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Are you really ready?
The moment you say yes, you’re ready. At least, that’s the story we’ve been told. But what does ready actually mean? Most of us were raised on a traditional picture of readiness: It sounds responsible. It also keeps a lot of brilliance stuck at the starting line. The Myth of Traditional Readiness Traditional readiness is…
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Beethoven’s Counterintuitive Productivity Secret
The fourth quarter is almost here—the year’s final stretch, when projects intensify and goals push for closure. It’s the season when pressure quietly mounts and rest, though deeply needed, can feel like a luxury. Yet some of history’s greatest creators understood something we often forget: progress depends as much on deliberate rest as on effort.…
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Do You Want to Spend Your Life as a Hunter and Gatherer of Income?
The title of the post, is straight out of Thomas J. Stanley’s ‘Millionaire Women Next Door.’ In his introduction he talks about hunter gathering, versus cultivating wealth. He questions whether we would like to continue hyperconsuming versus becoming financially independent? His question is a deceptively simple one, especially if you’ve built a reputation, a business,…
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Everyone’s Hard Thing, is their Hard Thing
Note: This post references character backstories and early plot elements from the ITV series Coldwater. While it doesn’t give away the show’s central mystery or ending, consider it a mild spoiler alert if you prefer to watch with no context at all. I heard the phrase on an episode of Coldwater, a British psychological thriller…
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Don’t Let Writers and Influencers Control Your Narrative
Jessica Grose’s recent New York Times review of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation she describes a memoir that wants to be purely personal yet repeatedly drifts into the language of 12-step recovery and spiritual self-help. Gilbert insists she isn’t offering a program, but her story leans heavily…
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How to Reclaim your Muchness
You used to be much muchier. You’ve lost your muchness. I came across this quote recently where the person posting said that every time she feels the need to apologize for being too much, she remembers that this is what the Mad Hatter told Alice. I naturally assumed it belonged to Lewis Carroll’s 19th-century Alice’s…
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The Visionary Who Forced Madison Avenue to Take Black Buying Power Seriously
Picture America in 1970. Corporate boardrooms were almost entirely white and male. Major advertisers on Madison Avenue—the nerve center of U.S. marketing—saw the “general market” as code for white consumers. Black households, though representing billions of dollars in purchasing power, were either ignored or caricatured. Into that landscape stepped Earl G. Graves Sr. Brooklyn-born to…
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How Quickly Can You Dismantle Democracy Within an Organization?
Timothy Ryback’s The Atlantic piece, How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days, is a case study in speed and strategy. In less than two months, Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic—complete with constitution, free press, and elections—was hollowed out and replaced with a dictatorship. This isn’t about comparing leaders to Hitler. It’s about recognizing how systems…
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When Words Start Wars
Orem, Utah, September 10, 2025: Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was midway through a “Prove Me Wrong” campus debate when a single rifle shot ended his life. The scene—open-air forum, microphones humming, thousands of students—could hardly have been more emblematic of his chosen medium. Only weeks earlier he’d said, “When people…
Clarity BEFORE Execution. Structure BEFORE Speed
If you could better understand one thing about your business right now….
Most costly decisions begin with
an inaccurate understanding of the situation.
I help leaders understand what is actually happening before major decisions are made or
resources are invested in solving the wrong problem.
Giselle Hudson | Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor | Sensemaking for high-stakes business decisions 