THRIVING THROUGH PODCAST - MARK SCRIMENTI INTERVIEW
Cleaned Transcript
00:00:03 - AJ Riedel
Welcome to this episode of the Thriving Through Podcast. Today, my guest is Mark Scrimenti. Mark, welcome to the podcast.
00:00:13 - Mark Scrimenti
Thanks, AJ. I'm happy to be here.
00:00:16 - AJ Riedel
So I start out with a couple of questions that I ask every podcast guest to set the stage. What was your path to becoming a self-employed consultant?
00:00:30 - Mark Scrimenti
A great question, and like any story, there's a million ways to tell it that would all be true and true to the facts, but I'll try and cut to the chase and be brief with it. I was in operations and e-commerce for 12 years at one company. We grew a lot during that time. I grew over $100 million in that span, and that's really where I became an operations person. Before that, I was in marketing.
00:00:58 - Mark Scrimenti
And there's a lot that went into that story that we could maybe talk about later, but after 12 years, we had hit a certain growth mark, and the company's strategy was going in a different direction. It was really time for me to go. I was always looking for what's next, looking for growth, very growth-minded and challenge-oriented, not really looking to coast. So we parted ways, and I had a couple of interim roles before the pandemic hit.
00:01:27 - Mark Scrimenti
And I was looking at EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, as a framework. I had read all the books and taken the Kolbe test and some of their online exercises and trainings. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm an integrator. I didn't know that's what I was, but that's what I've been doing the last 12 plus years. And I was doing that in preparation for a job, a COO position that had come up in an EOS shop, and it was a prolonged interview process down to being one other person. And when that just evaporated during the pandemic, pandemic hit, and they just didn't hire and ghosted me. I'm like, okay, well, I've been on my own before. I worked at—I had my own digital marketing agency for a few years before the e-commerce company, and I'm like, let's give it another try. Remote work became possible at that time, or more possible.
00:02:24 - Mark Scrimenti
So I hung up a shingle, and I found my first few clients. It was sort of opportunity, circumstance. I had learned so much, and I feel like I've got a lot to offer. Let's see how that plays in the marketplace, and that's really how it got started. It was a little bit, let's just see what we can do, and that was five years ago, and I've been at it for five years now.
00:02:49 - AJ Riedel
Okay. So you've started out, you hung out your shingle, and you already started out with three clients. How did you find those first three clients?
00:02:58 - Mark Scrimenti
Yeah, well, it wasn't all at once. The first client I found was local, through a local networking group, and it was a social enterprise related to soccer. It was a really cool concept where we were creating these little mini soccer pitches and putting them on empty corner lots in urban areas, underserved urban areas. There's a whole soccer philosophy behind it, developing talent in underserved markets. It was a big part of it, and we were working with developers who owned property but hadn't built on it yet, and so they were sponsoring this. It was a great concept, but anyway, I found this person through local networking, and it was my first fractional gig, so I kind of did whatever he asked me to do, whatever he didn't want to do, essentially. The founder CEO, he had a full-time job too, so this was his labor of love.
00:03:56 - Mark Scrimenti
And it was half time for me, so I was doing everything from payroll and accounting and insurance to more of the stuff that I'm used to doing, the day-to-day operations, marketing, go-to-market strategies, preparing decks, talking to potential investors, that sort of thing.
00:04:20 - Mark Scrimenti
And then my first fractional client. Another thing that I do is coaching, and that got started when an old employee, a former employee from the e-commerce company, came to me about 10 years after he had left the company and started his own business, saying, hey, I admired your leadership from afar. And he said, first of all, he's like, do you remember me? I'm like, of course I remember. It wasn't that big of a company, it's about 120 people, but he was just starting out. It was his first job out of college, and I'm like, yeah, I remember you, you were great. And he had done really well and built up his own brand strategy company, and he said, do you do any coaching? And I said, well, I've been thinking about that, and people have encouraged me to do that. Let's give it a try.
