Scale or Fail: Why Most Founders Get Stuck in the Circus Phase | Allison Maslan

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Entrepreneur DNA

Episode: Scale or Fail: Why Most Founders Get Stuck in the Circus Phase
Host: Justin Colby
Guest: Allison Maslan (Founder & CEO, Pinnacle Global Network)
Date: July 30, 2026

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Overview

In this insightful episode, Justin Colby sits down with serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, and business scaling expert Allison Maslan. They dive deep into the universal struggle experienced by founders and entrepreneurs: breaking out of the "circus phase"—a chaotic period where leaders become bottlenecks, limiting growth. The conversation covers Allison’s five phases of scaling, the mindset and systems needed to relinquish control, empowering employees, why burnout culture is a trap, and practical practices for sustainable business success. Allison draws on 40 years of entrepreneurial experience and walks listeners through lessons from her book Scale or Fail.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Most Founders Get Stuck: The Circus Phase

• Allison’s Story & Scaling Pain
  • Started as a business owner at 19, unable to keep a job longer than two weeks [01:29].
  • Despite business growth and making money, she didn’t know how to truly scale and felt the weight of trying to do everything.
• Entrepreneur Bottleneck
  • "In most cases, the business owner is in the way of the growth." (Allison Maslan, 01:29)
  • Micromanagement stifles creativity and limits team contributions.
• Ringmaster of the Circus
  • The “circus phase” (Phase 3): CEO is central for every decision, creating chaos and personal burnout [08:34–09:14].
  • Most businesses get stuck here for years or even decades.

2. The Five Phases of Scaling

• Phase 1: Seeker – Idea stage, everything depends on founder.
• Phase 2: Pioneer – Small team begins, need to empower vs instruct [06:02].
• Phase 3: Ringleader – “Circus” chaos, founder as bottleneck [08:34].
• Phase 4: Co-Creator – Leaders emerge, collaborative vision drives growth [09:23].
• Phase 5: Visionary Company – (Implied, not deeply explored in this episode)
• Transitioning Out: Empower others early; CEO should "be living in the vision every single day." (Allison Maslan, 09:25–10:51)

3. Empowering "Scale Multipliers"

• What is a Scale Multiplier?
  • Employees who think like owners, proactively solve problems, and elevate entire departments [04:33–05:46].
  • Not just task-takers, but outcome-drivers.
• Return on Employee (ROE)
  • "Do business owners track...the ROE, return on employee? It's your biggest expense." (Allison Maslan, 12:23)
  • Team should be directly tied to measurable company output.

4. Letting Go of Control: The Founder’s Struggle

• Control Traps
  • Founders are often “control freaks”—micromanaging due to fear of mistakes, not wanting to lose customers, and feeling responsible for everything [17:12–19:00].
• Breaking the Cycle
  • Step back, build process, reverse engineer the vision, and hire leaders who give founder confidence to delegate [19:00–20:40].
• Learning Through Mistakes
  • Allowing the team to fail safely encourages growth and independence [07:39–08:25].

5. Debunking Hustle Culture

• Rejecting Burnout as a Badge
  • "The hustle culture is what got me into practically killing myself earlier in my life." (Allison Maslan, 20:53)
  • Post-crisis, Allison became a homeopath and now advocates a holistic approach to business and life.
• Creating Space for Vision & Innovation
  • Scaling sustainably allows for creative breakthroughs and personal well-being: "You will actually grow faster when you get out of the weeds." (Allison Maslan, 22:14)

6. Vision Crafting & Quantum Alignment

• Morning Practice
  • Allison’s daily journaling and visualization process: gratitude + detailed future vision [23:28–24:15].
  • “When you're in alignment with that frequency, you're going to hear that beautiful music. But if you're not, you're going to hear a bunch of static.” (Allison Maslan, 24:15)
• The Role of Intuition
  • Decision-making: Is a situation “in alignment or out of alignment” [24:32–26:06]?
  • Regularly return to core vision and values to guide, especially when friction or stagnation arises.

7. Actionable Systems & Routines

• Needle Movers vs. Micro Decisions
  • CEOs procrastinate big decisions by getting lost in minutiae; focus on “three needle movers” each day [26:35–27:57].
  • Delegation framework: Set measurable outcomes, not just tasks.
  • Example: “I want you to generate $250,000 worth of leads in my pipeline each month through social media.” (Allison Maslan, 27:57)
• Morning Routines
  • Allison: Vision crafting, gratitude journaling, meditative state to cultivate positive energy [28:48–29:33].
  • Justin: Three non-negotiables + three most important tasks daily [27:57–28:39].

8. Financial Reality in Scaling

• Cash Flow is Oxygen
  • Scalable models and repeatable systems are essential [31:01].
  • Ensure financial team has scaled at your desired level to avoid internal sabotage [31:01–33:12].
• Employees as Growth Drivers, Not Expenses
  • Hire based on clear output metrics (e.g., “increase retention by 8%”) [33:22–34:08].
  • A great hire should generate a return of 3-10x their salary.

