If your business can’t run without you, you don’t own the company — it owns you.You’re rich — but you’re still broke.Not in money. In time, peace, and freedom.Revenue is growing. Headcount is up. But the right leaders are scarce, operations are uneven, and you’re still the brain that keeps the machine alive. One disruption can wipe out momentum. One absence can stall production, decisions, or cash.You’ve built success — yet you’re still trapped inside it.Cash flow surges, then shrinks.Execution is inconsistent.You’re reacting more than leading.Inflation, tariffs, staffing, compliance — external forces squeeze harder every quarter. And while the business expands, your life shrinks.Date nights look like drive-by conversations. Weekends get swallowed by backlog. Golf clubs collect dust.That’s what it means to be rich — but still broke.And here’s the truth most leaders won’t say out loud:More sales won’t fix this.Growth is not the cure — it’s the amplifier of every structural weakness you haven’t addressed.That’s where Structure • Leadership • Flow goes to work.No fluff. No theory. A business operating system installed into the real-world guts of your company.• Structure — Roles, systems, and performance expectations that eliminate chaos and make profit repeatable• Leadership — Capability, accountability, and decision power that doesn’t collapse when you’re gone• Flow — Smooth operations, clean communication, and cash you can count on month after monthThis framework turns a founder-dependent operation into a self-running, profit-producing company.Built on Fortune 500 discipline — right-sized for established small and mid-market businesses ($200K–$21M revenue | 5–100 employees) across B2B services, B2C services, and small manufacturing.If you’re working harder with no freedom to show for it, you don’t have a revenue problem.You have a system problem — and it’s fixable.Book a Strategy Session                👇https://calendly.com/timewithfran/vip_strategy_session

What happens when you learn that what you think is “helping” your team is actually creating helplessness?

You deny it.

You don’t know how to act differently.

Then you find your resolve.

Early in my career as a production supervisor, I was taught one rule: be there for your team.

Stay on the floor. Get your hands in what the operators do.

Solve problems fast.

Answer every question.

So I did. And I was proud of it.

Years later, during a team session, I got feedback that stunned me:

“We need Frances to stop solving everything for us so we can build our own judgment.”

It felt like a punch.

I thought I was helping.

Instead, I had trained people to hand their problems to me.

If they brought me an issue, I solved it. Every time.

Slowly, they stopped thinking on their own.

And when they weren’t energized about a project, it became easier to bring it to me.

My speed became their crutch.

The shift happened when I rebuilt how we worked through three simple moves:

Structure • Leadership • Flow

Leadership:

I changed my responses.

Questions were met with:
“What have you thought about?”

“What’s your recommendation?”

And I added a 24-hour delay for non-urgent questions.

Structure:

 I built decision guides and walked the team through real scenarios.
 They now had tools, not me, to lean on.

Flow:

 We created a weekly “Get Unstuck” hour for deeper issues.

No more constant access.
The shift in four months:
The energy changed.

People thought for themselves.
They used the frameworks.
They acted with confidence.

And the things I feared would slow us down… didn’t.

My “helping time” dropped from 22 hours a week to 6.

The team ran on its own.

My bandwidth was no longer the bottleneck.

The real lesson:

The biggest leadership trap is confusing being responsive with building capability.

Too much help kills judgment.
 
Too much speed kills growth.
 
And both hold a business back.

So here’s the question for you:

Are you helping your team so much that they can’t operate without you?


Book a 30-minute call and get the frameworks that build judgment not dependency.
 
Link is in the comments.



 #strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Frances (Fran) Strickland, MA, SPHR, ICF PCC

About Me:

I help solo-entrepreneurs and the owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to accelerate their profitability, find financial breakthroughs, break free from overwhelm, overcome unpredictable income challenges, and attract more customers.  I work with them to achieve 80% of their results with just 20% of their effort to live out their purpose and the lifestyle they desire.

I do this by helping my clients focus on the critical few strategies that add up to a big impact.  My work always starts with an in depth analysis of your business and understanding of your vision, mission and purpose.

