Your Monday Morning Plan: Use Claude to Write Your Posts, Newsletters, and Customer Emails

On Thursday, April 23, I stood in front of the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce and showed how Claude can write a week of Facebook posts for a local business in about five minutes. A lot of you wanted the thing I demoed. This is where you get it.

Download Small Business Marketing (free) →

What you need

• A computer (Mac or Windows)

• Claude Pro — $20/month. The feature this tool uses is called Cowork mode, and Cowork is Pro-only. No free workaround.

• About 30 minutes.

That’s the whole shopping list.

Your Monday morning plan

1. Install the Claude desktop app. Go to claude.ai/download. Takes two minutes.

2. Sign in and subscribe to Claude Pro. Do it from inside the app — $20/month.

3. Turn on Cowork mode. One toggle in the app’s settings.

4. Download the Small Business Marketing folder. Grab it here. Unzip it somewhere you’ll find it again — Desktop or Documents is fine.

5. Install the marketing plugin. Inside the app: Cowork → Customize → + → Upload plugin, and pick plugins/small-business-marketing.zip from the folder you just unzipped. Restart the Cowork session when it asks.

6. Open the folder in Cowork and paste this, word for word:

“I just set up the Small Business Marketing folder. Read GETTING-STARTED.md and walk me through the setup. Start with Step 2 — I already installed the plugin.”

1. Answer Claude’s questions about your business. About 20 minutes. Answer the way you’d explain it to a neighbor, not the way you think a brochure should sound. Claude saves your answers.

2. Use it. Next time you need a Facebook post, a newsletter, or a follow-up email after Wednesday’s networking mixer — open the folder and ask. Claude already knows who you are.

Setup to first written post: about 30 minutes.

One thing to be clear about

This writes the posts. You publish them. Nothing gets posted to Facebook automatically, nothing goes out at 3 a.m. by accident, no accounts get linked to anything. You read what Claude wrote, tweak anything you don’t like, copy/paste, and hit publish yourself.

What it’s actually good at

Once Claude knows your business, you don’t have to talk like a marketer to get useful output. Type “write me a Facebook post about the Easter brunch this Sunday” or “help me write a thank-you email to the customer who left that 5-star review” — plain English, your words. It handles the rest. The underlying library is Corey Haines’ Marketing Skills, repackaged so you don’t need the jargon to use it.

Get it

Free to download. Works on Mac and Windows. Requires Claude Pro.

Download Small Business Marketing →

Last week I had to conduct an executive interview. C-suite level. 45 minutes to evaluate someone who’d led multiple companies to success.

I’d never interviewed for this level of role. Ever.

Most people would’ve Googled ‘CEO interview questions’ and hoped for the best. That’s exactly how you get played by someone with media training.

Instead, I asked AI to design three questions that would cut through the polish. But here’s what melted my brain: it asked if I wanted to roleplay it first.

For 20 minutes, AI played the executive candidate. Gave me polished non-answers. Redirected my questions. Used all the tricks. Then it stopped and said: ‘Here’s where you let me off the hook. Here’s what you should’ve pressed on. Here’s the follow-up that would’ve exposed the gap.’

I walked into that real interview completely different. Confident. Prepared. I knew exactly when I was getting a rehearsed answer because I’d already heard it from AI.

The person sitting across from me had 20 years of experience. I had 20 minutes of AI roleplay.

Guess who controlled that interview?

Your competitor is having that same conversation with AI right now. About your customers. Your market. Your weaknesses.

But you’re still worried AI is “too complicated.”

The Tool Users vs. The Tool Fearers

Every massive shift in human advantage came from someone picking up a tool that others feared.

1992. Construction site. One guy shows up with a battery-powered Makita saw.

You should’ve heard the shit he took.

“What happens when your battery dies, princess?” “Real contractors don’t need toys.” “Your wife called the office, she wants her vibrator back.”

Every coffee break. Every project meeting. Someone had a joke about his “purse-sized saw.” The foreman called it a homeowner tool. The old-timers said it would never have the power for real work.

That guy is retired now.

The ones who mocked him? Still working. Still bitter. Probably complaining about how “nobody wants to work anymore” while watching younger crews finish jobs in half the time with—you guessed it—battery everything.

The shift didn’t happen overnight. It happened one contractor at a time, realizing that five battery packs and no extension cord meant finishing two jobs while everyone else finished one.

Now here’s the part that should scare you: You’re not the guy with the Makita. You’re the guy mocking him.

Except this time, the tool isn’t a saw. It’s AI. And the job site is every industry on Earth.

Your competitor already bought their Makita.

You’re Already Behind (And Don’t Know It)

While you’re reading this, someone just used AI to:

• Write a grant proposal for agricultural funding that addresses every criterion the reviewer looks for

• Diagnose why their tractor’s hydraulics are acting up (with follow-up questions a mechanic would ask)

• Create a crop rotation plan optimized for their exact soil conditions

• Draft a purchase agreement that protects them in ways they wouldn’t have thought of

• Research and negotiate the best price on equipment by knowing exactly what questions to ask

Last night, I needed a new TV. Could’ve spent three hours reading reviews, comparing specs, getting decision fatigue.