9. Misconceptions about Scaling

• Scaling ≠ Just Fast Growth
  • “Scaling really is creative strategy...What is the multiplier?” (Allison Maslan, 34:16–35:06)
  • Don’t chase 10x revenue without the foundation and systems for culture and vision.

10. Power of Community, Networks, and Mentorship

• Investing in Acceleration
  • “You’re cutting a check for speed.” (Allison Maslan, 38:35)
  • Both agree that paying to join mastermind groups, networks, and get peer/mentor support shortens the learning curve and opens crucial doors [38:15–39:20].
• Strategic Partnerships & Alignments
  • Examples: Working with Women Presidents Organization, leveraging relationships for mutual audience access [39:40–41:14].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Founders as Bottlenecks:
  • "Micromanaging…squashes any creativity or brilliance from their team."
    — Allison Maslan [04:33]
• On Empowering Teams:
  • "If you don't give your team an opportunity to fail, then they are always going to be dependent on you and you're always going to hit a ceiling of growth."
    — Allison Maslan [07:39]
• On the Circus Phase:
  • "Most businesses get stuck in phase 3 for decades, and the business often dies there."
    — Allison Maslan [09:25]
• On Vision Crafting:
  • "Every morning I do something I created called vision crafting, where I journal my gratitude and then I visualize our vision for the company and in my personal life and how it feels to be there."
    — Allison Maslan [23:28]
• On Hustle Culture:
  • "The hustle culture is what got me into practically killing myself earlier in my life."
    — Allison Maslan [20:53]
• On Investing in Mentorship:
  • "You're cutting a check for speed."
    — Allison Maslan [38:35]
• On Persevering:
  • "You are worthy of that big vision…people often quit when they're two feet from gold. So just keep walking forward. Don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done."
    — Allison Maslan [42:27]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Allison’s Background & Founder Bottleneck: [01:29] – [04:33]
• Five Phases of Scaling: [06:02] – [09:14]
• Transition to Co-Creator/Empowering Teams: [09:23] – [12:23]
• Letting Go, Systems, and Vision: [17:12] – [20:40]
• Burnout & Holistic Business: [20:53] – [22:14]
• Vision Crafting & Quantum Alignment: [23:28] – [26:06]
• Prioritization & Daily Routines: [26:35] – [29:33]
• Revenue, Hiring, and Scaling Models: [31:01] – [34:08]
• Misconceptions about Scaling: [34:16] – [35:06]
• Mentorship, Networking, and Partnerships: [38:15] – [41:14]
• Final Inspiration for Founders: [42:27]

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Resources & Where to Find Allison

• Website: pinnacleglobalnetwork.com
• Free Book Offer: pinnacleglobalnetwork.com/DNA
• Social Media: @AllisonMaslin and Pinnacle Global Network channels

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Final Takeaway

This episode is a compelling roadmap for overworked founders ready to step out of chaos and enter true business scaling. Allison Maslan delivers tactical advice, hard-won wisdom about control, team empowerment, and the necessity of vision—not just for business, but for life. Her message is clear: invest in people, embrace process, trust your intuition, and never be afraid to seek help or dream bigger.

"You are worthy of that big vision...don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done."
— Allison Maslan [42:27]

Transcript

[Allison Maslin]

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[Allison Maslin]

Subject to change I couldn't hold a job for more than two weeks and so I've been a business owner since I was 19 years old. Even though I was good at helping these companies grow and we were making money, I didn't know how to scale my business. And so as the business grew, I started to feel the weight of that. In most cases, the business owner is in the way of the growth. You don't see the million dollar opportunity over here, how you could bundle these two revenue streams or here's a whole other scalable model because you're used to doing it the way you've always done it. So if you could step back and actually tap into the brilliance of your team, they're going to come up with ideas that you would have never thought of. So these are people on the team that think like leaders and they build things within the company that elevates everybody else.

[Justin Colby]

Alison Maslin is a prominent business scaling

[Allison Maslin]

expert, Wall Street Journal best selling author,

[Justin Colby]

and serial entrepreneur who has built 10 successful companies.

[Allison Maslin]

She is most recognized as the founder

[Justin Colby]

and CEO of Pinnacle Global Network, a global business mentoring company that helps entrepreneurs

[Allison Maslin]

scale their companies from seven to nine Figures.

[Justin Colby]

So what would be the biggest lie about selling, scaling a business? What is up the entrepreneur DNA? We are back with another incredible guest. Now, if you're a founder, if you're a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur, shocker. You are in the right place as always. The club and community, the entrepreneur DNA community and club is there for you. We bring you these episodes and we bring you these guests. Go to the entrepreneur DNA.com be a part of the actual interactive club and that brings you this type of guest. Now today, if you are an entrepreneur, if you are a founder and you're trying to figure this all out to the point of scale, I call it the growth mode, the growth chapter. You're growing, you're making money. Then this woman right here, Allison Maslin, is been coaching, teaching, helping founders grow and scale their business to the point of. You've done this for 150,000.

