The Business Fix
Tune in to The Business Fix, the podcast where CEO vision meets on-the-ground operations. Join Chrissy Myers, HR expert and CEO, and Josh Troche, marketing and operations guru, as they tackle the challenges facing small and medium-sized businesses today.Each episode, Chrissy and Josh dissect a common business problem, offering diverse perspectives and actionable solutions. Whether you're in service industries or product development, with 10 or 150 employees, you'll gain valuable insights to improve your business. This isn't your typical dry business podcast. Chrissy and Josh bring a conversational, down-to-earth approach to the critical aspects of building a thriving business. Follow us on...
Curiosity Is a Leadership Skill, Not a Personality Trait
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Great leaders do not need to know everything. They need to ask better questions.
In Episode 73 of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh explore how curiosity can make you a better leader, reduce catastrophizing, improve communication, and create a workplace where employees feel safe bringing problems forward.
They break down the three Rs: Regulate, Reflect, Respond, and explain how leaders can replace fear and control with curiosity, clarity, and better problem solving.
You will also learn how to ask better questions, give more effective feedback, avoid micromanagement...
The ROI You Can't See: Why Investing in Employees Pays Off #Leadership #SmallBusiness
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What if your investment in employees is paying off, but youâre looking in the wrong place for the ROI?
In Episode 72 of The Business Fix Podcast, Chrissy and Josh explore the invisible ROI of employee development, leadership training, retention, and company culture. They explain how investing in your people can reduce turnover, prevent costly mistakes, improve management, and build a team that can operate without constant owner intervention.
They also discuss the three Cs of retention: Capability, Confidence, and Commitment, plus why business owners should ask a different qu...
Is Your Business Running You? | The Business Fix Podcast
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Are you running your business, or is your business running you?
If your days are filled with putting out fires, chasing down updates, avoiding uncomfortable feedback, and constantly stepping in to keep things moving, you may be paying what we call the invisible tax of scaling.
Welcome to The Business Fix, where Chrissy Myers and Josh Troche tackle the people, leadership, culture, systems, marketing, and operational challenges that keep business owners and managers stuck in the weeds.
Chrissy brings the perspective of a third-generation CEO and fractional...
The Emotional Intelligence Gap: Is Your Leadership Hurting Your Business?
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Is your emotional intelligence helping your business, or quietly hurting it?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh explore what happens when a leader's mood becomes the operating system for the business. They discuss how emotional reactivity can damage trust, psychological safety, employee retention, communication, and team performance.
You'll learn why emotional intelligence is not about hiding your emotions, why passion and reactivity are not the same thing, and why employees may stop bringing you problems when they don't feel safe telling you the truth.
<...The PIP Playbook: How to Make Performance Plans a Tool, Not a Weapon
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Performance Improvement Plans have a reputation problem. For many employees, a PIP feels less like an opportunity to improve and more like a countdown to termination.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh explore how business owners and managers can use PIPs as a genuine tool for employee growth, accountability, and better workplace culture.
What You'll Learn
Nobody Wants to Work? Your Leadership Might Be the Problem
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Why is it so hard to find and keep good employees? And is ânobody wants to work anymoreâ actually the wrong diagnosis?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh challenge the way business owners and managers think about todayâs hiring and retention challenges. They explore what employees really want and how leadership, company culture, compensation, communication, and the employee experience can determine whether great people choose to join your business and stay.
In this episode, we cover:
Why you may be facing a leadership proble...Transparency Isn't Telling Everyone Everything: Leadership Without the Trauma Dump
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How transparent should leaders really be?
Many business owners hear that transparency builds trust but what happens when honesty turns into emotional dumping? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the biggest leadership mistakes they see on LinkedIn and inside growing businesses: leaders confusing vulnerability with unloading their anxiety onto their teams.
You'll learn why your employees deserve honesty but not custody of your stress.
Together, they break down the difference between healthy transparency and toxic transparency while providing practical leadership...
