Running a business shouldn’t feel like running on a hamster wheel — and that’s exactly the belief that drives Debra Angilletta, founder of Next Level CEO. A former Wall Street trader turned business strategist, Debra helps entrepreneurs gain clarity, confidence, and control over their numbers so they can make smarter decisions and build sustainable profits. Through her proven frameworks at Next Level CEO, she empowers business owners to stop chasing revenue and start leading their companies with strategy, focus, and freedom.
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Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward scale to billions and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It’s incredible to see your comments and were just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Welcome everybody to the buildings podcast where you guys’ successful entrepreneurs and investors on the journey from millions to billions, and we believe the key to scaling and compounding wealth starts every single day with the mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. I’m Brett Swarts, and each and every episode we join and have with us amazing guests who join us to share their secrets and wisdom. They’re entrepreneurs, they’re millionaires, they’re billionaires, and they’re going to give us some great insights today. In fact, our next guest is out of New York. She is the CEO of next level and founder of next level CEO, and she had a cool, really background, amazing background, of 30 years on Wall Street, and she helps high performing leaders optimize their cash flow, grow their profits and scale successfully. You know, a lot of a lot of businesses have bookkeepers and they even have CPAs for taxes, but many lack strategic financial guidance to drive growth. That’s why I’m excited to have our next guest on the show. Please. Welcome to the show with me, Deborah Angilletta. Debra,
Debra
Great. Brett, how are you today?
Brett
Fantastic. Great to see you, and for our listeners, getting to know you for the first time, would you give
them just a little bit more about your story and your current focus?
Debra
Yeah, thanks so much. Well, you know, it’s so funny getting out of school. It was quite the journey. But I wound up getting into starting off in banking, moving on to financial planning, and eventually I made myself my way to Wall Street, which was great. It was such a great time. And this is probably back the early 2000s it was the heyday of Wall Street, and boy, did we make some money back then. So, I gotta say, while people we had a really, really big bonuses that we got every single year, and while a lot of people were spending them on brand new houses in the Hamptons, I was actually taking my bonuses and investing them in single and duplexes and multi-level properties. So, by the time I got out of Wall Street, I had accumulated a nice portfolio for myself, decided to leave and then started my own business from there.
Brett
Well, that’s fantastic. What a great background. I like the diversification and not just staying within like traditional Wall Street investments. You went into investment real estate on your own, which is fantastic. And we’re gonna be talking about scaling eight players today. So, but before we go there, Deborah, I’m kind of curious, what, what would you what do you feel like, like Deborah, superpower, if he she had a superpower growing up, or super strength? What is that? And then, how does that? How does that
help? How you help people today?
Debra
You know, it’s so funny. The one toy that I loved when I was a kid was a cash register. So let me tell you, my superpower is finding money. So, I mean, its, its back to basics, right? So basically, what I do, since I’m a fractional CFO at this point in time in my life, I’m really good at finding money in companies. And it doesn’t matter if you start out at 1 million and you scale up to a couple 100 million, there’s always that gap of money that’s kind of hanging out there. And where I find it a lot of times is that if you have a lot of turnovers and a lot of churns with employees, you’re paying for these employees for years and years and years, and you never catch it. And thats where I find a lot of money for companies,
Brett
Excellent so cash flow, finding money, managing money, and uncovering strategies to be more efficient with money. I love it. So now let’s dive into the to the podcast episode focus today, which is scaling with a player. Players. Before the episode you’re talking about, hey, a lot of companies, you are sometimes they, they don’t get back to the basics of scaling with a player, and they become the bottleneck. So, what is, what is the number one secret to for the for the head of the company, the founder company, to get out of their own way and is scale with a player?
Debra
Yeah, absolutely. So, it’s a couple of different things here. So, I think even as you scale, it doesn’t matter, right? You always, as a CEO, you have to make sure you’re not the smartest person in the room. I think that’s really important. And sometimes that’s a little tough for CEOs, right? Because they’re the strength, they’re the visionary everybody, they’re the leader of the company, but you always want to make sure never make never fall in the situation where you are the smartest person in the room. So always surround yourself with really, really great people. So, this gets into the eight players. So even as you scale, and I know a lot of people get affected by this, is the fact that even if you started out with some people that were really, really great at this level. They may not be great up at this level. So really unwinding from some of those employee employer relationships can be really, really, super hard, but so necessary, because if you’re growing with if you're growing in the company, they have to be able to grow with you, and if they're not, you’ve got to unwind from that.
Brett
So, if you like this little, short clip of the. Interview I just did. Click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forgets to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody. You
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About Debra Angilletta
Debra Angilletta is the founder and CEO of Next Level CEO, where she helps entrepreneurs turn financial chaos into clarity and sustainable growth. With over 20 years of experience in finance and business strategy — including a successful career on Wall Street — Debra brings a unique blend of analytical insight and real-world business expertise to her clients. Her mission is to guide business owners to become confident leaders of profitable, scalable companies, without sacrificing their time or peace of mind.
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