Business and Family Life (Dr. Suleiman Ijani & Dad Puzzles)

Hello, welcome, welcome to Dad Puzzles. Today we are, you know, like I want to first express my genuine honor and excitement to have our next guest on the, you know, on our show. His expertise, you know, like his expertise and experiences is sure to bring incredible value to our audience. So thank you so much, sir, for, for joining our, our Dad Puzzles podcast. Thank you so much, man, for having me on. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. So, so Scott is a seasoned sales and marketing executive who is renowned for redefining sales, marketing, branding and tech to market strategies. So throughout his career, he has successfully collaborated with executives and entrepreneurs, propelling their businesses to remarkable growth, often achieving 10 times, you know, the results. So from startups to large enterprises, sketch expertise has left an incredible mark on iconic Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands. His work has garnered recognition with features in over 100 plus new sites and publications. As a global speaker, Scott is a sold after at industry conferences and his, his insightful articles have been showcased in, in prestigious platform like Forbes, Wall Street, you know, like Wall Street Journal, you know, how can you understand up, etc, etc. So, and, you know, like currently, he holds the success story podcast as part of the half spot podcast network where he engages in enlightening interviews with inspiration individuals mentors and leaders. Additionally, he serves as the founder of a weekly business newsletter, continually sharing valuable insights with his audience. So thank you so much for, for being with us today, sir. I appreciate that. That's a really kind intro. I thank you for going through everything. You didn't have to go through everything. No, I do have, I do have a friend of mine. He has, he's very picky with, he likes whenever he's, you know, because he's a speaker as well. He likes people to read exactly word for word, verbatim, you know, his, his buyer. So since then, I was like, okay, so I don't want to piss off anyone. So let me make sure I read everything, you know. You could, you could call me a whole bunch of things you wouldn't piss me off. That's no worries. Awesome. Awesome. So where are you from, boys? So I'm Canadian. Right now, I'm not in Canada. I'm in Fort Lauderdale right now, but born in Toronto. Okay. Raised in Canada, most of my young life, I was actually in Ottawa, which is a capital Canada, sort of like, you know, think, think Washington, a lot of government. That's sort of where my family, that's really family spent with their careers in, in very safe, very safe jobs. My dad worked for government, my mom worked for universities, went to school in Canada. And I guess it was around, I don't know, 20, 25, 26, when I started working with startups, I've worked in a variety of different roles, different jobs. I was in the sales marketing side. 25, 26 started working in startups, really enjoyed the opportunity that startups afforded, a lot of hard work, a lot of wearing different hats. But then as anybody who has, you know, followed the startup journeys of founders or early, you know, early employees in startups, it can be super lucrative, super exciting work. You know, obviously you're doing something that's probably never been done before. And at the same time, it can make you a lot of money if you do it, right? So that was sort of around the time when I pivoted from working in like big companies, per se, to working in startups. And I really enjoyed it. And I've had some successes along the way. You know, I've worked in a variety of different industries, a lot of software, a lot of tech, more recently I've worked in consumer goods. And along the way, I understood the power of, and this is a story that I hear from a lot of people, but understood the power of building a platform, building a personal brand, putting yourself out there, kind of like what you're doing right now. And that created the podcast, that created the community, that created the social audience, that created the newsletter, that created all that stuff, which is going to be something that I probably do until the day I die because I love it. I love building that personal brand and I love speaking to awesome people. I love teaching things that I've learned and other people have learned to the community that I've built. And it also makes me better, it makes me a better operator in the business, it makes me a better investor, it makes me a better entrepreneur, it makes me better founder, it makes me better at all those things, right. Because if access to great people, you learn awesome stuff. So yeah, all in all that sort of my career and in a very, very small nutshell, but that's how I got to where I am today. That is fantastic. And you know, this is something, you know, if touched something very important about loving what you do, because a lot of folks they end up doing what they do not love. It becomes a stress in itself. Oh, oh, yeah, I mean, even the things, this is actually a very interesting point because even the things that I do that I love are still stressful, but it's the love that carries me through that stress. So everything you do in life that's worth doing to an extent is going to have periods where it sucks. I mean, there's nothing that is worth doing that is going to be 100% unicorns and rainbows and lollipops. We're talking about building something my own company, my own brand, working in a startup I love, even raising kids. There's going to be times when that shit sucks because I don't have kids yet, but I have friends without kids. And it's like not always, not always fun. So they deal with a lot of stuff. So it's like, that's you got to get used to. You got to be psychologically, you got to get over that hump. And you know, I guess the way that should have used was hate. You know, not necessarily stressful. You know, because they really hate their work. Like some people, they do not love them. That's totally not a good thing to have. So we encourage dads that are working their jobs that they do not love. I mean, they should still, it's never late to change careers. They can slowly merge into something that they love. You know, like spend more time a little bit additionally. Maybe, you know, just a little bit of time every day to kind of learn about that. The career that they want to grow, you know, like, you know, like go into. I spoken with some people that started the career very late. Like a lady for instance, she, her daughter had, you know, had tick disorders. And no doctors will help her. She started from scratch. She went to school. She learned about this. Now she's, she's a doctor for it. So things can happen so late. I'm not giving up, you know, so thank you so much for this encouragement. This is a very good point. So, so maybe we can touch a little bit about, you know, like on the business side as well for now because I want that to be encouraged to learn from you as well. And, you know, so as a seasoned sales and marketing executive, what strategies have you found to be most effective in, you know, in terms of the business growth and, you know, just the success? Yeah, I mean, the first one seems obvious, but sometimes it's overlooked. The most important thing when you're building a company or selling a product or aligning with a company that's selling a product as, you know, quote unquote, an employee is that the product's exceptional. Is that the product has an unfair advantage in the marketplace. And I think that, I think that even if you are building a startup and you'll have your MVP, your minimum viable product, meaning it's not the final version that you want it to be because it will never be that. You'll always be trying to improve and iterate and whatnot. But I think that having an incredible product that actually solves problems. It seems so basic, but it's a very important piece of the puzzle. So, there's something called like product-led growth or product-led marketing and product-focused companies. And really what it just means is you're not trying to market a shitty product to the world or a bad product to the