In this episode, Tom and his co-host dive deep into the real challenges entrepreneurs face when running their businesses — from burnout and chaos to flimsy business models and the trap of being “busy.”

Fresh off their recent Accidental CEO Workshop, they share the powerful lessons learned working with a unique group of business owners, highlighting the difference between reaction mode and true forecasting. With decades of experience behind the scenes of hundreds of businesses, they reveal the patterns that hold most founders back and the practical strategies to break through.

🔑 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why being busy is not the same as being in business — and how the “busy badge” keeps entrepreneurs stuck.
• How to shift from reaction mode to forecasting mode and why systems are the key to avoiding burnout.
• The real role of coaching: not emotional support, but a strategic asset that challenges your thinking and sharpens your actions.
• Why delegating isn’t just handing off tasks, but transferring clarity and ownership.
• How flimsy business models and constant reinvention kill momentum — and what to do instead.
• The danger of waiting for the “perfect time” and why clarity comes from action, not waiting.
• How decision fatigue and unresolved “maybes” silently drain your energy and stall growth.
• Why your brand is not your logo, but your unique voice and truth in the market.
• The truth about referrals: it’s not about talent alone — it’s about clarity and confidence in your message.
• Why discounting destroys trust and how pricing is a leadership decision.

🚀 Key Takeaway

Business isn’t about reinventing the wheel or waiting for the perfect moment. Growth comes from clarity, consistent action, and building systems that outlive you. Move from being an Accidental CEO to an Intentional CEO by making strategic decisions, leading with clarity, and refusing to settle for chaos.

🎯 Next Step

Want to experience this transformation firsthand? Join the upcoming Accidental CEO Workshop and invest 90 minutes of your time for a roadmap to clarity, growth, and intentional leadership.

👉 Learn more and reserve your seat at atomic.coach.

In this episode, Tom and Adam tackle one of the biggest challenges small business owners face — getting stuck in the role instead of stepping into the CEO mindset. They share real-world client stories, personal insights, and practical strategies for breaking free from overwhelm, reclaiming your authority, and running your business like a true leader.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The “Technologia” Trap: How small technical issues mirror the bigger challenges business owners face when they try to do it all themselves.
• From Technician to CEO: Why you’re not stuck in your business — you’re stuck in your role, and how to shift to designing outcomes instead of just solving problems.
• Overwhelm vs. Laziness: Why overwhelm isn’t about time management but about focus, attention, and prioritization.
• The Productivity Lie: How structure actually creates more freedom and helps you move from task-based work to momentum-based growth.
• Identity Theft in Business: How imposter syndrome and pricing insecurity sabotage sales, and how to reclaim your authority.
• Sales with Clarity: Why selling transformation, not just expertise, makes sales calls easier and more effective.
• The Listening Advantage: How asking the right questions and truly hearing the answers turns more “no’s” into “yes’s.”
• Authority Over Approval: Why chasing client approval shrinks your authority and how to make sales about decisions, not desperation.
• The CEO Mirror: How self-awareness (not just more information) transforms both you and your business.

Workshop Invitation:

Every Wednesday, Tom and Adam host a free Accidental CEO Workshop for six business owners ready to shift from survival mode to intentional leadership. You’ll walk away with clarity, actionable next steps, and a community that gets it.

Click here to see if you qualify for the next workshop.

Links & Resources:

• Join the Accidental CEO Workshop →
• Follow Tom & Adam for more insights on leadership, sales, and business growth

In this episode, Tom and Adam dive into a challenge most entrepreneurs don’t even realize they’re facing—the quiet tax of control. From refusing to delegate to fearing the business will collapse without them, accidental CEOs often unknowingly sabotage their own growth.

The conversation covers:

• Why taking a vacation every 90 days isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity for clarity and vitality.

• How burnout, lack of structure, and fear of letting go keep business owners stuck.

• The difference between healthy collaboration and seeking constant external validation.

• Why self-trust beats strategy every time when building your first million.

• How the Accidental CEO Workshop provides a simple structure to turn ideas into action and scale without burning out.

Whether you’re stuck at $60K or $600K, this episode reveals how to break the bottleneck you’ve created, reclaim your energy, and lead your business without sacrificing your life.

What You’ll Learn

• The “90-Day Rule” for recharging your mind, body, and business.

• The real cost of being the bottleneck in your company.

• How uncertainty fuels anxiety—and how to navigate it with confidence.

• Why isolation kills momentum and how to find the right support network.

• The mindset shift from employee to empowered CEO.

Short High-Impact Teaser

If your business can’t run without you, it’s costing you more than money—it’s costing you your freedom. Learn how to step back, recharge, and grow without burning out.

