Pathways with Amber Stitt

Focus On Talents: Staci Gray’s Blueprint for Building and Operating Successful Businesses

July 02, 2024 Amber Stitt
Focus On Talents: Staci Gray’s Blueprint for Building and Operating Successful Businesses
Pathways with Amber Stitt
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Pathways with Amber Stitt
Focus On Talents: Staci Gray’s Blueprint for Building and Operating Successful Businesses
Jul 02, 2024
Amber Stitt

🎙️ Welcome to another inspiring episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt! Today, we have the honor of speaking with Staci Gray, the visionary founder of Organize To Scale™. 

🌟 Staci is a master of strategic planning and has a remarkable journey that began at the tender age of 16. Skipping college, she dove headfirst into the world of real estate and business operations, ultimately becoming the president of multiple family-run enterprises. 

🏡 She later applied her unique skills to help numerous entrepreneurs, capital raisers, and real estate investors achieve operational excellence.

💰 In this episode, we delve into Staci's three-step process of architecting, building, and operating a business designed to grant freedom without trapping the entrepreneur. 

✨ We also explore her innovative approach to passive income and her emphasis on balancing both "eyes open" freedoms—time, money, location—and "eyes closed" freedoms—joy, peace, and love. 

💯 Whether you're just dreaming of starting a business or looking to optimize an existing one, Staci's insights will offer you actionable strategies and much-needed inspiration. 

💡 Tune in to discover how to minimize chaos, maximize efficiency, and ultimately create a life of both professional success and personal fulfillment. Enjoy the journey with us on Pathways!

🔑 Key Takeaways:

🌱  The importance of minimizing chaos to focus on what truly matters.

🌱  Staci's organic journey into business organization and leadership.

🌱 The significance of both eyes open (time, money, location) and eyes closed (joy, peace, love) freedoms.

🌱  Practical insights into strategic planning and systematizing for success.

🌱 The power of community, authenticity, and consistency in achieving business goals.

🔗 Resources & Links:

To learn more about Staci Gray please visit:

- Website: https://organizetoscale.com

- Organize To Scale™ email inquiries: scale@organizetoscale.com

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacigray

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/staci_gray

To learn more about Amber Stitt please visit:

- Amber Stitt’s Website: http://www.amberstitt.com

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-stitt-acp-chfc%C2%AE-cltc%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-gallup%C2%AE-1b186821/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberstitt_

📚 Books Mentioned:

- "The Emyth" by Michael Gerber

- Works by John Maxwell, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, and Zig Ziglar

- "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert

- "10 Disciplines" by Gino Wickman

- "The Four Levels of Mastery" by Stephen Covey

📢 Watch the YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/Qg9hPugqYKE

#PathwaysWithAmberStitt #StaciGray #Entrepreneurship #BusinessOrganization #StrategicPlanning #PassiveIncome #RealEstateInvestment #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership #Authenticity #OrganizeToScale

Show Notes Transcript

🎙️ Welcome to another inspiring episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt! Today, we have the honor of speaking with Staci Gray, the visionary founder of Organize To Scale™. 

🌟 Staci is a master of strategic planning and has a remarkable journey that began at the tender age of 16. Skipping college, she dove headfirst into the world of real estate and business operations, ultimately becoming the president of multiple family-run enterprises. 

🏡 She later applied her unique skills to help numerous entrepreneurs, capital raisers, and real estate investors achieve operational excellence.

💰 In this episode, we delve into Staci's three-step process of architecting, building, and operating a business designed to grant freedom without trapping the entrepreneur. 

✨ We also explore her innovative approach to passive income and her emphasis on balancing both "eyes open" freedoms—time, money, location—and "eyes closed" freedoms—joy, peace, and love. 

💯 Whether you're just dreaming of starting a business or looking to optimize an existing one, Staci's insights will offer you actionable strategies and much-needed inspiration. 

💡 Tune in to discover how to minimize chaos, maximize efficiency, and ultimately create a life of both professional success and personal fulfillment. Enjoy the journey with us on Pathways!

🔑 Key Takeaways:

🌱  The importance of minimizing chaos to focus on what truly matters.

🌱  Staci's organic journey into business organization and leadership.