What Sets Me Apart?

- I select and prioritize.  We won't do everything, we do only the things that add up to big results. 
- A proven, standard approach that is flexible and customizable to you and your needs.
- You grow and get better too.  Your personal develop is a part of everything we do.
- I won't work with you if I cannot help you.

Preventing Crises and Capitalizing on Opportunities

There is no one and one.  I show clients how to monitor their progress, to think ahead, and protect their businesses from potential risks and crises.  

I am passionate about supporting you in your journey to success through sustainable profitability growth.

I have more than 30 years business experience and my own entrepreneurial journey that has taught me to continuously learn about new ideas, methods, and strategies that are relevant, and actionable, all tailored to small businesses where there may be challenges with time, cash flow and other resources.

I invite you to schedule a call with me.  Even if you do not sign on for my six-month transformative 
Ignite & Stabilize VIP Pack, I promise there will be something you can gain from the conversation.

Book a Call with Me: https://calendly.com/timewithfran/flash-coffee-chat

Partner to Established SMBs to Regain Control, Predictable Profits, and Their Lives | Fortune 500 Insights Brilliantly Sized for SMBs | Structure • Leadership • Flow | Rich But Broke No More | The Fixer

Growing revenue while capacity shrinks creates a golden cage.

More income shouldn't mean less freedom.

Many business owners celebrate revenue growth, but fail to notice their personal capacity is disappearing faster than income increases.

Capacity means time, people, and systems that let you grow without adding hours to your week.

This “high revenue / low capacity” trap happens when Structure, Leadership, and Flow don’t scale with income, forcing you to work harder for every additional dollar.

Scroll through to identify which capacity drains might be turning your revenue growth into exhaustion instead of wealth.

Is revenue growth costing you the freedom it should be creating?

Start with a 30-minute call.


Find where the pressure is coming from and fix it.

Link is in the comments.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

The High Revenue , Low Capacity trap no one talks about

Her profit per hour jumped from $73 to $164 when she stopped managing energy like it was infinite.

For eight years, Sarah operated on willpower and caffeine, pushing through exhaustion because "entrepreneurs work hard" and rest felt like weakness.

Revenue grew steadily but profit per hour stayed mediocre because exhausted decision-making destroyed efficiency and judgment quality.

How we solved it through Structure, Leadership, Flow:

Structure: Mapped Sarah's natural energy patterns scheduled highest-value strategic work during peak cognitive hours, administrative tasks during low-energy periods.

Leadership: Treated rest as essential business input, not optional preference. Built non-negotiable boundaries around sleep and recovery.

Flow: Replaced constant urgency with predictable work cadence - strategic focus blocks, execution periods, recovery intervals.

The profit impact within 5 months:

Working hours decreased from 58 to 46 weekly but strategic output increased because peak-energy hours were protected for high-value thinking.

Profit per hour jumped from $73 to $164 because well-rested strategic thinking produced higher-value outcomes than exhausted grinding.

The profitability architecture:

Structure aligns work with energy patterns. Leadership treats recovery as investment. Flow creates a sustainable rhythm. Together, they transform finite energy into strategic business assets.

Are you running your business on depleted energy, wondering why results don't match effort? Book a 30-minute call and I'll help you design work structure that leverages energy instead of burning it. Link is in the comments.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Low-value activity compounds into a massive profit drain.

What feels minor today adds up to six figures over the course of a year.

Most owners worry about big expenses while silent busywork bleeds profits through unmeasured inefficiency, 

• Structure failures - information lost, tasks repeated
• Leadership gaps - decisions bottleneck at the top
• Flow breakdowns - work slows, rework multiplies

This “busywork tax” never shows up in financials,  but it quietly destroys profit, capacity, and growth.

Scroll to see our $175 per hour example show where hidden busywork may be costing you thousands every month and how SLF stops the leak.

If profit is leaking through untracked work and effort, it’s time to see it clearly.

