Shownotes
What if the fastest way to scale isn’t doing more, but touching less. In this episode of the Leading Visionaries, host Anjel B. Hartwell sits down with Max Lewis, author of Who Is Max Lewis? Max went from selling mangoes as a kid to building a propane tank exchange business that ultimately sold for $37 million.
This episode is a masterclass for founders, CEOs, and visionaries who feel capped by their own effort and are ready to step into the next version of leadership.
What You Will Learn:
Why vision is often developed through experience and small wins rather than arriving fully formed at the beginning.
How staying the “single point of failure” quietly limits growth no matter how hard you work.
Why the transition from operator to owner requires a complete identity shift, not just better systems.
How learning to “not touch anything” becomes the most uncomfortable and necessary leadership upgrade.
Why hiring friends may feel supportive early on but can cap the long-term potential of a business.
How intentional thinking time becomes a strategic advantage for solving bigger problems and scaling faster.
Why asking questions like what a $25M business owner knows clarifies exactly what you need to learn next.
How learning just enough about a subject allows you to hire the right experts without becoming one yourself.
How role playing reveals what your team does when you are not present and gives you the power to coach proactively.
Why investing in education compounds forever because knowledge is something you never lose.
How designing your physical environment can keep your vision, focus, and priorities aligned daily.
What it looks like to scale through coaching, training, and trust instead of effort and exhaustion.
Resource:
Max Lewis
Join the Leading Visionaries Community
Transcripts
LVP 115 Max
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Ad: [:Now here's your host, Anjel b Hardwell.
Anjel: Welcome to another episode of the Leading Visionaries Podcast, where we celebrate the ingenious, insightful, innovative, and inspired leading visionaries of our time, and provide our listeners with world class examples of the kind of courage. Clarity and confidence it takes to bring visions into reality.
max Lewis, author of Who is [:Through persistence, hard work, and a willingness to learn from mistakes, he tactfully planned for nothing less than success and mentoring others to do the same. I had the pleasure of meeting Max at a recent event in Boston, Massachusetts that was hosted by Nick Hutchinson and. Book thinkers and we had an immediate connection and I was so excited to bring him to our listening audience.
Welcome to the show, max.
Max: Thank you so much for having me, Anjel.
mangoes as a child. Was that [:Max: I think it's something that was developed over time. You know, it's something that you kind of grow, grow into. You know, I started with the selling of the mangoes and you kind of see what's possible with that. And then later on I sold candy and you know, you brought in your horizons a little bit and you know, ultimately you start using and applying those skills to, you know, adult life and uh, you know, falling back on your experience of what you have previously done.
You say, okay, well. If I did, you know, if I sold mangoes and candy, why can't I sell, you know, a car or propane or houses, whatever it is that you might be, uh, interested in selling.
o I have a lot of background [:What I'm curious about, you know, what I love best about your story is you literally started pretty much from zero. Mm-hmm. You know, you had a vision, you had a vision for your, um, propane business, but it started from pretty much zero, and you went from zero to 37 million in such a fast trajectory. So I'd love to have you speak about the, maybe the stages of your.
Vision and how it started to show itself to you, because we have a lot of listeners who are founders and CEOs and innovators themselves, and I think it's really helpful for them to hear from somebody like you who has, you know, really wildly succeeded in that area.
Max: Thank you. So, yeah, I think, you know, when I think about that, uh, early on I had a vision, right when I started my business, when I had the idea, I had a vision.
, you know, people could use [:I didn't know if I could really do it until one day. My girlfriend, as you read in the book, kind of. Nudged me and said like, why don't you just make a business card? And that was like the first big step into okay, achieving something. Now, once I accomplished that, I guess that simple version of my business, which was, you know, buy and sell really and deliver, show up, you know, basically, um, I was successful for a very long time operating in that.
everything. But I was also a [:Also learn how to hire people correctly. And those people, more often than not, are not going to be your friends, even though that's who I hired in the beginning. 'cause that's who was available and for cheap labor. So over time, um, you know, I, I realized that I hit a ceiling, you know, I was successful in my own right.
