BusinessManagementEntrepreneurship

The Business Fix

Josh Troche and Chrissy Myers

Tune in to The Business Fix, the podcast where CEO vision meets on-the-ground operations. Join Chrissy Myers, HR expert and CEO, and Josh Troche, marketing and operations guru, as they tackle the challenges facing small and medium-sized businesses today.

Each episode, Chrissy and Josh dissect a common business problem, offering diverse perspectives and actionable solutions. Whether you're in service industries or product development, with 10 or 150 employees, you'll gain valuable insights to improve your business. This isn't your typical dry business podcast. Chrissy and Josh bring a conversational, down-to-earth approach to the critical aspects of building a thriving business.

Follow us on social media or visit thebusinessfix.com for more resources and to connect with our community. Let's fix your business together!

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#70
Wednesday · 45 min
The PIP Playbook: How to Make Performance Plans a Tool, Not a Weapon
Send us Fan Mail Performance Improvement Plans have a reputation problem. For many employees, a PIP feels less like an opportunity to improve and more like a countdown to termination. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh explore how business owners and managers can use PIPs as a genuine tool for employee growth, accountability, and better workplace culture. What You'll Learn Why PIPs have become toxic When to coach, correct, or cut When a PIP is actually appropriate The difference between skill, behavior, and values issues The four things employees need to understand How clarity, consistency, and consequence create a fair process Why managers must provide real support How to use data instead of emotion when evaluating performance Why you should never use a PIP when you've already decided to terminate someone The bottom line: A PIP should be a tool, not a weapon. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#69
August 19 · 47 min
Nobody Wants to Work? Your Leadership Might Be the Problem
Send us Fan Mail Why is it so hard to find and keep good employees? And is “nobody wants to work anymore” actually the wrong diagnosis? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh challenge the way business owners and managers think about today’s hiring and retention challenges. They explore what employees really want and how leadership, company culture, compensation, communication, and the employee experience can determine whether great people choose to join your business and stay. In this episode, we cover: Why you may be facing a leadership problem, not a labor problem How job descriptions and hiring processes can push great candidates away Why compensation and market competitiveness matter How to create a better candidate and onboarding experience The importance of psychological safety and trust Why employees want growth, autonomy, meaningful work, and clear expectations How the 3 C’s: Clarity, Consistency, and Care can strengthen your workplace culture Why candidates and employers both ghost during the hiring process Common job posting red flags that scare away experienced candidates How to approach performance issues, including Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) If you’re a business owner or manager struggling to hire, retain, or motivate good people, this conversation will give you plenty to think about and some practical ideas you can put to work. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#68
August 12 · 52 min
Transparency Isn't Telling Everyone Everything: Leadership Without the Trauma Dump
Send us Fan Mail How transparent should leaders really be? Many business owners hear that transparency builds trust but what happens when honesty turns into emotional dumping? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the biggest leadership mistakes they see on LinkedIn and inside growing businesses: leaders confusing vulnerability with unloading their anxiety onto their teams. You'll learn why your employees deserve honesty but not custody of your stress. Together, they break down the difference between healthy transparency and toxic transparency while providing practical leadership strategies that create trust instead of panic. In this episode you'll discover: Why oversharing can destroy psychological safety The difference between vulnerability and emotional unloading The "Steady, Selective, Solution-Oriented" framework for leadership communication Why high performers quietly begin planning their exit when leaders panic publicly How to communicate difficult business realities without creating fear The difference between filtering information and hiding information Why your team is not your therapist, peer group, or emotional pressure valve How transparency strengthens culture when paired with clarity, consistency, and care Practical ways to lead with confidence during uncertain times If you've ever wondered how much your employees should know or struggled with balancing honesty and responsibility this episode provides a practical framework every business owner and manager can apply immediately. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#67
August 5 · 51 min
The Policy Paradox: Why More Rules Create Worse Leaders
