In this dynamic episode, Tim Stout, Team Leader of Tim Stout Group, GA, shares practical tactics for managing teams and scaling businesses. If you struggle with team management or overwhelming opportunities, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– What to say no to for focusing on great opportunities
– Why leading by example builds a strong team culture in stage 3
– How to prioritize high-value tasks to delegate effectively
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the start, scale and succeed. Podcast, the only podcast that grows with you through all seven stages of your journey as a founder. And today, we have a great episode for all you founders out there who find yourself asking the question, What’s wrong with these people? Yep, I’ve been there too. You create a ton of success as an entrepreneur, as a solopreneur, and what is the reward you wake up, it’s usually like on a Monday morning after you’ve spent the whole weekend cleaning up everyone else’s messes and doing their work for them, when you realize you’ve become a manager, and let’s be honest, that’s the last thing that you wanted when you started this whole thing. So if that’s you, today’s guest Tim Stout has 50 Yes, 50, fight to win tactics that are going to help your business succeed. In his book, forged in fire, and he’s here with us to discuss today, to discuss somewhere up to we’ll see how far we can get with this. But five of my very favorite chapters from his book, and with over 35 years of experience in combat sports and 22 years in business, Tim draws on his extensive experience to offer practical fight to win techniques for anyone ready to elevate their journey, he designed his insights on personal accountability, goal setting, overcoming setbacks, to help entrepreneurs, leaders and dreamers to transform their limitations into achievement. He’s here with us today, Tim, I’m excited to have you on the show. I really enjoyed the book forged with fire, just for those who obviously haven’t had the chance to hear about this, many of it’s gonna be the first time they’ve heard of it. But tell us a little bit about the book. What problem did you hope it would solve for your readers, and why did you write it?
Tim Stout
Scott, appreciate that introduction that was amazing. By the way, the fortune fire was a, you know, I’ve grew and scaled several businesses, and it’s simple tactics, because when I find myself, when I’m doing these things, there’s, there’s lessons that I can relate that something that happened as a kid we grew up, you know, super poor Appalachia, East Tennessee. You know, I had just five, five boys, two girls, mom and dad, in an 800 square foot house. So lots of love, great family, but super poor lessons that I pulled from that, and then as a, you know, professional athlete for a decade, there’s lessons that I learned in the cage, you know, in the weight room, in the gym, and it’s just the little lessons that like when I find myself building the businesses, that it’s the lessons that I learned there the same lessons relate to the same lessons in business. And it was just a good reminder that the it doesn’t matter if you’re a startup or if you’re if you’re scaling for a big merger, it’s the same problems. It’s just the level of that problem.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. So good. So I’m wondering if we could dive into a couple chapters that I that really stood out to me. So there’s 50 of them. There’s a ton of great content in there. Again, highly recommend the book, but we’re gonna pick and choose a little from some of my favorites. So first one that jumped out to me was chapter four. And Chapter Four is pick up the broom. And so in this chapter, you emphasize leading by example. The question that I have for you is one, you can set up what picking up the broom means for us, but then, like practically, how do visionary leaders model execution for their team? And maybe even, how do they know when to pick up the broom and when to hand it off?
