Tim Loney is the CEO of Solutions Information System, an IT services company with an astounding culture and loyal clientele. Tim has always been a passionate entrepreneur, but a brush with death has completely changed the way he runs his business in terms of delegation, directness, and tolerance, among other things.
Tim Loney's story started out the same as most entrepreneurs - until one day, a near-death experience forced him to rethink his priorities and life choices. This raises some valuable questions - most important of which is how would you live your life differently if today was all you had, and would the top things on your priority list feel just as important?
4:50 - Tim's journey from the corporate world to becoming an entrepreneur
17:55 - The first few years running his own company
24:58 - Tim's brush with death
33:11 - Tim begins his battle with recovery and starts to realign his business
43:47 - You really come to appreciate the things in life that are most important to you - even things like time away from the business.
52:13 - How the experience changed Tim's tolerance level and his ability to hone in and focus on the important stuff.
57:13 - Learn to address issues immediately. Stop procrastinating, be direct, and stop beating around the bush.
1:00:23 - Have a business continuity and disaster recovery plan in place before you even need it
1:06:48 - Delegation is a 2-step process. You need to let go, and you need to have the right person to catch it.
1:15:26 - Tim's passionate plea to entrepreneurs. What he can tell his past self to get the important points across.
"Lower your tolerance level. Whether as a consumer of products and services or as the leader of an organization - you have to lower your tolerance level."
GET IN TOUCH:
Mark Leary:
www.linkedin.com/in/markhleary
www.leary.cc
Tim Loney:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sis-tloney/
https://solutionsis.com/
Production credit:
Engineering / Post-Production: Jim McCarthy
Art / Design: Immanuel Ahiable
Tim Loney on You're Doing It Wrong
Wed, 11/18/2020
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, people, severance package, life, american express, day, client, years, company, expectations, wife, plan, delegation, question, entrepreneurial, happen, conversation, build, feel, cardiologist
SPEAKERS
Tim, Mark
Mark 00:00
So we're rolling, cool. We are live. This is you're doing it wrong with Mark Henderson, Leary and my name is Mark, and I have a passion that you should feel in control of your life. And so what I do is I help you get control of your business. And part of how I do that is by letting you listen in a conversation between two people who have a passion or a real passion for excellence in the entrepreneurial world in some way. And they're talking about a subject you probably already know something about. But this time, we're digging deep and getting into the nuts and bolts, so you can start to figure out what you might be missing. So you can break through those ceilings and really get control of that piece of the business or maybe that piece of your life and really get the life you deserve. And so before I dive into the content today, please subscribe, share, share with your friends, make sure the people who can use this content, get access to it, it's really important. It's very, very helpful when you get feedback and share. Because that's the whole idea. We want to make sure we get this stuff recorded so people can hear it. And we don't want to just to be missed as a one time conversation. So for today, our guest good friend of mine, a guy known a long time I'm so privileged to have this conversation and talk about we're going to talk about but Tim Loni is CEO entrepreneur of a tech company that IT services company, we've been in a back when I was in IT services. We were ostensible competitors, but we've been friends through how long 1020 years? Oh, oh my gosh, yeah. Right. And, and just was a phenomenal company with it with a great culture, I had an opportunity to be inside the company for a little bit, which we can talk about at some point, but super loyal culture with loyal clients and all that. But the story isn't just about that the story is about understanding the gift of entrepreneurship, and the gift of life. And it was just, it's just kind of get right into it. I mean, Tim, Tim, welcome to the to the show.
Tim 02:00
Man, Mark, thanks so much appreciate you having me on the show. It's a privilege to you know, have this conversation with you as well. And, and share some information, Share, share my story, behind the whole thing.
