In this insightful episode, Aleya Harris Founder and Owner of The Evolution Collective Inc., shares how strategy drag quietly drains your momentum as a Level 5 CEO and how story-driven leadership turns team misalignment into forward motion. If you struggle with your executive team interpreting the same strategy five different ways, delayed decisions, duplicated work, or investments that somehow never move the business forward, you won't want to miss it.

You will discover:

- How to spot strategy drag as the hidden resistance that keeps your approved plan from actually happening

- Why answering “what does this mean for me” for every person is the real key to execution

- How to use storytelling frameworks and belief archetypes to get true buy-in without changing who people are

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 5 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Aleya Harris is an award-winning keynote speaker, former Google executive, and CEO of The Evolution Collective. She created the Story-Driven Leadership™ Framework, helping founders, CEOs, and leadership teams build trust, strengthen communication, and scale their businesses through authentic leadership. Blending executive experience with practical business strategy, Aleya equips entrepreneurs with actionable tools to lead high-performing teams, create memorable brands, and thrive in an AI-driven marketplace. Her engaging, story-driven approach has inspired audiences across corporate, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial communities.

Want to learn more about Aleya Harris' work at The Evolution Collective Inc.? Check out her website at https://www.evolutioncollective.com/

Connect with Aleya Harris through her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyaharris/

Check Aleya Hariss' personal website at https://www.aleyaharris.com/speaking

Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again

to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a

founder. I'm your host Scott Ritzheimer, and today we're

tackling a problem that quietly drains founders, especially

those in the level five CEO stage. And here's the problem,

and I don't know that you would describe it that way, but I

think you might recognize that it's happening by the end of

this episode, and have some ideas on how to fix it. And that

is that if we were to really ask every person on your executive

team what the strategy of the organization is, we'd very

likely get however many stories there are people on your team,

and it will exhaust you. It will totally deplete you if you don't

recognize why that's happening and come up with a better

strategy for getting there. Now you don't have to take my word

for it. With us here today is Alea Harris. She's an

award-winning keynote speaker, former Google vendor partner and

CEO of the Evolution Collective, she created the Story-Driven

Leadership Framework, helping founders, CEOs, and leadership

teams build trust, strengthen communication, and scale their

business through authentic leadership. Blending executive

experience with practical business strategy, Aleya equips

entrepreneurs with actionable tools and to lead

high-performing teams, create memorable brands, and thrive in

an AI-driven marketplace. Her engaging, story-driven approach

has inspired audiences across corporate, nonprofit, and

entrepreneurial communities. She's here with us today, Aleya.

I told you this before we started, but I'm going to say it

again here for everyone. As I was researching for this

episode, I came across a concept that you talk about quite a lot,

actually, and I'd never heard of it before. But it was like

instant. Oh my goodness, we have to talk about this, and it was

this idea of strategy drag, strategy drag. What a what a

brilliant phrase. So let's just start off. Let's kind of define

what is this, and and and most mostly from what does it feel

like when you're experiencing it?

I love that you're starting with a feeling because

it is intangible until you see it, and then you can't unsee it.

So think of it like driving your car with the parking brake on,

you know where you're gonna go. The car's working. You're just

like, why am I stuck? What? What is that screeching? What is that

burning smell? And you're like, I don't know. Every unclear

priority, conflicting incentive, and old habit is adding

resistance to the strategy. Your strategy is trying to move

forward while all of that is pulling it backwards, right? And

I don't know about you, but that sounds like a rubber band being

pulled in two different directions. And if you pull too

hard on a rubber band in two different directions, what

happens? It's

it's not pretty.

Yeah. So what I try to do with clients is get

them to like you're saying see and feel what that strategy drag

looks like specifically for their organization. So another

way to say it is like you you approve a strategy on Friday.

You and your team feeling super smart. Might even go out for

drinks afterwards. Like oh, we crushed it. All five of us know

exactly what's happening, and then by Monday, the five

departments or the five department heads have five

different interpretations of what you just did in that room

on Friday. Right? People need another meeting. Decisions get

delayed. Work gets done twice or not at all. That strategy drag,

and you're paying for it. It's expensive. Strategy drag means

that thing that absolutely happened needs to happen to take

your business to the next level is not happening. The thing that

you've invested 1000s of dollars in is not happening, and in

fact, you may unintentionally be continuing to invest money into

something while it's falling out of the bottom, and you don't

know why. You're you're paying for this in time, money, and

momentum. So, when you finally see your strategy drag, which is

what we do as the first step, and when we work with people, is

our strategy drag scan to get you to understand where that

money, time, energy is going. You can reduce it, and when you

reduce it, that means that you're helping people understand

why the strategy matters. And I think it's cute that everyone

thinks that that their employees love their company as much as

they do. I that's not true. Everyone is motivated

differently. Everyone looks at through the world through

different belief lenses, so it's not just why the strategy

matters for Acme Inc. It's why the strategy matters for Joe

Schmoe, for Jane Doe, for the people that actually work there

as humans. What it means for their role, what it means for

them as humans, what it means for their family, what they need

to. Do differently in their next meeting or customer interaction,

so that their behavior actually changes. They're not just

nodding and smiling at you while doing the same thing that it

said in their job description. Because you can't get mad at

them for that, right? I'm just doing my job. I'm just doing my

job description. So it has to be enough and clear to and specific

to act on, so that that strategy, when it touches the

rest of the organization, moves the organization forward rather

than creating internal conflict.

