ISSUE #008 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

In the early days of Half a Bubble Out, we grew roughly 400% in about 18 months.

It was exciting.
and
It was exhausting.

Kathryn and I were buried in client work. We had a small team of six or seven people and the pressure was mounting. We knew we needed help managing operations and staff. We couldn’t keep doing everything ourselves.

ISSUE #007 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

Twelve days ago, it was a normal Monday.

I was having my monthly lunch with my sister, something we started about a year ago to be intentional with each other. We live four miles apart, but life fills up fast, and this was our way of slowing it down.

ISSUE #006 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

Leadership formation doesn’t stop at the office door.

A quick word before we get too far into this week’s topic.

Today, I want to be encouraging.

I want to offer you four practices - simple, powerful, and proven - that can add real strength to both your leadership and your life at home. They aren’t complicated. But they are formative. And when practiced consistently, they have a way of quietly changing everything.

ISSUE #005 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

This week I'm trying to communicate something from a different perspective...go with me for a moment while I back into my point.

The lights would dim. The heavy curtains would pull back. A touch of theater magic that doesn’t exist in the multiplexes of today.

ISSUE #004 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

As I’ve been writing these newsletters, a few of you have replied with a thoughtful question:

“Why The Leadership Contrarian?”

It’s a fair question.

Especially in a world already crowded with leadership voices, frameworks, podcasts, and hot takes.

So today, I want to answer it clearly - and honestly.

ISSUE #003 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

In the first issue of The Leadership Contrarian, I said this newsletter would be a journey, a conversation about leadership from a more holistic perspective.

Not just leadership as performance.
Not just leadership as personality.
And definitely not leadership as hustle dressed up as heroics.

But leadership as something deeper. More human. More sustainable.

ISSUE #002 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

As I sit down to write this second newsletter, I’m struck by a simple truth:

We are all living in a world that feels louder, faster, stranger, and more unpredictable than anything we grew up with.

If issue #001 was about grounding us in a holistic, integrated life…

Today’s issue is about why that matters now more than ever.

ISSUE #001 | THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

As I sit here writing this, I want to begin with something simple and honest:

This is the first time in a long time that I’ve sat down to write directly to you, personally, thoughtfully, with intention.

And if I’m being candid… it feels overdue.

When I was twenty-seven years old, Kathryn and I had been married about a year and a half. One afternoon, I was walking across the parking lot from our car to our apartment, and I was feeling great. I had a skip in my step. Life was good. I thought to myself, "What can I be doing differently? What area do I need to grow in?" Almost immediately, I came to the happy conclusion: "Nothing. I'm good. There is nothing I need to improve!"

Sometimes the death of a business is somewhat personal and triggers a sense of nostalgia. In the world of small business, companies come and go all the time with little more than a raised eyebrow – but every once in a while the closing of a local business surprises you.