Why Most Business Owners Plateau and How to Finally Break Through.

Scaling a business is not about working harder, adding more tactics, or chasing the next shiny strategy. In this episode of Between Two Coaches, Norbert Orlewicz sits down with Eric Whitmoyer, Founder and CEO of My Biz Coaches, to unpack why so many entrepreneurs get stuck and what it actually takes to build a business that grows without burning out the owner.

Eric brings decades of real-world experience to the conversation. He has helped scale two companies beyond $100 million in annual revenue, built or acquired 15 businesses of his own, and coached more than 100 entrepreneurs through the realities of growth. What he shares is not theory. It is the result of lived experience, hard lessons, and patterns he has seen repeated across hundreds of businesses.

This conversation challenges the belief that more information leads to better results. Instead, it reframes growth as a leadership and structure problem, not a motivation issue.

💬 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why access to information is no longer the real problem for entrepreneurs

• The difference between running a business and leading one

• The Six Core Competencies every scalable business must master

• Why most business owners stay trapped in technician mode

• How to shift into true CEO thinking without losing control

• The hidden reasons most businesses never sell or successfully exit

• How mentorship shortens the learning curve and prevents costly mistakes

Why Guesswork Is Killing Your Growth

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is relying on instinct, hustle, or trial and error once the business reaches a certain size. What worked in the early stages often breaks down as complexity increases.

Eric explains that many entrepreneurs never slow down long enough to install real systems. They stay reactive, jumping from one tactic to the next, mistaking motion for progress. The result is frustration, stalled growth, and businesses that depend entirely on the owner to survive.

Scaling requires structure. It requires clarity around leadership, finance, operations, sales, and team development. Without these foundations, growth becomes unstable and exhausting.

The Six Core Competencies That Drive Sustainable Scale

Eric introduces his Six Core Competencies Framework as a way to diagnose why businesses stall and how to fix the root problems. Rather than focusing on surface-level tactics, the framework forces owners to look at the underlying systems that support growth.

What makes this approach different is that it highlights how missing just one competency can limit everything else. A strong sales engine cannot compensate for weak leadership. Great marketing cannot fix broken operations. Sustainable growth only happens when all six areas work together.

This is why many businesses appear successful on the outside but feel chaotic behind the scenes.

From Operator to CEO

A major theme of the conversation is the shift from operator to CEO. Eric explains that many entrepreneurs never make this transition. They stay stuck in the day-to-day, solving problems that should no longer require their attention.

Learning to think like a CEO means stepping back, building systems, and trusting structure over constant control. It also means making decisions with the long-term health of the business in mind, not just short-term wins.

This mindset shift is often uncomfortable, but it is essential for building a business that creates freedom rather than consuming it.

Why Mentorship Changes the Game

Eric emphasizes that growth becomes dramatically easier when business owners stop trying to figure everything out on their own. Mentorship accelerates learning, reduces blind spots, and helps entrepreneurs avoid expensive mistakes.

Rather than guessing what to fix next, mentorship provides clarity around priorities and sequencing. This allows business owners to move forward with confidence instead of constantly second-guessing their decisions.

🙋‍♂️ Meet Today’s Guest: Eric Whitmoyer

Eric Whitmoyer is the Founder and CEO of My Biz Coaches, where he helps business owners scale profitably from startup to exit using his proprietary Six Core Competencies Framework, featured in his upcoming book The CEO’s Playbook for Scale.

With more than 30 years of real-world experience across sales, operations, finance, and leadership, Eric has helped grow two companies past $100 million in annual revenue, launched or acquired 15 businesses of his own, and coached over 100 entrepreneurs through strategic, measurable growth. As host of The Biz Coach Show, he shares practical insights on building transferable businesses that create freedom without sacrificing life.

🔗 Connect with Eric:

mybizcoaches.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericwhitmoyer/

🧭 Episode Resources:

• Listen to The Biz Coach Show with Eric Whitmoyer

• Learn more about Eric’s work at My Biz Coaches

• Stay tuned for Eric’s book, The CEO’s Playbook for Scale

• 💡 Join the Compass Workshop: compassworkshop.com

• 📺 Watch more episodes: Digital Mentors Podcast

Whether you're in your first year or your fifth, this episode is a reminder that you don’t have to build alone. There is power in asking for help - and clarity on the other side of surrender.

🎧 Listen now and get reconnected to your calling.