The internet made starting a business cheap. AI is making execution cheap. The remaining expensive part is sticking with something long enough to become unusually good at it. Technology keeps removing barriers except one: patience.

One of the worst email habits is “protecting” your list from emails. “I don’t want to bother them” sounds considerate, but what you really have is a costly communication channel you’re afraid to use. If sending an email makes people unsubscribe, you didn’t lose access to them. You never had it in the first place. Hence, for my B2C newsletters, I send an email EVER SINGLE DAY.

I publish both B2C and B2B newsletters. A B2C newsletter needs a lot of people to care a little. A B2B newsletter can work if a very small number of people care a lot. That distinction is critical to your email strategy.

My goal used to be to build a big company. Now my goal is to build a company that does big things. Those are very different ambitions. One requires more people. The other requires more leverage.

I don't think passive income is the goal. Leverage is. Passive is about avoiding work. Leverage is about getting more out of each hour.. One is about doing nothing. The other is about making what you do count.

I don't want AI to make me 30% faster at doing something I don’t like doing. I want AI to make it so I never have to do that task again. Efficiencies are nice. Elimination is better.

I got so engrossed in work today that I completely lost track of time. I missed including links to my latest long form videos in my daily email newsletters (firing up long-form YT channels for my lifestyle brands this week… finally). I published the vids then looked up. I couldn't believe it was 11:30 am. Emails go out at 9:40. We talk endlessly about working less. Four-hour workweeks. Passive income. Escaping the grind. But maybe the goal isn't to spend as little time working as possible. Maybe it's to find work that is all-encompassing. The kind where you forget to check the clock. Isn't that the point?

The dangerous thing about AI isn’t that it can do your work. It’s that it makes every bad project idea feel worth starting because it’s so darn easy. Before AI, you’d not give it a second thought because it was too costly to risk. Now you can have a logo, SaaS and sales page by lunch for mere dollars.

I used to measure productivity by how much I got done. Now I measure it by how much I never have to do again. A productive Tuesday is good. An AI system that eliminates working Tuesdays is better.

Everyone wants recurring revenue. I'm more interested in recurring work that produces revenue. Topic generation. Content production. Posting to social media. Sending email newsletters. Why? Because recurring tasks handled by AI are recurring revenue.

Someone told me they’re "building passive income streams." I asked what they’ve built so far. "I'm still researching niches." That was two years ago. Checked their site last week. Four posts. Passive income is somewhat real. But passive is the back end. The front end is 18 months of working hard for nothing. The long tail will pay you, but first you pay in.

Most experiments I run fail. The ones that work make up for the bombs. This week I spent one hour coding with AI a new email signup feature for two sites I own. This feature would normally cost me $99+ per month with 3rd party software. Now it’s free. It’s a simple email popup form with unlimited split testing capabilities. As you can see, this particular experiment is one of the few winners. I’ve tested popups many times in the past but this time simplified the copy. That made all the difference.

Media companies used to require a building, a printing press, and 200 employees. Now they require a laptop and a person who has something to say or knows something other people don't. That's you.

3 years ago I needed three monitors for peak efficiency. Today I do 10x on a laptop. What changed? AI. Three years ago I spent six to eight hours a day neck deep in content, images and all the stuff necessary to publish content online. These days I spend 90% of my time prompting Claude Code and the rest managing my small team of content creators. Claude Code is a small terminal window that it equally efficient to work with on a laptop as a desktop with three monitors. With a few tweaks, I could probably run my entire publishing business on my phone.

Had my first Uber ride in an EV pickup truck today. I have a gas-guzzling Tundra. I joked to the driver that I’d lose money as an Uber driver in the Tundra. His response surprised me. What followed was a fascinating discussion about Uber economics. He said if you’re strategic as an Uber driver, I could earn $500 for every $100 spent on gas. That blew my mind. He backed it up by saying he only recently got an EV; before that he drove a gas-powered 4Runner and did just fine. “What’s the strategy?” I asked. He launched into a rapid-fire verbal listicle setting out exactly how to max out profits driving Uber. 1. Drive the higher paying times of the day. 2. Be patient. Only pick up rides nearby and that are heading somewhere a return rider is likely. 3. If have a gas-guzzler, choose riders that require using highway routes as much as possible. 4. When have no rider, cruise around or park in high-traffic areas to increase chances for a rider that meets 1 to 3 above. I’m sure he has a few more tricks up his sleeve. I have no plans to drive Uber, but as a gig-economy participant, I found the discussion fascinating. If ever I drive Uber, I’ll remember this conversion and would study Uber economics more deeply. I gave him a good tip. Maybe that’s his real secret… share Uber secrets for bigger tips. Once again, I’m reminded just how helpful other people can be if you simply ask.

