Dominic Monkhouse

Dominic Monkhouse
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Battle-tested strategies for founder-CEOs navigating the chaos between startup and scale-up. Tune in for real frameworks that help you build a leadership team, install an operating cadence, and get your time back.

  1. 5d ago

    If Your Business Feels Stuck, You Need To Watch This

    When did you last actually decide what this business is? Not what it does, what it's for, who it's for, and what you're choosing to be the obvious choice for. If you can't remember, it's because you never did. You backed into something that worked, and you've been too busy ever since to stop and choose. Now the revenue you're chasing has outgrown the idea underneath it.Here's the trap: you've got a spreadsheet with next year's numbers in it, and you're calling it a plan. But it isn't. That's just a wish list with a load of cells around it. The spreadsheet isn't the real problem. Underneath it, there's no decision, just momentum masquerading as a plan.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - You've Got a Spreadsheet, Not a Plan1:02 - Warning Sign 1: You Can't Describe Your Bullseye Customer2:39 - A Vague Customer Isn't a Marketing Problem—It's a Hole Where Choice Should Be3:05 - What Gets Missed: Your Spreadsheet Is Just the Scoreboard3:38 - Warning Sign 4: Your Leadership Meetings Are Tactics, Never Direction4:21 - Warning Sign 5: Your Leaders Are Still on the Tools5:00 - The Horsepower Gap: The Team That Got You Here vs The Team That Gets You There7:03 - The Real Question You've Been AvoidingBook your seat: https://start.ceo2workshop.com/virtual-ceo📞 Ready to implement the blueprint? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=dominicmonkhouse&utm_content=o1vtbSC4tb0-desc→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicmonkhouse/Website: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything.Your idea got you off the ground. It was never a plan. Go and build one.#FounderCEO #Strategy #Planning #ScalingBusiness

    8 min

  2. Jun 11

    How To Stop Being the Answer to Every Decision in Your Business

    You didn't hire the wrong people. You taught the right ones to bring every decision to you. Every refund, every supplier switch, every holiday request, every hire below your senior team. You answered, so you became the answer. Now, a call that used to take a day takes 3 weeks because it's stuck in a queue behind everything else in your head.You're working harder than you've ever worked. The growth rate's gone backwards. You've got a leadership team on paper and a bottleneck in the mirror.I'm Dominic Monkhouse. I've scaled two firms past £30 million, coached 200+ founder-CEOs, and seen 12 of them through to an exit. Every single one hit this exact wall. In this video, I'm showing you three things: why the decisions keep bouncing back to you, how to get the team to bring you the call instead of the problem, and the one-page four-column framework that tells them exactly which decisions are theirs. Get that right, and you stop being the bottleneck. You start getting your week back.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Why Does Everything Still Come Back to You?1:48 - My Achilles Heel at Rackspace2:17 - The Obvious Fix That Doesn't Work (Delegate More)3:47 - The One-Page, Four-Column Decision Authority Framework5:43 - You Haven't Got the Right People, or Nobody's Grown the Ones You HaveKEY TAKEAWAYS:- You didn't hire the wrong people, you trained them to bring everything to you- They bring problems to you because it's the safest move for them- The obvious fix (delegate more) doesn't work because the real issue is who owns the judgment- Don't bring me the problem—bring me the call you'd make and why- A problem is a question (needs you); a recommendation is a decision (just needs yes or no)- Four-column framework: I Decide | They Decide and Tell Me | They Decide, I'm Consulted | They Just Decide- Move everything that doesn't bet the company out of Column 1- First time someone brings a Column 4 decision, hand it back: "What do you reckon you should do?"- If you can't delegate, it's not a delegation problem—it's a people problem- The right people are like Scott Davies: they straighten pictures in other people's houses without being asked📄 For Founder Decision Rights Framework: https://readytoscale.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-decision-framework-30m-uk🎓 PAID WORKSHOP: Get Your First Protected CEO Day Back in 90 Days- Restructure your diary to create that day- Built for founder-CEOs with 30+ employees- Seats limited for proper Q&A- Three founders said that one day was worth £500k/year to them- One said it would be worth £2.5m of ARRBook your seat: https://start.ceo2workshop.com/virtual-ceo📞 Ready to implement the blueprint? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=dominicmonkhouse&utm_content=o1vtbSC4tb0-desc→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicmonkhouse/Website: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything.Don't bring me the problem. Bring me the call you'd make and why.#FounderCEO #Leadership #Decision-Making #Delegation

