Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / The Uncomfortable Truth About Building a Sustainable Fractional Business with Scott Abbott

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The Uncomfortable Truth About Building a Sustainable Fractional Business with Scott Abbott · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

0:00
Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
0:03
Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
0:06
I'm your host today, the founder and CEO of my lands.
0:09
I'm really excited to be joined by Scott Abbott.
0:11
Scott is a founder and CEO, a best selling author, coach,
0:16
investor, entrepreneur. Over the last 35 years, he
0:20
started, built and scaled companies across the world, has
0:23
conducted over 10,000 coaching sessions helping leaders and
0:27
teams strengthen their systems, alignment and performance.
0:29
His book, Boss Up Moments is a big deal in the space right now
0:34
about leadership, psychology and the soft skills into a modern
0:37
visual field guide for growth in business, work and life.
0:41
We'll get into what all of that means, but for now, Scott,
0:44
welcome to the show. Bradley, thank you so much.
0:47
I'll send the ship out the six packet of pizza for reading off
0:50
the bio as well as you did so now thanks man for having me.
0:53
Good to see you and appreciate being here.
0:56
You've done a lot of work across, you know, building
0:58
businesses and all those kinds of things.
0:59
And when you think about what separates you from, let's just
1:03
say, the other authors and other coaches in the world, I mean,
1:05
what makes you different? What helps you stand apart from
1:08
everybody else? You know, if we're all keeping
1:10
it, you know, real and, and matter of fact, I don't know if
1:14
that there's a lot of differences.
1:15
I I think, you know, there's phenomenal books and authors and
1:19
speakers and individuals in the world who have put a lot of
1:23
great content out there. So I think, you know, I always
1:25
kind of believe that there's the essential concepts, tools and
1:28
disciplines just like a business.
1:30
I think businesses I equated to to checkers, but you should
1:33
think like a chess player. So I think there's a lot of
1:36
commonalities, you know, the classics around vision and
1:39
teamwork and management alignment.
1:41
But what we really try to do at boss up and through our boss up
1:44
books and specifically boss up momentum, boss up moments is, is
1:48
to get it, you know, to make a utility to go from theoretical
1:52
and kind of that academic curriculum type perspective to
1:56
literally, you know, more of that classic roll up your shirt
1:59
sleeves and put it into the real world.
2:02
So everything we do, we try to define it and, and get it so it
2:06
can be tucked in, merged in and leveraged in a more transparent
2:11
and and tangible way to drive results.
2:13
And whether that's economic or achieving goals or just feeling
2:17
better in business working life. So I think our big emphasis is
2:20
to go from kind of theory and conceptual to utilitarian,
2:25
right, so that people can use it and do so hopefully with a
2:30
confidence and, and, and, and make sure that it is more, you
2:34
know, front and center than a lot of the other stuff that
2:36
might be out there. There's a little more long term
2:38
and theoretical. Yeah, I love just the
2:40
practicality, Right? Like the end of the day, we got
2:43
to get shit done, figure it out, build a business, pay the bills,
2:47
add value. You've coached thousands of
2:50
people. When you think about the
2:52
entrepreneurial journey, what do you see are the biggest things
2:56
that really prevent people from being successful or just having
3:01
to take a long time for them to be successful?
3:03
Well, I think it, it ties into what we just talked about.
3:05
I, I think it's often times I see an either or versus an end.
3:09
Both. I see especially with
3:11
entrepreneurs and startups, they've got a passion for the
3:14
product, the market, the culture, the vibe.
3:17
I get to tell buddies that I'm a startup guy, you know?
3:20
But at the same time we need, we need execution, we need
3:23
production, we need practicality to your point.
3:26
So I often think there's this inappropriate separation of
3:31
systems and soul and purpose and profit and and vision and
3:35
execution. I implore both the startup world
3:38
and, and even fractional people who are solopreneurs or on their
3:41
own. You got in bed, you know, sure,
3:44
head and heart, but you got to execute.
3:45
You got to produce, you got to make things simple.
3:48
You got to make things tangible and obviously we want to make
3:52
them real. So that's the biggest challenge
3:55
I see a lot in the world. And frankly, it's one of my
3:58
charters and passions is to help people learn how to do that
4:02
right, how to take the the goals and the attributes and all that
4:06
rah rah and make it real and tangible so they can actually
4:09
generate income, produce cash flow, pay their bills and live a
4:13
good life. When you talk about purpose and
4:16
profit, so many of us now are becoming more in touch with our
4:20
purpose and what are we really passionate about?
4:23
How do we want to impact the world, impact other people?
4:26
It's a beautiful thing. I think we have the luxury of
4:28
doing it more now than we ever did.
4:30
Just give it how easy it is to monetize your skill set or
4:33
whatever it is. But you, we have to make a
4:36
profit. We have to pay the bills.
4:37
And so I'm curious how you think about marrying the two.
4:40
And they're like, yes, I get to grow revenue and build a
4:43
profitable business, but I really want to embrace the
4:45
luxury of aligning with my purpose.
4:48
Like how do I do both of those things?
4:50
The only way I know how to do it because I failed a lot and I've
4:53
made a lot of dumb mistakes back in the.com area.
4:56
Raised about 15,000,000 in venture capital, bought a bunch
4:59
of companies and and like Warren Buffett said, even a Turkey can
5:04
fly in a tornado. And you know man, I did a lot of
5:07
cool stuff, but frankly and very honestly, I didn't really know
5:11
the difference between AP and L and ABLT.
