By Gus Balbontin
Edition #82

Hey!

Missed me?! Ha!

I am nowhere near as consistent as I used to be but - but - when I do write I get a lot of emails back and love and thoughts from you all so… im’m happy with the more spontaneous writing cadence.

This week I am going to be discussing at this online webinar (you can all join here) if it’s a good idea to have an innovation team or role in your business or not.

The riddle is well known in business - if you appoint a person or a team to do innovation in your business, are you simultaneously telling the rest of the business they are not doing innovation?

Here are some thoughts… remember I always say you don’t have to believe me, these are just provocations and my perspective.

Let’s rewind first.

This is how I like to organise innovation in a business (here is my BAU-HOP-STEP-JUMP model) - remember that innovation has to also occur in BAU - every day - in the most mundane of processes - just as much as in JUMPS and everything in between.
In fact, proportionally the majority of time spent on innovation should be in BAU! That’s where your customer is experiencing you, that’s where you pay attention.

What’s innovation? (Here is a reminder of the model) I always simplify it by saying that it’s just fixing problems.

You fix BAU problems or crazy JUMP problems… all of it is innovation, all inevitably start in disorder and transition in to order. We tend to think that innovation is the crazy, disorder end but, to innovate we need both order and disorder and depending on what we are solving is the balance we need in our teams.

For example… A startup generally has more disorder than order, while a well-established business has more order than disorder.

Another example… If you are solving BAU problems, then it’s likely you’ll have more order in the team and slightly less disorder, but if you are solving JUMPS it’s likely you’ll have more disorder and less order.

Why is this context important? Because when we appoint a role or team to do innovation - it’s generally seen as appointing a team to do disorder, to challenge the order in the business. And this is the first mistake we make - innovation people seeing themselves as simply challenging order and the rest of the business as being the order and resisting it. Creating a us and them that gets us nowhere.

The question we don’t ask is where should the innovation team focus? Everywhere?

If it’s BAU and HOPS every person in the business should be doing it all the time. Every day we should challenge ourselves and try to find ways to solve the customer problem more effectively and efficiently.

If it’s STEPS and JUMPS, it’s fair to shift this responsibility to a dedicated team of role and I’ll go as far as saying that it needs to be partly external - especially the further into the future you go - External people have not drank the cool aid of the business so they can genuinely think outside of the box.

I do believe firmly that for BAU and HOPS you don’t need a person or team. All you need is just good leadership and lots of regular novelty (see in this newsletter why)

For STEPS and JUMPS you definitely need a separate team and the further out you go the more external it kinda becomes.

But don’t you need something to kick-start innovation in BAU and HOPS if the business has become too stuck in its ways? Or maybe to keep pushing everyone?

Maybe - yes - depends a little on the business, industry and the scale… So yes, sometimes you have to run a number of activations and initiatives that wake up everyone and shakes them into thinking and challenging the norms a bit more but the goal should always be to drive BAU and HOPS innovation internally. To make internal innovation sustainable, you need to look at it holistically, from recruitment all the way through to incentives, KPIs, structures and more.

For STEPS and JUMPS I think it’s different, the business can do BAU and HOPS innovation but it will always struggle with STEPS and JUMPS because it’s hard to be something that you are not, and sometimes STEPS and JUMPS require the business to think completely different and reinvent itself.

Kodak, Blockbuster, Lonely Planet are examples. So this is where I would definitely build some capability and I would definitely infuse it with some external thinking. This is where you push the boundaries hard, where your experience doesn’t count and radical thinking is favoured.

Anyway, need to go, I’m in Sydney, squeezing the last few things in before we go to Argentina to see the family.

Come to the event on Thursday 4 December at 10.30 AEDT and let’s chat more about it!

Yew!

Love

Gus!

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #81

Hey!

Don’t underestimate your customer.

When we think of customers, we tend to think of organisations or people who buy our product or service.

Remember, if you think you are B2B or B2C it’s always B2H or H2H (business to human or human to human)! Hahaha

Customers are always human - when you think you are selling to an organisation, you are actually selling to a human in that organisation - never forget.

We also think that customers are only those who transact financially with us - those who buy a product or service from us. But customers come in all shapes and types of transactions.

If you broaden the concept of customer, you will find that even your kids at points in time are your customers! My pretty wife is my customer! My staff are my customers.

My band members are my customers!

Anytime anyone depends on you to deliver value, you have a customer relationship.

You have something they want and they trust you will deliver it to them.

They are for a tiny moment allowing themselves to be vulnerable - to trust your promise of giving them the value.

I will explore this broad concept of customer further in my book - when I one day finish writing it!! But for now, here is a practical situation:

If you are knowingly delivering a suboptimal experience to your customer, or it happens by accident, the BEST thing you can do is acknowledge it as soon as you become aware.

Do not delay this!

Recent bad experience with Frank Green (the cup tastes and smells like plastic) - told them, but they didn’t acknowledge me - so… no more Frank Green?

It’s like when Paul Foot (amazing comedian) says something like - “when someone bakes a cake and gives you a piece, do not waste any time commenting on how beautiful it is - if you take a bite and stay silent for long enough for the baker to ask: how is the cake? - It is way too late, it doesn’t matter what you say, you won’t recover”

If a customer points out something, the quicker you acknowledge them, the better the set up for recovery is.

But, what if they are wrong?

Makes no difference, the fact that you acknowledge first means you can then move into solving the issue - if you don’t acknowledge them, any solution will always be suboptimal and you’ll miss the opportunity to delight them with your vulnerability, empathy and humanity. Even if they are wrong, it’s better to first grab the issue and not deny it, they will be doubly impressed when you solve it.

So… don’t underestimate your customers.

Sooner or later, they figure shit out and it’s always better to be on the front foot than on the back foot!

As I mentioned at the start, this applies to YOU, not just your businesses - your customer is anyone you solve a problem for, anyone waiting for you to deliver them value - if you are in HR, everyone in the company is your customer. If you are in finance, tech, sales, marketing - makes no difference. We all have customers. Even your colleagues are your customers - when you say “I’m going to do something” and you don’t do it or don’t do a good job at it and you realise, the quicker you acknowledge it, the better!

Because mistakes are inevitable, recovery is the key.

At a keynote - the AV team is my customer at the start, and then I am their customer when we get moving - they need from me the slides, my setup, my attention to explain things, then I become their customer when I am on stage needing lights and projectors and screens and sound to work!

So disproportionately lean on recovery, it doesn’t mean don’t try to avoid making mistakes - but remember you will always make them, so your recovery tells a better story.

The same phenomena happens when parenting, when you screw up with your kids, the quicker you acknowledge it, the faster you sort it out.

Repeat with me this mantra I wrote to help everyone remember that our businesses exist thanks to our customers, and our lives are like a customer relationship continuum - in all the various different shapes!

Dear customer:
I hear you, I see you, I understand you. I won’t pretend to feel what you feel, but I always try. I try hard and I care. I’m not perfect, but I care. We can all get it wrong, but judge my recovery, not my mistake. I will do all I can to make it up to you.

Needs work, but you get the vibe hahahah!!!

Yew!

Love

Gus

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #80

Hey!

And when you think you’ve done the most peculiar keynotes in the craziest of places…

- like the time I did one in a private cruise ship in Fiji… or the time I did one in Kalgoorlie -

A new one takes the prize!

Private cruise - pretty wife came with me :-)

Last week I flew 4hrs and drove another 3.5hrs to Rolleston in Qld to do a keynote - to the whole town! - yes!!! - town of 80 people or so at the moment - they came together at the cricket club to have a bit of fun and listen to Gus. Crazy!

When I first heard from my agent “hey Gus someone saw you at a keynote somewhere and they are keen for their town to hear you too” - I was like wtf? Normally, a business or team wants to hear me but not a “town”! Hahaha

Once I got over the town bit of course I started wondering how far I would have to travel to make it to this tiny regional place and the answer was about 8hrs! I can fly to Singapore in that time do a keynote and come back and still be quicker!!!

The whole town!

I kinda half agreed to it, partly cos I love doing regional stuff partly cos I was curious to keynote to a town! But it wasn’t easy, the next challenge was where can I stay and what can I eat?! Is there a cafe or restaurant there? ….. well…..yeah kind of

But..

“The organiser is happy to host you in her house and just feed you!”

And I was like - oh god no I need a bit of privacy and time to recharge and hide away with my thoughts!

So - they told me there was an Airbnb in town I could get - ok cool, that sounds better, let’s do that but I am still unsure - let me meet them online and see what’s the vibe.

What sealed the deal was when I jumped on the call with Alex who saw me present before and was the instigator and Blossy - the matriarch of the town, the woman I want to be when I grow up!

Both women were amazing - Alex full of energy and the biggest smile and Blossy in her hospital bed, high on opioids, post-knee surgery and still happy to have a chat and tell me why I needed to come to Rolleston to speak!

That did it - I had to go and meet these women and the town.

When I get to the counter of the rental car company in Rockhampton the guy says “you happy to drive a something something” - and I was like “sorry what was that?” “something something four wheel drive” - I didn’t really understand what he was talking about, all I heard was four wheel drive and I said yeah no problem

When I went to pick it up it was one of those high vis mining cars siren 🚨 included! Hahaha! I jumped on Google maps and got on the road….everything was going smooth until I got to the dirt road and I started wondering where the actual hell I was going!

My high vis 4x4

I had no reception, about 200ml of water left and a pear. At that stage, I had not crossed a single car in any direction, so I was genuinely wondering if I should just let someone know where on earth I was!

Note the severe fire warning - just to keep things even more interesting!

Luckily, the dirt was only about 30km and I have driven all my life on dirt roads so it was not an issue….but I tell you…for a minute I was thinking where am I going??

Yep! You can see why I started to worry

Rolleston is literally a handful of houses…

Rolleston - don’t worry I captured all of it in this frame - this is it!

The Airbnb was of course Alex’s other house behind her house - ha!

My home for a night - Alex and fam were so beautiful! Cant wait to see them again

When I rock up to the cricket club where the event was hosted I see tables set up on the cricket ground, a band near the tiny stand, and an amazing effort at trying to set up a screen and a projector for me.

I quickly realise this was going to have to be an a capela keynote - no slides - just a handheld and a chat.

When I get there ready for dinner and presentation I see my audience for the first time - the town has gathered.

