A Recipe For Success (Sharing Wisdom Podcast)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Sharing Wisdom. I'm your host Angie Wisdom, and today's episode is all about success. Yep, you'll want to stay here and listen to this one, you guys. We're talking about what it takes to achieve success, how you define success, some of the common habits of the most successful people out there. I've got the perfect guess for it. Scott Clary is the host of the Success Story Podcast, one of the top 10 podcasts in the business area. I consider him to be a little obsessed with success, but in a good way, and we'll talk about that. He's actually the founder of the social club as well, where he puts business owners who have exited their companies together to create community and grow. So we've got a wealth of knowledge for you today, and we are going to lead you in the right direction to create at success. So let's get to it. Okay, Scott, so success is what we're talking about, and it's obviously the buzzword, especially I feel like right now, given kind of the economy and what people are trying to create, you have the Success Story Podcast, which is one of the top-rated podcasts out there. You get to sit down with people all the time and talk about success. So that's what we're digging into, and I want to know, like, right out of the gate, what is the biggest misconception people have about success? I think the easiest misconception for most people to think about when it comes to success is that it's all tied to financial, because I mean, most people don't have the financial in place. It's difficult. It's hard, it's confusing. It's especially now post-COVID when a lot of people got laid off. It's easy to think that, oh, if I just had money, and that's an easy, you know, sort of pathway to success, but what you do realize very quickly, is if you just focus on money, you will have more comfort in your life, but there will be a lot of other things that can go wrong. So if you sacrifice your relationships for money, if you sacrifice your health for money, and I think that that's something that it's okay to pursue money, and to build and to want to hit financial milestones, because, again, it affords you a lot of opportunities. But the main takeaway is do not sacrifice everything in your life for money. And it may seem obvious, but everyone who has built something will tell you immediately that it's very easy to start to sacrifice things when you're pursuing money, because in the pursuit of a job that pays a significant amount or in the pursuit of building your own business, there will be a season of your life that is unbalanced. I don't think that balance is a goal that you are able to achieve for the entire time when you're building. So if you want to build a multi-million dollar, if you want to build a company, it's worth tens of millions, hundreds of millions, if it ends up being, you know, you're in the point zero, there are 1% and you build something that's worth a billion dollars, there will be seasons of your life, parts of your life that are very unbalanced. It is just the way that it is, and you'll lose a lot of the other things that you should have tried to hold on to. So I think really what success is, is understand your number, understand the amount of money that you actually need to make to enjoy life, to live in the city that you want to afford your family, the opportunity, the vacations, whatever it is. Because once you hit that number, then you'll realize that you should have paid more attention to your health, and you should have paid more attention to your family, and your, you know, three divorces later, kids hate you. That's not a version of success that anybody enjoys. So I think that I want more people to focus on the holistic version of success. And myself included, it's not easy. It's like it's very not, I'm giving advice that I have to listen to myself sometimes, because I also lack balance. But I think that if more people just ingrain their head, like build while trying to build understanding that some things will suffer, but don't let them go completely. Because it's impossible to maintain a balanced level across everything, but just don't let them go completely and be cognizant and aware of that, that it's going to be easy to let a lot of things go if you're not careful. Yeah, I use the word modification all the time. You know, those other things that maybe you're out of balance because you are striving for that, you know, multimillion, $100 million company, and you're going to go through a season where it's a little unbalanced, but it's like modify those other pieces. Don't just throw them away completely. I'm curious, like, did you use to have a different definition of success? Is this coming from a personal experience of how you used to define it versus now? It's a good question. I think earlier on in my career success, well, yeah, so yes, my version of success has changed a lot. When I got my first job, my version of success was director or VP in a company. And then when I started building my own companies, then success is how much can I sell this company for? And what's the total value that I can put when I exit it? And then when you do that once, then the second company becomes, okay, well, how can I beat the first one? So, like, there's no end, right? There's no end to the game. Even even in these little micro circumstances of what of defining success, when you first start posting on social media, you're talking about the podcast I built and like the personal brand, that you want to get to 10,000 followers and, you know, a thousand downloads when you're hitting nothing. And then you hit a thought like the version keeps changing. And then also, then you get into serious relationships, and then the version of success starts to include family and kid. And then you see that your parents are getting older, and the version of success now includes getting closer to them when they're not as young as it used to be. So, yeah, it changes constantly. It changes constantly, and I think that's okay. I think that's healthy. I think that's also why I think it's okay to want to change your version of success as you mature, and you grow as a person. And I think that it's actually more of a red flag if your version of success isn't changing, because I feel like you're not expanding yourself as a human. Again, success is not just equated to wealth. I would say there is a big, I would say there is a problem if