Category Pirates

Making a difference, for people who make a difference. Writing, teaching, and podcasting about the greatest (underground) skill in business. Category design. With the legendary Eddie Yoon & Katrina Kirsch.

Co-creator

Airspeed

Helping the Airspeed team cure the Digital Disconnect.

Advisor

Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different

CoAuthor Niche Down

Podcaster

Lochhead on Marketing

#1 apple business podcast focused on marketing & category creation/design

HarperCollins Publishers

Every entrepreneur looking to alter the landscape and every CEO looking to reimagine their business can learn from this book. Play Bigger provides inspiration and a framework for building companies that transcend gravity.” — Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce

“Play Bigger is the new how-to guide for entrepreneurs and executives who want to build legendary, enduring companies.” — Jim Goetz, Partner, Sequoia Capital

In this widely acclaimed, farsighted new book, the authors rely on experience, data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of “category kings”— companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA—that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn’t know we had. 

Crossing the Chasm revolutionized how we think about new products in an existing market. The Innovator’s Dilemma taught us about disrupting an aging market. Now, Play Bigger is transforming business once again, showing us how to create the market itself with the new discipline of "category design."

CoAuthor: Play Bigger How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets

HalloApp

Play Bigger Advisors, LLC.

Advised over 30 Silicon Valley venture-backed startups in strategy, marketing & category design.
CoAuthored Harper Collins "Instant Classic" Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.

co-founding partner

LOCHHEAD Enterprises, Inc.

Advised over 20 Silicon Valley venture-backed startups on Strategy, Marketing and Category Design

Founder

Orchestria

Board Director

Mercury Interactive (Acquired by HP)

I was lucky to be with a great team of people @ Mercury. HP Acquired the company for $5B in November of 2006, after Mercury had grown to over $1B in sales.

Chief Marketing Officer

Ever notice how much content is actually content-free-content?

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m a friend to the different and am  best known for Play Bigger, Category Pirates and being a Godfather of Category Design.
🏴‍☠️

I help startup founders, CEOs, marketers, creators, and ambitious professionals category design legendary markets and careers in a post-AI world.

**Why Category Design & Creator Capitalism?**

Category designers create markets, not competition, capturing **76% of the value** in the spaces they pioneer. 

Creator Capitalists unlock their different **superpower**—that unique edge only they bring—to build wealth and impact in an AI-driven economy. 

Whether you’re launching a company or redefining your career, I’ll show you how to own your niche and thrive.

**What I Do:**

With my partners at Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ I empower you to:

*Design & dominate new markets through writing, courses, and community.

*Discover your superpower to become a Creator Capitalist, mastering your career in the AI era.

*Build legendary businesses & careers with strategies from our #1 Amazon-charting books.

Join us at **www.categorypirates.com** to start pirating.

**My Track Record:**

*Author: Co-authored 14 #1 bestsellers, including *Play Bigger* (the first book on category design), *Niche Down*, and *Snow Leopard*.

*Podcaster: Host of Follow Your Different* (“Best Business Podcast” – Podcast Magazine) and Lochhead on Marketing (#1 charting).

*Newsletter: Run Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️ Substack (top 0.5% paid business newsletter).

*Career: Former 3X Silicon Valley public company CMO, advisor, and VC limited partner.

**What People Say:**

*Play Bigger is required reading for entrepreneurs altering the landscape.” *Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce
*“A quasar of energy and ideas.” – Bill Walton, NBA Legend
*“Off-putting to some, but undeniably brilliant.” – The Economist

*The Future Needs You

If you’re ready to category design a market or unleash your superpower? 

Connect with me or visit **www.categorypirates.com**. 

Let’s build something legendary—together. 
🏴‍☠️

Christopher Lochhead🏴‍☠️

My brother Tushar Atre was murdered 2,228 days ago. Today, we head back to court. This is the third of four trials for the men who killed him.

Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️

“A quasar, a godfather of category design” Bill Walton | “Off-putting to some” The Economist | 15X #1 author Play Bigger & Category Pirates 🏴‍☠️| #1 Charting Apple Business Podcast

My friend brother Tushar Atre was killed 2,228 days ago. Today, we head back to court. This is the third of four trials for the men who murdered him. 

Open article: Walking Through Fire: 2,228 Days Since My Brother’s Murder by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 4 min read

Walking Through Fire: 2,228 Days Since My Brother’s Murder

Today is Al Ries Day. Yeah, I’m celebrating. And you should too. Because the man earns his own damn holiday. If you care about marketing, entrepreneurship, category design, business strategy, or frankly winning, then you owe Al Ries more than a polite nod. You owe him a standing ovation.

