My inbox this month has been one long remix of the same three stories…
Projects running late, founders trying to duct‑tape AI onto broken systems, and at least one brave human trying to write a book between client calls.
If you’ve been over‑building in private and under‑selling in public, this one’s for you!
COMMUNITY BUSINESSES IRL:
Bots, Books, and Busted Timelines
🌡️ Project plans running a January fever: I keep meeting founders who treat missed delivery dates like “just vibes” instead of early‑warning sirens. Pearl from Qube Catalyst lifts the hood on what’s really going wrong with those mysteriously slipping timelines in her latest piece, “January Is When ‘Are We Ready?’ Gets Louder” — and suddenly “we’re almost there” reads very differently.
🤖 Year of the Bot, not year of the burnout: While everyone else is panic‑posting “AI hacks” on LinkedIn, I quietly grabbed a corner table in the internet food court where 57 different creators laid out their actual AI systems, templates and workflows inside The Year of the Bot Bundle. It’s less “prompt of the day” and more “here’s how people who value sleep are automating the boring bits”.
🗂️ Admin, but make it founder‑friendly: Some founders are still treating Notion like a fancy notebook while others are quietly letting it eat half their back‑office. Between the Builders partner perks and those “up to 3 months free of Business with Notion AI” trials hiding behind my affiliate link, Notion’s partner programmes are basically paying people to stop suffering in spreadsheets.
🎙️ Nanette, but for your inbox: Apparently my thumbs have unionised, because the only way I finished last week’s client docs was by talking to my laptop in hushed late‑night voice notes. I’m grateful Wispr Flow turned those rambly monologues into ready‑to‑send emails, strategies… and yes, full chapters — their own case studies include someone literally speaking a book into existence. My hands hate typing but my calendar likes money, so this feels like a fair truce.
THE BUSINESS OF COMMUNITY
Why “Get Ready” When You Can Get Paid?
The "Blueprint" Trap
We need to talk about this obsession with "readiness".
In our Founder Hivemind this week, we saw a classic scene: a founder confessing they’d spent hours agonising over a blueprint and still not feeling closer to making the money that made it worthwhile.
Frustrated because no matter how much work they put in their systems hadn’t caught up to their ambition.
Sound familiar? Most of us think we need the perfect logo, the polished landing page, and the completed course module before we can ask for a cent. 😅
But let’s be honest: that’s not "preparation". That’s procrastination in a suit.
It’s over-engineering a solution for an audience you haven’t even met yet. You’re stuck in a "learning phase"—spending money—when you should be in a "revenue phase"—making it.
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The "Lo-Fi" Strategy
The advice from the Hivemind was necessary: Be experimental and go Lo-Fi.
As Nik put it during the session: "Go sell something you don't actually have in hand yet."
This isn't about being a con artist; it’s about validation. If you spend 60 hours building a retreat or a course and nobody buys it, you’ve wasted a week. If you spend 10 minutes sending a WhatsApp message and nobody replies, you’ve saved yourself a week.
How to Run a Lo-Fi Experiment This Week
You don’t need a funnel. You need the truth. Here is the 3-step "Lo-Fi" protocol we unpacked in our session:
The "Mom Test" Reality Check
Stop asking "Would you buy this?" (People will lie to be nice, even your mom). As discussed in the Hivemind, hypothetical questions get you hypothetical answers. Instead, ask about past behaviour: "When was the last time you tried to solve this?" or "How much did you pay to fix this last time?" If they haven't spent time or money trying to fix it, it's not a business problem; it's just a hobby.
The Minimalist Invite: Stop fighting with your website builder. Use this "low-tech" strategy: send a simple, personal WhatsApp or email to your warm audience. "I’m thinking of hosting X on [Date]. Are you in?" That’s it. That’s the launch.
The Barrier as Proof: A "taster" is useless if it just attracts freebie-hunters who will never convert. You need "skin in the game". Ask for a small deposit or a "pay-to-register" link immediately. If they aren't willing to pay a token amount, they aren't a customer—they’re a spectator.
Your business isn't a one-way-game, and it shouldn't be a charity for bored scrollers. Stop over-engineering the delivery and start collecting the only data that matters: who is willing to cross the barrier and actually buy?
If you want to get in a "room" of peers who will help you "qualify people out" and turn your overcrowded brain into a clear, calm system, go learn more about my community the Founder Hivemind.
FROM OUR FRIENDS AT MASTERWORKS:
3 Tricks Billionaires Use to Help Protect Wealth Through Shaky Markets
“If I hear bad news about the stock market one more time, I’m gonna be sick.”
We get it. Investors are rattled, costs keep rising, and the world keeps getting weirder.
So, who’s better at handling their money than the uber-rich?
Have 3 long-term investing tips UBS (Swiss bank) shared for shaky times:
Hold extra cash for expenses and buying cheap if markets fall.
Diversify outside stocks (Gold, real estate, etc.).
Hold a slice of wealth in alternatives that tend not to move with equities.
The catch? Most alternatives aren’t open to everyday investors
That’s why Masterworks exists: 70,000+ members invest in shares of something that’s appreciated more overall than the S&P 500 over 30 years without moving in lockstep with it.*
Contemporary and post war art by legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and more.
Sounds crazy, but it’s real. One way to help reclaim control this week:
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risk. Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd
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