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Hey everybody, and welcome to the Friday wrap on the Streamline Solopreneur, a short

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episode where I talk about three things, what's on my mind this week, recommended

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reading and recommended Media. This is the show that helps you automate your business

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so you can take time off, worry a free, and hopefully this curation will help you

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think more about your systems. I'm your host, Joe Casabona, and here's what's on

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my mind. For June 26th, 2026,

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this week I had a four hour workshop. It was two hours over two days each or two

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hours each, over two days with Ecamm, and it was a blast. Something I covered a bunch

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was my stream decks, and I actually do a case study of this very show, the Friday

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wrap up, and how crucial EEC a m and the stream decks are to my workday. And with

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the stream decks,

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it's not just about Ecamm, it's everyday use. I have a ton of keyboard shortcuts.

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There are too many to keep track of. So the stream decks that I have, I've got two

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are fantastic for this, and now they have Raycast integration. So it's even more

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powerful for me. In fact, the Raycast integration specifically is so crucial because

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Raycast has really eliminated a lot of other tools I use like Carabiner Elements

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and Keyboard Maestro and Text Expander. And so the fact that I can

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integrate Raycast with the Stream deck means I can actually integrate a lot of productivity

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tools and shortcuts into the stream deck. But that's really a topic for another day,

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right? Maybe it's something I will cover in a future Automation of the week, which

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is an exclusive for newsletter subscribers. You can get that over at streamlined

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fm slash wrap,

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but today I actually want to talk about the hardware side of it, not the software

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prime week. I refuse to call it Prime Day when it's the better part of a week is

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wrapping up as I record this and I finally gave in on Thursday, there were a bunch

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of deals including noise canceling headphones and these new like Holly

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lapel mics that I've been interested in. But

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one of the purchases I made was the eight bit Do Micro. It is a tiny game controller

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designed for the Nintendo Switch and Android, but it can also work as a tiny keyboard

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with software that maps keys, key combinations to the device.

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And, uh, in recommended reading, I will talk more about that exact thing,

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but for Prime Week it was $15 and so I thought it was worth trying. Worst case scenario,

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I have a third controller for our seldom used Nintendo Switch. So I have something

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for when my kids are old enough to play Mario Kart.

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The software is clunky, but I was able to map complicated keyboard shortcuts. Sadly

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not the hyper key, which for me is, uh, command option control shift. And that's

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mapped to my caps lock key thanks to Raycast,

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but

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good combinations of keys nonetheless. And I can map those keyboard combinations

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or key combinations to the buttons on the little controller. The eight bit do micro.

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I also remapped the dpad. Uh, so if you are

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listening,

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uh, it is a, it's so small.

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it fits fully in the palm of my hand and, uh, it's got a directional pad and then

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the XABY keys on it as well as the, uh, top corner keys like the l and r and

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RL two and R two buttons. So there's like 16 Mapable keys on this.

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Um,

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and I remapped the dpad because I'm actually going to hold it vertically most of

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the time. Like it's a, like, it's a clicker for speaking or something like that,

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or, or a TV remote.

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Um, it is, by the way, it is smaller than the Apple TV remote.

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the reason I'm talking about this today is I like the idea of experimenting with

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a little hardware automations like this, it's more tactile than key combinations,

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uh, or keyboard shortcuts. It doesn't require as much mental energy to remember what

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was that combination, especially

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when they get complicated like mind do. And the hyper key helps with that. The stream

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deck is especially good for this

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because it has visual cues, right? It has icons. And so I can look at the stream

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deck

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and know the automation I am going to run or the shortcut I'm going to run. Uh, so

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it's not quite as good as the stream deck, but it is about a third of the cost, uh,

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of the smallest stream deck, which is the stream deck Neo, and it, uh, has lots of,

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uh, programmable buttons on it.

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And so with this, I've, I have a couple of use cases for it, you know, I'll use it

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for raycast notes, uh, and doing stuff in obsidian. So, you know,

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bopping around apps I use really regularly.

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Um, I, I also have a little while I get used to this, I have a little card, uh, that

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I've written the, the mappings to. I don't know how long this is going to last, but,

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uh, I have it there just as I get used to it. 'cause this is, this is like day one.

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So,

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uh, the eight bit do micro, I will have a link in the description. I'm pretty excited

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for this. It's, it's really small, super portable, and it, it's also something that

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I can bring with me when I travel. Uh, I like to travel light

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and so I'm not bringing a stream deck with me. And, uh, this thing is, is wireless

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and I can

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probably do some different mappings on my laptop.

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Uh, it also, you can map it to the iPhone and the iPad as well. So

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really excited for this.

