Latest / The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast / New Book: The Founder’s Game with Scott Ritzheimer (stages 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - Ep. 421

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New Book: The Founder’s Game with Scott Ritzheimer (stages 1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - Ep. 421 · The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

• 0:00
  Scott Ritzheimer: Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again
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  to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast-the only podcast that
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  grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a
• 0:11
  founder. And today we have some very, very exciting
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  news-exciting for me at least, and hopefully exciting for you.
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  And that is that those seven levels are finally coming to the
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  real world and right to a bookstore near you, if if all
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  goes well. But here in my hand, for those of you who are
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  listening, is a brand new print copy of my book, The Founders
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  Game, which is officially releasing in February of 2027,
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  but the exciting news for today is that one, the book is
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  obviously done and and going through the final stages of its
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  production process. But even more importantly for you, it is
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  available in presale on Amazon.com. So go ahead and head
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  over there. A couple of things. One, there's some cool perks. If
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  you go ahead and get the presale, you'll get access to
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  one of our courses for free. There are seven courses, one for
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  each level, that we'll be releasing in February with the
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  book. And for those of you who buy on pre-order and send a
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  receipt to book at scalearchitects.com, we'll stick
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  all this in the show notes for you. You'll get a free copy of
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  the Level Seven course, which is an overall view of the journey
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  as a whole, but really dives deep into how to create the
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  legacy that you want to leave behind. Which is wonderful,
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  wonderful, wonderful course, and it's absolutely free for you if
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  you buy ahead and then just email the receipt to book at
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  scalearchitects.com. So, what is it? What's in this book? There,
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  many of you who've been following me for a while
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  probably got a copy of The Founders Evolution, which was a
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  a long ebook, a short real book, somewhere in between, and that
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  book was the first real release, the official guide to the
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  founder's evolution: the seven levels that all of us pass
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  through, from dissatisfied employee all the way through to
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  visionary founder, and the six, you know, those five, five
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  levels. Sorry, in between that, and one of the things that I
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  realized is in that book there were two problems, primarily
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  because of the length. One of the problems was that we really
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  only had time to identify the challenging aspects of each of
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  the stages, and then there's kind of a hint at the benefit of
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  each one. But one of the things that I wasn't able to clearly
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  articulate at the time was the the virtuous high side of every
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  level, and what I mean by that is dissatisfied employees become
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  purposeful employees, and they can thrive there indefinitely.
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  Startup entrepreneurs become successful solopreneurs, or
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  reluctant managers, become skillful managers, or
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  disillusioned leaders become contented leaders, or chief
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  executive officers become chief visionary officers, or true
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  owners become serial or portfolio owners, and visionary
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  founders are visionary founders. Are what we all want to become.
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  Maybe if that's right for us, but one of the one of the the
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  challenges with that earlier version is you know no one wants
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  to be a dissatisfied employee, no one wants to be a
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  disillusioned leader, and so for for the many many readers who
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  are in you know especially levels one three and four, but
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  to some extent in levels 256, and seven as well, there was a
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  question of like, well, now what do I do with this? And and so we
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  solve that in the book. In part two of the book, we go through
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  and we look at all of the the the wonderful, wonderful sides
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  of each of the levels and help you pick which one is right for
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  you. There aren't just one or two good answers. There's
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  actually seven possible right answers, and you get to pick the
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  one that's right for you. And so that was a big addition that we
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  made in part two. Another really big addition that we made was
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  all of part three. In the short Founders Evolution book, there
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  was a nod to the things that you could do. There was, you know,
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  three or five things that you could dial in on, and and the
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  the the virtue in that was that it was very simple, very
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  straightforward. There's there's really one or two things that
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  actually matter.
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  The challenge with that is how how do you actually do it? How
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  do you get there? How do you make that happen? And that
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  needed to be further explained. That needed to be fleshed out.
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  And and that's a real challenge in a book because that's a lot
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  of content that covers a lot of ground. There are seven
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  different levels from pre-launch to post-exit, and how in the
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  world could you possibly hope? To lay that out, and so there
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  was quite the struggle for me for for almost a year, actually,
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  of just figuring out how do we make this as accessible and
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  simple as possible, but also offer a rich experience that
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  really helps people to navigate these levels effectively, and
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  that's where part three was born. So, part one is very much
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  like the original book, where we talk about what the different
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  levels are, introduce you to all seven levels, and one of the
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  things I got an opportunity to do in this version was to add
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  seven stories from seven founders, and you really, really
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  enjoy it. Super easy, real short part of the book. Part two, as
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  we discussed earlier, is where we talk through the the the best
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  part of each, right? The the the way that you can stay in and
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  thrive, and ultimately how to choose the right level for you,
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  because not everyone does need to get to level seven. And the
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  third part is basically seven playbooks, one for each level.