Instead, I asked AI.

It asked me: What room? How far do you sit? What’s the lighting like? Where are the windows? Do you watch sports or movies? What pisses you off about your current TV? What’s your actual budget—not what you tell your wife?

Five minutes. It gave me one TV. Not ten options. One. With exactly why it would solve each of my specific problems. I found it two minutes later online with free shipping. It was perfect.

The old me would’ve bought the wrong TV. Again. Like I did the last three times.

But here’s what really messes with my head: While I was buying that TV, someone else was using the same tool to find new customers for their business. To solve supply chain problems. To write contracts. To interview candidates.

They’re not smarter than you. They’re not more tech-savvy. They just started yesterday instead of tomorrow.

And tomorrow, they’ll be two days ahead.

The Simplest Power Move You’ll Make This Year

Here’s what pisses me off about my own industry: We’ve built technology that could transform how people manage money, but we’ve made it so complicated that only nerds like me can use it.

Decentralized finance. Smart contracts. Layer 2 solutions. We act like people need a PhD to participate.

It’s the same gatekeeping bullshit. Just with different vocabulary.

But here’s what I learned: Complexity is a choice. And AI just made it optional.

Watch this:

Hey AI, I need to write a proposal for a new customer to upgrade their HVAC. They’re skeptical about the cost. Help me write it.

AI writes it. Fine. Anyone can do that. But here’s the power move nobody’s making:

Now pretend you’re the customer. Read this proposal and tell me every reason you’d say no. Be harsh. Be unfair. Be exactly like a skeptical buyer who’s been burned before.

AI tears your proposal apart:

• “Your ROI timeline assumes perfect conditions”

• “No mention of maintenance costs after year one”

• “Where’s the warranty details?”

• “What if I need to expand in two years?”

Ok, rewrite the proposal addressing every one of those objections. But don’t make it obvious I’m defending. Weave it in naturally.

Boom. You now have a proposal that handles objections before they’re voiced. Your competitor has a Microsoft Word template from 2015.

Who’s winning that deal?

And you did this in ten minutes. On your phone. While having coffee.

Your customer thinks you’re psychic. You just asked better questions.

Your Competition Hopes You’ll Keep Waiting

I moved to Ontario two years ago from Arizona.

In Arizona, my crew was different. Entrepreneurs. People who trained at 5am before building businesses. People who read earnings reports for fun. People who saw problems as puzzles, not roadblocks.

Two years in Ontario. Know how many people like that I’ve found?

Zero.

At first I thought it was the town. The culture. “It’s just different here.”

But yesterday I joined the Chamber of Commerce. Started actually looking. And I realized something that made me feel like an idiot:

The adapters, the builders, the edge-seekers—they’re here. They’re just speaking a different language. Using different tools. Solving different problems.

They’re not hiding. I just wasn’t recognizable as one of them.

Because while they were adapting—while they were learning AI, automating their operations, solving tomorrow’s problems—I was waiting. Waiting to “find my people” instead of becoming visible to them.

The dividing line isn’t geography. It’s not industry. It’s not even education.

It’s this: Are you someone who picks up new tools, or someone who mocks them?

Are you the person learning AI to solve problems, or the person insisting “that’s not how we do things”?

Are you the battery-saw guy, or are you still dragging extension cords?

Your competition hopes you’ll keep mocking. Keep waiting. Keep insisting that “real business” doesn’t need these tools.

They’re counting on it, actually.

Start Badly. Today.

You don’t need to be good at this.

That’s what nobody tells you. My first AI conversation was me asking it to explain what a blockchain was. Like I didn’t already know. I was just testing if it would give a stupid answer.

It didn’t.

My second conversation was asking it to help me write an email I’d already written. Just to see the difference.

My tenth conversation saved me three hours of work.

My fiftieth changed how I run my entire team.

Here’s the thing about being bad at AI: You’re still ahead of everyone who hasn’t started.

So start stupid. Right now. Today. Here:

1. Ask AI to help you write one email. Any email.

The one you’re dreading. Copy, paste, send.

2. Tell it what you do for work in the simplest terms. Then ask:

What’s something AI could help me with that I haven’t thought of?

Be prepared to feel stupid when it’s obvious.

3. Use this exact prompt:

I need to buy a [thing you need]. Ask me questions until you know enough to recommend the perfect one.

Then actually buy what it recommends.

Three conversations. Three different types of help. You’ll see the pattern.

Remember that interview I opened with? The one where I controlled the conversation despite having zero experience?

That was my 200th AI conversation. Maybe my 300th.

But it started with conversation number one. Which looked a lot like: “This is probably stupid, but...”

Your competitor started their first conversation six months ago.

When are you starting yours?

Tomorrow, you’re either 24 hours behind or 24 hours ahead. The only difference is whether you close this article and forget it, or open AI and ask it one question. Just one. Here, I’ll make it easy. Copy and paste this:

I run a [your business/role] in [your town]. Everyone says AI will change everything but I don’t see how it applies to me. Can you give me one specific way I could use AI tomorrow that would actually matter? Not theory. Something I can actually do.

