Freelancer → agency owner → SaaS founder.

Now running Botster.io → an all-in-one tool that helps digital businesses extract, monitor, and weaponize web data.

Posting SaaS learnings, automation tricks, technical deep dives.

If you’re building anything online - you’ll probably find something useful here.

If you're looking to automate your business - text me, DMs are open.

Denis Grammakov

Get an OFFICE. Pay for it.
Go into debt if you have to.

I visited a guy recently who “works from home.”

His office was:

- a wobble-ball "chair"
- two monitors jammed into the corner of the living room
- kids running around
- wife cooking two meters away
- toys, noise, chaos, distractions
- honey, can you take out the trash please

And he wonders why he can’t focus or scale.
Why nothing gets finished.

HERE is the TRUTH:

You are NOT building anything meaningful if your work environment is set up like that.

An office isn’t a luxury.

For $200/month you can rent:

- a quiet room
- a coworking space
- a spare office in someone else’s building
- anywhere with a DOOR that closes

And suddenly your productivity triples. WOW didn't see that coming! 

Your standards rise.
Your thinking sharpens.
Your business becomes real.
You're happy to get home once your day is finished. 

People say:

“I’ll get an office when I’m successful.”

No. It works the opposite way:

You get an office TO BECOME successful.

Environment is everything. Respect your work. Buy silence.

Denis Gramm

Solofounder @ Botster & StayAPI // B2B Web Scraping & Workflow Automation // I blog about my journey and findings

Product managers are the new rockstars.

I hit up a PM I used to work with. Asked how the AI era is treating him.

Pretty darn good, it turns out

He’s working at a company that manages big brand sites (200+).

You know what he told me?

“I don’t need devs anymore. I build everything myself with ChatGPT and Cursor.”

Visual regression systems? Done.
Monitoring plugins? Done.
Internal dashboards and message automation? Done.

All by himself. No meetings. No JIRA tickets. No begging engineers.

Why?

Because he understands products. Understands what a good product should look like and how it should behave.

Those who know what to build don’t have to wait for anyone anymore.

They open Cursor.
Prompt AI.
Ship.

If nobody emails me that it’s broken — it’s NOT broken.

I spent SIX MONTHS building features nobody asked for
for users who didn’t even EXIST
for revenue that wasn’t coming

This was when I was building my first startup:

Pixel-perfect design.
Every page “needed” to exist. Cookie policy? VERY important.
Company address with a map widget? A MUST-HAVE
Perfect UI and UX (so I thought)
Perfect everything (so I thought)

Now?

If Sentry doesn’t light up - it’s not a bug.
If customers don’t ask - it’s not a feature.
If nobody misses it - it doesn’t exist.

Real example from a few weeks ago:

A user emailed:

“Hey, your payment gateway isn’t working.”

Of course it wasn’t working.
There was no payment gateway.

I processed his payment manually, wrote back:

“Payment processor was acting up on my side — fixed now.”

30 minutes later I added the integration.

The next customer paid successfully.

Done. Shipped. Nobody died.

Don’t build what nobody asked for.
Don’t polish what nobody will use.
Don’t delay your launch for imaginary problems.

If the pain is real, people will ASK.

Ship now.
Fix later.

100+ hospitality developers signed up for StayAPI since launch 🎉

All organic. Many from LinkedIn.

Now I’ve got a few dozen of DMs, requests, feature suggestions, use cases I didn’t even think about.

I’m going to be busy the next few weeks.

(Not complaining)

Ship → get feedback → iterate → grow.

More tools, more endpoints, more speed — coming fast.

If you're in hotel-tech, give https://stayapi.com a try!

Google had ONE JOB — beat Claude at coding.

Instead, they gave us Gemini 3.0 Pro Preview which is indistinguishable from Gemini 2.5 Pro.

In the coming days you’re going to read a lot of praise towards Gemini on LinkedIn from people who never wrote a “hello world” program.

So I’m going to save you some time.

“You are absolutely right” — still here.

No interactive debugging — still here.

