and. And the why behind it? And at the same time, there's an influx of people saying, you got to bring value. You got to bring value. You got to bring value. How do you first, right? And it just started to click for me. It's like, maybe, like, content is just a piece of this. And if you cannot get yourself into the mindset of value first, you're never gonna get to the content first. And it should be something that resonates with people. And my. My favorite, like. Like, an comparison is and why, like, the best salespeople might be challenged when they have to go digital. It's like, these are the. The people that can just show up, knock on the door with. With donuts or food or whatever. And, like, you bring sustenance to you, like, without you necessarily asking for it. And they do that because it. It can create value in that moment. Like, if you're hungry and I feed you.
Yeah.
Like, that's value. Valuable part. And you didn't have to do that. You can't bring meals online. Like, you can't do that digitally.
So I wish I could order some donuts right now. Dang it.
Yeah, right? So sales people have literally said to me, what do I say after I connect with them on LinkedIn and it's like whatever you say when you knock on the door.
Yeah.
The words that come out your mouth.
Right.
And then. But in actuality, if they're used to having like lunch or some snacks or something tangible, that might be the first thing that they say and show. And now that's the icebreaker. And they can't do that.
Right.
So we get to. So over the, over the holiday, like, I started really digging in with Claude to just build out this Christmas. This is Christmas.
Yeah. Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Just digging it.
Timeline.
Digging in. Because the next epiphany was doing Superhuman Framework with George.
Yeah.
And that series, like, I love that framework.
Right.
But for me it was another. You were going to put it in the hands of leaders and they're going to let organizational structure get in the way.
Yeah.
Sales KPIs get in the way. Sales compensation get in the way of the restructuring required to actually create the human success across the organization. So I'm like, where can they go to understand how to structure the organization? And I don't think there's anything out there like in terms of like moving because at the end of the day there was another chat. I was like, okay, Claude, Marketing, sales service, those labels, no matter how well we're working together inside of an organization, it's like there's baggage. There's too much baggage around these terms. So imagine if that stuff didn't exist, how would you build an organization?
Right.
AI native. And it was all based on natural value flow at all costs. Like remove obstacles, like create environments where, like you can see on the screen here, value constellations. And we can see some of this happening at. For pounding. It's like awesome to watch where just people are around each other and then when value is needed, they work together to create that value. And it doesn't require strict structure, strict team management. And it, you know, it's pretty powerful to watch. And that was kind of what it. What it started generating. And whenever I ask like other AIs too, like similar kinds of questions about where we're going and how, like it often gets to this point of value, like focus on the value being created. That's what develops the trust. That's what develops the value for you when you're helping other people do it.
Right.
So all of it's kind of based around that. And so now we're here, like Manus is for go home here.
Yeah.
It is a general AI agent.
Okay.
That underneath the hood is using Claude 3.5 sonnet. The last I heard okay. Like 28 other tools. Oh right. And it's got this use case gallery where the one that got my attention was a physics course.
Oh.
Where it built out two modules of a physics course. Let's see if I can find it here.
Well, there's an interactive course on momentum theorem. Holy crap.
Yeah. Just do this one right. So you can replay and starts. It starts to do it shows you everything that it did.
Right.
And it's building this website out like as it does it. And there's interactive elements and like quizzes and you know, it was just a mind blowing.
Right.
It's got a task list that it's running through as it, as it, as it moves through. So the, that course part is like, okay, I've got all this documentation for value first.
Right.
Can I just give it to manuscript and say build a course, you know, based on this?
Yeah.
And this is where just again like learning curve with AI. The more novel and the more like not status quo your concepts are.
Yep.
The harder it can be to get AI to stick with you since it's. It's trying to predict like the next answer based on everything that it knows.
Yep.
Which is a lot of human status quo stuff.
Right.
So what's really cool is that you can again like the barrier to entry like low here. Like you can just click on these, all these, like you can see exactly what, what you can do. So I go there and the first pass I try some stuff and I got to the place where.
Oh wow.
The value first framework online course. And this is maybe a couple hours for me. But you know, several like 20 to 30 minute sessions of Manus just working like by itself.
Right.
And we go to, to learn more here we've got module one. It came up with this. This is again like a CAL collaboration.
Right.
I had not developed this. Trapped versus Transformed.
Oh bro, there's something format. Yeah.
Right.
And it just started like putting it in and this is where. I am not an educational expert, I'm not a trained teacher. I don't build courses. Like I have no idea how to, how to build an effective course. So. So looking at the. You can view all files in this task, right? There is a.
Dude, I just saw an implementation guide. Are you kidding me?
Yeah. So like core structure, right. It starts to build that like it designs the course and then creates the content and then creates the interactive elements. And if we go down here, we take module one quiz so you can.
