Elan's Blog

  There are usually three kinds of people when it comes to AI: 1. The realists They know AI is just a tool and a useful one for certain kinds of problems. They’re focused on adapting and get on with life. Don’t get caught up in talk of jobs getting replaced or superintelligence. 2. The ones with something to gain They have a product, a fund, or a narrative to push. So they lean into the hype, sometimes stretching the truth to keep excitement (and investment) high. 3. The followers They take the hype at face value. And they often end up repeating what the second group says, without questioning it.

  Not everyone can just wing it. When you see someone killing it with their presentation or interview or a sales call or pitching an idea, it's the culmination of hours of preparation. One of my mentees asked what exactly preparation looks like. I tried explaining it to him, but later I realized nothing can explain it better than this scene from Ford vs. Ferrari. Before leaving for Le Mans, Ken Miles walks his son through the entire race in his mind — from the critical first gear turn at Eau Rouge to pushing Top Gear at 210 mph down Mulsanne straight. He describes every corner, every shift, every braking point. From how the car behaves through the Dunlop Bridge, to letting it run free over the rise at White House. It’s the culmination of years spent tuning the perfect car and studying every inch of the circuit. That's what real preparation looks like. Most people think they can wing it, until they are in the moment. It's not just about having slides or data points. It's...

The ground reality of AI capabilities is not what you see in your LinkedIn feed. I’m getting overwhelmed, infuriated, outraged, and anxious all at the same time whenever I see posts claiming AI killed one tool (replaced one role) or the other. Overwhelmed because every post in my feed is around some kind of AI automation. Infuriated and outraged because I know most things are not as flawless or seamless as they claim. Anxious because it makes me wonder if I am missing out on something. I’m someone who always tries to find shortcuts to get things done faster with minimal effort. So when I heard about tools like GPTs, Lovable, Make, and Gumloop I was equally excited like others. I was happy with the prospect of getting more done with less, and avoiding the pain of convincing people to do what I want. But if you ask me today, after publishing 150+ blogs in the last six months (which got half a million impressions so far), and spending 100+ hours trying to build 4 micro tools and 5 website...

Some marketing gurus talk about focusing on the 95% of your target market who aren't ready to buy. A few days back, David Reed, ex-Head of Content at Gong, shared how focusing on the 95% helped Gong to grow . But it's never 95% vs. 5%. It's 5% + 95%. Why? You need to survive today to see tomorrow. The 5% in-market segment helps you see another day. So, focus on the 95% only after gaining enough traction from people who are in-market today. If brands want to invest in the 95%, they can emulate the Gong Lab series. And before you get started, here's why the Gong Lab series was a success to begin with. Gong's data-driven sales insights were first of their kind as it shared raw insights into what influenced deal closures. It helped sales leaders to work and coach their team not based on theories, gut feel, or past experience, but data. The content was written by SMEs (ex-sales leaders) like Chris Orlob and Devin Reed. It made a huge difference in the kind of data points...