Happy Tuesday, Reader! When times get hard and uncertain, our instinct is often to retreat. We stay online because it feels safer than showing up in person with all our messy humanity on display. We avoid the discomfort of real conversations about how we're actually doing. We keep our heads down and try to push through alone. But here's what I'm seeing after nearly 20 years of working with small businesses through multiple economic crises: The small businesses doing best in this moment of...
about 4 hours ago • 2 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Last week, I asked you to name the one thing you need to finish this year well. Now let’s talk about what comes next. As this email lands in your inbox, I’m heading into 2027 strategic planning with one of our client teams. The first question I usually get from leaders new to intentional planning days is this: What should we do before our planning retreat or offsite days to get the most out of that time? I love this question because, the truth is, much of the magic of...
about 4 hours ago • 1 min read
E65: Cordelia Proves a 3x James Beard-Nominated Restaurant Can Also Be a Container for Community. When Craig and I visited Cordelia in Cleveland, the last thing I wanted was to take the server up on their offer to talk to the owner. Restaurant owners have long been some of my least favorite people to talk to. But Andrew Watts was a delight, and our whole evening turned into one of the best lessons on the values, beliefs, and community I've had in years. In this episode, I walk through what...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! Q4 has a way of sneaking up on us, and this year it’s bringing more than the usual year-end rush. Between economic instability hitting our businesses and a tense election season affecting our communities (and maybe even the safety of people we love), many of us are arriving at fall's traditional "completion season" already exhausted. The cooler air carries that familiar energy to finish what we've started. But if you're feeling like you don't have it in you to push...
7 days ago • 1 min read
E64: Mobile Websites Mostly Suck, and That’s a Brand Trust Problem. Here Are 3 Ways to Fix It. Nearly two-thirds of searches happen on mobile, and a bad experience there costs trust and conversions. In this episode, I talk about why mobile websites mostly suck, why we small businesses are part of the reason Google keeps users on its own platform, and why a lazy mobile design is the brand equivalent of poor customer service. The good news is that it doesn't take much to get it right. It just...
11 days ago • 1 min read
E63: Half of America’s New Business Founders Are Women. The Data Can’t Even See Them. The media spent the summer calling the surge in solo businesses a “fake business boom.” I dug into the data and found something else: just under half of new businesses are started by women, in a dataset that doesn't even track gender. Most small business research is built to leave women-owned companies out entirely, and I talk about why that matters. I also share my own path, from solo owner to a 10-person...
12 days ago • 1 min read
E62: I’m too dumb for Google AI Overviews (And so are you.) Most of us are bad at searching and don't know it, and because we expect Google to be accurate, we trust it more than other LLMs. In this episode, I talk about why I stopped trusting them blindly, and why I've started trusting Reddit, Discord, and actual humans over Google. Scan the code to listen. On your phone? Tap the image instead! Google's AI Overviews are confident, familiar, and wrong more often than you'd think. At least one...
18 days ago • 1 min read
E61: Big Tech’s Continued War on Local Business Small business marketing has depended on Google traffic for over 20 years, and this summer, Renia says Google pulled the rug out. The Small Stage, Big Impact podcast is back, and in this debut episode of Season 6, Renia traces her path from the wide-open, organic internet of the mid-2000s through the rise of algorithm-gaming, the diminishing returns she noticed by 2014, and the brand-first strategy she built in response. Then she shows exactly...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, Reader! This is it. Bookings for our 2027 Strategic Planning Retreats close in 24 hours. If you’ve been thinking about our strategic intensives, what’s been holding you back from finding out more? BOOK YOUR FREE INFO CALL Bringing in a third party to help our business is a lot like hiring a contractor for our home. You have to make a cost/benefit analysis. If there are problems with your home’s electrical system, you have to get it fixed. To ignore it is dangerous, the problem...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read