First off, GREAT news about our next Unicorn Society Retreat… Would it sweeten the deal to know my dear pal Luka Hocevar is going to be a guest speaker at next Unicorn Society retreat on Fri June 17th - Sat Jun 18th? 😉 Come spend time with your BFU brethren enjoying...
Personal Productivity
MF’s upcoming book (!)
Welp, I’m finally doing it. I’m putting together a book! It’s going to be a compilation of my most popular emails and blogposts from the last two years. Right now, I’m in the process of editing it. I’m really excited to create a single resource chockful of frameworks,...
How To FOCUS and Create High Quality Work Even If You’re Easily Distracted
Even in normal times, it can be challenging to strap yourself down to your desk and bang out mission-critical projects: the demanding and creatively challenging work that will move your professional ball forward. And at the time of this writing, we’re deep in the...
What Can You Learn From 2019?
We’d all like to believe that we’re the kind of person who learns from our past to improve our future. That is exactly what my article will help you do today. As 2019 comes to a close, give yourself the gift of self-reflection to consider all the highs and lows of the...
Avoid Burnout: How to Take Care of Others While Caring for Yourself
The fastest way to burnout as a helping professional is to take on the thoughts and feelings of your clients as your own. It doesn’t have to be that way. It is truly possible to be available to help others while still leaving some gas in the tank for ourselves at the end of each day.
5 Random Musings On Self-Discipline, Leadership, Burning Man, and More
Behold! In today's post I bring some quick thoughts on topics ranging from self-discipline to leadership to Burning Man and more. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy...Self-Discipline: Use A Habit-Tracking System To Help You Adopt Good Habits The past few years,...
3 Tips for Taking Feedback Like a Pro
We often focus on improving our ability as managers and leaders to give feedback, but we should also spend time becoming better at receiving feedback. Receiving feedback can be difficult for two main reasons: it is unexpected or it is emotionally triggering. In this...
That Moment When You Question Everything: Is This My Midlife Crisis?
[Disclaimer: This is not a typical post for a business blog (maybe it should be?). So if you’re not ready for some raw, unfiltered emotion, this may not be the post for you.] Right now, as I’m typing this, I am having a moment when I am questioning everything....
The Ultimate Booklist for Entrepreneurs: 48 Books to Supercharge Your Business
For anyone who knows me in real life or follows me on the interwebz, it’s no secret I have a problem. You see… I’m a junkie. Every day I wake up and live a life of servitude to my addiction. It’s all consuming. It’s obsessive. And at times, it’s truly a burden for...
A Brief (Motivating?) Rant About Why You Should Do Less, But Better
Allow me a brief moment to rant. I’m not promising that it will be productive, but it will be passionate. There is a subset of business coaches and thought leaders peddling dangerous ideas like you can have it all if you’re willing to hustle, and if you’re not...
How To Use Public Speaking to Establish Authority and Grow Your Business (Even If You Hate Speaking In Public): Part 2
In the first part of our deep dive into public speaking, we covered how to create a structure that sets you up for success. By crafting a strong opening and ending, logically ordering your content, and designing a strong slide deck, you’re off to a great start. (Did...
How To Use Public Speaking to Establish Authority and Grow Your Business (Even If You Hate Speaking In Public): Part 1
According to conventional wisdom, most people fear public speaking more than death. While this sounds extreme at first, upon reflection, it does follow a certain logic. After all, we’ve been designed by natural selection to feel a healthy dose of nerves anytime we’re...
How to Create a Daily Gratitude Practice and 5 Reasons You Should Have One as a Leader
First things, first. What the heck is a daily gratitude practice? There are many definitions of gratitude depending on the research you look at, but I like to think of gratitude as the acknowledgment of positive outcomes in your life and the reasons for those positive...
Want to Manage Your Time Better? Start Here.
You know what’s crazy? Time. It’s your only completely non-renewable resource. You can get more energy by resting. And you can always earn more money. But once time is gone… that’s it. If you’re serious about using your time well, it’s important to start by analyzing...
Done-For-You Presentation: 10 Tips to Improve Your Team’s Email Etiquette
No one ever teaches us how to use email. One day we're handed an email address and it's assumed we'll just figure it out. [Spoiler alert: We're not very good at just figuring it out.] So, it makes perfect sense that for many of us emails are a source of frequent...
