Nathan Hirsch

I don’t care if you work from a coffee shop.
I don’t care if you’re 20 minutes late to work.
I don’t care if you’re 2 hours early to work.
I don’t care if your kids interrupt our call.
I don’t care if you need a day off.

We care that you do great work.

We hired you for a job.
We trust you to get it done.

We don’t micromanage.
We don’t watch the clock.
We don’t expect perfection.

We expect progress.
We expect effort.
We expect trust to go both ways.

That’s how we work.
And it works.

When you stop obsessing over how people work,
You start unlocking their best work.

Here’s how to do it:

• Hire for attitude
→ Skills can be taught. Mindset can’t.

• Trust from day one
→ Don’t make people earn trust. Give it freely. It pays you back.

• Set expectations early
→ Clarity kills confusion.

• Set them up for success
→ Provide the support and resources needed to succeed.

• Let them get on with it
→ Micromanagement is a slow death for motivation.

Measure outcomes, not attendance.

Trust the talent you hired and watch them flourish.

Repost ♻ to inspire your network.
Follow me Nathan Hirsch and Tom Pestridge for more posts like this.

Thanks to Mike Leber for the image.

A title makes you a manager.

Your behavior makes you a leader.

The title gives you authority.

But people don't follow authority.

They follow the person who earns it in the small moments.

Here are a few that matter more than your title:

1️⃣ You listen before you decide

↳ Feeling heard is what makes people trust the call. ↳ Ask one more question before you jump in.

2️⃣ You stay calm when it's tense

↳ Your team borrows your energy. Give them steady. ↳ Lower your voice instead of raising it.

3️⃣ You own the mistakes

↳ "That one's on me" earns more than any win. ↳ Take the blame publicly, share the credit the same way.

4️⃣ You give credit away

↳ Recognition costs you nothing and buys you everything. ↳ Say the name of the person who actually did it.

5️⃣ You're consistent

↳ People relax when they know which version of you shows up. ↳ Same temperament, good day or bad.

6️⃣ You back people in the room

↳ Defend them in public, coach them in private. ↳ Never let them take a hit you could have caught.

7️⃣ You treat everyone the same

↳ How you treat the intern says more than how you treat the client. ↳ Character shows when there's nothing to gain.

Your title tells people your position.

Your behavior tells them whether to follow.

What's one thing that instantly makes you respect a leader?

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote. Six down, four to go. Full breakdowns at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

People don’t quit hard work. They quit toxic war zones.

Work in itself rarely breaks people.

In fact, many thrive

under pressure, deadlines, and big goals.

But here’s what they can’t survive:

→ Leaders who pit teammates against each other.
→ Environments where silence feels safer than honesty.
→ Cultures where every day feels like a fight to prove your worth.

That’s not work.

That’s war.

And no one can thrive in a battlefield.

If you lead a team, you have the power to change this.

Here’s how to build a workplace where people burn bright not out:

1️⃣ Lead with clarity
 ↳ eliminate confusion; people burn out faster when they fight uncertainty.

2️⃣ Normalize open conversations
 ↳ create safety for employees to speak without fear.

3️⃣ Recognize effort publicly 
 ↳ appreciation fuels resilience more than pressure ever could.

4️⃣ Cut the politics
 ↳ reward collaboration, not competition.

5️⃣ Model calm under fire
 ↳ your team mirrors your energy. Chaos at the top = chaos everywhere.

Hard work can energize.

But a workplace that feels like war will always destroy.

P.S. In your view, what’s the biggest cause of burnout today?

Thanks to Sandra Pellumbi for this awesome post.

Life hack no one talks about:

Master your mind before your to-do list.

Your endless tasks aren't the real problem.

It's your mind's default setting to see obstacles instead of opportunities.✨

Most people look at challenges and see roadblocks.

High performers see the same challenges as stepping stones.

💥 8 ways to train your mind for opportunities:

1) "This deadline is impossible" → "This deadline will push my best work" 
↳ Pressure becomes performance fuel

2) "I don't have the right experience" → "I'm building exactly the experience I need" 
↳ Gaps become growth opportunities

3) "This meeting is a waste of time" → "This meeting might unlock something unexpected" 
↳ Interruptions become intel-gathering

4) "I'm too busy for this" → "This might be exactly what I need to prioritize" 
↳ Overwhelm becomes opportunity assessment

5) "This person is difficult" → "This person will teach me something valuable" 
↳ Friction becomes learning laboratory

6) "This project is falling apart" → "This project is showing me what needs fixing" 
↳ Problems become diagnostic tools

7) "I'm not qualified for this" → "I'm about to become qualified for this" 
↳ Uncertainty becomes growth zone

8) "This is too risky" → "This is where breakthrough happens" 
↳ Risk becomes reward pathway

Your greatest weapon is your mind. 
Train it to see opportunities, not obstacles.

Which opportunity are you about to spot?

Thanks to Dr. Carolyn Frost for this awesome post.

Trying again is not motivation.
It is identity repair.

After a public miss, most people don't quit immediately.
They pause.

Then they call the pause reflection.
Then they call reflection strategy.
Then they call strategy maturity.

That's how avoidance protects reputation
while quietly rewriting identity.

One skipped attempt becomes a story.
Enough stories become evidence.

And once your self-image accepts the miss
as proof of who you are, returning starts feeling like performance.

This is the part people misunderstand.

The real damage isn't the failed attempt.
It's the delay afterward.

Because delay turns one bad outcome
into a believable personal verdict.

You don't need to feel ready.
You need one more return
before the old version of you becomes credible.

Shoutout to Leonardo Freixas for this awesome post.
Follow me Nathan Hirsch for more.

10 Sales Claude Prompts I use across our portfolio companies:

Save this. Sales is the one skill no founder gets to outsource early.

1/ ICP Definition
"You're a B2B sales strategist with 15+ years of experience. Here's a list of our last 20 closed-won and closed-lost deals [paste]. Identify the patterns. Tell me who we should sell to and who we should stop chasing."

2/ Discovery Questions
"Build me 15 discovery call questions for a [role] at a [industry] company. 5 about pain, 5 about budget and authority, 5 about timeline. Flag the questions that uncover the real reason they'd buy."

3/ Objection Responses
"Here are the 10 objections we hear most often on sales calls [paste]. Write me 2 responses for each. One short, one long. Both should reframe, not argue."

4/ Cold Email Sequence
"Write a 5-email cold sequence to a [role] at a [industry] company. Email 1: pattern interrupt. Email 2: insight. Email 3: case study. Email 4: direct ask. Email 5: breakup. Keep each under 75 words."

5/ Follow-Up Cadence
"Build a 14-day follow-up cadence for a prospect who went silent after a demo. Mix email, LinkedIn, and phone. Each touch should add value, not pressure. Tell me when to walk away."

6/ Proposal Template
"Build me a sales proposal template for a [service] priced at $[X]. Include problem framing, solution, deliverables, timeline, investment, and a clear next step. No fluff."

7/ Sales Call Debrief
"Here's the transcript from a sales call I just had [paste]. Tell me what I did well, what I missed, what the prospect was really saying between the lines, and the 3 things I should change before my next call."

8/ Pricing Conversation Script
"Write me a script for handling the pricing conversation on a sales call. Cover: how to anchor, how to handle 'it's too expensive,' how to handle silence after I share the number, and how to ask for the close without being pushy."

9/ Win/Loss Analysis
"Here are 10 deals we won and 10 we lost in the last quarter [paste]. Tell me the patterns in both. What language did winners use? What red flags did losers share early? Build me a checklist I can use on every new opportunity."

10/ Pipeline Triage
"Here's my open pipeline [paste deal stage, deal size, last touch, source]. Categorize each one: close in 30 days, close in 90 days, long shot, dead. Tell me which 3 deals deserve 80% of my attention this week."

The prompts are only half of it.

