1
00:00:00,00 –> 00:00:04,220
Hey everybody, and welcome to the Friday wrap up on the Streamline Solopreneur, a

2
00:00:04,250 –> 00:00:09,170
short episode where I talk about three things, what's on my mind this week, recommended

3
00:00:09,170 –> 00:00:13,580
reading and something fun. This is the show to help you automate your business so

4
00:00:13,580 –> 00:00:18,800
you can take time off where you free, and hopefully this curation will help you think

5
00:00:18,800 –> 00:00:20,640
more about how you're spending your time.

6
00:00:21,210 –> 00:00:28,670
I'm your host, Joe Casabona, and here's what's on my mind for July 10th, 2026. First

7
00:00:28,670 –> 00:00:35,90
of all, you can tell I am not reporting from my normal recording space. I am in a

8
00:00:35,90 –> 00:00:42,390
hotel room in Crystal Lake, Illinois for Max Stock, specifically ECAs creator, camp

9
00:00:42,390 –> 00:00:46,790
Max stock edition. I spoke yesterday. It was wonderful.

10
00:00:46,790 –> 00:00:51,200
I got to give a somewhat new talk and a new concept, and it seemed

11
00:00:51,920 –> 00:00:55,40
really well received. So I am excited to,

12
00:00:55,40 –> 00:00:59,570
workshop this a little more, especially since I will be speaking at several more

13
00:00:59,570 –> 00:01:02,420
events this year. But that's

14
00:01:03,260 –> 00:01:09,170
not what's on my mind. What's on my mind is Claude. One of the big things I've been

15
00:01:09,170 –> 00:01:17,360
noticing recently is it really seems like Claude is winning the AI war, at least

16
00:01:18,200 –> 00:01:24,920
among business owners and tech nerds. Yesterday, for example, I was one of many speakers

17
00:01:25,220 –> 00:01:32,210
who talked about how we use AI in our system while still showing up for our audience

18
00:01:32,210 –> 00:01:35,00
and our clients and customers. And

19
00:01:35,750 –> 00:01:43,160
all of us mentioned Claude specifically. Nobody said, oh, I use chat GPT for this

20
00:01:43,160 –> 00:01:44,330
and Gemini for that.

21
00:01:44,900 –> 00:01:53,250
It's pretty much all Claude all the time, and I can't help but wonder if Claude has

22
00:01:53,250 –> 00:01:57,140
like won the AI war, and I know that is a very,

23
00:01:58,500 –> 00:02:02,420
crazy thing to say. We're still really early days, and

24
00:02:03,230 –> 00:02:04,100
I have been,

25
00:02:04,100 –> 00:02:09,830
a, a strong critic of most large language models and companies behind large language

26
00:02:09,830 –> 00:02:12,80
models. They're all going for

27
00:02:12,980 –> 00:02:14,960
IPOs, but as far as

28
00:02:15,470 –> 00:02:17,60
performance goes,

29
00:02:18,110 –> 00:02:24,410
Claude appears to be doing better than most. Now, Gemini is getting a boost right

30
00:02:24,410 –> 00:02:26,990
in in iOS 27, but

31
00:02:27,680 –> 00:02:28,640
as far as

32
00:02:29,420 –> 00:02:30,560
anecdotally

33
00:02:31,160 –> 00:02:37,70
who I, or, or the, the large language model, I see most people in my niche in my

34
00:02:37,70 –> 00:02:43,730
space using it's Claude, and it makes sense. Claude is extremely capable as far as,

35
00:02:43,730 –> 00:02:45,80
word calculators go.

36
00:02:45,80 –> 00:02:49,100
fable, I am testing it out now and it's, I'm not gonna say it's like groundbreaking

37
00:02:49,100 –> 00:02:49,730
or amazing.

38
00:02:49,730 –> 00:02:54,200
it's, it's come up with a plan for me and we'll see how good that plan

39
00:02:54,750 –> 00:02:56,160
is. But,

40
00:02:57,150 –> 00:02:58,920
it also has,

41
00:02:59,850 –> 00:03:05,70
in my experience, the strongest convictions to adhere to,

42
00:03:05,70 –> 00:03:07,50
controls or rules.

