In this solo Friday Solos episode, the host reflects on the "signal versus noise" framework he first encountered in Stephen Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast (via a Kevin O’Leary interview) and connects it to Dr. Ben Hardy’s recent book on 10x scaling. He urges listeners—especially small‑business owners running large teams—to conduct a "thinking time" exercise, literally writing down ("think in ink") the distractions (noise) that cluttered their 2025 operations and the clear opportunities (signal) they want to prioritize in 2026. By setting an audacious, 10x‑style vision, the host argues that only a handful of truly important initiatives will survive, allowing leaders to deliberately dial back noise such as endless emails, minor mishaps, and low‑impact tasks. He explains how to embed these insights into an annual planning workshop, mapping ideas from podcasts, books, and conferences onto a company’s operating system or blueprint. The episode closes with a hopeful outlook for 2026, a call to subscribe, and an invitation to continue the journey together.
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Hey everyone, have you ever heard this idea of signal versus noise? One of my favorite podcasts and YouTubes is Stephen Bartlett, Diary of a CEO. Now admittedly, Stephen will have some guests on his podcast and YouTube that are, I think, are sometimes a little questionable and not necessarily topics up my alley, but occasionally he has people on there that I absolutely think are fantastic. And I was actually watching Truthfully, my favorite is actually the behind the diary episodes or YouTube videos that he puts up. So those are some of the best. And it was in that episode that he was talking about this idea of signal versus noise that he had picked up from the episode with Kevin O'Leary. Now, Kevin O'Leary, obviously famous from Shark Tank, but I actually follow Kevin O'Leary a lot for his interest and enthusiasm around watches. He is a watch enthusiast, actually often wears two watches, one on the left wrist and one on the right wrist. Anyway, I digress. My point is I enjoy following both of them in different capacities for very different reasons. And so one of the things that whenever Stephen was talking about this idea of signal versus noise, uh, this was several months ago, it has really weighed on me quite a bit. And we are— when this episode is dropping, we're a few days post the 2026 Annual Planning Workshop. And one of the things that I want to share with you that I'm going to mention in that planning workshop is what is the noise that came in your life, but specifically in business in 2025? And what are the signals that you really want to be able to pick up in 2026? That was a great thinking time. This has been a very good thinking time exercise for me. In fact, I would invite you to do the same thing. Invite yourself to, you know, go to your, you know, thinking time chair or go to one of your favorite places. And I always like to say think in ink. I picked that up somewhere, maybe from Keith Cunningham specifically. But this idea of where was their signal and where was there noise in my business in 2025? What is, where, where can I dial back the noise in my business in 2026 so I could focus on the signal? Now I'm gonna tie this concept specifically to the book that Dr. Ben Hardy just recently came out with. and it's around scaling. And basically he takes the idea of 10x is easier than 2x and really expounds, expounds upon it. And so he is a believer, and I don't fundamentally actually agree with this thought process, but I do get what he's, what he's getting at with, with saying this is that if you can pick a, a goal, for your business, let's say, that is so big that it will raise the floor of what actually really matters. What he's getting at is that there's only so few things that actually really matter, and if we can bust through those things and just focus on that. And so his idea is that if we set such a big enough lofty goal, that that's the only thing that we— that those, those, those other things kind of go by the wayside. So I do love that thinking process now and actually putting that inside of a, say, a 3-year vision or something like that. I'm not sure. Could it be potentially a dream outcome that you have for the business? I think it could go there. So I think that the two ideas of signal versus noise and from the book, I think it's Scaling Scaling Secrets or something like that, one of the newest books by Dr. Hardy, uh, is that you pick such a big idea that you only can focus on a handful of things. And so I'm sharing both of these concepts because it's getting at this idea that in a world and in just business in general, not just with AI, but just how life goes is that things seem to divulge into complexity. And it is really difficult for us to force things to be simple. It is difficult for us to find the signal in all of the noise. This is not just about doomscrolling, etc. This is about all the little things that happen in a business, the phone calls, the emails, the problems, the misses, the The email that didn't get sent properly, the mistake that was made with a customer, all of these things that end up happening. And so I think it's only apropos at this time of year that we take a moment to reflect back and to try to figure out what was signal this year and what was noise. And how can I specifically dial back intentionally some of the noise in my business in 2026? And how can I focus on the signal? If I have a dream outcome or a vision or a goal that is so lofty that I can only focus on a handful of things, what are those things? And I think it's both of those two concepts combined. You know, one of the things that I've really tried to do is try to take ideas from books, podcasts, YouTube videos, conferences, calls I'm on. I try to take some of those things and think about where, where do I put this? Where does this actually go for me as a small business owner running a 1,000-person employee operation? So where does this actually go? Does this go in my operating system? Like, where in my blueprint do I actually go with this? And so I think these concepts can actually get brought down into your annual planning. So whether you joined us at the 2026 Annual Planning Workshop or Even if you didn't and you did some of the planning on your own, my hope is, is that you do take a moment to kind of reflect on what was signal, what was noise, and what do I want the signal versus noise ratio to be in 2026? And I encourage you to go and check out that episode of The Diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett and, um, Kevin O'Leary. He actually picked that idea up of signal versus noise. I don't know if he explicitly called it that, but he at least learned it. at his time working with Apple at Steve Jobs. All right, everyone. Hope this served you well. I hope 2025 was a great year, but more importantly, I hope 2026 is the best year ahead. We got a couple more episodes to finish out on these Friday Solos. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey. We're really excited about what the next year is going to, uh, bring forth. All right, till next time, lead well and go be great. And hey, if you're watching this on YouTube, I would love for you to be able to click that subscribe button if you are not subscribed. We got some big things that are planned in 2026, so would love for you to be a part of the journey.
