Sidekick COO
Entertaining emails on Growing and Scaling your business for multi 6-figure Online Service Providers. "This is my absolutely most-favourite email I've received this month!!!" ~Elissa
10 minutes ruined an entire year
Back in October of 2019, I ended up at a three-day Mastermind in Toronto with a hundred other business owners. At one point, they broke us up into groups, each led by one of the 10 presenters that were speaking over the three days. My pod leader was Alex Charfen. I hadn't heard of him before that day but his CV was impressive. He had built and sold businesses, built and lost a fortune, then built that fortune again. He was smart, savvy, direct and it was clear that he knew his stuff. We all...
458% growth in 30 days!
Hi Reader! Happy June! I’m just getting back to normal after a ridiculously busy couple of months where I over committed myself to too many things on top of expanding my team. It’s been hard but also so frickin’ fun! I got to participate in some amazing conversations, meet some great people, celebrate amazing wins, and play with some really fun new tools. I’ve lost hours making apps, testing workflows, and building people’s AI Boardrooms and have loved every minute of it. At one point in...
I asked my AI notetaker how it would describe me
Last week I asked my AI notetaker: "How would you describe me?" I expected something diplomatic. A list of skills. Maybe a polite mention of my writing style or how often I say ‘like’ (cuz it’s, like, a lot). What it actually said is I’m "simultaneously strategic and deeply operational. Able to zoom out to design a client management system from scratch, and zoom in to fix a broken Zapier trigger the same afternoon. Pragmatic, precise with language, and allergic to unnecessary complexity."...
This feels illegal
For six months I started every weekend the same way. Behind; before I've even had a cup of tea. A list of overdue tasks that didn't get done during the week, some for clients, a lot for my own business, all just sitting there. Judging me. Most Saturdays I'd work all day and barely make a dent. I'd end the day wishing I could stop time so I could finally get caught up and wondering where my little helper elves were. Why didn’t I ever wake up to everything all done for me? (That cobbler had it...
I know better and I still did it.
Two summit invites landed in my inbox within 24 hours of each other. I said yes to both before checking my workload planner (this was last month, before I had committed to my word of the year). You can probably guess how it turned out. Instead of a quiet three-week break over the holidays (the one I’d planned, blocked off, and fully intended to take)... I spent a big chunk of it prepping for interviews, tweaking my bio, reworking slide decks, and writing emails. Saying yes without checking...
“No.” is a complete sentence
Elyse Myers is one of my favourite people on the interwebs, and I have to thank her for producing this absolute banger that I’ll be playing on repeat as a reminder of my word of the year. No. That might sound like a downer if you’re a “seize the moment” kinda person, or counter-intuitive if you’re someone who likes to stay squarely inside their comfort zone (and therefore have the complete opposite problem). But I’m a people pleaser. I hate saying no. If a friend asks me to help them move,...
did your AI assistant just cross a legal line?
Any time anything remotely controversial makes its way into the public domain someone takes up the “think of the children” rallying cry. AI is no different. According to a recent article in the Financial Times, the UK is exploring tougher laws on AI chatbots. They’re not the only ones. There have been rising concerns about children forming unhealthy relationships with generative AI chatbots, the potential for harmful or incorrect information being provided, and the possibility of the AI...
procrasti-doing
Yesterday was my last day of vacation, and I had a plan. I was going to use the day to write this newsletter. Maybe draft a couple emails about my upcoming AI for Preneurs workshop. That’s it. Easy, productive, 5 hours of focused work. Instead… I slept in.Walked the dogs.Played Connections and kicked ass at Strands on the NYT app.Fell down a rabbit hole with a new AI tool.Helped a client troubleshoot a tech issue.Walked the dogs (again).Went to the gym.Watched a rerun of Bones.Cleaned up my...
this tiny shift created a big lift
The other day at the gym I went for a new personal best on my deadlift. 275 pounds. My first attempt? Total disaster. My back and legs were doing all the work while my brain was somewhere else entirely. I forgot the one thing that makes a lift possible: bracing. Caleb (who was filming, bless him) caught the whole wobbly mess on camera. On my second attempt I remembered to take that deep belly breath. Filled up with air, created support from the inside out and, just like that… …I nailed it....
The best trip I barely remember (no 🍺🍷🥃involved)
When Caleb and I took our staycation last week, we decided to just "see how we felt each day." We had some rough ideas scribbled down ahead of time, but no real plan. Each morning we asked, "What do we want to do today?" and each night, "What do we feel like doing tomorrow?" On the good days, it was perfect. We could tune into our energy, rest when we needed to, and take spontaneous adventures. But… there were downsides, too. We wasted a lot of time deciding what to do. Sometimes, because we...
Entertaining emails on Growing and Scaling your business for multi 6-figure Online Service Providers. "This is my absolutely most-favourite email I've received this month!!!" ~Elissa