Scaling Your Business - The Right Way

Welcome to Ladies Kicking Assets. We are, as always, super thrilled about our guest today. I'm Courtney, and we are not financial advisors. This is for educational purposes only. So make sure you subscribe so we can share this far and wide. And, Robin, I'm going to let you kind of take it away.

Thank you. Well, welcome, everyone. So today we have an amazing guest.

Her name is Stacy Gray.

She is the founder and CEO of Organize to Scale. We'll refer to it intermittently as ots, but there's so much about her. She is an author. She's been in this business for more years than you would expect. And so I'm thrilled that you're here today, Stacy, and that you're going to share with us about your business. But then we're also going to dive into just maybe a little bit of personal stuff and some direction for those that are looking to launch their businesses and or their syndications. So, Stacy, welcome.

I'm so excited to be here, and I'm so excited that you guys put this podcast, or vlogcast, whatever you guys call it, together for all the amazing female entrepreneurs out there making things happen. And you guys are just so adorable and amazing at it. Well, thank you.

We are excited to be doing it. You know, I think we have come a long way in just a short time period already, and I am just really excited to have you. You know, I think your entire family is amazing and just to have you come on and share, you know, every time we're. We're fortunate enough to be able to tap into your just vast wealth of knowledge. I've got my notepad. Like, I seriously have my notepad here. Like, I'm ready to take notes and get down to business. Me too.

Me too. Something amazing to say, because that intro is pretty fabulous.

Well, you. You do. So, you know, when you pull up your website, when you pull up Organize to Scale, and just like anyone else that's going to do it, I noticed that you had some recent UPD on there from August, if I'm not mistaken, where you really talk about visionary and integrators. And I believe Courtney and I both have heard you speak about that. But it was so powerful about the style of individual and knowing your role. And so I was hoping that maybe you could speak about that for just a moment or two and kind of identify what that is really and how we need to evaluate that in ourselves.

Yeah, I'll just kind of share a little bit of a backstory to get more light on kind of the visionary integrator roles. So Organize 2 scale was started because a lot of times people set out to start businesses to create some type of freedom, but then they end up trapped in the very businesses designed to create their freedom. And it's primarily because the people who have an idea to start a business, they're more of the visionary type entrepreneur. They have this big, amazing brand idea, but they're really great starters. They're not the strongest finishers. And it's a marriage between a visionary and an integrator that take the idea, the launch pad that the visionary has, and actually puts little yellow feet to it so it actually gets executed on. And that's the relationship between the visionary and the integrator. And I learned about this really, maybe so about five, six years ago, the terminology of visionary and integrator. However, I was living the visionary integrator dynamic for 20 years. I just didn't know what it was until the book Traction came out and everyone's like, oh, now we know who we are. Like you were saying, Robin, if you don't really know your lane or your role, it's really hard to have a healthy dynamic between the visionary and the integrator because you're constantly stepping on each other's toes.

Well, you know what? And that is, you know, kind of comes back to how important it is to make sure that you're putting the right people on your team in place to make sure that you're executing. Because I have literally lived exactly what you're doing. You know, I had. Well, I became a realtor, did all of this amazing stuff, but I didn't scale it correctly. I had these big, huge visions, and then I ended up just stopping because it took so much of me. I couldn't. I couldn't keep up with it. And I didn't scale it correctly. I needed a Stacy at that time to help me figure out all the.

Things I know I keep saying all the time, even in my business, I need a me. Like, where can I find me? I know. Yes, I know.

I know. Well, you. You had mentioned that you had really been living this out for 20 years and probably knowing more in terms of starters and finishers and understanding that. Tell us a little bit about your growing up, this incredible business of real estate and entrepreneurs.

Yeah. So my father is most well known publicly as the co host of the Real Estate Guys radio show. And I think you guys had him on your show as well.

And it was an amazing interview.

Yes. So I actually graduated high school at 16 and I did independent studies because I played A lot of sports growing up, and my dad didn't want me to go to college. So he's like, you're 16. I don't want to send you off to college, so why don't you come work with me for two years? And when you're 18, if you still want to go to college, you can. You'll be the same age as everybody else. So I was like, okay.

So I.

