I’ve been reflecting a lot lately.
I know. Very predictable for a milestone moment. But ten years has a way of doing that to you.
I just celebrated my 10th anniversary at StringCan Interactive, and when you’ve spent that long building something from the inside, the lessons get pretty clear. Not the flashy ones. The quiet ones that show up again and again.
Here’s one I keep coming back to.
Listening matters.
But adjusting is what people feel.
One of the reasons Jay Feitlinger and I have worked well together for so long is not because we always agree. We do not. It is not because we have never had tension. We have.
It is because when I bring something up that is bothering me, or suggest we do something differently, he listens, and then he actually does something with it.
No defensiveness.
No explanations.
No “let’s talk about it later.”
He adjusts.
Jay likes to describe himself as a chameleon with thick skin. I would add something else. He also has a soft heart. That combination matters more than most people realize.
Because listening without change is just a courtesy.
“I’ve learned that people don’t feel supported when you hear them. They feel supported when you respond.”
I see a lot of leaders confuse thick skin with being unmovable. That has never made sense to me. Thick skin does not mean you ignore feedback. It means you can hear it without taking it personally.
The moment feedback turns into defensiveness, the conversation stops being about the work. It becomes about protecting yourself. And the person speaking shuts down.
The soft heart part is what allows you to act instead of react.
This shows up in how we lead our team too.
At StringCan, we do not do once-a-year performance reviews that everyone dreads and nobody remembers.
Ours happens monthly. They are honest. They are useful. And they happen while the work is still happening.
That matters.
Real-time feedback gives people the chance to adjust before frustration builds. It keeps small issues small. It makes growth feel doable instead of overwhelming.
You do not need a post-mortem when you are paying attention along the way.
If there is one thing I know for sure after ten years, it is this.
The companies that last are not the ones that get it right the first time. They are the ones who assume they will need to adjust.
They listen early.
They listen often.
They listen without ego.
That creates trust. It creates momentum. It creates teams that feel safe speaking up before something breaks.
The same should be true when choosing a partner.
If someone cannot adjust when new information shows up, that is not confidence. That is just stubbornness.
Most leaders are not looking for perfection. They are looking for awareness.
They want partners who pay attention.
Partners who notice when something is off.
Partners who can say, “Got it. Let’s change it.”
After ten years, that is the thing I trust most.
Listening matters.
What you do after you listen is what people remember.
Isn’t that what you want in a partner?
If you are looking for a growth partner who listens, adapts, and grows alongside your business, we would love to talk.
At the end of the day, that is how we have built StringCan. By paying attention. By being willing to adjust. And by treating partnership as something you actively work on, not something you set and forget.
If you are curious, Jay and I talk openly about what our partnership has really looked like over the years in one of our most popular podcast episodes. We break down the good, the hard, and the lessons that shaped how we lead today.
You can listen here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-7-power-duo-or-power-struggle-mastering-the/id1798546899?i=1000703894178