Kay’s Odyssey

Author: Kay’s Corner

The Heartwarming Adventures of Sauli the Malinois
What Makes Sauli—My Tornado in the Body of a Belgian Malinois—So Special?

“Some dogs fetch tennis balls. Mine fetches chaos… and somehow leaves behind a little more love every single time.”

When people meet Sauli for the first time, they usually say one of two things.

“She’s beautiful.”

Or…

“Wow… she has a LOT of energy.”

Both are true.

But neither explains who she really is.

Sauli isn’t just a black Belgian Malinois. She isn’t simply the inspiration behind The Adventures of Sauli the Rescue Pup. She’s the reason those books exist at all.

Every page began with her.

Every laugh was earned.

Every tear was real.

She Was Never Just a Rescue Dog

People often assume that rescuing a dog means changing their life.

Feed them.

Train them.

Love them.

Give them a second chance.

That’s only half the story.

The other half?

They quietly begin rescuing you.

I didn’t go looking for a character to write about.

I rescued a puppy.

The books happened because life with Sauli became too unbelievable not to write down.

She Lives at 200 Miles Per Hour

If you’ve never lived with a Belgian Malinois, imagine combining:
- the curiosity of a toddler,
- the athleticism of an Olympic gymnast,
- the determination of an FBI detective,
- and the impulse control of… absolutely nobody.
Now multiply it by ten.

That’s breakfast.

Sauli doesn’t simply walk into a room.

She arrives.

Every shadow deserves investigation.

Every squirrel is a national emergency.

Every open gate is a personal invitation.

And every quiet afternoon somehow ends with me asking,

“How did you even manage that?”

Chaos Isn’t Her Personality.

Curiosity Is.

This is the part most people miss.

People see destruction.

I see investigation.

Sauli isn’t trying to be naughty.

She’s trying to understand the world.

Why does that cupboard open?

What’s behind this fence?

Where does this trail go?

Why is everyone running after me?

Her curiosity has no off switch.

And honestly…

I hope it never does.

Because curiosity built civilizations.

Curiosity writes books.

Curiosity rescues dogs.

She Doesn’t Love Halfway

When Sauli loves…

she commits completely.

She’ll lean her entire body against you.

Rest her head on your lap like you’re the safest place she’s ever known.

Follow you from room to room because apparently privacy is optional.

She has no interest in pretending to care.

It’s all or nothing.

There’s something incredibly refreshing about that.

Humans complicate love.

Dogs simplify it.

She Taught Me That Trust Is Earned in Tiny Moments

People think trust happens in one magical moment.

It doesn’t.

Especially with rescue dogs.

Trust happens…

…when you sit beside the crate instead of forcing them out.

…when you celebrate the first tail wag.

…when you realize progress isn’t measured in weeks.

It’s measured in tiny victories.

One look.

One lick.

One sigh.

One nap where they finally decide they’re safe enough to dream.

Those moments changed me far more than they changed Sauli.

She Has Absolutely No Interest in Being Perfect

I love that about her.

She has escaped daycare.

Created bathhouse disasters.

Started neighborhood chases.

Made professional groomers question their career choices.

She’s knocked over furniture.

Embarrassed me in public.

Destroyed toys within minutes.

And somehow…

every single one of those disasters eventually became a story.

Not because chaos is funny.

Because life is.

Perfection isn’t memorable.

Authenticity is.

She Reminds Me That Adventure Is Usually Unplanned

Nobody plans to write three children’s books.

Nobody plans for their rescue dog to inspire thousands of readers.

Nobody wakes up thinking,

“Today my dog will accidentally become a literary character.”

Yet here we are.

The Adventures of Sauli the Rescue Pup wasn’t born from brainstorming sessions.

It was born from living.

Real moments.

Real mistakes.

Real laughter.

Real love.

Every Book Carries a Piece of the Real Sauli

Readers often ask,

“Did that really happen?”

Usually…

yes.

Sometimes it’s exaggerated.

Sometimes it’s softened for younger readers.

But every adventure carries the heartbeat of the real Sauli.

The fearless explorer.

The professional escape artist.

The cuddle expert.

The tornado disguised as a Belgian Malinois.

