Build a Business That Sets You Free (Not One That Owns You) | Stories With Traction Podcast

Show Notes:

In this episode, Matt Zaun sits down with Scott Raven, founder of Corvus Solutions, to explore how high-achieving entrepreneurs can escape the very businesses that are trapping them.

Scott opens up about the hidden burnout cycles that plague founders and executives and how he turned his own rock-bottom experience into a blueprint for reclaiming freedom without sacrificing growth. He outlines his six dimensions of professional freedom and explains how companies can create systems that liberate, rather than imprison, their leaders.

In addition, they talk about:

✅ Why boundaries at work aren’t just necessary; they’re an act of authenticity and leadership
✅ How burnout nearly ended Scott’s career and health, and what he learned about flow state, anxiety, and doing work that truly fits
✅ Why optimization isn’t always the answer and how designing your business around your natural strengths leads to sustainable success

…and much more!

BIOS:

Scott Raven is the founder of Corvus Solutions. He helps business owners escape the chaos of overcommitment by building systems and strategies that align with their natural flow state. A certified CliftonStrengths coach and former executive who faced severe burnout, Scott now guides leaders through personal and operational transformation so they can experience sustainable freedom and fulfillment in business and life.

Matt Zaun is an award-winning speaker and strategic storytelling expert who helps business leaders inspire action and drive results. With a track record of catalyzing growth across 300+ organizations, Matt shows clients how to leverage story to transform sales, marketing, and company culture.

 

*Below is an AI-generated transcript, which may contain errors

 

Matt Zaun 

I am so excited for this conversation because today I'm joined by Scott Raven, who is the architect of freedom for trapped warriors.

Welcome to the show, Scott.

 

Scott Raven 

Hey, great to be here, Matt. Thank you for having me on.

 

Matt Zaun 

Thank you for your time. I know you're busy, so I really appreciate you spending time with us today. And I just want to dive right in, talk a little bit about what you do for your clients, some of the success that you've had working with them.

 

Scott Raven 

So can you just explain to us the kind of client that you work with, some of the pain points that they may have?

Sure, sure. So like you said, I am the architect for freedom for trapped founder warriors. Specifically, I am focusing on small to mid-sized businesses where people have created a business so that they can find the freedom that they have been searching for through their professional endeavors, but instead have accidentally trapped themselves in a prison and are overwhelmed with what is going As it relates to what they do professionally and not achieving proper work-life integration or harmony in their life.

Through my freedom pursuit assessment, I examined six dimensions of what does it truly mean to be free through your professional endeavors and how can you achieve that, not by trying to optimize what you already have, but designing different systems and ways to do things.

I love that.

 

Matt Zaun 

And I really appreciate you sharing that. And I'm sure someone listening can relate to this. It was mind boggling to me.

Recently, this happened to me. I was speaking in the Oregon area right outside Portland. And I'm in a workshop.

And for anyone listening, you know that if you're familiar with the Portland area, there's some stunningly beautiful waterfalls in that area right outside Portland.

And I asked the one gentleman, I said, Oh, I'm sure that you've been to so-and-so mentioning the different waterfalls and the different sites.

 

Scott Raven 

And he said, No. Right.

 

Matt Zaun 

And I said, You've been doing business in this area for 15 years. How have you not been able to?

And he literally said, I'm trapped in my office. So he couldn't even in 15 years set aside time to go out for a day and see this incredible beauty around him.

And it was so disheartening. I felt I felt almost crushed for him. Yes. Because is This individual, exactly like you're saying, won it freedom, started this business, it took off, there's elements of growth, but there's absolute chaos.

He has 15 different hats he's wearing, he's burned out, working 70 plus hours a week, not able to even take weekends off.

So let's talk about that. This is like really important. mentioned six specific dimensions. Can you share a couple of them with us that you'd want my audience to recognize and know?

 

Scott Raven 

Absolutely. So I will just briefly talk about all six and go into any detail on any of the dimensions as you see fit.

