Lee Smith: How to Remove Yourself from Your Business and Finally Get Your Freedom Back

EPISODE OVERVIEWDuration: Approximately 55 minutesBest For: Business owners who feel consumed by the company they built and want to step away without everything falling apartKey Outcome: Learn practical strategies to remove yourself from daily operations while your business runs better without youTHE BOTTOM LINEIf you started your business for freedom but now feel like a slave to it, this conversation will show you exactly what is possible. Lee Smith went from running IT companies 14 hours a day to being completely removed from operations. He is actually blocked from his own systems because the business runs better without his interference. This episode reveals the mindset shifts, wellness practices, and strategic decisions that allowed Lee to take 10-day trips with zero phone signal while his multiple companies thrived. You will learn why the best thing that ever happened to his business was removing himself completely, and how you can start doing the same.WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS TO YOUYou will discover how to step away from daily operations without losing control or watching things fall apartLearn the specific moment Lee realized being a poor operator was costing him his freedom and what he did about itUnderstand how AI and automation can give you hours back every week without adding complexity to your lifeSee what continuing to micromanage everything is really costing you including your health, relationships, and the life you originally wantedKEY INSIGHTS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TODAYThe freedom paradox: You started your business for freedom, but the business took your freedom away. Lee shares how he broke this cycle by accepting he was a terrible operator and finding people who loved doing what he hated.Remove yourself to improve results: The best thing that ever happened to Lee's business was removing himself completely. The more he tried to tinker, the more he screwed things up. Consider where your involvement is actually hurting your business.Use AI to solve specific problems: Stop trying to learn everything about AI. Instead, ask what specific function you are trying to fix in marketing, sales, or operations. Then find the AI tool that solves that one problem.Your energy is your profit: If you do not have the right energy and focus, you cannot perform at your best. This is a direct hit on your business profits. Your health is not separate from your business success.Breath and stillness beat hustle: Lee went from the brink of burnout to running four companies while traveling the world. The foundation was learning meditation, breathwork, and how to shift out of constant stress mode.GOLDEN QUOTES WORTH REMEMBERING"The best thing ever happened to me was removing myself out of my own business. It was the most beautiful thing. And the more I tried to delve in and tinker it, the more I was screwing things up." - Lee Smith"We start our own business so we have freedom. And then your freedom actually gets taken away by the business. You get consumed by it." - Lee Smith"Your energy levels and your health is everything. It affects your relationships, your business. The more you go through this process of just trying to push harder and push harder, the more you live in sympathetic mode." - Roy Castleman"Investing in yourself is the best asset you can ever invest in." - Lee Smith"I was laying there in all sorts of pain, thinking that was it. The only thing that I remember from the time was the regret I had for the things I hadn't done." - Roy CastlemanQUICK NAVIGATION FOR BUSY LEADERS00:00 - Introduction: Two entrepreneurs who found freedom after being trapped in their businesses04:30 - Lee's journey: From disruptive teenager to business owner seeking freedom09:15 - The turning point: Learning mergers and acquisitions at 40 years old14:45 - Why removing yourself from operations is the best thing for your business19:30 - Understanding if you are a visionary or operator and why it matters24:00 - How to use AI without getting overwhelmed by endless tools and options28:45 - The wellness foundation: Why Tony Robbins changed everything for Lee34:20 - Morning routines that create energy: Breathwork, meditation, and cold exposure39:00 - Living in sympathetic mode: The hidden reason you are burning out44:30 - Digital detox: What Lee learned from 10 days with no phone signal48:15 - Plant medicine and consciousness: Tools for getting out of your own head52:30 - Final advice: Take action now because you have a two to four year windowGUEST SPOTLIGHTName: Lee SmithBio: Lee Smith is a serial entrepreneur and mergers and acquisitions specialist who transformed his life after realizing he was a poor operator trapped in his own businesses. He now runs multiple companies while traveling the world, having completely removed himself from daily operations. Lee combines strategic business thinking with deep wellness practices including meditation, biohacking, and plant medicine retreats.Connect with Lee:Website: https://www.leeasmith.co.uk/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeantonysmith/YouTube: www.youtube.com/@LeeSmith-investorYOUR NEXT ACTIONSThis Week: Identify one area of your business where your involvement is actually making things worse, not better. Ask your team for honest feedback on where you are the bottleneck.This Month: Block out one full day where you do not check email, take calls, or interfere with operations. See what happens when you step away completely.This Quarter: Find one operational role you can delegate to someone who loves doing what you hate. Focus on finding people who are good at the things you are not.EPISODE RESOURCESEntrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) - Business operating system mentioned for scaling companiesTony Robbins Unleash the Power Within - Event that transformed Lee's health approachJoe Dispenza meditations - Discussed for achieving deep meditative statesTranscendental meditation - Lee's meditation practice since 2012Paul Stamets documentaries - Recommended for understanding plant medicine and myceliumFantastic Fungi documentary - Recommended resource on mushrooms and nature connectionKenyon device - Portable red light therapy device Lee discovered in PeruKey Flow app - Stress management app mentioned by Roy━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━READY TO ESCAPE THE TRAP?Take the Freedom Score Quiz: https://scoreapp.atpbos.com/Discover how trapped you are in your business and get your personalized roadmap to freedom in under 5 minutes.Book a Free Strategy Session: https://www.atpbos.com/contactLet's discuss how to build a business that works WITHOUT you.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST, ROY CASTLEMANRoy is the founder of All The Power Limited and creator of Elevate360, a business coaching system for entrepreneurs ready to scale without burnout. As a certified Wim Hof Method Instructor and the UK's first certified BOS UP coach, Roy combines AI automation, wellness practices, and business operating systems to help trapped entrepreneurs reclaim their freedom.Website: www.atpbos.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roycastleman/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@allthepowerltd