The Sunday Summary: Best practices, knowing more, and the angle of the truths that we see In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, May 13: There’s still a world outside these walls We’re often trapped inside of social media, but it’s still possible to build your own home outside of their walls. Tue, May 14: Best practices are average Following best practices can be great, but by definition they will on...

The Sunday Summary: Best practices, knowing more, and the angle of the truths that we see In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, May 13: There’s still a world outside these walls We’re often trapped inside of social media, but it’s still possible to build your own home outside of their walls. Tue, May 14: Best practices are average Following best practices can be great, but by definition they will on...

All of your old Google Analytics data will vanish on July 1 In the last move of Google’s weird switch from “Universal Analytics” (“UA”, the Google Analytics that everyone has used for years) to “Google Analytics 4” will happen in just a few weeks. For those not familiar with this, Google Analytics is software used to track information about your website visitors, and Google made a massive change to this software a few years ago. While the old Analytics stopped tracking traffic a year ago, you...

All of your old Google Analytics data will vanish on July 1 In the last move of Google’s weird switch from “Universal Analytics” (“UA”, the Google Analytics that everyone has used for years) to “Google Analytics 4” will happen in just a few weeks. For those not familiar with this, Google Analytics is software used to track information about your website visitors, and Google made a massive change to this software a few years ago. While the old Analytics stopped tracking traffic a year ago, you...

Wantrepreneurs are content consumers People that work to grow their business generally fall into one of two camps: entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs work with their plan, and wantrepreneurs just hope that things work out along the way. Both can succeed, but the odds are much higher for one over the other. It reminds me a bit of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous quote of “A goal without a plan is just a wish“. The challenge is that coming up with a plan isn’t always easy. As I’ve...

Wantrepreneurs are content consumers People that work to grow their business generally fall into one of two camps: entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs work with their plan, and wantrepreneurs just hope that things work out along the way. Both can succeed, but the odds are much higher for one over the other. It reminds me a bit of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous quote of “A goal without a plan is just a wish“. The challenge is that coming up with a plan isn’t always easy. As I’ve...

Make mistakes once Making mistakes can be a fantastic way to learn, even if you sometimes make them intentionally. Given that they’re a way to learn, though, repeatedly making the same one isn’t going to be very effective. In a conversation last year with Donald Miller, Seth Godin said something to the effect of:“Encourage people to make mistakes, but also make sure you learn from them. Make mistakes once, but don’t make them twice.”Giving people the freedom to make mistakes is an awesome thi...

Make mistakes once Making mistakes can be a fantastic way to learn, even if you sometimes make them intentionally. Given that they’re a way to learn, though, repeatedly making the same one isn’t going to be very effective. In a conversation last year with Donald Miller, Seth Godin said something to the effect of:“Encourage people to make mistakes, but also make sure you learn from them. Make mistakes once, but don’t make them twice.”Giving people the freedom to make mistakes is an awesome thi...

Viral posts versus 1-on-1 I’m finding Threads to be an excellent social media platform right now. It’s grown large enough to have great conversations, but not too large (yet) that it invites in all of the chaos. It’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow, but right now it’s an excellent space to spend time in. Rand Fishkin, who I’ve written about a handful of times on here before, had an excellent take on the contrast of trying to “go viral” versus just making connections. He shared...

Viral posts versus 1-on-1 I’m finding Threads to be an excellent social media platform right now. It’s grown large enough to have great conversations, but not too large (yet) that it invites in all of the chaos. It’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow, but right now it’s an excellent space to spend time in. Rand Fishkin, who I’ve written about a handful of times on here before, had an excellent take on the contrast of trying to “go viral” versus just making connections. He shared...

GPT-4o is astounding It seems that every iteration of ChatGPT and similar technologies is amazing, and the new “GPT-4o” certainly continues that trend. If you’re not familiar with it, here is a quick peek: Along with just text, you can see that GPT-4o also can interpret video, images, and other info. Not only can it understand more about the world around it, but the overall interaction feels more lifelike than we’ve ever seen before. As of today most of us still don’t have access to the video...

GPT-4o is astounding It seems that every iteration of ChatGPT and similar technologies is amazing, and the new “GPT-4o” certainly continues that trend. If you’re not familiar with it, here is a quick peek: Along with just text, you can see that GPT-4o also can interpret video, images, and other info. Not only can it understand more about the world around it, but the overall interaction feels more lifelike than we’ve ever seen before. As of today most of us still don’t have access to the video...

