When I finally defined and communicated my boundaries, most of my clients stopped feeling difficult. In fact, one even thanked me for having (and upholding) clear boundaries. They knew the expectations, and... they felt more confident in upholding their own.

If we don't help the systems that run our business evolve with us, then we become the system. Every process lives in our head, every handoff requires our involvement, and suddenly we're the bottleneck we were trying to avoid.

Ask yourself: if 10 people reached out this week, what would actually happen? Not in theory — in practice. Who responds, when, how? Where does someone go once they've expressed interest? What determines whether they move forward or quietly disappear?