September 17, 2024 • 22 mins
In this episode of the Get Off The Treadmill podcast, host Chuck Blakeman sits down with Scott Graves, co-founder and CEO of Alignment Financial Advisors, to dive deep into Chapter 3 of Chuck’s acclaimed book, Making Money Is Killing Your Business. This chapter, "The Way Off the Business Treadmill," offers a transformative blueprint for shifting from business overwhelm to a life of balance and fulfillment.
Scott Graves, whose journey from public school band teacher to successful financial advisor serving over 1,500 households, reveals how Chuck’s insights have reshaped his approach to business.
Key Takeaways:
- Structured Approach: Learn how Scott used the chapter’s strategies to streamline his decision-making process, easing the strain of managing his business.
- Growth Stages: Scott highlights how understanding the outlined business growth stages gave him clarity on his current position and future aspirations.
- Mindset Shift: Hear about Scott’s epiphany regarding the importance of intentional planning and setting clear goals to ensure the business serves him, rather than the other way around.
- Balancing Act: Scott shares practical advice on achieving a harmonious balance between financial success and personal time, emphasizing that it’s indeed possible with persistence and a solid support network.
Check our special offer for the Making Money is Killing Your Business: https://bit.ly/m/3to5Club
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome back to the Get Off The Treadmill
podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs, where
we show you how to build a successful
business and to have a life too.
We're going to dive into another topic that
helps us make more money in less time
and to get off the treadmill so we
can experience a life of significance.
And now your host and the author of
(00:25):
the number one bestselling business book, Making Money
Is Killing Your Business, Chuck Blakeman.
Today, I'm with Scott Graves.
He's the co-founder and CEO of Alignment
Financial Advisors, a small business and independent financial
services and retirement planning firm located in Denver.
In his daily life, he educates clients and
(00:46):
arms them with the knowledge to make them
the best financial decisions for their own families.
He's got a broad client base of over
1,500 households spread across Colorado and 12
other states who depend on him as their
trusted advisor.
Scott's approach to financial planning reflects his experience
communicating complex information to challenging subjects.
He still sees himself as an educator, though
(01:07):
of a different subject and to a more
receptive audience than his school kids.
His job is to educate his clients on
what their options are so they can make
good decisions for themselves.
Today, we're going to discuss the way off
the business treadmill, which was chapter three in
my first book, Making Money Is Killing Your
Business.
Scott's going to discuss things in there about
(01:28):
hiring for culture and other things in there.
Scott, I'd love to get your thoughts on
why, first of all, why this book was
of interest to you and what it did
for you real quickly.
We don't need to pound the book.
I just want to know why you want
to talk about this chapter.
Yeah, no problem.
Yeah, this book was very influential for me.
I started my business.
(01:48):
I'm not one of those guys that has
a degree in business.
I was previously a public school teacher.
I taught band, so I knew how to
organize chaos, but I didn't know how to
run a business, really.
I was frustrated for a long time with
feeling like I was always flying by the
(02:09):
seat of my pants.
I was always winging it all the time.
I had good instincts, I guess, but I
had no idea what I was actually doing
and how to improve my business.
I know I wanted to build something that
would be lasting, something that would make money
for me.
(02:30):
I just had no idea how to get
there.
Chapter three, the way off the business treadmill,
first off, I was a little surprised at
how early all of this information in the
book, all this information came out.
It was almost like you gave up the
secret sauce a little early.
You know?
But what it showed me, it actually ended
(02:51):
up being a really nice outline for a
lot of the other things that you talk
about in the book.
It showed me that there was a formula,
or at least that there was a path
where I could be intentional about the decisions
I was making, and that it would help
to improve my business, help me be less
stressed, and help the business be more successful
(03:11):
and not entirely dependent on me.
I think that the biggest thing was just
the eye-opening moment that there's a way
to do this, and it's not terribly difficult.
It could be in line with the way
that I wanted to do things, but that
it was still possible for me.
Beautiful.
Can you think of, as you're looking back
(03:33):
on that, what was it in that chapter
that first caught you?
We talk about freedom, we talk about empowering
vision, a big mindset shift.
There's a lot of things that go on
in there.
What caught your eye and what helped you?
The different stages of business.
I tend to be, when I'm really thinking
about things, I get pretty analytical, but at
(03:55):
the same time, I'm also very visual.
The ability to be able to visualize where
I am right now, where I really want
to be, and that there was a progression.
There was a way to get there, and
I could see at the time when I
first started looking at it, I was like,
wow, I'm like step two or three.
I had no idea that I was so
(04:15):
far down the ladder as far as how
far I still needed to go, but I
could see, again, I could see what the
path is.
Here's the next thing I need to do,
and then there's the next thing I need
to do after that, and then the next
thing.
I could see the end from the beginning,
like Stephen Covey talks about, and I could
see, okay, this is what it needs to
(04:37):
look like, and this is what my business
actually needs to be able to do for
me in order for it to be a
mature business and for me to be able
to say, okay, I'm having success.
