Nine Boxes Closer To Nirvana

Skip the New Years Resolution, To-Don't List, and Accountabilibuddy Pact. Do a Lean Canvas instead.

The Lean Canvas is a one-page business modeling worksheet that should take about 15 minutes for you to fill out if you know your business model and a couple years if you don't.

Think of it less like a business plan and more like an annual physical for your agency:

1. Customer Segment: Who are your ideal clients?
2. Problem: What bleeding-neck problem do they have?
3. Solution: How do you solve that bleeding neck problem?
4. Unique Value Proposition: Why you and and not the other yahoo down the street?
5. Channels: How do they find you?
6. Revenue Streams: How does the cash register ring?
7. Cost Structure: What does it cost you to make this whole machine go brrrr?
8. Key Metrics: How will you measure success (beyond just "survival")?
9. Unfair Advantage: If someone else comes along with the exact same eight bullets as above, why would you win?

If you're a marketing agency, I've got a little guide here walking you through how to use this framework specifically for agencies.

But that's not the TL;DR for today.

I teach this framework at an accelerator and next week is the fourth time I'm running this session. I wanted to add a little zazz to my class, so I decided to eat my own dog food and craft a Lean Canvas to model out Learn to Scale.

It was both humbling and empowering. I discovered exactly where I struggled to articulate a simple answer, and I was thrilled by the parts where answers rolled out in seconds.

Sitting with these insights, I decided the only way to kick off 2026 was to invite YOU to do the same.

Cue the over-the-shoulder walkthrough of my entire business- on video- now available on LinkedIn. It's all there: revenue-per-employee targets, product pricing, cost structures, and the raw logic behind the business.

I might regret being so transparent, but oops, too late.

A TL;DR from the Senior Director of Naps

Choose your people wisely and never pass up a snack or nap!

-Barley, Sr. Director of Naps

PS. Thanks to Dana for sharing her fuzzy coworker! Want to share your good-est colleague in the next TL;DR? Reply and give me a woof with a pic.

I Built An App (By Yelling At An LLM)

On January 23rd (when you get the next TL;DR) I will also be hosting the "Show Me Something Cool With AI" meetup. No decks, no sales, just demos, stories, and curiosity.

I’ll be debuting my Agency Fortress, a cozy Stardew Valley-esque business visualization tool I built by "vibe coding" (aka: no actual coding, just vibes and prompts). It turns your agency's most important data into a pixel-art village.

It might break live. Come watch.

Want an invite? Reply to this email and I'll send the link.

ROCKS ARE HAVING A MOMENT

In the last TL;DR, I invited you to share your hot rock pics and a big thanks to Danielle who responded to the call:

From Danielle: These are from Ghost Ranch and other parts of New Mexico. The larger rocks are from a fascinating place called Valley of Fire in New Mexico where a volcano erupted about 5000 years ago and the lava rocks are still there. It's paired with a dish of rocks I collected on the property of the homestead I worked on in Selćuk, Turkey. The dried flowers are also from there.

I did not have it on my bingo card that rocks get you all going, so here's my second teaser for January 23rd: the Labradorite and Black Onyx will be finished tumbling.

It's finally time. As long as Rock Hudson and Rock Lobster do their job, you're gonna see some sweet fuckin rocks in two weeks.

I have to believe that announcement will make at least one of you bounce out of bed to read the next TL;DR. Here I was, wanting to build a newsletter list about how to build a business that's a great place to work, but I guess I gotta give the people what they want.

They want rocks.

I'll give you rocks.

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You won't believe the shine on these bad boys so stay tuned,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

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​PS. In the AI era, you can truly design your company differently from Day 1.​