Ideas and Insights
Three sets. Tom's own writing on how to think and lead, the ideas TL2 Strategic Advisory keeps coming back to on looking at a business and deciding what it is worth, and shorter notes as they are written.
TL2 Leadership · Personal writing
Leadership and Thinking
My own notes on how to think, lead and decide.
TL2 Leadership is Tom's personal writing. It sits apart from TL2 Strategic Advisory's client work, and none of it is advice.
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L-01Think
Still thinking, or defending?
The costly moment in a decision is when I stop testing an idea and start protecting it. The tell is when a challenge to the idea starts to feel like a challenge to me.
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L-02Think
Work at the right height
Most stuck problems are being worked from the wrong altitude: too close to see the pattern, or too high to touch the thing that has to change. Before I push harder, I climb, look, and land where the decision actually lives.
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L-03Lead
Earn the scope
A new leader who claims more ground than they have earned spends the next year defending it. I would rather take less, prove it, and be asked to take more.
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L-04Lead
Say the why, free the how
Commander's intent is the end state and the reason for it, said plainly enough that people can adapt when the plan meets reality. If I have to dictate every step, I have not explained the why well enough.
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L-05Communicate
Writing is thinking with a receipt
Reading gives me the feeling of understanding, and writing gives me the evidence. If I cannot put my position in one paragraph before the meeting, I do not have one yet.
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L-06Apply
Debrief, then move
After anything that matters, I set what happened next to what was planned and pull out one lesson, with no rank in the room and no blame. Then the work moves on, because the point of looking back is the next attempt.
Finance and Deals
The financial and deal lens, for owners, investors and lenders.
General information only, not advice.
Reading the numbers
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F-01
Reported is not the same as earned
Historical financials tell you what a business reported. What it actually earns is a conclusion someone has to reason their way to.
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F-02
Ask what is missing
A tidy story can be built from whatever data gets handed over. We also ask what was not provided, and why.
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F-03
Hold the first read loosely
The first pass through the numbers leaves a strong impression. It is a useful place to start and an expensive place to stop.
Earnings and cash
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F-04
When the cash disagrees
Working capital is where the story meets the bank account. Steady sales with customers paying slower, or strong demand with inventory piling up, is a tension worth running down.
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F-05
The same number, different businesses
Two companies can show the same adjusted earnings and deserve very different conclusions. What sits underneath the figure matters as much as the figure.
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F-06
Today first, then tomorrow
Cleaning up the numbers shows what the business earns today. Adding in what it might earn next year is a separate step, and we keep the two apart.
What a price pays for
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F-07
Fundamentals and the story around them
Part of any price pays for how the business performs and part pays for the story told about it. Knowing which part is which makes it easier to say no to an expensive story.
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F-08
A weight you can explain
Most values lean on more than one method. How much each one counts is a judgment we reason to and can explain in a sentence, not a setting we pick.
Advice that holds up
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F-09
Keep the inconvenient fact
Good advice cuts detail that does not bear on the decision. A fact that weakens our own recommendation is not that kind of detail.
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F-10
Accuracy earns the right to question
Getting the accounting right is not the end of the work. It is what earns the right to question the story.
Blog and Notes
Shorter, dated notes as they are written. The full list lives on Read, with an RSS feed.
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B-01 · September 28, 2026
First light
tl2advisory.com went live at 11:11 p.m. Eastern. More to come.
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