Hey Reader,

Stop. Just for a second.

It's halfway through the year, so this week I am asking you for a quick lift-your-head sanity check. This is literally a ping/ack. I just want to check to make sure you are doing what you said you would be. You might be. You might not. Can we check?

Mid year is so f'd because it's not like December when the book says do your strategy and budgets and stuff, not like January when you wake up fresh, new year, new you :) We are far enough from the plan you never wrote despite my screaming that the goals feel a bit stale and your EOS dash is dusty! We are in the grind era....

Five questions. Answer them honestly. Answer them away from your laptop... in the shower, on the hike, under the standing desk, over the $18 matcha. That's the whole newsletter.

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Send me the answers if you dare, or your co-founder, yourself, your Mum, post on socials, I don't care. Except I care about you reading them back to yourself and then doing what you said you would.... Feels reasonable...

The questions:

1. In your area of responsibility, the three things most broken or most likely to hold us back.
   For each: the problem in one sentence, what you'd do about it (your recommendation, with the trade-off), and the part you personally own and will move on, regardless of anyone else.
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   Also me: Why the f have you not already done this.....
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2. What kills us. The one or two things most likely to get us beaten, out-innovated, out-executed, or undercut. Not annoyances. Existential.
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   Also me: Try again, don't be basic. Funding is a category not a thing. If a group of savages started a company tomorrow to destroy yours, what would their playbook look like....
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3. The single most important thing the company must fix or build in the next 90 days. One answer. Be decisive.
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   Also me: What are you not going to do in pursuit of doing this...
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4. One small, fast, internal change that would remove anxiety and improve transparency. Something we could start and finish in a week.
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   Also me: nothing to say here 😞
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5. The one true thing you haven't said out loud that's costing us. Not a grievance. A truth we're avoiding. This stays in the room.
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   Also me: Say the quiet part out loud....

That's it.

I hope this was as brutal as it's meant to be, and if you need the fuller version of this then read the hotshot challenge.

When you are ready send the questions to your team with a deadline. End of day Thursday. In writing. Then overlap and see if you are all on the same page - next week I can post a template on how to map the answers into a prioritization board.

The answers are supposed to be scary, because they are true and real. Don't let yourself or your team ignore q5. Inability to get a real answer genuinely means you might not have created the space.

If I can be of service, feel free to grab time.

LFG.

— James

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‪8424 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite A523, Los Angeles, CA 90069
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