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00.

Start Here

A marker is a permanent signifier meant to guide and confirm your position on a voyage. We treat the business as a vessel moving steadily toward its mission. Along any route, even the most focused get pulled off course by a better mousetrap or the newest trend. These are the statements of exactly how we work and how we see things. They are not popular. We are not trying to be popular.

“Your attention isn't for sale. You own it. Make others buy it from you.”

01.

Independence Should Be In Our Name

We treat independence as almost sacred: the freedom to succeed or fail at our own pace, by our own actions. We are not dependent on anyone but our customers and ourselves. When you are beholden to others, they want to chart your course and make sure your motion benefits them. Independence can be lonely and harder to work, but the freedom more than makes up for it.

“We say no far more than we say yes.”

02.

Life In Your Years, Not Years In Your Life

Memento mori. Remember that you must die. It sounds morose, but living on purpose and for purpose leaves you more fulfilled. None of us know when we leave this life, so stop pretending tomorrow is promised. We are doers, not just dreamers. We launch early, experience the task, and correct as we go.

“Build a company that gives you a better life, not a life just to build a company.”

03.

Hustle And Grind Are Not Great Motivators

Hustle works great for memes, but the laws of energy say you only have so much of it, and even less grind. We believe in hard work. We just find that most hard work is arbitrary, and often stands in for poor planning. Plan, execute, reconfigure. That sequence produces extraordinary outcomes and saves your sanity for everything else.

“Did we not learn anything from the tortoise and the hare fable?”

04.

Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast

Whoever coined it, the reminder holds: approach things with at least some plan. Real emergencies demand immediate, unplanned action, but those are the exception. When everything gets labeled urgent, nothing is. Disconnect the red hotline phone and remember it's a marathon.

“If everything is important, nothing really is important.”

05.

Keep It Small

Chasing size and scale is usually chasing FOMO. High revenue with low profit has plagued far too many in this industry, running down the road with a net to grab more work that was never in your wheelhouse. Identify the life you want first, then reverse-engineer a business to deliver it. We work small and tight with extraordinary teams, and the calm has repaid us more than money could.

“The people that mean the most don't care if we are the biggest. They simply want to see us valuable and happy.”

06.

Revenue Is Vanity, Profit Is Sanity

Sales aren't hard if you're willing to ignore whether the work is profitable. Someone is always looking for cheap. Revenue is fuel for the airplane, but watered-down fuel and three stops on the way still make you question the trip. We aim for medium revenue and high profit. We don't trade time for money; we trade value and outcome.

“Money is not the most important thing in the world, love is. Fortunately, I love money.”Jackie Mason

07.

Bias Towards Action

Entrepreneurs and visionaries see squirrels where others don't, and that's where innovation starts. But history is lined with books about unmet potential and ideas that never launched. Whether it's perfectionism or no authority over your own brain, non-action is a brutal depressant. We vet client partners specifically for the ability to take action.

“Be a great finisher, not just a great starter.”

08.

Minimal Band-Aids

Quick fixes are everywhere. Outsourcing a weakness can be smart, but masking a festering wound costs ten times more once the decay reaches neighboring organs. Treating only the symptom drains your staff, your clients, and eventually you. Slap the fix on to get through today, then peel the onion and go after the root cause. One tiny step has a strange way of creating momentum.

“You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.”

09.

Fair But Firm

We don't foster weakness. We will help you get stronger, but avoiding the hard work just lets it sit on the shelf and grow bacteria. Accountability is uncomfortable and it works. If you want people to co-sign your lack of ownership, that isn't us. Most obstructions aren't built to withstand friction, so add a little friction.

“Softness is great for kittens and warm blankets, but not for high achievers.”

10.

Discernment Is Good

The ability to judge well. Be discerning about important ideas: yours and those of the people who trust you. Plenty of people line up to be humiliated on national television because nobody honest was in their life. Most great ideas start out pretty lame; feedback from trusted peers is what turns them into something beautiful. Skip that step and you'll spend months on a failed plan.

“Discernment is the ability to see things for what they really are, and not for what you want them to be.”

11.

