225: "Is AI Literacy Missing From Classrooms While Work Is Being Redefined?" ft. Asher Albertini

Asher Albertini, an 18-year-old high school senior and former LearnAir intern, shares what AI has changed for him in school, friendships, and career thinking, and how his generation should prepare for a future where entry-level work gets redefined. 🧭 Conversation Highlights AI detectors and grading: detectors are often inaccurate and only really target essay-style work, while better approaches include timed writing and drafts/version history. Entry-level roles are changing: Asher sees AI takin

With Erik out, Justin Coats steps into the host chair for a conversation with veteran creative Carl Loeb about what happens when generative AI enters the creative process—and why the answer isn’t to resist it or surrender to it. Carl draws on nearly 40 years in advertising, branding, and technology to make the case that AI is an extraordinary thinking partner, but humans still bring something essential to the work: taste, discernment, emotion, ownership, accountability, and lived experience. T

🧠 Erik’s Take Erik treated the episode like a “numbers as a compass” field guide. What stayed with him wasn’t finance trivia, it was the discipline of turning ratios and variances into sharper questions. He also realized he keeps circling the same leadership test: when the diagnosis is uncomfortable, will the organization change its behavior, or will it protect the old pattern? 🎯 Top Insights from the Interview Personnel is not just a cost line. It is a signal of whether the company is investin

🧠 Erik’s Take Erik frames this as more than a communications discussion. The real question, for him, is timing: how fast a company can learn what it is, how it should describe itself, and whether the rest of the business is ready to absorb the attention that message creates. He admits he initially pushed back on starting comms on day one, because in his own founder journey the language was never “clean” immediately. But he lands on a sharper principle: comms is not decoration. It is an iteration

Scott Lauray shares how ProVia Partners helps middle-market owners make confident financial decisions, from business valuation to M&A advisory and fractional CFO work. He connects enterprise value with real owner goals, and frames business success as an engine for opportunity across employees, families, and communities. 👤 About the Guest Scott Lauray is founder and principal of ProVia Partners, delivering business valuation, M&A advisory, and fractional CFO support for privately held companies.

Erik talks with Joshua Altman about why communication gets “random acts” treatment, and how fractional chief communications officers bring strategy and consistency without full-time cost. Joshua shares two core frameworks, Story-Narrative-Brand and the Four Languages (read, see, hear, experience), plus why trust, authenticity, and even lighting and audio matter for message delivery. 👤 About the Guest Joshua Altman is an experienced storyteller and strategist who leads Beltway Media, a DC-based