Why Founders Become the Bottleneck—and How to Scale Past It | Blake Erickson

Full Episode Transcript

This is the full recorded conversation from The Human Protocol Podcast, published by The Human Protocol Group. © 2026 The Human Protocol Group. Please link to and attribute the original episode when referencing this conversation.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (00:01.582)
Growth is not the same as scale. Growth adds pressure. Scale requires capacity. Because the truth is, many businesses don't fail because they lack demand. They fail because they cannot handle the demand they worked so hard to create to begin with. My guest today is Blake Erickson, co-founder of Scaling.com and co-author of The Science of Scaling. Blake, welcome to the Human Protocol.

Blake Erickson (00:30.913)
Michael, thank you for having me so fared up to be with you and be with your audience today.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (00:36.66)
Awesome. Let me bring this camera more to the center, right? It's better, right? I think so. It's good that this is not live, so we have time to edit all that fun stuff. All right, Blake. Thanks for being with us today. I'm very much looking forward to having this conversation with you. And to kick things off, I would like you to kind of tell our audience who Blake is.

Blake Erickson (01:03.905)
First and foremost, I am a father of three amazing boys. I've got three boys in three years and I got married four years ago, so it's been a busy four years.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (01:13.206)
Yeah. Congratulations. Okay.

Blake Erickson (01:16.049)
Thank you. Thank you. Amazing wife. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, which is very important to me. An entrepreneur and a business strategist. So I love business. I love studying the game of how companies grow exponentially, why companies stall. Love people and helping them achieve their potential, helping them achieve truly what they can go do with their product, their organization.

helping create the most impact possible.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (01:48.174)
That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that with us. And you know, I would like to see if you can take us back to the beginning. What did door to door cells teach you about people rejection and and discipline?

Blake Erickson (02:04.113)
Me about tell me everything to be honest with you. So when I was 20 years old, I I signed up to do door-to-door sales. And for anybody that's not familiar with door-to-door sales, you go out and you work for free. It's you only get paid if you make a deal. And so not only is it fully commission-based, but it's also one of the hardest jobs in the world. I remember being in Phoenix, Arizona, 110-degree weather, and being on the doors.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (02:20.174)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (02:32.808)
In the streets for 14 hours a day and getting rejected hundreds and hundreds of times a day. And so what it taught me was grit. What it taught me was the power that skill sets can create. what it taught me was people. What does it take for people to trust you, to like you? What does it take to be able to influence, be able to ask powerful questions? And those were all really incredible experiences for me. And

What I learned in that experience was in invaluable for me as a businessman, which was people are your most important asset. And being able to communicate effectively, being able to influence effectively, being able to lead effectively are the core skills to being able to scale business, the core skills, being able to have an amazing culture, create incredible results, have great relationships with with your clients. And so it was just this PhD in.

People because I had so many repetitions of being on the doors and working with others that did door to door sales.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (03:41.75)
It doesn't get old, right? It's it's all about repetition and you get better and the door closes on you and you knock on the other one until you get one that opens. And then you keep repeating, isn't it?

Blake Erickson (03:53.835)
That's exactly right. The the difference between someone successful and not successful is they're they're willing to just play the game much longer until they've mastered it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (04:02.85)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's you know, receiving a no is not easy for anyone. So we are human beings. We're always expecting everything to be easy. But you really learn more from those that told you no than the one the easy yes that you got in your life. Cause I'm sure there is a lot that you learn, I know that I learned from those that tell me no when I ask for something. And there's always a reason behind it. And and what comes easy goes easy, right?

Blake Erickson (04:27.211)
Mm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (04:32.822)
You probably kept knocking doors because that's something that you believed in that was kind of a passion of yours. And you kept trusting and believing in yourself. And that's great.

Blake Erickson (04:44.519)
Every no gets you one closer to a yes, and more importantly, every deal was one closer to accomplishing our dreams. And so when you have something on the other side of the door that you're chasing, the work becomes a lot more fulfilling.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (04:50.38)
Hm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (05:02.708)
Absolutely. And and selling is like an art. It's all about connecting with people. And there is a lot that we learn when you really when you are able to connect with people. You met different people from different backgrounds and you learned what works with for someone, it may not work for another one. Because at the end of the day it's human trying to connect with different type of humans. And it's kind of an art in itself, isn't it?

