# Brendan Levin > Brendan Levin is an operations executive with 20 years scaling businesses and fixing what quietly slows them down, across media, fintech and B2B services. Recently building with AI, so he knows where it earns its keep and where it does not. Creator of the Momentum Engine and the Private Role Reset. Based in South Africa, serving leaders in the US, UK, and South Africa. Not coaching. Structural advisory with measurable results. ## Home Page URL: https://brendanlevin.com ### The operating structure your role now demands Executive Operating Advisor I work with first-time VPs, Directors, and senior executives whose scope has expanded faster than their operating structure. Not coaching. Not frameworks. A working system built for your specific seat. - 20+ years in senior operating roles - 200+ businesses worked with - 600+ staff managed at peak ### The Problem Most executives outgrow their operating structure before they realise it. **Decisions routing back to you.** Everything requires your sign-off. Your calendar fills before the work that matters gets space. **Progress stalls without your presence.** Initiatives move when you push them. The moment you step back, they slow down or stop. **Delegation creates rework.** You hand things off and they come back broken. It feels faster to do it yourself. That is the trap. **Influence shrinking quietly.** You are working harder than ever. The people above you are noticing, but not in the way you want. This isn't a motivation problem or a talent problem. It's a structural problem. The operating system that made you excellent at your last level is the same one that's slowing you down at this one. The solution isn't to work harder inside a broken structure. It's to replace the structure. ### Who Built This Built from inside the seat, not from the outside looking in. Before this work I spent 20+ years in senior operating roles across SaaS, media, and manufacturing. I served as Managing Director of a VC-backed fintech, where I ran the turnaround that grew revenue 150% and lifted EBITDA margins from 15 to 30 percent. I have led teams of 600 people, worked with more than 200 businesses, and built and run my own business from scratch. I have been the person in the seat. I have felt the moment when a role outgrows its operating structure and the credibility gap starts to open. The Momentum Engine is not a framework I built from research. It is the operating structure I built under real pressure, with real consequences. I now work with a small number of executives at a time. Privately, confidentially, and with complete focus on their specific situation. Credentials: - 600+ staff managed across senior operating roles - 20+ years in senior operating roles across SaaS, media and manufacturing - MD of VC-backed fintech, full P&L accountability - Founder: built and operated own business from scratch ### Current Work: How I work with executives I work with a small number of clients at a time. Every engagement is private, confidential, and built around your specific situation. Not a programme you slot into. If you want to explore working together, start with the Private Role Reset. It's designed for speed. You'll know within the first week whether it's the right intervention. **Tier 1 (4 Weeks): The Private Role Reset** (Now open) For first-time VPs and Directors whose role has expanded faster than their operating structure. One focused initiative. A working operating structure. Delivered in 30 days. Built on the Momentum Engine: The Private Role Reset isn't a tactic, and it isn't a framework off a shelf. It's the Direction pillar of the Momentum Engine, a complete operating model built on the three forces every executive role runs on: Direction, Decisions, and Delivery. We start with Direction because that's where a stalled role unblocks fastest. One pillar, installed properly, is enough to move the thing that's stuck. ### Case Snapshot: What the work looks like Here's the pattern, drawn from the executives I've worked with. A newly promoted VP, three months into the role, capable on paper, promoted because she earned it. In practice her role was breaking down quietly. Stuck in escalation loops on at-risk accounts. C-suite trust eroding. Calendar full, influence shrinking. Working harder than ever with nothing visible to show for it. The problem wasn't effort or capability. Her scope had outgrown her operating structure. Over one quarter we cut 11 competing priorities to one stabilisation vector, engineered one visible executive-level win, and rebuilt how decisions and ownership flowed through her role. Results: - Customer churn rate: Halved - Escalation frequency: Dropped - C-suite trust: Rebuilt - Seat stability: No longer fragile All engagements are private and confidential by design. Your colleagues, your manager, and your C-suite don't need to know you're doing this work. They'll notice the results. ### Start Here If the role feels heavier than it should, the structure is the problem. The Private Role Reset is a 4-week private engagement for first-time VPs and Directors. One focused initiative. A working operating structure, installed in 30 days. A full refund if you don't see what's breaking after the first session. Private. Confidential. Limited to 10 active clients. --- ## The Private Role Reset URL: https://brendanlevin.com/private-role-reset/ ### Your First Domino. Moving in 4 weeks. Without you as the bottleneck. ### You weren't promoted to be the bottleneck. This isn't a motivation problem or a talent problem. It's a structural problem. The operating system that made you excellent at your last level is the same one that's slowing you down at this one. **Decisions always routing back to you.