Hi Reader,

While I write this newsletter to share meaningful insights with you, the truth is it's for me as much as it is for you. 😎

This week's story is another reminder of that.

I'm nearly two years into my current journey. I have goals. I'm chasing dreams. I've been reminded more than once to enjoy the journey.

This week on episode 303, Walter Miska provides this reminder. He takes us on his career journey spanning four different industries, each with a common through-line.

Walter's common through-line is found in his insatiable desire to enjoy the journey in each chapter. He built and sold three businesses.

Then, he got the text message that changed everything.

That text was an invitation to explore returning to where his entrepreneurial journey began, this time as president of the entire business where he was previously a regional vice president.

Walter shares on episode 303, a lesson he learned from his mother in a different context, that he applied to his career chapters.

In this week's episode 303 the main point is this.

"Walter Miska has built and sold three businesses, in promotional products, craft beer, and escape rooms, and this year he returned to lead the brand where his story started, this time as president. In this episode, we talk about why reaching a goal rarely feels like enough, what it means to catch your own patterns before someone else points them out, and how a lesson from his mother about raising kids now shapes the way he leads."

Did you know that you can watch each week's episode on my YouTube channel? 👇🏼

Each video is produced with visual elements to help bring the story alive beyond the audio. If podcast consumption on YouTube is new to you, give it a try! 😎

The Coach's Corner

Weekly insights and actionable tips from my lens as an executive coach—helping you lead, grow, and thrive.

The Real Reason Your AI Rollout Will Succeed or Fail

Every executive I talk to wants the same thing from AI: business results. Faster cycles, lower costs, higher margins. That's the right business case, and I'd never argue against it.

But here's what most AI rollouts get wrong. They budget for the technology and skip the adoption from the people who have to use it. I've spent over 30 years inside C-suites, and I've watched plenty of technology rollouts stall for reasons that had nothing to do with the technology itself. The tools worked fine. The people didn't trust them enough to use them well.

Kearney's (August) 2026 Transformation Study of more than 100 executives found that over 80% of executives say fewer than half of their AI initiatives are delivering measurable financial impact, and resistance to change, not budget or technology, is the top reason why.

That's not a soft problem. It's a leadership problem, and it's measurable across four dimensions.

That's why I built the AI People Readiness Pulse™, a free five-minute assessment that scores your team on the four moves that separate a human-led AI transformation from a rollout that stalls.

Move one: Reduce Fear. One question asks how much you believe your team trusts that AI is being introduced to help them, not replace them. Simple question, and the number you land on is one of the most predictive signals of whether your rollout hits friction. Fear rarely announces itself in a town hall. It shows up as people quietly routing around the tool, using it at half its potential, or waiting to see what happens to someone else first.

Move two: Create Clarity. Your team can forgive a lot during change, but they can't work well when they don’t know what’s expected of them. The Pulse asks how visible your priorities and next steps actually are, and how clear you think you've been in the announcement.

Move three: Preserve Meaning. This is the one leaders skip because it sounds like the softest of the four, and it's actually the one closest to retention and discretionary effort. If your team can't connect the AI initiative to their own value and contribution, you'll get compliance, not commitment. The Pulse measures whether your people feel like the shift in their daily work connects with their human skills.

Move four: Build Adaptability. AI tools are evolving quickly. Skills development is not an option. The question isn't whether your current rollout succeeds, it's whether your people can keep learning, adjusting, and experimenting as the next wave hits. This is where AI readiness converts to ongoing advantage instead of a one-time win.

These four moves aren’t adjacent to your ROI case. They're what determines whether you ever collect it. This is what I mean by the Human Dividend™: the return you get when your people are genuinely ready, willing, and able to work alongside AI, not just tolerating it from a distance. It's the multiplier, or the ceiling, on every dollar you're already spending on the technology.

You can't manage what you haven't measured. So before your next AI initiative, budget review, or town hall, take five minutes and find out where your team actually stands across all four dimensions. Not where you assume they stand. Not where the deck says they stand.

The Pulse walks you through eight questions across Reduce Fear, Create Clarity, Preserve Meaning, and Build Adaptability. When you're done, you'll get your results along with a copy emailed to you, and an invitation to grab time for a complimentary strategy call if you want to talk through what the numbers mean for your organization.

Take the free AI People Readiness Pulse™ and find out if your people are ready for the AI investment you're about to make.

Read the full article here.

You Can Catch This Week's Episode:

Listen on Apple
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Overcast
Listen on our Website
Watch on YouTube

There’s No Finish Line. That’s the Point.

Walter Miska has built four businesses and sold three of them, spanning promotional products, craft beer, and escape rooms. Now he’s back running the brand where his own story began, this time as president of Fully Promoted. Most people would call that restless. Walter calls it self-awareness. This episode 303 is about what happens when you finally catch up on everything you’ve been chasing, why that feeling never lasts, and why that isn’t a problem to fix. It’s the reason to keep building.

Who This Is For

• Entrepreneurs who’ve reached a goal and felt the letdown that showed up right behind it
• Leaders trying to figure out whether their own restlessness is a flaw or a signal
• Franchise owners and franchise-curious professionals weighing what actually makes a business sustainable
• Anyone who equates selling with persuading people, rather than earning trust
• Listeners looking for a practical way to enjoy where they are now without giving up on where they’re headed

Five Key Takeaways

• The businesses Walter built, in promotional products, craft beer, and escape rooms, were never really about the industry. The throughline was building a business, growing a team, and eventually selling it.
• Self-awareness means knowing your fit as much as your skill. Walter knew early that food service and youth-focused businesses weren’t right for him, even when the numbers made sense on paper.
• Trust drives recurring business more than sales technique does. Walter’s approach, being nice, following up, and earning trust, built every customer relationship and team he’s had.
• Reaching a finished to-do list rarely delivers lasting satisfaction. Walter describes getting everything caught up and feeling done within minutes, then already thinking about what to build next.
• You can enjoy your current stage and still look ahead. A lesson Walter’s mother taught him about raising kids, don’t rush to the next stage, is one he’s carried into how he leads today.

Episode Summary

Walter Miska is an engineer by training and, he says, by nature. Twenty-five years ago, a trip to a Cold Stone Creamery with his mother sent him down a different path: entrepreneurship. Since then, he’s built and sold businesses in promotional products, craft beer, and escape rooms, drawn less to any one industry and more to the process of building something from scratch. Earlier this year, Walter took a call from Andrew Titus, president of United Franchise Group, and returned to Fully Promoted, the brand where his own entrepreneurial story started, this time as president. In this conversation, Walter and Bernie talk about the self-awareness that let him catch his own patterns before someone else pointed them out, why he never saw himself as a salesperson even while building trust-based businesses, and the lesson from his mother about enjoying the stage you’re in that now shapes how he leads.