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:
– What mindset and systems shift profit from the company to your life.
– Why owner compensation often gets sacrificed first during scaling.
– How to structure pay so the business rewards you, not just employees.
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
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.
Dylan Bost
Thanks, Scott. I’m excited to be here. Appreciate it.
Scott Ritzheimer
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?
Dylan Bost
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?
Scott Ritzheimer
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?
Dylan Bost
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.
Scott Ritzheimer
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.
Dylan Bost
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.
Scott Ritzheimer
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?
Dylan Bost
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.
Scott Ritzheimer
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?
Dylan Bost
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.
Scott Ritzheimer
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?
Dylan Bost
Yeah, with Sunny HQ, we’ve even got a free giveaway. So just go to sunnyhq.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 dylanbost.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.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. We’ll get those in the show notes for you that’s bost 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.
Contact Dylan Bost
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/