Thursday, October 29, 2026
HBR's review of meeting research found about 70% of meetings kept employees from the work they were meant to enable. Here's Verne Harnish's meeting rhythm, sized for an SME before year-end.
You've said "fine" more times this month than you can count. Your partner asked how work is going, and you gave them the short answer, because the long answer would mean admitting how tight things actually are, and you didn't want to put that on them too. You're not hiding it because you're weak. You're hiding it because you genuinely believe carrying it alone is the responsible thing to do. It isn't, and you don't have to prove anything by doing this by yourself.
Nearly half of US small business owners, 43%, say they've hidden business stress from a partner or family member, according to Xero's Emotional Tax Return 2026, as reported by CPA Practice Advisor. That's not a character flaw showing up in the data. It's a myth showing up in the data — the idea that an owner is supposed to have all the answers, alone, and that asking for outside perspective is somehow an admission that you can't handle your own business. I don't believe that, and I've never believed it less than after founding or co-founding nine companies, some very successful and some genuine failures.
Here's something I don't lead with often: I hired my own coach, through The Icehouse, specifically to accelerate my own growth. Not because my businesses were failing — because I knew that no matter how much I'd learned at agencies like DDB, Ogilvy and Saatchi and Saatchi, or across nine companies founded or co-founded, I still couldn't see my own blind spots from inside them. An outside, experienced eye isn't a sign you've run out of ideas. It's the fastest way to find the one you've been missing.
"Keeping me sane and focused during uncertain times."
— Rachel Williams, Icehouse Coaching Programme
Knowing the myth is a myth doesn't automatically make it easier to speak up. Most owners understand, intellectually, that a confidential outside sounding board would help. They stay quiet anyway, because the first conversation feels like the hardest one — harder, often, than the problem itself. That first conversation is exactly where a coach's job actually starts: not fixing your business in the first session, just being the one person you can say the real number to, without it landing on your family's shoulders.
This isn't for you if you've decided no one else could possibly understand your business well enough to help. It's for you if you're ready to stop carrying it entirely by yourself.
If there's a number you haven't said out loud to anyone yet, that's exactly the conversation we start with.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Eighty-four percent of small business owners sacrifice health or relationships to their business, new 2026 data shows. Here is the Transferability Number test that shows why, and what to fix first.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You're about to have your busiest quarter of the year. If nobody's planned for it, your bank balance is about to go the wrong way at exactly the moment the business looks like it's winning.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask most owners what they do and they'll answer instantly. Ask them why their business exists, beyond making money, and watch the pause. That pause is costing you customers, hires and referrals.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Ask your team to name the business's single most important goal this quarter. Five different answers from five people means you have one problem, not twelve: nobody knows what the goal actually is.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You trained your team to build rapport and never push, and your best customer last quarter still went with the competitor who pushed them to rethink the brief. Here's why relationship-selling is the weakest profile in B2B sales.
Monday, October 05, 2026
You've boosted the posts, hired the agency, rewritten the website twice, and the phone still isn't ringing. Before you spend another dollar, ask whether a stranger could explain what makes you different in one sentence.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Your competitor just launched the move you'd been 'finalising' for six months. Here's the fifty-year-old decision framework that fixes the real problem: not your strategy, your decision speed.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
EOS, Scaling Up, Vistage, ActionCOACH or Simple-Growth? A fair comparison with best-for and not-ideal-if for each option, a fit matrix and a nine-question quiz.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
What does a business coach cost in New Zealand? Published monthly and hourly ranges, cheaper options, how RBPN co-funding can help, and a checklist for judging value.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
New 2026 global research shows trust alone only earns a brand 48 percent acceptance into new territory - relevance takes it to 71 percent. Here is the two-question test that finds the real gap before you spend on expansion.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The personal touch that built your reputation at ten staff quietly becomes the bottleneck that breaks it at thirty. Here is how to turn a habit into a system before it costs you.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most owners check star ratings and warm adjectives before hiring a coach. Here is the three-detail test that tells you whether a review is evidence or decoration.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The Christmas shutdown is about eleven weeks away. Here is the one-page-per-role handover document that decides whether you actually switch off this year.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The biggest sales research study ever run found the best reps ask, they don't tell. Here is the SPIN method, and the four questions that come before any pitch.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
No ad budget doesn't mean no reach. Here is the Dream 100 method for finding the audiences that already trust your exact customer, and earning your way in.