Influence is not neutral. It's either creating something or extracting it. Most leaders never stop to ask which one they're doing. They become more concerned with being recognized than being useful, more concerned with protecting their position than strengthening the people around them.

The result shows up everywhere. Trust erodes. People stop telling the truth. Growth stalls. Not because the organization lacks talent but because influence has quietly shifted from building something to taking from it.

The question every leader needs to sit with is a simple one: what is your influence actually creating?

If your business can't move without you, that's not a business. That's a trap.

Adam Povlitz built Anago Cleaning Systems into a thriving franchise and spent years being the reason it couldn't grow faster. It took losing half his team, a COVID breakdown, and a complete leadership overhaul before he finally figured out that letting go was the whole job.

Hear how he turned chaos into a company built to scale and why it matters if you are building something of your own.

Do you have an entrepreneur story to tell? A point to make? An idea to share? We want to hear from you! Sign up to be a Hello Chaos guest today.

Rita Patel grew up in rural Orangeburg, South Carolina, where her parents owned and operated branded hotels. Despite growing up in the hotel industry, Rita initially wanted to steer away from it and pursued a major in interior design during college.

After college, Rita attended grad school for architecture and met her husband, Marcus. However, after graduation, they faced challenges finding work as architects during the recession. As a result, they moved back to Rita's hometown and began working in her family's hotel business.

Your Next Big Connection Is Already in the South.

If you're building something in the South, the contacts and community around you matter as much as the work itself. Dig South is the South's Tech Hub, connecting founders, investors, executives, and creatives across the region through world class events, a thriving member community, and content that tells the South's innovation story.

Through the Dig South Tech Summit, Charleston AI Summit, and the Dig Nation membership community, Dig South gives entrepreneurs direct access to the people and opportunities shaping the South's tech economy.

If you want to be in the room where it's happening, this is the room.

Ready for a new ride? Carolina Foothills Federal Credit Union offers auto loans with rates and payments built around your budget, not a big bank's bottom line.

Investors face a dilemma. When the S&P 500 finished its worst quarter since 2022 last month, diversifiers like bonds and bitcoin fell too.

Even with the turnaround in mid-April, analysts at Goldman Sachs and Vanguard have projected low-single-digit annualized returns from 2024-2034.

Bloomberg asked where experts would personally invest $100,000 for their March monthly edition.

One answer that surfaced for a second time? Art.

It's what billionaires like Bezos and the Rockefellers have privately used to diversify for decades.

Why?

Thanks to the world's premier art investing platform, now anyone can invest in works featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso, without needing millions.

Shares in new offerings can sell quickly but...

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^{*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.}