Otto Bohon learned about business long before he earned a title. Growing up in Tucson, Arizona, he spent his childhood working in his family’s restaurant business. By the age of nine, he was helping wherever he was needed, and by twelve, he was learning payroll and seeing how every part of a business fit together. Watching his immigrant father build a successful restaurant group from the ground up taught him that hard work matters, but strong systems matter even more.
Although Otto dreamed of playing professional baseball and competed in football and martial arts, he found himself drawn toward business. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Arizona before completing an MBA with concentrations in Finance and Marketing. His career began at Wells Fargo, where he quickly advanced from teller to Private Banker before becoming an independent Financial Advisor.
After building a successful practice managing approximately $500 million in assets, Otto realized his greatest strengths were not just in finance but in operations, leadership, and helping organizations grow. He sold his practice and transitioned to executive leadership and consulting, eventually serving as Chief Operating Officer at SIM and later as a Senior Advisor at Affinex Capital. Through his consulting work, he has built training programs, operational systems, and business infrastructure that have helped organizations scale while creating more than 500 jobs over the past five years.
Away from work, Otto enjoys spending time with his wife and four daughters, exploring new forms of art, and adding to his collection of rare collectibles. He believes that the strongest leaders never stop learning and that the best businesses are built by helping others succeed.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
No two days look exactly the same, which is one of the things I enjoy most about my work. Some mornings start with strategy sessions with leadership teams. Other days I’m reviewing operational reports, helping redesign workflows, or coaching managers through challenges they’re facing. I try to begin every day by identifying the two or three decisions that will have the greatest impact, rather than immediately reacting to emails. Once those priorities are clear, everything else becomes easier to organize.
I also block time to think. Many people believe productivity means staying busy every minute, but I think leaders need uninterrupted time to solve problems. Some of my best ideas have come during a quiet hour when I wasn’t sitting in another meeting.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I rarely start with technology. I start with a whiteboard.
When someone brings me an idea, my first question is usually, “What problem are we actually trying to solve?” Once we agree on that, I map out the process before we build anything.
Growing up in my family’s restaurants taught me that every idea has to work in the real world. If a process only works when one person is standing there explaining it, then it isn’t ready yet.
I like testing ideas on a small scale before rolling them out to everyone. Small experiments create better feedback and fewer expensive mistakes.
What’s one trend that excites you?
What’s one trend that excites you?
Artificial intelligence has incredible potential, especially in operations. I don’t see it replacing people. I see it removing repetitive work that keeps talented employees from focusing on bigger problems.
If technology can summarize meetings, organize information, or automate repetitive tasks, then leaders have more time to coach employees and improve the business. That’s where I think the biggest opportunity exists.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
I write everything down.
People assume productivity comes from remembering more. I think it comes from remembering less because you’ve built a system that captures important information.
I keep running notes, action items, and project lists throughout the day. That frees my attention to focus on solving problems rather than remembering them.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell myself not to confuse being busy with making progress.
Earlier in my career, I believed working longer hours automatically meant I was creating more value. Eventually, I learned that one well-designed system can accomplish more than hundreds of extra hours of effort.
I would also remind myself to ask for help sooner. There are people who have already solved the problems you’re trying to figure out.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I think companies hire too quickly and train too slowly.
Most businesses spend months trying to find the perfect candidate, then expect that person to figure everything out during their first week.
I’ve seen people with very little industry experience outperform experienced professionals because they were given better systems, better coaching, and clearer expectations. Talent matters, but the environment matters just as much.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
I ask questions.
Whether I’m meeting with executives or someone working on the front line, I want to understand how things actually happen instead of how people think they happen.
Some of the biggest operational improvements I’ve ever made came from conversations with employees who were doing the work every day. They usually know exactly where the bottlenecks are.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I simplify everything.
I’ll stop looking at the entire project and focus on the next decision that actually moves the work forward.
When businesses become overwhelmed, it’s usually because they’re trying to solve ten problems at once. The same thing happens to individuals.
Once you solve the next important problem, the path usually becomes much clearer.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
One strategy that has consistently helped me is learning every part of the business before trying to improve it.
I started working in my family’s restaurant when I was nine years old. I wasn’t making big decisions then. I was bussing tables, watching the kitchen, learning payroll, and seeing how everything connected. That experience taught me that every role matters.
I’ve carried that lesson into every job I’ve had. Before I recommend a new process or system, I spend time understanding how people actually do the work. The best solutions almost always come from listening first. When employees see that you’re trying to make their jobs easier instead of simply changing things for the sake of change, they’re much more willing to embrace new ideas.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
One mistake I made early in my leadership career was assuming everyone understood my expectations simply because I did.
I remember introducing a new process that made perfect sense to me. A few weeks later, different teams were following it in completely different ways. At first, I thought people weren’t paying attention. Then I realized I had skipped an important step. I had explained what I wanted, but I hadn’t shown people what success looked like.
That experience completely changed how I lead. Today, I spend much more time documenting processes, creating training materials, and making sure people have the resources they need before expecting results. Good leadership isn’t about having the best ideas. It’s about making sure everyone can execute those ideas consistently.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I think every growing company should create an internal knowledge library.
Most organizations have valuable information scattered across emails, notebooks, and the memories of long-time employees. Every time someone leaves, some of that knowledge disappears.
Build a simple library that contains your best processes, training guides, customer service examples, and lessons learned. Keep it up to date and make it part of every employee’s onboarding.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. The value comes from making knowledge available to everyone rather than relying on a single expert.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
A CRM platform is probably the most valuable tool I use because it creates visibility across an organization.
Most people think of CRM software as a sales tool, but I see it as an operational tool. It helps teams track communication, assign responsibilities, monitor progress, and identify where projects are slowing down.
When everyone works from the same information, decisions become faster, and communication becomes much more consistent.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
One book that has stayed with me is The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt.
I appreciate it because it teaches business through storytelling instead of complicated theories. It completely changed the way I think about bottlenecks and showed me that improving one constraint can improve an entire organization.
I still recommend it to leaders because almost every growing company eventually discovers that one overlooked process is holding everything else back.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I recently watched Drive to Survive. What stands out to me isn’t just the racing. It’s the teamwork behind the scenes. Every driver depends on engineers, strategists, mechanics, and dozens of people making smart decisions under pressure. It reinforces something I believe about business: high performance is rarely about one talented person. It’s about building systems and teams that consistently execute at a high level. .
Key learnings
- Great leaders improve businesses by understanding how work actually gets done before trying to change it.
- Strong systems and clear training create confident employees who can succeed regardless of previous experience.
- Curiosity, thoughtful questions, and listening to frontline employees often reveal the best opportunities for improvement.
- Organizations become stronger when knowledge is documented, shared, and built into repeatable processes instead of relying on individual experts.
- Long-term success comes from making steady operational improvements that help people perform at their best every day.