Start With A Win - Atiba de Souza: How AI Can Make You a Better Leader

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Have you ever felt trapped in your own business? Atiba de Souza, author of 'The Delegation Trap', has witnessed leaders at the top of their game unintentionally become the chokepoint in their own organizations. In this Start With a Win episode, you'll discover how to break free from the delegation trap, empower your team, and build a business that thrives beyond your direct involvement. Learn the secrets to fostering a culture of independence and innovation, and why asking the right questions is the key to leadership success in the modern world.Atiba de Souza is an author, entrepreneur, and relationship mentor who helps leaders break free from burnout and build teams that take ownership. He wrote The Delegation Trap: It’s Not Them, It’s You, a story-driven guide teaching leaders how to let go of every task and get results that shine. With 25+ years running gyms, bakeries, and food service companies and coaching National Championship youth football teams, he knows firsthand what it takes to turn average performance into excellence. His mission is simple: transform overwhelmed bosses into confident leaders of teams that thrive, even when they’re not in the room.00:00 Intro01:38 I didn’t mean to be an author…04:27 Be very open when it comes to this in leadership! 08:01 I want them to leave my company.11:35 My first AI project…13:48 What is a thinking partner? 18:50 Can our society switch the academic space?24:01 Reality is, what we have seen before and the difference this time is this…26:20 Rewind the last 15 seconds and LISTEN again!   29:38 It has changed, never had an answer in five years like this!===========================Subscribe and Listen to the Start With a Win Podcast HERE:📱 ===========================YT ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@AdamContosCEOApple ➡︎ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/start-with-a-win/id1438598347Spotify ➡︎ https://open.spotify.com/show/4w1qmb90KZOKoisbwj6cqT===========================Connect with Adam:===========================Website ➡︎ https://adamcontos.com/Facebook  ➡︎ https://facebook.com/AdamContosCEOTwitter  ➡︎ https://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOInstagram  ➡︎ https://instagram.com/adamcontosceo/#adamcontos #startwithawin #leadershipfactory

You know you were called to greater leadership. You know it. You can feel it. You can feel that pain inside of you. And the thing is, it's not that far. It does take a commitment. It does take dedication. But it's not that far.

And you can do it. And more importantly, your staff, your customers, your family needs you to do it. Welcome to start with a win where we unpack leadership, personal growth and development, and how to build a better business. Let's go. Coming to you from Area 15 Ventures. and Start With a Win headquarters. It's Adam Contos with Start with a Win. What if the biggest thing holding your business back is you?

My guest today has spent over 25 years in the entrepreneurial trenches, running gyms, bakeries, food service companies, and even coaching national championship youth football teams. He's seen firsthand how talented leaders accidentally become the bottleneck in their own organizations. His book, The Delegation Trap, and his case. C-A-S-E method are helping entrepreneurs and executives stop doing it all, start trusting their teams, and finally build a business that grows even when they step away. Please welcome Atiba DeSuza.

Atiba, welcome to start with a win. Adam, thank you for having me. I look forward to our conversation today, buddy. Right on. Hey, you and I have a lot in common when it comes to this thought process and, you know, the systems and disciplines around it, things of that nature. but I want to dive right in. You have a book.

It's called The Delegation Trap. And I love that statement just overall. Tell us, why did you write this book? And obviously it's about delegation trap, but dig a little deeper into it. Give me a quick flyover of that, if you wouldn't mind. Yeah. So number one, I didn't mean to be an author. That was never the intention.

Okay. But I was in a room. And I'm sure you've had this experience at him. I'm in a room. It's a mastermind. and I'm in a mastermind room with people who are, oh, geez, people that I look up to. Right. Yeah.

And at this mastermind, we get to go around and we get to share something that we've done in the last three, four months that has made a difference. And honestly, I was there and I was like, man, I don't really have anything to share this time. And so I just got up and I shared something, which was, I don't answer questions that my staff asks, which is true. Yeah. Right. the backstory behind it is if I do my job well enough, they don't have questions. If I impart the vision well enough, they don't have questions. Right.