Today is Al Ries Day. Yeah, I’m celebrating. And you should too. Because the man earns his own damn holiday. If you care about marketing, entrepreneur

Open article: Happy Al Ries Day by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 3 min read

I always love it when people (donkeys) say, “category design is hard”… to which I respond. 

As compared to what?

Building a legendary company. Hard. 

Building a legendary product. Hard. 

Category designing a new market. Hard. 

If you don’t like to do hard legendary things. 

Get a job at the DMV.

Thank you for risking your lives, to save our lives.

No alternative text description for this image

Black Friday Is Stupid. Here’s Why: Every November, companies reenact the same clown show 🤡

•Slash prices. 
•Torch margins.
•Fight for existing demand.

Call it “strategy.”
It’s not strategy.
It’s surrender.

Black Friday is when a business publicly announces:
“We have no real category, no real POV, and no real value… so here’s 40% off.”

If you want to see how this movie ends, just look at Groupon. 
The company that turned Black Friday into a business model.

At IPO, Groupon was worth around $13B.
Today it’s limping along under $1B.

A 95% vaporization of value.
All because it trained customers to only show up when prices were in the basement.

That’s what happens when you live by discounting:

•You become a commodity.
•You teach your buyers to wait you out.
•And you die slowly, on sale.

Every business running Black Friday is doing a Mini-Groupon.

•A little hit of the same drug.
•A little erosion of brand, belief, and pricing power.
•A little “race to the bottom” disguised as “a busy weekend.”

Legendary category designers don’t bribe people to buy.
•They create value.
•They create demand.
•They create word of mouth.
So yeah.

Black Friday is stupid.
And to celebrate the stupidity?

Our new #1 bestselling Lightning Strike Marketing book is $100.
A middle finger to the publishing industry. 🖕
And to the Black Friday discount death cult. 🖕

Be legendary or be discounted.
Pick one.
🏴‍☠️

Most people. Accept the premise. If you want a legendary career, you gotta stop playing by inherited rules. 🏴‍☠️

Most people. Accept the premise. If you want a legendary career, you gotta stop playing by inherited rules. The fastest way to stay average is to acce

Open article: Reject the Premise by Christopher Lochhead 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏴‍☠️ • 3 min read

Most people have no idea how to value their value. And most companies? Even worse. 

They spend 51 weeks out of the year trying to convince the world they’re of value.

Only to torch their own brand. 
In one glorious, annual, self-inflicted ritual of value destruction: 
Black Friday.
🤡

Next week, you will witness the single greatest mass devaluation event in modern commerce.

A global orgy of:
“Please, please, PLEASE buy from us...we’ll do ANYTHING!”
The sad part?

None of the companies doing this actually need to.
They’re just trapped in the herd.

Following the script someone else wrote.
(Like the sad-uniformed donkey's they are)

Here’s the uncomfortable truth no one in marketing wants to admit:
The easiest way to crush yourself is to make your category worthless.

And nothing makes your category worthless faster than telling the world:
“Hey! Remember everything we said about being:

•scarce
•quality
•crafted
•curated
•premium
•advanced
•meaningful
•purpose-built 
•and category-defining?

Yeah. 
Forget all that. 
"Today we’re cheap.”

Once you burn belief. 
It doesn’t (just) grow back.

Legends don’t participate in the annual race to the bottom.
•They reject the premise.
•They set their value.
•Their own rules.
•Their own POV.

And the market comes them.
So please (with whiskey on top) value your value.
🙏

Stop teaching people to expect less.
Stop training your customers to wait for discounts.
Stop telling the world your product isn’t worth what you say it is.

Because if you don’t value your value…
No one else will.
(Read this three times)

And next week, while everyone else is lighting their brand equity on fire for sport?

You’ll be building yours.
Strengthening your category.
And proving what legends already know:

Price isn’t a number.
Price is belief.

And belief, once broken, is hell to rebuild.
Hold the line.

Protect the premium.
And for the love of all things holy.
Don’t Black Friday your future.
🏴‍☠️

Ps. Our new Lightning Strike Marketing book, is the first $100 book to hit #1 on the Amazon Global Marketing Chart.

It will not be on sale next week.
Hit the l!nk in comments to pick up yours.
The book also makes a legendary (not-discounted) gift.
😎

Michael Pedersen

DecideFast™

I built the world's first Behavior Pattern Interrupt™ App to eliminate procrastination, overthinking, and indecision in seconds.

