May 12

#256: Running Production Yourself Limits How Many Jobs Your Business Can Take | Crystal & Krista

Trying to scale your business, but still getting pulled back into the field? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business has grown, but the owner is still the one customers, crews, and employees rely on to keep the work moving. The company may have demand, people, and opportunity, but growth gets limited when the owner is still the one selling, running production, training people, and solving the day-to-day problems. In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Crystal and Krista from Dynamic Landscaping and Lawn & Turf Landscaping. Their companies provide residential landscaping, commercial maintenance, lawn care, irrigation, design-build services, and snow services in Indiana. Earlier in the business, Crystal was in the field working with crews because she believed she was the only one who could sell and run production. Krista was also staying too close administratively because she felt she had to be beside people instead of giving them room to do the work. Because of that, the business could only run one or two jobs at a time when it could have been running more. They realized they were the bottleneck and started changing how they trained and delegated. They made training videos, documented work with pictures, gave people more room to learn, and began teaching team members to train the next person instead of staying stuck in one role themselves. Today, Crystal and Krista are still working through the next version of that same challenge. Crystal is getting pulled back into flowers because someone had not been fully trained to own that work, while Krista is focused on building systems, numbers, and accountability so the team can follow a clear process instead of relying on what only the owners know. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business is ready to grow, but the owners have to slow down long enough to train people, build systems, and get the work out of their heads so the team can carry more of it. ⸻ What You’ll Learn: • Why owners get pulled back into the field when no one else is trained • How being the only person who can sell and run production limits growth • Why hiring people without systems can pull owners back into the day-to-day • How training videos and documentation help the next person learn faster • Why growing leaders becomes the owner’s real work in the Messy Middle ⸻ Timestamps: 00:00 Getting pulled back into the day-to-day 00:51 Being the only one who could sell and run production 02:28 Realizing the owners were the bottleneck 02:47 Using training videos to expand capacity 08:12 Getting pulled back into flowers and operations 09:50 Hiring people before systems were ready 12:55 Needing numbers to get out of the field 19:12 Staying stuck at $3 million for three years ⸻ Crystal Knafel is a growth-focused entrepreneur and co-owner of Dynamic Landscaping and Lawn & Turf Landscaping. She specializes in building strong teams, scalable systems, and culture-driven companies throughout the landscaping industry. Known for her visionary mindset and high standards, she is focused on creating a Midwest landscaping platform that develops people, delivers exceptional service, and builds long-term enterprise value through accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement. Krista Bontrager is the integrator and co-owner. She brings structure, clarity, and organization to the day-to-day operations of both companies. She has a talent for taking what feels complex and making it simple, sustainable, and clear. Her leadership ensures that as the companies scale for growth, it carries alignment, accountability, and strong internal systems. #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #LandscapingBusiness

29 min

May 8

#255: Constant Questions Keep Owners Stuck In Operations | Austin Walls

Trying to grow your business while everything still runs through you? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business has grown, the team is bigger, and the owner is no longer doing everything themselves, but employees still depend on the owner for decisions, accountability, and direction. The business works, but too much still relies on the owner staying closely involved in the day-to-day to keep things moving. In this episode of Self Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Austin from Walls Furniture and Mattress. Austin shares what it looked like building and growing a family-owned furniture business while staying heavily involved in nearly every part of the operation. Earlier in the business, Austin was handling inventory, ordering, payroll, accounting, sales management, warehouse operations, and customer issues all at once. Employees were constantly coming to him with questions because he kept everything close to the vest and they did not feel comfortable making decisions without him. Even though the business was growing, he had almost no life outside of work and missed vacations and family time because the business constantly needed his attention. Over time, Austin realized the business had become too large to operate without better systems and more employee ownership. He implemented a point-of-sale and inventory system, gave employees more authority in customer decisions, and worked on trusting people to take ownership of their responsibilities instead of routing everything back through him. Today, Austin is still wearing multiple hats across sales management, accounting, warehouse operations, customer service, and deliveries. He talks about spending four weeks personally working on the delivery truck while still trying to manage the rest of the business. The company no longer depends on him being physically in the store every minute, but he is still heavily involved in accountability, operational oversight, and decision-making while trying to create enough capacity to grow the business further. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the owner has delegated some of the work, but the business still depends heavily on them to keep operations moving and create the next stage of growth. What You’ll Learn: • Why employees keep coming to the owner for decisions • How owner involvement limits team ownership • Why systems become necessary as a business grows • How trust affects delegation and accountability • The opportunity cost of staying stuck in operations Looking To Scale Your Business: Book a 2-Week Coaching Trail to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/business-strategy-session/ Timestamps: 00:00 Everything still ran through Austin 00:36 Wearing every hat in the business 01:41 Missing family time because of the business 02:36 Installing systems and giving employees ownership 07:42 Back on the delivery truck for four weeks 11:57 Too big to be small, too small to be big 13:36 Learning to trust employees with ownership 19:04 Why owners stay stuck doing $25/hour work Austin is the owner of Walls Furniture and Mattress in Kokomo, Indiana. At Walls Furniture we believe that our neighbors are family we operate from that premise everyday. Come see the difference for yourself at 521 E Alto Rd in Kokomo or shop online at shopwallsfurniture.com. We would love to have you be a part of our family. #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #OwnerBottleneck

