Intro

Welcome to The Corvus Effect, where we take you behind the scenes to explore integrated self leadership and help ambitious family men build lasting legacies for themselves, their tribe, and their community. I'm Scott Raven, and together we'll discover how successful leaders master a delicate balance of career advancement, personal health, financial growth, and meaningful relationships. Get ready to soar.  

Guest Introduction

And hello everyone. Welcome back to this episode of Course Effect. I am Scott Raven, and you can never have enough Scotts in the world.

So I've brought Scott MacGregor onto the podcast today. He is the founder of The Outlier Project and a true catalyst for extraordinary connections as someone who believes anyone can be ordinary. We all have the power to choose to be extraordinary. Scott has created a community where curious minds come together and do extraordinary things from his record breaking business achievements to building a platform that transforms how high impact individuals connect and grow.

Scott embodies the principle that relationships are everything, but they don't just happen. They take work and he exhibits this in his other. Avenue, something new LLC, his unique talent strategy company that helps individuals with career coaching and startups build the foundation for exceptional talent acquisition.

An eight time winner of the American Business Award for Innovation and incredible 94.4 MPS score. And a four time author of the standing O series. I mean, you know, the Man is like Donuts, right outside of willing his Minnesota Vikings to winning a Super Bowl. He's done everything at this point. So Scott MacGregor, welcome to the podcast, man.

I.

Scott, Raven, I appreciate you having me on, my friend and man. That's all I want for Christmas. Come on. Just give me a Super Bowl trophy. I don't need multiple, I just need one. Just gimme one.

Come ons.

you know that I'm an iHeart Eagles fan. I was right there with you up through 2017 having to hear all of my divisional brethren say, we got multiple championships. You've got none right now. Granted, I've got, you know, this, I, I've now got two including, uh, the party in South Philly starting September, uh, fourth.

But I hear you. I hear you that getting the first is incredible. So I'm really hoping that. You see it soon. I'll put it that way.

To God's ears.

that's right. That's right.

And let's go to your lips, to the ears of my listening audience, because

The Power of Choice

really your fundamental philosophy, and I said it at the top, anyone can be ordinary, but we all have the power to choose.

To be extraordinary, and I think just knowing you a little bit, the most important word in that phrase is choose why is choice so important.

It's a great question. I think, and I was probably guilty of this, uh, when I was a kid, you know, I thought that in order to live an extraordinary life, in order to do extraordinary things that you needed to either, know, be born into money, you needed to be a Kennedy. Or you needed to be born with Michael Jordan's, DNA, or you needed to be born with Steve Jobs brain. And then as I met, very, very successful people in business and sports and entertainment, I realized that there were a ton of people that weren't necessarily born with those things, but they made choices in their lives. That led to them living an extraordinary life. And I realized that it is a choice.

it's a choice we get to make. And that, for me, as somebody who grew up, you know, pretty poor in a very affluent town, it gave me hope because I was like, boy, I wasn't born with any of these innate gifts, if I make the right choices. I can live the life of my dreams.

Right. And you know, it's such a, interesting segue into a key point because, you know, my father, he grew up, in, Connecticut, affluent town, but you know, his family was not that affluent and he made it a point in his life to really strive to be a high achiever, and he was very successful.

Right. But one of your fundamental beliefs is. There's a huge difference between being a high achiever and a true outlier. Can you help explain for listening audience what that difference is?

High Achievers vs True Outliers

I think outliers are people that choose, to take the road less traveled. They wanna show up differently. it's not necessarily about being a high achiever. It has everything to do with not wanting to live a vanilla life, not wanting to follow the thundering herd, and just having, you know, I know from an early age, I just, for whatever reason, I, I'm gonna say DNA.

If everyone was going left, I intuitively wanted to go. Right. I've just been a contrarian my whole life and that has, you know, really played a very positive role in my life, especially from a business standpoint. we oftentimes feel a lot of pressure or we feel safety. In following trends, following other people, taking the easy path.

but that's not where the pot of gold is. The pot of gold is taking that road less traveled. So outliers are different. I do think people that, maximize their potential in life, are all outliers. Every single one that I've met that has done. Extraordinary things, whether it was in the military, in sports, or in business, a hundred percent of them are outliers.

