BALANCING ACT: BLENDING LIFE, WORK, AND RELATIONSHIPS® A free monthly newsletter about balancing life, work, and relationships based on the books and popular workshops conducted by Alan Weiss, Ph.D.

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Essays

Musings

Developmental Stuff

ORTIYKMWOYBNTO

Balancing Act^®: The Newsletter

(No. 321, April 2026)

BALANCING ACT: BLENDING LIFE, WORK, AND RELATIONSHIPS®

A free monthly newsletter about balancing life, work, and relationships based on the books and popular workshops conducted by Alan Weiss, Ph.D. Past copies are archived on our web site: http://www.summitconsulting.com

ISSN 1934-3116

Balancing Act^® is our registered trademark. You are encouraged to share the contents with others with appropriate attribution. Please use the ^® whenever the phrase “Balancing Act” is used in connection with this newsletter or our workshops.

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Balancing Act is in four sections:

Essays
Musings
Developmental Stuff
ORTIYKMWOYBNT-O Department

Follow me on X. YOU CAN FIND ME HERE: https://x.com/BentleyGTCSpeed

Join the thousands who read these “quick hits” every morning. Over 9,500 followers! Why aren’t you among them? AND FIND ME ON Facebook.

Listen to my free Podcast Series on iTunes or on ContrarianConsulting.com: Alan Weiss’s The Uncomfortable Truth^®. And watch A Minute with Alan^® and Alan at 80™ daily on all social media and my blog.

Hobbies

Don't turn your business into a hobby and don’t turn your hobby into a business. By all means, do something you love to do and get paid well for it, but establish an intelligent business model wherein you’re making money. When Marshall Goldsmith and I wrote Lifestorming together, we found that the preponderance of “life coaches” in the country were female, and most of them were hardly making any money. They had lousy business models, and didn’t properly value their contributions to others. As for true hobbies, drop the perfectionism. Once you’re consumed with the perfect drawing, or model, or collection, you’ve just created more work for yourself, not relief.

Competence

Someone walks into a lunch room, and immediately tells you how to lead others, how to set an example, draws several charts on a whiteboard, and then provides a list of 12 “musts” for successful leadership. After that the person offers a “guaranteed” leadership success package for $299. Would you buy from this person, whom you’ve never heard of? Of course not.

So why are you reading all this garbage on LinkedIn?

IA

Artificial intelligence will find it’s right water level as people master and apply it without being afraid of it. Consultants who suddenly proclaimed they are “AI experts” will vanish in the wind. And today, of course, everyone is a “thought leader.” I asked someone who admitted they could not afford to spend $200 on self-improvement how they could bill themselves all over as a “thought leader, expert, best-selling author, and sought-after speaker.” They replied, “I’m a little down on my luck.”

What we need today is “IA” which I’ve coined to mean the “Indisputable Authority.” People don’t trust their own judgment anymore, and I don’t believe that either normative pressure or “influencers” are the answer. The answer is someone with a track record of success and strong advising skills who can confidently help you in decision making, both personal and professional. Remember, above all, competence trumps credentials.

Generosity

About 30 year or so ago, my wife and I brought our Jaguar into a local shop we had never visited to get a tail bulb replaced. The car was out of warranty. The owner replaced the bulb, told us there was no charge, but could he show us around the facility? He did, we were impressed, and would proceed to bring him non-warranty work with increasingly expensive cars over decades.

He and his staff continue to do that work for us today, through millions of dollars of cars. Stop trying to “make a buck” all the time, and instead focus on the relationships. Think of the fourth sale first.

“Knowledge” comprises facts, information, and skills we acquire through experience and education, including the acquisition of data. “Data” comprise facts and statistics gathered for analysis. They are neither synonymous nor interchangeable.

I'm going to provide some rather horrific social proof, but if we can’t learn from tragedy then perhaps we can’t learn at all.

The Boeing 737 Max jetliner was besieged by problems with its flawed automated flight control software system. Faulty data was generated by a single, flawed angle-of-attack sensor which forced the plane’s nose downward. There were two fatal crashes as a result.

The pilots who were able to diagnose the problem and take corrective steps (such as disconnecting the autopilot) were knowledgeable. They turned data into information and merged it with their experiences to avoid disaster. Those who simply relied on the data—which was faulty—did not. I’m not attributing this to pilot error, it was Boeing’s error, but I am making the point that we cannot afford to merely rely on endless streams of data and algorithms to run our lives.

Even baseball managers use algorithms today to decide how many innings a pitcher should pitch or who is best able to bat under certain circumstances. If that had been the norm, there would have been no Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Jackie Robinson, or Sandy Koufax.

The problem will get worse if we fail to trust our judgment and increasing rely on steams of data to “play it safe.” It isn’t safe at all.

Development Opportunities

Monetizing thought leadership:

The Right Attitude for the Right Altitude

Date: June 23-24, 2026

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Fees: Starts at $2500

HOW ELITE CONSULTANTS EARN MORE BY THINKING DIFFERENTLY

This is not for those who need more tactics. It's for those who seek and identify shift to shamelessly build brand and command the income justified by their value. Objectives:

The economic prism to best evaluate opportunities and clients
Creating and justifying high fees without guilt or trepidation
Exploiting the reasons buyers pay six and seven-figure fees
Before and beyond a brand: a repositioned identity
Creating a business that serves your life, not the reverse

TOPICS AND DISCUSSIONS:

1. The Economics of expertise

Better positioning trumps "more leads"
The active volcanoes of IP
Revenue depends on value clarity
The supremacy of recognized value

2. Continual value creation

The psychology of capturing value and ignoring price
Offensive, not defensive proposals
Walking your talk, talking your walk

3. Surpassing "trusted advisor"

The IA (indispensable authority)
The myths of likeability and accessibility
Distance without arrogance
Rejecting positive and dysfunctional relationships

4. The authority/brand/gravity alchemy

Visibility is not authority
Thought leadership is framing, not solving
To market upward you can't go sideways

5. The ROI journey begins at the destination

There must be "reasonable certainty"
Work backwards from outcomes
Confidence and competence over credentials
Your internal transformation

6. Road closed, do not proceed

Scaling is something you do to fish
Only profitable growth makes sense
The "E" word is elevation, not expansion
Your life cannot serve your business

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Experienced consultants, speakers, coaches in any field
Those seeking a great lifestyle, not a specific monetary goal
People who can openly share and be honest with colleagues
Those who feel their talents and value can be spread much farther
Those who feel under-valued and under-appreciated

Applicants will be "curated" to ensure proper interactions.