Send that. See what happens.

Then come find me and tell me what you discovered. Because people who take action on new tools? Those are my people.

Maybe they’re yours too.

It's 2 AM. The servers are back online, the site is up. Everyone is relieved. For the last six hours, I had been watching the banner on my second monitor out of the corner of my eye. "It's not you, it's us. We'll be back up soon!" I refresh the screen. The banner goes away and our site loads up perfectly. My boss thanks everyone for their work and says he'll schedule a meeting later today to discuss the root cause and follow-up actions. 2 AM. I have a workout scheduled in four hours.

Most people wouldn't bat an eye if I told them I skipped the workout for a few extra hours of sleep. I double-check my alarm, confirm it's set for 5 AM and close my eyes. After having done this for years, I've learned something about the human body: it responds. I moved a little slower at the beginning of my workout, for sure. But eventually my body recognized the situation. I can just imagine my brain sending messages to the rest of my body. "Wake up, mother fuckers. He's not taking 'no' for an answer!"

The Science Behind the 6 AM Decision

The real cost of skipping fitness isn't in those extra few hours of sleep.

By the end of my workout, I'm wide awake and energized. When I walk into the office, I've already pre-gamed our post-mortem meeting.

Here's why: A 2019 study, Effects of Acute Exercise Duration on the Inhibition Aspect of Executive Function in Late Middle-Aged Adults on the effects of exercise on inhibition aspect showed that 20 minutes of vigorous exercise improved cognitive functions. Inhibition Aspect is the ability to override the dominant response. For example, showing someone a red piece of paper with the word "BLUE" written on it requires the person to override the dominant response of shouting out the word "BLUE". If you've spent time debugging code or troubleshooting servers, you can recognize how important this skill is. Equally important, if you want to stay in this career long-term, this skill must be maintained over time, and exercise is the key to that. Turns out those extra two hours of sleep aren't as important over a three decade career, despite what your brain tells you when the alarm goes off.

Why Your Brain Lies to You at 5 AM

But we're just getting started. In the Huberman Lab podcast, Andrew Huberman shares how exercise improves mood, attention, memory, and cognitive function. If you're going to take medical advice, take it from someone who looks like they know what they are talking about, and Andrew Huberman fits that description.

Exercise prompts the release of neurochemicals, including dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf), which are beneficial for mood, attention, and growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, enhancing memory and cognitive function

— Andrew Huberman

Personally, I find exercise to be meditative as well. Grinding out a long workout has the effect of giving my brain a chance to clear out the garbage. Working out gives me lots of opportunities to put my brain on rote tasks: counting reps, counting weights, counting steps, or counting a running cadence. This works a lot like meditation where you try to focus on the breath, but counting seems to be much more effective for me. By focusing on counting, I stop asking my brain stupid questions every 6 seconds or hijacking the problem solving process with hypothetical disasters. The end result is by the time my workout is over, the problem-solving part of my brain has had time to come up with solutions to the real problems I'm facing.

The Three Whys Framework

Pretty compelling, right? But that's still not going to keep you from hitting the snooze button when that alarm goes off. You have to build systems to prevent "lazy" you from fucking over "future" you. I wrap this into a narrative called the "Three Whys". You may have heard of Simon Sinek's Ted Talk or book Start With Why. I think it's a good start (pun intended), but not enough. You need three whys:

• Long-term why (3-5 years): "I want to be the mentor who can demonstrate technical proficiency, health, work/life balance, and financial success over a span of decades."

• Medium-term why (3-5 months): "I want to build the next-gen DeFI app with massive engagement."

• Short-term why (3-5 seconds): "My accountability partner will call the cops if I'm not at the gym"

Your long-term why is motivating, but it's not going to get you out of bed when the alarm goes off. It's a goal too far in the distance. But your short-term why will. For me, it's an accountability partner. If I'm not at the gym when I'm supposed to be, I know my accountability partner will blow my phone up with phone calls. If I turn my phone off, I know they'll drive to my house and beat on the door. I even have one accountability partner who will call the cops on me for a "wellness check".

Hi, yeah. I've been trying to get a hold of Will. He's usually very accountable and responsive, so it's unlike him to miss a meeting. Can you drive by his house and make sure he's ok?

Now I've got the cops beating on my door. It's much easier to just get up and do the thing I need to do.

Your Deployment Strategy

This ain't rocket science. Start small. This is a multi-decade journey. Trying to run six miles per day 5 days per week is a bad way to start.

• Make a commitment to get your heart rate up for one hour per day.

• Give up an hour of sleep if you have to.

• Set up your accountability network.

• Track your progress. For me, this is as simple as putting an "X" on the calendar every day.

• Avoid electronic data loggers, smart watches, etc. Listen to your body, not your iPhone. You're stronger than you think.

When you fail, don't beat yourself up. Hit the gym, the track, the bike, whatever, and after you're done with that workout: do a post-mortem to identify how you can prevent failing the same way again.

