What if your business was profitable, in demand, and growing fast, yet you felt more stuck than you ever had before? Imagine reaching a point where every new client meant more hours, more stress, and an accelerating path toward total burnout.
Our guest today was at that exact breaking point in 2020 -trapped in a successful – looking agency that relied entirely on her being everywhere at once. She made a choice that most founders would find terrifying, but it allowed her to transform from a manual bottleneck into a high-level strategic architect.
Today, she shares how she replaced that overwhelming chaos with a structure that finally supports her life rather than consuming it.
Welcome to today’s episode of Your Business Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Jeremy Shapiro, author of Your Business Growth Playbook, and my guest today is Simone Little.
About Simone Little
Simone Little is a seasoned Business and Productivity Strategist, Operations Architect, and Fractional COO with over 16 years of experience in operations and leadership. She has served as a trusted advisor to more than 50 creative brands and women entrepreneurs, helping them scale six- and seven-figure businesses. Simone has personal experience in every facet of business, from administrative tasks and marketing to high-level sales and CEO leadership.
Her journey hit a major turning point in 2020 while running a profitable virtual assistant agency. Despite the business being in high demand, it relied entirely on her constant involvement, leading to severe burnout and a plateau in growth. Realizing that her work was actually strategic COO-level leadership rather than simple support, she made the bold decision to step back and rebuild the business from the ground up around structure and leverage.
Today, Simone focuses on helping creative agency owners eliminate the “plight of the burned-out hustle-minded CEO” by replacing operational chaos with systems and accountability. She specializes in helping founders hire their first team members and delegate effectively so that the business can thrive without the owner being the bottleneck. Her mission is to guide overachieving leaders to scale strategically while maintaining focus, clarity, and personal fulfillment.
Based in Maryland, Simone is a devoted wife and mother of two. When she isn’t helping CEOs achieve operational discipline, she can be found practicing yoga, hiking, or adding to her growing Michael Jackson collection. She believes that when structure and leadership align, growth becomes inevitable and does not have to come at the cost of personal peace.