Allied Executives Blog

F*ck Around and Find Out

When I first saw the famous YouTube video, I loved it.  Something so true, profound, and simple (and funny).  You can find it here:  https://youtu.be/WntjAM2wqF8?si=l85EbB4DwyNIxJ1x

Bottom line, “f*ck around and find out” is a fun life hack. You mess with something, see what ...

Expenses Always Precede Growth 

There are many differences between our early growth stage clients and enterprise ones.  One major one is their comfort level with re-investing in the business and delaying profit.  And that makes sense.  As a founder you put in the long hours and take on the risk.  You ...

Consistency is Its Own Form of Greatness

This is another favorite lesson and reminder – also picked up from James Clear and his amazing book Atomic Habits.  I see reminders of this lesson every month within our peer groups through some of the amazing success stories I get to sit shotgun for. 

Essentia ...

Change Sucks, But Irrelevance Is Worse 

I get very concerned when I hear a colleague or client say, “It's how we’ve always done it.”  It’s a gateway drug to irrelevance. 

Why do we say it? Because change is uncomfortable. It feels risky, like stepping off a ledge without knowing what's below. But ...

Bad Apples Make Bad Seeds

It is difficult to let go of a caustic high performer, especially in a small business where productivity is paramount.

But people underestimate how much lousy behavior spreads. It’s comforting to think it’s isolated—a bad apple in a group, a single exception. But bad apples ...

Address Behaviors, Not People

I often hear the mantra, “Behind most issues is a person.”  I think that is miscast.

Yes, when something goes wrong, the instinct is often to point at a person. "So and so is the problem," we think, or worse, say. It feels satisfying, as if we've identified the root cause ...

Don't Make Easy Things Hard

I am admittedly an on-the-road-to-recovery perfectionist.  I have a talent for making things more complex than they need to be. It’s a version of creativity, a desire to build for quality, but one that can work against me.

The funny thing is that making easy things hard ...

We Fall to the Level of Our Systems

I am a massive fan of James Clear’s book Atomic Habits.  It’s a textbook for me. One I revisit every year between Christmas and New Year’s. An excellent time for reflection. 

For me, goals have always been intoxicating. They promise transformation—better performance ...

Over the years, I’ve collected little bites of wisdom—short phrases from clients, mentors, friends, parents, books, office walls, and life itself. Some are funny, some profound, and all of them memorable. They’re the kind of reminders that keep me focused and clear, picking me up when I need it.  

I ...

In Minnesota, I jokingly refer to September as "back to business month" due to our short summers – and our propensity to try and pack the schedule to take advantage.

During the summer, making the monthly peer group meeting can be challenging while trying to run your business, lead your team, and ...