everyone. This is Stelly,

Ft. And

this is heating shot. And in today's episode of the solid trip, we're gonna talk about the power of writing.

You like talking about more than

your sales and market. We just want a bullshit and chat about business and life. And hopefully, while we're doing that, provide along value Teoh for people trying to get shit done way. Don't want to give you

think that's bullshit. You

want you to do your best and how to incorporate it in all kinds of different scenarios you might not be today and why that is useful, meaningful and powerful in running your business just in general in life, right? So the reason why we want to talk about writing me we've talking about a lot of our tips have included writing things out in writing things down. We've used this tool a lot of times in many different episodes in order to help people improve. But just the last episode was about riding postmortems and for people that have them listen to that. Episodes just go back and listen to It is very, very good, and we hit on a really on a really important point, which was the difference between just talking with the team about something that went wrong and trying to analyze it versus riding it down it and analyzing it and why that is such a big difference. And that made us both go. You know what? We should talk. Would you have a mini episode? What? We just talked about writing and why it's so powerful and

so important. Yeah. And you know, the way I would start this like And to start the discussion is like, almost by posing a question to say it is. If you didn't write it down, did it really happen?

No, I love it. I love it is not written down. Has it ever happened?

Yeah. I mean that. It makes me feel stupid when I say that because I'm like, Yeah, well, if it if it didn't get written down, it can't be share. Um, other people can't like, you know, read it, edit it, give their own opinion about it and about anything. I mean, this is writing anything down, and it's also one of our most valuable tools to get something from our brains and our mouths into a natural format. that's much more universal and also not synchronous but actually asynchronous.

And what I mean by that is conversations happened in real time typically right, obviously, while a document could be written and other people can look at it at their time when they feel like it. So this is if one person is writing something and sharing it with other people. Um, it allows for, you know, a lot of different types of learning models and a lot of different types of personalities to collaborate on. One thing. That's what I really like about the writing things down sort of necessity, especially in a business. If you go study like product development and businesses, you'll run in tow. Amazon, obviously they are one of the more. I would say they definitely popularized a lot of concepts around writing things down.

They have an approach called working Backwards, where they write down a future state, whether it's a fake press release or a block post in order to align the whole company and the product teams in the business around an opportunity before they even write any code to build a product or a future, whatever it may be on That's a form of writing things down right and collaborating and the benefits of it you can see in almost everything they do. You know how spot on there are often times in how they how they sort of build product and release things that the market actually loves. Uh, and another thing that you know they do is they have a famous idea of this two pager. So any kind of product initiative or idea? Oftentimes not even just, ah, working backwards. But any kind of business thing starts with this two pager, and you can start looking into this and realize that, like why Jeff Bezos is shareholder sort of. Ah ah! And you know his like public statements about the company you know, in the long form method that they use. It's just so great and so sink because that's a requirement for every executive at the company. Tha Teoh right this to Pedro when they want want to change something or do something.

You Yeah, it's even like it's even a requirement for meetings with, at least in Jeff says. I don't know if it's for all executives That would assume so in Amazon is where they went when? When they have a meeting, Whoever is responsible for one of the problems that talking about the new initiative, whatever it is, needs to write a two page summary of what's going on and what needs to happen and what kind of decisions or information they need to change in the meeting. And the first thing that happens, everybody comes into the meeting room. They sit down. They have this, too. Pages summary printed out in front of them, and they all read it there. And you know, so it's their silence for whatever five minutes or 10 minutes as they're going through this analogizing it.

And then they all put it down. And now they go right to the like, drilling holes into this concept, giving the information needed, asking more questions. And it's a beautiful wait, like we talked in the past episode on why you should do post mortems, which is basically the act of riding out and summarizing and reviewing what has happened, an event that's in the past and this is kind of the the opposite approach, where you before you go and do something, you go through the discipline process of writing down. You know what needs to happen? Why, what I open question marks. What are risks and all that. And you have,

like everybody at the same time reading something through before they jump into a conversation that obviously can make a dramatic difference both of the quality of the conversation, but also enforces the person that asked for the meeting to make sure they have their shit together. Right? And and they thought this thing through very, very

clearly. It helps everyone get on the same page when you when you actually write it down

and then share literally, literally, literally, instead of just sending the mountain, hoping people have read it, but made that read it a few days before the other person is ready in five minutes. Ah, some somebody skim through it. This is something possible. It everybody sitting down reading the document together, right? There's something it might be uncomfortable when you do the first time, but it could also imagine being pretty powerful.