The six dimensions that I have found are most important are time sovereignty. Do you control your time or does time control you at the end of the day?

Decision liberation. Do you have the ability to not make every decision yours? Do you have proper decision rights in place such that you can reduce your

Cognitive load. Operational independence. Can the systems that you have around you survive and thrive without your constant presence? And if you haven't taken vacation in a couple of years or you have to feel like you're on email all the time, nope, you don't have it yet.

Visionary capability. Do you spend time working on your business versus in your business? And if not, what is it that you can do to shift your focus to be able to do that?

Sustainable success. Is what you're doing able to continue and prosper without you having to double down your time investment, without you sacrificing your life and your values?

And finally, personal freedom. Are you able to integrate all of this into the lifestyle that you want at the end of the day?

Perfect.

 

Matt Zaun

I love you laying that out for us. That's awesome. to hone in on the decision liberation. So would you consider this part of being really good at delegating?

 

Scott Raven

Is that within the ballpark of what that is? It is an element of it for sure, right? Certainly prioritization comes into play in terms of having a clear-cut understanding in terms of what is important and what is urgent as it relates to the large objectives that you are looking to accomplish.

But another part of it is also having the right who's by your side so that you don't have to constantly think about how am I going to get this done?

And when you think about those who's, do you have the proper setup in place to be able to trust in them to get things done or to be able to work with them so that you align on what will be accomplished?

 

Matt Zaun 

So I appreciate you mentioning the word trust. I feel like... A lot of business leaders use trust, and they talk about ROI, but there's not intentionality regarding building trust.

Have you seen, in your experience, something that an organization can do to start the process of building trust, especially if trust has been frayed?

 

Scott Raven 

Absolutely. So if trust has been frayed, that likely means that an underlying need or expectation by one of the parties has been violated in some way, shape, or form.

And the first simple thing that has to be done is have an authentic conversation that brings that to light.

Because if you continue to ignore it and sweep it under the rug, it just festers, it grows bigger, and eventually it becomes the volcano that explodes at the end of the day, right?

So having those conversations head on to be able to bring... people back to a point of alignment, understanding, but most importantly, progression.

What did you learn from this experience that you will carry forward as an action such that it's improved in the future?

Now, you can disagree with people as it relates to this framework. Don't get me wrong, but don't be disagreeable at the end of the day.

Make it so that y'all are trying to work together, not against each other. Perfect.

 

Matt Zaun 

I love that. Thanks so much for sharing that. I'm interested to hear more about you and your story on how you got into your line of work and how this all started.

So I want to backtrack and I want to go to you as a teenager. So if we were to ask 13-year-old Scott what he wanted to do, what would that response be?

 

Scott Raven 

So 13-year-old Scott. was living in Northeast Ohio. He was obsessed with sports, particularly tennis, because that was what he was playing.

And he was going through life a little bit by himself, because his father was a C-suite executive of a multi-billion dollar company.

And they were going through a long and painful process to go into and eventually emerge from bankruptcy. And because this required so much of my dad's focus, that he wasn't around for me a lot as I was growing up.

So that obviously has an imprint on your life in terms of how you act going forward. And so as I...

When entered the working world as a young adult and beyond, I was of the opinion, just work harder, more effort, you know, get her done.

And that certainly proved to help me in my earlier years when I was able to continuously adapt and increase my workload because I had the capacity.

But I eventually burned out in 2017. And because of that burnout experience, it has allowed me to produce the framework and the gift that I provide others today.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow. Okay, so let's go from 13 to college. What did that look like? So you're a go-getter, high achiever, go, go, go, incredible work ethic.

What did that do for you transitioning from, let's say, 13 into your adult years? And then I do want to talk about the burnout.

We will get to the 2017. But from 13 to, let's say, the 18-year mark, what did that look like for you?

 

Scott Raven 

So college actually was a bit of a good awakening, if you will, right? Because there was a lot socially, because I didn't have my dad around, that I had to learn off the cuff.

