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Scott RouseJumpstart Episode 16: Scott Rouse

  • IdeaBang started in the 80′s when Scott was working in a recording studio
  • he realized that merchandise should be sold in addition to the music
  • musicians need their live shows and merchandise in the future
  • friends with Mark Montgomery (who was interviewed here)
  • thinks that music will become like electricity or cable, a user will pay a fee each month for all the music they want
  • Scott was raised in a creative atmosphere. His dad was a doctor, songwriter and studio musician.
  • Scott’s dad would instigate them (his siblings as well) to solve problems
  • how to catch a lizard from a hole
  • Scott co-founded iAgree with Chris Blanz (interview), a company in Jumpstart Foundry
  • Chris draws as he talks to visualize
  • iAgree was conceived as a service to provide video NDAs
  • met with Michael Burcham who runs Nashville’s Entreprenuer Center
  • iAgree evolved into GoodJob QSR
  • Scott shares his experiences with Jumpstart Foundry
  • Inspired by his father and brother, the other 20% from being around smart people like Chris Blanz, Mark Montgomery, and Robert Hendrick (interview)
  • Scott mainly reads Seth Godin’s blog (interview), CopyBlogger, Ray Kurzweil, Fast Company, Michael Burcham (5 truths about being an entrepreneur), Dave Stewart’s Business Playground
  • Michael Burchem takes out the trash
  • teargas lamps
  • contact Scott Rouse at Scottrouse.com or IdeaBang Blog

Scott’s 3 tips every entrepreneur needs to know

  1. Start as soon as you have the idea
  2. Think about it all of the time
  3. Talk about it constantly. Knowing how to do.

Please SUBSCRIBE to the podcast is in iTunes, so you’ll get new episodes as they are available.

Jumpstart theme song “DLDN Instrumental (ft. Onlymeith, Mellotroniac)” by: St. Paul from ccMixter.

TRANSCRIPT

Dave: Welcome to Jumpstart. I am your host Dave Delaney. My guest today is Scott Rouse, Founder of IdeaBang. Hey Scott, how are you?

Scott: I’m doing great. How are you doing?

Dave: I am well, thank you. Thanks for taking the time this morning.

Scott: Yeah, hey thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Dave: Yeah it’s great to have you. So tell me about IdeaBang, what is it that you guys do?

Scott: Well IdeaBang started I guess back in the 80’s.

Dave: Right.

Scott: When I was working in a studio, we have these little bands to do like kids’ band that end up for pop music, that kind of thing.

Dave: Right.

Scott: And so the little bands we do with new products for them to sell, not just the albums. But I said, “Hey, we can also sell pencil cases, flashlights, or what you can think of.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: So I came up with little ideas for those things and I need a name for it so I figured for that company. And so I’ve synapse when you get an idea all things run through your bring connects your thoughts to your brain through action or synapses. So I figured that’ll be an Idea Bang, the tiny little noise that you would make.

Dave: Yeah.

Dave: A little spark in there. So that’s where it came from.

Scott: I love it. It’s great. Actually do you think nowadays merchandize is even more important considering that how many artists are starting doing for themselves and selling online or a lot of artists now are giving away their music. Do you think merchandize is even more important now as that goes?

Dave: Yeah that’s all you’re really going to have in the “future” for musician is your live show and much we have to sell, merchant t-shirts, whatever it is. Because music, the reason Mark Montgomery and I became such close friends so quickly was because he thinks the same way I do as far where music is concerned. It’s going to be like electricity or cable you just paid for example 10 bucks a month you get all the music you want.

Dave: Right.

Scott: And you can do anything what you want because they’ll be no stoppage. You just pay that fee because it’s loose now the way things are digitally.

Dave: Right and I should mention for our listeners that Mark was also a guest on a previous episode at Jumpstart. So if you’re interested you can always check that out and I’ll have links to everything in the show notes today too. So at what point in your career did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?

