I'm back from a week in Menorca with my amazing wife, Beth.

This was, in every sense of the word, a complete chill out of a vacation.

We quite literally did nothing.

Like, sweet FA...

My sunglasses broke on day four, so we had to wander to the local supermercado for a new pair, and even that felt like too much work.

I'm very proud of myself though. I didn't post on social media, I didn't answer any emails and I even left my laptop at home.

The systems I've built over the last year, and the content strategy I put in place at Easter, helped ensure that even when I'm away for an extended period of time, my team are still able to put some quality content out every other day on social media. My main Source of Truth piece also went out on Sunday via my amazing marketing assistant.

The next step for Dom, and I'll fully admit I'm not quite there yet, is to have the marketing machine working in such a way that my business doesn't just maintain, but actually grows when I'm not around.

To that end, we are cranking up a new outreach system, and I'm taking what I learned from Stephen Inala-Reedy at the recent DDSA Content in the Castle immersion event. We'll be adding more quality awareness, alignment, and engagement content to the weekly schedule. All this should help me identify more quality candidates who are a great fit for the Dog Daycare Success Academy.

More on that another time...

Today, as it's the first week in July and the halfway point of the year, I want to talk about the power of resetting.

See, Beth and I didn't just rock up in Son Bou and kick back because we felt lazy.

Noooo, no no.

This 2026 mid year reset was planned when we did the same thing last year and experienced huge benefits from having some serious downtime.

The plan was to do nothing.

So, we read, we talked, we swam, we read some more, and there may have been the odd glass of poolside Rosé too, but only because we went all inclusive and it would have been rude not to...

We've had an incredibly busy first half of the year. It started in early January with my first keynote on board a cruise to Mexico. I ran my first ever USA IMPACT Success Summit in Orlando in February. I launched my new flagship Dog Daycare Success Academy program the same month. We've run mastermind immersion events in Austin, Boston, Sunderland and Lumley Castle, and I spoke at the Pet Boarding and Daycare Expo in Phoenix in May.
And that's actually the quiet half of the year...

There's WAY more booked in for the second half, hence a reset was required.

The top coaches know that elite output requires intentional recovery.

In professional sports, nobody sprints onto the field for the second half of a massive game without a calculated, strict halftime protocol.

Take Phil Jackson, who coached the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers to 11 NBA championships. During high stress halftimes, Phil would often make his players sit in absolute, forced silence for the first few minutes. No talking. No strategising. No complaining. Just breathing. He knew you have to lower the noise and the cortisol before you can process new data.

Then you look at Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. During their legendary Super Bowl comebacks, their halftime protocol became famous. Players unbuckled their heavy pads, ate, listened to music, and actively rested. They caught their breath so they could completely change their execution for the second half.

Then you need a total wipeout...

To ensure his players didn't carry past mistakes into the next phase of the game, Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors introduced a literal ritual. Coaches and players would write down their biggest first half frustrations on a whiteboard, then physically wipe it completely clean before talking about the second half. He did this to stop them carrying mistakes, missed shots, and frustration into the second half.

And finally, Carlo Ancelotti, the most successful manager in Champions League history and currently doing his best to mastermind a sixth World Cup win for Brazil. Carlo brings his key players together, lays out the tactical issues, and asks: "This is what I see. What do you think?" Then they build the second half adjustments together.

If elite athletes, whose entire multi million dollar careers depend on peak physical and mental output, refuse to skip the halftime reset... why do business owners think they can grind through Q3 and Q4 on fumes without a playbook adjustment?

People often ask me why we meet every quarter in the Dog Daycare Success Academy.

Why not every month? Or once a year?

Because ninety days is about right. It's long enough to execute. Short enough to course correct. And whilst I don't have any proof of the benefits, personally I think it's smart to mirror nature and the seasons.

As it turns out, behavioural psychology heavily backs this up. Human beings are psychologically wired for shorter, seasonal horizons. When a deadline is a year away, Parkinson's Law kicks in. Our brains fall into procrastination mode and we overcomplicate simple things because there's no pressure.

But 90 days?

That is the psychological Goldilocks Zone. It's close enough to create immediate focus and healthy urgency, but long enough to build compound momentum and see massive business growth.

It's no coincidence that most major businesses report quarterly. Professional sports work in seasons, and your business needs that same structured rhythm to thrive without breaking you in the process.
In the DDSA, we build that high performance rhythm directly into your calendar.

We handle the week to week execution with our weekly trainings and Mission Control check ins to keep you laser focused. But every 90 days, we pull you out of the day to day grind.

We unbuckle the pads. We clear the noise. And we step into the locker room together at our unique quarterly Mastermind Immersion events.

Just like Carlo Ancelotti, we encourage collaboration, quality input, and the kind of honest feedback that only a good coach can give. The sort of conversation your staff are too nervous to have and your spouse is probably fed up repeating...

Nothing beats being in a room full of peers who will help you stress test your business, wipe away the baggage from the first half of the year, and collaboratively map out your exact 90 day execution plan for the next quarter.

July 1st, for me, means the scoreboard resets to 0-0. The first half of 2026 is done.
But before you charge headstrong into the second half of the year, do yourself, and your business, a favour.

Block some time out in the diary.

A week or a weekend away is ideal, but a day, or even an afternoon with your notebook and no interruptions, will do.

Before we even flew home, Beth and I booked the same week away for next year.

I know how beneficial this is for the business and, way more importantly, for our relationship.

It's not a luxury.

It's essential maintenance.

Here's the brutal truth...

Your business will always find things for you to do. There'll always be another email, another staffing issue to fix, another fire to put out.

My business is the same. I've come home to a stack of things that need doing, some of them quite urgently. The difference is I'm attacking them with an energy I wouldn't have without the break I've just enjoyed.

So, here's my challenge to you.

Before you close this article, schedule your next reset.

Put it in the diary.

Protect it like your most important client appointment.

Because, guess what... it probably is.

Every Sunday, I deliver the unfiltered marketing and operational blueprints I've used to help 2,500+ frustrated dog daycare owners, to stop running a low-margin facility and start building the most expensive (and most wanted) pet destination in town.