Built To Lead

TBC Studios
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 We know that the foundation of any great business is their team, but most of us are never taught how to lead them.  So I wanted to sit down with the best leaders and founders in the world and find out how they did it.  Who did they hire?  What mistakes did they make? And what do they wish someone had told them years ago? These are the stories they haven't told before and the things that made the biggest difference in their business.  If you want to stop being the bottleneck in your business, delegate properly and build a culture that people can’t wait to be part of Subscribe now wherever you're listening because you won't wanna miss these episodes. 

  1. 4 days ago

    Stop Doing Your Own Laundry: How Household Delegation Scales Business Success

    Want to scale faster without the local hiring headache? Send me a direct message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync and let’s talk about building your dedicated offshore team. Holding onto household chores is secretly capping your mental bandwidth and revenue potential. Entrepreneurs delegate heavily at work to buy back time, yet continue drowning in laundry, meal prep, and domestic chaos at home. True scale requires relinquishing control across all areas of life, replacing visual clutter with systems that protect your energy and decision-making capacity. In this episode, 10-year corporate retail leadership veteran and founder of Little Strong Home, Carmen Strong, reveals the operational blueprint for merging housekeeping with professional organisation.  Learn how she manages a team of 10 servicing homes from Sydney to Newcastle without paid ads, and the daily non-negotiables that keep household friction from stalling business performance Key moments: 00:00 How Domestic Chaos Secretly Kills Your Revenue Potential  03:22 Managing a 10-Person Team Without Sitting Behind a Desk All Day  05:15 Why You’re Auditing the Wrong Room in Your House  08:04 This Is the Hidden Cost of "Doing It Faster Yourself"  10:32 How to Kill the Maternal Guilt of Outsourcing Chores  12:12 Why Messy Workspaces Are Draining Your Team’s Productivity  15:10 How to Spot High-Detail Employees in the First Interview  17:41 Why We Fired Cleaners and Created Hybrid Housekeepers Instead  23:40 The Recruitment Mistake Most Home Service Businesses Make  26:00 How to Stop Micromanaging Staff in the Field  28:44 5 Steps to Reset Your Home Today (Without Spending a Cent)  34:08 The Exact Framework We Use to Manage Remote Field Teams  38:32 Why Bigger Isn't Always Better When Scaling a Business  42:38 How to Train Home Helpers to Get It Right the First Time Connect with Carmen on Instagram or visit Little Strong Home If you loved this episode, you will get huge value from our chat with Taki Moore on Why He Deliberately Stripped His Business Back to Under 10 Team Members. It’s the ultimate deep dive into building a lean, high-performing team and buying back your mental energy. Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. Ever wonder what goes on behind the mic? Get an exclusive, unfiltered look behind the scenes of building a high-growth business over at the Built to Lead Podcast and @jesswhatman_agentsync Hit follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode!  Loving the show? Drop us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps us keep delivering top-tier insights for you.

    Stop Doing Your Own Laundry: How Household Delegation Scales Business Success

  2. 6 Oct

    Bootstrapping an 8-Figure AI Fintech, Viral Content, & Disruption in Finance with Julian Fayad