Adaptive Design Strategist

-Business Breakthrough
-Digital Footprint Overhaul
-Your New Online Asset (Business Website)
-Proven Content Marketing Strategies
-LinkedIn Branding & Engagement
-Lead Generation
-Email Marketing

Unlock the full potential of your small business, entrepreneurship, or coaching venture with our Adaptive Design Strategist Company. We're about engineering your success, not just updating your digital look. Experience business transformation that leads to tangible benefits: increased brand authority, more qualified leads, and a boost in conversions. With us, every digital interaction is optimized for engagement, turning visitors into loyal customers. Our approach ensures that your online platform drives growth and opportunity. Embrace a future where your digital strategy aligns with your ambitions, propelling you towards success. Join us to build the extraordinary.

Adaptive Design Strategist (formerly AZ Net Marketing)

Peak Performance Partners

-Mindset Reset Transformation Call

Breakthrough Coaching empowers you to navigate career transitions and overcome professional stagnation. Our focused approach targets what holds you back, equipping you with strategies to make decisive moves. With us, you transform obstacles into launchpads for success, mastering the art of adaptability and resilience. Whether you're pivoting roles, scaling your business, or seeking renewed motivation, our coaching ensures you emerge more focused, capable, and ready to seize opportunities.

Peak Performance Coach

Revenue Growth | Emotion-Based Brand Messaging To 3x Your Revenues | Bridging the gap between sales and marketing

Too many B2B sales teams are generating a high volume of quotes/proposals—yet win rates remain lower than desired.

Opportunities stall or disappear quietly. Not because of pricing—but because critical conversion elements are missing from the system.

That’s where I come in.

I work with B2B companies between $5M and $20M to recover lost revenue by optimizing the entire sales infrastructure—from initial targeting to proposal acceptance.

It starts with the 21 Day Revenue Sprint™, a fast, high-impact engagement powered by my proprietary Revenue Performance System™.

In just a few weeks, most companies uncover $250K to $1M+ in recoverable opportunity already sitting in their pipeline.

We can go deeper.

As a strategic advisor, I can also work directly with your leadership and sales teams to implement the structural upgrades and behavioral shifts that drive sustained revenue growth—without adding headcount, increasing marketing spend, or flooding your pipeline with unqualified opportunities.

Clients regularly report 20x to 100x ROI from targeted, system-level improvements.

Key areas of focus include:
✔️ Precision prospect targeting and qualification
✔️ Streamlined sales process and deal progression
✔️ High-conversion proposals and buyer decision clarity
✔️ Follow-up strategies that re-engage stalled opportunities

If your team is consistently quoting high-value work but too many deals are fading without resolution—you don’t need more activity.

You need a system built to convert.

📧 mike@adaptivedesignstrategist.com
🗓 Book a 15-minute Revenue Clarity Call

CEO & Founder

Does your website convert? When was the last time you gave it a refresh? How does it compare to your competitors?

Your company website is your brand on the Internet. An under-performing and outdated website will cost you revenues. 

Let’s jump on a discovery call to see if we are good fit to work together 

Visit: www.AZNetmarketing.com or 
Email: mike@aznetmarketing.com

How many times today have you reached for your phone instead of tackling the hard thing?

Your brain is wired to avoid discomfort—and it's costing your company millions. Here's what's actually happening in your head, and the one solution that works in real-time.

Full breakdown 👇

Mike Pedersen

Eliminating Decision Drag And Productivity Losses | Working With CFO and COO To Protect Payroll | Founder DecideFast™ The Decision Acceleration System

View newsletter: The Human Performance Brief

Ever spend 20 minutes organizing your desk instead of starting the actual work? Your brain is doing that on purpose. Here's the uncomfortable truth: p

Open article: Why Your Brain Loves Procrastination (And What Actually Works) by Mike Pedersen • 4 min read

Why Your Brain Loves Procrastination (And What Actually Works)

Decision Acceleration is a term you will start hearing more often when it comes to protecting payroll, operational efficiency, decision speed and throughput. 

DecideFast™ created the Decision Acceleration category, the performance layer that converts the hidden slowdowns inside the workday into speed, output, and financial gain.

To better understand the impact on the organization and employees, read this article.

Every company measures output. Revenue. Productivity. Efficiency. But almost no company measures the force that quietly drags them all down. Decision 

Open article: Decision Acceleration: Why Fast Teams Outperform Everyone Else by Mike Pedersen • 4 min read

Decision Acceleration: Why Fast Teams Outperform Everyone Else

THE HIDDEN $6.5M DRAIN

Every company tracks labor cost.

