There was this moment at SXSW this year — I was sitting in a packed room with my friend Jeremy, watching this guy, Tom, build a full-blown sleep app from scratch… in under an hour… in front of a live audience… with absolutely no perfect pitch or polished script.
And I thought to myself:
This guy is either totally nuts or totally brilliant.
Turns out, it was a bit of both. And I couldn’t get enough of it.
A Little Planned, A Little Dangerous
The talk was called “AI Essentials: Practical Skills to Get Started”, but what we saw was something way better: a real-time masterclass in creative flow, problem-solving, and guts.
Tom didn’t show up with a pre-baked pitch deck or an over-rehearsed plan. He walked on stage with a few tools, some loose direction… and a packed room full of people yelling out suggestions like it was a live design jam.
Tom, I was the guy yelling, “Use Dwayne Johnson!”
And the way he bounced between tools — while one was rendering, another was writing, another was coding — it was like watching a kid in a sandbox. Curious. Joyful. Completely in the moment.
He wasn’t trying to be perfect. He was just playing — with purpose.
How to Build a $150K App in an Hour (Kinda)
He used:
- Replit to build and deploy the code
- MidJourney to create the UI look and feel
- ChatGPT to generate a brand style guide
- Suno to produce a radio ad
- RunwayML to generate a product video
- And then pulled it all together — and launched it — live
In 60 minutes, he built something that would’ve taken a traditional agency months to develop — and cost well into six figures.
He did it on stage. Calm. Funny. Confident. Like a kid showing off what he made during recess.
It Wasn’t About the Tools
What made this session so powerful wasn’t just the tech. It was his energy.
He treated AI like an intern. Smart but coachable. He moved fast. Made bold choices. Took input from strangers and ran with it.
It was creative leadership in action.
And it reminded me of how I like to work — and how I want to encourage my team to work, too:
- A little planned. A little dangerous.
- A little like a kid flexing in the mirror after building something cool.
What’s Stopping Everyone Else?
We’ve all heard the excuses:
- “I don’t know where to start”
- “There are too many tools”
- “I’m not technical enough”
But honestly? I think people are just scared to look dumb.
Scared to try something and have it not work. Scared to open the sandbox and not know what to build. But here’s the truth:
You don’t need to know everything. You just need to be willing to explore.
The best AI users aren’t experts. They’re tinkerers. They play. They learn. They connect the dots in new ways.
What I’m Taking Back to the Agency
This session lit a fire in me. I’ve already started:
- Testing new platforms
- Exploring how tools can work together
- Looking for use cases that didn’t exist a year ago
- Asking “what if” a lot more
Because that’s the game now.
The people who win in this space won’t just be the most technical — they’ll be the most curious.
The ones willing to treat AI like a creative playground. To take risks. To flex their imagination. To build something a little weird, a little fun, a little scrappy — and then ship it anyway.
Final Thought: Open the Sandbox
Tom could’ve shown up with a perfect case study. But he didn’t. He showed up with a few tools, a big imagination, and a willingness to play.
And the whole room was eating out of his hand.
So if you’re still waiting for the perfect moment to start using AI — stop waiting.
Open the sandbox.
Ask dumb questions.
Try big things.
And don’t forget to flex when you build something cool. You’ve earned it.
