Copy My Homework: Latest Finds and Favorite Tools

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome to Coffee with Kim. I'm Kim Kalp and every week you and I sit down with fascinating, smart and talented leaders, CEOs and founders so that we can copy their homework. If someone knows how to do something really well, I want to know what it is and exactly how they're doing it. Get ready for aha moments, gems of wisdom and little known tips and tricks that we can steal and use use in our own lives. If you want to join these conversations and ask these experts your own questions, no point in just me having all the fun. Join us on Wednesdays at 1pm Eastern live over on um, LinkedIn.

Speaker B: Hey friend. Happy Wednesday. I hope you are having a beautiful start

Speaker A: to the week. I know here in

Speaker B: Austin, Texas, we are fully into fall weather and I'm absolutely loving it. Finally get to wear some long sleeves. So I'm pretty stoked about that. Hopefully wherever you are, the weather is good, you're sinking into the things that you want to do as we get into the fall cozy season. And so because of that, I feel like now is the time of year where I am sort of constantly stealing, uh, homework and things from people they're loving. Whether it's TV

Speaker A: shows

Speaker B: or

Speaker A: how are you prepping for the

Speaker B: holidays or what are you using for that or how can I do this better? And so I'm really excited for us to do a little bit of that together. If you are new here, welcome. Um, I like to think we're a super fun bunch here, but you can probably tell that today is a little bit different. Normally we come on and we talk to other people. Today is going to be a little bit different because it's just us, uh, at the table. We're not going to have a guest coming on in, so it's just gonna be me and Jeff and Shelby and Jim and Aman and Arnon. It just, it's gonna be a little party over here and so we are going to share all the things. I hope you brought a few things that you have been loving lately. I know I brought a few things that I have been loving lately in hopes that by swapping and sharing recommendations and things that we love, we can all get better together. I'm coming in from Austin. We have a little bit of New Jersey. We have a little bit of New York. We have a little bit of Paris, we have a little bit of Tennessee. Uh, we just, we have a little bit of everything today. So I'm pretty excited that I feel like across the board we all made it. I know it was Hard to get here today. You were super busy, you had a lot of stuff going on, but you made time for yourself. You made time for community. And for that I really want to say thank you as, uh, we start to get in to all things holiday, all things, you know, travel, and just getting into the last 90 days of the year, which I know, uh, it's hard to believe, but we are, I don't even want to say the last 60 days of the year, but we are dangerously close to the last 60 days of the year. So definitely the last 90 days of the year. I wanted to say I have some strong book recommendations that as you find yourself with maybe a little bit of downtime come the holiday season or come the end of the year that hopefully you will consider picking up, uh, one of these finds. Okay, so the first find. And by the way, if you have book recommendations, please share them. Don't, don't leave all the sharing for me. I, I would love to know

Speaker A: what you're reading. And before anybody even asks, yes, if you are listening to something in your ears, whether that is audible, whether that is Libby, whatever it is, if you are listening to an audio book of any kind, that counts as reading, that counts, uh, as a book recommendation. So if you have

Speaker B: listened to something and you had a great time listening to it and you really enjoyed it, I hope that, that you will share it here with us today. Okay, so first and foremost, new book by Vanessa Van Edwards. So good. I'm, um, I'm only. I'm not all the way done with it yet, but it's called Conversation. This follows two of her other books, the first one being Captivate, the second one being Cues. If you don't already know about Vanessa one, you should. She's a great follow on here on LinkedIn or on Instagram or TikTok or any other social media platform that you find yourself on. You can always find her at Vanessa Van Edwards or at, uh, Science of People. What I love about Vanessa's books is they take kind of very esoteric, sciencey type findings and research and turn it into something palpable, something that you can actually take action on. And so what I love so much about this Conversation book is it is all about. It says how to connect with anyone and make every interaction count. And the reason that I have been recommending this book now more than ever to people. And by the way, you can read it in hard copy form or you can listen to it. It's a great listen. I have been really, uh, like hammering into this idea that our live events and interactions with people make a huge difference because I think as ah, the world continues to get taken over by AI, as we continue to have kind of these like fake AI people on our Instagram feeds, on our LinkedIn feeds, quite frankly on, on our TikTok feeds, it's going to be hard to know what's real and what's not. And in some cases it's already hard to tell what's real and what's not. So I think live events and really that face to face interaction is going to become more important than ever before. So I think books like this that really help you connect in person with other humans are going to become extremely important in the age of AI. I think that ironically, the more AI is capable of, the more people skills or social skills are going to be what actually helps you stand out. Because everybody's going to be able to get behind a Claude or a ChatGPT or a Gemini or a cowork and say make this resume better or make this website copy tighter or make this sales pitch more aggressive. That's not going to be a, ah, claim to fame anymore. Everybody's going to be able to do that. But what everybody's not going to be able to do is, you know, have a firm handshake, be able to look the boss in the eye, ask for that promotion, go into the sales pitch in person, not you know, over a zoom or not, you know, in an email deck. So I think that, you know, and Jeff I think is like right there with me. You know, live events I think are going to