The 6 Stages of Scaling | Dave Ramsey — Transcript

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1. 0:00Can you walk me through the six stages
2. 0:01of scaling that you uh that you talk
3. 0:03about in the in your book?
4. 0:04>> Well, we we came up with what we're
5. 0:06looking for because the bestselling book
6. 0:08we've ever done and and the probably the
7. 0:11most known thing in the entire Ramsey
8. 0:13brand has been the baby steps. And that
9. 0:15was the total money makeover book, 12
10. 0:17million copies now. And what we
11. 0:19discovered from that, teaching people
12. 0:20the seven baby steps, this is what you
13. 0:22do if you want to go from broke to
14. 0:24wealthy is that when people have a clear
15. 0:26path, it gives them hope and they don't
16. 0:29have paralysis of the analysis and they
17. 0:31don't have uh if you have a clear map to
18. 0:34get to Florida, your anxiety goes down
19. 0:37if you're on the way to Florida, you
20. 0:39know, and uh if you need a clear path.
21. 0:42And so, uh, I didn't have a clear path
22. 0:44running a business. And so, I'm kind of
23. 0:46making it up as I go. And I got a lot of
24. 0:47bumps and scars and bruises and, uh, and
25. 0:50I went slower than I should have cuz I
26. 0:52didn't know didn't know what the next
27. 0:53step was. So, as we've coached ourselves
28. 0:56now through 30 plus years and, uh, about
29. 0:5910,000 small businesses, we're observing
30. 1:02that businesses go through five stages.
31. 1:04It starts with a treadmill stage. When
32. 1:06you're by yourself, you're a soloreneur.
33. 1:09All revenue is based on you. All
34. 1:11production is based on you. You don't
35. 1:13even really own a business. You just own
36. 1:14your job. Because if you don't work,
37. 1:16nothing happens. And so you come home
38. 1:18from work and you flop down on the
39. 1:20couch. I would when I was at that stage.
40. 1:21And Sharon say, "What'd you do today?" I
41. 1:23don't know. But I did a lot of it and
42. 1:24I'm exhausted. And so you just run run
43. 1:27run run run run.
44. 1:31And it's if it's to be, it's up to me is
45. 1:33not a motto, but it is the motto. And so
46. 1:36uh man, you get her done. Uh and and
47. 1:38that is fun. It's invigorating. It's a
48. 1:41fun time. You're still You still believe
49. 1:44this business thing is going to be easy
50. 1:45because you're naive at that stage. Uh
51. 1:48but it's not sustainable.
52. 1:50You don't meet 10year
53. 1:53treadmill operators
54. 1:55because you run out of breath. It's too
55. 1:58hard. If you just own your own job, they
56. 2:02end up closing going to work for
57. 2:03somebody or they end up growing the
58. 2:05business. So, what do you do to grow?
59. 2:07Well, each of these stages, we figured
60. 2:08out there's some things you do to level
61. 2:10up. Uh, on that one, it's pretty simple.
62. 2:12Time management. You got to do what our
63. 2:14friend Burger at ETH says, and that is
64. 2:16to work on the business, not just in the
65. 2:19business. So, you've got to allocate
66. 2:20blocks of time. You got to start
67. 2:21blocking time and say I got to work. I
68. 2:24got to have I got to start thinking
69. 2:25about something other than freaking
70. 2:27Friday and pay, you know. And then the
71. 2:30second thing is I got to learn how to
72. 2:31hire people and I got to bring on my
73. 2:32first folks and uh and I can delegate to
74. 2:35them so that someone is creating
75. 2:37production and someone is creating
76. 2:39revenue both that is not just me. So
77. 2:43that if I'm hurt or I'm on vacation or
78. 2:46uh one of my kids is sick and I need to
79. 2:48tend to them, the whole thing doesn't
80. 2:49stop. Uh and and when you do that, you
81. 2:52level up. Uh you know, get your first
82. 2:54hire. You start a little bit of baby
83. 2:56delegation here. Uh and you get some
84. 2:58good time management. You go to the
85. 3:00trailblazer stage. Trailblazer is just
86. 3:03chaotic. It's crazy. I mean, you're
87. 3:05trying to herd cats. You got 10, 15
88. 3:07people and they're running in 16
89. 3:08directions. Nobody knows what nobody's
90. 3:10doing, but we're doing a whole lot of
91. 3:12it. And uh it it's uh communication is
92. 3:16is really fun and there's a lot of
93. 3:18passion and a lot of zeal. It's a good
94. 3:21stage. I love the trailblazer stage. Uh
95. 3:23but again, it's it's uh eventually it's
96. 3:26so frenetic that eventually you you
97. 3:29start to go, I really want to get a
98. 3:30little bit more sophisticated than this
99. 3:32cuz this is killing me. And and so how
100. 3:34do you do that? Well, you start actually
101. 3:35doing some planning, uh which is a whole
102. 3:38new idea for the tactical person like
103. 3:39me. Uh because when in doubt, I bust
104. 3:42something in the nose, right? When in
105. 3:43doubt, I'm going to run into the wall.
