The Home Service Expert Podcast

Episode E439: The Truth About Success – Scott Clary on Building Brands and Taking Ownership
Host: Tommy Mello
Guest: Scott Clary (Host of Success Story podcast)
Date: October 27, 2025

Episode Overview

In this dynamic conversation, $200M entrepreneur and “Home Service Expert” Tommy Mello welcomes renowned entrepreneur and media strategist Scott Clary to unpack the realities behind building successful brands, mastering content, and defining true entrepreneurial success. Drawing on Scott’s experience scaling multiple ventures, running a top global podcast, and advising major companies, the episode covers practical branding strategies, the art of content creation, the psychology of audiences, and what it really takes to win—in business and in life. Both Tommy and Scott share candid personal stories and actionable insights aimed at ambitious entrepreneurs keen to elevate their impact (and sanity).

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Value and Compound Nature of Content

Scott Clary:

• “The beauty of content is it compounds over time. So you're not going to get a short win, which means you got to stick with it. And you're only going to stick with it if you enjoy it.” [00:00]
• Building an audience is one of the most valuable entrepreneurial assets because it continuously opens new doors, business opportunities, and relationships.

How to Start Building a Brand

Advice:

• Teach your “younger self” – create educational content that solves problems you once had, or that your customer currently faces. [03:05]
• Pick ONE platform you genuinely enjoy to maintain your drive over the long term.
• Think long game: “There’s no such thing as overnight success… you gotta stay in the game for an unreasonable amount of time to win. Being a creator is no different.” [04:21]

2. Audience Building: Loyalty over Vanity

Discussion:

• Platforms differ drastically in loyalty and audience connection—e.g., podcast listeners are far more loyal than TikTok followers.
• “Quantity definitely doesn't always mean quality 1000%.” — Tommy Mello [09:39]
• “People chase vanity metrics because ego is driving their decision… content that goes viral may attract the wrong audience.” — Scott Clary [09:50]

3. Content Strategy & Format: Find Your Hook (& Evolve)

Key Takeaways:

• Identify your “hook” or content format and use it consistently, but never stop evolving (e.g., Justin Welsh on LinkedIn, Sahil Bloom on Twitter, Alex Hormozi on IG).
• “If you look at even my content, you'll see over the past six years, the content has evolved and changed styles… you gotta keep evolving, you gotta keep studying. I don't know why people treat content any different than their business.” — Scott Clary [15:55, 18:15]
• Avoid ego-driven content decisions; study those succeeding NOW, not those who blew up five years ago.

Notable Quote

“If you have a person you study per platform and watch what’s working right now, you won’t get left behind. There are people with massive audiences who built them years ago and if they tried those same tactics now, they wouldn’t grow.” — Scott Clary [17:08]

4. Branding the Business vs. the Founder

Concepts:

• Founder visibility matters: “Every CEO should build a brand, be the celebrity CEO… because it’s always human-to-human.” — Scott Clary [20:45]
• Use your leader brand to recruit, attract clients, and share the company’s positive impact.

Notable Quote

“If I’m picking between five competitors, I’ll pick the one where I know the CEO and I like who he is.” — Scott Clary [21:44]

5. Lifestyle Branding: Authenticity vs. Showmanship

• Flaunting wealth and lifestyle often signals inauthenticity. “The richest, most successful people I know, they don’t post content like that.” — Scott Clary [23:07]
• Build audiences to create business results, not just for ego or “fame.”
• “Being famous doesn’t benefit anybody… if you create content and build an audience that drives revenue, great.” — Scott Clary [25:04]

6. Content Distribution and Growth (Organic vs. Paid)

Growth Strategies:

• Organic content performs best and is more trusted; use collaborative strategies (e.g., “feed swaps” between podcasts) to grow audiences with intent. [27:42, 28:39]
• Paid ads can help amplify, but only promote content that already performs well organically.

Notable Quote

“Best growth I’ve had is with feed drops—collaborating podcaster-to-podcaster. If someone’s listening to your podcast, they love podcasts. Don’t waste energy promoting to the wrong medium.” — Scott Clary [28:39]

7. Platform & Medium Selection: Do What You’ll Stick With

• Pick a medium you will stay consistent with, not just the one with the highest perceived payout. “If you're not going to continue it because you're stressed out, that's not where you start.” — Scott Clary [34:10]
• High-trust, long-form content (e.g., YouTube) is valuable but not right for everyone.

