Cut The Tie and Own Your Success reveals how high performers think, decide, and overcome obstacles—so you can apply one actionable idea each week.
Each short episode (<10 minutes) features one guest, the tie they cut, and a concrete step you can use now. For the full story, every episode links to the complete YouTube interview.
Insights focus on four areas where people “cut ties”: Finances, Relationships, Health, and Faith.
Guests span operators and outliers—CEOs, entrepreneurs, executives, athletes, creators, scientists, and community leaders—people who’ve cut real ties and can show you how.
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Every meeting, favor, and commitment costs something. What are you buying it with—and is it worth what you’re giving up?
In this episode of Cut The Tie | Own Your Success, we explore how your yeses shape your Money, Health, Relationships, and Faith—and how to decide what deserves your time and energy before everyone else claims them.
What are you saying yes to that’s stealing a yes from something that matters more?
Every time you spend it, you're choosing what your life becomes. Spend it like it matters.
The most expensive word in your life is yes. I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about the things you've lost because you were afraid to say no. Your time, your energy, your health, your faith, parts of yourself gone. A few weeks ago, I said no to something I normally would have said yes to. Someone in my life wasn't happy. I had set a boundary. It was uncomfortable. And for a moment, I wanted to take it back, and almost did. But I didn't. And what happened next made me realize how many years I had misunderstood the word no. I'm gonna come back to
that. Because for a long time I thought saying yes was a good thing. Yes meant I cared. Yes meant I was dependable. Yes meant I could handle it. Yes meant I was a team player. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Need some help? Yes. Can you make time? Yes. Can you take care of this? Yes. Can you agree to this? Yes. Can you do just one more thing? Sure. And individually, none of those yeses seemed particularly important or expensive. And that's the problem. We rarely destroy our time with one enormous decision. We give it away. We give ourselves away in little pieces. Ten minutes here, an hour there, a thought there, one more commitment, one more favor, one more thing we don't actually want to do or agree with. And eventually you look at your day and your life and wonder why there's nothing left for you. Let's think about that in the four areas of maybe your life. Money, health, relationships, faith. You say yes to another hour of work. Where did that yes come from? Where does that hour come from? Where does it get taken from? Your health? You don't work out now? Your family? You don't spend time with them? Your faith, reflecting on the things that matter. Maybe it's just the quiet time you needed, just to figure out what the hell is going on inside of you. Every yes has to come from somewhere. That time has to come from somewhere. And when you say yes to something you're not fully committed to, it costs you everything else. And that's what I missed.
I used to think saying no was about rejecting someone else. I see it completely differently now. No is deciding where your boundaries are and where your yes belongs. Because your time is finite. Your energy is finite. And there are people and things in your life that deserve some of both, including you. And this is the hard part, and this is where it gets a little uncomfortable. The people around you get used to your yes. They get used to you agreeing. And especially if you've been given it away for years. The first time you say no, they think you've changed. And you have. And that's a good thing. Someone's going to be disappointed. Someone's going to get angry. Someone's going to cancel you. Someone's going to make you feel selfish. And that's the moment you're going to want to explain yourself, defend yourself, maybe even change your answer or backtrack it. Don't.
Because that's where I was a few weeks ago. And I said no. I let the discomfort happen. I could feel it. It was palatable. And I wanted to go back and fix it, but I had to say no. I realized in that moment nothing actually needed fixed. Someone else was disappointed. And I was more than okay. And that was it. No catastrophe, no relationship ending explosion. The worst outcomes never happen. I had really nothing to fear. I took the courage and just did it and let the discomfort happen. And then I got some space I didn't realize at the time I desperately needed. And that space I would normally would have given away. I wouldn't even wouldn't even realize it. And that's where I was wrong about saying no and understanding that cost of yes. I thought no was the decision. It isn't. The real decision is deciding what deserves your yes, your time, your focus. You only have so much time.
So here's the question I'm going to leave you with. What are you saying yes to that's stealing a yes from something that actually matters? Something that matters more. Don't make this philosophical. Don't overthink it. Just look at your life and note it. Is it in money? Maybe you're saying yes to another meeting, another client, another promotion out of $10,000. Great. But what are you buying it with? Because money has a price beyond the hours you work to earn it. And health. Maybe you said, I'll start Monday for the past six months or six years, but money keeps losing to somebody else's yes. The meetings get the yes. The email gets the yes. The obligation gets the yes. The extra 30 minutes of sleep gets the yes. And your body gets whatever is left, if anything. Your mind is left wondering, when do I get the break? When do I get the space? And your relationships, think about the person who gets the exhausted version of you, the distracted version, the frustrated, the impatient, the version staring at a phone while they're talking. Sometimes the people we love the most get the smallest percentage of us because we're already given the rest away. And sometimes the people we love the most get the most yeses and need a no. And those are difficult discussions to have. And then there's faith. What do that means to you? God, purpose, meaning, stillness, meditation? The thing bigger than whatever is screaming for your attention today, the part of life that requires space to experience, a space that disappears when everything gets a yes.
So don't leave this episode trying to become better at saying no. That's too easy. Do something much, much harder. Decide what deserves your yes, your money, your health, your relationships, your faith. Put something, one thing in each one that deserves a yes before the rest of the world starts asking for what's left before the rest of the world gets anything that's left. A workout, a dinner with your life, a movie with the kids, an hour of building something that matters for you, ten quiet minutes with God, with faith, with belief. Whatever belongs there, protect it. Because if you don't decide where your yes goes, someone else will. And likely somebody else already does. And that's why yes is the most expensive word in your life. Every time you spend it, you're choosing what your life becomes. Spend it not like it just matters. Spend it like it's the only thing in your life. Because it is your time. And it is 100% finite, and you don't know how much of it you have left.
