Structure

Tag: Business Growth

  • Frustrated Founder to CEO: The Inside-Out Business Growth Method

    Are you a frustrated founder stuck at $1M, staring at the ceiling at 3am wondering why nothing seems to work? I’ve been there.

    In this live Focus Hour session, I share my raw, unfiltered journey from being 50 pounds overweight, numbing with alcohol, and nearly burning out my business to breaking through to 8 figures – all by learning one crucial truth: business problems are personal problems in disguise.

    Focus Hour: Vision & Values

    Watch LinkedIn Live: https://www.linkedin.com/events/founderhourlive-stopspinning-st7363610474489237505/theater/

    What I’m really about is growth – personal growth, business growth, and as a founder, how I can really help is helping other frustrated founders grow and learn how to grow and break through areas they’re stuck in.

    If you’re a frustrated founder and you’re here today, welcome by the way. I know what this is like – you’re staring at the ceiling at 3 AM, stuck in a loop. You’re straining your family to carry your team, and you’re probably wanting growth, but it feels random and distant. For me as a founder, I’ve gone through many seasons where I felt like, if I quit, everything falls apart. If I keep going, all fall apart.

    The Reality of Being a Frustrated Founder

    Let’s get real as a founder – your freedom vehicle. We all become frustrated founders at one point or another because we don’t want to do the job anymore. We don’t want to work in a business, or maybe we have a great idea, or maybe we have to. Either way, that freedom vehicle starts to feel like a prison, and every decision, crisis and dollar ends up being on you. And you think if I push harder, it’ll finally click.

    This happens for many founders between – it can happen at any point from the beginning to eight figures. I’ve seen it along the journey. I know for me, I really felt this, and this became very real to me and a very pivotal moment in my life when this was crushing was between $300,000 revenue and a million. It was that cresting $300,000 to get to a million that really almost broke me.

    For me, I was answering support emails and processing payroll at midnight – that was my life and my situation.

    My Personal Story

    I just want you to know – if you’re here, if you’re this person, I’ve been there too. This is a little bit my story. I was 50 pounds overweight, numbing with alcohol every day. I was building a successful company that was growing, that was working kind of, not at the rate it could have, but while honestly failing myself, and I was feeling alone. Something stuck, and I was just spinning out.

    I remember telling my wife – I’ve shared this in some different posts that I’ve put out, but there was a very distinct moment where I told my wife like, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I feel alone.—like I’m pushing this thing forward alone, and I don’t know where to go. It’s like I don’t know what to do, and I just don’t like it.”

    Really, what ended up happening is, I just kind of survived through it, medicated through it, and most of my evenings ended in Netflix, whiskey and guilt. My wife was so loving, and with me the whole time, but she knew I wasn’t healthy. She knew I wasn’t doing well, but our life wasn’t really set up to do things differently.

    Why I’m Here

    The honest truth is, I lived every moment of this pain that I just shared with you, and I’m on a mission here, and I really want to help you and any other founder that’s around grow through that pain instead of running from it.

    My Transformation Timeline

    This 2022, I labeled as “Frustrated Founder.” That was kind of the pinnacle, the peak of my frustration, of my pain, of this season. This is where I was 50 pounds overweight, doing anything for anyone in terms of work and business. I was taking on all kinds of work that wasn’t taking me anywhere, and it was bogging me down and crushing me.

    I would call myself looking back, I would say I was a functional alcoholic. My mom would use those words, and which is true. I remember traveling and thinking, “Okay, if we stay at this Airbnb, is there a liquor store nearby so that I can get some whiskey if I want it?”

    I’m saying that, but you may have actually felt that too, or thought that. I hope that by sharing that maybe it even gives you permission to own that for yourself.

    I just went wandering, just numbing

    Constant sinus infections, which I found out was because I was drinking so much. My business was about $300,000 at this point, and it was struggling.

    Fast forward. This picture is almost a year ago. This picture is kind of a transformation of me. That’s me and my son Peter, right before a Phoenix Suns game. That 50 pounds gone – lost it.

    • I’m sitting here creating content, sharing with you.
    • I’m on LinkedIn.
    • I’m creating posts.
    • I’m sharing my thought leadership.
    • I’m providing strategy for clients.
    • I’m creating a new program.
    • And I’m doing what I’m best at.

    At the time I was doing anything for everyone – everything from video production to support emails to web design development. I was spread so thin. I’ve got a clear 10-year vision, and one-year goals. Totally different situation. I work out 3 to 4 times a week, and I eat a macro-based diet. It’s pretty intense, and you don’t have to do that. But I’ll tell you it’s changed my life and my performance.

    Now we’ve broken through 1 million dollar a year business, and I’ve got business family team really following my lead in a whole different level than it was before.

    The Breaking Point

    I remember one night – actually a lot of nights – but I remember this moment happening a lot of times, 3 AM staring at the ceiling. My family was strained, my team was confused. I was personally depressed, and I was realizing I wasn’t just losing traction in my business. I was actually losing my life, losing traction in my life.

    My wife was distant. We’ve always been very close, honestly, but compared to now, emotionally distant. I didn’t create space for her because I was filling up so many other things. My kids were watching me fade away. They didn’t know any different. But the truth is, I was watching them watch me fade away. I honestly just hated who I saw in the mirror.

    I saw something from Andy Frisella this morning that I think is totally worth sharing, because it’s just so relevant. He says: “You don’t change when you’re comfortable. You don’t change when it’s kind of bad. You change when you hate your life so much you feel disgusted with yourself.

    • When you look in the mirror, and you can’t stand what you see.
    • When the way you’re living makes you sick to your stomach.
    • When the cost of staying the same feels worse than the pain of changing.

    That’s the switch—the breaking point. That’s when things change. So if you’re there now, good! It means you’re ready. Ready to rebuild, ready to create the life you actually want. Disgust isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of everything you ever wanted.”

    That’s where I was at at this moment.

    The Real Problem

    All the advice was, “Don’t work in your business. Work on it, Simon,” and it’s good advice. I love Michael Gerber. I love The E-Myth, and the advice was great, because it’s true – you shouldn’t spend all of your time working in your business, you should work on it. But the truth is, no matter what I did, I could never get out of that trap.

    Turns out, it doesn’t matter what books you read – systems, processes – I couldn’t get out. I don’t think systems can fix a broken founder if they’re active in the business. Business systems can’t fix a broken person in this way. Maybe it can fix a broken employee, to be honest, but the truth is, as a founder, your relationship with the business – you are so closely tied to it. If you are struggling, your business is probably going to be struggling. At least that’s my story and my experience.

    That’s when I realized what I had going on wasn’t just a business problem. It was actually an alignment problem. It was actually a business problem that was actually a personal problem in disguise.

    My Focus and Mission

    This is where I’m really leaning in. This is the edge, the focus, the differentiator of my story—and what I’m coming at is that I want to help you fix your business by helping you grow yourself. I want to help you grow your business by helping you grow yourself.

    The problem was my vision, my habits, my leadership – none of it matched who I wanted to be. I was saying one thing over here: “I want to grow, make 10 million dollars, write a book, whatever it is.” Over here I’m Netflix, and still drink a bunch of whiskey, feel like a piece of shit in the morning. You’re not living an aligned life, Simon.

    I think what I see in a lot of founders that are struggling is that’s their life too. Not everyone’s like this. If you aren’t like this – cool, congrats. If you figured this out already, if you are dialed, if you are living, and I see these founders too – congrats, that’s a huge win. But this isn’t the case for everyone. A lot of us really struggle. I actually know a lot of founders, and have watched founders, and had mentors that I know have been through this exact same story.

    Rebuilding From the Inside Out

    I rebuilt from the inside out. This is crazy because I work with a lot of clients that come to us because they want to grow their business. They want to work with a partner who knows how to market and grow a business.

    The truth is, the best growth systems are growth from the inside out, and the clients that we have been the most successful with that have been the most successful with marketing in general, are the ones who already are aligned at the core. The ones who just want to throw money and bodies at the problem, they actually have a deeper problem that they need to solve first.

    Same thing here with the founders. If you’re stuck at ceilings, there’s a lot of ways to break through that. But if you don’t address the core issues, you’re going to keep finding yourself spinning.

    When I rebuilt from the inside out – my vision, my habits, my health – something powerful happened, and my marriage got stronger, and I started actually living again. I started being clear and understanding and thinking, and growing in a new way. It was this moment where only after I started working on myself did my business grow, and that’s the year that we broke a million dollars.

    We had spent years before struggling. The company’s coming up to about 10 years in business, and the first solid 5 or 6 or 7 years, we struggled, stuck at around $300,000.

    Four Truths You Can’t Ignore

    Walking out of this, I think there are really 4 truths that I want to share with you, that you can’t ignore if you’re a frustrated founder:

    1. Business is Personal

    Every business problem is secretly a personal problem in disguise. I’ve already said that, but the truth is, business is personal to you as a founder. Your business is personal to you. The business problems that you’re running into aren’t just isolated, containerized, individualized, detached business problems. We do that emotional detachment as a way to cope with the pain. But the truth is, if your business is struggling, you’re struggling. If you can’t figure it out, it’s because you can’t figure it out. This is what I’ve learned. I’m not saying that just because I’ve heard that – I’m saying that’s literally was my problem.

    2. How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything

    Great founders can take mediocre markets, mediocre ideas, and still win honestly. The best founders perform in the worst circumstances. You can’t compartmentalize.