106. 3:45Let's go do something. Not if I run into
107. 3:46it enough times, it'll fall over. And I
108. 3:48just start, you know, I got to stop
109. 3:50being so tactical. I got to start
110. 3:51thinking about long term. I got to start
111. 3:53really developing my first layer of
112. 3:56leadership inside my team. That takes
113. 3:58you up to the uh Pathfinder stage or
114. 4:02that's Pathfinder up to Trailblazer
115. 4:03stage. Trailblazer stage is the middle
116. 4:06stage of the five. I skipped one. And uh
117. 4:09trailblazer stage is the middle stage of
118. 4:11the fight. This is where you actually
119. 4:12where I first started hearing about
120. 4:13strategic thought. Um I'm so straight
121. 4:18commission sales guy mentality, tactical
122. 4:21guy that when someone said we need
123. 4:23strategic thought, that sounded like
124. 4:25corporate America. And I went no you
125. 4:27just ought to go get your work done. And
126. 4:29so, uh, but then I started hiring some
127. 4:31guys and gals that had MBAs and they
128. 4:34started I I think 100% of the NBA
129. 4:36programs teach strategic thought as a
130. 4:39primary thing. And so they start
131. 4:40teaching me the value of strategic
132. 4:42thought. They're like, "Look, you don't
133. 4:43have to run into the wall. If you turn
134. 4:44right and then turn left, you go around
135. 4:46the wall. It's a lot less energy. You
136. 4:48burn less calories." I'm like, "How'd
137. 4:50you know that?" Well, I got above it. I
138. 4:51had a 30,000 foot view. I wasn't just
139. 4:53looking at the dayto-day, the moment to
140. 4:55moment. Thank God it's Friday. Oh god,
141. 4:57it's Monday. And so we blow past that
142. 5:00and we start actually doing strategic
143. 5:02thought. So they my MBAs that I hired
144. 5:04and other people taught me strategic
145. 5:06thought. I didn't know it. Uh and I
146. 5:08always laugh and say I taught them how
147. 5:09to work. So uh but uh you know so we did
148. 5:12that and then you moved to Pathfinder is
149. 5:14the fifth and that's where it's really
150. 5:15sweet man. You're bailing money now.
151. 5:18Everything you got your systems in
152. 5:19place, the processes in place, planning
153. 5:21is in place.
154. 5:22>> What revenue level is around?
155. 5:24>> I'm sorry. Okay. What revenue levels
156. 5:26would you like? Treadmill is like 0 to a
157. 5:28million.
158. 5:29>> You know, we we tried to attribute it to
159. 5:31that and we could do that with our
160. 5:33journey, but we really couldn't. It
161. 5:36changes from industry to industry. So,
162. 5:39if I'm dealing with a guy that's uh got
163. 5:40one heating and air truck and he's
164. 5:43fixing, he's doing HVAC, you know, when
165. 5:45he gets the 20 trucks and 70 employees,
166. 5:48is he there? No, he could still be he
167. 5:50wouldn't be treadmill, but that doesn't
168. 5:52necessarily mean he's Pathfinder versus
169. 5:54Trailblazer, right? So, uh because he
170. 5:57could still be doing some of the dumb
171. 5:59stuff three layers below what it looks
172. 6:01like he should be doing. Um uh and
173. 6:04that's that was me. That's what I did.
