Trying to scale your business, but still getting pulled back into the field?

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business has grown, but the owner is still the one customers, crews, and employees rely on to keep the work moving. The company may have demand, people, and opportunity, but growth gets limited when the owner is still the one selling, running production, training people, and solving the day-to-day problems.

In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Crystal and Krista from Dynamic Landscaping and Lawn & Turf Landscaping. Their companies provide residential landscaping, commercial maintenance, lawn care, irrigation, design-build services, and snow services in Indiana.

Earlier in the business, Crystal was in the field working with crews because she believed she was the only one who could sell and run production. Krista was also staying too close administratively because she felt she had to be beside people instead of giving them room to do the work. Because of that, the business could only run one or two jobs at a time when it could have been running more.

They realized they were the bottleneck and started changing how they trained and delegated. They made training videos, documented work with pictures, gave people more room to learn, and began teaching team members to train the next person instead of staying stuck in one role themselves.

Today, Crystal and Krista are still working through the next version of that same challenge. Crystal is getting pulled back into flowers because someone had not been fully trained to own that work, while Krista is focused on building systems, numbers, and accountability so the team can follow a clear process instead of relying on what only the owners know.

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business is ready to grow, but the owners have to slow down long enough to train people, build systems, and get the work out of their heads so the team can carry more of it.

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What You’ll Learn:
• Why owners get pulled back into the field when no one else is trained
• How being the only person who can sell and run production limits growth
• Why hiring people without systems can pull owners back into the day-to-day
• How training videos and documentation help the next person learn faster
• Why growing leaders becomes the owner’s real work in the Messy Middle

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Timestamps:

00:00 Getting pulled back into the day-to-day
00:51 Being the only one who could sell and run production
02:28 Realizing the owners were the bottleneck
02:47 Using training videos to expand capacity
08:12 Getting pulled back into flowers and operations
09:50 Hiring people before systems were ready
12:55 Needing numbers to get out of the field
19:12 Staying stuck at $3 million for three years

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Crystal Knafel is a growth-focused entrepreneur and co-owner of Dynamic Landscaping and Lawn & Turf Landscaping. She specializes in building strong teams, scalable systems, and culture-driven companies throughout the landscaping industry. Known for her visionary mindset and high standards, she is focused on creating a Midwest landscaping platform that develops people, delivers exceptional service, and builds long-term enterprise value through accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

Krista Bontrager is the integrator and co-owner. She brings structure, clarity, and organization to the day-to-day operations of both companies. She has a talent for taking what feels complex and making it simple, sustainable, and clear. Her leadership ensures that as the companies scale for growth, it carries alignment, accountability, and strong internal systems.

#MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #LandscapingBusiness

Trying to grow your business while everything still runs through you?

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business has grown, the team is bigger, and the owner is no longer doing everything themselves, but employees still depend on the owner for decisions, accountability, and direction. The business works, but too much still relies on the owner staying closely involved in the day-to-day to keep things moving.

In this episode of Self Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Austin from Walls Furniture and Mattress. Austin shares what it looked like building and growing a family-owned furniture business while staying heavily involved in nearly every part of the operation.

Earlier in the business, Austin was handling inventory, ordering, payroll, accounting, sales management, warehouse operations, and customer issues all at once. Employees were constantly coming to him with questions because he kept everything close to the vest and they did not feel comfortable making decisions without him. Even though the business was growing, he had almost no life outside of work and missed vacations and family time because the business constantly needed his attention.

Over time, Austin realized the business had become too large to operate without better systems and more employee ownership. He implemented a point-of-sale and inventory system, gave employees more authority in customer decisions, and worked on trusting people to take ownership of their responsibilities instead of routing everything back through him.

Today, Austin is still wearing multiple hats across sales management, accounting, warehouse operations, customer service, and deliveries. He talks about spending four weeks personally working on the delivery truck while still trying to manage the rest of the business. The company no longer depends on him being physically in the store every minute, but he is still heavily involved in accountability, operational oversight, and decision-making while trying to create enough capacity to grow the business further.

