About a month ago, Charles Broskoski, Co-founder and CEO of Are.na, published an editorial essay titled "Personal Business." He also wrote that the piece had three goals:
- Convince people who wouldn't normally consider themselves entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. "We need more idiosyncratic companies, started from a place of personal interest and love (and less of the opposite)."
- To remind people that "how companies are structured, what their business models are, and how they are funded will absolutely inform how they behave in the world, despite their marketing and branding efforts."
- To talk about his theory that You've Got Mail is a small business parable.
I'm sharing it here because I never liked that saying, "it's not personal, it's business." All too often, those using it are rationalizing a decision they're not too proud of. (Did you know, apparently, a mobster named Otto Berman coined that phrase?)
Well, I'm more on Broskoski's wavelength than Bermans:
"A Personal Business is run by people who are truly into what they are doing, and invested enough to offer products, services, and/or experiences that are both high-quality and idiosyncratic. The type of business that both sustains and is sustained by a community."
"The strength is in being yourself, being human, being accessible, being able to talk on a one-to-one basis to the people who patronize your business and making something that you want to see in the world but don’t currently. Your strength is in choosing to work on something because it’s genuinely fun and interesting and you know you could be interested in it forever. This requires that you take it all personally."
Like Charles, my passion for how we serve our clients and community at Twotone comes from it being personal; our strength as a business also comes from it being personal, and the rewards that we get from our work are most certainly personal. ❤️🔥
Thank you for reading & have a good week,
Jon
p.s.
Thank you to those who've pre-ordered our 11 Year T! We'll be placing the order this week and shipping mid-December or pick up at the 11 Year Party! ☮️ Reserve your Drop Bars Not Bombs T here!
November
- 🇳🇱 25 Albion Repair Roadshow at Maats (10am - 5pm)
- 🇳🇱 26 Wheelrunner Wednesday Ride (Weekly at 6:30am)
- 🇳🇱 30 AMS CX COMP | FC TRAPPIST – ‘T TWISKE
December
- 🇳🇱 7 AMS CX COMP | ARC ULYSSES
- 🇳🇱 12 Twotone 11 Year Party | Food, beverages, tattoos & live music!
- 🇳🇱 14 AMS CX COMP | ASC OLYMPIA – SPORTPARK SLOTEN
- 🇳🇱 20 AMS CX COMP | ZWC DTS (Evening Edition!)
- 🇳🇱 31 AMS CX COMP | WV AMSTERDAM – SPORTPARK SLOTEN
January
- 🇳🇱 4 AMS CX COMP | UWTC – UITHOORN
- 🇧🇪 16-18 Velofollies
Bikes
Simon Mottram Invests in Quirk Cycles
Meg Elliot
We had a big news week last week with this great news! Stay in the loop for the latest from Quirk in 2026 here.
OMNIUM CEO, Matias 'Fergie' Ovens, Wins Cycle Messenger World Championships 2025 in Sydney
The Last Spots for Le Pilgrimage Gravel Are Up For Grabs
Le Pilgrimage Gravel 2025: Beautifully Brutal
An event I've tried to get to for years! You should secure you spot here.
Ideas
9 Years | 9 Lives | 9 Lessons From Jake of OTTOLOCK
VanderZanden Consulting
I've always admired OTTOLOCK, also because my son's name is Otto. 😉 Congrats on the exit, Jake! And thank you for sharing your lessons here!
Matias Rodsevich on the ROI of PR
"If you're treating PR like a direct-response channel, don't be surprised when it doesn't perform like one. And don't be surprised when the results you could have built: reputation, credibility, long-term visibility, never materialize."
Talking Repair: a conversation between the Albion Repair team
Friends
Stephanie Dietze Launches Gear Talk
Stephanie Dietze
I've known Stephanie since her early days at komoot. Like so many affected by the recent acquisition, she's had to recalibrate her career. Sign up for Gear Talk here.
Slate Olson's Lessons from the Road
Substack
Another new newsletter to pop up from Slate! Shout out to Kristy for spotting it. Slate drops some knowledge in his trademark wry & dry candor about what business success requires here.
Leanne, Martijn & Brent Launch dirtworm
Nice to see friends growing new things out of the dirt! Check out dirtworm here.
Radness
erer by Glitterer & Watch it die by Home Front
I've been experimenting with sprinkling more music in the newsletter to great response, so here are two new releases from favorite bands of mine that I've had on loop the past week! Glitterer is led by Ned Russin of Title Fight fame and has been a staple on rotation for several years for me. The single off the LP is called Stainless Steel, so you already know it's rad! And I've been kinda obsessed with Home Front also for years at this point. Their new record is a no-skip masterpiece. Very stoked to see them in February!
Thank you very much for reading!
Here's to keeping it personal this week!