Date: 2026-09-15 Time: 2:00 PM EDT Attendees: Michael Houck (Rye Valley), Blake Stewart (Founding Journey / Megaphone), Blake Emal (Megaphone)
Note: Two Granola captures exist for this meeting (fb6a2fce by Michael, 2c9a88a6 by Blake Stewart). Both IDs are in frontmatter.
Summary
Weekly internal Megaphone sync. Major topics: Mantis/Jeff renewal and likely contract expansion (possible 3x), Steve O’Brien offboarding and introducing new Mantis POC Anjali, Studio image generation feature going live, ads pipeline performance, new productized service model framing, and client updates (Pierce, Brenton, Keycard/Ian, Will, Ben, Project Omega).
Decisions
- Mantis contract: Jeffrey Evans renewing annually; expansion to LinkedIn DM outbound for Alex and potentially short-form video for Alex (Michael handling DM outbound via Ben). Contract could triple if all goes through.
- Anjali (new Mantis POC): Michael to fly to LA to meet her and Steve in person. Blake Stewart invited to join.
- Studio image generation: Feature going live within 1-2 hours of the call. Both Blakes to each generate 10 images and post critiques in a Slack thread. Feedback used to train the model.
- Pierce/Freeman: Keep writing status quo until end of term. Pierce’s own plan is to grow to 1K-2K followers via reply-guy strategy; future posts will hit harder from that base.
- Brenton/Roebling: Schedule a group re-strategy call with all three of them. Frame as “what should the go-forward plan look like.” Offer: 30 days of best effort, or shift focus to another account. They renewed last week so at least 30 days before any cancellation risk.
- Viral Examples welcome sequence: Michael to add Blake to Beehiiv and update sequence to remove Creator Network and ghostwriting references; align to current offer.
- Keycard/Ian: Still unclear. Michael to get update to team this week (talking with Isaac).
- New productized service framing: Shifting from “ongoing agency” to “3-month system install.” First 60 days: content creation plus coaching, embedding in client’s company (Slack access, Granola integration for meeting context). Three outcomes at 60-day mark: go annual, expand to other accounts, or self-serve handoff (last 30 days building Notion reference + Hermes token access).
Action Items
- Michael: fly to LA to meet Anjali and Steve in person (confirm ~5.5 weeks out from renewal)
- Blake/Blake: generate 10 images each in Studio, post individually with critiques in Slack thread
- Michael: add Blake to Beehiiv; update viral examples welcome sequence
- Michael: get Keycard/Ian update to team this week
- Blake Stewart: schedule Brenton re-strategy call (all three stakeholders), can be next week
Notable Excerpts
On Mantis expansion (Michael):
“If all that goes through, we will probably triple the contract size, which is very exciting.”
On new service model framing:
“We’re selling a 3-month system install, not ongoing agency work. First 60 days: content creation plus coaching and embedding in the client’s company.”
On Brenton positioning:
“Stand firm, point to the 4 recommendations they’ve rejected as the reason for lack of results. Offer: give us 30 days of best effort, or we shift focus to another account.”
On Pierce:
“Keep writing for him status quo until the very end. He wants to grow to 1,000 followers via reply-guy strategy.”
Full transcript in Granola. Primary reference IDs: fb6a2fce-7395-4802-b10b-30852986faaf (Michael), 2c9a88a6-0933-4fc0-8c0d-f1789d0be83d (Blake)