Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is a little different because I own multiple businesses in different industries. Frequently, I use the phrase Creative Entrepreneurship to describe my mission.

I started my entrepreneurial journey as a photographer after quitting my corporate job selling private airplanes. Many thought my interest was specifically tailored towards content creation and selling photography as a service but the entire goal behind learning creative skills was based on understanding marketing, branding and storytelling for businesses.

So my mission is to help other Creatives realize that they aren’t subject specifically to content creation, videography and photography services as their business model. I truly believe Creators are primed better than ever to start creating businesses of their own, or doing what I’ve done and partnering with others having equity in multiple business interests.

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I was missing something. A valuable skillset. The skill of content creation, photography, videography, design and branding all help me, my business partners and our businesses reach new levels while still maintaining a lean internal structure while we’re in the building phase of the brands.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I classify myself as a Creative Entrepreneur. My career started as a private jet salesman selling Cessna airplanes in the range of $2M – $25M. I was able to quickly immerse myself in corporate structure that allowed me to improve my business experience and acumen as a young professional.

I quickly learned that the corporate sales life wasn’t for me and I decided to take a hard left turn and picked up a camera. I started taking photos and making videos for friends in the fitness industry. Soon after I got a few DM’s on social media asking how much I charged for creative work.

Like many young Creators I had no idea what to charge so I started low and worked my way up with each new project. When I started to earn money for myself, the entrepreneur itch started.

While selling photography and videography services to local businesses in the Austin, Texas area I started my first eCommerce business, Riot Roasters Coffee Company. A coffee company with a mission to share your voice in a crowd of noise.

Long story short, my initial investment of $5,000 was lost after receiving a job offer to help start up the newly popular supplement company Raw Nutrition, with 5-time Mr. Olympia Chris Bumstead.

I dropped everything, moved to Florida and started as the CMO of Raw Nutrition & Revive MD. I spent two years learning the ins and outs of marketing and operations as the CMO/COO of both supplement companies. This experience drove me to understand I have what it takes to grow online brands as we built the business from 5-figures a month to 7-figures.

After two incredible years going through some extreme trials by fire, I decided to step away from Florida and move back to Austin, Texas where I reside today building my businesses.

I’m currently the managing partner of three different businesses. A clothing brand called Uphill Battle, a protein cookie business called ChunkyFit Protein Cookie and a health and fitness app I’m building with my fiance called PWR Path Fitness.

The one thing I realized in the beginning was that I needed to learn a skill to give myself a competitive advantage in the entrepreneurial space. Other business owners had a lot of experience in other business settings, money or funding. I had none of that.

So I decided to learn the skill of content creation and leverage the skills of photography and videography to give the impression that our brands are these large entities, whereas in reality each brand is only run by two people.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from my experience starting my own business, to helping build one of the worlds leading supplement companies to now building my own eCommerce business communities is that nothing happens without action and systems.

You can think all you want about an idea, but you learn nothing by thinking. You learn everything by executing on your ideas.

The hard part is staying the course for long enough to reap the rewards of your hard work. I always remind myself to think in decades, but act in days.

I would say that the thing I’m most proud of is how impressed people are when I tell them that our businesses are only run by two people (each). They think we have these big companies, vast teams and a massive warehouse. When in reality its just a few dudes working out of a garage.

We stay as lean as possible so we can reinvest every dollar back into each business and grow exponentially.

Today the clothing brand is reaching thousands of customers. The protein cookie business has received national recognition and can now be found in 20+ GNC’s across the country and we’re in discussion with getting our products into Golds Gym and Albertsons grocery. The PWR Path Fitness App that I’m building with my fiance is helping hundreds of women understand the reality of how to build muscle in the gym and not be skewed by trends and weight loss fads you see all over the internet.

All of this was built with a small team by a “photographer.” Creators are the next generation of entrepreneurs and I want to be someone who helps others realize that they can use their skills to build incredible businesses that will change their lives and the lives of others.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was one of the early employees at the worlds fastest growing supplement company in the industry, Raw Nutrition. I remember working 15 hour days in my little office space grinding away learning everything I could about building an eCommerce business from marketing, to manufacturing, to Facebook Ads, to Amazon. There were nights where i was up until 1AM talking to our Google Ads rep because she was in Australia.

A lot of heart, sweat and tears went into my work with the brand and it was evident that my efforts were helping the business grow alongside a very strong, passionate team of people. The owners are some of the best entrepreneurs I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside.

But something wasn’t right. I still had an emptiness inside of me that I remember calling me back in my corporate sales job. I still felt like an employee and didn’t feel as if I was building something for me.

So after some long conversations with colleagues, leadership and my fiance I decided to leave my 6-figure salary with no guarantee of work and move back to Austin to start building my own businesses.

This is a move many would not recommend, but its something that I felt called to do. I was turning 30 and I just remember telling myself that if I don’t do this now I never will. I’ve always been someone who talks about doing something like this but never had the guts to do it. I decided that I was no longer allowed to wait because I would resent everything about myself if I didn’t take that leap to bet on myself.

So 30 days later, I left.

Today I work harder than ever. I’m relearning things and almost starting from zero compared to where I was, but I couldn’t be happier and finally feel like I’m creating something that resonates with my vision and what I stand for.

The best part? People are starting to join our community and helping me realize that this was the right next step.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As of today, I don’t have a huge social media platform. I’m just about to reach 10,000 followers on Instagram, just crossed 2,000+ subscribers on YouTube and nearing 1,000 on X.

Many of you reading this might reread that and think, “man this guy doesn’t have a following, what could he possibly have to teach me?”

I wanted to talk about this because although I don’t have 50,000 or 100,000 followers, I’m still running and building multiple 6-figure businesses.

I want people to realize you DO NOT need a large following to create something. That’s a false narrative that’s fed to you on social media to try and get you to buy into the person trying to sell you a course on how to grow your social media following.

Whenever someone asks me about their following on social media I always try to explain the importance of the following quality vs the number. My following is small compared to most, but my impact and community is stronger than those who have 100,000+.

It’s all about understanding your audience and providing them with value. Whatever your goal is, value is the key. Value can be given in the form of education, entertainment or a story. I’m trying to blend all three by showing all the behind the scenes of building the brands I’m involved with so others can do the same.

If you want to build up a social media account fast, just pick a niche and start testing content. My fiance has 175,000 followers and a growing online health and fitness business for women. We grew her following by providing value to women directly by educating them on the importance of proper gym training and better nutrition.

Focus on a group of people and help them. Then you just have to be relentless enough to stay consistent like its your job. Full stop.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/scottsimnz
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsimnz/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottsimnz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottsimnz
• Other: My clothing brand – https://uphillbattle.co My protein cookie business – https://chunkyfitcookie.com My fiances fitness app – https://www.savannahjoyyy.com/power-path-app