The Twenty Percenter
Weekly advice for top business professionals.
The Recipe for Trust (2 Min Read) | Vol. 227 October 30, 2026 “Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.” – Dutch Proverb The Recipe for Trust My friend Ron Friedman’s first book, The Best Place to Work, didn’t cover trust. “I took trust for granted for a really long time,” he confessed. Writing …
How to Run Your Own Goal Setting Retreat (8 Min Read) | Vol. 226 PSA – If you’d like to do your goal-setting retreat with us, Wendy and I are hosting our final The ONE Thing Summit & Goal Setting Retreat virtually on November 13–14. It’s two half days, so you can book a hotel …
The 50-Hour Tipping Point (2 Min Read) | Vol. 225 October 16, 2026 “Instead of choosing between A or B, they figure out a way to have both A and B.” – Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last The 50-Hour Tipping Point Anna was a leader at a large global company. She loved …
Pull the Right Lever (3 Min Read) | Vol. 224 October 9, 2026 “One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.” – Yuval Noah Harari Pull the Right Lever In the past two weeks, I’ve had the same conversation three times. A business owner tells …
Look Over the Wall (2 Min Read) | Vol. 223 PSA: Our final ONE Thing Goal Setting Retreat & Summit is November 13–14. It’s virtual, so anyone can join us for one last run at planning a great year. Save your spot here. October 2, 2026 “A very wise person once told me, ‘When it …
25 First Downs (2 Min Read) | Vol. 222 PSA: If you missed my announcement about changes to The ONE Thing, click here. September 25, 2026 “The score takes care of itself.” – Bill Walsh 25 First DownsQ4 starts next week. And, huzzah, it’s also football season. Which means I get to tell you about …
Picking the Slow Line Every Time (2 Min Read) | Vol. 220 September 18, 2026 “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” — Elinor Smith Picking the Slow Line Every Time Many years ago, …
Who Walks Out (2 Min Read) | Vol. 220 September 11, 2026 “Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t …
You Can’t Begin until You End (2 Min Read) | Vol. 219 September 4, 2026 “It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.” — William Bridges You Can’t Begin Until You End This week on the podcast, I talked with Shannon Anderson-Finch, an executive coach who spends her days with people in …
Three Blank Lines (2 Min Read) | Vol. 218 August 28, 2026 “We are not defined by our toughest seasons or our worst mistakes. They are part of the story but not the whole story.” – Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe Three Blank Lines I’ve failed. Plenty. I’ve failed at personal projects. Failed to make a profit. …