At the time, we had just met Robert Helms, who's Russ's partner in the real estate guys, and they. We had real estate education, we had the radio show, we had podcasts, we had a mentoring club. We had all sorts of things that we were doing to help people create, learn about financial freedom, and use real estate as a path to get there. And I started just answering the phones, and I didn't want to answer the phones, and so my dad said, okay, you don't have to answer the phones anymore, but in order to get out of answering the phones, you have to hire and train your replacement. So that's when I learned about standard operating procedures. I learned about workflows and processes. And so I just started moving my way up from being answering the phones to running membership, to running all of the events, to eventually becoming the president of the real estate guys. And that pathway. He was. Russ was the visionary, and I was the integrator. I didn't know it at the time. I bought my first property when I was 18. And so when that happened, I was like, I don't need to go to college. I'm making more money doing this.

You're like, I'm a real estate investor. I don't need school.

Why do I need to go to college? So I actually never went to college. I just started using everything that I learned in and from answering the phones and hiring and training my replacements and creating all of that infrastructure. And then we launched several more businesses from there. And since then, you know, launched Organize to scale, which is the foundation of doing that very thing for other visionaries. And they even growing up, like, rewinding. Even before I got graduated high school, my parents were very entrepreneurial. My dad was entrepreneurial. My grandfather was entrepreneurial on both sides. My grandfather on my dad's side actually came over from the Philippines when he was 14 years old in kind of that immigrant edge. He just hustled, built a company, took it public. And my grandfather on my mother's side had an insurance agent. So I was very privy to a lot of entrepreneurialism and business mindset, which was great. But my parents also taught us a lot of disciplines just in money management. So growing up, of everything that we earned or made, 10% had to go to tithe. And then of the 90% that was remaining, 45% we could spend and 45% we had to save. Anything we took from our spending and put into our savings, my dad would match. So that's actually how I had $25,000 saved when I was 18 to buy my first property.

So I incentivize my kids with, okay, you can have this much money if you're going to spend it, but if you'll take it in, like Bitcoin or gold, I will actually match it and double it. And so they always choose to, you know, make that investment instead of just spending it. So. So I love that. I love that he incorporated the tithe in there. I haven't done that. I've got to do that.

That's good.

I think one of the biggest lessons and kind of what you just said, Courtney, was it taught me deferred gratification. I think we live in such a world where we want that immediate gratification and especially the younger generations, and I think that discipline was so valuable because when you're hustling towards building a business or you're working on something, if you don't have the discipline to say, okay, I'm not going to indulge in this until I hit this point. You get a lot more momentum that way, and it creates a lot of grit, and you need a lot of grit to achieve anything, any level of success in Life.

Well, I. 100%, and I love that so much because, you know, there's a book that I am working on, and part of my story talks about how, you know, I made a lot of financial mistakes, and when I wanted to things, I would just go and buy them.

And.

Which was so stupid. You know, I sit there and look back on some of the choices and decisions I made, and, you know, when I really started sitting down and plugging in and going, okay, these are my goals. This is my roadmap to get there. And I started delaying that and making my money work for me instead of the other way around. You know, all of these, you know, huge rewards that I was reaping from these financial choices I made, now I'm like, okay, now I don't need any of this stuff. You know, now I don't need any of those things. You know, I actually look at the things I want to buy as, okay, I can go buy that. But you Know, I could actually take that money and turn it into, you know, two or three or, you know, 10 times what it is now. And so I just see it completely differently. And I love that he, your dad, instilled that to you in such a young age. It's such. It's such a huge different mindset and mind shift from what we traditionally learn.

Yeah. And don't get me wrong, I have bought my fair share of dudettes, so I didn't do it all. Delayed gratification.

It's okay to treat yourself, too. Okay to treat yourself, too. Nothing wrong with that. Well, you know, one of the things that you've kind of talked around all of us here is how our mindset shifts and changes and the desires of our heart move also, you know, and there's nothing wrong with, you know, treating yourself now and. But also the delayed gratification. But as we educate ourselves more and understand more about money management and money literacy, which we all know is not taught to us in grade school, college, you have to work a path to understand and learn those things and put application into place. And so I think that's what the three of us are doing and those that we're surrounding ourselves with. And so that was powerful that your family did that from a very young start. Your mom and your dad, your grandparents before you. I mean, so.

Well, y' all just have like, this huge, like, rock star lineup of family.

I mean, I mean, it's like in your genes. It's in your genes.