become really more important than ever as ah, we kind of step into more of an AI first world world because it's going to be at these live events that you can really not only trust what you're seeing and trust what you're learning, but you're actually seeing the humans that you are learning from. I think as the AI gets more and more advanced, yeah, they're going to be able to have, you know, Barack Obama singing lullaby songs, you know, and, and the AI is going to be so realistic you're going to go, did he start a new career as a children's singer? You know, it's going to be really hard to tell what's real. So I actually think live events, I'm really bullish on live events because I think that is going to be the way to prove like yes, this person is really teaching this or uh, yes, this person, you know, really is giving this advice. And so I think that that's going to be more important as we step into 2027 now more than ever. So if you are looking for a read while you walk around the block or maybe you're just taking a break from podcasts for a hot second, Highly, highly recommend, uh, Vanessa Van Edwards book conversation. It's just such a great read, instantly actionable stuff that you can take from it right away. Uh, and it seems like we already have some people that are fans. Uh, I took three LinkedIn learning courses by Vanessa Van Edwards. Yes. So you might not know that she also has three books in addition to those three LinkedIn learning courses. Um, the first two books have been out for a while, but this is a new one. It just came out two weeks ago now. So highly, highly recommend. If you haven't already checked it out, definitely give it a check out. Uh, I'd love to know, by the way, if you have any book recommendations. So if you've been noodling on a book or listening, uh, to a book, drop it, drop it in the chat. I'd love to know, I'd love to know what you're listening to. Sort of along that same lines. As I was thinking about, you know, 2027, I'm always kind of like, well, trying to, as much as I can anyway, trying to kind of future past where things are going, you know, future proofing myself, future proofing my business. Um, one thing that I'm always thinking about and always really encouraging my friends in corporate to think about as well. I have a couple friends who you know are over at Disney where they've been having a lot of layoffs or they're over at Microsoft where they've been doing a lot of layoffs. You know, even those big blue chip fortune 500 companies, uh, are not safe from the layoffs that have been happening. So um, the, the second book that I brought for all of us to maybe just check out is my uh, dear friend Cody's book, uh, also just came out, uh, own or Be Owned. And it's all about continuing to build a business, how you can build a business around yourself, what you are great at as a boss, things that maybe you're not so great at as a boss and how you can really, whether you're starting a side hustle or whether you are full flown entrepreneur in the business day in, day out. I think there's a lot of real world tips in here that can help you kind of wherever you are and in your journey. And if you work in corporate. I, you know, I had a friend the Other day that was like, well, why should I read that? I'm in corporate, Like, I don't want to be an entrepreneur, I don't want to start my own business. And I totally get that. And if you want to read a fun beach read instead, that's, uh, totally cool too. But I always like to just plant seeds. That's my thing with like books or podcasts or newsletters. Sometimes it's not that I want to go, I don't know, start my own yoga studio, but getting a newsletter from my local yoga studio every week, it just plants a seed on, well, what are they thinking about differently and how are they looking at marketing differently and how are they getting people to come in over the holidays when things are normally busy? I think sometimes we do our best learning when we are outside of our sort of day to day. So, you know, if you do work in corporate and you say, well, I never want to be an entrepreneur, I never. I'm not saying, oh my gosh, go out and start your own business and this book is going to help you. Although it certainly could. But more so, what would it take for you to step out of your bubble and step out of your day to day and just maybe plant a seed of like, well, what could that look like? Or what, how would somebody think about that? I'm always looking at books and podcasts and newsletters to help me get out of my own bubble. Because I think if you are anything like me, we are hardworking. We're sort of heads down, get it done. We wake up the morning, we look at our to do list, we're like, we got to get these things done, you know, get into it. And sometimes on days like that, it can be especially hard to step back and step out of that bubble and say, where can I look even bigger? Can I look at a 10,000 foot view? You know, not my little super narrow 100 foot view. And so I feel like books like this are really helpful. Um, I'm glad that Jeff pointed out that Microsoft is doing soft layoffs, uh, 60,000 quote unquote voluntary packages by December. Uh, and Comcast is also, you know, kind of on the, on the horizon as well. So I feel like that is just something that, you know, always just kind of thinking about. If you can think about it, just give it a think. I feel like that's a really wonderful thing. I'm glad Javier brought up that Vanessa Van Edwards also has a great masterclass, wonderful plug for that as well. So I'm glad. So there's masterclass. There's LinkedIn learning, or there are three books by Vanessa that are both on audible and hard copy. So thank you for pointing that out, Javier, because I forgot to mention that. But you're right, there's a lovely masterclass by her as well. Uh, she also has a community science of people, if that is something that your content that you're really loving and want to kind of sink into a little bit more. But, yeah, I'm just always looking at books that are having me step out of, uh, my comfort zone a little bit when it comes to business, when it comes to work. And so I think maybe for you, the Cody Sanchez owned or be owned, might. Might be that little. That little seed that might get planted in your mind and something that you can. Can call back to. Uh, and then the last book that I wanted to kind of throw out there as something that has been on my. Been on