Scott: Well JLD, your listeners are about to find out the name of my new book is Find the Fire. So, I am pre-lit, baby.

JLD: Yes. Scott’s a popular keynote speaker, author of Find the Fire, and has run several multi-billion-dollar businesses for Procter & Gamble. He’s the CEO of Profound Performance, a keynote training and coaching company. Scott take a minute, fill in some blanks from that intro, and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Scott: You bet. I speak, teach, and write about how to deeply motivate and inspire employees and yourself, because that counts, to peak performance and fulfillment as well. In addition to running the keynote training coaching company JLD, I also author published books, which you certainly would know something about. I write ten times a month for Inc. and I teach at Indiana University – go Hoosiers – on the topic of motivating employees.

JLD: Go Hoosiers. So, one thing that I would love to know is what you consider your area of expertise? Like what is the one thing that elevates you above the rest?

Scott: I really believe that I am an absolute expert on what it really takes to motivate employees and sustain it over the long haul. You know a lot of us believe that it’s perks or pay or promotions and that’s not what does it JLD. What really does it is understanding how to crack the code on employee disengagement and bringing meaning to the workplace. And there are so many smart ways to bring meaning into the workplace. And that’s where my expertise lies.

JLD: So, what’s something that we don’t know about your area of expertise that you’re just like, “Gosh darn it. These entrepreneurs need to know this.” Like what is that thing?

Scott: This blew me away when I found out. There is a silent killer in your company. Whether you have one employee, two employees, or 10,000 employees, and it’s likely not on the radar of most entrepreneurs, and it is employee disengagement. Tons of data keeps confirming over and over and over again JLD that up to 70 percent of employees, regardless of the business type and regardless if it’s two people or 10,000, 70 percent can be coded as disengaged. And yes, that hits even the hippus of the startups. And that’s where understanding that meaning is what motivates over the long haul comes into play. And I just wish more entrepreneurs knew that and knew how to institute meaning into their workplaces to sustain motivation over the long haul.

JLD: So, a little bit of a shift now because Scott, I wanna really talk about your journey as an entrepreneur. I mean just from the sounds of it I mean you’ve helped run multiple, multi-billion-dollar businesses for Procter & Gamble. You just got your act together as the CEO of Profound Performance. You’ve written a book. I mean a lot of things are going right but take us to when they weren’t. Take us to what you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment to date. And Scott, tell us that story.

Scott: Okay. Cue the soundtrack where we go back in time. So, however that high-tech thing, we go back in time and first the quickest bit of set up. My business model, and you’ll know something about this JLD for sure, centers around monetizing my expertise and doing so across multiple revenue streams, right? You know that well. So, I need to have max credibility in my area of expertise, which is motivating and inspiring employees. So, I had this broken out into two phases. The first phase went very well, which I’ll touch on very quickly, but I’ll get right to the scary stuff. Phase one I’ve been planning for a long time which is experience. More than two decades of running massive multi-billion-dollar businesses at P&G and doing it well while building the organization along the way. Check that box. I can now live what I preach from.

But then kicks in phase two of my credibility plan which is critical for my business model which was to write a book, blending my experiences plus tons of research that I’d been doing in the field of motivation and inspiration. And of course, this book would be the centerpiece of my planned speaker/teacher/writer business. So, I hacked away at this thing for five years pouring everything I had into this book on nights, on weekends. It was a total side hustle for me. And at that time, I finished it, I back drafted a proposal off of it, I pitched it to an agent. All things were going well. And I asked him, “Hey, let’s start pitching to traditional publishers,” which, for me, was important to clear the bar of a traditional major New York City-type publisher. Many have self-published and that’s super cool. For the specifics of my business model, I needed this traditional publishing deal.

The agent began pitching. First Big House, “No. A close cigar. Here’s what we liked about it,” and then I didn’t hear anything after that. What I heard was, “No.” Second, “Oh, close. Yeah, but no.” Third, “No.” Fourth, “No.” This went on and on for over nine months and it was either 13 or 14 noes later and JLD, I was panicked, man. This went right to the heart of my business model. What did it say about me as a writer? What would I speak about? What would it say about the validity of my expertise? And on and on and on all of these quiet doubts kept creeping in. It was painful.

