A special Thanksgiving mailbag episode answering your biggest questions (plus a holiday deal for the dedicated listeners who aren't too busy with pumpkin pie). We tackle the one thing you should actually be doing with AI right now, why competition is often the best thing that could happen to your startup, and the single most important habit every founder needs to build. Plus, Derek Jeter makes a surprise appearance to ask about imposter syndrome, and we break down why choosing the right TV show might make you a better entrepreneur. Come for the smooth jazz transitions, stay for the actionable startup advice. #MuchAdoAboutStuffing
 

• Tacklebox - "muchadoaboutstuffing"
• Claude
• How to Engineer Luck
• Slow Horses

Timestamps:
00:30 Intro - The Mailbag
02:08 Question One: How to Actually Use AI Right Now
06:00 Electric Vehicle Problem Language
08:52 Question Two: Which Tactic?
14:09 Question Four: Are All The Good Ideas Taken?
19:24 The End - how to help

Today, we'll dig in on three approaches that separate how pros and amateurs build businesses. We'll talk through how pros leverage existing infrastructure, how they use anti-marketing to build trust with strangers, and how they don't leave luck and serendipity to chance - they orchestrate it. We'll do this with help from stories about Frank Sinatra, a comedian in an Uber, and a founder starting a GMAT course for people looking to score 800 (and for those people only). And, Hey Jealousy by the Gin Blossoms, for some reason. 

• XLR8 Dev
• Tacklebox
• Hey Jealousy
• Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be

Timestamps

• 00:30 - Listener Child Therapist Idea Email
• 05:42 - XLR8 Dev
• 06:50 - Live in Reality, and Choose Where You Compete
• 10:45 - Categories
• 12:57 - Anti-Marketing
• 17:11 - Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Is
• 19:45 - Bonus - Value First
• 21:00 - The End

Most founders hope to get lucky. But luck isn't random - it can (and has to be) engineered. Today we'll break down exactly what luck is and how you can reverse engineer it. We'll help you identify Luck Gatekeepers and build your Luck Budget. You'll never think about entrepreneurial luck the same way again.

• PARTNER: XLR8 Dev
• Tacklebox (code Holiday for 50% off month one)
• Graham Weaver

Timestamps:

00:30 How to get lucky
03:11 Story Time: Getting Press for 3Degrees
11:06 XLR8dev.com
12:32 The Five Types of Luck
15:05 Luck for a Date Planning Service
16:25 Luck Gatekeepers
17:45 Luck Routines and your Luck Budget
 

Today we'll dig in on productizing your customer's first step. This is the best path to building a product that generates revenue immediately so that you've got some runway and flexibility to build. We'll walk through a few examples, including a Family Operating System that came in at 3am last Thanksgiving from a listener. 

• Tacklebox (50% off with code Holiday)

Timestamps
00:30 The Thanksgiving Startup Idea - The Family Operating System
05:24 Smooth Jazz, with an Offer
06:06 Productize the First Step
09:16 Theory + Process
11:30 Good Customers and Good Dams
13:30 A Writing Startup
17:02 The First Step for the Family Operating System

Today, we dive into the Always Work and Never Work Lists to pull out a method that's immeasurably useful for our founders: The 5-Minute List. A system that helps you turn scattered pockets of time into meaningful work - rebranding "Sand" tasks (from the Sand and Stones framework) to "Pebbles." We leverage AI to break intimidating projects down and minimize transition time to remove all friction.  

• XLR8 Dev
• Tacklebox Workshops
• The Midnight Library
• Sand and Stones Episode of Idea to Startup
• Deep Work
• Claude - my favorite current AI
• Idea to Startup Newsletter

00:33 Intro - The Always Work and Never Work Lists
04:00 XLR8DEV.com
05:22 The Five Minute List Part 1: Sand and Stones
08:29 Revenge of the Sand - a Founder Story
09:25 Pebbles
12:02 Your Subconscious
13:00 Four Steps to Build Your Five Minute List
17:16 The End - Coworking

Today we talk through the three types of problems that deserve a solution. We start off with a few higher level thoughts about problems and startups - specifically around achievement incentives and how some bad early decisions usually can't be salvaged by good decisions later on. Then we talk through Hole Problems, Teleporter Problems, and Status Level Jump Problems.
 