Mark 02:15
I mean, this is crazy. We're in a crazy time. And, you know, we've, I guess what makes me so compelled about this topic is that we've done a lot of, we've all done a lot of reprioritization. And you're a lot of things that come to the spending time with family. What's really important in the business and in life, but I don't know anybody personally, who has had a more dramatic, more profound, and have heard of people, but I didn't, but I personally know somebody who has this dramatic, profound question of what matters most than you, because you have run your business for how long the business been running. You've been running. And in the middle of this, you died, you that actually happened, you use, you have a life before you saw yourself in the state of being dead. Now, you've lived the life since then. And I want people to hear how you see the world differently, how you see your business differently.
Tim 03:22
Mark, that's a that's all thing. October 23 is now a date on the calendar that I remember very well. October 23 2018, I hit the floor. In my office, I suffered a massive heart attack, right here in my office, my day to day job. Just the somebody up there said that it was time for me to stop. And fortunately, I'm here today to talk about it. And take that, you know, take the communication and really take a step back and look at what can I do differently now than I did for the previous years of my life before I how
Mark 04:11
many years before and how many years after October what was the year 2018 2018
Tim 04:18
we just just past two years, right? Just had a two year anniversary of me coming back to back to the world to you know, to run the business to run my family to enjoy life to you know, be able to look out the window at the ponds and the in the trees and really enjoy it to a deeper level than previously. It gives you a new appreciation for life.
Mark 04:47
So 19 years before two years after what I described describe the the journey that got you on the first half, like what was your entrepreneurial journey like, I'm sure largely like many others Huh?
Tim 05:02
Yeah, well, Mark, as you know, we, I spent my time in the fortune 100 business, spent time with Continental Airlines American Express. American Express was the last fortune 100 I worked for I was a, I was a tech on the technical team at American Express, and knew it was time for me to expand out. So after spending 10 years, working for a fortune 100 getting some great knowledge and great training, and there's nothing that I can look back at and say, I'm glad I didn't do it. Because I really appreciated what they did. They developed me for being able to go out on my own and build my company, taking this step into the entrepreneurial world, and taking my my skills and abilities and build a world class organization based on a lot of methodologies that I picked up in the fortune 100.
Mark 05:55
So you kicked out into the entrepreneurial world, what was your Michael Gerber calls it the entrepreneurial seizure? Like that moment when you think I could do this? And so you did. What was that moment?
Tim 06:10
Well, you know, Mark, the, the moment was, is that both fortune 100 that I worked for I received several severance packages. Okay. One at Continental Airlines during a bankruptcy, I received a severance package came back and, you know, did a job there. Which was interesting, because I came back the first time at Continental Airlines. And they said, Well, the only thing we have open, you can keep in mind, I was working in corporate headquarters on Allen Parkway. For Continental Airlines. This was like the big tower, right for the airlines. And I had a nice job had a beautiful desk overlook the city was great. The only job they had left for me was loading bags on the ramp. And so, so I said, Yeah, sure, let's, okay, I want to stay with the company. I want that, you know, Crystal decanter, and Rolex after, you know, spending 30 years here. And so I went in, and I went and did the trains. And I'm gonna
Mark 07:18
slow this down, because I said, Yes, I'm gonna load bags. That's, that's awesome. I love
Tim 07:28
like, you know, from the executive corporate tower to loading bags, because I wanted to stay with the airline. Right. I enjoyed that industry. And so went down, you know, it was it was a great opportunity. So I went I went into into the training class, I said, Okay, this is all cool. I took a couple days off, travelled around, came back to got my first day of training. So I go down into the dungeon and underneath intercontinental airport, where they hold the safety training, for working on the ramp, I had to obviously be refreshed or depend, you know, probably seven, eight years since I'd ever loaded bag. So it wasn't okay. No, yeah. Before, you know, very at a very young age. I mean, I started in that business at the age of 15. Loading bags on airplanes. So So here I am, I'm sitting there in this training class, and the money was nowhere near what I was making, right? So it's like, okay, we're going to drastically cut your pay, and you're going to backup airplanes, and you're going to load bags, right? So I'm sitting there, and I'm like, okay, you know, I'm halfway through by lunchtime, I had gone up to the instructor and I said, You know, I just don't think I can do this. I, you know, I just can't go back that far in the organization and start at the bottom again. So I handed in my little
08:58
lawn to,
Mark 09:06
like initially assigned to you.