my playlist, because I did listen to it in audible form, although I do have a physical copy here as well, is the Bell Burden Strangers. I will preface this by saying this is a total fun read. There is no business. There is no. I mean, I guess there is some learning. But this, um, was just what I call, like, slice of life exploration. So just like you might read a memoir or an autobiography, uh, that is just sort of like a fun, well, fun fact about it. If you live in the United States, there is a very famous column, uh, in the New York Times, uh, and it's something, love something. It's like snippets of love stories, and it posts every single Sunday. And they get, like, hundreds of thousands of submissions to be a part of this. And what I thought was really interesting about this book and you know what really captivated me into reading it, is it started as an article. I thought this was really interesting, especially for all of us that maybe have dabbled with writing newsletters before or writing articles. This started as, uh, this woman, Belle, writing an article for the New York Times, and she submitted it, and it ended up getting accepted after many, many months and back and forth and edits. And, uh, it was published. And she took a lot of heat for it, both good and bad, once the article came out. And what I thought was really interesting is it could have just stopped there. It could have just been, that was a really interesting article. You know, fun read. People got to read it. Okay, great. But instead, there was such a huge response and such a gut reaction to the piece that, uh, ended up turning into an entire book. An entire book. Started as an article. So really her kind of sinking into the entire story and expanding on it and. Oh, Modern Love. Thank you, Jeff. The New York Times, Modern Love. I knew it was like, love something. I'm like, clearly not enough caffeine yet this morning. Because I was like, wait, what was it? But yes, New York Times Modern Love comes out every week. Hundreds of thousands of submissions. They end up picking one each week to feature. So this started as a Modern Love article, then eventually got built into a full book. Um, really sort of quick, interesting. I think the Audible that I listened to was like six hours, seven hours, something like that. And it was read by the author, which I personally love. I love when I read, uh, Ina Garner's book that she read it. I love when I read Matthew McConaughey's book that he read it. Um, Michelle Obama, same thing. Michelle Obama reads it. So, uh, actually, Vanessa's book, I know Vanessa read her book. So I love books where you can kind of hear the author tell what they were experiencing and what they were going through, because it just makes it feel like you're talking to a friend or that your friend is sending you a really, really, really, really long voice note. An exceptionally long, uh, voice note that you cannot respond to. But I think that that is just an interesting read. Super fun. Again, I always try to preface that I like to have my smart reads, you know, kind of my. My carrots and my fun reads, kind of my candy, candy and my carrots when it comes to books and reading. But I'd love to know if you're reading any interesting books, please do share, because I'm always on the hunt, always looking to add to my tbr, my To Be Read list. So. So if you have anything that you are listening to or reading and that you are loving, send it on over because I feel like that is really, really helpful. Uh, I love this point that Shelby made, because this is a good point, too, especially when you're going to listen to any books that the authors have read. Shelby said, I listened to one of Brene Brown's books and it cracked me up because she added in more context that was not in the physical book. It was super fun. So. Yes, exactly. I feel like sometimes when you are listening to books, people who are reading them. Uh, I also did Tina Fey's book. I also did Amy Poehler's book. I'm trying to think of, like, all the books that I, quote, unquote, read where I really listened to it, and that made it way better. Jerry Seinfeld is another One. So yeah, tons of fun ones in there. But that's uh, just the latest one that I had read. I just thought it was interesting that it went from an article to a full blown book. I thought that was pretty cool. Pretty interesting and just yeah, kind of cool. Um, the other things that I have been loving. I know I said that I was going to kind of share what apps I've been using and what I've been really sinking into. And honestly the way that I did this as I was thinking about today is I literally just went into my phone and I don't know if you have this set up on your iPhone, but on mine I can just kind of swipe down and all of my most used apps come up. And so I literally just swiped down and I was like, what have I been like consistently logging into besides my email, besides Slack, besides my calendar, all of which were kind of in the top, top spots, um, to kind of come to like. And then I took some of those apps and I was like, oh, let me share these. Like maybe this would be helpful to some other people. Oh, I love that. Jim just mentioned I recently read Linda Kaplan Thayer's book. I don't know if I'm m saying that last name right. Um, my life in 30 seconds. Bite size Wisdom from a lifetime in advertising. Uh, you may not know her name but you definitely know her work. Toys R Us, Flack, etc. Oh, I love that. My life in 30 seconds. I would be super interested, I don't know if you know Jim. I wonder if in the audible version that she reads it because again I love books. When it's like that first person point of view and they're actually reading to you. I always think that that's super cool. But I'd be curious if Linda's book, if she's the one actually reading to you. I think that would be, that would be super fun. Um, okay. Apps that I'm super into or the apps that I've been using a lot lately. The first one I've been using a lot and I really told myself that I going to get into it in October and I've done a good job if I pat myself on the back that I've been really good about using it. Uh, if you are like me and you are in the uh, like late 30s to I would say 60s set, you are probably listening to all of the sort of self helpy type, uh, I don't know, health, longevity, wellness, grow your own foods. What supplements are you taking? Is that organic? Is there another Way to make