Allison Maslan – Unlocking the Secret Sauce to Escaping Overwhelm and Scaling 7-8 Figures | S2 Ep. 183

0:05Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Founder Story. Today, we have Alison Maslin. And Alison, you and I met on Clubhouse.

0:30exactly how you've helped them and the tips, the secrets, all the things that you've learned. But you are also a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the book Scale or Fail. And I know you've helped so many people over over 15 years. And we're going to extract all of that knowledge today. But before we even dive into that, Allison, what was the spark in your life that made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur? Well, I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family, starting with my grandfather. I had a women's clothing store in Kansas City and then my father expanded that across the United States over 50 women's clothing stores.

1:10So as a kid I used to go with him from store to store and I thought this was so exciting. So I started my first business when I was 19 years old and I went on over 40 years to build 10 of my own companies. and so really business has been my life. Wow that's amazing. Did you find yourself going into the same industries or did you find yourself doing completely different ones? You know they're all they were all different. Everything from advertising and marketing to scuba diving to jewelry to software and real estate. I just I'm one of those passionate entrepreneurs that like to bring ideas to fruition.

1:58But in the early days, I experienced firsthand, like a lot of business owners out there, the stress and overwhelm of trying to figure out how to run and scale a company. And even though I had a small team, I thought that I had to be the end all of everything and have my eyes on everything. And this is something that so many business owners struggle with. And I ended up having with that first business many years ago, a car accident that, that almost took my life just from the exhaustion and the stress of trying to manage it all. And I realized back then, Dan, that I needed to transform from being that operator in the business to being the visionary CEO and to really scale the business.

2:50And from that obsession of trying to figure this out in those early days, I was able to then go on and build several other companies that didn't depend on me, where I was able to build a team-managed company, a sustainable, healthy company for myself and the team. And in the process, I realized that about 95 % of other businesses out there, business owners, were struggling with the same issues. And so that's what inspired me in 2010 to build Pinnacle Global Network. And we solve those issues for business owners. And we have built now what's recognized as the premier CEO network globally. And like you said, helping over 150 ,000 CEOs to grow and scale their business and to reclaim their life.

3:48Yeah. People go into business thinking it's like, it's the most sexy thing because I am going to have total freedom. I'm going to work four hours a week and I'm going to get rich and it's going to be amazing. I think that's how most people go into business. And we realize it's totally the opposite of that. Most people in business are probably living almost on like what would be considered poverty line at this point in many states, in the U.S. at least. Right. What do you find, though, is the thing that holds people back the most? Yeah, I think like you were saying, you get into business, you want to create more freedom and ends up the business is really running you into the ground.

4:29And they may have created something remarkable, but they find themselves working 60, 80 hours a week. they're stuck in operations, where they need to be focused on the future. I mean, ideally, the way a successful company should be structured is that it's founder independent. And but we're so afraid to let go. We feel like we've got to have our eyes on everything. And we're choking the growth of the business. And when we do this, there's three things that end up happening. You hit a revenue ceiling. There's only so much of you to go around. So you're going to get hit a wall and we think, oh, I'll just work harder.

5:13But there's no more hours in the day. Then you've got this company that's totally dependent on you. So let's say you go to sell it one day. Well, it's not going to be valued at very much. And you've just put your life into this business. And that's why only 17 % of businesses are saleable. And then the third thing is that they really lack a proven roadmap for scaling. And so they're zigzagging, chasing after this strategy and that and losing a lot of time, energy, and money. And so that's, you know, these are the things that we solve at Pinnacle Global Network, giving them a clear, proven roadmap to build that team managed company, to multiply their growth, and to give them their life back.

6:05I think we all want those three things that you mentioned, by the way, energy, time and money are what's going to help us live to 140 years old, hopefully. So I'm curious about the mindset shift of somebody when they're in the six figure range, mark revenue to the seven, to the eight, to the nine, what are you finding is that mindset shift that needs to happen? Yeah, well, the mindset really, Dan, is absolutely everything. And we are creatures of habit. And so what we do, what we do, and we do what we know. And oftentimes, business owners are trying to operate the way they did in the early days, and just stretch that as they grow.