26 min

May 5

#254: Doing Your Own Data Entry Because You Don’t Trust Your Team Slows Growth | Seth Wilson

Trying to scale your business, but still getting pulled back into the details? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when a system that once helped the business becomes something the owner has to keep managing. Growth creates more projects, more tasks, and more follow-up, and before long, the owner is back inside the day-to-day instead of focusing on the work only they can do. In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Seth from Adler Attorneys. Adler Attorneys is a law firm in Hamilton County, Indiana, focused on estate planning, business work, consulting, and serving as general counsel for businesses. Earlier in the business, Seth found himself spending an inordinate amount of time controlling the data entry piece of things. He felt responsible for making sure information was entered accurately, but that administrative work was taking him away from drafting contracts, handling discovery, serving clients, and moving projects forward. To work through it, Seth had to acknowledge his tendency to control the work all the way through. He began investing in training, setting clearer expectations, giving feedback, and building the trust needed to let the team handle more of the work. Now the business has grown, and a similar pattern has shown up in task-based project management. The firm created systems and processes that worked for a season, but as the number of similar cases grew, the number of tasks multiplied too, pulling Seth back into moving due dates, managing tasks, and spending time moving data around again. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business has outgrown a system that used to work. The owner is no longer doing everything, but the structure still needs to evolve so capacity, client service, and growth do not depend on the owner constantly keeping the machine moving. ⸻ What You’ll Learn: * Why owners get pulled back into data and task management even after delegating * How controlling the details limits capacity and keeps owners from higher-value work * Why training and clear expectations are necessary before trust can grow * How systems that worked in one season can become constraints in the next * Why capacity, client service, and consistency depend on stronger operating structure ⸻ Timestamps: (00:00) Controlling data entry was limiting capacity (02:36) Learning to train, trust, and hand work off (04:45) What Adler Attorneys does (05:31) Stepping into ownership and managing control (12:38) Task-based project management pulls Seth back in (14:11) Capacity becomes the reason the system has to change (17:21) The cost of not delegating sooner (21:50) Why outside perspective helps owners see what they cannot ⸻ Seth graduated from Regent Law School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Regent Law Review. Seth has become known as “Indiana’s artificially intelligent lawyer,” which simply means his colleagues figured out he’s only artificially intelligent. Seth co-hosts the Lifetime Legacy Lawyers podcast where he helps lawyers launch and build their law practices. Seth also writes articles and presents CLE seminars on how to best use technology to enhance the practice of law, while meeting ethical obligations with regard to client and firm data. He has been married for almost 24 years to an amazing wife and has 3 awesome kids. Seth R. Wilson practices with Adler Attorneys, with offices in Noblesville and Anderson, Indiana. Seth is an Estate and Business lawyer & mediator. His goal is to provide clients with peace of mind through proper business and estate planning. #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #Delegation

26 min

May 1

#253: Can’t Take More Clients Because You Do The Work Even On Weekends | Angela Roberts

