The Fit Check: The Unscalable Work That Builds Great Teams 

One Insight

Gary Vaynerchuk once said,

“Scaling unscalable behaviors with the human beings that most matter to your outcome is disproportionately the most important thing a CEO can do.”

This is not true just for CEOs, it’s true for anyone who wants to make a big impact.

These aren’t things you can optimize or hand off. Your capacity is limited, but your responsibility isn’t, and when you do these things, they’re effective.

A vulnerable conversation.
A word of encouragement.
A moment of honest feedback.

Those small choices can move the needle more than you think. They take time and energy. They don’t always fit neatly into your calendar or checklist, but they’re the things that make teams stronger, keep customers longer, and make the work feel meaningful.

At Black Kanyon, we talk a lot about our Core Values, the 9 Principles of Exceptionalism, and the 5 Foundations of Team Health. None of these are implemented and maintained easily. They take patience, consistency, and care, but they are what make us effective.

You can automate a process, but not trust.
You can scale output, but not ownership.
You can be efficient without being effective.

But that’s not who we are.

This week, the challenge isn’t to move faster, it’s to:

Slow down and figure out what will truly move the needle.

Notice the moments that matter and take action.

Focus less on checking the next box and more on creating impact.

-EJ Drake

One Story

When Gary Vaynerchuk talks about “scaling unscalable behaviors with the human beings that most matter to your outcome”, he isn’t talking about theory. He’s describing how he built everything.

In the early days of Wine Library TV, Gary personally replied to thousands of emails and tweets from customers. No automation. No assistant. Just him. It wasn’t efficient by any stretch, but it was incredibly effective. Every reply created a connection, and those connections built trust, loyalty, and momentum that no marketing system could match.

But what’s more interesting is how he applied the same principle inside his companies. Gary makes time for the unscalable moments with his people: handwritten notes, direct feedback, and check-ins that have nothing to do with business. He listens, celebrates, and challenges with honesty and care. He invests time, where most leaders default to speed.

That’s why his culture works. His employees feel known. They feel valued. And they feel part of something bigger than their job description.

It’s the perfect picture of effectiveness over efficiency. You can’t build a culture people love with systems alone. You build it through real, human connection. It’s slower, but it’s stronger. It doesn’t scale easily, but it endures.

That’s the kind of impact we’re building here, too.

One Question

The results and culture we are after are not built on policies or systems, they're built in moments – small, unscalable moments where we take action to make a lasting impact.

What’s one thing you could implement into your schedule that doesn’t scale, but could make a lasting impact?