In this administrative episode, Scott Maderer, Founder of Inspired Stewardship, shares how he helps align the way his clients, founders, and their families use their time, talent, and treasures so that they can identify and live a fully authentic life.
You will discover:
– The most common pre-launch mistake founders make (that causes the very thing they were trying to avoid)
– How to effectively navigate the stress and challenges of entrepreneurship as a family
– The one and only thing you need to manage to succeed
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello Hello and welcome welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I am here with yet another high demand coach. In fact, I am here with yet another Scott. That’s right. It is Scott and Scott this afternoon morning, whatever time you’re listening to this podcast or watching it on YouTube, I have with me Scott Maderer. Now Scott and his wife in 2011 took inspired stewardship as a business to serve Christian men and couples that are struggling to live out their calling, as certified human behavior. senior consultants and members of the John Maxwell team. They focus on helping you understand yourself and others. In 2017, they took on the business full time offering assistance through one on one coaching, speaking and workshops. Scott has recently published his book inspired living assemble the puzzle of your call by mastering your time talent, and your treasure just recently hit the beginning of July 2024. And he’s here with us today, Scott Mater. Welcome to the show. We actually met I believe on your podcast, is that right?
Scott Maderer
That’s right. I had you as a guest on my podcast, not not too terribly long ago, just a few months now.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s right. That’s right. Fantastic time. We’ll put the link in the show notes for anyone who wants to check out wonderful podcasts wonderful guests on there. Except for the ones sitting on this side of the microphone.
Scott Maderer
Oh no, you are great. Yeah. So we find the way it’s not? Is it Scott squared? Is that how are we..
Scott Ritzheimer
Yes, Scott squared. Duo Scott I don’t know what it is. But it’s it’s one of those things. It’s like the the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer is lost in downtown New York. And he’s a commit the person at the corner of first and first. But oh my goodness, I want to dive in here on on something that a couple times through the entrepreneurial journey. Now I’m always surprised at how big a deal this is. But founder spouses are founders too, right? Whether they’re an integral part of the business, there’s, it’s kind of inescapable. So talk to me a little bit, what are some of the challenges or pressures that founders spouses feel, as their husband or wife is going through the entrepreneurial journey?
Scott Maderer
Absolutely. So I think for a lot of folks, you know, there’s a couple of different phases or parts of it. First is sort of the pre launch or before you’ve become a founder, maybe you’ve got a day job, maybe you’ve got something else that you’re doing. But you haven’t really launched the dream yet. And you start having this inkling that hum and this is something I really want to do, this is something I’m supposed to do. And the mistake I see happen there a lot is folks not actually sitting down and communicating and talking about it early with a spouse or a partner, and actually almost kind of almost being embarrassed by it or afraid they’re gonna shoot it down, or they’re gonna, they’re gonna tell them why they can’t do it or this sort of thing. And it’s interesting, because it becomes sort of a self fulfilling prophecy. Because if you don’t talk to him about it, and then you go try to do it. Now all of a sudden, they’re scared, they’re worried they’re nervous, they’re afraid, you know, they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know why try it as you do download it. And all of a sudden, it’s like, well, now I’m gonna shoot this now, because you’re crazy, you know. And I see that happen all the time, where the truth is, at recognizing early in that pay, look, there’s more than one person involved in this, by the way, if you’ve got kids, they’re involved at some level, too. Now, depending on the age of the kids that could be at differing levels, but it’s going to affect the whole family, it’s going to affect the amount of time you have, it’s going to affect the amount of money you have, it’s going to affect the amount of energy you have, it’s going to affect all different components of your life. Because we are integral beings where we are a person. And then we have these different roles or responsibilities that we take on but they’re all connected to each other. And so for for that phase, a lot of it is sitting down and really starting to paint the picture starting to talk about it starting to ask questions, you know, what, what would it take to make you comfortable with this? What what what worries you What are you afraid of? What advice do you have? What sorts of ideas do you have? Because, again, like you said, whether you’re my wife, I mentioned in my intro that my wife and I took the business this way now my wife does not have our front facing role in our business. She’s She’s not the person on the phone. She’s not the person doing the interviews. But absolutely, it’s as much her business as his mind. She’s absolutely involved in decision making she act. You know, we have conversations about it. She knows what’s going on. She knows when things are going good. She knows when things are not going so good. You know, all of that becomes part of our regular conversation, because she’s absolutely a part of it through the whole process.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. You mentioned a couple other phases. So pre launch we have the mistake of of not talking about it soon enough which creates the very thing that we’re trying to avoid. So fast forward a stage, then what’s the second stage of the process? And what are some common mistakes there?
