Building A Community Of Successful Business Leaders With Mike Rees And Allison Maslan

 

It takes winning leaders themselves to build a community of business leaders. As if a match made in (internet) heaven, Mike Rees and Allison Maslan found each other, paving the way to a community focused on business scaling. The couple joins Matt Kelly to share their powerful teamwork and bond that serve as the foundation of Pinnacle Global Network. They talk about their amazing work helping CEOs and entrepreneurs achieve their next level and reach more than eight-figure revenues. Mike and Allison also discuss the rising role of women in the business scene, breaking the glass further towards professional equality.

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Building A Community Of Successful Business Leaders With Mike Rees And Allison Maslan

Let’s get rolling here. Top of the morning to you. It’s wonderful to start the day here with both of you. I greatly appreciate you spending this time with me here on Balancing Us. This is a mission-driven show where I source out couples that are living life to the fullest. Each of them has their own individual lives going with interests and activities that they do on their own. They’re supported by the other one to the fullest so that they can enjoy that 100%. At the same time, their unity is as strong as it could possibly be because of the way that they treat each other in those activities that they do individually.

 

I have found that’s not always the case with people. Unfortunately, that leads to depression or a tougher life for one or the other and sometimes a break up in a marriage where if the two people could just understand, “Let’s support each other in what you love to do individually, regardless of it’s something I have any interest in. That’s going to bring us together even closer and make things much more harmonious.”

That’s what got this started is my marriage to my wife for a few years, who is a very strong career-oriented woman and my time in real estate, working side by side with women, competing with them, and just getting to know all of the strengths and attributes that they bring in the workplace. This is a balance of home and work and bringing us all together. With that, I, thank you very much. If you could take a minute and introduce yourselves. If there’s something you want to promo or mention, this would be the time to do it.

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We are super excited to be here, Matt. As we said a minute ago, it is our first joint interview. I’m Allison Maslan. My husband and I together run a company called Pinnacle Global Network that you are part of and we are so honored with that. We mentor business owners around the world to grow and scale companies that change the world. This is my 10th company. I absolutely love business because I know that it really helps people to share their gifts in the most creative and impactful way.

I’m Mike Rees. I’m Allison’s husband. I’m looking forward to this interview because I have been a successful entrepreneur for many years. About a few years ago, I decided to join forces with Allison and Pinnacle Global Network. I have my side as an entrepreneur and two ships passing in the night as we were both doing our things and now working together on a common cause. I couldn’t be more excited. Thank you.

Thank you for that. As you mentioned, you two are incredibly successful on your own in business. With Missy and I being part of Pinnacle for a few years now, I’ll tell you probably as equal as what you do for people in business, it’s what you guys share with your relationship. Where the love and support that you publicly show to all of us that are involved with Pinnacle, and I’m sure it’s shown in your community and the people around. I think equally as important because it drives all of us together to be better people. I’m so curious, how did you meet?

We met on Match.com. I was the one that reached out to Allison. I didn’t reach out once. I reached out four times before she would respond to me because not knowing, I had spelling mistakes when I was writing her and it didn’t have to spell check on Match.com. Being a journalist major in that, she didn’t respond. Until the fourth one where I said, “Let’s have coffee.” I guess I spelled that right, so we got to meet and that’s it.

It’s true. I definitely was not quite sure with his grammar if this was a guy that I really wanted to go out with. I will say, I was impressed with his persistence and I thought, “I liked that quality,” because that’s important to me. Somebody that goes after what he wants. Leading up to that, Matt, I will say, I truly believe that we manifested each other or I know I was doing on my part. I don’t know if he was necessarily working on that. I was good at choosing the wrong match for the longest time in my life until I got clear what was super important to me and refuse to settle and set boundaries. I literally made a list of all the qualities that I wanted in my partner and in the love of my life.

 

I was visualizing him on a daily basis coming into my life. I wrote to my girlfriends. This was the end of June 2005. I said, “I want you to know, I’m going to meet my soulmate by August 12th, 2005 and we are going to get married one year later.” They were like, “Allison, that’s so great but if it doesn’t happen, it’s okay.” I was like, “No, it’s happening.” We had our first date on August 4th and then we got married one year later on August 27th.

You made your deadlines.

I made my deadlines. He came in under the wire. I figured that if I could do this in business, why couldn’t I translate the same intentionality into a relationship? That was the big aha for me and a massive shift in my entire life. It has completely changed my life because we’ve been together for several years.

You made it a focus and a priority.

I asked for what I wanted. As women, we often settle. I don’t think that I valued myself enough to speak my mind and say what I wanted in a relationship.

