In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Luis Scott to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the way to build the life and business of your dreams.
Connect with us on social media:
- Facebook: Thomas Bennett
- Instagram: @Thomas.mbennett
-YouTube:@SmallBusinessMoneyConnector
- LinkedIn: Thomas Bennett
Subscribe to "Small Business, Big Moves" on Your Favorite Podcast Platform for more inspiring episodes on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Luis Scott to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the way to build the life and business of your dreams.
Connect with us on social media:
- Facebook: Thomas Bennett
- Instagram: @Thomas.mbennett
-YouTube:@SmallBusinessMoneyConnector
- LinkedIn: Thomas Bennett
Subscribe to "Small Business, Big Moves" on Your Favorite Podcast Platform for more inspiring episodes on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
Welcome to Small Business, Big Moves, the podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Tom Bennett. In today's episode, we're going to cover all things business growth from business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses. Welcome to the show. My guest today is Louise Scott. Louise, if you wanted to introduce yourself. Yeah, I'm Luis. I'm an attorney and I don't practice law anymore, but I've been in the legal industry for 20 years and in that 20 years, I have found what I believe to be a secret formula for growing your business and for creating a predictable business that allows you to live the life of your dreams. And so now I'm helping people do that around the nation. And really, now we have clients in outside of the country. So around the world. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. And I'm excited to have you on here. And just wanted to kind of go into that a little more, right. Attorney, entrepreneur, speaker, author, all the fun stuff. So definitely excited for you to share some of that value today. And that, that's really what I wanted to focus on, right. Is just what you mentioned, Building that brand up and helping helping entrepreneurs maximize their greatness and really build a company or vision of their dreams. Right. So really wanted to. Jump into that a lot today. But before we get into that, I wanted to really take it back to the beginning. Right. Kind of talk about where you started from and how you got into what you're doing today. Yeah. So I I'm originally from Puerto Rico. My, my parents joined the military and we made our final move to Georgia. I ended up in, in, in Atlanta, Georgia, but the, the story of. Me becoming an attorney and ultimately an entrepreneur is a story of chance. I always say that sometimes our, our biggest opportunities are not intentionally created for us as they just happen for us. And so you always have to be on the lookout for that. But I was in undergraduate, I was 19 years old. I was in a class called business law. And while I was in there, there was three rows of seats and the person who was leading the class was a judge. And he was a judge. From a local court system when he was teaching business law, and he wanted everyone to stand up there's something called the Socratic method this is what you do in law school you stand up and you have to defend a case but in this situation. He just wanted us to stand up and tell us what we wanted to get out of the class. And and what are some things you like to do when you're, when you're not studying? And so everybody was going, I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a surgeon. I want to be a nurse. Meanwhile, all I want to do is play baseball. Like I was, I was at school, I had a scholarship. I, all I cared about was playing baseball. And so I had to think of something really quick. And when they finally got to me, I stood up and I said you know, my name is Luis. I like long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners. And then I sat down. And so I tried to avoid the question. And he said, Mr. Scott, what, so what do you want to get out of this class? What do you want to do when you graduate? And I stood up and I said, I want to be a lawyer. And that was that. And it's like, it was the first time that I had ever said those words out of my mouth. And so it kind of, kind of freaked me out. What freaked me out even more was he called me down to the, to the, to his podium. He said, Mr. Scott, let me talk to you at the end of class. And I was like, Oh no, this judge is upset that I, that I was telling jokes. And he said, do you really want to be a lawyer? I said, well, I do, but I don't think I'm smart enough. And he goes, you're smart enough. He goes, I'll give you a three month internship this summer. And out of that one encounter, I had a three month internship that completely changed my life and set my life in a, in a brand new career path. And that's, that's where I am today because of that, that encounter. That's incredible. Yeah, almost like being in the right place at the right time, right? And those words just came out and then you went on to make a career out of it. And then the other thing I wanted to cover too, while we're on that topic, right, from going back to the beginning I know you've had a successful journey as well, but I'm sure along the way, there's been kind of some ups and downs, right? I know. Obviously online and social media, we always see all the wins and victories, but anything