INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS

1 Solution Saturdays

In Business and Life, the First Win Changes Everything

In the early 2000s, NVIDIA made chips for gamers. Fast graphics, smoother frame rates...solid tech, but not revolutionary. They weren’t trying to change the world. But then researchers realized something: those same chips were perfect for training neural networks. By the time the rest of the world noticed, NVIDIA had already earned the most important advantage: developer loyalty. Developers built tools on NVIDIA. Those tools drove adoption. Adoption generated revenue. Revenue fueled R&D. Better products won more developers. That loop never stopped. NVIDIA didn’t...

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What If Your Biggest Problem Isn’t the Problem?

The Lockheed L-1011 and the $0 Fix That Almost Killed 176 People In 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on final approach to Miami when the crew noticed a landing gear light wasn’t on. They circled; checked manuals. They pulled the light out of its panel and replaced it. Nothing. They became so focused on fixing the indicator that no one noticed the autopilot had disconnected. The plane descended unnoticed… and crashed into the Florida Everglades. 101 people died. Later investigations revealed: the landing...

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What’s Slowing You Down Isn’t What You Think

I first discovered Peter Senge (Professor at MIT) while in graduate school, studying management and leadership. The book was The Fifth Discipline, and it quickly became one of those rare books that permanently changes how you see the world. Senge writes about systems thinking—how business problems are rarely isolated, how cause and effect are often separated by time and space, and how the same patterns show up again and again. Just think about your golf swing, trying to convince a friend to make...

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Why Do I Still Use This “Dumb” Productivity Hack Every Day?

I was in my early 20s when my best friend Matt told me to get a copy of Getting Things Done by David Allen. He was right. I tore through the book. And I’ve read or skimmed my highlights at least 100 times since. (Matt's reading advice is always on point.) It’s not hype. It’s practical. And it changed the way I manage nearly everything. One idea from that book still guides me every single day. It’s strange at first, but once it...

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Audit Your Silence: Where Are You Holding Back?

For years, I held back. Early in my career, I taught, coached, and wrote about leadership. I led college student teams, consulted for organizations, and even wrote a regular business column on leadership and collaborated at USC with Dr. Warren Bennis and the Leadership Institute there. It was real work, not theory. But after launching my own marketing company 15 years ago, I slowly convinced myself I no longer had the right to teach or speak into leadership again. So why did...

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A Father’s Day Message on Metrics, Identity, and Leadership

I posted this story earlier this week on linkedin as a short post, but it's worth repeating here as an intro to this article. About 15 years ago, I was sitting in my tiny office, staring at numbers that made me feel like a loser. Cash was tight. Stress was high. I was in the early days of building Expio, and it felt like every invoice was a problem, every spreadsheet a judgment. I remember pacing the room, questioning everything— Did I make...

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Your AI Isn’t Just Artificial. It’s Human. Are You Paying Attention?

The year is 1940. The British government is losing the war. Nazi U-boats are destroying Allied supply ships. Every plan is being intercepted and decoded by Germany’s “unbreakable” machine: Enigma. So the UK assembles a team of brilliant minds at Bletchley Park to break it. Alan Turing builds a machine that becomes the prototype for modern computing. But the movie (The Imitation Game) doesn’t end there. What most people forget: The machine didn’t win the war alone. A team of people operated...

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The 5 Second Rule Isn’t New—But It’s Still an Awesome Hack

In 2011, Mel Robbins gave a TEDx talk that went viral. In 2017, she wrote The 5 Second Rule and turned it into a best-selling book. The idea? Simple. Count backwards—5-4-3-2-1—and act before your brain talks you out of it. It was marketed as a breakthrough. Branded as her invention. Packaged for the masses. And it works. I use it often in combination with this specific breathing hack. Win the moment, win the day. But let’s be honest: It’s not new. The Real Problem → Reinvention...

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AI Won’t Save You If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going

The future of AI, leadership, and personal development still comes down to a handful of timeless principles. I was home for the summer when I found The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People on my dad’s bookshelf. He didn’t hand it to me. Didn’t mention it. Just left it there—spine cracked, notes in the margins. That was the first real framework I ever saw for how to live, lead, and grow with purpose. No hype. No fluff. It changed everything. That day sparked...

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I Talk to Dead People—But Here’s Where I Draw the Line With AI

I talk to dead people. Not literally—but close. I’ve asked AI to help me think like Carl Jung, Emerson, Teddy Roosevelt, or Peter Drucker. I use AI to summarize old blog posts. Punch up headlines. Tighten strategy decks. So —if talking to a machine trained on the ghosts of the internet counts as talking to dead people, I’m guilty. But there’s a line. And this is it: I don’t let AI write my emotional responses to people. Ever. The Real Problem → Outsourcing the Most...

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