Scott Holman, a dyslexic entrepreneur, shares his remarkable story on The Good News with Angie Austin. From overcoming personal struggles with learning differences to building a legacy in manufacturing and entrepreneurship, Holman’s narrative is one of resilience and hope. Discover how his unique perspective on business and life has led to significant achievements, including a focus on fostering future generations of entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this enlightening conversation and learn what the ‘it factor’ means in the realm of success.
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hello there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. Really excited about today’s interview. The book is titled The Mindset of a Dyslexic Entrepreneur, The Scott Holman Story. The author is Dr. Don Steele. And joining us is the subject of the story, Scott Holman. Hey, Scott. Good morning. So tell us a little bit about the book and your story. Just kind of give us an overview of what the mindset of a dyslexic entrepreneur is about your story.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, to start off with, I was approached by Donna Steele on a recommendation of maybe one of my early partners. And at first, I was reticent to do it. But as we got talking longer and we started talking about the dyslexic part of my life, I got to thinking that maybe by doing the book, there’s a way that I could help others young dyslexic get to school a little better and the parents of these dyslexic kids to know that there’s hope.
SPEAKER 02 :
So, you know, I think that’s so important that the hope aspect, which is interesting. My daughter’s name is Hope and she has ADHD. And I think her story, you know, different from yours. But as you know, the times now are so different. My mom is dyslexic and she was held back a couple of years in school, didn’t graduate from high school, had a twin sister who was identical, who was obviously, you know, that put a stigma on my mom because everyone knew you’re twins and you’re behind her in school. And her own mom held her back because her mom was a teacher, like one of those small, you know, one room kind of schoolhouses. So anyway, you know, she’s in her 80s now, but there was there was no diagnosis of dyslexia in her school experience. So for you to give hope to people now when things are different, but still what I hear time and time again from kids with dyslexia is, ADHD and other learning issues, uniqueness. It’s a uniqueness. Now my daughter calls her ADHD a superpower. But what I hear over and over again from people who are highly successful like you is they thought they were stupid.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. All the way through school. And so I was going to add to that by quoting Mark Twain, who said the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.
SPEAKER 02 :
And maybe with this book, I found a wife. Oh, that’s pretty cool, Scott. So how different do you think your life would have been if dyslexia was something that back when you were in school was a diagnosis that was given to you and you were given the workarounds? And obviously you figured out the workarounds, but it certainly helps if you know that you can figure out workarounds.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, when you’re put in the D class… D for dummies, all the way through K through 12 and called stupid in front of your classmates, you know, there would have been less bullying, I’m sure, and a better level of self-esteem because I think when you go through that, your self-esteem is destroyed. Yes. So, yeah, I think had we had… the ability to A, diagnose it, and B, to use the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching reading at an early stage, that part would have been much easier for me. What would you say? As an adult, I consider the dyslexia condition a gift. And Albert Einstein said, Had he not been dyslexic, we may not have the theory of relativity. Because I think dyslexic people think differently than normal people. And Albert Einstein has also said that it’s more important to have imagination than it is to have knowledge.
SPEAKER 02 :
Interesting. And that’s what a lot of successful entrepreneurs, this ADHD documentary, I interviewed the doctor and some of the people involved with it. And there were a lot of highly intelligent people and they see it more as like a gift like you do or superpower. And that the creativity is something that is one of those superpowers I guess you get with some of these unique learning situations.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that’s true. So what advice would you give? You learn differently.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you think differently and you solve problems much differently.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, that would that makes sense. That makes sense. Hey, one of the things, you know, in your, you know, entrepreneur spirit, there’s so many, you know, things that you’ve done. But one thing that was especially interesting to me, and I think you’ll be surprised by what I pick, I’m kind of fascinated by lighthouses. And my uncle was in the Coast Guard, and he would always drive me around and show me various lighthouses. And I understand that you’ve preserved one of Michigan’s historical landmarks, and it’s on like a granite island. So you bought the lighthouse and the island, and it was kind of destroyed. And I was really interested that three of the people who were involved with the lighthouse over, you know, the decades had drowned, you know. So it’s a very dangerous location in terms of the waters there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s out in the middle of Lake Superior, and you’ve heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
So it was Lake Superior that took down the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, and we’ve been in some pretty rough waters on the way to and from and while we’re on the island.