Repeat versus fresh content When deciding what content to dig into (books, podcasts, etc), I’m often faced with an interesting decision: do I want to explore something new, or revisit an old favorite? Over the last year, I’ve been doing a lot of revisiting in place of new content. I’m still reading a few new books every month, but I’m also working on revisiting old content to help better understand it and solidify it in my brain. My new “Stacking Knowledge” podcast is a great example of that....

Repeat versus fresh content When deciding what content to dig into (books, podcasts, etc), I’m often faced with an interesting decision: do I want to explore something new, or revisit an old favorite? Over the last year, I’ve been doing a lot of revisiting in place of new content. I’m still reading a few new books every month, but I’m also working on revisiting old content to help better understand it and solidify it in my brain. My new “Stacking Knowledge” podcast is a great example of that....

The Sunday Summary: GPT-4o, viral posts, customer data, and silence In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, May 20: GPT-4o is astounding AI continues to accelerate, with the new GPT-4o looking absolutely amazing. Tue, May 21: Why am I talking? Asking that simple question can do a lot. Wed, May 22: Viral posts versus 1-on-1 Having a viral post can be fun, but 1-on-1 connections ultimately mean a lot mo...

The Sunday Summary: GPT-4o, viral posts, customer data, and silence In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, May 20: GPT-4o is astounding AI continues to accelerate, with the new GPT-4o looking absolutely amazing. Tue, May 21: Why am I talking? Asking that simple question can do a lot. Wed, May 22: Viral posts versus 1-on-1 Having a viral post can be fun, but 1-on-1 connections ultimately mean a lot mo...

Why am I talking? One of the best things I’ve done over the past few years (though it’s still a work in progress) is to be more quiet during meetings. If I want to open my mouth, I always try to have the thought of “why am I talking?” before I start. A while back, Pete and Jen talked about this in an episode of their podcast with this statement as the acronym W.A.I.T. (“Why Am I Talking?”). It was a great episode and I encourage you to give it a listen. More recently, this came to mind while ...

Why am I talking? One of the best things I’ve done over the past few years (though it’s still a work in progress) is to be more quiet during meetings. If I want to open my mouth, I always try to have the thought of “why am I talking?” before I start. A while back, Pete and Jen talked about this in an episode of their podcast with this statement as the acronym W.A.I.T. (“Why Am I Talking?”). It was a great episode and I encourage you to give it a listen. More recently, this came to mind while ...

Treat customer data with respect One of the biggest assets that many companies have is data on their customers. By collecting, storing, and using piles of data on their customers, they can often turn that into additional profit. In fact, at this point, it’s almost easier to collect too much data and so those companies that work hard to limit it deserve some respect. In her book “Data Reimagined“, author Jodi Daniels simply said this:“Happily, the very fact of its difficulty makes treating cus...

Treat customer data with respect One of the biggest assets that many companies have is data on their customers. By collecting, storing, and using piles of data on their customers, they can often turn that into additional profit. In fact, at this point, it’s almost easier to collect too much data and so those companies that work hard to limit it deserve some respect. In her book “Data Reimagined“, author Jodi Daniels simply said this:“Happily, the very fact of its difficulty makes treating cus...

The silence is the question A trait of mine that I continue to work on is to let conversations breathe. I tend to jump in quickly to keep things moving along, to the extent of sometimes trying to finish someone else’s sentence. It’s not good, but it’s getting better. Better still, though, is allowing some silence to exist in a conversation. Particularly when it’s a tough subject, silence can be a great way to punctuate a question. In a recent episode of “The Long and the Short Of It” podcast,...

The silence is the question A trait of mine that I continue to work on is to let conversations breathe. I tend to jump in quickly to keep things moving along, to the extent of sometimes trying to finish someone else’s sentence. It’s not good, but it’s getting better. Better still, though, is allowing some silence to exist in a conversation. Particularly when it’s a tough subject, silence can be a great way to punctuate a question. In a recent episode of “The Long and the Short Of It” podcast,...

Truths depend on our own point of view There are a lot of absolute truths in the world, but many are subjective. For example, I can 100% prove that Chick-Fil-A has the fastest drive-thru of all similar restaurants, but I can also 100% prove that they have the slowest. Both are true, but they depend on your point of view. In Star Wars: Episode VI (“Return of the Jedi”), Obi-Wan Kenobi simply says “Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view“. This came up while liste...

Truths depend on our own point of view There are a lot of absolute truths in the world, but many are subjective. For example, I can 100% prove that Chick-Fil-A has the fastest drive-thru of all similar restaurants, but I can also 100% prove that they have the slowest. Both are true, but they depend on your point of view. In Star Wars: Episode VI (“Return of the Jedi”), Obi-Wan Kenobi simply says “Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view“. This came up while liste...