Do you have a growing or established business - but aren't reaping all of  the benefits of owning it?

🙋🏽‍♂️ Is your team more focused on getting hours in than moving projects forward?
🙋‍♀️ Are decisions made with confidence and clarity or by hope and a gut feeling?
🙋🏻 Have other priorities taken a backseat?

Many owners are 🤩 at what they do, but 😩 to create the business and life they desire.  

Here’s why:

Doing the work and building a company requires two different skill sets. 

Most owners have years, if not decades, of experience and education in delivering their product or service.

Yet many struggle when it comes to:

❤️ Creating motivated employees that care
⚙️ Implementing business systems
🎯 Strategic planning
📈 Scaling profitable 

According to SCORE®, most business owners:

🔹 Don’t have a real plan (78%)
🔹 Overestimate revenue (73%)
🔹 Underprice their work (77%)

Over the last 20+ years of business ownership, I’ve experienced a lot.  In my last business, I built a team of 25 employees and, with their help, created a company that was growing 8x faster and was 4x more profitable than the industry when it was acquired.

✨ What Changed Everything for Me:

🏆 Positioning our brand so we didn't have to compete on price
😇 Creating a team of motivated employees that ran the business in my absence 
📊 Knowing our numbers and making strategic and profitable decisions based on the data
🧠 Creative problem solving


If you want things to change, here's what to do: 

➡️ 30 minute call 👉 HuddleWithAndrew.com 


What others have said:

"Working with Andrew was a game changer. He helped me significantly increase our profitability while building a business that works for me, not the other way around. His focus on KPIs and employee engagement was exactly what we needed." - John Riordan, P.E., S.E. President at Cornerstone Structural Engineering

"Working with you has unlocked my creativity and has given me a renewed sense of excitement in what is possible in my business." - Thomas Gore CPA, CFP, President at Core Advisors Ltd.

"I have renewed motivation and confidence in my abilities.  I look forward to building a great business with your help and guidance." Neal MacMillan, KBI Garage Door

"My business is growing and THRIVING and this is in large part from Andrew's guidance and support. I cannot thank him enough." - Kara Mumford LISW-S, Owner of the Trauma Therapy Company

➡️ HuddleWithAndrew.com to get started

Andrew Lamppa

Good design fixes poor leadership.

Most leadership challenges for small business owners are structural in nature, not personality or moral failures. Let me explain.

If you are nervous to step away because you don't trust the work of your team, you could think:

"Why can't they do it as good as I can?"
"Why do I struggle so often to hire great employees?"
"It's my business, who am I to entrust them when my name's on the door?"

These are all design issues. 

There is a good chance your standards and values haven't been communicated or enforced enough so you are relying on your leadership and, more importantly, your presence to do the heavy lifting.  This causes you to expense extra energy instead of the system, if it was designed properly. 

Instead of thinking, "I need to become a better leader," choose to become a better designer so when your leadership is needed, you have enough energy to do it well.

Wearing all the hats? Micromanaging everyone? Want employees who really show up and get it done 💪 — without burnout, chaos, or wanting to sell your business every Friday? We should talk.

Want to easily increase profitability and employee productivity?  Start with setting the expectation.

Changing your workplace culture starts with how you define culture…

Frustrated by an employee who doesn't think they can become better?

Motivation, incentives, discipline, criticism - none of these will work.

Why, because the problem is a belief issue not a performance issue.

To change this, you need to help them instill a new belief system and you do that by acknowledging them.

1. Clearly share what they did.
2. Acknowledge the effort or shift that took place
3. Communicate the results of their efforts
4. Empower them and others by sharing the impact it had

If you want the exact framework I use to build belief in teams and move them from victim to ownership, comment “Acknowledgment” and I’ll send it your way.

Why is your business so dependent on you?  

It’s because you allow it to be.

There are many things you do in your business that you may feel you need to do.  

I can assure you, many of those items, if you really explore and unpack them, do not require you.

If you want more freedom in your business, get really honest about why you do what you do and start thinking is there someone else that could do it.

Bonus: Eventually, they will be able to do it better, faster and it will cause them to achieve greater satisfaction in their work while you can focus on what you need to be doing as the owner and leader of your company.

Full calendars often mean misaligned effort - not business growth.

If your team is slammed, but margins are flat (or shrinking), the issue is rarely work ethic — it’s focus.

Busy teams often have low utilization: lots of activity, not enough profitable output because they're not focused on what matters.