Fear #1 - the average age was pushing 60-70 - would they understand my accent and even catch how fast I talk??! Faaarck!

Fear #2 - what am I going to actually talk to them about?!!! Normally I challenge humans and businesses to think outside of the box to pull the future towards them…but with the average age I was facing, I did wonder how my content would land!

Fear #3 - I know regional Australia likes to drink - will they even be coherent enough by the time I grab the mic?

Fear #4 - I think the av set up is def going to feedback! I can’t walk in front of those speakers!

Fear #5 - why am I here??? Hahaha

Anyway - it was lovely - warm - welcoming - funny - great crowd!

Of course some have had a bit too much to drink but overall it was awesome.

The peculiar bit? Most of the questions were about AI and the future, and how we protect old wisdom but embrace new futures?

A lot of them are of course growers - and the majority were cattle farmers - what happens when we start 3d printing protein? Are we ever? How is AI impacting our kids? Should we worry?

My view is always one of abundance and positivity - yes yes there is no question that any new technology will have an impact and that some of that impact will be negative - but it’s silly to compare past and future.

It’s like telling nature “noooo that volcano that just erupted destroyed this beautiful valley and killed this endemic species that was specifically growing here!!! Now future generations won’t get to see that”

In a few centuries of course the explosion of the volcano gave birth to new fertility, new valleys, perhaps even new species. And those future generations will struggle to understand or care about how beautiful the valley was that the volcano destroyed.

Bear with me - this is true as soon as we don’t destroy the entire planet which we humans are well capable of…the analogy is more comparable to the printing press or to AI - the volcano is a new way of doing things that inevitably will impact everything around it, some of the impact will be negative but it will give birth to new and amazing opportunities.

Yew!

Love

Gus

P.S. Talking about AI - if a town of 80 people with an average age of 70 were curious about AI… I am sure you have no excuse to not be.

So - click here book in and come talk to Lucas and me next week in the OPEN AI Lab Session #2.

Lucas has done all the hard work to make sure you just get perfect signal - no noise - just solid lessons and practice.

Come!! - cancel everything - come and hang out and learn new stuff!

P.S.S.
I almost missed this one:

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it last week - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 AMAZING - LOVED IT!

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OR… HIT REPLY and share your thoughts on what you want to have more in this Newsletter!

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #80

Hey!

Trust is something that we learn to build over time.

In business and life the default is “don’t trust” and the exception is “trust”.

Most businesses I work with run and operate without trust - not with it.
Even though we think that trust is in place, it’s not.

The business often runs on a handful of trusted relationships and a shitload of processes and KPIs and Gantt charts and ERP systems!

It’s like trust doesn’t exist, then over a period of time and an accumulation of interactions, you have now arrived at somewhat trusting someone.

I say somewhat because it’s rare to find 100% trust amongst everyone in a team, let alone a business like I mentioned above.

If and when you find it, it’s incredible as it normally leads to amazing performance, relationships and culture!

But it’s rare.

We think trust is someone delivering to our expectations - or someone doing what I want them to do the way I want them to do it.

We think trust is someone doing something right.

Here is an alternative view:
Don’t trust they will do it right, trust instead that they will do it wrong, trust that they will fail. Because they will.

Trust that when they fail they will recover. And that they are clever enough to learn.

Trust that they will get better and better at failing and recovering.

Trust that they will be vulnerable and transparent and honest.

Trust that they will act with good intentions, that when they fuck up, they will ask for help.

But don’t trust that they will get it right or do it like you want them to, because you will be disappointed.

We misplace trust and allocate it incorrectly - we trust the wrong things and then feel disappointed and perpetuate the behaviour.

That time I got emotional seeing Jordy and Hannah ❤️ when we met, we assumed trust with each other instantly.

Learning to assume trust is difficult.

It’s soo against everything we have learnt and it’s counterintuitive to the way we run businesses. I reckon every process we put in place to run our businesses often has 20-30% of added complexity due to mistrust.

Think about it - the intention is to make things efficient and replicable and effective but we end up with more complexity than required to “catch” those that we can’t trust.

This is not to say that building simple processes to help people take action is not important to run businesses - if you leave things too vague, it can create anxiety and pain. But holy shit we go too far!

If that wasn’t the case, why is it that most businesses have a process to request and approve leave? Wouldn’t it be simpler and more trustworthy to say to people take whatever you need? Talk to your customers, colleagues, friends, figure it out - be an adult and sort it, I trust you.

I know you are going to think of some financial reason as to why! Hahah - don’t do it. Stop. Think instead how you can make it happen - trust me ;-)

So I leave you with this - what’s your default? Would you be more successful? Happier? More effective? Faster? If as an individual or as a business had more trust? Even more A assumed trust? What would it take to just trust someone 100%?

Love

Gus

Ps: Of course if someone breaks your trust more than once, you are completely in the right to call it and take action accordingly - you don’t want to enable dysfunction - but if this is the exception, not the rule, perhaps extending 100% trust to everyone will get you better results? Topic for another newsletter…

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

Message from Lucas:
“Hey rebels! In a couple of weeks, I’ll be running a free 90-minute “AI for Leaders” onboarding session exclusively for my subscribers. Think of it as a 90-minute shortcut to sharpen you up, future-proof your skills, and actually make AI useful in your real work and life. If you’re keen, just subscribe to the newsletter and I’ll send you the deets soon.”

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 AMAZING - LOVED IT!

🤘🤘🤘 GOOD / OKAY

🤘 NOT GREAT

OR… HIT REPLY and share your thoughts on what you want to have more in this Newsletter!

Forwarded this email? Sign up here 

Follow me on X and LinkedIn

By Gus Balbontin
Edition #79

Hey!

In line with last week, let me share another story from my past - this is even earlier and it was categorically a precursor to the way I think about careers and roles and jobs today - I’ve written about this previously here.

It’s the early 2000s, I’ve been at Lonely Planet for 12 months - I just got married to pretty wife and we were in Tahiti for our honeymoon.

I got an email saying “call me when you get a chance”.

Must be important, so I figured a way to get in touch.

It all sounded weird to me - there was a restructure and a bunch of roles were made redundant, and my role was impacted… and I was like “so am I fired?”

And the answer was “well no, it’s your role and the change and the blah blah blah”.

I wasn’t about to dig into the details when the crystal clear waters of Moorea were waiting! So I left it at that.

When I got back to work a week later, there was chaos.

Tears, fear, conversations about unions, clauses in our enterprise agreement, lots of closed-door meetings.

I went to HR and they explained to me what happened. This was my first corporate role and my first restructure ever, so I was a little lost.

All I knew was Argentinean law, which is more like the US.
Australia is a bit more employee-centric.
So when they finished explaining how the restructure impacted roles, including mine, and my role was removed from the structure, which in turn meant I didn’t have a job, I said: “I was right! I’m fired!”

“Well, not so fast! Because of the restructure, there area number of roles available for you to apply so we are going through the consultation process now, which means you are not technically fired”

Confused again, I was like “wait, so you fire me and then let me apply for new jobs?”

“Yes”

Oh my god, these are the nicest people ever! - I thought - I was so excited - I didn’t understand why people came into HR and were upset afterwards! I felt it was like winning the lottery - here are a bunch of roles inside a company you understand well, you can apply for any of them, my odds are really good to get something good!

So I remember distinctly asking them to show me the list of available roles - I scanned them to see if any was familiar or perhaps aligned to any of my skills. Nothing jumped out. So I asked, “which roles are at my level?” They drew a line and said “any of these you definitely can apply”

So - I went away - thought about it - and of course me being me - applied for a role that was two levels above the level they suggested! Hahaa - I figured that the role was new, so there were no clear expectations for it. If I can define what the role should be and what to expect of the candidate, then I can set the bar higher than anyone else and position myself as the choice.

So I did a lot of research, a lot of thinking, a lot of mind mapping, a lot of moving around the business talking to everyone about their expectations of this new role and how they saw it adding value. In the end, the interview process for the role felt insignificant cos I had already pitched my solution and expectations to everyone and anyone who was keen to listen to me.

Meanwhile, everyone around me was upset, sad about the restructure, always looking for someone to blame, to complain to.

I remember close friends upset at each other cos one was in charge of the restructure the other one was affected by it, and of cours,e instead of assuming good intentions, the affected person assumes their friend did something wrong or malicious to impact them.

I was going around the office reminding people that the people making the decisions to fire people don’t do it cos they love it, they don’t want to hurt their friends, there must be a reason we don’t understand. Plus there’s heaps of other jobs to apply for! Just apply for another one or even one outside Lonely Planet - Australia has heaps of work!

Back yourself, you are more valuable when you are positive and have a mind of abundance than negative and a mind of scarcity.

10 years later, it was my turn to drive a restructure and to make roles redundant.

It wasn’t fun…it was very hard…it was sad….but I saw the same behaviour occur again. People lost, blaming others rather than taking responsibility for their own careers. That’s why every time I’ve ever hired someone, I ask them to start looking for a job…that’s why I remind all my employees to always look for jobs and keep an eye out in the market for new opportunities. It’s good to stay fresh, to know what the market is looking for, to retain your autonomy and independence and depend on no one, to have a plan B and C and D, to feel strong and valuable and knowledgeable, and I can keep going.

Never stop looking for a job or for the next opportunity or for the next business idea or partnership or side hustle.

Love

Gus

Ps: I did get the job! :-).

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it last week - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

Message from Lucas:
“Hey rebels! Next Wednesday’s my birthday (I'm turning 37), but instead of me getting presents, I’m flipping it... I’ve got a gift for you:
I’ll be running a free 90-minute “AI for Leaders” onboarding session exclusively for my subscribers.
Think of it as a 90-minute shortcut to sharpen you up, future-proof your skills, and actually make AI useful in your real work and life.
If you’re keen, just subscribe to the newsletter and I’ll send you the deets soon.”

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 AMAZING - LOVED IT!

🤘🤘🤘 GOOD / OKAY

🤘 NOT GREAT

OR… HIT REPLY and share your thoughts on what you want to have more in this Newsletter!

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #78

Hey!

I was waiting for this phone call for days - I applied for the job, had a number of interviews and all that was left was the phone call.

I remember knowing I didn’t get it before he finished saying hi - the tone of bad news is too obvious.

