Founder's Story
Allison Maslan – Unlocking the Secret Sauce to Escaping Overwhelm and Scaling 7-8 Figures | S2 Ep. 183
Sat, 08 Mar 2025
In this episode of Founders Story, Allison Maslan—an entrepreneur with over forty years of experience and the founder/CEO of Pinnacle Global Network—shares her journey from growing up in an entrepreneurial family to building ten companies across diverse industries. Allison dives deep into the challenges of scaling a business, the importance of transitioning from an operator to a visionary leader, and her proven five-phase model for scaling. Along the way, she reveals how she’s helped over 150,000 entrepreneurs overcome the pitfalls of micromanagement, burnout, and operational overwhelm to create sustainable, team-managed businesses.Key Discussion PointsThe Entrepreneurial SparkFamily Influence: Inspired by her grandfather’s and father’s ventures in the retail space, Allison developed a passion for business from an early age.Early Beginnings: She launched her first business at nineteen, setting the stage for a lifelong entrepreneurial journey.Transitioning from Operator to VisionaryOvercoming Early Challenges: She faced significant stress and burnout in the early days of managing every aspect of her businesses, including a near-fatal car accident due to overexertion.Mindset Shift: Realized the need to move away from being the “end-all” operator to becoming a visionary CEO who empowers a team.The Pinnacle Global Network SolutionSolving Common Entrepreneurial Issues: Identified that 95% of business owners struggle with similar challenges—overwhelm, micromanagement, and lack of a clear growth roadmap.Building a Supportive Ecosystem: Founded Pinnacle Global Network in 2010 to provide a community and strategic roadmap that helps CEOs build sustainable, team-managed companies.Premier CEO Network: Currently supports over 150,000 entrepreneurs, offering guidance, mentorship, and a strategic framework for growth.Scaling Phases and Leadership EvolutionFive Phases of Scaling a Business: Startup Phase: The early stage where everything revolves around the founder.Pioneer Phase: Transition into mid six-figures with initial team building—often hindered by fear of delegation.Ringleader Phase: Overcoming the pitfalls of micromanagement and clarifying what success looks like.Co-Creator Phase: Developing a collaborative culture where leadership is shared and team members drive initiatives.Visionary Phase: Achieving a founder-independent business model, allowing the CEO to focus on strategic growth and personal well-being.Real-World Example:Shared the transformative journey of Marshall Doyle, who moved from exhaustive day-to-day management to achieving nine-figure revenue and reclaiming his personal life.The Importance of Personal and Company BrandingBuilding a Dual Brand: Emphasizes the need for both a strong personal brand and a champion company brand that resonates with team culture and client values.Attracting the Right Talent: Focuses on promoting company culture, vision, and mission in recruitment to ensure alignment and foster growth.Embracing AI & The Future of BusinessIntegrating Technology: Discusses how AI is being incorporated to enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and support creative decision-making.Maintaining Human Connection: Despite technological advancements, underscores the importance of human connection, team collaboration, and leadership development.Practical TakeawaysEmbrace Delegation: Transition from being an overbearing operator to a visionary leader by empowering your team and establishing clear roles.Adopt a Proven Growth Roadmap: Utilize the five-phase model to identify which stage your business is in and apply targeted strategies for each phase.Invest in Branding: Build a strong personal and company brand to attract the right talent and create a culture that fuels growth.Leverage Technology: Embrace AI and other innovative tools to streamline operations, but remember that human connection remains key.Focus on Work-Life Balance: Scaling a business should also mean reclaiming your time and energy to lead a fulfilling life.How to ConnectLearn More About Pinnacle Global Network: Visit pinnacleglobalnetwork.com to discover more about their services, CEO strategies, and community.Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://www.avocadogreenmattress.com* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Northwest Registered Agent and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://northwestregisteredagent.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Chapter 1: Who is Allison Maslan and what is her entrepreneurial journey?
And we're gonna dive in today as to exactly how you've helped them and the tips, the secrets, All the things that you've learned, but you are also a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the book Scale or Fail. And I know you've helped so many people over over 15 years. And we're going to extract all of that knowledge today.
But before we even dive into that, Allison, what was the spark in your life that made you say, I want to be an entrepreneur?
Well, I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family, starting with my grandfather had a women's clothing store in Kansas City. And then my father expanded that across the United States, over 50 women's clothing stores. So as a kid, I used to go with him from store to store. And I thought this was so exciting. So I started my first business when I was 19 years old.
And I went on over 40 years to build 10 of my own companies. And so really business has been my life.
Wow. That's amazing. Did you find yourself going into the same industries or did you find yourself doing completely different ones?
They were all different. Everything from advertising and marketing to scuba diving, to jewelry, to software and real estate. I'm one of those passionate entrepreneurs that like to bring ideas to fruition. But in the early days, I experienced firsthand, like a lot of business owners out there, the stress and overwhelm of trying to figure out how to run and scale a company.
