Founder's Story - The Entrepreneur's Blueprint: Creating Businesses That Thrive Without You, A Founder's Story with Austin Netzley | S2: E15

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

Today, on the latest episode of Founder’s Story, Austin Netzley, an entrepreneur and business coach, speaks on his journey from the corporate world into entrepreneurship and how he settled into making an impact by helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses successfully to a point where even in their absence, their business continues to thrive. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss out on exclusive interviews and special content: https://foundersstory.beehiiv.com/subscribe For more info on guests and future episodes visit pix11.com/impact and https://fox5sandiego.com/fox-5-partners/impactful/ Quick LinksGet Embed PlayerShare on SocialDownload Audio File   Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Founders Story, the podcast where trailblazing entrepreneurs share their extraordinary journeys, uncover the passion, grit, and vision that drive the world of business and innovation. Welcome back to another episode of Founders Story. Today we have a guest who I've had the pleasure of reading his first book, and I'm very excited today because we're going to dive into systems, processes, scaling. He's helped people over $300 million in scaling their businesses, so this is something everyone needs to know. But Austin Netzle, he's an author, investor, business growth advisor. He's the founder and CEO of 2X, and he helps six and seven figure entrepreneurs turn their

business into a consistent, fast growing machine that thrives without them. Austin, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I love what you're doing. Love that you're helping founders and excited to give some value today. I mean, who doesn't want to have a machine that thrives without them? But let's go back to your story. And when you started, what was that spark that made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur? Well, the big one was, is I was in the corporate

world and I actually really enjoyed it. But then I looked at my managers that were 10, 15, 25 years down the line. And I was like, wait a minute, I don't want that life. There has to be another way. So I went down this path to learn what that was. And that was entrepreneurship where you can control your destiny, where you can make an impact, where you can do so many different things and have this limitless upside. As soon as I started to learn about that, I wanted that. So I started to tackle it and figure out how to make it successful. So what was your first business? It was day trading. So I was still

in the corporate world, but I wanted to build up my skillset and my money situation on the side. So I started day trading and I got heavy into it and eventually created my own algorithm and automated it. And that was my first taste of business, but it didn't really feel like a business because I didn't have any employees, but it had me shift my mentality to start thinking like an entrepreneur, making numbers and systems decisions. And ultimately it was the foundation for the rest of my businesses. I love the side hustle. I think I've done the same thing as you. Corporate, side hustle, then you quit. It's incredible. Let's talk about your new book, The Two Week Vacation Test.

I know it has some intriguing concepts and I'd like for you to dive into and explain what are those. Yeah. So the big idea of it is, is how would your business do if you go on a two week, no strings attached vacation? Now, a lot of entrepreneurs would be like, well, my business would stop. I am the business or everything's reliant on me. Well, to build a really healthy business and to achieve why you started in business to begin with, to make a lot of money, to drive big growth, to have time freedom, to maybe sell your business for many millions of dollars. All of that requires you having a business

that can run and thrive without you. So by taking committed time off, it's a forcing function to improve your team and operations and let go of tasks and build a much healthier business. So in the book, I break down seven steps that lead you to take a very confident, a two week, no strings attached vacation,

where you know your business can still thrive in your absence. So it's a really powerful process, but also a forcing function to create a really healthy business. In my experience, this is one of the most important things any business owner can do. Any entrepreneur is figure out a way to build a

business where they don't have to be there 24 seven. Why do you think that most business owners struggle with that? It's a mindset thing, mostly. So I can teach somebody very easily some of the systems. I can teach people how to get more out of their team. But what we've really got to do is be able to let go. But if we don't train people do is be able to, to, to let go. But, but if we don't train people up and give them the proper guidance and support, then if we give them a task, then they're, they're most likely going to fail. And if they fail, then we just reinforce the belief that I knew I should have just done it myself. So they just stay in this loop of keeping things themselves, but we have to break that belief. And again, by taking committed time off, you're

fully detaching. And most importantly, you're improving your team and operations so that you can take that time off. So you're actually setting them up for success, which is how you should do it all together. But it's a systems team and mindset, a trio that you have to do to really have success of letting go of things. That is incredible. I see that a lot. So many people I know struggle with this mindset of if I do it, it's going to be 100%. If my employee does it, it's going to be 50%. But we know that's not sustainable. How can you be there 24-7? And then what are you going to do with that business? So are you finding that a lot of people that you're helping, are they able to not only scale much faster, but also maybe exit their business when that wouldn't have been something they could have done before? Absolutely. Like

the cool thing about this is, is like once you can have a business that can run and thrive without you, that gives you optionality. And I'm not telling people to not work. Like I like to work, but the cool thing is, is I'm able to work and be in control of my time. I'm able to work on the things that I want. I'm able to work on the big projects that are gonna really move the needle, not dealing with fires and issues and being reactive every single day.

