https://daltongoodyear.com/journalField notes from an operator in Sheridan, Wyoming.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/give-ai-agent-budget-not-a-leashhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/give-ai-agent-budget-not-a-leashThu, 10 Sep 2026 13:47:42 GMTI named my leasing agent Lindsay before I trusted her with anything. That order matters more than it sounds like it should. The framework for treating an AI agent like an employee instead of a tool, and why the constraint that actually works is the budget, not the leash.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/who-can-post-as-your-business-access-playbookhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/who-can-post-as-your-business-access-playbookWed, 09 Sep 2026 03:32:15 GMTA volunteer's Facebook access should have taken two minutes to revoke. It took an hour, a support thread, and a genuine deadlock — because nobody at the venue had ever written down who could touch what. Here's the playbook that came out of it.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/audit-credit-files-multiple-business-entitieshttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/audit-credit-files-multiple-business-entitiesFri, 04 Sep 2026 14:28:50 GMTEvery business owner with more than one entity has a credit file with an error in it — a duplicate, a wrong attribution, a re-aged date. Nobody checks except the person it costs. Here's the audit I run on my own files, in full.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/stop-ai-writing-sounding-like-ai-checklisthttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/stop-ai-writing-sounding-like-ai-checklistTue, 01 Sep 2026 16:22:49 GMTEvery AI-assisted post starts the same fight: strip the tells, kill the em-dashes, cut the fake triplets. I stopped fighting it fresh each time and wrote the whole thing down as a standing checklist. Here's the system, and why the list matters more than the prompt.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/website-audit-checklist-small-business-ownershttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/website-audit-checklist-small-business-ownersTue, 01 Sep 2026 16:21:55 GMTI ran a completion audit on my own websites and found four unsourced numbers on one page that contradicted the page next to it. Here's the checklist that catches what a normal site review misses — the difference between broken and dishonest.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/migrate-off-lovable-own-your-sitehttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/migrate-off-lovable-own-your-siteTue, 01 Sep 2026 16:20:17 GMTI built this personal site on Lovable, then spent an afternoon getting it off Lovable entirely — code, hosting, domain, backend. The site never went dark. Here's the exact order of operations, the gotchas nobody warns you about, and why the whole migration reduces to one move.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/live-music-sheridan-wyoming-alley-venuehttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/live-music-sheridan-wyoming-alley-venueTue, 11 Aug 2026 16:31:02 GMTThe Living Room has no sign and no regular hours yet, and a national touring act is playing there Thursday anyway. A short note on what it means to build a venue on word of mouth in a town of seventeen thousand people, and why showing up still matters more than any amount of marketing.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/why-hiring-the-right-person-still-goes-wronghttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/why-hiring-the-right-person-still-goes-wrongWed, 29 Jul 2026 17:11:46 GMTI've hired for the same title twice and gotten two completely different jobs. The role on paper never changes. The personalities in the room, the size of the business that week, and what's on fire that season always do. Here's the framework I use now instead of pretending precision is possible.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/stop-being-the-bottleneck-in-your-businesshttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/stop-being-the-bottleneck-in-your-businessTue, 28 Jul 2026 17:35:28 GMTSix businesses, one person, and a phone that still rings at 11pm. The exact protocol for fixing it: a five-day time ledger, four sorting buckets, a one-page role charter, and the five-level decision-rights ladder that lets someone else finally decide without you.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/nothing-to-prove-mindset-building-an-empirehttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/nothing-to-prove-mindset-building-an-empireMon, 27 Jul 2026 14:25:32 GMTA drive through the Bighorns and thirty minutes into a podcast cracked something open: the difference between building to prove people wrong and building because the mission demands it. One is exhausting. The other is armor.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/your-best-fans-stay-quiethttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/your-best-fans-stay-quietSun, 26 Jul 2026 19:50:22 GMTReview culture rewards the loudest voice in the room, and one bad rating can feel like the whole thing collapsed. It didn't. Your foundation years are for getting great at something real — and for learning that the people who matter most rarely say a word.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/ranchester-coffee-shop-innominate-coffeehousehttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/ranchester-coffee-shop-innominate-coffeehouseSun, 26 Jul 2026 19:42:11 GMTI love my regular coffee shops in Sheridan. But some mornings I want the slower kind of café I found in Mexico. I found it twenty minutes north, in Ranchester, at a bakery with a Thursday jam session and nowhere anyone needed to be.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/becoming-my-own-guide-at-29https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/becoming-my-own-guide-at-29Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:24:12 GMTI turned twenty-nine after the most turbulent year of my life…https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/thirteen-years-and-one-dayhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/thirteen-years-and-one-dayWed, 13 May 2026 04:29:40 GMTIt's ten pm on a Tuesday. The countertop comes out, and underneath are signatures from builders who closed it up almost exactly thirteen years ago. A field note on what an overflowing cup actually costs, and the only thing strong enough to interrupt pursuit.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/what-my-mom-taught-me-about-strengthhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/what-my-mom-taught-me-about-strengthMon, 11 May 2026 04:29:55 GMTMy mom raised me alone, worked thirty-plus years as an RN, and now lives with a rare disease called CADASIL. This year, on Mother's Day, I'm thinking less about her strength — which I already know — and more about the harder thing she's teaching me now: how to be received.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/five-star-vacation-rental-reviews-compassionhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/five-star-vacation-rental-reviews-compassionSat, 09 May 2026 19:32:36 GMTMost short-term rental operators chase five-star reviews with welcome baskets and branded mugs. They miss the actual move. Reviews are won in the true hospitality, not just the welcome basket — and the hospitality is mostly compassion, situational awareness, and a willingness to just open the door.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/at-ease-story-as-it-unfoldshttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/at-ease-story-as-it-unfoldsFri, 08 May 2026 06:01:42 GMTThe lights came down at the WYO Theater and my mom's hand helped applause into mine. Bill was on her other side. I let a few tears go. This is the story of how I got pulled into At Ease HMS — and why I'm telling it while it's still early.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/what-we-carryhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/what-we-carrySun, 19 Apr 2026 05:37:53 GMTMy mother has CADASIL — the most common hereditary stroke disorder most people have never heard of. There is a 50% chance I carry the same gene. This is an honest account of what that looks like from the inside.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/why-i-stopped-drinkinghttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/why-i-stopped-drinkingSun, 19 Apr 2026 04:39:03 GMTI didn't quit because I had to. I quit because I realized the cost of not quitting was something I'd been too busy to count.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/unrealistic-goals-frameworkhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/unrealistic-goals-frameworkSun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTWhy the only goals worth setting are the ones that make rational people uncomfortable — and the execution system behind them.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/wyoming-str-market-2025https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/wyoming-str-market-2025Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 GMTADR compression, regulatory shifts, and the operator playbook for staying profitable in a cooling market.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/cold-exposure-protocolhttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/cold-exposure-protocolThu, 10 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTWhat changed, what didn't, and why I'll never stop. Data, subjective experience, and the mental model shift.https://daltongoodyear.com/journal/against-balancehttps://daltongoodyear.com/journal/against-balanceSat, 22 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTThe cult of work-life balance is a lie told by people who've never built anything worth building. Here's what I do instead.