Why I Don't Read Physical Books Anymore (and How I Remember What I Read)

 I enjoy reading, but I mostly enjoy nonfiction self-improvement books. For example, my last three books were God and Money, Million Dollar Weekend, and Supercommunicators.

All three are fantastic, with dozens of nuggets I want to remember (101, 97, and 104 nuggets, to be precise). I used to read a book, remember it for a little while, and then its lessons would fade into the background.

But no more.

Kindle

I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in 2013, and it felt magical. Being small and lightweight is nice, but the real perk is the built-in reading light. I love getting books instantly, but the built-in light is still the coolest part. While sleeping in an Indian hostel/camp while hiking in the Himalayas last year, a friend marveled that I could keep reading when it was time to turn off the single bulb in the sleeping quarters. It's such a simple feature, and I love it.

My biggest initial problem with the Kindle was that it didn't show book covers. After a while, all the books started blending together, and I couldn't remember where I read something or the author's name. It's incredible how passively looking at something 30-50 times for 1-2 seconds each time helps information stick.

Thankfully, Amazon eventually fixed my problem by incorporating book covers into the lock screen. (My last request for improvement is the ability to zoom in on graphics, as sometimes the rendering makes them too small to read.)

(side note: I also listen to audiobooks, but only books I don't want to take notes on or highlight. For me, those are biographies and fiction.)

Readwise

In June of 2022, I stumbled upon Readwise, and it's fantastic! The idea is simple: sync your highlights from an eReader, and it'll show you some highlights in a daily email (or the app). Or, manually add any book, and it'll show you popular highlights. You control email frequency and how many highlights are in each email.

The benefit is that it helps you remember what you've read.

Today, one of my 12 highlights was from a book I first read with my mom in 1998 and reread in 2019. Here's the crazy part: in 2019 - before I had Readwise - I highlighted 290 parts of the book!

At the time, I wrote a 4-page summary of the book because I wanted to remember its lessons. It was super helpful at the time, and I still have it saved on my computer, but the last time I opened it was in 2022 (I just looked).

But then today, I got a small reminder:

How cool is that? And it also sparks memories of related passages. Just like seeing a book cover for 1-2 seconds multiple times helps me remember the title and author, these snippets help me remember what I read years ago.

Since getting Readwise, I've used it a lot - 750 days in a row. It's the first or second app I open in the morning.

Physical Books

I like this system so much that I refuse to read paper books. When someone gives me a physical book - and I probably shouldn't admit this - I buy the Kindle version and then give away the physical book!

I figure the point of the gift isn't the book itself, but the knowledge shared by the author.

Though I'll admit, I'm starting to soften my digital-only stance. I'm currently running an experiment of keeping a bookshelf of physical books. My hypothesis is that seeing the books will act as one more memory enhancer and inspiration for other creative work.

My experiment is a little flawed because I read these physical books before buying my Kindle (I added them to Readwise and get popular highlights). So, it might be different to add a book I read digitally, but so far, I like having them in my physical space.

So that's what's working for me right now. If you use a Kindle, I recommend trying Readwise.

41

Celebrating 16 years of marriage... in the DMV parking lot waiting for an HP fireworks show.
Eating a French picnic with some delicious local wine. You can't do crazy stuff every year. :)

Last year, I turned 40 and shared 40 lessons and quotes. I'm amping it up with 41 new lessons and quotes this year!

Just kidding - they'd lose their meaning.

How about just one more from Noah Kagan and Alex Hormozi?

Do 100 reps before even thinking of stopping!

In a culture of increasing instant gratification, I find it hard to accept that I'm initially bad at something and need practice to improve. I'll try it three times, declare (to my inner self) that it's too hard, and stop.

No!

Making valuable things requires skills; frequently, developing those skills takes longer than I think. So, to help me get over the initial slog of learning, I commit to doing 100 reps of the thing before even thinking of stopping.

For example, when Jessi and I started our podcast, we committed to doing it for a year before looking critically at the stats. I figure the first 50 episodes are simply us finding our shared voice. Only after that can we start actually trying to improve and grow it, and then only after that can we assess if it's worth the effort.

Moments before starting our first episode

And guess what?! A few months in, we had a busy week, and recording a podcast felt like one too many things. And it wasn't even growing the business! But then we remembered that business growth isn't the goal this year. It's simply finding our voice and how it fits into our weekly rhythm. We took it as a learning opportunity and kept going.