[Allison Maslin]

My team and I, I haven't personally mentored 150,000 by myself, but that is what we do and we've been doing it for now 17 years.

[Justin Colby]

Oh, so you have a little bit of experience here.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Now you also are an author, best selling author. You are here to speak. Tell me why you're in Miami.

[Allison Maslin]

I am speaking at the Women's President's Organization conference and I am sharing how to leverage growth, how to scale not just on the revenue side, but actually having your team fuel the growth of your business.

[Justin Colby]

I like this. So I'm big in helping individuals understand there's the starting and growing. But you're not stabilized yet. I want to lean into that question. How does a founder start to stabilize their business so that they don't have to be the one doing it?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, it's all about building a team managed company, ultimately a founder independent company. And I know that sounds so foreign and scary of this idea of your baby that you're going to actually have a team run. But in most cases, the business owner is in the way of the growth. They're holding on too tightly, they're choking the growth. They're feeling like they have to have their eyes on everything going in and out of the business. They're micromanaging, so they're squashing any creativity or brilliance from their team. And so what we want to do is help them build a team of what we call scale multipliers. So these are people on the team that think like leaders and they build things within the company that elevates everybody else. So they're not someone that you just tell them, hey, this is what you need to do, and you need to go do it right there. They're going to stop thinking, they're going to stop being creative. Instead you say, these are our initiatives. This is where we want to go. We can't do this without you. So I want you to take a look at it and figure out what's the best way to get us there and then go build it.

[Justin Colby]

Now, do you ask for, as the founder, do you ask for feedback first, or do you just give them the autonomy to say, I want you to figure it out, I want you to find the best way and go?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, it depends on the phase. You are in your business. So if you're just starting out, you know, a lot of it is going to be dependent on you.

[Justin Colby]

So.

[Allison Maslin]

So we have. There's five phases of scaling, and that phase is, you know, you're just putting your ideas out into the world. And then once you move into phase two, now you're starting to build a small team. And at that point, right then you want to be empowering your team instead of telling them exactly what to do. Cause they'll stop thinking for themselves. And then you're gonna move into phase three when your team starts growing. And we call this the ringleader phase, because it's like a circus, because everybody is dependent on you. You're like the Google of the company. And there is not enough hours in the day for you to get your arms around it all. And this is where CEOs start to truly burn out and they get on that hamster wheel and they get stuck for years. So if you start thinking this way early on to say, I'm not going to give them the answer, I'm not going to tell them exactly how to do it. I'm going to empower them to think for themselves. Now you can brainstorm together in the early phases. The idea is that they are so locked into the vision and committed to make it happen. And they're always thinking creatively. How do we get there in a more streamlined, easier, faster way?

[Justin Colby]

Now, if you have that individual, I usually would hope they're like an A plus type of player, right, that can take on that. What happens? How do you handle the. They made the mistake, the decision was not the right decision, and you allowed them to have the autonomy to make the decision. But then you get the results from the decision. You're like, wrong decision. How do you handle that?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, they're going to make mistakes. And the truth is, you make mistakes, I make mistakes all of the time. Now, if they keep making the same mistake over and over again, well, they may not be the right fit. And so, you know, there is that saying, hire slowly, fire fast. So you don't want to keep somebody on that isn't capable. But if they have the attitude of I want to learn, I want to grow, they'll take that as a learning experience. And it's oftentimes where they have their biggest growth. If you don't give your team an opportunity to fail, then they are always going to be dependent on you and you're always going to hit a ceiling of growth.

[Justin Colby]

Now that is phase three.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Okay, so what was phase one called?

[Allison Maslin]

Phase one is the seeker. Phase two is the pioneer.

[Justin Colby]

Phase three.

[Allison Maslin]

Phase three is a ringleader. So it's that awkward teenage phase. You have to go through it.

[Justin Colby]

The vast majority of people are there, right, like that have at least been in the business for a couple years. Like, when you're starting again, you're in phase one. But if you're making some money, mostly you're probably in this, you know, phase of chaos.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

I like your terminology. Right. You're in a. What was it called? Not zoo, but you're in.

[Allison Maslin]

You're in a circus. Circus, yes. It's exactly that. And you're the ringmaster.

[Justin Colby]

Oh, yeah.

[Allison Maslin]

And you got your marketing department over here, you got your admin over here, you got your sales over here, and you're trying to manage it all.

[Justin Colby]

And what is the secret sauce? In a short amount of time that you can give me, how do you go from the circus into phase four? And what is. What is phase four called?

[Allison Maslin]

Phase four is called the co creator.

[Justin Colby]

How do you.