And I can just send them back to what we did. So that's the backstory. But what ended up happening is there was a room of like 60 entrepreneurs, all who are ridiculously successful. And I got battered that weekend by people saying, dude, I spent most of my day answering questions. What do you mean you're not asking answering questions? How the hell do you do that? And I'm thinking, y'all been around longer than me. What do you mean you don't know this? And that was the moment that the book was born because that was the moment that I realized

that whereas I thought maybe it's just small business, new businesses who are trapped. These are seasoned veterans with 10, 15, 20 million dollars companies who are still feeling trapped inside of their organizations. Wow. Okay. So are most of these people founders, by the way? Yes. Okay.

I like to call something similar to this with some of our founders, the founder's syndrome. Tell me about it. And it's kind of fun because when you look at it, you know, what do people do when the founder is running the company? They're like, oh, this is their dream. I have to follow their dreams. stuff by the yeah so i mean you're you're yeah they they run into the founder's office and they're like i got this problem and they throw it on their desk and the founder has to spend their time sorting

through it you found a way to empower your people yes where you don't have founder syndrome in your business is you've got you know people checking in if you will probably and i say that with air quotes but the reality is um i mean you're not even they're they just go do it they just go do I love it. I love it. But you have a culture where it's okay to make a mistake, right? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, the reality is mistakes are reality. I love it. Yeah. When we live in this world where we put all of this pressure around, you can't make a mistake. That's not real. Yeah. And so one of the things with leadership is I am very open about all of my mistakes. y'all, I screwed that up.

Okay? Like, we had this big call yesterday and I didn't close a client. I screwed it. And here's how I screwed up, y'all. And for everybody who's not watching the video, he just did a big face palm when he told me that too. Right. But here's part of the thing is, you know, we've grown up in this society where as a leader, you had to sit in this rarefied air and be untouchable.

Yep. Right? And perfect. But we aren't. And when we project that, then they feel like they can never live up, which is part of the whole founder syndrome and part of what keeps us trapped. But they just keep dumping stuff on us. So you're teaching your people to be vulnerable. I love that.

A leader must be vulnerable. That's one of my things. Okay. A leader must set vision. A leader must be vulnerable. And a leader must ask great questions. Wow. So let me ask you this.

I love that last one. A leader must ask great questions. It seems like so many leaders, and this is probably a big part of the delegation trap, instead of asking questions, a lot of times leaders just give direction. Right? Yes.

Yes. So now we have people who are just minions, right? Yes. Exactly. And it feels counterintuitive because it feels like, well, you came to me, let me answer the question and let me tell you what to do. And let me tell you how to do it, right? And I'm the leader and that's what you expect. It's so, it's funny.

So we have tears now of leadership within the company. And I just did a tour meeting all of the staff around and went to different cities where people were at meeting. And I'm having a conversation over lunch with one of our team leads. Okay. Now, his direct supervisor, I have personally trained and mentored. He doesn't necessarily know that. Okay. Right.

And so I'm asking him these questions. Like, you know, so what is it like working with her? and what's the experience? And he says, it's so weird because it was so uncomfortable because I would come to her and it was like no other leader I ever had because I'd come to her and I'd say, I'm having this problem and I'm used to the leader just then telling me what to do. And she would just stop and ask me a question in return.

And it was so uncomfortable, but what it's done is it's made me so independent. His words. Interesting. He found independence. Wow. So that goes back. I guess kind of that leaders don't build followers. Leaders don't build followers. They build leaders. So if she's just giving him answers, he's a follower. He's just a follower. Huh. He's just the follower. So what have you seen this due to your businesses? I mean, I mean, does it? Because really insecure leaders, the first thing I hear out of their mouth is they're all going to leave because I'm going to, you know, they're going to outgrow the business. I want him to leave.

