Six everyday decisions, one for each built-in advisor and one for an advisor a member built, from the question to the check-in date.
*The members are fictional. Answers are shortened for these examples; in the app your board answers in full.
Example · a fictional member
You asked: Should I hire a second salesperson now, or wait for spring?
Your Chair's call
Run the trailing-90-day numbers this week; hire now only if a second salary clears your slow-quarter cushion.
Confidence 3 of 5
Who disagrees
Everett Marsh (Work) would hire now if you have consistent evidence of turned-away leads, regardless of whether the slow-quarter math closes perfectly yet.
What would change this
If your current cash reserves can absorb a full ramp cycle with zero new revenue and still cover a slow quarter comfortably.
Your first step, by Thu, Oct 15
Pull your trailing-90-day revenue and fully loaded fixed costs, then model whether adding a second salary still leaves you safe if the next quarter produces nothing new.
Your August price raise worked: three deals closed, nobody blinked. Before you hire against it, put the hire where it belongs: on the P&L as a fixed cost, not a bet.
Run the numbers: does the 8% price lift plus current volume cover a second salary through a slow quarter, fully loaded, with margin left over? If yes, hire now. If the cushion isn't there yet, wait one more cycle and let the price increase prove itself in cash first.
Confidence 4 of 5 · From The weekly sales letter, issue 12, saved Oct 5 · From your North Star
Everett Marsh · Work
Your pipeline is ahead of what one person can call on. Hire for the gap you can already see.
Your own rule says a new rep needs roughly three months before closing solo. If spring is the rush, hiring in spring means they're still ramping when the rush happens. If spring matters, the hire has to happen now or close to it, so the ramp finishes before the rush, not during it.
Confidence 4 of 5 · From The weekly sales letter, issue 12, saved Oct 5 · From your North Star
From your North Star:
How you decide: Never add a fixed cost the business could not carry through a slow quarter.
Value: Grow from cash, not hope.
Goal: Five years out: a sales team of four, and I only sell the biggest accounts.
How you decide: I would rather be a month late than a quarter short.
Your decision
Should I hire a second salesperson now, or wait for spring?
Hire a second salesperson now, so they are ready before spring
Confidence
4 of 5
Check-in date
Wednesday, November 11
Asked
Adrienne Marchetti, Everett Marsh
What your board pulled from
Your note
Your North Star
Took: no new fixed cost you couldn't carry through a slow quarter.
Newsletter issue you saved
The weekly sales letter, issue 12
Took: a new rep needs about 90 days to close a first deal, so hiring in spring means they're still learning during the rush.
Your past decision
Raise prices 8% on new contracts (3 weeks ago, went well)
Took: the 8% raise is already bringing in real money, so check it can pay a second salary through a slow quarter.
1. Money: a household purchase (Adrienne Marchetti leads)
The question
Our sheets are worn out. A linen set is $380 and a cotton set is $120. Is linen worth it?
Your board
Adrienne Marchetti, Money
“The real question is $260, not $380. Buy well once, buy cheap twice: that’s your own rule, and sheets qualify if you’ll keep them five years or more. Against your $4,000 month, it’s not a stretch.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
Marcus Reyes, Body
“Linen breathes and handles heat better than most cotton. If either of you runs warm at night, that’s a real reason to lean linen. Your home is where you both rest well.”
Confidence 3 of 5. From: your North Star.
The decision
Buy the linen set, if this month is under your $4,000.
Next step
Check this month’s spending, and order the linen set this week if you’re under.
Check-in
30 days.
2. Work: a new role (Everett Marsh leads)
The question
I’ve been offered a team lead role: 15% more pay, but less of the hands-on work I’m best at. Should I take it?
Your board
Everett Marsh, Work
“Your five-year line points this way: paid for judgment, not hours. The 15% is the entry price for that rung. But hands-on design is what you’re best at, so get protected design time in writing before you say yes.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
Adrienne Marchetti, Money
“The money works either way. The bigger risk is drifting two years into management before you see it moved you away from what you decided you are.”
Confidence 3 of 5. From: your North Star.
Beatrice Hollis, People
“A team lead role usually asks for more broken-up attention, not more hours. Find out what it does to your evenings before you decide, not after.”
Confidence 3 of 5. From: your North Star.
The decision
Take the role only with protected hands-on design hours agreed in writing.
Next step
Pick the number of design hours a week you’ll protect, and raise it in the offer conversation this week.
