To a creator of a movie or TV show, a radical new direction looks like a necessary leap of faith.

But to an audience standing on that bridge, it doesn’t feel like progress.

It feels like sabotage.

To understand why a movie choice feels like a home invasion, we have to look at the Law of Diffusion of Innovation.

This framework isn't just a business theory; it’s a map of human temperament. It describes how much certainty we need before we trust a new idea.

People generally fall into five groups:

• The Innovators and Early Adopters: These are the explorers. They love the New because it's bold. They are comfortable with risk, and they like it when things are weird.
• The Early and Late Majority: This is the massive center of the curve. They are practical. They value stability and continuity. They don't jump until they see a bridge; they need to know the New won't break their Safe Base.
• The Laggards: The traditionalists. They value the past above all else and only move when the old way literally stops existing.

The most important part of this map is The Chasm—the deep gap between the Explorers and the Majority.

Creators are, by nature, Innovators. They are growth-minded, culturally ahead, and exist on the far left of the curve. The Mass Audience, however, is the Majority. They are seeking refuge in the known. When an Innovator runs too far ahead without looking back, they don't look like a leader anymore. They look like a deserter. This is why the audience feels antagonized—they haven't been led to the new idea; they've been abandoned by it.

The Blueprint Conflict (The Measurement Gap)

This Deserter Dynamic happens because the two groups are measuring the movie with entirely different yardsticks. In the Movie Shapes framework — which explains why we love or hate movies — we see this played out as a conflict of expectations.

Think of it this way:

• The Innovator (the explorer) scores a movie based on Novelty and Depth. They are asking: "Is this something I’ve never seen before? Does it challenge my perspective?" To them, a 10 out of 10 is a movie that breaks all the rules and leaves them questioning everything.
• The Majority (the center of the curve), however, is scoring for Clarity and Investment. They are asking: "Do I understand the world I'm in? Can I safely invest my emotions in these characters?" To them, a 10 out of 10 means the Emotional Contract was honored—the movie promised a certain feeling, and it delivered.

They aren't just disagreeing on whether a movie is good; they are speaking two different languages. When an Innovator calls a movie masterful because it deconstructs a hero, the Majority calls it trash because the hero they invested in was dismantled.

One side is looking for a Frontier to conquer; the other is looking for a Home to return to. Without a bridge, the Innovator’s Frontier just looks like the Majority’s "Home Invasion."

The Kegan Bridge (The Cliff)

Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan describes this transition as a Bridge. The mistake Innovators make is standing on the far side and shouting, "It’s great over here! Come on over!"

But the Majority will not adopt a new idea just because it’s novel; they need to feel safe. For the person in the Safe Base, there is no bridge—there is only a cliff. They see a creator asking them to leave the solid ground of their identity and walk off into thin air with no proof they will arrive on the other side.

The cliff is created when a creator abandons what Movie Shapes calls the Anchor Element. For a viewer, this is often the lead character or a specific tonal consistency. When a show like Vampire Diaries or Call the Midwife loses its central protagonist, the bridge doesn't just feel shaky—it feels like the destination was moved mid-journey. The Safe Base is gone, and the audience is left standing on a pier that leads to nowhere.

The "Hey Ya!" Sandwich (Dressing the New in Old Clothes)

So how do you build that bridge? In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains how DJs saved the song "Hey Ya!" by Outkast. It was too different, so they sandwiched it between two established hits. They dressed the New in Old Clothes.

This is what we might call a Strategic Masquerade. It’s the art of using a high-clarity framework—like a period piece, a sports movie, or a medical procedural—to hide a radical core. By keeping the Setting and Genre Norms traditional, the creator earns enough trust to innovate elsewhere. They keep the Old Clothes of the setting so the audience is willing to try on the New Clothes of the theme.

This is the secret history of Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back was a bold, deconstructive Hey Ya! moment, but it worked because it was sandwiched between the familiar hero's journeys of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

J.J. Abrams used this same Strategic Genius for The Force Awakens. By making the unfamiliar seem familiar, he brought the Majority across the chasm so that Rian Johnson could take the next bold step in The Last Jedi. People need to be brought along; baby steps are the only way to move a massive group with strong opinions.

