Allison Maslan | Scaling with Strategy, Not Stress

You want to make sure you have an aligned team. You've got to have a strong culture. And culture is a byproduct of the vision and the team being aligned in the vision and having people off the team that are not aligned with the vision. So it's important that the team is clear on the vision from the very get go when they come in and that they are supported, that your team feels supported, that they're getting good training, that they're feeling like, like their team's got their back and that they can really contribute to the big picture of the company. And that's really what's going to inspire them to move forward.

Welcome to the Radical responsibility podcast. I'm Dr. Fleet Mahl and I'm excited to guide you on a journey of authentic transformation. In each episode, I'll bring you insights from leading experts to explore trauma recovery, mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and innovative breakthroughs in health, wellness and life optimization. This is a space for real conversations that inspire meaningful change, helping you find alignment with the person you were always meant to be. Let's get started. What if the biggest thing holding your business back was you? Too many entrepreneurs hit a ceiling because they're stuck in their business instead of leading beyond it. Allison Maslin, a powerhouse in business scaling, joins us this week to break down the exact strategies that take companies from hustle and to high impact growth. We talk about stepping out of micromanagement, building high performance teams and creating systems that let you scale with integrity without burning out. If you're ready to stop working harder and start scaling smarter, you won't want to miss this conversation. Let's dive in. My name is Dr. Fleet Mahl, your co host for the session and I'm thrilled to be here today with Alison Maslin. Welcome, Allison Fleet.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, it's a privilege and honor to connect with you and to do this interview. I've really been looking forward to it because as we spoke beforehand, this has been quite a book for me or Scale or Fail book. It's been one of the bibles that I rely on and I just realized I have thoroughly highlighted it, but I haven't visited it in a few months and I just realized, as I said, I need to keep it open on my desk because it's pure gold. So I wonder if you we could begin by just maybe we'll get into the specifics, but maybe if you could just kind of broadly talk about and I know this is unfair to ask you to do this in a couple Minutes. But a little bit of your origin of how you got into this, of becoming an expert on scaling companies and then the just the overall kind of framework of the scale it method. Like give me the origins of that. What's it all about?

Okay. Well, I've been an entrepreneur for over 40 years. I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family. My father was a consummate business owner and he built a chain of women's clothing stores in the 60s through the 80s. So I used to follow him from store to store. And then I think that passion for business really rubbed onto me. I started my first business when I was 19 years old old. And so business has just been a big part of my life. I really feel like it's the most creative way to take our gifts that we're all born with and put them out into the world. So I feel very blessed to have figured this out early on. And so I've learned so much. I've had lots of ups and downs over the years. And I figured out how to get out of the day to day of the founder, the CEO of the business. Most business owners are very buried in the weeds, kind of being the control freak in their business. And they think that they're keeping the business safe and keeping things from slipping through the cracks, but they're actually choking the growth of the business. This is exactly how I was behaving years ago and it burned me out so badly that, you know, I almost didn't recover from it all. So it has become my mission and my passion once I figured out the formula to scale, because it truly is a formula and it's not about the hustle, it is about creative strategy. And so there's millions of business owners truly that are stuck working in the business. And so just by following this process, you can elevate to be the visionary CEO of the company and the business will grow so much faster and you will live a more free life. Which is the reason that most business owners get into business in the first place.

Yes, that is ironic that many of us become entrepreneurs seeking that freedom and then we tie a big ball and chain around our leg. Right. So. But there is a real leap there. And our audience, I think, is mostly bootstrapping entrepreneurs that are watching this right now. You know, they may be. I hope there are some aspiring entrepreneurs who are gonna get inspired to start companies that they've always dreamed of starting. And we probably have quite a few that have a six figure business. They're trying to scale the seven figures or seven figures they're trying to scale eight figures and many are probably still mired in operations and still in that kind of control freak phase. You know, you'd like to hand it off, but they won't do it as well as you will. And if you don't keep an eye on everything, things fall apart and it's not sustainable. It's a long term program for burnout. And even if we realize that it seems like so hard to figure our way out of it, it does seem to require some kind of leap. And I'm wondering if you could describe a little bit about that leap in mindset. I know there's some steps to make it happen, but there's also seems to be a mindset shift.

