:::Issue #11. Why are you receiving this? You’re friends with Cam Houser. This is where I share atypical stories of creativity, entrepreneurship, and the ups and downs of Actionworks:::

🎟Welcome Brendan, Joanna, David, Betty, JD, Guia, Amit, Jayme K, R, S  🎟

Greetings, Rulebreakers!

What I’ve been up to:

🌶️ Infusing tequila, part 4: Chile De Arbol. Good, but not great. The challenge here might be that bourbon is simply better than tequila. Next week: Habanero.

🌵Running the Zoom backend for Western Gallery’s Texas Women exhibition event. On Friday, they gathered some amazing Texas artists and the community that loves them for a delightful session. Western Gallery instagram.

🇮🇳 Obsessing over “Chalte Chalte Yun Hi Koi,” a song from the soundtrack of a Pakeezah, a 1972 film from Mumbai. The song is hauntingly beautiful. Lyrics transcend language because they have melody, and awe comes easier when melodies are in a language you don’t speak (for me, Hindi). Side note: this is why Icelandic band Sigur Ros and their “invented language” are so beautiful.

Workshop this week

I want to show some love to the attendees at the workshop last week. Y’all were awesome! I’m incredibly inspired by this work. And you flooded me with thank you videos. Many thanks to the creators who sent me footage: Alessandra, Jim, Praveen, and Steve.

Note that Steve missed the session, but signing up led lead him to the Accelerate your career with video article, which introduced him to the concept of minimum viable video. And then he was off to the races.

This week’s session will be just as relevant for video creators as it is for Zoom users.

We’ll cover practical information (camera placement, distribution tips) with an emphasis on backgrounds. Specifically, we’ll address why backgrounds are important and how to set up your background.

A great background is a head start. It literally sets the scene for your message and your ideas. It starts creating value for you before you say your first word.

I’ll introduce the topic, we’ll discuss a bit, and then everyone will take some time to fix up their backgrounds backgrounds with an optional show and tell.

It will look like the time I coached Tim on this topic over Zoom, but at regular speed 😂

Relevant twitter accounts: Room Rater and Bookcase Credibility

Register for this week's workshop here

Don’t let anyone tell you…

..that we are not living in a time of great opportunities. A startup called Buyer is “negotiation as a service.” Copy them on an email and they enter the conversation and work to get you a good deal.

What did it take to start and validate this business? A website, a few people with some basic negotiation skills, and the cleverness to use CC line as the tech stack and primary customer channel.

Cam Houser @cahouser

We live in a time of opportunity. This company’s tech stack is the CC line of an email

Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson

We launched a business called Buyer... It’s negotiation as a service. Buying software? An office lease? A furniture order? CC Buyer. They negotiate the best price for you. They just saved Tiny $20k—just by asking for a discount. I love this business! https://t.co/xbg2xEBtIF

September 28th 2020

2 Retweets12 Likes

How many other business ideas are possible using something as simple as the CC line that we haven’t thought of yet?

New Rulebreaker piece coming soon: Nascar, the stock car racing league worth billions, arose out of a long tradition of bootlegging—illegal alcohol production and distribution.

See you in the Zoom grid,
Cam

Web: actionworks.co
Twitter: @cahouser
For professional grade virtual courses and workshops, email cam@actionworks.co

Just for fun: slow motion bird footage from my balcony to your inbox…