Well, let's. Let's do this, though, because this is really powerful. I think sometimes people can look at my life or my family's life and think like, oh, you. You were raised a certain way, so you were able to achieve a certain thing. And sometimes I feel like that can put people at a disadvantage inside of their own mindset. There's always going to be in a family genealogy that one person that was that change agent. And there was someone in my family that was that. And it was my great grandfather. He was actually a guerrilla fighter in the Philippines, and he rebelled against the. The oppression. And he was a change agent that then created an ideology in his son's mind about freedom. And then that's why my grandfather wanted to come to America, because he wanted to be in the land of his heroes who were freedom fighters. And there's someone. And if you don't have that in your genealogy, it can be you. It doesn't have. You have to wait for it to be somebody else or think that you are at a Disadvantage, it can be that person. And I'm grateful that I had that in my genealogy. Genealogy. And anyone who's watching this, you can. You can do that, too. You can read books, you can listen to podcasts. You can change your. Your perspective on life, which will then change your actions, which then could change your whole family legacy 100%.

I love that, you know, we, you know, we have brilliant, amazing people in our family, but, you know, they didn't. As great as my dad was, you know, he still did investing wrong. There's still things that he did wrong. And so I feel like I have gone down such a different path, and I want to be that change. And, you know, literally, Austin, you know, my oldest son called me the other day after listening to our podcast with your dad, and he called me, was like, mom. He was like, okay, Russ is on there talking about, you know, asset arbitrage. You know, can you dig into that, you know, a little bit deeper with me? And I just, I love that, you know, he is older, but it doesn't matter. I mean, I'm 46 years old. It doesn't matter how old you are. It's never too late. You can always, you know, change the. Change your path, get that knowledge, you know, dig in, you know, change who you're surrounded by and make that change. And you. And I'm instilling it into my kids. You know, I'll talk about something, and my kids will pipe up and spit something out, and I'm like, oh, this is so. I know they're picking up these nuggets, and, you know, they're talking about real estate and investing, and I love that. It's just. It's incredible. So I love that. You're exactly right. If you don't have that in your family tree, be that. Be that change. Be that change. Family. Yes.

Be the change agent. That's what we're going to call this one. I love that.

So.

So you, Stacy, with your business, you have been exposed to a lot of different brands, a lot of different personalities. And so I would love to know what is your favorite brand without saying the brand or the person, speak to what that business had that really was powerful and was like the secret sauce that you might be able to share with us all, because there had to be some unique ingredient that, without saying any of the other, that really resonated with you.

So I actually have a lot of favorites. So I'm not going to say that I have one, but there are. There are common characteristics between the ones that I enjoy working with the most. And I would say the, the types of visionaries that we align with best are the people who are really, really strong salespeople and strategic visionaries. So they are confident that they can go do big things. They are very strategic in their market, positioning in their branding, in their relationships. And they have no problem putting their foot on the gas pedal to go fast. And they trust that if they throw it over the fence, they have the right integrator and tactical team in place to handle all of the day to day execution. So they can live in their lane. Now, having gone through the visionary integrator dynamic multiple times with multiple visionaries, another characteristic that I like is just commitment to growth. So the commitment to personal development. You don't know what's going to happen in the marketplace. Nobody knew any of what has happened in the economy was. But you want to be aligned with people that no matter what are strategic thinking but put their boots on, they're resourceful and they get to work to being a part of the solution versus part of the problem. And so those characteristics are so valuable in a team dynamic, visionary, integrator dynamic or just even in your strategic partnerships, your alliances, who you surround yourself with. You want to be around people who are problem solvers versus victims of what they perceive as problems in the economy or the marketplace.

So well said. Proximity is so important, you know, with.

Being able to pivot, you know, being able to, you know, take a look at what's happening, take that and then pivot and you know, make whatever changes you need to make to kind of go with the flow and keep on going. So I love that. That's so amazing. And sometimes, you know, I don't know if I don't know that I am a visionary. I think I'm trying to remember I was a high I and then I think the next was visionary for me. And so sometimes I get really locked in my ways and sometimes I have to go. Sometimes I'm really good about shifting and shifting when I need to. And then sometimes, you know, I get kind of locked in and I'm like, okay, no, this is what I'm used. So I feel like I kind of struggle with a little bit, you know, some of that I'm really good at and some of it I'm really stubborn.

