The Journal
Ideas for the life you’re designing.
Essays by Eric Mallari on growth, learning, building, health, purpose, and creating a meaningful life. Read in any order, return often, and take what you need for the chapter you’re living now.
Where to begin
Three ways into the Journal, depending on the chapter you’re in.
Rethinking what’s next
For the chapter after the career that defined you.
Building something of your own
Personal brand, independence, and work that carries your name.
Staying curious and well
Learning, health, and the energy the next chapter runs on.
Grow
How to Make Your Business Less Dependent on You
A stronger business doesn't require you to disappear. It gives you more choice about where your time, experience and judgment are actually needed.
9 min read
Grow
What Should a Small Business Automate First?
Automation can save time, reduce errors and create leverage. But the first question isn’t what can be automated. It’s what is worth automating.
8 min read
Grow
You Don't Need to Reinvent Yourself
You need to remember who you are.
10 min read
Learn
Why Curiosity Keeps You Young
The people who keep asking questions never stop growing.
3 min read
Build
You’re Never Too Late to Build Something Meaningful
The most important thing you build may have nothing to do with your career.
10 min read
Grow
How to Identify the Next Growth Opportunity in Your Business
Most owner-led businesses have no shortage of things they could improve. The harder question is which opportunity deserves your time, money and attention first.
8 min read
Grow
Your Experience Is Your Advantage: How AI Changes What’s Possible After 50
AI is changing how we work, build and create. For experienced adults, that doesn’t have to mean starting over. It may mean having more powerful tools to do something with everything you already know.
6 min read
Live
Health Creates Freedom
The healthiest years of your life may still be ahead of you.
13 min read
Live
Nobody Puts Us in the Same Room Anymore
Work, school and children put us in rooms with other people. When that changes, connection needs designing — starting with one recurring thing.
12 min read
Build
You Don’t Need More Leads. You Need Better Opportunities.
A lead is a name. An opportunity has context. Why more lead volume rarely fixes customer acquisition — and why better targeting has to come before more automation.
7 min read
Build
Your Website Can Answer Questions. But Can It Understand Opportunities?
AI is beginning to change what a business website can do. The next step may not be another chatbot, but an intelligent front door that can listen, understand why someone has arrived and help determine what should happen next.
11 min read
Grow
Small Decisions, Extraordinary Lives
You don't have to change everything. You just have to choose the next right step.
3 min read
Learn
Never Stop Being a Beginner
The willingness to learn something new may be one of the most valuable things you can carry into the next chapter of your life.
12 min read
Learn
Why We Stop Learning as We Get Older — And Why It Matters
Learning doesn't necessarily decline because we lose the ability. Often, the reasons, opportunities and structures that once made learning unavoidable simply change. In a world that never stops changing, we may need to deliberately design learning back into our lives.
7 min read
Build
Your Host Agency Builds the Infrastructure. Are You Building Your Own Brand?
A host agency can give you technology, suppliers, training and support. It cannot give travellers a reason to choose you.
7 min read
Build
What You Know Is Meant to Be Shared
Experience becomes more valuable when it becomes useful to someone else.
11 min read
Grow
Who Are You When Your Career No Longer Defines You?
For much of our lives, what we do becomes part of who we are. But when the title changes, the business ends or retirement arrives, an important question remains: what part of all that was actually you?
8 min read
Build
The Healthspan Economy: The Business of Living Better, Longer
We’re getting better at adding years to life. The next opportunity is adding more life to those years. From fitness and travel to technology, community and entrepreneurship, an enormous economy is emerging around helping people remain strong, capable, connected and independent longer.
11 min read
Build
7 Fitness & Wellness Businesses You Can Build From What You Already Know
You don’t necessarily need a gym, a huge following or a completely new idea to build a fitness business. If you’ve spent years teaching, coaching or helping people live healthier lives, your experience may already contain the beginnings of one.
9 min read
Build
What If Your Fitness Experience Could Become a Business?
The wellness economy is growing rapidly. But one of its most interesting opportunities may belong to experienced fitness and wellness professionals who already possess the most important thing they need to begin: knowledge people value.
8 min read
Live
Always Have Something to Look Forward To
Sometimes the anticipation is part of the experience.
6 min read
Grow
What Should You Do With the Next 20 Years of Your Life?
Twenty years is a long time when you stop treating it like the end of something and start treating it like the beginning of something.
8 min read
Build
What 30+ Years in Network Marketing Taught Me About People
Companies change. Technology changes. Marketing changes. But after more than three decades in relationship-based business, the most important lessons I've learned have almost nothing to do with compensation plans.
8 min read
Build
How to Build a Network Marketing Business Without Becoming “That Person” on Facebook
You don’t have to choose between building your business and being someone people actually enjoy following. The modern network marketer can do both.
7 min read
Build
Why Your Network Marketing Company Shouldn't Be Your Personal Brand
Your company can give you products, systems and an opportunity. But your reputation, relationships and audience should belong to you.
9 min read
Build
How to Become Your Own Boss After 50
You have spent decades accumulating experience, judgment and relationships. Becoming your own boss after 50 is less about quitting a job than about deciding what kind of independence fits the life you actually want.
12 min read
Build
How to Build a Personal Brand After 50
You already have a reputation. Building a personal brand after 50 means making what people already trust you for coherent around where you're going next.
13 min read
Build
Do I Need a Personal Website? A Guide for Independent Professionals
You may already have LinkedIn, social media or a company website. So do you really need one of your own? The answer depends on who is being evaluated — and on how much of your reputation currently lives somewhere you don’t own.
12 min read
Build
7 Network Marketing Trends to Watch in 2026
Network marketing is changing. AI, social commerce, creator-led marketing and shifting consumer expectations are reshaping how independent professionals build trust and grow. Here's what those changes could mean for your personal brand.
7 min read
Build
8 Travel Advisor Trends Reshaping the Profession in 2026
Travel advisors aren't disappearing. They're becoming more entrepreneurial, specialized and technology-enabled. Here are eight trends reshaping the profession and what they could mean for your personal brand.
10 min read
Build
8 Fitness & Wellness Trends Reshaping the Profession in 2026
Fitness and wellness professionals are becoming specialists, educators, community builders and technology-enabled coaches. Here are eight trends reshaping the profession and what they could mean for your personal brand.
9 min read
Build
How to Validate a Business Idea After 50 Without Spending a Lot of Money
You don't need to spend thousands of dollars to discover whether a business idea has potential. The Design Yourself PROOF Test helps you gather real-world evidence before making the bigger investment.
11 min read
Build
How to Know Which of Your Skills People Will Actually Pay For After 50
Experience alone doesn't create a business. Here is a five-step way to find out which parts of what you already know someone might pay to solve.
9 min read
Build
How to Turn What You Know Into a Business After 50
You may already have the raw material for your next business. The challenge isn't finding another idea. It's recognizing which parts of your experience, knowledge and skills can solve a problem someone will pay to have solved.
8 min read
Stay close
Occasional letters on learning, reinvention, and the next chapter.
You're agreeing to receive occasional Design Yourself emails. Unsubscribe any time.