1. The FTC is finally going after mega brokers.  

2. The brand names of the 10's are hurting executive job seekers  

3. Impossible is just something to do 

A wall-to-wall week in New Orleans and what I learned: 

1) Sometimes an event outgrows it's home. The Super Bowl has outgrown traditional hosts in Miami, Tampa Bay, and New Orleans 

The thesis going into the event was that hotel rooms are going to be an issue. They were. 

New Orleans is amazing. I hadn't spent much time In the city before last weekend. I'd heard it is "not for me," but I had a different experience. I really enjoyed it and had a fantastic Super Bowl experience. 

I'm not sure that's the same experience most fans had. Due to a lack of rooms, many had to drive into the city for the festivities - and that was near impossible come the weekend. The one venture we made out of town was to take an airboat tour of the bayou. Upon arriving back, our Uber would have taken an hour-plus to go the final mile. And that was on Saturday. Sunday was worse. 

It's not just a New Orleans thing. The game is too big now. As much as I enjoy many of the great host cities, I think we're going to see a lot more of the more traditional conference cities hosting the game.

Miami and Tampa will still host, but I'll be surprised if New Orleans does again in the next ten years. Especially after how well LA, Phoenix, and Las Vegas did hosting the games. 

2. Miami and Las Vegas broke our expectations for the Super Bowl market 

I was very wrong, publicly, in my estimation of what the Super Bowl tickets would cost. Part of that equation was the hotel rooms. The bigger part? New Orleans was actually a fairly expensive game, we just remember the outliers more. 

In "Thinking Fast and Slow," Daniel Kanhemann lays out, in great detail, the case that we remember and over-index to extremes in most situations. 

I believe that's what happened this year as the internet oversold the weakness of the market. 

Ratings were as high as ever (ignore discussions of records. Everything is a record now since they changed the way they count ratings) and the market was fairly strong when compared to the first match-up between the Eagles and Chiefs in Phoenix in 2023. 

It just didn't match Miami or Vegas - and that's a great thing. Tickets need to be affordable to fans. A $5k get-in is not. 

Since 2000, only a few Super Bowl's stand out with get-ins over $2500: Phoenix in 2015 (and for no-longer-existent market reasons), Miami in 2020, and Las Vegas 2024. 

Most other Super Bowls are well-under $3k with some under $1k. 

I, like many, was starting to think maybe the maker is just more expensive now. 

Maybe not. 

Good thing that's not my job 

3. Thank You 

I started the Three Things as a journal for my kids. 

The support I get from friends and even strangers who walk up to me and say they enjoy reading my LinkedIn posts makes me so happy. 

People actually read it. 

Crazy.

The 2024 World Series and this coming Tuesday, Election Day. 

1. They're stealing from you. All of them. Be guarded about your tech, business model, and customers. We share examples and names of those who did it to us  

2. "I don't give b--w jobs but I know when they're being done wrong" - Bill Maher. How his quote is applicable to the early days of a business  

3. Why Scott Galloway's career advice is wrong - All-Star Game edition 

1. Do the thing at the start of the year, season, or quarter,  not at the end.  

We started TicketManager on Sept 27, 2007. End of a quarter and end of year

We raised one of our rounds on Nov 1. End of year in final quarter  

It’s a really small thing, but we’ve had to explain it quite often when talking about YoY trends

It costs nothing to wait until the start of a new cycle, quarter, or year.  There’s plenty to explain along the way. I don’t need something else.  

2. The great RFP awakening.  

2023 was a year of correction for SaaS businesses. Growth slowed for many, NRR dropped, Net Expansion went off a cliff (see chart), layoffs were rampant, FCF was king, and profitability mattered once again  

But something else happened too:

Discipline in services returned.  

growth-at-all-costs businesses learned that growth has a cost. And it changed customer expectations.  

Customer after customer came to us looking to switch vendors. The problem, the deals they were offering were money losers. I saw it in so many businesses too, specifically SaaS, Agencies, and live events.  