But almost no company measures the one force that silently drains millions of dollars: daily decision drag.

The hesitation. The small delays. The quiet moments where an employee freezes for five or ten seconds because they're stuck, unsure, or overloaded.

Those moments feel small. They're not.

Here's the math for a 500-employee company:
➡️ 13 interruptions per worker per day (UC Irvine)
➡️ 23 minutes to return to focus after each one
➡️ 5 hours of recovery time per employee per week
➡️ 2,500 hours lost across the workforce weekly
➡️ At $50/hour = $125,000 per week
➡️ $6.5 million annual drag

And this leaves out the secondary effects: → Delayed approvals → Slowed workflows → Stretched timelines → Margin erosion, let alone employee morale and burnout.

This isn't a people problem. It's a measurement problem.

➡️ You may not see it in daily reports, but these micro-delays quietly erode efficiency and margins. Imagine the cumulative impact if those lost minutes were reclaimed across your entire workforce.

Companies fix what they can see. Decision latency has been invisible.
Until now.

DecideFast™ created the category of Decision Acceleration. It gives employees fast resets(clarity) that cut decision drag and raise throughput across the workforce. Productivity rises because people act faster with less friction at every moment of the day.

Even small gains across 500 to 1000+ workers produce meaningful financial returns.

“Decision acceleration is the instant clearing of mental friction so people act fast with sharp focus. It drives workforce speed, precision, and consistent execution.” - DecideFast™ 

“Most tools take months to roll out and still never get used. DecideFast™ impacts your workforce in the first hour.”

➡️ If you want to listen to a condensed podcast from our 7000 word article, you can have a listen on Spotify. It's only 4 minutes: https://lnkd.in/gACVRV8w

If you enjoy it, share it, like it, and follow our DecideFast™ podcast. We'd appreciate it. 

#coo #DecisionVelocity #OperationalExcellence #CFO #EnterprisePerformance

Innovative CFOs don’t sit on daily decision drag.

☑️ They eliminate hesitation.
☑️ They remove friction.
☑️ They clear bottlenecks.
☑️ They protect productivity.

➡️ They know slow decisions bleed hours.
➡️ They know overwhelmed employees stall output.
➡️ They know small moments of confusion turn into big operational losses.

✅ They never assume employees just need to try harder.
✅ They give teams support in the moments they are stuck.
✅ They make clarity a priority because clarity speeds up the entire company.
✅ They focus on real time solutions because real time is where work breaks down.

👎 They don’t wait for annual surveys to reveal the obvious.
👎 They don’t lean on programs that never get used.
👎 They don’t pretend burnout and hesitation fix themselves.
👎 They fix what slows people down before it turns into cost.

That is the mindset that wins.

➡️ If you want to see how DecideFast™ helps eliminate decision drag and productivity losses, reach out. It will be the best 5-minute call you've had this year.

#cfo #coo #decisiondrag #operationalefficiency

Image credit: Business Infographics

$37,000,000 Gone You Won't See On A P&L

I did a DecideFast™ demo with an HR leader, and she was quite excited after she "felt it." 

She blurted out excitedly how productivity will go through the roof. I proceeded to tell her some shocking numbers. 

Only 3 out of 8 hours are truly productive—this “silent loss” is supported by research from Gallup, McKinsey, and HBR.

Let's consider a 1,000-employee company with an average annual salary of $60,000.

Calculation Details
➡️ Daily productivity loss: About $156,620.
➡️ Annual loss: $156,620 × 240 working days = $37,588,800.

This is a very conservative number; it is more like 250, as studies show the average number of workdays minus 11 holidays, and average PTO (10-12 days).

If you're a CFO reading this, you should work closely with your HR leaders to implement solutions that meet the needs (in the moment) of your workforce when they are overwhelmed, stuck, or burned out, which happens to 10-20 times every day.

You can't survey your way to more productivity. Nor can you meditate on it. It's time for an innovative solution to solve this $37M problem on demand and at scale.

DecideFast™  — Tap → Reset → Act

The only on-demand Employee Reset Solution™, giving your people instant relief from indecision, stuck, and overwhelm—at scale, in just 15 seconds, up to 20 times a day.

No onboarding, no training, just immediate clarity and forward movement for your entire workforce.

Millions of dollars in lost productivity can be recovered every year with faster decision-making speed—measured, delivered, and scaled through DecideFast™.

We are opening up two low-risk pilots to prove data and roll it out.

If you're an HR leader, don't wait until 2026. Let's schedule your 5-minute demo today! No slides. No pitch. Just experience it.

