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- [00:02]
A
North Carolina. You just came back from North Carolina. You had shared quite a bit publicly, but about what was happening there. You flew in on the ground, you heard about everything else Tim has going on in the world. But where I wanted to start was maybe a little bit of the bad before we get to some of the beautiful silver linings you had too, which was, can you tell us what you saw there and what you guys were doing?
- [00:26]
B
I saw failure. You know, we say that no one's ever coming to save you. This is an idea that I think all special operations lives by. You know, we have to be one intrinsically motivated, but more importantly, we have to be completely self sustained, whether it's SEAL teams, the Green Berets, Rangers. When you go into a place, the expectation that's no one's going to come and get you, it's a scary thought that that is the case for an American. That was the case there. These people were completely isolated. They had their lives. Their existence was so dire. It was just like this tiny little thread that was keeping them alive. Now that temperatures are plummeting, you know, there's still isolated areas of western North Carolina and Tennessee that are, you know, this is biblical, epic level proportions of disaster. We by the fourth day had a third trip going into Raleigh and into Charlotte to pick up more body bags. And of course none of this is reported because it's an election year. The number of missing is still in the hundreds and again not being reported. And then in addition to no one's coming to save you in the first few days. We are in direct conflict with the people that are supposed to come and help you. They didn't like that. The individual responsibility idea of get out of my way, I can do more than you can. You have five helicopters, I now have 55 helicopters. How about you give us air priority and you get out of the way. And they're like, but what if one of you guys mess up? I'm like, we won't just literally get out of our way. But they were trying to control airspace for their five helicopters because they didn't like the operations that we were doing which were in conflict to the priority of theirs. And everybody that comes and works for us has to be not just positive energy creators, but they have to, when they go into an area, they can't take off of the economy in any way. So they have to bring their own water, their own food, their own energy, their own communication ability, whether that's Starlink or iridium phones. Um, and I was trying to put A young man with his young beautiful wife and their brand new infant child into a hotel. And when I got to the hotel at 4 o'clock in the morning, after doing a health and warefall check on the infant that had run out of baby formula and they hadn't showered in five days, I go to the the only hotel where there's two in the town that had power and it was completely booked up with federal FEMA personnel. And I was pissed.
- [03:13]
A
So first of all, you're not. This isn't your first disaster area that you've gone into, both as an active duty member of the military, which you still are currently, but also with a nonprofit organization or an NGO like Save Our Allies. That was you in Afghanistan as well during the last.
- [03:33]
B
Yeah, we're starting with some heavy stuff. Good morning Monday morning everybody.
- [03:38]
A
They're like, I thought we were talking about P and Ls, but what I wanted to go to from there is, you know, I was reading this tweet that you did that I thought was so good and you had some silver lining, which was you said a 92 year old army Ranger vet volunteered to help the crew do evacuations. He said he is ready to go if we need him. Said he hasn't jumped in 40 years, but has enough under his belt to help. I love the American spirit. So was there an American spirit that you saw despite it all?
- [04:08]
B
Yeah, we'll super swing to the positive side of this. From Afghanistan to western North Carolina, the response of the American people, the generosity of the entrepreneur and veteran community to do what the government couldn't even do. You know, we're $35 trillion in debt because our government is so gigantic. Yet it took a few individuals stepping up. You know Isaiah 6:8. I heard the voice of the Lord say, who shall I send? And I responded with, here I am. Sent me like that was the war cry to thousands of capable, incredible people. And that 92 year old is. I tweeted that to represent an idea. There were 25 year olds with Toyota Overland. We make fun of them and it's totally fine that we do because they're kind of dorks. And they came in from Tennessee or they drove up from northern Florida, from Louisiana, from Mississippi, and they got a couple of chainsaws in the back still. Or Husqvarna and FEMA has roadblocks and they're like, you guys aren't allowed to go up there. You can't get up there. And they're like, want to make a bet? You know, like, I'll take two of them rednecks in, in a Toyota overlander that over 100 PhDs from the federal government and they literally would, they could get into areas that nobody could get into. And they were bringing life sustaining support to these people in these secluded areas. And it was just a will to make a difference, you know, Grit. It was grit. So American.
- [05:47]
A
I love that. How do you organize chaos like that? Like I saw pictures of you in your sleeping in the back of your truck with like diapers next to you, baby formula, a little stove range. How do you organize a group of people in a time of chaos?