Scott Maderer
So early on in the business, when you first kind of get it up and running with it, would it? It’s in those early phases where quite frankly, let’s just say, starting a business can be all consuming. I think that’s probably a fairly good way to put it. And we look at trying to find almost a way of not letting it be, you know, all consuming, let letting it not be the thing that takes all of your time, all of your energy, all of your motion. And in there, I think, again, it really still comes down to communication. But it is that ability to sit down with the family sit down with the spouse and say, okay, look, for six weeks, I’ve got a really intense period, and I’m going to have to go all at it. But then after that, here’s what we’re going to do to bring some more harmony to bring some more balance to, to adjust and get back into phase. Or, you know, hey, maybe here’s how you could help out during this period. So is it something that takes all of my time, takes all of my energy takes all of that, and let’s, let’s figure out a way to bring some harmony, I prefer the word harmony over balance, because balance to me implies some sense of equality. And it’s really not about everything has to be equal, it does have to be in harmony, though. Because otherwise, you get done with a really long day, you’ve, you’ve had a lot of client calls, you’ve worked really hard. And now all of a sudden, everyone else kind of it’s almost like you feel like you’re attacked at the end of the day. Not because anyone’s trying to be mean, but because they haven’t seen you all day, you know, they haven’t talked to you, and now they want and did you don’t have the energy to give? So it’s the ability to kind of have that open communication about what’s the given flow? What’s the what’s the expectations? What’s it going to look like, for the next two days? What’s it going to look like for the next two weeks? What’s it going to look like for the next six weeks, but then actually being able to follow through and hold to that, and that’s where working with other people can help you with that. Because a lot of times in that early phase, you don’t know what you don’t know. And that’s the time to begin setting up the systems and the processes and the people and everything else that then lets it go into kind of the third phase, which is the now it’s actually really kind of more of an established business. Obviously, there’s sub parts within all of these other, you know, subcategories and all sorts of little details. But broadly, that third phase is when the business is up and running and established. And of course that changes things yet again.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And that second phase, you hit on one because the first kind of group of his because there were a few of them that were all together that I when I started, I didn’t have kids, I was married at the time, but didn’t have kids. And then you fast forward about 15 years later I started again is like kids are in the mix. So this is a whole different ballgame totally changes that I Dan. And for me personally, what you mentioned what very few people talk about was having, like, the emotional capacity after the end of a really long day, right? Because he’s like, all out all in, you know. And I’m a raging introvert to fight and despite the fact that I basically talk for a living now. And so I that really struck me as as a big deal. I want to go back to that, then what are some things that that that both the founder and their spouse can do to help bring that emotional harmony that’s needed.
