Podcast appearances and mentions of scott what

Summary: Friends of the Building Better Cultures podcast, Ireland Together (www.IrelandTogether.ie) ran a series of mini-conferences focused on the next great reset—returning to the workplace. They asked Scott to facilitate a discussion on the Future of Work—what we will do, how we will do it and where we will work from. The panelists today are thought leaders in their own right, and during this discussion, they offer their insights into how work will be shaped by trends going forward. Our featured speakers are: Denise Black, Head of HR at Invest NI; Gillian French, CPO at Cubic Telecom; and Kevin Empey, Founder at WorkMatters. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Key Takeaways: Opinions about where work can be done vary widely. Employers should focus on gaining their employees' trust before moving into mandated reporting. Establish key contact points for in-person gathering. Companies should look at this as an opportunity to change the culture. Organizations need to include their employees in the conversation. Leadership is responsible for making sure these hybrid models are equitable.   Q&A:   Scott: Is there going to be any real significant change to the future of work?   Kevin: The future of work didn't start with COVID, and it will continue way beyond COVID. One example is the idea that business interruption is normal, that the frequency of change is happening more quickly. Another is that keeping an eye on the periphery is a crucial skill set. Finally, the ideas about how and where work can be done—as well as the expectations of management—are all changing as we move into the future. It's also not just what's happening within our own little bubbles, but what changes we can expect for our whole customer base and our suppliers with their own digital agendas.   Scott: If companies don't adapt to small change curves, they're dying. Gillian, what can we expect the future of work to look like for smaller companies?   Gillian: Generally speaking, smaller businesses are more agile and able to adapt to changes more readily than large, multinational companies. If smaller businesses can afford it, they should give their employees the flexibility that they desire. It will actually build social capital and build trust in your employees. It's ultimately about focusing on building strong relationships because those are the tools they need to successfully pivot when hard changes do come.   Scott: How do you balance the needs of the company and the needs of employers when they don't mesh?   Denise: I advocated that we start from a position of trust and empowerment. I said let's look at it based on the principles of four pillars to focus on when you come into the office. Those pillars are: to Connect, to Collaborate, to Client, and to Commute. And each team will look at what their responsibilities are and what pillars fit best. The key is to train the people leaders to think in this way. The other key part is establishing critical contact points, like team meetings, new starts and critical HR issues, most definitely. Other key feedback moments, too, like performance reviews or midterms.   If staffers haven't made up their mind yet, I encourage them to. As soon as my staffers made a decision and showed they were going to roll out a plan, the shoulders dropped, and they could say now they know what's going to happen.   Scott: And they can say, “alright, now this is what we're going to try.” Kevin, if organizations don't do something different after all of this, what is the impact going to be? What trick will they have said, do you think?   Kevin: I think there's an opportunity to leverage competition, talent and expertise from around the world. There is also the threat that if they don't act, they could be opening up their talent to other companies. You're engaging in a culture exercise as much as anything else. It allows the opportunity to show vulnerability, which can improve the culture in the long term, past when COVID is forgotten. They would be embedding some of those skills in the future.   Scott: We seem comfortable with contracting work from remote locations. What do you think it will take for leadership to feel the same way about their own teams?   Gillian: They are hard-pressed to make the argument now because we've proven that it works during the pandemic. They'd have to have a strong case for why those roles can't be filled remotely. One key thing I want to emphasize is that we need to squash presence privilege because it's unjust and it's a big threat to the hybrid model. My concern is that people will miss that and it will hurt our ability to fully capitalize on the culture change.   Kevin: We know that some people are nervous to come back, so many should embrace phases or waves of returning. And it should be stated that employees are wise to the problem of presence privilege, too. We are actually using technology to capture everything on a common canvas, so no one is disenfranchised. There's no doubt that these tools will help us.   Denise: A lot of people are asking about the deadlines, but my advice is to make the most of your day if you're going to go in.   Scott: Denise, how do you generate psychological safety within an organization?   Denise: It's intrinsically linked to the leadership in an organization. No matter what level you're at, the pandemic acted as an equalizer. And I think this helped us to see each other as equals again. I think psychological safety is something you have to work on as a team.   Scott: I think it was you, Denise, who shared with me the acronym “F.A.I.L.”—if it's not a failure, it's a first attempt in learning. Denise, do you have anything to add to that?   Denise: We kept the comms as transparent as possible, which I think built a lot of trust in the organization. We need to involve the members of our teams as frequently as possible.   Kevin: It's that trust piece. It's fundamental to the relationship piece, too. There's also a stretch element to this next phase because there's an element to psychological safety that requires more trust-building. And leadership needs to set that tone.   Scott: What do you all think about the question of gender equality in the hybrid work place? Denise, I might throw that one to you.   Denise: It's actually quite topical. Promotions tend to be very Belfast-centered—but now we know that that doesn't have to be the case in a hybrid model. I think this is going to help make the workplace more equitable by leveling the playing field in that sense.   Gillian: I see a lot of concern about this because many women dropped out of the workforce because of stresses of home life and so on—   Kevin: We just need to watch that the hybrid model doesn't get skewed so far as to be associated with the different genders or presenteeism and so on. It's really important that our promotion and development programs are agnostic as well.   Scott: To close, what's the most important thing that companies should be doing to reap the benefits of the future of work.   Denise: They need to start the conversation.   Kevin: Leadership needs to be involving team members in the conversation rather than forcing it on them top-down. Also, you need to make sure the technology is there to boost employee engagement. Try as best as you can to create what is as close as possible to a “normal” work environment.   Scott: For me, the jigsaw piece in the middle is that we should tell people really obviously that we have made decisions in response to your feedback.   Gillian: They need to provide flexibility or employees will leave. And they need to make sure everyone is treated equally. There's nothing more important.