And when people aren’t clear on the single result they own, effort spreads… and impact disappears.

The remedy:
 👉 Stop managing tasks.
 👉 Start managing critical results.

When every role owns one measurable outcome that actually moves the business, effort aligns with profit. 

Busy feels productive but clarity actually is.

If you want a simple way to assign critical results to every role, I’ve got a tool that makes it easy - comment CR below.

If you own your business and am still handling every sales call - here’s why that’s a problem—and how to fix it.

When you do the selling, clients expect you on the project.

That means every new deal pulls you deeper into the weeds…
Instead of freeing you up, it locks you in.

But when your team can explain your value—clearly and confidently—work comes in at the right level and only escalates to you if needed.

Here’s how to solve that:

✅ Define who you’re for
✅ Name the transformation (stop selling deliverables—sell outcomes)
✅ Clarify your positioning:
Positioning is perceived meaningful differentiation.
• Perceived — what they think when they hear your brand
• Meaningful — why that difference matters to your customer
• Differentiation — what sets you apart (and how you prove it)

Your team can’t sell what they don’t believe.

So your job is to make your positioning real internally and obvious externally—until your people live it.

Because when your team can explain your value, they can close the right clients—and deliver without dragging you into every decision.

That’s how you build a business that runs without you—not because you hired a team, but because you trained them to carry the vision.

3 reasons paying out an annual bonus is a bad idea:

1. It doesn’t improve employee performance 
2. It frustrates owners because of ☝️
3. It can backfire if employees receive less then they expected. 

If you want help moving to a quarterly model that solves all three - let me know.

Your employees should know how they’re doing before walking in for their perfomancw review.

Want to build a better culture?

Set clear expectations
Meet regularly
Share in the winnings

Most small business bonuses don’t work because they are not frequent enough, not intentionally funded and poorly distributed. 

A proper bonus plan is paid out frequent, has financial thresholds, intentionally funded, and distributed based on results.

Most employees never know what their bonus could be or is going to be.  A projected payout table changes that.  This increases motivation and turns the intangible into the tangible.

Most leadership challenges in a small business are not leadership issues they’re  design issues. 

You can categorize most into one of four ways:

1. Decision rights
2. Unclear standards
3. Capability not yet trained for
4. Comfort dependency 

Good design can makeup for a lot of poor leadership.

If your highest-paid people are doing the lowest-value tasks, it’s usually one of three things:

- Lack of delegation standards (no clear rules for what gets handed off, when, and how)
- “It’s faster if I do it” (short-term speed that creates long-term dependence)
- Role drift (senior people slowly become the default catch-all)

And the business pays thrice:

- You overpay for the task.
- You underinvest in the strategic work only your best people can do (decisions, leverage, growth).
- You steal development from the next tier down—lower-skilled employees don’t get the reps that build skill, confidence, and ownership.

Quick fixes that actually hold:

- Make sure every employee has a Critical Result they own (a clear “this is what winning looks like”).
- Make sure every responsibility has an agreed-upon outcome (so delegation isn’t “do stuff,” it’s “produce this result”).

If you don’t define outcomes, you don’t have delegation—you have task dumping… and your highest-paid people will keep catching it.

Business ownership doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.

😬 Avoiding annual performance reviews?

Change the cadence to quarterly and make sure your employees know how they’re doing BEFORE they walk in the room.

If you want your core values to start meaning something to your employees, talk about one per week at your team meeting and give a real life example of how that would be lived out as a core behavior.

Scared to let go because your unsure how your team will perform?

If what you care about isn't clear and reinforced, your team will resort to how they naturally think.  Not wrong - but possibly not the culture you want to create.

1️⃣ Pick one core value that’s not being lived
2️⃣ Define what it looks like in action
(e.g. “Proactive” = flagging issues early, not waiting for fire drills)
3️⃣ Normalize it through peer reinforcement
Ask: “Where did you show this value this week?” and keep it visible

Keep going through all of your core values and watch your culture shift.

"How the heck can my team be so unprofitable when we bill out at $200/hour and they cost $35/hour?!!"

If you've ever felt this way, you're not alone. 

Here's a real example: An employee billing at $200/hour, working 832 billable hours, bringing in $166K... sounds good, right?

But after write-offs, overhead, salary, and benefits, they're actually LOSING the company $11K per year.

The reality? This person spends over 3 days per week on non-billable work. That's 24.5 hours on emails, meetings, and admin tasks before they even touch client work.