Blake Erickson (05:31.317)
Hundred percent. Hundred percent. and it's one of the most valuable skill sets in the marketplace. And with AI, it's gonna continue to be valuable.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (05:39.438)
Yeah.

It's a I tell my team, I tell everyone, listen, it's a I see everyone as, you know, even though we don't want to call ourselves salespeople, well maybe we should all learn how to sell. Because if you can sell, then you can connect to anyone. And at the end of the day, that's what we're looking.

Blake Erickson (06:03.605)
People are the game, my friend. Business is a game of relationships.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (06:09.578)
It is, it was and it will continue to be for sure. Now, Blake, I know that you help lead teams that generated more than I believe thirty million dollars in revenue, right? what did that experience teach you about growth? What is growth for you?

Blake Erickson (06:32.897)
So there's a clear distinction between how we define growth and how we define scale. And I'm gonna give you two personal experiences. One is early in my career, I always had significant impossible goals. And so when I was creating my organization early on, I want to go from one person to forty people to a hundred people to two hundred people, four hundred people.

And our growth was we went from zero to two point five million, from two point five million to seven million, from seven million to ten million, and then we stagnated. And so early on, you could say I experienced scale. Later on, I experienced growth. And here's the distinction. Scale is when you're chasing the impossible and you're chasing things that create exponential results. And and financially you go from

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (07:12.014)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (07:27.359)
You know, two to seven, seven, you you double, you triple, you quadruple. And that's what scaling is. What growth is is when you get stagnant and you say, ten percent growth is good. Fifteen percent growth is fine, twenty percent growth, like, you know, it's still a good year. But it forces no innovation, no real improvement, no real leverage. And I experienced that. So I experienced scale and I experienced stagnation. I think growth is closer to stagnation.

in scaling is when you actually experience the exponential results of growing a hundred percent, two hundred percent, three hundred percent in one year, two years, three years. And that's that's that's the study that we are most interested in. That's where we spend our time researching and and dissecting.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (08:11.598)
So your focus is right now today is really on helping individuals and companies to scale. Basically, that's what you believe should be the focus, right?

Blake Erickson (08:22.229)
Right. And I believe also, Michael, that it's easier. I truly believe this. If you're a company at two million dollars, it's easier to go from two to ten than it is from two to three.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (08:24.034)
Cause mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (08:36.106)
It's easier to go from two to ten than to go from two to three.

How about that?

Blake Erickson (08:47.467)
When you optimize for growth, so let's just say you you wanna move the needle to a little bit incremental growth, the force is incremental thinking. And so if I wanna go from two million to two point five million, I just gotta go do more of what I'm currently doing, which requires more work, more grit, more willpower, et cetera. But the moment I say I wanna go from two to ten.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (08:49.656)
Mm-hmm.

Blake Erickson (09:11.817)
It actually doesn't require more work. It requires more smarts. It requires better thinking, better leverage. It actually forces you to be a better businessman or woman. And and so when you experience exponential growth, it's not necessarily a byproduct of hours. It's a byproduct of the right leverage, the right pathways, the right distribution channels, versus when you go from two to two and a half or two to three.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (09:20.206)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (09:38.589)
It might be eighty hour weeks, it might be a lot more calls, a lot more sales, a lot more a lot more everything. So that's why I believe that that exponential is much easier than incremental.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (09:41.112)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (09:51.508)
Interesting, interesting for sure. And and and you know, Blake, when you look at revenue, right? When you look at revenue from a point of view to prove something or to show you something about a company, do you think it's it's proving that it has demand or that you pr it's proving that it's ready for scaling?

Blake Erickson (10:18.113)
Depends on the phase of of where you're at. So if you're at like zero dollars to two million dollars, I'd say that's the phase of proving that there's a market, what we call PMF product market fit. And so if you can if you can go get revenue, which create which shows that there's demand at a high volume early on, it shows that you have something and that is proof that it should scale. And so

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (10:25.368)
Mm-hmm.

