In this eye-opening episode, Dylan Bost, Co-Founder and CEO of Sunny HQ LLC, shares how to break free from the disillusioned leader trap and reclaim personal profitability. If you struggle with growing revenue but shrinking take-home pay and constant burnout in stage 4, you won't want to miss it.

You will discover:

- Why owner compensation often gets sacrificed first during scaling.

- How to structure pay so the business rewards you, not just employees.

- What mindset and systems shift profit from the company to your life.

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 4 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

Dylan Bost is a designer, entrepreneur, and founder of Sunny HQ, a fully managed WordPress hosting and support company serving B2B brands, agencies, and service-based businesses. With over 30 years of experience in design, systems, and digital operations, Dylan has led teams, built companies, and helped hundreds of founders simplify and scale their backend operations. His first business, a creative agency, taught him the hard way what happens when growth outpaces clarity. After a complete reset, he built Sunny HQ around simplicity, service, and sustainable systems.

Want to learn more about Dylan Bost's work at Sunny HQ LLC? Check out his website at https://sunnyhq.io/

Connect with Dylan:

Website: https://dylanclaytonbost.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbost/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DylanClaytonBost

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylanclaytonbost/

Mentioned in this episode:

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If you’re a Founder, business owner, or CEO who feels overworked by the business you lead and underwhelmed by the results, you’re doing it wrong. Succeeding as a founder all comes down to doing the right one or two things right now. Take the quiz today at foundersquiz.com, and in just ten questions, you can figure out what stage you are in, so you can focus on what is going to work and say goodbye to everything else.

Founder's Quiz

Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again

to the start, scale and succeed. Podcast, the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven stages of your journey. As a

founder, I'm your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and today I want to

talk to those founders out there who've hit that place in their

business or nonprofit, where it's working. You might be

having magazine articles written about you. You might have you

might be the envy of your peer group, but you've hit this place

where, despite the fact that revenue is growing, maybe even

profitability is getting better for you, it seems like it's

getting worse. You have a team around you. It seems like you've

got everything that you've been asking for, but somehow, it's

just getting heavier and heavier and heavier. Every single one of

those joys starts to feel like a burden, and you can't quite tell

why. And here's what nobody tells you about this moment, the

problem isn't fundamentally operational, though you may have

lots of operational problems. You don't need a better org

chart or some other tip or tactic or trick to make this all

better, you don't need another strategic offsite. There's

something else missing, and we're going to explore what that

is today. And who better than with my guest, Dylan Bost, who

is a designer and entrepreneur, and he's also the founder of

sunny HQ, which is a fully managed web, Wordpress, hosting

and support community company, sorry, I'm getting all over the

place, fully managed WordPress hosting and support companies

serving B to B, brands, agencies and service based businesses

with over 30 years of experience in design, systems and digital

operations, Dylan has led teams, built companies, and helped

hundreds of founders to simplify and scale their backend

operations. His first business, a creative agency, taught him

the hard way what happens when growth outpaces clarity and

after a complete reset, he built sunny HQ around simplicity,

service and sustainable systems. He's here with us today. Dylan,

welcome to the show. So glad to have you here.

Thanks, Scott. I'm excited to be here. Appreciate

it.

Fantastic. I want to start with a question

just about your story. Things were going good. You'd built a

creative agency, and at this, this caught me every time I read

it. It catches me again, actually. But you said that

growth outpaced clarity. What did that actually mean in your

world, in your life?

Yeah, well, you just really outlined it, right? I

mean, I think that. So my model, like, you know, from when I grew

up, was, as most people right now, and especially in America,

right? We're driven to success. And to me, what I've learned

that success is, like, one dimensional in those terms,

right? It doesn't typically include your family. It doesn't

typically include your own personal growth. It doesn't

typically include, like, anything outside the business.

And that was me. So I worked 1012, hours a day, year on end.

It was exciting work, right? It was an agency, so I had and I

thrive since I was early on in my career, you know, the manager

of a restaurant, I could deal with all the problems. And there

was something really wonderful about that. So enter this

agency, anybody that's in that world knows is a constant level

of challenge and issue that's natural, right? You're running

print items and commercials and video and web and brand and all

these things. And so there was always something that kept me

from asking any deep questions about, like, Was I happy, right?

I'm a very simple question. I seemed happy, and I'm pretty

happy guy, but in reality, I got about probably eight years in,

and I just remember, like you said, everything on paper was

great. We were making lots of money, winning all the awards,

fantastic staff, lots of clients, growth, and yet, I

remember standing up in my office and just asking this

question. It was really, it still drives just a little bit

of fear I haven't healed completely from it is, you know,

I asked this question of, Why am I doing this? You know, like,

what is the purpose? And the problem with that question for

me was I had always known the answer, or if I didn't know the

answer to something, because I didn't have all the answers, but

I was willing to I knew what the next step was, right? I knew,

well, I don't know how to do that, but this is what I have to

do to get to the point where I know that we can deliver this,

or I can deliver this. But this question really struck me,

because it was existential in that I don't know why I'm doing

this, right? No one's really going to care in 10 years about

this website, and I can attest to that. Now that was 15 years

ago. No one cares about any of that work. And so it was in, you

know, at the time, it wasn't necessarily, I was trying to be

altruistic or like but I wanted to know that what I was doing

was going to make some more profound impact on the world.

