In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Scott Schindler, a former CEO of RENET and champion surfer from Sawtell, NSW. Schindler shares a guiding life philosophy that every disadvantage contains the seed of an advantage, recounts founding RENET in 2000 before cloud services existed, and emphasizes that the people behind a product matter more than the code. He offers business advice centered on disciplined goal‑setting—linking daily, weekly, monthly actions to long‑term visions—and recommends action‑based goals over result‑based ones. Reflecting on his younger self, he stresses self‑belief and continuous learning beyond formal schooling. Schindler defines happiness as a balance of health, wealth, and wisdom, and cites his favorite book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, for its focus on acquiring assets versus liabilities. He also shares three core quotes that guide his interactions: “Give a man a fish…,” “Do unto others…,” and “What you give comes back tenfold.” Finally, he directs listeners to his personal website scottyschindler.com and LinkedIn for further connection.
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Scott Schindler with us. He is a business and sports leader proudly from Sawtell, New South Wales, Australia. As the CEO of Renet, he was recognized as a leading Aussie business identity, and keen surfer who has won multiple surfing titles. An overview of Scott's life shows an enviable ability to achieve success in anything he pursues. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, great to be here.
Grateful to have you on. So Scott, the first question we ask on the show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Oh, look, I've had so many things happen that have been good. I had some not so good things happen. Probably better and easier to just give you one of my underlying messages, which is every disadvantage has the seed of greater or equivalent advantage. I've learned to look at every situation as an opportunity, all the good things as well as the things that didn't go quite as well as I would have liked. Every disadvantage has the seed of greater or equivalent advantage. That's the message.
Then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, if I look at the industry of RENET, so I started RENET back in 2000, called the turn of the century, and when cloud-based services didn't exist and software as a service didn't exist, but IT has so many opportunities. That's probably the best thing about IT. There's just so much, especially in today's day and age. And if you believe you have a product and can achieve growth and success with it, then go for it is my message. What makes most IT products unique is the person behind it, not the code itself, but the person pushing it and driving it and their ideas and their motivation that makes most products work. The coding is great, but if you're in IT and you've got a belief you've got something unique and something's going to work, it probably will.
Yes. Then what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Yeah, look, I like to talk to business owners now. I do a bit of mentoring and business coaching since I've exited out of the business. And my number one thing has always been focus and set goals and set them regularly. So, you know, learn to look at short term. You know, you've got your daily, weekly, monthly, which, you know, sort of set in stone there from momentum because of your midterm and long-term goals. So your midterm, your quarters and half-yearlies. But, you know, definitely focus on your long-term. Where do you want to be in 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, and 10 years from now? You know, what What sort of person you want to be, what business do you want to have, and how do you want that to look? And then that helps you bring back to those short-term goals. So get used to setting short-term goals and set them regularly and make sure they fit into your long-term goals as well. So, and the other piece to do with goals for general business advice is to set action-based goals rather than results-based goals. You know, so as a silly example for that is, you know, do an extra phone call every day for a sales lead or, you know, extra appointment a week. So set action-based goals and they will lead to results anyway.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Yeah, believe in myself. So if I had my chance to do it all again, look, I'm a proud D-class student. So in Australia, that doesn't mean I'm very smart at all. But what it was, was I learned when I got out of school, there was a lot more education to be had other than what the schooling system had. So I started to learn a lot more after school and I started to read books. I started attending conferences and I started learning in other ways and I became very knowledgeable after school. So as a younger person, I believed in myself, you know, so schooling wasn't the only education in the world and there's lots of stuff to learn and improve yourself as you grow and go on your journey.
And then kind of go a little bit down a different path here. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Yeah, look, I had a midlife crisis about 27 years old where I wasn't that happy or healthy and I was working really hard and I was setting myself up. So I was pretty happy with where I was, but I still wasn't happy about my balance on healthy, wealthy, and wise. So for me, the key to happiness is that balance. Stay healthy and look after yourself. So be healthy, invest both financially. So that way you've got investments in the future and invest in your mental health as well. So, and the other thing is, you know, read a lot, listen to others, connect and engage with like-minded people. So definitely strive to be healthy, wealthy, and wise is the key to happiness in my opinion.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
The number one, look, the book, I've read lots of books, but one line or one paragraph out of one book changed my life and that was Rich Dad Poor Dad. By Robert Kiyosaki. And basically my words now, not his, because I haven't opened up the book to find the line, is there are either investments or liabilities. So something either makes you money or it costs you money. So I just focused for the last 20 years on things that made me money rather than cost me money. And that's how I managed to retire, you know, from business at the age of 46 was because I invested a lot as well.
Yeah, man, dude, that's awesome. 46, that's badass, man. Thanks for that. And then, what is your favorite quote and why?
Well, believe it or not, in 1999, I got a plaque made up to put on my office wall, and it has 3 quotes on it. So I'm just going to read you these 3 quotes. So this is the philosophy I had moving forward. It was what I believed in at the time anyway, so it wasn't new to me. But these 3 quotes I had on my office wall. One, give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime. 2, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And 3, what you give comes back tenfold. And they became a philosophy of mine as I grew the business, as I had clients, with everything that I did. So those 3 quotes were written on my wall, and there's lots of quotes I have and I love, but those 3 quotes I put on the wall as a bit of a guiding, I guess, a way to make sure I interacted and dealt with people in a positive way and understood, you know, that, you know, there's so many things in life and I just want to make sure I do them right. So many opportunities come my way and make sure I focus to do things right. So I'm a big believer in quotes. So they're just 3 that I had on the wall.
Awesome, man. Well, dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you before we let you go is where can our audience best find you online?
Look, I do have a website under scottyschindler.com. So S-C-O-T-T-Y Schindler, S-C-H-I-N-D-L-E-R.com. Obviously LinkedIn, if you search for us on LinkedIn, really enjoying that at the moment. But yeah, best probably go straight to the website, just search for scottyschindler.com. That'd be awesome.
Perfect. Thank you again for coming on, man.
That's okay. You're welcome, mate. It was my pleasure to talk to you guys over there.
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