The online buying experience is always evolving, so it’s table stakes for companies to be on their toes and ready to adjust when the market tells them to. Especially when the company we are chatting about today was founded in 1948! But being prepared to adjust and actually making it happen are two different things. At DICK’S Sporting Goods, its customers, who are referred to as “athletes” are truly running the show, and Scott Casciato, who serves as the VP of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK'S, is the man who takes their needs and delivers a seamless experience to them via DICK’S ecommerce platform and throughout their 700 retail locations. And with their ecommerce sales increasing by 100% in 2020, Scott and his team have had to rethink many things like: how to scale up operations during peak seasons, why testing every iteration on the website is key, how to perfect the buy online pick up in-store experience, and determine how to take their athlete's feedback and transform it into a funnel for change. This episode brought back a lot of nostalgia for me, thinking about the days of wandering the aisles of Dick’s in my high school days looking for a new lacrosse stick or soccer shoes. So it was fun to hear about how much has changed, and  what investments the company has been making lately in creating the best customer experience possible for its athletes. Also, tune in to the end to hear Scott discuss the importance of great vendor relationships, how to future proof logistics, and the new in-store experiences that Dick’s is betting big on. Enjoy! Main Takeaways:The House Don’t Fall When the Bones are Good: Having a strong foundation is the most impactful thing a company can do to prepare for surges in traffic that might come during peak seasons or after highly-successful campaigns. You have to do the work, go through the load tests and constantly be improving the technology stack because there are no shortcuts when you are creating a scalable platform that can withstand anything you throw at it. With last year being a perfect case study to reflect on, dive into the data and pivot if needed so you’re ready for the surge!Bet On It … Then Test It: Building out an online experience that works requires constant testing. You can plan for outcomes and bet on how you think people will react, but until you test it, you can’t ever be certain. As Scott mentioned, following the path the data reveals can be surprising and sometimes opposite of what your intuition is telling you.Experiences For The Future: The shopping experience is going to continue to change, and the strongest companies are planning for the future by paying attention to trends and then creating experiences — both in-person and online — that will drive engagement with consumers and build trust and confidence in the company’s authority in the space. By investing early into an experience or a specific market, you set yourself up as the expert in that specialized vertical and become the retailer of choice for consumers.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Hey everyone and welcome back to Up Next in Commerce, this is your host, Stephanie Postles, ceo@mission.org. Today on the show we have Scott Casciato, vice president of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK'S Sporting Goods. Scott, welcome.Scott:Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.Stephanie:I'm really excited to have you. So I have this deep love of DICK'S Sporting Goods because there was a location in my hometown, eastern shore of Maryland, which I feel no one even knows where that is on a map. But back in high school, I would go almost every week and just kind of peruse through the aisles and look for new lacrosse sticks and shoes. And I didn't really have much money, but I remember just loving the experience and being there probably for three hours with friends, just kind of hanging out. So I was so excited when I saw you guys on the lineup where I was, "Yes, something I know well."Scott:Was that your sport growing up, lacrosse?Stephanie:Lacrosse and soccer.Scott:Nice, nice. That's great.Stephanie:Deep love there. So I'd love to hear a bit about how you got into this industry, because you had a funny quote where you said, "I don't know how I really ended up here," and I'd love to start there, how did you become the vice-president of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK'S Sporting Goods?Scott:It goes back... I spent the early part of my career in software, supply chain software, and kind of even on the sales side, then moved into the operational side and then got into management consulting and did a tour duty in the management consulting ranks. And I got introduced to the founder and co-founder of a company called ModCloth that I was with previously. And they were looking for somebody to run fulfillment and customer service. And I just said, I don't know anything about, I mean, I know supply chain, but I don't really know anything about direct consumer fulfillment at the time. And the founder of that business was, "Yeah, I know, but you're smart enough to figure it out." Right?Scott:So and I have a bent for really high growth, high speed businesses, and it just kind of the way I grew up in my career and that was a really great opportunity. So I did that and I spent five years there scaling that business really significantly, hyper growth phase and it was awesome. I learned a ton about fulfillment and service. And then about five years in, I had this great opportunity to come to DICK'S. And the thing that was really interesting to me is, the question was how can we build a great service organization for DICK'S Sporting Goods? I'm like, "Wow, if I could do it at a much smaller company, what would it be like to come to such a great brand and try to do it here?" And and we did, right?Scott:And so we spent a lot of time building that for the first four years of my time at DICK'S and then had an opportunity to take fulfillment on. So it's interesting that I have some of the aspects of that, that previous role that I had only, a scale that is much larger and just been very, very fortunate to be with such a great business. And it's been awesome to work with the team at DICK'S.Stephanie:Okay. So you are leaving ModCloth, I mean, that's like strictly ecommerce and then you're coming to this, I would say very omni-channel company. I mean, you have over 700 locations across the US, quickly moving to digital, at least over the past couple of years. Tell me a bit about what that transition was like?Scott:I mean, and at the same time we were really building... We were just starting our transformation to building our own technology. So it was a massive... It was basically rebuilding what we had already had from an ecommerce business perspective. And I think fundamentally a lot of the things that I came in and the tools that I had were relevant, right? How you scale a business. I mean, that stuff is somewhat the same. I think one of the biggest changes was or a few of them were one, just having more teammates that knew a lot of stuff that could really help and drive the initiatives and the progress forward, whereas in a much smaller company, right? It's you're wearing so many different hats and you're doing so many different things here.Scott:It was a shock to me to say, oh, there's somebody that can help with reporting or data analytics and help us with these answers. So that was awesome. And then I just think we were all learning, right? So we were learning what we needed. We were learning what we wanted to be in customer service, we were learning what we wanted to have in terms of digital capabilities. We were learning how to run that business as we were deploying new technology, right? So how do you do pricing online appropriately? I remember a lot of conversation. How do you display things? What's the right... How do you check? What's the right checkout flow? And then we had, as all businesses do, you have to make a lot of trade-offs because it may not be the most elegant thing right at the beginning, but we just got to get it up and running, right?Scott:And so having those conversations can be tough, right? Everybody, and especially our business, we just have this DNA where we just relentlessly improve, right? And so it's tough to launch something and know that it's not the perfect solution, right, and then making sure that you go back and you iterate and you keep going, right? We just did that for a long time. But it was a lot of fun and it's really tiring, but it was a lot of fun.Stephanie:So that's amazing. What was one of the maybe projects or things that you felt most strongly about that you got maybe the most pushback on that people are like, nope, that's not a good idea?Scott:I would say, well, we had a lot of conversation about how we were going to set up, for example, in my world, we were going to set up customer service. And we continue to evolve that. I think it wasn't that people were saying it's not how we want to do it, I think it was really more what I was saying about, we want to own more of that customer service experience, right? So we had always been outsourced. And as we moved, as we did the transition, and our previous outsourcer did a great job. And as we move to the next wave of that evolution, we decided we really need to keep an outsourced view in some form or fashion of customer service, but we really wanted to try to start to build our own, right, because we were, "Wonder what we could do on our own?"Scott:So this conversation about, [inaudible] how do you scale for the hockey stick effect that we have at holiday, right, while maintaining the great experience that we have? And we want to in source, but then we want to scale a holiday. We just had a lot of spirited debate about that. So that was part of that conversation.Stephanie:Very cool. And so are you guys kind of now balanced approach when it comes to customer service, depending on what's incoming and how to route it?Scott:Exactly. Right. So we have a team of internal service people that take various types of contacts, and then we have a few outsourced partners that we work extremely closely with. And we balanced the volume across there. And then at holiday time, we scale up across all. And so it's turned out to be... And we're measuring that experience relentlessly. So it's been a great symbiotic relationship, I think, across all three of those.Stephanie:Well, now that you've touched on holiday, I do kind of want to go into peak season and maybe talking about, I mean, you mentioned that you went through this big technology evolution and implementing new things to try and get to where you are now, what did that look like, especially when it comes to preparing for big surges? I mean, I saw your ecommerce I think went up 100% in 2020 or something, so you guys have had massive growth. What did it look like behind the scenes to prepare for that plus peak demand?Scott:I think it's been this... We're very happy that we started when we did, right? when you think about what happened over the past 12 months and what has happened in the ecommerce world and the growth that everybody has seen, we're fortunate that we started four years ago down this path. Because the foundation that we built really allowed us to scale this year really quickly. We've been through all the load tests dynamics that you go through at holiday, we've built the technology stack that can support the traffic that we knew that we were going to get. We've been through the trials and tribulations of how to test, what to test, where to find the failure modes, and we've got really talented people that work on that stuff every day. We've built controls internally to manage where things might not be working appropriately and to be able to balance that.Scott:And as you think about what happened last year, specifically with curbside, it is the example of, it took us four years to become an overnight success type of situation where [inaudible].Stephanie:[inaudible].Scott:Right.Stephanie:[inaudible]. Who knew?Scott:Totally. So I think it was scaling for holiday. We scale every year for holiday. I think last year was one that we didn't quite know, nobody knew what was really going to happen. But I think we over-prepared, and we executed an extremely successful holiday because we just had every... It was so great to see everybody so engaged in solving that challenge and really thinking through every aspect of what might happen in holiday from fulfillment through the web traffic through customer service. And we really came together as a team and figured out all the ways that things could go right and wrong and covered it all. And we had a great holiday season because of it.Stephanie:That's great. So what areas do you think businesses are maybe under-prepared? Is it in the fulfillment piece? Is it in customer service? What are some of the top pillars that you guys covered down on that maybe some people might not be fully prepared for?Scott:I think that we do a great job in measuring and really paying attention to the athlete experience across all measures, right? I think we've pivoted from, I think historically in most businesses have been in a place where you manage internally, right? You're managing things like conversion or traffic or speed to athlete and things like that, and to be the customer, traditional service levels and customer service. I think those are all important, but I think if you take the outside in view, right, and you're looking at things like how are we measuring the experience, what's happening to that customer when they're out there and they're buying from us? But are they buying from us again, right, as an articulation of their commitment to the brand?Scott:And then how do we influence that purchase behavior? And how do you think expansively about that in terms of not only the shopping experience online that they have, but the post-purchase, the delivery experience, the customer service experience, how are you really measuring that data and getting good information and causal information to figure out how you can drive really great lifetime value? And I think we do that and we're really starting to do that really well across our business. And we've gotten so much support for that outside in view, across our leadership team as well that it's become a real engine of thinking across our teams.Stephanie:I mean, it seems like that holistic view is really hard for a lot of companies to get to though. I mean, I hear about a lot of companies trying to consolidate their tech stack, marketing stack, put it all in one area that things actually are connected and you can have attribution and you can see the LTV. How do you guys think about having that view that allows you to make decisions?Scott:I mean, I think that it's philosophical at some level and don't get me wrong, it's hard because I think when you look at the business on a day-to-day basis, all retailers, right, especially those that are public are driving towards hard goals. We take a much longer term view of things generally across the business, which is really refreshing and great. And so it allows us to really make good decisions. When you think about what we're measuring, how we're investing, we're not investing, I mean, obviously we care about the quarter and we care about the year, right? Don't get me wrong, but I think we're making investments that are in the long-term interest of this brand and our customers. I think, we're a really large small business in that regard. And I think we've been able to energize our teammates to deliver that experience on the front line, but also make the investments on the back end of the house that allow us to do that.Stephanie:And I see you guys have been making some big tech investments. I saw, I think Commerce Hub, you did a multi-year deal with them. And I saw something about the vendor partner program that you have. We can kind of plug and play into a bunch of vendors and have an endless aisle. And I was, wow, that could be game changing to be able to pivot quickly and offer, get to the consumer, right, wherever they are, whatever they need, especially in times right now where it's very uncertain. So it seems tech is a big piece of that, towards that investment philosophy right now.Scott:It is.Stephanie:How are you figuring out what you need and how to put the proper pieces in place?Scott:I think we have over 500 vendors in our drop-ship program. And connecting to it has them, and understanding what the inventory is, and getting them to send us the right inventory, and then order information back and forth in real time is incredibly important, which is why we made the investment in Commerce Hub, it has been a great partner for us for a few years now. And it's easy to use. So I think that's that was great for that aspect of our business. I think our vendor relationships are super strong and we're fortunate that we have them because it allows us to be really creative in the way that we go to market. Scott:And I think we're also continuing to build great brands internally, right? And so if you think about, we just recently launched our first brand and it's been a great success so far. It's great stuff. We had got our [inaudible], if you haven't tried it, you should.Stephanie:I haven't. [inaudible].Scott:That's awesome. It's a partnership that we did with Carrie Underwood about six years ago, and it's quickly become our number two selling women's line.Stephanie:Wow. That's awesome.Scott:And then we launched our DSG brand a few years ago, or a year and a half ago, which is really a value-driven brand and with very high quality, right? So when you think about the continuum of our brands, we have very specific and different strategies and they're complex depending on what we're trying to achieve within a given brand or category within that brand. But I think we're fortunate that we've built such great lasting relationships, because again, I think it gets back to, we take a longer term view of things and we really, I think we treat our vendors as partners.Stephanie:Yep. So key, especially in this industry where so much is happening, so much is changing quick and people can get burned really quickly too.Scott:Right, right, right.Stephanie:It also seems being able to plug into a vendor system like that is important, especially around... It seems a lot of companies are doing private label type of things and launching their own brands. I mean, it's not fully reliant now on the big brands and being able to have that flexibility to pull people into your ecosystem that maybe could have never sold at a DICK'S Sporting Goods before, that seems amazing and really allows access in a way that wasn't here maybe five years ago.Scott:It really does. We're always looking for those bets to make with new and upcoming brands. And our vendor director job channel is a great way to sort of test some of these things. So that's definitely, you hit the nail on the head for us. It's a strategy that we actively have and it's nice because my team who manages that part of our business we'll work with our merchants to say, "What could our strategy be with the supplier or partner X?" Right? Some of these folks are small businesses that can't handle our volumes. So if we buy a little bit more, we can test some of them or we can test it in the vendor direct channel. So it's been a real tool for us.Stephanie:Testing's interesting too. I could see kind of doing AB test quickly and see if people like this product and if they like this one more, okay, here's what we're going to go. Maybe we'll circle back with you next year in a much less risky way to bring people in.Scott:We've gotten really good at testing and specifically on the site with how we're thinking about the experience online. And we test almost everything these days, right? I mean, there's some stuff that I think is just go do things, some go do things that we do. But I think generally speaking, we've really developed a muscle around building an experience and testing it and iterating on it to figure out what's really resonating with the athlete most. So everything from shopping experiences on our site all the way down through the conversion funnel to fulfillment, right? And speed and how we're communicating with our athletes.Scott:So I think we've learned so much, and I'm like constantly reminded when we get these, we all kind of make bets, right, when we launched these tests like what do think's going to happen? And I think I'm wrong so often, it's so important to test.Stephanie:Yep.Scott:Good. Because what you think the consumer is going to do they just don't. And even when you think about surveys, I think there's this everybody lies concept, right? And it's true...Stephanie:And depends on what state they're in or where they're at in the day.Scott:Right, right. So I think it's just so invaluable to us.Stephanie:And we do surveys on the show sometimes just to see who do you want on, and how am I doing? And it's, well, it's depends on probably where that person is, if they're happy, if they're sad, it could be different depending on the place that they're in.Scott:For sure.Stephanie:So what's an example of a test that you ran where you were so sure, you're like this one's going to win, everyone was kind of on board with one scenario winning and then the results come back and everyone's wrong?Scott:That's a good question. We just ran one recently that I did win on, which is the one that was top of mind for me coming into this. Let me talk about that one for a second. So the one we launched on same-day, we're trying to figure out what are our athletes appetite is for same-day services. And we did definitely get a lot of engagement on the test. I kind of thought it was going to be more than it was, but it was still interesting, right? So I think that's something that we're going to continue to have conversation on.Stephanie:They wanted it, the majority of the [inaudible]?Scott:I think they did. It wasn't as much as I would've thought, really.Stephanie:Because that's an interesting one that some people on the show said, people just want to know when it's getting there, they're okay if it's not same day, versus if it's more of a commodity product, you better get it to them the same day. And to kind of seems it depends what it is and how much delayed gratification someone can have on it, it depends, it seems.Scott:Yeah. Some of the tests that I think that we've run that have been less intuitive, I just think how products are set up on the site and how people search, right, and find products