Resources to run a better business.

The job market is more employer-friendly than it has been in some time. Many companies, possibly yours, are looking for ways to leverage AI and improve efficiencies. There are many talented people on the market, and for companies that are hiring, it should feel easier to attract and hire top-tier candidates.“Should” being the operative word.

A SWOT analysis is a classic consultant tool for business planning.‍In my experience, it’s also one of the most inefficient.‍I agree with the idea of SWOT—identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. But in practice, the execution nearly always falls short.‍Here are 4 things you can fix today to make a SWOT analysis actually usable in your business.

You have to think big when setting your vision. And you have to think small when running the operations you need to achieve it. Here's how.

Faster decisions aren’t always better decisions. But once the decision is made, acting quickly is often your best bet. The reason we don’t act quickly, of course, is because the action we need to take is challenging in some way. Logistically complicated. Emotionally draining. Possibly causing chaotic ripple effects. Terminating an employee is all three.

2025 felt like a year of transition. I helped clients with everything from dialing in their business models, to rethinking their companies in the age of AI, to considering the “life after exit” chapter of their lives. 2026 is the year of what comes next.

We’re two weeks out from the end of the year. Frankly, it doesn’t make sense right now to give you any new advice. By the time you read this, you’re either in a last-minute pressure-cooker to wrap up before a holiday break…Or you already have one foot out the door. So let’s do something different.

How do you do it? That’s the question I get often from clients and partners. They aren’t asking about how I run two companies, how we landed on the Inc. 5000 list, or even how we help clients grow by increasing their revenue, profit, and valuation. They’re asking about slide decks.

A CEO has ultimate accountability for their business. But they are still just one person, and they can’t manage the stress of the entire company alone. That’s really the point of building the best possible team around you, to help you solve problems and share the load.

Gratitude is a cornerstone of my life. It allows me to wake up every day and feel fulfilled, no matter how packed the calendar is or how many fires I have to put out. But today, I want to talk about something that gratitude can mask: Not setting the bar high enough.