- [06:06]
B
Yeah, triage of, you know, setting your priorities and then being able to look at the resources that you have and apply the resources to those priorities. That applies to everything that you could do in life. Whether it's like, in my case, I have four kids at home and like a gorgeous wife. I got businesses. So in a day I set my priorities of what I need to do and then I look at the resources that I have where it's, you know, assistants and directors and then I execute those things in accordance with the priorities. In a disaster area, I look at the priorities of work that we have to do. Life, limb, eyesight, prioritize that by age. Obviously in the bell curve, the older and the younger are more vulnerable. Then look to a map and then look at the resources that we have. Cool. I have 25 overland vehicles, 55 helicopters, a total of 900 personnel. We have two warehouses full of sustainment supplies. So let's go ahead and task, organize and triage the people that we need to get to and then take the resources that I have and address those in accordance to the priorities.
- [07:28]
A
Yeah, I think a lot of people imagine when you say special operations that you're just like, we're going to go shoot some motherfuckers. Right. They just think you guys are badass. You are. That is true. They're very dangerous men. But they don't realize how much planning, logistics and sophistication goes into what you do. So how have you translated that to the business world? Like I've been in your office where you have like 47 businesses in one office and you have, you know, all of these sort of independent operators. What do you think you brought? Like, what was the skill set that you brought that was the most critical? From the military to civilian life?
- [08:04]
B
Yeah. There's no difference in leadership from military leadership to civilian leadership. Leadership is leadership. And when it comes to strategy, rehearsals and time management, civilian and military approach to that I think should be the same. It's one of the many reasons that you see so many people, so many successful people from the special operations community take a very. Not that they're regimented, but they are disciplined in their approach with, you know, Jocko with Jocko Fuel and Origin or Evan Hafer with Black Rifle Coffee or Mike Glover with Fieldcraft Survival. You know, the list just goes on of these successful special operations entrepreneurs, you know, and they really just take the models that they learned in the military and they apply them, you know. So yeah, we do. The majority of our work is in planning. If I'm going to be going into a meeting, I know who I'm meeting with. I know what the ask is going to be. I know financially what I am going to benefit, the return on investment. And then in addition to the planning kind of strategic approach to it, we also, we this 1/3 2/3 rule of we also spend two thirds of our time rehearsing and kind of war gaming what the potential outcomes could be.
- [09:26]
A
Oh, I like that a lot.
- [09:27]
B
Yeah. Been lauden before they go in, of course they planned it, right? If, if they had a month to plan it, they spend one third of their time, they spend 10 days of their time planning the other 20 days of that month, they just rehearse it. They rehearse and they rehearse. They rehearse their contingencies, they rehearse their reloads of a helicopter going down, which it did. Navy Seals, you know, 20 days, 1/3 2/3 of rehearsals.
- [09:56]
A
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- [10:57]
B
Yeah, but before it goes on my calendar, it kind of goes through a refiner's fire of. Do I have to take this? That's a good question. Can Carl do it? Can Matt do it? Can Nick do it? Can Matt Boudreau do it? So depending on the business, is this something that requires my time? And if it's not something that I have to address, if it's a problem and they're coming with a solution, I don't have to be in. You already gave the solution. Did I already? So there's this beautiful thing that's happening in the military right now. They're reorganizing the way that they do leadership in something that's called mission command. Mission command is a decentralized approach where I'm empowering the next lowest leader, the subordinate, to assume risk and responsibility and be able to make the decision on their own as long as they're in alignment with the philosophy and commander's intent. So I. My job is to communicate clearly my intent. Like this is what we're trying to do with this business or with the culture. And then the person that is running that project should be able to make all of the decisions. The only time it should come to me is if, like, there isn't a solution. So here's three bad options.
- [12:12]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [12:12]
B
And then that. Then I'll be like, ah, that sucks. Let's go with option B, which is the least of the three.
- [12:17]
A
I always giggle that I think the CEO's real job, like everybody wants a CEO job. And all it is, is you get the worst problems all the time that nobody else can solve.
- [12:25]
B
Worst personnel problems, usually, and. And then worse, worse financial situations.
- [12:30]
A
Yeah. The other thing that I've really noticed with you, like, getting to know you over the last year or so, is you do a really good job setting expectations and communicating very concisely. So I was wondering, like, did you always know that? Did you learn that? How did you know? I'm retarded.
