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[upbeat music] Hey, I'm Jarred Le, and welcome back to the Level Up Business podcast. Most entrepreneurs, they love the thrill of starting something new, the vision, the ideas, the early wins. That's the fun part.
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But what about when it comes time to scale? That's where things often stall, and perhaps you might even be subconsciously self-sabotaging all the progress that you've made over the past months, past years.
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Some founders, they get stuck chasing shiny new objects instead of building on what's already working.
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Others, they try to scale by sheer effort, by brute force, only to burn out or plateau because they don't have a clear plan.
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That's why today I'd like to introduce you to Pete Caputa, because Pete's been down the predictable scaling path before.
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Pete knows the way forward, and he's gonna help you avoid the pitfalls so that you can continue to scale and level up your business.
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From joining HubSpot in its early days and helping it grow to nearly half a billion dollars in annual revenue, to now leading Databox towards $100 million itself, Pete knows exactly what it takes to go from early traction to predictable scale.
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That's why in this conversation, Pete and I are gonna break down the mindset shifts, the strategic moves that help you grow without losing control, from documenting your ambition, to clarifying who you want to serve, and how and why you're different, to then building systems that let you scale without burning out.
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So if you've ever felt stuck between, let's say, startup mode and scale mode, this episode will give you clarity.
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It will give you the playbook that you can take the next step with confidence so that you can level up your business and your life.
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But first, if you are a visionary entrepreneur who wants to transform your past experience, one of your most valuable assets as an entrepreneur, and you wanna transform that past experience into IP that elevates your influence and increases your income, send me a text, 832-240-1922, because I want to teach you how you can turn video content just like this into a published book that begins to monetize your unique wisdom.
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Now, let's get ready to learn. Let's get ready to grow. Let's get ready to level up with Pete. Pete, man, I'm, I'm so happy to welcome you to, to this podcast.
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You and I have had some good conversations in the past, but, um, it's a whole different energy on this show, uh, working with other entrepreneurs and, uh, helping them level up their mind, their marketing and sales so that they can- Mm-hmm...
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level up their business and their life. Y- I, I wanna talk about something that you've been working on for the past nine months, uh, this Predictable Scale course.
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And, and before we get too far into that, what's just good in your life right now to start off on a positive note? Yeah. Give, give me some good news, man. Good in my life.
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Um, yeah, my son- Personally and professionally... my son is doing really well. He's getting ready for his senior year. Uh, he's picked out the colleges he wants to apply to.
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He's got his essays written, um, taken his SAT, been studying for it, uh, to take it again. So, like, he's doing well. I'm happy, uh, happy for him. He's And he's hustling... a young man.
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Yeah, yeah, he's got his own little- He's got this detailing... his own bit. Yeah. How's that going for him? Really well. Uh, it's per- it's like a perfect way for a young, busy person to make good money.
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Um, he actually came home the other day. Um, he got a job to do car detailing, but it's through, uh, it was through a, a auto- like a local mechanic, um, who would, who I know.
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I play soccer with the guy, so, like, I, I connected them originally, and they started talking and, um, he's, and he occasionally gets a client, says, "Hey, can you detail our car?" And he can do it, I guess, obviously.
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But, um, he figured he'd send one to my son. Um, and then, um, my son came home after that, and he basically said, "I don't think I could ever work for anyone."
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[laughs] The guy's great, but, like, the guy controlled the relationship with the client, of course, and quoted the- Uh-huh... quoted the price.
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And, like, so my son just felt like, "Oh, well, I- I'm talking to the client. I can make more money from it." And so, like, it was, it was more of just, like, a control thing, I think.
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But, uh, but I'm, like I said, I'm the same way, son. I don't think I could ever work for anyone again either in my life, so. Yeah, that's- But he does, he does really well. He's got his website launched.
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He gets referrals, like, and, and car detailers make good money, and he's really good at it.
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Like, he studied up on it, um, and, uh, like with YouTube, and basically learned everything himself, and then tried everything on our cars.
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Like, the other day, he spent 10 hours detailing my wife's car with this new, um, buffing machine that she bought, that he bought, and, like, so ceramic coating that's supposed to, like, help with, um, uh, with not just the look of it, but the, like, the durability of the paint.