Yes.
It's interesting where those stages came from.
I was actually at my oldest daughter's graduation
from college, and I'm sitting there, and you
(05:01):
go alphabetical, and there's like 500 kids, and
she's in the Bs.
After she crossed the stage, I got a
long time to sit there and be polite
while there's all these people crossing the stage,
and you begin daydreaming, and I realized, my
(05:21):
second daughter, my second child just crossed the
stage of college.
That gives me some idea where I am
in the stages of life, and anytime I
think of something interesting in life, I always
ask myself, well, I wonder how that correlates
to business, because there really is no difference
in the principles.
Sure enough, I wonder where I am in
(05:43):
my stage of business.
I don't know where I am in my
stage of business.
Then I saw someone else who had six
stages who had started this thing but hadn't
finished it, and I asked them if I
could take it and redevelop it and turn
it into something else.
That's where it came from, because I realized
that as business owners, we don't know where
we are, do we?
We're just mucking along, and we have no
(06:06):
idea other than we started the business, we're
in the business, and we finished the business,
and that's not really stages.
That doesn't help us.
Well, I love the analogy you made between
growing up your business and growing up your
kids.
I have five sons, and they're all fantastic,
but they're all in different stages of their
(06:27):
lives, and some of them are out of
the house, some are not, and so that
was just really apropos to me.
It's like you're raising a business, like you
raise your kids.
What are your expectations for your business, just
like what are your expectations for your kids?
The reality might come out to be totally
different from what your expectation is, just like
(06:50):
it does with our kids.
We might hope they turn out this way,
but then they turn out this other way,
and that's totally fine too.
But you may not have gotten there if
you hadn't started with something else.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I started out with the word expectations when
I first started doing things like this, and
I changed it to the word intention, and
you'll hear this from me probably every podcast.
(07:11):
You give it to intend, not what you
hope for, and if you're intentional about getting
somewhere, you have a real great shot of
getting there.
I use the word intention because expectation has
a rights thing to it.
It's like I deserve this, and maybe I
do, but still expectation doesn't really allow for
(07:31):
the fact that the world is going to
mess with your plans.
So intention for me has always meant am
I doing everything I can do to get
where I want to go?
That's intention for me, and whatever the world
wants to do with that, it can knock
it around, but I'm going to do everything
in my power to get where I need
to be, knowing that the world will interact
(07:53):
with that, but I intend to be this
place two years from now, and it's amazing
you really do get what you intend and
not what you hope for.
Yeah, well, and it's, you know, who was
it that said, you know, best laid plans
never survive contact with the enemy, right?
That's very, very true.
As a German general before World War II
or after World War I, yeah, you know,
(08:16):
this doesn't work.
Also, one of the famous boxers just said,
you know, everybody has a plan to get
- You pushed it in the mouth, yeah.
Mike Tyson.
Tyson, yeah.
I want to show this on the screen
for our viewers and listeners.
If you're listening, I'll describe it very quickly,
but I can go through it quicker if
we just look at the seven stages of
business ownership.
This is part of what Scott's talking about
(08:39):
that he said, I didn't have any idea
where I was and I didn't either.
And so, we put together these seven stages
of business owners and tested them for 20
years.
So, we feel like we've got something that
works.
And to the point, Scott's on this show
sharing how these things helped him.
Stage one is startup.
You know, it's a lot of fun.
Stage two, as soon as you put a
(08:59):
business card, you're in stage two survival.
So, we got all these S's we're going
to use.
Stage two is survival.
And stage two is, holy crap, this is
tougher than I thought, right?
And you probably experienced that.
Everybody does.
I've started 13 businesses.
Every one of them was, oh, no, this
is tougher than I thought.
And then one day, your accountant comes to
(09:20):
you three months in or three years in,
there's no timetable to this.
Get through these seven stages as fast as
you can.
But at one point, the accountant comes to
you and says, hey, you guys broke even
the last three months.
And that's stage three subsistence.
You're no longer bleeding, but you're living with
the tension that if a client leaves you,
you're right back in survival.
(09:41):
And you do that for three months to
three years, hopefully the three month scenario.
And he comes to you again and says,
hey, for the last three months, you guys
have actually made money.
That is stage four.
We call that stage four stability.
But the American dream, I know, is stage
four.
I got a profitable business.
I can buy a hot tub and I
can lose money while I'm on vacation for
a week or two.
(10:02):
And that's stage four stability.
It is not success in my mind, because
we bought ourselves a job and we're on
the treadmill.
And we do that for three months to
three years.
We finally get sick of it and realize,
you know, maybe my business should serve me
instead of the other way around.
So we go to stage five.
And we call that success because there's a
huge mindset shift that goes between stage four
(10:22):
and stage five.
So I'd love to, I'll take this down
for a minute.
Scott, you saw this in the book.
What did you see as your mindset shift
from stage four?
