Straight answers

Don't Die Ordinary is a podcast hosted by Aaron Bare and Forbes Shannon about how companies stop being interesting. Each episode takes one territory — subtraction, focus, incentives, exponential thinking — and argues it out in four beats rather than delivering advice.

Founders and operators who suspect their company got comfortable and can't yet prove it. It assumes you already know how to run things; it is about what you have quietly stopped doing.

Dying ordinary is the slow version of failing. The company keeps its revenue, its office and its logo, and loses the reason anyone chose it. Nothing breaks, so nobody calls a meeting.

Four questions on the homepage about your last real decision, what you cut, where your leak is and how long it's been true. It returns one of three verdicts — Ordinary, Slipping, or Not Yet Ordinary — and carries your answer into the confession form. It is a mirror, not a diagnostic instrument.

It goes to the hosts. Nothing appears on the public wall until a human approves it. If you don't tick the name box, it publishes as anonymous with only your stage attached, and your email is never shown.

Confess something ordinary first, or email the show. Guests appear as an Exhibit: one company, one boring decision, one argument about it.

A paid working session with the hosts through Extraordinary, the studio behind the show. It is the version of the podcast pointed at your company rather than a topic.

Episode 001 is not out yet. Subscribe on the homepage and you get one email when it lands.