[Allison Maslin]

And so that's where it starts getting fun. So most businesses get stuck in phase three for decades, and the business often dies there. And it's often because they just. They don't even know where they are in the scaling process. So once they see that they're the ones that are in the way, and when they can stop being a boss and really shift in being a leader, your role is that you want to be working on the business as the visionary. You want to be living in vision. Not just in January, where you share the vision at a leadership retreat, check in in June, and see where you land in December. You, as a CEO, as a founder, need to be living in that vision every single day. So every meeting, every encounter, you're talking about what you're creating, where you're going, and so that people are buying into that vision. That is your role. And Then you'll start to see these leaders emerging as you're kind of in between phase three and four. And they'll start asking the important questions and you want to empower them to do so, like how do we increase profits, how do we create a better customer journey so that we increase our retention? And now you're building this collaborative company. That's why we call it the co creator. And everybody is in it together, they're in it to win. And your vision and your values are so entrenched in the company at this point that you can start to slowly step back. It's like you're there even if you're not there.

[Justin Colby]

Now you're here to speak at a women's conference, but you're going to talk about revenue.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Right. Is that the.

[Allison Maslin]

I'm talking about scaling through your team and building scale multipliers on the team.

[Justin Colby]

Which is people.

[Allison Maslin]

Which is people. But you know, we track things like for instance, we track our client lifetime value, we track our cost of acquisition. But do business owners track what we call the ROE return on employee. It's your biggest expense of the company. And every single person you need to be tracking what is your return on your investment in them. And so once you start thinking that way, you're going to build a team based on their output instead of someone that's just doing tasks and getting things done. That's like a one time return or a negative. But if you have problem solvers, people that you say, hey, this is what's going on and they're like, I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to fix it. Or a scale multiplier that says I'm going to build a system so that this doesn't happen again and we elevate the entire department. Now that person is going to be like a 10 times ROI or more. So they're paying for themselves plus driving the growth of the company.

[Justin Colby]

Now you have a book.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Okay. Does this get broken down in the book?

[Allison Maslin]

This does. We talk about our scale it method, which is the five pillars of scaling. So the book is called scale or fail.

[Justin Colby]

Okay. Get it.

[Allison Maslin]

Well, I'm going to, I'm going to give everybody a free copy that we're going to send them.

[Justin Colby]

Everyone say thank you. Everyone say thank you.

[Allison Maslin]

That is kind of. You're welcome.

[Justin Colby]

Well good. So let's go through the book a little bit so they understand because this is going to be a book. I've been in business, I literally graduated college, ucla and I went straight into business door knocking. My parents were thrilled with that.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

But I've never had a W2 job. And so this is why this podcast exists. This is why the communities exist, because scaling a business is a lot more difficult, especially if you don't have people to show you a roadmap. So let's walk through the book a little bit.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah. Well, first of all, I resonate with you. I couldn't hold a job for more than two weeks. And so I've been a business owner since I was 19 years old. And so I've had 10 different companies. And I learned early on in my first company, I had a full service advertising and PR firm. I was in my 20s. I had no idea what I was doing. But we were creative and we were gritty and we brought on big clients like Ben and Jerry's and Supercuts and Charlotte Russe.

[Justin Colby]

So you had no idea what you're doing. However, you were able to bring these. So how did you do that? How did you bridge the gap from the 20 year old? I think you said to bring on a Ben and Jerry's or Ruth Chris. These clients are massive and they're organizations. How do you do that?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, actually, I think it was good that I didn't know much about the industry. And, you know, we just kept coming up with ideas to help them grow. And we like for Ben and Jerry's, we used to do these Taste Tuesdays in San Diego and we had all people coming out trying all their different flavors. For Charlotte Russe, I came and I approached them with this idea of a whole mailing catalog. And I had never done a photo shoot in my entire life. And so because I didn't know much, I was asking a lot of questions I wasn't afraid to ask. So I would hang out at the TV station and I would say, teach me everything I need to know. Or I would hang out at the radio station and say, teach me how this works. Or the print shops at three in the morning when they did the press checks. And that's really. I became a sponge to learn. But even though I was good at helping these companies grow and we were making money, I didn't know how to scale my business. I didn't know how to be a leader. I thought it had to be all on me. And so as the business grew, I started to feel the weight of that. And my daughter was under two years old at the time, and I got to a point where I didn't know whether I was coming or going. Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Colby]

And So I have a two year old son.

[Allison Maslin]

So yeah. So I got to a point that I ended up getting really depressed and anxious and I would be up till 2 or 3 in the morning working on ad campaigns and I felt myself completely break down. And so, and then from the stress of it all, I ended up having a terrible car accident that almost took my life. And that really was my big wake up call because I hit that low moment where I said to myself, do you want to be in the same place a year from now or even 10 years from now? And so that's where I said, okay, I don't want to live like this. I love business, but there's got to be a better way. And that's where I began to study my clients like Ben and Jerry's and Supercuts. How did they have thousands of employees but you didn't see the business owner like a orchestra leader standing in the middle of everyone telling them what to do. They were out building relationships, they were acquiring other companies, they were building strategic partnerships. So I began to learn the way they operated the systems and processes they used. And that was the beginning of developing my scale up method. And I used that for myself and went on to build nine other companies that haven't depended on me.

