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Is AI making your emails easier to ignore?AI has made it incredibly easy to produce communication that looks thoughtful....
10/16/2026

Is AI making your emails easier to ignore?

AI has made it incredibly easy to produce communication that looks thoughtful.

It can add context, personalize an introduction, reference someone's work, and write the perfectly polished follow-up but recipients know this too and increasingly, there's another question sitting underneath every beautifully written email: “Is this actually you?”

On a recent coaching call, one of our clients put it perfectly: “The only thing that works is warmth that can't be fake.”

That conversation led us to an idea we're calling the AI Trust Ledger.

Every interaction either makes a deposit or a withdrawal.

Something specific, direct, and unmistakably you? Deposit.

Something polished but generic enough to have been sent to 500 people? Withdrawal.

And that's creating an interesting challenge for leaders.

AI gives us the leverage to communicate at unprecedented scale. But if we're not careful, we can end up communicating more while people trust the communication less.

In our latest newsletter, we explore:

→ Why genuine human communication is becoming more valuable as AI improves
→ How to think about your own AI Trust Ledger
→ Where AI and your EA should support relationship-building, and where the executive needs to remain present
→ Why shorter, more specific emails may increasingly stand out
→ A simple test for determining whether your AI-assisted emails still sound like you

The answer isn't to stop using AI but to become much clearer about where AI stops and you begin.

Because in an AI-saturated inbox, humanity may become your strongest signal.

📩 Subscribe to the Mindmaven newsletter. Link in the comments.

💬 Have you found yourself becoming more skeptical of “perfectly written” emails lately?

Every great interaction, every memorable conversation, every relationship that deepened over time, starts with the same ...
10/15/2026

Every great interaction, every memorable conversation, every relationship that deepened over time, starts with the same ingredient.

Curiosity.

When you’re genuinely curious about someone, their goals, their challenges, what’s keeping them up at night, the conversation becomes something they remember.

But curiosity at scale requires more than good intentions. It requires knowing enough about the people in your world to ask the right questions at the right time.

That’s where systems come in. An EM who tracks important details about your relationships. AI tools that surface context before every key meeting. Structures that ensure no important relationship goes cold.

Many leaders stumble when it comes to these personal touches. Radical Delegation shows you how to build the systems that make them consistent.

Get your copy: https://hubs.li/Q04BgH1D0

P.S. Want expert support bringing this kind of intentional relationship-building into your leadership? Book a free call with a Mindmaven coach: https://hubs.li/Q04BgG-h0

You probably recognize your team’s big wins.But what about the quiet ones who show up, every single day?The team member ...
10/09/2026

You probably recognize your team’s big wins.

But what about the quiet ones who show up, every single day?

The team member who ships reliably, every sprint. The operations lead who quietly keeps everything from breaking. The culture-builder who makes it easier for everyone else to do their best work.

These people power your company. And they often go unrecognized because their contributions aren’t dramatic enough to catch attention.

Building a culture of consistent, meaningful recognition isn’t just a nice thing to do. It’s a retention and performance strategy.

We show you how to build it into your daily leadership habits in Radical Delegation.

Get your copy: https://hubs.li/Q04zJRQS0

P.S. Want expert support building the recognition habits that make your whole team feel genuinely valued? Book a free call with a Mindmaven coach: https://hubs.li/Q04zJRKD0

What if your biggest leadership bottleneck is something you're actually very good at?Curiosity, helpfulness, and relatio...
10/08/2026

What if your biggest leadership bottleneck is something you're actually very good at?

Curiosity, helpfulness, and relationship-building: These are strengths we see in many of the executives we coach.

They're often part of what made them successful in the first place, but without a clear filter, those same strengths can start working against them.

The curious leader explores every interesting opportunity.

The helpful leader says yes to every worthwhile request.

The relational leader takes every conversation because you never know where it might lead.

Individually, every decision makes sense but collectively, attention gets scattered.

In our latest article, we explore a pattern that's surprisingly common among high-performing executives: when a strength becomes the bottleneck.

Inside, we unpack:

→ Why difficult markets often make focused leaders more scattered
→ How a North Star Objective turns curiosity into concentrated effort
→ Two simple practices for measuring focus discipline
→ Why AI can either amplify your focus or dramatically dilute it
→ How your EA can help turn strategic priorities into a daily operating filter

The goal isn't to become less curious, helpful, or relational.

It's to give those strengths somewhere specific to go.

Because focus isn't about having fewer interests, it's about knowing which ones deserve your attention right now.

👇Read the full article. Link in the comments.

💬 Which of your strengths is most likely to pull you away from your priorities?

Most leaders know who they should be investing in.Very few actually do it.You can identify the ten people who could most...
10/02/2026

Most leaders know who they should be investing in.

Very few actually do it.

You can identify the ten people who could most transform your trajectory. The investor who would open doors. The mentor who’s already been where you’re going. The connector who knows everyone.

But between identifying them and actually building a genuine relationship, there’s a system-sized gap.

The gap fills with busyness. With "I’ll reach out next week." With good intentions that don’t translate into action.

The leaders who close this gap don’t have more time. They have better systems:

✅ A structured approach to keeping key relationships warm

✅ An EM who tracks touchpoints and surfaces who needs attention

✅ Habits that make relationship investment consistent, not reactive

We build all of it in Radical Delegation.