🌱 The significance of both eyes open (time, money, location) and eyes closed (joy, peace, love) freedoms.

🌱  Practical insights into strategic planning and systematizing for success.

🌱 The power of community, authenticity, and consistency in achieving business goals.

🔗 Resources & Links:

To learn more about Staci Gray please visit:

- Website: https://organizetoscale.com

- Organize To Scale™ email inquiries: scale@organizetoscale.com

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacigray

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/staci_gray

To learn more about Amber Stitt please visit:

- Amber Stitt’s Website: http://www.amberstitt.com

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-stitt-acp-chfc%C2%AE-cltc%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-gallup%C2%AE-1b186821/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberstitt_

📚 Books Mentioned:

- "The Emyth" by Michael Gerber

- Works by John Maxwell, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, and Zig Ziglar

- "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert

- "10 Disciplines" by Gino Wickman

- "The Four Levels of Mastery" by Stephen Covey

📢 Watch the YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/Qg9hPugqYKE

#PathwaysWithAmberStitt #StaciGray #Entrepreneurship #BusinessOrganization #StrategicPlanning #PassiveIncome #RealEstateInvestment #PersonalDevelopment #Leadership #Authenticity #OrganizeToScale

Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host, Amber Stitt. And today we welcome Staci Gray, the founder of Organize To Scale™. Welcome, Staci.

Staci Gray [00:00:09]:
I'm excited to be here, Amber.

Amber Stitt [00:00:11]:
You're a master of strategic planning. That's what I've heard. So I'm so excited to have you on the show. I talk about with my clients and with the consulting that I'll do, taking action today. I feel like we might be soul sisters in the sense of, let's use the time that we have while we're healthy and well, to really plan to get rid of the chaos that can be in life. And I know that you help other people with that, so we're going to dive into that today, if that's okay with you.

Staci Gray [00:00:36]:
Yes. Chaos can be controlling, and we want to minimize it so we can get the real important things done.

Amber Stitt [00:00:42]:
Yes. So let's talk about how did you step into helping other leaders and business owners, entrepreneurs, just get better with this operational chaos that you've talked about?

Staci Gray [00:00:52]:
So it was really organic. And I have to rewind till I was really young, because it started when I was 16 years old. I graduated high school at 16, and my father didn't want me to go to college. So he said, "Come work with me for two years, and if you're 18 and you still want to go to college, you can." So he was in real estate. He had a mortgage company. He taught people how to invest in real estate. He had a partner that had a real estate brokerage, number one realtor in the area that we were in.

Staci Gray [00:01:22]:
I started answering phones in the office, and about maybe like six months in, I went to him and I said, "I don't want to do this anymore. Can I do something else?" And so he said, "Sure," and handed me a copy of Emyth by Michael Gerber, "and then you can do something else, but you have to hire and train your replacement, and you have to document what you're doing." So that was how I got so into systems because I hired and trained my replacement. And then once you do that, every business leader finds out, "Oh, no, now I have to lead, manage, and hold this person accountable, and I've got to evolve as a manager and a leader." So then I went down that rabbit trail of reading, you know, John Maxwell and Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar and all of the personal development philosopher gurus on how to manage my own psychology as a leader so I could bring out the best of the people around me. So I went down that track and then I eventually became the president of all of our family businesses, handed it back off, went and built two other companies, and then my mom was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and my dad asked me to come back and help run the company so that he could have time with her. So I did.

Staci Gray [00:02:35]:
I came back, I organized the companies, and all of his clients are entrepreneurs, real estate investors, capital raisers. And they saw the success of what I had done during the most challenging time in our life when my mom had cancer and started asking me to organize their businesses for them. And so that's actually how I even got into organizing businesses, was because I did a handful of businesses really darn well. And people saw that and said, "Can you do it for me?" And it kind of scaled from there organically.

Amber Stitt [00:03:08]:
Thanks for sharing that. That's pretty amazing. So after being 16, going up and being president of multiple entities, you skipped college, correct?

Staci Gray [00:03:16]:
I did. I skipped college.

Amber Stitt [00:03:18]:
I bring this up. Not that I'm against education. In other episodes, I'll talk about this, but there's a very similar pattern of entrepreneurs and business owners that might have go get the experience. It's not so much about the education, and I'm not saying don't go higher learning, but there's definitely...if you can build something out and provide a solution, just because you don't have the credentials or the acronyms behind your name does not mean you can't build something. And you're proof of that.

