On this week’s episode, Jana sits down with Nicolas Breedlove, CEO of NVB Playgrounds, who built a national business without a traditional blueprint, and then had to rebuild it after a major breakdown in trust.

Nicolas takes us into a pivotal moment early in his company’s growth, when a trusted employee exploited internal systems, stole leads, and created competing distributorships behind the scenes. What started as a scaling challenge quickly became a crisis of trust, culture, and leadership.

What followed wasn’t just damage control, it was a complete reset.

Nicolas was forced to make hard decisions: cut entire teams, rebuild relationships with distributors, and confront the reality that the failure wasn’t just operational, it was personal.

This episode breaks down:

• Why lack of systems and oversight creates hidden risk during growth
• How trust, once broken, impacts every layer of a business
• The difference between building a big company vs. building the right one
• Why leadership requires evolving your identity, not just your strategy

Nicolas also shares how he rebuilt the company from the inside out, from implementing better systems and surrounding himself with stronger operators, to redefining culture and committing to personal growth.

Because at the end of the day, scaling a business isn’t just about growth.

It’s about becoming the person capable of leading it.

Where to find Nicolas:

• linkedin.com/in/nicolas-breedlove

Where to find Jana:

• https://janaaxline.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/janaaxline/
• Instagram: @unstoppableleaders
• TikTok: @jana_axline