Founder of 1% Better™ | Former accountant, future author | Follow me for the best self-development content on LinkedIn

Former accountant.
Future author.

I share actionable, educational, and entertaining self-development content to help my readers live their best lives.

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Colby Kultgen

The scariest part is how normal this feels.

Like we just woke up one day and our entire life existed between three different screens.

If you want to reduce your screen time in 2026, I wrote a step-by-step article on what actually worked for me.

Link in comments.

5 mindset shifts that will change your life in 2026:

1. I can't → I'll learn

Every expert was once a beginner who refused to quit. If you're struggling, it just means you haven't put in enough reps yet.

❌ "I can't do this"
✓ "I'll learn if I stick with it."

———

2. I don't have time → I'm not prioritizing it

Be honest about what matters. If something's truly important, you'll find the time. 

❌ "I don't have time to work out" 
✓ "I'm choosing other things over working out right now."

———

3. I need motivation → I need momentum

Motivation doesn't find you—you create it through action. Motion beats mood every time.


❌ "I just don't feel like it today" 
✓ "If I just start for 5 minutes, I'll probably keep going."

———

4.  I'm quitting → I'm pivoting

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is climb down the wrong mountain so you can start climbing up the right one.

❌ "I've spent 5 years on this, I can't quit now." 
✓ "I've spent 5 years on this, better to cut my losses now and move toward something I enjoy."

———

5.  I failed → I learned

Failure isn't the opposite of success—it's part of the process. Every setback is data for your next attempt.

❌ "I tried and failed, so I guess I'm not cut out for this" 
✓ "I tried and it didn't work. Now I know what not to do next time."

———

♻️ Repost if these resonate.
Send this post to someone who could use it.

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A simple question I use to turn around an “off” day:

What’s the best way I can spend the next 5 minutes?

Yep, that’s usually all it takes.

5 minutes of movement.
5 minutes of writing.
5 minutes of conversation.
5 minutes of something that brings you back to yourself.

When an airplane is off course, a shift of just a few degrees can make the difference between landing in New York or ending up in the middle of the ocean.

Our days work the same way.

Never underestimate the power of 5 good minutes.

♻️ Repost this if it resonated.

Discipline doesn’t need to be difficult.

Here are 5 ways to stay consistent in 2026 (without superhuman willpower):

1️⃣ "Dailyish" Habits
Committing to something “dailyish” keeps you consistent without the guilt of missing a day. It’s flexible, sustainable, and removes the all-or-nothing pressure that leads could lead to burnout.

2️⃣ Shrink the Starting Line
Big goals feel overwhelming. Instead, start with a ridiculously tiny version of the habit: one push-up, one sentence, one minute.

3️⃣ Set "No-Later-Than" Rules
Set buffers instead of rigid deadlines. For example, instead of waking up at exactly 6:00 AM, commit to being up no later than 7:00 AM. Anything earlier is a win.

4️⃣ No "Zero Days"
Even on your worst days, find one small action to move forward. A single page, a quick stretch, or just tidying your workspace keeps the momentum alive.

5️⃣ Design for Bad Days
Don’t build habits for your most motivated self. Build them for the tired, distracted, low-energy version of you. If it only works on “good days,” it won’t last.

How do you plan on staying disciplined in 2026?

———

Shoutout to Oliver Burkeman for tips 1 and 3.
Image credit: No One Cares on Facebook

An exercise everyone should do in 2026:

The Calendar Energy Audit.

We often assume that our biggest limitation is time.

It’s not. 

The real limitation is our energy.

CEO coach Matt Mochary puts it like this:
“We all feel like we have limited time, but that’s not the case. What we really have is LIMITED ENERGY. If we start doing more things that raise our energy, it enables us to do more things in general.”

So where do you start with this?

By removing the activities that drain you.

Here’s how:
1. Review your calendar from a past week, hour by hour.
2. Label each activity GREEN (gave energy) or RED (drained energy).
3. Look for patterns. What consistently shows up as RED?
4. Reschedule, delegate, or eliminate those tasks.

For every RED item, ask yourself three questions:
• Does this need to happen?
• If yes, does it have to be done by me?
• If yes, how can I make it more enjoyable?