5:14
So I think that experience coupled with, yeah, a lot of
5:17
coaching and businesses I've invested, run, started and
5:20
again, didn't do so well at is the concept of N both.
5:24
Yeah, you need values and vision and and you need to appreciate
5:29
the humans and and who they are and who they want to be.
5:32
But it's not contradictory. It's got to be corollary.
5:34
There's got to be a fusion and a harnessing of, again, good
5:39
systems, good structure, right? People in the right seats, as
5:42
Jim Collins famously stated Once Upon a time.
5:45
And those people have to have. I'm just going to go here, man,
5:47
measurables and they got to have objectives and key results and
5:51
those need to be reported even if it's yourself, right.
5:54
I often tell people that if you've got five seats in the
5:57
company, typically the the owner president that he got financed
6:01
and you got operations, you got sales, you got marketing.
6:04
Each one of those needs to be respected.
6:06
And so the importance of again, and both embracing what we call
6:11
the essential concepts, tools and disciplines, and we've
6:15
simplified all the things you need to do.
6:16
We call it the nine core competencies.
6:18
That basically is the correlation and the fusion of
6:21
vision and structure and process and, and, and how you meet and
6:25
discuss reporting. You follow me.
6:27
So make it simple. But a lot of times I think
6:29
startups and founders don't want to do the hard stuff or the
6:32
stuff they don't like. So that's what we try to help
6:35
people with is do the hard things.
6:37
Like that dude that just climbed the 101 foot building, right
6:39
when he finished, they asked him what's the inspiration to other
6:42
people. He said embrace the heart,
6:44
which, you know, we know David Goggins is famous for.
6:46
But, but I think a lot of times it's because people don't commit
6:49
to a good system that meets them where they're at, takes where
6:52
they want to go, and they've got to do the work they don't want
6:54
to do at the same time they do what they want to do.
6:57
Yeah, it sounds like if you don't have somebody holding you
7:01
accountable, whether or not it's like a Co founder or a coach or
7:04
advisor or whatever, it's easy to avoid the shit that you need
7:08
to be doing, right? Because it can be uncomfortable
7:12
or we wonder. It's just easier to avoid it,
7:14
frankly, right? So let's say you are just a one
7:17
person business or you're early on in your journey.
7:19
So maybe you have a small team and you have employees that
7:22
they're not exactly holding you accountable.
7:24
They're kind of looking at you to be the leader.
7:26
I mean, what should you do if you're in that situation?
7:30
Well, that's where I think you name your system and if you
7:33
don't and you can't afford, right, a lot of coaching and
7:36
consulting could be expensive and, and out of bounds for some
7:38
people due to cash flow and balance sheets.
7:41
I get it. But that's where a system comes
7:44
into play. And I'm just going to maybe talk
7:46
about our world boss up. You know, you can basically
7:48
download guidance and templates and frameworks for free.
7:53
And the idea is, is that if you do that, but you give it a name
7:55
and a brand because anything's important, needs a brand, it
7:58
needs a needs a theme, you need to personalize it, right?
8:01
And so you've got to have something in your life that
8:04
pushes your buttons, that hold you accountable and vice versa,
8:08
you do the same. So if you are going to be a, an
8:10
owner or founder, right, that means you've got fiduciary
8:12
responsibility. That means, I know it's a big
8:14
fancy word, governance, right, stewardship.
8:17
And that means that you need to, you know, do the dishes and
8:21
clean up and, and put things away and do the things that you
8:24
don't want to do. So I think the best way to do it
8:26
is even if you're a one person show, commit to a systemized way
8:31
and that means that you're going to do your accounting right the
8:34
way you should be doing it. You're going to do your
8:36
paperwork, your reporting and just by myself, yes, even more
8:39
important by yourself because it's so easy.
8:41
Look squirrel to get distracted and to hang out and in the fun
8:46
places. I get it.
8:47
But you know, it's also why they call it work and a job is
8:50
because not all of it's fun, but you got to do it anyhow.
8:53
Even if we have a, a business that is perfectly aligned with
8:57
our purpose, our mission, something we're incredibly
8:59
excited about, they're going to be things that we just don't
9:02
love doing right? And until we can hire people to
9:05
do them for us, we have to do them.
9:08
And it's just part of like. So is there any other tips
9:11
besides just do it? How do you hold yourself
9:14
accountable to doing or looking maybe at the things that you
9:18
might not enjoy looking at? Yeah, well, it's not high tech
9:21
and may not sound all that sexy, but it's called scheduling.
9:25
And commit to a a fairly flexible but rigorous schedule
9:29
that incorporates business, work and life.
9:31
And you know, again, if you're a running your company, you know,
9:34
that's not a nine to five job man.
9:36
That's that's a seven days a week, 18 hours.
9:39
And then second probably heard this little thing called AI.
9:41
And so you know, I've been in tech for 40 years for all the
9:45
popular terms and terminology were around.
9:47
I would say AI in my opinion, and I know there's good and bad
9:51
and people all have an opinion, but but for me right now, I have
9:55
a personal version of AI called Vector and vector and me are our
9:58
buddies. We're allies.
10:00
Vector's my copilot now. I don't let it lead me.
10:03
I own it. It it works for me.