At DecideFast™, our mission is to ignite Human Innovation—helping every employee reset, refocus, and perform at their best in real time. We’re here to restore energy, clarity, and confidence across the workforce, one decision at a time.

➡️ What's it worth to your company to protect your culture, productivity, and retention? This is not a nice-to-have. It's mission critical!

#cfo #workplaceproductivity #employeeeexperience

Image credit: SelectSoftware Reviews

Eliminating Decision Drag And Productivity Losses | Working With CFO and COO To Bring ROI To The Bottom Line | Creator of DecideFast™ The Decision Acceleration System

The Quiet Part of Work No One Talks About

Look at this image.
This is what employees carry through a single workday.
Most of it never gets said out loud.

HR sees the reports.
CFOs/COOs see the numbers.
But those numbers are lagging indicators.
They only show the damage after it spreads.

The real story sits inside the moments you see in this image:
➡️ the hesitation
➡️ the doubt
the mental stall
➡️ the quiet pressure that slows people down.

This is where performance rises or drops.
This is where culture strengthens or cracks.
This is where people decide whether they speak up, shut down, or check out.

Traditional programs measure what happened last month.
They miss what employees fight today.

DecideFast™ gives instant relief in the moments employees feel overwhelmed or stuck.
Real-time clarity.
Real-time stability.
Real-time momentum.

No waiting for surveys.
No long modules.
No programs people avoid.

This is the new frontier of workforce performance.

Support employees in the moments that shape their day, and the culture shifts fast.

➡️ Attn CFOs and COOs. If burnout rises, turnover climbs, and output keeps slipping, the guesswork has gone on long enough—time for a real conversation.

"Human Innovation starts with people, not policy. DecideFast™ gives employees the instant resets they need to think clearer, act faster, and leave work with energy. That’s how we improve human potential at scale."

#hr #humanpotential #employeeexperience #workforceculture #decidefast #employeesareyourbusiness

The real cost inside the workday!

Every CFO has buckets they monitor with precision. 
➡️ Operational efficiency. 
➡️ Labor productivity. 
➡️ Throughput. 
➡️ Cost of delay. 
➡️ Workforce stability. 
➡️ Agility and execution risk. 

These buckets decide how fast a company grows or falls behind.

What most leaders miss is the root cause hiding inside all six. 
➡️ Employees get stuck. 
➡️ They get overwhelmed. 
➡️ They get distracted. 
It happens dozens of times per day across hundreds or thousands of people. 

The financial impact climbs into the millions before anyone sees it.

There has never been a real solution for those moments. Not surveys, wellness, or meditation apps. They are all lagging indicators (too late).

Nothing that meets employees in the exact second they hesitate (until now). 

Nothing that cuts through the overwhelm and gets them back into action fast.

That gap is massive and measurable. 

That gap is why companies are paying for slow decisions, lost output, and stalled execution without realizing where the leak begins.

DecideFast™  sits inside that gap. 
✅ It resets employees in seconds. 
✅ It restores clarity when they need it most. 
✅ It accelerates decisions at scale.

CFOs can ignore noise. They cannot ignore the cost leaking out every single day due to hesitation and distraction.

“DecideFast™ sits at the intersection of decision speed, execution efficiency, and operational capacity.”

Image credit: SelectSoftware Reviews

DecideFast™ The Decision Acceleration System

#cfo #workforceproductivity #decisionacceleration

Most leaders like to think they're running lean.
Often they are not, they're just spending less.

There's a difference.

Lean isn't about cutting budgets. It's about protecting payroll and controlling labor costs while eliminating waste.

👎 But here's what actually happens: CFOs see $8 million disappearing every year and call the fix an unnecessary expense.

Employees are productive 36% of the day. Every distraction burns 23 minutes of recovery time.

In a 500-person company, that's roughly $8 million in annual losses from decision drag and context switching.

Employees aren't to blame. 

When the brain experiences stress, it seeks immediate relief. 

That relief shows up as distraction—over two hours daily on phones, more than an hour on social media, the rest in texting, email, and YouTube. 

It's not a character flaw. It's how the human brain works under pressure.

➡️ Labor is the largest expense on the P&L. Protecting that investment means eliminating the factors that erode it.

Lean companies still invest in anything that protects payroll and execution. That is real leanness. Ignoring hard numbers is not leanness. It is cost denial dressed up as discipline.

➡️ Most finance teams never calculate the cost of decision drag.
Some see the numbers and the investment required don't fit the current budget narrative.

CFOs optimize labor cost per unit. Gross margin. Operating leverage.
But improving operational efficiency means protecting the throughput already on payroll.