Though it's very nature to have that, that, that I don't know the tug of war between being in my comfort zone and expanding my comfort zone so I can grow. That's why the commitment to growth is so powerful. Which, Courtney, you very much have a commitment to growth and. But also the teacher appears when the student is ready. So sometimes what you're thinking that, you know, you're thinking you should be at Z when you're at A, but you still have B, C, D, E, F, G to get through. So you can have those little ahas to create that transformation, because it's not an overnight thing. We. Yep.

And you know what? What really helps me with that is kind of reflecting back on the past. And I really. I keep talking about the gap and the gain, but I love that book. It has. It has really just made such a huge impact on my life. But it really talked about, you know, when you're taking a look at where you're going, what you want to do, you really need to stop and take a look at where you've been and the things that you've accomplished and what you've done. And there really is so much truth in that. And, you know, even after, you know, my first year, you know, after going to the summit and then going to goals, you know, just sitting down and reflecting on the things that I accomplished, I'm so hard on myself. I always sit and go, am I getting enough done? Am I. You know, I need to be doing this. And if I stop to relax, I'm like, okay, no, I should be getting A, B and C done. But then when I stop and reflect, I'm like, man, I really got a lot of stuff done. Like, I'm really hard on myself, so I have to stop thinking about that, too.

I am the same way. And I think a lot of high achievers are. They only, like, I set my goals in phases. So I have, like, phase one, two, three, four, and if I hit one, I'm already on the two. And I don't celebrate that. I just did one. You guessed. Yes.

And you really need to stop and celebrate that. And I'm really bad about it.

Yeah. I think the celebration helps us enjoy the journey. And instead of chasing.

Yes, that is. Oh. And stopping to celebrate those accomplishments and that journey, celebrate those success.

Celebrate it. So today I did sort of a check in on my goals from this past year, since we're sort of wrapping two thirds of the year. I met with my accountability partner this morning, and we went through our goals for the last year and where we were. And what I found is that I am personally going full force in all the different areas except for my personal. And so I have neglected my personal to focus on my business, my spiritual, my health and wellness. And none of those areas are bad, you know, but I had all this stuff yellowed and markered and I've done it. And then I was like on my one page of 15 things, I had only accomplished two personal. And so sometimes you have to step back and, and not just celebrate, celebrate the successes, but you kind of have to reevaluate, to rebalance, to run hard and full in on all the others. Something else has. I don't want to use the word neglected because it's not been neglected, but you kind of have to refigure, reconfigure some of that alignment.

We did that wheel that Robert had us do in gold that talked about our business life and our personal life.

So I need to redraw my wheel. I need to redraw my wheel for the remainder of the year so I can celebrate some other things.

That's an interesting thought exercise. Like what is balance? Yes. So when we do that wheel exercise, and for maybe the audience who listening, who doesn't know, if you Google, you know, success wheel, it's basically you take different areas of your life and you rate them from 1 to 10 and the exercise is, okay, if something's at a 1 and something's at a 10 and something's at a 5, how bumpy of a ride is that? That's a wheel on your vehicle going down the road. It might be a little lopsided or bumpy, but the thought is, okay, well, how do I keep everything at a 10?

That's hard. It's hard because I'm really guilty of, you know, dialing in and getting focused on something I'm working on. And I, you know, I don't do anything half assed. I mean, everything I do is, you know, 200%, you know, and so.

And then, you know, you do the.

Next thing I know, you know, I know. It's so funny, you know.

I know.

So Courtney will send me a message late at night and I'm like, okay, I'm going, Robin's going to sleep.

Your night out. And Robin's morning. So then you guys, I am morning.

Super morning.

Yes. Yeah.

And Robin's like, oh my gosh. And I'm over here still working on stuff at one o' clock in the morning. And you know, because I'm so. I take my computer to bed with me, which is such a bad idea, which is my family ends up getting neglected.

But at 5:30, I'll reply to you.

So I've been reflecting on this balance thing lately because it's been A conversation in a few of the entrepreneur groups and accountability groups that I'm involved in. And I've always thought of balance in such a narrow focus. Like, okay, in a 24 hour period or in a week long period, am I balanced? And I've started to expand that like, okay, in a 90 day cycle, am I balanced in a year in my balance? Because there are.

That's a good idea.

Yeah, I'm writing that down. 24 hour, 90 days.

