You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you tolerate.

In addition to the 16+ years I’ve been building companies I’ve also spent a LOT of time talking to other founders. At this point, I’ve spent meaningful time with hundreds of entrepreneurs.

I’ve reached a conclusion.

A quick pause before we keep going.

In the very near future I’m going to be adding sponsors to my free weekly emails. It’s time to grow this thing and that means investment…which will come from sponsors!

BUT

Subscribers to The Briefing will continue to receive all free emails in a sponsor-free format.

The Briefing subscribers also get bonus special issues 2x per month. These are special deep dives into how I run my companies.

A behind the scenes look that I hold back for people who truly value it. That means you gotta pay at least a little bit…

It’s only $25/mo.

Not exactly a huge amount, but a small way for me to see who the real operators are.

Almost everything wrong with our businesses is an us problem.

Most good or bad in any company comes down to the people around the table.

And you are responsible for the people in those seats.

What do I mean by this?

When I’m frustrated that my team isn’t performing? That’s a me problem. I’m tolerating it.

When people constantly won’t leave me alone? Me problem.

Feel like you don’t have enough time in the day to do important work. Yup, you problem.

In my experience, companies grow because of momentum.

The downside to momentum is that you often aren’t in much control. Kind of like surfing…you are the ocean’s little bitch whether you like it or not.

Your business will develop a mind of its own. It is your job to train it, teach it values, give it guardrails that make sure it behaves how you want it to.

When we don’t do this, we often wind up with a business that doesn’t look at all like the thing we envisioned when we started.

I can’t tell you how to recognize every problem in your business, especially when those problems are usually you.

What I can tell you is how “me” problems usually show up in my businesses over time and maybe that will be helpful.

To do that, you need to know a little about me.

I’m not proud of this, but I’ve got a tendency to rely on my intuition and intellect more than I do habits or hard work. I tend to move very quickly and don’t need a lot of planning.

It took me years to realize that while this might work for me, it doesn’t work for my team.

I’ll sit with things for a long time, writing out my thoughts, editing them, then rewriting them. I know that when the time actually comes, I can act quickly and rely on intuition and smarts.

I’ve been building companies (read: teams) long enough to know that my approach to individual work isn’t great for scaling an organization.

Which is why I hire good operators and project managers to execute on things. They ensure my short comings don’t become liabilities for the business.

I’m sharing this because I’ve found that most businesses are held back by their founder(s) character flaws.

Most founders & CEOs, or just people in power, don’t have someone close enough who can tell them these things either. Many proceed through life like their farts don’t stink, and that lack of self awareness is the real problem.

The point of todays email is simple.

Look in the mirror. What default settings do you operate with that might be harming your business.

If you want something to fix, start there.

Onward,

Matt

P.S. Whenever you’re ready there are 3 ways I can help you…

1 - Go listen to The Operators Podcast. 4 co-hosts with bigger companies all jamming on real business problems.

2 - Coaching/Advising - VERY rarely I open my calendar up to do 1on1 advisory/coaching work with others. If you're interested you need to reply to this email with "interested". I'll send you info/options.

3 - The Briefing ($25/mo.) - Want a behind the scenes look at how I run my companies? Twice a month I release a special issue email giving you a look at how I do my day job (CEO). These are my playbooks. My experience. The last issue was a detailed playbook on how to run an EA (Assistant).