like you would think that sometimes when you put the best or most visible sort of notable product of the top search results, that's going to create a better conversion and sometimes it just doesn't, right? So it's really people come in I think with a lot of intent around how they're shopping and sometimes what you think is going to happen just doesn't because I think there's so many different ways that people shop.Stephanie:Yep. How do you think about shifting the website either, from what you learned from last year or when you're approaching peak season, are there certain key elements that you adjust knowing that maybe the consumer's are in a very different mindset than they were at any other time in history probably?Scott:Yeah. I think I can speak more to the way that we think about fulfillment in this regard. I always, I historically had thought, that's another example of what I thought was going to happen. I historically thought that during, for example, Black Friday weekend speed was really important, right? I need it, I want to get it fast. And it turns out that weekend in particular speed is not the most important, getting what you want is the most important, right? So getting the deal is the most important. I think it makes sense because most people are thinking, I've got three or four weeks that this thing can get to me. I'm not super concerned to get it next week, just to make sure that I get it, right?Scott:So that's one that we adjust in terms of making sure that we're really being honest with how we're going to fulfill. Thankfully we've got an extraordinarily resilient fulfillment network and we do really well in speed and but historically had been surprised as we've really measured that one over Black Friday weekend. It's really about getting the deal, not the speed.Stephanie:Versus Christmas when everyone's probably last minute shopping, it's probably opposite.Scott:Very different.Stephanie:Okay.Scott:Very different. And as you get into December and you get through towards the ground cutoffs and you get, depending on what's happening, the speed becomes a real issue. Last year was was nuts. I mean, FedEx was running commercials, right? They talked about the speed or buy early. And we definitely saw a little bit of a shift in terms of how people were thinking about buying.Stephanie:So how are you building up that resilience fulfillment network that you mentioned to be able to basically say I can offer anyone the endless aisle, we have unlimited of these, in one moment and then be, okay, now next month got to go, got to be there in three days or less type of scenario?Scott:I think you mentioned it when we kicked off the show, it was we've got over 700 fulfillment locations when you think about our store network, which is a blessing for us because it allows us to really, not only be closer to our athlete and get things there faster, but also allows for a lot of flexibility when... It's just load balancing, right? When you think about a business that has a couple of three, in my past one fulfillment center, when that thing gets backed up, or you have a labor problem or you have whatever the case, would be trucks that don't show up on the receiving dock or the outgoing dock, you're kind of backed up, right?.Scott:And so while that definitely happens across everybody's network, including ours, having all of these different nodes that are moving product out each and every really helps mitigate the risk. And so it also helps us, at peak time, it helps us staff up and get stuff out. And we have we've built a really sophisticated way to manage the way that orders are routing. So we're able to identify where we might have congestion points, for example, and try to proactively avoid those as we see those things happening, right? So we can move orders to one node or another, or block a node if we've got a weather issue or something, or we've got, in the fall when you have hurricanes in Florida, right, or in the Southeast, we're able to really change the way that our orders route to get product out of different places that aren't having those issues.Stephanie:And is that kind of done in the background where it's looking at all these different inputs and then kind of making decisions that you can come in and adjust if you need to, but it's already routing it for you in the background?Scott:Yeah. So part of it's automated part of it's people, right? And it's still a lot of people, right, washing the switches each day. But we've got a great team of people that are communicating, we're communicating out of our stores to my team and fulfillment. We're communicating from my team into stores and we're using the technology that we've built to really manage the capacity and the inventory across the entire network.Stephanie:It seems that is so important too you when you essentially have two business units when it comes to fulfillment, you've got your store locations with one set of data, inventory is probably very hard to track because it's always getting grabbed, it's always getting shipped out, and then you have just maybe a fulfilment center that's a whole different beast probably. How do you get to that consolidate view? Is that part of the backend tech that's kind of looking at it at a higher level, treating it all as one?Scott:It is and it's definitely complex for the reasons that you noted. And it creates, sometimes it can compromise how close we can get to the athlete if we think we've got a unit in Austin, Texas and we actually don't. The fortunate part is instead of canceling that order on you or that unit on you, it's going to go to maybe it'll go to a Dallas store, right? And we can still stay pretty close to you and get it to you. And we're also trying to look at things like, how do we keep packages together? Of course, anybody that's listening to this that manages freight will say, yep, really important from a cost perspective. And frankly, even from, as I mentioned earlier, that athlete experience, people want to get one box, right? I don't want to order three or four different things and get three or four different boxes. And sometimes that's unavoidable, but we're trying everything we can to not let that happen.Stephanie:Oh, blessing.Scott:Totally, right?Stephanie:I get, one company I'm not going to mention their name, they will send a can of soup, anything a bone broth. I mean, it's in these little bags and they just come one at a time. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I just would have rather just gone to the store and picked it up myself than getting random of one item at a time."Scott:It's so wonderful when the customer experience need and the business need align, right? So when you think about, nobody wants to ship more packages to you, right? We want to get it to you, we want to get to you fast and we want to get it to you in one package. And that's also a great experience for you. It's the same thing we talk about with customer service, which is a traditional metric that people manage as average handle time, right? How long are [inaudible]? And I'm so careful, we collectively are so careful with this metric because it can be so disastrous to the teammate that's on the other end of the phone if they think they're being managed to a handle time, right? I don't want to just get you off the phone, however, and you need to use it for all kinds of different scheduling and making sure you have enough people on the team.Scott:But what's really aligned is generally people want to get to an answer pretty quickly also, right? I want to have an efficient, valuable use of my time. I want to get to an answer and then I want to move on with my day. So that's another example of where if we can do it right and align those desires, we're going to create an awesome experience.Stephanie:The unintended consequences, pizzas is such a tricky thing with thinking about designing roles and KPIs. I mean, I'm doing it right now. I'm thinking about sales and building a sales team and being like, oh wait, this might incentivize bad behavior.Scott:You got to really think about it, right?Stephanie:You just think really strategically about it.Scott:The outcome or the impact is very different than the intent in some cases.Stephanie:Yep. Are there any external inputs right now that you think companies aren't preparing for? I'm thinking about the algorithms that are kind of running everything behind the scenes when it comes to your fulfillment and things like that. Is there anything that you guys are watching now that maybe you weren't watching a couple of years ago and letting it help influence how things are routed or how things are kind of being redirected, anything like that?Scott:I mean, I think we're constantly trying to get to be more precise, and we're very fortunate that if everything goes right, we can get you an order really, really quickly. So we're really trying to pay attention to, where are things not going perfectly and we've called this thing the perfect order, what's our perfect order, right? And how do we get more of those? So we're spending a lot of time thinking about how we can perfect our fulfillment network. And I mean, it is, as you can imagine, just an infinite number of variables that dictate how this thing goes. But we're working a lot on that. I do not think that...Stephanie:[inaudible] like local stuff, because that's something that kind of came to mind. You're paying attention to weather and higher level things are you down in the weeds of, okay, well there's a festival this week here so that means... Is it that [inaudible].Scott:It can be. I mean, for example, when we're doing a hot market event, so Super Bowl, NCAA Tournament, they're national events, but their inventories largely local, right? So we're really paying attention to what the traffic is doing and the inventory is doing it at those local levels for sure.Stephanie:I'd love to talk about events a bit because I know that's a focus is the athlete experience online and in person as well. And I saw that you guys are opening more retail locations. You're opening, I think I saw a golf center, I soccer center, I mean, these full on experiences. And I'd love to hear how you guys are thinking about that.Scott:I'm glad you mentioned that we're really proud. We just opened recently the House of Sport up in Victor, New York, which is an expression of what we think the future can be for DICK'S Sporting Goods. And it's really an experiential retail location. So you can go in there, obviously we've got golf simulators and we've got fitting in there. We've got rock walls to climb. We've got an outdoor fitness field where we're doing things and we're engaging the community in different ways. So we're running clinics and figuring out how we can get local teams into their... Engaging in the community in this way has been a part of our brand since 1948, right? So I think, if you read the story of DICK'S and how we were involved in the Binghamton New York community, when the business was founded, it'll give you a sense for why this is important to us.Scott:And we just believe that, we say it all the time, we believe that sports makes people better. So how do we think about engaging in the community where we're at? We've done this forever in community marketing, and you see how we donate equipment to local teams and so forth. This is kind of another evolution of that, where we think we can make a big impact, we can change the way that people think about retail. And I think it'll quickly get to how do we merge the online and the brick and mortar or traditional retail experience? So I think that's a place that is really exciting to us right now.Stephanie:I was just thinking about, how do you create, you have a view where you know this person came in to this event and they were using the golf simulator, and they really liked this club. And then they either bought in store or maybe four weeks later they ended up online and bought the one that they were using? Do you feel you're moving in a direction where you're going to have that viewpoint? And it's not a hard time to get there.Scott:Yeah, I think we're getting there. I think we're really focused on data and analytics, right? And so I think our ability to stitch together these experiences, we're building that muscle. I don't think that we're totally there yet, but we've got really smart people that are thinking about this. And I think we're moving in that direction because that's the key. We're not really worried about what channel you buy in, right? I think it's more about, are we the retailer of choice for you, right? And however that experience, the experience that we can build for that, it's important to measure it because then I think it unlocks the investment in the targeted areas that are going to drive more of that for our athletes. So I think that's where we're really focused.Stephanie:Have you thought about creating essentially kind of a guide shop, but you have the soccer experience or something, and then just a small shop where maybe you can look at a few other things, but then essentially you're going back online to order whatever you played with and got to experiment with, or are you doing full on retail location as always, and then often this area we're doing our experience center?Scott:We haven't done really pop up experiences, guide shop experiences like that. We're moving more towards, how do we create a more scaled experiential experience in store and then how do we measure that in terms of who might go online to buy.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). I love that. I'm excited to see... I need to visit one of those stores, especially the soccer one. I mean, I don't know what it's going to be happening there, but I want to be there.Stephanie:I want to hear, which I feel you'll have a great answer for is what are you all most excited about right now over the next one to two years? What are you most passionate about?Scott:We're excited about a lot of things. And as usual, we have a very full plate. So I think things that we've already deployed that we'll continue to refine, things like our curbside program or a buy and pickup in store program for online, we're really excited about that. That's got a long runway of improvement, enhancement, and creativity that's going to be placed into that program. We are really excited about this merger of... I'm really excited about the merger of stores and online specifically around becoming a trusted advisor to our athletes. So if you think about the breadth of the teammates that we have, and when you walk into our stores or you talk to our people online, everybody's got a passion, right? Your passion is lacrosse and soccer.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative).Scott:How do we think about unlocking that potential, right, in terms of then being able to help our customer, whether that customer is buying first player pair of soccer cleats for their son, to getting ready to play club soccer, to getting ready to go off and play soccer at a D1 level or beyond, right? So how do we look at that continuum of expertise and really become that trusted advisor, both online and in our stores? And I think that is incredibly exciting venture. And we do it well today. I think there's an opportunity to do it even better. So we're really excited about that. We're really excited about the assortment, right, that we're going to continue to launch online. I think it's going to be differentiated. I think it's going to keep our position in the market really strong.Scott:So I think the product that we put in there, the expertise that we put in there is going to be differentiated in the market, right? And that I think is probably more incremental and more incremental expression to the core business. And then we're going to continue to press. Game Changer has been a great business for us for years. And that team is great. And they continue to build a technology that service the baseball market. But we're always looking for different ways that we can expand or innovate across the industry.Stephanie:I love that, you know what? We need like, what do you do after college? I always think about that and I'm like, I loved playing sports. But then you start working, and then you have kids, and then you're, I still want to play, but how do I get back into it? And something is missing there, Scott. [inaudible].Scott:No, but I love... So that's who we want. That's another sort of persona that we really want to love to serve in our stores. Because I'm one of them.Stephanie:I'm your person.Scott:Right.Stephanie:We're the people.Scott:We're the people. And I think what we want to be able to do, I love talking about this. I think in our stores and online, our ability to listen and inspire, right, how do we help you meet that goal, right? "Hey, I'm doing a couch to 5k first time. I'm starting to get active." Or, for me, the 5'8 guy that always had a dream of the NBA that never came to fruition because my vertical is about that high. I still play. I want to make sure that I can get all the gear that I need to be competitive, right, or to achieve my personal best.Scott:So I love the fact that we can really positively impact people's lives in that way. And I think we want to make... I would love to make sure personally that anybody that walks into our store and knows that we're not just a sporting goods retailer, right? I think we want to make sure that we're helping, we want to facilitate you achieving your dreams. And then we talk a lot about that internally. So if we can translate or transmit that feeling to our athletes, I think that's really powerful.Stephanie:And also makes me think about creating custom leagues too, where it's, this is a different kind of league. It's not the traditional school. It's not even people creating their own volleyball leagues. It's we are a part of this. We're making sure that this can happen for people who struggle to even find those networks. I mean, I know back when I was in DC, I looked for where's some other women who play lacrosse? I don't really want to play with guys who are going to be checking me and I count find it, super hard to find. I mean, it's easy to find some sports in a community setting, but it's very hard to find people in certain other sports settings.Scott:You're right. There's a social, I don't want to, careful to say social network, but there is this idea of how do I plug into people that are me within a certain geographical area, right? That would be interesting. That's really interesting. Thanks for that one. Let me...Stephanie:Take it back to leadership. We just need a parenting kit. It's, here's everything you need so that we can go play our sports and then your kids are entertained. They get many lacrosse sticks. You go there and then I'll go off on my own so I can actually play, give me the kid.Scott:I love that idea.Stephanie:I want to think like such parents. Anyone who's not a parent is probably, "What are y'all talking about right now?"Scott:What are you talking about? Yep.Stephanie:Yep. All right. So let's shift over to the lightning round. Lightning round is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I ask a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready?Scott:I think so.Stephanie:Okay. So I'm sad, I haven't asked this yet and don't know this, but what is your favorite sport?Scott:Basketball.Stephanie:Oh, nice.Stephanie:And who's your favorite sports team?Scott:It's always been the Chicago Bulls since back in the day, which is probably blasted me because I live in Pittsburgh. So to not say football and the Pittsburgh Steelers is a problem.Stephanie:You'd probably get egged.Scott:Probably. But they're close second.Stephanie:That's good. What is the nicest thing anyone's done for you?Scott:Oh, wow. I'm going to struggle. I'm going to go to my kids. I think my kids being, this is going to sound so cheesy, but it's so serious. The way that my kids treat other people with respect and kindness, I think is the thing that comes to mind for me first. And I know that's probably not the answer that you would normally get.Stephanie:Nope, I like it.Scott:To me that's pretty important. So I'm really proud of them. And I think that's probably the best thing that somebody could do for me.Stephanie:I love that. There's so much you can learn from kids. I think about that all the time. So I'm the person who is here for those cheesy kind of kid answers. You're in the right space. What's one thing you don't know that you wish you understood better?Scott:American history comes to mind?Stephanie:That's a good one.Scott:I don't think that's on topic, but that's the first one that comes to mind.Stephanie:When you want to feel more joy, what do you do?Scott:It's going to sound crazy. I tell people, thank you.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative).Scott:Right. So I just believe that there's a lot... I get a lot of energy from being grateful, right? And so that's what I do. If I'm really feeling a little down or if I'm really stressed or some of the times the way that I work out and I get the endorphins mode going, that's one way to do it, and the other way is to be grateful for things. So I feel that's the way I get a lot of energy.Stephanie:I love that. All right. And then the last one, I mean, it seems you guys are very much ahead on a lot of things within the ecosystem. What do you do to stay on top of the trends? Are you watching other companies? Are you reading things, what are you doing to stay on top?Scott:I think it's a combination of experiencing and reading. I don't read nearly enough, it's hard, right? There's so much the content that comes out and not enough time. So I'm trying to just experience things out in the wild right? I'm talking to a lot of people, whether it's parents at a game or if it's just my own experiences online, and I'm trying to translate that to what's happening and why companies would do things a certain way. And then my team is doing the same thing. So I think we're trying to stay close. We're trying to stay close that way and certainly reading and engaging in conversations like this also kind of help.Stephanie:Good. That's awesome. Well, cool. Well, Scott, thank you so much for joining us. It was really fun to hear all about what you guys are up to. Where can people find more about DICK'S Sporting Goods and find you?Scott:I think www.dickssportinggoods.com. For the story of Public Lands and Golf Galaxy, and you can find me at LinkedIn, on LinkedIn.Stephanie:Amazing. Thank you so much.Scott:Thank you so much for having me. It's been a great time.

