They say that you should tackle your most important tasks at the beginning of each day. That way, if things go sideways later, you’ve already accomplished your biggest priority. Which is why, every morning since late 2021, I start my day with Wordle. If you’ve never played Wordle, here’s the gist: Each day, you have six chances to guess a five-letter word. After each guess, the game gives you three colors of feedback: GREY means the letter isn’t in the word. YELLOW means it’s in the word, but...
13 days ago • 2 min read
This week I had three speaking events in 28 hours on opposite sides of the country. Last week I did four events in four cities in five days. It’s the busy season for speakers, and the question I get a lot is, “What about work/life balance?” I love that question, because it allows me to share one of my favorite hot takes: Work/life balance is a myth. It doesn’t exist! At least, it doesn’t exist in the way I often hear people talk about it. People talk about work/life balance as if it is a...
20 days ago • 2 min read
Recently I’ve started asking a question when people sign up for my email list: What's the biggest obstacle keeping you from chasing your ideas right now? The answers tend to fall into two categories. The first is internal obstacles: fear of judgment, fear of failure, or lack of belief in oneself. The second is external obstacles: lack of time, lack of resources, or lack of skills. Internal obstacles are real, and we’ll talk about them in another email. But today’s email is about the external...
27 days ago • 3 min read
I recently had to fire someone for a very good reason. The person was a business coach I’d hired back in September. I was in an incredibly busy season juggling a full speaking calendar and a looming book deadline while trying to maintain a healthy family and home life. Up to that point, I’d been getting by without much structure. Important stuff made the calendar, but everything else got squeezed in wherever there was space. It worked for awhile, but as I got busier, the cracks began to show....
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
A while back, my friend Tom told me about something he was building called “Drop Dead Generous”. It sounded so crazy that I was jealous he had the idea first. Drop Dead Generous is handing out $500,000. Not to one person. To 1,000 people. Each person gets $500, and they have to fulfill three requirements: Use it to do something generous. Be creative and courageous about it. Tell the story so others can learn from it. That’s it. No pitch deck. No performance metrics. No viral optimization....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
This week I learned something that surprised me. Actually, “surprised” isn’t strong enough. It shook me to my core and left me questioning everything I knew. (I’m kidding. Mostly.) Here’s what I learned: The movie Babe was written by the same guy who wrote Mad Max: Fury Road. One is a movie about a lovable pig that wants to be a sheepdog. The other is a post-apocalyptic action flick with characters named “The Bullet Farmer” and “The People Eater”. George Miller, the guy who co-wrote both of...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I’ve met hundreds of aspiring speakers over the years, but the one I met this weekend was different. We grabbed coffee while I was in town for an event, and he asked for advice about breaking into this career. I gave him the usual high-level overview: What works. What doesn’t. The mistakes I made early on. How the industry actually operates. Then on a hunch, I pulled up his website. He speaks on mental health and suicide prevention. Powerful, important work. But as I scrolled, it took me far...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Last night I stumbled across a TikTok video of a woodworker making a really cool piece of furniture. I clicked through to his profile and started scrolling, and I was completely amazed at his creativity and skill. As I scrolled through video after video, I was surprised to see that some of his posts got huge numbers of views while others struggled to get any views at all. But I was even more surprised by my own reaction: I didn’t care at all. This stood out to me because it’s the exact...
2 months ago • 1 min read
I’ve noticed something interesting about people who seem to effortlessly generate great ideas time and time again. It’s not that they’re more creative thinkers. They’re just better collectors. I call it the Pinecone Principle. Stay with me here. Imagine I asked you to bring me a pinecone. Like, right this second. You’d probably be a little confused at first, then you’d scan the room, check your pockets, and tell me, “Sorry friend, I don’t have a pinecone on me.” If you really wanted to be...
2 months ago • 2 min read