Tim 09:11
Oh, no, no, no standard. Oh, no, no, but it's like, okay, standard issue. I'm like, here's my ones. I'm calling it quits I've done with your life is this, you know, this is just such a drastic, you know, it's just the airline business is always so volatile, right. So I handed in my wands, I walked out that door, the door that day, and I left the airline business altogether, and went into working for American Express. And joined into their organization, built my skills up, got my technical training, spent years just recertifying doing Novell training, doing Microsoft training, Cisco training, getting all the certifications I could to build myself. Skills up. And bam, I got hit with another severance package. Five years and an American Express. They said, oh, we're gonna re engineer the corporation. You know, the books Who Moved My Cheese reengineering the corporation about everybody?
Mark 10:16
You know? Yeah, absolutely. Classic work change. You should that's a good one, especially if you're stuck in your business. And if you're thinking like you're trying to do business, like you're doing last year, Who Moved My Cheese only knock it out? Like 45 minutes? anyway?
Tim 10:32
Exactly. It's a short, it's a short read. And it's a good one, right? It is great to have all those all those books on the shelf from, you know, building my organization, and understanding what fortune 100 to do, how they operate. So you can take the good and the bad from those organizations and build a world class organization yourself. For that perspective. So anyway, so five years in, got a severance package for American Express, bam, hit me in the face. I'm like, I wasn't expecting that. Okay, go ahead and reapply for your job again. Right. So reapply for my job. I packed up my box that day, took it home, and took all my personal items home with me that day, reapplied for my job, flew to Chicago, interviewed for the job in Chicago. And the job wasn't going to be in Chicago. But I had to fly up there and in interview, sat down with a couple of my former coworkers. And we're all like, I wonder who's going to get the jobs, right. It's like, they re engineer the whole company. But about three days later, when I'm back in Houston, sitting in my backyard, got a phone call. And they said, Hey, you know what, you're gonna report to Phoenix, and we've got a position for you. I said, Okay, great. But I'm not moving to Phoenix. And I go, No, no, no, you remember that desk that you had? And you know, on Hillcrest drive in Houston. I said, Yeah. They said, well, you can have the same desk again, because it's still vacant. So just take your stuff and go set up there. But you're going to report to Phoenix. I said, Okay, sounds good. So I just went back to the same desk, had the same phone number, and took my new position reporting to Phoenix with American Express. So fast forward four years later, and I'm expecting another severance package to come. So I went ahead and started my company. And I said, I'm going to be in control of my life. I'm going to take it from here. I've got all the skills and knowledge to be able to exit out of this company. reached out to my boss at that time, and I said, Hey, you know, you got a severance package coming up. And I'd like to be part of it. And he was taken back, he was so taken aback. He's like, What are you talking about? Are you reading corporate emails? Or what's going on? And I'm like, No, no, no, I'm not reading corporate emails. It's just it's systematic. What you're doing is in, you know, this is the year that you're going to redesign the company. And, you know, last, you'll look to cut people out and reorganize the company. So I'd like to be part of that. He said, No, he says, We're not doing that. And I said, All right. When you get the notification, just know that I'm putting my name on the list, find a way to get me out of here, because I'll have my 10 year anniversary coming up. And I'd like the package is the best at 10 years. So let, let me get out of here. Right. It's, that's the time for me to exit out. And I think I'm in a good position. I've started up a small little company, little tech company provides some support for my kids, we're starting, you know, okay, that's where it started. You know, I set up the line of business software for my kids daycare, so they could manage the kids, right? And so, sure enough, about three weeks later, he called me up and he said, You are not gonna believe this. I just came out of a meeting. And it's work on it, we're going to need to be cutting staff. And he said, but you we got to change your performance numbers, your performance numbers are way too high for me to even consider you to be on the list. I said, Okay, sounds good. We'll let's figure out a way. And several months later, I was reassigned to a new manager or a manager that couldn't manage. And with that said, I received a very poor performance review. And my performance was like in the tank, right? So Nine, eight years of great performance and all of a sudden, in my ninth year, I get this poor performance, but it was part of the plan. It was it was to be able to get me on the list and get me out of there. Which I was very prepared.
