The Secret to Sustaining Success in any Stage with Scott Ritzheimer (stages 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - Ep. 343

In this thought-provoking episode, Scott Ritzheimer shares how to thrive in your current stage without forced growth. If you struggle with boredom and stage pressure, you won't want to miss it. You will discover:

You will discover:

- Why aligning your stage with your vision boosts fulfillment

- How to embrace mystery to sustain joy and success

- What thriving strategies keep you engaged in any stage

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stages 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Scott helped start nearly 20,000 new businesses and nonprofits and with his business partner started led their multimillion-dollar business through an exceptional and extended growth phase (over 10 years of double-digit growth) all before he turned 35.He founded Scale Architects to help founders and CEOs identify and implement the one essential strategy they need right now to get them on the fast track to Predictable Success.

Want to learn more about Scott Ritzheimer's work at Scale Architects? Check out his website at https://www.scalearchitects.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the Founder's Evolution Quiz Today

If you’re a Founder, business owner, or CEO who feels overworked by the business you lead and underwhelmed by the results, you’re doing it wrong. Succeeding as a founder all comes down to doing the right one or two things right now. Take the quiz today at foundersquiz.com, and in just ten questions, you can figure out what stage you are in, so you can focus on what is going to work and say goodbye to everything else.

Founder's Quiz

Episode Transcript

Scott Ritzheimer (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again

(00:02):
to the start, scale and succeedpodcast, the only podcast that
grows with you through all sevenstages of your journey as a
founder, one of the questionsthat I get asked a lot when I
travel all over the country andteach on these different stages
is, do I have to get to the nextlevel? Because once we finally

(00:25):
realize what the next level is,many of us realize that's not
actually what we want. That'snot why we started this
business. It's not our dream forour nonprofit. It's just
something that we feel like wehave to go up into the right, up
into the right, up onto theright. You couldn't be further
from the truth. And so right outof the gate here, I want to just

(00:45):
dispel the myth. There's nothinginherently better about stage
seven than stage one. In fact,there's nothing better about
stage five than stage four, notin absolute terms. And so as I'm
working with folks, as I'minteracting with founders at
various conferences and eventsthat I speak at. What I'll tell

(01:06):
them is, do you only need to getto the biggest stage, the latest
stage that your vision demands?What we're really looking at is,
what is your vision for theorganization, what's your vision
for your time leading it, andhow big do you have to get to
fulfill that vision? It's nothow big you have to get to be a

(01:27):
$10 million company or 100million or a billion dollar
company, those are fine. Thoseare just goals. Those aren't a
vision. It has nothing to dowith your success as a founder.
Anyone who wants to impose sometype of definition of success,
it requires you to progress to astage that later than whatever

(01:48):
your vision demands is not doinga service to you. So what does
that mean? It means that there'sactually benefit. In fact, I
would go so far as to say it isbetter to stay in a smaller
stage than it is to wronglypursue a later stage. And that's
not necessarily hard to do, butit's not easy to do either. So

(02:12):
there's this interestingchallenge that comes up when we
realize, oh, I can actually stayin this stage. The next question
is, how do you do that,especially sustainably? Because,
let's be honest, we're founders.We like to move and shake and
grow and create. And the idea ofstaying stuck inside of a stage

(02:34):
is a really big challenge. Well,the first thing is, you have to
learn to thrive in that stageand and in my book, there's a
whole lot of information onexactly how that we're not
really going to talk about thatin this conversation. So you
have to learn what drivessuccess in the stage that you're
in. You may even need to, if wetake a step back, decide if you

(02:57):
can go back a stage and stillmeet your vision. That is
surprisingly common in the folksthat I work with and teach and
and so let's assume that you'regoing to stay in the stage that
you're at. Let's assume that youare already thriving in that
stage, that, yeah, it's got itschallenges, and there are hard
days, but by and large, you say,Hey, this is pretty good. I've

(03:19):
got something really special.You've discovered what the joy
is in your stage. And I meanthat very specifically there
are, there are very specificthings that you get to enjoy in
each and every stage, and theyvary by stage. In fact, the way
that I discovered this was, I'mworking with these later stage

(03:41):
founders, very successful. StageFive, stage six, stage seven,
and again and again and again inour conversations and in these
sober moments of reflection,they'll tell me over and over, I
wish I was back in stage two,stage I wish I was there. I wish
I was doing it. I wish it was assimple as it used to be, and

