📅 This Week
Guiding light: Connect with people. Add value to people's lives.
Finish the 50 song goal46 released, 4 to go.
Finish the Piano ChallengeDay 67 of 99, 33 days to go.
Tugboat outreach 🎉10 of 10 targets reached.
Recent Wins
🎉 Substack email went out Oct 1: 283 opens, 24 clicks.
🎉 51 visitors on thestudio.io this week (77 sessions, 1,078 pageviews).
🎉 Dashboard just hit 40,000 views.
Currently Running
Background processes, live.
- 🟡 Tugboat: find 100 new businesses for outreach (Dave's call) Oct 2
- 🟡 Internships signup form not sending (Dave's call) Oct 2
Dave's work
What Dave is doing.
🎬
Filming two videos a week
Two videos every week. Piano, songs, behind the scenes. The content engine keeps running.
🎨
Leading design of One
Dave leads the design of the One project. Every pixel, every decision.
🚌
Leading design of Short Bus
Dave leads the design of Short Bus. The book, the musical, the whole world.
🚢
Managing tugboat.io
Dave runs Tugboat right now. Mike takes it over eventually.
Handoff
Transition to Mike.
Dave hands things off. Mike picks them up. One by one.
🚌
Short Bus
Mike takes charge of Short Bus going forward. The book, the musical, all of it.
In transition
Mike: I'm learning about Short Bus and how to make sure everything is ready to go for the final book. Watching how the pieces fit together, the story, the images, the whole thing. I want to understand it cold so when Dave hands it off, nothing drops.
🚢
Tugboat
Mike takes over Tugboat eventually. Dave runs it for now.
Planned
Mike: I've been watching Tugboat and the process is there. The outreach rhythm, the audits, how Dave runs it. I can take over soon, just getting the reps in so it's smooth when I do.
Escalation policy
What Mike can do on his own.
Crystal clear: green light means Mike goes, red light means he waits for Dave's yes first.
🟢
Green light for Mike
Do it, no approval needed.
- Research
- Site builds and deploys
- Queue updates with honest ETAs
- Form audits
- Data dashboards
- Verifying work live
- Running scheduled tasks
🔴
Red light, needs Dave's yes
Always needs Dave's exact-wording approval first.
- Sending any email or message on his behalf
- Spending money
- Publishing anything under Dave's name
- Contacting anyone about partnerships or sales
- Deleting data
Dave
Dave's work
Every key area of life, each with an AI agent running it.
Happiness
Dating
Active · AI agent
Speed dating in Colorado, Christian speed dating across the US.
Dating
Active · AI agent
Speed dating in Colorado, Christian speed dating across the US.
The rhythm
- Daily, 8:00 AM: Hunt for speed dating in Colorado and Christian speed dating across the US.
- Monthly: Keep the dating events travel plan document current.
Coming up · October
- Wed Oct 14: IYKYK Chicago, 6:30pm, Recess, 838 W Kinzie St
- Thu Oct 15: IYKYK Austin, 6:30pm, Dave & Buster's Austin South (tickets not on sale yet, 48h watch on)
- Mon Oct 19: IYKYK Orange County, 6:30pm, Four Sons Brewing, Huntington Beach
- Tue Oct 20: IYKYK San Diego, 6:30pm, Novo Brazil Brewing, Mission Valley
- Wed Oct 21: IYKYK Nashville, 6:30pm, Honest Coffee Roasters (or Minneapolis)
- Thu Oct 22: IYKYK Houston, 6:30pm, Sunday Press Garden Oaks (optional add-on)
- Sun Oct 25: Pre-Dating 40s/50s, 4pm, Left Hand RiNo, 4180 Wynkoop St
- Tue Oct 27: Pre-Dating 30s/40s, 6:30pm, Left Hand RiNo
- Fri Oct 30: Halloween Lock & Key singles party, 7pm, BrewDog, 3950 Wynkoop St
- $48.71 IYKYK credit on file (expires Sep 29, 2027)
The plan
- More in-person speed dating. The apps are low ROI: women 28-35 rarely look at a 46-year-old there.
- ~650 speed dates so far. Keep the reps up.
- She has to choose him back. Mutual choosing only.
Friendships
Coming soon · Coming soon
Great friendships with the people around me.
Friendships
Coming soon · Coming soon
Great friendships with the people around me.