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So, like, he's, uh, he's really into it. About to say, and you're, and, and, and just for those watching or, or listening, you're up in the, the North, the Northeast. Yeah. So what, what, what part?
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Because if someone's watching, listening, and they're there, I, I want them to give- Well, it's Metro. Uh, so s- uh, we're outside of Boston. We're in Metro West Boston. Okay.
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So if they live in Metro West Boston and they need their car detailed, my, my son, um- What's his website? And he, he's, like, actually has, like, a little bit of a crew now when he needs help.
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So, uh, it's PCV, um, 'cause he's the fifth, Peter Caputa V, pcvautodetailing.com. Uh- All right. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna let my, my oldest watch this. He's 15, and, and him- Okay...
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and, and, and my oldest daughter, 'cause we have four- Yeah... uh, 15, 13, 9, uh, 11, and, and 9, they were, they just set up a snow cone stand the other day, um, in the front yard.
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I mean, we're down here in Houston, so it's hot. Yeah. They made, like, 150 bucks in two hours. That's awesome. That's awesome. Um- Yeah...
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but I keep telling my son I, and, and 'cause I, when you posted his Instagram on, on LinkedIn, I was like- Yeah... Ludvig, and he loves cars. Ludvig loves cars. Oh, yeah. I'm like, I'm like, "Dude-
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Go, just go knock doors. Yeah. Get told no.
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Then you won't have to deal with all the crap that I've had to deal with, you know, of like, you know, the work that I was doing with Rick and- Oh, yeah, fear of rejection and like- Just get over all that, man...
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seeking approval. He, like, he doesn't have it. It's just like he was nev- he nev- he never had it, whereas most of us get, you know, develop that fear of rejection over- Yeah... over our life.
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Yeah, 'cause he went and knocked on hundreds of doors and, you know, he got a few jobs out of it. He gets most of his business through word of mouth and referrals- Right...
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and all marketing efforts, but- Yeah, it just takes a little bit to build...
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but in the beginning, yeah, if he didn't have a job to do, he would just, and it would, you know, d- that day, like he would just go knock on doors, so. All right.
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Let me- Yeah, it definitely taught him a few good lessons. There you go. That's, that's, that's your, that's your next level right there.
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Um, and, and this is a great segue 'cause it's like, you know, you, you start a business, um, you knock doors, you get told no a, a billion times. Right.
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You, you, you, you might have to get referred by, uh, by Pete to, to Rick. And, and, and Rick was the one who, uh, really helped me see that what I was doing before was not giving me the energy.
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Um, and it was time, it was time to make a change, uh, to this. Mm-hmm. I'd been thinking about this since 2021, so. Um, but you, you start the business,
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you build a strong foundation, and now you wanna take it to the next level. Now you wanna level up. Now you wanna scale. Yeah.
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And, and, and you've been investing the last nine months of, of your life, um, putting everything you know, um, from strategy, building a plan, executing. You got this- Mm-hmm... Predictable Scale course. Yep.
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Take us back. Like, why, why invest the last nine months of your life to put all of this together in the first place? Hmm. Yeah, so we're, we're scaling our business, right?
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We're at about 10 million in annual revenue, and, and we wanna scale to 100 million. And, and then you know my background at HubSpot.
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I joined when it was less than a few hundred thousand dollars worth of revenue, and, um, uh, left when it was a few hund- like, I think close to half a billion dollars in annual revenue.
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And, and I built and scaled a sales channel there that produced about 200 million of that annual revenue at the time.
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So I, I know the challenges or many of the challenges of scaling, and I've seen the playbook, you know, at least once. Um, and I'm trying to, attempting to implement it here, here at Databox as well.
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And so, um, so I feel like I have some experience to share. So part of it's just, like, I need to get that out of my head, and I need to share that with people.
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I get, I get re- you know, questions all the time, "Hey, can you advise us on this? Can you talk to about that?" I don't really have time to do that because I'm running a business full time.
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[laughs] Uh, I'm trying to also, like, you know, enjoy my life and be there for my family and all that other stuff.
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Um, and so I'm like, all right, well, I need to kinda, I feel compelled to write this down and get this out because I know it'll help people, and, and, uh, I know people want that help.
