Essays & Articles About Business, Leadership, and Culture
Entrepreneurship For Humans
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You, Me, and The Economy: How to Think About Economic News from a Human Perspective
The economy is in the news. Big time. Inflation has been a big headline, with news breaking August 10 indicating that it rapid price growth might be...
Refund Policies: What’s Fair and What’s Not For Online Businesses
“If you don’t see results, you didn’t want it bad enough.” That’s become the prevailing narrative of the online business refund policy. Of course,...
Overdelivering Doesn’t Help Anyone (And Is Probably Causing Harm)
Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash “Underpromise and overdeliver.” I'm sure you've heard that maxim before. But most of the time I spend money, I...
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Making Media Social: 3 Ways We Behave Online
Twitter is a dumpster fire. Meta lays off 11,000 people while their ad product struggles and their metaverse product seems to be boring at best. Instagram continues to roll out TikTok feature clones. And TikTok continues to be owned by a Chinese corporation, raising...
“But should you, really?” or, How to Challenge Your “Shoulds” and Get Back to What Matters
This is a should I can get behind. How many shoulds or supposed-tos do you utter in a day? How often do you put yourself down because you’re not doing something you believe you should be doing? And how many times do you think critically about whether taking those...
The Economic Functions of Busyness: From Convenience to Debt
I'm not a very busy person. I don't mean that as a weird flex. Nor do I say it as a way to eschew the elevated status of Very Busy Person. There simply aren't a lot of varying demands on my time. There is plenty that I want to do—books I want to read, ideas I want to...
Busyness Decoded: How to Limit What You Say “Yes” To
If you feel overcommitted or overwhelmed regularly, you’re not alone. In a 2022 survey, Gallup asked Americans to gauge their stress levels. Nearly half of the adults polled responded that they felt stressed daily. In a Pew survey in 2018, 60% of U.S. adults deal with...
Laid Off: What’s the future of social media?
When Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter finally became officially, he immediately fired the CEO and other top executives. That much is perfectly normal when a new owner takes over. But on Friday, half of Twitter’s workforce opened their personal inboxes to learn their...
Putting in the Reps: A Love Letter to Podcasting & Practice
This week, I celebrated both the release of my book and the 400th episode of my podcast. It’s been a big week. Just about seven years ago, my production team at CreativeLive and I launched this little podcast baby out in the world. For the first 120 or so episodes, we...
The Satisfaction of Practice in an Achievement-Oriented World
An excerpt from What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting by Tara McMullin The rules had been constructed long before I was born, and I did not know yet I was allowed to break them or redefine them or ignore them entirely. — Jami...
Hustle Culture: How did we get here? And what do we do about it?
American culture is hustle culture. We place extraordinary value on productivity, efficiency, and the willingness to suck it up and squeeze more in. Our heroes are entrepreneurs and artists who put in the work. We are educated in hustle culture from the time we start...
What Type of Goal-Setter Are You?
I've explored goal-setting and planning with small business owners, creatives, and independent workers for over 12 years now. That means I've observed many different types of goal-setters. Some confidently choose a new goal and get to work. Others rebel against...