Scale Like a CEO
Join host Justin Reinert as he sits down with founders who’ve navigated the jump from do-it-all entrepreneur to strategic CEO. Each episode uncovers the key milestones, hard-won insights, and practical tactics you need to build a high-performing leadership team, overcome decision fatigue, and scale your business with confidence. Tune in weekly for quick, actionable conversations designed to accelerate your path to CEO mastery.
Scale Like a CEO
From Employee to Serial Entrepreneur: Nick Schutt's Journey
What does it take to run not just one, but multiple successful businesses simultaneously? Nick Schutt candidly reveals the driving force behind his entrepreneurial journey: "I got into entrepreneurship because I'm a terrible employee." This refreshingly honest insight kicks off a fascinating exploration of how one man has built an impressive portfolio spanning government contracting, mental health services, defense agency support, and nonprofit work—all while hosting a podcast on artificial intelligence.
Schutt's first venture, Artemis Human Capital Management, evolved from a traditional staffing company into a sophisticated government contractor implementing complex technology solutions for federal agencies like the VA and EPA. But perhaps his most remarkable story involves launching Healing Mind Wellness in January 2020—just as COVID-19 hit. When pandemic-related licensing delays threatened the new mental health clinic, Schutt pivoted to operating a COVID testing site, directing traffic himself on weekends to keep the business afloat while building his vision for comprehensive mental health services that now include specialized programs bridging outpatient and inpatient care.
Throughout our conversation, Schutt shares crucial insights for entrepreneurs facing scaling challenges. His "10-40-50 rule" for hiring (10% credentials, 40% skills, 50% cultural alignment) offers a practical framework for building effective teams. He tackles the reality that scaling isn't always upward, providing thoughtful guidance on making difficult decisions when external factors force downsizing. For entrepreneurs looking to learn from someone who's navigated diverse industries while maintaining a problem-solving mindset, Schutt's journey demonstrates how adaptability, strategic vision, and willingness to make tough calls can drive success across multiple business ventures. Connect with Nick on LinkedIn to continue the conversation about entrepreneurship, scaling strategies, or his latest ventures.
Yeah, man, I'll be honest. I got into entrepreneurship because I'm a terrible employee.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Scale Like a CEO, the podcast where we dive deep into the journeys, challenges and wisdom of successful entrepreneurs. Each episode brings you authentic conversations with business leaders who've built thriving companies from the ground up. Today, we're sitting down with Nick Schutt, a serial entrepreneur whose diverse portfolio spans from government contracting to mental health services. Get ready for an inspiring discussion about building multiple successful businesses and the lessons learned along the way.
Speaker 3:On scale like a CEO. If you wouldn't mind, just to get us started, just give us a little 90 second intro of you, your business and why you got into it. Yeah man.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest. I got into entrepreneurship because I'm a terrible employee. That's really where it started. I am not good at working in a box and sitting in a cubicle or do it like. That's just not me. And so I started my first high level. Just so you know, serial entrepreneur running three businesses concurrently right now have a podcast. I'm also starting a nonprofit also.
Speaker 1:So my first company I started in 2016, artemis Human Capital Management. We started as a routine staffing company in the technology space. I came up in the staffing and recruiting space. I feel like recruiters are like the used car salesman of the professional world largely and I got tired of folks looking at me like that. So we are a recovering staffing company now. We have some legacy clients interested in just people, but we also work as a subcontractor at four or five different federal government agencies doing technology work just rolling out a new litigation support system for the Veteran Affairs Office of Internal Investigation, for the Veteran Affairs Office of Internal Investigation Also built out a new records management system for the EPA agency-wide and imported over like 17 or 18 terabytes of data into it we're talking over 100 million records into that and automated a lot of the intake documents as well. I also have a piece of work as a subcontractor supporting New York City government as well a couple of local counties in Maryland also, so I've been doing that for nine years.
