Fix My Fees

Fix My Fees
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Every leader has a story worth hearing. On the Fix My Fees podcast, we sit down with bold thinkers, builders, and industry pioneers to uncover the real moments that shaped them... The wins, the failures, the lessons learned the hard way. Whether you're just starting out or leading at the highest level, each episode is a masterclass in what it actually takes to succeed. New conversations. Timeless wisdom.

  1. 7h ago

    Nearly 1,000 CEOs. Same Silent Collapse. | Baz Porter | FMF Ep. 48

    Baz Porter collapsed from burnout and lost every client. Five came back worth nearly $5M. He turned them all down. Baz had built the thing everyone tells you to build. Then his body quit on him — diverticulitis, flat on his back, unable to get on a single onboarding call. Not one client offered him more time. When he recovered, he phoned each of them individually and ended it, walking away from close to $5M in a year he could not afford to lose it. He’d also been sold the standard promise years earlier: fix your identity in 90 days. He tracked his own rebuild from day one. It took 1,098. If you’ve done the retreats, the therapy and the holiday and something still feels off with no name for it, this is the conversation. CHAPTERS 00:00 — Why he refuses to call himself a coach 03:06 — Advice is talking at you. Counsel is different. 05:24 — The eight-year-old still running your decisions 09:43 — Sold a 90-day fix. It took 1,098 days. 15:56 — The 95% of you that you don’t control 19:11 — How to vet a practitioner before you hand over your head 22:42 — Live on YouTube, in tears, in front of 28,000 followers 29:55 — RAMS: results, attitude, mastery, systems 31:18 — What are they saying about you at the dinner table in 1,000 years? 39:00 — The silent collapse: burnout with a successful profile attached 41:39 — 108 questions, built from 4,000 conversations 52:32 — 40 years of smoking, ended in one sentence from his wife 57:20 — The collapse, the five phone calls, the $5M he refused 1:04:24 — Where to start with Baz ABOUT THE GUEST Baz Porter is founder of Sovereign Leadership Architect, where he does identity work with CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs. British Army veteran and best-selling author, based in Colorado. Subscribe for new episodes. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees Keep more. Grow more. Live better. A conversation about founder burnout, executive collapse and the identity work underneath both.

  2. 19h ago

    They Wanted Tech Press. He Got the WSJ. | Matt Pressberg | FMF Ep. 47

    A climate tech client hired Matt Pressberg to get their seed round into the tech press. He told them no — and landed the Wall Street Journal instead. Matt spent years as a business journalist at the LA Business Journal, International Business Times, The Wrap, and The Information before crossing over to the other side. Now he’s a partner at Vectis Strategies, where he uses what he learned in newsrooms to figure out which stories actually get published. The short version of his advice: you can’t brute-force PR, most of the job is the stories that never run, and if AI is now recommending vendors to your customers, it’s citing reporters — not your company blog. Chapters 00:00 — A journalist who crossed over to corporate comms 02:31 — Show, don’t tell: why most press releases read like sales documents 04:50 — Pre-med to private equity to journalism school after 2008 07:00 — “I wish we’d thought of that” — the moment he switched sides 09:08 — The client wanted TechCrunch. He pushed back. 10:30 — One third of the revenue was going to middlemen 11:20 — Being willing to disappoint the client 12:22 — You can’t brute-force PR. It’s not a numbers game. 13:28 — Six months to send one email to one reporter 14:40 — Vanity metrics vs. what actually moves the needle 15:45 — What crisis comms actually looks like for a small business 18:15 — Write the two-sentence holding statement before you need it 19:29 — AI visibility, and why the models want third-party sources 25:36 — Podcasts, transcripts, and what AI likes to scrape 27:12 — Why journalism still lights him up 31:35 — What to read if you want to learn this 34:39 — Who he works with: tech, real estate, nonprofits 36:39 — Fifty countries, and a waterfall in Slovakia Matt Pressberg is a partner at Vectis Strategies and co-founder of Hypelab. He spent years as a business journalist, including stints at the LA Business Journal and The Information. VectisStrategies.com · MattPressberg.com Subscribe for new interviews twice a week. If you’re a business owner doing something worth hearing about, reach Tavious at tavious@fixmyfees.com. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees Apple Podcasts · Spotify Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

