Wherever there are birds, there is hope. — Mehmet Murat Ildan

My siblings and I recently setup a smart bird feeder for my dad. He’s been navigating quite a few health challenges over the years, and these days he’s immobile for a good portion of the day. Bird watching is something he enjoyed before all of that, back when he was still “ripping and running,” as he used to say.

I took up bird watching during the pandemic. The world was quieter then, and I had a private outdoor space where I spent a lot of time noticing sights and sounds I had been too distracted to pay attention to before. Bird watching forces you to slow down. If you’re too distracted, you may miss one. The little birds don’t hang around long because there’s always a bigger bird somewhere lurking. If you’re too loud, you may scare them off. So it’s peaceful. Also dramatic. With the birds come squirrels. Sometimes cats, rabbits, and other animals. Predator birds too.

So now I have a smart bird feeder. We all have one. A family compound of smart feeders, each in a different location. Since we all have the same brand of smart feeder, we can share our camera feeds through the app.

My sister’s view is the best. Somehow, she managed to place her feeder in perfect lighting, which makes sense because she’s always been great at finding the light in photos too. My Dad’s view is the most active because it’s managed by my youngest brother, who keeps it stocked like a school cafeteria snack bar, with a full variety of seeds. The view from my feeder is like watching birds at happy hour: chaotic and loud. It’s tucked under a tree canopy, which makes most birds feel safe, but also serves as a launch pad for squirrels.

Every week presents a new set of challenges to overcome, balancing the care and feeding of these bird feeders across different locations with everything else we’re navigating. But no matter what, there will be birds. They show up anyway, and roll with whatever comes their way.

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Yelling “Representative!” doesn’t work as well as it used to.

Recently, I had to contact a vendor to get support for a billing issue. It started with a string of red flags. First, I had to perform a deep Google search just to figure out how to reach support. The option was intentionally hidden, completely absent from an obvious place on their website or inside their application. Then, to open a ticket, I was forced into a rigid contact form that required me to choose from highly limited dropdown menus. There was no “other” bucket, forcing me to waste time arbitrarily forcing my issue into a category where it didn’t belong. Then the form demanded administrative time. Along with an account number, it featured a mandatory question I have never seen on a customer service form in my life: “What date did you become a customer?”

I have been a client of this business for years. Whoever built this workflow clearly didn’t want people to contact them. The final straw, the one that nearly made me crash out, came right after I spent all that time filling out the information and hit submit. A message popped up to let me know they would get back to me in 7 to 10 business days.

IKYFL.

Your High-Leverage is Proximity to Reality

This was annoying as a customer (understatement). As a business leader, I understand why more companies are applying AI and automation to streamline customer service operations and improve margins.

The problem starts when companies treat human interaction as overhead instead of intelligence. Fewer support tickets may look like efficiency, but it can also mean higher frustration and less visibility into customers who are forced to resolve issues through search engines, Reddit, peer networks, or even competitors.

Most entrepreneur or leaders of smaller, growing, or resource-constrained organizations cannot operate by the rules of these massive too-big-to-fail corporations. Nor should you want to. You have an unfair advantage that they are gleefully automating away: proximity to reality.

In systems thinking, feedback loops dictate whether your organization is operating in a virtuous cycle of customer delight or a vicious cycle of hidden resentment. Automation should optimize your ability to understand how to better serve your customers, not shield you and your team from reality.

In practice, creating a virtuous customer feedback loop:

I’ve been thinking about how entrepreneurs can leverage emerging tools to improve operations without becoming the kind of company that treats customers like a necessary inconvenience.

Your most overlooked growth strategy may be making customers feel like they matter, whether they are dealing with a human or an artificial agent.

Here are four questions to consider.

1. When should a customer be able to talk to a human?
   This is both a philosophical question and an operational one. Not every issue needs a human response, but some do. The question is whether you have clearly defined when a human needs to be involved, and whether the path to that person is always visible or intentionally blocked.

2. How are you discovering what customers actually need?
   Let customers describe their pain points in their own words instead of forcing them through canned workflows with your assumptions baked in. The words they use, and the workarounds they create can tell you a lot about their values and pain points.

3. How are customer touch points resulting in customer intelligence?
   Support requests, complaints, onboarding questions, churn reasons, sales objections, and repeated “simple” questions are not noise. They are opportunities to learn how to serve your audience, improve your offering, and decide where to best focus your finite resources.