The Deserter Dynamic & The Marketing Map

We see this mismatch in real-time with Starfleet Academy. The showrunners see themselves as Innovators, finding a new audience to ensure the brand lasts. But the Early Majority—the legacy fans who sustain the subscription base—feel the bridge of continuity has been burned. As one reviewer put it: "Chasing a YA demographic alienates the fans who sustain you."

This dynamic is aggravated by a Marketing Mismatch. Take the trailers for Project Hail Mary. They sell a Space Adventure (Old Clothes), but the movie is actually an investment in Radical Cooperation. When marketing lies about the map to get people in the door, it’s like drinking sweet tea when you expected a Coke. You aren't building trust; you're creating an offense. In this pressurized environment, Innovators have stopped building paths and started setting traps — at least the audience feels that way.

This is an Alignment Mismatch. Marketing sells the audience on a specific Movie Shape—usually one built on Clarity and Impact. But if the actual film is an exercise in Ambiguity and Novelty, the audience feels they’ve been sold a map to a city that doesn't exist. The Firefight isn't caused by the film's quality; it’s caused by a breach of the Narrative Contract.

The Laggard’s Virtue (The Forced Move)

But we have to be honest: some people will never pay the Discovery Tax. These are the Laggards. They aren't looking for a frontier; they are the people who keep their flip phone until the towers literally stop broadcasting.

We often frame Laggards as the problem, but there is a virtue in their resistance. A Laggard’s refusal to move is a check against adopting New ideas that are actually Bad ideas. For the Laggard, decommissioning the Safe Base feels like an execution. If you're going to force that move by letting the old signals fade, you have a massive responsibility to the story you tell next. Without trust, you have to demonstrate your endpoint from their starting point.

Let me give a high-profile example of this. Quentin Tarantino talked about how much he would not watch Mad Max: Fury Road because Mel Gibson was not cast as Max. Eventually, after constant interventions from his friends, he saw the movie. He loved it so much that he watched it three times in a weekend. But he points out a key change that would have changed everything for him and removed all of his resistance.

"If they had just said he’s the feral child [of Max] grown up, and that’s why he doesn’t speak... all my problems would have been solved". - Quentin Tarantino about Mad Max: Fury Road

Tarantino gives us a clue about how to bring the audience along while continuing to tell incredible stories.

The Miller Intervention (The Fortress)

Stephen Miller’s intervention is the ultimate expression of this mismatch. He is speaking for a segment of the Late Majority so abandoned by creators that they are appealing to the highest levels of power to stop the clock.

They aren't just asking for a bridge back to the past; they are demanding that the past be reconstructed as a Fortress. For Paramount, the dilemma is structural: if they pivot to satisfy Miller’s base, with Star Trek Academy, they risk turning the franchise into a hollow, pre-chewed artifact of Vanilla Slop. If they ignore him, they stay in the Firefight, but they retain the chance to actually build something that speaks to the terrain we are living in now.

The Hawley Exception (The Dialogue)

It doesn’t have to be a firefight. There are creators like Noah Hawley who have learned how to play with Holy Relics without burning the bridge. Hawley describes his process not as an attack, but as a Dialogue.

"I just tried to pay respect to it, but then to tell the story that I want to tell with it... It’s a conversation that I’m having with the work that I love." - Noah Hawley

The MacIntyre Synthesis (The Spectrum)

"...able to include its rivals within itself, not only to retell their stories as episodes within its own story, but to tell the story of the telling of their stories."

• The Invitation (The Wachowskis / Prometheus): It invites you to wander. If you want a manual, you’ll be frustrated. If you want a frontier, it’s a masterclass. Prioritizes Novelty and Atmosphere over traditional Story Clarity.
• The Bridge (Christopher Nolan): He hits you in the face with his themes, but he does it to build a massive, reinforced bridge so the Majority feels secure enough to enjoy the complexity. Reinforces Clarity and Believability to make the Depth feel accessible.
• The Challenge (The Last Jedi / Matrix Resurrections): These require a Discovery Tax. It’s a hard tax to pay, but for those willing to work through it, there is a singular statement on the other side. Deliberately breaks the Investment loop to force a new perspective.

The Firefight isn't caused by a strong Point of View. It’s caused when the Vice Grip—the structural fear of The Room—forces a creator to stop building a bridge and start filing a defensive brief. When we lose subtext, we lose the Safe Base.

