The Cort Brady Podcast

Founders ask me all the time: if your purpose is to make others successful, doesn’t that just make you a yes man? And how do you reconcile firing people with that purpose? In this episode of The Cort Brady Podcast, I unpack both of those tough questions with raw stories from my own journey:

• How I let vanity metrics and pushback stop me from implementing KPIs—and why it nearly destroyed us.

• The difference between helping someone succeed vs. enabling their excuses.

• Why you can’t want someone’s success more than they want it.

• How toxic high performers silently sabotage your team.

• And why firing—done right—isn’t harsh, but an act of love.

This is the playbook for building a company where A-players thrive and success compounds.

We spend years chasing success, gripping harder, forcing outcomes, and willing results into existence. That was me — until it broke me and capped my company.

Then I stumbled into the paradox that flipped everything: the moment I stopped chasing my own success and started making others successful, everything unlocked.

In this episode, I share the story of how a simple sentence scribbled on an old check stub became my compass, why coaching my team instead of rescuing them transformed our results, and how building an executive team of A-players finally set me free.

Here’s the challenge: who is the one person in your company that, if you made them wildly successful, would change everything?

Because the moment you let go of your own success and focus on theirs… that’s when you finally find yours.

Why would someone pay to work harder than they do on the job? In this episode, I break down Chuck Counrat’s powerful insight and show you how to gamify your business so your team works with the same energy and passion they bring to sports, hobbies, and recreation.

I used to walk into conferences feeling like a fraud.

At 26, I thought I was too young to be a CEO.

At 30, I thought I was already too old to compete.

Here’s the truth I finally realized: you are always either perfectly positioned—or totally out of position. Same room, same circumstances… the difference is how you look at it.

In this episode, I share two stories that flipped my perspective and taught me how to turn insecurity into ammunition. Founder to founder—I want you to hear this because it’ll change how you see yourself in the rooms you’re walking into right now.

Because you’re not behind. You’re not too early.

You’re exactly where you need to be.

Most founders don’t fail because they lack knowledge—they fail because they don’t act on what they already know. In this episode, I break down the 6 steps I use to crush analysis paralysis and finally execute the decisions that matter most. From thinking in focused shifts, to weighing the cost of inaction, to making bets that force accountability—you’ll walk away with a system you can use today.

Charles Schwab once wrote a single number on a factory floor—and production skyrocketed. Why? Because when performance is visible, performance improves. In this episode, I explain how you can apply the same principle in your company today and see a 40% increase in output in the next 90 days.

Business is the ultimate sport—and like any sport, the winners are the ones who know how to practice. In this episode, I share Tom Brady’s definition of greatness, the truth behind the 10,000-hour rule, and why “practice makes permanent, not perfect.” You’ll learn how to replicate perfection in your daily tasks and build rapid feedback loops so you can master the game of business.

Most founders stay stuck because they misdiagnose the problem. They chase symptoms, apply the wrong solutions, and burn years fixing things that never move the needle. In this episode, I share a real coaching session with a founder whose company looked great on the outside—millions in revenue, a solid strategy, a strong team—but profits looked like a “Christmas tree P&L.” The answer wasn’t another system or more performance metrics. The breakthrough came from realizing he didn’t need to solve more problems—he needed the right executive team. Whoever has the best team wins.

Getting hit with a lawsuit is one of the most gut-wrenching moments a founder can face. Yesterday, I got the text that I’m being sued for multiple six figures. In this episode, I share how I’m handling it—not just legally, but mentally and emotionally—while still pushing the business forward.

I break down why your biggest job as a founder isn’t doing anymore, but protecting your mental bandwidth so you can make and communicate high-quality decisions. I talk about how lawsuits, lost customers, key employee resignations, or cash crunches can hijack your headspace and derail your leadership if you let them.

Most importantly, I share practical strategies I used yesterday to clear my mind and stay present: driveway decompression before walking inside, box breathing to reset, morning routines that anchor me, and deliberately separating “decision time” from family or team time.

Entrepreneurship will never be “finished.” There will always be fires. But the founders who learn to stay present, protect their emotional energy, and lead from clarity—not panic—are the ones who build businesses that thrive in the chaos.

Imposter syndrome isn’t a sign you don’t belong—it’s a sign you’re growing. In this episode, I share a powerful story from the president of Daytona International Speedway and two practical ways to earn confidence as a founder: outworking everyone else and speaking your future into existence.