I think sometimes the universe gives you what you need versus what you asked for because I was asking for this Midwestern girl and Allie goes, “I’m from Tulsa,” as well. She’s as far from a Midwestern girl as what you can get. Thank God the universe gave me and presented her in my life because I had this other vision of what would be best for me.

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What are you saying exactly?

The universe put exactly who I needed and wanted into my life.

Mike, at what point did you realize you had a powerhouse of a woman in your hand? Someone that had started ten multi-million dollar businesses and the homeopathic side of her and everything that she brings to the table. When did you start realizing, “This is something special?”

Right off the bat, there was mutual respect. Both being entrepreneurs, both doing their own thing. I found that out when she started the first homeopathic school and I started to know that. The changes she was making in people’s lives out there, but when she started, Pinnacle Global Network a few years ago, that’s when I y saw her step up and step into her greatness and understand the gift that she had to bring to this world and to change people’s lives. The more passion she had behind it, the more she stepped into it. That’s where I saw there was no stopping this woman and there is no stopping us.

Allison, you have mentioned that you’re a big thinker and you prove it on a daily basis. As an example, to all of us, where do you see Pinnacle five years from now? What’s inside your mind as far as that company and where it’s going?

I’m a few years in now and I feel that every year has been building upon itself. We’re just catching our stride. We’ve been this best-kept secret in a sense and the word is getting out. The team is growing and it’s evolved into its ecosystem. The culture is so strong of people that are go-givers that are generous and that want to change the world. It’s grown beyond me and it started to have a life of its own. In five years, I see us having thousands of members and impacting millions of people around the world because there’s such a ripple effect. When an entrepreneur reaches their goals and scales their business, they are helping their employees, their employees, families, their customers and the ripple effect of each of those makes a massive difference in the world.

I’m at a level in my life and I’m getting older. For me, it’s all about legacy. That’s what I see happening. I truly believe that business owners change the world. They’re out there working so hard and they’re persistent. They have a lot of people that are against them at times. Their families think that they’re crazy and so forth. We really want to give a space for people that are dreamers to know that they can do it. They got their chance during this lifetime so let us help them to make that a reality.

 

You are doing that, both of you with Pinnacle. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. I preach to take ego, jealousy and control, those terrible things out of relationships and everything is going to flow much better. Always put the best foot forward. Mike, I’m reeling into your story, MFC Office wholesaling liquidators. You had that company since 1988 and a few years ago, you stepped away from that to become a very big part of Pinnacle. To me, that reads that you saw what Allison is doing and the direction of how many people that’s helping. You’re a go-giver and that gave you that outlet. Was it hard to step away from your company at that point or was it time for you to do that? How did that decision come about?

The timing was perfect. I lost the passion for what I was doing and I gained the passion for the mission-driven company, the focus set that we’re doing here. I was at an event. I’ve been to a lot of events but about several years ago, four women came up to me in the back and said, “Your wife has helped change my life.” They didn’t say, “Allie has helped me grow my business from $1 million to $5 million or $5 million to $10 million.” “Your wife has helped change my life.” “I’m more confident.” “I can take more vacations.” I’m doing this and I went up to her after that. I said, “I’m all in.” She goes, “What changed her mind,” and I told her. She looks at me and she goes, “I’ve been telling you this for years, you idiot.” I wasn’t ready to hear it until the timing was right and I heard the message. It’s been incredible.

He is such an incredible businessman. He can run math equations like Rain Man, in his brain. He’s an overall strategist. He sees things in a very creative way. He’s like a MacGyver when it comes to business. He comes up with these solutions that are incredibly innovative. I’ve been wanting him to come on board for the longest time with me, especially as we saw this taking off. The other thing is it was tough because we would just see each other in the morning. He would go onto his business and I would go into mine. I loved that he was an entrepreneur. That was one of the things on my list.

For a lot of reasons, it gave us some freedom to travel and things like that. I wanted to spend time with them. I kept saying, “I would love to see you in the daytime.” Because we would get to see each other in the morning and night and that was it. I traveled a lot. I used to be on the road a lot and I missed him. It was tough. It was a bit of a selfish reason too because I wanted us to be together but I also knew that we could make a great team in the business.

Let’s be clear. You are Mick Jagger, I’m Keith Richards. You’re out there, I’m totally the support and I’m happy in the support role and in doing what I’m doing.

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That comparison could be the same for Missy and I, the way she’s become the face of CatTongue. I love watching her flourish the way she is and supporting her. There are days that I’ll be like, “Honey, what do you need? What can I do to help?” It’s super cool to do that.