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Um, so that, I'd say that's one thing. The other thing is it's really core to our business. Um, you know, if I, if I fast-forward a little bit, uh, in the world, right, and I look, look ahead, like our, our...
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I think that most businesses are gonna absolutely need to be better at making data-informed decisions, um, because
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more and more things are gonna be automated, are gonna be self-service, are gonna be executed by a third party that you don't manage directly.
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We're just moving to a world where the old way of, like, scaling a business up by s- by scaling your head count is not the right way to scale a business.
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Uh, and there's plenty of companies that have already proven that, so I'm not saying anything that's, like, crazy. Um, but because of that change, uh, you're not gonna be able to observe everything that happens.
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You're gonna have to measure, uh, more, you know, you're gonna have to try to measure things, um, more.
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And so, and you're gonna have to rely on data to not only, like, understand what's going on in your business, but to actually make decisions and even automate portions of your business.
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Like, the stuff that they're building now with AI is crazy, where, you know, you can basically set up agents to make dec- the decisions that your managers would've made, um, to deploy capital, deploy resources, set plans, like execute processes, enable ser- self-service.
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Like, there's so many things you're gonna be able to automate very soon, um, but without the data, you won't be able to automate it.
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You won't, you won't let the, you won't, your agents won't be able to make the decisions that are necessary. So- Hmm...
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um, so, like, uh, what I'm building is, is tr- is trying to stay, help people think through how do you still control your business in a world where there's less and less of it that you or even humans in your business are in control of?
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Uh, the- Don't be like the mechanic with your son trying to oversight every little, [laughs] every little thing. Yeah, yeah. 'Cause it's hard to s- I mean it's a, it's not even hard.
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It's, it's, it would be impossible to scale like that. So no, that's a, that's a great point. Um, and, and like you said before, y- this is your unique wisdom. Um, y- you, you've lived this. You've learned this.
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Now you wanna share and, and, and, and help others take that experience and, and, and- Mm-hmm... level up their business. Yep. I, I wanna come to a point, um, in, in looking at the outline for the course.
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There was one thing that stood out to me early right here, um, and it was, you know, you, it was about strategy and strategizing. Mm-hmm.
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Um, and it was talking about documenting and communicating at a high level and, you know, documenting your view of the future, doc- uh, creating your vision, creating your mission. But I, there was one line,
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"Documenting your ambition." Hmm. Yeah. I just thought that was so unique right there. Yeah. Um, I, I hear in, in the entrepreneurial circles that I'm in, we talk about ambition a lot. But just to, to hear that- Mm...
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and see that from you, what do you mean by documenting your ambition? Uh, yeah, I mean, like, looking forward five to 10 years and saying financially where do you want your business to be?
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Uh, you know, and from an economic perspective, how big do you want it to be? How profitable do you want it to be? Um- That, I think that's important. Uh, if you skip that, um, you make different decisions.
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So if you say, "Hey, you know, I'll be happy with..." Um, and no judgment whatsoever on any of these things, right? Yeah. "But I'd be happy with a million dollars in revenue and, um, you know, me and two employees.
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Um, and that's what I want to build."
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Or, uh, and, and, but if you said, "Hey, I wanna have $100 million business, and I wanna have tens of thousands of clients or customers," um, or, "You know, I know that I have, I have 100 employees now and, and I wanna build a team and, you know, be- train the future leaders of my city," right?
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[laughs] "By hiring and training and giving them opportunities." Like, if that's what your ambition is, then you have to... That's different than the other ambition.
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And, and then if you have one ambition, uh, o- over the other, your decisions are gonna be completely different, right?
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So if you're building an org and you wanna have tens of thousands of customers, then you're gonna think about a lot of things in your business very differently.
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If you're doing a, a business where you wanna have a highly profitable, s- very small business, then you're gonna do it differently. So I think it's important to discuss that.
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When you don't discuss that, um, and document it, then everybody else you're working with is left guessing. Like, "W- why are we making this decision? Like, this seems crazy.
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Why would we, why would we think about what's gonna happen in two years from now, um, you know, if our goal is, you know, just to go from, you know, a few people to 10 people and build a million-dollar business?"