And it didn't seem like marketing or advertising was

doing that. And so not only did I not know you know, why I was

doing it, but I didn't really know what the next step was. You

know, now I'm. Leading this company, 25 employees, and you

know, you're supposed to know all the things. So what do you

do? You know, for me, I didn't ask for help. You know, that's

the biggest thing. So I didn't even talk to my partner about

it. I'm just white knuckling it. I'm going through the process.

I'm going to make it happen. And so it was really a tough thing

in that moment, just to kind of really realize, what in the

world do I do next?

Yeah, it's interesting how hard that can be

to admit. And you touched on a couple of things. One is, we're

running too fast to even admit it in the first place. But I

think a lot of folks who are maybe in the earlier stages of

this, if you said, are you happy without a moment's hesitation,

they would just say, yes, that's that's the right and obvious

answer. When was it that you realized that you weren't

actually happy?

Well, it was a slow burn, unfortunately, because I

tricked myself into I was like, we know what we can I'll figure

this out. I did start to read a couple of books, and I started

it, and then I don't know if that made it worse, because the

more I've read, the more I realized that I didn't this was

not doing it for me. It was that slow burn. What that looked like

was right around 2008 to make, you know, to really start to add

a catalyst to things. 2008 hits. We have about 30% of our

businesses, real estate development, and that just went

away, and we were left holding about a third of our receivables

that we would never collect. So now financial pressure enters

into it, and now I'm now I'm scrambling, because what was

before, just a question about, you know, what do I want, or

what makes me happy? Now there was a survivability, you know,

issue on the table, and there again, no help. And I didn't

ask, didn't go to mentors, because I was supposed to know,

and you know, and I had no business doing that. You know,

the reality is in what I know now is, I mean, just ask people,

but you know, so it really became a point of, I forced my

own hand, right? I mean, I I essentially didn't ask the right

questions, didn't seek help, didn't didn't lay people off.

You know, that was in, you know, I talk about that because it's

like, you know, when I started that business, I, you know, I

knew design, I didn't know business, so I learned along the

way, and really did pretty well. But the that was, that was one

real weak spot. Was, was, when did let people go? You know,

they were my family, in a way, and here again, now haven't even

mentioned my, my real family, you know, here, I just believed

some weird way that they were just on a different planet and

they were going to be taken care of, so that didn't enter into

it. So now, you know, unconsciously, you know, or

subconsciously, that's putting even more pressure on me. And

so, you know, at some point in there, you know, honestly, I

crashed the whole thing before I realized I needed to change. You

know, I just rode the slide, unfortunately, all the way down

and burned. And then I realized, okay, it took that, you know,

you got to find your bottom. It doesn't matter what the

situation is, and mine, unfortunately, was way lower

than than it should have been you.

You mentioned, you talked about this idea of

not catching it on time, or going way farther than you

should have. What were some early signs now that, if you

look in the mirror, they're clear as day, but might be hard

for folks to recognize if it's their first time going through

it.

You know, I think zooming out to more of a macro

based on what the business I mean, just normal business

goals, right? And recognizing that, okay, we're losing 30% of

revenue unless we can replace that in the next two weeks,

right? Or some, some promise of that, of I mean, that's a real

clear red flag, and that's something if I went back, more

than likely, things could have been differently. If I had laid

off, you know, a third of the staff, or even half the staff,

at that point, and we could have regrouped. We had other

business. But the problem is, I let that ride for probably five

or six months, and where we just ate through basically every bit

of financial resource that we had. And then some, you know,

ate into personal finances. And that, of course, I'm sure

anybody in the business world who knows more than me is like,

well, that's a clear red flag. But for me, you know, it wasn't.

It was like, I can do this. These are my family. I've got to

take care of it. It was, you know, then zooming even outside,

you know, our specific bubble and saying, you know, this is

really happening, right? This is not, this is a pretty major

thing. It's not turning around. Business is slowing starting to

just recognize some of those basic indicators I just didn't

do.

Yeah, yeah, you mentioned this, this

question of, Why am I doing this? And to some extent, what

difference is this making? And said something along the lines,

I don't remember your exact words, but marketing, isn't it.

And yet, you coming out. Out of that, you've gotten back into

the marketing space, and you're giving it another go. What's

different this time?

Huge difference. Built the new business from a

really different platform. So instead of going into it and

saying, Okay, where's the revenue coming from, and who's

the customer, sure, we asked those questions, obviously, but

a big thing for me was, what time do I want for my family and

for me? So if I'm going to design a business, and from the

beginning, I built the business by myself for about almost a

year, and improved the model, and it was it's easier for me.

