In this 2025 audit lesson, Ray reflects on something that’s no longer optional:

The mindset, skill level, and limiting beliefs of a founder get installed into the business.

And AI has made that reality impossible to ignore.

If you think small, the business thinks small.

If you chase shiny objects, the business chases shiny objects.

If you struggle to delegate, the business bottlenecks around you.

But here’s the shift:

AI is now a mirror — and a multiplier.

Used correctly, it challenges your assumptions, exposes weak thinking, sharpens strategy, and forces clarity. Used poorly, it amplifies confusion, bad decisions, and low standards.

In this episode, Ray unpacks why AI is no longer a novelty tool for marketers or operators. It is a core leadership skill. The leaders who upgrade their thinking — and use AI to stress-test it — will build fundamentally different businesses than those who don’t.

This isn’t about prompts.

It’s about paradigm.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

1. Why a founder’s beliefs inevitably become the business’s ceiling
2. How unchallenged strengths and weaknesses get installed into your team
3. The hidden cost of insecurity, control, and lack of delegation
4. Why self-awareness is a strategic advantage — not personal development fluff
5. How top founders continuously upgrade their thinking
6. Why AI is becoming a forcing function for better executive judgment

Follow Ray on:

YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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This episode is part of the 2025 Audit series — lessons learned, relearned, and unlearned.

This podcast is where Ray thinks through hard decisions — especially when the usual playbooks stop working.

If that way of thinking is useful, that’s what continues here.

New to the show? Start with the “Start Here” playlist:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/a7577a6f-15da-4521-b214-35e4e47f320b

I audited my 20, 25 year and I'm looking for lessons that I've learned, like new things, lessons that I've relearned, you know, like something that I already knew, but I got like kicked in the ass and had to relearn so that, you know, this year it's, it's going to stick.

And then, you know, also anything that I've unlearned, right, like anything that I've changed my mind on and this is one of those things and it is, you know, as a reflect on the year, it's, it's been a very, very big reminder that the limiting beliefs and the character of a founder or a CEO or really any leader with a, you know, with a, with a decent sized team, the limiting beliefs and of course the strengths, those things get installed into the business and the team that you are running.

In other words, like if you think small, right, if you think a particular opportunity is, is small, or this business can only do 2, 3 million, or your vision for something just isn't, isn't, isn't grand, isn't, isn't a big vision, then by default, by nature, the vision of the business is going to follow suit. So if you kind of have a small vision of things, then the business is going to be smaller, right?

Or if you don't manage your adhd, if that's, if that sounds familiar, or your shiny object syndrome, your ability, not, you know, the inability to focus, if you don't manage that, then that's going to become a characteristic of the business.

It's, you know, if you're always popping in with new ideas and change of directions and you know, change chasing, you know, shiny ball, squirrel type of, type of shit, then the business is going to do the same thing and that's going to keep the business from getting really good, compounding exponential returns later on or another one that I've, I've seen and experienced. Like if, if you have insecurities being around people that are better than you, then that's going to become a limitation of your team, right?

Like I worked with the founder a few years ago as a, as a fractional head of sales and really sharp guy, really good entrepreneur. And the challenge was he needed to be at the top, he needed to be the dude, he needed to be the guy.

And so he would hire people who had really good experience, really solid, you know, chops in their domain and then he would get insecure about that person running that business, right?

And he would step in and it would create conflict and the the fix air quote to that would be go hire, you know, somebody that's, that's a yes man, right? Or yes woman, you know, somebody that just does what, what he wanted to do. And I watched it become a significant limitation of the business.

Like the executive team. The ELT that was, that was built there had really strong players at one point and then all of those players were basically run off or quit.

Because what he really wanted was yes people. And again, that's. That limitation of his own mindset became a limitation of the business. And you know, a couple more examples here.

Like if, if you don't learn how to delegate effectively, right?

Like if you have a need for control, a, A desire to like, be in the weeds and tell everyone how to do every single thing instead of being able to clarify what the objectives and the outcomes and the goals are and letting people do their thing.

If you've got to get up in there and tell everyone how to do things because that's just kind of like who you are, then your inability to delegate is going to naturally mean that the limitation has a bottleneck. That is you, because you are the person that needs to tell everyone how to do things. So your inability to delegate keeps the business from expanding.

Keeps the business from growing. And I would, I would say if, if you. And by the way, when I say you, I'm saying I'm talking to me too.

