We Can Make Our Own Email Provider?! AI Is Coming for SaaS | Episode 36 The Automated Author

[00:00:01]Welcome to episode 36 of The Automated Author brought to you by the Future Fiction Academy. I am author Elizabeth Anne West.

[00:00:08]>> I'm Stacy Anderson. [laughter] >> I love that you can't just say and I'm author Stacy Anderson.

[00:00:14]>> I don't know. Like I don't know. No, I'm Stacy. That's who I am.

[00:00:19]>> Stacy. I'm Stacy.

[00:00:21]>> I get it. I get it. I'm sorry. I keep playing with my hair because I I put it in a bonnet last night. So, my waves are doing wavy things and I'm not used to seeing my hair like this. So, I have a very cute unicorn bonnet that I bought online.

[00:00:35]>> Oh.

[00:00:35]>> Um, well, I opened up a can of worms before we got on here.

[00:00:41]>> Uh, to be fair, I started the conversation.

[00:00:44]We weren't even sure what we're going to talk about and I'm like, >> "Yeah."

[00:00:48]>> Yeah. You said you got Okay. So let's start with what you did because then they get like the full progression of what what what had happened was >> what had happened was we have been working with different newsletter providers trying to find the ones that we can hook into the AI so I can work with the AI to write the newsletter to plan out the automations and you go do it like yeah I'm tired of setting this stuff up. I'm I'm old now. Like I've been >> I'm frustrated with Brevo because I've got to like jump through hoops and Brevo won't allow the AI to just like make changes to the automations and the AI can't quite do the drag and drop. They thought that they were easy by doing the drag and drop, but I'm like can you take a like like Naden or some of these other things uh what I can't even make. But you should be able to make these these automations with like textbased information. And it shouldn't always just be a drag and drop. There's no reason for it. These are just blocks with settings.

[00:01:47]>> Yeah. So, I did find after some testing, mailer light does let me hook in the AI um for multiple pen names. It was the easiest for me. But I can hook in the AI. I've tested it. It made automations for me. It made news emails. It made lists tag. Well, not they don't have tags, but the custom for uh things. Um, so that was all set. So, I told you and of course your robot brain goes, "You can't tell me what to do." Oh my god.

[00:02:21]Hold on. Hold on a minute. Let's take a look at Mailor Light so people who don't understand what we're talking about here, uh, because I do have their pricing up. Um, so this is something.

[00:02:32]Okay, build yearly. We'll go to be build monthly cuz I I hate yearly. So, you're paying $25 a month for 500 subscribers.

[00:02:40]My mailing list alone has like almost 2,000 on it. How much does your mailing list have, Stacy?

[00:02:47]>> Around the same. Okay. Around the same.

[00:02:50]Um, so you're looking at $25 a month, but that's for up to 2500 subscribers.

[00:02:56]When you need more subscribers, you have to pay more. Um, and the way that you do it, like you can't even find out how you're doing this, um, >> because there's a slider at the top to >> There's a slider at the top. Okay, I see it. I couldn't see it at first. Yeah.

[00:03:12]And it's got an arrow to it, Elizabeth.

[00:03:14]Like you're just you're just Yeah, you're just >> I missed it the first time, too, but Yeah.

[00:03:18]>> Okay. So, you have to choose between a,000 and 2500, but right at 2500, you're going to be paying $50 a month. Um, if you want to go yearly, okay, you save $5 a month, so 60 bucks a year. But build monthly, just so that we have like some good baseline here, is $50 a month. And what it does is it's saying unlimited monthly emails, unlimited user seeds, 247 live chat, you have unlimited uh visual automations, 15% off Google Workspace. Okay, now I'm kind of interested. um and dedicated IP which just that's available as an add-on. So you'd have to pay for that and that's like for a dedicated IP address which usually makes your sending more reliable because all these things that have shared stuff uh correct me if I'm wrong. Um you're going to the shared the shared IP addresses and stuff like that. If you have one bad actor on it, it it pees in the pool for everybody.

[00:04:17]>> Yeah, exactly. you are uh linked to other senders reputations as well, >> right? And let's say you go to 10,000 subscribers, okay? Let's say you work really hard. You work on getting 10,000 subscribers to your mailing list. I say that cuz that's like on par with what we have with our Future Fiction Academy mailing list, and we've been working on that for 3 years. But, you know, there are authors who have 10,000 subscribers.

