Brain Being Pushed (We Will Grow & Win)

What Mike Michelini is up to Now – May 1 – 7, 2022

Listen as audio here [1.5 minutes long] (or scroll down for text)

Download .mp3 here

Its a holiday but we cannot leave Shenzhen. Why? Our children’s school monitors and if we leave then there is a special process to be able to have the kids go back to school after the holiday on Thursday. So we will stick at home. I’m becoming an introvert / shut in these days anyway working online non-stop.

The bullet points:
* Deep into blockchain and decentralized internet. A new project Yellow came to us, and looking to have 1+1=5 with other projects and communities we are involved with.
* Crowdfunding campaign strategy – BeckyAI deep in the habit hole of AI tech and integration with Amazon Alexa and Google assistant, the rabbit hole never ends.
* Excalibur Brothers / Blimp using Loadpipe – light bulb went off for me when the 4 products are becoming so complex – and we built a solution for this during the covid PPE mask mania – loadpipe. So hope to get the current team up to speed on how Loadpipe works and get that rolling.
* Fishing Lab migration. Balancing web3 and web2 in general for our marketing.
* HNS – flamingo handshake / skyinclude video/blogs and now want to re-ignite the “community” part handshake mercenary so it is a 3 part “trifecta” – trading (Flamingo), media /services (skyinclude) , mercenary (“discord” / bulletin board)

For those who want to hear the full week plan for Shadstone Limited, Mike’s company (removing sensitive info) – here it is:

Week Plan May 1- 7, 2022 Shadstone Limited

We are in May! And happy Labor day from China. China will be shut down the next few days – but of course plenty of work and things to do here in Shadstone ha!

Last week, as mentioned in the week plan – was a defining time (in my opinion) for our company and myself personally. Never before been so pushed and stretched – onboarding new projects, learning, studying, onboarding team members, etc.

But we do not grow if we do not push our limits. Just like a muscle – when you hit that limit during a workout and your muscle gets tired and strains – THAT IS THE EXACT MOMENT you need to push more. That is the exact moment when your muscle will breakdown and push its current limit and grow back stronger.

Since around 2014/2015 when I began to study deep about pomodoro / meditation / morning grinding / afternoon managing – it has been a mental workout. The mind is a muscle just like a bicep. I’d say the mind last week was under extreme stress and limits being pushed – but we made it.

Yellow is a massive new project and opportunity. Dove deep into the white paper, the technology – and Wendy says it is Buddha, but for whatever reason – this technology is what I have been looking for. It is a way to have a network of exchanges create their own local version on their own website customize it (like a WordPress site) and leverage the network’s liquidity. Anyway, it is something I was looking for – and it came to us. There is a lot more to learn and study, but last week was deep intensive learning.

BeckyAI also deep into the crowdfunding campaign. Dove deep into a strategy and unique selling points (USP) and met with the client. More referrals and more projects from this happy factory coming soon.

Massive pressure to get these 4 products for Excalibur Brothers ahead. Made a long doc and voice memo to try to communicate to our team (working online and communicating complex and various details is always hard in my opinion – hope the voice memos help)

So much behind the scenes discussing w/ Sentinel and the future of Indigitus. Handling a few troublesome refund requests with memo issues (exchanges are annoying)

A lot of discussion about structuring the company – we need to KEEP BUILDING UP OUR amazing team of LEADERS and MANAGERS. I’d say the only way we have gotten this far is with our restructuring last year to build up a management team. The only way we can grow to the next level is to continue to build up and grow our entire team to be skilled project managers.

The current team now will become the future leaders.

So we are investing in having Elayne do a training session this week check training.shadstone.com on Wednesday May 4, 2022 at 7pm Manila time. Hope we can keep INVESTING on our team. This is the only way we can maintain and grow our excellence.

Been brainstorming a naming structure for our team members. Like the new recruits and those who have passed the probation and those who have become senior and taken management roles. Hope to even use this as points on a blockchain once we figure it out enough.

Also working on a fair way to share the wins with the team, while also protecting the company from the “feast and famine” as I have mentioned in the previous week’s plans. So the idea is the more senior you are – the more chances and opportunities you will get on the “hot new project” with a bit of an extra benefit on top. Still developing this with the HR and management but want to get the word out.

Also we are trying to keep a “rainy day” fund to protect the company from getting in bad positions like we have 3-4 times in the company history. It is best to have the company costs covered months in advance – so there is no pressure to (1) take deals that are not good for the company, (2) not take investors/partners that we don’t want to work with, (3) keep our “freedom”.

There is so much more, so many projects, so many things to do. But honestly, this is the dream of Shadstone since the beginning. To be a “back end engine” (shadow + stone) for our investments. Many over the years told me it was not possible, that you need to focus, only do 1 thing.

But you know what that one thing is – YOU. The team. The core of Shadstone is the skilled and passionate people. I am honored to work with all of you. I am so proud to see you USE YOUR BRAIN and LOGIC. Not to be afraid to speak up when you see something that should be done better or differently. I do not want a company culture of FEAR.

Sadly, so many company cultures I have seen (and witness on a daily basis with some of our clients and investments) are full of fear. That is probably the biggest reason for failure in my opinion. When everything is a bottleneck because “the boss” (please dont call me a boss) needs to check and confirm every detail. I don’t want to publicly call out those cultures where I see that, and maybe there have been times in Shadstone history where it may have been like this – but no way can those kinds of culture succeed. They will always be limited by that “boss” and that “approval” and that “fear”. And there will be turnover – the good people, the people with a creative mind, will not want to stay in that kind of environment too long.

I believe some of what we are structuring now is not too common. We are trying to not just replicate a company culture and structure like typical companies. It has been hard. To keep a culture of 100% flexible, 100% on demand. And as we grow to needing to make even more structure – I hope we can maintain the creativity, independence, and input from each member.

I know I am rambling, but main point – how to further structure the company as we scale up. We keep getting amazing opportunities that we like to do, and that are profitable. It is a beautiful thing and I just wonder how we can further structure and grow. It needs to be via the SBU (strategic business units) we talked about that a while ago at https://mikesblog.com/sbu ) and now we need to further define it.

But at the core – I see it as 2 pieces, there is the “Shadstone core” and then there is the SBU teams. The Shadstone core is the team which can build and support all the SBUs. And the SBU team are focused on their specific project and go to the Shadstone core team to get support and creation. Somewhat like NowShenzhen with Elayne. So this is why I hope many of you can attend the training this May 4 at 7pm, we want to learn and replicate this across more of our SBU projects.

And please, feedback, suggestions, appreciated and welcome. To me, or to anyone on the management in general.