Leading Yourself

I’m emerging from a long winter publishing hibernation. It felt a bit gauche to lob 3000 words at you after a cold spell— inhospitable even! As in corner you at the party to launch into an hour-long monologue about my shitty ex. I mean, geez, we haven’t spoken in ages. I will keep this one […]

A forgotten sabbatical, and many moves later. On a recent call someone asked me about the sabbatical I took at the beginning of this year— they listened to the podcast episode where John and I talked about it. And my brain sort of glitched for a second…like, oh, shit, I did do that this year […]

Here’s my punchline: I took six weeks off from Wanderwell and nothing bad happened. I didn’t check email once, didn’t get pulled into any urgent (or not so urgent…) fires, and came back to a smoothly running business. I spent most of my time off in India, a country I know well, having lived there […]

In smallbusinessland, we’re in the season of turning our attentions to next year, as we always do, but amidst a vortex of uncertainty that for many feels bigger, scarier than ever. As I’ve sat with clients the past couple of weeks, we’ve shared a lot of fear and worry together; a lot of questions about […]

I’m on a brief writing retreat this week, not totally off the grid, but more off than on. A friend lent me space in a more rural corner of Vermont than even where I live, and so I’ve absconded with Josie the dog. I’ve been sneaking off for residencies or retreats at least a couple […]

John and I just released our 3rd episode in a little Whiskey Fridays series on Business Partnerships, where we take on the D-word: D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Today though, I’m circling back to something that John, a true friend, generously teed up for me to talk about in the last episode on partner wonkiness and changes: a proposal […]

1. I’m winding down the Summer of Failure: this’ll be the last post on this theme for a bit before we move into a less fatalistic feeling fall, though I have one more (extremely special) podcast episode in the works. Dive into the whole rabbit hole here. 2. Finally, a content warning: I think most […]

There’s a not-so-secret fantasy I’ve heard a lot of entrepreneurs voice over the years: the wish that some sort of catastrophe lands you in the hospital for a while, tended by a fleet of nurses. It’s a rather dark and horrible vision, the idea that you need some sort of deus ex machina to save […]

On the surprising relief of letting (a very big) something go… I’ve really appreciated all the notes from y’all on the first part of my conversation with Heather Thomason of Primal Supply Meats. I know there are a lot of you that have recently experienced similar turmoil or have either made, or are grappling with, […]

There’s a rumbling undercurrent, that you might catch if you’re paying attention (or, like, happen to be in daily conversation with small business owners): we’re experiencing a wave of small business closures and upheaval. The pandemic isn’t over and neither is the shakeup of the economy. If I can muster enough bravery, I’ll write more […]