My father had what many would say was a very successful career. He graduated from college with an Industrial Engineering degree and went to work in a management role in a factory. But he wanted more from life than that, so he entered a part-time MBA program that led to a job with (what was…
Life is short. The life expectancy of college-educated Americans is 78.8 years. Take off 20 years for childhood, and our adult life is about 515,088 hours. If we sleep for a third of those hours, it leaves us 339,958 hours. If we work for 40 years at about 40 hours per week, that’s 80,000 hours or…
Hi, my name’s Brad, and I’m addicted to achievement. I love to get things done. I love the feeling I get when my business is going well when I’m closing new deals and seeing progress with my clients. But when I know there’s another endorphin hit just around the corner, when do I stop? What…
I read a remarkable book recently that I can’t stop thinking about. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a short, beautifully written story that imagines a future in which humans set the robots free for 200 years and then come back into contact again. One quote, in particular, has stuck with me. A robot and…
In my work with agency owners, the topic of uncertainty comes up constantly. We’re always looking for ways to reduce uncertainty. Why can’t we get a solid forecast from our sales team or better estimates from the production folks? But no matter how accurate we make our forecasts, intuitively we know they are either lucky…
I got on the phone with a client this week; this is what I heard… “We’re busier than we’ve ever been, we’re booking more projects, bigger projects, and more of them with our ideal clients, that’s the good news!” “The bad news is all that new business has really impacted our culture! We’ve canceled most…
There are lots of folks who will sell you a “9 step process for growing your business quickly so you can retire early”. (Spoiler Alert: It’s going to involve buying a lot of FaceBook ads!) Heck, I even wrote a curriculum that I used with some early clients to make them better CEOs. That doesn’t…
On Tuesday, I discussed how my journey to grow my business required more than hard work and book learning. I tried working harder and reading all the right books, but I still wasn’t seeing all the success I wanted. I also wasn’t the leader I knew I needed to be! Instead of getting closer to…
Building a business is hard work. There’s lots to do and lots to learn. But if it was just “work hard,” most of us could handle that. I gave “working all the time” a try, but I learned that growing a business is more than just putting in the hours. As my business grew, I…
On Tuesday, we talked about the frustrated owner who had set herself up to be the problem solver, the person that everyone brought all the crises to so that she could solve them. I find that when folks set themselves up with that (very overwhelming) job in the office, they also set themselves up in…