← Success Story with Scott D. Clary
Success Story with Scott D. Clary
Lessons - The One Thing That Kills Every Startup | Captain Hoff - Advised 1000+ Companies
00:13:29
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- [00:00]
Podcast Host
Success story is a Square partner. Now your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. You know, I was just at Panther Coffee here in Miami last week. And beyond the incredible cortado, what struck me was watching them seamlessly handle the morning rush the barista mentioned they've been using Square to manage everything from inventory to building their loyal customer base. It's so much more than just that little white card reader that we all recognize. Square knows that local businesses can be big businesses. And as things get more complex, Square meets you at every opportunity. So whether or not you're expanding, expanding to new locations, building a loyal following, even covering cash flow gaps, Square's powering all the behind the scenes stuff that matters. They knock out today's to dos and they unlock tomorrow's what ifs. If you're ready to see how Square can transform your business, go to square.comgo/success to learn more. That's square.com go success square. Meet you there.
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Co-host / Interviewer
In this lessons episode, explore why work remains essential even when survival no longer depends on it.
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Podcast Host
Discover how purpose and community drive people to seek meaning beyond financial need.
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Co-host / Interviewer
Understand why true fulfillment comes from creation and contribution rather than wealth.
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Podcast Host
And uncover strategies for turning bold ideas.
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Co-host / Interviewer
Into innovations that thrive in a competitive market. If you didn't want to work, in theory, there's so many in most western countries, there's so many social welfare programs that you could sit on your couch all day and not work and still find a way to get money from somewhere, to be quite honest. And some people do that. But I think the vast majority of people would much maybe it's because society imposes, you know, like these, these ideas of what you should do. And you know, you mentioned like you have to provide and whatnot. But like for most people you're not going to be rich, but you don't have to work to live day to day. But people do choose to work.
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Guest Expert / Author
They do it because what we value more than the job is we value people are social animals. Like if you think about human beings in the hunter gatherer, for tens of thousands of years they just hunted when they needed food or gathered stuff when they needed food. But most of the time their value wasn't on their value was on how they relate and what they give to their community. And fundamentally we all live in this community, this social structure. And that social structure is informing us how to feel about ourselves. And that social structure will change with time and it will free people up to do things with their time. Like right now you're saying most of the hardest People I know that work the hardest are like super rich, but, like, they could stop working tomorrow, right?
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Co-host / Interviewer
Yeah.
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Guest Expert / Author
It's like they aren't working for more money. They don't need more money. Like, you look at any of these rich people, they work like Elon Musk. Does he need more money? No, he has no need for more money, Bill. You know, Bill Gates is working like crazy, but now he's working on his philanthropy like crazy.
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Co-host / Interviewer
But he still puts in the hours. He's putting in hours.
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Guest Expert / Author
These people work. We don't work. We work because what are we going to do? Right. Work creates meaning in our life. That's why we don't work for the money. So the people who think that the welfare is going to make people lazy, I just don't believe it's true. I mean, if people are going to be lazy, they'll be lazy, right. They'll be lazy on the job or off the job. If they're the type who doesn't want to do anything, then that's how they're programmed. You're not going to change them. And if they're the type who are going to. If they're the type like us, who just love doing stuff, love creating stuff, love. You know, it doesn't matter. We're going to figure out something to do with our time.
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Co-host / Interviewer
Yeah.
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Guest Expert / Author
And we're going to do it.
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Co-host / Interviewer
Yeah. I think my issue is I always try and figure out. I always try and take on too many things as hobbies, and I have to remember that sometimes they're hob.
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Guest Expert / Author
If you had no day job, you would. I guarantee you, you would be busier than ever because you'd be like, I want to do this and I want to do that, and I want to do this. And I think most people who want to be busy will be busy. And those who just want to sit around and, you know, play games or watch television, they could do that, Right. They do that now every chance they get. They'll still do the same thing. People do what they do.
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Co-host / Interviewer
Yeah. I want to ask a question. Just the first book that you wrote, Make Elephants Fly. What is the book about? And this is not a plug. I didn't plan this at all. I just was curious about the title. Why you chose that title, the Elephant.
