Scott Duffy. He’s the co-host of Business & Burgers and a contributor at Entrepreneur.com. He’s also listed as one of the top 10 keynote speakers of Forbes and Entrepreneur. He started working for bestselling author and speaker, Tony Robbins. He’s been a part of early stage exits and worked with big brands like CBSSport.com, NBC internet, Fox.com. He sold his last company to Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. He’s the best-selling author of the book called Launch!.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – You Are a Badass at Making Money
What CEO do you follow? – Dave Meltzer
Favorite online tool? — Skype
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5.5 to 6 hours
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You don’t win by hard work alone”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:02 – Nathan introduces Scott to the show
01:51 – Scott wants to tell The Top tribe that it is all about being real and integrity
02:01 – Scott is doing a lot of work regarding mindset
02:05 – Scott has a new book coming out called Breakthrough
- 02:26 – It is being published by Entrepreneur Press
- 02:30 – Scott was working on the timeline
02:54 – Scott shares a story about failing
- 02:58 – Scott had a business called Smart Charter
- 03:04 – Scott was looking for distribution and ended up making a deal with Virgin
- 03:16 – Scott was putting in $10K-15K of his personal money
- 03:33 – Scott closed a deal and they moved to their new office
- 04:12 – Scott is now officially a part of the Virgin Group
04:42 – Scott wasn’t paying himself nothing before he sold the company
04:54 – Prior to Smart Charter, Scott was a part of Sports 1 USA
05:20 – Majority of Scott’s savings went to Smart Charter
05:51 – Instead of taking money out out Smart Charter, Scott decided to go all in
06:18 – Scott now has equity with Virgin
06:57 – Scott sold Smart Charter in 2008
07:10 – Scott learned that the biggest job of an entrepreneur has nothing to do with business
- 07:19 – The most important job for an entrepreneur is to protect himself
07:44 – Smart Charter had an equity pool prior to Virgin
08:22 – The possible deal from Virgin
09:17 – In a matter of weeks, everything changed with Virgin/Smart Charter
10:05 – On Scott’s first day with Virgin, he knew that if he messed up, there wouldn’t be another chance
10:28 – Scott’s superpower is in getting distribution for early stage companies
10:51 – As a small company, dealing with big companies does not make you better
11:19 – The deal with Virgin didn’t turn out the way Scott thought it would
12:26 – As an entrepreneur, Scott thinks he was played
12:53 – Entrepreneurs have to know how to repackage the things that have happened to them
13:09 – Business & Burgers is a search for the best burger in America and offers a side of great business advice
- 13:14 – They hit the best restaurant and talk to the top local entrepreneur
- 13:35 – Next episode is Daymond John from Shark Tank
15:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don’t be discouraged; sometimes, you just have to learn things the hard way.
Entrepreneurs need to know how to protect themselves.
Take time building relationships – relationships are everything.

Resources Mentioned:

The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

723: He Sold His Company to Richard Branson, Then Oil Tanked Him

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