Turning Chaos into Cash: CEO Triples Company Profits |Scott Ritzheimer

#027:  Scott Ritzheimer is an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record of successfully starting and scaling over 20,000 businesses. His extensive involvement in the startup world has provided him with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable business growth. Scott's journey of overcoming profitability downturns and tripling the bottom line within a year showcases his expertise in navigating complex business landscapes. His commitment to empowering founders and CEOs to achieve predictable success through strategic restructuring and leadership development is evident in his impactful journey. With a focus on offering actionable strategies and insights, Scott's experiences resonate with entrepreneurs at different stages, providing a factual and insightful perspective on sustainable growth and effective delegation.

00:00:00 - Scott's Background and Business Journey
00:02:00 - The Challenge of Declining Profitability
00:05:53 - Transformation and Success
00:08:30 - Cutting Business Offerings and Helping Others
00:09:54 - Entrepreneurial Stagnation and Growth
00:12:16 - Getting Oriented in Business Stages
00:13:30 - Finding Your Business Vision
00:16:27 - The Illusion of Scaling
00:17:52 - The Journey of Business Growth
00:20:24 - Client Success Story: Overcoming Business Overrwhelm
00:25:27 - Delegating Operations and Sales
00:26:22 - Delegating Sales
00:27:21 - Knowing Your Stage
00:28:00 - Finding Joy in the Journey
00:31:11 - Reaching Out to Scott

Scott Ritzheimer's Link:
IG: scottritzheimer

Dylan's Links:

• 🎙️Podcast: BusinessConfessionsPod
• 📽️YouTube: @BizConfessions
• 📷Instagram: DylanWillx
• Linked-In: /dylan-williams

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Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan

Transcript

Track 1: 0:00

You've helped nearly start 20, 000 businesses, Scott, what do you do?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 0:05

It's a crazy number, isn't it? I almost have to pinch myself when I hear it because it just, it sounds outlandish. it was a ton of work. but what I do now is actually what I was able to figure out building on that. So in 20, 000, I spent a lot of time in startup world. And I was generally of the oak that if you start the thing, you get it on the right tracks. It's going to, you're going to give it the best set of, chances of success. And so As we're working through this, we're launching, organizations in scale. I had, I'd never built my own business before. So it's we're helping, we're like a step ahead of a bunch of our clients. and as we're growing, we're having continued success in launching organizations, but the game started to change for us internally. And, and it started, It started to get hard again. everyone gets that it's hard when you launch a business, right? It's the same thing in non profits as well, actually. We did a lot of those. It makes sense that getting something off the ground, starting something from nothing is going to be challenging. But what totally caught me off guard was about seven, eight years later, when it was It started to get really hard again. we were still winning the top line game. we were at this point, we're adding almost, not almost, we were adding over a million dollars in revenue every single year. And if you said to anybody, Hey, you can add a million dollars in revenue every single year, they'd be like, yes. Please sign me up for that, because that's about what it takes early on. you win the game by adding revenue and then, it's simple enough that even if you get it wrong, you can fix it, get it out the door and still make some money on it. Once we get, once we had this level and it was about 50 employees, give or take, it was a few less actually for us, we started bumping into something that I couldn't put a finger on for years, actually. And where it showed up first was in our bottom line. So our top line is still climbing. We're still bringing in, clients, still doing great work for our clients. But each year for about three consecutive years, our profit dropped by six, seven percentage points, like significant drops.

Track 1: 2:13

Of

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 2:23

wives just that

Track 1: 2:24

course.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 2:24

our budget the next year was like, we're going to double our profitability, and somehow if you make a budget that automatically makes it happen.

Track 1: 2:30

Yeah. Okay.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 2:31

so we get about halfway into the year and it's not looking great. And We start having ideas and like the leadership team's trying to figure it out. We're throwing everything that we

Track 1: 2:39

Okay. Okay.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 2:59

most industries, especially for ours when we were used to the mid twenties, as our normal operating window. And. What's really hard about it is not just 7%, it's that we had thrown everything that we could think of at it for three years, and it was still going down, and by this point we finally got the idea that

Track 1: 3:18

Okay. Okay. Okay. Keep it going.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 3:47

a business before. So my mentor was these books that I was reading. lost more money

