Sorta Bossy

Sorta Bossy Podcast
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85% of leaders never get trained. If you became a manager, team lead, or founder without anyone actually teaching you how to delegate, fire someone, or hold people accountable—this show is for you. We're tearing up the old leadership playbook and figuring out what actually works. Hosted by Adrienne Dorison

  1. 1d ago

    Shut Your Mouth: An Actual Leadership Strategy

    Adrienne has spent about 12 years working in operations with founders. The systems, the team, getting things out of the owner's head and onto paper. And she still keeps running into the same thing: every piece is in place, and the founder is still the bottleneck. The hire is made. The process is written. And they're still doing it all themselves. Adrienne is joined by Makhosi Nejeser, who advises founders who've built the business, hit the numbers, and noticed that winning doesn't feel the way it used to. Drawing on eight years advising founders and full initiation into a Southern African tradition rooted in advising leaders through transitions of power, she founded The House of Sovereign Legacy, where she hosts monthly House Briefings and the Architects of Sovereignty podcast. What they cover: Why the bottleneck is almost always you, and why that is the hardest bottleneck to solveWhy "no one else can do this as well as me" is never true, and the two reasons it falls apartThe WWJD problem: teams running every decision through what the founder would do instead of what the business would do91% of women-owned businesses have zero employees, and the survival programming underneath that numberDoing the work versus designing the work, and why designing feels terrible because the gratification is delayed by yearsRestraint as the most undervalued leadership skill, and the question that replaces micromanaging: is it wrong, or is it just different?Le Pause, borrowed from French parenting, and what happens when you stop rushing in76% of founders regret selling, and the three-year identity crisis behind that numberThe exit math: a business dependent on you sells for two to three times, one that runs without you sells for four to five Take the diagnostic Adrienne mentions at the end: level11leaders.com/exit Find Makhosi at theroyalshaman.com, and she's @theroyalshaman on Instagram. ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:01 two podcasts, one conversation 05:19 the ceiling systems can't break 10:08 no one else can do this as well as me 14:44 when nothing changes, look inward 25:38 digging the hole vs the rubik's cube 30:56 restraint is the skill nobody teaches 35:04 most businesses get built from survival 44:44 le pause 49:29 ask, don't answer 55:44 delegation starts with five pound weights 01:00:23 the trigger point doc 01:04:53 the five whys for identity 01:09:23 76% of founders regret the sale 01:14:18 you are not invincible 01:19:56 the founder's reckoning

  2. Aug 25

    We're Not Creating Oxygen (And Neither Are You)

    Most founders say they hate the chaos. Most founders also create it. When everything gets labeled urgent, the label stops meaning anything. Adrienne and Emily get into why urgency becomes a founder's default setting and what it's actually protecting. Often it's a need to be needed. What they cover: Why "when everything is urgent, nothing is urgent" is a culture problem, not a workflow problemThe guiding principle Adrienne built her company on: we're not creating oxygenThe paper mill job where everyone acted like the building would collapse without themThe 11pm website outage Adrienne told her team to go to sleep onWhy people who demand urgency also tend to have zero tolerance for mistakesThe 10/80/10 trap: when the founder can't do the first 10%, nobody can do the other 80%Emily on demoralizing the exact kind of person you said you wanted to hireThe stat behind why so many women-owned businesses never build a teamHow entrepreneurs slowly morph into the bad leaders they leftWhere to actually start: name your guiding principles before someone else's urgency sets your pace Listen at level11leaders.com/podcast Connect with us on Instagram ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:01 Welcome, matching hair, and summer admin 07:26 Founders use urgency to stay important 11:24 The night the website went down 15:35 Tight deadlines vs. manufactured urgency 19:46 You're demoralizing the person you hired 24:00 How entrepreneurs become what they left 28:09 Define the vibe before someone else does

