Hey 👋 I'm Isaac!

I’m a growth strategist and the founder of Pistachio, a GTM and brand-led growth partner for startups and scaleups. We help teams launch, scale and stand out by turning positioning into pipeline.

Most companies have strong products but fractured go-to-market efforts: sales, marketing and product aren’t aligned. The story isn’t clear. Growth depends too much on short-term tactics. That’s where we step in.

At Pistachio, we combine:
Brand strategy → defining your positioning, narrative, and messaging so you win trust and convert more buyers.
GTM blueprints → ICP definition, value prop, channels, packaging, sequencing.
Content systems → newsletters, CRM, LinkedIn and amplification to operationalise GTM and compound growth.
Growth ops → automation and reporting systems to scale without chaos.

Before founding Pistachio, I led growth at The Daily Aus (scaled to 180,000 subs in 10 months) and Mamamia (grew subscriptions to 30,000+ members and $170k+ MRR). Since then, I’ve worked with teams at BuzzFeed, Clay and many more to build GTM systems that turn brand trust into business results.

I also write Brand Chemistry, a newsletter about building trust and driving compounding growth.

🚀 Ready to align your story, GTM and growth engine? Let’s chat! check out my Featured section to get started.

Isaac Peiris

I see way too many “I made 6-figures in a week” posts

But not as much “I’ve struggled doing xyz”

In the past few months I’ve:
→ Had to let go my first contractor
→ Lost 2 clients in the span of a week
→ Felt like I’m sprinting just to stay in the same spot
→ Dealt with the chicken-and-egg of revenue vs hiring
→ Struggled to scale systems from freelancer to agency

But I think that’s the reality of running a business.

Being forced to do things you’ve never done.
Being thrown in the deep end with no idea.
Being faced with make or break decisions.

Most of us don’t know what we’re doing.

We’re just figuring it out as we go.

Founder @ Pistachio | Organic growth for B2B brands

Most companies build policies around control.

Ritz-Carlton built theirs around trust… and a $2,000 rule.

Every employee can spend up to $2,000 per guest to solve a problem or create a moment.

No manager approval needed.

That's how you get stories like staff flying across the country to return a forgotten laptop. Or employees diving into the ocean to retrieve a guest's camera.

But these moments do something bigger than solving problems.

They create the Halo Effect.

When customers experience something exceptional in one area, they assume everything else is exceptional too.

The food tastes better. The beds feel more comfortable.
The entire brand feels premium.

This same psychology shows up in unexpected places.

Starbucks didn't win on coffee quality.
In blind taste tests, they often lose.

They won on atmosphere:
the music, the smell, writing your name on the cup.

The experience made the coffee feel better.

Most brands obsess over campaigns and messaging.
The smart ones obsess over moments.

Because customers don't judge your brand logically.

One exceptional touchpoint can elevate perception of everything else.

What's the one detail in your customer experience that could create a halo for everything else?

It doesn't need to be big.

Sometimes it's the speed of your reply, the warmth in your follow-up, or how you handle the smallest request.

P.S. Wrote more about this in Brand Chemistry if you want the full breakdown: https://lnkd.in/dWRNvvKJ

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

Founder @ Pistachio | Content-led growth for B2B brands

In 1983, Ritz-Carlton gave every employee the power to spend $2000 without approval and it changed luxury hospitality forever

Just getting started in business?

Here are 6 lessons I wish I'd known before I started:


1. Clarity comes from action, not planning

I spent months overthinking my strategy before launching anything but the real insights came after I hit publish and saw what resonated. You can't think your way to clarity.

2. Your personal brand is an asset

Building my presence on LinkedIn opened doors, created opportunities and became a competitive advantage for Pistachio and Brand Chemistry. Invest in it early.

3. No one is watching (at first)

I was terrified of posting early on. Truth is, nobody cared 🤷‍♂️ That anonymity is a gift, so use it to experiment, fail and find your voice before the audience grows.

4. Offers matter more than content

I spent months perfecting content when I should've been building clear offers. Content brings attention but offers turn that attention into revenue.

5. You don't need to look big to win

I used to think I needed a huge team and polished brand to compete but that's not true. Scrappy, focused execution beats corporate polish every time, so start small and stay lean.