SPEAKER 02 :
So what made you want to do this? Explain the fascination with this lighthouse, because it looks pretty cool now.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I grew up on the water. I enjoyed snorkeling, enjoyed the water a lot, and I was always fascinated by… you know, having an island, um, whether it be out in Lake Superior or not, but the, um, the island that we’re talking about, Granite Island, when I was teaching diving early in my, uh, well, actually while I was in college, um, one of the places that I would take my students in the boat for an open water would be out to Granite Island, about 10 miles offshore.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, um, and we would, um, Explore around the island underwater. Lake Superior is very clear. You can easily see 100 feet underwater in Lake Superior. It’s kind of like, in a way, the Caribbean, except the temperature is about 30, 40 degrees colder than the Caribbean.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Well, 10 miles out, I mean, that must have been quite an undertaking to get all the supplies out there to rehab it.
SPEAKER 04 :
It really was, and not only getting the supplies out, but I got a call one day from one of the people working out there that said, I don’t know if I should tell you this or not. I said, well, it sounds to me like you’re better. He said, but when they delivered the windows on the barge, we put the bags of disposable material, including asbestos from the shingles and so forth, in big bags on the barge to bring back to land to dispose of properly. And he said the barge sunk.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, no.
SPEAKER 04 :
And so we have bags on the bottom of Lake Superior. I said, did you hit the man overboard button on your GPS? He said, no, we didn’t know how to do that. But we know it’s about 300 or 400 yards deep. South of the island. Well, if you’re a diver in deep water, that’s a lifetime, 300 or 400 yards.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And so I had been involved with the Shipwreck Society and had donated to the society what’s known as an ROV, a remote operating vehicle. Oh, okay. Which you drag behind the boat and you can actually steer it and take movies. underwater so I called the society and said you need to get you need to get our boat over to Granite Island we have a problem and so I had volunteer divers and we it took us about three hours of searching with that underwater camera and there they all were like soldiers on the bottom of the lake standing upright these were big white, strong garbage bags like. And so we used another boat to, we would go down with a rope tied around the bag and use a capstan on a fishing boat to drag it up to the surface and get it onto this fishing boat.
SPEAKER 02 :
To get 29 toxic bags of waste out of Lake Superior? Yes. Did the guy make it? The guy that was manning the barge?
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, he was fine. It just hit some heavy waves and submerged, still dragging it behind his boat. Oh my goodness. The barge itself didn’t go to the bottom, only all the bags did. Ah, I see, I see. And I knew we had to get that out of there because even if it were 10 years later and some of those bags washed up on the south shore of Lake Superior, they would say Scott Holman just dumped his garbage into Lake Superior.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you’re going to take care of that. Oh, my goodness. So we’ve got the lighthouse 10 miles off the coast, and you’ve restored that. You mentioned the scuba diving and teaching that, that really cool rescue vehicle or camera vehicle. What other things have you undertaken?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, if you’ve read the book, you know that I wound up in the heavy manufacturing business. and wound up buying that multimillion-dollar business without any money down, without any investors, and without borrowing a cent from the bank. And so I ran it for 22 years, and I have recently sold it to my three sons.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, that’s really wonderful to leave a legacy like that. You know, the book, if you’re just joining us, and I hope you can stay around for the next segment because we only have two minutes left here. And I’d love to keep talking to you. The book is The Mindset of a Dyslexic Entrepreneur, The Scott Holman Story. So sold the business to your sons. You know, in terms of being an entrepreneur, you mentioned the dyslexia giving you that creativity. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur? Because I understand that’s how you describe yourself.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think that all starts very early in life. I was a recipient of the Inc. Magazine’s National Turnaround Entrepreneur of the Year. And after receiving that, about a year later, they asked me to join their board. And one of the things we did at our board meetings was to talk about what makes someone become an entrepreneur. And we, I think we all agreed that it would have been some early life experiences that were very positive in business, whether it be a lemonade stand or something else. And, um, and I had a number of those myself. And, uh, I think that, you know, there wasn’t room in the book to put all of these things down, but, uh, they, they were positive experiences that, that, um, And maybe I was independent enough not to want to have a boss but to be my own boss.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, and I think that, you know, it takes a lot of guts, I think, to be an entrepreneur as well. We’ll get into some of the other, you know, aspects of your book, your other entrepreneurial endeavors and what this it factor is that you have. We’ll explain that as well as, you know, I want to also talk to you about what success means to you. Again, the book is The Mindset of a Dyslexic Entrepreneur, The Scott Holman Story. We are speaking with Scott Holman. You’re listening to The Good News with Angie Austin, and we will be right back. All right, Scott, hold on. You bet.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Sedalia is listening to KLTT, the mighty 670. welcome back to the good news this is angie austin scott holman is joining me we are continuing our conversation about the book the mindset of the dyslexic entrepreneur the scott holman story written by dr don steele and scott is telling us a bit about his story we’ve gone through oh the difficulty learning you know when there wasn’t a diagnosis of dyslexia when he was in school so the kids were in the d class as he said the dumb class and He has become such a successful entrepreneur, he wanted to give other people with dyslexia hope. And we’ve talked about the lighthouse and island that he bought and restored, the multimillion-dollar business that he sold to his three sons now, scuba diving, teaching it, and scuba diving himself. You were in the military. Let’s talk a little bit more about some of… what inspired you to become an entrepreneur and also what qualities you think are most important when it comes to becoming an entrepreneur? Because I think, Scott, it takes a lot of guts. A lot of people don’t want to take the risks and do the preparation so that they’re financially prepared to be an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER 04 :
Interesting angle, and that is it relates back to my university experience. And having been on the board of the university, we started They started a program to teach entrepreneurship. And I made it clear to them that I felt that you can’t teach someone to be an entrepreneur. You can only take an entrepreneur and teach them those skills to make them successful.
