You built a company that can't run without you.

Every decision waits for you. Every fire finds you. Every vacation comes with a laptop. Your company leans on you more than it should. David Stroud helps founders of agencies and consulting firms change that. This isn't a delegation problem. Delegating moves the work. It doesn't move the load.

Six signals: nothing big gets done unless you're in the room; people wait for you instead of deciding; work sits until you've looked at it; you answer the same question again and again; your team hands you calls they could make; clients settle down only when it's you. That's not six problems. It's one load, sitting on you in six places. In this building, you are the load-bearing wall. That's not an insult. It's why the building is still standing.

The load got there because you are good: when you step in, the work is right, the client calms down, the deal closes, and so the hard calls wait for you. Some walls should be load-bearing. Where the company is going. The big bets. Who sits in the senior seats. That load is yours. The question is never whether you carry weight. It's whether you carry it by design, or by default.

The load can move. You don't leave the building. You see it differently. An operator holds the load. An architect sees where it can go, and moves it onto walls built to carry it. Picture a Tuesday you're out of the office and the company keeps its pace. Not because you left. Because it can.

The Founder Drift Diagnostic is ten questions and a few minutes, and it produces a seven-page report that says where the load is sitting on you. An example report is available before you answer a question. Right now, the load in your company transfers to you by default. An architect decides where it goes.