Common Excuses and Why They Are Bullshit

• I'll start after this sprint: Another sprint starts after this one. And, plot twist: there is another one after that. Your mantra is success despite obstacles, not success pending no obstacles.

• I don't have time to shower at work: Try getting up earlier to get your workout in before you start work. Move your workout to the end of the workday (some swear this is the best time because it gives you an outlet for everything you shouldn't say during the day). If you absolutely can't workout anytime except during the workday, put baby wipes in your gym bag and wipe the sweaty parts down before putting your work clothes back on. I did this for years when the combo of life, work, kids, and relationships limited my choices.

• I'm too tired after staring at screens all day: I feel you on this one, and it's why I workout early. But if it's really the only time you can workout, see the Three Whys Framework above. Oh, and Pantera on your playlist. No one is too tired to workout when Pantera is playing.

• I'll walk to get coffee - that counts as cardio: Only if the coffee shop is on the other side of the Himalayas. The same bullshit excuses that got you here won't get you out. If that pisses you off, good. You need to be pissed off.

The 30-Year Career Truth

The effects compound over time. That's our goal. I'm not talking about just the physical effects of staying healthy, the mental effects are equally important. The only way I've been successful in tech for 30 years is by continuously upgrading my skills as technology evolves. When I started my career, we were installing Windows 95 using twenty-two 3.5" floppy disks and writing code in Visual Basic. Had I stopped learning there, what would my employment options look like today?

Most people spin out of tech before hitting their first decade. I want you to do better.

We make good money doing cool shit. The stress will try to break you - but it's less likely to do so if you treat your body like the critical system it is.

Your body is the only production environment you can't replace.

Your Next Deploy

Tag me on X with your current fitness system - even if it's just taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Let's build this community of engineers who refuse to burn out.

Your 50-year old self is counting on the decisions you make tomorrow morning.

Don't let them down.

“help…”

It seemed odd to say the least, but was convincing enough that I ruled out the sound coming from my headphones and paused the music as I crested the ridge. On the other side of the ridge was a steep descent into a ravine. At the bottom of the ravine was a brand new Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike and just beyond it lay a man in the middle of the trail.

The Christmas Day Run

It was Christmas Day 2023.

I needed to get a six hour run in according to my training schedule. With the kids grown and on their own, Christmas Day was not nearly the mad house it used to be. As a kid growing up, we always made a significant effort to be with family on Christmas Day. This usually meant a six to eight hour drive in the car to start the holiday. The holiday wasn't complete until the whole family was pissed off at each other and fighting, followed by the long car ride home.

McDowell Mountain Regional Park is nestled between Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, and the Fort McDowell Yavapi Nation Reservation just east of the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. It covers over 21,000 acres in the desert along with over 50 miles of trails for hiking, biking, horses, and of course: running. It's common to see javelina, snakes, jack rabbits, coyotes, and my favorites: the ravens. The trails are flat to rolling but on the western side, the mountains range up to 4,000 feet if you feel the need to add some elevation. Make no mistake about it, while the park is close to civilization, the desert is unforgiving, the number of humans is low, and you need to be prepared to take care of yourself in the event of an emergency. This means being prepared for cold nights and warm afternoons during the winter, blistering heat in the summer, and high winds with heavy rains during the monsoon season. Caveat emptor.

The weather was a typical Christmas Day for the desert: brisk and mid-40s early in the morning with a high temperature somewhere in the 70s. (For those who had not previously made the connection, this is why people move to Arizona.) There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was just beginning to rise when I climbed out of the truck, laced up my shoes and headed out onto the trail. About 3 miles into the run, I was settling into my groove. The aches and pains from training were beginning to ease and my body and mind were coming to terms that no amount of bitching was going to change today's mission.

Or so I thought.

A Cry for Help

The trail was much more technical than I anticipated. In hindsight, it made sense since this was primarily targeting mountain bikers. The whoop-dee-doos, switchbacks, steep climbs, and even steeper descents would have been a challenging blast on two wheels. I ran up the side of a ridge, ready to crest the top and begin the descent. It was not a steep ridge, maybe 50 feet high but it looked like there was just enough of a lip on the top of it to catch a little air before dropping down the back of it for anyone riding this trail on a mountain bike. As my phone switched from one song to the next, I thought I heard very faintly

“help…"

It seemed odd to say the least, but was convincing enough that I ruled out the sound coming from my headphones and paused the music as I crested the ridge. On the other side of the ridge was a steep descent into a ravine. At the bottom of the ravine was a brand new Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike and just beyond it lay a man in the middle of the trail. He was face down with one arm pinned under his body, the other sprawled out to the side. He saw me from the corner of his eyes as I descended toward him. "I crashed my bike and I can't feel my legs" was all he said.