A big part of it is mindset because we've created a belief system around a story and that is dictating our behavior every single day. Most of us operate on autopilot. And so what has to happen is you've got to create a new story. If the story is it has to be me, that my clients are going to leave if I'm not delivering the product or service well, then you're never really going to scale because it's not mathematically possible. There's not enough hours in the day. And so the story has to shift in that you are a leader and you are elevating a team into leadership and so that they can take your vision and run with it. If you're the only one that is shouting your vision from the rooftops, it's only going to get so far. You have to engage a team around your vision first. You have to get clear on the vision, then you need to engage the team around the vision. And as the company grows, you've got to get out of the way and let them share their brilliance.

You know, earlier in my career I was a business consultant, executive coach and was considering with a partner to grow a big consulting company and was reading all the books on it. And at that time, this was a long time ago, but I couldn't figure out, well, I know how to get clients and they work with me because of what I'm able to do. How am I going to convince them to work with somebody else instead of me? And I just couldn't. It was hard for me to imagine that. But we do really have to understand that if we have a valuable product or service, we can build a company that will get it into the world in the right way. And it doesn't have to always be us managing and delivering or even creating Everything.

This is so true. You know, when I started this company, Pinnacle Global Network, that I run now, which has been 16 years already. Wow. And in the beginning, I was doing the coaching. I was the mentor. And I remember it was scary to let go, but I also knew that I could only help so many people if it was me. And the best use of my time was to take this process that I was using with clients and put it into a bigger system that could be replicated. And so then, you know, we've now built a team of CEO mentors, close to 40 of them. And they've, you know, come to us, but they've already built very successful companies of their own. Some of them have taken their company public, had thousands of employees, done acquisitions, built international companies, and so now they're working with our clients, but they're using my method. And so that way I know that every client is getting, you know, the brilliance and the wisdom from these amazing mentors, but they're also getting the tools and the strategies, and they're having that consistent experience through having this, you know, when you have your own signature process. So that's how I sleep at night, knowing that my clients are taken care of. But if I would have stayed in, saying, oh, no, it's gotta be me, and you have to do it this way and so forth, then, you know, I would still very much be in the weeds of the business.

That's brilliant that you've been able to develop a cadre of coaches that are not just trained in your methodology and good coaches, but they've been there, they've done it, they're experienced entrepreneurs. That's really quite amazing. So you talk about there being five phases of scaling. I wonder if you could walk us through those a bit and some of the challenges of each one.