Resources & Links

• Free Accidental CEO Workshop → atomic.coach
• Connect with Tom and Adam on LinkedIn for workshop details
• The Atomic Game Changer — Learn more about vitality and sustainable growth

In this real and raw episode, Tom and Adam peel back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes journey of creating a podcast as accidental CEOs—and why it’s okay to still be figuring things out after 130+ episodes. They dive deep into the mindset shifts needed to thrive as a business owner, why calculated risk is essential, and how to balance commitment with joy in your business.

This episode is your reminder that success isn't about perfection—it's about progress, persistence, and perspective.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

🎙 The Imperfect Journey of Entrepreneurship

• Starting a podcast was never part of the original plan—yet here they are, still evolving with every episode.
• Entrepreneurship isn't about having all the answers; it's about showing up, trying, failing, and improving along the way.

📊 Why Accidental CEOs Fixate on Results

• Many new entrepreneurs focus only on outcomes—30, 60, 90-day results—without embracing the learning curve.
• The truth: You can’t achieve greatness without calculated risk and unwavering commitment.

💡 The CEO Mindset: Commitment, Effort, Obsession

• Success demands more than interest—it requires obsession-level commitment.
• Dabbling doesn’t build empires. You’re either all in or you’re in the way.

❌ The Saboteur of Avoidance

• Avoiding failure is a form of self-sabotage.
• If you don’t try, you've already failed. Failing forward is key to leadership and growth.

👥 Building a Culture That Accepts Failure

• As you grow a team, your role evolves to include modeling how to fail and recover with grace.
• Failing should be baked into your culture—it’s how learning and innovation happen.

🔄 Start–Stop–Continue: A 90-Day Business Reset

• Simple exercise: Every 90 days, assess what you need to stop, start, and continue doing.
• Helps reframe your priorities and create intentional business planning.

🏆 Celebrate Your Wins (Seriously!)

• Too many business owners forget to enjoy their success.
• Take time to reflect, appreciate, and actually live the life you’ve worked hard to build.

🔍 The Power of Perspective

• You may not notice your own growth because you're too close to it.
• Like seeing a child grow—others notice it more. Step back and reflect on your timeline.

🎯 Focus on the ONE Thing

• The most powerful change? Pick one thing and go all in for 12 months.
• Mastery, authority, and results come from focused, consistent execution.

🛠 Tools & Techniques Mentioned:

• Start–Stop–Continue Exercise (every 90 days)
• Retrospective Timeline Analysis for measuring progress
• Accidental CEO Workshop: 90-minute business clarity session

🙌 Final Thought:

“You have to suck in order to have success. And if you never give yourself the chance to acknowledge what’s going right, what’s going wrong will always feel heavier.”

🎟️ Want More?

Join Tom and Adam in their next Accidental CEO Workshop — a 90-minute experience to uncover what's working, what's not, and what you need help with. Collaborate with other entrepreneurs and leave with a custom action plan.

👉 Register now at :

In this powerful and candid episode, Tom and Adam delve into the challenges and mindset shifts that every accidental CEO faces when transitioning into a confident and intentional business leader. They unpack the paradox of creating content that truly helps without preaching, the patterns they observe in their coaching clients, and the recurring struggles business owners face—especially when it comes to asking for help, managing focus, and navigating the unpredictable trio of clients, employees, and money.

You’ll walk away with actionable insights and thought-provoking reflections that will help you step more fully into your CEO role—whether your business is just getting off the ground or scaling toward seven figures and beyond.

🔑 Key Topics Covered:

💡 Serving vs. Preaching

• Why helping your audience with what they need (not what you assume they want) changes your communication.
• The balance between authenticity and avoiding the "expert trap" of telling people what to do.

🧠 The Accidental CEO’s Dilemma

• The emotional journey of turning a side hustle into a full-time business.
• How excitement turns into overwhelm when entrepreneurs realize what running a business really takes.

🧭 From Chaos to Clarity

• The power of asking just three questions:

1. What's going right?
2. What's going wrong?
3. What do you need help with?

• Why focus matters more than hustle—and how unfinished tasks steal your energy and clarity.

🧨 Saboteurs & Self-Sabotage

• How the Restless and Controller saboteurs derail growth.
• Why perfectionism and control stop CEOs from delegating and scaling.
• The trap of thinking you have to “do it all” and “know it all.”

🔄 Managing the Cycle: Clients, Employees, and Money

• The endless loop of needing clients to get money, money to hire employees, and employees to serve clients.
• Why mastering the management of this cycle is key to sustainable success.