wealth, career, business success doesn't change, because I think it's also important to change your goals there and to continue to push yourself, but I think that it will always change throughout your life. Yeah, it reminds me as you're saying this, what comes up to me is like almost of your value system. I talk to clients so much about, you gotta have your values, and your values can change through different seasons of your life, because my earbud, your values can change through different seasons of your life, life transitions, right? Like you bring in the kids or you get a company. So, is that something that you use? You do go by values for yourself of understanding, you know, what's most important to you and what you're tuning into? Yes, 100%. And I think that a lot of people have values that are maybe tied to old relationships in their life, old friend groups, old versions of who they are, and it's tough to upgrade your values and to grow as a person because other people may not enjoy the fact that you're changing your version of success or you're changing your values, because it's changing who you are in their eyes. And I think that a lot of people live their entire lives with a value system or definition of success that is completely tied to other people's perception of who they should be. And I believe that holds a lot of individuals back. Even, and I'll give you an example. I mean, my parents are incredible people, but they are not entrepreneurs. So, they don't necessarily aspire to the same things that I aspire to, which is fine. And that's normal. But a lot of people may, and we've built a good, we've maintained a good relationship having different value systems in life, but I think that people go one of two ways. They either allow themselves to hold onto values that like maybe they're an old peer group or the old friend group or their parents subscribe to and they don't let themselves grow and evolve, or they assume that growing and evolving means completely killing those relationships off, which I also don't think is a healthy thing. Now listen, if somebody is toxic and they're not supporting your goals, that's a different story, but I think that there is an in between where you grow as an individual while you still maintain the relationships with the people that would always support and love you, even if those goals and those values and those definitions of success are slightly different. I think that, we're talking about versions of success, that is a version of success in my mind. Right, right, that's a huge problem for people, but I see anyways as, especially because I'll get them in these growth phases where they're initially starting to go, gosh, you know, but none of my friends are like this and there's kind of wanting to be around different people, not because they're toxic, but because maybe your conversation isn't as fun, or they're not as, you know, forward looking and as growth mindset oriented. So when you come into that, and I think this kind of talks too, about like you have the social club about surrounding yourself, and you say like you don't think you have to go kind of cleaning house and getting rid of people, what does it look like to start putting those people in your space and surrounding yourself, but not alienating everyone else who you're with? Well, so some people, some friends alienate because they will not support you and your goals and that's okay. And I think that you have to understand, I think that friends and family can be put into two different categories for most people. Family will be around for forever. Some friends don't grow with you, some friends support you and don't grow with you and those are the ones that I would still keep around regardless. Those are the kinds of friends that you spend years, you know, you move to different cities, but you can message them any time and you can go for a drink or a coffee and it's like time has passed. Like they're friends that are non contingent or conditional on like where you're at in life because you just connect at such a great deep level. Those are the people you keep around for forever. And yes, maybe you're not seeing those people every single week, but it's fine because again, you can still see them every single six months or every year or every year and a half. Like they're friends that are lifelong friends. Those are the people that are always going to support you no matter what and vice versa. So the people that will have the heaviest impact on you are the people that you sit down with, you know, two, three times a week, two, three times a month. Those people I do believe have to be, I would say the majority of those people have to be either where you're at or a few steps ahead for growth-minded individuals because these people will now be, these people will be an aid. They'll be helpful in getting you to the next level and supporting you in your development, business, personal. So I think that you have to be strategic about the people that you surround yourself with every single day because they will have the biggest impact and influence on you. So that's something that I do subscribe to. Like if you are again, it's fine to spend time with friends every month, two months, maybe three months, four months that are happy with their life and their job and their career and that's no problem. But I would not be going out drinking with like high school university college friends like three nights a week because that's valuable time that you're allocating to people that are not pushing you to be better, right? So I think that that's where people get it screwed up. People are very all or nothing. It's like if I can't drink two, three nights a week, then I'm never gonna see this person again. That's not a normal relationship. So two, three nights a week spend it with people that are again, at your level or slightly just beyond where you are right now because those will be the people that push you and hold you to a higher standard. And then you have those friends that yeah, drink once every, whatever, three months, six months, no problem. Right, right. And here it's back to like population, right? Healthy balance, that's it at the end of the day. So true. Do you find, I mean, because you talk to obviously a lot of successful people, but do you find that most successful people, maybe maybe not where they are now, but originally where they started, they have a mentality that they can do it alone. You know, they're their challengers or achievers. So