Mark 14:49
Your manager knows. Just pretend to be a bad student.
Tim 14:55
I had to pretend to be a bad student, the previous manager He was aware of what was what was being transpired. So he made, he made that call. And he said, just go with it. And I said, Okay, I'm just gonna go with it. He says, it's all part of the plan. I'm like, Okay. And so yeah, so I exited out was great. But, you know, I'm always been a very committed worker, and committed to the company I worked for, and always very reliable, and always wanted to really build and help build the organization. So was it hurt when you get a severance package? Right, even though
Mark 15:37
it was part of the plan? Like
Tim 15:41
even though it was part of the plan, you know, you get a regular paycheck. You know? Shoot, I went for years without a regular paycheck. The paycheck was all over the board right? Now I get a regular paycheck. But, you know, but I get this bonus on top of it. So you know, plus
Mark 15:59
two, is the propeller. Is it? Is it the story of the the gunner the heist of the bank heist, okay. Shoot me in the shoulder. So it looks like I'm not part of the deal. So you got shot in the shoulder? The bank heist is on and you're it's went flawlessly. So now you're now you're starting the business, you don't have a job anymore. You get savage package package, you look in the bag, and now you got a business and some severance. Was it all you hoped for?
Tim 16:29
Know what? That was
Mark 16:30
gonna be a trick question. No,
Tim 16:37
no, when I broke the news to my wife that I'd received a severance package and I was gonna not look for another job. I was just gonna go build a company.
16:46
That conversation.
Mark 16:48
The plan, you had you had this plan out there for months with your old boss, but your wife wasn't in on the plan. At that point. It was that a surprise?
Tim 16:56
Oh, god, no. Oh, God. No, that was a surprise. Yeah, no, you know, you got to be selective on those conversations. So yeah, listen, listen,
Mark 17:07
reputation of how to pursue that.
Tim 17:13
Absolutely. Everybody's situation is different. So but then again, I you know, I was under 30 years old, and I had lots of opportunity ahead of me, right? I have that conversation with my daughter. You know, I'm like, what you really need to be investing, you need to be putting money aside, you need to be looking at buying real estate versus renting real estate. And she's 23. And I got to remember, she's got 70 years left on this earth, at least, right? And so she's in a completely different mindset than I am. Because who knows? I, I've got a second round, like we're talking about, I got a second opportunity to come back and do things a little bit.
Mark 17:55
those first few years. I mean, everybody's, not everybody, but a lot. Lots of entrepreneurial leaders suffer a similar kind of slog, or something in this first years, where it's tremendous amounts of sacrifice, oftentimes, very exhilarating. But you know, it can be it can be tough, and especially tough on the family. So just kind of what's the what's the mindset for you at that time? What's going on at that time? or How are you making decisions at that point.
Tim 18:24
So at that time, my daughter was six months old, I had left my corporate job, my reliable paycheck. And I was starting out on my own right, trying to build a business. So the next step I took was, is I had a handful of customers. You know, during my last year at American Express, I had a handful of people I take care of on the side, and you know, had somewhat of an income, not a not a paycheck replacement by any means. But I had, I had to build that paycheck replacement. That was the goal, right? If I could replace my paycheck, then I'm at least breaking even now. So that was the next step to be able to do. And I went out and I got enough customers to be able to do that. And then about a year and a half into the business, I decided to make an acquisition. And I acquired a company out of bankruptcy. That was the gateway network service provider, here in town. They gateway computers, remember gateway computers, the
Mark 19:31
cow boxes, you know, jobs doing technical support for that company? Third party? Yeah, absolutely.