Track 1: 3:52

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 4:12

alone after that. one thing to not figure

Track 1: 4:15

Okay.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 4:15

on your

Track 1: 4:16

Okay? So that's one example of this. It takes a lot of people. And you can look at that as a review item as well. so I'm going to go back to the graphics here. And so this is an hourglass, and I'm going to read it. I'm going to read it. And this is a graphic that is called Jason's Paint. The purpose of this is to reveal to the audience the signal of the painting coming from Jason's painting. I'm going to read this. very much. What's up? Hey, Can you hear me? Is that So I'm going to go ahead and talk a little bit about the transcripts. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what happens when you type in something. And I'm going to talk a little bit about the stuff that's going to be included in the transcript. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the different types of transcripts that are included in the transcript.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 5:34

The problems that I were facing, that I was facing were so systemic that they were, they made it necessary for me to not only restructure my organization and deal with the challenges of the business, but also

Track 1: 5:49

right.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 6:04

had to change how I showed up. And I had to

Track 1: 6:06

So there's the you can make a video from the way it comes the video from the way it comes, and it's not that it's a key, that you have to be able to use that, so that's a great point in the middle there. Again, I find that very interesting, and it's a lot about where you want to put the video and how you want to do it and just like that by the way, in your description.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 6:28

points after that. We launched

Track 1: 6:29

yeah. I think the other part of it is the right to put the thing in your hand. The right to put it in your hand, the right to put it down. I think that's a very good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's what I think is the way to go. I think that's an important question. I think, for a lot of people that's a problem in their lives. And I think that's the right thing to do. I think that's the right thing to do.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 6:58

members. It affected every one of my employees. it affected a lot of our

Track 1: 7:01

And they come from these people, these in this, these people, these Mashup people that are here. And I think they are the reason why we are, born in this country. So I think, obviously, we have to be, we have to, I think, obviously, I think we have to really be prudent, Bye. Bye bye.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 7:24

others achieve that success without all the pain and heartache that I had rather than just continue to do it myself. So I sold that business and now I help founders become visionary CEOs. The advice that I needed all along restructure their team and their company to achieve and actually have the time to enjoy what we call predictable success.

Track 1: 7:46

Did you change any of your offering or was it just those two factors that you changed during that first business?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 7:53

That's a great question. yes, we, we did not change our core offering, but we did cut a third of our business. we just deleted it basically overnight. So that chopped off something. It was at one point, it was 45 percent of our revenue. By this point, it had dwindled down to about 20 percent of our revenue and we cut it cold Turkey. we ended up having to do quite a number of refunds on it as well. So it was a net one and a half million dollar loss. in terms of revenue and we made up all of it plus another 10 percent by focusing on our core offering.

Track 1: 8:24

So now you're helping everybody avoid this stuff and implement what you did.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 8:29

That's right.

Track 1: 8:30

Yeah. So where, and I know you've probably gone through a few different clients now, where you've seen most entrepreneurs, get stuck.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 8:37

So it's a great question and it took me a while to, to, cause it looks like a thousand different things, right? folks will get hung up on, like you mentioned, their offering or they'll get hung up on how to lead an executive team or they'll get hung up on the financial side of things. that's great. they'll get hung up on delivering consistent quality, right? Whenever you're not the one doing this stuff anymore, how do you make sure that the other people are doing it right? And it seems like we're struggling in a thousand different areas, but what I've found after looking at all those thousands that I helped launch. and looking at my own story, and now the opportunity to go deep with a handful of clients at any given point in time, I found out that there's actually one pattern that we all go through. There's one story for every founder. and what we struggle with and what causes us to get stuck. is highly dependent on and very predictable based on where we are in that pattern, where we are in that journey as a founder. so I've actually taken the time to different stages. And to answer your question succinctly, what happens is we have enough success that push, pushes us into the next stage, but we keep trying to use the tactics that gave us success in the last stage, right?

Track 1: 9:51

Yeah.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 9:52

come to me and they always say, I want to get to the next level. But when you actually ask them what the next level looks like, first, they don't really know. And as you dig deeper, they just describe their current level with less problems, right? They want to keep showing up the way that they did. They want to keep doing what they did, just less of it. And somehow their business will grow at the same time. And ironically, that's actually achievable, but it's only achievable by, by again, recognizing that the stage has changed, recognizing that how you as a founder need to show up is Fundamentally different at each one of these stages and understand what's necessary in that next stage. That's where you'll find success. So where do we get stuck by hanging on to what worked? that's what gets us every time.