(04:02):
then the very next session, I'llbe in someone in stage three,
and they're just dying becauseof the realities of stage three,
because it's hard, like you'rein that reluctant manager mode,
and you wondered, what's wrongwith these people, and that
that's just an all consumingquestion. And you might be
thinking, why would you everwant to stay in a stage like

(04:22):
this? And the reality of it isthat management stage can be a
whole lot of fun. In fact, itactually is the stage that
correlates the most with thelife cycle stage from last you
and business partner of mine,the book critical success here
behind me, stage three is whereyou typically spend the time in
the organizational fun stage. Sothere's a lot to be said about

(04:45):
stage three, even stage four,any of the stages have their and
and so you've got to understandwhat the joy is. You have to
have the right strategies forwhat you need to do to thrive.
Because it's not everything.It's actually very few things.
Again, we talked. About that inthe book. But from there,
there's another gear, and it'snot another level. It's not it's

(05:09):
not kind of like the next bigthing. It's more like an
overdrive button on your car.Have you ever turned that off
accidentally? I've got one in mytruck, and when you bump it, as
soon as you let off the gas, youfeel the engine start to hold
you back, and it almost feelslike you're touching the brakes
when you're not. And that's afeeling that folks get whenever

(05:30):
they settle on staying in andthriving at a stage. As soon as
you feel like you let off thegas at all, it's just oh,
there's this lurch, there's thisjerk, and it's not comfortable.
It's not pleasant. We kind ofcatch yourself thinking, like,
what was that? Is that reallywhat this looks like? And it's
so severe that sometimes it'lllead people to thinking, No, I
can't stay in this stage. I haveto grow. I have to get to the

(05:52):
next stage, which just is true.And so what we've got to do is
we've got to push that overdrivebutton. We've got to ease that
transition from full on the gasto something other than full on
the gas, because you don't needto be full on the gas forever to
stay and thrive in and sustainsuccess in any one of these
seven stages. But there issomething that you need to do,

(06:15):
and it's going to catch us alittle odd, especially type A
founders that are driving takethe next hill, much like myself.
The one thing that I have foundseparates those from those who
can sustain success almostindefinitely. It seems inside of

(06:36):
one stage, they don't have togrow, they're not shrinking,
they're not bored, they're notfiddling with stuff and making
people angry. They're justthriving and thriving and
thriving the one thing thatseparates us from the others who
start to drip or start to losetheir edge or feel a little

(06:58):
arthritic or lose their passionor get frustrated more than they
should, or wonder, you know,just perpetually, if the grass
is greener, somewhere else,anywhere else, you'd be
surprised what that one thingis. And it's important that we
get hold of this one thing,because, again, the consequences
are pretty dire. I've seen a lotof founders make some of the

(07:20):
biggest mistake simply becausethey were bored. And let's face
it, that's a real threat. Whenyou're not striving for that
next stage, you're not learningall these new skills that are
necessary to evolve. You're nottaking the next hill, at least
not in the way that you wouldyou were trying to grow Stage to
Stage. Then boredom is a realthreat. It's a real enemy. And

(07:44):
there's a couple things thatconfront that contentment is
one, and that's why we talkabout joy so much around here,
because I think it's a key tocontentment. There's another
that's actually a lot moreinteresting, and that is
mystery. It's It's mystery, andthat word probably strikes most
of you as at least curious, andthat's kind of the point. What

(08:07):
I'm talking about here is yousolve your boredom through
busyness.
And what I want you to dothinking about, how do you
sustain success in this stagethat you're in? How do you keep
enjoying it? How do you stay atthe top your game, even if
you're trying not get to thenext level in the game. The way
that you do it is by by bakingmystery into your life and into

(08:28):
your world. Explore somethingthat you don't know, try
something that you don't know ifit's going to work. Take on a
strategy for next year that'snot going to change the world
necessarily, but you have noidea how you're going to do it,
you would be shocked at howprofound the impact is of having

(08:48):
some mystery in your life, andeverything else is conspiring
against it, because mysterycreates uncertainty. And our
brains and our society, theyhate uncertainty. There's a
violence against it. We don'tlike feeling like we could screw
up. We don't like feeling likewe don't know the answer, but

