Episode 71: Winning at Business and Life with Scott Aaron

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.

So my name is Scott Aaron from Marlton, New Jersey, formerly Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I am a business coach and consultant teaching business owners, entrepreneurs, online marketers how to leverage the platform of LinkedIn to build their business, their brand, their networks, and eventually their income.

Scott, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

The best thing about working in my industry is I get to do what I love. I don't consider it work what I do. I It's my passion. My passion is engaging and connecting with people, and I get to actually provide hope and other avenues and other ways and opportunities for people to grow their business the way that I did. And I'm truly grateful every single day that I get to do it because it doesn't feel like work, and I know it never will.

I love that, and I also love the fact that you say that you give people hope, that it's very inspiring. Question number 3. So I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read? God.

So, you know, for me, I always like to think about the end in mind first. I'm a visual person. So for me, whenever I'm doing goal visioning and goal planning with my clients, I ask them one question. What is your desired outcome? You know, what's, what's the end result that you're looking to achieve? Because what people don't realize is that if you don't create that vision of what you actually want to achieve, you're never going to know where to look and where to go. So if I was to look for all the answers, I would go to the last chapter that allows me to paint a picture of what I want to achieve. And then you work backwards to create the steps in order to achieve that goal.

I love that, sort of like using it as your North Star.

Correct.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, compass, exactly. 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?

Become better listeners. I think the, the one thing that I realized, and you know, I've been in coaching and consulting now for 23 years, I started when I was 18, is it— you have to do your best to be an active listener. And I think when I was younger, and I think some people also fall victim to this, is that instead of listening to the person that you're conversing with, you're actually thinking about what you want to say next, what you want to say. But when you become an active listener, you become a great connector. Because there's something that, you know, whenever I'm talking to a potential client, there's one question that I ask every single time I get them on the phone. I always say to them, what problem are you seeking to have solved right now? When I ask that question, they're painting a picture for me of exactly how I can help them. So then I don't even have to sell them on anything. They're already telling me what it is they need help with. But the problem is a lot of people don't listen to that answer. They're still thinking about what they want to talk about. So what I've learned to do is I always have a stack of note cards sitting right by my computer, and whenever I ask someone a question, I will actually write down some of their answer. I will connect— I will create connecting points between myself and them to create relatability and trust, which actually heightens the connection with someone whether you do or do not know them. So becoming an active listener, becoming a better listener, and talking less is going to help you more.

It sounds like, you know, I think of the 80/20 rule, you know, you listen 80% of the time, talk 20% of the time. But would you recommend an even higher percentage of the listening?

Absolutely. I try to ask as many questions as possible. And the analogy that I always tell people is you have to ASK to GET. You have to You have to ask in order to get. So if you just make statements and you're doing all the talking, it's basically putting that person's needs on the back burner when it needs to be on the front burner. So the more questions you ask, the more, the more, the more questions you ask, the more answers you're going to get, the more clarity you're going to have with the conversation.

I love it. That is so insightful. Thank you. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

Listen, if you can get this guy on there, I would love it. Robin Sharma. He's one of my— he wrote a lot of great books. His first book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, basically he took it to, I think, 26 different publishers before it finally got picked up. But he also wrote The 5 AM Club, The Leader Who Had No Title, and his His theory on leadership and how important it is, it's just unbelievable. And the fact that creating what he calls a Menlo Park, which is your sanctuary where you can have your quiet time. And something that you and I were talking about in the pre-show is about that work-life balance. And Robin always talks about the fact that you need to have boundaries around your time. You can't be hustling every single day, grinding every single day. You need time to recharge and refuel. So I've set so many wonderful boundaries around my business now. I don't do anything before 10 AM. I don't do anything after 7 PM, and I do nothing Friday night to Monday morning. The weekends are completely off. I do no business because my goal is to actually have 200 days off a year. I wanna have almost 6 months of no work because that work-life balance, again, like you and I were talking, it's literally, it's an individual-based thing, but what I learned from Robin is really putting those specific areas of things that are most important to me, blocking off that time that is my Menlo Park. It is my time to recharge and refuel because I'll show up better for my clients every day if I do so.

I totally can understand that. And I'm inspired by that because I think that, that as you're talking about it, I think back to what we talked earlier about that goal setting of having that 6 months off. So that's a real great goal that you can achieve and attain what you want in life.

Yeah, I mean, if you, if you think about, if you break it down, if, if I don't do any work on Fridays and Saturdays, that's, that's guaranteed, that's 2 days off a week. And if there's 52 weeks in a year, that's already 104 days right there. So then I just have to work on those other 75 days, which, which could be, you know, a week vacation here, a week vacation there. So it is possible, but again, going back to the end in mind, getting to that end I want 180 days off a year. How do you get there? Break it down step by step, and then you create the vision of how to do it.

Absolutely. And question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

So my first job was, I was a sophomore in high school, and I worked at a place called A Touch of Class. It was in a little shopping center near where I grew up. And they sold like tchotchkes and nuts and dried fruit and candy. And I was a bagger. I used to bag all the nuts and the fruits and the candies, and I had to weigh them. And let me tell you, dried apricot, like trying to bag that stuff, it's an— I mean, think about it. I had to weigh everything out to a specific pound or pound and a half. But I'll never forget, I was in the basement getting nonpareils. Which were the, you know, the little like snow cone shaped candy with the little sprinkles on top. And I was bringing them up and I was bagging them and the owner comes up to me and he goes, "Scott, I've been in this business for 20 years. You're the fastest bagger I've seen in 20 years." And again, it felt good hearing that, but I just couldn't do it. I ended up quitting about 3 weeks later and you know, obviously just went back to being a high school kid, but that was the first work experience I ever had. I think I was 16.

But it has a lasting memory on you.

Absolutely. I was the fastest bagger he'd ever seen, so it did.

Love it. Great story, Scott. Thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?

Yeah, easiest way, my website, www.scottaron.net. That's two T's and two A's. Uh, or on all social media, you can find me under Scott Aaron on LinkedIn and Facebook, and my handle on Instagram is @scottaron. Air on LinkedIn and would love to connect with you.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.