Ever notice how the loudest voices in the room rarely hold the fattest scorecards? We’ve all met the exec who can recite leadership mantras like a podcast playlist—yet their team’s still stuck in neutral. This post slices through that noise. If you’re ready to swap polished proclamations for proof-in-motion—and learn the simple tests that separate talkers from doers—grab a napkin, buckle up, and let’s turn words into wins.
Speaking of wins and action ... stick around for the closing note: this week marks our 101st Paper Napkin Wisdom episode of the season—well worth reading to the end!
Sources
In this week's Paper Napkin Wisdom Weekly:
- TL:DR
- Paper Napkin Wisdom Preview
- Talk Is Cheap—Action Pays the Bills
- Focus–Align–Act: “Make It A Great Escape!"
- The Gratitude Ritual: A Paper Napkin Wisdom Guide
- Week in Review
- Numbers Matter - 101 Happened This Week
🧠 TL;DR – Talk Less, Do
🧭 FOCUS
Knowing isn’t leading—doing is. We earn credibility when our calendars and KPIs echo our words.
🔹 Key Question: Where am I describing change instead of demonstrating it?
🔹 Napkin Thought: “Ideas don’t matter until they hit the pavement.”
🎯 ALIGN
Shift from verbal expertise to behavioral evidence.
🔹 Reframe: From “We should” to “By Friday, we will.”
🔹 Mantra:“Execution is the loudest language.”
🚀 ACT
🔹 Block a 90-minute “Execution Sprint” this week for a stalled priority.
🔹 Schedule one curiosity call to fill a knowledge gap and apply a new tactic within 48 hours.
🔹 Add TORC (Threat of Reference Check) to your next hire to separate talkers from doers.
🔁 REMEMBER:
Leadership compounds when words and actions match—post your first action with #PaperNapkinWisdom and inspire the next doer.
Paper Napkin Wisdom Podcast Preview
This is the only place where we give you a sneak peek into what's coming up on Paper Napkin Wisdom. Remember to share this with anyone who needs to hear these messages.
Episode 274: Michael Walsh Freedom Series Pt. 12:
The evolution continues. In this chapter, Michael explores the connection between freedom and focus—and why designing your time is the ultimate act of leadership.
Episode 275: Jeff Wetzler - Jeff mpowers leaders to uncover hidden truths—asking the right questions in a safe, curious way so that the real ideas, concerns, and insights in your team emerge and drive smarter decisions and breakthrough impact.
Episode 276: Courtney Ramsey - equips us with practical skills in people management, conflict resolution, and strategic alignment to help teams thrive and retention improve.
Episode 277: Michael Walsh Freedom Series Pt. 13:
Dive into what it really means to grow managers — not just as high-performing individuals, but as multipliers of people. We draw distinction between managing for personal results and managing through others to scale impact and build sustainable success.
Episode 278: Rhett Power, co-founder of Wild Creations and a globally recognized author, speaker and coach, Rhett brings powerful insights on what it takes to build teams that thrive.
Episode 279: Steven Langer, CEO of Well by Design team, he brings expertise in and thoughtful solutions that support independence and quality of life for everyone.
Episode 280: Michael Walsh Freedom Series Pt 14: Scaling isn’t about bigger budgets—it’s about managers who grow other leaders. Michael’s napkin map shows how to turn people into multipliers, not just performers.
Episode 281: Pete Olander - Hear how failing forward fueled his comeback—and why he now seeks obstacles on purpose.
Episode 282: Saahil Mehta distills mountaineer-grade clarity into a ritual for cutting baggage and leaping into bold moves.
Stay connected with Paper Napkin Wisdom on Apple, YouTube, and Spotify to be the first to hear these incredible episodes!
Talk Is Cheap—Action Pays the Bills
Ask any entrepreneur how many brilliant strategies they’ve heard over coffee, and you’ll see eyes roll. In leadership circles we’re drowning in clever talk. Yet when you look at the scoreboard—team engagement, customer delight, cash in the bank—it’s clear: ideas don’t create results, behavior does. The real separator isn’t knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.
1. Lead Yourself First: Close Your Own Knowing-Doing Gap
Know? Do.
If the path is clear, lace up and take the first step. Execution is a habit; every time you match knowledge with action you reinforce a culture of follow-through.
Don’t know? Ask.
True courage is admitting the edge of your map. Ask great questions, seek coaches, scour case studies, phone a mentor. Curiosity is a force-multiplier because it models learning for your team. When the leader says, “I don’t have that answer—let’s find out,” permission to grow ripples outward.
Napkin Thought: “Action turns potential into proof.”
2. Trust—but Verify
When others own pieces of the plan, blind faith is reckless, micro-management is corrosive. Aim for the healthy middle:
Clarity of Outcome.
Define what done looks like, why it matters, and the non-negotiable guardrails.
Cadence of Check-ins.
Short, rhythmic reviews (think weekly IDS or daily huddles) expose drift before it metastasizes. Bi-Weekly and Monthly is feels like reporting, weekly or less feels like teamwork and support.
Scoreboards in the Sunlight.
A visible metric or KPI keeps truth neutral—no surprises, no stories.
Your personal job is to hold the vision, inspect alignment, and unblock. Your Second-in-Command’s job is day-to-day orchestration.
When roles blur, accountability evaporates.
3. Onboarding Players Who Act, Not Just Talk
Nothing strains a scale-up like hiring someone who can pitch performance but can’t produce it. Enter TORC—the Threat of Reference Check (borrowed from Topgrading):
- Tell candidates upfront you’ll speak with former managers about specific results they claimed.
- Drill into “how.” Ask situational questions: “Walk me through the moment you turned around that project—what was step one?”