10:05
Let's be very clear. I'm the boss BOSS with AI as
10:09
opposed to boss up, which is BOS for business operating
10:12
solutions. I think you've got to find
10:14
these, these opportunities to elevate and delegate time and
10:19
attendance to structure and scheduling and AI so you can
10:23
free yourself up, right? There's a famous concept
10:26
addition by subtraction. That's one.
10:29
And you've got to embrace the right concepts, tools and
10:32
disciplines and tools like AI tools like believe it or not,
10:35
scheduling your mobile device, but also know that at a certain
10:38
period of time, put it away and have a cup of coffee and have a
10:42
drink and listen to your friends and neighbors and your family.
10:45
So it's, it's not easy, man. If it's easy, everybody would do
10:48
it and we've all be bazillionaires.
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But but I would just hope and and suggest that again, we call
10:54
it the essential concepts, tools and disciplines.
10:56
Not too much, not too little. Find that groove.
10:58
Respect the power of good systems and harnessing moments.
11:03
Don't overthink things. Just find that groove and and it
11:06
takes time. It's a journey and and
11:08
hopefully, you know, people appreciate that the destination
11:10
is the journey and they enjoy even the hard stuff.
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And sooner or later, Bradley, this is what I do think is true.
11:16
It takes about 90 days, give or take the starter stop a good
11:18
habit. And once you start getting
11:20
there, right? I, I asked this of all people
11:22
that I talked with, try to think about the last time you did
11:26
something for the first time that was difficult and hard.
11:29
And you don't know if you really wanted to do it or should do it,
11:31
but you're doing it now. And it's easy because of what's
11:34
going on in the world. We have this desire for instant
11:36
gratification. There's very little outside of
11:38
popping in a chocolate or, you know, having a good drink or
11:41
some meal, right? It takes time.
11:43
So that's a big thing too, that I just say to everybody's
11:45
keeping it real, having the right perspective and having
11:48
good systems and tools and formulations around you just to
11:53
help you be as strong and as good as you can be.
11:56
I think there's a lost art in kind of what you just talked
12:00
about around delayed gratification destiny.
12:02
It's like you're right. And as AI and just social media
12:06
has gotten more just rampant, right, our attention spans are
12:10
lower and lower and lower. We never have to wait to get an
12:12
answer to something right? We can ask Chad CPT in two
12:14
seconds. And yet building a business is
12:18
never going to change, I don't think, right.
12:20
You might be able to spin up a product faster than you ever
12:23
could. Beautiful.
12:24
It's great. But it's still going to take
12:26
iteration and patience and feedback and learning and
12:30
patience and persistence and grit and getting knocked down
12:32
and all the things. It's, it's never going to
12:34
change. And so it's almost like as the
12:36
tools get fancier and faster and quicker, the value of
12:40
perseverance and like, I see you like, really agreeing with me.
12:43
I'm just gonna let you go. What do you think?
12:45
Totally, man. I mean, one of the moments of
12:46
the book is humanization. And I'm a tech.
12:48
I've been a tech guy for my entire career and, and I see the
12:52
the benefits. I've, I've also been through and
12:54
seen the challenges and the risks and what have you, right.
12:57
But counterintuitively, and this is what a lot of people just
13:00
don't get counterintuitively, to your point, the more well
13:04
systemized you are and structured and you're using AI
13:08
for, you know, the right reasons, right for for
13:10
additional critical thinking, efficiency on analysis,
13:14
assessments, design. I mean, the, the list is long,
13:16
right? And I don't, most of us aren't
13:18
using AI to build robots and agents and fly around and start
13:21
like that's, that's not our world.
13:23
It should be an an asset to enhance our productivity and,
13:27
and our ability to your point. And by doing that, you actually
13:30
free yourself up. This is what people don't get.
13:33
You free yourself up to work more on the human stuff, on the
13:37
grit, the determination. I work with a lot of business
13:40
owners, very successful ones, high alpha people, right?
13:43
And you know how many times, man, I've heard this, I can't
13:45
take care of myself because I'm too busy taking care of other
13:47
people. What a bunch of bullshit.
13:49
How can you take care of other people if because you're working
13:52
so hard, not smart, you end up screwing up yourself?
13:55
You get a stroke, you get mental health issues, right?
13:58
Your family starts to fall apart, you start taking on
14:01
stupid vices and doing dumb things.
14:03
And so a lot of people don't realize that actually being
14:07
intentional about yourself and working on your, your soft
14:10
skills, your EQ, your, your, your harmony, right?
14:13
That's not selfish, that's selfless.
14:17
And again, I don't trust myself at all that my natural
14:20
inclination is, look, a squirrel.
14:21
I procrastinate. I do a bunch of stupid rabbit
14:24
holes. And so without a commitment, I
14:27
even have tattoos. I'll fully admit it, that helped
14:29
me. I call those commitment devices.
14:31
And I'm not perfect. I make mistakes all the time.
14:33
But the more systemized you are, it's like football and
14:36
quarterbacks, the easier to just call an audible and get back in
14:39
the playbook. We talk a lot about systems and
14:42
I think about systems or anything from, you know an
14:46
automation that gets something done for me that I don't have to
14:48
think about to a structure of a how do I plan my day or time
14:53
blocking or whatever. When you think of systems from
14:56
the standpoint of what you were just talking about, that really
14:59
set you up for a long term sustainable success.
