The Art of Relentlessly Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams with Scott Scovill

0:01John Lee Dumas:Light that spark fire nation, a JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down the art of relentlessly pursuing your wildest dreams. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Scott Scovill into EO Fire Studios. Scott is an award-winning entrepreneur, founder of MooTV and author of Tenacious, the art of relentlessly pursuing your wildest dreams. And today we'll talk about built, not born, the power of one bold move, adventure fueling innovation from passion to scalable success, and oh, so much more.

0:34John Lee Dumas:And the big thing for sponsoring today's episode goes to Scott and our sponsors. Fire Nation, are you ready to make 2026 your best year yet? It's time to start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth conference taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place.

1:11John Lee Dumas:And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30 day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Scott, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? It is so good to be here. I think that so many people feel that success and talent, that talent is the path to success. And it is and it can be and it can help. But I really think that failing is the path to success. Fire Nation, we're going to be talking about that.

2:02John Lee Dumas:And of course, the art of relentlessly pursuing your wildest dreams. And I want to talk about built, not born. How the heck can someone cultivate real tenacity, even if they don't believe they were born with it, Scott? I think that it's just something you work like a muscle, right? The magic thing about tenacity is that unlike a natural talent, like I work with so many people that have eidetic memories or pitch perfect hearing or they're incredible athletes. this natural ability. But unlike any of those wonderful things, tenacity is 100 % developable, like a muscle. So you can work it, you can get better at it, and you can just grow that and flex that strength.

2:53And that's what I love about it. And that's why I think it's such an important thing to learn about.

2:58John Lee Dumas:I think it's a powerful topic. I get asked all the time is like, John, are you born an entrepreneur or can you become an entrepreneur? And people have different opinions. My opinion is like, you can definitely become an entrepreneur. And I say that with such confidence because I was not born an entrepreneur. I was born kind of a lazy person, to be honest. Like I was always looking to do the bare minimum. I was never like, you know, washing people's cars to make a dollar. I was never selling candy bars to my fellow students. I was never like running around the neighborhood mowing lawns and delivering newspaper, nothing.

3:30John Lee Dumas:nothing. I was literally getting$20 a week from my parents to take out the trash, you know, every couple of days. And like, that's all the money that I needed. So that's all that I did. But then I became an entrepreneur in my thirties. And some people are born an entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, that kid was born an entrepreneur. I wasn't, I developed it. So I think it's really helpful for people to say, you know what, maybe I didn't have that DNA when I was born, but it's a muscle that I can develop, just like this tenacity thing. So Scott, we're going to talk about your one bold move next, but before we do, how exactly, specifically, did you cultivate real tenacity?

4:08I present myself not as the most tenacious person in the world. I'm far too dysfunctional to call myself that, right? But I am, I believe, perhaps the most improved. So I come at this topic from the point of view of someone who's seen both ends of the spectrum. I graduated last in my class in high school and I flunked out of college, not because I didn't care, but I was I was so afraid of failing that I wouldn't let myself try. I didn't understand that that was the reason then. But every time I tried to do my homework, I'd have an anxiety attack over not being good enough. And I was pretty broken in that way.

4:49So as a young man, I was so the opposite of tenacious, right? But I found something I loved, and that was the key that turned it on. I discovered, first off, I hated being a failure. I hated feeling like I was going to be something less. So I wasn't happy with where I was, but I was waiting tables in a Howard Johnson's and a beautiful, amazing-looking tour bus rolled in, and I said I want to wait on them and they were the technical staff for the band U2 now this is 1987 U2 is the biggest band in the world like it's a big deal huge to be anywhere near them and music was just such a point in my life I was so blown away but I was confused like what do you mean you work for U2 so I asked him like what what do you mean you work for U2 I would have thought you had to be Bono's cousin to do that I don't understand and they laughed and there were about eight of them at the table and he said well you know the main guy said Scott thick Irish accent seven of us we put on the lights in the show and we're the very best in the world at what we do and then he puts his arm around the guy next to him and laughs and says and this is AJ he's Bono's cousin but in that conversation I discovered that you could be a part of music even if you weren't a musician which at the time I thought I could never be a musician I'm actually am now but But it was so magical to me to find something that I loved.

6:19And that was really the first key critical step into leaning in and trying and overcoming my dysfunction.