Scott Powell of Skyline Corporate Communications Group joins us to talk about the importance of Investor Relations for public companies, especially small-cap companies.  Companies frequently ask Scott “What’s the one thing we can do to get investors to pay attention to our stock or our company?”  If you’re thinking there’s only one thing, listen in to hear Scott’s response.

Ask Austin Anything! In this episode Austin answers questions from listeners just like you. Get your question answered on a future Ask Austin Anything episode by submitting it to the link below.Time Stamped Show Notes:[0:25] - Join our community! Text Austin at (201) 479-9511[1:32] - #AAA for March 2021[1:35] - Praveen - “How do you narrow down your targeted company list to 20 to 30 given there are thousands of employers out there. What is the best criteria to zero down on companies and focus our job search? How do we build out our options?”[8:22] - Blake Cook from Chicago looking for a marketing role - “What are a few LinkedIn habits I can do every day to maximize my time and reach?”[13:38] - Shelley - “What's the best way to find remote jobs that aren't advertised?”[16:32] - Lakshmi - “How far in advance should I start networking with an insider(s) at my dream company?”[18:45] - Chris - “After I pick mentors, where do I go from there? I've scheduled meetings with them, but what do I ask them? I want to make it meaningful.”[21:40] - Scott - “What are the best strategies for transitioning into a different career path? I’m a quantitative analyst for a market research firm looking to transition into a more traditional data scientist role.”Have questions about your job search? Text them to Austin at (201) 479-9511.Ask Austin Anything:Click here to get your question answered on a future #AAA episodeResources Mentioned In Today’s Episode:Strengths FinderShare Your Feedback:Want a free resume or LinkedIn profile review from Austin? Leave us a rating or review on iTunes to automatically be entered to win. We choose winners every week, click here to learn how to leave a review and enter to win.What should Austin talk about next? Ask a question or share your thoughts at CultivatedCulture.com/FeedbackConnect With Austin:Cultivated CultureLinkedInInstagramTry Austin’s free Resume Builder, free Resume Scanner, and free Mailscoop email finder tool

Daily Blaze Devotional with Scott "What are you anchored to?" Matthew 7:24–27 (NKJV) 24“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Deeper Dive Theme: JWald, Dawn and Scott discuss the impact modern media has on our brains and our spiritual lives. We also find out how modern media impacts our sleep Episode Title: Media on the Brain Host: JWald & Dawn Williams Guest: Scott Ritsema Key text: https://www.bible.com/bible/59/ROM.12.2.esv Notes: https://my.bible.com/events/7047925 Sermon Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/plantationsda/21st-century-freedom Date: January 25, 2020 Subscribe for YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/PlantationSDAChurchTV Dawn and JWald's Deeper Dive Questions to Scott: What is your background? What are the avenues to our mind? Why the Media on the Brain and Media Mind series? Describe your series on education, prophecy and overcoming lust? What's the difference between the Media Brain and Media Mind series? How can you shorten your life by watching TV? What media event happened in 1844 and was it a coincidence? Is media neutral? How do we get away from the effects of media on our brains?  Do we have to go cold turkey? Why can't Bible movies stay faithful to the Bible? What is your recommendation for media usage?  Do you have guidelines? How does media impact our sleep? How is family time impacted by our media consumption? Tags: #psdatv #psdapodcast #podcast #AdventistPodcast #ChristianPodcast #AdventistPodcasts #psdatv #MediaOnTheBrain #BeltOfTruth #ScottRitsema #Hollywood #music #TV #gaming #sports #ERelationships #science #media #entertainment #advertising #xbox #playstation #android #ios #iPad #addict #addiction #freedom #free For more information on Plantation SDA Church, please visit us at http://www.plantationsda.tv. Church Copyright License (CCLI) License Number: 1659090 CCLI Stream License License Number: CSPL079645 Support the show.

Deeper Dive Theme: JWald, Dawn and Scott discuss the impact modern media has on our brains and our spiritual lives. We also find out how modern media impacts our sleep Episode Title: Media on the Brain Host: JWald & Dawn Williams Guest: Scott Ritsema Key text: https://www.bible.com/bible/59/ROM.12.2.esv Notes: https://my.bible.com/events/7047925 Sermon Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/plantationsda/21st-century-freedom Date: January 25, 2020 Subscribe for YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/PlantationSDAChurchTV Dawn and JWald's Deeper Dive Questions to Scott: What is your background? What are the avenues to our mind? Why the Media on the Brain and Media Mind series? Describe your series on education, prophecy and overcoming lust? What's the difference between the Media Brain and Media Mind series? How can you shorten your life by watching TV? What media event happened in 1844 and was it a coincidence? Is media neutral? How do we get away from the effects of media on our brains?  Do we have to go cold turkey? Why can't Bible movies stay faithful to the Bible? What is your recommendation for media usage?  Do you have guidelines? How does media impact our sleep? How is family time impacted by our media consumption? Tags: #psdatv #psdapodcast #podcast #AdventistPodcast #ChristianPodcast #AdventistPodcasts #psdatv #MediaOnTheBrain #BeltOfTruth #ScottRitsema #Hollywood #music #TV #gaming #sports #ERelationships #science #media #entertainment #advertising #xbox #playstation #android #ios #iPad #addict #addiction #freedom #free For more information on Plantation SDA Church, please visit us at http://www.plantationsda.tv. Church Copyright License (CCLI) License Number: 1659090 CCLI Stream License License Number: CSPL079645 Support the show.

Guest: Scott Lalor started his undergraduate education at Brigham Young University where he studied economics and finance. After graduating he had the opportunity to work for a few local companies in Utah including Zango, Goldman Sachs, and England Logistics. He then got his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame. After receiving his MBA Scott recruited straight to Amazon at their headquarters in Seattle. A few years later he transferred to their Luxembourg office where he is currently living with his family and filling the role of Senior Vendor Manager. Overview: Have you ever wondered what it’s like getting a career in international business? Or how to manage diverse teams representing a variety of cultures and countries? Join us as we learn from Scott Lalor, Senior Manager at Amazon in Luxembourg as he shares with us his experience managing abroad. Transcript Meg: So first Scott could you give us a little bit of a background about yourself? Scott: Absolutely, first thank you for inviting me out. I’m excited to be back on campus and speaking about business. So, I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and then out of high school I came to BYU. I played on the lacrosse team, had a ton of fun doing that. And then I spent two years on a church mission in California. I came back from that and focused more on my studies. I ended up graduating in Economics but also spent a fair amount of time in the business school studying finance. And then I ended up getting my MBA at the University of Notre Dame. Personally, I am married to my wonderful wife Allie. We have two boys ages eight and four. We absolutely love to travel, it’s one of our favorite things to do; my two boys have been to twenty-one countries already, so they love to travel as well so we passed that on to them. And anything outdoor-related hiking, biking, fly-fishing, and most recently I’ve picked up soccer or as my European colleagues a called it Futbol. I am still pretty bad, but I have a lot of fun doing that. Meg: Tell me a little bit more about some of your travel experiences… Scott: So, we’ve lived in Luxembourg for two and a half years. It has really become kind of our leap pad to the world. We’ve been able to travel to a lot of European countries and we’ve also been able to go a little bit farther. So, we’ve spent time in Israel, Turkey, Morocco, and Egypt. Some really some special places and it’s really taught our family about the world and different cultures. Just a few fun stories that I like to tell. First, a funny one. So, we were in Germany’s late one night visiting some Christmas markets and we were all hungry and so we went to this pizza place. They didn’t speak English, our German is quite bad and so my son ordered a pepperoni pizza for dinner and when it came out it wasn’t pepperonis like we know here in America, it was actually huge peppers across every inch of the pizza. So, he looked at me in fright. We all had a good laugh about that. So, we ended up picking the peppers off and enjoying now a cheese pizza. I would say, on the more serious side, we visited Egypt. Egypt as many know, has been through some real challenges over the past five or so years after Arab Spring and you know their economy is struggling. So, we went to a city called Hurghada which is on the Red Sea and visited Luxor and some of the some of the neat Egyptian sites that a lot of people know. When we’re there we got a taxi every day and went into the city and we met this wonderful taxi driver named Mohammed. We became close friends with him. The first day he picked us up and said, “Hey do you do you need a taxi the next day?” and we said, “Sure.” So, we ended up going with Mohammed four or five nights in a row. So, the third night he turned around in the cab and said “Are you interested in meeting my family and coming to my house?” And you know we were in Egypt in the middle of nowhere and we felt a little hesitant about that. We didn’t know how safe would be. I think what I’ve learned so much about living abroad is we have preconceived notions about people and countries and religion and often that is driven by what the media tells us. And so of course we felt hesitant, but we were able to build a relationship with him. And so, my wife and I just said, “Sure.” We ended up going to his parents’ house. Just to kind of paint a picture, it was a very run-down apartment. We walked in, still a little bit nervous and right when I walked in Mohamed told us to sit down on the floor. We met his parents, they were wonderful. But Mohammed ran out the door. So we were now thinking “Wait, what’s going on? You just brought us unto your home you ran out the door.” I didn’t know what he was doing, if he was going to get whoever. He ended up bringing his whole extended family in. So, all of a sudden, a whole bunch of kids can run in the door and his sister and his other sister and brother-in-law. They were speaking in Arabic and basically saying, “The Americans have arrived.” So, they made us tea and we sat on the floor, they showed us their wedding video, and his kids start playing with my kids. They were telling us about their lives in about the challenges that they’ve had with the Taliban and have his brothers fought terrorism and how his brother died in the Army. We walked away from this experience just loving the Egyptian people. It was such a special moment to connect with these people from a completely different part of the world, but they want the same thing that we want. Like a stable government, good jobs, and a safe place for our family. We actually still keep in contact with Mohammed. We’ve been able to support him in some ways. His mother is quite sick and unable to support him. That’s a really special experience that I was able to share with my family. Meg: Sounds pretty amazing. It’s one thing to visit another country, but really amazing thing when you can actually connect with the people. Thanks for sharing those cultural experiences with us. So now can you give us a little bit of a description of your career path, where you’ve been, what you’re doing now? Scott: When I was at BYU, I was very lost. All my friends seem to know exactly what they want to do, whether it be investment banking or consulting and I frankly didn’t. I didn’t know what to do. So, like I said I did economics and was interested in finance. I graduated around 2010 right after the financial crisis so there were a ton of jobs out there. The economy wasn’t doing great. So, I ended up starting a company called Zango. They have a big international presence and I knew I want to work in finance, and I knew I want to work in an international environment. I started as a treasury analyst managing the European business consisting of money movement, foreign exchange policy, and working to ensure that we have the right cash in the right places. So that was a fun job. I was then recruited by Goldman Sachs in their Salt Lake office working with hedge fund clients, so being both operational support and customer support to that. I learned a lot at Goldman. Very tough environment. After that, I was recruited by a company called England Logistics, also a local company here in Utah. It is mainly a trucking logistics company, but they had a separate arm where they did accounts receivable factoring. So, basically buying receivables from trucking companies and then paying out at a discounted rate. I manage that whole division risk and risk portfolio. So, we would analyze the risk of each receivable and manage the trucking companies that we work with. We grew really fast, had a big team, both from a finance standpoint and an operations standpoint. I learned a lot. That was like a crash course on management. Things are going really well but I always knew I wanted to get an MBA. I wanted a broader business education and I knew I wanted more International exposure. I ended up applying to the University of Notre Dame, I had friends go there, and got accepted. That was in Indiana and just a wonderful experience. I loved culture Notre Dame, and the people were really special, and of course the sports and the football games were extra fun. Out of my MBA I was recruited by Amazon. They came on campus and did four interviews in two days and then I was lucky enough to receive an offer. I started to Amazon in Seattle as a Senior Product Manager over a Prime Now. Prime Now is an ultra-fast 1-2 hour shipping and it was brand new. Honestly, the best way to describe it was like the wild west. We were trying to figure out how to continue to meet our customers promise, which is 1-2 hours, which is much faster than what we’ve ever done at Amazon. So, I got thrown in there when it was part of the product team. So, I help to define what selection our customers would want in 1-2 hours. It was more of a consumable base model than what you traditionally buy at Amazon.com. I did that for about two years and really enjoyed it. But that desire to do more international work was still in me. I hadn’t ever worked in-country and so after that two years I did a lot of networking in the different global companies within Amazon. I reach out to the London office, and the Luxembourg office, and Singapore, and any of the more English-speaking countries. I ended up finding this role in Luxembourg. When I started Luxembourg, I was a manager of vendor management for the automotive team. So, I’ve been doing that role now for about two and a half years. Meg: So now that you are working internationally will you explain to us a little bit more of the nature of your business interactions with different cultures and countries? Scott: The Amazon that Americans know and love is the retail Amazon. It’s basically three things in our business model, it’s selection, convenience, and price. What we try to have is the best selection of the whole world, which means a really broad selection. We always have good prices or sharp prices. Third is convenience and the way we think about convenience is that we can deliver it to you fast and that whatever products you want we have in stock. So, we’re basically taking that Playbook from the US and taking it to Europe. So, within the automotive team we’re were much younger. So, the automotive division that I work in has only been around five or six years. So, we’re building our selection, we’re making sure we can deliver fast, and that we have the proper prices. So, in my role as a Senior Manager I interact and my team interaction with vendors across the EU, the US, and Asia to sell products in our five Amazon EU websites. So, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the UK. My team manages all aspects of the vendor relationship from introducing them to Amazon, to contract negotiations, and then to account management. I love it because we get a build a strategy the start of the year and how we think to grow this business profitably and then we got to go execute that strategy and we have full P&L responsibility. Meg: So, you mentioned that you’re kind of taking the amazon structure that they have here in the US and taking it there. What are the main differences of working here in the US versus what you do there? Scott: My experience is that Europeans have a more balanced approach to work life. Secondly, working a Luxembourg offers much more International diversity for such a small country. Luxembourg is a special place. Many people don’t know much about Luxembourg. It’s a tiny country that is in between Germany, France, and Belgium. It has about 600,000 and half of the people are expats or not from Luxembourg. That makes for a very International community that you just don’t find in too many places. I think big cities like London, and New York, and Singapore have that and so I would put Luxembourg out there. So, you get that international feel. A fun story that I like to tell or two different stories I like to share. So, my son had a party a couple months back at our house and all the kids are playing and there were 8 or 9 kids over there. The countries of those children represented where India, China, England, Greece, Italy, and Turkey. In his classroom there’s 12 or 13 different countries represented, and we love that I think it’s so cool. The conversations that we have with our boys about these different cultures and about how different parents are and different relationships are is something that that we love. Meg: I bet. And they’re probably learning a lot from their different experiences. Scott: Absolutely, we have conversations that we just wouldn’t have if we lived here in Utah or somewhere else. We’ve talked about currency and how a Euro isn’t exactly worth a dollar and why that is, and we talked about languages and how the different languages work. Both boys are learning French so that’s exciting to see them progress in their learning. And like I said we talk about culture because the way our friends’ parents interact with their children is different than us. Another funny story is our Italian friends invited us over for dinner on a Saturday night. So we said, “great, we’re excited,” good fresh Italian food. That was earlier in the week and so it was Saturday and so we text them and said, “okay what time should we come over? us Americans usually eat dinner let’s say 5 or 6 p.m.” and they said, “come over around 8:30 and we’ll start eating at 9 p.m.” So, we kind of laughed, our kids typically go to bed around 8, but all Italians culturally they have really late dinners. Kind of as a joke we bring our two boys in their pajamas because we knew we were going to be over there till 11 or 12 and we were thinking about getting up early in the next day. So that was a funny experience. Meg: That’s funny that you mention that because I noticed even when we were in Luxembourg there everything seems to close a little bit early. The city goes to sleep. So, what’s the day to day like at your job in Luxembourg? Scott: It’s quite similar to my time in Seattle. Generally, working in Europe the way I described it is that it is a little bit more complex. You have the EU, European Union, which bring some unification to working in those different countries, but every country has its differences. So, whether it be different currencies or different languages. Logistically each country does it a little bit differently, the regulations I would say or less unified than the US. So, when we manage 5 websites with 5 different languages and multiple currencies it’s a little bit harder to scale and to accomplish some of the things that we need to accomplish. So, it becomes challenging you have to be really creative about where you spend your time and you have to ruthlessly prioritize on the most important things. Meg: Sounds like you have a little bit more steps along the way. So, how do you approach management and leadership when working in a multicultural team or working in a multicultural environment? Scott: This is something I’ve learned a lot working internationally. The first thing I would say is listen more and talk less, which is hard for me. I would say one of the greatest takeaways from working and living abroad is it has made me more unsure of myself and how I think the world works. And I mean that in a good way. Regardless of who you are if you live and grow up in the same location your whole life you come to believe your surroundings are how the world works or how the world should work. When you get thrown into a different country, a different culture, you see other ways of solving problems and you say to yourself “wow maybe there is more than one way to solve a problem. Maybe the way we do it isn’t the best way or maybe there’s other ways.” And even better you say, “you know these people and these cultures they understand something that I don’t understand.” So, I love that as I’ve re-evaluated how I think about different cultures and think about the world. As a manager I’ve learned that diversity is so important in building a team. If you can build a diverse team then you can tap into different strengths and have greater outcomes. I’ve also noticed if you have people that are all the same whether it be all from a country certain country or from a certain part of a country, or all male or all female it often quiets the minority group. The ideas aren’t as good, because not only do the majority think a lot alike and agree with each other, it can hurt the team dynamics. So, being attentive to diversity on a team is super important. I try to make sure that everyone has a chance to speak up and has a platform to share his or her opinions. Meg: Has it ever been difficult for you in trying to form teams and deciding who should be on what team? Scott: Yeah cause the core of what you do is your people. Our Vice President said it the other day. He said, “our main focus is to build and develop our people. Luxembourg makes it a little bit easier maybe then some locations. So, within my vendor management team we have people from Italy, Germany, France, Turkey, India, America, and the UK. That geographical diversity is so valuable, and you know the questions you asked was “is it difficult?” I think it’s really difficult. Also, from a female perspective I work in the automotive world and there’s these preconceived notions that it’s only a male driven culture. And so, we’re trying to be the leaders in the automotive world to bring with more women into it. We as a leadership team focus a lot on that and not only just wait for female applications to come in but go out and recruit female employees. That’s been really important for me and it’s led to such great success. Meg: When it comes down to it would you say the diversity really trumps the specific skill needs, or is it a balance of both? Scott: That’s a really hard question to answer. Let me answer it in this way. At Amazon we don’t believe so much in industry knowledge. We specifically have on our application “no Automotive experience necessary.” Which I think it completely different than a lot of other companies. We believe if you’re smart and you can meet our leadership principles, core values, and our culture we can teach you about the automotive industry. But it’s very difficult to teach culture. It’s difficult to teach diversity. But if you can build a strong culture and you can build a diverse team, we can teach you the necessities of the industry. Meg: That’s an interesting perspective that not many have. I like that. Does your approach to vender management differ between different countries? How? In what way? Scott: For sure. As mentioned, different cultures approach business differently and to get positive results I have to adjust accordingly. For example, Italian vendors that I work with, in my opinion, value relationships more than other cultures. In the US when I worked with vendors everything is very email-based. We didn’t necessarily build a relationship. It was more of a transactional relationship than a personal relationship. I’ll give a story to illustrate what I mean. As I mentioned my vendor managers and I we go out and we try to bring vendors onto Amazon. So, we were working to sign a vendor on Amazon, this was a very important vendor, we called them and sent them emails and tried to convince them to join Amazon for years really. Things were just not moving. We could always get kind of wishy-washy answers and “yeah we’ll join” or “yeah we’ll do this” but we just never saw the results. Finally, my Senior Vendor Manager and I got on a plane down to Milan, drove a couple hours, and went to meet this vendor face-to-face. We shook their hands, we visited their factory and we sat we and just talk for a half an hour 45 minutes about them, about the history of their company, about their products, about them personally. And then after we built that trust, after we got to know each other, after they looked in our eyes and trusted us. Then we could actually talk about business and the conversations we had there so different than the ones we had on our phone. What I learned from that experience and others like that is that each culture has a different style of doing business. To be successful you first have to be aware of these differences. It has taken me a year to really understand these differences. Secondly, adjust accordingly. We had a lot of success with that vendor after that meeting and we’ve had subsequent meetings where they’ve come to Luxembourg. Now they know me personally, they know about me, and they know about our business. So, it required a higher level of trust than what I’m used to. Like I said once I realize that then I’ve become much more successful in knowing what’s important to these vendors. Meg: That’s very interesting. And that kind of leads to my next question. What would you say are necessary skills that you need when working in vendor management with different countries? Scott: What we call vendor management at Amazon other companies can call different names. We’re kind of like a sales team and we’re kind of like account managers. We do both functions. The way I would answer that question is first you have to have good strong interpersonal skills. Like I said earlier you have to be able to listen. Close your mouth and listen because what’s going to come isn’t maybe what you expect. Because each business has a different strategy and different philosophy and that’s especially true of the international level. So, being able to listen, to ask questions, and being able to build those relationships at a personal level are absolutely necessary. Second is negotiations. We negotiate every day. We have interest and the vendor has interest and sometimes those are aligned and sometimes those aren’t aligned. You have to be creative to find solutions that benefit both parties and where both parties can gain. You have to understand where there is value for them and where you can add value. Sharpening this negotiation skills is really important. Third is data analysis/finance. My core education, like I said, is economics and finance. You can’t own a P&L Statement, you can’t own an income statement if you don’t understand how the income statement works. So, things I learned at BYU and the Notre Dame, just those core fundamentals of how the income statement interacts with the cash flow statement and the balance sheet. Because I know that I can then take action that will impact those different line items. So being able to both understand the financial aspect and then the data analysis comes when you have millions of rows of data and how to tell a story. At Amazon as you can imagine we have so much data, more data than you could ever want. Data about what customers are looking at, what customers are clicking on, what’s the click-through rate, what’s the sell through rate, how often are we out of stock when someone comes and looks at a product, and our pricing. It’s easy for new employees Amazon and other companies to get totally lost in this data. We’re in a world of data now with the internet and with cell phones. So being able to know what data is most important and really sharpening those data analytics skills. And like I said in Europe at least you have to be able to deal with ambiguity. You have to deal with uncertainty. For example, you have situations like Brexit or certain situations like we’re having in Turkey where the currency devaluations day over day 25%. You don’t necessarily have those experiences in a more stable environment like the US. You have to wake up and be ready for whatever comes at you. So, dealing with ambiguity because there are more political, economic, and cultural differences and so sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and figure out the best solution. Meg: Sounds like flexibility is a big key needed for success. So, it seems like a big part of what you do has to do with effective communication with different countries. Have you ever had any miscommunication because your expectations were different from another’s? Or just in general? Scott: Yeah, very good question. So, speaking about myself and where I’ve grown is I was too direct. And I would say on the cultural Spectrum Americans are more direct or one of the most direct cultures. When I first arrived in Europe, I found myself mostly in internal meetings being very direct with people. Not necessarily in a rude way, but just like very direct to the point and I maybe missed some of the small talk and miss some of the relationship building. I remember after about a year my boss took me aside and said, “Scott I appreciate your hard work and you’re doing great things, but you need to be less direct.” And that took me by surprise. I guess at first I was a little mad. It’s hard to receive criticism or feedback when I thought she was wrong. But in retrospect she was totally right. What I learned is to be successful in the long run, in any culture, is you have to make friends. You have to make allies both internally, within your company, and external. What I mean by that is don’t just think about the business problem. Don’t think about people as somebody’s who is going to help you solve a business problem or a transaction. But get people on board. Get them on your boat. Get him going in the same direction, because you’re going to need those same individuals at a later point. When you work for a company for multiple years you interact with those same people whether it be in your department or in the finance department or the marketing department or in operation. You’re going to need those people again. You want to make sure you keep a high standard, you keep a high bar, and your work quality is high, but you don’t you’re not so driven in a way that you burn bridges or hurt long-term relationships. Meg: That’s a good piece of advice for us to all keep in mind. With that, what other kind of advice would you give for someone who is planning on working internationally? Scott: I think there’s a few different ways. I think it’s hard to find a job internationally direct from the US to a foreign country. I found it difficult. I tried that but it is very hard. What I’ve seen most people do is get hired within a local company that has operations globally. You do well in your current role, receive high feedback, and let your manager know that you want to work internationally. Then after a year or two or however long you go connect with those local Global office. You build a network there. When hiring internationally if the hiring manager already knows you fit the company culture and you have a track record and they can communicate with your current manager it makes getting hired a lot easier. So that’s what I did at Amazon. I worked for two years in Seattle, built a really strong relationship with my manager, told her exactly what I want to do next, which was work internationally. So when the call came in from my next manager she was prepared and we were all on the same page in terms of what my skill-set was and what was what I was able to accomplish. Meg: So really prove yourself and then the doors will open. So how could a student like me prepare for a future job in international business? Scott: The first things I would say is be curious. I would read about the different challenges that are going on in the world. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, which has an international section so I can stay up to date on all the trends and all the world events both politically and economically in Europe, Asia, and America. So that first will give you an understanding of what’s out there. Secondly, I would say just be brave and get out in the world. Whether it be a vacation first, or a volunteer opportunity, an internship, or something else. My biggest message to young people today is, the world is a big beautiful place and has so much to offer the mind and soul. I love the different cultures, the food, the people, that I’ve been able to experience over the last few years. They all provide an element of excitement and joy. So those connections you make both personally and professionally will be some of the most important connections and the most important things in your life. Meg: Thank you. We really appreciate you joining us today and all your insights. Scott: Absolutely, great to be here. Thank you!