➡️ Most companies spend millions to analyze slowdowns while the real losses happen in the seconds no dashboard can see. They measure everything except the drag that hits execution and inflates payroll cost. 

A consultant I spoke with on LinkedIn put it simply: "Easy for leaders to ignore what they choose not to believe."

The gap between what's being paid for and what's being delivered is sitting in these numbers.

The question is whether they get acted on or ignored.

➡️ DecideFast™ is offering 60-second demos. No slides or pitch. Just experience it. If you're a CFO or COO wanting to improve operational efficiency, throughput and protect your payroll, this is your solution.

➡️ ➡️ “Every solution promises performance after rollout. DecideFast™ delivers it on day one.”

#cfo #workforcecapacity #workforceefficiency #protectpayroll

Why Decision Speed Is Now a Must

Market data makes one thing crystal clear: decision speed and organizational agility are top strategic priorities for enterprises in 2025 and beyond.

➡️ Nearly 50% of senior leaders say accelerating decision-making is essential to thrive—up 10 points since 2021. 
➡️ 47% report that lagging agility costs significant profit, a rising concern compared to just 37% in 2021. 
➡️ Faster decision speed correlates directly with higher operational performance and competitive advantage. 
➡️ Yet only 28% of leaders feel truly ready to adapt as markets shift, signaling a major gap to close. 

 The message is clear: Focusing on reducing decision drag, hesitation, and speed is what executives need to survive in this fast-paced world we live in. Decision speed is simple, measurable, and directly tied to survival and success in volatile markets.

➡️ ➡️ "Every slowdown has a price. Most leaders pretend the leak is small because they have no solution to stop it."

Most current programs focus on lagging indicators, such as surveys, engagement, and wellness. If you want your company to survive, you must reevaluate the programs you are investing in and ask yourself this…
…“Is this helping our workforce in real time, or is it late?”

DecideFast™ is the decision acceleration system that turns hesitation into speed across your entire organization.

➡️ We are opening up 2 pilots before the end of this year. 100 users, 30 days. Data and proof are the intention. 

➡️ Are you a growth-minded leader who won’t accept the status quo? If so, reach out, and I’ll show you DecideFast™ live. It will be the fastest demo call you’ve ever had. No slides or pitch. Just experience it. 

“Most solutions take months to roll out and still never get used. DecideFast™ impacts your workforce in the first hour.”

The most expensive problems in your company are not the big ones.
They’re the tiny ones happening all day.

➡️ Micro-behaviors.
➡️ Overload.
➡️ Decision fatigue.
➡️ Short attention shifts.
➡️ In-the-moment hesitation.
➡️ The quiet pauses nobody tracks.

This is where the real slowdown happens.
This is where execution slips.
This is where companies lose millions in lower productivity and throughput without seeing it.

Employees aren’t failing.
Their brains hit a wall for a few seconds at a time.
Those seconds turn into minutes and compound across the workforce.

👉 That’s the real cost every CFO feels, even if they can’t trace it.

The companies that win are the ones that...
➡️ Support employees in these exact moments 10-20 times a day across the workforce.

When an employee gets clear fast, the whole organization moves more efficiently and quicker.

It's time to make a change! Employee survey and wellness programs are not solving this. They are lagging indicators. They are too late! 

➡️ Human Innovation starts with people, not policy. DecideFast™ gives employees instant mental resets they need to think clearer, act faster, and leave work with energy. That’s how we improve human potential at scale, and directly affect the bottom line!

We are offering enterprise leaders who are open to change and want their employees to have a solution that truly helps them, a 60-second DecideFast™ demo to feel it for yourself. 

Contact me and we'll set up a 5-minute call. No slides or pitch. Just experience it. 

“Most tools take months to roll out and still never get used. DecideFast™ impacts your workforce in the first hour.”

Three factors. Most companies measure none of them.

Decision Speed. Decision Drag. Decision Fatigue.

CFOs do not have a way to track these, nor have they tracked any of them.

They track outcomes. Revenue per employee. Project delivery. Deals closed.

But they're not measuring the decision layer—the invisible friction that sits between effort and execution.

Decision Speed 
How fast people move once they know the next step.

Decision Drag 
The slowdown that happens in the moment, inside the second, before anything starts. This is the invisible delay. The hesitation before the first action. The mental friction of figuring out what matters when everything feels urgent.

Decision Fatigue 
The psychological load that builds over the day and makes every choice heavier than the last.