- Cross-validate. When references match the story, credibility lands on solid ground. When they don’t, you just dodged a costly mis-hire.
You’re not being cynical—you’re protecting the culture for every A-Player who does live in the land of execution.
4. Build an Action-Biased Culture Celebrate Starts, Not Just Wins.
Reward the first prototype, the sales call, the messy draft. Progress beats perfection.
Debrief Loudly.
After every sprint or project, ask: What did we intend? What did we do? What did we learn? The loop from reflection to improvement tightens.
Systematize Learning.
Core processes, SOPs, and playbooks capture “done-that” wisdom so tomorrow’s team doesn’t reinvent.
Your Move
- Audit your calendar. What’s parked on the “someday” list that you already know how to begin? Block the first 90-minute sprint for it today.
- List the three biggest leadership questions you’re wrestling with. Who can answer each? Book the call, buy the book, or sign up for the course—this week.
- Pick one upcoming hire. Insert TORC into the interview flow and watch how candidates recalibrate their claims.
When you shift from verbal mastery to behavioral mastery, you convert potential energy into kinetic growth—for you, your team, and the customers counting on you.
Call to Action
Grab a napkin, write down one thing you’ll act on today—not tomorrow—and snap a photo.
Post it with #PaperNapkinWisdom so we can celebrate real momentum together. Talk less, do more, and let’s compound progress.
✳️ FOCUS–ALIGN–ACT
“Close the Gap—From Talk to Action”
🔍 FOCUS
Shift: From sounding confident to behaving competent
“Execution is the loudest language in leadership.” — Napkin Insight
Leaders can hypnotize themselves (and others) with articulate plans. The real mirror is behavior: calendars, cash flow, customer delight.
To focus with clarity:
- Spot the Gap. Ask, “Where am I describing change instead of demonstrating it?”
- Name the First Mile. Define the smallest visible step that proves movement.
- Expose the Cost of Delay. Quantify what inaction is silently draining—time, trust, talent.
Key Question:What result could I show by next Friday if I stopped explaining and started doing?
Napkin Thought: “Ideas ≠ Impact until acted upon.”
🎯 ALIGN
Reframe: Knowledge is potential; action is kinetic.
“Confidence without evidence is theatre.” — Napkin Insight
How to interpret more intentionally:
- Language Audit → Behavior Audit. Replace “We should” with “By [date], we will.”
- Trust but Instrument. Metrics, dashboards, and TORC-style reference checks keep truth neutral.
- Role Precision. You cast vision; your Second-in-Command orchestrates. Alignment lives in that balance.
🔹Reframe: From ‘They said they can’ to ‘They’ve shown they can.’
🔹Mantra: “Prove it through practice.”
🚀 ACT
Concrete moves to convert knowing into doing:
- Calendar Carve-Out. Block a 90-minute “Execution Sprint” this week for your unlived priority.
- Curiosity Call. Identify a knowledge gap, book a 20-minute expert call, and return with one new tactic to deploy.
- Hire with TORC. For your next candidate, announce you’ll verify claims with two former managers—and follow through.
- Visible Scoreboard. Publish a single KPI that tracks the initiative you’ve been talking about. Review it publicly every Monday.
- Debrief Ritual. After each sprint, answer aloud: What did we plan? Do? Learn? Capture in a living playbook.
“Progress loves transparency.” — Govindh Jayaraman
Remember:
Leadership credibility compounds every time you match words with deeds. Grab a napkin, jot your first action, and share it with #PaperNapkinWisdom so we can celebrate real momentum together.
The Paper Napkin Wisdom Gratitude Ritual
We believe wisdom should be simple, powerful, and shareable — and that’s exactly what this is.
Introducing The Paper Napkin Wisdom Gratitude Ritual — your step-by-step blueprint to turning any dinner table into a space of deeper connection, shared wisdom, and lasting memories. Whether it's Thanksgiving, a team offsite, or a quiet evening with loved ones, this guide makes it easy for anyone to lead a meaningful moment.
🖊️ Just grab some napkins and pens — we’ll take care of the rest.
For a limited time, we’re offering this at 50% off — only $2.50. Why? Because we want more families, teams, and circles of friends to start traditions that truly matter.
Create a memory. Start a tradition. Make it stick — one napkin at a time.
Week in Review
In Episode 271, Dominican engineer-entrepreneur Rainier Mallol turned a single word—Decision—into a global public-health breakthrough, building the AI platform AIME to forecast mosquito-borne diseases with 85 % accuracy and guide officials during the 2016 Rio Olympics; after earning spots on MIT Innovators Under 35 and Forbes 30 Under 30, he pivoted the same data-driven rigor to cxgenies for customer-experience analytics, proving that impact scales when you fuse real-world prototyping, relentless iteration, and purpose-anchored pivots while owning your destiny through community and courageous yeses. .
In Episode 272, after thyroid-cancer surgeries threatened her ability to speak, former surgical technologist and Taekwondo athlete Jessica Fabus Cheng refused to let silence define her. She rebuilt her voice to ~80 % capacity, parlayed that grit into the Mrs. DC International 2025 crown, launched the “All the Best with Jess” podcast, and founded Turnkey Accessibility to help brands see inclusion as a growth engine, not a checkbox. Her journey proves that converting one’s greatest obstacle into a purpose-driven mission can amplify impact, cultivate resilience, and turn accessibility into a strategic advantage for every leader and organization.
Want every episode and exclusive bonus content? The only place to get the full Freedom by Design series is by subscribing to Paper Napkin Wisdom—unlock the roadmap to reclaiming your time, impact, and joy, one napkin at a time.
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