The good news? Small improvements make massive impacts:
✅ Increase utilization by 10%
✅ Improve realization by 10%
📈 And suddenly you're on the path to real profitability

The first step is knowing your numbers. The second is setting clear targets.

Want the employee profitability calculator I walk through in this video? Comment "CALCULATOR" below and I'll send it your way.

Become a Profitable Podcast Guest 🎙 | 3X Founder | 3X Father | Front Row Dad | StoryBrand Guide

Are you tired of wasting time and money on marketing efforts that just don't deliver results? Believe me, I've been there.

Picture this: it's 2020, the early days of the pandemic, and I'm on the brink of losing my business. Paid ads weren't converting, leads were inconsistent, and referrals, my lifeline, were drying up. 

Meanwhile, peers in my industry were thriving, getting featured on the podcasts I avidly listened to. I knew podcast guesting held the key to business growth, but I lacked the know-how to make it happen.

Driven by frustration and determination, I embarked on a journey to master the art of podcast guesting. Fast forward, and I've personally generated over $2M in revenue from podcasts alone. 

But the true reward? Helping over 250 entrepreneurs achieve similar success, transforming their businesses as podcast guests.

There's nothing more fulfilling to me than empowering expert entrepreneurs like you to achieve the recognition and results you deserve:

✔️ Secure coveted spots on top podcasts and make it your primary marketing strategy.

✔️ Attract ideal clients who seek you out, eager to work with the go-to expert in your field.

✔️ Consistently close high-ticket sales, fueling your business growth.

✔️ Establish yourself as the undisputed authority in your industry.

✔️ Expand your network exponentially, opening doors to new opportunities and collaborations.

If you're ready to amplify your brand by sharing your story, I'd be honored to guide you. Let's unlock the power of podcast guesting together and propel your business to new heights.

Book a complimentary strategy call here:

https://7figureleap.com/call

Dustin Riechmann 🔥

This feels risky.

Not many coaches will tag all of their clients publicly...

...because you don't know what they might say about you.

But I'm really proud of our most recent cohort of Podcast Profits Accelerator grads, and I want to give them a shout out.

This group has worked hard on their messaging, offers and podcast guesting strategy since October, and they are all amazing humans:

Mike Kinner created Air O Sport to bring people of all ages and abilities together through inclusive, high-energy play and built Peak Play Performance to help corporation teams and leaders rediscover real connection and flow at work (also a fellow Front Row Dad).

Mike Irving has such a unique gift for combining data and experience to help established business owners and senior executives with personal and professional development in the areas of leadership, sales, and team building. 

Tyler Lindley 🗣️ is a master sales coach who helps founders turn conversations into clients - and he's helping me do this as part of our 7FL team.

Joe LaRussa, PE is a Strong Servant Leader who connects with everyone from the shop floor to the top floor with his new company Homegrown Leadership (and it's cool to know a real-deal Mayor).

Christopher Parker is a coach for whole hearted NPO’s to fully fund their mission through major gifts.

Matthew Myers is the Lead Coach and GM at Nerd Fitness who has a passion for StoryBrand and client-focused service (and he's now my fitness coach).

Moses M. is a fellow StoryBrand Guide who serves clients a high level by combining visuals and words that matter.

Lara Guevara is the CEO & Founder of Move Supply Chain where she helps DTC brands scale smarter - and she joined our calls at 1AM! 😴 

Ben Fox is a Dream Job Coach who helps tech professionals leave their toxic jobs to enjoy a professional life they love (and he is launching his group coaching program).

Tasha Randle serves by providing career clarity for women of faith whose work no longer feels sustainable (also launching her group coaching program!)

Jessie Wiegand wears many hats as Director of Marketing & Public Relations at The Marriage Group - her story and heart for service are so inspiring.

Kyle Adams is a Newsletter Growth Coach who helps creators turn their newsletter into the most trusted in their niche (and he's helped me personally).

Ezra Max  PCC,MHMP is a CEO Whisperer and one of my caring and interesting men I've ever met (and another Front Row Dad).

I'm SO grateful for each you, and I can't wait to continue to support you and see you crush it as part of our 7-Figure Leap Community.

If you're looking for a top 1% podcast guest to serve your community, every one of these folks is top-notch!

New identity unlocked.

My guitar has sat in the background of my zoom meetings for four years.

I constantly get asked if I play - and I’ve had to admit that I do not.

That changed on Christmas Day.

We got our youngest daughter a guitar and one of my mastermind members bought us each a great beginner’s book.