8. Direct Mail, Newsletters & Standing Out

• Digital newsletters scale, but tactile/analog outreach (like handwritten notes or physical gifts) stands out dramatically for high-value contacts.
• “If you really want to get somebody’s attention, send them physical mail… Your physical mail stands out, people remember your name.” — Scott Clary [37:33]

9. Ultimate Truths About Success

• “Success is freedom. It’s not just money.” — Scott Clary [39:41]
• Health, relationships, and balance matter: “All the people on my show have made some amount of money… I see people that exit and have more cash than they know what to do with, but the rest of their life has kind of gone to shit, and then they wake up one day and realize all they have is money.” [40:01]

Memorable Moment

Mark Randolph (Co-Founder of Netflix) would ALWAYS honor Tuesday date nights with his wife, even while building the company. “He was religious about it… It doesn’t matter what fires were going on.” [41:08]

10. Obsession, Agency, and Ownership

• “Every person I know that's done well financially, it's almost a sickness at times, but it's obsession.” — Tommy Mello [43:54]
• Agency & Delusional Edge: "You have to have a little bit of delusion and just agency. Just trust you can figure it out. Everyone…believes they can figure it out. Ownership, agency—you're owning the outcome." — Scott Clary [67:06]
• Ownership and the willingness to keep iterating, learning, and absorbing responsibility are non-negotiable for success.

11. Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

• Stay in the game: “Building anything, being an entrepreneur, it's not complicated. It's just a lot of hard work… If you stick with something long enough, you'll figure it out.” — Scott Clary [47:16]
• You don’t have to build a $100M business to succeed—lifestyle and goals are personal. “Why can't entrepreneurship be I want to make an extra $500,000 a year?” — Scott Clary [50:21]
• Consider equity or fractional roles/hires if cash is tight—top talent can 10x results, even part-time. [61:48]

12. Ego Kills the Business

• Hire people smarter than you; let them teach you. “Ego kills everything.” — Scott Clary [64:11]
• Give your team autonomy to fail and really lead. “We learn from our failures, not our successes.” — Tommy Mello [65:32]

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “The beauty of content is it compounds over time. So you’re not going to get a short win, which means you gotta stick with it. And you’re only going to stick with it if you enjoy it.”
  — Scott Clary [00:00]
• “If you look at even my content… it's gone through five or six or seven evolutions over the past six years. Because I’m a podcaster, so I study a lot of podcasters, but I study people on every platform.”
  — Scott Clary [15:55]
• “Every CEO should build a brand, be the celebrity CEO, put themselves front and center… It’s always human to human.”
  — Scott Clary [20:45]
• “Success is freedom. Success is not just making more money.”
  — Scott Clary [39:41]
• “Obsession… is what you would consider a common denominator when it comes to some of the interviews and some of the people you've met?”
  — Tommy Mello [43:54]
• “Building anything, being an entrepreneur, it's not complicated. It's just a lot of hard work. Meaning that if you stick with something long enough, you'll figure it out.”
  — Scott Clary [47:16]
• “Ownership, agency—you're owning the outcome. When you drift through life and assume whatever happens to you... at the end of the day, nobody gives a—you have one life, it's on you to figure it out.”
  — Scott Clary [67:06]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• How to Start with Content: [03:05–05:41]
• Choosing Platforms & Building Audience: [05:51–09:50]
• Vanity Metrics & Ego Traps: [09:50–11:02]
• Content Formats, Consistency & Changing Over Time: [13:55–19:18]
• Personal Brand vs. Company Brand: [19:58–21:44]
• Lifestyle Content & Authenticity: [22:07–25:04]
• Podcast Growth Tactics (Feed Swaps, Collaborations): [27:31–29:48]
• Platform Selection & Sticking With It: [33:14–35:09]
• Physical Mail & Standout Communication: [35:38–37:33]
• Defining Success, Balance, and Freedom: [39:06–41:44]
• Obsession & Agency for Success: [43:54–47:16]
• Talent, Hiring & Ego: [59:17–65:32]
• Closing Thoughts on Ownership & Agency: [67:06]

Recommended Resources & Books

• Book Recommendation: Play Bigger – For creating “category-of-one” businesses [66:42]
• Other Mentioned Books:
  • Built to Sell by John Warrillow
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear

Final Thoughts

Scott closes with a call for agency, humility, and obsession:
“You have to have a little bit of delusion and just agency. Just trust that you can figure it out… you have one life, it’s on you to figure it out.” [67:06]

For more from Scott Clary:

• Podcast: Success Story
• Socials: @ScottDClary

Connect with Tommy Mello & get notes:

• Text "NOTES" to 888-526-1299
• Visit HomeServiceExpert.com