Digging around to try to understand what went wrong, I learned that one of my referees, whom I had put forward, said, “Gus is a very polarising character.”

This reference made who I thought was going to be my future employer very nervous and they decided not to hire me.

Weekend trek with the fam

I was devastated - perhaps not so much because I didn’t get the job, but because my referee thought I was a polarising character. I was like “I AM POLARISING COS I HAVE TO BE! I AM HEADING INNOVATION, I HAVE TO PISS PEOPLE OFF IN THE PURSUIT OF NEW PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES AND WAYS OF WORKING BUT WHEN I DON’T HAVE TO BE POLARISING I AM NOT” SIGH!!!!!

I was annoyed - I had a reputation for being a force that some liked and some didn’t….but my intentions and goals were noble, aligned with the customer, better for everyone long term, obvious given the market…. shit was changing fast at that point in time… I was trying to help us keep up.

But despite me justifying to myself why I had to be polarising, I still saw this as a weakness, as a flaw in my character I had to fix. As something that as much as I thought I was in control, it controlled me. All I wanted was for everyone to like me and also agree with me and see what was sooo obvious to me! Easy! Haha

I was at that stage in my career where I was trying to guess what those who had the power to make decisions needed to hear so I could say it and break into senior positions.

I wasn’t being polarising because I was heading innovation.
I was heading innovation cos I was naturally polarising.

Weekend glass blowing

Eventually, this event became a distant memory, consciously and unconsciously I realised that the trick was not to remove this trait from my character but to sharpen it, to use it at the right times in the right way. 

I now see it as a gift to have the power to polarise people, to make them think and inspire a decision. To love me or hate me makes no difference as long as you don’t ignore the respectful provocation.

The polarising character I was when I was younger was unrefined. Had great intentions but sharp elbows. The new version is just as polarising or even more perhaps but polished. More effective in catalysing the results my clients are after. I am by no means finished - like everything, it needs work and regular polishing and sharpening!

In hindsight - that referee saved me from a role that would not have suited me and, in the process, made me self-aware and gifted me the opportunity to do something about it. To become a better version of me.

Weekend training and breakkie with friends

I was watching a Ricky Gervais interview recently and he said something along the lines of: “You’ve got to polarise if you are doing anything of any worth. As many people will hate you as love you.”

Ricky is incredibly polarising - he can write Derek and Humanity - his ability to stretch thought is admirable.

But the feeling of wanting to be liked and trying to say what others want to hear still happens to me today, not as much, but still… even in this newsletter - sometimes people unsubscribe or send me a message back saying “I disagree with you” and I need to keep reminding myself that I don’t write this to be liked, I write this to provoke people to think new thoughts.

Rebellious thoughts to provoke thoughtful rebellions.

Love :-)

Gus

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it last week - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #77

Hey!

Most of you know that this year I started glass blowing - one of those things I picked as novelty to push my brain into the unknown.

Check out the crazy article The Age did with Billy and me a few weeks ago, and how rad the images are:

‘It’s wonderful, it makes you laugh a lot’: The benefits of being an absolute beginner

Learning a new skill can have profound benefits for brain health, so what’s holding so many of us back? Meet three adult beginners challenging themselves with the shock of the new.

www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/it-s-wonderful-it-makes-you-laugh-a-lot-the-benefits-of-being-an-absolute-beginner-20250624-p5m9yz.html

Anyway, it all happened fairly fast, as if it was meant to be.

I’ve been googling “glassblowing Melbourne” and clicking on studios for a while (since last year or even earlier) and although I would stumble on a handful, for one reason or another I never progressed - too far, no classes, closed… but in one of those searches a studio popped just around the corner from my house!

Check it out:
www.studiodokola.com | @studiodokolaglass

It wasn’t a new place, so clearly I have missed it for some reason, but I loved the vibes - circularity, acknowledgement of country, super creative pieces.
I clicked through to the Google Map entry and clicked “Call” straight away.

Billy picks up… side note: I get really nervous on the phone sometimes, I think it’s cos I am scared of not being understood -a combination of constructing weird sentences in my second language and my accent- so I get louder and quicker- hahahaha.. on top of it - I am excited and surprised that I am finally talking to someone about glassblowing!.
So I reckon the first 5 min of the convo was Billy trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

I reckon I asked at least 100 questions, from: what do you call a glass blower? to: can you just teach me directly starting now?

A few days later, I started my first class. He didn’t have a cohort then, so I started on my own.

Before starting, Billy sent me an email with some instructions (which I kinda read) and a few links to some videos (I watched those) - primarily the material covered “gathering” glass from the furnace.

See, it’s tricky to gather glass for a few reasons, it’s hot (like 1300 degrees C) so you have to do it quick, you can’t see properly inside the furnace because of blackbody radiation so the surface of the glass itself is super reflective and creates like a mini mirage type effect (photons travelling through hot and cold air with different densities which have different refraction results = mirage)

Billy walked me through the equipment - answered more questions, and started warming up the tip of the pipe in the glory hole (don’t laugh).

“Ready?” He says as he hands over the pipe to me.

There was no:

“Let me show you” “Be careful with” “Here are the common things you may get wrong” “This is hard so don’t get frustrated” “I’ll do this for you and you can just do the other stuff”

This is my kinda learning - zero negative priming. Go ahead, do it.

As he opens the furnace door and I get hit with a trillion photons, I try not to waste time and follow what I remembered from the video.

Billy just watching, providing the tiniest of verbal cues “pull up” “slide your hand forward” “keep turning” - this is a signature in his teaching style.

Here I am - holding lava at the end of my pipe, mesmerised by the colour and heat, absent of worry and consideration for the next step.

“Blow a bubble” he says.

Me: “Wait, how do I do that?“

“Blow hard at the end of the pipe and cup it with your thumb”

Anyway - at the risk of this turning into a story, what I wanted to highlight and explore is how incredibly and rare it is to find a teacher who fully Mr Miyagis you. The ones that are 100 steps ahead of you and you feel like you are being educationally played…

The least amount of guidance at the last possible time.

Err on the side of failure and recovery. Less/late rather than more/early.

Silences are masterfully created - time mysteriously disappears.

He carefully uncovers the lesson in every failure, not by pointing out the mistake but by letting you discover it.

Love

Gus

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it last week - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #76

Hey!

This is perplexing.

I write 75 newsletters in a row - that’s a newsletter a week for almost 18 months and then - I loose my rhythm.

It’s like I went all shy.

Since I stopped writing, another 400+ people have joined my newsletter!
We are over 7200 now.

Yet here I am struggling to put finger on screen (pen to paper) and share with you what’s in my mind.

Anyway…. perhaps a topic for another newsletter “how we lose habits” - or why - maybe. Did I let go to make space for something else? Maybe the book?! Not sure.

So - a few weeks ago I did a podcast - and I don’t often do them, I may have done 4-5 maybe max. I’ve written about how the médium becomes the message and it is so true. Being able to sit down and converse with another curious mind (Dain in this case) with no time limitations in a safe space created by his team means you get to explore things and concepts in a different way.

Somehow, from the depths of my brain, comes a thought I had years ago - the difference between judging and sentencing.
Something I have observed a long time ago but never really spoke about till the podcast.

Let me explain (you can go watch the podcast and hear the rest here).

We often judge and are judged.

It’s a constant. I think it’s very human. Sometimes we judge for really important reasons like safety, and sometimes we judge for really trivial reasons.

The judgement itself, although influential and potentially harmful, can, and often is, ignored.

Judging AND sentencing are more problematic.

The sentencing bit is far more final than the judging bit.
It’s like judgment alone leaves the door a little open to an evolving process, but sentencing is forever. It’s the stuff you start believing and struggle to ignore. Both you can do it to others or it can be done to you.

It is a vague observation, perhaps not an observation that will provoke you in any significant manner, except to hopefully make you pause and reflect when on those times you have gone too far and delivered an immovable sentence.

Example - my pretty wife twice in the last say 6 months - pulled me up and effectively pushed me to reconsider my sentencing of an event.
I kept arguing back that I was simply doing what is human to do - but when I think about it in detail - I realise that the judging was not the problem, it was my sentencing, my final decision on the situation that was the problem.

So - judgement can be more “this is what it makes me feel” “here are some thoughts about this based on what I know and have experienced” “this is how it fits or doesn’t with my principles or beliefs”

Sentencing is the judgement plus a final sentence. A permanent state.

The finality is the shit bit that we do sometimes in the most subtle of ways. It's the difference between "I'm disappointed by what happened" and "You're a disappointing person." One is temporary, the other permanent.

Maybe the worst is not how we judge and sentence others, but actually how we judge and sentence ourselves.
"I'm not a consistent writer anymore. I missed so many newsletters”…. am I doing it without realising?

Love

Gus

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #75

Hey!

I have not been as prolific writing newsletters in 2025 as I was in 2024… don’t know exactly what has changed… kinda not good given that this year I need to finish writing my book and I am not as writing-fit as I should be.

Good news, though, is that I am getting more and more comfortable with the book concept. I’ve been asked to write the book like 7-8 yrs ago and I have not felt worthy of it… its’s like I feel that putting something into the world needs to be properly sharpened… and I think I am getting there. Let’s see.

Last week I spent a week in Austria, Vienna and Salzburg, and pretty wife came with me and it was awesome… a few dot points

• Bread in Austria is epic… there is no average old bread anywhere ever. All bread must be consumed by the end of the day cos it’s always fresh in the morning!!! Even at a petrol station or a hotel buffet, the bread is always sensational.

• Amadeus gave me a slightly skewed picture of Mozart…once I managed to triangulate and corroborate as much as we understand of him I realised what a true rebel he was. If he wrote a weekly newsletter I would have def joined in.

• It’s insane how much wealth moved from European-colonised-countries back to Europe and how beautiful are the buildings this wealth afforded them to build…ha!

Anyway lets go… for the new subscribers this week don’t forget to go and read some of the previous ones I promise they are good :-)

In my keynote, I often share this model I came up with over a decade ago and have been optimising since.

Let me cover the basics just in case you forgot and then let me expand further, which is something I don’t have time to do during the keynotes.

The model provides a perspective and framework to talk about innovation in a business that is simple but profound.

