Community Changes Everything with Scott King

ABOUT SCOTT KING:
The Breakthrough Hub was conceived the day after our world was instantly shut down. At that moment, Scott King (Founder – CEO) recognized that his client’s lives were about to be massively disrupted. Scott often references C-19 as “the great elixir of truth.” Entrepreneurs were forced to slow down and give thought to areas of their lives and businesses that they (did not) or (could not) make time for previously.

What started with a handful of growth-minded individuals meeting virtually has exploded into an international movement to help business owners and entrepreneurs discover how to Get Unstuck and Be Unstoppable. 

From growing up as an only child on a farm in Canada to 3 decades of real business experience Scott has been through the good, bad, and ugly of entrepreneurship.

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Transcript

Rob Hughes (00:03):

Ever get your gut punched in business. Learn how to survive the chaos and turn your pain into passion with guests, Scott King today on the thrive collective well entrepreneurs, small business owners and leaders. Welcome home. Welcome back to the thrive collective. You know, this is your show designed with topics and subject matter experts to help you make more money, avoid costly mistakes, and fully integrate your faith into your life and leadership. I am Rob Hughes, your host. It's an honor to serve you today. We've got a special guest with us. Scott King, founder and CEO of the breakthrough hub is going to be taking us on a journey, a journey that he experienced himself personally in entrepreneurship, and really talking about some of the pains that he went through and how they've been really converted into a great sense of passion, but ultimately there's principles here that can help all of us survive that chaos that many of us have dealt with in business.

Rob Hughes (01:09):

And so I'm so excited for today. So as I mentioned, Scott himself as an entrepreneur, small business owner, when COVID 19 hit the world stood still, do you remember it thrive collective as we record this, it was last year, you know, maybe 14, 15 months ago, the world stood still in freeze frame for a couple of weeks and businesses more than ever had to consider. What does it look like to pivot our approach and our strategy? There's one thing that was true for Scott before COVID and certainly one thing that was true and many things are true for him afterwards. And it's that he's been given a desire, a clear calling from the Lord to assemble communities of people to help inspire growth. In fact, Scott uses this phrase, community changes everything. And through the breakthrough hub, he assembles CEOs, top level leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs through discussions that help them do just that kind of a hybrid small group meets mastermind. So his business and operation is international, both us and Canada and abroad. And so his investment today is a real treasure in treat, not to mention Scott and his wife, Camille and I have become friends of last few months and we've done some work together. And so it's an honor to have you on the show today, Scott, welcome to the thrive collective.

Scott King (02:33):

Thank you, Rob. Interesting that you talked about our relationship. I haven't known you for long, but I remember how I felt and I don't know, other than I know it was God that orchestrated our first conversation and the reason I knew it was God is because I got teary. I just felt like this was a divine appointment, Rob. Like I think it was that it's not good to get emotional interior and I didn't even know why, but I know now it's because we share a common Lord as a place to start. And I just really, really respect that. We can be straight up about that. We're going to be talking to leaders, so I'm going to be unapologetic and I'm just going to share whatever the Lord puts on my heart. And I know you've given me permission to do that as well. So let's see where this goes.

Rob Hughes (03:30):

Well, you, you heard it here. First thrive collective. If you're uncomfortable with raw and unfiltered, now's the time to press pause or to find another podcast to listen to. But if you want to see how deep this rabbit hole of authenticity goes, keep on listening. Here we go. So Scott, we're talking today about how our greatest challenges in business can really be turned into our greatest passions. And like I said, you're a business coach and entrepreneur, it didn't start with the breakthrough hub, helped the thrive collective family. Know you a little bit. What's your story in business?

Scott King (04:07):

Well, let's go back a couple of decades when I had opened 12 businesses in six years, um, I was rocking and rolling and things were good. And by the seventh I lost everything. I was personally and corporately bankrupt. I had this beautiful waterfront property on the St. Lawrence. I'm a Canadian, um, down the river from, uh, from Michigan, uh, this beautiful spot and the convertible and the SUV and the boat and all of that. And it was great until it wasn't great anymore. And it showed up one day when I realized that I was in over my head. And as I said, lost everything interesting, what I lost and what I gained. I would not trade. I was in a place with business where I was overconfident because I had success early. I thought that I was invincible and I was in over my head from a leadership standpoint.

