Full Transcript for Streamlining Success: Insights from Scott Scharf, Former Acuity CTO on Business Optimization

commerce entrepreneurs, e commerce businesses, their tech stack, and then of course, cloud accounting firms and their tech stack and how they work. Cause I ran a cloud accounting business. It was very weird to be an it guy owning an accounting business, even though it was with my wife, which was awesome. It was just very weird. But I picked up all this, domain knowledge in each of these areas. I was on partner advisory councils, and then just talked. I've probably talked to. Over 3000 sellers in the last 12 years and whether it's a sales call or answering a support, somebody having questions on a forum that I'm supporting or our clients, talking and supporting entrepreneurs who are curious about their business is probably my main personality trait. If you want to interview with me, if I ever decide to hire again. If you're not curious, you're not going anywhere. and it's just really being curious about the technology and how to solve problems the best way and alternate ways and things along those lines, and just really pulling all of that information and, together, and along the way I've built not only some great business relationships, but a bunch of really wonderful personal relationships as well. [00:03:55] Will: mentioned like IT. IT consulting, IT career, you've used that a couple of times. what was the beginning of that? there was a point in time where Scott Sharp didn't know a lot about IT. happened. Go back to that time in your mind for a second. To where you were just green and didn't know what the flip was going on. Where were you and what was that like? Not to know anything about any of [00:04:19] Scott: that. See, I feel like I've been around. So my dad worked in computers, so I'm older than I look. So the first computer I worked on was the bigger than my house. So this is in 72. I played on one of the first mainframes. And so to me, it was just a game. I played the first, game called Herkel, which is a 10 by 10 grid. And you just guessed where this hidden monster was. And then the first text game of Star Trek, on a 16 inch platter and then ticker tape and punch cards and all of those things. my dad wrote the first. commercially available astronomy product, software program on an Apple IIe on compiled basic, and I learned to code by reviewing his code, because there were no code editors with the parentheses and commas and all that other stuff, so we'd have to print out pages of code, and I'd go I picked that up, but being around my dad and helping with that business got me into, cause he ran it from home and I helped ship out products, over the summers when I was with my dad in the summers, it just built. So when I got to high school, I, of course, worked in all the computer places, anybody that worked with computers, you'd go into class and they give you extra credit. For doing computer programs, and then you'd see them being used in other classes. So anytime a teacher asked these early computer science teachers, for stuff

that he'd just give it out as extra credit. You'd write it. He might make a little bit of tweaks and then it would go into other classrooms. Okay. So crazy. So you'd see those kind of things. And then when I was 15 and a half, I started nagging computer land for me to work. Okay. That was my first job paying job. Was it computer land of West L. A. Hold on though. [00:05:59] Will: so your dad literally, he's working from home. You're working on this computer. That's like as big as a house. what moment in this, journey. Cause it almost sounds like, if we're talking about boiling a frog, you were boiled very slowly because it was literally like, You didn't even realize that you were being immersed in it. You were just there. At what point did it dawn on you? Holy crap. I know enough about this that I could probably get paid for it. Was it during that time or was it after when you went and got your job that you were just talking about? [00:06:30] Scott: I was always really curious and, I don't know, somewhere I picked up a combination of a work ethic and there sure seemed to be a lot of bad jobs, friends working fast food and everything else. so if I was going to work, I might as well do it in something and computers were big. So keep in mind, this is 1983. Nobody knew anything about a computer. Hardly anybody had computers at home. I read a ton of sci fi and so it was the look, I want to be part of the future. and then once I got into it, it's cool knowing more than everybody else about stuff. And then you find out as a consultant, you really only have to knew one or 2 percent more than somebody else to help them and consult. But in a lot of cases, I knew a hell of a lot more and that's. You know how I paid my way through college and I went to school for it and then I became a consultant and then it's just continued to evolve all the way up to the point where I was a global subject [00:07:27] Will: matter expert. I love that all the way from I used to play with computers with my dad and help him on the summers to global subject matter expert. tell me, was it that job in, high school when you were, working at