Trying to grow your business, but still doing all the client work yourself? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when referrals are coming in, but the owner is still the main capacity in the business. Growth slows when one person is doing the work, running the company, and trying to build the next level at the same time. In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Angela Roberts from Main Accounting Services. Main Accounting Services provides accounting services, not tax, for law firms. Earlier in the business, Angela was doing all of the client work herself. Referrals were coming in, but she had to cap new clients because there was not more of her. That meant long weekdays, Saturdays, and missing valuable family time. Angela realized she needed more than part-time help. She hired a higher-level person who could help build the business, not just do the client work. That person became her right arm and is now the COO. Now Angela is no longer doing accounting work, but the current challenge is team structure and culture. She is working on clear expectations, internal procedures, project management, and getting everybody on the same page. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the owner is no longer doing all the client work, but the business still needs stronger internal structure so the team can keep growing. What You’ll Learn: Why doing all the client work can cap growthHow referrals create pressure when capacity depends on one ownerWhy higher-level help matters when the business needs to growWhat changes when the owner moves from doing the work to leading othersWhy internal procedures matter as the team grows Looking To Scale Your Business: Did you know that only 9% of businesses make it to $1,000,000 in revenue and less than 1% reach $10,000,000. The hustle and grind that got you to $1,000,000 will not get you beyond it. To scale past the Messy Middle, you need stronger systems, clearer structure, and disciplined execution. Book a 2-Week Coaching Trail to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/business-strategy-session/ Timestamps: (00:00) Doing all the work pulls Angela into the day-to-day (00:48) Referrals come in, but capacity runs out (01:28) Hiring a higher-level right arm (02:53) Missing valuable family time (04:40) What Main Accounting Services does (05:06) Choosing law firms as the niche (07:50) Current challenge: team structure and culture (09:22) Building internal procedures and project management Angela Main Roberts earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and is a QuickBooks Online® ProAdvisor. Her passion for helping business owners understand their finances has led her to curate a capable and resourceful team. Her diverse accounting background allows her to tackle a wide range of problems with creative solutions. She has experience with various accounting roles in manufacturing, service industries, and small businesses. Main Accounting Services specializes in increasing the success and profitability of growing law firms! Our mission is to empower law firm owners by helping you understand your financial reports. #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #TeamStructure

29 min

Apr 29

#252: Chasing Leads Yourself Keeps Sales Stuck | Wayne Purcell

Trying to grow your business, but still doing too much of the follow-up yourself? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when leads are coming in, but the owner is still carrying the process that turns interest into sales. Growth slows when follow-up depends on one person to gather the information, remember the next step, make the calls, send the emails, and keep everything moving. In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Wayne Purcell from AIRFeet. AIRFeet makes a super thin, air-chambered active arch insole that moves under the foot and helps reduce discomfort and pain for people who stand, walk, work, or play sports. Earlier in the business, shows and expos created a heavy follow-up burden for Wayne. He could walk away with a couple hundred leads, but the real work came afterward, gathering the data, entering it, making calls, sending emails, and continuing to follow up while still running the company. To work through it, Wayne recognized that if the business was going to get above where it was, something had to change. He began aligning with people who could help take the company to the next level and relieve some of the workload. Now the business has evolved, but follow-up is still the current tension. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when demand is there, the product works, and opportunity is real, but growth still depends too heavily on the owner managing the follow-up. What You’ll Learn: Why show leads do not turn into growth without consistent follow-upHow manual follow-up can pull the owner away from the rest of the businessWhat gets missed when new leads take attention away from existing customersWhy business owners often take problems back after trying to let goHow better lead systems can help turn interest into actual customers Looking To Scale Your Business: Did you know that only 9% of businesses make it to $1,000,000 in revenue and less than 1% reach $10,000,000. The hustle and grind that got you to $1,000,000 will not get you beyond it. To scale past the Messy Middle, you need stronger systems, clearer structure, and disciplined execution. Book a Discovery Call to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/discovery-zoom-call/ Timestamps: (00:00) The past problem pulling Wayne into the day-to-day (00:09) Exhibit follow-up becomes a chasm of effort (01:02) Gathering leads, data, calls, and emails after shows (02:13) Everything stops when follow-up takes over (03:50) The personal cost of doubt, pressure, and lost priorities (05:01) Recognizing the need to change how growth is handled (06:36) What AIRFeet does and how the product helps people (12:59) Current challenge: sales follow-up and lead management Wayne is the owner of three companies, each built around innovation, problem-solving, and business growth. His largest and most challenging venture is AIRfeet, a company providing pain relief, comfort, support, and performance solutions through innovative Active Insole products. AIRfeet products are designed to improve comfort, target painful ailments and improve performance for people who spend long hours on their feet every day. Learn more at https://myairfeet.com Here is a discount code to get 25% off with Free Shipping: SELFMADE #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #FollowUpSystem