Scott King (05:08):

I'm passionate about leadership. And, um, our friend John Maxwell would talk about the laws of lead. And that says that if I'm a five as a leader, I'll only be able to lead fours and threes. And I wasn't a strong enough leader to keep good people. And so turnover happened in the crash began to happen. But out of that, out of those ashes came my relationship with Christ. When everything came, crashing down and I realized I needed help. I'm going to tell you the only religious training that I ever received from my parents was be straight up here. They said, ah, don't trust the Christians. And the Catholics are worse. That was my, my religious upbringing. Don't trust the Christians. The Catholics are worse and the story of hypocrisy being hypocrites. And that's all I knew of, of what it would be to be a person of faith.

Scott King (06:06):

Then I met someone who was different. I was working in my business after the crash and this lady comes into my store and she was different. She looked me in the eye and she, I know she was speaking truth. And she just said, Scott, if you ever want to come to church, my husband and I'll meet you at the front door. Here's my phone number. We would love to have you as a guest. But three months later, I decided to take her up on that offer because she came back in various other times and we'll just have a rich conversation. And I trusted what she was talking about to be true. So in I go, and that was the day that changed everything. All right. So get, um, in relationship with Christ and everything. Wasn't perfect at that point. It didn't fix everything. And I share this because it's been a journey.

Scott King (06:59):

Um, my first year in the church, I was also an alcoholic, Rob. I don't know that we've ever talked about that, but, um, I, uh, I started drinking at a very young age to, um, cover up some pain. And that took me all the way through to my crash. And then to my relationship with Christ and my first year, even in church, I drank I'd come in Sunday, hung over and this moment, and then I'll move on to some business stuff from here. But this moment I'm sitting in church and the pastor says, who you are in the dark is who you truly are. And that moment interceded with my heart, with the spirit of God. And I realized I am that person, that my parents warned me about partying all night, going to church in the morning. Now, guys, I want to be clear.

Scott King (07:47):

There is no judgment. I'm just telling you what spoke to me and how that began to transform me. And at that point, quit drinking and began on a path. But the reason I could do that was because to your point earlier, community changes everything. I was in relationship with people who didn't judge me, who cared and loved me, who would receive me for who I was at the time. And that allowed me to get to that moment of truth, where I could begin a better way. So I would have the pain of my crash, became my relationship with Christ and my deliverance from alcohol. And that's just to name a couple of, of things out of the gate.

Rob Hughes (08:35):

I have such a redemptive perspective over the pains that we go through. I think that's relatable to anybody listening to this. Scott, if you've gone through some junk, think back what have been some of the lessons that came from that, what are some of the positive outcomes that came? Maybe not in the moment, maybe not even in that, but as you look back, you can see that silver thread, that silver lining of lessons and opportunities to the Lord made possible as a result of that challenge is just so good. And so you, you you're in business then, so fast forward to your business career, uh, that preceded this COVID pandemic and, and ultimately the challenges there. What, what was that like for you, Scott? Well,

Scott King (09:15):

We'll talk about that thread that brings us right to last March when COVID hit. All right. Here's where it started was a mentor said to me when I was coachable now, uh, because I'd been humbled, he said, you might want to read this book. And it was a John Maxwell book. It was the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. And I began reading and it began reading me. And I realized that I was not the leader that could scale a company, could take a company and a team to their fullest potential. So I became obsessed with learning. And one of the things we talk about in our hubs is that we can learn ourselves out of our problems and into our next opportunity. We can grow ourselves out of our problems and into our opportunities, but that doesn't happen in one moment. That is a journey of personal growth.

Scott King (10:06):

So the first thing on a business thing that came out of the ashes was a deep passion for leadership development, personal growth. I had been on a bit of a track, but only enough to get me in trouble. Okay. Where I thought I was the power within. I thought I was invincible, but I needed the humility that you get in a relationship with Christ that allows me now to be second in command and put him first from their deep passion, right back to this is cassettes in my car. Rob, I am listening to anything. I can get all up to grow as a leader, and I had the opportunity to rebuild. So that company that I crashed, I then took the next 10 years and rebuilt it year upon year, top end, bottom end growth, developing leaders all across Canada. From that point, I realized that it's time.