Mike is that way too, Matt. He is so there for me.

There’s no ego in this thing, at all.

It’s cool and he brings me coffee in the morning and sometimes even a second cup.

Allison, what was the driving force in you early on? I’ve heard you speak about your father before and is that a big influence and who you’ve become?

I think about that all the time, Matt, more and more where I see more of my dad in myself. I truly believe he is with me. He was an entrepreneur through and through. We grew up with that energy. We were with him as he was growing that clothing chain across the country, going with his store to store. It seemed like normal life to me. That’s what you do, that you start your own business. I don’t think I ever thought young, “I want to become an entrepreneur.” I didn’t know otherwise and I couldn’t hold a job. I was incredibly bored. I liked to create my path. We entrepreneurs are that way. We have a hard time fitting into a mold, but I had great encouragement from my parents.

They weren’t there to help me financially. They were like, “you’re on your own,” and that’s it. I was cut off at eighteen and I’m grateful for that. My dad would say to me, “You never let the grass grow under your feet.” You know that saying, I’m sure. I always felt like, “Why not?” I never thought, “What if this doesn’t work?” I don’t know why. For me, it never was like, “Is this going to work or not?” It was like, “This is the new path that I’m going to follow when I would start a new business.”

Allison, you did mention earlier that you spend a bit of time as a single mom with your daughter. You always have been in business. Maybe you could share for those single moms out there that are either entrepreneurs or have a job with a company like yourself, what was your strategy? How did you balance being a mom and having your companies?

First of all, all the single moms out there. I have great respect for you. I had a lot of people saying, “Allison, why don’t you get a job until your daughters are grown and then go do that business thing.” For me, I felt like, your kids are going to do what you do, not what you tell them to do. She was always with me along the way in all of the businesses, in a sense. I even worked out of my house or she would come to the office with me and hang out while I was with clients. I’m sure there were times it wasn’t super fun for her, but that’s what she saw. That’s inspired her to be such an independent woman as she is.

I wouldn’t say I had a strategy. There were definitely tough times. I didn’t have any financial help. I needed to pay for her schooling and take care of all of the expenses and things that I had. For me, that was a good thing because there was no turning back. I had to make it work. It wasn’t, “Let’s just see how this is going to go.” I knew that there was no other option. That fueled me. When your backs against the wall, you do what you have to do. That was good for me and kept me in the game. Beyond that, my confidence grew to take it out of survival level into a much bigger enterprise.

I would think that was a huge education for her and her young life, for you to have her that involved with what you’re doing. I’ve seen a photo where it says, “Success on one side success on the other,” and then there’s the perception, is the line going straight up, and reality is the line with circles and going all over the place to get there. She lived that with you, it sounds like.

We’ve had lots of circles as Mike and I have to, in our few years together. That’s just life.

“Life gets lifey,” as we say.

What’s interesting about saying that is that graph. I keep looking for quotes. I look for quotes to change to equal relationships and that graph, I’m going to take the success words off the top and put relationships in. People realize none of us get through this unscathed. It’s not absolutely perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better to figure it out and stay together if you can when you’ve got the right person.

What do you think about that?

I know I got the right person.

That’s that shows each and every day the way you guys spread that love and show us how you guys are towards each other. Something I like to touch on and ask both of you, because you’re in contact with so many different people in business. I consistently hear about women in business and the struggles that they have to succeed to get funding. The condescending type of communication that sometimes comes across. Do you see that? Do you hear that from people that you’re in contact with business? Do you have women talking about it? “I can’t believe this man just said this to me,” or this type of thing is out and about and I have to deal with this.

Yes and no, Matt. To me, I never allowed that to be an obstacle. I started the business when I was nineteen and I was around a lot of men, as clients and much older than me as well. I always thought that was an advantage because I stood out. Have I had some instances? Yes. I had an instance even with an employee once that had a hard time taking direction from me. One of the things that I’ve had a tough time with and Mike will attest to this because we’ve had many conversations around it. Was being raised as a woman, I was a people pleaser. I was the middle child and I wanted everyone to be happy. “Let’s all get along.” It was never really good at conflict.

Meaning, addressing things head-on that was difficult or dicey. We’ve had several talks about it over the years. I’ve gotten a lot better to confront those things. You have to, as your business grows. Otherwise, it’s going to grow and be a much bigger deal. I remember having a conversation also with Gary Vaynerchuk, who you probably know he is. He’s big in the internet marketing world. I was speaking with him because we were at an event. I was talking to him about this situation. The topic came up and it was happening with this employee at work. I mentioned it and he said to me, “But you don’t care, right?”

