So let’s chat about my peptide experience.

First off, a peptide is a short chain of amino acids, a protein found naturally occurring in the body, usually 41 molecules or fewer. They essentially tell your cells what to do. GLPs tell your cells to curb hunger. GHK-cu tells your cells to create collagen. BPC tells your cells to repair faster. So on and so forth.

I discovered peptide therapy in 2023, right when Ozempic hit the mainstream and GLP-1s took over the world. Everyone got skinny, then everyone got saggy, and then they all bounced back. It was a whole thing and really interesting to witness in real time.

How could I not jump on board? I have tried a majority of the widely known peptides, some great experiences, some not so great.

During my last peptide cycle, I had an allergic reaction to an injectable. I was on a tesamorelin and ipamorelin blend, known for its growth hormone properties, muscle building, muscle regeneration, and a decrease in visceral fat.

Twenty units, injected at night. I started itching at the site and then it spread to my whole body. I went to sleep hoping I didn’t die overnight.

Spoiler: I didn’t die.

But a lump showed up under my armpit. I told myself it was probably a coincidence and kept going for a few more days. Then the lump got bigger and more tender. That’s when I stopped. Every symptom went away once I did. I haven’t touched growth hormone therapy since.

I let my NP know and she told me that I was one of the lucky few who react to growth hormone peptides. Shocker. 1%’ers are gonna 1%.

Beyond the GLP-1s

There’s a whole world of peptides outside of the glucagon-like peptides. To name a few, you have BPC-157, TB-500, GHK-Cu, tesamorelin, ipamorelin, and more. Oral versions, injectables, sprays, creams. I wanted to try them myself before I decided whether they were good or bad, or before I’d ever refer someone else to them.

And between my husband and me, we’ve got thoughts on a lot of them. Here is my honest take on every peptide I’ve ever tried, how much I spend and how I decide what to continue and when to take a break.

A gift from my peptide dealer

lol, yes, I call her my peptide dealer.

Relive Health Gaithersburg is offering $150 off the required bloodwork and review to qualify for peptide therapy. Pus 10% off your first peptide order. Make an appointment and mention, She’s Built Different.

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It was purchased as part of said water tasting offered by The Inn at Little Washington, a 3-Michelin-Star hotel and restaurant. We compared multiple bottles of water, each having their own unique flavors. It was nothing like I’ve ever done before and the price tag was commiserate with the experience.

Naturally, I brought my community along for the ride via social media. Sharing my life on IG stories has always been my jam. With the exception of my children, I am pretty much an open book.

I’ve shared everything from my latest investments to my new boobs and everything in between, especially the travel, the food, and the wine.

The question “was it worth it?”— usually asked in regard to the cost of something I shared—often makes its way into my DMs.

French Laundry - “was it worth it?”

Concierge Class on a Disney Cruise - “was it worth it?”

My sauna and cold plunge package - “ was it worth it?”

Stranger Things on Broadway - “was it worth it?” (unequivocally yes)

My TLDR response, “Yes, it was to me.”

My inner monologue response, “It was worth it to me based on my disposable income, based on our net worth, and based on whatever percentage of our monthly spending it represents.”

Whether it is worth it to you is a different question.

I have always had a hard time advising people on how to spend their money because I am not in their shoes. I don’t know how much runway they have each month, and who am I to say, “sure, go ahead and burn $300 on skincare.” That is one aspect of sharing my life so openly that doesn’t feel great, but I also realize that I cannot control how other people live their lives, so I continue to share mine.

our yearly tradition

Each year, during the month of January, the collective McKenzie crew sits down and has a large money discussion. We hang four large post-its on the wall and write out our goals for the upcoming year. One for travel, one for business goals, one for personal financial goals, and one for real estate maintenance and investments.

This is something I recommend every family do. It really is a good practice to get everyone rowing in the same direction. You might have mentally planned a renovation that your spouse has no clue about. Put it all on paper and get crystal clear on your goals.

Last year, our goal was…

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If you know me, you know that I do not like missing any of my children’s events. In order to say yes I had to feel like it was a two-way street, like it was mutually beneficial.

I had assumed that they were doing the promotions and taking care of all the marketing and everything.

I missed the school event. I went to the nonprofit event instead.

I got there and maybe four people showed.

That was the moment I decided to make my boundaries really tight on where I spend my time. I don’t mind missing things, but I do mind feeling like I wasted precious hours that I don’t get back.

do the math first

Before I say yes to anything, I do the math. Time has value and value must be respected.

What this looks like in practice… the problem lies when there are too many opportunities that look good on paper until you actually do the math of what your time is worth.

My speaking fee is $2,500.

That means if I’m speaking at a conference or a panel, my rate is not just for the hour of my time. My rate also includes the prep work, the research that goes into understanding what the panel is about, what the other panelists are bringing to the table, so I can speak from a place of knowledge rather than guessing mid-event.

I assume every panel requires 10-12 hours of prep work. I set this rate years ago and have never adjusted. Call it bad business, but it buys me a night at an Aman property and for that, we say thanks!

Back to boundaries.

i am the queen of saying ‘no’

I dismiss two or three brand requests each week. Here is one that just landed in my inbox yesterday. Even if they say there are no strings attached, there’s usually some string attached. I just don’t want to feel like I’m obligated to post anything about a product if I don’t want to or if it doesn’t fit the theme of anything I’m doing that quarter.

i’m probably not meeting you for coffee

If we’ve had coffee recently or have a coffee date set, this doesn’t apply to you.

As much as I would love to spend my days having coffee with everyone that asks to “pick my brain,” I have work to do, a very full life to live and habits to maintain. After a bit of burnout, I say no to several meeting requests each week as does my husband. Everyone is always starting something.

Fun fact: if you really want to get on my calendar, suggest we do something active. I will play tennis or walk and talk any damn time.

imitation is the best form of flattery

We’re in the age of copycats, where people will literally copy your business concept word for word and then ask you how to run it.

There have been several occasions in my life where my business ideas, our business names, my home decor, have been imitated.

Defense Point Security ≠ Guide Point Security

In another instance, a colleague emailed me about a business they’re launching with a concept almost identical to something I’ve launched in the past. It’s always the same story, usually ending with a request to meet and learn how I did what I did.

In most cases, I am your biggest cheerleader. I think it’s great to network, but I do have clear lines in the sand. I will support your business and absolutely wish you well, but I will not let you eat at the table I built for free, when you’re trying to copy the exact design. Respectfully, there’s a rate for that.

how to deal with copycats

Let them. I’ve seen what it takes to build a company from the ground up, build the community that will go to bat for you, through due diligence, to an exit, and it’s not easy.

