With generative AI. It's now super easy to start building an app, even if you don't know how to code.

I've used generative AI to write JavaScript for me. I've used it to build a Joomla plugin and recently, to prototype a Movie Shapes app.

These are all projects I could NOT have done on my own. I'm not a developer.

AI has extended what I can do. It can also extend what you do. 

Much like other technologies and software have extended my (and your) capabilities. The difference with a system like Joomla, which manages website content, is that Joomla is built by a community over time for the community.

With AI, tools like Joomla can be built in a weekend or several months instead of several years, and they can be tailor-made for a select group of niche needs.

AI Development Obstacles & The Value of Developers

But, there have been many obstacles I've faced, using AI to help me with these projects, that my extensive experience working with servers, content management systems, and website building has helped me work through. It would have been difficult to navigate these challenges without my experience and expertise. And by working with AI, I'm understanding software development and AI processing in ways I had not understood.

So, someone needs to know what they're doing to get AI to work for them, at least enough to stumble through it. But that means this is something you want to be doing or get good at doing. Or you have to be willing to fail and make mistakes until you get a handle on things.

So if it's so easy to build something with AI, what's the value of a developer or even a freelancer who can use AI to develop apps?

As I got deeper into my Movie Shapes project, it became more complex, interconnected, and personally overwhelming. Getting started with this much power from AI is easy. Continuing and maintaining is where the friction escalates. Decisions have to be made.

There are many apps I'm now using where I've realized I could build an app to do that thing. But then I have to build AND maintain that built thing. Removing the time and cost barrier now makes AI-developed things much more tempting. But it means we are much more prone to the types of distractions that can actually keep us from moving towards our goals.

That means there is value in someone else maintaining a resource, so you (or I) can focus on using it. There is value in working with people to oversee things we do want to build, even if that oversight or that work itself is something I can do or do with AI.

Structure, Visibility, and Clarity

The process of building with AI on my Movie Shapes project revealed that structure and clarity of outcomes are key to making good apps, with or without AI. The Movie Shapes framework has been around for years, and it provided a benefit that would have made the project difficult and less compelling.

But it also revealed that having visibility on what the AI builds, how the app works, and how it's operating behind the scenes is necessary for finishing the project construction and maintaining it thereafter. These are part of the reason you want someone who knows what they're doing. A black box AI built system is hard to get a handle on, update, and maintain. Blind spots are going to be a challenge with AI. We don't know what we don't know. At least we can ask AI to point out any blind spots we might be missing.

Infused and Separate

Constructive developmental theory is an understanding of how we make meaning in life and how that evolves as we mature.

Part of the shift in how we make meaning as we grow is separating ourselves from the environments in which we inhabit. When we're a member of a group, and we make meaning as a member of the group, we're also captured by that group dynamic. The level up is when we recognize that the group is separate from us. And we from it. We are both an individual part and a part of the group.

AI is shifting how we see ourselves as part of the world we inhabit and the work we do. It's an opportunity for us to ground our purpose in something beyond our work, but it's a scary transition to make. If we're doing it unwillingly, the fear is even higher. We don't understand what's changing, and we don't know how we'll land when things settle, if they ever do. That uncertainty is anxiety-inducing.

If we willingly take the scary step, it helps us actually better navigate the shifting environment and also utilize AI. And it helps us know how others can provide value in this new era. Because there will still be dependencies, they're just going to shift quite dramatically. And it may force changes in our lives in ways we weren't ready for, but we can certainly embrace.

In this episode of Showrunning YouTube, I'm unboxing the DJI OSMO Mobile SE. I've had this device for 9 months, and I love it!

Key Takeaways About The DJI Osmo

No Kings 3 took place on March 28th, 2026. I participated and, while there, recorded 11 interviews. The video above captures the Gwinnett County No Kings event, which took place in Suwanee Town Center.

Top Video Takeaways

If you're curious about why I was there and why I made this video, CityWatch published my article discussing my participation and sharing the video above. Here's what they published.

