Tony Chan

I'm 37 Solo founder If you are in tech let's connect

Thanksgiving through New Year's is a rough stretch for cold email. I've been in marketing for 8 years straight. Here's the playbook for any startup running outbound: 1. Rebuild your systems in December. Things slow down, so this is the time to fix your process and clean your lists. It's okay (better, really) for things to break when it's quiet. 2. Send more if cold email is your main channel. With so many people out of office, it takes more emails to book each meeting, so you need more sends just to keep your numbers. 3. Rewrite your copy to sound more human. That matters more than ever in cold email right now. 4. Mention Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's in your emails, even if it feels odd. It's the only time of year you can, and it works in almost every campaign.

This reminds me of my own funniest call. A Meta ads lead came in, and I called them within 5 minutes. Me: "Hey, I'm calling about the form you just filled out." Him: "What form?" Me: "The one you sent a few minutes ago?" Him: "I didn't fill out any form." I asked one more time if he needed help with it. "Nope. You got the wrong guy." Did I just pay for a fake lead? 😂

If your X account is small, try this today. Post these 3 lines around 6 PM: "I'm [age] [What you do] If you are in tech let's connect" I did this yesterday: 5:56 PM: posted with 50 followers Now: 273 followers The post has 4,140 views and 147 replies, and it's still going! What worked: it was short, it felt human, and it was easy to reply to. Then reply to everyone who comments. Same account. 3 lines.

Nobody prepared me for this part of fatherhood 😂 My 9 year old: "Dad, if Eevee evolves into fire, can she turn back?" Me: "No." Her: "Can she switch to water later?" Me: "No." Her: "Then why would anyone evolve her?" I had no answer. She's officially into Pokémon.

50 to 226 followers on X in 1 day. Last night I had 50. This morning I woke up at 226, and it's still going. In one day: 165 new follows (31 the day before) 5,373 impressions (up from 2,417) 68 replies, which is where the growth came from Thank you to everyone who replied, connected, and followed. I'm following you back, but I just learned X limits how many people you can follow in a day 😅 I'm just getting started. What's working for you on X right now?

I have a lot of bots, and keeping track of what each one was doing got messy fast. I kept jumping from chat to chat to see what got done and what needed me. So I built one dashboard this morning in about an hour. One page shows me what they're all working on and what they need from me. Paste this into your MAIN Grok Bot: "Build me one dashboard page I can check every morning. Show the 5 numbers that matter most to my goals this week, my top 3 priorities, a list of decisions you're waiting on me for, and today's calendar. Pull the info from my other bots and tools. Refresh it every morning before I wake up. Keep it simple enough to read in 1 minute." Then have fun with it with the virtual office. Thanks @AlexFinn for the great idea.

Thank you for all the love for this post 🙏 I hit X's follow limit, so if I haven't followed you back yet, I will as soon as it resets.

I used to spend every car ride listening to podcasts or music, but now I spend most of that time talking out loud with Grok Bot, and it has turned my commute into real practice time! Some days I ask it to teach me something new while I drive. Other days I run my sales pitch over and over until it finally sounds natural, or I practice a quick elevator pitch for the next networking event. Before a difficult conversation with my boss, I rehearse exactly what I want to say and let it push back on me. Driving used to be wasted time in my week, and now it's where I get a lot of my best preparation done!

I didn’t realize how much Grok Bot being down would affect me. 😮‍💨

Is it just me, or do kids get way more days off school than we ever did? Every few weeks my daughters casually mention that there is no school tomorrow, and I'm standing there like, "Wait, you're off AGAIN already?" Then I'm rearranging my entire week around it like I'm solving a puzzle with half the pieces missing. Luckily the weather in Houston has been amazing lately, so we've been spending those surprise days at outdoor parks and fall festivals. Honestly, I think I'm starting to enjoy their days off more than they do!

When I take my kids to festivals or out to the park, I get a lot of time to think while they run around and play. Being outside clears my head, so that's when most of my X posts get written. I just say my thoughts out loud and turn them into posts. If you're a dad sitting on a bench while your kids play, try writing down a few of your thoughts. It's some of the best thinking time I get all week.

I just hit 50 followers on X. I started this account 13 days ago with zero. Thank you to everyone following along. I'm just getting started. If you're into building a business, marketing, AI, and single-dad life, follow me for more.

Staying focused and disciplined has been one of my biggest battles since I started building my business as an entrepreneur. Gaming was the first thing to go, because it was taking up way too much of my time, so I donated my console to my siblings and kept it completely out of reach. Then I got hooked on social media and YouTube instead, which turned out to be just as difficult to shake. What finally worked was getting out of the house. Now I work at the library, where I can sit for four hours straight without getting distracted, and I accomplish more there than anywhere else. My number one rule is simple: if I need to focus, I leave the house!

I switched all my Grok Bot profile pics to Dragon Ball Z style. It lasted about a day. I missed the little animated bots. They blink and react when you hover over them, and it makes the app feel alive. Switched them all back. Now I catch myself hovering just to watch them move.

I'm addicted to the blue dots that appear on the Grok bots when they (it?) have an update.

The job market is rough right now. If you're in it too, you're not alone. I've applied to 91 jobs in 24 days. Here's where it stands: - About 4 applications a day - Median posted pay is $132K - Most roles are demand gen and ABM, then product marketing and growth - 5+ job interviews so far What changed things for me was tailoring every resume and letter to the role instead of mass applying. Keep going.

Single dads, give yourself some grace when things don't go as planned, because every day will not be perfect. My life improved dramatically once I stopped worrying about what other people were doing and started taking personal responsibility for what I could control. My constant headaches disappeared, and my personal savings grew more than I ever expected. I'm also closer with my daughters now than I've ever been. You can do it!

I gave Grok Bot access to my calendar, Google Drive, paid ads, and even my finances. Probably a little overboard. But it books my events, drafts my job applications, preps me for interviews, and plans my campaigns. As a single dad, that's hours back every week. I set it up so it can't send or post anything without my OK. Still testing how far I can push it. What would you never let AI touch?