There’s a version of the business someone can copy from the outside, and there’s the version that only exists because of every decision nobody saw, the contracts, the hires you had to let go, the year the numbers didn’t work and you kept going anyway.

Copying the first version doesn’t get you the second one.

Everyone has an idea, even if it’s yours, and will try to capitalize on it. An idea is the easiest part of a business. I’ve had women copy my content word for word, from the slide decks I created and still ask me how I built what I built. The idea is never the hard part. The five years or seven years before anyone was paying attention is the hardest part.

I’m not a fan of Mel Robbins, but I do get down with the let them theory. Let them copy the post. Let them start the company with the exact same concept. They’re going to find out the same way I did, that the idea was never the moat.

the years really do fly by

I love collaborating. I love supporting other companies. I love supporting other nonprofits, but at the end of the day, my time with my children is so finite and these years are going to fly by. Missing events and missing out on tennis or missing out on my workouts or anything that really bolsters my self-care, it has to be for a great reason.

Now I’m very strategic about what I say yes to and I’m often saying no a lot more than I did earlier in my career. It has allowed me to really pour my time and effort into things that move the needle, either in my in-person community or in my financial picture.

And in case you were wondering, an hour of my time is worth $250, so you can pick my brain after you pick your payment method.

What is your hourly rate, if you actually did the math?

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I have been an IT professional for Customs and Border Protection, a competitive USAW weightlifter, and a CrossFit gym owner. I’ve published two books and now, I’m steering the ship of a rapidly growing nonprofit.

Did I mention the podcast my husband and I host and the three companies we’ve sold? So much variation, so much evolution, built from the ground up.

It used to be a constant internal battle because I thought that hopping from career to career made me inconsistent. Like I couldn’t commit to just one thing. Turns out that’s not the case, nor is it a problem. I’m running my businesses and my life the way I am designed to run it. And it’s paying dividends.

my human design

My human design was an unlock for me. This philosophy and framework breaks people into five different archetypes, and each one interacts with money, momentum, and decision making differently.

I’m a Manifesting Generator (shocker). I’m an Emotional authority, with a 5/1 profile. I have a Responding strategy, my sign is satisfaction and my not-self is frustration. Don’t worry, I will clear up what all this means.

From lifting weights on the floor of Madison Square Garden to giving grants to women navigating major life transitions, I am truly grateful for the life I get to live.

If you’ve met me in person, then you understand how on-brand my human design is with everything I’ve done in business and in life. And if you feel like you’ve been struggling with motivation, or direction, you might be fighting your human design by doing things that aren’t in alignment. Here is how to fix it.

it gets better below

The content below is for paid subscribers only, and for less than two lattes at Starbucks, you can get access to:

Wealth conversations. Revenue, author economics, a look into contract details, my angel investments, etc. I share real numbers because I think financial transparency is a form of service.

Copy/Paste prompt. The AI skills I use to run a lot of my business and life automatically.

BTS. How I think about building alongside my husband, integrating and staying current with AI while raising five kids. The decisions I almost got wrong. The ones I’m still figuring out.

The woo and the logic. How I evaluate opportunities before I say yes because I want to live in alignment with my human design.

The full archive, unlocked immediately. Every paid post from day one — the Birkin I sold to invest in a company piece, the inbox automation tutorial, how much I’ve made publishing books, and everything that comes next.

To my paid subscribers, thank you for being here.

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Almost a million views, hundreds of comments and tons of women who wanted in on this retreat. I eventually had to turn off the comments because people have very strong opinion on AI usage. I get it but also, the notifications were a bit much.

The best part about this retreat? I hadn’t built a single piece of it yet. I hadn’t brought in a travel planner, hadn’t built a platform or system to support it, hadn’t spent a single dollar. And that is the entire point.

stop waiting for perfect

There’s a huge misconception about business products and services that you shouldn’t launch until they’re 100% done. I’m calling bullshit on that.

My advice is the exact opposite: soft-launch the product, social-media test the service, validate the idea before you build anything. Do not spend a dime building until you’re sure someone wants it.

It saves you time. It saves you money. And it saves you from the thing everybody does, which is fall in love with an idea that sounds amazing in your own head and then flops in real life.

You don’t find out if an idea actually holds up until you start putting the pieces together, laying the foundation. That’s when the fracture points show up. And the only way to find those fracture points before they cost you real money is to put the idea in front of real people and watch what happens.

the rally costa rica retreat

Here’s how I actually did this.

I had an idea to combine my hobbies with my business: a Founder’s Retreat in Costa Rica. Tennis, AI implementations, business conversations, luxury travel, Mahjong, sleep, repeat.

It sounded fantastic to me. But who was I to assume the world needed it too?

So I tested it before I built anything. I posted about the idea and then did nothing but watch and wait. The response was overwhelming: almost a million views, 500 hundred comments and so much genuine interest. I eventually turned comments off because people have some strong opinions about AI usage.

give women their own golf course

Men have used golf to build relationships and close deals for decades. I play golf and have seen it happen in real time. There’s something about a game (and maybe the alcohol) that allows you to let your guard down for a few hours.

Women do the same kind of relationship-building, we just do it over tennis, or a playground or a lunch instead of a fairway.

Put eight to ten female founders in a luxury villa with great food and nothing on the agenda but each other, and watch the magic happen. Friendships bloom. Ideas get stress tested by someone other than you. And levels unlock. Watching this happen in real time is a privilege.

test it twice

I social-media tested the retreat idea twice before I built anything. When the response was positive, I found a luxury travel planner and started putting the real trip together.

Then I tested it again, before I paid a single dollar toward the trip. Same response. So we opened applications, and they started rolling in.

hit publish before you feel ready

The idea that something has to be perfect before you launch it? It could not be farther from the truth. I wish more women, more creators, would get behind hitting publish before they feel ready.

Perfect is so limiting. It’s the thing that is keeping your idea in your notes app instead of out in the world, getting tested by the only people whose opinion actually matters: everyone else.

And if the idea flops, great. You just saved yourself time from building something that nobody wants or needs. I see zero downsides so what are you waiting for? Go be great.

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You can either be a content consumer or a content creator. I’d rather create.

I’ve also taken a page from our elders on this one. I get the newspaper delivered on Sundays and read it throughout the week.