The Rescue Begins

I don't have official medical training, but have studied just enough to feel comfortable spending time in the wilderness. After many years in the wilderness on various adventures, I learned one lesson. It's a lesson I tried hard to communicate to my kids. The question is never "can I make that jump?", or "have I got enough speed?". The question is always "what position am I putting my friends in if I'm wrong"? The best case scenario when wrong is you die quickly. Your friends can mark the location of your body and send authorities back later. The worst case scenario is sustaining life-threatening injuries. Now you've just tasked your friends with the responsibility of getting your dumb ass somewhere to receive medical attention and saving your life. Usually, this means they now have to put their lives in danger as well by taking on additional work, compressed timelines, increased risk, and exposure to elements they weren't prepared to deal with.

Internally, I was pretty sure this guy was fucked. No one would have laid here this long if they had a choice. Even if something were just broken, you can get out of harms way. This guy couldn't even do that. Regardless, I put on the most cheerful voice I could muster and said "Hey! My name is Will. I got you. I will be here with you until we get you to safety." I knew I couldn't give him false hope, but also knew he probably needed some level of reassurance to hang on to. Not leaving him alone was all I could offer. His name was Chris. He was out for a morning ride before celebrating Christmas with his family. Fortunately, I had cell phone service while standing there in the basin and I dialed 911. I knew getting him out was not going to be easy. I knew roughly where we were, but that's not quite the same as knowing the exact location when time and details matter.

If you've ever spent much time riding a mountain bike, you'll know the exact sound of the chain slapping the frame when you shift gears while pedaling. That's why my heart stopped when I heard that sound while talking to the 911 operator. Someone was riding up the other side of the ridge, shifting gears, and within seconds would be dropping down right on top of us. Chris was laying in the middle of the trail. I couldn't move him for safety reasons. When the rider saw us below, he or she would react but likely it would not be enough. I was about to end up with more casualties on the scene. I started screaming at the top of my lungs "STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP!" The now confused 911 operator asks "What's happening?" I didn't respond to her and did the only thing I could think of to do, I started running toward the top of the ridge with the intent of putting myself between the newcomer on the scene and Chris.

Call it fate, divine intervention, or most likely: just plain dumb luck, but in any case, the rider heard my shouts and was able to stop his bike just as the front tire rolled over the top of the ridge. His riding partner for the day was hot on his trail and while less graceful, managed to completely stop as well. We somehow managed to keep a shitty situation from getting worse.

I returned my attention to the 911 operator. I gave her the details and she provided me with some advice on how to keep Chris comfortable, safe, and as relaxed as possible. She dispatched the local sheriff's department and EMTs to the scene, but it was going to take them time to get out here, and even longer to locate us in the desert. Meanwhile, I positioned the two mountain bikers at the top of the ridge on each side of the ravine to ensure we didn't have any more surprise visitors. The 911 operator asked about the battery life on my phone. It was fully charged. I knew enough to know that it would be my lifeline out here for just such events. Her final words were "Ok, we've got help on the way, but I need you to answer any call that comes in to your phone, ok? Even if it's a number you don't recognize, I need you to answer it. Got it?"

I laughed. Got it.

I knew she was thinking of the story of the Colorado hiker who was lost in the woods for 24 hours in 2021. Search and Rescue teams tried to call the hiker repeatedly, but the hiker refused to answer because they didn't recognize the number. Emergency Services is no easy job, even if you're just the poor soul answering the phone.

I relayed everything to Chris. His headphones were still blaring Linkin Park. I fished his phone out of his jacket, stopped the music, and got him some water. He managed to stay calm though reality was setting in and he was starting to regret his choices for the day. I couldn't imagine the thoughts going through his mind. I knew what was going through mine. "How bad is this?" "How long until we can get medical attention?" "What is the rest of his life going to look like?" I did my best to help him keep those thoughts at bay, mostly with bad jokes and a deplorable sense of humor. He finally decided he should call his wife. This seemed like a good idea, so I dialed the number on his phone and handed it to him.

"Hey, I crashed my bike and I can't feel my legs."

There is no great way to have this conversation with a loved one, but honestly I can't think of a worse way to handle it. We're in the middle of the desert, we have a plan underway but no ETA. Oh, and we have no medical analysis of how serious this is. And now let's add stress and hysteria to your wife. In hindsight, I should have coached him on what to say. Maybe something like "hey, so I crashed and there are some guys here helping me cleanup and get out of here, I'll let you know when we're closer to civilization." We all know she's going to ask follow up questions and will end up with the full story anyway, but this method drops it in small, digestible doses.

I could hear her sobbing as he hung up. Her panic and fear were justified as none of us knew anything of reassurance to tell her. I hoped that talking to someone with him might give her some comfort and reassurance. It wouldn't be medical advice, but at least she would know the sound of the voice of the man tasked with getting her husband to safety, so I asked Chris if he minded if I called her. He gave me her number and I dialed it.

"Hello?" It was Chris' wife on the other side.

"Hey, this is Will Button. I'm out here with your husband, Chris. I know you just spoke with him but I wanted to let you know who the guy is that will be with him until we get him medical attention."

"Oh my god, thank you!"

She started crying.

"It's going to be ok. I've already been in contact with 911 and they have crews on the way. He's not in pain and he's not going to be alone."

"You're a life saver, thank you for being there."

"No, I'm just some dumbass who happened to be running through the desert, but I'm happy I'm able to help."

