Daily Inspire
Building a portfolio of business while living a creative life.
Values or Price-Driven?
A note from this week: It's a values-play, not a pricing-play. Hey Reader, Let's cheers to 2026 🥂 Tiny email celebrations count. Today is a short read to help you think differently, then get on with your Sunday. Values vs Price: A Key Mindset Shift The cost of a product or service is not its price. The cost is partly the money you exchange for it, but it's also the time you spend, the attention you give, the effort you put forth, the skills you learn, the sacrifices you make... Recently my...
Failure is a Winning Strategy
SUPPORTED BY A Human Tech Company Hey Reader, In 2018, I stood in front of the City of Phoenix Department of Transportation and told a room full of government employees they needed to fail more. Lol. I know. When I tell you the room went quiet...all of their faces said: This is startup thinking. This doesn't apply to us. And that's exactly why I was there: to teach these well-established leaders how to think like entrepreneurs. The 20% Nobody Talks About That hesitation isn't unique to...
The Business of Migration
SUPPORTED BY MORE HUMAN HOSTING Hey Reader, Most people have moved once or twice in their lives, and if you've done it, you know it's not easy. As my lease is coming to term, I've been thinking a lot about moving, the word migration and what it means: to move from your usual place of residence to a new place of residence––home to something rebuilt as home. There's many reasons we do that. Here are the most common: Seasonal: like the snowbirds in Phoenix flocking to cooler summers (less than...
7 Uncomfortable Truths Entrepreneurs Know
SUPPORTED BY GUSTO Hey Reader, The truth does not change with your ability to stomach it. I've said this quote by Flannery O'Connor, American Novelist and Short Story writer, more than a dozen times this new year. And yet. Denial is still a river in Egypt. So I thought today I'd share a handful of uncomfortable truths I've come to accept as a 10+ year entrepreneur––the stuff people don't like to admit. The stuff that makes you queasy and clench. But the stuff that, if you know ahead of time,...
Delegating is weird, actually.
Supported by GUSTO Hey Reader, One thing I do at the end of every January is Feng Shui my home. A lot of people think Feng Shui is just about rearranging furniture to make a space feel “better.” But for me, it’s been a steady tool through health scares, relationship shifts, career pivots—and an annual ritual for both decluttering and creating peace. It’s also not as woo-woo as people think. In fact, it’s deeply practical. Take this example: Do you ever notice how sitting with your back to a...
Small Power is Big Power ☕️
Supported byWebsite Goals Workshop 2026 Hey Reader, The other day I was stretching using one of those giant foam rollers nobody really knows how to use. I was on the living room rug, roller on my spine with my arms stretched wide, when I noticed a loose screw popping out of the leg of our coffee table. I sat up and saw the screw was almost completely off. You could only see this from floor-level. One false move would collapse the whole thing. How could I miss this? I got up and twisted the...
4 Signals in a World of Noise ☕️
Supported byStealing money from airlines Hey Reader, If you’ve ever felt torn between intuition, fear, logic, and “what everyone else says,” welcome to being human in 2025. The world is loud, and sorting real signals from internal static is becoming an actual skill. I’ve started noticing four distinct types of signals that help me understand what to follow, what to question, and what to release. They’ve changed how I make decisions; maybe they’ll do the same for you. 4 Signals in a World of...
5 Questions to Save Your Project ☕️
Supported ByHow to share the nice things people say about you Hey Reader, Today I've got some practical guidance for you that positively affects any project you're working on. It comes from the lovely David Sherry who I met last week in a ridiculously awesome, 10-year full-circle moment. These 5 Questions Make Any Project a Success David is the founder of Death to Stock, a company I've long admired for its simple business model, superb clientele and mission of supporting artists. At the very...
Can you hold opposites? ☕️
SUPPORTED BY SKIPLAGGED Hey Reader, Yesterday I spent the day in glorious, gritty Peckham in Southeast London. It’s the complete opposite of Southwest London: swap tree-lined streets for popping shops, expansive riverwalks for narrow graffiti tunnels, old white ladies for androgynous punks, and chalkboard sidewalks for wheatpasted posters. What an adventure. Some of my suburban-living, driveway-loving friends wouldn't set foot in a glitchy-lit tunnel, and some of my urban comrades would be...
You can't buy a reputation ☕️
Hey Reader, If you're brand new here, you probably grabbed a helpful resource. How's it going? I'm seeing a ton of downloads of How to Write a Book in Notion and The Creator Playbook: Notes from Craft + Commerce 2025. Let me know! If you've been here awhile, you might've noticed I've been gone a couple weeks. Humour me, pretend you noticed. I've been head down for awhile now working on a couple non-profit campaigns and sitting with a truth about personal brands... You can't buy your...
Building a portfolio of business while living a creative life.