You know, it's beautiful in terms of your potential. When I think about one of the. Core artifacts that you have with the outlier community, which is the we believe statements. And one of them I always go back to is that disappointment is a give and get used to it. Just because you're on the path to maximizing your potential does not mean it's always going to be sunshine and rainbows.

And I know for you in your personal journey, you have had. Those bumps in the road that you've had to overcome in order to get to who you are and what you are today.

I think it's true for everybody. I mean, nobody goes through this life unscathed. that certainly has been the case for me, but, I am a true believer that adversity is a gift.

so. While I'm not rejoicing in the moment, I do recognize even in the moment that at some point I'm gonna recognize that this is a gift.

and it's just like working out in the gym. You know, when, when you're doing hard things. It's very uncomfortable and you wanna stop, but you continue to do it because you know that's the only way that you're gonna grow physically. And the same is true, for us, just, uh, as human beings. The more adversity we go through, the more resiliency we build, and the more resiliency we build, the more capable we are of weathering the storms that are inevitably gonna come.

Um, so I've been very fortunate, to weather lots of storms and develop, a very high level of resiliency, which has served me well, both personally and professionally. So, I view it really, truly as a gift.

Nice. And with that resiliency comes evolution. And it's a nice segue into the outlier project of 2025. Is not even close to how this concept started back in the early 2020, what you thought it was and what it has evolved to be.

Evolution of The Outlier Project

And I'd love for you to help the audience understand how you've allowed the resiliency and the evolution to turn something that was good into something that is great today.

It's a great question. You know, I'm a big believer in living into the answers. I think so many times we get paralyzed into thinking that we need to understand exactly how everything's gonna play out every step of the way. And that's just not realistic. And I think we just need to step forward and as we continue to step forward and take messy action.

We gain more data points every step, and then we decide, you know, do we still wanna step in this direction? So I had really had a very strong desire to start a community for many different reasons, but I was running a talent strategy company called something new that was very, very successful and I didn't wanna alienate any of my employees.

So I decided to start a community that was centered around all things talent. So it was called the Talent Champions Council. And it was successful, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't really true to what I wanted, and I'll never forget kind of the tipping point. So I have all of these very interesting friends who I love.

People to get to know. And so I was starting to bring them on in the community, for the, then the Talent Champions council members to get to know them.

The Brandy Chastain Story

And I have a friend, Brandy Chastain, who actually today's Brandy's birthday. Um, so happy birthday to bc, but Brandy is a two time World Cup champ, two time Olympic gold medalist and soccer Hall of Famer.

And I really have tremendous admiration for brandy, and I wanted to bring her on, but I'm like, man, what in the world does Brandy Chastain have to do with talent strategy?

Right.

I said to Brandy, you know what? Let's focus on teamwork. Because obviously being one of the leaders of the greatest female soccer team of all time, you know, you had to display that and.

It felt forced and it felt like I was trying to fit square pegs in a round hole. So I went on vacation and I remember calling Kathy Love, who has been by my side

for almost a decade,

helping me build multiple businesses, and I said, Kathy, we need to rebrand. I wanna call this, the outlier project, because I've always identified as an outlier and all of these people that I want to give people exposure to are all outliers, and it was very, very true to who I was and what I wanted to build.

If I hadn't taken that first step, we would've probably never gotten where we are today. so I'm glad I took that step, but, it wasn't ultimately what I wanted to build. but it did give me a lot more data to push me in, in the right direction eventually.

And you take a look at that rebrand, and then you start with personalities like Meredith Vira and Dick Veril, obviously as an Eagle fan, have a lot of love for him back in 1980s to today where it's the Jesse LERs and the Layla Ali of the world that you're talking with. Right.

Building Intentional Relationships

These relationships. I mean, just rattling off big name after big name, after big name, right?

Most people would say, how the heck does this guy know so many people? And I know the first thing out of your mouth would be, it just doesn't happen. You have to make it happen.

do. So you have to be intentional about building any relationships. But if you wanna build relationships with people that have high access and high influence, you really have to be very intentional. so I always have been because I've always recognized, well, first I think it starts with just an innate curiosity that I have.