I was probably worth a couple million bucks, but I realized I was never going to be worth more than a couple million dollars if I didn't. Get outside of my comfort zone and begin to learn things that I didn't know, you know, from people who were smarter than me and had experienced, uh, much greater success than I had.
Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. [:So phase one, you hit your ceiling. So when you hit your ceiling, what was the next vision?
Max: So the next vision I had is actually funny enough. Um. I had ta, I had gotten like, fed up with work, and I don't write about this in the book, but the first, the first step, the first step from I do everything myself to, I don't want to be the truck driver anymore, was, you know, I'm had a meltdown.
irlfriend, same girlfriend I [:Okay, so not a lot of people know this story, so you're getting like some pretty, uh, exclusive content. So I watched it and I was like, man, this is, this is cool. So I started envisioning myself, if you gotta remember at this time, I'm dressed like a truck driver, dirty. I'm doing all these deliveries myself.
I'm making lots of money. There was days I made $3,000 a day, um, quite often, which is a lot of money to make, especially at my age, 22, 23 years old. But that's all I could do. So I started to envision myself as, you know, I'm gonna go into work and I'm gonna be in a button down, you know, shirt tucked in. I'm not gonna pick up any tanks.
to necessarily get his hands [:You have to completely change yourself. It's a 180. You know, because you have to train yourself. And I train this, I have several businesses now, and I'm always training this to my managers and I'm like, listen, you know, when you are the, when you're the owner operator, you want to do everything yourself.
But when you're the owner and not the operator, you shouldn't touch anything. Like I tell 'em, don't touch anything. Teach people how to do it so that when you're not here, it'll get done. So I had to become a teacher. Right. Essentially. And I had to start hiring people and training them how I wanted things done so I wouldn't have to do it.
turbulence there, I'll tell [:To run with, with the ball, so to speak. Yeah.
Anjel: Beautiful. Well, so there's lots oft words there. Don't touch, teach, train, trust and turbulence. And you know, I think for many people it's not just trusting the team members, right? There's another t. It's not just trusting the team members, it's trusting life. It's trusting yourself.
s six figures to mid six and [:With, also with my clients, I've seen that happen at every stage there's a bigger trust fall. Right? And it's really trusting life and trusting yourself to know that even if there's turbulence, you're gonna be able to fly through. So I wanna. Um, like for our listeners here, just take a little side tangent and ask you what are some of the things that you've done internally or the support systems that you've put around you kind of outside the business that has allowed you to travel through the turbulence.
of that nature. Um, for me, [:I have a short attention span. So, you know, people say, Hey, read this, read that, and you'll figure out the answer. And I'm like, shit, I can't read this whole book because I don't have the time or the attention span to do so. So I needed a faster way. Um, so a couple of things that really helped me were obviously YouTube, as you heard me mention in, in the event, YouTube is a huge one 'cause you can learn just about anything in like three minutes.
Um, but also, you know, Tony Robbins. I spent a lot of time with Tony Robbins and, uh, Keith Cunningham, who is, uh, the rich. He's the real rich dad that Robert Kiyosaki writes about in, uh, rich Dad, poor Dad. And those gentlemen helped me really. Transform my mind in a way to think on that next level, you know?
. You have to think forward, [:So for one, um, when I was achieving the goal of, of, you know, who is Max Lewis? I had a six foot whiteboard in my bedroom. Mm-hmm. That maybe to everyone else looked absolutely ridiculous, but every morning and every night that six foot beauty was there. With all my goals, things I needed to do, you know, how I thought I might need to achieve these goals, the roadmaps that I'd write out for myself.
And I would read every word on that whiteboard every morning, every single morning, and every night before I went to bed. And it really kept me aligned and focused on, you know, my intentions. Yeah, beautiful. That's probably one of the most powerful things that I have ever done for myself. And I do it. I still do it now.
I mean, I don't have the. [:Anjel: works, right? You know, it works. It works. You
Max: know, the magic works. I have it in my office and it's just not the, it's just not the same. Not the
Anjel: same.
It's not the same. It's not the same.
Max: Not the same.
