Scott is presently the President & Chief Operating Officer of 2 sister practice groups, ProMD Health and Baltimore Tattoo Removal. He is also one of the Founders of Telthera, a men’s health-focused telemedicine technology company. In 2017 Scott led his team to win the Torch Award from the Better Business Bureau.
Scott brings a wealth of experience from a management consulting background at Accenture. Prior to joining Accenture, Scott attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a Master’s degree in Biotechnology where he focused his coursework on Novel Drug Development and Large Firm Leadership. At the time he was also working as research technologist studying pancreatic cancer and type I diabetes. He was later promoted to a laboratory manager role. Scott is a published author in academic journals.
In his free time, Scott sits on the Board of Directors for the Calvert Animal Rescue and is an Advisory Board Member for the Allergan Medspa Board. Scott is also an active volunteer with Johns Hopkins Alumni recruiting, the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter, The House of Ruth, VOLO City, Pi Kappa Alpha, Calvert Animal Rescue, the Better Business Bureau, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, & several other organizations.
Podcast Highlights:
- Your most valuable asset is your time. Use it wisely.
- Great leaders help their people become great leaders too
- Maximize your highs and do everything you can to mitigate your lows
Contact Scott:
[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:06
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone. This is Umar Hameed, your host and welcome to the no limit selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how to make you better, stronger, faster. Get ready for another episode.
Umar Hameed 0:34
Today I'm privileged to have Scott Melamed he is the President and Chief Operating Officer at pro MD health. Scott, welcome to the program,
Scott Melamed 0:42
that you are a pleasure to be here.
Umar Hameed 0:44
Scott in 90 seconds. Tell us who you are and what you do.
Scott Melamed 0:47
Sure. So please just call me Scott. Like you said, I'm the president of Peroni health. I also currently run a men's telemedicine pharmacy, a tattoo removal business, and I'm on the board for a couple of different charities which are very important to me. started my career as a firefighter in New York, found myself going to Johns Hopkins twice, was a research scientist, there was lucky enough to meet the right people and go into consulting. And from then I was able to put a good team together and start some really fun and hopefully successful businesses.
Umar Hameed 1:21
Brilliant. So entrepreneurship is in your blood, or is something you just came by yourself,
Scott Melamed 1:25
I would have to say, I truly believe it's in my blood. You know, I mean, I started down a very different path with science. And just the more that I was exposed to the right people and was exposed to the environment, I really was able to nurture something that I felt I had inside myself, and I feel my best when I'm growing both, you know, personally and professionally. I think that's an important thing for any entrepreneur to have.
Umar Hameed 1:49
Who is your favorite superhero? And what attribute really speaks to you?
Scott Melamed 1:53
So I love this question. My favorite superhero is not, you know, somebody that maybe most people have heard of, it's actually underdog, the cartoon
Umar Hameed 2:00
I know, underdog.
Scott Melamed 2:02
What do you like about underdog? What I liked about him was, you know, not only was he a simple shoeshine boy who really only was called into service to help others. But he also, you know, really derived his power from an external source, right, his ring with the magic pill in it. And for me, that always kind of spoke to me because it's what's your magic pill? Right. So as an NLP guy, you know, maybe your magic pill is a solid anchor that builds the copyrights for a pro athlete. Maybe it's, you know, a certain earring or a certain pregame ritual. For a salesperson, it might be getting a really good breakfast that you can perform.
Umar Hameed 2:35
What's yours, others?
Scott Melamed 2:37
Mine? That is a very good question. I think mine is empowering other people. You know, like, when I step into a room, no matter how bad of a day I had, I have to ground myself using an anchor. And then I am able to turn it on. And the more that the people around me are happier, the happier
Umar Hameed 2:54
that I get. If you are, let's say empowering someone that needs it that day. What is the juice in it for you? Is it the you empower them? Or is it the transformation You see?
Scott Melamed 3:05
I think it's the transformation, right? so empowering them is great, it's great for business, it's great for them personally. But it's really something that they can build off of when they feel that personal sense of empowerment and confidence, especially if they're having a bad day,
Umar Hameed 3:17
what motivates you will get you out of bed in the morning, what keeps you going, what gets you to keep on building companies.