Well, I think it's fair for me to
describe stage five first.
Stage five is success.
And it's really where we decide that we're
actually demanding our business give us both money
(10:44):
and time.
And it's the first time in our business
that it actually gives us both.
We are truly off the I'm not there
or every Wednesday afternoon or three days a
week, whatever it is, we're now getting both
time and money from our business.
So what was the big mindset shift that
(11:05):
you had to go through in order to,
to see that happen?
Right.
Well, so we're still, we're working on stage
five.
That's kind of where we are right now,
but we see it now we see what
it looks like.
And I think that the big thing was
just me understanding that if I'm going to
own a business, it means that I'm not
necessarily the one producing all the revenue and
(11:29):
understanding that I needed to have, whether it
was through hiring other people, other financial advisors
that are going to work with me.
Or if I'm going to somehow automate something
to the point of using technology that I
was going to that it would still make
revenue for me when I'm not around for
us, our plan is to hire additional agents,
(11:51):
you know?
And so, so we also knew that if
we were going to do that, and I
say we, because my, you know, me and
my partner, my business partner, we also knew
that if we were going to do that,
we needed to have some way for those
new financial advisors who come in to be
successful.
My dad was in the financial service, a
quick story.
My dad was in the financial services industry
(12:12):
for 40 some odd years.
And he worked for a New York life
for many, many years as a general manager.
And he, he told me once that he
had the best retention rate in the, in
the company nationwide.
And you know, it's a huge company.
And I asked him what that rate was.
He said it was 18% after three
years.
(12:32):
And I was like, that sounds terrible.
I never want to do that.
I don't want to spend all this time
training somebody only to have them disappear after
three years.
You know, I want to, so I wanted
to, we wanted to give them the absolute
best chance at success.
So what we're working on right now as
a partnership is we're trying to, we're building
a system, okay, a freedom map that is
going to make it possible for us to
(12:54):
bring in new agents, plug them in immediately,
and they're gonna have a very high probability
of success.
So, but that's, but again, just being able
to see that that's what was necessary, you
know, that, that mind, that was the mind
shift for me, just seeing what needed to
happen and what it was going to look
like when I had other people producing for
me.
Yeah.
And I appreciate that.
(13:14):
I'll throw this, this back up for those
who are listening and explain it.
Yeah.
For me, stage five was that big mindset
shift was very similar.
I just, I said it this way to
myself in stage four, I made money.
And in stage five, when I get that
big mindset shift, the business is making money,
(13:35):
whatever that means, however, that's going to happen.
I'm no longer the one making money, the
business is making money.
And that's the mindset shift.
And I, you know, for 13 businesses, I
was wallowing around a stage three or four
times.
And I would say that in stage four,
which is called the American dream, I'm, I'm
really, I'm owned by my business.
I'm a hostage, hostage to the business.
(13:56):
And I'm a, I'm a, what I would
call an income producer.
Stage five is the first place I would
actually say I became a business when my
business gives me both time and money.
I own a business before that I own
a job and it's not much different than
if I worked for somebody else.
And I'm sure you're experiencing the same thing
as you get into this.
(14:16):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And then stage six and seven very quickly,
stage six is significance.
And we call it significance because it's the
point in your business where you're not training
other people.
You've got leadership in place.
Stage seven is what we call succession, but
not in the traditional sense.
I don't, more often than that, we don't
need to sell a business that looks like
(14:36):
this succession most, most often looks like I'm
there one day a week, or I'm there
one day a month, or I'm the myth
now.
And people don't even know who I am.
And so succession is that the business is
on somebody else's shoulders, primarily, if not completely.
And those are the seven stages of business
ownership.
And I, we, we call it that because
this is about you, Scott and about me.
(14:59):
I don't really care where your business is,
frankly.
I want to know what impact the business
is having on you.
And I've, I've talked to so many people
who had just really incredible businesses making millions
of dollars and they have giant boats and
they are stuck in stage three or stage
four.
They got tons of money and somebody else
is going out on their boat because they
don't have time to do it.
(15:20):
Right.
Exactly.
I mean, what's, what's the use if you
can't enjoy it also, you know, if I
was working 60 hours and I want to
spend time with my family, that's the whole
point is, you know, it's, it's the relationships
that I have with my family that are,
that are really the most important to me.
So that's, you know, I, I love my
job.
Don't get me wrong.
And I love working with my clients.
(15:41):
I've got great relationships with them, but, but
ultimately I want to, you know, I want
to own a business that doesn't just give
me money, but it also gives me joy
in the things that really fill my cup,
you know, the things that, that are significant
to me.
And so that was the subtitle of the
book, how to own a business or how
to, how to have a business you love
and get a life too.
You should be able to do both.
What if I had a business I actually
(16:02):
enjoyed going to on Monday mornings?
You know, people, people ask me, should I
sell my business?
I said, well, does anybody want to buy
it?
And they say, no.
And I said, well, there's a reason for
that.