Feed The Brain, Grow The Heart

Learning leads to more. We're fortunate to live in an age where not knowing is almost purely a choice, and a lazy one. But it isn't just learning; it's putting what you learn into action to do good. Plenty of people brag about their book count and couldn't summarize one past the subtitle. We read to know more, so we can help more.

“It is what we already know that often prevents us from learning.”Claude Bernard

12.

Educating, Not Selling

Most of our team is naturally opposed to selling. At least selling as the world has reprogrammed the word. Our approach is teaching people and companies how to achieve what they value. Marketing has become a maze of daily-changing algorithms and expert advice, and most of those experts are selling something too. Sales are required, but only when matched to a genuinely needed service.

“If there is no product, then you are the product.”

13.

The 80/20 Rule

No formula is simpler or more universal. Perfection is a myth and few things are great on the first try, so get comfortable with 80, and you'll make up the rest on the next one. It applies to projects too: 20% of them make 80% of your profit, so find more of those and dump the rest. Clean up the garden. Cut the weeds and the strong grow back.

“Do you want to create hard work, or simply work hard?”

14.

Leave People Lifted

Being negative takes more energy than being kind, and you always feel better after a positive exchange. After any meeting or call, look for the place to drop in a lift. The employee who made a mistake rarely set out to make one. The customer complaining usually has a legitimate issue, even if it isn't with you. When an interaction ends badly, it usually has more to do with you than them.

“Hurt people, hurt people.”

15.

Not All That Is Important Is Urgent

The sense of now has grown to epic proportions, and few things actually qualify. Something blocking your next task can feel urgent, but assuming everyone else's time is that flexible is presumptuous. A lack of preparation on your end is not an emergency on theirs. Most things can wait a few hours. We do not steal focus, time, energy, or momentum from other people.

“Some of us spend too much time creating urgent, and not enough time on realizing what is important.”

16.

The Fortune 5 Million

Everyone goes after the whales. That water is crowded and fiercely competitive, which drives prices and profits down. This is our way of saying don't follow the crowd. Everyone is watching the same webinar from the same guru who makes money on clicks, not on your results. In this industry that means over-promoted plumbers, handcuffed agents, and chasing hurricanes. There is work at home while everyone drives to Florida.

“Following the herd can get you trampled. There are other pastures people are ignoring.”

17.

No Nesting (In The Office)

Notice how driven people look for ways to be out of the office so they can get more done. Meetings, interruptions, and unrelated drama slice an eight-hour day into thirty unproductive pieces. Good work needs time and traction, one large block of focus. Most people hover around an office for control, because management assumes anyone they can't see isn't working. That's a management problem.

“Google is available 24/7, but I am not. I am out of the office where the real action is.”

18.

If It Can Be Done In 3 Hours, Don't Use 8

Don't be so tied to a clock. Time for money is a loser's bet. We want to maximize value instead. If something takes three hours, why force someone to spend five more looking for filler or doing work that doesn't matter? Hourly or salary, that structure promotes time theft and inefficiency, and it's costing you thousands a month.

“Don't penalize innovation by forcing people to be away from their life, for you.”

19.

Meetings Are More Expensive Than Inflation

Meetings are the ticks on your business, blood-sucking relics that stay embedded because that's how it's always been done. Four people for one hour isn't one hour, it's four. Honestly closer to six once you count the lost momentum before and after. Big decisions deserve to be assembled, but only with the people whose time it's worth. Two people getting together isn't a meeting; it's two people talking.

“Add up all the lost hours of pointless meetings, and you'll find you had time to resolve the issues brought up in the meetings.”

20.

Expect The Why Question

If your team isn't using the word why more than almost any other, you're likely busy but not productive. Expect to be asked. It isn't a challenge to your intelligence, it's a check on whether your resources are pointed at the right thing. Onions have layers, and the outer ones will mask a rotten core indefinitely. Be ready to defend your position. If you can't, it probably isn't the right one.

“Too often the main problem we are avoiding might also prevent other problems from occurring at all.”

21.

Delay: The Big F.U.

Delay is indecision and uncertainty, and both carry consequences. Decisiveness is one of the most powerful attributes a person can have; the lack of it usually traces back to a lack of knowledge. Get the knowledge and lead. And get over the fear of failure. Failure is certain. Moving fast isn't recklessness, it's getting version 1.0 out so you can start building 2.0.

