The Bottleneck Breakthrough Podcast

In this episode, Rick Elmore, the founder of SimplyNoted.com goes over his journey to get ahold of key clients and how handwritten notes proved to be the most effective channel for him. We also talked about various strategies businesses can use today to increase response rates and cut through the noise that fills digital marketing.

On this episode I hosted my mindset coach, Ryan Albury, and we dug into the ways we get stuck as business owners simply because of what's going on in our heads. We also discussed how to get free and what that looks like in practical terms on a day-to-day basis.

This episode is actually a presentation I gave in April 2025 at Perry Marshall's "Equity Summit" and focuses on my Sustainable Scale Framework. To access the slides from the presentation, you can download them at https://bbg.li/equity-slides

Without knowing the inner workings of how your staff are wired, you're just flying blind on how to manage them and who to develop and promote. In this episode, Josh walks through the assessment tool he uses to evaluate sales teams, as well as the rest of the leadership team, and how it leads to recruiting better talent every time, too. Listen to the end for a special offer only for podcast subscri...

Every once in a while there's a client that excites me enough to jump in with both feet to help them unlock massive growth. Since Brandon Turner is a good friend, I did everything I could to help his new BetterLife Tribe get to profitability. We give you a behind-the-scenes of what it took to pull it off in the end.

Managing sales reps feels like a necessary evil for so many business owners. They just want to hand off the responsibility of following up with and closing leads, but there are so many opportunity costs you pay for when you don't have top sales talent. In this episode I walk through what I look for when assessing sales teams and how I start uncovering the opportunity costs associated with mediocre...

As the market gets more uncertain, there's more and more opportunity to waver and freeze. In this episode I go over the antidote to this and why it's the number one trait of great leaders that I see in action every day.

In this episode, I walk through my counter-intuitive approach to improving your sales team and getting more deals closed as fast as possible. You'll get some clear takeaways you can go implement today that will move the needle immediately.

Whether you get too involved in every little detail, or are too hands off, both extremes are recipes for disaster in any small business. I walk you through the effective strategies for identifying what to delegate and what to hold onto as you grow through various revenue plateaus. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, and regularly re-evaluating your role is the best path to finding the right bal...

The primary focus of this discussion is the comprehensive recruiting system that I have developed, a methodology that has proven to outperform traditional recruiting agencies in sourcing top-tier talent for my clients. Throughout this episode, I meticulously walk through each phase of the recruiting process. I cover what sets apart exceptional recruiters from their average counterparts, with parti...

Matt Coffman, owner of Therapy Practice Accelerator, shares his transformative journey in enhancing the sales process for his agency serving mental health professionals. After collaborating with Josh Long, he discovered that raising prices and recruiting experienced salespeople significantly boosted his business's performance, leading to a remarkable 33% increase in revenue from July to December 2...

Josh explores the often misunderstood realm of sales training, emphasizing that a strategic approach is far more effective than traditional training sessions. He highlights the importance of assessing a sales team's current performance and identifying the top 20% that generate the majority of results. Instead of generic training, he advocates for a tailored strategy that focuses on leveraging the...

Consulting for small businesses is evolving, and a holistic approach is becoming increasingly vital for sustainable growth. Josh discusses the limitations of traditional consulting methods, which often lack thorough diagnostics and fail to consider the broader picture essential for unlocking a company's true potential. While many consultants focus on specific tactics—like marketing or sales—Josh a...

Here are some strategies you can use to follow up with prospects that have stalled out due to the election chaos. 

Tony DeQuick, owner of Entropy Radiator, shares his transformative journey in upgrading his sales team and shop manager, resulting in significant growth for his business. After struggling with sales performance, Tony realized the need for capable salespeople who could effectively communicate with customers about their custom cooling products for high-performance vehicles. Over time, he realized he...

Which end of the spectrum do you fall on and how do you better lead your company?  On this episode, I discuss the age old question of working on vs. in your business, but more importantly, how to figure out what’s right for your business right now. 

Own a Business? Get the Real-World, Proven Method for Growing Your Revenues and Eliminating Your Headaches that Other Business Owners Rave About! Every day a new silver bullet comes out promising to grow your business, increase your profit margins, and make your life as a business owner easier. Unfortunately, most of them don't work, wasting your time and money. Plus, they take your attention away...

“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.” —Henry Ford A bottleneck is any point of friction in your business that prevents you from generating more revenue or generating the same revenue more easily. When I talk about bottlenecks, business owners always ask for examples of what they look like so they can find them in their own business.

“The basic approach to positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already in the mind, to re-tie the connections that already exist.” — Al Ries & Jack Trout Chapter 2 walks you through developing brilliant positioning by finding your Big Idea that cuts through the clutter of the marketplace to draw prospects to you.

“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.” — Karl Pearson

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.” — W. Edwards Deming The challenge is to figure out which communications are most effective for your business right now, given your time, money, staffing, industry, and target market, so you can generate growth again.

“The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.” — Thomas Kempis The feature that stands out about ancient Greek architecture, and especially the Parthenon, is the use of pillars to create structures that withstand the ravages of time. All the high-growth companies I’ve worked with share a similar feature with Greek architecture. Instead of physical pillars, they have Traffic Pi...

“If people like you, they’ll listen to you. But if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” — Zig Ziglar Before we cover the keys to improving your closing process, I’d like to discuss the worst sales profiles that just won’t seem to go away.

“The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker, but of the manager.” — Peter Drucker Business owners have the habit of believing that how they think is “common sense,” and that it is handed out to everyone like candy on Halloween. They think it’s “common sense” to show up on time, to call ahead if you’re going to be late, to double check all of your grammar in email communicatio...

“Management by objective works . . . if you know the objectives. 90% of the time you don’t.” — Peter Drucker I’ve found a single activity that helps solve all of your management problems, while also setting you up well to move toward the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) model in the future if you want.