Anjel: Yeah. So, um, for our listeners here, a couple things I really want you to hear, listeners that Max educated himself. And the key here is in any way that I can receive. In any way that I can receive. And I think so many people are stuck in the belief system and the conditioning that they have to sit in a chair, they have to intake in a certain way.
're gonna let you know where [:But right now, listeners, are you a leading visionary or in the role of leading other visionaries? Consider joining our community and sharing your feedback and takeaways from each episode. We invite you to join us and support this podcast by making a donation at Leading Visionaries Podcast. Dot com if you're interested in finding out more about how you can receive support for getting your vision out of the air and onto the ground in a way that is both impact and income producing the best support is found in collaboration with other leading visionaries, which is why we've created the Creative Age Leader Lab.
who you think might benefit [:I wanna say a huge thank you to all of our listeners who are downloading, rating and reviewing. We're welcoming thousands and thousands of downloads from all over the world. Wanna shout out this week to our listeners in Italy, Iceland. Ireland. We'll do all the eyes and we'll be right back with Max Lewis.
Ad: The Leading Visionaries Podcast is brought to you by the Creative Age Consulting Group. Are you the one who thinks differently? Who is called to create a significant conscious change in the world? Who is seeing and dreaming of a better way for your industry, your community, humanity? Creative Age consulting group is hired to guide leading visionaries just like you, who want to break through the static in order to clearly express and confidently enroll support for their vision in a way that makes it inevitable that it will come to pass.
Your word is your [:The book is yours by visiting gift dot Leading visionaries podcast.com.
n and how you went from, uh, [:Your thinking. You were talking about your thinking, and so I'd love to hear what changed about your thinking or your vision once you firmly established yourself as a hands off owner that then led you to think about selling your business.
Max: Well, I'll tell you, thinking is really the superpower. Uh, I tell people all the time, I was a business owner.
how I can. You know, achieve [:And my physical presence. So, you know, when I started to, to use my brain and, and really work through, you know, questions as you know, thinking time, which I, I heavily promote to everyone, which is finding quality questions and trying to answer them. So one of the ones that really helped me get. Further down the road was like, you know, what does the owner of a business that is worth $25 million look like?
What does he know? Okay, what is, what's important to him? How, what kind of training does he have? What kind of skills does he possess? And when I wrote that out. It became pretty clear to me what I needed to learn. I said, well, I need to know accounting. I need to know how to coach people and train people.
. I had an action items list [:What am I, what am I gonna do? But you know, it's a journey of a thousand steps. Start with one. And, and the first couple attempts were not successful for me, but they led me to ultimately become successful. Mm-hmm. And, you know, there's, there's a saying, do do what you do best and hire the rest. Well, what I, what I also learned is I don't have to be an expert in accounting.
I need an expert in accounting. So when I first started, like for example, that journey, I was trying to learn as much of accounting as possible. I ended up taking a course which was extremely helpful before the MBA with Keith Cunningham. But ultimately what I discovered was, I don't need to be an accountant.
-hmm. Know and do and things [:He puts people in those positions. Mm-hmm. And when I learned how to do that, everything changed for me. The company skyrocketed. 'cause I didn't have to do that anymore. They were doing it. Mm-hmm. And I was coaching, watching, monitoring. Right. Mm-hmm. And, uh, that, that's really where it's at. That's where the.
The success came
Anjel: beautiful. And within three years of making those decisions, you actually sold the company for $37 million, which is so amazing. From like baked basically zero to $37 million in 13 years is is pretty amazing. So one of the things that I noticed is. You also take action, right? Because people can think until they're, the cows come home.
tion, and, and I see this so [:And so. What I hear from you is you learn what you need to know, like the essence of what you need to know, and then you take action to surround yourself with people who know that better than you. Correct? Um, so for me, I got like three letters stood out for me. For you, e, t, and a. Right? Educate yourself.
tention, et cetera, money to [:I'd love to have you speak about your investment mindset.
Max: Investment as far as people, education, things like that?
Anjel: Well, money, all of it. Okay. All of it. Like, 'cause it's a bigger mindset.
