Next week I’m running an online workshop called — "Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM". 
 
Where I’ll be showing you how to install an Ops Manager or GM into your consultancy and take the day-to-day running of your business off your back. 
 
If you’re still the person across every project… 
 
If you’re the escalation point for every internal issue… 
 
Or if your team can’t move without you answering questions all day… 
 
This workshop is designed to help you fix that — properly. 
 
"Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM" is about installing a leadership layer inside your consultancy that frees you up to focus on strategy, business growth and leading the business — instead of managing the day-to-day. 
 
Register now >> Click Here 
 
 
In this session, I’ll walk you through exactly how to: 
— Decide whether you need an Ops Manager or a GM based on the stage and size of your consultancy 
— Understand the clear difference between the two roles so you don’t create confusion, overlap or diluted authority 
— Define the right ro...

Most consultancy owners say the same thing when I ask where their work comes from. 

“Referrals.” 

“Word of mouth.” 

And that’s great. 

It usually means you’re doing good work. 

But here’s the issue. 

Referrals & word of mouth are ad hoc. 

They’re unpredictable. 

And they only happen when someone else decides to talk about you. 

They tend to come in clusters… 

Then they go quiet with no warning. 

Which is why your confidence in your pipeline disappears the moment things slow down. 

I get it. Reputation is powerful. 

But reputation without proactive business development leaves your growth to chance. 

In this week’s podcast episode, I break down: 

• Why referrals & word of mouth aren’t a proper business growth strategy 

• Why reputation alone will create a lumpy pipeline at best 

• And how to layer a simple daily BD rhythm so you gain control over the growth of your consultancy 

Including a practical example from Quentin, a Board...

In the early years of building our engineering and built environment consultancy from $3M to $30M, we said yes to everything. 

Every client. 
Every opportunity. 
Every “quick favour.” 

It worked… at first. 

That approach helped us grow to around $3M. 

But after that, it started to hurt us. 

Profit margins got really tight. 
Clients kept asking for more and more. 
The team was stretched. 
We were constantly in reactive mode. 

Growth got really hard and heavy. 

The big shift for us came when we stopped asking, “How do we win more work?” 

And started asking ourselves, “What should we say no to?” 

We got ruthless on client fit. 
We tightened scope and commercial terms. 
We actually started putting our hand up when variations came along. 
And we doubled down on the work we were genuinely strong at. 

What surprised us was that revenue didn’t fall. 

It actually improved. 

Profit margins got better. 
The team were happier and more efficient. 
The business ...

You can’t do everything yourself - and you shouldn’t be. 

Your business is your baby - I get it.  

It’s easier and quicker when you do it yourself.  

But are you happy with how much of “you” is still required for everything to run? 

Do you get to focus on the high value work and big picture elements that move the business forward? 

Or are you stuck in your emails and doing admin work?  

If you want to grow your consultancy and do the work that lights you up. 

It starts with you letting go. 

Delegating low value project work. 

Hiring some (or more) admin support. 

Bringing in an Ops Manager or GM to help run the day to day. 

And letting go of the tasks that you’re currently doing. 

So you can focus on the work and the actions that will grow you to the next level. 

But it all starts with you making the decision to let go. 

To your success, 

Josh 

PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you right now: 

1.  Gra...

We just spent the weekend in Noosa with an incredible group of people. 

All friends. 
All business owners. 

It rained the entire time. 

Didn’t matter. 

The conversations and connection were better than the weather. 

No small talk. 
No negativity. 
No whinging about the rain. 

We spoke about growth. 
Hiring. 
Structure. 
Big plays for the next 12–24 months. 

I drove home energised. Clear. 

With sharper ideas for our business. 
And better ways to help our clients win. 

Here’s the truth. 

If you’re in a circle that thinks small, plays safe and normalises average… 
you will too. 

Not because you don’t have big goals. 

But because the people you surround yourself with dictate your results in life. 

The opposite is true as well. 

When you’re around people building proper businesses… 
thinking long-term… 
having the hard conversations… 

You lift. 

So have a look at your inner circle. 

Are they pushing you to level up? 

Or keeping y...

Most consultancy owners think they’re delegating. 

They’re not. 

They’re distributing tasks. 

And there’s a big difference. 

On the surface, it looks like you’re empowering the team. 

