I Replaced My $700/Hour Coach with NotebookLM – Here’s What Happened Tiago Forte 4.29.2025

Notebook LM and load up 40 separate

documents containing almost 150,000

words which is everything that I have

and everything that I know about how I

work inside

The Sources

Private notes your personal private notes are

really one of the best sources most

people don't have a lot of public

writing don't necessarily do annual

reviews but we all have notes it might

be something as simple as some text from

an email you sent a friend in the past

or something you've jotted down

images which Notebook LM can now

understand there's a mind map that I

update every year with my life goals my

big five personality traits which I have

uh from a survey and then what's called

my time perspective which is from a book

by an author named Zambardo which is

about my relationship to time i also

have a collection of my strengths based

on years of customer testimonials that

I've collected i have a compilation of

all my gratitude lists which is

something that I do at the end of every

year i just make a big list of

everything that I'm thankful for and

also myersbrig profile and if you're

curious how I have all these notes check

out my book and course and membership

called Building a Second Brain which is

all about how to create an effective

note-taking system next we have my

public writing from takeaways from

courses I've taken to my experience at

Burning Man to summaries of books that I

found compelling writing I've done about

sort of my autobiography my life story a

list of my favorite open questions so

these are all public sources that I've

written about different aspects of how I

think about life and where I want to go

in life and where I've been and then

The third category is also a ritual that I

perform at the end of every year which

is my yearend review or yearin review

and that's simply a practice that I do

every December where I write about what

happened that year what were the high

points the low points the takeaways the

lessons learned so you can see I have

chosen and linked to the last five years

because I want my coach to take that

into account and to guide and help me

and support me towards achieving those

Things

so now let's head over to Notebook LM

loading up of sources one by one

The Questions

What recurring themes or patterns emerge across these 10 years of writing and introspection?

How have my goals, priorities, or concerns evolved over time?

What strengths are consistently highlighted throughout this material? Which weaknesses?

What challenges or obstacles appear repeatedly? Have I made progress in addressing them?

Are there any contradictions between my stated intentions and my actions or results?

What blind spots or limiting beliefs seem to be holding me back?

How has my language or self-talk changed over this period?

What strategies or techniques have been most effective for me?

Are there any pivotal moments or breakthroughs evident in the sources?

How do my personal and professional development trajectories intersect or diverge?

What patterns emerge in how I respond to success versus setbacks?

Are there any unresolved issues or goals that keep resurfacing?

How has my decision-making process evolved over time?

What values consistently guide my choices and actions?

How do my relationships (personal or professional) impact my growth and challenges?

Based on these notes, when have I been the happiest? Please be specific about moments and situations. Identify what caused the happiness. Be truthful, don't make anything up. If you can't find a specific moment of happiness, don't summarize. Find moments that are surprising.

What might I need to learn in order to improve my life and business?

What is obvious to everyone around me, but doesn’t appear obvious to me?

What is my deepest unmet need?

What are my deepest hopes and dreams?

What are the biggest energy givers & drainers for me?

What are my creative drivers, i.e. the things that fuel and inspire my creativity? Please be as specific as possible, citing examples

In what ways have or could my biggest challenges in life be related to my gifts and creative calling?

What is common for patterns that change vs patterns that keep coming up?

What is the overall tone and approach I take in relationship with myself?

How can you tell the difference between something I genuinely want to change versus something I am in the process of becoming ready to change?

If I were to regret something at the end of my life, what is it most likely to be?

Please summarize who I am at my core, in 3-5 sentences, based on these sources

Based on all my sources, all the questions I've asked in this chat, and your responses, what is your best advice for how I should approach goals and challenges in both my personal and professional life?

What question did I not ask in our conversation, that might yield a novel insight that hasn’t come up yet?

What is obvious to everyone around me but is not to me?

What might I regret most at the end of my life?

coaching is the most powerful

where the value is really the clearest

is when it comes to the future future

goals future projects future decisions

future milestones

What’s your best advice for me?

next I'm going

to ask based on all my sources all the

questions I've asked in this chat and

your responses what is your best advice

for how I should approach goals and

challenges in both my personal and

professional life so this is kind of

like a sweeping request for tell me what

to do give me your best advice based on

everything I've talked about and

everything I've given you interesting

prioritize self-nowledge and

authenticity really asking myself what

do I truly want question the narratives

and stories I tell myself embrace

emotional intelligence and integration

moving towards areas where you feel

shame with curiosity and openness

What important question did I miss asking?

circumstances and the final question is

I want to know if there's any question I

should have asked what question did I

not ask in our conversation that might

yield a novel insight that hasn't come

up yet so I'm specifically asking it for

something that hasn't been addressed

previously interesting so I've expressed

a difference in kind of somatic healing

and somatic exploration so that is a

current interest and it's asking what

physical sensations so very specifically

and recurring bodily experiences might

be offering you insights into your

current goals challenges or

unagnowledged desires

it suggests a apparently like an

existing practice called active body

awareness which I hadn't really heard of

before that specifically and it suggests

throughout your day pause and notice

what physical sensations you're

experiencing without judgment and it

asks these questions so this is an

incredibly I mean this list of questions

I could I could actually sit down and in

five minutes ask one or two of them and

um actively bring this thing called

active body awareness which I hadn't

known about into my routine ... and

actually explore say one of these

questions in more depth and do kind of

like a conversational journaling with

something like Notebook LM and thus make

it not just an intellectual exercise

which I know based on our conversation

is not very effective for me uh but

actually make it a two-way conversation

so that it integrates at a deeper level

[cf. Mark Stahlberg’s The Reunion of Body and the “Old” Soul 7.17.2025]

the fact that it

can hold in its mind in its memory so to

speak such a vast amount of just details

such amount of specifics even more than

I can hold in my head about myself means

that it could pretty effortlessly go

from big picture 10,000 ft view

perspectives immediately and

instantaneously down to the most

specific thing I mentioned in one

sentence of one article or blog post

It's about using what AI and technology is

really good at alongside and in

conjunction with what human beings are

good at which is that personal

relational and intuitive emotional aspect

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