Zach Obront: Solve a Problem

Today’s guest is Zach Obront, co-founder of Scribe (formerly Book in a Box), a company that helps entrepreneurs and innovators turn their ideas into a book.

When Zach Obront was in college, he started a high school.

A bit silly? Possibly, in retrospect. But Zach has never had an issue with out-of-the-box thinking.

The next company he created, Handy Monkey, was a mold removal company he started when he realized that mold removal companies in Toronto did not understand the ins-and-outs of SEO and internet advertising. He and his partner wanted to prove to the skeptical owners of these companies that internet marketing would solve many of their problems, and the only way they could think to prove that was to create a company themselves and make it profitable.

“[E]ventually what we decided was the only way we were gonna be able to kind of make that change in that industry, is just to do it end to end, and show them that the Internet works, and therefore, we can generate leads, and therefore, we can build a team, and therefore, we can solve the actual problem.”

This tactic worked better than Zach anticipated, and within eight months his partner began to talk about expanding to other cities.

“I tend to get caught up in problems that… when there's no solution, I'm just focused on finding a solution as opposed to stepping back and…questioning…I kinda put my head down and ran through a wall for eight months until finally we got there. And then I said, "Ooh, this is horrible."

Having a thriving mold-removal company was not Zach’s dream scenario, but he did learn that there is significant value in understanding a process from start to finish. He is now utilizing his out-of-the-box thinking at Scribe (formerly Book in a Box), which he co-founded to help authors navigate the early stages of book development all the way through the first week of their title being on the market. He and his team have helped numerous authors solve real-world problems for thousands of readers, and his advice to authors is simple: solve a problem.

Join us as we discuss the problems authors commonly face in publishing a book, as well as how Zach and his team have created a uniquely supportive environment in their company that allows employees to feel empowered while identifying their greatest weaknesses.

Takeaways and links from this episode at https://whitneyjohnson.com/zach-obront