Hallucinated “robust” fixes — still here.

Copy-paste the same code while pretending it was updated — still here.

So what do we get?

A model that sounds smart, but can’t work.

Not a match to my Codex + Claude combo.

Google had all the money. All the data. All the time.

And still fumbled the bag.

Sad.

Startups don’t get copied in weeks anymore. They get cloned in hours.

Someone posts on X that they got into Y Combinator.

The next day three different people ship the EXACT SAME product. Oh and it’s free. 

Good luck competing. 

Some dude launched an AI-powered MVP and showcased it.

And it had a couple of cool ideas to it.

Two days later, I copy those ideas and roll them out to prod.

The speed is insane.

I used to scroll Twitter to find one good product per week. Test it, form an opinion. 

Now? It’s an endless flood of apps. AI tools spitting out products every damn day.

New directories. New apps. New agents.

Most of them half-baked. Most of them pointless.

But it’s still impossible to keep up.

And this is before agents start building agents.

Where this is all heading? I have no idea. No one does.

Hold on tight.

Yeah… freelancers are cooked.

I barely hire anyone anymore.

And I’m saying this as someone who spent over $300,000 on Upwork over the years.

In the last 2 months I only hired one developer only to write a Python boilerplate so I could hand it off to AI and never need him again.

Closed the contract 
Fed the code to Opus 4.5 (which feels like alien tech).

That’s it.

Yesterday I asked Nano Banana to draw a simple “whiteboard style explanation” for one of my blog posts.

See attached. I was shocked it even worked.

It took 10 seconds to understand the request and output the image.

No revisions.
No back-and-forth.
No invoice.

Just done.

Who’s going to hire illustrators for blog content now?
Or $400/month diagram designers?
Or “brand visuals specialists”?

The market isn’t shrinking, it’s evaporating.

AI replacement is real. Anyone with working eyesight can see what’s happening.

If you’re a one-type-of-gig freelancer… I honestly don’t know what to tell you.

Get a job, maybe.
And after you get one — hold onto it with both hands.

Big tech AI is coming for your web scraping business.

I tried one of those Y Combinator-funded AI scraping startups the other day.

The promise was to turn any website into an API feed. 

I fed it three live websites.

A tough one
an average one
and an easy one.

It failed on all three.

I was not impressed. 

So no — client-centric custom scraping isn’t dead (yet).

But the “copy-paste BeautifulSoup from StackOverflow” era is.

What’s left?

Enterprise scraping.
Anti-bot engineering.
Monitoring + maintenance.
Pipelines that don’t fall apart when the button ID changes.

That’s exactly where you should be building.

THIS is how you make yourself UNFIREABLE in 2026

Not “more valuable.”
Not “harder to replace.”
UNFIREABLE.

FIRST Make a list of every SaaS your company pays for.
All of it.
CRM, dashboards, reporting tools, chat tools, automations - everything.

THEN Write down how much each one costs.
Most employees have no idea their company is casually bleeding $300… $500… $1200/month per tool.

AFTER THAT Pick the easiest one.

The one that:

- costs the most
- does the least
- has ONE feature you FULLY understand

NEXT - VIBE-CODE that feature.
Not perfectly.
Not enterprise-ready.
Not “rewrite the whole product.”

Just recreate the ONE feature your team actually uses — even if the code is dumb, ugly, stitched together with safety pins. 

Use whatever - Replit, LOVEABLE or n8n - AI will hold your hand.

Build it in a week after work.

SHOWTIME: Show it to your boss.
“Hey, we’re paying $500/month for this.
I built the part we actually use.
Costs $20/month to run.
I can add unlimited features and fixes.”

Watch what happens next:

Your boss goes BALLISTIC
That $500/mo subscription gets CANCELLED immediately.
Your app becomes “mission CRITICAL”
YOU become "the automation guy"
Every workflow now routes through you.
You get trust, leverage, and JOB SECURITY.

Congratulations.

You just became the person who SAVES the company money instead of the person who COSTS the company money.

