Hey Folks! Happy Friday! If you're back in school my condolences to you all, we still have 3 more weeks of summer we're trying to make the most of over here. A couple things on my mind… 1. Learning Claude Code: I'm early on with this, but I'm working through Nick Saraev's 4-hour beginner course and his 3-hour advanced one, and I'll be honest, I'm still a little lost. If anyone out there is good at explaining things like I'm 4 years old, I'm all ears. Just hit reply. 2. Brainbuddy: I've...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Folks! Writing this from the car on the way to the lake via hotspot. (Chandler says hi!) A couple things on my mind… 1. Career in 7 Year Cycles (New phase starting!): Does anyone else’s career seem to run in seven-year cycles? For me it was first a private hedge fund that ended up buying an entertainment company. Then seven years as CEO of Cladwell, until we sold almost exactly seven years ago. And the past seven years I’ve been a fractional CMO running Allsmith.org. Which brings me to...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Hey folks, Happy Friday! A couple things on my mind… 1. How To Work W/ AI: This is less of a tip and more of an observation / request for help. As I use AI more and more, I feel like it’s breaking the old systems for work, and I need new ones. For example, I love Pomodoro timers: set a 25min timer and try to get one task done in that time, take a 5min break, then do it again. This works great for humans, but when you’re managing several agents, you could probably spin up 3-4 tasks in that...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey folks, We're in the final week of summer swim team which means I've spent every evening sweating out every ounce of liquid from my body. Sundried Blake over here. A couple things on my mind... 1. Wired Earbuds: One of the many confusing things I've noticed Gen Z doing is rejecting AirPods and reverting to wired headphones. Some of it is concern about Bluetooth radiation and some of it is that wired is simpler and cheaper. So I dug mine out of the junk drawer and have been using them for a...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey folks! Nice to be back after I took off last Friday for the 4th! A couple things on my mind... 1. AI Growth vs. AI Efficiency: This week I keep asking people - "do you know anyone who has unlocked a new level of growth for their business with AI?" I've yet to get a clear "yes" - so I'm throwing it to you. Just to be clear, I see TONS of people (myself included) who have unlocked new margin by reducing costs or making things more efficient - that is real. But I kind of thought by now we'd...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey folks, Happy Friday! A couple of things on my mind… 1. Street Cat vs. House Cat (Round 2): Shared this a year ago, but it came up 3x this week. My friend Izzy wrote an excellent article on two different executive modalities. House Cats know how to manage up and down, cooperate, work within functions, and manage their reputation (don't take that as a pejorative, the best execs at places like P&G are absolute killer house cats). Street Cats are wired completely differently, and it really...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey folks! A couple things on my mind… 1. The Edge of LLMs: Chandler and I started leading premarital counseling for some friends at church this week. First time doing this, so I (obviously) had Claude help me build some questionnaires, analyze their answers, and map out themes for the sessions. Amazing. My plan was that Chandler and I would just take it from there and do the actual in-the-room part. But then I read Claude's week-one communication framework, and it was garbage. It gave me the...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey folks, A couple things on my mind... 1. How I Prep For Talks: I give 3-4 talks in a busy week, and each slide deck follows generally the same process: 1) Figure out what I'm going to say 2) Dictate/drop in writing/youtube transcripts/provide context to Claude 3) Claude and I co-create a coherent outline for the talk 4) I drop that outline into Gamma. 5) I edit it like Google Slides till I'm happy. I think I recommended Gamma a year ago and it's still the best IMO for building beautiful...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey folks, Just got back from FL last night and spent this morning getting everything back in order (thus the later send). Great vacation, but man I’m glad to be home. A couple things on my mind… 1. Career Strategy: Whenever I start to get worried or confused about what the future will hold for my career or for my children, I keep coming back to this Proverb: Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings - Proverbs 22:29 As a professional, no matter what, I have two goals:...
3 months ago • 2 min read