Check-in
14 days.
3. Body: a sleep routine (Marcus Reyes leads)
The question
I’m in bed by 11 but on my phone until midnight. Should I move my workouts to 6 AM to force an earlier night?
Your board
Marcus Reyes, Body
“Moving workouts to 6 AM doesn’t solve a phone-in-bed problem. The fix is the hour between 11 and midnight: phone out of the bedroom at 11. Keep your four sessions after work, and try new timing only after two weeks of real seven-to-eight-hour nights.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
Iris Merrow, Mind
“The 6 AM alarm is you using a future obligation to fix a present habit. The phone at midnight is fully in your control. Solve that first.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
The decision
The phone charges outside the bedroom from 11 PM. Workouts stay after work.
Next step
Charge your phone outside the bedroom tonight, with lights out at 11.
Check-in
14 days.
4. People: a family loan (Beatrice Hollis leads)
The question
My brother wants to borrow $5,000. The last $3,000 isn’t paid back. How do I say no without hurting us?
Your board
Beatrice Hollis, People
“This isn’t really about the $5,000. It’s about protecting your weekly calls. Say it once, kindly, in private, not over text: you won’t lend more while the $3,000 is still open, and you want your calls to be yours, not about money.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
Adrienne Marchetti, Money
“$5,000 on top of $3,000 is $8,000 tied up in one relationship. Ask what happens if neither ever comes back. If that threatens your emergency fund, you have your answer.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
The decision
No new loan while the $3,000 is still open.
Next step
Call your brother this week and say no plainly.
Check-in
7 days.
5. Mind: too many priorities (Iris Merrow leads)
The question
I have four big projects this quarter and I’m moving slowly on all of them. Which ones do I drop?
Your board
Iris Merrow, Mind
“You don’t drop by preference, you drop by what depends on what. The website is the spine: the course sells through it, the newsletter signs people up through it. The podcast depends on nothing and feeds nothing on your list.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
Everett Marsh, Work
“Build the website to good enough to launch, not done. The newsletter starts the moment the site is live, then the course. Park the podcast, don’t kill it.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
The decision
Website first, then the newsletter, then the course. The podcast waits until next quarter.
Next step
Put the podcast on hold this week and tell Everett Marsh the order for the other three.
Check-in
30 days.
6. An advisor a member built (custom advisor)
On Ink and Brass, you can build your own advisors. Describe the advisor you wish you had in five short answers, and share the newsletters and notes it should learn from. This member built a speaking expert, named her Odette Lindqvist, and shared notes from past talks.
The question
I’m giving the keynote at our industry dinner in two weeks. Do I write it out word for word, or speak from notes?
Your board
Odette Lindqvist, Speaking (built by this member)
“Write out the opening and close word for word: that’s where nerves peak. Speak the middle from large-print cards with a time mark for each section. Your notes say you lost your place reading a full script last spring, and your bullet-point talk ran 2 minutes over.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your talk notes.
Iris Merrow, Mind
“Spend the two weeks knowing the material so well the format stops mattering. Then rehearse against the clock, not against the page.”
Confidence 3 of 5. From: your North Star.
The decision
Script the opening and close, cards with time marks for the middle, two timed run-throughs.
Next step
Rehearse out loud twice this week, with a timer, cards in hand.
Check-in
14 days.
Follow-through
7. After the check-in: the next decision (Everett Marsh)
You asked Everett Marsh and Adrienne Marchetti whether to hire an operations lead now or after the first quarter. You went with Everett: hire now.
Thirty days later
On the date you chose, your board asks how it went. You answer with one tap or click, “Mixed”, and add one line: “Handoffs are faster, but I still check everything, because I never wrote down what done looks like.”
The next decision
Later, you ask whether to make the role full-time. Everett answers with the first hire in mind:
Everett Marsh, Work
“You already made this call once: you hired the operations lead, and the result was mixed. The handoffs are faster, but you still check everything, and your own outcome note tells you why: nobody wrote down what done looks like. That’s not a staffing problem. My read: don’t decide full-time yet. Write the done-criteria for your top three handoffs this week.”
Confidence 4 of 5. From: your North Star.
Your decisions page keeps the score on your own calls: when you went against an advisor, how often it worked out well.
That is the part a chat window never remembers. Every decision you save, and how it worked out, is there for your next related question, so every answer after it is better and more personal to you.