Episode 17

full
Published on:

26th May 2025

Stop Chasing Growth—Start Scaling Smart for Time, Freedom, and Exit Value

Welcome to the first episode of the Scale Smart series! In this episode of Freedom to Exit, Lani Dickinson breaks down the crucial difference between growth and scale—a distinction every founder must understand to avoid burnout and build a business that delivers both freedom and long-term value.

You’ll discover how systems, automation, and AI help you scale smart—not just fast—so you can get out of the daily grind and build a company that runs without you. Lani shares real-world examples, including how Henry Ford’s systems changed everything, and how those same principles apply today in home services, professional services, coaching, and e-commerce businesses.

This episode lays the groundwork for a business that gives you more time, more money, and a better exit.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • The difference between growth and scale (and why most founders confuse the two)
  • Why growing revenue without systems is a fast track to burnout
  • How to use automation and AI to reduce your workload and increase your valuation
  • Real examples of founders who scaled without growing their overhead
  • The foundational mindset shift that leads to true freedom and exit readiness

Links Mentioned:

7 Ways AI Can Boost Your Sales and Save You Time – Free Guide

The Changes Assessment – Is Your Business Exit-Ready?

Enjoyed this episode?

Subscribe to Freedom to Exit to follow the full Scale Smart series and get more insights on building a business buyers chase.

Connect with Lani Dickinson:

📌 Instagram: @stealthfreedomtoexit

📌 Facebook: Lani Dickinson

📩 Email: info@stealthfreedomtoexit.com

🌐 Website: stealthfreedomtoexit.com

If this episode helped you shift your mindset, share it with a fellow founder—and don’t forget to leave a review!

Transcript
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>> Lani Dickinson: Welcome back to the Freedom to Exit podcast. I'm your host,

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Lonnie Dickinson, and in the first

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few episodes of the podcast, we talked about all

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things related specifically to Exit. But you know, I'm

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passionate about two versions of Exit, the

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exit now for time and location freedom while the business supports

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you and the life you built your business to have,

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and also the build to sell version of

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Exit. So I am launching a

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Scaling SC smart series right now. This is

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episode one of the Scale Smart series,

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because smart scale is the thing that's going

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to give you the time and location freedom because it's go

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goingna create the systems, the team and the

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money for you to be able to go out and live

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the life you want and hold on to the business now, but

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also create that exit multiple later.

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So buckle up. Today's topic is

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one that trips up so many founders. I

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hear these two words used interchangeably all the

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time, and they are not the same and should not be used

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interchangeably. So what's the

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difference between growth and

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scale? And you might think you know the answer, but

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let me tell you, if you've been listening to the first 16

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episodes of this podcast, than you know, I'm, constantly

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talking about optimization systems,

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adding in AI, adding in

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automation, all of those things, because

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that's the stuff that will start to lead you to scale. It

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will help you grow. But there's a difference between the two. They

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are not interchangeable, and I want to reinforce that.

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So if you're chasing growth when you

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should be scaling, you're going to burn through

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cash, burning out your team and

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really building a business you can't really sell

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and that you hate and don't want to be in anymore. So today

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I want to help you fix that. But first we're going to roll back into

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the past and give you one of the first

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sort of stories of scale that I think

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will kind of resonate with our audience. In toa talk about

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Henry Ford, he really focused

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on scale and made

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history, change the world, Frankly. So

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in 1908, it's been a minute. He released

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the Ford Model T. It was not the flashiest car. In

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fact, we should probably put a picture of it in here. It wasn't

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the fastest. It was reliable,

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affordable, and easy to produce. But the

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easy to produce came from

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Ford's focus on

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every little thing being optimized,

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which drives down cost and increases the

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ability to make massive amounts of things. So

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that's scale. In the first year, he produced

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10,000 cars. This is 1908. So first year,

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10,000 cars. We didn't even have roads. We didn't have gas

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stations. Right, but I'll talk about that. By

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1924, he had delivered

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10 million Model Ts.

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Now that's scale. But here's the kicker. He didn't

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scale by doing more, which is what many of us

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are guilty of today. Lots more activity that

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burns everybody out. He didn't add 12 new

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models. He didn't chase luxury

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features. He focused on one product and

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built the system and solved every friction

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point along the way, optimizing

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everything to be able to build more,

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faster with less cost and make it more

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accessible to more people in the market. He did

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that by creating an assembly line that was

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new for the time, by standardizing parts.