43
00:03:07,50 –> 00:03:08,40
my friend doc,

44
00:03:08,40 –> 00:03:08,640
over at,

45
00:03:08,640 –> 00:03:09,540
you know, doc Rock,

46
00:03:09,540 –> 00:03:13,380
at Ecamm was explaining the difference to somebody and mentioned that like, Claude

47
00:03:13,380 –> 00:03:17,970
is a constitutional model, which means it has a strong set of rules it tries to follow.

48
00:03:17,970 –> 00:03:21,480
And I've noticed that, and that's one of the reasons that I have felt more comfortable

49
00:03:21,480 –> 00:03:23,880
using Claude because even though,

50
00:03:23,880 –> 00:03:26,820
you know, I, I never have it right, whole cloth for me, and

51
00:03:27,810 –> 00:03:31,860
in times where I've asked it to, it says like, Hey, in your own rules you say I can't.

52
00:03:32,760 –> 00:03:37,560
I like and appreciate that. I think it also connects to a lot more things during

53
00:03:37,560 –> 00:03:38,850
my talk yesterday,

54
00:03:39,690 –> 00:03:44,130
it was largely about automation and moving files around and having transcripts and

55
00:03:44,130 –> 00:03:45,150
doing things like that. And

56
00:03:45,780 –> 00:03:47,550
Claude Cowork is, is

57
00:03:48,570 –> 00:03:52,590
the thing I, I might have recommended the most, right? It's really good, especially

58
00:03:52,590 –> 00:03:55,470
for on device automations.

59
00:03:55,470 –> 00:03:56,310
it kind of

60
00:03:57,360 –> 00:03:58,920
bridges this gap

61
00:03:59,430 –> 00:04:02,130
between on Demy device automations and web

62
00:04:02,730 –> 00:04:06,990
automations, right? Where Zapier can't go into your computer and get something

63
00:04:07,710 –> 00:04:08,700
Claude can,

64
00:04:09,750 –> 00:04:15,690
and working with like shortcuts and Claude and Zapier, you can do a lot of really

65
00:04:15,690 –> 00:04:16,830
interesting things. So

66
00:04:17,730 –> 00:04:18,480
I don't know,

67
00:04:19,470 –> 00:04:24,150
I'm not ready to say that Claude has won, but anecdotally I've been hearing a lot

68
00:04:24,150 –> 00:04:30,870
more about Claude lately than chat GPT or Gemini or anything else. So that's the

69
00:04:30,870 –> 00:04:35,550
one I use exclusively too. So the, you know, this could be a, was it a Dunning Kruger

70
00:04:35,550 –> 00:04:36,300
effect where

71
00:04:37,140 –> 00:04:39,810
I'm using it the most? And so I'm seeing it the most, but

72
00:04:40,380 –> 00:04:41,850
I don't think that's the case.

73
00:04:42,360 –> 00:04:43,140
I hear

74
00:04:43,800 –> 00:04:46,650
people outside my niche, like my wife and, and a lot of people,

75
00:04:47,460 –> 00:04:51,300
who are maybe employed by another person or not running their own business, or not

76
00:04:51,300 –> 00:04:52,440
technically savvy,

77
00:04:53,130 –> 00:04:56,130
they use chat GPT, and that's probably because it's got,

78
00:04:57,30 –> 00:04:58,890
you know, the biggest name recognition.

79
00:04:59,640 –> 00:05:00,90
but

80
00:05:00,900 –> 00:05:02,580
as far as capabilities go,

81
00:05:03,510 –> 00:05:05,880
it seems that Claude is the most capable, right?

82
00:05:05,880 –> 00:05:07,740
Alright, so that is what's on my mind.

83
00:05:08,790 –> 00:05:13,200
recommended reading on the plane into Chicago,

84
00:05:13,200 –> 00:05:13,950
which is

85
00:05:14,490 –> 00:05:15,750
the major airport I flew into.

86
00:05:16,350 –> 00:05:21,660
I finished reading The Odyssey, the Emily Wilson version. You can see it behind me

87
00:05:22,560 –> 00:05:23,520
over here somewhere.

88
00:05:23,520 –> 00:05:28,710
I really enjoyed it. I was excited to, I was really ho I had about a hundred pages

89
00:05:28,710 –> 00:05:29,220
left

90
00:05:30,00 –> 00:05:32,910
when I started my plane ride, and I was very dedicated to

91
00:05:33,570 –> 00:05:35,370
finishing it, and I'm really glad I did.