  3. Aug 18

    Bored Is a Recipe for Broke

    A business that is working is usually boring. Same offer, same model, same delivery, quietly making money. Which is exactly when founders start looking for a reason to blow it up. Adrienne calls this an epidemic in the small business space. This episode picks up two threads from earlier conversations, the Be Bored and Rich episode and Adrienne's interview with Denise Duffield-Thomas, and goes deeper on why boredom is so expensive. What they cover: Denise Duffield-Thomas has launched the same program, in the same business model, for fifteen years, and the question the community most wanted to ask her about itWhy your brain will find entertainment somewhere, and why it picks your business when you have no hobbiesThe two reasons Adrienne sees clients miss their goals, both of which come down to focusWhere your consumption should point, whether that's a business book, a webinar, or a new promptWhy tinkering undoes years of incremental improvement, and how boredom becomes a recipe for being brokeEmily on the belief that business has to feel hard, and what founders do to themselves when it stops feeling hardThe interior designer who felt guilty raising her rates because the work came naturally to herAdrienne's rule on business books, which is to read as few as possible and then actually implement oneHobbies clients have actually picked up, from African drumming to weekly Spanish lessons Homework from this one: find a hobby. Then tell Adrienne and Emily what fiction book you're reading. They have recommendations if you need them. Referenced in this episode: the Be Bored and Rich episode, and Adrienne's interview with Denise Duffield-Thomas. ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:00 What do we even call you 06:47 The same program for fifteen years 11:00 Solving the wrong problem 15:20 Bored is a recipe for broke 19:37 The book count is not a trophy 24:04 Your homework is a hobby

  4. Aug 11

    Everybody Loves the Hamster Wheel

    Surprise! Most teams don't go over capacity on purpose. It happens slowly, and then one day that's just your culture. Worse, by the time someone says out loud that they can't take on one more thing, they've been carrying it for months. Adrienne has spent the last few months in conversations with business owners who are all hitting the same wall. In this episode, she walks Emily through what a maxed-out team actually costs, and it is a lot more than the clients you had to turn away. What they cover: The obvious cost of a maxed out team, and the four costs underneath it that almost nobody prices outWhy hearing "I can't take that on" from a team member means you are already well past capacityThe job description red flags that quietly advertise a drowning teamWhy most people are carrying work that should have come off their plate a year ago, and how often to rebalanceThe joy metric, and why putting people on work they actually like is a retention strategyThe six figure specialist hire that usually solves nothing, and the cheaper move that opens capacity immediatelyBloated team, bloated process, and why adding people to an inefficient system just buys you more chaosWhy a team at capacity can never actually adopt AI, and the four hours a week that changes itIf this is ringing true for your team, message Adrienne. She will tell you honestly whether the assessment is a fit. ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:01 Summer, sleeping teenagers, and a 90s childhood detour 08:16 The real cost of a team at capacity 12:36 Nobody dies if we ship three fewer cars 16:51 Burnout, turnover, and lighting money on fire 21:23 Rebalancing plates and the joy metric 25:42 Bloated team, bloated process 30:22 Zero learning time and where to start

  5. Aug 4

    Play in the Front End, Leave the Back End Alone with Denise Duffield-Thomas

    Denise Duffield-Thomas recorded 32 podcast episodes in three days. Then she booked ballet class instead of finding more work to do. Then she felt guilty about it, Denise is the money mentor behind Money Bootcamp, a program she has now run for 14 years and taught to over 10,000 students. She wrote Get Rich, Lucky Bitch and Chill and Prosper. She and Adrienne have known each other a long time, so this conversation goes places a normal guest interview does not. What they cover: Why Denise batches to an extreme degree, and her answer to people who say batched content is not authenticThe golden goose problem, and her realization that there are actually two of themWhat changed when ADHD and perimenopause hit at the same time, and how she rebuilt her workload around a smaller capacityThe moment she realized she had made herself financially responsible for her husband, her mother, her mother-in-law, and a business partnerWhy she stopped trying to change her own behavior and started building systems that work around itWhy every plateau feels completely real and almost never isHer entire marketing strategy, which is two steps and has never been written down Find Denise at denisedt.com Money Bootcamp: denisedt.com/bootcamp Instagram: @denisedt Books: Get Rich, Lucky Bitch and Chill and Prosper 00:00 Welcome and fourteen years of Money Bootcamp 02:55 Thirty-two episodes in three days 07:23 Batching is not inauthentic 11:44 Where the ideas actually come from 16:23 A smaller capacity than she used to have 20:52 The assistant who quit before Denise could 25:38 Work harder or let them take responsibility 30:03 When you know the pattern and still can't break it 34:17 Every plateau feels real and isn't 38:46 Energetic ceilings, not logistical ones 43:36 Share what you know, make offers 46:12 Your business is not there to entertain you 53:12 There are two golden geese 56:32 Where to find Denise

