There was a time in my life where I traveled the world with a yearning for more; new sights, sounds, cities, experiences, flavors and strangers along the way. I wanted it all with a thirst that pairs well with the youth of your 20’s.
Those years have washed me up on a shore where I can look back at it all and say, “I have lived. My god, have I lived.”
There’s this beautiful thing about life; you never see its entirety at any given moment, any more than a butterfly can see its own wings. It can’t.
For most of my life, I’ve found joy in speaking to others. As a teenager, I loved few things more than performing monologues; there was something magical about walking on a stage with nothing more than a microphone. It felt like stepping into the middle of an arena, to my young mind.
I didn’t understand it at that time, but having a love for being in front of a crowd of people isn’t a common trait. My parents encouraged me to be me, without checking in to see what the crowd was doing.
A few years ago, I made a decision to stop and take a look around at the roadmap for multiple industries; specifically, as they would intersect with AI technology.
Mentally, I carried over my beloved business, Tripleskinny, and gave her a parting glance before shoveling the first pile of dirt on the proverbial grave; I knew the digital agency world would be hit first by emerging technologies and knew sugar-coating that cold truth wouldn’t help anybody.
Years passed, and slowly I’ve begun to see the rug begin to pull on the rest of the world. My friends began to lose jobs and begin yearlong application journeys to their next gig. Qualified people, too…
Meanwhile, Tripleskinny grew. It grew to the point where I was no longer responsible for performing any of the client work. It felt great to break the mold of being in the ‘rat race’ and gain total control of my time – as well as time with Atlas.
During that time, I learned a really valuable lesson. When you get big enough to warrant a management layer, you can quickly get sucked back into the grind of having a job; transitioning from building a pipeline to maintaining it.
At the peak of the growth phase, I stopped to ask myself a tough question: “If this doubled, would I be happy?”
I looked out at my yard and saw an ocean of toys. The answer was clear: “I’d rather be playing with Atlas.”
I knew there was a change in the wind as soon as I came to that conclusion, as well as a clear direction of where I wanted to take Tripleskinny – and beyond.
During the gold rush of 1849, there was one crowd of businessmen that got consistently rich; the people who sold tools, clothing and essential goods for mining. They knew they would have customers, because the miners needed their tools in order to strike it rich.
How could that approach be tailored toward the upcoming AI revolution? Well, that gave me some food for thought…
Speak. Teach. Train. Educate. Sell.
There are two things that will never run dry in the tech industry; sensational new products/solutions – and a large customer base that doesn’t understand how to use them.
A lot of people enter the tech sector, hoping to be the next billion dollar baby to emerge out of Palo Alto’s posterior. However, the likelihood of rising to unicorn-level prominence is a very difficult path to climb…and it’s not always a fair fight.
On the other hand, there are a lot of mid-level businesses that have healthy revenue streams, which are more than happy to pay for training and support – as well as new products that serve their business.
When you play tennis or racquetball, few things are more satisfying than hitting the ‘sweet spot’ on the racquet. If there’s a sweet spot to racquets, it’s only natural that there could be one in the racquet of entrepreneurship – and I wanted to find it.
I hatched a pretty simple plan and executed it;
1. Get tripleskinny to a point where it’s mostly hands-off, unless working on strategy and planning with a client.
2. Build an AI product that I could pitch to existing customers; fracking a current revenue stream, rather than trying to dig a new well.
3. Train others how to use AI – and demo a product that solves their biggest problems.
When I set out to train others on using AI, I wasn’t interested in monetizing the early meetings. Why? Beacuse those training sessions proved to be invaluable practice sessions; helping me understand what worked and what didn’t in a training session. Each ‘data dump’ helped me polish my presentation, speaking and delivery tactics.
Now midway through this ‘plan’ of going to the next level in my life, I’ve come to realize one important thing; none of these pursuits have been driven by a desire for money. Rather, these goals have come from the heart…and a desire to be a champion for a little guy that looks up to me for guidance.
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