Stuck in your business and not sure what's next? Small Business Pivots delivers honest, real-world conversations with entrepreneurs and business owners who've made bold moves to grow, adapt, and build something that lasts.
Hosted by nationally recognized business coach and keynote speaker Michael D. Morrison, each episode goes beyond the highlight reel. Guests share the real turning points, hard lessons, and strategies that actually moved the needle, whether they were chasing six figures or scaling past seven.
With 140+ episodes and ranked in the top 10% of podcasts globally, Small Business Pivots drops every Wednesday, giving small business owners a trusted weekly resource to help them grow.
Each week you'll hear real conversations about Business growth, sales, marketing, leadership, AI, hiring, business strategy, operations, systems, productivity, branding, cash flow, business financing, company culture, succession planning, exit planning, mindset, and personal development.
If you're a small business owner who's done guessing and ready to grow, this is your show.
Subscribe and join thousands of business owners making pivots that actually matter.
Are You the Bottleneck in Your Business? How to Get Unstuck | Mark Skalla
Episode 162
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 • Duration 50:38
Are you the reason your business can't grow without working more hours?
Many small business owners don't realize they're stuck. Revenue may be coming in, customers may be happy, and the company may even be growing—but the owner is still doing too much, making too many decisions, and filling every gap in the business.
Mark Skalla has lived it.
After building a successful digital agency, Mark discovered that many of the problems holding his clients back were the same problems he had experienced himself: knowing when to hire, covering payroll, building systems, delegating effectively, creating predictable revenue, and getting the founder out of the middle of everything.
Today, as founder of Fulcrum Fractional, fractional COO and CMO, certified EOS Integrator, and author of The Leverage Point, Mark helps founders identify and eliminate the bottlenecks preventing their businesses from growing.
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison and Mark break down practical ways business owners can determine where they're stuck and begin building a company that doesn't depend on them for everything.
Mark explains why a simple time accountability exercise can expose hidden bottlenecks, why owners often make the wrong first hire, and why hiring to eliminate something you hate doing isn't necessarily the same as hiring to grow the company.
They also explore the systems every small business should have, how to create predictable customer acquisition, when to document processes, why employees should own outcomes instead of simply following processes, and how KPIs and simple scorecards give owners the clarity they need to make better decisions.
You'll also hear why growth and scaling aren't the same thing, how systems inevitably break as companies become larger, and why great leadership begins with clarity.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
• How to recognize when you've become the bottleneck • Where business owners should actually spend their time • A simple time audit for identifying low-value work • Why hiring for relief can be a costly mistake • How to hire for business growth instead • Which systems every small business needs first • Process ownership vs. outcome ownership • How to create more predictable revenue • Why KPIs and scorecards create better decisions • How to give employees clarity and accountability • The difference between growing and scaling a business • Why systems must evolve as a company grows • How better leadership starts with clarity
If you're working 50 or 60 hours a week, constantly filling gaps, or wondering why your business isn't growing despite all the work you're putting into it, this episode will help you identify where your time—and your business—may be getting stuck.
Email the podcast host, Michael D. Morrison: Michael@MichaelDMorrison.com
Do You Have the Right People in the Wrong Roles? | Michelle Kozin
Episode 161
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 • Duration 42:18
What if your employee problem isn't actually an employee problem?
Small business owners often say they can't find good people. But what if you already have talented people—and they're simply in the wrong roles?
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison talks with organizational strategist Michelle Kozin, Founder of Predictive Advisors, about using behavioral intelligence to make better people decisions, define roles more clearly, improve hiring, reduce turnover, and build teams around how people are actually wired to work.
Michelle explains why an "A player" isn't universally an A player. The right person must be in the right role at the right time for your organization.
You'll hear why moving a detail-oriented employee into networking or sales can lead to burnout and turnover, why trying to hire a "unicorn" can create unrealistic expectations, and how understanding an employee's motivation zone can change the way you lead.
Michelle also explains how behavioral assessments such as Predictive Index can help owners define roles before hiring, evaluate candidates beyond experience and qualifications, identify gaps on existing teams, and better understand the dynamics between founders and business partners.
The conversation goes beyond hiring into leadership, change management, employee motivation, business partnerships, and the identity shift owners must make as their companies grow.
