George Floyd’s death was just nine days ago. Since then, our country has been in turmoil. We’re trying to understand why it happened, and why it keeps happening—and then trying to appreciate the reactions of the protesters, and deal with the reactions of the politicians, and the police. I wish I could just turn it…
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to you about a conversation I had with my coach, where she asked me, “When are you going to stop treating your body like a rental car?” It was a wake-up call for me when she asked the question several years ago, and yet, in my email a…
This week my wife assigned her nieces and nephews some homework. She asked them to write two letters to the Coronavirus. In one, she wanted them to start, “I hate you coronavirus…” and then write down all the crummy things that happened since the shutdown. In the second letter, she asked them to start with,…
There’s a lot of stress and fear right now. I feel the anxiety in every call! Where have all the clients gone? How long will this last like this? What’s next? No matter how successful your business was eight weeks ago, you’re going to have to make changes this year. You can do it out…
“When are you going to stop treating your body like a rental car?” When my coach said that to me a few years ago, it stopped me dead in my tracks. “What do you mean, treat my body like a rental car?” “You only have one body, Brad. You can’t just turn it in at…
I’ve talked to a lot of business owners this week and heard a lot of different stories. Some are fielding record numbers of new business requests; others had seen their business drop by 50% or more. Some who don’t know anyone who had suffered from the virus, others who had seen friends and family members…
We’ve talked about my “boss” before, right? He’s a total nut job, always making commitments with unrealistic deadlines. He’s terrible at looking at a to-do list and having any idea of how long it’s going to take to complete that work. It’s his fault that I’m writing this email at a quarter of eight at…
I spent time Friday and Saturday talking with my sister about her daycare business. On March 1st, she was taking care of kids for 121 families; she’s got 5 families dropping kids off as of April 1st. We worked through the process of laying off all of her staff. “I feel like I’m starting over…
I’m starting an occasional series where I talk about some of the lies I hear from the business owners that I speak to. They don’t always know that they are lying to me, but over time, I’ve come to hear these phrases as lies. Today we start with this one, “Sure, I’m a workaholic. I…
It’s that time of year when the days are short, our houses are full, and our work is done (or as done as it’s going to get). I’m going to take some time off so you won’t be hearing from me again until 1/7. It’s my sincere hope that you are also taking some time…