Meet Mary Scott

We were lucky to catch up with Mary Scott recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Mary with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

When I was five there was a garbage strike in Milwaukee. I remember hearing my Mom on the phone saying, “You tell the mayor, that if a truck isn’t on my block in one hour, I will personally bring my garbage to his office.”
Within an hour, there WAS a truck in front of our house, and all the neighbors were running down the street with their trash, too.
That told me that nobody was unimportant and that any problem can be solved if you just get creative & don’t care who gets the credit. What Mom did helped us AND the neighborhood, and I’m sure no one else thought to call the mayor.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I assist starry-eyed inventors, digital creators & tech founders who think “this is gonna make me lots of money” understand how to avoid 10 common mistakes that lead to failure, learn to pitch successfully & get money from appropriate investors to scale the business.
It’s about getting all the right ducks into the pond before putting them in a row, and parading them on the runway
I love hearing all the new ideas and working with folks who want to change the world for the better. Being in the room where it happens is thrilling.
And, as a consultant, I love seeing the lightbulbs go off when I give folks their focus, or new tagline, or idea for a different market. Using improv as a problem solving technique is just fun. I get to play in lots of different sandboxes.
PitchSTL is always looking for more audience members to be part of our “warm fuzzy shark tank” and network with the startups. We also want to give more startups the opportunity to pitch & get feedback in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journey. In January we will be moving to the SLDC center at Grand & Cass for Wednesday, 8:45 a.m. meetings.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Curiosity – My mom was a reporter & my husband was a TV cameraman. We had a backstage pass to the world & could find out all sorts of things about all sorts of things. Combined with an intense desire to serve, that made making connections for people something fun & easy.

Optimism – knowing how to find the good in everything made gaining access much easier. Access lets you gain knowledge & the ability to share it. It also make overcoming adversity an expectation rather than a chore. Challenges make life interesting

Empathy – being able to speak someone else’s language, imagine being in their shoes, genuinely caring about outcomes all make it easier for others to be comfortable with me & me with them. That leads to collaboration rather than competition so we don’t waste time with pettiness.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I want startup s to be wildly successful. St. Louis is a great place to start a business & I’m looking for more local resources to collaborate with. I need co-sponsors for events. I need more startups to come to PitchSTL so I can help them AND refer them to other local resources. That’s why I compiled https://STLStartupEcosystem.org so there would be one-stop-shopping for startups and resources. I believe that cross-referrals are the key to startup success here.
I also need more guest for my podcast. https://www.youtube.com/@StartUpSuccessLaunch Investors or Experts in their fields who can give 10 minutes of practical/tactical advice.
People can connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-scott-stl/
or email me at [email protected]

Contact Info:

Image Credits

my headshot is by Zettl Photograpy

other shots are by myself or Sue Webb

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