Success!

Here's a free half-lesson: Translating internet numbers into real life keeps me grounded. When I post a video and "only" get 20 views, I remind myself that if I presented in a room to 20 people, I'd be excited. And when I hit 1,000 views, I imagine the venues required to host that many people—there aren't many in Corvallis. I'd be PUMPED if it were in person.

At the same time, I hold in tension the reality that BILLIONS of people could watch my stuff (and at least 100K ideal customers). So, if only 20 people see it, there's obviously room for improvement.

And that's the key. Within 100 reps of starting something, only focus on improvement. Don't even think about stopping. I'll even say it's better to focus on quantity over quality, and assuming you care about the output (not just doing it to check a box), improvement can't help but happen.

If you're learning something, do 100 reps without any thought of stopping. You got this.

Samson, working on his defense.

Elinor, playing at her recital.

How We Juggle Work, Kids, and Life—Thanks to Our 'Meeting of Life'

Like most families, we have a lot going on: Jessi's job, my business, the kid's school, and everyone's additional activities. It takes effort to stay on the same page! At a minimum, ensuring someone picks up the kids each day can be challenging.

To help, we started holding what we call our "Meeting of Life."

It's a semi-formal meeting between Jessi and me to sync up on things happening in the next few weeks. We started simply by reviewing our calendars together, and it expanded into other shared areas of our lives.

Jessi and I have the meeting after putting the kids to bed on Sunday evening. It's typically 30 minutes, but some weeks, we only sync up on the critical things; other weeks, we spend the entire evening talking. It's been transformational, and I highly recommend it to everyone. 

Here's what we do:

1. Pray

We start with prayer. We ask the Lord to guide our week and align us with His plan for the week.

2. Goals & Emotions

We then share our progress toward long-term goals and our emotional state. We talk a lot throughout the week, so there's rarely a surprise, but it's nice to know how each of us feels about our progress and life in general.

This part of the meeting can extend to an all-evening discussion. If it does, that's because it was needed, so it's all good.

3. Calendar

If we have limited time, this is the one we do. I pull up our calendars on my computer - a big screen where you can see the entire week helps. Yes, we have separate calendars for everyone because now the kids do their own activities. We double-check that drop-offs and pick-ups are covered and talk about irregular events - especially ones that impact the rest of the family.

We look at the next two weeks in detail, discussing each day. Then, we glance out a few weeks, looking for bigger upcoming events that might require planning.

Here's an example week. We have several recurring events, so sometimes there will be some overlaps with one-time events we'll need to resolve - and that's where we'll spend our time getting alignment. We're not crazy, right?

For the record, my normal view excludes everyone else's calendars, so it doesn't look this nuts (though, I do add my tasks, so it's a little nuts...). I cannot overstate how helpful it's been to get on the same page with our schedules! We still have double-booking issues or missing things, but they're much fewer.

4. Meal Plan

Once we have a sense of our schedules, we'll walk over to our meal calendar on the fridge. It's a dry-erase poster with five weeks on it. We re-write it once a month-ish, so it's helpful to ensure what we planned for food still makes sense for the upcoming week. We typically shop in two-week increments, so we also decide when to go shopping (and add it to the calendar).

On our meal plan calendar, we also note any big events that might impact the evening meal. So there's a bit of "two sources of truth," but it's super helpful to quickly see the context for any given meal.

And some weeks, we suddenly realize we're at the end of the calendar! Yeah, we're not perfect... We scrounge for a couple of meals (pasta!), or I'll make a quick trip (for pasta!) to get enough food to last us until we can update the calendar.

5. Finances

Now that Mint is dead, we use Quicken Simplifi to track our personal finances. So, once a month, I categorize transactions, and we look at our progress. I find the last six months over time for net income and expenses the most helpful views.

Here's the expense view. We start with this, and then I filter out big categories (like home, food, etc.), which updates the chart to break out more items from "Everything else."

Before we started regularly meeting, Jessi didn't pay much attention to what was going on. It was OK, but occasionally, it caused a problem because we weren't on the same page. Tracking finances is still a pain, but it's much better when we are aligned.

6. Chore List

We have an epic chore chart that needs resetting every week. Chores are daily, weekly, or monthly, so it's helpful to quickly see what's coming up. Sometimes, we look at something that's supposed to happen and decide to bump it because of what's happening that week.