6. Momentum beats perfection

Waiting for perfect kills progress, so I learned to ship fast, gather feedback and iterate. Imperfect action creates momentum, and momentum creates results.

Growth comes from building while you're still figuring it out.

What's one thing you wish you knew when you started?

---

Hey 👋 I’m Isaac Peiris
I run an agency helping brands scale through content.
My goal is to share tips and insights to help you grow.
Hit my name + follow + 🔔

Dove just proved that showing your 1-star reviews might be smarter than hiding them.

They asked Reddit users to review their hair mask with complete honesty.
Then plastered the results across New York billboards.

Including gems like "Kinda smells like expired hotel shampoo."

This is the trust paradox playing out in real time.

When consumers assume every brand cherry-picks feedback, radical transparency becomes your biggest differentiator.

I think what makes this work is pretty simple:

→ Negative reviews prove you're not filtering
→ They make the positive reviews actually believable
→ They set realistic expectations the product can exceed

But there's a catch.

This only works because it’s a direct channel.

Try running "smells hella bad" through paid social and watch your account rep have a breakdown.

But direct media gives you the freedom to be brutally honest.

When you control the relationship with your audience, you can have real conversations. When you rent attention, you play by someone else's rules.

Authenticity doesn't mean being perfect.

You just need to be real enough that people believe you when you say something works.

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

Dove Turns Brutally Honest Reddit Reviews Into an Unfiltered Campaign

Your marketing sucks.

And you're probably trying harder than you should have to…

You're spending on tactics, testing channels and still not growing.

The hard truth is that the foundation was never built.

I've seen this across startups, agencies and SaaS teams.

Smart people, real budgets, genuine effort.
but the strategy underneath is shaky, so they keep trying to fix things with tactics.

They test channels. Post inconsistently.
Tweak messaging. Launch campaigns.

And then wonder why nothing converts.

Tactics on a broken strategy just make the problem bigger.

What really works is simpler than most teams want to admit:

→ Who exactly is your ICP
(not just job titles)

→ What’s your value proposition
(why you instead of anyone else)

→ What messaging resonates
(words customers actually respond to)

→ What’s your GTM motion
(sales-led, product-led, partner-led)

Once those are clear, tactics start working.
Before that, you're just experimenting.

So before your next campaign, get honest about three things:

Who exactly is this for?
What pain are we solving?
And why us?

If those answers aren’t obvious yet, the problem probably isn’t your marketing.

It’s the foundation underneath it.

Strategy is a decision you make, not a document you write.

The moment you stop trying to be everything to everyone, marketing gets easier.

The joys of living in Australia with a mostly US audience 🙃

The first banner ad got a 78% click rate.
Now it's under 1%.

Generic AI content is heading the same way.

Every channel follows the same pattern.

Early adopters win because it's new, then everyone piles in, quality drops and audiences tune out.

Banner ads in 1994. Email marketing in the 2000s.
Now AI content is in its gold rush phase.

Here's how every channel dies:

1. Novelty (something new catches attention)
2. Oversaturation (everyone piles in)
3. Quality decline (speed beats substance)
4. Pattern recognition (audiences tune out)

I think AI content is in phase two right now.

Some brands are still seeing wins because their audience hasn't been flooded yet, but oversaturation is already happening.

Most brands are optimising for volume when they should be optimising for value.

They're publishing just to publish.

The ones that win long-term won't be churning out AI posts at scale.

They'll use AI as a tool while keeping human judgement, brand voice and audience understanding at the centre.

What matters is the quality of thinking behind your content.

If you're building a content engine right now, ask yourself:
are you creating something your audience actually wants, or just filling space because you can?

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

First banner ad

Kodak invented digital photography in 1975.

Then spent the next 37 years pretending they hadn't.

This wasn't a story about lacking vision.
It was about organisational paralysis.

The engineers built the first digital camera.
Leadership understood the future was digital.

But here's what stopped them:

Their sales team was trained to sell film.
Their factories were built to manufacture it.
Their retail partnerships depended on processing.

That was more than revenue.
70% of profits came from film processing.
It was jobs, bonuses, relationships, expertise.

