News & Insights

I've been thinking a lot lately about the people who helped build our company and the people who will help take it to the next level. When you're building a small business, you learn pretty quickly who your "ride or dies" are. They're the people who worry about money being wasted, even when it isn't their money. They notice when something isn't right and do something about it. They'll learn a job they've never done before because it needs doing. They don't spend a lot of tim

Not every problem comes with an obvious solution. Sometimes, all you have is a number that doesn’t add up, a missing document, or something that just doesn’t look right. One thing I’ve learned throughout my career is that you don’t always need to know the answer right away. You just need to know how to find it. I like to think of it as following the breadcrumbs. Whether it’s tracking down a discrepancy, figuring out where a process went wrong, or understanding why something w

On Sunday, October 18th I am running my 23rd half marathon. That number feels exponentially high considering how rough some of the double-digit training runs feel on my kneecaps. Regardless, I do not take any of those finish lines for granted. Each of those medals represents a chapter in my book. This summer I got to run a half marathon in Charlevoix, MI on my birthday, turning thirty-three during mile six! Other races have not gone so pleasantly. During the Chicago spring ha

In the past, I’ve written about the people God has placed in my life who encourage me to do better and persevere in my faith. These are people I look to as examples … people who challenge me to love God more and love others better. This month’s blog is about my Samsam (my beautiful niece) … a woman I deeply admire and someone who continually challenges me by the way she lives her life. Samsam wears many hats … wife, mom, friend, counselor, encourager, and so much more. Bu

Working toward a big goal can make it easy to overlook the small wins along the way. I catch myself doing this all the time. I finish something I have been working on, solve a problem, or learn a new skill, and almost immediately I am thinking about what I need to do next. There is always another project, another deadline, or another problem that needs to be solved. At Mettle Ops, we work on some projects that can take months or even years to complete. When you are only focus

Have you ever tried watching a movie late at night before bed? You are invested in the story, but your eyes feel so heavy that they start to droop. Next thing you know, you jolt awake a minute later and realize you are falling asleep. That’s when you know there is no way you can focus on the movie while you are so tired. Are you aware that this can happen in a less noticeable way during the day after you wake up to go to work? Have you ever felt like some days your mind keeps

I used to think consistency meant doing something every single day without exception. If I wanted to grow, I thought I needed to show up every day, make progress every day, and never let anything get in the way. But life doesn’t work that way. Consistency is about making room for what matters, even when life gets busy. It means managing your time, setting priorities, and making an effort to show up for yourself and the things you want to accomplish. Some days that might mean

This past week, I heard a sermon by Dr. Gordon Dickson called “A Door of Hope,” based on Hosea 2:15: “And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.” (bold italics, my emphasis added) He explained that the Achor means “Trouble.” What a beautiful reminder that wherever there is trouble, there is always hope. If we are honest, most of us are in a valley, coming out of one, or heading toward another one. Trouble is part of life, but as Chris

If you had told me years ago that I would end up working in IT for the Navy, I probably would have laughed. Before joining, my background was about as far from computers as you could get. I was a plant lover with years of experience in the green industry and an associate degree in Horticulture. Computers were definitely not my specialty. When I joined the Navy, I thought I was signing up for something more along the lines of intelligence work. Instead, I found myself becoming

The smallest issues at work rarely feel urgent in the moment. A misfiled document, a slightly off number in an invoice, an email you meant to answer but didn’t—each one gets a quick mental note: I’ll deal with it later. The problem is that small things have a way of becoming bigger things when they’re left alone. For example, a simple data entry error in an invoice might seem harmless at first, but if it gets carried forward into a payment run or reconciled incorrectly in the

This summer one of my main tasks has been the movement of QuickBooks Data to ERP templates to load historical data into the new system. Working on this task I learned about the importance of creating process and repeatability. In my time at Mettle Ops, I have seen process after process in action. I never truly appreciated the effort that is put in to create these processes and how much time they save. This summer I learned firsthand how difficult work can be without processes

August often feels like a transition. Summer is winding down, new schedules are approaching, and many of the goals we started earlier in the year are no longer new or exciting. Starting something is exciting. Finishing something is rewarding. But most of the work happens in the middle. At Mettle Ops, some of our projects can take years to complete. That means the final result is not built through one major accomplishment or one productive day. It is built through consistent e