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, we’re diving into one of the most crucial mindset shifts for entrepreneurs: realizing that what got you to this point won’t take you to the next level.
If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or like your business is running you instead of the other way around, this episode is for you. I’ll walk you through five critical shifts that will help you break through your growth ceiling and build a scalable, sustainable business.
In This Episode:
- Why You Feel Stuck Scaling Your Business (00:08) – The moment every entrepreneur realizes their old strategies aren’t enough to reach the next level.
- The Reality of Growth (01:39) – Why the hustle mentality that got you here won’t work for long.
- Shift #1 – From Doing to Leading (03:57) – Moving from being the executor of tasks to the visionary leader of your company.
- Shift #2 – From Reactive to Proactive Leadership (06:15) – How to stop putting out fires and start building systems that prevent problems.
- Shift #3 – From More Work to More Systems (08:33) – Why processes and frameworks, not more hours, will help you scale.
- Shift #4 – From Controlling Everything to Trusting Your Team (11:00) – Why delegation and team alignment are essential for growth.
- Shift #5 – From Short-Term Thinking to Long-Term Strategy (13:24) – How shifting your focus beyond daily operations will accelerate your business.
- How a Fractional COO Can Help (15:48) – The right support structure can free you up to focus on growth instead of daily tasks.
Why This Matters
Every successful entrepreneur reaches a point where they must shift their mindset and approach to keep growing. In this episode, I break down how to transition from a hands-on operator to a high-level visionary leader.
Action Steps for Listeners:
- Identify your growth ceiling – Where are you personally holding your business back? Write down 3 tasks you should no longer be doing.
- Audit your operations – Pinpoint where your business runs smoothly and where it’s chaotic. Identify your biggest bottlenecks.
- Start building your support structure – Do you need a Fractional COO or an Online Business Manager (OBM)? Take the free quiz to find out.
Resources & Links:
- Discover if Now is the Time for a Fractional COO: Take this quick assessment to see if your business is ready for this game-changing operational support. 👉 – Take the Free Assessment Here
- Learn More About The COO Solution: Visit The COO Solution to explore our services, discover new insights, and learn actionable strategies for scaling your business smarter.
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Transcript:
So, you’ve built a business, you’ve put in the hard work, you’ve hustled, you’ve gotten results, but now it feels like you’re stuck no matter how hard you push. Listen, what got you to this point isn’t enough to get you to the next level. Does this sound familiar?
Welcome back to the COO Solution Podcast. I’m your host, Derek Fredrickson, and today we’re tackling one of the biggest challenges every business owner faces. The moment they realize their old strategies and their old ways of being just don’t work anymore. You’re probably growing, you’re probably growing your business, but so are your challenges. Your team relies on you for everything. Your operations feel chaotic and suddenly your once thriving business is draining all of your time and energy. If this resonates with you, listen, you’re not alone.
This is the growth ceiling every entrepreneur and visionary eventually faces. And today I’ll explain why this happens, the shifts you need to make, and the roadmap that will help you scale beyond this plateau with more clarity, confidence, and support than ever before. So if you’re tired of feeling like you’re running in circles, trying to grow your business and scale, this episode is for you.
Derek Fredrickson (01:39.118)
So let’s talk about the reality of growth. In the early days of your business, your success was built on hustle, right? You made things happen through sheer willpower and determination, working long hours, perhaps even nights and weekends, right? Burning the midnight oil, you know, wearing multiple hats, putting out multiple fires and doing everything and anything that needed to be done in order to grow and scale the business. And you were that go-to person for everything, right? And that worked to an extent for a while. But eventually, every business reaches a breaking point or what I would call that glass ceiling where what got you here won’t get you there. And here’s why. Let me break it down for you. You can’t do it all anymore.
Your business has outgrown your ability to manage every single detail every single day, right? It’s just a natural evolution of growth and scale. So the decisions that once felt simple now maybe feel overwhelming because there’s more at stake. There’s more involved. It requires more kind of mental capacity. And perhaps you’ve assembled and grown a team, right? Maybe in the beginning it was just you, but now maybe you’ve got, you know, a virtual assistant or somebody to help you with your marketing or your customer service. And so your team, your growing team is dependent upon you. Maybe they’re waiting on you for direction and clarity instead of taking ownership. And lastly, you may feel like you’re constantly putting out fires instead of making progress. I call this the whack-a-mole. effect, right? You remember the kind of kids game where know little moles would jump out at the arcade and you have to whack a mole here and whack a mole there and kind of this putting out fire mentality. You know in the beginning we were scrappy. We were able to do what it takes but you can’t scale whack a mole your business. You can’t scale putting out fire. So this is the moment when successful visionary entrepreneurs have to make a choice, right? Do they stay stuck?
