Lead In 30

Co-founder of Lead In 30 - the future of leadership development. Organizations use Lead In 30 as the new way to train and develop leaders.

Co-Founder

Lone Rock Consulting

We help senior executives teams get aligned and accelerate achieving Key Results. Honored to work with leaders of some of the biggest companies in the world.

Senior Partner, Co-Founder

CULTURE PARTNERS 

Was senior partner and worked with senior executives of Amazon, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Cigna, HCA, Hormel, and other companies in 14 countries.

Senior Partner

Spectrum Association Management

Was on the senior leadership team of a market disruptor called Spectrum Association Management based in Texas. Helped transition the company from being a Hill family-owned startup to a corporation managing more than 900 communities. 

This experience was basic training in building process to drive scale and customer experience design to drive growth. Was quite the ride!

Vice President of Growth

Bonneville International

I worked as an executive for a national broadcast company during the final glory days of traditional media. We purchased underperforming media brands in top 50 markets and my role ultimately became to help turn them around. 

This is where I began learning the importance of culture management. How do you turn underperformers into revenue and ratings leaders in less than three years? I discovered you have to change the culture.

Vice President of Operations

KSL Media

Worked as a reporter and anchor, and then led news and sports teams at KSL Media. Covered news events ranging from a tsunami in Indonesia that killed 250,000 people to Olympic Games to Elizabeth Smart's disappearance and remarkable return.

Director of News, Programming, and Reporter/Anchor

KTSA Radio

Was general assignment reporter for KTSA Radio.  Covered everything from the LA riots following the Rodney King verdict to the lunch time massacre in Killeen to the daily news events in San Antonio. Ok, those were the BIG stories. Let's be honest - I was usually reporting on house fires and car chases.

News Reporter

Cofounder of Lead In 30 • Upgrade your leaders • Human resources and leadership development

It was one of the most memorable moments of my career. I was standing in the front of the room finishing a meeting with the top 200 leaders of a large hospital system in the DC area. I handed the microphone to the CEO to close us out. What he said shocked me and has stuck with me for years. After hours of discussion about the culture of his organization of 18,000 people that day he ended the meeting looking into the eyes of his top 200 and saying into the microphone, "I have come to an inconvenient and disgusting conclusion that I am the problem."

That's a direct quote.

He was gone less than two months later. 

He left.

For almost a decade I've traveled the world meeting with leaders of some of the world's biggest companies. Amazon, Walmart, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Hormel, BD, Darden Restaurants, Fox, and HCA to name a few. I've averaged 165 flights a year. New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, New Zealand, and a lot of less notable locales have been stops along the way.

Here's what I've learned...

Leaders make or break an organization.

They are the competitive advantage.

Or the anchor sinking the ship.

One leader can change everything. Positively or negatively.

After years of consulting senior executives on their company-wide culture transformation projects I'm now spending all of my time with a smaller group of leaders. Call them executive coaching clients or whatever you want. They are leaders of teams, divisions, business areas, or enterprises that aren't yet who they want to become.

We help successful executives grow their careers through strengthening their leadership effectiveness.

That's the phrase we wrote as we founded our firm.

Perhaps you're that leader who could benefit from our questions, perspective, and proprietary models. Or maybe you know that leader.  

DM me. 

I'd love to chat. 🎯

Russ Hill

Jim Farley didn’t panic. He built urgency without chaos. That’s why Ford beat the clock on EVs. In 2020, Farley took over a Ford that was years behind Tesla...

Deadlines loomed. Pressure was mounting. 
But instead of demanding all-nighters and pushing heroics, Farley made a counterintuitive move:

He gave teams six-week decision windows.
If an experiment failed in week 3, they pivoted in week 4, not in the next quarter.

He publicly celebrated a team that killed its own initiative after the data didn’t hold up.

The message?
“We’re not chasing perfection. We’re chasing fast learning.”

During critical sprints, Farley held daily standups; not to pressure, but to unblock.

Because urgency doesn’t mean chaos. 
It means removing drag.

It means more communication, not silence.
It means more clarity, not more fear.

And it worked:
- The Mustang Mach-E shipped in under 3 years
- Smart risks replaced politics
- Teams stayed engaged without burning out

Urgency sharpens focus. Panic narrows it.

If your team is spiraling under pressure, ask yourself:
- Are we building urgency or just spreading fear?
- Are we removing blockers or just piling on noise?
- Are we pushing clarity or defaulting to chaos?

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Cofounder of Lone Rock Leadership • Upgrade your managers • Human resources and leadership development

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Michelle Gass joined Levi's as incoming CEO in 2020 and walked into a culture of paralysis. The teams weren't lazy. They weren't incompetent. They were terrified. Here's what happened:

Years of cost-cutting and operational tightening had created an invisible rule: don't risk anything. Don't try anything new. Don't be the person who fails.

So they didn't.

Product launches slowed. Innovation stalled. Meanwhile, competitors were moving fast, and Levi's - a 170-year-old icon - was at risk of becoming irrelevant.

Most CEOs would double down. Push harder. Set aggressive targets. Demand more output.

Gass did the opposite.
She launched what she called "permission to play" sessions.

Here's how they worked: Cross-functional teams got 90 days to test ideas that normally would have required 6 months of approvals. No business case required upfront. No punishment for failure. Just experiment, learn, iterate.

The only rule? Share what you learned, whether it worked or not.

Within 6 months, the results were undeniable. A digital-first denim line launched in half the normal time. Sustainable fabric experiments that would have been "too risky" became real products. Store teams tested customer experience changes that increased conversion by 12%.

The breakthrough wasn't the specific ideas. It was then that people started moving again.

Here's what most leaders miss: Movement isn't motion.

Motion is activity. Meetings, emails, busy work. Movement is progress toward what matters.

And movement happens when you remove the friction, not add more pressure.

I see this constantly when coaching executives. A director will tell me their team is "being thorough" or "doing their due diligence."

But when I dig deeper, the pattern is clear: people are stalling because they're afraid of being wrong.

Watch for these signals that fear is blocking your team:

They ask for "one more analysis" when they already have the answer. They schedule meetings to prepare for meetings. They wait for perfect information that will never come.

Contrast that with teams where fear has been removed: They make decisions with 70% of the information. They test small, fail fast, and adjust. They self-correct instead of waiting for permission.

They move.

The difference isn't capability. It's psychological safety.

This is exactly what we address in Lead In 30. We give leaders a systematic process to identify what's blocking movement, remove the friction, and create the clarity teams need to act without fear.

If your team has the talent but lacks the movement, let's talk.

P.S. If you found this valuable, repost for your network ♻️

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Lead with impact.

When Josh Silverman took over Etsy in 2017, teams were working 60-hour weeks, going nowhere. He made ONE radical decision that changed everything. Here's how he transformed chaos into clarity:

Most leaders think more direction means better results. They add initiatives, create new priorities, and launch fresh campaigns. 

But here's what actually happens: teams freeze. 
When everything's important, nothing's important.

Silverman inherited exactly this problem.

The company was drowning. Not in debt or bad products, but in priorities. Over 50 competing initiatives, each with its own champion, its own meetings, its own urgency.

Nobody could tell you what Etsy's actual strategy was. Ask five different employees and you'd get five different answers.

Silverman's approach was surgical.

He didn't ask teams to prioritize their own work. That's how you get 50 initiatives in the first place. Instead, he identified the 3-4 metrics that would actually move Etsy's business: seller growth, buyer engagement, revenue per customer, and platform stability.

Then he did something radical: he killed everything else. Not paused. Killed.

Product features that teams had spent months building? Scrapped if they didn't tie to one of those four goals. Marketing campaigns? Cut if they couldn't demonstrate impact on the core metrics.

The reaction was predictable. Outrage, resistance, and fear that critical work would fall through the cracks.

But here's what happened: within 90 days, teams stopped asking "What should I work on?" and started asking "Which of our four goals does this impact most?"

The energy didn't change. The direction did.

Etsy's stock price increased significantly within a year. But the real shift happened internally. Teams moved faster, made better decisions, and actually knew if they were winning or losing.

This is the Clarity Paradox: the more you add, the less people understand. When clarity is absent, the void fills with assumption. Teams make up their own priorities, pursue their own definitions of success, and wonder why leadership seems disappointed.

The 3rd Leader framework starts exactly where Silverman did: with clarity. 

Not the kind of clarity that lives in strategy decks, but the kind that changes how teams make decisions every single day. 

Then it creates the alignment that prevents people from working at cross-purposes. Finally, it generates the movement that actually changes outcomes.

If you're leading a team that feels busy but not effective, working hard but not making progress, the issue probably isn't effort. It's clarity.

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Jim Sinegal built Costco into a $400B giant. But the secret wasn’t strategy; it was something deeper. One principle, repeated for 40 years, made all the difference...

Before launching Costco in 1983, Jim Sinegal spent 30 years learning retail under Sol Price at FedMart.

What he learned wasn’t a tactic. 
It was a philosophy:

Charge members, not markup.
Offer deep discounts.
Pay employees better than anyone else.

