with Brooks Canavesi (Baryons)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Brooks Canavesi, serial entrepreneur, technologist, and co-founder of Baryons, an AI company building personal mentors designed to help people flourish. Brooks shares his journey from competitive athlete and founder to a wilderness rehab turning point, and why “good enough isn’t” only works when it’s paired with well-being. We unpack the science of flourishing (PERMA), how Baryons’ voice-first AI uses memory, intention, and post-call processing, and why the goal isn’t more hustle, it’s human agency.

If you’re curious about human-centered AI, personal growth, or building tech that actually helps people live better, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why flourishing beats hustling, and how the PERMA model frames daily choices.
• How a personal AI mentor can surface root causes (not just symptoms) and drive real change.
• Memory that matters: recency/frequency, decay, and context graphs that feel human.
• Dialogue as product: designing questions, “be quiet” modes, and proactive nudges.
• Guardrails & compliance: building safety for students, teams, and B2C users.
• The power of transitions: why moments of change are the best time to adopt a mentor.
• Group Baryon: private, on-meeting insight that later guides each person 1:1.
• What AI can and can’t replace, and how to keep the human in human-centered AI.

Featured Guest

Brooks Canavesi — Co-Founder, Baryons
Serial entrepreneur and technologist focused on human-centered AI. Brooks blends product, engineering, and flourishing science to build voice-first AI mentors that help people and teams grow.

On X: @brookscanavesi
Sign up: https://baryons.com/
LinkTree (all socials): https://linktr.ee/baryons

Learn more

Baryons — Personal AI mentors for work and life: https://baryons.com/

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• Start with outcomes for people, not features for models; measure flourishing, not just usage.
• Treat conversation as a UI: craft prompts, toggles (yes/no), and check-ins with intention.
• Build proactive systems: memory, decay, and context so AI shows up with an agenda to help.
• Safety isn’t optional: define escalation paths, compliance checks, and when to stay silent.
• Focus the roadmap: say “no” to assistant sprawl; be the best at a narrow, high-value job.
• Design for transitions (new role, school, parenting, retirement) where impact compounds.

Connect With The Show

• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency/
• Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjb

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if it brought you value, share it with a friend.

with Bill Nance (StrataTech Education Group)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sat down with Bill Nance, an education operator and change leader, now the CEO of StrataTech Education Group. Bill’s journey spans art & design, IT, operations, finance, and strategy, experiences he’s used to rebuild how schools work from the student's perspective.

Bill shares why great leaders do the hard work themselves until they understand it, make the call without perfect data, and protect the brand by owning demand rather than renting it. You’ll hear how he balances quarterly pressure with long-term purpose, why referrals outperform short-term volume, and how AI can widen opportunities, from adaptive learning to securing real funding for real students, without sacrificing human connection.

If you care about student experience, sustainable growth, or pragmatic AI in higher education, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Student-first operations: How structuring programs (pricing, devices, materials) levels the playing field and frees faculty to teach.
• Own the brand, don’t rent demand: Why overreliance on pay-per-lead hurts referrals, show rates, and long-term unit economics.
• Referrals as a north star: What Bill learned when cohorts sourced from aggregators didn’t refer, and how that changes the math.
• Leadership under uncertainty: Making 50/50 calls, communicating pivots, and earning trust by explaining the “why.”
• AI as a leveler (not a chatbot gimmick): Practical use cases that improve outcomes without degrading the front-door experience.
• Adaptive learning’s moment: Why true personalization at scale finally looks feasible with modern AI.
• Funding discovery at scale: Bill’s Monday-morning AI experiment to surface grants, workforce funds, and employer sponsorships for each student.
• Skilled trades at scale: Why the next five years demand high-ROI programs that meet community and employer needs.

Featured Guest

Bill Nance – CEO, StrataTech Education Group; former executive at Delta Career Education and Ancora; operator focused on student experience, brand ownership, and technology-enabled transformation.

Bill Nance on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/billnance/

Learn more

• StrataTech Education Group - https://stratatech.com/

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• Start with the student, design the service: Treat curriculum as the product and everything around it as the service layer, price, materials, devices, financing, so day one is equitable and predictable.
• Brand ownership compounds: Leads you generate yourself have higher intent, higher referral rates, and better downstream economics than rented demand.
• Measure what matters (referrals): Track referral % per source; if a channel suppresses referrals, its “cheap” volume is more expensive than it looks.
• AI ≠ call-deflection: Avoid front-door chatbot traps that erode trust. Prioritize AI that adds value (adaptive learning, call summaries with human QA, funding discovery).

Connect With the Show

• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency/
• Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjb

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if it brought you value,

with Dr. Michael Hageloh & Dr. Bruce Fraser (Indian River State College)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with two innovators who are shaping the future of higher education: Dr. Michael Hageloh and Dr. Bruce Fraser of Indian River State College in Florida.

Together, they discuss how AI is disrupting higher ed, not as a technology problem, but as a change management challenge. From Steve Jobs’ lessons at Apple to democratizing knowledge in the classroom, Michael and Bruce share their experiences leading transformation at scale.

They make the case that students are customers first, that knowledge is no longer scarce, and that AI, used wisely, can help colleges unlock creativity, adaptability, and epic wins for the next generation of learners.

If you care about innovation, the future of education, or how to lead through massive change, this conversation is packed with insights.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How Apple’s product philosophy shaped Michael’s approach to education leadership
• Why “customers don’t know what they want” still applies to students in 2025
• The death of the click economy and what it means for marketers & schools
• How IRSC is using AI to move students from curiosity → enrollment → success
• The role of fidelity (taste, judgment, human refinement) in an AI-driven world
• Why higher education must shift from “knowledge scarcity” to AI-abundant, collaborative learning
• Predictions for the future: apprenticeships, stackable credentials, and billion-dollar one-person companies

Featured Guests

Dr. Michael Hageloh – VP of Marketing at Indian River State College, former Apple executive, author, and change leader.

Dr. Bruce Fraser – Faculty leader at IRSC with a background in psychology, epistemology, and AI research, specializing in organizational change and faculty development.

Learn more:

• Indian River State College - https://www.irsc.edu/
  
  
• IRSC AI Thought Leadership Article: The Death of the Click Economy - https://medium.com/@michaelhageloh/the-death-of-the-click-economy-how-ai-is-altering-human-agency-and-commerce-533e9ac6aeb4

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• AI adoption is a change management problem, not a tech problem. Leaders need to prepare their organizations for cultural and structural adaptation, not just tool rollouts.
• Democratization changes the business model. Just as iTunes democratized music, generative AI democratizes knowledge; leaders must rethink what unique value their institutions or companies add.
• Customers (and students) don’t always know what they want. Leaders must guide people through a journey, painting the vision before delivering the product.
• Entry-level work is evolving. Education and employers must fill the gap with apprenticeships and practical, AI-augmented learning to prepare talent for higher-value roles faster.

Connect With the Show

• Level Agency - https://www.level.agency/
• Patrick Patterson’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs’ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjbiggs/

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Share this episode with someone wrestling with GenAI adoption.
• Rate & review if it brings value, helps us reach more listeners!