Scott Meyers is a real estate investor based in Indianapolis. It all began in 2005 and since then he has grown in the self-storage industry as a developer, owner, syndicator, and operator. He has several multi-million dollar businesses under his belt but his favorite is self-storage and today he is in control of over 7,500 units. Scott started ‘The Self-Storage Mastermind’ to teach others about the self-storage business.  In today’s episode, he discusses how he entered the real estate industry, why he’s chosen to grow with self-storage, and what one should keep in mind before investing in a facility. He gives us insight on one of his memorable deals over the years- what happened, what he learned and what’s going on with it today.  Some Of The Episode Highlights: His Self-Storage Business His ‘Why’ in Self-Storage The ‘Boomerang Property’ Special Gift for Our Listeners    Connect with Scott: Website: selfstorageinvesting.com   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  TRANSCRIPTION Intro: Hey guys, this is Don, your host. In today's episode, I will interview Scott Myers. Scott is an amazing investor and he specializes in one of the most interesting asset classes, self-storage facilities. Today, me and Scott will discuss the nature of this market. Also, as previously mentioned, I want to remind you that you have an opportunity to get a free 30-minute phone call with me and Eden if you review our podcast on iTunes. Simply rate the podcast and write a review of how you feel about the content and the show. To redeem, email us the content of the review to Hello@donandeden.com. You will then be contacted and scheduled for a 30-minute phone call with me and Eden, where you could ask questions or network about any subject or project that you would like. So, let's get started and I hope you guys will enjoy the interview. Lady: Welcome to the commercial real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to off-market strategies. Don: Scott, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? Scott: Hey, Don, I am fantastic. How about yourself? Don: I'm great. How's the weather up in Indiana? Scott: Well, that depends. We had our first snowfall of the year last night. It had about three inches, which is a little bit more than we normally get this time of year. So, I think I'd rather be down next to you conducting this interview right now. Don: Yeah, I mean, we just got the best weather right now in Florida. It's been very muggy for November, 75 degrees all throughout. I used to live in the Midwest, and I know it kind of gets cold in that period of time of the year, right? Scott: Sure can. Yep. Don: Yes. You've been living in Indiana, all of your life, born and raised? Scott: Born and raised in Michigan. I went to the University of Michigan and after I graduated, I moved down to Indianapolis where I took a job. I was working in the telecommunications industry before I got involved in real estate. Don: Wow. Okay, so that's a pretty sharp transition. What made you move into real estate? Scott: When I began looking in investment books on ways to I guess diversify my retirement rather than relying on our 401k stocks and bonds and mutual funds ran across several books, one of which was Robert Kiyosaki's book terms in real estate and the more I looked at more I realized that I didn't want to put my money into the stock market as the poor dad did in Robert Kiyosaki's book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad.' And so, I began investing in single-family homes and then it took off after that. Don: Yeah, let's talk about your initial investments in the single-family space. What did you do, fix and flip? Scott: Began to buy single-family homes, and then fix them up, refinance them and rent them out. And I did that for a number of years until holding. It's kind of a tough gig holding on as a landlord unless you're flipping some as well. So once the economy began to turn in 1999 and 2000 during that downturn, shortly after the government came out with the Community Reinvestment Act, and made it easy, a little too easy for anybody to own a home and so we began then turning around our houses to sell them. So, we became retailers in addition to landlords. Don: Nice. I know right now you're focusing primarily on self-storage. Tell us about the first time you got to learn about this asset class and this market in general. Scott: Began looking into self-storage because of, well, that wasn't the cash flow that I wanted to have in single-family homes and apartments on like I had intended. And then when I went back and looked at the business model, I realized that most of my expenses were a result of a related to tenants and toilets and trash. And so, we all love real estate and we love running real estate if it weren't for that. So, I began looking into what are the other asset classes in real estate that has the benefits of real estate, but without all the hassles of the three T's. And it's either parking lots or self-storage. And so, the more I begin to look into self-storage in the business model, yeah, I really liked what I saw. And began attending some industry trade shows, then dip my toe in the water by getting into a partnership with someone in a self-storage facility. And the rest they say is history. Don: Yeah. So, there is a question that I want to ask you. I know now that you're very big on the self-storage space and you own or you're in control of over 7500 units, I’m guessing in self-storage just since 2005. So, you've been a longtime player in that space, but I want to ask you more about the beginning because I remember I just recently did a transition from residential wholesale real estate into commercial real estate. And even then, being an experienced investor and owning a lot of properties and having capital, it's not easy. So, you said something about going to shows and learning about... So, tell us a little bit about that period of time where you did not make your first deal in self-storage yet, but very attracted to that asset class and what you did in that time period, how much time did it take for you to get your first deal? Scott: There weren't any resources. You found me, Don because we have an education company as well. We teach people how to go about and do this business and we've been doing that since 2008. But prior to that, that company was really born as a result of that. There wasn't a resource, there wasn't a Scott Meyers out there to learn from it. So, I attended the industry trade shows and those shows are primarily for the folks that are already in the business.  So, I begin talking to the attendees and just asking them, "What do you like best about self-storage and what don't you like about self-storage?" just to get an understanding from several folks that before me and how to get into it. There still wasn't any way to learn the nuts and bolts, the A to Z or how to get into it. When I came home as I began to do more research on my own, I reached out to a consultant in the industry and I spent a day with him and drove around and taking notes and asking about it.  He owned a management company as well. And he managed several facilities for other folks. I asked him as many questions as I possibly could to fill in the gaps and I filled up three notebooks full of paper, just answering the questions that I had about the business and I, like you, been in multifamily and apartments and I understood commercial real estate. But all the nuances and all the intricacies of self-storage to bridge that gap and fill in the gaps took me all day and a bunch of notes and even then there was no way to get it all but that's how I started. And then just sort of trial by the fire going out and talking to other owners and brokers and begin exploring and looking at several facilities to buy. Don: Okay, tell us a little bit about the market itself. So, what are the biggest players, what is considered a big property? I know so when you're looking at multifamily anything over 200 units is considered very big. Mobile home parks, anything over 150 is considered institutional. So, what would you say is a big deal when you talk about self-storages? Scott: Yeah, we're in that 400 to 450 unit range and which equates to roughly greater than 60,000 square feet. Those facilities that are larger than those are the ones that are going to be typically institutional, so those are the ones are going to be held by Public Storage or Extra Space or Bridge or CubeSmart number of the big players or reads in the marketplace. Now not all the time we own several facilities that are that size as well with the goal and the intention of eventually off to the reeds and that's what we're developing and building now. That's really what's considered the big boys. And so the reeds are the institutional properties and facilities that size you know, that only accounts for about nine to 10% of all the units and all the square footage of self-storage are below that and are owned by some regional players that own you know, 1, 2, 5, 7 properties. Some national players that aren't considered and then a lot of the mom and pops that we buy our facilities from that can go all the way down to as low as 15 between units per facility. Don: Okay. So, mom and pop are always good because you can get a pretty good deal. Somebody that owned the property for quite a while, they have a lot of equity typically and there is a lot of value-added. So, I would assume that the value adds basically comes to play when talking about raising up the rents, right? So, they're just not fulfilling their potential. Scott: Yeah, that's absolutely one of the ways that we look at. We're always looking at turnarounds and value adds and the first of which is usually what you just mentioned is usually poor management. They haven't raised rents in a while because they like to stay full, they have fallen behind on technology and we do utilize software and kiosks to manage these facilities or at least help to manage these facilities, which reduces our payroll, which is our second highest expense, line-item expense next to property taxes. In many cases, not all the cases many of the mom and pops didn't understand how to market their facility, therefore they suffer from a lower occupancy than if they were running very well and had a better website and then a means for people to rent a unit or reserve units online. Don: Yeah, what would you say are the biggest minds or the things you should be careful when you're buying a self-storage, especially when underwriting a deal? Scott: Well, the normal due diligence that we go through first the physical side, we hire an inspector, we do our site visits and we hire an inspector to look at all the physical aspects with the underwriting. As you know Don, that some in commercial real estate, you make a $10,000 mistake and underwriting and just at a 10 cap is $100,000 valuation mistake that you've made. But in today's seven or six cap environment, we're talking about $120,000 - $130,000 mistake. So, it's making sure that if we're buying it from a seller and individual seller, or if we're buying from a broker, we need to get the seller's numbers, and all of the expenses. So, it has an art and a science to it. But the science part is just knowing exactly what to ask for. And in self-storage versus apartments versus mobile home parks, there are expenses that are associated with each one of those asset classes.  So it's important to know what are the expenses of running a self-storage facility and making sure that your account for that. And as I'm sure you're used to and telling your folks as well but just because the seller and the broker don’t include it has zero alongside an expense sentiment doesn't mean it's going to be zero for you. So, management of lawn care and landscaping and snow removal, if that manager does that, or their employer does that, well, they're not going to do it for you so you need to add those expenses in. So, I think that's one of the places where people get tripped. Another is the change in property taxes.  If you run it for a million dollars, and the last time it was assessed was at $500,000 and in this county, they assess based upon a sale, you can expect your property taxes to double roughly and so you need to account for that and underwriting that you're different set of expenses when you buy it versus what is given to you by the seller. So you know, we can go through each and every one of those but just making sure that you pull all the bills and you all of the information in terms of all the income coming into the facility, as well as all the expenses of that underwriting based upon that to give your valuation and your offer. But then we always have two sets of numbers that we use afterward, which is how we're going to run it today meaning 30 days after we bought and then what does it look like in the next one to five years down the road once we have stabilized it and added more value. Don: Okay, and what does it look like as far as the demand and the supply for self-storage facilities across the United States when we're talking about late 2019? I know that people are buying and we're consuming a lot more than what we used to, especially those you can buy everything online right now. And I know people have a lot of things that they want to store. What is your take on this industry and the direction in which it's going in the future for 5 or 10 years? Scott: What we're seeing right now is a demand for self-storage. We always look at supply; supply and demand for a particular market. And the good news is that we draw a ring around a particular site if we have developed for an existing facility of about three miles, five miles as if it's rural or one mile if you’re in downtown Miami. But then we're looking at the amount of self-storage square footage already in that market in a three-mile radius, compared to the population in our industry is considered somewhere between six and a half to seven and a half square person. And it depends upon the market and there are some areas that are quite a bit different than that. But that's kind of a round number. And so, that alone gives us an idea of what the demand is. So, then we visit those facilities and determine if that truly is the case, if they have waiting lists, the rental rates in the market will also be an indicator of what the demand is, obviously. And so, then we base it upon that, but there's only four square foot of storage per person in this market, and the rates are considerably higher than we see around the rest of the country and all the facilities are full and have waiting lists, then there's probably a need for some storage there. In the case of development, we're also going to get a feasibility study on just like you do Don when your billing departments often saying, "Yeah, we think it's going to work, we have to get a feasibility study before the bank will give us money and private equity partners as well." But that's how we look at it in today, in real-time for looking at a facility to develop or even to turn around.  Now in terms of moving forward or looking forward, we don't see a whole lot of changes being the demand for self-storage. And we don't have a crystal ball that is perfect, but we keep an eye on trends and we've seen in the past, we've seen that the baby boomers have created a huge demand for self-storage as they've been downsizing and moving into assisted living and then passing on. Their kids store their items in storage for the future.  But then the concerned about the millennials that perhaps they wouldn't have the same demand and self overseeing just the opposite. Yeah, they're minimalists, they have smaller homes or apartments because they want to give them up and go travel instead of having a house or they want to live in a smaller home. But they like adventures and experiences and adventures and experiences require skis and gear and mountain bikes and camping gear and kayaks and all those other things. And they don't fit in in their tiny houses or apartments or condos. And so we've seen an even greater surge in demand for self-storage, and we see that happening in the foreseeable future. Don: So, you wouldn't think there are any major disruptors coming in the form of let's say, multi families that are being built with storage facilities inside them. Would you say that this is a disrupter? Scott: I don't think so. Because sometimes they are done either on the grounds and in the basement in some of those areas. For they're doing that to a degree but we haven't seen that effect because if you're going to build apartment and you already have construction crew on-site, you're going to maximize the living space because you're going to generate a heck of a lot more revenue per square foot in living space, and you are for storage. So it's an amenity that they can put in place, but not to the degree that it meets the demand for the entire area or the market. So, we may lose a few of those clients in a three-mile radius, but it certainly doesn't speak to the entire market that we're marketing to if that makes sense. Don: Yeah, it makes sense. So where are you focusing on buying these self-storage facilities? Are you buying across the country or you're looking at particular markets and then when you're looking into a market? I know when I'm looking for mobile home parks or multi-families, that I'm looking for job growth and population growth and understanding the environment of the market. Are you doing anything different when you're looking into a self-storage facility, are there different stats that you got to understand before moving in? Scott: When I was also in homes and apartments and we're always looking for the emerging markets that were always a buzzword and some of the guru's had created. And you always want to see where there's growth in those markets. And that's always like that as well. Because if you see, you see self-storage facilities going up. Typically, they're going out not too far from apartments in a growing market, we're not too far away, they go hand in hand or in step with one another. But the good news about self-storage, unlike apartments and single-family rentals is that in a downturn in the economy, or even in a market that is experiencing a little bit of a decline in population or maybe some job loss in self-storage, we're in the trauma and transition business.  If there's trauma, people losing their jobs are having to move they need storage, and they're downsizing and moving back with their parents are moving in with somebody else. And so that creates a need for storage. We've seen during the last recession and everyone prior to that self-storage does extremely well because businesses are downsizing. So, as we head into a changing economy, we feel that we're in good shape. When we're in a growing market or growing economy, people buy more stuff or there are more people to store things therefore there's a need for storage. But even if there's a downturn in a particular market that is losing jobs, there's a need for storage and self-storage does extremely well.  Now doesn't mean that we do great in every single market in every single economy. The one caveat or the one market in which we wouldn't do well, and as those in which there's just a new extreme blight or a flight. So, if there are several manufacturers are leaving, and there are thousands of jobs that are leaving a market. That there are some instances that we've seen that or even New Orleans when Katrina came through and wipe them out, there's lots of areas within a three-mile radius that the population is so low that self-storage facilities are struggling, same in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, exited as the auto industry has left, the same thing. So, we do have to be careful that there is an extreme blight in those markets but we like just about every market and every economy for storage. Don: Yeah, but I would think that whenever there's an extreme blight in the market, then it's not going to be just self-storage is not going to be affected. It's going to be all types of real estate... Scott: Exactly. And you're right. Don: It doesn't really matter. So, I want to ask you about a specific deal. One that you remember, one for the ages is what we call it. So that you can intrigue everybody that's listening to this episode about self-storages and is considering to get into space, something that you bought, made good money and it was interesting and intriguing. So, tell us about one of those. Scott: Yeah. So, this is a property, it was a larger property that I bought back in 2007, so just prior to the Great Recession. I bought the property for $1.5 million with no money down, I used seller financing and a bank and bank debt on it. And it was an industrial building that had offices in it and warehousing, but we converted a large portion of it to outdoor parking for storage is the indoor self-storage. So, we put about $400,000 with a bank loan into the project and we had $1.9 into it. Then in 2007, at the end of it, so about two and a half years later, we sold it prior to the recession of 2008 and we sold about a $2 million profit on that one.  Then came the recession and the buyer went bankrupt because he was a developer out of California and had lost his portfolio, retain the rights to market some of those properties, this being one of them. So, he offered it to me several times over the next several years, and the price kept coming down, down and down and then finally I was able to buy it back for $545,000. And so that's when we get good at syndicating as we mentioned Don when you run out of cash. We've leased it back up again and we've rehabbed them and renovated several areas, leased up the storage, added more storage to it. And it's under contract to sell right now for just a little shy of $3 million. Don: So, you made $2 million the first time and then a little bit over $2 million the second time. It is coming back to you giving you $2 million whenever you work with it. Scott: We affectionately call it 'The Boomerang Property,' so yeah. Don: That is just great, that's phenomenal. Okay, that's beautiful. You bought the property, that was luck also buying it right on time and selling it just before the recession, won't you say? Scott: We had that thing leased up so that we really couldn't create much more value in it. It was at the top, it would have just been through some minor rate increases. And so, we didn't foresee the recession coming and certainly not the magnitude that it was. So, I absolutely will not pretend that I knew what was happening. So yes, we were fortunate enough to be able to sell it at that time when financing was plentiful, and he was able to buy it and that was really good timing. And boy, we learned a lot of lessons through that recession. Fortunately, we weren't holding that one during that time. Don: Okay. What market was it? Scott: That was here in Indianapolis. Don: Nice. Great. That's very interesting. And I'm sure everybody that's listening could see that you could make $2 million on a self-storage facility, one that you bought for $2 million or was in for $2 million. That's amazing! That's a 100% return on your investment. That's great. What book would you recommend for somebody to read in case they already read 'Think And Grow Rich' and 'Rich Dad Poor Dad?' Scott: Wow, let me see here. Don: Difficult question, huh? Scott: It is. I'm just looking at my bookshelf of the many things we’re utilizing our company right now as we scale and grow just depending upon where folks are at is 'Traction'. So, it's more than just a book. It's where Gino Whitman talks about the entrepreneur operating system and really how we as entrepreneurs need to handle and run our business and treat it as a business no matter what the size is. So, I would strongly recommend 'Traction' by Gino Wickman. That is the one that's probably had the biggest impact on us recently. This is for yourself as well as any staff that you may be bringing on are the Four Disciplines of Execution or 4DX all about just getting things done. Bestseller on our wall street journal number one, and again loads of information on how to, well, just how to get things done and how to not make excuses or procrastinate and move the ball forward in your business. Don: Yeah, it seems that procrastinating is always one of the keys to failure. Everybody's saying to never procrastinate, always take action and get things done. Amazing. Yeah. So Scott, what's the best way to connect with you in case anybody wants to learn more about self-storage is or invest with you or anything of that nature? Scott: Sure. Well, selfstorageinvesting.com is our website with all things self-storage, and lots of freebies to download and some videos. But I got a little something that I want to give to your folks done specifically for being on this podcast. If you want the beginning a roadmap or what we call the blueprint into self-storage, you'll go to that same site http://selfstorageinvesting.com/blueprint1/ the numeral one behind it. It’ll show you the steps that you need to follow to get involved in this incredible business that we call self-storage. Don: Well Scott, thank you very much for sharing that with our audience and I hope that you're going to have a great day and thank you for being on the show today. Scott: My pleasure. Thank you, Don. Don: Yes, you're welcome. You have a great rest of your day Scott: You too. Lady: Thanks for listening to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Ethan. Stay tuned for more episodes. Till next time.