Send us Fan Mail Most businesses don't have a policy problem, they have a leadership problem. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the biggest mistakes business owners and managers make: creating new policies every time an employee makes a bad decision. How many "Josh Policies" exist in your business? You know the ones... a single employee breaks a rule, and suddenly everyone has to live with another page in the employee handbook. The result? Massive policy manuals, inconsistent leadership, frustrated employees, and cultures built on fear instead of trust. Chrissy and Josh explain why policies written as emotional reactions almost always fail, how inconsistent enforcement destroys psychological safety, and why employees don't actually follow your handbook they follow what leadership tolerates. In this episode you'll learn: Why reactive policies damage company culture The difference between leadership and documentation Why exceptions can be more dangerous than bad policies The "Three P's" every policy should satisfy: Purpose, Practice, and Protection How inconsistent leadership creates legal and HR risk When flexibility becomes favoritism Why employees need consistent guardrails not hundreds of rules If your employee handbook has become a dusty binder that only comes out when someone gets into trouble, this conversation is for you. Whether you're a small business owner, executive, HR leader, or frontline manager, you'll leave with practical strategies to simplify policies, strengthen accountability, and build a healthier workplace culture. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#66
July 29 · 48 min
The Frontline Filter: Your Job Posting Dictates the Talent You Get
Send us Fan Mail Your hiring problem may not be the labor market, it might be your job posting. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the most overlooked leadership tools in business: the job description. If you've ever complained that "no one wants to work anymore," this conversation might challenge that assumption. From cliché-filled postings that promise a "fast-paced environment" to unrealistic "rockstar ninja" wish lists, they break down why generic job ads attract generic candidates and why misleading descriptions create turnover before a new hire even finishes onboarding. You'll learn why your job posting is actually your first leadership promise to every potential employee and how using the Reality, Results, Roadmap framework can dramatically improve the quality of applicants you attract. In this episode you'll discover: Why most job postings fail before candidates ever apply The biggest hiring mistakes businesses make when writing job descriptions Why HR and Marketing must work together to create effective postings How vague expectations lead to early turnover Why honesty attracts better candidates than hype The importance of defining success not just listing responsibilities How a clear career roadmap improves employee commitment Why your job posting is the first step in onboarding not just recruiting Whether you're a business owner, manager, HR professional, or hiring leader, this episode will help you rethink how you recruit and retain great employees. A better hire starts with a better message. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#65
July 22 · 50 min
Stop Assuming, Start Training: Why Employees Aren't Mind Readers
Send us Fan Mail How many times have you looked at an employee and thought, "They should know how to do this by now"? The truth is, most employee mistakes aren't caused by a lack of common sense, they're caused by a lack of intentional training. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dive into one of the biggest leadership mistakes business owners and managers make: assuming employees know what hasn't been clearly taught. Through real-life stories, practical examples, and a healthy dose of humor, they explore why "common sense" is often just context leaders forgot to provide. You'll learn why effective onboarding is about much more than paperwork, how better training creates stronger company culture, and why the best leaders focus on building context, capability, and commitment before questioning an employee's motivation. Whether you're hiring your first employee or leading an established team, this episode will help you create training systems that reduce frustration, improve accountability, and build a business that can grow without constant firefighting. In this episode, you'll discover: Why assuming employees "should know" creates costly mistakes. The difference between context, capability, and commitment. Why poor onboarding increases employee anxiety and turnover. How to train employees with different learning styles. Why observation isn't the same as competence. How to verify understanding without micromanaging. Practical ways to improve employee performance through better leadership. How intentional training strengthens workplace culture and customer experience. If you're ready to stop repeating yourself, build a more confident team, and become a stronger leader, this episode is for you. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#64
July 15 · 42 min
Is It a Mistake or a Pattern? How Great Leaders Know the Difference
Send us Fan Mail When does an employee mistake become a pattern, and how can leaders tell the difference? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh explore why business owners and managers often overreact to isolated mistakes while overlooking patterns that signal bigger problems. You’ll learn the Three C’s of better leadership decisions: Curiosity, Context, and Conclusion. Discover how negativity bias affects decision-making, why jumping to conclusions can damage psychological safety, and how fear causes employees to hide problems instead of solving them. Chrissy and Josh also explain why you can’t coach a vibe, but you can coach behavior. They share practical ways to identify, document, and address workplace behavior while responding proportionally to employee mistakes. If you’re a small business owner or manager looking to improve leadership, employee performance, accountability, and workplace culture, this episode will help you make better decisions with less panic and more clarity. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#63
July 8 · 43 min
Emotions vs. Data: Are Your Leadership Decisions Hurting Your Business?
