This New Way

Host Aydin Mirzaee welcomes Marquis Murray, productivity consultant and YouTuber, to share how AI agents are transforming day-to-day work. Marquis walks through live demos connecting Claude to Asana via MCP to auto-build projects from transcripts, generate executive-ready status PDFs, and create “AI teammates” in Asana that triage requests, draft briefs, write emails/blogs, and route approvals—keeping humans in the loop. Once you see it, you won’t go back to manual setup.

Timestamps

0:06 – Why manual project planning is over; AI compresses weeks into minutes.

0:17 – Introducing Marquis Murray.

0:43 – Starting the YouTube channel during lockdowns; documenting Asana learnings.

2:06 – From corporate to consulting; helping teams adopt Asana, HubSpot, Zoom, Slack.

4:05 – Making companies more productive with AI and integrations.

4:53 – Today’s plan: Claude + Asana + agents.

6:06 – Using Claude as a “central AI” via MCP.

8:17 – Building a Customer Appreciation Event project in Asana directly from Claude.

12:20 – Custom fields/sections: what connectors can and can’t create.

13:06 – Finished example: phases, tasks, owners, dates.

14:05 – Feeding transcripts and docs to generate realistic demo projects.

19:05 – “If you’re not doing this yet, start today.”

19:42 – Pulling Asana status into Claude and exporting a polished PDF.

23:34 – Exec-friendly reports: progress bars, metrics, priorities.

24:50 – Asana AI Studio: agents as virtual teammates.

27:23 – Auto-correcting human errors: naming, missing info, duplicates.

29:02 – Agents rename tasks, create briefs, draft assets.

35:42 – Agents gatekeep incomplete requests; ask for specifics.

37:13 – AI-generated campaign brief, email, and blog drafts.

39:08 – Human-in-the-loop approvals before going live.

43:01 – Triage demo: vague video request → structured follow-ups.

45:25 – Auto-created subtasks to collect missing details.

46:33 – “Easy mode” for building agents with natural language.

47:03 – Marquis’s wish: a true AI chief of staff that restructures your day.

48:56 – Where to find Marquis’s tutorials; wrap-up.

Tools & Technologies Mentioned

Asana — Project management platform; AI Studio builds rule/LLM agents (“teammates”).

Claude (Anthropic) — AI assistant used for brainstorming, MCP connections, summaries.

Perplexity — AI search and research assistant.

HubSpot / Salesforce / Jira — CRM/dev tools commonly integrated with Asana workflows.

Zoom & Slack — Core collaboration stack surfaced during remote shift.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) — Lets LLMs securely interact with external tools like Asana.

Fellow.ai — AI meeting assistant for accurate summaries, action items, and insights.

Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Canva — Connected apps Claude can use to orchestrate work.

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In this episode of This New Way, Aydin sits down with Ali Pourshahid, Chief Engineering Officer at Solace, to explore how he’s woven AI into his daily routines as a technology executive. Ali shares real demos of how he uses Solace’s Agent Mesh and other AI tools to:

Generate security-focused slide decks from Confluence in minutes

Schedule a 12-person leadership offsite without lifting a finger

Transform messy Word reports into polished heat maps for government updates

Automate customer support workflows across Jira, CRM, and internal systems

Ali also breaks down how Solace is productizing their internal AI system, why agent-to-agent communication (A2A) is critical, and how to build a culture of experimentation with “AI champions” inside your company.

This is a masterclass in how executives can stop just “keeping up” with AI—and instead lead the charge.

Timestamps

0:58 – What is Solace and Ali’s role as Head of Engineering

2:09 – Ali’s daily “AI deep hour” and why he treats it like a workout

3:19 – Prepping for a customer security call with AI + Confluence

5:14 – Auto-generated sequence diagrams and value slides in minutes

9:48 – Using Microsoft Copilot to instantly format professional slides

13:35 – AI as an executive assistant: scheduling a 12-person workshop

17:01 – Turning unstructured Word reports into project heat maps

20:07 – Building an AI champions group and lightning talks at Solace

25:05 – Solace Agent Mesh: event-driven architecture for agents

29:01 – Live demo: Automating Jira support tickets with agent workflows

33:33 – Scaling digital employees with orchestrator agents

37:08 – Why evals are critical for testing and deploying AI agents

39:05 – Ali’s habit: always ask “How can I do this better with AI?”

