Happy Tuesday, Reader! If you've been following along these past two weeks, you've done some important work. I've shared tools for reconnecting with your people and taking a hard look at the systems carrying your business forward. Today, we complete The Alignment Trinity™ with what may be the most fundamental element of all: our habits. As a quick reminder, sustainable and resilient business growth requires a critical alignment of people, systems, and habits. When people are aligned, they can...
6 days ago • 4 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! What progress have you made on your 2026 plan so far? If your answer is somewhere between "some" and "it's complicated," you're not alone, and you're not behind. What you probably have is a systems problem. Specifically, systems that were built for a reality that looks very different from the one we're all operating in right now. Last week, we talked about your people, the stakeholders who make everything possible. This week, we're building on that foundation with the...
13 days ago • 3 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Right now, small and micro-business leaders are facing a particular kind of pressure. One that's economic, yes, but also deeply personal. The markets are shifting, policies are changing, and many of us are watching the ripple effects show up in our businesses and in our communities at the same time. It's a lot to hold. And yet, here we are, still showing up, still building. Last week, I shared the foundation of sustainable business growth: The Alignment Trinity™. When...
20 days ago • 3 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! There’s no question that every small- and micro-business leader is having to make tough decisions right now about how best to serve their team, customers, and community. But this is not the first time we’ve faced economic uncertainty, which is why I know sustainable business growth is still possible—and perhaps more necessary than ever. Sustainable growth means evolving, changing, and blooming over time without burning people out. For a business to have sustainable...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! I started writing about the uncertainty in our current market last year. And to say it’s gotten even more tumultuous might be an understatement. The early days of the pandemic are still fresh in many of our minds, and some of us were around to navigate the Great Recession of 2008-2009. But for many small businesses, what's happening now with tariffs, inflation, and shifting consumer confidence is hitting differently. It's not just supply chain chaos. Your customers'...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! If you're like most founders I work with, the word "networking" might make you cringe a little. It's earned a reputation that conjures images of forced conversations, uncomfortable self-promotion, and that nagging feeling that you're just using people for personal gain. And, coming across as “salesy” in the current market can make you seem out of touch, at best. But what if networking could feel different? What if it could help you build a community that sustains your...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! If you've been around here for a while, you know we keep a running list of DIY business tools and resources on our website. These are things we've personally tested and actually recommend. We update it regularly, which means we also regularly pull things off when they stop delivering. This spring, we did a refresh. A few tools that hadn't lived up to their promise got the boot, and two new ones earned their spot. Both of them are AI-powered and genuinely useful for...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! The bro marketers of Big Tech have spent the last decade selling us on the dream of frictionless everything. Fewer clicks, fewer steps, fewer moments of discomfort standing between you and whatever you want. And most of us, if we're being honest, have figured out by now that a life with the friction dialed all the way down is a lot less interesting and joyful than advertised. (Get your mind out of the gutter, we’re not going there today!) For our final week of living at...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! We've spent the last few weeks holding some hard "ands" together: resist and reconnect, Placebinding™ and globalization, scale and sustainability. This week's “and” might be the most defining one of our professional lives right now. Let’s talk, again, about AI and humanity. AI isn’t a technology we get to uninvent. We must learn to live with it. One of my favorite, not-to-be-named app developers and podcasters has been making a lot of noise lately about running an...
3 months ago • 2 min read