Dane Sanders

Consistently choosing the comfortable route is most of the reason why we don't arrive at important destinations. Ease has never been the recipe for excellence.

Order and Chaos by @danesanders open.substack.com/pub/danesander…

I just started a new substack about learning the hard way... if you're interested, I'd be honored if you joined in. open.substack.com/pub/danesander…

I've met hundreds of operators. @deancbrennan is one of the best. He is building @heartandsoilHQ on clarity of product, process, and profit. But even winning teams have more potential in them. It has been our own experience, at CTC, that clarity of people, becomes a lever for profit. So... @danesanders set out on a mission to recreate that with @deancbrennan. Did it work? Find out on Episode 4 of Upgrade Your Culture: Special thanks to our sponsors @fermatcommerce & @billcom.

@codyplof @TaylorHoliday @deancbrennan @heartandsoilHQ 100%

@TaylorHoliday @deancbrennan @heartandsoilHQ He’s also a really nice guy!

Here’s a behind-the-scenes preview of the upcoming conversation between @danesanders & @deancbrennan . . . Covering EXACTLY how CTC’s culture toolset is improving @heartandsoilHQ's bottom line. Episode 4 of Upgrade Your  ̶P̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ Culture drops tomorrow:

Here's a behind-the-scenes conversation with @deancbrennan at @heartandsoilHQ -- on how he installed our exact high-performance culture toolset and systems and its impact on their bottom line. Full episode tomorrow. youtu.be/ofyoGWNiWLY

Over a decade, CTC has become notorious for attracting some of the best DTC talent. It comes from culture, not a ‘best hiring practice’. In our next episode of Upgrade Your  ̶P̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ Culture, @danesanders & @Bryce_Ridenour show you exactly where traditional HR falls short. Enjoy Episode 2: Traditional HR vs. Performance Culture Special thank you to our sponsors at @fermatcommerce and @billcom.

If you’re craving confidence with your online marketing, especially in advance of Q4 I can’t recommend this resource enough.

Undeniable.

The brand new season of the #strongandawake podcast just launched focusing on the everyday obstacles that get in the way of your commitments (and how to deal with them). Here's a quick trailer of the new season to see if it's for you: open.spotify.com/episode/4NHMJJ…

Conscious prioritized persistence: If you stay awake, and you persist, everything that you are committed to will be accomplished with a long enough time horizon. And if you prioritize well, the things that are not accomplished should be so low value they won’t matter.

A willingness to tolerate discomfort is the most meaningful separator.

Nobody drifts their way to greatness. Swimming against the current is required. "If you do not actively choose a better way, then society, culture, and the general inertia of life will push you into a worse way. The default is distraction, not improvement." -@JamesClear

CTC's Revenue Peaked in June of 2022. We rode the wave up with all of eCommerce and then experienced a significant crash. It was an extremely challenging time. It has taken us 25 months to make up that loss. This month we will set a new all time high. BUT there is one MASSIVE difference in the version of CTC today compare to June of 2022... We have 100 less people. We are 1/3 the size we were then. It is crazy to think about. But we are such a healthier, more talent dense, systematic, tech-forward machine now. I have learned so much from all the mistakes I made along the way about what makes a service business work. Here are a few of the most important lessons: 1. Your cap table is the life force of your business. Do whatever it takes to make sure it points into the business. 2. Financial incentives rule everything. 3. Clarity of your unit economics is so important in every business model. 4. Whoever is willing to be MOST ACCOUNTABLE to the financial result has access to the greatest potential reward. 5. Capacity is much more a mental hurdle than a time issue. 6. Trade upside for certainty anytime you can. 7. Bad deals are bad for everyone. Protect your margin or say no. 8. Product market fit is the best marketing asset you can have. Audience is a close second. 9. There are people with talent, people who work hard and people who learn fast. People who do all 3 are 100x value creators. 10. Technology is the ultimate leverage creator. 11. Build a real time view of your financial health and you will care more about it than you did before. There are many more lessons learned through failure and many more to come but I am proud of where we have gotten to today and excited to keep building. If you are in the service business and ever want to swap war stories I am happy to jam. I believe it is one of the best business models ever created and would love to enlist more people into the opportunity it provides.

How CTC transformed from an employee-centric culture to a standards-centric culture (and why you should too)...

