The Business Behind Your Business - Real Advice to Help Small Business Owners Build, Lead and Thrive
Conversations to help your business grow and thrive — like having your own board of expert advisors in your pocket.
The Business Behind Your Business is the go-to podcast for small business owners who want practical guidance, clearer decision-making, and strategies that actually work in the real world.
Hosted by Paul Sweeney, each 15–30 minute episode takes you behind the scenes of how small businesses grow, lead teams, manage money, and solve the problems that keep owners up at night. Whether you’re running a team of one or twenty, you’ll find relatable stories, expert insights, and tools you can put into action straight away.
From improving cash flow and pricing for value to building systems, reducing overwhelm, and preparing for long-term success, our guests share straightforward advice without the jargon.
What you’ll learn:
* How small businesses make money — and where they lose it
* Leadership and team-building strategies that actually work
* Smart marketing ideas for busy owners
* Financial planning and forecasting explained simply
* How to scale without burning out
* What successful businesses do differently behind the scenes
If you want your business to run better, grow stronger, and give you more freedom, this show gives you the practical steps and confidence to make it happen — one smart decision at a time.
Subscribe and join thousands of business owners who are building better businesses, not just bigger ones.
The Business Behind Your Business - Real Advice to Help Small Business Owners Build, Lead and Thrive
From Architecture to Real Estate: The Power of Vertical Integration
Building a business that lasts isn’t about luck, start-up capital, or chasing every new trend—it’s about discipline, structure, and creating harmony between your work and personal life. In this episode of The Business Behind Your Business, host Paul Sweeney speaks with serial entrepreneur Lance Cayko, co-founder of F9 Productions and host of the Inside the Firm podcast.
Lance shares how he scaled from a two-person start-up into a thriving group of vertically integrated businesses, including architecture, construction, real estate development, education, and even a nonprofit. Listeners will discover how discipline creates freedom, why mindset matters more than money, and how to use systems and vertical integration to stabilize and grow your business.
You’ll also learn:
- How to structure your day for maximum productivity (and less stress).
- Why “work-life harmony” is better than chasing work-life balance.
- How to keep business challenges from overwhelming your personal life.
- The role of systems, communication, and financial discipline in sustainable growth.
- Why vertical integration can give your business resilience and create new revenue streams.
If you’ve ever wondered how some entrepreneurs manage multiple businesses while staying calm, focused, and in control, this conversation with Lance will give you practical tools and mindset shifts to apply right away.
Lance Cayko is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of wildly successful architecture and construction firms in Northern Colorado. His career in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry spans over two decades and includes several design awards including the international Architizer A+ Award for Architecture + Living Small in 2016.
He co-founded F9 Productions, his architecture firm, in 2009 with his business partner Alex Gore after being laid off from a boutique firm in Boulder during the Great Recession. Since its inception, the partners have grown F9 from two employees grossing less than six figures to a team of 11.
Throughout his now seasoned career, Lance has also served his community by managing a community garden in Longmont which he is now turning into a formal non-profit. He also teaches part-time at the University of Colorado Boulder and North Dakota State and co-hosts one of the top five architecture and business podcasts in the world, Inside the Firm.
When he is not doing any of the above Lance is usually spending time with his family, fishing or editing his outdoor adventures for his YouTube channel, Fishing with Lance. When he's not fishing in Colorado he's back in North Dakota chasing Walleye and giant Paddlefish with his brother Lucas.
LinkedIn - Inside the Firm Podcast
LinkedIn - Lance
https://thebusinessbehindyourbusiness.com/
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