We have to stop asking if a movie is Good and start asking if its Shape matches our needs. Because a bridge, no matter how bold, is only a path if you can see the other side. If we want to cross the chasm, we need creators who stop being deserters and start being architects.

In our next part, we’ll look at the Physics of the Fall—how storytelling entropy is turning our favorite myths into disorder. But first, we have to recognize the limits of the bridge. A path, no matter how well-constructed, is only useful if someone is willing to walk it.

Ultimately, the creator can provide the coordinates, but they can't force the journey. We have to decide if we are willing to leave the safety of the Fortress to meet a movie for what it is, rather than what we demand it to be. Because if we refuse to cross the bridge, we shouldn't be surprised when we find ourselves left behind on a shrinking island.

Today, you could start YouTubing, podcasting, or both. And if you did, I'd recommend you make it simple and easy!

The goal is to make it happen consistently and build the habit. Growth and success will be future goals, but will ultimately come from doing the work and getting a little better each time you do a video or episode.

To start, you'll need a camera. Use your smartphone or computer web camera. Sound matters more than video. I used a crappy webcam on my podcast for years before upgrading. If you don't have a decent smartphone camera or you want to buy a camera for your computer, I'd recommend getting the AverMedia PW513. It shoots up to 4K and is a great value for the cost.

If you're going to record on your phone, get the DJI mini mic set. It's incredible, easy to use, and sounds great. It's plug and play. If you want a microphone for your computer, buy the AverMedia USB microphone.

If you're going to record video with your smartphone, I'd also order the DJI Osmo SE gimbal and use it as a tripod. By going with their smartphone gimbal as a tripod, you can also get all the other benefits of the device for making videos. It'll make shooting videos by yourself much easier and nicer.

With a camera, tripod, and microphone in place, you can now record and start editing. Depending on how easy you want to make the editing, how much control you want, and what type of output is needed, you'll want to pick an editing system that gives you those things. But to start, find an easy way to edit your video footage.

With smartphone editing tools like Edits by Instagram or CapCut, you can record the video on your phone and edit it in one of those tools, or one of the many others. I'd recommend checking out Riverside. It allows you to record from your phone or computer and is ideal for interviews (it's what I use for the Share Life podcast and some of my YouTube videos). Riverside has AI tools for automatic editing and other automatic video and audio improvements.

If you want to edit on your computer and are willing to learn, check out Davinci Resolve. It's more involved and complicated, but if you want more control, it's what I use. I'll sync my videos from my iPhone to Amazon Photos in the cloud. This creates a backup, and then I can download the files to my computer for editing.

If you're doing a podcast, I'd recommend doing it as a video and audio podcast so you can publish the videos to YouTube and build your channel (to eventually get monetized). Riverside has the functions built into its system to publish a podcast, where it'll automatically put it on Spotify and other places. Spotify also has a tool you can use for the distribution if you don't want to use Riverside.

One last tip about getting started. Just start doing it, but don't publish. I played around with my podcast for 2 years before getting serious. I privately journaled in my Evernote for 4 years before I started blogging publicly. If you want to start a YouTube channel, just start recording yourself doing videos on your phone. You don't have to publish them or share them, but it gets your hands wet to try out the process. If you want to publish them, you can decide that later, but the key is simply getting started with the habit and seeing how it feels. This is a great test to ensure you want to do it, and to build the habit muscles required to make it happen.

We're entering a creative renaissance, and with AI, everything is getting easier for creators to make cool things. If a podcast or YouTube channel is one of the cool things you want to make, it's easy to get started.

In this episode of Cast of Shoot, we go fishing in the morning and at night to catch our first bass. I also unbox my new reel and rod, along with some other accessories.

Links from Episode

Fishing Products

• KastKing Megatron 5000 Spinning Reel
• Fiblink 4-Piece 7-Feet Carbon Fiber Boat Fishing Spinning Rod
• KastKing SuperPower Braided Fishing Line
• Seaguar Fluorocarbon Line
• Shaky Head Jigheads
• Floating worms for Shaky Head Jigs

Video Production Products

• Recording & Editing Platform
• AverMedia PW513 Webcam
• FIFINE Dynamic Computer Microphone
• Ailun 3 Pack Camera Lens Protector for iPhone 16 Pro
• DJI Osmo Mobile SE, 3-Axis iPhone Gimbal
• DJI Mini Mic (for iPhone)
• DJI Osmo Action Cam 5 Pro
• TELESIN Lens Filter Set for DJI Action 5 Pro
• Fixed Lights // Amazon Bluetooth Recessed Lights
• Light Diffuser Fabric 

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.

