Twelve inches of snow and a cigarette lighter...

(Formerly The AI-Powered Business Advisor)

_{Issue #6 — February 10, 2026}

Last Tuesday I stood in twelve inches of snow with a lighter, some diesel fuel, and a pile of dead wood the size of a pickup truck.

Tabbi and I have lived on this farm in southern Indiana for 26 years. It’s been in my family for 43. My full-time work is helping experienced professionals build consulting practices. But this land is where I think. Where I get perspective. And every year around this time, it gives me a lesson I need to hear again.

We have a timber farm. That means managing the woods is part of life here. Storm damage, dead limbs, trees that fell in October, branches I cleared from the fence line in November. All of it gets dragged to one spot at the edge of the timber and stacked through the fall.

We have a timber farm. That means managing the woods is part of life here. Storm damage, dead limbs, trees that fell in October, branches I cleared from the fence line in November. All of it gets dragged to one spot at the edge of the timber and stacked through the fall.

And you stand there feeding it for hours, staring into the flames, marveling at the miracle of fire and feeling gratitude for the heat.

Nobody was watching. Nobody was impressed. And that was the whole point.

If you’re building something right now, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The work that nobody sees. The effort that doesn’t make the highlight reel. The season where you wonder if any of it matters.

Here’s what I want you to see...

- Why mid-February is the most dangerous time of the year for your goals
- The one shift that separates people who push through from people who quit
- What a brush pile on an Indiana farm can teach you about building a consulting practice

We are six weeks past New Year’s Day. Six weeks since you wrote down those goals. Six weeks since you told yourself this year was going to be different.

Mid-February is where most people quit.

Not loudly. Not dramatically. They just... stop. The gym visits get shorter, then they're replaced by latte stops at Starbucks. The LinkedIn outreach plan sputters and stops. The commitment to “finally launch my consulting practice” starts to feel like something a more optimistic version of you said a long time ago.

You know what this looks like. The laptop open at 6am with nobody to call. The LinkedIn post you spent an hour on that got (maybe) four likes. The savings account you check more often than you’d admit. The spouse or partner who asks, “so how’s it going?” and you answer with an unconvincing half-truth.

There is even a name for this season. Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD. The days are short. The light is thin. The cold seeps into everything. And if you are in the middle of building something new... if you left corporate or you’re thinking about leaving... this is the stretch where doubt moves in and sets up camp.

I know this stretch. Twenty-plus years of consulting and helping others build consulting practices. Twenty-six winters on this farm. And that particular kind of February quiet where nothing seems to be growing.

But here’s what I’ve learned from two decades on both sides of that equation...

February is not the month where nothing happens. February is the month where everything that matters happens. You just can’t see it yet.

The brush pile burn is a perfect example. Nobody drives past and thinks 'wow, impressive work.' It doesn't look like progress. It looks like a man standing in the cold next to a fire. But skip this work and the storm damage piles up along the fence lines. The underbrush gets thick. The property looks neglected. You let mother nature handle most of it... but the parts that are yours to manage don't manage themselves.

The work you do when nothing is blooming is what determines the harvest.

Here’s the part that surprised me...

The battle in February is not circumstantial. It is mental.

The opportunity hasn’t changed since January 1st. The market is still there. The demand for experienced consultants is still growing. The forces I’ve been writing about... the AI crisis, the shift to independent work, the ageism pushing experienced professionals out of corporate... none of that took a break for winter.

What changed is your thinking. And that means the fix is in your thinking too.

There is a line in Romans 12:2 that has stuck with me for years. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Not by the renewing of your circumstances. Not by waiting for motivation to show up like a package on your doorstep. By the renewing of your mind.

That means choosing, every single morning, what you’re going to believe about this season. You can believe it’s a dead zone. Or you can believe it’s a clearing season.

Cignetti built a 16-0 national championship in the offseason. The Business Athlete shows up whether the feelings cooperate or not. Those aren’t stories about extraordinary people. They’re stories about ordinary discipline applied on the days it would be easier to stop. The days you least feel like doing the work are the days that matter most. Because those are the days that separate you from everyone who quietly walked away.

There is a season for everything. And this is the clearing season.

On the farm, we don’t call this time of year “the dead of winter.” We call it “getting ready for spring.” Because it isn’t dead. It’s preparation. Fix the fences. Sharpen the tools. Clear the brush. Plan the work that will bear fruit in April and May and June.

And that last word... plan... is worth sitting with for a minute.

If you are building a consulting practice right now, this is your brush pile season. And the best framework I know for working through it is four words:

Plan. Do. Check. Adjust.

Plan what you’re going to do this week. Do it. Check the results. Adjust what isn’t working. Then plan the next week.

Refine your positioning. Update your LinkedIn profile. Have the conversations you’ve been putting off. Reach out to five people this week. Track your activity. Measure what’s working. And if something isn’t working, don’t abandon it. Adjust it.

I wrote more about this approach here: How Small Wins Can 10x Your Marketing Results

None of it will feel exciting. None of it will make you want to post a victory lap on social media. But every piece of dead wood you clear right now is making room for what's coming.

Calvin Coolidge said something I come back to every February:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Read that again. Talent will not. Genius will not. Education will not. Only persistence.

Your 20 or 30 years of experience didn’t come from talent. They came from showing up.

Day after day. Year after year. You already know how to persist. February is just asking you to remember.

Spring always comes to those who kept working through the cold.

If you’re in the messy middle right now... if you’re wondering whether you’re on the right track or just standing in the cold... I built a quick assessment that can help.

It takes about 3 minutes. It will show you exactly where you are in your consulting journey and what your next move should be.

⤷ Take The Assessment

No pitch. No pressure. Just clarity on where you stand and what to do next.

Keep it burning.

Dale

Want to dive deeper? Check out these related articles:

👉  The Prosperous Consultant | Issue #5
👉  The Prosperous Consultant | Issue #4

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P.S.: When you're ready, here are more ways I can help you...