[Justin Colby]

That's phenomenal. Systems and structure are going to be key people, is the biggest key here. How do you help the, the founder remove control, control issues? That is, that is hard. I've seen, myself included, I can do it better. So I'm just going to take, going to give you the task and then 10 minutes later I'm just going to do it, I'm just going to do it right. Like that whole. How do you help people just genuinely remove control?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, in my company, Pinnacle Global Network, we have a team of over 40 mentors that have all built very successful companies. And we've all been there, we can relate. We know what that feels like. So we, we really work with them side by side and we're able to see, hey, you're being a control freak here and you're in the way. And so, you know, because we don't realize that we're even doing it, it's a habit because you started the business and it worked back then. But as you grow, that's actually going to be the thing that's going to keep you small. I mean, you're so close to your business, so there's all these blind spots.

[Justin Colby]

You're the bottleneck.

[Allison Maslin]

You don't see the million dollar opportunity over here. The how you could bundle these two revenue streams, or here's a whole other scalable model because you're used to doing it the way you've always done it. So if you could step back and actually tap into the brilliance of your team, they're going to come up with ideas that you would have never thought of.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. A lot of times I talk to entrepreneurs especially because this show and my communities, they build a business or start a business because they want more time, freedom, they want to build a life on their terms. Not working for someone.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

But they build a business that literally traps them.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Why?

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah, this happens to millions and millions of business owners. In fact, if we were to drive down the street into any of the shops here, it's probably the same thing that's happening. And it's because it's like what you were saying earlier. It feels like it's your baby and you don't want people to make mistake. You're afraid to lose a customer, but you're actually thinking really small. And so if you can first step back and say, okay, what is that big vision? What is it that I want to create and hold that vision? And then what we help them do is reverse engineer that and then figure out, okay, what type of people, what type of roles and leaders do you need on the team that are going to help you have the confidence to step back? Because if you're the one that, at the end of the day is making all of the decisions, you're making hundreds of decisions a day, you're going to be missing out on so much, and Allah is just not going to be handled. So if you can build a team of, like I said, scale multipliers, these leaders, then they can start thinking strategically. They're not just getting tasks done because that you're just spinning in place. They're actually thinking, how do we get from here to here in the most streamlined, easiest, most efficient, cost effective, fun, enjoyable way? And then they come to you and say, hey, this is what we should do and this is why. And, you know, and then they're able to go do it.

[Justin Colby]

So, so much of social media now is like this, bro, Hustle culture.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Just do it. Just grind, work your face off, do whatever it takes. Do you fully disagree with hustle culture or do you think there's some good aspects to it?

[Allison Maslin]

I really don't follow the. The hustle culture is what got me into practically killing myself earlier in my life.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Allison Maslin]

And so after that happened, I became on this journey to really heal myself and so one of my businesses was a homeopathic physician. I was a homeopath for 20 years. And so I really look at business more holistically because the business is an aspect of your life and if you don't take care of yourself, there's no way that you're going to be able to sustain the company. And so this is why so many business owners burn out. I feel like you're going to get there so much faster. If you think of how do I build this entity that doesn't depend on me? And so this is how I'm able to live with my husband now five months of the year in Mexico while my team has got it handled. Now while I'm away, I can think clearly. I come up with new ideas for the scale it method or new revenue streams. In fact, I just, I just wrote another book over these last few months while we were in Mexico. And so it's. You will actually grow faster when you get out of the weeds.

[Justin Colby]

You've been, you've mentioned something called quantum energy.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

How does that play into a CEO's decision making methods daily.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah. You know, I realized looking back at my life, so I've been at this entrepreneurial thing for 40 years.

[Justin Colby]

I'm usually the one that has the long hair.

[Allison Maslin]

Oh, I'm just a little bit older than you. So when I think about the big things that have happened in my life, those big transformational experiences, they all came when I was holding the vision clearly in my mind and. And really seeing as if it had already happened. Even if it was something that felt really scary and I was willing to kind of step out into the unknown but live as if it's already happened. This is how I attracted my husband, my soulmate, after lots of not so great relationships. Kissed a lot of frogs. We've been together this year, we'll be married 20 years.

[Justin Colby]

Congratulations. And you don't hear that anymore. Like that's a very rare statement. And it's unfortunate.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

Is to have that longevity in a relationship. So congratulations.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah, thank you. And he's my business partner and my soulmate and everything, so. But it really has been everything that I do. Every morning I do something I created called vision crafting, where I journal my gratitude and then I visualize our vision for the company and in my personal life and how it feels to be there. And I elevate my energy, my vibration. Because think about it, we are energy. That's what we are. We are molecules and atoms at the nth degree. And this cup here is energy as well. It's just condensed. It's just condensed into matter. And so your vision, whatever you want to create. Great. It's energy too.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Allison Maslin]

And so it's just like plugging into a radio station. When you're in alignment with that frequency, you're going to hear that beautiful music. But if you're not, you're going to hear a bunch of static.