The Policy Paradox: Why More Rules Create Worse Leaders
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Most businesses don't have a policy problem, they have a leadership problem.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the biggest mistakes business owners and managers make: creating new policies every time an employee makes a bad decision.
How many "Josh Policies" exist in your business?
You know the ones... a single employee breaks a rule, and suddenly everyone has to live with another page in the employee handbook.
The result? Massive policy manuals, inconsistent leadership, frustrated employees, and...
The Frontline Filter: Your Job Posting Dictates the Talent You Get
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Your hiring problem may not be the labor market, it might be your job posting.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the most overlooked leadership tools in business: the job description. If you've ever complained that "no one wants to work anymore," this conversation might challenge that assumption.
From clichĂŠ-filled postings that promise a "fast-paced environment" to unrealistic "rockstar ninja" wish lists, they break down why generic job ads attract generic candidates and why misleading descriptions create turnover before a new h...
Stop Assuming, Start Training: Why Employees Aren't Mind Readers
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How many times have you looked at an employee and thought, "They should know how to do this by now"? The truth is, most employee mistakes aren't caused by a lack of common sense, they're caused by a lack of intentional training.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dive into one of the biggest leadership mistakes business owners and managers make: assuming employees know what hasn't been clearly taught. Through real-life stories, practical examples, and a healthy dose of humor, they explore why "common sense" is often...
Is It a Mistake or a Pattern? How Great Leaders Know the Difference
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When does an employee mistake become a pattern, and how can leaders tell the difference?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh explore why business owners and managers often overreact to isolated mistakes while overlooking patterns that signal bigger problems.
Youâll learn the Three Câs of better leadership decisions: Curiosity, Context, and Conclusion. Discover how negativity bias affects decision-making, why jumping to conclusions can damage psychological safety, and how fear causes employees to hide problems instead of solving them.
Chrissy and Josh also...
Emotions vs. Data: Are Your Leadership Decisions Hurting Your Business?
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What happens when empathy collides with accountability?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the most challenging leadership debates every business owner and manager faces: Should decisions be driven by emotions or by data?
From promotions and performance management to coaching and terminations, leaders often find themselves making decisions based on personal relationships, comfort, and feelings rather than objective evidence. The result? Inconsistent leadership, frustrated high performers, declining accountability, and cultures where favoritism can quietly take root.
Chrissy introduces her framework...
The Culture Audit: Are You Leading with Clarity or Just Being Nice?
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Most leaders don't realize they're doing it.
They think they're being supportive, approachable, and understanding. But what if your desire to be the "nice leader" is actually creating confusion, inconsistency, gossip, and a lack of accountability across your team?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh revisit one of their most popular topics, the Nice Leader Trap and take it a step further with a practical culture audit designed to help business owners and managers identify whether their leadership style is quietly damaging their organization's performance.<...
Stop Babysitting Your Team: Build Process, Not Superheroes
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What happens when your business depends on one exhausted âheroâ to save the day every single time?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the biggest hidden problems in small business leadership: hero culture. If your company only works when a specific employee or YOU constantly jump in to fix problems, your business may be running on dependency instead of systems.
They break down why founders and managers get addicted to being the âfixer,â how learned helplessness quietly spreads through teams, and why operatio...
The Sweaty 10-Minute Conversation Every Leader Needs to Master
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Most leaders donât fail because they avoid hard work, they fail because they avoid hard conversations. In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down the âSweaty Ten-Minute Conversationâ, the short but uncomfortable discussion that can prevent massive culture problems, performance breakdowns, and legal headaches inside your business.
From separating behavior from identity to avoiding the ânice leaderâ trap, this episode is a masterclass in leadership communication, emotional regulation, accountability, and employee management. If youâve ever delayed feedback, struggled with difficult employees, or worried about confrontation as a manager...
Managing the Brilliant Jerk Without Letting Them Wreck Your Culture
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Every business owner or manager has met this person: the high performer who delivers big results, closes the deal, writes the code, owns the relationship, or keeps the operation movingâŚbut leaves emotional wreckage everywhere they go.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the hardest leadership problems in small and mid-sized businesses: the brilliant jerk.
