“Go to as many higher-level meetings as possible. Offer to take notes.” (Source)

That’s the advice of Chris Sacca, a famous venture capitalist.

Sacca advises getting in THE room where important conversations are happening.

You see, there’s always a room where strategies are being crafted and deals are being made. When you’re just getting started in your career, you can accelerate years of learning by getting in THAT room.

Now, it can be hard to be included (especially as a newcomer) without adding something of value in return.

Realize this: Every important discussion needs meeting notes. Yet nobody likes taking them. This is your leverage.

Offering to take meeting notes is your ticket into that room. But don’t stop there.

Let’s make your notes ELITE.

INTRODUCING OTTER

Otter is a speech-to-text transcription app. Perhaps most valuable is the tool’s ability to identify unique voices and organize text by Speaker ID (ideal for capturing initial meeting notes).

Never forget an essential detail again—store and index all your meaningful career conversations in one place.

SUPERHUMAN SCORING

In every edition of All Systems Go, I assess the featured product across four superhuman dimensions: impact, setup, maintenance, and aesthetics.

Unlike your typical product review, I focus on factors that influence personal growth. Get to know the evaluation system.

Impact (8.5/10)

Naturally, you’re not going to send the complete meeting transcription to attendees.

The real value you’ll add is summarizing the transcription into takeaways and action items.

Otter will allow you to focus on doing just that (rather than getting lost in the minutia of hand-copying). You can highlight, add comments, and assign action items in real time.

Sidenote: The “Basic” plan is free and offers 600 monthly minutes of transcription, with a max duration of 30 minutes per session. The “Pro” plan ($8.33 monthly) allows 6,000 minutes of transcription, with four hours allotted per session. So, if you’d like to transcribe at least twenty 30-minute meetings a month, I recommend the Pro plan.

Setup (8.0/10)

Otter is a cloud application that syncs across mobile and desktop.

Sign up at otter.ai and download the mobile app (iOS, Android).

It’s best practice to get permission from attendees to record the session. Tell others you’d like to record notes (that you’ll share afterward), and they’ll be more than happy to agree.

Maintenance (8.0/10)

The biggest maintenance issue is making sure you’re recording in the first place. Two features of the Pro Plan ($8.99 monthly) solve it:

1. First, Pro offers Otter Assistant. You can tell it to automatically join and begin recording meetings (whether you attend or not).
2. One downside to the free plan is the 30-minute recording limit per session. If you have a meeting longer than 30 minutes, you’ll need to be mindful to restart a new session after you hit the limit. Pro allows up to four-hour sessions.

Aesthetics (9.0/10)

Otter has tremendous versatility. I love that the app syncs across desktop and mobile. Plus, the user interface is intuitive and minimalist.

Others feel the same way; Otter scores 4.8/5 stars in the App Store (24.5k reviews).

BRINGING IT HOME

If there’s one theme for you to take away from today’s newsletter, it’s this:

1. Figure out what your boss doesn’t like to do.
2. Take it off their plate.
3. Do it with excellence.

A universal answer to #1? Meeting notes.

Follow that formula, and you’ll be ahead of 95% of others.

All systems go,

P.S. If you’re enjoying the free newsletter, it’d mean the world to me if you share it with others. System Sunday just launched, and every single referral helps. Thank you!

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Resources

• Newsletter Archive: Read past issues of All Systems Go
• Energy Dashboard: Get an under-the-hood look at my self-tracking metrics for energy management (updated weekly)
• [Quick Win] Phone Charger Challenge: Save 60 hours every year with this simple morning hack