Definitely. And the five phases create such an awareness because most business owners, including myself back then, have no idea where they are in the scaling process. And so once you figure out where you are, then you can figure out what the gaps are to get to the next level. And so that's why I've developed this journey. So phase one, we call the seeker. This is the startup. Every business starts there, and you're just putting your ideas out into the world. You're very passionate. You're figuring out your offerings and your customer journey, your avatar. There's not really much scaling that's going on because everything's dependent on you or you and a partner. As you start to build a small team, you're going to move into phase Two, which I call the pioneer. And the pioneer is when you know you're in the thick of your business, you're getting your hands dirty, you're out in the plains of the business, and you have a few team members that you're delegating to. But one of the biggest stuck points and what keeps people stuck in phase two is that fear of letting go, just like what we were talking about and feeling like you have to have your eyes on everything going in and out of the company. And so you become the bottleneck and really slowing things down. And this is where business owners start to feel that burnout they're stuck in that story of it has to be me. But if you begin to move beyond that and you're starting to build a bigger team or you've got departments within your company, let's say you have a marketing department, you have a sales department, you have a customer service department or area of the business, you're going to start moving into phase three, which I call the ringleader. And the reason I call it a ringleader is because it's a bit of circus. A circus in phase three. And this is where so many business owners get stuck for decades. And so a lot of times, this is where the business dies. And you've got companies generally in the seven and eight figures, even some in the nine figures, that are stuck here. And the challenge is that as you are building teams, you're bringing more people on. We're generally hiring because we're out of bandwidth. And you're putting people in these roles that are not always super clear on what success looks like for that role. And I mean, down to the metric, what are they really reaching for? If this human being that you have put into this role were super successful, what would that look like? And so when you can dial that in and they know what they're reaching for, then you're going to be in alignment. But in most cases, it's very vague. And so you have this employee that wants to do well, but they're not really sure what they're reaching for or how to get there. And so that's where you. This frustration ensues. And, you know, you're up late at night talking to your significant other or your mother complaining about XYZ employee because they're just not hitting their marks. You're frustrated and they are too. And so then you jump back in to save the day. And it's just, this is where that hamster wheel starts, and it just keeps happening over and over again. And you become buried in the business stretched too thin, burnout, health issues, relationship issues and so forth. And the business is really running you. And so this is a tough cycle. And so many business owners come to us right at this point, and so we can put a mirror on them to help them see that they are in their own way and that they have to shift from being a boss, you know, micromanaging, to be a strategic leader and empowering the team into action, empowering them to own it, instead of always giving the answers to everything to really encourage them to think for themselves. And when that happens, you're going to start moving into phase four.

Alison, just before you go on to phase four, I just wanted to come back those two and three for a minute. The pioneer phase and the ringleader phase. Right. I think it's so important for aspiring founders and current entrepreneurs to really connect with us. I know for many years in my own both, I've been responsible for a nonprofit I started 37 years ago. It's thriving today. And then I've had various businesses, mostly in the consulting, executive coaching space for years. And I knew I was stuck in a model forever. I used to call it the expert with many helpers. And, you know, I knew I was stuck in that. I had friends who were stuck in it. We'd talk about it, laugh about it. But the idea of moving beyond that, you know, it felt like I'm going to have to bring in other experts or people smarter than me. I'm going to have to let go and expand. And that's very scary. You know, when you're in that, there's all kinds of downsides to being the ringleader or being the pioneer. But you do have all the power and that can, you can get stuck in that. And you have all the decision making, control, you have the illusion of control, even though, you know, you know it's really not working. You know, you're getting burned out. But it's hard to let go of that role.

It really is. It's probably one of the hardest things you'll ever do in business is to let go, because that means you have to trust and they're not going to do it like you. And that's a tough thing to do. You're going to have to learn to shut up, you know, and not always interject. And that's. It's not easy. It definitely wasn't easy for me. I still work on it. I think that in our leadership is something that we'll be working on. I know I will for the rest of my days. And I think business gives us an opportunity to become better human beings. But if you're always jumping in and giving the answer, basically what you're telling your team, your people is, I don't trust you. That's the message you're leaving for them. And if they had any great ideas to bring to the table, they just don't do it anymore. Because most times business owners will shoot them down. And so why would they be inspired to share more?

Yeah, absolutely. And I share these. This shift, I think it's a basic human development shift, and it pays off, pays dividends in our relationships as parents. I mean, our whole life, if we can make this shift out of being that, the kind of control freak, if you will, even when we wrap it in all kinds of positive things, like, you know, we're doing great work in the world, and it's really important. It's gotta be this. But it's really a major developmental shift for us as human beings in business and otherwise.

I think it really is. And being okay if it's not perfect, and also knowing people are gonna make mistakes and you've gotta be okay. That's how they learn. That's how we all learn, is through those mistakes. And, you know, hopefully they don't continue to make the mistakes, because then you got to really look at that too. They're probably not the right fit. But, you know, I think our role changes in business out as we're moving, you know, from that phase two and three to being more of the visionary CEO. That's really what you're aspiring to do. And we are creatures of habit, so we do what we know. And in the early days, it was us. But then we have to evolve. And how we look at the business, how we show up in the business, how we communicate, and that means that we've got to work on our own leadership, and that's where the change begins to happen.

