How to Scale Yourself, The Future of Prof G Media, and Scott’s Advice to Interns

0:00Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door. expertly cleaned and folded. So you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. So did you hear about Dave? Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. Not all journalism is the same. Take The Guardian. Our coverage has something unique, fierce independence. Nobody owns us or tells us what we can and can't say, so we're free to report the whole picture.

0:43We connect what's happening in Washington to the rest of the globe, expose corruption wherever we find it, and give fresh perspective on everything, from wellness and soccer to culture, the climate, and more. Read, watch, and listen to The Guardian for free at theguardian.com. Welcome to the Prof. G Pod's Office Hours. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at profgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours at profgmedia.com.

1:15So with that first question, I have not seen these questions. Hello, Scott. My name is James. Thank you for what you do every day. My question is simple but requires some background. How do I scale myself? What do you do when the product you're selling is you? As a physician with more than 20 years experience in practice, I have some professional assets. The first is my work ethic. The second is my experience and expertise. The third is that I care. And the fourth is the integrity of my personal brand that's been built upon all of the previous. I'm blessed to have a ducephal practice that draws patients from a surprising distance and for which I am very grateful.

1:54and over the years people have asked me to expand my presence locally and beyond but I've been unable to figure out a way to duplicate myself to make that happen. I have very many employees for decades and they depend upon me and they have made me who I am so I don't want to do anything to risk my family's well-being or theirs. I've been reluctant to expand my influence or espouse my opinions through social media because I don't want to come off as an opportunist or a quack. More and more I feel like I have something to offer to a wider audience and I would like to get it out there, at least I feel I should try.

2:26If I can't clone myself to help people face-to-face, how do you think I could do it indirectly? The first thing is to step back and just acknowledge you're building economic security for other people. It sounds like your employees. Sounds like, I don't know this, but I'm going to assume you're a good boss. So you're kind of riding, like, you know, you're already on the metal podium. It's just a question of whether, you know, how many golds you collect, if you will. Look, I'm honestly sorry. This is something I'm good at. I'm a good professor. I understand marketing, but the way I've been able to build this life is by, quote unquote, scaling myself.

2:58And it all comes down to one statement. Greatness is in the agency of others. It's finding good people. If you have a practice, that means you can bring in other young, I don't know what you are, an orthopedic surgeon or a dermatologist. You can bring in other doctors and try and create a culture of excellence such that you can scale yourself. And when I go, you know, my friend is a top orthopedic surgeon. When I hurt my knee. You know, I saw him for the first consultation, but then he passed me off to another very talented orthopedic surgeon to look at my knee. I ended up not getting surgery.

3:26But you've already kind of figured out that you scale with other good quality people and you can run a business and run a practice and try and create a good culture, try and, you know, try and instill loyalty by being good to people. The second thing is you kind of answer your own question when you're talking about social media. If you want to expand your sphere of influence, whether you like it or not, it's social media. I had lunch today with a woman who started, I think it's called Eight Greens, which is this really cool supplements company. You know, all that green shit you take in the morning.

3:55I take it every morning now. And she runs a great business. But the reason or one of the reasons her business is so successful is not only because she's got a good product, but she's on, she's very attractive, very articulate. So The View and, you know, Oprah loved to have her on. And social media, if you really have desire to kind of scale yourself, unfortunately, it involves YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, all that shit. And you can be more measured. You can be one of those doctors that is a little bit more, you know, measured. You don't have to say blueberries will cure your cancer. But I think doing stuff in an interesting visual arresting way that's compelling talking about whatever your domain expertise is, you know, it's hard.

4:37It's a slow build and it's huge. About 15, maybe even 20 years ago, I thought, okay, I need to be, I was a professor of strategy or brand strategy at Stern. I thought I have a bigger ambition than this. Social media, I thought this is going to be big. So I did a follower strategy. Every day I followed 200 people on Twitter, which is the max you could follow without getting locked out for whatever reason. And about 60 or 80 would follow me back. So over the summer, I got a thousand users and over the year I got 10 or a thousand followers and by the end of the year I had 10 ,000 followers now I'd given up twitter but I had over a half a million when I stopped showing up pulling up a seat to the Nazi porn bar but I have not huge followings but decent followings for a professor on all of these different platforms I have somebody very talented uh George Hahn who helps me with my social I do about half the postings he does about half We take it very seriously.