I'm a real get in there and do it kind of person, right? It's

easy for me to say, okay, look, if I can set something up so

that I'm only technically working, you know, for four

hours a day. And of course, in the beginning, it was longer,

but I could extrapolate that out too, okay, once this is

happening and this, I have two other people then, and so I

could really easily say at that moment, once I worked out all

the kinks built. So we built, essentially a technology

platform first and then processes on top of that. And a

big key factor was, you know, my time is, do I have personal

time? Am I home, you know, at five, you know, on the minimum,

most likely or started working from home. But, you know, am I

available in the afternoon to pick kids up and do, and so that

was a real key factor. You know, on the business side, of course,

it was moving from, you know, the advertising agency, very

subjective business, right? I'm going to design you a website.

You obviously have an opinion on what that looks like. That is

wide open. You know, there's a lot of back and forth, a lot of

time investment to I wanted something that was that was

subscription based, and that we could build something more

objective. So in this case, your website either works or it

doesn't. That's it. There's no guesswork involved there, right?

It's either fixed or it's not fixed. And so that became the

model. So we really focused tightly on, we only do a very

small amount of web development. It's really focused on just a

high end, really great performing technology stack, and

then on top of that, just fantastic service. So that looks

like customer support regular day to day, but we finish those

every day, so success is like every day, instead of success

over four or five months, and, like I said, on or off, very

easy to judge whether or not we've done our job.

Right. One of the things that I talk with my

clients, a lot about, folks who listen to the show will have

heard it as well. But I think vision can really be

encapsulated in what is it that you're doing or will do that

will matter in 50 years and in in practice, a lot of people

will take that and think of it in the context of either the

business and who they serve, the business and how profitable they

are, which isn't a great answer, or the even the business and how

it serves its employees and team members. And I think those are

all great and your vision might be in one of those groups, but

an often overlooked one is what's the impact going to be on

your family? Because you talk to folks later, in later stages,

that's what all they talk about. You know, when you look at stage

six, stage seven, they're all talking about their family and

how they provide it, and what that's going to look like. And

so this idea that your business can serve your family now and in

the future, I think is a really noble vision. I really like that

element of what you shared. I appreciate you opening up about

that. I have another question for you. We switch gears just

slightly, but it's a question that asks all my guests. I'm

interested to see what you have to say, especially in the

context of your story and how all this unfolded. But what

would you say is the biggest secret you wish wasn't a secret

at all? What's that one thing you wish everybody watching or

listening today knew?

You know, it's, I don't know that it's that much

of a secret for me. It's, you hear about this a lot, and I

don't think people understand the profoundness of this. It's

honestly, you know, you talked a little bit about it, and

clarity, but it's an urgency as well, is is taking more time,

right? Unless you're emergency services kind of person, right?

The reality is, I don't believe, I believe we're moving business

too fast, right? I believe it's we're in this reactive mode. So,

you know, I talk a lot about the difference between a reaction

and a response, and where that comes from, and how you can this

one thing will help, right? It. I lived in a reactionary period

for decades, right? I always know the answer I added right

now I fix it for you. That leads to a complete nervous system

deregulation, but it also leads to failure in a lot of cases,

right? Because I don't believe when we react right? We're using

all of the intelligence and knowledge base that we have

personally to answer that question or solve that problem.

So I work very diligently, and I with our staff and the people

that I work with to shift simply from a reactionary mode to a

response mode. The big key there is the breath. I mean, this

stuff comes down to we breathe all day long. Everybody does,

but most of us breathe right in the top part of our chest. And

you can't discount that, because what that does is not to get

energetic with it. I mean, that simply pushes us, pushes us

faster and faster, but Breathing deep. So even before I jump on a

podcast, before I answer emails, right? If it's if I'm reading an

email beyond just a simple thing like I'll take a moment, take a

deep breath, and then think about the answer. And that

little micro change every day adds up to a really huge change

in just how you deal with everyday situations.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So good. It's so hard and

so good. Yeah, there's some folks listening who'd love to

hear more of your story, or even love to know how sunny HQ can

help them with with their website today. How can they

reach out to you? How can they find more out about the work

that you do?

Yeah, with Sunny HQ, we've even got a free giveaway.

So just go to sunny hq.io/podcast, just give us your

email address. There's a great download. It's a simple PDF.

It'll walk you through just some questions to ask yourself about

your website. And there's a really cool optimization tool so

you can put in your web address, and it will give you a lot of

information that most people don't know. I mean, just with

SEO and server speed and Page Speed, so that's super helpful.

And then for me, just dylanboss.com I've got a book

coming out later this year, and there's a link there for the

book, but just you can check out all the information there.

Fantastic. We'll get those in the show

notes for you that's bossed with a T on the end, but we'll get

them in the show notes so you can just tap or click right

through. Dylan, thanks so much for being on the show. Really

was a privilege and honor. Having you here with us today,

and for those of you watching and listening, you know 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.