Scott Maderer
So for the founder, especially one thing that you can realize is the other, the spouse that again, male, female, doesn’t matter. But if the spouse is spending time, whether that’s with another job, maybe they’re working their own full time job, or maybe it’s taking care of the kids, but that’s still a full time job, by the way, you know, whatever it is that other person has also expended energy, including emotional energy throughout the day. And so a lot of times, you know, we see ourselves we know we’re drained, we know our batteries are drained, but we have no recognition to the fact that the other person’s batteries have been drained as well. And so some of it is that ability to sit down together and go how are we going to tag team this you know, there’s there’s two of us for a reason, you know, what, what are we going to be able to do? Okay, you need an hour right? I’m gonna go ahead even though I’m tired, I’m going to push through and have that extra hour so you can have an hour to recover and then you’re gonna come and maybe you’re going to be the one that reads the bedtime stories and kind of put tucks the kids in and and that’s gonna vary our routine most of the time or it’s it is that ability to communicate and establish sort of some routines and patterns and then of course talk about them when they need to change. Now with the kids a lot of it depends on their age you know very young kids. They can understand what they can understand but they’re not going to understand all the nuance and detail of you know, mommy daddy are tired is about it. That’s about as far as they get it And by the way, they kind of look at that go. So there’s not a lot of empathy. You know, if they’re young enough, as they get older, though, you can begin to have conversations with them about, hey, this is how we are running our lives. This is how we’re bringing balance. And, and I think it’s a good modeling to do, you know, and by older here, I’m talking even like eight 910 years old, of, you know, hey, I need 45 minutes to recharge my batteries, because I’m a raging introvert, and you know, at the end of the day, I’m tired. If you can give me that 45 minutes, then I’m going to be able to give you an hour and a half, two hours of actual quality time that you’re going to enjoy. I’m going to enjoy, everything’s better. Rather than, hey, if you jump on me in that 45 minutes, now I’m frustrated, I’m tired, I’m angry, you’re frustrated, you’re tired. You’re now we created a bad situation. And quite frankly, kids, I think, a lot younger than we think. Get it? You know what I mean? They started to understand Oh, okay, yeah, if I leave you alone for 30 minutes, everything’s great, you know, and now we can have some, now you got to follow through, and you’ve got to actually spend that quality time with them. Because I think that’s the other thing, sometimes we tell them, Oh, give me 45 minutes. And that turns into three hours. Well, that that works about as well as it does when you do that to your clients or to your spouse or anyone else. Nobody likes that.
Scott Ritzheimer
So you mentioned again, going back to really that transition, I think in your words, between phases two, and three, there’s a ton of stress added to your time to your talent into your treasurer and getting a business up off the ground. When does that go away? Right? Away, they’re sitting there, you’re in their spokes listening, they’re right down in the middle of that, right. They’ve been doing it probably for years, some of them what what advice, what wisdom do you have for them?
Scott Maderer
So first off, I don’t think it ever quote goes away, in terms of all of our life is really a journey, not a destination? Yeah, I tend to think of things as going through kind of phases. And at a broad level, I call it refocus, gain, control and set a plan. So that’s the idea of looking at where you’re at figuring out what’s working, figuring out what isn’t working, that’s refocus, gain control, put in systems, but in processes put in people put in whatever it is guard rails, whatever you want to call it, that begin to bring things more into alignment more into the pattern of, hey, this is going the direction I want it to go, what do I need to get rid of? What do I need to add? What do I need to delegate? What do I need to dump whatever it is, you go through that sort of iteration process, set a plan, and then of course, you execute on that plan. But here’s what happens. A lot of times we do that, and we maybe do it once or twice or three times. And things kind of get to a point where they’re working? Not necessarily great, but they’re working. And so we quit, didn’t even know, we were like, Oh, good, this is it. This is as good as it’s ever gonna get, ya know, it’s not, it can still get better. And by the way, if things are working great, it probably still can get even better. And so it’s sitting down and thinking about, you know, what, what do I want to be when I grow up? You know, what do I want my business to look like, in the next three years in the next two years? In the next five years? What what are my hopes? What are my dreams? What am I wanting the business to do for me, as opposed to for me to do for the business? You have so many people, I see him start a business because I don’t want to work for anyone else. I don’t want to answer to anybody else, I want to have time freedom. And then they basically create a 90 hour a week job that they’re tied to with the world’s worst boss themselves. I tell people all the time, I would probably with working for yourself as your boss is a jerk. If it’s like that it because there is a sense of that. And so you’ve become slaves to the business as opposed to the business providing what you were after in the first place. And so it’s doing that constant process and you talk about it and in the work that you do of refining that business yet again, to go to the next phase, because the truth is what got you to where you’re at is not what’s going to get you to the next place that you want to go. It’s going to, you’re going to have to inject some new skills, some new techniques, some new things. And that includes, by the way with the family, like you said, you’ve added the kids changes the dynamics, you get a little older, changes the dynamics. You know, one of you wants to go back to school, one of you wants to quit your job, whatever it always there’s new things that you have to inject and relearn, refocus, gain control, again, set a plan, and that is just kind of rinse and repeat. Do that for the rest of your life. Because you just kind of step up the stairs as opposed to look for the place where it’s done.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, it’s, there’s that temptation of like, I’ve arrived, right? We’re always trying to arrive and you’re right. It’s a journey. It’s not it’s not a destination. And so I’ve got a question for you that I like to ask of all my guests, and it is this, what is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Scott Maderer
So as you mentioned, you know, my business is kind of focused on on three components, right time, talent, and trick is how we handle our productivity, how we handle what we get done, how we handle our money. So here’s the secret, almost everyone thinks that they could get better around how they handle their time, or how they handle their money. The truth is, neither of those things is the problem, or the solution. I say I help with time, talent and treasures. Real Truth all I ever work on his talent. Well, because at the end of the day, how you handle your time and how you handle your money is actually just about how you handle yourself. Not and you don’t mean this tight, you don’t manage money, you manage yourself. And that’s what allows you to then be more productive, free up more time, free up more money, use money more wisely, and all of these sorts of things. So a lot of times, it’s that idea of we’re looking at the symptom, problems around time problems around money, not actually looking at the root cause, which is our own mindset, our own behavior, or limiting beliefs, how, how we been raised, how we’re at, you know, those sorts of things, the decisions we’re making, around our own self management.
