Ankle to Apps: AI Journey

08/07/2026

After those first songs for friends, one of them asked me if I could make something for her daughter's wedding. I almost talked myself out of it.

Then she and I got on a call, and she told me everything. How her daughter met the man she was marrying, who they are together, what this day meant to their whole family. The two of us sat with all of it and shaped it into a poem about their story.

By the time we finished, we both knew we'd captured something real. Sitting with a mother while she helped build the words for her daughter's wedding is a thing I won't forget.

This is not a someday idea. It's real, it's done, and it's exactly the kind of thing I make.

Tomorrow I'll walk you through how it comes together, start to finish. It's simpler than you'd think, and it works for weddings, birthdays, and retirements alike.

08/07/2026

Yesterday I told you how this started: a song a friend couldn't stop playing around a campfire I couldn't get to.

Here's what I've seen every time since. Whether it's a wedding, a 60th, or a retirement, you stand there realizing nothing on the shelf actually says what you mean. A gift card gets forgotten by New Year's.

But a song or poem about their real story, with a portrait to match? The nicknames, the day they met, the life only they lived. That's the thing people keep forever. The same happy tears that whole campsite felt.

Got a wedding or a milestone coming up? Tell me in the comments whose and when.

08/05/2026

How It Started
A week before a good friend's birthday camping trip, I broke my ankle and couldn't go.

It pained me to miss it. But I still wanted to be there somehow. I'd been making AI art for a while, and had just started figuring out how to create music. So I sat on my couch with my ankle propped up and made her two songs. About her, about the trip, about who she actually is.

I sent them over WhatsApp. They played them that night at dinner. Everyone loved them, and she couldn't stop playing hers.

That was the moment it clicked. It was never about the technology. It was about someone feeling truly seen on their day.

So I started making them for other people, built around the small things I knew about each of them. Same reaction every time. Now I'm making it a real thing you can order. It's called The Story Song: a custom song or poem, plus a portrait, made for a wedding, a milestone birthday, or any moment that deserves more than a card.

This week I'll show you exactly how it works and who it's for. If you've got a big moment coming this year, stick around. This one's going to matter to you.

08/04/2026

I've been busy playing with AI and learning several different AI tools.
For almost two years, I built AI Apps. Images. Songs. Videos. If it could be built, I built it. I told myself I was getting ready. What I was really doing was staying busy so I never had to put anything real in front of a real person.
A few weeks ago someone I trust looked at all of it and asked one question: "Which of these has ever made someone cry?"
Only one. The songs I write for people.
So I stopped building tools and picked one thing to actually do.
It's called The Story Song. A custom song or poem and a portrait about people you love, built from one short conversation. Perfect for a wedding, and just as good for a milestone birthday or any occasion that deserves more than a card.
This week I'm going to show you exactly how it works and who it's for. If you've got a wedding this year, or a big birthday coming, stick around. This one's going to matter to you.

05/27/2026

With Shannon Cascio – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

05/25/2026

Yesterday I entered a Lovable contest with the invoice
app I built from my couch.

Sounds small. Felt huge.

For the past few days, I've been refining InvoiceCraft,
my no-login, no-subscription invoice tool for
freelancers and yesterday I finally submitted it.

The hardest part wasn't building the app. It was
writing the description. They asked: "What are you
building?" and gave me a tiny 200-character limit.
TWO HUNDRED.

I rewrote that paragraph 14 times. Fourteen.

Every time I started writing, I sounded like a
corporate brochure. "Innovative solution leveraging
cutting-edge technology to revolutionize..." 🙄 No
one cares. I had to keep cutting until what was
left was just... me. A person recovering from
ankle surgery who built something that actually
helps freelancers.

I have no idea if I'll win this contest. But for
the first time in three months, I submitted my
work somewhere and meant it.

That's the win.🏆🛋️

If you'd like to see the video demo comment "DEMO" below

05/22/2026

DAY 02 / 90 🐼⚡
The fourth test today was music generation using [Suno](https://suno.com/)

After building:
🎭 the ad scripts
🎙️ the voiceovers
🖼️ the images
🎬 the videos

…I wanted to see if the same AI workflow could also generate actual songs.

So I opened Suno and started experimenting.

The process was surprisingly simple:

• Open Suno
• Click “Create”
• Paste in the generated lyrics
• Paste in the music style and mood prompts
• Give the song a title
• Click Create
• Then sit there slightly confused while AI starts making music from your idea

The weird part wasn’t that it worked.

The weird part was how emotionally convincing some of the songs actually sounded.

Some came out hilarious.
Some sounded like real commercial jingles.
Some sounded better than songs I’ve heard in actual ads.

And once again, the same pattern kept showing up:

The quality of the result depended heavily on the quality of the direction.

Tiny changes in:
• genre
• tempo
• vocal style
• mood
• instrumentation
• lyrical pacing

…completely changed the outcome.

That’s becoming the biggest lesson of this entire journey:

AI is not replacing creativity.