You know the type. They hit the numbers, but they make people miserable. They protect their own process, hoard information, intimidate the room, and somehow convince leadership th...
When Crisis Hits: How Leaders Stop the Bleeding Without Making It Worse
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A crisis will show you exactly what your business culture, systems, and leadership are made of. Fun, right?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down how small business owners, CEOs, and managers should respond when things go sideways whether it is an operational failure, a PR problem, a key employee leaving, a legal threat, a broken brand promise, or the kind of internal panic that makes everyone quietly update their LinkedIn profile.
Chrissy shares the three Râs of crisis leadership: Regulate, Reveal, and Re...
Why Great Leaders Listen Before They Lead
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Business owners and managers are right a lot. That is usually a strength⌠until the moment they are wrong and refuse to hear the other side.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dig into one of the most underrated leadership skills in business: intentional listening. Not the âIâm waiting for my turn to talkâ kind of listening. Not the âlet me reload my rebuttal while youâre still speakingâ kind either. Real listening is the kind that helps leaders uncover hidden risks, build trust, improve culture, and make bette...
Trust Isnât Blind Faith: How Leaders Build It Without Getting Burned
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Trust is one of the most important ingredients in a healthy business but letâs be honest, a lot of leaders confuse trust with âI hope this works out and nobody lights anything on fire.â
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dig into the difference between real trust and blind faith in business leadership. From motorcycles and distracted drivers to brilliant jerks, vendor relationships, missed deadlines, and random audits, this conversation breaks down what trust actually looks like when you manage people, processes, and expectations.
C...
Innovation Without Breaking Your Business
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Everybody wants to be innovative until the âgreat new ideaâ breaks the workflow, overwhelms the team, tanks productivity, or becomes one more shiny object nobody asked for.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh take innovation back to basics. Instead of chasing every AI tool, trend, or âmillion-dollar idea,â they talk about how small and midsize business owners can innovate in ways that actually improve the business.
Chrissy breaks down the three Fâs of practical innovation: friction, fix, and forward. Innovation does not have to be earth-s...
Why Your Hybrid Work Model Is Failing (And How to Fix It Fast)
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Hybrid work isnât broken⌠your leadership systems might be.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy tackle one of the most misunderstood challenges in modern business: the hybrid work model. While many companies blame remote employees for lack of productivity, the reality is far different and far more fixable.
If youâve ever thought:
âMy team just isnât working unless I can see themââRemote employees are harder to manageââWe need ev...The Competition Paradox: When Winning Hurts Your Team
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Is competition helping your team grow or quietly tearing it apart?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy tackle The Competition Paradox, the delicate balance between driving performance and maintaining a healthy, collaborative culture. Because hereâs the truth: competition isnât the problem⌠misaligned competition is.
They break down why so many businesses unintentionally create toxic environments where employees compete against each other instead of winning together. From leaderboard obsession to burnout, and from hidden information to lack of psychological safety, this episode uncovers the real c...
Coach, Correct, or Cut? The Leadership Decision You're Avoiding
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Are you holding onto employees too long⌠or letting them go too quickly?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down one of the toughest decisions every business owner and manager faces: when to coach, when to correct, and when itâs time to cut someone loose.
Using real-world leadership insights (and a few hilarious sports analogies), they unpack how to identify whether an employee has a skill gap, behavior gap, or will gap and why getting this wrong can quietly dest...
Psychological Safety Isnât Coddling: Itâs Your Biggest Performance Advantage
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If you think psychological safety is âsoft,â âcoddling,â or just another HR buzzword⌠this episode will challenge everything you believe about leadership.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy break down why psychological safety isnât about making employees comfortable, it's about making it safe to tell the truth. And if your team canât tell you the truth, your business is already at risk.
They unpack how old-school leadership styles like âsuck it upâ or leading with fear actually...