So I'm very, very curious. So anyone who's achieved anything great,

Mm-hmm.

I am incredibly curious why they chose that path, how they went about it. and that just really. Lights a fire in me. So I love that and I love having that curiosity. but I think, you know, you have to understand that in order to do great things in this world, if you have relationships with people that have high access and high influence, your ability to achieve those great things is far greater. Um. So I've been very intentional in building friendships, not networking. I, I don't believe in, I think networking is a little bit of a dirty word to me. It's, it's very transactional. and

Friendships vs Networking

I don't believe in building transactional relationships. I believe in building friendships. So I think especially when you start to talk about the Jesse Itzler's of the world, the Laila Ali's the Brandi Chastain's, people like that.

they know immediately if somebody is trying to get close to them in order to gain something, either from a business perspective or whatever the case may be,

we call those askholes around here, tip of the cap to Chris Tuff who

I know you've also had on your, fireside chats. So.

very true, very true. I think as soon as they realize that. the only thing that I'm ever looking for is a relationship, and I am very often just trying to figure out how to add value to their life. you know, and you're able to do that. it doesn't matter who the person is. It doesn't matter whether they're running a billion dollar company or they're a decorated Navy Seal, or they're an Olympic gold medalist.

You know, everyone has basic human, needs, and you know, the same issues that a regular guy like me has. And as soon as you recognize that, you know, you can typically, build really, really strong relationships with just about anybody. But you have to be intentional and you have to be strategic.

And you know, another thing that I know that you ideate in terms of how you carry yourself is that you are completely against the. Following phrase, it's not personal, it's just business for you. It is personal, it is relational, and I think one of the beautiful things in terms of how you actually go about it is that you blend between those things that are structured and organize to help you maintain.

Those relationships versus those where you just let it happen organically and that the relationship germinates on its own. And I think that you bring a lot of wisdom to this listening audience in terms of how to balance those two approaches, because the common person often is going this, that, or the other in terms of directions and often forgets how to really build quality and quantity of relationships over time.

Yeah, I think if you just think of it as a friendship, you know, how would you go about building a friendship?

starts with really getting to know somebody and getting to understand what makes them tick and you know, what are some of the struggles that they have and where could you potentially be a resource.

So it just starts with kind of those basic things. and when you start to understand those. You can help just about anybody and you can foster a relationship, a friendship with just about anybody. and some of those people will become. You know, incredibly close friends, and others will just be friends that are more acquaintances.

but it doesn't matter. I, I don't think you can force things. There are people that are just naturally meant to be very close. And then there are other people where you have a mutual admiration for each other, but you know, you're not gonna be, uh, going out to dinner every, every week and, having slumber parties with them.

But, uh, that doesn't really matter. It, it all has to do with, just trying to foster a friendship and seeing where it takes you without forcing anything.

You know, I think one of the beautiful ways that you do that, at least within the confines of the outlier project that I've been privileged to be over a year is. A sense of psychological safety for those people who are driven. And we hear so many stories of it's quote unquote lonely at the top. The masks that people have to wear versus the insecurities and the imposter syndromes that they are going through.

Creating Psychological Safety

You've truly created. A open environment where people can let down their guard a bit. Right. And I think a lot of that in large respect is how you've allowed yourself to let down your guard and say. I'm just a regular guy. I'm a regular guy who's trying to do an extraordinary thing, and I would be honored if you would say how your own personal philosophy in terms of how you present yourself rubs up on others or how you desire it to rub off on others.

I never really know how it's gonna. Other people, I just try to be myself. you know, I don't try to be something that I'm not. so I am probably more of an introvert than an extrovert. and I don't really necessarily wanna be the center of attention. Uh, I mean, sometimes just from. A business standpoint, because I've been a CEO or a founder, whatever the case may be, you wind up in a role where you know you are in the spotlight a little bit more, but that's not something that I really seek.