this more healthy. Are you getting enough protein? You know, what is up with the protein? I can never eat enough protein. Everybody's like, one gram of protein per body weight. I'm going, oh, my gosh, do you know how many chicken breasts that is? That's a lot of protein for one day. And so I told myself, okay, I'm really going to get serious. I turned 40 this year. That felt like a very milestone moment that I'm like, okay, going to buckle down. We're going to get serious. I turned 40 in October. So I was like, this is it. This is my, you know, this is my fork in the road that I'm going to get serious about, you know, my health and my protein intake and all this stuff. And I especially wanted to do it because I know myself. And, um, my birthday sort of kicks off what I call like the 90 days of debauchery, because my birthday is October 5th. And it sinks right into Halloween. The leftover Halloween candy does not go in the trash in my house. Instead it goes in my kitchen. When I pass by the kitchen, it's like, well, maybe I'll have a little Reese's. Maybe I'll have a little Twix. Maybe I'll have a little York covered in Patty. You know, that lasts about two weeks, which puts us into mid November, just in time for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin spice everything. Oh, pumpkin spice cookie. Oh, they're making pumpkin spice croissants. Oh, the latte. You know, there's that. Then we get into Thanksgiving. The turkey, the mashed potatoes, the sweet potato casserole, the green beans, the cream spinach. You know, all the things that you probably shouldn't. Oh, don't even start on the pumpkin pies, the apple pies. I mean, that, that's just a whole nother division right there. And then we just coast on in to Hanukkah. I'm not Jewish, but do I eat all the food that my friends provide at, you know, ah, those Seder dinners? Yes, I do. And so, you know, coming in hot to Hanukkah and getting into all that, which leads right into Christmas, which leads right into New Year's. And of course you're going to have a celebratory champagne to kind of bring in the new year. So all that to say, um, usually for me, October, November, December are less than stellar when it comes to consuming food and beverages because the food is usually not always the healthiest and the beverages are not always non alcoholic. So all that to say one, um, thing that I have started to do over the last three weeks, and I've been really good about it is I have gone into the deep end of my fitness pal. I have the app, uh, on my phone, and I even pay the whatever it is a month, 10 extra dollars a month or whatever it is to have the feature where you can take a picture of your food. So if you are in a rush or you don't want to individually put in everything that you ate or you're at a restaurant, you could literally just take a picture and it will scan it with. It's like, you know, I whatever. And it'll be like, that looks like 4 ounces of steak with some mashed potatoes and some gravy. And like, it will read what's on your plate. And it will. And put it into the app. I'm glad that Janelle is like me. Like, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, because the food. I know. And so I was really like, let me try to get my food and my protein under control. And so for me, this my fitness pal. I have been really diligent about using it the last couple weeks and really hitting. Hitting those protein goals. As much as everybody wants to be like, oh, um, enough of the protein. But really working on hitting those goals. And so I would be remiss not to tell you that my fitness pal has definitely been on my radar. And one of the top things that I have been doing and then sort of kind of in conjunction with that, I have really been loving this heart rate monitor that's by Wahoo. It does exactly that. Pretty, pretty simple. Monitors your heart rate to figure out how many calories you're burning and what you're doing. Um, this is sort of a tangent, but I do not own an Apple watch. I do not wear a whoop band. I do not have any computer device on my body now. No shame to people that do that. My husband loves his Apple watch. I have friends that swear by their whoop bands. I love that for them. I know myself. And the last thing I need is another device. I'm already actively trying to break up with my cell phone. And if one more person tells me that you should charge your phone in the other room overnight so that it's not by your bed, I'm not doing it. I don't think I'm going to be able to do it. I've never been able to do it. The phone stays by my bed. It's a curse. I'm trying to break it. Uh, so the last thing I need is a device. Attached to me. I already have enough problems with the device that is unattached to me. Therefore, attaching a device to me does not seem like a great idea for me. Uh, you don't put an alcoholic into a bar. You know, just devices and me, we don't need any more time together. But I do know that if you are trying to get physically fit, sometimes monitoring your heart rate is important. So I, again, about six months ago, started to wear a heart rate monitor during my workouts to see how much I was physically exerting myself. Because there are times, again, perhaps this is just me, where I tell myself, wow, you ran super fast. Or that was super hard. Uh, and then it's like one of those cartoons where if somebody were to film me, I would tell you I was going 10 miles an hour. And then if you saw me, I was going like four miles an hour. Where in my head I'm like using Bolt. And then in real life, I'm like a middle aged, 40 year old soccer mom. So there's just like some disassociation there happening in my own, um, brain where I think I'm super athletic. And then sometimes the numbers tell me, maybe you're not as athletic as you think. So the Woo. The wahoo monitor has been really helpful to kind of bring me back down to reality. How hard did I actually work? How much was my heart actually beating? That is just really helpful again, for me. That is just something that I really have. And by the way, my wahoo band and my, my fitness pal, they talk to each other. I. I was just saying the other day, would you use the past term? I have sunk them. They're synced. They are synced. They're synced up. They're. They're not sunked up. Either way. They're talking to each other. They're talking to each other. So that is really helpful for me. Uh, I'm glad that I'm not the only one that is not on the