    How do you build Australia’s first AI-powered loan marketplace from scratch and scale it to 40+ employees and 8-figure revenues without taking a single dollar of external funding?  Julian Fayad, Founder and CEO of LoanOptions.ai, walked away from a $300k+ executive salary during COVID to launch Australia’s first AI-powered loan marketplace. Leveraging nine years of broking experience and a dev background, he built proprietary AI tech and scored Deloitte Tech Fast 50 honours. In this conversation we dive deep into the power of founder-led social content, bringing marketing in-house to go viral on national news, and transitioning from generalists to specialists as a business scales.  This episode offers an actionable look into how disciplined bootstrapping, sharp unit economics, and relentless speed of execution can disrupt a traditional industry.   Key moments: 00:00 – How One Founder Went From Working 100-Hour Weeks to Scaling a 40-Person Team 01:23 –  The Journey From $300k Salary to Bootstrapping a Fintech Company 03:22 – Building AI Tech 6 Years Before the Hype 05:41 – The Real Reason for Structuring Onshore, NZ & Offshore Operations 08:35 – Scaling to 8-Figure Revenues & Expanding Gross Margins 11:00 – How Capitalising on Viral Moments Got Free Press 15:30 – Why Ditching Marketing Agencies for In-House Content Works 23:45 – This is How to Fix Team Complacency Without Firing Good People 27:00 – Why You Need To Switch From Generalists to Specialists When Scaling 29:40 – Founder-Led vs Employee-Led Social Strategy 35:00 – The Reason Founders Must Get in Front of the Camera 44:00 – How To Use the PBD Framework to Manage Different Motivations 48:15 – Why an EA Is the Single Best Hire a Founder Can Make 50:30 – Killing Unnecessary Meetings & Executing Decisions in 25 Minutes 54:10 – The Strategic Pivot to White-Labeling & SaaS Licensing You can connect with Julian Fayad by following his daily updates on LinkedIn and Instagram If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠ And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ AgentSync

    Bootstrapping an 8-Figure AI Fintech, Viral Content, & Disruption in Finance with Julian Fayad

  3. 28 Sept

    This is How you Build an AI-Driven Team with Josh Stevenson

    Stop burning executive bandwidth on shiny AI tools while your team operates on zero context.  In this episode I sit down with former tech engineer turned AI strategist Josh Stevenson to expose the massive operational flaw holding teams back when it comes to using AI.  We dive straight into execution, breaking down the specific business utility of Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, eliminating data privacy risks, and automating content pipelines that generated 250,000 followers without burning founder bandwidth. Still trying to figure out how your team can use AI? This is how. Key moments: 00:00 Why Notion Remains the Premier Postgres Database Engine for Non-Technical Founders  08:12 The 3-Part AI Framework: Models, Tools, and Context Systems   10:45 Step-by-Step Execution: Structuring Your Business via the PARA Method   15:30 How to connect Notion to Claude via MCP to Auto-Build Databases   21:30 Selecting Your Tech Stack: Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini   26:15 Why You Should Never Rebuild Existing Software   31:00 What Not to put into AI 37:00 How to Overcome the Org Chart Bottleneck   41:45 Building a 250k Follower Content Pipeline in Notion   45:30 Why Raw Unedited Video Beats Polish   56:00 Founder Performance Tracking: Automated Daily Reviews & Data Audits  Josh is a wealth of AI knowledge. You can learn more by following him on Instagram @nocode.joshua,  YouTube, TikTok or LinkedIn. If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠ And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ AgentSync

    This is How you Build an AI-Driven Team with Josh Stevenson

  4. 21 Sept

    How to Build a Culture Employees Never Want to Leave with Forbes 39 Under 30 Founder, Lexie Murray

    When 3 early employees quit to start competing agencies, Forbes 30 Under 30 founder Lexie Murray didn't back down. Instead, she built a powerhouse 15-person agency and launched proprietary AI tech inside it.  Lexie is the force behind Be Seen Socials and has mastered the art of leading high-performing teams, creating an enviable workplace culture, and scaling operations while managing top-tier global brands.  In this episode, we chat about how Lexiehttps://www.instagram.com/lexieemurray/?hl=en handles team poaching, structures multi-role hires, and leverages employee-generated content to scale. You will learn the exact culture-first policies and leadership tactics needed to keep your team fiercely loyal and aligned with your vision.  This conversation reveals how to transform internal team friction into your business's ultimate competitive advantage. Key moments: 00:00: The real reason 3 early employees left to start competing agencies   03:11: This is how proprietary AI tech makes a business uncopyable   06:01: What you need to know about hiring for culture vs. pure skill   10:57: How to set ruthless boundaries without destroying your culture   12:54: The real reason we send our team to New York 4 times a year   23:33: What you need to know before making employees the face of your brand   26:40: How to respond when rival agencies try to poach your top talent   27:49: This is why massive brands pay us to fix their internal team structures Connect with Lexie on Instagram at @lexiemurray or follow her agency @beseensocials. If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠ And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ AgentSync

