Some brands are so iconic to the American family that the passion for them is passed down generationally. Scott Hegstrom knows all about those kinds of brands. With a marketing degree in hand from Michigan State University, Scott started his career journey at the household appliance juggernaut – Whirlpool. Through the company’s innovative leadership development program, Scott went on to lead KitchenAid’s Stand Mixer unit, and learned how to harness the consumer’s passion for a product. Now at NIQ, Scott leverages his market insights in the tech and durables sector. Scott joins Breaking Schemas co-host John Branch to discuss his experiences at Whirlpool, emphasizing the value of rotational leadership programs and direct consumer interaction, what the transition was like to the private equity-funded company SVP Global, and how passion has underlined the disruption in all of his work. *Breaking Schemas is a production of the Yaffe Digital Media Initiative at Michigan Ross and is produced by University FM.*
Some brands are so iconic to the American family that the passion for them is passed down generationally. Scott Hegstrom knows all about those kinds of brands.
With a marketing degree in hand from Michigan State University, Scott started his career journey at the household appliance juggernaut – Whirlpool. Through the company’s innovative leadership development program, Scott went on to lead KitchenAid’s Stand Mixer unit, and learned how to harness the consumer’s passion for a product. Now at NIQ, Scott leverages his market insights in the tech and durables sector.
Scott joins Breaking Schemas co-host John Branch to discuss his experiences at Whirlpool, emphasizing the value of rotational leadership programs and direct consumer interaction, what the transition was like to the private equity-funded company SVP Global, and how passion has underlined the disruption in all of his work.
*Breaking Schemas is a production of the Yaffe Digital Media Initiative at Michigan Ross and is produced by University FM.*
How Scott launched his career from an internship at Whirlpool
02:45 I started what they called the Consumer Appliance Care Leadership Development Program. And what that was, was a rotational. Every time you get good at something, 12 to 18 months later, they plucked you out and they made you go learn something different. So, really big investment from the company that really made sense across multiple functions, whether that was procurement or finance. I ended up in the consumer services portion of the business, which is really where I had a great opportunity to learn the consumer at the very onset of my career at Whirlpool.
On understanding your consumers
Empower those individuals with the ability to solve the customer's problem, and then also ride along with the service technician, like, you can learn a lot by looking at your computer, of course, of the metrics, but at the end of the day, what that taught me is get out of your desk environment, go sit with a call center agent where you're listening to consumers directly, and you'll learn as much or more than the 250, 000 research project that tells you how good you are on a dashboard.
What surprised him after shifting from OEM to agency
I think what surprised me the most was even if you have retailers that on paper look virtually identical, like if you asked somebody at a dinner party, what the difference between CVS, Walgreens, or Rite-Aid, like, oh, they're pretty much a similar business, but the needs of organizations, even if they seem similar on the surface, are dramatically different. And I think the biggest thing for me to understand was how to probe with questions on the front end, how to understand their needs, and then tailor our approach to be very custom to what those retailers need at any point in time. And then also understand that that might change.
(Transcripts may contain a few typographical errors due to audio quality during the podcast recording.)
[00:00:00] John: Well, hello, everybody. This is John Branch, Professor of Marketing at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, coming to you with another episode of Breaking Schemas, where we explore disruption, particularly with alumni of the University of Michigan.
Unfortunately, unable to join us today is my co-host, my co-conspirator, my co-author, Professor Marcus Collins, but we have an exciting episode for you with our guest, Scott Hegstrom.
Scott, hello, and welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:20] Scott: Thanks, John. Great to be here.
[00:01:21] John: We know each other because you were actually a student in the weekend MBA program a few years back.
Tell us a little bit more about yourself pre-Michigan.
[00:01:30] Scott: So, I went to Michigan State University, majored in marketing for undergrad, and ultimately had a really good experience, both of the study abroad program that really started to broaden my horizons of all things international. Spent a summer in Paris and, uh, ultimately really enjoyed both the business school aspect, gravitated towards marketing, and ultimately launched my career from an internship at Whirlpool, that was on the west side of Michigan. And that's really where I cut my chops in all things business, marketing, and general management.