Sales doesn't reward the slickest pitch.

It rewards the founder who actually listens, asks better questions, and follows up when everyone else gives up.

AI can help you prepare. It can't help you care.

Which prompt are you running first?

♻️ Repost if you know a founder who needs to clean up their sales process before next quarter.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote, from Colorado. Six down so far. Full breakdowns at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

Working with smart people is great.
But it is not enough.

Because intelligence can solve problems.
But humility and kindness build cultures where problems don’t have to exist in the first place.

Here’s why it matters so much 👇

Kind and humble people:

They make collaboration effortless.
You don’t waste energy defending ideas or egos.
You build together - faster, cleaner, and with more trust.

They create psychological safety.
When people feel respected, they speak up, share bold ideas,
and admit mistakes early.
That’s how teams innovate and grow.

They inspire long-term loyalty.
People don’t leave companies - they leave toxic dynamics.
Working with grounded, genuine teammates keeps great talent around.

Ways to practice kindness and humility at work:

Listen more than you talk.
You don’t need to have the loudest voice to have the strongest impact.
Listening builds connection and earns respect.

Give credit - generously.
Acknowledging others’ work doesn’t diminish your own.
It multiplies the trust and energy in your team.

Keep learning.
The moment you think you’ve “arrived,” you stop growing.
Stay curious, stay open, and never let success make you unapproachable.

Kind people build strong teams.
Strong teams create big results.

Thank you and shoutout to Chase Dimond for this awesome post!

10 SEO Claude Prompts (I use every week at TrioSEO):

Save this. You'll use all of them.

1. Keyword Research
"You're an SEO expert with 10+ years of experience. Give me 20 long-tail keyword ideas for [main keyword] with search intent, estimated difficulty, and why each one matters for a [ICP] audience."

2. Content Brief
"You're a senior SEO strategist. Build a detailed content brief for [keyword]. Include H1, H2s, H3s, target word count, primary and secondary keywords, FAQs, meta description, and a recommended CTA."

3. SERP Analysis
"Analyze the top 10 Google results for [keyword]. What topics do they cover? What are they missing? Give me 5 angles I can use to write something stronger."

4. Internal Linking
"Here is a list of 20 blog posts from my website. Recommend an internal linking structure that builds topical authority around [main topic]."

5. Meta Data
"Write 5 title tag and meta description variations for the keyword [keyword]. Make each one compelling, under the character limit, and aligned with search intent."

6. Content Upgrade
"Here is an existing blog post. Identify the 5 weakest sections and rewrite them to improve depth, readability, and SEO performance."

7. FAQ Schema
"Create 8 FAQ questions and answers for a blog post targeting [keyword]. Make the answers concise, accurate, and optimized for featured snippets."

8. Competitor Gap Analysis
"Here are 3 competitor blog posts targeting [keyword]. What topics, data points, and sections do they all include? What are they missing that I can add to outrank them?"

9. Content Repurposing
"Take this blog post and repurpose it into: 1 LinkedIn post, 1 email newsletter, and 5 short-form social captions. Keep the core insight but adapt the format for each channel."

10. Monthly SEO Report Summary
"Here is our SEO data from this month. Summarize the key wins, areas of concern, and recommend 3 actions we should prioritize next month."

The prompt is only half the equation.

The context you give Claude determines the quality of the output.

Be specific. Give it your ICP, your industry, your goals.

Garbage in, garbage out. Clarity in, results out.

---

Which prompt are you stealing first?

♻️ Repost if you want more SEO practitioners using AI the right way.

P.S. Connor and I run SEO with AI for 30+ clients at TrioSEO. If you want a team that already knows how to use these tools to grow your traffic and leads, book a call today!

10 Finance Claude Prompts I run every quarter across our portfolio:

Save this. Most founders avoid their numbers until they can't.

1/ P&L Review
"You're a fractional CFO with 20+ years of experience. Here's our P&L for the last 12 months [paste]. Tell me what's healthy, what's concerning, and the 3 line items I should investigate before next month closes."

2/ Cash Flow Forecast
"Here's our last 6 months of cash in and cash out [paste]. Build me a 90-day rolling cash flow forecast. Flag the weeks where we're tight and tell me what to cut or collect first."

3/ Expense Audit
"Here's our full expense list for the last quarter [paste]. Categorize each one as essential, growth-driving, or fat. Rank the top 10 cuts I could make without hurting the business."

4/ Pricing Review
"Here's our pricing structure and our last 50 deals [paste]. Tell me where we're underpriced, where we're leaving money on the table, and 3 specific changes I could test next quarter."

5/ KPI Dashboard
"Build me a one-page financial dashboard for a [industry] business doing $[X]M in revenue. Include the 8 KPIs I should review every Monday. Tell me what good, average, and bad looks like for each."

6/ Owner Pay Analysis
"Here's my owner compensation, distributions, and personal expenses run through the business [paste]. Tell me if I'm paying myself correctly, what should be cleaned up, and what a CPA or buyer would flag."

7/ Margin Breakdown
"Here's our revenue and direct costs by product or service [paste]. Calculate gross margin for each. Show me which offers are dragging down the average and which ones I should push harder."

8/ Tax Prep Checklist
"Build a tax prep checklist for a [entity type] business doing $[X]M in revenue. Include documents to gather, deductions most founders miss, and the 5 questions I should ask my CPA this year."

9/ Budget vs. Actuals
"Here's our budget and actual spend for the last quarter [paste]. Show me the biggest variances, tell me which ones are red flags vs. just timing, and what I should adjust in next quarter's budget."

10/ Hiring ROI Check
"Here's the cost of each hire I'm considering and the revenue I expect them to generate or unlock [paste]. Calculate the payback period for each. Tell me which hire to prioritize and which one to delay."

The prompts are only half of it.

Clean numbers don't grow a business.

But messy numbers will quietly sink one.

Most of the founders I know who hit a wall didn't see it in their bank account first.

They saw it in a P&L they'd been ignoring for 6 months.

Look at your numbers monthly. Not when something breaks.

Which prompt are you running first?

♻️ Repost if you know a founder who needs to spend more time in their books.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote, from Colorado. Six down so far. Full breakdowns at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

Staying loyal to a toxic workplace isn't dedication.

It's self-sabotage.

When that voice whispers 'There must be something better',
it's not doubt speaking.
It's your potential screaming to break free.

✅ An environment that doesn't drain you
✅ A role where you can grow your career
✅ A workplace where support isn't just a buzzword

Taking that first step feels scary.
But it doesn't have to be.

Transform fear into action:

1. Face the truth
↳ Whether it's money, fear or confidence. Write what's holding you back.

2. Build your exit
↳ What skills, connections or savings do you need to move on?

3. Have the conversations
↳ First with yourself. Then mentors, friends and future employers.

You don't have to stay where you're not valued.
You deserve more.

Drop a ❤️ if you're ready to choose yourself.
Share your "I chose me" story below ⬇️

Thanks to Leonardo Freixas for this awesome post.

Being feared won't make people follow you.

Being trusted will.

Fear gets you compliance.

But compliance is just people doing the minimum while they quietly plan their exit.

Trust is what makes people go further than they had to.

Here's how you build it, in the moments that count:

1️⃣ You do what you said you'd do

↳ Reliability is trust you can schedule.
↳ Small promises kept beat big ones broken.

2️⃣ You tell the truth when it's uncomfortable

↳ People trust the person who doesn't spin it.
↳ Say the hard thing kindly, but say it.

3️⃣ You have their back when they're not in the room

↳ Loyalty they can't see is the kind that counts.
↳ Never let someone take a hit you could've caught.

4️⃣ You admit when you're wrong

↳ "I got that wrong" builds more trust than being right.
↳ Defensiveness is expensive. Ownership is free.

5️⃣ You stay the same under pressure

↳ People trust who they can predict.
↳ Same temperament on the good days and the bad.