Tim Stout
Okay, that one comes from. I’m a big fan of lead by example, and I was fighting. I had a I had a few rules and and I have outgrew these rules, like I am, mentally beyond these rules. But a lot of the rules were, if you couldn’t outlift me, don’t tell me how to lift weights. If you can’t outbox me, don’t tell me how to box. If you can’t out grapple me, don’t tell me how to grapple. Because everybody has their opinion. So the people that I listened to were the people who could, you know, the boxers I listened to are the ones that could beat me up, the grapplers, the ones who could submit me, the ones that are stronger than me. That’s the ones I listed to listen to. So when I stepped into leadership roles, and even before I started, you know, entrepreneurship, I ran businesses, I ran I ran gyms, I ran detention centers, I was I wasn’t. I was a manager. So I did that at a pretty high level. And I realized real quick, me included, I didn’t respond well, to someone telling me to do something, who hasn’t did it or wouldn’t do it, but the ones that would tell me like that tell me to sweep, you know, pick up the room. They were the ones I saw the day before sweeping. Yeah, so there’s no reluctancy, there’s no there was no animosity for him to say that to me, I would just do it, yeah? And when I lead, it’s the same thing, like, it’s the floor. The floor needs sweeping. I don’t have a higher producing activity to do, I’ll do it. Trash needs taken out. And I don’t have a higher dollar producing activity to do, I’ll do it. And, and that has caused a, you know, it’s a pretty good culture that when people see that and they they mimic it and follow the year lead.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, I love that you mentioned kind of the boundary is not the right word for that, but you know how to choose when to do it, and you said a higher income producing activity. How do you personally figure that out? Because a lot of this is happening in real time. Is that a conscious decision, or is it just like an intuitive, cultural decision?
Tim Stout
It’s conscious, but it’s something that, you know, you think about. It’s like, what is my higher dollar, highest dollar producing activity? Because, like, last time I moved, like I told my wife was, I’m not cutting grass. I mean, I’m I’m worth, you know, $500 an hour. I’m not cutting grass. I’m not doing this. I need all the things that I’m not doing, because my highest dollar producing activities when I’m on the phone, when I’m when I’m prospecting for business, because I do really well there face to face and on the phone, I do really well. So what I would do I started off with I drew a pie chart, like, it’s like a pizza, and everything was in the pizza that had my East each job. And I assigned $1 activity to that job, like my administrator, make $20 an hour. The person doing contracts would make $25 an hour, and all these things. And as I grew in the business, I would hire that lowest dollar producing activity, because it was the cheapest one. But I would hire someone in there I wouldn’t replace. If I had a medium pie chart, if I replaced, like an administrator assistant. It would be a large slice that would go in it. They would do it better than I was. That was their thing. And then would give me back three to four hours a day to prospect for my highest dollar producing activity. So if I’m worth $500 an hour, and I’m paying someone $20 an hour, not only am I making that $500 an hour, I’m making the 480 because I’m doing that instead of that for those hours, yeah, yeah, until I work the whole chart.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, fantastic. And that kind of brings us to the next chapter I wanted to dive into. This is Chapter 11 in the book, where you say saying yes means saying no. And for for founders, especially at this stage where there, there’s this, this change that happens, where you go from everything you do, you have to do it, and you’re just fighting for opportunity, right? So, like, anytime you actually get an opportunity, the answer is almost unequivocally yes, you know, like, as long as it’s legal, ethical and remotely close to your your industry, you’re like, yes, it’s like, Can I finish the sentence? No, we’re good. Let me just help you. But you know, you do that, long enough and you start to build a reputation. You figure out the stuff that works. You find out what you like to say yes to. And one of the real big challenges is you’re not fighting to get opportunities to say yes as much as you’re having to exercise the discipline of saying no. And so I love this concept of saying yes means saying no. So for that founder who’s just, you know, overwhelmed, is in the right world, but just sees all the opportunities ahead of them, how do they know what to say yes to now?
Tim Stout
Like when you say and I would ask them to reframe their brain. When you say yes to something, you’re saying no to something. So what? What exactly are you saying no to? Because everybody wants to say yes, but what are you saying no to? But to directly answer that question? I think it was Alex or mosey that said it, that the hardest part about being an entrepreneur is saying no to the good idea so you can execute on the great ideas. And with me, and I’ve and I’ve flipped, I mean, I’ve bought franchises, I’ve built businesses from ground up. I’ve been partners, and I realize now, you know, I’ve been in the business for a while, exactly what my strengths are. And I say yes, the things that I can vertically, vertically integrate with that strength. If I have to go out a little bit, I either hire that out or I don’t do it. But I’ll say, yes, the things that are in my wheelhouse, it’s everybody has their strengths. I think two of the biggest things about being entrepreneurs, you need know your strengths, and even more importantly, you need know your weaknesses, my weaknesses. I chase shiny objects, like I quit doing about four years ago, but I’ll run them down. And, you know, for the thought of something, or the idea of something, and then I realized, like, it’s that’s not my strength. My strength is building real estate businesses, if it’s investing, if it’s mortgage, if it’s if it’s real estate sales, whatever it is. And my businesses I’ve said yes to are the vertical integration, was the title the mortgage. It’s the ones I can build off top of that, because my strength is building that business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right, right. That’s so good. The The second aspect of this that I think is challenging for folks at this stage is knowing how much to say yes to, right? And this comes down to a few things, but one of them is just, how hard can you push your team? And you talk about this actually in a couple of different chapters, but how do you know how much to say yes to.