I want them to outgrow. Like if, number one, every relationship comes to an end. And if we're arrogant enough to think that we're going to keep somebody forever, we're dumb. Okay? So let's just go ahead and deal with the fact that they're going to leave. So why not make that a real thing? Like, you're going to leave. And here's the parameters on the witch.

You're going to outgrow us. My goal is to help you outgrow us and say, hey, I need a bigger, challenge, then I've done my job. I love it. It goes, it kind of goes to that, that whole saying of, you know, what if we make them better and they leave? The antithesis is what if they don't get better and they stay? You stay. Right. Then you've got people who are not growing at all. But part of it, though, is, and it isn't just, what if we make them better and they leave? Because part of the culture is, and so this is one of the things that you have to create here, okay? And so I'm talking to you, the insecure leader listening to Adam and I right now.

Okay. Part of that is creating the culture where they are training the next generation. You see, in order for someone to move up in my company, they have to replace themselves with someone who is as good or better than themselves. I like that. And so, go ahead. I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, go ahead.

It seems like we have, I mean, that's one of the biggest. weaknesses in leadership is succession planning, right? But it isn't hard. Why are we afraid to build people to replace us? I mean, it's not like they're going to just kick us to the curb and say, sorry, you're going on. Because we think that's exactly what's going to happen. Because unfortunately, there are enough stories of ageism.

Uh-huh. Seniority, someone's cheaper who can do it better. Let's not, well, actually not. Let's actually talk about AI because that's, also a backbone of the book as well is you have to be able to lead better because the world is about to change. And if you can't lead humans, you can't lead AI. And so people are terrified that AI is going to replace them. But guess what? It's not. Not in the way that you think at least. Okay. In 2023, January 2020, so right after ChatGPT launched, I had the

opportunity be on stage for Ryan Dice talking about AI. So one of the first AI talks, if you will. And one of the things I said and I stand by is AI is going to make smart people smarter and dumb people dumber. That's awesome. It's true. And the smart people, the leaders, are going to learn to ask better questions. I hope you're enjoying these conversations and finding value in them. If this episode challenged your thinking, encouraged you, or gave you a tool you can use to become a better leader, share it with one person who needs to hear it. Leadership isn't learned alone. It's passed from person to person, conversation to conversation, and action to action. If you're listening on a podcast platform, I'd be grateful if you'd leave a review also.

If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss future conversations. And if you have a question, a thought, or a topic you'd like to see us cover, leave a comment, please. I read them and I'll do my best to respond. Thanks for being part of the Start with a Win community. Keep learning, keep growing, and keep leading. I mean, let's unpack this AI thing. In fact, I'd like to talk about probably AI for the rest of the show around AI and leadership. Because we have a lot of leaders who are like, oh, well, you know, they still need my role.

And so we see leaders say they're implementing AI, but I think it's like 18% of people who say they're implementing AI actually do. So, you know, it's a high number, actually. I think it's less than that. It probably is by now, yeah. So tell me, I mean, what is your perspective of what should we be looking at? And this is a big question, but I'm a leader. Where do I start?

Where do I start? So first, before I answer your question, let me just give you a little backdrop to the answer to that question. So you and anyone listening to us can understand where I come from. Okay. My first AI project, y'all listen to me carefully now. My first AI project was 1992. Oh, man. In 1992, me and two friends sat around and said, huh, I wonder if we could create an engine that I could figure out what the next word somebody was going to say is.

guess what? That's a predictive engine. Guess what? That's what large language models are. Now, I'm not saying that we created a large language model. We didn't. We had like 500 words. Right.

Right? But we've been in it for that long. And so my perspective on this is a little bit different. Okay? So I want to give that a bit of that backdrop here. Right? Number one, we can't be afraid of AI. It is here and it's not going anywhere.

That's number one. Number two is we have to understand that the experience now is different. So many of us are using AI like kindergartners. What do I mean by that? You're going to chat GPT and you're a ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. And it gives you something like, ooh, cool, cute. It wrote me something. Oh, it created a document.

