Meet Author Liane Davey

I discovered Liane last week on a LinkedIn live interview by Lynnaire Johnston. You can find Liane on her website and her LinkedIn. "Thoughtload" was released in May 2026 and is her fourth published book. I'm looking forward to checking on the other three! 

Liane has created a community website, full of resources, that you'll want to spend time getting to know. It's available on her book landing page. You can find her book on Amazon, available in Kindle, Audible, and paperback. I'm a big fan of audiobooks and loved that the author read the book. It was very engaging, full of her personality and warm humor. 

Who Is This For
Liane regularly coaches and speaks with teams, so much of the focus was on a team perspective. I was still able to find plenty of useful nuggets as a solopreneur (as would an author). I was definitely thinking of nonprofit teams I've worked with while reading. Even as solopreneurs, we're working with clients and occasionally teams. I found the majority of the content very useful.

Focal Points of "Thoughtload"
The author focuses on three basic premises:

• Attention/Focus
• Emotions
• Energy

I paid most attention in the Attention and Energy sections. The Emotions segment is certainly useful when juggling team personalities, but she offered many examples of useful considerations for personal relationships as well. 

Focus Fine Points
Points that resonated with me:

• Liane urged a focus thought session on the outcomes you or your team are aiming for.
  • What would it take to make meaningful progress in 6 months?
  • Is this what customers want from me?
  • Take a photo or create a Canva design of your outcome goals to save as your phone's wallpaper for regular visibility.
• Calendar review
  • What activities are essential vs trivial/non-essential? (do you need all of those meetings?)
  • Create 3 Priority Lists
    • Category 1: the most important, tied to your outcomes
    • Category 2: tied to helping others meet their outcomes, items you're counted on to deliver
    • Category 3: basic admin tasks that simply need maintained
  • Ensure activities are important, urgent (delegate as able), targeted, and essential.
• Focus results: I loved this framing.
  • ​If you focus on activities, you become a busy person.
  • If you focus on outputs, you become a productive person.
  • If you focus on outcomes, you become an effective person. 

Energy Fine Points
Schedule set-up

• Focus & Forge time: scheduled at the strongest, most focused, energetic part of your day; no more than 2 hour blocks broken into two 45 minute sessions with a 15 minute break in between.
• Connect & Collaborate time: may be afternoons when your energy is a bit less, more scattered. This is a good spot for your Category 2 activities when you're productive but your best thought time isn't necessarily needed - possibly client calls or tasks assisting others. 
• Tidy & Tend time: low energy demand activities but they continue to move you forward. This is a good spot for your Category 3 activities, admin or routine sorts of tasks.

Get to the Point
I definitely recommend "Thoughtload" by Liane Davey! It's not a long read, I love hearing the author read the book, and she offers so many additional resources including blog posts, worksheets, and even a printable planner. Give it a try!

Your Turn!
Reality check: 1) Do you find you focus on activities, outputs, or outcomes? 2) Have you assessed your day's energy and are in alignment with your priority list? 

My turn: 

• I'll admit, I'm amazing with activities which typically do lead to outputs. Outcomes? I'm working on more focus there. It's also a matter of how you frame "output" vs "outcomes" I propose. I am much better at being "productive" vs "effective"!
• Liane's category references line up better than many "time blocking" efforts I've run into. I naturally tend to schedule as she suggests, but I'm also paying more attention to outcome tasks for my energy. 

How about you? Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn or Substack!

Let's Start with Statistics

Many of these statistics are from Solving Procrastination and Zippia: 

• Roughly 20% of adults are chronic procrastinators.
• 80-95% of college students procrastinate.
• The average adult spends over 3.5 hours procrastinating daily.
• 88% of employees procrastinate at least 1 hour per day. 
• 14-29 year olds are most likely to procrastinate. 
• Chronic procrastination has increased from 5% in the 1970s to over 20% today. 
• Higher levels of procrastination are linked to higher levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and poor sleep according to an article in the National Library of Medicine. 

Do you feel called out yet? I know I do!

Procrastination Proof
Jon Acuff recently posted his latest book, Procrastination Proof. Jon has regularly noted his procrastinating tendencies in his many earlier books. He's become a "goal guru" as his business platform. I'm a fan of his and have noted him in earlier blog posts here, here, and here. 