Apple watch plan. Uh, because the cell phone addiction is so real. I love that Shelby's like, I told the Verizon people no to a free Apple Watch. Which, uh, again, same thing. Like, even if you gave it to me for free, people are like, do you not have them because they're so expensive? And like, yes, that is also true. But it's like, I just, I know myself. What is that? Like, know thyself. Like, know thyself. It's not good for me. Like, I do not need more devices in my life. So I love that. Janelle's like, I wonder what the heart rate monitor would say as I watch the brewers play tonight. Uh, that is a question. Now, maybe I should start watching, start wearing it during my University of Florida football games because we did beat Texas last weekend, uh, two weekends ago, which was quite fun. My heart rate would have definitely been into, like, the 130s and 140s as I cheered them on. But, yeah, I definitely feel like any sort of heart rate monitor is just super great. Uh, Jeff wrote we are sunk. They are synced. Yes. Thank you. I'm, like, synced. Sun. Tomato, tomato. Uh, the other thing. And you've heard me kind of wax poetic about this, but I will continue to wax poetic because I am obsessed. I. And that is an app called Whisper Flow. If, uh, you know me, you know that I like to text and I like to email people because I'm on the go. I'm in the car, I'm running errands, and I'm spitting off thoughts. And I really like, because it's not safe to text and drive. Hello. I like to talk my texts out or talk my emails so that I can keep my two hands on, um, the steering wheel, or I can keep cooking in the kitchen with my two hands and I can just kind of verbally say what I need to say. Now, what I really like about Whisper Flow, compared to just the regular iOS system of Apple or Samsung or whatever your default is, is that it uses AI and it learns from you. So, for instance, I have a lot of shorthands in my business because I work in marketing. So we'll say things like in hands date instead of delivery date. As an example, what Whisper Flow will do is it will realize that I'm saying this phrase over and over again, and it will start to autocorrect. Even if it. Even if it thinks I'm saying the word enhance, which sometimes the iPhone thinks that I'm saying that it will learn. I don't know. She's not saying enhance. She's saying in hands. So I love the fact that it's using AI. Why the Apple and Samsung and other types of phones, Motorola, uh, do not use this function is sort of beyond me. Why Apple has not bought this company really is beyond me because it is amazing. And what's also amazing is you can use it for emails as well. So while I'm sitting at my computer on my desktop, you can literally just press a button on your keyboard and talk. I have found this really helpful when it comes to dictating long Emails. I have found this to be really helpful when it comes to writing anything. Writing long form or just dumping my ideas down. So you can just kind of brain dump and it will organize. It will correct. You can also correct yourself. So if you say like, jeff, can you meet me on Tuesday? I mean, m. Wednesday, it will just say, jeff, can you meet me on Wednesday? It realizes that you made the mistake, whereas again, the Apple one does not. So Jason is saying, I've been looking at whisper flow YouTube videos all morning to decide if I want to sign up. Jason, please sign up. And actually I will. I will publicly make this declaration. I will pay for the first month of your Whisper Flow. Like, I will pay for the pro for you. That is how much I believe in this product. Like you and I will connect. I will pay for it for you. Like, that's how much I want you to try this. Uh, and I do think you will become very addicted, which perhaps is a problem. So maybe you don't actually want to pick up that addiction, but I just find that you can do so much so easily. It's just really, really, really helpful and awesome. So Whisper flow, I am 10 toes down on this. I feel like it's so great. I would love to know if anybody else besides me that is joining here live today might already be on Whisper Flow or might have tried it. Uh, if not, and I'm the only one, that's okay because I will still keep shouting it from the rooftops because I think it is so freaking great. And honestly, like, one of my most used apps, like consistently, every day, all the time, I am using it, like constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly. Uh, the next app that is one of my most used apps. And again, I will say this one until I'm blue in the face. Unfortunately for all of our friends that are joining us from Paris and other places, this is only applicable in the United States. I'm sorry, I think I. I hope that, ah, there is an equivalent where you are. I encourage you to look it up because it's not going to look like this. But I am confident that hopefully you have something like this. And if you live in the United States and you listen to audiobooks and you have not already downloaded Libby, I do not know what you are doing with yourself because one thing that I like to tell people is whether you like it or not, uh, you pay taxes. If you live here in the United States, every April, you give some, some might say a lot of your money to the government and the government goes and spends it sort of however they see fit. And, um, you would like to think that your money is going towards things that benefit you and your community. Things like roads or infrastructure and, you know, whether it actually goes to that or not. Listen, sometimes it's a. Who knows? Blues Clues. I can't figure it out. But one thing I know you can get is access to a library. And if you don't have a library card and you are an adult, I want you to march yourself down to your public library and get it. Because to me, the library is like the gym. Why do I say that? Gym memberships. They want you to join a gym, and then they do not want you to come to the gym. Okay? They want to get your $80 a month or your $100 a month or 150 or whatever you pay for the gym. And then they would benefit by you not showing up, because then the machines would all stay new and nice and nobody would use them, but they would still get money. So that's why every year around this time around the end of the year, they're always being like, join Gold's Gym for $1 in January or join Equin Box for $5 in January. Because they want all your money coming in, and then they want