You Already Know the Move

I've got a piece of content sitting on my drive that's been finished for months.

I wish I was making this up.

I keep telling myself I'm "refining" it. But if I stop to think about it, it’s more than ready. It should’ve already been shipped.

You've probably got your own version. Bigger than a doc, maybe. Maybe it's a hire you keep almost making. Or pricing you know is too low. Or something you've already admitted you need to hand off.

You know what to do. You could probably walk me through it right now in detail.

But you're just not doing it.

Here's what I've learned watching founders do this, and doing it myself: you already know the move. You've known for a while. What you're actually waiting on is to feel safe enough to make it. Proof the new way will work before you'll let go of the old one.

Time isn't your problem here. Courage is.

And here's the thing about expertise business owners specifically -
You already proved you've got courage. You bet on yourself and built something around what you know. Nobody handed you that.

But that courage doesn't automatically show up for the next version of the business. That version needs you to make different moves:
- Letting go of delivery.
- Building a team that doesn’t need you in the room.
- Simplifying your role when your identity is wrapped up in being the expert.

That last one is a big hangup for founders. When your identity is "I'm the expert, I do the work," handing the work off doesn't feel right

It feels like giving away the thing that makes you you.

Dr. Benjamin Hardy said something on the podcast that I like so much I think you and I should get matching tattoos of it:

"Everyone wants confidence. No one wants courage."

But it doesn’t work that way.

Courage is what gets you there. Then confidence shows up.

You can't wait until you're certain and then move. You have to move, and the certainty catches up.

When Daniel Wakefield committed to that everything was immediately different in his world.

He knew his business needed him to address some issues.

But he kept finding a way to be busy with other things instead of dealing with those issues head-on.

Then he got serious.
He changed his perception of himself as a leader.
He stopped avoiding the challenges.

You can’t put a price tag on the value of that.

Actually... yes you can.

It tripled the value of his time and added $140k in pipeline.

We wrote up the whole thing. The trap, the decisions he drug out, and what actually changed between the two versions of him.

​Read Daniel's story →​

What's yours? The thing you’ve been sitting on for months and still haven’t pulled the trigger?

You can't allow it to stay that way for long.

tBOJ: Making Sense of 2026

I've spent 2026 staring at this AI-juiced world wondering what the hell is going on. Looking for the pattern, so I can make sense of things.

Recently it's become clear: the bar for experts went up this year, and a lot of good ones haven't adjusted.

The work that used to make you look like an expert, the frameworks, the information and the like?

Anybody can generate that now for $20 a month.

"The middle is gone", as Joe Gannon put it. All that’s left for true experts is the top, where the original thinking happens.

Don't think in terms of the weather. "It's raining, grab an umbrella." My 4 year old can do that.

This is a new climate. Have the wardrobe for heavy rain, every day.

Your job isn't to check the window each morning. It's to get equipped for the climate that’s here to stay.

I went back through this year's The Business Owner's Journey Podcast conversations looking for moments that show the path forward.

I’ve tied them together in this week's episode, with contributions from Joe Gannon, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, Katelyn Bourgoin, Natasha Walstra, Debbie Oster, and Jordan DiPietro.

That's a lot of brainpower. Listen to or watch this episode on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Youtube, or your favorite platform!

Build the business you envision,

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#golden-0626