A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck — and what it looks like when you finally fix them.
the line he got tattooed across his chest
|
Hello Reader, I've been reading Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. Not finished with it yet, but I've read a lot of good books this year and this one continues the trend. There's a section I bookmarked, and I've gone back to it a few times since. One character tells another about something he was taught a long time ago. "The things that we love tell us what we are." He loved that line so much he got a tattoo of it right across the top of his chest. I kept turning it over for days. It really resonated even though I wasn't quite sure why. Then it dawned on me. I don't actually agree with it. I was sitting at my desk and a sticky note stuck to my computer caught my eye. "Your life is defined by what you pay attention to." That one has been up there a long time, and it's the one I believe. I love plenty of things I never get around to, and loving them doesn't show up anywhere. Showing up for them puts hours on my calendar where anybody can see them. It got me to thinking. It's just like this in our business. If somebody looked at your last week, with no explaining from you, what would they say your business is about? Your website says one thing. Your calendar says another, and the calendar is the true one. I do this too. I'll tell you my week is about building things for my clients, and then I look back and find three hours went to something anybody could have handled. I did it because I've always done it, and nobody ever wrote down how. So I made you a super easy thing to try next week, and I'm doing it right along with you. It's called The Five-Day Receipt. There's a tracker. Five days, four lines each, and one small question next to every line. About two minutes at the end of each day. Then there's what to do with the one job you circle on Friday, including an example prompt so you can see how I'd hand it to AI. (Bonus for Claude users: if you want this to run on auto pilot for you next week, email me back and I'll send it to you) Grab The Five-Day Receipt here Print it, or keep it open in a tab. Either way, by Friday you'll know something about your week you don't know right now. What's the one thing you already know is going to show up on your list? Reply and tell me. I read every one. Shell, Yes! Here's to your success, P.S. The whole story, and the longer version of what to do with the job you circle, is on the blog this week. _______________________________________________________________________ “It’s Just Like This in Our Business”A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck and what it looks like when you finally fix them. |
“It’s Just Like This in Our Business”
A weekly dispatch on the three things every small business has to get right: Operations. Marketing. People. Real stories about the structural breakdowns that keep good businesses stuck — and what it looks like when you finally fix them.
Hello Reader, "We're so busy and I'm all by myself and I can't help you now." That's what the woman at the grocery store told me on Saturday. I'd come in to rent a carpet cleaner, with a storm on the way and the whole town of Pacific Beach stocking up. I said I'd wait. (Cue me settling in by the registers like I lived there.) She came back three more times to tell me she still couldn't help. Meanwhile I could see stock people and a couple of cashiers with nobody in their lines. Then the shift...
Hello Reader, An hour after I told myself "just a few laps around the block," I was still walking. Yesterday I hit the 4pm wall. Hubby usually walks with me, but he was away at a conference, so I made myself a little deal. Some steps are better than none. Then I opened the front door. It was sunny and in the low 70s with a soft breeze, one of those early fall days that feels brand new. One lap turned into a longer loop down a street I haven't walked in a while. I didn't put on a podcast or...
Hello Reader, By Saturday night, there were twelve apple pies cooling on my stove. Every fall, we go apple picking. We've done it for as long as hubby and I have been together, and even before that. When he was a little boy, his family built a cute cabin in the Shenandoah Mountains with apple trees right on the property. My mother-in-law even wrote an apple recipe book. These days I bake at least a dozen pies every year, and a few of them are gluten-free. Pie day starts with bowls. I line up...