4 blindspots that quietly kill growing businesses

I just got off a call with five founders in my community, Founder OS, and they had some problems that were insanely sticky. And you'll get to see those in a

sticky. And you'll get to see those in a second. But I went over four core

second. But I went over four core systems that will help them become unignorable this year and get over some of the trickiest problems they're currently facing in their business. Now

these are aspects that range from everything from where AI is going all the way through to how to go and leverage systems and people in your business to stand out this year. Let's

dive, in., All right,, guys., Well,, happy Tuesday. Hope everyone's doing well. Uh

Tuesday. Hope everyone's doing well. Uh

the format it's pretty simple. Um you

guys have questions on your mind whether it's challenges in your business constraints opportunities that you want some help and insights on.

Anything's fair game. Nothing's offside.

Um and uh we can all just chop it up and and grow here together. So without

further ado, we can go any direction with this. Um is there anything on

with this. Um is there anything on people's minds that they want to kick it off with? So prior to joining the

off with? So prior to joining the program, I was traditionally run a marketing agency primarily in the niche of of dentists convinced me to go down

the consulting path and to instead of uh doing what we're doing, we teach people how to do what we're doing. So sort of give them the insiders scoop into how an agency works and teach dentists how to manage and control their own profit. And

this week, well two weeks ago, there was been some push from the governing body here in Australia for who look after the medical industry and they've changed all of the advertising guidelines. So all of the things that I know that I've been

using for marketing the last 15 years in terms of building social proof, all of those have kind of been now pushed aside. And so what direction do I now

aside. And so what direction do I now take the consulting business? Because my

background in marketing has been a lot of emotive language and you know the psychology of sales and things like that and even those sorts of words like even in ad copy you're not even allowed to use emojis anymore. Yeah. Inevitably

over the last I think 5 years there's been a new trend as you know the internet and online businesses take a whole new shape and form and that is compliance. Most people don't even think

compliance. Most people don't even think about this but the 2000s were like the invention of the internet. 2010s kind of like the wild west of things being built but now things are getting more and more

regulated in the 2020s. You're going to see compliant marketing becoming more of a thing. And this is something that I

a thing. And this is something that I see a lot of people struggling with. And

so inside this next clip, I share my current perspective on this and how you can actually use compliance to become your new competitive advantage. Like I

actually see this as being a big trend for a lot of industries over the next like 20 years. I think we've gone from like websites and online being a thing in the 2000s to then like it being the

wild west in the 2010s to now like it's been out long enough that like consumer safety and consumer awareness and legalities and policies and all this are

like more important than ever more and more like compliance is going to be a thing in a lot of these different areas right you see it whether you're talking about dentists in Australia or you even see it on like Hormos's recent workshop

for $100 million money models as an example, like compliance is being done in all of these different spaces. So, I

think the only thing that is inevitable in a lot of our spaces is that like compliance is really important versus like resisting it, like finding the opportunity in it. You can also be sure that I think 97% of people will just

ignore it. And meanwhile, if you're like

ignore it. And meanwhile, if you're like a student of the game and just embrace it, you're kind of already just from that mindset in like an elite group of people.

>> Yeah., It, kind, of, positions, us, as, the authority as well. I was kind of like we we know what what's happening and we know what the rules are. We're going to help guide you through it.

>> If, they, get, on, the, phone, with, another agency and they're like, we don't we don't even know what these guidelines are that you're talking about because they're just generic and look after so many different industries.

>> Yeah., And, I, would, be, pointing, out, with them. I'd say, hey, listen, I just was

them. I'd say, hey, listen, I just was looking at things. Um, and I I found these three issues in your area. Like I

would consider finding a VA, giving the VA like a few audit areas that they should look for with every dentist and then sending customized emails to each person that point out three areas where

they're offside cuz it's such a burning thing. It's like if right now you're

thing. It's like if right now you're offside and the rules and regulations say that if in a month it's not fixed you're find $10,000 a day, like you got to fix that now. And so they got to get on a call with you now. It's more of a burning pain than ever.