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Chapter 2: What challenges do business owners face when scaling?
And even though I had a small team, I thought that I had to be the end-all and of everything and have my eyes on everything. And this is something that so many business owners struggle with. And I ended up having with that first business many years ago, a car accident that almost took my life just from the exhaustion and the stress of trying to manage it all.
And I realized back then, Dan, that I needed to transform from being that operator in the business to being the visionary CEO and to really scale the business.
And from that obsession of trying to figure this out in those early days, I was able to then go on and build several other companies that didn't depend on me, where I was able to build a team managed company, a sustainable, healthy company for myself and the team. And in the process, I realized that about 95% of other businesses out there, business owners, were struggling with the same issues.
And so that's what inspired me in 2010 to build Pinnacle Global Network. And we solve those issues for business owners. And we have built now what's recognized as the premier CEO network globally. And like you said, helping over 150,000 businesses CEOs to grow and scale their business and to reclaim their life.
Yeah, people go into business thinking it's like it's the most sexy thing because I am going to have total freedom. I'm going to work four hours a week and I'm going to get rich and it's going to be amazing. I think that's how most people go into business. And we realize it's totally the opposite of that.
Most people in business are probably living almost on like what would be considered poverty line at this point in many states in the US, at least. Right. What do you find, though, is the thing that holds people back the most?
Yeah, I think like you were saying, you get into business, you want to create more freedom and ends up the business is really running you into the ground. And they may have created something remarkable, but they find themselves working 60, 80 hours a week. They're stuck in operations where they need to be focused on the future.
I mean, ideally, the way a successful company should be structured is that it's founder independent. And, but we're so afraid to let go. We feel like we've got to have our eyes on everything and we're choking the growth of the business. And when we do this, there's three things that end up happening. You hit a revenue ceiling. There's only so much of you to go around.
So you're going to hit a wall. And we think, oh, I'll just work harder. But there's no more hours in the day. Then you've got this company that's totally dependent on you. So let's say you go to sell it one day. Well, it's not going to be valued very much. And you've just put your life into this company. business. And that's why only 17% of businesses are saleable.
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Chapter 3: How can entrepreneurs transition from operators to visionaries?
And then the third thing is that they really lack a proven roadmap for scaling. And so they're zigzagging, chasing after this strategy and that, and losing a lot of time Energy and money.
And so that's, you know, these are the things that we solve at Pinnacle Global Network, giving them a clear, proven roadmap to build that team managed company, to multiply their growth and to give them their life back.
I think we all want those three things that you mentioned, by the way, energy, time and money are what's going to help us live to 140 years old, hopefully. So I'm curious about the mindset shift of somebody when they're in the six figure range mark revenue to the seven to the eight to the nine. What are you finding is that mindset shift that needs to happen?
Yeah, well, the mindset really, Dan, is absolutely everything. And we are creatures of habit. And so we do what we do and we do what we know. And oftentimes business owners are trying to operate the way they did in the early days and just stretch that as they grow. And they have to really move from being a boss to being a leader and empowering the team into action.
Now, there's five clear phases of scaling a business. Would you like me to share those with you?
Please. I would love to. Yeah. Thank you.
Because I think that will help to even clarify this mindset piece even more. So in phase one, when you're the startup, it's all you. And that's an exciting time. You're passionate. You're excited to get your ideas out into the world. But there's no scaling that's happening here. Everything is dependent on you. And we all start there. So everybody goes through that startup phase.
And then you get into what I call the pioneer phase. This is phase two. And in the pioneer phase, you are in the mid six figures of your business, let's say around 500K in revenue. So you're starting to build a small team and you are in the thick of, you know, you're getting your hands dirty.
You're out on the planes and you are optimizing your products and services and you're getting more clear on your ideal target market. But the challenge is that you're so afraid to let go. It's your baby. And you're afraid to trust this team. And you have a lot riding on it. You have a lot of expense, a lot of people depending on you.
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Chapter 4: What are the five phases of scaling a business?
But the biggest mistake that business owners make in this ringleader phase is that you're bringing people on the team before you're clear what success looks like. And again, you feel like you have to be the hero and you've got to answer everybody's questions. A lot of that same fear, that mindset piece of, oh my gosh, if we make a mistake, the whole thing is going to fall apart.
I have a hard time finding good people. These are some of the stories that these business owners are telling themselves. And so you bring on people and they're not really clear on what success looks like. They may not be clear what the vision is and what they're really reaching for.
So you have a frustrated business owner because the employees, maybe they're not hitting their mark, but a lot of times it's because they don't really know what that mark is. There's no real strategy behind that. And so this is where that hamster wheel starts and the business owner starts to burn out. They start to get health issues. They start to have relationship issues.
Even divorce is not uncommon with entrepreneurs because they become so obsessed. You know, you wake up with it. You probably know what I'm talking about. You wake up with it. It's on your mind. You're off to the races until you fall asleep, hit the bed at night. And this really is not what's going to help you run a successful business. It's the story that we tell ourselves.
