On growth that begins after the journaling ends….

I can’t shake a quote I read from Bruce Springsteen the other day:

“I’m not afraid you’re better than me. I’m afraid of not reaching my full potential.”

I sat on my cold bathroom floor afterward and journaled for an hour, because it felt true in a way I couldn’t talk myself out of.

I sat there scribbling, feeling like ….2026 isn’t a year of competition. I might be wrong but this year doesn’t feel like keeping up or looking sideways at what others are doing/saying.

This year feels confrontational but the quiet kind.

I’m talking about the kind of confrontation that shows up when the noise dies down & you’re ready to get real about the results you want and why they aren’t here yet.

For me, the question stopped being “Am I enough?”

And became: Why have I been treating my potential like something fragile instead of something I’m fully responsible for?

Because when I got honest, I could see the pattern everywhere. And when I stopped answering that in theory or letting it sit scribbled out in a journal and started answering it in my behavior, the pattern was obvious & things got uncomfortably clear.

For me it looked like… saying I wanted to double my revenue this year and wobbling on sales calls when the price came up.

It looked like checking metrics daily but not being able to tell you my actual close rate.

It looked like saying I wanted higher-level clients but being afraid to say no to someone that was less than an ideal client.

None of this was dramatic. It was reasonable and that’s exactly why it worked for so long. Blame sounds obvious, right?! It’s the algorithm, the market, timing, other people.

Confusion sounds more mature but still dodgy. It sounds like processing or “needing more time” but neither requires ownership.

Ownership is where it gets rude, not mean or cruel just honest in a way that doesn’t cushion the truth.

And honestly, I think it’s the thing I think you need more of this year if you’re going for it & I know you are.

Here are 10 lethal, founder-level questions that hit revenue, identity, standards, and ownership without fluff:

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1. What did I do this week that directly produced revenue?

Not content. Not organizing. Not “building.” Revenue.

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2. What are my real numbers — revenue, profit, conversion not the version I round up in my head?

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3. If I continue operating exactly like this for 12 months, what will my income actually be?

And am I okay with that?

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4. What decision am I postponing that would immediately change my trajectory?

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5. How am I benefiting from staying in this pattern?

What does it protect me from?

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6. If I say I want more money, where am I behaving like I don’t?

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7. Am I operating at my capacity or at my comfort?

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8. What story am I telling about why it hasn’t happened yet?

And what evidence actually supports that story?

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9. If I removed every external excuse market, timing, algorithm…. what would be left?

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10. Who would I have to become for this to work and what about that scares me?

When I started asking those questions seriously, I cried more than once.

I hadn’t been asking myself these questions because I don’t know how to do it without making myself feel terrible so I would avoid them all together hence, also avoiding answers to questions that I really needed for growth.

What I didn’t know but what I want you to know is that there’s a clean difference between blame and ownership.

Blame says, “I can’t get there because of {fill in the blank}…….”

Ownership says, “I am participating in this.”

Blame keeps you emotional. Ownership makes you powerful.

And if you want to make more money this year like real money, not just incremental, “we’ve had a good month” money then you cannot stay soft with the patterns that are keeping you capped.

You don’t need to be harsh, but you do need to be brutally, lovingly honest.

No one is coming to make you use yourself fully.

No one is coming to raise your standards for you.

No one is coming to look at your numbers and tell you where you’re hedging, that part is yours.

And the rude questions are about acknowledging that if you want more money, more scale, more visibility, more impact, you also have to be willing to grow up a little in how you build.

That doesn’t happen on the bathroom floor, it happens the next day 🫶🏼

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If you’re ready to take responsibility for the next level of your revenue instead of just thinking about it, I’m opening 3 1:1 spots. (Doors will close Feb. 28th)