Send us Fan Mail What happens when empathy collides with accountability? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the most challenging leadership debates every business owner and manager faces: Should decisions be driven by emotions or by data? From promotions and performance management to coaching and terminations, leaders often find themselves making decisions based on personal relationships, comfort, and feelings rather than objective evidence. The result? Inconsistent leadership, frustrated high performers, declining accountability, and cultures where favoritism can quietly take root. Chrissy introduces her framework of the Three E's: Empathy, Evidence, and Equity, showing how leaders can balance compassion with accountability without becoming cold or robotic. Josh and Chrissy also explore why founders often promote people they relate to instead of the people the business actually needs, how emotional bias damages psychological safety, and why documentation and clear expectations are critical to fair leadership decisions. In this episode, you'll learn: Why emotional decision-making creates inconsistency in leadership The hidden cost of keeping underperformers too long How empathy can become an excuse for avoiding difficult conversations The role data should play in promotions, coaching, and terminations Why high performers leave organizations that reward favoritism How to build trust through transparent and objective leadership The importance of the Coach, Correct, or Cut framework How to balance compassion with accountability If you're a business owner, executive, manager, or team leader struggling with difficult people's decisions, this episode provides practical tools to help you lead with both heart and logic. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#62
July 1 · 47 min
The Culture Audit: Are You Leading with Clarity or Just Being Nice?
Send us Fan Mail Most leaders don't realize they're doing it. They think they're being supportive, approachable, and understanding. But what if your desire to be the "nice leader" is actually creating confusion, inconsistency, gossip, and a lack of accountability across your team? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh revisit one of their most popular topics, the Nice Leader Trap and take it a step further with a practical culture audit designed to help business owners and managers identify whether their leadership style is quietly damaging their organization's performance. You'll learn how unclear expectations, inconsistent decisions, and avoiding difficult conversations can cause employees to stop following processes and start interpreting moods instead. The result? Teams become hyper-vigilant, gossip increases, top performers disengage, and culture begins to erode from the inside out. Chrissy and Josh break down the three leadership pillars every healthy culture needs: Clarity: Creating clear expectations and direct communication Consistency: Eliminating emotional unpredictability Courage: Having the difficult conversations leaders often avoid They also discuss: Why employees start managing the boss instead of the work The hidden connection between leadership avoidance and workplace gossip How "being nice" can unintentionally punish honesty Why psychological safety requires more than kindness Signs your culture is operating on mood instead of process How leaders can identify and correct these patterns before they damage retention and performance One of the most powerful insights from this episode: "Gossip is usually unresolved truth looking for a place to land." If you've ever wondered why accountability feels difficult, why employees seem disengaged, or why your team isn't bringing problems to you directly, this episode is for you. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#61
June 24 · 41 min
Stop Babysitting Your Team: Build Process, Not Superheroes
Send us Fan Mail What happens when your business depends on one exhausted “hero” to save the day every single time? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the biggest hidden problems in small business leadership: hero culture. If your company only works when a specific employee or YOU constantly jump in to fix problems, your business may be running on dependency instead of systems. They break down why founders and managers get addicted to being the “fixer,” how learned helplessness quietly spreads through teams, and why operational chaos often starts at the leadership level. More importantly, they explain how to transition from a hero-driven business to a scalable process-driven organization built on awareness, autonomy, and accountability. If you’re tired of babysitting employees, constantly answering questions, or feeling like you can never unplug from work, this episode will challenge the way you lead and help you build a healthier, more scalable company culture. In this episode: Why “hero employees” are dangerous for scaling The hidden addiction leaders have to chaos and rescuing How leaders accidentally create learned helplessness Signs your business is dependent on you Why process culture beats hero culture every time The 3-part framework: Awareness, Autonomy & Accountability How to stop being the bottleneck in your company Building systems that allow your team to thrive without constant intervention Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, manager, or team leader, this episode will help you create stronger systems, healthier teams, and a business that doesn’t fall apart when one person steps away. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#59