Innovation can be observed as simply fixing problems. You fix really simple ones or really complex ones (BAU all the way to JUMPS - see my other model here). You can fix business problems or customer problems - but all we are doing really is solving something that it’s unsolved or you can solve better and that’s all innovation is.

When we do this, we move from DISORDER to ORDER…at the start we encounter disorder and at the end we have ordered the parts and in the process “innovated” a new solution.

You need both to be able to innovate.

Too much order and you can become irrelevant, too much disorder and nothing ever gets done.

In business you have order people and disorder people - those that are incentivised to keep the order and those that are incentivised to push the boundaries and invent new futures.

Generally speaking, order is preferred, most boards are built with order people, most executive teams are stacked with order people, order is good for short term results, it’s good for certainty, it makes people feel safe and in control…order aligns with Australian corporate law so it keeps you out of jail!

Disorder in the other hand, is uncertain and annoying, its future oriented, results are not seen immediately and therefore all the effort seems like a waste.

Those that thrive in disorder and find this end of business more rewarding hate the way order always stops them from playing and exploring. To us, order people are boring and sooooo predictable and un-fun hahaha!

But see, despite my previous sentence provocation, it’s a mistake we often make to judge each other with measures that are suitable for our domains but incorrect for the opposite domain.

All this does is force us to behave incorrectly.

Let me break it down:

When a disorder person starts exploring a problem that needs solving, and comes up with a number of ideas and prototypes to test, the order people in the business, using order measures, push them to write a business case, to provide return on investment, to set a plan with milestones and provide the certainty order people desperately need.

The disorder person, frustrated, lies and gives the order person (eg: CFO) what he/she needs and the exploration ends forced into a project with a PMO office (more order) trying to control the uncontrollable. Then it fails to deliver on the invented KPIs, order people say “see I told you it was not going to work” and everything starts again.

Order and disorder need to have their own measures of success and we should be careful not to compare them or mix them - know where you are at when and make sure everyone is aware of the different expectations.

This asymmetry, leads to failure being incorrectly judged - if a disorder person fails at the start of the innovation journey, the consequence is not severe, in fact, the disorder person naturally plays the odds and wants lots and lots of failures to take place till you find the right one to pursue.

Failure is seen as learning what doesn’t work.

The Order person cannot afford to fail because failure could mean jail, it’s too close to the customer, so they see failure as a big no no which is fair.

So be observant of this asymmetry and ensure people understand the role they are performing and how they are judging innovation.

Another way of looking at the model is to remember that resources (money, time, people) are important as you approach order, but the disorder end needs to be resourceful.

In fact, resources will likely make the disorder end less effective. You need to stay hungry earlier on to push outside of the box thinking!

When you put naturally ordered people and give them disorder responsibilities, because they don’t like uncertainty and seek control - they will quickly order it for you - this may look like innovation is happening - but all we have done is stopped exploration, thrown resources at uncertainty and created an illusion of success. Don’t believe me? Check how many zombie projects or initiatives you are still financing or supporting that you shouldn’t.

Another view - when you find order, there is an important task of “implementing” whatever the new order is into the business. New habits, new ways of working, new software, new frameworks, etc.

If you want to be able to do this all over again and innovate, it’s important to think of the “explementation” as well. This is the ability to let go, to remove, to stop doing things one way and do them a different way.

I don’t think I need to elaborate this further - removing order creates the space for disorder to thrive and explore possible futures. if order is impossible to remove, if we concrete over it (as I often say in my keynotes) then we are in trouble.

Final thought - we tend to associate order with seriousness and disorder with fun. We tend to think that fun and playful is unimportant (or not as important) and seriousness is boring and important.

Kids playfulness seems unimportant and adult seriousness feels more important doesn’t it?

Science has proven how critical those playful years are and how much damage education causes by progressively killing playfulness. I digress.

Order is important and preferred and you need to take it seriously but it doesn’t have to stop being fun.

Disorder being more playful and seemly fun doesn’t mean is not important.

In business and life, fun should be the default and serious should only be by exemption. But we tend to be serious by default and fun by exemption.

Be more fun,

Love

Gus

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #74

Hey Rebels!

So many new people over the last couple of weeks! I think over 300 new subscribers!

Yew!!! Thank you!

Hopefully these notes and previous ones challenge and inspire you in equal measure :-)

Lessgooo!

Last year I was trying to find a way to highlight the discrepancy between business and market speed.

A way to measure the rate of change in a business compared to the rate of change in the market.

The ever existing tension between business agility and market zigzagging.

As I often do, I dreamt a solution and woke up in the morning trying to write it all down before it escaped my brain hahaha!

This was my very first rudimentary attempt, one that I shared with a friend who runs marketing for a billion-dollar public company. So the results you’ll see here are his assessment of this company.

Let me share, and I’ll give you the challenge after.

A note ahead, when I say “change” you can think also of “adaptability” - the tasks and initiatives we do to keep us on top of an ever-moving market.

Business 
Let’s look at the business first. We need to provide a number to rank each of the following categories:

Optimisation 
how aligned and centred is the business when it comes to change effort and customer? As in - are there change projects all over the place some coordinated some not, some further ahead than others or are they all a coordinated effort?
How centred are these in solving the customer problem rather than the business problem?
5 = epic - we are so aligned and so centred on the customer is not funny.
1 = literally a mess, who? The customer?

Effort
how much budget and exec sponsorship does change/adaptability have?
Are execs heavily involved in change across the business?
Is there obvious work being done?
5 = lots of intentional effort well supported.
1 = none, we are too busy just doing the same we’ve always done.

Response
how aware, willing and active are the people in the business when it comes to change?
Is everyone just too busy doing business as usual or there are plenty of conversations and actions taken to adapt and keep improving?
5 = barely aware we need to change anything, “we are fine the way we are”
1 = super proactive everyone gets it.

Choice
how much choice do you have to change or not change?
Can you just sit back and wait?
5 = we are totally chill and can relax, our market is not moving fast and it makes no difference either way.
1 = we have no choice, the maket and competition are hot and we are going backwards!

Comms
how good are the comms in your business generally?
5 = we have epic comms, lots of channels and formats, everyone is engaged.
1 = we are super shit at it.

Market
Now let’s figure what the market is doing.
Same deal just rank each category.

Tech
is there lots of tech pushing the boundaries of our service and product?
Or things continue to be done the way they have always been done?
5 = it’s insane I can’t keep up!
1 = we are still running word95 and we are fine.

Social
lots of social change and expectations shifting about what we do and how we do it?
Are people looking at us demanding more or is the market chill?
5 = Amazon can do it why can’t you do it.
1 = I’m cool I love my experience as is.

Economy
Is the economy in which you primarily operate growing or shrinking lots?
Or pretty stable?
5 = It’s crazy at either end, full retraction or steaming ahead.
1 = It’s steady.

Demand
Is the demand for your product growing or shrinking lots?
Or super stable?
5 = We are declining or growing super fast
1 = Not a lot of movement

Government
Is the gov super involved in your sector demanding change and pouring regulation?
Or ignoring you and letting you be?
5 = The gov is driving me crazy
1 = do we even have a government?

Here are the numbers he gave me across all the categories

So then I added up the numbers and put them side by side:

As you can see, the market is moving faster than the business, which is exactly what this exercise is meant to highlight - is the market getting away from you? Are you getting away from the market? Or are things moving along nicely?

I think you never want to be caught behind the market - perhaps the market being a little behind you it’s ok - but by too much for too long, not ok.

Another observation is that the market in which this company exists is not moving at crazy speed - it’s in between “stable” and “on your horse” so - you don’t need to panic, but, def get on your horse.

Interestingly, as well, imagine your market was “back to hunter gathering” the business result should categorically be “changing” because you need reinvention or you’ll go down with the market.

I then took a punt and guessed a bit this:

• If your score as a business is 17-18 and up, it’s healthy and the safest - irrespective of your market

• If you are between 10 and 16, you are putting effort, but you are not getting the returns you should be getting - you are wasting a lot of this probably due to coordination and optimisation

• Anything below 10 be careful.

This picture also shows that if you can measure it every quarter, you can start seeing a pattern.

Anyway you get the little model - it probably needs a bunch of iterations and some more work, but it could be a cool little tool I can get businesses to do to see where they are at and then figure out a plan to improve the metrics.

I had a go at coding it in www.replit.com - took me 20min, super basic, but - hint hint - you can start coding and creating apps and software yourself… the tools of production are becoming available to you… think that at some point the tools of production and publishing channels belonged to TV stations and now anyone can film and publish a show.

Ok, to wrap up:

Go play with it and Give me ideas to improve it!
Maybe it becomes a free report I can do for biz and people wanting to understand how well equipped they are to survive or grow!

Enough.

Love

Gus

Life ShakeUp!– Take Control of Your Future

Let’s be real. Most people stay stuck.
They think “someday” they’ll figure it out.
Someday they’ll make a move.
Someday they’ll take control.
But someday never happens.
This isn’t another self-improvement course.
Life Shake Up! is a movement. A mindset shift.
A no-BS community that will help you break free, reinvent yourself, and start making bold moves.

gusbalbontin.com/lifeshakeup

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

In the past month, he’s built:

• A digital clone of himself (yes, seriously)

• A podcast hosted by his AI twin

• An AI habit tracker

• A career skill analyzer

• And a full-on productivity system using nothing but AI tools

He shares the behind-the-scenes of all of his AI experiments —practical, weird, and wildly useful.

Subscribe here → humanai.beehiiv.com

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What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #73

Hey Rebels!

I know I know it’s been a while and I have lost my consistency and well... I needed to make some space and something has to give… “let go” remember??!! 

Good side is that you are getting less intrusion in your inbox from my crazy thinking!

And remember if you do miss me or need some lateral thinking, there’s all these newsletters I have already written (73 editions so far!)!!!!

Recently, a close friend of mine that reads this newsletter says “dude I cut bits and pieces of the newsletter and send it to my team and contacts to read or make a point”…

The medium is the message.

Years ago, I remember hearing this a lot at Lonely Planet… it was a way for us in innovation to argue that the book medium alone had specific properties that, when translated into any digital medium, didn’t disappear.
Eg. you write a book first and then you use the content to make a website or an app. Truth is, the apps and the website always had some of the book DNA, throttling the true potential of the new medium.