Jon's current book urges readers to aim for remarkable! (I love that attitude) He suggests four processes to move forward:

• Dream: 10% of time spent
• Plan:15% of the process
• Do: 70% of your activity
• Review: 5% - important but don't get stuck here

Planning Makes It Easier
Jon focused on how his Night Me plans for Morning Me—tomorrow is made much easier by planning today. Take a few minutes to schedule and prepare for the next day before settling in for the night. This may include packing your lunch the night before, packing or setting out the work-out clothes and business items to be ready to go—no excuses.

Especially for entrepreneurs and those working from home, when your choice is everything (completely open schedule to plan), you often can't choose anything. You're overwhelmed by choices and possibility so do nothing and procrastinate.

Stress Stacking
Many procrastinate because they see the long list of items all seemingly due now. Jon suggests we dial back "right now" to make your options more manageable to take action. 

• What's due in the next hour?
• What's due today?
• What's due in a week?

Get Into the Mindset
Reflect on your goal and ask yourself

• what would a healthy person do? (if you have exercise, diet, or weight goals)
• what would a remarkable leader do?
• what would a [INSERT JOB] do? 

Get rid of the "I" reference to reduce procrastination and depersonalize. 

Additional Mindset Ideas

• Make sure your actions match your intentions.
• The person who still has to do it is me.
• Never confuse preference with requirements. (while you may prefer to work sitting in a park, it's not a requirement)
• Do it everywhere—find a new location if needed to shake things up. 
• Run toward the fear. Look at it but don't obsess about it. 

Perfection
As a procrastination tool, perfection keeps us stuck in Plan mode—always far too many items to check off to really move forward.

Try auditioning dreams—test them for a month, then 2 months, and later 4 months to reduce the feeling of commitment that may be attached and holding you back. They don't have to last forever! (think of it as a henna tattoo rather than permanent ink)

Motivation Portfolio
Jon suggests we create a Motivation Portfolio of anything and everything that motivates you so you can pull them out in the thick of Doing when you start losing energy and procrastination sneaks in. Ideas of what may motivate you:

• Music: tunes get you moving!
• New skills acquisition excites you.
• Bills are due (#reality)
• Consider how tough it is for others (someone's always a bit worse off or faces more challenges than you)
• If you don't do the thing, what would you have missed? (think of George in It's A Wonderful Life)

You don't feel motivation, you have to practice it. 

Review
Tracking progress is the only way to review. Consider focusing on one of these aspects—keep it simple. Don't get bogged down in details which will only give you more excuses to procrastinate.

• Actions
• Time
• Results

A few random ideas that struck me while reading:

• Remarkable is an infinite game with no limits!
• In the battle against procrastination, you are selling you to you - choose remarkable! Along this line, he noted we're selling to ourselves, not lying to ourselves to motivate action.
• Permission + action makes dreams come true. 
• The difference between dreams and done is action.
• Dream big/Do small - Jon suggests small activities add up to big things.
• Jon shared a story of a school that didn't give students an F but a "Not Yet," encouraging a work in progress.
• Do less of what you like and more of what you love. An example was you may like to scroll on social media, but you love holding the book you just wrote! 

Procrastination costs you Time which costs you your life. 

Your Turn!
I don't think I'm making too large a claim to say we all procrastinate to some degree in various circumstances. 

How do you battle procrastination? Any tips or tricks for what's worked to motivate yourself?

Love to hear about it - Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn or Substack! 

Book Review

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others by Daniel Pink was published December 31, 2012. I only just read it. This has been #1 on the  New York Times Business Bestseller list, Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller, and Washington Post bestseller. 


We're All in Sales
While reportedly one in nine Americans work in sales per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics according to Daniel Pink, he makes the case that the other eight do as well. He's not wrong. When you consider "selling" is how we make our way as nonprofits, solopreneurs, and authors, it starts to make sense. We all tend to sell far more than products—we're selling ourselves, our cause, and our books.

