Tremendous Tracey

I'm a lifelong Pennsylvanian and I'd never been to the Philadelphia Flower Show. That changed this weekend. Walking through breathtaking displays for the very first time, I was reminded of a leadership program I built ten years ago called Seasons of Leadership — and one truth hit me all over again: beauty isn't the result of addition. It's the result of courageous subtraction. Every stunning exhibit existed because of what was removed. Most leaders don't have a growth problem. They have a pruning problem. This March, it's time to pick up the shears.

It started like any other Wednesday morning. Tracey Jones poured her coffee, settled in for what we call "Coffee and Claude Time," and mentioned that her husband Mike had received a strange voicemail.

"This is Manny Rivera calling from Zwicker and Associates PC. Please contact me or any of our representatives at 1-800-397-5324."

Seemed simple enough. A debt collection call. Probably a wrong number. We'd clear it up in five minutes and move on to more interesting things.

Out of a 9-day journey, five days involved airports, two nights were spent on airport floors, and one sketchy hotel room. But those four days in Belize? Watching my husband Mike reconnect with his friend of 48 years made every bit of turbulence worth it. The journey there was hard. The journey back was hard. But what happened in the middle? That's where the magic lives. Don't stop Belizing.

Storms hit. Plans derail. You board and deboard and board again. Sometimes there are ice barnacles. Sometimes you sleep on an airport floor next to snorers and goose-honking nose-blowers with a banana halo around your head.

But you don't stop believing in the destination. You don't stop investing in relationships. You don't stop serving the next client, making the next introduction, building the next connection. Because decades from now, that young captain you helped? That family whose future you secured? That colleague you introduced to the right opportunity. The new friends you made at the airport during a snowstorm?

A penguin is breaking X., but this isn't a story about burnout or despair. It's about defiance. And the gallows are getting flipped everywhere.

Following the rules is not political. Expecting accountability is not aggression. Seeing clearly is not a character flaw. The hideous genius of DARVO is that it makes you doubt truth itself. It weaponizes your decency against you.

My father, Charlie "Tremendous" Jones, always said, "Thank you for your smile." I pulled his expressive genes—I once had to get my passport photo taken THREE times because they kept telling me not to smile and I told them I couldn't!

So when I watch Indiana's Coach Curt Cignetti on the sideline, I'm mystified. The man doesn't smile. Not ever. His poker face could win in Vegas. And he just led Indiana to a 15-0 season and the National Championship game.

Here we are in 2026, and guess what? Most of us are still carrying trash from 2025. It didn't magically disappear. But here's what I learned from a trash can in Colonial Williamsburg: it doesn't have to be ugly. Your transitions through the tough stuff should still be beautiful.

While the shepherds found the baby in Bethlehem, Jesus would forever be known as "Jesus of Nazareth"—a nothing town with no prestige and no pedigree. The kind of place you couldn't wait to leave. How often do we look at where we came from as a limiting factor? The most transformational leaders rarely come from the expected places. They come from Nazareth. 

Organizations are supposed to bring out the best in people. But here's the paradox: each of these leaders was forced out for the very things that healthy cultures should have been developing and nurturing.

Will they find their way off the island? Or are they forever carrying their misfit label?

This modern-day Pilgrim's Progress is a transformational journey for every leader who's been told they're "too much" or "not enough."

The Donkey Did the Work

We talk about Mary's faith. Joseph's obedience. The shepherds' wonder. The wise men's journey.

Nobody talks about the donkey.

He carried a pregnant teenager across roughly 90 miles of rocky terrain. No GPS. No idea why. No applause when they arrived. He just... walked. One hoof in front of the other. Slow and steady.

Every organization has a donkey. Not the racehorse chasing the next win. Not the show pony looking for the spotlight. The one who shows up, shuts up, and carries the weight so someone else can fulfill their calling.

This Christmas, it's time to find yours.

Fifty died that first winter. And when the Mayflower returned to England in April 1621, not one Pilgrim boarded.

Why? Because what they came for was worth more than their lives.

In this Thanksgiving Day finale, I'll tell you what happened when they landed, what they purchased with their blood, and what we've forgotten about the freedom they died to protect.

The table you sit at today was set by Pilgrims who never saw it—but believed it was coming.

Enjoy what our Pilgrim brothers and sisters endured.

Wycliffe translated it. Tyndale died for it. Gutenberg multiplied it. And Luther nailed the 95 theses to a door that shook the world.

In Part 2 of this Thanksgiving series, I'll take you to Wittenberg—where I stood on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation—and trace the path from the printing press to the persecution that drove 100 souls onto a ship called Mayflower.

They were spied on. Arrested. Hunted. Not for treason—but for worshiping the God of the Bible biblically.

This is the story of how the state invaded the church—and why 100 people risked everything to escape it.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things," wrote John Stuart Mill—a quote we memorized as cadets at the Air Force Academy. Recently, I've heard colleagues express alarm about military strength, as if preparedness itself were the problem. But here's what they miss: weakness invites aggression. Always has. Always will. As someone who wore the uniform, I understand what Mill meant: the decay isn't in the soldier who stands ready to fight. The decay is in the soul that thinks nothing is worth fighting for. This Veterans Day, I'm grateful that despite all the noise and criticism of this nation, young men and women are still stepping forward to serve. Thank God for them.