Speaker 1:In December 2019, january of 2020, I started Healing Mind Wellness. It's a state-licensed outpatient mental health clinic. I have two offices in Maryland providing psychiatry and therapy in person and via telehealth A couple of state licensed programs that are designed as a level of care more intensive than outpatient, less intensive than inpatient including one that's designed as a either. It's either a for adults it's either a last resort prior to being committed to inpatient facilities or as a step down for folks as they come out of inpatient to provide continuity of care for them as they reintegrate back into the community. We also provide therapy on-site in Baltimore County Public Schools.
Speaker 1:Starting a business in January of 2020 was an adventure Through COVID. It pushed our time to get licensed with the state from four months to 18 months, so I turned the thing into a COVID testing site for a while and was out directing traffic at 7 am on Saturdays and Sundays to get people to line up their cars right so that we could test them to keep the lights on while everything else is moving behind the scenes. A couple years ago I started EVLG Solutions as a minority partner. We're a woman-owned, veteran-owned company providing PMO work, pmo support and cybersecurity work to defense agencies as well. So think DOD specifically right now. And then, in addition to that, also involved with Collabolutions, which is my nonprofit that I started, where we are working to change the way government and industry interact, to improve the government's ability of government and their understanding of industry and industry's understanding of government providing different kinds of events. So it's an events-based nonprofit. We have a partnership with the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and a percentage of the proceeds of every event go right there to help children.
Speaker 1:And then started a podcast about a year ago 14 months ago called Robots and Red Tape. It's an interview podcast where I interview data and AI experts about AI, what it is, what it's going to do to us and why we need to understand it and get on board. So you know I have like 45, 50 episodes out with that. Yeah, it's been fun. Man, that's kind of me at a high level. I just like I'm curious and I solve problems.
Speaker 3:That's kind of me at a high level. I just like I'm curious and I solve problems. That's incredible. You've got your hands in a lot of different things. I love going back to one of the first things you said. I've spoken to so many entrepreneurs who have said something similar. They got into it because they weren't a good employee or they didn't want to work for anyone else, and so that's definitely a common thread that I've found. You serve a lot of different populations and I'm curious if you were to pick one or two ways that you're unique in the way that you're helping others, what would that be?
Speaker 1:I would say one of the ways I'm unique is I touch a lot of different things and understand how things interconnect in a way that most people don't. When I got into the healthcare space, my only experience in the healthcare industry was as a patient. I'd never worked in a doctor's office. I didn't know what an NPI number was, I didn't know what a CPT code was. I just didn't know anything and I was just like I can do this and I would also say I think that's unique with how I help people. I try to be very giving and always find ways to, you know, empower people to help themselves, happy to be a sounding board and I'm always willing to take time to help folks whenever I can. I think those are the main things that look to be of service and I try to find ways that my life experiences can help people in unique and interesting ways, because I have a very different perspective and a different view on things than most folks do.
Speaker 3:I'm curious, as you've grown your businesses. If you think back to your early business, at what point did you decide it's time to start hiring and building the team, and how did you do that?
Speaker 1:Well, different businesses are differently, so different businesses approached it differently, right? So I would say that, like on the services side, I knew because of revenue, different businesses differently, so different businesses approached it differently, right? So I would say that, like on the services side, I do because of revenue. It's like all right, I have more revenue. Now we need to do more things, need to start bringing folks in. So that was it. It was revenue driven, I'd say. Another one is when I start making mistakes because I'm spread too thin. That's another area where it's like all right, I need help, even if it's not a full-time, dedicated person. In today's day and age, you can find virtual people. You can get people on a 1099 basis. There's a lot of ways that you can offset the mistakes you're making. Then, on the mental health side, I'm not licensed, I can't actually perform the work. You need to have the right people in place. Tracking demand and incoming work and matching your growth with it is not the easiest thing, but you have to build a system around that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it can definitely be challenging and I imagine it's really challenging when you've got multiple businesses that have different growth trajectories and indicators of how and when you might need to add people. I'm curious, as you start to grow your teams and you can pick one of them to talk about just because you've got these different teams. What are some challenges that you've had as you grow the team and then delegate those tasks down?
