As I closed Leveraging Leadership Growth, I stressed the importance of constantly working to grow and strengthen every professional relationship possible. When Cindy and I left our roles in large organizations, we both had extensive networks internally but found ourselves starting from scratch exter...
Cindy and I made some of the boldest leaps of our lives in 2016 and 2017, leaps that would have never happened without a complete willingness to accept full responsibility for our definite decisions. Even then, stepping away from both our full time jobs required every bit of unwavering courage we ha...
Looking back, several of the biggest leaps Cindy and I have ever taken occurred in a very short period of time. As I’ve shared several times before, I’m not detailing the adversities we encountered along the way for sympathy. And I’m certainly not bragging about it; I’m thankful Cindy tolerated me t...
Less than 60 days after the diagnosis, Cindy’s mom passed away in mid-January 2018. That was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever seen Cindy go through, and the helplessness I felt was like nothing I had ever experienced. I’m a fixer and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to fix that. I was,...
Late 2017 and early 2018 provided us with the opportunity to run the gamut of highs and lows as new mostly self-employed business owners. The public events were successful overall, and full of learning experiences. Locally, it was our third year and the most successful to that point. The other being...
The definite decision I made in late August 2017 to leave my full time position and join Cindy in our business took a while to play out. With Cindy’s backing, we indeed had unwavering courage - even if our definite plans left a bit to be desired. I worked out the full two months I committed to; it t...
I had accumulated four weeks of paid time off at the fifteen year mark in my manufacturing career, and I was on track to earn a fifth week when I hit twenty. I shared earlier how I had barely used 40 hours of that through the first eight months of 2014, and nearly all of that was in half day increme...
In opening this look at how stability can start feeling like a cage, I shared how I got involved in every aspect of that construction company I possibly could and how that helped me offset some of the monotonous drudge I felt from all the compliance related tasks in my primary role. Much of that inv...
Cindy and I had latched onto the makings of a clear purpose as our careers progressed, separately in our full time roles and together in each side hustle we pursued. That purpose allowed us to keep pushing forward through each adversity, even when we didn’t have as much clarity around it as we proba...
There’s a subtle but powerful line between explanation and excuse. Cross it the wrong way, and you erode the very culture you’re trying to build. Excuses break down trust, deflate teams, and quietly signal that accountability is optional. Explanations, on the other hand, clarify what happened so eve...
In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill shared that “Unwavering courage is based upon knowledge of self, and of one’s occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such a leader very long.” When Cindy left...
Cindy accepted a position with a company that was in the process of building their facility and brand new to our area around the same time I stepped into the HR/Safety manager role. As their very first employee, her responsibility was creating visibility, and thereby enlisting clients for that new b...