92
00:05:35,370 –> 00:05:36,450
it was a, a fun,

93
00:05:37,20 –> 00:05:41,400
interesting read and, and just, it, it's my first time reading the Homeric poems

94
00:05:42,00 –> 00:05:42,630
and

95
00:05:43,740 –> 00:05:47,850
I'm really mad at myself for not reading them sooner, but I am glad as, you know,

96
00:05:47,930 –> 00:05:51,330
I, I, I hear that people who have like a background in this

97
00:05:53,400 –> 00:05:55,650
didn't really like Emily Wilson's version

98
00:05:56,400 –> 00:05:57,720
or maybe it's just like

99
00:05:58,410 –> 00:06:01,890
people have their opinions. I really enjoyed Emily Wilson's version. I felt like

100
00:06:01,890 –> 00:06:06,690
it was not hard to understand. She provided a lot of context and a lot of additional,

101
00:06:06,690 –> 00:06:10,500
notes and pronunciation guides, and it made,

102
00:06:10,500 –> 00:06:15,600
it made it an easier read for a Normie like me. I'm very excited to see the movie.

103
00:06:15,600 –> 00:06:18,570
I'm thinking about watching Troy before the movie comes out,

104
00:06:18,570 –> 00:06:22,590
even though they're not related and they've got different directors and they're 20

105
00:06:22,590 –> 00:06:23,280
years apart.

106
00:06:23,280 –> 00:06:28,20
and Troy is, is from what I remember, largely based on the Ilead, right?

107
00:06:29,520 –> 00:06:30,900
Brad Pitt played,

108
00:06:31,770 –> 00:06:33,860
uh, Achilles, right? So,

109
00:06:33,860 –> 00:06:35,960
and it was very focused on, on Troy, which

110
00:06:37,730 –> 00:06:40,760
something I learned reading the Odyssey is that the Odyssey is not,

111
00:06:41,720 –> 00:06:45,440
it's like what happened years after Troy with Odysseus trying to get home.

112
00:06:45,440 –> 00:06:50,300
so anyway, I loved, I loved reading it. I'm very happy with my

113
00:06:50,900 –> 00:06:52,100
current reading,

114
00:06:53,210 –> 00:06:57,20
regime, I guess, of not really reading business books,

115
00:06:57,20 –> 00:07:00,740
and reading things that maybe I should have read when I was younger. So strongly

116
00:07:00,740 –> 00:07:02,630
recommend The Odyssey, the Emily Wilson version.

117
00:07:02,630 –> 00:07:06,800
that is my recommended reading for this week, and if you take me up on that, it'll

118
00:07:06,800 –> 00:07:08,330
probably take you a little longer than a week.

119
00:07:08,900 –> 00:07:10,430
okay, now for something fun,

120
00:07:11,420 –> 00:07:13,640
I was talking to my friend's son,

121
00:07:13,640 –> 00:07:14,570
the first night of

122
00:07:14,570 –> 00:07:17,900
the conference and he asked me, he's 18,

123
00:07:17,990 –> 00:07:21,440
and he asked me, you know, what kind of music I I listen to and what I've been listening

124
00:07:21,440 –> 00:07:21,920
to lately.

125
00:07:22,490 –> 00:07:25,580
And I told him about my five CD Changer playlist.

126
00:07:25,580 –> 00:07:29,390
And if you don't know about my five CD chair, uh, player Change List, play

127
00:07:29,480 –> 00:07:32,420
five CD Changer playlist.

128
00:07:32,380 –> 00:07:35,740
it's a really fun and kind of dumb concept.

129
00:07:35,740 –> 00:07:41,710
it is a playlist that I have in Apple Music that is five albums and only five albums,

130
00:07:41,710 –> 00:07:42,970
like the five cd,

131
00:07:44,200 –> 00:07:46,360
changer Players of your,

132
00:07:47,720 –> 00:07:51,620
and I have a few rules for this playlist. I cannot put it on shuffle.

133
00:07:52,430 –> 00:07:54,50
I have to listen to,

134
00:07:54,50 –> 00:07:59,840
the albums in order from where I start. So I can start at the first song of the second

135
00:07:59,840 –> 00:08:01,520
album, but I have to listen to it through,

136
00:08:02,270 –> 00:08:06,440
I, I can start, you know, at the first song of the last album, but I have to listen

137
00:08:06,440 –> 00:08:06,920
to it through.