Schedule a 30-minute diagnostic conversation you’ll walk away with the top priorities to reclaim profit.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

The Silent Busywork Tax you're paying every month

His team went from reactive firefighting to proactive execution.  
With an average monthly revenue of 23,000 USD, profit margin rose from 31% to 49% in 5 months.

Marcus led nine capable people who worked incredibly hard but spent most energy responding to problems instead of preventing them.

Every week brought new crises that consumed hours of reactive problem-solving, keeping the team perpetually behind despite working more than 50 hours a week.

Profit margins suffered because delivery took longer than estimated when constantly interrupted by emergencies that proper planning would have prevented.

How we solved it through Structure, Leadership, and Flow:

Leadership: We built the capability of anticipation:   
Trained team members to ask "What could go wrong three steps ahead?" 
Established weekly planning sessions where leads identified potential obstacles before they became urgent problems.

Structure: Created early warning systems:
Implemented project checkpoints that revealed issues while correction was still easy and inexpensive. 

Documented common failure patterns so the team could recognize warning signs early.

Flow: Shifted timeline buffers strategically:
 Moved contingency time to front of projects where it enables proactive adjustment instead of end where it just absorbs delays reactively.

The profit outcome in 5 months:
🔥 Emergency rework down 67%
🔥 On-time delivery 88% (up from 52%)
🔥 Margins up from 31% → 49%

The profitability architecture:
Same people. Similar hours.

Different structure. Different leadership. Different flow.
 
Profit per hour tripled because work became proactive, not reactive.
If you have a capable team stuck in firefighting, it isn’t effort.

It’s architecture.


Start with a 30-minute call. You'll walk away knowing exactly where reactive patterns are costing you profit. Link is in the comments.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Robert cut his decision time from 18 hours a week to 4.

Team output rose from 22 finished jobs a week to 36.

This $6M company had 8 people:
Robert was the President, with a CFO, COO, VP of Sales, and 4 technicians doing the core work.

The problem was straightforward:
The techs stopped whenever a choice came up.

They asked the COO or VP Sales, and those leaders took every question to Robert.

◆ Work slowed
◆ Projects backed up
◆ No time for strategy

What changed
◆ Leadership
Robert stopped giving fast answers.

When someone asked, “What should I do?” he said, “Bring options and your best pick.”

◆ Structure
We set clear decision lanes:
Green: You decide
Yellow: Bring options
Red: Robert decides

◆ Flow
The team logged decisions and results in one shared space so learning stayed visible.

The results in 10 weeks
◆ 22 → 36 finished jobs each week
◆ 18 hours → 4 hours of approvals
◆ Profit per employee: $94K → $121.5K

No extra hires.
No software.
No major reorg.
Only clear decision rules and trust.

If decision bottlenecks slowed Robert’s team, they can slow yours too. 

Reach out and let’s talk about how to shift your current challenge.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

When I look back over the last five years, I stopped borrowing systems ... 

and became one.

I left corporate life.  

It felt less like a bold leap and more like exposure.

No role to hide behind.

No structure to borrow.

Just my thinking and the consequences of it.

I knew a lot coming into the fray.

Years of experience. 

Pattern recognition by osmosis.  A good sense for how structure, leadership, and execution affected cash flow and profitability.

What I didn’t yet have was the depth of understanding to be bold.

I tied myself in knots trying to sound smart instead of being clear.  I consumed information endlessly, believing more knowledge would unlock confidence. 

It didn’t.

Information doesn’t transform.

It keeps you anchored to other people’s language, frameworks, and narratives.

Growth today demands something else: second- and third-level understanding. 

The ability to think independently. 

The courage to integrate structure, leadership, and execution flow, not just in the business, but in yourself.

At some point, it landed:  Frances, you’re not in corporate anymore.

You don’t get to borrow the system.

You are the system.

That realization changed everything.

If you’re in a reflective moment, feeling the pull toward a bigger, more coherent version of yourself and your business, let’s have that unlocking conversation.

The link is in the comments section. 

#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Leadership shows before you say a word.  So does your business.

The last time I was this close to a horse was over 25 years ago in the US, in an Arizona ghost town attraction.