they're often like, I'll figure out, I know what I need to do. Like you just tend to be a little bit more independent if you're successful and you're achieving, but there's only so far that gets. I mean, do you find that in your experience when you talk to people? I think because, I think because as you go and build something incredible, I think that you realize it, a lot of people will let you down along the way. It's just, it happens, it's unfortunate happens, but people let you down. And the people that are the most successful, just trust themselves and count on themselves to figure it out regardless of what happens in their life. I think that the ability to trust yourself to figure it out is a superpower when it comes to building anything meaningful because I am of the belief that if you commit your life, that commit your life, commit 10 to 15 years to any single thing you're trying to figure out, you will be some version of successful at it. If you're smart, if you iterate, if you have feedback loops that sort of show you what's working and what's not, and then you act on those feedback loops and you improve like over the course of 10 to 15 years, if you're just trying to figure it out yourself, you will be successful. So I think that counting on yourself and trusting yourself, it's a very solid business strategy. And if you can't count on yourself and you don't have that confidence, not only will you probably burn out and you won't maintain the doing of the thing for the period of time that it's required to actually turn it into something. I think it will also just sort of, it will also come out in your day to day. If you don't trust yourself, it'll be felt by your business partners, people you're trying to raise money from, your customers, and it'll actually jeopardize all the outcomes that could have been positive just because if you don't believe it, they're not gonna believe it. I mean, even let's take it down a notch, not even somebody who's trying to build a business. Like if you're a sales person and you don't believe in the product, very few people are nuts enough where they can actually sell a product that they don't believe in. I think it wears on your soul. Like it really wears on your soul to the point where it'll start to come out in your conversations. So that's like on a very basic level, but building a business, everything is sales anyways. You're selling your company to a new hire when you don't have a huge team, you're selling your company to invest or you're selling the customer like you have to believe in yourself and what you're doing. And I think that everybody who was built on anything significant, they have a little bit of, they have a little bit of delusion in what their building is gonna change the world. I think you have to have a little bit of delusion because if you were too logical and you looked at pure data, you would never build anything significant because data shows that you have a significant chance of not building it. Like the odds are always stacked against you. So you have to have this like delusional confidence in yourself. I can't remember who, I think it was, I think it was Bezos. Let's just tie this to Bezos. He has a lot of good quotes. It's like, I could have been him or someone else. Cause I'm really liking it. I love this quote. I'm like a little delusional. No, no. It's the concept of when you're building anything, you have to believe that the decisions that you're making and the things that you're doing right now are correct based on all and they could be incorrect in the future, but based on all the inputs and all the information and all the past experiences, what you're doing right now is the correct thing and you have to believe that. Because if you don't believe that what you're doing is the correct thing, you will never build anything significant because it won't make sense to you. Your brain will hijack your success. So you need a little bit of delusional confidence in what you're building in the decisions you make and who you are to make the call, to do the thing that's going to take the business or take you to the next level. So yes, long with an answer, but self confidence is the most important thing. It is, it really is, but there's got to be some point because you're even living this now that the achievers, the challengers, that success-oriented mindset that has been so independent hits a wall where they're like, I need people around me. I need community, I can't do this alone type of thing where you shift away from that independence to knowing that, like you said earlier, the people that are maybe a couple steps ahead of you or the people at the same place, that's gonna make a drastic difference in your success. Oh, of course it will. And by the way, even when you find those people, like obviously if you're building a company, you have to hire people that are smarter than you, you have to hire a players if you're looking for mentorship or guidance or just like a peer group, you're finding people that are slightly, but you still, and you like take in their wisdom and you take in their experience, but you still can't let that self confidence slide. Like if you look at even like Elon or Bezos or Zuckerberg, like they all have boards of incredibly brilliant people, but they still have faith in themselves. And I think that's actually very important because no matter what, you'll always have good advice and mentorship, but at the end of the day, you all, I think most people know what to do. I truly do believe that most people actually do know what to do and what a mentor or an employee or someone that is maybe more advanced in one particular arena, what they're gonna do is they're probably going to help you realize deep down what you already know you have to do and then hold you accountable to it. Sometimes that's not the case, but I think more often than not, when I talk to like even my mentors in my life, they're saying stuff that like I really know but I don't wanna hear it, and then they're forcing me to do it. And sometimes there's a new idea that I've never thought of before of course, yeah, but I think that more often than not, it's like a, hey Scott, this is what you should have done, and I know it and I didn't do it and then they highlight it and I'm like, yes, okay, fine, I'll do it. And then they ask me, next time we get it, next time we go for coffee, it's not just confirming what I believe, it's next time we go for coffee, they're like, hey Scott, why