world. Like, you have an incredible product that actually solves real problems that you believe in. And then that's what you bring to the world. And then everything after that is quite simple. I mean, the best companies in the world that we know about always have the best product. Like, it really does rise to the top when you have that incredible product. And this is something that if I'm looking at where I'm going to go in my career next, as a sales person who has sold products that I believe in. And also, I've sold products that I don't believe in. You'll never be successful selling a product you don't believe in. You'll never be successful selling something that you don't think actually works. So, you have to be behind a company in a product as an entrepreneur or as an employee that's selling something that actually you believe in and that solves problems. And then all of a sudden, all the other things start to just work easier. Oh, that's awesome. So, this is a very good point. And so, what happened with your experiences with Fortune 500 companies? Can you talk a little bit about that? Because this is something, is that small? This is a huge feat, my friend. So, selling to large companies. I mean, when I was selling to large companies, usually when I've been selling to large companies, I've been in larger companies. Which means you have more resources and more support. Which is always nice. But at the end of the day, it's a human selling to another human, which I think is one of the most important takeaways. Like, even if there are complex buying processes, even if there's RFPs, even if you have to bring in a group of decision makers and multi-thread different stakeholders in the organization, meaning that I'm not just selling to a chief marketing officer, but I'm selling to a CMO and a CEO and a CFO. And I have to bring them all to the table to figure out the solution. You are selling to another person or a group of people. So, I think that, again, it comes down to how am I actually understanding the pain points that that organization is trying to solve for? And how do those pain points affect the organization? But also, how do those pain points affect the day in the life of the decision maker who's actually buying the product? So, I'm selling a piece of technology to a company. Like, what are the problems that the CTO is dealing with on a day to day that would make his or her job much easier that my product will alleviate? Right? What are those problems that that person actually has to figure out? So, I think that too often when we're selling B2B business to business, especially in a very large enterprise format, we forget that there's humans involved, and we forget that if I'm selling something, this could either make the person who's buying it look good or look bad. And if I make the person who's buying the product look good, all of a sudden, my job as a sales rep becomes much easier. Now, there's obviously much more complex items that you have to worry about. I mean, again, I mentioned one thing, multi-threading, which means instead of selling to like one person, like you would be doing in a smaller company, I have to make sure that I have all the right buyers at the table. Or perhaps I have to take into account the fact that I'm selling to a company so big that they always go to RFP or request for a proposal, meaning that they have to go get bids from like three different companies before they actually make a decision. All those nuances are important to consider, but those things are like table stakes, like when you start to sell at that level, those things are all pretty standard, and you'll be able to understand those and navigate those processes quite easily, especially because you have a fair amount of support at that level when you're selling to a large organization, and you're also part of a big company. But again, you can't forget the human element, which is the number one thing that is actually forgotten, more often than not at that level. Okay, okay. Thank you. And that transcends, right? That trickles down, right? There's the human element, the most important element in sales, that is something that applies at the Fortune 100, Fortune 500, Fortune 5,000, mid-market, small-market, selling to a mom and pop, selling to consumer. It's like always a human centric customer-first, customer-focused approach to sales. That's always how it has to be. And if people forget that, for even a moment, they'll stop being successful. Right, absolutely. Thank you. This is very important. You know, like we appreciate this insight, you know, because I guess, you know, like I thought maybe sometimes people can get so big and maybe I thought they'll forget that human element. They do. They look at people, they do forget the human element. They totally forget the human element. Wow. And that's just not sales, right? We're talking about like the whole commercial side of the business. They forget the human element in their marketing. They forget the human element in their sales conversations and their discovery calls in the post they post on, like they forget the human element in all of it. And ultimately, it's just a bad way to do business. Right. And so you can, I mean, you can try and, and assume that I'm going to forget the human element and I'm going to pitch the benefits of my product and I'm going to do the value prop and I hopefully can, you know, convince them in some way to buy it without actually caring about what that person's issue is. But you're not going to, you're not going to win that way. And actually, if you want to look at the data points to prove it, in 2023, I mean, I haven't sold in a B2B enterprise context in a few years, but I mean, even back when I was selling B2B enterprise, 70 to 80% of the information that the buyer, and I'm sure this is also not just B2B enterprise, by the way, but 70 to 80% of the information that the buyer researches. So I go on social, I go on the website, talk to my peers, look at reviews, you know, go to third party, trusted websites that have unbiased reviews about the product or service, 70 to 80% of that information. I get that before I even talk to a sales rep for the company that I'm buying a product or service from. So 80% of my information is already in my head before I even talk to you and you're selling me the product. So I mean, you have to understand that like, what you're telling me, what you're trying to push on me is a very small percentage of what actually influences my buying decision. The only piece that you really, because all the information is out there at what a certain product or service does, the biggest point of leverage you have and the biggest point of differentiation you have as a seller for a company versus a competitor that's also trying to sell to a buyer is that you actually understand the things that I'm going through in my day to day because all the information is already out there. So I'm not usually learning much new when I talk to you. But if you can find a way to tailor it to like how my life is going right now and when I walk in and I'm a CTO of a company and the CEO is yelling at me because whatever our servers are going down and you can understand that and you can sell me a problem that fixes that, all of a sudden, wow, that's who I'm going to buy from. Right, right, absolutely. And you know, in terms of healthcare, first can jump in as well and add more points but something that sticks out at the moment for me is the patient experience. So a lot of times, you know, some hospitals they will get in trouble because of the patient experience. You know, folks that have been treated in the hospitals that can rate them badly because of what is, you know, how they've been treated. So no matter how much the advertisement is done by the hospital systems, if the, like you mentioned, you know, like a person to person is not there. Like the human touch is not there. Then the whole marketing is useless, you know. 100% correct, yeah. Awesome, thank you Chief. So, you know, how has the media exposure influenced you because you've been in so many media outlets, my friend. You know, how has that done to yourself in terms of your businesses or, you know, just as a person? You know, how has that