Then at the pit of my despair, and I’ll never forget this, I got the phone call that I was dreading. I got the call from the agent who said, “Dude, I’m pulling the plug, man. Like this isn’t working. I’m pulling the plug.” And man, I hit a low. I’d been working on this for five years and planning for this for more than that, probably 15 years. And so, I was preparing JLD for this call and I said, “Hey, look, man. I hear you and I understand. One more try.” We had a list of publishing houses that we built together. There was one left, but he was just kinda discouraged by that point and wanted to move on, which I can understand from an agent. So, he went for it, he pitched it. Man, those were long days waiting for that to happen. And well lo and behold, on the very last swing of the bat, the mighty Casey got a – my first book deal, Make it Matter, which went on to become Soundview’s 2016 Leadership Book of the Year.

JLD: Oh, wow.

Scott: First runner up. And I had almost run out of options and this was the big thing that I took away from this JLD. I learned that as an entrepreneur, man, you’ve gotta just keep going when others would stop. And this is the key, you’ve gotta view every step of progress that you’ve made to date as carrying you much farther forward than a misstep took you back. We often confuse missteps for misleaps, and we can’t do that. You can’t overestimate a misstep. And when you fall short, you can’t abandon ship. I almost did, and I would have left behind a booming business.

JLD: Fire Nation, don’t abandon ship. Almost every single successful entrepreneur that you know that you’ve heard of, that you admire, there is a moment, I promise you. And for most of them multiple moments where they were so close to quitting, to giving up, to abandoning ship, to doing all those things. But they didn’t. They stuck with it and that’s why they win. But they were so, so close. And all those people you haven’t heard of, that’s because they did quit. That’s because they did abandon ship. So, never, ever quit.

Now, Scott, I would love for you to take us into what you consider what are the greatest ideas you’ve had to date? Like what’s one of those a-ha moments that really sticks out to you and kinda walk us through how you turned that idea into success?

Scott: Fantastic. I’ll take you back in time again. I was in the midst of deep research for what would become my new book, Find the Fire. I was gaining background on the anatomy of inspiration which is broadly misunderstood. And that’s what the book is about, understanding inspiration and how to trigger more of it in your work and in your life. And you know I remember going through the research – I’m a real research dork – and coming across historical account after historical account that talked about inspiration is fickle. It’s mysterious. You have no control. You’re gonna have to wait for lightning strikes to happen, dear entrepreneurs. I’m sorry.

But then a really curious thing happened, JLD. I started uncovering much more modern, cutting-edge research on inspiration. I started noticing seams and pulling on threads, which as an entrepreneur I’ve learned you often have to find a thread, hold onto it with dear life, and pull on it when you’re operating in spaces you don’t fully understand. So, I followed this threat to an a-ha moment which was, holy cow. I was learning that inspiration, in fact, is not some mysterious, fickle force. It can be codified, and it can be coaxed. You don’t have to wait around for lightning strikes of inspiration to happen, you can create the conditions where inspiration is much more likely to occur for you or for your employees. And that’s when it clicked, the big idea for me.

I remember reading that all these people, all these accounts say, “Well, the way you get more inspiration is ask yourself what inspires me,” and then you try to do more of that. But that is far too passive and elusive because you have to wait for it to show up. And it clicked. We should be asking instead of, “What inspires me,” “How did I lose my inspiration in the first place?” And when you do that, it reveals all the things that drain inspiration from our life. The root cause is like fear of failure, fear of criticism, dwindling self-belief, loss of control in your life. And when you know the root causes, you can counter them.

And that big idea, I parlay that moment of clarity and that idea and all the insight and the knowledge on the causes and cures to bring more inspiration into your life. I parlayed all of that into the book and the keynote that I get asked to give a lot, Find the Fire.

JLD: How did I lose my inspiration in the first place? Fire Nation, this is a question that you have to ask yourself if you’re in this situation. Ask yourself, “How did I lose my inspiration in the first place,” and let those bread crumbs lead you back to salvation.

Now, real quick Scott, just curious, what are you most fired up about today?

Scott: Honestly, the success I’m seeing as an entrepreneur. I don’t mean that from a money standpoint. JLD, that’s cool and all, but this second act in my life, that’s not why I’m doing this. For me, having run massive P&G businesses and made the company a lot of money and done well for myself, for me it’s more about the impact I’m having on others. And I know you hear that a lot. And that’s what I’m most excited about now that I’m getting fantastic feedback on the book and the talk from Find the Fire. And I get people that come up and talk to me afterwards and say, “I think you just reignited my spark, man. I think you just helped me find the fire.” And holy, moly that is what it’s all about.