6:27John Lee Dumas:You know, I miss a good Hojo's, by the way. It's been a long time. I don't. I don't. I have this great, like in the chapter, I'm talking about standing there in my khakis and my faded green apron. and my feet are stuck in the syrup. I remember just being grossed out at how syrupy sticky it was be everywhere back where the waiters were from all the breakfast we had served and spilled. You know, I only, I only saw it from the customer side and I just remember some good times. I don't miss it. I actually have gone back. And so now I go back to that same Howard Johnson's that a tour bus pulled in.

7:02I go back with my tour bus now and it's really fun to pull in and park and have maybe a waiter in there going, oh, I wonder who that is. And unfortunately, I'm not as exciting as U2's technical staff, but it's fun to go.

7:18John Lee Dumas:So let's move on to the power of one bold move, because you do say, you're known to say, that one bold move can literally change everything. What, Scott, was yours? When I discovered the music industry, I thought, well, how on earth could I possibly be attached to this? Like, how could I possibly be a part of it? And there was a t-shirt. No, no. So the, I went to a U2 show that staff invited me. I was blown away. And while I was there, I was like, this is what I'm going to do with my life. But I had no idea how I'm looking at the t-shirt in my room, dejected with my life. And on the back of the t-shirt was the concert schedule.

7:59And I'm like, well, they're going to be in Long Island soon. And so the bold move was, even though I was flunking out of college, this might not be the bold part, but I went ahead and left. I quit my three jobs. I sold my super sport Camaro and I came up with the worst plan in the history of bad plans. I was going to show up at every show on the back of that t-shirt and I was going to work for, I was going to sneak in and work for free until you two saw that they needed me. That was my dumb plan. And I lived in my car. I snuck in every day for five weeks. I worked for free while they were sleeping at night.

8:36I was driving to the next city. Like it must've been the funniest looking circus, you know, tour bus, tour bus, tour bus, Subaru tour bus, you know, and, um, I lived in my car and did all that crazy stuff. I got, uh, I got walking pneumonia while I was doing that and was almost arrested three times for sneaking in, but I made a bit of a splash for myself. They thought I was funny, but more than that, I was starting to try. And that was the big move for me. So the crazy thing is that I followed you two around and snuck in every day. But the really crazy thing internally was that I started to try and I started to risk failure.

9:18John Lee Dumas:Now, why do most people hesitate right before that move that could transform their life? Oh, a million reasons, right? Like I, I always jokingly say, well, you know, the reason you're not living your best life is because you got to organize your sock drawer. Those socks aren't going to organize themselves. So there's a million things. We all have our busy lives and there's a million things we're supposed to be doing. And we can always say, I've got to do this first. I've got to do that. I need to do this. there's always a reason but when I found when I really looked in the mirror and dug in and I talk about that in the book what I found is that it was just fear and self-doubt was probably the reason I was really organizing my sock drawer and so I think the answer is fear and self-doubt and and there might be some other reason that sounds very valid like no I have to do this but if you really dig in, the reason they're doing that instead of chasing a dream is probably fear and or self-doubt.

10:20John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, adventure fuels innovation, going from passion to scalable success when we get back from thanking our sponsors. If you've ever tried getting a traditional bank loan for your business, then you already know that it's not exactly fast or easy. Between rising costs, tighter lending standards, and all the hoops you have to jump through, it can feel like you're stuck waiting when your business needs capital now. That's why I want to tell you about Revenued. Revenued is for small business owners who need fast, flexible access to working capital without relying on your personal credit score.

10:53John Lee Dumas:Instead, they look at your actual business revenue. With the Revenued Flex line, you can access funds in as little as one business day. And as you pay it back, your available capital replenishes. So it's there when you need it. Now, this isn't your traditional bank loan. It's designed to flex with your business. And that's exactly why over 10 ,000 business owners are using Revenued to keep things moving. There's a reason Revenued is rated excellent on Trustpilot with a thousand five-star reviews. Give your business the flexibility to handle whatever comes next. Apply now at revenued.com slash fire.

11:27John Lee Dumas:That's revenued with a d.com slash fire. Apply today and be ready for whatever comes next. Fire Nation, are you ready to make 2026 your best year yet? Are you looking to learn the proven processes and success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories? See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month to month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee.

12:06John Lee Dumas:Schedule your free personal 13-point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference, you will interact with Clay directly. See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire.

