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True Living

What we install

True Living OS

An easier way to grow. True Living OS gets your leadership team operating at the next level, frees the CEO's time for what grows the company and puts real-time numbers in front of everyone who runs it. The company keeps growing, and it's worth more because it doesn't depend on any one person.

It's a simple operating system for your company, with AI built in, and our team installs it with you and your leaders. The method inside it is the TEAM System: Time, Executives, AI and Momentum.

Apply to work with us See how we work

For established companies doing $5M or more a year, and the leadership teams who run them. Construction is our featured industry.

  • Time.

    The CEO's time, freed for what grows the company.

  • Executives.

    Your leadership team, dialed in for the next level.

  • AI.

    Consistency, process and feedback loops, powered by AI.

  • Momentum.

    Then step on the gas.

What you get

Freedom leverage.

Full control of the company, with the CEO's time on what grows it and a leadership team running the rest. True Living OS takes a company from In the middle to Freedom leverage.

↑ More control
Freedom leverage

Full control, with your time on what grows the company.

In the middle

Control, held by being part of every decision.

Absent

Stepped back, with no system to hold it.

Stretched thin

Always busy, with the day setting the agenda.

More of your time in the business →

It pays twice.

Time freed.

The CEO's time goes to vision, key relationships and the next big move.

More value.

A company worth more because it doesn't depend on any one person, scored when we start and again a year in.

For the whole leadership team

A better job for every seat at the table.

True Living OS is built for the whole leadership team. Each leader gets clear authority over their area, numbers they trust every week and AI that handles the gathering and follow-up. The company gets stronger with every seat.

The CEO.

Your time goes to vision, key relationships and the next big move. You see the whole company every week, and it keeps moving when you step away.

Finance.

Every number owned and current every week. Cash, margin and receivables seen early. Limits on spending, pricing and hiring, and a cash floor, set each quarter. Books and a scorecard the whole team trusts, and no surprises.

Operations.

Clear authority over the work in your area, written processes for every handoff, and AI that gathers the updates and follows up on each decision, so jobs keep moving from contract to closeout.

Sales and estimating.

Pricing limits you can bid inside, fast answers on the big bids and a pipeline the whole team can see, so you can go after more of the right work.

The method inside True Living OS

The TEAM System. Four steps to the next level.

TEAM is the order True Living OS goes in, and each step builds on the one before it. It began as the way our founder trained high performers, around Time, Energy, Agreements and Money. Read how the personal TEAM became the company TEAM System.

Time

Free the CEO's time for what grows the company.

The CEO's time is the company's most valuable asset. Vision, key relationships and the next big move all run on it. Your time freedom isn't a perk. The company's next level depends on it.

We start by mapping where the hours go. The work only the CEO can do is usually a small share of the week, so we protect it and move the rest to the leaders ready to own it.

The rhythm

Once the time map is clear, we build the rhythm that holds it in place. Every decision gets a set time and place, with the right people in the room. The same rhythm is how change sticks. AI is going to change how day-to-day work gets done, and the companies with a good system for managing change will lead.

AIThe agent: The calendar installer sets up the rhythm fast, with an agenda, an owner and follow-up for every recurring session, and blocks the CEO's protected time.

Executives

Dial in your leadership team for the next level of growth.

The team that got you here is the foundation for what's next. Each leader owns their area, their numbers and their decisions, with clear authority and the support to use it.

Our team holds a weekly working session with the CEO and up to two key leaders. Each leader owns a lane with clear decision rights, and every number on the scorecard has one owner.

AIThe agent: The SOP builder turns how your best people already work into written SOPs for each lane. Each one is drafted for the leader who owns that lane to review and approve.

What goes in

  • An assessment of each leader's strengths in leading people and managing work.
  • A swimlane map of how information and responsibility move through the company, from the first sale to the final invoice.
  • Written SOPs for each lane, owned by the leader who runs it.
Illustrative example of a swimlane map. Lanes and steps are samples.

AI

Consistency, process and feedback loops, powered by AI.

AI gathers the updates, tracks the numbers and follows through on every decision, so execution gets faster and more consistent across the company.

Executive lag

AI shrinks executive lag, the time between a problem being raised and a decision being made. When decisions route through one seat, that lag grows with the company. When the updates and numbers arrive gathered and ready, the leader who owns the call can make it at the next session.

AI is changing how companies run, and our team puts it to work inside yours, where it takes routine work off your people and keeps decisions moving.

Our side: Our team runs its own agents too. They prepare our team for every session, so we arrive up to speed on your numbers and open items.

What you connect: You choose what to connect, and people make every decision.

What you commit to

  • Use the agents in every leadership session until they're habit.
Executive Lag: How Fast Your Company Decides

Momentum

With the system holding, step on the gas.