Track 1: 10:34

So how are you fixing that though?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 10:36

So the first part, is, I'll use a story I like to tell, has nothing to do with business, but it illustrates my point. So I'm around eight years old at the time, right? Just go back. There's this thing, you probably recommend, remember them. They're called malls. You know what a mall is,

Track 1: 10:50

Oh yeah. I think I remember. Yeah.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 10:53

So these giant store, giant buildings. and so I'm at the mall with my mom, right? It's what every eight year old, did back, back in the nineties. And, she wants to go to JCPenney. This is the last place I want to be in the world, right? That is just death to an eight year old. So I'm looking around, scanning for something else to save me. I see a footlocker, had no ability to. Pay for any of the shoes that were there. We just didn't have the money at the time, but it was a break from JCPenney. So I'm like, let me go to Foot Locker and check out these shoes. And somehow talked her into this grand bargain that I would go there and then I'd meet her at JCPenney. So I go in, I look at the shoes again, can't buy any of them. So looking at them only keeps you occupied for, a couple of minutes at best. look at some cool shoes, take two steps out of the store and the dread hits me. I have no idea how to get to JCPenney. It's crazy. I'd never been to the mall before. It's my very first time. I'm an eight year old kid. I have no idea what to do. And my heart starts beating and I'm just frozen in my tracks. And someone must've recognized what was going on. And, and, asked me, Hey, are you okay? And I gotta find my mom. She's in JCPenney. I have no idea how to get there. Kindly walks me over to, do you remember those giant triangle pylons that they used to have inside the mall? On two sides, there'd be like these larger than life ads.

Track 1: 12:05

Yes.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 12:06

then on the third side, there was a map, right? A map of the mall. And so he leads me around to it. I see the map and big letters, one of the biggest stores, JCPenney is Yes. And so I look around and, but I still don't see JCPenney around me. It's just on the map. And so I look back at the map. I look at the stores that are around JCPenney. I don't see any of them either. And so I'm like, Back to square one.

Track 1: 12:28

Yes. I got it. We'll keep it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 12:56

to where I wanted to go. And if it wasn't for that stranger, that person who could come alongside and help me understand where I was. It was it. and where I was trying to go, I would not have been able to do it in a couple of seconds. I could have

Track 1: 13:08

Okay.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 13:09

the store. I could have figured it

Track 1: 13:10

Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to cover everything in this video, but it's of course not the first time. I did this other before. I'm pretty good at it. my friend from the Phillip Tea Trees Festival, brings the Quillaboos right to my table.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 13:30

Sometimes it's, you don't have to It's really that simple. There's just two or three things you have to do well in each stage, but they're completely different in each stage. So we help them figure out where they are, where they want to get to, and then we trace the route in between.

Track 1: 13:44

That's good. You mean, I want to touch base a little bit on this too. You mentioned even on some of them figuring out where they're at and where they want to go and where they want to go might not be scaling might not be forward. It might need to be taken back. What do you mean by that? Exactly.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 13:59

Yeah. again, this is why having these stages is so helpful, because how do you describe that without feeling like you've failed, right? Going back, we even hesitate to say that because it feels like failure to founders. and so once you can name what these different stages are, you can find, hey, what's the sweet spot for me? For a lot of people, all they need to do is be a solopreneur and make great money doing it. It's just true. There's nothing wrong about that. There's nothing diminutive about that. It's not lesser. There's no one stage that's better than the other. Just because one is chronologically later doesn't mean it's worthwhile. And so what I help folks do is get a vision for why did you actually start this business? And it's not to sell shoes or to build houses or, that's not it. That's just a mechanism for what you're doing. What are you going after? Because if they just wanted to have some freedom and make a little bit more money, there's lots of ways of doing that. You don't have to be a 10 million company to do that. But if it was to change the way homes are built in the Southeast, then we've got something to go after. You're not going to do that as a solo. We take the time to just take a step back and say, what, why is this meaningful to you? Because up and to the right, businesses get bigger. They don't get better. you're trying to grow your business just so it's easier, it's not going to happen. And so we get a real clear. And then basically what I do is help them decide, hey, Whatever your vision is for it, now which of these stages is actually going to move you toward that vision the fastest? How far do you have to go in this journey to reach the vision that you have for your company? And again, once you lay it out, once you give those stages names as opposed to just feelings, it becomes so much clearer what you need to do.

