SUPPORTED BY STUDIO​

Hey Reader,

When I was 14, my aunt said very plainly said to me: "Do you think I'd be in this relationship if I could support myself?"

I was shocked.

Partly because she admitted this to me but also because I didn't realize anyone could feel this way––like they couldn't figure something out. Color me naive, but I believed that come hell or high water, figuring things out was the thing we could all do.

But I was wrong and lots of people don't believe that at all.

When I think back to childhood, I remember my family being on both ends of the wealth spectrum: having lots of money and very little before finding our way somewhere in the middle.

One day in high school, I'd forgotten my TI-83 Plus calculator at home (who remembers this?) and panic-texted my Mom. When she couldn't find it, she went out, bought another one and brought it to the school.

We were rich!

I'd long forgotten the days we'd get by on groceries from church and nearby non-profits.

I consider myself blessed to have been on both ends of these extremes. It gave me empathy I doubt I'd have otherwise, and a certain kind of grit for when times get tough.

And I think that grit is useful.

So empowerment has been a theme for everything I do (even when it doesn't make me any money). It's a core value of my work and I'm proud to hold it.

That said, I'm noticing empowerment isn't just about knowledge anymore. It's no longer an information problem.

It's an emotional one.

That's what I'm betting on.

I've been working with Studio to develop an app. You're the first to see it. Well this is fancy ​ Ps: double thanks to Shaunté Glover for what is still my favorite headshot.

BEHIND THE BUSINESS

Experimenting with the Studio App

This season I was invited to build a coaching app with one of the best education production companies around, but one thing I had to contend with is it being powered by AI. It would be wrapped around me––my ideas and ways of thinking, my guidance, my books, and my experiences, but naturally I had lots of questions:

Intellectual property, security, ethics, opportunity, accessibility, and whether something like this would genuinely be helpful for someone who loved learning asynchronously (introverts, full-time employees, attention-sensitive entrepreneurs) who wanted 1:1 advisement regularly on a budget and on their own time.

Am I an asshole indirectly contributing to data centers? Or just trying to do something good with the inevitable evolution of the world we live in?

It's a whole new product for me (and a whole new challenge), but I've come to the conclusion that this experiment may very well be worth it.

So, these last few months have been jam-packed with extrapolating things out of my brain and into this app and it has been work. The kind that makes you want to eat ramen on the couch and not talk to anybody for 3 days kind of work.

But, here we are. Business with Heart is live in the Studio app store.

And it works scary well. I've tested it with four completely different businesses (bake shop, independent consultant, artist, small non-profit) and it's just as intense as me, asks you the same hard questions, clarifies your positioning, and coaches you on how to talk about your business idea––all while holding your hand through the process.

It's actually based on a game board I made called The Strategic Path: 11 Steps to Your First Client (but in an app).

Studio is doing a huge promotion this week, but even without the promotion, it's a fraction of my advisement cost and I'm really curious to see what people think.

Here's a formal preview of what Studio is pushing out:

But what if it doesn't work?

Before the business I'm running now, I built nearly 30 others that didn't work. So if it doesn't work, we pivot. We don't panic. We rest. We ask the right questions, and we boldly put ourselves out there again. That's the kind of thinking and practice I want to instill in my app's advisees.

This is an experiment with what I'm sure will be plenty of imperfections, but if you're not afraid of that and decide to test it out, respond here and I'll add you to the monthly private live office hours.

It will help me check in with you, make sure things are working like we want, and help you iterate on your idea. It's also my first foray into group coaching––a hybrid model of advisement.

Would love your thoughts!

COFFEE THOUGHT I am officially old enough to say "back in my day, there were CDs..."

DAILY QUOTE "On a scale of 1-10, I am pretty damn naive." — (the brilliant) Sarah Kay and one of my favorite poems​

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Keep going,

tanya moushi ("moo-shee") Sign up at moushi.co​

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