Scott Voelker: Episode 354

Transcript

[0:00:19] NVN: Welcome to author hour. Today I’m talking with Scott Voelker, author of the book The Take Action Effect. Although Scott is a serial entrepreneur who has founded several lifestyle businesses in addition to hosting The Amazing Seller Podcast. Scott doesn’t refer to his success in terms of numbers or revenue earned. Instead, he looks at it through the lens of flexibility and the freedom to enjoy time with his family that it has provided. But just like the rest of us, Scott’s life hasn’t always looked like this. There was a time when he worked at a job in construction with long hours that kept him away from his family. Scott felt stuck and then he began taking one action followed by another, resulting in a series of actions that moved his life in a direction he wanted. In a direction that provided him with fulfillment and freedom and a life that looked how he wanted it to. In this interview, Scott talks about the ways we get stuck, how we can begin to move toward a more satisfying life and career and how his new book will help people do precisely this. So Scott, one of the things that really stood out to me is that in the bio for your book, you talk about your businesses that you built over the years, not in the context of the revenue that they’ve garnered but that they allow you the flexibility and freedom to enjoy time with your family. Talk to me a little bit about that?

[0:01:48] Scott Voelker: Yeah, well, that’s exactly why I decided to, way back when — we’re talking over 18 years now to where we had that decision. I say we, myself and my wife because we’ve seen very early on when we had kids that I did not want to be away from my kids and missing those different moments in their lives. Because of that, it really opened my eyes to what I really wanted and I really drill down in the book about figuring out your why in life. And then once you get that why and it’s crystal clear like for me it was my kids and you know, being able to create the flexibility more than anything, you know, it’s not that I don’t want to work, it’s just I want to work on my own terms. If I want to work late at night because my kid’s stuff is during the day I can do that but a boss will tell me I need to come in from eight to five or whatever. Yeah, really early on is — I felt like there had to be something but I didn’t know what it was and at the time, I felt like I didn’t have the skills, I didn’t have the talent or you know, like the expertise to do anything else than what I was already doing. But it was very crystal clear that I did not want to – if I could at all help is work for someone else. I just didn’t know how that was going to happen.

[0:03:07] NVN: Let’s talk a little bit about your background. When you came to that realization that you wanted this flexibility to really be hands on and be around your kids and your family, how far away was that from your reality at the time?

[0:03:24] Scott Voelker: It was pretty far to be honest with you because just if you want the entire like back story in a nutshell here, like I graduated high school and went right into my father’s construction business and I thought I was going to own that company one day. That was my blue sky, like that was the thing that I was working towards, I’m going to own a business, that’s the only way Scott’s going to own a business is I’m going to take over my father’s business. which he started from scratch and I’ve watched him work hard through the years but I was working a lot of hours. I was working 60 plus hours a week and I just knew that, yes, I could possibly own this company one day but am I going to be – am I still going to be working as much as I am? Yes, I own a company, or I’m part owner or partner or whatever. That’s cool but I’m still working more than I should be because I need to support my family. It seemed really far off for me because I never thought of working smarter, I always just thought of working harder and I didn’t understand that.

[0:04:24] NVN: That strikes me as a tough situation because I’m imagining that there had to be some sense of accountability involved because it was your dad or — like you talk in your book about this feeling we can sometimes have of being stuck. Did you feel any of that because of the situation?

