Unlocking Business Growth Through Strategic Alliances | Scott Overbeck

Scott Overbeck | Unlocking Business Growth Through Strategic Alliances

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Matt Edmundson: Well, hello and welcome to Push To Be More. My name is Matt Edmundson and I am your host today. As we chat with our very special guest about what he has had to do to push through, what sort of fuels his journey called life, what he's looking forward to. We're going to get into all of that with Scott Overbeck from Seacoast Consulting Group.

We're going to get into it. And this, I'm looking forward to this because I've actually met him. I've had the privilege of doing a podcast with Scott before, so I know this one's going to be good. Uh, we've already, we've already met, we've already had some chats. Uh, so I'm looking forward to getting into his life experiences, the hurdles he's had to push through, the way he recharges his batteries, and of course, [00:01:00] What steps he's taking to be more.

Now, don't forget, you can find all of the detailed show notes and a complete transcript of our conversation over at pushtobemore. com. And whilst you're there, if you haven't done so already, uh, why not sign up to the newsletter and we'll send all of the insights, the links, the goodies. They go direct to your inbox totally for free, which is super cool.

And of course. You can always scroll down on your podcast app, let's just be real, the show notes are also there with all the links as well, so you can do that, but it'd be great to see you on the website, great to get you on the email list, so we can just send those out to you as well, so come see us at pushtobemore.

com. Now this episode is proudly powered. I love that phrase. It is proudly powered by PodJunction, the company that helps you build your business with podcasting. It is the magic behind the scenes that let entrepreneurs and business leaders like you and [00:02:00] me amplify our voices by hosting our own podcast.

Which I have to be honest, uh, it's been, well, it's been an extraordinary marketing tool for me and all the companies that I seem to be involved with. Uh, podcasting is one of those things that it kind of, it caught me sideways. I'm not going to lie. It caught me sideways when I first started doing it. And, um, uh, within a few weeks, I started to see the power of podcasting and what it can actually do, but I get it.

You might be a bit daunted by the tech, you might not fully understand what's involved, etc, etc. And that's where Podjunction is going to be a great company to get involved with. Sadaf heads up Podjunction, she in fact is the producer of this show and she is wonderful, so I'm sure she would love to talk to you, but go check out Podjunction at podjunction.

com. And actually, if you are on a web, a podcast call, Uh, what's the word? Podcast browser? I don't, a podcast [00:03:00] player I think is the right phrase, you know, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Just go and search out the Podjunction Podcast where Sadaf and I talk about podcasting a whole bunch. Yes, we do. You can check that out as well.

Uh, but go check them out, podjunction. com. Now, That's enough about that. Let's talk about Scott, shall we? Scott has turbocharged businesses across four continents, almost as many continents, uh, constants as are, constants? Continents that are on a risk board. That wasn't difficult, uh, difficult to say in any way, shape or form.

Uh, so he's boosted businesses across, uh, all of these, uh, boosting growth, revenue and efficiency. And after learning the secrets of the world's biggest companies. He's now sharing the magic with small to medium sized businesses as well. Uh, so you're ready for success? Well, Scott's got the playbook, that's for sure.

So, uh, Scott, welcome to the show, man. Great to have you on again. Uh, great to be chatting with you.

Scott Overbeck: It's great to be here. Thanks for having

Matt Edmundson: me back. No problem. Always, [00:04:00] always fun. If you're listening again, I don't remember listening to Scott before on a podcast, Matt. It's on the eCommerce podcast, eCommerce podcast, where we talk about all things eCommerce.

So go check that out. Enjoyed the conversation so much, we thought let's get Scott on to push as well. So here we are. Now, Scott, let's start off. The Push Podcast with the usual question I like to open up this particular podcast with, which you reminded me of actually before we hit the record button, which was a beautiful thing.

Uh, if you could have a, uh, your own podcast and you could have a guest on the show, uh, from your past, from your present, the only caveat being they've had to have had a big influence on your life, a big impact on your life, who would it be and why?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, I love that question. Um, I, I put a little thought into it and I'm going to go with Steve Jobs.

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Scott Overbeck: So, obviously not living, um, but somebody who's had a huge impact on my life. Um, you know, his, his rise happened during my, my [00:05:00] childhood. I remember, you know, very well, I was quite young sitting in front of this ginormous Apple computer and, and just thinking this is like the coolest thing ever. That was really kind of the start of my, you know, path, my journey toward computers and what that meant.

And, and little did I know how computers were going to evolve over, um, in my lifetime, but really in my lifetime up to this point, I've seen his rise. I've seen his fall. I've seen the resurgence, um, of, uh, of his involvement with, um, you know, with the, the iPod and, uh, the iPad and, and, and on and on. And when I think about what, has happened just in my lifetime with computers and how I'm sitting in my home office and I can communicate with people all over the planet, which I do pretty much on a daily basis.

Um, [00:06:00] truly astounding.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, that I'm with you. Are you, I take it you're a Mac man.

Scott Overbeck: I am not a Mac man. Well, I'm a Mac man in the sense I have an iPad and an iPhone sitting right in front of me, but I've never made the switch. You know, I'm very, um, Institutionalized. I spent 30 years in corporate. Um, you know, I think if I went down a more of a of an artistic creative path, I would absolutely be, you know, full on Mac Man.

But, uh, but I, I'm kind of balancing between the two.

Matt Edmundson: It's a fair comment, actually. I was talking to a friend of mine earlier on and they're buying a new computer and they were specking up a new PC and he was telling me about it and it was all very exciting for him. But I said, well, why don't you get a Mac, man?

It's just, I don't understand why you're getting this PC stuff. Because I'm very much, I mean, I have got the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac. I'm, you know, recording on a Mac at the moment. [00:07:00] Uh, most of the staff at the company are Macs, and this is why I've not got any kidneys left, because, you know, I've had to sell them to buy the Macs, but, but we are, we are all in the Mac ecosystem.