But this morning, the horses weren’t props. They were the coaches.

And my time in an equine leadership experience reminded me of something leaders forget:
 
You can’t fake presence.

Not with a horse.

Not with your team.

Not with your business.

Horses follow clear leadership and ignore unclear leadership.
 
There is no negotiation, no debate, no “let me explain.”

One horse, bold, extroverted, boundary-testing, made it obvious:

If your signal is clear, he follows.
 
If it isn’t, he fills the space and takes control.

Your business behaves the same way. 

When clarity slips, confusion grows.

When direction is soft, execution slows.

When presence is ambivalent, performance becomes unpredictable.

This is why Structure • Leadership • Flow is not theory.
 
It’s the operating reality of every SMB.

So here’s your Sunday check-in:

💎 Where is clarity missing?
💎 What boundary needs resetting? 
💎 What decision must be made instead of delayed?
💎 What part of the business is waiting on you — not the market?
💎 What signal will your team read first tomorrow?

Your business already knows who’s leading it.

The only question is whether your presence confirms it.

If you want to stabilize operations and increase profit this quarter using the Structure • Leadership • Flow framework,  let’s talk. 

The link is in the comments section.

 #strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Frances Melvina Strickland 

Partner & Architect for Established SMBs to Regain Control, Predictable Profits, and Their Lives | Fortune 500 Insights Brilliantly Sized for SMBs | Structure • Leadership • Flow | Rich But Broke No More | The Fixer

A woman in a gray plaid coat stands close to a dark brown horse with a pink halter, her hand resting on its neck as the horse leans in, sensing her calm leadership energy.

Tiny choices compound into massive profit erosion. 

What feels insignificant today costs thousands annually.

Business owners obsess over major expenses while countless small daily decisions quietly drain profit margins through accumulated inefficiency and poor judgment.

These micro-decisions feel too minor to scrutinize individually, but their collective impact destroys more profitability than any single large expense on your P&L.

Scroll through to identify which daily decision patterns might be bleeding thousands from your bottom line without appearing anywhere on financial reports.

Are small choices quietly destroying the profits your big decisions are trying to create?

Are you looking to build a team that operates independently, maintaining standards while you work fewer hours and get more done?


Let’s talk. Book a 30-minute complimentary call to solve just one of your situations that has you being a bottleneck and blocking team development. 
Link is in the comments.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

The Profit Leak Hiding in Small Daily Decisions

Misaligned teams waste capacity faster than any external problem.


Most profit leaks stem from Leadership misalignment, different people pulling in different directions, unclear priorities creating conflicting work, and accountability gaps letting critical issues slip through.

This weekly alignment check takes 10 minutes but prevents the expensive chaos that emerges when Leadership isn't synchronized around outcomes, ownership, and execution.

The goal is ensuring your team operates as a coordinated system instead of talented individuals working at cross-purposes and destroying efficiency.

When did you last verify that your team is actually aligned on priorities, ownership, and standards instead of assuming everyone's on the same page?

Start with a 30-minute call. You'll walk away knowing exactly where misalignment is costing you profit. Link is in the comments.


#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

What happens when you realize your business is designed for survival, not wealth?

You stop coping and you rebuild.

Many founders spend years operating with:
● Razor-thin margins
 ● Constant cash pressure
 ● Clients selected out of fear, not fit
 ● Revenue that looks good, but profit that disappears

This is the survival trap.

And survival businesses can’t scale. They can only sustain pain.
The turning point comes when you admit that revenue is irrelevant if margin is dead.

The terrifying decision:

I committed to redesigning my entire business model around profitability instead of survival, which meant not only discontinuing service to several existing customers, but choosing new mandates based on resulting profit. 

How I rebuilt through Structure, Leadership, Flow:

Structure: Created strict criteria where clients must value strategic expertise, pay premium rates, respect boundaries. Minimum $8K projects to ensure margin viability.

Leadership: Built confidence to decline opportunities that met budget needs but violated profitability requirements.