We're "selling" our kids or each other to motivate action. You may be trying to convince your kids it's time to stop playing to begin homework. We're selling ourselves daily that it's time to stop procrastinating to get focused on work. Healthcare professionals are selling us on ways to be healthier. 
​
Sales Are Icky
Talk of sales likely brings up images of stereotypical sales guys, anything from door-to-door salesmen to an Avon lady to the car dealership sales person. It's time to defuse the knee jerk reaction to realize it's "every man" (and woman!) out there selling "something." 

New ABCs
The old philosophy of "Always Be Closing" Pink suggests needs to now be grounded in 

• Attunement: take someone else's perspective - I love this one. Talk less/listen more. Ask more questions.
• Buoyancy: staying afloat in a sea of rejection.
  • Interactive self-talk: think Bob the Builder - "Can we do it? Yes, we can!" Internally generated, responses are based on your own experience.
  • Optimistic explanatory: rejection is temporary not permanent, specific not general, external not personal.
  • Flexible optimism: optimism with clear eyes, overall consequences aren't really that bad or pervasive.
  • Enumerate and embrace: every no is on the path to a yes. 
  • Defensive negativism: what IF the worst happens - who cares! 
  • Allow SOME negativity: it's ok to be angry, then use that emotion to move forward. 
• Clarity: help others see problems and information in new ways
  • Problem finding vs problem solving
  • Curate your resources
  • Ask "Why" 5 times in response to a question for added clarity (channel your inner 2-year old)

Skills Needed

• Pitch: The purpose of your pitch isn't to get an immediate sale but to share an idea so compelling that it will begin a conversation that brings someone in as a participant to arrive to an outcome benefitting both of you. 
• Improvisation: ways to be adaptable when your pitch goes sideways, many theater ideas were discussed
• Service: make it personal and purposeful (I liked these ideas best)
  • Share your desire to improve the world with something you have to offer. 
  • Be upserving, not upselling: do more for a customer than is expected or intended. Turn a mundane interaction into a memorable experience. Elevate what you do for others. 
  • Make a point to solve problems for your customer. 
  • Proceed with humility and gratitude. 
  • Pretend every customer is your grandmother as the ultimate personalization.
  • Bear in mind—if someone agrees to buy, will their life improve?
  • When done, will the world be a better place than when you began?

​Your Turn!
Do you see yourself as selling things or even yourself? Do you embrace it or is it a struggle? Have any great sales tips to share with the rest of us?

Love to hear them - Let's Chat or find me on LinkedIn or Substack!

Book Review

I just finished Simon Sinek's book "The Infinite Game." Have you read it? I read his books "Start with Why" and "Leaders Eat Last" this past year and saw good reviews about "The Infinite Game." A lot of the concepts he shares in "The Infinite Game" are very applicable to nonprofit leaders, solopreneurs, and authors. Let's see what we can learn from him.

Basic Definitions
Sinek shares examples throughout his book of businesses and systems with a finite and infinite game mindset. 

• Finite game mindset: There's a clear winner and loser, generally in a given firm time period. A sports match is an easy example or when a business tries to "beat" another in some measurement. The focus is on winning and defeating opponents.
• Infinite game mindset: This is a long game. There are no winners or losers—no behind or ahead. The rules are fluid and changeable. This is more about pursuit of a "just cause" often cited in his book. The focus is on building trust, encouraging innovation, maintaining flexibility, and being adaptable to change.

A Just Cause
Sinek lists five characteristics of a just cause:

• For something, not against: optimistic and constructive
• Inclusive: welcomes all who wish to contribute
• Service oriented: benefits others, not just self
• Resilient: can weather changes in environment and culture
• Idealistic: bold, challenging, and can never be fully achieved

Referring to his books "Start with Why" and "Find Your Why," the difference between a Why and Just Cause:

• Why: tied to the past, origin story
• Just Cause: focuses on the future, the vision being built

Rivals
Rivals have different aspects in finite and infinite games.

• Finite rivals: these are competitors to be beaten or defeated
• Infinite rivals: these are "worthy rivals" to learn from, to improve oneself in comparison, spurs growth you wouldn't necessarily otherwise be inspired to consider. He gave an example of tennis players Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova inspiring each other to be better.