- [12:47]
B
Yeah. And you ask my wife. I'm a good communicator.
- [12:55]
A
No, maybe not that type.
- [12:56]
B
Yeah, I. One, it's discipline, but I think it's become a byproduct of just not having time. And then when you don't have time and you look at the available time that you have and everybody says that time is this like most important resource. I argue that attention is the most important resource. I, I could be doing something specific with my time, but if my attention is elsewhere or 100% of my attention is focused on something else or ineffective or inefficient in the time that, in that, that I have, it's, I'm just wasting my attention. So to that to answer your question concisely, I know really I pretty self aware of what I'm good at and all of the other things I'm not going to spend my time on because I'm wasting my attention on those things. I'd rather just defer to the expert as I'm over there talking to Chris and I'm struggling through a couple of things and he's really good at those things. So I was like, can we go talk about these things so I can use your expertise to answer things that I don't truly understand about how to answer. Invest in in some things that are coming across the desk. He's like, yeah, yeah. Jiu jitsu, coffee, money, you know, done. Yeah.
- [14:17]
A
He, you know, it's interesting because I found the people who are the most successful typically have the least knowledge ego out there. Not that we don't all have big egos. I'm sure you have a big ego in many ways, but you're like, no, no, no. I don't care where the information comes from. If it's better than me, smarter than me, going to make me more money, gonna make me more efficient, I'll take it.
- [14:33]
B
Yeah.
- [14:34]
A
And, and I think a lot of times the people who don't succeed are the ones that they think they got to do it all by themselves.
- [14:39]
B
I couldn't agree with you more. And as I've had like five different careers in my life at this point, from fighting for world championships to obviously in the military. The entrepreneur, author. The Walt Whitman approach of don't be judgmental, be curious. Your ego will always get in the way of that. I know everything and I will be judgmental about how much money you have or your approach to business inversely, like the opposite end of that is. I mean, I just want to understand more. I just want to know more. And I'm so curious about it. You know, how many times am I asking you about how to do something or what to do? It's that curiosity is what gives us growth.
- [15:23]
A
Yeah, it's so good. You know, you said another thing that I loved, which was you tweeted a wise man once said, be Careful who, who you let on your ship. Because some people will sink the whole ship just because they can't be the captain.
- [15:35]
B
Yeah.
- [15:35]
A
What do you mean by that and how do you watch out for that?
- [15:39]
B
I think there's three kind of energies with people. You have people that create negative energy. You know, they're just like a succubus of joy and attention and they need to be in these positional places of authority. And then you have kind of new energy neutral people that they want to contribute, you know, but they also have their goals and their ambitions. And those, those are amazing employees. You know, those are incredible people. And then there's just the natural leaders. That's the Mike Weimers, that's the General Georges, that's the Mattis, that bring a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of expertise, no ego. And they joyfully will stand in the back while somebody else gets the credit for their accomplishments. Yeah, it's a really dangerous thing who we surround ourselves with. You know, it's scriptural. It's very clear, you know, that you effectively become who you surround yourself with. This also studies have shown economically, financially, your circle plus or minus $100,000 is where you're going to end up. Yeah, it. But I am disgusted as the ladder climber that's always looking for like a rich person to hang around. That's a disgusting person. But, you know, the people that I get to spend time with are joyful, kind, energy positive people that are incredibly successful as a byproduct of who they are as a person.
- [17:23]
A
So when you're looking for those natural leaders and the energy positive, how do you find them? Like, can you tell when you go and meet somebody, can you immediately look at them in the windows through their soul and say, ah, that's you.
- [17:38]
B
Having been embezzled a few times, I.
- [17:40]
A
Say, I think we all are.
- [17:42]
B
I'm a great judge of character. Right. A trained interrogator that gets. Yeah. Back to no ego. In the interview, you can usually tell pretty quickly. Somebody that's sincere and authentic, somebody that is kind and generous and especially for like middle management or above. I always go and eat with them. I always want to share a meal with them. I want to see how they treat the staff. I want to see how long it takes them to buy, to pick what they're going to eat. I.
- [18:22]
A
That's top, top priority.
- [18:23]
B
Yeah, man. You walk into, you know, we got great coffee in Austin and like, hey, want to grab a cup of coffee? And they're like, yeah, let's meet at Starbucks. Cool. Not getting hired.
- [18:33]
A
Yes. See, ah, I didn't even prep it with that. I have a war on Starbucks.