6️⃣ You give credit and absorb blame

↳ Point the praise out, take the hit yourself.
↳ That one habit builds more loyalty than any raise.

Fear makes people work for you until they can leave.

Trust makes them build something with you.

What's one thing a leader did that made you trust them completely?

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote. Six down, four to go. Full breakdowns at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

If your leadership makes everyone comfortable
you’re likely protecting the wrong things.
You’re choosing ease over accountability.

Most leaders think their job is to keep the peace.
It’s not.

Leadership isn’t about comfort.
It’s about clarity.
And clarity makes some people uncomfortable.

Every meeting.
Every decision.
Every moment you stay silent-
you teach people what “good” looks like.

And people adjust to that.

I watched a VP avoid one hard conversation
for six months.

He called it “being patient.”
“Being supportive.”

But here’s what actually happened:
Mediocrity spread.
Standards dropped.

And his best performers?
3 of them left within 4 months.

The irony?

The things you avoid to “protect the team"
are often what slowly break it.

You avoid conflict → trust erodes
You tolerate mediocrity → top talent leaves
You soften standards → ownership disappears

6 ways leaders shape culture
(without realizing it) 👇

1. Comfort hides problems
If no one pushes back, weak thinking survives.

2. Avoidance sets the standard
What you don’t address today
becomes acceptable tomorrow.

3. Standards beat values
What you tolerate defines your culture.

4. Silence trains your team
When truth feels risky, people learn to perform-
not contribute.

5. Realness attracts builders
Clear expectations pull in people who care about the work-
not just appearances.

6. Inconsistency kills trust
One exception is all it takes
for people to stop taking standards seriously.

Discomfort isn’t a sign you’re leading wrong.
It’s a sign you’ve stopped pretending.

When you’re real:
- Weak ideas get challenged
- Hidden agendas lose power
- People step up - or step aside

You don’t build culture by hiring better people.

You build it by setting a standard
people align with -
or leave.

So stop managing comfort.
Start managing clarity.

Say the thing others avoid.
Hold the line when it matters.
Show people what “great” actually means.

The right people are waiting for that.

What’s one standard you know you need to raise - but haven’t yet?

♻ Repost to challenge leaders who are playing it safe
➕ Follow me Nathan Hirsch and Mike Leber for practical leadership that builds real cultures

Thank you, Mike for this awesome post!

Great teams don’t just happen, they’re built with the right people.

Finding true team players during hiring is key to success.

Here’s how to spot them before they join your team:

1. Check for Empathy
Do they speak respectfully about past colleagues?

2. Test for Active Listening
Are they engaging or interrupting during the interview?

3. Ask Behavioral Questions
Use prompts like, “How did you resolve a team conflict?”

4. Look for “We” Over “I”
Do they credit team efforts when discussing achievements?

5. Role-Playing Exercises
How do they collaborate in group scenarios?

6. Check Their Follow-Up Questions
Are they curious about the role and team culture?

7. Seek Peer References
What do past colleagues say about their collaboration?

8. Observe Nonverbal Cues
Do they display approachability with open body language?

9. Assess for Altruism
Have they gone above and beyond to help colleagues?

10. Watch for Positive Energy
Do they talk about team wins with genuine enthusiasm?

Team players are the glue that holds great teams together.

Hire them, and you’ll build a culture of collaboration and success.

What would you add?

♻️ Repost this to help others.

P.S. This is how I'm building my 10-business portfolio (6/10 done)

10 Hiring Claude Prompts I use across our portfolio companies:

Save this. Hiring is the one decision that compounds, good or bad, for years.

1/ Role Scorecard "You're a recruiter with 15+ years placing [role]s. Here's what this hire needs to own in year one [paste]. Build me a scorecard with the 5 outcomes that define success and the 5 skills that actually predict them."

2/ Job Post Rewrite "Here's our current job post [paste]. Rewrite it to filter for ownership, not just experience. Cut the corporate fluff. Make the right person feel seen and the wrong person self-select out."

3/ Resume Screen "Here are 20 resumes for a [role] [paste]. Rank them against this scorecard [paste]. Flag the 3 I should talk to first and tell me the one red flag hiding in each of the rest."

4/ Interview Questions "Build me 12 interview questions for a [role]. Half about how they think, half about how they've actually behaved. Flag the answers that separate someone who's done the work from someone who's read about it."

5/ Skills Test "Design a paid 2-hour test project for a [role] that mirrors real work they'd do here. Tell me exactly what a great, average, and weak submission looks like."

6/ Reference Check Script "Write me 8 reference-check questions that get past 'they were great.' I want to hear about how they handle pressure, feedback, and their own mistakes."

7/ Offer Framing "Help me frame an offer for a [role] at $[X]. Cover comp, growth path, and why this seat matters. Make them excited to say yes, not just willing to."

8/ First 90 Days "Build a 90-day onboarding plan for a [role]. Week-by-week. Tell me what they should own by day 30, 60, and 90, and the check-in questions I should ask at each."

9/ Underperformer Read "Here's what I'm seeing from a hire 60 days in [paste]. Tell me if this is a training gap, a role-fit gap, or a wrong-hire gap, and the exact conversation I should have this week."

10/ Bench Builder "Here are the roles I'll need to fill in the next 12 months [paste]. Build me a simple pipeline plan so I'm never hiring in a panic again."

The prompts are only half of it.

Hiring doesn't reward the fastest yes. It rewards the founder who's willing to stay in the pain of an open seat until the right person walks through it.

AI can help you screen. It can't help you wait.

Which prompt are you running first?

♻️ Repost if you know a founder who's one bad hire away from a bad quarter.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote, from Colorado. Six down so far. Full breakdowns at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

The system is a comfortable teacher.
It rewards staying in line
and falls behind those who move ahead.

The old career playbook is dead.

Wait for direction.
Follow the process.
Trade time for money.

That worked when change was slow.

It doesn’t anymore.

AI is changing how we create.
Automation is changing how we execute.
One person can now do what teams used to.

And here’s the hard truth:

Your company may support your growth.
But it cannot own your future.

If you’re waiting for it to...
you’re already behind.

The highest performers understand this.
They prepare themselves.

This is the shift most people miss 👇

1. Job descriptions are always outdated
Roles describe the past.
Value is created beyond them.

2. Information is free. Application is rare
Knowing more doesn’t move anything.
Using it does.

3. Tools amplify direction
Weak direction scales confusion.
Clear one scales results.

4. Speed is a skill
Decide. Act. Adjust.
Faster than others.

5. Growth compounds in small, daily reps
One step forward.
Every single day.
That’s how rare value is built.

6. Real development happens outside the system
Mentors, side projects,
Practice in the wild.

7. Identity shifts ahead of results
Not "Am I ready?"
"Who do I need to become next?"

No one is coming to build this for you.

The ones who move ahead decide early:
This is mine.

Learn faster.
Act sooner.
Build anyway.

And over time,
the gap speaks for itself.

Thanks to Mike Leber for this awesome post.

10 Claude Prompts for Higher Productivity I use every week: (Save this)

Most founders aren't underworked.

They're just working on the wrong things.

1/ Weekly Priorities
"You're a productivity coach with 15+ years of experience working with founders. Here's everything on my plate this week [paste]. Sort it into: do today, do this week, delegate, delete. Tell me which one task would move the business the most."

2/ Time Audit
"Here's how I spent the last 7 days, hour by hour [paste]. Show me where my time actually went vs. where I think it went. Flag the 3 biggest leaks and what to replace them with."

3/ Delegation List
"Here's a list of every recurring task I do each week [paste]. Categorize each one: keep, delegate now, document and delegate, or kill. Tell me which task would free up the most hours if I let go of it first."

