The Role of Execution When Scaling Your Business

The whole point of the Scale it method is to build a scalable company. And a scalable business is one that can operate successfully without you, the business owner. And so it's really learning to build a team managed company. If you're a business owner, a CEO, a founder, my guess is that sometimes you feel like you're all over the place. You're working on your sales, you're working on your marketing. What about just getting things done? Today on the Scale or fail show, we are talking about execution, making it happen right here, right now. Welcome to the Scale or fail show. I am your host, Alison Maslin. I am a business. I am a serial entrepreneur. I absolutely love business. And that's what the Scale or fail show is all about. It we have amazing guests on and conversations all about growing and scaling your business to hopefully make the road a little bit easier. And we've been doing something kind of different for some recent episodes, and that is turning the table. And instead of me interviewing the guests, I've had some very esteemed business owners interviewing me so that I can really share with you what the scale it method is all about and really give you some more of the wisdom that I've learned over the years and working with our awesome clients in Pinnacle Global Network, where we mentor business owners all over the world to grow and scale. And we've been doing that for the last 11 years. So let me introduce to you our guest host today, and his name is Louie Ortiz. And Louie is actually one of the mentors on our team at Pinnacle Global network. We've got 14 mentors. They've all run very successful companies. They've been in the trenches. And so I'm really excited to have Louis on the show with me today. So Louis Ortiz is the CEO of a nationally recognized real estate company that has over 100 when the company is stuck and not growing. And we do have clients that have come to us even at that 3 million dollar level. And you might think, well, that's doing pretty well. But okay, we've been there for 10, 20 years. The CEO is exhausted, burned out. They're not delegating properly. So either they're still doing way too much of the work themselves. And, and we see this a lot, Louis, in Pinnacle, when they come to us and we really help them get the stuff off their plate, or employees are not super clear on what success means for them. So, you know, and then, you know, you're really not setting them up for success. So chaos is apparent. There's mistakes, there's unhappy Clients and the plan is more like, oh, well, let's just try this, or, you know, let's see how this goes. And so it's really getting, you know, helping them to get a real clear step by step plan. And then sometimes that plan will change. Like in Covid, right, where you, you know, and everybody's got to be on the same game plan. Let me ask you, Louie, what do you feel like, you know, because you've, you've scaled up, you know, a couple big businesses. What do you feel like happens when you either see the team not executing successfully or, you know, for you yourself?

Yeah, I think a lot of it is just creating that vision, you know, that, that really clear vision with performance indicators. And I think one of the items that has been very successful is calendaring out exactly what your plan is so that everybody has measurable dates on when those goals are going to be accomplished. So many times we see, you know, myself or CEOs, they kind of go in the wrong direction because they don't really have a clear vision and a timeline to that vision. And so, yeah, that's a, that's something that worked really well for us is calendaring our goals. That really helped a lot.

Yeah, that's, that is huge.

You know, and on that, Alison, I'm curious, you know, when can you tell if it's a vision problem or an execution problem?

Yeah, you know, I think that's, that's an interesting question. Right. But I, and I think they go really hand in hand, Louis. So vision is where are we going? Execution is how are we getting it done? You know, I think vision is more the bigger picture and the execution is, okay, let's make this happen. So, but you need both because if you don't know where you're going, then you probably aren't going to get there or it's going to take a lot more time, maybe years and years more. So having that clear vision and a team that knows that the vision is critical to have the powerful execution. And that's why in the scale it method, all of these five pillars, strategic vision, cash flow, team leadership, execution, they all go together and they're essential part of the method that's, that's helped me scale. So I think it's, you know, you can't have one piece. It's not like parts of a car. Right. It really is a holistic approach to business.

Yeah, it's such a great, the scale up message method is such a great comprehensive plan for business owners and really love it a lot. You know, how do things change? When you teach clients actually how to execute, how does it change their business and their life?

Yeah, I think it's at first when you're talking, and for those of you listening, you might relate. When someone says, hey, let's look at a different approach. Let's pull this apart. Let's look how much time you're really spending on stuff that you don't need to. I mean, I have found I've been able to look at someone's calendar and probably take 60 to 70% off their plate just by seeing how they're working in their week. So the first thing that happens is they start getting their life back. You know, it's just like, oh, my God. And we've had clients say, I don't know what to do with myself. They're so used to doing all these things. And then the other side of it is you just become more productive. And we've had clients say, you know, I get about five years worth of work done in one year. So you get your life back. You get more done. You're happier. You have a happier team, because the team feels like, you know, they have a plan that they're following. You don't have to keep redoing things because you keep making mistakes and having to do it over. Over. I mean, not to say there aren't mistakes. I mean, we're all human. But it's like walking. It's like walking into a fairly clean house after being on vacation. That's kind of a nice feeling, like you don't want to come home from vacation, and it's just a disaster. And you also have a much bigger sense of accomplishment, and I think that's. That really feels good. Yeah.

You know, with all the businesses that you've worked with, how much of execution would you say is mindset versus actual logistics? You know, the nitty gritty.

