Brief
Every month I talk to people — on my podcast, on phone calls, through emails — who are building something. Not building for the headlines. Not building to impress anyone. Just quietly, persistently building something they believe in.
For the candle maker who drives across three cities to hand-deliver orders. For the plumber who offers free consultations because he believes in community. For every person reading this who got up this morning and decided, again, to keep going.
This is for you.
and a Kitchen Table.
Now She Runs the Room.
The first batch of candles Maria Santos ever made cost her $47 in supplies and four hours of her Saturday afternoon. She sold them to neighbors for $12 each, made $144, and used every dollar to buy more wax. That was six years ago. Today, Santos & Co. Candle Company employs 23 people, ships to 38 states, and recently landed a partnership with a national lifestyle retailer. Maria is 34 years old and has never taken a business class in her life.
“I didn’t have a strategy,” she says, laughing. “I had customers who kept coming back. I figured if I just kept listening to them, everything else would figure itself out.”
What Maria understood intuitively — and what took most MBAs years to learn — is that a business is fundamentally a relationship. Every candle she sold came with a handwritten note. Every complaint email got a personal phone call. When a customer’s order arrived damaged, Maria didn’t just send a replacement. She sent flowers.
There were two years where Maria worked a full-time job and ran the business on weekends. There were months she paid her employees before herself. There was one brutal December when a supplier error left her 800 orders short — and she personally drove to three different cities to hand-deliver replacements.
Those 800 customers became her loudest advocates. One introduced her to the buyer who eventually carried her line nationally. “The hard moments define you,” she says. “Not the wins. The moments when everything goes wrong and you decide who you’re going to be.”
Actually Feels Human
The most successful marketing campaign of the past year wasn’t a Super Bowl spot or a viral TikTok. It was a 47-word email from a small bakery in Columbus, Ohio: “We made too many croissants today. Come get one. On us. Bring a friend.” They served 340 people that afternoon. 180 became regular customers — not because of a funnel or a pixel, but because someone spoke to them like a human being.
The lesson for every business owner reading this: your marketing doesn’t need to be bigger. It needs to be truer. Who are you, really? What do you actually believe? Say that. Consistently. Honestly. Watch what happens.
Mean More.
Customer Service
Design It Like You Mean It.
The research is clear: natural light increases productivity by up to 15%. Clutter raises cortisol. A well-designed workspace isn’t a luxury — it’s infrastructure.
This month, pick one thing to improve. One shelf to clear. One plant to add. One chair worth sitting in. The compound effect of small intentional changes is one of the most underrated forces in business.
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