50 Episodes Later: How The Business Fix Started and Where Weâre Headed
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In this special 50th episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh celebrate a huge milestone with you: one year and fifty episodes of real, practical conversations for business owners and leaders.
This episode is part reflection, part origin story, and part look ahead. Chrissy and Josh share how the podcast started in a surprisingly organic way, why their very different leadership backgrounds make the show work, and what theyâve learned after a year of talking through culture, communication, team management, leadership psychology, operations, and business growth.
...
Why Employees Ignore Your Mission Statement
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Most mission statements sound great in the boardroom and die a slow death in the break room.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down why employees donât buy into most mission statements or core values and why so many of them end up as nothing more than corporate wallpaper. They unpack the real reasons mission statements fail, how leadership behavior destroys credibility, and why employees care a whole lot more about what leaders do than whatâs printed on a poster.
Youâ...
How CEOs Build Managers Who Actually Scale a Business
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As your business grows, something unexpected happens: you stop leading employees and start leading leaders.
And if youâre not prepared for that shift, your company can quickly fall into what we call âMiddle Management No-Manâs Landââwhere vision gets lost, communication breaks down, and culture starts drifting.
In this episode of The Business Fix Podcast, Josh and Chrissy tackle one of the biggest challenges business owners face as they scale: how to lead the people who lead your business.
If you're stuck in the $5Mâ$10M growth pha...
When Growth Breaks Culture: The Scaling Trap Founders Miss
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Growth is supposed to feel like success⌠so why does it so often make a business feel heavier, harder, and less connected?
In Episode 47 of The Business Fix, Josh and Chrissy dig into one of the most painful surprises founders and leaders face: growth doesnât automatically strengthen your company. It often exposes everything you havenât built yet. This episode breaks down why culture starts to crack when companies scale too fast, why adding people without adding structure creates friction, and how leaders accidentally sabotage the very business theyâr...
Hero to Architect: The Leadership Shift You Must Make to Scale
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Most business owners say they want âgrowthâ⌠but what they really need is scalingâgetting bigger while becoming more efficient. In this episode, Josh and Chrissy break down why so many small and mid-sized businesses hit the same painful glass ceilings (hello: $1M, $5M, $10M) and what has to change at each level.Â
Chrissy dives into the hardest shift founders face between $1M and $5M: itâs not strategy, itâs surrender. If your identity is still tied to being the hero (rainmaker/fixer/closer/everything pe...
The Culture Dividend: Why "Good Vibes" Are Actually Good Business
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Culture might not show up as a clean line item on your P&L, but in this episode, Josh and Chrissy make the case that it absolutely shows up in your bank account, your calendar, and your blood pressure as a leader.
They unpack the true ROI of company culture. They call it the âculture dividendâ and how smart owners treat culture like capital, not fluff. In practical, real-world language, they walk through how investing time and money into culture pays you back in:
Retention â...Flexible or Inconsistent? The Leadership Mistake Thatâs Costing You Trust
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Flexibility sounds great⌠until your team feels confused, burned out, or treated unfairly.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the most common leadership blind spots they see with business owners and managers: mistaking inconsistency for flexibility.
If youâve ever said, âWe like to go with the flow,â but still struggle with turnover, decision fatigue, or frustrated employees, this conversation is for you.
Youâll learn:
Why âunstructured flexibilityâ creates stress instead of freedomThe real difference between being flexible and being inco...Culture Killers: The 3 Silent Toxins Destroying Your Business
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Culture doesnât collapse overnight. It erodes quietly.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh break down the three most dangerous culture killers that silently destroy businesses from the inside out â and what leaders must do to stop them before turnover, disengagement, and brand damage take over.
If you're a small business owner, CEO, executive, or manager, this episode will challenge how you think about performance, leadership, accountability, and operational alignment.
The 3 Culture Killers We Break Down:
1ď¸âŁ The Brilliant Jerk
Your...
