Stephen Dean

Congratulations to LCDR Kyle Moller, who’s initiative to solve a recurring air quality problem at Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC) was recognized with a USPHS Achievement Medal. LCDR Moller, an Environmental Health Officer with the Public Health Emergency Response Strike Team (PHERST) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, developed an innovative solution to improve the safety of mandatory emergency generator testing. He created a predictive risk assessment tool by integrating historical weather data with specialized exhaust plume modeling from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. This tool automatically categorizes risk levels for proposed test times, enabling data-driven scheduling to ensure the health and safety of 5,000 employees. LCDR Moller serves as Chief of MAMC Environmental Health Service (EHS) while assigned to PHERST, where he directs the EHS support to over 174,000 Active Duty US Army I Corps and US Air Force 62nd Air Wing Servicemembers, civilians, and retirees at JBLM, seven outlying clinics, Yakima Training Center, Sierra Army Depot, and Presidio of Monterrey.  Prior to this he completed assignments with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Office and the Western States Division.  He began his career as a JRCOSTEP at the CDC/NIOSH Alaska Field Station in Anchorage, AK. LCDR Moller earned BS in Biology from Washington State University before completing an MSPH and Ph.D. in Environmental Health from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.  He has authored a half dozen peer-reviewed articles and carries the Registered Environmental Health Specialist credential from the National Environmental Health Association

What I rarely see on business owners ai "SHOULD LIST": Most business owners are still just using ai like a toy or a search engine. This always happens with new technology. You use new stuff to do the old job in a faster way rather than re-inventing the workflow to get the true benefits. It's easy to open your feed and think... - Is ai going to let your competitor put you out of business? - should you be focusing on getting your whole team to "just use it everyday" and you think that they magically find some breakthrough? - maybe someone can just make it simple for me... that super simple version, for sure will matter right? - is the 1 thing you need with ai, just to make it answer the phone so you can call every lead faster, or never miss a call? is that booking "agent" just going to fix everything? - maybe you think simply learning to use it to make more content, however you do it be it fake gorrila suit ads, or cloning yourself, or making new ai influencers maybe that's the way... - maybe vibe coding is so easy you should become a weekend keyboard warrior and learn to code, and ai can just magically whip up the app that runs your business perfectly on near auto pilot so all you have to focus on is real work in the real world and hiring the people to do that and looking at your bank balance... RIGHT? Right? If your feed looks like mine, and those of most of my clients, your "ai should do list" is probably starting to stress you out almost as much the actual problems in your business. What I don't see on almost anyone's list, is: >> Get ai connected to all my data, so we can find the right problem and fix it, profit, then take the profits from that and repeat. Listen: You don't need to become an ai leader, learn ai, or even figure out how to clone yourself with ai. [You just need a faster way to look at the truth, find the leak, find the friction that will make the biggest difference the fastest and then fix it.] If ai is the solution, great. When you go this route 2 important things happen First: Because you start with the problem, and data, you'll know if it actually worked, what worked, what didn't and then the actual impact it had on the business. Last week on a delivery call, I found in one of our new clients dashboards, a $285,000 projected increase in profit, just by possibly tweaking a timeline automation in a project by 1-2 days, and asking how we could shorten the gap. Second: IMPORTANT -- If you're a business owner, this is a skill you already have. You already know how to go to a meeting, look at some numbers or facts or statuses about the business and ask smart people questions to drive progress forward. Connect with me, dm me, like this, comment, if you want help I can get your real data connected for free so you can see what's possible.

These are the days I'm happy to stay home from the office and work from home... vibe coding conversion, watching kids pull teeth. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ― Ferris Bueller

We have this beautiful pool in our complex. It’s 75 degrees and quiet. The ideal morning for some reading and thinking. Yet for some reason, I rarely come out here. The “grinder” mentality keeps me in my office where I have 2 monitors and I’m supposedly more productive. Enough. My goal this week: enjoy this beautiful space, and see what creativity comes from working here in the mornings.

In a world of AI chatbots and automated everything, we're telling our clients to send handwritten notes. To sign books personally. To text people directly. It works better than ever because everyone is focused on "more ... more ... more" (and most of it is garbage). Quality. Connection. Depth. That's how you stand out in a "noisy" world.

Friday was my last day at Smartsheet as a Customer Success Manager! Apologies if I didn’t reach out to you personally before my last day my Smartsheet friends! It all happened so fast and for good reason. I’m happy to be joining my brothers in the family business working at R&L Manufacturing! My dad started this company and had always dreamed of his children working together. I was the last piece until recently. I’m looking forward to this new journey, and I feel as though all my experiences so far has helped me prepare for this next step for me! Thankfully I have a week before I start next Monday! Thanks friends for all the support throughout the years! Picture of me, my brothers, with our dad during his retirement party in 2022.

Ten years ago today, I registered my freelance copywriting business. It's hard to believe I've dedicated an entire decade of my life to the craft of persuasion. I've also managed to build a solid, successful career that will last me a lifetime. Of course, none of this would've happened without the support, connection, kindness, opportunities and friendship I've received over the years. I cannot begin to express my gratitude toward my motley family of clients, partners, colleagues, mentors and associates. But I can certainly mention them to recognize the eternal debt I owe them... First mention must go to "Mentor X", a private, reserved individual I worked with almost daily between 2010-2013. He probably won't see this post and wouldn't care for the accolades either, but my life was transformed through my work with you. There were many other mentors as well, of course. I snuck into John Carlton's mastermind early on after studying his work intensely. He actually gave me one of my earliest copywriting jobs and today, I am proud to be the principal teacher and trainer in his Simple Writing System. (More in the comments... due to LinkedIn's character limit)