If you've ever let someone go in their first 90 days and thought "another bad hire" — this episode is going to challenge that story. The real reason your hires aren't working out probably has less to do with them and a lot more to do with what's happening before they ever find their footing.

Listen in to hear:

1. The surprising parallel between your customer experience and your employee onboarding
2. Why the first 90 days are 100% your responsibility as a leader — and why that's actually good news
3. What most small business owners get wrong about onboarding talented people
4. Why the better the hire, the more onboarding they actually need
5. How to stop living in the echo chamber of "employees these days" and start taking ownership

If something feels off in your business and you can't quite put your finger on it — culture could be the culprit. Company culture doesn't collapse overnight. It drifts over time and by the time most founders realize there's been a shift, it can be difficult to get things back on track.

In this episode we break down the four phases every small business culture goes through, how to identify which one you're in right now, and what to do about it before it gets expensive.

Listen in to hear:

1. Why culture is the root cause of most of the problems showing up in your business right now
2. The four phases of company culture and what each one requires from you as a leader
3. Why founders don't notice their culture is changing until something breaks
4. What it actually means to let your culture evolve intentionally instead of accidentally
5. Why addressing your culture is basically therapy for your business

If you're the one always delivering bad news, rejecting PTO requests, and handling every performance issue — even for people who don't directly report to you — there's a problem. Your managers are avoiding the hard conversations by passing the uncomfortable stuff up to you, which means you're stuck doing everyone's job instead of actually leading your business.

This episode is about why difficult conversations keep landing on your desk, and how to shift that responsibility back to where it belongs: with your managers.

Listen in to hear:

1. Why copying someone else's leadership style makes you less effective in the moment.
2. The three questions every manager should be able to answer without hesitation.
3. Why PTO approvals are a capacity planning tool, not an admin task.
4. What bottom-up accountability actually looks like in practtice.
5. The real cost of managers who dodge difficult conversations.