Tim Stout
Yes, It depends on you, depends on your team, and depends on your goal. For me, I’m I’m a worker. I mean, I was at the office at 6am I work 12 hours, and I do that most days. Like, I love to work. I love to build. Like, do I go on a vacation? I still want to work. It’s hard for me to pull away from work to do a we just went on a like, a Mediterranean cruise for two weeks, and it was very enjoyable. It drove me crazy because I. I’ll really enjoy working so but one thing I realized, you know, I have multiple businesses. My wife has multiple businesses. And I tell her all the time in the beginning, especially when this book was written and I first started building businesses, you expect everyone to act like you. You expect everyone to do like you do. And I guess five or six years ago, I was talking my wife had a realization, it’s like, had a realization is like people like us don’t need us, so we’re working with people who are not like us, so we can’t have the same expectations, because the only thing that comes from an expectation is to be upset with somebody. So I’ve had to really understand, I had to lower my expectations, because most people are not going to want to work 12 hours. Most people don’t want to sell, you know, 300 houses a year, like I do. So I have to find that medium. Did that answer the question.
Scott Ritzheimer
It did, and it opens up a question that I had with with chapter 33 and so there’s a couple here. Want to unpack, but how? How do you because I couldn’t agree more, I think one of the biggest challenges for very high achieving founders is that they kind of use themselves as the litmus test, right? How much management does this employee need? Well, how much management would I want? How? How much can that employee get done in a day? Well, how much could I do and and like you said, people like us don’t need us, and so that, I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. But then what is so? How do you in this, this idea of no bad staff, only bad leaders. How can you use that to become the leader that the people who need you need, right? How do you become the person that gets the most out of those team members.
Tim Stout
And when I wrote that chapter, it was based off of a lot of people. You know, Extreme Ownership was, it was a newer book, and that was, it was on fire. People love that. And I’ve worked with a lot of leaders who they like to play the blame game. And then I break it down, who hired that person? It’s like, you hired that person. It’s your fault. You either had a you either had had bad hire, or you got a bad training process. One of the two is happening, and you have to accept responsibility on either either one of them or both of them. And so everything that can happen is my life really changed when I when I started to really do the Extreme Ownership. It’s like, this is my fault. And then I had to break it down to why it was my fault and what the I wouldn’t say the solution, but what the fix is, how do I keep from doing this again? And I think that process has helped build me as a leader, because it’s people are not going to work as hard as we do rarely and when we do, especially in my industry, they don’t stick around long. They come in, they learn what you do, and they’re like, why am I splitting my commission with him? And they can go off and do it on their own, right? Sometimes they’re successful. Most of the time they’re not. Sometimes they are.
Scott Ritzheimer
And when it comes to another one of these management functions, so let’s say we’ve got the right people in. We’ve figured that out. We’ve set them up for the right hiring. We’ve set them up for the right training. It doesn’t necessarily end there, right? There’s this ongoing process of keeping them in peak performance, and a big part of that is accountability. So how do you make sure that you’re managing appropriately, not too much, not too little? How do you navigate that?