I’ve been practicing daily since then and learning alongside my daughter.

Do I really know how to play guitar?

Of course not.

***But I made an identity shift to see myself as a musician and someone who plays guitar.***

If you have big goals in the new year, don’t focus on how far you have to go.

Focus on becoming the type of person who achieves that goal.

And take on that new identity.

Any musicians reading this?

I’d love to read your best tips on making progress as a newbie!

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If a caveman wanted to read your website, and he only had three seconds to do it, would he understand the essence of it immediately?

If your answer is “No”, you’re probably trying to be cute and clever, and it might not be very clear.

This caveman thing is what Donald Miller, CEO of StoryBrand, would call the ‘grunt test’. The number one rule of messaging and marketing is having a clear, simple message that people understand immediately.

From local shops to industry leaders like Microsoft and Nextiva, thousands of businesses use the StoryBrand Soundbite Strategy to cut through the noise and grow faster.

Our shared passion for storytelling is what brought me to Donald’s community, having been a certified StoryBrand guide for nearly 3 years now.

And serving in Don’s community has been powerful way to get clients. We’ve had at least 35 StoryBrand Certified Guides and Coaches come through the Podcast Profits Accelerator so far.

Donald, I just wanted to say thank you. I’m always trying to embody what I’ve learned from you.

Just another overnight success...

Like millions of others, I love Nate Bargatze.

And I had the opportunity to see him live on Friday for a date night with my wife.

I prepped for the show by avoiding all social media clips of him for over 4 months (#nospoilers).  And he delivered.

But this is LinkedIn, so I figured I'd share some deeper takeaways I gained:

1️⃣  Overnight Success

We've all been guilty of thinking someone got "lucky" and got the big break that we deserved (even if we don't want to admit it).

Nate has been grinding and perfecting his craft for over 25 years!

It's only in the past couple years that he started hosting award shows and appearing on SNL - not to mention selling out hockey stadiums two nights in a row in St. Louis. 

2️⃣  Loyalty

Nate had an MC and three opening acts that crushed.

Every one of those guys has known him for over 20 years.

I absolutely love that he is sharing his popularity with people he cares about and rising the tide for all of them.

3️⃣  Investing in Marriage

It was part of his bit, but I think it was sincere. 

Nate mentioned that he and his wife are going to marriage counseling. He shared that it's not the coolest thing to talk about, but the dynamic of the relationship has changed with his explosion in popularity.

Of course it was funny, but it was also refreshing to hear someone talk about the other side of fame.

More importantly, it's clear that his role as husband and father are a top priority to him and he invests in it. 

====

If you get the opportunity to see Nate live, I highly recommend it.

And if you're in your 40s like me, I don't think you'll find a more relatable entertainer out there!

Rich relationships are a compounding investment. 

This was super apparent again for me recently. 

I spoke at Podfest, co-hosted a VIP happy hour, and grew my network in a big way. 

That's all true, but there's so much more to the story of how relationships really work:

- I met Danielle Weil sometime in the past couple of years through a networking group. We met in person at Traffic & Conversion Summit in January 2024. 

- At Podfest last year, Danielle introduced me to Tiffany Neuman.

- This year, Danielle, Tiffany, and I co-hosted a really cool VIP happy hour for our clients and friends. 

- The next day, I was on a group call in Selena Soo’s Rich Relationships Club - I joined through Tiffany's recommendation.

- Next month, Selena will be a special guest in our 7-Figure Leap Community talking about how to build your million dollar network through Rich Relationships (which is literally the book she wrote).  

There are many more nuances to this virtuous cycle of relationship building. 

The main thing I wanted to share as I reflect is you really never know the power of ONE relationship and how it will compound over time. 

Both of these ladies have enhanced my life in a big way and connected me to other amazing people - and I know we’ll be supporting each other in many ways for years to come.

I’d rather have 2,000 right views than 200,000 random views - and I’ll die on that hill.

A few months ago, I was a guest on a podcast hosted by Nathan Barry.

It wasn’t a massive show by internet standards.

 - No viral clips
 - No giant spike in followers

But something interesting happened.

Those few thousand people who watched and listened?

 - They were the right people
 - They reached out
 - They booked calls
 - They invited me into rooms I care about
 - They became clients, collaborators, and long-term relationships

That experience reinforced a lesson Nathan has been teaching for years:

👉  Not all attention is equal.

Most creators are chasing reach. But reach without resonance just builds a crowd.