Investors were eating that loss in the name of future profits only they learned those profits weren’t coming.  

Now those customers are wandering the market looking for someone to respond to their RFP terms.  

Our answer has always been the same: No thanks. Suggest the same for you. Business is best when everyone is healthy. We're not going to pay $100 for something and sell it for $90.  

3. Covid tried to kill the multi-year deal.  

SaaS TCV bookings targets got smashed this year as customers felt burned being stuck in multi-year deals over Covid.  

See #2 on this one. Don’t break the math. Do what will grow your business into a healthy vendor your customers can rely on. Let your competitors repeat the mistakes of the past. Once in a one year, companies don't go to multi year.  

4. Stars like confetti.  

I hope you had a terrific holiday.  

The fallen world is built to tear down beauty.  

But when God shows it in moments, in people, and in nature, man is it breathtaking.  

As Rustin Cohle proclaimed when looking at the vastness of the dark night sky in True Detective: “Once there was only dark, if you ask me the light's winning”

Happy New Year.  

#TeamLight 

I played volleyball at USC. Not exactly the big time - but a fun time and the top of the mountain (at the time) for a small sport.*

What was it like?

I graduated high school in June. In July, I got a list of classes for the upcoming semester. As an athlete, I got to register first! Seems like a bonus, yes?

No. It's for a reason. Practice was from 2-6 pm each day with occasional weight training, which would go until 7. Be there, dressed and ready, at 1:45. So I had to cross off 60% of the available classes.

My day was simple during my freshman year:

• 8 am to 1 pm: To take a full load, I'd have classes until 1 pm every day. That left me 45 minutes to eat lunch, get to the locker room, get dressed, get taped, and get to practice.
• 2 pm to 6 pm: Practice. Competing hard with the best in the country to try and get on the court.
• 6 pm Shower up, change, get to the cafeteria, and eat dinner.
• 7 pm-9 pm: Mandatory study hours. Each athlete had to do ten supervised hours each week. If we wanted free time on the weekends, we had to get it done during the week
• 9 pm: Back to the dorm for the first time since 8 am - if only just to drop off a backpack.

That's 13 hours. If we had a group project with non-athletes, this was the only time we could meet - and they weren't keen on it as it was party time for most.

Every. Single. Day. There were no days off. The football player’s schedule was worse.

Ten players were in my freshman class - ranked second in the country. One of them played all four years at USC. Four played for the USA and one, who didn’t finish, was an All-American. 

What I learned from playing sports in college:

1. Hire college athletes. Having the physical ability to play sports has nearly zero to do with succeeding in most workplaces. Getting buckets on the hardwood or running fast won't help someone sell more insurance or write better code. But the discipline to get good grades while playing a college sport? That's miles ahead of most. The same goes for those who held down a job and got good marks in school.
2. There's always someone trying to take my spot. The sooner we learn how to use that competition and fear, the better. I played a lot and even started a few times as a true freshman. The next year, the #1 recruit at the position chose USC. And then again the next. That's life. College athletes know that better than most.
3. You better love what you do. I only played for two years at USC. When I got there, I loved volleyball. I played year-round and spent the summer after high school playing for Team USA. The following summer, I was burned out and, though selected to the U20 USA National Team, I declined and went home to Cupertino. One year later, I was done with the game - even though I started 10 of my last 11 matches and finished the 11th. My career path hasn't been much different. The more I've risen, the less balance there is. I learned early, I needed to love what I do. And I'm so grateful that I do.
4. Shortcuts only hurt me. Nobody else. The cheating at USC was rampant. Thanks to friends on the football team, I got copies of tests in advance, had tutors try to do my homework for me, and even had my midterm essay swapped out with the starting running backs. I played volleyball. I needed to get an education. There were so many chances to take shortcuts. I learned not to
5. Never underestimate what I’m capable of. Volleyball is a spring sport, so the first practices are in small groups. I was paired with a setter, Caleb, and a fifth-year senior, Trent, who played my position. He absolutely humiliated me. As one-sided a beating as one could endure. I called my dad after practice near tears to tell him I couldn’t do this. The game is so much faster so much higher off the ground. He reassured me that they wouldn’t have brought me there if they didn’t think I could do it. Stick with it. 
   
