I’ve had some form of a Second Brain (a personal system of knowledge management) for a couple decades now, and during that time it’s been hosted on four different platforms: Paper was sufficient for most of my school years when I didn’t have my own computer (and wouldn’t have been allowed to use one if…
Around the time my first book Building a Second Brain came out in June 2022, I started looking for a speaking coach. I had just delivered my first keynote to a large audience at World Domination Summit, followed soon thereafter by my Google Talk. These experiences had been not only fantastic promotional opportunities but fulfilling…
At the start of 2023, as I reviewed the end-of-year financial report sent over by our accountants, I had a stunning realization: our net income had dropped 87% in 2022 compared to the year before. From an incredible 64% profit margin in 2021 we ended 2022 with a razor-thin 6%. The picture got even worse…
I recently came across an interesting guide on how to train ChatGPT to write in your own voice and style. It is part of the Substack publication Write With AI, by Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush. I decided to give it a try because if I succeeded, this would solve one of the biggest problems…
We’re looking for organizations that want to teach their people how to build their own “Second Brain” – a system of knowledge management that empowers them to capitalize on the value of what they know and use it to advance their organization’s goals. We now offer a complete portfolio of products and services on this…
There’s something book publishers don’t tell you when you sign their offer on the dotted line: almost all the responsibility for promoting your book will fall on your shoulders. A lot of authors complain about this fact, as if it represents publishers shirking their duty or being lazy. I see it quite differently: authors are responsible for selling their book because they are by far the best positioned to do so.
I recently completed one of the most powerful exercises I’ve ever invented for delegating aspects of my work to others. After hosting an insightful weekend retreat with other founders last month, some of whom had significantly larger businesses than mine, I realized I was ready to take a major step I’d been contemplating for some…
I recently hosted our first-ever in-person mastermind, unanimously dubbed “The Wholesome Mastermind,” at a retreat center in Ojai just north of Los Angeles. I’ve been interested in masterminds for years, but the ones available never seemed quite right for me – whether because of the travel requirements, the format, or the kind of people who…
I don’t pay much attention to my investment portfolio, but I watch my meaning portfolio like a hawk. A meaning portfolio is your collection of “meaning assets” – the reasons you get out of bed in the morning. They are the sources from which you derive your sense of purpose, fulfillment, self-worth, and ultimately, happiness….
The next area I want to examine is finances: How much money has the book made in the year since its release? How much did I spend to catapult it to bestseller status? And would I do anything differently? Here are the real numbers.
In the second part of this blog series, I shared how I treated my book as a series of small projects culminating in a final product. The same was true for each of the 10 chapters it contained: each one was its own project, with a deadline and a goal for what that chapter was trying to achieve. Each chapter had its own project folder (according to my PARA Method), where I collected everything I would draw on – notes, sources, supporting materials, stories, action steps, and key details.
Two books I read recently helped me tremendously to understand what’s happening now with Artificial Intelligence: Prediction Machines and Power and Prediction (affiliate links) by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb. The authors are economists and professors at the University of Toronto, one of the leading institutions studying the economic impacts of AI. Their…
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