And I did my college at Penn, so here I am going from the Midwest to the Northeast, and it's a bit of a culture shock, for lack of a better term, right?

But I found my way, right? I also developed some bad habits along the way. I remember in my senior year of college, I was not only doing my coursework and looking for full-time positions and whatnot, but I was also a teaching assistant for an undergraduate course.

And that it would be routine for me to be up at 2.30, 3 in the morning with a cup of coffee by my side as I am.

I responding to messages in the group chat in terms of, hey, I'm having this problem, I'm having this problem, right?

I didn't know then what I know now in terms of the importance of boundaries when it comes to your ability to give to others, and that if you do not have boundaries, you will become the empty cup that can fill nobody else's cup.

But as I said, I was doing everything with Standpoint that I had the capacity back then. Later in life, not so much.

I appreciate you mentioned the boundary piece.

 

Matt Zaun 

I do want to talk about that, and then I do want to jump to the burnout. But from a boundary perspective, what is the diplomatic way in the business world to set boundaries?

So you're still giving your team room to grow. You still have the giving individuals the opportunity to come and talk and be authentic and share hard things.

But what would What would be a diplomatic way to set boundaries with team members?

 

Scott Raven 

You know, honestly, when I take a look at it, I think that you are giving them a gift by being very authentic in terms of a boundary that you have, because then you are teaching them to make it a point to integrate work into your life and not let work become a part of your life.

So here's an example. You have a son, and he is into Little League baseball, and that you want to make sure that you are there to watch his games, because you know that that time period of life is very fleeting, and there's going to come a point right around the corner where he's going to go off and he's going to be with his teenage friends, and he's not going to want you around.

It's a precious time. Right? It is incumbent upon you to indicate to your subordinates, your peers, even your superior, that this is protected time.

And unless it is something that is so important that it has to be scheduled well in advance and that you can get out in front and let your son know, hey, I really want to be there, but here's what's going on with daddy.

So you can have the authentic conversation at home, right? That you're not going to respond to a flash fire when it comes up.

You are going to make the decision that when that email comes at 4.45 in the afternoon, right, that you're going to say, you know what?

Maybe I will give a response to say, noted, I will respond to this later. And then you shut your computer off and you go to the fields.

That is what it means to demonstrate. That authenticity, not only to yourself, but to your team members as well, and to be able to show them, yes, I'm still going to hold you accountable for the results I expect from you within your role, but I also am going to hold you accountable for doing so in a manner where you are having a fulfilled life with work being one component of that.

Wow.

 

Matt Zaun 

I love how you tie the authenticity to the boundary. There's a tremendous amount of wisdom in that. I really appreciate you laying that out for us.

Let's start with the 2017 burnout. Paint the picture for us. What did that look like? If we were to be in a room with you, what would we have experienced?

Was it physical where you couldn't properly move? Was it mental where you just wanted to push everything away and cut stuff out of your life?

What did that look like for you?

 

Scott Raven

And, you know, it started right at the jump in turn? There was an all-company meeting where I was physically there, but I wasn't mentally there, I wasn't emotionally there, etc.

And during that time period, the superior that I had was in a complete state of distress and took it out on me, and it irrevocably damaged our relationship up through the point that when it came time for a reduction in force later that year, because we had just entered into a multi-billion dollar merger with another company, right, that my head was on the chopping block.

There were certain things that I did, obviously, that necessitated that, and I certainly owned that, right? But it was just a case where the loyalty that I had put in, some of that was not rewarded.

And the bigger challenge was... That after I had my position laid off, because that position had become such a large part of my identity, and without having that and without having the tools, skill set, mindset to properly recover, I fell into a very deep depression, worsened by alcoholism, and on December 21st of that year, landed myself in a hospital with severe chest pains, back pains, head pains, and a blood pressure of 180 and over 110.

In the six months that transpired after that, I learned that I had acute anxiety disorder that needed to be managed through a combination of medication and lifestyle techniques, but I vowed as I was going through that journey to not put myself in that position again, where I felt that type of physical ailment, because that scared the out of me.