15:03
And I don't necessarily necessarily mean success as like
15:05
profit, right? Just success as in I'm happy,
15:08
I'm joyful, I'm fulfilled, I'm building in alignment, like
15:11
obviously good results are happening in my business.
15:13
What do you mean by systems? Like, can we really break this
15:16
down in a very tangible, easy way?
15:18
I think, you know, let's be honest and clear that today,
15:21
because of a lot of things going on in society, systems actually
15:24
have a bad rap. And I got to be very clear,
15:26
systems don't make bad systems. People make bad systems and you
15:30
know, out-of-the-box, right, there's a lot of frameworks and
15:33
templates and quote UN quote systems, but they're inanimate.
15:36
They're flawed because they're generic until you make it yours
15:39
and you tailor it to your specific needs.
15:41
And I say that because in our world, our primary focus is on
15:45
business operating systems. Now we, we use the word solution
15:48
because we provide the assets, the resources, the support to
15:51
turn a system into a solution, right?
15:53
I just don't want a system that's a system I needed to
15:56
generate a solution AKA has to have a result.
15:59
It has to compel me. I have to be happy right.
16:03
Regardless of that I don't need a system just for a system.
16:06
And so yeah, it's really more around embracing and
16:10
appreciating that while that Nike ad just do it might work
16:14
out for some workouts and I'd caution after you get over 40
16:17
like me, be careful of just doing it.
16:19
Pull a hamstring and next thing you know you're right get ready
16:23
to to get in shape and and you screw up so badly it takes you 3
16:26
months to recover. You know, I come from a family
16:30
of engineers and I used to just downplay mechanics and
16:33
engineering and rigor. But think about our world man.
16:36
Think about everything in our life and what we do.
16:39
If it didn't have a system that it relied on to ensure that the
16:43
planes are flying and the ambulance gets to the the
16:47
hospital and the surgery goes well, it's a one word, but it
16:50
carries a lot of challenges and opportunities.
16:53
But it's just this insistence. I use that intentionally,
16:56
especially for entrepreneurs and fractional people.
16:59
And people may not have that classic boss reporting and
17:01
you're on your own without that kind of structure.
17:05
I don't trust myself and I know who I am that without that kind
17:09
of big brotherness, if you will, you know, I might veer off and
17:12
next thing you know, I'm taking a turn I shouldn't take or start
17:16
doing something I shouldn't be doing.
17:18
So that's really the the point of a system.
17:21
And you have them in your life, you have them at work, you have
17:23
them in your in your department, right?
17:25
So you have macro and micro, but it's really to get your head
17:28
around the fact that humans are just better being and getting
17:32
successful if they complement themselves with with systems and
17:35
structured ways to get things done.
17:38
Structured ways to get things done.
17:39
Maybe that's like the best way to capture it over the end of
17:43
the day. We have to get shit done.
17:46
We can talk all day, we can philosophize, we can strategize,
17:50
but shit needs to get done. And how can I create a system
17:53
where no matter how I'm feeling, such a big one for me, however
17:57
I'm feeling in a given day, I have a system to get what needs
18:01
to get? Done well and for you feelers
18:03
out there, and I'm a feeler too, right?
18:04
You want to go from feeling to thinking, from thinking to
18:07
doing, and from doing to getting done, right?
18:11
And by the way, your system should also encourage people to
18:14
listen to your podcast and to smell the proverbial roses,
18:18
right? To enjoy the journey.
18:20
As I said earlier, the destination is the journey.
18:23
So let's be clear. I'm not talking about, you know,
18:25
systems that are, you know, metallic and have no taste,
18:29
touch or tone. That's rubbish too, right?
18:32
But you got to find the again, that back to purpose and profit
18:35
systems and soul, right? Vision and and income.
18:39
They should go together like milk and cookies and peanut
18:41
butter and Jelly, man. And too many people think
18:44
they're contrarian. And with all due respect,
18:45
whoever thinks that, give me a call.
18:47
Let's talk, because I'll arm wrestle you till the cows come
18:50
home. What would you say to them?
18:52
Stop, right? We have a, a framework inside of
18:56
Boston called clear and, and we believe that if you start your
19:01
meetings, especially ones that involve some rigor, that have to
19:04
deal with conflict and challenges and frustrations.
19:07
But if you put clear as the, as the guardrails and the bylaws,
19:10
if you will, and clear is the word itself.
19:12
We seek clarity. And unless we're clear, we're a
19:15
little bit fuzzy, right? Just like the famous, you know,
19:18
a few good men. Are we clear?
19:20
Crystal, Right. You know, you could be Tom
19:22
Cruise, I'll be Jack Nicholson, whatever.
19:24
But then CLEAR is also an acronym.
19:27
And the C stands for collaborative.
19:29
The LS logical, the E is empathetic, the A is authentic,
19:35
and the R is resilient. And if you challenge yourself,
19:39
you say, hey, we're going to stick to being collaborative,
19:41
right, logical, We're not just going to let theory right
19:44
empathetic, authentic and resilient, meaning we're going
19:46
to stay away from being overly fragile.
19:48
You'd be amazed. Just that commitment right
19:50
there, man. And I call them agreement based
19:52
commitments. That alone is going to give you
19:54
a 20 to 30% more likelihood for success and a call BS on the
19:58
other person if they're avoiding or not following those those
20:02
rules. You with me?
20:03
So you got to have some fun with the stuff, I think.
20:05
I think if you just go through, that's the drudgery or whatever.