Blake Erickson (10:46.081)
if you're not getting revenue, it means that you're probably rowing the wrong boat, have the wrong product, wrong idea, wrong model, and you should pay attention and pivot accordingly. And so in that phase, it's definitely an indicator that you should sail, that you should scale. Now, in later phases, as revenue increases, it means that things are working. And if optimized and directed correctly, that

you can make it go a lot faster and a lot bigger. And so to answer your question, revenue is always a good sign. And when you're not having revenue, there's a lesson there that needs to be learned that you have to pay attention to

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (11:26.146)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's so that's kind of the exercise, the analysis that you go through when you are trying to analyze if if the company is growing faster than the systems can handle in a way.

Blake Erickson (11:44.171)
Yeah, it it it shows you what's working, right? Oftentimes we dilute ourselves and we try to either have a ton of different products or we have a ton of different different distribution channels. And the reality is usually the 80 20 rule exists where majority of your business is coming through one or two channels. Or majority of your business is coming through one or two products. Or majority of the features you or or just one or two of the features you have is creating.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (11:53.602)
Mm-hmm.

Blake Erickson (12:14.549)
the the reason why people are buying. And so it gives you data to be able to go in and say why? Why are people buying? what are they buying? What are they truly looking for? not like the one or two like small things like what are the big rocks? And then identifying those and leaning into those is how you scale.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (12:35.694)
That's awesome. It makes me think that, you know, something that I hear a lot and I have read about, which is kind of the founder's bottleneck, right? W why founders, you know, often they become the constraint inside the same company they created. And and this is why it's so important also the type of leadership that you put in your company because sometimes they become kind of the bottleneck that, you know, it doesn't allow them to continue to

To a scale. Why do you think that happens?

Blake Erickson (13:12.049)
Because they're serving two masters.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (13:16.568)
Serving two masters and what who those masters would be.

Blake Erickson (13:22.817)
So the Bible teaches you cannot serve two masters. If you think about, if any of you have watched Pirates of the Caribbean, there's Jack Sparrow, where he has his compass. The compass always directs where his heart desires and it tells him where to go. There's an episode or there's a a piece in one of the movies where the compass doesn't work. If you remember why it doesn't work, it's because he had two different things that he was he was wanting.

The girl and the treasure. And when you wanted both of them, the ship wouldn't go anywhere and the compass stopped working. The same is true in your business. So when you have two things you're optimizing for, let me give you example. The a typical business owner wants control, but at the same time they want to scale. So which one is it? Which master do you want to serve? Do you want to serve scale or do you want to serve you having control? You can't choose both. Choose one. Or

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (14:11.928)
What do you want to focus on, right?

Blake Erickson (14:22.357)
They want to look good. It's really important that you look good. But do you want to scale or do you want to look good? Do you want to be good or do you want to look good? And so having to make those decisions and determining what is the master you're serving is the is the solution and the formula of actually getting out of being the bottom.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (14:44.59)
Now that you're talking about this, it makes me think as well. Sometimes when you're getting started, when you're building a company, you know, solo entrepreneurs, for example, tend to focus on so many areas at the same time. my God, I'm gonna target this many areas, and they don't find their niche, right? So instead of focusing and knowing and narrowing things down, on what is it that you want to focus? People sometimes at the beginning, when companies are being built, they try to, you know.

go everywhere where they can and not really focus in and it's you you're just talking about that for some reason make me think about this as well. Yeah.

Blake Erickson (15:23.787)
Yeah, we agree with you.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (15:25.92)
Interesting. And and and Blake, what do you think? How do you think how do you see the shift from being the engine of the company to being the architect of the company? What do you think are what needs to happen to make this happen?

Blake Erickson (15:44.235)
So good. Such a great question. The shift happens when you you allow trust in others. So a lot of early companies, startups, the founder brings majority of the skill sets, experience, direction, vision. In order to get to the next level, the founder can get us to one level, but he'll get overwhelmed, or she'll get overwhelmed.

