Over 30 years of business insight in one place.
I've been a business owner for over 30 years. I was a remote CEO starting in 1993. I've been a coach helping other owners learn from my mistakes since 1995. Since 2006 I've been posting, writing, making videos and tools for my clients. In my semi-retirement I'm putting all that stuff here in a (mostly) organized fashion for free.
Marketing & Sales
Systemize Your Marketing
February 8, 2025
Read this Before you Hire an Agency - or a Person. [Warning - this post will be nerdier than usual.]. The Output of Marketing is Leads. SOURCE: And leads are the input to your sales system. To systemize your production…
People
Why I Hate the NPS Score for Employee Surveys
January 25, 2025
You Need Actionable Insights not a Number. TL; DR You absolutely should survey your employees because an anonymous survey will tell you things that you won't learn otherwise. The goal of course, is happy, engaged employees, who do good work…
CEO Mindset, Goals & Vision
Why Revenue is a Terrible Way to Score a Company
January 21, 2025
A presentation I made to Sagan Passport about the best metrics for a company.
Organizational Design, Output Thinking, People
Management & Output Thinking (book summary)
January 18, 2025
A presentation to TRIBE about Output Thinking and the Three levels of Management. Knowing the different outputs managers at different levels must produce. Makes your company more productive and easier to scale.
CEO Skills, Organizational Design
The Problem with Good Judgement
January 12, 2025
Here's How to Fix it. Humans are great at making quick judgements. Discernment may be one of our superpowers as a species. We immediately come to conclusions about what's going on and what needs to happen next. We say people…
Growth & Plans
It's Time for the Time Skeleton
December 28, 2024
It's a Planning Tool not a Halloween Costume. This is an update of a blog post I did in 2019. Source. One of the two great tensions in life is between the short term and the long term. Another way…
CEO Skills, Organizational Design
Do you need a VA, PA, AA, EA, or CoS?
December 8, 2024
What's up with all the letters? I've been working with a few clients recently who are hiring their first assistant. It's hard for some people and I get why. I imagine it's kind of like having a butler or a…
Advisor Stack
Don't Follow My Advice
November 24, 2024
Take it. But Don't Follow It. Take My Advice. But don't follow it. I spent many years mentoring start up founders and I always warned them about mentor whiplash. That's when two mentors with similar credentials would give them opposite…
Growth & Plans
When Are You Working For?
November 17, 2024
That's a weird way to say it. Here's why. If I'd asked, "WHAT are you working for?" I'd be inquiring about the results (the outputs) you intend to produce. If I'd asked, "When are you working?" I'd be inquiring about…
Owners
The Most Important Output From Your Company
November 3, 2024
It involves a genie! The most important output of your company is not profit, free cash flow or even satisfied customers. It's what your company provides to you - the owner. Why is that the most important? Because it's why…
CEO Skills
Frequency is the Key to Freedom
October 27, 2024
Does that sound contradictory? Read on. A business owner writes "I would like to eliminate all job duties from my plate and have the business run itself." Many of us want that too. And often learning about systemization and Output…
Growth & Plans
Do You Need an Annual Plan?
October 19, 2024
Maybe not. But if so, here's how to make one and use it. ( NOTE: This is a revision of a post I did 2 years ago. I’m revising it because I have many more subscribers and this is when…
Organizational Design
The Problem with Systems
October 12, 2024
The problem is the exceptions - and that's the rule! There are so many benefits to systemizing your company. Without systems, work gets done by people with a lot of knowledge, expertise, and intuition. But that wisdom is locked in…
Organizational Design
Naming Conventions
October 5, 2024
Warning: This is a Nerdy Post. "I don't want to just learn what this guy does. I want my company to learn it." I heard those words from a buyer (we'll call him Bob) who had recently bought his company…
Strategy
It's a Jungle Out There
September 28, 2024
Why war is a bad metaphor for business. Business has often been described as war, but I think that's a poor metaphor. For one thing the point is not to win, as I said in a recent twitter post. Photo…
People
Tie Your Shoes Properly
September 21, 2024
That's the first lesson from the greatest NCAA basketball coach. John Wooden is famous for being arguably the greatest basketball coach in college sports and for propelling many of his players on to stellar careers in the NBA. He's also…
Marketing & Sales, Money
More Revenue with Output Thinking
September 14, 2024
Revenue doesn't come from where you think it does. One problem I run into when helping clients adopt Output Thinking is that entrepreneurs often don't go deep enough. Here's what I mean. If you ask where does revenue come from…
Strategy
Vision is Useless, Unless …
September 8, 2024
Your vision is tied to outputs. Here's how. Your vision is literally what you see. Your vision for your company is what you see that's possible. What your company can do or become that it hasn't yet. How your company…
CEO Skills
98% Done is Not DONE
August 31, 2024
There's a huge difference between 98% and 100%. The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time. The last 10% takes the other 90% of the time. But it's worse than a time suck. Here's why. The typical…
Organizational Design
How Many Grandmas Can You Hire?
August 25, 2024
If you can't find enough experts here's a better way. This Post is Based on Two Ideas. The only reason to hire people is that you need them to produce results (which I call outputs). Outputs come from two places:…