20:09
But yeah, I would just challenge people to to be clear with me.
20:12
And as a coach, one of my favorite moments is coachable.
20:15
You can be amazed, man. I get a lot of people who who
20:18
say they want me in their life, but then they realize that one
20:21
of the opening lines I always love to use.
20:22
How you doing today? You want to pat in the back and
20:24
kick in the shorts or a little bit of both?
20:26
If they're not willing to go a little bit of both, then they're
20:29
probably not really able to get from here to there.
20:31
And that's sad because some people just don't know how to
20:34
check their ego. They don't know how to overcome
20:35
their natural, you know, tendencies and and they're not
20:38
coachable. And that happens.
20:40
I I think most are and wannabe. They just haven't necessarily
20:44
experienced it the right way. So they don't know any better.
20:47
So they jump to some conclusions and say, Ah, Nah, he can't do
20:49
it. And when people go like this and
20:51
they want to get they want they want to fight me and I'm like,
20:53
all right, can I just have a little bit of opportunity here
20:56
to back and forth and pickleball this thing.
20:58
And you know, that's what's also the problem a little bit in
21:00
society today, you know, right. We have a lot of echo chambers.
21:03
We have a lot of people shut down, people having opinions one
21:05
side of the street, the other. And back to why moments, I think
21:08
is resonating so well. It's a lot about the soft
21:11
skills. How do we overcome conflict?
21:13
How do we set good boundaries? How do we channel our energy?
21:16
How do we embrace courage, right?
21:18
Some of the soft stuff that a lot of people think is too soft
21:22
for the work world. And no man, you know, us humans,
21:25
this whole, you know, it's not personal, it's business.
21:27
That's rubbish because because we're people.
21:30
The person who says they're coachable and then they're not,
21:34
really what's going on there? You know, what's going on is,
21:38
you know, this thing called ego and one of our things is EQ to
21:42
IQ ratio. So I, I think what happens a lot
21:46
that personalizes a little bit, you know, people connect with me
21:49
because just kind of like, you know, I'm though David Goggins
21:52
or Jocko Willink or Brené Brown or what have you.
21:55
But but they'll have this thought that says, Hey, if I
21:57
hook up and I do it the way you said I'm going to, I'm going to
21:59
get there. Well, but it takes 2 to tango.
22:02
And if they're not willing to, to go there to be challenged, to
22:06
be coached, look at the reflection in the mirror, not
22:09
yell at the mirror. I mean, all of these kind of
22:10
important concepts, I hate to say that it's a lost cause.
22:15
You know, I believe in redemption.
22:16
I believe that people can, even older people can learn and
22:21
coalesce and acquiesce and come along.
22:23
But there's a small percentage who talk a good game and say
22:27
they want to do something, but in reality, they don't.
22:30
And they say they want to do it for various reasons.
22:32
The investors want them to get coached.
22:33
Their neighbor and their buddy and their friend says go do it.
22:37
But you know, if they're just sticking their heels to the
22:39
ground and rolling their eyes at you and they're just saying no,
22:41
no, no. And it's amazing, man.
22:43
I've seen owners and leaders of companies that are very
22:46
successful that in spite of themselves.
22:48
But you know what? The world is changing
22:49
drastically with AI. For an example, I think you
22:52
might have been able to get away with some bad behavior and some
22:56
questionable principles and, and theories up until recently.
23:02
But again, back to the good and bad of AI.
23:04
It's exposing a lot of things that even good computer systems
23:08
from days gone and the Internet when it first came out, that's
23:11
certainly elevated it from data information, information to
23:15
knowledge. But now we're at that fourth
23:17
level and that's wisdom. And AI is able to bring this
23:21
wisdom and insight that you know, was way too inaccessible
23:24
and expensive to get before. So even if those people had
23:28
gotten away with bad behavior and not being coachable and
23:30
willing to look in the mirror and and move up, move in, I
23:34
think they're either selling today.
23:36
That's why the concept of entrepreneurship through
23:38
acquisitions hot. We don't have time to go into a
23:40
lot of these things. But the good news is I do think
23:42
we're evolving to a more appreciative recognition of the
23:46
importance of coaching and getting coached and to being,
23:48
again, clear, collaborative, logical, empathetic, authentic
23:52
and resilient. In a world where AI makes it
23:57
easier than ever either to bring your service to market, right?
24:01
I can spin up a website with loveable in 10 seconds and it's
24:04
amazing. I can throw it on LinkedIn.
24:05
I can start being a coach, right?
24:07
That's in used to exist, or I can use it to actually build
24:10
some sort of SAS tool, software tool.
24:12
It can work on marketplace, whatever it is, It's easier than
24:14
ever. There's more products and
24:16
services out there, People going out on their own.
24:18
What's going to be the most important skill set for these
24:23
people, all these people that are spinning up these businesses
24:27
to actually have success? It's all.
24:29
It's harder than we all think. We're still going on the journey
24:32
anyway because it's flexible and fulfilling and we all want to be
24:35
our own bosses and all that. What skill set do I need?
24:38
Well, excuse the the little plug here, but here's the good news
24:42
for all of us humans, and it's one of my favorites inside the
24:46
book, if you could see it, humanization.
24:48
So, you know, I thought this back in the.com era and the
24:51
Internet and systems and Wans and lands in the cloud, right?
24:54
All this was going to dehumanize people.