Scott King (11:02):

I met my wife, Camille, we decided it's time for a family. And I held my first baby at 41. Uh, that was the first little baby that I ever held in my arms. I was 41 years old that made me realize that I don't want to be traveling the world anymore or the country. And I, I quite honestly don't even want to lead. I just want to put my kids to bed every night. So now the kids are 10, 11, 13, 20. It's just incredible. I became a coach. All right. So I sold my interest in my, my company after the rebuild and became a coach and loved coaching, working with companies, working on culture, working on communication, you name it, and then COVID hit. And 60% of my business was done overnight. Remember I said, we learn ourselves into our next opportunity. I reached out to my clients one in particular band, and he doesn't mind me sharing his story.

Scott King (12:05):

I said, Ben, you're a race horse. And we're about to lock you in the barn. You are a focused high energy guy in the construction world and you are going to get locked down and I'm nervous. He says, I'm nervous too. And I said, well, Ben, why don't we do this? Why don't we get together? We'll read a book and we'll work on some personal habits. And he said, sign me up. I said, well, hold on. I've got nobody. I better make some phone calls and called a few other entrepreneurs and said, would you like to join us in one of our hubs? It's just an idea. At this point, they said, great. And we launched our first hub and then our second, and then our third, and we've launched 40 or 50 of these hubs now, which is a combination of personal growth, personal habits, but most importantly, community community changes. And

Rob Hughes (12:55):

For those of you listening in what is a hub, you're saying, can you just describe, what does it look like? A Scot, a physical breakthrough hub. What does, what does that look like? Yeah,

Scott King (13:03):

So we, we, we meet virtually via zoom. We found that platform to be very okay for us. So it's a coach who is more than anything, a facilitator, and we're bringing five like-minded entrepreneurs or leaders together. And we select a track to run on. All right. For example, one of our in our library would be James clear atomic habits. All right. And we believe that we are a result of our habits, both in our business and personal life. So it's a coach, it's five entrepreneurs, like-minded growth minded coming together for the purpose of learning and applying. I've been in phases of my life, where I'm just consuming education, not necessarily applying it when you meet together and we start on packaging, what did you learn from chapter two? What does that 1% better every day mean to you? And we learn from each other, and now this turbocharges the learning. And then we also apply the learning into let's build a habit, stack personal or professional, you decide. But most of all, let's make sure we have a breakthrough in our life. Okay. Did I answer your question?

Rob Hughes (14:14):

Absolutely. It's so powerful. You think about that. The community changes everything. So really creating those experiences, those community, you know, uh, assembling, you know, others like-minded like you said, uh, through that in journeying, through those materials together thrive, collective family. Just want to pause from our program to say, thank you. Thank you for listening, subscribing and thank you for being a faithful follower of the thrive collective podcast. You know, we bring guests on this show with excellent ideas centered around helping small businesses, accelerate growth. Would you like to be one of those guests on a future episode? Hey, we'd love to invite you to apply. Simply click the link in the description. And perhaps we'll hear you on a future episode of this show. Okay. Now back to our scheduled program, I got to imagine the mindset shift of someone going through a challenge. If they've got community they're connected to like, there's a big shift that takes place. So speak to our thrive, collective family a bit here, Scott, that the mindset transformation that one goes through when you're in your deepest struggle, in challenge in business, what sort of head trash are we talking to ourselves? You know, w we tend to from the, maybe the businesses that you've worked with, and then what have you learned in that space to transform that mindset? Maybe it is community, but what else, what other advice would you give?

Scott King (15:48):

One thing that I've discovered, because I do get the privilege of getting heart to heart with people is that some of the most successful leaders and business owners and entrepreneurs that I work with all have voices and the voices in their head I've yet to find one of them whose voices are uplifting, who are told that they're awesome. And it's going to be great. You know, all of that, that is the mindset is that we have to combat these lies with truth. All right. And I believe that's where whatever you're filling yourself with will then take over. All right. So first and foremost, the first principle is that it's okay to have voices. It's okay to wrestle with. Am I good enough? Will I make it? Are we going to be okay? That is very normal. We're supposed to take every thought captive. So it's what we do with that thought.