Jason's family is in town, and they're touring Betty, the book bus. Plus, Cait brings Juniper & Jones to the local elementary school literacy night to give books away and read to the kids.

• Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Product Links 

Products From Video

• Buy Broken Wings (Cait's Book)

Video Production Software & Equipment Links

• Riverside Video Editing Platform
• DJI Mini Mic Set
• 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!

If you've got a good idea, and it's specific enough to solve a problem, you have a business opportunity.

My first book, Path of the Freelancer, is the blueprint I use to work part-time and earn six figures. It's a broad solution to a problem I was facing.

Out of all the insights from the book, it's the chapter on building a steady stream of paying clients that gets the most attention. That's a more specific problem. It's the problem most freelancers want to talk to me about.

As a freelancer who works with companies to help them get their content ranked on Google, I've discovered there is one simple task that makes the biggest difference when doing SEO. It's updating the title tag on a page a certain way. That's a very specific problem.

And that very specific problem is the product creation opportunity of the current moment (for you and me). When you create a digital product, you can sell digital products and make money while you sleep. Right now, I'm using Payhip to help me run the checkout selling process (but more on that in a minute).

Why I Stopped Relying on Marketplaces

When I first started dabbling with online courses, I launched them on Skillshare. It was a helpful experiment. I earned a few hundred dollars. I proved (to myself more than anyone else) that I could ship a course and earn money from it.

But eventually, Skillshare raised its performance requirements. My programs didn’t have enough students to reach the new thresholds, and my courses were archived.

Students were watching my program, but now it was shut down! Where do I put the program now? That was the moment the lesson landed: If I’m going to build a body of work—books, courses, frameworks, systems—then I need a way to sell it that isn’t dependent on an algorithm, a marketplace, or someone else’s priorities.

I wanted a dependable way to:

• keep offering my existing courses
• sell digital copies of my books outside of Amazon (because Amazon takes a big cut)
• build something that grows with me as I get more serious about monetizing my content creation

With clients, I’ve used (and seen them use) a range of tools: Gumroad, Shopify, Samcart, and plenty of other shopping cart systems.

But Payhip stood out for two reasons that matter a lot more than they sound like they should:

1. It’s easy to use. When you’re trying to ship consistently, ease matters.
2. The pricing model makes sense. You can start by paying a percentage of sales, and as you grow, you can switch to a flat monthly fee—so you’re not paying an arm and a leg before you’ve earned anything.

That combination made it an easy place to start—and a platform I can stick with. I've since referred it to others as a great, simple system for packaging and selling digital programs.

When it comes to selling books, a friend of mine launched her book, excluding Amazon. She created an exclusive window to buy the book directly, outside of Amazon. And that's likely something I'll test out with my next book.

A Step-By-Step Launch Process For Digital Products

If creating and selling a product feels overwhelming for you, let me give you a simple breakdown of the process so you can take that next step of exploring your next mini business opportunity. Let this get your ideas flowing.

Step 1: Choose Something You Can Sell Directly

When I say digital products, I’m usually talking about:

• Books (especially if you already have an Amazon version and want a direct-to-audience option)
• Courses (especially if you’ve been burned by marketplace dependency)
• Digital downloads that support your audience (templates, guides, checklists)

For me, Payhip became the place where I could sell both online courses and digital products in one system.

Now, before you consider building out a big course, the trend in the marketplace is shifting, so I'd highly recommend you shift to creating a mini-course instead. That's why I gave those examples above, getting more and more specific. Find a very specific problem and solve it as quickly and effectively as possible for the student.

My most recent creation on Payhip was The Most Effective SEO Task. It's a simple, focused mini course that it is highly actionable. I want someone to start doing the action immediately, so I designed it that way. When you create an article, do this one SEO task. When you revisit that article 3 months later, do this other task.

