Melissa asks: "I'm told to hire a virtual assistant, but their paycheck comes straight out of mine. How do I know when my business is truly ready?"

In this episode of Fix My Business, Scott Todd reveals why the fear of hiring is actually masking a bigger problem: you're undervaluing your time. Learn the exact framework to calculate whether hiring will grow or shrink your income, plus how to "dip your toe in" without committing to full-time help.

You'll discover the time-value audit system that shows exactly which tasks to delegate first, how to estimate the true cost vs. opportunity, and alternative pay-for-performance models that remove the risk. If you're stuck doing $15/hour work while leaving $100/hour opportunities on the table, this episode will change how you think about leverage forever.

Do you have a business question, ask Scott Todd here: https://www.scotttodd.net/ask

Key Topics: virtual assistant hiring, first employee, delegation strategy, time management for entrepreneurs, small business hiring, valuing your time, outsourcing tasks, business leverage

You're paying your team well—so why are you still doing their work? If you've ever found yourself finishing tasks your employees should have handled, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Fix My Business, Carlos asks a question every business owner has faced: "I'm paying my team very good, but I'm still doing tasks they should have handled. How do I address this without becoming the bottleneck or turning into a micromanager?" Sound familiar? Scott Todd breaks down exactly why employees don't get work done and gives you a proven four-step framework to fix it without losing your mind or your weekend.

In This Episode:

• The only 3 reasons employees don't complete their work (competency, resources, or motivation)
• How to diagnose which problem you're actually facing with each task
• The exact conversation script to use when addressing underperformance with your team
• Why doing their work for them teaches them the wrong lesson—and what to do instead
• A four-step action plan to stop being the safety net and start leading effectively

Stop picking up the paintbrush and painting the house you hired someone else to paint. This is your roadmap to getting your time back and building a team that actually owns their responsibilities.

Got a business problem you need solved? Head over to scotttodd.net/ask and submit your question—you might be featured in an upcoming episode!

Enjoying the show? Leave us a review and share this episode with a fellow business owner who needs to hear it. Your support helps us reach more entrepreneurs who need real solutions to real problems.

Scott Todd tackles the scaling trap that's secretly draining profits from growing businesses. When Brian, a home flipper with 8 years of experience, asks why he's taking home less money despite higher revenue, Scott reveals the hidden problem: margin erosion. As businesses scale, expenses often grow faster than revenue, creating the illusion of success while actually reducing profitability. Scott shares his proven three-step system for identifying and eliminating the "bad guys" in your financials using percentage-of-revenue analysis—the same method he uses to manage his own business.

• Why growing revenue doesn't automatically mean you're making more money
• The scaling trap: how expenses creep up faster than sales as businesses grow
• Why looking at whole dollar amounts on financial statements misleads you
• The power of percentage-of-revenue analysis for spotting profit leaks
• How to identify your biggest expense problem in under 30 minutes
• The deep dive methodology for getting expenses back under control

• The Scaling Trap Reality: Every new sale at a lower margin means you're working harder for less—your revenue might grow 10% while expenses grow 12%, silently killing profitability
• Percentage Over Dollars: Whole dollar amounts don't tell the story—percentage of revenue reveals the true villains in your business
• The Three-Year Rule: Compare your current year to three years ago to spot margin erosion patterns (example: if cost of goods sold was 25% in 2022 and is 32% today, that 700 basis point change is your enemy)
• One Bad Guy at a Time: Circle the biggest percentage increase first—trying to fix everything at once leads to fixing nothing
• The Three Decision Framework: After your deep dive, you'll face three choices: cut costs, raise prices, or have an all-hands meeting to control spending
• Monthly Vigilance: Review percentage-of-revenue statements every single month with your team—this is non-negotiable for business health

• ScottTodd.net/ask - Submit your business question for the show

Scott Todd exposes the #1 marketing mistake real estate investors make: using generic, invisible copy that speaks to everyone and connects with no one. Drawing from his own transformation—when he shifted from broad messaging to targeting specific sellers (60-80 year olds doing end-of-life planning)—Scott reveals how getting hyper-specific actually increased his response rates across all demographics. The counterintuitive truth: the more specific you get, the more people respond.