[0:04:44] Scott Voelker: I felt so stuck. Yeah, I remember, I mentioned it in the book, is that moment in my – we had a living room that we didn’t’ really use in the house and this house that I was living in at the time, I built from scratch, working full time and I built a house in 11 months. I’m no stranger of hard work and I really illustrate that in the book. But I was sitting in this living room that we never really use because, who uses a living room when there’s a family room, right? We had a living room and I’m sitting there and it was kind of an office kind of thing, we had a desk in there and stuff and I just remember after work, sitting down, I was burned out and I just was sitting there in that chair, my wife was in the room and I was just going to the wanted ads. The paper, looking for something that I could work seven to three because I was so unpredictable as far as I’d go in every day at the same time like 6:00 in the morning. But sometimes I wouldn’t get home till 8:00 at night, you know? Because the job’s had to get done and I just wanted like banker’s hours but I knew with banker’s hours, I couldn’t make the living or the money that I want. I was just trying and trying. I just remembered that moment so vividly and feeling so stuck, like I have no idea what I’m going to do, what we’re going to do and that actually is where my wife came to me and said, I watched an Oprah Winfrey episode just last week and she said that we should do something that we’re passionate about. I’m like, "Well what are we p passionate about?" And then, she was like well, I kind of like photography and we take our kids to get their pictures taken. I’m like yeah, but we don’t know – gone to college for any of that stuff and she’s like, I don’t think you have to. I just think you have to be pretty good. That’s how we got into that whole thing and that was one of those take action moments that I talk about in the book, we all have them. That moment forever changed my life. That one moment.

[0:06:31] NVN: I have a couple of questions from there for you. The first is, you know, when you – it’s funny but I think it’s true for a lot of people, when you said to your wife, "What are we passionate about?" There is this notion that every human being has this burning passion and that it’s incredibly obvious to them, from birth, all the way forward, this guiding north star. But the reality is, not everybody has that. First of all, before you got to the point of taking action, how did you and your wife figure out what that passion was?

[0:07:08] Scott Voelker: Well, again, it’s so funny. When you look back at all of the pieces, it all kind of makes sense. It’s like now that you look back at it, but at the time you don’t’ see it. But I didn’t care at the time about my passion. I was like, "I just want to get out to doing what I’m doing," right? My wife’s like, "Well, I mean, we do go to the photography studio," we actually went to this one photography studio which was really high end but we went there for the free 8x10 and then the up sold us. Now I know what up-selling is, I didn’t know it back then. They up-sold us, higher package that I couldn’t afford and so that’s how my wife said well I’m – I love pictures, I’ve taken them ever since I was a kid and just would like point and shoots, you know, even disposable cameras and she always really did have a good eye. You know, that wasn’t my passion but it was hers so I’m like, well let me just help her and support her and see where this goes and I’ll just be somewhat of a business guy even though – I mean, I was helping my father in his business and I’ve seen that stuff. But I wasn’t like a marketing guy, I wasn’t any of that. Once we got involved in that, once we got started in that, I didn’t realize it probably for a year and a half, two years after, but I started to fall in love with number one, Photoshop, editing. I started falling in love with that. Then, I started falling in love with marketing. I’m like, I got to get people in the door, I’m going to learn how to do that, that was fun. I started to find the passion that I liked and I think we have passions that are going to evolve, right? We’re going to find new ones as we get into things. But, you have to sometimes piggy back off of someone else’s passion or help someone that has an expertise and I always tell people as you're building something, like this year, we’re building a business. You’re learning through every single thing and then you're also identifying what you’re passionate about, what you aren’t. We started – actually, we started just like everyone in photography, we started to do some weddings. Very soon, my wife’s like, "Not my passion, don’t like it. Let’s focus on family photography." I’m like, perfect. That’s what we did and we never did weddings, we never did weddings anymore after that. It wasn’t a passion so we just kind of niched it down and I talk a lot about niching down and stuff in the book because it’s so important.

[0:09:15] NVN: When you look back at your own life, can you identify one specific action you’ve taken that has been the most impactful?