24:57
And it's true. We got a lot of efficiencies of
24:59
scale and it's amazing what technology's done.
25:03
And I truly believe this about AI.
25:05
Now, are we going to have a redefined workforce and job
25:09
functions and a whole host of things?
25:11
Yes. Will there be, I hate to use
25:14
this silly term, but a right sizing of employments.
25:17
And yes, for those out there, by the way, the next decade is
25:20
going to be great for trades. If you're an HVAC, construction,
25:23
plumbing, roofing, infrastructure, recalibration,
25:28
rock'n'roll, it's going to be a phenomenal era and great
25:30
paychecks and a lot of people sitting behind desks processing
25:33
data. You may be gone, but now you'll
25:35
put your hands and do some really cool things in the world.
25:38
But but I do think that AI frankly, is driving the need for
25:43
better humans and those humans that know how to
25:47
compartmentalize, sorry for that big word, but but those humans
25:52
that know how to compartmentalize, again, back to
25:55
the 9 core competencies and how to build, run and scale.
25:57
And I don't think building run and scale in a business is that
25:59
complicated. Again, I think it's checkers.
26:02
But we should think like chess players.
26:03
So those humans who know how to come in and walk the talk, fuse
26:08
the all this, you know, stuff and do so in a clear, simple,
26:13
effective, fun way are, are going to be in demand, man, that
26:18
ain't going away. So the total pool may be
26:21
smaller, but in that pool right now, if you got your act
26:25
together, if you commit to getting yourself organized and
26:29
and embracing good systems and the right structure, left brain,
26:33
right brain, head and heart and again, purpose and profit and
26:36
you got your act together and your ducks in a row.
26:38
I think it's going to be a phenomenal future.
26:41
I really do. But for those that think you can
26:44
separate the two and you know it's not a combo meal, you're
26:48
going to not only miss the boat, you're going to be left left
26:51
behind big time. It makes me nervous, frankly,
26:55
All the stuff I see and you know, everyone's got a different
26:58
feed. My feed's all about
26:59
entrepreneurship and AI, and you know how quickly it is to spin
27:03
things up and get to 100 KMRR, you know, whatever I mean, it
27:08
just feels like it's missing this entire element.
27:12
It is and I'm sorry to jump in right now.
27:13
This is your uncle Scott calling so I'm involved with a lot of
27:16
startups. I'm a venture capitalist myself.
27:19
I put more money than I care to tell you right now and I'm I'm
27:21
still frustrated. I'm frustrated that too many
27:24
people aren't seeing the handwriting on the wall that you
27:26
ready and I'm going to get a lot of Flack for this depending on
27:29
who all list of this technology is the commodity AI is actually
27:33
a commodity. And so if you're enamoured by my
27:37
golly Gee williker tech platform and if you're enamored by, you
27:42
know driving Unicorn SAS rule of 40 XYZ statuses and you're
27:47
enamored by all this other stuff, good luck because the
27:51
world doesn't need 45 variants of what you're enamored by.
27:55
And if you think you're the smartest bloke in town yeah,
27:58
certainly at the end of the day, the the metas will come out and
28:02
the Amazons will come out. But those are you know, even a
28:05
blind squirrel can find an acorn man.
28:07
Those are those are the exception down to basis points,
28:11
not even percentage points. Cash flow, profit, working life,
28:18
get your hands dirty, find a career.
28:21
You know, I was hired after after my successful failure and
28:26
overly hyped.com experience. I was a entrepreneur of the
28:30
year, Ernst and Young, and won awards and had a bunch of, you
28:32
know, I went from making a lot of money to lose the half
28:35
million bucks a month, that whole stupid.com era, boom,
28:38
bust, crash. And then I was hired by a small
28:40
$32 billion company to be their intrapreneur.
28:43
And Bradley, I got to tell you, I had a blast, man.
28:46
I loved it. And So what I tell to a lot of
28:48
young people is, is look at the old man's Oldsmobile shop, if
28:52
you know what I'm saying, right? Walk in there and bring in a new
28:54
set of perspectives and button up or button down the systems
28:58
and and recalibrate your people so that they're learning and
29:02
doing what they need to do, not just the exit knows what the job
29:05
says to do. You follow me.
29:06
So entrepreneurship through acquisitions, a hot topic right
29:09
now. There's more dry powder in the
29:11
world than ever before, but it's you ready.
29:12
It's not going into venture capital, family offices, PE
29:15
firms. They're coming in now and
29:17
saying, hey, I want enterprise value.
29:19
I just don't want exit value. I want a business that can, that
29:23
can stand the test time. Sure, I might decide to sell it,
29:25
right. But if you don't have an
29:26
appreciation for EBIT, not just EBITDA, which is, you know, the
29:31
vernacular of choice for SAS companies.
29:34
What I mean by that is cash flow, right, APNLA balance sheet
29:38
and income statement. And again, whether you're
29:40
solopreneur, small, big or whatever, those those real world
29:44
tangibles are key. Having a positively pragmatic,
29:49
neither a cynic nor Optimus B nowhere and how you should
29:52
comport yourself is key. And I go back to those that are
29:55
worried in tech. Yeah, maybe you shouldn't go
29:57
start that company, but you should take your heart, your
29:59
head, your your desires and join up with somebody else.
