I was thinking the other day about my 4th-grade teacher. I was a precocious youngster, and she found a way to pull some of us aside and give us extra challenges. Sometimes, we helped our classmates; other times, she encouraged us to go deeper into a subject we enjoyed. She noticed me and found a…
Start close in,don’t take the second stepor the third,start with the firstthingclose in,the stepyou don’t want to take. ~ An excerpt from Start Close In by David Whyte Last week we talked about uncertainty. When things are changing and we can’t sense a clear direction, small experiments can give us information that can help us to…
After the uncertainty that inflation, layoffs, global conflict, and an endless election season brought to the last 12 – 14 months, I hoped (wished) for increased clarity post-election. Listening to the agency owners I’m in touch with, we haven’t found that, and some are giving up the idea that we will feel like the geopolitical,…
Business is down, so you cut costs and let some folks go. But then, just a few months later, projects come rolling in. Now your team is slammed; they have worked up to their eyeballs. So you dig in with them and help knock out some client work. While you’re head’s down, you miss how…
I scheduled too many things today. Mondays are for thinking and writing, and I knew I had a lot to think about and at least one thing to write about. But two calls had slipped into my schedule. No, that’s not true. I said “Yes” to two calls today. That would have been OK, but…
Silicon Valley venture-capital-funded start-up companies have created a whole world of business advice and jargon to go with it. Much of that advice is irrelevant to the small, privately funded service firm owners reading this! However, one VC concept I find fascinating is “Product Market Fit.” (Or PMF as the tech bros call it.) Because…
For most of us, the start-up phase of our business involved a lot of fear. Speaking for myself, I was terrified that I couldn’t make a living. That every client that hired me would be the last. Or someone would figure out that I was making this whole thing up as I went. That makes…
You might have heard a lot about this concept of Founder Mode recently. (If you haven’t, count yourself lucky, delete this email, and get back to work. You’re living right!) The term grew from a post by Paul Graham about a talk that Brian Chesky gave at a Y-Combinator event. (Again, if you don’t know who those people are or what…
I’ve come to see that the only problem anyone ever has is believing things that aren’t true. ~ Steve Chandler As I talked to this agency owner about growth, she was getting fired up!1 “How much do you think I can grow in the next 12 months? Could I double my fees? Could I triple…
“…the strength of the pack is the Wolf and the strength of the Wolf is the pack.” ~ from Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book Those who know me would tell you about my focus on improving daily. I strive to improve my craft, become a better listener, and grow in my ability to lead myself and influence…