The Current Plus: Instant $7,500 discount, AI โpriests,โ batteries that turn mouths blue โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ โ In partnership with ExpressVPN | Itโs Monday, and itโs great to see you, friend. Letโs kick the week off with some techy trivia. The average startup founderโs age is 42. But for the most successful tech companies โ weโre talking the top 0.1% of revenue โ the average age is a little different. Are the most successful tech companies founded by someone older or younger than 42? (Hey, you have 50โ50 odds today!) Answerโs at the very end. ๐ Welcome aboard the Komando tech news rocket! No algorithms here. I handpick every single item in these newsletters so no cloud is left unexplored in cyberspace. Letโs blast off! โ Kim ๐ซ First-time reader? Sign up here. (Itโs free!) IN THIS ISSUE ๐ Small-biz freebies โก Instant EV discount โ๏ธ AI priest goes rogue |
TODAY'S TOP STORY 6 small-business freebies Savvy small-business owners and team managers, this oneโs for you. It seems like every business software platform Iโve used takes five months and at least $50,000 to get up and running. So, thatโs why I found some tech tools that can help you out today. Oh, and theyโre all free! Grow your sales ๐ Boost your web traffic: Most SEO and keyword tools are pricey, but Neil Patelโs UberSuggest has a free tier so you can get more people to your website without spending a dime. Youโll see keyword volume, your keyword competitors and even seasonal trends. How to use it: Their free reports allow you to brainstorm headlines using key phrases people search for online regularly. You can also analyze your competitorsโ websites, see what keywords theyโre using and even steal their tactics! Sneaky smart.๐ Get help with social media: Use ChatGPT. Yeah, there are specialized tools for social, but this is the best Iโve found. You can use it to generate captions for individual posts or come up with campaign ideas based on content from your website or blog. How to use it: The trick is to train ChatGPT to sound like you or your brand. Just include examples from other social media accounts you like or previous posts of yours that have performed well in your prompts!๐ Test-drive something flashier: If youโre skeptical about going all in on a larger solution, software platforms like NetSuite* let you test-drive it for six months before you buy. One of my radio listeners increased their profits by 17% in about two months! How to use it: Think of NetSuite like QuickBooks on steroids. You can use its in-depth dashboards and expense tracking to improve your bottom line.Scale your team ๐ Train new hires: Try Scribe. It uses talk-to-text to turn your existing processes into step-by-step guides. Onboarding new folks is a pain, and documenting your processes saves a ton of time. Plus, it reduces your risk of losing historical know-how if an โAโ player leaves your company. How to use it: Turn on Scribeโs recorder and walk through your instructions, and itโll automatically create an onboarding doc you can share with your team. Scribe has some handy templates, too. The free version is pretty darn good, but if you want features like custom branding, you can always upgrade to a paid account later.โก Automate daily tasks: Zapierโs basic automation platform is free and can help you cut down on mindless data entry. It also helps your different systems โtalkโ to each other, even if they donโt have built-in integrations. You donโt have to know any code, either. Super handy. How to use it: When a customer fills out a form online, you can set up a โzapโ (aka a trigger) to automatically send their info to your email list and then send an email from you.๐ Get help: If youโre having trouble finding good talent, you need a bigger applicant pool. Posting your job on LinkedIn* lets you tap into the largest network of job-seekers in the world. I have an exclusive link to post a job opening for free. How to use it: Use LinkedInโs custom filters to sort profiles by experience, location and education. It makes it so easy to find high-quality candidates โ and the right fit!Three bonus freebies Shipping boxes and materials: Order โem right from the USPS site here. Email your customers: Get going with email marketing using Mailchimp for free up to 1,000 monthly sends. Survey your peeps: Figure out what your customers like, donโt like and what theyโll buy more of using SurveyMonkey. Feel empowered yet? Forward this newsletter to a small-biz friend to save them some time and money, too! |
DEALS OF THE DAY Look whatโs up my sleeve Itโs too risky to toss your expensive laptop into your bag and call it a day. A sleeve keeps it scratch- and crack-free. I found three steals. ๐ก Pro tip: To check your laptop size, on a Mac, click on the Apple logo in the top left of your screen, then About this Mac > More and scroll down to Display. In Windows, click on the Start menu, then Settings > System > Display > Advanced. This one has pockets for your chargers, comes in lots of nice colors and includes an optional shoulder strap (love that). Plus, itโs 50% off. Go versatile with a shoulder strap, briefcase handle and pockets for chargers, plus a separate strap to slide it onto your rolling suitcase. Itโs 25% off (only $14.99). Just the sleeve, please. This slimmer option is 40% off and super simple. |