haven't you done that yet? And then it's that accountability piece, it's accountability in growth, whether or not it's a personal trainer in the gym, that's the only reason why people really need them. You can Google every single piece of fitness or health or wellness advice. I can also, by the way, in 2024, I can Google our YouTube most business problems, especially at a smaller midsize level. There's some sort of very smart person teaching it over. So it's really about, you learn it and then you'll need somebody to hold you accountable. Yeah, do you find that there's a difference between the responsibility and accountability? Because I don't know, accountability to me gets a little bit like, I don't know, let's debate. I have no idea, I've never thought about that. Responsibility versus accountability. Yeah, like you got to have some, I think when you take your own responsibility, right, then you don't need as much accountability. And there's this fine line for me where sometimes I feel like people put so much weight in having that accountability partner that, well wait, where's your own responsibility in it? So I'm just curious for you. Well, I think that, so I think there's like a base, I never really thought through this responsibility versus accountability, but I think there's a base line of responsibility that most successful people have that they hold themselves to, like they are self-starting people and they'll build, and this is why you can talk about why I don't find motivation that useful. I find systems and processes very useful because they let you show up long after the motivation has disappeared. So I think that most successful people will have systems and processes that force them to be responsible about the thing they're trying to achieve, whether or not it's a business or fixing a merit. Like I like to broaden the scope because I think that it's, when you understand the habits that help you be successful in one arena, you realize that they're not so different in others. Fixing a marriage, building a better relationship with your kids, your parents, losing weight, whatever it is, you have a system if you're successful at it that will allow you to be successful. Like nobody, because a lot of the things that we do in life are not like fun, they're difficult things so you have to have a system that supports it because if not, you're not gonna do the thing. So whether or not it's going to bed at a certain time or only buying certain foods that you put in your fridge if you're on some sort of weight loss or health and wellness journey, or you know, you're fighting with your spouse all the time and you actually make effort to go see a therapist or go on date night more often, or if you're trying to build a business and you block off time in your day for calls and then if you don't do those things, you don't take those steps, you're not gonna do those things consistently. So I think that the systems and processes and habits, like I mean like atomic habits is a great book because it sort of outlines this in a much more succinct way and thorough way, but that's what allows you to be successful. I think the systems and processes create responsibility. I think that that's like the baseline for success or in anything, then I think that accountability for me are things that are not just, I can build systems and processes for routine things that I have to do, that I know if I do them again and again and again and again over time, I'll get to a certain end result. I think that accountability for me personally is most useful when there's a thing that I have to do that is not something that I normally have to do, like fire someone that should be in my company. That to me, hopefully for most people listening is not a routine thing that you have to do. So if you're having a conversation about why your CMO is effing everything up and you're not firing them because you don't like having difficult conversations and you're worried about lawsuits or paying out severance whatever it is, I think that that's where accountability for super uncomfortable situations that can really move the needle that are not the norm, that could be helpful because that's something that there's no amount of, there could be process around it but it's probably not something that you have to do every single day. Great distinction. So that's how I would look at responsibility versus accountability. Yeah, that's a really great distinction. I feel like sometimes people use the accountability as responsibility. You know, I need to make sure that somebody's like, you know, holding me accountable to... I think you're trying to get somebody to me, yeah. Yeah, no one else to be running your basic life. I disagree with that. It's like transfer of responsibility. No, you know, don't give that to your trainer, your coach or whatever, like you've got to take that responsibility, it's there to guide you but yeah, so very, very interesting. So for you, you obviously, you're, I don't know, I call you kind of obsessed with success. You know? That's a horrible tagline. You think so? Absence with success? I think, listen, whatever, I'm sure. I think it's just bad because I think that success is not success, obsessed with success, I think again, it goes back to people's incorrect understanding. Yes. Of what success is. So if you put that, you know, if you put that on a slide with my face, everyone's going to think that I'm like, just trying to like chase after as much money as possible. I think that that's probably not, because this is how it's interpreted. But yes, I think that success across all areas of my life is something that is very important to me. Like I am somebody that does sort of push for more all the time in everything, not just business. But I think that's a healthy attitude. Because I think that humans were put on this earth to continue to grow. I mean, without the medical evidence to back it up, I mean, you see people after they retire, they start to go downhill quite quickly. So when you have no more purpose in life and you're not growing and you're not pushing yourself, I don't think that's the way people are supposed to live. So I think that if you aren't trying to, not even like by leaps and bounds, even incrementally growing, I think that's the healthiest way to live in everything. In career and like that's why like, you know, when parents retire and you want them to do something that's going to challenge them still, not because you don't want