And companies don’t fire the people who SAVE them MONEY.

They fire the people who can’t do what you just did.

That’s how you stay employed FOREVER.

That’s how you survive the AI wave.

Ranked #1 LinkedIn HR Creator (Global), #2 Female Creator (US) | Positioning Companies & Founders to Attract Talent, Capital & Credibility | 100M+ Organic Reach | Ex-Amazon, Cognizant, Labcorp

Hiring. Visibility. Credibility.

The three levers every founder, CEO, coach, or consultant needs to scale.
The problem? Most get them wrong.

That’s where I come in.

I built 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐬 to help seed to Series B startups, lean teams, and high-stake leaders attract the right talent, amplify their brand visibility, and build credibility that wins capital and clients.

What sets us apart?
We operate at the intersection of AI, recruitment, and brand strategy turning overlooked processes into growth systems.

Here’s what that looks like in numbers:
✔ 3,000+ hires placed globally across industries
✔ 250,000+ resumes reviewed with precision at scale
✔ 100M+ organic impressions without ad spend
✔ 150K+ community grown organically on LinkedIn
✔ 50K+ subscribers of our Li Newsletter: Incredible Edge
✔ Worked with enterprises like Amazon, Cognizant, Labcorp
✔ Partnered with unicorns like Atlan & Domino Data Lab
✔ Executed brand collabs with Lovable AI, Emergent AI, Gusto, Replit Agent 3, Gamma & GoPerfect
✔ Been named Favikon’s #1 HR Voice (Worldwide) and #2 Female Creator (US) - April'2025

But metrics are just the proof. The real outcome is this:

💡 Founders who save time and scale smarter.
💡 Executives who become visible authorities.
💡 Startups that attract capital and top talent on autopilot.

If you’re still struggling to hire right, stand out, or get noticed, it’s not because you lack potential.
It’s because you’re playing the wrong game.

My work is helping you change that.

📩 DM me or reach out: bookings@proven-patterns.com

Let’s build what they can’t ignore.

💜

Kumud Deepali R.

Every company talks about retention.
 Few talk about why people actually stay.

In an AI-driven world, it’s easy to think algorithms, automation, and analytics hold the answers.

But after seeing how teams grow (and fall apart), here’s what I’ve learned:
People don’t leave jobs. They leave environments that stop respecting them.

Here’s what actually makes people stay:
↳ A manager who listens before reacting
↳ A team that celebrates wins and supports through losses
↳ A workplace that invests in learning, not just output
↳ Leaders who give feedback with empathy, not ego
↳ A culture that values growth over grind

Because no one walks away from a place where they’re:
 ✅ Respected
 ✅ Well-paid
 ✅ Growing

AI can predict turnover.
AI can track engagement.
AI can automate reviews.

But AI can’t create belonging.
 That still takes humans.

Reality is:
 • Respect costs nothing.
 • Fair pay is strategy, not charity.
 • Growth is the best retention policy.

So while the future of work is powered by AI,
 the best workplaces will still be built on R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

What’s one thing your company does that actually makes people want to stay? I’d love to hear the real examples, not the brochure ones.

👉 Follow for more thoughts on people, culture, and the real future of work.
🔁 Repost to remind leaders: AI can enhance work, but only humans can make it meaningful.

200K+ LinkedIn & Newsletter Community | Helping Founders and Leaders Scale with LinkedIn Growth, Talent Acquisition/Hiring & Brand Partnerships | AI-Savvy - Human-First Approach | Neurodiversity Advocate

Hiring for attitude > Hiring for experience.
And more leaders need to say this out loud.

Over the years, one truth has become unmistakably clear:
👉 Skills can be taught.
👉 Mindset is much harder to change.

You can train someone on tools, processes, and systems…
But you can’t teach someone to be kind, collaborative, or solution-oriented if they’re rooted in negativity.

When you hire people with:
✨ A positive mindset
✨ A willingness to learn
✨ A team-first attitude

You’re not just filling a role, you’re strengthening your culture.

What do you value most when hiring, skills or mindset?

