IAM2845 – Why High Effort and Low Alignment Create Growth Bottlenecks

The Busyness Bottleneck

A lot of builders are working hard—grinding, hustling, and doing all the things—yet the business still feels completely stuck. When a venture hits a growth ceiling, our default entrepreneurial instinct is usually to double down on effort. But what happens when the issue isn't about effort, but something deeper creating a bottleneck? In this episode, we sit down with Mikayla of MQ Consulting and Business Training Incorporated to explore why true business growth requires mastering both the inner and outer game of leadership.

The Business as a Mirror of the Leader

A critical, sometimes heavy reality for any builder to accept is that you cannot separate the CEO from the business. They are deeply intertwined and interconnected; the CEO needs to be fed as much as the organization does. If a leader is unclear, overwhelmed, or self-sabotaging, the daily operations will inevitably reflect those exact feelings.

What shows up tactically as a bottleneck can often be traced directly back to the leader's internal beliefs, habits, wounds, or blind spots. Once you recognize that your business is a mirror of your internal condition, it becomes incredibly empowering—it means you don't have to wait for external shifts to change your trajectory. You can take action from within right now.

The Six Blocks to Business Growth

To stop guessing and start scaling, leaders must evolve from simple technicians into true CEOs. Mikayla shares a powerful diagnostic tool by identifying the six main blocks that hold businesses back: mindset, skills, strategy, positioning, productivity, and leverage.

The core takeaway for any executive is to honestly evaluate where these constraints live. Ask yourself this critical question: “Where am I calling something a marketing problem, when it is actually a leadership, positioning, productivity, or leverage bottleneck?”. Shifting your strategy to address the real constraint is what takes a business from simply being busy to actually becoming better.

Previous episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2844-thought-leader-and-coo-makes-advancements-in-digital-marketing/

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Transcription:

Gresham Harkless 00:00
A lot of builders are working hard, they're grinding, they're hustling, they're doing all the things, but the business still feels stuck. And here's the thing. Like, we get into this mindset of I need to hustle more, I need to do more. Don't get me wrong, there's space and time for that. But what happens when the issue is not about effort is something that's deeper in creating a bottleneck.

If you're building something meaningful, you're in the right place. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. I'm gresh, and for over a decade, I've had the honor and the privilege of Learning directly from CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners just like you on how to build. After recording more than 1600 episodes, one thing has become clear. Success isn't about following someone else's blueprint. And as I like to say on the show, if you run your own race, you can't lose, even when you feel the journey should be a straight and linear path. What I've come to find out is success is a lot more like a plate of spaghetti. So in this special segment and episode, I'm starting to curate and share some CEO hacks and CEO nuggets that I've been dying to share. Drawn from thousands of episodes with phenomenal guests that have provided awesome value on the show, but also my 10 years of business experience as well, too. These lessons are designed to strengthen the foundational principles that every business is built on and guided by a simple equation that we always go back to with our content. Visibility plus resources times connections equals success. This is practical wisdom you can apply almost immediately, so be sure to check out the show notes for more resources and next steps on how to level up. And of course, enjoy this special episode of the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 01:41

A lot of builders are working hard. They're grinding, they're hustling, they're doing all the things, but the business still feels stuck. And here's the thing. Like, we get into this mindset of I need to hustle more, I need to do more. Don't get me wrong, there's space and time for that. But what happens when the issue is not about effort is something that's deeper in creating a bottleneck? In episode number 53, I spoke with Mikayla of MQ Consulting and Business Training Incorporated. And Mikayla is an international business growth and marketing expert who supports coaches, consultants, service professionals who struggle with sales marketing systems. And what really came up during this conversation was how she connected business growth to both the Inner game and also the outer game of leadership. Mikayla shared that she started her business from a desire to stop tolerating the life that she had and start creating the one that she wanted. So early in her career she was on the fast track in corporate, working for one of Canada's fastest growing startups and supporting a hundred percent sales team. But she reached this point and moment where she had to ask whether climbing the corporate ladder was really, really and truly her purpose. Now why does this matter? Because us, as builders in many entrepreneurs and CEOs and business owners, we're technically moving, but not always moving in perfect or even close to perfect, honestly. Alignment. You can have sales tactics, marketing tactics, hacks, operational checklists, but if a leader is unclear, overwhelmed or self sabotaging, the business usually will reflect those, those actual feelings. Now the way that Mikayla kind of explained what she does is she really thought of it as part coach, part consultant, part hands on tactical support and execution. So she helps business owners diagnose what is happening, build roadmaps and navigate sales, marketing, operation people and then leadership issues. And I like that largely because as builders we, we don't need more random advice. We actually need more clarity in the map that we're trying to follow and try to execute. Often it's not necessarily more things of somebody who maybe talked with us for 10 seconds, but actually somebody who has that deep knowledge and information and experience, but also has had that understanding and conversation at the very least of like what exactly we can do, they can do to kind of help support us. The thing that really stood out was her point that you cannot separate the CEO from the business. It's not either or, it's both and better. And they're both very much so intertwined and interconnected, connected. The CEO needs to be fed as much as the business does as well. What shows up tactically in the business can often be traced back to the leader's beliefs, habits, wounds or potentially their blind spots. And that may sound heavy because a lot of times we don't realize that our business is a mirror of what it is that we're doing and potentially not doing or we've done and maybe not done. But it is also an extremely empowering feeling because it means growth is not just outside of you. Part of that growth work is actually inside of you too. So if you see that things are not coming out and happening within the business, maybe it's time that you take that opportunity to make the changes within. And that's empowering because you don't have to wait externally to make the change. You can make the change right now, today, right as you're listening to this. And one of the things that she really talked around was going through this idea of a values exercise. It's practical because values help create clarity around personal decisions and organizational directions. Direction when you know what matters, it becomes easier to decide what to pursue, what to say no to, what to stop tolerating, and what kind of business you are actually building. Overall, the nugget Mikayla shared was especially strong. She identifies six main blocks to business growth. Mindset, skills, strategy, positioning, productivity, and leverage. And for builders, this is an extremely powerful diagnostic tool because it helps you to stop guessing if growth is stuck. You can ask which block is really showing up. And it aligns a lot with the pillars that we talked around. If you start to look at these different pillars, you can see how they align with the business that you want to create. Take this for example. Maybe it's mindset where your beliefs are driving the ultimate bus that you're on. Maybe it's skills where you need to evolve from technician to CEO. You need to level up and, you know, pay attention to some of those pillars and things that you can do a lot better. Maybe a strategy, positioning, productivity or something potentially even leverages well too, where business needs stronger systems, focused team, and resources as a whole. Here's something worth considering, worth thinking about. Where are you calling it a marketing problem where it may actually be a leadership, positioning, productivity, or even a leverage problem? This comes up perfectly with our strategy pillar at CBNation, largely because strategy is not just about planning, it's about seeing the constraints and building from there. It's about understanding what's actually happening, being able to diagnose it and be able to, of course, take those steps and create that strategy around where you want to go if your business feels busy, but not necessarily better. This episode offers a strong lens for identifying bottlenecks that may be holding everything back.