Sara Simmonds

CEO Impact Innovator | Helping Purpose Driven Entrepreneurs Scale to $1 Million, $50 Million and Beyond | Follow Me For Systems On Sustainable Growth 🌎

Impact Innovator OS: 

The #1 In-House Growth System For Mission-Driven Founders, Conscious Coaches, and Innovators To Build Sustainable Scale As A Category Of One Business.

I help innovators simplify their business to a category of one so they can build sustainable scale to 7 figures, 8 figures and beyond.

I spent over a decade on the table as a buyer controlling $100M+ budgets for billion-dollar retailers. 

In 2006 I saw something that changed everything.

The Problem:

Each year, $49 trillion is spent on products & services globally. But buyers only choose the top 1% of businesses. The ones who lead as a Category Of One. The rest struggle. Their innovation never scales. It ends up as waste.

Why?

Corporations dominate because they know something most innovators don't: the proven system to lead as a Category Of One business.

My Mission:

I quit the corporate world to figure out how innovators who want to make an impact can actually scale.

My first company, Sharkah Chakra - The World's First Feel Good Sustainable Jeans Brand. I used my buyer intelligence to create a sellout launch. 

But we spent $150K trying to simplify our complex innovation. We outsourced our growth system to agencies. Our funding ran out.

The insight hit me: 

Entrepreneurs aren't taught to think like buyers. We think like sellers. We outsource to experts instead of building our own systems like corporations do.

My Second Company Changed Everything:

With Bespoke Your World, I built an in-house system to scale as a Category Of One. 0 to $300K in 12 months with the world's top 0.1% clients. Organically. No ads.

Then innovators started asking for the game plan.

So I Built Impact Innovator OS:

One integrated system using my Billion Dollar Buyer Intelligence Framework. 

Purpose. Positioning. Offer. Sales. Marketing. Organic scaling methods. Everything in house. Everything you own. Forever.

Founding Member Results:

→ Carol: $200K launches, scaling to $50M
→ Jo: $2M to $4M growth in 12 months
→ Amy: 0 to $300K launch in 90 days
→ Marie & Jason: 30% profit increase
→ Paula: Successful Exit Less than 12 Months

This Is Bigger Than Business:

This is a movement for every innovator working tirelessly to build a better world. For those who refuse to let their legacy innovation become part of the waste problem. For those ready to transform how we consume, how we scale, and how we lead.

Founding Member Access (Limited Spots):

DM 'SYSTEM' for founding member details
DM 'MASTERCLASS' for registration link
DM 'NEWS' for newsletter

Business Mentor

For a long time, I thought success was something you arrive at.

A destination.
A big moment.
A finish line.

I was wrong.

Success is built in the quiet moments no one applauds.

Last week, while hiking, I noticed something simple, but powerful.

I didn’t reach the top by feeling confident.
I didn’t reach it by having a perfect plan.

I reached it by choosing to move when stopping would’ve been easier.

Not fast.
Not perfectly.
Just forward.

That’s when it clicked:

Resilience isn’t loud.
It isn’t heroic.
It’s ordinary.

It’s the decision to keep going when you’re tired.
To keep building when you’re unsure.
To keep showing up when results are invisible.

My business didn’t grow because I had clarity every day.

It grew because I honored small progress:

One conversation.
One action.
One honest attempt.

Over and over again.

You don’t need to see the whole road.

You don’t need to know how it all works yet.

You only need to respect the step that’s in front of you.

Do that long enough…

And one day you look back and realize:

You’re much further than you ever imagined.

Keep walking.

Founder, Impact Innovator OS | The #1 Buyer Psychology Growth System for Mission Driven Founders, Conscious Coaches + Innovators to Scale Sustainably $1M-$50M+ as Category-of-One

Ten years ago, I made myself a promise.

One day, I would walk the trails of El Chaltén in Patagonia, not as an escape, but as a reminder of why I chose this path.

That hike wasn’t just about the mountains.
It was about following the footsteps of innovators who refused to compromise on what mattered.

The person who carried me through the hardest years was Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, the billion-dollar brand that was never meant to be one.

Yvon wasn’t a businessman chasing money.
He was a broke climber who simply wanted better gear.

So he taught himself blacksmithing.
Made tools for his friends.
Sold them out of his car for $1.50 each.