This is where it comes from:

"The medium is the message" is a famous phrase coined by Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan in his 1964 book "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man."
This concept suggests that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship where the medium influences how the message is perceived and understood by the audience. McLuhan argued that the medium itself, not just the content it carries, has social effects and transforms human experience.

I observe this all over the place regularly.

In education… where the medium (a building you attend to) defines the actual education experience you are able to provide…
Another way to think about it… What sort of biology class would you be able to run if the medium were the forest instead of a school building?

In comms inside a business… Slack, email or bumping into someone at the office all directly and profoundly impact the message… even if the message is the same, sometimes you have to be incredibly strategic about the medium you choose to deliver it.

The city layout of LA vs the city layout of Paris is the message… it’s the experience.
In fact, it can be as powerful as Paris, encouraging pedestrian circulation, and LA literally making it almost impossible to move on foot.

Same food - different plate = creates a diff message….

Same drink - different glass = diff message!

I am now blowing glass, as many of you know, and if you look at the pic of a simple glass of water in my own made glass vs an industrially made one… tell me…. for real…. how much more tempting does mine look???!!! Hahaha… the message from one screams “I have spent hours in the hands of my creator and there's no one else like me”, the other screams “I was made in a factory and there are thousands like me”.

mine vs. industrially made

You spending physical cash in your hand vs you tapping your phone.. two diff mediums result in a very different bank balance! Hahah

And it obeys to a certain degree a similar structure to fractals… the book is the medium and it’s the message, and the font choice you make is also the medium and it becomes the message.
Example from one of my fave books ever “The Art of Looking sideways”

“Imagine strolling down a country road and coming across this sign, daubed in paint on a weather-beaten board. It expresses far more than the immediate message. It also says: “I am a farmer, my chickens run around freely, and the eggs were probably laid today”

“…walking further along the road, you come across another sign, equally crude and daubed in paint on a weather-beaten board tacked on a leaning wood post:

It also says “you’d be out of your mind to even think about it”

The way we measure time changes the experience… sends a different message!

Thinking about time as seasons or sunrise to sunset makes a connection to the environment, culture, and is larger and useful for certain things

An analogue watch is far more flexible, less precise… around 12:30 means when the arrow is somewhere around there..

A digital clock is precise, and if it has seconds it’s easy to see you are 2:36min late!

(Side note: Every atom in the universe experiences its own “now” and these measuring mediums allow us to align NOW (an illusion) but help us organise ourselves….)

Anyway... you get the point…

Think of your business and how your business runs… think of your life and the mediums in which it occurs?

When does the medium in which you exist actually define the experience you have and the life you live… are you the result of the mediums in which you exist?

What if you were served on a different plate? ;-)

Yew!

Love

Gus 

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

HumanAI

🚀 AI for Real Life – Master the 20% of AI that delivers 80% of the impact—without the complexity.
No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical use cases, wild experiments, and smart hacks to help you think faster, automate more, and get sh*t done.

humanai.beehiiv.com

In the past month, he’s built:

• A digital clone of himself (yes, seriously)

• A podcast hosted by his AI twin

• An AI habit tracker

• A career skill analyzer

• And a full-on productivity system using nothing but AI tools

He shares the behind-the-scenes of all of his AI experiments —practical, weird, and wildly useful.

Subscribe here → humanai.beehiiv.com

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #72

Hey Rebels!

Let’s get into it!

Just over a month ago my eldest, Neylan, and his girlfriend left to spend 3 months in South America travelling. They are in Peru right now about to start their walk to Machu Picchu.

He finished year 12 last year, got accepted at uni and deferred the offer to go travelling instead.

For a moment there he said he was going to finish school and go straight to Uni and I was like “no no, go travel”.

Go be a kid with no responsibilities for a bit longer!
Go figure out what your interests are, have a break from the system!

Anyway… he did decide to travel and weirdly enough, pretty wife and I got progressively more emotional as his departure date drew closer… even though we of course wanted him to!

Weird hey?

My kids have been travelling since they were born, I always say in the absence of a religion, ours is travelling.

So it was almost inevitable that he was at some stage going to travel and leave the nest.

I think I was emotional not because he was leaving (that was exactly what I wanted), I was emotional because his departure underlines the transitional period we are in, the moment when they finally take off and most of your job as a parent is done.

Letting go is hard even when you plan for it.

Like pretty wife said as we were both wiping our tears… ”it’s like a long goodbye”… when they are born you know they are going to leave, and you parent to ensure they have everything they need to succeed at leaving but then when they are leaving you realise that success means letting go!

For those without kids don’t think this concept of the long goodbye doesn’t apply, anything you start in life has inevitably a long goodbye in it.

Think of new activities, sometimes friendships, projects...

Interestingly when I say that you need to learn to let go… it’s the same.

The awareness and ability to start something knowing that at some point in time, you need to let go to create space to start something else.

Here is a simple representation of the long goodbye…

You can of course draw this picture for anything in life… from the project you are in charge of, to your job (eg: the more you let go of your job the more the chances of you growing, emancipating and developing your career further).

So, I’m going to read my “Let Go” newsletter again (click here!) to eat some of my own dogfood…. you should too.

Have fun with this little thought experiment…

Yew

Love

Gus 

P.S. Click here to join the FREE 5-day email course “the ShakeUp! Starter Series” —short, punchy lessons designed to challenge the way you think about your future and get you moving. We’ll send you one lesson per day over the next few days so you can experience it for yourself. It’s free.

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

If you’re curious about how to actually use AI in real life—not just read about it—check out HumanAI, a newsletter by my good friend Lucas.

In the past month, he’s built:

• A digital clone of himself (yes, seriously)

• A podcast hosted by his AI twin

• An AI habit tracker

• A career skill analyzer

• And a full-on productivity system using nothing but AI tools

He shares the behind-the-scenes of all of his AI experiments —practical, weird, and wildly useful.

Subscribe here → humanai.beehiiv.com

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #71

Hey Rebels!

Did you miss me last week?! I have a really good excuse - my eldest and his girlfriend left on a 3 month South America adventure and the same day my dad arrived from Argentina!

Way too much emotional overload to sit down and write!

Dad is turning 80 this year and came on his own to do a road trip!
(Mum stayed home this trip and we will go and see her later in the year) - crazy right?

He is such an inspiration to me - he does not speak English but speaks “human” and manages to always get his point across somehow… he is the proof that communication is primarily non-verbal (newsletter about it here)

At Sydney

The last two days we spent in Sydney, I was doing a bit of work and he just tagged along and hanged. Icebergs, pool swims, Bondi walks and an almost bridge walk…

Pre sunrise swim Bondi

Open brackets - here is an example of simple customer friction that can be solved in an afternoon of coding and it should have never happened:
I bought the tickets last week, jumped on the site, picked date, time, type of climb and boom - sorted.
When we turned up to the climb, I did a quick form for dad and me about our health and a few other things.
I ticked “over 75” for him and when I approached the desk they asked me for the medical clearance to do the climb… and I am like… what medical clearance?

“In the terms and conditions when you bought the ticket there was a line deeply buried that warns you about “this” very specific medical clearance you need to be signed by a doctor to be able to climb”

“Right - no - I didn’t read the terms and conditions, I trust you take care of that the same as I trust an engineer ensuring a bridge won’t fall. If it was that critical, should you have not put a pop-up as I press pay that said “if you are x months pregnant, over 75, have these heart conditions, etc do not proceed, download this form instead, get medical clearance and then come back and buy the tickets”

Anyway - argghghhhh - the staff were great and the manager was great and they just refunded me and all is ok - but - come on! It doesn’t have to be this hard!

I am wondering if there is a bit of ageism going on here, there aren’t many over 75s maybe doing the climb, or certainly not enough for them to worry about it, so they just deal with it last minute by either disappointing them or saying “go get the clearance around the corner at the medical centre and come back tomorrow”

Look, he’s quite fit, he definitely could climb, right?

Anyway back to Dad - we ended up going into town, walking around and having dinner at Ragazzi (the best pasta in the world - better than my own fresh pasta - not as good as my mum and dads fresh pasta! ;-)

Ragazzi pasta

Dad leaves on Monday - he is travelling up and down the east coast, first inland then doing the Pacific hwy and the Hume.

He built a little bed in the back of my son’s 4x4, he is taking the fridge, a cooktop and wants to camp and rough it all the way.

Dad building his van

What I said - an inspiration.

I want to be like dad when I grow up.

No challenge this week - maybe just go and consciously love your loved ones a bit more this week - tell them you love them out loud - appreciate them and cherish them a tad more!

Ok enough, I need to go and have another mate 🧉 with him and plan the route.

Love

Gus 

P.S. This newsletter was created to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game, so for some good reads, and challenging thoughts check out all my past newsletters here!

P.S.S. Click here to join the FREE 5-day email course “the ShakeUp! Starter Series” —short, punchy lessons designed to challenge the way you think about your future and get you moving. In your inbox, every day, for 5 days.

Click here, opt in, and we’ll send you one lesson per day over the next few days so you can experience it for yourself. It’s free. Just take the first step.

YEW!

Hey you!

Lucas here… you might know me already, as I’ve been helping Gus with this newsletter for over a year and a half! We’ve also done a bunch of other cool stuff together!

The thing is… For years, I’ve been having mind-blowing conversations with Gus.
Every time we talked, I kept thinking, "More people need to hear this."

So I provoked him and pushed him to go for it.

First, we launched this newsletter (over 6000 people receive it weekly!).
Then came our first Career Rebellion workshop. Then the second, then RTS, then the 3rd.. and so on..
And every step of the way, the same thing happened—people kept asking for more. More tools, more guidance, more community, MORE FREQUENT SEEING EACH OTHER.

So we built it:
Life Shake Up!

The program I wished existed. The one I needed.

A space for people like us—people who refuse to live on autopilot, who want to shake things up, challenge the norm, and actually design a life that excites them.

I personally will share my journey and would love to learn from yours too.

If this resonates, come join us.

I honestly believe this is a unique opportunity.

Life ShakeUp! – Take Control of Your Future

Let’s be real. Most people stay stuck. They think “someday” they’ll figure it out. Someday they’ll make a move. Someday they’ll take control. But someday never happens.
This isn’t another self-improvement course.
Life Shake Up! is a movement. A mindset shift. A no-BS community that will help you break free, reinvent yourself, and start making bold moves.

gusbalbontin.com/lifeshakeup

OH!! ONE LAST THING

Lucas again. Actually, most people call me Mencho.
So… Mencho here!