6:50And they have to really move from being a boss to being a leader and empowering the team into action. Now, there's five clear phases of scaling a business. Would you like me to share those with you? Please, I would love to. Yeah. Thank you. Because I think that will help to even clarify this mindset piece even more. So in phase one, When you're the startup, it's all you. And that's an exciting time. You're passionate. You're excited to get your ideas out into the world. But there's no scaling that's happening here. Everything is dependent on you. And we all start there. So everybody goes through that startup phase.

7:31And then you get into what I call the pioneer phase. This is phase two. And in the pioneer phase, you are in the mid six figures of your business. Let's say around$500 ,000 in revenue. So you're starting to build a small team and you are in the thick of, you know, you're getting your hands dirty. You're out on the planes and you are optimizing your products and services and you're getting more clear on your ideal target market. But the challenge is that you're so afraid to let go. It's your baby and you're afraid to trust this team and you have a lot riding on it. You have a lot of expense, a lot of people depending on you.

8:15And so you feel like that you have to be a bit of a control freak. And so oftentimes, business owners get stuck in the pioneer phase and never leave. And this is why they don't, the business really doesn't grow. You think you're helping, but you really are hurting the business overall. all. Now, if the business continues to grow and you start adding more team members, then we're going to get into phase three, which I call the ringleader phase. And the reason I call it the ringleader phase is because it's a bit of a circus in phase three. And you might think, well, Allison, could we just skip phase three altogether and hop on over to phase four?

9:01But it's kind of like those awkward teenage phase, we all have to go through it. And I mean, there's good things that are happening in phase three. You're getting more clear on your vision. You're putting systems and processes in place, having regular meetings and so forth. But the biggest mistake that business owners make in this ringleader phase is that you're bringing people on the team before you're clear what success looks like. And again, you feel like you have to be the hero and you've got to answer everybody's questions. A lot of that same fear, that mindset piece of, oh my gosh, if we make a mistake, the whole thing is going to fall apart.

9:41I have a hard time finding good people. These are some of the stories that these business owners are telling themselves. And so you bring on people and they're not really clear on what success looks like. They may not be clear what the vision is and what they're really reaching for. So you have a frustrated business owner because the employees, maybe they're not hitting their mark, but a lot of times it's because they don't really know what that mark is. There's no real strategy behind that. And so this is where that hamster wheel starts and the business owner starts to burn out. They start to get health issues.

10:22They start to have relationship issues. Even divorce is not uncommon with entrepreneurs because they become so obsessed. You know, you wake up with it. You probably, you probably know what I'm talking about. You wake up with it. It's on your mind. You're off to the races until you fall asleep, you know, hit the bed at night. And this really is not what's going to help you run a successful business. It's the story that we tell ourselves. And so what happens to switch that, to move on to phase four, which we call the co-creator, you've got to start building a more collaborative company with the team.

11:04It's no longer top down or even bottom up. It's horizontal. You're building the company with your team and you're, instead of constantly answering their questions, telling them what to do. You are saying things like, well, what would you do in this situation? Why don't you put a plan together and present it to the team? And they start tapping into the brilliance of the team and realizing that they don't have to be the decision maker, the rainmaker, and the everything maker. And you start shifting from being that boss to being that leader. And now you start seeing leaders emerge on the team, those shining stars that can take the vision and run with it.

11:49And then you as a CEO can start to slowly step back and move into phase five, which I call the visionary role. That's phase five, where you have this founder independent company. You now have a life. You can actually go on vacation and not be on your email 24-7. Trust your team and it's going to start growing so much faster. And I can just give you a quick example of that, like a few of them actually. Marshall Doyle came to us. He'd been running his company for 20 years. He had not taken a vacation in 20 years. He was working 60 to 80 hours a week in his machine calibration company. and he had 35 employees, but he had his hands in every area of the business.

12:42And we said, Marshall, we are going to extricate you from the day-to-day of the business. And he said, he laughed like, ha, ha, ha, ha. Like this, how is this possibly going to happen? And within three years, he took that business to the nine figures, moving that into the nine figures, well over 200 employees. He also went from working 60 to 80 hours a week to needing to attend one meeting a week. And he was able to acquire actually 35 other companies because now he had the time to be the visionary CEO of the company and think about how many people he's able to help and employ and make a difference in their lives because he was able to focus on that.