I’m ‘No Kings’ Because My Party Stopped BELIEVING In The CONSTITUTION

Make America Great Again. That's Trump's campaign message. 

But what makes America great? It's the fact that we're a country of NO KINGS. 

America was founded on the Declaration of Independence, a set of grievances against a tyrannical leader, by a group of people who had no voice or participation in the king's decision-making. 

This past week, I had the opportunity to participate in a No Kings rally and interview 11 people. No Kings is a movement of people who believe that no person is above the law, including the president of the United States. 

This message is something my party used to believe in, before Trump took it over. I'm a Republican who attended this last No Kings protest. I never got on the Trump train. In 2016, I saw his business and relational wreckage and voted for a Democrat president while voting Republican down-ballot. In 2020, I saw the train wreck at the end of his election-lies story. In 2024, I anticipated the dread and chaos most Americans are now feeling. My voting shifted towards those who embrace American freedom and honest elections and against those who embrace tyranny and deception.

So, ever since the No Kings events began, I've wanted to go, show support, and conduct a series of interviews to capture the protestors' sentiment and message and help spread and amplify the No Kings story. This past week, I was able to make this happen at No Kings 3. My daughter, on her own accord, made a sign and asked if I'd be going. We went together. Here's her sign.

Our constitutional order is being challenged and defied by my party, which used to espouse a commitment to the constitutional system. It's not about Republicans and Democrats. It's about an autocratic group and a pro-democracy group. We need two healthy pro-democracy parties, and we don't have two. We have one. And the one we have is struggling in its own ways. My party, Republicans, has become a toxic and authoritarian aspiring party, and that means I have a responsibility (as part of that group) to do something about it. 

My personal blind spot is that I assumed my party and America would course correct. I believed things would go back to normal on their own. But new and different forces entered the societal arena, and that requires new and different forces (No Kings) to intervene.This protest participation is one more step in taking responsibility for our future, despite the vitriol I get from those in my own party, who don't want to be held accountable. May these No Kings interviews be a spark of inspiration to step into the voice in any particular way you can. 

While generative AI has many limits and issues, one of the big ones is a loss of memory. If you've had long threads with AI on the same topic, especially when you shift gears, you'll have experienced the frustration when AI forgets. Since part of the value of AI is the ability for it to process large volumes of content to detect patterns, this is quite a problem.

It's such a problem that there are now apps popping up to solve it. I stumbled upon a company called MemVid, which is an app that connects with your AI tool to retain that forgotten memory. They even posted a bounty of $800 for people to test it and bring it to its limits.

What's wild is how full circle this technology is operating. MemVid uses video files to store the melee and feed it to the AI. It's like a new form of digital data tapes! Here's how MemVid stores memory.

“Memvid is an experimental Python library that stores millions of text chunks inside an MP4 as QR-coded frames + a FAISS index, enabling fast, offline semantic retrieval without a database.”

This is such an unexpected way to store data, but I suspect there are some great technical reasons why it works so well.

With AI, we're entering a new world. It's one where we'll discover tools that we didn't even know existed that could transform our lives or work. It's also an opportunity to create those things AI can even do when we have no skill set to do so. Expect to see micro apps in the future, to solve small problems for individuals or small groups of people (where it was too costly before to develop with humans).

Regarding the memory problem, I've created a prompt for you to create memory blocks (if you're not yet ready to sign up for Memvid). I'm now creating these blocks on my long-term persistent threads on important topics (saving in Evernote). Structured data like this is also an important way to maximize the benefit of generative AI. This little prompt gives you four buckets (goals, decisions, context, next steps) for AI to populate in the memory block. Feel free to alter or add structure to this for your own memory blocks. Using Evernote, I'm creating a note for a thread and then adding each block into it as a backup I can give back to the AI or start a new thread should I need to remind it of anything when its memory fades.

