Order my USA TODAY Bestselling book: toxicgrit.com TOXIC GRIT: How to have it all and (actually) love what you have. It will help you create a new approach to ambition and find space for all the diverse parts of yourself. Join 75K+ others who read my newsletter 🧩 Life's a Game at amandagoetz.com. It’s full of free tips to play the game of life at a whole new level. In 2018 I found myself at the height of my marketing career with 3 kids under the age of 4 and filing for divorce. In a world telling me to find alignment......I realized that was impossible. The work version of me didn't want to leave early to go be with the kiddos. The mom version of me didn't want to miss a moment with them. I wanted to be fiercely independent and yet also wanted to find love again. Other versions of me didn't want to feel responsible for anything or anyone. This diversity within me led to the creation of my Character Theory Framework. This framework helped me to create space for the 10 characters that make up the movie of your life:  The CEO → wants to pursue big goalsThe Partner → desires companionship  The Soloist → cares about personal growth and development The Caregiver → deep desire to take care of others and show up for themThe Goddess → wants to be desired and pursue pleasure  The Lazy One → loves to couch rot, no goals whatsoever The Socialite → values connection The Creative → desires creation and creativity The Doctor → your inner health &amp; wellness character The Explorer → craves novelty And it helped me. I was able to let go of the idea of balance and give permission for hierarchy, boundaries and the transition sequences necessary to embody these diverse characters. So I put it all in a book and it was an instant best seller!! I'm so excited for you to create space for all parts of you and to see ambition as multi-dimensional. Follow me here for advice as I build a multi-hyphenate life as a CMO, Author, Mom of 3 and getting married again. 

Amanda Goetz

Building in stealth (for now). If you want a peek behind the curtain, DM me and I’ll show you.

Blaine Davis

Tracking your remote employees’ mouse movements is a massive invasion of privacy.

Some companies install monitoring software to make sure people are “active.”

That’s way too micro-managey for me.

I heard a story recently from a family friend who just started his first fully remote job. We’re grabbing coffee and he casually says:

“Oh yeah, I set up this app that moves my cursor every minute so I stay green on Teams.”

So he can step out at 4pm and still look “active.”

And I just sat there thinking…we’ve completely lost the plot.

If someone feels the need to fake mouse movement just to grab coffee with a friend, something is broken.

My view is simple:

I expect outcomes.
I don’t care how you get there.

If you’re working weird hours? Fine.
If you need Wednesday afternoon off? Fine.
If you want to wake up at 5am and knock everything out before noon? Great.

Just hit the goals.

Creativity and problem-solving don’t come from staring at a screen for eight straight hours. Besides, sitting at a desk all day is terrible for you. (Sitting is the new smoking.)

If you care so much about tracking activity in someone’s own home, you should probably just bring people back to the office.

Because the second you start monitoring screenshots in someone’s living room, it gets weird.

I’ve never been a micromanager – because micromanaging people makes them feel replaceable.

My approach is simple:

Here’s the goal, the budget, and the timeline. 
Let me know what you need.

If I say, “Bring on 50 new customers this month,” I genuinely don’t care how they do it.

Host a lunch.
Book 100 calls.
Run experiments.
Try something weird.

As long as we hit the goal and it’s aligned with where we’re going, I’ll stay out of the way.

I’ve always preferred being managed that way myself. When someone dictates the exact process, you’re just executing their idea. When someone gives you the outcome, you get to put your own imprint on the solution.

And that imprint is everything.

When people feel real ownership, they work harder. They think more creatively – and they care more. 

If we’re building this together, you should feel like you’re shaping it.

Especially now – in a world where AI can automate more and more tasks – creative problem-solving is the edge.

Nobody wants to feel replaceable.

And the fastest way to make someone feel irreplaceable is by giving them full autonomy and trust.

If it’s working and we’re moving toward the goal, I’m not stepping in.

Cold outbound is so cooked right now that people are putting “Your name is on the Epstein list” in the subject line just to get an open.

That’s where we are.

Reply rates on cold outbound used to be ~15% a decade ago.
Now they’re sub-1% in a lot of industries.

So naturally, people are escalating the shock value. 

But using something wildly insensitive as the Epstein list just to hijack attention isn’t creative. It’s lazy (and it burns trust before the conversation even starts).

That said… I do respect smart, timely creativity.

A friend of mine, Skyler Birk-Stachon, sent 100 cold emails to Canadian COOs the day after Canada lost gold to the U.S. in the Olympics.

Subject line: “gold medal workspace”

Email opened with:

“Hey there eh 🍁

So sorrey you got silver yesterday (again), but you were so close I wanted to give you a chance to get gold today!”

Then he tied it into improving their Notion workspace.

That’s actually funny – and it's relevant to the pitch.

Big difference.

If cold outbound is going to survive (which it probably won’t if we’re being honest), it can’t rely on shock value. Everyone’s numb to that now.

It has to feel human, observant, and at the very least *slightly* clever.

Otherwise you’re just another screenshot on Linkedin of “look how insane this sales email was.”

There’s a Zen saying I’ve loved for a long time –  because it perfectly captures what discipline means to me:

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

I first heard it years ago and then again when I was in Japan visiting a temple.

It stuck with me because it’s a reminder that no matter what level you reach – money, status, success – the work doesn’t go away.

You still chop wood.
You still carry water.

I think a lot of people believe that once you “make it,” things get easier.

They don’t.

The problems, the scale, and the pressure change. 

But the daily discipline? That stays the same.

The best founders I’ve seen understand this. Their level of discipline doesn’t drop as their level of success rises.

They’re steady.

Because discipline always matters.

And it doesn’t care how successful you are.

When users start asking, “Can this just work inside what I already use?” that tells me two things are coming:

1) Consolidation.

Big platforms will keep absorbing smaller tools that primarily live on top of them. If your product’s main interface is Slack, Teams, or Gmail… don’t be surprised when those platforms decide to own that layer.

2) The bar for new software just went way up.

AI made building easier. That doesn’t mean adoption got easier. It means expectations exploded.

Consumers are exhausted. So if you’re asking someone to learn a brand new system, it better be exceptional.

From a VC lens, this shifts how I think about opportunity.

If you’re building:

– Either integrate into an interface people already live in
– Or build something so undeniably good that it earns the right to change behavior

There’s zero patience now for “nice to have.”

Matt Shumer’s article hit 80 million views for a reason – but I do think it’s a lot of fear mongering dressed up as inevitability. 

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Some of it is undeniably true.

Shumer says two years ago in AI time is “ancient history.”
Frankly, two months ago feels ancient.

The models today are dramatically better than what most people tried in 2023. If your last experience with AI was early ChatGPT, you’re operating off outdated information.

Things are moving fast.

But here’s the part we need to zoom out on:

We live in a microcosm.

I saw a stat recently that only ~15% of people have meaningfully used AI. A much smaller percentage are paying for it or integrating it deeply into their workflow.

Meanwhile, if you’re on X or LinkedIn, it feels like the entire economy is about to evaporate.

Both things can be true:

Yes, entry-level white collar jobs will be impacted.
Yes, many roles will disappear.

But when the internet showed up, people didn’t “lose their jobs forever.” Capacity shifted. New roles emerged – and entire industries were created that nobody could’ve predicted in 1985.

This feels similar.

It’s not calm or slow by any means…but it’s also not extinction.

Things are going to look different. (That part feels undeniable.)

But I don’t think it’s a question of “are jobs disappearing?”

It’s: where is capacity shifting – and are you moving with it?

https://lnkd.in/ekx2XyFB

Open article: Something Big Is Happening by Matt Shumer • 21 min read

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