Hi Reader, Every week I talk to a new AI builder. They show me something they built in a weekend. It's actually impressive. Then I ask: "who's using it?" And it gets quiet. What I'm Noticing It's the same conversation, four or five times a month now. A PM built an internal tool that summarizes customer calls. A founder shipped an agent that drafts proposals. A consultant put together a prompt library her clients could use. The builds are good. The demos are smooth. The energy is real. Then I...
11 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Brooke Wright is on a mission to teach 10,000 women how to use AI by 2026. She doesn't have a tech background. And she runs Wright Mode, a thriving AI strategy practice for women founders and small business owners. What we covered: The Brain Buddy custom GPT she built so her to-do list feeds her one task at a time instead of all at once Her client (a coach) who sold 3,000 copies of a custom GPT at $37 each, reaching people she could never have coached one-on-one The reframe that...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, A guest on the podcast this month dropped a line that's been clarifying a lot of conversations I've been in since: Automate 80%. Keep the 20% that makes it yours. The 80% is anyone-with-the-right-prompt work. The 20% is the part that requires you being you. Your specific perspective. The decisions no one else can make. Your read of the situation. That distinction is critical right now. What I'm Noticing Most of the AI conversations I'm having with product leaders, fractional...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, What do you do when AI can handle 80% of your job? Cien Solon found out. She was a senior product manager managing 30 engineers and data scientists when she realized AI could write her epics and user stories in minutes instead of an afternoon. Her first reaction: "I'm going to be out of my job." Her second reaction: "What else can I build?" What we covered: How a chatbot she built in 2018 improved customer service resolution rates by 20% overnight, years before anyone was talking...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, A friend of mine recently told me she was trying to "call in" more of the right clients. I loved that phrase. It sounds a little spiritual, a little intentional, a little like something you'd hear at a retreat. But when I asked her what she meant, it was completely practical: get clear about what you want, then tell everyone you know. Whether you call it manifesting or marketing, it starts in the same place: clarity. What I'm Noticing Many people I talk to, whether they're going...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, What happens when a leadership development consultant who's never written code decides to automate her entire PhD? Nathalie Salles spent her career in human development at Facebook and Google, coaching leaders and scaling talent programs. Now she's doing a PhD on AI, workplace, and gender. And somewhere along the way, she became a builder. What we covered: How she taught herself n8n with zero coding experience and built a pipeline that processes over 1,500 research papers...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, What happens when a 20-year product leader walks away from the corporate track and bets on herself? Elena Luneva spent her career leading product at Nextdoor, OpenTable, BrainTrust, and BlackRock. Then she went independent. Not because she was pushed out, but because she already knew how to do the old job. She wanted to learn something new. What we covered: Why constraints ("no more hiring") forced her team to get creative with AI, and how that changed how she thinks about what's...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Last week I facilitated a workshop for grad students, and one of them wasn't sure her restaurant job counted as "real experience." It hit me: this isn't just a student problem. I hear the same thing from mid-career professionals every week. "I don't have the right AI skills." "My background isn't technical enough." "There's so much to catch up on." What I'm Noticing Everyone's chasing the same playbook right now. Prompting courses. Context engineering. AI certifications. Tool after...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, This month's idea comes from an Arthur Brooks talk I heard. One line stuck with me: never make the mistake of meeting a complex need with a complicated tool. In AI terms: it's very easy to start using a powerful tool to solve problems that aren't actually tool problems. What I'm Noticing When things feel uncertain (a hard decision, messy collaboration, fear of getting it wrong), we tend to reach for AI the same way people reach for their phone: as a way to calm the discomfort....
4 months ago • 2 min read