00:05:03 - Mark Scrimenti
That was—we've been together for three and a half years now, and it's been great. I mean, his business has really transformed and grown. He's gone from not sure if I want to continue doing this to really having the best time of his life, taking a sabbatical and making more money than before, selling bigger packages, getting seats at bigger tables. And I'm really, really proud of him, and it's a real joy working with him. And so that was the start of my coaching career, or my coaching source of revenue. So it's more of a portfolio career for me at this point, and I have other clients, and I've had other clients since then, who do one-on-one coaching. These are founder CEOs, typically younger, who need help with everything from strategy to how to talk to people and how to sell, things like that.
00:06:05 - AJ Riedel
So who is your ideal client?
00:06:11 - Mark Scrimenti
My ideal client is $5 to $50 million in revenue, B2B professional services. I've worked a lot with creative services, so digital marketing, brand strategy, agencies like that. But really any B2B professional services, management consulting, financial services, any kind of services where you're selling expertise and you're selling, in many cases, you're selling yourself or your team's expertise. And especially if you're selling projects or engagements, there's a lot of parallels. The challenges are very similar regardless of what specific service you're providing. So that's my ideal client. And typically, it's somebody who needs more structure. They've been in business for a few years. They've gotten to a certain point, maybe five, 10 employees. They need to level up their operations, their systems, their processes. They may need help with go-to-market strategy, pricing, packaging, that sort of thing. So somebody who's ready to scale and needs that operational backbone to do it.
00:07:14 - AJ Riedel
So once you have those first few clients, what was your plan to get the next ones?
00:07:21 - Mark Scrimenti
Well, initially it was pretty ad hoc. I was doing a lot of networking, both locally and online. I joined some communities, some paid communities for consultants and fractional executives. That was helpful for learning and for some referrals. I did some speaking engagements, tried to build up my LinkedIn presence. That's been a slow burn, but it's been helpful. And then just word of mouth, referrals from existing clients. That's been probably the most reliable source of new business for me. When you do good work for somebody, they tell other people, and those referrals tend to be better qualified and easier to close because they come with a recommendation.
00:08:10 - Mark Scrimenti
But I'd say the biggest thing I've learned is that you need to have a system, and you need to be consistent with it. You can't just do business development when you're not busy or when you're in between clients. You have to always be marketing, always be networking, always be building relationships. And that's something I've gotten better at over time, but it's still a work in progress. I think a lot of consultants and solopreneurs struggle with this because we'd rather be doing the work than selling the work. But if you're not selling, you're not going to have work to do.
00:08:50 - AJ Riedel
Right. So what does your business development look like now? Has it evolved?
00:08:56 - Mark Scrimenti
It has evolved. I've gotten more intentional about it. I've gotten more strategic about it. I'm not just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. I have a clearer ideal client profile. I know who I want to work with, what industries, what size companies, what challenges they're facing. And I try to position myself as the go-to expert for those specific challenges. So I'm creating content around those topics. I'm speaking about those topics. I'm networking with people who serve those same clients in complementary ways. So like, if I work with creative agencies, I want to know people who do CFO services for creative agencies or HR consulting for creative agencies because we can refer to each other.
00:09:46 - Mark Scrimenti
I've also gotten better at articulating my value proposition and being confident in my pricing. That's been a journey. Early on, I was probably underpricing myself because I was just grateful to have the work. But over time, as I've gotten more confident in the results I deliver and the impact I have, I've been able to charge more and feel good about it. And the right clients don't balk at the price. They see the value.
00:10:20 - AJ Riedel
So what are some of the challenges that you've faced in your journey as a consultant?
00:10:27 - Mark Scrimenti
Oh, so many. I think the biggest one is the feast or famine cycle. There are times when you're swamped with work and you can barely keep up, and then there are times when it's really quiet and you're wondering where the next client is going to come from. And managing that, both financially and emotionally, is tough. You have to have reserves. You have to have a financial cushion because you never know when things are going to slow down. And you have to have the discipline to keep marketing even when you're busy because if you stop, you'll pay for it later.