And so in order to get to the next level, trust must be displayed. Meaning I have to bring somebody in and then give them the ability and the trust to take on one of these pieces. Whether it's sales, whether it's marketing, whether it's the vision, whether it's bringing on some a new CEO to manage, that trust must be passed off. And then and then the other way to do it is making sure the people you bring on are incredible.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (16:24.888)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (16:40.159)
Because you're not going to trust someone that you're not sure that they're reliable or going to be able to execute the result that you need. Bring on people that are better than you. So if you can bring on people that are better than you, that can get the results better, then you then never have a have an issue of you being the engine because you'll actually build a team that becomes the engine and you'll be replaced.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (17:05.688)
So in part you as a founder need to be able to delegate, but delegate not to anyone, to find good people that you can trust, right? And build that culture around it basically.

Blake Erickson (17:18.261)
Delegation only works if you have the right if you have the right people you're delegate.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (17:23.754)
And and you know, how do you see this specific topic, Blake, in this new era that we are getting ourselves into with AI? For example, we have companies today and solo founders that are creating their companies themselves with a bunch of AI agents helping to execute a bunch of the things that we needed people in the past. Are we ready for this transition?

Blake Erickson (17:52.481)
I can't speak to that. I'm not I'm not a master or a professional on AI. I do know that many companies will begin to be one man companies as time goes on, no doubt. But the same but the same philosophy and principles apply is there's going to be a point where you need to seek leverage and bring that leverage in and give trust. And that might not be a person, it might be a eye, it might be a system, it might be a process, it might be a technology.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (18:04.941)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (18:19.874)
Yeah.

Blake Erickson (18:22.185)
but the but the principle is the true. So it may not be a person, but identifying and being aware of the resources out there, trusting them and building them to scale is is gonna be essential, whether you're a one man business or hundred man business.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (18:40.386)
Yep. I I agree. Whatever if it is a technology or a process, you know, it's it's it's it's gonna happen for sure. And and the same logic should apply to it. I was more thinking not on on the technology side, but more on the business and the decisions being made, right? Because, you know, as I look more more into the future and all this that is happening, and especially we're talking about founders, right?

I keep thinking, what do you think in all this conversation founders need to let go of first?

Blake Erickson (19:16.683)
Their pride and their ego.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (19:18.734)
Mm.

Why that?

Blake Erickson (19:23.809)
Because it's the number one thing that stops people and businesses from growing and scaling. because it's about them. If your pride and ego is engaged, it's about them, it's not the company, it's not about their clients, it's not about the mission, it's not about the goal, it's not about anything, it's just about the founder. And so you have to get yourself out of the way, literally and figuratively. Let go of your plot pride and be humble enough to scale. we always say that the first step.

progress is is telling the truth. And if you have significant pride and your egos in the way, you'll never tell the truth. And that's required in order to scale. You may not you you may be too blinded by your own thoughts and opinions and biasy to be able to get to where you want to go.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (20:13.742)
And and when you when you look at companies and when you try to analyze what's happening with them, how are you able to find what are those signs, Blake, that you look at and you say, This company, this business is too founder dependent. Things need to change if you want to change.

Blake Erickson (20:36.469)
Yeah. Yeah. So if the founder wears multiple hats, that's one sign. If all decisions have to be funneled through the founder, that's another sign. if they are the person running all the different departments, that's another sign. and so you want to create autonomy. You want to bring people in that can make their own decisions, that are good enough to make their own decisions, and you want to enable leadership where they can feel that they have the trust and the autonomy to also

run their organization department without needing to check in with the founder. And so some those are some of the things right off the bat that come to mind.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (21:13.976)
Got it. So, you know, when this discussion, it's really telling us that the funder can really be the greater asset or the greatest constraint. That's where everything happened, isn't it?

Blake Erickson (21:25.611)
Period. Period. A hundred percent. So we just did a national research study, Michael, where we interviewed a thousand entrepreneurs across the United States. All their businesses were doing at least a million dollars of revenue. Eighty-seven percent of them said that they admitted, they didn't say they admitted that they are the bottleneck to their businesses scale. And so And so they know it too. They know it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (21:46.324)
Eighty seven percent.

That's that's unexpected. I wasn't expecting that. That's a very high mark. Especially especially if you know that you are the problem, right? I'm hoping that, you know, when you know that you are the problem, you also have the guts to do something about the problem, right? And change for the better. That's usually what we expect, not only on the business side, but on on the personal side.

