The Career Trap Almost Every High Performer Falls Into | Monica MiKitterick

The Career Trap Almost Every High Performer Falls Into | Monica MiKitterick

Most high performers don’t burn out because they fail. They burn out because they succeed at the wrong game. In this episode of Making BIG Shifts, Josh Anderson sits down with Monica McKitterick, nurse practitioner, CEO of Impact Family Wellness, and founder in the Direct Primary Care space. After years inside a system driven by insurance, paperwork, and volume over care, she made a $20,000 bet on a different model. One focused on access, relationships, prevention, and real patient care. What started as a leap into the unknown turned into three clinics, a growing team, and eventually a harder decision. Stop optimizing for more, and start optimizing for life. In this episode, we break down: • The hidden career trap most high performers fall into• Why more growth often quietly reduces freedom• What Direct Primary Care actually changes in healthcare• How most founders misread success signals early on• Why marketing and sales matter even in medicine• The turning point between scaling and sustainability• How to know when “more” is no longer the right answer If you are a founder, healthcare provider, operator, or high performer building something meaningful, this conversation will challenge how you define success. Listen to the full episode, like, subscribe to Making BIG Shifts, and share this with someone who is building fast but starting to question what it is costing them. #MakingBigShifts #Leadership #Burnout #Entrepreneurship #HighPerformance #CareerGrowth #Healthcare #DirectPrimaryCare #BusinessStrategy #WorkLifeBalance #FounderStory #MarketingReboot

The $1M Mistake That Taught This Founder to Focus | Graeme Barlow

In this episode of Making BIG Shifts, host Josh Anderson sits down with Graeme Barlow, four-time founder, CEO of Iversoft, and founder of FounderLink and Barlow Consulting, to talk about the hard lessons that come from building, scaling, and selling companies over more than two decades. Graeme shares the most expensive mistake of his career, losing focus, and how expanding Iversoft into too many services nearly broke the business. He walks through the painful decision to downsize half the company, the mindset required to protect momentum, and why founders often grow faster by doing less. Josh and Graeme also dig into fundraising, AI’s impact on services and marketing agencies, building strong teams, investing in early-stage companies, and the simple framework Graeme uses to help founders get unstuck: cash, customers, or delivery. This is a real conversation about focus, hard decisions, team energy, AI, and what it actually takes to build a company that lasts. Chapters: 00:00 Meet Graeme Barlow 00:40 The Most Expensive Lesson From 24+ Years of Building Companies 02:06 How Losing Focus Cost Millions 04:33 The Painful Reality of Letting People Go 08:19 Why Team Energy Can Make or Break a Company 10:24 Rocket Owl, Fundraising, and Surviving the Hardest Moments 13:36 What First-Time Founders Need to Know About Raising Money 16:12 How Iversoft Evolved in the AI Era 19:04 Why AI Is Not a Moat by Itself 21:00 The Coming Shift for Marketing and Service Companies 24:05 Helping Founders Reach Their First $5 Million 26:32 Building FounderLink 28:23 Why Paid Coaching Creates Real Accountability 30:24 The Secret Behind Repeatable Founder Success 32:58 What Graeme Looks for Before Investing 35:49 The One Question Every Stuck Founder Should Ask Connect with today’s speakers: Josh Anderson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-anderson-diy/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-anderson-diy/] Graeme Barlow: https://www.graemebarlow.com/ [https://www.graemebarlow.com/] FounderLink: https://www.founderlink.com/ [https://www.founderlink.com/] #GraemeBarlow #Iversoft #FounderLink #MakingBIGShifts #Entrepreneurship #FounderAdvice #StartupGrowth #BusinessGrowth #Leadership #ScalingBusiness #Fundraising #AIinBusiness #MarketingReboot #FounderLessons #BusinessStrategy

How LESS Work Made Him DOUBLE The Money | Jonathan David Lewis

In this episode of Making BIG Shifts, Jonathan David Lewis, President and Partner at McKee Wallwork and author of The Rebuilders, shares why the best leaders know when to say no, how to lead through disruption, and why rebuilding yourself is the first step to rebuilding your business. From navigating industry change and AI to creating meaningful cultures that thrive, Jonathan delivers practical insights for founders, CEOs, and leaders ready to make their next big shift. 🎙️ Listen now and discover how clarity, courage, and character drive lasting growth. #MakingBIGShifts #JonathanDavidLewis #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #TheRebuilders

How To FIX Your Entire TEAM In 1 HOUR Only | Dusty Holcomb

In this episode of Making BIG Shifts, host Josh Anderson sits down with Dusty Holcomb, leadership strategist, founder and CEO of Arcqus Group, and host of the Leadership Unlocked podcast. After 21 years inside the American Automobile Association and a stint as a company CEO, Dusty burned the boats to build a leadership practice focused on helping founders and senior executives unlock their next level of growth. In this conversation, Dusty breaks down why most execution problems are not actually execution problems at all. They are clarity and alignment problems sitting upstream. He shares the reframe he uses with CEOs who complain that their team cannot keep up, why leaders need to articulate what must be done by when and avoid the how at all costs, and how to find a coach who will actually challenge you instead of coddle you. Dusty also gets into his Rules of Engagement playbook, the Socratic method he uses to expose the real bottleneck inside a founder led company, leadership in the age of agentic AI, and the Monday morning practice every founder needs to stop being the bottleneck in their own business. If you are a founder, operator, or senior leader who feels like everything runs through you, this episode hands you a clear, practical framework to step back, get clarity, build alignment, and finally let execution take care of itself.

Why Sounding UNIQUE Is Killing Your Business | Barry LaBov

In this episode of Making BIG Shifts, host Josh Anderson sits down with Barry LaBov, founder of LaBov Marketing Communications and Training and author of The Power of Differentiation. With 45 years of experience, Barry has worked with iconic brands like Harley Davidson, Audi, Volkswagen, and McAllan Scotch, helping them uncover what makes them truly rare in a sea of sameness. Barry never planned to be an entrepreneur. He started in music writing jingles until a client handed him their entire marketing department and asked him to take it over. That single moment of trust pulled him into a 45 year journey of building brands. In this conversation, Barry breaks down why so many companies sound exactly the same today, why AI generated content is making it worse, and why true differentiation is not about being superior but about owning what makes you genuinely different. He shares the five step process his team uses to uncover what a brand really stands for, the Wal-Mart of insurance story, why employees should hear a brand launch first, and how to find the right customer profile for your business. If you are a founder, marketer, or operator trying to stand out in a crowded category, this episode gives you a clear and grounded framework to figure out what makes you different and how to protect it.