JLD: Fire Nation, if you think that Scott’s been dropping value bombs, you’re right. And more coming in the lightning round when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

Scott, are you ready to rock the lightning round?

Scott: Yeah, I am.

JLD: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Scott: I know you get this answer a lot JLD because I love your show, but it’s fear of failure, man.

[Crosstalk]

JLD: Okay.

Scott: It’s fear of failure. I have since learned that you have the power – get ready for this one. You have the power to reframe how you think of fear. One of my favorite ways to do this is simply to remind yourself there’s only three ways you can actually fail: when you quit, when you don’t improve, or when you never try.

JLD: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Scott: Wherever you are, be there. If you don’t practice a habit of being present in the moment, I’ve got news for you, man. You’re giving away your power. You’re giving away the opportunity to draw inspiration from what’s right in front of you.

JLD: Fire Nation, you have to be present. I mean can you please act on being present? Like if fast enough. If you’re not enjoying the actual moment you’re in, what are you doing? And I mean this might sound kind of like – I don’t know what it sounds like, but I’m sort of going places purposely without my cellphone because I just don’t need to check, and I don’t need people to be able to check in with me. Like that’s okay to go a few hours without that. And I’m gonna be honest with you, when I’m sitting down with somebody and their phone beeps and they look at it and then they continue the – I’m like I’m kind of over this conversation. This person is not present with me. They’re not enjoying the moment. They’re wondering what else is going on in the world. Think about that Fire Nation. Be present. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to the people you’re with.

What’s a personal habit, Scott, that that contributes to your success?

Scott: Oh, for sure. I do not reinvent the wheel or let my ego get in the way. Like, I’ve got too much going on. There are too many experts out there. I find out who’s done something brilliantly before me and then I study, and I learn from them. And then here’s the important part, I pay it forward, what I’ve learned, through my speaking and my writing with the same exact energy I feel when I’m learning something new. It creates a really virtuous cycle that just keeps me going.

JLD: Recommend one internet resource.

Scott: This is my favorite, it’s called Unsplash. Everybody needs really good, high-res images and this is a great high-res image website. It gives you great images. A huge collection. It’s free, but here’s the coolest part: they make it super easy for you to give credit to the super talented photographers who created the images. So, by using this site, you’re actually helping young, really sharp, talented photographers build a name for themselves. So, you feel like you’re really doing some good by using it.

JLD: If you could recommend one book to of course join Find the Fire on our bookshelves, what would that book be and why?

Scott: Oh, definitely Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark. She helps break down the multiple streams of revenue that are possible if you decide to go the entrepreneurial route like I have of monetizing multiple streams of income. And it even shares a success story of one John Lee Dumas.

JLD: Yeah.

Scott: Although I’m not sure you’ve heard of him. Maybe you haven’t heard of him, but it’s a great book.

JLD: Dorie’s a great, great friend. And multiple time past guest of EO Fire. She rocks the mic every single time. I got to catch up with her in New York City not too long ago. Just love what she puts out. Just great stuff. So, thanks for recommending that. And, of course, Fire Nation, Find the Fire. Find the Fire.

Scott, let’s end today on fire with you giving us a parting piece of guidance, sharing the best way that we can connect with you and then we’ll say goodbye.

Scott: Fantastic. Parting piece of guidance: chase authenticity, not approval. Here’s the deal Fire Nation, seeking constant external validation it’s insatiable. It’s an insatiable bad habit that’s an empty victory at best, and frankly, confidence and soul-crushing at worst. The only comparison to make is to who you were yesterday and really, whether or not you become a better version of yourself. That’s what matters.

Now, you wanna connect with me? Go to scottmautz.com. S-C-O-T-T-M-A-U-T-Z dot com. And hey, Fire Nation, I have a free companion workbook ready and waiting for you there. So, when you go to scottmautz.com you could download the free companion workbook to Find the Fire. We all know what’s written about how powerful it is to be able to write down new ideas and concepts to be able to retain them.

JLD: Chase authenticity, not approval. I mean Fire Nation, if that can be your touchstone, I’m telling you. If you can stop really caring so much about how many likes that last Instagram post got and really care about how authentic you’re being to yourself, it’s gonna be a game changer. And you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And hello, you’ve been hanging out with SM and JLD today. So, keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com. Just type Scott in the search bar. His show notes page is gonna pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz. Timestamps, links galore. Of course, head directly to Scott’s website for all that awesomeness. And Scott, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you. And we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Scott: Right on.