** Your team waits for you to weigh in on things you shouldn't own. Nothing resolves below your desk. **Progress stalling without your presence.** Meetings don't move without you in the room. Work slows the moment you step away. **Delegation creating rework.** You hand things off and they come back broken. It feels faster to do it yourself. That is the trap. **Influence shrinking despite working harder.** You're doing more than ever but your impact is less visible. The harder you push, the less it lands. ### What this is Not coaching. Not frameworks. A working system built for your specific seat. The umbrella method is The Momentum Engine: three pillars called the 3D's. Direction. Decisions. Delivery. The Private Role Reset delivers Pillar 1, Direction, standalone, in four weeks. It is not the whole methodology. It is the first pillar, complete on its own. ### Four weeks, four modules **Week 01: Role Diagnosis.** Map the operating reality. Select your First Domino. You leave with: The Diagnosis. **Week 02: Compass Drafting.** Draft the one-page Compass. Hand the Domino to an owner. You leave with: Executive Compass + First Domino Plan. **Week 03: Alignment Conversation.** Align your manager on the Compass and the plan. You leave with: Conversation Framework. **Week 04: Direction Assembly.** Assemble the system. Install the rhythm you run yourself. You leave with: Operating Rhythm + Four-Week Audit. The outcome: Your First Domino. Moving in 4 weeks. Without you as the bottleneck. You keep all of it. ### Inclusions - Pre-work call (30 minutes) locks your First Domino before Week 1 begins - Four 1:1 working sessions (the four modules above) - The Executive Compass, one page, yours to keep - The First Domino Plan - The Manager Conversation Framework - An Operating Rhythm you run after PRR ends - A direct line for questions between sessions - Day 45 audit (30 minutes) verifies the work held Your colleagues, your manager, your C-suite don't need to know you're doing this work. They'll notice the results. ### The operator behind the work I've spent 20+ years in operating roles across SaaS, media, and manufacturing, most of it with full P&L and a board to answer to. As Managing Director of a VC-backed fintech, I ran the turnaround: revenue up 150%, EBITDA margins doubled from 15% to 30%. Running operations for a scaling B2B business, I installed the operating rhythm that took a delivery center from 23 to 90+ people in eight months, alongside a 350-person global workforce. I've flattened a corporate hierarchy into a matrix and cut executive meeting time in half. The Private Role Reset is the structure I've installed seat after seat to stop the work snapping back to the person at the top. Built from inside the seat, not from the outside looking in. The method isn't something I read about. It comes from how operators actually describe what's breaking, not how coaches describe it. PRR installs the first part of it, Direction, in four weeks. You work directly with the operator who built this. Not a junior coach, not a program. Me, in your specific seat, for four weeks. ### Investment $1,500. One time. No retainer. Weigh that against what the problem costs. A strategic initiative worth $1M, frozen for three months, is a quarter of a million in lost progress, and that's one initiative, one quarter. $1,500 is a rounding error against the cost of the thing staying stuck. The price is what it is because the work is bounded: four weeks, one to one, direct. Not a retainer, not an open-ended engagement. ### Risk reversal: Your protections **Session 1 refund.** If after the first session you don't see clearly what's breaking in your operating structure, you get a full refund. No questions. **No stuck initiative, no charge.** If you can't name a stuck initiative to work on in the pre-work call, the engagement doesn't begin and you're not charged. **You keep the Compass.** You keep the Executive Compass regardless of outcome. **Day 45 audit.