And so what happens to switch that, to move on to phase four, which we call the co-creator, you've got to start building a more collaborative company with the team. It's no longer top down or even bottom up. It's horizontal. You're building the company horizontally.
with your team and instead of constantly answering their questions, telling them what to do, you are saying things like, well, what would you do in this situation? Why don't you put a plan together and present it to the team? And they start tapping into the brilliance of the team and realizing that they don't have to be the decision maker, the rainmaker, and the everything maker.
And you start shifting from being that boss to being that leader. And now you start seeing leaders emerge on the team, those shining stars that can take the vision and run with it. And then you as a CEO can start to slowly step back. And move into phase five, which I call the visionary role. That's phase five, where you have this founder independent company. You now have a life.
You can actually go on vacation and not be on your email 24-7. Trust your team. And it's going to start growing so much faster. And I can just give you a quick example of that, like a few of them, actually. Marshall Doyle. came to us. He'd been running his company for 20 years. He had not taken a vacation in 20 years. He was working 60 to 80 hours a week in his machine calibration company.
And he had 35 employees, but he had his hands in every area of the business. And we said, Marshall, we are going to extricate you from the day-to-day of the business. And he said, he laughed like, ha, ha, ha, ha. Like this, how is this possibly going to happen? And within three years, he took that business to the nine figures, moving that into the nine figures, well over 200 employees.
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Chapter 5: How did Marshall Doyle transform his business with Allison's help?
When somebody is, when you are looking at or when the people that you're helping, when they're looking at finding that person, because I think maybe that is something that we also don't know how to do as entrepreneurs. How do we find that person? Is it promoting from within, getting from the outside? What is it that you're looking for when you're trying to find basically your replacements?
Yeah, so it's such a great question. And this is something that we really work with our clients on in Pinnacle Global Network is to lay out a strategic plan. First of all, we need to figure out where are you spending all of your time? And, you know, what is really sucking the life out of you, basically?
And what are you able to outsource or, you know, hand off to somebody else that that is their superpower, right? And so once we can delineate those things, then we can determine who are the team members that we need to hire and when do we need to do those? Because we can't do it all at once. We may do some in Q1, some in Q2, some in Q3.
And then when you're clear on who those people are, now we want to start putting the message out there. Now, one of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is they just place an ad and they put the skills that they are desiring and what's required of the role. And now they have just put themselves out there with thousands of other job postings that are asking for the same thing.
And so you've got to stand out just like you do in your marketing. And so when you think about your employees, these are human beings that are looking for a home. They're going to be spending more time in your business than probably time at home. And so they want a place that they feel appreciated.
They want to find a place that has a mission and a vision that they feel they can be part of and that they can contribute to and truly make a difference. So when you're posting those ads or putting it out on social media or emailing it to your list or asking for referrals, You want to lead with culture and vision and mission before you even list what you're asking for in the role.
Because then you will start to attract those people that are also in alignment with that. Because if you have a team of highly skilled people, but they're not in line with the vision, you're going to have a team in chaos, right? And that will often sabotage a company. So it's not just putting people in a position. It's really having the right strategy to find those people.
And what happens is that if you get someone that is the right fit for the company, that's going to be passionate and all in, not only do they completely pay for themselves, but But they fuel the growth of the company to a whole other level. They're actually driving revenue for the business. And so by not bringing them on, you're actually losing money.
Wow. As you're talking, I'm thinking about, okay, lately I've been dealing with this issue. And these are the things that have been frustrating me. And I really need to hire someone to do it because I've been trying to figure out ways I can do it better. But the reality is I should hire someone to do it. So this is this has been, you know, really inspirational and transformative.
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Chapter 6: How can entrepreneurs find the right people to empower their business?
And those that are not... then they're not. You don't need to serve everybody. So you want to make sure that you're speaking to that customer. I just have developed this brand over the years. I've had a podcast for many years. But it's also not just building the personal brand. It's important that you build your champion brand of the company.
So if you are just building the personal brand and people don't understand you, the brand of the company, because for us, Pinnacle Global Network, what really sets us apart is that we have a team of close to 40 high-level CEO mentors that have all built multimillion-dollar companies that work with our clients all over the world to help them scale. We match them to them.
And so it's not just about Allison out there doing this thing. It really, it's important that you also get the message of your team out there. And that's what's also going to help you build that team managed company so that you can step back and be the visionary focused on the future. If it's just all about you, then you will always be the end all.
So it's important, Dan, that you have the balance of the two.
I've seen that because I've seen you build up your personal brand, author, all the things that you're doing at the same time, simultaneously building up the company. So it's not like, you know, one, I think a lot of people, one is offset. Either they're building up the company, but not building themselves or building themselves themselves. I love learning a few words before traveling.
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