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I open my mailbox. Real mail. Not a flyer from a store I’ve never visited. Inside is a hand-written note and a Starbucks card from across the border. I was a guest on Morris Sims’ podcast, The Commission Code, and this was his thank you. I stood there in the hallway, genuinely touched. In a world of automated emails and quick “thanks so much!” DMs, physical mail across international borders stops you cold. It’s the kind of gesture you remember for a long time. On the episode,

2021. TikTok is exploding for consumer brands. I am on a Zoom call with a TikTok marketer. She’s created millions of views for other clients. Millions. She is not a personality fit. I know that quickly. I hire her anyway. The numbers are too good to ignore. I was hiring the stats, not the person. Within weeks, it is clear. She is not a right fit. I keep her on. For months. Long after it is obviously a disaster. Because I cannot have the hard conversation. Last Sunday, I told

Last week, a founder told me she was drowning in day-to-day operations. I asked why she was not handing anything off. “Nobody will do it as well as I do.” I get it. I have said those exact words. In my first business, I found it really, really hard to delegate. It was my baby. How could I let someone else touch it? So I held on. And I drowned. Eventually, I learned three things: 1. Hire well. 2. Delegate well. 3. Build systems. Did balls get dropped? Of course. But if someone

You don't just build a business when you become an entrepreneur. The business builds you, whether it succeeds or fails. When I first became an entrepreneur, I saw an opportunity and I took it. I did not think much about it. I figured I would solve a problem, make some money, and build a living out of it. That was the plan. What I did not see coming was what it would do to me. We rarely talk about who you become along the way. Empowerment. You get to create your own job. Then

I was sick. Really sick. And I was still at work. Laptop open. Accidentally scheduled two LinkedIn posts for the same day. Running at way less than 100%, and feeling bad about it, because this is not how I normally show up. I mentioned it to a friend. He says, “Dhana, you’re pushing too hard. Sometimes you just have to let go and let things fall into place.” He was right. It is not the first time. A few years ago, I was going through hormonal changes I did not know about. I p

"I don't stand a chance." I’m staring at my laptop screen, hovering my cursor over the "Send" button. Last week, I was preparing to pitch a podcast. I pulled up their host submission page, and right at the top was a bold, unblinking warning: We have a very low acceptance rate. My brain immediately went into default defense mode: "They’re looking for bigger names." "Why bother wasting their time?" "You’re just going to get ignored." I froze. Hand still on the mouse, ready to c

Cupcakes for Thanksgiving dinner. Store-bought. I run operations for a living, so I delegated the baking. The table is set. The cupcakes are on the counter. The house smells like a long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadian folks in my network celebrating today! I’ll be spending it with my loved ones. The people who let us show up as the best version of us in our professional lives and catch us when we fall. The people who make it all possible. Nobody builds anythin

"What if we launched a new line?" I look across the table at the founder. We already have a core product that is generating steady revenue, pulling in repeat customers, and keeping the lights on. Yet, here we are, discussing the fourteenth variety of scented toilet paper that nobody asked for. I've seen this exact pattern play out time and time again in business. When you're a builder, opportunities are everywhere. Every week brings a new idea, a new market, or a new feature

“He’ll never reply.” I almost didn’t press send. He’s one of the most popular, highly sought-after speaking coaches in the industry. His calendar is perpetually full. Last week, I cold emailed him anyway. He responded in minutes. I’ve cold emailed hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the course of my career. And I’ve noticed the same pattern over and over again: The most successful, extraordinarily busy people are often the fastest to respond. Maybe it’s not despite the

"We need to hire someone from a big company." I hear this from founders all the time. But in my experience, bringing enterprise talent into an early-stage startup is an entirely different ballgame. In large companies, success comes from managing budgets, optimizing fixed processes, and leading specialized teams. In a startup, there are no teams. No processes. No safety nets. It requires extreme adaptability and the willingness to wear five different hats every single day. In

