Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - From an NYU Dorm Room to a Billion Dollar Company | Liz Elting - TransPerfect Co-Founder & WSJ Bestselling Author

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Lessons - From an NYU Dorm Room to a Billion Dollar Company | Liz Elting - TransPerfect Co-Founder & WSJ Bestselling Author · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  In this lessons episode, explore what it takes to build a business that scales through empowered
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  teams and long-term vision. Discover how creating ownership drives entrepreneurial performance,
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  understand why sustained sacrifice is often required in the early stages of growth,
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  and uncover how thinking bigger can shape clearer goals and greater success.
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  Speak to me about your growth strategy because I've never heard of a growth strategy like yours
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  outside of a franchise model, I guess. I don't know if that's the best way to describe it,
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  but you would air drop people into cities and they were successful. So I want to understand
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  how you grew this business because that is a wild strategy to me that you would put somebody on
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  their own and they would actually do okay, basically selling those services into a whole new market.
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  Yes, and initially in the early years, I mean the very early years, the first maybe three years,
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  we're doing it all from New York, and then without, okay, to become a global company, we need to
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  start having these satellite offices and also clients want that local presence. So it's in their
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  best interest too. So I remember we started with San Francisco just to kind of give a tangible
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  example. And basically what we said to the person leading that office and we do the
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  switch every offices, okay, you need to sell $50,000 a month for three consecutive months and then
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  you can bring in a second person. And then the two of you need to sell $120,000 for three consecutive
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  months and then you can bring in a third person. You need to sell $190,000 for three consecutive
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  months and so on. And that's how we paid for it. And we did a very low cost model. Because as I said,
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  these were one person offices and they were in executive suite situations where which were the most
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  cost effective way to go. And as a result, the rent was very low, one or two person offices starting
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  with one person, but they had the revenue goals and they were very incentivized because they didn't
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  want to work alone. They wanted to have their own company under that. It was an entrepreneurial
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  situation and we paid them like entrepreneurs whereby when their revenue went up, they made a lot
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  more. So they had a low draw but a high upside. So the goal was to pay as low a draw as they were
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  comfortable with, but then make it so they had a high upside and they would make more than they
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  would anywhere else in the industry and they would really feel like an entrepreneur. And we made it
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  so they had a commission that didn't sunset. I mean, if you I can elaborate on that if you want.
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  No, I think it's smart too. The reason why I think it's really interesting to go into this model
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  is because you speak a lot about the employees have to feel like owners. But I feel that very few
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  people accomplish that effectively. I think there's a couple of issues that present themselves.
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  Number one, you're not paying them a lot so they don't care about the business. Number two,
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  if you're trying to do a low draw and high commission, then you have to find the right people that
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  are very self-sufficient, self-motivated are confident in their own abilities. And I feel like
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  that's a very hard profile to find and obviously you've perfected how to find that person. But
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  the strategy that you deployed, I think a lot of business owners founders would love to deploy,
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  but it's the people problem that they have an issue with and they can never solve for it.
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  No, you're right. And it is the hardest part. That is the key to having a successful business, right?
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  Finding and hiring and developing and retaining the right people. And often it's some of
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  it's not developing. It's just they are the right people when they come in and they have what they
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  need. They have the threshold level of qualities they need. But related to what you're asking is
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  I think it helps if you hire people who are young who don't who aren't married, who don't have
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  families that they need to support who are used to living higher risk. They're okay. They'll take
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  the risk. They'll make less if they're not successful, but they're looking to make more than they
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  could ever make. So they don't need the security. They're willing to take the risk because they know
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  they want to feel like entrepreneurs or be entrepreneurs within our company or within a company.
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  And that's the situation you can provide. The other thing you can do over time is fan some stock
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  or I guess they're, you know, employee, I mean, ESOPs. But I mean, fan some stock is another way to
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  do it without actually giving away equity and basing that stock on the revenue and the profit
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  of the company. But I think for us, the key was finding like-minded people who really wanted to
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  build something big and create a 100 person office or a 200 person office and then be managing
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  people outside of their office in other cities or countries in our company. And that's precisely
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  what we did. A quote from you, very entrepreneurial quote, work today like no one else will so you
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  can live and give tomorrow like no one else can. What does that quote mean? Yes. And I mean, that's
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  really, and I putting in the hours and sacrificing and I, you know, it's not what people want to
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  hear, right? A few people want to hear. There's a way to be a mega success without doing that. But
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  every company I can think of and I read about and I learn about who's created huge companies,
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  billion dollar companies or even, you know, successful companies that are not that like,
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  have put in a lot of hours and given up some things in the early years to create
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  the infrastructure that they want and the right sales team. I mean, I've talked a lot about
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  sales. I think the right sales solution is critical because you can't do it alone at the entrepreneur
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  cannot be that the salesperson for the company or even the most important salesperson or the head
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  person as a salesperson. I mean, ultimately you have to have a well oiled machine. But in order
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  to create that, you have to put in the hours over a sustained period of time. But the today is not,
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  you know, forever in that quote, I mean, I hear of entrepreneurs who sell incredibly successful
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  companies after five years, seven years, 10 years. I mean, in my case, I did it for 26 years,
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  but it got a lot better after those early years. But it relates to the first million or the first five
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  million is by far the toughest. In the early years, you have to give it more than anyone else,
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  you have to work out work anyone else, you have to be available when no one else is. And that
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  really leads to a well oiled machine and success at the highest level. And it's exciting and
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  interesting because if you choose the right path with the right passion, a passion that can make
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  money and you work with amazing people, it can be fun and exciting for all of you. So it's really a
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  great way to go. Do you ever, I mean, I obviously, you sacrifice throughout your career. But when did
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  you feel like you didn't have to sacrifice as much in terms of your time, your energy, your life?