A reader sent me a long email yesterday explaining how offensive one of my articles was. Not because of what I wrote. Because of what I didn't write. At first, I was mildly irked. Then I reread it three times. I came around to see her point. Most of us have read something and thought, "But what about this?" or "You left out that important detail." And yes, there are omissions that can be universally offensive. This was not one of them. It’s true the reader wasn't entirely wrong. Something was missing. The thing is, something is always missing. Every article, every book, every speech, every conversation is as much an omission as inclusion. Writers start with a universe of possibilities and choose a few. Everything else gets left out. That's not a flaw. That's writing in a nutshell. If writers are responsible not only for what they say, but also for every perspective they don't mention, every exception they don't include, and every possibility they don't cover, the standard becomes unattainable. The article becomes longer. Then longer still. Then longer again. Eventually it stops being an article and becomes an endless series of qualifications designed to prevent someone, somewhere, from feeling overlooked. Writing requires choices. Choices create omissions. Omissions can create disagreement. That's not a flaw. It's the price saying anything at all.

There's a gas station near my house I go to all the time. Gas. Drinks. Slushies with my sons. Different times of day. Sometimes alone. Sometimes with the kids. Half the time I'm wearing shorts and a bike helmet. The people who work there are kind. The place is well run, which is a key reason why I keep going back other than proximity. Yesterday one of the cashiers broke the usual “cash, debit or credit” script. He asked what I do. First cashier in the 11 years I’ve been going there to do that. We got chatting. Turns out he's a 26-year-old computer science grad building some pretty wild things with Claude Code. Open source projects. I asked why he'd give away his work if his goal was to make money. He said he's playing the long game. Building a portfolio. Building a reputation. Creating opportunities that might not exist yet. He knows the hiring market is non-existent right now and is doing something about it. Smart. What struck me wasn't just what he was building. It was that he'd noticed me. The odd hours. The bike helmet. The flexibility. The fact I was sometimes there with my kids and sometimes not. The conversation impressed me enough that we exchanged contact information. I'm genuinely interested to see what he ends up building over the next few years. And you never know. Our paths may cross again beyond the gas station. The lesson isn't to network. The lesson is to be receptive. Talk to people. Ask questions. Answer them when they're asked of you. Opportunities and connections stem from ordinary conversations with ordinary people on ordinary days.

I've not been in the SEO game since 2023 but I'm still wondering how Google's announcement "no more blue links in search" is gonna change the Web (apparently they'll still be there but not by default which is as good as not there). Content sites: Already hammered so only few remaining pubs will take a hit. Ecommerce: Google will show products but still send people to the sites to buy. Could be good for ecomm folks if they end up getting their products shown. Might be hard to beat out Amazon and other big players in product carousels. Ecomm with brand searches will clean up. Local biz: Not much change since Google Maps and map packs have dominated for years. SaaS: Google will act as a filter so the fewer searchers who end up on SaaS sites more likely to buy???? Not sure. Conversion rates may radically change. SaaS must invest in getting mentioned. Huge opp for agencies. Joe-Blow and Jane Doe searchers: Most prefer AI generated results hence Google is doubling down on it. Heck, I never go to websites myself unless buying something or via social media. ULTIMATE WINNER: Google of course. Users will spend more time on Google forcing ecomm, local and SaaS to spend more on Google ads. Runner-Up Winner: Social media. With far fewer websites due to lack of traffic and lack of easy access via Google, more people will spend more time on social media (already happening for years).

5 years ago I spent a month and hundreds of dollars trying to get faceted search working on one of my sites. The end result was garbage. Three months ago I asked Claude to code me faceted search for the same site. 30 minutes later I had faceted search to rival the most advanced ecommerce sites on the Web.