Scott Melamed 3:22
So for me, I have to say it would be about respect, right, and not so much respect for myself, but respect for all the moving parts and all the people along the way that helped me to get here. Right, I think the most valuable asset that we have is our time. And there are a tremendous amount of people, solid mentors, my parents, my family, my business partner, who really invest their time, and the dividends that they see are nothing but my success. So for me to not wake up every day and hit it as hard as I can would just be disrespectful to them. And that's not something I can live with.
Umar Hameed 3:54
Is there a particular mentor that comes to mind that really made a difference in your life?
Scott Melamed 3:59
Man, you know, honestly, it would probably be four or five of them and offer very different reasons. Pick one, I was gonna pick one, I would probably say Lawrence arnheim, who was one of my professors at Johns Hopkins. And at the time, I was down the medical and science path. I was mining in business because it was something that really interested me. And he and I had several long conversations. And he really invested a lot of time in my business development and, you know, told me what he saw in me. And that almost gave me the permission to pursue my own path instead of being like so many of my peers at Hopkins and being stuck in this medical world.
Umar Hameed 4:35
You know, that's an interesting point you bring up because for many people, they have the capacity to do things, whether it's research or business or love or whatever. But internally, some belief is not giving them permission to move forward. And it's all about mindset, isn't it?
Scott Melamed 4:50
It is and expectations, right? You set down this path and you have these expectations and this vision of what it's going to be and then somebody comes in and says, you know, it doesn't have to be that Right, if you have a certain set of talents, and you can pursue a different path, and for me, you know, he was a respected mentor, and he's seen so many people go through various programs, and the fact that he believed in me, you know, really sparked something in myself to say, maybe this is a skill set that I have, and maybe I can marry medicine and business and find a way to do both. And I don't think I would be here without that knowledge,
Umar Hameed 5:23
wives, husbands, kids, dogs, cats, like what's going on?
Scott Melamed 5:26
Yeah, so I have a girlfriend, and I have a dog. His name is steel. Husky, always motivates me to come home, which is good when you work hard. Very close to my parents. fortunate enough to have my grandparents alive. My
Umar Hameed 5:42
son 99. In February, my father in law turned 99, six days ago.
Scott Melamed 5:47
Oh, excellent. gratulations to him. So you know, having that kind of life experience, right. So I have a degree after my name, he doesn't. But he signs everything now, Ellie for life experience, because I love that. So you know, hearing his perspective, and having survived the Great Depression, and you know, two wars and everything else really keeps me grounded. When I think about some of the problems that I face every day.
Umar Hameed 6:11
What's interesting is that we have totally amazing, wickedly cool toys, but the human condition and what keeps us up at night? What stops us from being exceptional? And what let's embrace of the human beings with compassion and love has not changed for ever.
Scott Melamed 6:27
And let's hope it never does.
Umar Hameed 6:28
Yeah. If you could have lunch with anybody from history fictional, someone living who'd that person be? And what's the question you'd ask them?
Scott Melamed 6:38
That is a good question. There are a lot of people out there. If I had to choose one, I think it would be former President Lincoln. Right. And what I would want to ask him is, obviously, besides skipping a certain play, you know, what would you have done differently? Or did you think your vision panned out? And did you do a good job of laying the groundwork so that when you were removed from the equation, your vision lived on? Right, and a few people know this about President Lincoln, but when he was, when he got his start, he was very long plastic and sarcastic and wrote a lot of nasty letters in the media, to the point where he was challenged to a duel. And he was very scared that he was going to lose his life. And it was a turning point for him. And after that, he became one of the greatest, you know, compassionate leaders of men and really stopped criticizing and helped raise people. And I want to know, what was that turning point? Like? What was his kind of come to Jesus moment, if you will, that really changed the mind frame and set him on a completely different path? And how can I replicate that in my life to become a better man?
Umar Hameed 7:40
What was your first sales job?
Scott Melamed 7:42
So my first I guess, what would be a sales job was one of the first companies that I started was called Wild lift, I started with a physician partner and a team of some of my best friends was privileged to work with. And we were selling a procedure and essentially a buying group, to other physicians who are looking to get into the aesthetic medicine cosmetic dermatology field.
Umar Hameed 8:05
What did you like about it?