Become a Learning Machine: How to Leverage Books to Supercharge Personal and Professional Development
Estimated Reading Time: 10 Minutes I’ve been reading (or listening to) an average of two to three books a week since August of 2010. At the time of this writing, I can safely estimate I’ve read more than a thousand books over the last eight years. I don’t say...
Don’t Go It Alone: How to Fight Entrepreneurial Loneliness and Find Community
When I was in middle school, I started obsessively studying musical theater. I would go to the library and check out various cast albums, then make cassette tape recordings. Since I planned to go into the field, I was determined to study the genre and become an...
51/49 or 49/51?: A Provocative Question Regarding Business Growth, Self-Knowledge, and Making Good Art
Dearest reader, today I take a brief pause from tactical musings to offer you a thought experiment that may make you uncomfortable. If there’s one thing that consistently destroys beautiful businesses, it’s looking to scale at all costs. Growing a business can be a...
Stop Doubting Yourself: 10 Ways to Overcome Analysis Paralysis
We all do it. Faced with a tough decision, we pause to think about it. Then we keep thinking about it, and thinking about it, and thinking about it. We analyze to the point where we’re incapable of making a decision and taking action. Some of us rarely find ourselves...
A Quick and Dirty System for Goal Setting: A Done-For-You 60 Minute Workshop To Live An Intentional Life
Periodic goal-setting is one of the most important things you can do if you want to be sure you’re on the right path with your professional (and personal!) goals. A good goal-setting process provides clarity on: Where you're at now Where you want to go What needs to...
How to Set Boundaries with Clients
Video Cliffs Notes The Core IssueIn a high-touch, customer-centric business it is essential to cultivate intimate relationships with your customers.When you have a strong personal connection with your clients you:Have a deeper understanding of their needs and...
Four Apps That Improve My Business and Lower My Stress
The promise of technology is that it helps to improve the quality of our lives, making us more organized, connected, and efficient. But most days I feel like technology makes me less productive. From the daily avalanche of emails to our growing addiction to social...
Should You Work On Your Strengths or Weaknesses?
One of the great debates in all of personal development and business literature is this: Should you focus your education on shoring up your weaknesses? OR should you ignore your weaknesses and focus on your strengths? In the 70’s and 80’s, personal development gurus...
Time Management Is About These Two Things
Teaching is a great way to learn. Now that I've finally launched a time management course, something has become very clear in the research, creation, and execution of the course. The good news is time management is really only about two things: 1) Setting Boundaries...
HOW TO USE TO-DO LISTS WITHOUT BEING SAD/MISERABLE/CRAZY
The To Do List is one of the most tried and true stalwarts of personal productivity. And if poorly implemented, it also has the potential to be the most emotionally destructive. If used well, To Do Lists free up your brain and massively reduce stress while improving...
HOW TO GET MORE HIGH-IMPACT WORK DONE: SETTING UP YOUR DAY TO KICK MAJOR ASS
There are few things that can help you have more success in your business than using your time more effectively. For your reading pleasure, here’s a quick primer on scheduling your day. ********** When you look at a given work day, there are usually a discrete number...
51 BOOKS EVERY GYM OWNER SHOULD READ
For anyone who knows me in real life or follow me on the interwebz, it’s no secret I have a problem. You see… I’m a junkie. Every day I wake up and live a life of servitude to my addiction. It’s all consuming. It’s obsessive. And at times, it’s truly a burden for...
3 SIGNS YOU’RE A CRAPPY LEADER
The first significant opportunity I ever had to flex my leadership muscles was when I was hired to run the concierge team for a luxury hospitality brand in Hawaii. I know, relocated to Hawaii, sucks to be me, right? I managed a team of about fifteen people spread over...
FUN MATTERS
How much fun is your job? Kind of fun? A lot of fun? No fun? Fun matters. A lot. Regardless of your industry, if you create a space where your team and your clients/ customers have a lot of fun, you’re going to have a huge advantage. Your team will work better, and...
BUSINESS TALES FROM THE CRYPT
You know what freaks me the fuck out? Business horror stories. They freak me ooooooout. I recently read a long-ass expose in Fast Company about the spectacular flame-out of electric car company Better Place. I can’t say there was a lot in there that reminded me of...