13:32And so now he gets to spend time with his wife and actually take those vacations and spend time with his grandkids. So it really is about having that support and the strategy and the community and the tools to get you there. I often hear and thank you for sharing all that. I've experienced those things. I've talked to other people who have experienced those things. And it is, it can be very scary thinking about giving up the control to somebody else. Because I think our fear is always, we can do it better, like you said, even though most of the time, they probably could do it a lot better than I was like, we, you know, we are the thing that gets in our way.

14:18When somebody is, when you are looking at or when the people that you're helping when they're looking at finding that person, because I think maybe that is something that we also don't know how to do is as entrepreneurs. How do we find that person? Is it promoting from within getting from the outside? What is it that you're looking for when you're trying to find basically your replacement? Yeah, so it's such a great question. And this is something that we really work with our clients on in Pinnacle Global Network is to lay out a strategic plan. First of all, we need to figure out where are you spending all of your time?

14:57And, you know, what is really sucking the life out of you, basically? And what are you able to outsource or, you know, hand off to somebody else that that is their superpower? And so once we can delineate those things, then we can determine who are the team members that we need to hire and when do we need to do those. Because we can't do it all at once. We may do some in Q1, some in Q2, some in Q3. And then when you're clear on who those people are, now we want to start putting the message out there. Now, one of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is they just place an ad and they put the skills that they are desiring and what's required of the role.

15:46And now they have just put themselves out there with thousands of other job postings that are asking for the same thing. And so you've got to stand out just like you do in your marketing. And so when you think about your employees, these are human beings that are looking for a home. They're going to be spending more time in your business than probably time at home. And so they want a place that they feel appreciated. They want to find a place that has a mission and a vision that they feel they can be part of and that they can contribute to and truly make a difference. So when you're posting those ads or putting it out on social media or emailing it to your list or asking for referrals, you want to lead with culture and vision and mission.

16:44before you even list what you're asking for in the role. Because then you will start to attract those people that are also in alignment with that. Because if you have a team of highly skilled people, but they're not in line with the vision, you're going to have a team in chaos. And that will often sabotage a company. So it's not just putting people in a position. it's really having the right strategy to find those people. And what happens is that if you get someone that is the right fit for the company, it's going to be passionate and all in. Not only do they completely pay for themselves, but they fuel the growth of the company to a whole other level.

17:33They're actually driving revenue for the business. and so by not bringing them on, you're actually losing money. Wow, as you're talking, I'm thinking about, okay, lately I've been dealing with this issue and these are the things that have been frustrating me and I really need to hire someone to do it because I've been trying to figure out ways I can do it better, but the reality is I should hire someone to do it. So this has been really inspirational and transformative just listening to you right now. I couldn't imagine also being a part of your group. And I know a lot of people that are a part of the group that you have and all the people that you've helped.

18:14You've built an incredible personal brand and you've seen just how important that is. Where did that all start and how do you see building up this personal brand? How have you seen this help your business? Well, branding and marketing for every business is super important. And we work with, you know, hundreds and hundreds of CEOs. They'll come to us and they may have built a decent business based on referral, but it only is going to get them to here. So you can imagine if you have a decent business, you've come to here. If you were to put that fuel of marketing behind it, your visibility is going to grow massively.

18:52And I was blessed that in my first business was a marketing and PR firm right there in San Diego all those years ago. And so I learned the premise of marketing was really about sharing your mission with the world. And it's also about making sure that your customers understand that you get them. And so, so many people over the years have said, Alison, your story is my story. I was that overworked or I am that overworked business owner. That is the pain that I'm in. So you just got to be real. And those people that are yearning for that same thing or needing it, or they're up at three in the morning stressing about it, they're going to be drawn to what it is you're speaking about.

19:46And those that are not, then they're not. You don't need to serve everybody. So you want to make sure that you're speaking to that customer. I just have developed this brand over the years. I've had a podcast for many years. But it's also not just building the personal brand. It's important that you build your champion brand of the company. So if you are just building the personal brand and people don't understand the brand of the company, because for us, Pinnacle Global Network, what really sets us apart is that we have a team of close to 40 high-level CEO mentors that have all built multi-million dollar companies that work with our clients all over the world to help them scale.