Flow: Required a minimum of 30% engagement deposits and monthly retainers instead of post-delivery payment that created cash volatility.

The transformation within 6 months:

In the first month as I transitioned out of unprofitable work, my revenue dropped  22%.  

But profit increased 47% because remaining clients operated at healthy margins without the drag of low-value work consuming capacity.

Working hours decreased to 50 weekly while income rose because every hour was allocated to properly compensated expertise instead of survival hustle.

The freedom:

Cash flow became predictable instead of crisis management. I could make strategic decisions instead of reactive ones driven by immediate financial pressure.

The lesson:

You can't build wealth from a business designed for survival. 

Breaking the cycle requires courage to redesign your profitability architecture even when survival instinct fights the change.

Are you stuck accepting clients that drain more than they contribute?

This is where profitability begins.  Let’s talk.  Link in comments.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Your revenue will stall if you keep jumping into problems your team should solve.

One founder sat at $1.1M for 18 months. She had a team of seven, but growth froze because she stepped in every time something looked risky.

A client conflict? She handled it.

A project snag? She took over.

A decision with real consequences? She made the call.

The problem wasn’t effort, it was dependency.

When you jump in:
Your team stops developing judgment and confidence.

People learn to wait for direction instead of thinking through options.

Capacity shrinks to the limits of your personal time and attention.

The unlock: Structure → Leadership → Flow

Structure:

Clear guardrails for decisions so the team acts independently without gambling with outcomes.

Leadership:

 Replace rescuing with questions:
 “What have you tried?”
 “What do you recommend?”

You develop strategic thinking instead of compliance.

Flow:

Scheduled reviews to spot-check direction without taking back the steering wheel.

The profitability shift in 9 months:

Operational involvement dropped from 38 hours a week to 24.

Team capacity doubled because decisions no longer bottlenecked at the top.

Revenue jumped from $1.1M to $1.7M.

Profit margin increased from 34% to 46% through efficient execution.

This is what scalable leadership looks like.

You stop being the firefighter.

Your team becomes builders.

Profit stops depending on how many problems you personally touch.

If you're working long hours because you keep stepping into situations your team should handle, it’s costing you scalability and cash.

Book a 30-minute call to build leadership frameworks that drive profitability without dependency. Link is in the comments.


#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

I was invited to speak recently.
 
No topic was assigned, so I did what any strategist does — I listened.

I asked folk from the room what mattered.  What surfaced was relevant, nuanced, and deeply practical:

How do you evolve your voice so your market still hears you?
 
How do you stay relevant across generations without diluting what makes you credible, seasoned, experienced?

That’s the talk I built.

Not soft skills.

Not HR.
 
Not team harmony.

I prepared content on clarity over charm, relevance as ageless, perception as reality, and evolution as the proof of excellence.

The kind of insight leaders need when legacy is strong but market speed is faster.

Here’s a glimpse of what I designed for them:

Charm gets attention. Clarity gets commitment.
 
Curiosity doesn’t convert — certainty does.

Generations buy differently — but they all buy meaning.
 
You don’t need to sound younger. You need to sound current.

Legacy without evolution becomes nostalgia.
 
Modern ≠ trendy. Legacy ≠ outdated. Relevance requires refresh, not reinvention.

I submitted the topic. Crickets.

But when the event was published, the angle shifted.

My work — systems, structure, leadership clarity, friction removal reframed as team alignment. 

Not wrong.  

Just not what I do.

And I didn’t correct it.  

That was the real lesson.

What I learned:

🎯 If you don’t protect your message, others will rewrite it.

🎯 If you assume alignment, you also assume risk.

🎯 Mispositioning doesn’t erode value — it erodes perception.

And perception is the doorway to profit, authority, and trust.

Nothing external caused the mismatch.
 
I allowed the frame to move.

Next time, the line is firmer:
 
My work lives in Structure → Leadership → Flow → Profit.
 
I reduce operational drag.

I turn friction into time, time into capacity, and capacity into revenue and predictable profits.

Evolution, clarity, and business relevance.  That’s my lane.

