In this exciting episode, Scott Ritzheimer, Founder of Scale Architects, shares the release of his new book "The Founder’s Game". If you’re overwhelmed by endless advice, unsure which level is right for you, or working far more hours than necessary, you won’t want to miss it.

You will discover:

- Why there are seven possible right levels and how to choose the one that fits your vision

- How the three-part structure gives you both clarity on where you are and a playbook for where you want to go.

- What pre-ordering unlocks, including a free Level 7 course and the first chapter right away

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stages 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Scott Ritzheimer helped start nearly 20,000 new businesses and nonprofits and with his business partner started led their multimillion-dollar business through an exceptional and extended growth phase (over 10 years of double-digit growth) all before he turned 35. He founded Scale Architects to help founders and CEOs identify and implement the one essential strategy they need right now to get them on the fast track to Predictable Success.

Want to learn more about Scott Ritzheimer's work at Scale Architects? Check out his website at https://www.scalearchitects.com/

Connect with Scott through his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottritzheimer/

Pre-order a copy of Scott Ritzheimer's book The Founder’s Game and How It Helps you Navigate every Stage of the Founder Journey at https://www.scottritzheimer.com/book/pre-order

Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again

to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a

founder. And today we have some very, very exciting

news-exciting for me at least, and hopefully exciting for you.

And that is that those seven levels are finally coming to the

real world and right to a bookstore near you, if if all

goes well. But here in my hand, for those of you who are

listening, is a brand new print copy of my book, The Founders

Game, which is officially releasing in February of 2027,

but the exciting news for today is that one, the book is

obviously done and and going through the final stages of its

production process. But even more importantly for you, it is

available in presale on Amazon.com. So go ahead and head

over there. A couple of things. One, there's some cool perks. If

you go ahead and get the presale, you'll get access to

one of our courses for free. There are seven courses, one for

each level, that we'll be releasing in February with the

book. And for those of you who buy on pre-order and send a

receipt to book at scalearchitects.com, we'll stick

all this in the show notes for you. You'll get a free copy of

the Level Seven course, which is an overall view of the journey

as a whole, but really dives deep into how to create the

legacy that you want to leave behind. Which is wonderful,

wonderful, wonderful course, and it's absolutely free for you if

you buy ahead and then just email the receipt to book at

scalearchitects.com. So, what is it? What's in this book? There,

many of you who've been following me for a while

probably got a copy of The Founders Evolution, which was a

a long ebook, a short real book, somewhere in between, and that

book was the first real release, the official guide to the

founder's evolution: the seven levels that all of us pass

through, from dissatisfied employee all the way through to

visionary founder, and the six, you know, those five, five

levels. Sorry, in between that, and one of the things that I

realized is in that book there were two problems, primarily

because of the length. One of the problems was that we really

only had time to identify the challenging aspects of each of

the stages, and then there's kind of a hint at the benefit of

each one. But one of the things that I wasn't able to clearly

articulate at the time was the the virtuous high side of every

level, and what I mean by that is dissatisfied employees become

purposeful employees, and they can thrive there indefinitely.

Startup entrepreneurs become successful solopreneurs, or

reluctant managers, become skillful managers, or

disillusioned leaders become contented leaders, or chief

executive officers become chief visionary officers, or true

owners become serial or portfolio owners, and visionary

founders are visionary founders. Are what we all want to become.

Maybe if that's right for us, but one of the one of the the

challenges with that earlier version is you know no one wants

to be a dissatisfied employee, no one wants to be a

disillusioned leader, and so for for the many many readers who

are in you know especially levels one three and four, but

to some extent in levels 256, and seven as well, there was a

question of like, well, now what do I do with this? And and so we

solve that in the book. In part two of the book, we go through

and we look at all of the the the wonderful, wonderful sides

of each of the levels and help you pick which one is right for

you. There aren't just one or two good answers. There's

actually seven possible right answers, and you get to pick the

one that's right for you. And so that was a big addition that we

made in part two. Another really big addition that we made was

all of part three. In the short Founders Evolution book, there

was a nod to the things that you could do. There was, you know,

three or five things that you could dial in on, and and the

the the virtue in that was that it was very simple, very

straightforward. There's there's really one or two things that

actually matter.

The challenge with that is how how do you actually do it? How

do you get there? How do you make that happen? And that

needed to be further explained. That needed to be fleshed out.

And and that's a real challenge in a book because that's a lot

of content that covers a lot of ground. There are seven

different levels from pre-launch to post-exit, and how in the

world could you possibly hope? To lay that out, and so there

was quite the struggle for me for for almost a year, actually,

of just figuring out how do we make this as accessible and

simple as possible, but also offer a rich experience that

really helps people to navigate these levels effectively, and

that's where part three was born. So, part one is very much

like the original book, where we talk about what the different

levels are, introduce you to all seven levels, and one of the

things I got an opportunity to do in this version was to add

seven stories from seven founders, and you really, really

enjoy it. Super easy, real short part of the book. Part two, as

we discussed earlier, is where we talk through the the the best

part of each, right? The the the way that you can stay in and

thrive, and ultimately how to choose the right level for you,

because not everyone does need to get to level seven. And the

third part is basically seven playbooks, one for each level.