Or, you know, I, or somebody wants to
buy my business and I say, why?
I don't know.
Well, think about it.
You're only there one or two days a
week.
You get a great income there.
(16:22):
They don't want to buy a job.
They want to buy your lifestyle.
More often than not, when we get to
stage five, six or seven, we have a
business that could be sold finally.
And there's no reason to do it because
now it's serving us instead of us serving
it.
So there is real vision in getting to
that place.
And it's about us as business owners.
It's not about where the business is.
(16:42):
We'll find out where the business is by
finding out how it's impacting us.
That's, that's how I've experienced this over the
years.
Yeah.
I like that.
I like that.
It makes a lot of sense, you know,
and it's just been, it's the journey is
now.
Enjoyable, I guess.
You know what I'm saying?
It is a journey to get to where
you want to be.
And for a long time, I was like,
(17:03):
yeah, I want to build a business that
I can sell.
And that's kind of another shift that's happened
with me is that I'm like, well, I
don't know if I want to sell this
business.
If I'm going to build it to the
point where it's going to give me what
I want, and it's going to help me
to live the life I want to live,
then heck, why not just hang around and
let other people do the work.
But, but still, because another thing that I
really enjoy is coaching.
(17:23):
You know, I really enjoy training people to
be successful.
And so if I can give that to,
even if that's the only thing that I
do eventually, is I'm just training the new
financial advisors that come into work with us
and helping them be successful.
That would be really, really fulfilling for me.
Yeah.
Well, it triggered me there because you, you,
you used words that told me you would
(17:44):
like to choose things.
Hey, I'm, I'd like to train other people.
I like to do this, like to do
that.
And for me, this is all about freedom.
Freedom is very fundamentally the ability to choose.
And when we get to stage five, six
or seven in our business, we now have
freedom to choose in ways that we never
did when we were hostages to our business.
So I, I love that you're, you're chasing
(18:06):
that rabbit and you're one of thousands and
you're, and unfortunately, you're in a very small
minority still, I would say probably only 5
% of business owners ever get to stage
five.
And it's not because it's hard.
It is hard.
All of business is hard.
It's because we never thought of it.
I know I did my first six businesses.
I never thought of it.
I just always made money and wished I
(18:27):
could have a life.
And then I intended to do it differently.
And off we went.
So I love that you're doing that.
What, what a font of wisdom do you
have for our listeners as we're closing up
here?
What, what's something you could say to them,
help them on their journey to, to figure
out how to get off the treadmill as
well.
Yeah.
So I guess my biggest piece of advice
(18:48):
is just that it's possible, you know, that
it's, yeah, you can do it.
And yeah, there are times, I mean, I
can't tell you how many times in the
first five years of owning my business that
I was like, what am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
I should just go get a regular job.
You know, it might sound kind of cliche,
but that's, that's honestly where I was.
Cause there were just really rough moments when
(19:09):
I didn't have a consistent paycheck, you know,
Scott, this is where I always insert you.
You're the only one who's ever experienced that.
You must feel very alone.
I'm told.
Yeah.
Nobody's ever experienced what I experienced.
I think every one of us has experienced
that.
Well, and so, but anyway, but I mean,
luckily I have, I have a very supportive
wife, you know, and, and I just, I
(19:30):
discovered that I, you know, I'd much rather
if I, if I employ myself, then nobody
can ever fire me or lay me off.
Right.
So of course I got an idiot for
a boss, but what are you going to
do?
Yeah.
You can't have everything.
Life is not perfect.
We're not shooting for perfect university.
Exactly.
But it, just that it can be done,
you know, and, and the fact that there
(19:52):
is a path, there is something that there
are things that you can do and, you
know, a little bit of coaching and, and
now that's the program has had a real
big impact on, on, on my outlook, you
know, which, which has really decreased my stress
and given me, you know, given me some
clearance, some clarity.
Well, I love that.
It's brilliant and it's simple and it's the
biggest complaint I get about the seventh stage
(20:14):
of the business ownership as well.
That must be nice for somebody who can
possibly do that, but my business is unique
and I'm sorry, every business is unique and
none of them are unique in this way.
I have not found a single profession where
this doesn't apply and where I can't find
already dozens, if not hundreds of people who
have figured out how to get their business
to give them both time and money on
(20:36):
a regular basis and get real freedom in
their business, not just from it.
So thank you for bringing that up to
cap this off.
We're running out of time.
How can people get ahold of you to
find out about more about Scott and what
you do and what you can do for
them?
Yeah.
So our website is www.alignmentfinancialadvisors.com.
(20:56):
We are, we focus on working with small
business owners who successful small business owners who
are looking to, to diversify their wealth and,
and to live, you know, to basically use
their business to live their most fulfilled life.
So you can check us out there.
You can also call the office if you,
you know, if you're interested at 720-504
-4091 and happy to sit down and, and
(21:19):
talk about if there's a good fit and
if there's anything we can do to help
out.
