Are You the CEO, or Are You Just Selling Eighths?

I’m at the KCC event at Inday in Brooklyn a couple months ago, and I get five minutes to talk to Ani.

So obviously, I talk shop.

(I mean, if you had Scorsese in front of you and you made movies, you’d ask for filmmaking tips, right?)

And in those five minutes, Ani says something that rewires my entire brain and puts me on the path to grow my business exponentially.

He simply says:

“You have to decide who you are to your business.”

At the time, I was editing our videos, handling business expansion, managing guest outreach, running ops—doing 500 things at once like every other founder.

I was everywhere, but was I actually moving forward?

That one question sent me down a rabbit hole.

Are You Working, or Are You Growing?

If it takes me four hours to edit a podcast, that’s four hours I’m NOT focusing on growing revenue.

So why wouldn’t I hire someone who can do it in two hours, output a better product, and free me up to focus on the things that actually make money?

When I started looking at where my time was going, I realized something:

🚨 Most creators and entrepreneurs don’t fail because of a lack of talent. They fail because they don’t scale.

It’s not about working harder. It’s about working on the right things.

Why Most Creators & Entrepreneurs Stay Stuck

I hear it all the time:

• “I don’t have time to edit my videos.”

• “I wish I had a manager to get me brand deals.”

• “I’m too busy to do everything.”

But here’s the thing—if you’re too busy to grow, you’re too busy to win.

If you keep treating your business like a job, it’ll always feel like a job.

The real game is in re-investing what you make so you can build leverage.

Let’s break it down.

What Do You Do With $500?

Let’s say you land a $500 brand deal.

💰 The Average Creator: Spends 10 hours working on the deliverables, then buys some kicks or a fancy dinner as a reward.
💰 Me: Hires a shooter and an editor, shows up for 30 minutes, and delivers 10x the value back to the brand.

The result?

Three months later, I circle back and ask for a $5,000 bag.

And because I overdelivered on the first deal (by reinvesting every dollar back into the business), the brand gives it to me.

Meanwhile, the creator who was happy about the $500? They’re back on the block, waiting for another deal.

Most Creators Are Just Selling Eighths

Let’s take it back to the streets.

If you’re selling eighths, you take your $35 profit, flip another eighth, and repeat.

But the smart hustlers? They stack up after 10 flips, buy an ounce, and level up their business.

The dealers who never make it? They spend their profit on lifestyle instead of re-investing in product.

And that’s exactly what most creators and entrepreneurs do.

They don’t reinvest. They stay small.

They stay stuck selling eighths.

Who Are You to Your Business?

Going back to Ani’s question:

What am I to my business?

I’m the CEO of Chai Collective.

I’m not the video editor.
I’m not the social media manager.
I’m not the audio engineer.

I’m the CEO.

That means my only job is to find people and systems that do everything else better than I can.

And if that means spending the money, I spend the money.

Because a CEO’s job isn’t to do everything. It’s to build something that runs without them.

The Real Reason We’re Lapping People in This Game

We’ve been able to outgrow certain people in this creative space.

Not because I have the biggest following.
Not because I went viral.

But because every dollar we’ve made has gone back into the business.

If you’re frustrated by your lack of growth, but you’re spending every dollar of “profit” on lifestyle instead of reinvesting—

I don’t want to hear it.

Final Thought: Growth Isn’t an Accident. It’s a Decision.

The only difference between someone making $50K a year and someone making $500K is how they use their money and time.

The person who treats every dollar like an employee, making it work for them will win.

The person who treats every dollar like a prize, spending it on things that don’t scale, will stay stuck.

So, who are you to your business?

A CEO?

Or someone stuck selling eighths?

If you need someone to talk to about where you should be spending your time or what you could easily use AI or other people to, DM me or send me an e-mail. I want to see our culture grow with solid BUSINESSES.

Having a successful business is not an accident. It’s a choice. Stop letting your strategy be create or put out till we catch one. Gotta be smarter than that fam.