Amplify Experiences, LLC

09/21/2026

In second grade, kids took my lunch bag, stepped on it, and threw it across the cafeteria.

So I stopped bringing sandwiches.

I told my mom I wanted mac and cheese. Soup. Anything in a hard thermos.

Because you can't crush a thermos.

I never told her why. I didn't tell anyone for 35 years.

I shared that story, and a few others I'd never said out loud, on Let's Write Your Speech with Israel.

The idea of the show is simple: John sits down with a speaker and helps shape the talk in real time. What I didn't expect was how much he'd help me shape the why.

Somewhere between the thermos, my Baba, and the all-campus formal I created in college so students who weren't Greek or athletes could have their night too, John put words to something I've been circling for years:

Whatever you sell, you're really in the business of mattering.

Every person you serve (your client, your team member, your kid) is silently asking one question: Do I matter?

Most businesses answer it with a logo on a mug.

The ones that last answer it on purpose, and consistently. With a name remembered. A handwritten note. A room someone wouldn't otherwise get to be in.

John, thank you. Years ago you looked at me and asked, "Why don't you do it?" You did it again in this conversation.

Who was the first person who made you feel like you mattered? Tell me in the comments.

🎧 Full episode link in the comments.

09/17/2026

09/14/2026

In September 2023, at MIT Endicott House, I walked across a bed of burning coals.

I have the video. I'm all smiles.

What you don't see is the two hours before it - the nerves, the fear, the actual tears, and the board I had to break with my bare hand first.

It was a COO Alliance event, and Cameron Herold didn't teach the firewalk himself. He brought in Dave Albin — the guy who ran the coals for Tony Robbins for 17 years. I didn't walk on coals because I'm brave. I walked on coals because someone who had done it thousands of times spent two hours preparing me to.

Companies do this backwards constantly.

They describe the moment they want their customers and their teams to have, the welcome, the save, the day-one feeling, and then they hand it to people with no preparation, no practice, no one who's done it before standing beside them, and hope it lands.

Your customers only ever see the video.

But they can tell instantly whether the two hours happened.

I still have a box of coals from that night sitting in my office. What it reminds me of isn't the fire. It's the two hours.

What are you doing in the two hours before the moment that matters most in your business?

(Full story linked in the comments 👇)

09/08/2026

Twelve years ago I dropped my twin boys off at preschool for the first time.

I made it back to the car. I did not make it much further than that.

I drove straight to the paint store, picked out a teal I had no plan for, went home, and painted both upstairs bathrooms. Walls. Ceilings. All of it.

It didn't match anything. It still doesn't. Thirteen years later those bathrooms are still teal and I have never once considered repainting them.

This morning I dropped those same boys off at the bus for their first day of high school.

I finally understand what I was doing at that paint store. And I think it's the same thing most organizations are failing to do for their people.

Link in the comments. 🩵

09/08/2026

First Day of School Vibes

09/01/2026

Your best customer didn't leave over price. Your best employee didn't leave over pay.

They left because somewhere along the way, they stopped feeling like they mattered - and nobody noticed in time.

Here's the hard part: exit interviews and churn reports tell you that people left. They almost never tell you why. By the time it shows up in the data, the moment that actually broke it happened months ago.

So I built a short diagnostic. Nine questions. Five minutes. It walks you through the specific moments where organizations quietly signal to people that they're a transaction - and shows you which ones are costing you.

You'll get your results immediately, plus the first place to fix.

Experiences create loyalty. Loyalty drives revenue. Relationships build brands.

08/31/2026

People rarely leave loudly. They leave in three quiet stages, and most leaders miss all three.

No personalization. They stop being a name and start being an account number, a headcount, a ticket. Nothing is wrong. Nothing is theirs, either.

No follow-up. They raise a hand - a question, a concern, an idea - and it goes into the void. They learn not to raise it again.

No acknowledgment. They do good work or spend good money and it registers nowhere. No one notices. So they stop giving you the version of themselves worth noticing.

By the time it shows up in your churn report or your exit interview, all three already happened. Months ago. The data tells you that they left. It almost never tells you which signal you sent.

I've spent two decades watching organizations lose their best people and best customers to something they never saw and could have fixed for free.

Tomorrow I'm sharing something I built to help you spot which one is happening in yours.

08/30/2026

Four stores. Zero pants. Two boys who were completely done with me.

My sons are in the in-between - too big for kids', too small for men's. Every size chart in America skips them.

Nautica, Banana Republic, Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren. Nothing fit. We finally found a pair at Calvin Klein, bought one color, and I called it a win.

Then we found the blazers. And the pants we'd just bought didn't match.

Back we went. The associate checked the stockroom - nothing. He offered to order them and told me straight away that shipping might take a while. Fine. Then he pulled up the screen: only black available. Not the mushroom. Not the light blue. The two colors that would have actually solved my problem.

That is the exact moment most retail interactions politely end. "Sorry, that's all the system is showing me." Not rude. Not wrong. Just the end.

He didn't stop there. He searched inventory at other locations, found my sizes, picked up the phone, got the SKU numbers, and placed the order himself.

They'll be at my house ten days before school starts.

He never sighed. He never handed the problem back to me. He kept it.

I can't tell you about one other interaction that I had with associate that day. I remember him.

"Out of stock" is a fact. It isn't an answer. The space between the two is where your brand actually lives.

(Pictured below - flash back to the first day of Kindergarten ... hard to believe the first day of High School is loading.....)

08/29/2026

This is the whole thing, honestly.

Every person you pass today is silently asking one question: do I matter? A compliment is the cheapest, fastest way to answer yes.

It costs you four seconds. It can change someone’s entire afternoon.

Say the nice thing out loud.

08/28/2026

I had the opportunity to be on Erika’s podcast earlier this year - and now we are only a few weeks out from her second Audacious Women’s Summit.

Listen to the episode. Subscribe to her podcast. And check out the summit. There is time for you to be in the room with some pretty incredible women.

I will be there for both the VIP and the Main Stage Day. And I hope you will too!