Join Otis, Sara and Katie as they discuss the pros and cons of having a guy that caused the previous Santa's demise. Are the cops still looking for Scott? What happens to all of his stuff? Am I thinking WAY too hard about this?

Scott Voelker, the amazing seller himself, is back on the podcast today with a new book that will guide entrepreneurs on a path to financial freedom. Scott has transformed from someone who dabbled in e-commerce into a seven figure business owner, author, and host of one of the most popular e-commerce podcasts out there. Now he is sharing his tips with other entrepreneurs, offering sets of specific steps to follow to create a business that will allow freedom and flexibility. From the construction career he left at an early age to starting and building a successful photography business, Scott has built on his entrepreneurial nature for over two decades. In 2008 he started selling photography products online and soon realized it could become a full time income. Fast forward a few more years and he started to hear more about Amazon FBA model and how some people were making good money using the platform. He started researching and listening to any valuable information he could garner then used all the know-how he'd gathered and applied it to his product listings. Episode Highlights: How Scott and his wife got their start building a business from the ground up. Scott discusses the path he took and how the book delves into his future plans. Whether he finds the pathway to the end goal more difficult than five to ten years ago. How Scott is evolving from being “The Amazon Guy.” Helping others with the book and the action steps he outlines. Scott addresses the question of finding time to start a side hustle. Learning how to schedule downtime once success allows for less work time. Tips for finding that future-proof opportunity. Taking the affiliate marketing path as an opportunity to learn your market. Using channel diversification as a building block. Transcription: Mark: Joe recently I sent you a book through Amazon that I was hoping you would read and I'm assuming that's the next book on your reading list, right? Joe: No. Sorry. Mark: I'm not going to buy you any more gifts. Joe: No. Now you sent it to me via Amazon and I think I have to download it onto my Kindle app. Mark: You haven't even downloaded it? Joe: I haven't even downloaded it. Mark: Oh my goodness. Joe: You're just trying me. See the reason I haven't is because it's a productivity book and you're trying to get me to be more productive but I haven't read it yet so I'm not as productive as I could be. Do you see an excuse thing going on here? Mark: Productivity is one of those things that I'm sure everybody's like Joe is terrible at getting stuff done. Joe: This book I'm holding out for those that are on the YouTube channel. Thank you for being on the YouTube channel, by the way, you're awesome. This is the book I'm currently reading it's called the Take Action effect By Scott Voelker; a friend of ours and we just had him on the podcast. And that's what the book is all about. It's a combination of, and this is why I'm not reading the book you sent me. And I have one more in front of that by the way but this one is amazing it's really telling Scott's story. Scott as lot of people know has a podcast called The Amazing Seller podcast. With the audience he has every month he could fill up the Bank of America Stadium here in Charlotte and I think that's like 25, 30,000 people. He started out just telling his story building an Amazon business and everything he was going through. He just laid it all out on the line. He's really transferred himself or transformed himself into someone that is first and foremost helping people take action in their lives and he talks about this in the book and how he did certain things in his life and what an impact it had and what it led to next and next and next and now where he's at running a 7 figure business with the lifestyle that he wants. It's still one of the most important things about Scott and the book and the action steps that he shows people how to take is to run a business, set your own goals, how to set goals properly with vision boards and different things but with a lifestyle that you want. This is not a get rich quick scheme it's a book to build the life that you want; how to take certain steps and actions and if you want to run a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 million dollar business great. These will help and there are some examples of that; of people that are doing that. But if you want to just earn an extra couple of thousand dollars on the side and build the business slowly there are absolutely some steps in there for those folks as well; people that are listening now that still have full time jobs that don't dare buy a business this allows them to take certain steps and actions to do that and build a safe business that's going to be relatively passive that they could do part-time as they build that up and eventually quit your day job work and sell it through Quiet Light. Mark: One of the things I like about this is the idea of having a purpose to what you're doing. And I think there is this tendency to chase success, chase success, chase success, and we put in our minds that success is a certain business goal while we ignore the other aspects of our life. And I know over the past 13 years running Quiet Light Brokerage I've run across so many successful entrepreneurs who have built amazing businesses but frankly are somewhat miserable because they've built prisons for themselves. And we talk about why are people selling. Sometimes it's just because they've built that prison of a business and they need to get out. And they realize that they need to readjust their life priorities. I love when we meet people like Scott, like Ezra Firestone, and some of these other guys that have reached certain levels of success and now what they're doing is they're really trying to just be helpful and really contribute to that entrepreneurial community with some of the lessons they've learned. And I love the focus of this book. I love that it's a system out there to help you identify what's really important and have everything else flow into that, set the real goals out there and build that system including the business that fits those goals. Joe: And it's just that Scott is a real guy giving real-life examples of things that he's done and the path that he's taken and he's giving real advice here that is action-oriented. And it's a mindset. It's inspiration. And they're steps to take as well. It's one of the best books I've read in 2019. I highly recommend everybody take a listen to the podcast and at the end and in the show notes here you can go to take action effect and download or buy the book. It's available. He went further than our very own Walker Deibel, he made it available in the audio version as well. Mark: Walker needs to step his game up and start a recording. No. Fantastic. Let's get to this episode here. I love introducing our audience to people that we find to be good friends of Quiet Light because they share some of our mission and purpose. So I'm excited to share this episode with everybody. Joe: Let's get to it. Joe: Hey folks Joe Valley here from the Quiet Light Podcast and today I have a guest that is back on. But this time he is a published author on his way I'm sure to being a best-selling author. Scott Volker, welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. Scott: What's going on Joe? Thanks so much for having me. Joe: Welcome back I should say. I just saw you a couple of weeks ago at Brand Accelerator Live; a fantastic event where you launched the book, a big hit and my goodness I'm looking at some of the reviews and they're fantastic. And I'm reading it myself of course. And let's get into that but first for those folks that don't actually know who you are why don't you tell us all about Scott Voelker? Scott: Yeah. Well to kind of sum it up I've been at this basically creating businesses that allow me to have the flexibility, the freedom, that's always my first and foremost. Back when I was like 21 years old I was working for my father's construction company and from there I thought I was going to own that company one day and then that partnership and son in law that was stealing and some craziness I soon saw that that wasn't the path that I was going to take. But I wanted to still be able to work for myself and my wife and I started a photography business, learned the ropes through good old trial and error, and built that into a business that allowed us to take our kids to school and home from school and all of that stuff. And it's really important me to watch my kids grow up and I've got 3 kids ages now 11, 21, and 24. But I've been at this for over 18 years and really building businesses hasn't really changed just the platforms have changed. And so when I wrote this book I wanted to go through and tell the story of myself. Someone that didn't have a college degree and felt a long time ago that I kind of felt to myself like I wasn't smart because I didn't go to college. But then after kind of building some businesses and watching other people go to their 60 plus hour a week job and then seeing myself not have to do that I was like well wait a minute I'm going to give myself a little bit more credit. I've done okay. And so it in a nutshell that's what I do. I just love building businesses. But I like more about just building a business it's more about the freedom and the flexibility, stability and all that stuff. Joe: And that is what you talk about in the book. Let me just; I don't think I said what the name of the book is. It's called The Take Action Effect. Scott: Yeah. Joe: Proven Steps To Build a Future Proof Business And Create Your Ultimate Freedom. I'll hold it up here for those folks that are on the podcast; I'm sorry on the YouTube channel. Scott: Yeah. Joe: One of the things that you talk about in the book really hit home with me and that is that your wife had that first idea for you to go off and on your own. Scott: Yeah. Joe: And it's and it's continued in your relationship. You guys work through all of your business opportunities and ideas together, right? Scott: Yeah, 100%. I mean she was my take action moment as I talk about in the book a lot. I think we all have these moments in our life that something happens; like a decision happens that we make either because we're forced to and then we see the result from it or we choose to, we take that leap. And I was frustrated with my job and I thought I was going to own this company and then found out that it wasn't going to probably happen and we needed to figure out another way. And then that's when my wife had said maybe we should start a photography business which at the time we didn't have digital it was all film based not YouTube videos to go out there and educate yourself. So Scott that wasn't a good student in school had to figure out how to go through and teach myself Photoshop and just how to run a studio and we did that. But yes she was the one with the idea and still to this day she's always the one kind of nudging me a little bit and saying like you should probably listen to this. Even the podcast The Amazing Seller Podcast that was because she said that you should; I had the idea but she was likey should probably lean into that a little bit and here we are. Joe: That's funny you know my wife usually has the idea and then I have to go out and do it. It's a running joke in 20 plus years of marriage. I was going to I think our wives are very similar. Our marriages are very similar but it sounds like there's one distinct difference is that my wife comes up with the idea and I have to execute. So you're taking a lot of past so it's interesting from a construction worker to entrepreneur in the photography space before really the online world existed and then discovering it through eBay and then Amazon and then The Amazing Seller podcast. Scott: Yeah. Joe: Can you just talk about that path a little bit and talk about what the Part 2 of this business about this book talks about? Scott: Yeah. So like I said the photography business being brick and mortar I learned a lot about how to get clients in the door. And a lot of people say like Scott when you start a business should it be your passion. And if it could be then yes that would be amazing because then you would love to work on it every day. But I wasn't passionate about photography. I was passionate about getting out of my job. So my wife was passionate about photography but then I started to develop these passions and that was marketing and that was Photoshop and video editing. And the way that it kind of led me to really the online space and e-commerce really was my wife was looking for props on eBay. So in our business, we always were unique in the way that we had props. We had certain sets and we had like a lot of backgrounds that cost us 2 or $3,000 and people would pay just to come in because we had this hand-painted backdrop. So my wife was looking for this cedar bridge that she had seen somewhere else and she found one on eBay. It was like 130 bucks it was a little 4-foot little wooden cedar bridge. And so then as she was looking at one of the other stores that she shops at she's seen the same bridge for 30 bucks and she's like it's selling for 130. I bought one for 130 maybe we should try to sell this thing. I said okay. So then that's where we got the idea and we started selling those. Actually, we took the minivan over to the store and we loaded it up and we packed that thing and that money actually paid for our kids tuition for a private school. And so that opened my eyes to eBay and like what else could I sell, right? And even though I had a business I'm still thinking to myself as an entrepreneur like well that wasn't that hard. Maybe I should try to find more things to sell. So then we actually started a video business on the side of our photography business; they kind of work too, you know one of the same. And then I started building these projectors to transfer old 8-millimeter film. So the old 8-millimeter film that we use to have grown up as kids it was a lot of times silent film but there was some sound when it got; I think it was Super 8 and then I found a machine that was modified to transfer the film. And so when I got that I kind of looked at it and being in the construction world I'm like this is just a modified projector. Let me go ahead and reverse engineer what they did here and I did that and I started selling them on eBay for about 800 bucks. I was selling one or two of them a week. Joe: Wow. Scott: Yeah, so I made about 100,000 on just old projectors that I modified for film transfer and that's kind of what got my wheels spinning about this online stuff. Joe: And it never would have happened if you didn't; I'm going say this so many times, taken some action, right? Entrepreneurs are special people. They come up with an idea and they don't think about it and think about it and think about it and think about it. They've got to do some planning, of course, the more complex world we live in you've got to do some planning especially when you're going to spend some dollars. But I think maybe Scott back then when you and I didn't have any gray hair we were able to take action a little simpler and a little quicker, right? I would just with that whole ready aim fire or ready fire aim what is it? Scott: Yeah. Joe: Those things, right? And I just take my path and hustle and work hard and get it done and figure out the road to that end goal which I knew what the end goal was. I just didn't know the road or the path. Scott: Yeah. Joe: Are you finding now given that you've; I mean you've done all this for 20 years an entrepreneur in many, many different past and you've coached thousands of people through The Amazing Seller podcast and many of them 6, 7, 8, 10 figure exit eventually. Scott: Yeah. Joe: Are you finding that the pathway to that end goal whether it's an eventual exit of a business or just a one of a lifestyle where you can drive your kids to work every day and spend more time with your spouse and you take family vacations, is it more difficult than it used to be in your opinion? Scott: I think it depends on what your final outcome is. I think for a lot of people it's not about building an 8 figure business just to say you built an 8 figure business; to some people it is. It's like bragging rights but for a lot of people; and I know you told me a story about a guy he was a stay at home dad I think and he built his company in 2 years without pulling a dime out of it so they could cash it out and then live off of that and live the life that they wanted. So I think for a lot of people it is that. So for me personally I think it is I don't want to say easy; it's simple. Nothing is easy. Like everything that I've ever done, there's always been struggles and issues that you have to overcome; whatever like that's business. You just have to learn how to adapt, how to move, and adjust. But I think it is actually easier nowadays to build a business that you can potentially exit. And actually getting to know you more, getting to know the team over at Quiet Light has actually got my wheels spinning once again at looking at this as an opportunity for me to build something maybe from scratch, get it to a certain level, and then sell it, and then you just repeat that process. Like I could build a team to just help me do that. So again my wheels are always spinning. And the more I talk to you and I start hearing these stories I'm like that seems like a pretty straightway to go. But the principles and the concepts are pretty much the same. They haven't really changed. And that's what is in the book is really these pillars; these core things that make up a market, make up products, make up traffic; like all of that stuff hasn't really changed. The platforms change but the principles never change. Joe: You addressed some of the approaches in Part 2 of the book about building your future proof business. Scott: Yeah. Joe: You started out as an Amazon guy, right? You were selling on Amazon telling your story in the podcast but you've evolved quite a bit. Can you address that and then we'll talk about how the book addresses it as well? Scott: Well yeah but the book itself actually is my pivot. So we talk about pivoting all the time. So when I started the podcast you're right I was getting into the Amazon game just like everyone else was. It's just I was kind of doing it and other people were just kind of consuming information and saying like I'll wait until we have all the pieces that are working or all of the answers, right? Joe: You were telling your story whether it was a success or a failure and everybody was listening. Scott: Exactly. And so as I started to do that I also started to see how the market was shifting. So when the podcast was started it was Scott the Amazon guy. And then after I started to kind of see that the market was changing, more competition was coming, and it was getting a little bit riskier I'm like I don't want to go down that road. Now that doesn't mean it can't work. I just don't want the headaches of constantly just worrying that my accounts are going to get shut down or whatever. So I'm like I'm going to go back to basics build a business from skill sets that I've built and I talk a lot about that in the book like everything we've done we've built skill sets that we can then leverage in the future. So for me to really go down that road of like okay where was I van and where am I now, it's all about evolving; all about growing. I mean I think we're all doing that as we learn more things like even like when I first started I didn't think about having a brand that I could exit. And now I'm thinking; a lot of times I'm thinking to myself could this brand be sold, what would it take to sell this business? So a lot of times I'm thinking more along those lines now. But like I said people are always kind of like thinking of me as the Amazon guy and I don't want to be known; I don't want to 20 years from now be Scott the Amazon guy. I want to be the guy that helped people build a business that allowed them the life that they want and that they deserve. Joe: That's what I'm seeing with the people that I've met that have listened to your podcast and then to your events and are connected with you in any way. Whether it's Brand Accelerator Live, your inner circle Mastermind group, or The Amazing Seller podcast; they're not just building Amazon businesses, they're building businesses that will allow them to live the life that they choose to first and foremost. Scott: Right. Joe: Some of them that's all about building value and exiting and others it's all about taking care of others. Rachel; I had a conversation with one of your followers, listeners, attendees, whatever you want to call them, Rachel we don't use the last name but an amazing story. She's building a business so that she can help others. Scott: Yes. Joe: She's going to make money off the business but that's not the focus. The goal is to be able to use that money to help others foster children charities and things of that nature; really good people. You're building good humans which I think is terrific. You're surrounding yourself with them as well. Scott: It's pretty awesome. It's funny Joe I was just listening to the Ask Scott session that we recorded there live at Brand Accelerator and it just happened that the one lady came up and was telling us about her problem and her problem was is that she was wondering how she was going to keep up with the amount of scale. And I said that's a real bad problem to have. And I knew you were in there; I thought you were in there and I called you out and I go I think this is a question for Joe later kind of let him help you on that. But it's really; it's pretty rewarding to sit there and think to yourself I had something to do just because I showed up, pressed record, and started helping people. That right there that will; to me that surpasses any amount of money that I can make from a podcast is hearing other people's stories and how they're set up now to really live the life or maybe donate to their charity. That's like again the effect of the take action is the effects of that we're able to do the ripple effect on other people but also on your life and your business. So it's really about the ripple effect all the way through. Joe: Yeah, not necessarily about just building that business and exiting it. It's everybody involved along the way. Scott: 100%. Joe: That lady was Karen by the way and she did have some good problems, right? People wish to have her problems. Scott: Growth every year, year after year, and I don't know… Joe: Yeah. How do I keep up with buying more inventory? One of the things that you talked about which I think is really, really important both in the book and on stage and I'm going to just summarize for anybody listening. This book really encapsulates everything Scott's done in his life and what you've done in your life, Scott. But then it also gives a pathway to taking action and seeing what the impact and effect of that action is. But someone said look I'm busy I've got a full-time job. I'm trying to do this. How did you find the time for that? How do you find the time for this if you; you're an advocate of don't quit your day job if you have one do a little side hustle and build this over time until it's safe to exit. How would you address that question but Scott I just don't have time? Scott: Yeah and I actually I address this on stage when I came to that point because I shared my story that I was working 60 plus hours a week for my father's company running I think was like 13, 14 guys at one time that were underneath me making sure that those jobs got done. So I was always the first one there and the last one to leave like always. On the side, I was building a house from scratch. I was like 25 years old. Joe: That took a little time. Scott: It took me 11 months. And I remember Joe my mother in law lived up on the Hill. She lived probably I don't know maybe 500 or 1,000 feet. She was up on a hill though and she could look down and see the property. We had two acres. And I remember one night I wanted to get this one spot on the house done outside. It was up in the peak. I had a 30-foot ladder up against the house and I had floodlights out there at 2 o'clock in the morning because I wanted to finish. She couldn't sleep because she was worried about me going to fall and I'm up there nailing up my siding because I wanted to get that peak done because I didn't want to come back to it the next day and do it. And then I got up at 6x o'clock and I went to work. So when people say I don't have time I don't have sympathy for that because you probably have time you just are not really wanting it bad enough in my eyes. You know what you're watching your TV show or maybe you're taking an extended lunch break or maybe you're just oh I need my 8 hours of sleep you know like get 6 for a month, right? I mean it's not going to kill you but if you really want it bad enough you will find the time. And I've done it. My photography business when I was learning that when I was getting ready to leave my job I was up till 2 o'clock in the morning figuring out Photoshop. I was figuring out how we were going to do billing for our customers. Like I was figuring out all that stuff late at night and then I'd get up and I'd go to my job because I wanted it so bad. And I was so interested in it because I wanted it so bad. Joe: Yeah you are preaching to the choir if I'm the choir right now because yeah look the thing that I see consistently I mean I've done this in my life you and I have been self-employed for about the same amount of time and it's always started with a side hustle and then work like crazy. As you are building that business you're not really making a whole lot of money. You're not taking anything out and oddly enough when you're making the most money is actually when you're not working as hard in my experience. Scott: Right. Joe: You get it up to that level and it starts to just; it's a scalable business. And with that scale, it's starting to generate enough revenue to kick off and then you can quit your day job and then you can live that lifestyle that you want. It's hard though when you're a hard worker and a hustler like yourself and like so many people that are listening. How do you shift from that I'm used to working, I love working, I'm going to work, I'm going to work, I'm going to work to I'm going to sit down and I'm going to have coffee and breakfast with my wife every day by the pool at 8 o'clock? Do you have the discipline to really reschedule your downtime? Scott: You definitely have to schedule it for sure. You have to schedule it and I'm getting better with that like I'm still not perfect Joe. I have to make sure that at 6 o'clock at night that's my cutoff. I'm not going to do anymore posting and I'm not going to do any more answering. It's hard because we can work as long as we want. And when you start to see momentum you want to work more because you want [inaudible 00:24:18.18]. But I've made it very, very clear in my life that I want to have that time. I literally wrote out a vision board and really I created a video years ago that I wanted to see come true. It wasn't like you know the woo-woo stuff but it was like what am I working towards. And one of them was having a coffee and breakfast with my wife. And so here we are many years later and literally, I just got in now. I mean I started my day today at 10 o'clock in the morning. I had a first interview at 10:00. I dropped my daughter off the school at about 7:45. My wife and I got back here. We went out to the pool. I had coffee. I was out there with the dogs. I had my laptop. I was answering a few emails; doing stuff. I'm out there chillin' with my wife hanging out. And that's what I want my life to be. Now could I be doing other things to try to make the Amazing Seller bigger or my e-commerce businesses bigger? Yes, I could but I choose to; like that's kind of like my time. You know what I mean? Joe: Right? Scott: And I do think it's hard. You have to be disciplined. A lot of people say Scott I could never do it. I would never get any work done. Then maybe you do need a job. Joe: I've heard that often. I couldn't work from home I could never get any work and that's just discipline. It's focus and discipline. Scott: 100%. Joe: We've gone from how do you find the time to do this extra side business and side hustle and grow it to how do you schedule your downtime so that you could work. You don't need to as much but scheduling your personal life to make sure that you're there for your family and things of that nature. My kids are older than you. Well, not actually mine are 16 and 18 right. You've got 21? Scott: 21, 14, and 11, yeah, Joe: So I've driven my kids to school from kindergarten right up until last year when my oldest got his license and it's an honor, right? It's a privilege and an honor to be able to do that. And when they look back someday that's what they're going to remember. They're not going to remember that Dad was making more money or something like that. So from finding time to scheduling time; your book specifically talks about all of that in your life and creating the mindset of action and everything you've done in your life. But can you address like a little bit of the how to's in terms of building that future proof business and the steps that you go through with the folks that are listening. Scott: Yeah. To me, it's very, very simple and even if you're looking at this because I know people listening here are probably looking to possibly buy a business or sell a business. Here's the deal. Like whenever you're looking at an opportunity you want to first see if there's a market already there. Like a lot of people say I want to invent a market. That's risky because we don't know; I mean if you ever listen to Shark Tank they always say has the market validated the product? No I don't have any sales it's in pre, or we're kind of building this thing out, it's in pre-production, or we're in like the pre-stage and they're like come back to us when you have sales that the market actually voted and said we actually want and need this. So the market is critical. You have to have a market. Now I'd like it to also be a submarket. So we could talk about like and I always talk about the bass fishing. So if we went like fishing we would niche it down into bass fishing. If we wanted to go one level deeper we could go kayak bass fishing. And then we can really own that category and then we can also build out of that category to serve a wider part of the market. But I always like to look at the market first. Then from there, I want to see what's the potential in the market? And that could be going to Amazon and seeing how the products are selling using a tool like Jungle Scout or whatever tool you want. We have these tools that let us know the market's buying these products. Now we can either sell those products ourselves as our own brand or we can affiliate market those products. We can do all kinds of things. So I want to validate that there are actually sales being made there. Joe: Let me just stop you for a second because some of the language you're using I don't know if everybody knows it. Talk about the affiliate marketing aspect of it because it's a brilliant path that you educate people on taking. Scott: And I'm going to be doing more of it Joe; I got to be honest with you. I was just thinking about this this morning I'm like man there's so many things that I could cover just for getting back from Brand Accelerator Live. People get stuck at the I've got to launch products or I've got to grow mine. If you bought a business; right now if you bought a business and you're thinking I don't want to launch a whole bunch of products because it's something a whole bunch of capital. Why not take the content side of things. Build out traffic and start putting out products that are related to your product as an affiliate bringing some revenue but also get them to vote that the products that you're putting out there from them they want to buy then you can private label them. So I think it's an easier way to get started. If you're just listening to this and you're getting started, the easiest ways to start looking at the market and how much traffic the market has. And then from there can you get in front of the market by getting attention by posting content, building an email list, like getting attention with influencer, whatever. Then you can start to say okay all these products I'm not going to private label all these it's going to cost me a small fortune. I'm going to start putting products out there like a kayak bass fishing boat. Like I might do that but I'm not going to sell it as my own but I might do an affiliate offer for it. So basically on Amazon, we can use their whole catalog. We can become an associate for them. And it's not going to be a ton of money it's 4%, 8%, depending on where your bracket is; the category but it's a nice easy way anyone can get started. It's not going to cost you hardly anything to set up a website and to start posting content. You can write it yourself or have someone else write it and then just start building that over time. Joe: It's a great way to go back to discovering your market as well because as you niche it down people are going to buy certain things and you can say okay well that one's much more popular than the other. Scott: 100%. Joe: The tools like Jungle Scout do that very, very well. But this is an action you've got proof in your own bank account which ones they like more. What about the multiple channels. You and I have talked about this before. We talked about channel diversification. That's something you talk about quite a bit here as well. Scott: Yeah. Well, I think again there's a lot of businesses that are very successful and you sell these businesses just Amazon FBA. We got someone in my inner circle that bought I think 3 businesses from you guys already. Joe: 3. Scott: Big businesses too; crazy amounts. I mean one of them is doing like 6,000 units a day like insane. Joe: Yeah. Scott: And you know what I mean? So it's massive. So the potential there is huge but also I look at like there's a little bit of risk there because if that channel decides to go away or they shut your account down there is a potential. So I want to build a back end support there in some kind. So I want to start building content. I want to start getting my own traffic so that way there I could lead people over to my Shopify store or I could leave people over to my channel if something shall happen. Now if it doesn't; great, keep using that. And I don't; I never tell anyone not to use the channel. Use the channel. Leverage the heck out of it. Drive traffic to Amazon. Build up your rankings. Do all of that stuff. But I do think that having your own email list is a must. I think having your own content, your own home base I call it; your own blog, your web site so this way you control that asset. And to be honest with you Joe like I'm really interested lately and I think I talked to you about it, content sites to me are never going anywhere. We're always going to have content sites. We're always going to have information that people are going to be searching for. So for me what I'm looking at doing is starting something and building it over the course of 12 to 18 months. Now listen to what I just said there over 12 to 18 months not 3 days or 30 days. It's going to take time for the search engines to kind of pick it up and get it indexed and all that stuff. And if I can build that piece of property like I used to do in the construction days; I find a piece of property, I build a house on it, I get some revenue coming in by renting it out, and then I might want to sell it. That's kind of what I'm thinking about. And there's ways you can do that without even having to launch a physical product until you get to the 12, 18th month. Then you can decide what you want to do. But you can start getting revenue coming in from affiliate offers, from AdThrive, Mediavine, any of these other networks just from the content coming in. So for people that say I can't get started because I don't have the capital, I don't have the know-how, I don't have the time, do something like even if it's just building out a content site over the next 12 months do that. Just do that. Joe: Yeah I think again taking action, right? Scott: Yeah. Joe: We just got to say that whole lot here; the take action effect. This book as I've read it and as I've talked to you, you are an interesting mix of inspiration and how-to; and you are the book. That's what emanates. You call it a pivot I call it it is what you are, you're inspiring people to go beyond their current capabilities or to get started and take some action but you're also teaching them how to do it. So it's a nice blend of both and was that the main objective of the book itself? Scott: It was actually a little bit difficult and to be honest with you Joe because I didn't want to just be let me show you how to start a business. I wanted it to be for someone also that has a 7 figure business right now that are 100% dependent on Amazon they read the book and they go oh I can do all of these other things and then probably bring in more revenue, bring in more traffic, get a better multiple when I go to Joe Valley and Quiet Light. So I was looking at two different paths. So as you're reading the book you're going to hear me talk about if you're feeling stuck at your corporate job right now and you feel like you can't get out of it here's what you could do but if you already have a business you should do this too. So it's kind of like you're serving two camps. And it was kind of hard when I was going down that path because I wanted to really talk to both people not just the person starting. Joe: Yeah and I think it's an important message for both. For those that have bought a business that want to diversify beyond Amazon and those that are listening to their spouse and that spouse is saying honey we've got a great gig here you've got health insurance and a retirement plan are you crazy you're going to buy an Amazon business and [inaudible 00:34:05.8]. No, you teach them how to do something on the side as a side hustle and let it grow and take less risk but still have that that additional income down the road or a decent exit as well which boosts the retirement plan. Right, Scott? The book itself again folks it's called The Take Action Effect; Mr. Scott Voelker from The Amazing Seller and beyond. The beyond card is you just do so many other things. How do people find the book; where can they go, what do they need to do to get this in their hands and learn everything you've talked about? Scott: Yeah, just go to TakeActionEffect.com and there's just a simple page there. It'll tell you a little bit more about the book and it'll lead you over to most likely Amazon you get paperback hardcover or the Kindle; pretty affordable to be able to take this information. I don't think people are taking the value in a book is much as they should. It is a way for you to really understand me and my story but also who I've helped and who I want to help. And it allows us to start that relationship because I'm all about relationships. And I want to be able to build a relationship with you way before you would ever hire me or come to one of my workshops or inner circle or whatever. And this book is a way to do it. It's a really, really small investment to be able to really get you thinking differently because the way I look at it Joe is we're installing the Take Action mindset. We're taking this to where you think you know what I don't think I can do this and by the time you get done with even the first; probably quarter of the book you're going to feel like you're going to conquer the world. And that's what it's really all about. Now, Joe, before I do end this I'm going to ask you a question. Joe: Yes? Scott: I want to know one of your take action moments. Joe: Okay. Scott: What's something that you can recall that you're like if that never happened my life would be totally different. Joe: Let's see. Well going back to your vision board I did something very similar once upon a time and it was a Tony Robbins program writing down my goals and envisioning what they are. And I literally; and this is I described my life; I put it all down from the lifestyle that I wanted to live and the type of woman I wanted to marry. Lo, and behold within 6 months I met her. Scott: Wow. Joe: I showed her the list maybe 18 months later and it described her to a T. So that is a Take Action moment for me in terms of writing that list down. Now it changed over the years in terms of my goals. At one point I wanted to have the boat in the harbor in Portland Maine. Well, I live in North Carolina right now that's not really going to happen. And I didn't want it once I had kids. I couldn't really spend much time with them on a boat in that situation. The other one Scott when I'm at Brand Accelerator Live is; I mentioned it before we started recording, is that I have taken action on moving forward with my book as well. We're not going to talk too much about it. I'm going to drop a little hint in here and then I'll be quiet for 12 months. But it's something that I've talked about for many years and I've tried and I've tried and I just haven't gotten it done. And you've inspired me to get it done. And some of your tips in the book itself have allowed me to sort of bullet point what I need to do to take more action and get it done; so two impacts right there and I think is going to make a huge difference for me. But again it's not always; like Rachel says it's not always about me or her. It's about how you can help others as well. And I think you're doing that. You're helping others first and it's benefiting you. And I think it's the best way to go about it. So thank you, Scott, for being my friend, for being my colleague, for being on the Quiet Light podcast. I hope to see you on it again. Scott: Thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate it, man.   Links and Resources: The Take Action Effect Scott's Website Scott's Podcast Scott's YouTube Channel

