God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah" - Psalm 46:1-3
Fear doesn’t need facts to feel real. It just needs noise. And lately, the noise has been loud. Markets dropping. Volatility spiking. People nervous. Prices shaky. Confidence low. But Psalm 46 doesn’t offer clichés or quick fixes. It starts with chaos — and moves straight into clarity: We will not fear. Not because everything is fine. And not because we’re in control. Because we know where our help comes from.
Tim Keller once said:
“The psalm doesn’t say ‘we won’t fear if things get bad.’ It says ‘though the earth gives way.’ It’s already happening. The worst-case scenario is in motion. And the people of God? They stand firm — not because they’re strong, but because their God is.”
That’s what this moment calls for. Not bravado. Not overreaction. Not “waiting it out” until things get back to normal. It calls for steadiness. For clarity. For faithfulness in the middle of volatility.
Psalm 46 isn’t a psalm for peaceful mornings with coffee and bird songs. It’s a battle cry for the middle of the storm. Because if God is our refuge and strength — then we don’t need to lead in fear. We lead with peace. With purpose. With the kind of quiet courage that doesn’t blink when the markets do. And that’s the call this week: Don’t follow the fear. Lead with faithfulness. God is still on the throne — even if the ground feels like it’s shifting beneath your feet.
Most business plans are just wishlists. Three-year visions. Five-year roadmaps. They sound strategic — but most of the time, they’re just business fiction.
Call it what it is: sci-fi on spreadsheets. That’s why I built UnbreakableOS — a business operating system I created to solve the real problems I kept running into while leading companies through growth, cash strain, and operational complexity.
I’m a big fan of EOS. I think it’s one of the best systems out there. It gave me language, structure, and tools I still value today.
And like a lot of owners, I kept customizing it — adjusting parts, layering in things I’d learned elsewhere, shaping it to fit how I lead and how my businesses actually operate. Eventually, I stopped modifying someone else’s system and built my own.
I needed an operating system that gave me the structure to drive Asymmetric Endurance™ — so I built it. Something made for clarity, for execution, and for the realities of running a business when growth is outpacing infrastructure and the team’s already stretched.
At the center of that system is something I call Unbreakable Cycles™ — the monthly rhythm that aligns your team, eliminates drift, and keeps execution moving. Because if the calendar isn’t running your business, chaos probably is.
Every year, anchor your business to three simple, specific targets for each domain:
These are calendar-year goals — measurable, binary, and final. Set them now for 2025.
You either hit it or you don’t. No padding. No spinning. No redefining success midstream. Once the goals are locked, the system kicks in. Every month, every leader (even if it’s just you) picks one priority in each domain that moves the business forward.
Not a list of ideas. Not some vague “Q3 initiative.” One real move. Every calendar month. Execution isn’t optional. There’s no “we’ll just roll it forward.” You either get it done – execution complete — or it fails.
People drift. Teams stall. Owners get buried. But cycles don’t. If you can follow a calendar you can follow this system.
UnbreakableCycles™ give your business a beat — a pulse. And over time, that rhythm compounds into real momentum. When you're focused on one thing at a time — tied directly to your calendar-year goals — you stop drifting, and you start driving. Here’s how to get going:
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First - set your three goals.
1. Finance - one goal.
2. Growth - one goal.
3. Operations - one goal.
Second - pick one priority for this month. What actually moves the needle? Lock it in.
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The hardest part isn’t the work. It’s giving up the illusion that you’re the only one who can do it all. For many business owners the next big step isn’t doing more. It’s doing less — and finally letting go.
Letting someone else lead Growth. Letting someone else own Finance. Letting someone else drive Ops.
You’ve probably tried before. Got burned. Took it back. Now it’s all yours again — the wins, the weight, the weariness. But if you want to build something that doesn’t fall apart every time you take a breath… You’ll need more than goals. You’ll need a rhythm.
You’ll need people you can trust — and a system that keeps them honest.
Start with Unbreakable Cycles™.
You can sign up here to get early access to UnbreakableOS™.
The VIX—Wall Street’s “fear gauge”—just jumped over 45.
That’s not “uh-oh” territory. That’s “put down the golf club and pick up the P&L”territory.
It’s the highest we’ve seen since the world melted down in 2008 and again in March 2020, when Costco ran out of toilet paper and Zoom was trading like it cured loneliness.
Translation? The market is nervous. But here’s the thing: you don’t run a hedge fund. You run a business. And your job isn’t to react like a trader. It’s to lead with discipline — while everyone else is losing their minds.
But leaders who outlast volatility? They get quiet. They go deep. They build discipline.
You don’t have to predict the future. Just make sure your business is built to handle it. That’s how you stay unbreakable.
The VIX – or Volatility Index - tracks how much volatility investors expect over the next 30 days.
> High VIX? Markets are jittery.
> Low VIX? Everyone’s pretending nothing bad ever happens.
It’s basically the mood ring of Wall Street—except when it spikes, it’s not love in the air… it’s panic selling, falling prices, and a whole lot of “should we have built something more stable?”
This isn’t the time to build a new product, open a second location, or drop 20 grand on a new agency you don’t understand. This is the time to:
• Go deep on the things that matter.
• Bring core pieces in-house.
• Stop renting your strategy. Start owning your outcomes.
That’s vertical integration. And no, it’s not just for billion-dollar companies. It’s for the owner who finally says, “I’m tired of being fragile every time the economy sneezes.”
Learn the thing you’ve been avoiding. If someone else “handles it,” and you can’t explain it? That’s a liability, not a luxury. So you need to:
1. Bring one thing in-house
Fulfillment. Content. Pricing. Anything that controls your customer experience or margin.
2. Don’t get emotional. Get operational.
Fear and greed make terrible COOs.
3. Learn from history.
Go back to 2008 and 2020 and try to draw out lessons. What worked during that time? Where was there opportunity you may have missed that others capitalized on? When I was President at an automotive suspension manufacturer, we looked back at 2008 and saw tow trucks spike as there was a huge uptick in repossessions. We saw repair shops pick up in business because more people were fixing and maintaining their vehicles instead of buying new ones.
You don’t have to be fearless. You have to be faithful, focused, and just stubborn enough to keep building while everyone else panics. This is how we lead when volatility spikes: By getting quiet, locking in, and building something that won’t break just because the markets do.