So I try to just be who I am, which is somebody who loves to listen. I love to ask a lot of questions. That's why I'd much rather be on in your seat than my seat. So I'd much rather be asking the questions and being

buddy. I'll try be nicer to you. I'm sorry buddy.

It's, uh, I just try to be myself. I'm not trying to be anything, that I'm not, I'm not sure that that addressed the question

No, no, no. I mean, I, I, I mean it does from the standpoint that you're just being authentic and real and that, you know, I'm curious in terms of the authentic and the real. Now driving this statement of people over everything. But to your point, you were a very successful CEO back in the day, and CEOs, the success criteria could look extremely different.

The way that people are used in that environment can be extremely different.

It's very true. I mean, I recognize this is back, I was a Chief Revenue Officer for a very, very long time and it helped grow a company, you know, from just a few people to hundreds of people. And, you while we did have a very different service, uh, than anybody else. realized right away in building sales, marketing, and client success within that organization that the differentiator for us as a business was gonna be the people that we hired and the teams that we built much more so than our product or.

Mm-hmm.

I've always held that philosophy. It's the people that make the difference in a business. I think oftentimes, you know, I'll just use a very prominent example. I think people say, well, apple is a successful business because they create these incredibly powerful, sophisticated, but easy to use devices. To an extent, but it's missing the people component of those. Amazing products that get developed didn't just happen. Those were all people led. So, you know, if Apple wasn't bringing the right people on board, and wasn't fostering the right environment for innovation, those things would never happen. So the products are just a byproduct of the people.

and I think every company. Needs to realize that is that their success or failure is going to be predicated far more on the people that they hire and the teams that they build than any product or service that they're ever gonna come up with.

Right. And you extended that philosophy personally when you came up with your standing o series of books, which is a wonderful montage of dedications to the hidden heroes. And as you're putting these series together, as you're learning about these stories, obviously we can go to the bookstore and we can read it.

I wanna know behind the scenes, as you are bringing this collection to life, what are you feeling? How are you going through this journey along with the one fold, the co-authors that you brought this together with?

The Standing O Series Origin

Yeah, the standing O series has been a really fun, thing that I've done over the last, you know, 10 years. So when I started the company, something new, giving back to me was extraordinarily important. So it always is in any business that I get involved in. I had a big problem, and the big problem was I'm a bit of a control freak.

Uh, so I did not wanna take any VC funding, uh, to help grow the business. So I was bound and determined to bootstrap the company, in order to make it successful. So, you know, when you bootstrap a company, you're essentially pouring all the money that you're making back into the business so that the business.

Because you can't rely on other people's money to do that. so there in light a big, big problem. How in the world do you give back when you don't have a giant bank account where you can stroke a check to these organizations that I had a ton of admiration for. So I had to sit back a little bit and think about.

What are my assets? Because my assets were not that giant bank account, and I very quickly realized that my assets were all of these really unusual relationships that I had built over decades.

Amen.

so I thought if I could write a book, an anthology. And ask friends of mine to write chapters of gratitude for a life lesson learned, and I could put it in a book and then I could give a hundred percent of the proceeds to charity.

We would not only be able to raise some money, but we would also be able to raise a lot of awareness. So Coach Veril, who's in the football Hall of Fame, wrote the forward to my first book and Tiki Barber, who's an all time great New York giant, much to your chagrin,

Yeah, we.

Right. Interesting bedfellows there to be on the cover of your first book.

And then, you know, people like Jesse Itzler and Merrill Hodge and all kinds of different folks wrote chapters of gratitude for a Life lesson learned. And the book was very successful. We, we raised a bunch of money, we raised a ton of awareness and I realized, well, I've got another 52 friends, I could do this again.

So I put together Standing o Encore and then. I have an affinity for the military. So we did it again with a mil, with a book specifically for the military called Standing O Salute. And then, did it a fourth time with Standing o tribute and the fourth iteration of the Standing O series, will probably come out this year or early next year.

So it's just been a really fun way to give back. and, you know, to highlight how important gratitude is, um, and listen to people's stories about the people that they give gratitude, for the successes that they've had in their life.