Priorities. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got sucked in in 2012, and that was a 2000, 2010, I think it was, I bought my first Mac, and up until then, I just, I would just ridicule people who, who had Macs. Um, and here I am, uh, you know, a definitive Mac evangelist, uh, there's still a chance for me. There's still time. There is.

The trouble is, once you start, you don't go back, I think. Um, and I, when I, whenever I sit in front of a PC now, I'm just, because it's been 14 years, I'm totally lost. I just genuinely am lost. I don't know what to do. I don't, I can't get my head around Android phones. I, I'm like you, I'm too institutionalized.

Maybe the wrong way is the phrase. So I'm curious, Steve Jobs, I mean, Steve Jobs, [00:08:00] obviously, you know, he's had a big impact on the world. There's no doubt about it. An interesting character, in some respects he was inspirational, in some respects you wouldn't want his life, um, I, I, I find him quite an interesting, you know, just the way he did presentations when he presented the iPhone, when he presented the iPad, and it's sort of, he revolutionized, I think, how people announce products to the world and all that sort of stuff.

Um, So you can definitely see the impact, and certainly from a tech point of view, he's had an impact on my life, but I'm curious, in what, is there a specific way he's had, I'm curious why he was the first person that sprung to your mind.

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, he was a person that came to my mind, um, I, I think just because I spent all day, every day on a computer, and, and really, I think that he, he set that in motion, in large part.

I'm upgrading it. It's not a Mac that I'm working on, but just, you know, just the idea and being able to kind of be such a visionary [00:09:00] and, you know, lay out kind of the path for what the future was going to look like. I think he was able to articulate that better than anybody else. And of course, We all know that that Apple kind of kept their sphere very tight, right?

That was really the difference of why kind of Windows based products really took off because they, you know, they let them out the door and and that people tinker with them and and You know, plug and play and, and more open sourcing and things like that. Apple didn't do that, right? So it, you know, they, they went down a different path.

It took them a little longer, but you, when you talk about somebody who, um, has created a product that people are like absolute fanatics over, you know, he's the guy.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, he is totally. Have you tried, um, have you been into an Apple shop and tried the Vision Pro? Have not, have not. So here's, here's some, even [00:10:00] though you've not got a Mac computer, here's something that I would recommend, and I'd actually recommend it to anybody who's listening, even if you're not a Mac fan.

Go to the Apple store nearest you and make an appointment because you have to, I think it works on an appointment based system. Uh, you want an appointment, it takes about 45 minutes from memory, 45 minutes to an hour to try the Vision Pro. So when I was in the States, because it's only just come out in the UK the last month or so, but when I was in the States earlier this year, I Went to the Apple store, tried the Vision Pro.

My son was over with me actually and he tried it as well. And you will get to see, I think, where computing is going. I definitely don't think the Vision Pro is there because I can tell you, you know, all the things that are wrong with it. Um, but I was utterly amazed and blown away by what that thing can do.

Um, and you can see the technological limitations that it has right now, um, but it's like the first [00:11:00] iPhone and you compare the first iPhone to the iPhone 15, which we're on now, chalk and cheese, right? So you can see where it's going and, and I, I just think it's one of those things that's just worth spending 45 minutes doing if I'm honest with you.

Scott Overbeck: Appreciate it. Yeah. I'll, I'll look that up as soon as we, uh, we wrap up today, Matt.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Do it, man. Just go to the Apple store and try it and just, yeah, it's, it's, it's, um, It is extraordinary. So Scott, I mean, I mentioned earlier that, you know, you're, you're part of Seacoast, um, but tell us a little bit about the company.

Tell us a little bit about what you do.

Scott Overbeck: Yeah. So basically, um, you know, I left the corporate last year to, uh, to stand up a consulting company, really taking everything that I've learned over, over my corporate career and applying it more toward small to medium sized businesses. Our kind of, uh, secret sauce is around strategic alliances and really, um, you know, identifying what, uh, a particular business's strengths and also their weaknesses [00:12:00] are, and then trying to come up with ways to pair or partner them up with other businesses, um, so that we see some synergies.

Yeah. So if you have a particular weakness, and many of the clients that I work with, Matt, are, you know, they, their weakness is, you know, they, they, they want big, they want greater distribution. They want more sales. They want more business, right? It's pretty standard. Um, how do we go about doing that? So we'll take a look and we'll say, well, what business or businesses out there have spent tons and tons of money to acquire your ideal avatar, your ideal client or customer.

Once we've identified that, then it's a matter of figuring out what's a win win for both of them. Because in most cases, there is a win win. And for every competitor that a business has, there's probably 10 other businesses that could be complementary and where you could work together and everybody benefits.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, [00:13:00] this, I remember this conversation super well because it's, um, I remember the different conversations we had about going and getting, was it, we were talking about, um, I'm trying to think of the example, Scott, where, was it a crisp company, uh, we call them crisps, you call them potato chips, don't you, where they, they, they had stuff printed on the packet, you know, like 150 million people all of a sudden started to see, um, the designs and things like that.

This, and this is what you specialize in doing is, so I go to the supermarket, um, I'll see a potato chips company advertising, I don't know, the latest Disney movie or that type of thing. It's, it's that kind of conversation that we started to have, but from an eCommerce point of view, which I found absolutely fascinating.

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's, there's so many different ways, you know, when you talk about strategic alliances, it's like, okay, I'm going to partner you up with some other company. Well, what's that look like? There's so many different, um, variations of it. I mean, it can literally just be, okay, [00:14:00] I'm gonna partner you up and this company is gonna email all their clients, whatever you're offering, right?