   I was seventh out of seven on the middle blocker depth chart at our first full-squad practice. I barely got to play. Only the top two started. 
   
   I started my first match four months later. That felt like an impossible outcome after that first small group practice. 
6. A bonus non-work related one: Share this experience with the overeager youth sports parents. Too many push their kids toward this life without knowing what it really is. The glitz is nice, but there is a LOT of grit behind it. 

College sports aren't for everyone. It turns out they weren't really for me - though I had some great times and learned many life lessons.

Go Trojans =)

1) Sell Something Great  

2) Be Yourself  

3) Do No Harm 

Talking jobs today.  

It's rough out there. Feels a bit like 2001/2. There are a LOT more people unemployed in the white collar jobs - especially higher up - than I've seen. And much more than media is letting on.  

Three things I learned over the past month as we're hiring and seeing candidates along with what's changing. All true experiences.  

1. A Tale of Two Candidates: Had one of the strangest calls I've had with a  candidate. We were hiring for our team and had three finalists for an important position. Two of them were terrific. Exactly where we want to be with two fantastic options. We chose Candidate A and offered them the position.  

Candidate A did not accept and informed us they had another final interview later in the week, and they would get back to us. So we went with Candidate B.  

They were both terrific and it was a 50/50 choice. We informed Candidate A of our decision and they asked for a call. I know it's normal not to take those calls, but we do. We have five rounds of interviews and appreciate their time. We really do want to help. When I informed Candidate A what had happened, in the hopes we could maybe find another position for them, I tried to make clear there were other candidates and we couldn't wait - we appreciate they're looking for what's best for them and so are we. The response was anger and resentment.  

There's an entire generation who hasn't had to look for jobs in a downturn. This is new to them. Just a heads up, there are lots of qualified great people out there. We're going to do what's best for us and expect others to do the same. Candidate B accepted on the spot.  

2. The Upset Recruiters: For a long time recruiting was easier than it has been historically (also: real estate, title insurance, loan funding, banking, and on and on). Venture funded start-ups lowered the bar and hired like crazy. You have a pulse? You're hired! Four jobs in three years? That's the new normal! WFH and a four day work week? Done!  

Contingency and retained recruiters flocked to filling these roles. And of course they would. They get paid on volume and success. Why try to put a candidate into the company with a detailed process when I can throw them into WeWork in 48 hours and make more money doing it?  

That gravy train is over. Companies who followed each other down those rabbit holes are either gone or laying off staff in droves. Who's left? Those who do it right. Who are particular about the privilege we believe it is to work where we do (and I'm one of those. I have bosses who can fire me too). Many recruiters are really struggling to understand the change and are upset when their candidates are DQ'd.  

One real world example: We interviewed a sales person who "wanted to move to LA as my family works in entertainment and I'd like to start auditioning for acting roles." That's not someone who wants to work here as a career. That's someone looking for a job while they chase their dream elsewhere. We're not interested in that person and investing in their future only to have them leave once they land a gig.  

The recruiter's feedback? "Give them a chance and maybe you can change their mind!" (and they were upset about it). Or, and just hear me out here….how about we hire one of the other 1500 qualified people who actually want to work here who we can invest in for years in a win-win? We'll go with the latter.  

Shoot your shot, but get open first. There's an old saying "get the job then negotiate." It goes along with other life advice such as "get control of the house first then do your diligence" when home shopping. Just make sure when you shoot your shot, it's within reason. Many candidates believe they're due a massive increase to leave a position to join another team. And they're right! That's part of the game. But we've twice now had candidates come to the finish line and try to ask for such a large increase we just couldn't continue - only to have them come back at a much more realistic number after we'd passed. We can't start with our expectations that far removed from one another. It leads to a crappy long term relationship. Shoot your shot. Get what you're worth. But have the self-awareness of what market is. 