“Failure to start is a hard fix. Fixing a failure is usually much simpler.”

22.

Pay More For The Best, Or…

…pay triple for the cheapest. When we evaluate a purchase or investment, cost isn't at the top of the list, usually not even the top five. We're premium, and we buy premium. The same logic applies to staff and salary, not just equipment. Acquisitions are investments, not expenses. Investing in quality shortens training time and gets resources producing faster.

“Those that have to work with the cheap items will always curse you. Spend more and grow faster.”

23.

Know No

A play on simple words. Not everything needs a yes; most things don't even need a maybe. Find where your time is being stolen: someone selling something, someone else's dropped ball, a great new idea that will still be a good idea later. If you're trying to do everything, you're probably doing very little. You'll look back and realize the no was what protected the yes.

“No is no to one thing. Yes is a no to a lot of things.”

24.

Resort To GWC

An acronym from the EOS framework: Gets it, Wants it, has Capacity. In principle it forces the question of whether you have the right person in the right seat. When someone is missing a piece of it, you can adjust and course-correct instead of guessing. If you're not using it, you'll be treating symptoms for a long while.

“You cannot count on people that don't know, don't want, or that cannot do great things.”

25.

Run Away From Courts, Not Towards Them

Some people just like to poke the bear, manufacturing struggle where none needs to exist. In decades in this industry we've worked hard to stay out of court. Lawsuits are expensive, attorneys aren't fun, and the time spent is stolen from growth. There are consultants who'll help you prepare for court. We'd rather build the systems that keep you out of it. Good contracts, clean onboarding, strong SOPs, and systematic collections handle 99.75% of it.

“You don't get 5 star reviews when you are in court.”

26.

Know Thyself Is To Know Others

We practice and teach self-awareness as a person, an owner, and a leader. Once you take a hard look in the mirror and get clear on who you are and where you're going, finding others to join the voyage gets simple. Everyone has a different lane of genius. Learn what fires them up and you can maximize success for both of you.

“If you treat all your employees and people in your life as if they are the same, you will be wrong over half of the time.”

27.

Purple Cow It

Seth Godin's idea: being different is more attractive than trying to be like everyone else. If you don't know what makes you unique, neither will your client, and then you're just competing on marketing budget, and someone will always outspend you. A field of ordinary cows draws nothing. One purple cow and traffic backs up on the highway.

“Being safe is risky. The path to lifetime job security is to be remarkable.”

28.

Cancer Spreads

You have to cut out toxic: ideas or people. This isn't about training or scaling up skills; it's about character and potential. If an idea is wrought with failure, stop feeding it money and energy no matter how attached you are. Same with people. Some just want a place to park their anger and want company in their misery. Showing them the door is usually a favor to both of you.

“The second mistake is keeping toxic things around too long. The first was inviting them in, in the first place.”

29.

Failure Is A Gift

This is one of the hardest mountains to climb. After age eleven or twelve, people taught you failing was bad and to avoid it, and nearly ruined your curiosity in the process. But staying in the safe lane leaves you unfulfilled. If you fail, embrace it: you took more steps than most, nobody is watching, so get back to work on the improvements. Falling on a soggy diaper ninety-eight times is what taught you to walk.

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”Thomas A. Edison

30.

Criticism Is Another Gift

You might not even know you failed until someone tells you it isn't working. Otherwise you just keep failing. Criticism delivered with evident care can save you from real disasters and real losses. Don't read it as harsh; read it as someone caring enough to say something. If your ego can't take it, prepare for a career of unnecessary torture. If someone is being critical just to be rude, they should vanish from your circle.

“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

31.

You Either Have A Process Problem…

…or a lack-of-process problem. No system means everyone does it the way they already know how, and you'd better be fine with that. Customers value predictable results; nobody likes surprises unless it's a birthday cake. If your marketing promises outcomes that rarely happen, the public votes with their money elsewhere. Build in flexibility for improvisation, but you can't be consistent by doing it differently every time.

“80% is good. It is better than spending 100% of the time trying to control the circus.”

32.