Every department had a reason to slow down digital.
Because their entire world was built around film.
Not because they were short-sighted.

So digital became a side project.
A "future initiative" with no real power.

By 2000, the gap was too wide.
By 2012, they filed for bankruptcy.

Your biggest competitive threat isn't the market.
It's your own organisational design.

Three things that companies do to overcome this:

1. Incentives aligned with adaptation, not preservation
Make compensation tied to new metrics, not legacy revenue.

2. Small teams with real autonomy
Give them budget, authority, and protection from internal politics.

3. Regular org design reviews
Question your structure before the market does it for you.

Innovation without organisational agility is just expensive R&D.

The question isn't whether you can see the future.
It's whether your company is structured to act on it.

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

2,100 pubs have closed in Ireland over the last 20 years.

One village decided that theirs wouldn't be next.

When the pub in Kilteely went up for sale, 26 locals pooled €300k to buy it.

None of them had run a bar before.

They just didn't want to lose the place where everyone met.

So they renovated it themselves and reopened it as Street Bar.

The story started spreading and then Heineken showed up:

→ Offered training and support
→ Turned the story into a documentary
→ Premiered it at the Dublin International Film Festival
→ Built a resource hub for other communities trying to do the same

That last one is the signal.

Seen individually, each move looks like a campaign.

Seen together, it's a brand protecting the reason people drink beer in the first place.

And that pattern shows up everywhere once you start looking for it.

A gym becomes someone's routine.
A café becomes someone's office.
A pub becomes the place a whole community holds onto.

The brands that last understand what they're really selling:
belonging, ritual and a reason to show up.

They invest in protecting that.

Makes you wonder how many brands are sitting on a version of this story and just haven't acted on it yet.

What's a brand you've seen genuinely protect the community around their product?

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

Liquid Death just launched a $495 Bluetooth urn with Spotify.

Yep… an urn.

It generates your “eternal playlist” based on your listening habits.

Weird? Absolutely.

But that’s exactly why it works.

The moment you hear about it, something happens:

You read about it.
You send it to a friend.
You start thinking about what song would be on your eternal playlist.

And just like that, the campaign is doing its job.

Because the moment is the point. Not the product.

Brands spend their marketing budgets trying to convince people to care.

But Liquid Death does the opposite.

They create ideas that are so strange, bold or entertaining that people want to talk about them.

It’s been their playbook for years!

Coffin-shaped merch. Death-themed humour. Metal aesthetics for canned water.
Absurd collabs, and now... a Spotify urn.

Each campaign pushes the brand deeper into culture.

Will it sell out? Probably.

Will some people hate it? Absolutely.

That’s part of the strategy.

Brands that try to please everyone end up invisible, and the ones that create moments become impossible to ignore.

When a brand has that kind of permission, even the strangest ideas feel on-brand.

That permission is built through years of consistency and a brand identity clear enough that people always know what to expect.

That’s the real lesson:

Sell the moment, not the product.

And now I’m curious 👀

If you had to pick one song for your eternal playlist… what would it be?

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

There are two ways to grow: building or betting.

Building means you're putting in the energy. 
↳ You're creating something from scratch, testing it, iterating on it. You're trading time and effort for something that might pay off down the line.

Betting means you're backing what already works.
↳ You're using capital (money, trust, resources) to get leverage without doing all the heavy lifting yourself.

Most people default to one or the other.

But the real skill is knowing how to balance them.

Early stage → you have to build
You need to prove people actually want what you're making.

Got some momentum → start betting
Double down on what's working instead of only focusing on shiny new things.

At scale, you're just allocating resources to the highest return opportunities.

The hard part is knowing when to stop building.

When to stop launching new features.
When to stop saying yes to everything.
When to stop trying to own every channel in-house.

Because every yes costs energy and every no frees up capital to deploy somewhere better.

The key to growth is directing your effort strategically.

And most people keep focus only on building long after they should've started betting.

The Two Ways to Grow: building or betting.

The internet named "Lil Finder Guy" before Apple even fully acknowledged he existed.