them to be bored. Of course, being bored is not good, but I think that it helps you live longer to push yourself in a healthy way. 100% I agree with that. And I'm laughing at you going like, what over the obsessed with success, I have to like condition that a little bit. And I mean it from this standpoint of like, not that you just always want to achieve and like you're obsessed with it and you leave everything else behind, that almost an obsession of understanding it. You know, and defining it. Success, I believe, is defined differently for every single person, right? Some people are out there defining it just by money. Some people are defining it by experiences they have with their family, how they live. But you have this like deep desire to understand it from different people's perspective, to understand the habits it takes that all of that. That's the obsession I mean. And so I'm curious like, I'll take that. Yeah. We'll make sure we get all of that in there, right? We won't just give you the tagline. Deal. Maybe it's obsessed with understanding success. Well, I'll tell you, obsessed with success will get more clicks because they'll think I'm some asshole that just cares about money. But then they can go listen to the whole podcast. So that's fine. We'll have that tagline like, it's not what you think, right? It's not what you think. Exactly. Not what you think. I have to tune in. What sparked that for you? I think that I was very obsessed with reverse engineering how people achieved where they were at. Because reverse engineering, anything, fitness goals, business goals, relationship goals, I found that we put people on pedestals too often. And it could just be that I'm, again, a little bit delusional in my own ability. But I truly believe that if anybody has achieved anything by reverse engineering, how they got there, you could achieve maybe not the same result because there's luck involved in a lot of these things. But luck only plays a certain piece of it. So if I reverse engineered, I'll give a super audacious outlandish example. If I reverse engineered how Elon Musk is where he is right now, and we went through every single step of building every single company that he's ever built and every single investment that he made and every single relationship that he ever made and every single partner he pulled in or idea that he had or a way that he looked at problems in the market, we understood all this and there's gonna be a lot there because it's a whole career that's turned him into this. I think at this today, the second richest person in the world because I think Bernard Arno was killing it with LVMH, but that's besides the point. If we reverse engineered everything and we tried to execute, I think that you would end up in a pretty damn good spot. You wouldn't be him because there's a lot of luck and timing involved, but you would have wealth beyond your wildest dreams and you would be probably land in a spot that's even a little bit less comfortable than not less comfortable. It would be an uncomfortable spot you would land in because of the business success that you had. Probably more than you ever thought. I think you would build a multi-multi-multi-million dollar company in some capacity and then you would probably build a second one because you would just follow the footsteps and you'd understand how he thinks and how he approaches problems and how he builds. It's ridiculous to think until you actually break it all down. Kind of like if you look at a cover model on a fitness magazine and then you realize that they've been eating this and working out this much and doing these exercises and maybe doing these drugs, regardless of whether or not you like it for the past 10 years. And if you amulated all those things for 10 years, and by the way, don't because I don't think that a lot of fitness models are actually an epitome of health, but that's besides the point. If you did that, you would look pretty damn good. So I'm not saying that you'd be winning Mr. Olympia, but I'm saying that you look pretty good. So I don't think that life is as difficult as a lot of us think it is because we see the end result and we have a hard time from where we are to the end results, like it's like gray box that we cannot see into or the black box or whatever. We can't see into this like this process. So I was obsessed with unpacking reverse engineering how people got to where they are because I did it in my own life. It created a lot of great things in my own life. And then I was like, well, let's just, I'm a marketer. I know how to build an audience. I know how to, let me see if I can provide some value to the world through doing this and teaching people that are earlier on in their life how this person did this and reverse engineer that story. And hopefully that hits home with somebody who's earlier on in their career. And as opposed to looking at the career like this, like black box that they can't see the end, they can now see how founder of Netflix or founder of Reebok or whoever pick a name, those are obviously too very impressive ones because I'm plugging my podcast. But you pick someone and then you can see that, okay, they achieve this, but like the steps are there. So let's just like start on step one because that's what I did in my own life. This is the playbook that I used for my own health and wellness, my own relationship, my own businesses and it's worked. I mean, I'm not Elon Musk, but it's done okay. So I think that that's a lens that I wish more people would look at life through. It makes it very kind of what's the right word I'm looking for like actionable. You know, all of a sudden now you have like steps and systems and processes instead of this big gaping hole between you and what you want. Well, okay, so personal question here, was there somebody in particular that you reverse engineered and was like, yeah, I'm gonna do that, you know? Um, not one person, like literally, like I do it at everything I take on in life, I apply this when I was first getting into like working out, like I can't even remember who would be now. It wouldn't even be like a celebrity, it would be like somebody who looked significantly better than me at a gym and I would just talk to them about what they're doing and map that out and execute and see if it was getting me the results that I'd want. Like I would do this when I was working for a company, I would have these conversations about like, you know, like step-by-step career path