Great.
I love it.
Well, I think we probably created more questions
than we answered today and that's what we're,
that's our job.
So thanks for being part of that and
making that work for us, Scott.
Appreciate you.
Appreciate your love for business and life and
looking forward to seeing how this works out
for you going forward.
Awesome.
(21:39):
Chuck, thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
That wraps up another episode of the Get
Off The Treadmill podcast.
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(22:01):
to book Chuck as a business advisor, speaker,
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Until next time, have a great week.
Welcome back to the Get Off The Treadmill
podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs, where
we show you how to build a successful
business and to have a life too.
We're going to dive into another topic that
helps us make more money in less time
and to get off the treadmill so we
can experience a life of significance.
And now your host and the author of
(00:25):
the number one bestselling business book, Making Money
Is Killing Your Business, Chuck Blakeman.
Today, I'm with Scott Graves.
He's the co-founder and CEO of Alignment
Financial Advisors, a small business and independent financial
services and retirement planning firm located in Denver.
In his daily life, he educates clients and
(00:46):
arms them with the knowledge to make them
the best financial decisions for their own families.
He's got a broad client base of over
1,500 households spread across Colorado and 12
other states who depend on him as their
trusted advisor.
Scott's approach to financial planning reflects his experience
communicating complex information to challenging subjects.
He still sees himself as an educator, though
(01:07):
of a different subject and to a more
receptive audience than his school kids.
His job is to educate his clients on
what their options are so they can make
good decisions for themselves.
Today, we're going to discuss the way off
the business treadmill, which was chapter three in
my first book, Making Money Is Killing Your
Business.
Scott's going to discuss things in there about
(01:28):
hiring for culture and other things in there.
Scott, I'd love to get your thoughts on
why, first of all, why this book was
of interest to you and what it did
for you real quickly.
We don't need to pound the book.
I just want to know why you want
to talk about this chapter.
Yeah, no problem.
Yeah, this book was very influential for me.
I started my business.
(01:48):
I'm not one of those guys that has
a degree in business.
I was previously a public school teacher.
I taught band, so I knew how to
organize chaos, but I didn't know how to
run a business, really.
I was frustrated for a long time with
feeling like I was always flying by the
(02:09):
seat of my pants.
I was always winging it all the time.
I had good instincts, I guess, but I
had no idea what I was actually doing
and how to improve my business.
I know I wanted to build something that
would be lasting, something that would make money
for me.
(02:30):
I just had no idea how to get
there.
Chapter three, the way off the business treadmill,
first off, I was a little surprised at
how early all of this information in the
book, all this information came out.
It was almost like you gave up the
secret sauce a little early.
You know?
But what it showed me, it actually ended
(02:51):
up being a really nice outline for a
lot of the other things that you talk
about in the book.
It showed me that there was a formula,
or at least that there was a path
where I could be intentional about the decisions
I was making, and that it would help
to improve my business, help me be less
stressed, and help the business be more successful
(03:11):
and not entirely dependent on me.
I think that the biggest thing was just
the eye-opening moment that there's a way
to do this, and it's not terribly difficult.
It could be in line with the way
that I wanted to do things, but that
it was still possible for me.
Beautiful.
Can you think of, as you're looking back
(03:33):
on that, what was it in that chapter
that first caught you?
We talk about freedom, we talk about empowering
vision, a big mindset shift.
There's a lot of things that go on
in there.
What caught your eye and what helped you?
The different stages of business.
I tend to be, when I'm really thinking
about things, I get pretty analytical, but at
(03:55):
the same time, I'm also very visual.
The ability to be able to visualize where
I am right now, where I really want
to be, and that there was a progression.
There was a way to get there, and
I could see at the time when I
first started looking at it, I was like,
wow, I'm like step two or three.
I had no idea that I was so
(04:15):
far down the ladder as far as how
far I still needed to go, but I
could see, again, I could see what the
path is.
Here's the next thing I need to do,
and then there's the next thing I need
to do after that, and then the next
thing.
I could see the end from the beginning,
like Stephen Covey talks about, and I could
see, okay, this is what it needs to
(04:37):
look like, and this is what my business
actually needs to be able to do for
me in order for it to be a
mature business and for me to be able
to say, okay, I'm having success.
Yes.
It's interesting where those stages came from.
I was actually at my oldest daughter's graduation
from college, and I'm sitting there, and you
(05:01):
go alphabetical, and there's like 500 kids, and
she's in the Bs.
After she crossed the stage, I got a
long time to sit there and be polite
while there's all these people crossing the stage,
and you begin daydreaming, and I realized, my
(05:21):
second daughter, my second child just crossed the
stage of college.
That gives me some idea where I am
in the stages of life, and anytime I
think of something interesting in life, I always
ask myself, well, I wonder how that correlates
to business, because there really is no difference
in the principles.
Sure enough, I wonder where I am in
(05:43):
my stage of business.
I don't know where I am in my
stage of business.