Derek Fredrickson (03:57.19)
or evolve, right? Do they change? And the key to breaking through is shifting from being a doer to more of being a leader, from managing everything to building systems that let your business grow without depending on you for every single decision.
So how do you get to the next level? Well, the answer isn’t more hustle, okay? It’s not working harder, it’s not working longer, it’s actually working smarter. it’s a fundamental shift in how you lead, structure your business and trust your team. So let’s talk about the five critical shifts that you need to scale.
Okay, shift number one is from doing to leading. Right? We talked about this a little bit earlier. In the early days, you did it all, right? But now your job isn’t to be in every detail. You can’t be, right? It’s not sustainable. It’s to lead, set the vision, and build a team surrounding you that executes, that implements, that takes your idea from ideation to completion, right? You’re great at starting things, of thinking about the kind of the bigger future, right? The vision. But you need a team surrounding you that can implement that vision. So this means delegating with confidence and trusting the right people to step up, right? I often say you want a team that is confident, that is capable, and that is clear, right? They’re confident to do the work and do it well. They’re clear because they know exactly what to do and how to do it and they’re capable. They have the skills, the mindset, the expertise to get it done at a level that you want and you need in order to grow and scale. So that’s shift number one from doing to leading.
Let’s talk about shift number two from reactive to proactive leadership. So if you spend most of your time solving problems instead of driving strategy or developing a strategy or
Derek Fredrickson (06:15.734)
or thinking about strategy, you’re kind of leading reactively. Okay, listen, there’s no judgment here. Again, this is all natural. This is the evolution of entrepreneurship in a way, right? So in the beginning, you needed to solve problems because there were, not a lot of resources around other than yourself to solve problems. And so you were solving problems. You were coming up with solutions and yeah, also focused on driving strategy, but you know, as your business grows and expands, right, the level of problems sometimes grows and expands and your ability to have the time and the energy and effort to focus on solving those problems is spread too thin. And so you often spend more time solving problems and less time about driving strategy. So you’re kind of leading in this reactive way. And again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But entrepreneurs who scale, focus on building systems that prevent issues before they happen, rather than constantly putting out fires, right? And so let me explain that a little bit. There’s a fundamental difference between an issue and a problem, right? A problem is usually the byproduct of what the underlying issue is. And so we’re often focused on solving problems, right? And that’s natural human behavior. We’re great at solving problems. We’re great at coming up with solutions.
But if we’re just solving the problem or I’d say fixing a problem, we’re not often actually addressing the underlying issue that’s causing the problem. So we can fix problems all day long. But guess what? The next day you’re going to have more problems unless we go back and actually solve what is the underlying issue. And the underlying issue might be the lack of a system, perhaps the lack of a process or perhaps a lack of an aligned team to understand, what they need to do and how they need to do it. So we want to focus more on solving issues and less about fixing problems in a systematic way.
So that’s shift number two from reactive to proactive leadership. Shift number three is from more work to more systems. And I get it. Systems aren’t sexy, right? You know, they’re not the thing that people, especially entrepreneurs, jump out of bed and say, I can’t wait to implement and create more systems in my business.
Derek Fredrickson (08:33.954)
First of all, you’re not really the one that is supposed to be doing that, right? That’s what, people like us are there for to help, you know, create these systems. But like I said earlier, the answer to growth isn’t working harder. It’s not working longer, right? It’s building repeatable, scalable systems that make operations run smoothly without you having to micromanage. And again, when I say a system, just to clarify, these aren’t technical systems, right? These aren’t applications that you need to
install and develop in your business. These are a systematic way of doing things, a process driven way of doing things. Think of if we just break down a system is in its very simple form, a checklist, right? Do this, then do that. If this happens, do this. If that happens, do this, etc. Right? So it’s a step by step kind of methodology or an approach on how we do things in our business.
System or systematic way of doing something allows us to scale. I’ve often said that if there’s complexity in your business in terms of what you do or how you do it or what needs to happen, this case or what needs to happen in that case, if there’s complexity, you can’t necessarily scale complexity. You can scale a systematic way of doing things. So it’s again, a mindset shift from not working more or working harder.