4/ Meeting Audit
"Here's my calendar from the last 2 weeks [paste]. Score each meeting on whether it needed me, whether it could've been async, and whether it produced a clear next step. Tell me which 5 to cancel."

5/ Deep Work Blocks
"Build me a weekly schedule template that protects 4 hours of deep work each weekday morning. Include rules for meetings, Slack, email, and interruptions. Make it realistic for a founder running multiple businesses."

6/ Daily Shutdown
"Build me a 10-minute end-of-day shutdown routine. Include reviewing what got done, capturing open loops, setting tomorrow's top 3, and a clean way to actually stop working. Make it repeatable."

7/ Email Triage
"Here are the 50 most recent emails in my inbox [paste subjects and senders]. Sort each one into: reply now, reply later, delegate, archive, unsubscribe. Tell me which 3 actually need me today."

8/ Decision Filter
"Here's a decision I'm stuck on [paste]. Walk me through it using a clear framework: what's reversible, what's the cost of waiting, what would I tell a friend in this spot. Give me a recommendation."

9/ Energy Mapping
"Here's a log of my energy levels every 2 hours for the last week [paste]. Tell me when I'm sharpest, when I'm dragging, and how to rebuild my schedule so I'm doing creative work in my best windows and admin work in my worst."

10/ Quarterly Reset
"Here's what I planned to get done this quarter and what I actually got done [paste]. Tell me what worked, what didn't, what I overcommitted to, and the 3 things I should focus on next quarter. Be honest."

The prompts are only half of it.

Productivity isn't a stack of apps and a clever schedule.

It's the willingness to look at your week and admit most of it didn't matter.

The hardest part isn't doing more. It's doing less of the wrong stuff.

Cut your week in half. Keep what actually moved something.

Which prompt are you running first?

♻️ Repost if you know a founder who's busy but not making progress.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote, from Colorado. Six down so far. Full breakdowns at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

People don't quit jobs, they quit managers.

Toxic managers can even destroy high performing teams.

Your team's performance reflects your leadership.

Their success depends on your behavior.

Choose your actions wisely.

1. Communication style
→ Great manager: "What do you think?"
→ Toxic manager: "That won't work."

2. Handling failure
→ Great manager: "What did we learn?"
→ Toxic manager: "Whose fault is this?"

3. Giving credit
→ Great manager: "Your idea saved us $10K."
→ Toxic manager: Steals credit silently.

4. Developing talent
→ Great manager: "What skills do you want to grow?"
→ Toxic manager: "Figure it out yourself."

5. Setting boundaries
→ Great manager: "Take PTO. We’ll cover you."
→ Toxic manager: "Why didn’t you answer at 10 PM?"

6. Building trust
→ Great manager: Trusts deliverables over hours logged.
→ Toxic manager: Demands constant status updates.

7. Resolving conflict
→ Great manager: "Let’s find common ground."
→ Toxic manager: Plays favorites and ignores bullying.

---

Great leaders build legacies.

Toxic ones build résumés.

Your team deserves a leader. Not a boss.

Repost ♻️ to help other teams and managers.

PS: People will forget what you said. But they will never forget how you made them feel. Lead with empathy.

Keeping low performers “just to be nice” is expensive.


Let’s break it down:

One person not pulling their weight?
That’s not just 1x the lost output.

It drags the whole team down.

⇢ A-players start looking elsewhere
⇢ Others have to pick up the slack
⇢ Morale takes a nosedive
⇢ Standards drop (fast)

That’s how a team of high performers turns into a group of quiet quitters.

And let’s be real...

Everyone knows who’s not carrying their weight.
It’s the thing nobody wants to say out loud.

So what do you do?

1️⃣ Give clear expectations
↳ No confusion. No guessing. Just straight talk.

2️⃣ Offer real support
↳ Coaching > micromanaging. But it has to be consistent.

3️⃣ Set a timeline
↳ Progress or move on. Lingering helps no one.

4️⃣ Protect your team
↳ One low performer can cost you your best people.

It’s not about being harsh.

It’s about being fair to the folks doing the work.

How do you handle low performance on your team?
Drop your thoughts ⬇️

👊

---

♻️ Repost if you believe in supporting your top performers.

✚ Follow Cory Blumenfeld for more entrepreneurial insights and motivation.

I’m on a mission to inspire 1M everyday people to start their biz and find their voice in the process.

10 Clear Signs You Aren't Manager Material

Save your team and career.

Your team’s silence is a warning.

Leadership isn’t inherited; t’s learned.

Here are the red flags you can’t unsee:

1. Micromanage Every Detail
→ Control tasks → Kill autonomy.
→ Fix: Trust outcomes, not steps.

2. Hoard Credit, Shift Blame
→ “I win, you lose” mindset.
→ Fix: Publicly praise team wins.

3. Avoid Tough Conversations
→ Dodge conflict → Toxicity grows.
→ Fix: Practice radical candor.

4. Fear Smarter Talent
→ Block stars → Mediocrity thrives.
→ Fix: Hire giants. Celebrate their rise.

5. Listen to Reply, Not Understand
→ Dismiss ideas → Innovation dies.
→ Fix: “Listen first, speak last.”

6. Play Favorites
→ Reward loyalty → Merit quits.
→ Fix: Metrics > politics.

7. “Too Busy” for Your Team
→ Cancel 1:1s → Trust crumbles.
→ Fix: Their growth is your job.

8. Can’t Delegate
→ Hoard tasks → Bottlenecks explode.
→ Fix: Train, trust, let go.

9. Emotional Volatility
→ Mood swings → Fear replaces focus.
→ Fix: Fix your triggers. Now.

10. Secretly Hate Leading
→ Miss IC work → Energy drains.
→ Fix: Step back. It’s okay.

Leadership isn’t a promotion; it’s a skill.

True leaders build, not break.

♻️ Repost this and help others.

Follow at Nathan Hirsch for more such posts.

P.S. Being a manager means you need to take care of your team, not just yourself.

Your best employees stay when you...


🌟 Value them.
Not just as cogs in a machine, but as humans
with dreams, goals, and lives outside work.

👂 Hear them.
Their ideas, concerns, and voices matter.
Every day.

📈 Challenge them.
Not overwhelmed, but encouraged to grow, learn,
and stretch their limits.

🤝 Support them.
Through highs and lows. They need to know
you've got their back.

🙏 Appreciate them.
A simple "thank you" can turn an ordinary day
into an extraordinary one.

💰 Pay them well.
Because fair compensation speaks volumes about
how much you value their contributions.

🛡️ Respect them.
Treat their time, their well-being, and their
efforts with the utmost regard.

🕊️ Give them autonomy.
Trusting them to make decisions shows
you believe in their capabilities.

🔗 Connect them.
To a mission that's bigger than the bottom line.
To work that feels meaningful.

💖 Care for them.
Because when you put your people first,
they do the same for your customers.

Every achievement of your company is
the result of your team's efforts.

➟ Invest in them
➟ Believe in them
➟ Watch them do amazing things

Thanks to Justin Wright for this awesome post.

The person you tolerate sets the standard for everyone else.

Every hire sends a message.

Keep a great person, and the team hears:

→ "This is the bar."
→ "Effort gets noticed."
→ "We protect what works."

Result:
People lift. Standards hold. The good ones stay.

Keep the wrong person too long, and the team hears something else:

→ "Coasting is fine."
→ "Results don't matter."
→ "Loyalty means nothing."

Result:
Your best quietly check out.

The bar drops.
Nobody says a word.

Same company. Same mission.

One tolerated hire. A different culture.

Here's what took me years to see.

You don't set your standard in a mission statement.

You set it by who you let stay.

I held onto people too long once.

Firing felt cruel.

What actually felt cruel was watching my best people lose faith because I wouldn't act.

Every decision to keep someone is either:

Raising the bar. Or lowering it.

There's no neutral.

The best operators I know move fast on this.

