What's Really Holding Your Business Back?
Usually it's the small thing nobody's checking. The one part everybody walks past because it isn't on anybody's list. At 17, mine was a seat buckle on a Navy helicopter that wasn't on the checklist, and I've seen it in a company where one person kept turning customers away so she could leave early. You can't scale something if there's a leak, so this week, change seats and look at your business from somebody else's chair.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026 · 10 minutes
I wouldn't sign my name
Chapters
0:00 What can one loose screw cost you?
0:41 What did the Navy flight line teach me?
3:00 What happens when nobody checks the small stuff?
4:21 What do you do when nobody wants to hear it?
5:50 Who does the work nobody claps for?
6:41 How did bad customer service nearly sink a company's name?
8:40 Why can't you scale with a leak?
8:55 What happened right before your last big decision?
9:28 What's your move this week?
10:02 Where's your loose screw?
The small thing nobody's checking
The leak is usually small, and it's usually not on the list. That buckle wasn't on my training list. Nobody ever asked me to check it. I found it because I sat in every seat and pulled on it like I was the one flying.
Nobody claps for the screw that got caught. The pilots got the applause and the awards from the admirals, standing right up front, while the people who kept them in the air stayed in the back. Same with a CEO.
I've watched one person cost a company its name. The owner was out there making it happen and the product worked. One person deciding what customers got based on her own schedule is what gave that company a name for bad service.
You can't scale something if there's a leak. Something can't fill up with a hole in the bottom emptying it out. More leads and more spend just run out the same hole.
If you can't remember what happened right before your last big decision, that tells you something. From one seat, it's hard to see what it looks like from another seat. That moment right before is where you catch it.
66%: sales up in 24 months at the firm I partner with.
Every word, between us
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0:00 What can one loose screw cost you?
I was in charge of multiple lives, literally, because one screw would have taken the whole mission down. One screw would have cost more than just the mission. It would have literally cost lives. So one bad move can take down the entire company.
So this is Between Us.
I'm Noël Tarquinii, and I've sat in the CHRO, the CEO, the CAO and the COO chairs, as a partner and as a founder. And now I help make sure the people who are already great at their job can take more ground against the people who are outperforming them, without outspending them. I help them see the whole board.
0:41 What did the Navy flight line teach me?
So when I was a young teenager, it was my first duty station in the Navy, and I was assigned to search and rescue. What that meant for me was I had to go out every single morning and do a full setup and check of the helicopters.
Going out in the morning, it was very dewy in California. It's misty, it's hot, it's sticky. And going out to the helicopters, this slate gray, huge machinery with these large propellers that extended well beyond the body of the helicopter itself, little old me had to go out there onto the flight line and make sure every single part of that helicopter was operational and working before the pilot stepped foot onto the flight line.
And after the inspection was done, before the pilots came out, we had to do a FOD walk [foreign object debris]. We stood in a line, literally shoulder to shoulder, with our eyes pointed at the ground. What we were looking for was any object at all. A paper clip, a screw, a pen, a piece of paper, candy wrappers. Anything at all was considered a foreign object, because anything on the ground could easily have gotten into the engines. I wasn't even allowed to have gum on the flight line, because of the risk of something falling on the ground.
So I got so great at this, so great that I could have literally taken the helicopter apart and put it back together. I could do that because of the level of detail, and because I knew what screw went where. And when I say thousands, I'm not even kidding. There were thousands and thousands and thousands of screws, every little part.
Next time you're sitting in your seat on an airplane, seriously, look out the window at the wing and see every single screw on it. And know that every single screw on that wing has a screw underneath the screw.
3:00 What happens when nobody checks the small stuff?
I caught an actual malfunction in a seat buckle. This was not on the training list. We were never asked to check it.
I would literally sit in the seat of the pilot and the co-pilot and so forth. I'd sit in every single one, and I'd buckle in as if I were them. I'd adjust it, buckle it, and do all the things they'd normally do to make sure they were safe, adjusting the seat belts and making sure everything locked. Then I'd make that jerking motion, as if there was a hard stop, and literally put pressure on it.
And when I did it this one time, the seat buckle unbuckled. And I was like, "Huh, maybe I didn't snap it in." So I'm moving forward, I'm doing it again, and all of a sudden it comes open again. And I'm just like, "What's happening here? Why is this coming open?" So I get up, I turn around, I put it there again, I'm putting pressure on it, and it happens again.
When they go up, we're talking about four lives, and that's not including the people they're going out to rescue. If they're flying over a highway, for example, the people on the highway are in cars, and there are hundreds and thousands of cars and houses and everything else on the street below. So if that helicopter crashed, it wasn't just the crew. It wasn't just the people they were rescuing. It was also the people around them in the city.
4:21 What do you do when nobody wants to hear it?
So I immediately had to call that down. I had to let the commander know that this aircraft is down for safety. We are down. I had to let them know it was not safe, and I could not sign my name on it to release it to the pilots, because it was an unsafe aircraft to go into the air.