June 17 · 46 min
The Sweaty 10-Minute Conversation Every Leader Needs to Master
Send us Fan Mail Most leaders don’t fail because they avoid hard work, they fail because they avoid hard conversations. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down the “Sweaty Ten-Minute Conversation”, the short but uncomfortable discussion that can prevent massive culture problems, performance breakdowns, and legal headaches inside your business. From separating behavior from identity to avoiding the “nice leader” trap, this episode is a masterclass in leadership communication, emotional regulation, accountability, and employee management. If you’ve ever delayed feedback, struggled with difficult employees, or worried about confrontation as a manager, this conversation will help you lead with clarity instead of anxiety. You’ll learn: Why avoiding hard conversations creates bigger problems How to give corrective feedback without attacking someone personally The psychological mistake leaders make during accountability conversations How emotional regulation impacts team trust and performance Why “being nice” can actually damage workplace culture The framework for handling defensive employees professionally How documentation protects both leaders and employees Why direct communication builds stronger teams and healthier organizations Whether you're a business owner, executive, HR leader, or frontline manager, this episode gives practical tools you can apply immediately to improve communication, accountability, and workplace culture. If your business feels stuck because of unresolved tension, unclear expectations, or team frustration… this episode is for you. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#59
June 10 · 47 min
Managing the Brilliant Jerk Without Letting Them Wreck Your Culture
Send us Fan Mail Every business owner or manager has met this person: the high performer who delivers big results, closes the deal, writes the code, owns the relationship, or keeps the operation moving…but leaves emotional wreckage everywhere they go. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the hardest leadership problems in small and mid-sized businesses: the brilliant jerk. You know the type. They hit the numbers, but they make people miserable. They protect their own process, hoard information, intimidate the room, and somehow convince leadership that the business cannot survive without them. Spoiler alert: it can. Chrissy and Josh break down why toxic high performers are not actually high performers when you factor in culture damage, operational debt, employee turnover, broken trust, and the quiet disengagement of your best team members. They also explain why leaders often avoid dealing with the problem, especially when fear of lost revenue, client disruption, or operational chaos takes over. This episode covers the three R’s of managing a brilliant jerk: Results, Respect, and Replication. Results matter, but how those results happen matters too. Respect matters because your team is watching what behavior leadership excuses. Replication matters because if one person’s success cannot be taught, documented, or scaled, it is not sustainable. You will also hear practical HR and operations guidance for handling the issue the right way, including how to document behavior, correct directly, identify the point of no return, map client relationships, find shadow workflows, protect access to systems, and prepare the team for the transition after the brilliant jerk leaves. Chrissy and Josh also dig into the “quiet superstar” problem: the reliable, collaborative, emotionally mature employees who usually suffer the most when leaders tolerate toxic behavior. They may not make a scene, but they will eventually walk out the door. If you are a business owner, CEO, manager, or team leader trying to protect your culture without creating operational chaos, this episode gives you a practical roadmap for making hard people decisions with more clarity and less fear. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#58
June 3 · 55 min
When Crisis Hits: How Leaders Stop the Bleeding Without Making It Worse
