#104: How to Develop Your Inner Visionary Superpower with Scott Hill of PERQ

Hey there Powderkeg fans! Nick here from the Powderkeg team. This is episode 104 of Powderkeg: Igniting Startups, the show for entrepreneurs, leaders, and innovators building remarkable tech companies in areas outside of Silicon Valley. Today we’re revisiting an old episode where Matt spoke with Scott Hill. Scott is an entrepreneur and the Co-founder of PERQ. PERQ is an Indianapolis based high-growth marketing technology company that empowers businesses with more visibility into their digital marketing efforts and sales. Scott shows what it takes to be a visionary leader, having succeeded at it himself at PERQ where he guided the company as it made a huge transition which you’ll hear more about. He’ll explain how he did it and help you understand what it will take for you to do the same. The interview is from August 2017, and we’re bringing it out of the archives because it’s so packed with great advice AND is one of our most popular episodes. Let’s get started! At Powderkeg, we believe every entrepreneur has their own personal superpower that makes them great at what they do. Scott Hill’s superpower is being a visionary—that is, being exceptionally capable of seeing opportunities that others can’t and understanding exactly how to prepare so he can seize them when the time is right. I met Hill at a pivotal time in my life, when I was still a college student in Bloomington, IN, and thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. Hill’s company, PERQ, was in print marketing at the time, and I was so inspired by what he was doing with his business that I committed myself to starting my own company shortly afterward. Hill later transitioned PERQ into the still-fledgling marketing tech space, taking the company in a groundbreaking new direction that has more than paid off in the years since. In this episode, Hill and I dive deep into what it truly means to be a visionary in business. We discuss some of the challenging tasks that visionary entrepreneurs are likely to undertake—such as developing an innovative product and pivoting their business to accommodate changing markets—as well as how founders can sharpen their own visionary skills (here’s a hint: it’s about practice more than anything else). We even touch on the special power that sharing stories has for entrepreneurs, which is a topic we’re both very passionate about. I hope this episode provides you with many helpful ideas for developing your own inner visionary. Follow Hill on Twitter @bizgamer for more great insights on being a visionary entrepreneur, and stay tuned to Powderkeg: Igniting Startups for more stories from innovative entrepreneurs, investors and top talent making waves outside Silicon Valley. In this episode with Scott Hill, you’ll learn: -What it really means to be a visionary (7:13) -Tips for developing your skills as a visionary entrepreneur (17:30) -How to socialize your ideas and work toward a final product (21:00) -Actionable advice for transitioning your company into the tech space (28:00) -The power of visualizing the future you want for your business (34:04) -Why sharing stories is so important for entrepreneurs (39:18) Please enjoy this conversation with Scott Hill! If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud or Stitcher. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast. Check it out at powderkeg.com/itunes.