CEO Playbook Ep 21: Scaling Beyond the Million Mark

Scaling doesn’t break at the money level. It breaks at the people level. And if you don’t fix that, you’ll stay stuck forever.

Jonathan opens up about the real barriers leaders face when moving from survival growth into scalable success. You’ll hear how to shift from short-term hustling to long-term building, and why the way you think about people, money, and planning determines whether you stay stuck or scale up.

Most CEOs don’t fail because of their ideas. They fail because they keep running their company like it’s still at $1M when it should be at $10M.

In this episode of Stories of Scale with Jonathan Herps, you’ll discover:

• Why moving from $1M to $3M revenue is really a people challenge more than a money challenge (00:43)
• Why annual planning fails CEOs and the alternative rhythm of three-year visions and 90-day sprints that drive execution (03:15)
• Principles to align business and life vision that lets you scale from chaos to $100M revenue  (05:13)

Key takeaways for CEOs and business owners:

• Growth always breaks at the people level. Scaling requires not just more people but the right level of people, and a strategy for funding them.
• Annual planning keeps most businesses stuck. A three-year vision paired with 90-day execution cycles creates rhythm, alignment, and results.
• Profitability doesn’t come from cutting back. It comes from structuring investments in people and systems that create scalable growth.
• Leaders who grow must evolve. Sometimes that means replacing team members (or even themselves) when the business outgrows existing skills.

Scaling is less about pushing harder but more about thinking bigger, planning smarter, and building a rhythm that frees you from being the bottleneck.

CONNECT WITH JONATHAN HERPS

Website: www.scaleupgrowth.co

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanherps

Facebook: www.facebook.com/scaleupgrowth

Instagram: www.instagram.com/scaleupgrowth

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@scaleupgrowth

Email: [email protected]

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