Well, let's go on and talk about phase four and five, then.

Yeah. So, you know, the key is get help first, because a lot of times you don't realize you're stuck in the jar. You know that saying, you can't read the writing on the jar when you're in the jar. Most human beings are operating on autopilot. So first of all, you need somebody to kind of throw that bucket of ice on you to go, hey, wake up. This is what's happening before you lose all your people. But as you start to empower your team and you empower them to start Asking the bigger questions and you start to slowly step back so that they can step up. And at this point, your vision and your values are so entrenched in the company. So you can do that. You will start to see these leaders emerge within your company. And they're asking questions like, how can we increase the company's profits? How can we create a better customer journey? It's a wonderful, it's a beautiful thing when you start to see your team thinking this way and really owning it. And that moves you into that phase four, which I call the co creator that's building this company based on collaboration and you're actually working with them to grow the company. They feel like they have a real stake in the vision, in the mission of the company. And then, you know, you don't need to be in all the meetings anymore. You can start taking vacation and not checking in. And the team really sees their value and they are committed to making the vision a reality. And so the vision has to change from your vision to the team's vision. And that's where things really start to scale. And then you're going to move into phase five, which is the visionary CEO phase. And at this point you have a founder independent company. The only thing that you are doing at this point is you're focused on the future. You're creating ideas for the future of the company. You are in touch with your leadership on the team because you want to make sure that you're checking in on those what we call the North Star metrics, that everybody is hitting those numbers, but they really got it at this point. So you can be adding other revenue streams, you can go acquire other companies if you want to. You could sell your business if you want to, because your business is way more valuable at this point because it's not dependent on you.

So as we're scaling, things just naturally become more complicated. You get more people, there's more complexity. You're using all kinds of tools. You add this and you know it all makes sense at the time, but then you end up with all this complexity. So I know you talk in your book a lot about systematizing and doing it for the purpose of efficiency and simplification, not further complication. But operational efficiencies can really kill us as we're scaling and we can get in trouble with cash flow. We can find our, you know, our profit disappearing on us. So I wonder if you could talk about some of the operational mechanics as we're scaling, of how we preserve profit, how we become more efficient. How we maintain the cash flow. We need to grow a business because you know, there's a, what was simple in the beginning gets so complex and probably for many of us founders, we've never dealt with it, we've never seen it before. We don't know how to manage at that level. We don't even understand the financial metrics of our business at that level yet.

All of those things are so, so important and you know, hopefully the mistakes that you make there are not too grave that can throw you out of business. Right. If you're not paying attention to those numbers. But I think all the things like, you know, being in the weeds of the business, continually recreating the wheel instead of having systems and processes, communication breakdowns as you grow is a real problem because it's, you're not all sitting just a few people sitting at a table. Now there's so many more people. So you can have breakdowns and redundancy and waste and overspending because people are so busy coming and going. You need to have an organized org chart so you know whose direct reports there are. And you want to make sure you have an aligned team. You've got to have a strong culture and culture is a byproduct of the vision and the team being aligned in the vision and having people off the team that are not aligned with the vision. So it's important that the team is clear on the vision from the very get go when they come in and that they are supported, that your team feels supported, that they're getting good training, that they're feeling like their team's got their back and that they can really contribute to the big picture of the company and that's really what's going to inspire them to move forward. But all of those pieces, you know, we often say fleet, oh it just take me 10 minutes, I'll do it. And yeah, it might take you 10 minutes but then you're going to do it over and over again. So what are those pieces of your business that you are repeating daily or weekly or monthly or even yearly. Got to create a system behind that. What's the step one? What's the step two? What's the step three? So you don't have to keep figuring that out. And we can use AI to, you know, really help us there in a big way.