Blake Erickson (21:58.581)
Very high.

Blake Erickson (22:03.829)
Amen.

Blake Erickson (22:21.323)
Amen.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (22:23.018)
Interesting. Now Blake, if we can if we can talk maybe next about the systems and and and how you can guide anyone listening us today about the system that must be in place before things can scale. Right? So so if you can give a recommendation for anyone listening, what would be those systems that you think these are

This really needs to exist before you're ready to for to scale.

Blake Erickson (22:55.329)
So I don't know if I would actually consider a system. Let me explain. One, you must have product market fit. Demand must exist. Two, you must have clarity. The reason why people don't scale is because they lack clarity. And so you need to have clarity on who you serve, who's your target audience. Really clear. And if you and if you try to serve multiple people, you serve none of them. Third, you have to understand really clearly what problem you solve.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (22:59.384)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (23:25.109)
What's the pain that you have a solution to? And then really be able to explain very simply how your solution product service solves that pain. And so that's the foundational piece is if you have product market fit, understand exactly who your core audience is, the problem you solve, and how you simply solve it. And you've got a good product, you are ready to scale, my friend. I'd say the next step from you.

Is operate from a scale goal. And so we believe in psychology tells us that and science as well. Is that the most powerful tool for your present is a powerful future? Is a future really big that aligns with you, that excites you, and a future so soon that forces you to work today. that that's a very important.

tool. So think about if Michael, if you're a $10 million company and you are trying to go to twelve million, the decisions you make are gonna be really different than if you're trying to go for a hundred million.

The people you bring on, the partnerships, the just the systems, the processes, everything. And so what you optimize for matters. The goals that you have matters because they filter everything that you do. And so setting the right goal, once you have that foundation placed, would be the next step.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (25:00.17)
Interesting. I come from a customer experience. that's my you know my profession. That's what I've been doing for the past two decades. And and what I've seen also, Blake, especially if you come in from if the company is new, right? If you are a startup, there is a lot of attention on the customer. Yeah, the CEO is in the queue, looking at ticket, taking a look where the customer is reporting.

Companies are more agile, right? Before they start scaling. And then you see a different approach when companies already scale. They got bigger, they start detaching little by little from the customer base. So hearing you going over this, it makes me think about how important do you think also it's customer onboarding as to make sure that there is a solid system in place before that company is ready to scale.

Blake Erickson (25:58.837)
Yeah, you don't you you wanna be able to keep up with the growth.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (26:02.488)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (26:03.893)
Right. Oftentimes companies have a window, and if you can't capitalize on that window, you might miss your shot. And so you must be able to keep with the growth. You must be able to sustain the scale. And so it's got to be quality, man. If you want your customers to stay, if you want them to retain, if you want them to come back, you got to give them an amazing experience. Nothing can compensate for a poor product or poor poor experience. Nothing.

And so that must exist. That's the part of scaling. Scaling isn't just go create a ton of revenue. The byproduct of that and the the lead the leader of that that can enable that is having a product that's so good that it can't be ignored and experience and a process that people want to keep coming back to it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (26:54.872)
Yeah, I agree. And and what do you think it breaks first when companies start growing too fast?

Blake Erickson (27:02.485)
They're people. The people that got you here are not the same people that are gonna get you there. And so they lack the knowledge, the skill set, the capability, the experience. And so you have to upgrade your people. That's the first thing that's gonna break.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (27:16.632)
So that's that's where you think the the the you know the focus should be making sure the people are well trained and they're ready for what's coming next. 'Cause what what's coming next may be an avalanche. It will be quick, right?

Blake Erickson (27:30.485)
You have to build your people from scale. Once again, that's why if you're a ten million dollar business owner, Michael, and you're you're hiring right now people at ten million dollars, but you're hiring from ten million versus from scale, those people are not gonna last very long. They're only gonna serve you for a little bit. Versus if I'm at 10 million and I'm hiring people that are gonna give me to a hundred million.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (27:49.868)
Yeah. Yeah.

