How to run an unconference
With Responsive Conference only 25 days away, I’ve been thinking back to February 2016, when I ran my very first unconference. That experiment paved the way for the first annual Responsive Conference later that year, and the format has been woven into every Responsive event since. An unconference flips the traditional model of a conference on its […]
AI, Steam Mops, and The Secret To Discipline
I’ve been delinquent in writing Snafu this last week, because… I bought a house and moved in Responsive Conference is coming up in 32 days There have been some minor family emergencies I’ve had several Zander Media film shoots The state of the world? ♂️ Anyway, I thought I’d take this excuse to look back at some of […]
How to tell your story
I’ve never thought of myself as a great salesman. But a few months ago, two friends asked me for help with their sales and self-promotion. That resulted in teaching a cohort of ten people about sales. And when the 10-week cohort wrapped recently – just two months out from Responsive Conference – I didn’t have […]
This is how you lose a sale in under 24 hours
A few weeks ago, a salesman from an AI lead generation company cold-called me. I told him I was busy, but invited him to follow up with a short Loom video showing how his product could help Responsive Conference. I promised to watch the Loom and respond if I was interested. He followed up – without the Loom, […]
Set clear boundaries, before it’s too late
A few years ago, a friend and I kept trying to make plans. I canceled several times – once due to a car crash – and after the third or fourth reschedule, she told me it wasn’t working for her and that she was going to deprioritize our friendship. I apologized, we talked it through, […]
19 lessons on authentic sales
I just wrapped up ten-week series exploring a different approach to selling. During our last session, each attendee taught one of the topics we’ve spent the last few months discussing. These are a few of the takeaways… Sales as service – Sales is best conducted as a service. When we set out to provide an incredible […]
Don’t use force & keep your commitments
The following is an expert from my 2017 book Responsive: What It Takes To Create a Thriving Organization Doug Kirkpatrick was one of the earliest employees at The Morning Star Company. Founded in 1990, Morning Star would go on to trailblaze self- management in business. But as might be expected of any start-up, let alone one […]
Why we hate selling
Even though sales and persuasion are essential skills, most of us would rather never try than use force, manipulation, or pressure. An AI salesman I got a call from a salesman at an AI lead generation company last week. He’d scrapped my phone number from somewhere on the Internet and wanted to tell me about […]
Some reflections on turning 39
Inspired by Ryan Holiday, I’ve made a practice of listing a few things I’ve learned over last year on my birthday. Here’s 37 and 38. And here are a few things I’ve learned in the last year. Chaos We’re living amidst more turmoil than any time in several generations. And, despite being relentlessly optimistic, I think things are […]
Salesperson as therapist
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been teaching a workshop about sales. We get together on Zoom for an hour every week to discuss – and practice – a more authentic approach to selling. I made my first sales at five years old at Robin’s Pumpkin Patch. Selling is a part of my work today. […]
How Pixar Thinks About Stories (Hint: It’s Four Frames)
I had a call recently with Bobby Podesta, a 20-year veteran animator at Pixar. The call was supposed to be about Responsive Conference, my annual conference about work. Instead, we spent the entire time talking about storytelling. I’ve been telling stories since I was quite young, but I’ve really only studied storytelling since starting Zander […]
The utility of taste
I was on a call with a client recently and found myself saying that the human desire to listen to Homer recite The Odyssey is timeless. Even when AI voices become as good as today’s best voice actors, listening to the best in the world tell stories is always going to be worthwhile. Or as Pixar animator […]
The AI Apocalypse
My AI avatar logs into Zoom to chat with your AI avatar. Sounds great – fewer meetings! But then what? What happens when AI takes over both our mundane and creative tasks? This question has been haunting me lately. If you’ve been following along with the Snafu newsletter, you know that I had an AI inflection […]
Getting back to basics
Over the last few months, I’ve fallen out of my routines. Since my former roommate had a mental health crisis in January, I’ve been living in a short-term rental. During my recent real estate sprint (which you can read about here, here, and here), I set aside all but my most important to-dos. Last week […]
Sales is service
Last week, I taught the first workshop in a series about selling – because knowing how to influence and persuade are essential skills for navigating chaotic times. I brought together a handful of friends and taught one of the most overlooked elements of selling: being of service. When we think “sales”, we think of a […]
Join us in September!