So in your company you recruit experienced business people to be then trained in your scale IT methodology of mentoring CEOs. And so I would assume that you have standard processes, playbooks, SOPs for that how you Recruit the people, how you train people, how they master that methodology. Then you must also have quite a good marketing operation and have that systematized. And then you have, you know, just the running the company, the admin, the operational part. So I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you built that into, you know, a, well, systematized machine, if you will, where everybody knows what they're doing and it's repeatable and you have, you know, recurring revenue, recurring processes. And everybody isn't just making it up on the fly because in the early stages of our business it often feels like we're just making it all up on the fly, right? We're putting out buyers and coming up with ideas and trying this, throwing spaghetti at the wall. It starts working, we have a business and. But then pretty soon it gets messy.

And you're going to go through those messy periods because every level of growth you've got to restructure the business. And so we have about 60 employees on the team now. And when we went from like 30 to 60, we had to make a lot of changes. You had too many people that were cc'd on emails, you had people that were stepping on each other's toes and so forth. So it's not like you set your systems and then they're set for the life of your business. Technology changes, the team needs change and so you always have to have your eyes on that. But you definitely want things systematized for every area of the business. In our company, when we built a training around the scale IT method and that has evolved so much over the years, in the beginning it was just a bunch of, you know, tools that we created and you know, now it is a whole training process that we take our mentors through. It is about a six month process and you know, there's playbooks, there's live training, there's recorded training. Some of them are animated. You know, they work with other mentors, they work in masterminds, and we really just want to make sure that they are completely set before we have them start working with our clients. Now again, these are successful business owners, so they're not new to the business world and that was really important to us. But knowing something and having experience and teaching others is totally different. Art, as you know, some people are, you know, they're super smart, but you have to be able to convey that and then walk them through it. So we do have a whole process and as we grow, we will continue to evolve those things. And it's the same thing in the admin department and in customer service, all of those areas. But you can't be the one to figure all of that out. As the business owner, you've got to have other people that are analytical, that are left brain, that can really think that way to create that organizational systemized piece of your company.

You didn't create all those systems on your own.

Oh my gosh, you would not to do that. My system is, you know, texting, you know, even for me to have to. I was laughing with my husband. You have people, you know, log into the portal and I, you know, for me it's like, oh my gosh, I gotta log into a portal. Can you just text me and tell me where I need to be? That's kind of how I operate. But you've got to have those people that are super systemized and that think that way within your company. Don't want to have people that are just like you. Are you going to be knocking into one another?

So I would assume at the beginning of your company you were pretty operationally involved in doing a lot of this and gradually building it. What does your business day look like today in terms of your company? Your involvement in the operations and the success and the growth and the ongoing development of your company?

Yeah, I mean, I'll just give you an example of today. You know, every day is different and that's what I love because I like to keep it exciting. But this morning at seven in the morning, I met with someone on the team and we were really talking about vision for the next three years out. Because here we are, we're planning for our next year and we have several of our team members coming to our home in Zihuataneo, Mexico. My husband and I live there several months of the year. And so in January we're going to be flying a bunch of our team out there and we're talking about vision. So I want to, I'm just preparing mentally for that and that's really fun for me is that creativity and how do we take that big vision and reverse engineer it? You know, that's how my mind is always working. What's the fastest, easiest route to get to the vision and make sure that your customers have the best experience possible in the process that they reach their goals. So that's how I started the day. And since then I've already, I've done a couple other interviews and I am going to be. I have a television interview after this and then I'm leading a webinar. So I'm really Front facing. Even though the brand of the company really stands on its own pinnacle global network. But mine is I'm not working in the day to day of the business anymore. I don't mentor any clients, I haven't for years. But I do work with the leadership team on some major decisions on the company. But my role is really just, you know, outward focused. When I'm in the business and I'm in on meetings and things, my goal is to kind of shut up and or ask a lot of questions and let them come up with the answers.