Speaker 1:I would say the hardest lesson is learning that People aren't going to do it just the way you want. Right, it's not going to be exactly the way you would want to do that. Speaking for myself, I had a lot of difficulty letting go of things and I still do with certain parts of it. But you have to have tolerance for folks and understand mistakes are going to happen. Look at them as coaching opportunities. Hiring the right people and properly setting expectations helps with a lot of that. And then it's also continuing to go back in and do reviews with your existing team of how things are going.
Speaker 1:I've also overhired and had to let people go. I've hired people and then lost contracts and had to let them go. It's just cyclical. People talk about scaling like it's a one directional thing. You know that you're only going to go up and that's not the case. You know there can be things you can be doing an amazing job and there could be things completely out of your control that change the trajectory of things.
Speaker 3:So I'm curious you know you talk about, you know, scaling up and then sometimes you've got to right size the business. I'm curious if there's any stories in there, the challenge of making those difficult decisions, because I know that's something others have to face and it's a hard thing to do. So I'm curious if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, first and foremost, just have to take a motion out of it to some degree. Like there's the situation right Of hey client decided to end a contract even though we're doing great, meeting KPIs, doing an amazing job, something changed in their business and they needed to write. They let us go. And then you have three or four people supporting their project. That's a tough conversation to have, especially when you want to keep the folks.
Speaker 1:I think that there's a difference between letting somebody go that is not performing and somebody you want to keep, that you want to build with and you see a lot of potential in continuing to groom them and grow them in their career. I've had to do that with people in the past where I've had plans for people. I know what I want to do and then things change externally and I think you have to separate your emotions from the situation. How you feel about it is irrelevant in this case. You have to make the hard choices to keep the ship on the right direction, even if you want to keep them.
Speaker 1:And that's a hard place to sit as an entrepreneur, especially if you have a small team. If you have a couple hundred people underneath you, that's a different conversation. But if you have 15 people on the team and there's like four of them, that are awesome, but you've got to let two of them go because, even though they're doing their job and delivering their piece of it, that's just never a fun situation to sit in. And so I think like separate the emotions, understand where it is. I tend to approach it as an adult and have a conversation. Listen, this is where we are. If you want to talk about doing other things, there are other functions you can perform in this business. Maybe you keep the person, maybe you don't, based on how they receive that. That's a really tough position to sit in and I would say that, you know, the biggest thing is like separate your emotions, understand the positive, the negative associated with the situation, get through it and then the other side, like then you can have your feelings about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's definitely challenging, especially when you've got folks that you want to keep on but the business can't survive with all of those people on payroll. I'm curious we were talking about hiring the right people and understanding who you might need to let go, might need to let go where some is easy, some it's not, as time has gone on?
Speaker 1:how have you refined your talent selection criteria? I came up in the staffing space, right. I've probably hired a couple thousand people for companies over the last 15 years. The biggest change for me was approaching myself the same way I would approach an external client and holding myself to the same standard. I would hold other people to what's really important here. What do you anticipate this function actually doing? You have a great job description. That's awesome. You have 74 things or you have like 15, 20 jobs, 15 bullets on there doing various things.
Speaker 1:What's actually important? Boil that down right and understand, all right, they need to. If you're hiring, say, an accountant, right, they need to be able to post, like manage your books like. They need to be able to, you know, interact with your external CPA. They need to be able to, like reconcile everything. But do they need to be able to, like, do forecasts too?
Speaker 1:That's kind of a finance function. That's not an accounting function. Those are two separate skill sets in large companies. A finance function that's not an accounting function. Those are two separate skill sets in large companies, right? Also, understand where you are as an organization and what kind of person is going to thrive in your company the person that has, you know, 25 years working at the Accentures or the Ernst and EYs of the world. They're not necessarily or only has ever worked for large companies Small companies is entirely different ballgame than a large. So, being realistic about all of that, understanding where you are as an organization and what's super important to you, but then also understand my hiring rule, justin. I call it the 10, 40, 50 rule. I think anytime you hire somebody, 10% of your decision will be based on things like education, certification, stuff, like that. Right, if you're hiring an accountant, do they need to have a CPA license or not?