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Versus if, "Hey, I wanna grow, build $100 million business," then I really gotta think about what am I gonna have to do two years from now to do that and work backwards from it.
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So I think that, that's, that's why it's important. This reminds me of a, an entrepreneur. They're an EOS integrator, and we're working- Mm-hmm... with them right now to guide them through the Level Up Business OS. Okay.
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Um, we're, we're, we're- Awesome... unlocking their mind, their perspective. We're publishing their book, and then we're gonna help them monetize that. Okay. This has been a big thing he's been talking about.
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He actually works, it's interesting, uh, he was a mechanic himself. He had a couple of auto body shops- Yeah. Very nice... um, before he elevated- Yeah... and then he's doing the EOS, uh- Yeah...
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and helping others in the trades- Okay... um, do the exact same thing. So very similar story to you. Yeah. It's like he had, uh, some level of success. Now he wants to go help others do the exact same thing. Mm-hmm.
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But one of the things that, that Jeremy was sharing with me, he said, "Listen," he said, um, "People aren't exactly honest. Entrepreneurs aren't always honest with what their ambition is." Mm.
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Sometimes they, they limit their ambition because they've been conditioned to. It's like they h- they have a big ambition. "Oh, no, you don't need to do that," or, "Oh, why would you wanna do that?"
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Think about the entrepreneurs that you have mentored over the years. Um- Mm-hmm... and, and I'm just so grateful f- because you do. You, you, you help. Sure. Um, you, you give a lot.
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Where do you see they struggle with ambition? Um, I, I think it's, I think, yeah, I think there's times when they're just not bold enough to state it. Um, uh, I think, but more often than not, I find that
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entrepreneurs just get caught up in the day-to-day or the, you know, week-to-week, the short term, and, and lose sight of what they want to achieve.
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And because they're just so focused on what's next and what's next, they're not stepping back to think, like, am I building things that are gonna have, that are big enough bets?
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I, honestly, I feel like we did that to some degree at Databox.
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Like, we, when I joined, we pretty quickly found good product market fit, uh, and started scaling revenue, and went into kind of like, how do we get this in front of more people mode, right?
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And, like, just started thinking about, all right, we got something right here. Let's just go market and, and sell it.
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Um, and then we listened to customer feedback and we made improvements, but we didn't step back and say, like, "Where's the world going? What, what's the, where's the technology going? What are our competitors doing?
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How are we different, uh, than our competitors?" Like, who- Mm-hmm... are we really serving, or who's the next group of people we're serving?
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Um, and because we didn't ask those questions, those more strategic questions, we weren't taking big enough swings. You know, baseball analogy, we weren't swinging for the fences.
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We were hitting singles year after year, and that was great.
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Like, we grew a business and, you know, we did it in a, in a way that we, where we basically bootstrapped it, which is very difficult and unusual for a SaaS company- Yeah... especially with our product complexity.
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So, um, so, like, it worked out. It's fine, but I think we didn't take big enough swings early enough because, I wouldn't say we were complacent. We just didn't really ask the, the right questions of ourselves. Hmm.
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When you think about the idea of, of predictable scale- Mm-hmm... um, and I like the way that that's framed. Mm-hmm.
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Because sometimes, and, and this is where I think I've screwed up over the years as an entrepreneur, it's like things started to scale. At that same time, s- things started to get scary, and then I would self-destruct.
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[laughs] Um, you know, I would blow things up. Uh, and, and I realize now on this- Yeah... next iteration, it's like I've got more selfawa- it's like every time I, it's like I climb and then I self-destruct.
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And, and there was something about that written in the book called The Mountain Is You with self-sabotage. Um- Okay...
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and so, but the idea of predictable scale, it's like, ah, I can build a strong foundation and continue to, to layer and, and, and level up from that. Yeah. What,
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when you think about the, the firms that you have advised over the years, and just maybe even your own experience, what are the biggest dangers? What are the biggest threats to predictable scale that someone- Mm...
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who's watching and listening needs to be aware of? Yeah. So, so I, I don't know your whole story well enough to know, like, you know, why you self-destruct or how you self-destruct. I'll, I'll tell you. I'll tell you.