Well, congratulations on where you've gotten to with your business. That's amazing. So you've talked about this a little bit already, but I wonder if you could say a little bit more about developing really high powered, effective teams. Like what the overall process of how you, you know, maybe you've got five employees to begin with, then you get to 10 and 20, you're at 60 now. But how you internalize because you're not building all those teams now, you're not mentoring all those people, you're not hiring and recruiting and training them. But somehow you built in a way to develop high powered teams.

Yeah, you know, I think about that a lot because we do have such a bonded team and we don't have a team where you have to hold people accountable. You know, they're all in. And I would say that probably the most important component and it's a big part of our values is integrity and respect just at the core and really honoring people. And then through that and building this level of trust, there becomes this great connection and then beyond that there must be a super clear vision, where are you taking this company? And then you've got to have the team all in and committed to the vision, especially the leadership team. There's got to be a non negotiable attitude like we are going to make this happen. And if you can find a way also I think this is really important is to figure out what is the, the personal vision of your employees. Like what do they want in their lives? And if you can tie their personal vision to the company's vision. That cross section, that's where that fire happens. And then they'll really see that, wow, if we make the company vision a reality, my life vision is going to happen as well. And so you keep sharing stories around that, success stories of your clients, success stories of your team, you know, really helping to shape the beliefs around that. Then you'll have a, a superpower team behind you.

Wow. Well, you shared some really Important things there. I mean, I think this gets harder and harder with really big companies. But where most of us are as entrepreneurs and building companies, if you don't have a team that's all in, managing that team is just way too hard. I mean, if you have to think about, you think about, you know, some huge insurance company, they probably have to manage people through a lot of incentives and controls. And, you know, fortunately, most of us probably have smaller teams. And if we do it right, we can have a team that's all in. And that just makes such a huge difference. And you talked about doing that. I mean, having this really clear vision, but then connecting your company vision with their individual life vision. I mean, to me, that's just brilliant. That's where people are really going to come on board because, you know, people can get really attracted to a vision, a company's vision, a difference you're going to make in the world, that can be really exciting, inspirational. But they still have their own lives and they have their own needs. And, you know, there's that conversation I had, well, what about me, you know, and what's in it for me? So somehow bringing the. Even though we all want to be inspired and altruistic, still we have to bring those things together so it feels really in sync. And then you have employees that aren't doubting anything. It's like the company's succeeding, I'm succeeding, we're both going in the same direction. It's all beautiful and great. And that, that just seems like a real secret sauce there that you've developed.

Yeah. Thank you. We had our mentor meeting, been doing this. We used to do it every single week. We do it now a couple times a month for a couple hours. And this really has created. I mean, this is. This has been going on for like 13 years. And where they really get to know one other, they share strategies, they share challenges and forth. And last Wednesday, we had them share what are their wins? We have them always share client wins. But this time we said we'd like to hear your wins in your own life. In this past year, what have been your biggest wins or what you're most proud of, or what's made you the most happy? And it was just beautiful to see the amazing stories that they were sharing. And that's what made me so happy, because I know that as we are growing this business, they're growing as well, and they're able to do the things that they've always wanted to do in their life, so forth. So it's not Just about growing your customers, it's growing and supporting your team as well.

So you've alluded to a few of these already, but I wonder if you could maybe highlight some of the most significant pitfalls that we can fall into as founders as we're scaling and especially, you know, when we still, by necessity, are still operationally involved. We're not. We haven't gotten to where you are yet. We're still operationally involved. We have a sense we're trying to be on the right track. But what are some of the real pitfalls that we can get into? Culture wise, financial wise, strategy wise?

