Hey :) There’s a book I keep coming back to. It’s called How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert. What I’ve realised over time is that the reason I like this book so much is because it sits right at the heart of the work I do — even if it doesn’t obviously look like a “communication” book at first glance. At its core, I’m in the b...

Hey :) A small but surprisingly helpful addition to my goal setting this year has been a simple tracking app called Tally. I paid a few pounds for it, installed it on my iPhone, and started using it for one reason only: to track a handful of numbers that genuinely matter to me right now. Not vanity metrics. Not things I think I should ...

Hey :) I was on a call with a client recently and we ended up talking about something that comes up a lot more than people admit. They were in one of those stretches where the work that needs done is the exact work they don’t want to do. Admin. Compliance. Setup. Chasing information. Cleaning up loose ends. The sort of work that isn’t ...

Hey :) For a long time, I thought building a business on your own was the point. Freedom. Control. Doing what you want, when you want. That’s usually why people start in the first place. I’ve done it before. Built businesses solo. And in my current business, I’m one of four partners. If I’m honest, I resisted that for a couple of years...

Hey :) I’ve been sitting with something that keeps showing up in my work, and I figured it was worth writing about — partly to make sense of it for myself, and partly because I suspect I’m not the only one dealing with it. There’s a pattern I see over and over again. Ideas come up. Opportunities appear. There’s urgency. Momentum. A fee...

Hey :) This was the first coaching session of the year. We’d barely warmed up and my client asked me a question I always enjoy being asked: ““You’re probably the most avid reader I know. From the books you’ve read recently, what would you recommend?”” I love this question — not because I have a clever list ready to go, but because I th...

Hey :) This has been brewing for a while. One thing I noticed is that I delay opening my laptop as long as I possibly can. Not because I hate it — I actually like technology — but because I know that the second I open it, I’m inviting distraction into my life. Email. Fizzy. Zoom. Browsers. Tabs. Noise. So I started wondering: How do I ...

Hey :) I recently read The Crux by Richard Rumelt. I took a lot from it — especially the reframing of what strategy actually is — and I found that genuinely liberating. Below are a few quotes that might inspire you to read it, and to think differently about strategy. "Good strategic goals are the outcome of strategy, not its input.” “S...

Hey :) Something interesting happened this morning. An old Basecamp notification popped up — one of those “future Chris” reminders from months ago. It was an idea we’d written down to start a new podcast in 2026. At the time, it probably felt like a decent idea. Worth considering. Maybe even exciting. But instead of doing anything with...

Hey :) This idea was inspired by Josh Waitzkin (Author of The Art of Learning), and I’ve started using it as part of my shutdown routine. If you’re not familiar with my shutdown routine, here's a picture of it from my calendar. The important part for today is the last two lines on the page. It's called the MIQ - The Most Important Ques...

Hey :) We all get the same 24 hours. So the difference isn’t time. It’s the quality of the time we use for our most important work. I’m talking specifically about project work. The thinking, creating, and problem-solving that actually shapes the future of the business. Most people focus on getting more time. I’m more interested in incr...

Hey :) Most of my work starts from a blank page. Ideas, frameworks, workshops, posts, offers — a lot of it is creative work in the truest sense. Nothing there, then something there. At times it can feel overwhelming, and when I notice myself getting stuck, it’s almost always for the same reason: I’m trying to start too big. Too broad. ...

Hey :) I’ve been thinking about something recently and I don’t have the whole answer yet — but I know there’s something important in it. It’s this idea that goals don’t really do the work. Rules do. And more specifically — a decision does. Last August I decided I wanted to lose some body fat and get leaner. Like most people, I did the ...

Hey :) I had two leadership conversations recently — different people, different roles, different challenges. But both conversations arrived at almost the exact same sentence: “I’m still trying to figure out what kind of leader I want to be.” It’s such a common moment. And it’s usually where people get stuck. Because when you’re steppi...

Hey :) Here are five quotes that have inspired me recently: "The one that keeps saying, "Are my children all right?" or "Everyone must approve of me" is like eyes that can only stand pale colors, or teeth that can only handle mush." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.35 “There’s no one way—there’s too much drivel about this subject. Yo...