Memory Block Prompt

We've covered a lot. Please provide a concise 'Project Memory Block' that summarizes:

• Core Goals: What are we trying to achieve?
• Key Decisions: What have we already finalized?
• Current Context: Any specific names, variables, or constraints?
• Next Steps: Where were we just about to go?

Please format this as a clean Markdown block so I can save it for later.

Wrapping Up

In many ways, leveraging AI is about using our imagination. It's about simply thinking of the thing you could do or could streamline. And it's discovering the AI tools that exist, that we had no clue existed. In addition to MemVid, I've also stumbled upon Replit and Google AI Studio, both of which let you build fully functional apps using AI. It's pretty wild.

How about you? What are some powerful AI tools you've stumbled upon that are not just cool entertainment but actually problem-solving resources you couldn't do without?

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Most advice about launching a membership or ongoing coaching program sounds great on paper and falls apart the second you try to actually build it. So I want to give you the simple framework for building a coaching company.

1. Create A 3-Tier Coaching or Membership Program

Working with a variety of clients who fit this business model, I've discovered that an effective coaching business involves three tiers. A high dollar tier, a middle dollar tier, and a low dollar tier.

The high-dollar option is going to generate a bulk of your income and also act as a price anchor for the other tiers. When I say high dollar, I'm speaking of something that is $10k-$100k per year. If you're a freelancer, this is most of your freelance work. 

The next tier is going to be in the $100-$10k per year range. This could be a group coaching program. It could be a community membership program. It could be a 6-week training and accountability program.

And the third tier is going to be $100 or less. It could be an ebook (or physical book), a course, or a bundle of targeted, result-oriented programs.

You could get away with two tiers, but you must have the high-level tier that would generate most of your income as a freelancer, coach, or consultant.

Pricing Starting Point

If the core group program is $200/month, reverse-engineer your income goal by deciding how many students you’d need (for example, 20 students to earn $4k/month from the program). Add a higher-end, more direct engagement option at around $2,000/month, which can increase over time and act both as a premium offer and a price anchor that makes the group option feel more affordable.

Consider a lower-cost option like $20/month for Discord access for those who don’t join the core group program but still want something, and use your book as a low-ticket item for people who stay in the free bucket but are open to buying.

Once you have your program designed with the value points for each tier, you need to promote it.

2. Build a Ready-to-Sell Landing Page

Create a dedicated landing page that hosts your main promo video alongside a written version of the same message. Include signup details and pricing directly on the page so people can immediately enroll without extra steps. The goal is to have everything “good to go” in one place, making it easy for visitors to understand the offer and take action. 

Do you have the three tiers listed? You can usually make the payment option available for the lower tiers. You may need to direct the highest tier towards a meeting or consultation to discuss the fit before they're ready to pay and move forward.

Ultimately, the goal here is to have a single place to direct people.

3. Run a Consistent Monthly Free Webinar

With the program design and a landing page created, you now need to promote the program. Create a workshop or webinar that acts as a bridge towards the program. 

Set this up as a recurring free webinar, workshop, or session at the same time every month (for example, the 2nd Tuesday of every month). This consistency makes it easier for you to promote and host it. The free session serves as a reliable, ongoing way to bring new people into your world. They register for your email list, and they get to experience working with you.

4. Use the Free Webinar as an On-Ramp to the Paid Program

Promote the free webinar as the first step into your ecosystem, and position it as the on-ramp to your paid program. During or after the webinar, invite attendees to join the paid offer, making the transition feel natural and logical. This creates a clear, low-friction path from free value to paid engagement.

If people are not moving forward, figure out why and how to improve the workshop and offering so that you get a better response.

5. Ongoing Promotion and Content From Your Program

Aggressively and regularly promote both the free webinar and the paid program through social posts, blogs, newsletters, videos, reels, and more. Use the sessions you run, plus the lessons inside those sessions, as ongoing content for your promotional efforts. This way, the program itself continually fuels your marketing, and people see real examples of what you do.