Max: So, yeah. So this is actually, that's a great question. So I coach, as you know, a lot of people all the time. Mm-hmm. And I tell them, listen, you know what, the beautiful thing about investing in educating yourself is that once you learn something, you have it forever.
You know, when people. I live in Miami. People always try to either learn Spanish or learn English, and uh, I tell 'em, listen, if you learn one word today, if you learn how to say, you know, awa, which is water, you just have to learn it once and now it's with you for the rest of your life. So let's think about how powerful that could actually be.
's say we're on a boat and I [:Now, here's the thing. In business and in life, you don't know when that information's gonna necessarily come into, in handy. So you can't really quantify how important things that you're going to learn are, but you should learn them. You should be proactive and learn them because you don't know when you're gonna be 30, 30 miles offshore and need a life jacket.
Again, I'm not trying to be [:So I'll tell you a, a quick little story in, in relation to this. So I remember I had a meeting with a lady one time, uh, about tax deeds. You know, I didn't know, like buying real estate tax deeds. I didn't know what I was talking about. I just had a meeting. I was interested in investing. So the night before I set aside one hour.
And I just YouTubed and YouTube. Then YouTube, then notes and notes and notes and notes and notes and notes. I invested that time in myself. I invested that time in learning about it. When I tell you that the next day during that meeting, I knew more about tax deeds than her. I am not fooling you. One hour, but one hour of intense focus.
one hour of YouTubing stuff, [:So that's one part of it. Educating yourself now, investing into people. Something that I'm huge on. Huge. Absolutely huge is role playing. Mm-hmm. I love role playing. I think role playing is one of the most powerful tools that you can ever deploy in a business setting and. The reason being is you get an insight to how people are going to respond, react, fold, uh, curse.
I mean, you never know what exactly they're gonna say or do when you're not around because you're not around. But if we create that environment, and I do this now, I have a, I have 170 employees with some restaurant chain that I have. We just did it last weekend, um, where I say, Hey, look, this is the scene.
ime out. You can't say that. [:Let's try again. You know? Mm-hmm. So it's great because I can see what's happening when I'm not there. Mm-hmm. And then I can. Mold them and teach 'em, Hey, how about you use a better word. How about your little nicer? How about you put yourself in the customer's shoes? What do you think they're feeling right now?
If their food came cold? Mm. Let me ask you a question. How would you feel if your food came cold and you just paid $25 for, and you're in a rush and trying to get back to work, but like, hold on. Really think about that. You're in a rush. You're going back to work, and they serve you a cold plate of food.
lues and our company values, [:Anjel: you
Max: know?
Anjel: Beautiful. Probably the
Max: one of the best tools I have.
Anjel: Beautiful. We only got about a minute left, max, so I, what I wanna do now is just talk about your vision moving ahead, because you've written this book. Who is Max Lewis? What's your intention with this?
Max: Just to help as many people as possible. You know, I, I, um, I give the book out often.
I just wrote a children's book as well with the sole intention of giving it to, uh, children in third world countries, which teaches like a fundamental, fundamental, um, financial literacy, if you will. How to think, how to start a business, how to have ideas, how to save money. How to earn money. I just wanna help people.
Honestly, that's, that's what it's all about. Beautiful.
Anjel: Well, I hope you know that you have helped our listeners in 63 countries around the world. We're gonna encourage you all to go to the Instagram, who is Max Lewis? And um, they can get the book there, right?
ah, they can get the book on [:Yeah, Amazon's probably the best place to get it. Great.
Anjel: Excellent. They can get the book on Amazon and they can get more of your great teachings on Instagram. All right, beautiful. Well, thank you so much for being with me today. Listeners, we love feedback. Please let us know what you thought of today's show by joining our community, sharing your takeaways, asking questions, or submitting guest suggestions.
You can weave your visionary thread into our fabric. By opting in on our website@leadingvisionariespodcast.com or by interacting with us on socials, look for the handle at Leading Visionaries podcast across all the major platforms. Thanks for tuning in. Keep your eyes, ears, and hearts open. And remember, you are here to create conscious change.
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