You’ve handed off the work. 
You’ve given directions.  
You’re not “doing everything” anymore. 

But behind the scenes? 

Decisions still run through you. 

Approvals. 
Client emails. 
Invoices. 
Final sign-offs. 
“Just check with me before it goes out.” 

And that one sentence quietly keeps you as the bottleneck. 

This is why so many consultancy owners feel busy, interrupted, and stuck — even with a good team around them. 

It’s not that the team isn’t capable. 

It’s that authority never actually moved to them.  

If decisions still live with you, you haven’t actually delegated. 

You’ve just given the team “stuff” to do – with no real ownership.  

In this week’s podcast episode, I break down: 

• Why most acts of delegation fail 

• How founders unknowing...

Tomorrow we’re running “The Graduate Growth System” online workshop — and if you’ve been on the fence, this is your nudge. 
 
Most consultancy owners I speak to are running "OK" businesses.  
 
But they’re stuck because the structure underneath the business isn’t set up to support growth. 
 
Here are a few real examples from Boardroom coaching clients who have put the right foundations into their business: 
 
— Andy hired his first team member and immediately freed himself up to focus on higher-value work instead of doing everything himself 
— Jordan brought a graduate civil engineer into the business, strengthening delivery capacity without adding more pressure to himself 
— Meredith hired and onboarded junior planners with a clear structure, allowing the business to grow while buying back founder time 
 
Take a quick look at tomorrow’s calendar. 
 
Now back to me. 
Now back to your calendar. 
Now back to me. 
 
Tomorrow, you could keep trying to grow using the wrong structure for your business… 
 
…or y...

When we grew our engineering & built environment consultancy from $3M to $30M, we thought the only way to grow was to hire seniors and load them up. 
 
More seniors meant more capacity. 
And more capacity meant more growth. 
 
We thought we had the structure right. 
 
But we were wrong. 
 
The business became top-heavy. 
Profit margins were constantly under pressure. 
Senior staff were stretched thin trying to do everything. 
And as founders, we were still deeply involved in delivery, training, and problem-solving. 
 
The business wasn’t profitable, scalable, or sustainable. 
 
The real issue? 
 
We were trying to grow without the right foundations in place. 
 
The truth is, most consultancies struggle because they don’t have the right team structure. 
 
— Too many expensive roles at the top 
— Not enough juniors coming through 
— No clear development pathway 
— And founders still carrying the load as the business grows 
 
Strong, profitable consultancies are built on proper foundations. 
 
Graduates coming into t...

Next week I’m running an online workshop called “The Graduate Growth System.” 
 
It’s designed to help you stop relying on senior hires as the primary way your business grows — and start building capacity and capability inside your consultancy, properly. 
 
If hiring senior staff is getting harder, slower and more expensive… 
 
If every new senior hire feels like a gamble on salary, habits and whether they’ll work out… 
 
Or if growth keeps stalling because your mid- and senior-level hires are a constant revolving door… 
 
This is your chance to fix it. 
 
In this session, I’ll walk you through the exact approach high-performing consultancies are using to: 

— Hire high-quality graduates without relying on Seek, recruiters or luck 
— Train grads in their standards, systems and culture so they add value early 
— Develop graduates through clear pathways into mid-level and senior roles 
— Reduce long-term reliance on expensive senior hires by growing talent internally 
 
Tuesday 10 February – 11:45am NSW ...

You’ve built a solid consultancy. 
 
You’ve got experience, capability, and a strong reputation. 
Clients trust you. 
The work is there. 
 
But there’s a problem. 
 
Growth keeps stalling because hiring feels like a gamble. 
 
Senior hires are getting harder, slower, and more expensive. 

 
You’re competing on salary. 
You’re inheriting bad habits and poor behaviours you don't want. 
You’re crossing your fingers and hoping they’ll “work out”... 
 
...all whilst paying a bomb for the privilege. 
 
So you do what most consultancy owners do: 
 
You delay hiring because it's too hard. 
You stretch your seniors. 
You absorb the work yourself. 
 
And then your growth slowly stalls. 
 
That’s the real issue. 
 
But the consultancies that grow sustainably don’t rely on senior hires as their primary growth strategy. 
 
They build capability from the ground up. 
They hire graduates intentionally. 
They train them in their standards, systems, and culture. 
And they develop their grads over time — into mid-level and then senior ...