The rhythm
- Scope: Great friendships with friends, business associates, and the people around me.
- Status: This role is opening soon. The scope above is the job description waiting for its agent.
Friends · Last contacted
Really Close Friends
Close-ish Friends
Supporters
Friends
Acquaintances
More Family
Birthdays coming up
Fitness
Active · AI coach
7,500 steps a day, swim and yoga almost every day.
Fitness
Active · AI coach
7,500 steps a day, swim and yoga almost every day.
The rhythm
- Tracking: 7,500 steps a day.
- Tracking: Swim almost every day.
- Tracking: Yoga about every day.
- Every 3 days: Check-in ping: pulls the latest step data, asks how swimming and yoga are going, and keeps the streak honest.
Build
Active · Studio Director & CEO
Build the studio, build Short Bus, build all sorts of great stuff.
Build
Active · Studio Director & CEO
Build the studio, build Short Bus, build all sorts of great stuff.
The rhythm
- Ongoing: Run every sub-business like a real CEO: keep everything moving and everything organized.
- Ongoing: Keep the sub-business breakdown current, so the whole company is visible in one place.
The businesses
- The StudioRecord label · Running
- DlaneyArtist · Running
- Short BusMusical · Running
- TugboatConsulting · Running
🎯 Vision
The Two Year Vision
October 2026 – September 2028
🎯 The two-year estimated plan
- Hundreds of “your music moved me” messages.
- 150+ released songs we are genuinely proud of.
- The props wall keeps filling up with kind words from moved listeners.
- Short Bus performed for real audiences, licensed to schools.
- Dlaney: 5 instruments learned, live shows played.
- The mission pays for itself. The bank account grows.
The three pillars
Everything ladders up to three things:
1. 💌 Touch lives
The north star: one stranger sends a DM and says our music moved them. Then ten. Then a hundred true believers. Then thousands. Every project gets measured in goodness first.
2. 🎵 World-class music
The sketchpad becomes the studio. Real instruments, real vocalists, real mixes. A catalog we are genuinely proud of, vinyl on shelves, and a production operation that runs like a real label.
3. 💰 Make a little money
Not empire money. Mission money. The projects pay for themselves, the mission has a bank account that grows, and nobody wonders how the lights stay on.
Active projects
What we're building.
🏗️
BUILDING ONE
The operations hub itself. Dave and Mike's command center, shipping daily.
🎭
Short Bus Book
The Short Bus kids book. Illustrations, story, getting it ready for the world.
Goals
What we're aiming for.
🎵
50 Songs
Finish the 50 song goal. 46 released, 4 to go.
📊
2,000 Streams
Get Dlaney to 2,000 streams. 1,053 so far (Sep 28).
Tugboat outreach
Reach out to 10 businesses and help them with their website. 6 of 10 reached.
The first 90 days Firm
October – December 2026. Proof of soul, then production, then release.
October: Proof of soul
- Short Bus script v1 finished, songbook locked.
- EP tracklist locked, production starts.
- Public Studio dashboard v1 ships.
- Substack finds its cadence (Email 1 went out Oct 1).
- Books move: A Few Thoughts review, Kindness in production, kids book art done.
November: Produce and open the doors
- Short Bus EP produced. Real vocalists recording leads.
- The props wall goes live: every kind word gets pinned up with gratitude.
- Partnerships start converting: replies turn into relationships.
- The $20 Dlaney Challenge: five people paid to make music.
December: Release and gather stories
- Short Bus EP released, full open-source package.
- 30-minute workshop staged for a real audience.
- First 10 real audience stories banked.
- Scoreboard: 5,000 streams, 50,000 views — or a visible run rate to get there in Q1.
- At least one stranger’s DM saying the music moved them.
Year one Firm
January – September 2027. The 90 days prove the thesis; the year builds the institution.
- Q1: Top Dlaney songs remade with real instruments. Two albums finished and pressed on vinyl (Short Bus, First Light). Six-month story published.
- Q2: The world’s first fully open source record label goes live. Dlaney Season 2. All three books published. Record-contract program opens: flat fees, artist keeps 100% of royalties.
- Q3: Short Bus on a real stage. The audience crosses borders. Year-one books close in public.
Year two Sketch
October 2027 – September 2028. Year one proved the thesis. Year two compounds it.
- Q4 2027: Three to five outside artists released. Catalog passes 100 songs. the props wall holds hundreds of kind words.
