A bi-weekly roundup of mad-->argue-->sad-->move on October 19 - November 1 Talk About Change! I recently delivered a full day training on Change Management and a good third of it was about communication. For those of you unfamiliar with the Kübler-Ross Change Curve, think about the last time that someone broke up with you: first you get emotional, then you rationalize how much better you are off without that person, then you eat a whole pizza and cry a little bit while watching Moana, and...
23 days ago • 2 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of AI-enhanced communication tips October 5 - October 18 How AI Podcasts Drive Adoption, Adventure, and Self-Actualization When I conduct a Small Agency Assessment, one of the ways that I help make the recommendations stick is by creating a bespoke podcast using the audio overview feature in NotebookLM, the new hotness coming out of Google. Far too often have I seen a business get really great advice but then don't do much with it, mainly because the advice wasn't easy to...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of 5-year old learnings September 21 - October 4 I'm A Survivor And Here's How 2024 is a special year: October 10th is Learn to Scale's Five-Year Anniversary. which according to The Knot is...wood? Or silverware? Every October 10th, I produce an Annual Report for Learn to Scale, aka my own performance review. This year's Annual Report is going to be a bit more comprehensive since it's an important milestone. I'm currently deep in the guts of my own history, but in the next...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of how to focus on just one thing September 7 - September 20 Image courtesy Three Circles Studio Hanging Up My Startup Boston Hat For the past two years, I've been the Everything Else drawer at Startup Boston as Head of Operations and then COO. Many of you that subscribe to this newsletter met me through Startup Boston! As Learn to Scale continues to niche down into the world of marketing agencies, I've stepped away from Startup Boston to better service our current and...
2 months ago • 2 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of refreshing outlooks on common problems August 17 - August 30 Research-Driven Checklists of Perspective, On Sale Now As I mentioned in the last TL;DR, I recently came off a multi-month series of interviews with small marketing agency professionals. I heard all about the problems these small businesses face, from Communication and Culture to Operations and Scaling. TL;DR- the problems that small agencies face are not terribly unique. That being said, the problems small...
3 months ago • 1 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of SOPs for scaling August 3 - August 16 The First Commandment of Scaling: Thou Shalt Have Process I've been doing quite a bit of research with small marketing agencies and after 25+ interviews, there's fascinating patterns starting to appear. Over the next TL;DRs, I'll be sharing bits and bobs from that research, but today I wanted to highlight one trend that's becoming clearer and clearer: Businesses quickly hit a ceiling without processes but it won't feel like a...
3 months ago • 5 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of ways that teams think they're aligned but they aren'tJuly 20 - August 2 The Problem With The Meeting Before The Meeting Have you ever had a pre-meeting with a colleague before going into a meeting with the rest of your team? TL;DR: that's a red flag. Lemme explain. Culture, psychological safety, radical candor- these are hot buzzwords in the team management realm to describe something we all want to feel, "Do I feel safe in this group to be open, honest, and...
4 months ago • 4 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of little somethings that have a big impact July 6 - July 19 Say Something Good Today There's a pervasive business practice where managers 'motivate' their team by reminding them how far behind they are and how much work needs to get done, AKA "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Unfortunately, there's a lot of baggage people carry around when we talk about motivation practices. High expectations are what makes high performing teams. It's up to an employee...
4 months ago • 4 min read
A bi-weekly roundup of who you are inside June 22 - July 5 Business Barnacle Busting Last week and this week were my big "figure things out" weeks that I do on a quarterly basis to make sure I'm happy and focused on what I'm doing as a business owner and a human. Here's what my quarterly review entails: I relive the past three months by looking at the goals I set three months earlier and reviewing my calendar and planner I calculate the metrics associated with my goals I clean up my finances...
5 months ago • 3 min read