Tim 19:38
Yeah, yeah. So so I picked up the gateway network service providers, you know, fall out of their bankruptcy and acquired a bunch of clients from that. And that helped me launch the business into the next level. And then took, you know, did replace my paycheck and continue to build on it and over the years, no question. The next you know, several years I did six acquisitions and built the business over acquiring other small businesses and pieces of businesses that couldn't deliver didn't have processes and procedures in place. Coming out of the corporate world, that was the biggest thing was process procedure standardization. I learned all those in the in the, in the American Express world standardization, and took those and applied those to small midsize businesses. And they were just fascinated by how well things worked once you standardized it. And once you had a procedure in place,
Mark 20:37
thinking about so and I don't want to kind of I want to step through the big event in this in this timeline. But just kind of looking through the lens of your life. Now, when you look back on that time. Like what would you tell yourself? About what what do you what do you see now like, Oh, my gosh, I can't believe I was so focused on this right now, knowing what I now know, like, Why was I so? Is there this kind of like just head smack or things you look back at yourself in those days now?
Tim 21:08
Oh, I look back at those days now when, you know, is just kind of like cowboy rodeo, right? It's like do this, do that, go over here, try this. Try that, you know, 21 years later, really process oriented. Real procedures in place, a lot of standardization. But I thought I was invisible. Right? I just I would work 14 1618 hours a day, right? Sleep was optional. Just go at it. And really, you know, take the bull by the horns and build this thing. I did spend a lot of time with my kids. I was there, getting them off to school taking a mother's day out, you know, being there when they got home from school. That was some of the huge benefits that I got from building my own company was I got to spend that whole time with my kids. When they weren't in school, they weren't in Mother's Day out, they were with me. And their mom, their mom travels for a living. So she's on the road, a large percentage of the time, but really been able to establish a good long relationship with my kids by having that flexibility of having my own business. I look back at that and go Wow, that was that was a really good choice for me.
Mark 22:40
So you have the entrepreneurial journey, just like so many of us you sounds like you got it to the point where you are really reaping some of the benefits and it was a good life choice for you. 19 years clicked off in that take us up to when it all changed.
Tim 23:02
So thanks for going in blow and everything was super great, right? business was great. We were getting things done. We're buying second houses and driving fancy cars and doing all of the things that we all strive to do. Right things, lots of things. I came into work that day, had a full schedule, calendar was booked, double booked in some cases. Lots of calls to make. came into the office. I was I wasn't feeling well, the weekend before. And my daughter was in town from college. And I said, You know, I just really I'm not feeling well. So why don't you Can you take me up to the urgent care? And she says, Yeah, sure I can take urgent care. So we went up to urgent care. And they diagnosed me with acid reflux. They said oh, you know, they did an EKG, EKG came back fine. And they said you just got some acid reflux, you know, you need to take some of this acid reflux medication, and you'll be fine. So I immediately went and went to the CVS pharmacy and filled the prescription and got home and took the first pill, said acid reflux. Sounds great. Sounds great. We're gonna solve this. We're gonna solve this problem, right? That was on Friday. Saturday, I still wasn't feeling much better. But I was like, well, the doctors know they know what's wrong. they they they clearly identified this as acid reflux. So if I just keep taking this medication, I'll be doing fine. So it took the took the pills again Sunday and feeling a little bit better feeling well enough to go back into the office. Monday went into the office. office was doing okay. Tuesday, I came back into the office and hopped on a call with one of my clients in Waco, Texas. Big manufacturer up in Waco. And I was on the call. And it was one of those situations where I don't feel real well right now. And I told Jay, on the other end of the phone, I said, Jay, I'm not feeling real well, I'm gonna have to let you go. And I'll call you back when I get when I get feeling better. And I set the phone down. And I don't remember a thing after that, because at that point, I'd had a massive heart attack right here in my chair in this chair that I'm sitting in now, right? Did I expect that to happen? Absolutely not. We never do, right. But I had what they call a Widowmaker heart attack. listening to the stories, after coming out of you know, that situation, and being told that I'm the less than 1% that survived that type of heart attack. I realized that I got a second chance to make some changes in life. Right? And am I doing it right? Am I am I really focused in the right areas to do the right things? How do I change the way I go about my day to day? operating? What am I doing that it's different today than it was then. I mean, I was God, man. I was eating anything. I was having steaks and hamburgers, and you know, fried chicken. You know, one of the funny things was, as I told my cardiologist, after I came to several days later, I had a conversation with a cardiologist. And that says, You know, I could really use some Popeyes right now. He didn't laugh. He's like, that's the last thing you're gonna have. And you will never have Popeye's again. Okay,
Mark 27:21
so that's the whole thing in and of itself. So have you had Popeyes? No, No, I haven't. I don't think everybody I know is always this this? No.