Happy Halloween! This week, hosts Jeff Birk, Scott Christopher and Shawn Rapier break down this beloved holiday. How old is too old to trick or treat? What are the best treats? What Halloween movies do you love? Is your favorite Halloween movie a Christmas movie starring Scott? What is the deal with the trunk or treat? What do you do when All Hallow's Eve falls on a Sunday? We look at all of this and more with questions and comments from our live Facebook audience.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a private coaching and strategy session with a seasoned business leader like Scott? What would you ask him to take a look at in your business? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you'll hear from Scott as he welcomes his guest, Dawn. In her conversation with Scott, Dawn opens up about how she got started as an ecommerce seller, why she decided to participate in the 5-Minute Pitch, challenges she has had in her business, and much more. You'll want to pay close attention to this episode of The Amazing Seller!  Cat in the box  What in the world is "Cat In The Box?" It's quite the innovative brand created and run by entrepreneur, Dawn La Fontaine. Dawn aims to capitalize on the $1B pet industry by creating gorgeous cat accommodations that create a safe place for the pets, while also getting rid of the less appealing shipping boxes lying around the house. As you can see - Dawn followed Scott's method of niching down and finding a specific target market to engage. What can you learn from Dawn's story? Tune into this episode of The Amazing Seller to find out more!  Creating a great product How do you take something that sounds like a great idea and actually bring it to the marketplace? Spoiler alert: It's not an easy task! From finding the right manufacturer to making sure the margins are just right so you can make a profit - manufacturing can be the hardest part for many ecommerce sellers. Dawn caught a huge break when she found a local manufacturer who would make her product at a reasonable cost. To hear more about how Dawn's manufacturing experience went and what she learned from it - listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller!  Using social media  How important are social media channels to the growth of your business? Have you been leaning heavily on your social media channels, or are you just starting to consider how to use them to promote your brand? By posting a video of a cat in a box - Dawn was able to engage over 900 people on Pinterest! In their conversation, Scott encouraged Dawn to forgo linking to her product and instead focus on getting people engaged with the content she has to offer. Hear how Dawn responded to that suggestion from Scott and much more by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller!  Room to improve How do you handle criticism or constructive feedback? Do you lean into advice you get or are you so focused on doing things your own way that you aren't willing to change? If you want to succeed as an ecommerce seller and a brand-building - you need to be willing to course-correct and heed the advice of others. You don't want to listen to everyone's advice - make sure you have a few trusted voices in your corner that you can turn to when things get challenging. Listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller as Dawn serves as a great example of a seller who is ready and willing to learn from an expert! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [3:20] Dawn from Cat in the Box joins Scott on the podcast.  [4:45] Dawn talks about her background and how she got started in ecommerce.  [9:10] Where did the idea for Cat In The Box come from?  [15:20] Validating content ideas and coming up with new ones.  [18:30] How did Dawn go about creating her product?  [24:50] Scott gives some feedback on Dawn’s business and marketing efforts.  [37:40] Breaking down traffic and leveraging channels like Pinterest.  [47:45] Dawn and Scott talk about product sales.  [50:15] Dawn shares how much the Five Minute Pitch experience impacted her.  [57:50] Advice for sellers just starting out.  [1:00:30] Closing thoughts from Scott.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Brand Accelerator Live BAL Tickets 5 Minute Pitch  IG: @the.cat.is.in.the.box https://thecatisinthebox.com Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller  Shopify  Give Away Boost

Scott "Scoop" Wartman, Cincinnati.com's regional politics and Hamilton County reporter, joins That's So Cincinnati to talk all-things gerrymandering. He also offers insights on Trump's Ohio, the 2020 sheriff's primary and the long-vacant Ovations riverfront property in Newport. As always, we have a little fun with our guest. So we asked Scott: What's up with naming his cat Sister Betty Lou? The answer is So Cincinnati. In the opening segment, TSC hosts Jason Williams and Paul Dehner Jr. discuss Elizabeth Warren's scheduled visit to Bogarts on Saturday.  Finally, we have bittersweet news -- and an exciting new announcement.

It’s another live episode of Syntax in which Wes and Scott do Hook’d on Hooks, Who’s Snackin’ on React, Stump’d, Unpopular Opinions, Q & Eh, and more! Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. The Armoury - Sponsor The Armoury is a men’s clothing and accessories retailer that provides some of the highest quality clothing you can buy. Designed for those of you who want the highest quality clothing that feels great and will last forever. Buy less, buy better. Follow them on Instagram @thearmourynyc and check out their website TheArmoury.com. Show Notes 6:54 - Who’s Snackin’ On React Guess which of these websites have their homepage partially or fully built in React? EltonJohn.com or ArianaGrande.com? Ferrari.com or Lamborghini.com? Starbucks.com or Dunkindonuts.com? WayFair.com or Ikea.com? Walgreens.com or Cvs.com? 10:55 - Hook’d on Hooks Wes: useSocket useStaticQuery (gatsby) useKeyPress Scott useLocalStorage useClickOutside useMeasure useGesture 17:47 - This, That, Both, or Neither? Gutenborg: A WordPress GUI plugin for creating react-based gutenberg blocks, or a 90’s budget TV show about Cyborgs who read? Nashorn: A Java based JavaScript engine developed by Oracle, or a popular rock climbing spot in Portland? Easy Peasy: A React state library, or children’s spoon set? Use Boxmen: A hooks library that gets box model dimension, or a puzzle-based strategy game for children? Toggs: A lightweight styleable toggle component, or rain resistant outdoor gear? Landwind: A set of React components for using the Tailwinds CSS Library, or a Chinese Knock-off Land Rover SUV? Freeflow: A redux-like state management library built on state, context and hooks, or a California-based hot tub company? Ubergrippen: A popular rock climbing spot in Denver, or a client-side video stabilization framework built on the filereader API? 26:22 - Tag Team Coding React Fetch Data from the data jokes API Show a loading indicator Have a button to fetch a new joke 36:24 - Stump’d What is a react PureComponent for? Why might you use a callback with setState? How would you reverse an array without mutating the original array? Can you explain what a “downtown job” is? When would you use useReducer? What makes useLayoutEffect different from useEffect? What propType would you use for an object that contains a number and a string 43:11 - Unpopular Opinions. Overrated, Underrated? Our own unpopular opinions Scott: React devs like to make things harder than they need to be. Dan Abramov Ryan Florence Sebastian Markbage Jared Palmer Sean Thomas Larkin Sergey Ryzhov Sophie Alpert Parker McMullin Vue does it better _____ 52:45 - Q + EH with Wes and Scott What where the first apps you worked on? What React problem stumped you for the longest time? What’s your most expensive mistake? Do we need classes in Javascript? How do you explain what you do to your mom? How do you explain React? What made you start wanting to code? What’s the hackiest thing you’ve ever done? Where do you see yourselves in 10 years? Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

Welcome to the TrepTECH Podcast hosted by the Fabulous Airial Re’nal. Co-hosted by the self-proclaimed button pusher, Scott Doucet. The TrepTECH podcast is here to teach you about business and show that business doesn’t always have to be a serious thing.  Entrepreneurship can be a jarring experience, but as long as your ‘why’ is worth it, you’ll endure. Airial and Scott are both experienced coaches as well as entrepreneurs themselves! They are happy and fired up about helping their listeners learn about business! In this episode, Airial flips things around and interviews Scott, asking him to talk about his beginnings in the business world.  (Scott interviewed Airial on this topic in episode two - check that out!) Scott has been producing podcasts for Airial for at least 3 years and has also worked in the capacity of a coach, consultant, marketing and so much more. Scott has many talents and a lot to offer to anyone who is truly willing and passionate to learn. Scott begins by giving a rundown of the types of jobs he has had. He started working as a radio personality/producer when in high school. He was in a band doing the recording, producing, marketing and merchandising. While working many retail jobs he noticed that he consistently got promoted to leadership positions which made him uncomfortable as an introvert. His supervisors took notice of his skills as a motivator and a person who could systematically get things done and yet failed to recognize his distaste for it. So, he would get a job, get promoted, quit and start the cycle all over again. You get to hear a funny story about quitting a job by throwing the store keys in his boss’s face. Quickly he knew he was going to have to do something to survive. Scott discusses his beginnings as a mohawk having, skinny jeans wearing punk kid with the desire to reach out to the youth as a motivational speaker in high schools under his first brand Edge Motivation. His coach, Marc Mawhinney, recommended doing podcasting as a living, breathing resume that could be sent to principals and schools to preview before hiring him to speak.  Scott tirelessly worked under his coach learning podcast production and business. In doing so he started his business, Podcast Bay Productions, and within the last two years has hired a team to work with him doing production editing and writing.   Scott: “What purpose do I serve?” “I’m friendly. I’m nice. It takes me a lot to not hit people at Walmart.” “You can close your own damn store!” “It felt so amazing! Like I could take over the world, but just for a couple of days ‘til I ran out of food.” - on quitting his last job. “I’m going to start a business. I’m going to inspire people. I’m going to teach them work ethic. I’m going to teach them how to do everything they need to succeed!” “A coach fills in blanks when you thought there was a complete sentence before.” “You’ve got the painting tool. You can change the pictures.” Airial: “He’s not antisocial. He’s just an introvert.” “The beauty of having a coach is they can see the bigger picture and help you realize what you can do and set it into play.”   Airial Links Airial's Facebook Profile The Veteran Woman Rebel Revolution Blog TrepTECH Academy    TrepTECH Facebook Profile Talk to Airial One-on-One     Scott Links Scott's Facebook Profile Podcast Bay Facebook Group   Instagram

Did you know that there are steps you can take to re-program your mind and behavior for success? It’s true! When you focus on your behavior and beliefs, you can begin to turn around your bad habits or old narratives and adopt new ones that help you succeed. On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from high achievement mentor and business consultant, Dr. Shannon Irvine. Shannon helps business owners and entrepreneurs neuro-hack success. She teaches sellers like you how to tap into the power of your mind to remove limiting stories that are getting in the way and holding you back. In her conversation with Scott, Shannon talks her personal story, how your thoughts shape your reality, why your brain needs evidence of action, what it takes to get into a flow, how to set yourself up for success, and much more. Don’t miss a minute of this fascinating episode featuring Dr. Shannon Irvine! Visualize your success. When was the last time you wrote out your goals? Are you a “Writer downer” like Scott? What steps do you take to keep your goals and objectives front and center in your personal and professional life? One of the best ways to stay on top of your goals is to write them out or spend time each day visualizing them. Years ago, Scott and his wife put together what they call a “Vision video” that was a slideshow of the things they wanted to accomplish as a family. Looking back, Scott and his wife have achieved most of those objectives. Don’t just assume that you’ll get your goals eventually! Take time today and write them out or do something to keep them on your radar! The community you have around you matters. Did you know that the community you have around you makes a huge difference when it comes to your chances for success? Think about it, if you surround yourself with people who are always getting into trouble or talking about the negative side of every circumstance, where will that get you? Down a path, you don’t want to go down! You are responsible for the type of people you let into your world, don’t take it for granted! It might be time for you to take a serious inventory of the people who you let in your inner circle, are they causing you to succeed or are they holding you back? Learn more about the impact of your community from Scott and Shannon on this episode of The Amazing Seller! Mindset hacks that you can use. If you are ready to take action and get started on moving your mindset in the right direction, Dr. Shannon Irvine has a few places you can start. In her conversation with Scott, Shannon shared several mindset hacks. Watch what you say. The words you say are priming your brain. Understand the narrative that you are telling yourself. These two hacks are just the tip of the iceberg! Start by analyzing the type of words you use and the narratives you tell yourself. What do you have to lose? To hear more from Shannon as she expands on this topic and more, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [2:50] Scott welcomes his guest, Dr. Shannon Irvine. [4:00] Shannon shares the short version of her story. [13:30] Your thoughts create your reality. [20:30] Your brain needs to see evidence of action. [27:50] How do you get into a flow? What does it take to prime your behavior? [32:20] Scott talks about creating a “Vision video.” [34:40] Set yourself up for success! [42:15] Mindset hacks from Shannon. [45:45] Closing thoughts from Scott. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Epic Success Podcast Shannon's website Shannon on Facebook Pat Flynn

Hello, and welcome to grand Episode 40 of our show! Here's what we got in store this week: Intro question - what invention should be here by now? Scott - What would life be like if all diseases were as easily transmitted and cured as the common cold? Dave - What keeps psychics in business and how would 2 psychics compete against each other? Mitch - What are the telltale signs of a dying business? Smitty - Who would win in a fight between a guy who parks his truck across multiple parking spots and a guy who posts statuses without pictures of him/her going to the gym? Visit our website for music, shownotes, and artwork! Also, call (815) 905-1138 and leave us a voicemail!