Yeah, there's a there's one question that I

think really defines success in implementing strategy more than

anything else, and and I rarely see it addressed by teams. And

the question is not actually what the team is asking, but

what of the each what each individual employee is asking.

And I'd be interested to see if you agree with this. But the the

number one so far so good. Yeah. So far, I'm in full agreement.

The number one question I think is, what does this mean for me?

Right, like folks aren't out there thinking, "How do I?

What's in it for me?

Yeah, I don't think they're out there

thinking, "How can I implement the next change from the

executive team? Like nobody wakes up thinking that, but when

they hear a change, there's the the visceral, emotional,

instinctual, and even intellectual reaction of like,

"Well, what does this actually mean for me? And when we when we

think of our people as these kind of robotic automatons that

just execute whatever it is that we decide, I think we totally

overlook that question and then wonder why nothing changes. How

do you how do you see story as being at least part of the

solution to that question.

Okay, first of all, I'm gonna preface this, and

I'm gonna try to keep this short. But you know, I'm in the

middle of writing my second book, which is literally about

this, and so you know, my brain is full of all of the ideas. But

I'm gonna keep it short, and I will say I want to go back to

that Automaton concept-that is what you wish people are or were

when you're in leadership. And I mean, if we're all honest, we

kind of wish at a certain level-not all the time-but when

we're sitting there with our spreadsheets that they were more

like people were more like chess pieces than humans because it

would be so much easier, be so much easier to run a business

that way and then like activate their personality later, right?

I want you to recognize that, know that you're fine, and we

all think that you're not a bad, you're not a horrible human, but

that is not reality. That is not the way the world works.

Speaking of the world, I got really curious about how other

cultures, other time periods, dealt with issues like this.

There's a big change. We all need to move in one direction. I

mean, this is yes inside companies, but this isn't inside

wars. This is inside villages. This is inside the way that

humans work. That's like a life experience as a change. So we

got to do something, right? And everybody's got to get on board.

And I am a storytelling geek, full blown nerd, full blown.

Like if there were like a pocket protector specifically for

storytelling geeks, I would have it and love it. So I was

originally indoctrinated into story via StoryBrand, which is a

wonderful concept, and then that is built on the hero's journey,

which was codified by Joseph Campbell, and kind of he

squished a bunch of storytelling frameworks together and created

this like what is this mono myth of how a lot of people and

cultures tell stories? I became interested in what if we

unsquish them? What if we pulled them apart? Because squishing

all these people together is the same concept as wanting them to

be automatons. We want it to be easy. We want it to be simple.

So let's create this one archetype that most people can

sort of kind of follow, and it works in most situations, sorta

kinda. As we've already covered, when you simplify and you

oversimplify humans like that, you're actually shooting

yourself in the foot because that's not how the real world

works. So I went back and I looked at all of the original

storytelling frameworks, and recognize that they're actually

blueprints for human behavior. When you think of a story and

the way that stories are told in different cultures, different

time periods, they reflect value systems. They reflect what

people want, how they want to live their lives, what their

ideals are, and they give you clues on how they have

historically encouraged people to get there. Each storytelling

framework kind of has a different goal. Some are about

uncovering deeper truths. Some are about encouraging

innovation. Some are about building on a legacy while

adding your. And finding what that new era looks like. Some

are about coming together of two cultures, two peoples, and how

do we form a greater, better third? I don't know if you heard

it and what I said, but what I what what I said was, how do you

drive AI and then market? What I said was, how do you develop in

mergers and acquisitions. What I said was, how do you deal with

it when you have a 3040-year-old, company that you

just purchased that you want to maintain the legacy and move

forward? That's what these storytelling farmers are

teaching us how to do. So you pick the storytelling framework

that matches your aim, your goal. You you develop the the

the kind of beats from it. The what are the key messages? But

then you're like, oh, pooped a dupes. Now I got to actually

talk to people about this, right? And this is what we're

talking about. This is where the problem is. I then looked, and

this is, this is me in a tarot card spread. This is how this

literally all came to to pass, Scott.

