It’s been a while… here’s what’s been going on.

It was January 2024 when I sent out a newsletter email that said this:

M4 – the Monday Morning Meeting Minute is going on Pause!
I’m taking some time to do strategic planning for my Executive Business Consulting and Coaching side business.
And I’ve got some BIG things coming up professionally and personally so I’m going to be focusing my time and energy on those activities for a while.

As it turns out, there were more big things coming in my life than I was aware of at the time.

Here are a few events I was anticipating when I decided to pause my weekly emails:

• In my day job, I traveled globally to support a major Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) deployment. It was a great opportunity packed with exciting new experiences (including some mischievous monkeys but that’s a story for another day). But it was also very demanding and time-consuming.
• I continued working as a Business Coach on the side and was able to support major manufacturers to help leaders get clarity and focus with their teams. And I got to be involved with the development of some exciting new products, which is one of the things I’ve enjoyed most throughout my career.
• I got married in February 2024! I am so thankful God brought me back together with a dear friend I’ve known since college and gave me the privilege to have Kiersten as my wife.
• Kiersten and I continued to grow a new business built around her incredible skills as a fiber arts educator. We launched a new educational curriculum called Beast to Blanket after she again got rave reviews from teaching the course to a homeschool co-op group.

Those were some of the things I planned on, but several other unplanned things occurred that made me thankful to not have a weekly writing task on my to-do list.

As part of our business, we bought some sheep.

Yes. You heard that right.

I am now not just a Business Coach. I’m also a sheep rancher (or farmer or shepherd or whatever the right term is).

I wasn’t really expecting that one, but it’s a dream come true for Kiersten and it’s surprisingly enjoyable for me too.

​You can check out some videos of our wee herd of wool factories here if you’re interested.​

The sheep were a joyful surprise, but we’ve had some painful events too.

Sadly, we lost some dear family members including my dad who passed away in September at the age of 82.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you may remember my podcast episode with him back in 2021.

Until the very end, Dad was still working with my mom and brother in that business that began in 1970 as a blacksmith and welding shop. What an incredible man and dad he was!

As you can imagine, the past couple of years have impacted me significantly and I’ve had to do a lot of thinking about what I want to do in the future.

I’m still thinking and planning, but I have made some decisions.

First, I’m going to keep growing my Business Coaching and I’ve dialed in my focus.

I help hands-on leaders in manufacturing, trades, and service-based companies build clear communication, aligned teams, and simple rhythms so they can move from daily firefighting and chaos to calm, confident leadership.

Second, I’m going to start writing my weekly newsletter again.

If you don’t already get my emails, I’d love to have you give it a try. Just enter your information here.

The format will be different than what you’ve read from me in the past, especially if you were a weekly reader of M4 – They Monday Morning Meeting Minute. But I’m confident you’ll find familiar themes of clarity and compassionate with human-centered leadership still at the core.

I’m restarting my emails based on some work I did a few weeks ago.

Back in October I conducted a Leadership Pulse Survey at the 2025 Wichita Industrial Trade Show and personally talked to 120 business leaders and exhibitors.

The conversations and the survey results were fascinating to me and I’m going to share what the survey revealed using a series of emails instead of just sending out a long, boring report you don’t have time to read.

In each email, I’ll show one aspect of the survey results and provide practical actions you can apply immediately in your business to make improvements.

I’m using the term You intentionally even though you weren’t there to take the survey.

Because when you read the answers about the biggest problems these leaders are facing, you’ll be tempted to think they were written by someone on your team.

Their challenges are common to all types of businesses in all types of industries. And, I expect they’ll hit home with you too.

So, the actions I recommend are designed to help you and any leader who cares about leading their people and their business well, no matter what business you’re in.

That’s why I would like you to give my revived newsletter a try and see what you think.

Here’s the WITS Leadership Survey so you’ll know what to expect in the first email.

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