What I learned selling a boxing sponsorship to a gentleman's club*

In 2004, STAPLES Center hosted an HBO fight and we were contracted to sell sponsorship packages.

I was assigned the inbound phone lines.. 

A call came in from Stars Planet, Inc which owned clubs in DTLA. David, the caller, asked what we would sell to his business

After consulting with my boss, we sent over a list of what was available. Traditional packages including signage, tickets, and sought after inventory.

We were wrong in all of our assumptions.

David called a few days later and ordered the following assets:

* 10 tickets ringside on the TV side 

* 6 signage placements in the concourse 

* 10 bus parking passes 

* 3 signage placements outside the building 

It was all undesirable inventory we didn't even know how to price. Eventually, the whole sponsorship was ~$110k, with the tickets being 90% of the cost. 

What did he do?

* He sent his talent to the fight draped in gear promoting his club near each sign

* The signage was all arrows pointing to his parking spots where... 

* He had 10 shuttle busses taking guests to his club after the fight

Here are the three things I learned from the time I sold a sponsorship to a strip club: 

David called me on Monday to inform me it was the biggest night they'd had in ten years - and to invite me to the club "for a VIP experience you'll never forget" (I didn't go). 

Here are the three things I learned from the time I sold a sponsorship to a strip club: 

1. The customer knows their business far better than we ever will. We have to ask what they want before we build packages. Everything we suggested was wrong for his use case. What got the sale for us was that we gave him all the information and he knew what he wanted. If this were a competitive situation, we would have lost. (I have no doubt he was being coy for a reason given the circumstances) 
2. Pricing is very difficult and too often  overlooked. To most, including the 12 core sponsors and the standard categories we sold to, what Stars Planet bought wasn't worth much. For his use case, they were the best assets and we underpriced them. We've learned that lesson over and over at TicketManager as well. 
3. Experience is underrated - and getting more so. He knew his customers and what would work. Analytics, elimination of bias and innovation are necessary. But nearly all of the famous innovators stories had someone with extensive experience involved to help Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook grow in their markets. Whether investors or mentors, they are very public, just not as public as the founders. 

* The three things intent is to share stories of what we've learned along the way. It is not to judge others, preach our beliefs and ethics, or discuss those decisions in the moment. If put in the situation today, I would ask off the deal and wouldn't put our team in that position. But that was a decision made from much higher up nearly 20 years ago. I'm not one to promote gentleman's clubs and am a financial supporter of the International Justice Mission. Please check them out and give if you can. It is a wonderful group changing lives every day. Becoming a Freedom Partner is only $24 a month. 

2. The generic inbox is not a waste of time. For a salesperson, hearing "please email 'suppliers@acme.com' or the 'supplier portal' is a blow off…most of the time. Two of our earliest customers, both Fortune 50 companies, came from the generic inbox. One of which I had forgotten I filled out two years earlier. They signed on to become our biggest customer at the time. 

3. Many great teammates genuinely care about others. It can expose a dangerous hiring flaw: They root for candidates. They're optimistic and want others to be successful. Unfortunately, great people can't save everyone. They have to focus on what drives the best results. A simple rule: if you find yourself rooting for a candidate, time to take a step back and ask: am I confident with the ball in their hands?

1. How you handle every situation at the beginning of your company/career will shape your decisions in the future. $350k was a ton of money for a company of six people, three of which were not taking any paycheck. The numbers get bigger, but the stakes, and pressures, not get any higher. 

2. Nothing is ever black and white. That's too easy. Satan dances in the gray area. This was the first time, but definitely not the last we had a very murky situation. 