Track 1: 15:53

Yeah, I've seen, you always hear a lot of people get into the entrepreneur, game and, A lot of them want to build something for freedom, or your extra money. And then ultimately for financial freedom, and scaling, a 10 million company is not freedom. that's six times harder than a job, and take away your time. you want time and freedom, but you're devoting so much more than what you're actually getting it, what you're thinking you're getting into. So that's cool that you guys Can actually nail that down and talk about that at least,

16:27

Guys, real clear. Think about this. Share this episode with someone. It could create an ideal and you'd be responsible for that. You never know what opportunities that could create. All right, guys, I'll let y'all get back to it. Thank you.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 16:43

yeah. and here's the truth, scaling to, scaling a 10 million business actually can be freedom. there, there are lots of folks, if you do it right, if you get to the right stage to do that, it's awesome. it's really cool. My, our ability to scale, once I figured out how I was showing up incorrectly, it was so much easier to add millions to our bottom line than it was to even just keep our bottom line free. flat. Once I knew how to show up, the challenge of it is, again, there's seven stages. you can succeed in stage two doing your solo thing and you can scale in stage five. As a CEO, there's a huge gap in between. Stages three and four are really tough. I call them the reluctant manager, and then you graduate, you think you're moving up and to the right, you find yourself stage four is the disillusioned leader. It's not a pleasant journey between those two if you don't understand what's going on. and it's not that. you're doing something wrong that makes it hard. It's that you're doing the right thing. Things and what's right is changing and that's what makes it hard. And So once you understand that valley isn't that you're doing something wrong, it's that you need to adapt and evolve, it becomes a much more fulfilling and dare I say, joyous process. but you have to have a vision for where you're going and you have to have a vision for what that journey is actually going to look like along the way.

Track 1: 18:09

like that. So you've got, are you're helping so many different businesses here. How have you narrowed down what to address in certain businesses and then also being broad enough to where it applies to all businesses?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 18:27

Yeah. Yeah. I always end up sounding like a broken record about this part of, of a podcast because I'll, I just continue answering it the same way. And that is, You have to go super broad if you don't know what stage they're in, right? Because you gotta, at least 14 different strategies, you gotta dump on them and see what fits. by being able to narrow down what stage they're in, by being able to narrow down what stage they need to get to, we can whittle away at just an enormous volume of things that they need to do. and what it takes is actually pretty much the same across most organizations. Now, some of the variables might be different, some of the team members that you need to have come on, some of the skills and competencies, but most home, let's take home builders, for example. Most home builders that are struggling to scale up, it's not because they don't know how to build a home. It has nothing to do with the technical skills that are required. They're struggling because they don't know how to show up as a CEO. And in fact, they're focusing too much on how to build the home that they haven't figured out how to build their business. And so when it comes to the type of work that I do and helping founders navigate these different stages, it's the same seven stages for all of us. the same seven stages for, for a home builder, for a roofer, for a tech startup, for a nonprofit, right? All of them follow those same seven stages. So for me,

Track 1: 19:50

it'll lose its own color Okay, so what I would do is just likely know where it is but not that, not always in the encoding layer. So if I have a thick layer that have color and partioned at their ones where one component is missing, I can modify that, modify the decoding layer.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 20:07

going to be in the ballpark of about a million to 15 million dollars in revenue, maybe 25 for some. and so because of that, I know, and my marketing is leading in people who have that problem set, we can really drill in. Without having to say, I only work in one industry, I can still drill in on only just a couple of problems and help them achieve, the breakthroughs that they're looking for in those areas.

Track 1: 20:31

I'd love to hear about, can you talk about it like a past, past client and kind of, where they're at, what they got stuck on, and then where they're at now.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 20:41

Yeah. So I had a client, Caitlin, she, she works up in Pennsylvania, has a recruiting company, a lot of direct outreach and during COVID recruiting was just a crazy world, right? Just blew up. And, about the same time that her world was exploding in terms of growth. Her dad got really sick and she was pulled out of the business. And so it highlighted for her something that we're all facing, but she had the bonus, you could almost say of the additional time pressure to show, Hey, there's really something wrong. So when we first met, she was totally crispy. Like she, she always smiles, right? She's got that entrepreneurial smile. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but it's like a big smile with like pain behind it. it's like you can, a couple of minutes into the conversation, you can tell. Yeah, she's a happy person, but she's going through a really difficult time. she felt like she had to just pick the whole business up on her back, right? If anything went wrong with a client, she had to dive in and fix it. she was responsible for 95 percent of sales. the first coaching session we had together, I had to tell her to turn off her Slack because I was getting distracted by the amount of notifications she was getting,