That's it. Take the feedback from your clients to continually make the program better. Refine and tweak and consistently do. Over time, you'll have an awesome, thriving coaching business.

And if you get big enough, you could launch an annual or semi-annual conference where people travel from around the country for an in-person event.

It's not easy, but the framework offers you the rough outline of how to make it happen.

In Back to the Future, Marty McFly is not afraid of the bully. He easily confronts and stands up to Biff.

But his father, George, is afraid of the bully in the present and the past, and Marty can't fight the bully for his father, as much as he'd like to and is capable of doing it. George has to face his own giants and muster up the courage himself (which he eventually does).

This "en-couraging" is part of my mission right now. The mission is not just to be an example of this, but to help empower others to muster up that courage for themselves.

We have a lot of power to make things better when we're willing to step into the tension. Moving beyond the socialized mind (where group belonging matters most) towards a self-authoring identity is how we do this. It's a shift in our identity from group belonging to an identity grounded in principles. It's a shift of external validation to internal conviction.

The test of our conviction is the force that pushes back. Marty McFly is on a mission, and Biff is attempting to thwart him every step of the way. Biff is the test of the conviction.

In life, we'll face those same antagonizing forces. My aim is to help others (and myself) prepare for and succeed when they face those challenges that come their way.

This mission, in the political arena, is about being the conscience of my political party (Republicans, particularly Christian Republicans).  Many people don't like my mission and want me to stop and be quiet.

When we're part of a group, and that group is going down a bad road, we can speak up and say something. But when most people in that group have gone far down that road, they usually don't want to hear it.  And they often want us to stop talking about.

In the story of Pinocchio, he wanted to do what he wanted to do, and Jiminy Cricket, his conscience, was there to tell him when he was going off track. Pinocchio found a way to rid himself of his conscience, and all hell broke loose.

Often, the mission of a prophet isn't for the leader or people not to go down the bad road, but rather to bear witness to the descent so when they hit the end of that road, they can find their way back home.

There are people at this end-of-the-road place now, in my political party.

Many folks who voted for Trump are now having doubts and shedding their support. It's hard to tell how widespread it truly is, but it's happening. When we look at the elections from 2024 to today, we're seeing a dramatic swing away from Republicans. The midterm corrections are upon us.

In the first 6-9 months, any president gets a grace period honeymoon before reality sets in, and he's judged for his actions. As that reality has set in for Trump's second presidency, people who voted for him, some three times, are regretting their vote. They're saying in the elections ahead that they won't vote or, in many cases, they'll switch sides and vote Democrat.

I did a deep dive about this disillusionment, and I mapped out the emerging patterns that capture this accelerating shift with trump voters, which has been unfolding since the fall of 2025 (and somewhat before). You can explore the patterns and breakdown here, an article that's part of my Middle School Mindset series.

I've been documenting and sharing these individual patterns about leaving MAGA on Facebook to encourage Republicans and independents to shed their support of Trump. When people in a group see a large number of people in their group leaving the group, it gives them safety and permission to do the same. 

I suspected that by sharing these patterns, it would also be triggering for many Trump loyalists, who'd want to stop that from happening. That may be an understatement.

Let me give you an example. I posted one of the observed patterns on Facebook.

Leaving MAGA Pattern #13: The Scalp Prohibition

‍Refusal to Fire: Leader retains massive liabilities (e.g., Hegseth) to avoid "feeding the sharks," prioritizing his ego over organizational competence.

‍"He’s not going to throw Hegseth over the side... that just feeds the sharks." / "Trump made a business out of firing people on TV, yet he can't fire the incompetent [pick your person] who is now ruining his credibility."

After seeing that pattern, a commenter said this:

"Bro, you just keep slinging senseless babble. You suffer from TDS.

I mean, if you have something tangible, fine. Sing it from the mountain tops. But you just keep pounding out opinionated, senseless babble.