[00:04:39]Now, suddenly, you're looking at $129 a month just for you to be able to reach people who already opted in to talk to you. That's I think what burns my biscuits the most.

[00:04:50]So a mailing list as it gets bigger is something that you absolutely have to pay for as as an author, even as an automated author, as a publisher. And when you said what you said, for whatever reason, my brain did the calculus and went, "Wait a minute.

[00:05:10]The email marketing service is just a middleman. We already have a web server.

[00:05:16]We all usually use shared hosting which is not ideal for that. But you can upgrade to dedicated hosting or to VPS hosting virtual private server and you could use AI to make your own email service and then that way you're just paying one thing plus you have full control.

[00:05:36]>> Yeah.

[00:05:38]>> And that's when my brain was exploding.

[00:05:40]I'm like why are we doing it like that?

[00:05:42]And I know why. Because before AI, this was hard.

[00:05:48]I set up in my cheapy cheap days.

[00:05:51]>> Yeah.

[00:05:52]>> I set up my own website on Amazon through the server because they gave you like a year free or something if you got the tiny one >> AWS.

[00:06:02]>> AWS. Yeah.

[00:06:05]>> You brave brave soul. Oh, I I learned how to set up a website real fast because I blew up so many like unreoverable. [laughter] Like I kept backups, but I just I don't know. Like I'm lost. I guess I got to reformat the server again. Like >> I did that too with I I did that with WordPress. I did that with my servers. I did that with my websites, too. I I literally adopted the rule that if I accidentally deleted everything, that was just a sign from the universe that I was going to build it better and faster and stronger [laughter] the next time around.

[00:06:41]>> Yeah, I had handwritten notes on like well warned on how to set up server because I would just delete the whole thing, start again. It was don't do don't do what I did, friends.

[00:06:52]>> Or or do it and just be prepared to do it. Like sometimes the the safest way to learn is to destroy things. Just make sure that you're destroying things that are hurt. It's okay to rebuild.

[00:07:02]>> Yeah. Like I I knew I was going to destroy it, so I didn't cry.

[00:07:08]>> Yeah. Too bad. Too bad. Sometimes the setting and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. But that day those days are so different and kind of I won't say they're fully gone cuz I still make mistakes. Um I am human after all. But I would say that for the most part, it's not like my earliest cheapy days was my ex-husband saying, "We have an extra computer upstairs. you'll make the you'll make your computer, you'll make your website and we'll host it upstairs on that computer. And I'm like, okay.

[00:07:36]And of course, he didn't really help me set things up and I had to figure it all out and he's like, "Read the documentation." And then one day >> documentation.

[00:07:44]>> Yeah. Once I finally got like a little bit of money for my articles, the very first thing I did was buy HostGator.

[00:07:50]HostGate, not HostGator, by uh GoDaddy.

[00:07:53]He came home from work one day and I had everything all set up and he's like, "What are you doing?" And I'm like, "Your way was inefficient." I went [laughter] with something that was easier.

[00:08:04]Uh he he liked to try to always say like, "You can't spend that money." I'm like, "Watch me. You didn't want to buy on the accounts. That's that's your fault, not mine." Um so the money from my business that I made, I want to be clear about that. It was just more of like he thought he thought that businesses should be like 100% profitable or I I don't know. This is why he's not an entrepreneur.

[00:08:26][laughter] >> That's fine. Um anyway, but I I did learn from that of like when we lost power in South Carolina, my my website was down. It helped me to realize like a server is just a computer in a corner somewhere, Elizabeth. That's all it is.

[00:08:44][laughter] >> Uh but it really did make me think.

[00:08:47]Okay.

[00:08:49]If I dream, and I do dream of this multimedia, massively cool experience on a website, what am I really looking at if I just go ahead and make the decision to invest in a dedicated server?

[00:09:07]Uh because then you have like your own computer that's available and there's more opportunity there. You could even use that server for hosting local LLMs like a small one of the smaller smaller LLMs and and host it on there so that you could have your own writing machine inside of the website and everything like that. I never in a million years would have dreamed I could do that, but now that I have AI in my back pocket, I'm like, let's go.