Because the program is specific and focused, someone who wants to make an immediate impact can do it within minutes of signing up for my mini-course.

Step 2: Start with Value—Not Tech

Before we touch software, we want to establish clarity.

1. Discover the value.
2. Write about it.

That sounds almost too basic, but it forces the most important work to happen first.

For a digital product, what makes it valuable comes down to some basic questions.

• What problem does this solve?
• Who is it for?
• What’s the outcome someone gets after they use it?
• Why is it worth paying for now?

If I can’t answer those questions simply, the rest of the launch gets harder. A good product is easy to sell. A good product sells when it's hard to buy.

Regarding my SEO course, clients pay me thousands of dollars to do the SEO task I'm teaching. Those who have a library of blog posts can now learn how to do that task themselves for a few bucks.

Step 3: Build a Landing Page

You want one place you can send people to learn about your product. Create a landing page on your website to create this spot. You can use my landing page framework here to structure it and make sure you've done everything needed to make it work for you.

If you don't have a website, Payhip lets you make landing pages on their platform, so that removes a barrier, if that is what's stopping you. The landing page links to the Payhip checkout page, and they take care of the rest.

People buy, and you get deposits from Payhip into your account.

Easy. Simple.

Let's talk more about that. 

Step 4: Use Payhip as the Place You Sell (Checkout + Delivery)

Once you know what you’re selling, you need a dependable way actually to sell it. The most critical element is ensuring a seamless and reliable path from interest to purchase.

If selling your product feels complicated, you won’t promote it consistently. That's part of why creating the landing page is great. It's one place to send people.

Linking that landing page to Payhip also simplifies the selling process.

For example, I have Path of the Freelancer available for $8.99 on Payhip (instead of $9.99 on Amazon), and I’ve made sales that way. Some people prefer to buy directly. Others don't want to buy from Amazon. Payhip now allows me to provide both options.

Note: One nice feature of Payhip is that you can work with friends and partners to help promote your products. Run a collaborative promo for your book like I did with my friend—Payhip tracked his sales so I could compensate him for helping me sell copies to freelancers.

When you're ready to sell digital products, Payhip is an easy and reasonably priced way to make it happen.

Step 5: Promote Like a Human

I’m not interested in hype. I’m interested in consistency. For me, this process of promotion is about creating products that will stand the test of time and then continually promoting them in my content and emails.

It's always a delight to see an email when someone has purchased from my store. These sales are an important part of my journey towards building a content creation business that earns $100k per year.

If you want to get more tactical, you can run small experiments and then double down on what works. One thing I'm testing out is creating YouTube videos to talk about different topics while also highlighting my related products. It becomes a win-win for helping me get monetized on YouTube and sell my products.

If you have something awesome, you'll want to share it with others. You'll want to make it even better. And others will want to tell everyone they know about that awesome product.

Step 6: You Don't Have To Be Perfect. Just Keep Making Things Better.

I treat each product like a living asset. Once it’s selling (even a little), then I improve:

• the landing page
• the product description
• the product itself

The goal isn’t perfection.

It’s forward motion.

For the Most Effective SEO Task, I've recently rebuilt the curriculum to be better. I've included AI prompts to make it more valuable. I started with a simple blog post as the landing page, and then I did an upgrade to make it better. Next, I plan to record a handful of videos to add to the program to make it easier to digest and act.

Selling Digital Products

Payhip has made it easier for me to sell digital products, when I didn't have a way to do that before, and I was in a bind (needing a place to put my courses). When it comes to selling my mini-course and books directly, it's my go-to option.

If you want a simple way to sell your books, courses, and digital downloads—without building a complicated tech stack—Payhip is worth exploring.

If you have a question, feel free to drop into the Share Life Academy and ask me or others in the group who use it.

AI is rapidly changing things, but change is hard. So how can we, in the short term, adapt to this changing world while we get our bearings for the medium and long term? I've got a handful of ideas.

This post will give you some direction and ideas on how to adapt today, so that you're riding the technological wave, not crushed by it.

Do more for your clients by leveraging AI. Think of it like the difference between sending someone a letter by physically mailing it and sending someone an email. Technology lets you accelerate the process and do more. Just be careful not to get distracted by doing easy things that don't help your client or you.

