Jean Moncrieff

What happens when people are given the time and space to truly become a team?

Sam Adiv created “portfolio teams” that work with the same people and clients over time. Each team has developed its own identity, from brand colors and mascots to Slack channels and shared rituals.

It’s a great reminder that a strong company culture doesn’t have to mean every team looks and feels exactly the same. Sometimes, the smaller subcultures are what make the wider culture stronger.

What traditions or rituals have naturally developed within your team?

Cupcakes and tequila are not in any client-recovery playbook. Maybe they should be. 🧁

On this week’s Growing with Purpose podcast, Sam Adiv told me about the mistake every consultant dreads: one unchecked box merged 4,500 of his biggest client’s contacts. Overnight. Barely fixable.

His team spent 24 hours certain they’d lost the client.

Then Sam asked a different question — and this was the small giant moment for me:

“What could we do right now that would make this relationship STRONGER, not weaker?”

Next morning: two teammates, three dozen cupcakes, a bottle of tequila, and a full day fixing the data in the client’s conference room.

That client is still one of OpenTent’s biggest today.

“We’re in the relationship business.” Whatever you sell — so are you. The mistake was never the real test. The response was.

What’s the best client recovery you’ve ever pulled off? 👇

🎧 Full episode with Sam on YouTube — link in bio.

podcast

Midway across the Atlantic, I locked myself in the bathroom and stared at my reflection.

From the outside: growth, momentum, success. Inside: a business that no longer matched the life it was meant to support.

That wasn’t burnout. It was a realization — I’d been chasing growth without deciding what I was growing toward.

What are you actually trying to build? 👇 foundersjourney

Same business. Completely different outcomes. 🔀 The hero solves every problem.
The steward recruits problem solvers.

The hero’s team waits.
The steward’s team leads.

The hero built a job with overhead.
The steward built an asset. 💼

The uncomfortable truth? Every hero thinks they’re being responsible.

👇 Which one are you — honestly? Tell me in the comments.

IntentionalGrowth

Give me 30 seconds, and I’ll delete “grow or die.”

You’ve heard it everywhere — if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

And it sits in your chest like a low-grade panic.

Here’s the truth: grow or die is a story sold by people who profit from your growth. Not your happiness, not your team’s. Half the fastest-growing companies are quietly losing money and burning people out.

You’re allowed to build something excellent instead of something enormous. Great isn’t the consolation prize for not being big. It’s the harder, better thing.

Who told you otherwise?