[00:01:58] John: Tell me a little bit more about Whirlpool because, you know, it is on the west side and we don't know that much about it here on the east side, but it is, though, one of the world's leading manufacturers of appliances.
Tell us more about your experience there.
[00:02:14] Scott: Yeah, I think it was a really exciting perspective for me. I think I, I, kind of, mentioned, I got that seed planted for all things, like, international business when I was at Michigan state, but ultimately starting a career at Whirlpool was a fantastic place to begin and really start to understand, like, not only, uh, you know, Fortune 150 company, how they operate with global scale. Also, just the leadership development program that I was able to come into was really a great way to launch a career and get a broad view of the marketplace. So, I started what they called the Consumer Appliance Care Leadership Development Program. And what that was, was a rotational, every time you get good at something, 12 to 18 months later, they plucked you out and they made you go learn something different.
So, really big investment from the company that really made sense across multiple functions, whether that was procurement or finance. I ended up in the consumer services portion of the business, which is really where I had a great opportunity to learn the consumer at the very onset of my career at Whirlpool.
So, everything from service to aftermarket parts, if you have an issue, go down with your appliance. In addition to, kind of, other aspects that are the closest to the consumer in the company. And I, like, to say, you know, I got lucky by joining that portion of the organization because hearing it directly from the consumer in your first three years in a corporate career, you never forget some of those lessons, and you, kind of, remember to always keep that customer first.
[00:03:35] John: So, I want to follow up with two things there. I love that word you use, you said plucked, right? You, you got good at something and they plucked you out. How did that make you feel to get plucked out of something and you, maybe you were just hitting your stride.
[00:03:48] Scott: Yeah, I think both good and bad, right? So, you're, you're, kind of, in that mode where the first six months you are clueless, you are a sponge, you are learning fast and just trying to ramp up in what is typically a pretty foreign environment, right? So, very different experiences. And it is a humbling six months to even get close proficient in the role.
And then by the time you feel like you're contributing and adding value for the organization, you get plucked out and they, they make you go learn something different and do it all over again. What's exciting about that though, is you rapidly get better. You broaden your perspective and you build a foundation that sets you up for, kind of, that longer term success across the organization.
So, it was a very clear investment in that rotational program, or what they called the leadership development programs more broadly, to build the future leaders for the company. And I think what's nice about that is we knew it was an investment in us, since based on the time we were there, we were just starting to return value in our role, and then they made us go start all over again.
But at the end of the day, it was a great way for me to build a 10-year career at Whirlpool, and it served, you know, dividends down the road and really paid off in the long term.
[00:04:56] John: I'll come back to that, the rotational program, because some of our audience members might not know of them, and I think that they are amazing. Even the worst of them, I think, are great. But the other thing which you said about your time at Whirlpool, which struck me, was this, intimacy with the consumer.
And, you know, in business to business, we often tout value of B2B customer intimacy because you're out there on the farm, you're in the factory, you're in the operating theater at the hospital, but often in B2C, and I'm, I'm calling you B2C here because the appliances are primarily, for, uh, consumers here, but often In business consumer, you think, you know, the consumer, but you don't really, you know, the data, you know, the data from Nielsen or other market research agencies, but you don't actually get out there into a consumer's home to see how he or she might be using the laundry, uh, appliances.
So, tell me a bit more about that experience and how it shaped the way you think about marketing and business in general.
[00:05:57] Scott: Yeah, I think going to the source is something that really became some, like, an important part of how we understood the consumer, like, we're spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on research every year to understand path to purchase and, you know, consumer sentiment and measuring all the dashboard type items.
