I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
Readjust Your Eyes
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I can't stop thinking about something my friend Jessica said a couple of weeks ago. She recently bought some plants to bring some other living things into her home. A little while later, she noticed the plants weren't looking so hot and thought she probably needed to prune and repot them. When she pulled the plants out of their original pots, she found tons of roots. 'Despite how it looked above the soil,' she said, 'there was this amazing growth happening below the surface.' Wow, that's a powerful observation, and something I can really relate to with my own plants, in my life, and in my work with clients. Sometimes, it can feel like we're doing what we're supposed to be doing to make things happen, but then we don't see any impact from our actions. In fact, it can feel like we're doing it wrong, whatever it is. Something I've learned recently, however, is that when it feels like I'm hitting one brick wall after another, I'm actually not just spinning my wheels and going nowhere. Each time, I'm recalibrating and learning something crucial to help me dismantle those walls, even if it feels like I'm doing it brick by painful brick. Listening to Jessica, I was reminded of all this research that's popped up all over the place about how easily our eyes (and, really, our brains) can deceive us into seeing not what is there but what we expect to see, resulting in some fascinating optical illusions. In a related way, if we're expecting one thing to happen as a result of our actions and it doesn't, but something else, perhaps even more profound does, how likely are we to see it? I'd wager, not very. I'd like to challenge you, to 'readjust your eyes' if you're feeling stuck or like you're putting in effort and not getting anywhere. Maybe, it's just that you need to look below the surface to find the amazing growth happening there. I'm experiencing all kinds of growth in the area of building my talent for balance, which I wrote about last week. If you missed it, you can find it here. Want to learn more about the science behind optical illusions? Check out this WIRED video: Why Your Brain Thinks These Strawberries Are Red. I'm in a vacation state of mind as we head into the July 4th weekend, and I travel up to Boston (my second hometown) to see friends and family and enjoy some R+R. Your success is our strategy! |
Easily Said & Done
I help entrepreneurs leapfrog over the typical potholes that derail most small businesses with inspiration, motivation, education, and support across a wide range of business topics drawn from over a decade of running my own business, teaching entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and coaching and consulting privately with dozens of women and minority small business owners. Honestly, why go it alone when help is an email away?
Hi Reader, Last week we had the first tornado warning in Manhattan and the second in New York City that I can recall. There was horrible air quality from the Canadian wildfires as well as torrential rains with their accompanying flood warnings the week before. Right now, Spain and France are suffering devastating wildfires and heat waves. I've written before about disaster preparedness, but I really want to drive home the need to think about and plan for the potential impact of natural or...
I promised I'd share some AI wins after bashing on it for the last couple of months, so here goes. An old client of mine runs a wine shop in Brooklyn. She's got some help but she's largely a one-woman show. She's been using Monday's AI features to help her analyze and manage her inventory and understand seasonal sales trends to purchase more smartly. She had to level up her investment and hire someone to help her set up the AI agents she needs but feels it's been money well-spent. Another one...
There are lots of thoughts spinning around in my brain at any given moment. Maybe you can relate. We're kind of living in whirlwind times where information is coming at us incessantly; it's like being caught up in a tornado. There's just no way to catch your breath and really marinate on anything for too long. So here are a few things I'm trying to give a little bit more thought and attention to these days: What impact will Pope Leo's AI encyclical have on governments, tech leaders, and...