Selling more and doing more of the work you’re great at sounds like exactly what you want to be doing.
And they are - most of the time.
That also makes them an easy way to procrastinate and avoid decisions your business needs you to make in order to continue growing.
Daniel Wakefield knows this trap well. He's the founder of Top-Tier Headshots, and he’s arguably the best in the world at what he does.
I'm extremely proud of his growth and am excited to share his story.
His business grew because of his skills, and it was 100% dependent on him.
Several years in, he posted his biggest revenue month ever. $52K, and he produced every dollar directly.
Producing that number took everything he had. While he was heads-down delivering, marketing stopped, and he had no pipeline.
But revenue was at an all-time high, so nothing looked wrong.
Then he paid for it. Sales dropped by more than half over the next three months.
That $52k wasn’t a business. That was Daniel maxed out.
And the whole time, the decisions the business actually needed from him had been waiting. Putting a team around him. Getting the financials in order. Fixing his pricing. The things that would let the business stop running through him.
Every time he sat down with one of those decisions, it felt like he'd have to slow down too much to work it out.
So he did what he's exceptional at. He went and closed another deal. Delivered more work.
And it produced. Every time.
That's what makes it such a dangerous trap.
For a founder, avoidance rarely looks like avoidance. It looks like another productive week of selling and delivering.
The work you're best at is the easiest place to hide. It pays, it's comfortable, and everyone around you applauds it.
I mean, who is going to argue with the revenue, right??
Meanwhile, the decisions you keep putting off are the exact ones that would get you out of the middle of the business. That's why the business stays stuck - waiting on you.
Daniel changed the situation. He made the decisions, did the work, and recently matched that $52K month.
And this time he didn't produce most of it.
This time there was still $140K pipeline behind the revenue.
This time the business kept running while it happened.
And the value of Daniel’s time has gone up 3x.
From the same $52k revenue number.
Now it’s a different business.
And to Daniel’s credit, he’s a different leader.
The full story of how he got from one to the other is in the case study. The trap, the decisions, and what actually changed.
Read Daniel's case study