12:47John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus award-winning 24-7 support so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack, a 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 50-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something execution roadmap, and more.

13:32John Lee Dumas:Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Scott, let's talk about how adventure fuels innovation. How do personal adventures become the ultimate fuel for professional creativity and fresh thinking? Well, look, you get one life, right? I mean, that's it. You know, this is my movie. I'm the star of a movie called Scott, right? And what is the star going to do? I'm writing the script every day or the book, if you will, of Scott's life. and I want to someday when I'm older and don't have maybe the energy I have now, I want to sit in a rocking chair and I want to thumb through that book or watch that movie, choose your metaphor, and be really happy and proud for that lead character.

14:27So I think adventures are just what life is all about. Like building my companies, that was an adventure. It was a huge challenge and really fun and incredible people did it with me. And I absolutely love that. And beyond that, like building it before that building a career, like following you to around and sneaking in and working for free. That's an adventure. That's crazy. Right. I'm really proud of that. And, but now as I built up the confidence, as I built up the tenacity, I do all sorts of crazy things. Um, I got asked to sing one night after a band in Norway heard me singing at a party. They said, we're calling you on stage tomorrow.

15:11After I sang with them on stage, which was terrifying for me, I didn't think I was able to sing. They invited me to be a part of the band. Wow. And so huge Tim Ferriss fan. Yeah. Tim and I knew each other and hung out for a couple of years at this event called Summit Series, which really cool event I used to go to all the time. I'm not claiming to be Tim's best friend. I don't even have his phone number. But I enjoyed my time with him and admired him for the things he did, like so many others do. And Tim and I were talking one night and Tim said, I said, Tim, I got to ask you a question. And I might've been a few drinks in.

15:50Did you really do all that crazy stuff you said you did in four hour work week, which is really not an appropriate question because he, of course he did. Or if he didn't, he shouldn't tell me. And he hesitated for a second. And I thought, oh, no, I shouldn't have asked this. But a moment later, he said something I absolutely love. He said, Scott, the first bit of that was life happening to me. He goes, but after I saw that my company did so great when I got out of the way, I started to think how out of the way can I get? And I decided I was going to run an experiment and see how successful my company and my life could be with me doing other crazy things.

16:28He said, so from that moment on, I made all the decisions in my book that you read about, knowing that I was running an experiment and that I was going to write about it. He goes, so I did it all, but I'll tell you, I had a reason. I love that. The next morning, we changed the subject because he didn't really seem like he wanted to talk about that. The next morning, I sat straight up in bed when I woke up and went, son of a gun. my friend Tim had a life worth writing about because he was writing a book not the other way around what if I said I'll never write a book which turns out to not be true but I'll never write a book but what if I started asking myself what would make the next chapter more interesting and then unlike Tim I wouldn't blow my whole life up but if it doesn't totally blow my life up I'm going to do it just to write a better book.

17:21And mind you, Tim's had an interesting enough life that he probably could have written a book anyway, but he wrote a better book because he was writing one. And I have done that. And so this band asked me to be in their band there in Norway after I go on stage with them. They're like, Hey, you need to join our band. That was amazing. And two drinks later, I thought, you know, that would make the next chapter more interesting. I had been asking myself that question. And so I went, yep. And they all cheered and then they all kind of laughed and then they went, okay, well, that was a crazy question.

17:53We can't believe you said yes. What do we do? I started flying to Norway and appearing with him as a guest vocalist and had an absolute blast doing it and got to be a part of music. And that has evolved to where, um, I can tell you now we announced on Friday, I don't think you'll air this before then. um we i am brad paisley's opening act uh in europe again this year i've done that a few times so i've now performed in front of over 10 000 people because i wanted to live the most interesting life i could live and isn't that fun and i've done other things like that well hell writing the book is like that what a scary thing to do to put yourself out there and like here's a book it's me this is years of my life ai didn't write this a ghostwriter didn't write this this is my This is my heart.

18:41Here it is. You can hold it in your hands and I hope you're kind and I hope you enjoy it and I hope you get something out of it. So I love doing the scary things, but that stuff fuels me and makes life exciting and makes me want to do the day job too. Makes me want to do all of it.

