Season 17 | Ep 193 | The Owner Bottleneck: How to Remove Yourself from Day-to-Day Chaos

Are you the bottleneck in your business without even realizing it? Not because of a lack of trust or effort, but simply because you've been involved in everything for too long, and now every decision flows through you. 

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I discuss the critical hats every agency owner wears—the technician, the manager, and the CEO—and when each hat should be worn or retired. I also explain why delegation is about moving from control to leadership and not just about removing yourself from the grind. 

Don’t miss this episode to learn more about the 1-3-1 decision-making framework, which empowers teams to think strategically instead of defaulting to you for every decision. 

Key Questions: 

• [01:08] Are you still the only one thinking ahead in your business, and what needs to shift to change that? 
• [04:39] Which hat are you wearing right now: technician, manager, or CEO? Is that the right one? 
• [07:44] Are you delegating tasks or are you truly transferring decision-making and ownership? 
• [09:02] Have you trained your team to assess risk the way you do as a founder? 
• [13:11] Do you unconsciously enjoy being needed so much that it stops others from growing? 
• [16:51] Are you the bottleneck in your agency without realizing it? 

What You’ll Discover:  

• [01:31] The three hats every agency owner wears—technician, manager, CEO—and how wearing the wrong one at the wrong time keeps you stuck. 
• [03:38] How defaulting to the technician role in times of stress is natural, but damaging to your long-term goals. 
• [04:39] How to track the time you spend in each role and learn when it’s time to retire the technician hat completely. 
• [05:53] The five levels of delegation—from step-by-step instructions to total decision-making autonomy. 
• [07:44] How to transfer decision-making power, not just task ownership, in a way that protects your business and develops your team. 
• [09:02] The importance of teaching your team how to think about risk because their risk tolerance won’t naturally align with yours. 
• [13:59] The power of uncovering hidden problems and why 99% of the solution lies in proper problem identification. 
• [15:48] How implementing the 1-3-1 framework will give your team the autonomy to act strategically. 
• [16:51] Why you’re the bottleneck and how to shift from being a dependency to creating frameworks.