I stopped trying to start at the top

The headline

The path to the most senior person in the room runs through the work, not around it.

Last week I owed an email to a senior leader, and I called my delay nerves. The day I published that, I worked out it was also bad sequencing. The right first move was not a cold note to the top. It was the people doing the work underneath, where I am already helping. So I made that call instead. It went well, and it should turn into an introduction to the technology leader who owns the implementation. The senior conversation gets earned by doing that work well, not by opening with it.

Shipped

• JCG Weekly has a home. Issue 1 went up on Monday under Content on the site, with an archive and a publishing script, so every issue after it is one command.
• The firm is on LinkedIn properly. A company page, a profile that says what I do instead of a job title, matching covers, and link previews that finally show a real card instead of a bare URL. Small things, and the first things a buyer checks after reading an email from me.
• The firm has a legal home. I reinstated an existing company I had let lapse instead of forming a new one, which saved a setup fee and some paperwork. The rename is filed as soon as the state clears the reinstatement.
• Penny, written down. A friend asked how to build their own version of the agent that keeps my books, so I am writing the guide. The first draft is done. The routine that reads my receipts also moved into an environment with no network access.  I'll publish the pattern once I get it past MVP, definitely before the due date of Oct 15th.

Started

• A pricing experiment. I offered a small business owner I already know a working session on how his business runs, and if it turns up something real, an outcome based pricing model. Larger companies buy fixed phases. Small businesses may want to pay for outcomes. One experiment will tell me more than another month of modeling.
• A map of my week. Hours bucketed by what they are for, with client work capped at two days a week. I want to look back on a Sunday and know the important things got done.

Did not move

• Funnel, second week running. Built, deployed, and still unworked. Last week I wrote that a tool I do not use is a demo. It is still a demo.
• The follow-up call with two builders I promised to get on the calendar before the month ends. It is not scheduled, but options are out for next week.
• The rename, waiting on the state. Not mine to rush.

Stopped

• Trying to start at the top. See the headline.

What I learned

1. Sequencing beats courage. Some of what I labeled nerves last week was my gut telling me the order was wrong.
2. I need my own advice. A friend is stuck on the same thing I am: actually reaching out to customers. Talking it through, the answer was obvious for both of us. Pick two or three you would not mind never hearing back from, and send the note. Try the model, test the pattern.  I sent one on Monday. That is a start, not a habit.
3. Writing a guide for someone else is a product test. Explaining Penny forced me to separate the pattern from my particular tools. The pattern will outlast the tools, and it is the part worth sharing.
4. A file name is a cache key. LinkedIn would not show my new cover until the file had a new name. Every system has somewhere it is quietly remembering the old version.  There's something philosophical about that above and beyond a LinkedIn graphic.

Next week

Get the builders' call on the calendar by Tuesday. Two more low-stakes outreach notes. File the rename when the state clears it. Open Funnel and work it, or say plainly that it is on hold.

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