Most leaders publish values on a slide deck once a year.
Sinegal lived his - every day, for decades.

When he and Jeff Brotman founded Costco, those principles weren’t negotiable. They were the operating system.

Fair wages. Low margins. Member value first.

Even after stepping down in 2011, Sinegal still showed up every Tuesday at HQ.
Same desk. Same routine. Same values.

He’s 89. And still there.
Not for nostalgia, for consistency.

That consistency built culture.
That culture built trust.

And trust built a $400B company with an $86B private label brand (Kirkland).

No gimmicks. No pivots. No quarterly reinventions.
Just one message, lived relentlessly for 40+ years.

That’s what The 3rd Leader framework is all about:
Clarity → Alignment → Movement.

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When Carol Tomé became CEO of UPS in 2020, the company was drowning in complexity. Thousands of processes. Endless meetings. Here's how she turned it around with one simple mantra:

She inherited a company running on autopilot toward mediocrity.

Package delivery drivers followed 23 different standard operating procedures. Middle managers spent 60% of their time in meetings about meetings. A simple pricing decision required 14 approval layers.

The company wasn't failing. It was suffocating under its own weight.
Tomé didn't start with a big announcement or a flashy restructuring plan. She started with questions.

Which of these 23 procedures actually prevent errors? Which meetings drive decisions versus consume time? Which approval layers add insight versus just delay?

The answers were uncomfortable.

Most processes existed because they'd always existed. Most meetings happened because they were on the calendar. Most approval layers were vestiges of leaders who'd long since moved on.

So Tomé introduced one mantra: "Better, not bigger."

Then she cut. Not randomly. Systematically.

She eliminated initiatives that created confusion without driving results. She simplified processes that buried frontline teams in unnecessary detail. She gave teams clearer guidance, not more guidance.

The distinction matters more than most leaders realize.

Your brain craves simplicity. Too much detail doesn't create clarity, it collapses it. When you pile on processes and initiatives, you're not helping your team execute. You're paralyzing them.

Within 18 months, UPS reported its strongest operating margins in over a decade. Customer satisfaction scores rose 12%. Employee engagement jumped 15%.

But the most telling metric? Decision velocity increased 3x. 
The company could move.

Complexity kills execution. Simplicity scales it.

If you want to apply this in your organization, start by asking three questions:

Which processes confuse your team more than help them? Which initiatives exist without clear ownership or measurable impact? Where are you adding when you should be subtracting?

This is the foundation of effective leadership. Clarity doesn't come from adding more strategy. It comes from ruthlessly eliminating what doesn't serve the mission.

In my work with leaders at Amazon, Walmart, and hundreds of other organizations, the ones who transform performance master this skill. They use frameworks that force simplification, not complexity.

You'll find this and more frameworks in my latest book: Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results, and Most Don't. Available now at https://lnkd.in/eaiPFZhw.

You can dive more into creating clarity by cutting the noise so teams can focus on what actually moves the business forward.

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Lead with impact.

You announce a major change. The team resists. It looks like defiance, but it’s something else entirely...

Most leaders think resistance means disagreement.
It doesn’t. It means threat detection.

You’ve spent weeks crafting airtight logic - slides, data, strategy - to explain why your change makes sense.

You present it.

And instead of buy-in, you get silence... skepticism... subtle foot-dragging.
So you double down: more presentations, more rationale, more logic.

But here’s what your team is actually thinking:
- “Do I still matter?”
- “Do I have the skills for this future?”
- “What if I fail?”

You’re speaking strategy.
They’re experiencing survival.

That’s exactly what Arvind Krishna faced when he pivoted IBM into hybrid cloud in 2020.

His senior engineers - lifers in the mainframe era - pushed back.
Not because they disagreed.
Because their careers suddenly felt fragile.

Krishna didn’t counter with more logic.
He did something smarter: he made it safe to feel uncertain.

He held open office hours.
Engineers were blunt:
“I’m not sure I have the skills for this world.”

He didn’t sugarcoat. He validated:
“You’re right to feel that way. This is a shift. Let’s bridge it together.”

And resistance began to dissolve.
That’s what real leadership looks like.

Here’s the shift to make:

- Stop assuming silence is agreement.
- Stop seeing resistance as defiance.
- Start seeing it as an emotional signal.

Before explaining what’s changing, acknowledge what that change might threaten.

Try this:
“Some of you might be wondering if your skills still matter. That’s a legitimate concern. Let’s talk about it.”

Then pause. Really pause. Let people speak.
And when they do - don’t correct their fear. Name it. Normalize it.

Why this matters:

✔️ Most change efforts fail because emotional resistance goes unacknowledged.
✔️ Teams don’t fear strategy. They fear irrelevance.
✔️ Safe teams adapt. Unsafe teams stall.

If you’re announcing change and facing resistance, you don’t need a new strategy. You need a new leadership lens.

That sequence is at the heart of my new book Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results and Most Don’t.

It explains why the fastest teams are not the most talented, they are the most trusted. We’re letting a limited group preview it before the November 10 release.

Read the PDF, leave an honest Amazon review, and we’ll send you two signed copies as a thank you.

Apply here:
https://lnkd.in/e74z3WTy

In 2016, a power outage grounded 2,000+ Delta flights overnight. Ed Bastian had one choice: hide or own it. Here's what he did that turned the crisis into Delta's defining cultural moment:

Most Fortune 500 CEOs follow the same crisis playbook.

Let PR craft the perfect statement. Blame the technology vendor. Promise to "investigate thoroughly." Then disappear until the news cycle moves on.

Bastian did the opposite.

Within hours of the outage, he recorded a video from his phone. No script. No teleprompter. Just him, looking directly into the camera, taking full responsibility for the failure.

Then he announced immediate compensation for every affected traveler before the crisis was even resolved.

Wall Street analysts predicted massive reputational damage. Instead, the response became a masterclass in crisis leadership.

What made Bastian's approach culturally transformative wasn't just what he did. It's what he refused to do.

He refused to let lawyers and PR teams sanitize his message. That directness signaled to every Delta employee: when we fail, we own it immediately. No committees. No blame-shifting. No waiting for perfect information.

He refused to use passive corporate language. "We're investigating" is what legal teams write. Taking direct responsibility is what real leaders do. That choice told employees their leaders would model the same accountability expected from frontline staff.

He refused to wait until the full cost was calculated before offering compensation. The decision came fast, even though they didn't know the financial impact. That bias toward action over analysis became a cultural permission slip: when customers are hurting, we move first and worry about spreadsheets later.

This is how singular moments become cultural inflection points.

Most managers won't face a crisis this public. But you'll face your moment where your team watches to see if your values are real or just wall art.

That moment is coming faster than you think.

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Doug McMillon saw it before anyone else. Walmart's supply chain was a sleeping liability. No crisis yet, but fragility everywhere. So he did what most CEOs don’t:

He built the fix before the fire.
Years before COVID disruptions, he invested heavily in automation, real-time inventory systems, and predictive logistics.

No media coverage. No quarterly boost. Just quiet prevention.
Then the storm hit.

In 2021–2022, Target struggled with stockouts. Amazon missed delivery windows.

Walmart? They kept shelves full and trucks moving.
That’s the power of preventative leadership.

But here’s the problem:
Most companies don’t reward prevention.

They reward the hero who pulls the all-nighter, not the planner who avoided the crisis.

They promote the manager who “handles escalations well,” not the one who has none.

They praise the engineer who patches the outage, not the one who built the alert that caught it two weeks earlier.

This is how firefighting cultures form.

The real work of prevention is invisible:
Planning buffers before they’re needed
Investing in root cause fixes, not surface wins
Creating systems that scale sanity

The best leaders don’t just ask:
“What happened?”
They ask:
“What system let this happen?”

You’ll know you’re rewarding the wrong behaviors when:
- Planning meetings keep getting canceled for “urgent issues”
- Employees stay late to fix recurring bugs, and get applauded
- The phrase “We got lucky” shows up in every postmortem.

Prevention isn’t flashy.
It doesn’t make headlines.
But it makes history.

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Emma Walmsley didn’t bluff her way through a crisis. She told her team and investors exactly what GSK had failed at and what she didn’t know yet. The result? 

Trust surged, top talent returned, and innovation restarted.
Most leaders think saying “I don’t know” will cost them respect.

The opposite is true. 
Admitting uncertainty builds more credibility than faking confidence ever will.

When Emma Walmsley became CEO of GlaxoSmithKline in 2017, the company was struggling.

Its R&D pipeline had stalled. Top scientists were leaving.
Analysts questioned whether GSK could compete in modern pharmaceuticals.

Walmsley did something most executives avoid: she told the truth.

In her first earnings call, she told analysts that GSK had "failed to invest appropriately in innovation.”
No predecessor would’ve used that language. No spin. No deflection.

Then she went further.
She told her top 20 leaders she didn’t have the answers and asked them to redesign R&D from scratch.

That honesty unlocked what years of PR couldn’t:
• Research partnerships with 3 top universities that had previously refused to engage
• A 34-point jump in internal trust within 18 months
• Re-engagement from scientists who had stopped taking GSK’s calls

Why did this work?
Because your team already knows when you're bluffing.