Blake Erickson (27:58.315)
Then I'm then then I'm doing the right thing. So are you hiring from scale? Are you building your team from scale? That's why it's important to know where you want to go and what the direction is. It's gonna influence all those decisions.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (28:11.278)
It's all about the strategy and knowing where you want to go next and plan around it.

Blake Erickson (28:17.129)
Amen. Amen.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (28:21.208)
Right, good stuff. And and Blake, so you know, we are getting to this era with with AI and and and AI is already changing. companies, organizations implementing AI as part of embedding AI as part of their processes. What do you think AI change as far as the conversation for entrepreneurs around scaling?

Blake Erickson (28:49.153)
There's no better time. There's no better time in the existence of entrepreneurship to be able to scale. You have leverage that's never existed before. You can build technology in in an hour, in a day that used to take months. You can build processes and systems that used to require a whole team. My friends, if you have an amazing idea, there is no greater time to be able to execute it.

You have more leverage than that's ever existed before. And it's not free, but it's almost free. It's cheap. If you can be resourceful with AI, you have access to very cheap labor, very cheap leverage.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (29:34.88)
Absolutely. It is cheap and it's available and it only asking for us to create, right? It's only asking for us to think about what we want to create and and and it's it's really, you know, amazing what we get from it. from using to building website to using to building applications, I mean there's so many use cases and the only thing that we have to do is put our mind to work.

And and you know, the the barrier to entry, especially on building your business, is lowered to the lowest level probably ever, because usually humans, we are limited by our capacity, by our skills. Now with AI, there are skills that can be augmented with the use of AI. And that's what makes all this so, you know, kind of extraordinary. Because you are you

But you have your skills augmented with AI.

Blake Erickson (30:39.585)
Fully agree.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (30:42.872)
So interesting times. And and how do you think and

Blake Erickson (30:46.239)
Best of times.

The best of times.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (30:52.76)
Think so. I really think the future is bright if we use it wisely. It has always been. We just need to use it wisely. And and Blake, looking at all this as well, what do you think are those humans' capability that should matter more as the business kind of becomes more automated, right? In a more automated world, what are those human capability skills that you think are are needed?

Blake Erickson (31:01.729)
I know.

Blake Erickson (31:25.459)
It's it's three that I've already mentioned w which which is this sales, like true negotiation.

Visionary leadership, leaders that can drive a vision, that are resilient. And then third, management, people that understand people, people that know how to recruit individuals, bring them in and list them to the cause, but then also know how to activate them to get to their highest performance. That's always going to need to exist. And so those are the those are the three, even in this era that

are always gonna dominate and I've always dominated.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (32:09.208)
That probably will continue to be those

Blake Erickson (32:11.765)
Those are the seven, eight, nine figure, ten figure skill sets.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (32:19.126)
Nice. And and you know, for founders, what do you think how do you think they should take a look at AI as part of scaling their their architecture and their infrastructure?

Blake Erickson (32:35.155)
it's important not to get left behind. So if you're not resourceful, if you're not studying, if you're not understanding where AI is at, you're gonna get destroyed. And so it's important to adapt and utilize it to its fullest potential so that you can stay ahead of the curve in your business. Because if you don't, your competition is. And they're gonna innovate and they're gonna automate. And they'll be leaner, they'll be meaner, they'll be more resourceful, more leveraged.

To be able go scale. So you need to. And it's not that you have to become an AI brainiac. You could very well just get a team in place or a person in place that can make sure that you guys stay ahead. I don't know much about AI, but we have team members that that that is their sole focus and sole job is to make sure we stay ahead of the curve.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (33:25.312)
Absolutely will continue to it will continue to be the people you surround yourself with, right? That will continue to be key. And and especially in these times. It's it's it's as important as it has ever been. Yeah. And it's a race, right? We're seeing this everywhere. Every no one wants to be left behind. So it's no matter it's not a matter of if you should, it's a matter of

Blake Erickson (33:25.833)
And they're utilizing all the capabilities of it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (33:53.952)
When are you gonna get started with this?