  3. 1d ago

    3.7x Bigger Deals If They Follow You. | Candyce Edelen | FMF Ep. 46

    Your biggest competitor isn’t the other firm. It’s that nobody knows you exist. Candyce Edelen has spent two and a half decades building B2B brands, including her own company that failed — and the four competitors who hired her afterward and all got acquired. Her argument here is that buyers build their shortlist before they ever start looking, so if you’re invisible during that window, the deal was decided without you. She also walks through exactly how she turns months of scattered notes into six published articles in an afternoon. Chapters 00:00 — Your competition isn’t the other firm. It’s your invisibility. 01:23 — The buyers who picked their shortlist before shopping 04:57 — “I run ads, isn’t that visibility?” 05:48 — How martech taught everyone to measure the wrong thing 06:45 — Everyone’s harvesting the same 5%. Nobody’s planting. 07:22 — What HubSpot and Marketo actually did vs. what they told you 10:48 — Channel overwhelm: pick one, maybe two 12:11 — Why LinkedIn is what the AI models keep citing 13:05 — Voice notes in, articles out — her actual workflow 14:24 — Six articles in five hours, after weeks of collecting 16:37 — You’re still posting like it’s 2012 18:09 — The average LinkedIn visit is 87 seconds 20:53 — Don’t post and ghost 21:34 — The founder-brand numbers: leads, close speed, deal size 24:44 — A post with almost no engagement that AI cited anyway 26:56 — Her company failed. All four rivals sold. 32:14 — The one thing only the founder can do 37:03 — Alienation at scale: the AI bot that broke trust in one message 42:16 — Ken Follett, Lake Como, and three weeks off Candyce Edelen is founder and CEO of Propel Growth, a B2B marketing and sales consultancy she started in 2007. She writes and ghostwrites founder-brand content for small companies. LinkedIn: Candyce.Edelen · PropelGrowth.com Subscribe for new interviews twice a week. If you’re a business owner doing something worth hearing about, reach Tavious at tavious@fixmyfees.com. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees · Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

  4. 1d ago

    25 Years Marketing for Google. Now She Hypnotizes. | Michelle Walters | FMF Ep. 45

    Michelle Walters spent 25 years in marketing for brands like Google and Clorox. Now she hypnotizes people for a living. Chapters 00:00 — 25 years in marketing, then a hard left turn 01:46 — What she actually does: getting people unstuck 04:20 — You know flying is safer than driving. You still can’t board. 06:17 — The novel that made her change careers 08:25 — “Do you want to get run over by the AI train, or drive it?” 10:32 — Your subconscious isn’t woo-woo. Its job is keeping you alive. 13:05 — It doesn’t work if you don’t believe it works 14:17 — Thirty feet from the car to the door, and she ran it 17:05 — Raise Your Rates: the confidence to quote a different number 18:16 — Underpriced, overbooked, and scared the jump loses everyone 20:24 — What the MRI scans actually showed 32:10 — Six months of medical leave, then back without the title 35:41 — Where to find Michelle Michelle Walters is a certified clinical hypnotherapist and 25-year digital marketing veteran. Author of ABC’s of Conscious Leadership, co-host of Mind Power Meets Mystic. MichelleWalters.net · MakeMyHypno.com Subscribe for new interviews twice a week. If you’re a business owner doing something worth hearing about, reach Tavious at tavious@fixmyfeesteam.com. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees · Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

  5. 2d ago

    1 Day of College. Now He Teaches the Class | Ryan Bland | Fix My Fees Ep. 44

    Ryan Bland lasted 1 day of college. Eight years later he’s the one teaching the class at TCU. He’s built two YouTube channels to #1 in their spaces, taken an e-commerce brand to #1 on Whop, and landed on the Inc. 5000 — all by getting clear on the right details first. In this episode he breaks down the leadership, systems, and data tracking that decide whether your business scales or stalls. 00:00 — 1 day of college, then he never went back 01:55 — Why he thinks in systems now 03:37 — What his granddad and dad actually taught him 07:25 — The first thing he looks at walking into a business 09:52 — Killing key-man dependency before you hire 11:32 — Teaching personal branding at TCU 13:53 — The 12-question worksheet, free in the description 16:12 — Stuck info business? Look at your data first 18:02 — The most expensive mistake creators make on YouTube 21:08 — You are your own best marketing 23:38 — Finding the real bottleneck 24:57 — What success looks like eight years in 27:07 — "I failed so much I ended up winning" 33:53 — Feed your mentor's SOPs to your AI Connect with Ryan: @rbland on Instagram Subscribe for new episodes. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees Keep more. Grow more. Live better