30:03
Be smart about it. Look at Kurt Signetti and IU,
30:06
right? 120 something years of being the
30:08
losing this program, the losing this program within two years,
30:13
$16.00 national champions if you ask me, look at what he did
30:17
right? He figured out how to have the
30:18
right leadership and alignment and, and organizational
30:21
structure. And he, he basically asked her,
30:24
he's ACEO. He doesn't even think of himself
30:26
as a coach really. So again, I would just implore
30:29
everybody take that passion, that vim, that vigor of an
30:32
entrepreneur or a founder or all the things you think are sexy
30:35
and cool. And yeah, if you've got an idea,
30:38
you've got a product, you got a service that you can spin up and
30:41
get to the ACVTCVMRRS that you want.
30:46
If not, you know, check your ego and and find some place that you
30:51
can come along in and maybe to to scratch that entrepreneurial
30:55
ish back to being on the show, still hang out and start up
30:57
land. But but you know, man, I got to
30:59
tell you this. I'm not going to out too many
31:00
people. I've been a half a dozen start
31:02
up events in the last year or so.
31:05
And I simply have one question. When do you stop being a start
31:08
up? Because I could tell you, I seen
31:10
some of those faces that were there 10 years ago.
31:13
So a start up, is it an attitude?
31:15
Is it a mindset? Because it's if it's just
31:18
longevity, you've been in this room for 10 years.
31:22
You just want to live your whole life in this grind because you
31:25
know it's what all the cool kids do.
31:27
Or do you want to build something that could be sold?
31:29
Yes, exited. Yes.
31:31
And maybe the definition of success is just I'm making 150
31:34
grand a top line. I've only got about 50K in
31:37
expenses, right? Life is good, you follow me.
31:40
So recalibrate your expectations and what you think you should be
31:44
doing in a more realistic. And that's where even AI comes
31:47
in again today, there's no excuses.
31:49
And you know my average AI project, sincerely, I'll circle
31:54
the wagons to use the expression 8 or 10 times till I say I'm
31:57
done. I never let it start.
31:58
I certainly never let it finish, but I'll take a concept, I'll
32:02
take a desire, I'll take an assessment and I'll filter it on
32:05
average 6 to 10 times. So I say, OK, I'm good. 90%
32:09
data, 10% gut intuition, Spidey senses, let's go.
32:14
So if people do that and I think they're going to find, believe
32:16
it or not, long term, more, more happiness.
32:19
It may not be the ideal. I get it.
32:21
But you know, welcome to 2026. I really just want to double
32:24
click on when you talk about maybe you get to 150 K top line
32:28
and 50K expenses. So, you know, you take home some
32:31
money and you can live a good life.
32:33
And if you align it with purpose, then you're living a
32:37
really good life, right? Because you are ideally
32:40
fulfilled in that work. You're adding value, you have
32:42
enough money to support you and your family and things like
32:44
that. And what it takes from what, you
32:46
know, back to our earlier conversation is kind of getting
32:50
out of the rat race of the ego of like, I need to build this
32:53
big thing, right? It really does celebrate the
32:57
like, what really matters to me, and everyone has a different
33:01
answer to that and that's great. But if you can really focus on
33:03
that and kind of separate yourself from the what are my
33:07
friends doing, what looks good on LinkedIn or in the news or
33:10
social media or whatever, what do I actually want?
33:13
Top of your show is fractional, right?
33:14
So I, I tell you, just the last week I've met with half dozen
33:17
founders or wannabe founders. Where are you going?
33:20
What do you want to do? And the first thing I want to
33:22
talk about is hiring people. I'm like, look, I want everybody
33:25
to be employed. I want everybody to have gainful
33:27
employment and income, but to just say I'm hiring employees
33:30
without doing the math and the science and the engineering and
33:34
the validation. I said, I guarantee I'll pull
33:36
vector up right now and I'll run, I'll run your scenarios.
33:39
I'll I'll put all the parameters in.
33:41
It's going to tell you no, that's silly.
33:43
Go at a minimum work with some fractional people, keep them off
33:46
balance sheet. Even the most successful
33:47
companies, I believe in kind of A65703025 split between 1099 and
33:53
W twos. Why you can adjust, right?
33:55
The fractional people we know we have a deal.
33:58
The deal is I don't have a guaranteed check every week,
34:01
every month. I got to go out and do.
34:04
And so, you know, there's something to be said about that,
34:06
that grace and that grit that comes together.
34:07
So yeah, I think, and then I've got, I've got a buddy who's semi
34:11
retired right now and he's doing fractional consulting.
34:14
He's one of our coaches. He's doing consulting and
34:16
coaching, you know, making a, you know, buck 50, you know,
34:19
something a year, right? But he's still for cash flow and
34:23
fund. Him and his wife started working
34:25
at a club that they have their RV at and they work the bar
34:30
dining area for three hours, two days a week.
34:33
And it's, you know, they're meeting people, they're
34:35
generating a little cat and they need someone up to say, hey,
34:38
man, I'm not, I enjoy it. It's a little cash in my pocket.
34:40
So I see this too. By the way, if you're in the gig
34:42
economy and you've sided to be a contractor who says you can't
34:46
have two or three contracts, you know, it's not about working
34:49
hard, it's about working smart and back to AI, right?
34:53
And so again, you know, 75 K here, 25 K there.
34:57
I had a company, I start with IBM back in the day and our
34:59
average is a SAS company. Our average client only
35:03
generated about 345 bucks a month, but we had about 5000
35:06
companies, and our overhead was low.