5:30We film video. We have a firm we pay$10 ,000 a month to that does these mashups of my content or speeches and turns them into cool little 60-second videos that we then snake through LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reels. You know, we hit all of these things. So I would say the thing that's missing here is thought leadership in social media. If you want to write a book, if you want to be known as the doctor that kind of gets this domain, but it probably starts with social and it requires some production values. You have to hire some people. The first video, the first thing you do will suck.

6:03You can release it or not. Just commit to Mr. Beasting it. What do I mean by that? The second one, better lighting, better video, some visuals, topics, read the comments. Don't take them to heart because there's going to be bots and weirdos out there that are just angry. Also, I'm not sure I would go all in on any kind of big idea because I don't know how old you are. You sounded like you're in your 40s or 50s. But if you're making good money with a practice, my suggestion would be to, you know, double down on that, make more money, invest in low-cost index funds, and just build a great life for yourself.

6:39And also start to experiment with thought leadership and hire someone to manage your social media and start allocating for two, four, eight hours a week for content that goes beyond yourself. Appreciate the question. Best of luck to you. And again, congratulations on all your success. Question number two. Hey, Scott, this is Barber from Istanbul. Long time listening to RAN reader. I have a question for you that you might not like answering, but I think you would appreciate it. So the other day I was reading the corporate life cycle from Asparta Modrin, which I got to know for your podcast. Thank you for that.

7:16and he was talking about how long-lasting businesses usually have a succession plan in place. They usually think about succession just in case and they end up, you know, lasting longer. But then I can't help but notice that the podcasts that you release, like Prof. G Markers, Prof. G Podcasts, yes, they're based on your personal branding, but what happens if you decide to start one day or if you decide to pass it over, you know, to Ed and the team, does that mean you will have to rebrand or do you have a succession plan that you wish to share? Barbaros from Istanbul. That's a good question. It would be relevant, but I'm going to live forever.

8:01Yes, that's right. The midlife crisis at Arrested Adolescence Tour continues. New dates announced. Okay, enough of that. Yeah, this business is getting to the point where I need to be thoughtful about creating enterprise value. When it's just a group of a small number of individuals, you don't have a business or an enterprise, you have a practice, and people are too dependent upon one individual. I think about this a lot. Realistically, I'd like to think I have 20 good years in me. I know I have 10 good years left in me, but okay, still, a lot of people are making good money here. You want them to continue to make good money.

8:35And any business that's just dependent upon one business, you need to be thinking the way you're thinking about succession strategies. So what have I done? One, you noticed I've brought in Ed Elson, and Ed is the co-host of Markets. At some point, soon, sooner, actually, I'd like it to be sooner, I want Ed to start co-hosting with guest hosts that aren't me, such that over time, Prof G Markets is the brand, not Sky Calloway. I'm focused on getting us to 20 or 30 million in revenue with 15 million in EBITDA. I think I can do that in the next three to four years and then build a series of voices that I help foster, create good businesses, and slowly but surely reduce the dependence on my voice.

9:17I would start a job thinking, all right, I either need to have an exit for people or build something where they could have 10, 20, 30 years of real solid earnings and help build economic security. And this isn't an obvious company that you sell, although to a certain extent, every four years you sell the cash flows and you can actually make tens of millions of dollars Now, if you're in a, we have three top 100 podcasts right now, which is exceptional. We're very good at what we do. And we've also been very fortunate. So you can kind of every four years, we're in the midst of this now, renegotiate a deal.

9:47And the way I try and build economic security is I give, and also just selfishly to get, keep everyone engaged and acting like an owner is I give everyone, or not everyone, but the majority of the full-time employees, a percentage of our revenues. And so the question is, how do you maintain those revenue flows after, you know, I start going Biden, if you will? And by the way, I do not run the business. My partner, Catherine Dillon, has been running the business for the last few years. I have talented producers. So the risk is that I'm kind of the front end of the talent end, and we're going to need to dilute and diversify away from that over the next three, five, 10 years.

10:25And we have a plan for that. But it's a correct question. Thank you for asking. a board strategy, a good fiduciary focuses on succession strategy. And that is, German companies demand that the CEO take at least four weeks off every year. And if the company goes to shit when they're gone, they fire the CEO because they need an enterprise. They don't need a practice. Thanks for the question. We have one quick break before our final question. Stay with us. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin, or what that clunking sound from your dryer is?

