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- [00:00]
A
If your business can't run without you, you don't have a business. You're just doing time in a business prison. Most founders, they think being indispensable makes them valuable. It doesn't. It makes them trapped. The more your business depends on you, the less valuable it actually is. In this episode, I'm going to show you exactly how to build systems that make decisions faster than you can. Systems that create freedom instead of dependence. By the end, you're going to know how to design a business that runs by principle, not proximity, so your growth compounds even when you're not in the room.
- [00:39]
I'm Scott Joseph, the founder of Me plus Ultra and the host of Business Bourbon and Cigars. I have seen hundreds of leaders hit this wall where growth becomes chaos and success turns into exhaustion. I've helped them reach replace that chaos with scalable systems that return their freedom. And I've lived this myself, done this firsthand the hard way. I want to start with a quick story about my own business that's going to sound extremely familiar to a lot of founders and business leaders. And then in this episode, we're going to start breaking down the framework for building systems that scale and how to audit and design and implement them so you can actually step away without everything falling apart. And part of this is going to show you these seven questions that I use myself that are going to help expose whether your business runs on systems or on you. When we were closing out our registration for our last business, Bourbon and Cigars Leadership retreat, literally the 10th one, about a week before registration closed, I got a call from someone who'd already bought tickets to attend. There weren't a me +Ultra member, but they wanted to come experience the group firsthand. So they were kind of using the event as a trial. And they said, scott, I'm so sorry for the last minute notice, but I'm going to have to, you know, I'm not going to be able to make it. I got to bail. We're having a horrible month. I've got to be in the store. We're off pace. And I paused for a second because first off, I've heard this story countless times, but this one hit a little bit different to me, and I had something kind of pop into my head. So I asked, well, let me get this straight. You've been in the store all month, right? He said, yeah. And I said, okay, so what's going to happen over the next two and a half days that didn't already happen in the last two weeks? Silence at that moment stuck with me because it's the exact trap most founders and business leaders, they fall into. They think that the business can't survive without them, that their presence is what makes the numbers move. And you know, it's ironic is when things aren't going well, do they give themselves the same amount of credit for the poor results as they do when things are going well? Usually not. The reality is that most businesses, they don't have the culture and processes in place to run on autopilot for a decent amount of time. Their numbers just kind of rise and fall with the economy or the marketplace. If you're a founder or a business owner, you know the feeling. Your hustle builds the company early on. You're moving fast. You're solving problems on instinct. You're kind of carrying everything in your head, right? But that same speed eventually becomes a cage. Everything's funneling through you, every decision, every approval, every fire. And soon the thing that you built for freedom becomes the thing that owns you. And I know this because I have lived it. Early on, when I was running J and L Marketing, I. I was the system. I was the guy clients, they wanted on the phone when they were upset, you know, the guy salespeople came to when they got stuck. The guy everyone leaned on to make sure nothing broke. And honestly, that's on me. I created it. And it probably just fed my ego, right? Until it started eating my time and my energy and my joy. Then one day, I was done, you know, not because I suddenly became enlightened, but because it was more painful to keep fixing the same problems than it was to teach my people how to handle those situations themselves. And I remember one salesperson coming to me about a frustrated client and saying, scott, can you call them? I said, no, you're going to call them, and you're going to do it. Now, here's exactly what you're going to say, here's how you're going to say it, and here's why it matters that you say it this way. So I taught him that everything about it, right? And then I taught him how to handle the different ways that conversation could go, what to say if the client pushed back, how to turn the frustration into trust. And over time, they got so good at it that I stopped getting those calls altogether. That's when everything changed. You know, clients, they weren't waiting on me. Issues were getting solved immediately by the people that were closest to the issue and to the client. And that's when our client experience just kind of skyrocketed. There's something you got to know. You know, if a client has an issue and it gets escalated all the way to you, it doesn't matter what you do for them, you've already lost. Because no one wants to wait for the owner to fix something that should have been handled on the spot. That's when it clicked. I didn't need to work harder. I needed to build a system that made great decisions without me. That was the moment that I started shifting from operator to architect. And that's exactly what I'm going to walk you through today. How to build systems that free you, not chain you.
- [05:24]
Right now, you juggling every decision, putting out fires, and trying to grow your business on your own. Every day feels like a grind. And no matter how hard you push, the breakthrough you've been chasing seems like it's just out of reach. You don't have the right perspective or maybe the network to see the opportunities waiting for you. The business bourbon and Cigars Leadership retreat is your chance to change that. Imagine being in a room with entrepreneurs who have always already overcome the challenges you're facing. Leaders who have scaled, innovated and found the clarity you're searching for. Through our Mastermind style sessions, you're going to gain actionable strategies and the opportunity to connect with active Me plus Ultra members. These aren't just networking contacts. They are entrepreneurs who think strategically, spot opportunity quickly, and can provide insights that accelerate your growth. This experience allows you to see firsthand how high level leaders solve problems, create momentum, and unlock opportunities. So you can leave the retreat not just with a plan, but with a network that expands your possibilities faster than you ever thought possible. The first five people to apply at me+ultra.com BBC50 is going to receive 50% off their ticket. Don't wait. Secure your spot now and step into a space where real business breakthroughs happen.
