Tremendous Tracey

Here's a punchy excerpt for Shopify:

For Those About to Vote, We Salute You

Here in the Keystone State, we've been busy anticipating tomorrow's vote. While some might think off-year elections don't matter, those of us who understand leadership know better.

If you don't vote in the minors, you'll never play in the majors.

Tomorrow, voters across the country will head to the polls to elect judges, county officials, school board members, mayors, district attorneys, and governors. These aren't the headline-grabbing presidential races. These are the races that actually affect your daily life – the judges who interpret your laws, the school boards that educate your children, the local officials who manage your communities.

My father, Charlie "Tremendous" Jones, used to say: "I could write a book about what's wrong with America; but I could write a library about what's right with America."

He understood that our constitutional republic doesn't work from the top down – it works from the bottom up. Every president, senator, and governor started somewhere. They started local.

Local government affects your daily life more than Washington ever will. Your school board determines what your kids learn. Your district attorney determines which crimes get prosecuted. Your mayor sets the tone for your city's future.

When you skip local elections, you're surrendering control over the decisions that impact you most directly.

Discover why Repeats + Referrals + Reviews = Revenue in this powerful lesson on word-of-mouth marketing. From Google reviews that hit 3.8 million views to authors doubling their Amazon reviews in weeks, learn why personal connection trumps technology every time. Bob Burg's Law of 250 shows that everyone you know has 250 connections—and that's your marketing goldmine. Whether you're reinventing yourself or growing your business, this post reveals how to leverage those who already know, like, and trust you. Plus, a heartfelt thank you to our repeat customers and a challenge: leave that review, make that referral, and change someone's trajectory today. It's how Charlie "Tremendous" Jones sold millions of books, and it's how you'll build your legacy too.

In The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, researchers found that the most effective salespeople weren't the "relationship builders" who made clients feel good. They were the "challengers" who pushed clients to think differently, challenged their assumptions, and created constructive discomfort.

The same is true in leadership development.

Supporter coaching says: "You're doing great! Keep it up!" Challenger coaching says, "You're doing well. Now here's where you can go deeper."

Supporter coaching feels good in the moment but produces minimal growth. Challenger coaching creates tension in the moment but produces transformation.

This past week, I did something unusual for me. I attended a conference for business coaches—not as a speaker, trainer, or MC, but simply as a participant. Pure sponge mode. No agenda except to absorb, learn, and be poured into.

And somewhere in those three days of immersion, I heard a phrase that stopped me in my tracks: "Is there a 'there' there?"

It's a question of discovery, isn't it? A question we ask when we're exploring new territory, uncertain if we'll find substance beneath the surface. Is this worth pursuing? Is there real value here? Will this journey lead somewhere meaningful?

In the kingdom of Leadership, there lived two knights of equal skill and training. Both faced the same fire-breathing dragons, the same treacherous terrain, the same impossible quests. But their approaches couldn't have been more different.

Sir Mount charged into every battle with his sword held high. When the dragon breathed fire, he didn't retreat—he found another path around. When his quest went sideways (and they always did), he adapted and pressed forward. When others needed rescuing from the tower, Sir Mount was the first to volunteer, knowing full well the climb would be brutal.

Sir Render, on the other hand, had a different strategy: surrender before the battle even began. He saw the fire-breathing dragon and immediately catalogued all the ways he'd get burned. He viewed every quest as proof that the kingdom was doomed. When asked to rescue others, he'd list seventeen reasons why it was impossible.

   This year, Tremendous Leadership celebrates its 60th anniversary—six decades of igniting lives with wisdom, wit, and the written word. As I reflect on this milestone, I am reminded of one of my father’s timeless writings from the 1980s, “A Sense of Urgency.”

   In it, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones wrote:

   “A sense of urgency is that feeling that lets you know yesterday is gone forever, and tomorrow never comes. TODAY is in your hands. Shirking today adds to wasted yesterdays, and postponing today’s work adds to tomorrow’s burden.”

Today, we are told that certain topics are "too toxic for public discourse." But when the truth itself becomes off-limits — when it's silenced because it "unleashes hate" — we are no longer protecting peace, we are revealing the condition of the human heart.

To blame Charlie Kirk's words for his murder is as twisted as blaming a firefighter for the burns he suffered while dragging someone out of a burning house, as if his courage caused the flames. Or blaming a doctor for catching a disease while treating a patient, as if healing were the problem.

Outstanding leadership isn’t about easing standards for comfort. It’s about calling people to more than they thought possible. It’s about standing firm when the easy way says, “Let it slide.”

Moses knew it. Machiavelli knew it. Steven Sample knew it. And deep down, we know it too. So let us never forget: when leaders soften the standard, organizations decay. But when leaders raise the bar, they ignite transformation.

   As a lifelong student—and teacher—of leadership, I’ve found that defining this incredible word is easier said than done. Leadership is one of the most studied, written-about, and aspired-to traits in all of human history. There are thousands of theories, models, and definitions floating around, from servant leadership to transformational leadership, from positional power to moral authority.

The phrase “A fish rots from the head down” is a blunt and timeless proverb that reminds us of a critical leadership truth: when an organization is in decline, the problem usually starts at the top—not with the staff, not with the systems, not with external conditions. The rot begins at the head.

As a lifelong student—and teacher—of leadership, I’ve found that defining this incredible word is easier said than done. Leadership is one of the most studied, written-about, and aspired-to traits in all of human history. There are thousands of theories, models, and definitions floating around, from servant leadership to transformational leadership, from positional power to moral authority.

And yet, every once in a while, you find a definition that hits the sweet spot.

Leaders are only effective when they foster a culture of ethical discernment and honest dialogue, rather than blind allegiance wrapped in emotional language, such as "non-interference" and "deference." If your team can't ask hard questions, your leadership has stopped being servant-hearted and started being self-serving.