you to, like, give up and not use it. So I look at the library the same way. We as taxpayers fund the library system. Our taxes go to the library where they buy books and LinkedIn learning courses and educational classes, and they put on classes, and all of that is free, free, free, free. It costs no money. So instead of buying an Audible book on any sort of website or publisher's website, I encourage you to look at, uh, Libby. So, for example, when I just read, quote, unquote, this Bell Burden Strangers book, I read it on the Libby app. I paid $0 to read this book. So I encourage you, if you are looking to listen to some Audible books or do some LinkedIn learning courses, check out and see what your library has to offer. Because more often than not, there are resources there for you to use for free. Um, and if you know me, you know that one of my favorite sayings is, if it's free, it's for me. Because I just really believe that if something is free, I should be using it. Like, why am I not using that? That is just the best. Uh, and similarly to books, I'm glad that James brought up, uh, my favorite tool is bookshop.org Yes, I love bookshop.org as well. Uh, James says, I just ordered a couple of Gary V. Books the last two of his I have not read yet. And you intend on reading. So if anybody doesn't know what bookshop.org as org is, again, that's just in the United States. I hope, hope, hope that wherever you live, there are versions of this as well. But bookshop.org basically solved the problem of how small local bookshops can compete with the big juggernauts, the Barnes and Nobles, the books a million, the Amazons of the world. Because what it does is it enables an online platform, bookshop.org to syndicate and sell books on behalf of smaller bookstores locally in your town or in your neighborhood. I love it. It's so much better than ordering books off of Amazon or ordering books off of Barnes and Noble. I love me a good Barnes and Noble wanderer, but at the same time, I think supporting local businesses and supporting mom and pop shops are really important and definitely one of my core values. So I feel like that is just really, really, really important. I love that Jeff is also like, I love Libby. Yes, exactly. Uh, Libby has completely changed my life. I love this. I love that. Jason said, I went to the local library yesterday for a class. I knew it had copies of my book, so I went and looked. It was so cool seeing them on the shelf. Yes, exactly. I feel like that is just the best. It's so good to know, kind of like, where you are and what you're doing, and it's just so important. Um, I really, really like. I'm kind of obsessed. I just think it's awesome. Bookshop.org Definitely one of my favorites. Libby. Definitely one of my favorites. If you haven't tried these highly, highly, highly recommend that you try them. And just because we're talking about books, I want to highlight two that Hiromi had highlighted, because I think these are good as well. Hiromi, um, said, I really like Goldie Chan's book, Personal Branding for Introverts. I remember when she was a guest on your Live. Exactly. Goldie joined us here. She talked a little bit about the book, but I really think that her book, uh, Personal Branding for Introverts. Also really great. Kind of not similar to Vanessa's with the conversation, the cues, but more kind of incorporates in person and online, but really just about how to put yourself out there and get a little uncomfortable with being so public with yourself, which I think is great. Uh, another book that Hiromi recommends is L.L. bean, the making of an American Icon by Leon Gorman. It's a great insight on tradition, traditional ways of doing business, and how it has evolved to catch up with modern times. This sounds super interesting also because L.L. bean is one of those like iconic brands that has been around for a really long time. I mean, I don't have Google in front of me, but I would imagine L.L. bean's like, I don't know, what, 100 years old or something like that. So I'm sure that the story of how their business has stayed afloat during some really difficult years would be super duper interesting. So I love this. I feel like that is really awesome. I would love, love, love to dig into that. So thank you for that one Harami, because that's a good one. Um, I also wanted to add like a little kind of insight. I know a lot of us use Chat GPT and a lot of us use Claude and you know, we're on These sort of AIs every single day and um, using them. And I just wanted to give a little insight lately about how I've been using them. And one of the practices that I've really been loving is I asked my Claude or my chatbot to interview me about the goals that I'm trying to hit or something that I'm trying to get done. And then I ask it to be a pushback partner to help me find the gaps. And the reason I think that this is really helpful is sometimes when I prompted to ask me questions, it will ask me questions that I hadn't thought of yet. So I'm going to give you an example. I might say something like, hey chatgpt, I'm trying to work with my mother in law to figure out a holiday schedule for the family for Christmas. Kind of, you know, when everybody's flights getting in, what nights we're doing activities, um, who's included in what activities, you know, ask me questions so that I can narrow in and give you answers on how to best, you know, to get a logistical plan together. And my Chat GPT or Claude will then ask me questions which again, it really feels like someone who's kind of helping you peel back the layers. They'll say, well, how many people are flying in for Christmas? And I'll say, uh, okay, uh, ten different people across three different flights. Okay. You know, and it just, it, it asked me the questions back so that we can help narrow down instead of me having to try to figure out like oh yeah, I didn't, I didn't take into account the time change of when they land. And you know, it'll say, well, if so, and so is coming from Florida, you know, that's only a one hour time change but it might mean that they get uh, hungry earlier in the day. You know, just things like that, that it'll just kind of help me think. So I wanted to offer that to you as a way to prompt your ChatGPT or your Cloud or your Gemini or Grok or whatever you use to interview you. And then I also ask it to push back on me and help find gaps in my thinking. Because if I'm writing an email