Ooh, cool, cute. Right? I had somebody today show me, oh, look at the ad that it created for me, the chat-G-G-T created, or that Claude created. You're using AI like a kindergartner. Yes. Can it produce? Can I use it as a producer?

Absolutely. But you see, where AI really, really takes over and in terms of helping you, me, the human, extend ourselves as when it can be our thinking partner. Tell me about that. What does a thinking partner look like? So now a thinking partner understands something. A thinking partner understands, number one, what is the current situation that you're in? Okay.

Number two, what is the problem that needs to be solved? And number three, what is the outcome and the experience that needs to happen when that problem is solved? You see, a thinking partner understands those three things, but where does it get that information from? Us, the human. Right. And as a thinking partner now, now, it can help us start to map how to get there. You see, too many of us are using AI.

And, you know, I got the hat on using AI. We get AI as a Superman. It's Superman sitting over here in the corner. Right. And we treat AI like this, like Superman sitting in the corner. And we go over to say, hey, Superman, Lex Luther just took over the capital building. And he's going to take over the entire world right now. I need you to go save the world.

Now, here's what I need you to do. I need you to fly down. use your laser vision and then come in through the back door, punch Lex's assistant, then grab Lex by the throat. And we dictate to AI exactly what we want and how we wanted to do it. But you see, you wouldn't do that to Superman. You would just say, Superman, the world needs saving and let Superman go figure out how to do it. You see, current situation, this is what's currently going on.

And this is the problem with it. And here is the outcome experience that we want to have. And let AI help you map that course. So we're in. We're getting into the sausage making too much as human beings. Oh, heck yeah. We need to let AI discover the best way to make the sausage. Or even, you know, maybe it makes a meatball instead of sausage because it says, you know,

have you thought about a meatball? No, you're fixed on sausage. Exactly. I'll give you a realistic example for this. So we've in our agency, we've sold high ticket forever. That's what we do, right? But you know, as you well know, if you're selling high ticket, eventually you've got to have a medium ticket and lower ticket stuff, right? Yep.

And so with this latest offer that we released last year, high ticket, it was, okay, so what's the medium ticket? What's the lower ticket? And, you know, you've got to go through the process of figuring all that out and so. and so forth. And so I sat down and I explained the situation, exactly what I just told you, right? And I said, I actually need to hire someone who can figure this out. And the AI agent, Claude, in this case, said, you're looking for an ISD. Dude, I still don't even know what ISD stands for. Okay. But when it gave me the description of what an ISD is, I'm like, yes, that's the person I need. And then I said, okay, but I want you to be my ISD. And it said, okay,

And it went formulated how it could be my ISD. And here's what it's done for me in the last three months. It has completely revamped our program. It's found the irresistible offer that has people knocking down our door now, which we've been struggling to even come close to. Okay. Because I just defined where I am, what my situation is, what my desired outcome is, and said, how do I get there?

And I said, this is how you get there. And this is what you need. And it was 100% right. And you're using Claude Co-Work to do that, is it? So I use Claude and Claude code. I don't use Co-Work nearly as much only because I'm a code guy. Okay. So you're writing, you're creating the engine to do these things and then you're modifying that

engine to grow with the thought process. Okay. Yeah. But now my team uses a lot of Cod co-work. They also use a lot of Codd code as well. And that's a whole not, we can do a whole another episode on that because we're talking about delegation. I took a creative team and now they're all developing software. Oh, wow. Okay. That was a transition. Yeah, but they don't need to know how to code. Cloud does it for them. They just need a creativity to help it They need to know how to think. Yeah. They need to know how to think.