Yeah. Again, I think it's a real combination of both. I would say it's a mindset, in a sense, that the getting stuck in habit. People often fall back into their ways of managing situations, managing stress. Like, if you're under stress, you're kind of like, oh, I'll just do this. This is what I know. But it keeps creating the same cycle, vicious cycle. And even if the business owner knows they need to delegate, they often think, I'll just do this myself. But then the company doesn't grow because they can't scale that way. So letting go is really a big mindset thing. It's trust, especially because you put your you know, blood, sweat and tears in the business. So it's scary. So I would probably say that, you know, if I were to look at percentages, probably 60% mindset, 40% of the nitty gritty, which is systemization, clear cut decision making, which ties back to mindset, of course, and then strategic execution, you know, systems and processes, meeting deadlines, you know, really laying out that solid plan. Yeah.

You know, Allison, you have scaled an amazing company. You know, pinnacle, you've, you've done such an amazing job with that. In your own personal experience and maybe with other CEOs that you've, that you've worked with. What would you say holds people back from executing?

Yeah, I think a little to what I alluded, what I shared just in this previous question is that letting go, I think being the control freak, you know, and I can say, yeah, I definitely have had my control freakishness times in my business career. The other is not focusing on your strengths and hiring. You really want to hire towards your weakness and focus on your strengths. I think a lot of business owners feel like they need to learn everything. I think you need to know, you need to know the different areas of your business, but you don't need to do all of those things. So hire people that, that is their strengths. Okay, so that's one another thing is that as your business scales, when you go from 500,000 to a million to 3 million to 5 to 10 and on up, it's a different business at each level. So systems and processes have to change. When you're smaller, there's only a few people that need to understand the plan. As you grow, there's a lot more people involved. So there's communication in that is, you know, and new ways, especially with technology. So many different ways to keep people on board, but it's definitely more of an art as you grow. And if you have, if you have gaps in your business that you haven't dealt with that were sort of small fires, as you grow, they become big fires if you don't address them. And so I think it's just those two things I say. Being the control freak, holding on way too long, and then also understanding that you almost need to reinvent your business at each new level. And I would imagine you had that experience, Louie, in your businesses too.

Absolutely. And I've seen that with a lot of people. You know, they, they tend to hit that ceiling and they, they just struggle getting past that ceiling or how to get to the next level.

So in that habit, you know, it's what, you know, like, we do what we're. We. We live in our comfort zone. And not because we're trying to be lazy. It's just, you know, that's why mentoring is so important to work with people that have been there and done it, because you just keep hitting. You just keep looking at it the same way.

Yeah. I've seen so many businesses where they have this limiting belief that maybe they can't take their business to the next level or they don't know how, and they just need a little helping hand to kind of get them there. And I think that's so important.

Oh, my gosh, that's such a great point. I'm glad you brought that up. I think that is true. We put a ceiling on ourselves. And so to have somebody else be that lighthouse to say, well, why not 10 million, 50 million, $100 million company and up, and you just kind of say, wow, I had never thought of that, or I never thought of approaching it this way, because we just keep recycling those same thoughts over and over. So no wonder we stay stuck.

Yeah. I'm curious, Allison. What would have helped you grow faster or maybe better or what do you wish you would have known then that, you know, now when. When. When. When scaling.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I made all those mistakes many times myself, so I'm definitely speaking from experience. I used to make the mistake that couples would make in relationships of. Well, I thought they knew that, you know, I. I thought they read my mind of what. What we needed to do, you know. So I think I've had to really learn to get all of the. You have to get all the things out of your head as a CEO, like, you could have the vision, but if the team doesn't have the vision, then it's sort of pointless. Everybody has to be on board with that. And so I think communication is huge. And the other is hiring forward is what I call it. And I talk about that in the scale or fail book. And that means, you know, oftentimes we're so afraid to hire because we think, oh, my gosh, well, that's going to cost X amount of dollars, and I don't have that money, so I'm just going to keep doing it. And then what happens is that you're losing way more money than it would cost you to hire that person because you're staying stuck. So you're actually doing. You're actually creating what you think you're protecting yourself from. And so hiring forward means to look at the people that you bring into your company as revenue generators, like they're actually driving growth and not as a cost center, but as a revenue gener generator. And I did finally get this as the years went by in my business that I really saw that if you hire strong people and you put them in positions that you want the company to grow, it will just take off so fast. And that's one of the big things that we work with our clients on. And I know you've worked with a lot of client our clients, Louis, on this is, you know, how do we figure out what are the positions we need and who to hire and how to hire and how to onboard them and help to make them successful. But ultimately a team member should be bring in three to ten times what their salary is and could be in revenue, could be in productivity, could be in just taking things off of your plate. So I think those things, like we were waiting for the perfect time, but know that if you have that great team member on, you know, even a couple of months, that they will often be paying for themselves in that very short period of time.

Yeah, I think that hiring conversation is so important. And when you talk about execution, it's one of the Items that enables CEOs to execute is making the right hiring choices. And it's such an important conversation.

