Need A Selfbbatical?

It had to be you It had to be you I wandered around, and I finally found The somebody who Could make me be true And could make me be blue And even be glad Just to be sad – thinking of you I’ve heard “the Sinatra serenade” hundreds of times. Frank’s 1980’s song actually […]

More Alike Than Not 

I truly love connecting with people. One of the more enjoyable parts of the keynote business is getting to travel all over the country to meet people who, on the surface, seem different than me. Over the last decade, I’ve been a Johnny Cash song where I’ve: This is a long, winding way to suggest: While next week in […]

Step Away from “Next Steps”

Words matter. At this point, most of you know I have a gripe with the dictionary definition of courage: Where’s the utility in this? How does it help me know where to move forward with courage and where to show restraint? If courage were a currency, and I tried to spend it everywhere, I’d be […]

Fear Itself

I was making a joke.  The one you roll out when you really want to make your guest laugh. You can hear it early in my podcast episode with Seth Godin which you can find below at around the 12th minute.  Seth lives in NYC — my old stomping ground.  For those of you who are […]

5 Questions With YETI’s Bill Neff

I’ve been fortunate to meet some special leaders since launching The Courageous Podcast. One of those gems is YETI’s Head of Marketing Bill Neff. Bill is a superb human who can’t help but keep it real. He also happens to know a thing or two about Brand and Marketing from his days at Under Armour, […]

Interested. Interesting.

I never meant to run anything. The facts suggest, somehow, I’ve been responsible for hitting pay roll on time for people who chose to stand by my side for 20+ years now. From 4 people out of a house to 90 people in downtown San Diego, each courageous organism I’ve tried to lead varied from […]

Growth by a Thousand Cuts

Are you familiar with the term “Lingchi”? The literal meaning of Lingchi means “slow slicing” or “lingering death” in Chinese. Or, as we’ve come to recognize it here in America, Lingchi means… Death by a Thousand Cuts. The term, “death by a thousand cuts”, originates from a thousand year old Chinese torture method which involved […]

Outsourcing Courage

Do what you’re best, pay for the rest. This was advice I received early in my entrepreneurial journey after a certain Television-Radio Major had gone to school for “story” — not “business”. You can imagine my learning ground when I started my own company for the first time which (somehow) happens to be 20 years […]

Slaying The Anaconda

Courage is a relative thing. What’s courageous to me may be a walk in the park for you. What’s courageous to you may be a walk in the park for me. To my daughter, who happens to be 8, facing her fear of “The Anaconda” during our recent “slaycation” was beyond brave. Caption: Watching a […]

Gleason’s Courage

Last night, I marinated in one of the more beautiful speeches I’ve witnessed in a long time. The combination of phrases bent my ear in a way that only vulnerable and true words can do. If you missed the ESPYs last night, this was New Orleans Saint legend Steve Gleason accepting the Arthur Ashe award […]