Today, Andy is joined by Scott Chasen of Phog.net to preview the Kansas Football season -Phog.net and recruiting coverage -Biggest story to come out of camp this year. -Biggest area of concern heading into the season. -Can you blame the fans for not being optimistic this year? -The hiring of Mike Vollmar -Bare minimum number of wins for Beaty to keep his job? -Breakout player this year. -How big is the loss of Kezelee Flomo? Over/Under: -QBs to start a game for Kansas this year? (2.5) -Steven Sims TD receptions (9.5) -Khalil Herbert 200+ yard games (2.5) -Times that Kansas is losing by less than 10 points at the half (4.5) -Punts on 4th and 1 (11.5) -Twitter Q&A (via @jessenewell): What is the most underrated advanced stat? -Twitter Q&A (via @fizzle406): Who is on the Mount Rushmore of people named Scott? -What has been your favorite story to write since starting at Phog.net? Miles Kendrick: https://247sports.com/Article/Kansas-football-QB-competition-Miles-Kendrick-eager-to-disprove-stereotypes-120591991/ Peyton Bender: https://247sports.com/Article/KU-footballs-Peyton-Bender-learned-valuable-lesson-from-suicide-of-Washington-State-QB-Tyler-Hilinski-120565856/ Chayse Todd: https://247sports.com/Article/Thats-my-why-KU-football-target-2019-3-star-OL-Chayse-Todd-inspired-by-mother-118483217/ We want your input on the podcast. If you have something you would like to talk about on the podcast, or any suggestions for people that we should try to talk to, let us know by emailing us at rockchalkpodcast@gmail.com or on twitter @RockChalkPod. Find us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rock-chalk-podcast/id1294906568?mt=2 This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a little different in the sense we don't discuss the nuances of training but look at the education climate across three continents. How are we preparing students to work in professional sport? How does this differ in the US to Australia? How can we better structure out Bsc & Msc programmes to maximise the chance of employment? Enjoy! In this episode, you will learn - Who are Warren Young & Scott Tapley (background, education and current role) Popular Bsc & Msc course structures (both) Problems with this structure Why its not giving students what they need to move into the applied world Msc course at Federation University (Warren) What makes it different? What students leave with compared to 'normal' courses Collaboration within universities (Scott) What does this look like in practice Where is the industry at? (Warren) https://twitter.com/Peter_Mundy/status/987607070999482368 Discussion about the above (job from Irish Rugby which has just been published and then removed due to public social media pressure) Where the industry is heading (Scott) Further academic evolution? Most influential books (both) Warren can be found on Twitter @woozleyoung and Scott can also be found on Twitter @s_talps This episode of the Pacey Performance Podcast is sponsored by Vald Performance, the team behind the NordBord and the new Groinbar, a hip and groin strength measuring solution. They can be found at valdperformance.com and you can get more information on the groin bar at groinbar.com and on Twitter @groinbar. This episode is sponsored by Fatigue Science. Fatigue Science combine wearable technology with biomathematical science developed by the US Army to offer fantastic insights into sleep and cognitive fatigue. This episode is also sponsored by Forcedecks. If you want to know more about ForceDecks, listen to episode #139 of the Pacey Performance Podcast with co-founder, Dr. Daniel Cohen. Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following on Twitter @strengthofsci or visiting strengthofscience.com. Enjoy PP

What? A special announcement from Scott? What is going on with TAS and this new direction Scott is headed in? How will this continue to benefit ecommerce sellers? Find out the answer to all these questions and more on this exciting episode! As Scott reveals his new direction, he also touches on what has contributed to his success so far and why he's hopeful for the future. You are going to love the new direction that Scott is headed in, and it makes sense! Hear all about it by listening to this engaging episode, you don't’ want to miss it! Helping business leaders create digital products. What comes to mind when you think about digital products? Do you think they have the potential to deepen a brand’s presence and impression upon consumers? How can digital product help business leaders achieve a competitive edge? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he explains why he is pouring his signature dedication and standard of excellence into an avenue that is focused on helping leaders like you take advantage of tools like digital products. To hear more about Scott’s new focus and how you can connect with what he has to offer, make sure to listen to this episode! The only person holding you back is you! If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about helping ecommerce business leaders like you get into the right mindset in order to succeed in life and business. How would you grade your mindset right now? Are you in a healthy place or do you need some inspiration and challenge in that area? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he encourages sellers like you start by taking a look in the mirror! While it may be a tough truth to face, the fact is more often than not, the primary person holding you back from moving forward is the person you see looking back at you in the mirror. Learn more from Scott on this important topic by listening to this episode! Don’t worry, Amazon isn’t going away anytime soon. If all of this talk about moving in a new direction has you concerned that Scott is no longer confident in the stability and future of Amazon, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Scott is simply taking an opportunity to practice what he preaches day in and day out, diversification! If Amazon were to suddenly collapse overnight, would your business survive? It should be every ecommerce business owner’s goal to answer that question with a resounding, “Yes!” Hear more about Scott’s continued confidence in working with Amazon and why you should start considering a hybrid business approach by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller! Leaving a meaningful legacy. When was the last time you really took a minute to consider the legacy you are leaving behind both personally and professionally? Seriously! While this may be a topic that is far off in the future for many young business leaders, it’s a vital one to consider. On this episode of The Amazing Seller, Scott takes a moment to explain why the thought of leaving behind a meaningful legacy led him to start moving in a new direction with his time and energy in business. Find out more about Scott’s plans and how they can inspire you to consider your legacy by listening to this episode, you don’t want to miss it! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [2:00] The new direction Scott is heading in with TAS. [10:30] Why every brand can provide a digital product. [13:00] How to connect with Scott to work toward creating digital products. [14:30] The only person holding you back is you! [16:00] Encouraging messages from TAS followers like you. [20:30] Amazon isn’t going away! [22:00] How the Product Discovery Bootcamp is an example of Scott’s new direction. [26:00] Why Scott is fired up about this new direction. [27:30] Leaving a legacy. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.theamazingseller.com/300 Scott[at]theamazingseller.com www.theamazingseller.com/coffee www.productdiscoverybootcamp.com

Vin: There's something special about this episode of the podcast. Scott: What is it? Vin: It's like a radio show on the Internet, but that's not important right now...

Today marks the 200th episode of the Happen to Your Career podcast.   Can you believe it? (We hardly can!)   Scott started the podcast 4 years ago, back when he was also working in a corporate job that he liked well enough...but wasn’t his dream.   He had a WAY bigger vision for what he wanted to create in his life, and how he wanted to help people.   So when you’ve heard him talk about how to transition and optimize your life from good to great on this podcast each week for the past four years(!), he’s not just spewing some BS he read that morning on a career site. He’s lived it.   And, so have the people whose lives he’s touched.   (Maybe you’re one of them?)   Josh and I rounded up some of the people who have been an important part of HTYC back from the very beginning (people like Scott’s wife Alyssa, their kiddos MacKenzie, Camden, and Grayson, and HTYC co-founder Mark Sieverkropp).   Then I grabbed some of the people whose lives have changed because of HTYC, including past coaching clients and team members like Erica, Mike, Tracey, Josh, Kirby, and Jacqui.   I asked them each three simple questions:   Where was your life before you encountered Scott? What impact did Scott and HTYC have on your life? What's different about your future because of HTYC?   And their answers Blew. Us. All. Away. So Josh and I wanted to share them with you.   If you’ve been curious about what it’s like to get to know Scott personally -- or to get to work with him -- this episode is a must listen.

In part 2 with Scott Brown we talk about the Independent Writing Project, The Adventures Of Belly Bean(A project very close to Scott's heart) and 10 Questions!! What is this writing contest all about? What are you script writers waiting for? Why is Belly Bean so important to Scott? What of the Avocado King?, Find out the answer to these Questions and more on this edition of Come Get Sum!!!   Right now Scott goes by the handle @PushingThePen  as he also writes for the inpendent film online site http://maxitmagazine.com/ where he heads up an Indy Film contest...if you are interested submit your film now and find more info HERE!! http://theindievisionproject.com/  Time is running out and we don't talk about it more until P2!! Just take that next stuff and give yourself the opportunity!! Support Scott's newest project! https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let-the-adventures-of-belly-bean-begin-film-series--2#/

He's one of the most accomplished sports business execs. Scott O'Neil is the CEO of the NHL's NJ Devils, NBA's Philadelphia 76'ers AND the Prudential Center. (Yes, all three at the same time.) He's spent time as the President of Madison Square Garden and SVP at the National Basketball Association. I met Scott while working in the NBA and I've always been drawn to his contagious energy and unique leadership style. In this episode, we discuss everything from leadership to company culture to the secret of life - just to name a few of many topics. Show Notes: Scott's Why Not Now? moment happened when he left Madison Square Garden and added a new filter to how he evaluates opportunities on his career path. How Scott continues to grow company revenue despite the team's performance on the court and/or ice. Scott's unique formula for company culture. His goal is to create the greatest place to work in the world. How Scott motivates his employees (the majority are millennials). As a leader, Scott talks about how he manages standing up for what he believes while not falling down the slippery slope of the polarizing political rhetoric. He also shares how he empowers his staff to stand up for what they believe. A large percentage of Scott's leadership team are women. Scott shares his approach to empowering women. Scott shares his experience attending Harvard (also he has delivered a commencement speech!) Tips for running a great meeting. Scott reveals the secret to life. (NBD) How Scott keeps his mind healthy. Scott's current Why Not Now? Pirates or Ninjas, who is tougher according to Scott? What keeps Scott up at night? What advice Scott would give to his younger self? Books & Reference Links: Follow Scott on  Twitter Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne Men of Honor by David Robbins

How can you use mass hypnosis to control 60,000,000 people so they vote for you to become the leader of the world? Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, knows the answer and has known it for years. So I called him and asked. I needed to know. He told me how Trump won. And he told me how anyone can use these persuasion techniques to improve their lives. What if you can get people to do whatever you want just by using the right words and subtly hypnotizing everyone you meet? It sounds like a science fiction novel. But it's true. It's what happened, and it happens every day. Who are the victims? You're the victim. Scott Adams predicted in September 2015(!) that Donald Trump would become President because, "he is the best master persuader I have ever seen." Scott Adams trained as a hypnotist and master persuader for years. "Once you realize that everyone is completely irrational," Scott Adams told me, "your life gets a lot easier. "You can start to use the principles behind this to see why people really do things, as opposed to using rational facts, and then use that to your advantage. "Understanding that people are irrational has made my life a lot better." But how did he predict a year and a half ago that Trump would win? I needed to know how. And how I could do it. Trump was the unlikely choice to be President. Just like Scott was the unlikely choice to be one of the world's most popular cartoonists with Dilbert. But we can all learn the skills that Scott learned. Scott heard a story that made him want to change his life in his 20s. His mother had delivered birth to his sister without the use of anesthetics. She was hypnotized. "She felt no pain," Scott said. So Scott, in his 20s, learned all the techniques of hypnosis. "You mean," I said, "You can take a gold watch and swing it in front of their eyes and make them do what you want?" "That has never happened," Scott said, "Except in movies. "What you learn is that basically everything people do is completely irrational. And then they rationalize it later. "Like, they might say they voted for Trump because of his policies but this is just a rationalization. Everyone is irrational and everyone is subject to persuasion." Everything seemed against Trump. But somehow he beat 16 candidates in the primaries and one big candidate in the election. And, Scott says, all the theories as to why he won have been wrong. So I called him up and asked him what happened. And he told me: ----------------- - THE LINGUISTIC KILL SHOT "Trump described everyone using two techniques: - words that had never been used in politics before - words that were visual. So every time you looked at the candidate being described you would look for confirmation bias." Example: Jeb Bush he described as "low energy". "Low energy" had never been used to describe a candidate before so they stood out. And whenever you looked Jeb, unless he was jumping around, you would automatically look for clues that showed he was low energy. Trump systematically did this with everyone who was frontrunner against him, including "Crooked Hillary" which referred both to her legal troubles and the persistent rumors that she was sick. ------------------ - CHARISMA = POWER + EMPATHY Scott said, "Trump clearly had the Power part down. But he was low on Empathy. "So he used polling to figure out what the critical issue was for the most amount of people and came up with Immigration. By going with this issue he proved he had empathy with his base. "Expect him as President to try to show empathy to a much larger group of people." ------------------ - OVERSELLING THE STORY "Trump consistently oversold his point. For instance, 'Build a Wall'." He used hyperbole because it's the direction that counts. "It didn't matter that the facts didn't support him. His base was listening to the direction while all the media was getting bogged down in the weeds. "And in many cases, he would back down. He would recognize if he oversold too much and back down on it. "But again, the media would show his views for free because he was so outlandish and his supporters would note the direction, not the facts." I asked Scott: What would happen to Trump if a "Rick Perry" situation occurred like in 2012, where Perry couldn't name the 3 cabinet departments he wanted to eliminate and that destroyed his campaign? Scott said, "If Trump was stumbling to name the three he would just say, 'You know what? There are 10 cabinet positions I'd eliminate! You probably can guess the ones I'm talking about." "And then while everyone would be scratching their heads trying to figure out if there are even ten cabinet departments, his supporters would be just note the direction." -------------------- - AUDACITY Early on he would say things that were so audacious nobody could believe a Presidential candidate would be saying these things. But people got used to it. It got him free media coverage which allowed him to spend less than half of what Hillary spent. It allowed him to consistently say audacious and outlandish things throughout the campaign without upsetting his base. ----------------- - EMBRACE THE ARGUMENT If you just outright reject someone, they won't even pay attention to what you say. But with everyone he spoke with, he would start off agreeing with them and then start to turn people towards supporting his ideas. Even with Hillary, he would say: "She has great experience" before following it up with, "but after 30 years, what has changed?" --------------------- - TALENT STACK Scott said, "I'm not the funniest guy in the room. And I'm not the best at drawing. But I'm pretty good at both and that's where Dilbert comes from. "It's really hard to be the best in the world at one thing," Scott told me, "But if you are 'pretty good' at a bunch of things and use them together, you can succeed. "Trump has one of the best talent stacks I've ever seen. He's not the smartest guy in the room, but he's pretty good at public speaking, business smarts, humor, hiring and firing, politics, etc." Again, he didn't know as much as the other candidates about every political issue. "Expect him to get to know the facts that are important once he is President. But he was pretty good at knowing what was going on and combined that with the other "pretty good" things in his talent stack." ------------------- - BLAME OTHERS FOR PEOPLE'S SUFFERING "While Hillary was focusing on 'I'm With Her' and 'Let's make history with the first woman President', Trump was focusing on 'Draining the Swamp' and 'Let's Make America Great Again'. These were much more powerful persuasion messages." --------------- DID HILLARY HAVE A CHANCE? How could Hillary have fought better using her own persuasion techniques? "Hillary was running a strong persuasion game in the summer," Scott told me. "She might even have won if she stuck with it." " 'Dangerous Donald' was scary for people. But then her campaign leaked the Billy Bush video and even though it caused Trump to dip in the polls, it wasn't as bad as portraying him as a madman at the nuclear controls. Ironically, that bad news actually helped Trump." ---- My podcast with Scott comes out later today. I wanted to learn other things from him. Like how can I, or anyone, learn these persuasion techniques. What are the easiest techniques to learn? He told me on the podcast. Plus he was very honest and told me a trick he uses with the women he dates. ---- Does any of this mean Trump is going to be good or bad? This article isn't about that. It's just about what Trump, and all political candidates, do to win elections. Trump, according to Scott, was just particularly good at it. "The best I've ever seen". ---- Is it bad that people are irrational? That facts don't matter? Yes. But it's the reality. Our brains were built to hunt for food in scary and uncertain situations. In our more complex society, we still respond to primitive emotions even if they are now irrational. Do I want to be better at persuading so my life is better? Of course. The reality is: I'm easily influenced and have to constantly remind myself everyone has an agenda all the time. I don't think it matters who is President. There are too many forces at work to check and balance everything. But it does matter how I react, how I build my life day by day. It's my choice (I hope) whether or not I have a good impact on others. Or not. Maybe Scott hypnotized me into writing this. In which case, he did an excellent job. ------- Scott Adams Persuasion Books List: (this is from his blog) Chapter 1 - Things You Can Stop Believing The first chapter is designed to make you skeptical about your ability to comprehend reality. If you are already a hardcore skeptic, you can skip this chapter. - An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural - by James Randi - They Got It Wrong: History: All the Facts that Turned Out to be Myths Hardcover - by Emma Marriott [I have not read this book but anything in the genre of “wrong history” will work.] Chapter 2 - Stretching your Imagination These books are selected to open your mind for what follows. If you have experience with LSD or mushrooms, you might not need this chapter. (Yes, I am serious.) -Jonathan Livingston Seagull - by Richard Bach -God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment - by Scott Adams -Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah - by Richard Bach Chapter 3 - The Moist Robot Hypothesis The Moist Robot Hypothesis first appears in my book that is listed below. The idea is that humans are biological machines, subject to cause and effect. According to this view, free will is an illusion and humans can be programmed once you understand our user interface. With this chapter I ease you into the notion that humans are mindless robots by showing you how we are influenced by design, habit, emotion, food, and words. Until you accept the Moist Robot view of the world it will be hard to use your tools of persuasion effectively because you will doubt your own effectiveness and people will detect your doubt. Confidence is an important part of the process of influence. -The Design of Everyday Things - by Don Norma -What Every BODY is Saying - by Joe Navarro -The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - by Charles Duhigg -Influence - by Robert B. Cialdini PhD -Thinking, Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman -Salt Sugar Fat - by Michael Moss -Steve Jobs - by Walter Isaacson [The whole book is good, but look for the part where I appear on Jobs’ radar screen. That’s the part where you understand that hypnotists can identify each other by their tells.] -How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life- by Scott Adams -Free Will - by Sam Harris Chapter 4 - Active Persuasion This chapter gets into the details of how to influence people. My opinion is that you will be less effective with these tools if you do not have a full understanding of our moist robot nature introduced above. -Impossible to Ignore - Dr. Carmen Simon (NEW) -Trump: The Art of the Deal - Donald J. Trump -Win Your Case: How to Present, Persuade, and Prevail–Every Place, Every Time - by Gerry Spence -Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your ---Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial - by Tony Robbins -How to Win Friends & Influence People - by Dale Carnegie (Better yet, take a Dale Carnegie class near you. It will change your life. Trust me.) -How to Write a Good Advertisement - by Victor O. Schwab -The Secret to Selling Anything - by Harry Browne -The One Sentence Persuasion Course - 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding - by Blair Warren -Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of -Meaning- by Richard Bandler , John Grinder (This is included for completeness. Much of the NLP field has exaggerated claims, but there is some strong reality at the base of it.) -How to Hypnotise Anyone - Confessions of a Rogue Hypnotist - by ---The Rogue Hypnotist -Hypnosis and Accelerated Learning - by Pierre Clement (This is the school of hypnosis I learned in hypnosis class. It comes from Ericksonian hypnosis. See next book on list.) -Speak Ericksonian: Mastering the Hypnotic Methods of Milton Erickson - by Richard Nongard, James Hazlerig (Erickson was the father of modern hypnosis. Any book about his methods would be interesting.) ----- How good is Scott at predicting things? The attached Dilbert cartoon he drew 26 years ago. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.