Who Good Coaches Stay Overwhelmed

Hey coach,

A few weeks ago, I told you about the coach I worked 1-on-1 with who stopped winging his day.

First, he decided what mattered most before opening his inbox.

Then he installed simple systems for recruiting.

A couple key changes.

His stress dropped.
His clarity improved.
He felt more in control.

But about a month later he said something interesting:

“I still feel like everything runs through me.”

And there it was.

He wasn’t overwhelmed because he had too much to do.

He was overwhelmed because he had made himself the center of everything.

Every decision.
Every question.
Every approval.
Every follow-up.

He wasn’t leading a system.

He was holding one together.

Here’s what that looked like:

Assistants need him to tell them what to prioritize and work on.
Tasks came back half-finished because they weren't sure how to do some of it.
He redid work because it was “faster.”
He answered questions he’d already answered before.

It felt responsible.

It was actually exhausting.

Then we made one simple shift.

Instead of asking,
“How do I get this done?”

He started asking,
“How do I make this clear so it doesn’t come back to me?”

That changed everything.

He documented expectations.
He clarified recruiting roles.
He set weekly staff check-ins.
He stopped rescuing people mid-task.

And slowly, things stopped bouncing back to him.

Not because he worked harder.

Because he stopped being the bottleneck.

Here’s the truth most coaches avoid:

If everything flows through you, you don’t have a workload problem.

You have a leverage problem.

Leverage, in this context, is simple:

It’s solving something once so you don’t have to keep solving it every week.

High-performing coaches don’t try to do everything on their own.

They create clarity so their staff can execute without constantly coming back to them.

That’s leverage.

Here’s your action this week:

Write down one recurring question your staff asks you.

Then ask yourself:

What system, checklist, or standard would eliminate this question going forward?

Solve it once.

That’s how you win the day.

Not by carrying more.

But by designing things so you don’t have to.

More soon,
— Mandy

P.S. The coaches who look calm under pressure aren’t superhuman. They’ve just removed themselves as the bottleneck. I’m building something to help coaches do exactly that.