- [18:38]
B
Not just philosophically because like we're on opposite ends and they're a competitor, but there's terrible coffee with horrible milk. But. And then you walk in and they're like, you know, I want a soy latte with 2.5 pumps. And like you spelled my name on the cup wrong. And you know how they tip? I judge on that to see if they're a generous person or if they're like boastfully being generous because they're with me. Or if like they're tipping to be appropriate and kind and they like see a server's name and they use their name when they're addressing them. Like all these little tiny things are just little snapshots into who this person is. They sit down at the table to order, you know, and they're like, like imagine that person in your office. I will wear their skin in like five days. As they like. Yeah. So like you gotta create authentic opportunities to see who these people are and anybody. When they're well fed, they're caffeinated, they're dressed up nice and they walk into the office nice and prepared, they can put it all on a show for 20 minutes. You gotta take em outta that environment to kind of get a picture of their character. That's a hard thing to do sometimes.
- [19:50]
A
It's a really good point. I also think about when I look back at like where I've gone wrong with my dad has a line that I love, which is you can't do a good deal with a bad guy. And I mean I think about that a lot in business. Or at least you better be real thoughtful if you're gonna do a deal with a bad guy. And you better make sure to cya. But one of the things that I've noticed too is it's hard for bad guys to last past like 4 or 5pm like it's like it wears off throughout the day. And so I think that idea of just like increasing the surface area of exposure is a really easy way to figure out do I actually want to work with this person? Do I like them? The other thing that I've noticed, I'd be curious if you have anything else about people who have been bad for you. Because I do think your worst decisions won't usually be the actions taken, but the humans chosen. And so I've noticed also those types, underhanded digs, passive aggressive, like real high indicator for doesn't really like you. Doesn't like maybe super high charisma, but doesn't actually like you. Have you noticed anything else that you thought, oh, anytime I see that out, yeah.
- [20:57]
B
I try not to be like snap judgment on because we don't know what's going on with, in somebody's life. But there's definitely in the aggregate and like the collective of how they treat other people in that idea of, you know, after 4:00pm again that, that surface area of trying to find opportunities outside of this conducive environment for them to put on a show. Where when in special operations, during selections, whether it's Bud or Special Forces selection or any of the other units, you're always being selected. When, when we were recruiting, I wouldn't go and recruit somebody because they were like the best and the fastest. It's when they weren't on, we'll use the field. They weren't on the field but. And they're on the bench and their team is out and how are they supporting them? How are they encouraging them when they come back in? Hey, great job. Have you thought about doing this? Those are all selfless opportunities where they're not looking for the limelight. Rather they're looking for ways to encourage the team to succeed. And you know, when you look at professional athlete recruiters, they love going to games where that star player that they're there to recruit is playing against, not a peer level team to see how good this person is. They already know how good they are. They're trying to get a peek into that person's character. Like, are they picking up gear at the end of the game when the person has a rough, when one of their teammates has a rough session on the field or on the ice and comes off and they're like, oh man, you're doing great. You know, like, let's, let, let's, let's keep going. Like you, you can get this. Those are the snapshots where again that motto of you're always being, you're always being selected, you're always being graded. You're always. Where it's really difficult in the work environment to see into somebody's character and to see what their grit looks like. Um, and when somebody shows you believe them. Yeah, that's true. When they, when, when they're a passive aggressive dick. They're a passive aggressive dick. When they're leaving early to go do the thing that they need to do. Hey, I gotta believe them. And you will never. I have never let someone go in a layoff or fired Somebody that I was not immediately relieved within 48 hours that that was the right thing. And I wish that I had done it months prior.
- [23:32]
A
Me, too.
- [23:33]
B
Ever.
- [23:33]
A
I know I've never once regretted a fire, which is crazy.
- [23:37]
B
But every single time you're like, why did I just do it? Like, two months ago? It would have saved me. It would have. Every single time.
- [23:43]
A
Every time. You know, you've also said something that I loved, you said.
- [23:46]
B
I say a lot of stuff.
- [23:48]
A
You said, you want to avoid idiots in your life, Live a life they can't exist in. What do you mean by that?