[Justin Colby]

So how could you help a CEO make decisions with this in mind?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, what I've come to know is that we are all wired with our own gps. We have that intuition and it's probably the most valuable asset that we have. It can keep us out of danger. If you're swimming out in the ocean, divers and surfers have said that they can sense that something is ominous out there and get out of the way pretty quickly. And so what I find is that in business, a situation is either in alignment or out of alignment. When it's in alignment, you feel it. You're talking to someone. Like you and I are in alignment. We're having a great conversation. There's a good vibe, we're moving along. It feels good. It feels easy. When there is friction, which you're going to have some friction. In business, that's normal. It happens every day. But if it keeps happening, like if the situation, there's consistent friction and you're constantly butting heads, then something is out of alignment. And that's the decision point. You can continue to stay frustrated and stay stuck, or you can say, what do I need to do to get back in alignment? Maybe this person isn't the right fit for me, maybe this isn't the right project, or it's going to move me into a whole new revenue stream or a new offering or a new opportunity. But you're always asking yourself, is this in alignment or out of alignment?

[Justin Colby]

So the smaller decisions that bog down our brain as a founder.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

Which I think your point in argument would be, you should have people deal with those smaller decisions 100%. But until you are at the fourth phase, usually you're still the one. There's the circus. How do you prioritize the decisions CEOs need to make every single day versus the ones that they may be able to not necessarily have to make a decision today. How do you try to find a way to prioritize that?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, we often procrastinate those bigger decisions and we get mired in what I call the micro. And that's where we can play small and we're not really moving. We think we're busy, but we're just shuffling paper. We're not productive. So what I would recommend is that when you're doing your morning practice, whatever that is, is to write down what are the three needle movers of that day like is make that call, you know, send that email, reach out, do something that is out of your comfort zone, make the commitment to do the event or expand to another city like you've been thinking about a long time, actually take the step to do it. Because that's what's going to create the momentum and the more that you can delegate those smaller tasks. But instead of just giving them the task, say this is the end result that I want. Instead of I want you to post on social media once a day. I want you to generate $250,000 worth of leads in my pipeline each month through social media and then have them come up with the strategy to get there.

[Justin Colby]

You said something about the morning routine. I have a morning routine. Just like you. Wake up very early, gives me time, drink my coffee, I think I'm quiet. But I write down six things. The three non negotiables, which prioritizes the three things I absolutely have to get done today and then the three most important and the three most important. If I don't finish, the three non negotials can get kicked to the next day because I got to get the non negotiables. And I think if people use the morning a little bit more effectively, they're going to start to win the day. Right. And if you win the day, you can win the week, etc. Etc. But I fully agree with your time. What does your schedule look like? You have seven companies you're running at a very high level. What does your morning routine look like?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, I'm not a morning person, so I will say that I struggled with this my whole life. I am a night owl. Okay.

[Justin Colby]

Okay.

[Allison Maslin]

But I'm very intentional with my mornings. So when I wake up in the morning, I'm still pretty fuzzy. Like that would not be the time at seven in the morning for us to have this interview. But it's a perfect time for me to do my vision crafting because I'm still in kind of my half asleep, half awake mode. And so that's when I pull out my journal. I listen to something that's uplifting so that my mind immediately is going to focus on what I'm grateful for and what I'm creating instead of what didn't work out yesterday or what I'm overwhelmed with. I Think that's the most important thing is that we have to be intentional on what we focus on, otherwise we're always going to be the victim of what's happening in the day.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Allison Maslin]

And so then, you know, like I said, I'm journaling what I'm grateful for. And then I get myself into a meditative mode because I've been thinking about and journaling and listening to music. And then I just get myself into a quiet space where my mind is open. All of those pesky thoughts, you know, they drop in every once in a while, but I kind of look at them like I'm opening a curtain and they're out here. And I just allow in my mind, I kind of see the sun coming in and my mind just opens and I feel the sense of expansiveness. And then I'm starting to feel excited about the day. And so how different are you approaching your day now because you're excited and you can't wait to get into it instead of dragging yourself out of bed, rolling to your phone and. And just, you know, operating from there.

[Justin Colby]

I've always found in the cliche saying is revenue fixes all problems. Right. It's a little black and white. Not totally true, but to some extent, I believe if a founder is trying to bridge the gap between three and four. But I believe most of these founders that are in the three circus, they haven't stabilized financially. That's the bigger challenge. Right. How do I hire people when I don't have as much money? Do you think if they just continue to focus on generating a high volume of revenue, that would be their best use of their time?