• What "invisible copy" is and why generic language makes you forgettable
• The pattern recognition method: analyzing your last 10 deals to find your ideal client
• Why targeting one specific person attracts more people than broad messaging
• The ConvertKit case study: how focusing on "content creators" built a massive email platform
• The three-step process to transform your marketing from invisible to magnetic
• Why "writing to Jim" creates personal connection even with people who aren't Jim

• The Invisible Copy Trap: Generic language that could apply to anyone makes you invisible to everyone
• The Specificity Paradox: When Scott targeted 60-80 year old sellers with end-of-life concerns, younger sellers still called—and overall response rates skyrocketed
• The Avatar Method: Write every piece of marketing to one specific person with one specific problem
• The Pattern Analysis: Your last 10 closed deals reveal who you should be targeting
• The Three-Step Fix: (1) Find the pattern in your closed deals, (2) Write to that specific person, (3) Test and track response rates

• Take the IPP Assessment
• Episode 8: Niching Down and Product Market Fit
• Fix This Next for Real Estate Investors (Scott's book)
• ScottTodd.net
• B. Scott Todd on Amazon.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Thanksgiving Greeting

Episode Summary:

Scott Todd reveals his biggest business mistake: spending months building automation software when he should have been closing deals. In this raw confession, he shares how "productivity theater" cost him $75,000+ and nearly tanked his business - and why most real estate investors are making the same mistake right now.

What You'll Learn:

• Why automation is killing your deal flow (even though it feels productive)
• The 3-question test to know if you should automate anything
• The Investor's Priority Pyramid (IPP) and why sequence matters
• How Jeff Bezos built Amazon by doing things that don't scale
• When manual work is actually better than automation
• The real reason you're avoiding the hard work in your business

Key Takeaways:

• The Wrong Sequence: Most investors automate at deal flow level when they should be at order level
• The 10x Rule: Don't automate anything you haven't done manually at least 10 times
• The Bezos Model: Prove it works → Document it → Automate it (in that order)
• The Hidden Cost: Building systems for a business that barely exists wastes months and tens of thousands in lost opportunities

Resources Mentioned:

• Take the IPP Assessment
• Episode 2: Do Things That Don't Scale

ScottTodd.net

Episode Summary:

Are you getting plenty of leads, but none of them are converting? You might have a product-market fit problem, not a lead generation problem. In this episode, Scott reveals why generic "we buy" marketing attracts everyone except the people you actually want to work with—and shows you exactly how to fix it.

What You'll Learn:

• Why "we buy houses, any condition, fast close" messaging repels your ideal sellers
• The difference between a lead generation problem and a conversion problem
• How to identify your true market by analyzing your closed deals
• Why you need to start broad before niching down (and when to make that transition)
• The 3-step framework to rewrite your marketing message for 10X better lead quality
• Real examples of hyper-specific messaging that converts (including the landlord who only mails to eviction filings)

Key Takeaways:

• Marketing isn't about volume—it's about precision
• When you market to everyone, you attract no one (or worse, only tire kickers)
• Product-market fit = your specific offer matching your market's specific problem
• If less than 50% of your last 10 leads were qualified, you have a messaging problem

Action Items for This Week:

1. Review your last 3 closed deals and identify: What problem did the seller have? Why did they choose you? What was their situation?
2. Look for the pattern—what did these sellers have in common?
3. Rewrite your marketing message to speak directly to that specific market

Resources Mentioned:

• Take the free IPP (Investor Priority Pyramid) Assessment
• Assessment takes 5 minutes and identifies exactly where you're stuck
• If "deal attraction" or "prospect attraction" shows up as your vital need, this episode is your roadmap

Connect with Scott Todd:

Website: ScottTodd.net

Follow me on LinkedIn

Last week, I met a guy who just raised $20 million for an AI company. Now he’s raising $100 million. Most operators I know struggle to raise $50,000.

So I asked him: How do you raise $20 million? I expected the usual answers:

“I know the right people.” “I’ve got a killer deck.” “The market’s hot right now.”

That’s how most people think capital raising works—luck, timing, and connections.

But that’s not what he said.

His answer was simple:

In this 10-minute episode, I’ll walk you through the capital system this operator built—and how you can build your own. You’ll see why raising money has nothing to do with who you know, and everything to do with what you’ve built before you need it.