And I plan to hold it. 
------
Most messaging problems aren’t about skill or value.  

They’re about framing and alignment. Fix that, and everything downstream changes.

If your message isn’t landing the way you intended, there’s usually a positioning gap.

If that speaks to you, the link is in the chat.

#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

His team went from asking permission for everything to making 80% of decisions independently in 12 weeks.

Marcus managed seven technically competent people who operated like order-takers, escalating every decision and waiting for his direction constantly.

Often, when he had been out of the office, he found that certain activities that should have been automatic had not budged because he hadn’t told anyone to do them. 

One week, he spent 15 hours sitting in his office, answering questions and making choices his team should've handled themselves, creating a bottleneck that prevented growth.

How we solved it:
Step 1: Identified the ownership barriers
Marcus had accidentally trained dependency by always having answers ready and sometimes redoing work that didn't match his exact vision.

Team members learned that waiting for input was safer than risking a decision he might overturn.

Step 2: Established decision authority zones
Created clear frameworks: Green decisions (make independently), Yellow decisions (recommend your approach first), Red decisions (require approval).

Moved 70% of daily decisions into the Green zone with clear parameters around quality standards, budget limits, and client impact.

Step 3: Changed the conversation pattern
When the team asked "What should I do?" Marcus responded with “What have you already done?” or  "What do you think we should do and why?" forcing strategic thinking.

He committed to supporting their decisions even when he might've chosen differently, as long as choices fell within established parameters.

Step 4: Built accountability without micro-management
Created weekly check-ins focused on outcomes rather than activities. Celebrated good independent decisions publicly to reinforce the new standard.

The results within 12 weeks:
Marcus's decision-making time dropped to less than 3 hours per week - his team handled 80% of choices independently and he started handling the clarifications in their check-ins.

Projects wrapped up an average 2 to 3 weeks faster because approval bottlenecks disappeared.

Team confidence jumped as people saw their decisions leading to successful outcomes without constant intervention.

Life after solving the problem:
Marcus focuses on strategic client relationships instead of operational babysitting, which opened two major partnership opportunities.

His team operates like owners, proactively solving problems before they escalate.

The business scaled from $1.1M to $1.6M without adding headcount because existing capacity was unleashed through proper Leadership systems.

Are you looking to build a team that operates independently, maintaining standards while you get to work fewer hours yet get more done?

Take 30 minutes on a complimentary call and let’s solve just one of your situations that has you being a bottleneck and blocking team development. 
Link is in the comments.


#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

My profit per hour jumped from $62 to $187 when I stopped confusing hard work with progress.

For three years, I leaned on intensity over strategy, 67-hour workweeks, most weekends, no real break.

Anything went wrong? I doubled down. More coffee chats. More admin. More tasks that felt “important,” but didn’t move revenue.

I thought I was operating at a $250/hour value.

The truth? Once I measured honestly, I was only earning $62/hour.

That gap hurt and it explained why exhaustion was rising but profit wasn’t.

This changed when I rebuilt my business using Structure → Leadership → Flow.

STRUCTURE: Know the real numbers

Step 1: Calculate profit per hour honestly
 I tracked every hour for one month. No guessing. No 40-hour fantasy.
 Quarterly profit ÷ actual hours = $62/hour.
 A dose of truth that forced better decisions.

LEADERSHIP : Choose high-value work on purpose

Step 2: Identify profit-producing activities
 Strategic delivery, high-quality business development, system building = $200+ per hour.
 Admin, firefighting, low-margin clients = under $40 or negative.
 Leadership means deciding what you stop doing, not just what you do.

Step 3: Remove or delegate low-value work
 Clients under a $75/hour return? Released.
 Admin draining 8 hours a week? Delegated.
 Busy work is comforting profitable work is intentional.

FLOW: Protect profit at the calendar level

Step 4: Guard high-leverage time
I locked 20 hours per week for work returning $200+/hour, not $20 work disguised as progress.

 If an activity didn’t lead to profit, improvement, or growth,  it didn’t get a seat.

