Hello!

I had a founder tell me last week: “I don’t know what I’d do without Sarah. She handles everything for me.”

Then spent the next hour complaining about problems in his business that Sarah had “handled” but never actually solved.

The irony was lost on him.

watts not working: The “indispensable” person who’s actually controlling your business:

• They filter every piece of information before it reaches you
• They decide which team members get your attention and which get blocked
• They position themselves as the solution to problems they may have created
• They make you dependent on their version of reality

watts really happening: Your right-hand person has become the gatekeeper to your own business.

They decide which information reaches you and which doesn’t. They control who gets access to you and who gets blocked. They frame every situation from their perspective before you even know it exists.

You think you’re getting the full picture, but you’re only hearing one voice (theirs). When team members try to bring issues directly to you, your right-hand person intercepts: “Don’t bother the boss with that, I’ll handle it.”

Slowly, you become isolated from your own operation. You’re making decisions based on filtered information from someone who has their own agenda, biases, and version of what you should know.

You think you’re successful because you can “leave them in charge” while you focus on bigger things. But that’s not scale—that’s one person controlling your entire business narrative.

This is incredibly common and incredibly risky. What happens when they decide to leave? Suddenly you realise you don’t know your own customers, your own team, or your own problems.

watts working: The best seconds-in-commands amplify your voice, they don’t replace it.

• They bring you unfiltered information and let you decide what matters.
• They connect you with your team instead of insulating you from them.
• They solve problems transparently, not behind closed doors where you can’t see the process.
• They build systems that work without them, not systems that require them.

watts the real game changer: Stop celebrating how much your right-hand person shields you from.

Start asking what they might be shielding you from and why.

Because the person you “can’t live without” might be the reason you’re slowly losing control of the business you built.

Have a week of unfiltered reality!

Sel

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P.S. Looking for more? Dive into the wattsnextpx website and blog to discover even more valuable content and updates.