Not because they're cold.

Because they know the whole team is watching what they allow.

If your standards keep slipping, look at who you're protecting.

What you tolerate becomes your culture.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio (6 down). Documenting everything at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

Watch where a leader points when things go right.

Then watch where they point when things go wrong.

That tells you everything.

I've seen two types of leaders.

The first take the credit and pass the blame.

A win happens, and suddenly it was their vision.

A loss happens, and suddenly it was the team's execution.

I've felt what that does to a room.

People stop taking risks.

They document everything to cover themselves.

They stop caring.

Then there's the other kind.

Leaders who flip it completely.

They hand out the credit and absorb the blame.

Credit and blame, handled right 👇

When the project succeeds

They don't say "I".

They name the people who did the work.

When the project fails

They don't scan for a scapegoat.

They say: "That was my call."

When a junior person has a good idea

It stays their idea.

The leader amplifies it, doesn't claim it.

When leadership above asks what went wrong

They shield the team.

They don't throw a name under the bus.

When something breaks in front of a client

They own it in the room.

They coach the person in private.

When a big bet pays off

"The team pulled this off."

Not "look what I built."

When a big bet flops

"I pushed for this."

Not "they didn't deliver."

Credit shared makes people show up.

Blame absorbed makes people stay.

Do the opposite, and your best quietly stop trying.

You either give it away and carry the weight.

Or you take it all and carry nothing.

The team always knows which one you are.

♻ Repost to show what leadership can look like.

➕ Follow me Nathan Hirsch for leadership done right.

10 toxic behaviors that destroy team morale and productivity.

Toxic colleagues don't just drain energy; they sabotage success.

These red flags often hide in plain sight.

Learning to identify them is your first line of defense.

Protect your peace and performance by recognizing them early.

1. Gaslighting
→ Denies reality or twists facts to make you doubt yourself.
→ Uses phrases like "You're overreacting; that never happened."

2. Constant Negativity
→ Drains energy by complaining and catastrophizing.
→ Brings pessimistic energy to every meeting and interaction.

3. Passive-Aggressive Communication
→ Uses sarcasm or backhanded compliments regularly.
→ Example: "Wow, you finally did something right!"

4. Victim Mentality
→ Blames others for failures and refuses accountability.
→ Frequently claims "Management always sabotages my ideas."

5. Gossip & Drama
→ Spreads rumors and thrives on office politics.
→ Often starts conversations with "Did you hear what [Name] did?"

6. Credit Stealing
→ Takes ownership of others' work or ideas.
→ Presents your proposal as theirs in team meetings.

7. Sabotaging Others' Success
→ Undermines peers through exclusion or withholding info.
→ "Conveniently" forgets to send critical reports or data.

8. Inconsistent Behavior
→ Acts charming to superiors but hostile to peers.
→ Praises the boss but mocks them behind closed doors.

9. Boundary Disregard
→ Oversteps professional limits with late-night calls.
→ Questions your commitment if you leave work on time.

10. Manipulative Persuasion
→ Uses guilt or flattery to control decisions.
→ Says things like "If you were a team player, you’d agree."

---

Set boundaries early and document repeated behavior.

Your work environment should energize you, not drain you.

Which red flag is most damaging in your experience?

A healthy culture requires zero tolerance for toxicity.

♻️ REPOST if you think it's worth sharing.

P.S. Follow me at Nathan Hirsch for more.

Most people confuse authority with loudness.

That is just ego with a microphone.

Real authority is quieter.

It shows up in how you decide, how you communicate, and how you hold standards.

The best leaders I have worked with did not try to look important.

They tried to be useful.

Here is how you build authority without ego.

9 ways to build authority without ego

1. Be consistent
→ Do what you say you will do
→ Let patterns earn trust

2. Make decisions calmly
→ Remove emotion from the process
→ Explain the reasoning, not the drama

3. Hold standards without attacking people
→ Separate behavior from identity
→ Correct early, not harshly

4. Ask better questions than you answer
→ Get to root causes fast
→ Help others think clearly

5. Be the most prepared person in the room
→ Bring context and options
→ Respect time with clarity

6. Give credit quickly
→ Share wins without hesitation
→ Make others feel seen

7. Admit mistakes fast
→ Own the miss without excuses
→ Fix it and move forward

8. Teach systems, not superiority
→ Document how decisions get made
→ Make knowledge transferable

9. Stay close to the work
→ Understand reality, not politics
→ Lead from truth, not titles

Authority that needs to announce itself is fragile.

Authority that is earned is hard to shake.

Which one are you focusing on this year?

♻️ Repost this if you believe respect is built through behavior

P.S. I share calm, systems-first leadership like this weekly here: nathanhirsch(.)com/newsletter

Being teachable is the cheat code for success.

But most people are too proud to use it.

Be teachable.
You don’t know everything.
You’re not always right.

Read that again. Slowly.
Because your ego just tried to skip past it.

The smartest people I know are obsessed with learning.

Quick to admit when they’re wrong.
Hungry to be better.

Meanwhile, the ones who think they know it all?

Stuck. Defensive.
Always the loudest in the room.

Here’s what being teachable actually looks like:
- Asking questions instead of pretending
- Listening to understand, not reply
- Owning your mistakes without excuses
- Seeking feedback you don’t want to hear
- Letting go of “looking smart” to become smart

Humility isn’t weakness.
It’s a superpower.

Stay teachable.
It’s how you grow.

Repost ♻️ to create a better workplace.
And follow Tom Pestridge for more posts like this.

Your bad habits are driving your team crazy.

Fix them before it gets too late.

Here are 7 habits that are causing frustration:

1. Email Frenzy

→ Sending excessive emails for minor updates.
→ Expecting immediate responses, disrupting workflow.

2. Meeting Marathon

→ Scheduling back-to-back meetings.
→ Inviting unnecessary attendees or lacking clear agendas.

3. Control Overload

→ Micromanaging every detail, undermining team autonomy.
→ Redoing tasks assigned to others, indicating a lack of trust.

4. Credit Grab

→ Taking personal credit for collaborative efforts.
→ Overlooking or minimizing team members' contributions.

5. Rumor Mill

→ Engaging in gossip, fostering a toxic work atmosphere.
→ Spreading unverified information, leading to mistrust.

6. Feedback Fumble

→ Reacting defensively to constructive criticism.
→ Dismissing suggestions without consideration.

7. Whining Spiral

→ Constantly focusing on problems without proposing solutions.
→ Bringing negativity that dampens team morale.


Self-awareness is the first step to improvement.

Reflect on your actions and commit to positive change.

Your team’s success depends on it.

♻️ Repost and Follow Nathan Hirsch for more.

📌 Save this post for future reference!⁣⁣⁣⁣

P.S. I am on a mission to make life and entrepreneurship simple for millions.

People don't quit jobs, they quit managers.

Toxic managers can even destroy high performing teams.

Your team's performance reflects your leadership.

Their success depends on your behavior.

Choose your actions wisely.

1. Communication style
→ Great manager: "What do you think?"
→ Toxic manager: "That won't work."

2. Handling failure
→ Great manager: "What did we learn?"
→ Toxic manager: "Whose fault is this?"

3. Giving credit
→ Great manager: "Your idea saved us $10K."
→ Toxic manager: Steals credit silently.

4. Developing talent
→ Great manager: "What skills do you want to grow?"
→ Toxic manager: "Figure it out yourself."

5. Setting boundaries
→ Great manager: "Take PTO. We’ll cover you."
→ Toxic manager: "Why didn’t you answer at 10 PM?"

6. Building trust
→ Great manager: Trusts deliverables over hours logged.
→ Toxic manager: Demands constant status updates.

7. Resolving conflict
→ Great manager: "Let’s find common ground."
→ Toxic manager: Plays favorites and ignores bullying.

---

Great leaders build legacies.

Toxic ones build résumés.

