Ep. 549 - Cabochon Group COO Josh Post - How To Break Through Burnout With Essential COO Growth Tips
Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief with Cameron Herold
Second in Command with Cameron Herold
4.9 • 224 Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Are you tired of feeling trapped in the chaos of scaling, with too many projects and not enough clarity on what actually drives growth?
In this episode, host Cameron Herold sits down with Josh Post, COO of Cabochon Group and longtime COO Alliance member, for an emotionally raw, practical conversation about breaking out of operational overwhelm.
Josh reveals how he went from reluctant family business leader to proven integrator, leading turnarounds, managing conflict, and creating systems real teams can actually use. From delegating all the right things to mastering financial fluency, you’ll get the strategies and truth bombs most COOs wish they had known at the start.
If you’re hungry to escape burnout and unlock your next level as a second-in-command, listen now to avoid the expensive mistakes nearly everyone makes while scaling. This episode delivers unfiltered wisdom you won’t find anywhere else, and the urgency to take action before chaos catches up with you.
Timestamped Highlights
[00:00] – Why most owners don’t know how their business really makes money (and what to do about it)
[03:25] – The journey from accidental entrepreneur to turning around failing operations
[06:00] – Exclusive lessons learned surviving and thriving inside – a family business
[10:19] – How Josh navigated a tense partner buyout and instantly simplified everything
[13:46] – Choosing the right leadership roles: birth order, strengths, and painful missteps
[16:09] – The only books and frameworks that actually moved the needle (and why “just-in-time learning” beats old-school reading habits)
[20:22] – From swinging hammers to overseeing finance – demystifying numbers when you’re not a CPA
[26:42] – Weekly pulse meetings, candid conflict, and the real CEO-COO dance
[29:04] – How fractional COO work revealed the true bottlenecks in small business growth
[33:13] – The most costly mistake COOs make (and how Josh trains owners to finally be “all in”)
About the Guest
Josh Post is an industry-recognized Business Turnaround Expert and Fractional Chief Operating Officer who specializes in business recovery, optimization, and rapid growth. Between his position as a COO with The Cabochon Group of Companies and his work as an Independent Expert, he manages a diverse portfolio of over $57 Million spanning several industries.
From streamlining operations and accounting to marketing and even acquisition, The Cabochon Group of Companies is the ultimate business support hub where businesses can access a unified strategy from a single source of seasoned professionals that provide a comprehensive, integrated experience.
As a Fractional COO and Business Advisor Josh leverages his expertise to provide businesses with targeted, one-on-one guidance on the critical challenges threatening operations. Through resources like his signature business assessment, the Business MRI, he’s able to hone in on the root issues, tailoring strategies that work.
He credits the COO Alliance for helping him to overcome imposter syndrome, teaching him how to harness his strengths as a Galvanizer and Enabler to drive execution and momentum at scale.
🔗 LinkedIn | Website | Company
Mentioned Resources
- Canadian Association of Family Enterprise (CAFE)
- John Maxwell (Servant Leadership)
- Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan
- EOS/Traction
- Ryan Deiss, Roland Frasier
- Scalable
- Simple Numbers by Greg Crabtree
- Bob Gavreau CPA
- QuickBooks
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
Important Links
- Connect with Cameron: Website | LinkedIn
- Explore the COO Alliance - The World’s Leading Community for Seconds in Command
- Get Cameron’s book: Second in Command: Unleash the Power of Your COO Book
- Take his course: Invest In Your Leaders Online Course (Use promo code PODCAST10 before the end of the month for 10% off)
- Chat or video call with AI Cameron via Delphi
The Second in Command Podcast is an original production hosted by Cameron Herold. Brought to you by COO Alliance. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For me, the first thing is to understand the business, the levers, how the model, how the business itself functions, how does it make money? Most business owners don't know how their own business works. Once they understand it, then it's like, okay, we're not done. Actually, why don't we tell the team how this thing works, right? This is the one thing you can do. Once you sort of have the model figured out and that works, then it's really about the next step for me is leadership, right? So, okay, so who's leading this thing? |
| 0:22.0 | Most business owners don't spend enough time working on their business. that's really about the next step for me is leadership, right? So, okay, so who's leading this |
| 0:21.6 | thing? Most business owners don't spend enough time working on their business. |
| 0:30.6 | Welcome to the Second in Command podcast, produced by the C.O. Alliance and brought to you by its founder, Cameron Herald. |
| 0:39.1 | In the Second in Command podcast, we talked to top COOs who share the insights, strategies, and tactics |
| 0:45.6 | that made them the chief behind the chief. And now, here's your host, Cameron Herald. |
| 0:54.7 | All right, our guest today is Josh Post. |
| 0:57.4 | Josh is the C-O-O of the Cabot-Chon group. |
| 0:59.8 | He's also a C-O-O-O alliance member. |
| 1:02.6 | Josh translates visionary goals into operational reality. |
| 1:05.7 | He grew up in a family business, |
| 1:07.2 | and he now oversees cross-functional execution |
| 1:09.4 | and ensures the company's advisory and acquisition |
| 1:11.7 | arms operate with discipline, cohesion, and clarity. Under his guidance, Cabocheon helps |
| 1:17.0 | businesses refine processes, align teams, and unlock sustainable growth. He's also got deep |
| 1:22.5 | experience as an integrator and a former executive. He's led organizations through growth phases, |
| 1:27.3 | transitional challenges, and turnaround scenarios. He brings expertise across organizations and finance, |
| 1:33.0 | human resources, and sales, enabling him to design systems at scale while preserving |
| 1:37.2 | accountability and team health. He's also certified in the five behaviors and |
| 1:41.7 | disks, tools that he leverages to align leadership, |
| 1:48.9 | foster culture, and strength and communication. You'll love this episode. Lots of really good nuggets in here. We'll see you on the inside. So Josh, welcome to the Second and Command |
| 1:55.5 | podcast. Thanks for having me, Cameron. Appreciate it. Yeah, looking forward to it. Another Canadian, I grew up a little further north than you are. I grew up in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. You're growing up near Guelph, Ontario, a place called Allura. I've actually been there, tiny town. What's the population of Allura? I'm not sure. I just know it triples on weekends. Would it be a couple thousand people, though? It's pretty small, isn't it? Yeah, that's pretty small. Yeah, a couple thousand sounds bit right. Yeah. So how does somebody from a small town like that end up running a business that you're running? Yeah, that's the question I probably still ask myself more days than not. I grew up in a family business. My pop started construction business back in 74, so we're 51 years now. |
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