A foot injury, a dealer diagnostic built with AI, and a possible corporate recruiting conversation all landed in the same week. They brought us back to the same point: build something real that gives you choices.
We are grateful for the work in front of us, the clients trusting us with their projects, and the freedom to decide what comes next. That freedom comes from putting useful work into the market over time.
Getting Medical Care and Riding for Kids With Cancer
A damaged foot finally needed attention
Six weeks after I crushed a foot between a lawn mower and a mailbox post, the wound still hurt and had left a sizable hole. I had mountain biked a couple of times anyway, but when the foot started to smell like “a dead raccoon stuck out behind the shed,” we went to the hospital.
I am not “hospital people”, and medical care has never been a comfortable subject for me. Still, antibiotics were the right next step. The foot is mangled, but we expect it to heal.
The September plan remains the Great Cycle Challenge, with a goal of riding 300 miles for children with cancer. I had not logged miles yet because of the injury, but getting treatment meant I could start looking ahead to riding again.
Keeping Attention on Work That Produces Something
Moving past the news cycle
We could have spent the time on COVID, vaccines, Big Pharma, Fauci, and other current controversies. We also recognized the grief and anger around the killing of children, and the need for prayer in a culture that too often gives little value to their lives.
However, we chose to put the focus on something more constructive: work, health, projects, clients, and the choices that come from building a business.
A Dealer Diagnostic That Starts a Better Sales Conversation
Turning service-department inputs into a personal report
We built a tool at Dealer Gaps for powersports dealers to see what their service department could be leaving on the table. We used an AI tool to help build it, then put it on its own site so it loads immediately.
The diagnostic asks for the operating numbers that shape fixed-operations performance:
- Monthly repair orders, effective labor rate, parts revenue, and gross profit margin.
- Monthly net profit, team size, employee tenure, and KPI tracking.
- Phone and upsell skills, online reputation, facility presentation, and unit sales.
For the walkthrough, we entered 300 repair orders per month, a $165 effective labor rate, $100,000 in monthly parts revenue, a 42% gross margin, six service employees, and 80 units sold. The report estimated that the dealer could have the potential to add $45,000 per month, or $543,000 annually.
That is not a guarantee. It is a way to make an abstract training conversation tangible, based on the numbers a dealer supplied.
A personal diagnostic gives a prospect a clearer picture of the problems training may address.
The report also points to the training areas that deserve the most attention. In the sample, those were fixed operations, KPI tracking, and customer retention, although the full program covers six training areas. That makes the Powersport Academy membership options easier to connect to a dealer’s immediate concerns.
Explaining the Value Behind Training Prices
Revenue potential changes the conversation
A year of full-store training can cost $45,000. When a dealer sees the potential for substantial revenue improvement and applies the training over several months, that price becomes easier to discuss.
The diagnostic also gave us a broader example for agencies and business owners. Whether you run a training program, sell flooring, mow lawns, or operate a service business, you can ask prospects about their own situation and show what working together could improve. The completed form also gives us information for follow-up and Digital Marketing conversations.
A Faster WordPress Site and Active Client Work
Rebuilding the Manana No Mas! site
We rebuilt the Manana No Mas! website in WordPress and moved its speed score from 62 to 98. We trimmed a lot of unnecessary weight, while recognizing that a few features may need to return later. The site still carries hundreds of older posts and runs two CRM systems.
The refreshed site includes About, Services, Work, and a blog section we call the Wisdom channel. It also links to our Powersport Academy work, agency projects, the WP Minute, Membership Machine Show, WP-Tonic, LifterLMS, and the local WordPress meetup. Our WordPress website services cover the kind of project inquiries shown in the video, including enterprise eLearning, training and consulting, community platforms, startup work, and e-commerce.
Building around the customer’s priority
We also previewed Prism Diamond Art, an upcoming local e-commerce store for art kits. The customer wanted the store to function as the homepage, with the rest of the site placed in a side menu. Her requested look included a white header, blue buttons, a teal logo, and artwork from the kits in the hero area.
PF University launched about a month and a half earlier. It organizes family office management education into course tracks, including family enterprise leadership, advisory excellence, and stewardship and kingdom wealth. It also has separate mentor access, restricted through membership tools. That kind of course and membership structure fits the work we do with LifterLMS for WordPress agencies.
We also mentioned a continuing-education project for a dental hygienist, along with several other projects moving forward.
A Recruiting Call Confirmed the Value of Built Work
Experience creates options
An automotive project approached us about a leadership role. We answered directly: any serious conversation would need remote work, real autonomy, and the authority to pursue results without micromanagement. The response came back quickly.
That conversation reminded us of the experience already behind our work, including dealer, regional, national, and international roles. As North American training manager for Ducati, we worked across Mexico, the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, and France. More of Kurt von Ahnen’s professional background sits behind the projects and training now available.
A high-paying corporate role may be appealing, but owning training products creates another option. Training 10 dealers at $45,000 per year would produce $450,000 in revenue without abandoning the work we already built.
The Minimal Viable Product Came Before the Larger Career
A book created visible proof of expertise
We keep returning to the minimal viable product. Planning, visualizing, and waiting for the perfect version can consume a startup. A real first version gives people something to see, evaluate, and share.
Our own timeline started with Service Writing in Black and White:
- We wrote and published the book in 2007, during a time when money was tight.
- We started the agency in 2008 and connected with Ducati around 2008 and 2009.
- The Ducati training program was complete by 2010.
- By 2011, dealers that took the training were doubling service revenue.
- Ducati recruited us to bring the program in-house by 2013.
The book became proof that we had something useful to say. That work did not appear overnight, but it opened later opportunities because people could see it.
Freedom Requires Health, Focus, and Delegation
Fitness provides the accountability
The Great Cycle Challenge gives us a reason to stay on the bike while raising money for children with cancer. We have participated for around nine or 10 years, ridden more than 3,600 miles, and helped raise more than $3,000. The current goal is $500, partly because we want the event jersey, but also because the challenge keeps fitness on the calendar.
We also talked about whole foods at home: brisket and steaks, half a cow in the freezer, zucchini, potatoes, jalapenos, and food our wife grew in the garden. At the hospital, the nurse saw strong health numbers and immediately understood when we said bicycling is part of our lifestyle.
Delegation protects the choices we value
Freedom meant we could go to the hospital without asking for time off. It also meant our wife could ask the right question about the recruiting opportunity: “Do we need you to make that much money now?”
We want to grow without doing every technical task ourselves. One current subcontract project pays us to manage the customer relationship and coordinate technical staff, while another team completes the work. We are considering contractors, subcontractors, full-time people, and paid apprentices through the WP Agency Academy and Sunflower Launch Apprenticeship Program.
That same commitment extends to our community. We built and gave a website to Dwight, the tree cutter who did excellent work at our home. We included a contact form, business email, and first-year hosting. We have also donated sites to Tom and Dan’s Automotive Repair and other local organizations, including a business directory for roughly 26 businesses.
Building Choices Through Useful Work
The point of Fitness, Focus, Freedom Friday is not that every person should take the same route. We built our freedom through health, visible work, client projects, training products, and a willingness to keep going when work took time.
There is less wishing and more doing. Start with the smallest useful version of your idea, then give people something real to respond to.