You only have to read one of them. You don't have to read all

seven because you're not in all seven levels. But basically,

once you've figured out where you are and where you want to

go, it answers the question: How do you get there? And so, part

three of the book is more than half of the book. However, you

don't have to read all of it. You really only have to read one

of those chapters, which is great because let's be honest,

it's a pretty thick book. But the reality of it is, because of

the way it's written, and there's a guide to this in the

book, you only have to read about that much, probably less

than a third of the book, and that kind of in and of itself is

the challenge that we have as founders is that there's a full

books worth of things that people are telling us we should

to do. In fact, there are almost an infinite number of books that

are telling us an even more infinite number of things that

we should do. But the reality of it is, is only a very small

portion of that actually needs to be done, and that's what the

the book is for. The book is really yes to help you know what

you should do for right now, not ever, but right now. Even more

importantly, it's to give you the freedom from the things that

you don't need to do right now. No matter how many people say

that you should do them or what level they're saying it to or

from, this book will be a guide to help you not only recognize

what you do need to do to succeed and grow and thrive, and

maybe even evolve to the next level, but it's also going to

help you understand the things that you don't need to do. and

And that I have found is the real freedom. When I'm working

with a new client, it usually takes us a couple of months to

really dive into this, but one of the things we realize is

they're working 4050, Let's be honest, really 6080, hours, and

something like 40% of that isn't necessary. It it either

shouldn't be done at all, which is probably most of it, or they

need a more effective way of handing it off, and so we work

on that, and it frees up an enormous amount of time, which

in and of itself is wonderful for a lot of folks. If I could

just not have to work as much, that would be great. But for a

lot of founders, they don't necessarily mind working a lot,

maybe not 80 hours a week, but they still want to fill that

time.

And so what it does is it creates the opportunity to

really grow, and that's been a lot of the feedback I've gotten

from the book. Most of the folks who've had the the opportunity

to to help me write it along the way, give me feedback along the

way, and those who've gotten early advanced reader copies

have, especially the founders who've implemented it, have all

talked about how much they were able, how much time they were

able to save, and I think that's going to be available for you.

So we know this. You know the the thing about books is they

have a tendency to sit on our nightstand for quite a while. I

don't know if you have one of these, but I've got a a stack

that's about seven books high myself, and and so this book is

is one of those that's not it's not meant to be read all the way

through. You actually don't have to finish to benefit from it. So

that makes it a lot easier. And the second thing that makes it a

lot easier is there are companion courses. So once you

know what level you're in, and if you know that you want to

move forward, or if you want to learn to thrive in that level,

then we've got a course for you, and we'll be talking more about

those as we go. They'll be released in February with the

book, but there'll be a companion course for each level

of the journey that goes super deep on what you need to do as a

founder, and you don't have to read a bit to get there. It's

very cool. So I'm excited. Never did a full-length book before.

We we got to open them up and take a look at them with the

kids. It was a whole lot of fun. I'm very excited that the book's

coming out. Still have a little while before it goes live, but

you can get in on the action right now. Head on over to

Amazon. You can use the link in the show notes. And get a copy

of the book yourself. We've got a special hardback version that

we're releasing out of the gate. It's very, very nice. And you'll

have those playbooks for every season of this journey you're on

as a founder. If you're not a founder, buy it for a founder

you love. But we, you'll also get access to that level seven

course if it's a big if you have to send us your receipt to send

us the receipt that you get from Amazon to

[email protected] and when the courses are released

we'll send you access to the level seven course and then be

on the lookout in February you'll get it in the mail and

we'll have access to these courses that'll be a whole lot

of fun and a whole lot of help for you as well. So, nice short

episode. The book is finally here. The Founders Game. The I

just realized I didn't share the the title or subtitle for those

of you who who can't see it here on the screen. But the book is

called The Founders Game. It's a practical playbook to answer the

seven questions, the seven most important questions that

founders ask themselves. Founders game, find it on

Amazon, get the pre-order, get your free course by sending us

the receipt, and it'll be real fun when you get it in February.

One more thing, if that wasn't enough, for those of you who buy

on pre-order and send it to us. We will send you an excerpt with

the first, the full first chapter for free right now in

digital form, so you can start immediately. All right, this has

been a project I've been working on for a really long time. I'll

tell the story another time, but I actually deleted it completely

once, so this is effectively the third draft, the third time

around on it, plus all of the editing and revision drafts. But

again, I'm really excited that it's out here. Wouldn't be

possible without many of you who are listening, and just want to

take this opportunity to say thank you to you, thank you for

listening, thank you for the encouragement that so many of

you have sent about the content.

Thank you to the the clients and and folks I've had the

opportunity to work with who've really helped me refine this to

a resource that I think is going to be phenomenally helpful for

founders all over the world. With that, I hope this book is

as helpful for you as I know it's been for several others

who've had an early option to check it out, and I cannot wait

to see you right here on the Start Scale and Succeed podcast

in the next episode. Take care. Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer

here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and

Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what

you need for the level you're in right now. If you want to

discover what level you're in, take our 10 question Founders

Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That's

foundersquiz.com. It'll pinpoint exactly where you are and give

you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next

level in your journey as a founder. If you got something

out of today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or

review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let's be

honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible

guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding. And

I'll see you in the next episode.