experience, you know, like just... Impacted? Yes. I think that I think that I'm a firm believer in personal brand, obviously. So I'm obviously very biased. I think that everybody to some degree should build a brand around themselves, allowing them to broadcast to the world what they're an expert in. And I, so how does it impact me? So when I built my personal brand, I didn't do it with a specific focus on a company because I knew that I wanted to have a brand that transcended the exact place that I was working at the time. And I wanted to create something that in the future I could monetize or leverage. And I really looked at like the Gary Vee model of brand building, right? So you have this incredible brand and then you can launch companies or you can use it to reach an audience or, you know, there's various ways you can use it. Gary Vee, for example, he's launched like VaynerMedia and not VaynerMedia, but like empathy wines and VaynerSports and his NFT project all against his audience, right? So now you have this audience, you can use it for whatever. And my goal was I'll build the audience and I'll communicate tons of value and I'll build a community. And then if I want to use it for something, it's right there. There's all these people that have been listening and consuming information and I've been helping these thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, whatever people for the past 10 plus years. So when I want to sell something to them, they trust my recommendation. And that's the end goal should always be helping, but of course, at one point, you can monetize as well. So how does he expose your help? I mean, any role that I took on or any company that I tried to start or any product that I tried to sell, all of it was immediate. Any time I tried to raise money, any time I reached out to somebody like a high-level individual on LinkedIn to try and get a call, like it just makes everything easier because you have all this social proof that you are, who you say you are, and you have a good reputation behind you. So when, you know, it doesn't guarantee anything, but it makes things easier. So if I want to go raise money from an investor, they look me up, oh, okay, Scott's like, you know, he's done something, he's not some no name, he's like trying to put himself out there, I've listened to a few of his things, I like the way he thinks, I like the way he communicates, I like the way, you know, he looks at businesses and strategy, all of a sudden I have like a positive, I have a positive impression to this person because people always create an impression of you and they'll always have an idea of who you are, whether or not you like it, just by a quick Google search. I mean, this is how we function, unfortunately. So it's, in my opinion, better to control the narrative by creating that content and creating the brand that I want people to see. So everything that literally, I mean, looking for a new job, right now after my last company, so I was CEO of a software company that was acquired, I was tapped on the shoulder to be CEO of a consumer goods company, I'm sure, you know, the online persona helps with that, being asked to be brought on to podcasts like this one, being asked to speak on stage, I think the largest stage that I've spoken on to date was inbound, which is like 70,000 people, not all for me, obviously, but like 70,000 people go to inbound every year, and then have spots asked me to speak on a stage. So I mean, the podcast, the putting yourself out there, that's what got me on that stage. There's other ways to get on that stage too. I mean, there's leaders of multi-million dollar brands, companies that have IPO, but that was like my way to get on to the stage, right? Build the community, and then the opportunities come. Oh, that's awesome. And you know, you know, this has to be like, you mentioned first, the love is there, and you're not shy or going for it. But I think because I've made some folks that they want to get into the industry, however, they're still shy, they to put their name out there. Like they say, oh no, like I just used my nickname, you know, excuse me. This is how it works right now, not. I think that that's a valid point, because it's really stressful to put your own name out there and to put yourself out there. I don't think there's an easy way to do it, except to just start. And also, even when you start, I mean, it's not like it's ever going to be, like I can't remember whose quote this was, but I think it was Jim Carrier somebody. He said, I wish everybody could be famous and rich to see like how it's not always what it's cracked out to be, and that's a bastardization of the quote. But that's essentially an essence. Even when you put yourself out there, the more famous you get, the more stressful it is, the more hate you get, the more everything, but there's a benefit to it. So I think that, I think that, yeah, it's going to be stressful. But you start to understand that all the things that you should have listened to in the first place about not paying attention to other people's opinions are very correct. Right. I mean, you listen, you put out, you know, feelers, you get some feedback as to what you're doing as a good as a bad, but ultimately, not everybody will like you, and that's okay. Right. And unless there's like very, very good critique, like if so, I'll give you an example. Like yesterday, somebody said on my Instagram, like, oh, it was so annoying listening to the last podcast because the ads, like, interrupted a thought halfway. That's very good feedback for me, because I have to speak to my editors. I have to make sure that that, you know, that the way they edit is done in a proper way, so that the ads aren't annoying, but that's constructive. There's a lot of unconstructive, like malicious stuff that always happens. It has no bearing on me. And usually, this is very real. But the people that are doing better than you never care about what you're doing. It's always the people that aren't doing as well as you that are the loudest. And those are unfortunately, the ones that go on your social DMU message you, whatever, ignore it, because it really doesn't mean anything. It doesn't impact you. It doesn't change your life in any way. So be okay that that's going to eventually happen, but also look at the potential upside. Absolutely. And, you know, how long it took you to get that realization? Because sometimes folks that will have like this, oh, you know, I don't want to do this, and then they do it finally. And then they realize, oh, man, I should have started this early. You know, why did they... Did you have this situation? So when I got the realization that I should have started this earlier? Or... You're right. Right. I think the day that I started, I realized that I should have done it earlier. Big time. Like, for me, I don't always approach things the same way as everybody. Like, when I start something, I'm so committed to it, almost to a fault that I have trouble stopping. In some cases, even if it's not successful. Right. But I think that that attitude and that personality allowed me to start and then never look back. And actually, candidly, I think the people that have that personality of being able to start and never look back are the people that are usually the most successful because they don't second-guess themselves again and again and again. Absolutely, absolutely. You know, I totally agree with you, my friend. So far, you know, how has been the experience with this... With a success story? I mean, this show is so amazing. You know, you have all these greats on your show. So what is the one that particularly left you like this biggest event? So success story has been an incredible experience because outside of being a great way to build the brand, it's long-form content. It allows me to take that long-form content and put it across all the different social platforms, kind of like what we're doing now. You can chop this up into 50 different pieces, right? All the shorts, reels, TikToks, all that shit. Outside of that, I mean, you know, it's letting you sit down with all these cool people and talking to them for like an hour and hour and a half a couple of times a week. Like, what