with my VPs and my directors to understand how they got from entry level to where they're at and how long it took them and is there any other strategy to sort of like shorten that time gap? When I, you know, I'm talking about health career, when I'm trying to build out a social strategy for a podcast or for Twitter or for LinkedIn or for Instagram or for TikTok, I will go to the person that is killing it on that platform in my niche and I will look at how they create content and I will look at historically how their content has grown. So I'll find somebody on Twitter that I really like that has the same type of audience that I want to tap into. And I'll reverse engineer like the type of content they put out and the format and structure of their posts and how often they post and what time of day they post and what do they speak about and what gets the most engagement. So it's like, you just apply this quite literally everything and you'll have at least a great starting, like a starting spot for taking on that particular project or trying to figure out that particular thing. So yeah, I do it consistently. Whenever I'm trying to do something for the first time and then that's my avatar, that's my, like some people that I reverse engineer, they don't even know me. It's just I'm just learning from, right? I don't need permission to study someone's work online. I don't need permission to do that. So I'll just unpack what they've done and that's where I start from. And then again, you understand is it working for you, is it giving you the results you want? Obviously, it's never like a perfect playbook but it's better than just starting with no knowledge. And I always found that to be the most natural way to start anything in life. And it's strange to me, it's strange to me that people start a new, like again, if you want to start posting a very basic example, start posting on Twitter, start losing weight. It's strange to me that people don't do this actually, that people, I think it's ego. I think that people don't want to admit they don't know something. So they'll just try their own version of it for way too long until they realize that it sucks and then they'll be like, you know what? Maybe I should learn from someone. For me, it was the opposite. For me, it's like day zero, there's no ego. Like, I know that I know nothing and I don't want it. Like, I'm all about time. Like, I don't want to waste time pretending that I know something. So why would I bother pretending that I know how to tweet or pretending that I know how to diet so that I look like that guy? I don't want to waste time. Just like, tell me, tell me right now. And if you don't tell me, then I'll figure it out myself and I'll talk to enough people to get at least like this baseline. I think it's all ego. That's a good one. You say that, tell me, tell me right now. Yeah. No, I don't want to waste time. The funny thing, I was writing some notes on when you were saying that. And the first thing that came to my mind was like, what the process you're talking about, you have to have an immense amount of like vulnerability and curiosity, like drop the ego and just be curious. And that's what gets in people's way is, you know, they don't want to ask a question because then it means they don't know. And, you know, you get into everyone's way. You look at it. I bring it back to like, I'm a marketer, so I bring it back to social a lot. And look at what Duolingo did. You know, like you, I don't know how deep you are into social, but Duolingo is like a language translation app and they have this ridiculous TikTok and they've won marketing awards for how much they kill it and they do these ridiculous kits that are like mega inappropriate. It's doing very well for them, basically. They're killing it. People know the stupid green Duolingo owl that does ridiculous stuff in the office. And it's just fun. How many companies after being around social with multi hundreds of million dollar marketing budgets still post like the worst shit online that makes you never want to interact with them ever like. How does this exist in real life? How does this exist when you have a 1,000 person marketing department that you still don't understand that you have to be a more approachable brand that you can create content that isn't like boilerplate boring, like putting people to sleep. It's just, I don't understand it and maybe in some industry it's like a regulatory compliance. We don't want to get sued for saying the wrong thing, but I don't think that's every, I know it's not every industry. So some people choose to be boring because they don't want to switch it up or they don't want to admit they don't know what they're doing or they don't want to try something that's new and novel, but I mean, that's how you went in life, in business, at a corporate level, at a personal level, like you have to humble yourself. And the CMO that has 40 years of experience that can't humble themselves to try how to figure out TikTok, yeah, they're gonna be okay for now because they're probably doing like whatever X billions of dollars in revenue. But I mean, also like Blockbuster, like the taxi industry, like you can name companies that were completely displaced because they did not stay with what the times, right? And there's a lot of product issues with companies that were basically wiped out, but also it comes down to how do you stay relevant and how do you stay top of mind when there's gonna be some incumbent at some point that will be more fun tap into a younger generation. I don't know. I think that it's something that people have to work on. I love that, yeah, you gotta be humbled. It really is and there's that fine line too, I think for some people where it's like, why don't want to copy somebody? And there's the middle ground of like not copying exactly who they are, but definitely using a process, a system that has already been proven that works. But it's like, that's the same too, like great artist steel, right? They steal and they interpret it into their own version. And I would rather some of these companies copy to a degree than put out some of the stuff that they do. And even like, even like if you're, whatever, like copy at the beginning, like it's still better than the shit that you're doing. I mean, really, and then you'll learn and you're gonna evolve and it's gonna turn into your own thing. But yeah, I think people have to humble themselves and stop pretending that they know what they don't