that computer store and was that when it was like, wait a minute, I could go do this on my own. Like, when did you realize the job I have has given me a set of skills or knowledge that I can now monetize for myself? what was your first consulting gig? [00:07:54] Scott: God, first consulting gig. It might've been in college. So I worked at computer land and then I worked at a computer store in, Boulder, when I was in college. but it was when I Started to giving out advice to people on computers. And then I started a business with somebody from computer land where I just advertised in the school newspaper and I get their max the original max and we'd add memory. Now I'd either do it or I'd send the motherboards to him and do it. So I made some extra money. So that was the first truly entrepreneurial, not yeah. Hey, it's a salary job

to do stuff. Okay. So [00:08:30] Will: you're sitting at computer land. this feels like it's a theme park, computer land. I'm just imagining all of the rides that it would have, but you're sitting at computer land and you and your buddy look at each other and dude, we could make money. what made you guys think Oh, we could actually monetize our knowledge here and help other people with their computers. Like what, was that conversation like? [00:08:50] Scott: okay. When you're behind the scenes, computer land, keep in mind a single standalone home computer ran 10 or 12, 000. Okay. Then when the max came out, they were like six grand, and then the memory upgrades were thousands of dollars for, going from 60 4K to 128 or 256 K, not Meg K. All right. And all these people would come in to the store and college students and everybody else. And they would walk in wanting more memory because they couldn't run a game or do something. And they would leave because they're like, I can't pay that. I started working in computer lab, but other people do paper route or bow lawns and just be an entrepreneur as an inherent skill or attitude. Hold on. [00:09:41] Will: They came in and they turned around and walked out and you were like, wait, I could run an ad in the newspaper and I'll do it for half or whatever, it was. I can do it. Were you still working at computer [00:09:53] Scott: land at the time? no, I was already in college. I was working for another company. So that was in California. And then when I got to, College in Colorado. I worked at a computer store and I worked at one of my dad's new companies. So I was doing chip level repair on early luggables, not laptops, luggables. You had to work out to carry them and a CPM machines, like the first CPM pluggable. I can swear. I was one of the first people to ever have a computer that I, you had to plug in. At the airport would have been maybe 86, 85 or 86. I was taking a computer through the airport and you couldn't find power anywhere. You think it's bad now? there were just a few plugs for really long cords for people vacuuming back in the day. it's just fun playing with all this stuff. And then when I started doing more consulting and answering people's questions and then going into their homes and helping them or going to their businesses. And then I went all in on the consulting. I ran and built Microsoft practices at places. I built out security practice in a couple of places, that I ran secure, larger security practices, and just worked my way up. But it was always very much a consultant solving a problem. It's not just personal. Oh, here's a computer do word stuff. It really became more and more about how can. I help people implement technology effectively inside their business. And I still do that today. [00:11:13] Will: okay. Tell me about productizing. Cause at some point you looked at, obviously you've got a lot of it consulting stuff that you've done. you bundled that up and began to work with your wife on the e commerce accounting side. Why would someone want to productize put a box around their knowledge? Why wouldn't they just do everything for everyone? [00:11:33] Scott: Oh, yeah. I knew a lot of things really well. When you get older, you realize you can't do them all at the same time. a lot of it just comes down to looking back. So one, I've always been very good at. Okay. Here's the goal. Here's the purpose. Here's how you market it and sell it, and here's the value. Here's the outcomes. Here's what somebody else gets out to it. And then I've done the whole, Hey, let me show up and I'll do whatever you ask me to do. Okay. Oh, you want to pay me and you want me to fix this security thing and go work on this mainframe and do this other random thing. You can do that. And you can charge a premium for the all over the place. But the real difference is, when you can take it. Put it together and combine that knowledge and build out some deliverables because then it turns into not just, Hey, you're paying me this much for my time. And I want to sell my time, even though it's very cool to get paid to talk. Okay. Being a consultant, you're for the most part, you're being paid for your expertise, but a lot of time it's to talk, which is cool, but if you can take that and put it together in a package. And you've consolidated your knowledge, then you can charge a fixed fee