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the owner has delegated some of the work, but the business still depends heavily on them to keep operations moving and create the next stage of growth.


What You’ll Learn:
• Why employees keep coming to the owner for decisions
• How owner involvement limits team ownership
• Why systems become necessary as a business grows
• How trust affects delegation and accountability
• The opportunity cost of staying stuck in operations


Looking To Scale Your Business: Book a 2-Week Coaching Trail to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/business-strategy-session/

Timestamps:

00:00 Everything still ran through Austin
00:36 Wearing every hat in the business
01:41 Missing family time because of the business
02:36 Installing systems and giving employees ownership
07:42 Back on the delivery truck for four weeks
11:57 Too big to be small, too small to be big
13:36 Learning to trust employees with ownership
19:04 Why owners stay stuck doing $25/hour work


Austin is the owner of Walls Furniture and Mattress in Kokomo, Indiana. At Walls Furniture we believe that our neighbors are family we operate from that premise everyday. Come see the difference for yourself at 521 E Alto Rd in Kokomo or shop online at shopwallsfurniture.com. We would love to have you be a part of our family.

#MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #OwnerBottleneck

Trying to scale your business, but still getting pulled back into the details?

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when a system that once helped the business becomes something the owner has to keep managing. Growth creates more projects, more tasks, and more follow-up, and before long, the owner is back inside the day-to-day instead of focusing on the work only they can do.

In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Seth from Adler Attorneys. Adler Attorneys is a law firm in Hamilton County, Indiana, focused on estate planning, business work, consulting, and serving as general counsel for businesses.

Earlier in the business, Seth found himself spending an inordinate amount of time controlling the data entry piece of things. He felt responsible for making sure information was entered accurately, but that administrative work was taking him away from drafting contracts, handling discovery, serving clients, and moving projects forward.

To work through it, Seth had to acknowledge his tendency to control the work all the way through. He began investing in training, setting clearer expectations, giving feedback, and building the trust needed to let the team handle more of the work.

Now the business has grown, and a similar pattern has shown up in task-based project management. The firm created systems and processes that worked for a season, but as the number of similar cases grew, the number of tasks multiplied too, pulling Seth back into moving due dates, managing tasks, and spending time moving data around again.

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when the business has outgrown a system that used to work. The owner is no longer doing everything, but the structure still needs to evolve so capacity, client service, and growth do not depend on the owner constantly keeping the machine moving.

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What You’ll Learn:

* Why owners get pulled back into data and task management even after delegating
* How controlling the details limits capacity and keeps owners from higher-value work
* Why training and clear expectations are necessary before trust can grow
* How systems that worked in one season can become constraints in the next
* Why capacity, client service, and consistency depend on stronger operating structure

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Timestamps:
(00:00) Controlling data entry was limiting capacity
(02:36) Learning to train, trust, and hand work off
(04:45) What Adler Attorneys does
(05:31) Stepping into ownership and managing control
(12:38) Task-based project management pulls Seth back in
(14:11) Capacity becomes the reason the system has to change
(17:21) The cost of not delegating sooner
(21:50) Why outside perspective helps owners see what they cannot

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Seth graduated from Regent Law School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Regent Law Review. Seth has become known as “Indiana’s artificially intelligent lawyer,” which simply means his colleagues figured out he’s only artificially intelligent. Seth co-hosts the Lifetime Legacy Lawyers podcast where he helps lawyers launch and build their law practices. Seth also writes articles and presents CLE seminars on how to best use technology to enhance the practice of law, while meeting ethical obligations with regard to client and firm data. He has been married for almost 24 years to an amazing wife and has 3 awesome kids.

Seth R. Wilson practices with Adler Attorneys, with offices in Noblesville and Anderson, Indiana. Seth is an Estate and Business lawyer & mediator. His goal is to provide clients with peace of mind through proper business and estate planning.

#MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #Delegation