Staci Gray [00:03:44]:
Yes, I think...I was also homeschooled. So one of the skill sets that I think was instilled in me, which is critical for any business leader or entrepreneur, is resourcefulness. And we really have to be able to put ourselves in environments that stretch us but also have the security within ourselves that everything's figureoutable. Like Marie Folio says, we can figure these things out. And the fear of making a mistake, we have to let go of, because the journey of evolution and growing as human beings is we have to try things and we have to experiment. And I know the word "try" in the personal development world is like, "don't say it." Do, or do not.

Staci Gray [00:04:26]:
But the reality is we learn by putting ourselves out there and testing something. So if test is a better word for you, use test. But we have to be able to put ourselves in those environments where we're completely uncomfortable, we don't know what we're doing, and then trust that we'll figure it out, because it's the four levels of mastery. Level one is you're no good and you don't know it. Level two is you're no good and you know it. And most people stop at level two because it's really uncomfortable. And when we realize we're no good at something that we want to be good at, we start judging ourselves. And when we judge ourselves, it shuts down all of our faculties to gather the resources and knowledge and team members that we need to solve it.

Staci Gray [00:05:08]:
And so the courage to just say, "I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out. And if it's messy, it's okay because I can clean it up and make it right as I learn more information."

Amber Stitt [00:05:18]:
The level 2 to 3 experience, I think, could be daunting. And I'm thinking personal experience. A lot of times I think if you're between level 2 and 3, you might be onto something and then you have your own personal self doubt, but you might be in a room alone because no one else gets what the heck you're trying to do. And I wonder if that could be part of the reason as an entrepreneur, solopreneur, you might just stop and go, "No one gets it. No one's supporting me." But it doesn't mean you should stop there, because I've been there.

Staci Gray [00:05:45]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:05:45]:
I joke about...

Staci Gray [00:05:47]:
I've been there, too.

Amber Stitt [00:05:47]:
And I bring a lot of energy and ideas. I could be overwhelming. I just met with some teams today about different websites and we're mapping out how things should flow together because there's the main thing and then there's the other passive income opportunities because of being a subject matter expert, they're like, "How can you do all this?" But as you know, Stacey, it's building a framework and then being really good at delegating out and building the time for certain things and the priorities. And there's a whole other formula to it. But I really felt myself in your levels that you're explaining because sometimes you're going this road alone and I talk about Elizabeth Gilbert's book Big Magic, and sometimes that idea that you're working on might not make sense, but that doesn't mean you should stop. But I bet that we might hold ourselves back.

Staci Gray [00:06:30]:
Yes. I think one of the best things that we can give ourselves is to change our environment. A guy I know says, "If you want to change your results, change who you hang around," and it's really true. And one of the things that I think if I look back at my life that I've done, that I think sometimes people judged me for in the time I was doing it, is I would literally physically change my environment, I would go hang out in different groups of people who are doing what I wanted to be doing. I would geographically move to be around situations and people that were moving in the direction I wanted to go. And it can look like you're a little bit of a nomad, or you're a wanderer, but the reality is I was collecting experiences that I needed to shape me into the type of leader, business person, woman that I wanted to be. And I'm continually doing that because we evolve. If we're committed to growth, we're going to continually hit that brick wall.

Staci Gray [00:07:28]:
And when we do, the framework to your point, is we have to get really good about going inwards, identifying the things inside of our own psyche that are holding us back, but also what programming we're getting input into us by the environments that we're in and being very cognizant and mindful of that, so that we can create environments internally and externally that can generate the results we want in our life.

Amber Stitt [00:07:52]:
I have what I call "Leadership Lunches" as part of a president of Women in Insurance Financial Services. There's a membership, but there's chapters throughout the nation. And we started this webinar because, like you're saying I need to give an environment to lead, having other people join virtually, so we can share because there's not a lot of us out there, like you're saying, and some of my members can't afford...they're brand new in the business...to just travel and go to these conferences and stay at these hotels, etc. So I thought, what if I give a no read book club, or like a coffee style meetup, or online? We're doing Gino Wickman's "10 Disciplines", as like a focus for one a month, and we're sharing our books that we like and what's working, what's not working. I would need to provide that environment because I didn't have it initially, especially in financial services. That's beyond, like salesy, "Let's go be a night out." And there could be strategic partnerships that can come from it. But first, at the core, I need to give people community.