4. How do you know whether you are actually meeting customer needs?
   It is not a great long-term sign if customers are ultimately seeking answers to questions you should answer on Reddit, in private forums, through peer networks, or even from a competitor. Your tools should reveal where customers are getting stuck, whether you were able to resolve their issues, and where your current systems are falling short.

Too many companies completely fail all four of these leading practices. The definitive mark of a company that simply doesn’t give a damn is one that offers no path past the machine, publishes generic answers to questions no one is asking, and never bothers to ask whether your problem was solved.

Your leverage is not in the tools you use, but in how you use them to be better to the humans you serve.

I wrote more about this on my website in “AI, Feedback Loops, and Proximity as Leverage”, where I also share four questions every company should ask before putting AI between itself and its customers.

Sometimes the most creative thing you can do is choose a different tool.

The most innovative move isn't always chasing the newest technology. It’s using what you already have differently, or knowing when the tool itself has become a distraction from the actual work.

For example, I’ll be honest: I’m not immediately impressed by your “AI business.”

Stating that you have an AI-enabled business is like saying you have a Home Depot-enabled business without specifying whether you are using hammers, screwdrivers, or lawn mowers, and for what purpose.

Nearly anything can be AI-enabled. So much so that I have even been reluctant to use the phrase to describe my own business. I’ve been deliberate about specifying exactly how and why we use the technology. Specificity builds trust, creates clarity, and makes it easier to prove value. Our customers want confidence that we know which tools to use and that we are not swinging hammers just because they generate more attention.

I am not anti-AI. Far from it. But I do not believe the presence of AI automatically makes something innovative.

Here are two questions worth considering before centering your business around AI, or any other tool:

1. What if [Latest Tool] disappeared tomorrow? Would your business still make sense?

2. What if every business became [Latest Tool]-enabled? What is your actual advantage?

There will always be a new shiny object to chase. The tool is not the point. The impact of what you build with it is.

I unpack this further on my website in AI, Hammers & Shiny Objects, where I share the "Disappearance Test" and the "Everywhere Test" to help you discover your actual competitive advantage.

Notes on: Collaging & Entrepreneurship

During a creative sabbatical that began last summer, I found myself drawn to collage, the technique of creating new works from existing, often disparate materials. That curiosity eventually led me to a regular collage class with other artists at my local museum’s Studio School.

Recently, I noticed that I had started overpacking for class. Because we focus on a different technique each week, and rarely know the assignment beforehand, I would pack every paper, tool, and art supply I thought I could possibly need. Although the instructor always places a stack of “community” supplies on the table, much of it left behind by other students, most people, including me, tend to prefer working from their own stash.

One week, I had to head to class directly from a business trip without stopping home to grab my heavy bag of supplies. I only had space in my luggage for a basic set of tools, meaning I’d have to use whatever happened to be left on the table in the studio space. Initially, I was stressed. But creating within those constraints ultimately sparked a powerful shift.

The Leverage of Constraints

First, to even start the assignment, I had to believe that the classroom provided enough to source from and that I had the skill to make it work. I could spend my limited time searching for better (or more) materials, or I could get on with creating something meaningful.

To complete the assignment, I needed to reimagine what’s possible with a random assortment of papers, raw textures, and color palettes that I never would have chosen on my own. It forced me to invent new materials from what was available and deploy my basic tools in unconventional ways, guided by experienced artists who had spent years refining their ability to see possibility in unexpected materials.

An abundant mindset does not deny the presence of scarcity. It builds the creative muscle to start with what is available, then expands that availability through the act of doing the work.

For many entrepreneurs, this creative muscle can become a strategic asset for business. I’ve spent the last 20+ years as a full-time entrepreneur, building and growing companies through a wide range of funding, business, and growth models. Through it all, I’ve learned one hard truth: The deck is always stacked.

For most of us, success is not just about the resources we have. It is about how we activate them.

Try this: In Practice

Pick one project you want to advance this week. Now freeze your resources. Imagine you cannot acquire anything new: no new funding, software, hires, or external permission.

Instead of asking, “What am I missing?” ask:

• What is the simplest, fastest way to deliver the result I need?

• What existing assets am I ignoring?

• How can one asset do double duty?

• What imperfect material can I deploy right now?

For example, a spreadsheet can serve as more than a planning tool. It can become a lightweight prototype, a way to test a workflow, structure a service, model a customer experience, or prove that an idea works before you invest in building something more polished.

That is leverage: building the creative muscle to activate available resources to move an idea one-step forward. Then, rinse & repeat.