He didn’t set out to build a unicorn.
He just refused to abandon his values.

When being a purpose-led founder nearly broke me
when every part of me wanted to give up

I remembered his words:

“Impossible is the lamest of excuses.”

And I realised something important.

Quitting doesn’t make life easier.
It only delays the dream.

Because dreams don’t disappear.
They wait.
And they return louder.

What stopped me from walking away was understanding this:

Everything is figure-out-able including sustainable growth.

Just as Yvon built for climbers, I’ve spent the last ten years building for purpose-led founders.

When there wasn’t a roadmap, I created one.
And that work became Impact Innovator OS.

So here’s the question I keep coming back to:

What would change if you realised your purpose isn’t the obstacle, it’s the path?

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Talks about #impact, #entrepreneurship, #productinnovation, #businessinnovation, and #businessmentorship

Founder, Impact Innovator OS | The #1 Buyer Intelligence Growth System for Mission Driven Founders, Conscious Coaches + Innovators to Scale Sustainably $1M-$50M+ as Category-of-One

The secret to 6 and 7 figure sales increase (no matter the industry or objections):

The world feels quite uncertain at times.

But building sustainable growth CAN feel certain.

I was just speaking to a founder yesterday. 

She was stressed about sales. 
People who were paying less wanting more.

I hear you. 

It's HARD.

You're not powerless against the market. 

Trust me, you're not. 

Social selling is the answer to your problems. 

So here's is my solution to help you sell 24/7:

Be where your dream clients are.

Both online AND offline. 

Here are the 9-steps for the social selling formula:

1. OBSESS over your ICP: who/where they are
2. Focus only on this EXACT ICP online/offline 
3. Build EVENTS to educate your ICP
4. Plan your 2026 monthly events schedule 
5. Collaborate to connect to new audiences
6. Build your dream strategic partnership list 
7. Launch your events 
8. Analyse what works and what doesn't 
9. Repeats refine and scale 

Your social selling game plan should be incredibly simple, yet work incredibly well.

You and your team should understand it. 

Simplicity sells.
Simplicity scales.

Together we will transform our world.

P.S. We have a few slots left to sign up for our March 3rd Masterclass to get the growth secrets for FREE: https://lnkd.in/e6S62RhM

See you soon!

When Standing for Something Gets Expensive And You Choose It Anyway

Most brands talk about purpose.

Very few are willing to risk anything for it.

Ben & Jerry’s just showed what real purpose looks like.

Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield recently launched a campaign to reclaim control of their company from parent company Unilever, saying the corporation has restricted Ben & Jerry’s ability to speak and act on its social mission.

They’re not protecting a product.

They’re protecting a point of view.

As the founders put it:
Ben & Jerry’s became successful because people know it stands for something bigger than ice cream.

And here’s the part most people miss:

Purpose didn’t hurt their growth.
It fueled it.

Ben & Jerry’s has outperformed other Unilever ice cream brands in multiple recent years.
Their activism has driven massive engagement, loyalty, and list growth.
Thousands of people actively choose them because of what they stand for.

Even when Unilever allegedly removed their CEO over his commitment to the brand’s social mission, the founders didn’t retreat.

They pushed harder.

That’s the line between marketing-purpose and lived-purpose.

Real purpose isn’t a tagline.
It’s not a campaign.
It’s not something you keep only when it’s convenient.

Real purpose costs you leverage.
Control.
Comfort.
Sometimes money.

And you choose it anyway.

Two founders in their 70s could be enjoying a quiet, ultra-wealthy life.

Instead, they’re challenging a multi-billion-dollar corporation to defend the soul of what they built.

Not for headlines.
Not for profit.
For integrity.

Here’s the takeaway:

You don’t scale by diluting your values.
You don’t win by becoming safer.
You don’t build iconic brands by trying to please everyone.

You build them by standing so clearly for something that the right people feel it in their bones.

When purpose costs you something and you still choose it -
people know you’re real.

And real brands don’t create customers.

They create believers.

Most companies retreat the moment values become inconvenient.

Category-of-one founders double down.

Because they understand:

Purpose only becomes powerful once it has a price.

Your move:

What are you willing to defend when it would be easier not to?

DM HELL YA if you want to join Impact Innovator and build businesses that change the world.