Some of the world’s greatest innovations were born from rejection.

Visionaries who were underestimated went on to reshape entire industries.
🚗 Toyota rejected a mechanic’s new design idea- he built Honda instead.
🐂 Ferrari dismissed advice from a tractor maker- he built Lamborghini.
🏎️ Lamborghini refused to fund an engineer’s carbon-fiber project- he built Pagani.
💻 HP turned down a computer idea from their own engineer- he co-founded Apple.
🎮 Nintendo walked away from a Sony engineer’s disc-console concept- he built PlayStation.
📼 Blockbuster laughed at a founder looking to partner- he built Netflix.
Rejection isn’t a dead end. It’s a redirection.

Sometimes the “no” you hear today becomes the reason you build something the world can’t ignore tomorrow.

If you’re working on something bold and people don’t get it yet…
Keep going.

What’s one rejection that pushed you toward something better? Share your story below. 
Repost as someone might need this reminder to keep going. Thanks!

Visual Credit: Chandrakumar K. Pillai

Rejection Leads to Big Things

Kindness is not a weakness, it’s a leadership advantage.

In a world that often rewards speed, competition, and “winning at all costs,” kindness can feel underrated.

✔️ Kindness builds trust.
✔️ Kindness strengthens teams.
✔️ Kindness fuels collaboration.
✔️ Kindness creates leaders people want to follow.

Some of the strongest professionals I know are the ones who choose empathy even when it’s not the easiest option.

Let’s stop treating kindness like a liability.
It’s a skill.
A strategy.
A strength.

Imagine what our workplaces would look like if kindness was the standard, not the exception.

💬 How has kindness positively impacted your career, life or workplace?

Kumud Deepali Rudraraju, SHRM CP

Applaud yourself, even for the smallest wins. Because progress doesn’t always look like big milestones.

Sometimes it’s:
 ✨ showing up when you didn’t feel like it
 ✨ learning a new skill one tiny step at a time
 ✨ choosing growth over comfort
 ✨ getting back up no matter how many times things didn’t work out

Small wins build momentum.

Momentum builds confidence.

And confidence builds the kind of results everyone else eventually notices.

But you don’t need the applause of others to validate your journey. Start by giving it to yourself.

Celebrate the small stuff, it's the fuel that gets you to the big stuff. What small win are you celebrating today?

The next level in your career doesn’t always come with a new title.
Sometimes, it just brings peace. 🌿

Lately, I’ve realized something surprising, about 7 out of 10 people I speak to have forgotten why they started working in the first place.

They’re caught in routines.

Meetings, reports, promotions, repeat.

Year after year, chasing a version of success someone else defined for them.

It reminds me of how we were once sent to school; same time, same classes, same expectations. Only now, we call it a career.

But somewhere in the process, many of us stopped asking:
 👉 What’s the purpose behind all this effort?
 👉 What does “next level” really mean to me?

For me, the answer changed over time. It used to be about growth, then recognition… but today, it’s about peace; doing meaningful work without losing myself in it.

The truth is, the most important part of your career can’t be measured on a payslip or written in a job title.

It’s the fulfillment, freedom, and calm you feel when your work finally aligns with your values.

So as you plan your next move, remember:
You don’t always have to climb higher.
Sometimes, you just have to come home to yourself. 

♻️ Repost, 👍 like and connect with me as I share with you daily uplifting life and career oriented posts! 

#CareerGrowth #PurposeDriven #MindfulLeadership #WorkLifeBalance #PeaceOverPressure #LinkedInCommunity

✨ Say yes, and let growth catch up later.

How many times have we held ourselves back because we didn't feel “ready enough”?

Reality is, nobody ever feels 100% ready. Confidence is built after taking the leap, not before.

Some of the biggest milestones in my journey came from saying yes first:
Yes to roles I’d never done
Yes to projects that felt intimidating
Yes to challenges that forced me to level up
Every “yes” stretched me. Every stretch expanded my capability.

🔥 Growth is uncomfortable. But that discomfort is where transformation begins.

