First Sip

Since moving to Guyana, I’ve been figuring out housing costs, the cost of living, and building a business as I go. In this episode, I’m answering your questions from the last episode, sharing how family land became a triplex, what living here actually costs, and where I’m heading with the business as I continue building a life here.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!

Timestamps
00:00 Following Up on Your Questions
01:00 Housing and Why I Don’t Pay Rent
04:00 Family Land and Building Together
09:30 Rental Prices in Guyana
12:00 Can You Live on $2,000 a Month?
15:00 Electricity, Internet and Food Costs
19:00 Business Opportunities in Guyana
22:30 Helping Businesses Improve Their Sales
24:00 Healthy Food and Delivery Apps
28:30 How We Got Into Airbnb
30:00 Building a Home in Guyana
35:30 Launching a Cleaning Service
40:00 Change, Community and Working Together
47:00 My Long-Term Plans in Guyana

What did you think about this episode?

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🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

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After 60 days of living in Guyana, I’m sharing what the move has actually been like, from the lifestyle changes and lower cost of living to the business opportunities I’m starting to see across real estate, home services, and entrepreneurship. I also talk about what I miss about the U.S., how business operates differently in Guyana, and why the move has changed the way I think about work, health, and building a life abroad.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

Timestamps
00:00 60 Days After Moving to Guyana
00:32 What I Miss Most About America
04:38 How Business Works Differently in Guyana
07:05 Guyana Is Still a Cash-Heavy Economy
08:08 Why the Business Opportunities Excite Me
09:42 The Housing Boom and Home-Service Opportunity
12:00 New Opportunities for Guyanese Entrepreneurs
13:20 How Much Money You Need to Live Well Here
15:05 Escaping the American Rat Race
17:00 Finding Opportunity Instead of Complaining
19:35 How I’m Thinking About Building Businesses Here
23:30 How Moving Has Changed My Health and Lifestyle
27:15 What I’m Actually Doing for Work
29:00 The Bigger Project I’m Working On
30:20 Final Thoughts After 60 Days

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

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AI can write your resume, optimize your LinkedIn profile, and draft your outreach messages, but it can't teach you how to walk into a room and be someone people actually want to work with. Ryan Conceicao is back to break down why soft skills have quietly become the most valuable, and most neglected, skill in the job market right now.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!
————————
Interested in breaking into medical sales?

Ryan has a free 60-minute training that walks through the system he uses to help people start landing interviews, even without previous sales experience.

Watch Ryan’s free training here:
https://movetomedsales.com/?am_id=dekimbe8228

First Sip listeners also receive $100 off if you decide to enroll in one of HireLevel University’s paid programs.

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

Timestamps
00:00 Recap: how AI is squeezing entry-level jobs
01:23 Be a genuinely good human
02:06 AI resumes are garbage in, garbage out
03:36 The real first test in any interview
06:42 Why generic AI LinkedIn messages get ignored
11:06 Do your recon before you reach out
11:23 The 80/20 rule of conversation
14:40 The scorecard: how first impressions cost you points
16:13 Advice to his younger self
24:47 Go back and listen to EP152 for the LinkedIn strategy
26:22 Subject yourself to failure
37:53 Measuring success by the decade, not the week
39:18 Ten years to build the skillset, then a student lands $163K in two months
40:25 Ryan's own story: $53K to $185K
45:48 Why stacking real skills beats faking it with AI
47:28 The one tactical thing before you reach out
54:15 Don't be the NPC, be the value add
54:53 Sales is human psychology
56:08 Where to find the course and free training
58:24 Sign off

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

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A former OpenAI researcher correctly saw where the AI boom was headed, built a hedge fund around that prediction, and watched it grow to roughly $45 billion in assets.

Then July happened.

Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness fund lost 67% of its portfolio, wiping out roughly $35 billion. But the interesting part of this story is that his original bet on AI may not have been wrong.

So how do you lose $35 billion while being right about the bigger trend?

In this episode of First Sip, I break down what happened, what a hedge fund actually is, how leverage can multiply both your wins and losses, and how a margin call can force you to sell an investment even when you still believe in it.

More importantly, we get into the lesson that applies far beyond Wall Street: being right doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough runway to survive being early.

If you’re building a business, investing, using debt, or betting on an idea you believe in, this is a story worth understanding.

Stay tuned, stay curious, and as always, enjoy your first sip.

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

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For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]

Survival mode isn't a setting you choose. Its a setting we get locked into, that piles on quietly until you don't even notice it's on. This week breaks down why business owners and employees keep restarting from zero, the research-backed reason it happens, and how to get yourself out of that cycle.

Here's what we're sippin on:

• Why researchers gave this exact mental state a name, and why it's not a discipline problem
• The real numbers behind accountability
• What a video game character's stat sheet gets right about progress that most of us get wrong in real life

The people who keep moving aren't the ones with more willpower, they're the ones who built a way to check in on themselves before they needed it.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

YouTube

Instagram  

Facebook 

LinkedIn

FOLLOW THE PODCAST:

Instagram
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For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]

ChatGPT vs Claude is the debate everyone's back to having this week, thanks to the release of ChatGPT 5.6. People are asking if they should switch back after just getting comfortable with Claude, and the honest answer is that's the wrong question to be asking in the first place.

