I recently ran my old leadership assessment results through ChatGPT—and what came back was unexpectedly revealing. This deep dive turned into a powerful reflection on how my leadership has evolved over time.

“I need to fire most of my leadership team” is something I’ve heard from founders more times than I can count. But more often than not, it’s not the people—it’s the system that’s broken.

When I stepped into a company in turmoil, I realized that the leadership models I’d relied on before weren’t going to work. What followed was a deep, uncomfortable transformation—of both the company and myself—that reshaped how I led and ultimately saved the business.

The company’s growing, but progress feels slower and you’re carrying more than ever. If momentum is stalling, the bottleneck might be you. Not from lack of effort, but because your operating system hasn’t caught up with what the role now demands. This post is about spotting that personal lag early so you can evolve before it slows things down.

When your company picks up speed, it should feel like momentum. But sometimes, it starts to feel like you’re lagging behind—despite working harder than ever. This post is about that moment. What it is, how it shows up, and what actually helps.

Founders often reach out when growth is happening, but something still feels off—like everything feels heavier, every step takes more energy, and they’re working harder without seeing the progress they need or want. This post lays out the core beliefs that shape how I work with founders navigating the shift from early momentum to intentional scale. It’s about building in a way that preserves clarity, edge, and identity—without getting lost in complexity.

"States of Resiliency" presents a visual graph illustrating the continuum of resilience, from resilient to system failure, developed by Dawn Umlah and Dr. Kokes. This video is a follow up discussion after we presented it at a conference.

Through my experiences of working with numerous founders, being deeply embedded in companies alongside them and as I’ve learned more about my own nervous system, I’ve come to realize a fundamental truth: the state of a founder's nervous system is directly reflected in the culture of their company. This insight isn’t just an abstract idea but a palpable reality that shapes the very fabric of a startup's success or failure.

Dr. Kokes and I developed this informational visual to help people better understand the states of resiliency. It shows the symptoms for each phase as well as the systemic impact of what's happening in your body.

I have personally known and have heard of significantly more tech founders being fired from their companies by their Board and their VCs. This is very hush-hush and no one talks about it, but it happens more than you know and it is MESSY. No one wins.