And, I'll be honest: we're not perfect at this. Some days (weeks?!), we punt on it altogether. As long as we do it 80% of the time, it keeps our house in reasonable shape.

7. Homework and Dinner Discussions

We used to align on what the kids had for homework, but we simplified our weekly rhythm and don't need to discuss it during this time anymore. Instead, once in a while, Jessi will drop homework so I can see the kids' progress a pile of finis.

We also used to plan out some of our dinner discussions (especially on Saturdays - our quieter night), but we're working through a theology book with the kids, so we don't need to align on that, either. But, these were good for us to include so we could be intentional.

So, that's what we do. It's been invaluable to our marriage, and I recommend trying it out for the things in your shared life.

Free, Perfect, and Now

A lesson from business school that I'll never forget is simple: customers want your product or service to be free, perfect, and now. That's it. Simple.

And if I'm honest with myself, that's exactly what I want:

1. the lowest price/effort possible,
2. for the highest quality possible,
3. as soon as possible.

But here's the thing: I typically only get to pick two.

For example, let's say I want to buy my dream house. I will either save up a large down payment over many years, or get it now with a large loan payment. Or, if I'm willing to give up my dream house… dream, I can buy a different house now - in a cheaper location, in worse condition, or in a smaller size - to keep the payments low.

I run into this choice regularly with contractors. Usually, quality is fixed, which means I trade off on price and timing. My default is to be flexible on timing so I can get a better price, but sometimes, a property emergency forces me to pay top dollar to solve a problem immediately.

Keeping these trade-offs in mind helps me make smarter purchasing decisions.

The Business Side

I also find the business side of this framework fascinating. In general, your offering needs to be at least 2X better than their alternative in at least one of those dimensions to get customers to switch.

For example, I target a return for my investors that's 2X better than an alternative investment. And, I guarantee a minimum return that's inherently much better than the stock market.

That's the trick for seeing companies grow: can they offer a 2X or even a 10X improvement? And can they do it in more than one dimension?

Think about when Netflix started streaming movies and shows. They solved for "now," which was 100X better than going to a video store. By setting a fixed monthly price, they also got closer to free than anyone else. The trade-off, at first, was a small A-list catalog, but they solved that too by producing their own shows and buying more streaming rights. It's no wonder they're worth $270 billion!

When Amazon started, it focused on books. You could buy any book cheaply, but you had to wait for it to ship. And, famously, Amazon solved the shipping problem to the point that it's borderline more convenient to order something from Amazon than go to a store (which may or may not have what you want).

So, if you're starting a business, ask yourself how you can be at least 2X better on price, speed, or quality. If you can achieve that, you have the start of a compelling offer.

If you're considering investing in a business, try to understand how it's at least 2X better on one of those dimensions than their customer's best alternative (and how sustainable that advantage is). If you only invest in those businesses, your wealth will grow quickly.

Our Epic Chore Chart

Jessi and I realized a little while back that our kids could contribute more around the house. So, we brainstormed a list, shared it with the kids, asked if we missed anything, and then divided up the chores.

To our surprise, the kids volunteered for many of the tasks! It was great!

For the ones that nobody wanted to do (like picking up dog poop), we agreed to a rotation.

And then Jessi got super creative and made an epic chore chart:

Why write names when you can custom-make little magnets with our faces?

And off to the side are the extra magnets and a reference list of who does what:

It turns out that our kids enjoy checking off a list as much as we do, so it's been incredibly effective. Sometimes, they'll ask us if they can watch a show, and we'll say yes... after they complete their items (and homework).

And, if I'm honest, it works well to remind me of things I need to do (like pull weeds). When I do everything for the day, I feel a sense of calm because I know I'm caught up. It made something that feels never-ending, finite.

I have a hunch we'll still use this tool years after the kids leave the house.

I Completed a 7 Day Media Fast

 The rules are simple: no media for 7 days. This includes:

• TV shows, movies, and short videos (YouTube, TikTok, etc)
• Music, audiobooks, and podcasts
• Social media
• News, blog posts, articles, and books
• Video games (physical games are fine)

Basically, it's anything that you consume. It doesn't matter if it's "good" or "bad" because the point is to take a break from it all. This also includes turning off any notifications related to it. On challenges like these, I tend to eschew exceptions (if I'm doing it, I do it all the way), and I'd encourage you to be uncomfortable.