    6 min

  3. Jun 10

    You Don't Understand Business Until You Learn These 5 Lessons

    After coaching more than 200 founder-CEOs, I can usually tell in 10 minutes if you're the bottleneck. Not because you're bad at CEO work, but because you've become the place where every decision, every standard, and every bit of context lands.I've scaled two companies to a £30 million run rate. I've lived this stage myself. In this video, I'm showing you five ways you've become the bottleneck and the changes that give you your week back and let your senior team run the business without it wobbling. The fifth one is the one most founders don't see coming. It's also the one quietly costing them their best people.I'm Dominic Monkhouse. I've scaled two UK firms—Rackspace and Peer-1—to £30m ARR in five years. I've coached over 100 founder-CEOs, 12 of whom have had fantastic exits.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Introduction0:42 - "I've Become the Bottleneck"1:11 - The Founders Who Break Through Just Stopped Making Themselves the Operating System1:26 - Bottleneck 1: Every Decision Flows to You2:48 - Bottleneck 2: You're the Quality Control Department4:18 - Bottleneck 3: Your Calendar Is the Company's Operating Rhythm6:06 - Bottleneck 4: All the Context Lives in Your Head7:32 - Bottleneck 5: You Are the Energy Source9:51 - The Five Bottlenecks SummaryTHE FIVE BOTTLENECKS SUMMARY:1. Decisions that flow to you because nobody has a clear authority map2. Standards that depend on you because you've never documented what good looks like3. A calendar that holds the business hostage because your presence became the rhythm4. Context locked in your head that nobody else can access5. A culture that runs on your energy because you haven't built leaders who generate their ownThis is why your senior team still can't run the business. None of these are failures. Every founder at this stage is dealing with versions of them. The ones who break through aren't more talented—they're just willing to be honest about this sooner.How long have you known you're the bottleneck? And what are you waiting for?Twelve months from now, one of two things will be true: either you'll have done this work and the business runs without you in the room, or you'll be in the same Slack threads, the same approvals, the same tired Sunday night, having lost another year of compounding to a problem you already knew you had.📞 Ready to build a moat around your champions? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=dominicmonkhouse&utm_content=us2C6IOxqEE→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicmonkhouse/Website: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything.This is the work behind running a £10m business in two days a week instead of seven.#FounderCEO #Leadership #ScalingBusiness #Bottlenecks

    11 min

  4. May 13

    These 7 Business Books Will Change Your Life Forever

    After more than 10,000 hours coaching founder-CEOs, I've seen what works and what breaks in that 15-250 employee range, especially in no man's land (70-100 people), where every decision bottlenecks with you. In this video, I'm showing you seven books and one principle from each that you can use this week to stop being the bottleneck.WARNING: Don't try to read all seven books this week—that's just another way to stay busy. Pick the one that solves your biggest bottleneck right now and commit to that one principle for the next 90 days. When it's a habit, move to the next.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Are You Building a Business or a Prison?0:54 - Book 1: Multipliers by Liz Wiseman (Stop Being the Genius)2:04 - Book 2: Scaling Up by Verne Harnish (You Can't Scale Heroics)3:15 - Book 3: Big Bet Leadership by John Rossman (One Name, One Owner)4:17 - Book 4: The Geek Way by Andrew McAfee (Hire for Curiosity)5:37 - Book 5: Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish (Decision Quality Beats Speed)6:25 - Book 6: Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger (Contribution vs Acquisition)7:22 - Book 7: Legacy by James Kerr (Leave the Jersey Better)8:24 - Summary: Seven Principles to Stop Being the BottleneckSEVEN PRINCIPLES TO STOP BEING THE BOTTLENECK:1. To build leaders: Become a genius maker2. To stop firefighting: Build systems, not heroics3. To get things done: Assign a single owner (DRI)4. To build a smarter team: Hire for curiosity5. To get your time back: Prioritise decision quality6. To find your focus: Be useful (contribution vs acquisition)7. To build a company that lasts: Create a culture of stewardship📧 Want one email a day to get your time back and stop firefighting? 33 lessons in the description: https://join.monkhouseandcompany.com/33-days-of-no-bollocks-business-insights📞 Ready to build a moat around your champions? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicmonkhouse/Website: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything.Stop being the bottleneck. Pick one principle for 90 days.#FounderCEO #Leadership #ScalingBusiness #BookRecommendations