but a more systematic approach on how you do what you do. This is oftentimes what we do when we work with our clients is we’ll focus just as much on,how we’re doing something in relation to what we’re doing, right? Because if we’re just focused on the what, right? And not focused on the how, the how is often the foundation for us to scale, right? So we can grow and leverage this base of how we’re doing what we’re doing. And this is where,having a fractional COO or a second second-in-command could be a game changer because we’re wired to think in a systematic process driven way. We’re looking at things through a different lens than perhaps a visionary and entrepreneur. We’re looking at things how can we automate this? How can we streamline this? How can we create a process so it doesn’t feel like we’re pushing the boulder up the hill, right? So shift number three is from more work to more systems. Okay, let’s talk about shift number four from control everything
Derek Fredrickson (11:00.526)
to trust your team, right? This is a challenge for a lot of us, right? Because again, in the beginning, we had to control everything, right? We were very particular about everything being done in this way and that way, and often we were doing that, you know? So we had that element of control. But as you started to grow and expand and scale, especially leveraging a team in some way or another, we needed to trust ourselves in letting go. And that’s a hard thing to put into place. So many business owners struggle with letting go of control, but trust is essential for scaling, right? And having the ability to trust and rely on your team. Now that’s again, a lot easier said than done, right? How do you create this culture of trust? Well, part of it is actually going back to shift number three, which is establishing a systematic way of doing things, right? When we create a process or a system around how a team member can do what they do in a systematic way, it allows us to trust them to do that work because there’s a framework, there’s a process, there’s a checklist, right? There’s a bulleted framework of what they need to do and how do they need to do it. It’s not like, can you run this project, but I’m going to give you zero clarity or zero direction and zero idea on how to do it, right? That’s not… very trustworthy because the team member may not know how to do things in a way that’s going to meet your level of expectation. But if we give them a framework or a systematic approach and a checklist in a way, right, that can be delegated. They have a lane that they can stay in in order to do what they need to do that’s going to meet your level of expectation. So hiring, training, and empowering the right people in the right seat, allows you to step into your role as a visionary rather than being stuck in day-to-day operations.
So again, it’s not just about finding the right people for the right seats, but it’s about training them and then onboarding them and empowering them to be successful, right? It takes time. You need to invest in their success in order for them to support your success. And so being able to facilitate that to…
Derek Fredrickson (13:24.674)
to have a long-term benefit requires some time and some energy and some effort in the beginning to ensure that those team members are feeling empowered in order to drive the business forward. So that’s shift number four, from control everything to trust your team.
And lastly, shift number five is from short-term thinking to long-term strategy. And I get it. Listen, I understand these are a lot easier said than done, but these are the… small kind of bite sized mindset shifts that actually start to, creep open the door of a different way of doing things in your business or a different way of being in your business and starting to go down a different path on scaling your business, right? Again, this is the road that what got you here won’t get you there, right? So I can’t, you know, share with you the lessons about what’s going to be more of the same because that’s not going to get you where you want to be. So these are our shifts, these are changes, these are fundamental breaks in a pattern in order to think differently. So this is all about from short term thinking to long term strategy. So focusing on long term growth is hard when you’re always in the weeds, right? How do you find the time in your busy day to day, right? When you’re, whack a mole, putting out fires, dealing with team, et cetera, to focus on long term strategy when you’re in the weeds dealing with all the day to day stuff.
So scaling requires you to step back and think ahead, not just about what’s happening now, but mostly about where you want your business to be in one, three, and maybe even five years. And so how do you do that? Well, part of that, a big component of that is perhaps giving yourself the permission to have the support and the structure to get you out of the day to day.
Again, that’s what we do with our clients. We provide this structure of accountability that allows the visionary entrepreneur to spend less time in the weeds and focus more time thinking about the future, right? Thinking about the long-term strategy. They get the mental capacity to focus on the business versus focusing in the business. And often when they’re in the business, it’s not like they’re focused in the business.
Derek Fredrickson (15:48.322)
doing the work in the business, right, as opposed to focusing on the business. And let’s be clear, this is not, great, I’ve got fractional COO, I can step out of everything in the business. That’s not always the case in the very beginning. That’s our objective, that’s our goal. But part of the output of this shift in the structure of accountability that we provide allows you to step more into the focus of the long-term strategy and the bigger picture and the vision.
just actually what’s going to drive the scalability of your business with the trust and faith and confidence that a second in command or a fractional COO is actually running the day to day so that you don’t have to be.
So let’s, let’s kind of take some of this and put this into action, right? Again, if you’ve been listening, you know that, theory is great and ideas are great and strategies are important, but I am always about implementation, right? Let’s put this right into action.
So if you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed or like your business is running you instead of the other way around, right? I often say, you know, it feels like the tail is wagging the dog in a way. Here’s what I’d like to ask of you to do today, if possible, right? Again, let’s put a challenge out there to see if you’re up to it.
So step one, identify what I would call your growth ceiling. OK, so how do you do that? Ask yourself, Where am I personally holding my business back? What tasks am I doing that someone else really should own, right? Not only should they own because it’s not something that’s, you know, the best use of your time or your effort, but perhaps they can actually do it better than you in some respect because they’re skilled in that area or they’re trained or they have that level of expertise where again in the past, maybe you’ve done it out of necessity because you’ve had to.
But instead, you can rely on somebody to do that because they’re actually better at it than you. So think about that for a moment. What are some of those tasks? Just as an example, and write down, let’s say, three things that you’re doing now that aren’t what I would call founder level work or visionary level work. And start planning how to hand them off. Maybe that involves first just getting clear on what those things are. Make a list.