Sometimes there's moments, I mean, for instance, we were on the summit that was very slated towards one aspect of our lives. There was. It's multifaceted, obviously we're learning, we're developing relationships, there's community. And if you brought your family, that was an element of it. If not, then it's slated towards one way. When you're focusing on writing a book, you're really all in on that creative side of you. And a lot of other things can take a backseat. So how do we maintain enough balance over a period of time so that the things that we are, I'm not going to say neglecting, but have a backseat to whatever the main priority is, is still getting fed so that it's more a zero, but it's not the main focal point. And for me, the way I've kind of orchestrated this into my life is habits. So the minimalist amount. Minimalist amount of habits that I need for an area. So with family, I think this is really true. We're all females, but there's a lot of male entrepreneurs whose wives feel neglected. Fortunately for us, we have a lot of our significant others involved in the things that we're doing. But not everyone always has that. That's right. But just being able to have a 30 minute conversation with your significant other with no devices, no distractions can go a long way towards allowing you to have the space to spend six hours writing the book versus six hours at, you know, at the lake with your family. They'll understand it because you're doing the 30 minutes. So I've sort of tried to incorporate more of the, the habits that keep a solid foundation and then understanding that it's not always going to be 10 around all of them.

So why the spouse thing is tough. You know, I sit and think about, you know, I've been so focused on a lot of the projects that I'm working on right now and I really feel like, you know, my family and friends have kind of taken that backseat. You know, Joe and I were, I guess he and I are both such independent people. That, you know, he's working on what he's working on, I'm working on what I'm working on. We do kind of come together and we talk about things, which is great, but it's really easy for each of us to kind of get kind of laser focused on what we're working on. And I really have to stop. You know, we went to church Sunday and we were talking about relationships and it was like, okay, you know, we've, we have to actually make a concerted effort into like carving out time and going and having a date night. And you know, we're really not that involved in social media. You know, we're not sitting there, you know, social media surfing or any that. But like last night, you know, he's over there, you know, watching something. I'm sitting in bed working on a PowerPoint presentation. You know, I need, I need to do a better job of, you know, when I go to bed, you know, I'm present and there with him instead of working on stuff. But it's really tough.

It's.

It's hard for me to shut my mind off of the things that I need to get done. I have a hard time enjoying other things when I know I have this work that I need to do. So that's one of the struggles that I fight with.

Yeah, I can completely relate. I think most entrepreneurs and high achievers are the same way as we live, read everything that we do, and we think about it even unconsciously or subconsciously in our sleep. And we're solving problems nonstop and it's hard to really be present. I had many times where I'll be talking with somebody and they're like, are you, are you hearing what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm here, but I'm really not here. There's, I guess, right in my head. No.

And that's one of the things that Kevin Hartman talked about the other day was when you're talking to somebody, be present and actually hear them. You know, listen to them instead of just hear them. And you know, I have found I can be guilty of that on occasion too. So for sure.

Well, I find myself, you know, when, when that's going on, I'm solving the problem that they're telling me about. And really they don't want my solution, they just want me to listen. Because I was reminded of that last night.

That's also Robin, part of your disc profile. It is.

God given way I was made. It is true. It is true. So you have to really work to do the other I mean, it's like really, really hard. But it sounds like we all sort of see struggle from some of the same tendencies.

So.

I completely understand. But you know, Stacy, you. You say that if it's not on the calendar, it doesn't exist. And so, yeah, so I have learned to really calendar time because time is a precious commodity we cannot make more of. It's is probably one of the greatest assets is how we use our time. And would you speak to that a little bit? Because, you know, I think that you do such an amazing job of that and coaching people on that. And I would like to have a little lesson on that myself right now.

We all need reminders of that. You know, I take the time mentality a little bit further. And we only have its time finding amount of time. Right? We all have 24 hours in a day. But it's also our energy, like what energy we bring to that time. And sometimes we allocate things to something on our calendar that we really are in the right state of mind to do that particular thing at that time. For instance, I am super creative in the morning. Unlike Courtney, I cannot sit in bed with my laptop at midnight and do a PowerPoint. That would be the least productive time for me. It would have to be at 8am in the morning and I would create a really good PowerPoint presentation. If it was midnight, I don't know what I would be good at it.

But it was not.

Not that.