If you're not aware of those strengths and weaknesses that you have or if you, if you just don't accept them, right? If you think you're you. I'm a 10 across the board, right? Like I, I know it all.

I just happen to be the best at everything that I do in ops and sales and marketing and you know, delivery and you know, everything else in this business. I just happen to be the best at everything.

Like if you're, if you're not self aware enough to know what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are and don't accept those things, then what happens is the business's limitation becomes the fact that you can't assemble the right squad. You can't assemble the right team. Because if you like, if you look at team, I love sports analogies. I know a lot of people hate them.

But like, you take like American football, um, and you. Which I say because I live in Mexico, but it's football to me.

But you take like American football, the team is made up of very different players with very different strengths and weaknesses. Like, you can't have a team of all quarterbacks. You can't have a team of all receivers, you can't have a team of all linebackers.

And it's understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are and accepting those things and saying, hey, we need to assemble the right squad, meaning the right person needs to go in each individual seat.

And I need to recognize my own strengths and weaknesses because that's what's going to enable me to stack the deck with the right people around me so that we as a unit operate more effectively. And this is just like, as I, as I reflect on the year, like reminding myself that I become the limitation of the business.

My mindset, my belief systems, my, my strengths, my weaknesses, those all get in one way or another installed into the business unless I deliberately do something to, to not allow that to happen. Right?

And if, and one of the things that I've seen with, you know, with a lot of the top founders, the top entrepreneurs that I talk to that I know that I, that I work with, when I look at them, they are constantly upgrading themselves, right?

Like, they're, they're constantly looking for new skill development, they're constantly challenging their own beliefs, they're constantly changing their own identity.

Like a lot of the top entrepreneurs will tell you, I'm not even going to be the same person a year from now that I am today, and if I am, I'm going to be disappointed.

And it's because they know if they stagnate, right, then if they stop learning, if they just accept all of their beliefs as of today as facts and they stop challenging themselves and they stop taking input from other people and they stop, you know, accepting that there's a players that know how to do something better than they do, then their stagnation, I guess, is, yeah, stagnation becomes the plateau of the business.

And it's, it's, it really is one of the biggest differences I see with a lot of the founders who are successfully running 50, 100, $200 million businesses. And by successfully, I mean they're not burning out. They're doing the thing that they are, they are truly best at.

And, and they have a good team that is also doing what they're the best at.

And they have this very successful, profitable, effective business that isn't burying everyone with chaos and stress and, you know, shitty morale and everything else.

The difference between those founders and other founders is that they, because of the fact that they're constantly challenging themselves, constantly upgrading their belief systems are just different. Right? Like, there are a lot of times that I'll, I'll talk to, you know, A good friend of mine has a, you know, $200 million, like, gym empire, right?

And I love the way he thinks. Like, he's always challenging the way that I think.

In fact, now, before I present an idea to him, there's almost like this, wait, what's he gonna say? You know, and it's good, right? But he's. He's kind of done that by design, right? He's. He's challenged himself a lot.

And when I present something to him, it's really interesting because he just has a completely different paradigm on it. He sees where risk, where other people see opportunity. He sees opportunity where other people see risk.

He sees things that people say, well, that's really hard. Like, how am I going to get somebody to do that? How am I going to get somebody to replace myself for this? And how am I?

He sees those things like, that. That other founders see as hard. He's like, dude, it's simple, right? Like, it's. It's a complete shift.

And then the stuff that other people see as simple, you know, like, he's. He invests in other companies and stuff. And when he's talking to some of the.

Some of these other founders and they're like, yeah, I got this, like, really good idea, and it's gonna be really easy and we're gonna crush her. Like, he's the guy that's like, well, it's actually harder than you think. Like, what about this? What about this? What about this?

And I. I share that specific example because I know that he has intentionally and deliberately created systems and improved the way that he thinks and upgraded the way that he thinks, and he's constantly looking for opinions that and his own, and constantly listening to other founders, other very successful, proven people in their domain and saying, okay, well, you know, as successful as I am, perhaps I'm wrong about this, or perhaps we could do this better. And that has compounded over a long period of time into, like, just having a completely different paradigm.

And I think it goes, like, full circle back to, you know, the core point here, which is you as a founder, and your. Your beliefs, your limiting beliefs and. And your strengths get installed into the company. And there is a.

A way of accepting that and handling that and addressing that and upgrading yourself and challenging yourself. That will inevitably build a better business, a better team, and get you. Get you better results and. And you'll probably enjoy it more along the way.

So one of my lessons from this past year. I hope it helps. Adios.