In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Scott Paul, the CEO of Wooly, a software platform for influencer management. Scott shares a vivid personal story about losing an iPhone while filming sharks in Hawaii, then recounts a formative experience guiding drug‑rehab teens through the Arizona desert, emphasizing that true happiness came from having almost nothing. He discusses his expertise in influencer marketing, noting that the future of social selling lies in customer‑generated content rather than brand‑created media. As a CEO and angel investor, Scott advises entrepreneurs to cultivate diplomacy and empathy, stressing the importance of getting along with everyone. He reflects on personal advice for his younger self—being authentic and not compromising one’s identity. Scott describes his current pursuit of happiness on a Utah ranch, framing it as liberation from the “economic enslavement” of the rat race. He cites the Stoic book The Guide to the Good Life as a key influence, highlighting the principle of focusing only on what is within one’s control. The conversation concludes with his favorite humorous quote from Jim Carrey and ways to connect with him online via email, LinkedIn, and his personal blog tesladad.com.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Scott Paul with us. He's the CEO of Wooly, which is a software for managing influencers on social media, and he's also an aspiring alpaca farmer living on a ranch with his family. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, thanks for having me on.
Of course, man. We'll dive into the first one, Scott. The first one I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message? And maybe besides the iPhone with the sharks.
Yeah, I was just explaining to Tyler Wagner Wagner how I'm currently without an iPhone because I lost it in Hawaii trying to film sharks. iPhone X is not waterproof, no matter what they say.
Which is also a good lesson.
Yeah, that's a great lesson. No, I mean, I would say, I'll keep this quick, but I used to have a job in the desert of Arizona taking kids through the wilderness who were kind of recovering from drug addiction. And I think that the lesson I took away from that job 10 years ago, no, 15 years ago now, was I would be out there with nothing, no food, dirty clothes, weeks at a time, guiding these kids through the wilderness, making fires with sticks. And it was the happiest I've ever been. And so those were my poor days of my life. 15 years ago, I didn't have $500 to my name, but I was the happiest I've ever been. And so I kind of keep that as my memory of like, you know, you can lose everything trying to do— you know, the materials aren't what's going to bring you the happiness. And so I've kind of been aspiring to like get back to nothing at some point in my life because I want to return to the happiness I felt 15 years ago with with virtually zero things to my name.
Thanks for sharing that, man. That's awesome. The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I do a handful of things. I'm an angel investor. I have a lot of advice for people looking for funding. But probably the thing I'm doing lately is this influencer marketing. World on social media. I've been doing that for a while. I was at Disney running their social media and influencer marketing, and now I've got a company doing it. I think the thing I want to tell people is that the future of social selling will not be like the content you create, but it's going to be the content that your customers create and share. Try to focus on— if you're a young brand, you have a Shopify store or something, you can start to make all the cool photos and stories that you can possibly, and then you push out on social media. But the real stuff that really works well is when you can get customers to talk about and share their stories with you, and that's— and then putting that on your social media. That's, that's what we're seeing work the best in the fields that I'm in, is getting customers to tell the stories about your brand, and that just outperforms everything.
And, um, what is— actually, that could tie in with, with all businesses, but what's your best piece of overall, uh, business advice? And maybe you want to go down the route of You're the CEO of this software company. If somebody is just stepping into entrepreneurship, what would you tell them?
You gave me some outline of what you're going to ask, so last night I was thinking about it. Okay.
Yeah, go for that.
The overall thing though that I really as a CEO and as an entrepreneur, and I'm dealing with some things with a few people right now, and there's always troubles in startups and any big company. I really think that the best advice I can give is just learn to get along with everyone. There's a ton of successful people that I meet and I'm around, but they're just not easy to be around. And I feel like life with half the people you know are not friendly towards you or you don't like would just be a really lonely life. So I think you're going to be meeting so many people and you're going to have to empathize with these people to find out how to sell to them or whatever that is. Just learn how to get along with everyone and don't be confrontational. Be a peacemaker, ambassador, or whatever you call it, a diplomat, and diplomatic in all your doings. And that's what we look when we hire people. That's what I look for to partner when I invest in people. All those just diplomatic people are really enjoyable to be around.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
My younger self? Probably just when Mark Zuckerberg was looking for money to put his first server in the room at Harvard, I wish I was there to just— I was just there close somewhere to give him $500.
I like that. That's a good answer.
Yeah, that would be it. No, I would just say be yourself. I think back and I actually don't regret anything I've done, so I kind of live thinking all things brought me to where I'm at. Know what advice I'd really give myself, but other than just be yours, just always be you. Don't compromise to be something else or stay in a place that's not certain job or position or school. Just leave because you need to— you want to be somewhere that you're doing you, you're being you. And that's, uh, that's all. I've always made sure that that's places I'm at. I don't ever want to compromise who I am by the job I take or something like that.
And kind of going a little bit— well, it's kind of tied in a little bit of a different path. In your opinion, uh, what is the key to happiness?
I have no idea. Key to happiness. But I guess I'm on a ranch right now in the middle of— I'm near Park City, Utah. I just bought a house up here. I'm looking out at a pond and some animals, and I'm pretty freaking happy right now. And I don't know what that means, but I worked really hard for 10 full years since leaving school. To emancipate myself from the American economic enslavement. I feel like people just are in a grind and you need to build a path and make a goal to get yourself out of indentured servitude to the economy. And so make enough money, get off, get out of that rat race and do the thing that makes you happy. And then know when you have arrived there and don't keep wanting more. Don't put yourself back into the trap. So you have to keep working for someone else or something, or keep working all day long, 20 hours a day. My happiness came when I was able to do what I want, when I want, how I want. That took hard work, but I knew I had a goal in mind of what that was going to be when I would sit back and look out over the pastures and say, "Here I am." What is the—
this might be hard, but what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
I really like this book on Stoicism. It's called The Guide to the Good Life. Recommended me about 4 years ago from a close friend. And, uh, it's, it's like a Bible for the non-religious and religious alike. It's just kind of a book on how to live a good life and, uh, simple principles that are universal. So it's a— I would, I would, I would just say it taught me how to— it taught me how to, uh, only worry about what's in my control. So I just, I don't really worry about things I can't do anything about. And that's— and there's only a few things really in my control, so I'd rather not worry at all. And that book really helped me, A Guide to the Good Life.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
You know, I don't really know a lot of quotes, so this is not one I can speak off the top of my head. But when Jim Carrey leaves the bar in Dumb and Dumber and he sees that newspaper on the wall that says that there was the moon landing and he like screams out in the lobby, "We landed on the moon!" I think that's the funniest thing ever because it's like he did that improv and he did that without like script. And I mean, I watched like the making of that show. I just— funny actor, funny thing to do when you see something like that. So that's my quote. "We've landed on the moon.
We did it." Jim Carrey is one of my favorites, man. That's awesome. Thanks for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Just email me at scott@wooley.com. LinkedIn, connect with me. I was trying to get a free Tesla Roadster, so I was trying to get 50 referrals and then you get a free one. I got tesladad.com and you can see my poor attempt at doing a blog. I've only got 3 Tesla referrals so far, so I'm probably not going to get my free Roadster. That's where you can find my adventures on tesladad.com. It's also my license plate.
Awesome, brother. Thanks again for jumping on.
All right, have a good one.
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