- [23:55]
B
Yeah, so. And I mean it, man. I was just texting with Andy Stumpf as I was driving here, hands free. I wasn't like, on my phone, and I was not disparaging people, but I was rather praising the small circle of people that I have now. And this small circle in the refiner's fire. When you're making a weapon in a forge, you take a chunk of metal that's of good quality, but it still has a lot of imperfections in it. And it has to take a shape, and you stick it in the fire, you heat it up, which is torture to the metal, and you take it out and you pound it. And every time that you pound it, those little tiny bursts of fire, those are imperfections coming out of the metal. And then you submerge it and you repeat that process hundreds of times. And then whatever that tool is supposed to become, a hammer, a sword, it then starts taking the shape of that. And your friends have to be that way. If it's a. It's a. If it's a crappy piece of metal, it will break, it will rust, it will oxidize, it will chip, and it will fall away and ultimately become useless. That circle. I cannot have idiots in my life. And there are no idiots left in my life because they can't exist in the life that I live. That's a life of selflessness. That's a life of discipline. That's a life of commitment. That's a life of monogamy to my wife. That's a life of purpose for my children. And it's so clear and it's so obvious when people don't share those values. We're on a work trip and I'm walking in the lobby. The bar is to the left, the elevator is to the right. I know that our first meeting is at 8am in the morning. I was just in New Hampshire for Sig and our first meeting was there at 8:00. We're about 25 minutes. So I knew I had to leave by 7:30. I wanted to make sure I got a good healthy breakfast with plenty of water. So moving in, reverse planning that means my workout is going to be at like 5:45, 6 gives me a 45 minute workout, 2025 minutes to get eggs, shower, dress, leave by 7:30. So as I'm walking in, I know that's what my morning is going to look like. The person that I was traveling with saw a couple of cute little hotties in the bar. It could not have been more clear. Option A, go left. Option B, have a plan, go right, go to the elevator, take a shower, go to bed, wake up, work out, go to my meeting, go home to my wife. Sure, I could go left and like, maybe I'm not going to go hook up with them, but I'm just going to talk to them, you know, then I'll have a couple of drinks too. But then they're like, let's, the bar's closing. Last call. Maybe we'll just go upstairs and we'll just hang out for a couple of times. We'll take a couple of drinks to go, then we go upstairs to the room and we're hanging out. And like obviously the slippery slope of a bad decision all was the genesis. The catalyst was walking through the door without a plan. So that person cannot exist in my life. That person is not going to be in my, in one of my companies. Because if you're faithful in the small things, you can be faithful in the big things. And if you're not going to be faithful to your wife, you're not going to be faithful with my money. If you're not going to be disciplined with what you're going to be doing with your time, you're not going to be disciplined with my time and you can get fucked, you know, like, get out of my life. I don't want it.
- [27:30]
A
I know that sounds harsh, but like, no, 100%. I think, you know, in a world in which discipline is not normal and in which people do not put those on high who do good things but who do flashy things, I think finding other people who have that same moral compass is rare and beautiful and so, and you know, especially for people who have options, one of the other things you said, Jesus, you have said a lot, you're talking all the time, is that, you know, and it might not have just been you, you might have been quoting somebody else. Maybe it was Jordan Peterson about how he said that, you know, it's not. What does he say about the violent man? It's like, do you remember his.
- [28:14]
B
No, of course. Okay, yeah, we'll get the wave tops because it's a long quote but ultimately the bluff, the bottom line up front is a weak man is not a good man because he's not capable to do one or the other. A strong man that's capable of violence but chooses to be kind, chooses to be gentle, he's clearly morally a good man because he has the capable to do violence. That weak man is just frankly useless. He can't protect you and if he can't protect you then he definitely can't hurt you because he's weak and useless. On the other end of the spectrum is the man that is capable of great violence and rather he touches you gently, his hands are calloused. He has never set down the sword, but he has never used the sword against you, but rather only to defend you. And that, that it's, it's, it's beautiful concept whether it's in business in the military. As a, you know I've, I've never had a heart, a harsh hand to my children, not once out of anger. Um, you know I Woke up at 5:30 this morning to go to Gracia Might of Cedar park to train with giancarlo Bodoni, the two time ADCC world champion who was teaching class at 6am to come home to make breakfast for my kids before they went to school. And that is the standard that I expect from everybody that I'm spend time with.
- [29:32]
A
Yeah, it's beautiful. What about when you were not this level of man yet? Because you are very open too about not having been that forever like all of us. Can you attract great leaders and team members if you are not a great leader and team member?