for it. Okay. And you can charge for not just the time you're physically imparting your knowledge. Okay. But you're charging for the tens, hundreds, thousands, hours, years. to build up that knowledge and put it together in a way where in my, all my view, it's value pricing. Okay. You're selling hours. You're just a job. You're just another, somebody doing whatever, but if you can package something for a few thousand dollars, okay. That takes you minimal time, but provides the other person value where you equally agree, capitalism, you agree, it's an equal trade. Somebody agrees to pay you and you agree to offer it and you do it and they get it and they're happy and you're happy. Done. Okay. And it doesn't matter if you're charging a fixed fee, whether it takes you 15 minutes or two hours or whatever, and you make a huge profit. It doesn't matter. You're building off your knowledge, but the way to do that is to productize it, is to build set deliverables, build a consistent process, make it a great experience for the other person, and solve their problem that they're having by leveraging your expertise. that's what I do all the time. so [00:13:44] Will: as you're considering, so I love productizing part of this podcast helping e commerce sellers understand, here's how you would go about taking that thing that's in your brain that you can't see and putting it out in a place where it can actually be productized. you mentioned, I package it up and obviously eCommerce sellers, they get this idea of packaging things and you know what it looks

like on the shelf and all of that. The interesting thing here is, when you package what you're packaging, the raw materials here are the knowledge and the system that you create around that. And then you've created such a system that people avoid all the problems that you have. If you do it manually every time and all of a sudden you have something that really propels them forward. And the service shifted from a service to a productized service, right? Powerful. what were some of the biggest roadblocks you ran into when you decided to begin taking this raw material of knowledge for taking raw materials, this would be like, I sold. salt or I sold plastic to somebody the raw material. and basically if you're selling raw materials, you're selling hours, that's hourly. and if once you've packaged it up and combine all the plastic and salt and, it gets it all together into a salt shaker, that's a product, right? And you can sell that on the shelf at Walmart wherever else. So what were the biggest roadblocks you saw from going from raw materials? To a productized service. [00:15:09] Scott: at the beginning, the challenge is you're all over trying to, is this what works? Is this what works? Is this what I want to do? wherever. And you have to try your ideas hopefully you're doing rapid failure. You have a conversation it doesn't really cost you anything. And you're, or it costs you a little bit and they're like, yeah, that's dumb. I won't pay for that. Okay. Cause when you pull these things together, it's cool. If you think it's the coolest idea, I have talked to people. I'm like, Hey, that's cool. It's would that be value? Yes. Would you pay for it? no, you just tell me the answer and I'm good. And versus, oh, that sounds really hard. I don't want to do that myself. So one of the key challenges is if you come up with an idea, you have to definitely try it out there. and then it takes time to refine the process and the things about like catching clouds that I learned that I didn't know before I started this company that once you pick a niche and provide them. Focus. Okay. It clears up your marketing. It clears up your sale. feel like, Oh my God, it's really constrained. [00:16:06] Will: There are two things you put on there that I have to bring out. So one, you said, try it out, meaning ask somebody to go there. And you said, would you pay for it? I would actually go a step farther than would you pay for it? I would say. Please open your wallet now and hand me that 10 bill for my service. I will do this for you right now. Go ask them to open their wallet. And that could be in the form of, do you mind if I write down your credit card number? This service isn't quite ready, but at the end of the month it will be. And I'll just charge you and we'll get started. You'll be first in line. And if they hesitate then, okay, there's something there. asked them to open their wallet in some way and you'll get a real answer. Second thing you said was niching down actually broadens the opportunity. this concept of focus. So I just got done reading four disciplines of execution and one of the disciplines of execution is focus go into that. Why, should I focus when I'm productizing a service? [00:17:01] Scott: people get scared. They're like, Oh, my God, I take money from everybody. Like a lot of the accountants work with all these different people. you can't narrow your processes down. It's you niche down, the deeper value you can provide. Okay. and there's riches in the niches. Okay, there just really is. If you got down and you've got a set of experience that people value and it's really narrow, you really are an expert and you build