Amber Stitt [00:08:48]:
And so some of them shared that they did not meet all their goals in '23. And I said...you're talking about testing things...I said, "Now you've given yourself data. Use the data."

Staci Gray [00:08:58]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:08:59]:
It doesn't mean failure, or whatever you want to call it. This is information. Your CRM is information. Everything. Every experience is information.

Staci Gray [00:09:06]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:09:06]:
How do we then put it to work? So let's talk into, you have a personal way of approaching more internal versus external. You talk about eyes closed, eyes open. Can we talk about that with you?

Staci Gray [00:09:18]:
Yes. So I think for context, for people to understand it, if your audience is business minded in some way, whether they're just getting started or they have a business with team, most of us, when we're going down the path of entrepreneurship, or creating a business, or even trying to create some type of passive income, we're doing it because we want freedom. But what happens is the framework, approach or system we go about doing it ends up trapping us. So we do it to create freedom, but we end up trapped by the very thing designed to create our freedom. And I think this happens for one of two reasons. One, we lack systems, or two, our passion consumes us, so we don't even know how in the confines of our own body, mind, soul, spirit, to say no. So when I talk about eyes open and eyes closed. The eyes open freedoms are what we all pursue:

Staci Gray [00:10:06]:
Time, money, location. Those are the freedoms that we pursue with our eyes open. But our eyes closed freedoms are: joy, peace, love. And what happens is we often sacrifice our eyes closed freedoms for our eyes open freedoms. And then that's when we really hit the brick wall, and then that's when we feel like, "I just messed up. I'm in a pile of a mess that I can't get out of. If I try to get out of it, I'm going to disappoint, disappoint my family, I'm going to disappoint my team, I'm going to disappoint my customers. I don't know where to go from here."

Staci Gray [00:10:40]:
And that is the point where you realize that the only way to truly create sustainable, long-term success is inner congruence. You cannot sacrifice your love, peace, joy for your time, money, location, freedoms because it will never, ever be fulfilling. You'll constantly be in a rat race and not actually generate the freedom you're truly seeking.

Amber Stitt [00:11:02]:
I hope this is okay to say this, but I think is it possible that this formula, potentially that you're talking about came from watching your father do the work to be with his wife when she was sick?

Staci Gray [00:11:13]:
I personally experienced it. Like I told you before we even started, I did 36 businesses in 36 months. So I watched tons of entrepreneurs do it. So this is not isolated, I think, to just my scenario, this is a human journey, because even if it's not a business, it's a job. Somebody is selling their soul to their job, or they're staying in a toxic work community, because they're trying to create freedom. So it's not...it's a human experience.

Amber Stitt [00:11:43]:
Okay.

Staci Gray [00:11:44]:
If that makes sense.

Amber Stitt [00:11:45]:
Yeah. So you have your methods of plugging into passive income strategies that work for you back to the human element of people are different. So let's talk about how you're scaling businesses. You're helping companies, but you're also involved in real estate as a way, one of the ways, that you personally create freedom for yourself. Do you mind sharing a little bit about thinking little bit differently than just, "I need to go buy that rental and put a tenant in there." You're doing things a little bit differently. And I want to give people ideas that they can kind of resonate with. If it's sticky to them, they might like that idea.

Staci Gray [00:12:18]:
Yeah. So, I mean, I grew up in real estate, so I was around my...I bought my first property when I was 18. It was a fourplex in Phoenix, Arizona. So I was around real estate and looking at real estate and development, all of it. And I actually don't really like real estate. I really like business. I like the business. I like the systems.

Staci Gray [00:12:37]:
And so I gravitate more towards that. But the business and the systems generate quite a bit of cash, and so I've got to place it somewhere. And so one of the things that I enjoy doing is a lot of the people that I work with are capital raisers. So they raise investment capital to invest in real estate. And so I'm able to just passively invest with them. And they run the teams and they run the projects and they look at all the deals and then I just get a check every quarter. And that is a very hands off way for me to invest in assets that produce passive income while I get to do the thing that I love, which is business.