If you're struggling with hiring, employee performance, retention, team dynamics, or constantly wondering why people won't "just do what they're supposed to do," this episode may change how you think about your team.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
• Why an A player in one role can struggle in another • How to put the right people in the right roles • Why role clarity should come before hiring • The danger of trying to hire a "unicorn" • How an employee's motivation zone affects performance • Why forcing people outside their natural wiring can cause burnout • How behavioral assessments can improve hiring decisions • Why people resist organizational change • How to motivate different employees differently • What the Platinum Rule can teach business owners about leadership • How behavioral intelligence can help business partners and co-founders • Why managing your focus may matter more than managing your time • Why human connection becomes even more important in an AI-driven world
How to Build a Business That Runs Without You | Jennifer Ann Johnson
Episode 160
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 • Duration 42:33
Could your business run tomorrow if you didn't show up?
For many small business owners, the answer is no. They're answering questions, solving problems, managing employees, making decisions, and holding together processes that exist mostly in their heads.
Jennifer Ann Johnson learned firsthand why that has to change.
Jennifer is a 25-year entrepreneur, professional speaker, author, and founder of True Fashionistas, the largest lifestyle resale store in Florida. Today she leads a business with nearly 50 employees—but building a company that could operate without her required learning some difficult lessons about delegation, systems, communication, leadership, and letting go.
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison and Jennifer discuss how owners can stop buying themselves a job and start building a company.
Jennifer shares why business owners must become comfortable with someone else doing a task at 80%, how to create SOPs without making the process complicated, why employees can't meet standards you've never communicated, and how the right systems can make a business more scalable—and potentially more valuable when it's time to sell.
They also discuss difficult employee conversations, hiring around core values, using AI to improve interview questions, developing confident communication, and why leaders need to help employees without constantly rescuing them.
If you feel trapped working in your business and want to build a company capable of operating without your constant involvement, this conversation is for you.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
• How to delegate without micromanaging • Why 80% from someone else may be better than 100% from you • How to create SOPs when you don't have time • What business processes should be documented • Why clear standards improve employee performance • How to have difficult conversations with employees • How to help your team without becoming their crutch • Why core values should guide hiring and firing • How AI can improve your hiring process • How systems can increase the value and sellability of a business • Why owners must stop making excuses and start implementing
How to Scale a Service Business: One System at a Time | Jeff Gabelsberg
Episode 159
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 • Duration 43:45
What does it actually take to go from being an owner doing everything yourself to building a scalable business with multiple locations, employees, systems, and a leadership team?
Jeff Gabelsberg, founder of Jolly Goat Garage Doors, knows because he's lived it.
Jeff returns to Small Business Pivots to share what has happened since his previous appearances—including growing Jolly Goat Garage Doors to six locations across Oklahoma, building a team of more than 20 people, adding a commercial division, and entering a strategic partnership designed to fuel continued expansion.
But Jeff didn't start there.
For years, he was essentially a one-man operation—answering calls, selling jobs, installing garage doors, handling warranties, and struggling to create consistent income. At one point, he drove to a big-box store prepared to give up entrepreneurship and take a job.
He never walked through the door.
Instead, Jeff began asking successful business owners for help and implementing what he learned one system at a time.
In this episode, Michael D. Morrison and Jeff break down the practical changes that helped transform the business: documenting processes, creating a hiring roadmap, delegating work, investing in professional branding, building a training program, implementing performance-based pay, tracking KPIs, and developing people who could help the company grow beyond its founder.
If you're a contractor, home-service business owner, or entrepreneur who feels trapped working in the business, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to build a company that can grow beyond you.
In This Episode You'll Learn:
• How to start building systems when you're doing everything yourself • Why documenting one process can change your business • How Jeff created a roadmap for hiring and delegation • When hiring your first employee can actually create more capacity • Why professional branding became a major growth investment • Performance-based pay and KPIs for service businesses • How training systems improve consistency and scalability • Why strategic partnerships aren't the same as private equity • How to stop overwhelming yourself with everything that needs fixing • Why implementing one thing can start a snowball of business growth
Why Businesses Get Stuck (And How Great Leaders Fix It) | Josh Post
Episode 158
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 • Duration 42:56
Why do so many businesses reach a point where growth slows down—even when the owner is working harder than ever?
According to business consultant and entrepreneur Josh Post, the problem usually isn't effort. It's clarity.
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison sits down with Josh to discuss why businesses become stuck, how leaders create meaningful change, and the four-step framework he uses to help organizations break through barriers and reach their full potential.
Drawing from decades of experience leading a family construction business and helping companies transform their culture, Josh shares practical strategies for improving financial clarity, strengthening leadership, building healthy company culture, hiring passionate employees, developing management teams, and creating businesses that continue growing instead of plateauing.
If your business feels stuck, your leadership team isn't aligned, or growth has become harder than it should be, this episode provides practical insights you can apply immediately.