So here’s a gentle reminder for anyone hesitating today:
Don’t wait for perfection. Say yes. Show up. Learn on the way.

What’s one opportunity you said “yes” to before you felt ready?

What if the most important subject in school isn’t math, science, or reading… but empathy?

Since 1993, Denmark has required every child aged 6-16 to take a weekly empathy class.

Not as an add-on. Not as a nice-to-have.
As a core part of education.

The outcome?
🌍 Among the lowest bullying rates in the world
🌱 Consistently high kindness and well-being scores
🤝 A culture where emotional intelligence is as valued as academic achievement

It raises a powerful question for all of us; parents, leaders, educators, and employers:
Are we teaching the next generation how to understand each other, not just outperform each other?

In a world driven by competition, Denmark chose connection. And it’s paying off.
Imagine if more school systems did the same.
Imagine if more workplaces did the same.
Empathy isn’t soft.
Empathy is a skill.

And it might just be one of the most future-proof ones we can teach.

Should empathy be a required part of education or maybe even workplace everywhere? What do you think?

Put a ❤️ on this post if you believe empathy should be mainstreamed in both school and work, and repost to help spread it.

People don't quit jobs. They quit broken promises.

Here's what really drives talent away:

1. Managers Who Don't Lead
↳ Taking credit, not responsibility
↳ "Do as I say" instead of "Let me show you"
↳ Focused on control, not growth

2. Toxic Cultures
↳ Politics over performance
↳ Blame games instead of solutions
↳ "That's how we've always done it"

3. Micromanagement
↳ Trust is just a word on the wall
↳ Every decision needs approval
↳ No room to breathe or innovate

4. Zero Recognition
↳ Achievements go unnoticed
↳ Extra effort = Extra expectations
↳ Praise in private, criticism in public

5. Poor Communication
↳ Decisions made in black boxes
↳ Feedback is a yearly event
↳ Transparency only when convenient

6. Growth Dead Ends
↳ Learning = Your problem
↳ Promotions based on tenure
↳ Skills rot while promises don't

7. Rigid Work Rules
↳ One-size-fits-none policies
↳ Flexibility = Physical presence
↳ Life adapts to work, never reverse

8. Human → Number
↳ Metrics over meaning
↳ Burnout is a badge
↳ Personal crisis? Use PTO

Reality:
Great talent doesn't leave great environments.
They leave leaders who don't create them.

For Leaders:
Which of these are you guilty of?
(Be honest, we all have blind spots)

🎯 For Companies:
Your "retention strategy" is broken if you're:
• Exit interviewing instead of stay interviewing
• Fixing symptoms instead of systems
• Hoping free lunch beats toxic culture

Which one of these hit hardest for you?

Drop your thoughts below, or add your own to the list.

If you believe culture > perks:
🔁 Repost to spark reflection.
🔔 Follow for more no-fluff insights on leadership, culture, and talent that actually sticks.

FACT: Having a good manager is a blessing.

Not the kind you appreciate only during appraisal season…

But the kind that shapes your career in ways you don’t fully realize until much later.

A good manager doesn’t just assign tasks.
They mentor, guide, empower, and protect their team.
They create an environment where you feel safe enough to try, fail, grow, and shine.

If you’ve ever worked under a truly great manager, you know the difference:
 ✔️ You learn faster
 ✔️ You feel valued
 ✔️ You’re trusted
 ✔️ You’re motivated
 ✔️ And most importantly; you become better, not just as an employee, but as a person

Great managers don’t just lead teams.
 They build people.
 And that’s rare.
 And worth celebrating.

🔁 Repost this to appreciate great managers
👥 …and tag a manager who made a real difference in your journey.

Image Credit: Daksh Sethi

We talk about productivity, but we rarely talk about the cost.

A few days ago, I spoke to someone who reminded me why burnout should never be romanticized.

Let’s call her Maya.

Maya is one of those people who looks unstoppable from the outside, top performer, first in, last out, the dependable one who always “pulls through.”

