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INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS

1 Solution Saturdays
11Oct

The Hidden Danger of Marketing Neglect

For a long time, my default identity as a founder and operator was the fixer of client and team problems, builder and optimizer of client campaigns. Client marketing needs came first. I was always in the game, pushing for results for our clients. Meanwhile, my own brand went silent. Social accounts fell dormant. Emails went unwritten. Website updates lagged. Inbound leads slipped through cracks. I was so consumed with operations, hiring, finance, and delivery that I lost sight of the foundational...

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04Oct

Ask the Magic Question

This Wednesday I wrapped up LiveHard Phase 2. One of the books I finished along the way was Reset by Dan Heath. His work reminded me of a powerful tool from solution-focused therapy that is just as useful in business and life as it is in a counseling office: the Magic Question. The Magic Question has several versions, but goes something like this: "Pretend you go to bed tonight, and while you sleep everything that is stressing you out is solved. All...

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27Sep

The Mean Gets You in the End: Why Consistency Wins, and Regression to the Mean Always Shows Up

A law firm starts posting social content. A healthcare practice starts updating its Facebook and Instagram. An accounting firm starts sending regular emails. A clinic launches a podcast. An engineering firm finally updates its site after five years. In each case, the results are...probably not much. Flatline. Whatever uptick the efforts caused, the momentum fades. And leadership says: “We tried marketing this or that way. It didn’t work.” Let’s pause there. What were you expecting? It's noisy out there and no one really cares...

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20Sep

At Least I Can Win at This Today

The Days That Do Not Go Your Way Some days it feels like nothing clicks. The sales call goes flat. The proposal sits unanswered. The inbox piles up. The people you rely on disappoint you. The scoreboard looks like a loss no matter how you read it. When you are in a stretch like this, the temptation is strong to slip into ruminating or coping. You replay conversations, dwell on failures, and numb yourself with habits that do nothing but make tomorrow...

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13Sep

Good Marketing Pays Rent. Great Marketing Builds Equity.

The Rent You Cannot Avoid Every business leader understands rent. If you stop paying it, the doors close. Your storefront goes dark, people walk by without stopping, and competitors take your place. Marketing works the same way. Good marketing is the rent you pay to keep your business visible. It is the cost of showing up. Without it, you disappear. The problem is that most companies think that paying rent is enough. Many SMBs don't pay it at all or do very little....

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08Sep

The Learjet Lesson: Trust Is Built on Expectations, Not Promises

In 1964, Bill Lear delivered his first jet to a client. It was an instant success. Shortly after, two of his planes crashed under mysterious circumstances. Lear could have looked the other way, blamed the pilots, or let the issue slide to protect sales momentum. Instead, he took a terrifying risk. He personally recreated the problem in the air to find the cause and nearly lost his life doing it. When he confirmed the defect, he grounded every plane, built a new...

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02Sep

The Most Dangerous Gap in Business

When Clients Say “It’s Fine” The most dangerous gap in business relationships isn’t price or quality. It’s expectation(s). Most client breakdowns, whether it’s disappointment, churn, or a slow slide into resentment, come down to mismatched expectations. It's almost never malice. It's rarely incompetence. It's usually two parties assuming they were on the same page… when they weren’t even reading the same book. And the worst part? Clients rarely tell you what’s wrong. They hint. They withhold. They cancel and disappear. The Problem: Expectations Are...

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16Aug

How Growth Can Stall And What To Do Next

A midsize healthcare network had a good problem: Patient demand was rising. They were opening new locations. Appointment slots were filling faster than expected. Word-of-mouth referrals were climbing. But instead of celebrating, the CEO was cautious. She wanted to see “how the numbers looked” before committing to more staff, new equipment, or a tech upgrade. “Let’s wait another quarter before we invest.” Three months later, the wait times had doubled. The call center was swamped. Patients started leaving for providers who could see them...

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02Aug

From Grazing to Gazing: The Invisible System Draining Your Business, Brand, and Attention

In the late 19th century, the vast Texas Panhandle, where I grew up, bore witness to a true story of ranching resilience. The XIT Ranch sprawling across over three million acres, was born from a land deal to fund the Texas Capitol, managed by Chicago investors and local hands. Ranchers drove thousands of cattle onto the open range, each seeking to maximize their herds. For decades, the land supported this growth, but by the 1880s, overgrazing took its toll. The grass dwindled,...

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26Jul

The Escalation Trap: A Tale of Two Law Firms

Today? Outthinking escalation and how to only play the games you can win. What if your competitor (or spouse or whoever) isn’t the problem? What if it's the system you've allowed yourself to participate in? In a mid-size city in Texas, two of the city’s most recognized firms were locked in an aggressive rivalry for the business of a massive company that would be moving into the area. Let’s call them Firm A and Firm B. Firm A ran a massive billboard campaign:...

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