Amber Stitt [00:13:12]:
That's the point, right, to the freedom, having those opportunities pop up today. And I've told you before, and I've tell my audience this, I want people to be participating in life now, not waiting for a certain age to then there's a heap of money at some point. Let's try to do some of the work and touch it and see it and feel it and have those open...what do you call them? The open eyes moments.

Staci Gray [00:13:35]:
Eyes open, eyes closed.

Amber Stitt [00:13:36]:
Yeah. So for you, going through all of this at a young age, outside of your family, who else was there? Mentors. Outside of books. You can share books, too.

Staci Gray [00:13:45]:
I suppose that was going to be my answer. I'm like, I have a million mentors. They're books.

Amber Stitt [00:13:49]:
Yes, I love books. And I know a lot of people that, like my husband, would prefer to read, or see. But there's something about the hardback book that I just love. But, I mean, there's only so much shelf space and to have a pretty room like yours nice and organized. We can't always have all these books unless it's like the rainbow Reese Witherspoon bookcase, I suppose. But I do feel like they're these living, breathing entities. And I talk about my grandmother, who's almost 92, and how she believes in books the same way. That there's just like this...there's something per book that tells a story and can be your guide.

Amber Stitt [00:14:21]:
And so she shares some of that spiritual side of things with books. But it sounds like you feel that way, too.

Staci Gray [00:14:27]:
Yes. I call my book time my sacred time, or even my quiet time my sacred time. I feel like one thing that I have been working diligently at pretty much my whole life, but I feel like it's finally clicking a little bit better now, is listening to my intuition. And I think we all have a part of us that is connected to divine knowing and whatever that looks like for you. And there's things that resonate with that part of us. And our eyes open world sometimes tells us that that thing that resonates with that part of us is not true, or it's not going to work. But I have found the exact opposite, where the more I listen to that inner part of me that resonates, whether it's a book, a YouTube video, another person, that says this is energetically in alignment. That that has been one of my greatest teachers, is learning to connect with a part of me that has just an inner knowing that's untainted.

Amber Stitt [00:15:33]:
Sometimes with that, just experiencing that, and I've had to do that most recently with some negotiations and contracts is, "Okay, what's the next step? What would so and so do in this position?" And I've had to step back and listen to advice from my community, which is great. But then I have this tugging, "Amber, you're supposed to do this because that's who you are to the core." And usually, if I act in that regard, it's okay. And there's respect that can come from it, if it's coming from a good place, of course. But you're right. And I think as we get older, we can trust that more.

Amber Stitt [00:16:06]:
So I think that's why having a community of people that are even helping some of the younger generation, "Let's help expedite the process for you. Come in and hang out with these thought leaders," still learn and do the experience, but fast track and cut out some of the noise. That might not be necessary because we've found some of that through our own successes.

Staci Gray [00:16:24]:
Exactly. I think that if I was talking to a younger person and saying what to do to create some type of success, number one is quiet the noise. Who you hang out with on social media, what you read in your inbox, who you hang out with in your eyes open world is affecting you. And so quiet the noise and really center yourself with what you were here to really do that fulfills you. Not because somebody else is telling you to do it, not because somebody else wants you to do it, but because that's the thing that, when you're 80 years old, you can put your head on your pillow at night knowing you did the thing that you told yourself you were going to do. Yeah, that is the only way to develop inner trust. And trust is something that has helped me scale businesses, and it's the thing that has killed businesses that if I didn't have trust. And I think there's three types of trust:

Staci Gray [00:17:14]:
There's self trust, team trust, and tribe trust. And you have to have all three to be really wildly successful, because as human beings, we're designed for connection and we want to have a place to belong. So community is really important. But as you and I are, we're thought leaders, we're content creators. What we're doing is we're putting these ideas out there. That is good to attract people to us. People come for content, but they stay for community. So if you're young and you're trying to figure out what to do, quiet the noise, figure out what your content is, figure out what your ideas are, figure out what your thoughts are, and then put that out there and you're going to attract, or repel, what isn't in alignment for you. And that's a good thing.

