A New Ambition

You know exactly who this episode is talking about. The employee who needs to talk everything through. Who brings their mood into every interaction. Who always has a situation that needs an exception. And it’s frustrating you. You feel resentful about the time it takes and disappointed that it never really seems to change things — no matter how much of your time you give it.  You don’t love this p...

You have a cluttered garage or storage room or a spare bedroom that's been full for a lot longer than you'd like to admit. You think about clearing it out and you know that you should because it would feel so much better. But you don’t have the time or the patience or the motivation to do it right now.  Sound familiar? There's a reason it's still there. And there's a reaso...

You know that feeling when you've planned your day carefully so everything has a place on the schedule, there’s more than enough time to get it all done, and yet you still can't seem to get through it? By early afternoon things completely ground to a halt. You feel foggy and slow, and you find yourself staring at your work instead of doing it.  And you can't figure it out either, be...

You've tried the earlier mornings, the better systems, the tighter schedules, and it always works for a while. Then slowly, without quite knowing how, the overwhelm starts to creep back in. The week fills up again, you're behind again, and you're starting to wonder if the problem is you, because you're doing everything right and it's still not working. It's not you. B...

Most business owners don't think about their capacity as something they can actually decide on. The demands show up and they absorb them. That's just what running a business feels like. That's just what it takes. And that might be exactly why you end the week feeling behind, worn down, and like you never quite caught up — no matter how hard you worked or how much you got done. In th...

You know that decision that's been sitting on your list for days, maybe weeks? You've thought about it, talked about it, and gone back and forth on it more times than you can count. And somehow you still haven't moved on it. It's not that you don't care, or that you can't make decisions. It's that this one feels like too much is riding on it. What if you get it w...

Some days you sit down with a list as long as your arm and by the end of the day, half of it is still there, plus a new pile of things you didn’t see coming. Underneath all of that is the pressure that if you choose the wrong thing, you’re going to feel even more behind tomorrow. A lot of business owners assume this is a time-management problem. But it’s mostly a clarity problem, because when ever...

Your business starts to change once you hire people, but not in the way you expected. You thought it would give you more time and take some pressure off. Instead, you’re still very involved, things feel slower or harder to move forward, and you’re often unsure what to say or how to handle situations with your team. This episode is about what’s actually making this stage feel so difficult. It’s not...

In this episode, part two of a two part conversation I had with Nicole Keleher on her podcast, The Seasonal Operator, we continue our discussion about what it really looks like to become the leader your small business needs. In this second half of our conversation, we move into the practical side of leading a team once the business has grown. We talk about how to know when someone needs more coach...

In this episode, part one of a two part conversation I had with Nicole Keleher on her podcast, The Seasonal Operator, we talk about what it really looks like to become the leader your small business needs. Nicole works with Christmas businesses and seasonal retailers on marketing strategy, planning, and execution. For almost twenty years, she ran her own retail business with a team of up to twenty...

You know what it’s like when things don’t go as planned or something unexpected happens and it throws you for a loop. It could be someone quitting or dropping the ball, a sale or a new product that doesn’t perform the way you hoped, or an argument or a hurtful comment that someone throws your way. And without really thinking the problem through, you react: You change up the sale. You rewrite all y...

You reorganize your list. You rework your calendar. You move things around and tell yourself that once it all fits together a little better, you'll feel better too. Less behind. Less rushed. Like you finally have a handle on things. And sometimes it does feel better, for a little while. But then a few days go by, and you're right back in the same place. Still feeling behind. Still feelin...

Most business owners think their problems and the solutions live outside of them. In their team. In their workload. In the economy. In the way things keep going wrong or taking longer than they should. So when something isn’t working, the instinct is to look outside yourself: at your strategy, your structure, other people, or your environment. And that makes sense. Those are the things you can see...

Why can’t you say no to that conversation, interruption, taking on work that someone else should be doing, adding more projects this quarter? Why does it feel like it’s the hardest thing to do when your plate is already overflowing and why does it seem to happen despite your good intentions? You've tried setting boundaries, being more disciplined about your time, rehearsing what you’ll say th...

You told yourself you wouldn't check email first thing in the morning. But there you are, scrolling through your inbox before you've even had coffee. You decided not to work past 6pm this week. But it's 8:30 and you're still at your desk, trying to finish just one more thing. You promised yourself you'd focus on your priorities without interruptions. But every time you sit...

You know what's most important in your business and you block the time in your schedule to work on it. But somehow, your day still gets away from you. You keep working past the point where you're effective. New ideas pull you off course mid-project. And you're making the same small decisions over and over again: should I answer this? Should I check that? Do I need to decide now? By...

You start your day clear on what you want to get done, you even know what your top priorities are, but by the end of the day, they are still sitting there, untouched. Emails pulled you in, questions came up, something felt urgent, and your attention was pulled in a dozen directions. You were busy all day, but never did get to that decision or that presentation, or those campaign emails. This episo...

Some days you sit down with a list as long as your arm and by the end of the day, half of it is still there, plus a new pile of things you didn’t see coming. You try to plan, reorganize, color-code, and time-block. You keep trying to “prioritize,” but everything feels important, nothing feels optional, and you can’t tell what should happen first, or what shouldn’t be on your plate at all. Undernea...

When your business is full and every task looks important, prioritizing can feel like an impossible puzzle.  Not because you don’t know what to do, but because nothing feels optional. Everything looks like it needs your attention right now. From the outside, it seems like a planning issue. More lists. Better systems. A cleaner calendar. Maybe even more discipline. But in this episode, we look at t...

Today, I’m sharing a conversation I had with Nicole Keleher on her podcast Customer Connect. We dig into something almost every business owner struggles with — avoiding the everyday work that actually keeps the business running, and why stepping into small visibility moments feels harder than it should. This isn’t a conversation about discipline or motivation. It’s about how your brain works when...

You know those days when someone calls in sick, doesn’t deliver their work, or quits with no notice, and you feel like you might lose it? And sometimes you do? Spilling out anger, frustration, or a complete lack of empathy for a difficult situation? Or maybe you can’t stop complaining in your head, feeling like you can’t catch a break, or that the universe must be conspiring against you, because t...

You had a plan. Maybe it was a hire, a new direction, or something you've been building toward for a while. And it's not going the way you expected. Before you've even had a chance to look at what's actually happening, your mind is already telling you what it means. That you should have seen this coming. That something is wrong with the way you're running things. That mayb...

You're in the middle of a launch, a campaign, or a new direction, and it's not going the way you hoped. And before you've even had a chance to look at what's actually happening, your mind is already telling you what it means. That you're not good at this. That it's not going to work. That everyone else seems to figure it out but you. Most business owners assume that&a...

This episode wraps up my three-part mini-series on decision-making. You know that feeling when something in your business feels like it needs to be solved right now? The pressure builds, you find what looks like the answer, and you move fast. And in that moment it feels like the right call. But later you realize you didn't really decide. You reacted. And there's a difference. It happens...

You make decisions all day long, what to focus on, who to hire, what to say yes or no to. Some come easily. Others… not so much. You review your notes, compare options, maybe even start drafting a plan, only to put it aside again. The more you revisit it, the less clear it seems. The truth is, it’s not just the weight of one big decision that wears you down. It’s the sheer volume of them. Your tim...