Sure.

 

Matt Zaun 

Wow. I appreciate you sharing that. With us, I have a similar story. My burnout happened August 20th of 2022.

And I remember laying on my couch for two days, barely being able to move, barely being able to get up, other than to use the bathroom.

And for me, it was travel. I was in a different time zone every week. I remember one week I had two red eyes where I flew to California, then I flew back, then I flew.

It's just crazy. And I remember 2022 was, I had more speaking engagements that year than at any point in my career.

So things were rocking and rolling. Business was going well. Everything looked like it was going great, especially social media is concerned, right?

 

Scott Raven 

We're going to use social media as a pulse of what's happening in someone's life. I mean, I hit so many pockets of the country.

 

Matt Zaun 

I was so excited. And then like you, it all came crashing down. And I feel like I survived off of caffeine and alcohol.

That year, I was drinking probably three to five energy drinks every single morning to stay awake, and then I would unwind in the afternoon with whiskey, or evening with whiskey, and it was really, really rough.

It's amazing. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom, so to speak, until there's a major change. So what you're saying with all this burnout, and then there was a reorg, was this the launching pad into business for you?

 

Scott Raven

Not yet, but it eventually led that way, right? So after the work that I said that I did in the first half of 2018, I reentered the workforce, only to see that position eliminated in reduction of force in late 2019 as another multi-billion dollar merger.

This is where I learned my next lesson in Life the Hard Way, which was... Run towards what you want.

Don't run away from what you don't want. When I took that step of running away from what I didn't want, which was another salary position, I went to go and be a franchisee of an emerging martial arts location.

I was looking to expand here in the Atlanta area, and that as I was taking a look at the opportunity, I felt that not only could it be a launching pad for my financial freedom, but also to leave an impact in the community, which is something that if you are doing a four position in a larger company, you may not always get that opportunity to feel like you're having an impact at the personal level.

So that's what I wanted to pursue, right? Yes, there was lousy timing because I did it right during COVID.

Yes, I didn't necessarily make the... Greatest bet in terms of who I was working with, but ultimately why that venture failed and that I had to leave it in the middle of 2022 was that I was working 100% against my natural flow state, and because of that, I was trying to get everything done through willpower and determination, and willpower has a shelf life, and when it is completely depleted, you feel it.

You feel like you said in your example, you can't get off the couch. You're in a malaise. You have brain fog.

You don't know what to do next. You feel paralyzed, right? All of that is because you're working against your body's natural way of being the most effective it can be.

So you have to make sure in whatever you're trying to do or whatever you're trying to accomplish that it aligns.

aligns with your flow state as much as possible. Now, you're never going to get to 100%. Even the best of things that you do, 30% of it's going to suck, guys.

Come on, right? But the more that you can align with your flow state, the easier things go.

 

Matt Zaun 

Talk a little bit more about that natural flow state. What does that look like to you?

 

Scott Raven 

So one of the things that I did to not only find my natural flow state, but also help others find their flow state, is that I looked into CliftonStrengths from the Gallup organization and became a certified coach in CliftonStrengths.

For those of you who are not aware, it takes a look at 34 different traits that are associated with people and helps categorize them in terms of what are traits that you are naturally stronger at versus what are traits that are things that you have to provide more focus and dedication to do well.

Now, the aim of it being... Meaning that the more that you are leveraging those things which are more of an inherent strength for you in the way that you go about your day, the easier that your day becomes.

Because it's not just about the amount of time that you spend, it's also about how you spend your energy and how you maximize the use of your energy in a given day.

I'm looking mine up right now because you had mentioned it.

 

Matt Zaun 

So my strength came back as an achiever.

 

Scott Raven 

Yep, yep. And so you're one of these people who wants to see something get done, right? And so you're going to look at the world and say, what can I get done today?

What can cross the finish line?

 

Matt Zaun 

True, but it also goes back to some of the things that we've been speaking about that, you know, that go, go, go work ethic.