@TGC This is a deeply important and mostly ignored truth @TGC — thank you for this. Check out MWOD.io for one community’s efforts to make voluntary discomfort the methodology for discipleship — to become strong and awake for love’s sake.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐞 In his book 𝐴𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑙𝑒, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb observes that some objects are naturally fragile, like glass or fine china, and some are naturally resilient, like rubber or Tupperware. But there’s another category he labels “antifragile.” Just as the immune system becomes stronger when exposed to the normal circulation of viruses and bacteria, so some objects become better under stress. What Taleb describes is similar to what Paul writes about in Romans 5: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (vv. 3–4). Suffering is the stress, and a persevering character full of hope is a description of Spirit-filled antifragility. If you’re anything like me, you deeply sense your need for such a virtue, particularly today. I minister to people in New York, and the city landscape is wonderful and full of opportunities, but it’s also complex, pressurized, and prone to chewing people up and spitting them out. And this is to say nothing of all the universal stresses and strains of life, relationships, jobs, the upcoming election cycle, and (for me) ministry. How can we ensure the challenges we face strengthen us and don’t hollow us out? The key, according to Taleb, is “repeated positive engagement with stressors and challenges to learn, adapt, and survive” (emphasis mine). In Romans 5, Paul outlines how the gospel gives us unique security as we reflect on our past, present, and future. This reframes our challenges positively so the stress and suffering will produce in us hopeful, antifragile perseverance. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁: 𝗪𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗚𝗼𝗱 How do you get past your past? I’m old enough to remember vinyl records, and it’s good to see they’ve made a comeback. Sometimes an old record would get scratched. The scratch would make the record jump, and then it would fail to progress through the song; instead, it would keep skipping and repeating that section. Similarly, things in our past can be like scratches on which our memories get stuck; we feel like we can’t move on. It may be something done to us, a wound as yet unhealed. Or it may be a hurt we’ve inflicted on another. Most of us have a complex mix of the two because we’re both sinners and sinned against. Paul reminds us, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). God’s peace doesn’t trivialize sin. After all, sin is so serious that Jesus had to die for it. But it does give us peace in the face of sin. Preaching at Westminster Chapel in London, Martyn Lloyd-Jones reportedly said that at the cross, “our sins have been thrown away into the sea of God’s forgetfulness.” When we grasp this truth, God’s peace in Christ fills in the scratch (whether it’s our sins we confess to God or a hurt we’re struggling to forgive) so we need not get stuck on the past. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗪𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 In case we need to be reminded, Jesus graciously tells us, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33, NIV). How do we face such troubles and not become overwhelmed? By knowing we’re justified in Christ. When the Father looks at those who trust in him, he sees us not only as forgiven but also as clothed in Christ’s righteousness. He loves us in the same way he loves his perfect Son. This is the “grace in which we stand” (Rom. 5:2). Notice we “stand” in this reality; it’s a settled and unchanging state of God’s unmerited favor toward us. When we feel hard-pressed, God’s grace fills us up and stops us from being crushed. When we’re perplexed by the tangled maze of life, his grace stops us from despairing. When we’re wronged, it gives us the emotional resources to forgive. When we’re criticized, it enables us to turn away from defensiveness, filter through the emotion, find the kernel of truth in what’s said, and (where appropriate) apologize. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: 𝗪𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗱’𝘀 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗿𝘆 The word “boast” has an almost exclusively negative connotation for us, but Paul uses it positively. Think of a parent saying to a child, “I’m proud of you. Well done!” That’s how Paul uses the word in Romans 5:2: “We boast in the hope of the glory of God” (NIV). That’s the hopeful posture we can have toward the future. It’s easy to be anxious about the future, particularly in a culture where hope is in short supply. But let the gospel argue with your anxieties as Paul does in verses 6–10. If you trust in Christ, God has given you what’s most precious to him, even his only Son—and this while you were his enemy. How much more now, as a beloved child, will God give you anything and everything for your good. You can have complete confidence that no matter what the future holds, it’ll be for your blessing. 𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 For those justified in Christ, our past is marked by peace, our present by grace, and our future by hope. What perfect security we enjoy. Nothing past, present, or future can work against us. No stress or challenge is outside God’s sovereign grace. To the extent we grasp this and it starts to shape us, we’ll become antifragile: persevering and hope-filled. Stressors and suffering will come our way, that much is sure, but as William Cowper’s great hymn “God Moves In a Mysterious Way” puts it, His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour; the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. ----- 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗨𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗲 by Pete Nicholas. Only have time for the best-of-the-best from TGC? This weekly email includes an editor’s pick for the one newly published resource you shouldn’t miss, as well as a list of the six most popular pieces of content from the week. Sign up to stay in the loop at tgc.org/newsletters!

Routines are fragile. Your practice is immovable. h/t to @RyanHoliday @strongandawake instagram.com/reel/C_dzzGJR7…

Investing is an exercise in voluntary discomfort. Here is my conversation with Julie at The Conscious Investor around why you want to choose to do the hard thing... and how to do it every single day. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep5…

How to make decisions as a leader when you don't have all the data... really helpful insight here from @OrchidBertelsen -- even more in our #peoplebusiness video series from @CommnThreadCo... youtube.com/playlist?list=…