Date: 2026-10-14, 1:30 PM EDT
Attendees: Michael Houck, Blake Stewart, Tatem Lindner (JOLT)
Captures: two Granola notes of the same call. Michael’s capture 85737f97-3cff-4927-9bc5-ee12d77e894a is primary (used for excerpts); Blake Stewart’s capture 9040e416-1b5e-4e83-8031-4b0077f2681f (“Content production workflow and client management with Tatum”) is a duplicate. Internal team sync, no client on the call.
Summary
Weekly JOLT client and pipeline review. Mans is launched and posting. Rob is live but delivery quality is weak (upward inflection on every sentence, reads without pre-reading, mics not in use yet) and he told Emil the engagement is “90 days and done,” which misreads the offer. Josh is the top stressor: nothing recorded, fundraising in person is eating his time, and he skipped a recording he committed to after Tatem’s 24-hour script turnaround. Adam is on track through two batches; his site, funnel and products are done and go-live waits on his filming plus community approval. Tatem’s TikTok access to Adam’s account is stuck on desktop Chrome via his assistant Colleen, so she cannot remove the bio link. Haz completed intake last Thursday; first script due tomorrow. Ben Gusberg’s Cape is shutting down at end of October (no buyer acceptable to both co-founders, returning capital to investors); Ben wants to build income businesses on his creator brand, and Michael met him right after this call (ideas include driving leads to Hockey Stick). Pipeline reviewed. Michael gave the priority call: work existing lead lists, get Michael (and ideally Tatem) posting, sell the current offer, rather than design new tiers now.
Decisions
- Keep delivering Josh’s contracted scripts even though he is not recording, so Rye Valley is never in breach (contract is a rolling 30-day cancellation; non-delivery would void that and could entitle a partial refund).
- Rob’s Slack comment that content was not boosted (it was): leave it, the reaction is the response.
- 90-day framing: hold a day-60 check-in with each client; if a client wants out, downsell options are a strategy-only advisory tier or a tools-only JOLT Studio tier, both at lower monthly cost. Not building new tiers now; existing offer and lead lists come first. See decision.
Action Items
- Tatem: send Adam round-2 edits today and new scripts tomorrow (he is out Thu/Fri).
- Tatem: find a recently viral functional medicine video/topic and pitch Josh on doing a better version (“your version would be better”, not a comparison to another client).
- Tatem: keep delivering Josh scripts per contract.
- Tatem: write Haz’s first script, due tomorrow.
- Tatem: remind Rob to use the mics.
- Tatem: follow up with Colleen to get Adam’s TikTok onto her phone.
- Tatem: update Michael’s scripts and send an example of framing/headroom; Michael films 1-2 videos today.
- Michael: signal in Adam’s channel when the site goes live so the link in bio gets changed (this week, possibly Monday).
- Michael: share notes from the Ben Gusberg call with Tatem; then put a plan together for Ben.
- Michael: build a tab in JOLT Studio for multi-engagement clients (e.g. Haz) showing approved Megaphone posts and performance.
- Michael: follow up with Gem Studio tomorrow; get Barry Stamos more info; learn Mantis expansion intent before the Oct 22 renewal.
- Michael: talk with Rob near the 60-day mark about the 90-day framing.
- Blake: keep pushing Michelle (canceled tomorrow’s call; time is the objection).
Pipeline snapshot
- Gem Studio: followed up Monday, again tomorrow.
- Aeon: came in as a Lore lead, discussed Lore + JOLT + Megaphone; silent ~2 weeks.
- Mantis: renewal Oct 22, expansion undecided.
- Barry Stamos: emailed back this morning, wants more info.
- Costa Noa (venture firm): interested, slowed by a bereavement; took a meeting after a hot deal was sent.
- Boost VC: broad process, said mid-October; followed up yesterday.
- Caroline (Goodword): repeated interest then silence.
- Michelle: canceled tomorrow’s call, interested but time-constrained.
Notable Excerpts
Tatem: “Rob can’t record for anything… he’s selling you the whole entire time and he ends every single sentence on an inflection.”
Michael (on Josh): “It’s easy to have an excuse if he doesn’t have enough time or to prioritize other things when it’s not something he’s super comfortable doing in the first place.”
Michael: “Yes, like this, this should be going viral from your account because your version would be better.”
Michael (contract): “I would bias towards creating more. And then if he doesn’t record all of them, that’s fine. At least we met our commitment to continue delivering.”
Michael (90-day framing): “One-time payment might be more appealing than subscription from day one, and then we’d roll it to a retainer from there and the idea would be at day 60, we’d have a check-in call with them.”
Michael (Ben): “He explicitly said, like, you’ve done what I want to do, show me how to do it.”
Michael: “The highest leverage opportunity for us is just going through these lists that we have, getting me posting content, ideally getting you posting content too, and collecting leads at our sort of existing offer.”
Tatem filming tips: wear the mic, film in natural light, read the script first, restart from the sentence not the top, leave headroom and extra room on the sides because TikTok zooms in slightly on upload.
Full transcript in Granola. Reference IDs: 85737f97-3cff-4927-9bc5-ee12d77e894a (Michael), 9040e416-1b5e-4e83-8031-4b0077f2681f (Blake Stewart)