I was sitting with a cup of cacao this evening, reflecting on a day spent "checking in" at stores—ostensibly a courtesy call, but really just a polite way to nudge a broken pipeline forward. Honestly, a simple text following a specific protocol could’ve done the trick. No need for the personal touch. Heck, as I saw with Jerry’s setup for his chief of staff, that text doesn’t even have to come from a human—so long as it feels like it does.
That got me thinking about how much of my time in the supply chain is just… poking people. Here’s what my days often boil down to:
- Remind farmers to bring cacao beans to the warehouse.
- Remind the packaging company what we need from them.
- Remind contributors to get beans to Santos for processing and to CIC for heavy metal testing.
- Remind the freight company to send that overdue quotation.
- Remind contributors to prep inbound freight data.
- Remind them to fulfill online orders or restock retailers.
- Remind them to plant the tree.
No rocket science here. It’s repetitive, manual, and frankly, a bit soul-draining. But here’s the kicker: a lot of folks just ignore me. And that’s where I started questioning myself. I’ve been telling myself this whole system holds together because of LOVE—a purpose bigger than any one of us. Planting trees for the next generation, leaving something behind—aka, love as the engine. I think of places like Salvation Mountain, still standing long after Leonard Knight passed, because “God is Love” was etched into its very core. That’s the kind of why I thought I was working with.
But if love is the glue, why do so many let my prompts slide?
I chewed on this with DeepSeek recently, and the convo flipped a switch for me. Love isn’t enough to get a response. It never was. What I’ve been missing is resonance. I’ve been wasting energy on folks who mask transactional self-interest with warmth. They’re pleasant, they nod along, they say the right things—but they don’t follow through. Resonance, though? That’s different. It’s rare. And it shows up not in big promises or enthusiasm, but in quiet, consistent action—especially when there’s nothing in it for them right now.
So, shaped by that late-night chat with DeepSeek, I’m changing how I approach this. Here’s my new playbook for discerning who’s really in and who’s just being polite:
- Test early with a small, non-obvious ask. Ask them to sketch out how they see their role helping the mission. Vague, warm fluff? That’s a mask. Specific, even messy thoughts? That’s a resonator.
- Watch what they do when there’s no immediate payoff. Transactional folks fade fast. Resonators reply, even without a carrot dangling.
- One missed prompt is my filter. I’m done double-reminding. I’ll note the silence and see if they notice mine later.
- Reverse the warmth test. Overly warm upfront but no follow-through? Mask. Dry, direct, but consistent? Real.
- Keep two buckets. Bucket A: Resonators—prioritize, invest, share context. Bucket B: Warm-maskers—automate reminders, zero emotional labor. Reassess every 4-6 weeks.
- The one-question shortcut. If I stopped prompting them tomorrow, would the system notice their absence in two weeks—or just me?
Key observation: the system doesn’t need a soul to function. But it needs mine to survive. And I’m done pouring it into people who are just being polite. Automation can handle the repetitive nudges—I’m focusing on discernment now.
Reflections for the evening: maybe that’s what I meant by love all along. Not as a prompt to action, but as a filter to figure out who’s really with you. It’s not about inspiring everyone; it’s about finding the few who get it without needing to be chased. What about you—how do you sift through the noise to find the ones who resonate?
- Supply Chain
- Personal Growth
- Technology