Cut the Anchor: Why Your Most Powerful Resolution for 2026 Might Be a STOP List - Edge of the Napkin Series #18
Paper Napkin Wisdom
This time of year, something familiar happens. We turn the page on the calendar and feel the pull to do something different. We reach for a word like resolution and instinctively pair it with action. More discipline. More consistency. More output. More effort. Most resolutions are framed as additions — new habits, new systems, new rules we promise ourselves we’ll finally follow. But what if the most powerful move forward isn’t about what you start doing? What if real...
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People Come for the Work. They Stay for the Team. – Wintress Odom, CEO The Writers for Hire
Paper Napkin Wisdom
Wintress Odom is the Founder and CEO of The Writers For Hire, a company built on clarity, discipline, and consistently high-quality work. From the outside, it’s easy to assume the success came from systems, execution, and technical excellence alone. But on her paper napkin, Wintress wrote something deceptively simple: “People come for the work. They stay for the team.” That sentence didn’t come from a leadership book. It came from lived experience — from building a business, leading...
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Presence Over Presents: The Ultimate Gift You Can Give Yourself This Holiday
Paper Napkin Wisdom
The holidays come wrapped in familiar language. Slow down. Rest. Be present. Unplug. It sounds right. It even sounds desirable. And yet, for many leaders and entrepreneurs, it doesn’t always land. If anything, the holidays can quietly amplify a tension that’s been humming all year. Because while the world appears to be pausing, something inside you may still be moving. Measuring. Reviewing. Assessing. For years, that’s where I lived. When the...
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Turn the Other Cheek, Smile — and Mean It – David Miller
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a particular kind of wisdom that doesn’t shout. It doesn’t posture. It doesn’t try to win the room. It shows up quietly, often after experience has taken its toll, and says: this way works better. That’s the kind of wisdom David Miller brought to this conversation. On his paper napkin, David wrote a deceptively simple line: “Turn the other cheek, smile :) and mean it!” At first glance, it sounds like something we’ve all heard before — maybe even dismissed. Too soft....
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Seeds Grow in the Soil: Why the Most Important Progress Is Invisible (Yet)
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There are seasons where doing the work feels strangely unrewarding. You’re showing up. You’re staying consistent. You’re doing what you said you would do. And yet — nothing obvious is happening. No external validation. No visible breakthrough. No clear sign that you’re “on track.” That’s usually when doubt starts whispering questions we don’t want to answer: Is this actually working? Am I wasting time? Shouldn’t I be further along by now? This Edge of the Napkin episode is about that exact season — the one...
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“Your Revenue Is Hiding in Plain Sight” — Sailynn Doyle on the 80/20 Shift That Changed Everything
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a moment in every entrepreneur’s journey when the hustle stops feeling heroic and starts feeling heavy. For Sailynn Doyle — business systems strategist, former home-care franchise owner, and founder of Passion • Purpose • Posture — that moment came sitting alone in her car at 9 AM on a Tuesday, exhausted and crying before another 12-hour day. From the outside, she was a success story: a million-dollar business by year three. On the inside, she was drowning in the weight of the work. Endless demands. Constant interruptions. Team members who depended on her for every...
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Nothing to Prove. Everything to Be.
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a moment in every leader’s life when they look around the “room” they’re in — not the physical room, but the emotional one, the psychological one, the internal one — and ask: “How much of who I am today was shaped by the right voices… and how much by the wrong ones?” For years, Govindh Jayaraman — founder of Paper Napkin Wisdom — sat in rooms filled with people who called themselves friends, collaborators, supporters. And many of them were exactly that. They challenged ideas. They sharpened thinking. They asked questions that helped build the...
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Dan Perry & Michael Serapiglia – “If You Get Lost, Enjoy the View Around You”
Paper Napkin Wisdom
Some stories begin with a business plan. Others begin with a feeling — a deep, lived truth that travel isn’t just about going somewhere, but about finally being somewhere without fear. That’s the story behind Toto Tours. When founder Dan Ware launched the company in 1990, LGBTQ+ travelers faced a world far less welcoming than it is today. Travel was often an act of courage. Safety wasn’t guaranteed. Connection wasn’t a given. And yet Dan believed something radical: that the world belonged to everyone, and that queer people deserved to explore it without shrinking,...