In this episode:
• Why businesses get stuck after reaching early success
• The four-step framework for organizational change
• Financial clarity every business owner needs
• Building a healthy company culture
• Leadership habits that create lasting growth
• Hiring people for passion instead of skills
• Better onboarding and employee retention
• Delegation and getting your time back
• Family business lessons
• The difference between coaching, consulting, and fractional COO support
How Systems Help Small Businesses Scale | Brittany Bradley
Episode 157
Wednesday, August 12, 2026 • Duration 41:30
What separates businesses that stay small from businesses that continue to grow?
For Brittany Bradley, owner of The Brow Slayer Studio in Oklahoma City, it wasn't working harder—it was building better systems.
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison sits down with Brittany to discuss how she transformed a growing service business by creating documented systems, improving leadership, understanding her numbers, developing a consistent client experience, and building a company that doesn't rely on her for everything.
Brittany shares how she opened her business with only $6,000, learned from costly mistakes, used social media to build a loyal client base, created custom playbooks instead of relying on generic templates, and nearly doubled her monthly revenue through intentional leadership and continuous improvement.
Whether you own a salon, a service business, or any small business, this conversation offers practical strategies for creating scalable systems, hiring better employees, improving profitability, and building a business that can continue growing without burning you out.
In this episode you'll learn:
• Why systems are the foundation of business growth
1. Want professional business coaching with the podcast host, Michael D. Morrison?https://www.michaeldmorrison.com
How to Scale Your Small Business Without Breaking Payroll | Eric Tabone
Episode 156
Wednesday, August 5, 2026 • Duration 34:47
Growing your business sounds exciting—until it's time to hire.
For many small business owners, payroll becomes the biggest obstacle to growth. Do you hire now and risk cash flow, or wait too long and become the bottleneck in your own business?
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, host Michael D. Morrison sits down with entrepreneur Eric Tabone to discuss how growing businesses can build stronger teams, make smarter hiring decisions, and scale without letting payroll become the reason growth stalls.
Drawing from his experience building multiple companies across the United States and Latin America, Eric shares practical lessons about hiring, leadership, AI, role design, compensation, company culture, and why successful business owners hire to solve problems—not simply to fill positions.
You'll discover why defining the purpose of every role matters, how to avoid costly hiring mistakes, when it's time to add employees, how AI should support—not replace—your team, and why leaders should build around their weaknesses instead of trying to do everything themselves.
Whether you're preparing to hire your first employee or trying to build a team that can help your business scale, this episode offers practical advice every business owner can apply immediately.
In This Episode
✔ Why payroll is often the biggest obstacle to business growth
✔ How to know when it's time to hire
✔ The biggest hiring mistakes business owners make
✔ Why every position should be built around solving a specific problem
✔ How AI improves teams without replacing people
✔ Why leadership is earned—not assigned
✔ Lessons learned from building three companies
✔ How remote and nearshore employees can reduce payroll costs while expanding your team
Why Great Leaders Develop People, Not Just Businesses | Greg Harrod
Episode 155
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 • Duration 43:08
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison sits down with leadership coach and manufacturing executive Greg Harrod to discuss one of the biggest challenges facing business owners today: building leaders instead of creating dependence.
After more than 30 years in manufacturing leadership, Greg now helps business owners and executives develop stronger teams, improve communication, increase accountability, and create businesses where success no longer depends entirely on the owner.
Greg explains why leadership always begins with self-awareness before it extends to the team. He shares practical insights on recognizing early signs of employee disengagement, improving communication, delegating effectively, and creating clarity around expectations so employees can thrive.
The conversation also explores Working Genius, humility in leadership, trust, accountability, employee retention, role clarity, and why leaders should spend more time developing people instead of constantly solving problems themselves.
Whether you lead a manufacturing company, construction business, service company, family business, or growing small business, this episode offers practical leadership principles that apply across every industry.
In this episode you'll learn:
• Why leadership starts with self-awareness
• The six areas Greg evaluates when diagnosing leadership problems
• Early warning signs before employees quit
• Why communication is one of the biggest leadership challenges
• How to stop becoming the bottleneck
• Building trust through humility and vulnerability
• Why role clarity improves accountability
Stop Solving the Wrong Business Problem | Kevin Dias
Kevin built Ambiki as a software platform for speech-language pathology private practices, helping teams with scheduling, billing, clinical documentation, and practice management. Through that journey, he discovered one of the biggest mistakes companies make: jumping straight to solutions before deeply understanding the actual customer problem.
