The Time-for-Money Trap That’s Stalling Your Growth—and How to Escape It

Catalytic Leadership

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If revenue is rising but your calendar keeps getting tighter… you may not be scaling. You may just be stuck in the time-for-money trap—and no matter how high your agency climbs, that model will always have a ceiling.

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Burns, founder of Flowers Capital, to unpack what it truly takes to escape that trap and build a business that grows without demanding more of you. Eric’s story isn’t about quick wins or overnight success—it’s about trading hustle for structure, urgency for vision, and effort for scalable impact.

We talk about how to break out of reactive leadership, how Eric used strategic partnerships to replace income with leverage, and what lessons from 17 years as a fire department lieutenant taught him about high-trust, high-performance teams.

If your business relies on you to keep running—if you feel the tension between success and burnout—this conversation will show you what it means to stop solving every problem and start building a company that scales without your shadow over every step.

What We Cover:

• What the time-for-money trap really looks like at 7+ figures
• How to build systems that generate freedom, not just income
• Why reactive leadership keeps teams stagnant and stressed
• How to use mastermind connections to build scalable partnerships
• The leadership shift from firefighting to vision-setting
• Tactical ways to lead through structure instead of stress

📚 Books & Resources Mentioned

• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• Be Your Future Self Now by Dr. Benjamin Hardy
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• FlowersCapital.com – Free guide: “12 Pitfalls to Avoid in Your Next Real Estate Deal”

Connect with Eric Burns
To connect with Eric, just head over to flowerscapital.com—he’s got a free resource there on 12 pitfalls to avoid in your next real estate deal that’s worth checking out.

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Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence.

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Chapters

1. The Time-for-Money Trap That’s Stalling Your Growth—and How to Escape It (00:00:00)

2. From Firefighter to Founder: Eric’s Unlikely Start (00:00:37)

3. The Wake-Up Call: Still Trading Time for Money (00:03:50)

4. Commercial Real Estate and the Power of Passive Leverage (00:07:15)

5. How the Right Mastermind Can Reshape Your Business (00:09:51)

6. Leadership Growth Through Hard Conversations (00:12:48)

7. From Chaos to Clarity: Building a Business That Doesn’t Depend on You (00:16:35)

8. Final Thoughts and How to Connect with Eric (00:24:14)