all those things down. Now I have to say as An I. T. Security C. I. S. P. C. I. Q. S. A. Auditor. Don't give will your credit card number. Don't let him write it down and hold on to it. Okay, I just have to say that. Okay, I just I'm sorry. you just have to be careful. He's asking these questions. and it's amazing how freeing it was to have the same pitch for what I did. And then having a set of questions that were consistent that I had with every, sales or conversation meant that I could focus on the creativity, that I could focus on solving their problems. I wasn't thinking about, do I want to say it this way or that way? Now, the last few months I've been in the, do I want to play with this words or those words? And Will and I did that just a little bit earlier where you're trying to find the right fit. So I've been fumbling around a little bit, but once you've got that down, you're just that much more confident. Whether you're. stupidly overconfident like I am and Will is, about our capabilities and everything else. But if you're not, you put it together and you actually have something when you've organized it, that you're a step ahead of other people that you can actually put something together. And if you're looking at whatever knowledge, keep in mind. If you're an e commerce seller, you just learned how to do 20 to 50 really hard things, supply chain, listing on Amazon, logging into Amazon, sponsored product ads, hiring, boxing, packaging, shipping, all those different things. And yes, other people have done it, but I find out in most cases. Anybody I talk to has a secret sauce that they've become really good at that, other people go to now some people work in masterminds and communities and share that information freely. Those are the kind of things you realize that when you start doing that and that's what a lot of what I did, not only did I learn and ask a bunch of questions, I actively both spoke at conferences about stuff I knew. Some about, but not as much as I do now. and I went into, forums and I consistently answered questions. Teaching is a great way to validate that. And sometimes my answers were wrong. Okay. Or not right. And then I had to go clarify and dig in and you just can't have a thick skin and you just move and fail. But it's

really the challenges. the challenges were Just stepping in and doing it. And then once I productized it, I'm like, Oh, I'm free to do these things. I can do this consistent thing. And if you do start to get bored, then adapt, pivot slightly, not a complete U turn. Scott, [00:20:05] Will: you got bored. And part of what happened when you got bored is you decided to shift out of Acuity and you're working now doing this digital transformation of the relationship between the entrepreneur and the business. And all of that. And we're going to give you just a second and a minute to talk about that. I want to ask this question. If you could do a phone call back to kid in college. the first time he decided, you know what, I'm going to monetize my knowledge of how to install memory into this computer. my knowledge is. outside of here, they charge thousands of dollars for this. I'm going to make 800 bucks or I'm going to make, however much it was to put it out in the school newspaper. And people were like, Oh, I'm going to do that instead of taking it to the computer land people, what would you tell him? and I know, yeah, you could tell him the lottery or whatever [00:20:55] Scott: for all of my socks. don't spend your money on food. And yeah, that it would be, there'd be a lot of that [00:21:02] Will: around monetizing what you can't see. what nugget of knowledge would you give him that might help him monetize his knowledge better? Or monetize what he can't see better than he could have considering the journey. Cause obviously he learned a lot and he got to a point where he got to the global status expert and everything else is there. what would you tell him to try to help shift his mindset to help him [00:21:27] Scott: grow? Okay. That's too early because all my brain had time for was figuring out girls. okay. Now I wouldn't have listened. Okay. So keep in mind going a little farther forward. so [00:21:37] Will: you would have said, I'm going to call you back after you figured out girls. okay. So what, timeframe are we calling back? [00:21:43] Scott: Let's see, when did I get married? because once you figure out girls. And you figure out any sort of skills, you find one and then you get married and then you don't need those skills anymore. Okay. it's true. I never really built the skills. I just got lucky. [00:21:58] Will: So you're calling post marriage Scott brand new. He's just getting into that consulting world. He's done a few things. what do you tell that Scott who no longer needs the girl's skills? what does he need to know? [00:22:12] Scott: It would be probably, hey, look, you love consulting, but doing it inside a company, like looking at it as a career did not need to spend another 10 years building up experience. before I could have actually done stuff. I could have started my own consulting gig or started in from practice with a few people, a hell of a lot earlier and that there wasn't the need to