Grow North Thursday Newsletter

Every Thursday morning, you'll get 1 actionable tip to boost your business, enhance your purpose, and help you live your best life.

Author

Catapult North

I help small and medium businesses, as well as individuals, build audience and revenue through 1:1 coaching, flexible marketing advisory, and Fractional CMO services

Fractional CMO, Marketing Advisor & Growth Coach

Saunable

After experiencing the life-changing benefits of sauna, my husband Ed and I built a high-end, custom mobile sauna. Our mission: help more people feel better through quality, accessible sauna.

Today, we offer custom-built mobile saunas for purchase and host guided sauna experiences in nature. Learn more at Saunable.com.

Founder

Emergent Software

Brought on by the leadership team as a fractional CMO to define marketing strategy aligned with business goals, build a scalable content engine, align resources for execution, elevate brand positioning, and drive awareness and lead generation.

Chief Marketing Officer

Good Plane Living

My husband Ed and I built a Vans RV-10 airplane in our garage over the course of 3.5 years. We vlog/blog about our airplane building (now flying) adventures and life as an aviation family.

Airplane builder & Content Creator

Midion (formerly LeanProject)

I helped Midion navigate the decision and execute the transition from LeanProject into a brand that truly captures its broader value beyond lean construction. I partnered with leadership to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy, including a full rebrand, a website overhaul, and various digital initiatives - while bringing in the right resources to ensure long-term success.

Fractional Chief Marketing Officer

CIOs Against Cancer

After helping build CIOs Against Cancer from the ground up, I stepped into a strategic advisory role to support the next stage of growth.

-Helped shape the plan for scaling our mission and operations beyond the founding team.
-Advised on long-term fundraising efforts, including geographic expansion.
-Supported leadership transitions to ensure continuity and momentum.

I'm proud to have played a part in this organization’s journey. My volunteer commitment to CIOs Against Cancer, cancer research, and ending cancer... for everyone, continues on.

Strategic Advisor

Co-created and launched the organization, spearheading the idea from inception to impact.

Key contributions:

-Community Building: Launched founding events and built the base for long-term engagement.
-Organizational Design: Developed structure and processes for a scalable, consistent community.
-Board Growth: Supported board expansion to ensure long-term stability.
-Fundraising Leadership: Led efforts that raised $1M+ in 4 years

Built the foundation for a mission-driven organization with lasting momentum.

Founding Executive Director

Renodis - Connectivity Technology Experts

I supported the business strategy through marketing advisory and strategic marketing vision to generate awareness, build credibility, and drive qualified leads. I also led the development of Renodis community, CIOs Against Cancer, a group of c-suite technology leaders working toward a future without cancer.

Fractional CMO

Society for Information Management - Minnesota Chapter

SIM (Society for Information Management) brings together IT leaders to share, network and give back to their communities through the collaboration.

Board of Directors - Chair of Programs and Events

Cashé Software

Cashé Software is Minnesota’s leading provider of agency management software for home and community-based services agencies.

In my Strategic Advisory role, I worked with the Marketing Team to create the strategic marketing roadmap as well as provide counsel ongoing.

Fractional CMO, Strategic Advisor

Purpose-Driven Growth Coach | Author, Grow North Thursday | Marketing Advisor | 3x Entrepreneur | Airplane & Sauna Builder

👋 Follow me for weekly thoughts on business growth, personal purpose, and life design. 

🔥 Try my free newsletter Grow North Thursday. Get 1 actionable growth system each week to align profit, purpose, and a meaningful life. 

Award-winning marketing leader with 20 years experience growing B2B technology brands, SaaS startups, and $300M+ legacy businesses.

My purpose is to help others grow in their personal and professional purpose, advancing joy and meaning in individuals and communities, and courageous choices that lead to a fulfilling life.

Personal interests: Experimental aviation, sauna building, lifting heavy weights, meditation, lifestyle design, and attacking cancer. Proud boy mom and partner in projects and dreams with my husband, my life build teammate, Ed.

My Core Values:
-Service & Integrity
-Growth & Curiosity
-Connection & Understanding
-Wellbeing & Health
-Courage & Creative Freedom

LET'S CONNECT.

I love working with smart and interesting people from all walks of life.

If you have an idea for a collaboration, want to jam out on a podcast, or hire me, then let's chat.

Colleen Kranz💡

The holidays are better with sauna.


Cold air, warm cedar, and steam rolling off the rocks… it always gets people right where they need to be.

That might be letting go of the weight, a little sauna talk, or just being silent. Good heat is simple, and it does its magic every single time.

