Learn brevity

In professional settings, learn how to talk with clarity and conciseness. Discuss one topic at a time. Break between topics, make sure everyone is ready to move on to another one. Pause often to allow others to speak.

A lack of brevity is one reason why others will lose respect for you. If you ramble, it sounds like you lack confidence, and don’t truly understand the topic. You risk boring your audience. It sounds like you don’t care what other people have to say (this is particularly true if you are a manager). On conference calls and Zoom meetings, all of this is even worse due to lag.

Pay attention to how you talk. You’re not giving a TED talk, you’re collaborating with a team. Learn how to speak with clarity and focus, and it’ll go much better.

Interview questions for executive, PMs or other leadership candidates.

• What do you want to do with your life?
• Criteria for next opportunity?
• If you were a product, what is your value proposition?
• What is your most impactful accomplishment, most innovative?
• If you were CEO of {prior company}, what would you have done differently?
• Compared to other people with a similar LI profile, how are you most different?
• Who would instantly want to join us if we hire you?

Product studio via personal holding company.

• MVP cost = $500 or less
• Indie, super-niche products
• Keep 'em hooked with email/SMS/community rituals
• Build multiple products, per audience. Once 3 products are built, create an adjacent audience
• Use AI to sniff out fresh, underserved niches
• Profitable products or shut down (don't be emotional about the products)
• Kill products after 90 days
• Meme accounts are your best distribution friend
• AI to increase margins
• Build products around making more money, saving time or aspirational
• Start with optimizing for cash flow and then shift to enterprise value
• Creator-led from the start
• Start with community, then build product, versus build product and then build community
• Venture capital not necessary, very optional (I prefer no VC)
• Pre-sell products to your community to fund operations
• Invest in brand and design to stand out
• Global team (we try not to hire in NYC, we love Canada etc)
• Keep teams really small, use agencies or contractors where you can
• Each startup has to begin with a manifesto. Manifesto valuable product is the new MVP