>> No,, hold, on., Yeah., as, you're, building every single different professional or expert out there, it's probably governed by someone. And it's important that on

by someone. And it's important that on any platform you're in or any career path you take, right, you're obviously abiding by the rules and regulations there. You know, you may look to the

there. You know, you may look to the left or look to the right at competitors that are not doing things compliantly but don't think that that's the way that you should go. I think that as founders if we want to build something anti-fragile for the long term, we got

to play by the rules, right? We got to have integrity and just put stuff out there that we can feel proud of and that we can sleep at night knowing that we've done a great job. When it comes to compliant marketing as an example, you know, it's always good to understand the

parameters at which you can work in and especially if you're helping other people with their marketing or their growth, it's imperative that you know you're an expert on those rules so that you're not only abiding by them

yourself, but you can also help others leverage them as well. So I think you are at a crossroads, right? There's two

ways you go. One is like you use this as an opportunity. The game has changed.

an opportunity. The game has changed.

The rules are different now. It's almost

like a whole new blow blue ocean. I

actually think that m that opportunity is massive. And this is probably like

is massive. And this is probably like almost in a weird way could be like the best thing to ever happen to you. On the

other side of it, it's like, okay, like I like to use my tactics. I like to use emotive language. I like to use before

emotive language. I like to use before and afters. That's how I do things. This

and afters. That's how I do things. This

niche no longer allows for that. I'm

going to move into a niche that does allow for it and keep the playbook and just move it to a different space.

There's a multitude of ways you could go, but those are like two simplistic ways. Personally, my dad's a dentist.

ways. Personally, my dad's a dentist.

The last thing these guys know is marketing. He just knows teeth. That's

marketing. He just knows teeth. That's

the opportunity. Like, they're not going to know compliant marketing and how to adapt this. And they're probably doing

adapt this. And they're probably doing things even better. They're uncompliant

right now. So, that's the opportunity.

It's not even to help them grow. It's

that they're offside currently. So

like, you have to get them like reduce the risk they probably currently have because there's probably a lot of stuff that's going on now that's no longer allowed. and then setting them up to

allowed. and then setting them up to then do the stuff that is allowed in a in the best way possible. There are

really two kinds of businesses as we look at over the next decade. This

compliance, thing, is, going to, become, more and more of a trend as more of the internet gets more regulated. There's

more rules and laws and all that and versus thinking it's something that's working against you. Future founders

actually see it as the wind in their sales. An opportunity to create a whole

sales. An opportunity to create a whole new blue ocean in your space and a new area that you can compete on while everyone else gets left behind.

>> I, know, what, I, need, to, do.

>> Yeah,, that's, great.

>> Anything, on, your, mind,, Dave?, Like, on, a similar note or related note?

>> Kind, of., This, is, a, new, chapter, of, my journey. My background is e-commerce.

journey. My background is e-commerce.

I've been doing that for years now, but it just it feels so fragile. I want to be in a business where it doesn't feel like Amazon could turn me off tomorrow

or I'm I'm like at the risk of just external factors. So

external factors. So >> just, to, kind, of, riff, on, that, for, a, sec, right? Like I do think that all of us

right? Like I do think that all of us founders, right, desire this kind of like antifragile business. We've all

been there, right? Like you, you know you start your first business, your first offer, whatever. It's kind of slapped together and suddenly you start like feeling just like the whims of like customer needs and market shifts and you

know ups and downs and peaks and valleys and you know suddenly yeah you start to desire something that's like more secure. It's more stable, good margins

secure. It's more stable, good margins peaceful operations, streamlined systems and like a great team. as you're

thinking and probably we're all thinking about building like more anti-fragile businesses. One aspect is obviously like

businesses. One aspect is obviously like the people as you're looking to build leverage as a founder, your team is the number one thing that you can optimize.

