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_outlineThere’s a phrase we’ve all inherited without ever asking whether it serves us:
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
It sounds reasonable. It sounds mature. It sounds like the responsible stance of someone who has been around long enough to be cautious.
But anyone who has ever built something meaningful — a business, a team, a movement, or even a new version of themselves — knows the truth beneath that old saying:
“Seeing” has never created belief.
Belief is what creates the ability to see.
That’s the heart of today’s napkin thought: Believing Is Seeing.
And if you let it in, this shift can alter the way you make decisions, lead others, spot opportunities, and move toward the version of your life you’re meant to live.
Most of us were trained to trust what is visible. Data. Proof. Safety. Certainty. Security. We internalized the idea that confidence comes after evidence. That clarity arrives before commitment. That movement follows permission.
But growth — real growth — never begins outside of us.
It begins in what we cannot see yet.
It begins in the unseen.
As I shared in the episode:
“Results are lagging indicators. By the time you see the change, the real transformation has already happened inside.”
Entrepreneurs don’t innovate by responding to what’s already visible.
Leaders don’t serve by waiting for permission.
People don’t level up by demanding certainty before taking action.
We grow through a different path — an internal shift first, external proof second.
You’ve experienced this before: the moment where you decided to believe in an idea before the market validated it… the moment you trusted a teammate before they performed at that level… the moment you committed to something bigger before you had any evidence that you could pull it off.
Every breakthrough you’ve ever had required belief before visibility.
That’s why the work is inside-out.
Always has been.
Growth Happens in the Unseen
Think of a seed.
The first sign of life doesn’t happen above ground. It happens in darkness, in the unseen, in the place nobody notices until much later.
Your identity works the same way.
Before you behave differently, you believe differently.
Before you see differently, your internal world shifts.
Before your results expand, your sense of who you are expands.
One of the most powerful lines from this Edge of the Napkin episode was this:
“You aren’t becoming someone new. You are remembering who you already are.”
This is not motivation. It’s mechanics.
Your belief determines what you notice.
Your belief determines what you move toward.
Your belief determines which opportunities filter through your awareness and which ones slide by unnoticed.
Once you believe something deeply — that you can grow, that you can lead, that you can build something extraordinary — the world reorganizes itself around that belief. Not magically… but mechanically.
You move differently.
You decide differently.
You persevere differently.
You show up differently.
And suddenly you begin to see what was always there but invisible to you when you were looking through a smaller frame.
The Parable: The Sculptor and the Stone
In the episode, I shared a short parable that captures this perfectly.
A young apprentice watched a master sculptor work on a block of marble. After days of chiseling, he finally asked: “How do you know what to carve? How do you know there’s something inside worth finding?”
The master smiled and said:
“Every block of stone has a statue inside. I don’t create it. I simply remove everything that isn’t it.”
When the apprentice grew older, he understood the truth:
He had never created a masterpiece.
He had revealed one.
It had always been there.
And so are you.
You don’t have to push yourself into a new identity.
You simply have to believe in the truth that’s been waiting inside you.
Believing is not about forcing confidence.
Believing is about remembering.
5 Key Takeaways — and How to Take Action
1. Belief Shapes Perception
Your mind filters the world through what you expect to find.
Shift your belief and you shift your vision.
Take Action:
Ask yourself daily: “If I already believed this was possible, what would I notice today?”
2. Growth Begins Long Before Results Appear
The visible is always the last part.
Real change happens internally first.
Take Action:
Track internal wins, not just external ones: decisions, courage, awareness, alignment.
3. Leaders Expand What Others Can See
Your belief becomes the lens your team uses to view possibility.
Take Action:
Tell someone on your team this week: “Here’s what I see in you.”
Watch what happens.
4. Entrepreneurs Create Evidence Instead of Waiting For It
Waiting for proof kills momentum.
Belief fuels action, and action generates proof.
Take Action:
Move one step this week before you feel ready. Evidence will follow.
5. You Are Not Becoming — You Are Remembering
Your next level isn’t a new invention.
It’s a revelation.
Take Action:
Finish this sentence: “If I stopped resisting who I really am, I would…”
Write the first three things that show up.
A Call to the Builders, Leaders, and Difference-Makers
If this message resonated with you — if something inside felt like it opened or relaxed or clarified — then take a moment.
Grab a napkin.
Write the phrase: Believing Is Seeing.
And then add your insight, your reflection, or your reminder.
Share it on social with #PaperNapkinWisdom.
You never know who may need exactly what you have to say today.
And if you want more episodes like this — tools, insights, and stories to help you grow from the inside out — you can find the podcast here:
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Paper Napkin Wisdom Website: www.PaperNapkinWisdom.com
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@papernapkinwisdom
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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paper-napkin-wisdom/id735345903
Because you’re not waiting for proof.
You’re remembering your power.
And when you believe deeply enough…
you finally begin to see.