Invest The Difference · 2024-10-07 · 13 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
28 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Scott Joseph, a serial entrepreneur and investor, reveals how his early competitive mindset and refusal to seek help cost him years of growth and unrealized business potential. After 20 years of success followed by a crisis at J and L Marketing - triggered by loss of passion, personal challenges, and a failed pivot - Scott learned that his other businesses thrived precisely because he wasn't involved in them. The breakthrough came from recognizing his identity was too tied to control and ego, leading him to step back and hire Jameel to run the agency while Scott focused on what actually energized him: hosting events and connecting people. His approach now centers on vision-setting paired with delegating execution to capable teams, an insight he credits with the best two years of his entrepreneurial career. This episode speaks to operators struggling with founder syndrome, those hitting walls despite early success, and anyone learning when to hold tight and when to let go.
His biggest mistake was being overly isolated and competitive in his early business years, refusing help and thinking he could control everything alone. Looking back, he would have focused on building genuine relationships and giving to others from the start, which he credits with transforming his last two years into his best ever.
Scott realized he'd lost passion for the day-to-day work, was going through personal challenges, and was trying to micromanage a digital pivot he didn't want to lead. He had to check his ego, admit his limitations, and step away by hiring Jameel to fully run J and L Marketing while Scott focused on what actually excited him - hosting events and connecting people.
Scott credits his success to having good vision paired with self-awareness about his limitations; he knows how to set a clear vision but also knows exactly when and who to bring in to execute it, rather than trying to do everything himself.
Me Plus Ultra is a mastermind group Scott attends annually where members check their egos at the door, share openly without shame, and focus on giving rather than competing. He credits its organic culture of learning and collaboration for reinforcing his philosophy of genuine relationship-building among high-level business owners.
Scott won't start a new business unless it pencils out with the right people in place to execute on tasks he doesn't enjoy; he only takes on ventures where he can stay in his zone of genius and delegate everything else to capable partners.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is almost entirely composed of well-worn entrepreneurial platitudes - networking, giving, ego-checking, finding passion - with virtually no novel or non-obvious claims per minute. The one substantive moment (the agency pivot story) surfaces briefly but is never mined for transferable lessons.
my network everybody hears the network is your network I am all about building relationships forging real connections
the more i give the more i seem to receive
Every major point is a recycled staple of entrepreneurial content: give to receive, network is net worth, check your ego, visionary plus integrator. No contrarian angles, no first-principles reasoning, no framework the audience hasn't heard dozens of times before.
my network everybody hears the network is your network I am all about building relationships forging real connections
the more i give the more i seem to receive yeah and i've i mean i meant it i mean i mean it's true
Scott Joseph is a genuine multi-decade practitioner who has built, pivoted, and sold real businesses, which is more credible than a pure thought-leader, but the transcript reveals very little about actual scale, industry impact, or outcomes that would signal elite operator status.
it's been a business for 32 years, 33 years
we're going from a direct marketing agency and going full range digital
A handful of concrete anchors exist - J&L Marketing by name, a named operator (Jameel), a 32-year timeline, a digital pivot - but there are zero revenue figures, no defined outcomes from the relationships built, and no data to substantiate claims of transformation.
with my agency, J and L marketing
it's been a business for 32 years, 33 years
The host asks broad, open-ended questions (top-three mistakes, the wall, your difference-maker) with no meaningful follow-up or pushback, and the opening joke about puberty sets a PR-friendly, unchallenging tone that never changes. A mid-episode ad break further disrupts what little momentum exists.
So if you can go back in time and do business differently, what would be like top three things you would change?
it took him 47 years to hit puberty. So here he actually is. His voice is finally changing.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Scott Joseph, esteemed for his remarkable networking skills and generosity, shares his personal and professional journey with us, filled with invaluable lessons on the power of community. Scott opens up about the early missteps in his career where isolation hindered growth, and how fostering genuine relationships not only enriched his personal life but also fueled substantial business success. By being candid about the trials faced by entrepreneurs and the strength found in learning from struggles, Scott sheds light on the transformative influence of a supportive network in navigating challenges and achieving success. In our conversation, we explore how communities like Me Plus Ultra can be a catalyst for growth by promoting a culture of continuous learning and ego-free collaboration among business owners. Scott discusses the importance of embracing each challenge with a beginner's mindset, no matter how experienced you are. This approach, coupled with aligning your financial strategies with your business vision, can lead to sustainable growth and scalability.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
This podcast has been brought to you by GFG Solutions. Welcome to the Invest the Difference podcast. We're going to talk about how to grow and scale your life and business by investing in and doubling down on the difference maker. So whether it's mindset growth, tactical business strategies, or identifying your unique edge, let's invest the difference and change the world.
