Hey, Hunter Hastings here, seven figure founders and ten figure founders. A very different. The people who found million dollar businesses are different. breed from the ones that found billion dollar businesses. What separates them? Well, it's not luck and it's not timing, and it's not even funding. It's how they think. It's philosophy. And today's guest is a person who has. shaped the thinking, shaped the philosophy of many of these billion. dollar leaders. We don't necessarily hear about them. They're not in the headlines. but they're building great businesses that have great influence in the world. A guest is not a white House adviser or a Georgetown professor. He's a quiet. shaper of business people's thinking. He's the one who invites them into the. room and develops the discussions that shape the thinking of these billion. dollar leaders. Here's Doug Crowe. It's his philosophy and his belief that. business isn't merely about profit and growth. It's about purpose and legacy. and the human condition. So he's going to help us unpack what the leaders of. these nine and ten figure businesses do differently. Not strategy, but thinking. visionary cultures leading with humanity, turning storytelling into a superpower. that attracts talent, attracts clients, and attracts capital near the end. Doug's going to share a story with us. that will completely reframe what personal branding means for those. founders who want to become billion dollar founders. What really matters at. those levels? By the end of the episode, then you'll understand why leaders at. the highest level turn to Doug when they need clarity, direction, and truth. This is the kind of insight that you won't find in business school. Let's talk to Doug Crow. This is the Value Creators Podcast, your source for. a new kind of business education. Escaping from business administration. mode and entering dynamic entrepreneurship mode, we're. guided by entrepreneurial economics, which is the source of all growth and. positive change for businesses of all sizes in all markets. We talked to. experienced experts and value creation so that there's business learning for. you in every episode. Doug, welcome to. the Value Creators Podcast. Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. We're going to focus. on something today that you're an expert in. I'm it's what you and I. decided to call nine and ten figure businesses. There's not really a term. for them because they're not an SMB, right? Small and medium enterprises. And they're not in the fortune 500 necessarily. They're somewhere in. between. But they're kind of a backbone of the economy. They account for a lot. of, revenue and, yeah, profits and job creation and so on. You're a strategist for them. You help them grow. So that's that's how we're. going to focus today. Sure. So let's see if we can characterize them in. some way. We've we've talked about their size. But can you look at all the. businesses that you've been involved in and somehow characterize them,. especially from a success standpoint? Sure. And the 910 figure world,. you know, they're no longer founder led necessarily, or founder sales led. They've got a they've got a, a machine that is doing something where, hey,. they're really the word scaling is used a lot by SMEs and it's not true. They're really growing. So at your level you know now this these are scaling. They're saying hey can we get can we break into Europe. You know, can we roll. out a new product that can we acquire a company they're doing things are. playing a real monopoly board as opposed to just trying to make some. money. And that's the biggest difference I've seen is that these are, these are. beyond enterprise builders. They're changing the culture or the ecosystem. of their industry. And that's probably one of the reasons people who say you. have hit 50 million, I'm good. Also think, oh, wait a minute, I just saw my buddy,. you know, go public, you know, what can I do? How can I go ahead and go one. more level up? So there's always some brass ring you're aiming for. But most. those people, it's not about the money at that point because they've done. well. It's about impact I think. Are they typically privately owned? Doug, are we. talking a mix of private and public? You know, I'm surprised. How many are. I would think that a lot of them are public, but once they go public, there. is, you know, shareholders and they go from stakeholders to shareholders. And the dynamic sometimes changes a little bit when they're privately held. That guy or gal has got a lot of autonomy. They certainly have a board at. that point, but they're not beholden to them necessarily. They go, they'll take. the advice. But, you know, we're going to go ahead and just keep doing this or. pivot or something. So it's it's it's interesting to me to work with people. like that because it's still a one on one relationship that we're building and. talking and doing things in the personal brand side. I don't have to answer to. shareholders or have to go through, rigorous legal compliance or something. Yeah, yeah. Can we talk about some of the traits that you've observed that. make some successful? I yeah, you know. I'm sure you're familiar with Herman Simon and his, Hidden Champions. database. And he tried to characterize those businesses in Germany as very. close to the customer, very innovative, highly focused. What do you think about. the traits of the businesses that you see? There's one and one trait that. I've seen over and over and over again, and it is vision. It's being a. visionary of seeing what's possible, not what's in front of them, but what. they see. They see the future clearer than anybody else. I I've seen in my. own world. I've, you know, I've got some guys in my client base who've like. one of them. He invented a