WATCH AND LISTEN ON
The companion
Two brothers in LA are running a telehealth business tracking a billion dollars a year on $20,000 of AI agents and no other staff. An agent, once you strip the jargon, is just a prompt that runs by itself. Competence stopped being a differentiator. Presence, influence and honest human mess are the job now. And you can't own a room that you're not even in.
1. Spend the twenty quid
Henry's advice for any forward-looking leader: on a home device, subscribe for one month to Claude Code or OpenAI Codex, the proper agentic versions. Think of it as a friendly little elf that lives in your computer: any button you can press, it can press. Then give it a fun, open-ended goal and watch it work.
“/goal Build me a website that catalogues [your niche obsession], links out to everyone involved who's still around, and drafts me the shopping list to match. Don't stop until you get there.”
Leader's note: The point isn't the project, it's watching an agent actually work months before your competitors do. In a year this will be in every corporate tool. The advantage is now.
2. Teach me how to use you
Kirsty's entire AI education was asking AI to provide it. No course, no manual. It knows what it can do, so make it the tutor.
“Hi Claude, what can you do? Teach me how to use you.”
3. The word vomit, five ways
AI is brilliant at finding the ideas buried in your rambling. Hit record and talk, unfiltered, for as long as it takes, because the thoughts you self-censor are usually the good ones. Then, and this is the bit people skip, ask for five versions, not one. Three will be wrong, one will be fine, one will be really good.
“Here's a transcript of me thinking out loud. Give me five different ways to structure it, each true to my meaning. I'll pick one and rewrite it in my own words.”
Leader's note: The rewrite in your own words is not optional. AI is the average of all human thought; send its version verbatim and you sound like the average.
1. Energy out
Kirsty's presence technique: notice where your energy is pointing. Energy in is “do they like me, what do I say next.” Energy out is noticing them: their body language, what they're actually saying, how much space the room has. In your next meeting, deliberately push your attention outwards and hold it there. You can't own a room that you're not even in.
2. Manage the weather
The more senior you get, the less the job is having all the data. It's about managing the weather in the room. Next high-stakes meeting: before you contribute anything, spend two minutes reading the weather. Who's flat, who's tense, who's checked out. Then decide what the room needs from you, and only then speak.
3. Keep the mess
Use AI to structure a difficult conversation. Never let it deliver one. Marie Dasborough's research: the delivery matters more than the message, and the polish is exactly what people smell. Flawed imperfection is absolutely essential for connection. Take the framework from the machine, then say it in your own words, with your own pauses, in person. The not-knowing-what-to-say is where the connection happens.
Transcript coming soon. It will live right here, in full, for every episode.