But I’ve taken it a step further. I built a scheduled task to fill the gaps.

Here’s what it actually is, because I know half of you are already picturing something more complicated than it needs to be. Every morning at 6am, an email lands in my inbox with the top three trending articles from the previous day, pulled from news sources.

That’s it. No app to open. No feed to scroll. No twenty minutes lost to a homepage designed to keep me there for forty-five. I told my AI assistant what I wanted once, and now it just runs. Every single day, without me touching it.

I created this because I noticed my mornings were getting eaten by the same chaotic routine: check phone, open app, get pulled into a headline that has nothing to do with my day, look up twenty minutes later and wonder where the time went.

That's not a discipline problem. That's a design problem. These apps are built to suck you in. So I stopped trying to out-willpower a billion-dollar attention economy and just removed myself from the game.

the news i choose to consume

Most days, the news is on in the background so any I catch any major news breaks. For my daily digest, I didn't want "the news." I wanted the sources that actually matter to how I think and what I build: Medium for the ideas people are testing in public, the Washington Post for what's actually happening, and Entrepreneur for what other builders are paying attention to. Plus some X tweets, sprinkled with tech crunch.

You can tell your AI assistant exactly what you want pulled and from where, exactly when you want it, and exactly how you want it delivered.

Disclaimer: I have a subscription for all of my news sources.

Mine shows up as an email because that's where I already am first thing in the morning. Yours could be a text, a Slack message, whatever fits how you actually operate instead of how some app decided you should.

This is the same rule I keep coming back to: give AI a real brief, not a vague prompt. Specificity is the whole game.

"Keep me informed" gets you nothing useful.

"Pull the top three trending articles from these three specific sources, from the previous day, deliver them at 6am, to this inbox" gets you exactly what I described above, running every day, forever, without you lifting a finger.

what has actually changed?

I won’t lie to you and say this gained me 3 hours back in my day. Some mornings, I don’t even look at it. What has changed is that my mornings stopped starting with someone else's agenda.

I decide what I read now. Four sources, curated to what I actually care about, waiting for me instead of me hunting for it. That's a small thing. But it compounds. And attention is the one resource none of us are getting more of.

If you want to build something like this for yourself, subscribe and keep reading.

the model itself is simple

• Pick your sources.

• Pick your delivery time.

• Pick your delivery method.

• Write it down like you're briefing an assistant on their first day, because that's exactly what you're doing.

• All you need is a little bit of specificity and the willingness to stop doing something manually just because you've always done it manually.

how to actually set it up

1. Open a chat with your AI assistant.

2. Tell it exactly what to pull and from where: “Get the top three trending articles from [your sources], from the previous day.”

3. Tell it exactly when: “Every morning at 6am.”

4. Tell it exactly where to send it: email, text, Slack, wherever you actually look first.

5. Ask it to set this up as a recurring scheduled task, not a one-time run, so it fires on its own every day without you asking again.

6. Let it run for a week before you touch it. You’ll know fast if the sources are the wrong ones.

Keep reading for the copy/paste prompt

the good stuff is below

For less than a Madison Square Garden beer, you get the content I don’t share anywhere else — not on Instagram, not on the podcast, not for free.

Here’s an idea of what’s waiting for you on the other side:

Actual numbers. Revenue, author economics, etc, because financial transparency is a form of service.

Copy/Paste Prompts: The AI skills I use to run a lot of my business and life automatically.

The behind-the-scenes. How I think about building alongside my husband, integrating and staying current with AI while raising five kids. The decisions I almost got wrong. The ones I’m still figuring out.

The frameworks, not just the stories. Angel investing due diligence. How I evaluate an opportunity before I say yes. The filter I use so I stop saying yes to the wrong things.

The full archive, unlocked immediately. Every paid post from day one — the Birkin I sold to invest in a company piece, the inbox automation tutorial, the children’s book publishing breakdown, and everything that comes next.

This is the part of the conversation I save for people who are actually building something.

To my paid subscribers, thank you for being here.

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Four years later I got a message on Facebook. It was an obituary. My father’s photo was on the front of it. The message said, “I thought you would like to know.” That was it. That is how I found out my dad had passed away. Within a span of five years I lost both my brother and my father.

Saying it out loud now, it sounds incredibly traumatic. When I bring it up, I usually get the same response. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry for your loss.” But here’s the strange part. I had mourned my father long before I ever learned he was gone.

The background is uncomfortable, and I know that. When I was in high school, 9/11 happened, and my father, a Vietnam vet living with PTSD and schizophrenia, suffered a psychotic break and disappeared. He didn’t just leave quietly either. He left financial instability in his wake and a long list of things my mother had to do to separate herself and us from him, after years of verbal and physical domestic violence.

So when I say he disappeared, calling it a relief is an understatement. But it also left us stuck in a strange in-between. That feeling in the pit of your stomach that he might reappear at any moment, and you would never know when.

All of that shapes how I see life now. I move fast. I make decisions quickly. Some of that comes from a traumatic past, but some of it comes from something else too. I know how precious life is, and I know it can end at any moment. So start the business. Take the trip. Stop dwelling on what doesn’t matter, because what matters is right in front of you.

That is genuinely how I try to live. I am grateful for everything I have, and I try to live each day as fully as I can. That doesn’t mean buy everything or do everything. It means choosing how you want to spend your mornings and doing more of that. Choosing the person you want to be with and actually being with them. Choosing the hobbies and the friends who make you happy and doing those things as often as you possibly can.

Because it could all end tomorrow, and I want to live my life with no regrets.

Some of you subscribed for workout tips.

Some of you subscribed for nutrition advice.

Some of you were there for peptides and everything else I used to write about.

Thank you for that. I founded Lift Like a Mother in 2012, so you’ve been with me for over a decade, and I don’t take that for granted. If you write for a living, people reading your words is something special.

Subscribe now

Why Lift Like a Mother Had to End

Because my mentor said so and because I felt it.

Lift Like a Mother was built during a specific chapter of my life, back when I went from being a professional athlete to a gym owner to a mother of 5 to an author, and it was supposed to hold everything I was becoming. I had the smashing realization it couldn’t.

That brand was built for an athlete, and I had grown into something so much more than that.

She’s Built Different is what happened when I stopped trying to fit myself into a box that no longer worked. This isn’t a rebrand, it’s an evolution.

I want every woman who reads this to know what it feels like to have access to capital and to build whatever she wants, without giving up her marriage, her family, or her friendships in the process. I think we all deserves that. I built this space because I couldn’t find it anywhere else.

