Design Principles For The AI Optimized Stack

(aka the essential tools I use to run my business)

I’m a tool guy.

There’s no getting around it. I geek out on trying the latest and greatest, and have to practice restraint to ensure I don’t interject unnecessary complexity into my biz in the form of systems and tools.

That being said, I also take great care to ensure that all the tools and software that make it into the stack are in service of a very specific outcome:

Cultivating more?connection, growth, and belonging. The essential ingredients for lasting fulfillment.

Connection

On one hand, with technology, we are more connected than ever, but why is it that so many of us feel alone and isolated?

I believe as marketers, and fundamentally as humans, we need to ensure our output and message is one that inspires more loving connection to self and others. We have an innate desire to connect, but disempowering marketing can lead us to believe we aren’t enough as we are.

I propose we fix this.

Growth

I love this quote by my teacher,?Jonni Pollard, creator of?1GiantMind:

“When we imbrance the inevitability of change as a natural and normal way of life, and courageously step into the unknown, we have a remarkable ability to grow through crisis”

I often feel that we are at a crossroads. We can keep doing things the same old way that has led to a collective anxiety, or we can choose to lean in and transform crisis into empowerment.

As human-based marketers, this should be what we seek to support with our message.

We also get to choose the messages we amplify with our magic superpowers.

Belonging

We were meant to belong to one another.

We’ve become increasingly isolated as a society, and so many people have lost a sense of how they fit into the bigger picture.

You matter. Your actions matter. Your contributions matter.

May we never forget this, and let’s build a future that thrives on collaboration, not competition.

When buliding the AI Optimized Stack, injection of these three values serves as the litmus test.

It might seem like a stretch to be thinking about these things when talking about systems and tools, but that’s sort of the problem.

It’s easy to forget what the outcomes we seek are in service to, and why it matters beyond the next paycheck.

What I’ve described is the measure for every project or client I choose to support.

It’s equally true for what Ry and I teach and share within?Automated Intimacy, and our growing community.

Beyond these values, I also seek to operate at the intersection of simplicity and leverage.

Simplicity is beautiful and I value it greatly. But I’ve found that too much simplicity = loss of leverage.

So I strive to keep the balance, while remaining lean, quick on my feet, and open to new emerging ideas.

Ok. That is all.

Maybe this wasn’t how you expected this essay to go. Perhaps you were hoping I was going to give you the magic tool reccommendation that would make everything better.

All in due time.

There’s no shortage of recommendations out there, and I’ll continue to share mine.

But this felt important enough to share.

If you want some recommendations now, and are feeling betrayed by the bait and switch, here’s one I wrote yesterday about?task management.

But instead of clicking that link, perhaps instead pause to reflect on how your business is a dynamic expression of where you place value and attention in any given moment.

You are a creative force.

Enjoy everything you choose to bring into the world today.