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  When was that point in your career journey when it was, it was always hard work, but it became
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  something that was more sustainable long term, or has it has the entirety of it always been like
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  balls to the wall, like non-stop hustle, hustle, and I don't think that's the case. But when was that
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  point? Got easier, right? I mean, it definitely got, you know, the first few years were 120 hours a
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  week. And then, you know, I would say about 10 years into it, it got more like 80 hours a week. I
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  mean, you know, the answer is I think when it's your own and you're working with, you know, no
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  funding and you're completely responsible. And when you're in the CEO, even when you have funding,
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  even when it's a public company, I think ultimately it's hard to let go. But I think it got a lot
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  better after eight or 10 years. And then maybe it got even a lot better as far as hours after about
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  15 years. But, you know, I think you never really let go until, you know, you say goodbye. And so,
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  and that's okay, because as I say, it's very exciting. But, you know, in the early years, I mean,
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  I think the important thing is you can, you can. It's maybe multiple phases. And I guess I
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  mentioned what they are. And, you know, it's fun and exciting and interesting, but hard work, but
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  it's only work if you'd rather be doing something else. Yeah, that's true. I think I think that's
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  one thing, you know, I've had this debate about hustle culture and I don't love hustle culture,
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  but I don't hate it either. I think that it has a place. But I think that the issue is people don't
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  understand what they're getting into. And they also don't have an end goal in mind. So they start
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  to build something and then it takes over their life and then it jeopardizes relationships.
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  And I do believe that for a period of any successful person's life, there is an unorthodox
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  amount of energy targeted towards one thing that they're trying to build. But I also think
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  that there has to be at one point at exit so that life, if that is what the person wants,
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  life can be more holistic and you can spend more time with your spouse and your kids and whatnot.
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  But it does for a period, a season of your life, it does take this insane amount of energy and
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  effort. And I think people have to be okay with that, but they have to be aware of it first,
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  because they don't think people are even aware of what that means when they build something from
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  scratch. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Scott, I agree. And I think we all learn over time.
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  This is not sustainable. We need a work like that. We certainly learned with our employees,
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  we couldn't hire people and just pay them more and pay them more and expect them to work 80 hours
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  a week. That nobody wants that or certainly nobody wants it long term. And I think you realize
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  the same thing yourself as an entrepreneur. And that's why, yes, it gets a lot better for us,
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  as I said, it was after about eight or 10 years. And then I even a lot better than that after about
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  15, but there are people who go in with a five-year plan, some people who get investors and then
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  they're going to sell and they're able to accomplish a great deal in five years and they're giving
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  giving it everything they have for five years and it pays off. But depending on how big you
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  want and what your goals are, you know, it could take longer or two. No, I think that's very smart.
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  You wrote the book Dream Big and Win. In its most simplest form, what does that mean for
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  somebody early on in their career? What is the like the one major takeaway, even from that title?
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  Well, I think from the title itself, I think it's important to think about what you really want
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  because a lot of people don't even know what their goals are. They don't know what they want. They're
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  they're not dreaming. They're just, they're being too practical. And I can relate to that because
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  believe me, I was almost too practical and I almost didn't follow my passion a few times.
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  You know, I thought I was going to be a lawyer and I realized, well, that's not for me. And then I
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  thought I was going into finance, really, so that's not for me. So I think it's very important to
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  figure out what you like and what you don't like and then dream about what you want. And then if
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  you're going to dream and try to do something you want, which is what I think everyone should do,
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  then make it big. Shoot for the stars because then you're going to get a lot closer to that,
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  then if you don't think big and and and dream big and then carry out the actions to be big.
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  So I think that's the idea. Figure out what you want and then figure out how you can incorporate
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  it in your life and be and make it big because that's fun. It's about competition. It's about
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  winning and I think we all enjoy that or most of us do anyway and I and that's who I'm trying to
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  inspire people who who think that way and and just need a little push to try and do it.
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  Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you
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  never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in
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  the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.