Scott: Say when I was kid.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: My family, my brother and sister and I we’re raised in a very creative atmosphere. My father is a doctor and my Mom is I guess a Mom she was at home guarding us and making sure we went to school and all that. My Dad come home, he was actually a studio musician here in Nashville before I was born. And my Mom, “Look you got to be either. Be the thing you want, be a doctor or a studio musician and songwriter. But you got to pick one because I’m leaving if you don’t.” He said, “Okay, I’ll be a doctor.” She said, “Great, you don’t have to but that’s what you’re going to be.” So he’s a very creative guy and when we were little he would almost – he instigate us taking things up to solve problems. We’d be going on these long trips, we live in Kentucky, I remember the point when he first started. He had a studio there in our background in the old garage and he would present these little problems, since you can’t get to the – there’s a little lizard that live in a little hole in our backyard at the bottom of the stairs by the sidewalk. And he would always say – and I would sit out there trap and get that thing? He said, “Looks like you got a problem. How are you going to solve that? How are you going to get that lizard into that little jar you have?” So I came up with a little trap to do. I said, “I could do this, this, and this.” I presented I guess 3 or 4 scenarios. He said, “Number 2 sounds good. Why don’t you try that?” So I did that and I was maybe 5 or 6.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: I did catch the lizard. So I made a little trap where I would catch the lizards and I took that to my old friends. We had a little friends group. And I helped them make old traps and they’d all trap lizards too. Then it went to other things not just traps but add a little almost products at a very young age. It started there pretty much.

Dave: That’s neat, trapping lizards.

Scott: Yeah.

Dave: And you’ve done a lot of other things. Currently you’re also working with I Agree. Tell us a little bit about iAgree because you’re part the foundry Jumpstart too.

Scott: Yeah, so iAgree is Chris Blanz and I were sitting in a coffee shop. Ed Shaw Coffee Shop down there in the music world. And I met him again, Mark Montgomery again but I met him through Mark Montgomery a couple of years ago.

Dave: Right.

Scott: A long break because he’s an idea guy and I am too. And we talked a lot and when I met Chris I don’t know if you know about this guy. Have you ever met Chris Blanz?

Dave: Actually surprisingly Chris has also been a guess on the show.

Scott: Right.

Dave: But I’ve had had in-person meetings with Chris as well.

Scott: Okay, then you’d seen this. First time I saw this happen, number one I couldn’t believe it when I realize what was happening. When you were talking to him, he’ll draw whatever he’s talking about. If you’re talking about –but it’s not what you’re talking about, he draws a picture he draws these things that reminds what’s going on. And then like an hour later when we refresh, he said, “You go back to these pages of these pictures he’s drawing. Like, “What is this guy doing?” And he would look at these pictures and he’ll said, “Well here you said whatever it was.”And whatever it’s like I’m like, “What is wrong with this guy?” So we got along really well. He seems like straight on, “Hey, I’m a normal American guy. I used this [Inaudible – 00:05:52], I was working on that.

Dave: That’s cool.

Scott: So he and I got along great. We were sitting in Ed Shaw Coffee Shop and he said, “Look man, I got an idea.” And I said, “Well what do you got?” “Here’s an idea for a video NDAs.” And I said, “Hey that sounds pretty good. Let’s talk about that.” He said, “Would you be interested in making that happen?” I said, “Yeah.” To make a long story short he ended up talking to Michael Burcham. Michael said, “Why don’t you try that here in Jumpstart. Put it in the pile of entries.” So that’s where we’ve “pivoted” now to something completely different since we’ve been here, since we got into Jumpstart Foundry.

Dave: Right.

Scott: But it started off as Video NDA and now it’s this thing called Good Job. But it’s the On the Spot Employee Assessment for the quick service restaurants, QSRs.” Now as uninteresting as that may sound because when I say it people say, “Are you a record producer?” And I go, “Yeah, I really am.” It has nothing to do with anything I’ve ever done. I mean I’ve eaten a lot of McDonalds and don’t know places and stuff but I’ve never had anything to do with those other than that. So it’s really interesting, for me anyway, venture to get into dealing on the techno or technical side of a product for quick service restaurants.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: It’s really interesting I mean it is excruciatingly boring when you talk about it. Going to seeing it happen, “Hey that’s pretty cool.”

Dave: Yeah. Has it been fun working with Jumpstart?

Scott: It’s been a blast. It really has its – now it’s becoming a blast because now we’re like after, I guess we started this in May. Were almost 2 ½ months then, some of the stuff we do really like. But the first night we all got here and I met Michael and I’ve always seen him around, heard about him, and now he had on shorts I think and some kind of a shirt and having a lot of people just standing and relaxing. Up to that point Chris and I was, “Hey man it’s going to be tough. You got to pay attention. It’s going to like 14 weeks crash course college course.” And I thought, “Well talking to these people who are on it, Clay and I met Cal and everybody here and Sam so I’m staying in school too.” But people were here like Robert Hendrick and Rob Humphreys and all these people, they seem pretty mellow. So we left that evening because it was Sunday before the Monday of the beginning of Jumpstart. Chris and I were in the parking lot and I said, “I don’t know about this.” He said, “I don’t either if that I think is going to be as hard course it seems everybody seems kind of laid back.” I said, “I know it kind of bugs me out.” So we discussed whether we’re going to do it or not. We really did. We got nothing else. “You know what man? I don’t have time for something like this.” Because I’m one of those people that knows everything, Yeah I’m one of those leopards. Being the know it all. “Hey, I don’t know man, maybe we shouldn’t.” He’s like, “Yeah.”