The VP who spends 45 minutes defending shaky market projections doesn’t protect his credibility.

He destroys it. 
His team walks away executing on targets no one believes in.

Most leaders default to false certainty because we’re trained to believe authority means having the answers.

But what your team needs isn’t omniscience.
It’s clarity on what you know, what you don’t, and how you’ll solve it, together.

Here’s a simple 3-part framework:
- Say what you know, with specifics.
- Name what you don’t, without hedging.
- Propose how you’ll figure it out, using the team’s intelligence.

The skill is knowing when to lean into transparency and when to project steadiness.

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Tony Hsieh eliminated all managers at Zappos to fix bureaucracy. 260 employees immediately quit. Here's why consensus-driven leadership destroys companies just as fast as founder mode:

Tony built Zappos into a billion-dollar company by trusting employees completely. Customer service reps could spend $2,000 solving problems without asking permission. The culture was legendary.

Then bureaucracy crept in. One resignation letter changed everything.

In 2013, Tony got a resignation letter that shattered his vision. This wasn't just any employee complaining - this was someone who embodied everything Zappos stood for. 

Someone who had lived the culture and was now walking away because the very thing Tony thought he'd eliminated had returned: soul-crushing corporate bureaucracy.

He introduced holacracy - self-organizing teams, no bosses, distributed decision-making. Pure democracy. The business press celebrated it. Employee engagement scores initially hit all-time highs. People felt energized by the radical experiment.

Then reality hit.

Simple decisions that took minutes now required multiple team consultations. A website change that should have taken days needed 6 months and 3 circle consultations. By the time teams reached consensus, competitors had shipped similar features months earlier.

Projects stalled as teams struggled to figure out who had the authority to decide anything. Customer service scores dropped because representatives became unclear about their power to solve problems.  

Employees spent more time talking about work than actually working.

By 2015, Tony issued an ultimatum: commit to holacracy or leave with generous severance. Around 260 people - roughly 18% of the workforce - walked out the door.

While Tony was drowning in democratic discussion, Reed Hastings at Netflix was proving the opposite approach worked.

Reed didn't eliminate hierarchy - he weaponized it. "We're not a family. We're a team," he told employees.

Just clarity and accountability. When someone wasn't performing, they got generous severance. When decisions needed making, leaders made them.

The result? Netflix became one of the fastest-growing companies in history while Zappos fell off Fortune's Best Companies to Work For list for the first time in 8 years.

Steve Jobs put it even simpler: "Real artists ship."

Tony solved for Alignment but sacrificed Clarity and Movement. Perfect alignment around going nowhere is still going nowhere.

Leaders are trapped between two broken extremes: founder mode autocracy that burns out teams, or consensus mode paralysis that stalls everything. Both destroy companies. Both drive away top talent.

The answer isn't balancing these approaches. It's replacing them with a systematic framework that delivers Clarity, Alignment, and Movement simultaneously.

I explore this framework and the full Zappos story in my new book, Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results, and Most Don't. Available now at https://lnkd.in/eaiPFZhw.

When Nintendo's profits fell, CEO Satoru Iwata cut his salary by 50%. Most executives protect themselves first. He absorbed the pain. Here's the leadership lesson that changes everything:

Most CEOs in crisis mode blame the market or lay off staff. Iwata did the opposite.

The result? Teams didn't scatter. They rallied.

Here's what most leaders miss about trust:
Your team isn't listening to your words about sacrifice. They're watching whether you're willing to feel it first.

When Iwata cut his salary, he did something most executives avoid: he made his pain visible before asking anyone else to absorb impact.

That shift in sequence, me first, then us, completely changes team psychology.

Instead of resentment ("easy for you to say"), you get commitment ("we're in this together").

Leaders often underestimate the power of example. People follow what you do long before they follow what you say.

The rally at Nintendo didn't happen because Iwata gave better speeches afterward. It happened because he demonstrated that leadership meant absorbing impact, not delegating it.

Your team is watching how you handle pressure. And they notice the gaps.

When you ask them to work weekends, but protect your own calendar. When you freeze their hiring budget but approve your conference travel. When you demand transparency about their mistakes but hide your own.

These moments teach them that sacrifice flows in one direction.

Flip the sequence: Before you ask your team to take on extra load, what are you willing to absorb first? Before you implement budget cuts, where are you cutting from your own resources?

The visibility matters. They need to see you feeling the impact before they're asked to.

Accountability doesn't rise through motivational talks. It rises when people watch you demonstrate that being a leader means going first into discomfort, not last.

The fastest way to build trust is to take responsibility before assigning it.

If this resonates, I recently explored this idea in one of my podcast episodes: “Stop Breaking Glass – How Effective Leaders Stay Calm.” You’ll hear the exact framework: Breathe → Elevate → Lead, a system for staying steady under pressure so your team feels protected, not exposed.

Listen to it here:
https://lnkd.in/e2kHfmQX

If every decision goes through you, it's not leadership. It's a traffic jam. Here's how Daniel Ek turned Spotify into a decision-making machine:

Your calendar is back-to-back approvals. Product decisions. Pricing decisions. Hiring decisions. Your team waits hours (or days) for answers you could give in minutes - if you weren't drowning in other people's decisions.

Most managers believe this is control, that approving every decision keeps quality high and mistakes low.

The opposite is true. When decisions stack at the top, 3 things happen.

Speed dies. Your competitor ships in 2 weeks, while your team waits 3 months for approvals.

Innovation stops. Your people stop proposing bold ideas because they know you'll water them down through 4 rounds of review.

Your best people disengage. They came to build and create. You've turned them into order-takers who execute your vision instead of owners who contribute their own.

Daniel Ek figured this out at Spotify. He built the company around small teams with real decision-making authority.

Product squads could ship features without executive approval. Engineering teams could choose their own tech stack. Marketing teams could launch campaigns.

But not chaos. Guardrails everywhere.

Teams owned decisions within their domain. They couldn't change company strategy or blow the budget. They had clear boundaries, transparent metrics, and quarterly check-ins.

The result? Product cycles that used to take months took weeks. Innovation came from dozens of teams experimenting simultaneously instead of 5 executives guessing what might work.

Here's what most leaders miss: Your job isn't to make every decision. It's to build a system that makes good decisions without you.

Start by sorting decisions into 3 buckets:

1. Strategic (company direction, major investments, key hires) - you own these.

2. Operational (how to execute strategy, resource allocation within budget, team structure) - push to your direct reports.

3. Tactical (daily execution, minor resource shifts, individual choices) - these should never reach you.

For everything you push down: Define clear boundaries. Set outcome metrics. Create transparency so you can monitor without micromanaging.

The test: If a decision can be reversed easily and the worst case is a learning moment, it shouldn't require your approval.

The best organizations don't have hero leaders making all the calls. They have systems that create good decisions at every level.

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When Anne Fudge took over Young & Rubicam in 2003, the legendary ad agency was in crisis. Clients were leaving. Revenue was dropping. The board brought her in to fix it fast...

Everyone expected her to show up on day one with a turnaround plan.
She did something that looked like the opposite.

For 100 days, she didn't announce a single initiative. She walked the halls instead. Sat in cubicles. Had hundreds of conversations with people at every level of the company.

And she asked the same question every time: "If you were CEO, what would you change first?"

The people who actually served clients told her what executives had been too afraid to say out loud. Those insights didn't just inform her strategy—they became her strategy.

Most leaders think they need to talk more. The best leaders listen more and speak last.

Here's what Fudge understood that most leaders miss: Questions unlock truth. Listening unlocks commitment.

When you ask people what they'd change, you're not just gathering data. You're signaling that their perspective matters, that it's safe to tell the truth, and that you're building solutions together rather than imposing them from above.

That's the shift from Answer-First to Question-First leadership.

Most leaders resist this approach because asking questions feels like admitting weakness. But here's the paradox: When you ask instead of tell, you actually build more credibility, not less.

People commit to solutions they help create. 
They resist solutions imposed from above.

Start Monday with one question: "What's one thing we should stop doing?"

Then do the hardest part - stay quiet and actually listen. Don't defend, don't explain, don't problem-solve yet. Just let your team tell you what they see.

The most transformative thing a leader can do is ask a better question.

I've worked with leaders at Amazon, Walmart, and Lockheed Martin to build this approach into their daily leadership. The transformation happens when leaders stop imposing and start uncovering.

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Most CEOs sent memos when COVID hit. Tony Fernandes went live. And saved AirAsia with one move most leaders avoid...

When COVID grounded AirAsia in 2020, most executives issued top-down updates about layoffs and cost-cutting.

Tony did something radically different.

He hosted weekly livestreams - unfiltered Q&As with pilots, crew, and baggage handlers. He didn’t spin a PR message. He listened. He acknowledged fear. He celebrated small wins.

No strategy deck. Just empathy, live.

The result? What should have caused mass resignations turned into loyalty.

AirAsia rebounded faster than competitors, kept more staff, and reengaged its workforce around a shared future.