Yeah, I think it's. And it is. And I think, you know, so many business owners feel like they need to do it alone and figure it out themselves. And what are you going to do? You just, it's, you know, what's the saying? You know, you keep trying the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result is absolute insanity. Yeah. And so it's really, getting support is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength.

Yeah, totally. You know, how can CEOs ensure that their vision is getting executed every day, even when they're not there?

Yeah, and that's a great question because the whole point of the scale it method is to build a scalable company. And a scalable business is one that can operate successfully without you, the business owner. And when I tell businesses, business owners that, Louis, they often look at me like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, are you from Mars? You know, but it's true. Because if the business can't function without you, how is somebody going to want to buy it? Right. Because you're not going to come with it. And so it's really learning to build a team managed company. And that's, you know, and when you build the company to continually replace yourself. Then you can leave, you can go on vacation, you can open another business, you can do other ventures and you know, the businesses can continuing to thrive. So I think using the scale up method, getting the support, where we support our clients to do this and you know, I mean just so many examples of that. But just, you know, our marshal who's now on our team was in Pinnacle for three years and was working 60 hours a week, no vacation for 20 years and now works in his business 90 minutes a week. So he's. But he's grown from 35 to 85 employees. So it's not like they don't have stuff going on. They're having rapid growth, but it's not depending on him. And that's a scalable business. That's one that the value of the business will go way up. So I think that's key is having that right team in place. And, and then the other thing I would say is that is to you, you as a CEO, I think with my role in Pinnacle is just constantly reminding the vision of the team bringing that in. Here's the why. This is our why. And so I think for you listening right now is this. You cannot talk about the why. You can't over talk about it. It's something that has to be in the deepest cells of the business is the why that carries through. Yeah.

You know, one of the items I really like about the scale it method is when we talk to so many business owners, when they talk about scaling their business, they think that they're going to have to spend so many more hours and they're going to work harder and they're going to have less time. And with the scale it method, what I really like when we're talking about building a team is is it actually empowers them if they do it right, it gives them more time, more freedom, more income and just a better life. So I really like the Skillet method.

Yeah, thanks, Louie. I do too. And it's just really made sense for our clients. But I think initially we are so stuck in living this life of just being busy. But busy doesn't necessarily mean that you're living a full, fulfilling life or that you're being productive. So scale up method is really just getting to where you want to go in the least amount of time and helping as many people as you can. And so we just see that once the clients step in, they move out of that busyness and their business grows dramatically. Their profit goes way up and they start doing other Things. And you know, our clients buy second homes or they. They're traveling. Not traveling as much right now in Covid, but it just, it truly is life changing. But it's like you can't keep, you know, just. I think what happens is that we start a new year and we go, I'm just going to work harder. Yeah, I'm just going to work harder. I can do this on my own. And then it's another year that goes by. And so we know, especially going through this last year, how precious life is. And then it just goes so fast. Yeah. And so for those of you that are listening right now as I talk about this, if you're a CEO, if you're a founder and you've been in business for some time, you've got employees and you're ready to scale. Don't do it alone. Don't do it alone. You know, reach out to us at Pinnacle global Network and, you know, got our website popping up for you there because we've got this amazing team like Louie, like myself, and this incredible team of high level business owners. They've scaled businesses, they've sold businesses, they've built global companies and they just get it. They get what it's like and, you know, what you've been through, and it's just such a relief to be able to have the support. But also the pinnacle community, we have business owners literally all over the United States and in Canada and several parts in Europe. And they just love the pinnacle community because you feel like, you don't feel like stranger in your land. You know, you're with people that speak your language. And so if you're at that place now, I totally invite you to check out, to reach out to us. You know, go directly to the website, read about Pinnacle global network and reach out to us. And we, our team is happy to get on a call with you and answer any questions that you have.

Yeah, Allison, this has been great. And I just want to say, you know, I really enjoy being a part of Pinnacl and I share this with people all the time. I see the life changing impact that the group makes on not only people's businesses, but on their lives. And it's just such a wonderful organization to see that. It's so hard for some entrepreneurs sometimes because they just, they need a little bit different perspective and sometimes just one idea can totally change their trajectory of their future. So such an amazing organization. So proud to be a part of it.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And it's so true, you know, sometimes it's just like that one thing. You go, oh, my God, I can't believe I didn't see that. You know, but you could go years and years, and then that one thing could just, you know, be the real multiplier. So, anyway, thank you, Louie. Thanks for being on the Scale or fail show. This has been awesome. And again, for those of you that are listening and you are out there and you are doing your thing, remember to elevate yourself because you are worth it. And share the Scale or Fail show with your business owner friends. And check out our other episodes, and you deserve it. All right, bye, everybody.

Thanks, Alison. Bye, everybody.

If you want more inspiration and insight, check out the interview I did with Ajit Nawalka, who is the CEO. CEO of Mindvalley All About Vision, right over here. And I will see you there.

Look at anybody that you aspire to be like. You want to be like Allison. You want to be like whoever that is, right? You feel like this is the entrepreneur that represents me. So there's science to these things, and there's a process to it. There's a consistency that actually compounds. It's a compounding effect. It's just stacking on stacking.