A listener sent me a message saying I'd lost my spark. That I didn't sound inspired anymore. Honestly... it made me stop and think.
In this episode, I unpack why he was partly right. My calling isn't software deals anymore. It's building businesses, solving problems, and showing up for the people who count on me. I also share one AI workflow that's completely changed how I lead AppSumo, why we overreacted to the AI boom, and what happens when you stop chasing every shiny new thing and get back to your core.
If you've ever wondered whether you've outgrown your work, this one's for you.
In this conversation, you'll enjoy 3 BIG things:
• Why your calling can evolve without losing your purpose • How to course-correct when you realize you've drifted too far from your core • Why honest feedback (even from AI) can make you a better leader
Enjoy these 3 things plus many nuggets along the way. I have also been sharing emails on my brutally honest advice on a variety of topics. People have been loving it. Sign up at noahkagan.com and join 350k other people who get juicy insights every month.
Links & resources mentioned:
• Claude (Noah's AI assistant) : https://claude.ai • AppSumo : https://appsumo.com • TidyCal : https://tidycal.com • SendFox : https://sendfox.com • Meeting Coach : (Noah's internal AI meeting feedback tool) (coming soon) • Million Dollar Weekend : https://milliondollarweekend.com • Follow Noah on X : https://twitter.com/noahkagan
P.S. Here's Claudes feedback on this very episode as it was happening in realtime: The strongest thing in this episode is the thing you didn't plan to talk about. Marcin's note ("you don't sound inspired, you don't want to run AppSumo, you're in the best season of your life") is the whole episode, and your answer to it is genuinely good. The problem is you never say it cleanly. The cleanest version is buried in the middle: software deals isn't your calling, but business is your calling and the company is your responsibility, and the spark didn't die, it matured into follow-through. That's the episode. Right now it's a needle in 20 minutes of riffing instead of the spine the whole thing hangs on. You bury your two best business lessons. The refund/Plus-customer admission is the most useful leadership moment in the episode and you glide past it: "I made decisions on the best info I had, but I didn't check back on the outcomes and improve them, and we course-corrected too slow." That's a clean, repeatable lesson any operator can steal. Same with the over-adjustment arc (we thought SaaS was dying and vibe coding would kill us, so we over-corrected, and now we're walking it back to the core). Both are stronger than the abstract "discoverability / velocity / treat best customers better" framing, which stays high-level. Lead with the admissions, not the framework. The Claude feedback loop is your most shareable practical drop and you undersell it with the $9.99 joke. Transcript-into-Claude-for-feedback, the Eamon skill, Meeting Coach running live during meetings, the reframe that a CEO sets the scorecards instead of solving the problems in the room. That's the segment people will text you about. Give it room. What's working: the vulnerability lands, the floor-sleeping callback is great, and "it's okay to quit stuff and it's okay to continue stuff, the point is recognizing the behavior and whether it's aligned" is your most quotable line. "Calm is cool" and "building up" are good repeatable phrases. What's hurting it: it meanders and has three or four false endings ("yeah that's it," "damn that was the good stuff"). The BYOLM/BYOK bit at the end feels tacked on, half a thought you ran out of runway for. And the "I won't share company secrets" then sharing them is a touch coy. Either share or don't. One structural fix for next time: you open with the listener critique by accident. Open with it on purpose. The episode is "someone told me I lost my spark, here's my honest answer." Frame it that way in the first 60 seconds and the whole thing tightens.