TL;DR: Exactly ONE month ago I launched a newsletter about AI experiments: HumanAI. And it’s going great!!
Check it out if you want to learn practical ways of using AI to improve your daily life - both personal and professional.

A few months ago, I started asking people a simple question:

“Are you using AI?”

Corporate execs. Lawyers. Designers. Accountants. Tech founders… a diverse bunch.

Most of them gave me the same answer:
“I tried ChatGPT when it came out. It was cool, but not that useful.”

I used to think the same.
But that was AI 1.0. Think of it as a newborn.

So yeah, you’ve used ChatGPT in 2022, didn’t get much out of it, and moved on.

Ouch. Dangerous mistake.

Because the version you tried?
Remember, it was just a newborn baby..

Time has passed. This kiddo has started running, jumping and climbing.

And they grow so fast….

So I started experimenting with AI to discover the possibilities that it brings.
Not in theory—in real life.

Here’s what I’ve built so far:

• A digital clone of myself
  I trained a custom GPT with my voice, style, basically with a side of my personality and brain (interests, stances, etc)
  Then I cloned my voice using ElevenLabs—so yes, now I’m fluent - with my full Argentine accent- in 80+ languages.
  And I used HeyGen to train a video AI avatar on my looks and mannerisms.

• A podcast hosted by my AI clone
  Yes, The Mencho #8 Show is a thing.

• An AI-powered habit tracker
  It tracks my daily habits, keeps me accountable and sends me daily reminders and motivational words like a coach

• An AI Skill Analyzer that based on my CV and Linkedin profile, tells me which of my strengths are future-proof and where my future weaknesses might appear

• A system to think better, move faster, and get more done—with less effort.

• And a bunch more happening right now!

Every week, I document it all in my newsletter: HumanAI

No fluff. No hype.
Just practical AI, wild experiments, and some good existential brain fuel.

Tomorrow I’m sending out the next edition.

If you want in—go here: humanai.beehiiv.com

Thanks :)

Mencho

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #70

Hey Rebels!

As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game.

Last week we launched a FREE 5-day email course “the ShakeUp! Starter Series” —short, punchy lessons designed to challenge the way you think about your future and get you moving. In your inbox, every day, for 5 days.

Click here, opt in, and we’ll send you one lesson per day over the next few days so you can experience it for yourself. It’s free. Just take the first step.

YEW!

Today it’s going to be short…

It needs to be simple and impactful to hopefully push you to do something.

I’m going to share 4 conversations that took place in this last week…

#1 - My friend Al yesterday sent me this video - must watch - https://youtu.be/4MvGnmmP3c0 

I’ve been developing a robot for the last 12 months with a rad group of humans and did a short deep dive into humanoids… and what I knew 4 weeks ago about the limitations of humanoids has changed yet again - Ai is moving faster than I even expected and wrote about previously in my newsletters…

#2 - My friend Marcio said to me earlier this week “by the end of the year developers (computer programmers) will be 4 times as productive with Ai”…
Im like… a team of 10 can output that a team of 40 could do 12 months ago…
check https://manus.im/

How many other jobs will be like that by the end of the year?
How cool is it to think about it this way… not that you will reduce your team to 3 people 4 times as productive… but you will actually be able to do all the things you wanted to do without any extra resource or capital… the work of 40 with the 10 people you already have.

#3 - My friend Pablo shared with me thoughts around angel investors and VC firms assessing a startup, when in the past you had to raise to be able to develop the apps or software… you had an idea, maybe you tested it manually, and you needed capital to take it from say TRL3-4 to TRL 6-7…
in future, most ideas will be presented at TRL 7 and perhaps the capital needed is not for development and more for scale/market penetration/sales?

Due diligence 2.0: Strategies for the AI era

www.affinity.co/webinar/due-diligence-strategies-for-the-ai-era?utm_source=StrictlyVC&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=Due+Diligence+Webinar&utm_campaign=FY26Q1-GB-WBN-CRM-Due+Diligence-StrictlyVC

#4 - My friend Quinny goes “dude been developing an app on Poe.com but it took me ages to get it to do what I wanted it to” - by the way Quinny is not a computer programer - so just the fact that he is “developing” is already insane!!… but the fact that the effort and result don’t yet match suggest we are still a few steps away from conversation #3….

#5 my friends Gee, Petra and I were chatting about the education system and The Unrealistic Foundation (check it here) and how Ai augmentation is making us less critical in our thinking - have a look at this article:

Is AI making us dumb? | TechCrunch

Researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University recently published a study looking at how using generative AI at work affects critical thinking

techcrunch.com/2025/02/10/is-ai-making-us-dumb/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAK8or1OunmQokKQqxXvwD38Vqs6tgbzOAQ6761MgP-O2asuA2f4AJZmy7CCgbTOq8hsOZ7ZfOn8TzGZ_Wxr-yWd_MyPJNgmX09x8S__8Te_bZd0i5XGre0NwgZDXgwUSTKi0_lejrgis8DZ3T3kYouTa-K3RanfjMxUox9eRrjYN

Is it making us smarter in other ways? Does it even matter?

Anyway… short and sharp… play with Ai… lots… develop your own agents to replace you, solve problems you have never been able to solve before, talk at the dinner table with the kids about it, engage…. don’t let this happen to you make sure you happen to it.

Love
G

P.S. Wondering how AI-proof your career is?
» Find out your Future-Proof Score now! 

As mentioned before, last week we launched the Life Shake Up! Community
This isn’t another self-improvement course. Life Shake Up! is a movement. A mindset shift. A no-BS community that will help you break free, reinvent yourself, and start making bold moves.

Inside our community, you get:
✅ Weekly coaching calls with Gus and team to keep you moving forward
✅ A private members-only chat for support, wins & accountability
✅ Proven frameworks & tools—but with guidance so you actually use them
✅ A community of people just like you, shaking things up together

Big shifts don’t happen in isolation. If you're serious about making real changes, join us inside. Check it out now!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

HEY! Lucas, who helps me with some projects like this one, has a cool newsletter. Check it out!

🚀 AI for Real Life – Get More Done, With Less Effort

No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical tips, smart use cases, and AI hacks to save time, automate the boring stuff, and make your life easier.

💡 For business owners, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who want to use AI without turning into a tech geek.

✅ Get ChatGPT (and other AI) to actually work for you (instead of wasting time on useless prompts)
✅ AI tools that boost productivity, create content, and do the grunt work
✅ Real-world strategies—not theory, not hype

👉 Subscribe now and start using AI the smart way.

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 AMAZING - LOVED IT!

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OR… HIT REPLY and share your thoughts on what you want to have more in this Newsletter!

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #69

Hey Rebels!

As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game.

Last week, we launched the Life Shake Up! Community (starting late March)—a space and program to help you shake up your life, your career, de-risk your financial position and to simply create more freedom to do the stuff that makes you happy.

Lots of people asked for more details, so this week, I decided to give you a starting point.
We created a FREE 5-day email course “the ShakeUp! Starter Series” —short, punchy lessons designed to challenge the way you think about your future and get you moving. In your inbox, every day, for 5 days.

Click here, opt in, and we’ll send you one lesson per day over the next few days so you can experience it for yourself. It’s free. Just take the first step.

YEW!

So… If you ask an Argentinean how many fingers they have the answer is twenty - not ten - 20 fingers! We have “hand fingers” and “feet fingers” all of them fingers - hahahaha - You didn’t know you wanted to know this but I did so now you know - you are welcome.

Let’s get into it

Completely blown away by a book a friend gave me last year that I have finally picked up. It’s not a new book (2019) but it is as relevant as ever. It’s called Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie, and it’s a window into the world of Cambridge Analytica’s (CA) mechanics for controlling humans (read this article if you've forgotten about it). The crazy thing, and I encourage you to find it and read it, is that not only did they control humans with incredible tangible and scary results, but it is still being done today… and in one way, shape or form we are all contributing to it. I am sure I am going to share many passages of the book over the next few months but here comes one that I think is awesome and it’s related to the saga of Cambridge Analytica, but more generally to business.

The author (perhaps a genius behaviouralist and an incredible human data scientist) faces an interesting challenge: explaining to someone that if you want to change culture you first need to define what that culture is. He argues that if you can’t define it, you can’t measure it and if you can’t measure it you can’t know if you are changing it.

You may have a similar experience to me, but as much as I have seen dozens of different tools to measure culture and I have a consulting business that helps transform culture…. it is and has always been hard to measure, and more often than not feels like an art form more than a science. But I love how the book made me rethink some of my postures.

He uses Italians as an example.

Italians are known to be extroverted and passionate.

This is a stereotype of course, BUT, if you visit Italy and then Finland you will indeed notice (no need for research) the drastic difference… Italians are louder, hands going everywhere, lots of facial gesticulations, a lot more pasta and pizza, etc. There are things you can define as Italian culture.

Me being Italian - doing justice to my Italian heritage

We often use language that very much relates to personality when we describe culture… and we use this personality language for people and for peoples (individuals and aggregates).

Sure not all Italians are extroverted and loud and move their hands, but if you plot the Fins and the Italians on a curve, the top of the bell curve, the average Italian, is more extroverted than the average Fin.

Trying to become Finnish! 🇫🇮 (2008, maybe?)

So… get this… the author, when helping set up Cambridge Analytica, knew that if they could infer certain cultural traits from Facebook personal information on people and were able to describe culture and plot a distribution chart, they could technically change culture… the crazy thing is that they did, and the book explains how Brexit and various other elections in the US and around the world were manipulated by weaponising social media.

Now, think of the culture of your team, or your business… and imagine it in this super simple way:
The stereotype of your business is that they are all Finnish and you want them to be more Italian.

One of the measurable traits you can infer from watching them in meetings is how much they move their hands. Say the average Fin in a conversation moves their hands every 6th word and an Italian it’s every 2nd word.

Now of course you know that if your team moved their hands more and behaved more like Italians your business would sell more and do better.

So, you implement programs and work hard to push that average hand gesture from every 6th word to every 2nd word. This simplifies my understanding of cultural change in business, and although we all know it is not as easy as that, it is a wonderful way to think about it and talk about it and design change with it.

