Change begins with a single person and a compelling idea. But no leader creates disruption alone.

As innovators inspire others to join their cause, their influence grows—first incrementally, one per-

son at a time, then exponentially as teams form, and finally infinitely as movements take on lives of their own.

In 2026, our Tinker program will center around Leadership Development. In this podcast, I break down the upgrades and walk you through some of the process and theory.

The First Realm: SELF-Leadership

Foundation: If you want to go fast, go alone

Before you can lead others, you must learn to lead yourself. Self-leadership is about mastering

your mindset, managing your energy, clarifying your values and building the discipline to act with

intention. Fix the leader, fix everything else.

The Second Realm: TEAM Leadership

Growth: If you want to go far, go together

Once you can lead yourself, you’re ready to lead those who are compelled to follow—your employees and team members. This realm focuses on documentation, training, delegation and creating systems that work without you.

The Third Realm: PEER Leadership

Influence: Leadership beyond authority

Peer leadership means influencing those who have no obligation to follow you—colleagues, partners, family and community members. This requires building trust, demonstrating value and leading through example and relationship.

The Fourth Realm: TRIBE Leadership

Impact: Leadership at scale

Tribe leadership is about inspiring a community through storytelling, vision and values. Your influence extends beyond individual relationships to shape culture and create movements.

Remember: Each realm builds on the previous one, but no realm is ever complete. You’ll cycle through all four levels throughout your leadership journey, constantly refining and deepening your practice.

Beginning in December, we're going to add more Coaching Calls to the Growth calendar.

My goal: a client should be able to:

Learn something new each month (teaching calls)

Connect with their peers in the tribe each month (Community calls)

Troubleshoot their sales and marketing each week (Specialist Calls)

and talk to a coach any day (golden hour coaching calls).

Here's the difference between each. You'll see the schedule in the Growth groups!

It’s more important than ever to convert clients if you want to have clients.

With more competition in the marketplace; more market headwinds; the decline of CF and the rise of bot-search, getting clients is harder than ever. That means it’s critical to keep the clients you have if you want to have 1:1 clients.

Here’s the best path after reviewing a few hundred conversion calls.

1. Get them a good ROI and show it to them every single month.
2. Know where they are in their journey.
3. 2 months out, say “here are the next 3 steps we need to take” and “Here’s how they will benefit you.”
4. 1 month out say, “here are the next 3 steps we need to take and here’s how they benefit you.”
5. Then say, “Now, I know your first year commitment with us ends this month. When I started to look ahead, I just assumed you’d be around to work on these things next. Are you planning something else?”
6. Then make their next 3 appointments.
7. Do NOT count on the CSMs to handle communication about renewals, talk people into staying or tell them the price. The CSM team is a safety net, not a trampoline. Conversion and retention are our job as mentors. Just like in your gym, it’s not enough just to get good results. You have to show them results and show them the next best step if you want to keep them.