There’s something new brewing in this space that I’m excited about.

Starting today, each newsletter will include a little segment I’m calling Decoding the Shift. A short look at the bigger changes happening in business, technology, and the world around us, written for those of us trying to stay sane while everything keeps tilting. Think of it as a reality check and a pep talk rolled into one. Keep scrolling for our very first Decoding the Shift in this edition.

Fear Isn’t a Strategy

I’ve been thinking a lot about how heavy the world feels right now. The economy is wobbly. Government shutdown, rising prices, new tariffs, and political chaos that makes the news feel like a horror show on repeat. It’s no wonder so many of us are scared to make a move.

But here’s the thing about fear. It’s sneaky. It likes to dress up as logic. It whispers, be smart, wait this out. What it really means is, stay small and hope things calm down.

We tell ourselves it’s not the right time to take risks. That maybe we should hang tight at jobs that drain us dry. That the dream of starting something of our own can wait until things settle.

But when has the world ever been truly settled?

You can give 200 percent to a company and still end up on the layoff list. You can keep postponing your dream business until you forget what it even felt like to imagine it. You can keep showing up for everyone else until your own spark fades.

So what do we do when everything feels unstable but that small, stubborn part of us still wants more?

We don’t shove the fear away. We get curious about it. We walk with it instead of letting it lead.

Because the truth is, fear doesn’t stop great ideas. Some of the most game-changing businesses were born in the middle of chaos. Microsoft and Apple started in the mid-70s during an oil crisis and major economic slump. Airbnb came out of the Great Recession when people were desperate to pay rent. Mailchimp launched after the dot-com crash and thrived by helping small businesses who couldn’t afford big marketing firms.

Crisis doesn’t kill creativity. It wakes it up. Every messy season opens cracks where new light can get through.

So no, this isn’t the time to give up. It’s the time to focus on what matters, drop the busywork, and build something steady enough to hold your courage.

Fear might still ride shotgun, but it doesn’t get to drive🚘,

🌀Decoding the Shift: The High Cost of “Free”

We’re living in an age where information is everywhere. If you can’t afford to hire someone, you can almost always find a YouTube tutorial, a blog post, or now, an AI tool ready to “help” you do it yourself. In a time when grocery bills feel like mortgage payments🏠, choosing the Do It Yourself route can feel like the smart move.

But here’s what’s really going on beneath that instinct: fear. When the world feels uncertain, control becomes our comfort food. We convince ourselves that if we can just learn enough, fix enough, or “AI” enough, we’ll be safe.

The problem is, “free” isn’t really free. It costs time, focus, frustration, and often, results. You can’t bill for the five hours you lost trying to make a website plugin cooperate or recover the energy you spent coaxing AI into sounding like you. Free knowledge gives you information, but not wisdom. And wisdom is what keeps you from wasting both money and sanity.

AI makes doing things faster, not necessarily better. It can get you part of the way there, but it can’t replace the intuition, experience, or context that comes from someone who’s done the work for years. Paying to have something done right the first time, or learning directly from someone who’s already made the mistakes, isn’t indulgent... it’s efficient. It’s the grown-up version of “work smarter, not harder.” ⚙️

We’ve entered a time when discernment is the new currency. Knowing when to do it yourself and when to invest in mastery is the difference between staying stuck in survival mode and building something that actually thrives.🌱

If Shift Notes hit home for you, don’t hoard it like the last good cup of coffee. Forward it to a friend, coworker, or that one relative who’s been flirting with burnout. The more curious souls we bring into this little corner of the internet, the better we all get at building work, and lives, that actually fit.