The Daily Meaning

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“Your daily blog posts have become a great part of my morning routine, waking up and reading your posts challenge me to reflect on something that matters in my life or view something from a different perspective.”
"Love starting my morning with a daily dose of positivity or perspective!"

Daily Meaning Reader

Travis Shelton 4/24/25 Travis Shelton 4/24/25

Back Against the Wall

When successful business owners or entrepreneurs are interviewed about their origin stories, they usually don't say, "Yeah, life was pretty good, and I was really content where I was, but I threw it all in the trash so I could start over and significantly increase the risk in my life."

Travis Shelton 4/22/25 Travis Shelton 4/22/25

Getting It Right, Not Being Right

Neither of us is in the business of being right…… we're in the business of getting it right. The best idea wins, period.

Travis Shelton 4/21/25 Travis Shelton 4/21/25

Paying for Outcomes, Not Inputs

This is where people get so twisted up. The prevailing thought process in our culture is that when we purchase something, whether a service or a product, we're paying for the cost of the physical inputs and/or the time that went into it. In reality, though, we're paying for an outcome.

Travis Shelton 4/5/25 Travis Shelton 4/5/25

The Chicken and Egg of Hospitality

As expected, someone chimed in on the comments, right on cue: "I will be hospitable when the average guest treats industry workers like humans and not machines."

Travis Shelton 4/3/25 Travis Shelton 4/3/25

Excellence Is All Around Us

Do you know how much time, money, and energy we spend on businesses and people who are anti-excellent? Too much, too much, and too much. It's not that we don't appreciate excellence, but rather, we seem to be obsessed with this notion of "supporting" businesses and people out of a twisted sense of pity, guilt, and obligation.

Travis Shelton 3/24/25 Travis Shelton 3/24/25

What is Excellence?

As a consumer, what does excellence look like to you? What would an organization do that would make you stop and think, "Wow, that was amazing!"

Travis Shelton 2/23/25 Travis Shelton 2/23/25

Ripping Off the Facade

Running a business is a lot like parenting: While it seems like everyone is an expert, we’re all just winging it. It seems daunting and overwhelming because, well, it is.

Travis Shelton 1/29/25 Travis Shelton 1/29/25

Tell the Others

Today, I want to explore one of the actually beneficial alternatives to "supporting" businesses. Let's call it "tell the others."

Travis Shelton 1/9/25 Travis Shelton 1/9/25

Growth For Growth’s Sake

My friend is stuck in a success paradox. He's created something that's truly successful, but simultaneously, he created a life and career that can't provide peace and contentment. In his effort to gain security, he unintentionally self-sabotaged himself to the point where he can never enjoy it.

Travis Shelton 1/6/25 Travis Shelton 1/6/25

Stepping Across the Line

Whenever I write about my disgust in the "support small business" movement, I suffer a momentary wave of panic that I'll lose some of my small business owner subscribers.

Travis Shelton 12/31/24 Travis Shelton 12/31/24

Build It, Break It, Fix It, Repeat

Travis Shelton 12/27/24 Travis Shelton 12/27/24

Ode To Insecurity

I'm so freaking proud of this guy. Not so much for what he's accomplished, but for the road-less-traveled example he's setting for hundreds or thousands of people around him. It's one thing to say it, but another to live it. He and Kate live it.

Travis Shelton 12/19/24 Travis Shelton 12/19/24

The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence

"I want to create the single best coffee shop in America." Uh, ok. Pretty audacious for someone who had failed in his first few iterations of the company.

Travis Shelton 12/12/24 Travis Shelton 12/12/24

Shinin’ Shoes and Savin’ Souls

“Here’s how it works over here. We shinin’ shoes and savin’ souls. Salvation is free, and so are the shoe shines. You just give whatever your heart tells you.”

Travis Shelton 12/11/24 Travis Shelton 12/11/24

Weird, I Know

With the holiday season approaching, especially in conjunction with Small Business Saturday, small businesses have been on a rampage encouraging, begging, pleading, demanding, and even guilt-tripping society to "shop small."

Travis Shelton 12/5/24 Travis Shelton 12/5/24

Choosing the Wrong Anchors

Let's say you have a full-time job but are simultaneously working to transition to your dream job, your calling. You aspire to eventually transition full-time into the new gig. However, the elephant in the room is when. Every ounce of you wants to do the new thing, but the bulk of your time is invested in the old thing (which you don't particularly care about). How do you know when to flip the switch?

Travis Shelton 11/20/24 Travis Shelton 11/20/24

Poof, In Real-Time

Travis Shelton 11/11/24 Travis Shelton 11/11/24

The Alternative to Poof

The smart-alec in me wanted to respond, "The alternative to telling half your potential customers they are evil is to just NOT tell half your potential customers they are evil." But that felt too sharp, and I wanted to add a bit more value. Here's the secret: excellence! Always excellence.

Travis Shelton 11/10/24 Travis Shelton 11/10/24

Poof

Then, something happened. Remember above when I said the business doesn't weaponize the owner's values? Well, that all changed quickly. At the snap of one's fingers, the owner decided to take a different approach. The business decided it would now use the business to jam those values down the marketplace's throat. That was the moment they lost my business. $600/month of revenue.....poof.

Travis Shelton 11/1/24 Travis Shelton 11/1/24

None of Us Really Know What We're Doing

I hadn't actually thought about that until it escaped my mouth, but it's so true! Business owners know nothing....until they know something.

The Daily Meaning

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“Your daily blog posts have become a great part of my morning routine, waking up and reading your posts challenge me to reflect on something that matters in my life or view something from a different perspective.”

"Love starting my morning with a daily dose of positivity or perspective!"