Hey folks!

Happy snowy Friday. Sending late - back to back meetings all day. A couple things on my mind...

1. Top 8 Leads: I used this a lot when I was raising venture capital and somehow forgot about it until this week. When your funnel gets big - 100+ leads - it helps to ask a simple question: who are my top 8 favorite leads right now? Not the biggest list. The highest odds. The most exciting. The ones you most want to win. Keep those 8 at the very top of your CRM and give them extra care and attention beyond the rest. It lets you do real relational work while still nurturing the broader funnel. When one drops out, replace it with a new one. Simple. Very effective.

2. Pushup Challenges: I’m doing a pushup challenge with a few guys from church for the stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Week 1 is 150 pushups a day, week 2 is 200 a day, and so on. We text the group every day when we’re done. There’s something about the short time frame, the public accountability, and the camaraderie that really works for me. I did this last year and got noticeably stronger fast. If you’re in a rut, run a simple challenge with your crew.

3. No Child-Care Annual Offsite: I got this question twice this week: “How do my wife and I do an annual offsite if we can’t get childcare or travel this year?” After thinking about it, my answer is to run a “summit week” at home. Each night, do a special family dinner focused on stories, values, or reflection. After dinner, either set the kids up with a movie or wait until they’re down, then do one focused planning block for 60–90 minutes. Make special food, change the vibe, and treat it like a staycation. If I were to structure it, I’d do one of these each night:

• Year in Review: Look back through photos and calendars to name the highs, lows, and lessons from the year.
• Team Health: Assess how you’re functioning as a team by sharing one thing you admire and one thing to improve in 2026.
• Mission / Vision / Values: Revisit or refine what your family is about and where you’re headed together.
• Create 1-Year Goals: Decide what a successful next year actually looks like in concrete terms.
• Create 90-Day Goals: Translate the year into a small set of near-term priorities you can act on immediately.
• Work Session to Build Traction: Block focused time to plan systems, schedules, or next steps so goals don’t stay abstract.
• Celebrate: Mark the week with gratitude, fun, and recognition for the work you did together.

That's it for this week!

Best,

Blake

P.S. If the summit week idea resonates but you’re thinking, “I wouldn’t even know where to start,” we built a guided e-course that walks you through this exact process step by step.