Despite not wanting to, I thought I could hear just the tip of a smile as she said "thank you either way."

"You're welcome. As soon as I have updates, I'll call you from this number and please feel free to call it anytime if you want an update or more information."

I hung up and checked in on Chris again. "Hey Chris, I wasn't prepared for this Christmas get together so I didn't get you a present, but I have some water if you'd like some?" He was uncomfortable but that was to be expected. There are a lot of ways to lay on the ground but none of those resembled the state his body was in. Unfortunately, we couldn't move him without knowing more about how and where he was injured, so we had to ride it out. (See? I told you. Stupid jokes and a poor sense of humor.)

Finally, my phone rang. It was the EMT crew. They confirmed the trail we were on, and this trail had no vehicle access points, though there was an old 4×4 trail that looked like it might eventually get close to us. They were off to investigate and would be in touch.

More time passes.

Another phone call. This time the fire department. They set off their siren to see if I could hear it. Finally, I heard a distant siren, but due to the sound echoing off the mountains and canyons, I couldn't tell where it came from.

More time passes.

This time it's the sheriff's department. I wonder briefly if they don't bother sharing information with each other or if they can't avoid asking the same questions again.

More time passes.

This time it's the 911 operator. She's got a chopper in the air heading our way. I let her know that while we were in a ravine, I had two guys staked out on the ridges that could watch for the chopper. Once we saw it, we were to call 911 again to confirm sighting and coordinate touchdown.

More time passes.

Air Rescue Arrives

Another call from the 911 operator. She relayed questions about our location from the chopper pilot and as I answered them, I realized he was in the wrong spot. From what I could tell, he was on the opposite side of the highway scouting over the reservation. After communicating this, the chopper pilot changed course. After a few minutes, I could hear rotors. They were far away, but I could hear them. I shared this with the 911 operator and while I still couldn't tell where the chopper was, we were hoping that we'd get a visual soon. Finally, off in the distance, we spotted a chopper silhouetted against the sun to the east. I asked the 911 operator if she still had contact with the pilot. She confirmed she did. I told her I was about to ask him to make a hard right. When I do so, he will be on a direct line to us.

"Now!"

Within seconds, I see the chopper turn directly towards us. I notified the guys on the ridges to make themselves visible, by any means possible. They did not disappoint. Pasty white guys waving their shirts in the air stands out against the browns and tans of the desert. Finally, we got the words we had been waiting hours to hear, "the pilot has confirmed he has visual". The 911 operator told me to stay low while he lands and ended the call. I told Chris they were almost here, I just needed him to be patient and hang out with me just a bit longer.

I was convinced there was no place nearby to set a chopper down. When the pilot circled just over the top of us and waved, I assumed it was just acknowledgement that he knew where we were while he found a suitable parking spot. Nope. That friendly wave was just killing time as he swung the ass end of the chopper around and sat down right on top of the ridge. As he came down for the landing, I carefully leaned over Chris to protect him from the flying dirt and debris. When I heard the engine shut off, I looked up and saw a chopper parked perfectly on top of the ridge. One of the hallmarks of experienced pilots is an excellent sense of scale and knowing exactly how much room they need to land. As it sat, the mountain bike trail led right up to the bay doors on the side. This was clearly not the pilot's first day on the job.

A tall, lanky man with a grey beard climbed out of the cockpit and sauntered to us. His smile and demeanor seemed to indicate that any landing performed while not being shot at was an easy landing. Almost boring, one might say. He performed a quick check on Chris as two paramedics unloaded the stretcher and equipment needed. Once they had finished their evaluation, they called us over. "We have to straighten him out and get him on the stretcher. We can do it alone but we'd prefer to have your help if you are available." I laughed and said "I have nowhere else to go, I'm in." They spent the next few minutes putting various braces and straps around his neck, back, and arms. Once completed, we laid the stretcher alongside him, then rolled him onto it. He still wasn't in a good position to be strapped down for the ride out, so next we put four people running down his body to support his head, back, hips, and legs.

"On the count of three, we're going to lift him up, center his body over the stretcher and set him back down. Any questions?" asked the Captain. Hearing no questions, he gave the countdown and we did as requested. He then asked Chris how he was doing. Chris responded "no pain, but I don't think that's a good thing at this point." The Captain replied "it's good enough, let's get you out of here". They lifted the stretcher and headed up the trail. As if the whole thing had been planned all along, they walked right up the trail and into the chopper. After a few minutes, the engines fired up and the chopper started to rise. I turned away to avoid getting a desert-dirt facial. As the dirt and wind started to settle, I looked to see the chopper hauling ass toward the horizon. That's when I noticed one of the paramedics still standing there. I asked her "did they forget something?" She laughed and replied "no room. Captain will set down in the parking lot, there's an ambulance waiting there, then he'll come back and get me."