40:08 – What excites Ali most about AI in the next year

Tools & Technologies Mentioned:

Solace Agent Mesh – Multi-agent orchestration platform built by Solace

Confluence – Wiki where AI pulls technical details for slide prep

Claude & ChatGPT – LLMs used for connecting to internal tools

MCP (Model Context Protocol) – Framework for securely connecting AI to enterprise data

Microsoft Copilot – AI inside PowerPoint, Excel, and other Office tools

Mermaid – Visualization tool for generating diagrams and heat maps

A2A Protocol (Agent-to-Agent) – Open standard for agent communication donated by Google

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

In this episode of This New Way, Aydin sits down with Maddie Engelmeier, AI leader at Motive, to dive deep into how her team is transforming employee productivity with AI. Motive has set an ambitious company-wide goal: boost productivity by 50%. Maddie shares the three-tier strategy behind this initiative, showcases real AI agents in action—from self-assessment tools to executive account summaries—and explains how Motive fosters an AI-native culture across 100,000 customers and 1.3 million drivers.

From using Glean to power performance reviews, to leveraging Notebook LM for instant enablement videos, Maddie gives a behind-the-scenes look at how AI is not just saving time but elevating effectiveness across the company.

Timestamps

0:00 – Setting the stage: Motive’s ambitious 50% productivity goal

1:04 – Maddie introduces Motive and her role leading AI initiatives

3:12 – The three-tier AI adoption framework (democratization, automation, transformation)

6:51 – Why Motive adopted Glean and how it evolved from search to an agentic platform

8:08 – Demo: Self-assessment agent for performance reviews

13:06 – How Glean pulls from Slack, Drive, Gmail & more to save recall time

15:19 – Probing reflection questions vs. copy-paste AI output

19:02 – Over 1,000 unique runs: thousands of hours saved in one cycle

19:27 – Stakeholder feedback agent explained

21:21 – Shifting from recall to reflection and effectiveness

23:50 – Demo: Executive account summary agent for customer insights

27:55 – Scaling AI internally: AI labs, Genius Bars & Slack communities

31:00 – Why AI is enhancing—not killing—creativity

32:07 – Notebook LM demo: from docs to enablement videos in seconds

35:27 – How weekly “snippets” create accountability and unblock teams

36:00 – Agents growing faster than employees—future of work projections

38:05 – Scaling adoption with big, relevant use cases

39:09 – Maddie’s outlook: building comfort with experimentation and collaboration

Tools & Technologies Mentioned

Glean – AI-powered enterprise search and agentic workflow builder, securely connected to company data sources.

Notebook LM – Google’s AI notebook that now generates enablement videos instantly from documents.

Salesforce, Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Confluence – Data sources integrated into Motive’s AI agents for recall and analysis.

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

Ethan Hochberg and his partner have built three AI-powered X personas that rack up 200 million views annually—all while running a lean creative agency for AI and tech brands. These aren’t just vanity accounts; they’re distribution engines that feed into their core business.

In this episode, Ethan walks us through:

- How they blend AI content generation with a human touch to keep posts authentic and engaging.

- The Grok Deep Search workflow they use to find and validate influencers in minutes (a task that used to take days).

- A multi-step outreach strategy that personalizes every message for higher response rates.

- How to brainstorm and produce short-form video content with V GPT for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts—without a production studio.

- This is a masterclass in using AI tools not just to save time, but to elevate the quality of your marketing while running a “tiny team.”

Timestamps

02:45 – From AI Marketing Directory to running a creative agency

04:48 – Tiny teams, big results with AI workflows

06:25 – Demo 1: Grok Deep Search for influencer discovery

08:15 – Why influencer marketing is more relevant than ever

12:29 – Grok’s validation process: avoiding fake engagement

15:25 – Applying the workflow beyond influencers (newsletters, blogs, PR)

17:51 – Using AI to think strategically, not just automate

22:09 – The output: influencer tables in minutes

24:01 – Demo 2: Personalized outreach angle generator

28:01 – Applying this to PR and content partnerships

32:00 – Demo 3: V GPT for short-form AI video creation

37:40 – How much of your feed is already AI-generated?

40:00 – Matching viral templates to your niche for higher watch time

41:50 – Using AI video tools mainly for brainstorming content ideas

42:56 – How to connect with Ethan

Tools & Technologies Mentioned

Grok – AI chatbot from X with live access to the Twitter feed; ideal for influencer discovery and current-event research.

Grok Deep Search – Paid Grok feature ($8/mo with X Premium) that crawls hundreds of live sources for validated results.

ChatGPT + GPT Store – OpenAI’s platform for custom GPTs, used here to integrate with video creation tools.

V GPT – AI video generator with realistic avatars, captions, and voiceover.

CapCut (mentioned) – Popular editing tool; V GPT is positioned as a more advanced alternative for avatar-driven content.

