How to Think Like a $10M Founder (Not a $1M Hustler)

So I used to think scaling from 1 million to 10 million was all about learning more so that I could do more. But that turned out to be completely backwards. Because what works to get you to 1 million doesn't just stop working as you scale. It actively works against you. Now, just for context, I'm Ryan Deiss. I've scaled Multiple companies past $10 million in revenue. I operate a portfolio that's generated hundreds of millions, and I've made just about every single scaling mistake a founder can make, usually more than once. Million. So, in this video, I'm going to walk you through the five skills that I actually had to unlearn, along with the shifts that you need to make in your leadership style. If you want to break through the $1 million ceiling and scale to 10 million and beyond, let's get into it. So before I get into the five skills, I need to explain why so much has to be unlearned in the first place. And it all comes down to this concept known as the second mountain theory. Scaling isn't actually one big continuous mountain. It's actually two very different mountains. The first mountain is really this mountain that goes from zero to a million dollars. And this mountain, believe it or not, is all about survival, Right? The concept of this mountain is just don't die. The thing about the first mountain is those traits aren't just helpful, they're required. But what happens is you hit the peak, and without realizing it, you start climbing a different mountain. And. And the thing is, nobody told you that it was a different mountain. What we all think is that we're climbing an ever taller, higher mountain that is the same mountain. What has happened is we shifted over to a fundamentally different mountain that has fundamentally different rules and requires fundamentally different tools. So it's no longer about survival. This new mountain is about leverage. This new mountain is about systems. This new mountain is about leadership. And right between these two mountains is this valley that most founders don't expect. And it's this valley where confusion sets in. You're not failing. You're not broken. You're just using these first mountain tools on second mountain terrain. It's kind of like trying to ascend the summit of Everest using the same tools and the same advice that got you to base camp, right? Not just not going to work. It's quite literally going to get you killed. Which brings me to the first skill that I had to kill, that I had to unlearn. This is skill number one. I had to stop saving the day. Now, look, I used to think that being indispensable was the goal. I mean, I was the one who built the products. I was the one who wrote the sales copy. I was the one who generated the leads many times. I was even the one who closed the sales. I was also the one who checked the mail. I managed the payroll. I put out the fires when the fires inevitably flamed up. And you know what? It worked. Until it didn't. It certainly worked on the first mountain. But at scale, being the hero is the fastest way to cap your growth. So I had to learn to get comfortable letting other people get the glory. Now, first I was kind of a player coach. Then I was simply the coach. But eventually, the posture, the position you want to take, is that owner on the sidelines. But I'll admit that transition is brutal. You absolutely feel like going back to our analogy, you feel like you've entered into this. This valley. It feels like you've taken a step back, like. Like you've taken a demotion. But that's the point. If the business can't win without you on the field, then it's not scalable and you're not free. So here's the big shift that you need to make from a leadership perspective. You need to shift from hiring for your weaknesses to hiring for your strengths. Now, in the early days, you're obviously gonna hire a bunch of helpers. You're gonna hire people who can do all the little tasks that make your job, that make your life easier. Ultimately, the most important hire that you will ever make is, is when you hire someone to do that one job that you yourself are really, really, really great at. If growth is hiring for your weaknesses, then scale is hiring for your strengths. Learn to hire for your strengths, not just your weaknesses. The second big skill I had to unlearn, I had to stop leading by gut. But I used to pride myself on all of my instincts early on. Gut is a superpower. I mean, think about it. You know the customer. You know your numbers. I mean, you can feel when something's off. Cause you're but on the road to 10 million. My gut started lying to me. There were just too dang many people. That doesn't mean that your intuition completely disappears, but it does mean that it should start to be informed by data. You can't just feel your way through $10 million in revenue like you did at a million dollars. Companies scale at the rate of good decisions that are well executed. So the cost of a bad decision is just way too expensive at 10 million and above to just leave it to gut alone. So here's the shift that you need to make in style. You need to shift from gut based leadership to scorecard based leadership. So when questions come up like should we make this higher or should we greenlight this project? The change that needs to take place is you need to start responding with, you know what, I don't know what red metrics on our scorecard, Will this initiative turn green? That's the big shift that must take place. Because if you can get all the metrics that are on your scorecard into the green meeting on target, guess what? Your business is going to grow. And as long as you're tracking the right thing and your metrics are on target, then you're doing the right thing. The third big skill I had to unlearn is I had to unlearn hustling. Had to just stop hustling, you know, And I used to think that hustle meant responsibility, making sure that I responded faster than anyone else, that I was constantly available, that I was always on no matter what, anytime, any day, nights, weekends, it didn't matter. But at scale, that really does become a liability. The goal quietly flips from do more to to do less. But it's not doing less work, it's actually just reacting less. So we're going to intervene less. We're going to have less emotional whiplash. Because scale requires patience. It requires observation, not constant panic, not flailing around. So here's the shift that you need to make. You need to shift from the 80 hour workweek to the 12 hour workweek. Now, to be clear, I do work more than 12 hours a week, but I'm no longer required to work more than 12 hours because I'm measuring impact rather than effort. So here really quickly is how I structure my 12 hour week. Step number one is I'm going to block out focus time. So I'm going to reserve four hours a week for deep, focused, high leverage work. The kind of work that really only I can do. So that's typically creative work. It might be strategic work, it might be recruiting for a key executive role. Step two, I'm going to block strategy time. So I'm going to set