The Leveraged CEO

For business owners who want to stop being the bottleneck. Matt Dart breaks down the systems, automations, and mindset shifts to build a business that runs without you.

The Leveraged CEO is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 139 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts The Leveraged CEO, a business show with 139 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #138

  Ep138: Your Staff Aren't Lazy, You're Just a Bad Boss

  Sep 28, 20268 minS1

  Most owners reckon their staff are the problem. They're lazy, they look busy, they don't follow the process. But nine times out of ten it comes back to the owner. In this episode I break down why your hires keep failing, and what needs to be in place before you bring the next person on. A farmer who just joined the program is paying $220k a year across two staff who aren't getting the job done. There's no checklist, no SOPs, no onboarding and no real hiring process. The work is simple and repetitive once someone's trained, so finding and training the right people should be easy. It isn't, because the system isn't there. You can't judge someone against a standard that only exists in your head. Here's what I cover: -The hire, fail, fire cycle. You hire someone, they fail, you fire them, you jump back on the tools and hire again. Same result every time. A roofer I spoke to this week has been through four or five people in 6 months. That's stressful for everyone and it's not good for business. -Donkeys and stallions. Donkeys are good to have in the business. They'll do the task, but only if the system and process is there for them. Without it they do nothing, which is exactly what was happening with the farmer's team. -Map the outcome before you hire. Write down what you want this person to achieve, what they're responsible for and what they'll do each day. Then check the systems and processes are ready before they start. If they're not, start there, otherwise you're setting them up to fail. -The 30-day onboarding road map. Take them through the vision, the purpose and the mission of the business, then train them on the job. By day 30 they should be fully handed over and you're out of that role. From there it's just checking in. -Money isn't enough to keep people anymore. People can move around. If you want them to stay long term they need to be connected to a vision and a purpose, otherwise you've just got a revolving door. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: your staff aren't lazy 00:38 Three new clients and my $100k/month tracker 01:18 The farmer paying $220k for staff who don't deliver 01:51 Why it always comes back to the owner 02:07 The hire, fail, fire cycle 02:21 The roofer who's been through 5 people in 6 months 02:43 What a hiring playbook fixes 03:14 Donkeys and stallions 03:54 Map the outcome before you hire 04:21 The 30-day onboarding process 05:31 Why money isn't enough to keep people 06:31 The recap: outcome, SOPs, onboarding, check-ins 07:10 How to grab my hiring docs If you're a business owner doing $250k to $2m a year and you keep hiring people who don't work out, book a free Leverage Audit with me. We'll go through your systems and processes, work out what to automate, delegate or delete, and get the hiring and onboarding sorted so your team can run without you. Then you get your time back and can put those hours into growing. Link's in the description. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back -https://leveragedceo.com.au/getyourtimeback1

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #137

  Ep137: 3 Ways Your Business Is Bleeding Money Right Now

  Sep 21, 202611 minS1

  You won't find the leak on your P&L. It's not a line item. It's sitting in how the business runs day to day, and most owners don't even know it's happening. In this episode I break down three places money is leaking out of businesses right now, straight from the calls I've been having, and how to fix each one. None of these cost money to fix. They're costing you money because they're not fixed. And the third one is the biggest of the lot, because it's the one expense nobody ever puts a number on. Here's what I cover: -Slow lead response. If you're on the tools all day and you don't get back to a lead within 5 minutes, you're throwing money away. The second someone clicks your ad, Meta shows them your competitors, and the fastest reply wins nearly every time. A concreter I spoke to has a $10k average job and only lands 20% of what comes through. Reply and pre-qualify inside 5 minutes and that's an extra 5 to 10k a week. -The locksmith rule. My son locked himself in the car. I called the first person who could get there and didn't care about the price. That's your customer. They've got a problem right now and whoever answers first gets the job. Fix it with an admin person, a CRM automation, an AI agent, or a commission-only appointment setter on 5% of contract value. -Admin that's late or never happens. 150 emails in the inbox, a couple of days to catch up, and the person who asked for a quote has already gone somewhere else. Rule of thumb: anything that happens more than five times gets a template or an AI agent trained on it. Onboarding becomes a workflow. Invoicing gets automated. A VA or an inbox agent sorts what needs you and what doesn't. -Your hours, the biggest one. 40 hours a week and only 5 of them on anything that moves the business forward. Get 20 back, put 10 into sales, close two extra deals a week at $10k, and that's an extra $80k a month in contracted revenue without changing anything else. Delete, delegate, or automate the rest and watch what happens over 12 months. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: three ways you're bleeding money 00:30 Number 1: slow lead response 01:01 Why paid ads make speed to lead even more important 01:33 The concreter losing 80% of $10k jobs 02:13 The simplest fix: someone who just replies 03:00 The locksmith rule: first to answer wins 04:18 AI agents, CRM automations and chatbots 05:01 Commission-only appointment setters 05:43 Number 2: admin that's late or never happens 06:42 Inbox agents, VAs and the five times rule 07:53 Number 3: your hours 08:42 The $80k a month maths 09:30 How to apply to work with us If you're a business owner doing $250k to $2m a year and you're on the tools all day while leads and admin pile up, book a free Leverage Audit with me. We'll go through your systems and processes, work out what to automate, delegate, or delete so you can get your time back and put those hours into the stuff that actually makes money. Link's in the description. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back -https://leveragedceo.com.au/getyourtimeback1