[00:09:33]>> Yeah. Like you just honestly anymore it's just dreaming what you can. is just having like what can I ask the AI to do for me? Like the AI can, it just doesn't think like it doesn't have the vision like oh thought of doing this.

[00:09:51]>> No. And I'm sure some of you are listening and maybe scoffing because you're computer science professionals or something like that and you're like oh my gosh this is so obvious. It's not obvious to us. It's not obvious to us who are writers who can tell you the the the nitty-gritty difference between a three, four, five act structure and even a nine act structure. Okay? Our expertise is in another area, my friends. Uh this is this is different.

[00:10:16]Okay? And we're just so used to software as a service. We are so used to I pay a middleman and then I use their interface and I have to learn their and that's the thing that really also I got it airbrush and credul. Yeah, I know you don't have yours. That's fine.

[00:10:33]>> I don't have mine. I have >> Yeah, there we go. [laughter] Um I have to learn their interfacing anyway. I might as well just make my own interfacing and then learn that.

[00:10:44]>> Yeah, it's honestly I had a moment like that. Don't laugh at me.

[00:10:49]>> I won't.

[00:10:51]>> But >> I had a significant other, a boyfriend back in college and he once baked bread for me.

[00:11:00]That blew my mind. Like bread was not something you could make.

[00:11:06]I don't know why I thought, [laughter] but somewhere in my head I had it that bread came from stores. It was impossible to make at home. Like it just it it was voodoo magic. I don't know how that stuff comes up. I it and the fact that you could just come home to not bread and then there be bread bred like it just that was the first time my mind went shoot you I you could do this.

[00:11:30]>> Yeah. When did you find out that you can just get like yeast and stuff by leaving some flour and some water out and uh feeding it a little bit of flour each day and get a sourdough starter?

[00:11:40]>> I [laughter] can't believe that I did that.

[00:11:45]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, we actually did that before COVID uh because I homeschool and uh so I taught Caitlyn about that was one of our chemistry uh things that we did to to learn and um it just really squicks me out about like what's in the air. [laughter] I'm like >> oh yeah, I didn't think about that.

[00:12:02]>> Yeah. No, I was like I don't like this.

[00:12:05]>> Yeah, that's right. Where did that bacteria come?

[00:12:07]>> Where did that bacteria [laughter] come from? Moving on. Moving on. Uh but no, I think that this is a big thing about mindset. my Yeah, you can make this stuff yourself. Like it's it's not magic where it's coming from, >> right? I think that this is something that's going to get challenged a whole bunch of places. And I think that, you know, we're starting to see software as service SAS being challenged first and foremost. Um, but this is an even bigger problem in this new world of AI. uh in terms of we are so conditioned to think in tickytacky little boxes and the minute you're like wait a minute why did we have those restrictions do we need those restrictions anymore now I think that there is something to be said that you do have to go through your SWAT analysis uh strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats you need to go through uh we actually have some decision-making classes inside of the mega program if you guys go to the the core or curriculum. There's there's a great class on decision-m in there that Stacy put together. Um, but there is something to be said for like, okay, first and foremost, what's the time sync I'm going to have to put in to do this?

[00:13:19]If I'm starting from nothing, [clears throat] which I kind of am because like I haven't I started to set up Brevbo. I ran into a lot of roadblocks. I I was gung-ho that one weekend. I haven't sent any emails to anybody in two weeks.

[00:13:34]Um, and it's just because like the automation thing doesn't work the way my brain works. Like I want to be able to make the pieces and then put the chunks in the pieces. I don't want to have to make the chunks as I'm making the pieces, if that kind of makes sense.

[00:13:48]It's just it's very labor intensive um for me.

[00:13:53]Um, the other thing too is I really don't like not having control over one of the most important pieces of my marketing operations. Like if my newsletter is the most valuable thing I've got and it is pretty valuable, then I have to reconcile myself of like, okay, am I going to have to it it just always kills me that it it punishes you for doing well? Because if you make your list better, like bigger, you pay more.

[00:14:25]Why?

[00:14:27]Um um >> yeah, but um >> I also don't like >> I had a thought and I lost it, but go.