other job in the world affords you that opportunity? Not many, not many, right? So it's a personal brand strategy. But if you don't think I learn a ton of shit from the people that I talk to, you know what's up. So that being able to have access and talk and chat and sit down with some of the most incredible intellectuals, sophisticated, successful individuals in the world is by far the biggest benefit. No amount of money or fame or followers or anything could ever compare to being able to tap into some of the most interesting brains in the world. Awesome. Especially when you have their stories, how inspiring it is, how they, you can relate to where they start from. And this is beautiful, you know? You relate to where they start from. You start to see threads of what allows them to be successful. You also understand that nobody's journey is perfect and like everybody's gone through super stressful periods in their life, which just sort of normalizes your own stress. Right. All these things not only teach me a lot, but they really, candidly, I mean, I listen to my own shows obviously, but I also listen to podcasts for this reason because it helps normalize my own lived experience. It helps me normalize, oh, business isn't going well. Okay, we got to figure it out. But you know what? People have made much bigger mistakes that have been much more expensive in much bigger companies. And they've survived. So you know what? I'll be okay at the end of the day. It's stressful right now. But it helps you push through these really dark moments in your life that everybody experiences. To listen to people who have done it before. And you also asked what was like the most impactful episode? I would say there's been a lot. Obviously. I will give you the most impactful answer to a question that I have asked. I ask sort of some similar questions. I always ask like, what would you tell your 20-year-old self? I ask what a success mean to you. But there's one answer. And it actually funny enough came from Anthony Scaramucci, which he was the guy who was like, Trump's like a communications director for like 12 days or whatever. It was like a very funny, interesting story. Now he's obviously a really successful finance guy and whatnot. And he told me something that actually really resonated. And it's been repeated a few times, but he's like the first person to say it on the show. So he said that his sort of secret to success is his trust in himself. So if he was going to take everything away that he has right now, and he's worth probably several hundred million dollars at this point, and he manages, I'm sure, over a billion dollars in some of the funds that he manages, he was going to take everything away, and it was going to be him in like a studio apartment in Brooklyn, with nothing but like the t-shirt on his back, he has absolute confidence that he could do it again. From scratch with no connections, no network, no money. And I'm like, holy shit, that is the most powerful, mental thought process to have, the mental place to be in, that you trust in yourself that much, that you could just, everything taken away, you could repeat success. And I think that that mindset, it may seem, it may not, I'm not sure if it is as powerful to some people as it is to me, but for me that is like the secret. It's the secret to success. The secret to success, meaning like financial success, not like family success and freedom from working, but like building a business, being successful in your career, I think a lot of it has to come down to, do I trust myself to do this? And then having absolute trust in yourself to execute on the things that you have to do, and I think that if more people had that faith in their own abilities, they would take more risks, and they would end up being successful. Awesome, and I think you had mentioned this in your Instagram about how it is important for people to have the mindset. This is more important to have that strength, like what you just described, because it's not about money, I will have that quote with you later on. So far from your experience, being like an international speaker, what is the trend that you're noticing now worldwide, so far from your experience? Trends in white and business, and sales and marketing and so far, like what kind of trends are you noticing? Is there something like a new trend or something that is... What are new trends? Interesting. I would say the things that it's interesting. So I would say they're new trends, but they're just as important. So we sort of touched on a couple things that make for a good company, like being a product focused company. I think that's not necessarily a trend, but it's important. I think that an emerging trend is brands and individuals trying to be louder on social media, but the issue is that social media, which at one point was considered alternative media, is so saturated that brands starting and people starting to try and build an audience, they end up being exactly like the last person. So the internet has democratized access to building a brand and becoming famous, but it's also homogenized, meaning that everybody seems to do it the same way. So it's made access very easy. I mean, I can just go on my computer and if I'm good enough at creating content and teaching stuff over, I don't need to, for example, sign a deal with a movie star, with a production company, and be in a movie to be famous. I can actually do it myself. But with that low barrier to entry, it means that everybody sort of copies each other. So the emerging trend or the successful way to look at alternative media, social media, podcasting, whatever it is, is to be, the trend has to be you. What I mean by that is the only way to be successful in an environment like the internet, where everybody has access to producing their own personal brand, is to be so unique that you differentiate yourself, that you are a culture of one of one. You are one of one. No one else can be like you. Nobody else can create content like you, because you are the content. You are, you are the brand. And I think that that is a trend that some people nail, and the most successful individuals in the world, like a Gary Vee is a Gary Vee is one of one. Right? If we look at Alex Ramozy. Alex Ramozy is one of one. Grant Cardone is one of one. Elon Musk is one of one. All these people are one of one. They cannot be replicated, because there's nuances of their personality that they let shine through on social. So to be successful in social media, you have to be one of one, meaning that you have to be okay, not just putting yourself out there, but putting yourself out there without a filter, with nothing but your honest, raw self, because that's what people will actually like, or dislike, which is fine, but the people that like it create the community, that's what allows you to be successful online. So look at, for example, I mean, I mentioned a couple people that do this well. Look at Duolingo. Duolingo is a brand that wasn't just a copy of the last brand. It was a beautiful interpretation of a language learning app in a big, like, big bird, whatever it is, costume, mascot of a Duolingo bird that does ridiculous things around the office, and then that company goes viral, because they're one-of-one. No one else can be a big green bird mascot, dancing around on TikTok, but Duolingo can be that, and they killed it. And I'm pretty sure, whoever, I think I can't remember the name of the woman who came up with that campaign, and she's like one of words for marketing at this point, because they went so viral, and they're a language learning app that has, like, one of the largest TikTok followers. That's a one-of-one example. So that's a trend that's a newer trend, but very important, that I think you have to consider, you have to really consider that, purposefully meaning that Gary V didn't think, oh, I'm going to be one-of-one, he just thought, I'm just going to be me. But a lot of people have trouble thinking like that, so I think that when you start, day one, day zero, think like that, just be you, be authentic, but truly be authentic. Not just, like, you throw a swear word in here there, it's like you talk about everything, so we talk about business, we talk