Staci Gray [00:17:59]:
It's a great thing. And then you know who your people are, and those are the people you're going to build with because that is where trust is formed.

Amber Stitt [00:18:06]:
If we want to hang out there for a little bit, because I know that you help people with this, there's the vanity metrics, and I know if I come out as an insurance planner and want to podcast about insurance, I'm probably not going to have a million followers. But it doesn't mean my information is not important for people to have, especially if I could refer like a library of content. "Hey client, yes, you have a question about what I did with my life insurance, or beneficiaries? Go watch this video." It's kind of like my big master library, but it's digital. Like if we stay with the younger and maybe those that are finishing a position job and going out for their first time on their own, it could be any age, to you're saying this trust component, this levels of trust, you have to be you. And you can look at other industries and see like how do you want to show up? What might you like to maybe imitate, but create it your own way, but not trying to chase this audience likability. Like some of this is just, again, more noise and put out what's important and what's necessary to tell the story to help others.

Amber Stitt [00:19:04]:
And I think that can always win. Animals usually do a good job too, or something about the holidays. Like those are kind of like always kind of win, you know? But can you speak to a little bit about just where people might get too caught up in the wrong things when they create content?

Staci Gray [00:19:17]:
I think what you're really talking about is authenticity. And I really think we're moving into an era of perspective and authenticity. And so I can't say you're going to create wrong content because part of the evolution of learning your voice, or learning your authenticity is testing your voice. And so create some content and you're going to know when you create it. Like, "Oh, that really clicked," or, "Nope, that didn't click. I got to keep tweaking it." That's the process. You're not out of the gate going to create a reel, or create a YouTube video, or be on a podcast, or have a podcast and it be perfect.

Staci Gray [00:19:53]:
When I look back at some of my first content pieces that I created, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that's so embarrassing. I can't believe I put that out there." And then I'm sure I'll look back in ten years. And this interview, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I said it like that." Because we learn by practice, we learn by using our voice. And so I think also when you put an idea out there, people will either resonate with it or they'll challenge it. And both are good. Both are good because if they challenge it, it helps you refine your own inner thinking, and that's a win.

Staci Gray [00:20:26]:
And so I think sometimes we get so fearful to even test our voice because we don't want the rejection, but there really is no rejection. The journey is in the friction, and that's really how we become more authentic.

Amber Stitt [00:20:39]:
Yeah, I love that. And I think it's, you got to do the work and be consistent, and we know that across the board. I'm sure, you know, Tony Robbins says that. But just do the work. And so I know you study analytics and businesses and what's working, but sometimes with content, if it doesn't have this actual direct conversion to sales, someone's now walking in your door, or coming in to click that button. I think sometimes people say, "Well, I just shouldn't do it," but I think it's the new version of the sign on the highway, the sign on the bus stop. I think all of this is that new version of it, and it's still necessary to be successful and to have people get to know you. Community, or business-wise.

Staci Gray [00:21:14]:
I've launched a bunch of different podcasts, not all mine. I'm actually doing mine now, but it takes about 2 or 3 years. And if you don't already have a community and you're needing to figure out your voice and do something, or you're building an online community and you don't have any offline reputation, meaning you don't have seminars that you're already doing or anything, it's going to take some time to do that, and I think you can collapse time frames by doing offline and online together. But I think that this idea of overnight success, or that we don't have to put in the work, it's just not accurate. It doesn't work like that. You get up and you grind and you have to learn delayed gratification. You're gonna put effort in, and you may not get that reward for 2, 5, 10, 12 years later, you don't know because the person that you're talking to is going on their own journey, too.

Amber Stitt [00:22:06]:
Well, if you look at some of the top, like, say a Gary Vee or something like that, they started over a decade ago doing this. And so obviously their marketing teams are really good at repurposing it and dropping all the time. But there's another system.

Staci Gray [00:22:19]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:22:20]:
So let's get closer to not wrapping up the episode just yet, but going more into...We'll talk about how you can help others, but that question you could answer of how do you start a business that's not going to consume you? Do you have any recommendations as people are listening that, like, they're just dreaming right now? What are some ideas you can share to say it's possible?

Staci Gray [00:22:40]:
Well, I'll give you a three step process, because it's what we do.

Amber Stitt [00:22:44]:
Okay, perfect.