Why Readers Connect With Her

Children don’t fall in love with perfect characters.

Neither do adults.

They love characters who make mistakes.

Who keep trying.

Who get scared.

Who find courage anyway.

Sauli reminds us that it’s okay to be wonderfully imperfect.

She isn’t trying to become someone else.

She’s simply becoming more herself.

Maybe that’s why readers root for her.

Maybe that’s why I do too.

The Rescue Mission Continues

The books may be about a mischievous Belgian Malinois, but they’ve always been about something much bigger.

Second chances.

Family.

Adventure.

Belonging.

Resilience.

And the quiet truth that Adopt, Don’t Shop isn’t just a slogan.

It’s an invitation to change two lives at once.

Mine changed forever the day I met Sauli.

I hope someone else’s will too.

Join Sauli’s Adventures

If you’ve ever loved a dog who refused to fit neatly into anyone’s expectations…

If you’ve ever believed that the best stories are the ones that actually happened…

Or if you’re looking for heartwarming children’s books that celebrate rescue dogs, family, adventure, and the beautiful chaos of growing together…

The Adventures of Sauli the Rescue Pup is for you.

From cross-country journeys and globe-trotting adventures to unforgettable escapes, every book is inspired by the real life of one extraordinary rescue pup who proved that sometimes the biggest hearts come wrapped in muddy paws and endless curiosity.

Because Sauli isn’t just the hero of these books.

She’s the reason they exist.

And somehow…

I think she’s only just getting started.

Celebrating One-Year of Adventures of Sauli the Rescue Pup!
August 2, 2026
The 50% Rule: When to Leave Your Day Job for Business
The 50% Rule for Quitting: When Is It Actually Safe to Leave Your Day Job?

Leaping from a steady paycheck to running your business full-time shouldn’t be a gamble. In my book, How To Start A Small Business That Actually Makes Money, I emphasize that building a sustainable enterprise requires replacing emotional optimism with clinical, hard data.

Enter the 50% Rule.

What Is the 50% Rule?

This specific financial threshold determines when a founder is operationally and financially ready to transition out of their day job. It states that you are ready to quit only when your business is consistently generating at least 50% of your monthly expenses.

Instead of waiting to replace 100% of your previous corporate salary—which can take years and stall your growth—this serves as a de-risked transition point, proving your business can reliably cover half of your financial floor.

The Key Components
- Mandatory Consistency: A single “great month” doesn’t count. The revenue must stay at or above the 50% mark for at least three consecutive months.
- Tied to Expenses, Not Salary: Your calculation should be based strictly on your monthly burn rate (the minimum amount needed to keep the lights on), not what your corporate job used to pay you.
- Your Day Job as a Funding Mechanism: Until you hit this mark, view your 9-to-5 as an investor paying for your runway, buying you the time to build correctly without desperation.
Why This Strategy Works

Hitting this number turns your exit into a calculated, strategic step rather than a desperate leap of faith. Research shows that entrepreneurs who keep their day jobs while launching are 33% less likely to fail because they have the breathing room to iterate without immediate survival pressure.

The Full Checklist for a Safe Exit

Hitting the 50% revenue mark is a massive milestone, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. To make your exit truly boring—meaning the heavy lifting was done before you resigned—you should pair it with:
- A Full Runway: Fully funded liquid savings covering 6 to 12 months of expenses.
- Operational Proof: At least one paying client from outside your personal network to validate your customer acquisition system.
- Health Insurance: New coverage arranged and verified as affordable.
Continue watching here

Want a step-by-step roadmap to building a business that generates real revenue from day one? Grab a copy of How To Start A Small Business That Actually Makes Money to learn the exact frameworks you need to turn your side hustle into a profitable reality.
August 1, 2026
Unlocking Your Hidden Business Skills

The Curse of Familiarity: Why You Undervalue Your Skills

When my ten-year career plan was erased in a single Friday afternoon corporate layoff, I found myself in a terrifying “messy middle”. As a data scientist and senior engineer, I was trained to find patterns in complex systems, yet I couldn’t see the most obvious patterns in my own life. I initially ignored my professional background to chase “passion projects”—like an artisanal candle business—because I believed that for a business to be “real,” it had to be something new, shiny, and entirely different from what I already knew.