Send us Fan Mail A crisis will show you exactly what your business culture, systems, and leadership are made of. Fun, right? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down how small business owners, CEOs, and managers should respond when things go sideways whether it is an operational failure, a PR problem, a key employee leaving, a legal threat, a broken brand promise, or the kind of internal panic that makes everyone quietly update their LinkedIn profile. Chrissy shares the three R’s of crisis leadership: Regulate, Reveal, and Rebuild. Before leaders start fixing everything, they need to regulate their own emotions because a leader’s tone becomes the team’s temperature. From there, they need to reveal the right information not too much, not too little and rebuild the system that allowed the crisis to happen in the first place. Josh brings the operations and marketing perspective, including why businesses need to “stop the bleeding” before they go digging for the deeper issue, why employees need permission to pull the red cord when something is going wrong, and why blaming Bob is rarely the fix. Usually, the real problem is hiding in the process. They also dig into psychological safety, internal communication, external reputation, crisis PR, apology videos, customer trust, and why an apology without action is just a performance. If you own or manage a business, this episode will help you think more clearly about how to lead through pressure, communicate during uncertainty, protect your team, and rebuild stronger after the dust settles. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#57
May 27 · 46 min
Why Great Leaders Listen Before They Lead
Send us Fan Mail Business owners and managers are right a lot. That is usually a strength… until the moment they are wrong and refuse to hear the other side. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dig into one of the most underrated leadership skills in business: intentional listening. Not the “I’m waiting for my turn to talk” kind of listening. Not the “let me reload my rebuttal while you’re still speaking” kind either. Real listening is the kind that helps leaders uncover hidden risks, build trust, improve culture, and make better decisions. They break down the difference between reactive listening and intentional listening, and explain why leaders who refuse to hear opposing views often create teams that stop sharing bad news. And when teams stop sharing, problems get buried, risks show up late, and shadow workflows are born. Chrissy and Josh also walk through the three L’s of stronger leadership: Listen, Learn, Lead. You’ll hear practical ways to slow down conversations, ask better questions, remove personal bias, pressure test your own ideas, and create a culture where employees feel safe enough to tell the truth even when the truth is inconvenient. This episode is especially valuable for small business owners, managers, founders, and leadership teams who want to improve communication, strengthen company culture, reduce workplace conflict, and make better operational decisions. You’ll learn how to: Listen without immediately defending yourself Use silence as a leadership tool Ask clarifying questions that reveal the real issue Separate facts from assumptions Avoid changing processes based on one emotional moment Build trust even when you overrule someone’s idea Use “devil’s advocate” the right way Balance collaboration with decisive leadership Because the fastest way to improve your business is to get the truth faster and the truth usually shows up when leaders stop trying to be right long enough to listen. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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S1 · E56
May 20 · 43 min
Trust Isn’t Blind Faith: How Leaders Build It Without Getting Burned
Send us Fan Mail Trust is one of the most important ingredients in a healthy business but let’s be honest, a lot of leaders confuse trust with “I hope this works out and nobody lights anything on fire.” In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dig into the difference between real trust and blind faith in business leadership. From motorcycles and distracted drivers to brilliant jerks, vendor relationships, missed deadlines, and random audits, this conversation breaks down what trust actually looks like when you manage people, processes, and expectations. Chrissy shares why “trust without structure is blind faith” and introduces the three P’s of trust: proof, pattern, and predictability. Josh brings the operational lens, explaining why trust is really consistency over time and why systems, dashboards, SOPs, and quality checks help leaders stop guessing and start managing with confidence. They also cover the messy middle of delegation: when you are actually developing someone versus when you are just dumping work and hoping for the best. Spoiler alert: check-ins are not micromanaging when they are done right. They are protection for the employee, the business, and the relationship. You will also hear how to tell the difference between a skill gap, a behavior gap, and a true betrayal of trust. That distinction matters, because leaders should coach skill gaps, correct behavior gaps, and cut when someone is out of alignment with the mission and values. This episode is for small business owners, managers, founders, and leadership teams who want to build a stronger culture without becoming control freaks or ostriches with their heads in the sand. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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S1 · E55
May 13 · 46 min
Innovation Without Breaking Your Business
