The Founder Bottleneck Costing You 2-3x Growth

What if the biggest barrier to scaling your B2B business wasn’t your operations, market conditions, or even your team, but you, the founder? In this episode of Predictable B2B Success, Vinay Koshy speaks with Brian Smith, founder of Strategy Ladders, serial entrepreneur, and seasoned leadership coach who’s helped thousands of entrepreneurs unlock the next level of growth.

Brian’s journey spans boat-washing on a Florida island to closing multi-million dollar deals, and he’s distilled years of experience into a simple but powerful premise: your offer is your business, and your mindset is the real growth engine. Discover why most strategic frameworks keep you trapped, which common “security blanket” hires are holding you back, and why focusing 100% on sales, especially when juggling firefighting and growth, is the first rule of scaling smartly.

Brian challenges conventional wisdom with thought-provoking insights on operational bottlenecks, founder mindsets, and the art of constructing an offer so compelling that your brand (and business) can scale beyond your personal involvement. Whether you’re stuck at six figures or dreaming of an exit, this conversation is packed with tactical stories and no-nonsense advice you won’t hear anywhere else. Tune in and rethink what’s really driving your B2B success.

Some topics we explore in this episode include:

• Brian’s entrepreneurial background and the creation of Strategy Ladders
• Key challenges in scaling B2B service businesses
• The founder’s role as a growth bottleneck
• Mindset and emotional filters that hinder business progress
• Rapid, high-quality decision making for growth
• The importance of refining business offers and clear positioning
• Strategy Ladders’ unique advisory approach—including expert pairing and mindset coaching
• Examples of overcoming mental roadblocks (sales resistance, undervaluing services)
• Building clarity and authority in business messaging, especially on LinkedIn
• Creating a growth-oriented culture and strategic hiring (“growth hires” vs. “clone hires”)
• And much, much more...