[00:14:36]>> Oh, [laughter] sorry. I also don't like the organization is not consistent across the thing. Are we segmenting them into lists? Are we tagging them? Are we keywording them? Are we flagging them? I And why is there a shocking lack of color coding?

[00:14:51][laughter] >> Yeah. So, for you it would definitely make sense. And >> yeah, >> for a many people it may make sense. For other people it might make sense to just stick with the EMS. They do make things easier.

[00:15:03]>> Um, >> what do you mean by an EMS?

[00:15:06]>> Oh, email marketing service. So, your Breos, your mailer lights, your flowes, your whatever. If you have something that's working for you, Mailchimp.

[00:15:16]>> Yeah. If you have something that's working for you, sometimes breaking that down and moving, even if there would be a cost or time savings in the long run, it might not be worth it right now or something like you can't rebuild everything at once. No. And I wouldn't even just because we had this idea today doesn't mean I'm jumping and doing it today. Um, I would set myself up with some gates of like what I need to hit to make the move justified. Um, I need to publish more books. that's the first priority. If I publish more books, then I'm okay. Once I can get that into a a groove, then I can. Um, but I'm already thinking about all the things, some of the systems I could reduce just by having my server be my my backup basically. So, that could be another backup. I don't have to have my business files. I would probably have them on one other backup too, just in case because I don't trust I never trust one system.

[00:16:11]But it's a lot easier for me to like I would probably move to a physical system of where I'm downloading my files to that physical system and then using my my own dedicated server. Like I'd be using the snot out of that dedicated server. I would make sure that the AI teaches me how to get access into that thing uh lickety split so that I can I can maneuver and I can put things put things in there.

[00:16:33]>> Yeah.

[00:16:33]>> Um >> but that's also good decision- making for you. you realize like right now the biggest revenue driver for you or the biggest success path is publishing more books.

[00:16:44]>> Yes.

[00:16:45]>> At some point when you're got that down the biggest revenue will then be reaching out to all of those readers, those consistent readers and getting them to buy that those books like engaging them in which case you could switch then or really dig into doing it then.

[00:17:03]>> Yeah. I'm also excited about the idea of a dedicated server for multimedia because I got to see just how much the AI the audio files are um being hosted on my computer and then I could even have an audio depending on how big my dedicated server is. And now the cost of the dedicated server looking at HostGator for example I would be looking at $200 a month for the uh dedicated server. It was really cute when Open AI was like, "It's kind of a lot of money uh to be spending on experimental AI."

[00:17:33]And I'm like, "You don't know me. Do you know how much I'm spending on you?

[00:17:38]>> Do you know how much you cost, my friend? Like, stop it.

[00:17:43]>> You need to chill out over [laughter] there."

[00:17:47]But, um, I think that this is a fascinating thing. I think that there's a lot of authors listening to this who never in a million years thought about a dedicated server being an opportunity with AI that they could be making more of their own software or those what we're talking about those harnesses or those notebooks or workflow systems. You would be able to have different things.

[00:18:07]Also, with my dedicated server, I can have three websites. So, I could actually create a website for myself that's just a website for me to be working in that only I have access to, like a a one user like what Seth built.

[00:18:20]Oh, I want one of those.

[00:18:22]>> Ah, see, I'm really thinking we have got to start thinking bigger as digital creators. And I think that there as those of us who are very serious about our publishing and I can already go off of a track record, right? I've been doing this since 2007. That's when I did my first website. It'll be 20 years next year. I think I can rely that I'm going to be be into this five years from now.

[00:18:45][laughter] Yeah. This is now. This is officially a long-term investment. Like, >> yes, it's now. That wasn't before, but now I'm I'm I'm officially invested in my author career.

[00:18:59]>> Yep. I tell my husband that sometimes.

[00:19:01]We've been married 17 years, and I'm like, you know what? I might keep you around.

[00:19:06]>> I might keep you around. I haven't I haven't fully decided yet. We'll see.

[00:19:09]>> Yeah, we'll see. But you're It's looking good for you.

[00:19:12]>> It reminds me of Calvin and Hobbs when Calvin was like, "Good news, Dad. Your most recent report says that you are liked, but uh we're concerned about the amount of vegetables you're making us eat. [laughter] So here, got to work on those performance numbers. [laughter] Okay, so for those of you who are listening and going like, "Oh my gosh, this was all Greek to me. What's going on?"