It took a clinical, data-driven autopsy of my own failure to realize a hard truth: Most people don’t lack business ideas; they lack the permission to take the expertise they already have seriously.

Here is why you likely undervalue your own skills and how to stop seeing your expertise as “cheap.”

1. Expertise is Invisible from the Inside

The most reliable source of a business idea is the expertise you have accumulated over years ofRelentless trial and error. However, the problem is that this knowledge is invisible from the inside. Because you have lived with these skills for so long, they feel “normal” to you. You forget that the tasks that take you minutes might take someone else hours—or be completely impossible for them to do without help. You take your assets for granted simply because you already own them.

2. The Ego Trap of “Cheap” Skills

The biggest hurdle to starting a successful business is often your own ego. We tend to believe that if something is easy for us, it must be “cheap” or of low value to the market. This is a fundamental error in judgment. To build a foundation for a business, you have to force yourself to see your expertise through the eyes of someone who desperately needs it. What feels like common sense to you is a high-value solution to a customer currently drowning in a problem you know how to fix.

3. You Focus on Titles, Not Tasks

Most people undervalue their skills because they define themselves by a job title rather than their specific professional tasks. When I ask people to list their skills, they often give me a resume summary. But the money is in the granular details.

A project manager’s skill isn’t just “management”; it’s vendor negotiation, risk identification, and managing difficult personalities. A high school teacher’s skill isn’t just “teaching”; it’s the ability to explain complex topics simply and manage rooms full of resistant people. When you break your career down into these specific actions, you find a goldmine of repeatable, high-margin services.

4. You’re Already Running a “Free” Business

I often tell my readers to look at their informal skills—the things friends, neighbors, and colleagues constantly ask them for help with. If you are the person people call when they are in a legal gray area, or the one who is asked to reorganize every kitchen they visit, you have a validated skill.

The fact that people are already consuming your time for these tasks is the ultimate proof of demand. The only difference between your current situation and a profitable business is that you haven’t started charging for that time yet.

5. You Overlook the “Insider’s Advantage”

Finally, you likely undervalue your industry knowledge. You might think your skills are ordinary, but when you apply a common skill to a specific industry you understand deeply, it becomes extraordinary.

A general bookkeeper is a commodity, but a bookkeeper who understands the specific POS systems and tip pools of the restaurant industry has an “Insider’s Advantage”. They can charge a 30% premium because they speak the language and understand the specific pain points of that world.

Stop Searching, Start Inventorying

In my book, How to Start a Small Business That Actually Makes Money, I provide the “clinical antidote” to the search for the “perfect” new idea: the Skills Inventory.

The goal isn’t to find a “lightning strike” of inspiration. The goal is to identify what you can do competently, what people will pay for, and what you can sustain without dreading it.

My promise to you is this: You almost certainly already have the seed of a profitable business hiding inside you. You just need to stop looking for something original and start looking for what is already working.

Let’s get to work.

Watch the full episode here:

July 30, 2026
Why Originality Isn’t Key to Business Success
Originality Isn’t the Signal: Why I Stopped Chasing “New” and Started Chasing “Working”

I spent a decade of my career as a senior engineer and data scientist believing that success was a product of the “lightning strike”—that singular, original flash of genius that changes an industry. When my Silicon Valley startup collapsed and I found myself in the “messy middle,” I tried to pivot based on pure, unrefined passion, launching an artisanal candle business that left me inhaling fragrance oils while my savings accounts slowly bled dry.

I was chasing the “cool” startup dream, but I quickly learned a hard truth that I’ve since built my entire clinical, data-driven framework upon: Originality is not required. Execution is..

In my book, How to Start a Small Business That Actually Makes Money, I argue that the most reliable signal for a profitable business isn’t how “new” an idea is, but how effectively it solves a recurring problem.

The Trap of the “Unique” Idea

Most people struggling to launch a business don’t actually lack ideas; they lack the permission to take the ones directly in front of them seriously because they aren’t “original” enough. We are conditioned to believe that if someone else is already doing it, the market is “full.”