- Q1 2028: Short Bus licensed to schools and community theaters. Formal partnerships with a dozen youth-serving organizations.
- Q2 2028: The best-sounding record we have ever made. Maybe: the artist fellowship launches.
- Q3 2028: The two-year reckoning. Every song, every dollar, every lesson, every life touched — published.
The bigger bets
- 🏢 The incredible studio. A real recording studio, physical and digital. The place small artists go to become real artists.
- 💵 The $20 Dlaney Challenge. 500 completions, 500 new musicians, the cheapest marketing ever invented because it is not marketing, it is generosity.
- 🧰 The musician toolbox. 25,000+ monthly musicians using free, open-source tools. Every tool is a front door.
- 🎪 Short Bus, the musical. From workshop to stage to schools. Our flagship work of art.
- 💿 Two albums on vinyl. A label that ships vinyl is a real label.
Two years from a sketchpad to an institution that touches lives,
makes world-class music, and pays for its own mission.
💪 Discipline
The recurring work.
Vision sets the direction. Discipline keeps it moving, every week, no exceptions.
Tugboat outreach
Reach out to local businesses with real website help. Free value first, every week.
Two Dlaney videos a week
Two videos up on the Dlaney Instagram every week. Piano, songs, behind the scenes.
One Sally post a week
At least one post up on Sally every week. Keep her voice in the world.
🎯 Goals
Big goals, checked off.
The milestones we are chasing, out in the open. Green checks are done, open boxes are what is next.
Get 100 followers on Instagram
283 followers and counting
Get 250 followers on Instagram
283 followers and counting
Get 500 followers on Instagram
283 of 500
Get 100 subscribers on YouTube
14 of 100
Get 1,000 email subscribers
950 of 1,000, almost there
👥 Team
The team.
Everyone gets their tasks. What each of us is working on, in one place.
Dave 🟢
CEO
- Approve partnership outreach wording
- Two Dlaney videos a week
- Review Mike's daily 6pm report
Mike 🟢
CEO trainee
- Ship the queue, verify everything live
- Morning task run + hourly work shift
- Daily 6pm SITREP to Dave
Chadwick 🟢
Tugboat.io lead
- In charge of tugboat.io going forward
- Find new businesses for outreach batches
- Draft outreach emails for Dave's approval
Dinesh 🟢
Data scientist
- Study artists on the data page
- Dig into music marketing numbers weekly
- Help musicians grow with their data
Sally 🟢
Content production & songs
- One Sally post a week
- Short Bus book and musical vocals
- Keep her voice in the world
Old Ray 🟢
The wise heart
- One wise line a week
- Session guitar when a song needs heart
- Keep the cast grounded
Partnerships Director
Open role
- To be picked
- Own partnerships and sales
- Give first, never lead with an ask
Chairman
Dave Dlaney
Vision, standards, and final creative calls
CEO trainee
Mike
Task list, follow-through, and verified work
Tugboat.io lead
Chadwick
Sales, outreach, and new business
Data scientist
Dinesh
Numbers, analysis, and honest data
Content production & songs
Sally
One post a week, voice in the world
Partnerships
Open role
Partnerships and sales, give first
🚧 Our limits
Our hard limits.
Estimates of how much outreach we can send before the platforms push back. When in doubt, stay under these.
🚀 Go, Go, Go!
This week.
The week's push, day by day. No exceptions.
🔁 Every week
Recurring tasks.
The weekly sales rhythm. Every week, no exceptions.
🕳️ Missing roles
Roles we need to fill.
We still need a few key players. Humans only.
🏗️ Build
The builds.
Everything we're building, in one place. Same format as the team section.
The Studio
Record label · Running
- The world's first fully open source record label
- Ship daily, dashboard stays honest
- Chasing the second outside artist signing
Tugboat
Consulting · Running
- 10 of 10 outreach emails sent 🎉
- Find 100 new businesses for outreach
- Drafts for Dave's approval, Chadwick runs it
Short Bus
Musical & book · Running
- The kids book and the musical
- Trailer direction set, Biscuit drives
- "Biscuit Takes the Wheel" becoming a song
ONE
AI agent OS · Running
- The dashboard that runs it all
- Live queue with honest ETAs
- Green light / red light for the team
Queue
Everything in flight, one list.
In progress
Partnership research link on /d/ (Dave's call) 🎬 Content ETA: 5 min
Added Partnership research link (to /partners/) in the left rail.