Get to the Point
How are these concepts useful for nonprofits, solopreneurs, and authors?

• A Just Cause: This sounds so inspiring, don't you think? Those I partner with typically have a bigger-than-themselves goal in mind to improve the world in some way. I support my clients in their rise to their just cause, helping to share their message in a variety of ways to inspire others to join their cause.
• Teams lift each other: Everything is more fun when shared with others! "A rising tide lifts all boats." We're all prosperous when one is prosperous. Let's work together to support your clients who can then support others. 
• "Rivals" for "coopetition": A friend through LinkedIn, Brenda Meller, has shared a term I love and hope she focuses on more - "coopetition." A mix of "cooperation" and "competition," "coopetition" is designed to lift others in your field as Sinek's "worthy rivals" suggests. You can get a sense of "coopetition" on her LinkedIn post. 
• Life of service: I am all about serving others and have realized I tend to seek other service-minded folks and organizations to collaborate with. In a world feeling a touch crazy some days, by focusing on those you can partner with and even rival to improve yourself along the way, the world has to get better in the process to lift others. The good we do ripples more broadly to others.

Your Turn
As you can tell, I enjoyed and related to Simon Sinek's book, "The Infinite Game."

If you've read the book, what did you think? Do you tend to focus on finite games or infinite games? (no wrong answer and no judgement - there's a time and place for both)

​Have you found your "just cause" or "worthy rival"?

Feel free to leave a comment or Let's Chat! You can also message me on LinkedIn or Substack. Thanks for reading!

Simon Sinek - Start with Why

Book review time! I've only recently paid attention to the work of Simon Sinek. One of his earliest books, Start with Why, is hailed as a keystone sort of book, especially for business owners. Now that I've read it, I can see why.

An Oldie but a Goodie!
You can find the book on Amazon, published 2011. An Audible version was posted May 2025 as a 15th anniversary item, narrated by Sinek. He has a smooth, entertaining voice. Anything read by an author tends to get higher on my list! I was able to enjoy it for free through Libby, an audio app connected to many libraries. 

Generally About Start with Why
The book is filled with corporate examples to illustrate his point for individuals and businesses to start with their "why." He highlights a few companies repeatedly as they simply exemplify his message. I'll admit, I got a little bogged down in the middle, but it picked up for me as he got closer to the end with chapters 10-14 noteworthy beyond the first couple of chapters describing the concept. 

The Golden Circle

This was really the core concept of the book and most easily describes Start with Why. Business owners, small or large, don't necessarily begin with a clear "why," but you have to develop one you can articulate if you have any hope of continuing beyond year three as a business. 

Why 3 Years?
Three Years is considered a key transition time for businesses to mark surviving start-up and transitioning to a sustainable business. Refer to this blog post reviewing the general 3 year business lifecycle. 

Understanding The Golden Circle
Let's define the pieces of The Golden Circle.

• Why: This is really the crux of why you do what you do—WHY are you even in business? This is asking beyond the surface level of "To make money." Why THIS? Why NOW? As Simon calls it, "WHY is a purpose, cause, or belief. It's the very reason your organization exists."
• How: This is what makes you special or sets you apart from competitors—your process.
• What: Many start with What - this is the product or service you aim to sell or provide. This is the most easily identifiable aspect of your business. 

Is Why REALLY That Important?
You betcha. Simon offered many examples in his book about corporations rising to success - big ones like Walmart, Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Starbucks - who "got fuzzy" about their Why as founding leaders and corporations faced transitions. It seemed a company remained viable as long as the founder and the corporate WHY was (literally) alive and connected with the business. Once a "What" or "How" style leader became the corporate head, often where money became the object or most visible metric of success, that's where corporations faced challenges to even remain viable, typically with reputations taking a severe hit. 

This Applies to Small Businesses
Yes, my nonprofits, fellow entrepreneurs, and authors—this applies to us "little guys" as well. If we have any hope of lasting past Year 3 and becoming sustainable, we must create that Why if we didn't begin with one clearly in mind. 

Focusing on What and How
Sometimes, you identify a need or a benefit you can offer and you simply start running, figuring things out as you go. That's fine to start. You typically have SOME Why in mind as you go, but it may be fuzzy to start, needs shaped, or adapts a bit in those three years to become viable and suit market interest. 