[00:19:38]your baseline websites stuff is going to be your free websites, your things like chat GPT sites, your stuff that you're doing inside of um some other places that you can like notion can give you a free website because you can make any notion page a website so that people outside people can access it. A website just is defined as you know code that can be rendered in a browser that it's hosted somewhere out in the world that there's a link that multiple people can access to it. That's the the core functionality of the internet. Then you eventually move up to okay I get my own server which usually you buy your domain name with your server make it easier and you just you're you're in the old days we would just all install WordPress.

[00:20:25]>> Yeah. Like I I'm done with WordPress. Like I don't have any WordPress sites left. All of mine are uh what was that thing we were using? I forget.

[00:20:36]>> Astra.

[00:20:37]>> Astra. Yeah. It's all Astra and files on my computer that I push to GitHub that go to site grounds. Like it easy peasy lemon squeezy. Like AI, I want this, this, and that. It's easier than drag and drop. like, oh, >> it it just tell you when you do it and send it out into the world.

[00:20:59]>> Yep. So, and then you make updates and and off it goes. It's not a big deal.

[00:21:04]Um, and GitHub gives you 2,000 minutes a month for uploads or whatever. My site is a little bit big. It's got like 254ome chapters on it. Okay. Well, now like like 284 chapters on it. Um, it takes about 10 minutes for it to load up there. So, I mean, I could do that 200 times in a month, which that would be six times a day for me to even >> You can also set it up to just push diffs, as in it's not pushing the whole website, it's just pushing the chapter.

[00:21:35]>> Well, you can and you can't. So, Astro is kind of a weird thing because it it builds it builds off the whole thing.

[00:21:45]Um, so what I have to start doing is telling it that it needs to rename files into versions. So, it needs to put a a number at the end of the file so that it can it can know which um so it can look at the versions and see if the versions match. Don't upload that image. Don't upload that file. But I'm not quite there yet. I will get there >> soon. Um the other option too is to segment my website a little bit more so that it's individual Astro builds um with the folders.

[00:22:12]>> So there's I'm I'm working on it.

[00:22:14]There's it's definitely something I've run into and I was like, "Oh, this is not nearly as easy as I thought it was."

[00:22:19]But it's still very it's still easy.

[00:22:21]It's still not hard. It's still >> Yeah. My like you have not a complicated website but uh definitely a multiaceted one.

[00:22:31]>> Um >> mine with site ground I get unlimited domains.

[00:22:36]>> So um it's fine. So I've set up just a bunch of small websites. So each one of my pen names is relatively small and easy to >> push up and down. Right. And I could very easily go books. elizabeth.com folder and that could be a whole separate email that could be a whole separate >> Astrobuild that goes up like there's definitely options that I have in terms of the architecture and and saving time.

[00:23:04]I mean it's not like I've got to sit there and babysit it for 10 minutes.

[00:23:06]just means that I'm now at the point with my site being so large, I really need to do the testing and things like I'll be honest with you, for a while there I was just like, "Yeah, make the change, push it."

[00:23:17]And I was just testing it live because nobody nobody was using the website or anything like that. So now I have to do a little bit more like testing it locally so that I know that it didn't like mess anything else up or or I make a list of all the things that I want changed and then upload it to the server. So, I just I finally grew up a little bit in terms of production. Um, I also could have a testing site. That's another thing that I could do, too. Um, look at us sounding like computer computer programmers.

[00:23:47]>> I know. I was about to say you're [laughter] getting all these like software best practices and >> Yeah. Um, and it's okay to grow into these things. Like, don't feel like you have to get your coding environment like all perfect to set up. Like, just just get in there and start vibe coding.

[00:24:03]start making a mess.

[00:24:05]>> Yeah, like you said, you could have set it up better had you known all this, but you set it up and then you could do the housework or the house cleaning behind later, come up behind and say, "Oh, this is what I've learned. Now I'm going to break this up, >> right?" I had to do that with my folder structures. It's it's a small afternoon of pain in the buttitude, but [laughter] pain of the buttitude, but it's not the end of the world. It is It is nowhere near as difficult as blowing up and restarting your own server over and over. So, yeah, those are hard days. Those were hard days cuz we had to do everything manually and then you like forget, oh, I forgot that step that I did the last two times and now I don't understand why this isn't working. And we're not even going to talk about DM DNS records. Like oh my gosh, that was like the bane of my existence for the longest time of like it still won't load my website and changing it. And I just remember the pain of getting my emails to port through my Gmail. That was a pain in the butt once upon a time.