[0:09:25] Scott Voelker: It’s funny because my daughter who is 24, she asked me this question the other night at dinner. It was funny because we were talking about the book and everything and she wanted to know and I still haven’t let my kids or anything read the book or anything. Not yet, not until it’s officially out and I know that right now, when this thing is being recorded, it’s not. But after we get done, it will be. I wanted it to be a surprise for them because a lot of it is them in there but one thing and it sounds kind of cheesy and stuff but I’m going to say it anyway. Really, there’s one moment in my life that changed my life forever and that was meeting my wife. I met my wife, we went out, both the same night. I wasn’t going out. I was going, I was in between a girlfriend she was in between a boyfriend and I wasn’t going to go out and she lived at 35, 40 minutes one way. I live the other way and my buddies drag me out one night and then her girlfriend dragged her out and it just happened that we ended up in the same spot. So that one moment for me that was like – now that I look back and I’m like that moment right there changed my life forever. We have three beautiful kids, we’ve built multiple business together. We still get along. We still love each other. We have been married 25 years now. So that right there is one moment that I would say changed my life forever. The second one would be when I actually gave my two weeks’ notice to my father’s company and that was probably a huge moment that I was scared out of my mind and I just said you know what? What’s the worst that’s going to happen? If it doesn’t work, I’ll go and start – I’ll just go work side jobs because I was in the construction business, I could go out there and find work. I never had to swing a hammer after that day but I had that backup that little safety net. But that was another moment in my life that changed my mindset. It changed my mindset because it made me believe in myself after I did it and I said, “Holy crap, I can do this." I actually surprised myself. And so I started to build a little bit more confidence in myself after I took that little bit of a risk.

[0:11:20] NVN: So let us talk about that particular action and risk. At what point where you at when you gave your notice? Have you already somehow figured out how to supplement that income where you are taking a leap? What was your scenario?

[0:11:34] Scott Voelker: Yeah, it’s a great question. So we started our business on the side, our photography business. So I was still working my 60 plus hours a week, our kids were young at the time. I think my son was two and my daughter was five and we didn’t have, we have another daughter, at the time. At that point in time, we literally were just doing it on the side. So we would put some ads on the penny saver like we’d get people that would come in and we were just building our portfolio. There was no digital back then so it was all film. So we would get a 36 role of film. We would shoot it, we would test things and we would get them developed at one hour photo and we would do all of that stuff. We did that for 18 months and then what happened was my wife came to me and she goes, “You know…” because Christmas time was coming up and that is our biggest season. I think it was in the middle of the summer. And she goes, “You know last year we did pretty good. I think we can do better this year. This might be the year you have to leave because if not we’re going to have to turn a lot of people away and this would be a really good time to try to grow our business and do it on our own.” And so I had a number. I had a number in my head. I’m like I need to make at least $10,000 in chunk of time to carry us a little bit and I did all the math and I reversed it back and then her and I said, "Well if we are going to do it, we’re going to do it." And I talked to my father, which in the book I talk about it. There was a very bad partnership between my father and his partner. So I knew that was one of the reasons I knew I wasn’t going to own the company one day and I didn’t want to. And I learned a lot about partnerships throughout that but he was actually relieved when I told him that I was thinking about leaving and then once I got the green light from him, I went in and told his partner. And that was probably the best feeling in my life and he actually doubted me to my face because I mean I grew up with that guy and my father and his partner were together for over 20 years and I looked at him as almost like a second father and he said, “Okay, give it a try. Let me know when you want to come back.” Kind of thing you know? And he gave me that thing and I never came back ever. So he motivated me to want to do it but yeah. We just said, you know what we’re going to do and it was November 1st and that November 1st was my first day and I will never forget walking downstairs and looking out the window. We had a big field, we were on two acres and I looked out my window, had a cup of coffee and I was normally at work at that time and I just said, “Wow I hope this thing really works because this feels amazing.”

[0:13:56] NVN: You know you have made this point a couple of times and it really resonates with me. Is this idea of retrospect, like we can look back at our lives and very easily pinpoint all of those moments that mattered and why all of our risks were worth taking but the whole point is you don’t know that in the moment and I feel like it can be particularly tricky for some people to take those leaps when they are feeling stuck like that is a lot of energy and motivation and faith. Can you talk to people about that a little bit?

[0:14:31] Scott Voelker: You mean as far as them, like you are saying there’s no guarantees?

