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"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."
— Albert Einstein
The Red Thread This Week
Chance of Rain
This Sunday is “Assessments Day” for our local little league.
As league president, I've spent weeks helping our team prep fields, organize volunteers, and onboard managers.
But there's a very real chance of rain on Sunday.
So the real work isn't the prep.
It's building a plan that allows our team to be flexible, and resilient.
Extra canopies.
Indoor space on standby.
Volunteers who know they may pivot roles.
A communication plan that works either way.
Being prepared to adjust our plan.
I’ve seen what happens when organizations choose the opposite.
I watched the music industry fail at it spectacularly.
When Napster launched in ‘99, the labels had a choice: adapt their business model to digital distribution, or fight to keep the physical/CD economy alive.
They chose to defend the fortress.
More lawyers and PR people.
DRM (Digital Rights Management, which is latin for “Organize to sue everyone for copyright infringement”).
Rhetoric about "protecting artists" while clinging to a distribution model that was already dying.
By the time they accepted streaming was inevitable, Spotify and others had built the infrastructure and owned the relationship with listeners.
The labels didn't lose because they were wrong about piracy.
They lost because they built fortifications instead of bridges.
And right now? We're all feeling that same discomfort.
AI is rewriting the rules for writers, designers, developers, marketers—anyone who makes things for a living.
The temptation is to dig in. To insist it's a fad.
To lawyer up, or opt out, or wait for resistance or regulation to slow things down.
But the world doesn't change more slowly because you want it to.
So the question isn't whether change is coming to your work, or your art, or your plan.
It's whether you'll be ready to move when it does.
The Red Thread this week is a practical framework for building work and systems that allow you to prepare for change, and be resilient.
~ Jaime
🔑 The Unlock
7 Keys to Being Ready for Change
Resilience isn’t toughness. It’s flexibility under pressure.
Here’s how to build it:
1️⃣ Right-Size Your Scale
The trap: Bigger feels safer.
The reality: Bigger turns slower.
Blockbuster had 9,000 stores when Netflix started mailing DVDs. Every store was a lease, a staff, a sunk cost that made pivoting quickly financially impossible.
Netflix had a warehouse and a website.
Your move:
5,000 engaged followers/listeners/readers > 50,000 passive ones
Three great clients > ten mediocre ones
One profitable offer > five fragile ones
Ask: Is my scale helping me move—or weighing me down?
2️⃣ Keep Cash in Reserve
When COVID hit, restaurants with three months of runway could experiment—takeout models, outdoor seating, ghost kitchens.
Restaurants living paycheck-to-paycheck closed in weeks.
The difference wasn't the quality of their food. It was their ability to absorb a shock and try something new.
Your move:
Aim for 3–6 months of buffer
Cash buys time, and time buys choices
Ask: If my main revenue disappeared tomorrow, how long could I pivot?
3️⃣ Talk About What’s Changing
Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. Then spent 30 years pretending film wasn't dying because their entire business model depended on it.
By the time they admitted digital was the future, Canon and Nikon owned the market.
Denial didn’t delay change. It delayed response.
Your move:
Name platform shifts
Acknowledge changing audience behavior
Say the uncomfortable thing early and out loud with your team
Ask: What am I pretending isn’t happening because it’s inconvenient?
4️⃣ Accept Reality—Then Flow With It
In 2007, music executives complained that iTunes was "training consumers to cherry-pick singles instead of buying albums."
They were right. And it didn't matter.
You can spend energy wishing the world worked differently, or you can spend it adapting to the world as it is.
Only one moves you forward.
Your move:
Algorithms change? Learn how the new dynamics might work for you
Potential clients ghost you? Tighten your onboarding process
AI disrupts workflows? learn to use it as a tool instead of fighting it as a threat
Acceptance isn’t surrender, it’s embracing new conditions so you can make better plans.
5️⃣ Build a Bias for Experiments
Fruit flies evolve fast because they have short lifespans and lots of offspring.
Elephants evolve slowly because they have long lifespans and few offspring.
Organizations that need to be “right” every time are elephants, and move slowly.
Your move:
Test a new format
Try a pricing shift
Pitch a risky idea
Not everything should work. That’s the point.
A competitive advantage is being willing to test, learn, and iterate faster than everyone else.
Ask: When’s the last time I ran a real experiment?
6️⃣ Adjust Your Cycles
Too fast: You never finish anything.
Too slow: You miss the window.
A restaurant that changes its menu every week never builds signature dishes.
A restaurant that keeps the same menu for five years becomes irrelevant.
Your move:
Building a personal brand? Faster cycles—weekly content, monthly experiments, quarterly pivots
Building a product? Longer cycles—you need to get through the hard middle where most people quit
The key: Know which game you're playing and match your rhythm to it
Ask: Am I changing too fast, or holding on too long?
7️⃣ Separate Mission from Medium
I've spent 20+ years in music/radio—industries that’ve reinvented delivery more times than I can count.
Terrestrial. Satellite. Streaming. Podcasts. Algorithm playlists. Social audio.
What hasn't changed?
Finding passionate audiences, gathering them around music and brands they love, and super-serving that relationship.
Technology shifts. Platforms disappear. But the mission stays constant.
Your move:
Your social media strategy will change
Your podcast format will evolve
The platform you're betting on might not exist in five years
If you're clear on who you serve and what problem you solve, the medium is just the vehicle.
And your mission must travel!
Ask yourself: If my main platform disappeared tomorrow, would my mission still make sense?
📌 Remember: Resilience isn’t a personality trait. It’s a series of choices about scale, reserves, honesty, experimentation, rhythm, and mission.
🎲 Prompt Playground
The Resilience Audit
Use this to identify how adaptable you/your work are to change.
Prompt:
I want to audit my business or creative practice for brittleness and build more resilience.
Context:
What I do: [describe your work in 1-2 sentences]
How I make money: [list your revenue sources]
What I depend on: [specific clients, platforms, tools, or systems]
My biggest fear if things changed quickly: [be honest and specific]
Help me see clearly:
Identify my biggest single point of failure—what could break my business overnight?
Assess whether my current scale helps or hinders my ability to move quickly.
Evaluate whether I have enough financial runway to experiment without panic.
Examine my cycle speed—am I iterating too fast, too slow, or just right for my industry?
Recommend three concrete actions I could take in the next 30 days to become more flexible and less dependent on any single factor.
For each recommendation, explain why it matters and what specific outcome I should expect.
✅ Bonus Prompt: "If I knew the world would change dramatically in 12 months—but not how—what would I do differently starting now? Give me a 90-day action plan."
A Gift for You
My personal library of 12 high-impact AI prompts designed to help leaders, builders, and creators use AI as a strategic thinking partner (not just a productivity tool.)
If you’re planning for 2026, this will help you clarify direction, surface opportunities, and make better decisions faster.
No strings attached. Just a thank-you for being here, and a resource to help you do your best work.
🃏 Action Card
Your Move This Week
Questions:
Where is the soft tissue in your current work? Where is there concentrated risk?
Test:
If one key assumption broke tomorrow—a platform changed, a client left, a tool became obsolete—what would actually fail? And what would still hold?
Shift:
Being prepared for change isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about designing your work so it’s plastic; flexible, pliable, and able to bend.
Move (10 minutes)
Write down:
One dependency you’re over-exposed to
One buffer you could add this month (cash, time, optionality)
One experiment you’ve been postponing because it might not work
Pick one and act on it this week. Not to be right, but to be ready.
⚡ Before You Go
Here’s a few ways I can help today:
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Thanks for spending time with Red Threads this week, I’m glad you’re here :)
~ Jaime