Back to school is hard, we all know this. It’s the logistics, the brand new routines everyone in the house has to learn at the same time, the emotions (both them and us) and the thousand separate communication channels it opens up. I know I’m personally several hundred unread messages deep in Whatsapp at this point.
This year it landed right at the return of six weeks of simplicity in Spain, a move into a new house, a new school for my daughter, a new MNTSTUDIO opening, plus two more opening in the next 2 months, so I was already starting from behind before the first school email came in.
There is so much content about AI right now that it’s become its own kind of noise, and almost none of it tells you what to actually do with it. So I wanted a play-by-play. Not a list of apps, not a philosophy, but something you could sit down with for one hour and come out the other side with your season handled.
If you missed it, the podcast is back, I relaunched a couple weeks ago with Jess Jacobs, the CEO of Coterie. This is the first Toolkit episode of this new season, and Toolkits are the format I’m most excited about: short, one specific problem, and a one hour exercise to block on your calendar that makes your life a little easier, a little clearer, and a little more purposeful. That’s what every one of them is going to do.
For this one I brought in Hitha Palepu, CEO, Author of Hyphenated by Hitha and #5SmartReads, and Shreya Gulati, an advisor and angel investor and the founder of Moms Build AI. Between the three of us we’ve got an 18-month-old, a four-year-old, a first grader, and two boys headed into second and sixth grade, so nobody here is theorizing.
School’s back, which means the mental load just doubled overnight.
Both guests talk about who and what holds their households up when things get hectic. Mine’s simple: a house manager, outside of childcare, is the budget line I’d protect above everything else. She comes daily for cleaning, laundry, meal prep, organizing, and she’s the one system in my house that never needs a prompt.
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🔥 Rapid fire with Hitha and Shreya
I text every guest the same questions. Here’s what they sent back.
Professional superpower?
Hitha: Getting an initial plan started and assembling the team to get started on it.
Shreya: Turning chaos (people or projects) into systems.
What are you cooking?
Hitha: Enchiladas
Shreya: Spicy Maple Glazed Salmon
Reading?
Hitha: Like, Comment, Subscribe by Mark Bergen
Shreya: Strangers by Belle Burden
Listening to?
Hitha: My “woo woo” playlist
Shreya: Start With Yourself by Emma Grede
Wearing?
Hitha: A monochromatic outfit
Shreya: Sezane Button Down and Aritiza Loge Pant
Daily Routine?
Hitha: Little Bird AI U Beauty Tinted Moisturizer and my reading glasses
Shreya: Sofie Pavitt skincare
AI they love:
Hitha: Little Bird, Claude, Notion, Superhuman
Shreya: Claude, Wispr Flow, ChatGPT and Notion
Non-negotiables?
Hitha: Morning snuggles with my kids, meal prepping, reading before bed
Shreya: Morning coffee with collagen, daily walk, lots of water and protein, red light mask (Dennis Gross) and eye patches
Two things I have to point out. Shreya and Jess independently gave me the exact same book and the exact same skincare line, two guests in a row. And Hitha is so obsessed with Littlebird that she gave us a code: PVH5W6DX gets you two months free.
You don’t need another system. You need a way to make the systems you already have actually work for you.
And you just need one hour.
Start here.
Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next episode’s powerful guest. Hint: she’s an Entrepreneur, CEO, Chef and Mom. You probably have her brand in your pantry. And you’re going to take away so much from our conversation.
Barbara
Literally had to go back after recording this to take notes myself!!