have all this foundation or do it inside another company. And then having to follow their politics or deliver their stuff. and especially now, even more than then, that you can be a consultant on your own and make a good living, supporting family and everything else, there's a little more risk, but there's better upside. So I could have started being an entrepreneur another 10 or 15, 20 years earlier, 10 years, 15 years earlier. I, the ring bear in my wedding is now in his thirties. And has his own company and an entrepreneur. And he's a good, 20 years, 15, 20 years ahead of where I am on the entrepreneurial piece. Cause he started his own company much earlier doing the things he wants to do. And it's built the way he wants to, and he leverages expertise. And he still does work inside clients while he's running a company. [00:23:26] Will: beautiful. so there's the nugget. so like you calling back to, post marriage, Scott, he had enough knowledge. What question could I ask myself if I'm an Amazon seller and I've, built this e commerce business or whatever else, or maybe I'm just, random Joe's worked on computers. How do I know I have enough here that probably go, build my own consultancy. What questions can I ask myself to find that out? [00:23:51] Scott: it's first, what do you want to do? Okay. Now keep in mind, a lot of e commerce sellers are all in, financially, family, friends, whatever into their businesses. Okay. what do you have the time for? What are you passionate for? And is it helping others? Is it truly this brand? Are there other things that you can do? Are there other things that you've learned? You just, you have to stop and be a little bit introspective and say, Hey, where can I help? Okay. and that could be just applying your skills and teaching a high school class or a college class or, helping out family and friends and other people start their own thing. I just heard a whole, I've listened to a lot of podcast like we all do, but it was all talking about regrets. And one of the biggest regrets of a lot of people and it's always the things they didn't do versus the things they did do. there are a few regrets we all have, but the majority of them and one of the biggest ones, one of the top two or three was not starting a business. Continuing to work for somebody else. if you're already an entrepreneur and you already have a business, where can you leverage that expertise? because are you just going to run this one business, get really great about this one business, but you might go, wait, doing this business that I've run and sold or run and crashed. You can learn a hell of a lot from that. and then doing it all over and getting back up and doing it all over again is where do you want to put that expertise? And you can still look at it as, okay, let me get out. And my whole focus in my business is helping. Entrepreneurs owners get out of working in their business so they can work on their business or outside of their business. And

then on that business really is taking your expertise as an entrepreneur or a specific part of the business that you focus on growing and you're really consulting to your own business. Okay. You might decide, Oh my God, I figured out the secret sauce to product design for this specific space or for, ad spend or whatever I can work outside of the business. Now, in my view, the first thing is don't get trapped working in your business, work in your business a little bit, let people, other people do the work, work on your business to improve it and have plenty of time to work outside of your business. First family hobbies, health. But then if you're like, I could go coach. I talked to these other sellers. I'm on this other forum. I'm in a mastermind. I can take this expertise. And help others. And the more you help others, you refine it outside your business. And then you can bring that expertise back into your business. Cause that's one of the challenges you get caught up in your own little world and you're not seeing all the other things other people are doing or thinking about it different way. [00:26:28] Will: Okay. So for the last, just five minutes here, I'm going to give you one minute to give your elevator pitch, which is basically I'm a listener and I happen to be an e commerce seller. we stepped into an elevator. You've got a minute to tell me, who is Scott Sharpe and why should I be reaching out to him right now, right after that? and I'm going to raise my hand and wave at you. Like your minutes up, right after that, I want you to share tips, tricks, hacks, anything you've come across recently that you're like, Oh my gosh, you have to try this out or check this out or read this book, that sort of thing. so give me your elevator pitch first. I'm starting the timer and a timer is three, two, one, go elevator [00:27:07] Scott: pitch. Hi, I'm Scott Sharf, the founder of Kat Sharf Consulting. what I do is I help e commerce entrepreneurs. coach them to be better entrepreneurs so that they can focus on working on and out of their business, not just in their business. Okay. That is helping them optimize their business. So it's saner to run. Cause there's an entrepreneurial trap where you're your worst boss ever. You make yourself work 80 or a hundred hours a week and all these things. Okay. or, you've got everything committed in this business. I love that you're all in. But you don't focus enough on the business itself. Have you dabbled in EOS? Do you have processes? Do you have a recognized tech stack? Have you outsourced the things that you're doing? Are you trying to reinvent the wheel on accounting or operations and things other people have done? I help clear up those things. So your business is saner to run more efficient and it's more profitable. [00:28:02] Will: Nice. He did it in less than a minute. Well done, Scott. Okay. So now, I'm going to have you do tips and tricks. So tips, tricks, hacks, books, what have you read? And