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  You only have to read one of them. You don't have to read all
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  seven because you're not in all seven levels. But basically,
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  once you've figured out where you are and where you want to
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  go, it answers the question: How do you get there? And so, part
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  three of the book is more than half of the book. However, you
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  don't have to read all of it. You really only have to read one
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  of those chapters, which is great because let's be honest,
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  it's a pretty thick book. But the reality of it is, because of
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  the way it's written, and there's a guide to this in the
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  book, you only have to read about that much, probably less
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  than a third of the book, and that kind of in and of itself is
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  the challenge that we have as founders is that there's a full
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  books worth of things that people are telling us we should
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  to do. In fact, there are almost an infinite number of books that
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  are telling us an even more infinite number of things that
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  we should do. But the reality of it is, is only a very small
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  portion of that actually needs to be done, and that's what the
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  the book is for. The book is really yes to help you know what
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  you should do for right now, not ever, but right now. Even more
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  importantly, it's to give you the freedom from the things that
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  you don't need to do right now. No matter how many people say
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  that you should do them or what level they're saying it to or
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  from, this book will be a guide to help you not only recognize
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  what you do need to do to succeed and grow and thrive, and
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  maybe even evolve to the next level, but it's also going to
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  help you understand the things that you don't need to do. and
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  And that I have found is the real freedom. When I'm working
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  with a new client, it usually takes us a couple of months to
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  really dive into this, but one of the things we realize is
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  they're working 4050, Let's be honest, really 6080, hours, and
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  something like 40% of that isn't necessary. It it either
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  shouldn't be done at all, which is probably most of it, or they
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  need a more effective way of handing it off, and so we work
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  on that, and it frees up an enormous amount of time, which
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  in and of itself is wonderful for a lot of folks. If I could
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  just not have to work as much, that would be great. But for a
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  lot of founders, they don't necessarily mind working a lot,
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  maybe not 80 hours a week, but they still want to fill that
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  time.
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  And so what it does is it creates the opportunity to
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  really grow, and that's been a lot of the feedback I've gotten
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  from the book. Most of the folks who've had the the opportunity
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  to to help me write it along the way, give me feedback along the
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  way, and those who've gotten early advanced reader copies
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  have, especially the founders who've implemented it, have all
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  talked about how much they were able, how much time they were
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  able to save, and I think that's going to be available for you.
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  So we know this. You know the the thing about books is they
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  have a tendency to sit on our nightstand for quite a while. I
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  don't know if you have one of these, but I've got a a stack
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  that's about seven books high myself, and and so this book is
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  is one of those that's not it's not meant to be read all the way
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  through. You actually don't have to finish to benefit from it. So
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  that makes it a lot easier. And the second thing that makes it a
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  lot easier is there are companion courses. So once you
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  know what level you're in, and if you know that you want to
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  move forward, or if you want to learn to thrive in that level,
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  then we've got a course for you, and we'll be talking more about
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  those as we go. They'll be released in February with the
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  book, but there'll be a companion course for each level
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  of the journey that goes super deep on what you need to do as a
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  founder, and you don't have to read a bit to get there. It's
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  very cool. So I'm excited. Never did a full-length book before.
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  We we got to open them up and take a look at them with the
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  kids. It was a whole lot of fun. I'm very excited that the book's
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  coming out. Still have a little while before it goes live, but
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  you can get in on the action right now. Head on over to
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  Amazon. You can use the link in the show notes. And get a copy
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  of the book yourself. We've got a special hardback version that
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  we're releasing out of the gate. It's very, very nice. And you'll
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  have those playbooks for every season of this journey you're on
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  as a founder. If you're not a founder, buy it for a founder
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  you love. But we, you'll also get access to that level seven
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  course if it's a big if you have to send us your receipt to send
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  us the receipt that you get from Amazon to
• 10:28
  book@scalearchitects.com and when the courses are released
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  we'll send you access to the level seven course and then be
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  on the lookout in February you'll get it in the mail and
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  we'll have access to these courses that'll be a whole lot
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  of fun and a whole lot of help for you as well. So, nice short
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  episode. The book is finally here. The Founders Game. The I
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  just realized I didn't share the the title or subtitle for those
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  of you who who can't see it here on the screen. But the book is
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  called The Founders Game. It's a practical playbook to answer the
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  seven questions, the seven most important questions that
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  founders ask themselves. Founders game, find it on
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  Amazon, get the pre-order, get your free course by sending us
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  the receipt, and it'll be real fun when you get it in February.
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  One more thing, if that wasn't enough, for those of you who buy
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  on pre-order and send it to us. We will send you an excerpt with
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  the first, the full first chapter for free right now in
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  digital form, so you can start immediately. All right, this has
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  been a project I've been working on for a really long time. I'll
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  tell the story another time, but I actually deleted it completely
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  once, so this is effectively the third draft, the third time
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  around on it, plus all of the editing and revision drafts. But
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  again, I'm really excited that it's out here. Wouldn't be
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  possible without many of you who are listening, and just want to
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  take this opportunity to say thank you to you, thank you for
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  listening, thank you for the encouragement that so many of
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  you have sent about the content.
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  Thank you to the the clients and and folks I've had the
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  opportunity to work with who've really helped me refine this to
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  a resource that I think is going to be phenomenally helpful for
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  founders all over the world. With that, I hope this book is
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  as helpful for you as I know it's been for several others
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  who've had an early option to check it out, and I cannot wait
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  to see you right here on the Start Scale and Succeed podcast
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  in the next episode. Take care. Hey everyone, Scott Ritzheimer
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  here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start Scale and
• 12:44
  Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you exactly what
• 12:48
  you need for the level you're in right now. If you want to
• 12:52
  discover what level you're in, take our 10 question Founders
• 12:55
  Evolution Quiz for free at foundersquiz.com. That's
• 12:59
  foundersquiz.com. It'll pinpoint exactly where you are and give
• 13:03
  you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next
• 13:07
  level in your journey as a founder. If you got something
• 13:10
  out of today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or
• 13:13
  review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let's be
• 13:17
  honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible
• 13:21
  guests. So keep starting, scaling, and succeeding. And
• 13:25
  I'll see you in the next episode.