We're back on the Invest the Difference podcast. Very excited for another one of our micro episodes. with Mr. Scott Joseph.
Let me give you guys a quick rundown on Scott. Scott's an incredibly successful business owner, but more importantly, this guy is a giver, right? Like I have never met a business owner who has connected to me with so many people, has just given his time. And today he's gonna give us some golden nuggets of knowledge to help you invest in the difference makers of your life and business.
Scott, thank you for being on the show. Thank you. And we're in the middle of our event here. I'm gonna apologize.
I'm a little hoarse. Yeah. The cool thing about Scott is it took him 47 years to hit puberty. So here he actually is.
His voice is finally changing. That's what it sounds like. He's finally growing up. So Scott, first and foremost, our audience, entrepreneurs all over the place, kind of figuring it out.
And a lot of times as entrepreneurs, we want to learn from other people's mistakes. Yeah. So you've been in multiple different businesses and multiple different industries, bought, sold, invested, grew. I mean, you've hit the full circle of it.
So if you can go back in time and do business differently, what would be like top three things you would change? What would be the top three things you would do differently, knowing where you're at today, knowing what you know today? Well, it's easier to start that off by saying, all right, the biggest mistake I made and what I would do different. biggest mistake I did I was very isolated so very competitive especially early on I got into business in my early 20s and I grew up in sports so just competition is what drove me and I I had the the I was naive in thinking that we could control everything I didn't need help from anyone else and it was just you know our tagline literally was move the crowd crush the competition and count the money.
And it was just all about, uh, focusing on ourselves. Oh, I don't need to help from this guy. I don't need to know that guy. I can figure it out on my own.
And it cost me probably a lot of time and probably a lot of different levels that we didn't achieve. And so looking back and what I've done in the last three to four years, which has completely changed my life. Um, I'm much better. You just mentioned giving.
thank you for that intro um the more i give the more i seem to receive yeah and i've i mean i meant it i mean i mean it's true well i i've taken a different approach and so now i think my network everybody hears the network is your network equals their network I am all about building relationships forging real connections And I get incredible joy uniting or introducing people that have good vision diverse skills, and watching them just, watching the new business opportunities emerge from it, whether it's referrals, whatever it might be.
And it's just what brings me joy. And quite honestly, since I've been doing that, the relationships that I've also formed have actually had, Big impacts on my other businesses as well, which have grown. We've had the best probably last two years than any year I've been in business. And so, God, could have saved a lot of time, effort, and money.
But that's the whole premises of Me Plus Ultra, right? Like, I attend several masterminds a year, but this is my favorite one. This is the one I look forward to coming every single year because of the giving aspect of the group, which stems from the leader, you. Yeah.
Yeah. Got a lot of egos in the room, and everyone seems to check it out. feel that no they check it at the door i mean a lot of zeros in that room but it's not that way everybody checks it at the door and it's just like uh it's a and none of it what's weird about it is there was no strategy or planning session where we said yeah if we'd set it up this way it just kind of organically grew into that yeah so all right so like the one thing about entrepreneurs as you know when things start going bad right you've had bad years right yes you know it's weird the first 20 years now really all easy riding growth and just uh you know we were laser focused in on that all right on on us you get a little fat and happy and uh but go on i but i think every entrepreneur eventually hits a wall or yeah start off fitting a wall and that happened and it's like and then we tend to go inwards right we tend to be like we tend to be ashamed of failure we tend to be like oh i can't let people know but in all reality like it happens to all of us yeah talk to me about when you hit the wall and how'd you get through it are you paying too much in taxes have you ever thought to yourself i wish my cpa would just help me create ideas to help me lower my tax bill.
And if you're not having a conversation with your CPA before the year is over, guess what? You are missing out. And here at GFG Solutions, this is exactly what we do. We create strategies to help you mitigate your tax liability so you have more bottom line to do the things you want to do, hire the people, and achieve your vision.
If you're a business doing over a million dollars in sales and you're not having this conversation, you're missing out. So give us a call so we can start the conversation today. So the wall happened for me when, uh, with my agency, J and L marketing, and I had a couple of different situations that kind of made this perfect storm. I was getting to the point 20 some odd years in, because it's been a business for 32 years, 33 years, things that used to excite me became very mundane to me.
