/By Sean

#238 Scott Norton – Entrepreneurship Lessons Learned Being CEO & Co Founder of Sir Kensington’s

Big Ideas

Growing up with two parents in the film industry, storytelling was ingrained in Scott at a young age. Scott didn’t plan on starting a business, but when the idea for Sir Kensington’s came about, he knew that storytelling was going to be the key component to separate them in the food industry.

“Stories are the way that we make sense of the world, they create collaboration with each other and they establish a sense of shared values for us”

Scott’s strengths of storytelling and contrarian thinking are what helped to skyrocket Sir Kensington’s brand to great success. He describes his creative philosophy as being a ‘craftsman’, combining both creativity and commerce.

“On one side there’s this idea of an artist who’s a creative that builds things for themselves, and the other side people get written off for being a hack that just builds things for other people or just will kowtow to whatever the demands of the market are. My philosophy is how do you bring these two together in what I would call the role of a craftsman”

Scott is currently focusing on helping counsel and advise other companies with his insights from building Sir Kensington’s. When deciding to invest in a company, external and internal culture are what seals the deal for Scott.

“When you have people internally that have their own very specific operating framework and their own belief and purpose around the change that they’re creating and then they also have this creative culture changing strategy that actually allows people to see more value in the product and easily step into the cultural change that that company is pushing for”

2:03 Storytelling

With filmmaker parents, Scott was shown great examples of storytelling at a young age. He says that what he’s learned over time, is how powerful storytelling is.

“Stories are the way that we make sense of the world, they create collaboration with each other and they establish a sense of shared values for us”

From a brand building perspective, Scott says that stories are the engine that we assign a sense of value to something. Creating a character that customers related to and represented who they ‘wanted to show up to a dinner party as’, was the foundation behind the character of Sir Kensington.

“You take those factual differences around this is the product and this is the competitors product and you make meaning out of it with a character like Sir Kensingtons, that storytelling element is what makes it memeable, what makes it something that people want to tell their friends and it helps people make sense of it in their own heads”

7:10 The Origin of Sir Kensington’s

In 2008, Scott and his team came up with the story before they made the first batch of product. While driving with a friend in L.A., Scott’s friend told him his idea of gourmet ketchup. Because Heinz was such a strong brand, they decided that they would have to do it in a dramatically opposite way.

“We heard this ridiculous persona that was the high to the ketchup’s low”

Scott had never been set on starting his own company and viewed it as a fun project. The snowball effect of the product continued to grow and in 2010 Scott quit his job and committed to building Sir Kensington’s.

“On one side there’s this idea of an artist who’s a creative that builds things for themselves, and the other side people get written off for being a hack that just builds things for other people or just will kowtow to whatever the demands of the market are. My philosophy is how do you bring these two together in what I would call the role of a craftsman”

16:50 Executing the Business

In terms of executing on blending the creative and commerce side of a business, Scott says it has to start with an MVP (minimal viable product) and prototyping.

“Never quit. When you have the tenacity and the resilience and you just don’t take no for an answer and you just don’t quit and learn from that prototyping, from the MVP, you get 1% better every week of the execution.”

25:30 Scott’s Strengths

Scott says one of his greatest strengths is storytelling, explaining the influence of his filmmaker parents.

“I naturally see the world in terms of the potential and the possibility of what could be and I’m a good storyteller in terms of how do you have a compelling vision for that and then bring people into what that vision is”

Reframing problems and thinking about creative or uncommon solutions is another strength of Scott’s.

“I have this natural contrarian “if they’re going to zig I’m going to zag” approach. My default starting point for solving a problem is well, let’s just start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing”

Scott’s advice for listeners:

“Be in a role where you can give your gifts and ask yourself how can I develop tools that will allow me to strengthen these even further”

34:22 Slow Down to Speed Up

“Having a passion for the journey rather than the reward is a key part of going slow to go fast.”

Scott references the definition of play: activity where you aren’t focused on the outcome. Flow, play, craftsmanship, and being in creativite flow is what brings passion for the journey.

Book Mentioned: The War of Art

“I think that’s what entrepreneurship is and that’s what life is, having the ability to improvise as you go along and see what the world throws at you and enjoy that process”

40:11 Envisioning Process

Scott narrows down his options for envisioning what gives him energy, oxygen, and conversing with people from a variety of industries to guide him to what he wants. Scott describes being pulled towards investing and counseling of other companies.

“I realized that if I have this impact on this company, these people, and this market, what if I can have a similar impact maybe smaller but similar type of work across ten companies or twenty companies.”

44:10 The Importance of People

Scott says that team and talent are everything, defining whether organizations succeed or fail.

“I think that’s the most powerful skill that an entrepreneur can have is create a culture that people want to come and live their purpose and the purpose of the company together and to give their gifts”

45:15 Developing Company Culture

Scott says that Sir Kensington’s team learned that culture in a company can’t just originate from one specific source.

“Values have to be rooted in listening and understanding what your team cares about and the intersection between what your market and your customers care about and what you as a team care about”

The Wheel of Crucial Communication

Data – Start with the facts of what actually happened
Emotions – Determine how you are feeling about it
Judgements – Evaluate your judgement from the situation
Wants – Determine what you want from the other person
Offering – What is your offering to help the situation

54:53 Qualities to Invest In

When Scott is considering a potential investment, he gets most excited about businesses that have the potential to change culture.

“What’s most exciting to me is businesses that have a view about how the world is broken and how when they are successful in five or ten years time, the world looks different and that is fixed”

Scott is making investments and advising with his new company N+1 Ventures

Beyond external culture change, Scott also is drawn to companies with a successful internal culture.

“When you have people internally that have their own very specific operating framework and their own belief and purpose around the change that they’re creating and then they also have this creative culture changing strategy that actually allows people to see more value in the product and easily step into the cultural change that that company is pushing for”