But at the end of the day, a desk ride with a call center agent, hearing what consumers are calling you about, or sitting with the executive escalation team. I spent a good amount of time with them and you wouldn't believe after one, two, or three failed service attempts, how, you know, direct feedback becomes common part of that conversation with those call center agents. So, it's something that really understanding how to diffuse the situation is really important. Empower those individuals with the ability to solve the customer's problem, and then also ride-alongs with the service technician, like, you can learn a lot by looking at your computer, of course, of the metrics, but at the end of the day, what that taught me is get out of your desk environment, go sit with a call center agent where you're listening to consumers directly, and you'll learn as much or more than the 250, 000 research project that tells you how good you are on a dashboard.
[00:07:02] John: That's great. Absolutely. Um, let's go back to that rotational program. And I, like, how you emphasized it's called a leadership development program because that's typically what they are. They are developing you for leadership positions in the future, not let's say the professional side, where are you becoming more and more narrowly focused on, on a functional profession.
Give us a little bit more sense about how that how long that lasted, how it was structured in, and then ultimately what you got out of it.
[00:07:36] Scott: Yeah, great, great question. I think one of it is just a general theme of up or out. So, I think with it comes a little bit of responsibility and skin in the game, where the expectation is that you are a high performer across the organization, and they are grooming you to be a manager, senior manager coming out of that program longer term.
And if there is a point where There's misalignment with expectations of where you come out versus what track you're on. I think that's where there's some intervention of just maybe putting you into a more individual contributor role or things like that. So, that, that was just part of the DNA that drove a little bit of that competitive spirit of making sure that you are Aggressive with your growth, aggressive with your development. three-year total program, but each individual role was ultimately 12 to 18 months. So, as you go through different rotations, the intent was to give you exposure to different areas of the business, whether that's the call center and operations team, whether it was direct people leadership or more influence with a project team or other ways to just drive your leadership. Influence across the organization, and then also more operational, or in my case, it was a sales opportunity with our aftermarket parts distributors, just to give you that breadth of experience across the organization. So, then when you, kind of, go out into whatever your next role is, you have that foundational aspect to just understand what happens in different segments of the business that if you had just grown vertically within one portion of the business itself, you might be blind to different areas and it might be something you need to fill in with.
So, for me, the good opportunity in that space was really the first role I took on was to map the process. We were in the middle of what we called the C2C process, or customer to customer, where we got to work with different functions from marketing and engineering and product development and aftermarket support, consumer services. All the groups were modeling the processes. We understood the inputs in addition to the outputs and the expectations of what it takes to launch a product from concept to execution. And then also, how do we support the consumer after the fact? So, in the moment, a lot of boxes and charts and lines to figure out what, you know, predecessors exist, but it was a really, really good moment for me to understand how we did things and to visually put that into perspective Not only to add value across the organization, but also to understand the handoffs and the dependencies of what each, you know, functional area did, and how that made a significant impact to our success of launching products or supporting the consumer along the way.
[00:10:06] John: Nice. What an incredible experience. So, three years, several rotations later, you, uh, you get your first, like, really meaty leadership role. Tell us about that.
[00:10:18] Scott: Yeah, so I think I, kind of, came up through the organization. I started in that, kind of, process modeling for the customer-to-customer process, went into a sales role, working with our aftermarket parts distributors and really learned what. The sales role was to own a number and be accountable to hit your targets on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. And then I scaled into a more substantial business development while keeping some portion of sales responsibilities for my third rotation, but really gave me a good foundational understanding of the organization. The next role for me was transformational. That's where I started with KitchenAid Small Appliances, which is a division within Whirlpool and was able to lead the marketing and product development side or category management for the stand mixer category.
So, the icon of KitchenAid, as you look at the stand mixer as a whole, It was a great opportunity for me to really understand the product to go to market. But with the iconic KitchenAid stand mixer was really a privilege for me where I got to work for a manager, Heidi Hurst, who was my intern manager, tapped me to, kind of, come over to the KitchenAid small appliance team.
And I spent seven years there really enjoying the passion behind that business and a completely different consumer that I hadn't understood before I had the opportunity to work there. You know, you can be really passionate about different products or categories where the consumer is passionate.
