The Sphere, a finished school in Ghana, and one last call for Action Club.

We had an epic trip two weeks ago: Vegas with my mom, my brother, and my husband, and the whole point was the Backstreet Boys' 46th sold-out show at The Sphere. Bonus cool: It was a white-out and everyone attending wore white in honor of the 25th anniversary of their Millennium album.

I'm not even going to try to describe what The Sphere actually feels like, because there's genuinely nothing to compare it to. I've been sitting on it for days, and I still don't have the words.

The next day we saw The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere too. It was great, but if I'm being frank, I would have rather put that money toward another concert. If you're headed to Vegas and trying to decide the order, see The Wizard first. I'm convinced I'd have loved it if I'd seen it before a concert.

We also hit the ARTE Museum for an experiential art installation, and somewhere in there we walked 32 miles in two and a half days (I'm pretty sure half of that was just cutting through the Venetian). Four of us, one incredible trip. I'm already watching the Sphere calendar for more shows worth flying out to see.

Closer to home, I got news that made my whole week: the technology lab that the Work Meaningful Foundation has been building at the school in Akyeremade, Ghana, is finished.

We've now built a new junior high school, finished the tech lab, and an elementary school is next. On the individual side, we're sponsoring a scholarship for Millicent, one of our favorite tiny dancers, to cover the cost of her books and uniform.

Seeing a space like this go from plan to reality, and knowing what it means for those kids and that community, is the kind of full I don't get tired of.

If you want to see the space, help fund the elementary school, or sponsor a kid like Millicent: Learn more or donate →​

Work-wise, I spent the last two weeks talking to over 1,500 accountants through CPA Academy on focus and inbox management, and while I was at it, I rebuilt two of my longest-running sessions. Elevate Your Focus is now Deep Focus, Fewer Fires. Email Extinguisher is now Tame Your Inbox. Both have new content, and both roll out for everyone starting next week at the Georgia Society of CPAs Southeastern Accounting Show and to the NCSU Park Scholars in September. I'm genuinely excited to bring them into a room.

I also hosted my Speakers With Impact Mastermind at my house for our quarterly in-person meeting. If you're a business owner or a leader and you're not in a mastermind, put that near the top of your list. Find one, join one, or start your own.

A peer advisory group is another version of the same idea. Ours works like this: each person gets 45 to 55 minutes to talk through their biggest wins and lessons earned, then opens the floor for questions and feedback. This round, I got feedback on the mini-keynote video I'm launching alongside my new pocket guide, The Right Things First, and it made me realize something I'd completely missed. A little bit of a duh moment. Which is exactly why having people around you who'll tell you the truth matters so much.

Oh, and we do 25 push-ups between each person's speaking time. Just something that gets the blood pumping to the brain and gives everyone a nice break between stints of sitting and listening.

When you get this, I'll be at a quarterly coffee date with Becky Sansbury, RaderCo's Crisis Specialist. Becky is who our clients lean on for the hardest stuff: losing a loved one, a health diagnosis, or challenges at work. These coffee dates matter to me, and they're part of what led me to record the podcast episode on meaningful connections.​

Always lots of music in the Rader-Rhodenbaugh household. Besides The Sphere, I watched RaderCo Marketing Specialist perform in Once last weekend. Tonight, I'm watching my husband perform with Medium Heat. Tomorrow night, we're seeing one of our favorites, Delta Rae. Never enough music and dancing...

On with the Weekender!

​Episode 127: The Relentless Prioritization Filter Most teams don't have a prioritization problem. They have a bottleneck-identification problem because naming the real source of what's slowing you down is socially riskier than working around it.

This episode walks through the Relentless Prioritization Filter: three questions that help you identify the actual bottleneck rather than optimizing the symptom. One Thing You Can Do Now: At your next team meeting, ask this question before you solve anything: "What's the real bottleneck right now? Not the symptom, but the source?" Have each person write one down before anyone speaks. What surfaces is usually not what people have been trying to fix. LISTEN 21 min READ THE SUMMARY 6 min

LAST CHANCE for Action Club ​ The results from the first cohort still excite me.

Cindy re-watched every session replay from start to finish, a first in any program she's done. Phillip had his first stress-free tax season in 25 years. Maggie took an entire vacation without thinking about work once. I can't wait to see what this cohort does... Want in? Registration ends August 24. Eight weeks, 45 minutes, group coaching, real results. LEARN MORE

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P.S. I still haven't found the words for The Sphere, so I'm curious: if you've been, what was your take? And if you're headed there, tell me what you saw. Reply and let me know.