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We take that for granted today. But this was really

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entrepreneurial and Forward thinking. For

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1908, he really advocated for the

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highway system in building roads. He didn't build the

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roads himself, but he got very active in

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making sure that a national highway system would be

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built. He paid his workers enough

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to buy the product. Now this is a problem that we

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see more in entrepreneurial space than we do in the

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small business space. But in the entrepreneurial space, you will often

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hear focusing on how low can they drive the

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wage down and where can they get access to those

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resources. Now, small business people in your local

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town probably are paying a little bit better wage, but

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he made sure that his own workers could afford to buy the

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product. And then he did support and help create the

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infrastructure around the support for people driving

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cars like gas stations to make owning a

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car possible. Those were all

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problems that needed to be solved to make his

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product really go from 10,000 to 10

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million in the span of, I think it was 16

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years. He didn't scale

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production. He scaled the entire

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system, solving one problem, fully,

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optimizing it, and then moving on to the next.

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This is the thing that made that kind of true

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scale possible. That is

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scale, not just growth. The difference

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between the two is really what matters.

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If you're trying to make something that's going to create

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the cash flow that allows you to

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remove yourself from the business and go live the life you

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want and create the exit multiple later. So

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growth means increasing revenue,

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increasing clients, or increasing output.

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Usually that is an increased

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effort, increased cost, that's

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adding team, right? So if I say I want to add

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100 clients, what is the delivery I need to add for

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that? Especially if I'm not doing anything with automation or

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AI. Scale means increasing

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output without a,

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matching increase in effort.

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Or cost. So in today's world,

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that is absolutely going to mean using

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AI and automation, because how else can

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you increase on a scale level

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without adding a bunch of team or expense? So

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growth adds more weight, whereas scale

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builds more lift. Growth is what happens when you

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take on more clients, hire more staff, and

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you, the founder, work more hours. Scale

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is what happens when your system's taken

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on without you doing more. Perfect

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example. I launched a new webinar a few weeks ago,

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and the first while we were getting the Facebook ads working,

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the first couple, and I'm doing them live, so the first couple of

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webinars had four to seven people on it. That's

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normal. Then out of the blue,

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I noticed I was getting ready and I looked

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and there were 41 people registered for the webinar

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because the registration, the onboarding

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sequence, sending the zoom links, all those things happen

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in full automation. So I was like, hey,

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the ads are obviously starting to work. So

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that's just one example of that's certainly not

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a scaled product, but it's this idea

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that we could go from four to seven people

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to even 100 people without even noticing

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that that had happened. You can grow

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yourself into frustration,

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fatigue, even death, but you cannot

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scale yourself to death. Right, because it's all

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happening without more effort from you or your team.

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So here's what scale might look like by

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a couple different business types, and then I'll talk

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about what scale is for everybody, but just

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by a couple different business types. So in the home services space, that'd

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be H vac, landscaping, handyman, painting,

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those kinds of things. Before scaling, we would

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definitely wa want toa see a full

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CRM customer relationship management system where

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all of your contacts are marshalld in one

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place. And an AI receptionist

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that handles every single lead is

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getting vacuumed up and moving through a process to

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get scheduled, and also can then

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be put into data database reactivation to be

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sold something else later. Before scaling, you'd want

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consistent pricing, scheduling and communication.

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And pricing is an issue. So many people

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underprice their services, and so they are

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potentially delivering service at a loss, and they don't

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know that. So we talk about that a little bit too. Once we

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get those foundations in, you can scale

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by hiring some field tecxts and having

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SOP so that everybody's doing the same thing, everybody has

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the same answers for the questions so that they're staying on brand.

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We've talked about how brand builds the ability to have

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higher pricing sell for more. recognition means you're going to

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spend Less on marketing, all of those things. You want to have

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automated quotes, dispatch and follow

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up sequences ready to go. If you're trying

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to do that manually, when you are trying to grow

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beyond growth and get too scalable,

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that is way too much manual process. And

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obviously you already have to have recurring

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revenue built in and a way to

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automatically grow that. Buyers are going to want that

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monthly recurring revenue. They're going to want a

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whole host of reviews and responses to those

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reviews to be built up. You say who has time? Guess who has

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time. An AI assistant has time to do those

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reviews. A buyer isn toa want systems that don't

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require an owner in the truck running

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his business. From the Dutch brothers. Drive thru in

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between jobs and we talk about a professional services. This is

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law, accounting, physicians, those kinds of things. Before

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scaling, you're gonna wa want toa have documented workflows

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and standardized onboarding and some kind

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of automation for intake and scheduling and payments and

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those kinds of things. Now scale in the

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professional service will look a little bit more

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like growth. This idea of scale would be

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hiring junior staff and client success

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roles. So that's a lot more like growth because you're putting more people

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into the process but delegating delivery

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frameworks and unbundling so you

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have a limited scope of what you're providing.