📶 Signal vs. Noise

• Learning to identify your “signal” (your highest-impact tasks) and delegate the “noise.”
• How to embrace your role as a true CEO and move away from busywork.

🤝 Building Relationships That Drive Revenue

• Why relationship-building—not hard selling—is the CEO’s real job.
• How authentic conversations create opportunity.
• Tips for people who struggle with networking or social anxiety.

📚 Resources Mentioned:

• Book Recommendation: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy
• Quote Spotlight: “Perfect the details and have as few details as possible.” — Jack Dorsey

🔧 Actionable Takeaways:

1. Assess your role daily – Are you doing CEO work or just staying busy?
2. Ask for help – From mentors, employees, coaches, or vendors.
3. Focus on signal, not noise – Stick to your 3–5 must-do tasks.
4. Get clear on your next step – Don’t try to solve everything at once.
5. Invest in relationships – They’re the real currency of growth.

💥 Want More?

👉 Join our FREE Accidental CEO Workshop – Real-time coaching and clarity on your next steps.

🌐 Visit

In this heartfelt episode, we dive deep into the real reasons behind why so many small business owners and entrepreneurs take the leap—often unintentionally—into the role of CEO. From building a business around family needs to redefine success with purpose and intention, this conversation explores what it truly means to live life and run a business on your own terms.

Our hosts reflect on their own journeys into entrepreneurship, the struggles of balancing parenting with business, and how the pursuit of presence—not just profit—can lead to a more fulfilling life and business.

💡 Key Topics Discussed:

🏠 Building a Business Around Family

• The catalyst for starting the business: being more present for children.
• The challenges of corporate life and the decision to prioritize family over career.
• Real stories of attending client meetings on the road while supporting children’s dreams.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 From Corporate to Coaching: A Personal Journey

• Transitioning from a traditional 9-5 to a remote, flexible business model.
• Designing work hours around kids’ schedules—and why that worked even better for clients.

💼 The Accidental CEO Phenomenon

• Why so many business owners never intended to become CEOs.
• How accidental CEOs build businesses out of a skill or need, not strategy.
• The importance of asking, “What do you want?”—and why so many struggle to answer it.

🎯 Purpose, Vision, and Mission Explained

• The danger of being “busy” without intention.
• Redefining vision as decision-making direction, and mission as daily action.
• Why your vision must drive your decisions, and your mission must align with daily actions.

🧠 Presence and the Trap of “Always Building”

• Why new entrepreneurs can’t stay present—and how to break free.
• The shift from building to running your business as a pathway to peace and clarity.
• Solving today’s problems so you can plan for tomorrow’s dreams.

🧱 Simplify to Scale

• How success often leads to overcomplication.
• The counterintuitive truth: doing less but better is the path to growth.
• Why the most successful entrepreneurs take on unreasonable effort to achieve simplicity.

💬 Limiting Beliefs & Relationship Shifts

• How societal and relational beliefs hold accidental CEOs back.
• The impact of friends and family projecting their limitations onto entrepreneurs.
• Personal growth often means changing who you spend time with.

🔦 Client Spotlight:

• A young man inheriting a $4M construction business struggling to find his “why.”
• A single mom esthetician transforming her business and motherhood by letting go of people-pleasing.

🛠️ Tools & Resources Mentioned:

• Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield – for navigating friendship shifts and leveling up.
• The Simple Focus System – a tool to align your vision, mission, and action.
• Free Tools and Resources from Atomic Business Coaching – including assessments, courses, and workshops to help you grow as a business owner.

🔁 Quote Highlights:

“Your vision is in your

In this episode, Tom and Adam dive deep into the messy reality of running a business in today’s rapidly evolving tech environment. From software updates disrupting workflows to business owners struggling with delegation, they explore why simplicity in business often gets lost in the search for optimization. The conversation flows through topics of technology overwhelm, the myth of the perfect system, the fear of failure, and the importance of embracing the journey—mess and all.

The hosts discuss why so many entrepreneurs create new problems after solving old ones, how technology functions like an employee, and why relearning is often the path to mastery. They also unpack the cycle of comfort → fear → learning → growth and why getting stuck in comfort zones kills progress. Throughout the episode, Tom and Adam challenge listeners to rethink their relationship with failure, focus on the process instead of the result, and use technology as a tool for meaningful growth—not just convenience.

Key Topics Covered

🔧 Technology: Friend or Frustration?

• The constant updates and changes in software and hardware.
• Technology as a delegation tool — but what are you doing with the time it frees up?
• Why finding the “perfect” software won't solve your business problems if you’re unclear on your purpose.