I'm pulling tarot cards for myself, and then I started

looking at the tarot cards, and I realized I was like, these are

truly archetypes for different personalities. And then I

started going down a rabbit hole of younging archetypes,

archetypes, and and thinking of like the disc model, the Myers

Briggs model, all of those type of ways of personality typing,

and I realize that there's really only really seven ways

people look at the world, and I develop them into seven belief

archetypes. An example of that would be the sculptor. I am a

sculptor. I used to I used to call this one the destroyer, and

then I realized that that was a bit aggressive, so we're gonna

we've we've we've morphed into the sculpture where I look at a

big hunk of thing, and I chisel away at it until it represents

what I think is beautiful until I get the statue of David out of

it. Right, that's how how I'm in a chisel, so when you have an

organization, let's say you have sculptors, which I assume that

every organization has all seven. I'm not trying to go

around typing people. That's exhausting, and nobody got time

for that. Say you're trying to use a you have a merger and

acquisition. We work with clients that have this a lot,

and you have two very different cultures, two very different

belief points you're trying to bring together. So you would use

a storytelling framework that does that. But then, when you're

in your communications and you're trying to talk to someone

with a specific belief system, for example, the sculptor, you

highlight different things to get them on board to work with

what they believe, not change what they believe. Right? This

is not like a toxic relationship where you're like, I could

change him. I know I could change him. Just give me some

time. He's not that bad. No, we're gonna call a spade a

spade. It is what it is. But we still need this person to move.

So if you're a sculptor, the things that you're going to tell

me are what you've done to already think about and poke

holes at your strategy. What still needs to be refined, and

you're going to try to get me on board to help you, right? As you

move forward through that, and you develop communication plans

based on storytelling frameworks, the blueprint

blueprints for human behavior that exist for 1000s of years,

you deal with belief systems. You actually get people on board

and able to move forward through any type of change.

Yeah, that's so good. There's a principle or

pattern that I like that I think you're sharing it very

articulately, and that is to speak the language of your

audience, right? Rather than expect them to understand your

language, and so I love that. Again, bringing the framework

and the actual individual person in the belief system, I love

that. I love that combination. I could probably nerd out on it

with you for a very long time, but to track the

storytelling dark side, Scott. There you go.

To to keep this within at least some

reason, there's a question that I want to get to because I ask

all my guests, and I'm very interested to see what you'd

have to say. But the story, the question is this: What is the

biggest secret that you wish wasn't a secret at all? What's

that one thing you wish every founder, CEO, and executive

listening or watching today knew?

It is not as hard to build your business as you

think, it is. To which everyone listening went, "How dare you!

You don't know the blood, sweat, and tears I put in this. This is

a lesson that I'm learning right right now, in the in my scaling

journey. It is really about being in the room with the right

people, and having a clear idea of your purpose in the world,

how it interacts with somebody else's problem, and how it

brings you profit. However, if you're like me, that means that

instead of doing the thing I'm scared to do, which might on a.

Given day, be something different. Show up, talk to the

person, call the person. You know, whatever. I'm like, oh,

I'll just create another offer in my little hole in my computer

by myself. I'll just have another all hands meeting. I'll

just have another right, and I complicate it because of my own

hangups. This goes back to the kind of overarching theme of

this episode of looking at how individual beliefs, motivations,

and behaviors impact the organization as a whole,

including your own. How are your limiting beliefs impacting you

and your effort and the things you know you're supposed to do,

know you're not supposed to do, or from finding out what truly

will get you to that next level. the The biggest secret here is

the secrets that we often keep from ourselves, our own

fallibility. Because when you are at the top of a company,

people are depending on you. You're someone's mortgage is

getting paid because you're keeping this business together.

It's a lot of responsibility, and so we often put on a facade

of infallibility. And then the problem is we start to believe

it too. So then we end up failing, despite our best

efforts.

Yeah, yeah. So true. So true, Aleya. You know,

again, I could go in for this conversation for a little while,

but I'm not alone in that. I'm sure there are folks listening

that would love to hear more. They'd love to know more about

you and the work that you and your team do. How can folks

reach out to you? How can they connect to find out more?

I'd love to for you to visit our website

evolutioncollective.com evolutioncollective.com and

there just schedule a call. We want to chat with you. I want to

hear where your strategy is dragging. I want to hear how you

individually are like, oh my god, I just had to come to Jesus

moment. Can we talk about it? I am not a typical business

consultant. I will meet you where you're at, but I am not

going to stay surface level with you. I am not the person to come

to if you want someone to coddle you and tell you how cool you

are. I'm the person who you come to when with the most love,

because my purpose in life is to love people into their highest

versions of themselves. I will be the person that, with the

most love, helps you touch the squishy part, touch the the part

within you, within your brain, within your heart, within your

whatever that is holding you back. Examine it, heal it, move

forward, and do the same for your organization.

So good, so good. Well, thank you so much

for being on with us today. Fascinating conversation,

really, really cool stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And for

those of you watching and listening, you know that your

time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as

much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait

to see you next time. Take care. Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer

here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and

Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what

you need for the level you're in right now. If you want to

discover what level you're in, take our 10 question Founders

Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That's

foundersquiz.com. It'll pinpoint exactly where you are and give

you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next

level in your journey as a founder. If you got something

out of today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or

review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let's be

honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible

guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and

I'll see you in the next episode.