Think about how you can streamline what you are already doing to do it faster. To do it better. Content management systems like HubSpot, Joomla, or WordPress let us do awesome things with a website without the technical development skills required to code a system like that manually. You can put a nail in a piece of wood with your hand, or you can use a hammer. Better yet, you could even use a nail gun. AI is a tool that can enable you to do more and better work than you could have done without it.

Think about how you can accomplish more for clients, not just in output, but in OUTCOMES. Don't just think about activity and raw output, but consider the importance of strategy. How can you ensure the things you're doing are actually helping accomplish the business objectives? Let AI help you analyze data sets that you can't do or would let you take a lot of time to do. Let AI help you adjust your activities so that it can more effectively generate results.

Become invaluable. Make it stupid for clients to stop paying you to do the things you're doing for them (a Path of the Freelancer insight). Both in activity and, more importantly, goal achievement, make it stupid for clients to stop working with you. AI extends capabilities, so be thinking about how working with you is something they still need to do in a world of AI tools. Going forward, it won't necessarily be about doing the actual tactical work, but rather it'll be about making sure the work gets done. It's essentially a move where many individual freelancers will be their own agency. But instead of a bunch of employees, it'll be a bunch of AI bots (agents) and AI tools.

The first 2 person billion dollar company now exists. With a systems thinking mindset, this opportunity is now possible for anyone. The gold rush has begun. Grab your pan!

Knowing all this, what type of business will you build for this new AI era?

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AI is changing the world we live in and the way we work. In the ways my generation (born in 1984) grew up with Google, this and new generations will grow up with AI.

But young people are the most vulnerable to the dynamics of this new AI era. In this article, I want to talk about how they can orient themselves for the best possible future.

To understand why this positioning matters, we have to set the stage for how young people make meaning in their lives.

There are five stages of meaning making (according to Constructive Developmental Theory), and the 2nd and 3rd stages are how young people in their teens and young adult years make meaning (I'll explain below).

Thriving in an AI era is going to require a shift from content mastery to contextual positioning because AI is going to take away many of the motivational tasks that young people do.

Stage 2: The Black and White Mind (Teens to 20s)

The 2nd stage of meaning-making is for someone who is self-sovereign. They're focused on personal needs, goals, and agendas. They're wondering how a thing or person helps them. Young people move into this stage fully around middle school and remain somewhat until they move into stage three in their late teens and early twenties.

But, AI is a better doer than a Stage 2 individual. It can follow instructions and execute tasks with zero ego.

Individuals in this imperial mindset must shift from being competitors with AI to being power users. Here are two ways those in this stage can do this.

• The SoloPreneur Model: Stage 2 is highly motivated by self-interest. They can use AI as a force multiplier to build micro-businesses or freelance empires that previously required a staff.
• Prompt Engineering as Leverage: They thrive by viewing AI as a tool to get what they want faster. Their success depends on their ability to manipulate the machine to achieve a specific outcome, essentially becoming a manager of one.

Stage 3: The Socialized Mind (20s to 40s)

Once someone enters their early twenties, they've likely moved fully into the stage 3, socialized mind, where they find belonging in their group. Most people stay in this stage until their forties or fifties (that's the midlife transition, or crisis if it goes bad).

Those who make meaning through group belonging are driven by relational harmony, industry standards, and being a good professional (according to peers and mentors).

Those in this stage are most at risk of AI. People at this stage find safety in the right way to do things (within their group or workplace). AI has now mastered the right way (the average of all human knowledge). So now they're competing with something that can easily beat them at that game.

The way forward for these folks is to lean into what strengths humans have that AI fails at: Genuine Interpersonal Connection.

Here are two possible roles.

• The Trusted Advisor Role: While AI can provide the information, Stage 3 individuals excel at building the trust required to deliver that information. People still want to buy from, work with, and be led by humans they feel a connection with.
• Empathy and Cultural Translation: AI struggles with the subtle vibes, office politics, and emotional undercurrents of a team. Stage 3 individuals thrive by becoming the glue that holds human systems together while the AI handles the data.

Trust, empathy, and translation are powerful points of value for those in the socialized mind in an AI world. If you can do these things and also become a power user of AI (stage 2), you'll excel in an AI world.