aside 90 minutes each week to review the company scorecards, to look for trends, and just to generally think and plan for the future. Now for me, I do this on Monday afternoons after our weekly leadership scorecard meeting while all the numbers are still fresh and top of mind. Step three, I'm going to block people time. I'm going to block off at least two hours a week, just connecting with key team members. Also connecting with peers, strategic advisors, partners if I need to. Leadership requires relationships, and relationships happen through real one on one conversations. Also, you never know when a quick hey, how's life? Or hey, what's new with you? Check in text with an old friend or a colleague will turn into your next big opportunity. Step four, I'm going to block recovery time. You can't overlook physical and mental recovery. Whether it's a walk, a massage, doing your hobby, or just simply doing nothing. Downtime helps you return to work with renewed energy and perspective. And for us, for high performance people, I truly believe rest equals work. And then step five, make sure you're blocking personal development time. The best leaders, they never stop learning, which is why I block out two hours a week with the goal of learning at least one new thing, whether it's a business concept, a leadership insight, or a new tool or trend that I can implement that's going to just help me grow as a leader or heck, help me grow as a dad or as a husband. If you do the math, this system is going to add up to just 12 scheduled hours per week. Here are the rules, and these are really, really important when you implement this system. So of those categories that I just described, each one of these category blocks, they can be moved, it can be expanded so you can invest more. It can also be multipl, meaning you can add additional blocks to any of these if you have space on your calendar. They just can't be deleted. That's the important part. But here's the big shift. When you proactively block time for the work that actually moves the needle. You stay ahead of problems, which means you get more done in less time because you're finally working on the right things. And ironically, the more you block, the more freedom that you gain. Number four, I had to unlearn. I had to stop keeping a to do list. Now, I used to measure productivity by what I personally got done, how many emails I was able to respond to, how many deals I was able to close, how many questions I was able to answer in like the customer support area. Now, at scale, that metric's pretty much meaningless because at scale, my productivity stopped being measured by my output and it became what is the team's output. And so that meant my highest and best use was no longer in the doing of the work. In other words, it was no longer in creating the products or delivering the services or closing the sales. Now my highest and best use became building systems and assets that allowed other people to do the work without me. In other words, it wasn't doing the work anymore. It was building the systems that made the work happen. And this meant that my to do list needed to change to a to build list. And so that's the shift that you need to make. So here's the deal. If your to do list is full of verbs, then your to do list is likely stalling your growth. So if you've got things in your to do list, like write the email or fix this error, or call that angry client, you're just doing, and guess what? You're gonna be your company's best employee, but you'll never be its CEO. So here's the fix. I want you to turn the verbs on your to do list into nouns. So here's what I mean. So write the email becomes write a template, not just the email. So we're not gonna write an email one time to respond to that person. We're gonna write a text template for the email that we're responding to so that ideally, we never have to respond to that particular email in that way ever again. Same with fix. The error becomes document the fix call the angry client becomes create a talk track. These things are assets. Assets are nouns. And the thing about assets and nouns are they work when you don't. And the more you replace yourself with repeatable assets, the more time you buy back for strategy, for creativity, for leverage, and for life. And finally, number five, I had to stop being a martyr. Martyrdom may not sound like a skill, but I can assure you martyrdom is a skill. Heck, I know a lot of entrepreneurs who have practically turned martyrdom into an art form. I certainly used to believe that sacrifice was a part of the deal. Let's just leave it all in the business, honey. We can take that vacation next year. Now, that mindset, which I admit is essential in the early days of a startup, when you're in that first mountain, nearly broke my business at scale. And worse, it nearly broke me. You see, when you martyr yourself to your business, what you're actually saying is that your business is more important than everything else. And here's the really, really bad news, or good news, depending on how you look at it. Martyrdom doesn't even work. Because at scale, the ultimate sign of a healthy business is not revenue. It's not customer satisfaction, it's not even growth. The ultimate sign of a healthy business is the ability to distrib large chunks of cash. Because what that means is that the business is creating surplus value, which is something that all successful businesses can do. All right. The shift is from a growth at all cost mindset to profit first growth. For me, this meant I had to shift from I'm willing to starve for this company to this company must generate real profit and it must pay some of that real profit out to me and it must do it every single quarter. And again, not because I'm greedy and not because I'm selfish, but because when profit becomes non negotiable, decision making just gets clearer. The optimistic entrepreneur's ability to spend will always outpace their ability to earn. So if you don't at some point constrain your decision making to just this is what we have the ability to spend after taking a profit, you will always spend. At the end of the day, the biggest shift from 1 million to 10 million is identity. Specifically making the shift from identifying as a startup founder to identifying as a scaling up CEO. Now, every one of these changes requires a pretty significant identity upgrade. That's one of the things that makes scaling so hard. Not because the tactics are necessarily complex, but because the person who got you here, the person who got you up that first mountain, is not the person who can take you there. It's not the person that's going to take you up the second mountain. And look, if you found this helpful and you want more practical wisdom on how to make the leap from 1 million to 10 million and beyond, be sure to subscribe to this channel. And if you want help installing the systems that make this process faster and easier, I'll drop a link in the description to another video I made that shows exactly how we do that. Either way, best of luck out there and I'll see you in the next one. I.