Get your copy: https://hubs.ly/Q04z0QqP0

P.S. Want hands-on support building the relationship habits that close the knowing-doing gap? Book a free call with a Mindmaven coach: https://hubs.ly/Q04z0Qp90

What if the more AI you use, the more valuable your Executive Assistant becomes?It sounds counterintuitive.As AI gets be...
10/01/2026

What if the more AI you use, the more valuable your Executive Assistant becomes?

It sounds counterintuitive.

As AI gets better at drafting emails, summarizing meetings, conducting research, tracking commitments, and automating routine workflows, it’s easy to assume the EA role will shrink.

We’re seeing something different.

The work is moving up the value chain.

AI can handle more of the repeatable ex*****on. But someone still needs to understand the executive, verify the outputs, catch what the technology misses, improve the workflows, and make sure the entire system continues to work.

Increasingly, that person is the EA.

In our latest article, Patrick Ewers explores why the future of executive support may look less like “AI replacing the EA” and more like the EA becoming an AI Orchestrator.

You’ll learn:
→ Why human judgment becomes more important as automation increases
→ How the EA role is shifting from ex*****on to orchestration
→ Why Inbox Shadowing matters even more in an AI-enabled Office of the CEO
→ Where companies go wrong when they automate without upskilling their people
→ How Radical Delegation evolves when AI becomes part of the system

The goal isn’t fewer humans.

It’s giving great people better leverage.

Read the article below. ↓

What if becoming a more effective leader required doing less, not more?For many executives, growth comes with an uncomfo...
09/25/2026

What if becoming a more effective leader required doing less, not more?

For many executives, growth comes with an uncomfortable pattern:

More responsibility, more decisions, more meetings, and more things that seemingly only you can handle.

Eventually, being capable becomes the reason you're carrying too much.

That's why this reflection from Ty Walrod, Mentor at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, resonated with us.

In Radical Delegation, Patrick introduces the concept of the Engagement Manager (EM): an evolution of the traditional Executive Assistant relationship that gives leaders the support, systems, and leverage to remove lower-value work from their plate.

Not so they can cram even more into the day.

So they can spend more of their time where they create the greatest impact, while still having space for a life outside of work.

Through practical strategies like eDrafting, the book shows how leaders can turn delegation from a good intention into an operating practice.

Because the goal of Radical Delegation isn't simply productivity.

It's creating the freedom to lead at your best without having to carry everything yourself.

📘 Ready to rethink what's really required of you?

Get your copy of Radical Delegation. Link in the comments.

You shouldn’t have to choose between building the company and living the life.For too many founders, success has come at...
09/24/2026

You shouldn’t have to choose between building the company and living the life.

For too many founders, success has come at a quiet but enormous price.

Less time with family. Less energy for health. Fewer moments to simply breathe, think, and appreciate what’s been built.

The assumption becomes: this is just what it costs. This is the deal.

But it doesn’t have to be.

The leaders who’ve built the most sustainable companies have done so not by sacrificing mor, but by delegating better, focusing sharper, and building the systems that let their company grow without consuming them in the process.

That’s the entire promise of Radical Delegation.

Get your copy: https://hubs.li/Q04xC_Yr0

P.S. Want expert support building the systems that let you scale without sacrifice? Book a free call with a Mindmaven coach: https://hubs.li/Q04xC__c0

What if improving the way you work didn’t require changing everything at once?That’s one of the ideas we love in this te...
09/18/2026

What if improving the way you work didn’t require changing everything at once?

That’s one of the ideas we love in this testimonial from Grant Vande Zande, Business Development Manager at Landing.

Radical Delegation is full of practical strategies, but you don’t need to implement every one of them tomorrow.

Start with one or two.

One better delegation habit, one stronger follow-up system, one workflow that gets something out of your head and into the hands of someone else.

One hour of your week reclaimed for work that actually moves the business forward.

Those small changes compound.

Especially for startup leaders and entrepreneurs, where the temptation is often to carry everything yourself, learning how to create leverage early can fundamentally change how you scale.

Because the goal isn’t simply to get more done.

It’s to create the time and capacity to execute more of the goals that actually matter.

📘 Ready to start building more leverage into the way you work?

Get your copy of Radical Delegation. Link in the comments.

What happens when your EA stops simply using AI and starts building with it?On a recent coaching call, an EA casually sh...
09/16/2026

What happens when your EA stops simply using AI and starts building with it?

On a recent coaching call, an EA casually shared: “I created my first MCP connector.”

Not an engineer. Not a developer. An Executive Assistant.

She’s also building email triage around her CEO’s preferences and using AI across Asana, Slack, Notion, calendar, and meeting data to solve operational problems for the broader team.

And that got us thinking: Maybe your next AI builder is already on your team.

In our latest newsletter, we explore why we believe the EA layer may be one of the most powerful places for AI capability to grow inside an organization.

Inside, we unpack:
→ Why AI fluency compounds differently when an EA develops it
→ Why curiosity may matter more than technical experience
→ How bottom-up AI adoption creates ownership, not just compliance
→ Why EAs can become an AI deployment layer for the Office of the CEO
→ The shift from AI assistance to AI ownership

The next evolution of the EA isn't simply becoming great at prompting.

It's looking at a workflow and asking: “Can we build this better?”

That’s where AI starts becoming real organizational leverage.

📩 We share practical ideas like this regularly in the Mindmaven newsletter.

👇Subscribe to get the next edition. Link in the comments.

💬 For executives and EAs: Are you already seeing the EA role evolve in this direction?

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