10.17.2025| Read Online Why Your Goal Setting Retreats Failed Before Welcome to "What and How" season. Many of us have it on our calendar to venture off-site to retreat or advance and plot out with our teams the answer to the question... "What do we want to do next year?" ...and many of us, year after year, don't reach that One Goal we wrote at the top of the page. Why? Well, that's exactly the missing ingredient. Why? Why are we even doing this in the first place? They could work anywhere,...
3 months ago • 3 min read
10.03.2025| Read Online Upgrade Your Sleep for Peak Focus Admittedly, some of this is a "wish I could get back to these" habit list right now with a toddler, a newborn, and Penny the Puppy going 0 for 3 on sleeping through the night this week... What has worked in the past for my best nights of sleep? Then I realized, wait, I have a ton of notes on this. [Checks the Event Notes Archive]. It always seems to be a topic at CEO Masterminds. Your physical health and mental clarity on a day to day...
4 months ago • 3 min read
09.19.2025| Read Online AI does not "know" anything. Good. And that's self confessed by Google Gemini: And it will never "know" anything like a human would. I find it reassuring that the fundamental differences that make us human and not machines cannot be overcome with this latest artificial intelligence hype cycle. Yes, it can be a useful tool; that's all it is. AI, especially these Large Language Models (LLMs), cannot replace or properly simulate these fundamental differences that make us...
4 months ago • 2 min read
09.05.2025| Read Online Clear your tabs. Clear your mind. Computers are like toddlers. If they stay up past nap time or bed time, no chance they're going to do what you want. No chance. Have you ever thought of your computer like your most important employee in your business? I mean, I feel like I'm working with it my entire workday. Are you spending more time in conversation or on your screen? Like any employee, I want them to be at their best self when they're working with my team. Here's...
5 months ago • 2 min read
05.23.2025| Read Online Taking a Break Without Breaking Your Team [...no baby yet, any day now...] Two things can be true. You can take an extended break from your business. AND You can return from that break to still functioning business.About 8 or so years ago, I was the MCA in Peoria, IL and that MC was #1 in the region for Closed Units. And our team was lean: OP, TL, MCA, and Front Desk were our staff. I was able to go on a full one week vacation AND lock my phone in my office and leave...
8 months ago • 2 min read
04.25.2025| Read Online For the First Time in Forever I don't know if you're like me and you habit stack your chores with watching sports. On Wednesday, it was Handwashing Dishes and Half-watching Hockey. But. And. There was a story that stopped me in my tracks, mid-scrub. "Timeout, he's back?" This is the story of the Captain of the Colorado Avalanche, Gabriel Landeskog. It's June 2022 and you've just won the Stanley Cup as the Captain... Is there a higher peak moment in hockey? Not...
9 months ago • 2 min read
03.14.2025| Read Online A Little Help From My Friends It's incredible to see our little notes community grow so much. Over 850 of you have joined Mike's Notes in the past 30 days. Thank you for being here.I've asked several of you what you're looking for in the notes, so I'm excited to share what I've been working on. Yes, I do type all of these notes by hand. I've also been organizing my notes and thoughts from books, articles, videos, podcasts, you name it. With a toddler, another baby on...
11 months ago • 2 min read
02.28.2025 | Read Online Top Ten Ideas from Family Reunion 198 pages later... too many typos to count. The one-pagers are coming, they're still work-in-progress from the notes. Here's a quick list of the Top 10 we are starting with... The Theory of Everyday Resiliency - Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe (CEO Summit) (favorite speaker this year) The Four Elements of Peak Moments - Chip Heath (CEO Summit) "Ready is a lie. Sometimes you gotta start and power through 90 seconds of fear." - Sean Cannell...
11 months ago • 1 min read
02.14.2025| Read Online Get the Most From the Notes Here's my Agenda if you missed it. Next week is a lot of content. A lot. You don't need all of it. It would be crazy to expect that you retain 100% of what is said or shown. In fact, you'll miss at least 160 breakouts sessions, just due to the laws of physics. Unless you have a Time Turner like Hermione... [i don't] What are the 6 sessions that your business, your people NEED right now. In this market? Focus on getting those right.One of my...
12 months ago • 2 min read