Last week we ran a training for our Boardroom members on hiring an Ops Manager or GM and bringing stronger operational and admin support into the business. 

During the session, we showed them two simple calculations that completely changed how they viewed their time. 

The first was Dan Martell’s buyback rate – what your time is actually worth.  

It’s your annual salary divided by 2,000 (50 weeks x 40hrs / week).  

So if you pay yourself $200,000 a year, your buyback rate is $100 per hour. 

That means any task you are still doing that could be done by someone else for less than $100 an hour should be bought back as quickly as possible. 

Admin. 

Inbox. 

Chasing the team. 

Formatting documents. 

Project follow-up. 

Low-level coordination. 

You get the idea.  

Then we looked at their strategic hourly rate. 

This is your annual net profit divided by the number of hours you spend on strategic work across the year. 

So if your consultancy makes $1M a ...

4 years ago I made the decision to quit drinking, for good. 

It was honestly the best decision I’ve ever made (apart from marrying my beautiful wife 😉). 

Even just one drink was affecting affect my sleep, my health and my quality of life. 

I had a line in the sand moment travelling through Tassie with my family 4 years ago. 

We were driving through Cradle Mountain in the most picturesque scenery. 

And I was hungover after 2 beers with my father in law. 

The family was laughing, singing along to music. 

And I was tired, grumpy and snapping at everyone. 

Not the version of myself I was proud of or who I wanted to be at all. 

So in that moment I made a decision. 

Not one more drink – ever. 

And I haven’t since. 

It was incredibly hard at first. 

My mates didn’t know how to engage with me. 

They (and I) felt awkward that they were drinking and I wasn’t. 

And it made me realise that I’d probably kept up drinking for longer than I w...

As we were building our engineering and built environment consultancy from $3M to $30M, we wore all the hats. 

We were leading. 
Selling. 
Managing the team. 
And still heavily involved in delivery. 

At the time, it felt responsible. 

We told ourselves that staying close to the work meant protecting quality. 
Keeping clients happy. 
And making sure nothing slipped through the cracks. 

But over time, we realised something important: 

Our time in delivery was actually sabotaging growth. 

Because every hour we spent inside projects was an hour we weren’t spending on leadership. 
On business development. 
On strategy. 
On building the team. 
On fixing the things that would actually allow the business to grow. 

And the bigger we got, the harder it became. 

The business needed more from us strategically.  
But we were still buried in the doing. 

That’s when we made a decision.  

Founders can’t stay deep in delivery if they want the business to keep growing. 

A lot of consultancy owners don’t realise this at first. 

They think the problem is their pipeline. 

Or team capacity. 

Or not enough time. 

But often the real issue is this: 

Business development still runs through them. 

They are still the one driving the relationships. 

Following up opportunities. 

Keeping conversations alive. 

Pushing proposals forward. 

Making sure momentum doesn’t stall. 

And early on, that works. 

In fact, it usually makes perfect sense. 

But over time, it becomes a hidden growth ceiling. 

Because if every new opportunity depends on you, the business can only grow as fast as your personal capacity allows. 

That’s when the pipeline becomes inconsistent, BD gets pushed aside whenever delivery ramps up, and the business starts relying too heavily on you to keep growth moving. 

In this week’s podcast episode, I break down why founder-led BD quietly caps your growth, why it keeps you stuck in the wrong work, and how BD ow...

Yesterday’s “Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM” workshop was one of the most detailed sessions I’ve run on removing founders from the day-to-day running of their consultancy. 
 
Engineering and built environment consultancy owners showed up ready to stop carrying operations themselves — and walked away with a clear plan for installing the operational support their business needs. 
 
And the feedback’s been great: 
 
“Exactly what we needed — clear, practical and immediately applicable.” 
“This gave us real clarity on what the Ops Manager role should actually look like.” 
“Great session Josh. Lots of practical takeaways.” 
 
A few people reached out saying they couldn’t make it live — so I’m making the full replay available until Friday. 
 
Grab the replay here to watch at your convenience >> Click Here
 
You’ll get access to everything included in the workshop: 
 
✔️ The Ops Manager vs GM Decision Framework 
✔️ Clarity on the responsibilities, ownership and accountability for the role 
✔️ A practical plan to ...

Tomorrow we’re running the “Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM” online workshop — and if you’ve been sitting on the fence, here’s why now’s the time to jump in. 
 