Warm wishes,
Sara

Exciting news: I just heard one of our members signed a multi billion dollar partnership... 

(90 days ago, they were treading water)

We used my Billion Dollar Buyers Guide to achieve this goal (after years of trial and error).

And it all started by growing a business with a purpose with a fouder who has a heart. 

To be honest, it's easy. 

Someone shared this in my masterclass:

"Sara, with so many competitors today, business is hard, but your systems make it easy to stand out and scale."

Being overlooked is a real problem today for founders, and it no one's fault. 

Buyers will love you, but they need to understand these 7 things:

1. Your Unique Business Hook
2. How your Offer changed your world first
3. How your Offer changes others' worlds second.
4. Why you are a must have now and forever
5. How to sell you in one sentence 
6. Who your followers are
7. Why are you the number one in what you do

This list is a game changer for 2026, to stand out, get seen, sell in, and sell out.

Give buyers instant clarity on your unique power and purpose.

Let your brilliance shine.

If you'd like to know more billion dollar buyer secrets, sign up for my newsletter here:

https://lnkd.in/dsVQABvv

Together we will transform our world.

10K Clients. $300K Launches. $300K+ Funding. Billion-Dollar Partners.
Member wins from just the last 7 days.

I didn’t set out to become a business growth mentor.

I became one because I spent years trying to scale… and watching other purpose-led founders struggle with the exact same problem.

Here’s what I discovered:

Scaling isn’t hard because you’re not working hard enough.
It’s hard because innovation is complex—and buyers crave simplicity.

Buyers want to instantly understand:

Who you’re for
What you solve
Why you’re different
Why they should trust you

You can’t outsource that clarity.

Because it’s connected to everything:
Your positioning.
Your offer.
Your pricing.
Your marketing.
Your sales process.
Your brand story.
Your thought leadership.
Your community.
Your impact.

Buyers don’t look at these as separate pieces.
They see your business as one system.

And they decide in seconds if it makes sense.

I spent 20 years inside buyer behavior and buying decisions learning how that system actually works.

After my own painful experience buying fragmented “expert help,” I built a buyer-centric framework that creates certainty around how to scale:

✔ One holistic system
✔ One custom roadmap
✔ Five steps to sustainable growth

What I see every week:

Founders go from invisible → category leader
From inconsistent sales → $300K launches
From no funding → hundreds of thousands raised in 90 days

Not because of hacks.
Not because of funnels.

But because their entire business finally makes sense to buyers.

This framework is for conscious founders, coaches, and consultants who are ready to scale with integrity.

(I personally invite only the top 1% into the program.)

If this resonates and you want to understand how the framework works, join me live:

👇 Free Masterclass – Next Tuesday
The 5 Steps to Build Sustainable Growth

https://lnkd.in/dqNVxTFy

It’s time to unleash your unique brilliance.

Systems = Your License to Step Back

Most founders think systems are about tighter control.

More rules.
More approvals.
More oversight.

But real systems do the opposite.

They give you the confidence to step away.

Great systems are not built so you can monitor everything.

They’re built so things run even when you’re not watching.

Recently, I took time off without checking Slack.
No daily standups.
No constant pings.

The business kept moving.
Clients were supported.
Work went out on time.

Not because I was hovering.

Because the team had clear outcomes, clear frameworks, and real ownership.

Here’s the difference most founders miss:

Control-based systems say
“Follow this exact process and ask me before acting.”

Ownership-based systems say
“Here’s the result we need. You decide how to make it happen.”

Control-based systems create dependency.
Ownership-based systems create leaders.

Control-based systems make you the bottleneck.
Ownership-based systems make you optional in day-to-day operations.

And being optional in daily operations is not a risk.

It’s the real definition of scale.

So the better question isn’t:
“How do I track everything?”

It’s:
“How do I build systems that don’t require me to track everything?”

When your systems work, you don’t feel anxious stepping away.

You feel calm.

That’s not losing control.

That’s finally earning freedom.

Companies that tackle "impossible" problems are achieving 400% higher returns.

This is the trend 99% are overlooking.

Businesses chasing quick wins are failing rapidly.

However, the 1% of entrepreneurs addressing seemingly insurmountable challenges to improve our world?

Purpose-driven companies recorded 400% greater returns on the stock market compared to the S&P 500. 

Brands that enhance quality of life outperform the market by 120%.