Then I saw someone else who had six
stages who had started this thing but hadn't
finished it, and I asked them if I
could take it and redevelop it and turn
it into something else.
That's where it came from, because I realized
that as business owners, we don't know where
we are, do we?
We're just mucking along, and we have no
(06:06):
idea other than we started the business, we're
in the business, and we finished the business,
and that's not really stages.
That doesn't help us.
Well, I love the analogy you made between
growing up your business and growing up your
kids.
I have five sons, and they're all fantastic,
but they're all in different stages of their
(06:27):
lives, and some of them are out of
the house, some are not, and so that
was just really apropos to me.
It's like you're raising a business, like you
raise your kids.
What are your expectations for your business, just
like what are your expectations for your kids?
The reality might come out to be totally
different from what your expectation is, just like
(06:50):
it does with our kids.
We might hope they turn out this way,
but then they turn out this other way,
and that's totally fine too.
But you may not have gotten there if
you hadn't started with something else.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I started out with the word expectations when
I first started doing things like this, and
I changed it to the word intention, and
you'll hear this from me probably every podcast.
(07:11):
You give it to intend, not what you
hope for, and if you're intentional about getting
somewhere, you have a real great shot of
getting there.
I use the word intention because expectation has
a rights thing to it.
It's like I deserve this, and maybe I
do, but still expectation doesn't really allow for
(07:31):
the fact that the world is going to
mess with your plans.
So intention for me has always meant am
I doing everything I can do to get
where I want to go?
That's intention for me, and whatever the world
wants to do with that, it can knock
it around, but I'm going to do everything
in my power to get where I need
to be, knowing that the world will interact
(07:53):
with that, but I intend to be this
place two years from now, and it's amazing
you really do get what you intend and
not what you hope for.
Yeah, well, and it's, you know, who was
it that said, you know, best laid plans
never survive contact with the enemy, right?
That's very, very true.
As a German general before World War II
or after World War I, yeah, you know,
(08:16):
this doesn't work.
Also, one of the famous boxers just said,
you know, everybody has a plan to get
- You pushed it in the mouth, yeah.
Mike Tyson.
Tyson, yeah.
I want to show this on the screen
for our viewers and listeners.
If you're listening, I'll describe it very quickly,
but I can go through it quicker if
we just look at the seven stages of
business ownership.
This is part of what Scott's talking about
(08:39):
that he said, I didn't have any idea
where I was and I didn't either.
And so, we put together these seven stages
of business owners and tested them for 20
years.
So, we feel like we've got something that
works.
And to the point, Scott's on this show
sharing how these things helped him.
Stage one is startup.
You know, it's a lot of fun.
Stage two, as soon as you put a
(08:59):
business card, you're in stage two survival.
So, we got all these S's we're going
to use.
Stage two is survival.
And stage two is, holy crap, this is
tougher than I thought, right?
And you probably experienced that.
Everybody does.
I've started 13 businesses.
Every one of them was, oh, no, this
is tougher than I thought.
And then one day, your accountant comes to
(09:20):
you three months in or three years in,
there's no timetable to this.
Get through these seven stages as fast as
you can.
But at one point, the accountant comes to
you and says, hey, you guys broke even
the last three months.
And that's stage three subsistence.
You're no longer bleeding, but you're living with
the tension that if a client leaves you,
you're right back in survival.
(09:41):
And you do that for three months to
three years, hopefully the three month scenario.
And he comes to you again and says,
hey, for the last three months, you guys
have actually made money.
That is stage four.
We call that stage four stability.
But the American dream, I know, is stage
four.
I got a profitable business.
I can buy a hot tub and I
can lose money while I'm on vacation for
a week or two.
(10:02):
And that's stage four stability.
It is not success in my mind, because
we bought ourselves a job and we're on
the treadmill.
And we do that for three months to
three years.
We finally get sick of it and realize,
you know, maybe my business should serve me
instead of the other way around.
So we go to stage five.
And we call that success because there's a
huge mindset shift that goes between stage four
(10:22):
and stage five.
So I'd love to, I'll take this down
for a minute.
Scott, you saw this in the book.
What did you see as your mindset shift
from stage four?
Well, I think it's fair for me to
describe stage five first.
Stage five is success.
And it's really where we decide that we're
actually demanding our business give us both money
(10:44):
and time.
And it's the first time in our business
that it actually gives us both.
We are truly off the I'm not there
or every Wednesday afternoon or three days a
week, whatever it is, we're now getting both
time and money from our business.
So what was the big mindset shift that
(11:05):
you had to go through in order to,
to see that happen?
Right.
Well, so we're still, we're working on stage
five.
That's kind of where we are right now,
but we see it now we see what
it looks like.
And I think that the big thing was
just me understanding that if I'm going to
own a business, it means that I'm not
necessarily the one producing all the revenue and
(11:29):
understanding that I needed to have, whether it
was through hiring other people, other financial advisors
that are going to work with me.