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

Ethan's website: https://marketingguys.co/

Alex Lee joins the show to walk us through an end-to-end automated newsletter generator built using N8N, Airtable, and generative AI. From aggregating news and generating summaries to crafting branded HTML and distributing it via email, Alex shows how businesses can reduce newsletter production from 6 hours to 30 minutes. He also shares how Model Context Protocol (MCP) is enabling real-time access to company data, explains his decision-making process between using workflow automation tools vs. vibe coding, and previews what's next in AI-powered business automation.

Timestamps:

00:23 – Welcome Alex Lee: Career journey from SAP to Google to AI consulting

01:31 – How ChatGPT changed his mind about NLP

02:38 – Why Alex is focused on AI enablement for businesses

03:36 – Use case #1: AI-powered newsletter generator

04:49 – The manual pain of newsletter creation

06:12 – Why email is the best owned marketing channel

07:25 – Step-by-step demo: Aggregating articles, adding context, and generating drafts

09:09 – Human-in-the-loop editing and brand tone tuning

10:01 – HTML generation and branded email output

11:03 – Use cases beyond marketing: Internal custom newsletters

15:26 – Why Airtable powers the backend of the workflow

17:27 – Behind the scenes: N8N automation workflow overview

20:26 – Tool selection: When to use N8N vs. Zapier vs. Make

21:49 – Hosting your own N8N instance for cost efficiency

24:04 – How clients send the generated newsletter (Mailchimp, HubSpot, EasyMail)

27:12 – Vibe coding vs. workflow automation: which path to choose?

28:41 – Why Lovable stands out among V0, Replit, Cursor

30:19 – Benefits of prototyping and vibe coding for non-technical folks

31:24 – What is MCP and why it matters

33:05 – Example: Using Claude + MCP to search Google Drive and draft an executive summary

38:59 – AI-powered time tracking via calendar and file analysis

40:58 – What’s next: legacy system integration, coding agents, MCP standardization

42:39 – How to contact Alex

Tools and Technologies Mentioned:

N8N – Open-source workflow automation platform used to orchestrate the newsletter process

Airtable – Serves as the data layer and user interface for non-technical users

Claude (Anthropic) – Used for summarization, HTML generation, and MCP interaction

MCP (Model Context Protocol) – Enables AI models to access external systems like Drive and calendars in real time

Zapier, Make – Workflow automation tools considered depending on client preference

Lovable – No-code/low-code app builder that successfully integrates with Supabase and OpenAI

HubSpot, Mailchimp, EasyMail – Email service providers used to distribute the newsletters

Supabase – Backend database often used in vibe-coded apps

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

In this episode of This New Way, Aydin sits down with Tom Crawshaw, founder of an AI automation agency, to explore how he built an AI SDR (Sales Development Rep) system that books over $200,000 in sales calls per month—completely automated and with no humans in the loop. Tom breaks down the tech stack, the flow of conversations, and why these two-way AI-powered chats sound so natural that they’re almost undetectable as bots. He also shares how this system scales personalized customer conversations at a fraction of the cost, and how similar workflows can be applied to everything from e-commerce abandoned carts to B2B demo follow-ups.

Timestamps:

1:15 – Tom’s background and pivot from email/SMS marketing to AI automation

2:57 – Why AI enables true two-way conversations at scale

4:06 – Building custom AI SDR agents vs. off-the-shelf chatbots

6:09 – Live demo: Booking a sales call through the AI SDR workflow

10:13 – How the system qualifies leads and handles objections

12:04 – Tech stack breakdown: Go High Level, N8N, Twilio, and A2P verification

17:02 – Under the hood: prompts, custom fields, and conversation logic

23:00 – Automating what 1,000 SDRs would do manually

27:04 – Costs: Running conversations at $0.25 each

29:25 – Other use cases: abandoned carts, B2B no-show follow-ups, e-commerce

34:00 – Context files: training AI on viral posts and high-performing copy

38:14 – Prompt Cowboy: turning lazy prompts into viral-ready content

40:29 – Where to follow Tom and learn more about AI SDR systems

Tools & Technologies Mentioned:

Go High Level – CRM platform used for SMS automation and pipeline management

N8N – Workflow automation tool connecting AI agents and custom scripts

Twilio – SMS and WhatsApp messaging infrastructure

A2P Verification – Compliance process required for sending business SMS in the US and Canada

OpenAI / Claude – LLMs powering natural language conversations

Prompt Cowboy – Tool for turning simple prompts into fully structured, optimized ones for better AI output

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

In this episode, Aydin sits down with Rob Williams, a former Chief Product Officer turned AI consultant, to explore the future of work, apps, and personal development—powered by generative AI. Rob demos Limitless, an AI pendant that helps him become a better human, and Claude Code, an agentic AI development environment that builds apps like a team of tireless developers. Plus, he shares his game-changing discovery-to-deliverable workflow that cuts a week’s worth of consulting into a single day.