As much as I love Emma Grede, I don’t want to be a 3-hour mom or wake up at 5am. You can have f**k you money and still maintain a steady presence in your family’s lives.

If You Came From the LLAM Days

If you came from the Lift Like a Mother days, I hope you stay. And if you read this and know it isn’t for you anymore, I understand completely. I wish you well and all the beautiful things life has to offer.

What You’d Actually Be Signing Up For

If you want to know what you’d actually be signing up for, here are a few of my most read newsletters that show you exactly that:

• The “Context Document” That Fixed My Biggest Business Bottleneck

• My Email Is Handled Before I Wake Up

• Death to My Desire of Designer Goods

If this is speaking to you, this is your invitation to become a paid subscriber. What’s coming in SBD is worth being part of from the beginning, and I want build it with the people who actually want to be here. Plus, there’s a prompt below so consider this your teaser. {tease tease}

This is where the free version ends. Paid subscribers, keep reading.

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For the majority of my trips, I am a carry-on only kinda gal.

I find it comical when I see people on social media traveling with three and four suitcases. I get it, I really do, because I used to be one of those people. In 2019, we took our family of seven to Spain, France, Italy, England, and Scotland over six weeks.

We had way more luggage than we needed, and somewhere in the middle of Europe we shipped 4 suitcases back to the States because we were exhausted from moving it all around.

That trip broke something in me, in the best possible way. I decided then and there that I was going to be a carryon person. And I have been one ever since. Contrary to popular belief, you can be bougie AF and travel in a carryon.

Before you go further, the products linked are not the price sensitive and I will get commission if you click and buy. I don’t recommend garbage so do your girl a solid.

A Note for the Low-Maintenance Girls

This post is not for you. If you can travel with a backpack and a breezy attitude, I genuinely admire it and have nothing to offer you here.

This is for the women who have convinced themselves they could never be a carryon person. You can. It takes a little intention and one honest audit after your first trip but I promise, you can totally do it. And if you forget something, that means we get to go shopping. Win/win.

Why This Is Harder Than It Sounds (and Why It’s Worth It)

If you’re naturally a light packer, this is not impressive to you.

But if you are high-maintenance, have a full beauty routine, a hair situation that requires tools, and a deep emotional connection to having clothing options — distilling all of that into a carry-on and a duffel is legitimately a challenge. I know because I’ve done it, and I’ve done it for trips as long as ten days.

What I’ve found is that travel has a way of magnifying what you actually need versus what you’ve been hauling out of habit.

After every trip I do a small audit: what did I wear, what did I not touch, and what am I dragging everywhere for no reason? When I think I need five white tank tops, I probably need two. There’s almost always a washer and dryer wherever we go. Pack less, wear it again, move through the world a little lighter.

The Bag Situation

For the record, I deserve a gold f****ing star for this. 10 days, 3 different climates, 2 bags.

My carry-on: The Carry-On. I’ve used it since that Europe trip and I’m genuinely obsessed. George and I did a whole podcast episode on Away as a brand because I think the way they built that company is brilliant. It holds more than it looks like it should and the quality has held up.

My duffel: When I’m not traveling for tennis, I use this duffel as my personal item. When tennis is involved, I swap it for my tennis bag, which fits two rackets, my shoes, balls, and everything else I need to actually play wherever I land.

My cosmetic cases: I use this large case for hair, brushes, toothbrush/toothpaste. This medium case is perfect for bath and body products because I refuse to use hotel products. Plus, this small case for makeup.

On my wrist at all times: this wallet, this air pods case and this personal security device.

The Skincare Situation

My routine is only three or four steps, but skincare products are bulky and liquid rules still exist. Two things that have made this manageable:

Samples. Whenever I’m at Blue Mercury, Neiman Marcus, or any higher-end beauty counter, I ask for samples. I keep them stocked in my travel cases so it’s not even a second thought.

New product testing. Travel has become my window for trying brands I’ve been curious about. I’ll pick up a sample or travel size of something I’ve been wanting to try and use the trip as the test run. Highly recommend.

My favorite travel sized brands:

U Beauty

Augustinus Bader

Ogee

The Hair Situation

I’m half Black and half Mexican. Not doing my hair is not an option. What I pack in the hair department depends on where we’re going, but I’ll be transparent: I have packed my full-size Dyson Airwrap in a carry-on. I’ve also traveled with my cordless Dyson straightener.

For hair care products, Oribe, Innersense, and Wow all make excellent travel sizes. I keep them stocked in my travel bag so they’re ready to go. I’m not reinventing the bag before every trip — it’s already packed.

The Makeup Situation

This is actually where I’m the most minimal. I use a handful of products and I stick to travel sizes across the board: mascara, concealer, a little foundation, and a lot of tinted moisturizer. Travel sizes only. No exceptions.

Travel size foundation brush and blush brush.

Travel size mascara

The Fragrance Situation

Same approach as skincare. I collect sample sizes for the brands I use and keep them in my travel case. I love smelling good. I do not love checking a bag because I’m traveling with a full bottle of perfume. Here are some of the brands I keep in stock.

These trial size samples

These trial size fragrances (not for the price sensitive)

Also not for the price sensitive

The Clothing

I keep color palettes simple for the most part: blues, blacks, whites, and pieces that don’t wrinkle into oblivion. (the bright clothes are tennis outfits and bathing suits) The framework I use is the 5-4-3-2-1 method:

• 5 shirts

• 4 bottoms

• 3 shoes

• 2 layers

• 1 miscellaneous

It sounds restrictive until you do it and realize you’re only reaching for about 60% of what you packed anyway.

To make it concrete: I packed for ten days in Hawaii using this method, in a carry-on. We did Volcano National Park, which requires a puffer jacket because it is genuinely cold up there, and we did beach days. If that trip fits in a carry-on, most trips can.

*high-maintenance but hates waiting for luggage so travels mostly carryon

Shop my travel favorites here.

My husband and I have always been aligned on the end goal: lots of babies, millions of dollars, move to Mexico. I’m half Mexican and we haven’t made it to step three yet, but we’re working on it.

On June 18, 2009, my then-boyfriend George and I bought a brand new townhouse for $257,900. We weren’t married yet and only his name was on the deed. I was young and in love. cc. belle burden. If you haven’t read Strangers yet, go read it now.

