Create Time for What Makes You Feel Better with Mary Scott | UYGW046

Welcome, everybody to unleashing your great work on this special 10 episode series, we are focused on resilience. What is it? How do we get it? And if we've lost it, how do we get it back? So listen in, because we know that great work is so much more dependent on your resilience than it is on your hustle.

Welcome, everybody to unleashing your great work. On this special holiday episode. I'm very excited to have Mary Scott. She is an award winning filmmaker, the founder of Business riff and the author of the St. Louis startup resource guide to help startups be wildly successful. Mary works with inventors, tech and product founders and solopreneurs to get them organized and pitch perfect to present to investors and get checks instead of chuckles. Welcome to the podcast, Mary.

Thank you, Amanda, this is great.

I'm so happy that you're here. So we're going to start this podcast where we always do, we'd love to hear a little bit about your great work.

Well, I landed in St. Louis eight years ago, because my daughter was here and she asked us to move. And being a videographer I figure I can work anywhere, right? But then COVID hit and she will Little Rock, Arkansas. So let's pivot gang. I discovered that St. Louis is probably one of the best places in the country to start a business. There are resources here beyond beyond, really. And I have always been a connector, even when I was doing videos for companies. I was also always all also thinking about how can they use this video to make money, I always wanted to be able to give people something where they at least make back the cost of production plus. So there, I've always been doing that. And I figured, okay, let me see if I can just take that aspect of what I do in terms of connecting and resources and thinking beyond boxes to bring that to the startup ecosystem. So one of the first things I did was I found all these resources. And I put them all together in a spreadsheet because they kind of weren't talking to each other. And it was confusing for startups to know where to go for what they need. And yeah, so I put them all together in one spot started contacting everybody about, hey, there's a resource, there's one stop shopping, you can talk to each other and refer to each other. Because my premise is that if someone walks in your door with a question, and you can't answer it, don't just say I'm sorry. And tell them where to go to find the answer. So that's what's happened. And I started developing workshops, like where do startups start and bringing in people from other resources to be on panels, and, and a workshop on don't do this. And mistakes startups make. Now people need to fail, you need to fail fast and fail off and don't do the same stupid things that other people have done, do stuff that's going to be useful for you to learn from. Yeah. So I like that's kind of where that came from. And I just love it when startups get checks from investors because they've done everything. According to the plan.

What is it about startups and businesses in general? Like, why is that the work that matters to you? Right? Like, what is it about the entrepreneurial spirit or the work of startups? What is it that really speaks to you?

I love them. Most of these folks have an idea that they believe will change the world will make people's lives better, will make things easier. And from a not for profit perspective. You have to make money in order to share it. Yeah. So I'm helping people get their businesses up and running and make money and then share it and then keep going and round. Right?

Yeah. So sort of health in the economy. And the individuals that you're working with really believe in their idea. There's something very compelling about that.

Not to mention that it's wonderful to always expose oneself to stuff that's new. Hmm. It's new stuff. And yeah, I had no idea about cryptocurrency or nanotechnology. And now I noticed the next big thing is like geospatial and I'm so excited that I get to be part of this stuff.

Yeah, always be on that sort of, what is it about that that really speaks to you always being on the cutting edge or the current leading trends? Like, is that a bit always been a part of you?

Well, I've always thought of, I've always thought of myself and my children and have these children and I decided they were all Martians and and And I don't like words like geek and dweeb, and nerd and stuff like that. So I thought, okay, these are the people who are actually going to get us to Mars. Yeah. And so after dealing with my Martian children and Martian grandchildren, it occurred to me, Hey, I must be a Martian too, because the nuts don't fall that far from a tree. And it occurred to me that my brain doesn't actually work like anybody else's. So I love the concept of universal, not just global, but universal, and being able to go out to the stars. And that's, that's a fun thing for me. To meet astronauts, and to think that, you know, someday I would like to be having tea with a girlfriend and say something like I haven't heard from my grandchild in months, because they're on Mars.

Yes, that sounds like a cool thing to be able to say absolutely. Interesting. Well, as somebody who has a business yourself and working with entrepreneurs, especially startups, because that's a very intense experience, there's a lot to do, there's a lot on the line, there are no guarantees, it can be very stressful, I'm certain that you have been exposed to people who have sort of lost their spark lost their wiggle. And one of the things that we say on this podcast a lot is that great work, the work that matters most to you, like starting a company really depends most of all on resilience, more much more on resilience than on hard work in the hustle. So I'm curious if you have ideas from your own life, and from all of these entrepreneurs that you've been helping about how you can sort of reverse that, and get back into your excitement and your enjoyment and maybe your health and your you know, that sort of feeling of being alive.

Sure. One thing is, it helps to have an accountability partner, because they not only keep you on task, but they give you positive reinforcement for what you have gotten done. One of the things it with startups as they launch too soon. And if you build a little more slowly, a you're not working as hard. And you get a chance to really evaluate whether something's working along the way.

But what is that accountability partner going to be? Like? How does the accountability partner help the entrepreneur stop and slow down and get rest and take a break and feel better?