While we waited, I learned she was actually in the Air Force stationed at Luke Air Force Base. She was routinely assigned to Maricopa County Air Rescue to get additional flight hours. After a few more minutes, the chopper returned and the pilot sat it down on the same ridge. The pilot once again came out and noticed Chris' mountain bike, still on the trail. I offered to ride the bike out and call Chris' wife to arrange for picking it up. "No need" replied the Captain, "I've got plenty of room". He grabbed the bike and loaded into the chopper, along with the remaining medical gear and his crew. I thought back to Chris' wife and asked the pilot "do you know which hospital they are taking him to? I need to notify his wife, he gave me her number." He told me the name of the hospital and I called his wife.

She answered the phone with a hesitant "hello?" I said "Hey, this is Will. We spoke earlier about your husband. I wanted to let you know we've gotten him airlifted out and he's in an ambulance on his way to Honor Health in Scottsdale. Head to the ER and they should be able to direct you from there. He's in good spirits and is in good hands." She thanked me and as she did, I could hear the tears and sobbing break through. I wasn't sure if she would be in a condition to drive, so I asked "do you have someone who can drive you there?" "Yes, my brother is here. He's ready to drive, we have just been waiting to know where." I wished her the best and hung up. I had a feeling her entire family was going to need it on this Christmas Day.

Lessons Learned

As the chopper fired back up, I shook hands and exchanged contact info with the two mountain bikers who stopped to help. None of us had anticipated anything like this for a Christmas Day trek. I was grateful for their help. Without them, this could have turned out much worse. They checked multiple times to ensure I had plenty of water and snacks to get back to my truck. I assured them I did and was just as eager as they were to avoid any additional difficulties for the day! Finally, after another round of handshakes and emotional bonding that can't be expressed with words, they were on their way.

I sat there for a few minutes to reflect. We had been out here for hours and aside from me and two rogue mountain bikers, we hadn't seen a soul. If I hadn't come along, how much worse would it have been if they had dropped into the ravine without warning? If none of us had come along, how long would Chris have been out here before getting help? The wilderness is beautiful, breathtaking, and inspiring, but make no mistake about it: it gives zero fucks about you.

I realized I had no idea how long I had been running when this whole scenario started. I decided my six hour run starts now. I sent a text to my wife:

Came across a mountain biker with some problems. Got delayed helping him out. Starting my run now, be home later.
Love you.

I pulled my earbuds out of my pocket, looked at them briefly then tucked them back in my pocket. I haven't ran outdoors with them since. As I started jogging down the trail, the chopper came by one last time on its way back to the city. I couldn't see inside, but looked up and gave a friendly wave anyway before returning my gaze to the hard-packed desert floor passing beneath my feet. For the rest of the day, I continued to think about how this family's life had changed forever on Christmas Day. I wondered about my own feelings about Christmas.

And the Will, with his grinch-feet pounding the desert floor,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
"It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!"
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled six hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Will thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
And what happened then? Well...the desert ravens do say,
That the Will's small heart Grew three sizes that day!

I kept in touch with Chris' wife for a few weeks after that. All signs were indicating he will be permanently paralyzed for the rest of his life. It was (and probably still is) a stressful time for them. I eventually stopped calling because I didn't want to be that guy who just kept calling for more bad news.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. If you feel motivated, please consider donating time or money to your local search and rescue organizations. It will help more than you can ever imagine.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. It’s educational material for you to use at your discretion, along with other sources to make your own financial decisions.

From Checkbooks to Chains: The Evolution of Trust

You’ve probably heard about Bitcoin, Ethereum, maybe even some ridiculous-sounding coins like FartCoin. They’re all built on something called a blockchain, which sounds intimidating, but it’s easier to understand than you think. Let me explain it in a way that anyone who remembers balancing a checkbook will immediately get…

Imagine if thousands of people around the world had a copy of your checkbook register. Every time you write a check, they are notified and updated your balance automatically.

That’s a blockchain.

Why Would I Want Anyone To See My Checkbook Balance?

It’s important to note that people cannot see what you bought, only that you sent some amount of currency (like bitcoin) from one address to another.

There are other layers to it, of course, to provide security, fraud protection, and more, but that’s the gist of it. The blockchain data is a publicly available record. Anyone with internet access can view transaction details, like the sender, receiver, and transaction amount.

The blockchain is immutable. Once a transaction is written, it can never be changed or deleted. This provides a history of trustworthy transactions.

The blockchain is distributed. Transactions are verified by multiple nodes, and data is distributed across those nodes. This decentralization makes it nearly impossible for a single entity to manipulate or hide data, reinforcing the trust and transparency of the chain. So, what does this mean in practice?

Let’s use an example to understand this better. Suppose I spent a large amount of money gambling in Vegas and now can’t pay my mortgage. No problem, I go “edit” the blockchain and drop a few zeroes from my transaction with the casino: boom, now I can cover the mortgage. This means I also avoid a fight with my wife. And the casino’s copy of the register still shows the original transaction, so they think they got their money, too.

Here’s where this brilliant plan falls apart: when I make the changes to my register, it gets transmitted to every blockchain node around the world. These nodes have a special role: they make money by ensuring all transactions are valid (called miner’s fees or validator’s fees). They take one look at my changes, compare notes with each other, and as a group say “no fkn way, dude”. They aren’t willing to risk losing their source of income for me to prevent an argument with my wife.

