"Put your people over your profits."
Scott Miller is an executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in the content creation industry. His passion is helping companies grow. As CEO of Centerpost Media, that translates into helping its members grow.
Since 2013 at Centerpost, Scott has overseen the growth of BizTV from five markets to more than 50, opening the door to help more national businesses tell their story. Seeing a demand to help local and regional companies, in 2018 he localized the North Texas affiliate and launched a new local TV show. In 2020 during the pandemic, Centerpost launched local markets in Austin and Los Angeles. Scott has the vision to launch 100 local markets by 2030 to serve business across America.
Scott has also led the way in moving BizTalkRadio toward digital and launched video streaming platforms Bizvod and the YTA Club. Prior to Centerpost, in 2005 he launched a new radio channel on SIRIUS XM, growing FamilyNet Radio from a start-up with no programming to a full-time station in five months, in addition to establishing original shows and building the annual revenue base in eight months.
Scott has been married to his wife for more than 20 years and has two teenage daughters. He is an avid Baylor Bears fan and enjoys listening to autobiographies while driving to work and meetings.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Scott Miller: With more than 25 years of experience in the content creation industry, Scott’s gift is media along with helping small to medium size businesses and entrepreneurs.
Since 2013 at Centerpost, Scott has overseen the growth of BizTV from five markets to more than 50, opening the door to help more national businesses tell their story. Seeing a demand to help local and regional companies, in 2018 he localized the North Texas affiliate and launched a new local TV show. In 2020 during the pandemic, Centerpost launched local markets in Austin and Los Angeles. Scott has the vision to launch 100 local markets by 2030 to serve business across America.
Centerpost Media is a content marketing agency. Our vision is to help every business we encounter with their media needs by providing outstanding quality, service, and value. We want every business to grow as a result of our efforts, using content creation and distribution on television, radio, podcasts, websites, social media, and digital marketing.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Scott Miller: Professionally that would be Ed Frazier, my mentor and lead investor. Ed’s belief and trust in me gave me the confidence to move our company forward. He knew I was an entrepreneur before I saw that skill set in myself, and he was kind enough to take me under his guidance and teach me how to be an effective CEO. I am blessed to have a business partner who is also a mentor.
Personally, too many to list, but my late Father-In-Law Alvie Allison comes to mind. Watching him battle cancer and never losing his faith or his contagious smile left a lasting impression on me. I am the man I am today because he took the time to pour into me.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Scott Miller: When the world shut down in March of 2020, we had several of our clients pull back or freeze their marketing dollars. It was impossible to interview prospects on our TV shows, and several media companies were starting to furlough staff. I was asked by my board if that was something I had considered doing, but I decided to do the opposite. I called a company-wide meeting and gave the team an honest assessment of where things stood. I told them we would not cut their pay or lay them off, but that we all needed to run like hell to help the company survive.
What impressed me was how the staff rose to the challenge. They came up with new ways to interview prospects for our local TV shows and started hosting virtual networking events. As a company, we stopped focusing on our profits and started focusing on the people; we looked for ways to help our clients. The result was growth! We added two new markets and hired more staff in the summer of 2020.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Scott Miller: More so on the hiring side of the equation. Finding enough qualified candidates for the jobs we are trying to fill has proved to be more challenging. We have adjusted to add more benefits to retain staff, but I see that as a positive move.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Scott Miller: I am not overly concerned. I think the labor market was due a shift and the pandemic only accelerated the trends.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Scott Miller: Put your people over your profits. That doesn’t mean you stop focusing on making a profit, it is the opposite. It means you look at making a profit to take care of your staff, in addition to your investors or shareholders. Your company is only as good as your people. Listen to what the data is telling us. People want more work-life balance. They want to work for companies they can trust.
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Scott Miller: There is no doubt that the labor force has been stressed for some time. People have either been underemployed or overworked. I am a big believer in work-life balance. I have never managed my staff on hours, rather I focus on results. When an employee comes to me and asks if they can have the morning off to attend their kid’s elementary award ceremony, the answer is always, “Of course, family comes first”. I don’t require them to use PTO time and I don’t worry about how many hours they have worked in a particular week. I focus on if they are getting the job done or not. Before the pandemic, most of our staff worked from home, and those that did come into the office got every other Friday off. We recently started letting the office staff work from home on the Fridays they are on the schedule.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Scott Miller: My leadership team is always looking at new ways to keep staff engaged and enjoying their work. To me, that is the key to retention. The number one reason new hires join our staff is to focus on work-life balance.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Scott Miller: The supply chain is more of a concern for our business, which is ironic given that we create our own products in media and there is no shipping involved. But, it is affecting our clients and we have seen a downturn in marketing dollars being spent for fear of not being able to fulfill orders. So, we are focusing on service-based clients to fill the gaps.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had $10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Scott Miller: Our passion is helping small businesses with their media needs. Any capital we raise goes back to growth in the company. The money would go to opening new markets that give us the privilege of helping more people.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Scott Miller for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Scott Miller or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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