[00:25:10]>> I'm having flashbacks.

[00:25:12]>> We're having flashbacks. We're having flashbacks.

[00:25:14]>> I have trauma.

[00:25:16]>> Trauma. Um, so yeah, it is it's definitely an interesting thing and I think that software as a service is being put on notice. I think these are the early days of it. Um, I think there's like a gold rush right now of everybody trying to like I'm going to make this thing that we've had for a long time slightly better. I wouldn't be surprised if we see even more EMS server EMS stuffs prop crop up because what they're doing is they're basically, you know, the same thing you could be doing with a uh dedicated server or a virtual private server. Um the virtual private servers, the VPS's are usually a little bit more affordable. Um [snorts] but they're not exactly the same as a full dedicated server.

[00:26:00]So you're still sharing.

[00:26:03]>> Yeah. full server, you have your own machine physical, like you could go to their server room and say, "This one's mine sort of thing where a VPS is their partitioning, right?" And then there's also the option of the old ex-husband methodology where if you don't want to spend two grand, that is another option. I like that option. I like this idea, too. You could just go buy a gaming computer and shove it in your closet and use that as your server, load server stuff in it, and then hook it all up. But the downside of that is that then your local your personal uh your personal uh internet is being used. So that's where that can be a problem in terms of um if you have a lot of users and and things like that. So I and you become your IT support then >> you also become your IT support but also think about your upload and your downloads. You know if you're in a household like I am where it's like oh somebody is watching Netflix downstairs which I think a lot of households still are in the United States um where you can start to see it slug it's starting to get better. We're having infrastructure expand. I know you just got FiOS or something like that where you are.

[00:27:24]>> Yeah I just got fur so yeah. Yeah, you just got fiber. We're still on cable where I live even though I live in a in a city. Um the cable what what had happened was we got the last goound early. So like we've had cable internet for a really long time. So we're just going to be one of the last ones to get the fiber. Um cuz I think they definitely prioritized areas where there was nothing like you could you could just put something there.

[00:27:52]Um, >> I were in my area, I think there were subsidies to add fiber. I live in New York, high taxes, blah blah blah.

[00:28:00]>> New York's never buy something that they didn't want to tax or subsidize. I love that statement.

[00:28:04]>> Yep. [laughter] We will manipulate you into the behavior we want to see.

[00:28:11][laughter] >> Um, but at any rate, I think that that that is something. So, just in case you're a dad, Chad, or Brad and wants to get into the comments and say, Also, you could just have a computer that you serve as your own server. Yeah, because obviously $200 a month does add up. That's how much a dedicated server is. The the VPS though, you could get as cheap as $60 a month, which is on PAR WITH WHAT YOU'RE PAYING for the stupid the stupid mailing service anyway. But this way, your your site is hosted and and you have you have expanded capacity for other cool things that you want to do on the internet.

[00:28:47]>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. You could have your own social media like your own local that create or something that creates audio music videos >> that then pushes to your social media automatically like all host.

[00:29:03]>> Yeah, >> Elizabeth, I am so busy. Like why do you do this to me? I don't have time for this right now and you know me like don't do it by noon.

[00:29:13]>> No, you don't. You don't. You don't.

[00:29:16]Honestly, I I honestly think that this is like a a plan that needs some more thought to it. Like we it needs to be well thought out. It needs to be implemented. It needs to be phased. It needs to be staged. It needs to be um really carefully considered because it's not so much the expense obviously because I spend 200 bucks on on Open AI right now a month. But the problem is is that when you want to step down, there's a lot of work involved to like move your site down and all of that. So, it's it's one of those things that you do want to be mindful before you make the step up.

[00:29:49]Yeah.

[00:29:51]Let's I bet we can trick Steph into doing [clears throat] this. Testing [laughter] it all out for us.

[00:29:57]She watches us. Let's plant little seeds and she can be our tester. This seems right.