Let’s raise the stakes a bit, though. Instead of me and my bad gambling habits, what if it is a very powerful government interested in shifting a few transactions around? They’ve probably got some connections, right? They do. But the nodes are decentralized around the world, so may fall outside of the realms of influence for any given government, and many nodes are anonymous so even if you could bribe the node operator, you simply don’t know who they are. Blockchains can be more than just currency, though.

Two Different Types of Blockchains

There are two common types of blockchains: currency-focused blockchains and smart contract blockchains.

Currency-focused blockchains (or “digital currency blockchains”) like Bitcoin are designed to be financial instruments for transferring or storing value. Think of them as being similar to gold, silver, or the US dollar.

Smart contract blockchains (or “programmable blockchains”)like Ethereum support smart contracts or decentralized applications (dApps). This means blockchains like Ethereum can “do stuff” beyond being a currency.

The Top Two: Bitcoin and Ethereum

The Bitcoin blockchain is the home of Bitcoin, the currency. Makes sense, right? The asset symbol for the US dollar is USD. The asset symbol for the Euro is EUR. Similarly the asset symbol for Bitcoin is BTC. There will only be 21 million BTC. They are minted on a schedule that is baked into the Bitcoin code. 19.5 million have already been minted and current estimates show the last one will be minted in 2140. This is why BTC is thought of by many to have investment potential. There is a fixed amount of gold, silver, diamonds, and other precious metals and stones on our planet. This is what gives them value: a limited supply and a demand. The same is true for BTC.

The Ethereum chain has a currency as well, ETH. Unlike BTC, it is not fixed in supply. The Ethereum governance committee keeps an eye on supply and demand and uses regulation to keep the ETH token deflationary, such as “burning” a portion of the ETH you use in every transaction. In the crypto world, burning a token essentially means destroying it, or deleting it so it can never be used again.

What really sets Ethereum apart from Bitcoin is its programmability. Not only does the Ethereum blockchain hold the ETH token, but you can also run computer code on it, just like you run the Instagram app on your phone. Let’s dig into why that is valuable.

If you’ve ever bought a house, you paid someone to do a title search. If that title were recorded on a publicly searchable registry like the blockchain, this silly little game goes away. It’s public record and anyone can verify the title along with the correct owner in seconds. The number of use cases that could benefit from transparency, immutability, and verification is pretty long. How many families have completely fallen apart in the wake of someone’s passing? Imagine your spouse is traveling out of state and needs emergency medical care. With a blockchain-based system, they could instantly grant the doctor access to their complete medical history, saving precious time. Voting record fraud becomes much more difficult to change because each vote is cryptographically signed by the person holding the keys to their wallet. The list of use cases that could benefit from these features is long and promising.

Are Blockchains Safe and What Do I Need To Be Aware Of?

It’s not all happy sing-alongs and hugs, though. Security is real and in a blockchain world, it’s your responsibility, no one else. In a traditional finance world, if you see a weird charge on your bank statement, you call the bank to dispute it and they take care of it. This doesn’t exist in blockchain, there is no central authority to call. You pay for this convenience everyday through bank service charges and account maintenance fees. It’s also nearly impossible to create a fraudulent transaction on the blockchain. Your wallet for a particular blockchain is protected by “keys”. It’s easiest to think of them as passwords, though technically it’s a bit more complex than that. To create a transaction using your wallet, someone needs the private keys. This puts the responsibility of protecting those keys on you, which reveals another key security component: loss. If you lose the keys to your wallet, there is no way to recover them. There is no one to call to reset your password. Whatever was in that wallet is gone. Forever.

Government control may be another concern. Some governments in some countries may be highly motivated to take control of the nodes operating a blockchain, or at the minimum influence the operators of those nodes. This is why it is important that the nodes are decentralized around the world, to reduce the risk of any one player being able to influence a majority of the operators. For this same reason, some node operators choose to remain anonymous as well. But while we may not know the name of the person or entity operating a given node, we can still monitor their actions as an operator to ensure they are following the rules, and protections are in place to penalize operators who don’t.

The final concern we’ll address here is fixed vs. unlimited currencies. As governments around the world talk about adopting cryptocurrencies, it’s important to understand which ones they are trying to adopt (or create if they are attempting to create their own). Fixed currencies have a strong benefit here as I’m probably not alone in my desire for some governments to stop printing money because they can’t control their spending. However, it’s desirable for those same governments to adopt or create a cryptocurrency with unlimited supply so they can continue with their current practices while providing the illusion of trying to do something about it. Buyer beware.

Resources

This is just the tip of the iceberg and you can dig in as much or as little as you’d like to understand more. In addition to future articles I’ll be putting out to introduce additional topics, here is a short list of resources if you’d like to learn more:

https://littlebitcoinbook.com/

https://21lessons.com/

https://www.udemy.com/course/build-blockchain

Blockchain technology can (will) seem daunting, but by learning the basic principles, you’re now equipped to navigate this new world we live in. The possibilities are vast, and you are still early.