Connect with Michael Moore and Bob Wierema

The Climb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-climb-podcast/
Bob Wierema: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wierema/
Michael Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpmoore/

Connect with Chet Scott

Built To Lead: https://builttolead.com/

Chet Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chet-scott-0440559/

[00:00:00] Chet Scott: I would tell them prepare like their life depends on whatever it is that they want next. Prepare now as if they're doing it now and it's really hard and you've got to really love it. And you're going to have to suck it up for a period of time. And life won't be this comfortable while you transition. 

Bob Wierema: Welcome to The Climb crossroads and defining moments today. Mike and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chet Scott, the founder and builder at Built to Lead. This was definitely a special conversation for me because Chet is not only my leadership coach and builder, but he's also a good friend. Over my years in working with Chet, he's transformed not only my work life, but my personal life. And like I said, become a good friend, and by far, one of my best truth tellers. Built to Lead’s goal is simple: to awaken, challenge, and transform individuals, teams, and leaders. Enjoy today's podcast, and thank you for joining us.

Chet, welcome to The Climb. We appreciate you joining us today. 

Chet Scott: It's good to be with you. 

Bob Wierema: So we'll start off with one of our first questions that we like to ask some of our guests, as we talk about some of your passions in your life. When we talk about passion, say number one and two, a lot of people respond with their family and their friends is their passions. If you go to your third and fourth passions, what would you say those are? 

Chet Scott: I don't know if it would be third or fourth. My work and life are my passions. And so, I don't really think about a one, two, three, or four. I don't do anything [00:02:00] that I don't want to do. So, when somebody asks me, “what are your priorities?” I'm like, “I don't really have any”, “what are your passions?” Well, just hang out with me. You'll see. I'm passionate about everything I do. So, this morning I was working on the driveway where I saw a young client of mine recently epically fail. I was out to a bunch of old 60-year-olds and we were purposely failing building our course and trash talking.

One guy threatened to hit me, which was great. 

Bob Wierema: Now I've been out on that driveway for the workouts. I don't think I threatened to hit you. Did I?

Chet Scott: No, you didn’t. You were crumbling too quickly. 

Bob Wierema: I had no straight threat! 

Chet Scott: But I'm passionate about that. And then I had a practice at 7.15am right after with a business owner that's struggling and I'm passionate about helping him. And I just had a team practice with another team. And then I spent a little time having a meal with my bride and I'm passionate about that. And now here I am with you folks and I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be. 

Bob Wierema: To give everybody a little background, maybe start with kind of where you came from to your start of your career and then get to where you are now today, and then we'll definitely dive in a lot deeper to where you are today. 

Chet Scott: How far back do you want me to go? 

Bob Wierema: As far as it helps to tell the story. I know the story. So, enlighten our listeners. 

Michael Moore: Start from the beginning. 

Chet Scott: Well, so I grew up in Kansas, born and raised. Probably the start of this journey was leaving high school, and I remember I went to a private school in Indiana. I didn't know anybody. All my buddies were going to [00:04:00] KU I was going to go to KU and play golf. Last minute, I decided to take a flyer and go to this little private Christian school called Taylor University in Indiana. I just thought I needed to get a new circle of friends even though I had great friends. I just felt like I needed to do something a bit different. And so, I did not knowing a soul. And before I left, I remember my mom sitting me down and telling me – she was a really great role model – she said, “Chester, go out there, have fun, meet new friends, learn some new stuff. And just remember you're not coming back”, and I knew she meant it. There was no opportunity to come back. So, it was a great defining moment that I was going out and I was out on my own, and I grew up. And so, when I played golf for four years, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just knew I loved competing. And so, IBM was the place to work as far as technology.

I thought “I want to compete in the technology field because that sounds interesting to me”, even though I wasn't technical, it just seemed like the future. And so, I interviewed, and I shockingly got the job. And after a year they introduced this thing called the PC, 1982, and I was joining them to sell them big iron, the big gear. Millions of dollars. It's computers. That's where all the money was and where all the fun was. The PC was like a $1,200 consumer product and they told all us newbies that we were going to go work in a retail store, selling those as part of our training. I didn't want to do it. 

Then they wanted to move us. I've been moved. They asked us to move. I didn’t want to do that. They said, “well, if you don't want to do that and you don't want to move, you're fired”. And so, [00:06:00] my mom gave me a wakeup call in the end of high school. My first job, one year in, I had my first wakeup call from our first employer. It didn't matter what I wanted to do. They had a plan to either buy into the plan or you’re fired. And so, I joined this startup called the CompuServe who I'd been interviewing with because I had kind of smelled this coming from IBM. And the next day I started there, and I'd spent 20 years living and working with a bunch of young people, and we basically grew up together. We sold electronic mail before there was such a thing, we sold networking of computers together before there was such a thing.

I remember going into Wendy's. My first big client was Wendy's. I sold them electronic mail. They thought it was the best thing since the cheeseburger. I mean, they had never sent an electronic mail message until we walked in there and showed them how to do it, got their executives doing it. Then Dave Thomas wanted to know if he could get sales data from every store every day. We’re like, “yeah, you can do that, we'll show you how”. And so, we were selling technology, but we were solving problems really. And I enjoyed that. So, I learned quickly that you don't have to sell – I didn't sell anything really. I just went in and competed by simply telling the truth, working hard for the client, and delivering them something of value.

And I remember Red Roof Inns was my second, really big client. They were also in town here and I had been calling on a company called Atria L...