    How to Build a Culture Employees Never Want to Leave with Forbes 39 Under 30 Founder, Lexie Murray

  5. 14 Sept

    From $280K Salary to a $3M a Year Business Using LinkedIn with Matt Lakajev

    Ever wondered how to turn LinkedIn into a 7-figure client acquisition engine without relying on huge content teams or ad spend?  In this episode, I sit down with Matt Lakajev, founder of Link Ninja, who walked away from a $280,000 corporate salary at Zoom to build a $3M/year business with just six team members. Having coached over 2,500 clients, Matt unpacks his exact B2B frameworks, including why traditional DMs fail, how to use "tribal niching" to speak directly to ideal buyers, and his signature "four-line" content rule that stops the mobile scroll.  You'll learn how to cut through social media noise, leverage AI to maintain a lean operation, and turn silent readers into high-ticket sales. If you're a founder or leader looking to convert organic strategy into predictable revenue, this tactical masterclass is a must-listen. Key moments: 00:00: Why the richest audience online is the one nobody's posting to 13:05: This is the reason most LinkedIn creators make no money 15:16: What LinkedIn rewards that Instagram punishes 20:37: What a good DM has in common with a handwritten letter 20:58: This is how AI is rewriting the hiring playbook 21:54: What most people get wrong about why something "didn't work" 40:59: Next time you post on LinkedIn, here's where 80% of your effort should go 54:00: What a "tribe" is, and why it out-converts a niche — You can find and connect with Matt directly on LinkedIn or check out his latest strategies on YouTube on his channel, Matthew Lakajev YouTube Channel for deep-dive masterclasses, 6-hour video breakdowns, and daily LinkedIn tactics. If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠ And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ AgentSync

    From $280K Salary to a $3M a Year Business Using LinkedIn with Matt Lakajev

  6. 7 Sept

    How to Scale a 100+ Person Team (Without Crashing Margins or Burning Out) with Jack Henderson

    If your headcount is growing but your bottom-line profitability and operational control are slipping, your business design is leaking serious cash.  I In this episode I sit down with Jack Henderson, founder of Henderson Advocacy and one of Australia’s most aggressive operators. Jack went from getting fired from his first buyer’s agency job to scaling a multi-entity brand with over 120 internal employees, 60 advocates, and 1,200+ properties under management in just 24 months.  He breaks down the harsh truths of rapid headcount growth, why traditional commission-driven models alienate high performers, how to handle toxic hires immediately, and the exact leadership mechanics required to build a high-retention enterprise.   Tune in to get the direct blueprint for building accountable teams, structuring corporate entities to protect capital, and leading from the front as a founder.  Key moments: 00:00: Why Hiring the Wrong People Destroys Business Growth 03:33: The Real Cost of Bad Hires 08:36: Why Soft Leaders Avoid Hard Conversations 14:19: How to Fix Broken Commission Structures 17:00: The Real Reason Traditional Agency Models Don't Scale 22:56: How Authentic Personal Branding Outperforms Suits & Studios 27:28: Why Brand Authority Protects You During PR Crises 32:26: The Truth About Founders Moving Overseas to Save Tax 44:29: How to Use Holding Companies for Maximum Tax Effectiveness 48:00: Why Geographic Focus is a Founder's Ultimate Superpower If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠ And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ AgentSync

    How to Scale a 100+ Person Team (Without Crashing Margins or Burning Out) with Jack Henderson

  7. 31 Aug

    Replay: From 36 Employees to 8: How Taki Moore Redesigned His Team to Scale with Taki Moore