The Nice Leader Trap: When âNiceâ Creates Dysfunction
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Are you the âniceâ boss who hates conflict⌠but lies awake replaying the conversations you didnât have? In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh unpack the Nice Leader Trap, when leaders avoid hard feedback to protect their own comfort, and accidentally torch trust, culture, and performance instead.
Using Chrissyâs own ânice leaderâ ulcer story as a jumping-off point, they dig into toxic niceness vs real kindness during Workplace Kindness Month, and why âI just want them to like meâ quietly wrecks teams.
From there, Ch...
The Conflict Cure: Fix the Process, Save the Person
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Is your team actually toxic⌠or is your workflow just broken?
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy (CEO) and Josh (marketing/ops guy) break down conflict resolution for small and medium-sized businesses in a way thatâs practical, a little punchy, and very real-world. Instead of treating conflict like random âdrama,â they show you how to see it as data about your systems, your culture, and your leadership habits.
Chrissy walks through her 3 Râs of Conflict Resolutionâ
Regulate yourself first so you do...Employee Reviews: A Tool for Growth, Not a Burden for Managers and Owners
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Annual reviews shouldnât feel like a surprise attack followed by a tiny raise and a big dose of resentment⌠but for a lot of small and midsize businesses, thatâs exactly what happens.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy Myers (CEO of Clarity HR) and Josh Troche (marketing & operations guy) break down why traditional performance reviews are brokenâand how to turn them into one of your strongest tools for culture, clarity, and growth.
Youâll hear Joshâs own âtop performer gets blindsidedâ review horror story, then Chri...
The Rockstar Trap: Why Top Performers Often Fail as Managers
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Ever promoted your star employee into management and instantly regretted it? Youâre not aloneâand you're not crazy. In Episode 39 of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dive into the dangerous (and all-too-common) trap of promoting high-performing "rockstars" into roles theyâre just not built for.
This episode exposes the "Rockstar Trap"âthe mistaken assumption that great doers automatically make great leadersâand unpacks the Peter Principle, which states that employees rise to the level of their incompetence.
With their signature mix of straight talk, humor, and real-w...
Civility Isnât Just Being Polite: It's Building A Better Workplace
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In this eye-opening episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy Myers and Josh Troche tackle a subject thatâs more critical than everâcivility in the workplace. With tensions on the rise and stress levels at an all-time high, being âniceâ just doesnât cut it anymore. Chrissy explains why civility is not just about politenessâitâs a core business strategy rooted in protecting your culture, your people, and your profits.
Drawing on research from SHRM and Googleâs Project Aristotle, Chrissy and Josh explore why a lack of civility is fuel...
Growing Is Lonely: Hereâs How High-Performing Leaders Handle It
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Growing your business is exciting⌠and quietly isolating. One day youâre chasing bigger goals, making harder decisions, and realizing the people who used to âget itâ no longer do. Welcome to one of the least talked about realities of leadership: growing often comes with loneliness.
In this episode of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh unpack why business growth and leadership loneliness go hand in hand and why nothing is âwrongâ with you if success feels a little lonely. This conversation is for business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers who are leveling up...
A, B, or C Players? How Smart Leaders Build Teams Without Destroying Culture
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In Episode 36 of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh tackle one of the most uncomfortable (and unavoidable) realities of leadership: not every employee shows up the same way, and pretending they do is hurting your business. This episode takes a hard, honest look at A, B, and C players, why those labels are so often misunderstood, and how great leaders use them ethically to build strong teams without wrecking their culture.
With a mix of real-world stories, sharp humor, and no-BS leadership insight, they break down how to identify...
What You Should Expect From Your Employees (And What You Absolutely Shouldnât)
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In Episode 35 of The Business Fix, Chrissy and Josh dive into one of the most frustrating and misunderstood parts of being a business owner or manager: employee expectations. What should you realistically expect from your teamâand what is completely out of line?
They break it all down with a candid, hilarious, and deeply practical discussion, laying out the 3 Eâs of a healthy team memberâEngagement, Ethics, and Evolutionâand why these non-negotiables are the baseline for a thriving workplace culture.
Youâll also he...