Oh yeah, and only check/reply to email during two 30-minute chunks.

If you've never tried it, I recommend it. I did it 15 years ago and loved it. The difference this time is that I did it with a friend.

The 4-Hour Workweek

I first learned about the idea in Tim Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Workweek. The point is to help us identify how much information and distraction exist in our lives by doing a media equivalent of an elimination diet.

Like most things, distractions sneak up on us. On both occasions, I was surprised at how productive I was. Although I was mentally exhausted at the end of the day, I felt like I genuinely gave my 100% best, which, if I'm honest, isn't something I could say for a long time.

Then, once you're done, you can be intentional about what you allow (or not!) back into your life. For example, I turned off my email notifications during my fast 15 years ago, and they're still off.

My Observations

I found myself reflexively grabbing my iPad to "kill time" and remembering I wasn't supposed to do that. I was doing it a lot! That's something I want to continue now that I'm back to normal. I want to think of a few items I can put next to my iPad, so I grab one of them instead. Maybe a deck of cards?

It turns out that I don't miss the news. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to watch SpaceX's launch, but then my brother gave me the play-by-play afterward, and in some ways, I think it was better. Though, I plan to watch it because he made it sound pretty exciting. As for everything else, I don't know what I missed, and I'm OK with that.

Driving in silence is... OK. I think it's good to let my brain rest and process instead of instantly putting something on in my ears. Though, on a couple of occasions, I had a half-hour drive and found myself bored in the middle. But maybe I need to be bored more often? I might put a 5-minute rule in place: no listening to anything for at least 5 minutes when I get into the car.

Like 15 years ago, I completely caught up on my email and reached that mythical Inbox Zero. I want to get back to having regular, but limited, focused time for email. My 90-day summer goal is to have at most 20 emails after checking my email. I can do that without a problem if I keep a similar email discipline.

The evenings were the hardest. Because of some health issues, Jessi goes to bed pretty early (~9pm), and that's typically when I watch a movie or play video games. I'm not ready to sleep, but I'm also not in the mood to work on something. I never found anything worth doing. Perhaps my next 90-day goal should be to find a new evening pastime.

Doing it with a friend is fun! You can encourage and commiserate together. It also makes you seem less of a weirdo if people know someone else is doing it because it comes across as "I'm doing a challenge" instead of "I have a problem."

It really did shine a light on how much information and distractions are in my life. It's something that slowly crept up, and I'm glad I did this to reset. I'd encourage you to give it a try. I think it would be good for me to do it once a year.

Why Did TikTok Ban Me?

A strange thing happened to me recently.

My wife and I started a podcast about real estate at the beginning of the year. Like many podcasts, we began sharing short clips from the episode a little more than a month ago. Some are informative nuggets, and others are pure entertainment. I upload them to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

It's all perfectly normal, right?

 Well, one day, I tried logging into TikTok via the browser to upload a new set of podcast clips, but it wouldn't let me. Instead, a tiny banner told me my account "was currently suspended."

Strange.

I contacted customer service and received an auto-reply instructing me to check my in-app notifications and submit an appeal.

Hi there, Thanks for contacting TikTok! We have received your request about a Content Violation or Ban. If you believe your content was incorrectly removed, please let us know by submitting an appeal in app. Your feedback helps us improve the way we keep our community safe. To submit an appeal: 1. Locate the notification in your TikTok inbox. 2. Tap the notification. 3. Tap Submit an appeal. 4. Follow the instructions provided. Or Go to the video. 2. Tap Community Guidelines violation: See details. 3. Tap Submit an appeal. 4. Follow the instructions provided. For more information on our moderation process, please visit: https://support.tiktok.com/en/safety-hc/account-and-user-safety/content-violations-and-bans#support Please feel free to reach back out if you weren't able to resolve your issue with the steps above. Thank you, The TikTok Team

OK... but I can't log in. I reply to the message saying so. At this point, my thought is that this is only a log-in issue. I sign in with Apple, and perhaps that's the issue?

Nope! Twelve minutes later, they reply with shocking news:

Hi there,

Thanks for contacting TikTok.

We understand how important your account is to you. After further review, your account will remain permanently banned due to a violation of our Integrity and Authenticity policy.