00:11:10 - Mark Scrimenti
Another challenge is isolation. When you're working for yourself, you don't have colleagues to bounce ideas off of or to commiserate with. You're on your own. And that can be lonely. So I've tried to build a network of other consultants and entrepreneurs who understand what I'm going through. Having that community has been really important for my sanity.
00:11:35 - Mark Scrimenti
And then there's the challenge of knowing what to focus on. When you're running your own business, you're doing everything. You're the CEO, the CFO, the head of sales, the head of marketing, the head of operations, the head of delivery. And it's easy to get pulled in a million directions and lose focus on what really matters. So I've had to get better at prioritizing and delegating or outsourcing the things that aren't my strengths or aren't the best use of my time.
00:12:10 - AJ Riedel
Right. So what's been the most rewarding part of being a consultant?
00:12:16 - Mark Scrimenti
The most rewarding part is seeing the impact you have on your clients. When you work with a founder or a CEO and you help them solve a problem that's been keeping them up at night, or you help them achieve a goal that they didn't think was possible, that's incredibly fulfilling. And you develop these deep relationships with your clients. You're not just a vendor. You're a trusted advisor. You're a partner. And that's really meaningful work.
00:12:50 - Mark Scrimenti
I also love the variety. I get to work with different companies in different industries on different challenges. It keeps things interesting. I'm never bored. And I'm always learning. Every client teaches me something new, and I get to bring those lessons to the next client. So there's this cumulative effect where I'm getting better and better at what I do because I'm exposed to so many different situations.
00:13:20 - Mark Scrimenti
And then there's the autonomy. I get to choose who I work with, what projects I take on, how I structure my time. That's a privilege. It's also a responsibility because if things don't go well, I can't blame anyone but myself. But I like having that control over my destiny.
00:13:45 - AJ Riedel
So you mentioned earlier that you've developed your own framework. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
00:13:52 - Mark Scrimenti
Yeah, so over the years, I've worked with a lot of different companies, and I've seen a lot of patterns. I've seen the same problems come up over and over again, and I've developed a way of thinking about those problems and solving them that I think is unique and effective. And I've codified that into a framework that I call the Value Creation Engine. And the basic idea is that every business is a system for creating value, and that system has inputs, processes, and outputs. And if you want to grow your business, you need to optimize each of those components.
00:14:35 - Mark Scrimenti
So the inputs are things like your talent, your capital, your technology, your data. The processes are your operations, your workflows, your systems. And the outputs are the value you deliver to your customers, the revenue you generate, the impact you have. And the framework gives you a way to diagnose where the bottlenecks are, where the inefficiencies are, and what to focus on to get the biggest improvement. And it's not rocket science. A lot of it is common sense. But having a structured way to think about it and talk about it with clients has been really helpful.
00:15:20 - Mark Scrimenti
And I've been refining it over the past few years, and I'm at the point now where I think it's ready to share more broadly. I'm thinking about maybe writing a book or creating a course or something like that. But for now, I'm just using it with my clients, and it's been really effective.
00:15:40 - AJ Riedel
That's great. So what advice would you give to someone who's thinking about becoming a consultant or going out on their own?
00:15:48 - Mark Scrimenti
The first thing I would say is make sure you have a deep expertise in something. You can't just be a generalist and expect to succeed as a consultant. You need to be known for something specific. You need to be the go-to person for a particular problem or a particular type of client. So figure out what your superpower is, what you're really good at, and double down on that.
00:16:20 - Mark Scrimenti
The second thing is build your network before you need it. Don't wait until you're unemployed or unhappy in your job to start networking. Start building relationships now. Connect with other people in your industry, join communities, go to conferences, be helpful to people. Because when you do decide to go out on your own, those relationships are going to be your lifeline. They're going to be your source of referrals, your source of support, your source of learning.
00:16:55 - Mark Scrimenti
The third thing is get comfortable with selling. If you're not good at selling, or if you don't like selling, you're going to struggle as a consultant. Because you have to sell yourself every day. You have to sell your ideas, you have to sell your services, you have to sell your value. And if that doesn't come naturally to you, you need to work on it. Take a sales course, read some books, practice. Because it's a skill you can learn, and it's a skill you have to have.
