Hey Reader, The drive that built your success can be the same thing that caps it. My guest this week, Jason Connell, was a professional magician by the age of 18 and a sold-out speaker a decade later. Both times, he was professionally successful and personally miserable. Today he's a licensed therapist and author of When Success Isn't Enough, but most importantly feeling like he’s living his most authentic life. He learned the hard way that sometimes you have to rewire what success means to...
about 23 hours ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, "Oh God, here we go again." That's what my team would groan every time I brought a new idea to them. I used to think one of my greatest gifts was the ability to see over the horizon, connect the dots, and come up with a million new ideas. It took me a while to hear what they were telling me with those groans. See, I was in a group back then and we used to have a monthly presentation from a speaker. Each month we would laugh about how dangerous it was to hear one of those...
3 days ago • 4 min read
Hey Reader, If every hard problem in your company still finds its way to your desk, here's the hard truth: you didn't build a bigger company. You built a longer list of stuff to do. Twenty years ago, my mentor Terry Dunn told me something I didn't want to hear: "You had better get comfortable being the least informed about the details of your business." I'll let you think about how that went. This week kicks off our CEO Mindset series with that lesson. In this episode: Why the skills that...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, "You need to turn off work, Dusty. I need you to be 'husband Dusty' right now." My wife Tara tells me that more often than I'd like to admit. I'm a professional fixer, and my whole career has been built on building and fixing things. So I'll flip into coach mode in a nanosecond, and almost nothing makes her madder. She didn't ask for a coach. She asked for a supportive, loving husband. Last week my peer group discussed the difference between listening and fixing, and I've been...
10 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, What would happen if we stopped thinking of communication as something that we do to someone, and instead lean into the fact that what we are doing is communicating for someone. This week's guest, Salvatore Manzi, has coached more than 4,2000 leaders over the past 20 years in the art of communicating effectively, from the everyday conversations with team members to the the stage. In this episode: Salvatore shares tools for your next meeting to make your communication more thorough...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Recently I spent a few days with my friend Alex Goldfayn, watching him walk YPO members and their teams through a sales and revenue workshop. The whole workshop turned on one simple shift: when you look at everything in sales through the lens of serving others, you move from self-interest to value creation. As I reviewed my notes, Alex's words about the power of simplicity kept running through my head. He's spent more than two decades building, refining, and simplifying his system...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, AI gives every person on your team a level of "intelligence on demand." What it doesn't do is give us the judgment it takes to use it intelligently. Nick Machol, my guest on this week's episode of Leadership Unlocked, is the co-founder of Unburdn and has helped more than 100 organizations put AI to work in their businesses. In this episode: Why AI is "intelligence on demand," and why that makes your judgment worth more, not less Work slop vs. work sap & how AI output can look like...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, A new role, opportunity, or promotion is exciting. It's a reward for your hard work and the payoff for everything you've worked toward. But it's a step in the journey, not the goal. Last week I had the opportunity to spend time with 200 amazing CEOs who've built remarkable businesses and lead great organizations. Our conversations reminded me that we're always in growth mode as people and as leaders: striving, driving, and leaning in. Today we launch our newest Vision to Victory...
24 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, It's 9:40 at night. You finished what you sat down to do. And then the machine says those little magic words… “Let me know what’s next.” It's always ready for the next thing. In this week's episode of Leadership Unlocked, I share a hard truth I brought home from 10 days off the grid: the work no longer has to stop, you have to decide when and where it does. In this episode: Why the time AI saves you keeps getting filled, and what it costs. The three things unstructured time does...
29 days ago • 1 min read