You won’t be able to eliminate every RED task (and that’s okay).

But even cutting a few can make a huge difference.

♻️ Repost this if it resonates.

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How to read 50 books in a year (even if you’re busy):

How to read 50 books in a year (even if you’re busy)

7 questions that will define your next decade (a 15-minute exercise you won’t regret):

7 questions that will define your next decade

The goal-setting method used by the best baseball player in the world:

If you don't know who Shohei Ohtani is, he's basically the Michael Jordan of baseball.

The single most dominant two-way player the sport has seen in a century.

When he was a high school freshman in Japan, he created this detailed 64-cell roadmap with one central goal: to be the number 1 draft pick for 8 NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) teams.

And it worked.

If you're wondering, this is called the Harada Method.

Here's a quick breakdown:

1. Choose one clear, meaningful long-term goal and a deadline.
2. Break that main goal into 8 subgoals that cover different areas needed to achieve it.
3. Break each subgoal into 8 specific actions, skills, or habits (filling the 8×8 grid).
4. Turn the most important actions into a small set of daily routines and track them.
5. Review your progress regularly, adjusting subgoals and actions based on what you learn.

This is a pretty intense exercise, which I definitely don't think is for everyone.

But I do think it's an amazing way to break down a big goal into something actually actionable.

I’ve linked a template in the comments if you want to try it.

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade obsessing over productivity.

Not just how to get more done.
But how to get the IMPORTANT things done.

Here's everything I wish I knew 10 years ago summed up in 20 sentences.

Make sure to save them.

♻️ Repost this if it resonated.

I’m 34. 

Last year, I moved to a city where I didn’t know anyone.

I wish I could say that I immediately built a strong social circle, but that’s not true.

The reality is I struggled.

I’m a huge introvert, so socializing doesn’t come naturally to me at all.
And adult friendships don’t “just happen” like they do when we’re young.

The big unlock for me was realizing that building friendships requires the same intentional effort as anything else important in my life.

So that’s what I did.

I got intentional. I put in the reps.
And guess what happened? It worked.

Here’s everything I learned along the way:

How to build (and maintain) friendships as an adult

I love the message here.

It's so easy to get caught in the trap of "I'm too old", or "it's too late".

But here's the reality: Five years from now, you’ll be five years older regardless of what you do with that time.

You may as well spend it becoming the person you want to be.

It reminds me of a story I heard from writer Mark Manson:

"A friend of mine once told me a story about his grandmother. He said that when her husband died, she was 62, and for the first time in her life, she began to take piano lessons. For weeks, she practiced all day, every day. At first, the family thought it was a phase, but months went by and she kept playing.
​
By the time she was in her 90s, she had been playing piano every day for 30 years—longer than most professional musicians have been alive. Everyone who heard her play swore she must have been a concert pianist in her youth. No one believed her when she said she took her first lesson in her sixties."

As we head into 2026, don’t let “too old” or “too late” be the reason you hold yourself back.

 How to get your sh*t together in 2026

12 habits in 12 months to change your life forever.

My friend Justin Wright put together this useful cheat sheet of 12 daily habits with massive ROI.

My challenge to you:
Pick one habit per month for the next year.

Master it before moving to the next.

By December 2026, you'll have 12 life-changing habits on autopilot.

♻️ Repost to share with your network.
➕ Follow me (Colby Kultgen) for daily self-improvement content

Do these 5 things after 7PM to transform your life in 2026:

Do these 5 things after 7PM to transform your life in 2026

I’m 34.

Here are 7 career “cheat codes” I wish I learned sooner:

7 career cheat codes I wish I knew sooner

7 cheat codes to remember (almost) everything you learn.

Save this and send it to your study/work buddy!

7 cheat codes to remember (almost) everything you learn

In a perfect world, we'd be off our phones completely.

Probably skipping through a meadow somewhere.

Sadly, we don't live in a perfect world.

So I figured if you're going to be on your phone, you might as well be doing something that actually adds to your life.

Save this and repost it if you got some value.

8 Apps to Grow Your Brain Instead of Rotting It:

Avoid these time management mistakes in 2026.

Save this and repost if it resonated!