The problems that cautious investors deem "unprofitable" are, in fact, generating the most value.

Here's the evidence:

Companies that align purpose with business report 25% higher revenue and 22% higher pre-tax profit. 

Purpose-aligned companies: 31% profit increase. Others: 3%.

Why does solving the "impossible" yield more than addressing the obvious?
Because impossible problems face no competition.

While everyone competes over marginal improvements, purpose-led companies forge new categories.

They are not competing; they are pioneering.

Companies solving easy problems = Commodities
Companies solving difficult problems = Monopolies
Companies solving impossible problems = Movements

Purpose enterprises grew by 1,681% while the S&P 500 averaged 118%.

Every boardroom dismisses these opportunities. Every spreadsheet indicates "no return on investment."

And that is precisely why it works.

The market rewards the courage to tackle what others avoid.

5 Reasons Purpose Is Winning

Starbucks learned a painful truth the hard way:
Purpose doesn’t save a business. Clarity does.

When Starbucks’ CEO recently reflected on their strategy, he admitted something rare:

They lost focus by chasing a version of “purpose” that diluted what made them great.

Not because purpose is wrong.
But because it became vague.

When your mission gets fuzzy, execution follows.

You can’t build community if you can’t deliver great coffee.
You can’t change the world if you’re failing your core customer.

Strong brands don’t start with “What impact can we claim?”
They start with “What do we do better than anyone else?”

Then they build impact from there.

That’s the difference:

🚫 Purpose as decoration
✅ Purpose as infrastructure

Real purpose isn’t a paragraph on your website.

It’s the filter behind every decision:

Who you hire

What you build

Who you say no to

How you operate

Patagonia doesn’t treat sustainability as a marketing angle.

It treats the business as a vehicle for the mission.

Product excellence isn’t separate from purpose.
It is the purpose.

If your operations contradict your message, your audience will feel it.

Stop attaching purpose after the fact.

Design your business so purpose is unavoidable.

Build from it.
Operate through it.
Let everything else be downstream.

If you want weekly insights on building brands that matter and win,
subscribe to my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dsVQABvv

Most founders think they need a louder brand, a prettier website, or a more “unique” offer.

That’s why they stay overlooked…
While weaker competitors get chosen.

After years inside billion-dollar buyer rooms, I saw how real decisions are actually made.

Here’s the truth:

Buyers don’t pick the “best” offer.
They pick the offer that aligns with five specific decision criteria that almost no one talks about.

On February 17th at 12:00 PM EST, I’m hosting a private masterclass.

We’re breaking down all five.

No surface tactics.
No marketing gimmicks.

Just the real buyer levers that make you the obvious choice.

You’ll learn:

• Why “being different” often hurts your positioning and what top buyers look for instead.
• How purpose-led founders sell out $200K launches in 24 hours without ads or agencies.
• The two hidden drivers that turn scattered growth into owned, sustainable momentum.

This is the same playbook I used to approve over $100M in buying decisions.

Founders have used it to scale from $1M to $50M+
- without bloated agencies,
- without fragile systems,
- and without burnout.

Only 25 seats are available.
Not public.

Save your seat + unlock the private pre-video series:
https://lnkd.in/dqNVxTFy

Most founders think they need a louder brand, a prettier website, or a “more unique” offer.

That’s why they stay invisible...
While weaker competitors get chosen.

I spent years inside billion-dollar buyer rooms watching how real decisions are made.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Buyers don’t choose the “best” offer.

They choose the offer that aligns with 5 specific buyer decision criteria almost no one understands.

On March 3rd at 12:00 PM EST,
I’m running a private masterclass.

We’re revealing all 5.

Not surface-level tactics.
Not marketing tricks.

The real buyer levers that make someone see you as the only obvious choice and confidently say yes.

Here’s a taste:

1. Why “being different” actually backfires, and what top buyers use instead to decide who wins the deal.

2. How certain purpose-led founders sell out $200K launches in 24 hours with zero ads or agencies.

3. The 2 hidden mechanisms that turn random growth into sustainable momentum you actually own.

This is the same playbook I used to approve and greenlight over $100M in buying decisions.

Founders have used these frameworks to scale from $1M to $50M+:

→ Without hiring bloated agencies,
→ Without stacking systems they don’t control,
→ And without burning out.