specific that jumps out to you, things you had to overcome, or maybe that you looked at as a failure throughout the journey. Yeah. I mean, I had so many things overcome. I wrote a book about it. It's called, it has to hurt and it's accepting life's realities. But in enjoying the journey along the way, because the reality of life is that because we're in a very relational world relationships hurt and we get into relationships and we lose friends and we lose friends. Spouses and we lose partners and, and it hurts and we lose money. And we, I mean, it's, it's, it's such a, such a difficult thing to be a human being, to be honest with you. And so I had eight failed businesses before I actually hit it. And I also I had a failed marriage, you know, I, I fortunately got divorced. I was when you're working a lot, 80 hours, 90 hours a week, it's really hard to be connected. And so I, I also went through a personal divorce. I had a business divorce. I had a partnership that split up. So I've gone through a lot of. Trials in my 20 years. But what has really sustained me in that time period was my willingness to be resilient and my willingness to overcome any obstacle. Because once you realize that you're creative for greatness, there's, there's no real retreating. You can't go back to a normal life. And so for me, no matter the obstacle that I was dealing with, I knew I had to overcome it because. Because my life was just meant for more. I love it. That's huge, man. It's, it's inspiring. Right. I mean, we, we don't always hear about, like I said, the background and almost any successful business owner entrepreneur, they they've all had just as many downs as they've had ups, right? You can't just start a business. And next thing you know, you're successful in living the life of your dream. So. Kind of piggybacking off that, right? Eight or nine failed businesses, failed marriage, right? When did you all get to that point where you had the business, things are starting to grow, and you really realized, hey, this, this is what's for me. I'm ready to really take this to the next level. So I got when I was going through my business and personal divorce, it was actually happening around the same time it was in 2016 is when all of it started to unravel for me. And one of the things that so we're talking about eight years ago, and at that time, I won't say that this was a chance encounter this was this was planned by me but it's but but I feel like it was. the stars aligned. I want to go through counseling. I wanted to make sure that I was emotionally stable. You know, if I was gonna be in a relationship again, if I was gonna start a business again, I mean, it was talk about, you know, PTSD going through those two things. Within a six month period, I was signing papers for personal and business divorce. And so I was going through a very challenging time and I was asking, you know, I'm a faith based person. I was like, God, why is this happening to me? Like, why am I the one that's going through this? I I didn't want to, I wasn't trying to hurt anybody. I was trying to do the right thing and it didn't work out for me and so forth. And I went to this counselor and this counselor was about 40 minutes from my house. Cause I did not want to be going to a counselor that was close to my house. And so I go to this counselor, that's like 40 minutes from my house. I show up there and he starts asking me a question and the question that he asked me, and you know, I know not everybody believes, It's like a faith based person. But the question he asked me was, who do you become when you become who God created you to be? Now you could ask the same question. Who do you become when you become who you were created to be, whether you say God or not. But that was the question he asked me. And every week I would go and I would answer it. I'd be like, I'm going to be great lawyer. I'm going to be a great business person. I'm going to be great this. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. Who do you become? And ultimately six or seven weeks into that, that process, I was driving down the road, getting to the place. There was, it was like a perfect day, 73 degrees sunny. It was, the sun was coming through the trees. It was like a cool breeze. It was perfect. I was pulling in and I looked up at the sky and I, and I thought to myself, I know what I become, I become powerful. That's what I become. And I walked into his office. And I said, I become powerful. And he was like, absolutely. That's what you're going to become. Now, what are you going to do with that power? And I realized that I needed to develop a personal vision statement for myself. And so I wanted to live a life of significance and I was going to filter everything that I did through that personal vision statement. And so from the moment that I lost everything to the moment that I regained everything was about four years. So I went from bankruptcy to millionaire in about four years. And it was all because I I jumped into that power that I believe existed in all of us. Good stuff, man. How are you? That's awesome. I know you said you had to find that find that purpose or really find out who you had to grow into or become. Right. And then you, you said you chose like powerful and being significant, and then it sounds like you were able to really take that You know, on top of being like the, I know you had the attorney background