Yeah, Oh, yeah, it could be. It could definitely uncomfortable the 1st 1

It's good to other scenarios are writing things, so there's some of the examples I want to go through and the kind of using writing as a tool instead of just talking with thinking about things. But before I even do that, I want to talk about the power of writing as something that I think increasingly in the world is going to become a more more crucial skill. And we see this a lot with remote companies, you know there's 37 signals, a k back base camp that that, you know, famously writes a lot about how to make moat culture work. And one of the key things is that they say people that work for them of that apply for a job. One key criteria doesn't matter. What the person is doing in the company is they need to be good writers because they because they are virtual well, number one being a good writer will be a good signal that you are a good thinker, that you're thinking things through clearly, and they give the discipline to write out your thoughts and your your your opinions in a well structured manner. But it's also such a crucial skill, because when you are a remote and kind of virtual company,

a lot of the communication is gonna happen is not gonna be you bumping into people in hallways or walk into office spaces and just shouting out ideas of things you're gonna have to write in chat rooms and emails and digital documents. So you being a good writer is kind of a core necessary skill for you being somebody that's able to work with others. And I think that that's today more true in remote companies that than it is in others. I think in general, as we are more more digital in the way that we communicate and we work writing and being good at writing and disciplined about it is gonna become an incredibly important still that people are not gonna be able to to be successful without

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, it's like E. I mean, especially when you think about you know where digitally, right? Everything digital is tends to be written. I know there's video and audio and all those kind of things, and those things were great. We're on a podcast, right? But in all of your listening. But you know, writing it down. It is one of most universal things, and it enables people to actually align with you right or disagree in a way that is actually productive versus you know,

something where you've said it and then all that knowledge disappears. It also one of the most valuable things I think about writing things down in my mind is that it helps kill any room for interpretation. Yeah, so when? Because you know, when two people listen to the same thing, you know, they're gonna have to different opinions about. If two people read the same thing and it's in, it's a business document. It's much harder to have a different interpretation of it.

It's not just a different interpretation of this is a perfect Segway for the next kind of situation that I want to bring up for people to use writing as a tool that they might not. So there's two things right. One is interpretation, which is We both had a conversation, and we both perceived the things we have agreed to of things we said differently because we interpret them differently. But also and additionally s time passes by that interpretation. My change, right? So in that moment we might both have foot felt and thought the same thing two weeks from now. When we both remember that conversation, it might be completely different, right? I might have a complete, different memory of what happened then. I felt about it in that moment and the same thing for the other people or person involved in it. And we had this experience. I had this experience with the more impromptu one on Once that I would make.

So one thing that we that we learned was that sometimes I would have a conversation with somebody and it would turn into, you know, surprisingly, into something really important. Like we would uncover some big challenge of problem, something personal, something that related to the business and would agree to something that didn't have an immediate action associated with it. And the mistake would do is we just agree with it and feel OK about it and move on. And then often times a month later or so when it would come up again, the memories of what we had agreed on all the memories of how we've approached this or what we thought should be a solution were different, like the person was like I thought we said we would do this, and I remembered it differently, and that's a really shitty place to be in right now. That's very frustrating, very wasteful. So

we weigh in it, Yeah, hits on that issue and I don't know what ever said it is. But where we talk about a line, how do you get around then, if you have a conversation and both of you thought something different about the conversation? Yeah, right. And what to do next? It just doesn't work. So things you can do around that would be like if you're not very good at writing things down yet, And then again, we would recommend you get very good at it. But hum is Ah, after a conversation, make sure you send an email following up on it in terms of reviewing it and talking

about next steps. Exactly. So the episode is Episode 76. Startup Teen Alignment. It's a really powerful episode of the word alignment has been something that I see it close are being used more. Mora's many people have listened to that episode, so but But that was our solution, like a spot on what we will. We decided it. It doesn't make sense to have too much of a process of creating some kind of a Google share folder where these things are all shit because sometimes is one of one, sometimes personal things. Sometimes it's not. Things that are not like publicly shouldn't be public available for everybody in the company. So we just adopted the process and we still working on this? I don't think we're thinks. Still, sometimes we forget about doing this,

but we've done this more more. Getting better at it is to just do a quick email summary of what? Just what we just talked about and use a good subject line. So we're gonna be able to easily find that and say, You know, here's the probably discussed. Here's the three things we agree with. There's something I'm missing. Just reply and let me know. Make sure we clarify that if you read this summary of my interpretation of our conversation and it doesn't match yours exactly, let me know, Let's have another conversation. And if you do just quickly replying says yes, exactly, were on the same page. And then two months from now,

when this comes up with ever, we want to look at this again. We could just easily find it in the in box and with, like, a thread that shows what we agreed or shows that we had a debate about it and we finally ended up at this number of that, whatever it is. So we just started very quick. Summary emails of the conversation.

