Welcome to The COO Solution Podcast, the go-to resource for business owners, CEOs, and visionary entrepreneurs looking to scale smarter, lead better, and build businesses that run without bottlenecks. I’m your host, Derek Fredrickson, and today’s episode addresses one of the most critical mindset and strategy shifts in entrepreneurship—how to stop being the bottleneck and start building a self-managing business that can run (and grow) without you.
In This Episode:
- Why Being in Control Is Slowing You Down (00:58) – The trap of being the go-to for everything and how it holds your team (and business) back.
- Why Most Founders Become Bottlenecks (03:04) – The early hustle habits that hurt you at scale.
- What It Takes to Build a Business That Runs Without You (05:20) – The three pillars: ownership culture, systems thinking, and trust over control.
- A Real Client Example (06:35) – How handing over operations empowered one founder to scale without burnout.
- The Role of a Fractional COO (07:57) – Why you need someone to operationalize your vision and create repeatable results.
- The Host’s Own Experience (09:00) – How Derek’s business transformed with his COO’s help.
- Real Outcomes of Letting Go (11:26) – Strategic thinking, empowered teams, faster execution, and increased innovation.
- Action Challenge (12:45) – The Calendar Audit: Find hidden hours in your week and reclaim your time.
Why This Matters
You didn’t start your business to be stuck in every meeting, decision, and task. If your business can’t run without you, you’re not scaling—you’re surviving. This episode gives you the clarity and tools to build an actual business, not just a high-stress job.
Action Steps for Listeners:
- Do a calendar audit for the past or next 2–3 weeks.
- Highlight meetings someone else could do if systems or people were in place.
- Circle 3 energy-draining tasks and have a delegation conversation with your COO, OBM, or trusted team member.
- Ask yourself: “If I disappeared for a week, what would break?” The answer reveals your true bottlenecks—and your opportunity to grow.
Resources & Links:
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Let’s connect:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/derekfredrickson
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Transcript:
Are you tired of feeling like your business can’t run without you? Like if you took a real break, everything would fall apart. Listen, you’re not alone. And today I will show you a better way. And welcome back to The COO Solution podcast. I’m your host, Derek Fredrickson . And if you’ve ever felt like the bottleneck in your business where every decision, project, and problem somehow lands back in your lap, you are in the right place.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing why most entrepreneurs unknowingly build businesses that depend on them and how you can break free from that trap to create a self-managed, scalable business that grows without needing to work 24-7. Stick with me because I’ll give you practical steps to shift from overwhelmed to organized and explain why bringing in the right operational support changes everything.
Derek Fredrickson (01:23.042)
Here’s the hard truth. If your business can’t operate without you, you don’t own a business. You own a really stressful job. And I get it. Because early on, that hustle mentality works. It’s required. It’s what’s needed from you in the beginning, right? You’re the salesperson. You’re the project manager. You’re the head of customer service. You’re even the janitor if something goes wrong. Maybe you’re doing your bookkeeping. Maybe you’re doing your own website. But there comes a point where that model breaks and you reach that tipping point where more of the same is going to equal more of the same. You’ve hit what I’ve called that founder ceiling where your capacity becomes the limit to your company’s growth. And the more you try to do, the slower things move because scaling isn’t about doing less because scaling
is about doing less better, not doing more. It’s about shifting your focus from how can I get it all done to who can help me get it done and perhaps who can get it done even better than me. The best businesses aren’t the ones with the smartest founders or the hardest working owners that are doing everything. It’s actually quite the opposite. They have the strongest team systems and leadership structure that allows the founder to step out and step back and focus on the vision, relationships, and growth.
Derek Fredrickson (03:04.397)
So let’s break this down into four different points.
Point number one is why most founders become bottlenecks. In the early stages, speed equaled survival, right? Founders became used to touching everything, approving decisions and managing tasks. They were everywhere. They were in anything. But what worked when you were building the foundation kills momentum at scale. Think about it.
If every decision has to go through you, how fast can your business actually move? I’ll give you an example. I had a client who prided herself on being available 24-7 to her team, and I mean 24-7, and there’s no judgment. We’ve all been there perhaps in one way or another, but I’m talking about nights and weekends and on email and with calls and even text messaging.
And it made her feel helpful, right? She felt significant. She felt like she could be there for her team with whatever they needed, whenever they needed it. But it actually slowed everyone down because nobody moved without her blessing. Because she was the bottleneck, her team never felt empowered to step up and step in, to actually own things through to completion. And so being the bottleneck feels like maybe you’re helping.
