As long as you are the key person in your business, you’ll always be the limiting factor on growth. Because there can always be only one of you.

Being the Visionary CEO is how you scale without burnout.

Here’s a critical-but-potentially-painful truth:

As long as you are the key person in your business—meaning, and as long as there are things that only you can do—you’ll always be the limiting factor on growth. 

Because there can always be only one of you.

That’s why being the Visionary CEO starts by re-imagining your business to not be all about you anymore.

(Yes, this applies even—or maybe even especially—if you’re a personal brand.)

Think about it: the reason a person running a thriving multi-8-figure business doesn’t feel like they’re drowning? Is that they’re NOT.

In fact, they’ve figured out how to make it so they don’t have to be down in the weeds of their business at all. All they have to do is show up, do their thing, and they know that everything else is taken care of.

That’s because they’ve learned how to stop “being the business” … and instead be the Visionary CEO of the business.

They’ve figured out how to replace themselves as the “thing” that is holding everything (and everyone) together.

Note: we said they’ve replaced themselves, not removed themselves.

This is a key mistake that most people make. They try to hire people, build systems, etc. and then remove themselves from the process …

Only to see things start to fall apart as soon as they do.

That’s because something needs to be there to hold the systems and the people together … and unless you replace yourself as that thing, that something will always be you.

Of course, the more you hire and the more systems you build, the more things there are that need to be held together, which pulls you in a million directions and stretches you ever thinner.

That’s when things start falling apart.

That’s when things become overwhelming.

And that is why you need to put in place a structural framework that will hold everything together instead of you …

Even before you try to hire and build systems. (And especially if you’ve already done so)

By putting structure in place, there’s something else that holds everything together.

Just like the framing of a house provides structure to the roof, so that you don’t need to stand in your house holding the roof up…

construction

With structure in your business, you can step away, take a break, or just focus on something else for a while, and it won’t all fall apart.

(In fact, when you get this right, your business won’t just keep going … it keeps growing, making money, and having a bigger impact. Indefinitely.)

Because it doesn’t need you there to make it happen.

STRUCTURE is the key to scaling sustainably.

If you want your business to run like a well-oiled machine, structures are the key.

When you focus on scaling your business using STRUCTURES, a few things happen:

  • You’re able to envision how your clients and customers can still get results, EVEN WHEN you’re not personally involved.

    (This means that you have a MODEL that can enrol 2X, 5X or 10X as many clients AND get them ALL world-class results)

  • That then allows your team to take the lead on getting things done, while YOU step out of the day-to-day.

    (This means that you’re freed up from the OPERATIONS of marketing, client delivery, creating processes, etc.)

  • With your team taking the lead, you’re no longer the bottleneck through whom every decision must flow.

    (This means you’ve got a CULTURE that empowers your team to make decisions in 100% alignment with your values, your vision, and your goals)

And as soon as YOU are not the bottleneck for the model, the results, the operations, the team, or the culture?

Then there is no part of your business that absolutely requires you to be there in order to function.

This means profit goes up, your time is freed up, and your business can scale. Infinitely.

Joe Taylor Jr.

Co-Founder, PodcastTaxi

I’m no longer looking at a straight-line trajectory of just knocking out 60-70 hour weeks until I fall over. I’m putting in just the right amount to continue to steer the ship, while the team is growing and fanning out beneath me.

Myleik Teele

Founder, CurlBox

I now have time to work ON the business. I don't think I realized how little time I had to get things done... for the FIRST time ever, I see a path to creating more while still feeling in alignment with my purpose.

Denise Duffield-Thomas

Founder, DeniseDT.com

Putting me back into the things that I’m good at (and taking me away from the things I’m not as good at) ... that is making a huge energetic shift for me in the passion that I have for my business.

Results + Team + Profit

Those three foundational structures—results, team and profit—are the prerequisite for true scalability.

When you are able to grow your results + team + profit all at the same time, you have all the elements that will allow you to scale.

Note: the at the same time part is important.

If you get more clients, but have to hire such a big team that it cuts your profit margin to nil … that’s not scalable.

Or if you keep the profit margin super high, but it means that you can’t give clients the kind of experience & results they want … that’s not scalable either.

So you need to find some way to make sure that those three structures stay aligned as you grow. Otherwise, bigger scale will mean bigger headaches.

More on that later.

For now, just notice how different this approach is from the message of “just market, hire and build systems”.

When you market, hire and build systems, you aren’t addressing your business from a structural perspective, and you haven’t removed yourself as the key person at the center of it all.

You’ve just added more clients, more people, and more systems.

That’s why so many people end up having dialed in their marketing, built solid systems and hired a great team, and still feel like they are just barely holding on.

Because they are. 

And THAT why the solution isn’t “market better, hire more people and build better systems.”

Instead, it’s to engineer those three structures so that they don’t rely on you … and to do so in a way that makes things better for your clients, your team, and you.

Now, let’s look at an example.

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Breanne Dyck

Breanne Dyck co-founded the Visionary CEO Academy to help progressive business owners structure their teams and businesses for sustainable scale to $1M, $5M, $10M and beyond.