Because strategy without empathy is just noise.

Execution isn’t logical. It’s emotional.
People don’t follow plans, they follow voices that make them feel safe.

Fernandes understood this. That’s why his people followed him through crisis.

Here’s the leadership test:
If your team isn’t moving, it’s probably not because the plan isn’t clear.
It’s because they don’t trust they’ll be okay inside it.

A great vision needs an empathetic voice.

You can find this and more insights in my new book, "Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results and Most Don’t"

If you want an early copy, join the Advance Reader Group.

You’ll get the full PDF now, and two signed print copies after you leave an honest review.

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When teams break down under pressure, it is almost never a systems problem. It is a standards problem. Here's why:

Two teams can have the same training, the same procedures, and the same workload, yet deliver completely different outcomes. 

The difference is the leadership expectation at the top. 

Weak leaders tolerate chaos and explain it away as “being in the trenches.” Strong leaders set a non-negotiable bar for excellence and build environments where people are set up to win.

Your team will always mirror the standards you hold.

Capacity inside a team is rarely fixed. 
Leaders who assume their people are “maxed out” end up creating the ceiling themselves. 

When you stop assigning challenging work, hesitate to delegate, or protect people from stretch opportunities, the team interprets that as doubt. They pull back, play safe, and contract to match the expectations you set.

The ceiling becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But when a leader signals belief and backs it with support, people consistently outperform their own assumptions about what they can do. 

High-capacity teams are almost always built by leaders who expect more and equip people to rise to it.

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

1. Remove tolerances that drain performance.
Identify the lowest standard you’re currently accepting. Chronic lateness, “good enough” work, technical performers who spread negativity - whatever it is, that tolerance sets the floor for the entire team. Raise it, and the rest of the team will rise with it.

2. Use stretch goals properly.
Stretch goals only work when they’re paired with support. Set targets that push the team 20–30 percent beyond their comfort zone, then remove obstacles, provide resources, and explain why you believe they can deliver. The combination of challenge and support drives expansion.

3. Lead with visible belief.
Teams rarely outperform the level of belief their leader communicates. When you model growth, people step into growth. When you signal doubt, people shrink.

Leadership is not about loading people with pressure. 
It is about raising the standard, backing your expectations with action, and creating an environment where excellence is normal, not extraordinary.

Catch this episode on our podcast, Lead in 30: https://lnkd.in/egJnM3eA

Every organization has values. What separates good leaders is how they act when those values collide with real-world pressure. Alan Jope faced one of those moments, and his decision left a lasting mark:

In 2021, a private equity firm approached Unilever about acquiring a profitable personal care brand. The financials looked perfect. $200M revenue, 18% margins, immediate accretion to earnings.

The board saw an easy win.

But Jope's team discovered the brand's supply chain relied on palm oil from suppliers with documented deforestation practices. It violated Unilever's sustainability commitments.

Not technically. Explicitly.

Investors pushed back. One board member asked the question Jope knew was coming: "Isn't this exactly why we have audits? To fix these issues after acquisition?"

The path of least resistance was obvious. Buy the brand. Fix the supply chain later. Everyone wins.

Jope rejected the deal entirely.

Not because it was easy. Because Unilever's values meant something only if they guided decisions when the stakes were real.

The result wasn't chaos. Employee engagement scores rose 12% in the following quarter. Brand equity strengthened as customers and talent saw that the company meant what it said.

Teams watched their CEO choose principle over profit and thought, "Maybe we actually mean what we say."

Clarity without consistency fails. 
People trust what leaders prove, not what they say.

Values aren't beliefs you discuss in offsites. They're behaviors you demonstrate under pressure.

And the moment you compromise them for convenience, your credibility collapses.

I watched this play out with a director at a Fortune 500 tech company. She'd promised her VP they'd ship a new feature by end of quarter, tied to her bonus and promotion review.

Two weeks before deadline, her lead engineer showed her the code. It worked. Technically.

But the error handling was incomplete. Ship it now, and 5% of users would hit crashes they couldn't recover from.

She called the VP: "We're pushing the launch 3 weeks. The feature isn't ready."
He wasn't happy. She didn't get promoted that cycle.

But her team watched her choose quality over her own advancement. Six months later, when she asked them to pull weekends for a critical launch, they showed up.

Because they'd seen what she was willing to sacrifice.

Your team is watching. Not what you post about integrity. What you do when living your values costs you something.

That's when they start believing.

This principle sits at the core of The 3rd Leader framework. When I work with leaders, we focus on building trust through decisions, not declarations.

Because your team doesn't believe what you say in town halls. They believe what you prove when it costs you something.

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Lead with impact.

When Feike Sijbesma took over Royal DSM in 2007, he inherited a 20,000-person petrochemicals giant that was slowly dying. Most CEOs would have started with layoffs and restructuring...

Sijbesma did something different.

The company's identity was embedded in 100+ years of chemical manufacturing. Employees saw themselves as producing materials, optimizing yields, managing costs. That's what they'd always done.

Sijbesma recognized something crucial: you can't change 20,000 people's behavior by changing the org chart. You have to change what they believe they're building.

He reframed DSM's entire purpose around a single question: How do we improve global health and nutrition?

Not through efficiency metrics or cost reduction. Through meaning.

This wasn't just messaging. He restructured investments, shifted R&D priorities, and aligned every business decision to this new north star. When people understood they were solving global malnutrition rather than optimizing chemical yields, something shifted.

Alignment moved from resistance to momentum.

DSM transformed into a global leader in life sciences and nutrition innovation. The same 20,000 people, radically different results.

Here's what made it work: Sijbesma understood that alignment accelerates when people grasp the case for why they're being asked to do something. Not what. Not how. Why.

Most leaders try to convince people to do something different. They build presentations, create incentives, and restructure teams.

But alignment isn't persuasion. When people understand the purpose, alignment becomes passion.

This is the foundation of the 3rd Leader framework: Clarity drives alignment, and alignment creates movement.

Purpose-driven leaders build teams that move faster and deliver better results because they've solved the hardest problem first. They've answered why it matters. 

If you're ready to transform how your leaders create alignment and drive results, let's talk about bringing Lead In 30 to your organization.

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Lead with impact.

Matt Gray

Founder & CEO, Founder OS | Proven systems to grow a profitable audience with organic content.

Over the last decade, I’ve built 4 successful companies and a community of over 14 million people.

My mission is to inspire 100 million founders to live their dreams through proven systems.

I help entrepreneurs remove themselves from operations, grow on autopilot with content and an engaged audience, and automate core systems.

I’m the founder of Founder OS, Gray Enterprises, and Bitmaker (acq. General Assembly).

My portfolio:

→ I'm the founder & CEO of Founder OS, a community of 650 entrepreneurs
→ I’m the founder & CEO of Gray Enterprises with a community of over 14 million people
→ I teach the Founder OS Program to help entrepreneurs scale their online businesses to $1M+ revenue
→ I coach entrepreneurs that need help with marketing, sales, systems, community, and growth
→ I advise early-stage companies in AI, Education, Creator Economy, and SaaS verticals

My results:

→ 14M+ people community
→ 2.5M+ people following Founder OS
→ 2B content impressions annually 
→ 0 advertisements
→ 80%+ margins

If you want to learn more about how I built this, you can join my newsletter:

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→ GO HERE: https://fos.now/li-book-now

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Founder & CEO

Founder OS helps you build a predictable lead engine with organic content & make $1M+ online.

33 habits that (quietly) changed my life forever: 

1. Protect The First 4 Hours Of The Day

Your morning hours are sacred. Guard them like your life depends on it.

2. Write Before The World Wakes

Clarity comes in silence. Write first, react later.

3. Break A Sweat Daily, Energy Is Everything

Movement isn't optional. It's the foundation of everything.

4. Watch The Sunrise Often

Nature resets your nervous system better than any app.

5. Say "No" With Love

Protect your time without burning bridges.

6. Ask: "What's The One Domino That Knocks The Rest?"

Focus beats volume every single time.

7. Operate From Systems, Not Moods

Systems eliminate the need for motivation.

8. Journal My Fears Until They Dissolve

Writing exposes irrational thoughts.

9. Automate One Task Every Week

Compound small automations to leverage.

10. Build Once, Distribute Forever

Create assets that work while you sleep.

11. Re-Read My 10 Year Vision Weekly

Clarity fades without repetition.

12. Ask "Who Not How" Every Day

Delegation beats doing it yourself.

13. Leave One Day Plan-Free

Spontaneity feeds creativity.

14. Call My Parents Unprompted

Connection matters more than productivity.

15. Give Credit Publicly, Often

Generosity compounds faster than hoarding.

16. Build A Brand I Actually Admire

Don't build what you think will work. Build what you respect.

17. Return To Nature Every Week

Disconnect to reconnect.

18. Practice: Slow Is Smooth And Smooth Is Fast

Rush kills quality. Patience wins.

19. End Showers Cold

Discomfort training builds mental resilience.

20. Carry A Pocket Notebook Everywhere

Ideas don't wait for you.