or, or instructions to someone or again those holiday logistics, I'll say where are the gaps? Okay, we finished. I have this document. What am I missing here? Where, where would you see a hole? Where could you see somebody getting confused? Where could you see them read the email? And I think the email is written one way and that it's super clear but when they read the email they interpret it another way and it's not so clear to them. So it will actually ask the ChatGPT again or the Claude, whatever it is to push back and say where is this, where is there gaps? Or where is this unclear or where's where could somebody read this a little bit differently? So again, using the example of the holiday logistics, uh, I was putting together logistics sheet and it said things like so and so lands at 6pm and the ChatGPT pushed back and said well, does this mean 6pm local time, like what time they land in Austin or did that mean 6pm and that's what it feels like, their time, you know, because sometimes when you look at ah, flights it might keep things in your time zone instead of the time zone that you're going to. So like little things like that that I'll say, oh yeah, maybe I'll put both times, you know, 9:00am um Central Standard Time versus you know, 10:00am Eastern, um, Standard time. Just so that people can see the difference of okay, it's going to be 10:00am Florida time but it's going to be 9:00am um, Austin time. So I feel like that could be super duper helpful. I'm glad that other uh, people are like, yeah, I'm totally going to use that. So I think that that's really helpful. I'm glad that Jeff brought up. You can also use them to interview you for jobs. I think that's really great too. Uh, I also think that you can have it interview you, you know, to come up with content ideas for LinkedIn posts or for newsletters or um, maybe even updates for your boss proactively. I just think having AI prompt you instead of you prompting it I feel like so much of the stuff we get is like how to be a great AI prompter and you know, tell the AI that it's a world class marketer and da, da, da. So you just hear a lot about like you prompting it. And so I just kind of like to flip it on its head and say, no, no, you prompt me like, uh, you're my assistant so like you ask me questions to figure out, excuse me, the best way to do this or how I can optimize this. I've never heard of this, but Javier says make an interactive can ban board to learn new software with exercises and a progress tracker. Literally don't know what Kanban is. Somebody needs to Google that for me because I've never heard of that. Javier. But okay, sound, we love learning new things. Sounds super interesting. Um, the last thing that I kind of brought that you can feel free to copy or not is I do this, uh, I do this year round. I do this every single month. But I offer it to you especially as we get into the holiday season because like I said Thanksgiving or I mean Halloween rolls into Thanksgiving, which rolls into Hanukkah, which rolls into Christmas controls in a New Year's. You know, things just get a little cuckoo do as we get into the last like 90 days. And then that doesn't even include all your work stuff like year end reports, um, year end discussions with your boss or hr. Just like the end of the year I just feel like gets a little, gets a little cray very quickly. So one thing that I do and again I do this every month, but I sort of say special attention to it as we get into the end of the year is I created a memorable day system. And for me what a memorable day system is at uh, the end of the month. So like right now, Today is Wednesday, October 28th. So this is like perfect timing. I will be doing that this week. I will look to the next month. So in this case I will look at my November calendar and I will look and see what friends of mine have, uh, birthdays in November. If you say to yourself, Kim, how did you get your friends birthdays on your calendar? That's really cool. Fun fact, ah, that you can do. You can export every friend that you have on Facebook. You can export their birthdays if they put them in there and you can import that into your Gmail Google calendar. Now the pros and cons of this, the pro is great. Now all of a sudden you have every single birthday in your calendar. Amazing. You can just delete every birthday from memory. It will now live in perpetuity on your calendar. The con is you might be friends with people on Facebook, like your fifth grade teacher, that you don't really need to know her birthday, and that birthday really doesn't need to be on your calendar. Uh, I had to go in and manually delete people that were like, you know, my neighbor from two apartments ago, that I don't necessarily need to remember their birthday every year. So I went in, I deleted all those people that kind of were unnecessary. And now I only have the birthdays that are my actual friends, my actual coworkers, my actual colleagues, actual past clients, etc. So I would look at November and I would say, who has a birthday in November or who has a wedding anniversary in November? You know, one of my best friends got married, you know, five years ago on November 5th. You know, who has a wedding anniversary or some sort of anniversary? And then again, any new job milestones. So one thing that I like to do is, uh, if, for instance, Giacomo said, oh, my gosh, Kim, I'm so excited. I got a new job. I start February 1st. You know, I'm working for a record label in Nashville. I'm moving. I'm so excited. I would write on February 1st a little note that says, you know, Giacomo starts a new job. And then I actually might even start a reoccurring in calendar invite to myself that says, uh, you know, one year at Giacomo's new job or two years at Giacomo's new job. And around that time, I will write a note or schedule flowers for delivery or send an email or send a text like, congrats, you know, one year at xyz or congrats on your wedding anniversary or whatever it is. Sometimes it's a physical card. Sometimes on, um, some months I don't have my act together for physical cards, and instead it's just an email or a text. And I've also found a way to schedule flowers. Again, this could just be a thing in the United States. I encourage you where you are to see if this is an option for you. But I know on, uh, platforms like 1-800-Flowers, for example, you can actually schedule ahead flowers. So I will look at the entire month of