- [29:49]
B
Yeah, you can. There are, especially in the military. You know it's, it's hard because sometimes, often the worst get promoted and everybody felt that before.
- [30:03]
A
You're like, yeah, my boss.
- [30:04]
B
Happens in business, it happens in the military. And really great leaders will go into a bad leadership problem because they run towards the sound of gunfire, they turn and they face the problem and they want to address it. And they see whether it's a culture problem, a leadership problem, a substance abuse problem in leadership they put themselves in. So they're going to that bad leader, not for that leader but rather for the benefit of the collective and like give me that guy.
- [30:41]
A
Yeah. Chosen hard. Yeah, I love that. Okay, I want to open this up to questions in a second but what like this is a room full of either current owners or entrepreneurs or those who want to delve into it. And I'm sure all of them would love 60 seconds with Tim to say, like, what piece of advice would you give me? I know it's broad, but what would you give a group of aspiring on their way, entrepreneurs and owners?
- [31:10]
B
Yeah, I mean, growth is not linear, you know, in business or more often, as a person. You know, if. If you read my book Scars and Stripes, you'll see failure after failure after failure after failure after failure. I didn't fail at the same thing twice. So I'm either, like, extraordinarily versatile in all the ways that I can fail at something that's not an attribute that you want to be good at. So I'm writing a book right now called the Purpose of Pain. And this. Every moment of growth in my life has come from adversity. Every single opportunity for character development. The catalyst was a mistake. You know, I put my hand on the stove and I burnt my hand. I learned not to put my hand on the stove. I was dating Kira Gabriel Batalha in college. She was like, four or five years older than me. She was like a ten. I was young and like a six and a half. And, you know, and she's hooking up with, like, three other dudes. She broke my heart. I learned a lesson at the 6 not to hook up with the 10. That, you know, it's a good lesson. Yeah. You go into a partnership with a guy that doesn't have the moral values but has, you know, the acum to look successful and to look the part. But you didn't take him to lunch. You didn't see how he treated the waiters. But you did know that he had a side thing with his wife. And then, lo and behold, he embezzles you for, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars. Who here is surprised by that? You know, Yeah, I was. If you want to know how dumb I am, there's another example, like, the list is long and distinguished, of all the ways that I've messed up. Oh, yeah, but embrace the suffering, embrace the adversity, embrace the struggle, because that is the process. Like that title, the Purpose of pain is we're in an era where everyone's getting softer, everybody's getting weaker, everybody's getting poorer, everybody's getting, you know, like, sicker. It doesn't have to be that way. You can just rather go the opposite direction of the masses and choose discipline, choose regiment, choose pain, choose struggling, choose adversity. And on the far side of that, hard work is everything that you've ever wanted.
- [33:44]
A
Agree. Yeah. Well, the other thing too is if you guys ever are not motivated. Tim's Instagram is incredible because this psychopath does all these workouts nonstop. And you'll notice one thing about them, or I do. He's always like laughing or smiling while he's doing the world's worst workout of all time. And I noticed this because my husband's sort of the same way. He's like, finds joy in pain sort of. And so he's a, he's a great follow on Instagram. But I also love that about you, is, you know, it's you almost smile. You wickedly smile while you're suffering.
- [34:18]
B
Yeah, that. Once more into the fray is the Scottish people lifting up their kilts and, you know, whipping their ding dongs around before they charged the English. If that happened, like, that is historical. This idea is we're outnumbered three to one, they have heavy calvary, but I'm gonna like whip my dick around to let you know like, where my, my headspace is at. That, that, that is this idea of like, I'm looking at the scariest thing. I'm looking at adversity and struggle. But I've surrounded myself with extraordinary, wonderful people and I'm going to go into it with joy and happiness. And joy is a choice. Everybody, all of us. I'm not going to go into all of your lives. All of us have struggles. And, you know, if I don't believe this curated, editorialized crap that's on social media, if you could pull back a couple of layers and see some of the struggles that I have in my life right now, I still got to wake up at five, whatever, kiss my beautiful wife on the cheek, you know, go get a rad workout with a two time world champion that's way better than I am now in my mid-40s and season, like the peak of his career, and mopped the mats with my soul and I was in joy and gratefulness the whole entire time. And that was a choice. I landed from a trip overseas in the wee hours of the morning last night, you know, flew over the Atlantic at whatever midnight and a red eye to come here and get a great workout and then come here and have a great conversation. Jet lagged as heck, but filled with joy and gratefulness. So it's a choice.