And again, remember, this is little me, talking to all these bigwigs, all these captains and commanders, people in charge of entire fleets in the Navy. I'm a fixer. I'm an executor, and that's what I learned in the service.
So I'm having these conversations with them, and I'm like, "If you all continue to go, I'm gonna go to the admiral, because that's my responsibility. I'm going to keep escalating this to another level until you're hearing me, and I'm not gonna sign my name. And I know by the statute that you can't assign a pilot to physically get into this aircraft without my name on the signature. You're not able to do that. And no one else is going to go behind me and sign off on this, especially now that I've flagged it as an issue."
It was a real big-ass deal. No one could believe it. My coworkers, my friends, they were like, "I cannot believe you went into the commander's office and had a discussion with the captain and the lieutenant colonel. I cannot believe you actually did that." And I was like, "Well, I didn't have a choice. They left me with no choice."
It's not up to me how somebody receives a hard truth, but it is my responsibility to let them know when I've found something.
5:50 Who does the work nobody claps for?
No one claps for the screw that was caught. I can't even tell you how many times I completed the inspection, found so many things wrong, and elevated issues. What they clap for is the pilots. Literally, when the pilots came back, they got a mini round of applause. The people standing up and getting the awards from the admirals on the front line were not people like me. It was the pilots, because the pilots were the front of the line.
And that's just like a CEO. The CEO is the front of the line. They're the face of the business. They're the brand. But people forget there's a whole lot of other things being done in the background to support that CEO and to support the business.
6:41 How did bad customer service nearly sink a company's name?
So I've seen this happen in a company. I've seen an employee lose that screw, and the impact on the company was devastating.
Real quick. That screw I just talked about is what owners and founders don't see. So I have an assessment, and it only takes about four minutes. You'll see your score, how you're holding up against your competitors, especially the ones who grow faster than you and the ones bigger than you, and then you get my quick read on it. If you want that scorecard, go to workplace-intelligence.com/score.
I remember this employee took it upon herself to make executive decisions about customers when they would call. And the decisions she made were based on her own schedule. So if she was getting off early and the request would've taken five extra minutes, she'd turn it down, and that would just be the end of the conversation. If she was going on vacation and someone needed something while she was out, she just wouldn't respond. And she wouldn't pass the log, as we say in the military. She wouldn't pass the log down to the next person. She'd just let it go.
So eventually, this company got a reputation for bad customer service. And it was not because the owner wasn't kicking ass and taking names. It wasn't because the salespeople weren't out there making their calls. It wasn't because the product wasn't as advertised. It had nothing to do with any of that. It had everything to do with this one person who took it upon herself to make executive decisions, and that literally cost the entire business. They had to do an entire reputation overhaul, almost like a relaunch, to get their name back.
8:40 Why can't you scale with a leak?
Because there's no way for you to scale your business, there's no way for you to scale your operations, if you've got a leak. You can't scale something if there's a leak. Something cannot fill up if there's a hole in the bottom emptying it out.
8:55 What happened right before your last big decision?
So let's talk about the catch it moment, right before, when you can feel something happening. Think about the last decision you made that had very large implications for your business. What actually happened right at the moment before you made that decision?
And if you can't remember, that tells you something. You need to take a moment, because that's gonna tell you a lot more about your own story and your own journey than anything anybody else can teach you. And if you're only in one seat, it's hard for you to see what it looks like from another seat.
9:28 What's your move this week?
If you only do this one thing this week, it's gonna help you. And that one thing is to look out. Instead of looking in, look out. I want you to change seats. Sit in somebody else's seat. It can be anybody else in your company, but I want you to change seats.
That's what we call in the military BLUF, bottom line up front. Nothing's gonna happen until you zoom out.
10:02 Where's your loose screw?
The thing that rubs you wrong, and you fly anyway? That's your loose screw. Find your loose screw in your business. And if you need help finding that loose screw, come find me at workplace-intelligence.com and hop on a strategy call with me today.
I'm Noël, and this is Between Us.
Straight answers
How do I find what's holding my business back?
Start with the thing that rubs you wrong and you keep going anyway, because that's usually your loose screw. Then change seats for a week and look at the business from somebody else's chair. From one seat, you can't see what it looks like from another.
Can one employee really hurt a company's reputation?
Yes. I watched one person turn customers away so she could leave early, and when she went on vacation she didn't pass the log to anybody. That company ended up with a name for bad service and had to almost relaunch to get it back.
Why can't I scale my business?
Usually there's a leak somewhere. You can't fill something up when there's a hole in the bottom emptying it out, so more leads or more ad money just runs out the same hole. Go find where it's running out before you pour more in.
What does a consigliere do for a business owner?
A consigliere is the one person you tell everything to. No agenda but yours. I see the whole board, and I tell you the truth before you move. The decision stays yours.
Got a big decision coming?
That's what I'm here for.
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