That registered letter detailing the impending foreclosure wasn’t just another financial kick in the gut, it hit my self-image every bit as hard. To everyone else, things still looked great. We both had more career advancement opportunities than many of our peers and our MLM business was getting all...
From late 2005 to late 2007, Cindy and I dedicated nearly every waking hour that we weren’t working in our day jobs and invested every spare dime we could scrape up into the MLM business that had provided us with a glimmer of hope that we could someday climb out the ridiculous scarcity we had been b...
After what felt like beating my head against the same spot on a wall over and over and over again, for a couple of years, mastery of detail finally began to sink in. Disciplining myself to dig into those details, which is never a small order for someone with a highly DRIVEN behavioral style like min...
When the ripple effects of scarcity spill into every waking moment, there’s little choice but to begin sifting through every possible detail in identifying each contributing factor and the primary root cause behind it. Today, Cindy and I include components of the DISC Model of Human Behavior in near...
Earlier I mentioned some of the changes I made to avoid being around booze for the first few years after making the decision to stop drinking. In complete transparency, some of those changes weren’t all that difficult since buying beer and going to concerts both require money. Our financial resource...
I previously mentioned receiving a call from Cindy while I was in Cozad, Nebraska, telling me about yet another car issue. I can’t remember what the problem was that time, but I don’t remember it being significant - at least not mechanically. At that point, though, even the most minor issue created ...
Two different but equally meaningful experiences drove me to write What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!): all the years that Rod Little expected my work in behavior-based safety to make a positive impact on the facility’s productivity and all the executives I’ve heard...
Even with our careers seemingly taking shape, realizing what Matt was dealing with and what he’d need our support to work through in the years that followed was a gut-punch. More than any other thing I’ve encountered, that forced me to learn what practicing empathy was all about. I had always been w...
During a recent conversation about an idea for a chapter in a book she’s working on, Cindy shared how she often hears folks confuse explanations with excuses. She detailed how someone she coached was hesitant to go into any specifics about a particular issue because they knew “leaders didn’t make ex...
As I think back on Matt’s first few years of elementary school, I can point to far more things I did wrong than I did right. In complete transparency, I continue to sift through those scenarios today for seeds that can help me continue building the empathy I just didn’t understand at the time. And w...
In Leading With A Clear Purpose, I shared about the only time in my professional career where I remember feeling completely exhausted. I was routinely working 50+ hours each week in what ended up being my last full time job and nearly as much in our new (at the time) business. I stressed that sharin...
During a session with John Maxwell a few years ago, I heard him share the approach he frequently took when any group he was part of had an idea that concerned him. Rather than squashing the idea outright, he would gently suggest that those most interested for a committee to analyze all the details f...