But. So I have now paired the things that are on my to do list or the things that are a priority to me with the type of energy that I'm going to have at that specific time. So I do all of my creative work in the morning and I do all of my calls in the afternoons because I get a lot of energy from people. And so I enjoy doing things like this. Having phone conversations with team members, discovery calls, things that are energizing to me or the community side of it. And so I plug that into my calendar later in the afternoons. So for us, if it's not on the calendar, it doesn't exist because if we do have those 24 hours, then we need to make sure that we're allocating the right tasks on the calendar at the right times so that we can be productive with that. But for me, it even goes even further than the energy. It is also about protecting our confidence because we can't always predict what's going to happen in a day or if things are going to go as planned as they were on the calendar. But the Process of protecting our confidence is building trust within ourselves that no matter what happens, no matter how my calendar unfolds, no matter what plot twists come at me during the day, that I trust myself to make the best decisions and solve it in the best way possible because I am setting myself up for success from the get go versus being reactive. I think so many times when it's not on the calendar, we're in reactive mode. When we're in reactive mode, our confidence is tanking because we don't feel like we're in control. And so we have to protect our confidence and then set ourselves up for success by pairing the right things on the calendar so that we can actually move the needle on things that matter most to us.

God, I love that. Pairing the right things with the right time of day, with your energy, that is really special. I mean, that's really good.

It is. And I think, you know, we all have strengths and things. You know, either way, you know, this latest deal that we're working on, you know, I more creative and better at working on this, there's another one of us that's really better at, you know, digging through those contracts and, you know, going through that. So, you know, we've really kind of separated, you know, who's good at this and separated that out. But the one thing I so want to be, a time blocker, you know, Russ talks about it all the time. I am trying to figure that out. But the one thing that I have implemented that has really been a game changer for me is at night, before I go to bed, I write down the three things that I want to get accomplished tomorrow. And so I have found that I am more productive. I definitely get those things done. And I wake up with that mindset already that, hey, these are the things that I need to do today. These are my must do's. And it really kind of changes my productivity throughout the day. Just having that little shift in mindset of lining that up the night before. So I'm still figuring out that time blocking and what that looks like and everything else. But just doing that, making that one change has been a drastic game changer for me.

That's part of your habits, though. So one of my habits is I write my to do list the night before, which is essentially the habit you're saying you're doing is you write your to do list the night before so that you have your mindset right before you go into your day.

Well, when you go to bed with that different, you know, that it shifts your mind when you go to sleep and it really starts you off your next day in a completely different mindset, it starts you off in a productive mindset and it really kind of changes your day. You know, I'm definitely getting into that routine and my kids go back to school tomorrow. So I'm, I have such better habits and routine things when my kids are in school because I'm forced to get up at a certain time, I've got to get them here. You know, then I work out, I, you know, I have my whole things that I go through, but I kind of fall off the habit wagon in the summertime. So I'm looking for forward to hi kids tomorrow because it, it forces me back into my good habits and routines on a daily basis at set times.

So, so when I use that journal that we were given at Goals, you know, today I'm grateful for today I must. And then, you know, you write some pieces about affirmations, who you are and what you're doing. And so I don't do that at night, I do that in the morning first thing as a part of my morning routine with my readings and such. But no matter what time of day you do it, what's important is that you implement some component of that. Certainly if our viewers haven't tried that exercise, I can tell you that it shaped my productivity and my mindset and there's a many times when I'll have a self defeating thought, but I pick myself back up and it goes away and I move on down the road. It's been powerful how that has been lived out in both your lives as well, because you've been movers and shakers this year, we all have. And I really look forward to the last couple of months of this year and what next year unfolds. So what would be, Stacy, a suggestion maybe that you would offer a young entrepreneur, doesn't matter if they're female or male, but someone who might not be able to reach out and use a business such as yours. How might you help that individual.

Get.

Some mentors or whatnot in their life, whatever that might be? I don't know what that might be. But what would be your golden nugget that you'd share with young entrepreneur?

