Issue 48

Death by embarrassment, Farmer Dan, WTF is a Messaging House?

Daniel Incandela

Mar 23, 2025

Dear readers -

Spring is here! My favorite season where everything feels new, fresh and alive.

I love this quote.

"Spring: a reminder of how beautiful change can truly be." — Unknown.

Welcome to the 48th issue of Inc!

A reminder that this newsletter has a mascot: Lil’ Inc!

AI SNAFU

I am working on a number of things outside of my consulting work that are moon shots. All of the big and creative ideas I’ve sat on for some time are seeing the light of day one way or another. It’s time of excitement - who knows what will happen!? And a little fear - the rejection!

I should have feared something else.

I wrote out one of the pitches and had ChatGPT rewrite the email to have a more professional tone - something I do often. Side note - I’ve imported all my previous 47 newsletter issues into ChatGPT to learn my writing style and tone of voice. The AI version was great, so I copy and pasted into Gmail and hit send. You know where this is going, right?

30 min later I get the following response from one of the recipients:

Hey, Dan – just making you aware that you are including your AI prompts in your messages.

Homer Simpson Backing Up GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY

At that point, I literally crawled under the largest f-ing metaphorical rock I could find. My heart sank. My face blushed. And I died a little inside. Just writing this out brings back that immense wave of embarrassment.

I picked up my shattered pieces of dignity and ego from the floor. And like every good response to a PR crisis, I owned it. I sent the following response:

Apologies all. I often use AI to tidy up emails and in this case, made a sloppy error. The embarrassment is real. Have a great weekend!

Still processing the shame, I gave myself a pep talk: mistakes happen, I’m not the only that’s ever done this, it’s kinda funny, etc. And I went back rebuilding my life.

20 min later, I get this response:

No need to be embarrassed Dan - we’ve all been there 😊. We’ll come back on this next week.

PHEW. Kudos to this person for not being a total dick. And secondly, they are really leaning into this Dan persona. I kind of dig it. This outcome made it a lot easier to file away and move on.

Some lessons here:

Proof read your sh*t
Everyone is using AI - the trick is to make it look like you’re not
Life is always there to teach you to a lesson - embrace it
You can also call me Dan

If you have a similar story, I’d love to hear it!

Farmer Dan

In my early twenties I realized I wanted to own a small amount of land and have a bit of a hobby farm. Some chickens, goats and maybe a pet pig. I’d grow some different fruit and vegetables and spend my time fixing fences, chopping wood and baking different delicious treats as a old-white-man-farming-baking-influencer. The years have rolled on by but the dream persists.

It reminds me of the Langston Hughes poem, Harlem.

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What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?
      Or fester like a sore—
      And then run?
      Does it stink like rotten meat?
      Or crust and sugar over—
      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?

I’ve done very little around farming over the years. In my head, I’ve been waiting for the perfect time - a safety net of money, the ideal job, retirement, I’m not sure what really. But lately I’ve grown tired of this approach. What am I waiting for?

To my credit, I have been composting for years now. Even investing in worms to help enrichen what I call ‘black gold’. But beyond that, nothing much.

Until 2 weeks ago. I attended a class and my middle son and I have started with seedlings: sweet basil, cabbage, roma tomatoes, dino kale, snap peas and ghost pepper’s. The latter is with an eye on a hot sauce company I am contemplating.

I’m also planning to visit my friend Kate and her chickens to see her setup and what it really takes to become a chicken parent. Is there anything better than fresh eggs?

Although Langton Hughes was representing a different voice, different struggle than a privileged white man contemplating hobby farming, I have decided to stop waiting around for the right time. And I wanted a reason to introduce you to some of his work - which is fantastic.

Just need to design my Farmer Dan brand and farm wear.

Building a Messaging House

I often describe marketing simply as colors and words. So it’s not surprise that my favorite aspects of marketing are branding and messaging.

I am thoroughly enjoying working with The Branding Journal as a contributor. And I followed up my first article 5 Ways to Break Free From Boring B2B Branding with The Strategic Advantage of a Messaging House for Your Brand. I promise I’m not trying to put you to sleep! A great brand is a consistent one and a messaging house ensure your words and content align to your brand vision.

Here, check me out talking about this.

I also used the tech giant Salesforce as an example of how to create a real Messaging House (see graphic below). One more thing - this process isn’t limited to a company. You can use it for your personal brand or as a human!