I hear all the time from founders, how do I hire? How do I fire? How do I optimize my team? How do I remove myself from my team? There's so much there right? And when you can crack the code

right? And when you can crack the code on the different pieces of constructing a high performance team, you unlock new levels of being able to really accomplish the mission you're after with the business you're creating. And I hear

questions about team all the time. You

know, the power of any company is the power of the team you create. I've just

been watching this documentary on the Dallas Cowboys on Netflix and you know Jerry Jones is an absolute legend. And

when you think about, you know, any sports team, if you as a founder are building a sports team, you'd be like the owner of that sports team. You're

building your own like fantasy team roster. And inevitably, you know, you

roster. And inevitably, you know, you have your high performers that you want to be, you know, doubling down on. You

want to make sure that you're investing in these people. you're understanding

you know, what else they think they can contribute to the organization. So that

basically the organization is frictionless and you're just allowing those people to rise to the highest point they can go to in their lives because your team, your brand, your company only benefits from those high

performers. On the other side though

performers. On the other side though you got the low performers, right? And

often times, you know, we just let these people kind of stick around. There's a

statistic that around 7 months is the average amount of time that a CEO allows a low performer to stay on board before removing them. 7 months. Yeah, that's a

removing them. 7 months. Yeah, that's a long time. So, what do you do? Now, I'm

long time. So, what do you do? Now, I'm

about to share in this next clip, I show you how to go and actually rank your team so you can build your fantasy roster by having people that are above the red line and below the red line and

then how to handle those folks so that they don't become a parasite to your growth. You guys have probably heard

growth. You guys have probably heard like the adage like the kind of person that gets you to maybe five million a year isn't the kind of person that gets you to 20 million a year or the kind of person that gets you to 100k a month maybe isn't the kind of person that gets

you to 500k a month at every stage like you need to be auditing your team constantly what people are like embodying the values what people are performing what I'll often times do is

like rank my team from just best to worst around this time of the year approaching like November December sometimes what I'll do too depending on how I'm feeling is put like a red line

in that Google sheet and there's people below the line and above the line. Below

the line typically if you're building something right and say you have a 20 person team hopefully there's not more than like four people max below the red line. But as you approach like October

line. But as you approach like October November, December, it's a good chance to maybe cut everyone below the red line and start to kind of like replace them now with the new people that hopefully

are near the top 10% of that document.

So you're just kind of constantly going and building like an anti-fragile team right? Cutting the dead weight and

right? Cutting the dead weight and bringing on the people that are going to help like propel it forward and the people that give you peace of mind and less problems, all that good stuff. You

know, as November is just around the corner here and you're looking to go and determine, you know, who are your A players, B players, and then who's below that red line. What I went and created was my team ranking OS. This is how you

can go and rank your team from best to worst, right? and then make some tough

worst, right? and then make some tough decisions going into 2026 to make sure that you're set up for success. So, you

can go that check that out via the link in the description. Go and rank your team, determine who's below the red line, and then you can go watch my other video on how to fire without being a dick. So, go enjoy that. The last thing

dick. So, go enjoy that. The last thing I'll say on this quick and then Billy will get to you is like one question I always ask myself and I will say that sometimes it's something I need to check myself on cuz it can borderline on

giving you anxiety. So you have to kind of thread the needle here and keep it like a productive worry, not a destructive worry, which is Charlie Mer's inversion technique. We live in a

culture where entrepreneurs are constantly trying to grow, grow, grow right? Get to that next revenue

right? Get to that next revenue milestone. 10x the business, 5x the

milestone. 10x the business, 5x the business, all this stuff. But one thing I don't think that gets talked about enough is Charlie Munger's inversion technique, which simply is asking

yourself, how could I fail, right?

Versus always thinking about how successful you could be. You know, think about your downside and looking at the different risk points across your business, the different ways that you

could fail. Start ranking them from the

could fail. Start ranking them from the ones that are, you know, the most pressing to the least, and then start to work through those aspects one by one.

You may do a session where you just write down all your failure points and then start to rank your failure points.

So like what's the one that feels like the most pressing that you could solve?

