The Best Founders Develop a Succession Plan

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In my experience, one of the most underappreciated parts of leadership is preparing for scale + succession.

You build something with care, with intention and then you choose someone you trust to carry it further than you could alone.

That’s why I asked Chris Johnston to take over as CEO of Levership last year.

If you’ve been to any of our workshops lately, then you’ve heard me introduce Chris and likely interacted with him there.

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Chris isn’t just another operator. He’s someone who has:

• Doubled revenue at Bulletproof while leading their transformation as CEO

• Worked side-by-side with me and my brother Mark during that run to align the exec team and rethink our business

• Stepped into cybersecurity sales at Microsoft to test himself at a national scale—and then came back to serve the kind of companies we love most: values-driven, founder-led businesses who are ready to scale with systems

Chris knows what it means to build something that lasts. And more importantly, he knows how to help founders stop being the bottleneck.

That’s what Levership is built for. And that’s how I knew he’s the right person to lead it forward.

He brings three things to the table I deeply respect:

1. Clarity of Thought​

   
   

   He doesn’t play buzzword bingo. He gets straight to the core: what’s working, what’s not, and where the biggest value leaks are.

   
   

2. Relentless Focus on What Moves the Needle​

   
   

   He’s built the models, led the teams, and cleaned up the chaos. Chris doesn’t teach theory—he works shoulder-to-shoulder.

   
   

3. Founder Empathy, Without Founder Drama​

   
   

   He’s been in the seat. And he knows how to ask the questions that move people forward without letting them off the hook.

So really, this is just me asking you: “Have you met Chris?” and if not, you should absolutely connect with him over on LinkedIn. ​

Better yet, drop him an email to say congratulations on his new adventure with us. I’m sure he’d appreciate it! Email Chris directly here.

And if you really want to get to know us both you can listen to Chris lead client conversations and teardown real problems on the Levership podcast here.​

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 I’ve had a lot of questions about the specifics of our Levership program lately. We are working on some new content, including next week’s newsletter which will be a deeper dive. In the meantime, if you’re wanting to fast track and find out if we can help you with your business, then seriously pop Chris an email and we’ll let you know ASAP.

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