Okay. So I was losing my passion early at this juncture went through a divorce So I had some personal issues I was dealing with The things I losing my passion for that part of business that I had But then at the same time, we're going from a direct marketing agency and going full range digital. And so I had a guy heading that up because I didn't want to learn all that. I didn't want to have to start over on the marketing side of it.
And I know digital, but I'm not like the way he knows it. And so he's doing that. And eventually it became obvious. And so we're trying to pivot the company.
I'm going through the personal stuff. I'm not as passionate. And I'm trying to pivot the company where he's running it, but I'm still running it over him. And I've got one foot in and one foot out.
So this probably delayed the pivot a few years. And there were some tough years. So yeah, that first 20 years was easy. And then all of a sudden, things that I was dealing with stuff that I was not used to dealing with.
and um what i realized and what eventually was the first step out of it i had to take a look inward and and i basically said first off why am i so happy in these other businesses i have but not this one yeah and it came to me i said well because you're not as involved in these you've got a guy a good partner who runs the show you get the shit out of his way and it's cranking i said but i'm not doing that with this one and there and so it came down to why is that why am i so still you know you don't want to do it anymore yeah you want to be involved but why because that was my identity and i did not and my ego would not allow me to step away because i had not found what i wanted to do into go into i didn't know what my from this stage on what is my purpose moving forward got it right yeah and um and quite honestly luckily we started doing these events and that's when i started realizing this is where i light up when i talk about it you know this is what i need to be doing um and so i went in that direction which gave me uh it gave me the peace to be able to say jameel who's better at running it now than i ever was right run the show and and it's just exploded amazing so so really to get through the wall you have to check your ego at the door and yeah yes you know admit that you're not 100 the best that's right yeah that's tough i want to be clear i was at one point yeah okay yeah perfect perfect well kind of getting into that then my last question for you as we wrap up today's episode is you know the episode's called the invest a difference podcast and i think everyone has a difference maker that makes them special that makes Scott one of one yeah what what is rated what is it about you it's rated whatever we wanted to be rated today what is it about you that it's special besides my personality and looks besides your low personality and your amazing amazing looks I in honesty I think around with the others in all honesty i think it my uh i think i have good vision okay i definitely a visionary um and i have enough self that if i know i have a good vision and a good idea and i'm on to something i also know my limitations and i know to bring and surround myself with the right people to carry out that vision and execute on.
Yeah. And you think that has driven success for you? Like that one piece is what's driven the success that you have today. A hundred percent.
Yeah. Now I can say early on, you know, the first company I ever did that was successful, I was visionary and I was integrating CEO and the janitor. That's correct. I was doing But as those things start, as you scale, you can't do all that.
And then at the same time, you also start to lose interest in some of that stuff. And now I'm just to a point where I only do things that I enjoy. And I know that if I'm taking on tasks that I don't enjoy, the business will suffer from it. So I've got to pencil it out to where I don't...
In other words, I wouldn't start a business that I thought could be successful if I knew I had to rely on me to carry out things that I would not enjoy. Yeah. If that makes sense. Execution.
Because I know it's not going to work. Yeah. Awesome. So if it can't pencil with me bringing in the right people, it's not worked on for me.
Awesome stuff. Thank you. Yeah. We're going to link all of his stuff on the show notes, but where can our audience find more of Scott?
Well, LinkedIn, I'm all over every social. Yeah. Instagram at Scott T. Joseph.
uh same with twitter or x uh you can find me on linkedin but uh easy way go to meplusultra.com which i gotta tell you guys me plus ultra is a amazing group if you are a business owner and you care about growth at all and you want to be in a room of individuals who check their egos at the door everybody's willing to learn you walk in as a white belt and you absolutely grow you got to check out me plus ultra and we accept black belts walking in the door too well be a black belt but walk in as a white belt because i gotta grow 100 right that's right thank you sir all right buddy appreciate you yep see you guys on the next one Do you know if your balance sheet is set up in the most effective way possible to help you achieve your vision and goals?
Is there alignment between how you choose to treat your cash flow into your vision and what you're trying to accomplish? If you don't know the answer to these questions, you should probably give GFG Solutions a call because that's the exact space we play in. Our job is to create balance sheet optimization strategies that's going to take you and your business to the next level to help you grow and scale. Give us a call today and let's start the conversation.
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