Here are some real-life examples from Boardroom coaching clients who’ve installed operational support and stopped carrying the entire business themselves: 

 
— John & Amanda brought in an Ops Manager and Admin support, freeing up their time through delegation while delivering their biggest month ever 
— Steve hired an Operations Manager, creating clarity, structure and the ability to plan confidently for the next phase of growth 
— Giulio installed an Ops Manager who now handles operational logistics and execution, allowing him to step away from day-to-day involvement 
 
Take a glance at tomorrow’s calendar. 
 
Now back to me. 
Now back to your calendar. 
Now back to me. 
 
Tomorrow, you could still be stuck running the day-to-day — answering questions, fixing workflow issues and carrying the operational load… 
 
…or you could learn the exact sy...

Let’s be honest. 
 
A lot of consultancy owners end up parenting their business. 
 
Not leading it. 
 
Parenting it. 
 
You check everyone’s work. 
You answer every question. 
You solve the disagreements. 
You make sure everyone’s playing nicely in the sandpit. 
You step in when something breaks before someone starts to cry.  
 
And you find yourself constantly repeating things like: 
 
“Did you check the system first?” 
“Have you looked at the template?” 
“Please update the tracker.” 
“Did you check that before it got sent out?” 
 
Sound familiar? 
 
Before long, your day starts to look less like leadership… 
 
And more like supervision. 
 
It’s like you’re checking homework, breaking up disagreements, answering silly questions and making sure the business doesn’t run off the rails. 
 
That’s not how a consultancy grows. 
 
And it’s one of the biggest reasons founders get stuck carrying the entire business. 
 
Let’s fix that. 
 
Next week, I’m running an online workshop: 
 
“Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM” 
— Tuesday 10th Ma...

When we grew our engineering & built environment consultancy from $3M to $30M, we thought we had operations sorted. 
 
Projects were coming in. 
The team was busy. 
Revenue was growing. 
 
But there was one problem. 
 
The business still ran through us. 
 
When systems needed changing — we were involved. 
When workflow broke — we stepped in. 
When business reporting needed reviewing — it landed on our desk. 
When team issues escalated — we handled them. 
 
And because we could fix it quickly… we did. 
 
Sound familiar? 
 
The truth is, most consultancies stall because the founder is still the operational bottleneck. 
 
— A business that only runs smoothly when you’re across everything 
— Decisions that wait for you 
— Systems that depend on your input 
— A team that escalates instead of owns 
 
That’s the problem. 
 
And next week, I’ll show you how to fix it. 
 
I’m running a 90-minute online workshop called: 
 
“Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM” 
— Tuesday 10th March 
— 11:45am – 1:15pm NSW time 
— Just $100 to join 
— Limi...

Next week I’m running an online workshop called “Hiring An Ops Manager Or GM”. 
 
It’s designed to help you stop carrying the day-to-day on your shoulders — and start building a consultancy that runs without you being across everything. 
 
If you’re tired of still running everything in your business… 
 
If systems, workflow and reporting still land on your desk… 
 
Or you want to focus on strategy and growth without the business slowing down the moment you step back… 
 
This is your chance to fix it. 
 
I’ll walk you through the exact approach high-performing consultancies are using to: 
— Decide whether they need an Ops Manager or a GM based on their stage and structure 
— Define clear ownership, accountability and KPIs so the role actually works 
— Install a leadership layer that runs workflow, tracks numbers and drives team accountability 
— Removes you as the operational bottleneck 
 
Tuesday 10th March – 11:45am NSW time 
 
It’s just $100 | 90 minutes | Online on Zoom 
 
Register now >> Click Here 
 
Let...

You’ve done the hard work. 
 
You’ve built a solid consultancy. 
You’ve got a capable team. 
You’ve built a strong reputation. 
Projects are coming in. 
 
But there’s a problem. 
 
The business still runs through you. 
 
When decisions need to be made. 

When systems need to be updated. 

When processes break and someone has to fix them. 
When a team issue escalates. 
 
It lands on your desk. 
 
You’re across everything. 
You’re the escalation point. 
You’re the glue holding it all together. 
 
And when you try to step back or focus on strategy… 
 
Things slow down. 
Standards slip. 
Momentum gets impacted. 
 
That’s the problem. 
 
Most consultancies stall because the founder is still the operational bottleneck. 
 
And when operations depend on you, growth is hard or non-existent. 
 
Every time you’re pulled back into the day-to-day, 
Strategy gets delayed. 
Business development gets inconsistent. 
Leadership becomes reactive instead of proactive. 
 
It’s time to fix that. 
 
Next week, I’m running a 90-minute online works...