February 21, 2026 | Read online​

Two years ago, I did a post on Linkedin asking people how they were doing.

The inspiration was from a conversation I had with a friend/colleague who was struggling and looking for some advice.

Before he told me what was going on, he asked how I had been doing.

I had just gone from $6M in revenue and 20 employees to almost $0 in revenue down to 2 employees after the tech market crash in 2023, and was trying to rebuild my business once again.

Needless to say, I wasn’t doing that great.

After I told him what was going on he said “oh…. thank god…”

I was like - WTF??? I just told you I had been through the worst 6 months of my entire career and your response is “thank god?” Seriously?

He went on to explain that before our conversation, he felt like he was the only one struggling, and to hear that I was struggling, with all my followers and all my “success” over the years, made him feel a lot better.

He specifically highlighted his Linkedin feed - where everyone else was seemingly crushing it and posting about all their successes.

I assured him that I didn’t know too many people who were truly crushing it, and there were far more people going through what he was going through than he knew.

That’s why I did the post. To let people know they weren’t alone and to give them a voice.

The post got a decent amount of traction, but I got more DMs than I did comments from people thanking me for saying it out loud, and giving them the confidence to keep pushing forward.

Recently, I’ve been feeling similar to how my friend was.

It seems that everyone is going on with life as if things are normal right now, especially on Linkedin, and I’m having a really hard time with it.

It’s impossible to turn on the news or scroll through any of the other social channels without being bombarded with BREAKING NEWS or something happening that is so beyond comprehension that it makes you want to either cry, rage or just give up.

It's paralyzing and has paralyzed me from knowing what to do or say, especially with the platform I have the privilege of leveraging for my own voice.

I’ve always avoided talking about politics on my platform because I felt like it would do nothing but bring negative attention to me and my audience, while distracting from any of the value I was trying to add or positivity I was trying to spread.

I still don’t want to talk about politics but I can’t sit around and pretend like things are normal anymore.

My challenge has been figuring out what to say and having the courage to say it out loud.

Apparently, my friend Devin Reed was feeling the same as I was, but had the courage to say something about it, and is ultimately what led to me writing this newsletter.

It started with a simple LinkedIn post, late on a Friday afternoon followed by a more detailed post a few days later about how he was feeling and why he couldn’t be silent any more.

Something he said in one of his posts hit me like a brick. It was how he felt like he had been lying to himself.

He was going along with everyone else, pretending as if things were ok when he knew they weren’t. He was writing posts about Marketing ROI and frameworks that felt hollow

I realized I was doing the same thing. I’ve been posting way less on LinkedIn recently for the same reasons. My past few newsletters haven’t been my strongest, and I know it. I could feel it as I wrote them.

I told myself the reason was I was too busy and didn’t have time to come up with anything great because I was travelling so much.

The real reason? With everything going on in the real world (outside LinkedIn), I’m having a hard time writing about sales tips and tactics and feel like it matters in any way.

I always strive to write something meaningful and helpful to my audience but “meaningful” is a relative term these days.

Devin’s post was the push I needed, but I still didn’t know what to do or say, so I asked him to come on my podcast and have the conversation with me out loud.

I usually wait until Monday to post my podcast episodes, but I released this one on YouTube today because I think it’s an important conversation to have and wanted to get it out there with this newsletter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT7OfEwdriM
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We didn’t come up with a solution or fix all the world's problems during the conversation but it felt good to get his perspective and talk about it out loud.

For both of us, much of this comes down to values.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when people share core values, they can argue/debate but will usually come to a mutual agreement (or disagreement) with a level of respect for one another and can move forward.

If people don’t share core values then they’re just going to rip each other apart and either stay in neutral or go backwards.

This is why I’ve also decided to be far more conscious and intentional with who I decided to work with and more importantly, spend my money with.

I’m not going to be leading protests in the streets, but I can protest in other ways. I’ve joined Scott Gallaway’s Resist and Unsubscribe movement and stopped buying or subscribing to companies that don’t share my values like Amazon, Target, Spotify, Paramount, Disney+, and others.

I know cancelling my $9.99/month subscription isn’t going to change the world, but it is something and if enough people stop buying from companies who don’t align with their values it might send a message that values actually do matter, and they should adjust accordingly.

I know it sounds a little scary to stop using some of these services because of how “easy” they have made our lives, but I’ve realized that easy isn’t always good and that working a little for something makes it a lot more meaningful and valuable.

Amazon has made it so easy to buy shit that I don’t even think twice about anything I want any more. If I want it, I one-click buy it and it typically shows up the next day.

We live in an instant-gratification society, and I don’t think many of us realize how used to it we’ve all gotten, which is exactly what these companies want and how they ultimately control us.

Amazon was definitely the one service I had the hardest time coming to grips with canceling but now that I have it’s been liberating in so many ways.

Now, if I want something, I search for it to see if I can find the original company who made it.

I then check to see if they’re the type of company I want to support based on any of their stated values or actions.

When I find a company that aligns with my values and has the product I want, I take out my credit card and type out the numbers (not auto-fill) and hit the purchase button.

Not only does this make me feel good that I am (usually) supporting a small business, but it also slows me down and provides multiple opportunities for me to rethink whether or not I actually need what I am buying.

The amount of money I’ve saved in the past 2 months with this approach is not insignificant.

I’m not saying everyone should cancel all their subscriptions or start writing posts on LinkedIn to protest what’s going on in the world. What I am saying is that we all have more power than we think we do and we should start to leverage it in whatever way feels right to you.

Sitting on the sideline and being silent because it’s not affecting you directly, it’s not an option anymore, in my opinion. I promise it is affecting you whether you believe it or not.

We all have the power to change things for the better. It’s time we get off the sidelines and start using it.

#MakeitHappen