It was our second property. I had already bought one on my own, so I had some frame of reference for what makes a rental actually work. The answer I kept landing on was location, specifically proximity to a demand anchor that does not move.

What’s a demand anchor? In this case, a military base.

This property sits close to Quantico Marine Corps Base. I grew up in military housing and understood how that market works. Military families get assigned to a base every two to three years. They need housing nearby. They are stable tenants with reliable income and very little interest in causing problems. It’s a function of their situation and it is incredibly predictable.

We lived in it for two years. Then we moved closer to the city because I was not meant to live an uncomfortable life. White Lotus anyone?

Seventeen years later, the mortgage is paid off and it produces $x,xxx a month. Pure cash flow with very little effort.

Psst — the good stuff is below

For less than a Madison Square Garden beer, you get the content I don’t share anywhere else — not on Instagram, not on the podcast, not for free.

Here’s an idea of what’s waiting for you on the other side:

The real numbers. Revenue, author economics, a look into contract details, SAFE note terms from my recent angel investment. I share actual figures because I think financial transparency is a form of service.

The full systems. The AI skills I use to run a lot of my business and life automatically. Not just concepts, the exact copy and paste prompts. The Context Document that changed how I work with AI entirely across all my business.

The behind-the-scenes. How I think about building alongside my husband, integrating and staying current with AI while raising five kids. The decisions I almost got wrong. The ones I’m still figuring out.

The frameworks, not just the stories. Angel investing due diligence. How I evaluate an opportunity before I say yes. The filter I use so I stop saying yes to the wrong things.

The full archive, unlocked immediately. Every paid post from day one — the Birkin I sold to invest in a company piece, the inbox automation tutorial, the children’s book publishing breakdown, and everything that comes next.

This is the part of the conversation I save for people who are actually building something.

To my paid subscribers, thank you for being here.

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And people went crazy.

Not because color analysis is new. It is not.

Not because we suddenly discovered beige backgrounds and serif fonts. The internet has been obsessively using both for years.

It worked because it solved a common problem:

What actually looks good on me?

That’s it. That the question.

The best content does not always teach people something wildly new. Sometimes it takes something they already care about and makes it easier, prettier, and more useful.

So here is the exact framework. If you’re just here for the prompt, it’s below. If you’re looking to create a content series, that’s also below. Go build something.

it gets better below

The content below is for paid subscribers only, and for less than two lattes at Starbucks, you can get access to:

Wealth conversations. Revenue, author economics, a look into contract details, my angel investments, etc. I share real numbers because I think financial transparency is a form of service.

Copy/Paste prompt. The AI skills I use to run a lot of my business and life automatically.

BTS. How I think about building alongside my husband, integrating and staying current with AI while raising five kids. The decisions I almost got wrong. The ones I’m still figuring out.

The woo and the logic. How I evaluate opportunities before I say yes because I want to live in alignment with my human design.

The full archive, unlocked immediately. Every paid post from day one — the Birkin I sold to invest in a company piece, the inbox automation tutorial, how much I’ve made publishing books, and everything that comes next.

To my paid subscribers, thank you for being here.

Read more

I wish I had the kind of personality where I could ignore the ever-growing pile of promotional emails, but that is just not me. I am a very solution-oriented person. If I see a problem, I will figure out how to fix it.

Emails are not going anywhere. Ever.

School emails, work emails, evidence of my 2 glasses of wine and late-night scrolling where I was influenced into buying those really cute sandals. All sitting, staring, in my inbox. And as unrealistic as it sounds, a zero inbox is always my goal—a goal now made achievable by AI rather than me.

Zero inbox means exactly what it says. No unread emails. Every thread sorted, handled, or cleared. And at the end of the day, nothing is sitting there waiting.

Before my new bestie came around, yes Claude, the time it took to get to a zero inbox wasn’t math-ing. Every morning I was doing it myself, getting annoyed, missing school emails, and ultimately saying “fuck it” and moving on to something else. It was costing me time and effort that I do not have to give.

So I automated it.

Meet my friend, Claude Cowork

Cowork is a feature inside Claude that runs on your desktop and automates tasks on a schedule. Think of it as the difference between asking Claude something and having Claude just handle it without you asking at all.

You set up a task once, tell it when to run, and it executes automatically in the background. No prompting, no opening an app, no remembering to do it. I am three months in and it has genuinely changed how I operate.

A few things worth knowing before you set this up. Cowork is desktop only — there is no mobile access, so this is not something you manage from your phone. It also requires your computer to be awake when the task is scheduled to run. If your laptop is closed and asleep at 6:30am, it runs when you wake it up.

I keep mine plugged in overnight so it never misses. That is the one real limitation, and honestly it is a small trade-off for what it does.

How to get Cowork:

1. Go to claude.com/download

2. Download the Claude Desktop app for your operating system — Mac or Windows

3. Open the installer and follow the prompts to install

4. Launch Claude Desktop and sign in with your existing Claude account

5. Look for the mode selector at the top of the app — you will see Chat, Cowork, and Code tabs

6. Click Cowork to switch into task mode

Once you have cowork on your desktop, you are ready to run!

What runs in my inbox every single morning

Every morning at 6:30am, four steps run automatically — in sequence, unattended — before I ever open Gmail.

Step 1: Trash promotional emails. Claude searches for anything matching promotions or marketing labels received in the last 24 hours and moves it all to trash. No confirmation step. It just runs.

Step 2: Triage the inbox. Claude fetches every unread email from the last 24 hours. For each one it identifies the sender and subject, whether it requires a reply or action, and urgency — high, normal, or low. It produces a summary grouped by urgency. For anything high-urgency, it includes a one-sentence suggested action.

Step 3: Today’s calendar events and action items. Claude pulls every event from Google Calendar for the day. For each event it notes the time, title, and any prep or action items implied by the meeting — documents to review, people to brief, decisions to make.

Step 4: Send the briefing. Claude compiles everything and sends it as a formatted email to my inbox via Zapier. Subject line: 📋 Morning Briefing — [Day of week], [Month Day].

Here is what the output looked like on a real morning this week:

Four steps, fully automated so I don’t have to think about it.

This is one of several scheduled tasks I have running in Cowork every week. The copy/paste prompts and full skill files for all four are below.

Psst — the good stuff is below

For less than a Madison Square Garden beer, you get the content I don’t share anywhere else — not on Instagram, not on the podcast, not for free.

Here’s an idea of what’s waiting for you on the other side:

The real numbers. Revenue, author economics, a look into contract details, SAFE note terms from my recent angel investment. I share actual figures because I think financial transparency is a form of service.