Or if I'm going to somehow automate something
to the point of using technology that I
was going to that it would still make
revenue for me when I'm not around for
us, our plan is to hire additional agents,
(11:51):
you know?
And so, so we also knew that if
we were going to do that, and I
say we, because my, you know, me and
my partner, my business partner, we also knew
that if we were going to do that,
we needed to have some way for those
new financial advisors who come in to be
successful.
My dad was in the financial service, a
quick story.
My dad was in the financial services industry
(12:12):
for 40 some odd years.
And he worked for a New York life
for many, many years as a general manager.
And he, he told me once that he
had the best retention rate in the, in
the company nationwide.
And you know, it's a huge company.
And I asked him what that rate was.
He said it was 18% after three
years.
(12:32):
And I was like, that sounds terrible.
I never want to do that.
I don't want to spend all this time
training somebody only to have them disappear after
three years.
You know, I want to, so I wanted
to, we wanted to give them the absolute
best chance at success.
So what we're working on right now as
a partnership is we're trying to, we're building
a system, okay, a freedom map that is
going to make it possible for us to
(12:54):
bring in new agents, plug them in immediately,
and they're gonna have a very high probability
of success.
So, but that's, but again, just being able
to see that that's what was necessary, you
know, that, that mind, that was the mind
shift for me, just seeing what needed to
happen and what it was going to look
like when I had other people producing for
me.
Yeah.
And I appreciate that.
(13:14):
I'll throw this, this back up for those
who are listening and explain it.
Yeah.
For me, stage five was that big mindset
shift was very similar.
I just, I said it this way to
myself in stage four, I made money.
And in stage five, when I get that
big mindset shift, the business is making money,
(13:35):
whatever that means, however, that's going to happen.
I'm no longer the one making money, the
business is making money.
And that's the mindset shift.
And I, you know, for 13 businesses, I
was wallowing around a stage three or four
times.
And I would say that in stage four,
which is called the American dream, I'm, I'm
really, I'm owned by my business.
I'm a hostage, hostage to the business.
(13:56):
And I'm a, I'm a, what I would
call an income producer.
Stage five is the first place I would
actually say I became a business when my
business gives me both time and money.
I own a business before that I own
a job and it's not much different than
if I worked for somebody else.
And I'm sure you're experiencing the same thing
as you get into this.
(14:16):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And then stage six and seven very quickly,
stage six is significance.
And we call it significance because it's the
point in your business where you're not training
other people.
You've got leadership in place.
Stage seven is what we call succession, but
not in the traditional sense.
I don't, more often than that, we don't
need to sell a business that looks like
(14:36):
this succession most, most often looks like I'm
there one day a week, or I'm there
one day a month, or I'm the myth
now.
And people don't even know who I am.
And so succession is that the business is
on somebody else's shoulders, primarily, if not completely.
And those are the seven stages of business
ownership.
And I, we, we call it that because
this is about you, Scott and about me.
(14:59):
I don't really care where your business is,
frankly.
I want to know what impact the business
is having on you.
And I've, I've talked to so many people
who had just really incredible businesses making millions
of dollars and they have giant boats and
they are stuck in stage three or stage
four.
They got tons of money and somebody else
is going out on their boat because they
don't have time to do it.
(15:20):
Right.
Exactly.
I mean, what's, what's the use if you
can't enjoy it also, you know, if I
was working 60 hours and I want to
spend time with my family, that's the whole
point is, you know, it's, it's the relationships
that I have with my family that are,
that are really the most important to me.
So that's, you know, I, I love my
job.
Don't get me wrong.
And I love working with my clients.
(15:41):
I've got great relationships with them, but, but
ultimately I want to, you know, I want
to own a business that doesn't just give
me money, but it also gives me joy
in the things that really fill my cup,
you know, the things that, that are significant
to me.
And so that was the subtitle of the
book, how to own a business or how
to, how to have a business you love
and get a life too.
You should be able to do both.
What if I had a business I actually
(16:02):
enjoyed going to on Monday mornings?
You know, people, people ask me, should I
sell my business?
I said, well, does anybody want to buy
it?
And they say, no.
And I said, well, there's a reason for
that.
Or, you know, I, or somebody wants to
buy my business and I say, why?
I don't know.
Well, think about it.
You're only there one or two days a
week.
You get a great income there.
(16:22):
They don't want to buy a job.
They want to buy your lifestyle.
More often than not, when we get to
stage five, six or seven, we have a
business that could be sold finally.
And there's no reason to do it because
now it's serving us instead of us serving
it.
So there is real vision in getting to
that place.
And it's about us as business owners.
It's not about where the business is.
(16:42):
We'll find out where the business is by
finding out how it's impacting us.
That's, that's how I've experienced this over the
years.
Yeah.
I like that.
I like that.
It makes a lot of sense, you know,
and it's just been, it's the journey is
now.
Enjoyable, I guess.
You know what I'm saying?