138
00:08:07,520 –> 00:08:10,460
and so it's just a, a fun little,

139
00:08:11,390 –> 00:08:13,130
having constraints like that

140
00:08:13,760 –> 00:08:14,900
makes it, like,

141
00:08:14,900 –> 00:08:17,510
it makes you think a little bit more about what you're gonna do. Like, am I gonna

142
00:08:17,510 –> 00:08:19,910
wanna listen to this album in a, in

143
00:08:20,510 –> 00:08:22,610
an hour, right? So stuff like that. So,

144
00:08:23,150 –> 00:08:25,670
my five CD

145
00:08:26,750 –> 00:08:28,730
Changer playlist,

146
00:08:29,390 –> 00:08:31,70
for this week

147
00:08:32,30 –> 00:08:33,440
is a lot of albums

148
00:08:33,980 –> 00:08:36,230
from the summer of my youth

149
00:08:36,800 –> 00:08:40,880
and then one that is not even remotely from the summer of my youth. So I thought

150
00:08:40,880 –> 00:08:44,180
I would just tell you what's on mine and then something that maybe you can think

151
00:08:44,180 –> 00:08:47,180
about is what would currently be on yours.

152
00:08:47,180 –> 00:08:48,620
and I, I keep this updated

153
00:08:49,130 –> 00:08:50,210
on my,

154
00:08:51,380 –> 00:08:54,380
now page over at casabona.org/now.

155
00:08:54,380 –> 00:08:59,450
but right now it is Sticks and Stones by Newfound Glory. 2002, I believe is when

156
00:08:59,450 –> 00:09:04,190
that album came out. And it was a big part of my junior year summer,

157
00:09:04,190 –> 00:09:08,820
uh, enema of the State by Blink 180 2 that came out in 1998,

158
00:09:08,820 –> 00:09:11,00
uh, and was maybe my first like

159
00:09:12,200 –> 00:09:15,560
summer teenager teen Angst album.

160
00:09:16,220 –> 00:09:22,730
so Long Astoria by the Ataris that came out in 2003. And that was summer after my

161
00:09:22,730 –> 00:09:24,800
senior year, the summer before college.

162
00:09:24,800 –> 00:09:26,930
and I feel like it was very well timed

163
00:09:27,590 –> 00:09:33,890
for that louder now by taking back Sunday. This was really spring into summer 2006,

164
00:09:33,890 –> 00:09:37,700
so I was already in college and then the one that's not like the others, but I've

165
00:09:37,700 –> 00:09:43,790
been really enjoying it. You seem pretty sad for a girl. So In Love by Olivia Rodrigo,

166
00:09:44,90 –> 00:09:50,990
and the reason it I've been enjoying this album is because it has a really strong,

167
00:09:50,990 –> 00:09:51,320
like

168
00:09:52,340 –> 00:09:54,470
late eighties feel to it,

169
00:09:55,250 –> 00:09:57,290
heavily influenced by the Cure.

170
00:09:57,290 –> 00:10:00,20
Robert Smith is even on a song.

171
00:10:00,20 –> 00:10:02,210
the song Expectations is very like,

172
00:10:02,870 –> 00:10:05,120
techno, like eighties techno pop.

173
00:10:05,660 –> 00:10:12,320
and it's just a very enjoyable album. Olivia Rodrigo, incredibly talented and,

174
00:10:12,320 –> 00:10:14,270
I've been really enjoying that album.

175
00:10:14,270 –> 00:10:14,720
so

176
00:10:15,230 –> 00:10:18,290
that is my something fun for the week.

177
00:10:18,290 –> 00:10:23,480
there's no automation of the week this week, but I will share a link to my slides

178
00:10:23,480 –> 00:10:25,520
from the talk so you can kind of see what I talked about.

179
00:10:25,520 –> 00:10:28,70
you can get my

180
00:10:28,670 –> 00:10:34,740
solopreneur starter kit, which comes with a bunch automations, planners, AI swipe

181
00:10:34,740 –> 00:10:39,510
files and prompts over at streamlined fm slash wrap.

182
00:10:40,20 –> 00:10:44,370
So if you want to see more about what I'm doing, how I help solopreneurs, you can

183
00:10:44,370 –> 00:10:49,20
head over to streamlined fm slash wrap. That's it for this episode of the Friday

184
00:10:49,50 –> 00:10:49,350
Wrapup.

185
00:10:50,220 –> 00:10:56,40
I hope you enjoyed it. And until next time, I hope you find some space in your week.