Here’s what we cover:

1. The $100 Million Lesson

How one investor raised $20M in two weeks—without pitching strangers or chasing luck.

2. The Capital System vs. Hope

The key difference between operators who fund deals in days and those who lose them while scrambling for capital.

3. The Peacetime Principle

Why you should build investor trust before you need the money—and how to do it without selling.

4. The Investor Priority Pyramid (IPP)

Where “Available Capital” fits inside your business growth hierarchy, and why most operators ignore it until it’s too late.

5. Your 7-Day Test

If you found a $50,000 deal tomorrow, could you fund it in a week? This one question exposes whether you have a system or just hope.

0:00–2:00 — The story of the guy raising $100M and the shocking truth behind his “capital system.”

2:00–5:00 — My confession: how I learned this lesson the hard way, from door-to-door days on Wall Street to raising capital for my own deals.

5:00–7:00 — The Investor Priority Pyramid connection: why deal flow systems fail without capital systems.

7:00–9:00 — The playbook: how to start your capital list today and build investor trust in peacetime.

9:00–10:00 — The close: one habit that turns hope into a $100M system.

Take the Investor Priority Pyramid (IPP) Assessment—link in the show notes.

In five minutes, you’ll discover your business’s vital need—the single issue holding everything else back. If “Available Capital” comes up as your bottleneck, this episode will show you where to start.

If this episode helped you see your capital strategy differently, share it with a fellow investor who’s stuck chasing deals they can’t close.

Subscribe to The Fix This Next Investor Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube for weekly lessons on building a business that serves your life, not consumes it.

• Get the free IPP Assessment
• Follow Scott on LinkedIn
• Listen to Episode 4:

What separates successful real estate operators from those who struggle isn't how hard they work—it's how they approach problems. In this episode, Scott Todd breaks down the fundamental difference between operators who set goals and those who actually achieve them.

The Critical Difference

• Poor operators set goals and hope for the best
• Rich operators identify and remove obstacles standing in their way
• Goals without obstacle removal is just wishful thinking

Real-World Example: The Self-Storage Operator

A self-storage operator wanted to fill 30 units by year-end (3 units per week). When asked what would help him achieve this in just two weeks to save his business, he realized none of his planned improvements (marketing, VA hire, automation) would actually solve his real problem: execution.

The Rich Dad, Poor Dad Parallel

• Poor mindset: "I can't afford that" (statement that closes conversation)
• Rich mindset: "How can I afford this?" (question that opens possibilities)
• Poor operator: "My goal is to rent 30 units"
• Rich operator: "What's stopping me from renting 30 units?"

Based on hundreds of IPP assessments:

1. Lack of capital (the #1 challenge)
2. Can't attract the right buyers
3. Can't convert leads into sales
4. Can't find enough deals
5. Don't know their numbers

Every single one of these is an obstacle that needs to be removed, not just a goal to work around.

Many operators work on optimization and order-level issues when they're actually stuck at deal flow—like Cracker Barrel spending $750 million on rebranding when they had a revenue problem, or France building the Maginot Line in the wrong place before WWII.

In August 2015, Scott had his worst month ever—zero sales, zero revenue. Despite having fancy systems and automations, he was optimizing for the wrong thing. His ads weren't connecting with customers. Once he identified the real obstacle (terrible ads, not systems), he returned to basics, started writing ads by hand, and focused on connecting with people. That's when everything changed.

The sequence matters:

• Deal flow comes before profit
• Profitability comes before order
• Vital needs come before nice-to-haves

This Week's Challenge:

Ask yourself: "If I had to close one deal in the next seven days to save my business, what would STOP me?"

Not slow you down—what would completely stop you?

Write that down. That's your obstacle. That's what to fix first.

Identify Your Specific Problem:

• Is it capital? → You have a capital problem
• Is it finding buyers? → You have a prospecting problem
• Is it converting leads? → You have a sales problem
• Is it finding deals? → You have a sourcing problem
• Is it knowing if you're profitable? → You have a numbers problem

Take the IPP Assessment

• FixThisNextForRealEstateInvestors.com
• Identifies your vital need in less than 5 minutes
• Shows you exactly what obstacle to remove first

"Poor operators set goals and wonder why they're stuck. Rich operators remove the obstacles and watch everything become possible."