i'm going to be a dad

I'm about to tell you something I don't usually put in an email.

I'm going to be a dad.

This January, there's going to be a tiny human who shares my last name and — God help him — my stubbornness.

And I'll be straight with you. It rearranged something in my head.

Not slowly. Overnight.

Building a company used to be about the scoreboard. Revenue. Headcount. The next milestone.

Then you find out you're responsible for a whole person, and the questions change.

You stop asking "how big can this get?"

You start asking "what am I building — and would I be proud to hand it to him one day?"

So I rewrote my own operating rules. Three of them. Non-negotiable now.

1. Start with the customer in mind. First. Always.

Not the funnel. Not the upsell. The human on the other end.

Because I want my kid to grow up watching a dad who served people, not one who extracted from them.

Customer-first isn't a slogan. It's the only version of business I'd want him to copy.

2. Take it one step past automation. Quality over slop.

AI can write the email, build the funnel, spin up the creative.

So can everyone else's AI.

The internet is about to drown in average. A firehose of "good enough."

No, no.

The founders who win the next decade won't be the ones who automate the most.

They'll be the ones who automate the boring 90%… then pour real taste and craft into the 10% that actually matters.

Robots handle the volume. You handle the soul.

That's the whole game now.

3. Focus on your fans. Let the noise melt away.

AI can copy your offer, your systems, your funnel.

It cannot copy the people who trust you.

So I stopped chasing strangers and started obsessing over the people already in the room.

The ones who open these emails. The ones who reply. You.

Your real fans are the one moat AI can't touch.

I used to think a great business was a machine that runs without you.

Now I think a great business is something you'd be proud to explain to your kid.

Same work. Completely different reason.

Let's win together,

Dez

P.S. — If you're building something right now and the AI hype has you feeling like a small fish… good. Small fish who serve their people beautifully are about to eat. Build the thing you'd be proud to hand to someone you love. Everything else is noise.