So if you're in control of your time, if you have a business that's healthy, that can run and thrive without you, again, you have the ability to have complete time freedom, which means you can take a lot of vacations and have a great lifestyle or work less. You can sell your business and get a maximum valuation. You can, again, be able to work on the right things

and scale it to the next level. You've got optionality of what to do. So no matter what your growth goals are, no matter what goals you want to achieve in 2024 and beyond, building your business to be healthier, to run and thrive without you is one of the best things that you can do. I'm with you. I would rather work less. I would rather work four or five hours a week. I don't want to work every day. So this is great. And I think a lot of people, even though they want to hustle a lot, once they realize they don't have to. I think most people would rather take

that route. What is one actionable step or something that you say to people begin with this? Well, the first step is take a night off. All right. It's like you don't go and take a two week vacation right from the start. Take a night off where you can end your work day and be completely present with your family, with your friends, with yourself, where you can end your work day and be completely present with your family, with your friends, with yourself, where you can be able to not have your mind be going, not be thinking about all the things that you have to do. Like that's the first step is like, what we've got to do is break the attachment and the addiction that we have to our business. Because like, when you start a business, you're just scrapping and cloning and trying to figure everything out.

We've got to stop the chaos and get back in control and taking a night off as the first simple, easy step. We'll start to improve some of those things. And then we just work through six other steps. By the time you get to that seventh step, which is a two week vacation, you're confident and clear and you're ready to take that time off and you're able to do so. I'm ready for a one month vacation. Let's go. One step at a time. I know you talk a lot about this scaling without chaos. Can you elaborate on this scaling without chaos and be able to create growth and scalability within your organization, I guess, without this chaos that you just mentioned? Yeah. One of the best things that you can do is leverage systems systems are basic way that you can ultimately do a task or a particular part of your business over and over and over again with more efficiency and ease

so if you have systems in your business you can train other people you can be more efficient you can have more predictability and this just leads to less reactivity less errors less stress and less that needs to be done by you so most business owners again are too busy to create systems, but if you're already doing all the work, we might as well spend just a little bit of extra time and turn that into be a system that somebody else can follow. And that way, again, you can get free and you can focus on more and more of the higher impact things. So systems are something that most small business owners struggle with,

but if you can become great at it, then you're going to have a lot of predictability, way less stress, a lot more efficiency and profitability, way more out of your team, way more out of your time. It's just like one of the secrets that most people don't tap into nearly enough. I always find it very interesting that we like to run a hundred miles an hour, but not take five minutes to create a system or a process. I know for me, creating systems, processing systems, processes, and leveraging outsourcing, these kinds of things have helped me in my business. And I always recommend everyone to do so. So I hope that they pick up your book, The Two Week Vacation Test. Was that correct? Absolutely. The Two Week Vacation Test. it's in bookstores uh it's available

on our site highly recommend it's a simple read and we'll just break down yeah look at that vacation let's go i want to go there that's freedom that's freedom you know and and that's why that's the number one reason why people start in business is to achieve more freedom more control of their time but what do we? We get the opposite of that. We get more stressed. We get trapped. We work more hours, right? Like, no, let's take back control.

Let's go back to what your vision, what your dream is. And let's create that. Your business is a vehicle to go and accomplish that. I'm so happy you bring that up. A lot of people don't talk about the reality of business. They want to show on social media that it's amazing driving Ferraris, going on private jets all the time. Like that's business.

But we know business is so hard. It's tough. It's draining. You work 24-7. It's hard to remove yourself. So you are really making a big impact. And we are all about impact here. So if people want to get your book, if they want to learn more about 2X, they want to be a part of your 200, sorry, 300 million plus growth

that you've helped with your clients. How can they do so? Yeah, go to 2x.co. We like simplicity. So we've got the simplest website that you'll hear all week, 2x.co. We've got some great resources there. We've got a great assessment that will help guide you on the exact gaps and opportunities in your business. But the books are such a great place to start. The two week vacation test. You also mentioned that you read from six to seven figures. I get feedback on this all the time. So I highly recommend them. Books changed my life. So I'm passionate to share books and we give them for a very low price. So check it out on Amazon or 2x.co. So easy, 2x.co, the best website URL I've ever heard. So Austin, thank you so much for being with us today on Founders Story. And thank you for impacting millions, if not billions of entrepreneurs around the world. Awesome, thank you.

Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.