Audio learning for the time you have
A train journey, a walk to work, the time between client visits. Make room for something you want to understand.
Catalyst is an iPhone app with structured audio lessons. Choose a subject, follow a sequence and let the next lesson build on what you already know.
Start with the app’s free introductions, or unlock the catalogue with a subscription. See plans.
One subject. A useful sequence.
Room to think.
Learning that connects to your day
Perhaps you’re travelling to a customer who wants a lower price. Or you understand the technical solution but find the business conversation harder. That gives your listening a purpose.
A path follows one subject across several lessons. You can stay with commercial thinking, communication or sales long enough to work through the ideas in order. You don’t have to choose a new topic for every journey.
Work is one place to begin. The catalogue also includes philosophy, relationships and financial independence. Choose something that matters to you, whether or not it belongs in your job description.
A practical 10–20 minute routine
Open a path and choose the next lesson before you set off. Give it a specific purpose: “What would make this improvement valuable to the customer?” is enough. You don’t need to solve the whole meeting.
Listen for how the example works and which conditions matter. Give one idea some room. If the journey ends before the lesson does, you can return to the rest later; finishing everything today isn’t the goal.
When you’re safely stopped, explain the idea in a sentence. Then write one question you could use at work. If something is still unclear, revisit the lesson text before moving on.
Ten to twenty minutes is a suggested listening window, not the length of every lesson. Choose and control playback before driving; keep your attention on the road and leave notes or exercises until you are safely parked.
Try the idea · Commercial thinking
Imagine a manufacturer whose machine makes 60 components an hour. A replacement could make 75. But the next stage, packaging, can handle only 55.
The replacement improves machining capacity. With everything else unchanged, it doesn’t increase the rate of finished, packaged components available to ship. Running the faster machine at full capacity would leave more components waiting for packaging.
The improvement might still be useful. Perhaps the extra capacity creates time for maintenance. But that is a different benefit, and it needs its own evidence.
“What is preventing the customer from getting more finished work out today?”
That is a useful question to carry into a conversation once you arrive. It moves the discussion from the equipment’s specification to the customer’s situation, without assuming you already know the answer.
Adapted from the fictional example in Lesson 1 of From Technical Expert to Commercial Thinker. The path has seven lessons of 10–15 minutes each, with 89 minutes of audio in total.
Read the original lesson excerptThree places to begin
For technical work with commercial consequences
Connect a technical improvement to business value. Work through customer economics, assumptions and the trade-offs behind a recommendation.
7 lessons · 10–15 minutes each
Included with paid catalogue plans
For a conversation you need to have
Separate an observation from your interpretation, listen for the actual problem and turn a concern into a practical request.
7 narrated lessons
Available in the app
For understanding the customer’s problem
Start with what sales involves. Follow the customer’s problem through asking, listening, an honest no and building trust over time.
7 narrated lessons
Available in the app
Making it fit
Start with your next question
Explore Catalyst’s audio lessons and choose a path for the journey ahead.
Prefer to read a lesson first? Try the free Stoicism sample.