The full systems. The AI skills I use to run a lot of my business and life automatically. Not just concepts, the exact copy and paste prompts. The Context Document that changed how I work with AI entirely across all my business.

The behind-the-scenes. How I think about building alongside my husband, integrating and staying current with AI while raising five kids. The decisions I almost got wrong. The ones I’m still figuring out.

The frameworks, not just the stories. Angel investing due diligence. How I evaluate an opportunity before I say yes. The filter I use so I stop saying yes to the wrong things.

The full archive, unlocked immediately. Every paid post from day one — the Birkin I sold to invest in a company piece, the inbox automation tutorial, the children’s book publishing breakdown, and everything that comes next.

This is the part of the conversation I save for people who are actually building something.

To my paid subscribers, thank you for being here.

Read more

The book writing process is a journey, one that tested me in every capacity, on more levels than I expected. And the most surprising realization is that the writing and publishing parts are just the beginning. Once you deliver the finished product, the real work is getting it out into the world.

I’ve written two books and have had the privilege of experiencing two pub dates! The book launch events, the book cakes, the hype, the media hits, all the fun things that come with publishing a book.

However, there is one question people innocently ask and it feels like picking a scab that won’t heal. The question is akin to being 9 months pregnant and family members texting, have you had the baby yet?

“So how is the book launch going?”

The automatic, knee-jerk response is, “It’s going great.”

But I want to tell you the full story, the actual truth. Not the highlight reel version. Not the “I manifested a New York Times Best Seller” version. The painstakingly, uncomfortable, save you time, money, and effort version.

This version comes complete with the light contract details, invoice amounts, advance numbers, sales reports, and an ending that will make you go oh!

Now why would I do this, you ask?

Because a lot of people I know have expressed to me their undying desire to write a children’s book. They’ve shared titles, illustrations, and aspirations and while I love the ambition, you should know the truth, especially in children’s publishing. Knowledge is power and we don’t gate-keep on this side of the internet. So buckle up and upgrade to the paid version below. And if you want to support my book, grab your copy below.

Grab Your Copy

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Here’s the part that gets me: he sold his Lamborghini, roughly $150,000, because he wanted an Electric Hummer instead so he could haul around his boys and their baseball gear. Totally worth the unsolicited lecture, which leads me to my next point…

If I were a man, would anyone bat an eye?

I’m not sure what it is about a woman being open about money that makes people so uncomfortable, but whatever it is, it’s palpable. You can feel it the second a woman mentions a number. A salary, a purchase, a profit. Suddenly everyone has an opinion about her character.

I get it from both sides constantly. Someone will see a post about a trip, a car, a closing, and the responses split right down the middle. One camp says they're inspired. The other camp says I'm being ostentatious. Same content, same caption, completely different read depending on who's looking at it and what they need to believe about money to feel okay about their own situation.

Men talk about money all the time. And when they’re not talking about money, they’re talking about power, strategy, or their latest plan to make more money.

Nobody tells a man that his content says he’s trying too hard when he posts about a new business venture or a potential IPO. Nobody tells him “wealth whispers.” We just call it ambition and move on.

We teach men to invest and we teach women to clip coupons. One creates wealth. The other tells you survival is good enough.

It’s infuriating, and it’s also incredibly effective at keeping women small, because a woman who’s quietly clipping coupons isn’t asking why she only has access to the coupon conversation in the first place.

Money myths we tell women

Myth: Women are bad at math and investing.

The truth: women are smart and capable, but we have to stop being embarrassed to ask questions about the things we don’t understand. Especially now, with AI and Reddit ( looking at you Wall Street Bets), there is no limit to access of information. You don’t need a finance degree. You need 30 minutes and the willingness to feel a little dumb while you learn.

Myth: Budgeting requires cutting out your matcha.

The truth: For the record, I hate matcha, but I’m here to tell you that your matcha habit is not keeping you from accumulating wealth. This advice survives because it’s small, personal, and doesn’t require anyone to look at the actual structural stuff: income, debt, assets, what you’re being paid versus what you’re worth. Skipping a coffee was never going to fix that.

Myth: Financial planning is only for the wealthy.

The truth: I’ve had a financial plan since I was 18. I bought my first investment property at 19, lived in it while I gutted it, and sold it four years later for a profit, after the tax implications cleared. My mother went through financial ruin with my father, so she made sure I would never experience the same. For that, I will always be grateful, and it’s exactly why I refuse to stay quiet about this stuff now.

If you don’t like something about your life, you have two choices. Complain about it while waiting for someone to rescue you, or set a plan, create a deadline, and make the changes happen yourself.

Women that Walk the Walk

I am able to fully step into this next phase of my life because other women are paving the way. They’re posting boldly, they’re sharing success stories, and they’re lifting up other women in the process while dealing with the trolls that are trying to tear them down.

Tori Dunlap, Rachel Rodgers, and Vivian Tu have all built platforms on exactly this, normalizing women talking about money out loud, with numbers attached. Worth following if you want more of this energy in your feed.

The Era of the $1M Launch

We are living through a moment where women are putting real numbers on the internet, and it’s making people very uncomfortable.

Dr. Nici Sweaney, who built @ai_herway went from six figures to seven figures within twenty-two months, and is now tracking past two million dollars a year with no full-time employees and a four-day work week. She built her business with an AI operating system, not by grinding harder, and she’s been completely transparent about the numbers along the way.

Then there's Jessi Jean, who went from zero to 400K followers in about five months and ran a launch she said pulled in $1.2 million from a $297 product in under two weeks. Yap challenge anyone? The breakdowns of her launch focused on relatability and community, on her documenting her journey and becoming the case study rather than positioning herself as the expert with it all figured out.

Here’s what I want you to pay close attention to. Both of these women got picked apart the second they listed their revenue. They didn’t get bullied in comment threads because their strategy was bad, they got bullied because the numbers were loud, and loud numbers from a woman trigger something in people that a loud number from a man rarely does.

And yet, they both kept posting their numbers anyway.

That’s what excites me the most. Not the launch metrics, even though those are worth studying too. The fact that they didn’t quietly take the win and disappear from public view. They stayed loud, on purpose, because the loudness is the point. Every time a woman posts a real number and doesn’t flinch, it chips away at the idea that we’re supposed to be quiet about money.

Would I still talk about money if I hadn’t reached a certain level of success?