- [36:07]
A
I love that. Okay, let's. Yeah. What a good human. Okay, I'm gonna come to you for a question too. One thing I'll say Also is if you guys haven't checked out, I know they're always filled. But he has these sheepdog response courses here, which I'm gonna have a bunch of my female employees take too. But they're incredible for team building and leadership and so learning how to offend one another, learning how to do hard things. It's another thing that I think's really cool that you did okay. And the only thing I'm ask is we don't have a ton of time. Tim literally has to jet out of here. So we're gonna usher him out. He's not going to have time to like sit and take pictures. It's our fault for programming scheduling. So just let him beine out of here.
- [36:46]
B
I have 17 minutes.
- [36:47]
A
Yeah, we're going to ask. We're going to go right here to a question.
- [36:50]
B
Quick hit for you, Tim.
- [36:52]
C
I want to say thank you for your incredible service to our country. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We're going to go in fast mode here because I know there's probably tons of questions for you. Thank you again for, for your tips on your empathetic energy that you glean from your folks that are gonna bring into your company. But what are your sneaky one to two questions that you ask folks.
- [37:20]
B
Where.
- [37:20]
C
They reveal more of themselves?
- [37:22]
B
Yeah. One is what does a typical day look like for you? Like, I can tell you from 5:30am tonight or this morning until 8:30pm tonight when my kids go to bed. I'm not going to go into what I plan doing from 8:30 until 10:30 from when my wife goes to bed. But from literally 5:30am until 10:30 tonight, I know every minute of my day has been planned and I'm not looking for. You can look at somebody's calendar. And I know if that is a $5 million entrepreneur, if that is a billion dollar business, business owner, just by your calendar. And similarly, the role that I'm hiring you for, your approach to your time should, should be equivalent and appropriate for the role that you're about to go into. So that's one, what is your timeline like? And then two is I, I want to see failure. I despise. Like, you know, the question of what do you struggle with? Like, man, I struggle with caring so much.
- [38:28]
A
Yeah.
- [38:29]
B
Come on. I love the transparency, humility. That is a really good indicator when somebody truly gives you a fault. You know, like something that they're struggling with. Their child has diabetes and they're. And I'm in the business of protection and preparedness. You know, and they, they sit there and honestly like power goes out, my insulin is going to last six months. My kid dies in seven. And I can see they're like, they're scared. Man, I want that person on my team so.
- [39:09]
A
Good. All right. Alex. Yeah.
- [39:11]
D
Hey, Tim, how are you? I'm a business owner who helps other business owners and I'm on a mission to help as many business owners as possible possible duplicate their efforts and get out of the day to day operations in just 90 days so they have more time to work on their business versus in their business. I'm curious to know what is your best piece of advice to help business owners who have limiting beliefs that no one can run the business better than them.
- [39:35]
B
A successful future business owner, non entrepreneur. And there I get the, the phase of the grind. The business owns you, where later you own the business. What for that transition to happen is you're going to have to be able to build, mentor, and then ultimately delegate responsibility and authority to the people that are going to be running that. And that is a selfless act. That is you having faith and a little bit of courage in the people that you are bringing into your organization to do it. And they're going to do it better than you. Your ego will get in the way every single time. I promise you. Every single person in my office. Matt Smith, Yako Kalili, Zach Mayo, Carl Kringle, they are smarter than me. They are better at what they do than I could ever like. What they do in the business is better than what I do. Matt Boudreau running Apogee, he's a thousand times better than what I could do in that same role and having the confidence that that person can do that thing. That business will own you forever until you make that transition to you owning the business and empowering other people to do it for you.
- [40:44]
A
Beautiful. You're working a lot in North Carolina. I know, or at least from my understanding you specialize more in the triage side. But we have a bunch of people with trades businesses here. So is there, can we partner with you or can we, is there an organization that you partner with that we can donate materials, time, people to help rebuild the community?