Obviously like still tweak your finesse this as the human. But it got you like 95% of the way to where you're trying to go.
Yeah. Yep. And that's where all the documents. So there's an element that if I were good at web dev, like it gave me all the files I need to just go make a website. And I think a lot of the friction that I'm seeing is because I'm asking it to make the website. That's where it starts to, it started to change information. So I, so at this point I got it to stick to like the core material and then my next step was to have it update all the quizzes and exercises to match that.
Right.
And that's where I ran out of space and I ran out of the performance window. So then I start another, another version to see if I can get there to like, okay, I learned how we, how I had to adjust like last time.
Yeah.
I'm gonna start with a better content base, a better context base and let's see if we can get there.
Yeah, right.
And there. Yeah, I was going through it last night and it, it got to the point where it's like, okay, starting to do a little bit of the same stuff, but way better foundation that we started with.
Yeah.
And, but we got to this end point where I still needed a pretty important update because it was just, it was too concise. It was, you know, chopping off ideas. And so I reminded it like, no, I need this, I need full versions of this and this and this. So I started building out some more pages and then was getting stuck because the system was, was overloaded.
Right.
So I come back this morning and I said, hey, I really want to finish this part. You did this part, but you can go ahead and skip this step if it's causing you problems because I really want to see if this update helped build a better course, a better, a better online. So, and so we can see, since I'm not giving it any kind of like guidance on design or wireframing or anything like that, we've got a different design and a different looking course here.
Sure.
Right.
So I'm just going to click Start learning and I enter the module. So now we actually have like, can't click on these. But, but you get the point, like.
What it's going to do.
Right.
A different kind of structure here.
Scroll back up. Industrial age thinking versus Value first thinking.
Ooh, that's dope there. And then we have a nicer knowledge check here. So what is the core recognition of value first Framework? Value inherently wants to flow. So next, which of the following is not a foundational principle. So it made all. All of this content. I don't have any quizzes. I just had, like, this is what it means. These are the traps, these are the manifestos. Like, none of it was built with the intention of making a course.
Yeah.
At this point, right?
Yeah.
So which is following that? Enablement Standardization creates more value in all contexts. It does not. How does Value first thinking view organizations as living systems with interconnected elements that continuously adapt?
I love how you're taking your own test right now.
Like, what role do people play in value creation according to the Value first framework? Competing for limited resources. Nope. Contributing through connection around shared purpose. Which mindset shift is central from control to enablement. Finish. All right, great job. Five out of five.
All right. 100, bro.
Yeah. Self assessment. Enter your spots. Like, I can actually click in here and. And type in.
Wow.
Right.
I can submit. I don't know where that would go right now, but. Yeah, here's the thing, though.
Like, a couple more hours and maybe like a great collaboration with a web dev person and you're. Let's just build this.
Yeah.
Like, you. You're able to get something again 95% of the way there. Tag in collaborator, and then, boom, like, make magic happen like never before.
Yes, exactly. And the. The step that. So when I first. The first pass of this only had module one. It said it created eight modules. There was only content for one module. It looks like that's still the case, but most of that update was, hey, there's just too much information here. So let's create other pages that we can reference for all the manifestos and all of the. All of the traps. And this is where it's decided to, you know, rename my manifestos, which it was told not to. And, uh, but the structure and. And just the. The creation, like, it's not a blank slate anymore. Like. And I feel like I can actually build a course. And that was something that was not on my capability plate, like, at all.
Yeah. So now I have a question for you. And I've been waiting. I typed it in when you said it, and this will be a great close for us because, you know, we've got another show that we've got to go do here in a minute. So you. You said at the beginning of this, Chris, you said, I never had the belief you said that. So my question now is, now that you're doing it and you have to believe, what's that doing to your human brain?
I mean, anything's possible like, like, don't.
It's.
This is abundance. This is what abundance looks like. Like when we can just go and just do whatever comes to mind.
Right.
And obviously it's.
It's.
Right now it's digitally, like bound like that. Do anything has to be like digital and creation. But once we get to, you know, robots hanging out around us, like in. In suits and like, literally Iron man suits probably on the way, you know, it. It quickly becomes physical as well, so.
And by the way, by the way, all that said. And we're just at the beginning.
Yeah, this is like. It's as worse. It's the worst as ever is ever going to get.
Yep.
So.
Yep.
Check out Manus. Even if it's just going to the homepage and looking at what it does, like, you're going to be blown away. And don't be afraid. Dive in and start understanding. Start using this stuff. And I think we'll catch them next week. Yeah, George.
Yeah, we'll catch you next week.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Peace.
