Every leader is being shaped by something. Fear. Ego. Culture. Purpose. Something is influencing how you think, decide, and lead right now. And most of the time it never announces itself. It disguises itself as logic, caution, and experience.

After decades of observing leadership teams, the question that keeps coming up isn't, “What should I do next?” It's, “What's actually driving the decision?” Because leaders rarely rise above what shapes them most. And every organization eventually becomes a reflection of what its leaders have chosen to believe.

If that question hits closer to home than you'd like, this one's worth the read.

Getting laid off the Monday after your honeymoon would break most people.

Andrew Stallings, founder and CEO of Athelo Group, turned it into a 90-day sprint that became an eight-figure sports marketing and athlete representation agency built on resilience, community over currency, and the ability to pivot before the wave hits.

This conversation gets into the real cost of building something from nothing, the friendships that don’t survive the growth, the founder stress nobody talks about, and the slow realization that stability was the goal the whole time.

Hear how Andrew turned chaos into a career defining agency and why it matters if you are building something of your own.

Do you have an entrepreneur story to tell? A point to make? An idea to share? We want to hear from you! Sign up to be a Hello Chaos guest today.

By all accounts, Anna Locke shouldn’t be an accountant. Her DISC profile indicates that she’s far more people-oriented than she is numbers-oriented, yet her total accounting firm, A.T. Locke, is gearing up to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. How? Anna relies on her team and leans on her personal strengths to take her business where it needs to go.

A.T. Locke didn’t become successful overnight. After some hard lessons learned and internal conflicts within the company, Anna is determined to be the best leader she can be for her team and her clients. Read on to discover what makes A.T. Locke, total accounting firm, so incredible.

Know What's Available to You

Most entrepreneurs don't lack drive. They lack structure. FastTrac is an in-person program offered through the City of Columbia Office of Business Opportunities that gives you both.

Through hands-on workshops covering business planning, marketing, and financial management, you're learning from experienced professionals who've actually built things. Add in one-on-one coaching tailored to where you are right now, and you've got a resource that meets you where you are and helps you get to where you're trying to go.

If you're in the Columbia area and ready to stop figuring it out alone, this one's worth your time.

Ready for a new ride? Carolina Foothills Federal Credit Union offers auto loans with rates and payments built around your budget, not a big bank's bottom line.

Investors face a dilemma. When the S&P 500 finished its worst quarter since 2022 last month, diversifiers like bonds and bitcoin fell too.

Even with the turnaround in mid-April, analysts at Goldman Sachs and Vanguard have projected low-single-digit annualized returns from 2024-2034.

Bloomberg asked where experts would personally invest $100,000 for their March monthly edition.

One answer that surfaced for a second time? Art.

It's what billionaires like Bezos and the Rockefellers have privately used to diversify for decades.

Why?

Thanks to the world's premier art investing platform, now anyone can invest in works featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso, without needing millions.

Shares in new offerings can sell quickly but...

Our subscribers skip their waitlist*

^{*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.}