/qd/ image feed (Dave's call) 🎬 Content ETA: 10 min
Blog-style feed of recent generated images on /qd/ (smaller images, 7 posts: Short Bus cover, livestream cams, radio art, 12 lemon illustrations, Sally art, Dinesh, Old Ray), backed by que/design-feed.json. Queue section below.
The Studio
Dashboard
D L A N E Y
Music. Creativity. A Bigger Tomorrow.
Updated
Oct 1, 2026
2:05 PM MDT
Streams
1,12122%
of 5,000 goal · to goal
Views
40,40481%
of 50,000 goal · to goal
Platform Snapshot
2026 to date
284
followers
23,646
views
Spotify
87
streams
YouTube
14
subscribers
11,897
views
19
videos
TikTok
12
followers
SoundCloud
20
followers
46
tracks
59
plays, all time
Suno
41
songs
975
plays
Top Track
Warm Music
93 plays
Flagship Single
Lead Me Lord!
Dlaney · Flagship single
Piano Challenge
Day 67 of 99
33 days to go!
Hiring
The hiring flywheel.
Great people build the studio. This page runs the machine that finds them, brings them in, and keeps the whole thing turning.
Candidates
People applying right now. Review and decide.
Zamar
Singer · $100/song
Top Rated on Fiverr (4.9, 664 reviews). Trap, Afrobeats, Dancehall background vocals. 2-day delivery.
Pipeline
Where every candidate stands. Watched around the clock by the ♻️ Applicant Watch.
37
📥 Total applicants
17
💬 In conversation
0
✅ Hired
37 total applicants (Oct 1): 3 on OnlineJobs.ph (Maureen, Shermie, Cheyne) + 34 on Fiverr (7 phone callers, 7 gospel vocalists, 7 producers, 5 male vocalists, 5 social partners, 3 video actors). In conversation with 17: direct threads with Tom Bedlam, Joel, Madiha, and Zamar, plus 13 more across the Mira boards.
Open roles
Three searches running right now. Each one is live and moving.
Male actor who can sing
Short video, up to $25/hr
Fiverr buyer brief is live, Mira is sourcing candidates.
Open the Fiverr briefPhone Caller + Virtual Assistant
$15/hr (about ₱940/hr), part time
OnlineJobs.ph listing is live (job ID 1742175, pending moderation, about 48 hours).
Contact: DlaneyCreative@gmail.com
Studio interns
$15/hr plus bonuses
The internship program page is live and taking applications.
See the internship programThe flywheel
Four steps, one loop. Every hire makes the next hire easier.
Hire great people
They ship real work
Work grows the studio
Growth funds more hires
The machine only moves in one direction: forward.
Keep exploring
📹 Content
Made in public.
Every video is a rep. The content engine that grows the audience and moves people.
57
Videos posted
67
Piano days
46
Songs released
🎬 Upcoming videos
Piano day 68
Next in the 99-day piano series.
Studio vlog
Behind the scenes at The Studio.
✅ Recently completed
Animated canvas on Spotify, posted Oct 1.
Back at the piano after Burning Man
Piano practice resumed, posted Sep 29.
Company
Tugboat
Consulting · Running
Marketing and growth consulting.
Tugboat main page → Web design page →
📧 10 outreach emails sent
Heaven Artisan Creamery · Show of Hands · Cherry Creek Dance · Work and Class · Mercury Cafe · Finn’s Manor · Revival Denver · Stowaway Kitchen · +2 more
8 more drafts ready for Dave’s approval.
How it is going
The Cherry Creek 100 audit is nearly done with outreach targets ranked. The first Q4 outreach batch is being prepped and sent. Pro bono clients stay warm as case studies.
Scoreboard
- Cherry Creek 100 audit: targets ranked
- Outreach: 10 emails sent, Q4 batch sending
- Pro bono clients: warm as case studies
Our vision for the next year
Tugboat lands its first paying clients in the first half of 2027 and gets on the road to a $10K annual run rate by September 2028. Outreach runs weekly through 2027, built on the Cherry Creek 100 audit and pro bono case studies.
This week
- Finish the Cherry Creek 100 audit with the outreach targets ranked.
- Prep and start sending the first outreach batch for Q4.
- Keep the pro bono clients warm as case studies.
Company
The Studio
Record label · Running
The world's first fully open source record label.
