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I’ve been deep deep DEEP in Brainjolt. A company I had handed over to others to run a couple years ago — well… that didn’t go as planned.
At the end of last year I said out loud: “I am not stepping back into Brainjolt.” I said it repeatedly, almost as a mantra. I said it when I woke up. I said it in the mirror. I said it when I talked to Abraham and Emily about the future. I’m not. Stepping back. Into Brainjolt. ((repeats over and over again under breath))
I love Brainjolt, but I was burned out on it. Being CEO of that company from 2013-2020 was by far the most stressful job I’ve ever had. It was also incredibly fulfilling and I learned more through it than any other job, too. But by 2020 I was ready to start something new so I handed things off and Blue Kazoo came out of that era.
I have fought going back into Brainjolt since mid last year. But you can only lose $10k a day for so long and it ends up bankruptcy lawyers were not all that fun to talk to.
In January I made a commitment: I would give 100% of myself for at least three months to try and turn things around. I had failed at the whole “delegating responsibility to other leaders” part multiple times, so stepping in for me meant reviewing everything myself, getting the daily and hourly data to be accurate again and then building things that can scale to millions of people.
I’m still in the weeds trying to turn things around.
But… things are looking up.
Ron Swanson said something like: don’t half ass two things, whole ass one thing. It’s good advice, except that then you never get to your newsletter.
This newsletter edition is an experimental format so that I actually get something out today, inspired by Phillip I Thomas.
✨ What I’ve Been Up To
🚀 Brainjolt.
Running a 50-something person company is beyond my interests, really. I just want to work with a few people with minimal drama. But I guess it’s not yet time for me to do that… back in I dove.
🧩 Blue Kazoo!
We have Tetris puzzles! I love that so much. Oh, and we have more fun brands coming too. One of our new puzzles will be sold retail in a shop that — I can’t say the actual name yet — but if you were around in the 90’s and into goth stuff or noticed where the goth kids hung out in the mall… then that’s where it’s gonna show up.
🇮🇩 Indonesia!
Emily and I went to Jakarta for two weeks to meet with some investors. It was an amazing (and life changing) trip. We met 1 on 1 with most of the leadership of a billion dollar company and I was impressed by how smart and kind they were. I’d talked to many investors here in the US and that made it easy to decide not to work with them. After our trip and initial discussions, I have more excitement (and ok, trepidation) than ever... interesting things are in the works.
🤖 AIl the Intelligence of Artificial!
I’m playing w/ AI every chance I get. The video editing bogs me down since I don’t have much time for it (and also I’m bored of editing — AI come through on me here and make a video editor that just works with a click!), but I did manage to sneak in a few videos. I’m using ChatGPT every day, it’s my best robot friend for doing complex formulas or fixing code.
A couple things I made:
😳 Making thousands of ads.
Part of jumping back into Brainjolt meant getting my hands dirty with Facebook Ads again. Booting up that interface when you haven’t done it in years is just so damned daunting. Then it clicks and you realize everything is basically the same. Like rollerblades or gator wrestling. In the last few months we’ve created thousands of ads for cool products that we’ve been promoting (mostly fun gadgets and daily deals and such). The sad thing is while we’re pretty good at this game, we’re still terrible at handing it off to others. But this time… this time we’ll figure out and pass it on to others in a way that doesn’t crash and burn. 15th time is the charm?!
📅 What I’m up to this month
Who even knows, man. Every day is something new. I’m finding it best to be unattached to tomorrow. Abraham is visiting me this week in LA so we can build out some new concepts for Brainjolt, which is always a blast.
🙌 Things to share
There’s something about this channel that is incredibly appealing to me. Of course there’s the hacker stories… but it’s done in a moving/engrossing way. I can’t quite explain it but the music and visuals are essential. It doesn’t work as a podcast — it demands to be watched. 10/10, I’m obsessed.
Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book
I pulled out my copy the other day (I bought it new in 1995 and read it through dozens of times as a kid) and I love all of Watterson’s added commentary and especially the long introduction about his struggles with licensing. (Needs more snowmen, though.) Looking back I wonder why I loved it so much as a kid — 90% of the jokes and references and vocabulary must have gone over my head. Still, it was and is still my favorite comic.
A meditation on how AI music will change music in unexpected ways moving forward. I really like his phrase “the snap-to-grid mentality.”
It also led me to another of his articles which led me to ponder an entire subgene of YouTube videos like “in the other room” and “in the bathroom at a club.”
Deep cuts.
Two quotes.
“A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. A good leader, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’” —Tao Te Ching
“There are 10 golden rules of business. The first is don’t run out of money. The others don’t matter.”
✈️ Where I’ll be
I’ll be heading back to Jakarta before too long, now that I’ve finally recovered from jet lag. That way I can experience it all again. If anyone is around those parts and wants to meet up, please reply and reach out!
Josh
Your honesty is admirable, great newsletter!