The American Conveyor Belt Has Stopped
We grew up believing in something simply because it was there. You didn’t question it. You didn’t test it. It just worked. This is what we believed: School > Degree > Job > Career. It felt less like a choice and more like gravity. You don’t debate gravity—you trust it. That was the American Conveyor […]
Why the Modern Work System Is Failing People, and How Fractional Work Fixes It
Burnout, layoffs, ageism, and overwork aren’t personal failures. They are design flaws in how we hire and work. The modern work system is showing clear signs of failure. Nearly eight in ten professionals report experiencing burnout. Layoffs continue to ripple across industries, even as remaining employees are asked to absorb more responsibility with fewer resources. […]
How to Become a Fractional Executive in 30 Days
If you’re trying to figure out how to become a fractional executive, the process doesn’t start with submitting more applications. It starts with shifting how you think about your experience, how you position your value, and how you create opportunity. This 30-day framework is designed to help you move out of job search mode and […]
Building a Fractional Career That Lasts: 5 Lenses for Success
This week I had a conversation with a friend of mine, Rick Maher, who lives deep in the talent innovation space. We weren’t talking about how to get clients or generate income. Those are table stakes. We were talking about something more important: How do you build a fractional career that actually lasts? Rick shared […]
You’re Not Going to Make Money the Same Way You Used to. And that’s a good thing.
In the next few years you’ll make money from clients, not a job. You’ll make money from your own ideas, not a job. Some of you will make money making content. Some of you will make money as micro investors. Some of you will make money from places you couldn’t even imagine yet. The opportunity […]
The Problem with Retirement: A Case for the Modern Wisdom Worker
Not long ago my friend Tom called me six months into his retirement. Brilliant operations guy, thirty years solving problems nobody else could see. He’d left at 65, the prescribed age, to “finally relax.” “I feel invisible,” he said. “Like I’m just… done. I don’t like this.” Tom wasn’t done. Far from it. But by […]
Freedom is our birthright. Freedom is also never free.
I’m sitting with these thoughts on freedom today because it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A man I deeply revere when it comes to the idea of freedom—and the pursuit of it. Days like today, hopefully, slow us down. Not to romanticize history, but to remember something essential about the American experiment and the human […]
Your Life as a Fractional Pro
Stage One: Learn Post-layoff. It starts small. Your kitchen table. Early. The clock ticking against the far wall. Your laptop is open, calendar blank in a way that feels reckless. Vapor from your hot coffee lifts into the sunlight pouring through the window. The cat jumps up, misjudges the chair, corrects, then settles into your […]
The Answer Is Full-Time. What Was the Question?
For the last half-century, we’ve operated inside a single, unquestioned assumption: Whatever the problem is, the answer is a full-time hire. Growth problem? Full-time. Leadership gap? Full-time. Marketing stalled? Full-time. Overworked founder? Ironically… full-time. That assumption became so dominant we stopped seeing it as a choice. It became the air. Entire systems—HR, benefits, identity, prestige, […]
The full-time job norms you grew up with? They’re gone.
Not stretched. Not “challenging.” Gone. Here’s what happened while nobody was paying attention. The six-month job search is now normal The Wall Street Journal reports the average job search jumped from five months in 2023 to six months in 2025. Over the past two years, there’s been a 50% increase in people job hunting for […]