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Uh, now recommended reading is related to this. Uh, it is from Mac Stories. It's

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called my latest Mac automation tool as a tiny game controller. Uh, it,

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this is the article that inspired me to buy the eight bit do Micro John Voorhees

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has a writeup. It's fantastic and it covers

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several interesting use cases and that's what ultimately convinced me to at least

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try it again, like for 15 bucks. It was definitely worth trying it. Uh, so right

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now I am working with a first idea, best idea, the things that I wanted to map to

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it. Uh, but as John points out in his piece, there are profiles

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and the micro is also small enough to use invisibly on camera. So maybe I can map

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the directional pads

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to

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the, the stream deck or E cam and I can move through these scenes that if you're

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watching the YouTube video, you see the text changing on screen, maybe I can move

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through those with the micro instead of having to reach slightly or make sure that

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my stream deck is very close so that I can turn the knob without having to move off

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frame or making it obvious. So,

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uh,

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that article just gave me a lot more idea. So if this is something you're interested

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in, uh, I think Prime Day is happening for at least Prime Week is happening for at

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least a few more hours, um, as this episode comes out. And so might be worth checking

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out even off deal. I think it's less than 25 bucks, so totally worth it.

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Alright, and the last thing, recommended Media

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House of the Dragon. Season three, premier breakdown by New Rock stars.

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I promise

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I won't make House of the Dragon the focus of recommended media for the next two

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months.

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But after the season premiere

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and really after every episode, there are two YouTube channels I go to for more context

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analysis and clarification.

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One is Alt Shift X, which is an incredible resource for all things Game of Thrones.

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Uh, it's so good. He did a breakdown, I think of every Game of Thrones episode, uh,

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as well as books and lore and, uh, a Night of the Seven Kingdoms. He also covered

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really, really good stuff. The guy

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deeply understands the world of Game of Thrones,

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and while he does near three hour long live streams after each episode, I think he's

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located in Australia. Uh, and so

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it is morning for him, uh, when the episode is is finished.

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Um,

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he's not doing his normal explainer videos this season, which is a bummer, but he

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has some other things he's working on. I totally understand. I can tell how much

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effort goes into those videos

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and when he is doing the three hour live stream and has other stuff, like I, I totally

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get it super good, which is why I want to recommend

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this other channel today.

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Uh, it's new rock stars if you are into Marvel or Star Wars or any of those extended

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like, um,

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universes of fiction and movies. Uh, they do a really good job of these sort of breakdowns.

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And while I think, you know, their headlines or or their titles are clickbaity, they

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kind of have to be, that's how the YouTube algorithm works. Uh, and so a new rock

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stars, they do a reaction video the night of,

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but then less than 24 hours later, they published their breakdown, which is super

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impressive.

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Eric Voss and presumably his team, uh, does an amazing job at pointing out very missable

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details. And so this is Eric Al. Eric Voss also knows The Game of Thrones universe.

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I think that's how he launched the show, was talking about game of, or the, the,

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the channel,

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uh, was talking about Game of Thrones.

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And so, uh, I really like his breakdowns. I especially like when he points out, um,

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changes in the music or Easter eggs in the music. Uh, he has an ear for music, I

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think he studied it. And so it's always cool getting that perspective. That's not

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something, you know, you get like deep lore with alt shift X, um, and then you get

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some of the more cinematography and music and, and score stuff, as well as the lore

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with new rock stars. So I, I really like that. I recommend it if you are watching

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House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones. Both of those channels are, are really good.

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Okay, so wrapping up, uh, I did want to tell you that something I've been working

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on for like a month

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is, uh, the solopreneur system starter kit.

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It's a lead magnet that I thought would be super cheap or super short, super easy

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to make, and it ended up being over 9,000 words. And it goes really deep. I cover

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four systems. Every solopreneur or small business owner should have admin work, CRM,

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and client onboarding, content creation and ideas, uh, like idea capture,

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uh, and, and, and verification. So that is completely free. It also has all of the

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tools I use as well as an AI and automation swipe file. It is

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easily my most valuable, uh, lead magnet to date,

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uh, or resource, I guess, uh, my most valuable resource to date. You can get it completely

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for free at streamlined fm slash kit.

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That's streamlined fm slash kit.

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Uh, so if you did enjoy this episode, you can join the newsletter. Uh, going to streamlined

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fm slash kit will also get you on the newsletter, so you'll get the additional automation

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of the week,

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as well as regular emails on how to approach building systems to help you take time

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off, worry free.

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Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, I hope you find some space in

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your weekend.