It is a journey to get to where
you want to be.
And for a long time, I was like,
(17:03):
yeah, I want to build a business that
I can sell.
And that's kind of another shift that's happened
with me is that I'm like, well, I
don't know if I want to sell this
business.
If I'm going to build it to the
point where it's going to give me what
I want, and it's going to help me
to live the life I want to live,
then heck, why not just hang around and
let other people do the work.
But, but still, because another thing that I
really enjoy is coaching.
(17:23):
You know, I really enjoy training people to
be successful.
And so if I can give that to,
even if that's the only thing that I
do eventually, is I'm just training the new
financial advisors that come into work with us
and helping them be successful.
That would be really, really fulfilling for me.
Yeah.
Well, it triggered me there because you, you,
you used words that told me you would
(17:44):
like to choose things.
Hey, I'm, I'd like to train other people.
I like to do this, like to do
that.
And for me, this is all about freedom.
Freedom is very fundamentally the ability to choose.
And when we get to stage five, six
or seven in our business, we now have
freedom to choose in ways that we never
did when we were hostages to our business.
So I, I love that you're, you're chasing
(18:06):
that rabbit and you're one of thousands and
you're, and unfortunately, you're in a very small
minority still, I would say probably only 5
% of business owners ever get to stage
five.
And it's not because it's hard.
It is hard.
All of business is hard.
It's because we never thought of it.
I know I did my first six businesses.
I never thought of it.
I just always made money and wished I
(18:27):
could have a life.
And then I intended to do it differently.
And off we went.
So I love that you're doing that.
What, what a font of wisdom do you
have for our listeners as we're closing up
here?
What, what's something you could say to them,
help them on their journey to, to figure
out how to get off the treadmill as
well.
Yeah.
So I guess my biggest piece of advice
(18:48):
is just that it's possible, you know, that
it's, yeah, you can do it.
And yeah, there are times, I mean, I
can't tell you how many times in the
first five years of owning my business that
I was like, what am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
I should just go get a regular job.
You know, it might sound kind of cliche,
but that's, that's honestly where I was.
Cause there were just really rough moments when
(19:09):
I didn't have a consistent paycheck, you know,
Scott, this is where I always insert you.
You're the only one who's ever experienced that.
You must feel very alone.
I'm told.
Yeah.
Nobody's ever experienced what I experienced.
I think every one of us has experienced
that.
Well, and so, but anyway, but I mean,
luckily I have, I have a very supportive
wife, you know, and, and I just, I
(19:30):
discovered that I, you know, I'd much rather
if I, if I employ myself, then nobody
can ever fire me or lay me off.
Right.
So of course I got an idiot for
a boss, but what are you going to
do?
Yeah.
You can't have everything.
Life is not perfect.
We're not shooting for perfect university.
Exactly.
But it, just that it can be done,
you know, and, and the fact that there
(19:52):
is a path, there is something that there
are things that you can do and, you
know, a little bit of coaching and, and
now that's the program has had a real
big impact on, on, on my outlook, you
know, which, which has really decreased my stress
and given me, you know, given me some
clearance, some clarity.
Well, I love that.
It's brilliant and it's simple and it's the
biggest complaint I get about the seventh stage
(20:14):
of the business ownership as well.
That must be nice for somebody who can
possibly do that, but my business is unique
and I'm sorry, every business is unique and
none of them are unique in this way.
I have not found a single profession where
this doesn't apply and where I can't find
already dozens, if not hundreds of people who
have figured out how to get their business
to give them both time and money on
(20:36):
a regular basis and get real freedom in
their business, not just from it.
So thank you for bringing that up to
cap this off.
We're running out of time.
How can people get ahold of you to
find out about more about Scott and what
you do and what you can do for
them?
Yeah.
So our website is www.alignmentfinancialadvisors.com.
(20:56):
We are, we focus on working with small
business owners who successful small business owners who
are looking to, to diversify their wealth and,
and to live, you know, to basically use
their business to live their most fulfilled life.
So you can check us out there.
You can also call the office if you,
you know, if you're interested at 720-504
-4091 and happy to sit down and, and
(21:19):
talk about if there's a good fit and
if there's anything we can do to help
out.
Great.
I love it.
Well, I think we probably created more questions
than we answered today and that's what we're,
that's our job.
So thanks for being part of that and
making that work for us, Scott.
Appreciate you.
Appreciate your love for business and life and
looking forward to seeing how this works out
for you going forward.
Awesome.
(21:39):
Chuck, thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
That wraps up another episode of the Get
Off The Treadmill podcast.
If you found this podcast helpful, please subscribe
and hit the like button to ensure you
are receiving the latest tools you need to
grow your business and to get off the
treadmill.
If you want more information on the three
to five club, the crank set group, or
(22:01):
to book Chuck as a business advisor, speaker,
or workshop leader, you can contact us at
grow, G-R-O-W, at cranksetgroup.com.
Until next time, have a great week.
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