That's one way. Another way is more of like a deeper kind of a software integration, right? Where we're gonna kind of put you into another software package, uh, either deeply embedded or it's gonna be an upsell or a downsell, you know, um, that, that type of thing. We can get into white labeling and licensing.

You know, there's, you, I try not to kind of pigeonhole myself and just say, Oh, I'm only going to do this, right? At the, at the end of the day, it's every business has a strength or multiple strengths. Every business has a weakness or more than one weakness. How can we address those? How can we play to the strengths and how can we address the weaknesses, right?

And if we can get answers to that, there's, there's a lot of opportunity.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's really fascinating. I, and I love how you do it. And this is what you spent many years in corporate doing, right? [00:15:00]

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, in, in varying roundabout ways. You know, when I stepped back and I just said, okay, so. So in the totality of my career, what kind of things did I really focus on?

Because I've had a lot of different titles. I've done a lot of different things. It was about revenue generation. It was about optimizing. I mean, when I worked with some of the biggest businesses on the planet, Consulted, you know, was employed by them. All different types of things. Mm-Hmm. , um, a lot of the things that these really big companies do and do.

Wow. Particularly strategic alliances. Right. I'll just keep eating that drum until, um, you tell me to stop. Um, but. The big businesses do it really, really well. Small to medium sized businesses would be like, Oh yeah, I've heard of it. I've tried it. It didn't work, whatever, but they don't do it very well.

They're really missing the mark because they would rather spend tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars chasing after clients or [00:16:00] customers when they're all sitting over there at another business, just waiting to be marketed to.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, no, it's, um, it's one of those things which I, when you listen to it in my, my, My default is, right, we need to grow the business.

Let's do the usual client acquisition, new client acquisition strategies, whatever they are for your business, whatever they are for your industry. Cold outreach, paid media, whatever.

Sure.

Matt Edmundson: Um, that's the default thinking and it's, it's, it's It's, it's competitive and it is, it's not easy. Um, whereas what you're doing sounds remarkably simple and straightforward, but we somehow seem to forget about it in the sense that, well, I need these kinds of customers.

That company over there has got a whole bunch of those customers. So how can I create something between me and that company, which is a win win where we get access to those customers? Um, yeah,

Scott Overbeck: we go to our default settings so easily. [00:17:00] Yeah, we go to our default setting, which is I need more customers. Well, everybody needs more customers.

The question is, how are you going to go about getting them? Right? So you got most businesses that are going to spend 80 to 90 percent of their time trying to acquire new customers. Um, and they're not cheap. Right. And they're getting more expensive all the time. Uh, you know, when I think about, uh, the fact that it can be up to 25 times more cost effective selling to your existing customers, that's where we create opportunities of, you know, just saying, okay, so let's say that you have, uh, good relationship with your clients.

Now, what else can we do to monetize them? Because you might say, oh, well, they've already bought my, uh, my widget. So. There we're done with them, right? We're just gonna kind of keep them happy and maybe if there's upgrades or something like that, but it's like, well, is there anything else kind of along that path that they could be interested in?

The answer is always [00:18:00] yes. Then it was like, well, why aren't we introducing those types of products or services to them? Because we know they're going to go buy it somewhere else. Why wouldn't you want to monetize that? You already have done the hard work, you've done the heavy lifting, you have this customer or client as captive, let's keep them happy, let's, and let's monetize

them.

Scott Overbeck: It's so simple, but yet so few companies actually do it.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, and which means there's opportunity there.

Scott Overbeck: Tremendous opportunity.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Scott Overbeck: My biggest struggle, you know, when I, when I did the switch from big corporate to small to medium sized businesses, let's call them SMBs going forward, uh, I figured that it was just going to be like a slam dunk and be like, is that what I'm going to do?

They'd be like, oh yeah. It's There's so much pushback because it's like a huge educational piece. People don't get it. Maybe [00:19:00] conceptually they do, but when it comes down to, okay, how's that apply to my business? It's just like, you know, it's a really tough thing for people to kind of get their head around.

Matt Edmundson: Which is, uh, it's surprising. I'm, I suppose because you do see it all the time, literally everywhere. You see this sort of companies promoting other companies, you know, um, And you do see it, and yet it just feels so alien, and I don't know why it's, um It's an interesting one whether whether we've just relegated it to being a sort of the privy of the the large corporates and Is a is an interesting idea and I I'd not really thought about that

Scott Overbeck: I wonder if you know people look at it and just say oh, well, it works for big corporate So it couldn't possibly work for me.

But why couldn't it? How big corporate is is it? It's a scaled up Small to medium sized business. And it didn't just become ginormous overnight, [00:20:00] right? It was an evolution. You know, there's one thing I have on my website, which is that once you understand the immense power of strategic alliances, you will never look at business the same way again.

Everywhere you look, you'll, you'll see kind of the results of that partnering, that pairing. Some, some of it's really obvious. Um, you know, like if you walk into McDonald's or, or Target or some place to get some, some, it's not so obvious, but it's happening everywhere.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. No, it's very true. Very true.

So in your, uh, you know, uh, let's jump into it and we, we call the show Push To Be More. Um, we like to ask people where they've had to push through challenges they've had to deal with and face. Um, obviously you've, we could talk about the challenges of educating clients and to understanding the opportunity that's available to them.

Uh, but that aside, I suppose, where, what about you? What sort of challenges, what, wherever [00:21:00] you've had to push through in life? And

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, so, so I think a few of them that come to mind, I'll just toss a few out, was, you know, the, the work life balance, right? How do you, how do you keep things from just being so out of kilter?

Yeah.

Scott Overbeck: Um, and, and, and that's clearly an area where somebody like a, a Steve Jobs, I can say, hey, he's really compelling, he's very interesting, you know, he had like the worst work life balance ever.

