Cancer sucks. It's been Beth's greatest fear for most of our life together. Not because she's afraid of much. She's not. This is a woman who has finished IronMan Chattanooga and IronMan Lake Placid, raced the Half IronMan World Championships, and qualified for XTERRA Worlds in Italy. She has a higher pain tolerance than anyone I know. But breast cancer doesn't care how tough you are. It just keeps showing up in her family. Her grandmother, Edna, had it. Her mother, Susan, fought it ten years ago. Her aunt Peggy battled it too. So at 45, Beth did the smart thing and enrolled in a high-risk breast cancer program at Prisma Health. What started as a proactive step turned into years of scans, appointments, and genetic testing. Eventually the testing found something: Lobular Carcinoma in Situ. Not cancer yet. A serious warning sign that it could be soon. The Decision We prayed about it. We talked about it. And we decided not to wait around and see what happened. Beth chose to have a double mastectomy. But first, she wanted one more race season. In April 2024 she placed in her age group at the XTERRA National Championships in Pelham, Alabama, and qualified for Worlds in Trento, Italy. Two weeks before we flew out, she looked at me and said, "I'm not sure I can go." I told her I'd already booked the Airbnb. We were going. That race gave her something to hold onto besides the surgery waiting for her at home. She crossed the finish line in Trento still smiling. A triumphant end to one chapter. A brave beginning to the next. On October 15, 2024, she had her first surgery. A second procedure followed in February 2025. By early spring, she'd healed, and we thought the storm had passed. Then her mom was diagnosed again. Cancer sucks. It shows up in the same family twice, three times over, and it doesn't care whose life it wrecks. Why I Show Up Every October Men Wear Pink is a group of Greenville community leaders who decided awareness wasn't enough. We raise real money, through the American Cancer Society, that funds research, screenings, and support for people in the fight right now. People I love. Last year I personally raised $8,700. Our Greenville team blew past our $50,000 goal. It was one of the most fulfilling 30 days of my year, and not because of the number. Because of what the number does. It funds the research that might mean Beth's daughter, or mine, never has to have this conversation. This year the goal is bigger: $75,000. Thirty men, each raising $2,500. And this year Greenville is going head to head with Charleston again to see who shows up bigger for the cause. Where I'm At, Honestly I'll be straight with you. This year has been harder to get off the ground than last year. Life has pulled my focus in a lot of directions the past month, and I'm behind where I wanted to be at this point in the campaign. I'm saying that plainly because I'd rather ask for help honestly than pretend everything's on schedule when it isn't. So here's the ask. I need 30 men in Greenville willing to raise $2,500 each. And I need 10 of you specifically who want to walk breast cancer survivors down the pink carpet at our kickoff event on September 10th at the Aloft Hotel. That night matters. Those survivors deserve a room full of men who showed up for them on purpose. What October Actually Looks Like October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We kick things off on September 10th, but the real deadline is November 1st, 2026. That's the finish line for the $2,500. How you get there is up to you. It can be as simple as asking 25 people for $100 each. That's it. That's the whole strategy if you want it to be. Or it can be as big and creative as you want to make it. Every guy who's done this has found his own way there. Golf tournaments. Poker nights. Client dinners. Whatever gets people in a room together for a good reason, it counts, and it works. That's really what the whole month is. Thirty guys, thirty different approaches, all of us checking in on each other and pushing toward the same number. Simple or grand, pick whichever one you'll actually do. What This Actually Is This isn't a corporate check-the-box campaign. It's thirty guys who've decided that if cancer is going to keep showing up in the people we love, we're going to make it harder for it to win. If you've been touched by this disease, in your own family or someone else's, you already know why this matters. If you haven't been, consider yourself lucky, and consider joining anyway. Statistically, your turn to know why is coming whether you sign up or not. Beth is still racing. Her mom is still fighting. Her aunt's cancer has spread to her bones. Cancer sucks. But we don't have to sit still for it. If you want to be one of the 30, or one of the 10 walking survivors down that carpet on September 10th, reach out to me directly. I'll get you everything you need.