And this was a unique category with the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, where The consumer was passionate. It's a generational passion, and more than anything, we see people getting tattoos of these things on their body. So, at the end of the day, you know, there was no shortage of passion. It was ultimately on us to figure out how to continue to innovate, how to grow our partnership with the retail channel, and it was a really good opportunity for me to leverage both something I was But then also, you know, academically and professionally, a phenomenal opportunity for me to run such a large portion of the business and really be a part of a team that made a big difference to the bottom line.
[00:12:11] John: That's fascinating, you know, you're not the first person who has told me that at the end of the day, the product is neither here nor there. It's really being responsible for something, right? So, a lot of our students here in the MBA programs when they go into consumer-packaged goods, they don't really care if it's a kind bar or Glade plugins.
You know, the product is neither here nor there, but it's, I love that word, the passion of being responsible for something which the consumer loves, right, is, an integral part of the consumer's life.
[00:12:44] Scott: Absolutely. And it's interesting when you work for companies, like, KitchenAid or Later in Life, I got a chance to work on the Singer brand in the sewing industry. You sit next to somebody on a plane and they ask you the classic question, oh, what do you do? And all of a sudden, the story comes up, the smile comes on their face, they start using words, like, love, and it's, like, those are the brands, those are the iconic types of items that I've had a privilege to work on and have ultimately been a lot of fun along the way while teaching me some pretty critical business chops at the same time.
[00:13:13] John: Indeed. So, tell us about the decision. to do the weekend MBA. And in particular, travel from Westside, Benton Harbor, St. Joe's, all the way to Ann Arbor, Michigan to do the weekend MBA. And for those of you who don't know, our weekend MBA is Friday evening, all day Saturday, every second weekend for 24 months.
So, it is a commitment. So, it must've been a decision which you did not take lightly.
[00:13:44] Scott: No, I think life phase was a pretty important part of that. So, at the time it was married with no kids and not a lot of the obligations that I would have today, uh, a few years down the road. But at the end of the day, I realized there was a tremendous opportunity where if you can be a part of a top 10 university and go get the MBA, Really hone your business skills, but also be a part of what I would call a cohort of just incredible individuals that you can learn a lot from. Yes, the curriculum and the academics are top notch, but really learning from the people around you and going through that as a cohort was a big part of the Weekend MBA that was attractive to me. So, when you start on, you know, the first day and you're getting to meet everybody and understand, kind of, the lay of the land, You finish with that same cohort of individuals, and the bond you build over two years is absolutely critical just to the overall experience and the value that that contributes as a whole.
[00:14:36] John: A lot of the Weekend MBA students enter the program thinking, I'm happy in my current job, I'm going to stay there. But very quickly, they realize that they need to recruit while in the program, even if they end up going back to their current company. Tell us about how you went through the program with respect to Whirlpool and then future, future opportunities.
[00:15:02] Scott: Yeah. So, actually during the program, I didn't, didn't really think about recruiting as much. I think it was something that, you know, Whirlpool did help sponsor a portion of the MBA for me. And it was something that they largely contributed towards, but to get to the next level within Whirlpool and MBA was strongly encouraged, so that was part of the motivation to go to the program, but ultimately it was something that I viewed as a long-term asset that would serve me well throughout my career, whether I was Um, so what I did was really leverage some of that experience to go back and, and hone my business skills, understand at a broader level.
And then the entrepreneurial track I was able to take, kind of, gave me that scrappiness that I would say was really advantageous within KitchenAid Small Appliances. It was an independent business unit, and we really ran, like, an entrepreneurial organization. Billion Dollar Company. So, it was nice about that is it gave me a little bit more what I would say the the tools and the the understanding of how entrepreneurs run the business to bring back to the organization while I was going through some of those moments in class. The other piece was just. Pure financial understanding, like, I was running some of the category analytics from a stand mixer perspective and really working with our factory. So, even some of the accounting classes and entrepreneurial finance was a big part about how we launch product, how we understand the profitability, drive the P&L across the overall category as a whole. And that was really important for me to, kind of, take what we were doing in class, but have the opportunity to apply it directly in my day to day. And you don't get that opportunity as a full time MBA, but I really got the chance to tease out, I'm learning about this, how do I apply it immediately? And then work both of those benefits back and forth.