Derek Fredrickson (18:14.306)
And then next, if you have somebody on your team that could, right, could, we have to explore if they’re able and willing and capable to take those off your plate, have that conversation, write that email, right? Send that loom video to them and say, hey, Susan, I’d love to get your help and support with these things that I’m doing every day, every week, every month. And it’s taking my time. And I know that, you know, this is something that you can help me with because you actually might be more aligned in doing this perhaps better than I currently am doing it and it would allow me to focus more on the future vision of the company, right? Just kind of putting it out there is a huge first step, okay? So, that’s number one. Step one is identify what is that growth ceiling and getting really granular on what some of those tasks might be. Step number two is audit your operations. Now, again, that doesn’t sound sexy, it doesn’t sound fun, it sounds like a really big intimidating thing. This is actually part of what we do when we work with client, but just to kind of scratch the surface of this idea, ask yourself, where is your business running smoothly and where is it chaotic? Okay? And maybe list the biggest bottlenecks in your business as it stands right now. Maybe that’s team, maybe that’s processes, maybe it’s communication with your team, maybe it’s collaborating on projects with your team. Maybe it’s decision making, right? Maybe you’ve got a sizable team, but when it comes to making decisions, you know, there’s multiple people that need to be involved and, checking with you and then going back to the person that’s involved in operations. we need to check with the person who’s in customer service to make sure, you know, where are the bottlenecks? Where are the blocks that get in the way? Are they perhaps with you? Are they with certain team members because they’re not clear or maybe they’re not capable or maybe it just inherent in the way that you’ve always done things. Again, what got you here won’t get you there. So let’s look at how you’re doing what you’re doing and identify at a high level just to start what are some of those big bottlenecks. And again, this is a thinking process, right? It’s not going to just jump right out to you on its own. You need to think about it a little bit. But I can tell you this, when you think about it a little bit, those things will jump right out to you. All So that’s step number two, audit your operations. And step number three is start to build your support.
Derek Fredrickson (20:38.414)
structure. Who are the key players you need in place to scale? And this again is where you may want to consider, is it the time for a fractional COO, chief operating officer, or a second in command to help you take things off your plate? And in some cases, that might be the case. And in some cases, maybe not. can tell you, in doing this for a long, time, there are many entrepreneurs and visionary leaders that say, Derek, I want a fractional COO in my company. Oftentimes, not all the times, but in some cases, they may not need that. I’m very transparent in working with our clients that what they may want perhaps doesn’t equal maybe what they need. At a certain stage of business, it might be more the necessity around getting just somebody to focus and help you with your marketing or just getting somebody on board to help you with your customer service.
you know, a virtual assistant or something in that regard. Everybody starts somewhere. That’s also why, you know, here at the COO solution, we’ve been helping clients with what we call an online business manager, right? An online business manager or an OBM is for, you know, some clients who, you know, maybe aren’t at that seven or multiple seven figure level in their business. And that’s fine. Maybe they don’t have a sizable team yet. And their priority really comes down to three things. You know, marketing, operations and project management.
So, maybe it’s getting clear that perhaps you’re not ready for a COO, but maybe you are thinking more about getting an OBM to help you with those things that need to be in place around your operations and your marketing and project management. Okay. So, those are some kind of ideas and quick actions that we can put into place based on the episode today. So, I hope you’ve enjoyed this so far. Before we wrap up, let’s just do a quick recap. So, scaling successfully isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing things differently. If there’s one lesson I want you to get from this, it’s about doing things differently. What got you here won’t get you there. And it’s about shifting, really your mindset. It’s about shifting from being the one who does it all to being the leader, to being the visionary, to being the big thinker who builds a company and a culture that runs smoothly with or without you. Okay? So again,
Derek Fredrickson (23:07.072)
It’s a mindset shift. It’s thinking and viewing yourself as that visionary leader in your company and getting that proper level of support that allows you to be more of the visionary with the trust. And I call it the faith and the confidence that you have an aligned team focusing on implementation, execution, and managing the day to day so that you’re not involved in all of those different aspects.
So listen if this episode resonated with you, hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss future episodes. if you know a business owner who maybe needs to hear this, share it with them. I’d love to, you know, spread the word for those that can benefit. And if you’re curious if perhaps a fractional COO, Chief Operating Officer, could be the solution that you might need for your business, you could take a free quiz that we have available at the COO.
And we’ll provide a personalized report on really what might be needed in your business at this time for you to scale. It’s focused on marketing, sales, operations, and finance. And I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway from today’s episode. You can send me a message on LinkedIn or email me at Derek at the COO solution dot com. So that’s a wrap on today’s episode. Thank you so much and I’ll see you next time on the COO Solution Podcast. Take care everybody.