Yeah. And you know, it's a beautiful series and you know now as we have progressed a little bit and you're able to not only do it through the vehicle of print, I know that you have your outlier magazine that you also have, and you also involved in a lot of. In person events. I was privileged enough to be with you at the Culture City, dedication awards.

I know you're going to running man in, uh, you know, a little bit of time as you're progressing more and more into these. Opportunities that have a give back slant or element to it. Is that the ultimate legacy that you would like for the outlier project? That it's not only people over everything, but it's how it's impacted the broader communities that are affiliated with the outlier project.

Hundred percent. You know, one of the most important things we do, in the outlier project is we do a humanity expedition every year to Nicaragua.

Giving Back Philosophy

It's, it's absolutely one of my favorite things I've ever done in my entire life. Uh, we

we had Peter podcast a while back and he's just a phenomenal dude. Him cha, I know he was just down there for the kitchen part of it. I mean, they're phenomenal people.

Incredible people doing incredible work. Uh, so that's a big, big part of the Outlier Project. So the Outlier Project has a, uh, a give back component called Top Cares, where it's everything from our trip to Nicaragua. To supporting people in a, in a much smaller, you know, probably less visible way. but it's important to me to always be giving back, because people have given me so much, I, I would never be able to do any of the things that I'm doing without, the support of so many amazing people who have supported me.

I, you know, my entire life. So, giving back just absolutely one of the most important things in my life.

Yeah. And you know, I'll say it because I'm an Eagles fan, right? And the rings came out and it had this phrase in it from Coach Ani, you cannot be great without the greatness of others and having the greatness of others around you to be able to accomplish extraordinary things. I think that you certainly have shown that in your own life's work.

I also feel. It is a desire of the next generation coming up in terms of having all of the opportunity with time at their side to be able to leave an impact. As they're listening to this conversation, what words of wisdom would you give them where they do have the opportunity through time.

You know. I recognize that most of the things that we chase, for the majority of our lives are things that no one's gonna care about at the end. So the businesses that I've built, no one's gonna care at the end of the day. The books I've written, the magazines I've published, the awards I've won, the house I live in, the car I drive, no one is gonna care about that stuff.

The impact that I make on people, that is your legacy and that's what has ripple effects. You know, buying a nice car or living in a big house or, you know, winning awards or whatever. There's very little ripple effect, if not none, uh, from those things. But there is a tremendous ripple effect, by impacting people's lives.

So. You know, that's what I focus on. That's what gets me excited. That's what makes me jump out of bed every Monday, because I cannot wait, to talk to more people, uh, and hopefully impact more lives. And I don't have, you know, I'm not one of those, There's nothing wrong with this, but I'm not somebody who's like, I wanna impact a billion people or a million people, or whatever the case may be.

I wanna impact, if I can impact one person, I know that that ripple effect, that person's gonna impact somebody else. And now running a community with hundreds and hundreds of members, or having a magazine with tens of thousands of subscribers, I'm able to impact people's lives in a positive way. And, you know, hopefully those, you know, ripples become waves and become tsunamis at some point.

A tsunami of good would be a wonderful legacy to leave behind. And that tsunami of good, as you said, is gonna come from more people joining the movement As people are listening and maybe they're asking, how do I become a part of the outlier project? Give 'em a little detail in terms of how they could, uh, think about joining.

Joining The Outlier Project

Yeah, so we're not looking to build the biggest community, uh, out there. We'll probably add. Few hundred more members and before we stop taking new members. so it's invite or referral only. So you either need to be referred, by a current member or you need to be invited into the community. And I do a 15 minute chat with every perspective. New member and I just wanna make sure that we're in alignment. that what they're looking for is what we're looking for. So we're, we're not looking for people who have necessarily accomplished great things, although we have many that have accomplished extraordinary things.

We're not looking for people that hold a certain position in a company. We're looking for people who wanna show up differently. We're looking for people who are unafraid to take the road less traveled, that are lifelong learners, that wanna support other people that wanna give back.

and if they want those things, and they are looking for the ability to do that in a very, very unique eclectic membership community.

The outlier project might be a good home for them. So, you know, those people just grab time on my calendar. We have a chat and we figure out whether it's, mutually a good fit. And if it is, that's great. And if it's not, you know, I'm not a believer in trying to sell anybody. on the benefits of being a member, you either get it or you don't.