A Safety Net for Level 3: External Scaffolding

• The Solution: They don't need to become mavericks overnight. They can thrive by becoming translators. They take the AI's output and use their Socialized Mind to ensure it aligns with the values and harmony of the group.
• The Shift: Instead of "I am the expert who knows the answer," they become "I am the person who ensures this answer works for us (our business, group, etc)."

The Reality Check

The transition will be painful. In the past, young people could make a very good living being a Stage 3 expert who followed the rules and produced high-quality documents. Now, that is the baseline. Although there will still be places in the real world where AI is absent or weak, the old approach will still be an opportunity in those places.

Otherwise, thriving today requires younger folks to move from doing the work to holding the space for the work. For a Stage 3 person, this means finding the courage to have an opinion that isn't just what the textbook says, because the AI has already read the textbook. And that means the ultimate pathway for young folks is to become self-authored. It's figuring out your personal convictions and doctrine about things, even when they come into conflict with those in your group. This transition takes decades, so make sure to move towards this long-term goal while you traverse the short-term (stage 2) and medium-term (stage 3) goals.

The Political Void

One related sidebar here. After I wrote that above, it made me think about how many people are getting involved in political issues because they're looking for an outlet to make meaning, as other outlets, like meaningful work, fade away or are taken away.

The normal ladder of success for people to climb is fragmented and disappearing. People are seeking alternatives. Those are being offered to people by toxic individuals and groups in the political realm.

Those in stage 2 end up as online trolls and mercenaries using a political movement to fill their void. Those in stage 3 become true believers, so that they maximize their belonging and take any attack on the group as a personal attack on themselves (unable to see the group separate from their personal identity).

This era of transition will require innovation for those in both the self-sovereign (2) and socialized minds (3) to find places that will allow them to be in their current stage without falling victim to the toxicity.

And, this will become a duty of those in the latter stages, 4 (self-authored) and 5 (self-transforming), to create those places for them. Otherwise, younger folks will end up in toxic spaces, since the healthy options are dwindling.

Ever wondered how to experience the thrill of the ocean's mystery catches without ever picking up a rod? Join us on the Oak Island pier in North Carolina for a look at why pier-watching is the ultimate zero-stress family vacation activity. I’ll show you why visiting the pier at sunset is like visiting a live, outdoor aquarium where you can see everything from local favorites to six-foot sharks. 

Links from Episode

• Recording & Editing Platform
• AverMedia PW513 Webcam
• FIFINE Dynamic Computer Microphone
• DJI Osmo Mobile SE, 3-Axis iPhone Gimbal
• DJI Mini Mic (for iPhone)
• DJI Osmo Action Cam 5 Pro
• Fixed Lights // Amazon Bluetooth Recessed Lights
• Light Diffuser Fabric 

Pier Fishing Watching

What if you could experience the joy of fishing without having to fish yourself?

My father-in-law lives by the beach at Oak Island, North Carolina. Over the years, we've developed a habit of visiting the pier in the evenings to watch people fish!

If you're near the ocean on a vacation, this is a fun activity you can do with your kiddos. What's nice about pier fishing is that the pier is usually lined up with people fishing, so people will likely be catching all types of fish as the evening progresses.

We'll walk up and down the pier looking for the next catch, watching as people pull in their fish. Sometimes the fishermen and women will let our kids touch them or throw them back into the ocean.

We've seen a lot of cool fish, sharks, and rays. One time, we saw a six-foot hammerhead someone caught, although they were not able to bring that up to the pier.

The last time we were at Oak Island was in 2025, and this is the year I got serious about YouTube, so I shot a lot of video, including our pier visits. Conveniently, there was a lot of catching of fish on that trip.

Next time you're near a local pier, check it out in the evening to see the ocean fish.

Enjoy more fishing footage from our trips.

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.

Working with creators—whether they are designers, video producers, or marketers—requires a clear framework for communication (if you want to get quality work done in reasonable amounts of time). Based on a classic concept by Seth Godin, there are four ways to approach a creative project. Identifying which bucket you fall into can bridge the gap between a frustrating experience and an incredible result.

In short, here are the four paths.

1. I know what I want. 
2. I'm not sure exactly, but I know what it rhymes with.
3. I'm not a designer, but I understand state change. 
4. I'll know it when I see it. 

To explore what Seth wrote about each, click here.

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