When Life Gave Me Lemons I Got Busy

I want to tell you about today.

This morning someone handed me a lemon. A small one in the grand scheme of things - but it stung in that particular way that only happens when it comes from people you've shown up for.

I sat with it for a few minutes, got a little angry, and then did what I always do.

I got busy.

What I Built Today

I've been planning a NotebookLM workshop for May 27th. I've run workshops before - slides, screen share, the usual. They work. But they've never felt like me.

Today I decided to fix that.

I build virtual spaces on a platform called Rippily. And today I asked myself a question I'd never asked before:

What if the workshop room didn't just host the learning - what if it WAS the thing being learned?

The Room IS NotebookLM

NotebookLM is a Google AI tool that lets you load your own sources - books, articles, PDFs, YouTube videos - and have a conversation with them. Instead of reading six books cover to cover, you talk to all six at once. It pulls answers from your sources, shows you the exact passage it pulled from, and never makes things up.

I wanted participants to feel that before I said a single word about it.

So I built a room that looks like you're standing inside NotebookLM.

The back wall is a floor to ceiling glowing bookshelf - your sources, lit up and waiting. The left wall is the live chat interface. The right wall is the Studio panel. The ceiling is a constellation of neural connections - what it looks like when ideas from six different books start talking to each other.

Every wall has a purpose. Every element is interactive. The room reveals itself as the learning unfolds.

And through the windows? Lake Louise. Because I'm Canadian and I do what I want.

The Moment

My Grade 9 science teacher once stood on his desk and said "this classroom is a cell. The paint is the cell membrane and we are all cytoplasm."

I never forgot that lesson.

That's what I built today. A room where you don't watch someone explain a tool. You stand inside it.
Have you ever used NotebookLM and wondered what it would actually feel like to be inside it?

There's one moment near the end of the workshop where something happens in the room that I genuinely cannot wait for people to experience. I'm not going to tell you what it is.

You'll have to come and see.

The Workshop

TechAlchemy101 runs on the third Wednesday of every month. Each one covers a different tool for creative brains and neurospicy founders who are done being overwhelmed by technology.

The NotebookLM workshop is May 27th at 3pm Eastern. It's free.

Register here: TechAlchemy101 NotebookLM

One More Thing

To the people who handed me the lemon this morning - no hard feelings.

These things happen.

But here's what also happens - sometimes the lemon is exactly what you needed to get moving.

The silence didn't make me smaller.

It reminded me who I actually build things for.

Not bad for a rough morning. 🍁

Until next time friends...

Originally posted on my blog: Artemisnorth.com