In this milestone 500th episode of the Above the Business podcast, host Bradley Hamner reflects on the value of persistence for entrepreneurs. He opens by thanking listeners and his long‑standing production team, then introduces the central idea: "stick around long enough to get noticed." He illustrates the point with three analogies – the delayed discovery of Game of Thrones after season six, an exterior‑remodeling company whose SEO only began delivering leads after four years, and a Texas pool company that finally broke $1 million in revenue after 15 years, defying the statistic that 91% of small businesses never reach that mark. Hamner cites the sobering fact that 96% of small businesses don’t survive ten years, emphasizing patience as a competitive advantage. He shares a strategic mental model – “more, better, new” – to guide the podcast’s evolution, focusing on doing more of what works, improving existing elements, and introducing fresh ideas. The episode also promotes a BlueprintOS call‑to‑action, inviting listeners to book a business‑blueprint strategy session, and teases a 2026 YouTube content rollout. Throughout, the tone is conversational, appreciative, and motivational, aiming to inspire small‑business owners to stay the course and continuously refine their approach.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Above the Business podcast and big celebration today. It is the 500th episode of the Above the Business podcast. Now don't worry, I'm not going to spend the entirety of the next, say, 10 minutes or so just talking about, you know, hey, we're proud of the team of getting to 500 episodes. And indeed I certainly am, but I'm going to share with you something that I decided to just kind of riff a little bit about something around doing 500 episodes and how it can specifically apply to your business. So if you're new here, we help business owners to get above the business, start thinking like the architect of their business, and then ultimately what architects use, they use blueprints. And we want to help you to be able to design the blueprint to grow your small business. All right. So 500 episodes. I, you know, whenever I first started the podcast back when it was the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, along with Micah Cannon and the entire team at Club Capital in 2019. Obviously we didn't know what was going to happen a couple of months later with COVID but just, it was on a whim. I had really enjoyed listening to podcasts and I said, hey, let's, let's start a podcast. Never would I ever thought that we were going to one day be at 500 episodes. And so thank you. Thank you for the listeners of the podcast. Thank you for sharing the podcast. I was talking to someone yesterday that said he listened to the podcast for about 4 years. And when we were on the phone, he talked about, you know, he felt like that he had gotten to know me personally. And I just want to share with you how how much that means to me. I hope I have played some small part along the journey in your small business to help you in some way. It means a lot. You get— there's so many different things you could be listening to from YouTube, other, um, you know, thought leaders, to listen to music, et cetera. And I just want to tell you, the time that you spend here on this podcast means a tremendous amount to me, even if that is just simply one person that's out there. So what is something that I feel like that, you know, looking back and kind of reflecting on the podcast specifically over 500 episodes that stands out? And it's this thing— I don't know where I first heard this, but it's this idea of stick around long enough to be noticed. If you think about the show as an example, and there's a lot of different ones like this, but the Game of Thrones, I think there was 8 seasons. Now, Game of Thrones is not typically that type of show that I would watch, but the first time I had heard about that, and really became even interested in watching it is when it was on season 6. I think I might have said episodes a minute ago, I meant seasons. Uh, 8 different seasons. And so it had been going on for a number of years now. Certainly had heard about it but had never really become interested. Why was everybody talking about this thing called Game of Thrones? Maybe I should take a look at it and watch it. And obviously ended up watching it, catching up to it, and actually got into it. So I understand why it was so popular at the time. But that was 6 seasons, which certainly was not 6 years. I mean, it was longer than that. I don't know how long that, that actually took. And that's whenever I first noticed. And so when you think about with your small business, when you are wanting to grow your business, look, there are some things that you can do, some levers you can pull to grow your business this quarter. As a matter of fact, we just on Tuesday had hosted the quarterly in helping small business owners to figure out what are the wins, what are the lessons, what are the challenges, and how would they encapsulate Q3? And then what are the 3 to 5 priorities that they want to set going into Q4? And, you know, Q4 is obviously important because you're finishing— you obviously have a quarter, but you're also finishing out a year. And so there are obviously initiatives and things that people are going to be doing and we're going to be doing in Q4 to grow our companies, and you're much the same. But sometimes we can lose patience over the long haul. I, I— one thing I do really, really like about, um, Alex Hormozi, one of the things that he says is just sticking with something over a long period of time, sticking with a business, sticking with, you know, I'm going to continue to do the right things. One of the companies I'm involved with does kind of exterior remodeling. And it's now, that company is in its, uh, going into its fourth year. And the SEO, the Google SEO work, a company like DirectClicks can obviously help you with your insurance agency to do that as well. That SEO work is just now really starting to pay dividends. In fact, it is the biggest way that that business gets leads and makes sales. Today. But it wasn't like that 2 years ago. And it just took time. It took time in that particular case for the algorithm. But ultimately, you keep doing the right things, you keep make, you know, having the right actions over a long enough period of time, you will get there. You've heard me say often, 91% of small businesses never cross $1 million in top line revenue, and 96% don't see their 10th birthday. I just shared that with one of my newest clients, Pool Company, uh, down in, uh, in Texas. In 2023, they crossed $1 million in top-line revenue for the very first time. They had no idea that statistic, and they had been in business for about 15 years. And so just this— just 2 years ago, they crossed $1 million. They've been in business over 10 years. They have beaten both of those odds, and they have aspirations to grow that company many, many more millions than that over the next handful of years. And I hope I'm able to be a small part in their journey to do that. But it really is about sticking with something long enough to get noticed. So if you're listening to this and you're in your early 2 to 3 years just getting things off the ground and running, me encourage you, stick with it. I never would have thought we would have had you know, 200,000 downloads of this podcast over the last handful of years, or whatever the number is, well past that at this point. I'm so grateful to all of you for listening to it. I'm so thankful for my team, the team, Ali and your team, Effie. You guys have been fantastic. You've been with us from the very get-go. We've kept the same podcast editors and engineers from the jump. And so thank you to them. Thank you to Ellie and Courtney on the team. We've had the exact same team doing this. And honestly, we have big plans to improve this. One of the mental models I want to share with you is more, better, new. And we think about going into not just Q4, but in next year, what are the things we can do more of? One of the things we do better? What do we can, can we do new? And this podcast specifically falls into the better category. We are going to relook at every single thing we do, the guest, the themes, the series, the Friday episodes, etc., just like this. And we're going to figure out how can we make this better for you? How can the 10 to 30 minutes that that you spend with us, you know, once or twice a week, how can that be more and more impactful to you? Because my hope is, is not a handful of years down the road we're celebrating, uh, 1,000 episodes. I guess if we drop to, to, uh, a week for the next handful of years, that's 100. I mean, it's going to be another 5 years before we get to 1,000 episodes. But it's not just about the number, it's about specifically now increasing the quality of the episodes and the content that we put out for all of you. We really love entrepreneurs and small business owners, and we want to help you to win. We want to help you to be able to get above the business, start to see yourself in thinking like the architect of your business. And what architects do, they design things and they use blueprints to do it. And that's why we want to help you to be able to design the blueprint for your business. If you'd love to get in touch with us, book in a call and see what it's like. We'd love to have a blueprint game plan call with you, just go to blueprintos.com. You can book in a call and let myself or somebody on my team would love to chat with you about what that looks like. Thank you for making 500 episodes possible. Thank you for continuing to listen to the podcast and sharing it. Stick around long enough to get those. All right, everyone, lead well and go be great. And hey, if you're watching this on YouTube, would love if you would like hit that subscribe button. We're going to be putting getting some content out specifically for YouTube in 2026. We're super excited about that, and hopefully even sticking around long enough to get noticed on YouTube as well. All right, see you next time.