21. Sketch Ideas Instead Of Typing Them

Visual thinking unlocks solutions.

22. Meditate On Impermanence

Everything ends. That makes today matter more.

23. Leave My Phone Outside The Bedroom

You before notifications.

24. Let Go Of One Grudge

Carrying resentment only punishes you.

25. Sing Alone In The Car, Loudly

Joy doesn't require an audience.

26. End The Day With Gratitude

What you focus on expands.

27. Eat Until I'm 80% Full

Discipline at the table creates discipline.

28. Eat The Same Lunch Every Day

Decision fatigue is real. Eliminate unnecessary choices.

29. Invest Automatically Monthly

Wealth is built through systems, not impulses.

30. Edit My Possessions Every 90 Days

Clutter in your space creates clutter in your mind.

31. Block One Full Week Per Quarter Fully Off-Grid

Deep rest creates deep work.

32. Sleep Without An Alarm

Your body knows what it needs.

33. Replace "I Have To" With "I Get To."

Language shapes reality. Choose empowering words.

__

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Matt Gray 

How to set a company strategy you'll actually use:

PURPOSE (Start Here)

1. Our One Sentence Mission

Strip it down until a 10-year-old could repeat it.

If you need a paragraph to explain your mission, you don't understand it yet.

2. Why The World Needs Us

This isn't about you, it's about the problem you're solving.

If the world wouldn't notice you disappeared, dig deeper.

3. What Would Break If We Disappeared

The answer reveals your true purpose.

UNIQUE ADVANTAGE (Your Moat)

4. The "Secret" We Believe That Others Don't

Every successful company operates on a contrarian belief.

5. What Makes Us Hard To Copy

Real competitive advantages take years to build.

If a competitor can replicate it in 90 days, it's not your moat.

6. Core Moat

Is it your brand? Your tech? Your network? Your execution speed?

Name it specifically. Own it completely.

7. Where We're Already Winning Disproportionately

Double down on what's already working before you chase what's not.

8. 10X Better Than Status Quo

Being 10% better doesn't change behavior.

You need to be dramatically superior to make people switch.

THE MARKET (Who You Serve)

9. Who Our Dream Customer Is

"Everyone" is not a strategy.

10. Their Biggest Pain / Unmet Job

What problem would they pay anything to solve?

11. Market We Dominate First

Win a niche beachhead before you try to conquer the world.

STRATEGIC CHOICES (Your Discipline)

12. What We Will ALWAYS Do

These are your non-negotiables.

The principles you'll protect even when it hurts.

13. What We Will NEVER Do

This is harder than it sounds.

Saying no defines your strategy more than saying yes.

14. Our #1 Priority This Year

Not three priorities. Not five. One.

Everything else is secondary or shouldn't exist.

15. Our Constraint / Bottleneck Right Now

What's actually holding you back?

Name it specifically or you'll never fix it.

16. How We'll Remove That Bottleneck

Talk is cheap. What's the actual plan?

EXECUTION SYSTEM (Making It Real)

17. Quarterly Targets (3 Max)

Pick three metrics that matter most.

Everything else is noise.

18. Monthly Milestones

Break quarters into months so you can adjust faster.

19. Who Owns Each Metric

One owner per metric. No committees.

STRATEGIC STORY (Your Narrative)

20. The Narrative We Want Team / Customers To Repeat

What do you want people saying about you when you're not around?

That's your strategic story.

21. Sticky Phrase For This Strategy

Mine is "We win because ______"

If you can't fill in that blank in five words, you're not clear yet.

The best strategy isn't the most sophisticated one.

It's the one your team can remember and execute on Monday morning.

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Notebooks are the new operating systems.

I know that sounds surprising, but hear me out.

Most founders have 17 half-filled notebooks scattered across their desk, car, and backpack.

Each one started with good intentions. Each one abandoned by week two.

Last year, I threw out every productivity app and went back to paper.

I built what I call "The Daily OS" a one-page framework that actually works.

Here's how to organize a notebook you'll actually use:

1. Theme Of The Day 

Start every day by naming what it's about.

Not a to-do list. An intention.

"Today is about deep creative work."
"Today is about strategic planning."
"Today is about connecting with my team."

This single sentence filters every decision you make.

2. Top 7 Priorities

Not 20 tasks. 
Not 50 emails. 
Seven priorities.

If you can't pick seven, you don't have clarity yet.

List them by impact, not urgency.

3. Meetings / Leverage Calls 

Here's the filter: Does this meeting create leverage or consume time?

If it doesn't compound, decline it or delegate it.

Only write down the calls that actually move needles.

4. Notes / Insights

Throughout the day, capture insights immediately.

Don't trust your memory. 

Write it down in the moment.

This section becomes your second brain.

5. The Scoreboard

Track three metrics daily:

• Gratitude (1 thing you're grateful for)
• Energy (1-10 scale, where 10 = you feel unbelievable)
• Revenue (1-10 scale, where 10 = you made significant progress)

Numbers don't lie. 

This scoreboard reveals patterns you'd otherwise miss.

6. End Of Day Reflection

Ask yourself 3 questions every evening:

What worked?
What didn't?
What will I accomplish tomorrow?

This 2-minute practice compounds into massive clarity over time.

The entire system fits on one page.

No apps. 
No syncing. 
No notifications.

Just a notebook and a pen.

Why does this work when digital tools fail?

• Because writing activates your brain differently than typing
• Because paper doesn't have notifications competing for your attention
• Because you can't optimize what you don't track, and this forces you to track what matters

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I'm finishing 2025 with less.

Not more goals. 
Not more hustle. 
Not more complexity.

Less.

Founders usually enter a new year by adding more projects, more meetings, more commitments.

Then they wonder why they're overwhelmed by March.

I spent the last week doing the opposite.

Deleting everything that doesn't move the needle.

Here's what I'm ruthlessly removing before 2026:

1. Instagram Before 9am

Your brain's sharpest in the morning, don't waste it scrolling.

I used to grab my phone before my feet hit the floor. 

Now I protect those first hours like they're sacred. 

Because they are.

2. Meetings That Don't Move The Needle

If it doesn't produce revenue, a decision, or a deliverable, cancel it.

I audited my calendar last week. 

Half my meetings existed just to "stay connected." Those are gone.

3. Software You're Not Actually Using

Check your subscriptions, cancel anything you haven't opened in 30 days.

I found $847/month in tools I forgot I was paying for. That's over $10,000 a year on digital clutter.

4. Your Lowest-Paying Client

They take 60% of your time for 10% of your revenue.

You know exactly who I'm talking about. 

Fire them. 

Your business will thank you.

5. Slack Notifications After 6pm

Your team will survive; you need to recharge.

I turned off after-hours notifications six months ago. 

Not a single emergency. 

Plenty of sanity gained.

6. The Project You Haven't Touched In 3 Months

It's not "on hold", it's dead.

Archive it. Stop pretending you'll get back to it. 

That mental weight is costing you more than you realize.

7. Coffee Meetings With No Agenda

"Pick your brain" equals wasting your time.

If someone can't send a clear agenda beforehand, they don't respect your calendar enough to deserve a spot on it.

8. Your 47-Item To-Do List

Write down 3 things that actually matter, do those.

Long to-do lists are productivity theater. 

They make you feel busy while keeping you from what's important.

9. The Need For Perfection

Ship the draft you've been sitting on for 2 weeks.

Done beats perfect every single time. 

Perfectionism isn't excellence, it's fear wearing a fancy mask.

10. Saying "Let Me Think About It"

You already know, decide now.

Indecision is a decision to stay stuck. 

Trust your gut and move forward.

Every "yes" to something meaningless is a "no" to something that could transform your business.

I'm entering 2026 lighter.

Fewer commitments. 
Fewer distractions. 
Fewer things competing for my attention.

More focus. 
More energy. 
More impact.

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10 Things To Delete Before 2026

10 phrases every founder should read:

1. "Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash is reality."

2. "Your business should work without you, or it's not a business—it's a job."

3. "Systems run the business. People run the systems."

4. "Charge what you're worth, then double it."

5. "Problems are just undiscovered profit centers."

6. "You don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate."

7. "Focus is saying no to 1,000 good ideas."

8. "Your network is your net worth, but only if you give before you receive."

9. "Perfectionism is procrastination in disguise."

10. "The market doesn't care about your feelings."

__

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10 Phrases Every Founder Should Read

I read 112 books in a year, here's which ones you should read:

1. Deep Work By Cal Newport

In a world of constant distractions, focus is a priceless asset.

Newport teaches you:

• The value of deep vs shallow work
• How to avoid the trap of 'busyness' 
• How to create rituals and routines for focus

Conquer distractions with this book.

2. Zero To One By Peter Thiel And Blake Masters

This book redefines the startup landscape.

You'll learn to:

• Challenge conventional business thinking
• Grasp the philosophy of true innovation
• Learn how to build a monopoly 

Don't iterate.

Innovate.

3. Scaling Up By Verne Harnish

Grow your business smartly with Harnish's insights.

