I was afraid to admit it.

For weeks, I kept finding reasons to touch The Fence—another sentence, another take, one more detail that might make the whole thing better.

Most of it was real work.

Until it wasn’t.

In this episode of Along the Way, I look at the one-letter difference between business and busyness—and how perfectionism can make fear look like discipline.

But I do not want to give you another explanation of Five Minutes in America or another promise about what I am building.

I want to give you the first finished story.

The work itself.

Listen to The Fence

Put on a pair of headphones if you can. Let the evening light settle across the wire and see where the story carries you.

Listen first. Decide afterward.

If The Fence earns a place in your day, become a paid member of The Coffman Chronicle—not as a favor, but because you want the next story waiting when the journey begins.

Paid members receive the entire first week of Five Minutes in America together on September 5. The weekday stories begin publicly on September 7.

HEAR THE STORIES FIRST

What have you kept perfecting because you are afraid to call it finished?

Tell me in the comments. And if someone you know needs permission to let the work stand, send this episode to them.

I’m Tony Michaels.

I’ll see you... along the way.

Leave a comment

If somebody asked me to sum up everything I have learned about success in one sentence, this would be it:

It is impossible to fail.

I know how that sounds. People fail at things every day. They lose opportunities, make mistakes, and chase dreams that turn out nothing like they imagined.

I have failed at things, too. Plenty of them.

But those failures are events inside a life. They are not the verdict on a life.

That is what this week’s Along the Way is about.

Your life is the notebook. Your purpose is the pencil. The eraser reminds us that a mistake does not have to become a commandment.

You can make a correction. You can learn from the pages you cannot change. And while there is still an empty line in front of you, you can write the next sentence yourself.

Before this video is over, I also want you to hear what the next page of my own story sounds like.

WATCH: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FAIL

The music you hear in this video belongs to Five Minutes in America, my new storytelling program coming to radio five days a week, five minutes at a time.

These won’t be stories that tell you which political team to join or ask you to spend five more minutes angry at somebody you have never met.

They will take you to kitchen tables, fence lines, bait shops, front porches, and courthouse squares—places where ordinary people reveal who they are.

If that sounds like something you want to hear in America, I am asking you to help me put it there.

Become a paid member of The Coffman Chronicle.

Paid members will hear Five Minutes in America before the stories reach radio. Membership is $8 monthly or $80 annually, and it helps carry these stories from my notebook to the airwaves.

You won’t simply hear the first chapter.

You will be one of the people who helped me write it.

BECOME A PAID MEMBER

Whatever page you are on right now, ask yourself:

Who is holding the pencil?

If this video speaks to you, share it with someone who may be ready to take back the authorship of their own life.

One day, every story ends.

What matters is that the handwriting was yours.

I’m Tony Michaels.

I’ll see you along the way.

Subscribe now

If somebody asked me to sum up everything I have learned about success in one sentence, this would be it:

It is impossible to fail.

We fail at things. We lose opportunities. We make mistakes. We write sentences we wish we could erase.

But those failures are events inside a life. They are not the verdict on a life.

Your life is the notebook. Your purpose is the pencil. The eraser reminds us that a mistake does not have to become a commandment.

You can make a correction. You can learn from the pages you cannot change. And while there is still an empty line in front of you, you can write the next sentence yourself.

In this episode of Along the Way, I also share the first taste of the music for Five Minutes in America—my new storytelling program coming to radio five days a week, five minutes at a time.

These stories won’t tell you which political team to join or ask you to spend five more minutes angry at somebody you have never met. They will take you to kitchen tables, fence lines, bait shops, front porches, and courthouse squares—places where ordinary people reveal who they are.

Paid members of The Coffman Chronicle will hear Five Minutes in America before the stories reach radio. Membership is $8 monthly or $80 annually, and it helps carry these stories from my notebook to the airwaves.

Subscribe now

So let me ask you:

Who’s writing your story?