So we said, “Look, we’ll just go a week and see what happens.” We came in next morning because I said, “Okay, well don’t forget tomorrow we’ll start 7:00 in the morning. And Michael said, “Then we will wake up then, great.” So we got there and thank God like ten tale and we go scooting in and sit down and get a seat and picturing them in there in the little rehearsal room where we sit and Michael is already in there. It’s 6:59 and 7:00 o’clock. He looked at me and said, “All right, here we go.” He looked at Chris and said, “Okay, let’s see your pitch.” Chris goes, “What?” “Let me see your pitch.” He goes, “Get up, you got 3 minutes let me hear what you got.” “My God,” everybody heads go down and get a paper and starting writing their 3-minute pitch.

Dave: Right.

Scott: Their product deals. And Chris said, “Let’s see we’re doing Video NDA.” It was horrible for him.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: For me to watch but nobody else saw it because everybody else was working on their own 3-minute pitch.

Dave: All right.

Scott: It didn’t stop for like 3 weeks almost a month. I found I spend a month at Jumpstart Foundry one day and the next thing I want in my life is, I’m here like 5:00 in the morning going, “I’ve got to get this done.” My wife is calling, “Why are you leaving so early? I’m starting to get worried.” Then he said, “You have to talk to your wife and said, “Look, I’m doing this for 14 weeks.”

Dave: Right.

Scott: It almost got her hand there for a minute because it was so intense because if we just lay it back but if you put your head down and you jump in swinging, you’re going to get a lot more out of it a lot quicker if you’re ready. We just had to get ready as it happened.

Dave: Right.

Scott: So fast and so intense. The next thing we know we’re in the second day. We’ve pivoted from our NDA over this thing called Good Job and it happened quick and we were bonged up first at the end of the day for a different reason.

Dave: Yeah, just shifted like that.

Scott: Gosh, it’s been non-stop. And he had been here this morning where we got 3 weeks left and I was here this morning 5:15 or 5:30 something like that.

Dave: Right.

Scott: Our video stuff is done because we got meeting starting at 8:00.

Dave: Yeah. Thank God for Cathalina.

Scott: Yeah. It was interesting people here crying. You’ve seen people bonged out. But it was all for good I mean it’s nothing life shattering. Nobody has ever thought that but it’s really, really intense. But it’s such a wonderful experience. I tell you what, I would not trade anything for this if I had done – coming in like I said before I’m a know it all. You can’t tell me, I’m one of those guys. You get here for about 14 minutes, you hang out with Michael Burcham then you go, “My God, he must hate my guts.” If you think you know it all until you meet someone like that.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: Not talk yet and then when he start talking and your brain goes bang because there’s so much information and concepts you never had an idea of d[Inaudible – 00:11:54].

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: I kept rambling but nobody has asked me that yet. I just don’t have time to sit down and get through all of this. It’s on Kansas bid.

Dave: Well it all stretch.

Scott: Yeah.

Dave: So let’s talk about people in your life. Is there someone that inspires you on a day to day basis or just inspired you overall?

Scott: In the beginning I guess it would be my father.

Dave: Right.

Scott: And my brother. My brother writes movies and TV shows. He’s in Los Angeles, that’s what he does.

Dave: Great.

Scott: He’s very good at it. He does very well. So I think those two are the ones that kind of 90% of the time inspired and cause all those sparks to go, “Yeah I know how to do this,” because I want to impress them.

Dave: Right.

Scott: And I’m sure my brother does the same thing. He wants to impress me and my Dad.

Dave: Right.

Scott: But then luckily I’ve been able to surround myself with people like Chris and Mark and hang around people like Robert Hendrick and Rob Humphreys and I end up here. So 80% of it is coming from my Dad and brother and the 20% is that everyday being around smart people and the idea people have fire stuff off that will make you think of stuff.

Dave: Are there blogs or websites that you subscribe to that you read regularly?

Scott: Yup, actually I have tons of them. Let’s say the ones I read most, obviously everybody reads Seth Godin’s blog.

Dave: Sure, yeah.

Scott: That was a great interview by the way.

Dave: Thank you. Yeah it was great to have him on the show.