about family, we talk about kids, we talk about things I'm stressed about, or maybe I just talk about, I talk about the food I eat, the hobbies I have, that's why vloggers on YouTube are so popular, because they're one-of-one. They document their whole day. That's fantastic. I think you have a very good point, and you know another thing, and I'm noticing, maybe folks, they become not themselves, because they're getting, they get distracted by, by input from family, or close friends, or maybe you have to develop a way to shut that down somehow, because otherwise you become, because they're looking out for you, they think maybe that's tacky, or that's not cool, but in reality, like you mentioned, you know, it's their uniqueness. You need to be the one-of-one. It is unique, because it's every single thing that embodies who you are on a day-to-day. Like even my dad told me the other day, he's like, it is so weird seeing you on YouTube. But I'm like, I mean, he'll never be somebody who's going to want to build a personal brand, and he appreciates that I'm doing stuff that's probably wildly outside his comfort zone, but that's cool. He doesn't care. But I mean, yeah, family will always, I mean, if you're pushing boundaries, family's never going to 100% understand what you're doing, but that's okay. Right, right, right. That's totally okay. There you go. Now, I see. That's a very good point, you know, because a lot of times, you know, like, you know, they can have a good point, you know, like from their perspective, they're trying to look out for you, but I think dads need to know that, okay, you have to look at the bigger picture in terms of, you have to be unique. So if it's, as long as you're not naked, or you're not doing something illegal. Listen, if you're not doing anything illegal, or offensive, or whatever, yeah, don't dance around naked, don't do illegal stuff. Don't make somebody feel like, don't make somebody feel less than, don't be, you know, racist, sexist, whatever it is. Don't do any of that shit. Right. But outside of that, be you. Awesome, awesome. Now, how do you, because for a person like yourself, with all these, with all these hats that you have to put on, how do you manage the time to take care of yourself, you know, like that, that personal time, you know, how do you, you know, how do you take, you know, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, rejuvenate. So it's not easy. And I want to, I want to, I want to be super clear about this. So I have like routines and I have things that I do that I'll talk to you about, but it's like never perfect. So I think that too many again, too many people are too polished online, and you'll listen to gurus that seem to have all their shit together, and they say that, you know, the 5am club, or the, I shut my phone off, whatever, two hours, because I don't believe in blue light, and I don't drink coffee anymore, I don't drink alcohol, or I, whatever, I do a cold plunge every morning. All that stuff is whatever. The point is, nobody has it 100% of the time together, and if somebody tells you that, they're lying. They're first show lying, because nobody's life is perfect, right? So, and also not all that stuff is even required to be successful. I mean, I don't, I'm pretty sure, like, Warren Buffett drinks a ton of Diet Coke, and I don't think he does cold plunge every day. The point is, you don't have to do all this gimmicky stuff to be successful. You have to focus on the things that you enjoy, that positively impact your life, that you notice some benefit of. So, what do I do? So, a couple sort of, very strategic things that I do in my day. I mean, I mentioned before we started recording, like, the urgent important matrix. I do actually do my most important tasks in the morning, or also, which is, like, the eat the frog mentality, so, like, the most stressful, going to move the needle the most. I do that. I try to do that before people start calling me, emailing me, or I'll do that super late at night. So, sometimes after dinner, I'll spend some time, like, instead of, like, watching TV, like, maybe like an hour, an hour and a half, like, doing, like, very important things that are going to move the needle in my life or in my business. So, I do, do urgent important plus, I also time block. So, I have to time block because I run a company, I do a little bit of investing. I also do my podcast, personal brand. So, I have to time block stuff, because there's something, like, whenever you switch tasks, you're doing context switching, which basically erodes your energy levels and your focus and your attention. So, you should not be switching tasks too many times throughout the day. Even if you are thinking that you're a great multitasker, there's a lot of science that shows that it's impossible to multitask effectively. So, every time you switch tasks, from, like, podcasting to jumping on a call for one business to looking at an investment portfolio, like, that's all context switching. It takes a lot of mental bandwidth. It wears you down. It's not good. You won't be as effective. So, don't do it. So, you have to time block your day into, okay, the morning from 9 to 12. I'm going to work on this business. Maybe Sunday night from 5 to 9. I'm going to record content for social and type up a couple tweets and articles for the week. So, I time block everything so that I don't switch back and forth as much as possible. I don't even check my emails. I check my emails in the morning. I check them at lunch. And I check them around 9 o'clock. I'm not actively checking emails throughout the day because I know that there's nothing because I've already figured out my most important urgent stuff for the day that's going to come into my inbox that will be required to be finished by the end of the day. So, at 9 o'clock, when I check my emails again, I'm going to see what I have to line up for the next day and that will dictate what I'm focusing on for the next day. But I'm not distracting myself in between writing a proposal or whatever it is with emails about unrelated things. I really, really focus. And then I'll clean my inbox, clear my inbox into the day. So, yeah, time blocking, like all the things that time blocking, doing heavy tasks when you're not distracted, preferably in the morning, urgent and important. These are all things that I really do truly live. Other things, like I mean, I'm not perfect. I try not to drink, but I drink every once in a while, but not too too often. Definitely have not killed the caffeine habit yet. So, I don't know how people deal with that. In terms of health and fitness, there's things that I do as well. So, I used to be big into sports, play a ton of sports. Now, I just sort of lift weights recreationally, but intermittent fasting. I cycle carbs so that I maintain like optimal energy levels. But these are sort of very personal things to me. So, I've sort of figured out my nutrition, my eating schedule, my workout schedule, my workout schedule, to look good, feel good, as good as possible, so that I don't hit like afternoon slumps. So, those are kind of the day-to-day things. Outside of that, I do, I'm actively, we'll talk about kids and family in a second, because I'm actively trying to outsource and build out, you know, and delegate as much as possible, so that I sort of claim back hours in my day, because I don't have kids yet, but that's a goal. And I know that if I'm operating at the way that I'm operating now, I won't be a good father. So, that's what I know it. I'm very well aware of it. I'm forcing myself to take breaks, I'm forcing myself to, like, shut off and go on vacation. These are things that seem silly, but I haven't taken vacations up until, like, the past two years for, like, several years now. And for me, I actively have to build that into my schedule, so that my future goals of having a family are more doable, because I need to have the right shutoff time, I need to have the right vacation time with the family, I can't be working 24-7. So, I know where my goals are at. I'm constructing my life, and my schedule, to be able to facilitate those goals, so that I'm not operating the way I am now, when I have kids. I think that's also very important. Wow, this