This Moment Counts

I have a problem with useful.

For years, useful was my standard. Is this useful? Will this help someone? Can they apply this to their work?

The answer was almost always yes. So I published it. And people appreciated it. And I kept going.

Useful served people. I believe that. But useful is the wrong word for what happens in a room when a leader finds the exact right words. You don’t walk out of that room thinking: that was useful. You walk out thinking: everything just changed.

That is what I got into this work for. Not useful. That.

The moments when words shift the entire conversation. When you can feel the atmosphere change. When people who came in skeptical go quiet in a different way. When a decision that was going to be hard suddenly feels obvious to everyone at the same time.

I have been in rooms where that happened. I have helped make it happen. But publicly, I have spent years writing a newsletter that was broadly useful to a broadly defined audience instead of writing about the thing that makes me want to tear my hair out with excitement when I get it right.

That ends now.

I am here for the leader who has a moment coming. Not a presentation. A moment.

A keynote, a strategic announcement, first words in a new role …

High stakes.
No second chance.
Your words absolutely have to land.

Today, I’m almost exclusively booked for moments like this.

Moments that count.

I know what those moments need. I have spent my entire career learning it. And every Wednesday from now on I am going to give you everything I know.

I should have done this years ago. I’m doing it now. And it was the reason for the two weeks of silence.

So here is what is changing.

The homepage is relaunched with a much more focused offer.

This newsletter has a new name: “This Moment Counts.”

And after years of daily issues, this newsletter moves to weekly. Every Wednesday, one idea. About the moments that count, what they need, and how to prepare for them.

I’ll be honest with you about why. Writing daily was never really about publishing. It was a thinking tool. A way of working through ideas until they were sharp enough to mean something. I’ll keep writing every day. But I won’t keep sending every day.

You have enough in your inbox. What you don’t need is more content. What might actually make a difference is one genuinely useful idea, every week, for a year. Fifty-two ideas. Fifty-two moments to think about what it takes to get the moments that count right.

The first issue in the new format will arrive next week. Until then, here’s a question for you to think about: When a moment counts, how do you know whether your words will make sense or whether they will make a difference?

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: Curious for your thoughts on Moments That Count. What does it look like for you? Do you have one on your calendar? Is there a specific angle you’d like to see covered here or something you’d finally wish you got right? I read every email and respond personally.