[00:30:01]>> Why don't we just go even bigger? We'll we'll move the FFA to a dedicated server and then we'll create our own mailing service that our our students can use that AI can talk to.

[00:30:12]No, we're not doing that. Do not ask.

[00:30:13]The answer is no.

[00:30:15]>> I am not building software anymore for other people.

[00:30:18]>> Yeah.

[00:30:18]>> No, make your own software. Um, but yeah, I think that this is something that that definitely warrants consideration by authors. A lot of authors like I never in a million years would have thought I needed a dedicated server, but now I see now I see reasons.

[00:30:36]But it's also like you said like back in the day it was you purchased everything >> like you purchased uh Word or Windows and then everything went to SAS like monthly commissions and it's and you're like am I going to be paying for everything monthly? Like there are cars now that have monthly subscriptions for like seated heat or heated seats or something.

[00:30:58]>> The highend it's stupid. Yeah, it's it's in there but you have to pay a monthly subscription to have it turned on. It's stupid. My butt will be cold.

[00:31:07]>> Yeah. No, I'm a I'm I'll go tear that seat out first. Any >> I like my Honda. My Honda has heated seats already.

[00:31:14]>> Yeah, mine too. But it go then now it's kind of consolidating back to you're going to have a select few and you can do more not even onetime payment more yourself.

[00:31:26]>> I guess some time invest in this investment.

[00:31:30]>> Yeah. and you have the time to do it because AI I mean I I built my extra time with the with the gym but but there's the time and the where I mean I love my site. I love what I built. Uh later today I'm showing a site I built for the backlist intensives where I'm showing with the seasons of serendipity a whole interfacing and stuff like that.

[00:31:50]But I would really love it if I could build these things on a dedicated server and access them and figure out a way.

[00:31:58]Well, I I think I'm ready to just even like go back to API costs because I don't even know that I I use it so so much that I wouldn't be able to just like manage that and make that >> um affordable with the API costs for different things. So, it's something it's something to think about. It is definitely something to think about. Okay. Uh we are at 32 minutes. So, next 24 hours I have uh back list. I'm actually only going to be able to do about an hour with them today. I promise longer, but it's going to be shorter because I have a doctor's appointment. So, I get to go and I I need to go see that doctor cuz it's my regular doctor. So, we get to go talk about what happened a few weeks ago with the troin and now the beta blocker. Love my beta blocker, by the way. So, I don't even care that I'm 44 on a beta block beta blocker. I can do a full workout.

[00:32:47]So, h um so I have that and then I have another work session later tonight that's going to be like my marathon work session. I don't know. We might we might be there till 10 o'clock. I don't know.

[00:32:58]I've got a wild hair that I want to get some stuff done. Um so that's my my next 24 hours. I will be working on Seasons of Serendipity and kind of getting that a little bit under control. Um and uh that's my 24 hours. What's yours?

[00:33:14]>> Okay. I'm working on a Stalometry class.

[00:33:17]>> Yeah, >> that'll go in our pro our pro membership.

[00:33:21]>> Pro mega mega already has like Yeah, >> but I'll give them the cleaned up version as well. They already have the info in there. Uh, but mega and it'll go or mega pro and it will go on sale. Um, >> probably not, but it'll go to pro first.

[00:33:35]It's not going to go on sale.

[00:33:36]>> It'll go to pro first eventually.

[00:33:40]>> Um, then mailer uh getting my newsletter set up and getting into a new series to start writing. So, >> I do have a quick question. Mhm.

[00:33:51]>> So, I am a little bogged down because like I have a draft of book seven of moralities of marriage I need to go through and look at. I have a big chunk of Much to Conceal that I can made last week too that I need to go through. And now I'm kind of like getting started on the seasons of serendipity thing. I am a little bit untrustworthy.

[00:34:14]I I I don't have a lot of trust in myself that I'm not going to get so overwhelmed that I don't like blanket fork. But I know you've already done this, okay? Where you had maybe at some point an avalanche of drafts that you had to go through. So I'm just asking you as a friend when I get also seasons of serendipity and I come to you crying that I have three you will be supportive of me and say just like one step at a time Elizabeth or whatever whatever the voodoo magic is whatever the magic is that you did to like put aside the overwhelm of the avalanche drafts and how did you how did you execute how did you get back into executing mode? both have focus. So, we will clear we will make you like blanket blinders or something.