Within hours of the MacBook Neo TikTok going live, fans had already:

→ Named it "Lil Finder Guy"
→ Started requesting merch
→ Flooded feeds with fan art

All from a single blink-and-you-miss-it moment.

A small character at a desk. Matcha on the table. A laptop open.

Apple didn't name it, plan the fan art, or ask for any of it.

The audience discovered something, claimed it, and built a story around it themselves.

That's what the best brand moments actually look like.

They don't get launched with a campaign. They get found.

Something small and unforced catches in people's minds. They start drawing it, naming it, sharing it. The audience stops being an audience and becomes the distribution.

The brand plants a seed. The audience decides if it grows.

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

Most people think “pattern interrupt” means doing something weird just to grab attention.

But that’s not really the point.

The goal is simply to break the pattern people have learned to ignore.

Because most content follows the same formula.
Same hooks, same formats, same polished ads.

Eventually our brains learn the pattern…
And start ignoring it.

That’s scroll autopilot and it’s brutal for brands 🫠

Some brands have broken through it brilliantly:

→ Coinbase did it with a bouncing QR code during the Super Bowl.
→ Burger King did it by turning McDonald's locations into billboards for the Whopper Detour.

Both brilliant. Both got people talking.

But here's what I find more interesting:
Both were pattern-interrupt campaigns. Not pattern interrupt brands.

The real question is what happens when the interrupt is baked into the identity itself.

When distinctiveness is built into the brand, the payoff compounds:

→ Lower CPMs
→ Stronger recall
→ Word of mouth that compounds over time

Distinctiveness is a compounding growth lever.

The brands that do this well aren't trying to be outrageous.

They just notice the patterns everyone else follows... and choose not to.

It’s a simple idea but it changes how you think about growth and brand.

I went deep on this with Bill Kerr in my Brand Chemistry newsletter.

👉 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/d-6qhcGp

---

I share #brand and #growth insights daily, follow for more.

People | Tech | Community

FNDN
• Building startup compensation practices that clear, fair and competitive.

FNDN Series
• Insights and interviews showcasing startup people and compensation excellence.

Startup People Summit
• The 1-day virtual summit delivering the playbook on modern practices for building and scaling your startup people practice.

How to Become a HR Consultant
• Sharing every detail of taking a business from zero to $500k in revenue per year.

Matt McFarlane

Thought I'd test out the new Claude HR skill... 

Guess our jobs are safe?

Building startup compensation practices 👉 Compensation Philosophy + Job levels + Salary bands.

We need to talk about the menstrual cycle.
 
This will come as a surprise to nobody, but I knew next to nothing about the menstrual cycle.
 
Then I sat down with Carmen Amador Barreiro and I realised just how much of an impact it has — not just on people, but on workplaces.
 
Things like:
– 45% of menstruating employees miss work due to cycle-related symptoms.
– Nearly 95% of workplaces offer zero support or benefits to address this.
 
And that Spain implemented menstrual leave three years ago. But almost no one takes it.
 
That last bit is the one that surprised me most.
 
I've spent years in People teams, built comp frameworks, designed policies, written about workplace performance. But this? This massive thing affecting half the workforce?
 
I had no real understanding of it.
 
Not about the issue, or the impact, or what it actually means for how people show up to work.
 
What was clear to me after this conversation, is that policies alone (even when well intentioned) won't solve this problem.
 
It has to come from within the organisations that actually want to support their people.
 
You can have the most progressive leave policy in the world, but if your people don't feel safe using it, you've just created expensive window dressing.
 
Thankfully I had an expert to help me understand how organisations can do this.
 
Carmen is a business psychologist and founder of The Cycle Method, and she knows how companies are getting this right — because she's helping them do it.
 
Carmen made a point that reframed how I think about this:

– policy without culture is performative.
 
Before you rush to implement menstrual leave, you need to start with demystifying the conversation.
 
Create psychological safety first. Then the policies actually get used.
 
This isn't just a women's issue (although it disproportionately affects them). It's a workplace performance issue.
 
When half your workforce is navigating something that impacts their productivity, energy, and wellbeing, and you're pretending it doesn't exist, you're leaving performance on the table.
 