More growth, stronger margins and a company worth more, because it doesn't depend on any one person.

A company that depends on one person is a job that pays well. A company that runs on a system is an asset an investor would pay for. Momentum is what happens when the bottleneck keeps moving and the company keeps growing past it, with bigger targets each quarter and the CEO's time on growth, family and whatever comes next.

The bottleneck

Every company has one link that sets its pace.

A business is a chain. You win the work, estimate and sell it, deliver it and collect the money. People and decisions hold every link together. Eliyahu Goldratt showed in The Goal that a chain's output is set by its slowest link. Improve anything else and output barely moves. Improve the slowest link, and the whole company speeds up.

A company can only finish as much work as its slowest step. Everything above the line is capacity you already pay for, ready for more work. Clear the slowest step and output rises until the next step sets the pace. Illustrative numbers.

Past $5M, that link is usually the way decisions are structured.

Most companies past $5M have outgrown the structure that built them. Nobody did anything wrong. The company grew faster than the way it makes decisions, so pricing, hiring, the change order and the schedule still route through one seat. When they do, the company can only grow as fast as one calendar allows.

That's why True Living OS starts with the CEO's time and the leadership team around it. Move each decision to the leader ready to own it, and the company grows past the old limit. Then the bottleneck moves, and we work on the next one.

Take the Growth CheckAt $5M, the Bottleneck Is Usually Structure, Not People

The management ecosystem

Five connected parts that let your leaders run and grow the company.

A management ecosystem is the set of parts that lets a company run and grow with every leader deciding in their own area. There are five. Each one feeds the others, and it takes all five working together to keep each decision with the person who owns it.

A management ecosystem has five parts, and each one feeds the next. True Living OS is our installed version.
PartWhat it isWhat it feeds
Clear numbersA weekly scorecard with the handful of numbers that matter, each with one owner.Shows every leader where to act, every week.
Clear lanesLeaders who each own a lane, with written decision rights and dollar limits.Puts each decision with the right person.
A rhythmA set time and place for decisions and follow-up.Gives every issue a home, an owner and a date.
Written processesSOPs and swimlane maps of how work and information move through the company.Cuts how many decisions come up at all.
AI agentsAgents connected to your tools that gather, draft and follow up.Keeps every other part moving between conversations.

True Living OS is our team's installed version of a management ecosystem, built on the TEAM System and fitted to your company.

How we work

Map. Design. Install. Grow.

Working on the business is a process. Each pass clears one bottleneck, and the process repeats when the bottleneck moves. Every company moves through it at its own pace.

Goldratt's five focusing steps, and the part of our process that carries out each one
Goldratt's five focusing steps, and the part of our process that carries out each one.

1 · Map

The Growth Map: we find the bottleneck.

Every engagement starts with the Growth Map, a defined first step with a clear finish line. It's Goldratt's first step, identify the bottleneck. We start with understanding your business, in the same order an investor would, and you leave with the map, the bottleneck named and the plan to clear it.

  1. Time with you. Your goals, and where your hours actually go.
  2. An hour beside each leader. Watching how the work really moves.
  3. The numbers. Read the way an investor would read them.
  1. 01Financial diligence.

    Your statements, margins, cash and backlog. This becomes your baseline scorecard.

  2. 02Front of the funnel.

    Where your work comes from, who brings it in, and how much of it depends on one person.

  3. 03Throughput.

    How work moves through sales and management, and where it slows down before a decision.

  4. 04The team doing the work.

    Who delivers for your customers, and what they need from the office to keep the work moving.

AIHow the onboarding agent helps: Once your tools are connected, the onboarding agent reads your numbers and helps our team build the baseline scorecard and the bottleneck map. Our team walks through every finding with you.

What you get

  • A time map. Where the CEO's hours go, sorted into work only the CEO can do, work a leader is ready to own, and work a process or an agent can handle.
  • A baseline scorecard built from financial diligence.
  • A bottleneck and leadership map. Where work and decisions slow down, and which leaders are ready to own more.

What you commit to

  • Open books. Financial statements, plus job cost reports and a WIP schedule if you run projects.
  • Time with our team, and time for our team with every person on yours.
  • Straight answers, including the uncomfortable ones.

2 · Design

We design the ecosystem around the bottleneck.

Design covers Goldratt's next two steps. Get the most out of the bottleneck, then line everything else up behind it. When decisions route through one seat, that means protecting the CEO's time for the work only the CEO can do and building the parts that give every other decision a clear owner.