(09:08):
we're drawn to it as founders,and so we've got to find some
way of not only embracingmystery, but actually building
it into how we do what we do.And the best way that I can, I
can talk about this is one, Ithink that first and foremost,
you need to do it within yourorganization. You spend too much

(09:31):
time there in any stage otherthan one, six or seven, right?
Because those are notorganization dependencies. So
all you founders in the middlefrom two to five, which is the
vast majority of you. It has tobe in your organization, not all
the mystery, not even most ofit. There has to be something
mysterious, somethingintriguing, something inspiring

(09:54):
about your organization. Andbecause we don't want to
overgrow, we don't want toaccidentally grow you. Out of
the stage that you're in. Itcan't just be bigger goals. It
has to be more interestinggoals. It has to be tougher
challenges. And we have to dothat intention. So first one is
it has to be inside yourorganization. The next thing

(10:14):
about mystery is that it can beoutside the organization as
well. In fact, many times asmuch of it is. And so it might
be something as simple asrebalancing your life and your
success toward your marriage,which I know, for me, was a much
harder area for success than wasbusiness. I, many of you know,

(10:38):
helped start a whole bunch oforganizations started, scaled
and sold my business, all beforeI turned five years old and had
a ton of success there, and I'mhappily able to report that I've
been married 20 years now, sothat's been awesome, but it's
been hard, and so a big part ofsustaining where I am in stage

(11:02):
two of the process.Intentionally, I'm staying in
stage two. I've been all the wayto six to my previous business,
and two is where I want to benow, because it's what my vision
demands of me. One of the thingsthat I've had to realize is that
there's a mystery in making mymarriage better that is
inspiring. It's challenging.It's stretching me. It's forcing
me to figure out who I am in anew way, and forcing me to go

(11:24):
outside of myself in a waythat's really challenging. Now,
that might not be it for you. Itmight be something like learning
a new instrument that'sfascinating and and I can get
off on a whole soapbox aboutthat, but just getting into a
place where you are regularlydoing something that you don't
feel like you're fully equippedto do. That's how we embrace

(11:45):
mystery. It's it's looking forsomething, pursuing something
greater, something bigger,something outside of yourself,
against which backdrop you lookvery small. That's what mystery
is. And so I know this is alittle nebulous, mystery is a
little nebulous. I know there'snot the most practical episode

(12:05):
we've ever done, but mysteryisn't practical, right? That's
why it's so wonderful. If you'regoing to stay in a stage who
wants more practical advice onhow to do what you're already
doing that's boring, you don'tneed more practical advice to
stay in your stage. You needmore mystery. You don't need to
be better at what you do. Youneed to do things that you're

(12:26):
worse at doing, so that you canlearn those and explore those.
And so long as you're able toembrace mystery, you can sustain
your success, your joy, yourcontentment, your fulfillment in
any one of the seven stages foras long as you like. It really
does come down to embracing themystery. So my big question for

(12:47):
you today is, for those of you,especially who are trying to
stay in the stage, but evenbeyond that, just for those of
you who are feeling a littletwinge of boredom more than
you're comfortable with, where'sthe mystery in your life? What
have you done to foster it? Whatcan you do to develop it? What
can you do to put yourself insituations that you don't know
if you're going to succeed?That's what's going to keep you

(13:10):
sharp, that's what's going tokeep you passionate, that's
what's going to keep youexcited, and that's what's going
to help for the long run. I hopethis was a helpful episode. I
don't get to do a whole lot ofthese solo episodes, so many
great guests who come on theshow, but every once in a while,
we like to sneak one in. I lovespending time with you. I'd love
to hear your thoughts. If youwant to hear more solo episodes
like this. That sounds supernarcissistic to say, but it's

(13:32):
another format that we're tryingout for a few episodes based on
some feedback we've alreadygotten from some listeners. And
if you like it you'd want tohear more. Please let us know in
the comments. Shoot us an email.Podcast at scale architect.com
We'd love to hear from you ifyou want help on the journey.
I'd highly encourage you visitour site. There are podcast
episodes. Lord, for each of thestages, we've got close to 30

(13:57):
different scale architectspositions all around the
country, around the world,actually, who'd love to help you
out? And I'd be happy to connectyou with any of those as well.
Head on over to scale.Architect.com We'd love to see
you there until next time youknow your time and attention
mean the world to me. I hope yougot as much out of this
conversation as you could, and Icannot wait to see you next

(14:19):
time. Take care.