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INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS

Insights
02Aug

From Grazing to Gazing: The Invisible System Draining Your Business, Brand, and Attention

In the late 19th century, the vast Texas Panhandle, where I grew up, bore witness to a true story of ranching resilience. The XIT Ranch sprawling across over three million acres, was born from a land deal to fund the Texas Capitol, managed by Chicago investors and local hands. Ranchers drove thousands of cattle onto the open range, each seeking to maximize their herds. For decades, the land supported this growth, but by the 1880s, overgrazing took its toll. The grass dwindled,...

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26Jul

The Escalation Trap: A Tale of Two Law Firms

Today? Outthinking escalation and how to only play the games you can win. What if your competitor (or spouse or whoever) isn’t the problem? What if it's the system you've allowed yourself to participate in? In a mid-size city in Texas, two of the city’s most recognized firms were locked in an aggressive rivalry for the business of a massive company that would be moving into the area. Let’s call them Firm A and Firm B. Firm A ran a massive billboard campaign:...

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19Jul

In Business and Life, the First Win Changes Everything

In the early 2000s, NVIDIA made chips for gamers. Fast graphics, smoother frame rates...solid tech, but not revolutionary. They weren’t trying to change the world. But then researchers realized something: those same chips were perfect for training neural networks. By the time the rest of the world noticed, NVIDIA had already earned the most important advantage: developer loyalty. Developers built tools on NVIDIA. Those tools drove adoption. Adoption generated revenue. Revenue fueled R&D. Better products won more developers. That loop never stopped. NVIDIA didn’t...

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12Jul

What If Your Biggest Problem Isn’t the Problem?

The Lockheed L-1011 and the $0 Fix That Almost Killed 176 People In 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on final approach to Miami when the crew noticed a landing gear light wasn’t on. They circled; checked manuals. They pulled the light out of its panel and replaced it. Nothing. They became so focused on fixing the indicator that no one noticed the autopilot had disconnected. The plane descended unnoticed… and crashed into the Florida Everglades. 101 people died. Later investigations revealed: the landing...

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08Jul

What’s Slowing You Down Isn’t What You Think

I first discovered Peter Senge (Professor at MIT) while in graduate school, studying management and leadership. The book was The Fifth Discipline, and it quickly became one of those rare books that permanently changes how you see the world. Senge writes about systems thinking—how business problems are rarely isolated, how cause and effect are often separated by time and space, and how the same patterns show up again and again. Just think about your golf swing, trying to convince a friend to make...

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28Jun

Why Do I Still Use This “Dumb” Productivity Hack Every Day?

I was in my early 20s when my best friend Matt told me to get a copy of Getting Things Done by David Allen. He was right. I tore through the book. And I’ve read or skimmed my highlights at least 100 times since. (Matt's reading advice is always on point.) It’s not hype. It’s practical. And it changed the way I manage nearly everything. One idea from that book still guides me every single day. It’s strange at first, but once it...

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24Jun

What Law Firms and Healthcare Providers Teach Us About the Future of Marketing and AI

Listen to these stories of two smart professionals plugging away to manage and grow their businesses, only to end up suffering the most frustrating response: silence. Sarah runs a sharp boutique law firm in Dallas. Tight team. Great reputation. Her office has that quiet confidence, complete with leather chairs, books she actually reads, the scent of fresh espresso and controlled chaos. Then she launches a sleek new website, spends a chunk on ads… and the phones stop ringing. Not overnight, but...

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21Jun

Audit Your Silence: Where Are You Holding Back?

For years, I held back. Early in my career, I taught, coached, and wrote about leadership. I led college student teams, consulted for organizations, and even wrote a regular business column on leadership and collaborated at USC with Dr. Warren Bennis and the Leadership Institute there. It was real work, not theory. But after launching my own marketing company 15 years ago, I slowly convinced myself I no longer had the right to teach or speak into leadership again. So why did...

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14Jun

A Father’s Day Message on Metrics, Identity, and Leadership

I posted this story earlier this week on linkedin as a short post, but it's worth repeating here as an intro to this article. About 15 years ago, I was sitting in my tiny office, staring at numbers that made me feel like a loser. Cash was tight. Stress was high. I was in the early days of building Expio, and it felt like every invoice was a problem, every spreadsheet a judgment. I remember pacing the room, questioning everything— Did I make...

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07Jun

Your AI Isn’t Just Artificial. It’s Human. Are You Paying Attention?

The year is 1940. The British government is losing the war. Nazi U-boats are destroying Allied supply ships. Every plan is being intercepted and decoded by Germany’s “unbreakable” machine: Enigma. So the UK assembles a team of brilliant minds at Bletchley Park to break it. Alan Turing builds a machine that becomes the prototype for modern computing. But the movie (The Imitation Game) doesn’t end there. What most people forget: The machine didn’t win the war alone. A team of people operated...

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