More than a decade ago, I was serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a growing company. We were preparing for annual planning, and like most organizations, we had a long list of things we wanted to accomplish. Before the planning process started, I asked the CEO for thirty minutes. I told him I had one question. "If we jump forward a year and this plan absolutely crushed it, how would we know?" Then I waited. What followed changed the way I think about planning. He didn't start talking about marketing. He didn't mention trade shows, campaigns, advertising, websites, or lead generation. Instead, he described what success would look like for the business. Revenue growth. New opportunities. Strategic wins. The kinds of outcomes that would make us all look back and say, "That was a great year." It was a simple conversation, but it revealed something important. Most planning starts with activity when it should start with outcomes. We spend a lot of time talking about what we're going to do before we've fully aligned on what we're trying to accomplish. That idea stayed with me for years. Later, when I discovered EOS, it immediately clicked. The 3-Year Picture, the 1-Year Plan, and quarterly Rocks all start with the same principle. Define the future first. Then work backward to determine what needs to happen next. Over time, that thinking evolved into what we now call the MAP Brief™. The MAP Brief™ is a simple tool we use with every client at Wonder. It helps leadership, sales, and marketing align around a shared vision of success before we ever start talking about campaigns or tactics. The first page captures the big picture. Where are we today? What does success look like three years from now? What needs to happen this year? What are the key strategies that will get us there? The second page translates those strategies into quarterly priorities. This is where strategy becomes activation. Instead of creating a long list of marketing activities, we identify the Rocks that matter most over the next 90 days and build momentum one quarter at a time. Like the EOS V/TO, what I love most about the MAP Brief™ is its simplicity. It's not a hundred-page strategic plan. It's not a complicated marketing framework. It's a conversation tool that helps everyone stay aligned around the same goals. We use it internally. We use it with clients. We revisit it regularly whenever priorities shift or new opportunities emerge. Most importantly, it helps answer a question that every leadership team should be asking: What has to be true for this year to be considered a success? Everything else becomes much easier once that answer is clear. We've made our MAP Brief™ template available as a free download. If you're looking for a simple way to align leadership, sales, and marketing around your annual objectives, I hope you'll give it a try. Download the Free MAP Brief™ Template Use it. Make it your own. We hope it helps your team create the same kind of alignment it has created for ours and for the clients we serve.
Cancer sucks. It's been Beth's greatest fear for most of our life together. Not because she's afraid of much. She's not. This is a woman who has finished IronMan Chattanooga and IronMan Lake Placid, raced the Half IronMan World Championships, and qualified for XTERRA Worlds in Italy. She has a higher pain tolerance than anyone I know. But breast cancer doesn't care how tough you are. It just keeps showing up in her family. Her grandmother, Edna, had it. Her mother, Susan, fought it ten years ago. Her aunt Peggy battled it too. So at 45, Beth did the smart thing and enrolled in a high-risk breast cancer program at Prisma Health. What started as a proactive step turned into years of scans, appointments, and genetic testing. Eventually the testing found something: Lobular Carcinoma in Situ. Not cancer yet. A serious warning sign that it could be soon. The Decision We prayed about it. We talked about it. And we decided not to wait around and see what happened. Beth chose to have a double mastectomy. But first, she wanted one more race season. In April 2024 she placed in her age group at the XTERRA National Championships in Pelham, Alabama, and qualified for Worlds in Trento, Italy. Two weeks before we flew out, she looked at me and said, "I'm not sure I can go." I told her I'd already booked the Airbnb. We were going. That race gave her something to hold onto besides the surgery waiting for her at home. She crossed the finish line in Trento still smiling. A triumphant end to one chapter. A brave beginning to the next. On October 15, 2024, she had her first surgery. A second procedure followed in February 2025. By early spring, she'd healed, and we thought the storm had passed. Then her mom was diagnosed again. Cancer sucks. It shows up in the same family twice, three times over, and it doesn't care whose life it wrecks. Why I Show Up Every October Men Wear Pink is a group of Greenville community leaders who decided awareness wasn't enough. We raise real money, through the American Cancer Society, that funds research, screenings, and support for people in the fight right now. People I love. Last year I personally raised $8,700. Our Greenville team blew past our $50,000 goal. It was one of the most fulfilling 30 days of my year, and not because of the number. Because of what the number does. It funds the research that might mean Beth's daughter, or mine, never has to have this conversation. This year the goal is