When I first meet and talk to my clients they often confide two things to me:

1️⃣ They STILL haven’t figured out what they want to do when they grow up

2️⃣ Their minds are FULL of ideas and possibilities regarding what direction to take, but they are deeply unsure about which path is best.

Let’s explore each of these.

The PATTERN of successful leadership and creation is reliable and clear.  It always looks like this:

A purpose creates a leader.

The leader has a vision.

The leader creates a strategy.

The strategy guides the actions.

The actions put the right message in front of the right people.

The right people respond to the call to action.

The organization grows.

That’s ALWAYS how it looks when it’s successful.

The PATTERN isn’t the problem.  It’s the EXECUTION.

What goes wrong?

Almost everything!  The world throws resistance your way…

Unfortunately, as a leader, there is one thing you can NEVER quite be sure of…

👉 You can’t ever be sure you are spending your time in the most productive and highest ROI-oriented way 👈

It’s a problem followers don’t have. Their success is determined by how precisely and conscientiously they travel and tend to the path placed before them.

But ANYONE who serves in a leadership capacity experiences this quandary.

Followers get a report card, leaders get RESULTS.

How about you? Can you relate?…

🧯🔥 ❌🟰 Leadership!

That’s a mistake I see a LOT of business owners make.

When we meet them their heads are deep in the frustrations 😖 of their day-to-day operations.

They think they NEED to be this way.

“If I don’t 🧯the 🔥s, who will???!!!”

But here’s the problem.

It’s a metaphysically ignorant view.

Here’s the misunderstanding…

Do you know why you are struggling to grow your company?

Is it the labor shortage? No.

Is it economic conditions like recessions? No.

There is one simple yet profound reason…

It is because you have lost sight of the IDEAL. Or perhaps you never saw it in the first place.

The IDEAL is that vision of the perfect organization that you behold within your mind’s eye, your imagination. It plays in your daydreams (pay attention to those! We are taught not to…), your fantasies of a life well-lived and a life’s work well-done.

Your IDEAL is your own…

See this dude? He is single handedly responsible for all the TRAUMA you currently experience in the workplace.

Got your interest? Here’s why…

For most of human history, population was limited by food scarcity…

Some leaders and creatives, a very small handful I find, struggle for a very particular and peculiar reason, a reason few others understand. They find leadership difficult because the world feels ABSURD. And no one else seems to see it!

I know most people think about this and feel this way from time to time. But, in my experience, a select few people ponder this CONSTANTLY. Like, every minute of every day.

“Why is the world like this?” “Why are people like this?” “How strange is it that things are the way they are?” All day, every day.

And most people don’t get that.But I do. Because I’m the same way.

Doubt, frustration, insecurity, and comparison despair melts away.

Vision, confidence, clarity, and optimism takes its place.

I find many business leaders feel like they are fighting AGAINST their brains ⚔️🧠

They feel like the way they want to think is a liability, holding them back. And I understand why. I felt the same for YEARS. Very few people understand this kind of brain. Very few.

Busy. Restless. Probing. Pondering. Wanting MORE, and feeling so limited by what seems to be the nature of reality!

You get used to people in your life and business constantly giving you strange looks when you try to have the conversations you want to have 🗣…

When I walked into the office for our final meeting I saw evidence of growth and positive transformation EVERYWHERE I looked 👀, all of it the result of my work with them. It was beautiful 🥰

Here are just a few…

Business owners - want to get out of daily operations? It’s possible! But be careful what you wish for…

If you free yourself from your business you had better anticipate a few things, or they will blindside you when you least expect it.

These people who work for you…what do you call them?

I used to call them employees.

But now I call them team members.

Communication is GREAT, but there is one thing it CAN’T fix.

And it’s something YOU are probably guilty of...And I know it is because it’s something we’re ALL guilty of.

Most especially me. I’m human too, so I get it.Let me explain.For much of my day, I’m basically a communication professional.

The fact is, it is MUCH more common for people to know what they DON’T want.

EVERYONE knows what they don’t want, which is why people complain so much.

But how often do you hear vision, goals, or aspirations?

These are RARE and VALUABLE.

So, how about you? Do you know what you DO want? Or only what you DON’T?

It makes a HUGE difference.

…Now, the takeaways:

✅ You can ALWAYS be better networked. That's why we spend time on LinkedIn after all. Don't you find that every new connection teaches you something new about the world that you didn't see before, and opens up some kind of new opportunity?…

…I looked at Arthur and asked "What do YOU want to do?" He thought a moment, his eyes sparkled, and he put the change in the tip jar.

In the car I had him pose for this picture and asked him he felt. He said, "POWERFUL" and "FREE".

True, his pocketbook was lighter by a dollar (not insignificant to his total net worth), but he emerged from that transaction rich in spirit, vision, optimism, and gratitude…

…we are CONSTANTLY signaling our social groups and status in everything we do.The next time you meet someone, notice your instincts. You are subconsciously evaluating their…

Clothing

Car

Speech

Grooming

Company

Friends

Family

EVERYTHING we do, say, purchase, or reveal sends a signal of some kind.

And here’s the kicker. The signals you DON’T realize you are sending are 10X stronger than the ones you do.This is why it is so so SO important to be intentional about EVERYTHING that happens on your social media…

…if it's the philosophical frame you take you will be very cynical about marketing, just as this film is. You will feel like your product damages people and that you need to lie to them to sell it.

DON'T BE LIKE THAT! There's a better way ❤️

Here's how I think about it...

Companies often bring us in to solve difficult problems - challenges they just can’t see past without outside help.And that kind of thing really makes people tense 😬

What’s the first thing we do?

We PLAY! 🤾‍♀️

Yes, our work is very playful. We approach it like a couple of kids finding a brand new playground, running around, climbing on everything , exploring every nook and cranny, turning over every to see what kind of insects we can find there 🪲

What fascinated 🤩 me about this article, and something I didn't know…

The Wendy's Company founder Dave Thomas was closely mentored by KFC's Colonel Sanders 🤯😮

WHAAAAAAAAT??????? No way! 😄

A few years ago I undertook a major commitment…