But you’re actually holding your team back. You’re hindering their momentum. You’re hindering their progress and in some ways yourself. Okay. That’s point number one why most founders become bottlenecks.
Point number two, what it really takes to build a business that runs without you. There are three things. Number one, ownership culture. Your team needs permission to make decisions and solve problems without fear. You need to empower them so they can step up and step into the work that they’re doing and do it well.
Number two, systems thinking. Processes must be so clear that anyone can follow them. I often say we want to create a process driven organization, not a person driven organization. That doesn’t mean we don’t value people. We love people. We need teams. But when they can operate in an environment where the processes are clear, where their systems are solid, it allows them
Derek Fredrickson (05:20.812)
to step up and do excellent work in a systems-oriented mindset. It’s the mantra of this is how we do things around here.
And then point number three is trust over control. Trust your systems, trust your people, and trust your leadership development to own that and provide oversight and that structure for loving accountability so you can continue to expand and elevate what you’re doing. I’ll give you an example.
Imagine a seven-figure coaching business in which the founder still personally approves every email, every client onboarding step, and almost every small decision. It feels like control, but it’s actually the biggest growth blocker. Now, alternatively, compare that to one of our clients who built systems with our help and empowered our second-in-command and her business to run the daily operations. And I just don’t mean operations. I mean they ran marketing, sales finance, technology, their team. It feels like control, but it’s actually the biggest growth blocker.
Derek Fredrickson (06:35.337)
Instead of managing tasks, she focused on deepening client relationships, launching a new coaching program, and growing her revenue without adding hours to her schedule. This is about working smarter, not harder. It’s working smarter and not longer. So freedom doesn’t come from doing more. It actually comes from building a business that can operate beautifully and elegantly without you micromanaging every detail. Think of it in this way. Systems. equals freedom. Trust equals speed and ownership equals scalability. Okay. That’s point number two. What it really takes to build a business that runs without you. Let’s move on to point number three. The role of a fractional chief operating officer COO. This is precisely where a fractional COO steps in. They don’t just build systems for the sake of systems, right? We don’t just create process for the sake of creating process.
We operationalize your vision. We bring your vision to life. We make it real. We make it happen. And what does that look like? We align your team. We implement scalable, repeatable systems and we manage performance and execution. We’re constantly asking the question, what worked? What didn’t work? And why didn’t it work? And why did it work? And what can we do next time to do more of what worked and less of what didn’t work, right?
A fractional COO or second-in-command or an integrator takes your great ideas and turns them into repeatable results, verifiable repeatable results without you being the glue. This is scale, repeatable results that constantly are more efficient, meaning they get done quicker and more effective, meaning they add a bigger and better result. And it’s about you not being the glue.
that’s holding it out all together. Your COO is the glue. They hold everything together. Here’s an example. And I’ll use myself because I shared in a recent podcast episode about this exact same story. You can check it out. It’s called Walking the Talk. Why I brought on one of my own fractional COOs from my company for my business, the COO solution. And when I brought Nicole, who is my COO in as my COO for the COO solution, it freed me up.
Derek Fredrickson (09:00.796)
so much to focus on growth strategy, client relationships, and thought leadership because I wasn’t worrying about every operational fire behind the scenes. I can focus on the future. I can focus on the vision. I can focus on the how we’re going to get there with Nicole’s help to make it happen and really focus on bigger picture ideas, client relationship, business development, partnerships, leadership abilities that are going to make me
a better CEO in my company with a well trusted second-in-command COO. So it’s not about capability. It’s about capacity. All right. So that’s point number three, the role of a fractional COO. Let’s conclude with point number four, real outcomes of letting go.
Here are the outcomes of letting go. More time for strategic thinking and spotting bigger opportunities. If I was still in the weeds, and perhaps you are too, and that’s fine, there’s no judgment.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees and focusing on a bigger picture, a bigger vision, the next big idea, strategic thinking and opportunities is often challenging when we’re in the weeds, when we’re in the day to day, when we’re putting out fires, right?
So we have more time for strategic thinking when you let go. What else is an outcome of letting go? Higher team satisfaction that empowers them to lead, not wait for orders. Like I said, they feel the…
They can have more ownership, more responsibility. You have a self-managing company and that empowers themselves to feel like they can step in and step up in the work that they’re doing and doing it well.
