Good morning!
Here are today’s highlights:
Ami Kassar has a warning for businesses that have to take short-term debt because they’re caught in a cash squeeze.
The good news: mortgage rates have fallen. The bad news: That’s because the economy has weakened.
A record number of American citizens are pursuing the American Dream in places like Albania.
Getting a tariff refund, whether by selling the claim or filing a lawsuit, is likely to be tougher for smaller businesses.
THE 21 HATS PODCAST
We Can’t Afford to Wait on AI: A lot of business owners are taking a wait-and-see approach with artificial intelligence. They’ve heard the hype—but they’ve also heard about the slop, the hallucinations, and the research suggesting many AI projects fail to deliver. For plenty of owners, that’s reason enough to assume this might be another passing obsession—like Y2K, Clubhouse, or the metaverse—and to sit back until the dust settles. But not these three owners: David C. Barnett, Jaci Russo, and William Vanderbloemen have decided that waiting is the bigger risk. They’re taking courses, they’re teaching courses, they’re building agents, and they’re rethinking processes and workflows—all in search of an edge that may not be available forever. And they’re seeing results.
In this episode, they share what’s actually working so far, including some early experiments that could reduce their reliance on Google AdWords. They also talk candidly about what they won’t do with AI, how they sidestep the slop, and why each of them believes this is one of those rare moments when experimentation isn’t optional.
You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.
