This is my 52nd essay of 2025. I showed up every Sunday. I showed up on the Sundays when I knew exactly what I wanted to say. And I showed up on the Sundays when I wasn’t quite sure what to say. Because showing up isn’t about being perfect or having it all figured out, it’s about contributing. Your people … Read More
Why do all the loners hang out together
I just got back from a trip to 1995. Through the power of my magic snowblower, and a fully charged set of Airpods, I spent an hour listening to some of my alternative rock favorites from the early 90’s while clearing copious amounts of frozen precipitation from my driveway. Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana… They were … Read More
Are you waving this leadership red flag?
If you find a leader who thinks they can maximize their potential without correction and encouragement from others, run. And if YOU are that leader, it’s time to stop holding yourself back. Because your blind spots are, by definition, things you will never be able to see on your own. No amount of self awareness will ever reveal your blind … Read More
The pain is absolutely necessary
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the pain is necessary. Think about the most meaningful, positive changes you’ve made in your life. Now imagine you have two buckets in which to collect these important inflection points. One bucket is labeled “I did it because it just seemed like a good idea.” The other bucket … Read More
I just can’t do this
A friend recently sent me some songs and asked me to play drums on them. Along the way he sent a few reference tracks, finished songs from popular artists that could illustrate the mood he wanted me to capture. I listened to one of them and then told him: I can’t do that. I offered alternative approaches I could effectively … Read More
Be the same person every day
Here’s a suggestion you never knew you needed: Be the same person every day. You can change and grow over time, but your people need you to lead with a consistent demeanor day-to-day. Don’t be a fun uncle/aunt one day and a strict parent the next. Don’t rally the troops around a great idea only to completely shift gears in … Read More
I do Only Fans every day
I want to tell you a short story about something I do every single morning. I like to take hot showers as soon as I wake up, but doing so pumps a lot of moisture into the air. So I need to run the fan in my bathroom for a while to pull that wet air out of the house. … Read More
It’s time to make COMPARISON a super power
Comparison gets a bad rap. And I think it’s because we’re thinking about comparison all wrong. The problem most of us have with comparison isn’t really about comparison at all. Without comparison we literally can’t know what better looks like. Our problem with comparison lies in what we compare ourselves to. And why. We’ve convinced ourselves that, “comparison is the … Read More
The truth was bad, but the lie was worse
So there I am. Minding my own business. Just listening to the new White Reaper album. Bothering absolutely no one. And then it happened… The end of the song “Blink” hits me with the lyric, “the truth was bad, but the lie was worse,” and I had to sit down and write about it. And because I’m feeling generous today, … Read More
Are you a Leadership Frankenstein?
I don’t know why I didn’t see this sooner. I record my podcast using a Shure SM7B microphone. The Shure SM7B is an incredibly popular microphone for podcasters and I think most people use it because most people use it. It looks like a professional broadcast microphone, it sounds great, and, oh by the way, you’re going to see one … Read More
Unlocking horizontal leadership
No one told him to do it, but it was such a brilliant expression of leadership. One of my favorite things to see on a baseball field is not something you’d ever expect. If I gave you 162 guesses, I’m absolutely certain you’d never guess it. It’s not a grand slam. It’s not a triple. It’s not a bunt to … Read More
No more boring mistakes
I need to clear up some confusion. The goal is not to make more mistakes. That goal is to make more interesting mistakes. Because making the same mistakes over and over again is also known as “incompetence.” Making mistakes can be a valuable pathway to growth, but growth implies that those mistakes teach us something so that we can move … Read More
Every Impossibly Effective leader does this
I was on the verge of a long night of peaceful sleep when this realization yanked me from my slumber and refused to let go of me. Every Major League Baseball player works on the fundamentals of baseball every day. They hit, they throw, and they catch. Before every single game. They are the best of the best. The top … Read More
These words are leadership magic
“You’re the first person to say ‘please’ today.” It was after 6PM and the guy behind the meat counter at my local grocery store hadn’t heard the word “please” yet during his nearly completed shift. “That’s a rough streak,” I replied. “I mean, I can’t say ‘no’ if they don’t say ‘please’, but, you know…” I translated his incomplete sentence … Read More
Enjoy the rain!
What she said was so backwards. And yet I couldn’t believe I had never heard it before. I was walking through Costco on a particularly rainy Saturday morning when I heard a worker conclude an interaction with a customer by saying, “enjoy the rain!” The person was being wholly genuine and my attention was immediately captured because I don’t think … Read More
Why do I feel like somebody is watching me?
I was at an event recently and ran into a former leadership student I hadn’t seen in ages. I was really excited to cross paths and I asked them how they were doing after all this time. They laughed, told me they were well, and said they feel like they “see me” all the time because they get these messages. … Read More