Tell me in the comments and share this with someone who may be ready to take their pencil back.

I’m Tony Michaels. I’ll see you along the way.

Leave a comment

My mother hated it.

And believe it or not, that story helped me sell more than one bathroom.

That is the beginning of this week’s Along the Way.

Years ago, when I sold bathroom remodels, a lot of appointments began with me barely making it through the front door before somebody—usually the husband—said:

“Well, we’re not buying anything today.”

I understood. He wanted to draw a line before the salesman had a chance to start selling.

But before we could discuss buying anything, I needed to see the bathroom. So we would begin walking through the house.

Along the way, I would notice the family pictures, the keepsakes, and all the little pieces of a life collected on the walls.

I might ask how long they had lived there. That would lead to where they lived before—and eventually, where they had grown up.

Then I would listen.

If they had grown up on a farm, I might tell them that I had, too, outside Eldon, Missouri. I might tell them about bottle-feeding calves, taking cattle to the sale barn, or how much I loved butchering chickens—and how much my mother hated the smell.

The chicken story was never exactly the same twice.

Not because I changed what happened. I told it from wherever their memory had carried them. I was answering the story they had trusted me enough to tell.

Somewhere in that exchange, the room would change.

We still had a bathroom to measure and a price to discuss. I was still a salesman who wanted to earn their business.

But we weren’t only a salesman and a customer anymore.

A childhood story had become a kind of old handshake.

This week, while reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, I copied a line from Thurston into my notebook:

“I am grateful because these people come to see me. They make it possible for me to make my living in a very agreeable way. I’m going to give them the very best I possibly can.”

That is not an appeal for sympathy.

It is a standard by which I want you to judge my work.

I am building Five Minutes in America to give you stories that help us recognize ourselves in one another before politics teaches us to be strangers.

Stories that give us a little room to breathe, remember, laugh—and consider what kind of citizens we want to be.

If you become a paid member of The Coffman Chronicle, you will receive early previews of Five Minutes in America before those stories are released to the public.

You will be among the first people invited onto the front porch.

An annual membership is $80—about $1.54 a week.

In return, I intend to live by Thurston’s promise:

To be grateful that you came to see me—and to give you the very best I possibly can.

BECOME A PAID MEMBER — $80/YEAR

If you are already a paid member, thank you.

You are helping make this next chapter possible, and your early previews of Five Minutes in America are coming.

I’m Tony Michaels.

Stay free—and I’ll see you along the way.

P.S. If you believe America could use more stories that help us recognize one another, become an annual member today. I’ll meet you on the front porch.

BECOME A PAID MEMBER — $80/YEAR

She asked us to write beside our drawings—to preserve what we noticed, what we felt, and what we were trying to create.

I forgot the assignment.

But I never lost the gift.

This week, I opened a new notebook and finally understood what she had given me. That notebook has become the place where I work through the challenges, questions, and discoveries I encounter while building something new.

In other words, the notebook is Along the Way.

In today’s episode, I’ll show you what I wrote on its first pages—and share the lesson that came back to me twenty-five years later.

That notebook is also where Five Minutes in America begins.

The new weekday storytelling series officially launches September 7.

Paid Coffman Chronicle members will receive the entire first week—five complete stories—in a special Saturday edition on September 5, before any of them are released publicly.

If you want to help build this project and hear the stories first, I’d be honored to have you with us.

TAKE A FRONT-ROW SEAT

Find your if.

Write it down.

Then return to the work.

Stay free,

Tony Michaels

They disappear for years...

Then one day they quietly come wandering back into our lives.

This week’s story is one of mine.

When I was a teenager on a family vacation in Colorado, I heard a storyteller named Scotty Vaughn perform Rindercella, a classic story written by Archie Campbell of Hee Haw.

I didn’t know it then...

But that evening would quietly shape the storyteller I would become.

Looking back now...

I don’t think I brought that story home.

I think...

It brought me.

I hope you’ll spend a few minutes with me today.

I’d love to hear from you.

What’s one story you’ve been carrying all these years?

Maybe it came from a grandparent.

Maybe it happened in your hometown.

Maybe it was an ordinary moment no one else remembers.

But you do.

Share it in the comments.

Some of the best stories we’ll ever tell may begin with one of yours.

Thank you for walking this road with me.

I’ll see you...

...along the way.

— Tony

Become a Member

If these stories mean something to you, I’d love to invite you to become a member.

Members receive every episode of Five Minutes in America early, along with behind-the-scenes notes as we build this storytelling company together.

Your support helps preserve the stories worth passing along.

Subscribe now

I wrote it. Recorded it. Edited it. Watched it back.

Then I hit publish and walked away feeling like a million bucks—even though nobody had watched it yet.

I couldn’t understand why it felt so different.

Then I remembered that old pocket watch.

It had stopped keeping time years before, but it had never stopped carrying stories.

And I realized that may be what I have been trying to build all along.

Not another podcast.

Not another YouTube channel.

A place where stories are made to be carried.

Now, Five Minutes in America is beginning to leave the porch.

We have reached an agreement to begin taking these stories to radio. A two-minute edition will be built to travel through radio and across the internet, but the complete five-minute story will remain the heart of everything we do.

The larger dream is to build a living library of American stories—stories about our people, our history, our character, our failures, and our responsibilities to one another. Stories that can be heard today and still mean something years from now.

Paid members of The Coffman Chronicle will hear every complete story before it airs anywhere else.

And those who choose the Founding Member option will be recognized as the people who stepped forward and helped bring Five Minutes in America to life from the beginning.

TAKE A FRONT-ROW SEAT

Already a paid or Founding Member? Your seat is waiting. Thank you for making this work possible.

Somebody carried a story until they handed it to me.

Now, together, we get to carry the next one forward.

Tony

Stay free.

I was wrong.

I was building a body of work.

I was building a community.

And somewhere along the way, I was beginning to understand what I am actually supposed to do with all of it.

The Tony Michaels Podcast is going to take a break.

I know that sentence may sound like an ending, but it doesn’t feel like one to me.

It feels like the first honest step toward what comes next.

For years, many of you have watched the show, listened to the podcast, read my work, shared it with friends, argued with me, laughed with me, and supported me when I wasn’t always certain where any of this was going.

You gave me the room to find my voice.

And I think I have finally found it.

I want to tell American stories.

I want to talk about citizenship, liberty, dignity, work, power, and the responsibility we inherit when we call ourselves Americans.

I want to create work that lasts longer than the news cycle.

That doesn’t mean I’m disappearing.

It doesn’t mean I’m walking away from the fight.

It means I am getting clearer about the work.

I recorded a short video explaining where I am, what is changing, and what I believe we have been building together all along.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for giving me your time.

And thank you for trusting me enough to come along for whatever happens next.

This isn’t goodbye.

It’s Day One.

Tony

Stay free.

I wasn’t able to stream live today, so instead of the full show, I’m sending you today’s Opening Argument.

This one starts on a factory floor.

A man named Mike has followed the same safety rules every morning for twenty-three years. Safety glasses. Earplugs. Hard hat. Not because someone is watching, but because the rules are supposed to protect everybody.

Then one morning, someone connected walks right past the safety rack.

And the foreman sees it.

But says nothing.

That’s where the lesson begins.

Because a republic can survive hard rules. What it cannot survive is selective rules.

When the law applies to ordinary people but becomes negotiable for the powerful, trust does not just weaken in government. It weakens in citizenship itself.

You can watch today’s Opening Argument here:

And since I couldn’t bring you the full live show today, I want to make sure you still get something useful out of this send.

For a limited time, you can get 25% off a paid subscription to The Coffman Chronicle.

Paid subscribers get the full show, deeper analysis, the archive, and the work we’re building around citizenship, constitutional government, and a square deal for working Americans.

Save 25% and Support the Archive

Thanks for sticking with me. We’ll be back live soon.

Stay free,
Tony Michaels

But after the Opening Argument, we walk through General’s article and separate the pieces Washington wants to collapse into one fight.

Yes, the uniform matters.

An active-duty officer protesting in uniform sh…

Read more

No live show today — just a new episode of This American Character.

This one is about Theodore Roosevelt before he became the symbol of courage most Americans remember.

Before the Rough Rider, before the presidency, before the “strenuous life,” he was a sickly little boy fighting for the next breath.

Watch it here:

And for America’s 250th, I’m bringing back the 25% off discount for paid subscriptions.

Paid subscribers help us keep building the archive: Opening Arguments, American Character stories, articles, historical quote memes, and the work of teaching citizenship through character.

Stay free,

Tony Michaels

Save 25% and Support the Archive

Today, I’d like to do something a little different.

Instead of our usual Opening Argument, I want to share the very first episode of a new series called This American Character.

It’s a series built around a simple idea:

History remembers great Americans.

But character is built long before history remembers their names.

Our first story is about a young man who desperately wanted someone to tell him he belonged.

Long before he refused a crown...

He sought the approval of a king.

That forgotten disappointment helped shape the man who would one day help shape a nation.

I hope you’ll take five minutes, close your eyes, imagine the story, and enjoy the very first episode.

▶️ Watch Episode #1: Before America Knew His Name

As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, I also wanted to say thank you.

For a limited time, I’m offering 25% off an annual subscription to The Coffman Chronicle for both new and returning subscribers.

If you’ve been thinking about becoming a paid member—or coming back—this is a great time to join us as we head toward America’s semiquincentennial together.

Claim your 25% anniversary discount

Thank you for reading, for listening, and for believing that America’s story is still worth telling.

Happy Independence Day.

Stay free,

Tony Michaels

Share

It is erasing people from its protection.

Today’s Opening Argument begins in a barbershop just outside Atlanta, Georgia, where three American stories end up in the same room.

One family came from Ireland.

One family was brought here in chains.

One man was born here to parents from Haiti.

Different beg…

Read more

Different parties.

Different banners.

Different slogans.

Same mistake.

Today’s full show expands on the Opening Argument and the article from General Azmundus, “The Iron Throne on Pennsylvania Avenue.”

The story begins with a washed-out road in a small American town. A mayor is standing in the mud. The road is gone. The…

Read more

One of the promises I made when we started building these five-minute Opening Arguments was that they wouldn’t simply be political commentary.

They would be stories.

But stories don’t begin with writing.

They begin with reporting.

Today’s Opening Argument started with an article about artificial intelligence.

It ended with a handwritten letter…

Read more

I think today’s show marks a turning point.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been talking about wanting to tell stories instead of simply reacting to headlines.

Today, I finally feel like we did it.

The show opens with Jake and Ashley—a young couple trying to build a life together. They’re not politicians. They’re not famous. They’re just two …

Read more

But the full show is where we bring that lesson into the present.

Because this is not just a history story.

It is about what happens when the government prosecutes a real cri…

Read more

The Opening Argument asks a simple question:

Does Congress ever do its job?

It begins with the story of a family trucking business, a diesel pump, and a gas station clerk who gave one answer that cuts through all the political noise.

But that’s only the beginning.

After the Opening Argument, we dig into General’s latest article an…

Read more

The Opening Argument is five minutes, but the full show goes deeper into what came after: how oil, foreign interference, the 1953 coup, the shah, the Islamic Revolution, the hostage crisis, sanctions, proxy wars, Israel, Iran, and Congress all built the pressure system we are living inside now.

The simple version is this: …

Read more

It ended somewhere completely different.

The more we talked about Marie Riverton’s article, the more one idea kept surfacing:

The difference between belonging and conditions.

You can belong... if.

You can be one of us... if.

You can stay in the club... if.

The…

Read more