Walking through Ottawa this week and this stopped me cold. A pole. A staple-covered flyer. A QR code up top. And under it, in big bold type: "YOUR EX ISN'T COMING BACK. BUT INDIE POP IS." No band logo splash. No polished ad. Just a street poster, promoting a new single called RADIO/STEREO, dropped in the middle of a sidewalk in a way that made me stop, laugh, and actually take out my phone. One line. Emotional hook, humor, zero explanation needed. It works because it doesn't

Not the title. Not the introduction first. That's where most speeches go wrong before they even start. I've given a good number of talks this year, and every single time, I follow the exact same structure to build a talk that actually lands: 1. Start with the core throughline What is the ONE thing you are talking about? Define your thesis before you write a single paragraph. For example: "What success means to me." Everything you write next hinges on this single anchor.

Two minutes and forty-three seconds. That's the whole episode. I was just featured on the, "Do This First" podcast, and it might be the fastest guest spot I've ever done. Bite-sized episodes, no filler, no long intros. The TikTok of podcasts, basically. I talked about the 30-second decision framework I use with founders: the filter that tells you instantly whether something is a "do it," a "delegate it," or a "drop it." Decision fatigue is real for CEOs, and most of it comes

I consume hours of YouTube content every week, without watching most of the videos. No, I don't watch at 2x or 3x speed anymore. Even at 2x speed, an hour-long video still takes 30 minutes. Here is my 3-step method to get the core insights from a 60-minute video in under 60 seconds: Open the YouTube video and click "Show Transcript." Copy and paste the text into your AI tool of choice (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.). Prompt it: "Summarize the key takeaways" It takes less than

"Nice" is ruining your company. Early in my business journey, I made a mistake a lot of founders make: I confused being nice with being kind. Nice avoids hard conversations to keep everyone comfortable in the moment. Kindness has the conversation, respectfully and honestly, because it's the right thing for the person, the team, and the business. Avoiding hard conversations doesn't make them kinder. It just makes them later. Because knowing how to start those conversations is

I look up from my notebook. Glowing screens everywhere. Laptops, iPads, digital styluses. I was at a workshop the other day, pen in hand, jotting down notes. I looked around the room and realized I was practically the only person engaging in the ancient act of putting ink on paper. I see it at business conferences. I see it at my speaking club meetings. In a world running on AI, cloud tools, and automated workflows, my paper notebook feels almost like an artifact. I write cod

I was mid-sentence in an email when a phone ping interrupted me: "LinkedIn News featured your post in a news story..." My immediate reaction? Mild shock, followed by a laugh once I read the actual headline: "More passengers demand Ubers without air fresheners." Last week, I wrote a post breaking down how an Uber driver turned a $15 mesh organizer and $30 of snacks into a masterclass in customer experience. I wrote about customer segmentation, micro-touchpoints, and low-budget

Last-minute decision to go to The Great Gatsby, and it reminded me of a harsh truth about business presentations: If your talk is just slides and spreadsheets, you've already lost the room. I’ve been a lifelong fan of theater, and it’s impossible to overstate how much the arts have shaped me as an entrepreneur. Business is part science, part art. The science is numbers, unit economics and operational systems. The art? The art is where human connection happens. Having delivere

Summer vacation is the ultimate stress test for any business owner. Did your business pass? Or were you secretly checking Slack under the beach towel, answering "quick" emails during dinner, and taking fire-drill calls from the back seat? If stepping away for a week causes your operations to crumble, you haven't built a business, you've built a job with zero time off. As we all settle back into our routines this fall, ask yourself: What is the life you’re building your busine

"I don't know what that means. Can you explain it?" I said this out loud in front of a room full of founders during a recent Black Youth Entrepreneur & Innovation Program (BYEI) workshop. The topic? Palm Pilots and Weird Al. Seasoned operators in the workshop, Jim and Marc, were referencing them with absolute nostalgia. I smiled and admitted, "I think I know what it is, but I can’t quite place it..." The room had a good laugh over the generational gap. But it pointed to a les