Burnout, On Sale Now

While the rest of the world is obsessing over doorbusters and discount codes today, someone- either you or one of your team members- is sweating.

If you have ecommerce clients, your team has been sprinting for weeks to get assets approved, campaigns loaded, and fires put out. Even if you don’t do ecomm, the sheer gravitational pull of Q4 deadlines has likely pushed your capacity to the limit.

Here is the strategic warning: If your team is already feeling the burn today- before December even starts- you are working in the Danger Zone.

We often tell ourselves, "We just need to push through to the holidays." But "pushing through" is exactly how you break your best people (and yourself). The resentment and exhaustion accumulating right now doesn't vanish when glasses are clinked on New Year's Eve.

It sits there. It festers. And it turns into resignation letters by January 15th.

You cannot afford to wait until January to fix this.

There is a phenomenon I call "Crisis Amnesia." By the time you get back from the holiday break, the acute pain of this crunch time (Black Friday until New Years) will have faded.

You will tell yourself, "It wasn't that bad," or "Next year will be different."

Buttttt....it won't be, unless you diagnose exactly what is blinking red right now.

Capture the data while the pain is real.

I am not offering a Black Friday discount today: I am offering a reality check.

I encourage you to book an Agency Talent & Culture Audit immediately. We need to look at your "Human Operating System" while it is under load.

We need to see exactly where the communication is failing, where the workflows are bottlenecking, and who is silently suffering, before they decide to leave.

In this audit, we will:

• Identify the friction points that are causing burnout right now.
• Capture the "war stories" of Q4 while they are fresh, so we can solve them permanently.
• Build a retention roadmap to ensure your team starts 2026 feeling supported, not surviving.

Don't wait for the exit interviews to find out what went wrong during crunch time.

A TL;DR from the CRO

I'm your Black Friday burnout relief and I recommend measuring team capacity now before EOY.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

A TL;DR From the Archive: Turning "Wants" into Strategic Plans

You have the right amount of time to plan a killer offsite to start 2026 off strong...oh, you haven't done those before? Whether you want to land bigger clients, streamline operations, or finally have a vacation this year, turn those wants into plans with a strategic offsite. Click here to learn how to get started.​

While I love planning, cooking, and eating a Thanksgiving meal, there's one thing I truly live for this week:

The Dog Show.

Impeccably floofed, wrinkled, and fuzzy pooches being walked back and forth is what makes turkey preparation truly delightful. This year my vote for Best in Show was Roxy, the Weimeraner, but the Standard Poodle always steals my heart.

Unfortunately, the last time a Standard Poodle won was in 2020 with Siba. You can relive the moment here.​

Roman Noodles can't even enter- his tail isn't docked and his, ahem, business isn't intact- but still, we watch with wistful eyes, talking about the smokeshow English Setter and how this year she was snubbed hard.

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Always rooting for the pood,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. The modern marvel that's clogging your veins: cheese.​