is, you have provided so much value to what you have said, because I have, some of my listeners, they're in your, like, you know, in your status, you know, they just get married, they're about to have kids. Or some, they haven't been even married, you know, they're not married yet, but now they have a good idea about how they can do to prepare themselves to become better fathers. And I think, from what you're, you know, what you're mentioning in terms of, you know, like, you know, like, you know, when you're creating those blocks, and what you're doing, those blocks, it's something very neat to mention about the 80-20 rule, you know, maybe briefly, like, you can, you know, I know it's, it's pretty much the same thing with somebody for people to learn, can you teach them quickly about that one? Yeah. So the 80-20 rule is, is also known as the, the Pareto principle, which means that 80% of the results comes from 20% of the effort. So ultimately, that is obviously, it's a nice thought, but if you start to understand how it applies in your life, it's actually quite, it's quite practical. So if you look at, I'll give you a business example. Every sales team that I led, there was always 20% of the people, driving 80% of the results. When you look at all the different marketing things you're doing in your business, you're doing a whole bunch of stuff, but like, what's really driving revenue for your business? And it's usually a very small fraction that is like the most impactful. I mean, sometimes in some businesses, I'm sure it's more 90-10 than even 80-20. But I think that your goal in life, your goal in life, should be to identify those 20% things that drive those 80% results in your life, in your business. I mean, let's look at a life example. If I find that, like, my life is very much an 80-20, I'm living an 80-20. So all the health and wellness things I do is 20% of the things that, 20% of the things that do drive 80% of the results. So when I work out, I work on like core lifts that end up having the, they will impact my body the most. The food I eat, I focus on eating the great stuff for my body, like, you know, so for example, what's the word? So if I focus on diet, I focus on the best foods that will create the best possible result for my body as well. So most of the stuff that I do in my life, even like the intermittent fasting or the carb cycling, those are like strategies that I find that they're not super time-consuming, but they produce the most outcome in my day-to-day. I don't bother with cutting caffeine, I don't bother with doing a cold shower, cold plunge every morning. I don't bother with this incillary stuff because I could do it, and it could have marginal returns, but for me, it's more of a lift, I don't enjoy it, and I don't see the same results. The cold plunge every morning, versus going to the gym, I don't find that the payoff is the same. So I go to the gym for an hour, versus find a way to do a cold plunge or a cold shower. I don't really find the cold plunge does much for me. I mean, that's sort of how I approach everything in life, because what's the quote again? I think Bill Gates said, if you want a job done, give it to a lazy person because the lazy person will find the most effective way to do it. Candidly, that's how I approach my life, because I know that there's a lot of hard work required, but I'm always looking for a way, and it's not going to be so obvious day one, but I'm always looking for a way to do the things that will have the highest impact with the minimal amount of effort. Now, there's always effort required, of course, but I think that too many people put a lot of effort on things that have like almost marginal impact. So that to me is how I approach, I don't know, that's how I approach sort of my life. Oh, this is fantastic. And when you don't know your 20%, I guess it's even worse, because you end up spending time on a lot of things that are really just draining your time. I'm trying to think of other examples. So I think that, for example, I mentioned the diet before. So when you look at feeling good, looking good, the food you eat, there's like a million things, like there's supplements, there's vitamins, there's minerals, all that stuff is good, and I mean, you should definitely, okay, supplement your vitamins and whatnot. But I mean, there's so much extra that you can try out, and you can incorporate into your day to day, that ultimately, maybe they make you feel one percent better, two percent better, they make you feel one percent more alert, or whatever it is. But I mean, personally for me, that doesn't make enough of a difference to complicate my routine with those things. I have sort of like my things that I know are staples, that have the biggest impact on my day to day. That's what I like. Absolutely. And you know, just like, like the working out for instance, you know, there's some things, you know, like the core for instance, you know, like if you do things like squats, or bench, or something, you know, those things are like, they're, they need to move us to me, you know. Those are needle movers. Sorry, that's a great example. So we just talk about exercise. You want to work out in the gym, you want to have your 20% of lifts, so you do compound movements. So bench squat, deadlift, then you have your insular movements, but everything should be at least, most of the things should be compound. Because what can you do? You could do your bench, you could do your dead, you could do your squat. I rather do 15 minutes on a stairmaster than 30 minutes or 45 minutes running, because I know that also hits my lower body. That's like, to me, it's like, that's a 20% activity. Now what you could do in the gym? I mean, you can, I mean, you can curl all day, you can do like little like, like rope pulling tricep extensions, you can do all the machines in the world, but ultimately, it's not going to have the same payoff as focusing on those three compound lifts, and maybe like, if you did like, bench squat, deadlift, plus weighted pull ups, and weighted dips, like you could build an entire physique off of those five movements. That's it. People even just the three core lifts, but people complicate everything. They do all the things that they see in the workout magazines. They do all the things. They see the, you know, the professionals, you know, shill on their blogs, or on their socials. They Google how did someone so look like this for the latest Marvel movie, and then they'll go follow this, you know, garbage workout routine. So you just cut the fluff. In life, cut the fluff. Focus on what matters. That will give you the easiest life that you want, and anything, and family, and whatever, and fitness, and health, and business. It's like, cut the fluff, trim the fat, focus on what losing needle. That's it. You know, it's like health care. You know, other times, you know, get it, you know, like, you know, like, like, try things, you know, you know, like, the aging is very important. But also, I notice how, you know, I think, I don't know, I have the same, you know, like, you know, scenario right now, but I have noticed, you know, like, the, the influence, or somebody was mentioning how, you can list a lot of things, maybe like, a 20 things that you want to do, or like, like, your priorities. But then, of those 20, you can maybe narrow down to four or something. And then, those 16 is definitely, like, do not even touch them. They are really horrible for you. That is, I think, that's a, that's not even an influence. That's a Warren Buffett quote if I'm not mistaken. That is definitely a Warren Buffett quote. It's like, if you list your 25, I think it's like, I think they're trying to steal a Warren Buffett quote. It's like, if you list your 25, highest priority tasks. Right. And then, and then, list out the five most important out of the list of that 25, and then never touch the remaining 20. That is for sure a Warren Buffett quote. That is a very important thing. That's a very important goal. Cause, that's really our life. We end up wasting time with those 20, instead of touching the midget 5, and then the time is running and we're still completing it. complaining oh yeah oh yeah you know I'm still not doing it well