At the beginning of this year, I googled something like "Is this the right decision for my business?"

It honestly didn't strike me as a funny thing to ask Google until I was about 10 pages into a Reddit thread taking business advice from someone I was pretty sure may still be in middle school.

There are so many helpful answers and advice-givers out there on the internet, but I've been working really hard to trust myself as a leader instead of following the ones that the internet has crowned.

I've made a focused effort to:

• Do background reading
• Unfollow gurus and biz evangelists
• Do the work, day in and day out
• Ask "If I did that, what would happen next?" repeatedly until I run out of fears or anxieties
• Actually look at data
• Accept I've made wrong decisions before and survived
• Talk to trusted friends outside of my industry
• Consider the long-term impact of short-term comfort
• Take radical responsibility for choices

These tactics are much harder than saving an Instagram advice post or buying a new e-course. But it turns out they are way more valuable, too.

A Resource

This one is for you, Shopify peeps!

I often make copies of Shopify themes. This allows me to work on a theme behind-the-scenes without affecting the live site. Shopify provides a link to preview the test theme, but annoyingly the link expires after 48 hours. It makes it super hard to share a link with a client or colleague for review.

But, instead of clicking the Preview link, you can right-click on it, and copy the link to your clipboard. This version of the link will work forever and ever. #iykyk that this is a game-changer...

Random Roundup

• I love composting but am so grossed out by cockroaches. This looks pretty cool, and you can reuse the filter over and over.
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• I spent a whole day cleaning my house to celebrate our fourth year living here. I scrubbed baseboards and added Jet-Dry to the dishwasher. I replaced a hard-to-reach light bulb and weeded our mulch beds. Care creates contentment.
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• Last week, we launched a new website for Ourside NYC. And I'm happy to report that I'm wearing a fragrance again for the first time since having kids (most fragrances make me feel sick, and this one doesn't!)

Have a great week!

Ashli