However, for your business to sustain, you must formalize your Why and be able to say it clearly to others. This becomes your rock or "North Star" to weigh decisions that arise.

Staying True to Your Why
Sure, it may still flex as you continue, but likely only a limited amount unless you decide to change businesses, which happens. What and How will regularly adapt as your business grows and evolves. But your Why should remain your core.

What About You?
Do you have your Why in mind? If not, are you working on fleshing it out?

I'm working on the words to update my About page to focus more on my Why. Love to hear your Why and your journey to discover it! Let's Chat or find me on LinkedIn!

Historic Phoenix Cemeteries

Ed Dobbins and Pioneers' Cemetery Association (PCA) have published a book April 2024 detailing the history of seven historic cemeteries in Phoenix, AZ. 

This is a story of a young territorial town that experienced explosive growth while needing a location to bury the dead. Four town blocks were set aside as a cemetery from 1871 to 1884 until it was ordered closed. Once the city incorporated, the cemeteries were re-opened between 1884-1893 as seven separate and distinct cemeteries until once again closed in 1914. 

It's a fascinating story of how early settlers struggled to maintain order, care, and respect in the burial of its citizens. There were many efforts to sell or repurpose the grounds as care and maintenance were often a low priority for the growing city. 

Ed provides a significant number of citations as he chronicles the heritage of the seven historic cemeteries now known as Pioneer & Military Memorial Park (PMMP). He also briefly shares the history behind the current caretakers, the Pioneers' Cemetery Association. 

This book is focused on the history of the cemeteries. PCA published another book July 2018, Pioneer and Military Memorial Park of Phoenix, which includes a variety of stories about those interred in the seven cemeteries. Copies are available on Amazon as linked or by contacting PCA for local pick-up. You can purchase your copy of the books through PCA's Gift Shop.  

Ed has a YouTube channel where he shares other stories of the history of Phoenix. It's a great way to learn about the history of early Arizona. 

I was honored to be a part of this project as proofreader and copy editor. I look forward to assisting you with your next project - Let's Chat!

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip & Dan Heath
I just finished a book recommended by a LinkedIn friend, Stephen Mostrom. This was definitely well worth my time! I will highly recommend it as well, especially for those looking for assistance to make a weighty decision. As we all make at least 35,000 decisions daily as noted in this blog post, most won't require a decision-making framework, but this will come in handy for the more challenging ones. 

Thought Provoking
Literally and figuratively. This book is heavy on research and science but with a ton of relatable real world examples of their recommended thought process. It was fascinating to follow the decision processes on topics spanning "shall I get serious about this relationship" to high-finance business decisions that impact a company's growth or demise. One such weighty  business example followed Intel's decision to move to microprocessors from  memory chips.

How to Make Decisions - Thoughtfully and Intentionally
You mean, there's a process out there to make decisions? Beyond "gut feeling?" Outside of self-admitted personal biases or Magic Eight Ball? Mind blown! Even "ask a few friends" is a valid option to get some perspective. 

That's a WRAP!
There are many methods within each component that you simply must read the book to appreciate. On reading the book, you'll discover the Heath Brothers' resources that accompany the book including podcasts, single-page references, and a workbook for more complete reminders of the multiple decision methods that can be utilized. 

• Widen your options
• Reality-test your assumptions
• Attain distance before deciding
• Prepare to be wrong

The Heath Brothers
This duo have authored six books at this writing:

• Making Numbers Count
• Upstream
• The Power of Moments
• Decisive
• Switch
• Made to Stick​

I've also read Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. This had a very similar style being based fairly heavily in research but with a load of relatable, personable stories of recognizable corporate decisions and urban tales. 

Thank you, Chip and Dan, for sharing your ideas on ideas with us! I'm looking forward to ways to decrease my personal biases in decisions and generally take a more methodical step back.

Their books are available on Amazon, but I was also able to find them on Libby through my library.

Read any good books lately? Love to hear your recommendations! Nonfiction is my current focus. Audiobooks are the way to go for me to enjoy "reading" while on my walks. How do you fit in reading time?