I became a millionaire at 29 and it took me ten years to get comfortable with saying that publicly. So the answer to that question is maybe. My husband and I have always had open conversations about finances and I’ve always had this mindset that I would be rich one day.

However, I want other women to start talking about it before they're comfortable, because comfortable never truly comes. There's always a next level that makes the current number feel small. If you wait until you feel "successful enough" to talk about money, you'll wait forever.

Ostentatious, or living my reality?

I make a conscious effort to give my children a realistic example of a life well lived. We have nice things, we travel well, we give back and we’re not assholes.

And here’s the part that people don’t see. If you’re close to the family, like really close, you’ll know we’ve bought houses, picked up bills, paid for event tickets, hotel rooms, plane rides, vacations, and more experiences than I can count, for the people I love. I’m not saying this for a pat on the back, I’m saying this because the reality of having money means that I get to share it with those I care about, and that’s the whole point of building it in the first place.

And if it still grind your gears, my advice is to get over it.

At the end of the day, if someone’s content bothers you, look away. Unfollow. Mute it. But stop trying to bring other people down to your level, because that’s never been about classiness. It’s about discomfort with someone else’s growth, and that’s not my responsibility to manage.

I Didn’t Grow Up with Money

I often wonder where my sense of ability came from. It’s not like I grew up with money but somewhere in my subconscious, there is this feeling that I could have anything I wanted if I worked hard enough. Call it delusion, call it manifestation, call it God, but there have been many instances in my life where everything appears right when I need it.

And then I got the Bag

The year was 2020 and after playing the game for a few years, my husband bought me my first Birkin. It was a Christmas present that was supposed to represent something I have wanted for years. Little did I know at the time that this bag was given to me right around the time I had my second miscarriage. 2020 was a real shit year.

The bag always carried that scar and even though I tried to use mental mind tricks that it wasn’t “her” fault that I miscarried, I couldn’t shake the connection. So while I love the idea that I was able to get my hands on my childhood dream bag, I never really used it. It just kind of sat on the shelf and I have strong rules about that.

If you haven’t touched it in a year, let it go

I come from a military family which means we moved around a lot. Necessity breeds adaptations in the sense that when you’re moving every 3 to 5 years, it’s hard to hold onto material items, just in case you may need it one day. My mom taught me that if you haven’t used an item in one year, it’s time to let it go.

So this past year, I consigned my first Birkin and made a good chunk of change. I put those funds aside, just waiting for the next move to make itself apparent. That move appeared in the form of a friend’s intro to an entrepreneur and a company that was looking for an investor and potentially a board member. Meetings were had, conversations ensued, numbers were crunched and deals were made.

I’m Done Playing the Game

The last two bags I purchased were initially borrowed from Virvelle. I had every intention of sending them back but you know how that goes. The in-store Hermes shopping experience is dead to me.

There are a handful of brands that make it their mission to feel exclusive and elusive. You have to play the game in order to be a part of the club, to have the luxury of spending $20,000 on a purse or $60,000 on a watch—looking at you AP.

My husband recently had an experience where he went to purchase a necklace for my birthday. He walked into Van Cleef & Arpels after coming from his weekly pickleball game and was seemingly dismissed. Maybe they were having a bad day, or maybe they were judgy assholes. We’ll never know. He called the store in Aspen and had my necklace shipped.

At the end of the day people are people. If you are judging anybody based on what they wear, I would implore you to think twice. A lot of my wealthiest friends do not look the part nor do they act the part. They live the part.

The Numbers and the Deal are Below

I am an open book so if you are considering angel investing, raising capital or just learning about the process, upgrade to read more.

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I had an elevator when I lived in Japan but that was because we lived in military housing. But having one in 👏 your👏 house👏? I had no frame of reference for that nor did I know that I wanted to be rich. And then I did.

My Favorite On-Screen Family

I grew up watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and the Banks family was my blueprint for what being rich looked like in practice. A powerful dad, a doting wife, a handful of kids and Geoffrey. The house was aspirational, the lifestyle was inspirational and Hilary? She needs no words.

The way they moved through the world like money was just the air they breathed. I was in middle school, absorbing all of it, filing it somewhere in the back of my brain as the picture of what "making it" looked like. That was my baseline.

Wealth classes Explained

Before I go any further, it helps to understand how wealth classes are actually categorized. I didn’t know this until I found myself in one after our first acquisition in 2016. Financial institutions and researchers generally define wealth into four tiers.

What I find really interesting is that the luxury goods industry is largely built on selling the idea of the top two tiers to people in the bottom two.

And it works, brilliantly, because most people have no idea where they actually stand or what those tiers actually require.

How I Actually Decide Whether to Buy Something

I have always had an affinity for beautiful things—art, movement, fashion. That affinity has been with me since I was young and I don’t expect it to change. I love fashion week, museums, art shows and concerts. But I’ve learned that I can appreciate things and not need to own them.

I have also realized that I am not immune to influence. Certain material goods will test my ability to stay true to my values. When that happens, I use this calculation before any significant discretionary purchase: what percentage of my net worth is this item?

Here's how it works in practice. If your net worth is $1,000,000 and you want to buy a $10,000 bag, that purchase represents 1% of your net worth. Most financial advisors recommend keeping any single discretionary purchase under 1% of your net worth. I stay inside those boundaries.

That reframe changed everything for me.

Because suddenly a $10,000 bag isn’t just a bag. It’s a percentage. It’s a data point in a larger picture. And when you start seeing it that way, you start asking a different question: is this the best use of that percentage, or is there something I actually want more?

For me, the answer started being “I want to put that money elsewhere.”

The Slow Shift

Somewhere in my mid-20s, I picked up a belief that was perpetuated widely across social media. It said that in order to be taken seriously, to be a “girl boss”, you have to look the part. And while I still I believe this ideal, the caveat doing the most damage, was that it had to be designer. The bag. The shoes. The sunglasses with the logo large enough to read from across a restaurant. I’m embarrassed to admit , I wore those things like badges of honor. Like proof of something.

And the more I spent on them, the less I wanted them.

That should have told me everything about what I really value.

What I want to spend money on now looks a little different

I invested in a capsule wardrobe with high quality pieces, ones that last forever and go with everything. I spend money on travel, on the kind of trips where my kids are standing somewhere they've never stood before, looking at something that changes their frame of reference permanently.

I spend money on tennis lessons and golf rounds and anything that gets us outside and moving. I invest in companies I believe in. I distribute grants for women who are trying to build something and need someone in their corner. I spend money on the arts, dance, sports, music and institutions that make the world more interesting to live in.

