Guest: Brandon Lee, Business Alignment Coach and Founder of Build By Design Host: Julie Riga Podcast: Stay On Course Podcast

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What if the real reason your business is not growing is not your strategy or your sales pitch? What if it is you, operating in the wrong role? In this episode of the Stay On Course Podcast, host Julie Riga sits down with entrepreneur Brandon Lee, who built a company to 18 million dollars and sold it to private equity. His secret was not hustle. It was one coaching question that changed how he showed up as a leader. Brandon now helps business owners stop letting their companies run them and start designing roles that fuel energy, ignite teams, and position them for profitable exits through his Build By Design system.

Brandon Lee is a multi-exit entrepreneur and business alignment coach. He has sold three companies and shut down two. His defining success was scaling a company to 18 million dollars and exiting through private equity. He is the creator of Build By Design, a three-phase system centered on leadership, role alignment, and culture.

Fun Fact: Brandon loves Mexican food. His go-to is a carne asada street taco with cilantro, onions, and fresh salsa. Every day is taco day.

The Question That Started Everything

Brandon built his first company to 2 million dollars. On the outside, success. On the inside, exhaustion. A coach in his second company asked him one question: "Do you want to own the company, or do you want to let the company own you?" That question gave him words for what he had been carrying for years and became the foundation of everything he now teaches.

The Energy Ratio Framework

Write down everything you actually do in your business. Divide those tasks into two columns: Energy Gainers, the work that excites you, and Energy Drainers, the work you dread. Most burned-out owners discover 60 to 70 percent of their work is in the drain column. Brandon calls this a ratio problem, not a role problem.

The Gap and the Map

The Gap identifies what needs to leave the owner's plate. The Map is a phased plan to delegate or outsource those tasks while respecting cash flow. The goal is a clear vision executed with intention.

The Three Pillars of Build By Design

• Alignment with Natural Wiring: Design your role around your strengths using tools like Myers-Briggs
• Leadership and Team Design: Help your team write the job descriptions they actually want and build around those
• Culture and Sustainable Growth: Create shared language, reduce conflict, and build a business that runs without you as the bottleneck

"Do you want to own the company, or do you want to let the company own you?"

"You do not have a role problem. You have a ratio problem in your work."

"People first is not soft. It is the best business strategy you can make for growth."

"Work should be fun. If we find alignment, it should be fun."

• Fix the role before optimizing the business model
• Your calendar is your real job description, not your title
• Role misalignment costs 7 to 15 percent of annual revenue per McKinsey
• A business that runs without you as the bottleneck is more valuable and sellable
• Leading from a full place transforms your team, your family, and your results

Brandon offers a free 15-minute assessment at brandonlee.me to help owners calculate their energy ratio. Most people experience immediate clarity upon completing it.

Connect to Brandon Lee

Website: brandonlee.me

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Guest: Matt Paradise, Author, Financial Wellness Speaker and Liver Transplant Survivor Host: Julie Riga

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From homeless teenager to award-winning author, Matt Paradise has empowered over 100,000 people to transform their relationship with money. As a liver transplant survivor and author of Financially Capable, Matt brings lived experience and expertise to this essential conversation. Host Julie Riga and Matt explore the emotional roots of money stress, the power of mindset, and the three core ingredients every leader needs to build whole health wealth and stay on course.

About the Episode

Matt went from homeless teenager to Board of Directors member of the Forbes number one top credit counseling agency. He is a trusted voice at Fidelity, Harvard University, and Mass General Hospital. His message: your money story began long before your first paycheck. Guilt, shame, and scarcity are not signs of failure. They are signals that deserve to be understood. This episode is about purpose, clarity, and the mindset shift that makes real financial wellness possible.

Guest Background

Matt Paradise is a financial wellness speaker, award-winning author, and liver transplant survivor with over 25 years in financial education. He has spoken at Fidelity, Harvard University, and Mass General Hospital. His favorite food is unagi, roasted eel in teriyaki glaze, a choice shaped by life as a transplant survivor who cannot eat raw fish.

The Three Ingredients for Whole Health Wealth

1. Stability Before Strategy Secure the foundation before chasing growth. Financial stress costs employers 1.1 trillion dollars per year in lost productivity. Leaders plan for the future while the foundation beneath them is still unstable. Fixing foundations before outcomes is not a step backward. It is the only sustainable path forward.

2. Hope with Structure Hope is the engine of forward momentum. As a homeless teenager not certain he would see age twenty, Matt learned that hope alone is not a plan. Structure, mentorship, and action transform hope into real results. Hope without structure is fantasy. Structure without hope is burnout.

3. Reduce the Noise The world is overloaded with AI tools, subscriptions, and digital input. Mental clarity is one of the most powerful leadership advantages available. The clearer the mind, the stronger the decisions. Matt encourages listeners to audit what they consume, who they listen to, and what they pay for. Less noise means more aligned leadership.

Key Insights

• First money memories shape financial behavior and leadership decisions into adulthood
• Guilt and shame are the most common emotions tied to money at any income level
• Scarcity is a mindset, not a bank balance
• Financial stress reduces human capacity and increases risk across industries
• Gratitude is rooted in contentment, not comparison

What Matt Is Working On

Matt is expanding his financial wellness work within the healthcare industry. As a cholangiocarcinoma survivor who received a life-saving liver transplant in 2019, he carries a personal commitment to the professionals who saved his life. He is dedicated to increasing human capacity and bringing hope to healthcare workers managing compassion and financial stress every day.

Connect with Matt Paradise Website: www.mattparadise.com | LinkedIn: Search Matt Paradise

Connect with Julie Riga Leadership coaching, transformation, and career fulfillment resources available through Julie Riga.

Stacklist: https://stacklist.app/julieriga

Subscribe to Stay On Course wherever you listen to podcasts and share this episode with a leader who needs to hear it.

#StayOnCourse #WholeHealthWealth #PurposeDriven #LeadershipMindset #FinancialWellness