Track 1: 21:49

Oh,

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 21:50

that whole, the whole time. And it's just nonstop. She couldn't get away, right? And you mentioned this earlier. Why do most people start businesses for freedom and autonomy? She was anything but free, right? Just totally. and she is sitting on the back of, they had doubled in a single year. that's what you want as a business owner, right? We brag to each other about how we doubled in a single year. And so she's sitting there thinking, if this is what doubling looks like, I don't want

Track 1: 22:16

Yeah. Yeah. so much for joining us today, and we hope to see you again next year. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 22:38

I promise this is true. You may not believe me yet, but I promise this is true and we'll get there. is that she

Track 1: 22:43

Okay, Eh,

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 22:50

still remember as a Friday, she calls me up and, she sounds a little concerned, but I couldn't quite tell why. and she's Scott, we just had our biggest month ever. And then we had our biggest month ever again. And I have nothing on my schedule today. was like, what do you mean? She's I have no appointments that I have to have today. and there's no fire. there's nothing that needs my attention. Is something wrong? I'm like, no, something's not,

Track 1: 23:15

it's not it's not like it's free. All of these things don't happen before the content is updated. Because, this is, it's been edited for about three weeks, and it's been revised and it's been it's not, it's not. So I wouldn't be able to upload this if it was a week or two. it should have been, like, it should have been updated a week or two.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 23:37

points while she was doing it. And now she's got a leadership team that's built around her. she loves the sales process. So she's all in on sales, has almost no other responsibilities and is having the time of her life.

Track 1: 23:50

Sounds like she delegated a lot, one, and two, the leadership team probably had a lot to do with that on that end.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 23:57

It did. But the question that she had, and because we can say delegate until we're blue in the face, but what do you delegate? What are the things that are appropriate to let go of? and to be fair to founders, when you're a solopreneur, or you've got a couple people around you helping out, you don't get to delegate a whole lot, especially when stuff goes wrong, you have to jump in and fix it. But what happens is if we keep growing, and you try to keep diving in and saving the day, you don't scale, right? that's not possible. So we had to figure out what are the right things to delegate? Who are the right people to delegate it to? And when that goes wrong, because it always goes wrong, how are we going to respond in a more productive way, as opposed to just taking it back and buying the lie that it's all up to us?

Track 1: 24:46

Yeah. What were those right things to delegate in this, in that circumstance?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 24:51

So for her, in her specific circumstance, she had someone who had been at her side through almost the entire time she'd run the company. she was just a Jedi in recruiting. couldn't sell something probably to sell her, to save her soul, But she knew her stuff, technically awesome. And, and so we put her in that second command position and delegated all operations to that. So anything that went wrong went to her second in command, not to her. And that felt really scary, felt really risky because, her second in command, we call her Jen, just names here. But, didn't, like she wasn't super polished. She didn't have, she wasn't exactly like Caitlyn, right? they were different people and it took some understanding on, hey, what is Caitlyn's way? What is Jen's way? What is our way of doing this? So delegating operations without abdicating responsibility was a really big piece for them. A mistake that I see folks make in this stage is to delegate sales too quickly. You hand off sales and a couple of things go wrong. Either it doesn't work and you gave them all your leads and you didn't follow up on them and now you have zero dollars in revenue, or sometimes even worse, it does work and they start selling a ton and then they represent 95 percent of your income and not you and something goes off in that relationship and now you've created your biggest competitor. So there are right things to delegate at the right time. and everything can be delegated. Almost everything can be delegated eventually, but you have to know what you're going to get the highest leverage from at each point.

Track 1: 26:32

And then know when to put those steps or measures in, in, in place as well.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 26:38

That's exactly right.

Track 1: 26:39

Yeah.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 26:39

we're working on delegating sales for her. So she's built up operations. It's doing great. She loves sales, but she knows that she's not going to be able to sell enough single handedly to do it. And so now we're working on how do we delegate within sales? so that we don't either create a massive competitor or undermine our current goals and expectations. So she's crushing it. she's awesome at what she does. It's really fun.

