In this episode, John Hill, AKA Small Mountain, sits down with Brett Chotkevys, CEO and Founder of Assisted Living Mansion. Brett shares his journey from flipping 50 houses a year to revolutionizing the senior care industry through high-end memory care "mansions." We dive deep into his hands-on approach to leadership, the necessity of founder grit, and how to build a resilient culture in a high-turnover industry.

Key Topics:

• The Bottom of the Funnel: Why solving the most difficult end-of-life problems creates a waitlist of customers.

• Culture over Strategy: How Brett's wife and partner uses "life skill" training to retain staff 4x longer than the industry average.

• Operational Resilience: The "Ice Storm" reality—why founders must be willing to know at least a little bit of everything for those moments when they have to step into the trenches.

• Smart Scaling: Using SBA 7(a) and 504 loans to fund $5M+ joint ventures without personal guarantees.

• Design Thinking: Why you should design for the user, but market for the buyer.

Are you leading by design, or leading by default?

In this episode, John Hill (AKA Small Mountain) sits down with Diana Urbina, founder of Sharro Solutions and a 21-year veteran of Microsoft and Xbox. Diana's career has spanned the extremes of corporate culture—from the high-intensity Steve Ballmer era to the cultural transformation under Satya Nadella. She's seen firsthand that no amount of process optimization can fix a team if the people and the energy are misaligned.

We dive deep into why the "human element" is the ultimate bottleneck for founders and how to recode your leadership mindset to build a team that actually thrives.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The "Ready-to-Coach" Rule: Why you can't force growth on a team member (or yourself) without true buy-in.

• Culture Beyond the Perks: A simple diagnostic to find your real culture: "What is actually rewarded and what is shamed?"

• Decisions vs. Beliefs: How to use the "Spreadsheet Method" to identify and replace the limiting decisions holding your business back.

• Energy Optimization: Why "white space" and sustainable energy are the prerequisites for high performance, not the reward for it.

• The "F-Word" in Business: Moving away from the baggage of "feedback" and toward the clarity of perception and alignment.

If you feel like you're stuck in a "fog" of leadership, or if your team culture feels more reactive than intentional, Diana's grounded approach offers a clear path toward resilience and clarity.

Connect with Diana:

• Website: Sharro Solutions

• LinkedIn: Diana Urbina

Connect with John Hill, AKA Small Mountain:

• Website: AdaptedGrowth.com

• LinkedIn: John Hill

• Sign up for the Weekly Founder's Growth Newsletter: https://podcast.adaptedgrowth.com/podcast

In this episode of The Founder's Growth Show, John Small Mountain sits down with Nicholas Kirchner to discuss the complexities of running both a high-level service agency and a US-based manufacturing brand. Nicholas challenges the "optics-first" mentality of many founders, urging a return to life-alignment and data-driven decision-making.

Topics discussed include:

• Breaking through the $500k revenue ceiling by shifting founder identity and learning the art of delegation.

• The "McDonald's vs. Elite Talent" framework for systemization.

• Practical AI workflows for documenting SOPs and delegating admin work.

• The "Buy Once, Cry Once" branding strategy for premium physical products.

• The "Rehire Test" for auditing team performance and culture.

If you feel like you're stuck mid-growth or you've been eyeballing a second business (possibly because you're bored with the one you have...), this episode will help you make some of those bottleneck-breaking decisions.