Scott King (16:45):

So for me, a best practice and something that I believe every entrepreneur needs to develop is a muscle that says whatever it looks like it's going to be good, whatever it appears to be. It's good. Genesis 50 20, which were what was intended for evil. God has used for good. All right, Joseph and brothers. And that has been something that has served me for decade upon decade is my instant reflex is no matter what this looks like. It's intended for. Good. Even if it's for my growth. It's okay. First set mindset. This is intended for good. The next practical thing is who do I know that I can talk to? Who is not emotionally attached to me or the situation who can give me some straight advice who I can be authentic with and Sam struggling. Although that muscle I talked about, oh, this is for good.

Scott King (17:51):

We still struggle. We still have to work through it. So who do you have that you can just say, I'm struggling and here's what I'm dealing with. And they will bring life to the situation. Okay. I think that's really, really important. So the, the infamous who not, how I'm stuck, who do I know that can help me out of this situation? And the more that I've nurtured relationships over three decades of business, the more I can pick up the phone and say, Rob, here's the situation, um, received a cease and desist, which I did on our company. And that's okay. We can remarket this and make it better than it ever was. It's like, thank you. This is what my wife told me too. When we receive a cease and desist and we can no longer use our name, this was our, our watch out of COVID. It's no problem. Um, because there's an opportunity for better things to come.

Rob Hughes (18:47):

I believe you. And also in that moment, there's gotta be a gulp moment where you just like gulp, like you just got gut punched as well. But what I hear you saying, Scott is okay, experienced the grief of that disappointment, but don't hang out there. You gotta metabolize the grief. You gotta go through it and then pick yourself up. I love your other two ideas here of the mindset. This is intended for good clinging to Genesis 50. This is intended for good. God is going to do something good with us. And then the who not, how, who can I talk to? You said that's not emotionally attached. I think that's brilliant because in the moment emotions, limbic brain can kick in. You get a letter that shows up in the mail like that. I got to imagine the fight flight, you know, kind of takes over. And you're kind of thinking with 10% of your brain, you know, at that moment. So they have somebody who's not emotionally charged, speaking into it can be really, really helpful. Any other advice that you'd give you have having experienced what you have? Yeah.

Scott King (19:50):

Well, voice of reason, okay. This affects my family. When we've been building something and then we're potentially shut down. Do you have a strong enough relationship with your spouse who is emotionally attached, who can also be a voice of reason? And I'm very blessed and very fortunate that Camille instantly said, this is going to work out good. Now, some specific things, and I'll give you the short version. Our law firm let us down. They blew it. They really did through a decade of relationship and through honoring them and not getting into a dark place of fight or flight. This lawyer says to me, I will personally make this right. My firm is not going to back up my error, but I will write you a check personally, to make this right and help you recover from my mistake. Now this, you want to talk about a moment where, oh my goodness, this is God honoring that truth. That what was intended for evil will turn for good and how community changes everything. If I'm not in relationship and in community with my lawyer is like, ah, we'll do an ENL claim. You'll have to take it up with the insurance agent and good luck. He's saying, don't do that. They're going to make it very difficult. Let me write you a check. How cool is that? Right?

Rob Hughes (21:17):

That's integrity. That's amazing. Amazing. You

Scott King (21:22):

Triggered what triggered that, that story was that fight or flight. I could have not listened to my wife's voice of reason. She said, Scott, don't, don't retain another lawyer. Let's just have a conversation and let's see if we can sort this out. And it worked out beautifully and I have peace in my heart. And so does he? It's pretty cool.

Rob Hughes (21:40):

Yeah. Scott, having you personally going through this, it's one thing to read a leadership book and to get all the tools to like do it the right thing. It's easy to put a strategy on paper, as I say, but when you get into the actual heat of it to actually live in, walk that out. I know for you listening, there's a challenge you've gone through. Maybe you're in the middle of a challenge right now. Something that you didn't see coming completely disruptive. And it's, it's really thrown a curve into thing. What's the mindset. What self talk are you allowing between your ears today? What are you thinking? What mindset do you have? And can we encourage you to experience the grief of that? And then remind yourself of what is true. That all things are indeed intended for. Good. And that's out of Genesis 50 verse 20, and you know, you may already have that person in mind, but Scott's telling us, find the person, the who to talk to.