Yeah.

Scott Overbeck: All right, so he was phenomenal in one area of his life and I wouldn't go so far as to say a failure, but not nearly as phenomenal in other parts of his life.

So, so work life balance is huge. I, I think, uh, you know, making a jump from kind of largely being, uh, institutionalized from an employment perspective in big corporate to, um, transitioning into entrepreneurship is certainly another, um, you know, another. Challenge that people might run into.

Matt Edmundson: So how did you, um, [00:22:00] I mean, Steve Jobs is a great example, isn't it?

You, uh, I often get asked, you know, what's your, what's your definition of success or what does success look like for you? And, um, I often reply to that without really thinking about it as sort of an off, off, off comment, which is I'd write, I want to succeed at home first.

Um,

Matt Edmundson: Now, I've been, uh, married to my beautiful wife for, our next anniversary is 27, so 27 years, coming up for 27 years, three kids, um, Congratulations.

Oh, thank you. I mean, and the kids are awesome, you know, and, and, and it's, and we all get on super well. I think we're a good family, um, a good family unit. My son's delight in making fun of me and my age seems to be the phase of life we're at now, which is, which is quite funny. Um, but yeah, it's, I think it's always been my aim to succeed at home first, and I look at someone like Steve Jobs and I go, [00:23:00] massive success, I don't see that success at home, um, and you're right in terms of this work life balance.

How has that played out for you? How was, how have you had to sort of face that challenge?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, well, what I would say, um, you know, if we're just talking in the short term, not great. Because, you know, spinning up a business from scratch is a very time intensive effort. Um, you know, time intensive in the, okay, so I'm not 20 anymore, so I'm not going to be working 20 hours a day,

but

Scott Overbeck: the, the time that, You know, my waking hours, a lot more of it went toward the business than toward, you know, other kind of buckets, we'll call them, that I, that ideally, I would have wanted to, you know, to, um, to focus on.

So, I think in the short term, if, if you're going to go down a path of spinning something up, like there, there is, um, There is an investment of time and [00:24:00] effort. Um, I'm banking on the fact that that's going to wane very soon. And we're going to go back to, you know, more of a balanced, um, approach to, you know, to life, because it certainly isn't something that I would want to, uh, you know, It's, it's not the normal that I, that I want.

You know, that being said, um, you know, over, I would say probably the last 20 years, I mean, I, I've kind of taken it upon myself to do kind of deep dives into different ways to be able to, um, kind of plan your life and, um, Um, be more organized and be more efficient and, and I've sort of kind of calibrated that improved upon that over the last probably two decades.

I think that has positioned me well where that yes, while I'm really focused on other things, the more important stuff doesn't suffer as much as it would have. It's not like it's completely turned off.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. [00:25:00] Yeah. It's, I, I, it's an interesting wasn't it? I. I was talking to somebody the other day and they said, Oh, I, you know, I'm thinking of starting a business.

And I was curious as to why they wanted to start a company up. And they, um, they wanted to, I can't, what was the phrase they use? In essence, what they were saying is they wanted to take control of that time. They wanted to get time back because the, the idea, I mean, they were in corporate and the idea in their head was they see people who, I run their own companies, like me, I suppose, I don't, I don't suppose I have the stereotype in some respects, and I take six weeks off over summer, you know, and I, I, I enjoy that sabbatical time, um, I've done it for the last three years, I have a great team that allows me to, to do that, um, and so it was, it was very much what I said, well, I want to do that, so I'm going to start my own company, and I'm a bit like, not quite sure you understand What you're actually saying, you know, you,

this is gonna suck

Matt Edmundson: the life out of you, right?

Uh, in the early [00:26:00] days, it's going to take an awful lot. And I've always found, um, Scott with these kinds of things that there are seasons. Um, and this is something that I, you know, my wife and I understand. Um, I will say to my wife, I am in a season of. Business as in for the next however long that season is going to be.

And if you're starting up a company, it's going to be 18 months. If you're where I am, it might be three months, you know, whatever bit I'm in. But, um, for the next three months, life is just going to be a bit busy and it's going to look like this. I'm not going to have these evenings and so on and so forth.

Are we okay with that? Um, and getting, you know, the agreement on that because the season has to have an end date. Um, and I think it's important. To have that conversation, but I think it's important to understand that things do come and go in seasons, right?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, I love that. You know, I had actually done a presentation for Men's Breakfast a while back, and I really talked about the different seasons of life.

These are more longer term, you know, like you're just [00:27:00] newly married, you're, you're in the kid mode, the baby mode, the, you know, the preteen, the teen, right? So the different seasons pass and how complicated it can be to kind of pair up with somebody else when they're in different seasons. So it can be, because I used to think I'll simply like, oh, well, if, if we're married and I've been married, like, 20.

A little over 20 years, two kids. Um, thank you. So if we're married and have kids and somebody else is married and have kids, and it's like a great pairing, you know, we, we, we can, we can bond and we can share those. And it's actually like, once you get into it, you realize that it's, it's, it's not that simplistic because of the seasonality of it.

Like people are in different places, you know, some people are like phreatic busy, some people are more settling in. Um, but, uh, but, but it. It's there's a nuance there that that matters.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I agree. [00:28:00] I, I like that there is very much a nuance and recognizing that life is going to go in seasons. It's not consistent, you know, um, I'm a big fan of the big rock theory.

Um, you know, where you, you put the big rocks in the container, then the medium sized rocks and, and you, and you do that. And so always putting in the diary, what's important. So I try and work out six days a week. I make sure Sharon and I, we have at least one date night a week, you know, that, um, I'm usually around nine times out of 10 for, you know, our evening meal, and we put those things in the diary.