00:17:30 - Mark Scrimenti
And then the last thing I would say is be patient and be persistent. It takes time to build a consulting practice. It takes time to build a reputation, to build a client base, to figure out what works. And there are going to be setbacks. There are going to be times when you're frustrated or discouraged. But if you stick with it and you keep learning and you keep adapting, you can make it work. And it can be incredibly rewarding.
00:18:05 - AJ Riedel
So if you could go back and give your younger self advice when you were just starting out as a consultant, what would you tell yourself?
00:18:14 - Mark Scrimenti
I would tell myself to charge more. I think a lot of new consultants undervalue themselves because they're not confident yet in the results they can deliver. And they're afraid that if they charge too much, people won't hire them. But the reality is, if you charge too little, you attract the wrong clients. You attract people who are price-sensitive and who don't really value what you do. And those are often the most difficult clients to work with.
00:18:50 - Mark Scrimenti
So I would tell myself to be confident in my value, to charge what I'm worth, and to not be afraid to walk away from clients who aren't a good fit. Because not every opportunity is a good opportunity. Sometimes the best thing you can do is say no to something that's not right for you so that you have time and energy available for the things that are right for you.
00:19:20 - Mark Scrimenti
I would also tell myself to invest more in marketing and business development earlier on. I was very DIY about everything. I wanted to do it all myself, keep costs low. But looking back, I think I could have grown faster if I had been willing to spend some money on marketing, on getting help with my website, with my positioning, with my outreach. Because time is your most valuable resource as a consultant, and anything you can do to leverage your time is worth it.
00:20:00 - Mark Scrimenti
And then I would tell myself to find a community of other consultants or entrepreneurs earlier. I was kind of lone wolfing it for the first couple of years, and I think I would have learned faster and avoided some mistakes if I had been connected with other people who were going through the same thing.
00:20:20 - AJ Riedel
So what are some of the mistakes that you made that you would want others to avoid?
00:20:26 - Mark Scrimenti
One of the biggest mistakes I made was not having a clear positioning or niche early on. I was just saying yes to everything because I needed the money and I wanted the experience. But what that meant was I was all over the place. I was working with all different kinds of companies in all different industries with all different problems. And while that was good for learning, it made it really hard to market myself. It made it really hard to become known for anything specific. So if I could do it over again, I would have picked a niche earlier and focused on building a reputation in that niche.
00:21:10 - Mark Scrimenti
Another mistake was not being more disciplined about my time. When you work for yourself, you have complete flexibility, which is great, but it also means you can fall into bad habits. You can let work bleed into your personal time. You can spend too much time on things that don't really move the needle. So I've had to get better at time blocking, at setting boundaries, at being intentional about how I spend my time.
00:21:45 - Mark Scrimenti
And then I think another mistake was not investing in my own development. I was so focused on delivering for my clients that I wasn't taking time to learn new things, to develop new skills, to stay current. And as a consultant, your knowledge and your skills are your product. So if you're not investing in yourself, you're going to fall behind. So I've gotten better about carving out time for learning, for reading, for taking courses, for going to conferences.
00:22:20 - AJ Riedel
So what are you working on now? What's next for you?
00:22:25 - Mark Scrimenti
So right now, I'm really focused on two things. One is refining and scaling my consulting practice. I want to get to a point where I have a steady stream of ideal clients coming in, where I'm not having to hustle for every engagement, where I have a system that works. And that means investing more in marketing, being more strategic about my positioning, building out some productized offerings so I'm not just doing custom work all the time.
00:23:00 - Mark Scrimenti
And then the other thing I'm working on is this AI platform that I mentioned earlier. I'm really excited about the potential of AI to help small businesses and consultants be more effective. And I think there's a huge opportunity to create tools that make it easier for people to do the kind of work I do, to implement systems and processes, to make better decisions. So I'm collaborating with some folks on building this platform, and we'll see where it goes. It's early days, but I think it has a lot of promise.
00:23:40 - Mark Scrimenti
And then longer term, I'm thinking about the book, thinking about maybe creating some courses or training programs. I want to get my ideas out there more broadly. I want to help more people than I can help one-on-one. So I'm exploring different ways to scale my impact.