Yeah, I think this is true for anyone. If you are evaluating where you're at in your life and you're at A, and you want to get to B, you have to figure out how to get there. And so whether you're creating financial freedom, whether you're starting a business, whether you're setting some type of lofty goal that you want to achieve, you're at A and you need to get to B and how are you going to do that? And if you're not well funded, that could create a different level of challenges. If you are well funded, that can also create an element of challenges because rely on money versus actual skill sets and habits and disciplines to actually get you from A to B. So there's advantages and disadvantages of both sides of it. So if you're at A and want to get to B, I think the number one thing that anybody can do, and I got this from Ken McElroy when I was young. He's been a part of my life for 15 years now. He said, if you want to change your life, change who you hang around. And I think nowadays it's even taken online. So who do you follow on social media? What things are you watching on YouTube? What newsworthy things are you reading? If you're attending free webinars, what types of ideologies and insights are they providing to you? So changing who you're hanging around is not just what you do offline, but it's what you do online. And Robert Helm says this all the time. If you hang out with people who go to more concerts than football games, you're going to go to more concerts than football games. And the same is true if you want to create a business. If you hang out with people who have W2 jobs and aren't trying to create businesses, you're probably going to have a W2 job. If you want to be an entrepreneur and start a business, go hang around people who are starting businesses or even aspiring to start businesses. There's so many things. There's meetup.com you can go play the cash flow board game with people. There's so many ways that doesn't even cost money. It just takes initiative for you to locate the people in your community that can help you. So I think that's probably paramount for transformation from getting A to B.

That's really good.

I feel like we talk about this in almost every episode, that it really does matter who you spend your time with and it has a huge impact on your life and the things that you're accomplishing. And so I, you know, at some point in time, we're going to hammer that into everybody. Everybody's going to understand that, you know, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And where you spend your time and what you listen to really does matter.

Yeah. And I Think the other, taking that, taking another angle at it since that's been a subject you guys talk about a lot of. And Russ says this all the time and I think that it was ingrained in me. But the quality of your answers depend on the quality of your question. And I think when we are trying to move from A to B, sometimes worse we can have self limiting questions like, okay, why am I at A? Why is it so hard for me to get from A to B? Why does it look like everybody else is easier? How come I am struggling in this area instead of asking, okay, if I was the best version of myself, how would I plot the best plan to get from A to B? And our minds will start going to work on solving that problem for us if we ask better quality questions. So part of your community can help you answer those questions, but also within yourself, your own dialogue. If the questions you ask will help predict whether you'll get from A to.

B, well, that's great. I love that. So you.

Well, and that's another, you know, we always ask how, how do I make this happen? How do I get this done?

Yes.

Sorry, Robin, I didn't mean to catch.

No, that's okay. You're good. So you have a, a live educational event coming up, correct? Stacy, in November, your first.

Seminar. Yeah, the first group three day. So Robin, you've actually gone through. Both of you have gone through. Yeah, yeah, both of you have gone through the customized three day. So the way we build businesses is we do it in three phases. We architect the business, which is where you come up with the blueprint of this is the vision for the business. This is what I want it to do for me. This is what I want to do for my target market. And these are the core functions that need to happen in order for me to get there. That happens in a three day strategic business planning session. And then we build the infrastructure or the foundation based on what we architected, what the blueprint is. And then once we build the foundation, we pass it to what we call the operate team. And the operate team is the people who just pull the levers and make sure that the repeatable tasks are consistently happening according to the standard operating procedures, the brand, the vision, mission, values, etc. And so we build businesses in that three step process of architect, build, operate. And we've been doing it primarily with content creators and syndicators like yourself, capital raisers who are doing amazing deals in communities. And we're taking that three day and actually doing it in a group setting. So that folks can get the benefit of all of the best practices of top syndicators without necessarily having to go through that customized model.

Wow, that's going to be awesome. So this November, when I know it's the beginning of November.

And if anyone wants more information, they could send an email to workshopganizetoscale.com and they can get all the details on it.

Well, I can say it was a powerful experience to go through it. I was exhausted. Exhausted and energized at the same time. And you work through it until you get the answer. You don't stop until you come up with the answer. And so it can be brutal too. But, but the answer comes out. You birth this thing and it's beautiful. But it's wow. It's an experience and it's.

The good thing is, is you only have to do a three day one for yes. So it's a tough mental wrestling of getting the visionary's vision out. Oftentimes visionaries think they're super clear but they can see that front of that puzzle box in 3D in color. But they don't necessarily know how to articulate it.

Yes.

And the process of learning how to articulate it we really wrestle with through that three day.

Wow, that is going to be amazing. And so that is going to be in Dallas, right? Dallas, Texas.

Yep, it will be in Dallas.

Okay, that's exciting.

Well, I want to go to that.

You're invited. All of you. What?

Yeah, you need to. I'm, I'm. I will probably do it too. Unless I am a grandmother that weekend.

I know.

