Public Journals Pt. 4

Thanks for being here!

I’m writing this from one of my favorite places to think: 10,000+ feet up, in the window seat of an airplane.

Welcome to my Public Journal. Here, I share the journey of building, my thoughts on life, and the random things I find useful.

Why are you getting this? Because at some point, big or small, our paths crossed. This is my way of staying in touch and hopefully providing some value along the way.

Let’s get into the updates:

Flowline Health

• First hard launch on social media!
  If you haven’t read it yet, check out Andrew’s article “Who Holds the Risk” (or at least throw it a like on LinkedIn).
  We’re still figuring out the balance between quality and engagement. I wanted to pair the launch with the meme below, but Andrew talked me out of it (doctors are serious people). What do you think: if I have to burn my LinkedIn by shamelessly promoting Flowline, should I post content like this?

• Project Snorlax
  Less than a month until patients get their hands on this! We’re meeting the team in person soon, and I can’t wait to shake our sponsor’s hand live.

• Project Charmander
  We’re rolling. The last few weeks were a doozie! More on this in the Stories section.

• The “Don’t Do Doctrine”
  I’ve been obsessed lately with the idea of constraints as a tool for creation. Each failed offer or target customer teaches you something to avoid. And when time is your most precious resource, it’s critical to capture those lessons and make them rules so you don’t make the same mistake twice.

  Andrew and I formalized this into a Don’t Do Doctrine. Instead of only writing down what works, we’ve created rules for what we absolutely won’t do.

  Examples:

  • “Flowline does not sell to hospitals unless we’re working directly with the sole decision maker.”

  • “Flowline will not deploy Flo in a scenario where she (or they?) makes clinical decisions.”

  We all set constraints in our personal lives (I don’t date men who have navy blue sheets, or I don’t eat pineapple on pizza). Why don’t we do it more often in business?

Story of the Week

“We’re worried. What we saw in the demo isn’t what we’re hearing now.”

My heart sank. The pilot customer we were celebrating last week was suddenly frustrated with us. In our eagerness to show how fast we could ship, we gave them an unpolished product.

After the meeting, Andrew and I stressed over every detail of how to explain this was fixable.

As I rewrote the “please don’t cancel” email for the 12th time, one phrase kept ringing in my head:

“Every problem in business is fundamentally a communication problem.” -I think Jesse Itzler said that

So instead of overthinking, we called them up. We put a label on every single thing that felt off with the Voice Agent (the voice sounded robotic, they cut me off to much, they didn’t know the phone number) and fixed them live, one by one.

By the end, they said: “I feel much better about these.” My heart sang.

Useful Media

• This YouTube channel is my go-to for background music while working. If it were a Spotify playlist, I’d call it “Chill Saturday Morning Grindset.”

  • This one’s my favorite

Thought Bugs

“If you want something but aren’t willing to pay the price for it, you need to let it go.”

I think about this constantly. I want more free time, more travel, less stress. But right now, that would mean fewer hours building this business, and not chasing my dreams. At the moment, I can’t pay that price.