Send us Fan Mail Everybody wants to be innovative until the “great new idea” breaks the workflow, overwhelms the team, tanks productivity, or becomes one more shiny object nobody asked for. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh take innovation back to basics. Instead of chasing every AI tool, trend, or “million-dollar idea,” they talk about how small and midsize business owners can innovate in ways that actually improve the business. Chrissy breaks down the three F’s of practical innovation: friction, fix, and forward. Innovation does not have to be earth-shattering. Most of the time, it starts by finding what is slow, confusing, duplicated, frustrating, or dragging your team down and then making it better one step at a time. Josh brings the operations lens and explains why innovation cannot just be a vibe. If you want innovation to work, you need a roadmap, a baseline, documented SOPs, and a way to isolate results. Otherwise, you may have changed five things at once and have no idea what actually helped or what quietly made things worse. They also dig into how leaders can encourage ideas from their teams without making employees feel like they just volunteered for another unpaid part-time job. The healthiest teams do not just have more ideas; they have better pathways for turning the right ideas into action. This episode also tackles AI, shiny object syndrome, innovation for board members versus employees, and why true innovation often improves the boring, unsexy parts of the business: billing, fulfillment, communication loops, error rates, SOPs, and the work your customers may never see but absolutely feel. For small business owners, managers, founders, and leadership teams, this conversation is a reminder that innovation is not about breaking what works. It is about improving what matters. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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S1 · E54
May 6 · 48 min
Why Your Hybrid Work Model Is Failing (And How to Fix It Fast)
Send us Fan Mail Hybrid work isn’t broken… your leadership systems might be. In this episode of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy tackle one of the most misunderstood challenges in modern business: the hybrid work model. While many companies blame remote employees for lack of productivity, the reality is far different and far more fixable. If you’ve ever thought: “My team just isn’t working unless I can see them” “Remote employees are harder to manage” “We need everyone back in the office to perform” This episode is for you. Josh and Chrissy break down why hybrid environments fail and it has nothing to do with where your employees are working. Instead, it comes down to three critical factors that every business owner and manager must get right: 👉 Trust – If you don’t trust your team, why did you hire them? 👉 Training – Most leaders are trained to manage presence, not performance 👉 Tracking – If you’re measuring activity instead of outcomes, you’re already losing They also dig into: Why “back-to-office mandates” are often a leadership failure not an employee issue The dangerous illusion that visibility equals productivity How poor systems not remote work create disengaged teams Why monitoring software is NOT the solution (and what to do instead) The truth about proximity bias and promotions in hybrid workplaces How to build a results-driven culture that actually works This episode is packed with real talk, practical insights, and a no-BS framework to help you fix your hybrid model the right way without micromanaging your team or sacrificing performance. If you’re a business owner, executive, or manager trying to navigate hybrid or remote work, this is a must-listen. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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S1 · E53
April 29 · 47 min
The Competition Paradox: When Winning Hurts Your Team
Send us Fan Mail Is competition helping your team grow or quietly tearing it apart? In this episode of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy tackle The Competition Paradox, the delicate balance between driving performance and maintaining a healthy, collaborative culture. Because here’s the truth: competition isn’t the problem… misaligned competition is. They break down why so many businesses unintentionally create toxic environments where employees compete against each other instead of winning together. From leaderboard obsession to burnout, and from hidden information to lack of psychological safety, this episode uncovers the real cost of getting competition wrong. You’ll learn how to build a culture where high performance and teamwork actually reinforce each other not compete for attention. 🔑 What You’ll Learn: The 3 C’s of Competitive Culture: Competition, Collaboration, and Confidence Why incentive structures shape behavior more than leadership speeches How competition turns into comparison, concealment, and caution (and how to stop it) The hidden dangers of leaderboards and individual-only rewards How to create psychological safety without lowering performance standards Why your top performer today could be your biggest flight risk tomorrow If you’re a business owner or manager trying to build a high-performing team without sacrificing culture, this episode is for you. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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#52