And crowds are expensive to entertain, exhausting to serve, and terrible at converting.

Here’s the real distinction:

A crowd is:
 – Random
 – Entertainment-driven
 – “Bigger is better”
 – Draining to keep up with

An audience is:
 – Focused
 – Trust-based
 – Identity-aligned
 – Energizing to serve

When you have an audience, you don’t need to perform. You get to teach.

You don’t need viral content. You need relevant content.

You don’t measure success by views alone. You measure it by what happens next.

Your business doesn’t need a bigger crowd.

It needs a tighter audience.

Would you rather have massive reach - or deep relevance with right audience?

I'd love to hear of any experiences you've had that back me up on this.

P.S. This is the 7-Figure Leap Mastermind at our last in-person retreat.  This is my tribe (the deepest form of audience IMO).

I’m probably going to disappoint some growth gurus here…

…but my goal for 2025 was to keep our revenue about the same. I wasn’t trying to 10X anything. Having lower margins sounded BETTER.

And I focused on my team development process.

At the end of each year, I create a notecard with a keystone goal. 2024 meant seven figures, with literally zero team support for the first half of the year. Exciting, but also exhausting.

The second part of that year was me basically admitting I needed help, starting on a basic level: hiring an executive assistant.

2025’s focus was all about creating a foundation and a more sustainable business for myself. I dabbled with team sizing, team building, and systems for different operations.

I don’t get a lot of joy from that, but it felt important and necessary so I wouldn’t burn out. Another point was growing in the future and focusing on my own zone of genius more deeply.

We now have two coaches in fulfillment, helping me deliver the 90 Day Podcast Profits Accelerator Program. I still like being a big part of the Accelerator and the Mastermind, but now I have some assistance and redundancy. I also got some marketing help, which allows me to ‘multiply myself’ in some ways.
2024 and 2025 were almost identical in terms of finances. Some higher expenses, sure, some things going down, but exactly what I expected and wanted.

I think this sets us up for a big 2026.

📌 PS—I put together a roadmap to help any mission-driven entrepreneur become a profitable podcast guest:
- Find your purpose
- Figure out which podcasts to pitch
- Create a podcast pitch that makes hosts say "yes"!
- Nail every podcast appearance and generate relevant leads
- Keep the flywheel going by building relationships

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post for instant access.

$2,200. 

That was the opening slide of my keynote at PodFest yesterday. 

It’s also the average revenue per podcast guest interview for our clients. 

The poll that attendees took disclosed that 40% were making <$500 per interview. 

Worse?

60% had NO IDEA how much a guest opportunity was worth to them.  

It doesn’t have to be that way. 

If you want me to send you the exact playbook we use to ensure you KNOW how much profit you’ll create…

…and make it’s 4, 5 or 6 figures per appearance:

Comment $2200 and I’ll send it to you so you can get started and remove all the guesswork.

You're probably leaving money on the table.

The single biggest lever in your business is your offer.

Specifically, it's the mix of offers and how you position them.

Most coaches have too many offers and/or confusion in their value proposition.

From personal and client experience, I am convinced that you only need 3 offers (max) to grow your business to $1M+ in annual revenue.

In fact, we've reached that mark with only 2 offers.

Invest 16 minutes today to listen to this breakdown of The 3 Offers You Need to Hit 7 Figures:

https://lnkd.in/gXtehQMp

And leave me a comment with your current offers so I can give you my insights.

Open article: 7-Figure Leap with Dustin Riechmann by podcasts.apple.com

Everybody naturally knows how to speak on podcasts, right?!

I used to assume this was true. I’ve just done it so much, and in a lot of different industries and environments, that it became second nature, you know?

I sort of took it for granted — just show up and teach. Tell the stories!

But lots of our Podcast Profits Accelerator members are just starting out with podcast guesting. The ‘performance’ doesn’t always come naturally.

Luckily, people started asking questions:

→ What stories?
→ How do I introduce myself?
→ How do I formulate the call to action?

People understood, structurally, what would happen in a podcast — but we had to give them more individual support to make it really comfortable to show up in a way that didn’t fell overly scripted.

We’ve since added specific story templates to our framework, but also plenty of space for people to practice on one-on-one calls with me or in a breakout room with a partner.

This approach bears more fruit as people feel confident and equipped when they show up on interviews.

If you want to learn how to create and naturally tell the 3 Keystone Stories that you should feature in every podcast appearance, get my playbook here: 
https://lnkd.in/gkVTs_pH

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