And you, it either aligns or it doesn't. but because we're not looking to build this to 5,000, 10,000 members, I wanna keep it small 'cause I want the impact to always be there. you know, we're pretty, judicious, in that process, which is why I carve out the time to speak to every single perspective member.

Got it. So we'll make sure to put that, link, for folks if they want to get a hold of you. How else can people learn more about you and your amazing life?

Yeah, I would say, I do a lot of podcasts, so you can find me on, on a bunch of podcasts. I think this one is, has been a ton of fun. Uh, so I hope we get lots of listeners for this one.

Um. Subscribe to the magazine. The digital version of Outlier Magazine is free. You can certainly get an idea of, who I am and, and some of the things that I've done in my life, through my LinkedIn profile and, and probably other social media, those.

LinkedIn is my, I guess, platform of choice, but I think more than anything, Scott. I'm a guy who I like to talk to people. I like to get to know 'em. know, we live in a world that's very, can be very superficial and you can see something on Instagram or you can read something in a magazine or a book or whatever, and you can get a certain idea of who that person is.

But I think once you have a conversation. You really have a very good understanding of what makes that person tick. So I, I love, talk, even as a more of an introvert. I love talking to people. Uh, I love getting to know them. I love, understand, trying to understand what they're after in life. so I'm

All I know is you drew the fireside chats better than I do. I'll put it that way. I mean, I'm, I'm okay at this, right, in terms of interviewing people, but you are a rockstar when it comes to being curious and asking questions of others. I.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. You know, I've learned from some really great people and I'm just innately curious. you know, it goes back to that kid who, who was growing up, you know, relatively poor in an affluent town, just trying to figure out like. Why were we living differently than the people around me?

And so I think it just, whether it's my DNA or whether it was that circumstances that made me curious, I'm not really sure. but I think that curiosity, allows you to really focus on other people and ask them, interesting questions, hopefully.

Well, hopefully I've asked you, uh, some good, interesting questions and. Like you said, hopefully this listening audience is got their curiosity peaked regarding you and the work of the Outlier project.

Final Words of Wisdom

Any final thoughts before we close out this episode?

I guess just stay curious. Understand that adversity truly is a gift,

Mm-hmm.

and that you are in control of your life and you can decide whether to sleepwalk through life, or you can decide whether to live an extraordinary life that's gonna be predicated. More on the decisions that you make than anything else.

so I think just knowing you're in control, and that you can create any life that you want for yourself, but you've gotta have the right mindset and desire to do that. And then follow through with execution.

Beautiful words of wisdom that I hope not only everybody takes to heart. Goes and puts into action starting today. Mr. MacGregor Scott, thank you so much for being on the podcast. It's an absolute honor. It's great to be part of the outlier project along with all the crazies that are our family, right?

And, like I said at the beginning, hopefully soon. The Vikings will win a Super Bowl just not this year because I am hoping the Eagles repeat. I'll put it that

I'm cautiously optimistic every year and I'm a little bit more optimistic this year than most. So, again, from your lips to God's ears. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for being a friend. I really, really enjoyed our time together, so I appreciate it.

No worries buddy. No worries at all. And to my listening audience, thank you for investing your time and your focus with us. hopefully you got a lot of great wisdom out of this episode. As always, please subscribe on your favorite platform, share with your friends who. May need the wisdom that's here.

Leave comments so that we can understand what we can be doing better in terms of our charge here on The Corvus Effect. But until next time, I'm Scott Raven. Take care.

Outro

Thank you for joining me on The Corvus Effect. To access today's show notes, resources, and links mentioned in this episode, visit www.thecorvuseffect.com While you're there, you'll find links to our free tools and resources to evaluate where you currently stand versus your aspirations with personalized recommendations for action. If you found value in today's episode, Please take a moment to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and share with those who may benefit from it. You won't want to miss future conversations that could transform your approach to leadership and life. Join me next episode as we continue our journey towards building lasting legacies that matter. Remember, it's time to soar towards your legacy.