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Professional services are almost all always very people

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heavy. So I use the word scale lightly, but

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I have clients who say I wa want to scale my law firm. M what can I

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do in law when you unbundle and you do a limited

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scope engagement, everybody in the building

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is fast at just those

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limited scope things that you're doing. Rather than having

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to know every kind of law and being a generalist for

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everything. That is something that can

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become somewhat scalable. Especially if any

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of that can be done templatized

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in automation using AI. Any of that in

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healthcare that would look like a bariatric surgeon

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would do the surgery, but the

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people would be delivering nutrition screening

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ahead of time and the post op care would

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be delivered not necessarily by the surgeon. Right.

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So unbundling the elements that need to

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happen and then delegating them out to

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like junior staff to maximize the

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output of the professional. So in the

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professional services, remember this is hard to really

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scale because we generally are adding humans

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for the expertise. As more and more AI

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takes over in places like law and accounting, they

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will be absolutely truly scalable in a

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hospital setting. You know, I have a big background in hospitals, but I think

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this example is really good in coronary artery

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bypass the hospital gets paid about

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$40,000 per

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operation, the surgeon gets paid separately

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for that. But the way the hospital

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maximizes that payment is they

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step down by level of care needed

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to lesser trained staff as

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less expertise is needed. So they're unbundling

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the care and putting it in the most

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appropriate space all the way out into the home health setting.

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So you can see how you could do more of those

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when the surgeon doesn't have to provide everything from

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A to Z. Right. So that would be professional

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services scaling opportunity. The

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other thing in both those examples is you would be using care

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pathways which be bulleted lists of this is what we

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do on this day. If the patient has this problem, this is what we

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do. Right. So you can really get down to a

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bulleted care point pathway of what people are going to do.

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What do buyers want in these situations? Recurring

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retainers, well developed referral network

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for higher level work and clients that

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don't necessarily need the founder in the room for the whole

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process to take place. Which means systems, as

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much automation and AI as you can

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incorporate and obviously junior level

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staff who are well trained in the unbundled pieces

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so that they're getting expert

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level information and care at every level

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and every phase of what they need. An online coaching

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business before scaling you needed toined

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offer and it's proven people are buying

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it and a fully built out lead generation and

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onboarding system then you would scale

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and I love online businesses because they absolutely can

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have 40% profit margin. So this is

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exciting to me. This business can truly scale

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when they fully have all the problems

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that the person would have this core offer for the

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first problem that people are Googling at 2 o'clock in the morning

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and then when that's solved people always have the next

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problem and so then they've got ready made sold in

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automation. Here's the next solution you're going to have

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an example of that would be if somebody's looking for credit

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repair, the very next problem they probably are going

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to need solved is I don't want to need to go

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back to credit repair. So I probably should learn how

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to manage a budget in a real world situation,

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right? Like maybe the credit repair need for

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creditair came from the inability to budget.

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So let's fix your credit now. Let's teach you

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how to budget now. When somebody's budgeting and saving

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money, very often maybe it's

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a car that they need, but very often pretty soon it's

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homeownership. So maybe the next problem that they

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have is how do I buy my first home when I

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have a credit history that might say

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I'm risky? So this business that I just made up

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as we're talking here could go from credit repair to how to

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budget to how to get to buying your first

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home post needing credit repair. Right. So

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that's like a fully built out offer ladder that

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solves the problem they're Googling for at 2:00 in the

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morning. And then after that's solved,

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there's something else they need solve that too.

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It's always less expensive to keep

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serving the same people rather than paying to get new

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people and convincing them to come get your

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service. Now in every case there

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most of what the content and the

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expertise can really be delivered either in

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automation or at the worst case

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in group programs. So there's not a ton of

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individualized work that needs to happen there. The scaling

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would also need to have fully built out AI and

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automation handling for all leads coming in then for

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nurture, for cross sells, for upsells, all of those things.

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What do buyers want in this case, consistent

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repeatable systems and really

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sales systems they want to clean back end

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with as much as possible being delivered

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in automation with onboarding funnels, a

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portal that has all of the information and

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for whatever staff you need to deliver the content.

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If you need staff involved and then if

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staff and clients are involved, then beyond one

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step then you want somebody involved in client success

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and making sure people are going, having a great experience so

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they go from one step to the next monthly recurring

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revenue, that's no brainer, they want that.

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And in an online business, definitely

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a whole content ecosystem out there that

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is creating visibility, building audience

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and then converting traffic into customers. Now

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in an e commerce business it's slightly different.

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Before scaling you want fulfillment systems

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galore, support systems in place,

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all of the email systems that go along with

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e commerce, onboarding, product information,

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ongoing offers in a weekly email

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situation, abandoned cart sequences

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because that does capture between 6 and

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9% of lost sales just in sending a few

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emails. And then automated upsells and

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downsells and cross selles in funnels. And

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then an e commerce business, once all that's in

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place would scale by having subscription

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models and having bundles

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and then reaching out to influencers and

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setting up things for user generated content and then

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automating the outcome that comes from that.