Whether you're:

-Looking for a last-minute team outing
-Hosting family
-On the hunt for a fun friend adventure
-Or in the mood for a no-fuss solo heat soak

I’ve got a nature sauna escape ready for you, built by us from the frame up.

If you’re in the Twin Cities, DM me for a 10% off code.

See you on the bench! 🔥

Purpose-Led Growth Architect | Advisor to Founders Building Profitable, Sustainable Businesses | Author of Grow North Thursday | 3x Entrepreneur & Builder of Communities, Airplanes & Saunas

A few weeks ago I woke up, drank some coffee, and went straight into… chaos.
 
I was half-writing a newsletter, half-scrolling my calendar, making smoothies for the kids (one landed on me and the floor), and trying to get us out the door.
 
One kid had no clean underwear.  My sweater was covered in smoothie.  My mother-in-law called about Christmas plans.
 
And I blurted out:  “I can't talk right now! I’m too busy!”
 
As if the universe should have known that I, Colleen Kranz, was operating in full crisis mode.
 
Then the wiser voice chimed in: “Hey Mrs. Life Design and Purpose Work… you’re making everybody crazy.”
 
Whoops.
 
Ever been there?
 
You get spun up in your own internal urgency and suddenly everyone around you gets pulled into it.
 
Deadlines are real. People count on us. The pressure is real.
 
But there’s a better way to handle intensity without letting it run your whole system.
 
That’s what tomorrow’s Grow North Thursday newsletter is about:
 
the antidote to your own urgency story.
 
If you want to join us, the link is in the comments. 👇

Back in 2015, we completed the build of our Vans RV-10 airplane.
 
It took years of weekends, late nights, and a whole lot of learning.
 
The plane has a Garmin G3X touchscreen and an autopilot system that, once you’re at cruising altitude, can hold course for hours.
 
It’s smooth. Reliable. Honestly… a little too easy.
 
Because even with autopilot on, we still stay alert. Watching the skies. Navigating around weather. Listening to the radio. Monitoring fuel and altitude.
 
Autopilot keeps the wings level. But it doesn’t think ahead.
 
That part is still on us.
 
And it’s not all that different from how we live our lives.
 
We find our routines. We lock in a course. And suddenly we’re months or years down the line, moving fast but not checking whether we’re still headed somewhere that matters.
 
A client said this to me recently on a strategy call:
 
“I’m so busy keeping everything running that I can’t remember the last time I felt excited about any of it.”
 
She wasn’t burned out. She was disconnected.
 
Her days had turned into a checklist of things that once mattered but no longer felt alive.
 
That’s what autopilot looks like in real life. You keep moving, but you stop steering.
 
Tomorrow in Grow North Thursday newsletter, I’m sharing 5 practical ways to step out of autopilot and take back the controls in your work, your leadership, and your life.
 
If you want the guide, the link to subscribe is in the comments. ✈️ 💛

Lately I’ve been noticing how tightly I grip my schedule.


Every minute accounted for. Every block of time is ultra-efficient. 

So, I tried a small experiment.

I started leaving for appointments ten or fifteen minutes earlier.

(obvious advice, right?)
 
But those extra minutes changed how I moved through the day. I stopped rushing and showing up everywhere hot. I noticed things again, like the quiet of my car or the random flyer on the coffee shop bulletin board. I felt time soften a little instead of something I had to push against.
 
It made me wonder: how much of our stress comes not from time itself, but from how we treat it?
 
Over the past few months I’ve been learning to relate to my schedule differently. Not to dominate it with more rules, but to calm it.
 
In tomorrow’s Grow North Thursday email, I’m sharing four simple shifts that helped me get there.

Want to follow along? Link is in the comments. ↓


📌 Which one are you: leave-early, right-on-time, or always-rushing?

“Berry rich.”


Last weekend I was sitting around a bonfire with friends when someone used this phrase I'd never heard before.

It means you can afford to buy berries in the middle of winter.

I laughed out loud. When I was growing up, we had wild black raspberries that grew along every edge of our farm. Each summer, we’d fill old ice cream buckets with them until our fingers were stained purple. My parents froze what we couldn't eat - small containers stacked in the freezer, waiting for winter.

I can't even remember buying berries from a store, but man... did it feel rich.

So when I heard "berry rich,” it got me thinking. 

Maybe richness isn’t just about what we can buy. Maybe it’s also about what we can still appreciate.

If you’ve ever wondered what “rich” really means, or how to keep the good things from losing their meaning, tomorrow's Thanksgiving-edition newsletter is for you.