He talks about:

• Recognizing the barriers to scaling up
• Mastering the four major decisions in business
• Implementing actionable tools and techniques 

Scale with strategy, not just size.

4. The Power Of Now By Eckhart Tolle

Awaken your mind to the present moment.

Tolle guides you through:

• Achieving personal liberation 
• The profound concept of the 'Present Moment'
• Recognizing patterns of self-created suffering

Live now. 

Everything else is a dream.

5. Shoe Dog By Phil Knight

Learn about Nike's extraordinary journey.

Knight shares:

• The evolution of a global brand 
• The raw hustle of entrepreneurship
• The risks and rewards of his venture

Every empire starts with a single step.

This book makes this clear.

6. Built To Last By Jim Collins And Jerry I. Porras

Discover what makes visionary companies thrive.

Collins and Porras reveal:

• Timeless management principles
• The habits of successful companies
• The 'Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress' concept

7. Rework By Jason Fried And David Heinemeier Hansson

Redefine the way you perceive business.

Fried and Hansson advocate:

• Challenging the norms of the corporate world
• Embracing a simpler way of working
• Less is more

Revamp your strategy. 

Less fuss, more clarity.

8. The Lean Machine By Dantar Oosterwal

Embark on a journey of streamlined processes.

Oosterwal presents:

• Harley-Davidson's remarkable transformation 
• How operational excellence can fuel success 
• The guiding principles of lean thinking 

Efficiency is precision.

9. The CEO Within 

Recognize and unleash the inner leader in you.

Dive into:

• Building trust and fostering team unity 
• Harnessing innate leadership qualities 
• Navigating corporate politics with finesse 

You can be the leader you've been looking for.

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How to monetize your expertise (without selling your soul):

Most experts are broke.

They have incredible knowledge but no system to monetize it.

Knowledge without systems is just expensive hobbies.

1. My Expertise Transformation Story

2017: Built my first system, hit $5,000/month

2021: Systemized everything, reached $150,000/month 

2024: Founder OS generates $464,000/month

Same expertise. Different systems.

2. The $100K/Month Math

$100,000 per month breaks down to:

• $3,333 per day
• 28 customers at $3,571 each
• 10 customers at $10,000 each
• 5 customers at $20,000 each

The higher your price, the fewer customers you need.

3. The Attract → Nurture → Monetize Formula

Most experts skip straight to monetization.

Big mistake.

My 3-step system:

• Attract strangers with valuable content
• Nurture them into believers
• Monetize believers into customers

Each step must be systematic, not random.

Step 1: The Expertise Amplification System

Your expertise is worthless if nobody knows about it.

My content strategy:

• Tell case studies (proof of expertise)
• Give contrarian takes (attention grabbers)
• Break down processes (step-by-step value)
• Share frameworks (your intellectual property)

Goal: Position yourself as THE authority in your niche.

Step 2: The Trust Acceleration Engine

Most experts think content is enough.

It's not.

You need a systematic nurture process:

Week 1: Welcome + immediate value delivery 
Week 2: Personal story + credibility building
Week 3: Case study + social proof 
Week 4: Soft introduction to your offers

Trust before transactions. Always.

Step 3: The High-Value Monetization Model

Here's where most experts mess up:

They sell their time, not their systems.

Wrong: $200/hour consulting 

Right: $20,000 systematic transformation

Scale your expertise, not your hours.

4. The Expertise Authority Stack

Layer 1: Valuable free content (builds awareness) 

Layer 2: Lead magnets (captures emails) 

Layer 3: Email sequences (builds trust)

Layer 4: Case studies (proves results) 

Layer 5: Premium offers (monetizes expertise)

Each layer feeds the next.

5. The Expertise Scaling System

Month 1-3: Document your methodology 

Month 4-6: Test with 5 pilot customers

Month 7-9: Systematize delivery process

Month 10-12: Build content machine 

Year 2: Scale to $100K/month

Systems first. Scale second.

Remember, your expertise is worth millions.

But only if you systematize it.

Most experts die with their knowledge.

Smart experts build systems that scale their impact.

Don't take your expertise to the grave.

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Founders are terrified AI will replace them.

I had the opposite realization.

I built an AI team that works while I sleep.

Here's how I built my AI team:

Step 1: Upload Your Universe

Feed it everything that makes you, you.

PDFs, books, posts, transcripts, brand guidelines, every piece of content that represents your voice and vision.

This becomes its knowledge base.

The more context you give it, the better it thinks like you.

Step 2: Train On Your Tone

Teach it to write like you. Think like you.

Upload examples of your best writing and tell it: "This is how I communicate."

The AI learns your patterns, your voice, your style.

Now it can draft emails that sound exactly like you wrote them.

Step 3: Connect Your Stack

Integrate it with the tools you already use:

• Slack → Daily syncs
• Notion → Task boards
• Figma → Visual output
• Google Drive → Summaries

Your AI team now lives inside your workflow, not outside it.

Step 4: Assign Roles

I created four distinct AI assistants:

• Writer GPT - drafts content in my voice
• Designer GPT - creates visual assets
• Analyst GPT - pulls insights from data
• Chief of Staff GPT - manages my calendar and priorities

Each one has a specific job. 

Each one operates independently.

Step 5: Chain Them Together

Here's where it gets powerful:

These AI assistants update dashboards, draft reports, and sync information without me.

They work while I sleep.

They hand off tasks to each other like a real team.

Step 6: Test + Tune

Feedback loops = faster learning.

The more you correct and refine, the smarter the system gets.

I spend 30 minutes per week tuning my AI team.

They save me 20+ hours per week in return.

You now run a company with 4 AI employees.

Founders are still treating AI like a search engine.

They ask it one-off questions and wonder why it's not useful.

But AI becomes transformative when you treat it like a team member.

Assign it roles. 
Give it context. 
Connect it to your systems.

That's when magic happens.

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I spent 3 years working 16-hour days and almost broke myself.

Now I have built successful companies while maintaining work-life balance.

The difference isn't more effort. 

It's systems.

Your hustle got you to $20K per month, but it won't get you to $100K. 

I learned this lesson the hard way so you don't have to.

Here's what transformed everything for me:

1. Content Creation Systems

The right systems turn strangers into buyers automatically. 

Not through endless hustling, but through systematized content that works while you sleep.

2. Team Operating Systems

Most founders stay trapped because they can't remove themselves from operations. 

Systems let you build teams that operate beautifully without your constant involvement.

3. Offer Scaling Systems

Breaking free from the 1:1 model requires systematic approaches to scale what you offer. 

This is how you create exponential rather than linear growth.

4. Consistency Over Hustle

Money loves systems, but wealth loves consistency. 

The entrepreneurs who build real wealth aren't working 80-hour weeks – they're consistently applying systems that compound over time.

5. Freedom Through Design

Poverty loves hustle. It keeps you spinning your wheels. 

True freedom comes through intentionally designed systems that eliminate the need for constant grinding.

Stop building your business like it's 1995. 

The old approach of outworking everyone else is the slowest path to growth.

Your freedom is literally one system away.

__

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Your Hustle Got You To 20K Per Month

I analyzed 10,000 sales calls and discovered something shocking.

The highest-converting calls had zero pitching.

Just stories.

Here's the systemized approach I use to sell without selling:

1. The Discovery

Stories activate mirror neurons in your brain. 

When I tell you about my transformation, you don't just hear it, you experience it. 

They literally feel your results.

2. The 4-Part Story Architecture

Every conversion story needs these elements:

Catalyst → (what changed)
Contrast → (before vs after)
Conflict → (what you overcame)
Conquest → (where you are now)

Example: "I was working 80-hour weeks, burned out and barely profitable. 

Then I discovered that 97% of success is systems. 

This insight changed everything, but I had to systematize every aspect of my business first. 

Now I work 4 hours per day while helping 14 million founders achieve freedom."

The gap between before and after = their desired transformation.

3. The Advanced Technique

Start story A, interrupt with story B, finish story B, then complete story A.

This creates hypnotic attention because the brain craves closure.

4. The Psychology Loop

Stories create emotion.

Emotion creates logic.

Logic creates action.

When you master this, you're not selling products - you're selling transformations.

The founder experience is everything. 

When founders hear your story, they see their future.

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How I Use My Story To Sell

Steve Jobs once said:

"Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do."

11 more golden nuggets on decision-making from the founder of the first trillion-dollar company:

1. Efficiency

Jobs believed in making decisions fast, valuing efficiency over collaboration.

“When you innovate, you make mistakes. It's best to admit them quickly and get on with improving other innovations.”

2. Clear priorities

Knowing what matters most to you makes all decision-making far easier. 

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

3. Trusting intuition

Don't fear the unknown.

"You can't connect dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. 
 
You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. 

4. Cutting corners

Jobs knew excellence was a habit.

"When you're a carpenter making a chest of drawers, you're not going to use plywood on the back, even though nobody will see it. 

5. Get rid of your ego

We often cling to a viewpoint in fear of admitting we were wrong. But shedding your ego leads to the most growth.

“I’ll admit that I’m wrong a lot. It doesn’t really matter to me. What matters to me is that we do the right thing.”