None of those things photograph particularly well and none of them have a logo.

The Reframe

If a bag genuinely brings you joy, if you have wanted it for years and buying it feels like a real celebration of something real, I love that for you. Truly.

What concerns me is something different.

It’s the woman buying a $3,000 bag on a credit card she can’t pay off, because her feed has convinced her that’s what a successful woman looks like. It’s the couple stretching their finances to stay in a hotel that photographs well rather than one they can actually afford. It’s the quiet, relentless pressure to perform a version of wealth you haven’t built yet, for an audience that isn’t paying your bills.

We are spending money we don’t have, on things we don’t want, to impress people we don’t know, and in some cases genuinely don’t like.

At what point did the signal we’re trying to send become more important than the thing it is supposed to represent?

Rich and Anonymous

There is a well-documented phenomenon that says family wealth disappears by the third generation. The first generation builds it. The second generation maintains it. The third generation spends it. My belief is that the collapse happens because subsequent generations inherit the lifestyle without the hunger that created it — raised with no grit, endless opportunity and TikTok. I don’t blame them because we live in a culture that applauds the performance of wealth over the work it takes to actually build it.

Naval Ravikant said it best: “You want to be rich and anonymous, not poor and famous.”

The people with real, lasting, generational wealth are almost never the ones draped in visible luxury. They are driving Ford F150s and playing tennis on a Thursday at 1pm. Maybe I’m writing this for my kids. It was never about the material items. It was about wanting to be seen a certain way by people whose opinions, if I'm honest, never actually mattered to me. That's the part nobody talks about, the real why behind it.

So no, I don’t want the bag, I want the company, I want the growth, I want the legacy, and I want to set an example that conspicuous consumption is so 2016.

Then that chapter closed. The blog went quiet, the brand evolved, and the affiliate income wound down with it.

Fast forward to October 2025. ShopMy kept coming up on social media — from founders, from women in my network, from people whose instincts I trust. I was skeptical but curious. So I joined, set up my shop, and decided to treat it like what it was: an experiment. Low lift. Low expectation. Open mind.

I didn’t build a strategy around it. I linked things I was already talking about and highlighted brands I would have highlighted anyways.

Here’s what happened and the actual numbers to go along with it.

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I was rewriting AI output more than I was writing anything myself. You know the drill. Write a prompt, get something generic, rewrite it, prompt again, get closer, rewrite it again. Twenty minutes for something that should have taken two.

And it has nothing to do with the platforms, it’s because the LLM never went through a warming up period. Every new conversation started from zero — no voice, no context, no understanding of what I’d never say.

In the early adoption days, I kept thinking the answer was a better prompt. It wasn’t.

The answer was a briefing context document.

This is what Grok did with my brand when I gave it no context. Faith-driven. Scripture tie-ins. "Rooted in God's timing." I have never once mentioned faith in my content.

---

What a context document actually is

It’s a single document you fill out once — about you, your brand, your audience, your voice — and paste at the top of any AI conversation before you ask for anything.

Think of it as a briefing document for a new team member who reads at superhuman speed. You tell them who you are, who you serve, how you talk, what you believe, and what your standing rules are. Then they write from that instead of guessing.

The result: better output on the first pass. Less editing. Fewer follow-up prompts. More time back.

This works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok — any of them.

What goes in it

Seven sections. None of them complicated.

Who you are. Your audience. Your voice — including the words you’d never use and a sample of your actual writing. Your values and the beliefs you push back on. Where you show up and what each platform needs. Your standing rules for every AI session. And a catch-all for everything that doesn’t fit a category.

The sample writing section alone will change what your AI produces. Give it a paragraph of your real writing — a newsletter intro, an IG caption, a podcast opener — and watch what happens.

Same AI. Same prompt. After context. That's my actual voice, my actual content pillars, my actual phrases. First pass.

Here is yours

I built one for others to use.

It’s web-based, so nothing to download or install. Open it in your browser, fill it in, and it saves automatically every time you type. Come back and add more whenever your brand evolves. When you’re ready, one button copies your entire context document to your clipboard — formatted and ready to paste into any AI conversation.

👉 Access your She’s Built Different LLM Context Document here

Fill it out once. Use it forever.

If you’ve been fighting your AI to sound like you, this is why. And now you have the fix.

Go fill it out.

— Alicia

But before we get into the rest of my guardrails: you have undoubtedly been hearing “you should be using AI” across every industry. But who, what, where, when, and why? I’m going to simplify your first three steps and tell you exactly what I lean on AI for. When they say AI is taking jobs, this is what they mean.

AI Rules I Live By

ChatGPT (OpenAI) first hit the scene at the end of 2022 and forever changed the landscape of how we view day-to-day business operations. Second was Claude, followed closely by Gemini and Grok…. then everyone else. I, personally, refer to the big guys as the Core4 of Large Language Models (LLMs).

So how do we lean on these LLMs without completely disengaging from original thought?

Rule number 1

I, Alicia McKenzie, never, ever, ever, EVER —do you get the point—let these LLMs do my first draft. The idea, the vision, the rough draft all comes from me. And I implore you to adopt the same rule.

Rule number 2

Be aware of each LLM’s weakness, understand their strengths, and then fact check them against each other. Some have been known to hallucinate information.

Rule number 3

Stay curious and open to change because the landscape it moving quicker than any of us can keep up with. And never feed it private financial data.

Now, how are we going to lighten your load?

Step 1: Name Your Bottleneck

If you could name one thing that is slowing you down in your startup, nonprofit, personal brand, etc, give it a name. If you can’t name a problem, you don’t know what you’re trying to fix. "I need more time,” is not an acceptable answer.

In everything I’ve seen — in my own business and in the people I’ve interacted and worked with — the bottleneck is usually the same. It’s never strategy, it’s almost never vision and very rarely is it talent, ideas or desire.

The bottleneck is most oftentimes delegation.

More specifically, it’s the inability to efficiently hand off the tasks that don’t really need your control but you continue doing them because it’s easier than explaining or documenting what needs to be done. That friction is the bottleneck.

That and maybe your undiagnosed, type-A control freak (points finger to self).

This bottleneck compounds, day after day, creating a gap. A gap between ideation and finished product. You know what has to be done, the idea is real, the need is there, the market is untapped, and then—it just sits.

That line between idea and the output — that is where most people lose the game.

Here’s how I fixed it.

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