Um, uh, the sort of the big rocks and I, and then the rest of it sort of, sort of happens around that really, you know, with the different, um, the different requirements, you know, I can't always work out if I'm traveling, but I can go to a hotel, maybe there's got a gym, you know, there's things that you can do to help yourself.

Um, but it, it is intentionality, isn't it?

Scott Overbeck: It is. And I love the big [00:29:00] rock idea. Like I'm a huge planner. I, you know, I try to sit down and plan, um, a week ahead, you know, so usually on a Friday or Saturday morning, I'll, you know, try to be in peace and just, you know, just look at, Where I've been, what's upcoming, but yeah, if looking at those big rocks and planting around them, um, is, is huge, right?

So those are commitments that either you made to others or you made to yourself and, and either one is, is, uh, equally important. Um, But the intentionality to your point is that something that's important enough needs to be in your calendar, right? If it's on your mind, if it's important to you or to somebody that you care about, it needs to be in there.

You need to create that rock, right? You need to put it in there and be like, I have to navigate around the rock. Um, Because if you don't do it, in my mind, it's not [00:30:00] important, um, and it's probably going to be kicked to the side.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, that's so true. So true. And I've found that actually even simple things like putting we've had date night every week for pretty much 26 years unless I've been travelling.

That's fantastic. It's still in my I've been doing it for 26 years and it's still in my diary. Right? Because I know that this, the first week that it's not, can easily become the second week that it's not. Do you know what I mean? And it, whereas if I just don't let that happen, um, I seem to have a much better success rate, uh, with the whole thing and it, um, it seems to, how do you, do you, uh, do you have routines?

Uh, have you figured out routines or is it all just craziness all the time?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah. It, it, it, Definitely as routines, uh, let me just go back to something that you said, Matt, real quick is that, uh, you know, the idea of like, like if, as soon as you [00:31:00] take it out of your diary or, you know, stop making it intentional, you're now starting to create a new habit.

And the

Scott Overbeck: new habit is not necessarily a good one. So the new habit, you know, they say it takes X amount of times before something becomes a habit. Well, soon as you stop doing something, you are in the process of building up toward creating a new habit, which is, okay, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this.

Whether it's working out, whether it's having an intentional date night, whatever it ends up being. Um, but to answer your question, the last one, yes, I mean, I'm very intentional with my calendar, probably, um, overly so, just because of the fact that I have so much going on right now, and I need to almost be militant about my time.

And I'll tell you, I mean, I've known for, For 30 years, I mean, people have been saying that, that time is [00:32:00] the most valuable thing that you can have. It's more valuable than money. It's more valuable than, um, gold. And so, and I've, I mean, I've known that I've sort of quasi believed it, but until I became an entrepreneur, like I, like I'm living it now, you know, to, you know, The, the value of that time and when you become an entrepreneur, you get to choose in almost every case is how you're going to spend that time, that minute, that 30 minute, that hour, that day, that week, that month, but you get to choose.

Are you going to choose right? Are you going to choose wrong? Are you just gonna, you know, surf, um, looking at news or scroll through, you Facebook Reels, because there's, it's overwhelming making the choice, nobody's going to tell you what to do. So, um, so in my opinion, you have to be very intentional.

Matt Edmundson: Really interesting point about, uh, being so overwhelmed you can't make the [00:33:00] decision. Um, which is something I think when you're tired and you're, I found actually, if I'm tired and I've made a lot of decisions, I get decision fatigue. I, I, there's, and the, at the end of the day, the, because there is so much choice now on what you can do with your time, um, that actually making a decision becomes quite complicated, doesn't it?

And it, complicated, you almost sort of go to, right, I'm just going to doom scroll through Instagram because I don't have to make that decision. I, I'm just going to start doing it and I don't have to think about doing it. And it, And I find the more tied I get. The more com, the more difficult it is to make a choice, do you know what I mean, so this sort of, the, the overwhelm through tiredness and because of the sheer quantity of choices that we're faced with, I think decision fatigue is a real, real problem.

Scott Overbeck: It really is, and, and I, I think that [00:34:00] to a certain extent, I mean, we're, we're still in the process of adapting from, say, like the, the idea that you would go to work and you would work on an assembly line and you would do the same exact thing, you know, and However many times in a day, then you would clock out and then you would leave.

Now we have so much more autonomy and we can invoke creativity and, uh, there's individuality that gets moved into that. And, and you don't have somebody telling you what to do. Um, you know, so maybe there's a certain outcome that needs to happen, but you know, you get to figure out over time what that, what that looks like.

And that can create, I mean, for some people, You know, they're, they're well adapted to that, but, you know, but some really need to kind of be told what to do. So if somebody's not gonna tell you what to do, then you sort of kind of need to be the person who's like, here's what to do. Right. Whether that's doing, yeah, like what I do, it's sitting down at a week at a time and saying, okay, what are my [00:35:00] big priorities for this coming week?

And if they don't, if. On a given day, it doesn't align back to that. Then, you know, I need to really check myself and say, well, are those priorities really as important as I thought they were? Or am I just trying to distract myself? Because, you know, some sometimes getting into this stuff is, It's pretty heavy.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, very much the distraction thing. I can totally empathize with that. You're just like, yep, I'm just going to do this over here. Um, it's interesting. I was, I was, uh, chatting with somebody earlier on today and we were two very different backgrounds working two very different environments and there's some cross, uh, work going on between the two, two parties and I had a meeting with them about six weeks ago where we agreed something would happen, um, just something quite simple.

And I, and I said to them today, has that happened yet? And they're like, Oh no, we're just waiting on, we're just waiting on agreeing that [00:36:00] formally with such and such a person. And then I've got to go and get this person involved. And then this company is going to go and get me a quote. And I'm like, we're six weeks into something.