Don't Over Promote

It takes real strategy to market to ideal customers instead of blasting millions who aren't. Intake saturation is a real phenomenon. Of course we love our own product. It's our baby. But other people describing how it solved their problem, that's the magic lane. We take the edutainment approach: education, fun, and honest self-reflection, because people don't want to buy from a salesperson, they want to know someone cares.

“Make your competition stalk you to see what you are doing. Creepy but fun.”

33.

JOMO Not FOMO

Fear of missing out is a hurricane in your brain, built out of other people's highlight reels, and the comparison game measurably kills creativity. We've found the joy of missing out returns far better value on our time. Someone raised eight million and flies private. Good for him. Someone has 200,000 followers, followers are spectators. We stay ahead by inviting restorers in and letting them tell us what we need to know.

“Not everything under the sun, only things that matter most.”

34.

Companies Don't Have Communication Issues

They have mis-communication issues. The problem usually isn't too little communication, it's too much about the wrong things. Communication is the distribution of pertinent information so a group stays aware. Making sure everyone knows everything all the time is overload, and it buries what actually matters for their part. The other form is saying one thing and acting another way. People always trust actions over words.

“Say and do the right things, at the right time, to the right people. Be clear.”

35.

Grow People, Not Audiences

We're no fans of the attention commerce dominating today's landscape. Everyone measures clicks, impressions, and subscribers while almost nobody invests in developing the skills and leadership of the people around them. It's a scarcity mindset that assumes every eyeball is a sale. Meanwhile there are customers already buying from us who deserve that attention. Grow the people who work with you and you expand your capacity to grow at all.

“Let the creation of the product be the magic, not the promotion of the product.”

36.

Every Number Tells A Story

Numbers are measurable, they're math, they're data. Unless you entered them wrong they're telling you exactly what they're supposed to, whether you like it or not. They aren't emotional and don't care about feelings. When a number declines, ask why. What caused it and what corrects it. When one rises, ask how to duplicate it. Don't ignore them because you don't like them. You can do that with in-laws, not your business.

“Numbers and data don't tell the whole story, but they leave you huge clues.”

37.

Chase The E.L.F. Business

Joe Polish's model, and it maps onto everything about how we live and coach: Easy, Lucrative, Fun. We do hard work, but it doesn't have to be hard to do it well. We always look for the simple way. You need to be lucrative, because doing the best work with the best people requires financial durability. And if you can have fun, do it. We're on this spinning rock for a blink.

“When people see you running a comfortable business, it tells them you are efficient and passionate. They probably want to get involved.”

38.

Not 7.88 Billion, Only 1

Everything starts with one. One is our magic number. Most people cast their net over the entire population, and if you make generic products and master the algorithms that might work, but it's enormous energy for lower profit. Markets are saturated and your competition's only real advantage is how loudly they scream. We believe a sniper is more effective. One customer with a success story grows you through the stories they tell.

“People that don't drink wine, probably don't need to buy your wine glasses.”

39.

Relational > Transactional

Nobody likes being treated as a transaction. We look at every contact and interaction through the lens of a relationship, and we avoid people who show us who they really are. Reciprocal is one of our favorite words, and an equal give and take makes a better foundation. Negotiations turn ugly far more often when things are transactional, because the other side feels they have to walk away with more. The alternative is not keeping score at all.

“Give and take in tolerable measures can serve all. If imbalanced, tension can form.”

40.

Own Your Shit

It's not how badly you mess up, it's how fast you fix it. If you're not good at something, say so, get help, and move on. Nobody really cares. Extreme ownership is the ethos here. We take chances and build new things constantly, which mathematically guarantees failures. We own them and fix them. Hiding from responsibility creates an environment of diminishing trust. Don't promise to be flawless. Promise you'll take responsibility.

“Don't make others wrangle your monkeys or demons, they have their own to manage.”

41.

We Are Done When We Are Done, Not Before

We don't shy away from hard things and we don't tuck our tails when they get harder. Friction has forged us and we're thriving because of it. Creators love quick, easy wins for the spark of accomplishment, but micro-wins don't last. We build full projects with assignments, milestones, and touch points so we can't quietly back off. One step at a time, and we reach out when we're off track. You'd be shocked how many people will help.

“Be an amazing starter and an even better finisher.”