It really hit me in the face because I was like, “I’m the one that’s making this a big deal.” I’m not saying this isn’t happening for women. I know that it is. There are a lot more male-owned companies, although as the host of the Women Who Own It Podcast and Missy is also a member of WBENC. I feel that as women, this is our time for sure, as business owners. We definitely can be a force to be reckoned with. What do you think about that?

I know you can be a force to be reckoned with. What’s unfair out there is a man that’s strong. He’s a great leader. He’s this. A woman that’s strong sometimes in business and assertive can be the B-word. It’s that fine line a man says but if a woman sometimes in the same way, then they look at her in a different light which is just totally not fair in the business world. I think that’s changing. I hope it’s changing and doing that. It wasn’t very long ago where a man had to co-sign for a woman on a bank loan. We think about this as in the dark ages. How long ago was that?

It wasn’t that long ago. In fact, when I bought my houses before I met Mike, it said on the loan documents, “An unmarried woman.”

It’s not that long ago that this all took place. We’re still coming out with the women in the workforce, which has been a long time. The men are trying to deal with that, now their egos and that the women in the workforce competing for jobs and things. Some men can’t handle that and do it. It’s too bad.

My thoughts go a little deep on that. Because if no woman in the workforce, if she is qualified and able to, if she’s in a corporate environment to move up, yet, she’s not being promoted because of the men that are in charge. If you think about it, those men aren’t only hurting her and upsetting her but when she goes home to her family, her husband is having an upset, rightfully pissed-off woman on his hands. Unless, she completely masks it, which it is ridiculous to ask her to do it. It flows down to her children and she knows that this is so unfair and, “I’m just getting screwed here.” The people in charge at that company didn’t keep her down. They are affecting her entire family and friends. It goes further than that.

This is going to take me into a little bit of I know with COVID that a lot of help for children were not around. You weren’t allowed to have them in your house like you usually do. It ended up being a lot of women that walked away from their careers for this period of time in order to take over that role, the men stayed at their jobs. Now that we’re coming out of COVID, I’ve heard that we’re ten years behind where we were as far as women being in the workplace due to this. I am preaching now that when a resume comes across a desk in an office and this woman is qualified.

Now, if she’s not qualified, fine. I’m all about the most qualified candidate and quality, but if she’s qualified, hire her. Do not think twice about it because every one of these women that had a career before and had the help and everything set up in their life. Their families were running perfectly with them and their husbands. Now, it’s been disrupted by no fault of anybody. It is time to hire these women back and hire them back first so that these families can get back to that balance that they’ve had for so many years prior to COVID.

A hundred percent, it really is. This is why I encourage women to start businesses too. Because they can have that flexibility, they can design their life around their passions and their family. I do feel we’re coming out on the other side, thank goodness. I see an entrepreneurial explosion that’s going to be happening, Matt, because people have left their jobs. Some of them are like, “I didn’t like that job and I want to do something on my own.” It will be interesting to see where the numbers fall and the next few years from all of this.

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Not everybody has the wherewithal or the mindset to start their own business. It is somewhat special. I would say to these ladies to look for smaller companies. Don’t go for the security of those big corporations that maybe you’re in before and try to get going on that. Mix in your resume with smaller companies, local companies, that you see a fit for yourself, and that you see have a good future and a good culture and all that. That might be a nice path that’s just a step below being a full entrepreneur yourself. Now, you’re working closely with those entrepreneurs and you can have a fulfilling life, a filling a spot in one of those companies.

There are so many of our clients that are hiring right now, too, in the business world. To me, being part of a company that is in that growth mode is exciting. It’s not the big corporate position, but you get to be part of that grassroots effort. To me, it’s never boring in the business world as you know.

No, that is true. This has been amazing and it’s flown by as I expected. Your insights are fantastic and you’re always so fun to spend time with. I thank you very much. I’ve got one last question for you. I learned that there’s a stat from the Smithsonian that I found that in our country, there are currently about 400 statues of women prominently located and 5,000 statues of men prominently located. I thought that is one heck of unbalance. I know that’s not serving anybody because when you take a vacation, you take a trip. When you come across a statue, it’s always engaging to go up and read the plaque and learn about that individual. I would surely like to see us hurry on up and put some more statues of women around to acknowledge their accomplishments. I will ask each of you to take a turn and if you could provide the name of a woman from any time in history that deserves a statue in our country and why.