WEB WATERCOOLER ๐ชฆ To die for: Watch out for ambiguous-sounding Facebook posts, like, โIt wonโt be the same without himโ or โI canโt believe he is gone.โ Thatโs a big, red flag your connectionโs account got hacked and the scammerโs setting you (and other connected friends and family) up to steal account creds โ or money. Not a scratch: In January, an iPhone was sucked out of a Boeing 737 midflight and found on the ground completely intact, despite falling 16,000 feet. Howโd that happen? As it turns out, an iPhoneโs max freefall speed (WSJ, paywall link) is about 60 mph due to air resistance and gravity. Plus, it landed in a forest, not a hard tile floor. ๐ New battery safety feature: In 2020, one-and-a-half-year-old Reese Hamsmith swallowed a coin-shaped button battery and died. Her parents pressured Energizer to make a change โ now, these batteries taste awful and dye your mouth bright blue when mixed with spit. Keep an eye on your kiddos; these batteries are in everything from watches to remote controls. Appleโs AI play: On May 7, Apple will announce (Bloomberg, paywall link) its first truly AI device: An OLED iPad Pro powered by their own M4 chip. This smart move sets up Apple to be all in on AI, just in time for its June developers conference. This fall, the new iPhones will have AI baked in, too. Hopefully, they fire Siri. โ๏ธ Mind your drone business: Michelle Reyes captured a video showing a โflying cylinderโ whizzing by after she took off from LaGuardia Airport near New York City. UFO experts arenโt sure what it is, and some folks are saying itโs a bug. Looks like a drone to me. But having a drone that close to an aircraft is very scary. Rising car thefts: With just a smartphone app or a $25 Bluetooth signal finder, clever criminals can scan your car for valuable tech. The signals from turned-on devices tell them which vehicles will deliver the biggest paydays. Keep your electronics with you, folks โ or at least turn them off. โช Need an ark? I Noah guy: Catholic โpriestโ Fr. Justin hit the web sporting a collar and gray beard to bring more people into the faith. He gave out sacraments and absolved sins โฆ and said it was OK to baptize babies with Gatorade. Yeah, he was โdefrockedโ as AI. These days, Justinโs still giving bizarre advice โฆ but as a regular olโ layperson. ๐ I did the math: My average rating for this newsletter is 4.88 out of 5 with over 240,000 positive reviews. (Thank you!) Share your unique referral link towards the bottom of this email with family and friends to win great prizes, including $1,000 in cash. Btw, if you want to sign up your HOA, social group, classroom or school, let me know, because thereโs a better way than using your referral link. |
LISTEN UP | AI can tell your politics just from your face No need for angry dinner table debates โ a new AI algorithm can predict someone's political leanings from biometrics alone. Play Now โข 6:17 โถ |
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TECH LIFE UPGRADES r/Update: Reddit has been crappy to navigate on mobile for, well, forever. Not anymore. The latest app update makes it easier to get to the comments (what most of us use Reddit for anyway), watch videos and add your two cents. Night vision: Blue light tells your brain to wake up. You can switch your iPhone to warmer red hues for bedtime โ and it looks neat, too. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Turn on Color Filters, then choose Color Tint, and move Intensity and Hue all the way to the right. For your eyes only: Quickly hide message previews popping up on your Android lock screen. This is an โAโ and โBโ conversation, so โCโ yourself out, snoopers! From Settings, tap Display > Lock Screen > Privacy. Space out: On your Mac, click a file, then hit the spacebar. Youโll be able to view it without opening the Preview app. Handy little timesaver! ๐บ Smart TVs and your PC: A Montreal woman experienced issues with her Windows PC like vanishing taskbars and unresponsive display settings. The culprit? Her Hisense 50Q8G TV was overloading the "Device Association Framework." Have the same TV? Take it off your PCโs network. Or get yourself a nice Samsung. |
Your ISP sees everything you do online The only way to keep it your business do that is with a VPN. A virtual private network encrypts your data and hides your IP address, giving you an extra layer of protection from snoops, advertisers and Big Tech companies looking to profit off you. Some VPNs slow your connection or, worse, track your internet activity and compromise your security. Not ExpressVPN. Plus, you can connect in just one click from a Windows PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, iPad, you name it. ๐จ Deal alert: Get an extra THREE months free since you subscribe to my newsletter. Go to ExpressVPN.com/kim to try it out! โ |
BY THE NUMBERS 75 years old Thatโs whatโs now considered โoldโ โ at least, according to a survey of 14,000 people. โOldโ used to be around age 71. Yeah, weโre well past the days of 55 being considered a โsenior citizen.โ Lemme tell ya, 45 is the new 30, folks! $7,500 instant discount On a new EV. A new tax change means you donโt have to wait months and months for the credit โ it now comes directly off the sticker price (paywall link). Hereโs a list of cars that qualify. 16 out of 30 Top podcasts are available as videos, too. Two years ago, only seven were. Weโre totally with it: You can watch Kim Komando Today as a video! |
WHAT THE TECH? Spoiler: Rose lets go after she sees who Jackโs been DMing. |
Komando Referral Program Share this newsletter โ Earn prizes! Step 1: Copy your unique referral link: https://join.komando.com/8818309c/ Step 2: Share your link! Post it on social media, send it in a text or paste it into an email to a pal. If they sign up using that link, you get the credit!
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UNTIL NEXT TIME ... The answer: Older! The average age of the most successful startup founders is 45, three years older than the average age for startup founders. And yeah, OK, Steve Jobs founded Apple at age 21 โ but he was 52 when he launched the iPhone. ๐ Speaking of age โฆ What did the aging 007 agent say to his pharmacist? โBond. Gold Bond.โ Are you following me on social yet? Iโm always posting behind-the-scenes clips and news updates โ like my cornea transplant with no more stitches! Check out a pic on Instagram here. But wait! Thereโs more: Iโm on YouTube, Facebook and X, too. Iโll be back at you tomorrow morning with the best newsletter in the USA! โ Kim | |
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