and build businesses, but then you were able to take that, right. And it sounds like you were able to help other people find that same power, find that same passion where they can go on to build their dream life. So I wanted you to talk a little more about that as well. I know a lot of people can benefit from that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think one of, one of the problems that people have in building their business or in their entrepreneurial journey or their leadership journey is that they have problems with their self image or their, their self worth. And maybe they're not, they don't feel like they're worth having a good business that pays them a really solid multi six figure, or maybe even seven figure income. And so I had to build that within myself. And, and one of the things that I teach people is that you will only grow to the level of your self image. You will only grow to the level of your self worth. You're not going to become a millionaire if you believe you don't deserve to be a millionaire, or if you believe that you're only destined for being trash, or you believe you're only destined for making 40, 000. Like, you're not going to become a millionaire if that's what you believe. To become a millionaire, you have to really believe That this is something that is for you, that this is something that you deserve, that this is something you can work for and that you, that you should get because you're going to be a giver and you're not going to be a taker and you're going to be benefiting the society and your community. And so for me, when I took, took in that power and I started seeing working in my life I realized that I could share that with others. And so I created a system for helping law firm earners grow and walk into their power and become the leaders that they need to be in order to grow their business because I heard this one time. Entrepreneurship is not about what you do. It's about who you become. And so if, if you're trying to do, do, do, do, do more, you're, you're not going to, you're going to miss the point, which is becoming is what makes you an amazing entrepreneur. It's not doing. And so that's what we teach people is become who you were created to be. Don't try to just do more. So, you know, that's definitely a good point. Kind of starts with that. And then it goes back to the whole thing, right? They say, like, if you enjoy and love what you do, you never work a day in your life, right? But I think like we talk about every entrepreneur, business owner has a different background, right? Maybe they were around entrepreneurs growing up, their parents own businesses, or they had a hobby and decided to try to make a business out of it. But I think you said it best, right? When you really. Find out who you are, find out your self worth and whether that's a why or purpose that drives you something like that. And then you can really take that and build a business on that. Because I think we've all, or I think most people have been in some sort of job or business in their life where they weren't passionate about it or didn't love it. And unfortunately, some people aren't ever able to break out of that. So I think that's a huge point, right? Find out really more about yourself and what drives you and then build a business off that and just give it your all. Absolutely. I agree. and then anything anything else on that point, right? About like building the the life and business of your dreams and what can come out of that. I mean, I mean, what can come out of building the life of your dreams obviously is, is having more time, more, more money, more choices. I had a mentor of mine in my early twenties who used to say money's not good or bad money only means you have more choices. And so when you have more money, you have more choices to decide whether you're going to fly first class or coach. Whether you can book a last minute ticket or if you're going to go are you going to this trip or that trip? Are you doing seven days or 10 days? Are you going to Europe? Like you get to decide what you want to do when you, when you make that more, more income. And so for me, building, building the business of your dreams is means building a business that you're proud of, building a business that benefits the community, building a business that benefits clients, building a business that benefits employees. And if you can do that, right. You're going to sleep well at night and you're going to have the money to be able to, to live a life that, that most people just dream of. Absolutely. It's a win win. And then so we covered obviously kind of your path where you started, right? Some of the hiccups that you went through, obviously really just the power of building the life and business of your dreams, right? So what, when you get to that point, Right. And then I wanted to really have you jump in on the the power of a robust business plan and what that can do. Right. Because now you get everything going, you get the business built. I mean, before that obviously in a business plan, but then you got to stick to it as well. So what would you recommend in those areas. Yeah, I mean there's, there's a road in, in, in Atlanta. It's it's I 85 and there's portions of it that in the morning, it's really, really foggy. And so the road is 70 miles per hour and on a clear day, you can go 80 and I generally do go 80, you know, they're not going to