April 22 · 52 min
Coach, Correct, or Cut? The Leadership Decision You're Avoiding
Send us Fan Mail Are you holding onto employees too long… or letting them go too quickly? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down one of the toughest decisions every business owner and manager faces: when to coach, when to correct, and when it’s time to cut someone loose. Using real-world leadership insights (and a few hilarious sports analogies), they unpack how to identify whether an employee has a skill gap, behavior gap, or will gap and why getting this wrong can quietly destroy your team culture. You’ll learn why: “Being nice” as a leader often creates dysfunction Hope is NOT a strategy when managing people Poor performance isn’t always the employee’s fault it might be yours Keeping the wrong person can push your best people out the door Chrissy introduces a simple but powerful framework: 👉 If they can’t → coach 👉 If they can but won’t consistently → correct 👉 If they can, won’t, and don’t align → cut The conversation also dives into: How unclear expectations sabotage performance Why leaders must take accountability before blaming employees The real meaning of psychological safety (and what it’s NOT) How favoritism and inconsistency create legal and cultural risk Why high performers leave when standards aren’t enforced If you’ve ever struggled with tough personnel decisions or avoided them altogether, this episode gives you the clarity and confidence to lead with consistency, accountability, and care. Listen now and start making better leadership decisions today. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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S1 · E51
April 15 · 46 min
Psychological Safety Isn’t Coddling: It’s Your Biggest Performance Advantage
Send us Fan Mail If you think psychological safety is “soft,” “coddling,” or just another HR buzzword… this episode will challenge everything you believe about leadership. In this episode of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy break down why psychological safety isn’t about making employees comfortable, it's about making it safe to tell the truth. And if your team can’t tell you the truth, your business is already at risk. They unpack how old-school leadership styles like “suck it up” or leading with fear actually create hidden operational problems that cost your business time, money, and trust. You’ll learn why teams that don’t feel safe don’t stop having opinions they just move them outside the room… leading to the infamous “meeting after the meeting,” slower decisions, and fragmented execution. This episode dives deep into: The real definition of psychological safety (and why most leaders get it wrong) The 3 S’s of high-performance culture: Speak-Up Culture, Strong Standards, and Scalable Systems How fear-based leadership creates silence, side conversations, and organizational slowdown Why hiding mistakes is one of the most expensive patterns in business How leaders can operationalize psychological safety to improve performance and profitability The connection between psychological safety, innovation, and business growth If you want a high-performing team that moves fast, solves problems early, and actually tells you what’s going on, this is a must-listen. 💡 Key takeaway: Psychological safety isn’t about feelings, it’s about the flow of information. And the faster truth travels, the faster your business performs. The habits that built your business can become the bottlenecks holding it back. We help leaders eliminate culture drift, reduce conflict, strengthen accountability, and build a company that thrives without them in every room. Because kindness without clarity is expensive avoidance. Learn more at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Tired of keynotes that inspire your team for an hour but change nothing on Monday morning? The Business Fix Live delivers practical tools for stronger leadership, better accountability, healthier culture, and real business growth. Book Josh and Chrissy for your next keynote, summit, or manager workshop at https://businessfixpodcast.com. Still hearing, “Nobody wants to work anymore”? It’s time for a better strategy. Join Chrissy and Josh at the BIG Summit in Cleveland on October 15 at 10:15 a.m. for practical tools to build a culture that works and lead with clarity. Get tickets at https://cose.org and use code Troche26 for your attendee discount. If you're looking to get help with your culture, or to help out an entire group, reach out to Josh and Chrissy today! We would love to see how we can help you, your business, or your event. Contact us! 🎙 Ready to Fix What’s Holding Your Business Back? The Business Fix podcast delivers real-world strategies to grow your business, lead your team, and reclaim your time. New episodes drop weekly—packed with insights for business owners and managers who want to do better. 🔗 Connect with Chrissy and Josh at https://www.businessfixpodcast.com/ for more tools, support, and clarity. Enjoy the episode? Leave us a review, share it with your leadership team, and let us know your biggest takeaway in the comments!
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