[00:34:57]>> Clear the deck.

[00:34:58]>> Clear the deck. This is what we are doing. We are doing seasons of serendipity. We are doing book seven. We are doing whatever.

[00:35:06]>> But you're not allowed to make another draft.

[00:35:09]>> Yep. Or you can't you can't look at any of the other drafts until you finish this one. So, >> or get this one to a certain milestone.

[00:35:17]Okay. Okay.

[00:35:17]>> Yeah. You can't go play with the other ones until you do your homework on this one, which is >> the not fun parts.

[00:35:23]>> I'm counting on that. I will I will definitely be using using that. Uh because I know we do need to get some more words published this month, even though we are at um we are at 168,000. I really want to get us to 200 over 200,000.

[00:35:42]So, I kind of do like the idea of like they just got a morality of marriage book. If I could get the seasons of serendipity under control, then um they could get those books. And that is that is an easier thing because if I just stick with a novella, that's like a 30,000word novella. I Okay, I'm liking I'm liking this and now I'm understanding why because those other two are fine. They just got book six.

[00:36:06]They can hold off and get the seasons of serendipity. That gets everybody into my two series back into it. And then I can publish book seven next month for you.

[00:36:16]What >> in the comments? Keep checking on Elizabeth. Where is Seasons [laughter] of Serendipity?

[00:36:22]You are one of the per people that when you have to answer to someone else, you know they're waiting on you. So, >> are you are you putting the buzz? Are you putting the buzz on me?

[00:36:32]>> I'm putting the buzz on you.

[00:36:35]>> And there's only one of me. So, I need people like in the comments. Where's Season of Serendipity, Elizabeth? Just Just friendly push. I say it with love.

[00:36:45]>> I will. I will accept it with the love that it is meant. Um, okay. The song for today, since we are talking about everything old is new again, I vote we go with an oldie and uh we do the future rights and incining code.

[00:36:58]>> I love that >> because Yeah, that's that's what it is.

[00:37:01]>> Did that start the songs?

[00:37:02]>> It did. It really did. It was the first song that I that I that I did with Sunno uh that that like made it onto the live and and stuff like that. So, >> yeah, that was >> real.

[00:37:13]>> Here we go. So future writes an incan code and we'll see you guys tomorrow [music] and stones ink on scrolls they called their own. Then came presses [music] hot and loud voices finally unbound. Now it's keys instead of quills. White screens [music] echo silent thrills.

[00:37:38]Every age has its desenters but I was made to bend the mill. say slow [music] down right like we did but I've got wild fire under my eyelids [music] evolution doesn't knock it crashes and I'm already [music] past the ashes the future writes an ink and code [music] don't tell me how the story's told you can stay and so your dreams but I'm chasing silver beams [music] this pen Electric. This plot line bites. We don't wait, we ignite. You can guard the gates, you know. But the future right in ink and code.

[00:38:23][snorts] Used to call it art, [music] now they call it cheap, but I'm still sweating over every beat. The tools have changed, the [music] heart is not. I bleed the same, just on a different plot. Some still filled [music] with rust and rope. But I've got neural nets and hope. I'm not here to ask permission. I'm the shift you couldn't stop. Said that's [music] not real, that's not pure.

[00:38:47]But they forget fire made books endure.

[00:38:53]And every [music] rebel with the screen is part of the next great library machine. The future writes in ink and [music] code. Don't tell me how the story is told. You can stay and save your dreams. But I'm chasing [music] silver beams. This pen's electric. This plot line bites. We don't wait, we [music] ignite. You can chain yourself to old echo with the future lights in ink [music] and cold. From monks in towers with faking hands to basement poets with startup plans. [music] From parchment prayers to alorithm sparks, we've always written in the [music] dark. Now the dark just answers back.

[00:39:41]The future writes in ink [music] and code. I'm not slowing down [singing] this road. You can preach about the craft, but I've got a better [music] map. With every key stroke, every phrase, I'm blazing through this golden phase. History whispers, "You're too bold, but [music] the future writes in ink and code.

[00:40:07]Dear past, [music] thanks for the legends, but this page is mine.

[00:40:16]>> [music] [music]