Stephen ScogginsFounder - CEO at Lion - Lamb Solutions

This $3M Mistakr Is KILLING Your Business #Shorts

21 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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1:13

In this interview, Rick Jordan, founder and CEO of Frequency Holdings, discusses the costly mistakes that can cripple a rapidly scaling business. He recounts how his company grew from 16 to 94 employees in two years through aggressive acquisitions, only to face integration failures, client loss, and delayed workforce reductions. Jordan admits he held off on decisive cuts for too long and failed to install leaders who can operate in the "dark place"—the tough decision‑making required to steer a company through rapid growth. He emphasizes that the skill sets needed to reach $1 million, $10 million, and $100 million in revenue are distinct, and hiring the right people for each stage is essential to avoid a multi‑million‑dollar mistake.

There is a formula to this, and the formula is not what I did.
Rick Jordan is the founder and CEO of Frequency Holdings, national leading keynote speaker, cybersecurity expert, and public company CEO. He's also the host of Frequency, which is a top 50 Apple podcast.
So, I mean, when you're buying companies, right, and you're scaling that quickly, I mean, you're buying entire infrastructure. I mean, you go from 16 people to 94 people in a matter of 2 years too. Yeah. Suit them. And terminated them on the same day. It was after that, over the course of the next month and a half, that clients started going to— like, just started going away, the ones we had just bought. I seriously don't care what anybody says about me at this point because when I look back, it's like no one's going to understand that those are the things that are going through your mind. Yeah. But I think where I failed is that I held out too long before making those drastic cuts. There's people that you have to put into place. That their job is to live in that dark place for you. And the one thing I didn't do is I didn't put those people in place. Like, the people that'll get you to the $1 million that you're talking about— Mm-hmm. And the people that'll get you to the $10 million and the $100 million, they're all different people.