The businesses that will win here are the ones that:
– Make it safe to talk about the menstrual cycle without stigma
– Train managers to understand and support their people (I needed this training too)
– Build flexibility into how work gets done (not just leave policies)
– Recognise that bodies come to the workplace
 
Start with awareness. I did.
 
Have the conversation. Listen to what your people are experiencing.
 
The next edition of the FNDN Series drops soon, and has my full conversation with Carmen on this topic.
 
If you want to learn alongside me about how to bring this into your workplace in a practical way, sign up for the newsletter to get it when it drops: https://lnkd.in/gUTnpE_s

After doing comp for a while, here's the 6 things I'd do immediately to get comp under control if I was a new Head of People.
 
I'm assuming you've come into a company where:
- Nothing exists
- You're the first people hire.
- There's <50 employees.
 
Yee-ha.﻿ Let's go.
 
1. Define a basic job level framework.
 
I'm talking basic basic.
 
Even something like: Jnr > Mid > Snr (+Founder = 4 levels).
 
That's all.
 
Just get a basic framework for distinguishing different role sizes. You can expand it later.
 
2. Level your people against the framework
 
- Jim = Junior
- Mary = Mid-level
- Tammy = Senior
 
Bonus points if you want to define the basis for putting them in those buckets (always good to have a rationale).
 
3. Build salary bands based on who you already employ (and pay)
 
Market data is nice but maybe not critical at this stage.
 
Instead: find the median salary at each job + level for the people you already pay
 
For example: junior software engineer.
 
See what the range is between lowest and highest paid.
Decide if it's too wide (20%+) or too narrow (<5%).
Congrats, you've got salary bands.
 
4. Define why someone is at the bottom vs the top
 
Important if you're going to mature these things. 

What dictates that someone is paid higher vs lower in your new band?
 
Don't have performance ratings or similar in place? Use something objective like tenure.
 
Not perfect, but a useful proxy in the short term (especially if you genuinely rate the people you've hired and kept).
 
5. Adjust your bands for hiring
 
Find your bands are holding you back in the market? Lift them.
 
Just remember to bring the current employees up with them.
 
Also make sure you're not accidentally compressing bands too close to one another, so lift the ones above and below, too.
 
6. Write all this stuff down (i.e. comp philosophy)
 
Help your people to understand how this stuff works.
- They'll appreciate it,
- You'll have more trust,
- And now questions can be answered a little more quickly.
 
Congrats, you have a halfway decent comp practice.
 
PS. let me know what is one thing you would add?

The best leader I ever worked with introduced themself with a ‘How to Work With Me’ guide. Here’s what it included — and why it worked so well.

I was new to the team, and so were they — I didn't know what to expect.
 
They didn't hire me — which led to feelings of:
- Would we get on together?
- Would they like me?
- What if they're a terrible boss?

But before we had a chance to connect over a call, something landed in my inbox and the inbox of each of their new direct reports.

It was a 'how to work with me' guide.
 
It introduced themselves and how they liked to work.

This was the first thing that set my impression.

- Not a flashy PowerPoint.
- Not a long-winded speech.
- Just a raw, honest doc.

The doc wasn't lengthy, but it was comprehensive — it covered things like:

• What they look for in their team
• How they like to communicate
• What great work looks like to them
• Their strengths and where they struggle
• How we could help them be better

They didn’t know us yet.

But this gave us immediate insight into who they were — and how to build trust and momentum quickly.

- There was no pressure to respond immediately.
- We read and digested it in our own time.
- And then we responded in kind.

That moment set the tone for our entire team culture.

We started sharing our own guides.
It encouraged us to do the same with our teams.
It scaled trust without needing synchronous time.

We talk a lot about onboarding processes and leadership styles.

Start here.

It’s simple, human, and unforgettable.

Have you ever received or written a ‘How to Work With Me’ guide?

I’d love to see your take 👇

Every few weeks someone asks me: "How do you actually learn comp for startups?"
Here's what I tell them.

I've never done a comp course.

Two things have helped me most:
- Doing the work
- Learning from people who are way better at it than me

And even now — even after dedicating myself to comp — I'd bet I know about 10% of this genuinely deep and complex field.

