You know what I’m talking about, that thing; the pivotal project or crucial task that could change everything. That’s going to unlock the door to the growth and fulfillment you’ve never had before. What’s stopping you from doing that? It’s not knowledge. We live in a time when there’s more access to information than at any time in history. You’ve got Google, YouTube, online courses… The knowledge you need is available. It’s not time. We know that you have all the time that you want to put toward it. Your busyness is just an avoidance tactic. “Do the thing, and you shall have the power.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Is it clarity? Do you have a clear view of what the next step is; a vivid … [Read more...]

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 then) a “big seven” accounting firm doing consulting. He became a partner at a young age and went on to open the Asia/Pacific office for that firm, running it for several years. He retired when he was young, in his late 50’s, expecting to spend years traveling, fishing, and playing with his grandkids. Unfortunately, he passed away at 62. Rethinking your career As you can tell from our … [Read more...]

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 25% of our waking adult hours are spent at work. We spend a quarter of our lives working. There must be something important about the thing we spend a quarter of our lives doing. I’d expect that you’d want that time to be significant! To mean something.  What does work mean to you? Beyond making a living, why does it matter? Why do you work? If you find a clear answer to that … [Read more...]

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 is enough growth or enough wins? Breaking the cycle The only thing in nature that grows without limits is cancer. Everything else has rhythms of growth and dying back, of breathing out, then breathing in, of rising and falling. As we reach the turn of the season, from summer’s growth to winter’s rest, how can you reflect this rhythm of nature in your own life and work? Where do you need to … [Read more...]

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 a monk travel together for some time, and after experiencing the monk’s insecurity, the robot turns and says, You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that or earn it. You are allowed to just live. Can you take that idea in today? Can you live, just for today, … [Read more...]

In my work with agency owners, the topic of uncertainty comes up constantly. Uncertainty in the sales pipeline. Folks say yes, then back out. Deals drag on without a yes, or a no. Budgets shift. Decision-makers change. Uncertainty with the team. People problems are universal. Good folks disappear on you or just get distracted by life. Can you hire when you need folks? Uncertainty with the market/economy. The post-pandemic market is filled with uncertainty. Will the services our clients loved in 2021 be what they need in 2022? 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 … [Read more...]

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 of our team building and training. We’re just too busy! Everyone is nose to the grindstone all the time. “I think our team is starting to feel like they are just machines and we’re running them too close to the limit!” For the last year, clients who had a solid value proposition and were targeting a receptive market pre-pandemic have been reaping the rewards of lots of new … [Read more...]

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 work! I’ll never forget walking into a client’s conference room all ready to talk about “Lesson 3: Communicating Clear Expectations to your Team,” and the client told me that he had just lost his biggest and longest-held client.  They had fired him that morning.  He didn’t care about “clear expectations” – he was in survival mode, and was grappling with what this meant, not just for his … [Read more...]

On Tuesday, I talked about 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 kind of leader I knew I needed to be! Instead of getting closer to my goal, I felt like I was getting further away. Change doesn’t come from the outside in; we have to work from the inside out. This insight took a long time to take hold for me, but once I started to grasp the difference, so much changed! Instead of changing my behavior (outside-in) I tried changing my beliefs and the way I was looking at the world (inside-out). Instead of trying to do … [Read more...]

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 learned that: As I encountered more humans (prospects, clients, and team members) and tried to get them to work in concert with one another, I had to grow in empathy. I started to want to understand other people, what motivated them, what made them tick? When I failed or came up short, I learned to look at the stories I tell about myself and the world, how they serve me, and my ego, but they might not be … [Read more...]