To your prior point, a lot to juggle all at the same time, but also, like, probably two of the biggest growth years in my career that I look back fondly on, but probably had a lot to juggle during that period of time as well.
[00:16:55] John: Indeed, indeed. Hey, I want to take a quick time out here. I know that you are no longer at Whirlpool and we'll get to that in a second, but have you heard the scuttlebutt on the street that there is a European, uh, competitor making a play or possibly making a play? And what are your thoughts?
[00:17:13] Scott: Yeah, I think it'd be an interesting change to the marketplace to say the least. So, my in-laws still live in West Michigan, right in Benton Harbor where Whirlpool is based, so I think we hear a lot from local news in addition to the family conversation. So, think at the end of the day it'd be an interesting transition for the company, right?
As you look at, you know, Bosch as a whole, it could be a great partnership. I don't have enough exposure to their organization or what their expectations are. do think as a whole, the largest manufacturing base for any appliance, you know, and the brands they carry is an asset to any company. But at the end of the day, it would be quite a change.
And I certainly hope it maintains some of the presence in Benton Harbor and what they've invested in building for the Whirlpool I know as a whole.
[00:17:54] John: Yeah. Speaking of change, you left Whirlpool to join a private equity funded company. Tell us about that.
[00:18:03] Scott: Yeah, so I went to SVP Worldwide, which is the largest sewing manufacturer in the world with brands including Singer, Husqvarna Viking, and Pfaff. So, uh, one of the opportunities I had to really go make a change and take a chance to really go and lead a larger team. So, at that point in my career, I was in an individual contributor role at Whirlpool.
Trajectory was on a great path, but ultimately got tapped by a former leader. to go take an opportunity to start a product organization. So, they were run by brand teams, but really needed that product, you know, laser focus on the five-year roadmap. Understanding how to really under, or drive the channel strategy as a whole.
And we had an opportunity to join a couple folks that I knew from prior points along my career. To go really make a difference in an organization where we have the toolkit, we have the understanding, and there were some really, you know, just talented folks that I was excited about working with. So, took that opportunity, moved to Nashville, Tennessee when my wife was four months pregnant with our first son, and ultimately jumped right into all things private equity. What was nice about that, though, was it was a chance to be, you know, really a part of a smaller organization that was very lean, but also ready to move quickly. So, we had the investment from our private equity partners to really accelerate growth, quickly turned on the five-year roadmap planning, invested in research, invested in understanding our channel strategy. And really made a large difference in the first couple of years. But with that, for me personally, came an opportunity to lead others. So, at Whirlpool, I had interns and I'd had some direct reporting structure, but never a full team. So, when I left that organization about four years later, I had a team of five with people working across the U.
S, including Singapore. So, I think for me, it was an opportunity to lead others that I thought was really transformational, for me to grow in my career, and that was a great opportunity to do so.
[00:19:56] John: Correct me if I'm wrong, but SVP stands for Singer, Viking, and Pfaff, the three of the, the four big brands of, of, yeah. Um, It must have been a bit odd to go from publicly traded 20 billion Fortune 150 to a scrappy, dare I say, competition oriented private equity funded company.
[00:20:19] Scott: Yeah, I think culturally it was, uh, both a, kind of, good opportunity for me to go back to what I would always call the entrepreneur at heart within a large organization. So, I think that's really where I thrived at Whirlpool in a smaller organization of consumer and appliance care that was more service oriented or aftermarket parts was the revenue driving aspect of that business. But also loved the KitchenAid culture of where we really drove a, uh, Separate business unit that complemented the major appliance business that is the majority of the revenue within Whirlpool Corporation. Shifting gears over to a private equity side and really looking at Singer, Viking, and Foth more broadly, it was a great opportunity for me to work for not only, you know, iconic brands and things that, you know, people are extremely passionate about, it's, like, this is their hobby, but But also really scratch that entrepreneurial itch in a direct way, as opposed to being a small business unit within a larger corporation.
