Ground Control

A few weeks ago I built an app on a ski lift. People liked the novelty of it. I've been worried ever since that the novelty was the whole takeaway — and that the actual point got lost in the thumbnail. So this episode is the correction. It's not about ski lifts. It's about what becomes possible when you give yourself a hard constraint and stop waiting for better conditions. I walk through the full...

You shipped the thing. Now what? That's the question this episode actually answers — not the version where you pop champagne and watch signups roll in, but the real one. The one where you're staring at crickets, second-guessing everything you built, and trying to figure out if any of that feedback from people who love you actually means anything. Patrick breaks down what "launch" actually meant fo...

There's a version of you that knows exactly what you want to say. You've got the expertise, the experience, the ideas. But the moment you sit down to write, it evaporates. The blank page wins again. This episode is about why that happens — and the tool I built to fix it. I'm officially pulling back the curtain on Ideoloop (Ideoloop.ai), my first solo technical build. It's an AI-powered content cre...

What happens when you give yourself a hard constraint — build something, only while riding a chairlift, only on your phone, done by the time you press the button to start the car? That's exactly what Patrick did two weeks ago at Ski Liberty in Pennsylvania. And it worked. This episode is less of a how-to and more of a provocation. Patrick walks through the ski lift build — a LinkedIn activity trac...

Most founders live in one of two places — lost in the idea, or drowning in the execution. Patrick gets honest about the tension he lives in every day: the pull of the aspirational versus the weight of the practical. In this episode, recorded from home, he breaks down how over-indexing on enthusiasm leads to overcommitment, why he's made peace with doing too much, and how he thinks about ebb and fl...

Baltimore Creators is coming back. Version 2 starts with one thing: Builder Fridays — a monthly, builder-first working session in Baltimore. How it works • 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM: Co-working (focused building time — bring your laptop, your project, your problems) • 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Main session (formats rotate: demos, deep dives, experiments, and more) • Full day runs 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM This is for...

Last week I punted the podcast and newsletter. Not because I ran out of things to say, but because something more important showed up. This episode is about that decision—about when breaking your plan is actually the right strategic move. I spent five days learning Moltbot, a new AI tool that felt intimidating. But I knew if I didn't dive in, the distraction would be worse than the deviation. Thre...

In this episode of the Ground Control Podcast , Patrick Rife discusses the launch of his Blind Spot Finder tool, which aims to help solopreneurs identify and address their blind spots. He shares insights on the challenges faced by individuals working alone, the importance of clarity and orientation in achieving goals, and the value of presence in conversations. Patrick emphasizes the need for self...

I didn’t disappear because I was lost. I disappeared because I could feel myself losing the signal. This is the first episode of Ground Control — a show about the space where internal clarity meets external execution. In this episode, I talk about: Losing trust in your internal compass The tension between depth and building When thinking becomes avoidance Why building became a way back to self-tru...