Tim 27:33
Definitely not. Definitely not, you know. So you take that you take that hitting the floor and not waking up for five days, because really five days was about how long it took for me to come to. And when I came to, it was that situation, I was strapped down in the hospital bed because I apparently tried to pull everything out of my body that was stuck in there. You know, things in my arms and things up my nose and things down my throat. You know, I came to and I guess I got a little bit angry about all this stuff, and started to try and pull it all out. So they ended up having to strap me down and medicate me some more sedate. And, you know, but I looked at my mom, she was sitting next to me at that point. And I said, What happened? Where am I? And that conversation was you had a heart attack? And I said, No, you kidding me? How did I have a heart? How does that how does that happen? And you know that I fell asleep for a while, you know, it's coming, coming to and you know, very sedated that whole time in the hospital. Because the stress that that has on your heart? It's it's just like beating your body with a sledgehammer, right? Yeah. So you got to be very, very careful when you know when you're doing any kind of physical or even psychological thinking because it can really send you over the edge. So
Mark 29:12
I'm imagining that because of the physical trauma you described in the in the past, like the body is not just sort of repairing the heart, there's a whole rest of the body's been physically beat up and the attempts to to resuscitate you. Which I guess it was worth is noteworthy when I when I say your you died, like that was the diagnosis right? Your you, you they they measured you as dead at one point say something about that and then I want to talk more about what happened after that.
Tim 29:42
So they had to revive me three times. Once you're in my office on the floor of my office. They you know, moved my desk and you know, cleared space, which I know how to do that now because I'm CPR certified as is all of my staff Lesson learned. But they had to resuscitate me on the floor here in my office, they got me, you know, to come to well enough to put me into the ambulance, they had to resuscitate me again, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, which is less than a mile away. And then when I got to the hospital, they had to resuscitate me the third time. It was between the second and third time that they told my wife, they were about to read me my last rites. So that's hard. You know, they were, they were planning for me not to come back. And my wife heard them scream from the back, where they were doing the work on me, I've got him back, I've got him back. And the third time, resuscitating me brought me back to life. And they were able to keep me alive from that point forward,
Mark 31:01
it hurt, wow, emotional, just to kind of see and feel how real that was. And it just, there's two, there's two things that flow from that. One is the physical repair, that has to happen from the damage of the heart attack itself. Plus all their attempts to resuscitate you the physical trauma and the beat you up, they literally beat you up and other things that have to go along, then your body is trying to recover from that. So over the next day or two, or to talk a little bit about how the physical recovery is one element. The other part is, is sort of this awakening, I'm guessing and that's my word, I'd love you to describe it as you sort of come out of into the reality of I guess, it is getting a question out. I'm guessing that in dade t plus one, the business is a problem in your mind somewhere that is way subordinate to like no, I like to be alive. Right? Is that fair? Your your priorities? I'd like to be alive. I like to be around my family, these things are very, very present. Is that fair?