6. First principles

Never blindly accept anything you're told. Always ask why.

The answer you invariably get is ‘That’s just the way it’s done.’ 

Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks about things very deeply in business. 

7. The shortness of life

Whenever you're scared to take a big leap, recall death.

"Remembering that you're going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. 

8. Simplicity

In a world of noise and distractions, the ability to concentrate on a few things that truly matter is a huge advantage.

One of my mantras is focus and simplicity. "Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple."

9. The power of collaboration

Interdependence, not independence, is key to success.

My business model is The Beatles: They were four guys who kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. 

And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.

10. Just do you

It's easy for your dreams to be muted by the armchair criticism of others. 

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life and don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your inner voice.

11. The Genius Effect

Sometimes, if you have unwavering conviction and no one's on your side, persist. You might just change the world.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. 

__

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Most people are stuck in the same place they were 5 years ago.

Same habits. 
Same routines. 
Same results.

Then they wonder why nothing changes.

I used to be one of them.

So here's how to get ahead of 99% of people:

1. Lifestyle: Morning Routine

Your morning makes or breaks your entire day.

Take control by shutting out inputs, no emails, texts, or social media first thing. Kickstart your body with exercise before your mind gets cluttered. 

Schedule deep work when your energy peaks, not when meetings demand it.

Your morning isn't negotiable. Protect it like your business depends on it, because it does.

2. Lifestyle: Evening Routine

A supercharged morning starts the night before.

Write down your 5 needle-moving tasks for tomorrow so you wake up with clarity, not confusion. 

Ease into sleep with reading or meditation instead of scrolling.

Sleep is the ultimate performance enhancer. Treat it that way.

3. Upskilling: Storytelling

Sales, hiring, marketing, it's all storytelling.

There's no soft skill that'll benefit you more.  

Master these and you'll close more deals, attract better talent, and build stronger brands.

Facts tell, but stories sell.

4. Upskilling: Negotiation

The crux of negotiation is empathy and understanding.

By learning negotiation, you become a better listener, communicator, and persuader. 

Everything is a negotiation. Learn the game.

5. Upskilling: Learning to Learn

To succeed at something fast, you'll have to constantly pick up skills.

That's why you need a robust system for learning: learn by doing, with a purpose, and with accountability. 

Speed of learning determines speed of earning.

6. Monetization: Passion

To find what'll make you wealthy without sacrificing your sanity, you need to introspect.

What are you good at? 
What do you love to do? 
What does the world need? 

Passion without profit is a hobby. Profit without passion is prison.

7. Monetization: Sales

Sales is 20% selling and 80% prospecting.

Get good at finding and feeding the starving crowd, and you'll never worry about revenue again.

8. Monetization: Offer

If sales are full of friction, you're doing it wrong.

Great offers sell themselves. List out perceived roadblocks, identify an outcome, then package solutions to roadblocks into an offer. 

Don't sell a product, sell a transformation that eliminates their pain and delivers their dream.

__

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How To Get Ahead Of 99% Of People

I stopped treating Monday like the hardest day and started treating it like my competitive advantage.

While everyone else is dragging through Monday morning fog, I'm three steps ahead.

Not because I'm more disciplined, but because I have a system.

I call it the "Weekly Reboot Template".

So here's how to make Monday the best day of your week:

1. Reset Your Energy

Morning Rule: Sunlight + Silence + Sweat before phone.

No exceptions.

Get outside for 10 minutes. 

Sit in silence for 5. 

Move your body before you check a single notification.

This one habit sets the tone for your entire week.

2. Set The Intention

Answer two questions:

• This week I want to feel...
• My single word for the week...

Not goals. 
Not tasks. 
Feelings and focus.

"This week I want to feel productive and present."

"My word is 'clarity.'"

Everything you do filters through this lens.

3. Top 3 Priorities (In Order)

Not 10 priorities. Not 20 tasks. Three.

Write them in order of impact.

If you only accomplish these three things this week, would you consider it successful?

If no, rewrite them.

4. Delete What Doesn't Matter

Two questions:

• I'm saying "no" to...
• I'll automate or delegate...

Subtraction creates space for what actually moves needles.

Name what you're eliminating before you start adding.

5. Schedule Your Power Blocks

Block your calendar in three categories:

• Meetings
• Deep work
• Creative play

Don't hope you'll find time. 

Design time.

Protect your deep work blocks like they're investor meetings.

6. Design Your Environment

Two questions:

Where will I work from today?
What can I remove from my space?

Environment shapes behavior.

A cluttered space creates a cluttered mind.

Remove distractions before you need willpower to resist them.

7. End With Gratitude

Close your Monday with two reflections:

• One thing I'm proud of...
• One way I'll reward myself tonight...

Gratitude compounds momentum.

Celebrate the win before chasing the next one.

This entire template takes 15 minutes on Monday morning.

But it saves you 10+ hours of wasted time, scattered focus, and decision fatigue throughout the week.

Monday isn't the problem.

Starting Monday without a system is the problem.

I've used this exact template for the past year.

Every single Monday.

And Mondays went from my most dreaded day to my most productive day.

__

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Most founders are addicted to being needed.

The traditional business playbook says "hustle harder" and "be indispensable."

But I built a successful business while prioritizing time freedom.

Here's how to build a business that runs without you:

1. AED Implementation 

This is the exact system I use to remove myself from operations:

• AUTOMATE what's repetitive
• ELIMINATE what's unnecessary
• DELEGATE what's not in your zone of genius

When something lands on your plate, run it through this filter immediately.

Your most valuable resource isn't money, it's your attention.

2. Document Everything 

If you do it twice, write it down.

Write down:

• Screenshots or videos
• Tips and best practices
• Step-by-step instructions
• Common mistakes to avoid

Thousands of hours can be saved with a single document.

3. Your Team = Your Leverage

Most founders hire too late, too cheap, and without systems.

Here's your first three game-changing hires:

• Executive Assistant (buys back 20+ hours weekly)
• Content Manager (builds your audience while you sleep)
• Operations Manager (runs your systems when you're gone)

Hire for systems, not tasks.

The ROI on great people with great systems is infinite.

4. Freedom Architecture 

Design businesses around your ideal lifestyle rather than sacrificing life for business growth. 

• Control WHEN you work (time autonomy)
• Choose WHERE you live (location freedom)
• Decide WHO you serve (customer selection)
• Own WHAT you create (intellectual property)

Each "W" you surrender costs you.

This isn't just a business. It's about owning your life.

5. Strategic Deep Work 

Dedicate the first few hours of your day to deep, focused work on your needle-moving work.

No phone, no social media, no distractions.

This is when your mind is freshest and most creative.

Protect this time at all costs.

__

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Here's How To Build A Business 

9 ways to rewire your brain (based on science):

1. Cold Therapy  

Exposure to cold increases norepinephrine levels by up to 500%.

Norepinephrine enables brain plasticity and cell metabolism.

It can help you enhance:

• Mood
• Focus
• Attention
• Vigilance

A 3-minute cold shower provides huge returns.

2. Practice Breathwork 

Go through guided exercise on: 

• Diaphragmatic breathing 
• Coherent breathing 
• 4-7-8 breathing 

Find the techniques that help you: 

• Reduce stress 
• Improve mood 
• Battle anxiety

3. HIIT Workouts 

Exercise supports the brain on multiple levels.

• Increases gray matter
• Improves blood flow to the brain
• Regulates neurotransmitter levels
• Activates molecules that drive cellular adaptation

HIIT exercises maximize value/time.

4. Improve Your Sleep 

Sleep is essential for learning and memory.

Invest in your sleep by: 

• Using mouth tape 
• Buying blackout curtains 
• Getting a thermoregulated mattress
• Getting 0 screen time 2 hours before bed

5. Meditation 

Chronic stress reduces brain activity.

Use meditation to combat stress: 

• Maintain focus 
• Build emotional control 
• Center yourself during hectic times 

Building a consistent meditation practice will do wonders for your brain.

6. Learn Something New

The action of learning is plasticity.

When you learn something new, your brain physically changes.

• Pick up a new instrument 
• Study a foreign language 
• Learn a new skill

Learning something new every day keeps different parts of your brain active.

7. Eat Clean

A diet high in saturated fats and refined sugars:

• Impairs memory
• Raises stress levels
• Reduces learning capacity

But a diet with complex carbs and healthy fats:

• Improves mood
• Enhances memory
• Supports brain functioning

8. Ditch Positive Affirmations 

Affirmations do nothing to change our brains.

But asking ourselves questions does. 

• Who do I want to be? 
• What do I need to achieve to be that person? 

The process of searching for answers rewires our brain to think in a "can-do" manner.

9. Build Positive Habits 

40% of our daily actions are unconscious habits.

Employ the Habit Loop to build positive habits and cut negative ones. 

• Identify your cues 
• Control your cravings 
• Tailor your responses 
• Maximize your rewards

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Most founders burn out by Sunday night.

I used to be one of them.

I'd work all week, then fill my weekends with more work and by Monday morning, I felt more exhausted than I did on Friday.