stop you for 10 miles over. I'm like zooming down. It's a beautiful day. I may throw down the windows or whatever. But when it's foggy, when it's foggy, I go 35 because I don't know the danger that lurks ahead. I don't know the issues that I'm going to be dealing with. And so for me, business planning is like that. The, the better you can plan, the further along you can plan, it clears the fog so that you can go faster. So you, you plan for the purposes of speed. You plan for the purposes of, of strategically identifying roadblocks or barriers that may exist, strategically removing the fog from your journey. And what happens with a lot of people is they become indecisive because they don't have a plan. They don't know if they should do this marketing or that. Hire this person or this person. Should they, you know, spend more money on sales? Should they do this particular you know, it, or, or this particular technology, because they don't have a plan. And so they're in the foggy field in a place where they can't really go the speed that they want. And so for me, business planning is all about removing that fog and the further you can plan out. The faster you can go because there's less fog on the road all the way down the road. And so that's what business planning is about. I'm a big proponent of the business plan. And I think that people who don't understand how that removes the fog have never truly done a business plan that's designed to create clarity. They've only done a business plan for the purposes of maybe getting money or they were, you know, trying to apply for a bank loan. And they don't realize that the business plan is a living document that helps set the trajectory of your business. And I have found that when you have a business plan, you can go super, super fast in my first year in business. I started in June of 2020 from June of 2020 to December. We did 106, 000 in revenue, but I had written a business plan, an 18 month business plan. In 2021, we did 1. 6 million in revenue in our basically in 18 months. By 2022, we were already at three and a half million in revenue. And so I think it's really, really important to have a plan. It'll create the clarity that you need for your business. Absolutely. No, I think, I think it's crazy to get started without one, but like you said, a lot of times people don't really make one until they need it. Like you said they may put when it's more like a goal sheet, right. That it's more. This is what we need to do in revenue, or this is how much money I need to make. And they may try to like reverse engineer to figure it out, but that's about as far as I see a lot of people get. And then you said it best, cause we deal with it all the time with some of the loans that we offer clients where. A lot of, if someone's acquiring a business, right, we're going to obviously want to see a business plan and some of the experience that they had in that industry. And a lot of times that's a delay because a lot of people have never done that, so they're going to go figure out how do I make this business plan? How do I make this look legit to make this happen? So, yeah, I think that's something that everyone should look into and figure out, especially when you're starting a new business or maybe getting into a new industry or anything like that. Yep. I agree. Absolutely. I know we threw a lot at him, but I know you're packed with knowledge and value. So I wanted to kind of give you some time if there's anything else you wanted to share or leave the listeners with that they benefit from. Yeah, I think that probably the greatest piece of advice that I've I've received in my entrepreneurial journey is that there's only two things that are going to happen when you start your business, you're either going to win, or you're going to quit. And the difference between those two is the person who's willing to persevere. And so if you're willing to persevere you're going to win. And I think that that was the greatest thing that I ever heard because in the moments of. dark times and when things felt like they were not going my way, I, I clung to those words and I realized if I just stay in long enough, I'm going to win. And I'm evidence of that. You know, and it's, it's so true, man. Like you, you said all those seven, eight failed businesses, right? Failed marriage. I mean, a majority of people that'll knock them down. Right. And I think that's truly what can separate A successful business owner and entrepreneur versus someone that's just really not cut out for it. Right. Because I agree a hundred percent. You either you either win or quit because we, we all fail. We all go through those journeys, but it's when you let that failure get to you and step away, then we see it all the time, people might go back to a nine to five or people might go back to working in the kitchen. It's yeah, it's, it's impressive what you went through. So I'm glad you shared that. Yeah, I'm definitely not cut out to go back to a nine to five for sure. I appreciate it, man. I'm excited to get this out there. I know a lot of people get value out of this. And that's going to be a wrap for this episode of Small Business Big Moves. If you enjoyed this, what we ask is you share with someone that can get value out of it. Leave us a review and a like, and then you can find me on all social media at Thomas Bennett. And we look forward to seeing you all in the next episode.