And so there's going to be another six weeks for that happens. And I, and I saw this and I thought, this is interesting because that really wound me up. Right, and I remember sitting there thinking, what is going on? And um, the same conversation I'm having with that group of people, we're like, right, let's meet next Tuesday, or whenever it was, and we're going to go through one or two things, and I think we need this other person there.

And so they're like, well, should I, I'll call that person and I said, right, I'm just, and I called them right there and then said, right, this is what we're doing. Are you coming yet? Get it all sorted out with inside literally 45 seconds. I picked up the phone, made the call, it was done. Yeah. Um, and it just struck me.

Scott, this morning, I don't know if you found this, actually, because you've been running your own company now. Do you find the way you deal with time is [00:37:00] different? Because I would look at that and go, there's the entrepreneur, he hustles, he gets things done. The business leader, he's used to leading his team, versus somebody, doesn't really matter what they do, they're in a big system and it just sort of flows along and they'll get to it when they get to it.

Um, you've come from one environment to another and I'm kind of curious, has that impacted you on your, in your ability to make decisions and deal with time?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, um, I, what I will tell you is, um, you know, toward the, maybe the last, um, five years of my time in corporate, we adopted an agile, um, uh, kind of, uh, Agile methodology where we would do daily stand ups and uh, we would have kind of the, the, uh, the scrum board and, and that really speaks to kind of what you're talking about.

Like if you take a look at something in a bigger picture and you say, Oh, well, that's really, that's difficult. I don't really know how to get started. So I'll just come back to it later. [00:38:00] Like, like I'm going to somehow figure it out without, you know, spending any time thinking about it. Um, And that's where one day, one week, one month, one year goes by and you're like, well, I haven't even tackled it because I haven't broken it down into anything actionable, right?

What, what kind of, um, uh, Agile allowed us to do was identify the priorities, chunk them down into something that was actionable because once it's actionable, then it's like, hey, Matt, did you call that guy that you said you're going to call? You're like, no, well, why not? What's going on? You know, how long, and by the way, we've already determined kind of based upon, um, story points or level of effort, how much time that's going to take.

Well,

Scott Overbeck: come on, Matt. Like, like, that's, that takes us in five minutes. What's the deal? Oh, I have something else to do. Oh, really? What'd you have to do? Because it's not on the board, right? This is your priority. So, [00:39:00] so that really helped. Um, I've been following a methodology by, um, David Allen for,

Matt Edmundson: uh, GTD.

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, maybe a decade getting things done.

And, uh, you know, two, Two major things that, you know, that always resonate with me is like, if you have something on your list to do, if it's not chunked down to an actionable item, then you haven't done your homework enough, right? So if I look at my list and, and it's like, you know, it says groceries, what, what does that mean?

Pick up groceries, order groceries, put groceries away. Like it's not, it's not chunked down enough. And then the, the other thing I'll just toss out is, you know, he talks about making sure that, um, anything that, that is in your head and is taking your attention gets, gets put down because our mind isn't meant for kind of ruminating [00:40:00] on, on thoughts all the time.

So those two things, um, really kind of synced up nicely with my, um, Agile experience in corporate. And I think it was a. Really great handoff, um, for the entrepreneurial route.

Matt Edmundson: Brilliant. I, I, I like you, I, that's one of the overriding lessons I remember from the Dave Allen Getting Things Done stuff was if it's in your head, get it down because you're going to forget about it.

And this is where, um, I, going back to our earlier conversation, Scott, about Apple. Um, I have the, uh, the Apple Watch and I just love pretending I'm Michael Knight from Knight Rider. And as soon as it's in my head, I'm talking to my watch. I love that show, oh my goodness. And it's great. I've got it in to my reminders, you know, and, uh, it just works super, super well.

So I'm a, I'm a big, big, big, big, big fan of that. Um, Scott, listen, it's a fascinating conversation, but, um, absolutely fascinating conversation. And I. [00:41:00] I just, I love the whole concept of productivity and getting things done and, you know, how well we do them and what, and what sort of things I can do with my time to, to sort of better utilize it.

How do you, you've been doing this, you know, like 18 months, how do you recharge your batteries? What, what do you do to sort of stay on top of your own game?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah. Uh, one, one thing that I really decided to focus on when I went into the entrepreneurial route is, um, you know, getting enough quality sleep. Um, you know, I found that I was cheating my, myself, my body, my family.

Um, for a long time. Um, you know, there were times that I would get up at like when I'd go into the office, which was fairly rare, but I'd get up at 4 30 in the morning to try to, to beat rush hour traffic. And then when I come home, how, how great do you think I was when I came back after, you know, working all day and commuting for, [00:42:00] Two and a half hours.

And you know, like I was toast. I had nothing in the tank. Um, you know, so, so sleeping has been, been a huge thing. I also made the decision to, to stop drinking at all, right? Cause I was like, well, I, you know, I want to be able to kind of micromanage, you know, how my performance is. I don't want to invoke any other variables in there.

So, um, so I got rid of drinking, focus on my, um, focus on my sleep. I track everything I eat. Um, you know, it's, it's almost like a, like a mathematical formula that I'm, that I'm doing now, you know, so, so really just focusing on the things that I know that are going to have an impact, sleep being a huge, well, a massive one.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Massive,

Scott Overbeck: massive.

Matt Edmundson: And actually by cutting out the alcohol, you instantly make you sleep better, don't you? That is, that is for sure. There's a definite link. I know people say, well, I have to drink alcohol to get to sleep. It's like, yeah, but alcohol gets you to sleep quicker, but it The [00:43:00] quality of sleep is not as good and it's not as deep, so you wake up 10 to 2 during the night.