Blake Erickson (33:56.33)
I agree with that.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (33:58.092)
Yeah. And and and Blake, I have some I want to get your thoughts on for for those founders that are trying to scale. everybody probably want to scale, right? If you have a business, of course you want to sell more, you want to scale, right? But what do you think they should fix before they try to go for more growth?

Blake Erickson (34:27.453)
Outside of what we've said already today.

Blake Erickson (34:35.829)
I would fix her

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (34:36.01)
Or even if you think those are the main ones, yes, probably. Yeah.

Blake Erickson (34:39.487)
main ones I've shared today are the main ones. The one that we haven't talked about is you have to fix your psychology. Let me tell you what I mean by that. we are what we think. We get what we expect. We become who we think we are. We do what we believe.

Same is true in your business. And so psychologically, if you believe that your company can grow, it most likely will grow. Same thing is the opposite. And so psychologically, you have to be faith-driven. You have to be totally converted that your product is the best product in the world. You have to be an evangelist of what you do. You have to be fully on offense. Psychologically, you have to eliminate all fear of what people might think.

playing defense and just go full offense. And so psychologically you have to get out of your way. You have to be fully converted, bought in, ready to go win. Believe that you have the best thing that there is out there and go and be have no fear and be willing to go make big asks.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (35:47.662)
That's probably the energy that we want our people to feel if we are leaders, right? If we are founders. Because then that's how you can really make your people to believe in what you're saying and to inspire themselves to be the best version that they can be. And fight for you and fight for your product and fight for your company. So it's a it's the inspiration we we're looking in in leaders, in leadership especially.

Blake Erickson (35:54.891)
Correct.

Blake Erickson (36:01.365)
Exactly.

Blake Erickson (36:09.665)
Exactly right.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (36:16.446)
And and it is important. Every every leader, if you don't inspire, you're probably not gonna be a great leader, right? So at the end of the day. And and and Blake, what do you think what do you think a healthy accountability looks like in leadership?

Blake Erickson (36:24.958)
Amen. Amen.

Blake Erickson (36:38.697)
Mm.

Blake Erickson (36:43.233)
That's a great question.

Blake Erickson (36:53.377)
Let me give you good example. There's a famous football coach who wins championships, has undefeated seasons. arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time. What's interesting about him is he has the highest expectations and the highest floor for his people. But nobody's gonna love him more, also. Nobody that there's no one they trust more. There's no one that they know that cares about them more. And so when you have high care, high trust.

High love, you can demand significant amount of energy, time results from individuals. The issue is, is usually a leader tries to hold people accountable without having trust, love, care, connection. And it just will not work. It won't last. And so the deeper your trust and connection, the more you can demand out of people.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (37:53.322)
I it's high care, high love, and you said something else.

Blake Erickson (37:58.305)
Connection.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (37:59.36)
and connection. That's the that's the winning formula, right?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (38:09.528)
That's nice. That's nice. Thanks for sharing that with us. And and you know, it's do you have any message for a young Blake seeing him today? What would you tell that kid?

Blake Erickson (38:29.931)
Dream bigger faster.

Blake Erickson (38:36.321)
Dream bigger faster. Give yourself permission to go bigger sooner.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (38:44.856)
That's always good. We all have to continue to dream big, yeah. And never stop believing in ourselves, in our capacity, isn't it?

Blake Erickson (38:52.843)
Sure.

Blake Erickson (38:56.746)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (38:58.316)
That's nice, Blake. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today. Okay. it's been a real pleasure. how can how can my audience reach out to you?

Blake Erickson (39:11.317)
Let me give you guys an audience a gift. So there's a book called the The Science of Scaling. Michael, if you can have my assistant send you over our link, we'll give them access to the audiobook for free. And we'll put it, we'll put in the bio. And so read the book, The Science of Scaling, enjoy it. You'll love it. And follow me on Instagram at the Blake Erickson. Would love the connect.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (39:36.088)
I know I'm already following you, so please do follow him. appreciate you sharing the thus many insights with us today and your humanity. it's been a real pleasure to have you with us, okay?

Blake Erickson (39:49.803)
Thanks for having me, Michael.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (39:51.36)
Alright, my friend. You take care. See you. Bye bye.

Blake Erickson (39:53.577)
Appreciate you. Thank you.