Scott: He’s a pretty cool guy. He always seems like it.

Dave: Yeah definitely. He’s great.

Scott: You email him and within like 4 minutes he’ll email you back.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: Always blow my mind when he does that.

Dave: Yeah he’s awesome.

Scott: Yeah he really is great. But I’d say I always read his – I do copy blogger, just got to have a blog. Google will do. It depends, Rick Corswhile has great one. He’s like a futurist trying to find out what’s coming down the pipe. I really pay attention to what he’s doing.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: So those are – Fast Company of course everyone I’m sure does that.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: The main ones and Michael Burcham’s. He’s got a great one actually.

Dave: He does. He’s been blogging quite a lot lately. It’s been great to see that.

Scott: Yeah and you read there’s one on there that’s 5 steps of being an entrepreneur. When I first got here I went to the side and I was reading all these things and I said, “Who’s this guy? Because he says, “To be an entrepreneur, this, that, and the other thing you have to balance it. And you also have to take out the thrash.

Dave: Right.

Scott: This guy really I don’t think he likes thrash. Here we go, earlier I said I came here at 5:00 or 5:30.

Dave: Yeah.

Scott: And I showed up at 5:30, I was the first one in here I thought. And I see coming out the hall there was Michael, he’s got 2 garbage cans. I said, “It’s 5:30 in the morning,” I said, “What are you doing?” And he said, “I’m taking the thrash out.” “Where’s the guy?” He goes, “What guy?” “The guy that takes out the thrash.” He said, “I’m the guy who takes out the thrash.” And he does. I won’t let him do mine but he goes by and he picks up all the trash in everybody’s little garbage cans by their desk. I think everybody now knows he’s doing it so we had a little discussion in letting him do it. So he’s that guy. It’s real. That’s another thing that makes us to think so intense.

Dave: Yeah that’s amazing that he does that though.

Scott: Yeah he’s a great blog, he really does.

Dave: He does. So I like to wrap the show with asking for three tips that you would suggest for entrepreneurs.

Scott: Okay.

Dave: Put you on the spot here, right?

Scott: It’s totally cool. When you give an idea because I’m sure you do the same thing all the time. You say, “What should I do?” When you get an idea, the first thing you do is you start working to what you say if it’s going to be let’s see a lamp that has tear gas that come out when you pull the thing. One of the things would be, you think about that constantly, and number one, once you have that idea you start working toward it, and you think number one, I’m going to do that. If you decide, “I’m going to make that thing come into a reality or I’m thinking about it, this thing I’m thinking about my brain.” That’s all you do is you think about. That’d be the second thing. Yes, we see it happening. You begin putting number one you just begin forming it and think of how am I going to this? Number two, you think you see it finish. Say, “That’s what’s going to crack. That’s going to happen.” And then that’s all you talk about until you get it done. Until you hold in your hand a little prototype.

Dave: Right.

Scott: And tell your Mom, your Dad, your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, whoever it is until they go, “Here comes that lamp tear gas thing.” And so that’s what you want because it does something. When you talk about it that what helps call it on into being I guess. You say, “It sounds corny but it really is true.” Everybody that is listening that knows how to do that we call it knowing how to do or knows little until our parents called. You think of something and you want it to happen and you want to become I guess a reality when you use that terminology but that what’s you do. Those are I would think the three most important things. Start on as soon as you get an idea. You start making it happen. Number two start thinking about it all the time. It should be the foremost thing in your brain and on your mind. And then number three, talk about it constantly. Talk about it to everybody [Inaudible – 00:17:41] tear gas. I just talk about it. It really makes it happen quicker I think. That’s the way I approach everything.

Dave: And the next thing you know you could use a tear gas lamp to get a lizard out of a hole.

Scott: There you go.

Dave: Hey Scott, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time today.

Scott: Listen, I really appreciate it too. I had a blast. I love this podcast man. It’s really informative.

Dave: Thanks.

Scott: To say the least. I’m learning a lot of people that I am getting to know and really learn about them.

Dave: That’s cool. Thank you I appreciate that. Now listen, how do people get a hold of you? Where do they find you?

Scott: They can get to me at scottrouse.com. You got my email address and my number is there and everything or IdeaBang blog if you want to see what the blog looks like for my little company.

Dave: I do appreciate your time today and I will talk to you again soon.

Scott: Okay, thanks so much, brother.

Dave: Thanks Scott.

Moderator: For show notes, links discussed in today’s podcast, and much more visit jumpstartpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. 

Posted on August 7, 2011

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