Yeah, well, you know, you need to have the right financial team behind you, and that is key. I had an experience years ago as we grew that my leader on the financial team, we had really outgrown him, but I didn't know it at the time. And so there were things that were slipping through the cracks. We didn't have a strong budget. We were kind of behind on projections and things like that. And it was a very frustrating experience. And so my gut was telling me back then that, okay, you need to up level this entire financial team. And we did, and it was an incredible uplift to the entire company. So your financial planning is critical and you have to have very qualified people as you grow. And so you need budgets, you need projections, you need tracking data, you need to understand what your cost of acquisition is to get a customer. You need to understand what you're. If you're spending money on ads, what's your roas, which is your return on ad spend? So financial piece, nail that down. Even if you're small, you want to make sure you have the experts that are managing those things for you. Make sure you're still signing the checks. And you know, you're the only one signing into your bank account, but you want to have other experts helping you to make some strategic decisions with your money. You want to make sure you're not thinking too small, you know, because you're staying in your comfort zone, which is really your stifle zone. You focus on your top 20% and not get diluted from the bottom 80%. That's where most business owners get stuck. So figure out what's really working and who is your best avatar, what are your best revenue streams, and then drop what's not. My dad used to say that all the time, do more of what's working and drop what's not. I used to think that was such a, you know, that's the kind of advice you're going to give me dad. And then I realized later on, actually, that was pretty brilliant. And then, you know, get out of the way. You want to grow leaders as you grow.

Well, you mentioned that one of the leaders in the financial team in your company had kind of outgrown that person's abilities. And they were probably fine at a certain level, but as the company got bigger, it outgrew their abilities. So, you know, sometimes we talk about different phases. You talked about phases from the role of the founder perspective financially. Sometimes we talk about going from, you know, from 1 to 3 million, 3 to 10, 10 to 25 and so on. And that these actually require often completely different employees, different levels of expertise. And sometimes you can grow from within and some employees can make it through a couple of those phases. But very often, especially as you get to higher levels of growth, you really are going to need to bring in new people with new, higher levels of experience. And so I wonder if you could talk, because sometimes we often hear that, you know, our loyalty to the people that got us where we are, but sometimes the reality is those people aren't the right people to go to the next level. And that could be a difficult situation for a founder to be in.

You're a hundred percent right on that. There's a saying, what got you here will not get you there. And that's with your thinking and that is with your execution. But it's also with your team. They may have been great to get you here. They don't have the capacity or the mindset or the experience to get you there. So once, you know, let's say you surpass that 10 million mark, you want to be at least in your leadership roles, which, you know, your COO or your marketing director or cmo, your sales director. You want to have people on the team that have already scaled a company up beyond 50 million or even a hundred million because they've been there and they're, you know, they're a higher level thinker. And so that's going to save you. You know, those are obviously bigger spend, but they're also going to save you hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in mistakes. And they're going to streamline the journey to get you where you want to go faster. So surrounding yourself with very smart people is so, so valuable.

And bringing someone forward to the next level who we haven't been able to train to the next level, it's just, you know, dragging them along with us, we're not really doing them any favors. They're going to be happier if we help them find a spot in a place that's more appropriate to their capacity, their desires, their ambitions, whatever it might be.

It's exhausting to try and, you know, it's not fun for them either. And it's tough. You know, I've been there. I've had to let go of people that have been on our team for a long time. And you really care about these people. But I also knew that I was holding them back. It's kind of like if you're in a relationship and you feel like, oh, I don't want to hurt them, but that's just not fair. There's somebody out there that is the perfect fit for them, so let them go and flourish there. And that was definitely a big lesson for me.

Absolutely. So as we're scaling and growing, you know, we had an early vision. Hopefully we're highly focused on integrity and values and principles and our customer journey and real excellence. And as we're growing, sometimes that can get challenged. Maybe the team is getting challenged or we're getting challenged, or it seems like, you know, cash flow and profit issues and competition can. We might start thinking, well, I gotta put the numbers first. I want that excellence. But, you know, I wonder if there's been that tension or you've seen that tension in your client companies between maintaining that vision for excellence and the realities of trying to grow.

