The AcademyIntermediate
Become a Value-First Practitioner
What you'll build
A methodology-coach agent on valuefirstagent.com configured with the Five Core Beliefs, the 8 Value Path stages, and the Four Conversations — that takes a real relationship and returns its Value Path stage plus the right next conversation. The credential (certificate property on your Contact) is the recognition; the agent is the proof of mastery.
The live cadence
How the live thing runs for this path.
Cohort-paced — the credential runs as a facilitated cohort with a defined start, backed by weekly Office Hours. Until a cohort is scheduled, runs Office-Hours-paced with the certification exam as the gate. LAUNCHES AS WAITLIST/APPLY.
There is no live cohort scheduled for this path yet. Apply below to join the waitlist — and you can join the weekly build clinic any week in the meantime.
The build, step by step
What you'll do, in order.
- Internalize the Five Core BeliefsStart at the foundation every methodology choice traces back to. Name each belief and spot its violation in a real org. (Practitioner Certification Module 1.)
- Master the 8 Value Path stagesAudience through Champion — Path TO Value and Path OF Value. Learn each transition trigger and the signals that a relationship is ready to progress. (Module 2.)
- Make the Four Unified Views and Three-Org Model fluentExplain how the four views eliminate fragmentation and how Customer/Operations/Finance map onto them — the operating frame you'll coach clients through. (Module 3.)
- Conduct the Four Conversations without compressionProbative, Qualifying, Value, Closing/Options. Surface a Desired Future State through questions, let value set the anchor, build three-option architecture. (Module 4.)
- Build your methodology-coach agentOn valuefirstagent.com, build the agent that encodes what you learned: feed it a relationship, it returns the Value Path stage and the right next conversation. Configuring it correctly IS demonstrating mastery.
- Pass the certification + earn your listingTake the practitioner exam (the gate). On a pass your certificate property is written to your Contact and you become eligible for the Collective practitioner directory — the cohort hands you off to valuefirstcollective.com.
Where the build becomes real
You build it on valuefirstagent.com.
build a methodology-coach agent: input a relationship, output its Value Path stage and the next of the Four Conversations.
Apply
Get on the list for this path.
Tell us where to reach you. We'll let you know the moment a cohort opens — and you're welcome at the weekly clinic any time.
Keep watching
Recent conversations to learn from.
Value-First AI DailyOctober 30, 2026
Market Simulator Max, Live with Nico
Chris Carolan and Nico Lafakis set the plan aside for stories. Nico walks through Market Simulator Max, his beta tool for filling a HubSpot portal with…
Open the episodeThe Road to UNBOUNDOctober 28, 2026
The Road to UNBOUND - Season 2, Fourth Stop: Is This Cheating? A Lullaby, Guilt, and Where You Put the Effort
Rob Jones drove the fourth stop of the second season with Chris Carolan, Casey Hawkins, George B. Thomas and Kyle Jepson, and he left to get a prop while Chris…
Open the episode
Value-First AI DailyOctober 27, 2026
Overnight Building with Dots
Chris Carolan calls Nectar, his AI assistant, live to review an overnight build where Codex and Claude Code each mapped the Value-First operating model, and…
Open the episodeThe next step
You're building. Here's where it goes next.
And then, the rest of the path: