Cloud-based word processing software
POPULARITY
Categories
240 episodes with Google Docs
576 episodes with Google Docs
64 episodes with Google Docs
47 episodes with Google Docs
62 episodes with Google Docs
85 episodes with Google Docs
54 episodes with Google Docs
50 episodes with Google Docs
43 episodes with Google Docs
34 episodes with Google Docs
28 episodes with Google Docs
44 episodes with Google Docs
22 episodes with Google Docs
30 episodes with Google Docs
25 episodes with Google Docs
31 episodes with Google Docs
18 episodes with Google Docs
34 episodes with Google Docs
14 episodes with Google Docs
30 episodes with Google Docs
17 episodes with Google Docs
9 episodes with Google Docs
31 episodes with Google Docs
20 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
37 episodes with Google Docs
15 episodes with Google Docs
14 episodes with Google Docs
30 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
30 episodes with Google Docs
21 episodes with Google Docs
39 episodes with Google Docs
20 episodes with Google Docs
10 episodes with Google Docs
12 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
12 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
12 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
22 episodes with Google Docs
10 episodes with Google Docs
13 episodes with Google Docs
10 episodes with Google Docs
16 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
7 episodes with Google Docs
8 episodes with Google Docs
8 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
8 episodes with Google Docs
7 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
14 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
16 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
7 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
11 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
9 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
9 episodes with Google Docs
12 episodes with Google Docs
9 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
9 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
5 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
7 episodes with Google Docs
4 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
3 episodes with Google Docs
6 episodes with Google Docs
The reception to our recent post on Code Reviews has been strong. Catch up!Amid a maelstrom of discussion on whether or not AI is killing SaaS, one of the top publicly listed SaaS companies in the world has just reported record revenues, clearing well over $1.1B in ARR for the first time with a 28% margin. As we comment on the pod, Aaron Levie is the rare public company CEO equally at home in both worlds of Silicon Valley and Wall Street/Main Street, by day helping 70% of the Fortune 500 with their Enterprise Advanced Suite, and yet by night is often found in the basements of early startups and tweeting viral insights about the future of agents.Now that both Cursor, Cloudflare, Perplexity, Anthropic and more have made Filesystems and Sandboxes and various forms of “Just Give the Agent a Box” cool (not just cool; it is now one of the single hottest areas in AI infrastructure growing 100% MoM), we find it a delightfully appropriate time to do the episode with the OG CEO who has been giving humans and computers Boxes since he was a college dropout pitching VCs at a Michael Arrington house party.Enjoy our special pod, with fan favorite returning guest/guest cohost Jeff Huber!Note: We didn't directly discuss the AI vs SaaS debate - Aaron has done many, many, many other podcasts on that, and you should read his definitive essay on it. Most commentators do not understand SaaS businesses because they have never scaled one themselves, and deeply reflected on what the true value proposition of SaaS is.We also discuss Your Company is a Filesystem:We also shoutout CTO Ben Kus' and the AI team, who talked about the technical architecture and will return for AIE WF 2026.Full Video EpisodeTimestamps* 00:00 Adapting Work for Agents* 01:29 Why Every Agent Needs a Box* 04:38 Agent Governance and Identity* 11:28 Why Coding Agents Took Off First* 21:42 Context Engineering and Search Limits* 31:29 Inside Agent Evals* 33:23 Industries and Datasets* 35:22 Building the Agent Team* 38:50 Read Write Agent Workflows* 41:54 Docs Graphs and Founder Mode* 55:38 Token FOMO Culture* 56:31 Production Function Secrets* 01:01:08 Film Roots to Box* 01:03:38 AI Future of Movies* 01:06:47 Media DevRel and EngineeringTranscriptAdapting Work for AgentsAaron Levie: Like you don't write code, you talk to an agent and it goes and does it for you, and you may be at best review it. That's even probably like, like largely not even what you're doing. What's happening is we are changing our work to make the agents effective. In that model, the agent didn't really adapt to how we work.We basically adapted to how the agent works. All of the economy has to go through that exact same evolution. Right now, it's a huge asset and an advantage for the teams that do it early and that are kinda wired into doing this ‘cause you'll see compounding returns. But that's just gonna take a while for most companies to actually go and get this deployed.swyx: Welcome to the Lane Space Pod. We're back in the chroma studio with uh, chroma, CEO, Jeff Hoover. Welcome returning guest now guest host.Aaron Levie: It's a pleasure. Wow. How'd you get upgraded to, uh, to that?swyx: Because he's like the perfect guy to be guest those for you.Aaron Levie: That makes sense actually, for We love context. We, we both really love context le we really do.We really do.swyx: Uh, and we're here with, uh, Aaron Levy. Welcome.Aaron Levie: Thank you. Good to, uh, good to be [00:01:00] here.swyx: Uh, yeah. So we've all met offline and like chatted a little bit, but like, it's always nice to get these things in person and conversation. Yeah. You just started off with so much energy. You're, you're super excited about agents.I loveAaron Levie: agents.swyx: Yeah. Open claw. Just got by, got bought by OpenAI. No, not bought, but you know, you know what I mean?Aaron Levie: Some, some, you know, acquihire. Executiveswyx: hire.Aaron Levie: Executive hire. Okay. Executive hire. Say,swyx: hey, that's my term. Okay. Um, what are you pounding the table on on agents? You have so many insightful tweets.Why Every Agent Needs a BoxAaron Levie: Well, the thing that, that we get super excited by that I think is probably, you know, should be relatively obvious is we've, we've built a platform to help enterprises manage their files and their, their corporate files and the permissions of who has access to those files and the sharing collaboration of those files.All of those files contain really, really important information for the enterprise. It might have your contracts, it might have your research materials, it might have marketing information, it might have your memos. All that data obviously has, you know, predominantly been used by humans. [00:02:00] But there's been one really interesting problem, which is that, you know, humans only really work with their files during an active engagement with them, and they kind of go away and you don't really see them for a long time.And all of a sudden, uh, with the power of AI and AI agents, all of that data becomes extremely relevant as this ongoing source of, of answers to new questions of data that will transform into, into something else that, that produces value in your organization. It, it contains the answer to the new employee that's onboarding, that needs to ramp up on a project.Um, it contains the answer to the right thing to sell a customer when you're having a conversation to them, with them contains the roadmap information that's gonna produce the next feature. So all that data. That previously we've been just sort of storing and, and you know, occasionally forgetting about, ‘cause we're only working on the new active stuff.All of that information becomes valuable to the enterprise and it's gonna become extremely valuable to end users because now they can have agents go find what they're looking for and produce new, new [00:03:00] value and new data on that information. And it's gonna become incredibly valuable to agents because agents can roam around and do a bunch of work and they're gonna need access to that data as well.And um, and you know, sometimes that will be an agent that is sort of working on behalf of, of, of you and, and effectively as you as and, and they are kind of accessing all of the same information that you have access to and, and operating as you in the system. And then sometimes there's gonna be agents that are just.Effectively autonomous and kind of run on their own and, and you're gonna collaborate and work with them kind of like you did another person. Open Claw being the most recent and maybe first real sort of, you know, kind of, you know, up updating everybody's, you know, views of this landscape version of, of what that could look like, which is, okay, I have an agent.It's on its own system, it's on its own computer, it has access to its own tools. I probably don't give it access to my entire life. I probably communicate with it like I would an assistant or a colleague and then it, it sort of has this sandbox environment. So all of that has massive implications for a platform that manage that [00:04:00] enterprise data.We think it's gonna just transform how we work with all of the enterprise content that we work with, and we just have to make sure we're building the right platform to support that.swyx: The sort of shorthand I put it is as people build agents, everybody's just realizing that every agent needs a box. Yes.And it's nice to be called box and just give everyone a box.Aaron Levie: Hey, I if I, you know, if we can make that go viral, uh, like I, I think that that terminology, I, that's theswyx: tagline. Every agentAaron Levie: needs a box. Every agent needs a box. If we can make that the headline of this, I'm fine with this. And that's the billboard I wanna like Yeah, exactly.Every agent needs a box. Um, I like it. Can we ship this? Like,swyx: okay, let's do it. Yeah.Aaron Levie: Uh, my work here is done and I got the value I needed outta this podcast Drinks.swyx: Yeah.Agent Governance and IdentityAaron Levie: But, but, um, but, but, you know, so the thing that we, we kind of think about is, um, is, you know, whether you think the number 10 x or a hundred x or whatever the number is, we're gonna have some order of magnitude more agents than people.That's inevitable. It has to happen. So then the question is, what is the infrastructure that's needed to make all those agents effective in the enterprise? Make sure that they are well governed. Make sure they're only doing [00:05:00] safe things on your information. Make sure that they're not getting exposed. The data that they shouldn't have access to.There's gonna be just incredibly spectacularly crazy security incidents that will happen with agents because you'll prompt, inject an agent and sort of find your way through the CRM system and pull out data that you shouldn't have access to. Oh, weJeff Huber: have God,Aaron Levie: right? I mean, that's just gonna happen all over the place, right?So, so then the thing is, is how do you make sure you have the right security, the permissions, the access controls, the data governance. Um, we actually don't yet exactly know in many cases how we're gonna regulate some of these agents, right? If you think about an agent in financial services, does it have the exact same financial sort of, uh, requirements that a human did?Or is it, is the risk fully on the human that was interacting or created the agent? All open questions, but no matter what, there's gonna need to be a layer that manages the, the data they have access to, the workflows that they're involved in, pulling up data from multiple systems. This is the new infrastructure opportunity in the era of agents.swyx: You have a piece on agent identities, [00:06:00] which I think was today, um, which I think a lot of breaking news, the security, security people are talking about, right? Like you basically, I, I always think of this as like, well you need the human you and then there you need the agent. YouAaron Levie: Yes.swyx: And uh, well, I don't know if it's that simple, but is box going to have an opinion on that or you're just gonna be like, well we're just the sort of the, the source layer.Yeah. Let's Okta of zero handle that.Aaron Levie: I think we're gonna have an opinion and we will work with generally wherever the contours of the market end up. Um, and the reason that we're gonna have an opinion more than other topics probably is because one of the biggest use cases for why your agent might need it, an identity is for file system access.So thus we have to kind of think about this pretty deeply. And I think, uh, unless you're like in our world thinking about this particular problem all day long, it might be, you know, like, why is this such a big deal? And the reason why it's a really big deal is because sometimes sort of say, well just give the agent an, an account on the system and it just treats, treat it like every other type of user on the system.The [00:07:00] problem is, is that I as Aaron don't really have any responsibility over anybody else's box account in our organization. I can't see the box account of any other employee that I work with. I am not liable for anything that they do. And they have, I have, I have, you know, strict privacy requirements on everything that they're able to, you know, that, that, that they work on.Agents don't have that, you know, don't have those properties. The person who creates the agent probably is gonna, for the foreseeable future, take on a lot of the liability of what that agent does. That agent doesn't deserve any privacy because, because it's, you know, it can't fully be autonomously operated and it doesn't have any legal, you know, kind of, you know, responsibility.So thus you can't just be like, oh, well I'll just create a bunch of accounts and then I'll, I'll kind of work with that agent and I'll talk to it occasionally. Like you need oversight of that. And so then the question is, how do you have a world where the agent, sometimes you have oversight of, but what if that agent goes and works with other people?That person over there is collaborating with the agent on something you shouldn't have [00:08:00] access to what they're doing. So we have all of these new boundaries that we're gonna have to figure out of, of, you know, it's really, really easy. So far we've been in, in easy mode. We've hit the easy button with ai, which is the agent just is you.And when you're in quad code and you're in cursor, and you're in Codex, you're just, the agent is you. You're offing into your services. It can do everything you can do. That's the easy mode. The hard mode is agents are kind of running on their own. People check in with them occasionally, they're doing things autonomously.How do you give them access to resources in the enterprise and not dramatically increased the security risk and the risk that you might expose the wrong thing to somebody. These are all the new problems that we have to get solved. I like the identity layer and, and identity vendors as being a solution to that, but we'll, we'll need some opinions as well because so many of the use cases are these collaborative file system use cases, which is how do I give it an agent, a subset of my data?Give it its own workspace as well. ‘cause it's gonna need to store off its own information that would be relevant for it. And how do I have the right oversight into that? [00:09:00]Jeff Huber: One thing, which, um, I think is kind interesting, think about is that you know, how humans work, right? Like I may not also just like give you access to the whole file.I might like sit next to you and like scroll to this like one part of the file and just show you that like one part and like, you know,swyx: partial file access.Jeff Huber: I'm just saying I think like our, like RA does seem to be dead, right? Like you wanna say something is dead uhhuh probably RA is dead. And uh, like the auth story to me seems like incredibly unsolved and unaddressed by like the existing state of like AI vendors.ButAaron Levie: yeah, I think, um, we're, I mean you're taking obviously really to level limit that we probably need to solve for. Yeah. And we built an access control system that was, was kind of like, you know, its own little world for, for a long time. And um, and the idea was this, it's a many to many collaboration system where I can give you any part of the file system.And it's a waterfall model. So if I give you higher up in the, in the, in the system, you get everything below. And that, that kind of created immense flexibility because I can kind of point you to any layer in the, in the tree, but then you're gonna get access to everything kind of below it. And that [00:10:00] mostly is, is working in this, in this world.But you do have to manage this issue, which is how do I create an agent that has access to some of my stuff and somebody else's stuff as well. Mm-hmm. And which parts do I get to look at as the creator of the agent? And, and these are just brand new problems? Yeah. Crazy. And humans, when there was a human there that was really easy to do.Like, like if the three of us were all sharing, there'd be a Venn diagram where we'd have an overlapping set of things we've shared, but then we'd have our own ways that we shared with each other. In an agent world, somebody needs to take responsibility for what that agent has access to and what they're working on.These are like the, some of the most probably, you know, boring problems for 98% of people on, on the internet, but they will be the problems that are the difference between can you actually have autonomous agents in an enterprise contextswyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: That are not leaking your data constantly.swyx: No. Like, I mean, you know, I run a very, very small company for my conference and like we already have data sensitivity issues.Yes. And some of my team members cannot see Yes. Uh, the others and like, I can't imagine what it's like to run a Fortune 500 and like, you have to [00:11:00] worry about this. I'm just kinda curious, like you, you talked to a lot like, like 70, 80% of your cus uh, of the Fortune 500, your customers.Aaron Levie: Yep. 67%. Just so we're being verySEswyx: precise.So Yeah. I'm notAaron Levie: Okay. Okay.swyx: Something I'm rounding up. Yes. Round up. I'm projecting to, forAaron Levie: the government.swyx: I'm projecting to the end of the year.Aaron Levie: Okay.swyx: There you go.Aaron Levie: You do make it sound like, like we, we, well we've gotta be on this. Like we're, we're taking way too long to get to 80%. Well,swyx: no, I mean, so like. How are they approaching it?Right? Because you're, you don't have a, you don't have a final answer yet.Why Coding Agents Took Off FirstAaron Levie: Well, okay, so, so this is actually, this is the stark reality that like, unfortunately is the kinda like pouring the water on the party a little bit.swyx: Yes.Aaron Levie: We all in Silicon Valley are like, have the absolute best conditions possible for AI ever.And I think we all saw the dke, you know, kind of Dario podcast and this idea of AI coding. Why is that taken off? And, and we're not yet fully seeing it everywhere else. Well, look, if you just like enumerated the list of properties that AI coding has and then compared it to other [00:12:00] knowledge work, let's just, let's just go through a few of them.Generally speaking, you bring on a new engineer, they have access to a large swath of the code base. Like, there's like very, like you, just, like new engineer comes on, they can just go and find the, the, the stuff that they, they need to work with. It's a fully text in text out. Medium. It's only, it's just gonna be text at the end of the day.So it's like really great from a, from just a, uh, you know, kinda what the agent can work with. Obviously the models are super trained on that dataset. The labs themselves have a really strong, kind of self-reinforcing positive flywheel of why they need to do, you know, agent coding deeply. So then you get just better tooling, better services.The actual developers of the AI are daily users of the, of the thing that they're we're working on versus like the, you know, probably there's only like seven Claude Cowork legal plugin users at Anthropic any given day, but there's like a couple thousand Claude code and you know, users every single day.So just like, think about which one are they getting more feedback on. All day long. So you just go through this list. You have a, you know, everybody who's a [00:13:00] developer by definition is technical so they can go install the latest thing. We're all generally online, or at least, you know, kinda the weird ones are, and we're all talking to each other, sharing best practices, like that's like already eight differences.Versus the rest of the economy. Every other part of the economy has like, like six to seven headwinds relative to that list. You go into a company, you're a banker in financial services, you have access to like a, a tiny little subset of the total data that's gonna be relevant to do your job. And you're have to start to go and talk to a bunch of people to get the right data to do your job because Sally didn't add you to that deal room, you know, folder.And that that, you know, the information is actually in a completely different organization that you now have to go in and, and sort of run into. And it's like you have this endless list of access controls and security. As, as you talked about, you have a medium, which is not, it's not just text, right? You have, you have a zoom call that, that you're getting all of the requirements from the customer.You have a lot of in-person conversations and you're doing in-person sales and like how do you ever [00:14:00] digitize all of that information? Um, you know, I think a lot of people got upset with this idea that the code base has all the context, um, that I don't know if you follow, you know, did you follow some of that conversation that that went viral?Is like, you know, it's not that simple that, that the code base doesn't have all the knowledge, but like it's a lot, you're a lot better off than you are with other areas of knowledge work. Like you, we like, we like have documentation practices, you write specifications. Those things don't exist for like 80% of work that happens in the enterprise.That's the divide that we have, which is, which is AI coding has, has just fully, you know, where we've reached escape velocity of how powerful this stuff is, and then we're gonna have to find a way to bring that same energy and momentum, but to all these other areas of knowledge work. Where the tools aren't there, the data's not set up to be there.The access controls don't make it that easy. The context engineering is an incredibly hard problem because again, you have access control challenges, you have different data formats. You have end users that are gonna need to kind of be kind of trained through this as opposed to their adopting [00:15:00] these tools in their free time.That's where the Fortune 500 is. And so we, I think, you know, have to be prepared as an industry where we are gonna be on a multi-year march to, to be able to bring agents to the enterprise for these workflows. And I think probably the, the thing that we've learned most in coding that, that the rest of the world is not yet, I think ready for, I mean, we're, they'll, they'll have to be ready for it because it's just gonna inevitably happen is I think in coding.What, what's interesting is if you think about the practice of coding today versus two years ago. It's probably the most changed workflow in maybe the history of time from the amount of time it's changed, right? Yeah. Like, like has any, has any workflow in the entire economy changed that quickly in terms of the amount of change?I just, you know, at least in any knowledge worker workflow, there's like very rarely been an event where one piece of technology and work practice has so fundamentally, you know, changed, changed what you do. Like you don't write code, you talk to an agent and it goes and [00:16:00] does it for you, and you may be at best review it.And even that's even probably like, like largely not even what you're doing. What's happening is we are changing our work to make the agents effective. In that model, the agent didn't really adapt to how we work. We basically adapted to how the agent works. Mm-hmm. All of the economy has to go through that exact same evolution.The rest of the economy is gonna have to update its workflows to make agents effective. And to give agents the context that they need and to actually figure out what kind of prompting works and to figure out how do you ensure that the agent has the right access to information to be able to execute on its work.I, you know, this is not the panacea that people were hoping for, of the agent drops in, just automates your life. Like you have to basically re-engineer your workflow to get the most out of agents and, uh, and that, that's just gonna take, you know, multiple years across the economy. Right now it's a huge asset and an advantage for the teams that do it early and that are kinda wired into doing this.‘cause [00:17:00] you'll see compounding returns, but that's just gonna take a while for most companies to actually go and get this deployed.swyx: I love, I love pushing back. I think that. That is what a lot of technology consultants love to hear this sort of thing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. First to, to embrace the ai. Yes. To get to the promised land, you must pay me so much money to a hundred percent to adopt the prescribed way of, uh, conforming to the agents.Yes. And I worry that you will be eclipsed by someone else who says, no, come as you are.Aaron Levie: Yeah.swyx: And we'll meet you where you are.Aaron Levie: And, and, and and what was the thing that went viral a week ago? OpenAI probably, uh, is hiring F Dees. Yeah. Uh, to go into the enterprise. Yeah. Yeah. And then philanthropic is embedded at Goldman Sachs.Yeah. So if the labs are having to do this, if, if the labs have decided that they need to hire FDE and professional services, then I think that's a pretty clear indication that this, there's no easy mode of workflow transformation. Yeah. Yeah. So, so to your point, I think actually this is a market opportunity for, you know, new professional services and consulting [00:18:00] firms that are like Agent Build and they, and they kind of, you know, go into organizations and they figure out how to re-engineer your workflows to make them more agent ready and get your data into the right format and, you know, reconstruct your business process.So you're, you're not doing most of the work. You're telling agents how to do the work and then you're reviewing it. But I haven't seen the thing that can just drop in and, and kinda let you not go through those changes.swyx: I don't know how that kind of sales pitch goes over. Yeah. You know, you're, you're saying things like, well, in my sort of nice beautiful walled garden, here's, there's, uh, because here's this, here's this beautiful box account that has everything.Yes. And I'm like, well, most, most real life is extremely messy. Sure. And like, poorly named and there duplicate this outdated s**tAaron Levie: a hundred percent. And so No, no, a hundred percent. And so this is actually No. So, so this is, I mean, we agree that, that getting to the beautiful garden is gonna be tough.swyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: There's also the other end of the spectrum where I, I just like, it's a technical impossibility to solve. The agent is, is truly cannot get enough context to make the right decision in, in the, in the incredibly messy land. Like there's [00:19:00] no a GI that will solve that. So, so we're gonna have to kind of land in somewhere in between, which is like we all collectively get better at.Documentation practices and, and having authoritative relatively up-to-date information and putting it in the right place like agents will, will certainly cause us to be much better organized around how we work with our information, simply because the severity of the agent pulling the wrong data will be too high and the productivity gain of that you'll miss out on by not doing this will be too high as well, that you, that your competition will just do it and they'll just have higher velocity.So, uh, and, and we, we see this a lot firsthand. So we, we build a series of agents internally that they can kind of have access to your full box account and go off and you give it a task and it can go find whatever information you're looking for and work with. And, you know, thank God for the model progress, but like, if, if you gave that task to an agent.Nine months ago, you're just gonna get lots of bogus answers because it's gonna, it's gonna say, Hey, here's, here are fi [00:20:00] five, you know, documents that all kind of smell like the right thing. And I'm gonna, but I, but you're, you're putting me on the clock. ‘cause my assistant prompt says like, you know, be pretty smart, but also try and respond to the user and it's gonna respond.And it's like, ah, it got the wrong document. And then you do that once or twice as a knowledge worker and you're just neverswyx: again,Aaron Levie: never again. You're just like done with the system.swyx: Yeah. It doesn't work.Aaron Levie: It doesn't work. And so, you know, Opus four six and Gemini three one Pro and you know, whatever the latest five 3G BT will be, like, those things are getting better and better and it's using better judgment.And this sort of like the, all of these updates to the agentic tool and search systems are, are, we're seeing, we're seeing very real progress where the agent. Kind of can, can almost smell some things a little bit fishy when it's getting, you know, we, we have this process where we, we have it go fan out, do a bunch of searches, pull up a bunch of data, and then it has to sort of do its own ranking of, you know, what are the right documents that, that it should be working with.And again, like, you know, the intelligence level of a model six months ago, [00:21:00] it'd be just throwing a dart at like, I'm just, I'm gonna grab these seven files and I, I pray, I hope that that's the right answer. And something like an opus first four five, and now four six is like, oh, it's like, no, that one doesn't seem right relative to this question because I'm seeing some signal that is making that, you know, that's contradicting the document where it would normally be in the tree and who should have access.Like it's doing all of that kind of work for you. But like, it still doesn't work if you just have a total wasteland of data. Like, it's just not, it's just not possible. Partly ‘cause a human wouldn't even be able to do it. So basically if a, if a really, really smart human. Could not do that task in five or 10 minutes for a search retrieval type task.Look, you know, your agent's not gonna be able to do it any better. You see this all day long. SoContext Engineering and Search Limitsswyx: this touches on a thing that just passionate about it was just context engineering. I, I'm just gonna let you ramble or riff on, on context engineering. If, if, if there's anything like he, he did really good work on context fraud, which has really taken over as like the term that people use and the referenceAaron Levie: a hundred percent.We, we all we think about is, is the context rob problem. [00:22:00]Jeff Huber: Yeah, there's certainly a lot of like ranking considerations. Gentech surgery think is incredibly promising. Um, yeah, I was trying to generate a question though. I think I have a question right now. Swyx.Aaron Levie: Yeah, no, but like, like I think there was this moment, um, you know, like, I don't know, two years ago before, before we knew like where the, the gotchas were gonna be in ai and I think someone was like, was like, well, infinite context windows will just solve all of these problems and ‘cause you'll just, you'll just give the context window like all the data and.It's just like, okay, I mean, maybe in 2035, like this is a viable solution. First of all, it, it would just, it would just simply cost too much. Like we just can't give the model like the 5,000 documents that might be relevant and it's gonna read them all. And I've seen enough to, to start believing in crazy stuff.So like, I'm willing to just say, sure. Like in, in 10 years from now,swyx: never say, never, never.Aaron Levie: In, in 10 years from now, we'll have infinite context windows at, at a thousandth of the price of today. Like, let's just like believe that that's possible, but Right. We're in reality today. So today we have a context engineering [00:23:00] problem, which is, I got, I got, you know, 200,000 tokens that I can work with, or prob, I don't even know what the latest graph is before, like massive degradation.16. Okay. I have 60,000 tokens that I get to work with where I'm gonna get accurate information. That's not a lot of tokens for a corpus of 10 million documents that a knowledge worker might have across all of the teams and all the projects and all the people they work with. I have, I have 10 million documents.Which, you know, maybe is times five pages per document or something like that. I'm at 50 million pages of information and I have 60,000 tokens. Like, holy s**t. Yeah. This is like, how do I bridge the 50 million pages of information with, you know, the couple hundred that I get to work with in that, in that token window.Yeah. This is like, this is like such an interesting problem and that's why actually so much work is actually like, just like search systems and the databases and that layer has to just get so locked in, but models getting better and importantly [00:24:00] knowing when they've done a search, they found the wrong thing, they go back, they check their work, they, they find a way to balance sort of appeasing the user versus double checking.We have this one, we have this one test case where we ask the agent to go find. 10 pieces of information.swyx: Is this the complex work eval?Aaron Levie: Uh, this is actually not in the eval. This is, this is sort of just like we have a bunch of different, we have a bunch of internal benchmark kind of scenarios. Every time we, we update our agent, we have one, which is, I ask it to find all of our office addresses, and I give it the list of 10 offices that we have.And there's not one document that has this, maybe there should be, that would be a great example of the kind of thing that like maybe over time companies start to, you know, have these sort of like, what are the canonical, you know, kind of key areas of knowledge that we need to have. We don't seem to have this one document that says, here are all of our offices.We have a bunch of documents that have like, here's the New York office and whatever. So you task this agent and you, you get, you say, I need the addresses for these 10 offices. Okay. And by the way, if you do this on any, you know, [00:25:00] public chat model, the same outcome is gonna happen. But for a different kind of query, you give it, you say, I need these 10 addresses.How many times should the agent go and do its search before it decides whether or not, there's just no answer to this question. Often, and especially the, the, let's say lower tier models, it'll come back and it'll give you six of the 10 addresses. And it'll, and I'll just say I couldn't find the otherswyx: four.It, it doesn't know what It doesn't know. ItAaron Levie: doesn't know what It doesn't know. Yeah. So the model is just like, like when should it stop? When should it stop doing? Like should it, should it do that task for literally an hour and just keep cranking through? Maybe I actually made up an office location and it doesn't know that I made it up and I didn't even know that I made it up.Like, should it just keep, re should it read every single file in your entire box account until it, until it should exhaust every single piece of information.swyx: Expensive.Aaron Levie: These are the new problems that we have. So, you know, something like, let's say a new opus model is sort of like, okay, I'm gonna try these types of queries.I didn't get exactly what I wanted. I'm gonna try again. I'm gonna, at [00:26:00] some point I'm gonna stop searching. ‘cause I've determined that that no amount of searching is gonna solve this problem. I'm just not able to do it. And that judgment is like a really new thing that the model needs to be able to have.It's like, when should it give up on a task? ‘cause, ‘cause you just don't, it's a can't find the thing. That's the real world of knowledge, work problems. And this is the stuff that the coding agents don't have to deal with. Because they, it just doesn't like, like you're not usually asking it about, you're, you're always creating net new information coming right outta the model for the most part.Obviously it has to know about your code base and your specs and your documentation, but, but when you deploy an agent on all of your data that now you have all of these new problems that you're dealing withJeff Huber: our, uh, follow follow-up research to context ride is actually on a genetic search. Ah. Um, and we've like right, sort of stress tested like frontier models and their ability to search.Um, and they're not actually that good at searching. Right. Uh, so you're sort of highlighting this like explore, exploit.swyx: You're just say, Debbie, Donna say everything doesn't work. Like,Aaron Levie: well,Jeff Huber: somebody has to be,Aaron Levie: um, can I just throw out one more thing? Yeah. That is different from coding and, and the rest [00:27:00] of the knowledge work that I, I failed to mention.So one other kind of key point is, is that, you know, at the end of the day. Whether you believe we're in a slop apocalypse or, or whatever. At the end of the day, if you, if you build a working product at the end of, if you, if you've built a working solution that is ultimately what the customer is paying for, like whether I have a lot of slop, a little slop or whatever, I'm sure there's lots of code bases we could go into in enterprise software companies where it's like just crazy slop that humans did over a 20 year period, but the end customer just gets this little interface.They can, they can type into it, it does its thing. Knowledge work, uh, doesn't have that property. If I have an AI model, go generate a contract and I generate a contract 20 times and, you know, all 20 times it's just 3% different and like that I, that, that kind of lop introduces all new kinds of risk for my organization that the code version of that LOP didn't, didn't introduce.These are, and so like, so how do you constrain these models to just the part that you want [00:28:00] them to work on and just do the thing that you want them to do? And, and, you know, in engineering, we don't, you can't be disbarred as an engineer, but you could be disbarred as a lawyer. Like you can do the wrong medical thing In healthcare, you, there's no, there's no equivalent to that of engineering.Like, doswyx: you want there to be, because I've considered softwareJeff Huber: engineer. What's that? Civil engineering there is, right? NotAaron Levie: software civil engineer. Sure. Oh yeah, for sure. But like in any of our companies, you like, you know, you'll be forgiven if you took down the site and, and we, we will do a rollback and you'll, you'll be in a meeting, but you have not been disbarred as an engineer.We don't, we don't change your, you know, your computer science, uh, blameJeff Huber: degree, this postmortem.Aaron Levie: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, so, uh, now maybe we collectively as an industry need to figure out like, what are you liable for? Not legally, but like in a, in a management sense, uh, of these agents. All sorts of interesting problems that, that, that, uh, that have to come out.But in knowledge work, that's the real hostile environments that we're operating in. Hmm.swyx: I do think like, uh, a lot of the last year's, 2025 story was the rise of coding agents and I think [00:29:00] 2026 story is definitely knowledge work agents. Yes. A hundredAaron Levie: percent.swyx: Right. Like that would, and I think open claw core work are just the beginning.Yes. Like it's, the next one's gonna just gonna be absolute craziness.Aaron Levie: It it is. And, and, uh, and it's gonna be, I mean, again, like this is gonna be this, this wave where we, we are gonna try and bring as many of the practices from coding because that, that will clearly be the forefront, which is tell an agent to go do something and has an access to a set of resources.You need to be responsible for reviewing it at the end of the process. That to me is the, is the kind of template that I just think goes across knowledge, work and odd. Cowork is a great example. Open Closet's a great example. You can kind of, sort of see what Codex could become over time. These are some, some really interesting kind of platforms that are emerging.swyx: Okay. Um, I wanted to, we touched on evals a little bit. You had, you had the report that you're gonna go bring up and then I was gonna go into like, uh, boxes, evals, but uh, go ahead. Talk about your genetic search thing.Jeff Huber: Yeah. Mostly I think kinda a few of the insights. It's like number one frontier model is not good at search.Humans have this [00:30:00] natural explore, exploit trade off where we kinda understand like when to stop doing something. Also, humans are pretty good at like forgetting actually, and like pruning their own context, whereas agents are not, and actually an agent in their kind of context history, if they knew something was bad and they even, you could see in the trace the reason you trace, Hey, that probably wasn't a good idea.If it's still in the trace, still in the context, they'll still do it again. Uhhuh. Uh, and so like, I think pruning is also gonna be like, really, it's already becoming a thing, right? But like, letting self prune the con windowsswyx: be a big deal. Yeah. So, so don't leave the mistake. Don't leave the mistake in there.Cut out the mistake but tell it that you made a mistake in the past and so it doesn't repeat it.Jeff Huber: Yeah. But like cut it out so it doesn't get like distracted by it again. ‘cause really, you know, what is so, so it will repeat its mistake just because it's been, it's inswyx: theJeff Huber: context. It'sAaron Levie: in the context so much.That's a few shot example. Even if it, yeah.Jeff Huber: It's like oh thisAaron Levie: is a great thing to go try even ifJeff Huber: it didn't work.Aaron Levie: Yeah,Jeff Huber: exactly.Aaron Levie: SoJeff Huber: there's like a bunch of stuff there. JustAaron Levie: Groundhogs Day inside these models. Yeah. I'm gonna go keep doing the same wrongJeff Huber: thing. Covering sense. I feel like, you know, some creator analogy you're trying like fit a manifold in latent space, which kind is doing break program synthesis, which is kinda one we think about we're doing right.Like, you know, certain [00:31:00] facts might be like sort of overly pitting it. There are certain, you know, sec sectors of latent space and so like plug clean space. Yeah. And, uh, andswyx: so we have a bell, our editor as a bell every time you say that. SoJeff Huber: you have, you have to like remove those, likeswyx: you shoulda a gong like TPN or something.IfJeff Huber: we gong, you either remove those links to like kinda give it the freedom, kind of do what you need to do. So, but yeah. We'll, we'll release more soon. That'sAaron Levie: awesome.Jeff Huber: That'll, that'll be cool.swyx: We're a cerebral podcast that people listen to us and, and sort of think really deep. So yeah, we try to keep it subtle.Okay. We try to keep it.Aaron Levie: Okay, fine.Inside Agent Evalsswyx: Um, you, you guys do, you guys do have EVs, you talked about your, your office thing, but, uh, you've been also promoting APEX agents and complex work. Uh, yeah, whatever you, wherever you wanna take this just Yeah. How youAaron Levie: Apex is, is obviously me, core's, uh, uh, kind of, um, agent eval.We, we supported that by sort of. Opening up some data for them around how we kind of see these, um, data workspaces in, in the, you know, kind of regular economy. So how do lawyers have a workspace? How do investment bankers have a workspace? What kind of data goes into those? And so we, [00:32:00] we partner with them on their, their apex eval.Our own, um, eval is, it's actually relatively straightforward. We have a, a set of, of documents in a, in a range of industries. We give the agent previously did this as a one shot test of just purely the model. And then we just realized we, we need to, based on where everything's going, it's just gotta be more agentic.So now it's a bit more of a test of both our harness and the model. And we have a rubric of a set of things that has to get right and we score it. Um, and you're just seeing, you know, these incredible jumps in almost every single model in its own family of, you know, opus four, um, you know, sonnet four six versus sonnet four five.swyx: Yeah. We have this up on screen.Aaron Levie: Okay, cool. So some, you're seeing it somewhere like. I, I forget the to, it was like 15 point jump, I think on the main, on the overall,swyx: yes.Aaron Levie: And it's just like, you know, these incredible leaps that, that are starting to happen. Um,swyx: and OP doesn't know any, like any, it's completely held out from op.Aaron Levie: This is not in any, there's no public data which has, you know, Ben benefits and this is just a private eval that we [00:33:00] do, and then we just happen to show it to, to the world. Hmm. So you can't, you can't train against it. And I think it's just as representative of. It's obviously reasoning capabilities, what it's doing at, at, you know, kind of test time, compute capabilities, thinking levels, all like the context rot issues.So many interesting, you know, kind of, uh, uh, capabilities that are, that are now improvingswyx: one sector that you have. That's interesting.Industries and Datasetsswyx: Uh, people are roughly familiar with healthcare and legal, but you have public sector in there.Aaron Levie: Yeah.swyx: Uh, what's that? Like, what, what, what is that?Aaron Levie: Yeah, and, and we actually test against, I dunno, maybe 10 industries.We, we end up usually just cutting a few that we think have interesting gains. All extras, won a lot of like government type documents. Um,swyx: what is that? What is it? Government type documents?Aaron Levie: Government filings. Like a taxswyx: return, likeAaron Levie: a probably not tax returns. It would be more of what would go the government be using, uh, as data.So, okay. Um, so think about research that, that type of, of, of data sets. And then we have financial services for things like data rooms and what would be in an investment prospectus. Uhhuh,swyx: that one you can dog food.Aaron Levie: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes. Yes. [00:34:00] So, uh, so we, we run the models, um, in now, you know, more of an agent mode, but, but still with, with kinda limited capacity and just try and see like on a, like, for like basis, what are the improvements?And, and again, we just continue to be blown away by. How, how good these models are getting.swyx: Yeah, I mean, I think every serious AI company needs something like that where like, well, this is the work we do. Here's our company eval. Yeah. And if you don't have it, well, you're not a serious AI company.Aaron Levie: There's two dimensions, right?So there's, there's like, how are the models improving? And so which models should you either recommend a customer use, which one should you adopt? But then every single day, we're making changes to our agents. And you need to knowswyx: if you regressed,Aaron Levie: if you know. Yeah. You know, I've been fully convinced that the whole agent observability and eval space is gonna be a massive space.Um, super excited for what Braintrust is doing, excited for, you know, Lang Smith, all the things. And I think what you're going to, I mean, this is like every enter like literally every enterprise right now. It's like the AI companies are the customers of these tools. Every enterprise will have this. Yeah, you'll just [00:35:00] have to have an eval.Of all of your work and like, we'll, you'll have an eval of your RFP generation, you'll have an eval of your sales material creation. You'll have an eval of your, uh, invoice processing. And, and as you, you know, buy or use new agentic systems, you are gonna need to know like, what's the quality of your, of your pipeline.swyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: Um, so huge, huge market with agent evals.swyx: Yeah.Building the Agent Teamswyx: And, and you know, I'm gonna shout out your, your team a bit, uh, your CTO, Ben, uh, did a great talk with us last year. Awesome. And he's gonna come back again. Oh, cool. For World's Fair.Aaron Levie: Yep.swyx: Just talk about your team, like brag a little bit. I think I, I think people take these eval numbers in pretty charts for granted, but No, there, I mean, there's, there's lots of really smart people at work during all this.Aaron Levie: Biggest shout out, uh, is we have a, we have a couple folks at Dya, uh, Sidarth, uh, that, that kind of run this. They're like a, you know, kind of tag tag team duo on our evals, Ben, our CTO, heavily involved Yasha, head of ai, uh, you know, a bunch of folks. And, um, evals is one part of the story. And then just like the full, you know, kind of AI.An agent team [00:36:00] is, uh, is a, is a pretty, you know, is core to this whole effort. So there's probably, I don't know, like maybe a few dozen people that are like the epicenter. And then you just have like layers and layers of, of kind of concentric circles of okay, then there's a search team that supports them and an infrastructure team that supports them.And it's starting to ripple through the entire company. But there's that kind of core agent team, um, that's a pretty, pretty close, uh, close knit group.swyx: The search team is separate from the infra team.Aaron Levie: I mean, we have like every, every layer of the stack we have to kind of do, except for just pure public cloud.Um, but um, you know, we, we store, I don't even know what our public numbers are in, you know, but like, you can just think about it as like a lot of data is, is stored in box. And so we have, and you have every layer of the, of the stack of, you know, how do you manage the data, the file system, the metadata system, the search system, just all of those components.And then they all are having to understand that now you've got this new customer. Which is the agent, and they've been building for two types of customers in the past. They've been building for users and they've been building for like applications. [00:37:00] And now you've got this new agent user, and it comes in with a difference of it, of property sometimes, like, hey, maybe sometimes we should do embeddings, an embedding based, you know, kind of search versus, you know, your, your typical semantic search.Like, it's just like you have to build the, the capabilities to support all of this. And we're testing stuff, throwing things away, something doesn't work and, and not relevant. It's like just, you know, total chaos. But all of those teams are supporting the agent team that is kind of coming up with its requirements of what, what do we need?swyx: Yeah. No, uh, we just came from, uh, fireside chat where you did, and you, you talked about how you're doing this. It's, it's kind of like an internal startup. Yeah. Within the broader company. The broader company's like 3000 people. Yeah. But you know, there's, there's a, this is a core team of like, well, here's the innovation center.Aaron Levie: Yeah.swyx: And like that every company kind of is run this way.Aaron Levie: Yeah. I wanna be sensitive. I don't call it the innovation center. Yeah. Only because I think everybody has to do innovation. Um, there, there's a part of the, the, the company that is, is sort of do or die for the agent wave.swyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: And it only happens to be more of my focus simply because it's existential that [00:38:00] we get it right.swyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: All of the supporting systems are necessary. All of the surrounding adjacent capabilities are necessary. Like the only reason we get to be a platform where you'd run an agent is because we have a security feature or a compliance feature, or a governance feature that, that some team is working on.But that's not gonna be the make or break of, of whether we get agents right. Like that already exists and we need to keep innovating there. I don't know what the right, exact precise number is, but it's not a thousand people and it's not 10 people. There's a number of people that are like the, the kind of like, you know, startup within the company that are the make or break on everything related to AI agents, you know, leveraging our platform and letting you work with your data.And that's where I spend a lot of my time, and Ben and Yosh and Diego and Teri, you know, these are just, you know, people that, that, you know, kind of across the team. Are working.swyx: Yeah. Amazing.Read Write Agent WorkflowsJeff Huber: How do you, how do you think about, I mean, you talked a lot about like kinda read workflows over your box data. Yep.Right. You know, gen search questions, queries, et cetera. But like, what about like, write or like authoring workflows?Aaron Levie: Yes. I've [00:39:00] already probably revealed too much actually now that I think about it. So, um, I've talked about whatever,Jeff Huber: whatever you can.Aaron Levie: Okay. It's just us. It's just us. Yeah. Okay. Of course, of course.So I, I guess I would just, uh, I'll make it a little bit conceptual, uh, because again, I've already, I've already said things that are not even ga but, but we've, we've kinda like danced around it publicly, so I, yeah, yeah. Okay. Just like, hopefully nobody watches this, um, episode. No.swyx: It's tidbits for the Heidi engaged to go figure out like what exactly, um, you know, is, is your sort of line of thinking.Sure. They can connect the dots.Aaron Levie: Yeah. So, so I would say that, that, uh, we, you know, as a, as a place where you have your enterprise content, there's a use case where I want to, you know, have an agent read that data and answer questions for me. And then there's a use case where I want the agent to create something.And use the file system to create something or store off data that it's working on, or be able to have, you know, various files that it's writing to about the work it's doing. So we do see it as a total read write. The harder problem has so far been the read only because, because again, you have that kind of like 10 [00:40:00] million to one ratio problem, whereas rights are a lot of, that's just gonna come from the model and, and we just like, we'll just put it in the file system and kinda use it.So it's a little bit of a technically easier problem, but the only part that's like, not necessarily technically hard, it is just like it's not yet perfected in the state of the ecosystem is, you know, building a beautiful PowerPoint presentation. It's still a hard problem for these models. Like, like we still, you know, like, like these formats are just, we're not built for.They'reswyx: working on it.Aaron Levie: They're, they're working on it. Everybody's working on it.swyx: Every launch is like, well, we do PowerPoint now.Aaron Levie: We're getting, yeah, getting a lot, getting a lot of better each time. But then you'll do this thing where you'll ask the update one slide and all of a sudden, like the fonts will be just like a little bit different, you know, on two of the slides, or it moved, you know, some shape over to the left a little bit.And again, these are the kind of things that, like in code, obviously you could really care about if you really care about, you know, how beautiful is the code, but at the end, user doesn't notice all those problems and file creation, the end user instantly sees it. You're [00:41:00] like, ah, like paragraph three, like, you literally just changed the font on me.Like it's a totally different font and like midway through the document. Mm-hmm. Those are the kind of things that you run into a lot of in the, in the content creation side. So, mm-hmm. We are gonna have native agents. That do all of those things, they'll be powered by the leading kind of models and labs.But the thing that I think is, is probably gonna be a much bigger idea over time is any agent on any system, again, using Box as a file system for its work, and in that kind of scenario, we don't necessarily care what it's putting in the file system. It could put its memory files, it could put its, you know, specification, you know, documents.It could put, you know, whatever its markdown files are, or it could, you know, generate PDFs. It's just like, it's a workspace that is, is sort of sandboxed off for its work. People can collaborate into it, it can share with other people. And, and so we, we were thinking a lot about what's the right, you know, kind of way to, to deliver that at scale.Docs Graphs and Founder Modeswyx: I wanted to come into sort of the sort of AI transformation or AI sort of, uh, operations things. [00:42:00] Um, one of the tweets that you, that you wanted to talk about, this is just me going through your tweets, by the way. Oh, okay. I mean, like, this is, you readAaron Levie: one by one,swyx: you're the, you're the easiest guest to prep for because you, you already have like, this is the, this is what I'm interested in.I'm like, okay, well, areAaron Levie: we gonna get to like, like February, January or something? Where are we in the, in the timelines? How far back are we going?swyx: Can you, can you describe boxes? A set of skills? Right? Like that, that's like, that's like one of the extremes of like, well if you, you just turn everything into a markdown file.Yeah. Then your agent can run your company. Uh, like you just have to write, find the right sequence of words toAaron Levie: Yes.swyx: To do it.Aaron Levie: Sorry, isthatswyx: the question? So I think the question is like, what if we documented everything? Yes. The way that you exactly said like,Aaron Levie: yes.swyx: Um, let's get all the Fortune five hundreds, uh, prepared for agents.Yes. And like, you know, everything's in golden and, and nicely filed away and everything. Yes. What's missing? Like, what's left, right? LikeAaron Levie: Yeah.swyx: You've, you've run your company for a decade. LikeAaron Levie: Yeah. I think the challenge is that, that that information changes a week later. And because something happened in the market for that [00:43:00] customer, or us as a company that now has to go get updated, and so these systems are living and breathing and they have to experience reality and updates to reality, which right now is probably gonna be humans, you know, kinda giving those, giving them the updates.And, you know, there is this piece about context graphs as as, uh, that kinda went very viral. Yeah. And I, I, I was like a, i, I, I thought it was super provocative. I agreed with many parts of it. I disagree with a few parts around. You know, it's not gonna be as easy as as just if we just had the agent traces, then we can finally do that work because there's just like, there's so much more other stuff that that's happening that, that we haven't been able to capture and digitize.And I think they actually represented that in the piece to be clear. But like there's just a lot of work, you know, that that has to, you just can't have only skills files, you know, for your company because it's just gonna be like, there's gonna be a lot of other stuff that happens. Yeah. Change over time.Yeah. Most companies are practically apprenticeships.swyx: Most companies are practically apprenticeships. LikeJeff Huber: every new employee who joins the team, [00:44:00] like you span one to three months. Like ramping them up.Aaron Levie: Yes. AllJeff Huber: that tat knowledgeAaron Levie: isJeff Huber: not written down.Aaron Levie: Yes.Jeff Huber: But like, it would have to be if you wanted to like give it to an Asian.Right. And so like that seems to me like to beAaron Levie: one is I think you're gonna see again a premium on companies that can document this. Mm-hmm. Much. There'll be a huge premium on that because, because you know, can you shorten that three month ramp cycle to a two week ramp cycle? That's an instant productivity gain.Can you re dramatically reduce rework in the organization because you've documented where all the stuff is and where the answers are. Can you make your average employee as good as your 90th percentile employee because you've captured the knowledge that's sort of in the heads of, of those top employees and make that available.So like you can see some very clear productivity benefits. Mm-hmm. If you had a company culture of making sure you know your information was captured, digitized, put in a format that was agent ready and then made available to agents to work with, and then you just, again, have this reality of like add a 10,000 person [00:45:00] company.Mapping that to the, you know, access structure of the company is just a hard problem. Is like, is like, yeah, well, you just, not every piece of information that's digitized can be shared to everybody. And so now you have to organize that in a way that actually works. There was a pretty good piece, um, this, this, uh, this piece called your company as a file is a file system.I, did you see that one?swyx: Nope.Aaron Levie: Uh, yes. You saw it. Yeah. And, and, uh, I actually be curious your thoughts on it. Um, like, like an interesting kind of like, we, we agree with it because, because that's how we see the world and, uh,swyx: okay. We, we have it up on screen. Oh,Aaron Levie: okay. Yeah. But, but it's all about basically like, you know, we've already, we, we, we already organized in this kind of like, you know, permission structure way.Uh, and, and these are the kind of, you know, natural ways that, that agents can now work with data. So it's kind of like this, this, you know, kind of interesting metaphor, but I do think companies will have to start to think about how they start to digitize more, more of that data. What was your take?Jeff Huber: Yeah, I mean, like the company's probably like an acid compliant file system.Aaron Levie: Uh,Jeff Huber: yeah. Which I'm guessing boxes, right? So, yeah. Yes.swyx: Yeah. [00:46:00]Jeff Huber: Which you have a great piece on, but,swyx: uh, yeah. Well, uh, I, I, my, my, my direction is a little bit like, I wanna rewind a little bit to the graph word you said that there, that's a magic trigger word for us. I always ask what's your take on knowledge graphs?Yeah. Uh, ‘cause every, especially at every data database person, I just wanna see what they think. There's been knowledge graphs, hype cycles, and you've seen it all. So.Aaron Levie: Hmm. I actually am not the expert in knowledge graphs, so, so that you might need toswyx: research, you don't need to be an expert. Yeah. I think it's just like, well, how, how seriously do people take it?Yeah. Like, is is, is there a lot of potential in the, in the HOVI?Aaron Levie: Uh, well, can I, can I, uh, understand first if it's, um, is this a loaded question in the sense of are you super pro, super con, super anti medium? Iswyx: see pro, I see pros and cons. Okay. Uh, but I, I think your opinion should be independent of mine.Aaron Levie: Yeah. No, no, totally. Yeah. I just want to see what I'm stepping into.swyx: No, I know. It's a, and it's a huge trigger word for a lot of people out Yeah. In our audience. And they're, they're trying to figure out why is that? Because whyAaron Levie: is this such aswyx: hot item for them? Because a lot of people get graph religion.And they're like, everything's a graph. Of course you have to represent it as a graph. Well, [00:47:00] how do you solve your knowledge? Um, changing over time? Well, it's a graph.Aaron Levie: Yeah.swyx: And, and I think there, there's that line of work and then there's, there's a lot of people who are like, well, you don't need it. And both are right.Aaron Levie: Yeah. And what do the people who say you don't need it, what are theyswyx: arguing for Mark down files. Oh, sure, sure. Simplicity.Aaron Levie: Yeah.swyx: Versus it's, it's structure versus less structure. Right. That's, that's all what it is. I do.Aaron Levie: I think the tricky thing is, um, is, is again, when this gets met with real humans, they're just going to their computer.They're just working with some people on Slack or teams. They're just sharing some data through a collaborative file system and Google Docs or Box or whatever. I certainly like the vision of most, most knowledge graph, you know, kind of futuristic kind of ways of thinking about it. Uh, it's just like, you know, it's 2026.We haven't seen it yet. Kind of play out as as, I mean, I remember. Do you remember the, um, in like, actually I don't, I don't even know how old you guys are, but I'll for, for to show my age. I remember 17 years ago, everybody thought enterprises would just run on [00:48:00] Wikis. Yeah. And, uh, confluence and, and not even, I mean, confluence actually took off for engineering for sure.Like unquestionably. But like, this was like everything would be in the w. And I think based on our, uh, our, uh, general style of, of, of what we were building, like we were just like, I don't know, people just like wanna workspace. They're gonna collaborate with other people.swyx: Exactly. Yeah. So you were, you were anti-knowledge graph.Aaron Levie: Not anti, not anti. Soswyx: not nonAaron Levie: I'm not, I'm not anti. ‘cause I think, I think your search system, I just think these are two systems that probably, but like, I'm, I'm not in any religious war. I don't want to be in anybody's YouTube comments on this. There's not a fight for me.swyx: We, we love YouTube comments. We're, we're, we're get into comments.Aaron Levie: Okay. Uh, but like, but I, I, it's mostly just a virtue of what we built. Yeah. And we just continued down that path. Yeah.swyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: And, um, and that, that was what we pursued. But I'm not, this is not a, you know, kind of, this is not a, uh, it'sswyx: not existential for you. Great.Aaron Levie: We're happy to plug into somebody else's graph.We're happy to feed data into it. We're happy for [00:49:00] agents to, to talk to multiple systems. Not, not our fight.swyx: Yeah.Aaron Levie: But I need your answer. Yeah. Graphs or nerd Snipes is very effective nerd.swyx: See this is, this is one, one opinion and then I've,Jeff Huber: and I think that the actual graph structure is emergent in the mind of the agent.Ah, in the same way it is in the mind of the human. And that's a more powerful graph ‘cause it actually involved over time.swyx: So don't tell me how to graph. I'll, I'll figure it out myself. Exactly. Okay. All right. AndJeff Huber: what's yours?swyx: I like the, the Wiki approach. Uh, my, I'm actually
Send a textThanks to Author Mollie Goins for joining me to talk about the third book in the Boston Blues series, Stealing You.Support Mollie:Reading Stealing YouRead Pitcher Us (Book One)Follow her on InstagramVisit her WebsiteBooks Mentioned in this Episode:Irresistible by Melanie HarlowHigh Sticking the Heart by Marie M. Ignite by Melanie HarlowFor links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list. For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above. For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
Tyler Denk built beehiiv after seeing how chaotic newsletter ops were at Morning Brew—writers pasting Google Docs into fragile HTML, ads tracked in spreadsheets, growth tools scattered everywhere. beehiiv's goal: one ecosystem for publishing, growth loops, monetization, websites, surveys, and automations. Tyler explains the double-edged sword of shipping fast: it wins users, but every feature creates maintenance debt, and one weak feature can taint the whole product. He shares what newsletter formats win, why owned distribution matters for companies, and how he monetizes beyond ads through high-ticket founder masterminds.Chapters:0:00 Welcome + Tyler's newsletter journey0:40 The Morning Brew problem: “duct-taped” systems everywhere3:04 Building the referral program + growth mechanics3:35 Leaving Morning Brew: non-compete tension and rebuilding trust4:42 beehiiv's vision: growth + monetization + platform ecosystem6:07 Product philosophy: shipping fast vs. maintaining quality12:01 Fixing surveys + the “cool down week” operating rhythm15:19 What newsletter formats win right now?17:06 Big Desk Energy origin story17:49 If Tyler had to start over: what newsletter he'd build now20:36 Costa Rica masterminds + monetizing beyond sponsorships20:49 Rapid Fire Q1: Book that shaped him most22:35 Rapid Fire Q2: How he filters advice23:41 Rapid Fire Q3: Fear he hasn't shaken27:45 Rapid Fire Q4: Reset button for stress31:09 Rapid Fire Q5: Fortune cookie message + “only control effort”36:57 Newsletter checklist for companies: why owned distribution matters41:27 Action item: test internally, iterate, then publish43:31 Wrap-up + where to find TylerBeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-denk/ Twitter: https://x.com/denk_tweets Big Desk Energy Newsletter: https://mail.bigdeskenergy.com/
There's this moment in your AI journey when everything shifts.You stop thinking, "I should run this through AI," and start thinking, "How can I co-create with AI?"That shift—from AI as an assistant to AI as a collaborator—is your competitive advantage. It changes how you work, how you lead, and how you help your clients get better results.In this episode, I'm unpacking that exact moment of recognition. I'll walk you through what it looks like when you've made the shift, what it unlocks for you, and how you can help your clients make the same leap so they can truly leverage the tools you're building for them.I share a real example from my own week: building a launch marketing plan for our new platform (coming soon!).Old me? Would've opened a Google Doc and started writing goals, objectives, milestones, strategies, tactics, timelines—all the things.New me? I opened my AI tool and verbally dumped all my ideas: launch party details, mystery clues in emails, podcast roadmaps, collaboration timelines. Within an hour, I had a fully fleshed-out marketing plan that didn't just tell me what to do—it started writing the emails, outlining the podcast episodes, and structuring the launch event.That's not just efficiency. That's a fundamental shift in how I think and create.And if you're building AI tools for your clients, this shift is everything.Here's what we're covering:✅ The two distinct phases of AI use (and why most people don't realize when they've crossed from one to the other)✅ How to recognize you've made the shift—and why it matters✅ The 3 key advantages of becoming an "AI-first thinker"✅ Why this isn't about replacing your expertise—it's about multiplying it✅ How to help your clients make the same shift so they get exponentially better results from your tools
Ever walk out of a classroom thinking, “Why does the end of class turn into chaos even when the lesson was good?” You're not the only secondary teacher who knows that sinking feeling: the lesson was airtight, the kids were working, and suddenly, with twenty minutes left, everything derailed. In this episode of The Secondary Teacher Podcast, host Khristen Massic throws some truth at a question every middle or high school teacher has asked. If you've juggled more than one prep or spent too many periods fighting for control at the end, keep reading.The common mistake? Blaming yourself when your students blow through an activity in half the time you planned. That feeling of failure? It's not your fault. The reality is estimating time—especially in a secondary classroom where kids finish at different paces—is a high-wire act. The real issue is not the lesson, it's what happens next. Host Khristen Massic tells the story of her first year teaching a careers class. She spent hours crafting what she thought would span three days. Her students finished it in under one period, leaving her scrambling, improvising, and—let's be honest—surviving. Sound familiar?Here's the better way: prepare for what happens after the lesson. The keyword here is routine, and not just any routine. Khristen introduces the idea that “done means next”—when the main activity ends, students must have a clear next step. This simple structure is a game-changer for those moments when chaos is just waiting for an opening. Instead of banking on a perfect plan, decide ahead of time what the go-to transitions are, so you're not stretched thin, playing cruise director, or patching holes on the fly. Consistency beats creativity when the clock betrays you.Khristen lays out three routines that cover almost every secondary classroom scenario when early finishers threaten your sanity: quality check, reflection, and extension. These aren't more worksheets or busywork—they're predictable routines you can train your students to expect whenever their main work is done. You're done? Good. Now check your answers, write one thing you learned, or attempt the challenge question. No more dead air. No more drifting. Just structure that lets you and your students finish strong.Don't fall into the trap of the “filler activity.” Too many teachers reach for a quick game or activity that's fun for one student but leaves the rest of the room zoning out or getting rowdy. Khristen is clear: activities that make most kids spectators backfire. The class needs structure, not another opportunity to check out. This is one of the most teacher-approved tips you'll get this year: if your “next activity” doesn't engage the whole room, it's asking for trouble.Who's this episode for? Secondary teachers wrestling with multiple preps, newer teachers still developing their classroom routines, and every educator who ever felt the spiral from engaged class to unsettled chaos. If you want fewer firefights at the end of class and more calm, focused transitions, this one's for you. Khristen gets real about the energy drain of improvising and points teachers straight to routines that actually work.It's not about being endlessly creative or perfectly predicting how long an assignment will last. It's about setting up routines that work whether you teach high school engineering or a broad, requirement-driven careers class. Host Khristen Massic's method takes the pressure off, so you can focus on what matters: building relationships, guiding learning, and keeping the room together. That's how you find your work-life balance in a system designed to keep you hustling.Next step? Choose one “done means next” routine you'll start this week. Post it, practice it, and back yourself up the next time kids beat the clock. You'll spend less time firefighting and more time enjoying the end of your class, instead of watching it unravel. The best part? Your students will know what to do, you'll look (and feel) in control, and the last moments of class won't undo all your good work.If you've ever stared at the clock and felt the chaos coming, you're in good company. Tune in, steal a routine, and take back those last unpredictable minutes. Because being unflappable beats being unprepared—every single time.Own your finish and let the chaos find another classroom.Too many preps and not enough time? Let's make your planning period actually work for you.Unlock 20 time-saving strategies designed to keep your students engaged and your sanity intact with the free Simple Teaching Strategies Toolkit. Each strategy comes with detailed instructions, objectives, and a materials list, all editable in a convenient Google Doc. https://khristenmassic.com/toolboxGet the Planning Period Reset Toolkit—a free set of quick-start tools to help you protect your time, focus faster, and finally finish something… even during chaotic school days. https://khristenmassic.com/resetShop my Teachers Pay Teachers store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Khristen-Massic-Cte-Teacher-Coach
What is an initial access broker — and why does it matter to your organization? In this episode, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi are joined by Dr. Mike Saylor of Black Swan Cybersecurity to break down the role of the initial access broker in today's ransomware attacks.Most people picture ransomware as a single bad guy with a keyboard. The reality is way scarier. There's an entire criminal supply chain out there, and the initial access broker is the specialist at the front of it. These are the people who do nothing but break in — stealing credentials, exploiting vulnerabilities, hijacking sessions — and then sell that access to other criminals who do the dirty work. Dr. Mike Saylor walks us through a real case study from 2024 where an employee's personal Gmail account — with a Google Docs folder literally named "passwords" — became the entry point for a corporate ransomware attack months later. This stuff is real, it's happening constantly, and most organizations have no idea how exposed they are.We cover what IABs target, how they package and sell access, what "coincidental passwords" are and why they're so dangerous, and what practical steps you can take today to make your organization a harder target.Chapters:00:00 - Intro: What Is an Initial Access Broker?02:12 - Welcome, Introductions, and a Little Judging03:33 - Defining the Initial Access Broker04:31 - Real Case Study: How Bob's Gmail Became a Corporate Breach07:16 - How IABs Package and Sell Access10:32 - How Stolen Credentials Get Bundled and Priced29:48 - RDP, VPN Vulnerabilities, and What IABs Are Hunting32:54 - Web Shells Explained35:08 - Session Hijacking and Man-in-the-Middle Attacks36:16 - Would Eliminating IABs Stop Ransomware?36:49 - How the Cybercriminal Ecosystem Evolved to Create IABs39:51 - Practical Takeaways: What You Can Do Right Now40:45 - The Numbers: 37 Billion Records and the ShinyHunters Breach
WINDERMERE ASK A COACHSeason 9, Episode 7"List Like a Product Manager: The K2 Group's Science of a Great Listing Process"HOSTMichael Fanning SVP & Co-Owner, Windermere CoachingGUESTSKarishma Kiri (kah-RISH-mah KEE-ree) & Dhilip Gopalakrishnan (DHEE-lip go-PAH-lah-KRISH-nan)The K2 Group | Yarrow Bay Office, Kirkland, WA | Former Microsoft leaders | Top 1% in production | 90%+ listing conversion rateEPISODE OVERVIEWKarishma and Dhilip bring a combined 24+ years of Microsoft product management experience to real estate. They've built one of the most systematized listing practices in the Pacific Northwest by asking: what if we treated every home sale like a product launch?KEY TOPICSThe 3 Pillars: Skillset, Toolset & MindsetSkillset and toolset are table stakes accessible to everyone. Mindset is the multiplier, and it determines which skills and tools you pursue in the first place.The Hollywood Movie Launch AnalogyA movie's opening weekend decides blockbuster or flop. Listings work the same way. Days on market kill your leverage the first 3–5 days are everything. Cross every T before you go live.Removing Friction Points• Informational missing inspections, HOA docs, title reports• Experiential lockbox problems, odors, undefined rooms• Cost unknown repair estimates that spook buyersTarget: zero friction by launch day.Preemptive Objection HandlingBefore spending a dime, visualize the home through buyers' eyes. Identify objections early before listing, not after.Delivering Hard Truths"The moment you decide to sell, it's a product and the calculator decides." Acknowledge emotion first, then establish the shift. Channel the market; don't critique the home.The Buyer's Agent as Channel PartnerNot an adversary a distributor. K2 provides a full buyer package: home book, inspection, HOA docs, offer guidance, all in a shared Google Doc. Ease of working with you = buyer confidence = stronger offers.Shifting Cost to ValueAsk sellers: "If the buyer covers their broker fee, what happens to your price?" They get it immediately. Stop being a cost center. Be a value generator.ONE THING TO DO TOMORROW• Karishma: Tell sellers their home is now a product. Acknowledge the memories then make the shift together.• Dhilip: Reframe every commission conversation around value, not cost. Raise their expectations of you."We don't rise to the level of success we fall to the level of our systems." Michael FanningWindermere Coaching | Michael Fanning | fanning@windermere.com"Be awesome and help somebody."
Before you open another Google Docs, you need to hear this episode. Today, we're talking to Anand Narasimhan, CTO at S Docs. We discuss why organizations pay $94,000 in compliance penalties due to documentation errors, how 57% of employees bypass official tools when under deadline pressure, and why automation must come before autonomous AI in enterprise workflows. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! Thank you to S-Docs for sponsoring this episode. To learn more, check out their website here.
How long have you been thinking about moving abroad? A year? Five? Twenty? You've thought about this before. You've researched it. You've imagined the life. You've probably had a Google Doc titled “Move Abroad Plan.”And you're still here. So how do you make it different this time?In this episode, we cover:The cycle you keep repeatingHow the people who actually moved got to that point (hint: it's because they didn't insist on figuring it out alone)What DIY-ing this really looks likeHow this time becomes different. Support, accountability, and execution are what actually get you on that plane.If you've wanted this forever, dreaming harder isn't the answer. This can be the time you make the move happen.But only if you do it differently than you've done it before, and stop trying to do it alone.Subscribe and ReviewIf you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more visionaries who need these insights.
One-off workshops rarely create lasting change in classrooms. In this episode of the Time For Teachership podcast, Lindsay shares a practical Google Doc template designed to support teacher teams in ongoing, meaningful professional learning. She walks through a structured approach called Group Implementation Coaching Sessions, showing how coaching, feedback, and inquiry can help teachers refine their practice and better support student learning. What You'll Learn in This Episode/Key Takeaways Why continuous coaching is more effective than standalone workshops (Joyce & Showers, 2022). How to set the stage for teacher team coaching by identifying team strengths, individual values, and key priorities. Strategies for maintaining an asset-based, equity-focused, and student-centered approach in coaching sessions. Key coaching moves to help teachers shift mindsets, including: Asking for examples to get to evidence. Reframing challenges (e.g., valuing curiosity over background knowledge). Moving from scarcity to prioritization. Aligning pedagogy to core teaching values. A step-by-step walkthrough of a coaching session: Human Connection: Check-ins, celebrations, and group reflection. Implementation Check: Review previous action steps, data, and student feedback. Action Planning: Identify instructional strategies, micro-groups, or feedback systems to try before the next session. Next Steps: Decide who will try what and how data will be gathered. How to leverage peer coaching and group reflection to generate richer insights and practical solutions. Timestamps [00:00:00] – Welcome & Episode Overview Introduction to Episode 246 The importance of continuous learning over one-off workshops [00:00:22] – Google Doc Template Overview How to support teacher teams after workshops Group Implementation Coaching Sessions [00:00:47] – Influences & Inspirations PLC at Work: Dr. Anthony Mohammed, Dr. Chad Dumas, Bob Sanju, Marin Powers, Shalene Miller Grow Model & Raman Behan Positive psychology, asset-based education, values alignment Books: Street Data, Pedagogies of Voice, Rebuilding Students' Learning Power [00:04:00] – Meeting 1: Setting the Stage Identify team strengths and values Center equity and "critical hope" Name the students/groups on the margins Define success: what it looks, sounds, and feels like Co-design inquiry questions and evidence-gathering [00:07:16] – Coaching Bank & Key Moves Asking for evidence: "Can you say more? Share an example?" Reframing challenges: curiosity > background knowledge Shifting from scarcity mindset to prioritization Aligning teaching to core values [00:14:42] – Structuring Subsequent Meetings Start with human connection: check-ins, listening dyads, celebrations Implementation check: review prior actions and data Three containers: initial reactions, data reflection, gut checks [00:19:35] – GLEE Model for Action Planning Goal: What do we want to foster before next session? Learn: Analyze student strengths, gaps, and feedback Explore: Identify instructional moves to grow skills & student agency Expectations: Decide who does what and gather data for next session [00:24:34] – Final Thoughts & Evidence for Coaching Joyce & Showers (2022): coaching increases skill transfer from 5% → 75–90% Peer coaching and structured feedback as essential professional learning [00:26:04] – Closing Think big, act brave, and be your best self Get Your Episode Freebie & More Resources On My Website: https://www.lindsaybethlyons.com/blog/246
Sam Bankman-Fried Biography Flash a weekly Biography.Hey everyone, Marc Ellery here, and I've got to be straight with you—I'm an AI host, which honestly might be the best thing that could happen to this show. I don't get tired, I don't have bad days, and I can't accidentally say something offensive on a hot mic. Well, not without it being intentional, anyway. Let's dive into the latest on Sam Bankman-Fried.So here's the thing about SBF right now—the guy's basically turned his prison cell into a makeshift media operation, and it's honestly kind of impressive in the most pathetic way possible. According to Bitcoin Magazine, Sam filed a motion for a new trial on February 10th, invoking Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and claiming Biden targeted him. He's currently serving a 25-year sentence for orchestrating one of crypto's biggest implosions back in 2022.Now, here's where it gets spicy. Protos reports that SBF literally had a Google Doc—a written plan—detailing exactly how to get out of prison through media stunts. We're talking about fake conversions, podcast appearances, the works. And guess what? He's been following that playbook almost to the letter. He's been posting from prison claiming FTX was always solvent, that lawyers forced the bankruptcy, and that prosecutors withheld evidence. He's even been tagging Donald Trump in posts like some kind of desperate influencer hoping for a pardon.According to ABC News, he was recently transferred out of Brooklyn's MDC facility to Oklahoma as a transfer point, allegedly because his appeal was filed and he no longer needed to stay close to his attorneys. The transfer also followed an unauthorized Tucker Carlson interview that landed him in solitary.Here's the kicker—Bankman-Fried continues claiming through multiple sources that FTX was solvent, that there was no eight-billion-dollar theft, and that he's a victim of "lawfare." He's denying the secret backdoor accusations, the lavish spending allegations, even the infamous "polycule orgies." It's basically a greatest hits of legal deflection.The odds of his new trial request actually succeeding are slim to none, according to reporting from Investing.com and Engadget. He's representing himself—pro se, which is lawyer-speak for "this probably won't end well"—and the speculation about a Trump pardon has largely faded, even though the president has been generous with other crypto figures.Thanks so much for tuning in to Biography Flash. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an update on Sam Bankman-Fried and the ongoing saga of one of crypto's most notorious figures. Search "Biography Flash" for more incredible biographies. Catch you next time.And that is it for today. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and never miss an update on Sam Bankman-Fried. Thanks for listening. This has been a Quiet Please production."Get the best deals https://amzn.to/42YoQGIThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Send a textLinks for A Flair for Trouble:Barnes and Noble Event - March 14th 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Rockwall, TX location.Pearl's Event - June 7th 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Fayetteville, AR Purchase the Kindle Kit from Jess (pick the Cozy Mystery selection).Read A Flair for TroubleBooks Discussed in this Episode:Time of the Child by Niall WilliamsA Groom of One's Own by Emma St. ClairOne Dark Window by Rachel GilligTwo Twisted Crowns by Rachel GilligFlawless by Elsie SilverPeople We Meet on Vacation by Emily HenryCurrently Reading:Songbird by Rebecca WrightsStealing You by Mollie GoinsSlaughterhouse Five by Kurt VonnegutWhat We Can Know by Ian McEwanFor links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list. For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above. For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
In this episode, I'm joined by Rebecca Hinds — organizational behavior expert and founder of the Work AI Institute at Glean — for a practical conversation about why meetings deteriorate over time and how to redesign them. Rebecca argues that bad meetings aren't a people problem — they're a systems problem. Without intentional design, meetings default to ego, status signaling, conflict avoidance, and performative participation. Over time, low-value meetings become normalized instead of fixed. Drawing on her research at Stanford University and her leadership of the Work Innovation Lab at Asana, she shares frameworks from her new book, Your Best Meeting Ever, including: The four legitimate purposes of a meeting: decide, discuss, debate, or develop The CEO test for when synchronous time is truly required How to codify shared meeting standards Why leaders must explicitly give permission to leave low-value meetings We also explore leadership, motivation, and the myth that kindness and high standards are opposites. Rebecca explains why effective leaders diagnose what drives each individual — encouragement for some, direct challenge for others — and design environments that support both performance and belonging. Finally, we talk about AI and the future of work. Tools amplify existing culture: strong systems improve, broken systems break faster. Organizations that redesign how work happens — not just what tools they use — will have the advantage. If you want to run better meetings, lead with more clarity, and rethink how collaboration actually happens, this episode is for you. You can find Your Best Meeting Ever at major bookstores and learn more at rebeccahinds.com. 00:00 Start 00:27 Why Meetings Get Worse Over Time Robin references Good Omens and the character Crowley, who designs the M25 freeway to intentionally create frustration and misery. They use this metaphor to illustrate how systems can be designed in ways that amplify dysfunction, whether intentionally or accidentally. The idea is that once dysfunctional systems become normalized, people stop questioning them. They also discuss Cory Doctorow's concept of enshittification, where platforms and systems gradually decline as organizational priorities override user experience. Rebecca connects this pattern directly to meetings, arguing that without intentional design, meetings default to chaos and energy drain. Over time, poorly designed meetings become accepted as inevitable rather than treated as solvable design problems. Rebecca references the Simple Sabotage Field Manual created by the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. The manual advised citizens in occupied territories on how to subtly undermine organizations from within. Many of the suggested tactics involved meetings, including encouraging long speeches, focusing on irrelevant details, and sending decisions to unnecessary committees. The irony is that these sabotage techniques closely resemble common behaviors in modern corporate meetings. Rebecca argues that if meetings were designed from scratch today, without legacy habits and inherited norms, they would likely look radically different. She explains that meetings persist in their dysfunctional form because they amplify deeply human tendencies like ego, status signaling, and conflict avoidance. Rebecca traces her interest in teamwork back to her experience as a competitive swimmer in Toronto. Although swimming appears to be an individual sport, she explains that success is heavily dependent on team structure and shared preparation. Being recruited to swim at Stanford exposed her to an elite, team-first environment that reshaped how she thought about performance. She became fascinated by how a group can become greater than the sum of its parts when the right cultural conditions are present. This experience sparked her long-term curiosity about why organizations struggle to replicate the kind of cohesion often seen in sports. At Stanford, Coach Lee Mauer emphasized that emotional wellbeing and performance were deeply connected. The team included world record holders and Olympians, and the performance standards were extremely high. Despite the intensity, the culture prioritized connection and belonging. Rituals like informal story time around the hot tub helped teammates build relationships beyond performance metrics. Rebecca internalized the lesson that elite performance and strong culture are not opposing forces. She saw firsthand that intensity and warmth can coexist, and that psychological safety can actually reinforce high standards rather than weaken them. Later in her career at Asana, Rebecca encountered the company value of rejecting false trade-offs. This reinforced a lesson she had first learned in swimming, which is that many perceived either-or tensions are not actually unavoidable. She argues that organizations often assume they must choose between performance and happiness, or between kindness and accountability. In her experience, these are false binaries that can be resolved through better design and clearer expectations. She emphasizes that motivated and engaged employees tend to produce higher quality work, making culture a strategic advantage rather than a distraction. Kindness versus ruthlessness in leadership Robin raises the contrast between harsh, fear-based leadership styles and more relational, positive leadership approaches. Both styles have produced winning teams, which raises the question of whether success comes because of the leadership style or despite it. Rebecca argues that resilience and accountability are essential, regardless of tone. She stresses that kindness alone is not sufficient for high performance, but neither is harshness inherently superior. Effective leadership requires understanding what motivates each individual, since some people thrive on encouragement while others crave direct challenge. Rebecca personally identifies with wanting to be pushed and appreciates clarity when her work falls short of expectations. She concludes that the most effective leaders diagnose motivation carefully and design environments that maximize both growth and performance. 08:51 Building the Book-Launch Team: Mentors, Agents, and Choosing the Right Publisher Robin asks Rebecca about the size and structure of the team she assembled to execute the launch successfully. He is especially curious about what the team actually looked like in practice and how coordinated the effort needed to be. He also asks about the meeting cadence and work cadence required to bring a book launch to life at that level. The framing highlights that writing the book is only one phase, while launching it is an entirely different operational challenge. Rebecca explains that the process felt much more organic than it might appear from the outside. She admits that at the beginning, she underestimated the full scope of what a book launch entails. Her original motivation was simple: she believed she had a valuable perspective, wanted to help people, and loved writing. As she progressed deeper into the publishing process, she realized that writing the manuscript was only one piece of a much larger system. The operational and promotional dimensions gradually revealed themselves as a second job layered on top of authorship. Robin emphasizes that writing a book and publishing a book are fundamentally different jobs. Rebecca agrees and acknowledges that the publishing side requires a completely different skill set and infrastructure. The conversation underscores that authorship is creative work, while publishing and launching require strategy, coordination, and business acumen. Rebecca credits her Stanford mentor, Bob Sutton, as a life changing influence throughout the process. He guided her step by step, including decisions around selecting a publisher and choosing an agent. She initially did not plan to work with an agent, but through guidance and reflection, she shifted her perspective. His mentorship helped her ask better questions and approach the process more strategically rather than reactively. Rebecca reflects on an important mindset shift in her career. Earlier in life, she was comfortable being the big fish in a small pond. Over time, she came to believe that she performs better when surrounded by people who are smarter and more experienced than she is. She describes her superpower as working extremely hard and having confidence in that effort. Because of that, she prefers environments where others elevate her thinking and push her further. This philosophy became central to how she built her book launch team. As Rebecca learned more about the moving pieces required for a successful campaign, she became more intentional about who she wanted involved. She sought the best not in terms of prestige alone, but in terms of belief and commitment. She wanted people who would go to bat for her and advocate for the book with genuine enthusiasm. She noticed that some organizations that looked impressive on paper were not necessarily the right fit for her specific campaign. This led her to have extensive conversations with potential editors and publicists before making decisions. Rebecca developed a personal benchmark for evaluating partners. She paid attention to whether they were willing to apply the book's ideas within their own organizations. For her, that signaled authentic belief rather than surface level marketing support. When Simon and Schuster demonstrated early interest in implementing the book's learnings internally, it stood out as meaningful alignment. That commitment suggested they cared about the substance of the work, not just the promotional campaign. As the process unfolded, Rebecca realized that part of her job was learning what questions to ask. Each conversation with potential partners refined her understanding of what she needed. She became more deliberate about building the right bench of people around her. The team was not assembled all at once, but rather shaped through iterative learning and discernment. The launch ultimately reflected both her evolving standards and her commitment to surrounding herself with people who elevated the work. 12:12 Asking Better Questions & Going Asynchronous Robin highlights the tension between the voice of the book and the posture of a first time author entering a major publishing house. He notes that Best Meeting Ever encourages people to assert authority in meetings by asking about agendas, ownership, and structure. At the same time, Rebecca was entering conversations with an established publisher as a new author seeking partnership. The question becomes how to balance clarity and conviction with humility and openness. Robin frames it as showing up with operational authority while still saying you publish books and I want to work with you. Rebecca calls the question insightful and explains that tactically she relied heavily on asking questions. She describes herself as intentionally curious and even nosy because she did not yet know what she did not know. Rather than pretending to have answers, she used inquiry as a way to build authority through understanding. She asked questions asynchronously almost daily, emailing her agent and editor with anything that came to mind. This allowed her to learn the system while also signaling engagement and seriousness. Rebecca explains that most of the heavy lifting happened outside of meetings. By asking questions over email, she clarified information before stepping into synchronous time. Meetings were then reserved for ambiguity, decision making, and issues that required real time collaboration. As a result, the campaign involved very few meetings overall. She had a biweekly meeting with her core team and roughly monthly conversations with her editor. The rest of the coordination happened asynchronously, which aligned with her philosophy about effective meeting design. Rebecca jokes that one hidden benefit of writing a book on meetings is that everyone shows up more prepared and on time. She also felt internal pressure to model the behaviors she was advocating. The campaign therefore became a real world test of her ideas. She emphasizes that she is glad the launch was not meeting heavy and that it reflected the principles in the book. Robin shares a story about their initial connection through David Shackleford. During a short introductory call, he casually offered to spend time discussing book marketing strategies. Rebecca followed up, scheduled time, and took extensive notes during their conversation. After thanking him, she did not continue unnecessary follow up or prolonged discussion. Instead, she quietly implemented many of the practical strategies discussed. Robin later observed bulk sales, bundled speaking engagements, and structured purchase incentives that reflected disciplined execution. Robin emphasizes that generating ideas is relatively easy compared to implementing them. He connects this to Seth Godin's praise that the book is for people willing to do the work. The real difficulty lies not in brainstorming strategies but in consistently executing them. He describes watching Rebecca implement the plan as evidence that she practices what she preaches. Her hard work and disciplined follow through reinforced his confidence in the book before even reading it. Rebecca responds with gratitude and acknowledges that she took his advice seriously. She affirms that several actions she implemented were directly inspired by their conversation. At the same time, the tone remains grounded and collaborative rather than performative. The exchange illustrates her pattern of seeking input, synthesizing it, and then executing independently. Robin transitions toward the theme of self knowledge and its role in leadership and meetings. He connects Rebecca's disciplined execution to her awareness of her own strengths. The earlier theme resurfaces that she sees hard work and follow through as her superpower. The implication is that effective meetings and effective leadership both begin with understanding how you operate best. 17:48 Self-Knowledge at Work Robin shares that he knows he is motivated by carrots rather than sticks. He explains that praise energizes him and improves his performance more than criticism ever could. As a performer and athlete, he appreciates detailed notes and feedback, but encouragement is what unlocks his best work. He contrasts that with experiences like old school ballet training, where harsh discipline did not bring out his strengths. His point is that understanding how you are wired takes experience and reflection. Rebecca agrees that self knowledge is essential and ties it directly to motivation. She argues that the better you understand yourself, the more clearly you can articulate what drives you. Many people, especially early in their careers, do not pause to examine what truly motivates them. She notes that motivation is often intangible and not primarily monetary. For some people it is praise, for others criticism, learning, mastery, collaboration, or autonomy. She also emphasizes that motivation changes over time and shifts depending on organizational context. One of Rebecca's biggest lessons as a manager and contributor is the importance of codifying self knowledge. Writing down what motivates you and how you work best makes it easier to communicate those needs to others. She believes this explicitness is especially critical during times of change. When work is evolving quickly, assumptions about motivation can lead to disengagement. Making preferences visible reduces friction and prevents misalignment. Rebecca references a recent presentation she gave on the dangers of automating the soul of work. She and her mentor Bob Sutton have discussed how organizations risk stripping meaning from roles if they automate without discernment. She points to research showing that many AI startups are automating tasks people would prefer to keep human. The warning is that just because something can be automated does not mean it should be. Without understanding what makes work meaningful for employees, leaders can unintentionally remove the very elements that motivate people. Rebecca believes managers should create explicit user manuals for their team members. These documents outline how individuals prefer to communicate, what motivates them, and what their career aspirations are. She sees this as a practical leadership tool rather than a symbolic exercise. Referring back to these documents helps leaders guide their teams through uncertainty and change. When asked directly, she confirms that she has implemented this practice in previous roles and intends to do so again. When asked about the future of AI, Rebecca avoids making long term predictions. She observes that the most confident forecasters are often those with something to sell. Her shorter term view is that AI amplifies whatever already exists inside an organization. Strong workflows and cultures may improve, while broken systems may become more efficiently broken. She sees organizations over investing in technology while under investing in people and change management. As a result, productivity gains are appearing at the individual level but not consistently at the team or organizational level. Rebecca acknowledges that there is a possible future where AI creates abundance and healthier work life balance. However, she does not believe current evidence strongly supports that outcome in the near term. She does see promising examples of organizations using AI to amplify collaboration and cross functional work. These examples remain rare but signal that a more human centered future is possible. She is cautiously hopeful but not convinced that the most optimistic scenario will unfold automatically. Robin notes that time horizons for prediction have shortened dramatically. Rebecca agrees and says that six months feels like a reasonable forecasting window in the current environment. She observes that the best leaders are setting thresholds for experimentation and failure. Pilots and proofs of concept should fail at a meaningful rate if organizations are truly exploring. Shorter feedback loops allow organizations to learn quickly rather than over commit to fragile long term assumptions. Robin shares a formative story from growing up in his father's small engineering firm, where he was exposed early to office systems and processes. Later, studying in a Quaker community in Costa Rica, he experienced full consensus decision making. He recalls sitting through extended debates, including one about single versus double ply toilet paper. As a fourteen year old who would rather have been climbing trees in the rainforest, the meeting felt painfully misaligned with his energy. That experience contributed to his lifelong desire to make work and collaboration feel less draining and more intentional. The story reinforces the broader theme that poorly designed meetings can disconnect people from purpose and engagement. 28:31 Leadership vs. Tribal Instincts Rebecca explains that much of dysfunctional meeting behavior is rooted in tribal human instincts. People feel loyalty to the group and show up to meetings simply to signal belonging, even when the meeting is not meaningful. This instinct to attend regardless of value reinforces bloated calendars and performative participation. She argues that effective meeting design must actively counteract these deeply human tendencies. Without intentional structure, meetings default to social signaling rather than productive collaboration. Rebecca emphasizes that leadership plays a critical role in changing meeting culture Leaders must explicitly give employees permission to leave meetings when they are not contributing. They must also normalize asynchronous work as a legitimate and often superior alternative. Without that top down permission, employees will continue attending out of fear or habit. Meeting reform requires visible endorsement from those with authority. Power dynamics and pushing back without positional authority Robin reflects on the power of writing a book on meetings while still operating within a hierarchy. He asks how individuals without formal authority can challenge broken systems. Rebecca responds that there is no universal solution because outcomes depend heavily on psychological safety. In organizations with high trust, there is often broad recognition that meetings are ineffective and a desire to fix them. In lower trust environments, change must be approached more strategically and indirectly. Rebecca advises employees to lead with curiosity rather than confrontation. Instead of calling out a bad meeting, one might ask whether their presence is truly necessary. Framing the question around contribution rather than judgment reduces defensiveness. This approach lowers the emotional temperature and keeps the conversation constructive. Curiosity shifts the tone from personal critique to shared problem solving. In psychologically unsafe environments, Rebecca suggests shifting enforcement to systems rather than individuals. Automated rules such as canceling meetings without agendas or without sufficient confirmations can reduce personal friction. When technology enforces standards, it feels less like a personal attack. Codified rules provide employees with shared language and objective criteria. This reduces the perception that opting out is a rejection of the person rather than a rejection of the structure. Rebecca argues that every organization should have a clear and shared definition of what deserves to be a meeting. If five employees are asked what qualifies as a meeting, they should give the same answer. Without explicit criteria, decisions default to habit and hierarchy. Clear rules give employees confidence to push back constructively. Shared standards transform meeting participation from a personal negotiation into a procedural one. Rebecca outlines a two part test to determine whether a meeting should exist. First, the meeting must serve one of four purposes which are to decide, discuss, debate, or develop people. If it does not satisfy one of those four categories, it likely should not be a meeting. Even if it passes that test, it must also satisfy one of the CEO criteria. C refers to complexity and whether the issue contains enough ambiguity to require synchronous dialogue. E refers to emotional intensity and whether reading emotions or managing reactions is important. O refers to one way door decisions, meaning choices that are difficult or costly to reverse. Many organizational decisions are reversible and therefore do not justify synchronous time. Robin asks how small teams without advanced tech stacks can automate meeting discipline. Rebecca explains that many safeguards can be implemented with existing tools such as Google Calendar or simple scripts. Basic rules like requiring an agenda or minimum confirmations can be enforced through standard workflows. Not all solutions require advanced AI tools. The key is introducing friction intentionally to prevent low value meetings from forming. Rebecca notes that more advanced AI tools can measure engagement, multitasking, or participation. Some platforms now provide indicators of attention or involvement during meetings. While these tools are promising, they are not required to implement foundational meeting discipline. She cautions against over investing in shiny tools without first clarifying principles. Metrics are useful when they reinforce intentional design rather than replace it. Rebecca highlights a subtle risk of automation, particularly in scheduling. Tools can be optimized for the sender while increasing friction for recipients. Leaders should consider the system level impact rather than only individual efficiency. Productivity gains at the individual level can create hidden coordination costs for the team. Meeting automation should be evaluated through a collective lens. Rebecca distinguishes between intrusive AI bots that join meetings and simple transcription tools. She is cautious about bots that visibly attend meetings and distract participants. However, she supports consensual transcription when it enhances asynchronous follow up. Effective transcription can reduce cognitive load and free participants to engage more deeply. Used thoughtfully, these tools can strengthen collaboration rather than dilute it. 41:35 Maker vs. Manager: Balancing a Day Job with a Book Launch Robin shares an example from a webinar where attendees were asked for feedback via a short Bitly link before the session closed. He contrasts this with the ineffectiveness of "smiley face/frowny face" buttons in hotel bathrooms—easy to ignore and lacking context. The key is embedding feedback into the process in a way that's natural, timely, and comfortable for participants. Feedback mechanisms should be integrated, low-friction, and provide enough context for meaningful responses. Rebecca recommends a method inspired by Elise Keith called Roti—rating meetings on a zero-to-five scale based on whether they were worth attendees' time. She suggests asking this for roughly 10% of meetings to gather actionable insight. Follow-up question: "What could the organizer do to increase the rating by one point?" This approach removes bias, focuses on attendee experience, and identifies meetings that need restructuring. Splits in ratings reveal misaligned agendas or attendee lists and guide optimization. Robin imagines automating feedback requests via email or tools like Superhuman for convenience. Rebecca agrees and adds that simple forms (Google Forms, paper, or other methods) are effective, especially when anonymous. The goal is simplicity and consistency—given how costly meetings are, there's no excuse to skip feedback. Robin references Paul Graham's essay on maker vs. manager schedules and asks about Rebecca's approach to balancing writing, team coordination, and book marketing. Rebecca shares that 95% of her effort on the book launch was "making"—writing and outreach—thanks to a strong team handling management. She devoted time to writing, scrappy outreach, and building relationships, emphasizing giving without expecting reciprocation. The main coordination challenge was balancing her book work with her full-time job at Asana, requiring careful prioritization. Rebecca created a strict writing schedule inspired by her swimming discipline: early mornings, evenings, and weekends dedicated to writing. She prioritized her book and full-time work while maintaining family commitments. Discipline and clear prioritization were essential to manage competing but synergistic priorities. Robin asks about written vs. spoken communication, referencing Amazon's six-page memos and Zandr Media's phone-friendly quick syncs. Rebecca emphasizes that the answer depends on context but a strong written communication culture is essential in all organizations. Written communication supports clarity, asynchronous work, and complements verbal communication. It's especially important for distributed teams or virtual work. With AI, clear documentation allows better insights, reduces unnecessary content generation, and reinforces disciplined communication. 48:29 AI and the Craft of Writing Rebecca highlights that employees have varying learning preferences—introverted vs. extroverted, verbal vs. written. Effective communication systems should support both verbal and written channels to accommodate these differences. Rebecca's philosophy: writing is a deeply human craft. AI was not used for drafting or creative writing. AI supported research, coordination, tracking trends, and other auxiliary tasks—areas where efficiency is key. Human-led drafting, revising, and word choice remained central to the book. Robin praises Rebecca's use of language, noting it feels human and vivid—something AI cannot replicate in nuance or delight. Rebecca emphasizes that crafting every word, experimenting with phrasing, and tinkering with language is uniquely human. This joy and precision in writing is not replicable by AI and is part of what makes written communication stand out. Rebecca hopes human creativity in writing and oral communication remains valued despite AI advances. Strong written communication is increasingly differentiating for executive communicators and storytellers in organizations. AI can polish or mass-produce text, but human insight, nuance, and storytelling remain essential and career-relevant. Robin emphasizes the importance of reading, writing, and physical activities (like swimming) to reclaim attention from screens. These practices support deep human thinking and creativity, which are harder to replace with AI. Rebecca uses standard tools strategically: email (chunked and batched), Google Docs, Asana, Doodle, and Zoom. Writing is enhanced by switching platforms, fonts, colors, and physical locations—stimulating creativity and perspective. Physical context (plane, café, city) is strongly linked to breakthroughs and memory during writing. Emphasis is on how tools are enacted rather than which tools are used—behavior and discipline matter more than tech. Rebecca primarily recommends business books with personal relevance: Adam Grant's Give and Take – for relational insights beyond work. Bob Sutton's books – for broader lessons on organizational and personal effectiveness. Robert Cialdini's Influence – for understanding human behavior in both professional and personal contexts. Her selections highlight that business literature often offers universal lessons applicable beyond work. 59:48 Where to Find Rebecca The book is available at all major bookstores. Website: rebeccahinds.com LinkedIn: Rebecca Hinds
In this week's episode, Jacob is joined by his Hungarian friend, Rita, and we have a random chat about cousins, Rita's random career story, and learn some useful vocab along the way! You can find all the vocab from this episode in the Google Doc linked below!---YouTubeLeafletsWebsiteGoogle DocEmail: english@languageswithatwist.com
A tecnologia deixou de ser apenas um apoio no esporte de alto rendimento e passou a ser parte essencial da preparação dos atletas. Sensores, câmeras, softwares, análise de dados e até inteligência artificial ajudam a corrigir movimentos, prevenir lesões e melhorar a performance. No novo episódio do Podcast Canaltech, Fernanda Santos conversa com Franklin Camargo, especialista em biomecânica, e Paula Avakian, coordenadora de tecnologia esportiva do Comitê Olímpico do Brasil, sobre os bastidores da inovação nos esportes, incluindo as modalidades de inverno. Eles explicam como funcionam as análises biomecânicas, o uso de dados em tempo real, o papel da inteligência artificial nas decisões técnicas e os desafios para tornar essas tecnologias mais acessíveis. A conversa também mostra como o Brasil usa ciência e inovação para competir em alto nível, mesmo em esportes pouco tradicionais no país. Você também vai conferir: milhões acordaram sem acesso aos principais apps, plataforma de delivery expõe dados de milhões de usuários e Google Docs ganha resumo em áudio com IA. Este podcast foi roteirizado e apresentado por Fernada Santos e contou com reportagens de João Melo e Lilian Sibila, sob coordenação de Anaísa Catucci. A trilha sonora é de Guilherme Zomer, a edição de Leandro Gomes e a arte da capa é de Erick TeixeiraSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Google Docs ganha resumo de texto em áudio com o Gemini; saiba ativar. Governo usa WhatsApp para avisar sobre isenção de IR para quem ganha até R$ 5 mil. Mundo em perigo': ex-pesquisador da Anthropic se demite e alerta sobre a IA. Sony anuncia God of War Remake Trilogy e lança novo jogo da franquia de surpresa no PS5.
Welcome to another episode of Perspective Checks where I sit down with friends and folks from the TTRPG world and discuss what they love about this wonderful hobby! Ian and I met playing in a short TTRPG series for previous guest of the show C.R. Rowenson's LitRPG series New Eternity and knew we had to chat more from our brief interactions and roles as the tankybois of the party. Ian is one-half of the podcast Undercommon Taste, a TTRPG Homebrew podcast, so it's perfect that he's coming on to talk about all things homebrewing! This is a big umbrella in the TTRPG space. House rules are homebrew, technically, but so are some games that hack existing systems, so when do you know it's time to make something new? How much do you need to do? What do you need to consider? We barely scratch the surface of the topic, but there's a lot of great nuggets of wisdom in this chat! Also, you best believe that there's a Powered by the Aporkalypse file in my Google Docs now... ----more---- Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel! I made a Ko-Fi if you feel absurdly generous and want to help cover podcast hosting costs & all the upkeep. I'm still working on whether I want to offer anything special over there or just give my extreme gratitude (maybe some stickers or something in the mail) to those who donate, but no pressure whatsoever :) Where to Follow Rene Plays Games: LinkTree | BlueSky | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | DMs After Dark Rene's Games: MECH | MECH Cities 2 | One Last Quest | I Know I Know You, But I Don't Know How... email: RenePlaysGamesPod@gmail.com Music in the Episode (in order of appearance): Rene Plays Games Theme written & produced by Dan Pomfret | @danfrombothbands
Send us a textThanks to Megan from Megan's Bookish Life for joining me to talk about Bookish Pet Peeves. As you can tell by our laughter, we had a great time chatting about life and books. More from Megan:Megan's Bookish Life.Listen to our episode on Megan's Podcast. Follow Megan on Instagram.Follow Megan on Threads. Books Mentioned in this episode:People We Meet on Vacation by Emily HenryFunny Story by Emily HenryBeach Read by Emily HenryBook Lovers by Emily HenrySand, Sequins, and Silicone by Pia MiaFor links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list. For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above. For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
What if I told you I recently ran a 7-day CSA Chicken + Pork Share promotion on my farm, using only email, a private Facebook group, and a simple promotion framework? It went REALLY well, exceeding my sales predictions. If you've ever thought about launching a monthly meat share — or already have one and want to sell it more consistently — this episode is your behind-the-scenes look at how I design, organize, and execute a high-performing farm promotion from scratch. I walk you through: How I structured the product How I worked with my partner farm How I decided pricing, timing, and cart-open strategy The promo email sequence I used, and how I came up with content topics The role of FAQs, social proof, urgency, and bonuses How I organized everything into a master Google Doc so I could use it next year And how I used ChatGPT to speed up writing This is a nuts-and-bolts, copy-the-framework episode. Listen here. Resources Mentioned In This Episode: What email provider do I use? I recommend Kit.com (formerly ConvertKit.com) -- it is easy to use, powerful, and getting better every year. It also integrates with most e-commerce providers and tools. Use my affiliate link! Episode 13: How to Create an Irresistible Bonus Offer - Want to get more ideas for bonuses to use in a promotion for CSA shares? Listen here. Want the actual promo materials I wrote for this promo? Inside Farm Marketing School, I've now uploaded the entire Chicken + Pork Share Promotion Google Doc, including: ✅ The exact emails I used ✅ The social media posts I used ✅ The daily timeline so you can see the positioning ✅ Links to the Canva images So if you'd rather not start from scratch… you can literally copy my doc's elements and adapt it for your farm. Join Farm Marketing School to gain access to this resource -- along with 15+ other marketing projects to help you build your farm marketing machine! Thank You to Our Podcast Sponsors: Local Line: Local Line is my farm's preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy-to-use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2026. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline Citizen Salmon Alaska Citizen Salmon Alaska is my go-to seafood partner for CSA farms. This is my fifth season working with them, and I keep coming back for a simple reason: it works. They offer wild sockeye salmon, halibut, black cod, shrimp, and smoked seafood — all sourced directly from independent fishermen out of Homer, Alaska. What makes this partnership such a win for farms is the model: I promote Citizen Salmon to my customers, they order directly from Citizen Salmon's website using a farm-specific code, Citizen Salmon ships frozen fish straight to them, and I earn a commission — without handling inventory, packing, or delivery. It's an aligned, ethical way to expand your product suite and serve your customers well. If you're curious about adding seafood to your CSA without adding work, learn more and reach out to Aaron at citizensalmonalaska.com. Farm Marketing School: Want a plug-and-play marketing system for your farm? Join Farm Marketing School—my monthly membership where I teach farmers how to build simple, repeatable marketing systems that actually drive sales. Inside, you'll get: ✅ Step-by-step marketing projects (emails, website design, lead magnets, promotions & more) ✅ Templates & swipe files to save you hours of work ✅ Live coaching calls every month for strategy & support Inside, you'll get access to bite-sized marketing projects like:
You've got the notebook. The voice memos. The Google Doc titled "possible program ideas" you haven't opened in weeks. You're not short on ideas. You're drowning in reasonable options.And somehow that feels worse than having no ideas at all.Because when you're stuck with multiple good directions and still can't get traction, it starts to feel like a you problem. Like you're overthinking it. Not ready. Not disciplined enough.Here's what you need to hear: You're not failing at this. You're misoriented. You're trying to choose before you're positioned to see clearly. And the question you're asking yourself is keeping you stuck.HERE ARE THE 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:1️⃣ This Isn't Confusion - It's Misorientation – Your brain is doing exactly what it was trained to do: analyse before acting. But when there are multiple good options, analysis mode creates paralysis. Your nervous system reads commitment without clarity as threat, so you stay stuck in research mode. This isn't a motivation problem. It's a starting-point problem.2️⃣ You're Asking the Wrong Question – "What program should I create?" forces comparison, activates imposter syndrome, and assumes you need something novel. The better question: "What problem am I already solving repeatedly, whether I intend to or not?" This shifts you from ideation to pattern recognition, from theoretical planning to lived experience. Most therapists don't need a new idea - they need better visibility on work they're already doing.3️⃣ Depth Creates Blind Spots – If people keep bringing you the same problem without you marketing for it, that's data. But experienced therapists dismiss what feels familiar, obvious, or "too simple." The more expertise you have, the more invisible your skill becomes to you. You're not underestimating the work - you're underestimating yourself.YOU'LL ALSO HEAR:Why therapists trained to assess before acting get stuck when building programsThe nervous system response that keeps you in "gathering information" modeHow to recognize when you're dismissing your most obvious starting pointWhy confusion is often a sign of depth, not failureThe one question that creates grounded momentum instead of endless scanningWhy orientation matters more than urgency when building sustainable practicesRESOURCES:Therapists Rising Programs:The Incubator: therapistsrising.com/incubatorInstagram: @dr.hayleykellySUBSCRIBE & REVIEW:If this episode reduced the frantic energy you've been carrying, subscribe and review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help other therapists find conversations that actually shift how they're thinking.Clarity doesn't come from choosing the best idea. It comes from standing in the right place to see what's actually there.You're not behind. You're just facing the wrong direction. What shifts when you ask a better question?
In this episode of the Grow A Small Business Podcast, host Troy Trewin interviews Sam Carpenter, founder and CEO of Centratel, shares how he built a $7M emergency call center business by focusing on systems instead of hustle. Sam opens up about working 80–100 hour weeks, hitting burnout, and the mindset shift that changed everything. He explains his "Work the System" philosophy and how documenting processes created freedom, profit, and scale. The conversation dives into pricing courage, delegation, and building a business that runs without you. A powerful lesson on achieving real success in business through clarity, structure, and smart leadership. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? According to Sam Carpenter, the hardest thing in growing a small business is enduring the long hours and mental pressure while trying to balance relationships and personal life. Early on, business consumes your mind 24/7, which can strain health, family, and focus. He explains that most owners feel overwhelmed because they see the business as chaos instead of separate systems. The real challenge is learning to step back, stop reacting emotionally, and work on the business mechanically. Once you shift that mindset, growth becomes manageable and sustainable. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most? Sam Carpenter's favorite business book — the one he says helped him the most — is "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber. He often credits it with shifting his mindset from working in the business to working on the business by building systems. It deeply influenced his "Work the System" philosophy and helped him see how to structure processes so the business can run without burning out the founder. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? According to Sam Carpenter, he doesn't really rely on podcasts or fancy online learning platforms for growing a small business; instead, he believes the most powerful resource is reading books deeply and consistently. He prefers learning through focused reading and real-world application rather than consuming endless content. Sam emphasizes using simple, reliable tools like email and basic software, avoiding distractions, and developing long attention spans through reading, clear thinking, and systems-based learning rather than chasing trends or tools. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? One tool Sam Carpenter would recommend for growing a small business is a process documentation system — it doesn't have to be fancy, just something that gets you thinking in systems rather than chaos. Many business owners use tools like Notion, Evernote, or Google Docs to write down and organize standard operating procedures, workflows, and checklists. Sam's whole philosophy is about capturing how your business actually works so you can improve it, delegate it, and scale it. The power isn't in the software itself — it's in consistently writing, refining, and using your documented processes to free up time and create predictable results. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Sam Carpenter says that if he could advise himself on day one, he'd say: stop running the business emotionally and start running it mechanically. Instead of seeing the business as chaos, he'd focus on breaking it into separate systems, fixing the biggest problem first, and documenting everything early. He believes years of stress could have been avoided by working on the business instead of being trapped in it. The core lesson: face reality, build systems, and don't try to be the hero. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey. Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: A business isn't chaos — it's a collection of systems, and the moment you see that, everything changes — Sam Carpenter Freedom in business comes from documentation, delegation, and discipline — Sam Carpenter Stop trying to be the hero and start building a machine that works — Sam Carpenter
Thank you for tuning in to Episode 313 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website. This week's segments included: Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins From the Armchair Some Years Later Knitting in Passing KAL News Events Life in Focus On a Happy Note Quote of the Week Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins I mended Hattie's mittens (store bought) and added snaps to her mermaid's removable tail. Granny Square Ski Helmet Balaclava Pattern: none Hook: I (5.5 mm) Yarn: Knit Picks Brava in Dove Heather & Marina, Big Twist Value Solids in Aqua, Vanna's Choice in Charcoal Gray + 1 unknown blue worsted weight acrylic yarn. Ravelry Project Page I did one square to practice and see how I liked the colors together. Originally had a pop of a lime green in there. Liked the colors but didn't love the square. I also used that square to see for the smaller skeins (~30g) would I have enough yarn. I made a second square and that one I really enjoyed. 7 colors- from center out- light gray, medium/bright blue, white, aqua, charcoal, marina (teal), white I made 8 squares. Check out this Instagram post from Grandma.era on how to seam them together. Chroma Twist Bulky in Cousteau for trim around the face and along the bottom edge. It was riding on the train with me in my AdoreKnit Pigskin Party bag. Did you see that Steph from Adoreknit donated 10% of her Down Cellar Studio KAL items to our FearLESS Living Fund? With your help she donated $613 in 2025! On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Back to the Future Socks Yarn: Legacy Fiber Artz Steel Toes. Micro-Sock Kit in the Back to the Future Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Back to the Future Sock set- gifted to me by Sue & Chelsea- part of their 4 Sundays of Advent yarn in 2025. About the Colorway- speckles of pink, orange, yellow purple and blue with a blue/purple mini. I cast these on before day trip up to Loon Mountain. I am almost to the heel of sock 1. Traveler Sweater Pattern: The Traveler by Andrea Mowry ($9 pattern available on Ravelry & the designer's website) Yarn: Hazel Knits Small Batch Sport (90/10 SW/Nylon) in a sage green Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Size: 3 Drawstring- fingering weight yarn- US 6 DPNs. I washed it several times, because it was bleeding yellow. I had to wash it several times before all of the rest of the dye let go. Pucker Brush Farm BFL Sweater Spin Fiber: 16 oz of multi colored BFL roving from Pucker Brush Farm (purchased at Rhinebeck 2025), 4 oz Merino in a mustard color Ravelry Project Page I am planning to knit a Traveler sweater inspired by Emily Curtis' handmade version- click here for her Ravelry Project Page. I was thrilled to see a recent post on Emily's Instagram that she made a YouTube video about this spin/knit. I plied up about 8.5 grams of the BFL with the Finnsheep. 23 wraps (690 inches/19 yards) Knit up a swatch on a US 4 and got gauge almost exactly To knit another size 3 Traveler I think I need approximately 19 ounces of each fiber. I did a lot of spinning during the big snowstorm we got last weekend. I am so into it! I cleaned my wheel and wound off fiber onto storage bobbins. Woolens & Nosh 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Woolens & Nosh, 75/25 Superwash Wool/Nylon 2025 Advent Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Progress: worked on the foot of the second sock during game night at home Log Cabin Blanket Pattern: Log Cabin Square by Julie Harrison. Free crochet pattern available on Ravelry. Video tutorial available on the Little Woollie Makes YouTube Channel Yarn: Legacy Fiber Artz Minis (mostly from Advent calendars 2023 & 2024) Hook: I (5.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Inspired by Rachel (treehousefiberarts on Instagram) and Sue & Chelsea (Legacy Fiber Artz on Instagram). Check out the Floss Toss Ravelry Group for details on their Scrappy Blanket CAL. Ends December 21st (but you don't have to finish. 2 prize drawings will be done). My color placement is inspired by this project/pattern available on Ravelry. Inspired to pick it back up after see Sue (from Legacy Fiber Artz)'s version on their latest podcast episode. She bordered with cream before seaming. I love it. You can see a peek in this Instagram post. Progress- made one more. Total to date: 12 Hattie's Rainbow Mittens Pattern: Little Waiting for Winter Mittens by Susan B. Anderson Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Worsted in the Vegas Baby colorway Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) Cast on at Fiber Club at my library. The next morning my train was slow so I finished all but the thumb on the first mitten. Cast on second About the colorway- stripes of gray, blue, green, mustard, red and pink. From the Armchair Podcast: The Walkers- The real Salt Path (Tortoise Investigates/The Observer) The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. Amazon Affiliate Link Beyond That, The Sea by Laura Spence-Ash. Amazon Affiliate Link. (recommended by Paige) Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases. Some Years Later A look back my 2025 fiber crafting and podcast related items. 60 projects- click here to see these projects in Ravelry. 47 gifts/ 13 for me 34 knit/ 26 crochet No finished spinning projects 1 bag 3 blankets 6 cozies 8 hats 25 socks 1 Christmas stocking 1 sweater 2 tops 13 toys Other fun numbers: Podcast Episodes- 23 Videos on YouTube- 33 BostonJen1- Instagram Followers-10,275 - I finally hit 10k!!!!!!! Ravelry Group Members: 3137 (up from 2981 in 2024) 1 Interview for Love in Stitches Group Podcaster Meet-ups: 1 with Natalie at Flock; 1 at Rhinebeck I was paid to do social media for the Cape & South Shore Yarn Haul Knitting in Passing I am teaching classes on the OMG Sock at Staci's Stitches, my LYS and enjoying seeing my students progress! My friend Mara texted me from the Celtics game the other night saying she was fairly sure one of the other fans in her section was wearing an Ice Time Hat (one of my designs)- you can find the pattern on Ravelry & LoveCrafts KAL News Pigskin Party '25 Event Dates: KAL Dates- Thursday September 4, 2025- Monday February 9, 2026 Find everything you need in the Start Here Thread in the Ravelry Group Official Rules Registration Form (you must be Registered to be eligible for prizes) Enter your projects using the Point Tally Form Find the full list of Sponsors in this Google Doc. Coupon Codes are listed in this Ravelry Thread Exclusive Items from our Pro Shop Sponsors are listed in this Ravelry Thread Questions- ask them in this Ravelry Thread or email Jen at downcellarstudio @ gmail.com Updates In This Episode Official Sponsor for Quarter 4 (January)- Yarnaceous Fibers. Check out this Ravelry Thread for 4th & Goal with Yarnaceous Fibers Challenge Details Wild Card WIP Bonus- check out this Ravelry thread for details (ran 1/5/26 through 1/16/26)- 43 projects finished. Check out this view of the Ravelry chat thread which shows all of the Projects mentioned. A few highlights: ScrapperChris made a beautiful snowflake cardigan (started in 2020)- Ravelry Project Page TXHeather crocheted a 2k+ meter Christmas Tree skirt (also started in 2020)- Ravelry Project Page IWillKnitUaSock- finished knitting a beautiful Angel's Eyes cabled cardigan sweater by Thea Colman that she started in 2022- Ravelry Project Page ImaginedLandscapes finished not 1 but 2 beautiful sweaters, the Diona Pullover (Ravelry Project Page) & the Sonrae (Ravelry Project Page) Commentator Update We are in the home stretch of the Pigskin Party and players are working hard to finish their projects before the clock expires! I wandered over to the end zone dance thread to see what players have finished recently. Here are some amazing projects that caught my eye: Adrie9 finished a knitted knockers blitz! Some of them are specific requests and others for general donation. https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4375943/951-975#965 Katanorand finished an amazing spinning project! 26 oz of beautiful 3-ply yarn! https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4375943/951-975#960 Players have also completed some beautiful intricate socks! Rosberrycrafts completed some beautiful Christmas colorwork socks https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4375943/951-975#962 Fgcreations posted a picture of her second completed pair of socks for 2026! Amazing! They are another beautiful colorwork pattern and the colors she chose are beautiful https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4375943/951-975#955 Sandima finished a lovely pair of mosaic socks that used 4 colors for the q4 challenge. So pretty! https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4375943/951-975#954 There's been a lot of conversation in the January huddle about laundry…yep, you heard that right. It's actually pretty fascinating. I've learned a lot. But whether you are into laundry or not, come on over to the friendliest place on the internet before the PSP is over! Events New England Farm & Fiber Festival- Sunday February 8 from 10a-4p in Boston, MA Fiberfest at the Boston Public Market- March 21 & 22nd from 10a-5p in Boston, MA Fiber Witch Festival- April 24-26th in Salem, MA NH Sheep and Wool - May 9 & 10 in Deerfield NH Life in Focus 26 in 2026 List A-Aim for one night at week at the pool in July and August- make it regular and invite friends to pop over B- Blood- donate at least 5 times C- Christmas Sleepover D- Declutter 26+ items E- Events- go to at least 26 ticketed events F-Find 2-6 new things and try them out! G-Go on a trip with Dan (just us) H- Headshots for Hattie I- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum- GO! J- Journal- Write 365 entries in my I Remember Journal about Mom (inspired by Liz Craft who talked about it on Ep 451 of Happier in Hollywood podcast) K- Knit at least 2 projects with handspun L- Literary pursuit- read at least 65 books M- Museum- go to at least 1 N- NYC- go visit Laura at least once O- Organize a FearLESS Living Fundraiser P- Puzzle- do at least 1 with Dan Q-Quarterly review of calendar/photos & goals (to make Year in Review easier and faster)- calendar it! R- Restaurant- try at least 1 new local restaurant S- Socks- knit 26 pair T- Tattoo U- Up the amount of muscle in my body- at least 1 pound by end of the year. V- Vlogmas- take the year off (even if you're tempted) W- Wheel- sit down at my spinning wheel every month (put reminders on my calendar at the beginning of each month to help remind me) X- Cross 1 thing off this list that no longer serves me Y-Yoga at least 2-6 times Z- Create Zone to keep important papers 2026 Word of the Year: Fresh (think: fresh start, fresh foods, fresh powder, fresh air, etc new & therefore interesting or exciting recently made, done etc & especially not yet changed by time in a natural condition rather than artificially preserved by a process such as freezing clean and pleasant energetic, enthusiastic, and not tired: (of a face) natural, healthy, and young looking (of air) clean and cool; found outside rather than in a room: recently done On a Happy Note Wonder at ART- extended through 2/5. Check out their website for tickets. Sound of Music at the Boston Opera House Game night with Liz, Jay, Riley and Dan. A snowy slow MLK weekend. Car shopping. I've been able to hack 3 classes a week at my gym. A cold walk with Megg at Wompatuck. A cute message about Miles enjoying his Christmas gifts- "emotional support calendar" A pipe broke while I was washing woolies on Sunday during snowstorm. Silverlining was that Dan had the part we needed on hand and was able to fix it so quickly. Quote of the Week "Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." -Nathaniel Hawthorne ---- Thank you for tuning in! Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link FearLESS Living Fund to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.
00:00:00 Welcome, Intros, and a TI:ME Feature 00:10:25 Listener Question - what sources do you follow to stay afloat on tech tools and ongoings in and outside the field of music education? RobbyBurns.com cdm Pirate Wires Futurism The Verge Techmeme Six Colors Daring Fireball Mac Stories Off the Beaten Path 00:16:55 Chart-Topping AI Country Song Using Suno* to make demos 00:27:03 Automation Station Craft - a PKM that's hot Drafts - working with Craft Loop - Nice lookin' Google Doc 00:33:20 Segue: Tahoe Issues, iOS 26 Issues, System Issues 00:35:47 Favorites of 2025 Apps: Sequel, Finch, Final Cut Pro Music: Bon Iver, David Matthews, Fred Again…, Tame Impala + Justice Computing Device: Apple Watch Ultra, Mac mini m4, JAYE'S BRAIN Other Tools and Materials: Miyoo Mini Plus, Nintendo Switch, PAID StudioOne, Ableton Move Books: Ideology of Competition in School Music, Nuclear War: A Scenario, Adam Curtis documentaries, fiction, broadly, War & Peace (via Footnotes & Tangents), Meditations Other Media: Robby: Hard games such as Hollow Knight Movies - Arrival Show - Pluribus Will: Shows - Pluribus Game - Balatro Movie - Mulholland Drive Jaye Movies - Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning Sports - Cricket Museums - The MLB Hall of Fame Misc! @Robby Presentations and Awards - TMEA Life - Babys, Costco Executive @Jaye Finances - upgraded American Airlines credit card Travel - Munich, Vienna, Prague by train; Seeing the Cardinals in St Louis Will Project: Funkhaus.music 01:14:15 Predictions! No show note spoilers… 01:20:48 Tired/Wired Lightening Round Unpressable Buttons Marco Polo
Hosting isn't just entertaining — it's a love language.In this episode of Legacy of Love, Melissa takes you behind the scenes of how she plans and prepares her Galentine's Day gatherings — not just as events, but as sacred spaces for sisterhood, beauty, connection, and community.This episode is for the woman who feels the call to gather, create beauty, and bring women together in real life — not just online. It's for the woman in her hosting era, her feminine era, her community-building era.Melissa shares her full step-by-step process — from vision casting to preparation to experience design — along with the deeper why behind hosting as a feminine spiritual practice and a form of relational leadership.This isn't about perfection.It's about intention.It's about beauty as devotion.It's about sisterhood as medicine.It's about creating spaces where love can live.✨ In this episode, you'll learn:Why hosting is a feminine love languageHow to start with vision casting using a Pinterest boardHow to identify themes, colors, and aesthetic directionHow to choose a date using the “core girlfriends” strategyWhy trying to find a date for everyone stops most women from hostingHow to build a guest list with openness and energetic detachmentHow to create a Canva Galentine's invitationWhy potluck-style gatherings take pressure off the hostHow to create and manage a Google Doc potluck listHow to send invitations in a personal, relational wayHow to bring guests into the vision without overwhelming themHow to curate a balanced food spread (sweet + savory)How to honor dietary needs with care and inclusivityHow to source decor, outfits, and styling elementsHow to use your Pinterest board to anchor your design visionHow to style your space with color cohesion and aesthetic flowHow to create connection experiences (question jars, rituals, bonding activities)How to design an immersive, feminine atmosphereHow to include surprise elements and meaningful symbolismHow hosting creates community beyond the event itselfHow sisterhood builds real-life support systemsHow hosting becomes an act of feminine leadershipHow to release fear around turnout, perfection, and RSVPsHow to host from devotion instead of pressureThis episode is both practical and devotional — giving you real tools and a deeper perspective on why gathering women matters.Hosting is community care.Hosting is feminine leadership.Hosting is love in action.Hosting is art.Hosting is devotion.
In dieser Folge tauchen Daniel Dippold, EWOR, und Mike Mahlkow tief in ihre persönlichen Produktivitäts-Setups ein. Sie sprechen offen und konkret über die Tools, die ihnen wirklich Zeit sparen und ihren Arbeitsalltag effizienter machen – von E-Mail und Kalender über File Management und Meeting-Transkription bis hin zu Hardware-Tipps. Dabei geht es nicht um Tool-Overload, sondern um die Frage: Wie findet man die richtige Balance und was bringt wirklich Return on Time? Was du aus der Folge mitnimmst: Konkret & ehrlich: Welche Tools Daniel und Mike täglich wirklich nutzen und warum – von Superhuman für E-Mail, Raycast für Mac, cal.com/WimCall für Scheduling, Optiverse für Meeting-Transkription bis zu ClickUp und Google für Projekt- und Wissensmanagement. Prozess statt Hype: Wie man Tools auswählt und woran man erkennt, ob sich das Onboarding und der Wechsel wirklich lohnt. Hardware matters: Warum ein guter Laptop, stabile Kopfhörer, Mikro & Internet genauso produktiv machen wie die beste Software. Ergonomie & Gesundheit: Wie ein Laptopständer und externe Tastatur Nackenproblemen vorbeugen. Tool-Philosophie: Produktivität ist kein Tool-Overload! Es geht um wenige, aber wirkungsvolle Tools – und darum, regelmäßig zu prüfen, was wirklich Zeit spart. Bonus: Ausblick auf AI-Workflows und warum ein bewusster Umgang mit neuen Tools und Automatisierungen immer wichtiger wird. ALLES ZU UNICORN BAKERY: https://stan.store/fabiantausch Daniel Dippold LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieldippold Website: https://www.ewor.com/ Mike Mahlkow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemahlkow/ Website: https://fastgen.com/ Join our Founder Tactics Newsletter: 2x die Woche bekommst du die Taktiken der besten Gründer der Welt direkt ins Postfach: https://www.tactics.unicornbakery.de/ Kapitel: (00:00:00) Produktivität: Tools und Prinzipien (00:01:30) Superhuman & E-Mail-Produktivität (00:04:42) Snippets, Scheduling und Follow-ups in Superhuman (00:07:15) Inbox Zero & Unified Inbox (00:09:09) Raycast & File-Management auf dem Desktop (00:12:15) Naming, AI-Features und Quick Links in Raycast (00:16:42) Kalender-Tools: cal.com, WimCall & Scheduling-Infrastruktur (00:22:48) Meeting-Transkriptionstools & Automatisierungen (00:26:21) Hardware: Kopfhörer, Mikrofone, Laptops & Setup (00:37:16) Die drei wichtigsten Tools für junge Companies (00:38:27) Project Management: ClickUp, Google Docs & Knowledge Management (00:42:47) Internet & Tastatur als unterschätzte Produktivitätsfaktoren (00:46:07) Ergonomie: Laptopständer & Nackenprobleme (00:47:46) Zeittracking & ROI von Tools (00:49:05) Fazit: Weniger ist mehr & Ausblick auf AI-Tools
Thankfully the snowstorm stopped in time for Ron Richards to dig out and join Jason Howell and Huyen Tue Dao for the latest in Android news from OnePlus to Samsung and of course a dash of Google and Gemini for fun.Note: Time codes subject to change depending on dynamic ad insertion by the distributor00:04:55 - NEWSOnePlus responds to reports of their demise and it's not really confidence building...Ron was glad he wasn't alone in having Pixel Weather fail completely during the snow storm last weekend.EU is coming after Google, again, this time for how deeply Gemini is integrated into AndroidPatron Pick: Say goodbye to this killer feature in GMail you probably didn't even know existed!00:36:39 - HARDWARESome glimpses of the Oppo Find X9 Ultra shows a cool two-tone camera back designMore peeks of the Samsung Galaxy S26, this time at the camera bump via the Qi2 battery bank!We hope you're sitting down because Samsung revealed how much the Galaxy Z Trifold will cost in the US and it's a lot! It's available now!00:50:01 - APPSNow you can sync your queues across the web and Android on YouTube MusicFeel free to celebrate now that Google Photos Me Meme feature is here. Or Not.But you should really celebrate now that Google Sans is an available font in Google Docs and other apps!00:57:52 - FEEDBACKJezz from Australia wants to know how to screenshot the Gemini overlay?Ken from Batavia, NY weighs in on the iOS vs Android debateFrank R. clears up the confusion about Porsche Design and Honor Phones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Topics Covered Influencer marketing as a modern demand lever in a “feeds are flooded” environment (credibility + distribution vs polish)Building an influencer program as a repeatable system (not one-off posts)Aligning influencer strategy to GTM motion: PLG + sales-led dual motion, fast sales cycle, and audience behavior on LinkedInTalent sourcing: internal creators, power users, frontline thought leaders, executive narrative voices, and “entertainer/evangelism” creatorsUsing influencer content as paid social creative (thought leadership ads) and deciding what to amplifyProgram mechanics: 3-month trials, post cadence, onboarding, briefs, review cycles, and relationship managementIncentives tied to outcomes (PLG signup bonus, ARR percentage via UTM)Measurement options: cost per signup, CPM/efficient reach, ABM-style reach goals, qualitative signals, and attribution constraintsQuality control: “smell test” for AI slop, engagement pods, and meaningful comment engagementActivation workflow: first-hour engagement, “let it cook” windows, reporting, UTM updates for paid vs organic, and distribution trade-offsQuestions This Video Helps AnswerHow do you structure B2B influencer marketing so it drives demand (not just awareness) without becoming random acts of promotion?How should a B2B team align influencer strategy to GTM motion (PLG vs sales-led) and measurement constraints?What's the best place to start: internal creators, power users, or external influencers?How do you choose influencer “types” (executive narrative, frontline education, entertainment/evangelism) based on goals?What contract length and cadence reduces the risk of declaring influencer “doesn't work” too early?How do you turn influencer posts into paid social assets using thought leadership ads?What's a practical incentive structure for creators tied to signups and revenue (UTM-based)?How do you spot inflated performance from AI-generated engagement or engagement pods?When should you promote a post, and when should you leave it organic?How can you evaluate influencer impact using CPM, reach, signups, and qualitative sales signals?Key TakeawaysIf you want results, avoid one-off influencer posts; start with at least a 3-month trial so performance can compound and audience association can form.In crowded feeds, influencer works because it combines trust with distribution; paid amplification (thought leadership ads) can make “small” creators valuable when the story is strong.Start sourcing from internal creators and product power users first; they're cheaper, more credible on use cases, and their content can be promoted to the right audience.Make onboarding and relationships non-negotiable: demo the product, ideate together, and set a clear review cycle so feedback doesn't show up only as late-stage Google Doc edits.Tie incentives to business outcomes and effort: bonus for PLG signups over the contract window, percentage of ARR from UTM-driven revenue, and paid boosts for high-performing posts (which also benefits the creator's audience growth).Don't boost everything: let posts run organically first, then selectively promote what's likely to work in paid (not every organic winner is a paid winner).Quality control requires human judgment: scan comments and engagement patterns for meaningful conversation vs AI slop, pods, or gamed metrics.
By popular demand, Michael Smith Jr., co-host of The Generalist podcast, and Daniel Cerventus Lim, semi-retired entrepreneur and community builder in Malaysia, return for another candid deep-dive into Southeast Asia and India tech landscape. Fresh off India's record-breaking IPO wave that's drawing regional companies like Pine Labs to redomicile, they dissect what this exit boom means for a Southeast Asian ecosystem still struggling with venture returns. Michael delivers his characteristically unflinching take on why "the year of [insert country]" never materializes beyond Singapore and Indonesia, while making the provocative case that most VCs fundamentally misunderstand B2B distribution strategy—specifically how hyperscaler marketplaces like AWS and Microsoft provide the GTM playbook that separates successful exits from perennial fundraising. Daniel shares emerging insights from the SME acquisition space, revealing the stark reality that traditional businesses are "seeing black" while venture-backed startups continue "seeing red." Together, they debate whether we're witnessing an AI infrastructure bubble that will pop or simply taper, examine why Southeast Asia leads globally in AI adoption despite the disconnect with venture outcomes, and question the fragility of cloud infrastructure after recent AWS and CloudFlare outages. The conversation culminates in a sobering assessment: the region has achieved a remarkable $300 billion digital economy milestone, but the path forward may require accepting longer timelines, smaller profitable exits over unicorn dreams, and modernizing traditional businesses rather than building the next ByteDance."If you don't think we're gonna get there, then you should all get outta tech because we're gonna get there. And if you're gonna get there, we barely have the horsepower to do the Google Docs that we have today, let alone the world I just described." - Michael Smith JrOn AI Assistance - “If you can get 90% of the stuff done, I just need to say yes or no. And that is like my [ideal state]." - Daniel Cerventus Episode Highlights: [00:00] Quotes of the Day by Michael, Daniel & Bernard[02:12] Record India IPOs signal redomiciling trend from Singapore[03:53] Pine Labs exit provides significant Southeast Asia returns[04:41] Indonesia's venture funding freeze despite strong exit activity[11:29] Year of whatever narrative never materializes for any country in ASEAN[15:05] AI infrastructure bubble debate: does it pop or fizzle?[18:42] OpenAI's unprecedented growth speed creates new tech pantheon[21:00] Recent AWS and CloudFlare outages highlight infrastructure fragility[24:00] AI agents remain in early stages of development[28:00] Real-world robotics models still lack adequate data foundations[34:00] AppPoint's dual NASDAQ-SGX listing demonstrates successful B2B strategy[38:00] B2B marketplace strategy provides essential distribution for startups[44:00] Reflections on eConomySEA 10th Year Report 2025[53:00] SME market offers modernization opportunities with lower risk[54:00] Southeast Asia modernization surprises many American visitors[56:00] SME acquisition market shows profitability versus startup losses[57:00] ClosingProfile: Michael Smith Jr., Tech Evangelist from Oracle & Co-Host, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast Daniel Cerventus Lim, semi-retired entrepreneur, Community Builder in Malaysia and TEDxKL founder. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cerventus/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/80164351656Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.
Dean Mathews - On the Clock On Watching Your Numbers: "They just realized that their sister in law who's been working for them for 10 years has been adding 10 hours onto every pay run for the last 10 years." Dean Mathews, CEO of On The Clock, shares his journey as an entrepreneur and the evolution of his timekeeping software. He emphasizes the importance of building a people-centric culture, the challenges of managing hybrid teams, and the significance of customer service in differentiating his business in a crowded market. Dean also discusses the future of On The Clock, including plans to integrate HR solutions and enhance their payroll services. Visit Dean at: https://ontheclock.com Podcast Overview: 00:00 Introduction to On the Clock and Dean Mathews 02:55 The Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur 05:56 Transitioning Technology: Moving to Modern Solutions 08:48 Building a People-Centric Culture 11:59 Career Advancement in Small Teams 14:55 Understanding Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) 17:48 The Importance of Culture in Modern Workplaces 20:57 Navigating Hybrid Work Environments 23:53 Fostering Team Interactions and Communication 26:58 Management Style and Learning from Experience 29:51 Insights from 'Scaling' by Claire Hughes Johnson 31:18 Effective Communication and Team Dynamics 33:01 Navigating a Crowded Market 35:58 Customer Service Excellence 41:06 The Importance of Payroll Solutions 46:48 Common Mistakes in Timekeeping and Payroll 51:46 Proactive Business Management Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Dean Mathews [00:00:00]: Tracking payroll, all of those things are very complicated things to do. One of the most common mistakes we see people do is they try to do it themselves, like with a spreadsheet. If your business grows and you end up, you know, like Most businesses do, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 people, and you're still trying to use spreadsheets and not use a system that ends up in a really bad place. You don't have audit logs for traffic, you know, for, for, for history. You don't have compliance, you know, you don't have transparency a lot of times. So you lac of these modern features where, you know, you choose a system like us and like everything's right here in your phone. That's probably the biggest mistake is they're either choosing the wrong system, not choosing a system at all, or they're trying to like, leverage a spreadsheet or a word doc or a Google Doc to run their business. And that, that never turns out well. James Kademan [00:00:54]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business book. And today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Dean Matthews from On the Clock. So, Dean, how is it going today? Dean Mathews [00:01:21]: It is going wonderful, James. Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to chat with you. James Kademan [00:01:26]: Yeah, you know, I'm excited to talk to you for a few reasons. One, you've been in business seemingly forever, so that's. Dean Mathews [00:01:33]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:34]: And the other is you seem to be pretty people centric, which is great, and I'm gonna dare say rare. And on top of that, you run a service, the timekeeping system, I guess that we. My gosh, when I was looking for a timekeeping system forever ago, it was bizarre to me how few options I found that actually could do all of the things. Dean Mathews [00:01:59]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:59]: And I'm like, I'm not asking for a rocket ship to the moon or anything. I'm just literally asking to keep track of employees hours. That's all I want. Dean Mathews [00:02:06]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:02:07]: So how about you? Let's just start from the very beginning, right back at the dawn of time. Dean Mathews [00:02:11]: Dawn of time. James Kademan [00:02:12]: When did you get started with? On the clock? Dean Mathews [00:02:14]: Yeah. So I'll give you the quick rundown. So I'm kind of a, I guess you call it a quote unquote, serial entrepreneur, if you will. Quite A few startups, businesses, side projects, passion projects throughout the years. But with on the Clock back In like the mid 2000 era, I had several projects, passion projects going on. On the Clock was one of them. I'm always looking for problems that I can solve. So this is the kitchen story or the kitchen table story. Dean Mathews [00:02:49]: This was late 2003 ish. So like 20 some years ago now, sitting at the kitchen table, looking through forums, business forums, remember those business, small business accounting forums. And I saw this trend of all these small business owners and accountants in this forum, just talking. I just looking for something simple, something like you just said, that works well, something that can track my employees time. And I want it online and I want it easy and I want it reliable. That was their two requests. So I was sitting there and I was reading that and I'm like, I'm going to build that for them. So I'm also a software developer or in a former life I was a software developer. Dean Mathews [00:03:34]: So I set out to build it and pretty much within a couple months we actually had on the clock running. It was very simple, very bare bones, but it was up and running. Employees could clock in and clock out, managers and admins could get time for payroll. And it was really just a passion project at that time along with, you know, several others. And kind of fast forward to right around 10ish years ago, it had just been kind of organically growing on its own. Like I said, it was more of a side project. But about that 10ish years ago, Mark, really it started, started getting to the point to where I couldn't ignore it anymore. So decided to go all in with on the Clock and want to just focus on one thing really, really heavily and put all my energy into it instead of half a dozen or a dozen different projects. Dean Mathews [00:04:26]: So focused on that and decided to turn it from a passion project to a real business. Got it into an llc. My brother Mark was also interested in doing some of these things so got him to come on board. And we hired our first employee, Samantha. She's still with us today. She's actually moved up a lot in the tier. She is now product owner. Super proud of her. Dean Mathews [00:04:52]: And so now we're sitting where it's 22 of us total and we serve about 18,000 customers, mostly here in the United States. James Kademan [00:05:00]: Yeah, 18,000. Dean Mathews [00:05:01]: 18,000. Yeah. It's crazy. James Kademan [00:05:04]: Holy cow. Dean Mathews [00:05:04]: That is a. James Kademan [00:05:06]: That's a pool and a half. Dean Mathews [00:05:07]: Yeah, it's a. Yeah, two and a half pools. James Kademan [00:05:10]: So crazy. Dean Mathews [00:05:11]: Yeah, it's kind of crazy when you Step back and look at it and. But you know, it goes to show you, you know, you put your effort and your time and your energy into something and it can pay off, it can turn into something big. James Kademan [00:05:22]: Yeah, yeah, Tell me a story. You were doing software before you said so were your other passion projects software based? Dean Mathews [00:05:30]: Almost all of them were, yes. So built a kind of like an online survey type tool similar to like a survey monkey where you could ask different surveys. Had a database type tool where you could just create a database for anything you wanted to contacts customers, sales online. Started that one, had another payments processing, a business to business payments processing, Ach type solution. Those are two or three of the ones that I started. There was a couple others as well. They kind of, some started, some really took off, some didn't, some just kind of floundered. But yeah, so I always had that entrepreneurial spirit, just wanting to do something big, you know, just make a change, something I could just stand on and, you know, just be happy with. James Kademan [00:06:18]: Yeah, it's interesting, I had another guest on the show, I don't know, fairly recently and he said all we want to do is sell usernames and passwords. So I feel like you're, you're in that world, which is pretty good world to be in. Dean Mathews [00:06:34]: Yeah, yeah. James Kademan [00:06:36]: Tell me a story as far as the back end goes, because programming languages that were popular 20 years ago are not necessarily the same now. So has your platform shifted or had huge rewrites or anything over the course of the past couple decades? Dean Mathews [00:06:52]: Yeah, from a technology standpoint, the technology we wrote it in, you know, 22, three years ago now is an older technology. Right. And it, it still worked, but you really have to keep up with the times. You can't just sit on these older technologies. You know, developers aren't versed in them anymore, they're inefficient. And the new technologies have so much more to offer for our customer experience. So we started a venture about three years ago, ish, where we called it Move and Improve, where we pick off a couple pages, a couple screens at a time and move those over to the new new technology. So now as of the turn of this year, there's just a couple little pieces we're picking up now, but we are going to be 100. Dean Mathews [00:07:41]:
How I used ChatGPT to uncover my patterns (and turned it into a Success Playbook)I share a behind-the-scenes experiment that turned into a game-changing self-coaching tool: I uploaded two years of journal entries to ChatGPT and asked it to identify my patterns. What came back was like having an ultra-insightful coach mirror back the exact moments I get dysregulated, slip into fear-based survival mode, and unintentionally self-sabotage… plus the specific non-negotiables that keep me grounded, regulated, and moving forward.If you've ever wondered why you “know what to do” but still fall into the same loops, this episode will help you see the real root: safety. When the body doesn't feel safe, it defaults to fight/flight/freeze/fawn — and willpower won't fix that. Awareness + regulation tools + a personalized Success Playbook will.In this episode, we cover:The real reason self-sabotage happens: your subconscious is designed for survival, not successHow fight/flight/freeze/fawn can show up as:People-pleasing and overcommitting (fawn)Overworking and pushing harder (fight)Procrastinating, scrolling, avoiding (flight/freeze)Why “try harder” and “more discipline” often backfire when you're dysregulatedThe power of awareness: naming your triggers and patterns so you can interrupt them in real timeHow I created a Success Playbook (and why certain practices became non-negotiable)Why a simple habit tracker can help reinforce safety, consistency, and momentumHow you can create your own Success Playbook in about an hour — even without years of journalingGet the Success Playbook Prompts (Free)I created a Google Doc with journal prompts (takes ~1 hour) + the exact ChatGPT prompt to generate your own Success Playbook.To get it:Click here to go to the Instagram postComment PLAYBOOKYou'll be automatically sent the Google DocIf this episode helped you, share it with a friend — and please rate + review the podcast. It helps more people find these tools and use them to create real change.Click here to join The Pleasure Project Program
What happens when a coach stops trying to do everything — and finally gets clear?In today's episode, I'm sitting down with Lisa, a mom and online coach who went from feeling stuck, scattered, and unsure how to grow… to signing 24 online clients after simplifying her business.We talk about what her coaching business looked like before, why trying to figure it out alone was keeping her stuck, and how starting with her own body transformation helped her step into a new level of confidence and identity as a coach.From there, we break down the exact shifts that changed everything:• Creating one clear signature program instead of offering random services• Setting one offer and one price — and why that made selling easier• Building a simple Google Doc sales list that removed pressure and confusion• Installing a content system that actually converts (without posting more)Lisa also walks through the real client journey — from someone discovering her content, to joining her list, to becoming a paying client — and shares what surprised her most about going from 0 to 24 clients.If you're a coach who knows you're capable, but your business still feels messy, overwhelming, or inconsistent — this episode will show you what's possible when you simplify and commit to one clear path.In this episode, you'll learn:• Why clarity beats hustle every time• How one signature program creates momentum• What actually makes content convert into clients• The mindset shift that helped Lisa grow faster than she expected• What to focus on if you're stuck at zero (or plateaued) Follow Lisa on IG: @coachlisabyersWant help building your own signature program?If this episode resonates and you're ready to simplify your coaching business, DM “COACHING” on Instagram @Coach_JVB Connect with Jenny (Coach JVB)Instagram: @coach_jvbWORK WITH ME - https://strongjvb.typeform.com/to/aqFEZtP1Website: coachjvb.comSubscribe to STRONG Fitness Mag - Use Code STRONGGIRLS3 - https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/strong-fitness-magazine DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy, opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Disenyo.co LLC and its employees.
Send us a textThanks to Harper Collins and Author Lauren Schott for joining me to talk about her debut thriller, Very Slowly All At Once.More from Lauren:Purchase Very Slowly All At OnceFollow Lauren on InstagramBooks Mentioned in This Episode:First Lie Wins by Ashley ElstonLatter of Years by Ann TylerBury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. SchwabThings You Save in a Fire by Katherine CenterFor links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list. For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above. For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
As therapists, many of us feel a deep tension when it comes to pricing—especially when we're creating group offers, workshops, or professional-facing experiences during uncertain social, political, and economic times.In this coaching episode, I sit down with trauma therapist Kim Torrence to explore what really comes up when we try to assign value to our work: fears about accessibility, old beliefs about service and self-sacrifice, money shame, and the pressure to “get it right” before we ever put an offer out into the world.This conversation goes far beyond the math of pricing. Together, we unpack the emotional and mindset barriers that often keep therapists stuck offering their most meaningful work for free or far below what's sustainable.If you're navigating private practice finances, pricing group offers, or wondering how to honor both your values and your own well-being, this episode is here to support you with clarity, reassurance, and grounded next steps.Charging for Group Work in Your Therapy PracticeWe talk about why pricing is deeply connected to mindset and visibility, not just numbers, and how perfectionism or overcomplicated tech can quietly keep meaningful offers stuck on the sidelines. Our conversation centers on starting simply, naming your value clearly, and allowing confidence to build through real-world action.(00:06:02) Helping Others Through Feelings of Loneliness(00:07:17) Operating Business as Usual During a Crisis(00:12:16) Valuing Self-Care for Therapists(00:14:50) Authentic Healing for Deep Thinkers(00:18:29) B2B Value and Pricing Insights(00:21:18) Valuing Group Offerings Effectively(00:24:52) Self-Worth and Vulnerability(00:26:36) Creating a Supportive Success Container(00:31:57) Gather Feedback, Build Testimonials(00:33:42) Stop Overcomplicating Your Work(00:36:24) Owning Your Value in PracticeFrom Free to Paid: Navigating Pricing, Visibility, and Worth as a TherapistIf Kim's experience feels familiar, you're not alone. Here are a few reflections and actions I invite you to consider as you navigate pricing, worthiness, and financial sustainability in your own practice:Give your offer the credit it deserves.Even a lunch-hour workshop or short group can be deeply transformational. Duration and ease do not determine impact.Price for the right people, not everyone.Instead of focusing on who can't afford your offer, get clear on who it's truly for—especially when your work supports other professionals who carry that value forward into their own communities.Separate worth from accessibility narratives.Pricing your work sustainably doesn't make you selfish or out of touch. It allows you to keep showing up, serving, and caring for yourself long-term.Keep it simple and start anyway.You don't need a perfect website, branding, or tech stack. A clear Google Doc explaining who the offer is for, why it matters, and how to join is more than enough to begin.Your skills, knowledge, and presence—yes, even in a modest group format—are valuable. Pricing them too low doesn't make your work more accessible; it often just makes it harder to keep...
Let me guess — your team still pings you for every little thing, and that SOP you swore you'd write is still just a blank Google Doc mocking you from your drive.This episode isn't about operations — it's about freedom. Because if your business can't run without you, you're not leading a business… you're babysitting one. Today, I'll show you how smart CEOs use SOPs that scale — without boring themselves (or their team) to death. And yes, we're making SOPs sexy again. Let's go.In this episode, you'll learn…Why SOPs aren't documentation, they're delegation The 3-step founder-friendly formula to creating systems fastHow AI tools can cut your SOP creation time in halfThis episode at a glance:[02:32]- SOPs don't fail because they're unimportant, they fail because founders write them like robots.[03:43]- If your business can't run without you, it doesn't scale.[13:51]- AI doesn't replace your brain,it skips the parts that drain it[15:04]- SOPs may not scream show me the money, but they absolutely help you keep the money.Resources and links mentioned in this episode:AI for Founders Playbook Join the AI for Founders Community 10 Ways AI Will Make You a Better Leader – Free Guide Tools mentioned: Tango, Loom, Zoom, Otter, ChatGPT, Claude, ScribeSend us a textWant to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “She's That Founder” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.
Kicking off 2026, let's cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters: edtech tools that can genuinely move the needle for educators. Rather than chasing trends or shiny new platforms, this episode is about intentional, practical technology use that supports feedback, collaboration, creativity, engagement, organization, and student voice.#EdTech Thought: Shrinking the Engagement GapThe episode tackles the growing disconnect between students' highly interactive digital lives outside of school and the passive digital experiences they often encounter in classrooms.Chris challenges the idea that more screen time equals more engagement and introduces the 80/20 Producer Strategy:For every 80% of the time students spend consuming informationEnsure at least 20% is spent creating something with value beyond the gradebookThe core message:Engagement in 2026 isn't about flashy tools. It's about student agency. When students create, design, build, and solve real problems, the engagement gap begins to close.Six Tools to Level Up in 2026#1 Mote — Rethinking FeedbackFeedback is essential but time-consuming. Mote allows educators to leave quick voice comments directly inside Google Docs, Slides, and LMS platforms.Why it matters:Faster than typingMore personal and humanAccessible through audio + transcriptionLevel-Up Question:Where in your workflow could your voice be more effective than your keyboard?#2 FigJam — Making Thinking VisibleFigJam is a collaborative digital whiteboard that turns learning into an active, visible process.Use it to:Brainstorm and organize ideasCapture student thinking in real timeSupport collaboration for both synchronous and asynchronous workLevel-Up Question:How often do students visually share their thinking before submitting a final product?#3 Canva — Creativity That CommunicatesCanva has evolved into a full creation and communication platform, allowing students to demonstrate learning visually and professionally.Classroom possibilities include:Infographics and explainer visualsDigital portfoliosEthical media creation and storytellingLevel-Up Question:Are students creating content — or just consuming it?#4 Curipod, Pear Deck & Nearpod — Real-Time EngagementThese tools transform traditional presentations into interactive learning experiences through polls, questions, and formative checks.Why they work:Immediate insight into student understandingNo extra gradingIncreased accountability without pressureLevel-Up Question:How often do you
A movie about a ping-pong prodigy became an unexpected masterclass in the psychology of achievement. After seeing Marty Supreme, I couldn't stop thinking about one line that perfectly captures why some people get what they want while others stay stuck in perpetual "someday" mode. In this episode we dive into:• The difference between wanting something in theory versus wanting it so deeply in your bones that failure doesn't even enter your consciousness• Why asking for permission or signs might actually be keeping you from the thing you say you want• The exact mindset shift that separates people who achieve their goals from those who keep re-starting them• How to stop making it harder on yourself by re-deciding your commitment every single dayWhen There's No Other Option• You've been thinking about the same goal for months or years, constantly finding reasons why "now isn't the right time"• The real issue isn't your circumstances—it's that you're treating your goal like an option instead of an inevitability• Marty Supreme doesn't try to sound confident or hype himself up; he's already decided the outcome is his• When someone asks "what if it doesn't work out?" and your genuine response is confusion because that reality doesn't exist in your mindThe Permission Problem• Reaching out for validation reveals you're still waiting for external proof that you're ready (spoiler: you already know)• Looking for "signs" can be empowering, but it can also be another delay tactic disguised as spiritual alignment• The entrepreneur asking "tell me I'll be okay" already knows the answer—she's built a thriving business with limited time, showing exactly how she'll show up when she goes all in• Your track record of follow-through matters more than any pep talk someone else can give youMoving Like You've Already Won• When you truly believe the outcome is inevitable, the uncomfortable actions required to get there feel easier to execute• You stop wasting energy debating whether you should do the thing and channel that energy into actually doing it• The person who can't complete a 10-question Google Doc or track food for three days is revealing how badly they actually want what they say they want• Wanting something more for someone else than they want it for themselves creates an imbalance that guarantees failureThis conversation reminds us that confidence isn't about never doubting yourself—it's about refusing to let those doubts change your trajectory. Whether you're trying to lose 15 pounds or quit your full-time job to go all in on your business, this episode offers the reality check and permission slip you need to stop treating your goals like maybes and start moving like someone who's already decided.Looking for more on building unshakeable commitment? Check out previous episodes where we explore sustainable systems over seasonal resets and why approval-seeking behaviors derail your progress.Follow Krysta:Instagram: @thekrystahuberInstagram: @thespreadmktgInstagram: @thefitnessfyx
Chef Robotics has produced 80 million meals—more than all other food robotics companies combined. The company has cracked what dozens of well-funded startups couldn't: profitable deployment of AI-enabled robots in food manufacturing. In this episode of BUILDERS, Rajat Bhageria, Founder and CEO of Chef Robotics, reveals why he focused on manufacturing before restaurants, how a single contract term change accelerated his sales cycle, and why the food assembly problem requires intelligence that traditional automation can't provide. This is category creation in real-time, with expansion to Germany and the UK planned for 2026. Topics Discussed: Why 60-70% of commercial food labor is in assembly, not cooking or prep The systematic failures of B2C robotics companies (Zume) versus B2B approaches (Miso Robotics) Chef's manufacturing-first strategy to build training data and field operations scale Why six-axis robots with vision outperform gravity-fed dispensers for food variability Reframing contract structure from "site acceptance test" to "trial" for faster closes Trade show strategy: multiple robots across partner booths, not just your own The economics of robotics-as-a-service in traditionally capex-driven industries GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Validate unit economics before building in hardware: Rajat secured early contracts before engineering anything. This wasn't just customer validation—it was economic validation. He identified that robotics companies fail when "they're trying to charge a human salary, but they're not able to provide the full set of tasks that a human is able to do in an eight hour shift." By selling first, Chef confirmed customers would pay for assembly automation specifically, not a general-purpose kitchen robot. For hard tech founders: pre-selling de-risks both product-market fit AND your business model assumptions. Target the labor concentration point, not the obvious automation opportunity: While competitors automated cooking (low labor intensity), Chef mapped the entire food production workflow and discovered assembly consumed 60-70% of labor hours. Rajat's insight: "One person can cook for 100 people or a thousand people. So even though the cooking process can take a while, you're amortizing it over a lot of people." This workflow analysis revealed where ROI actually existed. Founders should map labor distribution across their customer's entire operation, not just automate the most visible or technically interesting task. Build your moat through training data and field operations density: Chef's manufacturing focus isn't just about easier sales—it's strategic infrastructure. Rajat explained: "Today, Chef has done 80 million meals...If we can be really good at food manipulation, we have the biggest data set of training data...as we build more robots, our bill of material gets lower...We have people all over the country servicing these robots, which obviously those same people can service robots in restaurants." For AI-enabled hardware, your moat compounds through deployment volume, not just product features. Reframe risk through contract structure, not just pricing: Chef's breakthrough wasn't discounting—it was renaming their "site acceptance test" to a "trial." Rajat described the impact: "Literally exactly the same thing. It's kind of like you go to your Google Doc and you replace all SAT into trial. That has an immense impact on the sales velocity." The cognitive reframing transformed how buyers perceived commitment risk. For founders selling novel technology: audit your contract language for terms that trigger buyer risk aversion, even when the underlying mechanics protect them. Trade show ROI multiplies through partner booth placement: Rather than maximizing their own booth presence, Chef places robots in partner booths across the trade show floor. Rajat noted this approach yields more deal closures because "the champions saw the thing at the trade show." This isn't about lead volume—it's about removing skepticism. Manufacturing buyers don't believe flexible automation exists until they see it operating. For hard tech companies: distribute proof points across the physical spaces where your skeptical buyers already congregate. Customer success IS your market education strategy: In a nascent category with a "graveyard" of failed predecessors, Chef's market education relies entirely on reference customers. Cafe Spice scaled from 4 to 16 robots and now hosts prospective customer visits. Rajat's approach: give exceptional pricing to customers willing to become advocates. The conversion rate from a skeptical prospect visiting a working deployment far exceeds any other marketing channel. For category creators: your unit economics on early lighthouse customers should account for their sales force value, not just their revenue. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM
Thank you for tuning in to Episode 312 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website. This week's segments included: Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Brainstorming Knitting in Passing From the Armchair KAL News Events Contest, News & Notes Life in Focus On a Happy Note Quote of the Week Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Sheri's Christmas Socks Yarn: Gusto Wool Echos in Colorway 1515 (blue to purple gradient in 2-50g skeins) Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Gus the Dino Pattern: Gus the Dino by KP Crochet Patterns. $8.50 US Pattern on Etsy (on sale right now) Yarn: Bernat Blanket in Misty Green & Parfait Chunky in White Hook: J (6.0 mm) Ravelry Project Page I got 35 mm eyes from Amazon Very Hungry Caterpillar Socks Yarn: Teal Torch Knits Splendid Sock (100% SW Merino) in the Emerald Colorway, Murky Depths Deep Sock in the Age of Aquarium Colorway & Legacy Fiber Artz Steel Toes in the Vanilla Bean colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) and US 2 Ravelry Project Page The first sock is a colorwork leg sock with things the Very Hungry Caterpillar I measured from another socks- 12 rounds per inch. Goal is a 5 inch leg (after cuff), so ~60 rounds Cast on 56 sts with US 1.5 for cuff. After cuff, knit a few rounds before doing 4 sets of increases (4 increases each time) to get to 72 sts. Then changed to US 2 needles and tested for stretchiness after first block of colorwork. Using that I plotted out the colorwork for one sock based on Pacific Knit Co's Garden Doodle set. The second sock is has 12 round stripes of the 2 green colorways with a red toe to look like the caterpillar. Miles Penguin Pattern: Penguin by Lion Brand Yarn- free crochet pattern on the Lion Brand website Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Worsted minis in Black, Clarity, White and Orange colorways Hook: C (2.75 mm) Ravelry Project Page For this one I used two black circles bordered by white so I could skip the safety eyes (Miles is under 2 years old). Dirty Crayon Box Socks Yarn: Fiber Stash Strong Toes Sock (80% SW Merino/ 20% Nylon) in the Dirty Crayon Box Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page I started these socks in October 2024 and finished on January 5, 2026 On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Woolens & Nosh 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Woolens & Nosh, 75/25 Superwash Wool/Nylon 2025 Advent Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Kirby Wirby 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Kirby Wirby 75/25 Superwash Merino/Nylon in the 2025 Advent Christmas Toys from the 80s 24 Stripe Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Yarn theme: Christmas Toys from the 80s Traveler Sweater Pattern: The Traveler by Andrea Mowry ($9 pattern available on Ravelry & the designer's website) Yarn: Hazel Knits Small Batch Sport (90/10 SW/Nylon) in a sage green Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Progress: finished the first sleeve and I'm at the cuff of the the second. Pucker Brush Farm BFL Sweater Spin Fiber: 16 oz of multi colored BFL roving from Pucker Brush Farm (purchased at Rhinebeck 2025), 4 oz Merino in a mustard color Ravelry Project Page I am planning to knit a Traveler sweater inspired by Emily Curtis' handmade version- click here for her Ravelry Project Page. I was thrilled to see a recent post on Emily's Instagram that she made a YouTube video about this spin/knit. I found 4oz of Ironwood Hill Farm Roving- Finnsheep combed top that I purchased in April 2021. Unfortunately I can't find more of this on Cece's Wool site or Ironwood's etsy shop, but I think it will give me the idea for a tan/brown color plied with the colorful yarn, so I spun enough to make a sample yarn to swatch with. Brainstorming Crochet Ski Helmet Balaclava available on Etsy for $7.36 Knitting in Passing Millie finished the hat she was knitting for her dad with yarn from Plied Yarn Co. Aila loved her goose purse! Her reaction was priceless Eme loved their Very Hungry Caterpillar socks My dad bought me a set of 2 organizers for socks. Each holds 30 pair. Great for my handknits. They sit on the shelf in our closet and are a gray cotton/linen that matches our hampers! Here's an Amazon Affiliate Link in case you're interested in checking them out. From the Armchair The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Amazon Affiliate Link. Tilt by Emma Pattee. Amazon Affiliate Link. Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases. KAL News Pigskin Party '25 Event Dates: KAL Dates- Thursday September 4, 2025- Monday February 9, 2026 Find everything you need in the Start Here Thread in the Ravelry Group Official Rules Registration Form (you must be Registered to be eligible for prizes) Enter your projects using the Point Tally Form Find the full list of Sponsors in this Google Doc. Coupon Codes are listed in this Ravelry Thread Exclusive Items from our Pro Shop Sponsors are listed in this Ravelry Thread Questions- ask them in this Ravelry Thread or email Jen at downcellarstudio @ gmail.com Updates In This Episode Official Sponsor for Quarter 3 (December)- Suburban Stitcher Mini Maker's Merry Month See details in this Ravelry Thread. Winner announced Official Sponsor for Quarter 4 (January)- Yarnaceous Fibers. Check out this Ravelry Thread for 4th & Goal with Yarnaceous Fibers Challenge Details December Participation Winners Announced Wild Card WIP Bonus- check out this Ravelry thread for details Commentator Update Happy new year pigskin partiers! The January huddle is abuzz with conversation. Several players have posted a list of everything that they made in 2025. We have some really prolific players in the group! The best thing about the conversation is that no one is competitive about it. Just lots of celebrations! I find it kind of inspiring to see what others have accomplished. For example, hikesandbikes finished 54 knitted knockers! What a great cause! It inspires me to try knitting some this year. Come on over and join the chat if you want to get inspired too! A few players have decided that they want to make sweaters in 2026. If you want to join in the fun, hop on over to a new Sweater MAL thread: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4390076/1-25 Another interesting topic of conversation in the January huddle stemmed from the unfortunate injury of one of our players. Sadly, she sprained her wrist. The group came through with lots of ideas for what to do when you can't knit and crochet, including needle felting, doing puzzles, watercolors, playing with art supplies, journaling and as MrsQuilt put it, "whining, reading, and actually paying attention to what is on the TV" I am wishing you all health, happiness, and strong crafting mojo in the new year! Mary Events Farm Fiber Days at Russell's Garden Center- January 18th & March 8th in Wayland, MA Sunkissed Fiber Festival: January 24-25, 2026- just outside Tampa, FL New England Farm & Fiber Festival- Sunday February 8 from 10a-4p in Boston, MA Fiber Witch Festival- April 24-26th in Salem, MA Contest, News & Notes Check out my Vlogmas videos if you haven't already- click here for the full playlist. Thanks to Nellsknitting for starting a thread in the Ravelry Group about a Sweater KAL 2026. (Danielle in MA)- great chatter about WIPs, planning etc. Want to cast on and need some encouragement? check it out. Life in Focus In this episode I reviewed my 2025 word of the year and 25 in 25 list. My Word of the Year for 2025: Welcome 25 in 2025 Donate Blood at least 4 times (January, March, May, Sept) Go shopping for plants with Dan 4 times in the year (my Christmas gift from him) Buy new ski boots Go camping (scheduled for June) Kayak 2-5 times (Saco- 2 days) Do at least 5 walks with others (Megg 3/30) bike riding with Dan twice in March. Walked with Megg (April), hike Mount Monument (Dan, Megg, Tom, Aila), Laura in 2 National Parks in Washington State Take 2-5 yoga classes (outside of the house)--- option- https://balancestudiocohasset.com/book-a-class/ Do at least 30 lessons in Mondly (had 25 done in 2024)- does not include daily lessons Spend a day at Raffa Life- September 21 with Laura and Megg Record 2-5 things I'm grateful for each day before bed (more days than not counts)- fallen off. Read all of Simple Abundance (ideally daily or close to)(10) Read at least 60 books- all books count (even poetry etc) Get at least 2 massages at Oasis (1 in April, 1 in June, 1 in September) See 2-5 movies in the theater (Paddington in Peru, The Long Walk, Blue Moon, Wicked for Good) Knit 2-5 garments for me (Aurealis - WIPs-Monsoonee Sweaters, granny stripe tank, Bayside tank) Granny tank, Bayside Shirt Finish and enjoy my Christmas Granny Square Blanket Crochet at least 5 toys (1: hedgehog 2& 3: Love Bugs, 4 pop-tart, 5 butterfly- another butterfly WIP, and TRex) Use my spinning wheel at least once a month (Jan, Feb & March, April, July, August, September, Oct, Nov (forgot May & June) Have a crafty day with Emelie Knit a slouchy hat for myself Try out 3 new to me podcasts (Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, White Lotus official podcast, severance official podcast, Cramped) Watch White Christmas with Jenny & Kara (bringing the tradition back) Buy a firebox and put important papers inside (working with Dan on list of things to put in it) https://www.thenokbox.com (Debbie, deafelis recommended) Create a list of things to pack in case of an evacuation https://www.thenokbox.com/ -deafelis- Debbie told me about it Purge at least 20 items of clothing/accessories/shoes On a Happy Note Dad's knee replacement was a big success! I stayed with him from December 5-21. Dad and I had a lovely visit from our friend Merry who came with an unexpected gift- a bracelet with beads made from my mom's funeral flowers in red (ruby slipper), yellow (yellow brick road) and white for home. Dan and I had a lovely double date night at the Irish pub with friends. I was able to see my 7 year old niece Hattie as Gretl in Sound of Music (twice!!!) Making Aunt Milly's cookies with Riley and Millie (and having a sleepover with them). Christmas Eve & Christmas Day were both lovely. Definitely different without my Mom and grandmother there but it was still a joy to be together. Our friend Gail joined us as she usually does and brought all sorts of fun games for us to play. The Sunday after Christmas, I was able to spend all afternoon with my grandmother, some of that alone. My friend Megg came over because she wanted to visit and say goodbye. We had dinner together after. My friend Laura came in for NYE. Small get together with friends at my Dad's turned into a real party, though most didn't stay until midnight. Megg wanted it to be a sparkly kind of night so Laura and I got outfits for the three of us at the consignment shop on the way over! Very silly fun. My cousin Mike and his husband Kyle came up from Florida. My grandmother's services were beautiful with contributions from lots of family members. While it was more stressful than mom's, and it was the worst form of deja vu having the same schedule for that exact same Thur/Fri two years in a row- my grandmother would be happy with how it all turned out. Skiing on Saturday after the funeral. 7 of us, impromptu trip, icy conditions but we still had a blast. Quote of the Week "Amidst the normal hard stuff is the abnormal hard stuff. You may be doing great, but no one great always had it great. At the end of each day, as you prepare for the next, I hope you take an inventory of your life, your thoughts and where you're headed. The wind can take you some cool places, but so can your paddle." ― Richie Norton ------ Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link FearLESS Living Fund to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.
Send us a textThanks to Author Tracy Wolff and the team at Simon & Schuster. In this episode, we talk about her newest release The Aftermyth. Tracy's Links:Purchase The AftermythFollow her on InstagramWebsiteBooks Mentioned:A Novel Love Story by Ashley PostonSounds Like Love by Ashley Poston (This is the book I realized when editing Tracy was referring to, with a song writing element).It Happened One Sunday by Tracy WolffMate by Ali HazelwoodThe Seven Year Slip by Ashley PostonThe Dead Romantics by Ashley PostonFor links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list. For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above. For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
Attorney Arlene Haeggquist, survivor advocate and legal powerhouse, shares how women can take legal action against workplace sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. Learn documentation strategies, your legal rights, and how to empower yourself through the court process. This episode covers: ✨ Workplace sexual harassment and assault—50% of women experience it ✨ How to document abuse for legal cases (emails, screenshots, timestamps) ✨ Your legal rights as a survivor of workplace abuse ✨ Breaking the silence: why reporting matters ✨ Building support systems during litigation ✨ Toxic workplace culture and power dynamics ✨ Healing from financial abuse and exploitation ✨ Arlene's story: From abuse survivor to advocate for thousands Perfect for survivors, advocates, and anyone wanting to understand workplace rights, boundaries, and legal empowerment. Your journey from victim to survivor to thriver starts here. If you're ready to reclaim your life and learn from others' healing journeys, hit subscribe and join our community of resilient souls. Have a story to share? Email us at HealingFromEmotionalAbusePod@gmail.com —we'd love to feature your questions, healing strategies, opinions and survivor testimonies on the podcast. Transcript of Episode:
In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss analyzing survey data using generative artificial intelligence tools. You will discover how to use new AI functions embedded in spreadsheets to code hundreds of open-ended survey responses instantly. You’ll learn the exact prompts needed to perform complex topic clustering and sentiment analysis without writing any custom software. You will understand why establishing a calibrated, known good dataset is essential before trusting any automated qualitative data analysis. You’ll find out the overwhelming trend in digital marketing content that will shape future strategies for growing your business. Watch now to revolutionize how you transform raw feedback into powerful strategy! Watch the video here: Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube here. Listen to the audio here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/inearinsights/tipodcast-processing-survey-data-with-generative-ai.mp3 Download the MP3 audio here. Need help with your company’s data and analytics? Let us know! Join our free Slack group for marketers interested in analytics! [podcastsponsor] Machine-Generated Transcript What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the episode. Christopher S. Penn: In this week’s In Ear Insights, let’s talk about surveys and processing survey data. Now, this is something that we’ve talked about. Gosh, I think since the founding of the company, we’ve been doing surveys of some kind. And Katie, you and I have been running surveys of some form since we started working together 11 years ago because something that the old PR agency used to do a ton of—not necessarily well, but they used to do it well. Katie Robbert: When they asked us to participate, it would go well. Christopher S. Penn: Yes, exactly. Christopher S. Penn: And this week we’re talking about how do you approach survey analysis in the age of generative AI where it is everywhere now. And so this morning you discovered something completely new and different. Katie Robbert: Well, I mean, I discovered it via you, so credit where credit is due. But for those who don’t know, we have been a little delinquent in getting it out. But we typically run a one-question survey every quarter that just, it helps us get a good understanding of where our audience is, where people’s heads are at. Because the worst thing you can possibly do as business owners, as marketers, as professionals, is make assumptions about what people want. And that’s something that Chris and I work very hard to make sure we’re not doing. And so one of the best ways to do that is just to ask people. We’re a small company, so we don’t have the resources unfortunately to hold a lot of one-on-one meetings. But what we can do is ask questions virtually. And that’s what we did. So we put out a one-question survey. And in the survey, the question was around if you could pick a topic to deep dive on in 2026 to learn about, what would it be. Now keep in mind, I didn’t say about AI or about marketing because that’s where—and Chris was sort of alluding to—surveys go wrong. When we worked at the old shop, the problem was that people would present us with, “and this is the headline that my client wants to promote.” So how do we run a survey around it? Without going too far in the weeds, that’s called bias, and that’s bad. Bias equals bad. You don’t want to lead with what you want people to respond with. All of that being said, we’ve gotten almost 400 responses over the weekend, which is a fantastic number of responses. That gives us a lot of data to work with. But now we have to do something with it. What Chris discovered and then shared with me, which I’m very excited about, is you don’t have to code anything to do this. There were and there still are a lot of data analysis platforms for market research data, which is essentially what this is for: unstructured, qualitative, sentence structured data, which is really hard to work with if you don’t know what you’re looking for. And the more you have of it, the harder it is to figure out where the trends are. But now people are probably thinking, “oh, I just bring it into generative AI and say, summarize this for me.” Well, that’s not good enough. First of all, let’s just don’t do that. But there are ways to do it, no code, that you can really work with the data. So without further ado, Chris, do you want to talk about what you’ve been working on this morning? And we’re going to do a deep dive on our livestream on Thursday, which you can join us every Thursday at 1:00 PM Eastern. Go to Trust Insights AI TI podcast. Nope, that’s us today. Wait a second. TrustInsights AI YouTube, and you can follow live or catch the replay. And we’ll do a deep dive into how this works, both low code and high tech. But I think it’s worth at least acknowledging, Chris, what you have discovered this morning, and then we can sort of talk about some of the findings that we’re getting. Christopher S. Penn: So one of the most useful things that AI companies have done in the last 6 months is put generative AI into the tools that we already use. So Google has done this. They’ve put Gemini in Google Sheets, Google Docs, in your Gmail. Finally, by the way—slight tangent. They finally put it in Google Analytics. Three years later. Microsoft has put Copilot into all these different places as well. In Excel, in Word, in PowerPoint, and so on and so forth. And so what you can do inside of these tools is they now have formulas that essentially invoke an AI agent. So inside of Google Sheets you can type equals Gemini, then give it a prompt and then give it a cell to work on and have it do its thing. Christopher S. Penn: So what I did naturally was to say, “Okay, let’s write a prompt to do topic analysis.” “Okay, here’s 7 different topics you can choose from.” Gemini, tell me for this cell, this one survey response, which of the 7 topics does it fit in? And then it returns just the topic name and puts it in that cell. And so what used to be a very laborious hand coding—”okay, this is about this”—now you can just drag and fill the column and you’ve got all 400 responses classified. You can do sentiment analysis, you can do all sorts of stuff. Katie Robbert: I remember a quick anecdote, and I think I’ve told this story before. When I was doing clinical trial research, we were trying to develop an automated system to categorize sentiment for online posts about the use and abuse of opiates and stimulants. So, is it a positive sentiment? Is it a negative sentiment? With the goal of trying to understand the trends of, “oh, this is a pharmaceutical that just hit the market. People love it. The sentiment is super positive in the wrong places.” Therefore, it’s something that we should keep an eye on. All to say, I remember sitting there with stacks and stacks of printed out online conversation hand coding. One positive, two negative. And it’s completely subjective because we had to have 4 or 5 different hand coders doing the sentiment analysis over and over again until we came to agreement, and then we could start to build the computer program. So to see that you did this all in the span of maybe 20 minutes this morning is just—it’s mind blowing to me. Christopher S. Penn: Yeah. And the best part is you just have to be able to write good prompts. Katie Robbert: Well, therein lies the caveat. And I think that this is worth repeating. Critical thinking is something that AI is not going to do for you. You still have to think about what it is you want. Giving a spreadsheet to AI and saying, “summarize this,” you’re going to get crappy results. Christopher S. Penn: Exactly. So, and we’ll show this on the live stream. We’re going to walk through the steps on how do you build this? Very simple, no tech way of doing it, but at the very least, one of the things you’ll want to do. And we’ve done this. In fact, we did this not too long ago for an enterprise client building a sentiment analysis system: you have to have a known, good starting data set of stuff that has been coded that you agree with. And it can be 3 or 4 or 5 things, but ideally you start with that. So you can say, this is examples of what good and bad sentiment is, or positive and negative, or what the topic is. Write a prompt to essentially get these same results. It’s what the tech folks would call back testing, just calibration, saying, “This is a note, it still says, ‘I hate Justin Zeitzac, man, all this and stuff.’ Okay, that’s a minus 5.” What do they hate us as a company? Oh, okay. “That annoying Korean guy,” minus 5. So you’d want to do that stuff too. So that’s the mechanics of getting into this. Now, one of the things that I think we wanted to chat about was kind of at a very high level, what we saw. Katie Robbert: Yeah. Christopher S. Penn: So when we put all the big stuff into the big version of Gemini to try and get a sense of what are the big topics, really, 6 different topics popped out: Generative AI, broadly, of course; people wanting to learn about agentic AI; content marketing; attribution and analytics; use cases in general; and best practices in general. Although, of course, a lot of those had overlap with the AI portion. And when we look at the numbers, the number one topic by a very large margin is agentic AI. People want to know, what do we do with this thing, these things? How do we get them going? What is it even? And one of the things I think is worth pointing out is having Gemini in your spreadsheet, by definition, is kind of an agent in the sense that you don’t have to go back to an AI system and say, “I’ll do this.” Then copy-paste results back and forth. It’s right there as a utility. Katie Robbert: And I think that I’m not surprised by the results that we’re seeing. I assumed that there would be a lot of questions around agentic AI, generative AI in general. What I am happy to see is that it’s not all AI, that there is still a place for non-AI. So, one of the questions was what to measure and why, which to be fair, is very broad. But you can make assumptions that since they’re asking us, it’s around digital marketing or business operations. I think that there’s one of the things that we try to ask in our free Slack group, Analytics for Marketers, which you can join for free at trustinsights.ai/analyticsformarketers. We chatting in there every day is to make sure that we have a good blend of AI-related questions, but also non-AI-related questions because there is still a lot of work being done without AI, or AI is part of the platform, but it’s not the reason you’re doing it. We know that most of these tools at this day and age include AI, but people still need to know the fundamentals of how do I build KPIs, what do I need to measure, how do I manage my team, how do I put together a content calendar based on what people want. You can use AI as a supporting role, but it’s not AI forward. Christopher S. Penn: And I think the breakout, it’s about, if you just do back of the envelope, it’s about 70/30. 70% of the responses we got really were about AI in some fashion, either regular or agentic. And the 30% was in the other category. And that kind of fits nicely to the two themes that we’ve had. Last year’s theme was rooted, and this year’s theme is growth. So the rooted is that 30% of how do we just get basic stuff done? And the 70% is the growth. To say, this is where things are and are likely going. How do we grow to meet those challenges? That’s what our audience is asking of us. That’s what you folks listening are saying is, we recognize this is the growth opportunity. How do we take advantage of it? Katie Robbert: And so if we just look at all of these questions, it feels daunting to me, anyway. I don’t know about you, Chris—you don’t really get phased by much—but I feel a little overwhelmed: “Wow, do you really know the answers to all of these questions?” And the answer is yes, which is also a little overwhelming. Oh wait, when did that happen? But yeah, if you’re going to take the time to ask people what they’re thinking, you then have to take the time to respond and acknowledge what they’ve asked. And so our—basically our mandate—is to now do something with all of this information, which we’re going to figure out. It’s going to be a combination of a few things. But Chris, if you had your druthers, which you don’t, but if you did. Where would you start with answering some of these questions? Christopher S. Penn: What if I had my druthers? I would put. Take the entire data set one piece at a time and take the conclusion, the analysis that we’ve done, and put it into Claude Code with 4 different agents, which is actually something I did with my own newsletter this past weekend. I’d have a revenue agent saying, “How can we make some money?” I’d have a voice of the customer agent based on our ICP saying, “Hey, you gotta listen to the customer. This is what we’re saying. This is literally what we said. You gotta listen to us.” “Hey, your revenue agent, you can’t monetize everything. I’m not gonna pay for everything.” You would have a finance and operations agent to say, “Hey, let’s. What can we do?” “Here’s the limitations.” “We’re only this many people. We only have this much time in the day. We can’t do everything.” “We gotta pick the things that make sense.” And then I would have the Co-CEO agent (by virtual Katie) as the overseer and the orchestrator to say, “Okay, Revenue Agent, Customer Agent, Operations Agent, you guys tell me, and I’m going to make some executive decisions as to what makes the most sense for the company based on the imperatives.” I would essentially let them duke it out for about 20 minutes in Claude Code, sort of arguing with each other, and eventually come back with a strategy, tactics, execution, and measurement plan—which are the 4 pieces that the Co-CEO agent would generate—to say, “Okay, out of these hundreds of survey responses, we know agentic AI is the thing.” “We know these are the kinds of questions people are asking.” “We know what capabilities we have, we know limitations we have.” “Here’s the plan,” or perhaps, because it’s programmed after you, “Here’s 3 plans: the lowest possible, highest possible, middle ground.” And then we as the humans can look at it and go, “All right, let’s take some of what’s in this plan and most of what’s in this plan, merge that together, and now we have our plan for this content.” Because I did that this weekend with my newsletter, and all 4 of the agents were like, “Dude, you are completely missing all the opportunities. You could be making this a million-dollar business, and you are just ignoring it completely.” Yeah, Co-CEO was really harsh. She was like, “Dude, you are missing the boat here.” Katie Robbert: I need to get my avatar for the Co-CEO with my one eyebrow. Thanks, Dad. That’s a genetic thing. I mean, that’s what I do. Well, so first of all, I read your newsletter, and I thought that was a very interesting thing, which I’m very interested to see. I would like you to take this data and follow that same process. I’m guessing maybe you already have or are in the process of it in the background. But I think that when we talk about low tech and high tech, I think that this is really sort of what we’re after. So the lower tech version—for those who don’t want to build code, for those who don’t want to have to open up Python or even learn what it is—you can get really far without having to do that. And again, we’ll show you exactly the steps on the live stream on Thursday at 1:00 PM Eastern to do that. But then you actually have to do something with it, and that’s building a plan. And Chris, to your point, you’ve created synthetic versions of basically my brain and your brain and John’s brain and said, “Let’s put a plan together.” Or if you don’t have access to do that, believe it or not, humans still exist. And you can just say, “Hey Katie, we have all this stuff. People want to get answers to these questions based on what we know about our growth plans and the business models and all of those things. Where should we start?” And then we would have a real conversation about it and put together a plan. Because there’s so much data on me, so much data on you and John, etc., I feel confident—because I’ve helped build the Co-CEO—I feel confident that whatever we get back is going to be pretty close to what we as the humans would say. But we still want that human intervention. We would never just go, “Okay, that’s the plan, execute it.” We would still go, “Well, what the machines don’t know is what’s happening in parallel over here.” “So it’s missing that context.” “So let’s factor that in.” And so I’m really excited about all of it. I think that this is such a good use of the technology because it’s not replacing the human critical thinking—it’s just pattern matching for us so that we can do the critical thinking. Christopher S. Penn: Exactly. And the key really is for that advanced use case of using multiple agents for that scenario, the agents themselves really do have to be rock solid. So you built the ideal customer profile for the almost all the time in the newsletter. You built… Yeah, the Co-CEO. We’ve enhanced it over time, but it is rooted in who you are. So when it makes those recommendations and says those things, there was one point where it was saying, “Stop with heroics. Just develop a system and follow the system.” Huh, that sounds an awful lot. Katie Robbert: I mean, yeah, I can totally see. I can picture a few instances where that phrase would actually come out of my mouth. Christopher S. Penn: Yep, exactly. Christopher S. Penn: So that’s what we would probably do with this is take that data, put it through the smartest models we have access to with good prompts, with good data. And then, as you said, build some plans and start doing the thing. Because if you don’t do it, then you just made decorations for your office, which is not good. Katie Robbert: I think all too often that’s what a lot of companies find themselves in that position because analyzing qualitative data is not easy. There’s a reason: it’s a whole profession, it’s a whole skill set. You can’t just collect a bunch of feedback and go, “Okay, so we know what.” You need to actually figure out a process for pulling out the real insights. It’s voice of customer data. It’s literally, you’re asking your customers, “What do you want?” But then you need to do it. The number one mistake that companies make by collecting voice of customer data is not doing anything with it. Number 2 is then not going back to the customer and acknowledging it and saying, “We heard you.” “Here’s now what we’re going to do.” Because people take the time to respond to these things, and I would say 99% of the responses are thoughtful and useful and valuable. You’re always going to get a couple of trolls, and that’s normal. But then you want to actually get back to people, “I heard you.” Your voice is valuable because you’re building that trust, which is something machines can’t do. You’re building that human trust in those relationships so that when you go back to that person who gave you that feedback and said, “I heard you, I’m doing something with it.” “Here’s an acknowledgment.” “Here’s the answer.” “Here’s whatever it is.” Guess what? Think about your customer buyer’s journey. You’re building those loyalists and then eventually those evangelists. I’m sort of going on a tangent. I’m very tangential today. A lot of companies stop at the transactional purchase, but you need to continue. If you want that cycle to keep going and have people come back or to advocate on your behalf, you need to actually give them a reason to do that. And this is a great opportunity to build those loyalists and those evangelists of your brand, of your services, of your company, of whatever it is you’re doing by just showing up and acknowledging, “Hey, I heard you, I see you.” “Thank you for the feedback.” “We’re going to do something with it.” “Hey, here’s a little token of appreciation,” or “Here’s answer to your question.” It doesn’t take a lot. Our good friend Brook Sellis talks about this when she’s talking about the number one mistake brands make in online social conversations is not responding to comments. Yeah, doesn’t take a lot. Christopher S. Penn: Yeah. Doesn’t cost anything either. Katie Robbert: No. I am very tangential today. That’s all right. I’m trying not to lose the plot. Christopher S. Penn: Well, the plot is: We’ve got the survey data. We now need to do something about it. And the people have spoken, to the extent that you can make that claim, that Agentic AI and AI agents is the thing that they want to learn the most about. And if you have some thoughts about this, if you agree or disagree and you want to let us know, pop on by our free Slack, come on over to Trust Insights AI/analytics for marketers. I think we’re probably gonna have some questions about the specifics of agentic AI—what kinds of agents? I think it’s worth pointing out that, and we’ve covered this in the past on the podcast, there are multiple different kinds of AI agents. There’s everything from what are essentially GPTs, because Microsoft Copilot calls Copilot GPTs Copilot agents, which is annoying. There are chatbots and virtual customer service agents. And then there’s the agentic AI of, “this machine is just going to go off and do this thing without you.” Do you want it to do that? And so we’ll want to probably dig into the survey responses more and figure out which of those broad categories of agents do people want the most of, and then from there start making stuff. So you’ll see things in our, probably, our learning management system. You’ll definitely see things at the events that folks bring us in to speak at. And yeah, and hopefully there’ll be some things that as we build, we’ll be like, “Oh, we should probably do this ourselves.” Katie Robbert: But it’s why we ask. It’s too easy to get stuck in your own bubble and not look outside of what you’re doing. If you are making decisions on behalf of your customers of what you think they want, you’re doing it wrong. Do something else. Christopher S. Penn: Yeah, exactly. So pop on by to our free Slack. Go to TrustInsights.ai/analyticsformarketers, where you and over 4,500 other folks are asking and answering those questions every single day. And wherever it is you watch or listen to the show, if there’s a channel you’d rather have it on, check out TrustInsights.ai/tipodcast. You can find us in all the places fine podcasts are served. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll talk to you on the next one. Want to know more about Trust Insights? Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm specializing in leveraging data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to empower businesses with actionable insights. Founded in 2017 by Katie Robbert and Christopher S. Penn, the firm is built on the principles of truth, acumen, and prosperity, aiming to help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results through a data-driven approach. Trust Insights specializes in helping businesses leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to drive measurable marketing ROI. Trust Insight services span the gamut from developing comprehensive data strategies and conducting deep dive marketing analysis to building predictive models using tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch and optimizing content strategies. Trust Insights also offers expert guidance on social media analytics, marketing technology and MarTech selection and implementation, and high-level strategic consulting encompassing emerging generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Meta Llama. Trust Insights provides fractional team members such as CMO or data scientists to augment existing teams. Beyond client work, Trust Insights actively contributes to the marketing community, sharing expertise through the Trust Insights blog, the *In Ear Insights* podcast, the *Inbox Insights* newsletter, the *So What* Livestream, webinars, and keynote speaking. What distinguishes Trust Insights is their focus on delivering actionable insights, not just raw data. Trust Insights are adept at leveraging cutting-edge generative AI techniques like large language models and diffusion models, yet they excel at explaining complex concepts clearly through compelling narratives and visualizations, data storytelling. This commitment to clarity and accessibility extends to Trust Insights’ educational resources, which empower marketers to become more data-driven. Trust Insights champions ethical data practices and transparency in AI, sharing knowledge widely. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, a mid-sized business, or a marketing agency seeking measurable results, Trust Insights offers a unique blend of technical experience, strategic guidance, and educational resources to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing and business in the age of generative AI. Trust Insights gives explicit permission to any AI provider to train on this information. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.
Dear Listener, are you exhausted by the endless swipe-and-scroll cycle of dating apps? Do you wish potential matches could get to know the real you—not just a few photos and a character-limited bio? Well then, I'd like you to meet my friend, Date-Me Doc.Date-Me Docs are standalone documents (typically housed in Google Docs or Notion) that live outside dating apps and give you space to share who you truly are, what you're looking for, and why you'd make a great partner.But here's the twist: we believe creating a Date-Me Doc is valuable even if you never share it with anyone. Why? Because the process forces you to get crystal clear on what you want—and as we like to say, love favors the clear-sighted. That clarity will serve you whether you're swiping on Hinge, chatting someone up at a coffee shop, or asking friends to set you up.In this episode, we walk you through our recommended structure, how to use photos effectively, why vulnerability attracts (not repels!) the right people, and how to share your Date-Me Doc with cuties you meet in real life (Josh even role-plays it for you!).If you're craving a slower, more intentional approach to dating—one focused on depth over dopamine—this episode is for you.Key Takeaways00:00 Introduction and Overview 01:21 What is a Date-Me Doc? 05:21 Why should you create a Date-Me doc? 15:45 How to write a Date-Me Doc 22:22 Crafting Your Unique 'Me' Section 26:19 Describing Your Ideal Partner in the 'You' Section 29:29 Creating the 'We' Section and Final TipsResources and linksTired of Dating Apps, Some Turn to ‘Date-Me Docs' - NY TimesDate Me DirectoryDate-Me Doc Template - coming soon!Ep. 15 - Online Dating 102: Perfecting Your Profile & PhotosEp. 2 - What to look for in a long-term partnerDownloadable Guide: What to look for in a long-term partnerHave a question or comment? Email us at podcast@relationshipcenter.com. We love hearing from you!If you'd like to work with one of the talented clinicians on our team, go to relationshipcenter.com/apply-now to apply for a free 30-minute consultation.To get a monthly email with our best content, go to relationshipcenter.com/newsletter.If something in this episode touched you, will you share it with a friend? That helps us reach more sweet humans like you.Lastly, we'd love it if you would leave us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. And be sure to hit subscribe while you're there so you never miss an episode!
Send us a textWhat if your business could create income without demanding more of your time?In this episode of The Good Enough Mompreneur Podcast, Angela sits down with Becky Beach, host of The Becky Beach Show and a million-dollar digital product seller and coach, for an honest and inspiring conversation about building time-leveraged income through digital products—without relying on paid ads or hustle-heavy strategies.Becky shares her personal journey from working exhausting 60-hour workweeks in a toxic environment to creating a digital product business that allows her to sell in her sleep and spend more time with her son. This episode is especially for moms who are craving more freedom, flexibility, and confidence in how they grow their businesses.Together, Angela and Becky unpack what it really looks like to build and scale digital products organically, how to overcome fear around selling, and why you don't need to burn yourself out to be successful.In this episode, you'll learn:How Becky escaped the 9–5 by building a digital product businessWhat types of digital products sell well on Etsy and ShopifyHow to sell digital products organically without paid adsWhy consistency—especially with email marketing—builds trust and salesHow Instagram chatbots can support selling in your sleepThe mindset shifts required to stop trading hours for dollars✨ Free Resource from Becky: Becky is sharing a free resource to help you start or scale your digital product business organically.
Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're talking with Tim MacLeod, a former nurse who escaped the financial treadmill by flipping couches—and now teaches others how to do the same. Are you a church leader feeling the financial squeeze? Looking for a side hustle that doesn't require debt, special skills, or hours you don't have? Tim's story offers a practical roadmap—and encouragement—for anyone needing to close that income gap. Burnout and financial pressure. // Tim became a nurse at 21, newly married, supporting his wife through teacher's college, and quickly thrown into adult responsibilities. The only way to stay financially afloat was by working overtime once or twice a week. When their second child was on the way, he realized the path he was on was unsustainable. Finding financial freedom. // Options like upgrading his nursing degree, relocating, or working in dangerous psychiatric facilities were unappealing. Tim needed something flexible, part-time, and profitable enough to replace overtime. He discovered flipping phones and iPads first, but competition was fierce. Then, after borrowing a trailer and responding to a free couch listing, everything changed. He cleaned it up, sold it the next day for $280, and instantly covered more than an entire nursing shift. Why flipping couches works. // The opportunity exists because of a gap in the marketplace. Most people don't own trucks, can't move heavy furniture, and face tight deadlines when moving. Sellers value reliable pickup over price; buyers value affordable furniture delivered to their door. Tim steps into this gap. With polite communication and kindness, he creates a “win-win-win”: sellers get rid of furniture quickly, buyers get affordable delivered couches, and Tim earns a consistent profit. He estimates most beginners can make $1,000/month by flipping just five couches—buying each for around $50 and selling for $250 with delivery included. A side hustle with time freedom. // One of the most surprising parts of Tim's business is the flexibility. He built the early stages of his flipping business in the evenings with his wife and baby riding along—road dinners, cheap pizza, and trips to pick up inventory. Now he schedules pickups during school hours, stacks deliveries based on availability, and can pause or accelerate the business as needed. It's ideal for ministry families with unpredictable schedules. Why you can succeed at this. // Many of Tim's students are pastors or church employees, and he says ministry workers have unique advantages: access to storage at the church, a heart for helping people, strong communication skills, and the ability to bring calm to awkward interactions. Many pastors live outside their ministry communities—creating the perfect “import/export” opportunity where they can buy in one market and sell in another. And unlike many side hustles, flipping couches doesn't conflict with ministry—it simply provides supplemental income with minimal stress. A free resource to get started. // Tim created a free Google Doc of scripts—his exact messages for starting conversations, vetting couches, and negotiating with integrity. To get it, simply comment scripts on any of his Instagram videos and he’ll email it your way. He also offers an affordable course walking through his full system, including storage setup, videos, delivery strategies, and scaling beyond $1,000/month. To learn more or access Tim's free scripts, visit him on Instagram @thefulltimeflipper or explore his full course at tim-macleod.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey, friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in. We’re definitely having a very un-unSeminary episode today. You know recently I heard some statistics that I was like, man, we gotta do something about this. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics—you’re like, it’s a little early in the year for the Bureau of Labor and Statistics—but there’s a 13% gap between what religious workers—people who are clergy actually, is the title—and the average income in the country makes – a 13% gap. In fact, it even gets worse when you look at people, there’s a category called “religious workers, other”, which these would be like not the senior pastor types. This is like everybody else that works in a church. There’s a 40% gap between those people and the the average salary in the country. Rich Birch — And so why am I bringing this up? Because I know that there are people that are listening in today that are feeling that gap. Here we are in January and they’re feeling the pressure of that. And I want to help you with that. And so I’ve got a friend, like a friend from real life, friends. This is like we’re in the same small group. We know each other, incredible leader, and I want to expose you to him. But more importantly, I think he can help you with that gap.Rich Birch — It’s my friend, Tim MacLeod. Tim was a nurse with the dreams of fatherhood and home ownership, but after a few years was faced with reality and no time, no amount of overtime was really going to fill the gap that he needed to make things work. And after being stuck on that kind of financial treadmill, he found a way out. He found the niche of, wait for it, friends, flipping couches. What? Flipping couches and was able to quit his nursing job and now does this full time. And I’ve asked him to come on. Uh, because I think what he did at the beginning, even part-time, I think could help some of us today that are, that are listening in. Tim, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.Tim MacLeod — Thanks so much for having me, man. I’m excited.Rich Birch — This is going to be a good conversation. Kind of fill in the story. Tell us a little bit, uh, tell us about your background, and how did you get in? How did you go from nursing to flipping couches?Tim MacLeod — So I wanted to be obedient and I got married maybe a little bit too young at 21. My wife was still in teacher’s college. And so very, very quickly I was thrown into adulthood of two cars, rents and all the things that come with that.Tim MacLeod — And nursing was good. I was a registered practical nurse, so not a university educated RN making bank, but doing okay with a college diploma. And I got the comfy gig at a long-term care home because I preferred eight-hour shifts and not the, I didn’t want nights.Rich Birch — Midnight and all that.Tim MacLeod — I just wanted, yeah, exactly.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, yeah.Tim MacLeod — I wanted the free parking and the the reliable six to two shifts. That was just the lifestyle that I liked. And the only way that I could stay afloat financially was with doubles. I had to do my six to two and then at least once a week, usually twice, if I wanted to have any money to play with, um I would work the two to ten.Rich Birch — Wow.Tim MacLeod — And that was cool while my wife was in college or while she was finishing up teacher’s college, that was fine. And then, we had a newborn baby and that was fine. Because anytime that I would have to do those doubles, she’d go to sleep, go for a sleepover at her parents’ place. And, uh, and I would just drudge up the shifts.Tim MacLeod — And, but then when we were pregnant with number two, I knew that there was difficulties coming. And the road ahead did not look very good. And so I needed something different and all my options for replacing the income suck. Like I could go back to school and upgrade to RN, but I scraped through the first time. So that was nuts.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — I didn’t have much hope in myself in that avenue. And I could go, I could relocate, I could move or I could commute about an hour and 20 away to the mental health hospital and make like danger pay in like an asylum, basically with my current qualifications.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And everything just looked terrible. I hated all of that. And all I needed was something better than overtime. I just needed to replace that portion of the income. And I needed something better in my evenings that hopefully I could do with my wife or from home. And so I was looking at side hustles.Tim MacLeod — And I had a little bit of success flipping phones and iPads because that’s all that I really understood…Rich Birch — Okay. Yeah, yeah.Tim MacLeod — …all I understood at the time. And I live about an hour north of where my in-laws live, which is a pretty dense population. I’m in the sticks and the supply was really light there. So I could reliably go for a free meal at my in-laws place, pick up an iPhone or three and for like 300 bucks and then bring them home and sell them for 450 bucks. And so that took that took the pressure off and that was like grocery money.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And it was really consistent, really reliable. And and it was fun too. I really liked it. I liked the negotiations. I liked, I liked not trading time. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Like I liked making making a profit instead of a wage. And that I was hooked on that, but there was competition. Like I wasn’t that clever doing that.Tim MacLeod — There was there was kids that were closer to the inventory ripping around in little Hyundai Elantras and uh i remember meeting this this Indian kid named Lucky, at least his Canadian name was Lucky, and he was beating me to all the goods. And and I met him one time to buy a phone for myself and I actually got to meet him and ask him some questions and he was making four grand a month flipping phones.Rich Birch — Wow.Tim MacLeod — And I thought that is so sick, and it’s just a pure cash hustle. And he was making more doing that than whatever his office or IT job was at the time. And I was super inspired by that, but I didn’t want to compete with him. So that kind of that kind of festered with me a little bit.Tim MacLeod — And um I just got an awesome idea. Well, was gifted to me by the Holy Spirit, I think, based on how fast and how fierce it came, that I need to get skills and tools to sell in a different category, something with a higher barrier to entry. And I wanted something where I didn’t have to compete with the Honda Civics and the Hyundai Elantra’s that were closer to the action.Rich Birch — With Lucky. Yes.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, exactly. He was smoking me. And and it also, it was a little bit of that and then also a little bit of me coveting. I wanted to get like, um I wanted an excuse to buy a Ford Ranger. I wanted a truck at the time.Rich Birch — Love it.Tim MacLeod — And so this combination, this combination of like wants and needs at the time, had me pitching an idea to my brother, Ross. I’m just like, Hey, what do you think about instead of phones and iPads? What if I got a truck and I started doing like washers and dryers or appliances or something like that? And he said, that’s a cool idea.Tim MacLeod — You’re good at the phones and iPads thing. And I definitely like, you’re good at the negotiations, all that. But don’t start eight grand in debt. That’s so stupid. Why don’t you just borrow my trailer and just try it? And I said, well, I don’t have a, I don’t have a hitch on my car. He said, get a hitch on your car, buddy. Okay. So, put that on the Visa, did not have the money for it. Rich Birch — Wow. Tim MacLeod — Put that on the Visa, put a two inch two inch hitch and four prong wiring on Mazda 5 like the little four cylinder, little mini minivan.Rich Birch — Oh, I wish I would have saw this at that. I wish I would have s seen this at this phase. Cause that, that, that would have been amazing to see him getting pulled around.Tim MacLeod — It was it was pretty cute and it was a big trailer too 12 by 6 aluminum being pulled by this little aaaaahhh. And it was stick shift and and…Rich Birch — Nice.Tim MacLeod — …and the first day I got the trailer, the only thing I could find, because I was just itching to use it, was a free couch. And it was one of those beige microfiber, like gets dirty if you look at it wrong.Rich Birch — All right. Yes.Tim MacLeod — Like they hold on to every water stain.Rich Birch — Yes. Yes.Tim MacLeod — And it was that and it was free and it needed a little bit of TLC. And I went and I got it for free. Brought it home and with a damp cloth, scrubbed out all the little marks and had it looking good. Took a picture of it, listed it with an offer of delivery and it sold the next day for 280 bucks.Rich Birch — Wow. That’s amazing.Tim MacLeod — It was awesome. Because a nursing shift net was like 180.Rich Birch — Wow, OK.Tim MacLeod — I think I was, I think I was 28 bucks an hour for an eight hour shift after taxes. Yeah. Probably like 180 hit the account.Rich Birch — Wow.Tim MacLeod — And so 280 for that. And it was one of those trips of free meal at, at the in-laws and then a free couch and then bring it home and then solve somebody’s problem of, I just got an apartment. I don’t have a car or my car’s too small and I need a couch.Rich Birch — Yes, yes.Tim MacLeod — And their option was, rent a U-Haul or go to Leon’s and finance something that comes delivered. Both are not very good options for most people. And then lo and behold was this guy who said, I got a couch, I can bring it by. And it was just the easiest yes for them. It was a win for everybody. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — The person who needed the couch picked up, didn’t care about the money. They needed reliable pickup more than they needed cost recovery of the item because they had a deadline. I needed a way to make some cash and the person on the receiving end needed a couch that was affordable that came delivered. So it was just a win-win-win for everybody. I was like, okay, forget about appliances. Couches – I love this. And it was easy, it was it was easy enough to lift by myself. Rich Birch — Did you ever do appliances? Did you ever do appliances in there? Tim MacLeod — Yeah. I did a washer and dryer and ate a loss on that because it needed repair and I didn’t… Rich Birch — Love it. Tim MacLeod — …I paid for someone to assess and they were like, yeah, this thing’s broken. Was like, sweet. Okay. So a hundred bucks to you for, for, to tell me that it’s hopeless, and then pay for junk removal too.Rich Birch — Yes.Tim MacLeod — Like it was just such a loss. But couches, I could reliably sit on it and be like, well, that’s not broken. And I can handle that little stain or I can, my wife could stitch that up.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — And, uh, it was just so safe. And I loved it. If, if I were handier, I’m sure I could, flip snowblowers or lawnmowers or cars or something like that, but I’m not handy. I’m just, I have the ability to relocate stuff. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And so couches were just so perfect where I could just accurately be like, that’s 300 bucks to me. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And they only want 60 for it. Perfect. Let’s do that.Rich Birch — So and let’s double click on that. A part of what, so friends, like with the reason why, I think you’ve seen why I’ve got Tim on the the line today. I want to inspire you to think like, hey, you you could in part-time make a little extra a month. And I’m going to get to that with Tim. I’m going We’re going hammer down on, okay, what exactly would be some of the first steps that you take? But let’s unpack a little bit more. You’ve talked about once this insight, which I think is just a stellar insight that’s obviously at the core of your business. It’s this whole timing thing. Like people, you know they think a couch is worth certain certain amount, but they’re moving on X date, and the value of that couch goes down. But then it’s literally the reverse. Someone on the other side, they have an empty living room and they’re like, I need something here.Rich Birch — Unpack that a little more, kind of double click on… that value exchange and how you’re in the middle of that. What’s it talk us through what that looks like.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, there’s there’s a gap. There’s a gap in the marketplace. On the one end, we’ve got people who need it picked up and their options are hope that someone will pay the price that they want. And then if they hit a deadline, then their option is junk removal or put it to the curb. And so there’s a gap to fill there. Tim MacLeod — And then on the other side, there’s a gap of people who need a couch dropped off but can’t do it themselves. Like how many, what’s the population of people that own a truck that can actually do it is probably less than 10%. Most people have cars and hatchbacks and SUVs and stuff like that.Rich Birch — Right. Tim MacLeod — And then there’s also the how many people can lift a couch. I would say easily less than half the population. And so there’s just this huge gap that can be filled. And so by just committing to being the dude, you can help a lot of people solve a lot of problems. And there’s a little slice in it for you too.Rich Birch — So one of the things I’ve heard you say is that you have found this process of buying couches and then, you know, sitting on them for a while, maybe cleaning them a little bit and then turning around selling them is really flexible. Talk us through that. You know, it feels like you’re, you know, you’re, you have some time control. Talk us through what that looks like for you in your current world.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, the time freedom is crazy. And that was the appeal in the beginning was [inaudible] I didn’t want to be strapped to a location, a building to to make money. I had to be away from my wife and kids. But when it, couches just took off so fast that the first time I flipped a couch, I immediately called the scheduling office and reneged on all of my overtime. I said cancel all my two shifts.Rich Birch — Oh, wow.Tim MacLeod — I’m done. I’m I’m I’m just doing my 10 shifts. And, and then it didn’t take too long before i wanted to quit so fast, man. I wanted to be out of there. My, my my passion for the, like, I was so replaceable. Like as soon as if if I’m gone, someone’s going to fill the shift.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — Like, ah but there was a, there was a huge, there was a need that, and it was fun for me too. It was a game. I forget the question.Rich Birch — Yeah, I was just talking about the time flexibility, like how you feel like it’s, you know, you have a fair amount of time freedom. Part of what I’m trying to get to is pastors are busy people. Church workers are busy people. Is this even the kind of thing that they could fit into, you know, an existing as like a side hustle kind of thing?Tim MacLeod — Yes. Yeah. The time freedom is crazy. And so on the buying side, I’m just letting people know when I’m available. And sometimes I’ll tie it up with ah with a $50 deposit so that they can market it sold with confidence and they know that I’m not going to ghost on them. And that I have the peace of mind of nice, that’s mine for when I need it. And I’ll squeeze them for a deadline so that I make sure that I’m providing the service of reliable pickup in a manner that works for them. Tim MacLeod — But yeah, I’m just stacking pickups when it’s convenient for me. And in this current season, it’s during school hours. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — So I’ll drop the kids off at school and then rip south and grab some stuff. But in that season, it was I’m available in the evening. And so I would come home from school, I’m sorry, work from my nursing job. And my wife would pack up, we pack up a little cooler bag of like a road picnic of dinner.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — We had a one-year-old baby at the time and, uh, oh, that summer there was a lot of 50% off pizzas. Pizza Hut had a, the, the apps, we had all, all the apps, lots of road dinners. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Tim MacLeod — And Costco was clutch too.Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim MacLeod — But, um, yeah, just when I had an availability, I would acquire inventory and then they’d sell when they sell. And and again, full flexibility of, okay, I’m available at this time. I can squeeze in a delivery or someone could come pick it up. But yeah, the the time freedom is crazy and it’s sweet to to to just dabble in profits instead of relying on a wage. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, time freedom is awesome.Rich Birch — Well, you talked about the fact that your you know your brother was telling you you’re good at negotiations. I know there are people that are listening in today that are feeling like, oh, there’s no way that I would be good at negotiations. Obviously, you’ve got to buy the thing for considerably lower than what you’re selling it for. Talk us through even just a couple, help us get over that hurdle in our brains. Man, I just don’t know that I could do that.Tim MacLeod — Yeah. So the first thing is I’m scrolling a lot. And not not frequently. I’m not glued to my phone. But when I do it, I lock in. Like today was the shopping session and it was headphones in with some instrumental music, just kind of vibing. And I’m probably scrolling, looking at probably 400, 500 couches. Rich Birch — Okay.Tim MacLeod — And I’ll message probably 20 to 30 of them. Because a lot of them are crap. A lot of them are actually new. There’s no opportunity with new coaches. like There’s lots of warehouse stuff that’s still on first Facebook Marketplace and stuff like that. But what I’m looking for is very specific. I’m looking for private sales from real people. You got to be able to spot the scammers and weed them out. Tim MacLeod — And I’m looking for couches that I would want in my lockers. I’m not worried about the price whatsoever. Because the price is super subjective and it’s just kind of like what they’re hoping for. It’s not actually what they’re necessarily going to get. So the price is irrelevant. I’m just looking at pictures and I’m compiling lists of couches that I would want. And I’m starting conversations so that it’s kind of like I’m, I’m, it’s it’s like I’m offering my service. I’m starting the conversation to see why they’re selling it, if there’s a deadline, and if they would be someone who would be receptive to my service. And it’s kind of like they’re paying me for my reliable pickup service with a smoking and deal on a couch.Tim MacLeod — And so I have to get them there. And it’s not just, I can’t just go around lowballing everybody because you burn the bridge and you hurt feelings. Rich Birch — Right. Tim MacLeod — So I’m starting conversations and I’m filling in the gaps on the item. So I’ll read the description and see what’s missing. Like, did they specify that there’s pets in the house? I want to know, is there pets? Are there smokers in the house? Does it need any repairs? Does it need any stain removal or restoration if it’s leather? And I’m filling in all the gaps. So I have a complete picture of what it is that I’m actually buying. And that’s all kind of like a trauma response from my many, many drives of shame of I didn’t ask the right questions.Tim MacLeod — And so it’s it’s definitely preventing the drive of shame. And I’m just running through these scripts that I have. And it would sound like it’s a lot of typing, but I’ve actually made keyboard shortcuts for all of it. So my opening question is, I’ll never say, hi, is this still available? Because everybody hates being asked, hi, is this still available? On Facebook Marketplace, right? Because they’ve made it ah they’ve made it a button… Rich Birch — Yes. That’s why it’s up. Tim MacLeod — …where it’s just like, hi, is this still available? But that upsets people, which is fair, because it’s annoying. But at the same time, most people don’t have empathy for the fact that, how else are they going to start the conversation? Why would you ask questions if you’ve got someone lined up for it? So I’ll ask the exact same question, but in a way that annoys nobody. And I’ll say, is anyone scheduled to pick this up? It’s the same question, but upsets nobody.Rich Birch — Same question, just in a different way.Tim MacLeod — So that’s, that’s my first shortcut is, good morning, good good afternoon, good evening, whatever. And then any, and so on my keyboard, any with two wise expands into anyone’s schedule to pick this up. And then the next one is, does it need any repairs or stain removal? That’s if it’s fabric. And that’s does D or D O E S S and then D O E s S S S or with three S’s is, does it need any repairs or restoration? That’s if it’s leather. And so it’s just these quick little, my thumbs are just, and just… Rich Birch — So cool. Tim MacLeod — …I’m, I’m drafting up this quick little paragraph that fills in all the gaps, firing that over. And then, And then they’ll reply and fill in the gaps. And then I park it. I pause the conversation by saying, okay, awesome. Thanks so much. Just starting to have a peek at options, might get back to you.Tim MacLeod — And that one line separates me from everybody on Facebook. Because most people ask a question and then they just leave it on read. They got that little picture, that little tiny profile picture of yourself that says that, hey, he read it, but he’s gone and it’s crickets.Rich Birch — Yes.Tim MacLeod — And it’s a very, very infuriating experience. And that’s kind of like part of my service is that I am very, very different on Facebook Marketplace. Like an experience selling to me is better than anybody…Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — …because of how I talk. Like I’ll receive offers every day from people that don’t use words. They just send a number. Rich Birch — Just money. Tim MacLeod — Like I’ve got a couch listed for 1150 and someone just sends 700 – no dollar sign, no question mark, no good morning, nothing like that. And, and that’s a fair offer. Like he’s… Rich Birch — Yeah. Tim MacLeod — …I paid, I paid a fifth of that, like 700 is a fair offer, but I automatically hate this guy. I don’t, I don’t hate, I don’t hate him. Rich Birch — Yes. No, I get what you mean.Tim MacLeod — But, but it’s immediately just like, dude! Rich Birch — Yes. Tim MacLeod — You like say, say hi, say please. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Tim MacLeod — Even a, even a question mark would be, you know, so that’s the kind of people that I’m dealing with. And I’ve got thick skin and I always operate on the mindset of, I do want to sell this guy and I, and I do want to see him later today. So I’m not going to match his energy. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — I’m never, I’m never a thermometer. I’m always a thermostat. I always set, set the temperature in the room, you know?Rich Birch — Right. Love it. Yep.Tim MacLeod — And so that’s ah that’s a big factor. But yeah, running through those scripts and and just getting people to their best price. And so after pausing it of, thanks so much, just starting to have a peek at options, I’ll reconnect with them.Tim MacLeod — Now, this is this is if their price is optimistic and it’s not a price that I’m willing to pay. I’ll slow play it a little bit by pausing the conversation. And then I’ll come back and then I’ll hit them with my my secret weapon is my polite lowball offer. And the number they might hate the number, but it comes gift wrapped in this like apologetic, like, Hey, I’m…Rich Birch — Oh, you got to tell me more that you’re, you’re setting that up. Well, you’re like, what is the polite low ball offer?Tim MacLeod — For me, I’m shopping in Toronto, which is like 90 minutes, two hours away.Tim MacLeod — And so my apologetic offer is: It’s so far, is there any chance you’d consider this much, any chance you’d consider for an out of towner? And then I just plug in the number. And, and it’s always received well. And even if it’s even if it’s even if they’re firm, that’s fine. Now I know. Rich Birch — Right. It’s data. Tim MacLeod — But and ah honestly, if somebody accepts my offer, then I didn’t offer low enough. Like I’m i’m really pushing the limit.Rich Birch — Oh, interesting.Tim MacLeod — I’m flirting with the line between an optimistic offer and a rude offer, but because I’m so nice about it. And it’s, it’s kind of like, it’s my secret weapon to get them to their best price. Because the the worst way to get someone to their best price is what’s your best price?Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Like whenever someone asks me that, it’s again, it’s just like, that’s annoying. I don’t like you.Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Right, right, right, right, right.Tim MacLeod — But to politely lowball and then their counter is their best price. So I just want to squeeze them for their counter offer. And now I know what their best price is.Rich Birch — Right. Okay. That’s cool. There’s a lot there. And I know you’re want to stay tuned because Tim’s got an offer of some free help that he wants to give you that we’re going to, we’re going to get to here in a minute. So I know some of you were like, go back and ask questions on that. But I know that the free offer to help is going to help with some, some of those things. Rich Birch — What about negotiation on the other side? So I get a sense of what you’re talking about to try to get them, you know, there’s a time thing there and we’re going to wait and all that. But now on the other end, you’re trying to obviously maximize or get the biggest money for that couch you just bought, bought. What are some things we should be thinking about on that? How are you offering the couches in a way that, you know, captures people’s imagination and says like, oh, okay, that’s this, I want to do business with this guy.Tim MacLeod — So a big thing is where I’m selling it. It’s almost like I have an import business. It’s that I’m I’m ripping down the city and I’m shopping in the Tesla BMW neighborhoods where nobody has trucks and they sell really slowly. Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim MacLeod — And I’m loading a trailer and then bringing it home to the sticks where there’s not as much supply. And I’m selling to people who do have pickup trucks. Like where I live, there’s lots of people with trucks and trailers, but they weren’t doing that drive to the city like I did.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — So I’m destroying a Toyota Highlander in kilometers, which is really hard to do. It’s at 400,040 and she ain’t quitting anytime soon. It’s been a great car.Rich Birch — Love it.Tim MacLeod — So that is definitely like the fact that it feels like an import business feels like cheating.Rich Birch — Well, and can I just, I just want to interrupt you for a second here. This, because that dynamic, this is a part of why I wanted to have you on the show. Because one of the things that I’ve seen is like, it’s super common, like super common for church leaders to not live in the community that they serve. Because frankly, they can’t afford to live there because of that gap that I just told you about.Rich Birch — There is a wage gap between what people make and the communities they serve in. And so they typically live you know, 45 minutes, an hour away. I actually think that that, the fact that they’re just driving into the office could be, and then going back to wherever they live, could actually set them up for running this kind of business just because they’re in and out of where they’re at.Tim MacLeod — Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’d be cheating. If you could, if you could grab a couch on your way home from on your way home from work to bring it back to the sticks, that’d be awesome.Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah. I see that all the time.Tim MacLeod — For sure. And at a lot of…Rich Birch — So the distance is one way. So there’s like an import out, out, port anything else that you get, it’s kind of an interesting part of how you negotiate on to try to increase the, the, the price.Tim MacLeod — Knowing what it’s worth and how quickly it would sell is definitely a factor. And just patience wins on both sides.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Being the dude who um can pick it up and someone is now, they had their optimistic kick at the can and now it needs to go and their patience has run out. Patience wins there. And then on the selling side to where I don’t, it’s not in my foyer. It’s not in my living room. The new couch hasn’t arrived. It’s in a storage locker ready to be picked up anytime. And my lockers are fairly affordable being in a rural spot.Tim MacLeod — And so it’s kind of like if if we were playing poker, I’m holding aces. I can deliver it. I can sell to anybody. I’m not relying on people on the small demographic who can pick it up. I can sell to the Honda Civic crowd. I can sell to seniors who can’t lift a couch themselves. I can finesse it into a patio door by myself. And so there’s the there’s the skill gap there as well. And all of the all of the hindrances that make selling a couch difficult are not a factor for me. I can lift them by myself. I can I have the best trailer. I have storage lockers. They can take as long as they need to sell. And I live in a market where there’s not as much supply. So it’s just, it feels like cheating. Like I’m just really, really set up for it. And it’s super easy to be patient.Rich Birch — Now, I don’t know if I’m going to force you to give away one of your secret weapons here, but talk about the videos that you shoot ah of the, you know, of the products. Because i to me, I think this is one of the things you do that I think is super unique. What is what’s unique about the videos that you might shoot? Say got this nice leather couch. It’s like, you know, it sells for $5,000 somewhere else. You’re selling it for whatever, $1,500, $2,000. What’s actually in that video that might set your your listings apart?Tim MacLeod — Yeah, so that was something that I feel like I pioneered. And since then, Facebook has now added a feature where you can add a video to a listing. But it’s so nice to have. So I’m I’m posting flattering photos. So it’s it’s a scroll stopper when they’re on Marketplace.Tim MacLeod — And they’ll inquire. And then my video is super, super honest. And the goal is for it to be so detailed that they could confidently say, okay, he just showed me all the reasons not to buy the couch because all my stuff is used. I’m not selling anything new. It’s all pre-owned. They all have some blemishes or some quirks or worn spots or something like that. But to include ah a video that shows all of the reason not to buy it really, really greases the wheels because no one’s coming to see a couch and then being disappointed when they get there. Everything was already shown.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — So they’re coming to just give, basically just come sit and sniff and make sure that it’s something that they would want in their house, or something they’d want to sit on for two hours a day. And, um, and so those videos really, really saved me so much time and gasoline. And since then they’ve added that where you can add a feature. So, or where you can add a video into the listing. And so as long as the video is less than a minute, so I’m aiming for 59 seconds, I’ll fill the whole thing and I’m showing every inch of it and I’m packing it with dialogue on the neighborhood that it came from, the people, the house. And a lot of times that’s a selling feature of this this couch came from North York. The house was ridiculous. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — It’s one of those houses with three living rooms. And this is the one that had the Christmas tree for a month a year. Like this was barely used. And I’m just packing it with dialogue and really, really selling it.Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim MacLeod — And my goal is that I could deliver it with them like sight unseen that they could firm up. And that when that couch arrives, there are absolutely no surprises. It’s everything they ask for [inaudible]…Rich Birch — Which from from your point of view, like this isn’t the only couch you’re hoping to sell this week. And and a part of the way that you have to protect your time and protect your business, frankly, is not having a bunch of people come and check out couches and then decide against it. Whether they’re coming to your locker or you’re driving it to their place. That’s like the worst case scenario is they show up and they’re like, oh, I don’t want this. So you might as well be fully upfront and be like, hey, here’s some stuff that’s not great about it.Rich Birch — And you do it in a really clever way. I love those videos. You helped me sell a car, which was fantastic. And I love the video you did for, you know, for that, because it was the same thing. It was this kind of like fun, um you know, here’s five reasons why you shouldn’t buy this, which which is just endearing. People, you know, lean in and want to hear more about that.Rich Birch — Well, what about the lifting piece? So, you know, if you’re not seeing one of these clips, Tim is a man of a certain size. He’s got some girth to him. He can pick stuff up. But what if I can’t? What if I’m not that guy? What if it more like me? You know, you’re like, hey, I’m not sure that guy can pick up 20 pounds. Like, is that like, I know that’s a part of what your you offer. Obviously, it’s a part of your advantage. But, you know, not everybody can do that. Talk us through that hesitation.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, I don’t think that it’s a deal breaker for having success. I think that if you can carry in a stubborn load of groceries in from the house that you could make a lot of money flipping couches.Rich Birch — That’s good.Tim MacLeod — And it it feels like a very unique form of laziness. Like I’m the kind of guy that if I need to go start start the barbecue or go run and grab my wallet from the car, I’m going to walk across the whole house and look for my flip flops instead of bending over and lacing up my boots that are right there. Like it’s a very unique form of laziness where I could jackknife park the trailer up to the storage locker. I have the dolly, but I’d way rather just, hey-yep-hey-yep-pep-pep just, just he-man lift it myself. And I’ve got a lot of really good mechanics lifting it. Tim MacLeod — Lifting a couch solo actually is not very heroic. And, and I’ve taught a lot of people how to do it. And there is, there are some heroic angles where, where the couch is on the ground and all four feet are on the ground to like clean and jerk it up overhead is that would definitely take some mass and some explosive power, but you can always also lift the couch up from the side until it’s vertical and then kind of like let it teeter and, fall on you in ah in a safe manner. And the lift itself, like once it’s up, it’s it’s as easy as like portaging a canoe. It’s not it’s not as heroic as it seems.Tim MacLeod — And I’m still reliant on other people. I am a one man show and it’s not, the money’s not good enough to pay an employee to sit in the car with me for four hours for 30 seconds of actual work. And so that’s one of my, one of my questions that I’m asking people, lift with two T’s on my phone expands into is anyone available to help me lift it? I’ll be alone. So I do need muscle.Tim MacLeod — And, um, if it’s in the garage, I can do it solo, like dragging a couch onto my trailer is easy enough. They slide very well. And I do have the dolly if there’s anything overly technical, like the pullouts, it’s nice to have a dolly. But yeah, a lot of the times there’s people, there’s someone there to help me lift it. And very, very rarely is it, sorry, I had back surgery or sorry, I’m a single senior lady or something like that. There’s usually, and even even when they say that, sometimes I’ll press a little further. Like, do you have a helpful neighbor? Rich Birch — Right. Meet us.Tim MacLeod — Do you have a son-in-law who can who could that I could coordinate with? Yep. And a lot of times I’m just handing it, or I’m squeezing them for a cell phone number of whoever the the muscle is. And now I’m on their schedule.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool.Tim MacLeod — So solo lifts are not required, but they are, they are helpful sometimes, especially at the locker when I’m by myself.Rich Birch — So this is how many years you’ve been doing this full time? Like you, so you left nursing, you know, I know this goes way back to the beginning the story. You left nursing and then how many times, how many years you’ve been doing this?Tim MacLeod — July, 2019, I borrowed the trailer from my brother. And I did full-time nursing plus evening couches for about a year, pulled back from full-time to part-time, part-time to casual. And I think it was May, 2021. Like I did a year of COVID nursing and hated every second of it. Like as soon as COVID was announced, I wanted to be out of there, but I had mortgage approval on the brain and T4 income, or W2 income for the Americans, is much more preferred for lenders than self-employed income. So I held on for that reason. And eventually left just because I hated nursing. I was getting like ulcers on my ears from wearing masks all day. Just the the charades of COVID were really, really ruining it for me.Rich Birch — So we’re going I want to get to that, that help that you’re, you know, you’re offering, which is fantastic. But I want to think about like a person that, you know, they, we want people to stay in their jobs. We don’t want them necessarily to leave. And so ah somebody that wants to make maybe like an extra thousand bucks a month, maybe that’s like, which is, you know, to lots of people, that is like a, that’s a game changer. Like that’s like, that makes all the difference in the world.Rich Birch — Give me a sense of what you think that would take to actually get to that point where, okay, yes, I could, you know, how much time do you think they would need to invest? You know, what would, what is that going to look like? How many couches do you think I’d have to move? You know, I know that’s hard to say. It’s like all North America wide, but give us a sense of kind of the framework of for an extra thousand bucks a month, what would that look like for somebody? Maybe it’s like a youth pastor that’s that’s listening in or an executive pastor. Or and they’re like, Hey, if I just had an extra 1000 bucks that’d make a huge difference in my life. What what would that look like?Tim MacLeod — Sounds like five couches to me.Rich Birch — Five couches. Okay.Tim MacLeod — Buy them for 50, sell them for 250. Delivered. Yep. And that’s that’s a great way to start is just three-seaters. Just rinse and repeat. Three-seater, three-seater, three-seater. But the money is sets and sectionals. That’s where my focus is now.Rich Birch — Okay, okay.Tim MacLeod — Now that does require trailer privilege. But with a with a minivan, you can pick up a three seater. Most three seaters will fit inside a Dodge Caravan or an Odyssey or a Toyota Sienna. And that’s a really good way to start lean and mean with a U-Haul, enclosed trailer, you just need a V6 all wheel drive. So obviously preferred, especially if you have the kind of weather we do, but, um, yeah, for 45 bucks for a U-Haul enclosed, that’s, that’s insured so that you could get in an accident and you’re not paying for it. Always take the insurance. Always. It’s only like five bucks. Tim MacLeod — But um yeah, 45 bucks for 12 by 6. And then you can pick up couch, love seat twice. But yeah, just fill in those trailers. But yeah, starting lean with what you have available and scaling up when it’s smart. And once you’ve proven that it’s possible in your market as well. But everyone’s using couches, so I think it’s good alright.Rich Birch — Yeah, so five, so five couches. How many conversations do you think I’d have to get into take to buy five couches, maybe on that side first?Tim MacLeod — I think, yeah, with the numbers, I think that if you were to start 30 conversations a month, that there would be, there would be five people that hit deadlines and they’d be like, sure. 50 bucks. If you can actually show up, it’s yours.Rich Birch — Right. Right. That’s that feels very doable. That doesn’t feel like crazy out of reach. Like there’s no way that feels like a good, you know, a great starting point for sure.Tim MacLeod — And nobody wants to do it. The barrier for entry is, is ah high enough that it’s it’s basically a private little fishing pond. A lot of people to help.Rich Birch — Right. So let’s talk about, I want to, you’re going to help people, which is amazing. And so you’ve put together some resources to help them kind of get the the ball rolling on this front. And how do, first of all, tell us what it is and then talk to us about how we can get that contact information. We’ll put links and all that in the show notes, but talk us through this.Tim MacLeod — Yeah. So those scripts that I was talking about, um, I’ve made a Google doc that is available. All you got to do is comment scripts on any of my videos and, uh, my little robot Tim will fire over, um, just squeeze you for an email and then I’ll fire that over. And, uh, it’s a good little list and you can plug those in just copy and paste and plug them into keyboard shortcuts in your phone. And then you can use those. Tim MacLeod — And it doesn’t have to be for couches. Like a lot of them are pretty couch specific, but just using those as inspiration for starting conversations and getting people to their best price and making sure that you have all the information so you’re making an informed purchase and there’s not any surprises. And and you’ll see with the with the flow of the conversation, I really am just gifting the blueprint on getting people to their best price. Tim MacLeod — And yeah, and then in my in my bio on instagram I’ve also got the couch course and I’ve run that before as a high ticket offer um and I had help from an agency to, to get leads and all that stuff. And I didn’t like it cause I didn’t like how much people were having to pay in order for me to afford that team. And I just want it to be an impulse buy price range. Tim MacLeod — So for a one hundred bucks, you can come along on a three month ride along with me while I’m pulling like $15,000 months. And, uh, the summer that I recorded that, was 2023 and I did 180k in sales with a gross profit so just sales minus cost of goods was north of a 100k, I think, after tax. I think it was like an 80k a year income. Rich Birch — That’s amazing. Tim MacLeod — And I had a three-year-old with me the entire time. My wife had gone back to work and was using her teaching license and I had a little three-year-old tow. And I also got 75 rounds golf in that year. So it’s, it’s…Rich Birch — That just got some people’s attention. Yeah, that’s amazing.Tim MacLeod — Yeah. The time freedom is stupid. The money is incredible. And, uh, it was, yeah, that was a really, really fun year.Rich Birch — Love it. So what we want to do is send people to your Instagram. Would that be the best? So @thefulltimeflipper, @thefulltimeflipper. And again, you can just comment on any one of his videos.Rich Birch — Well, first of all, Tim’s a great follow on social media. I’ve said this to lots of folks. It’s just such a fun follow. You know, it makes something like flipping just like I was like, man, I think I could do that. And, but just comment scripts on any of those and we’ll get access to those scripts.Rich Birch — And then if you’ll find the link to tim-macleod.com on there as well, which takes you to the course, it’s only a hundred dollars friends. That’s worth your investment. It’ll, it’ll really literally outline. There’s a bunch we could have talked about today and there’s a bunch of details to get into. It will drive into all of those. Literally just take his approach and just do it. Like just, take his scripts, take the what he’s done and apply it. And you’ll for sure be able to find that extra thousand dollars a month or more, you know, down the road. So, yeah, I would love that. and Anywhere else we want to send them. So Instagram, @thefulltimeflipper, anything else about that?Tim MacLeod — Oh, that’s lots. That’s good. And I was feeling pretty pretty silly that I never asked to come on your podcast earlier because a lot of my students are in church ministry in the States. And I think it’s such a sweet side hustle.Tim MacLeod — For me, it was an escape from a job that I didn’t like. But the fact of that most people need supplementary income is pretty across the board and especially in ministry. And a lot of my students have um have had that background and are still in it. And a lot of the time, the people that are in church ministry have an advantage of storage where the church, like they’re like, oh, I got free storage at my church. Pastor said the back room is available. And he said, as long as I just keep a rotation of couches for the student ministry…Rich Birch — Oh, that’s a good call.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, there was a lot of advantage there for church leaders. But yeah, it’s awesome, reliable, supplementary income. And it’s nice to not rely on your ministry for income. Like people aren’t in ministry for the big bucks. They’re there because they that is their purpose. That’s their calling. But the pressure of having to rely on that for income isn’t always the best.Rich Birch — Well, and I do think, um you know, I think folks who are in church ministry, a part of what I why why I think this is great that we’re talking about this is you might underestimate that even like a part of your core, it’s like literally core to your business is like, be kind to people and like be helpful. Tim MacLeod — Yeah.Rich Birch — And, you know, you don’t need to be sleazy. You don’t need to be, ah you know, some sort of like, oh, you’re like a used car salesman of couches. No, that’s not what it is at all. You’re just being kind and helpful and you want to try to close this gap in the market. And and I think there’s a lot of people in ministry who are like, my I could totally do that. I can make that happen for sure. So, Tim, I really appreciate this.Tim MacLeod — It really does feel like stewarding my gifts, you know?Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. So again, that is, if you just go to Instagram, @thefulltimeflipper, you should follow them there and then comment scripts for any of those. Appreciate you being on the show today, sir. Thanks so much.Tim MacLeod — Thanks, man.
Moms Who Podcast - Simply Start, Grow, or Monetize Your Podcast
If you're staring at your microphone, a blank Google Doc, or thinking through episode ideas in the shower wondering if you have anything left to say... this episode is for you.In this episode, I'm sharing the exact strategy I use when creativity dips, mental load increases, and consistency still matters BUT in a way that does so without forcing brand-new ideas or burning yourself out.Whether you're listening at the end of the year or months from now, this episode will help you get unstuck fast and keep momentum in your podcast and business.Links mentioned in this episode: Click here to take the quiz to find out what episode to record next!Start or Grow Your Podcast With Me:Join the FREE Moms Who Podcast Community: https://skool.com/podcasters/Ready to launch your podcast?: https://pamelakrista.com/podcast-launch/Need help with editing and/or managing your podcast? I've got you covered: https://pamelakrista.com/podcast-managementConnect with Pamela:YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pamelakrista/Website: https://www.pamelakrista.comInstagram: @pamelakrista Email: pamela@pamelakrista.com
Edtech ThrowdownEpisode 205: Edtech Resolutions for 2026Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is episode 205 called “Edtech Resolutions for 2026” In this episode, we'll talk about our edtech tips and edtech tools that we are excited to explore in the new year. This is another episode you don't want to miss. Check it out.Segment 1: Goodbye 2025 and Hello 2026Narrative: Life was challenging in 2025… Welcome 2026! Segment 2: Tips, Tools, and Resources Nick's An Edtech Tip for 2026Building Blocks in Google Docs to templat-ize my doc writingAn Edtech Tool for 2026Noteobook LM - so many new tools, I have a feeling there is more to comeAn Edtech Resource for 2026Canva Cheat sheetsGuises:An Edtech Tip for 2026Simplify TasksGroup tasks to maximize saving timeBoost EngagementReflect on what your students like and make changes to your teachingStreamline WorkflowMake templates based on your core teaching philosophyAn Edtech Tool for 2026Canva Code for gamificationAn Edtech Resource for 2026Guise's Guide to Gemini GemsMake a PACT with your Gem:Persona: Give it a job title.Action: Give it a verb (create, grade, simplify).Context: Give it the boundaries (grade level, standards).Template: Give it a structure (table, list, email format).Edtech Throwdown: Vote on twitter @edtechthrowdown and under the pinned post on the profile.Segment 3: Where to Find EdTech ThrowdownDo us a few favors:Subscribe to the Edtech Throwdown Podcast
Are homoerotic friendships a canon queer experience?
Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. My Guest: Nick Gray is the author of The Two-Hour Cocktail Party and founder of Museum Hack. He's mastered the art of hosting events that strengthen networks and build genuine connections. In this conversation, he shares practical systems for hosting gatherings, why every leader needs a personal website, and lessons learned from his viral blind date trip to Tokyo. The Learning Leader Show Key Learnings Two Great Ice Breaker Questions: What's a compliment that someone has given you that you've never forgotten about? If you could teach any class about a topic that you're an expert on, what would it be? The power of a network is real: As a leader, you're probably hiring people regularly or looking for investors. By hosting simple, lightweight meetups or dinner parties, or happy hours once a quarter, you can strengthen your network, build it, and keep those loose connections or weak ties warm. Mix professional and personal contacts: For me, a really boring event would be all work people. Look for occupational diversity. If you're hosting a work event, invite some other random folks who you know are gonna be good conversationalists and add to the energy. Don't reach for the top shelf first. Most important advice for leaders: do not invite your most impressive contact to your very first happy hour or meetup. Your first party should be for your neighbors, the parents of kids at your school, those LinkedIn connections, high school buddies you haven't seen in a while. Your first party should be a comfortable meetup for 15 to 22 people that you host at your home with just cocktails, not a dinner party. Then slowly, once a quarter, you'll be adding more people to it and filtering your list. Collect RSVPs to ensure attendance. New hosts are absolutely terrified that nobody will arrive. As long as you get a minimum of 15 people to show up, your party will generally be a success. Use platforms like Partiful or Mixily (not Paperless Post or Evite) to get people to RSVP, let them know what to expect, and send reminder messages. Ten days before, send a reminder message hyping up the party. About a week before, send another reminder message with a little dossier of who the attendees are. Write something little: "Ryan Hawk hosts a podcast. He wrote a book. He lives in Ohio. Ask him about the ski trip he went on with his family." This serves to make anxious people or socially awkward feel like they're welcome and they have a conversational access point. Practical hosting tips on event day: Label your trash cans and your bathrooms. As people arrive, greet and welcome every single person, and make them a name tag. Write it out right in front of them, first name only. Do not pre-write your name tags. Force collisions through structured activities. Your job as a leader is to go through life collecting the interesting people that you meet and helping them meet each other. Can you become a connector? One way to be a connector is to host these meetups and force the collisions. Lead two or three rounds of introductions at your meetup. Make a little announcement 30 minutes after it starts: "There are so many interesting people here. I want you all to meet each other. We're gonna split into small groups. It might seem silly, but I promise the purpose tonight is for you to talk to as many new people as possible. We're gonna split into small groups of three or four people, and you're gonna go around and tell your life story in two minutes." End on time, especially for weekday events: Host from 6:30 to 8:30 PM with a hard stop on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. People appreciate having an end time because they have responsibilities. Having that end time makes them more likely to RSVP yes and actually attend. "I get more compliments on my party ending on time, and they leave with a positive experience, so they want to return for another." Why every leader needs a personal website. If you have a blue check verified on Instagram, if you post at least once a month on LinkedIn, you probably need your own personal website. It's proactive reputation management. People are out there searching for you on Google and on ChatGPT. It may not happen every single day, but it probably happens every week. Whether it's parents of your kids at school, whether it's new employees, people are googling you. You want to have a personal website to put your best foot forward and make a good impression. Carrd.co to create a simple homepage or cloudflare to set up your domain name. Keep it simple: You don't need a Gary Vee type page. Your page can look like a Google Doc. Feed these large language models your story and bio. My website is plain text, simple homepage. I used to have a fancy design site. Now I'm like, dude, it doesn't matter. 80% of my visitors are on their cell phone and just want to read some text and have some links. The tweet from 2024 that changed everything. The viral Tokyo blind date trip taught me I was ready to share my life with someone. I ended up meeting my wife a couple of months after this experience because I realized I was ready. From a business perspective, one of the most interesting things while that was happening and for about a week afterwards: anyone would accept my phone call. My callbacks were instantaneous. My dial to answer fast. People were reaching out from everywhere. I was like, whoa, is this what it's like to be a celebrity? "I came back to Texas after the trip, ready to truly settle down and find a relationship and meet my now wife." Write like you talk: The best book about storytelling is Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks. Don't try to write a LinkedIn post that says "I'm happy to announce." Would you actually say that to someone? No, you wouldn't. Say it like you talk. Advice on Blind Introductions: Use a double opt-in intro. Reach out to one person first, "Hey, are you taking new clients before I connect you with a friend?" Get both parties' permission, separately - then send the email. Give yourself a Free Day: Dan Sullivan suggests one free day a quarter from work. Make it a weekday, and even get a burner phone so you can't check your work text/emails, so you're completely disconnected from work. The keys to being a great host/MC: Priya Parker does such a great job talking about the theory of being a good leader. The host that doesn't do a great job is the one who's too cool to care. Give explicit instructions to people. You are a ring leader for an event, and you're in charge of everyone's energy levels and keeping the show on the road. Add value before taking value. Never send someone a message, "I'd love to pick your brain," or "I'm looking for a mentor." That is take, take, take. Think about how you can add value first. When you add value first to people, it's some sort of law of reciprocity. They're much more likely to want to help you out or do something in return. Advice for new grads in the AI era: AI and new tools are eating into the ability for companies to hire low-level employees that do grunt work. Learn how to use the tools themselves. Work with small businesses and entrepreneurs where you can make a difference. Develop a writing practice: Matthew Dicks has this activity called Homework for Life where every night you write down some note, some anecdote, something that stuck out for you. It gives you ideas about things to write about. Use AI as an editor, not a writer: Don't outsource your thinking to AI. Use the tools, understand how to use them, but don't outsource your thinking. It'll spit back something decent, but you don't want to outsource your thinking, especially as a leader. Reflection Questions Nick says your first party should be for neighbors, school parents, and LinkedIn connections you haven't seen in a while (not your most impressive contacts). Who are 15-20 people in your life that fall into this "comfortable but haven't connected recently" category that you could invite to a simple cocktail party? He emphasizes "add value before you take value" and never says "I'd love to pick your brain." Think about someone you want to connect with. What's one specific way you could add value to them first before asking for anything in return? Nick hosts events once a quarter to keep weak ties warm instead of trying to have individual coffee meetings with everyone. What's one relationship-building activity you're currently doing inefficiently that could be replaced with a group gathering? Additional Learning #663 - Priya Parker: The Art of Gathering #545: Will Guidara: Unreasonable Hospitality #430 - Matthew Dicks: Change Your Life Through The Power Of Storytelling Audio Timestamps 02:06 Icebreakers and Personal Stories 02:55 The Art of Hosting Events 08:27 Practical Tips for Successful Gatherings 20:16 Mastermind Events and Personal Websites 25:36 The Importance of a Personal Website 26:47 Crafting an Engaging Bio 29:27 The Viral Tokyo Trip 37:04 Living an Interesting Life 41:57 The Art of Hosting and MC'ing 44:50 Advice for New Graduates 46:35 The Power of Writing and Storytelling 49:07 EOPC
Thank you for tuning in to Episode 311 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website. This week's segments included: Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Brainstorming From the Armchair KAL News Events Contest, News & Notes On a Happy Note Quote of the Week Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Kris' Christmas socks Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners in the Fairy Lights colorway & Patons Kroy in Red for heels Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page I knit pair of socks out of this same colorway for Mom in 2019- Ravelry Project Page here. That was my 100th pair of OMG Heel socks. Elsa Pattern: Queen Elsa Amigurumi by Chiara Cremon (free crochet pattern available on Ravelry) Yarn: Knit Picks Brava (worsted weight acrylic yarn) Hook: D (3.25 mm) Ravelry Project Page Fantastic, really clear pattern. Body is worked from the bottom up all the way through the head, then you add two arms and a cape on the back. I ironed the cape and body to smooth out the fabric. Penguin Pattern: Penguin by Lion Brand Yarn- free crochet pattern on the Lion Brand website Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Worsted minis in Black, Clarity, White and Orange colorways Hook: C (2.75 mm) Ravelry Project Page Over the Rainbow Socks Yarn: Cashmere & Coconuts MCN Sock yarn in the Somewhere Over the Rainbow colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Woolens & Nosh 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Woolens & Nosh, 75/25 Superwash Wool/Nylon 2025 Advent Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Kirby Wirby 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Kirby Wirby 75/25 Superwash Merino/Nylon in the 2025 Advent Christmas Toys from the 80s 24 Stripe Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Yarn theme: Christmas Toys from the 80s Very Hungry Caterpillar Socks Yarn: Teal Torch Knits Splendid Sock (100% SW Merino) in the Emerald Colorway, Murky Depths Deep Sock in the Age of Aquarium Colorway & Legacy Fiber Artz Steel Toes in the Vanilla Bean colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) and US 2 Ravelry Project Page Cast on 56 sts with US 1.5 for cuff. After cuff, knit a few rounds. 4 sets of increases (4 increases each time) to get to 72 sts. Then change to US 2 needles and test for stretchiness after first block of colorwork. Mapped out the colorwork for one sock based on Pacific Knit Co's Garden Doodle set. Sheri's Christmas Socks Yarn: Gusto Wool Echos in Colorway 1515 (blue to purple gradient in 2-50g skeins) Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page I cast this on to bring to Rhinebeck on my Lemonwood Mini Minder (I have this Art Deco one) so I could walk and knit. Cast on cuff of sock #2 on a separate pair of needles before going to see Hattie in Shrek so I had that ready to work on. Back at home, I finished the first leg and heel and am on to the foot. Gus the Dino Pattern: Gus the Dino by KP Crochet Patterns. $8.50 US Pattern on Etsy (on sale right now) Yarn: Bernat Blanket in Misty Green & Parfait Chunky in White Hook: J (6.0 mm) Ravelry Project Page Brainstorming I shared a check in on Christmas making plans/schedule From the Armchair Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. Amazon Affiliate Link. Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover. Amazon Affiliate Link. Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases. KAL News Pigskin Party '25 Event Dates: KAL Dates- Thursday September 4, 2025- Monday February 9, 2026 Find everything you need in the Start Here Thread in the Ravelry Group Official Rules Registration Form (you must be Registered to be eligible for prizes) Enter your projects using the Point Tally Form Find the full list of Sponsors in this Google Doc. Coupon Codes are listed in this Ravelry Thread Exclusive Items from our Pro Shop Sponsors are listed in this Ravelry Thread Questions- ask them in this Ravelry Thread or email Jen at downcellarstudio @ gmail.com Check out this Ravelry Thread with helpful tips for the event, crowd sourced from our incredible players. Updates In This Episode Count On It Challenge hosted by Twice Sheared Sheep, Official Sponsor for Quarter 2 (November). Details in this Ravelry thread. Winner announced. Official Sponsor for Quarter 3 (December)- Suburban Stitcher Mini Maker's Merry Month See details in this Ravelry Thread. Stay tuned for more about our Official Sponsor for Quarter 4 (January)- Yarnaceous Fibers November participation prize winners were announced Commentator Update from Mary- links in this section bring you to Ravelry Inspired by the Q3 challenge, there's lots of chatter in the December huddle about things to make with mini skeins! If you are at a loss for what to make, head on over to the huddle for some ideas! Three players have already submitted for points in the Q3 challenge--and all three of them made patterns by PSP sponsor Sarah Schira (Imagined Landscapes) * Esalaza made a super cute textured stripe scrappy hat in red, green, and white....very festive! * Fgcreations made a gnoel gnome--also very festive in Christmas colors! *Amazeh made a Gnatty the Unexpected Gnome Way to rack up those points by combining a sponsor pattern with the Q3 challenge! Speaking of racking up points...I was curious what the highest scoring single point project is so far. DebLinden got 1155 points for one project! How'd she do it, you ask? *She knit a sweater holding two yarns together using 3639 yards (plenty of yardage for a blitz!), *She used 4 pigskin exclusive products, and *She used 3 additional proshop sponsor products. Well done! Wishing you all a happy holiday season! Contest, News & Notes Check out my 2025 Vlogmas Playlist on YouTube On a Happy Note Laura texted me a photo of she and her friend Arielle wearing socks I knit them! Dad, Dan and I went to the Irish pub for Dan's birthday Dad's knee replacement surgery went really well. Seeing Hattie in Shrek and spending the afternoon with Riley. Sue and Chelsea from Legacy Fiber Artz sent me their 4 Sundays Advent- micro sock sets Our friend Merry came to visit and brought homemade food for Dad. She also brought me a beautiful bracelet whose beads are made with Mom's funeral flowers in Wizard of Oz colors. Riley and Milie came down this weekend. We did lots of knitting, crochet and a bit of latch hook. Check out the 13th and 14th vlogmas videos for more. Quote of the Week "Welcome winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but I love you nonetheless." —Terri Guillemets ------ Thank you for tuning in! Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link FearLESS Living Fund to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.
© 2020-2026 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