30 min

Apr 16

#251 Training Every New Hire Keeps You Stuck and Slows Growth | Nick Jaworski

Trying to grow your business, but still getting pulled back into parts of the work you don’t want to own? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when growth creates new bottlenecks instead of removing old ones. As the business scales, solving one constraint often exposes the next, and the owner gets pulled back into the day-to-day in a different way. In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Nick from Circle Social Inc. Circle Social is a marketing and consulting agency focused primarily on healthcare organizations, providing full-service marketing for clients that want to fully outsource strategy and execution rather than rely on a single channel. Earlier in the business, Nick was growing quickly, doubling revenue and staff year over year, but training became a major constraint. Every new hire required around 40 hours of hands-on onboarding, which pulled him and the leadership team away from sales, strategy, and client work. To solve this, Nick stepped back with his leadership team and mapped out the entire training process. They turned it into structured checklists, built out presentations, and recorded a full training system that could be delivered without direct involvement. Now the business has changed, with strong systems in place and a leadership team that manages the day-to-day, but a new version of the same pattern has shown up in sales. Nick is still the one handling inbound leads, filtering prospects, running calls, and closing deals, which has become the primary bottleneck. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when operations are no longer the constraint, but growth still runs through the owner, keeping the business from moving forward at the next level. What You’ll Learn: Why training can quietly become a growth bottleneck during rapid hiringHow building structured systems creates long-term operational leverageWhy solving one bottleneck often reveals the next constraintHow sales dependency can limit growth even in a stable business Looking To Scale Your Business: Did you know that only 9% of businesses make it to $1,000,000 in revenue and less than 1% reach $10,000,000. The hustle and grind that got you to $1,000,000 will not get you beyond it. To scale past the Messy Middle, you need stronger systems, clearer structure, and disciplined execution. Book a 2-Week Coaching Trail to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/business-strategy-session/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro and training identified as early bottleneck 00:49 40-hour onboarding creates time drain 01:08 Training pulls leadership away from core work 01:41 Personal impact: stress, boredom, and repetition 03:25 Decision to build structured training system 04:50 Investment required to complete training system 08:45 Sales becomes the next bottleneck 10:16 Owner remains responsible for all sales activity 11:41 Business stability vs growth tradeoff 12:14 Responsibility to team and need for continued growth Nick Jaworski is an internationally recognized executive in the field of behavioral health marketing and operational consulting with experience building organizations across four continents. Circle Social Inc is a healthcare marketing agency that specializes in helping recovery centers and other healthcare organizations connect with patients and their communities to grow their census and help more people. #MessyMiddle #BusinessGrowth #ScalingBusinesses

30 min

Apr 14

#250:Can’t Step Away Because Your Team Waits On Your Decisions | Corey Alderin | Corey Alderin

Trying to grow your business, but still doing too many things yourself? This is what the Messy Middle looks like when too much still runs through the owner. Growth slows because work that should be happening across the team is still being done by one person instead of moving in parallel. In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Corey Alderin from Sermon Shots. Sermon Shots takes full-length sermons and turns them into short-form content, social media clips, and other resources that churches can use throughout the week. Earlier in the business, Corey was involved in too many of the day-to-day tasks across the company. What started as doing everything early on drifted into him continuing to stay involved across multiple areas instead of the work being spread out. Because of that, work was not happening in parallel, which hurt growth and created pressure because too much depended on him. To work through this, he realized that many of the things he was doing could be handled by others and that the work needed to be spread out across the team. Now the business has changed, and Corey is no longer doing all of the work himself, with the team handling more of the execution, but a similar pattern has shown up in a different way where he is still the one making many of the decisions, which means work slows down when the team is waiting on him and too much still depends on him instead of decisions happening in parallel, creating pressure and making him the bottleneck. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the work is no longer all on the owner, but the business still depends on them to keep things moving forward. ⸻ What You’ll Learn: • Why doing everything yourself stops work from happening in parallel • How staying involved too long becomes a growth constraint • What changes when work is finally spread across a team • Why solving one bottleneck often reveals the next one • How new constraints show up even after hiring ⸻ Looking To Scale Your Business: Did you know that only 9% of businesses make it to $1,000,000 in revenue and less than 1% reach $10,000,000. The hustle and grind that got you to $1,000,000 will not get you beyond it. To scale past the Messy Middle, you need stronger systems, clearer structure, and disciplined execution. Book a Discovery Call to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/discovery-zoom-call/ ⸻ Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction and setup of past constraint (00:11) Doing too many things across the business (00:44) Impact on growth from doing everything (01:27) Work not happening in parallel (02:29) Personal pressure and overwhelm (03:40) Realization that change was needed (04:46) Hiring and starting to distribute work (07:45) New constraint, still making all decisions (08:45) Decisions slowing the team down (09:30) Decision load and mental pressure (11:15) Feeling like the bottleneck (13:15) Lesson, delegate decisions earlier ⸻ Corey Alderin grew up in small-town Iowa and moved to Chicago for his first job out of college. He's also lived in Wisconsin and now resides near Indianapolis, Indiana. Corey is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sermon Shots, a platform that helps churches repurpose their sermons into shareable content. #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #OwnerBottleneck

