Transform your mission into a movement A life is built in the ordinary Hi Reader, I've been thinking about what makes a good year. Not a productive year or an impressive year—but a year that feels good to live. And I keep coming back to this: our days shape our weeks. Our weeks shape our year. And over time, that's what builds a life. Instead of focusing only on big, audacious goals, I've been more interested in the smaller, tangible things that quietly add up—daily habits, weekly rhythms,...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Transform your mission into a movement What Do You Actually Want? (Not What You Should Want) Hi Reader, I'm not feeling rah-rah about the new year. But I am feeling something that's starting to resemble hope—maybe resolve. A slow thawing after months of shock. I've written this newsletter less consistently than I'd hoped this year. I kept waiting to feel more certain, more energized, more something before showing up here. But the truth is, there's been so much bad news. So much upheaval. So...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Transform your mission into a movement Community Shows Up in the Dip Hi Reader, This weekend, I stood at mile 11 of a half marathon, cheering for my son and hundreds of strangers. Mile 11 is the dip. The fun of the starting line is long gone. The finish line isn't close enough to feel real yet. Your legs hurt. Your mind is playing tricks on you. This is where people start wondering if they can actually finish. And this is where I stood—fuzzy white hat, big smile—calling out the names on...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Transform your mission into a movement Book Chat Invite: The Power of Moments Hi Reader, Think about a moment that made you feel like you belonged. Maybe it was something small—a handwritten note, a ceremony that marked a moment, or a ritual that caught you off guard in the best way. Those moments stay with us. Often these moments don't just happen accidentally—they can be designed. Tomorrow (Wednesday, October 22 at 1pm ET), we're gathering in The Hive for a book chat about The Power of...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Transform your mission into a movement Rethinking Community in 2025 Hi Reader, Before leading a recent quarterly strategy workshop inside The Hive, I made a quiet promise to myself: take the morning off and go to yoga. I’d been putting it on the back burner all summer, but one of our members, Christina Hubbard, has been gently nudging me to carve out time for myself. That day, I did. As class was getting ready to start, the instructor made an offhand comment: “The green bowl is still out on...
9 months ago • 5 min read
Transform your mission into a movement Why Community Builders Need an Experimental Mindset Hi Reader, When I saw Anne-Laure Le Cunff on the speaker list for Kit’s Craft + Commerce conference in Boise, it sealed the deal. I've been an OG fan of her Ness Labs newsletter and was delighted when her book Tiny Experiments hit the shelves earlier this year. Meeting her in person was even better than I imagined. She's every bit as lovely as she comes across in her writing—generous, thoughtful, and...
9 months ago • 6 min read
Transform your mission into a movement Your Community is a Garden, Not a Building Hi Reader, I've become a little obsessed with summer dahlias here in the mountains. So earlier this spring, I decided to try growing my own. I picked out my first dahlia tubers (more than I needed—just in case!), took a deep breath, and hoped for the best. To my delight, they're coming up. This weekend I spent time repotting them into bigger containers, adding fresh soil, giving them water and nutrients, and...
9 months ago • 5 min read
Transform your mission into a movement The Analog Advantage: Why Human Connection Wins in an AI World Hi Reader, If there's one word I didn't expect to carry home from an online creator conference, it might be this: analog. Analog (adj.): not digital or computerized. Think vinyl over streaming. Board games over Xbox. Farmers markets over automated Amazon deliveries. A little slower, a little more tactile, and charmingly human. My messy analog draft of this newsletter from my seat in 14F. Oh,...
10 months ago • 5 min read
Transform your mission into a movement You're Not Behind—You're in the Blade Years Hi Reader, There's a moment in every meaningful project where the pace slows, the outcomes blur, and the growth curve feels painfully flat. You're showing up, doing the work, adjusting the sails—and still wondering: Is this even working? That stretch has a name: The Blade Years. My friend Bobby Martin studied 172 startups for his book The Hockey Stick Principles and found that nearly all successful companies...
10 months ago • 5 min read
