The Crisp Guy Blog – Leadership, Resilience & Culture

The Stripped Back Journal

This is where I lay it bare. Silence, betrayal, survival, and rebuilding — told as it happened. Not theory. Not Polish. Just real stories stripped back to the truth over the last 37 years as a small business owner.

The Crisp Report, Leadership Mark Matthews The Crisp Report, Leadership Mark Matthews

The Crisp Report – Invisible Strings

Some connections you can see, meetings, messages, handshakes.
Others are invisible. They’re the quiet thoughts, the small choices, the energy that ties one moment to the next.
I wrote this to remind myself and anyone reading, that what we do when nobody’s watching often carries the biggest impact. Those invisible strings hold everything together.

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The Crisp Report, Leadership, culture, Vulnerability Mark Matthews The Crisp Report, Leadership, culture, Vulnerability Mark Matthews

The Fear of Letting People Down

I used to think leadership meant holding it all together. Saying yes when I wanted to say no. Smiling when I was breaking inside.
The truth? I wasn’t leading …. I was performing. Driven by the fear of letting people down.
This is what happens when fear runs the show… and how stepping into honesty changed everything for me, my team, and the way I now lead.

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