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah. So there's some different components to that. So driving cash flow, that's the oxygen of your business. You need it coming in every day. So by having repeatable marketing systems, so meaning you're not just going out and it's get that client service, that client, and it's like a one and done. And then you gotta, you gotta, you gotta start over. Right. That's why you want a scalable model and that can replicate your product and service and multiply well beyond you. And that's one of the big things in my book, Scale or fail is we go through the 15 top scalable models. But then you also have to have a finance team or bookkeeper that is growing at the level that you are. So let's say you're starting to scale up, but you have someone managing your finances that has never been to this level. They can actually sabotage you. And I've Seen that all of the time because there are. You might be spending too much money on your merchant services. You might have some redundancy with some positions in the company. You may not be really following a budget and people are just, you know, throwing money away. It can happen all of the time. But the other piece of this is that I encourage business owners to not look at their employees as an expense. If they are hiring strategically, like I said earlier, and you're hiring them based on creating outcomes instead of tasks, then they will be bringing in three to 10 times what you pay them. So let's say you're paying somebody $50,000 a year, so they should be bringing in 150 to 500,000 a year, or if it's 100,000, 300,000 to a million per year. So then by not bringing them on, you're actually losing money. So instead of looking at your team as someone that's just getting stuff done than looking at them as drivers of growth.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, put it almost a dollar sign. Hey, whatever you're doing, I want that to translate into new business. Right. And find a way to craft that.

[Allison Maslin]

Well, it's either new business or it could be. Let's say the outcome is, I want you to. Let's say they run customer service. So instead of telling them, okay, I just want you to take great care of the customers, which of course you want them to. But you also say your role is to get our retention from 50 to 58%.

[Justin Colby]

There you go.

[Allison Maslin]

So they have clear metrics that they're reaching for. One of the biggest mistakes that keeps people in that phase three, that ringleader phase, is that you're hiring before you understand what success even looks like. And so if you don't know those clear metrics, if they don't, then they're not going to hit them even though they want to. And then you're going to be frustrated because you have mismatched expectations.

[Justin Colby]

That's right. So what would be the biggest lie about scaling a business?

[Allison Maslin]

I think the biggest lie is that people think that scaling just means fast growth. And so it's an overused, misunderstood word when scaling really is creative strategy. And it is to say, okay, you are selling pies and you can sell one pie at a time, and you can be the one that's cooking those pies, or you could put pies on subscription and you have a team. You're not delivering that. Right, because you don't want to be the part of the delivery process. Because then you're going to be in the way. Or maybe you're going to make a pie franchise or maybe you're going to acquire other pie makers. So you want to be thinking, what is the multiplier?

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, I like that. You know, I think there's a lot of people that take what you just said. They think scale means like in the next 12 months I'm going to 10x my revenue and that's a big thing out there. And a buddy of mine is Grant cardone. And then Dr. Benjamin Hardy does the 10x versus is better in 2x. What do you believe or what do you suggest to those business owners that want things now? Like I want a 10x now. Is that a good idea? Should they do it?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, I love the fact that they're thinking bigger. I do. Because I think when people are thinking incremental, then that's all they're going to get.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Allison Maslin]

So I know Ben Hardy is a good friend of mine. And so the idea is that like I was saying, what's the scalable model? How could we maybe acquire and leverage somebody else's business that they spent years building that audience and building their structure and systems. So there are ways absolutely to do that, but you also have to have the right foundation. So if I go and acquire a company, but my company's a mess and I try to merge these together, it's going to just fall apart. You don't have a strong culture. So vision and culture. Having a team that is bought into that vision, even if you have one or two people like they're just ride or die for that vision, it is a non negotiable. That is the most important. Then what happens is you just start attracting those people on the team. I've had so many people in my company, Pinnacle Global Network, where they'll say, Allison, how do you get. Because our mentors have built very successful companies. One of them has had 10 companies over 100 million, has taken three publishers public companies, they've had thousands of employees and they could easily be going and doing this on their own. But they love being part of our team and what we do at Pinnacle Global Network. They love supporting our community and these CEOs all over the world and tell

[Justin Colby]

everyone what Pinnacle Global Network does.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah. So we're in our 17th year and we mentor CEOs and, and we help them to get clear on their big picture vision. And then you work one on one with one of these high level CEOs and we have a whole matching process. We're really good at it. And they kind of become their confidant, their strategist and they help them reverse engineer that vision using our scale IT method and all the tools. We have a whole software platform. But every business is different, so every journey is different. We really get to know them on a deep level. And, and so we have hundreds of CEOs all over the world that we mentor and we do events, we get everybody together and we have, we help them, we train their team and their marketing and their sales. We work with them on AI and so many other things.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, I think that's really important because I think there's a disconnect now in this space that you're really serving a need here. I think people don't understand the power of working with someone who's been there and done that.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

They just want to figure it out. I don't want to make any investment in being a part of a network, being part of a club, being a part of a coaching. Be a part of. Yes, I will promise you. I'm sure you feel the same.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

I made more money by cutting the checks. To be sitting at the table with people that are further down the path. I am to understand one thing, maybe two, like Max, and I'll make more money because of it.

