The Call that Changed Everything

Let's start with a text I sent to Kendro (in the message, Roxy is my girlfriend):

Hey Kendro, Roxy and I have been struggling horribly to find a call methodology and formula that works for Viglo. I've been doing calls with a bunch of random people trying to figure out the Viglo formula, and it's been really bad (to the point that the other day I even felt embarrassed with my friend on our call). But yesterday I created a prompt, and after a couple different calls with Roxy, I realized that we unlocked Viglo's magic. We discovered THE way to use Viglo, and it's a complete game changer. The other problems we were struggling with before will be overcome with this new prompt plus the way we use it. There are still lots of details to iron out, but we've got what we need Kendro to make this work.

This morning I was thinking about it (and now again as I write to you) and tears are forming in my eyes. I told Roxy that I can see the future, and in it, Viglo is the MOST respected name in language learning. Not ONE of the most respected names, but THE most respected name in language learning.

I haven't discussed with you the vision and attitude that Viglo is going to have in the future. It's going to be tough, and every student is not going to just USE Viglo, but they are going to be PROUD to be a PART of Viglo. When Viglo students talk to other language learners and say they are a part of Viglo, that other person will KNOW this student is serious about learning languages, and that person knows that that Viglo student WILL be fluent and confident in his new language.

Kendro, you and I are working on something big. [My business mentor] expressed great admiration for Viglo's vision, and he said it's the type of vision that will guide Viglo really well in the future. After the calls with Roxy last night, everything is clicking into place. All those previous years of failure are going to serve as an inspiration and compelling story for the Viglo name. And your name is going to be associated with greatness soon.

Kendro replied to my jubilance with: "You're not on shrooms yet, are you? You sounded so high and fired up hahaha." So what made me come off as someone on a trip?

I created a premade prompt where you need to insert two points of data: 1.) a situation, and 2.) an individual involved with the situation. Then ChatGPT will create a response of that individual discussing the situation in 225-260 characters. The Guide then reads the mini monologue as if he/she is the speaker, while the student paraphrases what was said and tries to recall as many details as possible. That's it. It's that simple.

So why the hell would I be so excited over something so basic?

1.) Because of it's simplicity, it'll be easy to train Guides and students (yes, students will be trained too. More on that in the next post) to use it.
2.) It focuses primarily on listening comprehension, which is the toughest hurdle to overcome on the path towards fluency.
3.) In doing this exercise, the student and Guide uncover other things the student needs to improve on (vocab words, grammatical errors, slang, etc...), which can be turned into their own climbs.

And point 3 is key. Before this prompt, Roxy and I were simply conversing and trying to find errors worth creating climbs for. As the first paragraph in my message to Kendro points it, it was not going well. But our calls using this new prompt naturally draw out the flaws in my Spanish that need to be worked on, and quickly. There's still a lot of ironing out to do with the call methodology, but we finally cracked the code on how to conduct Viglo calls!

So that's it? I'm excited over a silly little Spanish drill? Of course not. I'm excited because this exercise could not fit in better with Viglo's vision. I've done a bunch of these calls, and they definitely challenge you. But I find myself experiencing pride during my everyday Spanish conversations when I catch myself using what I practiced. Furthermore, I know I've EARNED the right to enjoy this sense of accomplishment after struggling in my Viglo calls, which is exactly what I want from Viglo.

My text message radiated so much energy because I can genuinely see a future where Viglo has hundreds of thousands of other people joining me in this sensation of pride for their linguistic achievements.