So in pursuit of that other 90% (pipe dream, I know), I'm religious about following people who don't hoard their knowledge. 

They share their thinking openly, and they make the rest of us better.

Here are the ones you should be following for practical comp education:

Paul Reiman — 20+ years of comp experience, a data-first mindset, and strong enough views to call himself a "Compensation Trouble Maker".

Martin Smit — doing some of the most interesting build-in-public work at the intersection of comp and AI. Follow for tools and resources you'll actually use.

Justin Hampton, CCP — If you want practical over theoretical, Justin's your person, and he's dropping some routinely great data and insights.

Giac Soliman — one of the clearest voices on how AI is changing comp and what that means for practitioners right now — both the what and the how.

Matt Schulman — CEO of Pave and one of the best data-grounded takes on what's actually happening in comp at an industry level. If you want to know what the numbers are saying, Matt's got you.

Vaso Parisinou — CPO at Ravio, sharing real stories from the frontlines of comp at some of Europe's biggest startups. Rare, honest perspective you won't find anywhere else.

Lola Han — founder of Kamsa and one of the most practical thinkers on what a modern comp strategy actually looks like when it's working.

Amee Parekh — brings lessons earned at some of the US's biggest scaleups (Uber, Hims & Hers). High-calibre, no-fluff comp thinking.

Denise Liebetrau, MBA, CDI.D, CCP, GRP — consistently drops deeply insightful posts on how comp is showing up in workplaces, and it's both deeply practical and insightful. Always worth reading.

James A Seechurn — author of What Pay Costs (one of my favourite comp books), and even though I'm about to debate him on pay for performance... one of the genuinely good ones.

Bryan Briscoe — you'll start following for the workplace stories. You'll stay for the brilliance on comp practices.

The cool thing about tagging all of these people (most of whom I've had the fortune to speak with) is that they're extraordinarily generous with their support of others in this space. So I'm counting on them to help make this list even more complete.

Do your thang, network.

If you're a People professional, your goal isn't to be liked, it's to be respected. Here's ten things I've seen teams do wrong, and the ten who get it right.
 
The true indicator of success in a People function isn't personal popularity, but creating a work environment that empowers its people.
 
Those that work work in People teams because they "like people":
 
1. Overpromise but under-delivers.
2. Give in to every demand.
3. Shy away from having difficult conversations.
4. Play favourites among people.
5. Avoids making tough decisions.
6. Avoids conflict at all costs.
7. Apply policies inconsistently, fearing backlash.
8. Side with popular opinion, not what's right.
9. Overlook performance issues.
10. Focused excessively on office parties and perks.
 
People professionals that earn respect:
 
1. Set clear expectations.
2. Take responsibility for mistakes.
3. Communicate effectively.
4. Balance employee needs with business goals.
5. Enforce policies fairly and consistently.
6. Handle conflicts professionally.
7. Supports addressing performance issues promptly.
8. Provides valuable, actionable feedback.
9. Develop effective training and development programs.
10. Uphold ethical standards at all costs.
 
The real currency in this profession isn't being liked, it's fostering an environment that enables employees to thrive.

What is one you would add to either of these?

Yesterday, ~900 people learned what to charge their clients as a HR consultant.

It's been the most uncomfortable part of my journey from in-house to a career that now earns me twice what my highest paid role ever did.

In this edition, I break down not only how to land on your rate, but the different pricing models I've used it for.

All in painstaking detail so you don't have to guess through it like I did.

And you can read it for free here: https://lnkd.in/gCrNXM-n

The god father of AI built a site that scores AI impact on jobs and, brb I'm going to re-skill as a Gardner.

Andrej Karpathy is one of the most influential AI engineers of the modern era — you can read more about him here: 

https://karpathy.ai/

He vibe coded a site that pulls US Bureau of Labor Statistics info and ranks their exposure to AI capability.

Check it out here:

https://lnkd.in/gYP-CXXy

HR Managers have an AI exposure of 7/10.

What's cool though is the brief description it gives on *what* will be disrupted.

And honestly, it's the parts I'm ok with being disrupted.

Check it out and let me know what you think and if you agree with its scoring.

I've rarely seen a careers page that actually made me want to apply.
 
