The Type of Tired a Good Night’s Sleep Can’t Fix

Bradley Hamner, October 7, 2025

If you’ve been following along the last two weeks, we’ve been talking about the most common problems that small business owners face—specifically those doing between $300K and $3M a year.

Week one: Lack of clarity Week two: Lack of systems and processes Week three (today): Business owners are just tired.

And I’m not talking about regular tired. I heard this before: It’s a type of tired that is more than what a good night’s rest can solve.

You know what I’m talking about. If you’re a small business owner, you’re just burned out. You need more than a weekend. You need time and you need space. You need some things to be taken off of your plate.

You just have too many things on your plate. You’re stretched too thin and you’re frustrated.

The Antidotes to the Three Core Problems

Let me connect these three problems with their solutions:

Problem #1: Lack of clarity → Solution: A roadmap

• Where are we today? (Point A)
• Where are we going? (Point B)
• What is our plan to get there?

Check out the full article and video: The #1 Problem Killing Small Business Growth (And How To Fix It)

Problem #2: Lack of systems → Solution: A business operating system

• Document your systems and processes
• Put them inside a handful of core playbooks
• The collection of those playbooks forms your operating system

Read the full article and see the video: Why Most Small Businesses Fail to Scale (The Systems Problem Nobody Talks About)

Problem #3: You’re tired → Solution: Lead yourself first

This is where we’re going deep today.

From Good Idea to Actual Practice

I was on a podcast yesterday, and the host asked a thoughtful question I’d not been asked before:

“I understand that I need to take care of myself, but how do you get someone to take it from just another yet another good idea to actually doing it?”

I believe personally that this is why a compelling vision—one that you actually believe in, not one that just sounds good—comes into play.

If you have a vision that’s big enough and compelling enough and it’s one that you actually want, then some of these ideas and best practices become ones where you think: “Maybe what I’m doing isn’t working anymore and maybe I might need to consider a different path.”

[Learn how to clarify your vision in the Blueprint program →]

Your Personal Operating System: MIT

We have what we call your personal operating system. There’s a principle at the top: Leading yourself first.

And there are three playbooks underneath that. We call it MIT:

• Me – What’s the most important thing you can do for yourself?
• Team – What’s the most important thing you can do for your team?
• Business – What’s the most important thing you can do for the business?

Here’s what I believe:

The most important thing you can do for yourself is to protect your confidence.

The most important thing you can do for your team is to give them your energy.

The most important thing you can do for the business is to spend time thinking about the business.

Now let me give you three specific ways to put these ideas into practice. Three very simple things to do.

Tactical Practice #1: Sunday Night Planning (Protect Your Confidence)

If the most important thing you can do for yourself is to protect your confidence, then one of the first things you can do is what we call Sunday night planning.

You’ve heard about the importance of planning for your week before. But when you start planning for the week, the very first thing you do is think back on what were some wins that you had.

Some weeks, this is incredibly challenging. As a business owner, it’s so much easier for us to find the things that are not working or the things we’re frustrated with than it is to find the things that we think are working.

But if we can have the discipline, the routine of spending 45 minutes to 60 minutes once per week—and we found Sunday night is the best time to do that—then you can actually truly begin to see that you did have some wins the previous week.

It can help build your confidence even in some of the more challenging weeks that you may have.

Tactical thing number one: Begin to structure your week. Start to plan your week and have the discipline of 45 to 60 minutes once per week to plan out your week. The very first thing that you do is you look to grab your wins.

Tactical Practice #2: The Perfect Repeatable Week (Give Your Team Energy)

I said the most important thing you can do for your team is to give them your energy.

Whether we like it or not, our team is feeding off of our energy. As much as I wish that was not the case, they are feeding off of our energy and they can pick up on if you’re having a good day or if you’re not.

To do that, we have what we call the PRW, the Perfect Repeatable Week. What does a perfect repeatable week look like for you?

Look, there’s probably never going to be a week that is perfect. But if we don’t know what one would look like, or at least if we do know what one would look like, then we have an opportunity to try to move closer to that.

We have a tool called the PRW template, and you begin to structure your week not by time management. It’s not just about the things that you’ve read before with managing your time.

It’s actually the opposite with a business owner. It’s actually about managing your energy.

You start to do things and put things in place at the times that are best for you, not the other way around.

Now, on the outside, that could look selfish, but it’s actually one of the most selfless things that you can do because you’re actually showing up as your best self.

[See how Phil R. structured his time to take 60+ days off per year →]

Tactical Practice #3: Thinking Time (Think About the Business)

If the most important thing you can do for the business is to spend time thinking about the business, well, let’s do that.

Let’s actually take 45 minutes, 60 minutes to spend time thinking about the business.

Sometimes things are happening so fast that we don’t actually take the discipline to go to a coffee shop to be there and to actually think about and plan ahead. To cast that vision. To think strategically about what is it that we’re actually trying to do.

Where do I think the problems are in the business? How can I actually lead and coach this person versus just doing all of the time?

Sometimes we need to have some above the business time.

This podcast is literally called Above the Business. And this gets into one of the core parts of that. If we want to get above the business, if you want to have time where you’re working on it, not in it, and even be able to work above it, then that’s the discipline that you need to have.

What Leading Yourself First Actually Means

So what is all this about? This idea of:

• Planning for the week
• Structuring your week by your energy rhythms
• Spending one hour once a week just getting away and thinking on or above the business

This is all what it means to lead ourselves first.

If we can start to implement some of these disciplines and routines (and we have a number of other ones, but I wanted to give you three today), then it can help us to overcome one of the biggest obstacles and challenges I see: business owners are just tired.

But Bradley, I’m Too Busy (and Tired) for This

Does this solve all of the challenges you may have in place? Does it solve the season that you may be in where you just lost two or three staff members and you’ve had a lot of turnover and you’re having to really step in?

I get that. I get that.

But really, this is one hour, 45 minutes to one hour on a Sunday evening. And then this is one hour during the week.

If you can’t find an hour to be able to get away from the office just to be able to go think for just a little bit and get away from the noise—man, I don’t know if you have the kind of business that you really ultimately want.

We really want a business that is able to run and grow without us.

The Three Disciplines That Combat Burnout

Here’s your action plan:

1. Plan for your week (45-60 minutes on Sunday night, starting with wins)

2. Structure your week based on your energy rhythms (not just time management, but energy management)

3. Spend one hour at least per week thinking about the business (get above the business)

If your vision is compelling enough for what it is that you’re wanting to do, you’ll start to put some of these disciplines in place so you can lead yourself first.

This is how you shift from Rainmaker to Architect. This is how you build a business blueprint that actually works. This is how you create a business operating system that runs without your constant involvement.

And this is how you overcome that type of tired that a good night’s sleep can’t fix.

[Ready to implement these disciplines with proven tools and community support? Learn more about the Blueprint program →]