then after that, tell us how people can get ahold of you. [00:28:14] Scott: Okay. So tips, you've gotten to five people. If you're less than five people, you're probably behind and you should be at five people. Most people hire too slow or they do it poorly and then they hold back. but if you're once you're at that point, you need to implement EOS, entrepreneurial operating system, read, rocket fuel. And traction Read rocket fuel. First, there are two combined by Gino Whitman. That'll go, Oh, I need, and Will and I talk nonstop about who's the visionary and who's the implementer and who gets the work done. And then you want to go all in. Everyone's Oh, I do a little bits and pieces. You get the real value when you do it fully and you do it, You will start hitting your goals. that's one of the key things. The other thing is. Is you have to block out time to work on your business. Is it documented? Am I planning for a long term exit? do we have processes on automation? Am I training the staff? Are we using the right technology to question and challenge the things you are doing? And that's the thing I come in to do is help challenge and help people make changes in their business. But you have to do that yourself. [00:29:19] Will: me one book and two tools. [00:29:21] Scott: Exitpeneurs [00:29:22] Will: Ooh, the Exitpeneurs. I haven't read that one yet. I'm writing [00:29:25] Scott: that one down. By Joe Valli. Joe is an amazing, guy. Does lots of speaking and everything else, but he works at a broker and he had this conversation a thousand times and decided to write a book. It will tell you how to make your business better. So it will sell more. But if you do these things, it's also a business that you can run longer. If you run your business for five to 10 years, that's a five to 10 X multiple, which you're not going to get more than that if you can do it. So that's universal ways to run your business and optimize the value both to you and to somebody else. If you choose to sell Tools you've [00:30:00] Will: come across recently that you were like, Oh my gosh. And this, could be like tools for e commerce sellers or tools for just people in general productivity that are working online. [00:30:08] Scott: it's on, this video we're here, which is fathom dot video. So I'm now recording all the videos. It gets a recording. It does a transcription and it does an AI summary of the conversation. So you can go, wait, what was that middle thing again? And I go back to it and find it. I have to say, even though I'm starting to add, and I add ons to chat GVT, and I've been playing with duet and barred and a bunch of these other tools is that, look, if you're an entrepreneur, you have to be playing. And I've been playing with it. For, it's almost been a year now that chat GBT came out. Just with it. play with it, do the silly stuff and writing things in the Valley girl voice and whatever else. And then you'll find something that's useful. Then you'll find something else that's useful. Then you'll do an add on or extension and that does something else. And then it's just going to become Having a smartphone before we had smartphones, it's just going to be a tool that we all use. So I would say that's the place to start and screw around with it and send silly notes or have it write love letters to your wife. [00:31:10] Will: If you haven't tried it yet, get on chat GP plus it's 20 bucks a month. It's best 20 bucks a month. I think I'm spending in my business right now. If you have the Android or the iPhone app, you can go into beta features and flip on the thing that says voice conversation. You can turn every drive you're on into a business brainstorming discussion with someone who's read the entire internet, like literally imagine data from a Star Trek. Shows up. He has access to the internet in his brain, and you're going to brainstorm business ideas with him while you're driving you don't have to look at anything. There's no text that shows up on the screen. It's literally a conversation and it's freaky how real he sounds or she, whichever voice you choose. Awesome guys. really, powerful stuff that wraps us for today. Scott, how can people find you? [00:31:55] Scott: they can go to sharf. ai, s c h a r f. ai, or they can just email me, scott at sharf. ai. [00:32:04] Will: Beautiful. Scott, I really appreciate your time today. I think there's some amazing nuggets here and that wraps us for today. Cool. [00:32:11] Scott: Thanks a lot.