A Better Lemonade Stand #330

Insights, trends, & tools to build a better online business.

Author

Richard Lazazzera
May 29, 2025

The builders moving fastest right now aren’t chasing hacks, they’re building systems.

They’re automating their marketing.
Turning AI into co-pilots.
Studying human psychology like it’s a growth lever.
And rewriting their playbooks for a post-SEO world.

This week, we’re diving into:

  • 🧑‍🦰 How vibe marketing systems like N8N are letting solo marketers scale like full teams.

  • 🚨 10 hard lessons from 6 months of AI-powered coding.

  • 🧠 26 mental models to rewire your social brain to create content that lasts.

  • 📉 New SEO rules for staying visible in an AI-first search world.

📈 Trends

💡 Insights

🚨 10 Hard Lessons from 6 Months of Vibe Coding

Most devs dive into AI coding with high hopes, but real shipping speed doesn’t come from better prompts. It actually comes from leading the machine.

This Reddit builder spent 6 months solo-vibing full-stack AI apps with Cursor, GPT, Supabase, and Vercel, and nearly rage-quit more than once.

What they learned could save you hundreds of hours:

  1. Start Like a PM: Before you even touch Cursor, write a PRD (product requirements document). What are you building? Why? With what tools? Keep it in the root. This is your AI compass.

  2. Short Chats > Long “Smart” Ones: AI = toddler with scissors. Don’t hoard 400-message threads. Open a new chat for every issue, keeping instructions concise and clear.

  3. Scope Before You Touch Anything: Brainstorm features in the Cursor GPT first. Pick one approach. Then execute in Cursor. Don’t wing it in dev mode.

🧠 26 Ideas to Rewire Your Social Brain

Social media is chaotic, unpredictable, and often exhausting to create for.

But it’s also one of the most powerful brand-building platforms—if you approach it like a craft, not just content.

Rachel Karten’s Social Media Creative Companion is basically turns years of real-world social experience into 26 sharp, honest, and useful mental models.

Here’s what stood out:

  • Viral isn’t a goal, it’s a culture. You need trust, risk appetite, and creative freedom to go viral—not just a trending sound.

  • The first 5 seconds are everything. Don’t write the caption first. Write the hook. If it flops, nothing else matters.

  • Ordinary = extraordinary. The behind-the-scenes stuff you think is boring? That’s what your audience loves. Show it off.

  • Best practices don’t save bad ideas. You can follow every algorithmic rule and still flop. Idea first. Tactics second.

📉 AI Overviews Are Killing Your Traffic

Google’s AI summaries are stealing the click — slashing organic CTR by up to 35%. But this doesn’t mean SEO is dead.

It just means the rules changed.

Here’s how to keep winning:

  1. Track Conversions, Not Just Traffic: Leads > pageviews. Think demo requests and email signups.

  2. Cover Every BOFU Angle: Don’t stop at “[X] vs [Y].” Hit “alternatives,” “top tools,” and “best software” too.

  3. Map CTAs to Funnel Stage: Use TOFU/MOFU/BOFU CTAs that match intent — not blanket “learn more” buttons.

🧰 Apps & Tools

🗣️ GleoAI: Say the right thing, at the right time—every time. Practice real conversations, get instant feedback, and stop blanking out in meetings.

📊 DeckSpeed: Make slides like you're chatting with an assistant. No templates. No drag-and-drop.

🧬 Illustrae: Turn ideas into illustrations—fast. Sketch it, type it, or snap a photo, and Illustrae transforms it into clean, publication-ready visuals.

🎙️ Distro: Hop in the studio, chat out your ideas, and Distro turns it into newsletters, posts, and more—without sounding like a robot.

🪙 Refgrow: Add a referral program to your SaaS or product inside your app in minutes—no Zapier chains or clunky dashboards.

🧙‍♂️ Tabs Magic: Drag, drop, color-code, and group your browser tabs like a boss—with collapsible columns and due dates.

🤖 Product Updates

🧠 OpenAI’s New “Codex” Is Like a Dev Assistant

OpenAI just dropped Codex — an AI assistant that lives in the cloud and works inside your software projects.

Even if you’re not a developer, here’s what that means:

  • It reads your code and understands your goals

  • Suggests improvements or fixes issues automatically

  • Can run tasks in parallel — like managing a team of mini-AIs

  • Doesn’t need to run on your laptop — it's cloud-based, so it works while you do other things

This is the future of building software: less typing, more delegation.

🛠️ Figma Config 2025: 5 New Features That Redefine Design

Figma just dropped 5 updates.

Here’s what it means for builders:

  • Grid + Freeform Layouts: Autolayouts just got way more flexible with new grid-based snapping and adjustable columns/rows.

  • Figma Draw: A new brush-based mode that feels like Procreate inside Figma. Finally, a way to add organic hand-drawn flair.

  • Figma Buzz: Turn your team into on-brand content machines. Bulk-create templates, lock elements, and publish assets fast—ideal for marketing, events, and internal design requests.

🎨 Canva Just Shipped 40+ New Features

Canva dropped a huge update packed with user-requested tools to help you design, teach, and present faster—with zero learning curve.

What’s New:

  • Multi-page websites: Build entire scrollable sites using Canva docs, whiteboards, and more.

  • Magic Write for presenter notes: Let AI auto-generate talking points for your slides.

  • Interactive quizzes: Instantly turn slides into engaging quizzes with one click.

🖇️ Everything Else

🧠 OpenAI’s New Model Guide: Confused about GPT-4.0, 4.5, 03, or Mini High? OpenAI just dropped a simple breakdown explaining which models to use and when. (👉 A Must-Read if You’re Juggling Models Daily)

📝 Wikipedia Adds AI — But Keeps Humans in Charge: The site now uses generative AI to help editors with tedious tasks like translation and onboarding.
(👉 See How Wikipedia Is Using AI)

🔄 Thinking of Pivoting Your Content: Keep your existing account, test new angles, and communicate with your audience. Most of the time, it’s about evolving—not resetting. (👉 Don’t Nuke It, Remix It)

🎨 Design Entered Its Vibe Era: Designers aren’t just sketching wireframes anymore—they’re using AI to code by feel with tools like Bolt, Lovable, and Figma Make.
(👉 Design Like It’s 2025)

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