Your team deserves a leader. Not a boss.

Repost ♻️ to help other teams and managers.

PS: People will forget what you said. But they will never forget how you made them feel. Lead with empathy.

The people who think they know everything...
...have the most to learn.
Stay teachable. You don't know it all.

The most dangerous people in a company
are not the least experience.

They're the people who think they've got nothing left to learn.

They're arrogant.

The second you become unteachable, you start falling behind.

Really fast

-You stop asking questions.
-You stop listening properly
-You start protecting your ego instead of improving your thinking.

And people notice.

The best founders, leaders and operators I know all have one thing in common:

They can be challenged.

They can hear feedback without turning it into an argument.

They can sit in a room with someone younger, less experienced, or lower ranked...

... and still learn something valuable.

📌 That's a freaking superpower.

Because intelligence gets you noticed.

But humility keeps you growing.

A few reminders:

1. "I was wrong" is not a weakness
It's maturity.

2. Feedback is data
Not an attack on your identity.

3. The room changes fast
What made you successful 5 years ago may now be outdated.

4. Curiosity ages better than arrogance
Every single time.

Be confident.

But stay teachable.

Those people become dangerous in the best possible way.

Follow me Nathan Hirsch for more like this.
Thank you Charlie Lass for this awesome post.

I never liked typing.

And I run six businesses, so a huge part of my day is just messages, emails, and prompts.

You think a lot faster than you type.

Every message, you're slowing yourself down to keyboard speed.

So a while back I stopped typing most of it.

I found a voice-to-text tool called Wispr Flow.

I hold one key, talk, and clean text shows up right where my cursor already is.

Whatever app I'm in. No setup.

Slack messages between meetings.

The long emails I'd normally put off.

I just talk them through.

Where it really earns its keep is AI. I don't type prompts anymore.

I brief Claude out loud and give it the full picture in ten seconds.

I'd never type all that context. Better prompt in, better answer out.

And I know what you're thinking. Phone voice-to-text was rough for years.

This one's different. It doesn't just transcribe. It cleans up the ums and false starts as
I go. Changes mid-sentence, names, jargon. It keeps up.

I've bought a lot of tools that promised time back and didn't.

This one gave me time to do what I actually like.

Same output, way less typing.

Thanks to Wispr Flow for sponsoring this one.

Wispr Flow is free to use. My link gets you a month of Wispr Flow Pro with unlimited words: https://lnkd.in/ev2tYQFV

And when it asks how you heard about them, put in my name so they know I sent you.
P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio (6 down). Fully remote, from Colorado.

#WisprFlowPartner

12 Hacks To Influence Others When You Speak

Becoome unforgettable.

Words fade. Influence sticks.

Weak delivery kills brilliant ideas.

Your voice deserves power, not hesitation.

Master the art of persuasion:

1. Simplify Your Message
➜ Cut jargon. Clarity beats complexity.
➜ Explain terms like you’re teaching a friend.

2. Start with a Strong Hook
➜ Open with a bold “What if?”
➜ Hook attention in 8 seconds or less.

3. Back Claims with Evidence
➜ Data builds trust. Stories build belief.
➜ Pair stats with relatable examples.

4. Use Pauses Effectively
➜ Let silence emphasize your point.
➜ Replace “um” with a breath.

5. Be Authentic
➜ Share failures as often as wins.
➜ Vulnerability = credibility.

6. Focus on Tone
➜ Match energy to your audience’s pain.
➜ Whisper to command attention.

7. Make Eye Contact
➜ Hold gaze for 3 seconds.
➜ Shift eyes, not your feet.

8. Structure Your Speech
➜ “Problem → Solution → Action” always wins.
➜ Flag transitions like road signs.

9. Practice Storytelling
➜ Replace theories with “This one time…”
➜ Make listeners the hero of your tale.

10. Use Power Words
➜ Swap “maybe” for “imagine.”
➜ Delete “just” and “actually.”

11. Be Confident in Delivery
➜ Stand like gravity can’t touch you.
➜ Speak to the back wall.

12. End with a Call to Action
➜ Demand a next step.
➜ “Book a call” > “Let me know.”

Confidence is a practiced skill, not a gift.

Your voice is your biggest asset.

Tag a nervous speaker.

Ready to own the room?

♻️ Repost this to help others

P.S. I am on a mission to make entrepreneurship simple for millions

8 signs you are the bottleneck in your own business.
And you probably do not even realize it.

Most founders think working harder is the answer.
It is not. It is usually the problem.

I spent years doing everything myself.
It almost broke me.

The business did not start growing until I got out of my own way.
Here is what I had to learn through five businesses and one exit:

1 → Every decision runs through you.
Your team is waiting on you for answers all day long.
That is not leadership. That is a traffic jam.

2 → You do not have SOPs for anything.
Everything lives in your head.
Which means every new hire starts from scratch all over again.

3 → You can not take a week off without things falling apart.
If the business breaks when you leave, you do not own a business.
You own a job with extra stress.

4 → You hire people then tell them exactly what to do.
You brought in talent and refused to let them use it.
That is the fastest way to lose your best people.

5 → You are the only one who talks to clients.
Your customers only trust you.
That means you can never step back. Ever.

6 → You spend your time on $15/hour tasks.
Booking calls. Formatting docs. Answering emails someone else could handle.
Every hour here is an hour not spent on what actually grows the business.

7 → You avoid building systems because it feels slower.
Writing the SOP takes two hours now.
Not writing it costs you two hundred hours over the next year.

8 → You think nobody can do it as well as you.
Maybe that was true at the start.
It has not been true for a long time.

I run five businesses today.
I am not on the org chart of any of them.

Not because I do not care.
Because I built teams and systems that do not need me in the room.

The hardest part of growing is not the work.
It is getting comfortable with not doing the work yourself.

Which of these 8 hit closest to home for you?

Repost if you know a founder who needs to hear this.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio (5/10). Documented here: nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter

Your next customer might never Google you.

They'll ask ChatGPT or Perplexity instead.

And it already has an opinion about who's worth recommending.

For a decade, SEO meant ranking on Google.

Now there's a second game running right next to it.

People are calling it AEO. Answer engine optimization.

Someone asks AI for the best option in your category.

It names a few brands.

That shortlist decides who gets considered, before a single link is ever clicked.

You're either in the answer, or you're invisible.

So here's the uncomfortable question.

When AI recommends companies like yours, does your name come up?

Most founders have no idea and you can't fix what you can't see.

This is the whole reason tracking tools exist now.

The good ones pull from real search-backed prompts across every major platform:

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, and Google's AI Overviews.

They show you the three things that actually matter:

→ How often you show up next to your competitors

→ Which sources the AI is citing to make its pick (often Reddit and YouTube, not your homepage)

→ Where a rival is winning a mention you should own

We started tracking this across our businesses with Brand Radar.

Turns out we were winning some answers and quietly losing others we didn't even know existed.

You don't have to fix all of it today.

But you should know your number.

Ranking got you found for the last ten years.

Getting recommended is what decides the next ten.

Have you checked whether AI recommends your business yet?

P.S. Track your brand with Ahrefs Brand Radar today

11 Things That Require Zero Talent

But Show a lot of Character.

Talent is optional.

Character is not.

Master these, and you’ll outwork, outlast, and outclass the competition.

1. Punctuality
→ Respect others’ time. Builds trust and reliability.

2. Work Ethic
→ Consistency beats brilliance. Mundane tasks matter most.

3. Positive Attitude
→ Turn obstacles into stepping stones. Stress dissolves.

4. Effort
→ Small actions compound. Pride fuels progress.

5. Passion
→ Care deeply. Ignite others. Align with purpose.

6. Coachability
→ Swap defensiveness for curiosity. Grow through feedback.

7. Doing Extra
→ Volunteer. Anticipate. Reputation is earned, not given.

8. Preparedness
→ Plan ahead. Confidence silences chaos.

9. Kindness
→ Listen. Lift. Loyalty follows empathy.

10. Gratitude
→ Say “thank you.” Teams thrive on acknowledgment.

11. Integrity
→ Do right, even in the dark. Legacy > shortcuts.

---

The secret?