[0:14:35] NVN: Yeah and also when you’re feeling stuck — well in some ways it can be motivating in some instances. In other instances, I feel like it can be more difficult to summon up energy in those moments of feeling stuck.

[0:14:47] Scott Voelker: Yeah, it is frustrating and you know the way that I look at it is and I did this, even when I was in the photography business and then we grew that to a really sizable company for my wife and I to be there ourselves and we’re a six figured business and we are brick and mortar local business but then we move that to the online space. That was a whole other leap, right? That was a whole other thing but I think when people are – they’re stuck but they don’t have a strong enough why. Or a work ethic and that is one thing I was raised with. I was always raised like it is not going to come to you. You got to go out there and get it if you want, right? So I would work late at night even in my other business I would work on during the day but I would work on my side hustle whenever I could squeeze it in because I wanted it so bad. I think so many people they say, “Oh I am stuck and I hate my job,” or, “I don’t like my current situation or I don’t have this or I don’t have that.” It is just a lot of complaining, there is not a lot of action being done, right? So when someone complains over and over and over again and then I see that they are not doing anything, when I’ve told – I’ve got friends of mine I have told exactly what to do play by play by play and I follow up and so I’m like, “So what’s up?” Well I haven’t recorded a video," because I am a big content creation guy. I’m like, “Have you recorded a video and posted it on YouTube?” “No I haven’t done it yet. I still got to figure out my cables or I still got to figure that.” And I’m like, “No you are just putting an excuses because you don’t want to actually do it because you are afraid you are going to fail,” you know? And it is just normal but I really drive or dive deep in the book in the very first part of really tackling the mindset. Because that is a huge part of why people either get started and you know build momentum and succeed or they never get started.

[0:16:31] NVN: I feel like we all need someone like you in our lives. There is something that’s so motivating about having to tell someone no, that definitely helps you propel into action.

[0:16:41] Scott Voelker: Oh yeah 100%.

[0:16:43] NVN: So you also talk in your book about scenarios where perhaps you’ve built a business but you are not sure that you even like it. So that strikes me as a really unique and tricky can of worms in it of itself. Because there’s been this investment and building towards something. What do you tell people who are in that sort of scenario?

[0:17:06] Scott Voelker: What I look at is like a pivot. We have pivots in our journey, all the way through. I mean, let’s face it, right now, we’re doing – I’m doing this book, right? Something that I never thought that I would do by the way either and here we are, right? That’s done. Never thinking that I was going to be able to do it. I did it. But it’s as far as like when you go through these different pivots in your life, you have to recognize them and then you have to say, what do I truly really want? The other thing is, people think because they’ve invested time, money, whatever. That they don’t want to give up on it or that they don’t want to sell it because in my world, we can build something and sell it. It’s happening every single day. I’m talking like six figure businesses all the way to you know, 10 million dollar businesses. Being sold online. Whether it’s a content site, whether it’s FBA which is fulfilled by Amazon site like an Amazon business. We can build stuff and sell it if we get tired of it or it might even be our strategy. I’m going through a semi-pivot rate now as we’re recording this. I started a podcast almost five years ago, focusing in the beginning all about Amazon. And then all of a sudden, I woke up one day and I go, wait a minute, I don’t want to just be the Amazon guy, I know so much more and I can offer so much more. I want to be able to help people get out of their own way and get stuck and be able to see what they can do in the future for themselves if they really want to. Me right now, I’m going through this same thing and I think that you just can’t feel like you’re building something for — that you’re going to arrive and it’s going to be it forever. As entrepreneurs, we get bored, right? But we learn and I think if you understand that what you’re doing right now is setting you up for what you’re going to do next.

[0:18:52] NVN: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Author Hour. You can find the Take Action Effect on Amazon. A transcript of this episode, as well as all of our previous episodes is available at authorhour.co. For more author hour, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite service and if you’re feeling it, we love reviews, thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next time. Same place, different author.