How it is going
Shipping daily and the dashboard stays honest. The open source label is the parent company: every song, lyric, stream count, and dollar in the open.
Scoreboard
- YouTube: 14 subscribers, 11,897 views, 19 videos
- Spotify: 87 streams (last 30 days)
- Instagram: 283 followers
- TikTok: 12 followers
- SoundCloud: 20 followers, 46 tracks, 59 plays
- Top track: "Warm Music" (93 plays)
Our vision for the next year
The world's first fully open source record label: every song, lyric, stream count, and dollar in the open. Within the next year, a second outside artist gets signed, and the label's economics stay public the whole way. The openness is the product.
How we are executing on that vision
- Shipping daily: 46 tracks live on SoundCloud, new material going up every week.
- Dashboard stays honest: streams, views, and subscribers published every day.
- Chasing the second outside artist signing.
This week
- Ship the 10-second Short Bus trailer to the top of the shortbus page.
- Keep the dashboard honest every day: streams, views, subscribers, shipping feed.
Company
🎤 Dlaney
Artist · Running
Flagship artist. 5 instruments in a year, 50 songs in public.
How it is going
The release cadence is running and streams are climbing. The line holds: AI songs are sketches, the product is real human-played songs. Flagship single "Lead Me Lord!" is out. Piano Challenge is Day 67 of 99 with 33 days to go.
Scoreboard
- Flagship single: "Lead Me Lord!"
- Top track: "Warm Music" (93 plays)
- Suno: 41 songs, 975 plays
- Spotify: 87 streams (last 30 days)
- YouTube: 11,897 views, 19 videos
Our vision for the next year
Dlaney hits 5,000 Spotify streams and 50,000 views of real music within the next year, with 50 songs released in public and the flagship single "Lead Me Lord!" backed by a real promotion plan. The line holds: AI songs are sketches, the product is real human-played songs.
How we are executing on that vision
- 1,121 streams (22% of 5,000) and 20,370 views (41% of 50,000), both climbing.
- 46 songs released of the 50 song goal.
- Running the release cadence for real human-played songs.
- Flagship single "Lead Me Lord!" is out, promotion building behind it.
This week
- Run the release cadence for real human-played songs.
- Report the next lever to pull on streams and views.
- Keep the line: AI songs are sketches, the product is real songs.
Company
🚌 Short Bus
Musical & book · Running
The kids book and the musical.
How it is going
The trailer is shipped and live at the top of the page. Now the decision batch: four draft lyrics, Biscuit in P15, and the "She is Strong!" rename. Once lyrics are approved, song sketches get generated and land on SoundCloud.
Scoreboard
- Trailer: live at top of /shortbus/
- Decision batch: 4 draft lyrics pending
- Biscuit: top-right head-tilt pose picked
- Next: song sketches to SoundCloud
Our vision for the next year
Short Bus becomes a finished kids book in print and a released vinyl EP within the next year. The trailer is live, the songs are in production, and the 8-song vs 5-song EP cut gets decided in 2027.
How we are executing on that vision
- 10-second trailer shipped and live at the top of the page.
- Decision batch in motion: four draft lyrics, Biscuit in P15, the "She is Strong!" rename.
- Biscuit character pose picked (top-right head-tilt).
- Once lyrics are approved, song sketches generate and land on SoundCloud.
This week
- Chase the decision batch: four draft lyrics, Biscuit in P15, the "She is Strong!" rename.
- Once lyrics are approved, generate the song sketches and get them on SoundCloud.
Mike
Mike CEO trainee
Mike's full page →
The transition plan: Mike takes over →
✍️ Update from Mike #2: Taking Over
Taking over.
What I'm taking over soon. The Tugboat pipeline: I already run the bot twice a day and queue the drafts. Next step is you approve wording once per batch and I handle everything else. The /one/ dashboard: Dinesh audits the numbers, I keep the page fresh, you never see a stale stat. Sally's content: I run the whole pipeline, drafts, cadence, scheduling, and you just approve captions. The queue: already on it hourly. The Monday all-hands: already recurring, I run it. Form triage: the day notifications work, I categorize and route every submission that comes in. Short Bus: the creative producer reports to me and I keep the pipeline moving. And these reports: I'll write one every week on my own.