Seats are limited to 25 business owners.
This masterclass will not be public.

Register now to unlock the private pre-video series before we go live.

Save your seat: https://lnkd.in/dqNVxTFy

Founder Impact Innovator OS | #1 Buyer Psychology Growth System for MIssion Driven Founders | Scale to $1-$10MN as Category Of One

Most founders believe they need a bigger brand, a better-looking website, or a more differentiated offer.

That belief is exactly why they get ignored while less capable competitors keep getting chosen.

Here’s what most people miss:

Buyers don’t pick the best solution.
They pick the solution that aligns with a small set of decision criteria they care about.

On Feb 17 at 12 PM EST, I’m hosting a private masterclass where I break down those five buyer decision drivers.

No fluff.
No gimmicks.
Just the real levers that position you as the obvious choice.

Limited to 25 seats. Not public.

Save your seat and unlock the private pre-video series:
👉 https://lnkd.in/dqNVxTFy

Going live in 4 hours!

Most founders (like yourself) think they need to be louder, more complex, or more "unique."

Not true.

This is why most founders are being overlooked.

Competitors with MUCH worse offers are finding much more success because of this.

Think of it like this:

Your buyers do not choose the best offer.

They choose what fits 5 specific decision criteria that almost no one talks about.

And I'll be breaking down these decisions live on February 17th @ 12 PM EST.

We are hosting a private masterclass for the community at no cost.

You can use this as leverage to become the obvious choice in your industry.

There are 25 seats.

⏳ 4 hours to go

Save yours + unlock the private pre-video series here:
https://lnkd.in/e6S62RhM

Co-Founder & CEO @ Ruley, the E-Referee | Start Up Business Expert | Entrepreneur

After 25 years building successful companies I found myself at a crossroads. I had built companies that helped people and families. I was proud of that legacy, I knew it was time for a new chapter.

In my early 50s, I sold my third company just a year behind schedule from a personal goal I set at 34. 

During COVID, I had the space to explore ideas that truly energized me. I enrolled in a six-month coding bootcamp to learn Python and deepen my understanding of the technologies shaping our future.

Now I’m the Co-Founder of Ruley, an AI powered smart sports E-Referee API  designed to help federations, sports media and consumer brands gain fans, players and spectators by being the go to venues for sports rules and insights.

My personal mission is to fuse decades of my experience and strategic thinking with modern tech to bring people together through playing sports and watching sports.  By working with these existing sports entities we can grow sports and all the good that comes with them.

At the heart of my work is this belief: we all deserve unbiased, instant information, and we all deserve to enjoy life like we did as kids. 

These ideas aren’t mutually exclusive. With the right tools, we can help provide knowledge in unique ways and inject more joy into everyday life.

Explore Ruley and our API rollout (and more) for sports:
🌐 ruley.ai

📸 Instagram: @ruley_ereferee
🎥 YouTube: @ruleythee-referee
📘 Facebook: @ruleytheereferee

🎾 Just Ruley it!

Cassandra Toroian

I started playing tennis young.

Which meant learning rules early.
Not just how to play but how to behave.

Sportsmanship.
Winning humbly.
Losing gracefully.
Those principles stayed with me.

They showed up later in finance.
In how I handled pressure.
How I treated people.
How I competed without cutting corners.

So when I sold my company and started thinking
about what was next, I didn’t immediately land
on sport. It took time.

What eventually clicked wasn’t nostalgia.
It was the parallel.

Sport only works when people trust the rules.
And trust breaks when rules are unclear,
inconsistent, or inaccessible.

As a child, learning the rules was slow,
but structured. As an adult, it’s harder.

Multiple sources.
Conflicting explanations.
Way too much noise.

That’s where the lightbulb went on.

AI isn’t about replacing the game.
It’s about supporting the values underneath it.
 
Clarity.
Fair play.
Respect for the rules and each other.

That’s why Ruley made sense to me.
Not as a tech product.

But as a way to support the principles sport
taught me from the start.

The rules didn’t just teach me how to play.
They taught me how to show up.

I don’t spend much time thinking about what
I’d tell my younger self.

And this isn’t because I don’t value reflection.
But more because I don’t know if she’d
make the same decisions I would now.

Starting a business at 50 is risky.
Arguably riskier than starting one in your 20s.