27 min

Apr 8

#249: Work Stalls When You Must Approve Everything And Deadlines Slip | Addison Newell

Trying to grow your business, but still the one making every decision? In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Addison Newell from Prevenient. Prevenient runs commercial buildings in Central Indiana. They help ownership groups acquire, renovate, and build out spaces across co-working, office, event, retail, food, and hospitality. Earlier in the business, Addison saw that work was still waiting on him or leadership before it moved forward. The team defaulted to him. Important work did not move unless he stepped in. Decisions slowed. Follow-up stalled. As the business grew, that started to change. But a new version of the same constraint showed up. Addison remained the strongest salesperson in the company. Much of what made him effective came naturally. He could step into a conversation and close quickly. That approach did not easily transfer to others on the team. This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business is growing but still stuck in the day-to-day. The team is in place. The owner is still the bottleneck. Progress and revenue still depend on them. Until that changes, the business cannot fully scale. Everything still runs through the owner. What You’ll Learn: Why decision-making bottlenecks keep teams from moving work forwardHow unclear expectations cause teams to wait instead of actWhat changes when you start defining how work should move without youWhy sales success that comes naturally to the owner is hard to transfer to the team Looking To Scale Your Business: Did you know that only 9% of businesses make it to $1,000,000 in revenue and less than 1% reach $10,000,000. The hustle and grind that got you to $1,000,000 will not get you beyond it. To scale past the Messy Middle, you need stronger systems, clearer structure, and disciplined execution. Book a Discovery Call to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/discovery-zoom-call/ Timestamps: (00:01) The past problem, waiting on leadership to move things forward (01:45) How stalled execution hurt momentum and pulled Addison back in (03:04) Why guardrails, direction, and clear objectives mattered more than loose autonomy (05:36) What Addison learned about accountability, clarity, and management (09:10) What Provenient does and how the business model works (16:03) Why the business cannot scale if sales still depends on Addison (18:03) The cost to the business when the owner stays in frontline sales (22:12) Lessons Addison wishes he had learned sooner about building and selling (27:03) How mentors helped him see what he was missing (30:39) The people who helped him most and what support really looks like Born in rural Indiana, Addison found his faith and career ambitions while studying and playing tennis at Olivet Nazarene University. Desiring to be a constitutional lawyer, a clear, divine moment occurred that sent Addison to become a public school teacher in Indianapolis then to the missions field in rural South Africa with his wife, where he started his first business, then pivoting back to the US during COVID, working from corporate consultant to turning around a commercial building and business to launching Prevenient where he does the same for other commercial buildings around Central Indiana. Addison is a father to 4 amazing children and has been married to his college crush for 9 years. #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #SalesLeadership

34 min

Self Made Is a Myth: How Business Owners Escape the Messy Midde and Scale

#256: Running Production Yourself Limits How Many Jobs Your Business Can Take | Crystal & Krista

#255: Constant Questions Keep Owners Stuck In Operations | Austin Walls

#254: Doing Your Own Data Entry Because You Don’t Trust Your Team Slows Growth | Seth Wilson

#253: Can’t Take More Clients Because You Do The Work Even On Weekends | Angela Roberts

#252: Chasing Leads Yourself Keeps Sales Stuck | Wayne Purcell

#251 Training Every New Hire Keeps You Stuck and Slows Growth | Nick Jaworski

#250:Can’t Step Away Because Your Team Waits On Your Decisions | Corey Alderin | Corey Alderin

#249: Work Stalls When You Must Approve Everything And Deadlines Slip | Addison Newell

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Self Made Is a Myth: How Business Owners Escape the Messy Midde and Scale

Episodes

#256: Running Production Yourself Limits How Many Jobs Your Business Can Take | Crystal & Krista

#255: Constant Questions Keep Owners Stuck In Operations | Austin Walls

#254: Doing Your Own Data Entry Because You Don’t Trust Your Team Slows Growth | Seth Wilson

#253: Can’t Take More Clients Because You Do The Work Even On Weekends | Angela Roberts

#252: Chasing Leads Yourself Keeps Sales Stuck | Wayne Purcell

#251 Training Every New Hire Keeps You Stuck and Slows Growth | Nick Jaworski

#250:Can’t Step Away Because Your Team Waits On Your Decisions | Corey Alderin | Corey Alderin

#249: Work Stalls When You Must Approve Everything And Deadlines Slip | Addison Newell

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Information