[00:21:16] John: Mm-hmm. What are you doing today?
[00:21:19] Scott: So, I'm working with Nielsen IQ or NIQ. So, I really took a bit of a leap of faith about a year ago where, you know, things at SVP Worldwide were going really well. Saw a nice trajectory to continue growing, but had an opportunity when they acquired a company called GFK. So, when we ultimately at KitchenAid were measuring the market of what is your share, what is the trend, what is the average sale price, what are your top competitors, we used one provider in the U.S., but we used GFK for everywhere else around the world. I realized pretty quickly that cobbling together different data sets from different providers with different terminology. was not the most effective or efficient way to measure your global category performance. And, and there was a direct opportunity to do so.
So, NIQ is on my radar. They have a pretty big pet presence where they're working with both retailers and manufacturers to support through Market Measurement, Consumer Insights, Custom Research, and a host of other retail facing solutions. Tried to get in when I was in Nashville through a friend of mine, but realized I know nothing about the pet industry and I'm probably not going to qualify for a comparable role. but when we acquired GFK and the, the sale went through in, in July of 2023, it was a really great opportunity for me to lead, uh, the tech and durables business, which includes categories, like, major appliances and small appliances that aligns with my career background and, kind of, understanding of the market. but also take a totally new direction to not only work with retailers, which was some of my favorite experience while with KitchenAid and Whirlpool more broadly, but also, kind of, look at the category management and other aspects of marketing that I truly enjoyed as well. And I, I thought it was a unique opportunity to be a part of building a business, but also a rare combination of two of my favorite things in my career.
That don't think many roles in the country exist that could put those two things together. And it was really a calling for me to go take a leap of faith and try something new.
[00:23:13] John: You might know that at one point GFK had a small facility here in Ann Arbor down south of the airport where they had a, like, a test, test retail, kind of, shopping experience and you could go in there and, uh, and monitor, consumers looking at products on shelves. It was fascinating.
[00:23:31] Scott: Yeah, I think the, the ability to look at the breadth of solutions we have as a combined organization with NIQ and GFK is pretty mind blowing. And we talked a little bit about, like, just the learning curve in the first six months. I think it's, kind of, like, a kid in a candy store to peek behind the curtain of all things research, all things market measurement, All things insights and retail analytics and it's a unique ability for me to put on different hats, but we still have a good presence in the Michigan area.
Our automotive business has a number of folks that still live in Michigan and myself and then our Basie's team lead for retail also lives just about 20 minutes away from Ann Arbor. So, it's a good balance of us, at least a small but mighty team here in Michigan.
[00:24:13] John: Was it a big change for you to go from the OEM to the agency side?
[00:24:21] Scott: Yeah, I think for me, the fundamentals were there, but I think the way in which we go to market, the discovery process, understanding that every retailer's needs are different. And I think what surprised me the most was even if you have retailers that on paper look virtually identical, like, if you asked somebody at a dinner party, what the difference between CVS Rite Aid, like, oh, they're pretty much a similar business, but the needs of organizations, even if they seem similar on the surface, are dramatically different.
And I think the biggest thing for me to understand was How to probe with questions on the front end, how to understand their needs, and then tailor our approach to be very custom to what those retailers need at any point in time. then also understand that that might change. Market dynamics are changing every day. State of the economy, state of inflation, and as you look at major appliances versus other categories, the way people behave in that shopper journey is different. So, I think just listening skills on the front end and understanding that You might have a theory, but you need to understand their view of the market, not just what you believe it to be.
So, then you can ultimately understand the questions they're trying to solve.
