Eric Yim · Work · 20 answers
A product, a publication, and a growing body of work with service business owners.
Explore questions 81–100 ↓
Protocol is where the pieces of my work come together. We are building a marketing experience that begins with something simple: an owner sharing what happened. The product helps carry that into a draft they can review and a story someone else can discover.
The publication is another part you can explore. I interview owners and write about the people, decisions, and care behind their services. Those stories show the kind of understanding I want our work to begin with.
Protocol grew out of CleanOS. In June 2026, I was one of five people on the CleanOS team that won Nebraska Startup Weekend. That was an early chapter. Today, my focus is turning the idea into a useful, ongoing relationship with service business owners.
The questions below collect examples, lessons, and things I’m working to make repeatable. You can also explore the product and read the published owner stories for yourself.
Work · 81–100 of 100
Question 81
One example I return to is an owner who makes balloons and cakes for celebrations. The first description was the product. As we talked, we found the meaning behind the celebrations and what she wanted people to experience. That gave us a much clearer story to tell about her work.
Question 82
We started with a service category: balloons and cakes. Through the conversation, we could explain the experience behind them and the care the owner wanted people to feel. The change was visible in the story itself. It gave someone discovering the business more to connect with than a list of products.
Question 83
I’m proud that Protocol has grown from the CleanOS idea into something people can explore and use. In June 2026, I was one of five people on the CleanOS team that won Nebraska Startup Weekend. Today, the work continues through Protocol’s product and our conversations with service business owners.
Question 84
The emotional response to a story surprised me. I expected clearer words to help someone communicate. I did not expect how much it could mean to have another person reflect their work back to them. Those conversations made me see how the story can matter to the owner too.
Question 85
An owner told me they would come back to the story when they needed to remember why they were doing the work. That stayed with me. I think about it when I’m explaining why a careful conversation matters: the result can help the owner see value in something they have been carrying for years.
Question 86
The feedback that stays with me is about feeling understood. When someone recognizes their own experience in the story and wants to share it, that tells me we found something meaningful. Those are the moments I want to build on as we keep improving Protocol.
Question 87
I want the first thing they notice to be that the work sounds like them. Their values, their service, and the details they care about should be recognizable. The next thing should be how clear the process feels: they know what to share, what they are reviewing, and what happens next.
Question 88
Confidence is one of the things I have seen grow through a conversation. An owner can talk about their work as if it is ordinary, then hear it reflected back and realize it is worth sharing. That response matters to me because the person has to feel comfortable putting their name on the story.
Question 89
I have been meeting local owners and writing stories about them without charging for the article. The starting point is a conversation and the work they already do. That lets me give something useful, learn about the business, and build a relationship through the work itself.
Question 90
I’m still learning the balance between caring about a product and trying to make it perfect. I have a lot of opinions about the small details, and I think those details matter. But I have also learned that real feedback needs to come earlier. The trial and error is in knowing when to keep refining and when to show someone and learn.
Question 91
One thing that has not worked well for me is spending too long perfecting something before getting validation. I can make progress on the product while avoiding the question of whether it solves the right problem. The change I’m trying to make is to show the work earlier and stay closer to the people it is for.
Question 92
The mistake is thinking I can answer every important question inside the product. Some questions only get answered when I talk to a customer or put something in front of them. I still want to build something good. I’m learning that listening and testing are part of making it good, not steps that happen after I finish.
Question 93
Using AI for my own research changed how I think about discovery. I can bring a question and explore the details in a conversation. That experience made me pay closer attention to whether a business has explained enough about itself for somebody else to understand and recommend it thoughtfully.
Question 94
I put time into personal conversations even while building with AI. Those conversations have helped me uncover details about an owner that I would not have understood from a service list. That is part of the approach I want to carry forward: technology handling more of the preparation, with people shaping the meaning.
Question 95
You can explore Protocol at protocoltext.com and read the owner stories on protocolsite.com. Those are two concrete parts of the work: the product that supports ongoing marketing and the publication where we put careful conversations into words. Together, they show what I’m trying to make practical for service businesses.
Question 96
People have trusted me with the stories behind their businesses, including things that are personal to them. That matters to me because I am being asked to represent more than a list of services. I need to listen carefully, make sure I understood, and give them a chance to correct how the story is told.
Question 97
I’m helping build Protocol: the product, the experience around it, and a publication that tells service business owners’ stories. That work grew out of CleanOS and the website and software projects we did earlier. It is a team effort, and I care about connecting the technology with the people it is meant to serve.
Question 98
I want a local business owner’s story to reach someone who has a real reason to care. The owner feels accurately represented, and the customer discovers a service that fits their needs and values. I want to make those thoughtful introductions possible more often, without asking the owner to become a full-time marketer. That is the outcome I want our product and our work to keep supporting.
Question 99
Look at the work together: the way we understand an owner, the story that comes out of the conversation, and the product that makes the next step easier. Protocol brings those pieces into one ongoing relationship. The strongest demonstration is a real owner’s story beside the experience that helped them share it.
Question 100
I would show an owner’s finished story, then explain the conversation that helped us get there. The balloons-and-cakes example stays with me because we moved from a product description to a much richer understanding of the person behind it. That is what I want Protocol to make possible for more owners.
Nebraska Today · March 2023
A profile of the student organization Eric started at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Silicon Prairie News · June 2026
The five-person CleanOS team won Nebraska Startup Weekend in June 2026. Eric’s work on that idea continues today as Protocol.
Southeast Community College · Business directory
The college lists AHXE Labs with Eric Yim among its current suite businesses.
The difference between writing down what a business sells and understanding why it exists.
How I’m learning to balance a long view with the work that needs to happen today.