Hey :) Last year was a big Richard Koch year for me. I read his books multiple times, and somewhere along the way the 80/20 principle stopped being just an idea and became a first principle for how I think about almost everything — from life at home to how I spend my time at work. One concept in particular really stuck with me: the ide...

Hey :) Something that keeps coming up again and again — both in my own work and in client conversations — is how easy it is to drift into busy work. You start the week with good intentions, then suddenly you’re scrambling, reacting, doing a lot… but not always the right work. I had a call with a client this week and they summed it up p...

Hey :) I want to share something practical with you today. This is my Authority In/Out Card — or as I think about it, the order taker to authority shift for 2026. It’s a simple visual, but it’s built on many years of real work: • Coaching business owners, leaders, sales teams, marketing teams • Coaching other coaches and client-facing ...

Hey :) I’ve been thinking a lot about strategy lately — mostly because I don’t want to be wrestling with the same problems every year. I want to be better each year at working on the right things, at the right time, in the right order. And I’ll be honest: I’ve recently caught myself doing the opposite. There was a problem in our busine...

Hey :) I get asked this a lot - “How do you get so much done?” The truth is… I’m not doing more. I’m just doing the right things. This block in my calendar is what I call my 20% time. It’s not free time. It’s not admin. It’s not catching up on email or Slack. And it’s definitely not “when I get a minute”. 20% time is where I work on th...

Hey :) One of the more frightening realisations I’ve had recently is just how little time most leaders have to think. And not only that — because they have so little time to think, they can’t actually think about anything that’s remotely useful or valuable. What happens instead is this: Because they have no time to think, they just do ...

Hey :) Here are five quotes that have inspired me recently: "What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours. That is what you must be able to attain." - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet “If it catches you sneaking out, boredom will try to talk you ...

Hey :) Recently we celebrated my dad’s 70th. We booked a hotel, spent some time at the spa, and then went down to the restaurant for dinner — just the three of us: my dad, me, and my daughter, Luna-Rose. And something small happened that reminded me how much energy shapes communication. Two things, actually — both happening within minu...

Hey :) I was at a Christmas party recently, chatting to a young lad in his early 20s. Second year into his university degree. We got talking about work, as you do. Then he asked me a very specific question: “How should I think about my future prospects if I want to get a good job?” Not what job. Not what career. Just how to think about...

Hey :) I was speaking to Scott last night and we got onto this idea that I keep bumping into from time to time. The idea goes something like this: “What’s the point in doing anything if there’s no clear, direct link to making money?” And my immediate reaction was to push back on it. Because if that’s the filter…why do anything at all? ...

Hey :) Here’s a link to the books I read in 2025: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2025/105429634 If you have any questions, hit reply. While I’m here, I thought I’d share a few reading lessons from this past year: 1. I read roughly half of the books I started. That feels like a good lesson in itself — move on quickly if a ...

Hey :) Last year was a big year for me in terms of studying, embracing, and actually implementing the 80/20 principle across my life. It’s one of those ideas I keep coming back to. I reread the books from Richard Koch, think about it constantly, and notice how often it applies in places I hadn’t expected. As I’ve been planning for Janu...

Hey :) There’s something interesting we miss when it comes to problem-solving. In business, when something isn’t working, we get help. We hire people. We buy tools. We bring in outside perspective. In our personal lives, we rarely think that way. We tend to just cope. What fascinates me is how many ideas transfer cleanly between busine...

I’ve gotta get some writing done. I’ve got about 2 hours before people come home from work or school. Fortunately, our cabin in the back garden is now fully functional and I can get out of the house, and be out of sight! There’s something crucial about not being seen, even if you just happen to be in the garden room. Here are the rules...

The kids are away with Cara to a family gathering, and I'm here at home in the garden room - I'm about to start writing an essay for uni. The mission for the next few hours is to write my first shitty draft, and to do it without any distraction or break...just write until I'm done, and it doesn't matter how shit it is or how long or sh...