3. There are not kudos for doing the right thing. This ain't the movies. Usually those who do the right thing are mocked, fired or left behind. The game is a lot harder when you play it with the 'handicap' of telling the truth and having integrity. And it's worth it. We returned the check. I've proposed this scenario to many entrepreneur meetings, fireside chats and even to an ethics class at Pepperdine over the years. Although it seems like many would return the check when first hearing the story, the majority usually vote to keep it. Remember, he was insistent and sending it back, his company dealt in billions so this was a rounding error, and doing so could cost us his business - he was our second largest customer at the time. There were three of us running the company at the time and the vote was 2 to 1. It came down to a simple thought: He was being entrusted with the public shareholder's money and we didn't feel comfortable taking it.

1. Ignore the odds. Hula was born a runt who became a giant. She had a heart murmur, life threatening allergies, and her knees went bad when she was 3. Didn't slow her at all. All businesses are told what our limitations are. Forget them. Heart is all that matters - and she had enough for us all.

 2. Just be there. In our earliest years, I struggled terribly with panic and anxiety which made it so I couldn't sleep. Every night, every single one, Hula would sit by my head and wait for me to fall, and stay, asleep. No advice, no answers- just making it clear I am loved and not alone. It changed (saved) my life and how we all interact together. It wasn't the experts I sought out who helped me, it was Her. 

3. You can't do it alone. TicketManager has been a success story for so many. People have met here and gotten married. Others have made lifelong friends. And still others have made a lot of money. None of it happens without Her. We don’t get through '08-'10. She carried more weight than anyone will know. Your team isn't just your team - it is the loved ones around them who help them carry their cross. 

I will miss You terribly 'My Dog My Love.' And am so thankful for our time together

2) Better to be a Warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. With #1 in mind, know companies will pick fights with you. Big firms will pick on you, talk down about you, and try to flex their size against you. Building your defense is no different than real life: prepare. Stress test your contracts, partnerships and culture. And know that being kind and being a killer when needed for your team are not mutually exclusive. 

3) Have an impartial system for your internal sales fights. People fight over customers, commissions, queue time et al. We suggest a third party council which can be called on anytime there is an unclear disagreement. Giving your team a fair voice goes further than you think.

1. We learned to stop focusing on how people *should* think and started understanding how they *do* think. Instead of trying to find or create perfect people, we tried to create the best environment for imperfect people to succeed. 

2. We learned "If you want to be loved, you have to give up trying to being liked" and it changed our leadership style. We stopped trying to be liked by many and started focusing on being loved by our community - for all of our faults and positives alike. It sounds nice, but it ain't for the faint of heart.

 3. We stopped caring if our team 'liked' each other - but demanded they respect one another. Friendships are nice but they are not necessary for success. There are people at our company who I'm not friends with - and I'm quite certain they don't 'like' me - but we respect one another and I trust them. We made it known success is quitting and working backwards from there. How are we helping them get to the place where they will quit successfully for us all and measure ourselves against that goal every single week.

2) When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. It took us years to engrain this foundation culturally as people today need gamification and instant successes - so they chase measures and not outcomes - and use those measures as justification for lack of performance. Bad companies chase KPI's of the day. Salespeople chase activity numbers. Marketers - vanity metrics. My to do list killed me until it became a progress list. 

3) Winners Win and Losers lose. In The 48 Laws of Power, #10 is to "avoid the unhappy and the unlucky." Or, as he says more clearly - losers lose for reasons we sometimes don’t see. Avoid them. I've found the converse to be true as well, both in experience and in study. When you find winners, get near them. Overpay them. Know there's more than we're seeing as to why they keep winning. See: Tom Brady

Everyone chimed in from Elizabeth Warren to Elon Musk. 

We've seen this kind of short action before in sports business at the 2015 Super Bowl. A summary of what happened with a number of links can be found here: 

That squeeze got so out of control sellers who had sold Super Bowl tickets for $5k each were breaking their orders, paying the marketplaces the money back, then reselling to the speculators who had to cover their losses for $15k+. It  left the original buyers stranded in Arizona without tickets and a flimsy "money back guarantee." 

The marketplaces found themselves where Robinhood is today - having to decide between ethics, survival and what was best for their customers. 