174. 6:06Uh the last stage is what we spent a lot
175. 6:08of our time on, which is where we are
176. 6:09today, and that's the legacy stage where
177. 6:12you talk a lot about succession. What's
178. 6:13your endgame? How you going to hand off?
179. 6:16Uh and you've got a bench depth. It's
180. 6:18the ultimate bench depth is how you're
181. 6:20going to replace yourself and uh and
182. 6:23move to the family office mentality as
183. 6:25you said and those kinds of things. So
184. 6:27we walk you through those five stages,
185. 6:29show you a clear path and then there's
186. 6:31six drivers that drive those. I won't
187. 6:33cover them all right now. Uh but you
188. 6:35know it's uh uh you know it starts with
189. 6:38personal growth. I am the problem and
190. 6:40I'm the solution. I'm the thing holding
191. 6:41the business back at every stage. And so
192. 6:44I've got to get better at every stage,
193. 6:46right? and uh uh purpose and people, the
194. 6:50quality of your hires, the quality of
195. 6:52your culture, the quality of the
196. 6:54connectivity and the culture with the
197. 6:55core values. All those things evolve as
198. 6:58you go through the stages. And um profit
199. 7:01planning
200. 7:03and then you just cycle back through the
201. 7:04six drivers. We think we've been through
202. 7:06the six drivers at Ramsey probably uh
203. 7:08somewhere 10 to 15 times while we went
204. 7:11through the five stages. uh because they
205. 7:13they change as you uh you know it's like
206. 7:17you read a great book and then four
207. 7:19years later you read it again and you're
208. 7:21a different person so you see different
209. 7:22things and so you change as you go
210. 7:24through but that clear path between the
211. 7:27six drivers working to get through the
212. 7:29five stages has set a bunch of our folks
213. 7:32our clients our customers free so we
214. 7:34decided to put it into a book and that's
215. 7:35what building a business your love is.
216. 7:39>> Well Dave I think we're close to close
217. 7:41to time. Um, but I wanted to uh
218. 7:44personally say thank you for the impact
219. 7:46that I think you've made on millions of
220. 7:48lives. I'm sure you hear it every day,
221. 7:49but um I just I want to say thank you
222. 7:51because I think sometimes uh when you're
223. 7:54when you're at the top, you don't you
224. 7:55don't hear it as much. And so um I think
225. 7:58it's it's it's real good stuff. Uh
226. 8:03>> well, thank you, brother.
227. 8:04>> No, for real. Um and uh I think your
228. 8:07heart is clear. I think people see what
229. 8:11your intention behind it is. I mean, the
230. 8:13man owns a $600 million campus in cash.
231. 8:17He doesn't need your money. Um,
232. 8:19[laughter]
233. 8:20it's nice, right? But, uh, but but he
234. 8:23doesn't need it. And I think, um, I
235. 8:25think it's really cool what you've done.
236. 8:26I I would love to talk for another hour
237. 8:28on even like going from personal finance
238. 8:31to, you know, the the entrepreneurship
239. 8:33brand. Um, but I know I know our our our
240. 8:36time is limited. So, anyways, I want to
241. 8:37say thank you again for for for coming
242. 8:38on the game, and I'm sure um my audience
243. 8:41will will definitely definitely have a
244. 8:43couple moments of uh PTSD, hearing some
245. 8:45of the stories we went over um and maybe
246. 8:48hopefully avoid future PTSD by uh by
247. 8:50taking a right and then a left. Very
248. 8:52cool. Well, thank you for having me.
249. 8:53Let's do it again.
250. 8:54>> Yeah. No. Awesome. Thank you. If you
251. 8:56like this video and you're a business
252. 8:57owner who wants to break through your
253. 8:58current revenue ceiling, I distilled
254. 8:59every lesson from scaling 10 businesses
255. 9:01past 10 million and three businesses
256. 9:03past 100 million into a completely free
257. 9:05scaling road map that I've used to go
258. 9:06from 0 to 1, 0 to 10, and 0 to 100 plus.
259. 9:09And so you can click here and you can
260. 9:11check it out. Again, absolutely free.
261. 9:12And since you're a business owner,
262. 9:13appreciate you and uh enjoy.