u/Miserable-Visual-386

This is a repost since other sub took my post down for whatever reason. But yeah I was talking to my doctor about how I can't afford Zepbound out of pocket anymore since my insurance dropped it, and I brought up the idea of just sourcing Retatrutide online so I don't lose my progress. Since Reta isn't even FDA approved yet, she obviously had to give me the standard CYA lecture about how it's an unregulated research chemical, the clinical trials aren't finished, and buying from the grey is super dangerous. But right after doing her legal duty, she literally told me that if she were in my exact situation, she’d be exploring these same exact options too. That really stuck with me. It’s wild that even actual medical professionals clearly understand why we have to go underground for this stuff, even if they can't officially endorse it. Should I just take the hint and make the jump to Reta as long as I'm smart about verifying the third party testing?

I'm an account manager at an ad agency. I handle 12 client accounts. on a normal day I send maybe 80 emails, 100+ slack messages, hop on 5-6 calls, and write recaps for all of them. communication is basically my entire job. over the last year I've built a stack specifically for making all of that faster. ranking from least to most impactful.

8. Spark Mail (free / $8/mo for premium) smart inbox with email categorization. newsletters, notifications, and personal emails get separated automatically. the quick replies and snooze features help but honestly any good email client gets you 80% of what spark does.

9. TextExpander ($3.33/mo) snippets for every recurring email type. ";intro" gives me a client onboarding intro. ";update" gives me a weekly update template with placeholders. saves maybe 30 seconds per email but I send so many that it adds up.

10. Calendly ($10/mo) killed the "when works for you" back-and-forth. clients book on my calendar. buffer times between calls. different meeting types with different durations. simple but removes a lot of friction.

11. Loom ($12.50/mo) async video. campaign performance reviews used to be 30-minute calls. now I record a 5-minute loom walking through the dashboard and the client watches it on their time. response rate is actually higher than with written updates.

12. Granola ($10/mo) AI meeting notes. it listens to my calls and gives me summaries with action items. I used to take notes during calls and miss half the conversation. now I just pay attention and granola handles the notes. accuracy has gotten really good.

13. Willow Voice ($15/mo) voice dictation. I dictate every email, every slack message over a sentence, every meeting recap, every brief I write for the creative team. I talk into whatever app I have open and it types it out.

for account management specifically this is huge. I'm writing to 12 different clients who all have different tones. some are casual startups, some are corporate. my emails to each one come out matching the right tone and I don't think about switching. a client email that takes 3 minutes to compose and type takes about 20 seconds to dictate. over 80 emails a day that's hours saved.

it strips out all my filler words. handles client names, brand names, campaign names, platform names accurately. the iPhone app means I respond to clients from the car between meetings. $15/mo, free tier 2,000 words/week, no android.

2. Claude ($20/mo) I use this for drafting complex client communications, writing campaign strategies, analyzing performance data, and brainstorming creative briefs. the projects feature lets me load each client's brand guidelines and past work so the context carries over. I dictate my prompts through willow which makes them way more detailed.

3. Slack Huddles (free with slack) this replaced probably 10 meetings a week. any thread that's going past 3-4 messages, I start a huddle. 3 minutes of talking replaces 20 minutes of typing. my clients got used to it and now they prefer it too. faster decisions, less miscommunication, and I get time back for actual work.

what tools have improved your communication workflow?

I'm still in the research/consult phase and everything looks fine on the surface. Good before & afters, decent reviews, nothing obviously sketchy. But, I keep wondering if there are quieter warning signs that don’t show up until later.

I hit my goal weight 2 months ago. My doctor said "just keep doing what you're doing." But I'm still losing. Slowly, but losing. I'm now below my goal. If I lower my dose, will the food noise come roaring back? If I space out shots, will I regain? There's no protocol for this. For those who've been maintaining for a year+, what's your actual schedule? Lower dose? Spread out? Both? I'm terrified of messing this up.