Please note that our Community Guidelines apply to both public and private content, as well as hashtags and links to third party websites. For further information on your account violation, please reference our Community Guidelines: https://www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines?lang=en

Best,

The TikTok Team

Wait. What?

According to their Integrity and Authenticity policy, there are six ways to get in trouble:

1. Misinformation: Inaccurate, misleading, or false content that may cause significant harm to individuals or society, regardless of intent.
2. Civic and Election Integrity: Paid political promotion, political advertising, or fundraising by politicians and political parties (for themselves or others). Or, misinformation about civic and electoral processes, regardless of intent.
3. Synthetic and Manipulated Media: Synthetic or manipulated media that shows realistic scenes must be clearly disclosed. Synthetic media that contains the likeness of any real private figure. Synthetic media of public figures if the content is used for endorsements or violates any other policy.
4. Fake Engagement: The trade of services that attempt to artificially increase engagement or deceive TikTok's recommendation system.
5. Unoriginal Content and QR Codes: Content that violates someone else's intellectual property rights.
6. Spam and Deceptive Account Behaviors: Account behaviors that may spam or mislead our community.

I gave what felt like a reasonable reply:

Thank you for your prompt response. I appreciate your efforts in maintaining the community guidelines. I'm more than willing to make any necessary adjustments to my content to ensure it aligns with the policies.

Also, I must admit, I'm confused. I read the Community Guidelines, and I don't understand how I violated the Integrity and Authenticity policy. I post short clips of my podcast, which doesn't seem to violate the policy—it's my wife and I talking about investing in real estate.

Is there a particular video/topic that's causing a problem?

James

But, alas, I didn't receive a response.

I'm honestly unsure where I ran afoul and am genuinely curious about why TikTok banned me.

On one hand, my views were low, and the probability of reaching a potential investor is low, so it's not a huge business loss. And I only occasionally watched videos, so that's a small loss, too.

But on the other hand, come on! This feels unfair. Banning someone seems like a big deal, but I only received canned responses. I get that I'm a speck of a fish in their sea and that automated systems are valuable despite not being perfect. I'd feel a little better if they gave me the impression that an actual human spent 5 minutes verifying the situation and told me why I was banned.

Or, perhaps I need to Judo the situation and use the ban to my advantage rather than oppose it directly.

• "So controversial that TikTok banned it!"
• "Results so amazing that TikTok thought it was fake."
• "I'm focusing on distribution channels where my ideal investors hang out."
• "I believe in investing in America."

My Judo is a work in progress.

Until then, you can enjoy our controversial podcast clips featuring our amazing results by investing in America on the platforms where the best investors hang out: YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. They're so good that TikTok didn't feel worthy to show them.

How To Get The Most Out Of An Online Course

I invest a lot in taking online courses. Some are a few hundred dollars, and some are a few thousand dollars! I love them because it's an opportunity to learn from an expert—with YEARS of experience—who took the time to analyze their craft, organize it in a digestible way, and then methodically teach it.

I know that I could search online for answers or learn through the school of hard knocks, but beyond the time investment, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. I like having an expert tell me what's essential and in an order that builds on itself. Plus, most free resources don't go as deep—they don't provide the exact samples, scripts, models, etc.

Taking online courses is one of the highest ROIs I know.

I've taken courses on writing, playing bass guitar, making videos, syndications, delegating, and land flipping - to list a few.

But you can't just watch them like a TV show. After taking many courses, I've devised a method that works well for me. If I spend time and money on a course, I must get the most out of it.

I'll get to my exact steps, but first, let's talk about video games.

Mastering Video Games

Growing up, I mastered video games by following a specific method:

• I'd play the game, experiment, and eventually figure out the controls. My brother and I were usually evenly matched, and often, he picked up skills faster than me.
• Then I'd read the game manual cover to cover. Because I had the context of the game, the instructions would stick, and I'd learn the advanced skills of the game.
• I'd leapfrog my brother. If it were a fighting or sports game, I'd demolish him.
• Eventually, I'd teach him what I learned, he'd improve, and we'd become competitive again.

It's a bit of a ready-fire-aim strategy: try something (and flail), then learn how to do it properly, try again with much better results, and then teach someone else to cement the concepts. Then, keep practicing while re-reading the instructions to learn specific parts as needed.

So, when I'm considering an online course, it's because I've been trying something and feel like I'm flailing. Or it's because I have knowledge gaps that searching online doesn't fill, and I want an expert to fill those in for me.