But during our conversation, she admitted something she’d never said out loud:
“I don’t remember the last time I slept without an alarm.
I don’t remember the last time I ate without rushing.
And I don’t remember the last time I felt proud without also feeling exhausted.”

For years, she wore her busyness like armour.
The skipped meals.
The late nights.
The constant availability.

She thought it made her strong.

But last week, she caught herself staring at her screen, unable to remember what task she was supposed to start.
Not because she wasn’t committed, but because her mind and body had finally hit their limit.

That moment changed everything.

Burnout wasn’t proof of dedication. It was proof of depletion.

We talked about rest.
We talked about boundaries.
We talked about how doing “more” often leads to achieving less.

By the end of our conversation, she said something that stayed with me:
“I think it’s time I start celebrating my wellbeing the way I used to celebrate my workload.”
And honestly… she’s right.

Success is not supposed to cost you your health.

What’s one productivity habit you’re unlearning this year?

Repost to remind someone to have restful Sunday. Thanks!

What if the real measure of success isn’t what we achieve, but how human we choose to be?

Every day, we get countless opportunities to show who we really are;
in how we help, how we listen, how we show up, and how we choose compassion even when no one is watching.

Kindness doesn’t need an audience.
Empathy doesn’t need a reason.
And humanity doesn’t need a perfect moment, it just needs intention.

What inspires me most is seeing ordinary people choose to act with extraordinary heart. Not for praise. Not for credit. Simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Imagine what our workplaces, communities, and world would feel like if more of us made humanity a daily habit.
A little more care.
A little more patience.
A little more giving.

It adds up.

Humanity matters. Practice it every single day.

If you believe the world needs more humanity, drop a ❤️ or repost this message to help it reach someone who needs the reminder today.

AI isn’t just creating new tools, it’s creating entirely new careers.

And as I move deeper into my own AI journey, I want to take you with me.

If you're building a team, hiring talent, or planning your own career path, understanding this new landscape is no longer optional. It’s a competitive advantage.

Here's a breakdown of emerging AI roles that are essential for building the future of AI-driven systems:

AI Roles:

1. Model Manager
Oversees development, deployment, and performance of ML models.
Tech Stack: Python, TensorFlow, Kubernetes, Docker.

2. ML Engineer
Designs, develops, and deploys scalable machine learning solutions.
Tech Stack: Python, PyTorch, AWS/GCP, SQL.

3. Data Engineer
Creates and maintains data pipelines for model training.
Tech Stack: Python, Spark, Kafka, AWS/GCP.

4. AI Architect
Designs scalable AI systems integrated with existing infrastructure.
Tech Stack: Python, Kubernetes, Microservices, Docker.

5. Data Scientist
Analyzes data to build predictive models and generate insights.
Tech Stack: Python, R, TensorFlow, Hadoop.

6. AI Developer
Develops AI applications, integrating ML algorithms into production.
Tech Stack: Python, Java, TensorFlow, Kubernetes.

7. Decision Engineer
Builds systems to automate decision-making using AI models.
Tech Stack: Python, ML frameworks, Cloud platforms.

---

Emerging AI Roles:

8. Analytics Engineer
Transforms data into actionable insights using analytics tools.
Tech Stack: Python, SQL, Tableau, Apache Airflow.

9. AI Product Manager
Manages the lifecycle of AI-driven products, bridging technical teams and stakeholders.
Tech Stack: Jira, Python (basic), Agile methodologies.

10. UX Designer (AI)
Designs user interfaces for AI applications, ensuring seamless AI-powered experiences.
Tech Stack: Figma, Adobe XD, HTML/CSS, JavaScript.

11. Head of AI
Leads AI strategy across the organization, ensuring alignment with business goals.
Tech Stack: Leadership tools, Cloud platforms, Project management software.

12. D&A and AI Translator
Translates business needs into technical AI solutions, bridging the gap between teams.
Tech Stack: Python, SQL, Jira, Agile.