I didn’t meet her, but my mom had the honor of hearing her speak and that was Eleanor Roosevelt. She was ahead of her time fighting for women’s rights. She obviously was the first lady to the president, but she was independent. She was fighting her fight before they were married. She had a strong voice. She traveled and shared her encouragement. She was a very inspiring woman. Some of her quotes that we use now and this one I love, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” How many of us do that? We feel inferior and we think someone is oppressing us, but we are allowing ourselves to feel that way. Another one is, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right for you’ll be criticized anyway.”

The last one was, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” We do that as business owners. For me, having Mike by my side all of these years and especially the last few years in business has been the best experience I’ve ever had in business. I’ve had a lot of businesses but I do think when men and women can come together. I love that you’re doing this show, Matt and as I said, this is our first interview together.

No, this has been very nice. The readers are going to get a lot from this, from both of you. Allison, what you said about that first part about her quote ties into what you were talking about with that employee that was giving you a bit of a hard time and that gentleman that told you, “Why is that?” Those two things I made a connection on. You can’t control how somebody is going to speak to you although I would want to bring it to the forefront that it does nobody any good to talk condescending, to make remarks to somebody based on their gender. I know from my business experience in real estate and working side-by-side and opinion with women, that woman that you just said that to probably could run circles around you in business. That might be why you are feeling that you have to talk to her that way to try to better yourself and it’s so wrong.

You love to push somebody down to make yourself feel higher. That’s like a drowning person who pushes somebody down to get some air and it’s not right.

Thank you, Allison, for that wonderful choice and Mike, if you could please offer yours.

I’m sure there’s already a statue, but it would be Rosa Parks, the mother of the freedom movement. Martin Luther King started that whole thing. The courage that it took for this lady to stand up for what she knew was right and to stand up for others, I love that. Allie knows that I’ll always stand up for what I think is right. Whether it’s somebody being rude to somebody in a restaurant, that’s one of my pet peeves and the women and things like that. I’m no Rosa Parks, but I will stand up for what I believe in especially when somebody is being put down or bullied or things like that. I will not stand in the shadows of that at all. Rosa Parks is somebody that inspires me. She’s stood up and had the courage to stand up for what she believed in and to stand up for others.

She is a very powerful woman. I would imagine there’s a statue. I’m going to look that up because there needs to be. Allison, you have not mentioned your book yet and all of your accomplishments to have a book out and about. Selling, as well as this, is helping so many people. I would be remiss to not allow you to mention that.

Thanks, Matt. The book is called Scale or Fail. It’s all about our SCALEit method, which is our proprietary process that we use to help businesses scale and that I used to help build my companies over the years. It’s a passion of mine. Putting this book together was all heart and it’s helped a lot of people. I’m glad that I put the time in the focus to write this book and now onto the next book.

I think you had talked about that. Do you guys have a second one in the works?

Scale or Fail was my second book. My first book was called Blast Off and that came out in 2009. Scale or Fail came out at the end of 2018. The next book is going to be a deeper dive into the SCALEit method. It’s going to be more around those specific strategies in scaling the pillars that we use for Strategic Vision, Cashflow, Alliance of the Team, Leadership and Execution. I have another book in my mind. When you write a book, it is all-encompassing. You have to shut everything out in your life. As far as relationships go, when I start to write a book is like, “I’ll see you in six months.”

Maybe you could re you could weave in your relationship into your next book. Do a little bit of the balancing us talk. You guys don’t see it because you’re onstage. You’re communicating with each other. The vibrancy of your relationship resonates with all of us that are watching. It just gives a good feeling around everything that you do.

I appreciate that. It makes my heart sing to be able to go on this journey and then now the business journey with the love of my life. I’m glad that other people are inspired by that. I definitely am.

Thank you both very much. The readers are going to get a ton from this. I wish you guys all the best today, tomorrow, next week and months and years to come.

Matt, I want to say. I love that you’re doing this show. I love that it’s more than just, “Couples, how did you create success?” You are such a supporter of women. Coming from a man, you don’t see that often. There’s a lot of great guys that support their women and at WBENC, we call them the He’s for She’s. This is mission-driven. I know that this is going to inspire a lot of couples and a lot of men to step up more for their women and see that it’s a really good thing to do because everybody wins.

Step up more, but also step back a little bit too and let them shine and be okay with that.

Put the best foot forward in your personal relationship, in the workplace and the people that you’re around. Let the ones that can run, run and support them 100% and enjoy watching where they go. It’s so simple to me. Thank you, Allison, very much. I appreciate you recognizing and saying that, “I’m going to do everything I can do,” one episode at a time.

Thank you, Matt.

Have an incredible day.

Important Links:

• Pinnacle Global Network
• Match.com
• Women Who Own It Podcast
• WBENC
• Scale or Fail
• Blast Off