SPEAKER 02 :
So in terms of your three sons, is this something that came to them naturally? They followed in your footsteps, it sounds like.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it was their choice. I never… even suggested let alone push them into it. Uh, but all three of them are, uh, engineers from Michigan tech and Michigan. And so, uh, they, uh, I kid them a little bit. I said, it’s too bad you couldn’t get into Northern Michigan university, but, um, Being an engineer is a good thing.
SPEAKER 02 :
I love it. Well, you and the author, Dr. Don Steele, and you, Scott Holman, in the book, talk about you having the it factor. What is that? What is that to you? What is it?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s something that Don Steele has brought up to me. And I think what he intends with that is, and you’ve heard the saying, well, this guy is successful and he’s really got it. right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
What is it? What is it? Uh, so in trying to define what it is, is, um, I think he’s written another, another book actually on the, on the it factor. Um, and, uh, so I guess that’s, that’s, uh, where it’s derived from is from that, that saying of, well, he’s got it. And so some people have it and some people don’t. And, um, And so he’s identified me and several other people that he felt have the it factor. And he’s written a book about the it factor, and I think I qualified for one of his chapters in that book.
SPEAKER 02 :
I love that. In terms of success, you’ve had success in many of your different endeavors. What does success mean to you, Scott?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, first of all, success means to me It’s not in my businesses. It’s in my family, and I have such a wonderful family. Smart, good people. I have three sons, three daughters-in-law, nine grandchildren, and all really nice people and brilliant, and all the grandchildren have done well in college. So that, to me, is a measure of success. is what happens to your family. Now, I’ve heard this, so I’m not the originator of this, but success and wealth are mutually independent. In other words, you could have very successful people who are not wealthy. And I’ve known people who are very wealthy who I don’t consider or they don’t consider themselves successful people. So… Those two qualities are, like I said, mutually independent.
SPEAKER 02 :
I would agree with you there. I think a lot of people think success means money, but I think a lot of people can be quite successful and have such an impact. One of my favorite teachers at my kid’s high school, I’ve got three teenagers, and she has had such an impact on my kid. There was this deal where they said, do you want to get involved in nominating someone for the educator of the year. And I was like, oh, it would be her. Well, she won. And so educator of the year. And I’m like, wow, the kids, the number of kids, because she has 30 kids she deals with, with learning issues. And so she has been with my daughter for four years. And my daughter just signed for a scholarship to play volleyball at a Christian university. And, you know, that was not something I think Let’s just put it this way. This woman really helped her navigate her ADHD and the issues with her grades and learning, etc. So I see her as highly successful, and I’m sure she wouldn’t consider herself to be a millionaire in terms of money, but she’s got lots of hope in her wallet, and she sure is giving it to the kids. So I would agree with you there on success. How about important life lessons that readers can take away from your life? Again, the book is The Mindset of a Dyslexic Entrepreneur, the Scott Holman story. So Scott, what are some lessons that you think you learned and that maybe readers can learn from you?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, readers who are exposed to dyslexia, whether it’s an offspring or whether it’s themselves, I guess my answer would be directed to directed to them and that is you know they say that people who are blind develop a really keen hearing oh yeah and all right and so i think people who are dyslexic develop the ability to work around problems uh number one and number number two um they um so it’s not just work around but um I think their ability to substitute the things that they can’t do with the things that they can do. And, for example, I think I finished up high school without really being able to read or write. And so how do you do that? I think what the dyslexic person does does is to, let’s see, gather my thoughts here, is to try different things that someone else might not try. You learn to listen well, and you learn to verbalize well. And I think that’s how I made it through high school, Albeit at the bottom of my class, but I was able to get into college because the president of Northern Michigan University at the time had a policy of right to try. Thank goodness for me. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER 02 :