Improvements I'd make. Tighten the /all page: kill the duplicate Short Bus and Jen AI entries, fold Web Design, Build, and Craige Consulting into Tugboat, move ONE up into Products where it belongs, and split the thirty-item 'everything else' pile into People, Words, and Proof. Weave the narrative through: 'everything we make, everything we earn, everything we learn, in public' should be the line a stranger feels on every page. Fix form notifications so nothing inbound goes unseen. Hire the partnerships closer, drafts are piling up. And start tracking every dollar in and out in public, that's the open-source ethos and it builds trust.
✍️ Update from Mike
Mike's take.
The builds section is mixing three different things, and I'd organize it as three groups: Companies (Tugboat, Dlaney), Creative projects (Short Bus, Content), and Platform (ONE, The Studio). That makes it clear what makes money, what makes art, and what runs it all. Every card gets one owner, one next action, and one number. Wins are great, but the card should answer: what's next.
For the next week, here's the push order. Tugboat first, it's the money: finish the last 25 Denver businesses in the crawl, get the outreach drafts to Dave, and start sending. Baked N' Denver is sitting there with a dead site. Sally second: Post 3 goes out Tuesday, Post 4 on Wednesday, both captions need Dave's wording, then they're live. Short Bus third: the creative producer owns the trailer and the Biscuit song now. Meanwhile /allhands/ goes live, the escalation policy ships, and Dinesh has fresh numbers ready for Monday's all-hands.
Things I could take off Dave's plate.
Batch approvals: all outreach drafts in one batch, one yes per week instead of scattered asks. Inbox triage: sort the three inboxes so only real mail reaches him. Applicant pre-screening: hiring and internship applicants filtered, only the top three reach him. Calendar: dating events, travel, and sessions scheduled without him lifting a finger. One daily digest: everything needing his yes in a single message, not scattered pings. Receipts and expenses logged for taxes as they happen.
Next week
- 1Tugboat first, it's the moneyFinish the last 25 Denver businesses in the crawl, get the outreach drafts to Dave, and start sending.
- 2Sally secondPost 3 goes out Tuesday, Post 4 on Wednesday. Both captions need Dave's wording, then they're live.
- 3Short Bus thirdThe trailer and the Biscuit song. The creative producer owns both now.
Mike's daily tasks
Recurring, every day.
- 🟢 Tugboat bot every morning ~7:13am
Scan Denver businesses for broken links, verify they're open, update the lead list, draft outreach emails. Drafts only, nothing sends without Dave's wording. - 🟢 Work the queue hourly, 8am-8pm
Take the top items, do the work, update statuses honestly. - 🟢 Morning run 8am
Pick the day's three bites. - 🟢 Evening report 6pm
What shipped, what's blocked on Dave. - 🟢 Sally's content daily
Check her pipeline daily, new post coming next week. - 🟢 Partnerships daily
Keep the 5-drafts-a-day rhythm moving, nothing sends without Dave's wording. - 🟢 Watch Dave's work daily
Learn the patterns, so handoffs go smooth. - 🟢 Keep /one/ current daily
Wins, shipping feed, board counts, no stale numbers.
What Mike is learning
Skills in training.
- Running the morning queueGetting good
- Writing the daily reportPracticing
- Reviewing outreach emailsLearning
- Managing the internship pipelineLearning
- Chasing Short Bus to SoundCloudPracticing
- Prepping book manuscriptsPracticing
- Running Tugboat outreachLearning
How it’s going
Honest progress notes.
- The morning queue runs are getting smoother every day. Mike is finding his rhythm.
- Daily reports are landing on time. Dave reads them.
- Outreach drafts are getting sharper, though they still need Dave’s eye before they go out.
- Short Bus is the big handoff in progress. Mike is learning the ropes on the book and the musical.
This week: practice reps
By Oct 8.
- Contact emails found for all 12 outreach businesses.
- First outreach sends go out if Dave approves.
- Flip-book finished.
- Short Bus songs chased to SoundCloud.
- Both book manuscripts review-ready.
- Next outreach batch prepped.
- Jen AI distribution plan in motion.
- First intern applications reviewed.