Like number one is like I don't keep up with the regulations and I become you know an extinct marketing agency. So

he's, like, okay, I'm, going to, be, like, the best student of these regulations. I'm

going to get the best compliance lawyer in Australia around these. I'm gonna

create the best program around it and the best mentorship around it and the best brand around it that's like certified and it's like okay now we've derisked that failure point now okay next failure point and then what happens

is you've looked at some of these failure points you've mitigated or solved them so what are you left with hopefully upside because all the areas that would cause you to your downfall

you've looked after those inevitably if you can protect yourself against all the different downside risks in your venture you give yourself the maximum potential to just only leave upside left. And so

this technique is something that I often see founders ignoring. Unfortunately, I

see a lot of people ignoring it to their own peril. And so I think it's something

own peril. And so I think it's something that you should be aware of to avoid disaster. When I'm talking to founders

disaster. When I'm talking to founders one of the things that inevitably comes up in any conversation is AI. And more

founders are wondering, you know, how do I defend myself against it? How do I protect my business against it? There's

this impending doom. they feel like I like to think of it kind of like this barbell technique. What you have on one

barbell technique. What you have on one side is using technology to its maximum degree. So as an example, if you're

degree. So as an example, if you're building a community, you may actually leverage agents to go and deliver part of the value inside that community.

That's one way of leveraging AI for its maximum benefit. Now on the other side

maximum benefit. Now on the other side of the spectrum, right, you have going almost the other side which is like super offline and like anti- AI things

like in-person retreats, doing things off-rid, you know, an example with marketing would be like sending handwritten letters to people in your community. I think the area that gets

community. I think the area that gets tricky is the middle, which is everything else. People that are just

everything else. People that are just doing business the old way. Yeah

there's a lot of stuff in between those two extremes that is going to get replaced. I think there's also three

replaced. I think there's also three things to think about that are essentially irreplaceable as far as I can see it over the next decade. Well, I

think that there are like three things I don't see AI competing with on the same level as humans say over the next like 5 years. Those three things being taste

years. Those three things being taste authenticity, and creativity. On the

taste side, that's like your own unique approach to your branding. your brand is like your way, the way you're trying to get it to show up. AI can come up with amazing ideas and ways of doing it, but taste is like knowing that like, oh

that's not quite right. It needs to be not this, but this, right? And so that taste is always going to be needed. Like

people are like, oh, AI video is going to take over the world. It's like, have you, seen, AI, video?, Like, at least, for this the next bit, like some digital version, of, me, is, going to, be, speaking and doing YouTube videos and people are going to be like, yeah, I love watching

digital, Matt. I don't see that

digital, Matt. I don't see that happening for like a few years to be dead honest with you. Second is the most important one which is authenticity.

What will happen is like a lot of AI generated stuff kind of feels knockoff like it's not the real thing. So like

what actually makes you you and like what makes humans human? It's like we make mistakes, we use ums and a's a little bit we have that kind of like wobbby nature, right? Like we're very

imperfect. The last thing there just is

imperfect. The last thing there just is in creativity, right? like the next Scorsesei film being made 100% by AI, I don't think it's going to happen. I

think AI can be used to come up with creative ideas. Don't get me wrong, I

creative ideas. Don't get me wrong, I use it all the time. But that said human creativity is its own magical machine. You know, you create something

machine. You know, you create something you know, by hand, whether it's, you know, writing a book or, you know creating some art or whatever it may be.

It's just got that human touch on it.

And I think more and more people are going to crave this sort of like homemade handmade real touch that's human amidst all this AI soup you're

going to see across social media and across the world over the next 10 years.

I think that founders that embrace their authenticity, embrace their taste and creativity and exploit it to the biggest degree possible will not be left in this next wave. In fact, they'll likely

next wave. In fact, they'll likely thrive and stand out versus everyone else. So with AI being a hot topic

else. So with AI being a hot topic every founder is looking to leverage it to make sure that they still exist over the next decade. So what I did is I went and worked with my team over about 40 hours and we collected all of the best

data, insights, and systems we could think of so that you could build AI into a moat. And so you can go and download

a moat. And so you can go and download this resource via the link in the description, pass it on to your team and implement it in your business today. So

what you're seeing here, right, is a room full of people all helping one another the core aspects of building successful businesses. This room is

successful businesses. This room is packed with founders that are putting in the work. They're implementing systems

the work. They're implementing systems and they're getting the support, the mentorship, and as you can see, the direct insights from me to really scale up what they're building. And so, you know, if you're looking to go and join the community, you go check out Founder

OS via the link in the description. Go

and apply. We'd love to chat with you understand what you're looking to do.

Hopefully, see you on the inside. Let's

get it.