Scott Ritzheimer
My experience has been, that’s a lot harder up front, right to admit that you are the problem, not your calendar, as if somehow calendars can be a problem, right? These inanimate objects..
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s a lot harder to but once you do that work, it’s way easier to create transformation. Absolutely right. If you’re the problem, you’re the solution as well, and the amount of agency that we have to really change what feels like the status quo or worse, many times, we have the ability to resolve.
Scott Maderer
Absolutely, it’s, you know, it’s the old adage of, when you look in the mirror, the bad news is you’re looking at the problem with but the good news is, you’re also looking at the solution, in that you’ve got are you’ve already got everything you need to solve the problem. You just need to find a way to draw it out, put it into practice, you know, and again, that sometimes does require working with other people and all of these things, but it’s it’s that idea of you’ve got the solution. We just need to find a way to put it, put it into place.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So you’ve got a brand new book out, we’ve got to make sure we get we get some time for this, you’ve got a brand new book out, tell us who you wrote it for and what you hope that they receive and reading.
Scott Maderer
So absolutely. So a lot of a lot of the folks that I wrote it for are what I consider those folks that we kind of have been talking about today that are early in the phase of transition. So they’re in that kind of phase one, maybe phase two, early on. And they can’t they know this is how I’m supposed to be doing this. This is what I’m supposed to be doing. But why is it so hard? You know, why is it not coming into fruition? Why am I having to work 90 hours a week? Why am I not able to communicate? Well, why am I not able to pay myself, you know, the number of people that start a business and then they’ll pay themselves for two or three or four or five years? It’s like, well, that’s not really a business. That’s an expensive hobby. But you know, these sorts of things. It’s for those folks that are in those early stages of transition and to help them begin to do what we were just talking about break down. Okay, here’s what’s showing up in my time, here’s what showing up in my money. Now what can I put in place to help move that from out of control, source of frustration, pain filled into control and into I’ve got a system I’ve got a process, I know what’s what’s working, and begin to move forward so that you can create the business, create the work that you really want and feel called to do.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. So name of the book and where we can where we can get a copy.
Scott Maderer
So it’s called inspired living. And the subtitle, as you said, is assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time your talent and treasure, it’s pretty much anywhere great bookstores will have it. I actually put together a special page just for your listeners too. So if you go to inspiredstewardship.com/secrets inspiredstewardship.com/secrets. I’ve got a link to the book, I’ve got some free resources that folks may be interested in. All of that information is there just so it’s kind of nice and easy in one convenient place. But you can also find it anywhere that that great books are sold.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s fantastic. Well, Scott, thanks so much for being on. It’s just an honor and privilege having you here for those of you watching and listening. You know that your time and attention means the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Scott Maderer
In 2011, Scott and his wife Carrie took Inspired Stewardship as a business to serve Christian men and couples struggling to live out their calling. As certified Human Behavior Senior Consultants and members of the John Maxwell Team, they focus on helping you understand yourself and others. In 2017, they took the business full-time, offering assistance through one-on-one coaching, speaking, and workshops. Scott published his book Inspired Living: Assemble the Puzzle of Your Call by Mastering Your Time, Your Talent, and Your Treasures on July 2nd, 2024.
Want to learn more about Scott Maderer’s work at Inspired Stewardship? Check out his website at https://inspiredstewardship.com
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