This is a real practical way of thinking about the often intangible elements of culture.

Here is your challenge - can be your team, your family, your business, your department:

I’m playing with it just so you know. Yew!

Love,

Gus

As mentioned before, last week we launched the Life Shake Up! Community
This isn’t another self-improvement course. Life Shake Up! is a movement. A mindset shift. A no-BS community that will help you break free, reinvent yourself, and start making bold moves.

Inside our community, you get:
✅ Weekly coaching calls with Gus and team to keep you moving forward
✅ A private members-only chat for support, wins & accountability
✅ Proven frameworks & tools—but with guidance so you actually use them
✅ A community of people just like you, shaking things up together

Big shifts don’t happen in isolation. If you're serious about making real changes, join us inside. Check it out now!

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 6000+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

HEY! Lucas, who helps me with some projects like this one, has a cool newsletter. Check it out!

🚀 AI for Real Life – Get More Done, With Less Effort

No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical tips, smart use cases, and AI hacks to save time, automate the boring stuff, and make your life easier.

💡 For business owners, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who want to use AI without turning into a tech geek.

✅ Get ChatGPT (and other AI) to actually work for you (instead of wasting time on useless prompts)
✅ AI tools that boost productivity, create content, and do the grunt work
✅ Real-world strategies—not theory, not hype

👉 Subscribe now and start using AI the smart way.

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #68

Hey Rebels!

As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game.

For those who are new—and there are about 700 of you in the last few weeks alone—here’s a link to some of my previous newsletters. See if any grab your attention, or just lucky dip in randomly for 10 minutes and gift your brain with some stimulus.

YEW!

Let’s get into today’s:

I don’t know about you but these are recurring questions in my mind…

Am I doing what I really love doing?
Could I be doing more or less or other stuff?
Am I being adventurous enough?
What should I do next?
Should I be more conservative?
Should I be investing more on x or y or z?
Do I prioritise my time correctly?
Did someone steal my curiosity and I didn’t even notice?
Do I spend enough time with my family?
Am I free? How free?
Can I make completely independent and autonomous decisions?
Am I at risk? Financial risk? Too exposed?

If I try to find the perfect answer for them, or one I am completely satisfied with, all it does is fill me with self-doubt.

Instead, I focus on the process that makes me feel confident the answers will emerge and evolve as needed.

Last year I put together a Career Shake Up! program, I packaged up what I’ve been doing for years to help people with their careers into a self-paced program…
And although the experiment was fun and yielded some great results for people, it didn’t reach the scale I was hoping for…
I think maybe the error was calling it Career Shake Up and not simply LIFE Shake Up! - life and work are one and the same.

It’s a self-guided masterclass to share with you how I answer all the questions above on a regular basis, and how I ensure that despite my imperfections and biases, I have the best chance of happening to life rather than life happening to me.

I am here to remind you of the importance of curiosity and kick your butt into gear to do more than what you are supposed to!

So, I decided to make the program cheaper, not free. I think free is rubbish because if I make it free, you won’t take it seriously nor will you value my effort.

I also made it tighter… in fact - short and punchy enough that you should be able to do it in a day - I recommend taking 1 day off… ONE DAY THATS ALL!…and focus on yourself, maybe go buy yourself a bunch of flowers, set them up next to you, put your fave music on or maybe theta waves…and push through the material, listen, explore, search, write, regain the thirst to push yourself into the uncomfortable so you can learn new things.

I’m also going to try to connect you. There’s 6,000 of you now… just over 12 months ago it was maybe around 1,500ish….crazy!!
Right now you are all connected to me but not with each other. You all write messages to me with similar sentiments… “I want to be pushed out of my comfort zone”, “I want to explore what else is out there”, “I don’t want to feel like I should have tried and I didn’t

What if I start connecting you with each other, so we can all find our matches and supporters and can keep each other honest?
Once a week, the Shake Up! gets together, open mic conversation with me and each other. Like a live LinkedIn hahaha!

Anyway, worth a try, let’s see what happens.

➔ Go here.
Sign up.
Take a day off (or not but I reckon you should!)
Do the push ups.
Join the hive so we can chat once a week (starting in March).
Start shaking things up!

If you don’t have the $ and you need help just email me and I’ll make the program available to you - don’t stress!

ALSO, those of you that bought the program last year, OBVIOUSLY already have access to it (and in fact, you will have lifetime access to all my programs for being early birds and kind of guinea pigs 🙏🙌)

Yew!

Love,

Gus

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 5500+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

HEY! Lucas, who helps me with some projects like this one, has a cool newsletter. Check it out!

🚀 AI for Real Life – Get More Done, With Less Effort

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Just practical tips, smart use cases, and AI hacks to save time, automate the boring stuff, and make your life easier.

💡 For business owners, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who want to use AI without turning into a tech geek.

✅ Get ChatGPT (and other AI) to actually work for you (instead of wasting time on useless prompts)
✅ AI tools that boost productivity, create content, and do the grunt work
✅ Real-world strategies—not theory, not hype

👉 Subscribe now and start using AI the smart way.

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #67

Hey Rebels!

As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game.

YEW!

Let’s get into today’s:

You often hear me say that to pull the future towards you and start playing with novelty you need to create space in your day to day life - the excuse of “I have no time to do new things” can be simply translated to “I struggle to let go of anything so my day to day is completely full”.

Businesses run into the same issue and we make BAU so full that it should be called Busy As Usual rather than Business As Usual.

One of the major culprits of busy-ness is projects… once they start and they become someone’s baby, they are hard to remove.

Even when they make no sense anymore and we should stop them and cut our losses at best we wound them and let them stay barely alive, consuming precious resources and cognitive power.

Thanks AI for helping me create this image.

Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragility makes an amazing observation worth considering:

When uncertainty impacts travel time, it has an asymmetric effect - more often than not you arrive later not earlier.

How many times have you arrived earlier on a flight? Maybe 10-20min but no more - how many times have you arrived late? Even 2-3-4…10hrs late? That’s right, uncertainty adds, it rarely subtracts.

Projects suffer from the same effect, most projects we know run over time and over budget. Projects like travelling suffer from the same asymmetry and non-linearity.

Nassim argues, well… explains in a number of his books, that we are too often fooled by randomness, the world is getting more complex and weird and in our desire to make shit happen we not only underestimate what it takes but also misunderstand the non-linear nature of our projects- shit is way more complex today and unfortunately the efficiency that software and project management claim to achieve is a fallacy - all that’s done is push us to sail too close to the wind guaranteeing that any uncertainty will simply add not subtract.

We strip so much in our attempt to be efficient that the entire project becomes as weak as its weakest link.

As it trips over and fails to deliver on its initial objective we, for political reasons in the business or KPIs we need to achieve or promises we have made or credibility we need to uphold, prop them up with more resources and try to keep them alive.

Apparently, back in the day projects like the Empire State Building were delivered on budget and on time and clearly on quality!

Things were more linear back then - there was no software, no six sigma project managers, far less complexity.

hahahaha!!!

An additional thought to consider:
What are the consequences if the outcome of this project is achieved but at a lower quality? In other words, you keep resources and time fixed but you drop quality?

Well, a good way to solve this is to ensure the key people and stakeholders in the project have skin in the game. The Romans would request the engineers to sleep under the bridges they helped build - and the English would go further and ask their families to join them.

Do you have zombie projects in your business? Projects that should die but remain barely alive for irrational reasons?

Do you start initiatives in your business and underestimate the non-linearity of execution and scramble to deliver?

How often does this happen to our own personal projects?

How much space could you create in your business and life if you simply cut your losses, killed some zombie projects and made space!

I reckon we could easily write a book called “Projects” with epic case studies of what not to do! Hahaha

Love,

Gus

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!
MONTHLY COACHING CALLS STARTING SOON!!
ONLY FOR SHAKE UP! MEMBERS.
Buy the course and get LIFETIME access to our coaching calls.

Career ShakeUp by Gus Balbontin –

Build the bridge to your ideal future.
But first… you need to come up with what “ideal” means TO YOU. 

Our program provides different frameworks and templated tools that will assist you in this exploratory journey. 

We will help you think from a different perspective. Hopefully you’ll discover -or confirm- your true passions and purpose.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO, business owner, student.. or just someone rethinking your path. We all go through stuff.
If this resonates… the Shake Up program is definitely for you. Check it out.
(and worstcase scenario.. you use the money-back guarantee)

gusbalbontin.com/career-shakeup-presale

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 5500+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

HEY! Lucas, who helps me with some projects like this one, has a cool newsletter. Check it out!

🚀 AI for Real Life – Get More Done, With Less Effort

No fluff. No jargon. No boring AI news.
Just practical tips, smart use cases, and AI hacks to save time, automate the boring stuff, and make your life easier.

💡 For business owners, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who want to use AI without turning into a tech geek.

✅ Get ChatGPT (and other AI) to actually work for you (instead of wasting time on useless prompts)
✅ AI tools that boost productivity, create content, and do the grunt work
✅ Real-world strategies—not theory, not hype

👉 Subscribe now and start using AI the smart way.

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #66

I once had a guy who approached me on LinkedIn and his message started with:

“Hi, etc.”

He went straight to his pitch.

I thought “rude”, and then I paused… and realised how fucking brilliant it was!!!!

Think how much time is wasted in useless chit-chat: “hey I hope you are awesome, how is 2025 treating you? Gosh, it’s already February can you believe it? Anyway, just a short note…”

The dude was straight. Etc was enough to cover all the niceties required - we both know what they are… hahahaha

Hahaha sorry I did the same - come on let’s go, no time to waste on chit-chat.

Imagine if we could set a global wellbeing standard companies were incentivised to achieve?
A framework describing the requirements a business has to complete to show a genuine attempt at providing the best environment for humans to work in.

I carefully chose the word “attempt” because even with the greatest frameworks in place, it’s impossible to guarantee an imperfect group of humans (a business) will be able to ensure the wellbeing of themselves and others!

So all we can do is attempt to achieve the goal, which is of course a million times better than doing nothing and just passing the legal requirements!

But I digress…stay with me…that was just a little side note.

There is of course law and regulation, which are different across the world, that forces a company to provide its people with a certain standard, basic elements like leave and weekend and super and and… but we now know that there’s a bit more to wellbeing than basic corporate rights.

