🎙️ What if profit isn't cash, and growth is just a house of cards?

Mike Straza has worn every C-suite hat in the book: CEO, CFO, COO. He learned the hard way that most "profitable" businesses are one invoice away from disaster. This episode strips away the startup gloss and reveals the hard truths behind real sustainability.

Whether you're bootstrapping, scaling, or sitting on a financial time bomb, Mike will shift how you think about money, systems, and sanity.

🎩 Summary

This isn’t another hustle sermon. It’s a masterclass in operational clarity and entrepreneurial grace.

Mike Straza built, scaled, and exited multiple companies. He also hit the wall. He ran two businesses at once, sacrificed his health, and learned that financial illusions don’t pay the bills or preserve your peace. We explore what happens when your P&L looks strong but your bank account says otherwise. When you're hiring for growth but bleeding from the backend. When you’re so busy being the business, you forget to build one.

Mike unpacks why cash flow is not the same as profit, why you should never scale without a margin, and how grace, not grind, is often the founder’s secret weapon.

🎩 Hats Covered

• 🎩 1: The Soul
• 🎩 4: The Entrepreneur
• 🎩 5: The Investor

💡 Key Takeaways

• 🎩 4: Scaling without systems just means scaling chaos
• 🎩 5: Profit on paper means nothing if you can’t make payroll
• 🎩 1: Grace is strategy when you’re your own harshest critic
• 🎩 5: Growth should follow margin, not drive it
• 🎩 1: Self-worth cannot be measured by headcount or hustle
• 🎩 4: Success is not about being needed. It’s about being replaceable

👤 Guest Bio

Mike Straza is a veteran operator and fractional executive who has built, scaled, and sold companies across multiple industries. From running operations for family firms to launching two startups at the same time (not recommended), Mike now consults with founders to help them build resilient, margin-rich businesses. He is obsessed with sustainable growth and allergic to financial illusions.

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:02 – Childhood roots and early entrepreneurial spark
• 00:10 – Launching two startups at once: chaos and clarity
• 00:18 – The ego trap of doing it all yourself
• 00:26 – When profit isn’t cash: the cashflow crisis
• 00:35 – Founder burnout and the unraveling of health
• 00:42 – Making payroll, managing stress, and avoiding VC traps
• 00:50 – Hiring for sales versus staying stuck as founder-led
• 01:00 – Why grace, not grind, is what founders actually need
• 01:10 – Philanthropy, giving back, and sustainable contribution
• 01:20 – Who Mike had to stop being to become who he is

✅ Actionables

• Track your actual cash, not just your profit margin
• Do not scale if your margin cannot handle it
• If you're still the main salesperson, fix that now
• Start saving before the storm, not during it
• Practice grace. Your inner critic is not a strategy

🔥 Quotes

“Profit doesn’t pay the bills. Cash does.”
“Success without sanity isn’t success. It’s just survival.”
“Growth is addictive. Margin is freedom.”
“No one’s coming to applaud you for missing payroll.”
“You care more about your failure than anyone else does. So give yourself a break.”

🔗 Links

• Mike Straza on LinkedIn
• Straza Consulting

If you're chasing growth without a margin plan, you’re not building a business. You’re building a trap. Let Mike show you the way out.

🎩 Subscribe, share, and let’s keep growing together.