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

Here's what we're sippin on:

• Why becoming AI literate matters more right now than picking the "right" tool, and how to actually get there without feeling behind
• A simple way to know which one to reach for depending on what you're actually trying to get done that day
• Why you don't have to be techy to get real value out of either one, and the easiest way to just get started

The real risk right now isn't picking the wrong AI tool, it's sitting on the sidelines while everyone else is moving forward.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 — The ChatGPT vs Claude debate, PlayStation vs Xbox style
00:57 — Welcome back, why "which one's better" is the wrong question
03:15 — ChatGPT: the everyday ecosystem vs Claude's edge for deep work
05:36 — Connecting tools to Notion, and why preference matters most
07:54 — Becoming a "power user" and running into usage limits
10:11 — Splitting the work between tools, and standing out at your job
12:27 — Where to start if you're new, plus image generation and taste
14:42 — The adoption curve, and where you want to be

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

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For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]

Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, says 90% of his employees aren't AI-ready. The AI skills gap is quietly becoming the biggest career risk most professionals aren't watching, and instead of mass layoffs, he's rebuilding his team through hackathons and natural attrition.

This week we cover what he said on the 20VC podcast, why he's calling out leaders like Coinbase's CEO and Block's Jack Dorsey for how they're handling AI-driven cuts, and why this moment feels a lot like the one our parents lived through when computers first showed up at work and typing classes felt optional. If you've been wondering whether AI will replace your job, this is really a conversation about how to stay ahead of it.

Here's what we're sippin on:

• The exact numbers behind his 12-month and 3-year plan, and what he says happens if he's right
• How to tell if your role is one of the "replaceable" ones he's really talking about
• One question to ask your parents that explains exactly where this AI moment is headed

Five years from now, this either ages like a warning you caught early or one you ignored.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

Timestamps:
00:00 The 90% AI Readiness Problem
01:00 Settling In: The Move to Guyana
02:00 Who Is Nikesh Arora and Palo Alto Networks
03:00 Natural Attrition and Hiring Through Hackathons
04:00 The Jobs Most at Risk Right Now
05:00 Calling Out Coinbase and Block's Layoff Approach
06:00 The Parents-and-Computers Parallel
09:00 A Free Tool to Validate Your Next Idea
11:00 Using ChatGPT and Claude to Move Faster
12:00 Are You Seeing This Resistance Too
13:00 Final Thoughts and Sign-Off

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

YouTube

Instagram  

Facebook 

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FOLLOW THE PODCAST:

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Apple Podcasts
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For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]

After  years of going back and forth, I finally made the decision to move to Guyana. A one way ticket from Philadelphia to Georgetown, with no scheduled return date. Life in Guyana has been something I've been building toward for a while now, from the Airbnb, consulting work, the connections on the ground, and moving there just became the next logical step. This episode is a quick update on what made me pull the trigger, what the business picture actually looks like on the ground in Georgetown, and what Season 4 of the First Sip Podcast is going to look like from here.

Here's what we're sippin on:
- What finally made the decision click after two-plus years of going back and forth
- What Guyana's economic boom actually means at the street level, and why it matters for entrepreneurs right now
- What stays the same on the show and what's changing now that First Sip is officially going international

If you've been thinking about making a move, going all in on something, or just wondering what it looks like to build a business in a new market, this one is for you.

Thank you for listening, and as always...enjoy your first sip!

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

YouTube

Instagram  

Facebook 

LinkedIn

FOLLOW THE PODCAST:

Instagram
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]

The Anthropic IPO is officially in motion. IPO season is back, and companies like Anthropic and SpaceX are leading the race to go public. Anthropic just filed confidentially with the SEC at nearly a trillion dollar valuation, and Claude has been dominating the AI conversation all year. Almost at the same time, two of their biggest customers, Microsoft and Uber, are quietly pulling back on how much they're actually spending on AI. That tension is what this episode is all about.

Here's what we're sippin on:

• What an SEC filing actually means, and why the timing of Anthropic's IPO matters more than the number
• Why Microsoft and Uber are cutting AI spend even though the tools are working
• What the Gartner forecast on AI budgets tells us about where this whole thing is headed, and what it means for anyone investing in AI right now

If you've been watching the AI market and wondering what any of this means for you on the ground, this one is for you.

A SpaceX deep dive is coming soon, so stay subscribed for that one.

Thank you for listening, and as always... enjoy your first sip!

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

YouTube

Instagram  

Facebook 

LinkedIn

FOLLOW THE PODCAST:

Instagram
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube

AI data centers are popping up across the country at a pace nobody's really talking about, and they might be the reason your electric bill keeps climbing. This week we're getting into what these data centers actually are, who's really paying for them, and where the money is moving behind the scenes.

Here's what we're sippin on:

• Why your electric bill is climbing even if you're cutting off every light in the house
• The companies getting billions in tax incentives to build in your backyard, and who ends up footing the bill
• How to position yourself on the right side of a $7 trillion shift instead of just paying for it

If you've noticed your bill going up and you've been wondering what's actually going on behind the scenes, this one is for you.

Thank you for listening, and as always... enjoy your first sip!

What did you think about this episode?

--------------------------------
🎙️ Get a quick weekly read on business and money that breaks down what’s changing and what it could mean for you.

In First Sip Weekly, I share stories worth knowing about, and lessons from building my business that you can apply to your own work and decisions.

Subscribe here: https://firstsipweekly.beehiiv.com/

CONNECT WITH DEKIMBE: 

YouTube

Instagram  

Facebook 

LinkedIn

FOLLOW THE PODCAST:

Instagram
Apple Podcasts
Spotify

For podcast sponsorship & advertising opportunities please contact: [email protected]