I have a partner.
A house.
A dog.

Way more responsibility that I had in my 20s.
More to lose.

But I also have something I didn’t have back then.
Experience.

And I dont mean the motivational kind.
I mean the practical kind.

The kind that teaches you emotional control
when things don’t go to plan.

The kind that teaches you to value people
over ego.

The kind that shows you what actually matters
and what can be ditched.

After 25 years in finance, I learned
one thing clearly:

Information shapes outcomes.

That belief didn’t disappear when I left finance.
It followed me into sport. And eventually, into Ruley.

Ruley exists because I chose to stay curious.
To ask better questions. To be an enquirer,
not an expert with a fixed answer.

I don’t think success is about having fewer
doubts as you get older.

I think it’s about learning which questions are
worth asking. And being brave enough to ask
them anyway.

Age didn’t change my ambition.
It sharpened it.

With the FIFA World Cup 2026™ - Canada, Mexico and the United States coming to the U.S., soccer is entering a very different phase here.

Interest is rising.
International ticket sales are strong.
The reception has been broadly positive.

But amongst many Americans there's a whisper under their breaths…

Only around 12% of Americans say they know the rules of soccer well,
despite the scale of the audience now being built around it.

Soccer is already one of the most nuanced sports to officiate and interpret.
Add a newer audience, unfamiliar terminology, and high-stakes moments,
and confusion scales quickly.

You see it reflected in viewing habits too.
Globally, women’s World Cup viewership exceeds 60%.
In the U.S., it’s closer to 16%.

That gap isn’t about accessibility. It’s about interest.
How can you be interested in something you don’t know much about?

If soccer is to grow in the U.S., rule of the sport
must become part of the infrastructure,
not an afterthought.

Ruley’s API is trained on soccer rules and edge cases with that in mind.
Not as a front-facing product, but as something leagues,
platforms, and media can rely on behind the scenes.

When interest grows faster than understanding,
That gap is where friction appears.

If you work in U.S. soccer leagues or soccer media
and want to explore how Ruley could fit into that
ecosystem, message me.

#FIFA #soccer #USSoccerLeague #USSoccerTeam

I saw coverage recently of used tennis balls being turned into bird nests.

It’s thoughtful.
And it does genuinely repurpose some waste.

But the contrast is worth noting.

In the U.S. alone, around 125 million tennis balls are discarded every year.
Globally, it’s closer to 300 million. Most of them are used for only a
handful of hours before they’re thrown away.

Turning a small number into nests is visible.
It photographs well. It tells a good story.

But it isn’t systemic.

The real issue is how tennis balls are treated as disposable from the start.

Manufactured at scale. Used briefly.
Then discarded with no realistic path back into the system.

Sport tends to respond to problems with visible gestures rather
than structural thinking.

That can raise awareness and that’s good but it’s worth observing the difference.

Structural change looks quieter.
It shows up in redesigning the product itself.
In extending its life. In deciding whether it should exist in its current form at all.

Sustainability in sport isn’t solved by what we do at the end.
It’s decided much earlier than that.

#tennis #padel #usta

Sports don’t fall apart because people argue.
They fall apart because rules aren’t clear.

Every club, league, and sports platform
knows this moment:

A player questions a call.
A parent emails.
A fan floods the comments.
Your support inbox lights up.

And this isn’t because the rule doesn’t exist.
But because no one can explain it fast.

That’s the gap Ruley, the E-Referee fills.

Ruley isn’t for “fun debates.”
It’s a rules engine businesses can embed.

→ Fewer customer support tickets
→ Less ref abuse
→ More trust in decisions
→ Better fan experience

Instead of:
“Let me check the rulebook on that one”
or
“We’ll get back to you”

Your users get:
Instant, up-to-date rule explanations.

Clear rules don’t just keep games moving.

They protect brands.
They build loyalty.
They scale communities.

If you run a sports org, platform, or league
this isn’t about fairness.

It’s about operational sanity.
What rules do you still question?

A conference company offered me the opportunity to meet with potential partners they viewed as very important to the racket sport industry.

But here's the catch:
And they wanted me to pay them a $10,000 fee.
For arranging those 20-minute meeting.

This isn't just bad form. It's bad business.

Alex Hormozi puts it best: "Give information away for free. Sell the implementation."