Let's get into my process.

Step 0: Read The Book

Before I buy a course, I'll read the creator's work. If they have a book, I'll read it. If not, I'll download their "free tool/report" and subscribe to their emails. I want to sample their teaching style and expertise. Ideally, it's something paid that took effort to create (like a book) because they're not trying to sell me anymore; they're in teaching mode.

It has several benefits: 1) It's a cheap way to sample the course beyond their sales pitch. 2) I can try implementing what I learn to see how effective it is, setting me up for the lessons to sink in deeper. And 3) It often gives me a solid overview of the scope of the course.

If I don't have time (or interest) to read the book, tool, or report, I shouldn't take the course.

Step 1: Binge Watch Everything

I start a course with many questions and find it difficult to focus on the current lesson until I know my specific questions will be answered. So, my solution is to binge-watch everything. I don't take any notes or try to remember anything. Instead, I let the entire thing wash over me.

I aim to get the lay of the land and answer my burning questions. My experience is that there can sometimes be a lot of filler or things I already know, and binging helps me figure out where to dive deep in step 2.

But despite speed running through it, I still have TONS of ah-ha moments because I already have specific questions.

Step 2: Do The Exercises and Rewatch Lessons

Once I finish the course, I start over. But this time, I do the exercises and then rewatch the lessons on subjects I want to sink in. I'll also take notes and apply what I've learned. Doing the exercises before rewatching helps me identify gaps and know where to pay attention when I rewatch the lesson.

I usually find that I spend half as much time on this step as on the bring-watching. Part of the reason is that I don't rewatch everything (like intro videos)—I'm only diving deep into my knowledge gaps.

Doing the exercises is critical because I learn best when I try it. I even do those that seem trivial because A) I start with the assumption that the expert added it for a reason, and B) I often pick up a couple of knowledge bits from doing it.

For example, one exercise involved identifying good investment markets. I already knew how to do it, but forcing myself to do it revealed some areas for improvement.

Step 3: Refresher

I don't always do this, but sometimes I'll go back 6-12 months later and rewatch parts of a course. This is especially true for newer skills because I know there were nuggets of knowledge I wasn't ready to receive.

For example, when I learned to play bass guitar, I got proficient enough to play in my church's worship band but still had gaps. So, after playing for a few months, I rewatched some of the lessons and picked up skills I missed the first time.

Also, once a month, I'll pick one or two lessons from a course and rewatch them. I'll pick ones that feel relevant to whatever I'm working on. I'm not trying to learn anything specific - I'm simply trying to re-steep myself in the concept. And often, I have an "oh yeah… I remember that now" moment.

So that's my process. Online courses are one of the best investments you can make. For $200 - $2,000, you can learn from an expert in an organized, comprehensive course at your own pace. It's incredible.

Safety Third

I heard the line “safety third” on a podcast a few years ago, and I wholeheartedly embraced it. This might be a little pedantic, but I think it’s worth the distinction for my mindset.

Saying you believe in “safety first” is false. Nobody actually practices it. If a sea captain said they believed in safety first, they’d never leave the dock because that’s the safest thing to do - but if they did that, they wouldn’t be a real ship captain.

The first priority is achieving the goal.

To be clear, it’s not the only priority - it just comes first. If a goal didn’t exist, there would be no action and, therefore, no reason to declare any priorities.

And if you don’t achieve a goal for safety reasons, it feels like a tie. You’ll take it, but it wasn’t really the desired outcome.

Why Not Safety Second?

I prefer innovation as my second priority. How might I achieve the goal better? Is there a new innovative way to achieve it faster, cheaper, better, safer, etc.? It’s a priority of creativity and discernment that’s important to take before jumping into action.

This is how you get better.

What are the implications of a safety third mantra?

First, it promotes contextual awareness and assessing risk based on the situation. You don’t default to the least risky option. Instead, you evaluate your skills and the goal to make an informed decision.

Some questions that I ask to help me evaluate the risk include:

• What are the worst things that could happen?
• Could I get back here?
• Is this favorable on a risk-adjusted basis?
• Can I live with the worst-case scenario?

As someone who tends to be unreasonably optimistic, I sometimes have to enlist Jessi to help thoroughly evaluate the downside possibilities of doing something.