35:09
And it was a great little business, right?
35:11
And one of our lines was shavings makes piles, right?
35:14
And so to some big people, like, that's inconsequential.
35:17
Yeah. But but when you put it all out
35:19
there, right? So again, brains over brown,
35:23
mind over matter and get over yourself and just find that
35:26
right groove. And by the way, you know,
35:29
progress over perfection. If anybody tells you they got it
35:32
all figured out, they're wrong. They're full of baloney.
35:35
So just do your best. And again, I, I would just say
35:37
as a, as a, as a parent to dad at this stage of my career, I
35:41
see this a lot too. Hey, I want to go save the
35:43
whales or protect the ocean. Well, it's hard to do that if
35:46
you can't put gas in your car to get to the coast.
35:49
You follow me. You know, sometimes you just got
35:51
to do what you got to do. Doesn't mean that's permanent.
35:53
Doesn't mean that's a, you know, as they say, success isn't
35:57
permanent, failure isn't fatal. But again, back to systems and
36:00
planning and, and the fusion of purpose and profit.
36:03
If you just keep that in your, in your matrix, if you will,
36:06
chances are things are just going to be that much easier.
36:09
You know, we're not removing the difficulty and ultimately you're
36:13
going to be more comfortable and confident.
36:15
We get to wrap up in a few minutes here.
36:17
If somebody wants to work with you, get your book, talk to you.
36:21
I mean one, how do you work with people?
36:23
I know you're you're a coach and also an investor, but how do you
36:26
primarily work with people? Where can people find you?
36:29
Yeah, so very simple, you know, I'm a 50 something year old
36:32
millennial or Jet or whatever. I'm pretty active on Instagram
36:36
and I used to be pretty active on X2, but I've downsized that.
36:40
But Scott Abbott, ABC, ABC stands for architect, builder,
36:43
custodian. That's kind of my, my, my
36:46
mantra. So Scott Abbott, ABC and
36:48
Instagram, LinkedIn is the same. All my interwebs X and books are
36:52
available on Amazon. Boss up is the is the blue book.
36:57
This is basically the the formula, the template, the
37:00
framework to help companies build the great business
37:02
operating solution along with AI and coaching.
37:05
Not just coaching that you can bring in from outside, but
37:08
helping you become a coach. Even if you're an owner and a
37:10
leader, you should think like a coach and have a coach's
37:12
mindset. And then moments, as we said
37:14
earlier, just came out a couple months ago, pretty pretty much
37:17
rockin. This is also being used for
37:18
learning and development. Both those are available on
37:21
Amazon. And then last but not least, if
37:23
you are interested in either becoming a coach, looking into
37:26
it. We're we're bringing on coaches
37:28
all over the world. Go to boss hyphen up dot Academy
37:33
and you'll find all the information about us.
37:35
And if you actually want to use and work with the boss up coach,
37:37
same destination, just boss up dot coach or dot work, you know,
37:41
So we're out there in these these interwebs.
37:43
Thanks for asking all. Right, amazing.
37:45
We'll add the links to the show notes so people can easily find
37:47
you and access Instagram and LinkedIn, all that.
37:50
So, any final words that you'd like to leave our audience with?
37:53
Yeah, You know, Bradley, given your focus and your show, and
37:56
again, I want to thank you for having me on and for doing what
37:59
you do. I know this is a I had a podcast
38:01
once, right? It's it's a labor of love and,
38:03
and sometimes that word love may be suspect.
38:06
So I I get it, but I do appreciate that your purpose and
38:09
your reasons for doing this and and your why.
38:12
Thank you for that. I just again, I'm, you know,
38:16
sometimes people have used that expression to a hammer.
38:18
Everything looks like a nail. And to me, if if you don't have
38:21
good systems and you know, inside of good systems is good
38:26
structure and alignment and appreciation of roles,
38:29
accountabilities, responsibilities and setting
38:32
SMART goals that can be validated through good meetings.
38:35
You follow me some stuff that a lot of these, a lot of people
38:38
kind of roll their eyes at me and say whatever, old man, I'm
38:41
like, yeah, well, you know, if, if I would have known then what
38:44
I know now, I wouldn't be on the podcast because I'd be a
38:47
billionaire on my own island. So, you know, I get the whole
38:50
theory that you got to fail and make mistakes because that's
38:52
part of it. But there's nothing wrong with
38:54
minimizing your failures and your mistakes.
38:58
So just get your head around systemization, get your head
39:02
around again, purpose and profit, vision and production.
39:06
Get your head around practicalities and and is it a
39:09
utility, right? And and don't get enamored by,
39:13
you know, again, some of the other podcasts are out there
39:15
piping start up grind and Unicorn status.
39:20
Yeah, it could happen. But it in my opinion, it's a
39:23
little bit like playing the lottery.
39:24
Chances are it won't. So it's OK to have a a good job,
39:29
a solid career, fuse intrapreneurship with
39:33
entrepreneurship, work with other companies to bring your
39:36
gifts and your talents to them and just make peace with this
39:41
balance, this harmony, this fusion of career and life.
39:45
And I think if you do that, that's a take away.
39:47
Hopefully that can be helpful. Amazing, I love it.
39:50
Thank you so much Scott for your time, expertise, energy with us
39:54
means a lot and guests like you make this make this show really
39:57
great. Thanks, Bradley.
39:58
Appreciate you. Thanks everybody.