bigger: $75,000. Thirty men, each raising $2,500. And this year Greenville is going head to head with Charleston again to see who shows up bigger for the cause. Where I'm At, Honestly I'll be straight with you. This year has been harder to get off the ground than last year. Life has pulled my focus in a lot of directions the past month, and I'm behind where I wanted to be at this point in the campaign. I'm saying that plainly because I'd rather ask for help honestly than pretend everything's on schedule when it isn't. So here's the ask. I need 30 men in Greenville willing to raise $2,500 each. And I need 10 of you specifically who want to walk breast cancer survivors down the pink carpet at our kickoff event on September 10th at the Aloft Hotel. That night matters. Those survivors deserve a room full of men who showed up for them on purpose. What October Actually Looks Like October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We kick things off on September 10th, but the real deadline is November 1st, 2026. That's the finish line for the $2,500. How you get there is up to you. It can be as simple as asking 25 people for $100 each. That's it. That's the whole strategy if you want it to be. Or it can be as big and creative as you want to make it. Every guy who's done this has found his own way there. Golf tournaments. Poker nights. Client dinners. Whatever gets people in a room together for a good reason, it counts, and it works. That's really what the whole month is. Thirty guys, thirty different approaches, all of us checking in on each other and pushing toward the same number. Simple or grand, pick whichever one you'll actually do. What This Actually Is This isn't a corporate check-the-box campaign. It's thirty guys who've decided that if cancer is going to keep showing up in the people we love, we're going to make it harder for it to win. If you've been touched by this disease, in your own family or someone else's, you already know why this matters. If you haven't been, consider yourself lucky, and consider joining anyway. Statistically, your turn to know why is coming whether you sign up or not. Beth is still racing. Her mom is still fighting. Her aunt's cancer has spread to her bones. Cancer sucks. But we don't have to sit still for it. If you want to be one of the 30, or one of the 10 walking survivors down that carpet on September 10th, reach out to me directly. I'll get you everything you need.
More than a decade ago, I was serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a growing company. We were preparing for annual planning, and like most organizations, we had a long list of things we wanted to accomplish. Before the planning process started, I asked the CEO for thirty minutes. I told him I had one question. "If we jump forward a year and this plan absolutely crushed it, how would we know?" Then I waited. What followed changed the way I think about planning. He didn't start talking about marketing. He didn't mention trade shows, campaigns, advertising, websites, or lead generation. Instead, he described what success would look like for the business. Revenue growth. New opportunities. Strategic wins. The kinds of outcomes that would make us all look back and say, "That was a great year." It was a simple conversation, but it revealed something important. Most planning starts with activity when it should start with outcomes. We spend a lot of time talking about what we're going to do before we've fully aligned on what we're trying to accomplish. That idea stayed with me for years. Later, when I discovered EOS, it immediately clicked. The 3-Year Picture, the 1-Year Plan, and quarterly Rocks all start with the same principle. Define the future first. Then work backward to determine what needs to happen next. Over time, that thinking evolved into what we now call the MAP Brief™. The MAP Brief™ is a simple tool we use with every client at Wonder. It helps leadership, sales, and marketing align around a shared vision of success before we ever start talking about campaigns or tactics. The first page captures the big picture. Where are we today? What does success look like three years from now? What needs to happen this year? What are the key strategies that will get us there? The second page translates those strategies into quarterly priorities. This is where strategy becomes activation. Instead of creating a long list of marketing activities, we identify the Rocks that matter most over the next 90 days and build momentum one quarter at a time. Like the EOS V/TO, what I love most about the MAP Brief™ is its simplicity. It's not a hundred-page strategic plan. It's not a complicated marketing framework. It's a conversation tool that helps everyone stay aligned around the same goals. We use it internally. We use it with clients. We revisit it regularly whenever priorities shift or new opportunities emerge. Most importantly, it helps answer a question that every leadership team should be asking: What has to be true for this year to be considered a success? Everything else becomes much easier once that answer is clear. We've made our MAP Brief™ template available as a free download. If you're looking for a simple way to align leadership, sales, and marketing around your annual objectives, I hope you'll give it a try. Download the Free MAP Brief™ Template Use it. Make it your own. We hope it helps your team create the same kind of alignment it has created for ours and for the clients we serve.