Staci Gray [00:22:46]:
So step one is architect, and we'll liken this to real estate, because if your audience is at all familiar with real estate, this will make sense. So, when you're doing ground up development, think of your business like ground up development. You have this idea that you want to bring to fruition, and you don't really know anything about it yet. You just have, in your own mind's eye, you can see the front of the puzzle, but you have no idea what all the individual pieces are. And if you were to dump that puzzle box open, it would feel really overwhelming. So step one is we have to architect. We have to create the business blueprint. What are we actually building? What's your idea? Who are you serving? What problem are you solving, and what do you want it to do for you in your lifestyle? So we have to begin with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey says, and really blueprint it.

Staci Gray [00:23:31]:
We do it in a three day strategic planning session. So this isn't taking months and weeks and years to create. It takes three days.

Amber Stitt [00:23:40]:
You can start seeing the fruit.

Staci Gray [00:23:42]:
Day one is vision building. Day two is process mapping, and day three is action planning. Because we can't win if we don't execute the dreamer in us. The dreamer in everyone and the doer in everyone have to meet to create anything magical. So architect is the first phase, and that's where we blueprint it. And that is your sweet spot. I don't know what you call it exactly. We call it sweet spot.

Staci Gray [00:24:05]:
So we all have natural, unique wiring. So we've got to get really in tune with that sweet spot. What's our vision, mission values? What's our big, hairy, audacious goal? What are the seven to ten core functions that are necessary to make that actually happen? What's everything that needs to be done in order to achieve it? And what are we going to execute in the next 90 days? Because building a business is a marathon, but we run it in sprints. So that's step one, architect. Then step two is build. And that's where we build the essential infrastructure. You got to lay a foundation. You got to get the pillars in place.

Staci Gray [00:24:34]:
You got to get the kitchen set up. You got to get the bedroom set up. You got to put the beds in place. It's all got to be there, so you can operate within your business. And then step three is operate. This is where you don't get trapped. This is where you plug in a property manager and tenants to run the day to day so that you can actually be a data driven decision maker as a leader.

Staci Gray [00:24:54]:
And obviously we're still intuitive, but we have to be able to run our businesses with metrics and KPI's and other people following workflows and processes so that we can really have the freedom to either expand or to do whatever it is that we are aspiring to do.

Amber Stitt [00:25:12]:
Well, you make it sound easy.

Staci Gray [00:25:17]:
Well, I guess as Jim Rohn said, "Easy is something you can do."

Amber Stitt [00:25:20]:
But I think a lot of people might just need your help anyway, right? So how do people find you for your expertise to start the blueprint?

Staci Gray [00:25:29]:
So if they send an email to scale@organizetoscale.com, scale@organizetoscale.com, I can give them all the information on the architect, build, operate, and the frameworks that we use to scale businesses.

Amber Stitt [00:25:42]:
Awesome. Well, I feel like I could just keep talking to you, but I know we need to be purposeful of time. So I enjoyed hanging out with you today, and I picked up some little nuggets that are going to be great for me personally. So I appreciate that, but of course for the audience. So thanks for being with us today. Really loved what you had to share.

Staci Gray [00:25:59]:
Thank you so much for having me. And I really am on a mission to normalize the entrepreneurial journey and show that people can do it. So I hope it inspires folks.

Amber Stitt [00:26:07]:
We should wrap up there. But one more thing on that note, I think there is the possibility for everyone to have entrepreneurial spirit. It might not be their main thing. You don't have to open up a shop, but I think it's so important to be able to have the ability to think like that. Because again, financial freedom is going to be there. A lot of tax reduction is going to be there, too. You can have a lot of fun working with other teams and partners to make that happen. So I'm with you.

Amber Stitt [00:26:33]:
I think it's almost like a necessary part of life these days.

Staci Gray [00:26:37]:
I do think that everyone has something inside of them because really, entrepreneurship is we're artists, we're creators, we create something. And I think every human being has some type of art inside of them. And entrepreneurs have just learned how to monetize it.

Amber Stitt [00:26:51]:
Thanks, Staci. Thanks for being here. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, the blog, and so much more, please visit my website at: www.AmberStitt.com And remember, let's take action today! Thank you for listening!