Scott Melamed 8:07
You know, I like to the control that I had, it was one of the first opportunities that I had to really build and grow something, you know, I liked that. I could see, you know, every blood sweat and tear that I came put in, either come to fruition or fail miserably and learn from that.
Umar Hameed 8:21
What's the best deal you've ever landed,
Scott Melamed 8:24
what I would say my best deal might not have been the most profitable, but it was the most groundbreaking in my life. So when I was when I left, we had a booth at a trade show. And next to us was the massage chair booth, which was very good for business, a lot of people came to that. And there was this doctor who was getting a massage. I knew I had a captive audience for the next five minutes.
Umar Hameed 8:47
And he was in an altered state and you took advantage of an unbeliever, right?
Scott Melamed 8:51
Yeah. And I kind of got to talking while I had his attention while he was relaxing, you know, turned out to be a great guy. We signed him for the program, he became one of my best friends. And now he's my current business partner. So it was a great business deal. It was a great personal deal. And it was a life altering kind of opportunity that I am glad noct
Umar Hameed 9:09
Life is full of those moments in time that change the direction of your life, or change your mindset. And I can catalog mine quite happily that where you get this insights that makes sense of the world? Absolutely. Who's the best sales manager you've come across.
Scott Melamed 9:26
So this is actually a recent notice that I've had a gentleman by the name of Rob Hubert, who's one of my vendors, he's a high level sales manager for them. And I've had the opportunity to meet some of the people that not only he started with, but that he hired and that he works with now and worked with previously and they all say the same thing. And that, you know, I would not be in the position that I am had he not been my manager at one time. And I think that's what makes a good manager right is not only propelling your career, but bringing those around you up with you. And having you know, a strong mentor mentee relationship and a colleague really lationship and a friendship and just being somebody that everybody is proud to not only have known and worked for, but proud to continue to be around. This
Umar Hameed 10:09
is the second time you mentioned that in this interview so far. So that's really important to you the ability to help people reach their potential,
Scott Melamed 10:17
I think it's everything, you know, whether you're in sales, whether you're in leadership, whether you're a mother, father, you know, son, daughter, if you're not a servant leader, you're just doing it wrong, and you're gonna stumble,
Umar Hameed 10:29
can you give me an example of maybe your granddad or your dad, having one of those moments where they gave you an epiphany that helped you get to the next level? Sure.
Scott Melamed 10:39
So my father is a police officer in New York as a civil servant. He also volunteers with the fire department and gives a ton of his time, he's now the chief. And he was, you know, always there for us still, as a family, and he kind of taught me that no matter what you do in life, you know, you always have the capacity to have three jobs, right. So when you're young, you have school, right? Most people have sports or clubs, and then they have their family obligations, right? When you go away to college, right? Do you have time to, you know, be in college, you have time to work, and you have time to have a social life. And then when we graduate, we're kind of lost, right? We enter this world of, Okay, now my one focus is my career, right. And once we kind of let the other two spots that we have slide, it's hard to get them back. Right. So what he taught me is, you know, always have your job, make sure that you're giving back and volunteering and helping others and always make sure that you have either a social or family component. And I think that was kind of groundbreaking for me, because it's enabled me to just keep going, instead of kind of stopping. It's rough on asleep. But we can do that later. Right? You know,
Umar Hameed 11:41
one of the nice things about my job, I work with individuals and teams and help people get breakthroughs. But on the podcasting side of things, almost every other interview get like a piece of wisdom like that, that I will share widely, because it's just a simple concept that can have profound impact on people's lives. I hope
Scott Melamed 12:01
it does. So tell
Umar Hameed 12:02
me about a come to Jesus moment for you where you had to course correct
Scott Melamed 12:06
time when I had a course correct. I would say was pretty recently, we have a an employee here by the name of Abby, who she was hired as a receptionist, she told us that from the get go, that she had phenomenal marketing talent. And, and she really wanted to utilize that for a little bit of time we hired externally, to do our marketing for us. And then she and I got to talking, she showed me some of her work and excelled. And I wish that I had believed in her from the get go. And the real come to Jesus moment was that, you know, we're not doing a good job of understanding the whole employee. Right? And what are their skills? What are their talents? What's their one year five year? What are their career plans, even if it's not with us? And how can I make that as a leader align with the company so that when I do make a change, I know how it impacts everybody else, from the executive level to the ground floor,
Umar Hameed 12:58
always about relationships. And sometimes it's kind of heartbreaking when you come across people that have such amazing talent. And either they're not given the permission to do or worse. They don't give themselves permission to do, right. And it's just a dream that never sees daylight. Yeah, she's now
Scott Melamed 13:17
our Director of Marketing, working remote with her husband whose military, she was transferred out to Colorado, and she's remote marketing director. So not only were able to retain her position that she excels at, but she's our first remote employee, which I think is pretty cool.