    3. Align to Accelerate

    You don’t speed up to slow down. That’s how I thought – run fast, and then coast, because it’s easy. You slow down to speed up, but when you get to the speed up, it’s not all on you either.

    You slow down to speed up, and so if you want to grow, if you want to accelerate – you’re in your mind, you’re thinking, expand, accelerate, grow, build. Any of those words are on your mind. What you need to do is think: align, slow down, clarify, specify. The point is align to accelerate. I’ve seen it over and over, and we have a 4-step process that we run with our clients at Structure, our marketing agency.

    I call it the acceleration loop. It’s 4 steps, and it starts with align – align, get clear. 2 is activate. So you activate those ideas, you start doing them, creating infrastructure, things around them. 3 is amplify – talking more about it, creating more content around those ideas. And 4 is acceleration, which is measuring, iterating, pruning, expanding and growing.

    That is how we think about growth. That’s a growth process.

    4. Relationships Determine Results

    Nobody wins a championship alone. Every champion has a coach and a team. Just this morning I was listening to Nick Bare, the founder of Bare Performance Nutrition. He has a podcast and he has been doing this thing for maybe a couple of years now where every once in a while he does an episode on building the brand, and he shares his journey as a founder through building Bare Performance Nutrition to – I don’t know, it’s a large business now. I mean not large like Google, but large like $100 million. Maybe I’m not really sure but it’s somewhere near there.

    He was talking about his races. He does endurance training, and endurance competitions. Crazy ones like the Leadville 100, which is the 100 mile race in Colorado. Lots of things like that. Marathons, crazy marathon times. Every time he sets out a goal – and let’s call it a project, it’s a goal, it’s a project, it’s a race – what he does is, he hires a coach.

    This is wild to me, and he tells these stories about these events that he’s done, and every time he says, “and I hired a coach,” and it’s never the same coach. That’s the wild thing – he finds a coach that’s done it before, or has coached in that area before, or knows the terrain, or something like whatever it is. That person’s been there, done that, is experienced, they get it. They know how to replicate it again.

    He goes and he hires one, and then he builds a team around him to support his journey, so he can follow through.

    I think this is so key for founders

    The key is because most founders just go at it alone. I did. I did for a lot of years, and luckily I had coaches alongside me, who mentored me and came alongside me, and helped me, even though I didn’t know how to help myself. A lot of it was fear of spending money for me – coaches cost money, and I didn’t want to spend money. I didn’t think I was honestly worth investing in, because I thought I could grow the business without growing myself.

    What I learned looking back – I’ve had a lot of coaches. I’ll introduce you to them in a minute. What I learned is that every time I’ve had a coach I’ve grown faster. I’ve gotten where I wanted to, faster. I’ve become someone quicker who could accomplish the goal that I set out.

    It’s really important to have that help

    Have those relationships, have the coach and have the team. I’m not just saying this because I’m a coach. I actually do believe it.

    The first business I ever started, my first client was actually a bartering agreement with a coach. Wild. They’re an executive leadership coach and they work with large companies like Pacific Foods, and Fortune 500 companies. But he agreed to coach me. So I was getting this elite level coaching at the start. It’s not the only time this has happened, but it happened that time, and has happened over and over.

    I couldn’t have made it through that first year, that first 3 months of business without that coach. Then I didn’t have a coach for like 5 years. I remember getting to a point stuck. I’ve written about this too – it was sometime in the fall, and it was a holiday. My team wasn’t working, but I remember I was, and I was stressed out, and I was pacing around actually our bedroom with my phone researching, trying to figure out what to do, because I remember being in such a stuck spot. It was about 2022, 2021 somewhere in there.

    It was this moment and I decided, “I need help, and I need to reach out to a coach.” And they really helped me break through. It was a big push in that direction. They helped push me in the direction to help me get to a million.

    My Question for You

    Here’s my question: If I can break through, if I can grow, if I can transform, if I can get there, why not you? What’s holding you back?

    Founders almost always think that their growth problem is strategy or sales. “Sales fixes all” – it’s true, it’s not wrong. But it doesn’t fix forever. I think that’s something to remember – “sales fix all” is true, but if you continue to self-sabotage yourself and your business, it’s never going to solve really the long-term problem.

    What I’ve learned is that every business problem is a personal problem in disguise, and there are 5 domains every frustrated founder needs to align before they can fully accelerate. I don’t say “master,” because it’s not that you’re perfect. It’s not that you conquered this. It’s that they’re aligned, that you see them working together, that you see that one takes you to another, that you see that getting where you want to go requires having these things in place.

    The Five Domains

    1. Vision: Do You Know Where You’re Going?

    Do you know where you’re going, or are you just hoping your next month won’t be worse? There’s a difference between proactive growth and reactive growth. What I want you to see is if you’re stuck, one of the first things is getting proactive, getting clear, getting ahead and stop reacting to fires and months and revenue spikes and drops.

    2. Values: Is Your Business Built on What Matters to You?

    Not just “We believe X” and these are our standards that we don’t follow when we put them up. So people say them, but nobody knows they are. Is your business built on what matters to you? Like how much money you want to make, seriously. Where you want to live. How much you want to work, what kind of work you want to do. Who you want to hang out with. How many people you want to manage.

    Or are you just chasing new trends just to survive? What often happens is because we don’t have values, because we don’t have standards, because we don’t believe – we don’t name what we believe, or we don’t believe anything hard enough. We just chase, chase, chase trends. Chase things to keep something right, to solve problems. There’s always a new trend or technology or something to band-aid it. But the problem is, you’re chasing. You spend your life chasing. It’s a lot of energy spent.

    3. Identity: Are You the Leader Your Business Needs?

    Or are you actually just an overpaid firefighter? I like this one because this really gets to – are you a frustrated founder or a visionary CEO? The question is, who do you want to be?

    A lot flipped for me between 2022 and 2024, 2025, where I decided I am going to become Simon 10.0. Version 10.0. So pretending I am 1.0 right now. What is 10.0? What does that look like? That was vision.

    I had to go, “Well, what’s my vision? Okay. Well, what are the things that matter to me in there? Okay.” What can I do right now? Oftentimes this is the crazy thing about vision and values – values just comes out of vision. Vision makes this massive gap that then you want to close, and you have these questions where you go, “Why am I not doing those things right now?”

    I literally just went through this again. I’ve done this many times, but my coach pushed me to create my 10-year vision, and I did it, and I wrote this thing – I don’t know how many pages, 10 pages. At the end of it, I looked at it, and I went, “Well, I could do that now. I could do that now. I could do – well, I have to wait 10 years to do some of these things.” Some of them take 10 years to build, some don’t.

    Are you being the person that can get you there? If you’re not, that’s okay. But start now, start doing some things now.

    4. Systems: Do You Have Rhythms That Help You Grow?

    Or are you running on fumes and spinning out? What anchors you? You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

    I can say I want to make a million dollars a year personally, but if I don’t have systems, if I don’t have rhythms, if I don’t do the things that it takes to get there, it’s never going to happen. So what are the rhythms? What are the things to help you grow?

    Let me tell a story

    Not too long ago my family went to San Diego for a week, and we took our kids to SeaWorld and played on the beach. It’s really fun, because it’s hot here in Arizona and Phoenix, and it was great to get out and do something a little bit different. But it was really hard, because it was a hard week, and looking back, I just felt totally spun out and lost the whole time.

    When I look back on it, one of the big things that I realized, and I told my wife, is I was so out of sync. I think I worked out once in the gym, and it was kind of short. My diet was all over the place. I mean, we’re eating out. Not bad food, but some of it was. I wasn’t getting the same nutrition. The sleep – I mean, we were in a hotel room, so the sleep was kind of bad.

    I’m not complaining here

    What I’m saying is, I have rhythms that anchor me. If I am going to play at this level up here – Simon 10.0, 10 million dollar level – the problem is that when I spend extended amounts of time in environments that I can’t – that I spin out in, or I struggle in, or that my body starts to – I don’t know, can’t keep up, and when I – you get my point. I can’t perform at that level.

    That’s really what this is about – your environment and your rhythms that keep you growing, and keep you stabilized and keep you going on a day-to-day basis.

    5. Relationships: Do You Have the Right Team?

    Or do they look to you for every answer, every time? This is really about your culture. It’s about your community, it’s about your standards. It’s about the people around you. I could even just call this community.

    The point is that you’re not doing this alone. You can’t grow alone.

    You’re going to need…

    • A team around you.
    • A coach to help you.
    • Friends that elevate you.

    Building the right team is really important

    At my company Structure, my lived experience here is we built up a team. At one point I think we were about 10 people, and it was a little overbuilt at the time for our revenue. For a couple of reasons. One, we had poor systems and operations that required a lot of people, and a lot of handholding and a lot of steps. They weren’t efficient enough – it just took a lot of work, and for me to survive we had built it up.

    Really, it needed to be simpler

    So that was a mistake on our part. I totally see it. The other one was we had a big contract with a client that was a multi-year deal that we built our team so that we could deliver that contract. We actually hired to do pre-work for the contract, because it was a big front-loaded thing.

    The bummer is, the contract actually didn’t work out and we had to let go of a number of those team members. What I learned, though in that process of building and going down is we had people that rose up and were great and leaders, and we had people that left on their own, and this is normal for every business. But what I’m saying is, there were a lot of times in that process where I realized that I was carrying my team, and I wasn’t empowering them.