In this way, safety becomes more meaningful and not a meaningless platitude. Plus, if I know someone else has a safety third mindset, and they bring up a safety issue, I’m less dismissive.

Finally, you have to admit that some unwanted things will happen. But that’s OK! When they occur, focus on the good. What did you learn? What new opportunities does this create? There is ALWAYS something good that comes from bad things.

May you achieve your goals in an innovative way and be safe along your journey.

How I'm Using AI In My Real Estate Business

Like many people, I'm playing around with different generative AI tools - investing time and money - to see how they can help my business. At the moment, it's helping around the edges, saving pockets of time, but it hasn't structurally changed how I do things yet. Here are some of the tools I'm using:

Otter.ai

Otter.ai promises that you don't have to take meeting notes. It generates transcripts, meeting summaries, and action items. I wanted to try it for two reasons. First, I wanted it for myself so I wouldn't have to take as many notes. Second, I wanted to offer it as an added value to the people I coach - they would have a record of our conversations for later reference.

It's OK... I find that I don't have to keep as copious of notes - just the highlights - which is excellent. I like having it recorded, and searching for specific parts of the meeting is easy. The summaries are OK, but the action items are useless.

I also found it helpful for group meetings when someone can't make it. I can send them the meeting notes, which include the summary and transcript. One feature that seems cool, but I have yet to really try, is using the built-in chatbot to ask questions about the meeting. It's like a fancy search engine, which seems like it could be helpful.

Descript

The idea behind Descript is that you can edit a video or podcast (*cough* Furlo Capital Real Estate Podcast *cough*) as if it were a Word document. So, you add your raw video, it transcribes it, and then, as you edit the transcript, it edits the video.

The editing is cool, but I still prefer doing it in Final Cut Pro. I have a hunch that getting better at multi-track editing in Descript would be faster than FCP, but the learning curve is a little steep.

Where Descript has been SUPER helpful is on the text side. I'll edit a video and then import it to Descript. Once it's transcribed, I have it help me with a few items:

1. Output subtitles and a transcript. I used to use Rev for this.
2. For shorts, subtitles can be added to the video. I used to do this by hand, and it was miserable.
3. Write podcast and video descriptions. They're always written in 3rd person, and I haven't found a prompt that works to make it first-person (without ruining the overall description).
4. Identify chapter markers. This is borderline perfect, though it usually gives more than I want, but it's easy to remove them.
5. Suggest titles. I'll use these to make my own before analyzing it with a headline analyzer.

ChatGPT

There are some big chat-style generative AIs to play with: Anthrop\c's Claude, Google's Gemini, and Microsoft's Copilot, to name a few. But something about the Wild West feel of OpenAI's ChatGPT attracts me. Sure, I want my AI to be careful and respectful, but I don't want it to be too cautious (I'm a "safety third" type of person).

The free version is OK, but if you're going to integrate it into your life/business, the Plus version is noticeably better. I'm finding it useful for three general tasks:

1. Summaries: I can feed it a document, like a transcript, and ask for the key points. I haven't had to do this yet, but I could probably upload a rental agreement and ask questions about it (though, in general, I prefer to read the actual text).
2. Idea generation: I've done the classic "Give me 10 fears that [target market, like data scientists] have about [doing something, like investing in real estate]," and it's excellent for that. I also like to give it a podcast transcript and a prompt like "What questions might someone have after listening/reading this?
3. Transposing: I'm still new at this, but I've been playing around with creating podcast images from text prompts.

Arc Search

This iPhone app is a new tool for me. Instead of searching and getting links, I can get multi-media summaries and answers. If I don't like the result, I can easily do an old-school search (Just think, someday, Google may call it Google Classic Search). I'm unsure if it's "better" or faster yet - because it takes time to learn a new workflow - but it's cool.

Where's the line of too much AI?

Part of this play is helping me discover the best uses. Sure, I can ask it to write this article. It would be bland (plus, I like writing because it helps me think), so it's not a real option. But someday, it'll be able to write in my voice after I give it an unorganized blob of ideas. Then what? Do I get credit for writing it?

I use Grammarly for editing, and that seems to be OK. I take credit for doing data analysis, even though I use tools like Excel and R and not slide rulers. If I were a web developer, I'd use GitHub Copilot to help write code. Is that OK? It's just a smarter version of autocomplete, right? Does anyone care as long as the output is high quality?

