Confucius said: We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one. I talked with an agency owner this month. He was earnest about growing his business. “I’m just going to burn hard on my business for like 10 years, then sell it and enjoy life,” he told me. I…
For me, it started slowly. In the beginning, I reserved Fridays: no client meetings, no commitments. Friday became the day I worked on my business. I was panicked! What would clients say if I told them I couldn’t meet on Friday? No one even noticed. So then I got excited, what if I reserved Mondays…
You have one job to do; you need to keep your business moving forward no matter what is happening in the larger world. But that “larger world” isn’t making it easy! We’ve got a pandemic with an ever-shifting public health response. What support will we get from the government? Who is this going to impact…
Yes, I love it when I can plan my budget for the year and then month-by-month tick off achievement after achievement. That feels great; it builds my confidence and makes me feel so smart! But I don’t learn much during those times. When everything is going great, I tend to get a little cocky and…
When things are shifting and uncertain, it’s tempting to try to think our way out of the uncertainty. If I can get more information; if I can talk to more people, or work out a more through plan… That’s not how uncertainty works. In fact, that’s how our anxious brain works. Our anxious mind runs…
Last week’s email about “Focus increases Traction” produced this response from one reader: I’m prompted by your email about trying to do too many things at once and how much you can get done when you finally focus with a group that will hold you accountable and help you workshop your ideas. Over the last…
Let’s say it was your job to get 3 large stones up a hill. Would you pick up one stone, move it 3 feet, then go back and pick up the second stone, move it 3 feet, and then move the last stone that same 3 feet? Repeating that process over and over until all…
A pattern that I see with agency owners in the growth stage is that they are the biggest reason their firms aren’t making progress. Don’t believe me? How many projects or initiatives are waiting on something from you? Your team is committed to a content marketing plan, but you are responsible for producing (or even…
I have gotten a number of replies to my email about Riding the Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurship. Clearly it hit a nerve with some of you! I wanted to share some of the things that helped to make the roller coaster less taxing. Here’s a few (edited for length): “I’m learning more and more to ask…
Delegate or outsource everything except the stuff you’re awesome at. It allows you to focus on the tasks you’re amazing at. ~Cameron Herold We’ve all heard advice like this. Focus on your strengths. Stay in your “Zone of Genius.” If you’re not good at it, find someone else to do it. There’s one problem with…