We’ll explore what it means to define richness for yourself, and how to protect what makes your life feel full.

Want to join us? Link is in the comments ↓

Purpose-Led Growth Architect | Author, Grow North Thursday | Advisor to Entrepreneurs Who Want Profit, Purpose & Wellbeing | 3x Entrepreneur & Builder of Communities, Airplanes & Saunas

You'd be surprised how many people are out there doing it completely terrified.

Some people have just figured out how to take action anyway.

Nobody does brave things alone.

Every bold move I’ve ever made was easier because of the people in my corner. The ones who remind me who I am, and nudge me toward the version of myself I’m building.

Fear shrinks when your inner circle is strong.

The friend who listens without judgment. Bhavika Tilwani
The one who tells you the truth gently. Laura Krafka
The one who reminds you you’ve done hard things before. Jenica Pospisil
The one who believes in you on the days you forget to. Keri Lappi 

If you’re stepping into something new right now and feeling that familiar fear… don’t white-knuckle it alone.

Lean on your people.  
Accept support.  
Let yourself be lifted.

Your fear doesn't disqualify you from success.
 
What bold step are 𝘺𝘰𝘶 taking this week? ✌️


📸 image cred: Lake Superior sunrise moment in Two Harbors with the lovely Laura Krafka. She’s bringing something meaningful to the North Shore - a place for people to slow down, reconnect, and grow!

Who do you know that could benefit from your kindness at this time?


Not your money or your advice. Your kindness.

This might look like a genuine check-in, a thoughtful message. Or a reminder that they’re not alone in what they’re building, facing, or carrying.

Business isn’t just about strategy, sales, or scaling. It’s about humanity. And often, the most powerful growth lever we have isn’t another tactic, it's our presence.

So today, I’m choosing to slow down for a moment and ask:

Who could use a little extra kindness from me?

And I’ll challenge you to do the same. Pick one person, reach out, and be genuine.

Because this is what growing on purpose really looks like in the day-to-day.

We rise by lifting others, especially when there's no ROI expected.

📌 Tag someone who’s shown you that kind of kindness. Let’s spread what the world could use more of right now.

I’m grateful for you.


Whether you’ve been in my corner for years or we just connected recently, thank you for reading, supporting, sharing your wins, asking thoughtful questions, and doing the hard work of growing with intention.
 
It’s easy to rush through the year without stopping to notice what (and who) is actually helping us move forward.
 
So today, I hope you get a moment of stillness. A moment to breathe. A moment to appreciate how far you’ve come, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.
 
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. Cheering for you always. 🤍

I’ve noticed a pattern this year across the leaders I work with.

 
Many of them are growing, but not always in a direction that feels meaningful to them.
 
They’re busy. They’re hitting milestones. They’re moving things forward.
 
But the progress doesn’t feel like the right kind of growth.
 
Across my client work (fractional CMO, growth coach, and strategist), the same three themes keep showing up. 

 
1. Clarity is beating speed  

More leaders are slowing down long enough to ask better questions. Where are we heading? Why does it matter?
 
The companies growing in a healthy direction are defining their reason for existing, choosing a direction and a specific market position, cutting noise, and making decisions with intention. They know speed without clarity just creates burnout.

 
2. Simplicity is becoming an advantage  

So many teams feel the weight of complexity. Too many tools, tactics, and competing ideas.
 
What’s working now is much simpler: clear messaging, focused offers, and systems people can actually follow through on. Leaders want work to feel cleaner, not heavier.

 
3. Well-being is becoming a business strategy  

This is one of the most encouraging shifts.
 
More founders are recognizing that sustainable growth depends on their capacity. They’re choosing fewer priorities, setting boundaries, and designing healthier rhythms. Overwhelmed leaders make overwhelmed decisions.

 
The bottom line  
 
The leaders who pause, simplify, and realign are the ones creating growth that actually feels like success.

A big part of being happy is letting yourself be excited about things.
 

And I’m not talking about big milestones. I mean the tiny, ordinary moments that make up most of your life.
 
My son Dash reminds me of this. His superpower is feeling excited about things. A new house project we’re working on, a new friend, hot chocolate, something we mentioned two weeks ago.
 
His excitement fills the whole house.
 
We adults, especially leaders and entrepreneurs, often lose this skill.
 
We stop letting ourselves look forward to things unless they are big or “productive.” We move from one responsibility to the next. We forget how energizing simple excitement can be.
 
I’ve been trying to bring more of it back into my week.
 