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Guest Expert / Author
Well, I like fun titles. So the elephant. It's called Make Elephants Fly. The subtitle is what it's about. It's called the Process of Radical Innovation. And radical innovation is innovation. Not incremental, like, not a little innovation, but a huge leap Forward. So how do you get there? So the elephant for entrepreneurs, it's your big idea, it's your dream. It's like what you want to do, but it's an elephant. How Elephants don't fly. How can you get this huge idea off the ground? So the book tells you how to come from an idea all the way to execution, how to take that idea and make it fly.
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Co-host / Interviewer
So let's speak about that. Let's speak with that, because let's speak about it in the context of. I have a hobby, I'm working full time, and I'm using myself as an example. But a lot of people have these side hustles right now, especially even more if you have more free time because you're stuck at home and you don't have anywhere else to go. So people are starting. I've never seen so many live Instagram sessions, live Facebook sessions before in my life. I feel like everybody's just starting something new now. So it's good. But, okay, so you have an idea, you have a side hustle. How do you take that and you turn it into a flying elephant?
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Guest Expert / Author
So this is all about the process of innovating, right? Figuring out where your idea meets reality. It's, in a way, a process starting with the idea. There's a lot in there about ideation and how to create ideas. But once you have these ideas, how do you know which are the really good ones? Because if you're anything like me, I have a million ideas. A million ideas, and I think they're all great. When I first think of them, I just get excited. I'm like, oh, my God, that's the best idea in the world. But you know what? Like, 99%, they have a flaw. 99% are actually ideas that will not work. And most of them, maybe not 99%, but most of them are actually terrible. So they're not great ideas. It's just in my head. So how do you go into. What is the process through which you go into the real world? You test out an idea. And also I go through this thing called the innovation loop, where you go through a process of discovery with each new idea. So I liken being an entrepreneur to being an explorer. Now, an explorer, your job is to find something really valuable, but it's very dangerous. You're going to go into uncharted territory, like the explorers that came to the Americas. You're going to meet hostile forces, whether it be nature that's going to kill you, natural things, whether it's going to be Other companies or tribes that are going to come after you. But what you have to do is you don't know what's there. So when you first go there, it's all this black wilderness. And your job is to figure out your way through that wilderness as quickly as possible without getting killed. You know, so getting through that wilderness without getting killed is not an easy thing. Most startups die over 95% from idea, from conception all the way to, you know, being profitable or selling Your company is 95%. Do not make that. So what are the into detail on like the pitfalls along the way where startups go wrong? What type of what is wrong? Thinking it goes into the fundamentals of business model. Like there are certain business models that are really lucrative that like make a lot of money and there are others that are doomed to failure. But on the surface, you might not even recognize which is which. I can give you an example. So there are a lot of people out there who put up these Kickstarter projects. And the Kickstarter projects are pretty cool. Like they are like a super cool gadget that. But what they don't realize is that that that gadget that they're putting out there on Kickstarter is there's some problems with it. Number one, maybe the market is too niche, right? There's just not enough people out there who would buy it or that people think it's a nice to have, it's something they would like to have but they don't really need. And even if they get enough people to like give them their initial Kickstarter target, doesn't mean it's going to be a successful product. Because the most successful products out there are products not that you sell once to a person. Because as a small company, when you sell to get a new customer, let's say you make a gadget, the profit margin isn't that high. And you start off maybe with, if it's really novel, you start off with a reasonable profit margin. But as soon as people in China and other countries start copying you, that margin starts to shrink, right? It goes really, really low because they didn't. They'll just sell it for whatever they can get away with selling it for as low as possible. And, and if you have to acquire new customers, which is the biggest job for any entrepreneur, like you acquire new viewers for your show or whatever it is, right? Acquiring new customers is expensive. And if you don't have a big profit margin, you can't afford to advertise. You definitely can't afford to Call them up and do direct sales, right? Yeah, like person to person. And you can't afford even to market on Google if the profit margin shrinks. So that will just kill ultimately. So you have to recognize that now the companies that really succeed, well, like Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Apple, whatever they are, they don't sell a product. Once. Once you buy into them, you are continually giving them money. So whether it's on your iPhone, whether you're giving them money through the App Store, over and over and over, you're locked into their ecosystem. You're buying their upgraded phones over and over and over. Whether it's Amazon, which, you know, they may take a commission off every sale, whether they sell it or whether their partners sells it, you're giving them money every time you go back to Amazon, whether it's Uber, you know, the reason it got the big valuation was because, you know, once you have the Uber app, you keep using it over and over and over. So the recurring revenue, when you can get recurring revenue, that is the type of business model that really scales. Facebook has the same thing. You're going on to Facebook over and over. Every time they're getting a few pennies from that, you view an ad, but you're going over and over and over and over. So the thing is, I go into detail in the book how you can get a customer and never let that customer go. Never let that customer go. And then how can you make that customer as valuable to you as possible over their lifetime?