  6. Aug 12

    If No One Says No to Your Price, It's Too Low | Laura Berman Fortgang | Fix My Fees Ep. 43

    Laura Berman Fortgang was a broke actress and waitress who never cleared $36,000 a year. Then she got depressed, called an old mentor, and stumbled into a profession that barely existed yet. Thirty years later she's logged more than 20,000 coaching hours, helped found the International Coaching Federation, written six books published in 13 languages, and pulled 2 million views on a TEDx talk that still brings her clients today. In this episode she breaks down the CFO who got a global promotion by going to fewer meetings, the coach who spent 20 years stuck below six figures until he built systems, and the pricing test that tells you exactly when it's time to raise your fees. Plus the line that should be on every business owner's wall: consistency beats perfection. What you'll learn: • How to know when your fees are too low (hint: it's about who isn't pushing back) • Why hiring help before you can afford it is a growth strategy, not a risk • The difference between coaching and advice — and why most "coaches" are just giving advice • How a CFO earned a global promotion by cutting his own calendar • Why imposter syndrome is cured by action, never by thinking harder • How to leverage a book to raise your speaking, coaching, and consulting fees • What AI will and won't take from the coaching industry Chapters 00:00 Meet Laura Berman Fortgang 01:54 From waitressing and Broadway auditions to coaching 04:20 Writing six books and knowing when you have another one in you 06:29 How the coaching industry changed — and got saturated 08:41 Coaching isn't advice, it's diagnosis 09:17 The TEDx talk that hit 2 million views 10:55 What her days actually look like 12:04 Case study: the CFO who got promoted by skipping meetings 13:20 Case study: 20 years in business, finally past six figures 16:38 The biggest misconception about spending money to make money 19:05 What leaders miss about acknowledgment and culture 21:04 How to leverage a book into higher fees 22:25 The real cure for imposter syndrome 25:22 When and how to raise your fees 27:00 Building a business that survives your life 32:19 Consistency beats perfection 33:48 What AI does to the coaching industry Connect with Laura: LauraBermanFortgang.com — coaching, free newsletter, and her A-List Coach program Got a business worth talking about? Email tavious@fixmyfees.team — we're always looking for operators with a real story. Keep more. Grow more. Live better. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

  7. Aug 12

    What Ignoring Your Gut Actually Costs You | Siddiqi Ray | Fix My Fees Ep. 42

    Siddiqi Ray spent 30 years behind a camera — the first woman on staff at the Associated Press, at Mayo Clinic, at Target. She photographed the Dalai Lama 15 times on three continents. She shot underwater for the Navy SEALs. And every single one of those jobs came from a gut feeling she couldn't explain. Then in March 2020, that same feeling told her to get out of Los Angeles. She got on the last plane New Zealand let in before the borders closed, and got stuck there for two and a half years. In this episode, Tavious sits down with Siddiqi to talk about the thing nobody in business wants to say out loud: the hire everyone had a bad feeling about, the spreadsheet that looked off, the deal that felt wrong on paper it shouldn't have. She calls the cost of overriding that signal the "I knew it tax" — and she's got the receipts, including a client who lost $3.2 million two weeks after her financial advisor talked her out of a gut call. This isn't woo. Siddiqi breaks down the actual research, the documentation method she teaches executives, and the nervous-system work she learned from the Navy SEALs to go from random hunches to on-demand access. In this episode: Why ignoring your gut has a real, measurable line-item costHow to tell the difference between intuition and anxietyThe documentation habit that turns a hunch into a track record you can defend in a boardroomWhy the NASA O-ring engineers all "knew," and said nothingHow she went from world-renowned photographer to advising leaders full time Chapters 00:00 – Intro 01:36 – The mission: 10,000 women leaders 02:42 – What "Siddiqi" actually means 05:28 – Intuition is a muscle, not a gift 06:51 – The #1 mistake people make 08:17 – The $3.2 million "I knew it tax" 10:48 – The science, and how to spot your own signal 13:40 – Intuition vs. fear vs. anxiety 18:43 – How this shows up at work: bad hires, bad numbers, NASA 22:09 – Why we need a shared language for it 23:47 – The Dalai Lama, the Navy SEALs, the Kennedys 28:28 – The check that said "cat psychic" 30:15 – The last flight into New Zealand 35:06 – The SEAL breathing method for high-stakes decisions 37:15 – What she wishes everyone knew 38:33 – Off the clock: grills, dogs, and the best ceviche in New Zealand Connect with Siddiqi Ray Free Intuitive IQ quiz: SiddiqiRay.com Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook: @SiddiqiRay Got an interesting business? Reach out to Tavious at Tavious@fixmyfees.com — we'd love to have you on. Keep more. Grow more. Live better. FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

