The $100M Entrepreneur Podcast

Episode Title: From Operator to Owner: The CEO Blueprint for Freedom and Scale
Host: Brad Sugars
Air Date: November 12, 2025

Episode Overview

In this solo episode, Brad Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH, shares his hard-earned wisdom on the essential transition from operator to owner, detailing the CEO’s real job when scaling a company to $100 million and beyond. Brad breaks down the mental, strategic, and practical shifts required to grow from being an “operator” – stuck in the day-to-day – to becoming an “owner”, focused on vision, people, capital, and systems. Drawing from his own success building a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, Brad provides a framework for listeners ready to elevate themselves, their teams, and their businesses.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Operator vs. Owner Mindset (00:10 – 02:50)

• Operator: Works in the business, often bogged down by daily tasks.
• Owner/Entrepreneur: Builds assets, value, and multiple companies; focuses on leverage and scalability.

Brad's Insight:
"Most operators stay stuck as operators. They're not really entrepreneurs...Entrepreneurs build capital, value, assets, and ultimately build multiple companies." (01:15)

2. The Four Hats of the $100M CEO (04:05 – 13:20)

Brad outlines the four core roles CEOs must embrace:

• Visionary:

  • Sets, sells, and communicates the company's vision relentlessly.
  • Utilizes tech for global communication and team alignment.
  • "Visionary is number one...I gotta be the one who comes up with the vision and sells the vision...day in, day out." (04:45)

• Builder:

  • Scales the business through systems, processes, and people.
  • Develops knowledge bases for staff and clients.
  • "I gotta scale the systems. I gotta look at what systems need growing, where do I need to, how do I build, what do I build?" (06:16)

• Leader:

  • Continuously develops the team, focusing especially on executives.
  • Coaches and educates, recognizing even top coaches need coaching.
  • "My job as a leader is to continuously keep developing my people...The coaches need coaching sometimes." (08:10)

• Investor:

  • Secures and allocates capital, thinks strategically about funding growth.
  • Recognizes it’s "very hard to bootstrap at scale," so raising capital is part of the CEO’s remit.
  • "How do I allocate capital, raise capital...we're gonna need capital and we're gonna need to work out who do we raise it from, where do we raise it from." (09:55)

3. What CEOs Should Never Delegate (14:30 – 16:35)

• Vision, culture, and key hiring decisions must stay with the CEO.
• Getting input is fine, but the CEO makes and owns the final call.
• "Ultimately, it's down to you to make the call. Ultimately, it's down to you to hold everyone accountable for living the culture." (15:30)

4. The CEO’s Time Allocation: The "25% Rule" (17:00 – 27:50)

Brad divides a CEO’s week into four equal parts:

• 25% with Customers:

  • Connect with clients, visit job sites, join focus groups, and learn directly from the consumer experience.
  • "You need to get in touch with the real consumer of your product or service and hear what they're saying...their experience of your business." (18:47)

• 25% with Team:

  • Invest time in training, coaching, and learning from team members.
  • "When I'm with my team, I'm learning as much as they are." (21:15)

• 25% on Numbers:

  • Dig deeply into financials, marketing data, and performance metrics, not just superficial overviews.
  • "The numbers are where you will find a lot of the answers.” (24:25)

• 25% on the Future:

  • Plan strategically, recruit talent, establish partnerships, and set long-term direction.
  • "Visioning, planning, strategic, partnering...These are future direction things.” (25:45)

5. Importance of Saying No and Delegation (27:55 – 30:55)

• Brad emphasizes the 80/20 rule: each year, stop doing 80% of what you did last year, handing those tasks off to others.
• Great executive assistants are invaluable for time management.
• "Remember, being $100 million CEO, a lot of it is about what you say no to." (28:02)
• "80% of the stuff I do every year cannot be done by me again the next year. It has to be either delegated, moved off, moved to someone else." (29:05)

6. Signs You’re Still an Operator, Not an Owner (31:00 – 34:00)

• Burnout, micromanagement, constant overwork (e.g., 80-hour weeks), and lack of family time are symptoms of operator mentality.
• "If your family is saying, 'Hey, we don't ever get to see you anymore,' you know that you're not doing this right." (31:46)
• Brad shares a paraphrased lesson from Lee Iacocca:
  • "If you're not at home at 6 o'clock at night for dinner with your family, then you're probably not running the business properly." (32:28)

7. Brad’s Personal Transition from Operator to Owner (34:05 – 36:30)

• Letting go emotionally is often harder than building the systems.
• The first transition was tough (coinciding with the birth of his daughter), but the second was easier thanks to better systems and trust in people.
• "Having a business that could run without me didn't mean I could...emotionally let go of the business. And eventually I had to learn how to let go and trust and allow my team to do it." (35:20)

8. Tactical Step: Start a "Stop Doing" List (36:35 – 37:15)

• CEOs should regularly identify tasks to stop doing to make room for higher-value work.
• "Big thing I want you to do today, let's start a stop doing list. What are the things you've gotta stop doing as the CEO so that you can go on to become $100 million entrepreneur?" (36:50)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mindset Shift:
  "I don't want to be the CEO. I want to employ CEOs. There's a big difference in the mindset." (02:13)

• On Systematic Delegation:
  "Even the things you're good at, you have to pass them off if you want to grow." (paraphrased, throughout time management section)

• On Scaling:
  "If you're growing at scale, it's very hard to bootstrap. You're going to need capital to grow at that level." (09:55)

• On Emotional Letting Go:
  "Letting go emotionally is sometimes harder than letting go operationally." (compilation, 35:00+)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:10 – 02:50: Operator vs. Owner Mindset
• 04:05 – 13:20: The Four Hats of the CEO
• 14:30 – 16:35: Core Duties CEOs Shouldn’t Delegate
• 17:00 – 27:50: The 25% Time Allocation System
• 27:55 – 30:55: The Power of 'No' and Delegation
• 31:00 – 34:00: Signs You’re Still an Operator
• 34:05 – 36:30: Brad's Personal Story of Letting Go
• 36:35 – 37:15: Building Your Stop Doing List

Tone & Style

Brad Sugars combines practical, battle-tested advice with a motivational, direct tone. He frequently uses personal stories, analogies, and crisp executive wisdom, offering actionable steps in a candid, sometimes humorous way.

Summary Prepared For: Entrepreneurs and business owners ready to move from “operator” to “$100M CEO” — to gain clarity, freedom, and true scale.