Everyone dreams about starting their own company, but what they don’t see is the millions of people who have imprisoned themselves in the process. They started a business for freedom, but over time, the business has consumed every waking hour of their life. It sounded like fun because being an…

Here’s the latest edition of The Optimized Report newsletter, which features 1 actionable tip every Sunday to help small business owners dramatically improve their performance, profit, and potential without sacrificing what’s most important — TIME. - I’ve been optimizing my businesses for over 15 years now. For some years, it’s…

Learning how to automate redundant activities is a game-changer. When you automate certain activities, it frees you and your team to focus on higher-value activities. It’s these activities that create massive, sustainable, and compounding results. But, they’re unachievable when you’re stuck in the daily whirlwind of simple tasks. Unfortunately, many…

I’ve said many things I didn’t mean, and it’s cost me a lot of pain. What I’ve said aren’t things that were mean, rude, or cruel; instead, they lacked thought. One sunny morning I was quietly sipping my delicious dark roast coffee when I got an urgent call from my…

Poor communication is the root of all intra-office drama. Okay, maybe not all drama, especially in a politically driven, corporate atmosphere, but poor communication causes many problems. I see how the wrong message can spiral out of control routinely in my small teams. To improve your business, team, and life…

Networking is like trying to take a toddler to the dentist. It’s painful. Over the past ten years, I have met mentors who have run hundred-million-dollar companies, been close friends with the Priceline dude, and led billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions. I admittedly networked wrong early in my career. I would…

Most businesses are more complicated than they need to be. I’m notorious for this. I love to take on more projects than the average person can handle, about broad topics, and then expect everyone to keep up. But most people don’t operate this way, and over the years, I learned…

Most job interviewee questions are atrocious. I know this not because I’m a serial interviewee (I’m unemployable at this point) but because I’m the one who has asked notoriously stupid interview questions. They were stupid for two reasons: They were basic questions that everyone had a canned answer to. I…