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

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Get your free copy of Allison's book 'Scale or Fail' - https://pinnacleglobalnetwork.com/dna In this episode I sit down with Allison Maslan, founder and CEO of Pinnacle Global Network and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Scale or Fail, who has personally built ten companies and helped her team mentor over 150,000 founders. We talk about why the business owner is so often the thing standing in the way of their own growth, and Allison walks me through her five phases of scaling, from the seeker all the way through what she calls the ringleader phase, the chaotic circus stage where most businesses get stuck for years. We get into how to build a team of what she calls scale multipliers instead of people who just complete tasks, why tracking your return on employee matters as much as any other business metric, and how her own burnout and health scare early in her career led her to build a completely different way of running a business. We also dig into her morning vision crafting practice and how she uses alignment to make faster, clearer decisions as a CEO. If you've ever felt like your business can't run without you, this conversation will change how you think about that. Main Topics Covered Why the founder is often the biggest bottleneck to growth The five phases of scaling a business Building a team of scale multipliers instead of task-doers Tracking return on employee (ROE) How to let go of control without losing quality Vision crafting and morning routines for clarity Using alignment to guide business decisions Why investing in mentors and masterminds speeds up growth About Allison: Allison Maslan is the founder and CEO of Pinnacle Global Network, a global business mentoring company that has helped more than 150,000 founders scale their companies from seven to nine figures. She has built ten successful companies from the ground up starting at age 19, with past clients including Ben & Jerry's, Supercuts, and Charlotte Russe. Allison is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Scale or Fail, endorsed by Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran, and has been featured in Forbes, Success, Fortune, and Entrepreneur Magazine. She was named one of Forbes' Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs to Watch. Website: https://pinnacleglobalnetwork.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonmaslan About Justin: Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The M.O.R.E Show podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience. Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof  LinkedIn: Justin Colby Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 a 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. Alison Maslin is a prominent business scaling expert. Wall Street Journal bestselling author and serial entrepreneur who has built 10 successful companies.

She is most recognized as the founder and CEO of Pinnacle Global Network, a global business mentoring company that helps entrepreneurs scale their companies from seven to nine figures. So what would be the biggest lie about 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 that brings you this type of guests. 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. And this woman right here, Alison Maslin, has been coaching, teaching, helping founders grow and scale their business to the point of you've done this for 150,000? 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. So you have a little bit of experience here. Yes. Now, you also are an author, bestselling author. You are here to speak. Tell me why you're in Miami.

I am speaking at the Women's Presidents 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. I like this. So I'm big in helping individuals understand there's the starting and growing, but you're not stable. 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? 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. 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. 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. So we have, there's five phases of scaling. And that phase we, is, you know, you're just putting your ideas out into the world.

Yeah. 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, because they'll stop thinking for themselves. And then you're going to 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 at 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?

Now, if you have that individual, I usually would hope they're like an A plus type of player, right? Yes. I 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? 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. Now, that is phase three. Yes. So what was phase one called? Phase one is the seeker. Phase two?

Is the pioneer. Phase three? Phase three is a ringleader. So it's that awkward teenage phase. You have to go through it. The vast majority of people are there, right? Like, that have at least been into 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. Yes. I like your terminology, right? You're in a, what was it called? Not the zoo, but you're in a circus. Circus. Yes. It's exactly that.

And you're the ringmaster. Oh, yeah. 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. 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? Base four is called the co-creator. Okay. 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. Yeah. 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. Now, you're here to speak at a women's conference, but you're going to talk about revenue. Yes. Right? Is that the... I'm talking about scaling through your team

and building scale multipliers on the team. Which is people. 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? Yeah. 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. Now you have a book. Yes. Okay.

Does this get broken down in the book? This does. We talk about our scale it method, which is the five pillars of scaling. So the book is called scale or fail. Okay. And get it? Well, I'm going to give everybody a free copy that we're going to send them. Everyone say thank you.

Everyone say thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. 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.

Yes. But I've never had a W-2 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. 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 Roos. 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 Ben & Jerry's or Ruth, Chris, these clients are massive and their organizations.

How do you do that? 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 Roos. 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 when 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. And so. I have a two-year-old son, so. Yeah. So I got to a point that I ended up getting really depressed and anxious, and I would be up until two or three 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-it method. And I used that for myself and went on to build nine other companies that haven't depended on me. That's phenomenal.

Systems and structure are going to be key. People is the biggest key here. How do you help the founder remove control issues? That is hard. I've seen myself included. I can do it better. So I'm just going to take, I'm 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? Yeah. How do you help people just genuinely remove control? 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 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.

You're the bottleneck. 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. A lot of times I talk to entrepreneurs, especially because of this show in 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. Yes.

But they build a business that literally trash. them. Yes. Why? 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 that 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. Yeah. You're going to be missing out on so much. And Allah is just not going to be handled. Yeah.