Number three, faster execution because momentum doesn’t bottleneck at the top. If all of your team members all roll up to you with every decision, every answer that needs to be provided for a question, more clarity, you can’t execute at that scale. It’s confusing.
It sometimes feels complex, maybe for you and or for your team. And I often say, you can’t scale complexity. You can scale simplicity. And with a COO stepping in to own that for you, you get to let go and increase that scale and momentum. And then lastly, number four, more incredible innovation. You can envision the next level because you’re not stuck managing tasks. You have the time to really what I call spend
Derek Fredrickson (11:26.653)
the moment and ideation when you have that maybe a divine download of this new idea, this new program, this new team member that you want to bring on, some other opportunity that’s going to get you at a higher level where you want to be in your business, that’s called innovation. And you can rapidly accelerate your innovation and envision the next level because you’re not stuck managing tasks. So those are the four points when it comes to really going from overwhelmed
to being more organized and having a business run without you.
Number one, why most founders become bottlenecks.
Number two, what it really takes to build a business that runs without you.
Number three, the role of a fractional chief operating officer or COO.
And then number four, the real outcomes of letting go.
So here’s what I want you to do this week. If you’ve been listening to the show, you know I’ve been focused on asking you to do a time audit, a task audit, something where we can get really clear. Where’s your time going and how can we remove some of that bottleneck in a short, actionable, small way just to take some initial steps in the right direction.
So here’s what I want you to do this week. It’s called the calendar audit challenge. And so I’m going to ask you to pull up your calendar for the next few weeks or for the last few weeks and do me a favor and highlight those appointments or those meetings where maybe if we’re really being truthful to ourselves, someone else could do it if you had the right system.
or the right person in place. And I know what you’re going to say, well, Derek, everything on my calendar, I need to be a part of. And there may be some truth to that, but if I’m challenging you, it’s maybe not all truth. There might be some opportunities to bring in another team member that maybe they don’t own that appointment or that meeting 100 % from the very beginning, but maybe they’re shadowing you. Maybe they’re participating to start to see.
what it looks like, what’s the objective, what are you doing, what’s your intention, and eventually there could be a transition. And if we start small with a couple of appointments over the next few weeks, what does that provide to you? That’s right, it provides your time back and in a very actionable, quantifiable way. If you can get back two, three hours a week, each week in meetings that you can streamline, systematize, outsource, delegate, and still get the outcome and the output,
Derek Fredrickson (13:43.346)
that you’re expecting, that’s very, very powerful. So circle three of those that drain you the most and have that conversation with your team member. If you have a COO or an OBM, such as an online business manager on your team, have that conversation with them and start to engage them in that process with the intention of getting your time back in a very specific way based on your meetings and your appointments that are on your calendar or on your agenda. So the question to ask related to this calendar audit challenge is,
the following. If I disappeared for a week, what would break? Right? I often say that you’ll never know how great your team is until you go away for an extended amount of time. And for some of you, that might be a full day. For others, it might be a couple of days. It might be a weekend or a week. It might be when you’re on vacation or you’re going to a business conference, whatever it is, if you’re out of the day to day for an extended amount of time, more than say 24 hours and at least 72 hours, so one to three days if not more, you’ll find out very soon where are you still the bottleneck and where is your team so dependent upon you that they feel paralyzed without moving forward and you’ll know how good your team is and how good your systems are when you challenge yourself by taking that break or that pause out from the day to day, okay?
So it really helps clarify where am I still being the bottleneck? Those are your starting points. That’s where freedom begins.
If today’s episode gave you even one aha moment, me a favor, hit that subscribe button so you never miss a strategy that can scale your business fast. Hit that subscribe button so you never miss a strategy that can scale your business faster and share this episode with a fellow business owner, entrepreneur, founder, CEO who is ready to stop being the bottleneck.
Perhaps you’re asking yourself, a fractional COO, Chief Operating Officer, Second-in-Command, online business manager be this missing piece for your business? Well, you can take our free quiz at thecoosolution.com and find out now. It’s free, super informative, very, very strategic, and I think you’ll get a lot of value. So that’s it for today. Thanks for hanging out with me on this episode of Overwhelmed to Organized: How to build a business that runs without you as part of the COO Solution Podcast. Here’s to building a business that runs with or without you.
And I can’t wait to talk to you soon on our next episode. Thanks so much.