I love that. How do we, I mean, we've got a lot of society that, you know, we have traditional education and things like that going on. I mean, do you think it's possible for us to start shifting the academic space or how our kids are growing up? I mean, you've coached a lot of, a lot of kids in your life. I have. How do we, how do we make this shift in society where people are like,

I can be more than what I can think about by using the right tools. Yeah, that's a really great and big question. And I wish I had a beautiful answer for you on that. We are where we are right now because of the Industrial Revolution. Because Rockefeller realized he needed workers who were going to be on time and follow systems the way he laid them out. And so they created the school system in the way they did. They shifted the school system, right? So that it could produce better workers for the factory instead of workers for the farm.

Right. But now we're going into a whole new paradigm. And so it's who's going to say, hey, we got to change everything. And who's then going to buy into it? I don't know the answer to that question. I'll be just completely honest with you. That's a beautiful answer, though, that you gave me. because it really stimulates that evolutionary growth process.

And frankly, you and I are Gen Xers. We're not supposed to be thinking this way. We're supposed to be, you know, we're not digital natives. Right. So, you know, we grew up playing board games and chasing each other with sticks, you know, stuff like that. And I mean, you know, it was playing was go outside and come home, you know, when the street lights come on or, you know, if you don't hear,

you're, you know, something going on, you, you saw somebody else sitting down for dinner, so you knew it was time to go somewhere. Yes. But, I mean, it's, you know, now, now we have kids who grow up with a, you know, a Nintendo Switch or an iPhone or an iPad in her hand. And they're, they're starting to learn things. But, you know, I know, I know traditional education is a little bit skewed off of that. But I ultimately, I think, I think it's going to come down to us to the leaders influencing

what the business participants, I don't say employees, because they, you know, they're on the team. They have to participate every day. They have to bring their best. But what they take home, I guess. So whatever they learned at the office, they could take home. And hopefully we've got some good education going on. So two things there, if I could, right? So number one, why I'm saying.

promoting and talking about the book and everything so much is because I do believe that we as small business owners, everywhere I go, because I live in the Philippines, I travel all over the world, and everywhere I go, I hear the same thing. People are complaining. They're not happy with society. And whatever society they're living in, there's a problem, there's a this, there's a that, there's, and they're all looking to someone else to solve that. problem for them, right? And I believe that we as small business owners, we have the ability to change the world because no one else, no other group of people touches more people per day than small business owners. And so if we can be better leaders, ergo the education system,

we can affect society as a whole. That's number one. Number two, I also think when you're getting back to the education question. And when you asked it, I was thinking about it in terms of major population areas, you know, the U.S., the U.K., etc., etc., etc., etc. Yeah. But I do believe that there are going to be some developing nations that recognize this and start to change the way they train their populations. And that's going to cause a wealth redistribution.

Interesting. Well, I mean, it's, I think you're right, because, the reality is with Starlink and therefore the internet, anybody, any place, if you can get on Starlink and you have somewhat of a piece of technology in front of you, you can make a difference. Yes. And where you're from, even what you have access to doesn't matter as much as it used to. who you have access to doesn't matter. Now, obviously, you're not going to become Elon Musk. However, wealth redistribution,

we're going to see more developing and poorer nations rise because of ingenuity of thought and the access now. We finally have access and we have the power to be able to create for the first time. Like truly create. because, you know, and I was talking to somebody about that earlier today,

it's like the reality is all we're seeing right now is what we've seen before. We saw this with the web. We saw this with industrial revolution. We saw this with the printing traffic. We can go all the way back. It's just the same thing all over again. The big difference this time is the democratization of access to the ability to create. Yep.

You're right. I mean, it's you can create it. I mean, it's additive manufacturing. You've got AI. I can ship you from Denver to the Philippines in an instant the blueprints to print something on a 3D printer. And you and I can have the same product in front of us instantly. Yep.

