Blume Theory

🤔 WHAT DOES BLUME THEORY DO? We Ask the Right Questions & Reframe Ideas to Improve Business Operations

A real-life story:

We worked with a passionate, small business owner with a great product idea. But, this business owner spent more time thinking about what to do than actually doing.

So, we asked some intentional questions to understand why. Together, we discovered the business owner feared making a decision that would be wrong and irreversible.

So what do you do?

We reframed decision-making as “experimenting” instead of “committing”. This framing helped the business owner see decisions as choices that encourage learning and adaptation (when necessary).

From there, the business owner could make decisions with more ease–and the business operations saw improvements.

✅ Remember: Facts don’t change people’s minds. Feelings do.

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Struggling to move from thinking to doing as a business or team?
✍🏽 Sign up for our learning studio here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePakafqQR0EmcgD6dJ8eqgEYbF1313NK2cmDmuf7v54oe_9g/viewform?usp=header

🎉 We’re opening an online learning platform next year for individuals and teams looking to improve their business operations. Our focus is helping you increase impact by doing less. Come join us! 🎉

Sign Up for Our Digital Learning Studio Blume Theory is building a digital learning studio--an online learning environment for changemakers who want to create impact without the burnout. This will be a space to develop the skills necessary for creating the type of work you desire for yourself and your team. Our focus is all about building...

LESSONS LEARNED FROM OUR WORK THIS YEAR

We believe knowledge should be free and shared, so we're sharing some our biggest lessons from this year. Check them out and let us know what you learned this year.

✅ Facts Don't Change People's Minds. Feelings Do.

• Common Approach: Consultant presents facts to client about why they should change.
• Common Response: Client says it makes sense but the change never happens.

There's usually an underlying feeling guiding a person or team's choices. Every time we focus on addressing the underlying feeling first and the facts second, we see improvements.

✅ Adaptability Skills Are More Important Than Plans.

• Common Approach: Consultant and client create a five-year strategy.
• Common Response: Client stops implementing the strategy after year one.

2025 (like many of the years before) taught us that our plans can be thwarted by a quick change in the environment. While creating plans has a place in every organization's operations, there is a limit to it. What makes an organization successful and sustainable is the ability to adapt as the environment changes--and that requires skills, not plans.

✅ You Haven't Clearly Communicated If No One Has Understood You.

• Common Approach: Team lead states something one time and assumes the team understood them.
• Common Response: The team is confused about their roles and responsibilities.

In educational psychology, they say no one has taught unless someone has learned. We think the same applies to communication on a team. We often see team members explain something once and follow up with that infamous question: "Does that make sense?" And someone with glossed-over eyes nods. But clear communication is achieved through repetition and conversation.

If topics like this interest you, we encourage you to sign up for our learning studio here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePakafqQR0EmcgD6dJ8eqgEYbF1313NK2cmDmuf7v54oe_9g/viewform?usp=header

The learning studio will be a place for changemakers to learn the skills necessary to make sustainable impact without causing burnout. By signing up, you'll get first updates about when the studio opens up next year.

We hope you'll join us!

TRY THIS NEXT TIME: Identify Whether Your Next Business Decision is Based on Fear or Caution

Research shows that early-stage business owners–especially those from marginalized communities–often fear both failure and success.

Because of these fears, leaders sometimes make unconscious business decisions that limit their growth.

We discourage fear-based decisions.
But, we do believe in moving forward with caution.

So how do you tell the difference between fear and caution?

🛑 Fear = “I won’t make that decision because it will probably go wrong.”
✅ Caution = “I thought about the pros and cons–and I’m going to move forward this way.”

🛑 Fear leads your business towards anxiety and paralysis.
✅ Caution leads your business to the next best step.

Interested in discussing topics like this more?
We are building a digital learning studio that will share content like this--and help you develop the skills to accomplish more by doing LESS.

✍ Sign up here to learn when the studio opens: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSePakafqQR0EmcgD6dJ8eqgEYbF1313NK2cmDmuf7v54oe_9g/viewform?usp=header

Sign Up for Our Digital Learning Studio Blume Theory is building a digital learning studio--an online learning environment for changemakers who want to create impact without the burnout. This will be a space to develop the skills necessary for creating the type of work you desire for yourself and your team. Our focus is all about building...

💡 BUSINESS TIP: ASK YOUR TEAM WHAT THEY LOVE ABOUT THEIR WORK

It sounds simple–but it can be really impactful.

If you want to create joy within your organization, find out what your team members love about the work.
Discover why they show up every day.

Then, collaborate with them to determine how you can create more opportunities to work within their “zone of joy”--the space where their passion and skills generate business impact.

Your team members will feel seen and valued. ✅
And, you may find new opportunities to improve the organization and its impact. ✅

Business Tip: Play Improves Process

A 2024 study found that group-based play encourages more collaboration–especially among diverse teams.

Why?

Play decreases the risk of speaking up and sharing ideas.
Play inspires each individual to encourage those around them to take a risk.
To share an idea.
To have fun.

How are you incorporating play into your work?

In our last episode of In Bloom, we discuss how we discovered the importance of joy and play in our work.

Check out the episode now:

In Bloom, Episode 8: Is It True? About the Episode:In the last episode of In Bloom, we question if there's a place for joy and play in our work. I recount my experiences at a tarot reading a...

November 2024: I spent 40 hours crafting the perfect business plan…

Coffee in hand. Budget projected. Marketing goals defined. Operations crystal clear.

June 2025? I don’t even remember the plan.

💡Truth: Life happens. Plans fail. And that’s okay.

The messy, chaotic “oops” moments are where growth and opportunity hide.

Entrepreneurs, what’s your biggest “plan gone wrong” story? How did you adapt?

The present moment is the only thing you can change.

You can't change the past.
And the future hasn't happened yet.

But a lot of us spend our time living in the past or the future.

We become overwhelmed and stressed by it. Getting anxiety, developing fears, and never moving forward.

Living in the past or the future can hold back anybody, but it's really dangerous for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship requires you to be flexible and aware of the opportunities that are in front of you. Yesterday's failure may be today's best opportunity. But you have to live in the present moment to see that.

Want to hear more about this? Check out the latest episode of In Bloom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovPUf5JJio4&t=3s

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92% of people struggle with perfectionism. That's a lot of people! 😳

And guess what? 54% say it negatively affects their work. 🫠😬

Perfectionism is like a lot of other stories we tell ourselves...filled with unrealistic expectations and a few fibs.

In the latest episode of In Bloom, we explore how stories are used to avoid shame in our personal and work lives...and how we change that.

Watch the latest episode now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A-9giLFoAo

Your workspace matters.

What it looks like.
What it smells like.
All of it.

It can make you excited for work or make you dread every single minute.

When I filmed my miniseries In Bloom, I thought about this a lot.
I picked places that would make it easier (and more enjoyable) to finish the project.

I went to New Orleans for a creative business retreat.
I went to Little Rock to produce the series.
And I went to Tulsa to celebrate finishing it.

Each location gave me the space I needed to do my best work.

You don’t have to travel across the country to find your ideal workspace. You can create one right where you are. Sometimes it just takes a few small tweaks.

🌞 Got a window? Open the blinds and let the light in.
🌿 Love nature? Add a plant (or even just a photo of one).
🤫 Need quiet? Find a tucked-away spot for your next break.

The little things make a big difference.

🎥 For more reflections like this, check out In Bloom. It's a short video series about navigating change as an entrepreneur, a leader, and a person just trying to figure it out.

👉 Watch now: https://www.youtube.com//playlists