Entrepreneur and father of 7. I write about applying entrepreneurial frameworks at work and at home. 15,000+ people read my free newsletter. Press "Get Newsletter" to join.
A couple things on my mind...
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Hey folks! Happy Friday! A couple things on my mind... 1) Secret Shopping: This is just a reminder to all of you marketers and founders, we need to regularly pretend that we're a customer and go through our entire sales and onboarding process (ideally incognito or ask a friend to do it.) I did this for a client last week and there is something weird that happens when you do this - you can talk about funnels until you're blue in the face, but when you say "I called in and didn't get a call back for 24hrs" stuff changes FAST. 2) Turn Off Music: Just a random thing, but as I'm using more AI, I'm finding focused intention is becoming my scarcest resource. I've had music on for almost every work session since I was a math major in 2003. Music was my hack for maintaining energy through analysis or repetitive tasks. But managing AI agents is a different game. Energy isn't the bottleneck. Focused intention is - and my music is dividing it. So I've opted for silence. Have you experienced similar? 3) DTR Day: Last Sunday Penny looked on our calendar and goes "what's DTR day?" I forgot that like 9mo ago I had this thought that we should start telling the story of how Chandler and I dated to help shape the way our kids think about dating. April 5th was the day I "Defined The Relationship" or DTR. So I told the kids the story about how I asked Chandler out for coffee, sat her down (she assumed I was breaking whatever was starting between us), and then I gave a little speech as a 20yo saying something along the lines of "I think you will be an incredible wife for someone someday. I'd like to spend more time with you to find out if that could be me." And then I asked her to come home with me for Easter to meet my family. It ended up being a great conversation, and I think this illustrates a cool move we can make as parents - just call out important dates that map to our values to help shape who our kids become. Good idea Blake 9mo ago. That's it for this week! Have a great weekend! Best, Blake |
A couple things on my mind...
Entrepreneur and father of 7. I write about applying entrepreneurial frameworks at work and at home. 15,000+ people read my free newsletter. Press "Get Newsletter" to join.
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...
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...
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...