00:24:00 - AJ Riedel
That's exciting. So as we wrap up here, what's the one thing you want listeners to take away from this conversation?
00:24:09 - Mark Scrimenti
I think the one thing I want people to take away is that building a successful consulting practice or any kind of solo business is totally doable, but it's not easy. It requires a shift in mindset from being an employee to being a business owner. It requires discipline, persistence, continuous learning. And it's not for everyone. But if you have deep expertise in something, if you enjoy solving problems, if you like the idea of working with different clients and having variety in your work, and if you're willing to put in the time to build your business, it can be incredibly rewarding both financially and personally.
00:24:55 - Mark Scrimenti
And I think the other thing I'd say is don't wait until everything is perfect. Don't wait until you have it all figured out. You learn by doing. You get better by doing. So if you're thinking about it, start taking steps. Start building your network. Start clarifying your expertise. Start having conversations. And just see where it leads. You don't have to quit your job tomorrow, but you can start building towards it. And that's what I did, and it's worked out pretty well so far.
00:25:30 - AJ Riedel
Great advice. So how can people find you if they want to learn more or potentially work with you?
00:25:36 - Mark Scrimenti
The best place is LinkedIn. I'm pretty active there. Just search for Mark Scrimenti. I post regularly about operations, about running a professional services business, about consulting. And you can send me a message. I'm always happy to connect with people and have conversations. And my website is markscrimenti.com. It has more information about what I do and how I work with clients.
00:26:05 - AJ Riedel
Perfect. Well, Mark, this has been great. I really appreciate you sharing your story and your insights.
00:26:11 - Mark Scrimenti
Thanks, AJ. This has been fun. I appreciate the opportunity.
00:26:15 - AJ Riedel
All right, we'll continue on with some rapid-fire questions. So first question, what is the best business advice you've ever received?
00:26:24 - Mark Scrimenti
The best business advice I ever received was from my first boss in my first real job. He told me, always be learning and always be adding value. And I think those two things, if you can do those two things consistently throughout your career, everything else takes care of itself. If you're always learning, you're staying relevant. You're developing new skills. You're becoming more valuable. And if you're always focused on adding value, whether it's to your employer, your clients, your colleagues, people notice that. People want to work with you. Opportunities come your way. So those two principles have really guided my entire career.
00:27:10 - AJ Riedel
That's great advice. What's one book that's had a big impact on you?
00:27:15 - Mark Scrimenti
One book that's had a big impact on me is "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. I read it years ago, and I've probably read it three or four times since then. And I think what I love about that book is it's based on research. It's not just somebody's opinion. He actually studied companies that made the leap from good to great and figured out what they had in common. And a lot of those principles, like getting the right people on the bus, confronting the brutal facts, the hedgehog concept, I use those in my work with clients all the time. It's just a really solid framework for thinking about business and growth.
00:27:55 - Mark Scrimenti
And then another one I'd mention is "Traction" by Gino Wickman, which is the book about EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. That really crystallized a lot of things for me about how to run a business systematically, how to create accountability, how to set goals and track progress. So those two books have probably had the biggest impact on how I think about business.
00:28:25 - AJ Riedel
Great. What's a tool or resource that you find indispensable in your work?
00:28:30 - Mark Scrimenti
I would say the most indispensable tool for me is probably my CRM, which is HubSpot. I use it to track all my leads, all my clients, all my conversations. And it's not just for sales. I use it for project management, for tracking deliverables, for staying on top of all the moving pieces. Because when you're working with multiple clients at once, it's easy to let things slip through the cracks. So having a system where everything is documented and I can see what needs to be done and when has been huge for me.
00:29:10 - Mark Scrimenti
And then the other tool I'd mention is Notion. I use Notion for almost everything else, my personal knowledge management, my project planning, my note-taking. It's just such a flexible tool. You can use it however you want. And I've built out a whole system in Notion for how I manage my business and my life. So those two tools, HubSpot and Notion, are probably the ones I couldn't live without.