So if you can build a team of, like I said, scale multipliers, these leaders, then they can start thinking strategically. Yeah. 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, you know, in the most streamlined, easiest, most efficient, cost. 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 just go do it. So much of social media now is like this bro hustle culture. Yes. 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? I really don't follow the hustle culture is what got me into practically killing myself earlier in my life. Yeah. 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. Okay. And so I really look at business more holistically because the business is a homeopathic physician. 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 wrote another book over these last few months while we were in Mexico. And so you will actually grow faster when you get out of the weeds.

You've been, you've mentioned something called quantum energy. Yes. How does that play into a CEO's decision-making methods daily? Yeah, you know, I realized looking back at my life, so I've been at this entrepreneurial thing for 40 years. And when I... I'm usually the one that has the long... 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 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. I We've been together this year. We'll be married 20 years. Congratulations.

You don't hear that anymore. Like, that's a very rare statement. And it's unfortunate is to have that longevity in a relationship. So congratulations. 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 time.

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, it's energy too. Yeah. 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.

So how could you help a CEO make decisions with this in mind? 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, you know, divers and surfers have said that they can sense that something is ominous out there and, you know, 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 budding 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? So the smaller decisions that bog down our brain as a founder. Yes. 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? 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? Yeah. 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. You said something about the morning routine. I have a morning routine just like you and wake up very early. It gives me time. I 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-negotiables, 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,

then I start to win the day, right? And if you win the day, you can win the week, et cetera, et cetera. But I fully agree with your time. What is your schedule look like? You have seven companies. You're running at a very high level. What does your morning routine look like?

Well, I'm not a morning person. Okay. So I will say that I struggled with this my whole life. I am a night owl, okay? Okay. 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 7 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. Yeah. And so then, 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 this sense of expansiveness. And then I'm starting to feel excited about the day. Yeah.

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 just, you know, operating from there. 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 game, 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? Yeah, so there's some different components to that. So driving cash flow is, 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 got to start over, right? That's why you want a scalable model that can replicate your product and service and multiply well beyond you. And that's one of the big things in my book, Scalar fail, is we go through the 15 top scalable models. But then you also have to 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 in 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 ten times what you pay them. So let's say you're paying somebody $50,000 a year. So they should be bringing in $150,000 to $500,000 a year, or if it's $100,000, $300,000 to $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, then looking at them as drivers of growth. Yeah. Put it almost a dollar sign, hey, whatever you're doing, I want that to translate in new business, right, and find a way to

craft that. Well, it's either a 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%. There you go. 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. That's right. So what would be the biggest lie about scaling a business? 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 have, 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? 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 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? 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. 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 if 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 right 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 will they say, Alison, how do you get? Because our mentors have built very successful companies. One of them has had 10 companies over 100 million.

It's taken three 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 if I tell everyone what Pinnacle Global Network does. Yeah, so we're in our 17th year, and we mentor CEOs, 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're, we're working one. We're 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 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 do, we work with them on AI and so many other things. Yeah. I think that's really important. Because I think there's a, 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. Yes. 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 coaching, be a part of me. Yes. I will promise you, I'm sure you feel the same. Yeah. 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 next. And I'll make more money because of it. Well, you're cutting a check for speed.

That's it. 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. Wasn't that fun. 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 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 me on myself. 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. And the reality is it's just by shaking hands a lot of times, you get the resource you need. It's not always

exes. You're sitting next to somebody that knows somebody that you're looking to meet. That's right. And my favorite part of business is relationship building. Yeah. That's how I spend most of my time now and building strategic partnership. 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 the president of WPO had seen me and 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. Nice. 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. And so, you know, I feel that we can all grow together. You know, the rising tides raises all ships. Yeah. And you and I've been in business long enough that is not always the marketing spend, new leads and new, new, new. It's who do I need to be introduced to? And then who knows that person?

Yeah. And how do I find that person? Like sometimes it's that. It's as simple as that. I mean, 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 is a strategic partnership, you know, strategy that we can do great things together?

Yeah. And it makes it fun. It makes it a lot more. fun. 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 of them to all the things. Where's the best place for them to find you? Well, our website is pinnacleglobal network.com. And you can follow me on all social media platforms, Allison Maslin. And we also have the Pinnacle Global Network channels. And then the gift I want to give is my book, Scalar Fail or Fail, which is a Wall Street Journal

bestseller that's endorsed by Damon John and Barbara Corcoran. And you just go to pinnacleglobalnetwork.com forward slash DNA. I love it. And we'll send it to you. So again, say it one more time. Pinnacle global network.com forward slash DNA. The entrepreneur, DNA. See what she did there?

See what she did that? 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're in Mexico, I was like, oh, we're going to do some fun stuff together. Yeah. Yeah. 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?

I would say first know that you are worthy of that big vision. Because when you hit the walls, what 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. Yeah. So just keep walking forward. Don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done.

That's right. That's a great message. Yeah, thank you. Allison Moslin. Did I say that right? Yeah, that's right. Maslin. Maslin.

Maslin. I don't know what I'm saying. Allison Maslin. Justin Malmielin. 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. This was a lot of fun.

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