Episode 240: Winning at Business and Life with Mark Scrimenti

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

I'm Mark Scromenti. I'm a fractional COO, a writer, husband, and father of 2 girls. We live in Chicago. Professionally, I'm a right-hand man for hire. I help visionary CEOs, especially in social entrepreneurship ventures, clarify their vision and goals, develop a strategy for growth, and then execute it. My background is in e-commerce operations, including product management, digital marketing, and customer service, designing and building systems, processes, and teams, scaling for sustainable growth and profitability, aligning all parts of an organization to deliver reliable value.

Well, Marc, it's a pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2, what is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?

It's people's stuff. So it's not industry-specific, just the infinite variety of human foible. No one is ever only what they first appear to be. And when you work with someone, you eventually discover all their little quirks and psychopathologies, biases, blind spots, areas for growth. And we've all got them. One of my old bosses and I used to say, he or she's got the right pathology for the job. The idea is simply that strengths and weaknesses are often two sides of the same coin. So for example, if you're hiring a project manager, you probably want someone who's at least a little anal retentive, let's just say. But the flip side of that is that they might drive you crazy sometimes with all the double-checking, needless follow-ups, and so on. Often you could laugh or cry, but you learn to embrace imperfection. And if you can learn to laugh about it as well, you're much better off, especially if you can laugh about yourself and you get to the point where other people feel comfortable laughing about themselves with you.

Very good point. And I agree with you. You got to laugh at yourself first. And then it just becomes infectious. So it's a great point. Question number 3, I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

I'd say the chapter on difficult conversations. Your business will go only as far as the conversations that you're willing and able to have. I say this because so many, so many of the problems people have in business and in life are the result of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and/or a failure to do the hard work of really getting through to each other to a place of mutual understanding. I know from experience that making any business operation work, let alone grow, requires uncomfortable conversations on a routine basis. This means risking vulnerability, asking for what you really want, speaking directly, clarifying ambiguity, flushing out assumptions, repeating yourself, just hanging in there through uncomfortable conflicts and seeing them through to resolution. It's all easier said than done, but it requires not only courage, insight, and self-awareness, but patience, empathy, and emotional maturity. And unfortunately, these commodities tend to be in short supply. So that's not to say that talking solves every problem, but if it doesn't help you break through barriers to growth, it at least helps you find your limits, and that information is valuable in itself. Mm-hmm.

I couldn't agree with you more. That's very wise. Thank you. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?

Talk to your customers. That may sound like generic advice, but I mean really talk to your customers at length. These are actual customers on a regular basis for the purposes of strategic learning. I'm a huge proponent of Jobs to Be Done theory, which is a qualitative research methodology for learning what your customers really value and why they buy from you and not from someone else. So in the past, I've spent a lot of time talking directly to customers. And if you ask them the right questions and really listen to their answers, they will tell you what you need to know to grow your business, innovate, improve customer experience, optimize for profitability, and so on. There's no more guessing, no more highest-paid person's opinion, not just mere correlation. But you could actually start to get to cause and effect. And once you know that, then you can really innovate in ways that help your customers make the kind of progress in their lives that they're hiring you to do for them and will keep them hiring you again and again. So talking to customers is the greatest source of strategic insight. It doesn't cost you much except for your time. And the ROI is potentially huge if you know how to do it.

And it's so true. I experienced this time and time again in my— my career, you know, especially in marketing, where I would always find the time to get out in the field to ride with the reps because the customers would do exactly as you say. They would let you know what you can do to improve and innovate and stuff. So what you're saying is so wise, and I appreciate you sharing that insight.

Thank you.

Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

So have you done Ron Higgs already?

I haven't.

Okay, well, Ron Higgs is certainly one. I had another person in mind too, uh, Doug Lambert, a friend of mine in Chicago who's an entrepreneur and a very good human being. So either one, it gives you two options.

Great, great. Well, I, I'm already connected to Ron, and I'll definitely, uh, reach out to, uh, to the other suggestion as well. Thank you for those, uh, those referrals. And our final question, question number 6: please tell me about your first job.

My first job was, aside from mowing lawns, was selling broken cookies for the Milwaukee Biscuit Company at the Seven Mile Fair between Milwaukee and Chicago. I was probably about 14. On summer weekends, my best friend and I would drive down there with a carload of broken cookies, stack them on a folding table, and stand there all day while thrifty shoppers sorted through the cookies and bargained for the best price. Because my friend had the connection with the supplier, He was the boss, and he assigned me the more difficult job of haggling with customers while he did the easier job of collecting and counting their money. But it turned out I enjoyed haggling more than I thought, and I was surprisingly good at it. At the end of the day, we'd split the take 50/50 with the biscuit company. He gave me whatever he gave me, which I presume was half of our take, though I really have no idea of knowing. He's still my best friend, so I believe he was fair to me, but that's one of those difficult conversations I've yet to have.

I love the story, and the broken cookie says it all. It's great. It just, you just, you know, and you find ways to, to, to, to, to generate money. And that's a great example of it, Mark. And I appreciate you being on the show. How could people find you?

Thank you. Um, so you can find me on LinkedIn. That's, that's the best place to connect with me. I'm doing another podcast on Jobs Theory next week with Damon Pastelka of Exit Your Way, but I don't think this is going to air before then, so you'll have to dig through his recorded archive to find me there. But Meanwhile, hit me up on LinkedIn and mention this podcast.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.