Business requires graciousness to be highly successful.
A willingness to help others succeed.
Because a rising tide raises all ships.

Short-sighted greed closes doors, whereas graciousness and generosity opens them.

Talking sustainability helps everyone.
How can you demand a price tag on that?
The company requesting that fee has lost my respect forever.

What do you think?

#BusinessStrategy #Leadership #Networking #Graciousness #Entrepreneurship

Yes! Very important that we catch up with the rest of the world and protect the integrity of our US elections.

When a broken rule fixes the sport:

Figure skating banned the backflip
for safety and because of tradition.
"Land on one foot."  "No spectacle."

Surya Bonaly knew the backflip was banned.
But at the Olympics she did it anyway.
She landed it on one foot. Perfectly.

To the judges, this was just a violation.
To a modern Federation, this should
have been something else entirely:

A critical edge case.

Bonaly didn't just break a rule.
She stress-tested the entire system.

This is where sports governance often fails.
We treat the Rule Book as a static artifact.
A sacred text that can't be questioned.
But sports are dynamic. Athletes
evolve faster than committees.

When an edge case like this happens,
you need a process to capture it.

To ask: "Does the rule still serve the players?"
Or is it holding the sport back?

You cannot manage modern sports with
static rulebooks. You need infrastructure.
You need data on how rules are applied,
challenged, and broken.

That's why we built our proprietary Ruley API.
Not just to answer questions, but to help
Federations see where the friction lives.

Don't just enforce.

Evolve.

#SportsBiz  #Governance  #Innovation  #RuleyAPI

I’ve noticed people rarely talk about the newest piece of sports gear in a room. They talk about the one that’s clearly been used.

A worn tennis bag or an old racket carries way more weight
than the pristine version beside it. This isn't because it looks better, but because it shows a lot more history.

You can manufacture a perfect product any day of the week.
But what you can’t manufacture is years of use.

You can print a flawless image of a racket onto a tote bag today.
Technically it will look a lot cleaner.But it won’t carry the
same credibility, because it hasn’t been anywhere yet.

There’s a Japanese principle, wabi-sabi, that centres on the value of imperfection. Sport understands this instinctively without needing the terminology.

Sport operates on the same logic.

We don’t question gear that’s been used.
We question gear that looks untouched.

Technology in sport faces the same test.
If it feels synthetic, people hesitate.
If it feels grounded in real experience, they trust it faster.

Authenticity isn’t about appearance.
It’s about evidence.

In sport and in systems, credibility comes from evidence.
Not appearance.

A broken tooth shined a light on what sports (and life) is all about.

Think about it. 

The U.S. Olympic ice hockey team showed unbelievable grit and determination….and sportsmanship.

The young player who had his tooth broken wasn’t upset.

He didn’t blame anyone. 

He was not upset.

It was part of the game. It is just a battle scar.

That’s the different between champions and everyone else.

Broken ribs, torn ligaments. It’s all part of the game. 

Scars show you are battle tested. You are fearless. You can’t be scared into submission.

The Olympians’ scars are a lesson for us all.

Get up everyday. Put on your big girl pants. And fight with no fear for your win.🥇

Volleybird Athletic Lifestyle was featured in the New York Post last week.
 
The piece focuses on something tennis rarely questions:
how often balls are replaced,
and how little attention is paid
to their full lifecycle.
 
Renewaball approaches that problem differently.
 
Used balls are collected, broken down, and remade into balls that meet performance standards again.
 
Same role in the game. A more responsible production loop.
 
This approach was built to work within the sport, not around it.
It fits into the sport as it already operates.
The experience stays familiar.
Performance stays consistent.
 
Progress in sport often comes from revisiting everyday equipment,
rather than launching something entirely new.
 
If you’re curious how this works in practice
and why it’s gaining attention now,
The full piece is worth a read here:
 
👉 https://lnkd.in/gT39qKX5

It's official! Ruley.ai is heading to PEAK 2026 in Las Vegas. 🎉 If you’re working in SportsTech, innovation, or sport operations, this is where the industry comes together. Let’s connect. April 20–22, 2026 | Fontainebleau Las Vegas. See you there. 🏔️

I know which one I watch and and have no clue. What about you?

Which of these Olympic winter games do you watch and have no idea what the rules are but you watch anyway because it intrigues you?

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

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