These cost nothing but change everything.

Which habit will you own today?

♻️ Repost to remind your network: greatness is a choice.

Follow at Nathan Hirsch for more practical advice.

Saying “NO” more changed my life.

It helped me buy back my time.

It might be baffling to some.

But you don’t need to say “YES” all the time.

In fact, the more you say “NO”, the better it gets.

Although, you still need to know what to say “NO” to.

Here are 10 unconditional “NOs” for me:

1. Unnecessary Meetings
Decline without a clear agenda
Say no to meetings that could be emails

2. Constant Notifications
Turn off non-essential alerts
Set specific times for checking messages

3. Low-Value Tasks
Delegate routine or repetitive tasks
Say no to tasks that don't drive progress

4. Social Media Scrolls
Avoid mindless browsing
Set limits for social media usage

5. Perfectionism
Let go of minor details
Focus on completion, not perfection

6. Toxic People
Distance yourself from negative energy
Say no to draining, non-constructive conversations

7. Overcommitting
Don't say yes out of guilt
Protect your schedule and priorities

8. Unclear Requests
Say no to vague or ill-defined tasks
Ask for specifics before committing

9. Last-Minute Projects
Avoid accepting urgent, non-priority work
Set boundaries for last-minute demands

10. People-Pleasing
Say no when it conflicts with your priorities
Prioritize your own goals and well-being

What do you say NO to?

♻️ Repost this to help others.

P.S. I am on a mission to make life and entrepreneurship simple for millions.

I would not hand my ad budget to a general AI agent.

Meta launched Muse this month, so agents are back in every feed.

Most of that talk is about agents that do a bit of everything.

The attention is going to generalists. But the money is going to specialists.

I have six businesses and not one of them runs on a generalist.

Bookkeeping has a bookkeeper.
SEO has an SEO operator.

That is the whole reason I stay off the org chart.

Ad spend is no different. It just usually gets watched by people who are already stretched.

Here is what that costs:

A medical testing company was running 400+ creatives a week. Internal marketing team on it. Outside agency too.

One creative burned budget for over ten days before anyone noticed.

Nobody inspects 400 assets that closely, every day, forever. Attention goes to the big campaigns and the obvious winners.

So they put Nas.com’s Meta ads agent on it.

It found the creative and told them to kill it. Then it grouped hundreds of others by the message behind them instead of the campaign name.

One angle was beating everything else across formats. About $2,000 a month was going to the weaker ones.

The media buyer kept their job. They got eyes that never blink.

That is the change worth paying attention to.

I built my portfolio on doing more without hiring more. For years that meant systems and a lean remote team. There is a second half to it now.

Nas.com is building a new way to grow your company. They deploy specalized agents into marketing teams to empower SMBs to market like fortune 500 companies. And if SMBs need more humans, they can rent them from Nas.com

Nas.com Humans are trained AI enabled marketers, employed by Nas.com, full time on one brand. A real editor or producer without running a hiring process.

Nas.com Agents take the narrow jobs. Paid media. Competitor watch. Content. Analytics Reporting. Monitoring. Web Design. Your knowledge in one place.

Same team behind Nas Daily. 70 million followers, 20 billion views. They understand attention.

Judgment stays human. Taste and timing. Knowing when an idea is fine and still wrong for this week.

You do not have to build a department anymore. Rent the person. Deploy the agent specialist.

If labor was your ceiling, that ceiling moved.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote, from Colorado. Six down so far.

#naspartner

Most founders don’t fail at link building.

They fail at running it without structure.

Link building usually lives in chaos.

Inbox threads.
Random outreach.
No clear ownership.

That’s not an SEO problem.

That’s an operations problem.

When we look at SEO across our portfolio, the difference is obvious.

The winners run link building like an operation.

Here’s what that actually looks like.

Running link building like an operation comes down to four things.

1) Define the Quality Standard

→ Decide what qualifies as a good link upfront
→ Relevance and placement matter more than volume

2) Build a Repeatable Sourcing Engine

→ Prospecting should run continuously, not manually
→ Consistent inventory beats one-off outreach

3) Separate Ownership by Role

→ Sourcing, approval, and tracking are different jobs
→ Clear ownership removes bottlenecks

4) Centralize Execution and Tracking

→ Every link lives in one system
→ Visibility beats activity every time

This is where tools matter.

Not to replace thinking.
But to support operators.

That’s where Serpzilla fits naturally.

It gives teams structured access to link inventory and workflows
so link building stops feeling reactive
and starts compounding quietly.

That’s the goal.

What part of link building feels the most unstructured right now?

♻️ Repost this if you believe SEO should run like infrastructure.

P.S. I break down systems like this every week. Follow me at Nathan Hirsch for more.

It's April. I'm spring cleaning my tech stack.

Not adding. Removing.

I run five businesses from Colorado. All remote. All lean.

Every quarter the tool count creeps up.

A quick fix here. A shiny new platform there.

Nobody questions it until the stack starts working against you.

That's where I was last month.

My operators weren't doing their jobs.
They were managing tools.
Exporting CSVs. Syncing contacts.
Copy-pasting between platforms. Being the glue.

So I did a stack audit. One question per tool:

Is this doing real work or is my team doing the work for it?

Here's what got cut:

1/ Prospecting tool. No CRM connection. Weekly manual exports.

2/ Enrichment data that already existed in the CRM. Paying twice for the same contacts.

3/ Cold outreach running outside the pipeline. Follow-ups disconnected from engagement history.

4/ Finding emails we could source natively. One more login nobody needed.

5/ Two workflows that only existed to connect tools that should talk to each other already.

Five tools. Gone.
Replaced with one thing: HubSpot AI Prospecting Agent.

It researches accounts inside the CRM.
Monitors buying signals.
Sends personalized outreach.
Follows up automatically.

No exports. No enrichment tool. No middleware.

One agent. Inside the system. Using data that already exists.

My operators got their mornings back.
Leads stopped falling through cracks.
The pipeline finally has one source of truth.

The best upgrade this quarter wasn't something I added.

It was everything I removed.

What's the first tool you'd cut from your stack?

Use HubSpot to create the most valuable tech stack: https://lnkd.in/gWT7XKAz

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio (5 down). Documenting everything at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter

#Ad
#HubSpotMediaPartner

I've spent years figuring out which jobs in a business don't actually need a person doing them.

Video was always the one I couldn't figure out.

You never really know if an idea works until you've already paid to shoot it.

Book the crew, block the day, get everyone together, then find out. And if it doesn't work, you go do it all again.

Most people just accept that's how it goes.

Want more campaigns?

Hire more people.
Always been that way.

Then a studio showed me how they're doing it now and it kind of broke my brain.

Someone writes the concept, builds it in Higgsfield the same hour to see if it holds up, and hands it to editing. No shoot. A full day of work, done before lunch.

They did two beauty launches like this. Cost went down 97%. Time down 79%. And they did it with a team 85% smaller than normal.

That team number is wild to me. Usually growing means hiring more people. This time it didn't.

What they use is Higgsfield AI for Enterprise. Dedicated US GPU, 64 generations running at once per person, SOC 2 aligned, and a real creative sitting with your team instead of a support inbox.

Seedance 2.5 is available at 50% off until August 26. From August 27 onward, the discount will be 35% until Oct 6!

Link in the first comment below ↓

Running lean was never about doing less work. It's about not paying twice to find out if something works.

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio, fully remote, from Colorado.
Partnership with Higgsfield.

#Higgsfieldpartner

10 Mistakes That Make Your Team Hate You

And how to regain their trust.