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I, I, I- Oh, oh, yeah... deserve level. Yeah. What is that? Say it again. It's called deserve level. Um- Okay. Oh, okay... had, had a conversation about this on another podcast. Yeah, yeah.
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It's like I would reach a level of financial You know, with the firm and personally. Uh-huh. And then it was like I would hit a, a ceiling, and I'm like, "Ah."
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I, I was, I was feeling uncomfortable because my level of comfortability was at a lower level. Um- Okay. Got it... and so then I would self-adjust subconsciously to get back to that level versus- Okay...
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embracing the discomfort to make that my new normal. Okay. Got it. Cool. All right. Yeah, that's... It seems almost more psychological than, um,
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than I'm used to dealing with, uh, so I'm not sure how to address that one directly. [laughs] Well, no, that's not for me, it's for the others, though. [laughs] Yeah, that's my own, that's my own stuff.
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But, but, um, but I think that, like, if I look back very objectively at businesses that I've looked at, you know, in- inside, inside of businesses that I looked at, I think the, um,
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the bigger challenge with entrepreneurs when... is that they, they don't like the scaling part. Um, they like the innovation part. Um, and I...
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There's, like, the, there's the steps in this methodology that I built that, like, half of it's innovation and half of it's, like, um, that's really
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m- what a, a lot of entrepreneurs would look at as boring, um, execution. Um, and that's why it's really important to, to separate those things and maybe even have different people work on them. Um- Yeah...
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this is the way I've structured a bus- my business, our business, um, i- in that, you know, you need to strategize. That's the creative part.
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That's the part where you get to talk to customers, do customer research, where you look, get to look at your competitors, you get to understand threats and opportunities, technology, and, you know, the, how the im- how the world is changing, and think creatively about solving problems that you uncover that aren't being solved by others.
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Like, that's the creative part of being an entrepreneur. And most people, I think most entrepreneurs stay there, even once they find something that's working.
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So instead of, like, they find something that's working and it's like, "Ooh, that's working. I can go be creative again."
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And I think that's the problem that most entrepreneurs face because- Okay, maybe that's it too- Yeah... because I would call- Yeah... there's, so there's, uh, that self-destructive part I was talking about. Yeah.
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It's like I found something that was working, but it wasn't good enough. Yeah. Yeah. Or I was getting bored with it and I had to blow it up- Well-... to start all over again... right, and start something new.
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Yes, exactly. I, I had a nickname for this, which is totally inappropriate.
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I used to use it a long time ago, back, like, 20 years ago when it was, I was n- in network with a bunch of 20-year-old-ish entrepreneurs, but it's, like, entrepreneurial ADHD, where it's like I've, you know, I've, I'm, like, 80% of figuring something out, but then I'm like, "Oh, there's this great other idea that's gonna be so much easier and so much bigger.
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I'm gonna go after that," right? That's, and that's kind of the- So Audrey has permission. Yeah, yeah... Audrey, she, she's my, she's my integrator, operations lead.
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And, and I think as you're talking about, like, where this challenge is with predictable scale, you've g- Yeah... Gina Wickman and, and Mark Winters wrote about this in their book Rocket Fuel. Mm-hmm.
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You, you've got two archetypes. You've got a visionary and then you have an integrator. Yes. Yeah, right. Um- Very good model. And, and yeah. And, and so she has permission to be like, "Listen, dude, just stop."
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[laughs] And, and now with Level Up Business- Yeah... she's more open and, and to push back, to challenge, to rebuke. And- Yeah...
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and I think you're right because if I think about, like, another mental model for this- Yeah... comes from Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach. You need someone to make it up. That's the visionary entrepreneur. Yeah.
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Make it up, make it real. You need someone- Make it scale... make it real. Yeah. Exactly, yeah.
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It's the same idea, and you might not, as, as a visionary entrepreneur, you're probably not the one to make it real and then to make it scale. Yeah.
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No, like, I feel like my strengths are make it up, make it real, but my strength is not make it scale. I know how to do it. I've done it. I forced myself to do it at HubSpot 'cause it was part of my job.
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I wasn't the vision- I wasn't the guy that was the visionary for the business, so- Yeah... I know how it's done, but it's not what I enjoy.
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And I would say a lot of entrepreneurs actually get lost in, in the, after the make it up stage.