I’ve found that the opposite is true: The most reliable signal that a business idea is worth pursuing is that other people are already doing it and making money. This isn’t a red flag; it is proof of concept. If there are no competitors, there might be no demand. When you enter an existing market, you aren’t trying to “educate” people into needing you; you are simply inserting yourself into a stream of demand that existed before you arrived.

The “Boring” Advantage

My engineer’s autopsy of failed businesses revealed a consistent pattern: the “cool” startups paid for therapy, while the “boring” businesses paid the mortgage.

Reliable profitability is built on three pillars that have nothing to do with originality:
1. Real, Recurring Demand: The grass grows back, offices get dirty, and taxes are due every quarter.
2. Healthy Margins: You need a gap between price and cost that is wide enough to absorb a bad month.
3. Repeatability: You should be able to deliver your service via a checklist, not a “perfect day” of creative inspiration.
“Boring” businesses like commercial cleaning, pressure washing, or specialized bookkeeping work across every economic cycle because they solve obvious fixes to obvious problems.

Positioning Over Invention

If your idea has already been done, the question isn’t “how can I be original?” It is: “Can I do it better, faster, cheaper, or more conveniently for a specific customer segment?”.

This is where specificity becomes your competitive advantage. I’ve seen that going narrower almost always makes you more money. A general bookkeeper is a commodity; a bookkeeper who understands the specific POS systems and tip pools of the restaurant industry is a specialist who can command a 30% premium. You don’t need a new service; you need better positioning for a specific group of people.

The Ultimate Filter: The $500 Test

To separate “hollow fantasies” from “viable models,” I put every idea through the $500 Test. I ask: How would I make $500 from this idea in the next 30 days using only my current resources?.

If an idea requires a “novel” platform or a massive audience to work, it fails. A real business idea has a direct path between you and a paying customer that functions even without a website or a logo.

As I often tell my readers: If you can’t make $500 from an idea in thirty days, you can’t build a business from it in thirty months. The problems don’t go away at scale—they just get more expensive.

Stop looking for the idea that no one has ever had. Instead, look for the unglamorous, recurring needs that people are already paying for. My journey through the “messy middle” taught me that a business doesn’t have to be a great cocktail party story to be a very good life.

If you’re ready to stop “playing business” with logos and start engineering a foundation that actually makes money, join me for the next chapter of this series where we dive into the Five-Conversation Validation Method.

Watch the full episode here:
July 23, 2026
The $500 Test: Transform Your Business Mindset
Stop Hiding: The $500 Test That Will Fix Your Business

We have all been there. You have an idea, and instead of taking it to market, you spend three weeks debating brand colors on Canva or building out a complex project management system in Notion.

You convince yourself that you are “building a business,” but in reality, you are just playing house—you are playing CEO of a company with zero customers.

In the latest episode of Diary of Clichés, we break down a concept designed to strip away this “entrepreneurial theater” and force you to face the reality of starting a business: The $500 Test.

What is The $500 Test?

The test asks one highly constrained question:

If you had to generate $500 in pure revenue from your business idea within the next 30 days, using strictly the resources, skills, and network you possess right this second, how exactly would you do it?

The catch? You must follow these strict rules:
- No building a website.
- No running paid ads.
- No incorporating an LLC.
Why It Works

When faced with the terrifying prospect of asking a real human being for money, our brains naturally turn to productive procrastination. We hide behind software and design to delay the possibility of rejection.

The $500 Test destroys that hiding place. It forces you to abandon the “cool” startup fantasy and get granularly specific:
- Who are you calling or emailing on Monday morning?
- What exactly are you offering them?
- How much are you charging?
- How will you collect the payment?
If you are currently navigating the “messy middle” between the life you knew and the one you are trying to build, you don’t need more hustle or inspiration—you need a clinical, data-driven framework.

Stop being a passive listener and start engineering your own foundation.

Check out the full discussion here: $500 Test: Stop Hiding, Make Money

For a deeper dive into engineering a business that actually pays the mortgage, grab a copy of How To Start a Small Business That Actually Makes Money.
July 22, 2026
The $500 Test: Quick Revenue Generation for Startups
Are you tired of “productive procrastination” while building your business?