Umar Hameed 13:32
That is cool. In this day and age selling is quite different than it used to be in the past. What do you think the biggest challenges in in selling today? I think
Scott Melamed 13:42
selling today is different in that it's not so much about technical expertise, as it used to be technical expertise is almost a commodity, right? In today's day and age. It's all about understanding your role, understanding the vendor client relationship and really transcending that. Right. So when somebody comes to you with an issue, right, or a problem of why they don't want to make a purchase, the natural reaction is to try and tell them why they're wrong. Right? If they say it's too expensive, you say, Well, here's a great deal. It's not right, I think that puts people on the defensive. Right. Right, as opposed to, you know, being a good listener and an empath and really understanding, you know, why do you think it's expensive? Is your capital tied up elsewhere and later will be a good time for me to come back? You know, do you are you worried that the return isn't going to be good enough? Do you have are you getting pressure from a boss where if you sign a bad deal, it could be the end of your career, and you're not willing to take the risk right now. So it's just about understanding your role not only as a salesperson, but you know, almost as a friend and mentor and consultant. How large is your staff here, Scott? We have just under 2020,
Umar Hameed 14:44
how many of them are front facing? People that interact with clients and perhaps have the ability to sell
Scott Melamed 14:51
everybody, everybody? Yeah, so you know, our sales funnel is from the minute somebody picks up the phone to make an appointment or an inquiry to the moment they check So they will interact with everybody. I suspect
Umar Hameed 15:02
you're the chief sales officer here as well.
Scott Melamed 15:05
That's it that would roll up to me.
Umar Hameed 15:08
So how do you get the best performance out of your people? Like, what are you doing to help them get better at what they do?
Scott Melamed 15:13
So I think one of the most beneficial things that we do is we make time for training. Right? So not only do we have town halls, where we, you know, kind of this is the State of the Union, if you will, we also do you know, what we call skip level lunches, where, you know, a lower level staff will not meet with their manager, but instead meet with their managers manager, to get a high level picture, we do, you know, guided one to ones with all senior leadership, and everybody in the company, so that we can understand their expectations. Because I think people are most motivated when they feel like they know what's going on and how they're contributing. They go to any company that's got issues or not issues, and the common problems are lack of communications, have no idea what their role is, and more importantly, what other people's roles are. And that not knowing, is fertile ground for office politics, right. And that was one of the hardest lessons that I personally had to learn, right. So when we're trained as managers, we think that our job is to steer the ship, right? But it's not right. any real business isn't a ship, it's a fleet, right? So whoever that leading ship is, be it me or, you know, my partner, if we make a left turn, and we don't notify the fleet, they're gonna keep going straight. And then when they you know, wind up lost or don't recognize the landscape of the company anymore. That's where they get frustrated, and that's where they get demotivated. That's where they stop selling.
Umar Hameed 16:31
How do you motivate your sales team,
Scott Melamed 16:33
I motivate my sales team with open and adaptive planning. Right. So what we've done is we've broken up our staff into different kind of segments, if you will, almost like a Student Government Association. So we have a Communications Committee, we have an education committee, we have a morale committee, and we have an efficiency committee, and each one of those has members and a champion. So that, you know, if anybody has an idea across the enterprise of how to help themselves, the company, anybody else, they always have somebody to go to, right, because people are most motivated. When they're, when their ideas are heard, right and brought to fruition, people are much more likely to work hard on something that they feel they are somebody that they respect is had a part in, rather than just top down direction.
Umar Hameed 17:16
Brilliant, what's the best sales advice you've ever gotten?
Scott Melamed 17:19
Know what you don't know, and be honest about it. Right? So too often, we want to go to a sales meeting and close a deal ourselves where somebody else might be much better suited to either handle it or come along, right. And those favors, you know, pay dividends in kind as long as you have a good team around you. So maybe you're not the most technical guy and you want to bring a technical guy with you. Maybe you know that the the person that you're speaking with is very data driven, and you're more of a big picture person. So you'll bring an analyst with you. I think that's the best advice that I've ever gotten.