but you really have need to move us in front of you but you don't spend time on them so it's just another version of the of the Prado principle the 80-20 rule if you want to I just googled it it's the 525 rule is this Warren Buffett's famous advice for productivity yeah awesome awesome so yeah next time I will you know I'll definitely remember that because now we have a situation you know because a lot of times your memory is better when you have a scenario like this you know yeah yeah exactly listen I listen I'm sure a lot of people have ripped that off to some degree but Warren Buffett is I'll give him I'll give him the credit and you know as we speak I think I remember the somebody that wrote a book and he somehow squeezed that into his book and somehow he took credit from it you know I don't have a mission I have no idea yeah so anyways you know so boss what do you know what do you think so far in terms of you know like you have family you know with your coworkers and stuff how do you deal with the let's say somebody that wants to deal with the family you know let's say you know there's a you know somebody seeking the family or they need to take time off how do you deal with that and you still have a lot of things to do what your job how do you balance that yeah I mean I think that as a rule a business should be healthy enough to support when people have personal problems they can take the time needed to fix that problem I think that's just a rule I think that the only time you run into problems is when a business is built so so thin that everybody is maxed out and nobody can sort of cover or help out and I don't think that's a very healthy business if you have everybody always working at 150% capacity I think that I mean my my view is if somebody has life events they have to tend to life events because life events are more important than business but also simultaneously I shouldn't have built a business it's gonna crash and burn the second one person has got for a bit of sick parent or aunt or grandparent right or you know I mean the same goes for not just sick people in their family what about people that want to take a time off for their children maternity leave right so a business has to be built so that it's profitable enough and and healthy enough to support their employees living a life and having a livelihood and dealing with real life and if you cannot do that then you're not running a business you're running a sweatshop so I think that people sometimes think individuals are commodity and they're not people and I think that people unfortunately maybe in a in a pre-COVID world where individuals did not have the same options as to where they could work and where they could go to I think people were taking advantage of a lot more but what I am happy about is now people have the option to leave and people have the option to work remotely and if you are in the middle of nowhere USA and all you have is an internet connection technically you can work for anybody in the world and same goes for somebody who's in the middle of nowhere in the rest of the world they can work for anybody in the USA or globally so I think that now businesses have to be better because there's so many options which is a great thing and it forces businesses to be better to operate better to be healthier to make the money required to support their staff and I think that now this is more of the norm where people are expecting the ability to go on sick leave go on maternity leave take time off I mean it's not like the model hasn't been proven we look at Europe people in Europe have whatever way more I don't even know like six weeks eight weeks vacation whatever it is full maternity leave so like you can build the business while still valuing the human but I think that for the longest time in the US we try to get as much out of people as possible with the lowest amount of cost spent on those people which I mean that's not a good thing but that was the reality for for a period of time and as businesses evolve and grow and as people understand that they have more options and they have access to other better opportunities and businesses have to evolve with that absolutely absolutely thank you I think this is a very good point to the people that are starting and the people that have been established I'm sure now they they know the reality as you mentioned that people have more options now you know so Chief I like what you mentioned earlier about how you liked the the idea about family you know that you do not like to see people just work work work they learn you know they learn how to work you know to grow as you know as an entrepreneur and then once they spend 10 years or whatever then they they've made it but they don't know how to get back to create a family so you know like what do you you know what do you think about that because I think that's one of the challenges that we have right all right so I think a lot of this I think a lot of this where people get lost on their journey meaning they start working hard and they progress in their company or they start a business and it's successful and they start to put in hours and they start to see returns on those hours and then they get lost because we don't actually teach a lot of useful things at a young age I don't think we teach people what skills are required to be successful I also don't think we set proper expectations as to the amount of energy and effort required to operate as a you know not just a 1% but like even like a 0.1% of the population where you see a CEO in a large corporation or an entrepreneur that built a billion dollar brand that's like 0.001 at this point right so I think that we don't do a good job in our formal education system as well as in our informal education system meaning the people that teach on YouTube about entrepreneurship about business we don't do a good job of setting expectations about what's required and I think that if we did a better job of setting expectations about what's required I think that people could properly understand what they're getting themselves into and not get lost along the way and I think that when people put everything into a company they know it's going to be hard work but they don't get how much work it's going to be and instead of planning for a period of your life where you can sort of decompress or allocate time to a family purposefully they just their personality gets worked because all they know is work and I don't think that's conducive to a healthy relationship if your partner is not on board I mean you can you can have a healthy relationship where you and your partner love work which is fine but I think that if if you're with somebody and you're starting something and they aren't aware of what it's going to take and you want to wear what it's going to take that leads to a lot of discord a lot of stress in the relationship and eventually that's going to cause relationships to break I mean it happens again and again again with CEOs on their third wife and they're you know the entrepreneurs like divorcing or not spending time with kids because they're working so hard so I think that the expectation has to be set I think both partners who are involved in that family unit have to understand what the other person's getting into they got to be okay with it because even if you don't want to be you know balls to the wall nonstop working for the rest of your life know that to create anything worth creating that's meaningful that's significant there's going to be a period of your life where it's going to be very hard so understand that be okay with that but then also have a plan for when you're going to stop that and when you're going to invest in your family and you're going to sort of build that time into your schedule because if not you can always find time to work more right like the work expands the time you give it and if you don't give family and spouse and children the time they require then work will fill those gaps so right now like I just mentioned what I'm doing in my life I'm actively working at carving a blocks of time in my life because I know that if I have a kid now I mean I can work from seven in the morning to midnight like I'll find stuff to do right so