• Tacklebox Customer Interview Workshop
• Getting God at the Wrong Thing
   

00:40 The Types of Problems Customers Will Solve
01:00 Manhattan in 2007
05:48 Achievement Incentives
06:30 Be Careful What You’re Getting Good At
07:37 Nat Eliason - Getting Too Good at the Wrong Thing
08:21 Bad Early Decisions James Clear
09:53 Tacklebox
10:54 Problem Archetype 1: Hole Problems
14:23 Baby Quip
17:04 Problem Archetype 2: Teleporter Problems
19:19 Problem Archetype 3: Status Level Jump

Today, we talk through the Silk Sheet Problem - how to do something new and hard when your life is fairly... comfortable. We help a listener get started on their idea - an AI tutor's assistant - with three shortcuts to set their life up in a way that makes it easier to start a startup than to not. We talk through Just-In-Time Prep, Forcing Functions, and life design. This episode is meant to be a blueprint for you to take action and keep momentum. 
 

• Tacklebox Customer Interview Workshop
• Idea to Startup Newsletter
• Kevin running from the furnace

00:34 Intro
03:30 The Idea: AI for Tutors
07:27 Jazz - Customer Interview Workshop
07:57 Just-In-Time Prep
11:55 Search for Hooks
14:14 The Three Step System
15:40 Forcing Function Examples
18:13 Reinforcing Markers
20:06 The End: Jump in the Ocean

Today, we talk through how to write compelling copy. We go through a few counterintuitive archetypes you can use to dramatically increase the clarity of your messaging, which will allow you to increase your conversion rate and get more people involved earlier in the process. Copywriting is an idea-testing superpower. 

• Tacklebox Workshops

00:33 When Copy Becomes Important
02:40 Why You’re a Bad Writer
05:40 Is This Anything?
06:50 Byldd
07:55 The Big Misunderstanding
10:45 Reverse Architect Copy
13:45 The Attention Pie
15:48 Cold Emails
17:20 Write to One Person

Today, we're going to talk about one of the best things Brian has learned in 40 years of living. We'll talk through why embracing discomfort is crucial for personal growth and happiness, learn how to generate innovative ideas by adopting a "documentary approach" to life, and find out what Taco Bell has to do with prioritizing your day.

• Tacklebox Workshops
• The Daniel Tiger SOP

Timestamps
00:30 Intro - Discomfort Leads to Happiness
01:33 Discomfort is Front-Loaded + The Happiness Equation
07:43 Observation Number One: The Idea Comes Later
09:26 Pivoting Isn’t Linear
12:32 Observation Number Two: Fiction is Way Harder Than a Documentary
15:37 Observation Number Three: Taco Bell Prioritization
17:39 The End: Execute Through Stories

Today, we'll help you think through a deceptively tough question - are you a freelancer or an entrepreneur? Every decision you make needs to nest neatly below this core decision for your business to work, but tons of founders are either trying to do both simultaneously or think they're one when they're really the other.

We clarify the difference between freelancer and entrepreneur, help you decide which will make you happier, and get you started on the path for whichever you choose. 

• Tacklebox
• Seth Godin Conversation
• Kurt Vonnegut
• No Lunging

0:30 Why Entrepreneurs are unhappy
01:14 Do you want to be a freelancer or entrepreneur?
04:12 Seth Godin Conversation
04:58 Our definition of a freelancer
07:28 Our definition of entrepreneurs
09:07 Cuban’s Definition of Entrepreneurship
11:24 BYLDD
12:25 The Restaurant Startup
15:15 Rivers and Dams
19:19 No Lunging
22:44 Don’t Pretend
23:10 How do you want to spend your days?