little piece of software you've heard about, you. know, it's called, GPS, right? My client invented that. It changed the world. He had the vision for what it could do as a weapon system. And people. obviously use it for, you know, finding a dog sitter, right? So there's. things that people of that level have that most people don't. They, they're. focusing on what am I gonna do tomorrow? What am I going to do on this year, this. quarter, a visionary thinks about what's going to happen in the matter. They're. gone. What impact they're making. And it's it's not just altruistic, it's they. they have the power to do it. And the good ones are responsible. Of course. Are people born with that capability. or do they develop it? Can you train it? Ask God, yeah, that one I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Whether it's born or learned, I think probably. a little bit of both is probably easier if you're born with that big vision. You know, Leonardo da Vinci. You know, I can. I can see our Tesla. I can see things you can't see. But I do believe after talking to so many. people in my career that some people get it. They can see, I can see, get. into an eight figure company. Cool. They can. I never imagine going bigger than. that. And because they can't imagine it, it never does. But if they around. people like that, who's like, wow, you mean I could take that? I could take. like one of my clients, helps companies go public. And my viewpoint before. meeting Peter was, well, you got to have, you know, a nine figure company before. you go public. No, no, not so true. He's taken some eight figure companies and done an IPO with them. So I think. the the self-imposed restrictions, a lot of founders and business people have. can be removed by exposure to that next level of, of vision and entrepreneurship. I guess. Yeah. And how do. they articulate that vision, Doug? I mean, just does it have details in it? Is it is it pretty broad? Is do they draw pictures out? Like how do. They get the best ones? The best ones don't teach it or talk about it. They about some value propositions and taglines and, and trying to get a them. And most people fall in the trap of what they do, not why they do it. And so the good ones, oh, here's why I do it. But the best ones I've heard You know, all these Elon Musk as an example because everyone knows him. But you know, yeah, I build rockets and batteries and cars. Okay, cool. But when he said the word two words, right. Two words that, visually speaking. could fill up a library. You know he said Occupy Mars. Notice he didn't say. go to Mars, visit Mars, travel there, occupy Mars, that kind of vision he's gone. Right. It might take a while to do that. But that kind of vision That's why Kennedy said, before this decade is out, we'll put a man on a. moon returning safely to Earth. That vision galvanize and energize an entire the moon. So big visions get more attention. And I think it's they gotta. they gotta actually see it. They see it in their mind like Disney. You don't. start by Disney. I really saw Swamp Land. He saw Disney World before it was built. And the famous quote of someone saying, it's too bad Walt wasn't here to see. this. And the guy said, oh, he saw it. so clearly before was built. Yeah, yeah. So the next step you said is, is just do it or some paraphrase. of that and in our intellectual theory about entrepreneurship, we call it strategy. You do things, you see what happens. You see if it moves you adjustments. Is that is that basically right? Yep. There's a thing you can look. up. I'm sorry. The Ooda loop de loop. Yeah, yeah. Boyd. Right. That's that's. that's textbook. You know, observe and act. You know, you got to actually do. things to get feedback, to adapt and keep and defeat your Oni. In his case,. Mr. Boyd, the pilot. Yeah. But, yeah, it's, taking action and being open to. all feedback as entrepreneurs, sometimes it's tough because we've got our own. vision. What if the MVP doesn't work? Great, now you've learned what not to. do. What's next? Listen your customers. Right. So Steve Jobs would like that. He had his own vision. He didn't care. what people said. And he was right. Most people aren't that they need some of orientation. Is that broadly equated to vision? You know, I think I think. vision is yeah, probably probably it's more of a vision would be like a mindset. on the Ooda loop where it's like, hey, I've got this concept that I have. I have a belief system and I can see the future. But to actualize a future,. you need to have that. Yeah. Observe. Orient. Decide, act. You know. Because these visionaries, these leaders are so, I guess charismatic, you might. say, with the vision. Yeah. Does that get them better employees to they build of paradigms of business. You know, I've, I've been studying personalities and and. psychology my whole life. And I'm always fascinated by, jerks who do well versus. people like me. I'm like, I'm a nice person. I, you know, I do all things. improperly and building a business. You know, they're supposed to say, you. know, hire slow and fire fast. Most entrepreneurs do it backwards a higher. fast and fire slow than that plenty of times. But the, being a leader of of a But if you don't have it, but you've got conviction, if you're a quiet works. The best salespeople are not extroverts, in my opinion. Best. salespeople are introverts who listen really well. And if you listen well and. you give somebody attention, you're building a friendship and relationship. there. And that works for sales. It works for hiring. It works for bringing. investors right? You're going to listen carefully and you're going to, speak. with intention to what's important to that person. Yeah. If you read the. histories of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, they can be jer