  8. Aug 12

    She Took a Receptionist Job to Spy on the Company | Sheela Abdi | Fix My Fees Ep. 41

    Sheela Abdi took a three-day temp receptionist gig for one reason: to scope out a company from the inside before deciding whether she wanted to work there. Three days later she walked into the CFO's office and said, "I'm not a receptionist." She left as their HR Director. That's the whole personality of this episode. Sheela is a senior people operations executive with 20+ years across music, entertainment, streaming, and beer — Bug Music/BMG, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Insomniac, Live Nation, Pluto TV through its exit — and she's spent that entire career refusing to be the version of HR everyone expects. Today she runs Limitless HR Group, a fractional people operations team that gives business owners a full HR department without the headcount. Host Tavious Washington digs into why the companies that want HR least are usually the ones bleeding money without it, what actually changes when culture becomes a line item, and why "no" should almost always be followed by "but." In this episode: • Why "no, but — can I show you this?" beats a compliance lecture every time • The transferable skills you already have and can't see in yourself • When a growing business should actually bring in HR (hint: earlier than you think) • Scaling Pluto TV to an exit, and what the founder wanted repeated at his next company • The Zen Zone she built for EDC Vegas staff on almost no budget — and the headliner who wandered in by accident • Undercharging, executive coaching, and learning to believe her own numbers • Fractional HR: the whole department, none of the overhead or liability Chapters 00:00 — Not your typical HR guest 01:51 — What Limitless HR actually does 03:07 — The companies that don't want HR need it most 06:31 — "No, but" — finding another route to the same outcome 07:32 — The client who leaned over her desk and said "you hate this" 09:02 — The transferable skills she didn't know she had 11:43 — 2008, layoffs, and landing in entertainment 12:49 — The receptionist recon mission 14:50 — Becoming an acquisition-side HR executive 15:27 — Pabst Blue Ribbon, Insomniac, and companies that don't want HR 17:10 — The biggest misconceptions about HR 19:16 — When should a business bring in HR? 20:00 — Scaling Pluto TV to exit, then building Telly from day two 22:53 — Sturdy, and building culture for creatives 31:47 — The Zen Zone at EDC Vegas 36:04 — Why she leads with people instead of numbers 37:33 — Learning to charge what the work is worth 40:15 — Who she is when the business hat comes off 46:54 — Who should be calling Limitless HR 49:10 — What a fractional HR department actually gets you Connect with Sheela Abdi Limitless HR Group → https://www.limitlesshrgroup.com Email → sheela@limitlesshrgroup.com or info@limitlesshrgroup.com Men's mental health nonprofit → https://www.amindspursuit.org Fix My Fees Merchant services is boring. The people in business aren't. Every week, Tavious Washington sits down with operators who did something interesting and asks how they actually did it. Website → https://www.FixMyFees.com Want to be a guest? → tavious@fixmyfees.com Instagram → @fixmyfees Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

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About

Every leader has a story worth hearing. On the Fix My Fees podcast, we sit down with bold thinkers, builders, and industry pioneers to uncover the real moments that shaped them... The wins, the failures, the lessons learned the hard way. Whether you're just starting out or leading at the highest level, each episode is a masterclass in what it actually takes to succeed. New conversations. Timeless wisdom.

Information

  • Creator
    Fix My Fees
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Fix My Fees