In today’s episode, Brandon Fears breaks down one of the most damaging myths in business: that cutting 10% of your workforce will magically improve margins and efficiency.

The truth?

A blanket headcount reduction creates what Brandon calls a “double tax”—a hidden cost that slows velocity, destroys productivity, tanks morale, and erodes the very margins your CFO is trying to protect.

Brandon then walks through three real-world case studies—warehouse operations, a managed service provider, and a boutique hotel—to show how Quiet AI (not “invisible AI”) can eliminate drudgery, restore velocity, protect your people, and increase margins without layoffs.

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Your CFO is wrong—and here’s why.

Firing 10% of your workforce doesn’t improve efficiency. It triggers a double tax:

1. Immediate productivity collapse (fear, protectionism, internal chaos).
2. Long-term velocity loss as 11% more work is spread across fewer people—while productivity decreases by 20% or more.

Brandon breaks down why layoffs rarely deliver the promised margin gains and introduces Quiet AI—a practical operational strategy that fires the work, not the people.

He shows how to:

• Identify “soul-sucking drudgery” slowing your team.
• Use AI to eliminate tedious tasks and bottlenecks.
• Reallocate human talent to high-value, high-velocity work.
• Protect institutional knowledge and psychological safety.
• Increase margins through growth, not fear.

Brandon also covers three case studies showing this approach in action.

• Short-term productivity collapse
• Long-term workload redistribution that overwhelms survivors
• Company-wide fear → resume updating → attrition → knowledge loss
• Margins rarely improve—and often worsen

• Invisible AI = secret automation →...