Timestamps:

01:00 – Rob’s tech background and founding an AI consultancy

05:01 – Demo 1: Limitless AI pendant – the wearable mentor

08:19 – Rob’s daily AI automations for personal growth

10:28 – The privacy dilemma and how Rob handles it

13:35 – Society’s shifting comfort with constant recording

18:20 – Rewind: screen-tracking AI and quantified work

21:16 – Dystopia or augmentation? Competing views on AI ubiquity

27:02 – Demo 2: Claude Code – a real agentic AI dev experience

33:10 – Claude Code spins up dashboards from Excel in minutes

37:39 – Debugging and security auditing with Claude

40:20 – Rob’s gamified AI-powered habit tracker

41:47 – Claude Code for prototyping with dev teams

44:47 – Implications: Will dynamic apps kill the App Store?

47:00 – AI as the new operating system

50:26 – Future: UIs disappear, apps build themselves

52:00 – Demo 3 (Explained): Deep research AI for consulting workflows

54:00 – Talking for the AI: How Rob narrates calls for context

58:30 – Why you must rethink—not just speed up—your workflows

59:36 – Two more tips (in newsletter only!)

Tools & Technologies Mentioned:

Limitless (limitless.ai) – Wearable AI pendant that records, transcribes, and summarizes your day with daily automations and feedback loops.

Claude Code – Anthropic’s CLI tool for building full applications using agentic AI workflows, including dependency management and debugging.

Rewind – Screen-capturing app that logs your activity with searchable recall capabilities.

Fellow – AI meeting tool that transcribes and summarizes meetings. Used by Rob for work-related action tracking.

Typora – Markdown editor Rob uses to annotate and refine AI outputs.

Deep Research – Rob’s name for his long-context LLM-based analysis prompt stack, used for summarizing 20+ hour discovery projects.

RescueTime – Productivity analytics tool used to track app usage and categorize time spent.

👉 Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

What if your intern had a better executive assistant than your CEO? In this episode of TNW, Aydin sits down with Nick Sonnenberg—Wall Street veteran, bestselling author, and founder of Leverage—to explore how AI agents are radically transforming how work gets done. Nick demos a real AI-powered assistant that can handle email, prep meeting briefs, and even outperform human teammates. You'll hear how he structures agent orchestration, optimizes prompts as IP, and envisions a future where everyone at every level has a digital assistant.

What You'll Learn:

- Why every employee (not just execs) should have their own AI assistant

- How AI agents can be “managed” like employees—with hierarchy and QA

- The role of MCP (Model Context Protocol) in unlocking personalized, high-context automation

- Why context is king in building truly useful AI workflows

- Why prompt libraries should be treated like company IP

Timestamps:

00:00 – Imagine if interns had better EAs than execs

01:00 – Nick’s background: From high-frequency trading to AI consulting

02:20 – The origin of Leverage and the obsession with efficiency

03:10 – Inbox Zero, RAD framework, and AI-powered email agents

04:50 – What is MCP and why it matters

06:20 – The CPR framework: Communicate, Plan, Resource

08:30 – Orchestrator agents and agent

11:00 – QA as the new job for every role

12:00 – Why execs are adopting AI faster than junior employees

13:40 – The “Sniper Agent” and building executive briefs

16:00 – Personalized, context-rich email drafting

20:00 – Prompt optimization strategy as a business asset

22:30 – Real-time battle card generation and agent chaining

23:30 – Custom summaries using frameworks, not just transcripts

24:00 – Behind the scenes: building and deploying agents

Tools & Technologies Mentioned:

Claude – Anthropic’s AI model, used here with MCP and custom agents

MCP (Model Context Protocol) – Allows secure access to private data and agent orchestration within AI platforms

Asana – Project management tool integrated with agents

Zapier / NADN / Crew AI – Automation platforms for building AI workflows

Perplexity – Used to scan public web/news as part of the AI brief generation

Coda / Notion – Popular tools for knowledge capture, now evolving into AI-integrated workflows

HubSpot – CRM used to integrate and personalize AI-generated content

Fellow – AI meeting intelligence tool for smarter call summaries

Nick's website: https://www.getleverage.ai/

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

Solon Angel is the founder of MindBridge and now Remitian, and he’s been at the forefront of applying AI to deeply unsexy but powerful domains like accounting and tax compliance. In this episode, he shares the origin story of MindBridge, how a DeepMind demo changed his life, and what it’s like to build a modern startup where AI plays the role of a product manager, podcast producer, and even financial advisor. Solon also demoed his newest AI agent that proactively manages tax remittances before late fees hit. If you're wondering what the future of AI-powered businesses looks like, this is a masterclass.