It’s easy to get lost in the “messy middle”—that overwhelming space between the life you knew and the startup you’re trying to build. We often hide behind tasks like perfecting brand colors or debating website layouts, but those things are often just “entrepreneurial theater” designed to delay the one thing that actually matters: asking a real human being for money.

In a recent episode of Diary of Clichés, the channel dives into a powerful concept called The $500 Test 00:13Opens in a new window.

What is The $500 Test?

It’s a ruthless, data-driven diagnostic tool designed to strip away the fluff. The challenge is simple but terrifying: If you had to generate $500 in pure revenue from your business idea within the next 30 days, using only the resources, skills, and network you have right now—how would you do it?

There are three non-negotiable rules:
- No website 00:34Opens in a new window
- No paid ads 00:34Opens in a new window
- No incorporating an LLC 00:34Opens in a new window
Why this works

The goal of this constraint is to force you to confront the reality of your business model without the safety net of “busy work”

If you aren’t doing the work that brings in revenue, you are likely just procrastinating under the guise of being productive.

If you are currently navigating the chaos of starting a business and need a clinical approach rather than just more “hustle” inspiration, you should definitely watch the full breakdown here:

Watch the full video here

For those looking to go deeper into these frameworks, grab a copy of the book How To Start a Small Business That Actually Makes Money.

What is the biggest hurdle you’ve faced when trying to validate your business idea?
July 15, 2026
How to Validate Ideas Before Spending Money
How to Pivot or Kill Your Idea Before You Spend a Dollar

Polite praise is the most dangerous data you can collect.

When you pitch a new idea to friends, they will almost always say, “Wow, that sounds interesting! I think people would buy that.” If you mistake this politeness for validation, you will waste months of your life and thousands of dollars building a product nobody wants.

To protect your capital, you need to run an “Anti-Feasibility Study” using the Five-Conversation Method.

Find five target prospects. Do not pitch them. Instead, perform a diagnostic probe. Ask them how they currently handle the problem you want to solve.

Watch for the Signal:
- Weak Signals (Kill it): “That sounds interesting,” or “You should talk to my friend.” This is polite noise.
- Strong Signals (Green Light): They show you their messy, expensive workaround, or they interrupt you to ask, “How much does this cost and when can you start?”
If you get nothing but weak signals, don’t try to market harder. Kill the idea. Killing an unviable concept in week one isn’t a failure—it’s a successful operational bypass. Save your energy for the enterprise that actually makes money.
July 11, 2026
Why Following Your Passion May Hold You Back
Stop Following Your Passion: Why Boring is Better

We’ve all heard it a thousand times: “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s a compelling narrative, but as discussed in the latest episode of Diary of Clichés, it might actually be the advice that’s holding you back from real success.

The Passion Trap

The “follow your passion” ideology often ignores a fundamental truth: the market is entirely indifferent to your enthusiasm. You can have immense talent and deep personal interest in your craft, but that doesn’t magically generate recurring demand for your product. As the video highlights, there is a dangerous gap between our internal motivation and external market economics.
- The Reality: Passion keeps you motivated, but it doesn’t negotiate margins on supplies, handle commercial rent, or solve customer acquisition problems.
- The Result: A landscape littered with talented, passionate people who end up resenting their work because they can’t make the math work.
Navigating the “Messy Middle”

If you are currently feeling the friction of starting a business, you don’t need more “hustle” or inspiration—you need a clinical, data-driven framework. The “messy middle”—that high-stakes territory between the life you knew and the one you are building—is where most people get lost.

The goal isn’t to kill your passion, but to engineer a foundation that actually supports it. Stop looking for “cool” startup ideas that only pay for therapy and start looking at the unglamorous, “boring” businesses that actually pay the mortgage.

Check out the video below to hear more about breaking free from the cultural conditioning of the 90s and starting a business that actually makes money.

Watch the Full Discussion:

“Your passion for baking sourdough does not magically generate recurring local demand for $12 loaves of bread.” —00:47Opens in a new window

Ready to take action? If you’re tired of being a passive listener, it’s time to build a better foundation.

Grab a copy of How To Start a Small Business That Actually Makes Money on Amazon or read more at the Substack.
July 8, 2026
Break the Silence: The Complete Guide to Author Success
The essential reason why the full map is the only way to break the silence for good.