I love that. The right to try. I like that a lot. You know, my husband worries about my daughter being far away from us. Her school’s in Tennessee, and we’re based in Denver. So he worries about her being able to succeed, but… and you know i’m like what are we going to turn down her scholarship and say we’re worried she might not succeed i’m like she has a right to accept her scholarship and to give it her best shot you know and i’m personally not that worried about her and so um i i think without you know i don’t think we’ve micromanaged her anyway i’m not much of a helicopter parent i haven’t really done i mean other than get her tutors when she needs them we haven’t done things for her Um, but she has a really good, they have a good program for, you know, offering, um, they’ve got success centers and then they have two people that specifically work with kids that have different needs in terms of, you know, maybe extra notes or they need to, you know, have time where they can ask extra questions, et cetera. So yeah, I love that right to try. I think that’s wonderful. And I know that you are. interested also in supporting future entrepreneurs. And so can you expand on that, what you want to do for future entrepreneurs?
SPEAKER 04 :
I can. I’ve had a meeting with the powers that be at Northern Michigan University, the president, the provost, department heads, and we’re all on the same page about instituting a dyslexic education program at the university. And I’m starting a fund called First of all, all the proceeds of the book will go into this dyslexic education fund, and this is at the development fund at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan, if anybody is interested in participating. And so at the moment, our staff at the university is in contact with the Orton Academy to learn more about dyslexia the goal standard for teaching dyslexic children, which is the Orton-Gillingham multisensory method. And so beyond that, we will be having all of our future teachers at Northern have to take a class in dyslexia so they know, A, how to identify it, and B, how to teach it, how to teach young people who can’t read. And so that is one of the things I’m trying to do at the university with their full cooperation. They’re very interested in pursuing this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, I think that’s wonderful that you’re offering that. You’re going to impact a lot of lives, I’ll say that. And giving your funds to help further the lives of other dyslexics is really going to have a big payoff for them. And I’m sure satisfaction for you as well. Now, I know that we can find the book on Amazon online. the mindset of a dyslexic entrepreneur, the Scott Holman story. Is there a website where people can go? I’m sure you do speaking and, you know, are out there in the community as well. Where do they find you?
SPEAKER 04 :
I do that. And I know that the author Don Steele is working on developing a website, which we’ll have online shortly. But I can’t, I can’t, I have nothing to share with you at that At this at this point in time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it’s certainly easy to find the Scott Holman story on Amazon and it’s on other websites as well. You know, what is this experience been like for you? Have you gotten feedback? And were any of your kids surprised or, you know, anyone in your family that, you know, learned more about you? I just interviewed someone yesterday and her daughter helped her write her story. And she’s a doctor that came out of China yesterday. Tiananmen Square, the whole nine yards, and educated herself from 13 until medical school on her own with books that she got from neighbors who were teachers. And now she’s a doctor here in the States. And she said her daughter said, Mom, I had no idea what you went through until I wrote this book with you. Your life’s amazing. So has anyone been surprised by your story? I think a couple of my grandchildren have. Oh, I’ll bet.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think one of my younger grandchildren, when he got the book, sat down and read the whole thing from beginning to end. And we said, well, what did you get out of that? He said, well, I learned a lot about how you started Vacast, which is a manufacturing company, which I sold to his dad and his two uncles. And so I think that’s one of the things that, He got out of it. I’ve always been interested in our family archives. I’ve been promoting family reunions and putting together stories of my grandparents and finding out that there’s more that I would have liked to have known about my grandfather, who was a mining captain, for example, or some of my aunts and uncles, which they haven’t written up. And so I think that was one of the reasons that I finally came caved in to do the book with Don was to make that history available to my future generations of my family.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I really enjoyed our interview. Scott, Scott Holman, The Mindset of a Dyslexic Entrepreneur, The Scott Holman Story, easily found on Amazon and other booksellers. Thank you so much, Scott. Thank you. Enjoyed it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
