Is Your Identity Making You the Bottleneck?

You don’t build a $3M business

Being a 300k leader.

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Because the difference in doing $300K and $2M isn’t a marketing problem.

It’s an identity shift.

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Most founders got traction by being great at the work.

They made the sales, they delivered the results.

They produced.

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Then one day the math breaks.

More hustle stops moving the needle.
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There’s a new bottleneck.

It’s not the market, the offer, or the competition…
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It’s that you are still producing results instead of producing producers.

Refusing to let go of the work and evolve.

I’ve been through this stage myself, and I’ve been walking clients through it for a long time.

And the owners who break through - they see themselves differently.

They stop seeing themselves as the hero and more as the choreographer.

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That looks like:

➡️ Building an operating system that runs without your constant input

➡️ Making leadership development your #1 priority

➡️ Producing results through others, instead of producing everything yourself

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It can be uncomfortable. It is different from what got you here.

But if you want your growth to compound (and a business that isn’t fragile), your future self is the one that will get you there, not your past self.
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If you're not sure how to grow into the leader your business is going to need - I'm here to help.

🔥 2026 should be the year you define your leadership identity.

👉🏻 Reply to this email or book a time with me. Let's talk.

Or Maybe Your Team is the Bottleneck?

I got to sit in on a Q&A with John Maxwell this week, and his insights were a blunt reminder of something founders too often forget:

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Your business can only grow as fast as you do, and only as far as your team can take it.

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Here are a few points that stood out to me:

1. Your relationships should be with growers only.

If you’re still carrying non-growers, you’re guaranteeing a ceiling.

Growth requires identity evolution for you and capacity evolution for your team.

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2. Being a leader is lonely. Being your best friend is a choice.

You’re the one you hear the most.

If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead anyone else.

That’s the producer-to-leader shift.

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3. You’re responsible to people, not for people.

You can’t install capacity in someone.

Hire motivated people. Build structure. Set expectations.

Stop rescuing.

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4. It's not your dream that will determine your success, it's your team.

An A+ vision with a C- team produces a C- reality.

Look for: growing, coachable, producing, aligned, high-capacity.

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And my favorite quote:

"Don't send ducks to eagle school."
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John's message was simple:

For you to do big things, you've got to have a strong team. For you to have a strong team, you've got to be a strong leader who is constantly growing.

If I could ask one favor of you:

If you find this email valuable, forward it to one business owner who gets it. They can subscribe here.

Let's be that founder-to-founder support system we all need. 🤝🏻

Have a great rest of your week,

(Read more of what clients say on my updated LinkedIn profile. 👇🏻)

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#golden-1125