Track 1: 27:03

That's awesome. are you allowed to talk about you said revenue wise, what do, where'd she start at? And then where you said she doubled.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 27:11

Yeah, she was sitting at, when we first met, she had doubles as very small business, and had just broken the million dollar mark when we started to talk, and was, up over 2 million by the time we were done working or, by about a year and a half later. We're still

Track 1: 27:26

Huge. Yeah, that's huge. That's awesome. So you talk about there's one thing that founders must do. What is that one thing?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 27:36

Yeah. The one thing, I guess I'm broken record. Scott is going to be my name from now on, but it's, you got to know what stage you're in. You just have to know what stage you're in, because I guarantee you, if you're frustrated, if you're feeling burned out or overwhelmed 99 percent of the time, it's because you don't know what to actually focus on. because what you should focus on has changed. And so if there's ever one thing that I want people to understand tactically, it's that there is no one thing for all entrepreneurs, but there is a one thing for all entrepreneurs in a given stage.

Track 1: 28:06

I love that. Scott, what do you want to lead the listeners with today? Something that you haven't already, I guess the broken record, something you haven't with.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 28:16

We'll do a new one here. We'll do a new one here. It does have to do with. stages. I

Track 1: 28:19

Okay.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 28:19

But, one of the challenges that we have, particularly as founders, right? I'm guilty of This myself. Is that we have a tendency, especially when we know there's different stages and, or we'll use like different dollar amounts. If a million dollars or 10 million, or, a friend of mine, had built a business 18 years of just hard fought, blood, sweat, and tears made his first million dollar profit. And after I made a million dollars profit, the very next thing he said to me, Now I've got a 400, 000 tax bill I have to figure out, right? What happens is we have a tendency, because we're so goal and vision oriented, that we have a tendency to put our joy on hold until we cross those lines, whatever those are. And they're entirely arbitrary, right? Again, for one person, it's a million dollars. For another, it's 50 people. For another, it's a hundred million dollars. Doesn't matter what it is, it's fake. it can be the next stage, right? I'm going to get to stage five of my evolution as a founder. especially lasting joy, never ever comes from a destination. It can't. The only way to find lasting joy is to find it in the journey. and what's so special about that is no matter how hard it is for folks that are listening right now, there are people that I speak to on a daily basis that remember those days when they were working in whatever stage you're in right now. They remember how hard it was. a big part of them wishes they were back there. Cause there's something really special about it. There's something special about getting to put your hands on the wheel still, right? There's something special about being in the game or whatever it is for your stage. And I always tell folks, Personally, I was about 25 years old when we had our first kids. Our two boys were born two years apart. I was 25 and 27 and I loved them. I loved them dearly, but I really was not mechanically equipped to give them what they needed. I just, and so I was like, I like you. I don't know what to

Track 1: 30:19

This has been on a watch this, and the patient's life has become a different place. It's not a place that people are living in their lives now. They're not going to find any kind of comfort in that place. And we don't have a solution. The only way to do it is to make it a place that they can live in.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 30:45

to do anything about it, but just set

Track 1: 30:47

about one

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 31:06

that's available here and now, that's when we win. For most of us, you don't have to get to another stage. You just have to Enjoy your current stage more.

Track 1: 31:16

Enjoy the process. Enjoy the now. I love it. Scott. Oh man. I appreciate you coming on today.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 31:22

Absolutely. It was my pleasure.

Track 1: 31:23

Yeah. And where can any, where can people reach out to you? I'm going to link everything for you that you need to, but where's, where's the best place to reach out to you?

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 31:33

Yeah. Best place to actually head over to scalearchitects. com. It's our website. If you go to scalearchitects. com forward slash founders, you can get a free copy of the book. We're giving it away, completely free for anyone who wants it. it'll walk you through all seven stages and you'll also see an opportunity to schedule a call there with me if you want to go through it personally and skip the reading portion. so that's the best place scalearchitects. com forward slash founders. it's been fun. The book came out in, in September. So I've had some time to see some people actually implement and take it and run with it. And I've, on average, the folks who've reached back out to me have saved about 10 hours a week, by just implementing what they learned in the book,

Track 1: 32:06

Just from the book.

scott-ritzheimer--scale-architect_1_04-02-2024_135002: 32:08

just from the book.

Track 1: 32:09

That's good. That's good. Scott, again, I appreciate it, man.

32:12

Hey, if you're still listening, hopefully you got some value out of this or amusement. Either way, I really appreciate you for listening. My goal with this podcast is to build something of value while also showing others that it's possible to do the same. And what I mean by that is, I'm not perfect at this. I fumble, I stutter, and I just want to show that it's okay. If you've been putting something off, This is me telling you to go for it. So I need your help in growing this and there's two main ways a podcast grows. One is through ratings and reviews and two is through word of mouth. So I can only do it with your help. If you can leave me a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as post this to your social and it doesn't grow without you. Thank you. Talk to you all next week.