5 brutal time management mistakes stealing your life

How to improve any relationship in your life in 2026.

Take out your phone and send this text message:

“How can I be a better [friend / partner / son / etc.] to you?”

When I first heard this idea, I knew I had to try it immediately.

To be honest, I was pretty nervous.

Sending a message like this requires a lot of vulnerability.

But the responses I received were amazing.

They gave me specific and practical ways to show up better in the lives of the people I care about most.

This is the kind of question we should feel comfortable asking but rarely do.

Instead, we go through life assuming we know how others feel.

What they need.
What they expect.
How they want us to show up.

But the truth is: most of us don’t have a clue.

Asking is how we learn.

Try this out.

You might be surprised by what they share and how much they appreciate that you cared enough to ask.

January 16th was National Quitter's Day.

Yep, by the second Friday of January, roughly 80% of people will have already given up on their New Year's resolutions.

Which makes today the perfect day to recommit.

Save this and send it to someone who needs it.

How to actually start doing something (and stick with it)

Sergiu Bungărdean

I run a marketing business called Demand Hive and work as a marketing consultant.

At Demand Hive, we unf*ck your messaging in 3 weeks by helping you clearly explain what you do and rewriting your homepage so you can win more projects.

Through Hey Sergiu, I work directly with founders on consulting, advisory, and custom marketing projects. This includes quick input on specific problems, ongoing support, or hands-on help on clearly defined initiatives.

I’ve done this for 100+ founders across design agencies, IT companies, software houses, consultancies, solopreneurs, and more.

Founder & LinkedIn Personal Brand Manager

We help solopreneurs, founders, coaches, CEOs & executives build their personal brand on LinkedIn in order to increase visibility, generate inbound leads and improve credibility.

I need less than 10 minutes to place an order for a $1,000 smartphone, $3,000 laptop, or $40,000 car, but I need 3 sales calls and wait for 2 weeks to get an offer for a B2B service.

Does no one see a problem here?

Marketing and sales will always be hard if you overload the buying process.

There are 2 simple rules a lot of founders miss:

1) Make it clear.
2) Make it easy to buy.

Then it's just a matter of distribution, which isn't hard to do.

P.S.: Most of the marketing and sales problems are often because of your messaging. Fix it.

B2B Messaging & Marketing Consultant | Founder of Demand Hive & Hey Sergiu

Today, I turn 29.

I put together a list of 29 things I learned so far:

1. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
2. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
3. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
4. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
5. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
6. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
7. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
8. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
9. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
10. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
11. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
12. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
13. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
14. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
15. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
16. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
17. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
18. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
19. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
20. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
21. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
22. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
23. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
24. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
25. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
26. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
27. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
28. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year
29. Stop writing bullsh*t lists every year

See you at 30. 🤘

The moment your car starts making a weird noise, you turn the music down and pay attention.

Before that, you’re just chilling and enjoying the road.

I see this happen every day with B2B services.

Everyone promises big outcomes and prospects reply with, “Cool, but I’m fine for now.”

They’re fine because they don’t hear, feel, or see any noise.

And that’s usually because you don’t talk about it.

You've been told to focus on outcomes, promise the sun and the moon.

But people don’t buy those in plain sight. At least not if they’re not trying to get rich overnight.

They pay for specific solutions that make their pain go away and then generate an outcome.

That's why a lot of businesses fail because of messaging.

They never make the prospect turn the music down and pay attention.

And if you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter how good your service is.

They’ll keep enjoying the road and pick someone else the moment they hear a weird noise.

A founder told me they know their positioning very well. When I asked what it is, they said they need to search for it in Google Drive.

Perfect.

Because when a prospect is looking for a solution, they obviously ask for a Google Drive link.

Then they spend 15 minutes scrolling through a 30-page PDF, hoping to find a sentence that explains what the business actually does.

That’s how buying works, right?

The same way you don’t take a headache pill if you don’t have a headache, people don’t pay for services if it’s not clear what problem they solve.

Literally, one of the easiest ways to make your marketing more effective and your pipeline more predictable is to clearly tie your solution to a specific problem (or set of problems).

Not outcomes or big promises. Problems.

And once you have that, say it clearly on your homepage, content, emails, everywhere.