Tim 32:06
Yes. That is there. But you got to look at it is is the business support my face?
Mark 32:15
So it wasn't really that, you know,
Tim 32:17
there's a there's Yeah, there's, there's such a component, you know, and I live this business, right? I live this business for my family, to have the things that we have to be able to put food on the table.
Mark 32:31
So here's my question. Here's my question, Elena, walk us through, walk us through the concept, the consciousness of, Okay, what happened? taking stock of it working towards like, you know, from like, I guess there's probably even a time where you weren't even sure if it was going to stick right there. Like what you're alive for now. And then that's one point of this. And then now at some point, like, Well, it looks like you're gonna make it. So now you get the ability to start rewriting your recipe book for your life, walk us through the stages of like, I'm alive to like, I now have a new opportunity. And how did you get there? And what what really came to you what was surprising?
Tim 33:11
Sure, yeah. So yeah, at that point, you know, five days later, I realized I'm alive, right? But I hurt you, like you said, you know, the Thumper machine beating on me to keep me keep my heart going, you know, all those aspects of it. And, and so as I come to, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, you need and my mom, my wife, my children, I need y'all to know, this is where this is, this is where that is, if I don't make it through this, y'all need to know where certain things are, and how certain things work. And one of those phone calls was to you, Mark, right? is, uh, I can't remember if I made that phone call to you, or if I had one of my family members make that phone call to you. But it was having that person aligned to step in and take my role in the organization. And I believe I made that phone call.
Mark 34:18
I do recall that you and I spoke and I don't remember what happened first because I did get a call and or a text from your wife. And you wanted to talk to me and we did talk. And I don't remember how that fit into sort of like a first wave second one because there was there was sort of like the first wave of here we are but then you kind of had a it was a scare. I guess it was a sort of a second scare that sort of changed the chemistry of or the outlet. But yeah, I definitely got if I got a call from your wife and you and I spoke and you said exactly what you're what you're saying.
Tim 34:48
Yeah, yeah. So I had I had to, I had to make that call. And I tell people the story this to this day, I'm like, you know, I've got this this wing man mark. You know, and that, that phone call that says, hey, you know, if I ever need somebody to step in and take the business, I want you to, I want you to be able to step in to take it right. And, you know, I made that phone call that day. And I said, Hey, Mark, remember, remember I asked you to, you know, if I ever needed you to step in, you know, make that phone call. And I remember you saying, Don't make today that day.
Mark 35:30
Yeah.
Tim 35:33
And I said, Yeah, today's that day, I'm in the hospital. I've had a massive heart attack in Asia to step in, here's my, here's my voicemail password, here's my computer password, go in and in run the business while I try and get through the situation I'm in right now. So, you know, so we took those steps. But you're right, it was the beginning of a long battle of recovery. I want to say now, two years later, I'm probably 95%. But between that point of first recovery, and months of cardiac rehab, as well as physical exercise changes, diet changes. Realizing that there was still a blockage going back into the hospital, having multiple heart catheterizations, and multiple stents. You know, those were all events. I've got that process down. Man, I know exactly how it works, right. It's like, I know exactly what we're gonna do
Mark 36:54
that process you're talking to that's really interesting. Cuz I think what's what I think this is a part of the story. That's not all that well told. In that is, it was not clear what, what the path was for running your business for a period of time, even with the assumption that you were going to be fine, like me, because I never really seriously worried that you were going to gonna die. After that. I wasn't really worried about that. But what wasn't clear was how, how fast your recovery would be? And what were the right size steps to run the company in an interim capacity? You know, how should we plan for the next two weeks, you'll be back in two weeks. So we plan to the next year? Totally different, totally different things and, and having answers for people like clients and employees as to what the next month is going to look like. That was that was not that easy to figure out?
Tim 37:50
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it wasn't. And nobody knew. Nobody knew, right? Um, nobody knew if I would last another day or another, you know, month or years or what?