The three things we learned from the infamous speculator squeeze of 2015 and how it forecasts the future for Robinhood, Wall St Bets and Gamestop. 

Much, much more in the video this week with many citations. 

1. The consumer forgets quickly. There are a lot of pundits and competitors out there piling on Robinhood saying they cannot recover trust. Maybe. Maybe not. Robinhood sold out their customers so they could survive. It is that simple. The stakes are much higher than back then, but SeatGeek, TicketNetwork and Vivid Seats did the same- choosing to refund buyers instead of honor their obligations. StubHub and Ticketmaster famously took the losses. Six years later, nobody remembers and the StubHub CEO who did the right thing was out just 24 months later. http://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12255886/hundreds-super-bowl-tickets-fall-through
2. "Money distorts the truth like a fat hippo in a thong." Robinhood is doing everything they can not to tell the real truth - they couldn't cover the upcoming action and had a liquidity problem. They had little choice. They either went down with the ship or lived to fight another day. Outlier events tank companies like the 2010 World Cup tanked Razor Gator. They did what they had to do. Just know that's what many people do in hard times and plan accordingly. https://www.cnbc.com/id/38428197" 
3. Behold I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves." In every market there are many who believe the ends justify the means. Their word means nothing. " We all like to believe we'd run into the burning building, but until we feel that heat, we can never know" - Tenet. Every market has a majority who do what they do for money and power at all costs - morality and ethics be damned. Know they're out there. Hedge Funds. Bad guy brokers. Don’t budge. "Better is a little righteousness, than vast revenues without justice." - Proverbs 16:8. The sheep will win in the end. Stick together.  

1) "The only thing I could ever give him credit for is hiring me." Many give little credit to those who enabled their success. I was the same way It's not personal. Just know that's likely how your team sees it and that's a good thing.  (And don't be that person….) 

2) Only 30% of the population flosses. "So many come in here and, by the looks of their gums, they just started flossing this week to try and trick us." Flossing is cheap, easy, and has painful consequences if not done. How do you think people view that job they don't love? We tried the "trust your people" for a long time. It works, for a few. What's better for us? Clear and measurable metrics to keep us all moving! 

3) Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle that every element in a story must be necessary. Your business conversations are no different. Have a purpose in all you do. If we don't, we fall into Hemingway's trap. Ernest mocked Chekhov's gun by introducing unnecessary characters into "The Art of the Short Story" then didn't reference them again. It led to unbridled conjecture. The audience will read into everything you say - even if you don't mean them to. Your team…no different. 

1. "10 years to 10m ARR." The social media gurus talk often about the growth rate needed for your saas to be a unicorn. Don't get too roped in by black-and-white approaches to business. We've had a number of successful private equity firms looking for "10 years to 10m in ARR." Many more friends who took that path and eventually became massive success - some unicorns. 

2. Don't ever pay for meetings. Pay for outcomes. There so many vendors, channel partners, value-added resellers, consultants and the like out there who will want to "help" you sell. Many of them are compensated by meetings or introductions. It's a trap. Say no and offer much more for outcomes. If they won't agree to the terms your sales team does - run. 

3. Internal competition, denounced and disliked by many in the moment, is necessary and must be encouraged. I lamented constantly fighting for the starting job in my prep and college career in the moment. Looking back now, what a blessing it was. That chip on Tom Brady's shoulder? Google Drew Henson's high school recruitment. Competition internally is good for everyone, even when they don't like it in the moment.

1. The most common question asked is "how did you do this." Truth is, I dont know. The answer I keep coming back to: we were willing to make a lot of mistakes and, once we jumped, the economy collapsed and we didn't have any choice but to continue
2. The driving force was fear of regret. We talked about it often. We were more afraid of ending our careers working for somebody else and wondering 'what if.' It trumped all else, good and bad. If we ended up there, at least we tried. 
3. It can't be a side hustle. We did a few of those and there are a lot of successes that way. We would have failed. Put aside six months of untouchable cash in case you fail (we didn't- stupid mistake) and then remove the safety net. Your will to survive will surprise you. 