Here's how to plan your weekend effectively:

1. Theme

What do I want to feel?

Start here, not with a to-do list.

Peace? 
Aliveness? 
Connection? 

Name the feeling first. Everything else follows from this.

2. Intention

This weekend is about...

Fill in the blank with one sentence.

"This weekend is about deep rest."
"This weekend is about creative exploration."
"This weekend is about quality time with family."

One intention. That's it.

3. Energy Reset

What will recharge me the most?

Not what you think you should do, what actually fills your tank.

For me, it's nature, movement, and solitude.

For you, it might be completely different.

4. One Domino

The one thing that makes everything easier.

What's the single action that would make the rest of your weekend flow?

Meal prep? 
A tough conversation? 
Organizing your workspace?

Do this first. 

Everything else becomes unnecessary or easier.

5. No-List

What will I do not do this weekend?

This is more important than your to-do list.

No email. 
No social media before noon. 
No saying yes to obligations that drain you.

Protect your weekend like you protect your bank account.

6. Adventure

One New Experience.

Create a story worth telling on Monday.

It doesn't have to be grand. 

Just something that breaks the pattern.

7. Connection

Who do I want deep time with?

Not surface-level hangouts. Deep, quality time.

Name the person. Schedule it. Protect it.

8. Creation 

One small act of art.

Journal. 
Sketch. 
Cook something new. 
Build something with your hands.

Creation is medicine for the soul.

9. Body

How will I move my body?

Hike, lift, swim, stretch, your body needs movement to process the week.

10. Mind

What am I reading or listening to?

Feed your mind something nourishing, not just entertaining.

11. Systems Reset

What do I want organized by Monday?

Clean workspace. 
Meal prep done. 
Calendar reviewed.

Set yourself up to win the week.

12. Sunday Reset

Three Questions:

What worked last week?
What drained me last week?
What is my intention this week?

The difference between founders who scale and founders who burn out?

They design their weekends intentionally instead of letting them happen accidentally.

__

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How to remove yourself from operations (and scale 10x faster):

1. Track Your Time on 15-Minute Intervals 

Free up time to focus on high-impact work. 

To track your tasks: 

• Use a timer 
• Review the list 
• Identify tasks to outsource 

2. Mark Tasks That Can Be Delegated

Delegating frees up time and boosts productivity.

Ask yourself:

• Do I like doing this?
• Is it repeatable?
• Can it be delegated?

3. Value Your Time at $2k/Hour

Setting a high hourly rate will make it easier to filter tasks to outsource.

Delegate tasks that are valued lower than this hourly rate.

4. Hire a VA to Scale Your Workflow

Delegate tasks to VAs who can do them 80% as well as you.

They won't have: 

• Efficiency
• Full context
• Years of experience

And they don't need to.

5. The Quality VA Criteria

During your search, filter for: 

• $10k+ earned
• High approval rating
• Native English speaker
• Great training services

Your VA must meet these requirements to be a solid hire.

6. Onboard Your VA

Effective communication = smooth operations.

Onboard your VA to discuss:

• How often you meet
• How you communicate (Slack, Asana etc...)
• How they should track and update you on completed tasks

Set expectations early to minimize unexpected challenges.

7. Create Systems for Each Task

Your VA won't know the full context of what they're working on and why.

Create documents and videos for each step:

• Create how-to's
• Draft best practices
• Record Loom videos

Clear and concise systems will 10x your VAs output quality.

8. Review Systems and Performance Weekly

With your VA, learn to track unexpected challenges that you're not prepared for.

• Create a new process
• Create new templates
• Change an existing process

Build these with your VA to optimize your working relationship with your VA.

9. Spend Quality 1-1 Time

Working together 1-1 for up to a month to help them learn the ropes.

• Meet often
• Give detailed and direct feedback
• Listen to their suggestions

Experienced VAs can 10x the efficiency of your processes.

__

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How To Remove Yourself From Operations

Tony Robbins once said:

"Clarity is power. The more clear you are about exactly what it is you want, the more your brain knows how to get there."

Here’s how to cut the noise and find your true clarity:

1. Clarity Helps You Understand What Truly Matters To You

Without clarity, you may spend years pursuing goals that don't matter to you, leading to unfulfillment.

But how do you find clarity in a world full of distractions?

The answer lies in the concept of Ikigai.

2. Ikigai Is A Japanese Word That Translates To "Reason For Being"

It's the intersection of four elements:

• What you love
• What you're good at
• What the world needs
• What you can be paid for

It's a powerful framework for discovering your reason for being, your "why."

3. Ikigai Is The First Step On The Journey To Clarity

It's the compass that guides you towards work that aligns with your values.

When you have a clear Ikigai, you can make better decisions and take action toward creating the life you want.

4. Finding Your Ikigai:

• Identify the four elements of Ikigai
• Journal daily about your passion and your 10-year vision
• Reflect on what gets you out of bed in the morning and fills you with energy and excitement

Discovering your Ikigai is a process of self-exploration.

5. Implement These 5 Golden Rules Of Ikigai

• Give thanks
• Follow your Ikigai
• Reconnect with nature
• Surround yourself with positivity
• Take it slow and enjoy the journey

6. Align Your Life & Work With It

This is where the real magic happens.

When you pursue what brings you joy and aligns with your values, your energy becomes electric.

Clarity fuels you to take massive action towards your goals.

When I aligned my life and work with my Ikigai, everything changed.

My content resonated deeply with my audience, and my reach exploded:

• Twitter grew to 214K
• LinkedIn grew to 266K
• Newsletter subscribers grew to 68K 

Clarity is the rocket fuel that propels you.

7. Use Your Ikigai As A Roadmap For Designing A Life You Love

• Build a team that shares your values
• Craft a business that supports your dreams
• Create content that lights you up and inspires others

With clarity as your guide, you can architect a life that truly serves you.

Clarity is not a one-time destination but a lifelong journey of growth & self-discovery.

Don't buy into the myth that success requires sacrificing your health and happiness.

You can have it all: a wildly profitable business and a deeply fulfilling life. 

Unlock your potential, and master the art of working when, where, and how you choose.

Clarity is the key.

__

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The best habit you can develop is building systems.

 Systems are your clone.

They encode your decisions. 
They scale your expertise. 
They multiply your time.

These 3 systems transformed my business from needing me to running without me:

1. Decision Systems = Your Brain in a Doc

When this happens, do that.

If client asks X, respond with Y. 

Your judgment becomes their execution.

I documented every decision pattern I was making repeatedly. 

Client onboarding. 
Pricing negotiations. 
Scope changes. 
Refund requests.

Now my team acts like me - even when I'm not there.

2. Content Systems = Your Voice on Repeat

Bank 60 ideas in advance. 
Batch create in a few hours. 
Post 7 days without thinking.

I stopped creating content daily and started creating content strategically.

One focused session gives me weeks of consistent output. 

My brand grows while I sleep.

3. Delivery Systems = Excellence on Autopilot

Client onboarding? Templated. 
Weekly check-ins? Scheduled. 
Results delivery? Systematized.

Every touchpoint in my client experience runs on rails. Consistency without chaos. Quality without constant oversight.

I installed these systems over 6 months.

Now my business runs while I travel 47 countries. 

Same revenue. 
Zero daily fires.

It feels slow at first.

Documenting processes takes time. 
Creating templates requires thought. 

Building SOPs feels like busy work when you could be "doing the real work."

But that's exactly backwards.

The "real work" is building the machine that does the work.

Everything else is just trading hours for dollars with a fancy title.

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The Best Habit You can Develop

When I started sharing my exact client acquisition systems openly, something unexpected happened.

My organic conversion rate jumped to 3x the industry average.

Last month, I published my complete "no-ads client system" breakdown, and the response was incredible. 

Founders started implementing these exact steps and getting real results.

Here's what I learned about transparent business building:

1. Reverse Engineering Works 

When you map your best clients' journeys backward, you find the exact content that converted them. 

It's like having a blueprint for success.

2. Value Ladders Build Trust 

Create a 7-step progression from awareness to conversion. 

Each piece of content serves a specific purpose in the journey.

3. Platform Depth Beats Width 

Going deep on 3 platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube) created exponential results. 

Focus over fragmentation wins every time.

4. Engagement Creates Compound Growth 

50 meaningful comments daily built relationships that became clients. 

It's not about broadcasting - it's about connecting.

5. Content Reciprocity Multiplies Reach 

When you feature other experts, they share it with their audience. 

Your content becomes a collaboration, not a competition.

6. Systems Beat Sporadic Effort 

2 hours of daily engagement following a specific framework outperformed random posting. 

Consistency with strategy is the ultimate advantage.

7. Transparency Accelerates Everything 

Sharing your actual numbers, frameworks, and failures builds trust faster than any sales copy. 

People buy from people they believe in.

This isn't just about getting clients without ads.

It's about creating a business that builds trust through radical transparency and systematic value delivery.

The future belongs to founders who aren't afraid to share their playbooks openly.

—

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Russ Hill's LinkedIn Performance

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