What gets designed

  • The scorecard. Which numbers, who owns each one, and where each number comes from.
  • The lanes. Who owns what, with written decision rights and dollar limits.
  • The guardrails. What your team decides, what your leaders decide and what comes to the CEO, with limits set each quarter.
  • The rhythm. When decisions get made and followed up, built around protected time for the work only you can do. We cut meetings that don't decide anything.
  • The processes to write down first, starting with the handoffs where work stalls on the swimlane map.
  • The agents to install, and the tools to connect.

What you commit to

  • Decide what only you should keep. The list is usually shorter than owners expect.
  • Agree the decision rights in writing, including the ones that feel uncomfortable to hand over.

3 · Install

We put it in with your leaders, one piece at a time.

Install is Goldratt's fourth step, elevate the bottleneck. We add decision-making capacity across the leadership team, so the company moves at the pace of the whole team.

What goes in

  • The scorecard goes live, and your leadership team reviews it every week.
  • Your leaders take their lanes. Our team holds a weekly working session with you and up to two of them.
  • The calendar installer puts the rhythm on every leader's calendar, including your protected time.
  • The meeting agents gather what each leadership session needs and follow up on every decision.
  • The SOP builder drafts SOPs for each lane, for the leader who owns it to review and approve.
  • An on-site session where we work through the swimlanes and handoffs with your leaders.

What you commit to

  • Let two leaders own real outcomes.
  • Let your leaders make the calls you've handed them, including the ones you would have made differently.
  • Bring decisions into the rhythm, where your team can see how they get made.

4 · Grow

The bottleneck moves. We find the next one.

Grow is Goldratt's fifth step, repeat. With the CEO's time freed and leaders deciding in their areas, the company grows, and the bottleneck moves to sales, estimating, delivery or the front of the funnel. That's the problem you want, because it can be solved with people, process and capacity. We map the new bottleneck and go again.

What goes in

  • The quarterly session sets growth targets and the plan to reach them, on site or on an Executive Retreat.
  • Your leadership team runs the scorecard and the rhythm.
  • We score the company's value when we start and again a year in, and compare.

What you commit to

  • Set the bigger goal.
  • Let the system carry the decisions it was built to carry.

Locus of control

Hold control by design.

Locus of control is how strongly you believe outcomes come from your own actions. The people who build companies have plenty of it. As the company grows, the way to hold control shifts from being involved in everything to designing the system everyone runs on.

By involvement You
Control held by being part of every decision.
By design You Rhythm · Scorecard · Guardrails
Control held through the system, while your leaders run with it.

Time architecture

A rhythm that keeps every decision moving.

The rhythm gives every decision a set time, a place and an owner. Leaders know when each call gets made, the numbers arrive ready, and the CEO's week has room for the work that grows the company.

WhenWhat happens
The CEO's protected timeBlocks for the work only the CEO can do. Pricing the big bids, key relationships, banking and bonding, developing your leaders, where the company goes next.
WeeklyA working session with our team for the CEO and up to two key leaders. Your leaders work the scorecard and decide what's in their lanes, with the meeting agents handling prep and follow-up.
MonthlyThe business review, by exception, with the scorecard, cash and margin in the pre-read.
QuarterlyYour choice. An Onsite Session with your leadership team, or The Rubicon, an Executive Retreat in Moab: four days one on one with Michael to reset, see the business from the outside and come back with the vision for the next level. See Executive Retreats.
YearlyThe company value score, compared with where we started.
Illustrative example of a company calendar. Times and labels are samples.

Guardrails

Clear limits, set each quarter. No surprises.

Each quarter, the CEO and the leadership team set limits on spending, pricing and hiring, and a floor for cash. Inside the limits, leaders decide in their areas with current numbers in front of them. Above the limits, the decision comes to the CEO already prepared. Every number has one owner and is current every week, so cash, margin and receivables are seen early.

  1. Your team

    Anything their process already covers

  2. Your leaders

    Spending, pricing and hiring inside the limits set each quarter

  3. The CEO

    Direction, capital, key seats, and anything above the limits

Straight to the CEO

Safety. Legal. Cash below the floor. A major client at risk.

  • No surprises. Everything for the review is in the pre-read, and anything new goes on the next one.
  • Every number has one owner and is current every week.
  • A number off target two reviews running means a written plan.

The monthly business review

Once a month, the CEO and the leadership team look at the business by exception. The meeting agent assembles the pre-read and sends it ahead, so everyone arrives with the same numbers: the scorecard, cash and margin, each leader's commitments and only the decisions that sit above the guardrails.

Custom

Built around your numbers, your people and your tools.

Every company runs on its own numbers, people and software. True Living OS is built from yours.

Your numbers.

The scorecard uses the handful of numbers that matter in your business, each with one owner.

Your people.

