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:
– What pre-ordering unlocks, including a free Level 7 course and the first chapter right away
– 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.
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
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.
Scott Ritzheimer
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.
Scott Ritzheimer
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.
Contact Scott Ritzheimer
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 at https://www.scottritzheimer.com/book/pre-order