Well, the couple of accountability partners I've had, have said, Okay, it's five o'clock, we're gonna both have a glass of wine right now and give ourselves so a little break and some credit for what we've done today. So it can be encouragement to do self care, it can be encouragement that while you may not have gotten done what you said, you got something else done, that was important. And this is particularly good for women startups who have children, because families always interrupt us in the middle of our business, and family work. Family Care is also important, and people need to get credit for that. You know, you need to give yourself that pat on the back for having actually gotten a crabby child off to school today, an accountability partner really helps helps you not only stay on task, but you get credit for stuff you got done, even if it wasn't what you meant to get done. So having gotten a crabby child off to school without losing it, you should get credit for that it's important. And sometimes a nice piece of dark chocolate is a good reward for some of these things and giving. It's hard sometimes to give yourself permission to do things. But if you've got an accountability partner, they serve that role and you serve that role for them as well. countability partners are quid pro quo. So you're the one who's also giving that person credit for what they've done and encouraging them to get something done.

Yeah, that makes sense. And I feel like the accountability partner idea that you're advancing is like a, you know, a in the flow of your great work kind of like stop gap, keeping it from getting out of hand. What do you recommend for people who were it's just it's gotten out of hand. They are now really exhausted. But maybe they have to get to the to the round that they're doing. Like they can't stop and take three weeks off to hike the Appalachian Trail.

No, but they can they can take an hour off. They can take an evening off. They can take 20 minutes to just have a bubble bath or meditate or something like that. And they can take a step back and think of it out, what can they delegate to somebody else? Team? Because that's a big piece of it a lot of times, particularly startups feel they have to do everything themselves. And no, you have to have a team. Even if it's a girlfriend, you pull in once in a while to help you do one little thing. Yeah, delegating to other members of the team helps pull the stress off you. And it helps to really have a good coach or good mentor that you can bounce stuff off of, because nothing is worth is worth your life for goodness. And most startups, this isn't we're not talking brain surgery. So if stuff isn't absolutely perfect, you'll learn from it. You might get the checks. And at the worst case, you don't get this one. But you'll learn something and then you'll get the next

one. So then Okay, so here we are in the holidays, and people actually have a few minutes. You mentioned taking an evening off taking a weekend off, what do you recommend they do during that time, to really have like high octane relief, refilling and that kind of thing.

Go inside, be really, really honest about what you actually want, what will make you feel better, and be honest about it. And don't feel any, you know, outside shame or guilt or whatever, decide that you need to take an hour as a minimum, and that you're going to do something for yourself at that point in time. One thing I used to like to do on still occasionally is to get off planet talked about big Martians. And that means watching an hour of a Star Trek episode or watching a sci fi movie. That to me is wonderful, because I actually get off planet.

Yeah, it's like a narrative transport to totally leaving your whole thing behind. Yeah,

exactly.

Exactly. Yeah, I like that. I like that as a as a tip to find whatever it is that takes you fully out of your brain and your problems. Your Yeah, to

some people, it's an hour at the gym, some people have to walk on the beach, some people would say I'm going to read read a trashy novel for an hour. Whatever, no, I'm gonna put on my makeup and get dressed up and just go for a walk. Whatever makes you feel better. And now it has nothing to do with your business.

Yes, yes. I love that. And I think that there's a type of expertise in knowing those things. And if you're going to be a startup founder, or a company, CEO, or even a solopreneur, just you and your VA, happily doing your thing. You have to know what works for you.

You have to know what works for you. Another great tip, one of the biggest revelations to me and part of creating this new business was getting into improvisation. And the premise of improv is yes. And that's a way to avoid arguments altogether. Because somebody comes at you with something and you don't get their defenses up. You agree with them? Yes. And we can do this, too. And we can do this view of it. And we can talk to this person.

Yeah. And I think that's a great example of why great work depends so much on resilience, because you can't Yes, and when you are exhausted, you're gonna know but in a hot second, right? Somebody's got a problem. You don't want to hear it. You just want to be done. The only thing you want to be as done. Well,

my when you're exhausted, and you can't do Yes. And your brain just doesn't go there. You just stop with I'm sorry to

hear that. And that buys you a little bit of time. Yeah,

it buys you time. You kind of haven't engaged but you haven't put them off either.

Yeah, but I think yes, and is infinitely superior. You're absolutely right, right. But you can't do it. If you just cannot do it if you are utterly exhausted and running on fumes. And so coming back to your prior recommendation of really getting to know yourself and what you want to make sure that when a moment comes, that could result in conflict and discord, you have the possibility to reach into yourself in and yes, and that feels like a very critical skill for startups for sure

is being able to improv means you're able to pivot and I pride myself on being able to find one More than one solution to any problem.

All right, great. So you are all about the Yes. And very good. All about the Yes. and wonderful. Well, you know, I bet people are wondering, maybe if they live in St. Louis or possibly, I guess they could have startups anywhere and read your book as an example of resources, they could perhaps find where they are. How could they learn more about you?

You can go to my website, which is business riff.com. There's a lot about me there, there are episodes of my podcast stuck time to improv with advice for startups. And there's also a way to book a synergy call with me. I'm happy to spend 15 minutes with anyone who wants to riff on something for free. And that's right on my homepage.

I love it. That's great. Well, thank you so much for what you're doing for startups in St. Louis. And for coming on this podcast and helping us really think about what we can do to get a little bit you know, a little bit of our wiggle back.

Thank you, Amanda. You're doing great work for people and I will definitely promote your podcast or you

know, when when Yes and thank you so much.

Thank you.