  6. Jul 28

    I Don't Care That You Made A Million Dollars

    Everyone online is selling the same thing. More sales, more revenue, hit the next milestone. It makes a clean ad and an enticing screenshot. It is also pointing you at the wrong metric entirely. This solo episode is the actual math on what a business is worth. What Adrienne covers: Why revenue advice is so popular.The due diligence tip. If someone's only case study is themselves, buyer beware. Doing it and teaching someone else to do it are two different skill setsWhy "easy internet money" is the part you can see, not the part that's workThe client who scaled zero to $23 million in under three years and showed up unable to sleep or eatWhy you can't scale chaos, and why working harder is not the fix for thisThe $165,000 in cost savings found inside one team's calendar, before touching a single systemThe 30 day test. If you disappeared, would the business grow, coast, or collapseTwo businesses, same million dollars in revenue. A $750,000 difference in value and zero extra salesThe short list of cases where revenue maxing genuinely is the right move Take the free exit readiness diagnostic: level11leaders.com/exit ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:00 The growth gospel is a lie 04:05 Sample size of one 08:05 Zero to $23 million and drowning 12:15 Revenue is a vanity metric 16:25 Two businesses, same million dollars 21:40 When revenue maxing is actually right

  7. Jul 21

    You Don't Have Freedom. You Have Wi-Fi.

    You can pack the bags, take the flight, check into the hotel, and still end up sitting on the beach answering Slack. Most founders call that freedom because it happened somewhere new... but working in a new location does not equal freedom. Adrienne spent this Tuesday on the golf course and spent this week getting a biopsy she almost put off. Both of those are the same story. This solo episode kicks off a run of episodes built around one question: can your business actually run without you? What she covers: Why "I can work from anywhere in the world" is a sentence worth hearing yourself say out loudTwo out of office moments from Adrienne's week: a Tuesday tee time, and the doctor's appointment she came close to pushing off againLocation freedom is about where your body is. Mental freedom is about whether the business is still running in the back of your head while you're thereThe client who asked whether he was still allowed to think about his business during his four week unplugged, and the answer he gotWhy the big ideas only show up once the day to day noise clears outThe client who worked from the labor and delivery room and told herself it counted as freedomWhy remote work got optimized so well that your body can be anywhere while you stay completely trappedWhere to start: a free diagnostic that scores owner dependency across six categories Take the free out of office diagnostic: level11leaders.com/exit ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:00 The beach, the Slack, the lie 04:05 The appointment she almost skipped 08:58 Location freedom is not freedom 13:10 You optimized for the wrong one 17:15 Find out where your business needs you

  8. Jul 14

    Adrienne's In the Hot Seat

    Emily showed up with a list of questions and Adrienne had no idea what was coming. What followed was one of the more honest conversations they've had on the show. In this episode, Emily puts Adrienne in the hot seat for a rapid fire Q&A. No prep, no filter, and some answers that surprised even the person giving them. What they cover: The best advice Adrienne ever got and then ignored for years, and why she's finally living it this yearHow this has genuinely been one of the harder financial years in the business, and what the monthly conversations between Adrienne and Emily actually sound likeThe leadership mistake Adrienne had never said out loud until now: stepping back so far it became abdication, and what it cost the teamWhat Emily told Adrienne at the end of last year that changed how they work togetherA belief about hard work and success that Adrienne has completely reversed after years of watching other people build differentlyWhat Adrienne's team does better than her (almost everything, and she says so)Why rest still feels wrong when you're in a build phase, and the reframe that matters anywayThe difference between needing a vacation and needing spaciousness, and why no-call weeks might be more valuable than either Submit your own Dear Bossy question: sortabossypodcast.com ⏱️ Time Chapters 00:01 Sunkissed, frizzy hair, and heat waves in Canada 06:27 Emily has rapid fire questions and Adrienne knows nothing 08:16 Best advice ever gotten and completely ignored 10:39 The hardest conversations this year 12:32 Every month ends in a hype session 14:11 What the team does better than Adrienne 16:03 The leadership mistake Adrienne never admitted 18:55 What Emily told Adrienne that almost made her quit 22:08 A belief about hard work she's completely changed her mind on 24:03 The hat maker and Alex Hormozi in Kentucky 26:21 What does rest actually look like for you 28:50 You don't need the big picture ideas until you have the space for them 30:32 You don't have to earn rest

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About

85% of leaders never get trained. If you became a manager, team lead, or founder without anyone actually teaching you how to delegate, fire someone, or hold people accountable—this show is for you. We're tearing up the old leadership playbook and figuring out what actually works. Hosted by Adrienne Dorison

Information

  • Creator
    Sorta Bossy Podcast
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Sorta Bossy Podcast

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