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11:42Get started at linkedin.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBCLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EBCLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

12:19or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. EPCLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EPCLIS. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EPCLIS. Before starting EPCLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about EPCLIS and visit ePCLIS.lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX or 1-800-545-5979. Welcome back. Question number three. Hey, Prof G. My name's Jack.

12:51I'm attending Georgia Tech right now pursuing my undergraduate in industrial engineering, and I'm 19 years old, which makes me an infant in your eyes, I know. I recently landed a big wig consulting internship at a tier two firm, which I'm pretty stoked about. But as someone who has no experience at a corporate job, I want to make the most of my time there. What can a lowly intern like me do to increase my chances at a return offer. Thank you, Prof, for your insights and dick jokes and for making the professional world more navigable for a young man like me. And a big thank you to my dad, who put me onto your pod and who makes me a smarter, stronger, and funnier young adult every day.

13:25Love you, Dad. Jesus. I'm like still there. If my son at 19 was a Georgia Tech and this thoughtful and then took the time to say something nice about me on a podcast, asked, you're a wonderful young man. So well done to your dad and your mom. As it relates to your actual question, okay, the easy stuff. Listen more than you speak. Offer ideas when people ask you, but when you're in meetings, just try and do a really good job of listening, taking notes. Show up 10 minutes before everyone else. Stay at least 10 minutes after everyone. FaceTime. It sounds stupid, but you want to show that you're there to play, that you came to play.

14:04Come up with ideas every week, trying to at least have one or two ideas and say to someone, can I help you do this? Or I was thinking of putting together a list of potential clients or outreach, or I was thinking about putting together. Show initiative. And they might say, no, that's a bad idea. Don't do that. But see if you can't come up with some ideas that aren't a part of your job description and then ask people, would it help if you did something? If you can save, if you can spend four, six, eight hours making someone senior to you, save them at 30 or 60 minutes, they're going to want you back.

14:34People are selfish. This kid gave me an extra hour every week, right? Hire him. So you're going to get the easy stuff right. You're going to listen a lot. You're going to be very personal, very nice, very supportive of other people. Whenever you work on anything, immediately thank other people for their help. You're going to show up early. You're going to stay late and you're going to try and find little projects that might help other people. And it's going to be your idea and you're going to pitch them to people. What if I put together a database. Now, I'm in technology. I understand sites. Would it make sense for me to look at the technology that our site is built on?

15:07Can I do a project on how AI is impacting our business and come back to in a couple of weeks with a presentation? You want to be the guy that was taped. Get off your heels and onto your toes, right? You want to walk into offices or send people an email saying, would you be willing to have coffee with me? Would you be willing to have lunch with me, right? So you're going to network. You're going to show up early. You're going to stay late. You're going to come up with new ideas. You're going to focus on attention and detail around your work. The work doesn't have to be breakthrough or even right, but it has to be professional.

15:35No typos, right? Attention to detail. And just keep doing what you're doing. You're obviously a very successful young man. And the fact that you understand the importance of relationships is like you are just so far ahead of the game. So I'm like, Jesus Christ. It's like, will you coach me? you have your shit so together at 19 that it's encouraging and inspiring. But again, congratulations on your success today. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propgmedia.com. Again, that's officehours at propgmedia.com.

16:20This episode was produced by Jennifer Sanchez and Caroline Shagrin. Drew Burrows is our technical director. Thank you for listening to the Prop G Pod from the Vox Media Podcast Network. We will catch you on Saturday for No Mercy, No Malice, as read by George Hahn. And please follow our Prop G Markets Pod wherever you get your pods for new episodes every Monday and Thursday. Yo, this is important, man. My favorite Lululemon shorts, the ones you got me back in the day, I think they're called pace breakers, the ones with all the pockets. I just got back from vacation, and I left them in my hotel room.

16:51And, dude, I need to replace these shorts. I wear them like three times a week. Could you send me the link to where you got them? Oh, also, my birthday's coming up soon. So, anyways, thanks, bro. Talk soon. Looking for your newest go-to's? Lululemon What's New Gear drops on Tuesdays, every Tuesday. Head to lululemon.com to shop what's new gear.