By midday, the brain has burned through hundreds of micro-decisions. Email. Slack. Meetings. Priorities are shifting every hour. Each one pulls capacity until even simple choices feel impossible.

It's 2pm. Someone on your team has six things on their list. They stare at the screen for three minutes deciding which one to start.

That's not laziness. That's Decision Drag and Decision Fatigue compounding in real time.

Employees aren't to blame. The brain under cognitive load doesn't speed up. It delays and distracts to seek relief.

Measuring outcomes while ignoring the decision layer is like tracking how fast a car goes while ignoring that the engine keeps stalling and the driver is exhausted.

CFOs are being asked to cut costs and improve margins without clear visibility into where the money is actually going.

➡️ Headcount is the largest line item. Protecting it means knowing what's eroding it.

Most finance teams are reacting—defending budgets, justifying spend, trying to do more with less.

But they don't have the numbers that show where throughput is actually being lost.

➡️ Efficient companies invest in anything that protects payroll and execution. 

The gap between what's being paid for and what's being delivered lives in these three numbers.

Most leadership teams don't know what those numbers are.

The ones who do can't ignore them.

➡️ For those CFOs who want to protect payroll, improve operational efficiency, and throughput, DecideFast™ is the decision acceleration system that can solve this in real time, with no onboarding or friction. You see the impact in the first hour!

#cfo #operationalefficiency #throughput #payrollprotection

CFOs are under more pressure than ever: 65% say their boards want to see fast, measurable ROI from technology and productivity investments—the clock is ticking on every dollar spent.

Yet the reality inside most organizations?

$500 billion a year is lost across US enterprises to micro-hesitation, slowed decisions, and operational drag. 

A Fortune 500 company can lose up to 530,000 manager-days annually—often $250 million in payroll—because decision drag stalls projects and drains throughput. 

PwC reports that over half of executives admit they’re missing major business opportunities because teams can’t decide fast enough. 

But here’s the paradox:
➡️ Most “productivity” tools add complexity, require extra steps, and push employees to absorb yet another framework. People don’t want another workstream—they want relief, in the moment, when they’re truly stuck.

High-performing CFOs, those who outperform their peers, spend almost half their time on forward-looking strategy, not backward-looking reporting. They know that the true lever is helping teams move at business speed, not just adding more dashboards.

➡️ The next era of productivity will belong to those who can eliminate unnecessary complexity and enable teams to reset and move forward when it counts most.

➡️ It's time the corporate world woke up, fixed these million-dollar costs, and stopped ignoring these numbers. Who's bold enough to step forward?

“DecideFast™ sits at the intersection of decision speed, execution efficiency, and operational capacity.”

➡️ New Cost Calculator 

If you want to see what your number looks like, we can walk through the calculator together. Let’s get you on the schedule!

#CFO #DecisionAcceleration #Productivity #OperationalExcellence #BusinessStrategy

Every company loses time in the same places.
Not in disasters.

In the small moments, your people hit a wall and pause.
🚫 The dip in focus.
🚫 The drop in energy.
🚫 The moment someone stays quiet when they should speak.
🚫 The mid-day burnout that slows the room.
🚫 The hesitation before making a simple decision.

These moments look harmless.
They are expensive.
They weaken execution.
They slow teams.
They lower trust.
They shape how your company moves every day.

🚫 And when these moments hit, a survey will not help.
🚫 A wellness program will not help.
🚫 A meditation app will not help.
🚫 Nor will an employee rewards program.

None of those show up in the moment where the day slips.

Here is the question every leader avoids.

"What do these moments cost your organization across the year?"

Not in theory.
➡️ In real dollars.
➡️ In the delayed decisions.
➡️ In the stalled communication.
➡️ In the people who shut down when pressure rises.

If you pulled out your phone right now and ran the math on even one or two of these moments per employee each day, across your org, the number would hit hard.

That number sits on your balance sheet whether you name it or not. 

Now picture this.

What would your company look like if every employee had a way to pull themselves out of these moments in fifteen seconds when those moments hit 10-20 times every day?
✅ Cleaner execution.
✅ Faster decisions.
✅ More confident people.
✅ Less burnout hiding in the background.
✅ Teams that communicate instead of shutting down.
 
A company that moves without constant drag, makes faster decisions, and has a more confident workforce.

That is what DecideFast™ gives them.
 
A private reset they can use any time the day starts to slip.
✔️ Fast.
✔️ Simple.
✔️ Always in their hand.

If these moments changed, your company would feel different fast.
You already know it. 

DecideFast™: The Employee Reset Solution™
This is a new category that DecideFast™ has created. The corporate world hasn't seen it before—and must adapt, or employee churn, declining productivity, and poor culture will continue.