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They, like, they go might, might prove that it's, like, doable, two or three customers like it, but then the make it real is you gotta, you gotta build a process for it. Like, you have to turn your idea into a plan.
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You have to iterate on that over time. Like, there's a lot that needs to be done to make it, make it real. And then making it scale is a different, different set of things. You're not innovating as much.
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You're maybe tweaking, but it's more about, you know, investing more resources into something in, in order to make it grow, finding clever ways to, you know, keep your costs, your variable costs down as you get better results out of it.
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So, uh- Are you familiar with the-... making it scale is different... are you familiar with the Kolbe profile from, from Kathy Kolbe and KolbeCorp? No. No.
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So I think this would be a very interesting tool kind of in this toolkit right here because- Mm... you mentioned the psychological aspect of what I was talking about before.
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There's definitely that, but then the, there's also what's called the conative part. So Kathy Kolbe, her father was the one, she, he developed the Wonderlic tests.
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She had identified there's another part of the mind called the conative part of the mind, and the conative part of the mind is nothing to do with, like, the affective part of the mind.
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So like DISC, Myers-Briggs, this is not personality. Mm-hmm. This is your OS. This is your operating system. It's, it's, it's how you naturally take action or it's how you solve problems, and there are four action modes.
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There's what's called fact finding, what's called follow through, what's called quick start, and what's called implementer- Okay... which is essentially how you work with your hands. Yeah.
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And if you think about, like, the, a visionary entrepreneur, they tend to initiate action by following or by quick starting.
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So for example, I'm a 3294, so I'm a three fact finder, just need high-level details, don't, don't bore me. Mm-hmm. I'm a two follow through, meaning I'm resistant to following through. I...
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And, and you can do these, and, and we've got a whole podcast episode about this 'cause Audrey's a s- a certified Kolbe, uh, consultant. But you, you re- you break systems. You, you're a nine- Yeah...
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quick start, meaning you're gonna go out and you're just gonna make stuff up and you're gonna make it happen. And then when you work with your hands, that's, that's the implementer.
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But I think to this point, too, understanding your Kolbe and then, and building a team around Kolbe- Yeah As a, as a nine quick start, well, I also need someone who's an initiating follow through to- Yeah...
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to make things happen. That's a, that's an Audrey. So- Yeah...
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just another tool in this toolkit when it comes to execution, 'cause y- you could have the best ideas, but if they're not getting executed, and then continuously- Yeah... then scale's gonna be hard. Absolutely.
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Absolutely. Mm. Uh, when, w- [sighs] when, when, when you have this course, um- Mm-hmm... and it comes out, what's the one thing that you want someone to, to do when they're finished with it? Oof. Apply it.
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And so it's, it's a, it's a very actionable course. Like, every... There's chapters and sections.
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Um, it, it go, it's a logical flow, so the things you do in chapter one are gonna be, you know, implemented later in other chapters. The things you do in chapter two will make chapter three easier, et cetera.
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So I want them to implement it, um, and, and, uh, 'cause ultimately it'll enable them to scale their business. Um, but if they skip steps or choose pieces of it, it's just not gonna work, um, very well for them.
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S- so what's the one thing that they can do right now- Yeah... as, as we're talking about Predictable Scale, what's the one- Mm-hmm... thing they can do, something small they can begin to take action on- Yeah...
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today before they get into the course and, and- So, so many little things they could do, and out, uh, a little slightly out of order.
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Um, but I would say, like, I'm gonna start with strategy so that there's, there's multiple steps in the process. It's strategize, plan, execute, adjust, repeat, and scale. Um, you can't skip to scale, unfortunately.
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You gotta start with strategy and, you know- [laughs]... go through.
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Um, the first thing that I advise people on the strategy, um, side is to, uh, think about the things that they do well, um, that other competitors don't do well, and start making that list out.
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And then do the opposite, things that competitors do that th- that well that they don't do well, I think. And sitting down and being honest with th- that, um, is important.
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One step, maybe one step before that is to, like, really understand who your customer is and make sure that you're sizing your market as small as possible to achieve your ambitions.
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Um, small as possible to achieve your ambitions.