    They weren’t working on their own off of my clear vision, values, identity and systems that I had built around us, that they could operate in. It was just chaos.

    So do you have the right people that can help you build that, or that are willing to work in that, that you don’t have to carry? That’s on you. Some of that’s on them. But there’s a lot to explore there.

    Your 10-Year Vision: A Practical Tool

    I want to jump into your 10-year vision as a tool, as a takeaway tool for you, because we talked about these 5 domains. What I want to do is pretty much every week or every call, I want to dig into these a little bit more, and share more with you on them. The first one I want to tackle is the 10-year vision. It’s just the right place to start. Every workshop that we’ve done with every client to grow their business, every founder to clarify their vision starts with this conversation. This exercise, and everything flows from here.

    The Goal

    Your 10-year vision. The goal is to align your business around a big vision of the future. The vision is where you’re headed, and why it matters. Most frustrated founders are stuck because they’re working in the business without clarity on the business. Without a clear vision, honestly, you’re just building a machine you can’t control that goes nowhere.

    The goal here is to create an inspirational, detailed, and actionable 13-1 for your life and work. Your 13-1 is your 10-year vision, 3-year mission, 1-year goals. We just called it 13-1, because it’s kind of a package that works together that you can run with.

    Business is personal, and your business is an expression of your life and your vision, good or bad. So it starts with you. Your 10-year vision? And how does your business fit into that. We don’t want to compartmentalize it and just do like, “what’s the business 10-year vision?” No, this is you. Inside of you is the business. You can do another 10-year for the business, but we’re going to look at the whole picture.

    Getting Started

    Start by multiplying your revenue and income 10x what it is now. This is the easiest way to imagine a 10-year vision is, you have an anchor that you drop, which is 10 times income.

    So if you’re making a $100,000 a year right now, personally – $1 million. If you’re making a million personally – $10 million. If you’re making 200K – $2 million. Those are easy jumps just to make and say, “what would life look like if I’m making 200K a year now, and I build my life around a $2 million dollar income, what’s possible?”

    Now that’s your anchor. I don’t want it to be your limiter, but it is a good way to really get started and go from there and figure that out.

    Eight Areas to Explore

    You want to create vision around these 8 areas:

    Home and Environment

    What’s my home environment? What’s my life like? How many homes do I have? What’s the environment at the home like – bedroom, outdoor, indoor. Noise levels, smells, all that stuff.

    Daily Rhythm

    What’s your day look like on a regular basis? This goes back to what we talked about – do you have rhythms that help you grow? So it’s looking at what are those rhythms that are pushing you towards 10-year vision?

    Marriage and Family

    What does your marriage look like? What does your family look like? How many kids you have? What do you do to invest in your marriage? Invest in your kids? Are you closer? Are you farther away? What does that look like?

    Health and Vitality

    What does your body look like? Do you have energy? What does exercise, movement look like for you? What is that? Specifically? What do you want it to look like? How often?

    Impact and Contribution

    This is like philanthropy. This is like, what are you going to give to the world beyond just making money? All of this is your contribution to the world. It’s a little more specific on how do you give? What is the specific give back, pay it forward, component in your life? The reason that’s important is because of meaning. Purpose – it drives a life that isn’t just driven towards you. It’s driven towards others. That’s a really important piece to think about. Often we don’t think about that till we have money, but the truth is, it’s an important part of who you’re becoming, whether or not you have money or not.

    Lifestyle and Adventure

    This is a hard one for me, because I’m busy with my family and my work. But this is really important. What does lifestyle and adventure look like for you? What are you doing? What does adventure look like? Are you traveling? Are you going out of the country every year? Are you wakeboarding? Are you skiing? What do you do for that stuff?

    Personal Growth and Legacy

    What does your ongoing growth, ongoing future look like? What does that legacy look like as you go forward? What do you want to be known for? This is really important.

    The Process

    It’s okay if it takes a little bit of time. I just did this like a week ago, and it was so good to do it again. It’s amazing when you do this, you start losing yourself in your future, and it starts feeling really real, and then it can be really hard to come back to the day-to-day reality of your life. But then, what happens is this vision starts holding you.

    This is really important

    You can either push a vision forward, which is a lot of work, or your vision can pull you forward. I’m in a season right now where I’ve spent a lot of time pushing visions forward, and I’m trying to create a vision that pulls me forward.

    That’s my challenge for you too. You may not even realize that. But a vision that pulls you forward is a lot more effortless. Growth happens a little more easily. I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s very hard. But that’s where you want to be.

    What I noticed when I wrote this vision – this 10-year vision of mine – I think it was like 15 pages, a lot of content, a lot of great dreams. I had this moment where I was like “I should do that now.” One of those things was like, I want my kids to be coming to me for advice. I want to do one-on-one time with them, and I want them to connect with me.

    I was like “what the heck. I’m not doing that now, but I could.” I was like “dang, put it on the calendar.” Every week I’m taking a kid out – one of our 4 kids. We’re going to have 5. Taking a kid out and doing one-on-one time with them, ask them questions, learn about them, see what they’re struggling with, seeing what they’re excited about. That was something I could do now. And I made my vision real.

    The 10-3-1 Model

    What you want to do is use the 10-3-1 model to clarify your vision. This is the tool. It’s comprised of 3 things:

    10-Year Vision (Your Trajectory)

    This is how you see your company looking and feeling in every category of your business without getting bogged down by data and numbers. Typically 10x revenue and income. This is what we’ve done in our workshops, and it’s always a great exercise – mind blowing usually.

    3-Year Mission (Your Target)

    This is the detailed written description of you and your company’s desired future state over a 3-year period. Financially specific and time bound.

    So you might say, “in 10 years we want to be at $10 million in revenue. And this is what this looks like. In 3 years, we want to be at $2 million in revenue, and that’s at this date.”

    The cool thing is, the 10-year vision can be a little bit disconnected from the data and numbers. And that’s okay. You use that 10x revenue as an anchor. But what you really want to do with that 3-year mission is, you want to get specific enough that you actually know you can achieve that. You say “this is how much money we’re going to make in this amount of time, and we’re on a mission to achieve that amount of money in that amount of time.”

    It’s not a fluffy mission statement, like “we were on a mission to eradicate poverty from all the areas of the world.” Great mission – do it. But that’s not your mission statement, because it’s not specific enough to get behind. That would be more of like a purpose statement. That’s your purpose is to do that. But your mission is to make money by a certain date.

    1-Year Goals (Your Steps)

    These are the clear, integrated steps that get your family and your team passionate about how the big picture and the day-to-day come together. This is really key. This is the most helpful thing for your team and for your day-to-day operations.

    My mentor Scott has a model called the North Star. Really good. Check it out. What he does is he splits those 1-year goals into outcomes, and he says, to create like 3 or 4 outcomes for each goal. So you have tangible outcomes. If we achieve this goal, A, B, C, D will be true. It helps you get really clear on that. You can even make those your quarterly targets if you want.

    I don’t mean to get too far into strategic planning here, but what I want you to see is seeing this picture, zooming out, start with your 10-year vision. Being able to think about your life, your work, your business in this way is game changing. It really is. We do workshops with clients, and this is a big process, and they pay us a lot of money to do this, because it’s very, very high impact. But you can do it yourself too. Just pull up a doc. Take a voice note. Whatever you want, and push that down.

    How to Go Deeper

    Thank you so much. I’m going to do this live every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 PM. Would love to see people here. I’ll keep teaching and talking and sharing, but would love to make this more interactive over time. That was my goal. So if you joined today, thank you so much. I appreciate you and have a great rest of your day.

    Frustrated founder key points

    The 4 Truths Frustrated Founders Can’t Ignore:

    • Business is deeply personal (and why that’s actually good news)
    • The best founders perform even in the worst circumstances
    • The “align to accelerate” mindset changes everything
    • Relationships truly determine your results

    The 5 Domains Framework:

    1. Vision – Do you know where you’re going, or just hoping next month won’t be worse?
    2. Values – Is your business built on what matters to you, or are you chasing trends?
    3. Identity – Are you a visionary CEO or an overpaid firefighter?
    4. Systems – Do you have rhythms that help you grow, or are you running on fumes?
    5. Relationships – Do you have the right team, or do they look to you for every answer?

    My Story:

    At my lowest point, my evenings ended in “Netflix, whiskey, and guilt.” I was building a company that looked successful on paper while completely failing myself and straining my family. The breakthrough came when I realized I couldn’t fix my business problems with business solutions – I had to rebuild from the inside out.

    The Result: Lost 50 pounds, reconnected with my family, broke through $1M in revenue, and now help other founders do the same without burning out.

    Timestamps:

    • 00:00 – Welcome to Founder Hour
    • 03:05 – Why I Started This Live Series
    • 07:14 – My Story: The Breaking Point
    • 18:04 – The 4 Truths Frustrated Founders Must Know
    • 25:00 – Business Problems = Personal Problems in Disguise
    • 36:00 – The 5 Domains Framework Explained
    • 43:00 – Building Your 10-Year Vision (Tool Walkthrough)
    • 56:00 – Resources & Next Steps

    Key problems addressed:

    • 7:14 – Why do founders feel trapped between growth and failure?
    • 9:05 – What does it look like when your freedom vehicle becomes a prison?
    • 10:41 – How do you know if you’re in the dangerous $300K to $1M revenue gap?
    • 13:01 – Why do founders end up medicating through their pain instead of solving it?
    • 18:25 – What are the four truths frustrated founders can’t ignore?
    • 21:05 – Why can’t business systems fix a broken founder?
    • 21:49 – How do you recognize when business problems are personal problems in disguise?
    • 24:47 – What does it mean to rebuild your business from the inside out?
    • 25:29 – What are the four truths every struggling founder must accept?
    • 27:54 – How does the “align to accelerate” principle work for growth?
    • 28:48 – What is the 4-step acceleration loop process?
    • 29:38 – Why do relationships determine your business results?
    • 32:00 – How do you know when you need a coach versus trying to go it alone?
    • 34:29 – What’s the real reason founders think their problem is strategy or sales?
    • 35:55 – What are the 5 domains every founder must align before accelerating?
    • 36:56 – How do you move from reactive to proactive business growth?
    • 38:02 – How do you build a business based on your personal values?
    • 38:49 – How do you transform from firefighter to visionary CEO?
    • 39:33 – What systems and rhythms help founders grow consistently?
    • 41:25 – How do you build the right team that doesn’t depend on you for every answer?
    • 45:05 – How do you create a 10-year vision that actually works?
    • 47:31 – What are the 8 key life areas to include in your vision planning?
    • 51:43 – How does the 10/3/1 framework clarify your business direction?

  • Your Body is Your First Business: 3 Founder Health Habits to Scale Past $1M

    Are you a founder who is grinding harder but getting nowhere? Your health habits might be why. Let’s dive into the founder health habits you need to have to scale past $1M in revenue.

    In this founder-focused session, I share the brutal truth about why 75% of businesses fail within 15 years – and it’s not what you think.

    After being stuck at $300K revenue while 50 pounds overweight and numbing with alcohol, I discovered that every business problem is actually a personal problem in disguise.

    Here’s the transformation framework that took me from struggling founder to $1M+ advisory business.

    Focus Hour: Founder Health Habits

    Watch LinkedIn Live: https://www.linkedin.com/events/founderhourlive-stopspinning-st7363694171301310467/theater/

    Welcome to Focus Hour. Today’s topic is founder health habits. My promise to you is that I’m going to help you trade scattered effort for a focused plan this week.

    If we haven’t met, my name is Simon. I am the founder and CEO of Structure and the Aligned Program, which is a program out of our company that’s focused on helping founders get unstuck and stop spinning so they can start growing again and get that clarity and traction that we’re all looking for to know that we are headed in the right direction, aligned and connected with our vision so that our goals can happen.

    For the Frustrated Founders

    I made this for the frustrated founders. If this is you, you know what I’m talking about. You’re staring at the ceiling at 3 am, stuck in a loop, straining your family to carry your team, wanting growth, but it feels random and distant.

    You probably feel like if I quit, everything falls apart. If I keep going, I’ll fall apart.

    Let’s get real

    Your freedom vehicle that you created feels like a prison. Every decision, crisis, and dollar is on you to make, to move, to create. If you’re not creating the dollar, nobody else is.

    You might think if I push harder it’ll finally click. This is a trap, but this is so real.

    Grinding – if I just try a little harder, if I just keep going, it’ll finally click. I was answering support emails and processing payroll at midnight. You might have been there too, or you might be there right now.

    I want you to know I’m here because I’ve been there too. I’m not just sharing this from a podium with book smarts. This is lived experience, real deal. I was 50 pounds overweight, numbing with alcohol, building a successful company while failing myself and my family, feeling alone, stuck and spun out.

    Most of my evenings after work, which went late – 6, 6:30 – and started early, ended with Netflix, whiskey, and guilt.

    Why am I doing this?

    Why am I showing up on LinkedIn, putting myself out there, sharing my story, being vulnerable? It’s because I lived every moment of this pain. This was my story. I was there, and I want to help you as a founder grow through these pains instead of running from them.

    What I learned is that the power was in growing through them. That’s really hard. It’s hard to figure out what that should look like, what things you should be doing or not doing, and who you need to become.

    The Transformation

    Here are two side-by-side pictures. On the left, we’ve got me in 2022 with my wife Rebecca. She looks very happy, and I look very unhappy, which is kind of how it was. This was in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho during a video shoot for a client.

    If I look at that guy, he was 50 pounds overweight. He was doing anything for anyone who would pay him a dollar. I was a functional alcoholic. I remember that night – I was probably still a little bit hungover from dinner and drinks the night before. That night I had I don’t know, 3 or 4 old fashions, and that was the norm.

    I was…

    • Dealing with constant sinus infections.
    • At a $300,000 flatline.
    • Struggling, stuck, spinning, not able to break through.

    Fast forward to 2024

    This picture with my son Peter. This is a different guy. He’s living in a place that he dreamed of living. He’s doing things with his family that he dreamt of doing. I lost those 50 pounds over those few years.

    I’m doing what I’m best at.

    I have a clear 10-year vision and one-year goals – not wandering anymore.

    I’m investing in myself instead of drinking all the time. I work out 3 or 4 times a week with a macro diet, and I have a million-dollar business and a family who’s following my lead.

    Today I’m locked in

    My marriage runs on midday syncs, not midnight arguments anymore, because I have time. I have space. I’ve created my life around prioritizing my marriage, prioritizing those conversations. My kids get a daddy day every week – one on one, not all of them every week, but one of them, and we rotate through. They don’t just get my evening leftovers.

    I’m running a million-dollar advisory company, consulting and coaching with ambitious, high-performing, successful founders and their teams without working 80-hour weeks myself. I’m able to give them my best so they can give their team their best.

    I don’t say this because I want you to think Simon’s amazing. Between Tuesday’s first session and today’s second session, my feedback from my team was, “Hey Simon, you’re really empathetic and relatable with a great story, but tell me more about what your life looks like now. Help us see what’s possible. Tell us – you have transformed, and we’ve all watched you transform, but not everyone on the call knows that. So tell us, show us.”

    At this point today, I’m not perfect, but I have become the kind of visionary leader who can grow a business – any business – and grow any area of my life with clarity and control. That’s where I want to help you get today because it’s possible.

    I don’t want you to think that I did this alone. Nobody does it alone. Nobody goes to millions of dollars a year, nobody creates a legacy by themselves. My mentors helped me turn my mess into a transformation. I haven’t sold a hundred-million-dollar company yet, but I did rebuild my health, reconnect with my family, and grow my business past a million without burning out.

    The Five Domains

    If I can break through, why not you? Founders almost always think that their growth problem is strategy or sales. Sales fixes all, and sometimes it does. Or operations – there’s systems or plans that aren’t working out. That fixes things too. But what I’ve learned is that underneath it all, every business problem is really a personal problem in disguise.

    Business is personal. One of the meanings of that is that you as a founder are such a key component to your business growth. If you are dying, your business isn’t going to be growing. If you’re growing, it’s going to be growing.

    There are 5 domains that every founder needs to align before they can fully accelerate:

    1. Vision

    Do you know where you’re going, or are you just hoping next month won’t be worse? Where there is no vision, people perish. If you want to be growing but you don’t have a vision that you have dreamed up, written down, articulated in any form, you’re working against growth.

    2. Health

    Do you have the rhythms that help you grow, or are you just running on fumes and burning out? Your body is the first business you lead. If you want to grow, you need to invest in yourself and your physical ability to grow. It’s the most obvious thing in the whole world, but most of us overlook it.

    3. Leadership

    Are you the leader your business needs, or are you actually just an overpaid firefighter? A lot of us are firefighters in our business – we’re just reacting to every flame that comes our way, trying to spray it out as fast as we can to keep the whole thing from burning down.

    4. Execution

    Are your actions on a daily basis, your team’s actions and your goals aligned with the vision that you set out? When vision and execution are going in different directions, that’s misalignment. The goal is, how can we execute the vision?

    5. Culture

    Is your team an extension of you, or are they an extension of someone else? If you’re showing up chaotic, stressed, grinding, unclear, your team is going to be chaotic, stressed, grinding and unclear. What you really want them to mirror is clear, thoughtful, intentional, exponential.

    Health Focus

    Let’s dive into founder health habits. Your body is the first business you lead. Here’s my question: Would you invest in a business run by a founder who’s constantly exhausted, overweight, anxious, numbing just to get through the day? Would you hire a coach or go to a doctor who’s constantly exhausted, anxious, numbing just to get through the day?

    Why would you ask your team, your investors, or your customers to invest in you while you run yourself into the ground? This hits hard for me. Those years where I was 50 pounds overweight and drinking – we were funneling $300,000 through the business with a dozen clients and a couple team members, and they were following that guy.

    Burnout isn’t a badge of honor. Grinding isn’t a rite of passage. If this is you, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re actually a business risk wrapped in ego, fear, and scarcity.

    The Paul Bunyan Story

    I want to tell you about Paul Bunyan. In the story, Paul is a big, tall performer, hacking down trees with his axe, crushing everybody. He’s successful, he embodies this incredible doer. But this scrawny guy comes in with a saw – this newfangled technology. Paul’s like, “I’m going to beat this guy with the saw using my axe.”

    They do this competition cutting down trees in a forest. Paul’s thinking he’s got this wrapped – there’s no way this thing can keep up. But the saw outcompetes Paul and crushes him. He has an identity crisis – who am I? Why couldn’t I do this?