** The Day 45 audit verifies the work held; if it didn't, I keep working with you until it does. ### Urgency Ten active clients at a time. I deliver every engagement myself. When I'm full, you wait. And the timing is structural: months four to twelve in a new role is the window where this work has the most leverage. After that, the patterns calcify. The longer the initiative sits frozen, the more the role calcifies around the freeze. ### What happens after 4 weeks The Private Role Reset is complete in four weeks. You leave with the Direction pillar built: a one-page Executive Compass, a First Domino Plan with a real owner who isn't you, a Conversation Framework that aligns your manager, and an Operating Rhythm you run yourself. That's a standalone outcome. You can stop there and keep all of it. A continuation exists. The Momentum Engine Accelerator builds the other two pillars: Decisions, where decisions start resolving below you, and Delivery, where work moves through the team instead of through you. It's $3,000 if you continue directly from the Reset, $4,500 standalone, and it's scoped in week four, not before. It isn't pitched in cold outreach. It isn't the reason the Reset exists. If the Reset does its job, you'll know in week four whether you want to keep going. Most people decide on what the four weeks actually produced, not on anything I told them up front. --- ## Executive Momentum Diagnostic URL: https://brendanlevin.com/executive-diagnostic/ ### Your role got bigger. Your system didn't. For newly promoted VPs and Directors only. A seven-minute structural audit for the first 6 to 18 months of a new role, when the cost of staying tactical is highest and the window to install a real operating system is open. You earned the promotion. The strategic mandate is real. But your week still looks like the one before the title changed: back-to-back tactical meetings, putting out fires, in the weeds on work your team should own. That's not a discipline problem. It's a structural one. Your role expanded, but the operating system you built to survive at the previous level is the same one consuming your time at this level. This diagnostic audits the structure. You'll see where your time is going, the cost of that drag, and the first move that compounds. ### Five outputs you'll receive in writing 1. **A map of your week.** 40 hours allocated across five executive activities: strategic vs tactical, leadership vs in-the-weeds. 2. **Your strategic capacity, in percent.** The exact share of your week spent on the work that earned you the role, and the share you're losing to drag. 3. **The annual cost of inaction.** A clear dollar figure on the operational drag carrying over from your previous role. 4. **Your first domino.** The single structural decision that, if made this week, unlocks compounding capacity. 5. **A tier-specific reframe.** A read of where you stand, with one clear next step calibrated to your result. ### A note from Brendan I built this for the executives I work with privately: VPs and Directors in the first 6 to 18 months of a new role. There's no upsell at the end. You'll get an honest read of where you stand, in writing, in your inbox within minutes of completing it. --- ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who is the Private Role Reset for? First-time VPs, Directors, and senior executives in the first 0 to 18 months of an expanded role. The role outgrew the operating structure. Decisions route back to you, progress stalls without your presence, and delegation creates rework. ### Is this coaching? No. This is structural operating work. Not mindset, not motivation, not accountability. The Private Role Reset builds a working operating system for your specific seat. ### What is the Momentum Engine? The Momentum Engine is a complete operating model built on three pillars: Direction, Decisions, and Delivery. The Private Role Reset delivers the first pillar, Direction, standalone in four weeks. ### What is the Executive Compass? A one-page document that captures your strategic mandate, your First Domino, and the operating rhythm for your role. You keep it regardless of outcome. ### What is a First Domino? The single stuck initiative in your role that, if it starts moving, creates the most compounding value. Identified in Week 1, delegated to an owner (not you) in Week 2, and moving by Week 4. ### How much does the Private Role Reset cost? $1,500 one-time. No retainer. I keep ten active clients at a time, because I deliver every engagement myself. ### What if it doesn't work? Full refund after session 1 if you don't see what's breaking. If you can't name a stuck initiative in the pre-work call, the engagement doesn't begin. The Day 45 audit verifies results; if they didn't hold, work continues until they do. ### How long is the engagement? Four weeks of active work, plus a Day 45 audit to verify the results held. ### Is this confidential? Yes. All engagements are private and confidential. Your colleagues, manager, and C-suite don't need to know. ### What industries does Brendan work with? Brendan's experience spans SaaS, media, manufacturing, fintech, and B2B services. The methodology applies to any executive leading a team in a growing organisation. ### Where is Brendan based? South Africa, serving clients in the US, UK, and South Africa. --- ## Contact - Website: https://brendanlevin.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlevin - Book a call: https://cal.com/brendan-levin/me - Apply for PRR: https://brendanlevin.com/private-role-reset/apply/