🧠 Delegation & the Problem with Free Time

• How new business owners often fill freed-up time with busy work instead of growth activities.
• The critical question: Are you improving your processes, or just trying to avoid them?

🚨 Choosing the Right Problems to Solve

• You will always have problems in business — but are they the ones you choose to solve?
• How to stop reacting to meaningless problems and start tackling the ones that drive your business forward.

😨 Fear of Failure and the Comfort Zone Trap

• Why leaving your comfort zone triggers fear—and why fear is actually your gateway to learning.
• The four stages of growth: Comfort → Fear → Learning → Growth.
• The difference between those who stay “stuck” and those who achieve mastery.

⏳ The Myth of Instant Success

• Why unrealistic timeframes crush motivation.
• Using technology (like AI) to help set realistic expectations for learning curves and project timelines.

🔍 Relearning vs. Learning Something New

• Success often comes from reminding yourself of what you already know, not constantly chasing new skills.
• Reconnecting with your foundational skills instead of constantly searching for the next shiny object.

🧩 Vision, Mission, and Missing the Point

• Most people confuse their mission (what they do daily) with their vision (what they aspire to become).
• Why clarity on your mission helps you build your future vision more intentionally.

💡 The Accidental CEO Mindset

• Business owners who accidentally find themselves leading a company without realizing it.
• Shifting from doing everything yourself to building processes, teams, and tools that drive growth.

Key Quotes

“Success starts with suck. You can’t have success without sucking at it first.”

“Technology is like an employee. But what do you do with the free time it gives you?”

“Fear is the gateway between comfort and learning. Most people stop at fear instead of pushing through.”

“The real failure isn’t doing...

In this powerful and reflective conversation, Tom and Adam unpack the experience of transitioning from running a business by chance to intentionally leading one as a CEO. They reflect on their recent morning workshop, the dynamics of energy in virtual versus in-person sessions, and the importance of intentional leadership. They also dive into how mindset shifts around leadership, hiring, and personal healing influence business growth.

Throughout the episode, they discuss the themes of awareness, permission, and evolution in both business and personal relationships, sharing real-life coaching examples and their own leadership journeys.

________________________________________

Key Topics Covered

☀️ Morning Energy & Virtual Workshop Reflections

• Tom and Adam share insights from their recent morning online workshop, observing how time of day and participant energy shape the session’s dynamics.

• They discuss the difference between morning and evening attendees — morning participants often being more intentional, sacrificing other commitments like family or fitness to show up.

🧭 From Accidental to Intentional CEO

• The duo opens up about how they both stumbled into their CEO roles, initially treating their business as a side hustle before realizing they had built something real.

• They emphasize the journey of accepting leadership roles and defining their responsibilities as CEO and COO.

• The transition from doing everything themselves to building a team and defining the business intentionally took 3–5 years.

🔑 The Power of Permission & Intention

• Many accidental CEOs struggle with giving themselves permission to succeed, lead, and delegate.

• One client example: an architect who became an intentional CEO by investing in his team, advertising, and trusting the process of cause and effect.

• Healing from past limiting beliefs and stepping into the CEO mindset is a key part of the transformation.

❤️ Healing Through Relationships

• Tom shares the importance of the relationship with oneself and how personal healing impacts leadership and team relationships.

• A powerful coaching example highlights a client who worked through past relationship wounds to show up fully in a new, healthier relationship.

• The conversation explores how unresolved past experiences resurface until they are addressed and integrated.

🧰 The "What Went Right, What Went Wrong, What Do You Need Help With?" Framework

• Adam explains how this simple three-question framework, inspired by his mentor, helps CEOs reflect on their wins, challenges, and areas where they need support.

• This tool encourages business owners to actively ask for help rather than staying stuck in their own heads.

🛠️ Building and Managing a Team

• The 40/60/80% employee competency model:

o 40% competent: Task-doers who free up the CEO’s time but require training.

o 60% competent: Core team members who perform well independently.

o 80% competent: High performers who may eventually outgrow the role and need to be challenged or promoted.

• When to hire specialists and how to ensure hires are aligned with business needs rather than personal gaps.

🔄 Letting Go of Misaligned Team Members

• A real-world coaching story where a client made the difficult but necessary decision to shift a misaligned employee to a different role or release them.

• The key lesson: act in the best interest of the business, not personal comfort.

🕰️ The Value of Reflection Time

• The workshops provide business owners a rare space to pause, reflect, and strategize away from the daily grind.

• Creating intentional space is essential for leadership growth.

________________________________________

Key Quotes

"Many accidental CEOs are just waiting for permission to succeed."

"You’re packing...