Hey 👋 I’m Steven.
I’ve spent most of my career trying to figure out how work actually works.
I built and sold a marketing agency in New Zealand, helped a 30-year-old coffee company grow from $225k to $500k a month online, started companies, hired people and read more resumes than I can remember.
Then I was made redundant and suddenly found myself on the other side of the table, hoping someone would read mine. I sent 50 applications from New Zealand. Forty-nine disappeared into the void and one came back with a very polite no.
So I tried something different and changed my LinkedIn location from New Zealand to New York. Within 48 hours, I heard from the person who would become my future boss, which led to a visa-sponsored job and a move to New York.
I haven’t applied for a job in the US since. My roles at AirOps, Optimizely and Clay all came from people reaching out.
Since then I’ve taught 4,400+ marketers how to use AI, which has given me a slightly unreasonable view of work from almost every angle.
And here’s what I keep coming back to: we’re all learning the same new skill and trying to solve the same puzzle. AI, for all the noise, still needs people who know what good looks like. That’s the part I find exciting. Your expertise matters more, not less.
One in four graduates of my AI programmes has been promoted or moved into a new role. Companies are looking for people who can combine what they already know with these new tools, but it’s hard to tell what actually works when everything changes every five minutes.
That’s why I started Steven’s Mail Club. Every month, I follow one question about work in the age of AI, speak to the people closest to it, and turn what I learn into a physical letter you can sit with, scribble on and keep.
I hope I get to send you one.
Cheers,
Steven