A common piece of advice when starting your career is to find what you love and get your foot in the door. There are a lot of examples - Jack Welch at GE, Erik Spoelstra of the HEAT, Bill Belichick of the Patriots, Barry Diller etc. Businesses and teams use these inspirational anomalies to recruit. 

I started in a Ticket Sales job and I've managed SDR's for 15 years. Three things I learned about taking a ticket sales/tech SDR job

1. If you don't want to sell for your career - not IN your career- FOR your career, do not take an SDR job. The most common mistake made. It is a sure fire way to failure. It's okay to not love sales or even to be good at it. 

2. Stay away from the Hunger Games. A common, and lazy, approach is to hire a large class of underpaid kids and promise the top few will get promoted. Add in the gossip, favoritism and nepotism, and it makes them death traps for careers.

3. Nothing matters more than reputation - both company and department. At many firms, SDRs are viewed as second rater citizens. They'll never tell you this in the interview, but it limits upward mobility

How Not To Deliver Bad News  

In spring 2004 it was clear an NHL work stoppage was coming. Our team of 20+ salespeople sold full-time through the summer. Then we hoped for a season. As the games were cancelled, we "lost" the commission we would have earned. Finally, the season was cancelled and a meeting called the next morning for an hour earlier than our start time.  

Finally there would be answers. How would commission be handled? Were we being furloughed? Laid-off? When?

The room was set up with 6 managers in the front, the rest in a U around the room and plates of cinnamon rolls in the middle. It was the single most tone deaf experience in my career as management announced promotions for one another  giving them new revenue streams to manage and raises while we'd all just lost tens of thousands.  

It concluded with management smiling and  encouraging us to "enjoy the cinnamon rolls!"  

That meeting shaped my career. Three things I learned- all applicable today:  

1) Never announce your own good fortune to a team getting no benefit from it. It ruins morale and serves no benefit. That includes the self-aggrandizing individual achievement press releases and posts.  

2) If you get a "cinnamon roll," it's time to go find somewhere you're appreciated elsewhere.  

3) Always be learning. As Matthew McConaughey says: To find out who you are you can first decide who you are not. Nobody on any team I serve will ever feel like that. Ever.  

The story has a happy ending. Three of us did leave- two are CEOs of $100mm+ businesses and another is a multi-millionaire.  

Oh….and I didn't eat any cinnamon rolls. (And if you know me, you know I LOVE cinnamon rolls).

2) In 2001, I got my first job in July. 9/11 hit sixty days in. In 2004, My pay got cut 75% for ten months due to the hockey lockout. In 2008, we were only one year into our new co. when it all fell down and our investor jumped ship. We didn't make any money personally for 14 months. In 2020, well we all know that story. And our generation has had it easiest of all. Find the resilient - especially now 

3) "Hearts and minds. You can buy a person's hands. You can buy a person's back. But hearts and minds are only given voluntarily." With all the layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts, this saying has never been more important. The live events industry is gonna see who was buying culture awards and who was actually winning em when the lights come back on.

1. SPACs and sports 

2. The Spin Zone 

3. Authenticity, Hypocrisy and Culture

2. Why use destruction when distraction works better. "If I were Satan, I wouldn't destroy the church with big bombs. I would distract them with the two to three things they disagree on so they didn't pay attention to the hundreds they do agree on. Little bombs over and over. Then, they'll destroy themselves." Yikes. We've seen dynasty's crumble over the little bombs. Teams, countries and businesses. Covid is hurting us all so badly but we have to keep our attention on the little bombs. 

3. Find someone close to you who cares about you enough to tell you No. We're so blessed as entrepreneurs to have done this for so long. As such, we get contacted about ideas- many of which won't work. It's so hard to say no for two reasons: 1) it hurts feelings and 2) even if you're right, many will dislike you for it.