I can't believe it's so crazy. So Stacy, as your brand has evolved, your personal brand. What you know, now that you are taking this three day intensive and you're now doing this on a larger scale, are there some other systems that you have refined that you're using that you're going to be maybe doing the same thing with, with in beyond this November live training.

Oh, like taking more on the day to day and sharing. Yeah. So we're going to be starting to after the three day being able to take folks. So at OTS we do day to day execution for folks. So we want run all of the real estate guys, we partner with quite a few visionaries and do their back office day to day execution. So think of that operate squad if you will. So the people who handle all of the under the hood back office stuff. So the visionary can truly just be that brand ambassador, salesperson, investor relations, they can just do all the fun glitz and glam stuff and not do the nitty gritty under the hood stuff. So as we are doing the group three day, we're going to be taking folks through a 90 day process so that they can take all the blueprint of what they got created in the three day and actually get the foundation built. And then they can choose to take it and go operate on their own. Or again, they can have OTS help them with it as well. So the mission of OTS is to help mission driven leaders build businesses they own that don't own them. And this started because my father was very much trapped, trapped in the real estate guys. He was working 16, 18 hours a day. And then my mother was diagnosed with cancer and he. We had built teams before and then we went. This is. He talks about this all the time on the real estate guys podcast. But we went through the 2008 crash. He didn't want to have to go through the process of laying off any other team members. So he just kind of hunkered down and was doing everything himself. And then when my mother was diagnosed, he couldn't work 16, 18 hours a day and spend time with her. And so he was like, we have to do something different. I need to build a team. And he did not want to build a team. He was like, I don't want to manage people. I'm not good at it. I don't want to do it. So he read the book the One Thing and he needed to figure out what was the one thing that he needed to do in order to, to achieve what he wanted to achieve. And that one thing for him was to build a team. He didn't want to build a team. So he said, okay, I need to find a team builder. Well, I had built his team the first time and it was really successful. So he called me and said, will you come do it again? And I promise I won't unravel it. Because we had. And so I came back in and built just the entire infrastructure that later became organized to scale. And I didn't know it at the time, so I didn't know that I was building the foundation of ots. It was so successful, people started saying, will you do that for us? And so we. That's how organized scale came to be. It was just a need in the marketplace where visionaries really want to be visionaries and they don't want to build, manage and hold accountable team. And I don't blame them. I get it. I get the. It's hard to be a Visionary and hard to be an integrator, and you can't really do both.

So I don't like having to worry about all that other stuff. Like, that's just, it's not fun. I don't enjoy it.

Yeah. And some people do really enjoy it. And so those people should do it. And the people you even further than helping the visionaries build businesses they own that don't own them. I'm really passionate about culture and creating positive culture where people are so excited to go to work. They love who they're working with and they love what they're doing every day so that when they go home at night, they're better mothers, daughters, friends, sisters, sons, neighbors in their community, and they're having better dinner table conversations because that's going to impact the entire world that we're going to live in. So the culture of all of our individual organizations can have a huge impact on the neighborhoods that we're living in. And the type of people we see at the community pool is are they excited, enjoying what they do, or are they resentful of who they're working for and what they're doing? And then they're not kind to your kid. So it's just a ripple effect. Beautiful.

That's amazing. Well, Stacey, I want to thank you for your time today and all that you've shared with us. It's just such a blessing to be able to meet with you and have you, you just pour into Courtney and I. Gosh, I feel like we've had a private session with you and I know that it will greatly impact our listeners and viewers. How can they, our listeners and viewers, get in touch with you for more information?

I do have a free report that might be valuable. So four tips for quickly organizing your business to scale. Any send an email to scale@organizetoscale.com they can get a copy of it and of course on social media, organized to scale or Stacy Gray S T A C I G R A Y I'm sure you guys will put that in the show notes. But yes, I'd love to connect with everybody. I'm really passionate about helping people build businesses and do it in a way that they really create a lot of joy and excellence in the process.

And you're really good at it. So there's that too.

I love that. Well, we want to thank our viewers today for listening and watching us here at Ladies Kicking Assets and reach out to us with questions and comments about today's episode and any other question that you may have@ladieskickenassets.com Yep. Thank you all.

Yes, thank you. And I will make sure to put all of Stacy's contact information in the description.

Absolutely.

Have a great day. You're doing wonderful things with Ladies Kicking Assets.

Oh, thank you.