CMO at Docebo (DCBO) | X @SeismicSoftware @Lessonly ($300M) @OpenViewVenture @ExactTarget ($2.6B) @Salesforce | 3x 📖 | 👎🏻 onions | 🏃🏻♂️to stay sane
Indianapolis, IN
Joined January 2008
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I was reminded of an article I wrote almost a decade ago about the lessons I learned as a first-time father: Fountains of Surprise: 7 Lessons from a First-Time Dad. Hopefully, it will help all of you as you start this wonderful journey.
Lesson 1 – For future fathers, a trip to Paris with your betrothed is, and always will be, a good starting point for creating human life.
Lesson 2 – You will never begin to understand what your wife is going through. Don’t try. The best thing you can do is support her with your words and actions. Clean the damn house.
Lesson 3 – You can plan all you want, but remember, baby does what baby wants, and modern medicine forces baby to do what the doctor wants. It is never your decision.
Lesson 4 – Take advantage of the nurses. We sent Caden to the nursery every night in order to get a full night’s rest. You are better off rested.
Lesson 5 – Who cares what other people think? Not you. It is your life. Do what you want but remember to have the conversation before you end up in the hospital. Your family is much stronger when you are on the same page.
Lesson 6 – You will be hit with urine unless you take the necessary precautions.
Lesson 7 – Your little one has a spidey sense for clean objects and will dirty them before the cleaning session is over. Always lay out one or two extra diapers.
But most importantly, take full advantage of every second of every day. Caden is now 10 years old, and it feels like only a moment ago when I wrote this article.
Read it here > linkedin.com/pulse/fountains…
Your head trash doesn't show up at 40. You develop it when you are young, usually when something felt unsafe or not enough. Then it runs the show for decades.
The more meditation and IFS work I do, the crazier it is to me that we performance coach the hell out of each other without first dealing with childhood trauma.
The way they teach math in the public school system is insane. That’s all.
Thanks for attending my TED talk.
I think we should all spam @jamestalarico’s X account until they stop texting us. Good lord.
Doing this for sure. Anything else you would add?
PSA: This week was kind of a turning point for AI and cybersecurity. Please take this weekend to do some simple cleanup for your family. Some suggestions:
- Set up a password manager like 1Password and give your spouse or partner access to a shared vault. Teach them how to use it.
- Update your passwords for critical stuff - your email account, your bank or financial stuff, etc. Store in your password manager and use the strongest password you can.
- Use two factor auth for everything you can. SMS is not ideal although better than nothing. Google Authenticator or a passkey is better. Hardware key is safest.)
- Add a sim pin to your phone. Makes it harder to sim jack.
- Update your phone and your computer to the newest releases. Turn auto-updates on.
- Freeze your credit - takes 5 minutes.
- Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN.
- If you’re using claude code or have AI agents that browse the web, they’re probably using Node.js. It’s also vulnerable. Update claude code, update node on your machine.
- If you’re building stuff on your computer, ask claude or grokbot (which is connected to twitter and likely has the most current info) to audit any of your repos for vulnerabilities. Ask grok to make it a scheduled task so it can do this daily - things are moving very quickly in the space right now.
- Consider some light resiliency stuff. This probably sounds silly, but it sounded silly at the beginning of covid too. Having printed out copies of important stuff - especially financial accounts. Having some cash on hand. Having some shelf-stable food and clean water or a water filter. Having a map. Having a generator that can at least power your fridge or some devices. Cheap insurance.
Again, I don’t want to alarm people, but I was taught that you should have a Secure plan, a Comfortable plan, and a Wealthy plan. And it seems pretty clear the secure plan needs to now factor cybersecurity risk as a legit threat. Take a weekend and shore yourself up.
These hand dryers in Paris are one of the worst products on the market. Let’s get some Dyson in here, please
The disconnect between the marketing of AI “first” product and the actual product is massive right now.
I’ve had too many demos where I’ve felt hoodwinked.
We have a long way to go. :)
Note to self. Do not post anything related to Elon on this platform. Or you will receive multiple degrading messages from anon people/bots. Fake names. No pictures.
It’s magic. :)
Quote from a team member after reviewing a well- marketed 'AI-first' video product:
"The system is basic at best. No way. It won't move the needle for us. You can create $50 videos for $5. Another example of AI marketing > what it can actually do."
We have a long way to go.
Note I shared with the team on Friday:
I’ve spent the last year trying to find the right words for how I want to show up, at work and at home. Maybe it's all the breathwork I've been doing lately, but it finally hit me right in the sweaty face on my way back from an OrangeTheory class in Miami: consistency, compassion, and clarity.
Consistency is putting in the work whether the task is big or small, especially when it’s hard or boring, or you’d rather do literally anything else (my life right now: going through budgeting spreadsheets). It’s why our value, progress over perfection, matters so much right now.
Compassion is giving yourself a break when you miss and giving each other the same grace. When everyone is stretched, it’s easy to read a short Slack reply as attitude. The person is probably just tired; assume good intent and follow up by asking what they need.
Clarity is knowing what matters right now, so you know where to put your work and who deserves patience (including you). If you’re not clear on your priorities for the next few weeks, that’s on me and your leaders. So ask... remember to always ask... IN ALL CAPS IF YOU HAVE TO.
Dear @jamestalarico… stop texting me man. Seriously. i’ve reported your numbers to spam 14 times in the last month.
