Episode Title: The Year AI Pays Off: A Name Your Year Story
Runtime: 26:00
Publication Date: December 21, 2025
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
For over ten years, my wife Kymberlee and I have named our years. Not resolutions. Not goals. One phrase that becomes a filter for every decision we make.
This year, I did something different. I let my own AI agents interrogate the decision.
In this episode, I share how 2025's "Year to Write" accidentally created EVERYWHERE - a 32-agent AI orchestration system. Then I explain what happened when I ran "The Year AI Pays Off" through my quality-scoring tool (92%), my business-strategy validator, and my assumption-challenger. The interrogation revealed three layers of "pays off" I hadn't articulated - and turned an aspiration into an operational plan.
Most people use AI to do things faster. I'm using AI to think better.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro: Through Another Lens 0:45 - The origin of Name Your Year (Kymberlee's 9-out-of-10 failure) 2:30 - How year naming becomes a decision filter 3:15 - "The Room Where It Happens" (Kymberlee 2024) + "Do It Now" (Mark 2024) 4:00 - The Year to Write begins 5:00 - Week ten discovery: podcast integration 6:00 - Building infrastructure to survive my own year name 7:00 - "I'm orchestrating them" - how the word came 8:00 - The ideas have to go everywhere 9:00 - Facing 2026: "feels right" isn't good enough 10:00 - The interrogation begins 11:00 - Quality scoring: 549/600 (92%) 12:00 - Business validation: the hard questions 13:00 - Assumption challenger: "Now let me tell you why it might fail" 14:00 - The three layers revealed 15:00 - Educational payoff: getting masterful 16:00 - Operational payoff: tool-making to tool-using 17:00 - The paradox of building before using 18:00 - The black metal card arrives 19:00 - What it feels like to open the wallet 20:00 - 56 years of the same challenge 22:00 - Tactical AI vs strategic interrogation 24:00 - How to try Name Your Year yourself 25:30 - Outro: Credits 26:00 - End
KEY THEMES
Name Your Year Practice - One phrase as a decision filter vs. resolution lists
Orchestrated Intelligence - The difference between agentic and orchestrated AI
Strategic Interrogation - Using AI to think better, not just do things faster
The Three Layers - Financial, educational, and operational payoff
Physical Reminders - The power of making concepts tangible
Aspiration vs. Operation - Turning gut instinct into validated strategy
Creative Monetization - 56 years of making art pay
RESOURCES MENTIONED
MarkSylvester.com - Sunday Stories back catalog
EVERYWHERE™ - Orchestrated Intelligence Platform v4.3.2
Scratch the Etch - Amanda's Etsy shop for black metal cards
Substack - Where Sunday Stories are published
Claude - AI platform for building skills
CONNECT
Website:MarkSylvester.com
LinkedIn: Mark Sylvester
Substack: Mark Sylvester's Sunday Stories
CREDITS
Produced with the orchestrated intelligence of the EVERYWHERE™ team:
Research: Priya Kumar
Narrative development: Natasha Boyko
Voice guidance: Jordan Lane
Musical architecture: Felix Rossi