$2,500 per person

$3,500 to include second morning with Q&A with Alan demonstrating transition needs for each attendee

$7,500 to include four hours of one-on-one coaching in 30-60 minute segments within six months, flexibly scheduled

$10,000 includes dinner with Alan one-on-one in a great restaurant

You will no longer struggle for client affection, selection, or projection. You'll be chosen because of your identify and authority.

Summary: You're not "buying" information or tactics, you are investing in a new way of thinking about yourself, the market, and long-term, sustainable immediate and passive income for you value.

June 23: Full Day

June 24: Optional half-day

Venue: TBD in Los Angeles

Includes light breakfast both mornings, lunch the first day.

LONDON:

On May 18-19 (1.5 days) I’m running a “cabaret style” session in my suite in London on how to create the identify, esteem, and market profile required to be a seven-figure consultant. The fee is $4,500, which includes a reception/dinner evening at a Michelin-star restaurant, a light breakfast and lunch. Write me: [email protected] or register here. I HAVE ONE SPACE AVAILABLE.

2026 Zoom Workshops

January 6	Maximizing the coaching/advisory dynamic
February 3	Maximizing speaking spin-off business
March 3	Role-playing tough conversations
April 7	Maximizing workshop effectiveness spin-off
May 5	Maximizing current events potential
June 9	Role-playing tougher conversations
July 7	Maximizing low project labor practices
August 13	Maximizing panels—participant/moderator
September 8	Role-playing toughest conversations
October 6	Maximizing publishing potential
November 2	Maximizing lifestyle potential
December 8	Maximizing 2027 personally and professionally

All sessions are approximately 90 minutes beginning at 10:30 US eastern time. These sessions are $450 each, or the entire year for $5,000. Add three months of weekly 30-minute coaching for $2,500, a total of $7,500. (My cards are accepted for the full-year, and for the full-year and coaching options, not for individual sessions.) All sessions will include video recording, visual photos, and Zoom Companion summary. Register here: https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/zoom-workshops-2026/

AI: Alan Intelligence™

My unique AI resource which will direct you to the relevant aspects of my entire body of work to answer your “real time” questions about proposals, value based fees, conceptual agreement, avoiding “ghosting,” and thousands of other issues with text, audio, and video resources, all of which you can download. Please go here to gain lifelong, constantly growing access to my work, including referral to specific pages in my books which you can access online: https://alanweiss.com/ai-alan-intelligence/ If you decide at any time to engage in one of my two elite, personal coaching relationships, I'll deduct the full fee you've paid for this resource.

IT'S NOW IN MY VOICE! IN RECOGNITION OF THAT SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT, I'M OFFERING A SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP: INSTEAD OF THE CURRENT $1,200, JOIN FOR THE ORIGINAL CHARTER PRICE OF $450, FOR TOTAL ACCESS INCLUDING MY LIBRARY. YOU CAN DO SO HERE: https://alanweiss.com/store/quick-pay/ No annual fee, you can use this resource forever!

Million Dollar Consulting® Global Online Program

Million Dollar Consulting^® for the World

I’ve provided 14 modules with videos from me, from your colleagues globally, slides, and text. They include everything from launch to self-esteem, proposals to fees, closing business to creating a brand. No upsells! It’s only $115. What do you think about a 10,000:1 ROI? We have over 500 people from 47 countries. https://milliondollarconsultingcourse.com

LEARN MORE

Million Dollar Consulting® Global Online Program ADVANCED

Million Dollar Consulting^® for the World ADVANCED

The new program contains over 60 videos and has 15 modules focusing on what to do in the buyer’s office, overcoming crises, financial planning, and much, much more. https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/advanced-global-learning-program/

LEARN MORE

Million Dollar Consulting® Global Online Program GRADUATE

New: Million Dollar Consulting^® for the World Graduate

Another 12 modules with videos by me and your peers on contemporary issues such as Raising Fees Aggressively, How to Be Consistently Interviewed, Maximizing Happiness, and Managing Multiple projects. Join the people from 57 countries who are availing themselves of this inexpensive way to dramatically grow their businesses in any economic times. How does 100:1 ROI sound? https://milliondollarconsultingcourse.com/graduate-learning-program/

LEARN MORE

I'm an Old Cowhand...

I’ve coined the phrase “He brings shallowness to new depths.” My wife was proofreading one of my newsletters and said, “This is clever, who said it?” I told her I did. She didn’t believe me.

“I’ll prove it,” I said, “let’s ask AI.” I input, “Who is the author of the phrase “He brings shallowness to new depths”? AI replied instantly:

'The phrase “He brings shallowness to new depths” is attributed to Alan Weiss.

He has used it in his writing and speaking—typically as a sharp critique of thinking that appears sophisticated on the surface but is actually superficial or regressive. It reflects his broader style: concise, provocative, and aimed at puncturing pretension in business and consulting contexts.'

“So,” my wife said, “AI really is garbage….”