- [11:02]
Co-host / Interviewer
I love it. That's very smart. That's a very good takeaway. And I think that it's funny, I've always worked in organizations that focus on recurring revenue. My background was in telecom. Now I'm in now, so obviously they're very profitable. And also Now I'm in SaaS or software. Right. So it's always about recurring revenue. But I think that a lot of industries haven't woken up to that fact. And now they're getting hit hard. Especially when, if they're selling physical products or they have physical storefronts or brick and mortar, and that's killing them. If they haven't expanded and they haven't taken their. Their store online or expanded their products into the recurring revenue products, you know, like, that's why people are really hurting now. But that's what I think is going to fuel. I just tweeted this out yesterday. I think this will be a benchmark in the fourth industrial revolution, and it will push people to look at digital in a new way and not just as that's my opinion at least. I don't know if it's going to change everyone's behavior, but I already know it's changing some people because, you know, now it's like all the people that were told, oh, you can't work from home. Well, now they're all working from home and they're probably working harder because they don't know when to shut off. And you know, so like now all the people that had all these work life balance issues didn't want to commute an hour and a half. Now they're all working from home. So now what does that do to the, to, to, you know, all these cultures, these office cultures globally that didn't want it before. Like there's so many changes that are going to happen because of this, but also just tech and you know, modernization in general. But that's very interesting. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper.
- [12:45]
Podcast Host
Into this conversation, check out the links.
- [12:47]
Co-host / Interviewer
In the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.
- [12:57]
Podcast Host
Success story is a Square partner. Now your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. You know, I was just at Panther Coffee here in Miami last week. And beyond the incredible curtado, what struck me was watching them seamlessly handle the morning rush. The barista mentioned they've been using Square to manage everything from inventory to building their loyal customer base. It's so much more than just that little white card reader that we all recognize. Square knows that local businesses can be big businesses. And as things get more complex, Square meets you at every opportunity. So whether or not you're expanding to new locations, building a loyal following, even covering cash flow gaps, Square's powering all the behind the scenes stuff that matters. They knock out today's to dos and they unlock tomorrow's what ifs. If you're ready to see how Square can transform your business, go to square.comgosuccess to learn more. That's square.comgosuccess. square. Meet you there. Incogni is a success story partner. Now, have you ever wondered how all those scammers get your phone numbers? All those telemarketers, how you're always drowning in all these spam calls? It's data brokers. Right now hundreds of companies are collecting and selling your personal information without your consent. Your address, your phone number, even your family members names to anyone who's willing to pay. And this puts you at risk of identity theft, scams and harassment. And that's where Incogni comes in. They contact over 230 data brokers on your behalf and legally force them to delete your personal information. No more spending hundreds of hours doing it yourself. Incogni handles all the paperwork, follows up on objections, and keeps your data off the market with repeated removals. I've actually been using Incogni myself. It's scary and also incredible to see how much of my data was out there. But they get rid of it. They've got a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can try it risk free. Use my code success@incogni.com success to get an exclusive 60% off their annual plans. You have to take back control of your privacy today.
- [14:58]
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