Well, it's time for the annual hunting trip. I'll be gone (potentially off-grid) for the next couple of weeks. I'll try to post when I can, but I can't promise anything. During this time, I challenge you to look back at 2025 and thoroughly assess how it's gone so far. If you had any goals, did you achieve them? If not, why not (yet)? As you probably have noticed, I'm a firm believer in not just setting goals, but in developing a plan to attain them. When I return, I'll address this issue more in depth as we finish up 2025 and get ready for 2026. Thank you all for your engagement and don't be afraid to post in the community! Let me leave you with a quote to ponder... One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted to do. Do it now! -- Paulo Coelho

Years ago, I got my wife the little sign below. During my treadmill walk today (I always watch or listen to informational content), I heard one of the absolute gurus in the personal training niche say something similar... 'you may have many clients, but they have only one coach!' Both of these phrases point to the same focus--you need to personalize your service. If you're paying a lot of good money to be coached, you expect to be coached, right? It's nice to say you care about the dozens, if not hundreds, of clients your coach works with (especially since most successful coaches are using AI to assist them). But are you getting the 'personal' training and transformation you signed up for? If you're a coach or other service provider, are you personalizing the experience for each client? What's the #1 reason people fail in coaching programs? Accountability! AI has gotten so good that anybody with a few fundamentals in prompting can develop an exercise program tailored to them, a personalized nutrition plan, an accurate family budget and spending/savings plan, and even relationship advice. But AI's downfall is accountability! In Skool's 'tier' program, as the levels and pricing increase, so should the access to the owners or their teams. In a 'free' tier, everyone gets similar access; in a 'premium' tier, maybe some group interaction; but in a VIP level, the access should be pretty personalized. Look at the mastermind programs going for 5, 6, even 7 figures. Do you think the leaders are just sending them some AI-generated notes on making money, with a couple of testimonials thrown in at the end? Probably not! Suppose you have the credentials, education, and experience in your niche (like all your competitors). In that case, your most significant competitive advantage is making the transformation experience as unique and personal as possible for every client. If you do that, you'll get plenty of referrals, and you can charge high-ticket prices WITHOUT chasing low-ticket clients who will take up your time and patience.

Several best-selling books on performance improvement/self-help discuss making small/tiny improvements every day to achieve marked improvement in the future. The British Cycling Federation hired Sir David Brailsford to take over as head coach. He developed the concept of 'the aggregation of marginal gains.' James Clear discusses this philosophy in Atomic Habits. Brailsford looked at every component of world-class cycling and then tried to figure out how to improve each area by the slightest amount, resulting in marginal gains. However, the aggregation of all these tiny changes yielded huge gains over time. How can you apply this principle? Over the past 50 years I have seen people who try to make big changes all at once and then giving up because it/they were overwhelmed. Let's look at three common areas for most people — diet, exercise, and finances. Instead of trying a new diet and throwing out everything in your pantry that doesn't align with it, then restocking it with 100s of dollars' worth of new items, focus on small changes and be consistent. For example, start by replacing one 'bad' food with a 'good' one. Do this every week and see what happens. Instead of jumping into a new exercise program (e.g., buying new gear, getting fitness tech gadgets, hiring a fitness coach), start off with the simple act of walking for 5 minutes. And then gradually increase it each week. There are plenty of free programs out there that can take you from 'being sedentary to being fit' without a lot of overpriced gear and gadgets. Instead of setting lofty saving/spending goals you can't sustain, start small and build momentum with small wins. Start by looking at your income and expenses. Try to exchange one expenditure for an increase in savings. For example, if you buy a couple of lattes or energy drinks every day, cut back to one a day, then every other day... and then put that money into savings or toward paying down your highest-interest accounts. What's one thing you can apply the marginal gains principle to? How will it change your life?

Here's a thought... most headstones list the date you were born and the date you died. For example, May 11, 1955 - April 27, 2021. The beginning and the end don't really matter. What does matter is the dash (-) between them. That's YOUR life! That's everything you did or didn't do. That's all the regrets you take to the grave with you. That's all the hopes and dreams you left lying on the table... Here's one of my favorite Les Brown quotes: "The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream." To focus on the '-' right now, do what Neil Gaiman suggests: "You’re alive. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything." Probably my most favorite quote on living, dying, and the in between (-): "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending," said C.S. Lewis. And finally, from Braveheart and attributed to William Wallace: "Every man dies, not every man lives!" So, what's it gonna be, "One day or day one?" LET'S GO!!!

Today I received my 🔥...I'm so excited!!!