It’s amplifying direction.

The people getting amazing results aren’t just clicking buttons.

They’re learning how to think like:
🎬 directors
🎵 producers
😂 comedians
🧠 storytellers
📣 marketers

All at the same time.

And now the pipeline is starting to feel complete:

PunchlineAds creates the concept.
ChatGPT expands the scripts and prompts.
ElevenLabs creates the voiceovers.
Google AI Studio creates the visuals.
Google Flow creates the videos.
Suno creates the soundtrack.

One funny business idea can now evolve into an entire multimedia campaign using AI tools.

A week ago this all felt overwhelming.

Now it’s starting to feel possible.

Still messy.
Still experimental.
Still learning constantly.

But every day the pieces connect a little more.

Create stunning original music for free in seconds using our AI generator. Make your own masterpieces, share with friends, and discover music from artists worldwide.

05/22/2026

DAY 02 / 90 🐼⚡
The third test today was video generation using [Google Flow](https://labs.google/flow/tv)

And this was the moment where everything started feeling less like “AI experiments” and more like an actual creative production pipeline.

After generating:
🎭 the ad script
🎙️ the voice
🖼️ the images

…I wanted to see if the same prompts could evolve one step further into actual video scenes.

Here’s the workflow:

• Open Google Flow
• Click “Create with Flow”
• Start a New Project
• Paste the same visual prompt
• Hit Send
• Wait for the AI chaos to begin 😂

A few days ago these ideas only existed in my head.

Now they’re turning into moving scenes with characters, camera movement, environments, and cinematic shots generated by AI.

But something important became obvious very quickly:

Just because AI CAN generate video doesn’t mean the first result is good.

Some outputs looked incredible.
Some looked completely broken.
Some accidentally became funnier than the original joke because the AI interpreted things in weird ways.

That’s another thing people don’t talk about enough:

A huge part of using AI creatively is learning how to guide randomness instead of fighting it.

The better your prompts become:
• the better the pacing
• the better the camera angles
• the better the expressions
• the better the storytelling

You stop thinking like a “user” and start thinking like a director.

And now I’m starting to see the bigger picture of what I’m actually building here:

PunchlineAds creates the joke.
ChatGPT expands the concept.
ElevenLabs gives it a voice.
Google AI Studio creates the visuals.
Google Flow turns it into video.

One idea now moves through an entire AI-powered content pipeline.

That’s honestly blowing my mind a little.

Still learning.
Still experimenting.
Still breaking prompts daily.

But for the first time, I can actually see how a solo creator could build an entire content studio with AI tools.

05/22/2026

DAY 02 / 90 🐼⚡
The second test today was experimenting with image generation inside [Google AI Studio](https://aistudio.google.com/)

After generating the ad scripts and voice content, I wanted to see if I could create matching visuals for the ads without touching Photoshop or spending hours designing.

Here’s the workflow I used:

• Open Google AI Studio
• Go to Playground → Models → Image Generation
• Turn OFF “Grounding with Google Search”
• Select the Nano Banana model
• Enter the prompt
• Watch the madness begin 😂

AI image generation is less about “creating art” and more about learning how to direct a scene.

You’re basically becoming:
🎬 director
📸 camera operator
🧠 creative strategist
😂 comedy writer

All through prompts.

And the craziest part?

This entire workflow started with one generated joke inside PunchlineAds.

Now that same joke can become:
🎭 an ad script
🎙️ a voiceover
🖼️ an image
🎵 a song
🎬 eventually a full video ad

That’s when you start realizing these AI tools aren’t isolated tools anymore.

They’re connected creative systems.

Still early.
Still learning.
Still breaking things constantly.

But this is starting to feel very real now.

05/22/2026

DAY 02 / 90 🐼⚡
One small thing I learned today while testing the PunchlineAds workflow:

AI voice generation is way more than just “paste text and click play.”

The first test was in ElevenLabs (elevenlabs.io) using the Rachel voice.

At first… honestly?
It wasn’t funny at all.

The script itself was decent, but the delivery sounded flat and robotic. The jokes had no timing, no personality, no energy.

Then I noticed the “Enhance” button.

I clicked it, and ElevenLabs automatically added emotional and performance-style tags throughout the script.

Suddenly the same exact words sounded completely different.

Rachel started sounding more expressive, more sarcastic, more human.

And that’s when something clicked for me:

In comedy, delivery matters just as much as the writing.

The joke alone isn’t enough.
Timing, pauses, emphasis, emotion, and pacing completely change how people experience the content.

That was a bigger lesson than I expected today.

AI tools still need direction.
They need shaping.
They need iteration.

The people getting great results with AI usually aren’t using better tools.

They’re spending more time refining the output.

Tiny adjustments can completely change the final result.

It’s honestly fascinating watching the pipeline slowly come to life.

🎭 Script → 🎙️ Voice → 🎵 Music → 🎬 Video

Tomorrow I’m continuing the experiments and seeing how far I can push the humor and personality in the generated content.