Week 01, 2024 - Diary of a Revenue Engineer
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
What I Thought…
Welcome to week one of what I hope will be a 52 week series (unless something goes very much awry). It’s aimed at diarising and recording the weekly actions which help drive revenue for key businesses, and focuses on our work with Early stage start-ups (currently mostly around the seed / angel level) and much larger scale-ups (one of which was recently acquired).
We’ll discuss not only the function, form and fever which goes into this work, but also which habits are driving an increases in productivity and output.
At it’s core, it’s a blog to help us maintain flow and reflect on our wins and losses, but we intend it to be so much more than that.
We want to share the habits and behaviours which have increased productivity by 550% over the last two and a half years. We’ll share the learnings and the changes to lifestyle and routine which drive focus and empower collaboration.
We’ll share, quite openly, that through all our laborious efforts over the past few decades, the main thing we’ve learned is…
We
Know
Nothing
So, strap in and learn with us. 2024 is the year we move mountains.
What I learned…
My learning apps and subscriptions now extend to Blinklist, Spotify Podcasts and now Masterclass. I’m cramming in learning wherever I can. A quick drive? Perfect - Listen to a book summary on Blinklist then write up what I remember when I arrive. Long drive? Excellent, let’s dive into some of the high quality long form podcasts on Spotify. Treadmill or bike? Let’s rock out the Masterclass.
Here are some direct recommendations from the three:
Blinklist - It’s a great service and I use it a lot. You can see my “Recommended Progression” space here if you like. The most impactful one I went through this week was “3 Minute Rule” which has completely changed my pitch.
Spotify - I don’t think I need to pitch this service (Judging from the significant rise in stock share) but the long form podcasts are fantastic. Yes, I do listen to some Joe Rogan podcasts, you should too, I think he’s one of the most capable interviewers of our generation. This week, however, my attention was caught by “Artificial: The Open AI Story” by the Wall Street Journal podcast. Amazing, very compelling, and a entrepreneur’s dream.
Masterclass - I was moved to tears on a bike at the gym this week, which really was a first to me. The culprit? Well if it wasn’t that wiley old Pharrell Williams and his motley crew of erudite and wondrous people. Waking Up to Empathy was powerful, moving and easy to adopt into our lives. A big thankyou to everyone who put it together.
What I built…
Well we lost a couple of days to some holidays around the New Year (which I spent in bed, ill with the rest of my family and slept soundly from about 8pm… which I actually loved). This week I:
Helped the coaching and onboarding of a very successful SDR as he progressed to his first AE role. I can’t speak highly enough for “Hire from within” and what it does for culture, onboarding and ramp. This particular SDR has been crushing it consistently and is primed to crush it, great to see and so thankful for their efforts.
Started some major Revenue Engineering for a new client. I suppose it used to be called Growth Hacking, but that’s seems so old school now. We’re finding avenues to massively scale the user growth and economics, things looking good right now.
Custom GPT - I built an AI CustomGPT to help me with my plans, milestones and goals for this year. It also helped me launch the company and set some major progression goals in place too. I don’t think I’ll use it to write these blogs, but I certainly love the image generation and info dumps. It got me thinking… prompts isn’t the best word for how you work with AI… I get why, but it suggests there’s a script you’re working on. I feel like we can already get more out of it by leveraging it for better collaboration. More on that in due course.
How I lived longer…
As I mentioned, My CustomGPT has helped with some major milestones and planning this year. I took some time to understand the makeup of my body, to see doctors and get basic things solved. The big wins this week came from having line of sight on what I think will be the most pivotal year of my life yet.
Mushroom Powder - I think the trend is well and truly here, or maybe I’m just in the echo chamber of a sub culture. Either way, I spent £100 on mushroom powder, capsules and I’m feeling very smug about it. My personal powder blend?
Turkey Tail - Helps immunity among many things
Lion’s Main - Helps blood pressure and neuroplasticity
Chaga - Helps you live forever
Black Fungus - Careful with this one, flavour can be a bit strong, I no longer put this powder in coffee. Big anti-inflammatory powers here.
I recommend the Shroom Shop, nothing but great product and stellar service for me so far.
Wholistic Health - Working with my CustomGPT has been great fun… The milestones and schedule alone has been great to extract more from my day. I will say that creating the fitness schedule has been a huge boon. I’m now:
HIIT - Every Monday and Friday for fat loss and overall health.
Endurance - Every Tuesday and Thursday for fat loss, and that sweet Zone 2 hit.
Hypertrophy - Wednesday to help maintain efficient muscle mass.
How I stayed happier…
I made a couple of purchases to help make my life a little easier and take more pride in my mental health:
Gratitude Journal - This, I think, has had the biggest impact on my overall outlook on life and mindset overall. Starting your day by making-real your feelings and thoughts of gratitude is incredibly powerful.
Therapy - I reached back out to a great therapist I worked with years ago and I’ve found it very rewarding. I honestly see this as personal training for the mind and I can’t recommend it enough. I’m cutting the fat and building emotional muscle in the right places. Most of the time, I really don’t want to do it. But that’s good too. If you haven’t or don’t see a therapist. Give it a go, I promise you it can be very beneficial.
Final Thoughts…
We’ve kicked off the year of a year I couldn’t be more excited about. AI is here, a mad entrepreneur is looking to build a colony on mars, robots are delivering food to tables and shopping to doors, cars and trucks can run on electricity and Nuclear Fission is more realistic and scalable offerings than ever before, with Fusion being considered.
We are living in the most exciting time to ever be alive. I appreciate that there are terrors and horrors in the world too. But there is also great opportunity and a clear line of sight on science fiction becoming our reality.
I’ll raise a cup of mushroom tea and thank a CustomGPT, we’re living an impossible future right now.
Let’s embrace it.