Umar Hameed 17:49
And what's something you know, now that you wish you knew 10 years ago,
Scott Melamed 17:52
something that I wish I knew 10 years ago, I know now, read more, and read more good books, you know, the things that I've learned through reading are much more than things that I've learned through school, I think, you know, reading really gives us insight into the experience of another person, and it's a great way to learn.
Umar Hameed 18:10
At some point, you're going to have kids, I imagine,
Scott Melamed 18:15
that's the plan. If we're lucky,
Umar Hameed 18:17
there's a good chance that your kids will have probably three or four careers, the way the landscape is, what are the three pieces of advice you'd give them that would be evergreen, and help keep them on on a path that's going to actually help them achieve success?
Scott Melamed 18:32
Sure. So the advice that I got from my grandfather, it's a it's three pieces. Be honest, tell the truth and give to charity. Right. And at first glance, everybody understands the gift to charity, but right, if you do good, you feel good. And, you know, there's good karma out there. And it's great to help people, right. But people often get confused with the Be honest and tell the truth. And they say, Well, isn't that the same thing? That doesn't make sense. Right, but it's not right. What's the distinction? So, you know, honesty is an integrity of character, whereas the truth is about the facts. Right? Like, you might say, you know, say we're in a car sales position, right? And you might ask me a question about a car, you know, does it run well, right? And I can tell you it did today, which is truthful, right? But if I know that it might not run well, tomorrow, or it didn't run Well, yesterday, it's just being honest with you, right? So I can be honest, right? And I cannot tell the truth, or I can be truthful, and not always be honest. So thank
Umar Hameed 19:31
you for sharing that. So you said reading is important to you. What's a book that you'd recommend that leaders read that would help them become better, stronger, faster? It's
Scott Melamed 19:41
a short but good read. It's called unleash your Crazy Sexy brain. But it was an excellent read, but one must read book. I think a lot of people would agree with me on this one is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Umar Hameed 19:55
You know what's surprising the last few interviews on this podcast, people have been going back to that caliber of book that's been around for 60 7080 years, because the human condition does not change and the ultimate truths of the truth, and they will be the truth. 150 years from now.
Scott Melamed 20:13
Yeah. And, you know, personally, the thing that I got most out of that book was Yes, how to, you know, interact with other people, but more importantly, how to interact with myself, you know, so giving the same benefit of the doubt that that book teaches to give you to others, understanding that you're human too, and you're a person that you have to win an influence every day, because you're who you live with, and you're going to be you for the rest of your life. Right. So it really was groundbreaking and changed my internal monologue, which I thought was very interesting and very helpful in everyday, you know, not just business, but personal life, you know, sports career family, it's a, it was a very good read, I'll put it that way. I highly recommend it. I'm gonna
Umar Hameed 20:52
have to read it again. So is there a question I should have asked you that I did not
Scott Melamed 20:56
question that people always like to ask me is, what do you do when the team's in a slump? Right? Or how do you nurture these relationships when you're frustrated? Right, and this is the same advice that I give to my friends, when they're having trouble with their girlfriends or wives, right is that look at the big picture, right? The best companies, the most innovative companies, the best leaders, all keep two things in mind, right? maximize the good times when you're hitting your stride. And you're at that peak your Apex in a cycle, maximize it, and when you're in a slump, damage, control and minimize because, you know, it's really as a cycle. No matter who you are, you're going to slump and you're going to excel, right in the best people. When they excel the Excel high and when they slump, they kind of balance it out. So really, except the slump, write it out, do everything you can to mitigate it, but don't let it become who you are.
Umar Hameed 21:43
And the only thing I'd add to it on both those areas. What's the lesson you need to learn? Because sometimes people will learn the lessons from the negative but forget to learn the lessons from the past. Absolutely. Scott, thanks so much for sitting down with me. I really had fun. I appreciate it. I had fun too.
Umar Hameed 22:02
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at no limit selling calm. I've got a free mind training course there that's going to teach you some insights from the world of neuro linguistic programming. And that is the fastest way to get better results.