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Mark Coffin
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Mark Coffin is a multifaceted professional with experience in various roles, including Writer, Producer, and Strategist at Sound Good Studio. He is also the founder of his own consulting company, through which he provides clear and persuasive writing services to clients.1
Professional Background
Throughout his career, Mark has held several notable positions:
- Writer, Producer, and Strategist at Sound Good Studio
- Executive Director & Founder at Springtide
- Executive Director (organization not specified)
Consulting Work
Mark Coffin operates his own consulting company, Sound Good Studio, where he specializes in communications projects. His clients seek his expertise for clear and persuasive writing services.1
Artistic Career
In addition to his work in writing and strategy, Mark Coffin has a background in music performance. He has given concerts internationally, including performances in:
- Vancouver, BC
- St. Petersburg, Russia (at The Hermitage)
- Various locations throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall2
This diverse background showcases Mark Coffin's versatility as a professional, combining skills in writing, strategy, and the arts.
Highlights
You can't trust anyone else to take responsibility for your brilliance.
Most adults have been conditioned to wait for others to recognize our value before acknowledging it to ourselves.
The school system reinforces this belief in us.
Most employers reinforce it.
Friends and family reinforce it.
Most people are (as Seth Godin puts it) "waiting to be picked."
A lot of people are out there waiting to be picked by someone.
That someone they're waiting for was probably picked at one point,
By someone else who was picked even earlier.
But most of the people who have found a way to a meaningful life
got there because at some point they picked themselves.
All of them had help, some had privileges and unfair advantages.
But virtually all of them are people who picked themselves
and then found a way to turn their work into a service for others.
If you're still waiting to be picked,
There's a second thing worth recognizing:
Nobody else can be trusted with your brilliance.
Employers will pick you for your utility, your fit in their company, perhaps some feel obliged to hire you...
It could be anything.
They're not required to be honest with you about why they've hired you.
Nobody else can be conscious of your brilliance the way you are.
You've had decades to learn about your own brilliance.
Why would anyone other than you be better suited to determine the best way to shine your light?
Of course, be open to feedback and understanding how you impact people.
But don't let people who try to put you in a box for their own comfort tell you what you do with your own damn light.
The choice is between these two options:
- Waiting to get picked and doing what makes the people around you happy.
Or
- Picking yourself, shining your light and using that light to serve others.
Here are some lyrics from the song "May I Suggest", performed by Red Molly that inspired this share.
"There is a world That's been addressed to you Addressed to you, intended only for your eyes A secret world A treasure chest to you Of private scenes and brilliant dreams that mesmerize A tender lover's smile A tiny baby's hands The million stars that fill the turning sky at night Oh I suggest Yes I suggest to you Yes I suggest this is the best part of your life
There is a hope That's been expressed in you The hope of seven generations, maybe more This is the faith That they invest in you It's that you'll do one better than was done before Inside you know Inside you understand Inside you know what's yours to finally set right And I suggest And I suggest to you And I suggest this is the best part of your life
This is a song Comes from the west to you Comes from the west, comes from the slowly setting sun This is a song With a request of you To see how very short the endless days will run And when they're gone And when the dark descends We'd give anything for one more hour of life May I suggest this is the best part of your life?"
I can't read all of these books.
I won't read them.
Each of these books represents an unrealized dream or desire.
I had the best of intentions when I picked them up.
In this box are:
- books about topics I love,
- stories about the places I've lived,
- books written by my friends,
- books about skills I once imagined mastering.
I've made it a conscious commitment to give away or sell anything that isn't essential to realizing my purpose, service to others, current goals, and life vision.
I live in a tiny space, which is also my primary workspace.
I'm running out of places to put the things that are essential to realizing my desires.
So, it's time to say goodbye to these books.
I'm sharing this because I used to find it incredibly challenging to part with anything I brought into my life.
It felt like giving away a part of me.
But then I realized, I'm not.
I'm giving up the story I was telling myself about who I was.
In this case, the guy who reads all these books.
In earlier cases:
- the guy with the Crosstrek
- the guy with the old radio collection
By giving up these stories, I get to live more of the story of who I actually am.
At present, I have a clear sense of direction in my life.
A few years ago, I didn't.
I understood more about what I didn't want than what I wanted.
So I slowly started giving up things that were cluttering up my life.
Every single time I gave up something that wasn't serving me I found more clarity.
We have limited time, limited space, and limited attention.
None of us will be here forever.
But a lot of us dream like we will.
If we don't make space for what we want, nobody else will.
In fact, other people will put claims on our time, space and attention to get what they want.
I now own about ten books.
I intend to read them.
But if I don't, I know it'll be for the best.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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