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #136

  Ep136: 5 Signs Your Team Isn't the Problem (You Are)

  Sep 14, 202613 minS1

  Most owners I talk to reckon the team is the problem. Nobody follows the process, everything comes back to them, and they're putting out fires all day. In this episode I break down five signs it's not actually the team. It's the way you've set the business up, and that comes back to you. I'm pulling all five straight from the sales calls I've been having the last few months. Same story every time. Good people, no systems, and an owner who's the only place anything gets decided. Fix the setup and the team just figures it out. They're a lot smarter than you probably think. Here's what I cover: -Every question in the business defaults to you. One owner had run it this way the whole time he's had the business, then wondered why he had no time. There's no ownership because there's nowhere else to go. Fix is a definition of done in the SOP and a "here's what to do if this happens" section. 80% done by someone else beats 100% done by you. -You've got SOPs and nobody uses them. A bloke built the whole set two years ago, then kept changing the process and never updated the docs. Now he's got zero SOPs and everyone's back at his desk. Update the SOP the day you change the system, not two years later. -The AI bot I built for an allied health clinic. Their admin manual was 40 pages so the team just asked the manager instead. We built one-page SOPs for the main tasks and a bot the team can chat to that's read the whole manual. The manager stopped fielding questions and so did the owner. -You're the only deadline. Financial services team knew the BAS was due and did nothing because the only accountability was the owner asking "why isn't it done." If you have to manually tell the team what's due, you're the bottleneck. An automated task list with overdue, due this week, due today fixes it. -You hired and it didn't stick. Spoke to someone an hour before recording whose manager leaves every 12 months. No hiring process, no filtering, no onboarding. Hiring is the answer, you're just hiring the wrong people with no system to land them. Run it like a funnel, add filter questions, then a proper 30-day onboarding before you hand the role over. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: selected for Australia in the LMS World Cup 00:49 Five signs the team isn't the problem 01:20 Sign 1: every question defaults to you 02:42 Definition of done and the 80% rule 03:36 Sign 2: you've got SOPs and nobody uses them 04:51 The AI bot that answers the team's questions 06:09 Sign 3: you're the only deadline 07:22 Sign 4: you hired and it didn't stick 08:34 Hiring like a funnel and the 30-day onboarding 10:32 Sign 5: you feel like you're repeating yourself 11:02 Delete, delegate, automate and the two-week time audit 11:58 The buyback rate: 25% of your hourly rate If you're a business owner doing $250k to $2m a year and every question in the business still lands on your desk, book a free Leverage Audit with me. We'll go through your systems and processes, work out what to automate, delegate, or delete so you can get your time back and put those hours into growing. Link's in the description. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back -https://leveragedceo.com.au/getyourtimeback1

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #135

  Ep135: 5 Signs Your Business Owns You (Not the Other Way Around)

