Scott Royal Smith, Esquire, founder, and CEO of Royal Legal Solutions prides himself on successfully conveying the essentials in asset protection to audiences nationwide. Scott is no stranger to high stakes litigation and has spent his career deconstructing asset protection structures and developing strategies that serve both to protect what you own as well as leverage your income and maximize your tax savings.
With experience in entrepreneurship, starting several successful companies in owning real estate in 10 states in America, Scott pulls from his experience as a lawyer to put a new and valuable perspective on business ownership. No one wants to get sued. But if you plan to start a business, the question isn't if, but when you’ll get sued. Scott is the attorney who will have your back. He's smart, savvy, and he's got a great sense of humor. And he has a gift for simplifying the complex.
“Try to find someone like you businesswise and ask that person a bunch of questions about what you should be doing because they've already gone through it all once.”
Scott Smith
Worst investment ever
Launching his business idea
Driven by a sense to help people with things that he had already figured out, things he had spent the time to figure it out, he started to teach and do it for others. His law degree also came in handy, especially when advising people on how to launch a new business or choose investments.
Letting excitement get to him
People wanted his services. Within no time he had a really popular podcast. Then pretty soon he had a rapidly growing business. Everything was going too fast and was way beyond what he understood regarding the business. But the growth got him all excited and he felt pretty confident that he now knew just about everything and that whatever he touched would turn to gold. So he kept things moving fast.
Fast and big is not always good
His business continued growing fast and he got to a point where he realized he did not know what to do with all of that growth. He found himself having to solve problems that he didn't understand.
He was forced to hire people to solve the problems for him. Because he didn’t understand what the problems that needed solving were, he ended up hiring people that weren’t that great. He was hiring and firing people so fast.
He should have outsourced
It was only after he had spent over a quarter-million dollars that he realized that he was struggling to create a system or a solution to something that someone else already had out there.
He realized that had he taken a pause, slowed things down with the business, he’d have been able to figure out what the business needed and then hire an agency and offload things on them. But no, his excitement to keep things on a high saw him make his worst investment ever.
Lessons learned
Delay launching a new business
Yes, you have an awesome idea. Yes, you feel ready for a business launch. Delay that launch by at least three months. Take those three months to learn. Take a course on how to launch a business online, get someone to mentor you, get a good framework first and then go ahead and launch your business idea.
Ask the right questions
The thing that ruins your business is being overconfident. Overconfidence kills your curiosity. It stops you from asking questions. And that's where you always get beaten. Asking the right questions is extremely important.
Andrew’s takeaways
You don’t know everything
Often, we think that we know everything about our businesses and we get overconfident only to realize we know nothing. Be open to learn no matter how long you’ve been in business. If you’re feeling overconfident, then you’ve learned nothing.
Slow down, maintain your cool
Slow down, take it easy, because if you are a person with a lot of ideas, you want to go big and want to get there fast. But sometimes you've got to go slowly to be able to maintain your position at the top. It's no good to get there and not be able to hold that position relative to your competitors and satisfying your customers.
Actionable advice
Find somebody who is like you. Who likes doing things the way you do. So if you're hard-charging, have high energy, and want to go quickly, find someone who is like that. Then try to persuade that person by offering them some type of value and in return help mentor you into what to do.
There are 1,000 ways to build the kind of business you want. You just don’t know what way is best for you. So find a person who will be able to tell you, here are all the ways you're going to screw it up and how not to keep screwing up because they've already gone through it all once.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Scott’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to work on how to create more sustainability with his mental, physical and spiritual well-being. He wants to build more habits that will prioritize him instead of his company.
Andrew’s books
Andrew’s online programs
Connect with Scott Smith
Connect with Andrew Stotz
Further reading mentioned
Andrea Waltz (2008), Go for No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There