In 6 months, the impact was clear:
• Hours fell from 67 → 50 per week
 • Monthly revenue rose by $3,000+
 • Profit per hour jumped from $62 → $187
 • My energy returned. Flow replaced grind.

Because when structure is clear and leadership is intentional and you spend your time on work that pays, everything changes.

The lesson
Hard work builds character.
Strategic work builds wealth.

If you’re grinding long hours and not seeing the profits you should, we should talk.

Book a 30-minute call. We’ll put you back into a profitable flow.

Link is in the comments.



#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Yesterday you saw what happens when you let others interpret what you do.

Today is the counterbalance — what happens when the leader holds the frame internally.

Sunday is about what happens when you—the leader—hold the frame internally.

Most businesses strengthen systems, redesign org charts, document processes …

Yet results stay flat because the leader is operating in fragments.

💎 Structure without Leadership becomes rigid.
 
💎 Leadership without Structure becomes chaotic.
 
💎 Both without Flow produce effort without return.

Profit demands integration.

Profit is the indicator of alignment.

When a leader integrates how they think with how they operate, everything tightens:

◆ decisions get faster
 
◆ priorities get simpler
 
◆ execution gets cleaner
 
◆ revenue and profits grow without grinding harder

Structure → Leadership → Flow isn’t a concept.
 
It’s a profit system.

You don't scale activity.
 
You scale perspective.
 
Operational clarity begins in the leader, not the workflow.

Your business will never outperform the clarity of the one leading it.

If your systems are strong but momentum is slipping, the next move isn’t inspiration.

It’s an internal recalibration of the operating mind that runs the machine.

💎 Structure is the frame.
 
💎 Leadership is the driver.
 
💎 Flow is the outcome.
 
💎 Profit is the proof.

Most growth issues aren’t tactical but integration gaps.
 
Fix that, and the business compounds.

If that speaks to you, the link is in the chat.

#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

December seems to usher in a quiet truth that anchors our actions with intention and purpose for stability and less overwhelm.  

And that is no different for 2025. 

You know change is coming -- in your market, your customers, perhaps your team, and your money.  You just don’t see the shape of it yet.

That feeling creates a “wait and see” energy.  That feels risky. 

The danger?

Commercial momentum doesn’t stop just because you do.

You see it everywhere right now:

🔷 Buyers delay decisions because they’re unsure about Q1
🔷 Employees slow down and wait for a January reset
🔷 Owners talk instead of choosing a direction

You may skip planning this month.  But you are still making choices.
 
Default choices don’t protect profit.

Here are simple moves to close the year strong and position you to respond decisively as you enter 2026:

1️⃣  Pick one offer you can sell early in the new year
2️⃣  Ask: “Where is money trapped in your business?”
3️⃣  Cut steps, meetings, and decisions in half
4️⃣  Talk to three customers this week about their 2026 priorities
5️⃣  Choose one thing you will not carry into next year

Let's take 30 minutes. No goals. No long planning sessions.
 
Just one creative, agile move to set up a more profitable and clearer 2026.

The link is in the comments section.


#strategy #business #creativity #innovation #richbutbrokenomorewithfran

Episode 8:  Burnout is Not a Badge

Join Lisa Birnesser and me for a light yet serious exchange about self care.  How to watch for the indicators that you are  running on empty and what you can do about it before it's too late.

Episode 9: Living Your Life on Purpose

Sharyn Abbott and I spend an inspiring 30-minutes discussing her mission critical program that intervenes and supports the life journeys of young people.  Offering safety, skill building, and a true sense of being valued and able to be a difference in the world.

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.css-6ytdur{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39, 43, 72, 1) 0%, rgba(33, 47, 183, 1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Frances Strickland's Linkedin Analytics

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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);}Frances Strickland's LinkedIn Performance

Frances Strickland's Best Posts .css-1emoo84{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:400;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);}(last 30 days)

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Frances Strickland's Linkedin Analytics

Performance ScoreFrances Strickland's LinkedIn Performance

Frances Strickland's Best Posts (last 30 days)