Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Plans look clean on paper. Strategy feels confident in a quiet room. Then reality shows up.

A missed deadline. A lost client. Something inevitably breaks.

How adaptable are you right now? More importantly, how adaptable are you willing to become?

The world isn’t kind to clean-pocket quarterbacks. Success rarely comes when everything goes according to plan. It comes when chaos hits and you’re forced to move, adjust, and keep playing.

Even if we end up throwing an interception or two, we’ll win in the end…

A year ago, ChatGPT wasn’t considered a search engine.

Today, it’s the hub for more than 2.5 billion daily prompts, with up to a billion of them being search-like queries.

Google still dominates with over 8.5 billion daily searches, but the gap is closing faster than anyone expected.

How is your business adjusting to the shift from traditional search to AI-powered search? I now use ChatGPT for search more than Google. I’ve found local restaurants, massage parlors, and physical therapists through AI search alone.

You can no longer afford to ignore the power of AI. Modern businesses that optimize across all platforms are receiving leads at an unprecedented rate.

“If you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

One of my favorite phrases for years. I believed in the possibility of loving what you do every day and being heavily compensated for it. Look at basketball players signing nine-figure contracts for dribbling a ball. Actors earning generational wealth for playing superheroes.

But what about waking up at 5 a.m. to run hills or lift weights? What about the year-long recovery from a torn ACL? Or dreaming of a Marvel film, only to spend a decade in the industry still waiting tables while preparing for your first role in a short film? Those were things I didn’t consider.

When you only do what you love, your work often ends at the first hurdle. When I first started my business, I prided myself on doing exactly what I loved: digital marketing and web design. Everything else fell behind because I wasn’t “interested.” Emails went unanswered. Taxes weren’t a priority. Networking events were ignored.

Find joy and purpose within the work, rather than expecting it to be a constant state of comfort and satisfaction. The goal isn’t effortless work. It’s a fulfilling career where the work feels purposeful, even when it’s hard.

Pick oatmeal over a muffin, and choosing better habits for the rest of the day becomes easier. Hold the door open or tell someone to have a good day, and notice how much more present and grateful you become in every interaction that follows.

Real marketing is EASY when the product is valuable, priced right, and grounded in reality. Fictional marketing is HARD because it forces you to invent stories to cover bad products you’re unwilling to tell the truth about.

Whatever you find yourself consuming, start creating instead. It doesn’t even have to be the healthiest habit. Are you spending hours scrolling on TikTok? Create instead. Are you watching streamers play video games? Play them yourself.

Start producing rather than getting comfortable passively absorbing what others do. The point is to become the main character in your own life by slowly introducing action. Experiment with different interests and see what sticks.

Time to take my own advice.

There’s an obsession with originality. We all feel it. We dream of being innovators, hoping to create a new way for the world to exist.

But there’s brilliance in building on what already works. Innovation doesn’t always start from nothing. Sometimes it starts with inspiration.

Kobe Bryant viewed himself as Michael Jordan’s successor, studying and mimicking every detail, from signature moves to work ethic, even adopting his physical tics.

For decades, Kanye West lifted fragments from soul, R&B, and gospel records and turned them into something new.

Are we resisting proven frameworks simply because they aren’t ours?

Progress compounds when ideas are shared, repeated, and refined.

Find what’s already working. Build from there.

Check this out >> https://youtu.be/JnB9bvud6IU?si=xBf6Up2t7egXZzaU

Check this out >> https://youtube.com/shorts/lCXFruHCkbs?si=ZDlsNymplnsqagsI

Two days ago, Miles Caton won the Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor for his role as Sammie Moore in Sinners. In his speech, he thanked director Ryan Coogler for “seeing whatever he saw in that poorly lit audition video.” A teenager submitting a far from perfect audition turned into a main character role in a film that grossed around $368 million worldwide. Start today, without the newest iPhone, or the ring light, or the motivation.

Some of the best decisions you’ll make this year are the opportunities you pass on: the ones that shortcut God’s process, require you to become someone you promised you wouldn’t be, or distract you from your real assignment.

How can we get more people in the door? More reach. More clicks. More eyes.

Wrong mindset.

When you try to serve everyone, your message loses its value. It becomes safe and forgettable. Your product or service no longer stands for anything because it tolerates everything.

Choosing who not to serve feels like a risk. The thought of intentionally eliminating a large chunk of your audience doesn’t feel right. That’s how alignment is supposed to feel.

Stop putting your hours and dollars into selling to the uninterested.

The fastest way to earn trust is to be willing to say no.