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So, you know, a lot of companies, I think, go out and it's like, "We wanna be a billion-dollar business," or, "We wanna have thousands or hundreds or millions of customers," but they have two right now.
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[laughs] So, like, you don't, you're not gonna get maybe to a million customers in 10 years unless you're, you know, some new AI thing that's gonna be better than all the other AI things out there.
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Um, so im- it's important to think, "How big do we need our market to be in order to s- to achieve our five or 10-year vision, uh, our ambition?"
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Um, and, a- and, 'cause the smaller you can make it, the fewer your competitor, fewer competitors you will have- Mm-hmm...
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and the easier it will be to define how you are different than the alternatives that, for that t- part of the market. Um, which will make everything you do easier [laughs] in the rest of your business.
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Um, so that's the first thing that I would challenge people to do. I think most people skip that. I was, uh, reading a post, um, from my former director of marketing, John Benini, yesterday- Hmm...
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where he listed out, like, um, all the headlines or taglines from marketing- Oh, I saw that on, on the websites... marketing agency websites. Yes. And they all basically say the same thing.
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None of them say who they're for, and none of them say how they're different. It's all, like, just these clever little taglines about marketing that could've been written in 1965. Um- Yes...
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so, so, like, who are you for and how are you different? Really spend some time on that. And that informs your plan for next year.
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That, those are the, that's the thing that informs the most important part of your plan, because what your plan and your annual plan should be is helping you further differentiate in your business, um, and, uh, helping you
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better serve that core customer. And if you- Mm-hmm... if, if, if the, your major plays, you should have three, four, five, whatever, major plays, maybe just one if it's a big one, in your business next year.
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Uh, and those things should do both. They should make you different than your competitors and make, help you serve your clients better.
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Um, I think too often people get hung up when they're annual planning with, like, what tactics they're gonna, gonna deploy in growing their business, and you really need to focus in on the strategy first.
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If, if you have your strategy dialed in right, the tactics are almost irrelevant. Um, but the tactics will also work a lot better. I'm not saying tactics aren't important.
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I'm saying th- that you don't, you d- that shouldn't be the, the focus of your strategy. Absolutely. Well, I think those are super practical. Who are you for? How are you different? Go get a pen. Mm. Spend some time.
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Yeah. Look, do some internal perspective on that and- Brainstorm that with your team. Ask customers, you know? Like- Yeah.
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You know, I also think about, and she'll be coming on the podcast pretty soon, from Strategic Coach, Julia Waller, uh, the idea of what they do with unique ability. Um, I think that's another really important thing, too.
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It's, it's one of the few things that we are really great at, 'cause sometimes it's really hard to understand what that is- Yeah... 'cause we're inside the bottle, um, like David Baker. Yeah.
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Um, you gotta get outside the bottle to read the label.
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Sometimes getting the external objective perspective, and that's exactly as, as I mentioned before, you, you introducing me to Rick really helped me kind of see things differently than what I saw.
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Um, as we wrap up, where can someone go? How can they connect with you, continue the conversation? And, and how can they get the, uh, Predictable Scale course? Yeah, so you know I'm very active on LinkedIn.
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Um, I'm not able to respond to everybody [laughs] that messages me or tries to connect with me, but, um, I try to, and I try to be active in my comments, responding to people there.
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So anyone can follow me on, on LinkedIn. It's Peter Caputa IV. Don't confuse me my, from my son, who you'll see has his profile and his own, his card detailed as- The fifth... who's the fifth. Yeah.
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Um, as far as the, um, as far as getting early access to the course, um, they can go to academy.databox.com, uh, /predictable-scale. It's a little long.
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Um, but you can also just go to my LinkedIn profile and, and get, you know, find a link to that. So, um, I would just say- All right, bud... go to my LinkedIn file. Yeah.
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Go grab, go grab, go, go g- go get on the, the get early access, connect with Pete, learn with Pete. Yep. I appreciate you, buddy. Level up with Pete, man. Yeah. Thanks, JR.
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Thank you again for tuning in to learn, to grow, to level up together with Pete's unique wisdom.
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If you are a visionary entrepreneur who wants to transform your past experience, your past experience being a very valuable asset as an entrepreneur, and you want to transform that experience into IP that elevates your influence and increases your income, send me a text, 832-240-1922.
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