We get it, you don’t like Donald Trump.

But you give zero hard facts to back up anything you say. You attack ego? C’mon.

Do better, be better."

These antagonistic comments are common from those who don't like what I'm posting. I'm open to feedback to help give me a more complete picture, but when I invite them to engage in substance, that's not usually something in which they're willing to participate. If you've spoken up, you've likely experienced people like this.

Regarding the Facebook post, I shared the patterns about why people who have voted for Trump are no longer supporting him. This is not me asserting something; it's the documentation of what is happening. If we want to understand reality, so that we can effectively navigate it, one would want to know when things have gone south, even when it's in their own group.

Jim Collins describes this unfolding dynamic in his book, How the Mighty Fall. A few patterns of teams in decline include:

• "People shield those in power from grim facts, fearful of penalty and criticism for shining light on the harsh realities.
• People assert strong opinions without providing data, evidence, or a solid argument."

This is in strong contrast to teams on the way up and towards success.

• "People bring forth unpleasant facts - "Come here, look, man, this is ugly" - to be discussed; leaders never criticize those who bring forth harsh realities.
• People bring data, evidence, logic, and solid arguments to the discussion."

So, we need new and better leadership, and that requires mustering up courage because leaders on the way down won't like this. And America needs to strong and healthy parties.

Brave Leaders

For many people, it's hard to brave the wilderness (as Brene Brown says) when it may result in alienation, or worse. So, I lead by example and publicly wander the wilderness ahead of them. It's stepping into the risky tension as a way to help encourage others to be brave too, and stop enabling the toxicity of the group. And it helps me shed my own toxicity.

This mission is about permitting fellow Republicans to remove their support, not vote, or vote against Republicans who enable the Republican Party's toxicity and decline. I'm sharing to diminish Trump's hold on my party and the power he's attempted to expand so we can move from destructively descending downward to rebuilding upward and forward. 

That's where the movie Back to the Future comes into play. Marty McFly is not afraid of Biff, the bully. But his dad is, and he has to help George become brave enough to fight the bully.

That's what I'm hoping to help encourage: more people becoming stronger leaders who are not afraid of the bullies and are willing to lead courageously when those bullies try to tear them down.

In Back to the Future, George goes from being an oppressed loser to a confident, successful man, someone his son, Marty, now respects and admires.

And that's where the tension here can help. Heroes are not born; normal people are allowed to step into the tension and grow into those heroes. The antagonism is a tension, which, when embraced, can help transform us into the people we must become to solve the problems we're now facing.

For me, when these commenters are causing my doubts to surface or get distracted, that's an opportunity to get more deeply grounded and focused. This tension is something to lean into, to grow more, and change for the better. And then when these antagonists are no longer surfacing that tension in me, I can move on to the next boss level.

For those trapped in silence within the toxic tribe, they have the choice and opportunity to practice telling the truth and sharing their perspective when they'll be dismissed, misrepresented, and demonized. But on the other side of this fire is the incredible leader they'll become, and of which we need to move us forward.

For those trapped by a sense of belonging in that toxic tribe, they too have an opportunity to face that fear and step into it. There's more purpose and power to be found in a healthy tribe, although it can be terrifying to leave the toxic tribe in search of that healthy one. But even those deeply entrenched in MAGA are seeing it. Kara Voght highlights this in her Washington Post article, Is MAGA in its cringe era?

"Winters, the “War Room” co-host, borrows a term from psychology: “preference falsification.” It’s when people misrepresent their true feelings or beliefs due to social pressure or fear of consequences. One of her major pet peeves is the fact that she believes many Trump supporters know MAGA is looking cringe, but won’t call it out for fear of retribution.

She sees a new frontier in “based.”

“What is cool now,” she said, “is being brave enough to critique the administration for not fulfilling their campaign promises.”' - Kara Voght

Brave enough. Muster the courage.

The principles-over-social-belonging test is upon us.

May you learn and grow from it.