It's crazy. But it's really the only holdback. And I love that you talk about this. There's only one person holding us back and do it. this, right? Hold up the mirror, folks. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, so I just spent the last month on the road meeting and going through and doing many retreats with all of my team. And, you know, I started with, hey, I'm going to give you a gift in this. And it wasn't about concede. I'm going to give you a gift in the next three days. It's going to affect the rest of your

life because what I gave them was a new way of thinking and a new way the way I'm seeing AI and what you see the minds open because that's my entire point to them is you can be whatever it is you need and want to be the only thing holding you back is you like that your willingness to ask the question and that's the thing and I've also come to to realize that it's not that people don't know the questions to ask they're unwilling to ask the questions they want to to ask. Oh, everybody listen to that again.

That's perfect. Okay. It's that willingness to actually ask the question. And is that out of fear? 100%. 100%.

I had someone in one of my workshops say this who says, I'm afraid that Claude is going to judge me. You just can't laugh at him. that way.

Right? Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, again, you and I grew up not caring what judgment was. It was about, you know, okay. You beat me in the race. I'm going to turn around and go, nice job. You beat me in the race. I better get you next time.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. But yeah, we are, a lot of people are afraid to just ask the question. Interesting. So that permeates through our businesses then also. Takes us back to step one. They're afraid to ask questions because either they don't want to hear the answer or they don't want somebody to make them feel like they are dumb about it or whatever.

Or accountable. Ooh, yeah, the A word. Right. Yes. It's on both sides. That's the two sides of the same coin. Yeah. Right.

And why they don't want to ask the question. but that's the key. And so let's go a little bit further than just even the delegation drive in the book. The book teaches the leader how to ask the question, but now we got to teach them how to ask the questions and how to express those things, right? For me, it's a core value. We have a, we've always had a core value of curiosity as King and I define curiosity by the questions that you ask.

Curious people ask questions. You can't be curious and not ask questions. Right. right and so i baked it into our core values that we live love that right and for all of us as leaders we have to find a way to bake it into our culture whether it's core values or some other way bake it in that look you've got to be curious ask the question ask the question ask it i love that this is this is really gotten deep into the heart of leadership atiba this is amazing Our listeners want to know where they can find out more about you.

Where can we find you online? Yeah. So you can find the book on the DelegationTrop.com. And then you can meet me at meet atiba.com. I love that. And you spell your name, A-T-I-B-A. Correct. Okay.

Atiba DeSuzza. This has really been an amazing conversation. I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom with us all. I mean, people pay a lot of money to get coached by you. and, you know, we're getting a little dose of it here. So everybody makes sure you check them out online. Atiba, I have a question. I ask all of the amazing leaders on Start with a Win.

And that's, how do you start your day with a win? So it's changed. Okay. It used to be with a journal that, you know, from the night before and now. But now I have clawed as my thinking partner, AI, brain second. And so I start there in the morning now of, okay, what do we got today? Oh. Right. And it knows and it's tracking every project and everything. And so it's able to then help me understand what's important today. I like that. I like that. I like that.

That's, I mean, you, you start right up with the conversation with your, your AI self. Yeah. That's, that's amazing. Everybody, this is a new one over, what, five years or so. We haven't not heard this one yet. So I appreciate the insight ativa. Yeah, unique and new. Unique.

I'll take it. We got to have you back, man. I want to dig deeper on some of these things with you. This has been an incredible conversation. So I appreciate your time today. Everybody, make sure you watch the video on YouTube and on Apple Podcasts. Now have video. So check us out on there.

Atiba DeSuzza, any closing statements for our amazing audience? And listen, you've spent the time listening to us. And it probably resonated with you. And it resonated with you because you know you were called to greater leadership than what you're doing right now. You know it. You can feel it. You can feel that pank. inside of you. And the thing is, it's not that far. It does take a commitment. It does take

dedication, but it's not that far. And you can do it. And more importantly, your staff, your customers, your family needs you to do it. Love it. You're a leader. Yeah. Grab the bull by the horns and go after it. Let's go, baby. All right. Atiba, thanks a lot, my friend. Thank you, Adam. This has been great. All right. You have a great day and thanks for starting with a win. Thank you.