Eric Dingler on Hiding Bad News Until He Had a Fix

Eric Dingler and his wife met every week to review the numbers in their business. When they moved to Costa Rica, they paused that meeting for what was supposed to be six weeks. The pause lasted a year. Losing a client led to a short draw on a line of credit, then another, then one that never got repaid. Embarrassed, Eric kept it to himself until he could present a plan to fix it, and in a panic he launched a string of new offers. By the time he told his wife, he had run through the line of credit and two credit cards.

Eric is a business coach, owner of the agency In Transit Studios, and author of Hire to Grow. He ran two businesses remotely for three years while his family traveled full time through 20 countries.

We talk about why people hide bad news even from someone who has never given them a reason to fear the reaction, and Eric's explanation that the silence comes from a need for significance, acceptance, and security. Leaders who want their people to raise problems early will recognize the same pattern from the other side. We also cover the difference between training and developing a team, hiring before you feel ready, his commitment that no one on his team will lose their job to AI, and why an honest time audit is the first step for an owner who suspects they're the bottleneck.

Full show notes and transcript: https://markgraban.com/mistake368

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