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So buyers want obviously repeat customers

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operations they don't have to rebuild and

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optimize traffic sources that are absolutely

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converting and then getting into all of that automation

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workflow. Now mistakes that break scale

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early scaling before stabilizing. So

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usually there's a period of growth, the metrics get

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all wonky. I talk a lot about metrics and monitoring and

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making decisions based on data. So the metrics

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get out of whack while we're doing massive growth

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or scale. So we've got to get those back

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into benchmark by optimizing the delivery

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system and then we can take another step at growth.

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So if we don't stabilize at each step,

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we're just building more chaos. Another problem is

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adding more offers before you stabilize and

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optimize one. So you start with either your high

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ticket or your core offer. And when that is

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fully functioning with everything around it, then you would

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build the next thing which would either be your high ticket or

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your core offer, whichever one you didn't build first. And

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then maybe it's your lower end low

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ticket offer that creates audience visibility, builds

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no like and trust with other markets that weren't

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buying your product before. And then maybe you

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re super high ticket or you're exclusive or your

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VIP or something like that. If you don't optimize

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one at a time before you build the next thing, you're just

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scaling chaos. And really it all breaks.

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Automating too late or not at all. This is a huge problem in

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small business. They're in my opinion, not

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seeing how important automation is.

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And that was already something we should have been doing. And

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now AI. I believe there's a statistic that

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says $80 million in labor will be

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eliminated by the end of 2026,

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all through the deployment of voice

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AI agents. But small business isn't

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really taking to automation in AI

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in a way that's meaningful. And

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so they're going to be left behind their competitors who

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are early adopters of AI and

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automation. It is very difficult to scale

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if you are not maximizing automation and

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then building in AI as fast

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as you can. The biggest mistake I see is building

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everything around the founder or

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personalities within the business. So

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not creating things that need to happen

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because somebody doesn't like it or is in a bad

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mood or the founder doesn't want to do it that way or something like that.

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So building everything around the

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founder or a key personality in the business

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is a surefire way to never to be able to scale.

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So at the end of the day you can't scale chaos, you're

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just going to multiply it. So systems

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automation data use all of those things

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that I talked about on all of our episodes before

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this. So the right questions to ask yourself are

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does this make my life better now? If the answer is

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yes, we can go on to number two. Will it make my

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business more valuable later? If the answer is

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yes, then you say can it be

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automated, delegated, deleted

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or handled by AI? If the answer is yes,

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you want to go down the path of automating,

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delegating, deleting fully, getting rid of it,

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or creating the AI process to handle it

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and then you will be ready to scale.

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Smart Scale is how you make more,

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keep more, and get home not just on time, but maybe

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even early while you're doing that, while

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also building something that someone else will want to

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buy later. So if you're not sure where to start, this is

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a great time to take the changes assessment. The link for that

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will be in the show notes. It'll show you exactly which

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parts of your business is ready for Smart Scale

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and what a buyer would see if they were going to

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come and try and buy your company. Now I'd love for you also

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to subscribe to this Smart Scale series

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and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

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Because this whole series is going to be

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how do you scale smart? Get home early, make

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more money. So as always, thank you so much for

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joining us today and we look forward to seeing you in the next

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episode of the Smart Scale series.

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About the Podcast

Freedom To Exit
Freedom to Exit with Lani Dickinson
Freedom to Exit helps small business owners turn buyers into beggars by building sustainable, scalable, and sellable businesses—while avoiding earn-outs, seller financing, and discounted exits.

Hosted by Lani Dickinson, this podcast is for entrepreneurs who want to build a business that runs without them and sells on their terms.

Most businesses never sell. Why? Because they weren’t built to be sellable. Whether your goal is time and location freedom or a profitable exit, the steps are the same:
- Designing a scalable, self-sustaining company
- Building predictable, repeatable revenue
- Structuring your business to attract the right buyers
- Avoiding seller financing, earn-outs, and bad deals
- Understanding how buyers structure deals so you can negotiate from strength

Each week, Lani breaks down the realities of exiting a business, shares insights from top entrepreneurs and buyers, and gives you the tools to maximize your company’s value before you even think about selling.

If you want to own a business that works for you—not the other way around—Freedom to Exit will show you exactly how to get there.

About your host

Profile picture for Lani Dickinson

Lani Dickinson

Lani Dickinson is a former Fortune 175 CEO who left the corporate world to help business owners achieve what most never do—true freedom. Through STEALTH, she helps founders scale smarter, exit richer, and reclaim their lives by transforming their businesses into sellable, high-value assets.

Most entrepreneurs are trapped in a cycle of working too much and earning too little freedom. Lani’s expertise lies in building sustainable, scalable, and sellable businesses—giving founders the ability to step back, cash out, or create a legacy that lasts. If you’re ready to stop running your business and start owning your life, you’re in the right place.