What does it really take to build a great team?
It is easy to talk about leadership when everything is working. It is much harder to talk about the painful parts: firing the wrong people, learning from mistakes, building trust, and remembering to appreciate the people who help carry the business every day.
In this episode of The Visibility Podcast, Lauren Cobello sits down with Austin Netzley, Founder of Operations.com to discuss leadership, team building, coaching, business growth, and the hard lessons that come with becoming a better founder.
Lauren opens up about how much her team means to her and how easy it can be to forget to say that out loud. She shares the reminder that appreciation should not wait for a big moment, a crisis, or a hard conversation. Sometimes the people doing great work need to hear it every single day.
But building that kind of team did not happen by accident.
Lauren and Austin talk about the difficult decisions that come with leadership, including the emotional weight of letting people go when they are not the right fit. Firing people is never easy, but sometimes it is part of protecting the culture, the mission, and the people who are truly aligned with where the company is going.
This conversation is a reminder that strong teams are built through clarity, hard choices, gratitude, trust, and a willingness to keep growing as a leader.
Watch until the end to hear why leadership is not just about building a business. It is about recognizing the people beside you and making sure they know how much they matter.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Why business owners chase visibility too early
00:44 The right order to grow a business
02:40 Why Austin started 2X
04:18 The “Done by 10:30” routine
07:05 How AI is changing business coaching
15:01 Why teams need to learn AI
17:04 Moving from operator to orchestrator
18:04 Validating an offer before building it
21:06 Why business owners need community
24:04 Making operations work with AI
29:06 The two-week vacation test
33:02 Building a team around your strengths
37:00 Showing appreciation to your team
39:00 What entrepreneurship teaches you about yourself
47:03 Why business owners struggle to ask for help
49:03 Lauren’s story: selling her house to bet on her business
53:27 Final thoughts
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
💼 Why building a great team takes hard decisions
🧠 How leadership forces you to grow emotionally
🤝 Why appreciation should be said out loud
🔥 Why the right team does not happen by accident
💬 How honest coaching can change a founder’s life
🚪 Why firing the wrong people can protect the business
❤️ Why strong leaders still feel the weight of hard calls
📈 How better systems create more freedom
🙌 Why gratitude matters inside a company culture
⏳ What the two-week vacation test reveals about your business
👤 GUEST
Austin Netzley: https://www.instagram.com/netzley/?hl=en
Company: https://operations.com/
Operations.com, 2X.co
📸 Follow the Host
Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren_cobello/
Website: https://leveragewithmedia.com/
🎧 LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
🍏 Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/visibility-with-lauren-cobello/id1896846267
🎵 Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/033pkSbweTnun0mAfwDemS?si=c183d4f69dec402b
#TheVisibilityPodcast #LaurenCobello #Leadership #TeamBuilding #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #FounderLife #BusinessCoaching