To me, the line seems fuzzy. As a business owner, I'm not super concerned about how it's done, as long as it's done well. Would I care if I had a theoretical employee who used these tools to do their work in half the time but still charged the full time? I'd care about having a lazy (dishonest?) employee, but I'm paying for results, not time spent. The issue is the person's character, not the tool's use. I pay MORE for contractors to go faster, so it's not always about saving money.

Again, does anyone care if I use a WYSIWYG editor like Squarespace on a website instead of hand-coding it? No. Does anyone care if I use a pivot table in Excel to make a chart? Nope, it's considered an advanced skill. Does it matter if I wrote a helpful article using chatGPT for the first draft with some light editing? Well... No?

In each of these examples, I devised the idea and validated the final result. What if I hired someone to do all the work for me? Doesn't anyone really care as long as it's helpful? This is what businesses do, right? CEOs of mid-to-large companies can't do everything.

Perhaps the rub is that it's an implied expectation that humans do certain things (like write and edit videos), and somehow, we feel lied to when we find out a human didn't do it. Or, maybe it's because we're in the uncanny valley of AI quality. If that's the case, this will be less and less of an issue as society changes its expectations and the output improves. Does anyone else miss DVD special features? I do, but streaming is so convenient!

What's My Core Value?

A more helpful framework has been thinking about my core value. What do I bring to my business that's hard to replicate?

Let's use my podcast as an example. My core value is my experience, knowledge, and how I explain them. So, AI can help me think of topics, but I should be the one to choose the topic and talk about it. Then afterward, creating subtitles, descriptions, and chapter markers are all low-value tasks. So, I'm OK delegating those to AI (with my final approval).

I also think video editing is lower-value (for me), but AI isn't great at it yet, and my budget doesn't allow me to delegate it to someone every time. Basically, I'm OK with delegating everything (to humans or AI) around making the podcast, except for the on-screen part, because that's the highest value I bring.

Future Uses?

I do other lower-value tasks, and it's fun imagining a time when tools, AI or otherwise, can help with them.

1. Bookkeeping takes a while. I've started delegating that to a property manager. Hopefully, someday, she can use AI to help her go faster. For example, Quickbooks will suggest categories, and that'll get smarter over time.
2. I don't write a lot of commercial rental contracts, but I could see it helping with that. Or reading a contact and advising me on things to look out for.
3. So... email... I want an AI to analyze my previous emails to match my writing style for a one-click auto-responder. And not just a one-liner auto-responder, but a complete message. I've read about some pretty extreme solutions, but they're more hostile to senders than "solutions." (The best -and most expensive - option is hiring a virtual assistant to reply on your behalf.)
4. I have an odd plumbing problem. I can't find a suitable solution on Google or ChatGPT. I'd rather not pay a plumber, but it's increasingly looking like I don't have a choice.
5. Imagine this: I see a property listing. I call the seller to learn more and I take a tour. I want to feed the listing, the call transcript, and the tour photos into a system that analyzes the property. It'll output a P&L, repair estimates, and project KPIs into a spreadsheet. I can then take over from there. I think? We're flirting with my biggest value-add now.
6. Or, I give it a current property in my portfolio and its P&L over time. The tool looks at the market and can suggest sell/hold and rent rates. I haven't tried this yet, but I bet it can already help make rental listings (though, I have a template that's easy to use). Or, auto-general some good-looking reports?

All of these are still helping me to do what I'm already doing more efficiently. None of them fundamentally change how I'm already doing business. What would an AI-first real estate investor do?

I suppose I'd want a tool that analyzes every property in the US for me and generates offers I can submit. It would auto-generate rental contracts and do the follow-up on rent payments and notices. It would listen to every conversation and suggest the next steps.

Or, maybe I never directly interact with people! Instead of writing emails, I write/speak my thoughts, and it writes and sends them. I never directly analyze a property, but I write/speak/send the stats, and it analyzes it for me. If I'm working with a potential seller, I might tell the AI to keep following up until I get a yes or a no. The AI knows the analysis and my criteria and can automatically do a back-and-forth with the seller, searching for a mutually acceptable deal by tweaking the price and terms based on the seller's response.

Maybe? That seems far off, and at least for now, it's a part of my core value in my business. Perhaps a reasonable next step is to get better at telling the AI my raw, unstructured thoughts and letting it draft a response.