This episode of A Founder’s Life is brought to you by Thankz — helping founders scale with reliable remote talent. Get $1,000 off your first month by emailing founders@thankz.com with the subject line Founder’s Life.
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👤 Connect with Today’s Guest – Candy Messer
Website: https://affordablebookkeepingandpayroll.com/
Podcast: Biz Help For You
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candymesser/
Most entrepreneurs start their business dreaming of freedom — yet quickly become the bottleneck, overwhelmed, overloaded, and unable to step away.
Candy Messer, founder of Affordable Bookkeeping and Payroll Services and certified Fractional COO, knows this story intimately. For over 20 years, she has helped overwhelmed founders delegate better, build systems, free up their time, and finally take a real vacation without checking email.
In this conversation, Candy shares her journey from accidental entrepreneur → 11-person team → COO strategist helping founders reclaim their life. She opens up about boundaries, burnout, family, aging parents, health, baking sourdough, and finding real balance by empowering others. 
🔥 What you’ll learn in this conversation:
• Why founders become bottlenecks — and how to fix it 
• How to delegate even when “it’s faster to do it yourself”
• What real balance looks like in deadline-driven businesses
• How entrepreneurs should approach health, nutrition & burnout
• Why passion matters more than trends
• The moment that pushed her to go all-in on entrepreneurship
• How she built a team that can run the business without her
👉 Subscribe for more founder stories, real lessons, and honest conversations about growth, family, health, and meaning.
Chapters:
0:00 – Meet Candy & Her Entrepreneurial Beginning
1:00 – Why Founders Become Bottlenecks
3:00 – Systems, Delegation & Building a Self-Running Business
7:00 – Family, Aging Parents & Designing Work Around Life
12:00 – Health, Burnout & Finding Personal Balance
20:00 – Candy’s Philosophy on Passion & Her Advice to Founders
Website
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