This is just a small part of what we cover in the Messaging Sprint at Demand Hive.

If you’re ready to fix unclear messaging, here’s more: https://lnkd.in/dJpdfTCq

I always tell founders that the biggest cost of bad messaging isn't revenue. It's their time. Money comes and goes, but losing 6 months of opportunities and momentum hits 10x harder.

If you’re not willing to invest €2,000 in a messaging project, at least copy-paste the structure in the image below and try working through it yourself.

Or if you just need some help or a second brain, I also do 1-hour consulting calls. Just DM me.

I’ve had clients add €50,000+ worth of leads to their pipeline or charge up to 4x more just by fixing their messaging.

You don't have to hire me, but you really can't afford to sleep on this.

I’ve been doing marketing and selling B2B services since 2010. I can say this confidently:

Things changed a lot in 2025, and 2026 will push this even further.

Marketing is saturated in every possible way.

1. Everyone can use AI, spend a few hundred dollars, and reach thousands of people.

2. More business owners are using AI to do certain marketing activities by themselves.

3. There are hundreds of service providers that promise the sun and the moon for a pizza.

The ones who will feel this the most are business owners.

1. With everyone doing things, the competition is getting bigger and bigger.

2. Using AI for marketing activities might feel like progress, but it's often a trap.

3. It becomes difficult to find skilled people who can provide hands-on support.

My take?

The businesses that will make it in 2026 and beyond will stop treating marketing as a set of isolated activities.

Things like posting, ads, emails, funnels, etc.

Instead, they will think in terms of a full selling process.

You should worry less about "what should we post today?" and focus more on "what should we do to sell our service better, easier, and faster?"

This means you need to master and focus on both marketing and sales at the same time.

P.S. Just my 2 cents. Curious how you see it.

"Our pipeline and revenue are unpredictable."

This is what several founders told me this week.

I'll tell you exactly what I've told them:

Predictable revenue requires repeatable understanding.

People need to:

- Recognize themselves in the problem you describe
- Understand quickly if you are relevant to them
- Know when they should book a call with you
- Know why you instead of the alternatives

If they don't, only a small percentage of them will push through.

Those are usually referrals or people already half-convinced.

The others will just leave without saying a thing.

I think you don't realize how much you're losing if your messaging is not clear.

If your content doesn’t bring clients or your outreach gets no replies, it's usually because of this:

You're either not talking about a problem at all or you're talking about the wrong one.

I've said it 1,000 times before: people don't buy because of "isolated outcomes."

They buy because something hurts right now.

That's why "increase revenue" alone doesn't work, but "we keep getting leads that don't convert" does.

You need to identify the problem and its symptoms, then use them as input for your marketing.

I know this isn't easy, so I turned this way of thinking into something practical: Push Until It Hurts GPTs.

3 custom GPT prompts that help you:

- Uncover the real problem you solve
- Identify the daily symptoms people actually feel
- Turn those symptoms into content and outreach

Get all of them for €9: https://lnkd.in/d2jkgrpj

(no paid ChatGPT subscription needed)

How can you tell if your messaging is unclear?

Easy. Look at these three signals:

1. Your sales pipeline and revenue aren’t predictable month to month.
2. Prospects are sometimes confused about how you can help them.
3. Marketing efforts don’t pay off, so you rely mostly on referrals.

Now, here’s how to read them:

If 1 out of 3 is true, it might be a messaging issue. Dig deeper.

If 2 out of 3 are true, there’s a high chance messaging is the problem and it needs attention.

If 3 out of 3 are true, it’s definitely a messaging problem and it should be fixed sooner rather than later.

That’s it. ✌️

I’ve seen quite often lately how founders struggle to book sales calls because they don’t match their messaging with the way prospects think and act.

Because of this, they just make the entire sales process heavier and often prospects give up.

I’ve recorded a quick 1-minute video to explain how this works and how to solve it:

taplio

The Battle

Colby Kultgen

Sergiu Bungărdean

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taplio

The Battle

Colby Kultgen

Sergiu Bungărdean

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Colby Kultgen's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSergiu Bungărdean's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreColby Kultgen's LinkedIn Performance