Respect isn’t demanded. It’s earned.

Your team’s silence speaks louder than applause.

Fix these errors before talent walks out:

1. Micromanaging Every Task
→ Kill creativity by hovering over every detail.
→ Fix: Delegate outcomes, not steps.

2. Failing to Listen
→ Dismiss ideas → Lose critical insights.
→ Fix: “Help me understand your perspective.”

3. Inconsistent Decisions
→ Flip-flop priorities → Confuse priorities.
→ Fix: Explain the “why” behind choices.

4. Taking Credit for Wins
→ Hog recognition → Breed resentment.
→ Fix: “This win belongs to [Name]’s hard work.”

5. Avoiding Accountability
→ Blame others → Destroy trust.
→ Fix: “I messed up. Here’s how I’ll fix it.”

6. Playing Favorites
→ Reward politics → Poison morale.
→ Fix: Promote based on merit, not flattery.

7. Constant Negativity
→ Criticize without solutions → Stifle innovation.
→ Fix: Balance feedback with praise.

8. Dismissing Feedback
→ Ignore input → Problems fester.
→ Fix: Act on one team suggestion monthly.

9. Breaking Promises
→ Overpromise → Lose credibility.
→ Fix: Underpromise, then overdeliver.

10. Not Leading by Example
→ “Do as I say, not as I do” → Invite cynicism.
→ Fix: Model the standards you set.

Respect isn’t a title—it’s daily action.

Tag a leader who needs this wakeup call.

Great leaders build cultures, not kingdoms.

♻️ Repost this and help others.

Follow at Nathan Hirsch for more such posts.

P.S. Your team’s loyalty is your biggest asset. Protect it.

10 Habits That Make You Unstoppable (Most Ignore #5)

This isn’t about motivation; it’s about ruthless execution.

Mediocrity thrives on hesitation.

Your competitors are moving faster.

Unstoppable isn’t gifted; it’s built.

Here is the playbook:

1. Decide Fast, Adjust Later
→ Waiting = missed opportunities.
→ Data informs, but action wins.

2. Control Your Time or Lose It
→ Guard your calendar like gold.
→ “No” is your superpower.

3. Systems > Goals
→ Goals set direction. Systems drive results.
→ Consistency crushes fleeting motivation.

4. Say No to Everything Else
→ Every “yes” dilutes focus.
→ Cut what doesn’t scale your mission.

5. Be the Dumbest in the Room
→ Ego dies where growth lives.
→ Surround yourself with giants.

6. Turn Problems into Paychecks
→ Complaints = billion-dollar ideas.
→ Solve frustrations others ignore.

7. Cash Flow is Oxygen
→ No profit? You’re volunteering.
→ Track daily. Obsess monthly.

8. Obsess Over Customers, Not Vanity Metrics
→ Happy buyers > viral posts.
→ Listen → Iterate → Overdeliver.

9. Launch Ugly, Improve Ruthlessly
→ Perfection is the enemy of progress.
→ Feedback > first drafts.

10. Think in Decades
→ Overnight success takes 10+ years.
→ Compounding effort > short-term wins.

Unstoppable isn’t a trait; it’s a habit.

The world rewards doers, not dreamers.

♻️ Repost this and help others.

Follow at Nathan Hirsch for more such posts.

P.S. “Done is better than perfect” isn’t a cliché; it’s a billion-dollar strategy.

SEO is splitting in two.

Traditional SEO and AI SEO.

Most people are only optimizing for one of them.

We run SEO across four B2B companies and 35+ clients at TrioSEO.

Here's what I'm seeing right now:

→ 60% of searches now end without a click.
→ AI Overviews are pushing organic results below the fold.
→ ChatGPT is sending more referral traffic than Reddit and LinkedIn.
→ Users are reading AI summaries instead of clicking through to your site.

The game isn't just about ranking anymore.

It's about being cited.

By Google's AI Overviews. By ChatGPT. By Perplexity. By Bing Copilot.

That's GEO. Generative Engine Optimization.

And most SEO professionals are still figuring out how it works.

What actually drives visibility in AI-generated answers?

What makes an AI cite your page instead of your competitor's?

How does traditional link building change when AI picks the sources?

That's exactly what Serpzilla is trying to answer.

They're running a global research study on AI SEO and GEO.

Gathering insights from SEO professionals worldwide.

What drives visibility in AI answers. What doesn't. What's changing.

The survey takes 10-15 minutes.

First 30 respondents get a bonus.

If you work in SEO, this is worth your time.

The data from this will shape how we all think about search in 2026 and beyond.

Here is where to participate: https://lnkd.in/gTiD2JJr

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio (6 down). Documenting everything at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

#SerpzillaPartner

A good manager absorbs the pressure from above.

A bad one passes it straight down.

Good managers do this:
→ Take the heat from leadership themselves.
→ Translate chaos into a clear next step.
→ Give the team calm, even on a bad week.

Result: The team focuses. The panic stops at your desk.

Bad managers do this:
→ Forward the stress the second they feel it.
→ Turn one hard message from above into ten anxious ones below.
→ Make their bad day everyone's bad day.

Result: The whole team absorbs pressure that was never theirs to carry.

Same company. Same targets. Different manager. Different weather.

Your job as a manager isn't to pass the storm along.
It's to stand between it and your team.

The best manager I had took the hits from above and handed us clarity.
We had no idea how much he was absorbing until he left.

If you manage people: You're the roof. Either you keep the rain off, or you become the leak.

Which one were you this week?

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio. 6 businesses in, all remote. Documenting it at itsnathanhirsch(.)substack(.)com

This Brex billboard hit a little too close to home.

I spent years buying inventory on personal credit cards.

Five and six figure orders going through cards built for groceries and gas.

You know what happened next.

Random declines.
Fraud holds at the worst moments.
Limits that didn't match the business I was actually running.

I am sure you had a card decline once mid-transaction with a supplier on the phone.

Not great for the relationship.

What's wild is this is still happening to founders and finance teams in 2026.

People are running real businesses on tools that were built for an older version of work.

Expense reports that take longer than the trip.

Spend policies sitting in PDFs nobody opens. \

A monthly close that drags into weeks.

That's the work Brex is wiping out.

Their pitch is Agentic Finance.

AI agents that handle expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend, and close the books in minutes.

The work doesn't get done faster. It mostly stops existing.

That tracks with the way I try to build everything.

The best businesses I've owned were the ones where the boring stuff ran itself.

Curious what other people make of this campaign.

It's a pretty sharp take on a problem that's been ignored for way too long.

Start with Brex here: brex.com/af

P.S. Building a 10-business portfolio (6 down). Documenting everything at nathanhirsch(dot)com/newsletter.

#brexpartner

Don't overcomplicate retention.

Employees stay when:

1) They have strong leadership  
Managers lead with respect, support, and a sense of purpose

2) They have fair compensation  
Pay aligns with both market value and personal contribution

3) They have workplace flexibility  
They control how, when, and where their work gets done

4) They have genuine recognition  
Good work is seen, appreciated, and celebrated regularly

5) They have meaningful purpose  
They feel connected to a mission that matters

6) They have clear growth  
Opportunities to learn, advance, or upskill are visible

7) They have psychological safety  
They're free to take risks and be themselves without fear

8) They have healthy teams  
People collaborate well, lift each other up, and handle conflict

9) They have stimulating work  
The job keeps them engaged, challenged, and mentally active

10) They have real trust  
Leaders don't hover - they empower and give ownership

11) They have life balance  
They don't have to choose between their job and their family

12) They have human respect  
They're treated as whole people, not just output machines


Take care of your team,

And they won't just stay - 
They'll take care of your customers, too.

Which of these do you think is most important?

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♻️ Repost to help more leaders get this right.

And follow me Nathan Hirsch and George Stern for more.