Rob Hughes (22:34):

Who's an objective voice of reason that you need to reach out to them, bounce a few ideas around maybe to vent. But my challenge is for you to listen, to say a few things, ask questions and listen. And you know what I also hear you saying, kind of walking with integrity, this, this attorney, that you're the story that you just shared with us Scottish. It's amazing how this person walked in, kind of went above and beyond more than they had to when above and beyond to support and to help. And this is just tremendous. So I mean, Scott, as we kind of conclude our time, is there any closing word of advice that you'd give an entrepreneur or business leader who's listening in navigating tension challenges that are unseen, maybe experiencing a little bit of pain, any final closing words of advice that you'd offer them?

Scott King (23:20):

Well, here I go, getting emotional again. Um, my heart breaks for the lonely entrepreneur and there is so many out there that are on their own and my heart breaks for those. My coaching would fix that. All right. And it doesn't happen by accident. You can't just sit there and pray, hold God, send me someone who's going to know. Invest in someone, invest in someone, add value, someone and anyone that you come in contact with. And sure enough, when your need comes and you've invested enough in those around you, the right person will show up. So we do not have to be lonely, but it doesn't happen overnight. We must invest. We must sow seed. If we want to bear fruit.

Rob Hughes (24:08):

I love that piece of advice. The Lord has created us for interconnectedness inter interdependence on one another, even in the gospel, Jesus, didn't choose to do this as a solo mission. He gathered the disciples. He gathered the 12th. So who's your person. Who are you going to go to? For many of us, you know, you've got community, maybe neighbors, friends, family, people of like-minded that you could lean into, reach out to them. Accountability partners, reach out to them, peers in your industry, associates that you can trust and confidentially reach out to them. You might need this community before you think you need it. So reach out to them, build it and have that container available. And again, one of the benefits of COVID-19, if I may, is that the world has now kind of adopted zoom and other video meeting platforms is kind of a norm. And many of us I know, could probably relate to zoom fatigue and being on video calls all day. But the fact of the matter is it's convenient and it creates a whole new availability for communities to be formed. So Scott, just, if somebody's curious about the breakthrough hub, which again meets virtually, uh, internationally by zoom or other platforms by media, how would they get in touch with you or find out more about what you're

Scott King (25:23):

Doing? LinkedIn is, is a great place to connect with me. So it's simply Scott King. I might as my personal page, um, and the breakthrough hub, we have a corporate page. I want you to know anybody listening. If this resonate, if you feel like, Hey, I'd like to talk to Scott about a situation that you messaged me privately on LinkedIn, and we will make time. Okay. I just, um, uh, without a doubt, we'll be available to be that potential voice of reason. Who's not emotionally attached. Who's maybe been through some good, bad and ugly. So if I can encourage anybody reach out to me on LinkedIn and we'll take it from there,

Rob Hughes (26:01):

Scott, it's been a blessing to have you invest in the thrive collective family. You know, we bring guests on the show that, you know, talk about a variety of topics. I think you kind of hit all of them today from, you know, revenue generation. If you're doing good things to good people, rewards you with investments. So there's that certain you're doing that with the breakthrough hub, avoiding costly mistakes. My goodness gracious. It's lonely. It can be lonely at the top as they say, but it doesn't have to be that way. Isolation is a tool of the enemy. I think. I mean, it's the first trick of the bag that we see in the new Testament. You know, isolation bring Jesus out to the desert by himself. Isolation is one of the oldest tricks in the bag for the enemy. And so it doesn't have to be that way.

Rob Hughes (26:43):

You say community changes everything. So avoid the cost of mistakes of isolation. And it's certainly hearing your testimony in Christ and how Jesus has lifted you through the depths of despair and ultimately brought you through to redemption, which is where you're living today is just awesome. So thrive collective, um, join me in thanking Scott King for his investment today. Again, if you want to learn more, reach out to Scott on LinkedIn, again, Scott King on LinkedIn, or look for the breakthrough hub. Those are two great ways to connect with Scott thrive, collective. This is your show. We do this for you to serve you, to love you, to equip them, to empower you. It's really designed for you, the business owner, the entrepreneur, the leader we want to help you make more money, avoid costly mistakes, and fully integrate your faith into your life and leadership as your host. It's an honor to serve you on this episode and by the way, we'll see at the next one. Thanks so much. Take care.