Wartime CEO: Disruption, Delayed Gratification, and Doing the Opposite with Chandler Bolt

Chandler Bolt dropped out of college with a C in English, ADHD, and about three months of runway in the bank. He borrowed his parents' retirement savings to buy out his business partner at Self Publishing School, then paid every dollar back in 11 months. Over the last 12 years, his company has helped publish more than 7,000 books. In this episode, Chandler gets honest about what it means to lead through a genuinely hard season: flat growth years, SEO traffic down 70%, and an industry being disrupted by AI hype that he thinks is badly outpacing AI capability. He shares the framework he calls the "wartime CEO," why he still drives the same Nissan Altima from high school (250,000 miles and counting), and what Self Publishing School does completely differently from everyone else in the space.