Why Change Fails at the Top: Executive Peer Groups with Tom Fafinski

What if the smartest move you can make as a leader is to become deliberately lazy? Host Mark Altman and Tom Fafinski, founder of EPiC Peer Groups, unpack why change fails at the top and how executive peer groups produce the growth most owners try to force by working harder. Tom Fafinski has built and sold two law practices and now runs EPiC Peer Groups, where member firms have averaged 186% revenue growth and 634% profit growth over five years. His edge isn't working harder. It's giving up the parts of the business that define him, handing the wins to other people, and shifting from doer to reviewer. Mark pushes Tom on the real reason owners can't let go; it's not time, it's identity. The fear that someone on your team will become better than you at the thing you've always been known for. The two unpack how to coach belief systems instead of tasks, why the best leaders look more like Bill Belichick than Tom Brady, and how to build a team that tells you the truth instead of feeding you an AI-style echo chamber of "great question!" Inside the episode: • Niches to Riches: how Tom escaped a miserable 30-person firm by killing services and narrowing focus, then rode the hockey-stick growth that followed • The Do Not Do List: the one-page discipline he uses to stop spending time on work that doesn't move the business • The Spectrum Between Adventure and Fear: where every employee really sits, who you should never hire, and why your best people want ownership more than a bigger paycheck Plus, the loneliness of the top job, why vulnerability and "laziness" are the same skill, and the science that says writing your commitments down is what stops you from rationalizing your way back to comfortable. For more information, visit http://mindsetgo.com, email [email protected] or call 978-793-1159. Estate planning firm owners curious about EPiC Peer Groups can reach Tom at [email protected].