The lanes and the rhythm are built around the leaders you already have and what each one does best.

Your tools.

The agents connect to what you already use, like QuickBooks, Google Sheets, your CRM and email.

What's included

Everything that goes in.

  • Financial diligence and a baseline scorecard
  • A time map of where the CEO's hours go
  • A bottleneck and leadership map
  • A swimlane map of how information and responsibility move through your company
  • Written decision rights and guardrails
  • A weekly scorecard your leadership team owns, with every number current
  • A rhythm for decisions and follow-up, built around the CEO's protected time
  • Weekly working sessions with our team for the CEO and up to two key leaders
  • AI agents installed in your company. The onboarding agent, calendar installer, meeting agents and SOP builder
  • Leadership insight from the tools you connect
  • Written SOPs for each leader's lane
  • A quarterly Onsite Session or The Rubicon, an Executive Retreat in Moab
  • A company value score when we start and again a year in

Pricing depends on the size of your leadership team and how you want to run the quarterly sessions. We cover it on the qualifying call.

Fit comes first

Built for owners who have done the hard part.

For owners who…Not for owners who…
have built a business that worksare still searching for the business model
want to work on the business and keep growinglike being the one who puts out every fire
will give two leaders real outcomes to ownwould rather keep every decision themselves
run the company on numberswould rather not look at the numbers
protect their time when things get busydrop the rhythm the first busy week
want AI put to work inside the companywant software to fix a people problem
want growth that makes the company worth morechase revenue at any cost
see this as a partnership, and will do the workwant someone else to fix it for them

Owners apply. We take on a small number of companies at a time.

Questions about True Living OS.

What is a management ecosystem?

The connected system that lets a company run and grow with every leader deciding in their own area. Clear numbers on a scorecard, leaders with clear lanes and decision rights, a rhythm for decisions and follow-up, written processes and AI agents doing the gathering and follow-up. Each part feeds the others. True Living OS is our team's installed version of it.

Why start with the bottleneck?

Because every company has one link that sets its pace, and fixing anything else barely moves the company. Past $5M, that link is usually the way decisions are structured, not the people making them. We clear it first, then find where the bottleneck moved and work on that.

How long does it take?

It's a process. Map, Design, Install and Grow, then again when the bottleneck moves. Each company moves through it at its own pace, and we'll talk about yours on the qualifying call.

Will this add a lot of meetings?

No. The rhythm gives every decision a set time and place, so fewer meetings decide more. We cut meetings that don't decide anything, protect time for the work only the CEO can do, and hand the gathering and follow-up to the agents.

What is executive lag?

The time between a problem being raised and a decision being made. Shrinking it is one of the fastest ways a company grows. The A in TEAM shrinks it: AI gathers the updates and the numbers, so the leader who owns the call can make it at the next session.

Why do you start with the financials?

Because that's where an investor starts. The numbers show what the company actually does, and they become your baseline scorecard. Everything we build after that gets measured against them.

What does our CFO or controller get from it?

Every number on the scorecard has one owner and is current every week, so cash, margin and receivables are seen early. Limits on spending, pricing and hiring, and a floor for cash, are set each quarter, and anything above them arrives prepared. The financials become the baseline everything else is measured against.

What do our key leaders get, and sign up for?

Clear authority over their area, real-time numbers and AI support. In return, a weekly working session with our team, their part in the rhythm and ownership of their numbers on the scorecard. Up to two of them work alongside the CEO from the start, so they help build the system they'll be running.

Which tools do the agents connect to, and who sees our data?

QuickBooks, Google Sheets, your CRM and email are the usual starting points. You choose what to connect.

Does it work outside construction?

Yes. Construction is our featured industry, and our founder owns and operates construction businesses. The bottleneck, the scorecard, the lanes and the agents work the same way in any established company doing $5M or more a year.

What happens at the quarterly session?

You choose. Our team comes on site for an intensive with your leadership team, or the CEO takes The Rubicon, an Executive Retreat in Moab, to reset, see the business from the outside and come back with the vision and the plan for the next level.

What happens when the first bottleneck is cleared?

The bottleneck moves, and we decide together what comes next. Often that means another pass on the new bottleneck. Sometimes your leaders run it from there. We base the call on the results.

Do you promise results?

We won't promise a revenue number, a valuation or an exit date. Results depend on you and your team doing the work. We will install the system, and we measure the company's value when we start and again a year in so you can see what changed.

True Living OS

Apply to work with us.

We take on a small number of companies at a time. The first step is a short application. If it looks like a fit, you'll book a qualifying call with our team.

Apply to work with us
  • A short application
  • A 30-minute call with our team
  • A straight answer on fit

Rather talk first? 908-341-1813 · info@trueliving.team