    Paul, in that moment when he’s trying to outwork a system, didn’t matter how hard, fast, or long he swung his axe. The blade was dulling, he was tiring out. He lost not because of a lack of effort – he gave it his all – but a lack of edge. He was working too hard and not smart enough.

    I’ve heard this from founders: “I’m doing the best I can. I’m working the hardest I can. You’re getting everything from me you can, and it’s still not good enough.” The truth is, it’s not that you’re not trying hard enough. You just don’t have what it takes to do what you want to do yet. This lack of edge ties into health.

    The Stakes

    The stats are real: 20% of businesses fail in 2 years, 50% in 5 years, 75% before 15 years. But it gets worse – 30% of founders get divorced (double the US average), and 72% struggle with mental health, clarity, depression, and suicide.

    I share these not to crush you, but because it’s important to know what’s at risk. It’s not just your business that can fail – your life can fail too. There’s more at stake. But it doesn’t have to be this way. When you sharpen your blade, you don’t just survive, you feel alive.

    Dan Martell Example

    Dan Martell – his wife said, “Dan’s the wealthiest man in the room, not because of his watch or his cars, but because of his health.” He has fancy things, but when she looks across the room and sees a lot of high-income earners, founders, entrepreneurs, achievers, there are very few that are healthy. Those are the people that have the true wealth.

    Peter Drucker said, “Leadership begins with self-management. You can’t lead others before you lead yourself.”

    Alignment Anchors

    I want to share something called alignment anchors. These are what I use in my life and teach. Just the other day, I took my family to San Diego for SeaWorld. We stayed in a hotel, and throughout the week I was really starting to burn out and struggle, spin, feel disconnected and stressed and anxious. When we came home, I lit up – totally back to normal. I realized it was because I wasn’t anchored in my daily routine. I didn’t have those anchors to hold me, keep me stable, keep me feeling full and energized.

    The Seven Anchors:

    1. Sleep – 7 to 8 hours of sleep = rested founder
    2. Lifting weights – 3 to 4 times a week. You’ll become more resilient because lifting is hard and painful, and it helps teach you to embrace pain and see pressure as a privilege = resilient founder
    3. Walk – 10 to 15,000 steps a day. This improves your mental health, makes you clear-minded, focused = clear-minded founder
    4. Eating – 80 to 90% whole foods diet = fueled founder
    5. Quitting/reducing vices – things like alcohol, weed, porn. These will bring you down, drain your energy. They feel good in the moment but hurt you later = disciplined founder
    6. Surround yourself with positive people = connected founder
    7. Work and rest – both for purpose and energy = inspired founder

    These anchors help you become a rested, resilient, clear-minded, fueled, disciplined, connected, and inspired founder. Who doesn’t want to follow someone who has these traits?

    90-Day Roadmap

    If you’re looking at this thinking it’s a lot, I understand. It took me years – 3 years where I lost 50 pounds and doubled my business. If you’re just starting, here are the 3 lead dominoes:

    1. Sleep

    Try to get 7 to 8 hours between 10 PM and 6 AM. This turns your body into a recovery machine, giving you the focus and stamina your business actually needs. Sleep is literally one of the most important things – it unlocks everything else. The trick is going to bed at the right time. Going to bed early enough will unlock your ability to get up early.

    2. Walk

    Getting 10 to 15,000 steps a day is the simplest performance hack before supplements or gadgets. You don’t have to get a gym membership. Movement clears your mind and builds capacity to lead. This can be as simple as your watch reminding you every hour to stand up and take a walk.

    3. Eating

    Target 80 to 90% whole foods. This is probably the hardest of the 3, but if you’re sleeping and energized, if you’re walking and moving, you’re going to start feeling better and wanting to eat better foods. Simple swaps like eggs instead of cereal in the morning, chicken salad instead of burgers at lunch, salmon with rice instead of frozen dinners. Fuel your body with clean energy.

    Founder Health Habits Audit

    Rate yourself on each area from 1-4 and add them up out of 20:

    • Sleep Quality & Consistency: How well are you sleeping 7-8 hours nightly?
    • Physical Fitness: How consistent are you with exercise/movement?
    • Nutrition: How clean and intentional is your eating?
    • Stress Management: How well do you handle pressure and recovery?
    • Energy Levels: How consistent is your daily energy throughout the day?

    What’s one habit that if you committed to for the next 60 days might change your life and your business?

    The Future is Yours

    This isn’t about guilt or pressure. This is about desire. The goal isn’t to make you feel bad about where you are – it’s to help you see what’s possible for you. Every visionary leader started exactly where you’re at right now.

    Are you swinging harder with a dull axe, or taking time to sharpen the blade? This isn’t about grinding harder or adding more to your plate. It’s about doing the right things and unlocking the focus to where you’re present, alive, and in control.

    Growth and progress often has more to do with subtraction than addition. In music, “the rest is as important as the note.” If you imagine a song with nothing but notes and zero pauses, all it would sound like is noise. You use silence as power.

    Being fully present, alive, and in control is being more of you, and this is what your family, your business, your team really needs.

    Closing Story

    My very first coach, James Warwick – I reached out to him blindly on LinkedIn when I was struggling as a founder. We met at coffee for a great hour. I remember getting up to refill my coffee, going to the bathroom, coming back and sitting down. He said, “You know, Simon, you know what your real problem is? You know why you’re struggling to get clients or get your business off the ground?”

    He said, “You’ve got this sticker on your head right here. You’re walking around this coffee shop going a million miles per hour. You’re lasered in, and the focus is admirable. But the truth is, you just look busy. ‘Don’t talk to me. I’m busy. I’ve got too much going on. I don’t have time for you.’”

    The truth is, I lost not because of a lack of effort, but because I didn’t have what it takes to do what I wanted to do yet. I said I wanted to grow the business, but what was really standing in the way was me and my inability to see what I wasn’t seeing, or my inability to be the person that I needed to be to have that impact on the business.

    Next Steps

    If you want to go deeper on this stuff with me:

    1. Free Alignment Audit – A PDF that walks through a scoring system on all 5 domains. Just DM me on LinkedIn or comment “audit”
    2. Aligned Intensive – A 60-day sprint to help you get unstuck and turn around. Direct work with me in cohort style. $3,000
    3. Aligned Program – The intensive plus additional deep dives and accountability. 12-month program for $15,000

    I’ll keep showing up every Tuesday and Thursday, 1 PM Mountain time. Thank you for watching, for joining, for letting me share this. It’s truly an honor to show up and share my story, to teach what I know, what I’ve learned, what I’ve lived in a way that hopefully helps you break through in your business and your life.

    Imagine…

    • Leading your business with focus and clarity.
    • Being fully alive, fully in control, moving closer to your vision every day.
    • Your team – because of who you are – is getting better, the strategy getting sharper, and the results getting bigger.

    When you’re rested, when you’re resilient, when you’re clear-minded, growth compounds. Growth happens. Growth is inevitable. This is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but the goal is becoming someone who, no matter what room you enter, you will have an impact.

    Founder health habits key points

    What you’ll learn:

    • The 5 domains every founder must align before they can accelerate
    • Why your body is the first business you lead
    • The 3 “alignment anchors” that changed everything (90-day roadmap included)
    • How to stop being a “business risk wrapped in ego, fear and scarcity”
    • The Paul Bunyan principle: Why working harder isn’t the answer

    Key timestamps:

    • 0:00 – The frustrated founder’s dilemma
    • 8:00 – My transformation story (before/after)
    • 14:00 – The 5 domains of alignment
    • 23:00 – Founder health habits deep dive
    • 33:00 – The 3 alignment anchors
    • 41:00 – 90-day roadmap for beginners
    • 44:00 – Founder health habits audit tool
    • 49:00 – Q&A and next steps

    Key problems addressed:

    • 6:48 – How do you break out of the founder trap of feeling like quitting means everything falls apart but continuing means you’ll fall apart?
    • 8:07 – What does transformation from a struggling founder to successful leader actually look like?
    • 14:01 – What are the five domains every founder needs to align before they can accelerate their business?
    • 16:57 – Why do every business problem stem from personal problems in disguise?
    • 19:43 – What is the most important domain to focus on first as a founder?
    • 23:01 – Why should founders prioritize their health when trying to grow their business?
    • 24:36 – How do you avoid being a business risk to your team and investors?
    • 26:02 – What can founders learn from the Paul Bunyan story about working harder versus working smarter?
    • 29:00 – What are the real statistics about founder failure and mental health struggles?
    • 33:25 – What are the specific daily habits that create a successful founder mindset?
    • 37:52 – What is the 90-day roadmap for founders who feel overwhelmed by health changes?
    • 38:00 – How do you optimize sleep as a founder for maximum business performance?
    • 39:10 – Why is walking 10,000-15,000 steps daily critical for founder success?
    • 40:02 – How do you transition to eating 80-90% whole foods without overwhelming yourself?
    • 44:29-How do you assess your current founder health habits and identify areas for improvement?
    • 45:45 – What is the one habit that could transform your life and business in 60 days?
    • 49:17 – How do you recognize when your personal behavior is limiting your business growth?

    The hard stats

    • 75% of businesses fail before 15 years
    • 30% of founders get divorced (double the national average)
    • 72% struggle with mental health issues

    Top 3 founder health habits:

    1. Sleep: 7-8 hours between 10 PM – 6 AM
    2. Walk: 10,000-15,000 steps daily
    3. Eat: 80-90% whole foods

  • Build Over Busy: The Founder’s Guide to High-Leverage Productivity

    There’s a moment in every founder’s journey where you look up from the endless swirl of tasks, meetings, and team challenges and whisper to yourself, “It’s not happening fast enough.”

    You’ve been grinding, creating, fixing, and reacting. You’re checking boxes. You’re solving problems. You’re doing all the things. And yet… the needle barely moves.

    I’ve been here before. And if I’m honest, I still find myself here from time to time.

    Spun out. Again.

    Overwhelmed by team tension. Frustrated with ops inefficiencies. Derailed by a dozen decisions that only I could make—because I hadn’t yet empowered someone else to.

    And in the chaos, I’ve realized something you might know but haven’t yet internalized:

    Busy is not the same as building.

    3 High-Leverage Lessons for Founders

    This reflection hit differently because it wasn’t just about conquering overwhelm—it was about pattern recognition.

    The more I sat with it, the more I started to see the storyline of leverage lessons that so many founders experience but rarely name and claim.

    Let’s dig into them.

    1. High Output ≠ High Impact: Why Founder Productivity Isn’t About Doing More

    Busyness is self-deception.

    This one’s a gut punch because it’s a trap that looks like progress.

    We answer Slack messages, solve fires, make quick hires, micromanage creative, tweak copy, attend meetings, react to team drama—and yet… feel empty.

    We’re productive, but not effective.

    This is emotional misalignment disguised as executive responsibility.

    🧨 Key Quote:

    “Real work isn’t replying to everyone’s false emergencies… Real work is producing quality output that matters.” —Brendon Burchard

    And the kicker?

    When you’re constantly doing, you don’t realize how little you’re building. You don’t realize how much energy is being siphoned into motion that doesn’t move the needle.

    2. Founders Should Focus On High-Leverage Activities

    You can’t focus energy when you don’t know what matters.

    I’ve seen it and lived it: “Founders feel like they’re doing everything… but nothing is moving fast enough.”

    You’re checking boxes, but not building momentum. You’re constantly wondering, “Is this what I should be doing?”

    That’s the felt sense of operating WITHOUT clarity on your Special Sauce.

    Brendon Burchard calls it your Prolific Quality Output (PQO). Dan Sullivan calls it your Unique Ability (UA). Same thing.

    But when you’re unclear on it, every interruption becomes a trigger—because you don’t have a north star to return to. “What needs to be done? What’s right for the company?”

    🧨 Key Insight:

    If your Special Sauce isn’t defined, everything feels important—which means nothing gets prioritized.

    For me, it’s this:

    • Creating source content and IP that shapes our unique POV
    • Consulting directly with clients where only I can move the needle
    • Designing systems that extend my intuition, standards, and heart through the business

    That’s it. Everything else is noise unless it multiplies these.

    What’s yours?

    • Manufacturer? It might be designing the products and creating sales relationships that scale.
    • Real estate developer? It might be networking and building relationships with banks for financing.
    • Agency founder? It might be building strategic pitches or hosting local workshops.

    No matter what, if you’re going to be effective, you’ve got to know what outputs matter most to your career and your company.

    For me, when I realigned my time around my Special Sauce, our market attention dramatically increased, model clarity sharpened, and I had the margin to lead and make an impact for my team, clients, and family—not just manage all the shit around me.

    The returns weren’t just financial—they were emotional, strategic, and sustainable. The business turned into something I could lead for the rest of my life.

    Not look to ditch or sell as soon as possible.

    3. The Busy Founder Must Become the Strategic Builder

    YOU are the highest leverage point in your business.

    Peter Drucker, author of The Effective Executive, reminds us:

    “Executives who do not manage themselves for effectiveness cannot possibly expect to manage their associates and subordinates.”

    🧨 This Is the Pattern:

    You don’t need to be more productive—you need to get clear on who you are, what you’re here to build, and what only you can produce.

    Most founders don’t realize they’ve built businesses around interruptions—especially emotional ones—that don’t just steal time. They steal power.

    They’re not managing themselves—they’re managing the chaos they unconsciously allowed.

    But here’s the tension:

    Letting go feels risky. We don’t delegate because we fear things will break. We say “yes” to low-leverage work because it’s easier than sitting in the discomfort of vision work. We hold on to control because it makes us feel useful—even as it drains us.

    🧨 Cost of Staying Stuck:

    Control feels safe… until it strangles your capacity.

    Everything converges here:

    • Drucker: “The effective executive manages himself first.”
    • Burchard: “High performers maintain energy and focus.”
    • Dan Martell: “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
    • Naval: “Play long games with long-term people. Leverage code, content, capital, and people.”
    • Me: “Build over busy.”

    🧨 Founder Gut Check:

    “Am I building something I can barely carry… or something I’m called to lead?”

    The Founder Productivity Breakthrough

    There are only a few things that only I can do in my business:

    • Be the originator of vision, voice, and content
    • Design systems that scale the soul of the company
    • Coach and consult at the highest level

    Everything else must be built to run without me. Or it will be built to burn me out.

    This isn’t just about time management. It’s not even about team management.

    It’s about self-management.

    It’s about waking up to the fact that you can’t do everything—nor should you.

    “Most founders don’t fail from a lack of action, but from a lack of alignment. Who you are is how you grow.” —Me, learning this the hard way

    So here’s the mirror:

    Are you solving $20 problems with $20K energy?
    Are you still choosing control over capacity?
    Are you confusing productivity with effectiveness?

    You don’t need more hacks. You need more honesty.

    Build the system. Build the habits. Build the vision. But above all—build over busy.
    It’s a reminder:

    Stop fixing everything—and start building your legacy.

  • From Burnout to Legacy: A Founder’s Wake-Up Call

    I’ve built a company with heart, integrity, and intensity.
    I’ve carried it to this point with grit, talent, and unreasonable belief.
    I’ve done the late nights, led the turnarounds, made the hard calls.

    But at one point, a deeper truth hit me:

    “If I stop carrying everyone else… will anyone carry me?”

    That question cut me open.

    Not because I was falling apart—I wasn’t not.
    In fact, for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid of falling apart.
    I’d invested in my mind, my body, my beliefs. I knew who I was.
    And I knew that even if the business broke, I wouldn’t.

    But this story is not about personal survival.
    This story is about legacy.

    And that’s where most founder’s fears truly live.

    The Hidden Cost of High Performance

    A few days ago, I crushed a leg day—66,000 pounds lifted in one session. I felt alive. Motivated. On fire.

    Then I went to the car wash. Simple chore. At the end, while circling the car to wipe down a few spots, I stepped wrong off a curb, twisted my ankle, and collapsed.

    My body went into full shock.
    I crawled into the driver’s seat, sweating, shaking, nauseous.
    Laid back, blasted the A/C, and shut my eyes just to breathe.

    That moment exposed something I hadn’t seen clearly:

    I didn’t just sprain my ankle. I pulled the plug on my inner power grid.
    I hit the edge of my nervous system—and it shut me down.

    And what followed wasn’t just physical recovery.
    It was days of depletion. Brain fog. Emotional fatigue.
    I’ve worked out hard before. I’ve had injuries before. But this wasn’t like those.

    This was an adrenaline crash. A reckoning.

    Founders Run on Adrenaline—Until They Don’t

    I learned a key lesson. Most founders like me don’t realize how much of their life is propped up by pure drive.

    We call it hustle.
    We call it passion.
    But what it really is… is survival mode.
    A constant, low-grade sprint to hold it all together.

    “If I don’t do it all, it all falls apart.”
    “And maybe… I fall apart too.”

    That belief? It’s poison dressed as discipline.
    It makes us machines of responsibility.
    But eventually, the machine overheats—and no one’s coming with a backup generator.

    What’s the Real Risk?

    It’s not just that I get tired.
    It’s that if I don’t keep carrying this thing—this team, this company, this future—
    then no one else will.

    Not because they don’t want to.
    Because they can’t.
    Not yet.

    And that’s what pushed me to search for something deeper.

    I’m not trying to go faster by myself anymore.
    I want to go farther with others.

    So What Does That Take?

    It takes asking the hard question:
    Who’s in my orbit who can carry this with me?
    Who has the wisdom? The capital? The capacity?

    Because I’m not playing for applause anymore.
    I’m playing for rings. For legacy.
    And that means building something that survives and thrives beyond me.

    The Shift That Changes Everything

    Legacy isn’t built by doing more.
    Legacy is built by building better.

    • I no longer need the business to validate me.
    • But I do need the business to outlive me.
    • And I can’t get there by carrying everything on my own.

    If you’re a founder reading this, maybe you’ve felt it too:

    • The silent burnout
    • The stuck team
    • The random acts of marketing
    • The weight of knowing you’ve built something good—but you’re not sure how to grow it without breaking yourself

    You’re not stupid.
    You’re just at the edge of your system.
    And that’s where transformation begins.

    The Invitation

    Your next breakthrough isn’t in doing more. It’s getting help.
    It’s in aligning everything—vision, team, marketing, and leadership—so that the business stops depending on you for every step forward.

    That’s the shift I’ve walked through.
    That’s the work I’m helping others do.
    That’s the process I’m still living at each new level.

    Because this isn’t just about growth.
    It’s about becoming the kind of leader who finishes what they started—without falling apart in the process.

    Let’s stop pretending survival mode is sustainable.
    Let’s build businesses—and lives—that can breathe.

    Your mess doesn’t disqualify you.
    It might just be the doorway to your true mission.

    And your legacy?
    It’s waiting on the other side.

  • Project Visible Mastery: How Fitness Transformed My Business (and My Life)

    Today I want to reflect on how fitness and physical development tie directly to personal growth, and even more so, professional development.

    For a long time, I brushed it off.

    “Exercise is important,” they said. It sounded like another obligatory checklist item—like when Christians say, “You need to read your Bible.” It felt like pressure or judgment, not something meaningful.

    But that mindset? That was ignorance. Straight up.

    The Shift

    There is a direct line between fitness and professional growth. Not just success (because success is a messy mix of grit, timing, and luck), but real, tangible growth.

    I love the quote: “Business problems are just personal problems in disguise.”

    Let me show you how true that’s been for me.

    May 2022 vs. May 2025

    Three years ago, I was 190lbs, constantly sick, and battling chronic sinus infections (caused by drinking too much).

    • Hungover and anxious almost daily.
    • My business was stuck at $250K/year, with no clear direction.
    • I looked to my dad for vision and didn’t get it. I was angry, bitter, and frustrated.
    • I felt stuck and reactive—to clients, to family, to friends.
    • My parenting was filled with unspoken expectations and pressure.
    • We were driving a 2003 Mazda MPV I maintained myself (I’m no mechanic).
    • Our family had just spent a month in Tucson trying to escape our rut.

    Now?

    In May 2025:

    • I’m 160lbs, healthy, and rarely get sick.
    • I sleep 7.5–8 hours a night, wake at 5:30am, and rarely drink.
    • I run a $1M/year business with a clear path to $10M.
    • I have three coaches and a team of five.
    • My 20-year vision is clear, and I have the strategy to back it.
    • I lead my family with curiosity and coaching, not judgment.
    • We drive a 2017 Suburban, not fancy but someone else maintains for me.
    • We live in Scottsdale, AZ, and my life—inside and out—is entirely different.

    What Changed?

    A year ago, on a hike with my client Max, I said something that became a turning point:

    “Running changed my life.”

    But it wasn’t just running. It was fitness as a whole.

    Running forced me to stop drinking. To eat better. To sleep more. To lift weights and avoid injury. To set goals and track them.

    Fitness transformed me physically and mentally.

    And that transformation? It bled into every other area of my life.

    Fitness = Business

    Building a healthy body and building a healthy business follow the same rules:

    • Consistent inputs
    • Measurable outputs
    • Time

    The process is the same.

    But here’s the kicker: if I had only improved my business systems without improving myself, I would’ve kept sabotaging my own progress.

    By working on me first, I became the kind of person who could build something great.

    That’s why I say:

    “Your business will never outgrow you.”

    I’d take it further:

    “Your family will never outgrow your failure.”
    “Your future will never outgrow your fear.”

    These may sound intense, but they’re what I’m living into right now.

    From Complaining to Mastery

    A mentor once told me:

    “Complaining is fighting harder for your limitations than your possibilities.”

    I used to complain. A lot.

    But what changed my trajectory was deciding to:

    • Ask for help (instead of complain)
    • Own my sh*t (instead of blame)
    • Face my fear (instead of run)
    • Invest in myself (instead of objects)

    Why Some People Seem Untouchable

    People often look at elite performers and say:

    “It must be luck. Or maybe they had it handed to them.”

    No.

    The real elite have mastered themselves. They’re obsessed with being the best version of themselves. They run on internal standards, not external validation.

    They live what Yvon Chouinard described:

    “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between work and play… he simply pursues his vision of excellence… and leaves others to determine if he is working or playing.”

    Dan Martell echoed this with:

    “Looks like work. Feels like play.”

    That’s the goal.

    The System: Project Visible Mastery

    I’m running on a system right now. Not motivation. Not hype.

    Because let’s be real:

    • At 5:00am, I’m more enthusiastic about staying in bed than going to the gym.
    • After dinner, I’m more excited about dessert than a protein shake.

    But I have a framework:

    • Inputs: Daily Non-Negotiables (fitness, food, sleep, reflection)
    • Outputs: Measurable goals (visible abs, bicep vein, weight, lifts, energy)
    • Feedback Loop: Weekly reflection, journaling, and adjustments

    Sound robotic? Maybe.

    But for me, it’s freedom. It’s discipline. It’s growth.

    “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

    If I’m playing big in my health, I’m playing big in my business. If I’m growing in my personal life, I’m growing in my leadership.

    The Deeper Truth

    You don’t just improve the systems you own in isolation.

    You grow them by growing you.

    And yeah, you can build a business that runs without you. But if you implode, disappear, or lose your identity… what then?

    Your business is personal.

    You sleep in the bed you made. If it sucks, you suck. If it’s baller, you’re baller.

    That’s ownership.

    Final Reflection

    I’m calling this journey Project Visible Mastery. A mission where my external fitness is a symbol of internal alignment.

    Visible abs. Bicep vein. $10M business. Thriving marriage. Powerful parenting. True peace.

    Not either/or. Both.

    Because when your health improves your business, and your business improves your health—that’s the loop that compounds.

    And everything transformational? It usually starts by going backwards.

    Let’s build from there.

  • Disrupt or Die: Winning with Disruption Market Strategy

    Disrupt or Die: Winning with Disruption Market Strategy

    Have you ever felt overwhelmed by competition, market shifts, or economic pressures? Do you find yourself constantly looking outward, wondering how to keep up and if it’s even possible to win with a disruption market strategy? You’re not alone.

    The good news is that this feeling isn’t inevitable. The answer isn’t to react, but to realign with an integrated market disruption strategy. Here’s what I mean…

    When I started Structure, I reacted to everything. And, no surprise, our clients did too.

    In the early days, I was fixated on what others were doing—chasing trends, endlessly comparing myself to competitors, scrambling to keep up. But I don’t do that anymore because I don’t have to—and the truth is, neither do you.

    My change of mind didn’t come from discovering a trick to drop prices, finding an untapped niche, or benefiting from a lucky break. It came from a moment of clarity when I realized the real obstacle wasn’t “out there.” It was “in here” (pointing to my heart). The issue was internal—rooted in who I was, what I stood for, and how my team and company showed up in the world.

    In short, I wasn’t bold enough to declare what truly mattered to me, what I wanted my business to stand for, and who I wanted to serve. But once I did, everything changed.

    You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Grow or die.” If you’re not growing, you’re dying. But I’ve come to see it more fully: disrupt or die. If you’re not disrupting—starting with yourself—you’re already on the path to decline. Disruption isn’t just a one-time fix, and it doesn’t start with market positioning. It starts within, by aligning deeply with your vision, values, and impact. It starts by shaking up what’s “normal” and embracing what’s “valuable.”

    Let’s dive into what that actually looks like for you and your company.

    Market Disruption Strategy – Shifting from Comparison to Clarity

    Right now, you might feel like you’re trapped in a cycle of comparison.

    If you’re measuring success by what competitors are doing, watching market trends, or evaluating yourself against industry standards, you’re looking in the wrong place. Here’s the truth: the more you’re fixated on these external markers, the more you sacrifice the internal ones.

    True market disruption strategy—the kind that positions your company as a leader—begins when you shift your focus from controlling external outputs to mastering the clarity of your vision, values, and how you deliver value.

    For me, this understanding didn’t come overnight. In Structure’s early years, we were obsessed with keeping up—comparing strategies, adjusting prices, and making sure we “fit in.” But every time we looked outward, our vision shrank. Our future got smaller. Every day, I could feel our confidence waver, and it was exhausting.

    Ultimately, we were losing sight of our core belief that Business Is Personal™. That phrase isn’t just a catchy tagline; it’s our promise—to treat every client, team member, and interaction with authenticity, vulnerability, and humanity.

    Rediscover & Realign with Your Core Beliefs

    I remember pacing around my bedroom one holiday, feeling utterly stuck. 

    It was Labor Day, and while everyone else was enjoying their time off, I was spiraling. I felt like I’d hit a wall. I couldn’t ignore the truth any longer: I didn’t know who we were as a business anymore, and I couldn’t see a way forward. The only thing I could think to do was go back to where we’d started—back to that original belief that business is personal.

    That moment was a breaking point. I realized I had to make a decision: continue chasing what the market, my team, or my LinkedIn feed “wanted,” or step back, realign with our values, and rebuild something I was proud of—something that made a mark. Even if it meant breaking from norms.

    Amplify What Sets You Apart

    This decision to “go back” to our beliefs wasn’t just a mental shift for me—it was a cultural shift for our entire company. And little did I know, it was the lifeline we needed. Once we refocused on what we believed, everything changed. I began to lead with clarity, make decisions without second-guessing, and finally see a future I wanted to be part of.

    Within 12 months, we doubled revenue and tripled our team. All this happened while revamping operations and letting go of clients that weren’t the right fit—not to mention, we were navigating an election year and mortgage rate spikes. Go figure!

    When we parted ways with half our clients, it felt risky—but those who remained shared our vision, creating partnerships built on trust and shared values.

    Practically, this is what Mike Michaolowicz’s Pumpkin Plan strategy is all about. His approach is to, “Focus your attention and energy on your core client group and serve them so well that they start to clone themselves.” Just like growing pumpkins, some stay small and “normal” while others grow into truly remarkable showpieces. The difference? Focus on only the things that make the pumpkin grow to achieve its full potential, and eliminate the rest. In time, the pumpkin will be an outlier to the entire patch.

    The lesson: stop measuring success by doing what others are doing. 

    Instead, focus on what makes your company unique. Success isn’t about outdoing competitors; it’s about amplifying the values only you can bring to life. When your vision and values drive your decisions, growth becomes an inevitable outcome.

    Escaping the Commodity Trap is a Market Disruption Strategy Secret

    The easy road is to become just another option, competing solely on price and struggling to stand out.

    Here’s the hard truth: when you’re indistinguishable, you’re forced into low-profit, high-stress work, constantly fighting to keep clients from choosing the next cheapest option. This is the trap of “commodity thinking,” and if you’re caught in it, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s exhausting.

    At Structure, we’ve faced this challenge head-on with ourselves and our clients. Here’s what we’ve done.

    First, we started by getting clear on what we stand for: business is personal. I don’t just want to deliver results—I want to transform our clients’ businesses in a way that feels genuine, human, and deeply impactful. This isn’t just a slogan; it’s our foundation. By choosing to be uniquely ourselves, we naturally positioned ourselves as a high-value partner, attracting clients who resonated with our approach and were excited to invest in it.

    How Warby Parker Disrupted Eyewear with Accessibility & Impact

    In the crowded, competitive eyewear market market, Warby Parker entered with a bold, value-driven mission: make high-quality glasses affordable and accessible, while giving back to communities. 

    By establishing a one-for-one model—where each pair of glasses sold equates to one donated—they disrupted a market dominated by a few high-priced players. 

    Their commitment to social impact and affordability didn’t just build a customer base; it built a community of supporters who believe in the brand’s mission. And while Warby Parker does provide affordable eyewear, it’s not cheap. Their success shows that companies who prioritize accessibility and transparency—over price competition and commoditization—can create lasting loyalty, even in crowded markets.

    If You Have to Compete, Compete on Values

    Recently, a client came to us asking for a discount, caught in their own cycle of commodity thinking. 

    Instead of negotiating price, I challenged them to focus on value—on output, outcomes, and results. We worked to uncover what made both of us truly unique, and they began to see us (and themselves) differently. We were no longer just “another option.” 

    What’s better is they left, empowered to become a leader in their own space, competing on value and drawing customers willing to pay a premium.

    What would happen if you stopped competing on price and started leaning into your unique vision and values? 

    Breaking free from commodity thinking isn’t easy, but when you align with your core strengths, you’ll find yourself building lasting value instead of chasing the next quick win.

    Be a Product of the Product

    Authenticity isn’t a marketing tactic. It’s a long-term growth strategy that sparks breakthrough success.

    When you lead with authenticity, you attract customers who believe in what you stand for, who trust your vision, and who are loyal because they see something real. Authenticity isn’t just a differentiator; it’s a multiplier. It draws the right clients, empowers your team, and sustains long-term success by creating relationships that last.

    Authenticity is a Key Market Disruption Strategy

    I’ll never forget watching a friend turn down a multi-million dollar contract. 

    He was being offered everything—recognition, income, a massive platform—but it didn’t align with who he was. 

    That choice didn’t just protect his integrity; it solidified his mission. Soon, people noticed that he stood by his principles, and his authenticity drew new clients who trusted he was true to his word. They weren’t buying what he sold; they were buying who he was.

    Prioritize your values, even when it feels risky. 

    Authenticity is more than a buzzword; it’s a strategy. When clients see that you’re genuinely aligned with your values, they’re not just buying a product—they’re investing in a relationship. They’re choosing you for who you are, not just what you sell.

    3 Key Action Steps to Lead Market Disruption from Within

    Now that we’re clear on the importance of internal focus, here’s how to become a market disruptor by beginning with your life, your team, and your business.

    Step 1: Clarify Your Unique Value

    Take a step back and ask, “What am I the best in the world at?” 

    This isn’t about comparing yourself to others; it’s about amplifying your strengths. Know what makes you unique, and then build relationships with clients who resonate with those qualities. When you’re clear on what you’re bringing to the table, you’ll start attracting clients who value it too.

    Crossing the Starting Line

    Practically, the best way to clarify your unique value (other than ask the question above) is do a time and energy audit. 

    In this process, you’ll want to:

    • Log everything you do in 15 minute increments for 2 weeks. 
    • At the end of each day, add 1 – 4 dollar signs ($) to represent the value of the task. 
    • Highlight each in GREEN (gave energy) or RED (took energy).

    Then, spend as much time as possible doing the things that give you energy and are of high value. Everything else can be replaced or delegated.

    Step 2: Focus on Input Metrics

    Too often, businesses measure success by outputs they can’t fully control—sales, leads, or market trends. 

    Instead, measure success by your internal alignment: How well does your work reflect your vision and values? What are you doing each day to build toward that bigger goal? When you control your input metrics, you’re building a sustainable foundation that external factors can’t shake.

    Crossing the Starting Line

    How you start is by defining your output metric. What do you want to achieve?

    Then, you’ll want to reverse engineer the process, working backwards to define metrics and milestones all the way to the first thing you need to do to start the process. This is your “input metric—we call this your Lead Domino Metric™. 

    This is the domino you are in full control of to push over and, assuming all the dominos are lined up, you’ll get what you want at the end. Know what it is and push it over.

    Step 3: Think in Decades, Not Days

    Imagine what you want to build over the next 10 years. 

    Picture the clients you’ll serve, the team you’ll build, and the legacy you’ll leave. At Structure, we anchor everything we do for ourselves and our clients in a long-term growth strategy that includes a 10-year vision and 3-year mission, reminding ourselves that growth happens through transformation, not quick fixes. 

    When you think in decades, you start building something sustainable—something worth protecting and investing in at deeper levels.

    Crossing the Starting Line

    Gather your team and brainstorm a few ways you could take bold action on your values in a way that is abnormal in your industry. By abnormal, I mean “opposite.”

    REI is a great example. They’re known for a commitment to the outdoors and its community of outdoor enthusiasts. In a bold move, the company decided to close all its stores on Black Friday—one of the busiest shopping days of the year—encouraging employees and customers to #OptOutside for the day instead. 

    This campaign wasn’t just a market disruption; it reflected REI’s values around environmental stewardship and work-life balance. The campaign strengthened REI’s brand identity and deepened customer loyalty, proving that putting values above immediate profit can pay off significantly in the long term.

    Shift from Competitive Differentiation to Collaborative Disruption

    Right now, everyone else in your industry might seem like a rival. But what if they weren’t?

    What if your competitors were potential collaborators with unique strengths?

    At Structure, we chose to embrace collaboration over competition. This shift from scarcity to abundance has transformed our business, broadened our reach, and deepened our impact.

    When you see competitors as collaborators, you’re building a network that multiplies value for everyone.

    The Ultimate Disruptors: Authenticity, Alignment, & Abundance

    When people see that your actions match your values, they’re not just investing in a service; they’re investing in a shared vision. 

    This is why Yvon Chouinard’s words resonate so deeply with me:

    “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between work and play, his labor and leisure, his mind and body. He simply pursues his vision of excellence, leaving others to determine if he is working or playing. To himself, he’s always doing both.”

    At Structure, we aim to live by this principle. Our work is an extension of who we are, and this authenticity has propelled our growth. Clients know that when they work with us, they’re joining a company that values them as individuals and shares their vision for something bigger.

    Disrupt or Die: The Choice is Yours

    Here’s my challenge to you: Will you decide to disrupt or let external pressures shape your business?

    Remember, when you fixate on what’s happening around you, you’re vulnerable to every market shift. But when you build on your unique strengths and values, you create a resilient, visionary business that others are drawn to.

    You have a decision to make. Keep reacting to market trends, or start building a company that reflects who you are—a business that stands out, leads, and pulls people toward it.

    The future is big and bright, but only for those willing to create it. Let’s disrupt. Let’s build. Let’s create something extraordinary.

    How Structure Can Clarify Your Market Disruption Strategy

    At Structure, we’re an outsourced marketing partner and IT consulting firm that provides Strategic Workshops, Digital Growth Systems, and Fractional CMO Consulting with one purpose: to help clients create sustainable growth.

    Our clients are ambitious business executives in mid-sized companies across industries like manufacturing, private equity, and transportation. 

    They often face challenges like:

    • Fragmented Marketing Efforts: Lack of a cohesive digital marketing strategy leading to suboptimal results
    • Outdated Technology: Needing digital transformation to stay competitive
    • Scaling Barriers: Hitting a plateau in growth and seeking the next leap forward
    • Market Disruption: Navigating industry disruption and needing innovation partners to adapt

    Through a tailored strategy, we solve these challenges by delivering results in areas like digital strategy, web design & development, IT infrastructure, and content marketing. We implement long-term systems that support sustainable growth and transformational impact.

    Most importantly, we provide the leadership, strategy, and implementation, creating a true white-glove relationship. Instead of building and maintaining a multi-functional team, we’ve already done that and are ready to start. We’re looking for companies ready to partner for the long haul. If you’re committed to creating a deep relationship that drives growth aligned with your long-term vision, we’d love to help.

    Start by taking our free Digital Maturity Assessment™ to see how you score across 10 components of digital maturity. Or, schedule a free Virtual Digital Strategy Session and speak directly with our team.