👋 Hey, you made it. Welcome back to Beyond Brief—the spot where big, messy ideas get turned into simple, actionable plays for a richer, smarter, healthier life. 🚀
Quick question: ever copy/paste text from ChatGPT into an email or doc and notice it’s… weird?Like random extra spaces, invisible tags, formatting that makes you look like you’re writing drunk? 🍷 Yeah, same.
So I hacked together a tiny tool to fix it. Paste in your text → it cleans it up instantly.No bloat, no fluff, no tags. Just clean words.
👉 Try it here: Text Cleaner
And if you’re a DIY-er, here’s the exact prompt I used:
i want to create a chat editing tool that allows me to paste in text and remove the additional unnecessary spaces in between words
💡 Use it, bookmark it, thank me later.
This Week at a Glance:
🧠 Notion Agent unlock!
💳 Amex Platinum Review
🚀 Notion Just Leveled Up: Meet Your New AI Coworker
I’ve been a Notion fanboy for years, but this new launch? It’s on another level. Notion just dropped Notion Agent — and it might be the closest thing yet to hiring an army of 24/7 employees who actually know your business.
👉 Here’s the difference:
Notion AI was a helpful sidekick. Notion Agent is a full-on teammate. It doesn’t just draft docs or answer questions — it runs entire projects. Build a launch plan, break it into tasks, assign them, draft docs, update hundreds of pages across databases… all while pulling in context from Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, and even the web.
The real kicker? Memory. Your Agent actually remembers your preferences, your style, and your workflows. Give it an instructions page, and it acts like the coworker who’s been with you for years and gets it.
Ben Levick (Ramp’s Head of AI & Ops) nailed it:
“We can now instantly spin up ready-to-use systems that used to take hours of busywork. Then we use those Notion Agents to power whole new workflows at scale.”
🔥 I don’t think people realize how big of a deal this is.
Here are 10 ways I’m testing Notion Agents across my companies over the next few weeks:
Weekly State of the Biz → Auto-compile sales DB + hiring DB + Slack updates + meeting notes into a company newsletter.
Exec Scorecard → Pre-fill our leadership scorecard with KPIs before every weekly exec meeting.
Seller Agent → After prospect calls, update CRM + draft follow-up emails in my voice.
OKR Memory → Have the Agent remember our exact OKR format and auto-draft new ones on command.
Client Prep → Assemble notes, PRs, and emails into a pre-call briefing doc.
Launch Hub Builder → Spin up full project systems (PRD, sprint board, marketing plan) for new product launches.
Meeting Copywriter → Convert my meeting recordings into social post drafts every week.
Knowledge Researcher → Build briefs on new clients with research + call notes + past playbooks.
Finance Agent → Reconcile actuals vs budget, analyze variances, and suggest next-month forecast tweaks.
Onboarding OS → Auto-generate a new hire hub with week-1 calendar, handbook, and pre-reads.
This isn’t “cool AI toy” territory anymore. This is workflow automation at scale — a true personal ops team built inside Notion.
⚡ Question for you: Want me to break down exact playbooks for setting up some of these Agents in next week’s newsletter?
The AmEx Platinum: Still Flex or Just Tax?
AmEx raised the annual fee from $695 → $895, effective December (business) / January (personal).
In return, you get a bigger stack of perks. Some highlights:
AmEx claims these upgrades add up to $3,500+ in value annually, assuming you use the perks.Who Probably Won’t Benefit Enough
Some folks will struggle to justify $895 — here’s who:
You don’t travel much (or don’t stay in hotels often). If hotel credit & lounges go mostly unused, the card starts looking overpriced.
You don’t use many of the lifestyle perks (Resy, Lululemon, digital entertainment). If those credits are wasted, you’re leaving value on the table.
You can’t use the airline incidental credit (maybe you don’t fly often, or your preferred airline isn’t a “qualifying one”).
You hate managing a bunch of enrollments / “coupon-book” style benefits. If you prefer simpler cards, fewer moving parts.
You already have another premium travel card that covers many of the same benefits (e.g. Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Venture X), so incremental benefit may be marginal.
Value Math / Break-Even Thoughts
Even if you only use the hotel credit ($600), airline credit ($200), Uber & entertainment credits (say $200-300), you’re already at ~$1,000+ in value vs $895 fee — if you’re intentional.
But that requires maximizing. Miss a quarter, don’t enroll in something, don’t travel → drops quickly.
The earning rate (5x on airfare up to $500k, then 1x everywhere else) means this isn’t your go-to for everyday spend outside travel/airfare. It works with other cards (e.g. one for groceries, one for other categories).
Trade-Off vs. Competitors
Comparisons are important:
Chase Sapphire Reserve has a lower fee ($795) but may offer simpler credits & more flexibility in travel credits.
Other cards may beat AmEx in certain categories (grocery, gas) or have easier redemption options.
My Take: Final Verdict
If this were me, I’d get this card if:
I was flying at least 3-4+ trips/year
I stay in hotels part of AmEx’s portfolio (Fine Hotels, etc.)
I use dining / lifestyle / entertainment subscriptions regularly
I don’t mind keeping track of multiple credits / enrollments
If you don’t meet many of those, you might be better off with a slightly cheaper premium card, or using AmEx Platinum selectively (seeing if your spending & travel ramp up so that it’s worth the switch).