If you have read this far, you have already experienced the life-changing power of clarity. You now understand the truth of the Invisible Barrier and the painful emotional trap of the 2 AM Dashboard Check. You have learned that the problem is not a lack of quality, but a failure of signal.

This guide—the essays you have just read—is designed to be the Door.

The Door is the point of initial recognition. It is the single, sharp moment where the emotional truth of your struggle is named and validated. It gives you the “Ah-ha” realization that eliminates the shame of your isolation and directs you to the exact source of your problem (the Vague Promise, the Hesitant Price Trap, etc.). The Door is necessary because it stops your retreat, shifts your mindset from the anxious Gambler to the calm Positioner, and proves that the journey out is possible.

But a traveler cannot live in a door.

This book, The Intentional Author, is the Fully Furnished House.

The Fully Furnished House is the entire, complete, step-by-step system you need to transform the temporary clarity of the Door into sustained, predictable success. It contains the engineering blueprint for the entire Marathon.
1. It’s the Full Framework, Not the Fragment: You have the Fragment of the problem; the full book provides the complete Position → Package → Signal sequence—the actionable curriculum for every single point of disconnection.
2. It’s the System, Not the Insight: You have the profound emotional insight (e.g., you need to be the Traveler). The full book provides the detailed system for how to do that: the step-by-step audit of your title, the exact formula for the Service Post, and the complete framework for the Authority of Clarity.
3. It’s the Long Game, Not the First Step: The Door gave you the initial courage; the House gives you the internal fortitude for the full Marathon. It provides the internal work to achieve your Author’s Emancipation and sustain the Cumulative Conversation over years.
Your conviction is high. Your motivation is clear. But to transform the silence into sustained sales, you need the complete Survival Guide that covers every inch of the territory. The Door was the invitation to the necessary truth. The Fully Furnished House is the safe, complete, and fully-equipped system where your book’s long-term success finally begins.

The Intentional Author
July 7, 2026
The Critical Choice in Author Success: Publish Consciously
The critical choice that determines whether an author retreats or commits to the long game.

The moment an author completes a manuscript, they stand at a profound internal crossroads. Their next decision—the choice of how to approach the marketplace—will be the single most defining factor in their career trajectory. This choice is between two fundamentally opposing mindsets: Publishing Blindly or Publishing Consciously.

Publishing Blindly is the default, passive, and emotionally exhausting path. It is the comfortable lie of the linear sequence: Write the Book → Hit Publish → Readers Will Come. This approach assumes that quality is an irresistible force and that the marketplace operates on a system of meritocracy. It is the approach of the Gambler who operates on the False Hope of Impulse.
- The Blind Signal: The book is launched with a Vague Promise—a generic signal that is too polite, too broad, and too focused on the Product rather than the Service.
- The Blind Result: When the launch is met with the inevitable Silence, the author experiences the shame of the 2 AM Dashboard Check, concludes their book is a failure, and loses all conviction, leading to the path of Blame and, eventually, to quitting the Marathon.
Publishing Consciously is the deliberate, strategic, and emotionally sustainable path. It is the realization that the marketplace is not a reward system for quality but a response system for Clarity and Connection. It is the path of the Intentional Author and the calm certainty of the Positioner.
- The Conscious Position: The author commits to the non-linear sequence of Position → Package → Signal. They ruthlessly define their book’s aim, naming the specific Shared Secret they solve using the Who, Want, Struggle framework.
- The Conscious Signal: The book is launched as the Anticipated Culmination of a Cumulative Conversation. The signal is an Emotional Invitation that speaks the Language of Shared Confusion, leading with the Authority of Clarity and framing the book as a vital Survival Guide and a necessary Investment.
The ultimate difference is that the author Publishing Blindly is trying to win the lottery of attention, while the author Publishing Consciously is building infrastructure for connection.Your decision to publish consciously is the internal act of reclaiming your power. It is the moment you reject the paralyzing Why question and embrace the empowering What question, committing to the Emotional Work of Staying Present for the long game. The silence breaks not with a massive spike, but with the steady, unshakeable force of an author who knows, with profound internal certainty, that their book is a necessary map. Choose consciousness, and you choose the path of enduring success.

The Intentional Author
July 6, 2026