Scott Overbeck: Yeah, it's so true. Everything they say about alcohol is a great excuse if you're drinking it. When you're not drinking it, you're like, man, why didn't I stop sooner? I sleep better. I feel better.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, yeah, it's, um, I can't say I'm teetotal, but I definitely, you know, I have maybe one or two drinks a week, but I never have more than one at a time, and I never drink past a certain time of an evening.

That's good. And it seems to have worked well, but how, in terms of sleep, what, in terms of sleep, Is it just a case of you've got more sleep, or have you done this, you know, this, these, one of these sort of latest trends where you've bought a mattress that can control temperature and all kinds of crazy stuff?

Scott Overbeck: You know, I haven't, um, gone that far yet, although I'm open to the idea, and I think they also have these, like, Charging mattresses or something that I Mm-Hmm. that I saw. So I'm like, oh, I'm kind of interested in that. I, [00:44:00] I just, um, am focused on getting enough sleep, right? Mm-Hmm. . So I'm kind of in the, you know, the eight, eight and a half hour realm.

Right. Um, understanding your REM cycles. I mean, there's some free apps that you can Mm-Hmm. or websites that you can go to find out, like when, if I fall asleep at 11 o'clock and I. And I wake up at this time, am I going to be in the middle of a REM cycle or not? Because, you know, there's a lot of science that says that if you wake up and you're not completed with the cycle, you're going to wake up and you're going to feel groggy.

And if, and if you would wake up 20 minutes later, you're going to feel on top of the world. So, so I think understanding and playing around with that. It's kind of fun.

Matt Edmundson: That's really interesting. I, I, I, I, if I think back of the last five years of my life and I'm in my early fifties now, so, but the last five, six years of my life, I made a decision [00:45:00] not to have an alarm clock in the morning.

Um, and that I just wanted to wake up naturally. And when I woke up, I also made the decision that I would get up. I wouldn't just sort of snooze around in bed. Um, and what I've found is that I will wake up pretty much at the same time every day. You know, like just a little before, just a little before 7am, I am awake, um, and I'll get up and I'll, I'll do my, um, quiet time and I'll go do the gym and all that sort of stuff and then I'm, I'm good for the day.

But it's, it's fascinating how I've not actually needed an alarm clock, uh, for a while since I focused on creating that routine, um, talking about the power of routines.

Scott Overbeck: That's really cool. You know, it, it reminded me of, I think it's Mel Robbins, you know, that she does like a 3 2 1 blast off kind of thing.

So

yeah,

Scott Overbeck: now some people like, you know, just want to do snooze or whatever and you just like, you get in the habit of like, you know, I'm not delaying, right? I'm just gonna give myself a, [00:46:00] you know, a wind, a wind up of 3 2 1 and then I'm just gonna do, get out of bed, what, you know. Whatever the case, maybe start, start something that I'm dreading.

Um, that's pretty powerful. It's, it's very conditional, right? You're really just conditioning your body and be like, Hey, I've got control over this. Why do I need a backup alarm or a snooze alarm? I got this.

Matt Edmundson: I got this. Yeah. It's interesting. I, we've not got time to talk about it actually, but one of the things that I've found is when I looked at nature, there is definite, a definite sine wave.

So there's, you have

Matt Edmundson: daytime and then you have dusk where actually the world gets ready for night. Um, and then you have your sleep and then you have dawn where the world gets ready for day. And I was living a very binary life. I was like, I'd be doing emails until like 1030, and I'd be like, all go. And then I'd sit in bed and go, right, let's go to sleep.

Boom. Uh, and actually, um, when I lived more according to the science of [00:47:00] nature, uh, and I created a nighttime routine, um, and a morning routine. And, and actually you need about, nature takes 70 minutes to transition from. You know, from where it is to, to, to being asleep, that's a really good strategy I found.

Um, and it really, really helped me. Um, but yeah, fascinating.

Scott Overbeck: I love it. I love it. You know, if there's anything that good that came out of COVID is one was like the, the realization that you don't have to be sending emails at all times of the day or night. You don't have to appear to be available at all.

And in fact it, it, it almost did a 180, which was like, why are you sending an email at three in the morning? What's

Matt Edmundson: wrong with you? Yeah. Scott, listen, uh, we've got to that time of the show where I have pulled out the question box. Uh, State of the Art Graphics if you're watching the video. Uh, this is where we [00:48:00] flick through some questions.

Wherever you say stop, that's the place I'm gonna stop and that's the question I'm gonna ask you. Stop. Okay, so,

the question, let me put it up here. Uh, in what areas are you happy to be good enough? Hmm,

Scott Overbeck: I would say, the first thing that jumps to mind, I mean there's plenty, but first thing that jumps to mind is the areas that would require technical skills. I don't feel like I need to be a master of everything. I feel like I can, uh, uh, that I'm good enough. I can get help if needed. So I don't, I don't remember any HTML, you know, I can't, I can't integrate softwares and [00:49:00] that's okay.

I'm good enough.

Matt Edmundson: It's really interesting. It's a really good point. I remember years ago, listening to an interview with. I can't remember the chap's name. It'll come back to me. And he talked about something called the Theory of Eights. Um, and I Yeah, the Theory of Eights, the number eight. So the Theory of Eights.

And it, it was, it was a very simple idea. He said, listen, you know, everybody is trying to hit a 10 out of 10. They want a 10 out of 10 customer experience. They want a 10 out of 10 job. They want a 10 out of 10 vacation. You know, they want a 10 out of 10. Everything's got to be 10 out of 10. Everything's got to be excellent.

My Instagram feed has got to look 10 out of 10. And, you know, you're striving for these things and this is actually. Steve Jobs all over. I mean, the level of attention he put into detail, um, certainly into key things, maybe not everything, but certainly key. He was just like, this guy was like a 10. I mean, [00:50:00] he just wanted it, you know, crazy spot on.

