Have you ever met a customer so frustrated you didn’t know where to start?

Barnett Helzberg Jr.’s The Jack Story shows why it’s not always about the problem—they’re carrying the weight of their journey before they even reach your door.

Post: The Jack Story

Sponsor: Passing Notes to Strangers

On my 45th birthday, I decided to take stock—not with resolutions or advice, but with notes I’ve been quietly keeping for years.

What started as a private “Note to Self” has grown into a list of lessons about work, attention, friendship, courage, and choosing what matters.

Some are practical, some philosophical, all earned the slow way. This is a snapshot of what I believe right now—shaped by mistakes, experiments, and paying attention. Consider it unfinished. I do.

Post: Note to Self

Sponsor: 31 Easy

It started with a photo, a little extra weight, and a decision to do something hard. A marathon seemed simple enough—until it wasn’t. One race left me full. The next left me empty. In between were injuries, early mornings, quiet negotiations with pain, and strangers ringing cowbells for anyone still moving.

This piece isn’t really about running. It’s about what goals leave behind once the medal’s in a drawer.

Through ancient ships, lonely tunnels, and broken records, I explore three paths of work—and ask the only question that matters after the finish line: what remains?

Post: What Remains

Sponsors: 31 Easy

Once a year, I publish the Recommengine: a curated list of the books, videos, podcasts, ideas, and strange little discoveries that stuck with me over the past twelve months. These are the things I’ve recommended to friends, family, coworkers, and now you—because they made me laugh, think, argue, or see the world a little more clearly. It’s long. It’s opinionated. It wanders. And if you follow every link, read every book, and watch every video, we may not see you again until next year. Worth it.

Post: Recommengine, 2025

Sponsors: 31 Easy

This week’s blogcast starts with Billy Mack, detours through Dickens and Yvon Chouinard, and ends up right where every creator eventually lands: staring down the temptation to make solid gold shit. The shiny thing that charts well, trends well, sells well—and leaves you feeling nothing.

Instead, I make the case for building the weird, specific thing you’d rip open on your own Christmas morning. A Christmas fable for anyone trying to create something that lasts in a world drowning in competent sameness.

If you’ve ever chased applause and regretted it, this one’s for you.

Blog Post: Solid Gold Shit (and Other Things Worth Unwrapping)

The final trap isn’t money or status—it’s the rice in the monkey trap: sunk costs, identity, and the illusion of meaning.

In Part III, we explore why people stay in environments they’ve long outgrown, clutching rewards they can’t use and identities they didn’t choose. Freedom requires value elasticity, the courage to reprice what mattered yesterday against what matters now. Letting go feels like loss, but it’s the only way to reclaim your time, purpose, and self.

This chapter shows why leaving is so hard—and why leaving is often the first real act of autonomy you’ll make.

Blog Post: How They Keep You - Part III: Why You’ll Stay

When money stops motivating, companies don’t lose power—they just switch currencies.

Titles, recognition, access, belonging: these are the subtler, more potent levers that keep people striving long after their paychecks stop mattering.

From Cheers to President’s Club to “Emerging Leaders,” Part II shows how status and affiliation infiltrate our identity, how they blur the line between reward and manipulation, and why even smart, ambitious people fall for the trap. Because once you’re seen, once you’re included, the fear of dropping in status—or losing your place—keeps you bound tighter than any bonus ever could.

Blog Post: How They Keep You - Part II: Status and Affiliation

We like to think we choose our jobs, but much of the time our jobs choose us. From billion-dollar pay packages to corporate KPIs, the game isn’t about money—it’s about control. Value rigidity keeps even the richest and most powerful people locked into systems they can’t leave, and we’re no different. We learn to love the rope the longer we’re tied to it. Part I unpacks the hidden strings companies pull, the currencies they use to keep you in place, and why it’s so hard to recognize the pull until you’re already deep inside the machine.

Blog Post: How They Keep You - Part I: Strings Attached