In this episode, Michael D. Morrison and Kevin discuss how business owners can slow down, ask better questions, define their ideal customer profile, and build solutions that actually solve meaningful problems. Kevin shares how Ambiki narrowed its focus from trying to serve every type of customer to focusing on pediatric speech therapy private practices with stronger growth potential.
They also explore Kevin’s Problem First Method, including feature alignment documents, the “problem atlas,” customer feedback, niche focus, business pivots, and why competitor pressure can lead companies in the wrong direction.
If you are a business owner, startup founder, SaaS founder, consultant, or entrepreneur trying to grow your business, improve your offer, better understand your customer, or stop wasting time on the wrong priorities, this episode will help you think more clearly.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• Why businesses jump to solutions too quickly • How to identify the real customer problem • Why customer requests are not always the real problem • How to define your ideal customer profile • Why niching down can accelerate growth • How Ambiki grew by focusing on speech-language pathology practices • What a feature alignment document is • How to use a problem atlas for strategic planning • Why AI should solve a real problem, not just be added as a trend • How better questions lead to better business decisions
How to Build a Business That Doesn't Depend on You | Dean Mathews
Episode 153
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 • Duration 43:28
Most entrepreneurs start their business doing everything themselves.
Sales.
Customer service.
Accounting.
Marketing.
Operations.
But eventually that becomes the very thing holding the business back.
In this episode of Small Business Pivots, Michael D. Morrison sits down with entrepreneur, software founder, and CEO Dean Mathews, creator of OnTheClock, to discuss the leadership shifts required to grow beyond yourself and build a business that can thrive without depending on the owner every day.
Dean shares lessons learned from building a software company serving over 16,000 businesses while growing a team of nearly 30 employees. He explains why hiring too late is one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make, how to build a positive company culture, why leaders must stop micromanaging, and how empowering employees creates stronger businesses.
They also discuss leadership development, delegation, company culture, payroll, employee management, hiring strategies, autonomy, business systems, and why humility may be one of the greatest leadership traits an entrepreneur can develop.
In this episode you'll discover:
• Why doing everything yourself limits business growth
• When it's time to hire your first employee
• How to stop becoming the bottleneck
• The importance of clear roles and job descriptions
• Why autonomy creates stronger employees
• The "Hire Slow, Fire Fast" philosophy
• Building company culture intentionally
• Leadership lessons from growing a software company
• How payroll, scheduling, and HR systems improve operations
Email the podcast host, Michael D. Morrison: Michael@MichaelDMorrison.com
• The Six Types of Working Genius framework
• How to delegate without creating fear
• Practical ways to improve employee engagement and retention
About Greg Harrod
Greg Harrod is a leadership coach with more than three decades of manufacturing leadership experience. He helps business owners build healthier teams through leadership development, communication, accountability, and his Leadership Clarity Scorecard.
About Small Business Pivots
Hosted by Michael D. Morrison, Small Business Pivots features entrepreneurs, business owners, authors, and industry experts sharing practical strategies that help business owners get unstuck and grow.
🏆 Ranked among the Top 10% of podcasts globally by Listen Notes.
Email the podcast host, Michael D. Morrison: Michael@MichaelDMorrison.com
About Kevin Dias:
Kevin Dias is the founder of Ambiki, a software company serving speech-language pathology private practices across the United States. He is also the author of The Problem First Method, a book about helping businesses understand customer problems before jumping to solutions.
About Small Business Pivots:
Hosted by Michael D. Morrison, Small Business Pivots features entrepreneurs, authors, business owners, and thought leaders sharing real-world strategies to help business owners get unstuck and grow.
Ranked among the Top 10% of podcasts globally by Listen Notes.
Email the podcast host, Michael D. Morrison: Michael@MichaelDMorrison.com
• Why humility makes stronger leaders
If you're a business owner trying to scale your company, develop better leaders, build stronger systems, or simply get your life back, this episode is packed with practical advice you can implement immediately.
About Dean Mathews
Dean Mathews is the founder and CEO of OnTheClock, a workforce management platform helping thousands of businesses simplify employee time tracking, scheduling, payroll, and HR management. A lifelong entrepreneur and software developer, Dean is passionate about leadership, business systems, and helping small businesses build companies that scale.
About Small Business Pivots
Hosted by Michael D. Morrison, Small Business Pivots features entrepreneurs, business leaders, authors, and experts sharing the pivots, systems, and strategies that help business owners get unstuck and grow.
🏆 Ranked among the Top 10% of podcasts globally by Listen Notes.
Email the podcast host, Michael D. Morrison: Michael@MichaelDMorrison.com
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