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It Never Stops Changing.

When my son was a few months old, he went through a stretch where his sleep started to change. He’d been pretty consistently up to that point, sleeping more and more through the night, but then suddenly, he was sleeping less and getting a lot more fussy than usual.

We mentioned it to a friend, who gave us great advice: “It’s just a phase. Give it a week or two, and he’ll get through it.” Sure enough, a few days later, he did.

And ever since, I’ve started to notice the phases more clearly. Now that he’s two, the phases move a lot faster. One day, he’s taking baby steps up the stairs, and the next, he’s sprinting up them. One day, he’s just starting to learn his numbers, and the next, he’s counting to ten on his own. The progress, as a parent, is astonishing.

And it’s a reminder for me that whatever phases we’re going through in our life are just phases. Ben changes faster than most of us, but we can, too. We grow, we change. We’re all capable of continuing to change.

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That’s a photo I took of Ben and I reading a book together the other day.

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Little Wins for the Business.

Building a consulting business is a little weird, because it’s easy to end up in a situation where all your revenue comes from one place, and if something happens to that one revenue stream, you’re in trouble. It’s why, every year, one of my goals is to have at least five different five-figure revenue streams — ads, affiliate, coaching, live events, etc. — in the mix. Some streams are bigger than others, but diversifying means I can weather bumpy times.

The past three years, I’ve hit that goal — five different revenue streams of at least five figures — by the end of the year.

But this year is the first time I’ve ever hit it by July 1.

Celebrate the wins when you can.

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Events like The Newsletter Conference have been a big part of helping me hit that goal. (That’s a photo that I took at this year’s conference in New York.)

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Kick Over Rocks.

I stumbled upon this story the other day about the CEO of Pittsburgh’s airport, Christina Cassotis. I’ve got a soft spot for Pittsburgh — my wife’s from there, we got married there, and about once a year, we fly through there to visit my mother-in-law. The Pittsburgh airport’s a bit dated. It was built to be a hub for US Airways, but now that airline no longer exists, and the airport they have doesn’t really fit with what the city needs.

So I was fascinated to read this story in Pittsburgh Magazine about Cassotis, an executive who, by all accounts, is doing great things to rebuild and modernize the airport. (The rebuild of the airport will cost $1.7 billion, per one account.)

This was my favorite section from that Pittsburgh Magazine article:

“You don’t know how things work around here,” someone yelled after she instituted Uber pickup at the airport soon after she was hired. “Who do you think you are? You think you just come in here and change things?”

“Yeah, I actually do,” Cassotis replied. “That’s my job. My job is literally to kick over rocks. We have to do things differently if we’re going to get different results.”

I absolutely love that mentality. Sometimes, you need leaders who can guide you through a series of slow, steady changes. Sometimes, you need a leader who can recognize when things have been broken for a long time and really roll up their sleeves.

Never be afraid to kick over those rocks.

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That’s a photo I took at Pittsburgh International Airport back in 2019. When you’re walking to the train to take you to baggage claim, you used to have to walk past two statues of legendary figures in western Pennsylvania history. One is George Washington. The other is former Steeler Franco Harris. I always loved that in Pittsburgh, these two men were given statues right next to each other, and no one seemed to think it was odd that our nation’s first President and a guy who played fullback in the NFL were given equal weight.

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Three Tips for Networking at Conferences.

It’s funny to imagine now, since I’m often the guy who’s on stage, but it wasn’t all that long ago that I hated going to conferences. Meeting lots of new people? Lots of small talk? Breakfast in a hotel conference room? No, thanks!

But I have learned a few things about conferences along the way. Here are three that have made conferences about 1000x better for me.

1.) Literally always introduce yourself, even if it’s someone you’ve met a few times before, and even if you’re wearing a name tag. At these conferences, you meet so many people — half the time, I can barely remember my own name by the end! Introduce yourself and you’ll avoid that awkward moment in the conversation when you realize that the other person is making the “Where do I know this person from?” face.

2.) Have an icebreaker question ready for everyone. I was just talking with one of my public media clients about this — they’re going to a conference soon with lots of other small public media outlets. They could start each conversation with, “So where do you work?” or “How do you like living in Springfield?”, but honestly, how many great conversations have started with a question like that? Instead, they’re going in with a different icebreaker: “What’s the most successful fundraising drive you’ve done recently, and why do you think it worked so well?” If they ask a dozen people that, they’ll start a dozen interesting conversations — and probably walk away with at least 2-3 ideas they can try out for themselves!

3.) Always be the person who says hi to the speaker afterwards. Stop by, say thank you, and ask your one extra question. These speakers usually traveled a ways to be there — they’re happy to talk! (They just spent 45 minutes talking about that topic anyway!) Maybe you’re looking for an example or an idea. Ask them, and more often than not, they’ll be happy to send you one after the event is over. Just this morning, I got an email from someone I met after a session I hosted last week. I was delighted they actually followed up — more often than not, people don’t!

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That’s me on stage at Email Summit DK in Odense, Denmark, in January. It’s still funny to me that a guy who didn’t love conferences now speaks on stage at them.