    What happens when a founder stops following the rules… and designs a business around how their brain actually works? Taki Moore, the founder behind Million Dollar Coach (and coach to Dan Martel, Erika Cramer and so much more) built a multi-million dollar business… and then deliberately stripped it RIGHT back.  But not only that…  He got rid of his entire sales team. Taking his business from 30+ team members to less than 10. Now he is booked out months in advance, feels more creative, gets to spend time doing what he enjoys the most AND loves working in his business again. So how did he do this? By ditching the playbook and finally listening to what makes him a great leader. Today I’m sitting down with Taki Moore, and his CEO Toni Bache, to talk about exactly how they're running their team, what was behind the decision to get rid of their sales team and how they restructured the business so it could grow without Taki burning out. You’ll hear: 0:00 - Why Taki Moore keeps his team intentionally small (and how having less people actually made the business easier to run) 1:49 - The reality behind hiring too many people… What happened when Taki’s business started to feel bloated 6:23 - The point where most founders get stuck when trying to lead a bigger business 8:56 - How to get clear on what you need in your hires so you can stop panic hiring, and start hiring people who lift the bar in your business 9:56 - Does leading your business feel exhausting? You might need to try this approach instead 15:24 - Who manages the team in Taki’s business and why that role changed everything for him 18:29 - They key to having a team that runs well without constantly needing to check in or fix problems 20:48 - The Talent Density Test: The secret behind how Netflix hires 25:30 - What actually happened when Taki told his team he was downsizing his 30+ team to less than 10 31:05 - How to design a team around the way YOU work the best (not the way you think a “proper CEO” is supposed to work) 37:48 - The 5 step process Taki and Toni use to decide what parts of the business they can cut down on to get time and money back 40:26 - Good hires don’t come from job listings - they come from this instead 47:16 - What’s next for Taki and Million Dollar Coach 55:46 -  If Taki had to start completely all over and rebuild his whole team tomorrow… What's the first three roles he’d hire for and why Want more of Taki? Find him on IG @takimoore or over on YouTube here. Follow Toni over at https://www.instagram.com/toni.bache/?hl=en  If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠  Not sure what you could delegate or the next role you need? Ask Andy - https://agentsync.com.au/meet-andy  Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠  And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/

    Replay: From 36 Employees to 8: How Taki Moore Redesigned His Team to Scale with Taki Moore

  8. 24 Aug

    Getting Acquired: What Actually Happens + the Identity Loss No One Prepares You For ft Mikhailla from 26 Talent

    From running two successful marketing businesses to shutting one down and selling the other, Mikhailla Fitzgerald has lived through the parts of leadership most founders don’t talk about.Today I’m sitting down with Mikhailla, Founder of 26 Talent Agency which was acquired and changed to Huume. Mikhailla is getting real on what actually happens when you sell your business, including how decisions get made before you feel ready, what it does to your team, and the identity loss that finally hits after the deal is done.You’ll hear: 0:00 - How to spot a real business opportunity before you feel ready2:27 - Why shutting down Mikhailla’s ‘safer’ business was one of the best decisions she made4:36 - The key to making BIG businesses decisions even when you’re not 100% sure yet5:27 - Can there truly be balance when you run a business and have a young family?7:00 - Why acquisition conversations can (and should) happen before you’re even thinking of selling9:00 - How to protect your team when you’re starting to sell your business10:20 - Who you actually to hire during an acquisition and why it might change the outcome completely13:55 - What does Mikhailla’s role look like now that the business doesn’t depend on her?15:23 - The truth behind what it’s like to manage influencers16:16 - How to hire for people management roles without wasting weeks of your time interviewing19:30 - The identity loss no one prepares you for after selling your business22:30 - The hire Mikhailla would make if she had to rebuild her team from the beginningIf you want more of Mikhailla then head over to IG @mikhailla or reach out to her on LinkedIn here.If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠ Find out more about off-shore employees over at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agentsync_/⁠ and ⁠https://agentsync.com.au/⁠ And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/ AgentSync

    Getting Acquired: What Actually Happens + the Identity Loss No One Prepares You For ft Mikhailla from 26 Talent
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About

 We know that the foundation of any great business is their team, but most of us are never taught how to lead them.  So I wanted to sit down with the best leaders and founders in the world and find out how they did it.  Who did they hire?  What mistakes did they make? And what do they wish someone had told them years ago? These are the stories they haven't told before and the things that made the biggest difference in their business.  If you want to stop being the bottleneck in your business, delegate properly and build a culture that people can’t wait to be part of Subscribe now wherever you're listening because you won't wanna miss these episodes. 

Information

  • Creator
    TBC Studios
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    38
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Built To Lead 2026
  • Show Website
    Built To Lead

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