- [06:44]
So let's break this down into three parts and then I'll give you kind of the why, the what and the how for each one. So the first part, right, is you need to audit before you automate. And I say that because most founders, they try to scale by adding tech or throwing more people at the problem before they fix the root cause, the foundation. And that just multiplies chaos. You can't automate what you don't understand. So start by identifying where your business depends on you and ask what breaks, you know, slows down or stops when I'm not around. That's where your system has gaps. Right? The areas that need structure before scale so how can you do this? Run your audit, Ask these seven questions, Write them down. Who owns every core process by name, not department, not the second thing question. Can you see what's off track within 24 hours without asking the third question, is there a rhythm for decisions and reviews or do you run on hope and slack messages? The fourth audit question, do your people know what they can decide without you? The fifth, after each project, do you run debriefs that create learning or blame? And then six, are your deadlines treated like promises or polite suggestions? And then finally seven, could the business hit its next 90 day goal if you disappear tomorrow? You need to answer these seven questions honestly. Wherever you hesitate, that's where your business runs on personality, not process. So the second part to this is you want to start designing for decisions, not dependents. I say that because systems are. They're not bureaucracy, they're leverage. They're not about control, they're about clarity. When people know what great looks like, they stop waiting for permission and start making progress. So what you're going to start doing in this second part is you're going to design decision making tools, not rule books. Your systems, they should help your team think like you would, hopefully better even when you're not there. And you can do this by creating an operational cadence. First thing I would say is, you know, there's got to be a rhythm to it, right? Every team runs on a predictable schedule for reviews and reporting. You want things visible, build dashboards that track what matters before it breaks. There has to be ownership. Every initiative has one name beside it. Accountability lives with people, not titles. And want to do this type of feedback loop wins. They need to be documented and your losses need to be debriefed, not buried. You know, I can remember a J and L. Gosh. We used to work feedback loops into everything we did, including our client experience. Right? We literally created morning after ritual after every campaign. The next morning we'd run a 15 minute debrief. What worked, what didn't, what we'd repeat. No blame, no fluff. That one system improved performance by 20% across the board, literally within 90 days. Systems don't kill creativity, they kill confusion. And confusion is what slows down execution. And then the third part, you need to build a freedom flywheel. And I say that because the tighter your systems, the wider, the more freedom you're going to have. Every process that runs without you buys back time that you can reinvest into your vision, your people, your strategy. The best businesses are when owners and the Leaders of the organization invest more time working on the business, not in it. So this flywheel, this is this compounding effect of clarity, systems, accountability, freedom, right? Clarity is what defines what matters, and the systems make it repeatable. Accountability is what keeps it alive. And then that's when the freedom flows. Once you've built your first few systems, start installing them into your culture. And here's kind of a practical sequence for you. You need to walk before you can run. So start small. Pick one high friction area. Could be your sales handoffs, your client onboarding, maybe your reporting. You need to write the standard document, what great looks like. Assign that ownership one name, one responsibility and then start measuring it. Make that progress visible, not hidden in emails or excuses. And then repeat. Compounding effect will start kicking in when the team runs the playbook without you prompting it. You know, I knew a founder who once used to set these reminders for herself to remind her managers to send her the updated dashboards and reports. Me. What? It's time to get out of that bullshit. Here's the mindset shift that makes it all work. You're not letting go of your high quality standards. You're letting go of ownership. When you let go of ownership, you scale. Here's your takeaway for today. Freedom doesn't come from doing less. It comes from building better. So run the seven question audit this week. It's easy to do. Find the areas that rely on you and then rebuild one system so it no longer does. Remember, start small. Walk before you can run one system. I want you to think about this. One system that works without you is worth 10 ideas that can't run without your attention. And if you want the exact tools that our Me plus Ultra members use to do this, download the free Business Bourbon and Cigars Leadership Workbook. This isn't theory. It's the same framework that we use at our mastermind retreats that help elite leaders solve their toughest challenges. You know, design systems that scale and create businesses that grow without them. Stop babysitting this workbook. You're going to get the full smack process. That's S M A C C C. It's the same one we use inside the Me plus Ultra mastermind group to turn clarity into accountability and accountability into freedom. So you can grab your copy now. Just go to me+Ultra.com workbook. It's free, it's practical, and it's going to help you to start creating systems so good your business practically runs itself. Because the real test of leadership, it isn't how much control you have. It's how well the business performs when you're not there. And finally, I'll leave you with this freedom. It isn't the absence of structure. It's the result of one that scales. Cheers, everyone.