know. So okay, so I think that's like the biggest takeaway and that people need to hear through this podcast that other than the fact that your obsessed with success is that they need to humble themselves. Yes, and it's not like a one time thing, right? Like it's very easy, it's very easy to feel like you know what you're doing. And it's very easy to sort of tune out outside noise. And all these lessons that I talk about are not lessons that are permanently cemented in my mind and I'm perfect all the time. I mean, like there's things that I can learn about my podcast from you and from literally everyone else that does a podcast, even though mine is doing okay and it's doing well, it's not the best. And even if it was the best at one point, it won't be the best for forever. So it's just like, it's changing, it's changing how you look at your own success. Changing how you look at your own, the milestones that you hit and that you have to understand that nothing is permanent. And if you approach life through that lens, then I think you will be a better person because you'll always be looking to learn and to be curious and to upskill and to grow even if you're at close to the top of your game, which I don't pretend like there's like, you know, look at the, look at the Lewis houses and the Tom Bill use and the Tim Ferriss is like there's always more levels and then even them, I'm sure there's gonna be another podcast, hopefully mine, maybe someone else's in 10 years that is gonna be even more recognizable than all those names. So you just gotta, yeah. Always evolving and as you were saying that I was like, you know, you just have this real love of learning that you exude and that's I think where people need to focus. Yeah, I think so too. So I want to kind of wrap up and ask you something, you talk to so many, I mean, how many podcasts have you done? I've done about 400 interviews and then I've done, I don't know, another 60-ish solo pieces. So like pushing about 450-500 ish. So that's a lot of conversations you've had, a lot of people that you have reverse engineered and kind of looked at their process because I think it takes a certain eye, like you have a talent for this. Most people, not everybody has that. So as you're doing that, are there certain things? Like maybe one, two, three, you tell me, what are the commonalities that you constantly see as you're talking to these people in reverse engineering that the people listening are going, okay, that's part of this success plan. We touched on one, the ultimate belief in yourself. I mean, that is across every single individual. I think that's probably the number, even if they're not aware of it, that's the number one thing that drives their success. What else is, I'm trying to think, what else is a commonality? Belief in yourself, we touched on them all, okay. So I'll recap because we have touched on a lot of the ones that are actually very important. They build systems. So they build systems around everything in their life so that they don't drop the ball. Like it's impossible to drop the ball when you build systems, whether or not it's people or it's setting up time for this, that or the other. Like you build systems so that you're successful because if you do not have systems in place, again, we're humans, we're so messy and we're so, it's so difficult for us to accomplish anything without building a framework around us because we are like hedonistic creatures, the majority of us that we look for pleasure and we avoid pain and building anything significant, will take a significant amount of pain, not physical, hopefully, but like, stress. But maybe if you're working out, I don't know, there's some physical pain there, but outside of that, it's gonna take a lot of energy, exactly. So I would say systems are probably the second, most important thing. So self-belief systems, I mean, if you just apply those two things already, you're gonna be killing it. Yeah, love that. I'm trying to think of anything else. Trying to think of anything else. Well, the curiosity, I mean, that is one of my- Curiosity is big. Do you feel like that shows up? That's a common theme and a lot of the success. Curiosity is huge, yes, yeah. I'm trying, by the way, yes. I'm trying to think of something we didn't just talk about for the past 45 minutes, but I think we have to test on these things organically already. Curiosity is huge. Because curiosity is then tied to removing your own ego and figuring things out. And like I mean, some people will say they're self-made, but nobody's self-made, obviously. There's no such thing as a self-made person, even somebody who built their own company from scratch didn't take any on outside money and just grew to whatever, pick any number, they're still not self-made. I mean, whether or not it was employees or partners or mentors or advisors, like it's, yeah, you gotta remove your ego. Even the people that are at the top that they seem to have an ego, they have an ego maybe as a public persona, but I can guarantee you when they're in the rooms with the right people that they know can help them along, that ego's gone. So you pick the most ego-driven entrepreneur that you can think of and in the right room with the right person, there is no ego. With the ego, there wouldn't be a business. Because you never listened to anyone and you can't be an expert in everything. So that's so interesting. You brought that up because we can all think of certain names, right? Of course we can. We can. Oh, God, it's such an ego, you know, but maybe that's the TV persona, you know, or the... Well, it's a persona because I think that in most things that person or persons, they're incredibly proficient. But think about some of the things that these people do. They don't know how to do these things themselves. Like they don't. So whether or not it, you know, doesn't matter who the people are, doesn't matter. Like there will always be somebody that is going to be far superior to them at what they're good at. And when those two people sit across the table from each other, there's zero ego. Because if there was an ego, there's challenge. Challenge is fine, but challenge is not ego. Challenge is when two incredible people push each other to be better, which is normal. But ego in my mind is like negating other opinion because you think that you know better. I mean, you think about what some of these people have built. It would never have happened ever. Right, right. Gosh, I love that. That is