I have to find a way to not find stuff to do and that means that I'm purposely building a life that doesn't require me to work seven in the morning to midnight and my life even now I don't have to do it but it's a hobby it's a habit I enjoy it so I find ways to fill that time so I got to sort of like get in the right headspace so that I can be there and be present for a family and I think the people jump into entrepreneurship not understanding what's going on sort of become accustomed to this workload because that's what creates success and then that success is like this this drug that we that we we understand that the only way we got to where we're at is like putting in 12 hour days so how can we ever stop and it's it's not a healthy headspace to be in so we have to find a way to stop to to reprogram ourselves so that we're better suited to be present and to be there for our family and it's tough because entrepreneurship and high performers usually they operate in silos like usually the entrepreneur that builds the billion-dollar company I mean they're not coming from parents that built billion-dollar companies and they're not you know maybe they have some friends of course but not all their friends have built billion-dollar companies and not all their friends and and maybe the ones that they have out of all their friends maybe they haven't built a successful family so I think that it's important to sort of surround yourself with positive role models that see work and family in the way that you want to see it and then those are the people that are going to give you the best advice and those are the people that are going to call you out when you're spending time with your kids those are the best friends so I mean you could do a little of work yourself I think it's also important to surround yourself with people that are living the life you want to live not just financially not just via work or whatever but also with their spouse happy marriage happy partner happy kids while simultaneously performing at a certain level and achieving that success those are the people you have to include in your in your life so that those are the role models that you look to because if not then you're just trying to figure it out yourself unless you go through this thought process and exercise about how do I manage my work in my life it just good things don't happen by accident so if you don't take the time to think through it and to purposefully build a family and to set time aside I feel like unfortunately there's a chance it could just end in chaos and hurt hurt feelings and broken relationships and with with your spouse with your kids with everyone so I think that that's I mean I'm not a dad so I I hesitate to give all the advice in the world but I'm trying to give as much that makes sense absolutely I think you touch something very important and this is something that we can talk on you know in another time that or maybe even create a way to to advise folks I guess or maybe create a group of people that have gone through it because you see like for instance one of our mutual friend Jay Lee for instance he's been going through that and I think now they're expecting so I think one great thing my friend that I can advise you do your best to being there you know I know that you know you you've started this idea of creating the time this is perfect the next thing is also to make to intentionally be there like in terms of the appointments and stuff like this with your wife down the road you know you know just being there is the best thing you can do as a dad and and that's all that's already in your plans so I think you're you're the right foot my friend you know I appreciate you thank you so really we have touched a lot of things and here that puzzles we you know I think today we you you've given them so much value thank you I appreciate it I don't want to bore you with anything else my friend I think at that point you know this point maybe like you can say the best memory of the the fondest memory of your dad the fondest memory of my fondest memory of my dad yes my dad I I mean my dad's so alive thank god so it's not like it's not like the memories of it so far so far you know like you know like yeah yeah just hanging you know directing with him is up there's nothing uh yeah I think that I my dad supported almost every silly ridiculous thing I ever wanted to be involved in and I'm actually very blessed for that um I know that I'm I'm very very fortunate to have parents they were not only able to afford but like actually actively supported so like you know he was the one I played a lot of hockey again Canadian I played a lot of hockey growing up he was the one like you know weekend mornings driving me to the rank at God knows what time I was like half asleep and he was getting my ass at a bed so that we'd actually get to the practice or the game on time he'd be going to all the out of town tournaments but it wasn't just like sports I mean I'm sure that cost a fair amount but all the equipment and the and the fees and whatnot but then it was like I remember I wanted to learn how to play the drums and he'd found you'd find a pair of drums or whatever and and I was you know living at my parents I was playing drums and I can't imagine that was fun either listening to that shit and then like also all the times like even through all that when I was um you know growing up in high school and and you know and I mean we can drink a little bit younger in Canada so all times you know you show up home drunk and and he's just like oh you're an idiot Scott would ever go to bed like all those things like it's like the it truly is like the uh what's the what's the what's the word like um the the love but I mean like what's the I'm blanking on the word right now just like unconditional love the unconditional love and the absolute support in all the most ridiculous things that ever wanted to try right so that's like what I remember most I hopefully he listens to this one day I don't know he I think he listens to some of my stuff on youtube I have no idea if he listens to the podcast we'll see but maybe we'll send him this one yeah yeah so I have the connection in in Canada as well my wife is from Montreal so oh so she I mean yeah yeah for sure you know like if I knew your your your your your your where but so definitely you know like she I've seen for yeah well well now I'm in now I'm in Florida so now I'm in a much warmer spot but Montreal so Montreal is two hours from where I grew up in Ottawa we used to like you could go because Montreal I think yeah so Ottawa you could drink when you're I mean Canada outside of Quebec Montreal you could drink when you're 19 and then Quebec you could drink when you're 18 so we used to go on like like I mean we could walk across the bridge when we're 18 and grab the drink we used to go on like weekend trips to Montreal as well to go to clubs and whatnot when we're 18 so you're pretty young you're going on these trips but it was a lot of fun Montreal's a great city good food and Montreal to you but cold is hell in the winter the Montreal Canada the hot you know like the yeah the hockey team yeah yes yes yes awesome yeah chief it's been really a pleasure being with you today here and I really look forward to us touching base again down the road you know you know you know I hope to hear some some like great news soon and stuff against you know yes sir you will I appreciate you so much I appreciate your time today so guys you know please go ahead and you know how can people find you know like Scott you know what's the best way for them yeah I'm super easy to find so all of the social is the same it's at Scott the Clare so Scott the CLAR or Scott the Clare.com and you can find me there fantastic fantastic so thank you guys this will be posted you know like a new to pretty soon and you have the podcast to any of your you know the the podcast of your choice don't forget to give us five stars so that other you know other people can be able to see it you know you know you know like find it and stuff so they can gain all these valuable wisdom and knowledge from from our from our special guests thank you again boys thank you so much up here one second let me start here