Sauna Fridays.  
Planning a meal I love.  
Cheering for my friends and clients.  
Anything that gives the week a spark of excitement.
 
When you let yourself get excited about everyday things, life feels more alive. More meaningful. More yours.
 
📌 What’s something you’re excited about today?

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

This quote from Viktor Frankl has been on my mind lately, especially around the tension between two skills that shape how we grow:

Self-honesty: facing reality as it is.
Self-freedom: loosening our grip on the identities and stories that keep us stuck.

Most of us lean hard toward one side.

Some of us are great at being honest. We see the numbers. We see the patterns. We see the strain we keep calling “a busy season.” But honesty without freedom can feel like a cage. You stare at the truth, judge yourself for it, and stay rooted in the same spot.

Others lean toward freedom. We love new ideas and possibilities. We detach from old beliefs quickly. But freedom without honesty can drift into avoidance. No grounding.

I believe real growth happens when both are present:

➽ Honesty says: Here’s what’s true right now.
➽ Freedom says: And here’s how I’m willing to respond.

So here’s a simple practice for this week:

Where do I need more honesty?
(What am I avoiding, downplaying, or rationalizing?)

Where do I need more freedom?
(Where am I gripping too tightly to old roles, expectations, or stories?)

If you can hold both, you’ll make clearer decisions and stay far more resilient through change.

Which one do you need more of right now?

I'll go first 👇

What did you love before you got so busy?


It's easy to focus on productivity and results while unintentionally sidelining the things that replenish our energy and reconnect us to joy.

For me, that’s music. That’s community. It’s creating something together that’s bigger than what any one of us could do alone.

So this year, I decided to sing again - and joined a choir!

If you’re local, I’d love to invite you to come see what we've been working on:

📍 Hastings High School Auditorium  
📅 Sunday, December 14 | 2–3pm  
🎟️ Free admission, donations accepted to support the chorale

But wherever you are, and whatever’s on your plate right now, I hope you find a few minutes this week to reconnect with your thing - whatever brings you joy, no ROI required.

p.s. We're singing with an orchestra (yes, we’re fancy)

4 years ago, I started my business helping companies build more intentional marketing strategies.
 
Like many founders, I thought the biggest hurdles would be tactical: positioning, pricing, pipeline.
 
But here’s what I’ve learned - growth is mostly internal.
 
Building a business will ask you to confront every piece of armor you’ve ever put on:  

→ The fear of failing publicly  
→ The instinct to over-deliver and prove your worth  
→ The urge to play it safe instead of play it true
 
That armor helps at first. It protects. It gets you through the messy beginning.
 
But at some point, it becomes a weight.
 
If you’re in a season where you're outgrowing your old habits, I see you.
 
The discomfort is a sign you’re on the right path. 

Keep going. Let it be messy. Let it be real.

There’s clarity, freedom, and impact on the other side.

Do you struggle to switch off from work?


You’re not alone. I’ve worn a lot of hats in my life: consultant, entrepreneur, volunteer, creator. For a long time, work slipped into corners of my day that should have stayed personal.

Even after hours, my mind kept running through ideas, problems, and the next thing on my list.

If that feels familiar, I get it.

I eventually realized that if we want to make a long-term impact, we have to protect our personal time.

So how do you switch off?

Here are three things that helped me build a clearer line between work and the rest of my life:

1 - Digital Detox

Set Do Not Disturb, remove work apps from your phone, and stay off work platforms once the day is done.

2 - Shutdown Meeting

A simple end-of-day routine that wraps up loose ends, lowers stress, and gives you a clean start for tomorrow.

3 - Transition Ritual

A small activity that helps your brain shift gears. A walk, a book, a moment of quiet. Anything that pulls you out of work mode. My go-to is a walk with the pup.

These habits made a noticeable difference in how I felt and how I worked.

How do you switch off from work?

LinkedIn's year in review is out, and look who's at the top of my list...

Joe Raasch, I have a tremendous amount of respect for you and your ability to clear the clutter when it comes to impactful executive writing and corporate communications.

Plus, I love all the tips like 30 at 3, mindful baking, and pups as presence.

Follow my friend Joe Raasch if you'd like to see more of the good stuff in your feed.

#YearinReview

Staying informed without getting swallowed whole by the news cycle feels like a modern-life tightrope.

I want to know what’s happening in the world. But I also want to protect my mental bandwidth so I can do good work and show up well for the people around me.

For a long time, I swung between two extremes.

⮕ Total avoidance or total overload.

Neither felt great.