- Stock photos
- Five values that could belong to any SaaS
- A culture paragraph that says everything and nothing
 
Meanwhile, the companies with real pull?

You hear about them because an employee jumps on LinkedIn and writes, "we just shipped this and I'm pumped"
 
If you're running the People function at a fast-growing SaaS and can't match Big Tech on salary, you know exactly why that matters.
 
The companies with pull have built something candidates already believe in before they've even applied.
 
In the coming edition of FNDN Series, I sat down with Lachlan Bradford, a brand and community builder in SaaS, and it reframed how I think about this for employees.
 
I'm breaking down the playbook in this week's newsletter.

Subscribe here (it's free): https://lnkd.in/gUTnpE_s

A lot of meetings could have been an email. Here's one of the best ways to filter the fluff.

One of the most powerful things I learned (way too late in my career) was how to become hyper efficient through meeting diligence. And there's one framework at the cornerstone of this.
 
It wasn't until I began working for truly remote companies that it dawned on me how much of an unlock it is to cull them wherever possible.
 
Historically, meetings were booked for anything and everything.
- Progress updates on projects/work.
- Regularly scheduled because someone decided it would be good to check-in.
- The ad hoc 'can I ask you something' that turns into a full blown half hour to an hour of your day - gone.
 
The fact is that these kinds of meetings kill the deep work necessary to deliver critical outcomes for you and your business. They distract you from true productivity, and harm your career in the process.
 
But then I was introduced to the POST framework — and we made it a pre-condition necessary for any meeting to go ahead had. 

The person who wanted the meeting had to include this acronym in the meeting request.
 
Here's what it stands for:

- Purpose: why are we having the meeting?

- Outcome: what goal should we accomplish by having this meeting?

- Structure: what are we doing in the meeting? Are we making decisions, or are we brainstorming something? what is everyone's role?

- Timing: how long is it going for and how does the agenda fit within this duration?
 
When you have to do even the most basic amount of work to even have a meeting you'd be surprised how many of the ad-hoc meetings fall away, and even the cyclical one's (each meeting needs to be justified).
 
Take this a step further.
 
If the meeting is a progress update, or is otherwise sharing information one-directionally, make it asynchronous and do it via written or video recorded update.
 
You'd be surprised how much faster things get done when you can read it and respond in your own time (with deeper thought or while listening at 2x speed).
 
It goes without saying that something like this needs to be adopted from the top down, but by piloting an approach and measuring the outcomes (reduced meeting time, improved output) you'd be surprised how easily the case stacks up to adopt this approach across a company.
 
Have you ever tried an approach like this at your company?

If Jeff Bezos says no team should need more than two pizzas, and AI means I’m now doing the work of a whole team — do I get both pizzas?

I speak to 100's of HR team's a year. Here's 5 steps the best ones are doing to embed AI.
 
Too many HR teams are either intimidated or overwhelmed when it comes to AI, and they're falling behind.
 
Instead, embrace the below steps and you'll be in the top 10% of People teams using AI.
 
1. Create dedicated, protected time
 
You can't just slap AI on top of your day job, or squeeze it in between meetings (duh).
 
The work you're doing today will always trump the deep focus time you need to be successful.
 
So carve it out, choose 1 of these:
- Commit 1-2 hours a day to AI, or
- Give 1 day a week to AI.
 
If you need to drop something to make this happen, do it. This must be higher priority than at least one thing you're team does or it won't get the attention it needs.
 
Protect the time, remove distractions — go into deep focus and spend it doing one of the things in the next step.
 
2. Time box it
 
If you're just starting out, commit to doing a short term blitz and then work out how to embed it longer term.
 
Here's a format you can steal:
 
6x week sprint:
 
Weeks 1-2: Focus only on learning/immersing yourself in what's possible

Weeks 3-4: Focus on testing the tools you saw in weeks 1-2

Weeks 5-6: Move from testing to actually building (what to build is covered in step 5)
 
3. Curate learning, don't create
 
There's so much free content available on using AI that you'd be crazy to spend money on it.
 
- Greg Isenberg
- Ruben Hassid
- Jeff Su 

These are just three (from dozens of) creators I love, who share genuinely actionable insights on embedding AI.
 