a really, really good distinction. And it almost makes me think that you can have ego, you know, you can like almost what you were saying earlier. You kind of have to be a little delusional in what you believe in your confidence. But you can have that in certain areas. But when it comes to the areas that you don't know expanding and growing, you really have to let that go. Yeah, and I don't even like you go. I mean, like you can have confidence. I think ego is more of a negative personality trait, like confidence and delusion in your own abilities is fine to a degree. I think ego, that's more internal. Whereas ego is something that like reflects outward. And I think that is like a not positive personality trait. I'm sure some psychologists could probably, you know, paint a much better picture of what ego isn't what it isn't. Right. But I think that confidence and slight delusion and belief in yourself is fine. But I think that if you ever make somebody feel less than that's a, that's a USU, you're just a dick. But still, that has, if you do want to build something huge, if you are that kind of person who is very much full of themselves, I mean, there's a, there's a cap on what you can build. 100% you don't know everything. Yeah, and that's why you see people surrounding themselves. And I do want to ask you about it because I really don't know much about it. Your social club, I mean, that you're surrounding it. Yeah, well, that is kind of, that is kind of it. It's a, it's a, it's a membership. It's a private members club of people that have sold businesses. So that's what I build right now. That's why enjoy we put on a whole bunch of events for exited entrepreneurs. And it is, and by the way, there's no ego in that room at all. I have no idea if in these, some of these people's lives, I would hope not because I, I don't want to bring people that are like that into my circle. And but in that room in particular, I guess, because everybody knows that everybody's achieved something. There's absolutely no ego at all. So everybody's there to learn. It needs to be, it is a great place to be. It's all smart people that have sold businesses that are sort of looking for the next thing in their life. Some are building their second business, some are investing, but it's, I mean, the best way to, to describe it to a listener is, it would be similar to YPO, but after you've sold, it's the easiest way to describe it. Yeah, it's, it's a lot of fun. I mean, this is, this is my business outside of the podcast. And it's probably one of the more fun businesses that I've ever built, not to say that software isn't fun too, but this is like a, this is like a, a, a, a human, a very human business. Right, it's because it's people. So that's really awesome. And I know that people, people listening now are like, oh, I have a sold my business yet. So I want to point them to listen to Scott's podcast, right? Oh, yeah, well, I'll tell you right now, like we, we have a lot of events for people that are still, so obviously, yes, the core group are people that have sold their business. Um, I just moved down from Toronto to Miami, the Fort Lauderdale, but Miami seemed different. Um, except if you ask anybody from Fort Lauderdale, Miami, I'm probably going to get it on for saying it's the same thing. They're very, very, they're very, they're very particular about Broward versus Dade, but it doesn't matter. The point is, um, from a, from a Canadian's perspective, it's just an hour and a half on the I-95, which is far too long anyways, but, uh, I'm very focused on building out, like the startup scene in South Florida. So I try and engage with as many early stage, mid stage entrepreneurs as possible. Um, we still do, we still put on events for, for people that are, like, building right now. And if we're not putting on an event, I'm so tied into like the South Florida tech entrepreneur scene. If somebody is in the area, I'll find an event put on by somebody that I know that they'd probably appreciate. So if somebody is like in build mode, and they just want to network with awesome entrepreneurs, um, you can DM, hit me up, whatever, link in Instagram, um, and I'll always find something interesting for you to go out to, even if it's not something that I'm putting on. Because again, I'm, whenever I want to, whenever I move down to a city, it's not just what I'm building on. I've had a lot of fun, like building in the startup community. And, and it's not like I get paid. Like I've done like, you know, I've done stuff with like future printer, I've done stuff with startup incubators up in Canada. For me, it's just fun. It's a fun environment. The people that build are my kind of people. So it's, it's, it's just, uh, yeah, it's nice to be in the right rooms. Even if you have an exit, it doesn't really mean anything. You're still an incredibly, you know, probably brave and audacious and brilliant and, and, and driven person. I mean, those are the people that you want to hang out with. Absolutely. So I, that's what I kind of want to wrap up with. You're encouraging people to, you have a couple different places where they can tune into you. And you heard them whether you've already exited your business or even if you haven't, but turn that build up DM. Find Scott online. Also, you know, follow the podcast's success story. I mean, it's one of the top 10 podcasts out there. And now you guys have a sample of like what he's talking about. I mean, he's showing you his gift of reverse engineering people and sharing their success. So tune into that. And then you've got a newsletter too with hundreds of thousands of people that follow along. So where's the best place? Yeah, where's the best place for people to sign up for the newsletter? You can, if you want the domains, it's... Well, I'll put it in the show notes. It's right on your website, right? It is. Yeah. So we got ScottDClary.com. Yep. I mean, it's like newsletter.scotdclary.com. All the socials at ScottDClary. Yes. You can find me. You type in Scott. So I got all the same handles, which is where the middle initial comes from. So if you do, if you do ScottDClary on Google, you'll find all the stuff. There's a ton, a ton, a ton of links with you out there. So people will go down to a rabbit hole for sure. Sounds good. Sounds good. But awesome. Thanks so much for joining us and sharing your definition of success, Scott, and what you've seen other people as well. It's been really fun having you. Thank you for having me off.