Yeah, it is always a balance. Right. And, you know, Jeff Bezos always said, make sure that we are focused on the customer. Let's give the customer what they want, an incredible experience. So I think if you keep that front and center is always important because, you know, you can grow fast and lose half or more of your customer base. So you're really not growing. You're, you know, two steps forward and three steps back. So I think keeping integrity also front and center, even for me, integrity is everything because that builds the trust with your customers, with your team. Even if it creates a loss for you, people will remember that it is what will precede you. And I think that you have to always be upping your game. So it's not just about growing more, you know, with a company, but it's also how do we improve? How do we show up better? How do we create better results? How do we make it easier for our customers? And then you want to attract people that want to up their game and the company's game and reward that big thinking. And then lastly, I would say around that is make the little things matter. Keep the humanness and the connectedness in this technical world. And invest in your leaders. Train your leaders. Like we have a woman on the team who's been with me over 10 years. She started as my assistant, then she was an operations manager. But we really figured out that her strengths were data. And so we, you know, enrolled her in all types of training and now she is our data specialist for the company. And she couldn't be more excited because she is living in her genius right now and we need that data to help us make great decisions. Invest your people.

Yeah. Well, it's about the end of our time here. I wonder if, just a little side note, if you could say something about the necessity for founders, entrepreneurs that want to grow their business to. Have you just mentioned your assistant to having an assistant, having an executive assistant or of some kind.

Yeah. As far as your role as a CEO, I think it's important that you're constantly replacing yourself in those things and having an executive assistant that is anticipating your needs. So, okay, you have, let's look at your week ahead. Make sure you have all your zoom links and you don't have appointments that are on top of each other. And let's get your errands done. I have a personal assistant as well that helps me to prepare for travel and run errands locally. An event we're going tomorrow to pick up a gift for me, things like that, so that I can focus on, you know, I can make the best use of my time. It's not the best use of my time running to the post office and those kinds of things. And if that's how you're spending your time, you're actually losing money for the company.

And you're also taking opportunities away from someone that could be a great place for them to start in their career and their business life too.

Yeah, definitely. And my executive assistant, Megan, she is brilliant. I am telling you, she is a leader in the making.

I have a great executive assistant as well. And I suspect she may at some point want to move on to another role or we may see that her talents would be a better fit. And I hate to give her up and have to find another one. But sometimes, as you said, one of your early assistants now is the data specialist and it's her sweet spot and she's just thrilled and really thriving. And so we have to kind of be willing for that role, that executive system role to sometimes be an entry level place in our company where people thrive. But then maybe they show other possibilities.

Definitely, definitely. And you know, that's something to be really proud of if you are empowering people on the team to grow into their potential.

So thank you so much. This has been illuminating as I knew it would be. And Alison Masselin, the author of Scale It, Scale or Fail and the Scale IT Method, the Pinnacle Global Network, thank you so much and thank you for your work. And it's been a real pleasure talking to you today.

Thank you so much for having me. And you know what? I created a gift for those wonderful to tell you about that. But I recently wrote but besides the Scale or Fail book, I also wrote a book called Operational Scalability, which is an ebook. And I'm going to give it to those that are listening for free. So you just go to ScaleIt CEO forward slash, masterygift.

The link is actually right down below so people can find it right there.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you so much for that. And I really encourage. So where else could people. I mean, I'm sure that will take people into your world, but where else can people find out about your work? Where should they go? What's your primary website or.

Yeah, pinnacleglobalnetwork.com, you'll find everything there about what we do. And then on social media, just my name, Allison Maslin.

And you have a podcast as well, don't you?

I do. It's called the Scale It Method Podcast. And we're on all of the. All the platforms, itunes, Spotify and so forth. And YouTube.

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Alison Maslin, thank you for having me.

Be well. Thank you for joining me on the Radical Responsibility podcast. Remember, real change happens when we commit to our growth, face our challenges with compassion, and stay open to transformation. If you found this episode helpful, I encourage you to subscribe and help us spread the message of healing and personal empowerment. Stay grounded, stay present, and stay true to you. Take care.

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