Never waste a crisis
Over time riding the roller coaster of leadership and entrepreneurship, I started repeating a mantra: Never waste a crisis Too often we’d get bogged down in the reality of the crisis at hand, understandably. But every crisis has an opportunity in it. A crisis is something I think we humans sometimes need to actually evolve…
The Missing Ingredient in Vision & Goals
One of the most powerful lessons I learned from my business mentor was this question: What’s in it for them? It’s the missing part of your company vision, strategy and goals … and the overlooked ingredient to unlocking passion … for your team. We know why we as leaders and founders care. We know what’s…
How I Got Started Leading Customer Community
I posted this on LinkedIn and wanted to share it here as it’s part of my core passion in the work I do today …. Here’s how I got started building, running, leading customer communities, which I now do specifically at hosting.com as Chief Evangelist: It was 2009, barely two years into running iThemes &…
On Leadership and People And Care
I’ve been a leader, I am a leader … and love thinking about and practicing leadership. Even if I’m a little anxious acknowledging that here. But my one-word definition of my brand of leadership is this: CARE Care about the humans, first, always and forever. It’s about people. AND that starts with myself …. Caring…
Vision is the Destination. Values Show us the Way.
At hosting.com, we’re working on our first version of our core values, along with our vision and mission. And I’m honored and thankful to be contributing to this work for us. But I put a HUGE emphasis on our values and this work. They aren’t just another checkbox for me and I take them very seriously…
What is a Chief Evangelist in Business?
It’s been over a year in my role as Chief Evangelist for A2 Hosting, now hosting.com. And I get asked often, “What is a chief evangelist?” Candidly, I don’t always know what to say either. So part of this post is for me and clarity. First, though, I want to say: this was not a position…
Go Far Together … at Scale
One of the new big things I’m taking on at A2 Hosting is team comms for our 800+ team that’s growing every day. “Communication is oxygen.” So job no. 1 is keeping our team INFORMED in a fast paced environment. Connecting weekly with our leadership in our CEO and COO and next our key leaders/influencers…
A Personal Manifesto on Work — and Its Connection to Profit and Purpose
For the majority of my life, starting as a teenager, I’ve always liked work and have drawn deep rewards and fulfillment through it. After some deep reflection, including my 6-month “forced” sabbatical in 2021 (aka my burnout and crash), and the last year taking off my entrepreneurial hat and going to work for a company…
Leading and Managing
My business mentor asked me 15 years ago or so, What’s the difference between leading and managing? I’m idealistic I realize and admit … but I’ve always felt there is a stark contrast between Leading and Managing. I’ve seen when you do these two things well … magic happens. You free people to give their…
RACI and My Translation: DOCK
I got introduced to the RACI model last year by my awesome project manager Katie Richards and have appreciated its use in my work and in my work with others especially as the bigger team has expanded rapidly. “The RACI model is a responsibility assignment matrix that helps clarify roles and responsibilities within a project,…