I know I know, It’s impossible to guarantee the wellbeing of people in an organisation… but what if at the very least a global standard existed? 

A certification that said “this company takes wellbeing seriously and as a minimum does XYZ to ensure it”

Similar to B-Corp for Sustainability but WCorp for Wellbeing -
when you are applying for a job or assessing to partner with a company and you see the W you know they take wellbeing seriously and some standards are adhered to.

Or a bit like an ISO9001 I guess, but for wellbeing.

the neu crew!! so much fun!

Taking wellbeing seriously doesn’t ensure people are well, we all know it is far more complex than that.

I imagine a redefinition of Maslow hierarchies but in the corporate context, a framework that’s similar to Maslow helps you get to “corporate self-actualisation” by ensuring the preceding elements of the hierarchy are taken care of.

Now this does not mean there won’t be restructures, roles made redundant, conflicts that are difficult to resolve, pressure from investors and shareholders, rules and regulations we can’t control, and more…

A W company doesn’t mean a company without the usual troubles and challenges.

Inevitably those things will continue to happen and will inevitably still have an impact in the wellbeing of people in the business. Commercial pressures don’t go away, BUT, they can definitely be managed with a wellbeing framework in place.

Here is your challenge for the week!

Write back to me and tell me:

1) What are your wellbeing top 5? What 5 things a business can do for you to say “yep these guys take wellbeing seriously”. What would make a company worthy of its wellbeing certification?

2) What do you feel when you join that W company? Or when you partner with one?What happens when you leave a W company?

3) What is it like to work there?
Trust? Safety? Dialogue? Transparency? Choice? Fall backs? Opportunities? Training? Growth? Family? Health? Sport? Nutrition?

Of course, whatever you tell me you think is the ideal… my question back to you would be:
Why don’t you implement it in your team or business as soon as you can?
And if you are already - absolute LEGEND!

Yew!

Love

Gus

P.S. Hey!!! sooo many of you replied to my email last week!! It was crazy!! and you all sent so nice vibes!! Thank you all!! I’m still going through the messages and trying to reply to all of them haha. let’s keep it going ;)

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!
MONTHLY COACHING CALLS STARTING SOON!!
ONLY FOR SHAKE UP! MEMBERS

Career ShakeUp by Gus Balbontin –

Build the bridge to your ideal future.
But first… you need to come up with what “ideal” means TO YOU. 

Our program provides different frameworks and templated tools that will assist you in this exploratory journey. 

We will help you think from a different perspective. Hopefully you’ll discover -or confirm- your true passions and purpose.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a CEO, business owner, student.. or just someone rethinking your path. We all go through stuff.
If this resonates… the Shake Up program is definitely for you. Check it out.
(and worstcase scenario.. you use the money-back guarantee)

gusbalbontin.com/career-shakeup-presale

ALL MY PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS HERE!!!

Hey! Thanks for being here!
(we are more than 5500+ rebels! already… mindblown!=)

Remember that you can always check out more of my weekly ramblings and newsletters by clicking here —most of the stuff’s still relevant today.
YEW!!!

https://gusbalbontin.beehiiv.com/

MADE IT THIS FAR?! YOU CAN GIVE ME FEEDBACK WITH ONLY 1 CLICK:

What do you think of this email? Tap your choice below and let me hear it 👇

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #65

Happy new year everyone!!!! Yew!!! Here we go 2025! - I still struggle to get my head around it - I’ve written about time before and while I practically understand it, emotionally I wish I were a photon so time didn’t pass for me (remember photons travel through space but not time! Go on - ask chat GPT hahaha)

We’ve had a bunch of new sign-ups during the break… YEW! thanks for joining and thanks for sharing this newsletter!
SO if you’re new, my offer is simple: I promise to provoke you to stay adaptable in less than 5 min once a week.

Anyways.. If you follow me on socials you would have seen I’ve recently returned from our break in the Phillipines with the fam - wow - what an amazing country.

First half of the trip was a crazy adventure, deep into the cordillera, where the roads are so zig-zaggy that it takes 12 hrs to cover 300km… and to get to your accommodation you have to trek!

As always, even though I am on holidays my brain is ticking over, so here are a few observations and their relevant provocation - let’s go!

Natural v Synthetic

To get the trip started we trekked through the ancient rice terraces of Batad, they are a sight that will take your breath away - the kind of visual stimulus your brain struggles to process and turns it into a painting cos it does not compute with reality.

Small - simple - now is the way of life here. Uncomplicated, practical, tangible.

As we were walking up and down the terraces I noticed that the terraces and the climbing steps were built following the natural shape of the mountain - a symbiotic dance in which nature provided form and we humans created function - just looking at them has a calming effect in contrast with our synthetic city grids - maybe we need less 90 degree angles in our lives - nature doesn’t really make them in the first place.

When you watch the locals move up and down these terraces, it looks effortless, when you get close to the “stairs” they use they seem unrefined, inefficient, clunky compared to our perfect 90 degree 24x18 predictable steps.

Turns out after a bit of adjusting the natural, organic, random looking steps were way more efficient and effective than our forced unnatural looking ones - and most importantly - 2000 years on - they were still perfectly functional - I don’t know if in 2000 years any of our modern stairs will still be around. Ç
As Joker our trekking guide said “our ancestors were the best engineers”.

Look closely… the stairs we use today are the modern/westernised ones.. you can see on the wall the original/ancient ones!

Disconnection

Ryan, our guide, kept banging on about wild chicken soup, “it’s better than the stuff from the supermarkets” and as we finished saying “ok let’s give it a go” Germain our host started trying to round up her chickens!

“I can’t get them, I fed them already, they have all gone to sleep” - Joker jumps up and says “I think my sister has a few.. I’ll go down get it”.

In the next 15 min, we thanked the chicken for feeding us, plucked it, cleaned it and put it in the pot with some veggies and lots of ginger.

The kids joined in to help with everything muscling through the strange awareness that life sustains life - that our food does not come from supermarkets or grows in a packet. Luckily this wasn’t new to them, we have had chickens in our house here in Yarraville as well as 20 plus fruit trees, all the veges and herbs and all the bees a garden can handle, and being Argentinean and coming from a small town, there were plenty of opportunities growing up to connect and be reminded of where food comes from.

Warning! Sensitive content.

Community

As we drive off Manila and encounter smaller and smaller towns it’s obvious that Filipinos are very community-focused - there’s a buzz, a level of very public activity and conversation happening you don’t find in other countries - it’s as if everything that happens is happening live right in front of you and everyone is helping everyone else.

Turns out there is a powerful Filipino value - Bayanihan - that represents the spirit of communal unity, cooperation and collective action. It’s helping and expecting nothing in return - it seems to be rooted in centuries of survival requiring putting always the “team” above the individual.

The time we spent in Batad made us realise that there is little you can achieve on your own here, it’s a simple life but it requires many to make it happen - rice needs collective effort.

Here are a few more beautiful values:

• Pakikisama: Harmonious interpersonal relationships.

• Utang na loob: A sense of reciprocal gratitude.

• Malasakit: Empathetic concern for others’ welfare.

Ok enough.

Lots of love,

Gus

P.S. Good to be back hey?! Let me know if you’re glad the emails are back! Just hit reply and send me a message! I personally read all of them :)

Career ShakeUp by Gus Balbontin – Redefine Your Work and Future — GUS BALBONTIN

Transform your career with Gus Balbontin’s Career ShakeUp program. Whether you’re a CEO, business owner, or just rethinking your path, this program helps you diversify, reduce risk, and unlock your true potential through a portfolio career approach. Take control of your future today!

gusbalbontin.com/career-shakeup-presale

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By Gus Balbontin
Edition #64

Hey Rebels!

As always, I promise to provoke you in less than 5 min once a week so that you can stay adaptable and on top of your game.

YEW!

Let’s get into today’s:

So… last newsletter for the year.

Last week was a mess so I couldn’t do it… and this week is not much different!!!

Not in a bad way, just end-of-the-year shenanigans - we all fall into a state of desperate completion… we want to “finish” everything before the end of the year! Haha… when the sun finally decides to call the quits I hope it’s at the end of the year so it’s kinda nice and tidy… most of the world would have “finished” whatever they were working on!….

In the last few months, I have had the wonderful gift of hearing back from people I haven’t seen in a while, whom I coached or mentored years ago, and hearing about their achievements and progress.

It is… categorically… one of the most rewarding things I do… when some of my tips or advice or influence or energy helps someone unlock their own potential…. its’s amazing.

It’s not as if I do the push-ups for them, they of course are responsible for it all… but giving them a pep talk or a push or a gentle reminder is a real privilege.

Have a look at this company…. kaikofidgets.com - I helped Kai with his pitch recently (he won ;-) and got an update… they are a thoughtful business with a wonderful purpose, product and service to match. Who would have thought 6-7 years ago they would get to where they are today?! Amazing....

Message from Kai’s mom.

You def should learn more about Kai:

Or Yaz! In the pic below with me a few days ago… he is now killing it leading the Australian arm of this company momence.com - same, 6-7 years ago he was studying business and learning how to be an entrepreneur and today he is managing his side hustles.

Anyway… I don’t have much to say except thank you - like profoundly - genuinely - for reading my crazy thoughts and for taking them seriously, for writing back to me to tell me how much they mean to you.

Also, thank you for subscribing to this newsletter, which started just over a year ago as a silly experiment with under 1000 readers and has now grown to over 5000 subscribers tuning in each week.
To put that in perspective, that’s like filling Melbourne’s Festival Hall—a venue built for around 5,000 people—every time I hit send. It’s wild to think we’ve packed that place out together every week!

Not that I’m comparing, but a small band played there some years ago…

Have a great break, and see you in Feb sometime, we are heading off with the fam to Phillipines - never been - super excited… check insta if you want to see some pics.

Love,

Gus

P.S. If hearing about Kai and Yaz got you thinking, "I could use a push like that," then maybe it’s time you give yourself a break and a boost before the year wraps up.
The Shake Up! Experience is all about pulling your future toward you—just like they did.

Plus… next year, I’m hosting monthly private sessions exclusively for those who’ve joined the course, so if you’re feeling it, use code BF30 for 30% off until year’s end.

No hype, just an honest shot at starting next year with more direction. You in?

Join the Shake Up! Experience now!

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