It is amazing because we live in a culture that values that. We live in a culture that values. values.

And then when things do come crashing down, we do need to ask ourselves, why did this happen? How do I change?

That's why I really like you saying, I got this from your LinkedIn, don't optimize your existing operations, design your pathway to freedom.

I think that's a really good way to look at it. It's a perspective shift because I feel like for achievers like myself, we just like to throw different things at problems.

We like to try to create and optimize, but when that's not working, we not only have to think outside the box, we actually have to do outside the box.

So take us through where some organizations get, quote unquote, I'm using air quotes for anyone listening, optimization. Where do organizations get it wrong?

Where they try to implement systems and processes, but they're still working against themselves with this achiever mindset, work ethic mindset.

 

Scott Raven 

Well, think that we've all heard the... The challenge for a lot of organizations is when push comes to shove, they can be too conservative in terms of their ability to innovate the way that they do things and just say, look, if we just work harder at what we already have as core competency and core processes, we will be better at the end of the day.

There is a certain truth in that in terms of there are the times where people do have to push hard and go pedal to the metal, but that should be temporary, short-lived, and made such that it doesn't have to happen again.

The challenge for most organizations is they hit that button way too much, and because... In of that, they will burn out their resources across the organization, rather than taking the step back to 30,000 feet and saying, do we really have to take a look at what we're doing to try to accomplish what we want?

And do we want to make the investment in our firm, in our people, in our technology, in our processes that, yes, quite frankly, it may not yield the results we want at first.

But in the long run, it will be better for us as a going concern and to be able to achieve the sustainable success that we want in our future.

Now, if you are one of these executive leaders, look, I get it. I get that you don't want to necessarily be the one who has that big, bold idea.

Unless you are supremely confident that it is going to be successful, because there is a lot of risk in putting your neck on the line.

I'm not going lie. There is a lot of risk, right? But at the same time, right, you have to challenge your own conservative thinking a little bit and say, all right, I can keep doing what we're doing.

It will probably allow me to continue to hold my position for longer. There's certainly a truth in that, right?

But do I just want the output of what we're producing now? Or do I want the impact of how I helped transformed the firm into something better because I was in the right position at the right time with the right ideas and getting the right support to make it happen?

I would rather... I'd rather go door number two because door number two to your podcast title is a much better story.

It's a much better story to be able to tell and say, this is what I was able to achieve, and it was transformational and impactful.

 

Matt Zaun 

I love that. Thank you so much. There is a tremendous amount of wisdom in that. I really appreciate you laying that out for us, and I really appreciate this conversation.

I do value your time. Thank you so much for everything you shared. There's three things in particular that I'm going to take away from our conversation.

I appreciate you laying out the six dimensions of freedom, the one in particular, that decision liberation, and I really appreciate you talking about the trust factor with that decision liberation.

The second point is I really appreciate you saying being authentic with sharing a boundary that you have, that you actually can tie authenticity to setting boundaries.

I'd never thought of it in quite those terms before. And then the third Third and final piece, I appreciate you mentioning that life lesson that you learned, run toward what you want, don't run away from what you don't want.

So those are going to be my three takeaways. If anyone wants to get more information on what you do, Scott, they want to reach out to you for your services, where's the best place they can go to get that information?

 

Scott Raven 

So like you said, I am on LinkedIn, and you can find me there and shoot me a connection request or DM.

I also have my company's website, corvussolutions.co. So that's C-O-R-V-U-S solutions dot C-O. And there you'll find a wide range of things, all the way from our free Freedom Pursuit assessment, so you can see how you are doing across these six dimensions, all the way up to the application for some of our custom solutions for companies that want to undergo a full-scale transformation.

Perfect.

 

Matt Zaun 

I'll include all that in the show notes. People can just click and go from there. Thanks again, Scott. I really, really appreciate your time today.

 

Scott Raven 

You're welcome, Matt. Thank you for having me on, and thank you, audience, for listening to us. This has been great.