Ten years ago, the Responsive.org Manifesto laid out that “The rate of change continues to accelerate” and “The future is increasingly hard to predict.” Today, those principles are more relevant than ever. Our lives are rife with uncertainty – from the acceleration of AI to generalized anxiety about the state of the world. This rapid […]
How to train for chaos
Michael Phelp’s coach, Bob Bowman, understood that the greatest athletes don’t just train for performance – they train for chaos. Once he recognized that Phelps had the potential to be an elite level swimmer, Bowman started building unpredictability into Phelps’ training. When traveling for competitions, Bowman would misplace Phelps’ luggage or swimsuit. During practice, Bowman […]
How to climb a mountain
I spent a lot of my childhood scrambling up and down mountains. When I discovered this metaphor at 13 years old it resonated for me – and still does today. The idea is that you need to get to the top of a mountain, and there are two different ways to do so. Two different […]
Tilting at windmills
In Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote believed the windmills were monstrous enemies threatening the land. He charged the windmills and was, of course, knocked off his horse by a windmill’s sail. This is where the phrase “tilting at windmills“ comes from. It means going to battle despite the certain reality that you […]
Surviving in an AI age
My girlfriend and I are in the process of buying a house just north of San Francisco. Over the last six weeks, I’ve spent 500 hours immersing myself in real estate. I’ve scoured the property, met with County officials, received bids from seven different contractors and conducted inspections with engineers, architects, roofers, plumbers, electricians, and […]
The gift of fear
For many years now, I’ve repeated a phrase to myself: “Fear is my north star.” Fear is often misunderstood as a negative emotion – as something to be avoided. Instead, it is a useful guide for action. Some of the most significant moments in my life came as a result of moving towards fear. I’m […]
AI inflection point
Last week, I hit an inflection point – a shift in perspective that altered how I see AI, and will shape everything I do going forward. My history with tech waves I came of age amidst the rise of the internet and social media. In middle school I was on AIM chat rooms. (Don’t tell […]
Rabbit holes, and why they matter
Three weeks ago, my girlfriend and I were looking at rentals just south of San Francisco. Over the course of a long afternoon, we looked at seven different properties. The next evening, she messaged me a new Zillow listing – this time for a property for sale. I walked over and wrote her a note: […]
What to do with overwhelm
Over the last four months, I’ve dealt with a death in the family, a friend’s mental health crisis, moving, an angry client, a new relationship, the news, and still trying to run my business. To state the obvious, it’s been a lot. That depth of personal (and existential) overwhelm has me thinking about the tools […]
The identities we hold
I was at dinner with my parents and my girlfriend last weekend. For some reason, Robin’s Cafe came up in conversation. Anyway, I got on my soap box and said: “I opened Robin’s Cafe on 3 weeks notice and…” Before I could finish the sentence, my father said “And you sold it on Craigslist. We […]
How to design for change
In 2015, the authors of Responsive Org wrote that “the future is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.” Today, with global instability, political partisanship, and an ever more rapid rate of change, those words seem prescient. The tension between organizations optimized for predictability and the unpredictable world we inhabit has reached a breaking point. Only organizations […]
The lie of mise-en-place
I love the phrase “mise-en-place,” which is common to professional kitchens and translates to “everything in its place”. The phrase appeals to my inner neat freak. In restaurants, chefs arrive hours prior to service starting to prepare for the evening ahead. These are the unseen and unsung aspects that make a restaurant successful. We had […]
How I’m surviving the next four years
SNAFU is an acronym for Situation Normal: All Fucked Up. The phrase was born out of the chaos of World War II, but it is just as relevant today. Snafu has become my shorthand for a world that’s always been broken, but is now undeniably so. Things that once seemed stable – governments, economies, industries […]
How to train a puppy
A friend of mine just got an 8-week puppy! I’ve raised two dogs from puppyhood, and helped a dozen other people do the same. Here’s what I’ve learned… Expect interrupted sleep Interrupted sleep comes with the territory. I often suggest raising a puppy to people who are considering having a child. It’s good practice. As […]
How to buy a (used) car
I have two friends looking to buy used cars right now, and over the last fifteen years I purchased six used cars and re-sold five of them. While I’m a novice compared to real car salesmen, I have more experience than the average layman, and thought it would be useful to write down what I’ve […]