Moving From Doing the Work to Owning the Asset

Escaping the Individual Expertise Ceiling

If your business relies on your personal talent it is a liability rather than an asset. You must evolve into a principal who manages systems if you want a company that can grow without your constant presence. Brian Albers explains that a boutique firm is often just a restaurant where the owner refuses to step off the line. We see founders who are brilliant at their craft but find themselves handcuffed to the daily operations. They believe their expertise is their greatest asset when it is actually the ceiling on their growth. The stressors of a restaurateur are identical to those of a service firm founder. Cash flow and people and customer satisfaction do not change regardless of the industry. The friction occurs when the founder remains the primary engine of delivery instead of the architect of the machine. Moving from doer to owner is the most difficult transition in the life of a firm. It requires moving from gut instinct to data visibility. It requires trusting an embedded leader to act as the bridge between your vision and the team's execution. Most founders view leadership as a cost on the balance sheet. We argue that it is the only investment that yields true freedom. Until you can hand over the keys without fear of the business collapsing you do not own an asset. You own a job that you cannot quit. Visibility is the antidote to the founder bottleneck. When you have a predictable system you stop winging it. You move from a state of constant chaos to a state of scalable clarity.

Transcript for Search and Skimming

Randell Mauricio: A long time friend of mine and I were just discussing our venture together as Pemmerations. He was really intrigued by the psychology of the founders we serve. In other words, the psychology and the evolution of starting a company in its infancy, growing and scaling with the motivation of selling and exiting the company.

I thought, what better way to understand that psychology than to hear from somebody who has experienced this for years and years. And that is you, my friend.

Brian Albers, why don’t we start with your origin story. What was your background, and what led you to this world of professional services and helping founders of professional services companies?

Brian Albers: It has been a long path with many decades of experience in different realms, but it all started out in the world of hospitality. As a young man, I enjoyed working the bars as a bartender and managed restaurants.

I loved working with the owners because they were private companies and not the chains of the world. I got introduced to working with those founders from a restaurant and bar standpoint and really enjoyed working with them.

I eventually started my own business as a restaurateur. It was one of the greatest and dumbest things I have ever done, but it taught me a lot about the psychology of people. I learned so much at that time, and after ten years in restaurants, I went into technology.

I worked for technology startups and managed teams helping customers. I saw that scale happen over many years. I worked with an owner directly in helping those clients and learned what that entrepreneur needed. They needed someone to step in and execute.

I worked for an energy efficiency company where the owner loved doing what he was doing, but he did not want to do the business aspect. I like the business aspect of making sure there are processes and systems and consistency, so we are not just winging it.

I was able to work with a couple of companies that became billion dollar unicorns. I got to see that expansion and scaling. Part of my role was working with international partners and mentoring other companies on how they could grow and scale.

A few years ago, I got a chance to go into another boutique firm and grew that company until we were able to sell it. I stepped in and allowed the founder to do what they love while I managed the business aspect for them.

They do not want to worry about human resources or finances or capacity planning. They want someone to help manage all those pieces and provide the information they need so they know they are on the right path. It is that divide and conquer model.

I have been that strong right hand person to allow the founder to do what they love while I do the work.

Randell Mauricio: What I admire about your history is that it is very diverse. What did all of those things teach you about the pivot toward helping founders of professional services specifically?

Brian Albers: It taught me that people need and want the help. There are people out there with visions of what they want to accomplish, but they are not sure how to get there.

They want someone who can stand by their side through the tough parts and have honest conversations. It is really hard as a services owner to find the right people to rely on. Once you find someone who is willing to put in the work, you can get rewarded for that.

I have never been the person that needed the fanciest cars or houses. I always wanted to help other people achieve their dreams and have a good life for myself.

Randell Mauricio: I would love for you to go back to when you were the owner of a restaurant. What were some of the psychological stressors you faced on a day to day basis compared to what our clients feel today?

Brian Albers: It is not really much different.

Do we have the cash to pay the people? Do we have the right people? Are they doing a good job? Are clients happy?

It is very similar because only the service you are providing is different. You have to have the right processes in place so the team knows how to execute from the kitchen to the front.

It is the same thing with delivering a service to a customer. You have to know those steps and have the right tools in place.

Do I have the right people and have I provided them the right training? Do they know what their job is? How are the customers reacting?

Those all have parallels because what you need to do as a boutique firm is very similar in those aspects.

Randell Mauricio: You are correct. There is a clear and distinct straight line from the restaurant business to the companies we serve today.

So often people are surprised when we say we focus on embedded leaders who partner with the founder. We help them drive the people contingent of what makes a company healthy. It is common to think operators focus only on spreadsheets and systems.

How does focusing on the people layer land with you?

Brian Albers: It is the people layer and the execution layer combined.

A lot of times, I am the bridge between the team and the founder because they speak two different languages. The founder may be strategic and visionary, but the team wants to know how to enter data or communicate with a customer.

Implementing a tool is just operations, but being an embedded leader means helping the founder understand what the team is going through.

You have to bridge that gap because we all have feelings and emotions. But from the owner standpoint, it is also a business with bills to pay.

You need someone who can have direct and honest conversations with the people. We want to help people that want to help the business and work together as a team.

If your team is not aligned and you do not understand roles, then you are going to be flailing.

Randell Mauricio: I would love to get your take on why this problem exists to begin with.

Brian Albers: People start a business because they are passionate about what they do. They are a great lawyer or a great accountant, but being good at those elements is different than managing a business. That is where the disconnect comes in.

You can get so far by trying to do everything yourself, but if you want to scale, that becomes a challenge.

There is a limit to your capabilities as a leader if you do not have a passion for making sure culture and systems are in place.

You need someone you can trust to drive those components so you can do the things you love.

Randell Mauricio: There comes that inevitable inflection point where growth requires a mindset shift. I think there is fear and stress because you have to change as an individual.

There is not enough conversation about the stressors a founder goes through to move from doer into owner.

Brian Albers: Part of that fear comes from bringing in people with an expectation and having them fail.

A lot of times those failures prevent founders from getting where they want to be because they are not willing to take that risk again. They think it does not work because they tried it once.

You have to get over that fear, otherwise you will not get the pleasure of moving your firm forward.

That pleasure is having time on the weekend for your kids or your friends. If you focus on the pleasure rather than the pain, you will be able to achieve it.

We are often our own handcuffs, only to realize we had the keys the whole time.

Randell Mauricio: You would not trust a babysitter to take care of your child unless there was evidence on the table. That trust gap is a barrier that must be addressed head on for a founder to build a high performing team.

Are there other fears you have learned along the way?

Brian Albers: There is the fear around money because no one wants to go bankrupt.

It is hard to think about investing in people compared to it being a cost. If you want to get where you need to go, you must think of it as an investment.

You should use your peers and networks to reduce as much risk as you can.

We all want to have a good life, but if we spend too much money, we are done. That is a big fear.

You have to make sure you have done your due diligence and find someone with the experience and the reputation.