Welcome to the Friday Wrap-Up for June 19, 2026. This is a short newsletter where I talk about 3 things: What’s on my mind this week, Recommended Reading, and Recommended Media. Here's what's on my mind...
On My Mind
I'm doing a lot of talking. I updated my /now page this week and decided to add all of my speaking appearances. It's my heaviest speaker year since before the pandemic, when I was fully in the WordPress space and speaking at half a dozen WordPress-specific events per year.
Each talk takes me a significant amount of time to craft, rehearse, and deliver in an impactful way. While I do try to give the same talk multiple times, I always practice it 3-5 times before I give it. I will often update talks based on feedback as well.
This got me thinking about 3 questions:
- Why do I speak?
- Is it a waste of time?
- How will I make it worth my time?
For professional speakers, authors, and other specific professions, these questions are obvious. But what about events where you're paying for travel and lodging, where you might not be getting paid? Why do we do it then, and how can we make it worth our time?
The truth is I really, really like teaching and speaking gives me the ability to do that. I was a Drama Club kid and I've always thrived being on stage in front of people. It was my favorite part of my time as PTO president at my kids' school too. But there is still a tangible cost, and the why needs to be more than just, "for the love of the game."
It's really about exposure and business development for me. I do my best selling in-person, when people meet me and see that I'm a genuinely helpful guy (this is based on feedback I've gotten, not me foisting platitudes upon myself). So when I speak, it gives me a better opportunity to help more of the people I want to help, while also growing my business. In that regard, I do not feel like it's a waste of time...but it doesn't mean that it's worth my time.
In order for it to be worth my time, I need to have a clear plan to get clients from the talks. That's what I'm working on over the next week — especially since in-person events are different from virtual events, where usually some lead magnet or link is super easy to take action on.
Do you speak at conferences? When is it worth it for you? Reply and let me know!
Recommended Reading
Mark Zuckerberg Orders His Employees to Start Having Fun Again After Brutal Layoffs Culled Their Colleagues: In a turn of events that will shock no one, the guy who apparently had to hire a PR firm to make him seem less like a robot is failing to read the room at his company.
My absolute favorite quote from the article is this:
Zuckerberg offered employees access to permanent desks, a symbolic gesture that unintentionally illustrated how expendable many of them had become. Many employees at Meta have been working from “hot desks,” a controversial scheme involving multiple workers sharing the same desks.
What an incredible benefit: knowing you can work at the same desk every day. That's only something you can get at a coworking space for $300/mo.
I'm largely dubious of most big tech companies; I understand that most of us need to reconcile with our own tolerances. I happily use Apple, use Google, and begrudgingly use Claude since no AI company is the good guy. If Meta goes away tomorrow, I will not shed a single tear, and I will finally be rid of WhatsApp.
Recommended Media
House of the Dragon Season 3: HotD S3 drops on Sunday (June 21st) and I cannot wait. I don't watch a ton of new shows (I still need to finish Andor), and I tend towards lighter stuff. Comedies I've seen 100 times (Friends, Scrubs, HIMYM, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Rec) add in some heartfelt moments are right in my wheelhouse.
But man am I excited for Season 3 of this show. The 2 year release cycle kills me, and Season 2 was a very slow burn. I'm excited for big battles, betrayals, and the soul-crushing death of my favorite character (I assume. I have not read the source material for this show and have avoided spoilers).
Automation of the Week
Describe a Shortcut to Siri: I installed the iPadOS 27 Developer Beta on my iPad last week and decided to try the "describe a shortcut" feature to create two simple shortcuts:
- Log food in my Daily Note in Obsidian
- Log movement in my Daily Note in Obsidian
I was really pleased with the results! I asked it for both to create a choose from menu, grab the text, and add it under a specific heading in my note (something you can do with Obsidian). I do have the Actions for Obsidian app for actions like this, but Siri just used the standard app deep link, and it worked well. I was even able to request changes (like adding a timestamp).
All-in-all I think this is a fantastic addition to Siri and Shortcuts. I know some folks think that we don't need Shortcuts as much thanks to LLMs and tools like Claude Cowork, but I'm very bullish on smart, localized, privacy-focused automations for most people.
Until next weekend,
Joe
PS: My free workshop with Ecamm on how I produce a weekly show in under an hour is next week. Register for free here.
