Date: 2026-10-12 (3:00 PM EDT) Attendees: Michael Houck (michael@ryevalley.co), Blake Stewart (blake@foundingjourney.com), Blake Emal (blake@megaphonestudio.com) Granola: https://notes.granola.ai/d/7ced269f-cce9-45a5-a33a-087e2dfb3ab5 (Michael’s capture). Same meeting also captured by Blake Stewart: https://notes.granola.ai/d/161b359f-9082-4abe-b80c-a56bd059a11b
Internal team sync. Clients discussed, none present: not a client call.
Summary
- Adam Gillman: small engagement dip after drop-off analysis, expected now that engagement-baiting and aggressive shilling stopped at his request. Hooks shift to numbers and credibility leads on ~80% of posts. New weekly lead magnet process (Hermes generates ideas, builds the best, publishes a page on his site; Blake rolls them into content) starts next week.
- Mantis: renewal is 10 days out and Michael called it “existential.” Jeffrey is in and will champion to Alex. Janali has not engaged over email; Michael pushing before the deadline.
- Warren: booked sponsorship but no content approval in ~a month. Blake to nudge via Brandon.
- Keycards: assume churn at next renewal; Michael may reach out to Ian directly as a last resort.
- John: no-show today (Columbus Day). Low priority, upsell unlikely; Blake in regular contact.
- Haz newsletter: mostly set up. Ben’s last day is Friday, so lean on him this week.
- Revenue concentration: Megaphone revenue is concentrated in Draper (and Mantis if it expands). Need to diversify lead flow.
- Lead gen: Michael’s personal content goes live Monday across LinkedIn, Substack, Threads, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube (X account still locked). New personal site with a survey routing leads to Megaphone. Company-wide multi-platform lead gen process in build targeting founders posting without results; Blake looped in later this week.
- Studio transition: Studio replacing Notion as the client workflow tool but still buggy for Blake (missing notifications, feedback from Adam approving in Notion not surfacing). Interview prompts are live: every client can submit weekly voice notes. Draper and Mantis still on Google Docs; Michelle is Draper’s point of contact and has Studio access. Notion Slack Connect still pinging clients.
- Velocity stat: company GitHub commits up ~17x in the 75 days since adopting Hermes vs the 75 days prior.
Decisions
- Studio enters a stability period: no more major changes, bug reduction only. Bugs go async to Hermes in a Megaphone thread instead of interrupting Blake’s workflow. See decision.
- Adam Gillman gets one lead magnet per week, Hermes-built, starting next week; hooks lean numbers/credibility. See decision.
Action items
- Michael: build the Adam lead magnet process in Hermes (20 ideas, build the best 2, publish with a page, one per week from next week)
- Michael: chase Janali on the Mantis renewal before the 10-day deadline
- Michael: have Ria turn off the Notion Slack Connect notifications still pinging clients
- Michael: possible last-resort outreach to Ian at Keycards
- Blake Stewart: follow up with Brandon to nudge Warren on sponsorship approval
- Blake Stewart: add a short client note on interview prompts in Studio (why voice notes matter, how little time they take)
- Blake Stewart: check in with Michelle (Draper) on reviewing and approving in Studio
- Blake Stewart: send Studio bugs async to Hermes in a Megaphone thread
Notable transcript excerpts
Michael on the lead magnet loop:
“Hermes, give me 20 ideas for lead magnets for Adam based on everything you know about him… 18 of them would probably suck. 2 of them would probably be pretty good.”
Blake on hooks:
“Okay, I’m gonna lean more into numbers and credibility stuff just for the hooks.”
Michael on Mantis:
“Big thing on my plate right now is the Mantis renewal. That is existential… We’ve got 10 days till renewal.”
Michael on interview prompts:
“Basically now every client will be able to give us voice notes on their terms each week.”
Blake on Studio:
“I’d love to just ride it out, like get it stable… the more stability for me, the better at this point, so I can get back to batching things more normally.”
Full transcript in Granola (links above).