November and I might say, okay, you know, so and so's birthday is November 10th, somebody else's birthday is November 17th, and somebody else's birthday is November 26th. I'm going to send a card to this one, flowers to this one, and just a text to this person for that flower. Delivery. I can actually go into 1-800-FLOWERS today, so October 28th, and schedule it to deliver on that person's birthday. Now, the only thing I will warn you about that has definitely happened to me more than a few times is because I do this so far in advance. I would do that, like today, you know, Wednesday, October 28th, and those flowers would be arriving on their birthday, let's say on November 17th. By the time November 17th gets around, I've already forgotten that I've sent flowers because I have the mind of like a fish. And, you know, I've already forgotten that I've done that because I already don't know what I had for lunch last Tuesday. And so I will get a text from someone and being like, oh, my gosh, thank you so much. These are beautiful. And I'm sitting there going, what's beautiful? What is beautiful? Life is beautiful. You know, and then I'll be like, I don't know. Yeah, I must just. I. I sent them something. I sent them flowers. Oh, that's right. Today's their birthday. So I will, uh, just kind of forewarn you on that. But if you do schedule ahead, maybe write a little reminder to yourself for the day before. Like, reminder flowers getting delivered tomorrow. You know, don't forget. So just proceed with caution. Proceed with caution. Um, I love that Jeff wrote Facebook, the birthday and high school friend app. Uh, yeah, exactly. So that's the only thing with using the Facebook birthday. Honestly, it was really the only way that I could think of that had the most friends birthdays in one spot. So until somebody comes up with something better, I. I got nothing for you. I feel like that's the type of thing that it just, that's what works for me. And that's the only way that I can track that, because that would be perfect. Um, I use that example, jocmo, because we're putting that out into the universe. A record label job. And in February, I feel like that would be. That would be pretty, pretty freaking great. So that is just a system that I use. I encourage you to steal it if you would like. I sort of call it my memorable day system. You, um, can call yours whatever you would like, but it's just a way for me to continue to track and show up for my friends and my colleagues and my community in a way that is very deliberate and intentional. So I feel like it's always a good, good thing to learn how we can show up for people better and better. Uh, oh, I love that Javier clarified what the Kanban board is. It's like Trello. Okay? And for any. I know what Trello is, but for anybody that doesn't know what Trello is, it's sort of like a, um, digital version of like a notepad, for lack of a better word. Like, it's like a visual notepad. And you can kind of like drag and drop things and organize things. And so, uh, Javier said I didn't want to pay Trello. Uh, so I created my own. I love that. I feel like that's the best. So, so cool. Um, so, yeah, I really feel like these are things that work well for me. These are things that I use and that I've really loved and I really feel like have been super helpful and things that I use a lot. And so hopefully these are things that you can maybe steal or that you can use a lot because I find them to be extremely helpful. If you have anything that you have been using or, uh, loving or doing lately, please share it. Even if you think about it later. Send me an email comment on this post when it drops as a recording on LinkedIn or on your favorite podcast network. Because I would love to know, I'd love to know, kind of like what you're using and what you're doing and what you're seeing and, you know, so that I can steal from you as well. I love doing sessions like this. It's always super fun for me to just kind of hang out, let you know a little bit about what I'm doing and what I'm doing, kind of focusing on or. Or sinking into a little bit. So, uh, as always, we meet here every single Wednesday. You can always go to get copywithkim.com and you can see our full calendar list of, uh, all the fun people that we're going to be talking to as we coast on into November and December and then we coast on into the holidays, which is so hard to believe. If there are ever any sessions, whether it's like this or other mini workshops that we've done or particular people that you would be like, hey, I would love for us to dig in all about this topic or all about with this person. Sharing is caring. Let me know. I would love to know, kind of like what you're seeing and what you're loving and yeah, just more about what you're really what you're into lately. Because I feel like that would be pretty awesome. And the way that we all get better together and all learn together is by doing exactly that. Getting better in one happy spot. So I love Love, love that you took the time to join me today. I really appreciate it. I know you have a million places that you could have been and doing a million different things. The fact that you spent time with me in community, sharing tips, sharing tactics, I so, so appreciate it. I hope you have a beautiful rest of the week that you enjoy the weekend that you sink in and that you maybe take some of these recommendations and give them a go. If I had to pick one, I would say whisper flow, just let it ride. I think there's even a free trial. All the more reason to do it. But give some of these things a go and let me know what you think. So, so good seeing you my friend. I will see you soon. You can always head over to get CoffeeWithKim.com and get our full schedule. Until then, have a beautiful rest of the week and an awesome weekend and I will see um you so soon. Bye. Uh,

Speaker A: That was some good stuff. Thanks for being a part of this week's Coffee with Kim. If podcasts are your thing, subscribe to the show and you'll see a new episode appear next week in your favorite listening app. If you want to be a part of the conversation, join us live on Wednesdays at 1pm Eastern over on, um, LinkedIn. You can RSVP@getcoffeewithkim.com I want you to have your questions answered because why should I get to have all the fun? And let's begin honest. You know how to ask some hard hitting questions. My guests and I cannot wait to meet you. See you soon.