- [41:05]
B
Yeah, this was a great question. I appreciate it. This was the first time that we've actually ever done a United States conus based disaster response and it was because it was in North Carolina. North Carolina is the home to special operations on the army side. It's also the home to our headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. So it would have been really Selfish for us not to pivot some of our resources to a disaster there. And we are definitely the name of the organization, it's Save our Allies. Um, and if you email infoaverallies.com or you can just drop my email down, what is the one for Save Our Allies? I think it's Timaverallies.org we have Caroline who runs all partnerships and we, we partner with probably 20, 30 different people in government and then 50, 60 businesses that have legitimate contribution. There's a lot of people that hey, we can help. So our name is on something so we can say we're there to help. No, like we only General Donahue, he's a three star general. He does not allow anybody to contribute. He will like eliminate them from an organization in a heartbeat if they're not bringing significant resources to the table. We just don't have time to manage hundreds of small. I want to have my name on a billboard for an investment type partners. So like on the construction side we're doing, we're rebuilding bridges and roads, you know, we're fixing houses, building entire downtowns that have been decimated. So we would love, love help. Save Our Allies.org is the organization and that's the way to go.
- [42:56]
A
And I'm going to make sure you get one of Tim's books too. Beautiful question. Thank you for being a giver.
- [43:00]
B
So given your experiences in the high stakes fields of like military MMA business, do you have any like principles or mindset shifts that you have found most valuable for thriving under pressure and then how that can be effective in like high paced business environments?
- [43:15]
A
Yep.
- [43:16]
B
There's a special operations truth that says you cannot prepare for a crisis after the crisis occurs. The soft truths are the cornerstone to the book that I'm writing, the Purpose of Pain right now. Another one that applies to that is that people are more important than hardware. Those two soft truths. The first one, you cannot prepare for a crisis after a crisis occurs and that people are more important than hardware. I can have the nicest computer on the desk of all these employees and I can have the best chair, a standing desk and you know, whatever the current 2024 work optimization environments are. But if the person's not the right person and if I'm not recognizing that me mentoring and building that next leader is the most important thing that I can do, I'm just wasting my money and pouring stuff uselessly into equipment and stuff because people are the most important commodity and you have to prepare. When, when I, when I said before I go into a Meeting preparation occurs and rehearsals occur. Like I don't just have a white paper about what I'm about to, who I'm about to talk to, which includes their bio, what their ask is going to be, what we want to do in that partnership. I then rehearse, I will sit down with Carl and we'll go over like even role playing and war gaming, what that conversation is going to be like, how a couple of different options as the conversation unfolds, you know, and then I'm pleasantly surprised when somebody brings in something that I didn't prepare for and I'm like, yeah, sick.
- [44:52]
A
Okay, last question here. Just briefly please, my dear, I speak quickly.
- [44:56]
E
My question was you were talking about the switch in military attitude of new leadership. How can we get that not only in our businesses but also into our society and especially, especially into our governments? I'm from London. We have the nhs. It's a nightmare of middle managers who are afraid to do anything and be held accountable for anything ever going wrong, even if it would be the reasonable choice. What's your hot take on what we could do to enact that change?
- [45:19]
B
Individual responsibility in the preamble of the Constitution. Please. If you don't have the constitution and you haven't read in a while, please pick it up and read it. The entire idea of we the people was only possible because the people were capable, individually responsible group of people and they carved their existence out of the wilderness. They fought Indians and bears. Then they had a tyrannical government that said they're imposed a 5% tax on a single commodity and they threw tea into a harbor and then one shot heard around the world. They killed every single one of those people that represented that government and then kicked them off the continent. And that was only possible because the people were strong, the people were disciplined, the people were educated. And like in the military, we are able to do mission command as our new command approach because we are going to have faith and confidence that down to the small unit level, they are training the soldiers in their key metal task. So every unit has a medal, mission essential task list. A cook is going to have a way different metal task than an infantryman. An infantryman is going to be able to shoot, move, communicate, medicate. A cook is going to be able to purify water, you know, remove bacteria from, from food and be able to provide nutrients to the fighting force. Very different metal tasks. But I, as a leader, I'm going to have high confidence that once I give my intent that they're going to be being able to execute that because I have trained them and I have mentored them, and I've prepared them to be able to assume the authority, the responsibility. And then I'll authorize them to go and take that and be able to take make those decisions without me being there. And there'll be a learning curve. They're going to make mistakes just like you would. It's not like if you were in that role. You're going to bat a thousand. You're going to make mistakes just like they will. And you will use those as opportunities for both of you to grow one, you as a leader, and then them as an individual to be able to contribute in a more meaningful way as time goes on.
- [47:25]
A
Beautiful. All right. Tim Kennedy, everybody. Thank you, Tim.