Tim Stout
I think an expectation talk. When I when I bring on a say, I bring on an agent, an expectation talk of what’s required. And with me you, because everybody’s about KPIs, KPIs. And I think KPIs are very important. But we both know people, or have had people who work for us, who hit all their KPIs, but they don’t produce. And so my number one metric is sales. How many sales can you get? If you are not getting your sales, you have to hit all your KPIs over here, because the law of math tells me, if you hit your KPIs long enough, you start to get production, and if you don’t, it’s an issue with someone else. It’s an issue with the salesperson. So it allows me to know what to do, but I do the KPIs, and I find out, you know intimately, what they’re wanting out of life, and I can usually attach it to a monetary figure. There’s very few things that money doesn’t fix in someone’s life. You know, everybody’s like, I want freedom. Money gives you freedom. Like, it’s I want to have weekend, Lake House, the money gives you that. Like money gives you this. So if I can attach that to the result, and you know, we can break it down on what they need to make that usually helps, cause it’s less me holding them accountable and me just holding them accountable to their own goals, and it’s not me being the boss that’s trying to be greedy and stuff.
Scott Ritzheimer
Got it. Got it. Good, good. So, Tim, there’s this question that I like to ask all my guests. I’m interested to see what you have to say. And the question is this, what would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Tim Stout
For life and especially for businesses, whatever you want to do has been done before. Find the mentor. Find the person who’s did it, read the books, watch the videos, hire the coach and do it just so they. Done it. And I’ve, I’ve done it, and I’ve seen so many other people, they want to blaze their own trail, but it’s, it’s been blazed before. Like, find out who blazed it, how they blazed it, what they would change different. Like, I’m a big fan of coaches. Like, I’ve, I have multiple coaches. I hired a new coach yesterday, and I’ve already got multiple coaches I coach with. And I want to improve the aspects of my life, but I’m not going to, like, I hired the black swan group. Chris Voss, I’m not going to study all the books about negotiating when I can go straight to the source of someone who’s did it as the highest level. Like, I can take away five years of my life and learn it in six months. And so the it’s been done before. So quit trying to blaze your own path and just learn it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. It’s you can go you, you can try and do it alone, but you can do it a lot faster with the help of others and and and reduce so many of the potential pitfalls. So Tim, there’s, there’s so much of this book that we haven’t had a chance to unpack here, but I know that it’s resonating with some folks. They want to know where they can find out more. So two questions, where can they find the book? And second, if they want to know more about the work that you do or connect with you directly, how can they do that?
Tim Stout
It’s on Amazon. I had one here. It’s on Amazon, so just Forged in Fire: 50 Fight-to-Win Tactics. That’s the best, best place to get it for me, Facebook, Tim stout and Instagram. @thetimstout. I do. I do a mix of like for especially my Facebook. I’ve got a huge following on Facebook, but I have, you know, self defense videos from my fighting career. I do real estate. I do investing like it’s, I know a lot of people say you shouldn’t mix, you know, your genres on your social media, but I’ve got 425,000 followers, and it’s and everybody falls in line. Loves all of it. So,
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, we’ll be sure to check that out. We’ll get all the links to that in the show notes. So whatever your favorite channel is, you’ll be able to find Tim there. Tim, thanks for being on the show. Thanks for the book and what you’ve shared with all of us. Those tactics are phenomenal, and folks are really gonna benefit from it. So it’s a privilege and honor having you on the show. Thanks for being here for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Tim Stout
With over 35 years of experience in combat sports and 22 years in business, Tim Stout draws on his extensive experience to offer practical “fight to win” techniques for anyone ready to elevate their journey. He designed his insights on personal accountability, goal setting, and overcoming setbacks to help entrepreneurs, leaders, and dreamers transform their limitations into achievements.
Want to learn more about Tim Stout’s work at Tim Stout Group, GA? Check out his website at https://www.thetimstout.com/
You can also check out his Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/timmoab and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/themoabstout/
You can grab a copy of his book “Forged in Fire: 50 Fight-To-Win Tactics to Help Your Business Succeed” here: https://bit.ly/4f1BnOI