20:33We match them to them. And so it's not just about Allison out there doing this thing. It really, it's important that you also get the message of your team out there. And that's what's also going to help you build that team-managed company so that you can step back and be the visionary focused on the future. If it's just all about you, then you will always be the end all. So it's important, Dan, that you have the balance of the two. I've seen that because I've seen you build up your personal brand, author, all the things that you're doing at the same time, simultaneously building up the company.

21:13So it's not like, you know, one, I think a lot of people, one is offset. Either they're building up the company, but not building themselves or building themselves. When you realize you need to hire, it's usually already too late. I've been there wasting weeks waiting for decent candidates. If I had used Indeed, I could have hired way faster. So when it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed, sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster.

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22:27Just go to indeed.com slash founders story right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash founders story. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. and I have no idea what they do. So they're obviously not building the company part. I'm curious, and thank you for sharing that, by the way. I'm curious on the impacts of AI when it comes to, there's all this talk around having less employees. It's like the one person company to hit a billion dollars. Like that's like waiting for that to happen. I don't know why even the billion dollar mark is always this thing that most of us, like we're probably not going to hit is.

23:13I don't know why we always think about unicorn, but how are you, or what are you feeling about the impacts of AI, good and bad to the future of companies? Well, look, we have to embrace it. You know, when the internet came on, those that said, ah, it's just a fad, if you remember that. And then everybody got on and, you know, we had the dot-com bust and so forth. But I think that obviously we can't fear it. We have to walk towards it. I mean, there's so much unknown for all of us. But there are some amazing things about AI that can help us become so much more efficient, move faster, further. and it will allow us to do many things without so much overhead, which is often makes it so difficult for business owners to to grow and thrive.

24:08Now, I also feel one of the things that I love about business is team. And personally, the idea of being by yourself building a billion dollar business. Well, look, I wouldn't turn it away, but it also is so much, so rewarding to bring people along and we all grow together and we all make an impact in the world together. I think that, you know, our scale it method, which is our proprietary method that is runs across all industries to help them scale. We have the tools and the strategies. The I and the T represent innovation and technology. And so we've very much incorporated AI throughout our whole company and in our software to make us more efficient and, you know, be even more creative and so forth.

25:04I think what we are going to be craving is human connection. And it's lonely at the top for business owners already, even before AI came on the scene. And so I think it's super important to as much as we are embracing AI is to surround ourselves with other business owners, other leaders that get us and that can support us through the process. And so I think it's the best of both worlds. And that's what we do at Pinnacle Global Network. I can really appreciate that. It's like there's like an intrinsic value or the internal benefits and gratification of seeing other people be successful. Those people making money and then maybe they buy a home and then maybe they have a family or they get to take the vacations.

25:58I'm with you. That to me is almost more gratifying than seeing myself do it. And it's always nice to see where employees go and then they go and work for another company and then they continue to be successful and then you see them 20 years later and it's really an amazing feeling. Because you're right, it is very lonely. Founders is so very lonely. And a lot of people I know are depressed. And it's like they're making more money than ever. They're hitting revenue milestones, but they're miserable. They're burnt out. They're working too much. And they're quite sad. They're getting divorces. And it's quite messy.

26:38So I'm glad that there's something there within your organization that you've created. And you've really dedicated yourself, your life. your teams have dedicated themselves to helping you know hundreds of thousands of people so if they want to get in touch with you they want to find out for more information because i know there's maybe millions of people that need to be in it how can they do so yeah well i just want to say you're absolutely right and there's so much life out there and business can be fun and it can be rewarding and you can help so many people and so we're we're about scaling businesses but we're also about transforming lives.

27:16And that's really what Pinnacle Global Network is all about. And so if people are interested in learning more, you just go to our website, which is pinnacleglobalnetwork.com. And if you want to speak to one of our CEO strategists, they'll actually do an assessment of your business and determine what phase you're in and what gaps are holding you back and help you get more clear on the vision that you want to create and the steps to get you there. Well, Allison, this has been amazing. Four and a half years later, you never know who you're going to see again or meet again. That's the great part about life.

27:55But thank you so much for joining us today on Founder's Story. Thank you so much.