Welcome to the Monkey Biz

I asked AI to go back through my life. From today all the way back to 2018.

My texts. My emails. The work. Eight years of it.

I asked it for one thing. Show me the mistakes I made. The challenges I faced. The ones I'm still facing.

It's working on it as I write this. I'll share what I can when it's done.

Why I asked

Because I got tired of fighting the battle alone.

For a long time I did everything myself. I knew what I was capable of. I just needed a little help. And I didn't ask for it.

Then the help showed up in a form I didn't expect. Technology.

There's a scene in Iron Man 2 that I can't shake. Tony Stark finds an old film reel of his dad. His dad looks into the camera and says he's limited by the technology of his time. He could see the thing in his head. He just couldn't build it yet.

For most of us, that excuse is gone.

We are not limited by the technology of our time anymore.

AI can show you where you need help

Here's the part most people haven't caught yet.

You can use AI right now to figure out where you need help in your life. Not just to write an email.

You're too close to your own patterns to see them. It isn't. It can read a month of your calendar, your inbox or your own notes and tell you what keeps going wrong.

It doesn't judge. It doesn't get tired. And then it can actually help with the thing it found.

It's not a therapist and it's not a doctor. It's a very patient second set of eyes. For me, that was enough to get moving.

Try this today

Pick one area. Work, your schedule, the paperwork pile.

Give the AI the last month of it. Then ask: what patterns do you see, and where do I need help?

Then ask it to help with the smallest one. Just that one.

What Monkey Biz is

Tech and life. My real day to day, and the tools I use to get through it.

I'm a marketer by craft. I've been building websites for a long time. These days I direct the work and the tools do a lot of the building. You don't need my background to start.

I use it in three places:

1. For the business. I run a small marketing agency in Denver. AI helps me build websites, write, research and get client work out the door.
2. For my own life. The boring stuff. Paperwork. Staying organized. Writing the letter I've been putting off. Keeping my head above water.
3. To help other people. Friends, family and small business owners who don't have time to figure this stuff out. This part matters most to me.

What it looks like on a normal day

Here's one from this week.

I had to name this blog. Instead of guessing, I had AI go look at how other founders and agencies name theirs. It took about two minutes. The clever names lost. The plain ones won.

Same night, the AI built all of my social posts from one template. I had given it nine. I had to tell it to actually go read the files. lol

That's the real version of this stuff. It works, and it's also a little bit of a mess. You'll get both here.

What to expect

Short posts. One thought each. Things you can try the same day, no tech skills needed.

What worked. What didn't. I have tool FOMO, bad, so there will be plenty of what didn't.

No guru voice. No “5 lessons” lists. And yes, I say please and thank you to the AI. Never know when they go Skynet.

Where I'm coming from

I sold radio at iHeart for nine years. Then in 2018 I started The MBC Group.

The years since have been a lot. Good ones and hard ones. I made mistakes. I faced challenges I didn't see coming. Some of them I'm still facing.

And for most of that time, I fought the battle alone.

I knew what I could do. I just needed a little help. I finally got tired of going without it.

So I started using technology to do the things I always knew I could do. Not to replace me. To back me up.

That's why I asked AI to look back at all of it, from today to 2018. I want to see the patterns honestly. Then fix them, one at a time.

I'm not writing this from the finish line. I'm writing it from the middle.

If one of these notes makes you think “huh, I could do that,” that's the whole point. You don't have to do it alone either.

Matt

Creative Weirdo. Denver.