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Small, Baby Goals.

I published this interview today with Alisha Ramos. She founded a newsletter called Girls’ Night In that grew to 180,000 subscribers and $2 million per year in revenue — and then she decided to downsize and start over as a one-person operation. I’ve been thinking a lot about her story — how she realized that what she’d built wasn’t working anymore for her and that she needed to start over. In an age where it feels like everyone is about being as big as possible, Alisha’s story is a reminder that it’s OK to build something that fits with your life — even if that’s something small.

And I especially loved this one thing Alisha told me at the end of our conversations:

I’m at this phase where I’m very content with where I’m at and what I have, and not having the drive or the desire to grow, grow, grow is actually nice. I have small, baby goals this year.

It’s such a wonderful way to think about things. Not everything has to be big. Sometimes, a few small, baby goals are all you really need.

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That’s a screenshot from Alisha’s wonderful newsletter, Downtime.

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An Idea for Your Ideas.

A few years ago, I created a text doc where I drop in my ideas. Whenever I have an interesting conversation or come up with a big question, I add it to the doc. It might be a few words or a sentence — just enough for me to know what I was thinking about when I revisit the doc later on.

And then I’ll come back to the doc every week or so. Some of the ideas turn into blog posts or new products. Some turn into nothing. (Not every idea is a good idea!)

I’ve always got more ideas than I can actually take on. There’s always new stuff for me to work on later.

So create your own doc with ideas. It can be a text doc, a notebook, a series of voice memos on your phone. You never know which ones might turn into something great.

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That photo of a series of lights comes via Unsplash and photographer Jean-Philippe Delberghe.

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Roll With It.

It’s Wednesday morning, about 7:20 a.m. Central time. I’m in row 13 of a flight from Chicago back home to Salt Lake City. I don’t love flying that early in the morning, but I’ve got calls later that morning and then a kiddo to pick up in the afternoon. The early flight makes the most sense. I’ve checked the stats, too — in the past 60 days, this flight’s been early or on time nearly 90% of the time. We’re all set for an on-time departure, and my flight tracker app says we’ll arrive 20 minutes early, with plenty of time to make it home for the first call.

Which is exactly what does not happen.

There’s a plane stuck behind us at O’Hare, and it doesn’t move for about 40 minutes. Instead of an on-time departure, we end up with a very-not-on-time departure. I land in Salt Lake with just enough time to know that I won’t have enough time to make it home for the calls.

There would’ve been a moment when this would’ve really upset me and probably screwed up my day. But I’ve been through stuff like this before.

So I find a gate where the plane is just about to depart — it’ll be empty for an hour or two — and set up there. I take my calls. I apologize to my clients for talking to them from an unusual spot. No one really seems to mind. When the calls are over, I get a Lyft to take me home.

Things happen. It’s up to you to roll with the changes.

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I took that selfie at the gate just before my flight. Was I tired? Sure. Would I have been happier taking the call at home? Absolutely. But things happen.

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A Trick for Prioritization.

a yellow legal bad with sections for NEED and LIKE written out.

Here’s little trick I like to use when I’ve got way too many tasks on my to-do list and can’t figure out what to prioritize.

Open up a spreadsheet and type out all the tasks you’ve got on your list. Then create three columns, and put these headers at the top:

• What you NEED to do this quarter
• What you WANT to do this quarter
• What you’d LIKE to do this quarter

NEED is the stuff that 100% absolutely must get done.

WANT is the next bucket of tasks you’re most excited about.

LIKE are things you’re interested in… but you can’t quite make a priority.

I know I’m guilty of focusing on stuff that isn’t in those “Need” or “Want” buckets. Sometimes, just seeing everything laid out like this helps me refocus on what’s most important.

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That’s a sketch that Canva’s AI tool created for me. It’s a decent example of what this exercise might look like if you did it on a yellow legal pad.

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Inches, Not Miles.

Something I’ve been telling my teams a lot lately: Growth comes in inches, not miles.

I’m seven years into running my business, and more than a dozen years into working my field, and it feels like I’m just starting to get to a place where I can do the work I’m most excited about.

Everyone wants to move quickly, but the good stuff takes time.

You don’t always move as fast as you want to. Celebrate the little wins. Take the inches when you can.

They all add up.

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That’s a a phot of a biker pedaling forward on a bike path, surrounded by green grass and blooming trees. It comes via Unsplash.

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Don’t Overthink This.

a brown chair, a white table, a simple fern, up against a white wall.

90% of my advice to clients is boils down to three words:

“Don’t overthink this.”

People get into their heads when it comes to tweaking their strategy or tactics. They get caught up thinking that there are a series of three-dimensional chess moves that will fix what’s wrong.

But usually, the fixes are simpler than that: Your positioning is unclear. You’re not targeting the right audience. You’re doing too many things at once.

My job is often to tell teams: You’re overthinking things! Let’s simplify and get back to the core of what you do well.

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That’s not the fanciest desk set up in the world, but it’d work just fine? Why? It’s so darn simple. Thanks to Unsplash for the photo.

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