    9 min

  5. Apr 30

    How To Stop Being The Reason Your Business Can't Run Without You

    You've just interviewed another strong head of ops. Great CV, good energy. Three months in, every hard decision still lands on your desk. There's one hire that changes that—and it isn't them. The one hire is the difference between you working 7 days a week and the business actually running without you in every room.If this is you, it doesn't mean you're failing. It means you've hit the stage where functional heads stop working. You keep hiring subordinates when your business now needs a peer. I'm Dominic Monkhouse. In this video, I'm showing you the one hire, the three mistakes founders make before they get it right, and the five questions that tell you whether the person in front of you is actually the one.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - You Hired Another Strong Head of Ops, But Every Decision Still Lands on Your Desk0:54 - The Move That Breaks Through: Someone Who Runs the Week1:32 - The Elevate Leader of the 2-Day-a-Week CEO Blueprint1:47 - This Hire Looks Different in Every Business3:05 - What's Your Biggest Gap, and Who Can Cover It Better Than You?3:34 - The Cost of Carrying Both Jobs: Enterprise Value Walking Out the Door4:41 - Three Classic Mistakes When Making This Hire6:40 - Five Questions to Spot the Right One Quickly9:03 - Three Rules for the First 90 DaysKEY TAKEAWAYS:- Functional heads optimise locally—sales hit its number, ops hit its number, the business misses its number- You're not hiring a title—you're hiring another grown-up you can lean on- The cost of being the bottleneck: seven figures of enterprise value walking out the door every quarter- Bigger, not big—hire the person who's just led the transition you're about to make- Five questions: Stage experience, Can they disagree, Think in numbers, Own outcomes, Stretch your team- Don't undermine them in week one, give them one big call in month one, use the two-chair rule- Block 2 hours/week one-to-one for first 6 months—senior doesn't mean psychic📧 Want one email a day to get your time back and stop firefighting? 33 lessons in the description: https://join.monkhouseandcompany.com/33-days-of-no-bollocks-business-insights?video=ILVx7NpvkWE📞 Ready to build a moat around your champions? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call?video=ILVx7NpvkWE→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicmonkhouse/Website: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything.You can buy compliance. You can't buy judgment.#FounderCEO #Leadership #Hiring #ScalingBusiness

    11 min

  6. Apr 2

    The 5-Step Framework to Fire Someone Fairly (Without the Guilt)

    After coaching more than 100 founder-CEOs, I've learned this isn't a firing problem—it's a guilt problem. Guilt makes you wait, and the team pays the price in missed deadlines and late nights. In this video, I'm showing you five fairness checks to fire somebody fairly without the guilt and move on cleanly.I'm Dominic Monkhouse. I've scaled two of my own businesses past £30 million and coached over 100 more. In that time, I've learned that firing isn't a failure—it's a necessary part of building a high-performance team. If you don't have a framework, you'll delay, dither, and burn your best people in the process. This framework stops that.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - This Isn't a Firing Problem, It's a Guilt Problem1:02 - Step 1: Clarify Before You Blame (Is This Actually Your Fault?)2:00 - Step 2: Have the Accountability Conversation (Strike One)3:49 - Step 3: Do the Final Fairness Check (Strike Two)4:45 - Step 4: Run a Proper PIP (30-90 Days)6:01 - Step 5: If the PIP Fails, Part Ways7:03 - Summary: The Fair Firing FrameworkLEGAL DISCLAIMER:I'm not an HR consultant. This is a leadership framework, not a legal one. Your jurisdiction might have different laws you need to follow. Obviously, talk to your lawyer. This framework is fair—I've used it hundreds of times.THE FAIR FIRING FRAMEWORK SUMMARY:1. Clarify before you blame2. Have the accountability conversation3. Do the final fairness check4. Run a proper PIP5. If all else fails, let them leave with dignityThis isn't about being a hard-ass. It's about protecting your A players. It's about building a culture where performance is the standard, not the exception. It's about freeing you up to do your real job—leading the business, not refereeing.KEY TAKEAWAYS:- This isn't a firing problem—it's a guilt problem- People can't meet expectations you never set- Start from extreme ownership: "This miss might actually be on us as leaders"- Once is a mistake, twice is a pattern- Two strikes is enough data to accept reality📧 Want one email a day to get your time back and stop firefighting? 33 lessons in the description: https://join.monkhouseandcompany.com/33-days-of-no-bollocks-business-insights📞 Ready to build a moat around your champions? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicmonkhouse/Website: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comGuilt makes you wait. The team pays the price.#FounderCEO #Leadership #PerformanceManagement #ScalingBusiness

