A note from Todd Eubanks, owner of Caboodle Media, on the kind of company he’s spent 20 years trying to build.
A company shouldn’t exist just to generate profit for outsiders. It should exist to lift up the people who work there, their families, and their futures.
Profit follows. It doesn’t lead.
That’s the company I’m building at Caboodle.
I know how that sounds in 2026. I’ve read dozens of business growth books, attended conferences, led training sessions, and after two decades of building this company, I’m more convinced than ever that most of them have it wrong.
I believe the people on my team didn’t sign up to be line items.
And my job as the owner isn’t to extract as much as I can from them before they burn out. My job is the opposite.
And here’s what I’ve actually watched happen. When I get that right, they do their best work, clients feel it, referrals come in, revenue grows, and profit shows up.
Not because we chased it but because we earned it.
The idea isn’t new. Simon Sinek wrote a whole book on it called “Leaders Eat Last” – love that guy!
His argument, backed by research on everything from the Marine Corps to high-performing companies, is simple: ‘the leaders people actually follow are the ones who put their people first. Who take the hit before their team does. Who eat last, not first.’
And honestly, the idea goes back a lot further than Sinek. A carpenter from Nazareth taught it two thousand years ago. You know, ‘The first shall be last’ and ‘The greatest among you will be your servant.’
Whether you come to that idea through faith, through the Marines, through a business book, or on your own, what matters isn’t HOW you got there, it’s WHY you get there.
I believe leadership isn’t a privilege you extract value from. It’s a responsibility you carry on behalf of other people.
I’ve sat in conference rooms and watched leaders let someone below them wear the blame when they could’ve taken the fall for them instead.
I’ve heard leaders brag about needing to “bop them on the nose” or “clip their feathers” the moment one of their people started to rise.
I see you there in those moments. I’m paying attention.
And it tells me everything about who you are and what kind of company you’re actually building. Your people are watching too. And they’re deciding, in real time, whether to follow you or just to work for you.
And I believe it’s not a poster on the wall or just a mission statement. It shows up in the real decisions that we make.
Whether we take on a client whose money is good but whose behavior would grind my team down. We don’t.
Whether we invest in someone’s growth when there’s no short-term return on it. We do.
Whether I tell the truth in a hard conversation rather than dodge it to keep things comfortable for me. I strive to.
None of that shows up cleanly on a P&L. But all of it shows up in whether this company is still here, still doing good work, and still worth working for in ten years.
Profit follows. It doesn’t lead.
And the people come first.