  Sep 7, 20268 minS1

  Everyone starts a business chasing freedom, and most people end up with a very expensive job instead. In this episode I go through the five signs I keep seeing in conversations with founders right now, the signals that your business is running you instead of the other way around, and what's actually behind each one. None of these are about how hard you work. Plenty of the owners I talk to are doing $500K, $1M, even $3M a year and still working 50 to 60 hours a week. Revenue was never the problem. The business being wired to depend on you is. Here's what I cover: -Sign #1: you're waiting for problems to land in your inbox instead of being proactive. Reacting to everything means you never get into a state where you can actually think, make good decisions, or be creative, you're just putting out fires. -Sign #2: your team asks permission for decisions they're already capable of making. This is the one that kills your ability to switch off, take a day, or actually be present with your kids, because everything still runs through your head first. -Sign #3: you know every password and every system by memory because none of it's written down anywhere else. I talk about a business we worked with where the team kept hammering the manager with questions, so we loaded their SOPs into a chatbot the team could message instead, and it freed up hours of the manager's week overnight. -Sign #4: you've cancelled something with your family because "only you" could handle it. The worst one on the list, and the one that costs you the most if you let it keep happening. -Sign #5: your revenue keeps climbing but your hours never drop. Growing revenue should buy you time back through reinvestment and hiring. For most owners it does the opposite. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: the five signs your business owns you 00:40 Sign #1: waiting for problems instead of being proactive 01:52 Sign #2: your team asking permission for calls they can already make 02:42 What real freedom actually looks like day to day 04:00 Sign #3: every password and system living in your head 04:50 The SOP chatbot that stopped the endless questions 05:32 Sign #4: cancelling on your family because "only you" can handle it 06:03 Sign #5: revenue climbing while your hours never do 06:32 Who this is for and how to apply 07:34 Why waiting too long to fix this costs you the relationship If more than two of these sound like you and you're doing $250k to $2m a year, book a free Leverage Audit with me. We'll go through your systems and processes, work out what to automate, delegate, or delete so you can get your time back and put those hours into growing, and into the people who actually matter. Link's in the description. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back -https://leveragedceo.com.au/getyourtimeback1

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #134

  Ep134: 6 Things That Built My $55K/Month PT Business (While I Did Nothing)

  Aug 31, 202610 minS1

  Most people wait until they can "afford it" to invest in themselves. I did the opposite, and it's the reason I ever built a business that ran without me. In this episode I go through the six things that actually got my first PT business to $55K a month with a team of 12 running it, while I did next to nothing in the day to day, including the time I got fired with zero notice and cried in a car park with a gym lease already signed. None of these six things are complicated. None of them are secrets. But most owners won't do them, because most of them cost something, money, comfort, or control, before they pay anything back. Here's what I cover: -The $26K coaching agreement that forced my hand. I paid $10K upfront out of $12K total in my bank account. No backup plan. I've since put around $250K into my own skillset, and every dollar of it made me move faster because I had to make it work. -Why I stopped hanging around people who only talked about business. My high school mates never built anything, so I stopped seeing them and surrounded myself with people already doing what I wanted to do. -The moment I realised I was the actual problem. Twelve staff, and I kept inventing changes to things that didn't need changing. The business grew the second I got out of the way. -Opening a gym right next door to the one that sacked me. Fully booked in two weeks, then a fired trainer, a toxic club manager, and a termination letter left on my desk with zero notice, while I'd already signed a lease and had nowhere to train my clients for three months. -The car park moment. Crying after getting terminated, a gym lease already signed, and $4-5K a month in overheads about to start with no clients to put through it. Still the best thing that ever happened to me. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: episode 134, quick Tesla update 00:51 The six things that built the business to $55K/month 01:53 #1: the $26K coach that forced me to perform 03:17 #2: cutting out mates who weren't in business 03:43 #3: changing my environment on purpose 04:19 #4: realising I was the bottleneck with 12 staff 05:32 #5: opening a gym next door to the one that sacked me 07:11 The termination letter with zero notice 07:20 Training clients out of my parents' garage for 3 months 08:05 #6: crying in the car park, the lowest point 09:07 Fully out of the business, running on a team of 12 09:37 PT Mastery today, 5 hours a week 10:09 How to apply for a Leverage Audit If you're a business owner doing $250k to $2m a year and you're still the one holding the whole thing up, book a free Leverage Audit with me. We'll go through your systems and processes, work out what to automate, delegate, or delete so you can get your time back and put those hours into growing. Link's in the description. Find out how to get 20 hours/week back -https://leveragedceo.com.au/getyourtimeback1

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on The Leveraged CEO. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.