18:55John Lee Dumas:Well, Scott, let's keep that fuel because this leads perfectly into what I want to talk about next, which is going from passion to scalable success. Because what does it actually take to turn just a creative passion into a scalable, award-winning business without losing the soul of what made us special in the first place? Yeah, this is a great question. And people don't actually ask me this. So you said to yourself, you weren't an entrepreneur when you were younger. When I described myself as an accidental entrepreneur, I was working with a great company and a boss I just thought the world of.

19:29He and I were really close. I came to him and said, hey, we were doing video production for concerts. That's my primary business. And I said, nobody knows what to do with screens. This is when video was brand new. I want to start a company doing what creating content that makes sense because everyone treats screens like they're the show. They're not, they're a part of a much bigger show and people just didn't get that. So, um, I said, I want your permission to buy a camera and buy gear and start a company like that. And he said, I love the idea. I think you're actually inventing an industry. I want to be your partner.

20:09So he and I became business partners in that, but only because I wanted to be creative. Like I saw this creative thing that I really wanted to do. And so that was like the motivation behind it. Years later, he was killed in a car jacking, which is one of the darkest, worst things that's ever happened to me. But his employees came to me and said, Hey, we think you should start a company like his doing all the hardware, doing all the actual physical gear you use on tour. And that decision I really made to keep some part of Lee alive. I didn't really ever envision myself owning a company, but when the employee came to me.

20:54He said, Hey, I talked to all the employees. They'd come work for you. I've talked to the clients. They'd come work for you. I don't know how in the hell you'd do it, but we all want to come work for you. And we think it would make some part of Lee stay alive. And when he said that, I was like, damn, I'm in. When I did that, because it was something I didn't necessarily dream about, I said, if I'm going to do this really hard thing, I'm going to do it with my favorite people. So I cherry picked my favorite people from his company that I would want to work with. And that's who I started it with.

21:23Not because I thought they would be the best at their jobs. I knew they'd do a good job, but I just wanted to surround myself with people I cared about. And just to make this incredibly hard thing more doable. And what I didn't realize at the time was in so doing, I was also picking people that everybody wanted to work with. and so with growth not being that important to me and being happy and making Lee proud being the most important things I continued to grow the company slowly and carefully with only the best people so my recipe for my sanity was that I wanted to surround myself with people to make my life better.

22:12And that ended up being a recipe for a company that won best in the industry 10 years in a row. So that's the magic. And what made it fun for me is we might even, we wouldn't hire the best person at what they did. We would hire the best person to be around that did what they did. And that's made it fun every step of the way and made me immensely proud that we're just the people you want to work with.

22:39John Lee Dumas:That is powerful. And Fire Nation, I really hope you're understanding the blueprint for your life is written by you. You're the sole actor. Like you are the individual that's in this one act play called your life. So Scott, if Fire Nation's really loving the concepts we're hearing today, what would be your final piece of guidance for our listeners today? From everything we talked about, what's the one thing you want our listeners to walk away with? If there's something that you love that you're not doing for all these good reasons that you have in your head, go do it. Take any step towards it and go do something you love.

23:22And be ready to fail. Be tenacious. Don't stop trying. And some really magical things will happen in your life. And not just at work. Like, I've built companies I'm fiercely proud of. but I'm really proud that I've been Brad Paisley's opening act. And I'm really proud that I have a book to share with you. Do the hard things that you'll want to sit in your rocking chair when you're thumbing through the pages of your life many years from now when maybe you don't have the energy. Do the things that you go, man, I did that because I loved it and it was fun.

23:56John Lee Dumas:And Scott, your book is Tenacious, The Art of Relentlessly Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams. if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more about you, wants to read this book, what is your call to action for our listeners today? Yeah, there's a website dedicated to the book, tenaciousbook.com, tenaciousbook.com. You can find me at Scott Scoville Creative on most platforms or just my name. Please reach out. I love talking to people about this. It's my favorite subject. and yeah. And as far as the book, it's available everywhere. It releases April 7th, but the pre-orders are available now really everywhere.

24:39John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with SS and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Scott in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. Definitely give Scott's book Tenacious a look. It'll be powerful. as you can tell. And Scott, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks for having me. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Scott for sponsoring today's episode.

25:15John Lee Dumas:And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest, and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Fire Nation, are you ready to make 2026 your best year yet? It's time to start your transformation by attending the world's highest rated business growth conference taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire.