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Not every season is a scaling season.

Sometimes your owner's intent is simpler than that. Protect your time, show up for your family, and keep the business in its lane until life opens up space for more.

That's not settling. That's wisdom. And it's the kind of honest, real conversation that happens inside the O'nr community every single day.

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So proud of Ollie.

This the second sport this year that he’s trying for the first time.

He tried out for middle school baseball - never played before - with 40+ other kids. Including 7th & 8th graders!

So cool seeing him turn into a young man. Challenging himself to do things he’s never done.

Who knew bats were so expensive!!??

It’s always weird to revisit a place that held such a significant portion of my life.

No other place stirs up such mixed emotions as this spot.

Seven years of high highs and very low lows.

I go back in here a couple of times a year, and the more I do, the more I’m grateful for that chapter in my life.

Truly.

I was 28 when I launched Citizen Supply—ten years ago!

The people who helped me build it were something special, because I bit off far more than I could chew.

Sometimes I wonder if we should have stuck it out longer.

But the answer I come back with every time is no.

The past three years have proven why over and over.

Sometimes the only way to solve a problem is to shut it all down and start over.

As hard as this entrepreneur path can be, I’m so thankful for it.

At peace with where we are and to be building a new business on the foundation of all I learned.

Most entrepreneurs wait for success to feel confident about their financials.

But that’s actually backwards.

For so long, I thought I had to reach some undeniable level of success before I could take control of my finances.

That mindset left me scrambling and isolated—because if I let people in, they’d “find me out.” Like I wasn’t a “real” entrepreneur because I struggled with cash flow, margin control, or forecasting.

Here’s the big secret—NO ONE KNOWS!

Not until they wrestle it to the ground and actually do the work of understanding their business.

And if you don’t tackle this early, by the time you hit millions in revenue and have a team, the complexity only multiplies.

Mastering your financials isn’t a solo sport.

Start now. Invite someone in—a trusted peer, your key leader, me :), or a mentor. I promise it won’t kill you. In fact, it’ll be life-giving.

Your confidence in your financials can start whenever you’re ready.

At a gut level, do you feel this? Drop a 🙌 in the comments if this resonates!

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I help service-based entrepreneurs untangle their financials, find profitability, and increase personal financial flow back—so they can grow their business with clarity and confidence.

P.S. I’m launching Profit Arena next week! It’s opening up to a small group at a temporary price. DM me if you want more info!

90% of business financial content is for 10% of businesses.

I made that up but I bet it’s close - hear me out.

There are 34m private businesses in the US.

5-10% make it past $1m in revenue.
Only 2% make it past $10m.

Most of the financial conversation around sales and methodology is geared towards businesses that are $20m-$30m+ or those businesses targeting private equity or venture capital [massive scale companies].

To me, this means about around 30m business owners are listening to the wrong advice.

If you’re below $10m, especially if you’re at or below $1m-$3m, you are playing a different game!

I want to start pulling back the curtain for companies in this position because profit is really squeezed in this phase.

It’s brutal and if you play the wrong game - you’re business will suffer.

So I’m curious - does if feel like the content your consuming around business growth and finances are from a different planet?

Merry Christmas folks ❤️

I want my boys to be amazing men. To have purpose, protect what they love, show up for what’s right and true, and have a deep confidence in who they are.

Father’s words significantly shape a sons life.

As they seek answers for the question, “Do I have what it takes?” - if it goes unanswered, the silence is the answer….”I don’t know… Doubt it… you’ll have to figure it out for yourself…probably not.”

A boy that doesn’t have this question answered could spend a lifetime searching for it.

There is no greater work as a father than showing up for your kids.

Cheers to all the dads out there doing the work!

-

Re-read Wild at Heart. Totally different reading it as a father vs last time I read it when I was 17.

Highly encourage the Dads out there to give it a shot.

Over the past four years, I reflect often on those initial months of the pandemic. Everything was so extreme and fast-paced that it felt impossible to find sure footing.

I’ve come to believe that we can reshape our past experiences by how we choose to remember them. Instead of feeling anxious or traumatized, I now feel proud of how I showed up and navigated an impossible situation.

Here are two key lessons I learned:

1. Showing up matters more than having all the answers.

Often, I’ve felt the pressure to have all the answers, but I’ve learned that what truly matters is being truly present and committed. It’s more vulnerable but leads to higher trust and ultimately a collaborative approach that, 9 times out of 10, produces a stronger solution than one made in isolation.

2. The best decision for the company and taking care of my team are intertwined.

I used to see these as separate areas, but I now realize they go hand in hand. When there’s fear, my decisions can be shallow and short-term. When I’m present and focused, my decisions have depth and are more likely to be the right ones, even if they’re not easy.

These lessons have reshaped how I view my past and approach my present.

Hope they resonate with you too.

Many of us aren’t in a season where revenue growth can solve our company’s structural problems.

If you are finding it harder to hit sales outcomes right now in your business…welcome to the show. Everyone is!

That doesn’t mean that sales growth is impossible. The money is still out there, it’s just harder to remove it from a customers pocket.

So if you saw a big increase in sales as ecommerce exploded a few years ago, that volume may have allowed you to bring on new efficiencies in the business.

i.e. increased team size or new systems to increase efficiency.

So if sales are struggling then it’s important to look at the current approach and see if there needs to be a change based on the season that you’re in.

When you do this it’ll release unrealistic pressure in the business and move focus into other areas.

If done well, when the sales growth season comes back, you’ll have a much healthier business going into it!

On June 9th, 2018 - my life came to a halt.

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Business doesn’t stay in its own lane. And in the same way life bleeds into business. We can’t truly separate the two.

Up to this point I built a business on the back of risk and tireless effort.

In 2018 sales finally broke through and I thought this was the beginning of that up and to the right success!

Suddenly, life through one hell of a curveball.

Vicki Dukes, my mother in law and absolute pillar in our lives, was killed in a car accident on the way to serve at a kids with cancer retreat.

In a single moment - our lives dramatically changed.

Exactly a week later, my younger brother finally got the answer to all his weird health issues… cancer.

I was absolutely depleted. On the car ride back from hearing this news, I could feel all that “willpower” that had been propping up this house of cards - just leave the body.

My soul was crushed.

I took a month off work because I simply couldn’t function.

This is a long story and more than a caption can hold but these events kicked off the last 6 years of trying to reorient my life towards what is truly important vs succumbing to the whirlwind of this world.

The good news is I found what I was looking for!

I’ll keep sharing more.
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Love you Vicki! Miss you and think of you every day. Celebrating all the time we had together and doing our best to honor your legacy!
—
My brother Dave beat cancer big time. That season of hell changed his life too. It’s incredible to see who he’s become. There’s nothing like being around someone who knows the true blessing that being alive is!

The last 4 year years [honestly more like 6] has been trial after trial after trial.

In 2023, the season finally switch from defensive back to offensive.

I can’t even begin to explain how much change I’ve experienced.

However, the next part of this process requires me be more transparent about that season of defense because it’s the foundation of what I’m doing now.

I’m blessed to have some truth tellers in my life and they’ve all be pushing me to share more… and I’m gonna.

Don’t 100% know how I’ll do it but I’m putting this out here as step 1.

Imperfect action. Just get started.

I’m nervous a the way that tells me this is the right next step.

In really difficult seasons it’s really easy to isolate.

For some reason, at the point when we need others the most, we choose to go at it alone.

Im all about solitude but when that inner critic is overwhelming, we need other, healthy, voices.

Over the last 6 months I’ve been reaching out to a bunch of people that I haven’t talked to in years.

People I thought I lost when I lost my business.

I had a false narrative in my head that was driving farther and farther away from what I actually needed.

Getting back in touch with these relationships has been life giving.