Timestamps:

00:00 — The DeepMind demo that inspired Solon

01:00 — Solon’s background and the early days of MindBridge

03:00 — The “dumb rule” state of AI in financial auditing

04:30 — Selling AI to skeptical accountants in 20150

6:00 — The staggering cost of late tax fees ($60B/year!)

08:00 — Remitian: an AI agent that pays your taxes for you

10:00 — Why Fellow is a core part of how Remitian runs

11:30 — How AI helps eliminate the need for a product manager

13:00 — Rewriting 3 years of code in 3 months with AI

16:00 — The shift in what matters: creativity over code

18:00 — Calorie-tracking app Cal AI and teen founders

19:00 — Solon’s AI-powered investment tool (+21% YTD)

20:00 — Live demo: AI agent managing tax payments

23:00 — Future vision: AI offering instant tax loans

25:00 — How Remitian uses Notebook LM for internal podcasts

27:00 — AI updates for board members in 10-minute clips

28:00 — Notion AI’s “research mode” vs. “ask” mode

30:00 — Predicting the rise of startups for content auto-archiving

33:00 — Solon’s final thoughts: beating billion-dollar firms with AI

Tools & Technologies Mentioned:

Fellow – Used for meeting AI transcripts, pre-reads, and knowledge sharing

Notebook LM (Google) – Turns transcripts into internal podcasts

Notion AI – Used for deep research, summarizing objections, and discovering product insights

Slack – Centralized communication, connected with other AI tools

Cursor – AI coding tool used to rewrite years of code in months

Soft Type 2 – Mentioned in relation to efficient AI-based prototyping

Cal AI – Food photo calorie tracker built by a 17-year-old founder

ChatGPT Vision – Used by Solon to interpret emotions via facial expressions

Custom AI Trader – Built by Solon for sentiment-based trading, outperformed the market

Remitian's AI Agent – Calls users, checks funds, splits tax payments, and offers loans

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.

In this episode, Aydin sits down with Greg Shove, CEO of Section, to unpack how AI isn't just a productivity tool—it's a new cognitive layer for modern organizations. Greg shares how Section pivoted from executive education to AI enablement after a single eye-opening session with ChatGPT. He dives deep into what it really takes to embed AI into workflows, culture, and decision-making—and why “talking to AI” is now mandatory at his company. From building a company-wide second brain with Claude to simulating board meetings with GPT, Greg offers a masterclass in practical AI integration.

Timestamps:

1:35 – Greg’s background: from flameouts to $250M in exits

2:00 – Section’s pivot from exec ed to AI enablement

3:01 – The 6-month internal resistance to AI

4:50 – Why training isn’t enough: the real AI challenge is change management

6:07 – Why treating AI like regular software is a strategic mistake

8:26 – What successful AI deployments have in common

10:02 – Lessons from Shopify, Duolingo, and Fiverr on AI expectations

11:45 – The price of AI is too low—why that might change

14:03 – AI vs. analyst time: “an hour becomes a minute”

15:31 – Section’s 25% productivity gain with AI

18:58 – Measuring productivity impact without perfect data

21:24 – Clever metrics: output per headcount, OKRs, AI shoutouts

24:51 – Using Claude as a company “second brain”

26:11 – Greg’s AI desktop setup: Perplexity, GPT, Claude

27:43 – The Section Expert: maintaining company context for AI

29:27 – “Working with Greg” manual: how to humanize your AI input

31:00 – The difference between values and operating principles

34:42 – Roleplaying board members with AI before real board meetings

36:05 – Claude vs. ChatGPT vs. humans: who gave better board insights?

41:00 – AI for owner-operators: create your own board

42:26 – What Greg’s most excited about: how AI unlocks new opportunities

44:08 – Where to find Greg & Section + listener discount

Tools & Technologies Mentioned:

Claude (Anthropic): Used to build a company-wide second brain and simulate board member personas

GPT (OpenAI): Used as a daily thought partner and board advisor

Perplexity: A go-to AI for fast, accurate information lookups

Section Expert (Claude project): A centralized AI project workspace housing all of Section's key documents for brainstorming

ProfAI (Section’s product): An AI-powered coach designed to teach people how to use AI effectively

ChatGPT for Teams: Mentioned as a better, paid alternative to free-tier tools

Gemini Pro: Noted for its screen-sharing and future context-awareness potential

Copilot (Microsoft): One of several LLM tools tested during board simulations

Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.