Speaker 1:Because there are a whole bunch of accountants out there that do not have a CPA, that perform internal accounting functions without a problem. Your 40% is going to be your hands-on skill set, whether you have the ability to actually do the job or not. The other half is corporate culture. Fit it's personality, fit with your current team. Are they going to show up early? Are they going to stay late? Are they going to take it personally if the job isn't done right? Is it going to bother them or are they just looking to clock in and clock out and keep it moving? People that want to do that, that's fine. That's a different approach to professional careers than I take. But a lot of people survive that way and thrive that way and that's totally cool. But they're going to thrive in different kinds of roles.
Speaker 1:When I'm looking to hire internally, I not only define the role. I define the role. I define not just the specific role. I define the role. I define not just the specific role. I define who it's going to touch and understand who they are and what kind of person is going to work best with them. I build a profile of what I'm looking for and then I go find it. I don't post a job and ask people to apply. I actively find the person. I've done this for so many people for so long that I'm able to narrow that down pretty quickly. And then I would also say, like something super important that I've done is make sure that I'm not the only decision maker, even though it may be my decision, but I don't want to be the only one making the decision. I want to gut check on myself from people that I've put around myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's three things I want to pull out of that.
Speaker 3:One was this idea that just because someone did well at a big company like a Fortune 100, that doesn't always translate and actually in my experience, rarely translates to success in a small, scaling company, because the resources available are different, the working culture is different and so, yeah, that's always a challenge. And then that culture piece. I really actually rail against this idea of culture fit, because typically culture fit is a bunch of bias packed into a simple term, but those intangibles that you talk about. Somebody might be able to do the job, but people typically leave a job not because of their inability to do the job, but their inability to work well in the place that they're in Our values aligned, our ways of working aligned, and making sure that we're filtering out those things that are just our own bias filters like, oh, they went to the same college that I did, or someone else that I liked, like that, no, that's not. It Do they? You know, will they work well and resolve conflict well with the people that we're working with?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And when I say culture fit, I don't mean organization. I don't mean fit like do they fit your biases right? No, when I say culture fit, I mean because, to your point, people don't leave companies, they leave managers. Just because you can do this job doesn't mean you're the right person for the job. I think one of the hardest positions to hire for is like a receptionist or an administrative, like somebody at the front desk answering the phones.
Speaker 1:You talk about a medical practice. That is your face to the world. Are you happy? Are you set? How are you going to come off, especially when you're dealing with mental health, like in the mental health space, where folks may not be having great days or may not be all the way stable, right? How are you going to handle that? Interacting with that population all the time? Are you going to be able to work at the pace that we need? Are you going to be able to do it with a smile on your face? There's a lot that goes into that. That's why I start with like defining, like what does success look like? And defining what I need, and then go from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, nick, I'm curious you know what's your vision for the future in your businesses and where you're going to focus on growth. Man, it's a great question. I have a lot of them. I don't 100% know, and that's fine. I can tell you. You know probably two of the entities that I'm working right now. The goal is to get acquired at least two of them maybe three, I don't know and then start another round or buy companies and go from there because I don't like. I'm not certainly going to go back and work for people, Like I said, I'm terrible at that and I'm broken. I can't work internally for somebody else now. I haven't had a job since 2015. The last time I worked for somebody else, donald Trump was a businessman, not a politician. Just to give you a scale on how long it's been, justin, it's been a long decade.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have some new ideas on entities that I'd like to start. I'm looking for an AI product at the moment, a really good one that's going to sit in a key area or two. I'm looking to go into whether that's going to be an internal product that we use as part of the secret sauce to do our work or as part of a like tech startup play. I don't know yet. We're going to find out. It's like build, get acquired and then build again and get acquired is kind of my thought. That's where I'm at, but it's building an ecosystem around all of it too.
Speaker 3:Great Well, Nick, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. I've enjoyed the conversation and it's always great to hear from someone who's got their hands in so many things and how you're juggling it and viewing it. So thank you so much. If people want to reach out, what's the best way for them to contact you?
Speaker 1:I would say the best way to contact me is via LinkedIn. Very active on there, you can always find me. Wouldn't be more than happy to have a conversation with folks. Really appreciate you having me on, justin. Thank you so much, man. Thank you so much.