Above The Business

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner opens a three-part series on building a sales playbook, the master document that defines how a company sells. He explains why founder-led sales makes sense from zero to half a million in revenue, and why owners who want to move from rainmaker to architect eventually have to offload the selling without losing what made it work. Bradley makes the case that belief...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Caroline Stokes, executive coach, founder of The Forward, and author of Aftershock 2030, to talk about what actually determines whether a business succeeds as AI reshapes how teams work. Caroline shares her path from launching PlayStation as employee number nine to coaching CEOs through reinvention, and why she became convinced early on that organizations ri...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner addresses a problem almost every business owner eventually faces: the top producer who performs at a high level while quietly damaging the culture. He describes the golden handcuffs that keep owners from acting, and the resentment that builds on a team when everyone can see the problem the owner will not confront. Bradley calls it the Dez Bryant syndrome, using...

Jason Swenk built a digital agency from scratch to over 100 people and eight figures before selling it twice. He now coaches agency owners through Agency Mastery and has codified the journey into five identity shifts inside his book, Operator to Owner. Bradley and Jason walk through each shift: operator, manager, architect, CEO, and owner. They cover the rubber band effect, the 1-3-1 decision-maki...

In this Friday solo episode, Bradley Hamner uses a tool everyone already trusts to make a point about direction. Every time you open Google Maps, it needs two coordinates: where you are right now and where you are trying to go. Bradley argues your business requires the exact same two points, a clear point A and a clear point B. He walks through what happens when obstacles appear between those two...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Stephen Woessner, co-founder of Predictive ROI, who has owned five businesses and spent 16 years helping agency owners grow. Stephen shares his family's entrepreneurial roots and why he believes risk tolerance, strategic clarity, and team-building form the core of any founder's DNA. They cover the "ones and threes" revenue friction points, Predictive ROI's t...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner addresses the guilt and shame many business owners feel when they realize they don't know their marketing numbers. Drawing on feedback from the April Above The Business marketing workshop, Bradley explains why not knowing something like customer acquisition cost or lifetime value is not a character flaw. If no one has ever walked you through it, that is unconsc...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Kyle Willis from BELAY, a fractional remote staffing company that places experienced executive assistants with small business owners. Kyle shares how the fractional model works, who it's right for, and what separates business owners who build lasting EA partnerships from those who plateau early. They cover how to build your delegation list before you hire, w...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner breaks down the difference between coaching and consulting and why it matters for business owners in two practical ways: how they lead and develop their team members, and how they think about finding outside help for their own business. Bradley uses a clear analogy to frame the distinction. A doctor starts with diagnostic questions to understand what's wrong, t...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Daniel Daly, founder of Aim High Now, who spent 20 years in automotive retail and helped scale a dealership group to $700 million in annual revenue. Daniel breaks down what customer service actually looks like as an operating system, not a personality trait. They discuss how to train a team around two focused behaviors, how a single feedback call can diagnos...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner explores a phenomenon that applies directly to every small business owner tracking time, marketing, or team performance: the Hawthorne Effect. The principle is straightforward. When you begin measuring something, behavioral changes follow, often before any formal analysis takes place. Bradley draws on his own nine-week experience tracking every working hour, a...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Brad Farris, founder of Anchor Advisors and executive coach, who has spent nearly two decades helping entrepreneurial founders build businesses that can grow beyond them. Brad shares his path from engineering to general management and explains why the skills that launch a business are often the same ones that later limit it. They discuss how the leader's rol...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner walks through the Attract A-Players Playbook, the first of three team-focused playbooks inside the BlueprintOS operating system. This episode continues a May mini-series on building great teams and gives small business owners a concrete structure for attracting and onboarding top talent. Bradley breaks down the three core elements of the playbook: an A-Player P...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Brad Poulos, part-time professor, small business consultant, and former operator who helped grow a startup from four people to 200 employees and $30 million in sales. Brad shares his path from a 15-year career in satellite technology into co-running a public company, and what those experiences taught him about leading a small business. They discuss what it t...

Most business owners eventually face this decision: go find someone who has already done the job, or grow someone from the ground up. In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner breaks down buy vs. build as a practical mental model for any owner who is growing a team, filling a role, or navigating turnover. Bradley uses the college football transfer portal to frame the core trade-off: buying talent costs...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Pete Behrens, leadership coach, author, and founder of Agile Leadership Journey. Pete shares how his path from engineering to leadership coaching led him to focus on one of the hardest parts of leadership: guiding people through uncertainty, change, and complexity. They discuss why leadership is different from management, how organizations often fail in exec...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner draws a clear line between leaders who own outcomes and managers who execute tasks. If a business owner still feels pulled into the weeds around their managers, the role has likely never been defined around outcomes. Bradley walks through what outcome ownership looks like across sales, service, and operations roles, and shares a real client example where a simp...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with David Peterson, insurance agency owner and author of Building Your Dream Team. David shares how he grew his business from three employees to nearly 60 over 12 years by treating recruiting as a structured system rather than a reactive process. They cover multi-step recruiting funnels, why making a position hard to get increases candidate desire, how to hire f...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner applies the college sports transfer portal concept to one of the most consequential decisions a growing business faces: when recruiting, are you going after someone who has already done the work, or someone with the raw ingredients to develop? Most business owners never make that choice deliberately, and it costs them. Bradley walks through real hiring decision...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Kevin Lawrence, entrepreneur, coach, and author of Your Oxygen Mask First and The Four Forces of Growth . Kevin shares how his path from early entrepreneurial hustles to decades of coaching business owners shaped the frameworks he now teaches around growth, leadership, and long-term business performance. They discuss what has not changed in business despite...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner unpacks a question he was recently asked at the BlueprintOS’ Beat the Odds retreat: what is the real difference between good business owners and great business owners? After reflecting on years of working with small business owners and building businesses himself, he shares the answer he has landed on. Bradley explains that the difference is not simply marketin...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Michael Jacobson, founder of French Florist, to talk about what it looks like to spot opportunity in a struggling industry and build a modern business around it. Michael shares how he went from corporate consulting into the floral industry, first by trying to help his uncle sell a flower shop, then by realizing the entire industry faced the same structural p...

In this solo episode, Bradley Hamner speaks directly to the business owner who feels like everything is getting harder at the exact moment the business should be working. He shares a recent conversation with a founder who was ready to burn it all down, even though the business was actually performing well and tracking toward a strong year. Bradley unpacks the ceiling of complexity that often shows...

In this episode, Bradley sits down with Michael Zipursky, co-founder of Consulting Success, entrepreneur, and advisor to consultants building firms around their expertise. Michael shares his journey from starting businesses in high school to building and selling multiple companies, and explains why so many business owners stay stuck inside the work instead of designing the business they actually w...

Many business owners invest in marketing without having a clear way to measure what is actually working. They know money is going out, but they do not always know which channels are producing leads, customers, and real returns. This episode is the third and final part of a three-part marketing series. After covering marketing plans and marketing metrics, Bradley Hamner now walks through how to bui...