---

Must-have AI Roles:

13. AI Risk and Governance Specialist
Ensures compliance with legal, ethical, and regulatory standards for AI systems.
Tech Stack: Compliance tools, Risk management software.

14. Model Validator
Validates the accuracy and reliability of ML models in real-world environments.
Tech Stack: Python, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow.

15. Prompt Engineer
Optimizes large language models by fine-tuning prompts for better performance.
Tech Stack: Python, NLP frameworks, Hugging Face.

16. AI Ethicist
Ensures AI systems are fair, transparent, and ethically sound.
Tech Stack: Ethical guidelines, Compliance tools.

If you want to stay ahead of the AI curve, follow along. Let’s navigate the AI era together.

Which of these roles fascinates you the most, or aligns with your next career move? Comment below.

#AI

📌 The Reality Behind "AI Engineer" Job Descriptions
Scrolling through job posts lately feels like reading the requirements for an entire Data & AI department squeezed into a single role.

Too often, companies are looking for one person who can:
🔹 Build backend systems
🔹 Develop full-stack applications
🔹 Architect data pipelines
🔹 Manage databases
🔹 Run MLOps and CI/CD
🔹 Ship deep learning models
🔹 Handle cloud infrastructure
🔹 Optimize GPU workloads
🔹 Maintain Kubernetes clusters
🔹 …and write documentation on top of it

🚫 This is not an “AI Engineer.”
✅ This is a full Data, ML, and Platform team.

When organizations overload a single role, a few things happen:
1️⃣ Product delivery slows down
2️⃣ Burnout skyrockets
3️⃣ Security gaps emerge
4️⃣ Knowledge becomes siloed
5️⃣ Retention drops

In the era of AI transformation, building the right team matters more than ever.
A successful Data & AI function requires specialization, collaboration, and clear role boundaries.

If you're a recruiter or hiring manager, consider:
What skills are actually essential for the role?
Which responsibilities belong to other teams?
How can you design a role that sets someone up for success?

The future of AI isn’t built by unicorns.
It’s built by well-structured teams. What do you think? Do join the conversation in the comments below.

Respect isn’t a reward, it’s a habit.
Some of the most impactful people I’ve met weren’t the ones with the highest titles, the longest résumés, or the loudest voices.

They were the ones who showed kindness without conditions.
In a world that often measures worth by position, pay grade, or pedigree, choosing to respect someone simply because they’re human is a quieter, deeper form of leadership.

Reality is: 
 You never know the story behind a person.
 You never know the battles they’ve fought.
 And you never know how far a moment of respect can go.

Make it a habit to value people before you evaluate them.
Everything else comes after.

What’s one small act of respect you believe the workplace needs more of? 🙏
Repost if you share this sentiment.

Will AI make us forget about books?

I hope not. Because I already regret how little I read today. Some days, I catch myself relying on AI summaries, bite-sized content, and quick insights… and I wonder if we’re slowly losing the one habit that made us truly wise: reading real books.

There was a time when I could finish a book in 3 hours. And honestly, those were my smartest years.

Not because I had more information. But because books shape you differently. They make you think slower, deeper, and more honestly.

AI can give you answers. 
But books give you perspective.
AI can save you time.
But books give you wisdom.

Here’s a quiet reminder, for you and for me:
📚 Go back to books.
 Slow down.
 Read deeply.
 Let your mind stretch again.

Because the easiest way to grow…
is still sitting quietly on your shelf.

What book made you wiser than any life experience ever did?
Repost to remind someone, maybe you that reading is still one of the purest ways to grow. Don’t let it slip away.

Big thanks to Ankur Warikoo (5X Best Selling Author) for the wonderful visual and recommendations.

20 Books to Understand the World 

Inspiration didn’t die with success.
It died the moment we started believing that only the people “on top” had stories worth telling.

Inspiration isn’t always about winning.

It’s about helping.
🔹 The mentor who stays late to guide someone new.
🔹 The parent who rebuilds from zero again.
🔹 The friend who keeps showing up when it’s hard.