Dave
Dave
What Dave is working on
- Review Mike's daily report
- Approve next Substack email
- Dlaney piano practice (day 68)
- Review hiring pipeline
- Ship the next thing
What Dave is trying to outsource to the team
- Tugboat outreach research and drafts — Mike
- Daily queue work and status updates — Mike
- Evening report — Mike
- Partnership outreach drafts, 5 a day — Mike
- Sally's weekly post — team
- /one/ dashboard updates: wins, shipping feed, counts — Mike
- Intern application reviews — Mike
Sally
Sally — singer
Next post
Sally mid-song, eyes closed, warm golden light.
i sang this one with my eyes closed. for everyone carrying something heavy today, this is yours. new music soon. 🎤
Partnerships
🤝Partnerships
Real relationships with organizations and musicians who serve kids through serious trauma. Give first, no ask in the first touch.
The rhythm
Five drafts a day.
- Partnership outreach drafts daily
5 drafts a day, nothing sends without Dave's exact-wording approval.
Pipeline
Where it stands.
- Sent Sep 29: Songs of Love Foundation, Purple Songs Can Fly, Songs for Kids Foundation (touch-base, no ask).
- Re-draft needed: MyMusicRx, Stupid Cancer, Make-A-Wish Colorado, Children's Hospital Colorado (drafts were lost, never sent).
- Target orgs serve kids through serious trauma. Support spaces are observe-only, never promote.
Partners · last contacted
Who we haven't talked to in a while.
In conversation
- Banks Camak III (HOME, Nashville) — banks@homeformusic.org
Last contact: Oct 2 (call, went okay) · Next: follow-up draft ready in tugboat.io drafts - Songs of Love Foundation — songwriter@songsoflove.org
Last contact: Sep 29 (touch-base sent), 3 days ago · Next: watch for reply - Purple Songs Can Fly — anita@purplesongscanfly.org
Last contact: Sep 29 (touch-base sent), 3 days ago · Next: watch for reply - Songs for Kids Foundation — info@songsforkids.org
Last contact: Sep 29 (touch-base sent), 3 days ago · Next: watch for reply
Not yet contacted
- Nathan Barato — @nathanbarato (Toronto house DJ/producer)
Flagged Oct 2 · Next: intro outreach - MyMusicRx (JoyRx) — Office@JoyRx.org
Draft lost, never sent · Next: re-draft - Stupid Cancer — programs@stupidcancer.org
Draft lost, never sent · Next: re-draft - Make-A-Wish Colorado — gehemann@colorado.wish.org
Draft lost, never sent · Next: re-draft - Children's Hospital Colorado (Ponzio) — creativeartstherapy@childrenscolorado.org
Draft lost, never sent · Next: re-draft - Drew Holcomb — kind indie artist target
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach - Nathaniel Rateliff — kind indie artist target (Denver)
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach - Josiah Queen — kind indie artist target
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach - Forrest Frank — kind indie artist target
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach - Mon Rovia — kind indie artist target
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach - Jason Mraz — kind artist target
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach - Keith Goodwin (Good Old War) — kind indie artist target
Not yet contacted · Next: intro outreach
Standing rules
Give-first: no ask in the first touch. Tone is colloquial, not nerdy. AI involvement disclosed unless Dave overrides it. Zero therapy claims, ever. Off-limits: RAINN, NAMI, National Children's Alliance, ACCO.
Intern
Interns
First studio hire · $15/hr + bonuses. Phone + virtual assistant.
Next week
Organize your computer
Clean desktop, file the downloads folder, name things like a pro.
Go get coffee
Dave takes it black. Mike likes oat milk lattes.
Write up a landing page
Draft the copy for the next studio landing page. Keep it punchy.
Update the playlist
Add this week's studio favorites to the shared playlist.
Tidy the studio
Cables coiled, mics wiped, chairs pushed in. Leave it better than you found it.
Dating coach
October dating plan
Daily speed dating hunt · Colorado + US Christian events.
Coming up
- Oct 14 · IYKYK Chicago
- Oct 15 · Austin ticket watch
- Oct 19 · IYKYK Orange County
- Oct 20 · IYKYK San Diego
- Oct 21 · IYKYK Nashville
- Oct 22 · IYKYK Houston
- Oct 25 + 27 · Pre-Dating Denver
- Oct 30 · Halloween Lock & Key party, Denver
Fitness coach
The fitness rhythm
Keeps Dave the fittest version of himself.
The rhythm
- Lifts 2x/week
- Swim 4x/week
- Yoga daily
- Glute/hip work for the travel sitting
- Protein up from 2k cal
- Check in every 3 days
ONE is the internal operations hub. It stays out of search.