[Allison Maslin]

Well, you're cutting a check for speed.

[Justin Colby]

That's it.

[Allison Maslin]

And you know, when I had that car accident and you know I came out of that, my first thought was, well, I don't want to do that again.

[Justin Colby]

It wasn't that fun.

[Allison Maslin]

No. And I want to have a nice life. I wanted to raise my daughter. I wanted to be able to do all the things. So why would I try to figure this out myself? Why would I not work with someone that had been there and done it? And so I invested all, all those years ago, even when I had no money whatsoever because I knew that it was so important to me. And I also wanted somebody that believed in me, helped me see a bigger vision that I could see for myself and not let me quit on myself.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. It's so valuable. I mean, even to this day, I still do this. I usually will have some level of a six figure budget that I'll invest in groups, masterminds, clubs.

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

And the reality is it's just by shaking hands. A lot of times you get the resource you need. It's not always X's.

[Allison Maslin]

You're sitting next to somebody that knows somebody that you're looking to meet.

[Justin Colby]

That's right.

[Allison Maslin]

And my favorite part of business is relationship building. It's how I Spend most of my time now and building strategic partnerships and things like that. And one person, like, for instance, at this conference with Women Presence Organization, we had sponsored that conference for a while, and. And the president of WPO had seen me, had seen me speak, and she literally approached me and said, hey, I think we should partner. I think we should partner on some projects. And so we've built a great relationship. We launched an event together last October. We're doing another one next month. And so, you know, that opens up me to their whole audience, my company, but also their audience to ours as well. And we have several of our members in Pinnacle Global Network that are also Women Presence Organization members. Numbers. And so, you know, I feel that we can all grow together.

[Justin Colby]

You know, the rising tides raises all ships. Yeah. And you and I have been in business long enough that it's not always the marketing span. New leads and new, new, new. It's who do I need to be introduced to?

[Allison Maslin]

Yes.

[Justin Colby]

And then who knows that person.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

And how do I find that person? Like, sometimes it's that. It's as simple as that. I mean, I. The reason why I have this podcast in small part, but part I want to get to know Allison. How is Allison and myself ever going to come across each other if I don't have an opportunity for a platform for her to give your incredible message? But also now I get to build a relationship and figure out the same thing. Where's the strategic partnership, you know, strategy that we can do great things together?

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah. And it makes it fun.

[Justin Colby]

It makes it a lot more fun. Yeah. Now, I want everyone to follow you. What's the best place for everyone to get a hold of you? I want them to get your book. I want all them to all the things. Where's the best place for them to find you?

[Allison Maslin]

Well, our website is pinnacleglobalnetwork.com and you can follow me on all social media platforms. Alison Maslin. And we also have the Pinnacle Global Network channels. And then the gift I want to give is my book, scale or Fail, which is a Wall Street Journal bestseller that's endorsed by Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran.

[Justin Colby]

Amazing.

[Allison Maslin]

And you just go to pinnacleglobalnetwork.com DNA.

[CDW Announcer]

I love it.

[Allison Maslin]

And we'll send it to you.

[Justin Colby]

So again, say it one more time.

[Allison Maslin]

Pinnacleglobalnetwork.com forward slash, DNA.

[Justin Colby]

The entrepreneur. See what she did there? See what she did? Well, listen, I greatly appreciate your message. Can't wait to see where our worlds are. You know, we're so much in alignment. And even the day when we talked on Zoom and you were in Mexico, I was like, oh, we're gonna do some fun stuff together.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Colby]

Any last words for the entrepreneurs, the growers, the founders, the people that are in the trenches taking grenades and just fighting the good fight? What was some last words you have for them?

[Allison Maslin]

I would say first, know that you are worthy of that big vision. Because when you hit the walls, which you're going to, and there's going to be detours, we start to question, maybe this isn't meant for me. And I'm here to tell you it's a thousand percent meant for you. And people often quit when they're two feet from gold. So just keep walking forward. Don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done.

[Justin Colby]

That's right. That's a great message.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Justin Colby]

Allison Moslin. Did I say that right?

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah, that's right. Maslin.

[Justin Colby]

Maslin Moslin. I don't know what I'm saying. Allison Maslin, Justin Colby, this is the Entrepreneur DNA. Thank you so much for spending some time here. As always, you will find her in the Entrepreneur DNA club to give you some better advice. So thank you so much for having a little bit of time here.

[Allison Maslin]

Thank you. This was a lot of fun.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah. All right. If this was helpful or you think a couple people need to hear Alison's message, share this with at least two of your friends. I appreciate it.

[Allison Maslin]

Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

Cool.

[Allison Maslin]

Thank you.

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