Yeah, it's a really key tool, I mean, and just just on the alignment, things like with all the partners I have. Like we just started using that language. So you know, when we talk about something, if we're in a disagreement and then you know one of us is trying to convince the other, Well, once it's done, we know it's done. When, When? When there's a statement, like over a line. We have alignment now,

so we actually use those words in conjunction with writing things down or talking things out because you know the most important thing. You need an organization in life, I believe. But really, in an organization that's basically a lot of relationships is alignment. If you don't have that, then you're not gonna be able to make progress as effectively as you could. And as a result as a way to get that This writing things down and being very diligent about it is one of the key ways to do that. And I just don't see enough companies doing

that. What do you think that is?

It's easy to be lazy, you know? Is this lazy? It's laziness. I mean, this work, it's work. I mean, you got to type it up. You gotta like I'm really fast at typing on my phone. Yeah, I can't read my own handwriting on That means other people can't either. I have chicken scratch like a doctor. I blame my father. He's a position. His handwriting is worse than mine. And so,

like, I think I'm pretty much forced to communicate in text because of that. And so that helps me a lot. I also know that when I when I talk, sometimes I could ramble, which I'm probably doing right now. So all those things for me personally make it so if I write it down, that's my quickest, fastest way to get along. But and and way to communicate what I'm thinking in a way that's most effective and share a bowl, even if even if I I write so much down now, even when it's not gonna be shared with anybody one because I want to remember it, too. Because one day I might want to share it with somebody in three, like it feels good to get it out. Because oftentimes,

if I don't write it, then it's stuck in my throat, so to speak. And then and then in an ocean chip, you know, it just leads to all these issues, and a lot of times it has to do with. And I know I've given the suggestion before about writing an angry email on and drafting it instead of actually sending it. Those are all all practices. I believe that our great to help with communications. And so we shouldn't forget Stelly that this is about communication. Yeah, but being better

at it being better than and, well, you know, 90% of a significant part off working with other people or accomplishing anything in life is about communication, communication with yourself, communication with others, getting alignment with people through communication. The vast majority off what you do within a group of people in a structure like a company is communicating with each other to to agree to certain things, to know what needs to be done. So getting better communications that the name of the game I'll end with this with this tip on my and in terms off how to get better at writing how to think about this, especially with people that have difficulties writing things down at what I will call his version one. So some people like if if I'm thinking through a problem, it's not in and try to think that problem through inversion one in sitting down and writing about it, that is very, very difficult for me. All right, I get stuck in that and I find that to be a difficult tool because a very fast way for me to think through a problem and to get to a solution,

get some kind of level of clarity of what I think is going on is, I need to talk it out right. That's kind of a really good channel for me. I need to have some kind of a sparring partner. It sometimes doesn't matter who that is to just talk about it until in that conversation, you know, it's that that that saying, How do I know what I think? If I don't hear what I say? So that's maybe it's laziness, but that's something I'm really I've gotten really fast. That I could talk about the problem in a very short period of time and avoid was a very complicated problem. I was completely unsure about what could be a solution. Within a few minutes of talking it out loud, I will usually get to some kind of a conclusion all clarity of what needs to happen. And that's my version one.

And then version two is riding it out or summarizing it, because that's kind of another step of enforcing thinking it through even more clearly detail than when you look at it. Sometimes it's like, Yes, this is it and now I can communicate it. Now it's documented. Not people can look at it and share and learn from it. And sometimes when you write it out, it's clear now. It made a lot of sense when we talked about it, but if I look at this, this doesn't seem that thought through or maybe the system holes, so that's kind of my process. Usually mad Version one is not to write. My version wants to talk and version Twister, right?

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sent. And ah, for me. I just Yeah, my version one is usually writing just because I probably don't like talking to people about my feelings and my things usually. But that's more on the personal side where I'm still like things that I'm reacting to. I definitely don't mind talking, but yeah, for me, I know eventually I'm gonna have to communicate it, at least in my businesses and the fact that we're remote team and all that the most likely way I'm gonna have to communicate

it has written Awesome. All right, any more tips? I think that's

it from the I think that's it from us. Yeah.

All right. Well, uh, let's not write shit down, right? Shit down. And here's a good example of what you can write down to help us out and help the community. The startup community out. One thing that will be highly appreciated for you to write a review for us and the review could good back. Critical. We like them all.

Oh, good.

But write it out, and maybe you want to write a review on this episode on writing what you learned what you're missed. What suck What was good as a little kind of immediate action item that's good for you and will also benefit us in the entire community. Because the more people write reviews, the more people discover us, the bigger the community of people that can listen, learn and share information with each other. So you can go to iTunes and give us a right out. A review for this episode.

That'd be amazing. Yep, Predecessor of you clean

all right.