It's not a program.
It's not a perk.
It's a performance driver that employees actually use.
10-minute onboarding. No friction. No training. 

“The C suite wants dashboards and data. Employees want relief in the moment.”

HR leaders and CFOs: Do you want to maintain the status quo with the same programs that are not solving this, or do you want to be seen as an innovative company that is adapting this new approach to corporate culture and human performance at scale?

The question isn't, "Do we have budget for this?" The question is, "How fast can we get this in our organization?"

⬇️ Important ⬇️ 
If you want a short leadership briefing on this topic for your team, I offer a fifteen minute session with no pitch. It gives leaders clear insight they can use immediately.

Image credit: Proaction International - a dss+ company
Frank Congiu Shane Driggers

Most “workflow bottlenecks” aren’t workflow problems.

They’re decision problems hiding inside dashboards.

Every ops leader says the same thing:
“We can see the bottlenecks. The dashboards light up. The surveys confirm it.
But weeks later… the work is still stuck.”

Dashboards, surveys, and BI tools are great at surfacing friction. 
They are not effective at clearing it.​

Here’s what no one wants to admit:
Work isn’t waiting on data. It’s waiting on a decision.

Tasks don’t stall in Jira or Asana. They stall in people’s heads.
“We’re blocked” really means “No one feels safe or clear enough to move.”​

Workflow tools were built to track stuck work.

They were never built to give people a mental reset and accelerate decisions in real time.​

That’s the gap DecideFast™ was built to close.
It gives your people an on‑demand mental reset and improves decision acceleration in real time, the moment they get stuck:
✅ Break the cognitive jam.
✅ Create fast, aligned decisions.
✅ Protect payroll from another afternoon of “spinning.”​

Bottlenecks shouldn’t just be visible.
They should be short-lived.

If your dashboards keep telling you the same story every month, you don’t have a reporting problem.
➡️ You have a decision latency problem.

That’s what we solve at DecideFast™—real-time mental resets for your entire workforce. Decision acceleration compounds across the organization, protecting payroll, increasing operational efficiency, and decreasing labor cost leakage.

➡️ It's time the corporate world woke up, fixed these million-dollar costs, and stopped ignoring them. Who's bold enough to step forward?

“DecideFast™ sits at the intersection of decision speed, execution efficiency, and operational capacity.”

Most companies keep staring at workflow, while the real loss lives in the decision layer.

We obsess over revenue per employee, project delivery, ticket throughput, deals closed. All outcome metrics. None of them explain why a paid workday moves slow even when people are “working.”

Here is the part finance teams rarely name.

➡️ Decision Speed
How fast paid hours turn into output.

➡️ Decision Drag
Where payroll leaks before work even starts.

➡️ Decision Fatigue
Mental overload that quietly shrinks daily capacity.

➡️ Execution Flow
How consistently your labor investment produces.

Dashboards flag bottlenecks. Surveys confirm stress. BI tools paint the picture in fifteen different views. Then you look up a month later, and the same teams are still moving slowly. That is not a reporting issue. That is a decision-layer issue.

Think about a typical afternoon.
It is 2pm. A high performer has six priorities on their screen. Everything feels urgent. Nothing feels clear. Three minutes go by. Then ten. No one logs that moment anywhere. Yet payroll is still running.

Multiply that across hundreds or thousands of people and you see the problem. 

You are paying full price for capacity that gets chipped away by hesitation, overload, and unclear calls. Not because people are lazy. Because the system gives them data without giving them a fast reset when they hit that wall.

CFOs are being asked to cut costs and protect margins while the biggest leak sits between “I see the issue” and “We made the decision.” That space is invisible in most models. Which means the true cost never shows up where it should.

If you lead finance, this is the next frontier.
You do not need another dashboard. You need visibility into how fast decisions move, where they slow down inside the day, and how much paid capacity you lose there.

The companies that choose to measure and improve these four forces will run circles around the ones that keep polishing reports.

That’s what we solve at DecideFast™—real-time mental resets for your entire workforce. Decision acceleration compounds across the organization, protecting payroll, increasing operational efficiency, and decreasing labor cost leakage.

➡️ It's time the corporate world woke up, fixed these million-dollar costs, and stopped ignoring them. Who's bold enough to step forward?

Low Risk:
100 users. 30 days. Gather data (proof). Workforce rollout.

“DecideFast™ sits at the intersection of decision speed, execution efficiency, and operational capacity.”

#CFO #DecideFast #decisiondrag #workforceperformance

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