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Be the Man in Someone’s Corner
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There are times in life when wisdom doesn’t show up quietly. It doesn’t whisper. It doesn’t tap you gently on the shoulder. Sometimes it arrives like a jolt — like your heart recognizing something before your brain can process it. That’s how this episode began. If you’ve been following along, you know it’s been a hard season in our home. Stacey’s father — my father-in-law — has been moving through the final stages of his cancer journey. And while there is an entire conversation to be had about the health, the living, and the complexity of that experience… this...
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Noah Ellis — Do The Thing
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a moment in every entrepreneur’s life when the universe stops whispering and starts shouting. A moment where the next level isn’t waiting behind brilliance or luck or timing — it’s sitting directly behind the one thing we don’t want to do. For Noah Ellis, founder of Ofland and a hospitality leader who’s spent his life building concepts, teams, and experiences, that moment became a clarity-inducing mantra so important that he didn’t just write it down… he tattooed on his body: Do the thing. Noah’s wisdom is the kind that doesn’t land with...
info_outlineSomewhere in the middle of a weekly call with fellow entrepreneurs, the conversation unexpectedly turned to Valentine’s Day. Instead of the usual talk about scaling, strategy, and execution, we found ourselves reflecting on love, relationships, and why so many of us don’t really celebrate the Hallmark version of Valentine’s Day.
That sparked a memory for me. Years ago, my daughter asked why our family didn’t go all-in on Valentine’s Day. Yes, my wife does something sweet for the kids—a little basket of goodies—but when it comes to the roses, chocolates, and candlelit dinners, we don’t do it.
I told her: I don’t need to Hallmark Moments.
I don’t need a card company to tell me when to celebrate the people I love. I don’t need a calendar to dictate when to tell my wife she’s special, or when to tell my daughter I’m proud of her, or when to acknowledge the people who matter to me.
Beyond Hallmark: The Principle
Here’s what I told my daughter that day: there’s no limit on the number of times I can tell her mother how much I value her, how much I love her, how much I appreciate everything she does for our family. Why would I wait until one day in February when I can do it every single day?
This idea—No Hallmark Moments—isn’t just about love and family. It’s about leadership.
Too often as leaders, we “Hallmark” our appreciation. We save it up for the big moments: the company offsite, the annual review, the holiday bonus. But what about all the days in between? What about the ordinary Tuesdays when someone on your team shows up big, solves a problem, or just keeps pushing forward?
When we wait for the calendar, we miss the chance to celebrate people in real time.
What Came Up on the Call
On that entrepreneur call, we challenged each other to lean into this idea: don’t Hallmark your moments. Don’t wait until a special occasion to say thank you, to express gratitude, to acknowledge love.
Be attentive right now. With the people in front of you now. In your family, your friendships, your leadership, your teams.
That’s what creates trust. That’s what deepens connection. That’s what fuels momentum.
5 Key Takeaways
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Stop Waiting for Permission
Love and gratitude aren’t tied to a date. Don’t wait for February 14th, or December 25th, or an annual review. The right time to appreciate someone is right now.
Take Action: Tell someone today what they mean to you—don’t put it off.
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Celebrate the Everyday
Big celebrations matter, but real connection is built in the small, daily moments of presence and recognition.
Take Action: Build a habit of noticing and celebrating small wins—in your home and your business.
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Lead Without Hallmarking
Don’t save your recognition for year-end bonuses or company retreats. Acknowledge effort in the moment.
Take Action: End every meeting with at least one piece of recognition for your team.
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Presence is the Gift
More than flowers or chocolates, what your loved ones need is your full attention, right now.
Take Action: Put the phone down and look someone in the eye when you tell them they matter.
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Focus–Align–Act
This is the FAA loop in real life:
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Focus on where you’re waiting for the calendar.
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Align by reframing: I don’t need Hallmark Moments.
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Act by saying it now.
Take Action: Write “Say it now” on a sticky note where you’ll see it daily.
Closing Thought
The napkin sketch for this episode says it best: a calendar full of X’s and a speech bubble that reads, I love you. Underneath: “No Hallmark Moments.”
Don’t wait. Don’t save it. Say it now.
So here’s my challenge to you: before today ends, pick someone—your spouse, your child, a teammate, a friend—and give them their flowers now. Don’t Hallmark it. Don’t wait for the perfect occasion. Do it today.
And when you do, share your own napkin thought. Post it, tag me, and use the hashtag #PaperNapkinWisdom. Because the smallest sketches carry the biggest wisdom—small enough to fit on a napkin, big enough to change your life.