[00:25:30] John: Nice. Want to do a little thought exercise here. I want to jump forward 10 years. Where do you see yourself?
[00:25:36] Scott: Yeah, I think right now we're really building something special. So, I think as I have the privilege of leading TechEndurables for retail and NIQ, um, the future is bright. So, I think as we look at that overall, we're building our team. Adding individuals, working with some extremely talented people, but ultimately building a practice.
So, as we look at our coverage within the U. S, that continues to expand on a regular basis. And that trajectory is part of why I made the decision to jump now, where it was a new and expansion role for the company. So, really I see a tremendous path forward as we think about Not only the opportunity to disrupt what, you know, typically has been one provider in the U.S. providing some of the services, but really level up in the way that we're doing that. And I see a bright future across all the verticals we're investing in on a regular basis. And candidly, I aim to stay in Ann Arbor. So, I got two young kids, and I think the remote nature of the company is working phenomenally well from a cultural fit for me. So, I think in 10 years, hopefully it's just doing a lot of the same things, but in a bigger, better way. and working with more retail partners.
[00:26:40] John: So, let's jump back, you know, to that kid just about to go off to Michigan state to study marketing. Could you ever have imagined where you are now?
[00:26:50] Scott: Yeah, it's funny if you ask me, like, what is marketing as a kid back then, like, I would, I would go to agency, right? I always thought about the brand marketing side. And that's, kind of, where I started thinking about it. I had no idea that I'd be a product nerd at the end of the day. And I think I really found a home in roles that I would have never known existed. I think it was really funny when I told my grandma, I was super proud of, you know, the big new job I got, you know, leading the stand mixer. Category management side. I'm 26, 27, running a category for hundreds of millions of dollars. And at Christmas, I told my grandma in a very excited way that that's what I'd be doing.
And she goes, Oh, that's all you're doing. So, was one of the most, like, Oh, grandma moments I've ever had. But at the same time, like, you don't think about what roles are out there. You don't understand what you're passionate about and to start at companies like Whirlpool, have the opportunities at SVP Worldwide, seeing what's even possible at NIQ that I didn't even know existed five years ago, the market's going to continue to change.
And for me, that's the exciting part, but by no means was that what I even understood to be possible as a kid going into Michigan State, you know, several years back.
[00:27:55] John: Yeah, you know, a consistent theme which I've heard throughout this half hour discussion has been the idea of passion. the passion you had for marketing early on in your undergraduate degree, and certainly throughout your years at Whirlpool and now in the agency side providing data for better decision making at the retail or indeed the level. So, if you had to give some of our listeners advice related to this idea of passion, what would it be?
[00:28:26] Scott: Yeah, so I think the key is be honest with yourself, like, I went in with a lot of assumptions, right, of what I'd be passionate about. And if you asked me when I was 18, 19 years old, what I'd be doing, I'd be at an agency working in brand marketing. And I understood pretty quickly from just exposure to that, that I wasn't really passionate about that space as much as I had thought, right? So, I'd say remain agile is probably the one big theme of just, you know, pressure test your assumptions and then don't be afraid to move on. I think when you're young, you have the opportunity to make those changes. It doesn't stop when you get older, they just get a little bit harder to make those bigger pivots.
But I think at the end of the day, people get stuck in certain situations because they think that's what they should be doing. Or that's what others expect of them. But that brutal honesty with yourself and giving your time, time to reflect is ultimately what's going to help you find that balance of something that really lights you up.
You see the opportunity and, and when, when you have passion for something versus, you know, faking your way through it, you can feel the difference. And I think it's just about admitting that to yourself and finding the right path is, is ultimately what's most important.
[00:29:34] John: Well, Scott Hegstrom, it has been an absolute delight to have you on Breaking Schemas and learning about how passion has driven you and perhaps disrupted your life over the years. Congratulations for all of the success and we love to see the leaders and best doing just that, leading and being best.
Thank you again and I look forward to seeing you soon.
[00:29:59] Scott: Absolutely. Thanks so much.