Fall Vibes, Kids Hustling, and AI Video Goes Nuclear

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Hey there Visionaries!

October just hit us like a freight train.

The Northwest is doing its thing. Leaves falling everywhere, summer becoming this distant memory you're not quite ready to let go of.

And that slowdown you keep waiting for? Not coming.

Spoiler alert: they won't.

Just wrapped a kids business fair, DJ'd my first country night, ran down to Portland to see family, and cranked away at Beyond The Matrix week 2.

Oh, and the biggest AI video drop in history just happened.

We need to talk about it.

Why You Should Give All the Cares:

• Future Entrepreneurs: My 7-year-old just ran a business and learned more about money than most adults understand

• Country Meets Tech: First country gig taught me something wild about AI and live music

• Video Revolution: Sora 2 and Claude 4.5 just changed everything for content creators

Kids Business Fair: When Your 7-Year-Old Outworks You

Last year, my daughter sold bouquets at our first kids business fair.

This year? Round 2 from her nature school.

She sold bouquets again, plus these adorable moth craft toys as an upsell. Smart kid, right?

Here's what went down:

She sold out. Everything. Made about $50.

Then the really interesting part happened.

She walked around buying stuff from her classmates. Her friends showed up. And she started handing out $5 bills to them so they could buy stuff too.

Just giving it away.

I helped her count inventory, walked her through paying back the loan from mom (she needed change for the booth), and then we counted up the rest.

"Hey honey, you gave away $15. That's almost half of what you made."

You know what she said?

"Good."

No hesitation. No regret. Just pure joy in taking care of her friends.

That's the thing about teaching kids about value creation early. They learn that money is a tool, not the goal. She created something, sold it, managed inventory, dealt with strangers, handled transactions, and then decided what mattered most to her.

At 7 years old.

Second time doing this, she was way more comfortable. More confident. Better at counting and tracking sales.

This is what we're missing in traditional education. Real-world skills. Actual value creation. Understanding money through experience, not theory.

My First Country Gig: AI Meets the Mechanical Bull

Schwine House downtown Bellingham hired me for a country night.

College kids were back. The outdoor German beer garden was packed.

I showed up looking more country than everyone combined.

Plot twist: they asked me to bring "oompha music."

I had zero clue what that was. Turns out it's Bavarian beer garden, Oktoberfest style. Accordions and German vibes.

I grabbed some classics. Showed up. Met the manager.

She pointed at the speakers: "You hear that? That's our vibe."

German techno.

I looked at her. "Lady, I did not bring 5 hours of German techno."

She laughed, handed me a playlist, and I downloaded tracks to add to the set.

The night went like this: Started with Desert Americana electronica. Steel guitar. Harmonicas. Built up to new outlaw country. Then every 10 tracks or so, dropped some German techno.

The college kids loved it.

But here's the wild part.

I debuted AI-generated tracks from Suno. Made a custom oompha remix all about Bellingham. Talked about the beers on tap. The business. The vibe.

Tested it out.

Kids were bopping their heads. Getting into it. Jamming.

They had no idea it was AI-generated.

I brought 4 or 5 custom tracks. No one knew except the manager. She loved them. Wanted copies for herself.

Here is another one New Outlaw style about Bellingham.

The future of live music just got a whole lot more interesting.

Beyond The Matrix Week 2: The Inner Work Nobody Wants to Do

This week we covered conscious communication.

Most people think they know how to communicate. They don’t.

First, you have to communicate with yourself. Understand what’s really going on inside—that’s the foundation.

Then you can communicate externally.

We talked about inner work. I’ve been on this path since I stopped running from my problems and started taking responsibility. Staying in integrity. Aligning with my values. Being accountable to the people who matter.

Here’s what most people miss:

Those blow-ups? The patterns that repeat? They’re not random.

They’re unprocessed childhood trauma. Back then, you lacked the tools and emotional intelligence to deal with it, so it got buried. Defense mechanisms formed. You overcompensated—or undercompensated.

So it got buried. Defense mechanisms built around it. Overcompensations. Undercompensations.

Now, as an adult, similar triggers spark disproportionate reactions.

The thing is never the thing.

When you go from 0 to 10 over something small, it’s not about that moment. It’s about the unresolved programming in the background.

The first step is recognizing it. Getting curious. Where else has this happened? When was the first time?

Your body keeps score. Through somatic coaching or trauma work, buried memories resurface. Then you can process and release them.

After you heal a wound, the trigger loses its charge. You respond instead of exploding.

This work intensifies in relationships. Your partner sees the best and worst of you. They're your built-in accountability partner. That’s why real partnerships are challenging.

You’re both working through unconscious trauma. Most people think the relationship is hard because of the other person. In truth, there’s something in you that needs healing. Your partner is showing you what that is. That’s a gift.

This week we had a guest speaker—Mateo from Living Earth. Great conversation about nervous system regulation and staying aligned with yourself and your partner.

Tonight is my Fire and Smoke men’s gathering. Cigar night. A space to drop in, build trust, share challenges, and support one another.

Every man needs a support group. Every woman too. It takes pressure off couples who think they have to do all the work alone.

If you haven’t tried it, search for men’s or women’s circles in your area.

Tech Corner: AI Just Went Thermonuclear

Holy molly.

A few massive drops this week:

Claude 4.5 just came out with a huge capability jump + it can now control your computer.

Sora 2 launched and changed the video generation completely.

Let me break down what just happened.

Sora 2 capabilities:

• High-quality video with great physics

• High-quality audio in each video

• High character consistency

• Multiple characters in one scene

• Accurate character voices

• Social platform attached to it

My content game is about to go nuts.

OpenAI locked things down on safety. Every video now has clear watermarks plus C2PA data baked in. You control your own cameo. Choose exactly who can use it: just you, close friends, approved people, or public. You can pull the plug anytime, even wipe other people's content if needed.

They tightened teen restrictions too. Stronger parental controls inside ChatGPT. Stricter usage limits. Adult feeds won't surface teen accounts.

Also ChatGPT Pulse

New feature rolling out to Pro $200 accounts right now.

I just fed it my Beyond The Matrix subjects. Testing how useful it is at bringing me useful report every morning. So far… impressed.

Here's what it does:

Takes your memories, interests, previous conversations, calendar, and emails to curate what you'd be interested in each day. Like a personal daily report.

Once a day, it proactively searches through everything and presents useful information in the morning.

This is the first step of AI running through the night and coming to you with exactly what you need.

Want Daily AI Power Moves?

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Upcoming Projects:

• Fire and Smoke men's gathering tonight

• Splitting Tech Corner into its own newsletter (reply if you want on that list)

• New separate newsletters on holistic tech, mutual aid groups, and community development

Today's Takeaways:

→ Real Education: Kids running businesses learn more than any classroom teaches
→ AI in Music: Custom tracks at live events? Already here. Audiences love it
→ Inner Work Counts: Your overreactions aren't about triggers. They're unhealed wounds
→ Video Revolution: Sora 2 and Claude 4.5 just handed creators superpowers

The leaves are falling. Your time is now.

Let’s keep building. Keep healing. Keep creating.

Stay curious and keep crushing it,

Joshua | The Holistic Tech Wizard

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