00:29:40 - AJ Riedel
Great. What's something you're learning right now?
00:29:44 - Mark Scrimenti
Right now, I'm learning a lot about AI and how to use it effectively in my work. I'm experimenting with different AI tools, ChatGPT, Claude, some others. And I'm trying to figure out how to use them to be more productive, to do better work, to deliver more value to my clients. So I'm spending a lot of time learning about prompt engineering, about how to structure my workflows to take advantage of AI, about where AI is helpful and where it's not.
00:30:20 - Mark Scrimenti
And then I'm also learning about community building. I think there's a big opportunity to build communities around specific topics or specific industries. And I'm exploring how I might do that in my own work. So I'm reading about community building, talking to people who've built successful communities, trying to figure out what that might look like for me.
00:30:45 - AJ Riedel
Nice. What's the best investment you've made in yourself or your business?
00:30:51 - Mark Scrimenti
The best investment I've made is probably hiring a coach. I've worked with a couple different coaches over the years, and every time it's been incredibly valuable. Having somebody who's outside your business, who can look at things objectively, who can ask you tough questions, who can hold you accountable, that's been huge for me. And it's not cheap, but it's been worth every penny because the growth I've experienced, both personally and professionally, has far exceeded the cost.
00:31:25 - Mark Scrimenti
And then the other investment that's been really valuable is joining communities of other consultants and entrepreneurs. Some of them are paid communities, some are free. But being connected with other people who are going through similar things, who understand the challenges, who can share ideas and resources, that's been incredibly valuable. So I'd say coaching and community have probably been my two best investments.
00:31:55 - AJ Riedel
Great. What's something that most people don't know about you?
00:32:00 - Mark Scrimenti
Something most people don't know about me is that I'm a musician. I play guitar and I sing, and I've been in bands over the years. I'm not in a band right now, but I still play regularly. And I think there's a lot of parallels between being a musician and being a consultant. You have to practice. You have to be disciplined. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and perform. You have to collaborate with other people. So I think my musical background has actually helped me in my business in ways that maybe aren't obvious.
00:32:40 - AJ Riedel
That's interesting. I never would have guessed that. All right, last question. If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?
00:32:50 - Mark Scrimenti
That's a tough one. I think if I could have dinner with anyone, it would probably be Peter Drucker, who's considered the father of modern management. He passed away in 2005, but he wrote so much about business and management and leadership that's still relevant today. And I think it would be fascinating to have a conversation with him about how he sees the world of work evolving, what he thinks about all the changes that have happened since he was writing, how he would approach some of the challenges that businesses face today. I think that would be an incredible conversation.
00:33:30 - AJ Riedel
That would be a great dinner conversation. All right, well, let's jump back to your story. So you mentioned that pricing has been a journey for you. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
00:33:42 - Mark Scrimenti
Yeah, pricing is something I've struggled with and I think a lot of consultants struggle with. When I first started out, I was charging hourly, and I was probably charging too little because I was just happy to have the work. And I didn't really know what the market would bear. I didn't know what I was worth. And I was afraid that if I charged too much, people wouldn't hire me.
00:34:10 - Mark Scrimenti
But over time, I realized a few things. One is that hourly pricing is problematic because it incentivizes you to work more hours rather than to be more efficient. And it doesn't capture the value you're delivering. If I can solve a problem for a client in 10 hours that would have taken them 100 hours or that's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to them, why should I only get paid for 10 hours of my time?
00:34:40 - Mark Scrimenti
So I've moved away from hourly pricing for most things. Now I do more value-based pricing or project-based pricing where I'm charging based on the outcome, based on the value I'm delivering, not just based on my time. And that's allowed me to charge more and feel good about it because I'm focused on the result, not just the effort.
00:35:10 - Mark Scrimenti
And I've also just gotten more confident in asking for more, in raising my prices. And then to get to the point where, yeah, it's not inexpensive, but it's good value, and I can feel confident and stand by that value. And so I can feel confident asking for it. And again, if it's the right client, typically that's not the primary issue. Typically, it's not an issue at all.
