I do my very best to avoid politics. Especially given that when I was growing up we could have conversations, disagree, and still respect the other person afterward. Now I feel pressure to subscribe to one party or the other.

I see this toxicity at work and I’ve seen it play out within the businesses that I’ve founded as well as the businesses that I have advised over the years.

Somehow we’ve allowed politics to become zero-sum (for me or against me, no in-between). And those that know me or have read anything I’ve written know I think the zero-sum…

I love discovering vision and building strategy. It amps me up! That is what led me to start my first business, grow it to 8-figures, and sell it to tackle my next opportunity.

All that untapped potential inspires me to create and look for patterns and openings. As an independent thinker with a penchant for contrarian thinking, I love to discover what most businesses fail to see. In the world of services, that’s easy to do!

Yet all that work is for nothing if you don’t take the crucial steps to make it a reality. You know — all that…

1. How To Know When You’ve Found a Great Business Partner
2. Why That Big Customer Will Kill Your Business
3. The Art of Management: 3 Tips to Become a Super Effective Manager
4. How Embracing Risk Doubled My Income 5 Times Within 10 Years
5. What You Should Know Before Starting Your Business

I write a weekly newsletter, Better Outcomes, helping service firms align incentives with customers. I grew my last one to 8-figures in annual revenue within 5 years and sold it to spend my time sharing the insights I discovered.

A small town of 8,000 people, in its heyday, surrounded by dairy farms and Amish communities. That’s where I grew up.

My earliest memories are of the trailer park we lived in until I was in junior high. I recall the bus rides to school, stopping at houses, and thinking how rich they were to live in a home without wheels.

Then in junior high, engaged to a farmer, my mom moved us to a dairy farm in a new town and new state. I now lived in an even smaller farming community yet had upgraded to a genuine farmhouse.

…

1. Outcomes Not Efforts
   Customers come to you to achieve something. They don’t care about your effort. Crossing the finish line is different than running in place.
2. Needs Vs Wants
   Talk to your customers. What they want isn’t always what they need. Help them reduce their challenge to its first principles and win their loyalty.
3. Retention Over Net New
   Discover customer risks and help them avoid that fate. New customers are great. Keeping them builds real momentum.
4. Employees Before Customers
   An educated and happy employee will do more for your customers than the slickest campaigns. …

Service businesses are easy to start but notoriously hard to build into multi-million dollar companies. Most exist as 1–2 person operations and never hit seven-figures in revenue.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not bad if it fits their lifestyle. But I’m not talking to that person here. I’m talking to you. You want to build a lasting empire. Something that makes a difference and provides a superior customer experience.

Up until today, you’ve been eager to attract as many customers as you can. Offering an assortment of services, across a range of industries. The very definition of “full service”.

And…

Capitalism works, but we’re ignoring much of its potential

There is a movement within the US to embrace socialism. Yet, it’s a symptom of how we’re failing a generation due…

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was knee-high to a Junebug. Most of my early forays entailed grueling essays on topics I’ve long forgotten. But creative writing was what made me light up. The written word has played an impactful role in helping me unpack my thoughts and experiences ever since.

This became clear following high school when — sparked by some catalyst that now escapes me — I began journaling. It kicked off an introspective journey that led me to pursue creative writing as a minor while I pursued an engineering degree.

Writing was in my future…