And he, his whole theory was, you know what, when you, when you live in a realm where you want 10 out of 10 all the time, the pressure is really high. Um, and. The disappointment is also really high because you don't hit, when you don't hit the 10 out of 10, you're disappointed. And so he had something called the theory of eights is like, I wanted every area to hit an eight.

He said, because when we're trying to hit 10 we weren't that consistent. Sometimes we'd hit it, sometimes we weren't, sometimes we would. And as a team, it then became very up and down. He said, when we, when our aim was to hit 10 across these key areas, we And he said, I found that we could do that every single time and every single day, then that's when life became interesting.

And so he found consistency at a level eight was much easier than trying to be a ten out of ten junkie all the time. And um, and so that's what that question reminded me of. You [00:51:00] know,

Scott Overbeck: I like that. It's kind of like giving yourself permission to lower the bar because you're going to be better off.

Matt Edmundson: And almost permission for it not to be perfect, which is an odd thing to say, I think, in the modern day world.

Um,

but

Matt Edmundson: actually, you know, I, I, it's okay. As long as I'm hitting eight out of 10, then I can be, if I hit 10 out of 10, I'm, I am laughing. I'm stoked. I'm really happy. Um, but I'm also really happy when I hit an eight out of 10. And, um, that creates a level of consistency, which is actually much easier to attain.

Um, how true it is or not, I don't know. I just thought it was a really interesting interview. I like it.

Scott Overbeck: I'm going to actually do a little research on that. You know, I'm, I'm not one to, to have idols, um, you know, um, sports and otherwise, but when you take a look at people in sports and you say, well, you know, the, the most famous people, like.

You know, what, what's their [00:52:00] accuracy rate? You know, what's their batting average? How many, how many, uh, three, three throws did they, um, did they get, you know, last season, like it's not perfect, you know, how, how many songs did, uh, you know, we're, we're number one that's, that somebody wrote, not a lot, right. So, um, So, I think that we have a tendency to, um, to hold ourselves to a higher standard, Dan.

Yeah,

Matt Edmundson: that's such a good point. Yeah, such a good point. It's that thinking, isn't it, that actually, that, that drives this perfectionism, which causes us to do crazy things. Um, like I have a, I don't know how old your kids are, but I have a daughter, she's a teenager, um, and when she was younger, I was aware that she was seeing 3, 000 images a day.

through various different channels, because that's what kids would see through social media, TV, all the different things. [00:53:00] And I was aware that the majority of the images that she saw of women were not real, because they had been photoshopped in some way or filtered in some way to, to take it from a, whatever they perceived it to be, it needed it to be a 10 out of 10, right?

It always had, they always had to have this 10 out of 10. And I think it's given rise to an anxiety in kids, which is, Scary. Uh, I mean, we've got the most anxious kids we've ever had. And I, and I'm not saying that's the sole cause of it, but I'm, I think it's probably added to it. Um, and just having those conversations with my daughter, because it's heartbreaking.

You're just like, I really hope you don't go down this road because 10 out of 10. Yeah, it's not always, uh, always achievable. Listen, Scott, really, really enjoyed this conversation, but I, I think I could go on a lot longer. It's been, there's so many questions that I've, I've, uh, I've got left to, to ask you, but I'm also aware of [00:54:00] time and want to be respectful of that.

So how do people reach you if they want to connect maybe with you? Where work's concerned or just want to connect and just say, Hey, listen to you on the show, thought it was great. What's the best way to do that?

Scott Overbeck: Yeah. Thank you. So, uh, so two ways. Um, I'm fairly active on LinkedIn. You, you can look me up, Scott Overbeck.

Um, I've got a presence there. Um, You know, my profile is open so you can connect with me, you can message me, um, love to hear from you. Also my website, seacoastcg. com, seacoastcg for consulting group, cg. com, um, you can message me there as well and, uh, there's mechanisms on both platforms for scheduling a, uh, you know, a 30 minute session with

Matt Edmundson: me.

Fantastic, fantastic. In fact, I linked with you on LinkedIn. I was, I went on LinkedIn earlier on and I was like, I was like, I can't believe we're not connected already. I know, I was thinking that too. Yeah, I'm glad you sent that through. Thank you. Yeah. So, um, no, we will of course link to Scott's info in the show notes, which like I say, you can get [00:55:00] along for free with the transcript at pushtobemore.

com or they'll be coming direct to your inbox if you sign up to the newsletter or just simply scroll down on your favorite podcast app and they'll be in the show notes as well. But Scott, listen, uh, thank you so much for coming on, man. Genuinely love the conversation. It got my brain going and I, I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed that. So thank you. Me too. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate it. Well, that's a wrap on another great conversation. Wasn't it great? A massive round of applause for Scott. In fact, I can do this. Hang on. Sorry, Scott. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Love it. This is what happens when you get a sound desk in your recording studio.

Anyway, huge thanks to today's show sponsor PodJunction for all you changemakers out there thinking about podcasting and using that as a platform. As a marketing tool, definitely would strongly recommend you Check it out, go connect with 'em, go find out more about [00:56:00] it@podjunction.com. Listen to that podcast as well.

It's, I really enjoy that podcast. Uh, now remember, keep pushing to be more, don't forget to follow the show wherever you get your podcast from because we've got some more seriously compelling conversations. Up Our Sleeve, and I don't want you to miss any of them, and in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first.

You are awesome. Yes, you are. Created awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear. Now Scott has to bear it, I have to bear it, you've got to bear it as well. Now, Push To Be More is brought to life by the fantastic Podjunction for transcripts or show notes. As I said, swing on by the website, Push To Be More.

Big kudos to the Podjunction team for making this show possible. But that's it from me. That's it from Scott. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a fantastic week, wherever you are in the world. I'll catch you on the flip side. Until then, keep pushing. Bye for now.

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