I love when people share genuinely useful things they actually use, the kind of recommendations that don’t feel like noise, but are impactful. So, I’m (hopefully) going to do more of that here, in what I am calling The Strategic Spotlight.
I recently came across a post by Jeremy Connell-Waite where he shared some of the tools he relies on, and as someone who journals avidly, I found it incredibly useful. One thing he featured that caught my attention was Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Wellness Planner. I went down the rabbit hole, read up on it, and it prompted me to order a copy, because anything that makes self-awareness more practical (and more honest) is immediately on my radar.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I have my copy, which includes a QR code inside it that links straight to a LifeScore assessment, which is a detailed and structured way to check in on how you’re really doing across the areas that matter, not just how busy you are. Loved it, so thank you to Jeremy for sharing, and I am paying it forward, hoping to inspire someone else.
Last week, I hit play on a session about storytelling by the brilliant Dennis Ross as part of the Dent Global KPI programme, which I’ve just restarted after pressing pause to make space for the book launch. And honestly, coming back to it felt a bit like rejoining a room where everyone’s already moving at pace… in the best way. The conversations, the calibre of people, the shared momentum, it’s exactly the sort of environment that sharpens you.
It was the third time I’ve listened to Dennis, and I’m still not sure I have the right words for how good he is, except that he makes people laugh and cry in equal measure while casually handing out gold every other breath. What struck me most is how much this isn’t just “storytelling” in the content-creator sense. It’s leadership. It’s influence. It’s strategy. Because story is how meaning moves.
I found myself thinking back to the editing process of Be More Strategic last year. It was at this time that I first listened to Dennis Ross, and he genuinely made me stop and rethink huge swathes of what I was writing. Not because the ideas were wrong, but because the words weren’t doing them justice yet. It was that impactful. The kind of session that doesn’t just inspire you in the moment, it changes what you create afterwards.
A few of his lines landed like a bell: “Authenticity is you, unchanged.” Simple. Brutal. Brilliant.
Then this one, which I’m still chewing over: “Say what makes you uncomfortable because it’s true.” It’s such a clean test for whether you’re hiding behind polish instead of telling the truth.
And the one that really got me (because it’s exactly what happens when I’m writing): “The thing you should say is what you’re thinking as you’re trying to say it.” That moment, mid-sentence, when you’re circling the point instead of naming it. He’s basically giving you permission to stop performing and start communicating.
He also talked about the economy of expression, “the ability to say more in less time”, and his mission to kill the word “that” wherever possible. Which made me laugh… and then immediately made me open my own drafts and think, oh no, he’s right.
But the most powerful part for me was when he asked: What is story? You think you know the answer, until he reframes it in a way that makes you see the difference instantly.
He said a story is not what happened; that’s journalism.
A story is what happened because of what happened. Not the event.
The emotional consequence.
The shift.
The meaning.
The thing that connects your experience to someone else’s.
And he said something about words that I loved, which is that they have “the power to bring into existence that which doesn’t exist.” Which, honestly, feels like the heart of leadership: naming a future, a possibility, a direction, and making it real through shared belief and action.
It reminded me too: after I listened to him last year, I wrote a LinkedIn piece about my own “life story”, and I’m resharing it, because it’s still one of the most honest things I’ve written. Have a look. You might find it prompts something useful in you too.
Powerful stuff. And a brilliant reminder, especially in January: the way we tell the truth, to ourselves and others, shapes what happens next.
Cassian Horowitz shared a really cool method to improve reading speed by reducing eye movement. You know me — anything that helps sharpen cognition and improve how we take in information is instantly appealing. It’s a surprisingly effective little brain exercise, and the video is well worth a watch.
