Ryan Deiss tells founders at $20 million revenue what they need to unlearn to reach $100 million. Stop being the operator. Learn to communicate culture internally and message to stakeholders. Build partnerships, master customer acquisition, and kill your ego before it kills the company.
Hit $20 million? Congrats. Now you need to start thinking like you're at zero again, because if you can hit $20 million, you can get to $100 million. The question is just whether or not you want to. So let's talk about the skills that you need to first unlearn. The very first skills you need to unlearn being the most valuable player on your team. At $20 million, it is time to get off the field. It's probably time to get off the sidelines as the coach, and it really is time to get in the owner's box. Not everybody wants to do that. Not everyone wants to give up that MVP status, but you got to do it. You got to unlearn it. Along those lines, you got to stop being the operator. At this point, you might be the CEO, but you likely need somebody on the team who's actually doing the day-to-day operations. We're going to have to elevate your focus on what you're doing. All right, so what do you need to focus on? Corporate communications. Sounds corny, sounds cheesy, but what this is about is communicating the values of your business, where you're going, both internally to your team, saying it over and over and over again. So many times that they like roll their eyes. They're sick of it. They think it's corny. But also externally to other stakeholders, possible investors, and possible hires. You also need to be focusing on partnerships and joint ventures. A lot of companies have a partnership team. They have business development folks. The best partnership person, the best business development person, the person that can get any room is you if it is your company. CEOs like to talk to other CEOs. Also, not just accounting, finance and M&A. The quickest path to go from $20 million to $100 million is through acquisition. And so this is the time when it really makes sense for you to get good at acquisition. And then lastly, and this is the biggie, the most important one of all, humility. You're going to have to learn and likely relearn humility. You're doing great. You're on top of the world. And this is the point where ego and arrogance is going to get the better of you. We got to think back like we're at zero again. We got to humble ourselves because it's through humility, it's through continue to learn that we're able to rise again. We've gone all the way from zero to $100 million. I'll tell you, learning never stops, but unlearning is just as important and specifically learning and unlearning the steps between each stage. If you want some help with this process, comment "OS" and I'll send you our 46-page step-by-step report on how we make these transitions.