We don’t talk enough about those kinds of stories.
The quiet ones.
The real ones.

Not every chapter needs to scream achievement.

Some are just about healing, growing, or giving.

So if your story doesn’t move you anymore, rewrite it.
Not to impress others,
but to remind yourself that you still care.

Inspiration isn’t about being untouchable.

It’s about being human enough to lift others while you rise.

👉 What part of your story are you rewriting right now?
 Drop it below, your next chapter might inspire someone else to start theirs.
♻️ Repost to inspire others. 

Image Credit: Sarah Blakely

200K+ LinkedIn & Newsletter Community | Helping Founders and Leaders Scale with LinkedIn Growth, Talent Acquisition/Hiring & Brand Partnerships | AI-Savvy - Human-First Approach - Neurodiversity Advocate

A friend called me after a job interview, upset and confused.
She’d made it to the final round.
She nailed every question.
But the feedback?

“You’re not a good cultural fit.”

She asked what that meant.
They couldn’t give a clear answer.

Here’s the thing; “not a good fit” often isn’t about culture at all.
It’s about comfort.

She had opinions.
She asked questions.
She set boundaries.

And that made them uncomfortable.

Here’s what that hiring manager didn’t understand:
 • Great hires bring new perspectives, not just agreement
 • Boundaries aren’t barriers, they’re signs of self-awareness
 • Culture fit shouldn’t mean “think like us”, it should mean “add to us”

The irony?

Companies keep saying they want innovation, but filter out anyone who might challenge the status quo.

If you’re hiring stop looking for clones.
Start looking for catalysts.

How do you define a good cultural fit in a workplace? Share in the comments below. 

👉 Follow me for more insights on leadership, hiring, and building teams that grow, not just agree.
♻️ Share if you’ve ever heard “not a good cultural fit” after staying true to your values.

Image Credit: Stefanie Costi

🚀 The Future Isn’t Coming… It’s Already Knocking.

Looking at this visual breakdown of what may happen in our lifetime, one thing becomes clear:

We’re living through the most disruptive era in human history.

Some predictions that stand out:
🔹 Money will be fully digital and cash will disappear.
🔹 AI will become our closest companion, not just a tool.
🔹 Phones may last for years on a single charge.
🔹 AI will automate most of the tasks humans do today.
🔹 Real-time translation will erase language barriers.
🔹 Humans will walk on Mars.
🔹 The world’s first trillionaire will emerge.
🔹 Self-driving cars will replace human drivers entirely.
🔹 Almost every home will have a personal robot.
🔹 Space tourism will become normal.
🔹 Global population will start shrinking.
🔹 Massive data centers will orbit Earth.
🔹 Living past 100 will become common.
Whether these excite you or terrify you…
they will redefine how we work, live, and connect.

The real question is:
👉 Are you preparing to adapt, or waiting to be disrupted?

Because one thing is certain:
The future won’t wait for any of us.

💬 Your turn: Which prediction do YOU think will happen first?

❤️ Drop a heart if you liked this post
🔁 Repost to inspire someone today

Image Credit: evolution ai (Instagram)

Things Happening In This Lifetime

Ready to Ace Your Next Interview? 🚀

I'm excited to share a list of the top 100 interview questions, drawn from over a decade of recruitment experience and setting up 8,000+ interviews! 🎯 

Candidates have been successfully placed at companies such as Amazon, Cognizant, Avanade, Endpoint Clinical, Domino Data Lab, Atlan, Wells Fargo, Google, BCBS, Kaiser Permanente, and Silicon Valley Bank, among others.

Whether you're prepping for your first interview or looking to sharpen your skills, this list is a valuable resource. Let's boost your confidence and get you one step closer to landing your dream job! 💼

Swipe the document to go through all the questions and don't forget to download and save for future use. 

Stay tuned and follow me for more tips and tricks on how to impress your interviewers. Let's ace those interviews together and share ♻ with your friends!

Follow me Kumud Deepali R. and Proven Patterns for more posts on job search, interviews, hiring, workplace truths and resume tips!

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