Spend time watching and seeing what can be done - this will get your brain subconsciously thinking about AI solutions for your team.
 
4. Empower your team
 
The key message here is: 'remove friction'
 
Time is a friction (tackled in step 1), but the second biggest one I see, is money.
 
Don't let budget be a blocker here.
 
If you're CEO wants you to embed AI practices (and you should to quit if they don't) — then securing a small budget is a no brainer.
 
There's so many tools - give your people a chance to trial a bunch of them and see what works.
 
Then:
- Keep the ones that work
- Remove the ones that don't
 
Don't make a big procurement process block game changing improvements.
 
5. Start small when building
 
Don't try to boil the ocean.
 
You won't be able to replace a HRBP in a week.
 
Instead, start small.
 
Pick the smallest workflow/process/interface under your remit, and start there.
 
Use your success here to build momentum and move up the value chain.
 
Don't let overwhelm and intimidation stop you from becoming a more effective People team.
 
Tell me, which step do *you* think is most important to embedding AI in People teams?

Even though my team smashed his team in the Great Debate on Pay for Performance, I actually agree with a lot of what James A Seechurn has to say.
 
So much so that after reading his book, I reached out to have him on the FNDN Series.
 
The book is 'What Pay Costs'.
 
It's incredibly good. The kind of book that makes you annoyed you didn't write it first.
 
I thought I grilled him for over an hour, poking holes in his idealistic views on how pay can work.
 
But actually, I just nodded along.
 
If you think most of the pay practices you see at work feel a bit broken — whether as a people professional, as an employee, or as a manager — this one's worth your time.
 
Subscribe to the FNDN Series to get a digest of the conversation, and a link to the full episode where we break it all down for you.
 
Join 5,500+ startup Heads of People here (it's free!):
https://lnkd.in/gUTnpE_s

Over the past 2 years I've been gradually refining my newsletter, written specifically for startup Heads of People. Lately, the investment has been paying off.

If you're the Head of People / CPO in a scaling company (50 to 500 people) 
👉 This is for you (it's free): https://lnkd.in/gUTnpE_s

Paying employees more money won’t motivate them.
 
But HOW you pay them will.
 
Here’s why
+ 4 steps to motivate your employees (without paying them more):
 
Employees don’t disengage because they want higher salaries.
 
They disengage because they see unfair pay practices.
 
When two people do the same job but one earns significantly more:
 
- Creates a lack of clarity on how pay decisions are made
- Makes pay feel random, not earned
 
But here’s where something interesting happens:
 
Double Demotivation Theory.
 
Double Demotivation Theory says there are two ways pay can make employees disengage:
 
1. People who believe they’re earning less than they should lose motivation.
 
That's the obvious one, but here's where it gets weird...
 
2. People who are being paid MORE compared to their peers ALSO lose motivation.
 
Now, this proves ONE thing:
 
It’s not just about more money. It’s about TRUST.
 
If people don’t trust the system, no amount of raises or perks will keep them engaged.
 
Fixing motivation doesn’t start with throwing more money at people.
 
It starts with paying fairly.
 
Here’s 4 steps to start paying fairly + keep your people motivated:
 
1. Have a clear, structured approach to pay
2. Make sure employees understand how salaries are set and why
3. Be transparent. Even if you don’t share every number, explain how decisions are made
4. Benchmark pay regularly. Ensure internal pay aligns with market rates — and that pay gaps aren’t eroding trust
 
TL;DR
 
Motivation doesn’t just come from bigger pay checks.
 
It comes from people knowing they’re being treated fairly.
 
People aren’t just demotivated by being underpaid.
 
They’re demotivated when they see OTHERS getting UNDERPAID. 
 
Pay fairly -> build trust -> drive motivation.
 
What’s one thing companies you'd like to see companies do today to make their pay practices feel more fair?

This is the most powerful tip I learned for growing a personal brand on linkedin:

You can just say stuff.

Block cuts 40% of workforce because AI - Stock pops 20%. Atlassian cuts 10% of workforce because AI - Stock drops 7%. 

Does the market think they should have gone deeper?

Or something else?

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