    8 min

  7. Apr 2

    You're Not Ready to Grow Your Business Until You've Fixed This

    Your worst customers aren't just hurting your margins—they're stealing your best people's time. At IT Lab, we were losing £65,000 a month. In 90 days, we got to break even by making one hard change: we stopped treating every customer the same. If you treat everyone the same, your best customers leave first. They don't complain—they just go.I'm Dominic Monkhouse. I've scaled two tech companies past £30 million and coached founder-CEOs for a decade. In this video, I'm showing you three things: the 3P filter to sort customers, the three-tier system so your team knows who gets what service, and how your champions become a moat competitors can't copy.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Your Worst Customers Are Stealing Your Best People's Time0:26 - The 3P Filter: Profit, Patterns, Potential1:21 - How We Sorted 12,500 Customers at Pier-12:14 - Three Lists: Upgrade, Hold Steady, Downgrade2:39 - The Three-Tier System (Equal Treatment Is Lazy)4:13 - The Script to Downgrade Customers Without Drama5:21 - Your Champions Become Your Competitive Moat6:51 - Bring It Together: Monday to Friday Action PlanKEY TAKEAWAYS:- If you treat everyone the same, your best customers leave first- The 3P Filter: Profit (what's left after support), Patterns (how they behave), Potential (where they're going)- Three lists: Upgrade, Hold Steady, Downgrade- Three-tier system: Champions get VIP, Core gets standard, Price Shoppers get minimum- The downgrade script: "To keep prices where they are, we only offer support via email within 48 hours. Telephone support is on the higher plan."- At IT Lab: Put prices up 50%, lost one customer- Your champions become your product team, case studies, and salesforce- Don't go from 12,500 to 25,000 customers—just add 100 champions a year- Equal treatment isn't fair—it's lazy📧 Want one email a day to get your time back and stop firefighting? 33 lessons in the description: https://join.monkhouseandcompany.com/33-days-of-no-bollocks-business-insights📞 Ready to build a moat around your champions? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call→ FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 / dominicmonkhouseInstagram: 📷 / dominicmonkhouseWebsite: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.comABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything.Your worst customers are stealing your best people's time.#FounderCEO #CustomerStrategy #ScalingBusiness #Profitability

    8 min

  8. Feb 27

    The 90-Day Plan To Build a Leadership Team That Runs Without You

    Are you the referee for your leadership team? If every issue between your leaders lands on your desk, you're not leading—you're mediating. And that's costing you time and momentum. If you enforce peer-to-peer feedback every week, I can give you a day a week back in 90 days. I'm Dominic Monkhouse. I've scaled two tech companies past £30 million and coached founder-CEOs for a decade. In this video, I'm showing you the 90-day plan to build a leadership team that runs without you, month by month. Month two has one rule that kills gossip in 6 weeks. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Are You the Referee for Your Leadership Team?0:33 - Month 1: Build Trust (The Three-Legged Stool)1:41 - Month 2: Use That Trust (Healthy Conflict)3:13 - Month 3: Build the Rhythm (Weekly 90-Minute Meeting)4:48 - The Takeaway: Stop Being the Bottleneck KEY TAKEAWAYS: If every issue lands on your desk, you're not leading—you're mediating The three-legged stool of trust: Competence, Care, Character Run the Stinky Fish exercise to surface unspoken issues Trust is currency for healthy conflict, not harmony The No Triangulation Rule kills gossip in 6 weeks Weekly 90-minute meetings: Good news, Scorecard, To-do review, Deep work Use the 5 W's framework (Who, What, When, Way, Why Not) for all actions Withholding feedback is selfish—you're optimising for comfort, not performance Stop accepting fake harmony 📧 Be a better leader in 33 days with one tool a day. Sign up here: https://join.monkhouseandcompany.com/33-days-of-no-bollocks-business-insights 📞 Ready to build a team that runs without you? Book a call: https://book.monkhouseandcompany.com/founder-freedom-call → FOLLOW DOMINIC MONKHOUSE:LinkedIn: 👔 / linkedin.com/dominicmonkhouseInstagram: 📷 / instagram.com/dominicmonkhouseWebsite: https://www.monkhouseandcompany.com ABOUT DOMINIC:I'm a UK-based business coach who helps founder-CEOs scale their companies from 50 to 250 employees. I've scaled two UK tech companies to £30M ARR in five years. Now, my mission is to help 2,000 British companies build systems that scale without the founder at the centre of everything. Stop being the bottleneck. #FounderCEO #Leadership #LeadershipTeam #ScalingBusiness

    6 min
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About

Battle-tested strategies for founder-CEOs navigating the chaos between startup and scale-up. Tune in for real frameworks that help you build a leadership team, install an operating cadence, and get your time back.

Information

  • Creator
    Dominic Monkhouse
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Dominic Monkhouse
  • Show Website
    Dominic Monkhouse