Lately, I’ve landed on something that works well enough. A quick morning radio update.
Audio only. Short. Intentional.

Just enough to feel informed without the emotional pull that comes from watching video or scrolling headlines.

How do you stay up to date without getting pulled into the vortex?

Here’s the process that works for me right now:

𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿
For me, that's five to ten minutes in the morning. No doom-scrolling before bed. No mid-day “quick checks” that turn into spirals.

𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺
Audio is easier on my mind than video. Short summaries beat commentary. And local news helps me feel grounded.

𝗕𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀
I'm choosing outlets that focus on facts. My goal is clarity.

𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽
After I get the information I need, I move on. This is the part I used to skip. Intentional consumption requires an intentional exit.

I haven’t found a perfect system for me yet, but this has helped me stay aware without feeling weighed down. 


I'm looking for more tips. What’s your preference for consuming news?

Prosper Dental Solutions

Building out the finest dental consultancy anywhere, servicing dentists, DSOs, and group practices.

Chief Executive Officer

Koehn Consulting, Inc.

Owner of Koehn Consulting, Inc., providing advisory and coaching services to technology-focused leaders and their organizations for over thirteen years.

Advisor to Professional Services Organizations

think2perform

Brad Koehn has been working in software engineering for 25 years, coding, managing, leading, leadership consulting, and coaching. In the past several years, his focus has turned increasingly to making his clients more successful by helping to solve human problems through influence.

Brad has been researching psychology, neurobiology, and the leading research in relationships and emotion to build a toolkit that brings his clients more than just a successful product; he helps them to build a more successful organization by helping them become more successful people.

Senior Vice President

Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

Coaching executives and leaders on how to introduce digital processes and technologies into an organization. Coaching engineering teams on how to apply those processes and technologies to achieve greater business value faster.

Management Consultant

Target

Drove the transformation and definition of the tech coach organization, working with Engineering Enablement leadership to redefine their mission and the services they offer. Envisioned, defined, and implemented a new coaching service offering, coaching technology management and leadership to understand how to align with and manage Target's newly-redefined software engineering teams. 

Along the way, coached teams on 12-Factor apps, Docker, Kubernetes, Kotlin, React, and associated technologies.

Software Engineering Coach

brightpeak financial

Building up back-end systems to support a financial service startup. Helping to organize software engineering efforts to most efficiently support rapidly evolving business objectives. Using serverless AWS stack (lambda, et al) to quickly implement business functionality.

Software Architect

Bluestem Brands, Inc.

Built back-end technology to support rapidly-growing retailer. Used a variety of tools including Spring 4, Spring Boot, Docker, Postgres, Java 8, AWS EC2, RDS, ELB, Kafka, et al to build applications to track and service consumer loans, improving compliance and reducing operations costs. Responsible for primary development, story design (agile), overall solution architecture.

MoneyGram International

Take applications from requirements through analysis, design, development, and production. Works with a variety of stakeholders, and provide a consistent vision of the solution to the entire project team. Technologies include Java, Mainframe, Tibco, Websphere, mobile, and others.

Architect

Thomson Reuters

Designed and built next-generation business application platform. Metadata-driven, multi-tenant, highly scalable solution allows for custom business applications to each have their own rules, logic, and data; the platform automatically optimizes work for their application suite. Will be the core application platform for years to come. 

Designed language and expression system using latest-generation language design features that can be compiled, verified, stored, retrieved, evaluated, and decompiled. Allows expressions to be sandboxed so that users can craft their own expressions for things like reports and filters without sacrificing security. Expressions can be evaluated a variety of runtimes including Java, SQL, and JavaScript.

SaaS/PaaS Architect (Contractor)

Ameriprise Financial

Designing and implementing custom architecture to integrate Microsoft Exchange 2010 with an externally-hosted CRM system. Helped guide the business to understand the differences between the systems and how best to integrate them for Ameriprise's more than twenty thousand advisors. Keeps calendars, contacts, and tasks synchronized in realtime, and automatically detects and recovers from a variety of failure conditions. Developed in Java, uses Exchange Web Services, SQL Server, Linux, Tomcat, Spring, CXF.

I dramatically improve the performance of my clients. As the professional services consultant, I work with business leaders and top executives to achieve what they want from their businesses: whether that’s increased margins, higher valuations, faster growth, or improved work/life balance. 

With thirty years in professional services, be it in boutique, IC, and multinational firms, I have the experience your organization needs. Add in training on executive coaching and leadership development, and I can help your company realize the changes they need to make to make your goals real.

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