00:35:39 - AJ Riedel
Right. Have you ever had those moments where you wondered if you should go back to a corporate job?
00:35:47 - Mark Scrimenti
Yes, I have. And to be honest, even recently, I've thought about it. I've been at this for five years, and it's going, and it's still growing. And sometimes it feels like the goalposts keep moving, and I feel like I'm just one client away from where I want to be or something like that. Just not quite there, never quite there. But I think maybe that's the way it's always going to be. It's kind of like mastery. It's almost like Zeno's Paradox where you take a step halfway there, and another step halfway there, but you get closer and closer, but you never quite get there.
00:36:32 - Mark Scrimenti
That said, the stability, income can be lumpy, especially if you don't like business development or if you don't have a system down. I think you really need a system, and that's something, and I'm a systems person, but I don't feel like my marketing system or my sales and marketing system is yet what it needs to be, and I'm working on that. And you may need to pay some money to do that. And then that's—I'm a very DIY person, but at some point, you just have to bite the bullet and pay for it, and I'm looking into some of those options and exploring some of those options.
00:37:08 - Mark Scrimenti
But also, in terms of—yeah, the corporate job. I think the stability, income stability is—if that's important to you, being on your own can be a little lumpy and unpredictable. And yeah, there's been times lately, my oldest daughter's going to college this year, and I've been at this for five years, and there have been times, even recently, where I feel like I've been working harder than ever for less money than I was making five, seven years ago. And that's just a fact.
00:37:52 - Mark Scrimenti
The upside potential is potentially greater. That gets into questions of scaling. How do you scale yourself as a solo practitioner, or as a consultant? But I've thought about, yeah, it'd be nice to have benefits, 401K with matching, and just a steady paycheck, so I don't have to worry about any of that stuff. I don't have to go hunt for my next client, my next meal, so to speak. So yeah, that has come up.
00:38:30 - AJ Riedel
So what keeps you going? What keeps you—I mean, you've had the thought, but you don't act on it. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, so what keeps you going?
00:38:40 - Mark Scrimenti
Yeah, and I've looked in, I've explored. Sometimes, if the right opportunity came, maybe I would consider it. But what keeps me going, I think, is the building towards something. I have my own framework now, and it's exciting. And I've shared it with other people who are interested in it. And I have multiple ventures going, typically, and that's pros and cons to that because some of them are speculative, and it's time without necessarily getting paid. There's some AI stuff I'm doing, an AI platform. Everybody's doing it, but this architecture, I think, is really promising. And people who are interested in my framework and using it and different communities and so forth. So I think it's the opportunity to fulfill a purpose, my purpose, which I think is to amplify the vision, amplify—use the power of business to do good in the world, essentially. And my job is amplifying the power of those businesses, or the agency of those businesses, to make a positive impact in the world. And I do that by building that engine, that value creation engine, and value production engine.
00:39:59 - Mark Scrimenti
And so I think at this point in my career too, it's like, I want to make a human impact. And I want to do work that's meaningful and purposeful. People talk a lot about freedom and having the time and everything like that. Theoretically, that is something that could come from working for yourself. Right now, I'm not there yet. Right now, like I said, I'm working more than ever and not making as much money as I have in the past. But the potential to own my own destiny, so to speak, and do something that I could do for the next 15 years at least, really for the rest of my career, and as long as I want to, that's mine.
00:40:47 - Mark Scrimenti
And not having to worry about being let go because I'm over 50 or whatever, having a certain degree of control. It's not total control because you have to have clients. It's—but, yeah, moving from the employee mindset to the business owner's mindset is a big shift, and I think a lot of soloists underestimate that. It's like, oh, now I've got to do everything myself, now I've got to sell, now I have to do marketing. You've got to think like a business. You're not just selling yourself.
00:41:26 - AJ Riedel
Exactly. And on that, I think that's a good note to end, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Thriving Through Podcast. Mark, thank you for being my guest today. I really enjoyed having you.
00:41:39 - Mark Scrimenti
It was great, great talking to you, AJ. Thank you.
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