"Don't pull out of public view. Don't leave your job if it is integrated into an ideological apparatus. Don't give up relationships with people whose opinions you don't share.

Doing so will be uncomfortable. You will feel unpro-ductive, unable to effect change. But your discomfort is not yours alone: It generates friction. You might not change people's minds, but you might be a spark for those who already harbor doubts and second thoughts. Your physical presence will be an obstacle to complete assimilation and unthinking like-mindedness. Sometimes that makes all the difference.

...

Creating friction matters. Carrying the burden of visibility for others matters. This is true for public offices and contested spaces. It is true for positions of influence and allies in high places. It is true for your space as well."

- Hanna Reichel, For Such a Time As This

What does it feel like to be inches away from a lifelong dream and suddenly feel the weight of guilt? In this episode of Juniper and Jones, Cait is putting the finishing touches on the book bus—from securing bookshelves to finishing the brick gallery wall—while opening up about the internal struggle of choosing a passion project over a traditional financial success. She wrestles with the labels of failure and selfishness to rediscover why 10-year-old her wanted to share stories with the world in the first place.

• Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Product Links 

Products From Video

• RYOBi Staple Gun
• Ryobi BandSaw
• Ryobi Drills
• Book of Insects, Nook Kit for Adult, Booknook 3D Wooden Puzzle Bookend

Video Production Software & Equipment Links

• Riverside Video Editing Platform
• Hollyland Lark M1 Wireless Lavalier Microphone
• DJI Osmo Mobile SE, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal
• DJI Action Cam 5

About Juniper & Jones

My wife and I have embarked on an incredible journey to ignite a love for reading and bring comfort to our community's children. I'm documenting the entire journey in a video web series for YouTube!

Join me on a mission to master shore fishing at Lake Lanier as I prepare for the ultimate summer fishing trip to Canada!

In Episode 4 of Cast & Shoot, my son and I go fishing at Lake Lanier, where we test out new gear, including an AI-recommended shaky head rig and modified chartreuse lures. Although the winter bite is slow, I share exciting throwback footage of a massive striper "boil" at Lake Powell to demonstrate the action we are chasing. 

Links from Episode

Fishing Product Links

• White Swimbaits Paddle
• Berkley Gulp! Paddleshad Fishing Soft Bait
• Floating Fish Worms
• Chartreuse Green Fishing Lure Paint
• Alwonder 50-Pack Fishing Power Speed Clips
• Shaky Head Jigs, Fisheye Stand-up Style Weedless
• 50pcs Round Ball Fishing Jig Heads Set

Video Production Product Links

• DJI Osmo Action Cam 5
• Mini SD Cards for DJI Action Cam 5
• DJI Osmo Mobile SE, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal
• AMAZEAR Lens Screen Protector
• TELESIN Lens Filter Set for DJI Action 5 Pro

Cast & Shoot YouTube Series

This is a series I'm producing for YouTube, where I'm tracking my journey towards an upcoming Canadian fishing trip. The series dives into my fishing history, preparing to fish for Muskie and Pike in Canada, mastering shore fishing on Lake Lanier, and learning to make great fishing videos for YouTube. Click here to view all episodes of Cast & Shoot.

Cait constructs the Record of Insects Book Nook Kit (3D Puzzle Bookend) for decorating Betty the Book Bus. And, we get some snow in the Atlanta area!

• Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Product Links 

Products From Video

• RYOBI Ryobi Glue Gun Kit
• Book of Insects, Nook Kit for Adult, Booknook 3D Wooden Puzzle Bookend

Video Production Software & Equipment Links

• Riverside Video Editing Platform
• Hollyland Lark M1 Wireless Lavalier Microphone
• DJI Osmo Mobile SE, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal
• DJI Action Cam 5

About Juniper & Jones

My wife and I have embarked on an incredible journey to ignite a love for reading and bring comfort to our community's children. I'm documenting the entire journey in a video web series for YouTube!