Mark 38:04
You're back, you're at capacity, like always, or is it half capacity? You know, and because I think you were, and I guess the details of this are different each potential situation, not everybody who has a, not everybody can have a heart attack. Right. But But the idea that it was unclear how much recover you could make, that's a that's a real thing. For anybody who is in a business where they have an illness that affects them, they might have to decide that 100% is not 100% anymore. 100%, what used to be 50%. And that changes the game in a big way.
Tim 38:37
It really does. Right? It really does. And you have to think about that is is I wanted to come back a lot sooner than I could. I wanted to be back into the business, the thing that I did day to day 80% of my life, right. But I knew that I wasn't healthy enough to do it. And that, that return back was going to be a long road. And it wasn't going to be you know, wake up this, you know, this Monday morning and go into the office and work for five days, that recovery was going to be Hey, maybe you'll go in Tuesday for a couple hours. But she will go back till Friday and maybe spend a couple hours. Right. So it was a very gradual return back into the workplace. And it was quite interesting. When I did come back. Well, number one, I had to move my desk back to where I was supposed to. I was like what the hell happened in my office? I'm like, Oh, they moved. Everything was moved. Like it was like moving out of the way just get it out of the way I guess. I never really noticed right, which is a couple
Mark 39:43
days or a couple times or whatever I came up there I did a lot of remote stuff but I wouldn't be in the opposite seemed like it was I was supposed to be so maybe they straighten things up and it was not in the same spot. As you were.
Tim 39:55
Yeah, I noticed it. I noticed it right away, right and it's like, you know But yeah, when those type events happen, it's like move, just take and move everything and clear a space on the floor and put your patient on the floor and allow yourself enough room for two people, one on either side of that person, or to CPR, right? They give you plenty of room to be able to work on that person and keep them alive from that perspective, but, yeah, but the return to work, you know, was slow and gradual. And, you know, you don't start rehab right away, you got to, you know, you got to give yourself time to recover from the heart attack itself. Go through all of the different medication formulas and find out what works best for you. What is the recipe look like? And believe me, there has been, I don't know how many changes to medications over the period of this last two years. But I think we finally got it to a point where it is where it needs to be. But it was trial and error and a lot a lot of ways that I feel it is trial and error. It's like, Hey, give you this medication. Wow. You know what I feel like, you know, I feel like my heart is racing 1000 miles an hour right now? Oh, well, maybe we should back that one down. Let's, let's increase this one and back that one down. Let's take this on a way and add this one, those kinds of situations. Right. So but yeah, coming back in, you know, it was a gradual, slow period. And, you know, people were surprised. I mean, my entire office was here. When the event happened, and they knew I was at risk, I was a big at risk for it to happen again. So I had to make sure that my stress level stayed down. And that, you know, I didn't over exert myself.
Mark 41:47
So to use that as a management technique. Like, don't stress me out, I could die, man, you get this ticket, get that ticket count down. You're like, I could I could die. And if your ticket resolutions don't get better.
Tim 42:03
You know, the thing is, is that I think it was on the reverse side of that the employees felt more obligated to keep my stress down that I did. They were coming to me saying I don't want to stress you out. I don't want to, you know, we got this taken care of, we just wanted to bring you in the loop that it's all been taken care of. Right. So they were proactive and not bringing the stress to me, or passing the stress onto me.
Mark 42:30
Did you find any trouble with people hiding stuff that you wish you'd known about? Because they were trying to keep it off your desk?
Tim 42:39
It wasn't anything that was life threatening. Right? detrimental to the business? Sure, they kept stuff from me. They needed to, they needed to keep things from me, right. So especially the client that I was talking to on the phone that day, he's like, hey, Jim never called me back. No, no, no, he was understanding. Actually, I think one of the employees called him like, six, seven days later and said, Hey, by the way, we know you were on the phone with Tim, he had quite an event happen, and he's not going to be returning your phone call. And
Mark 43:17
I think someone had already talked to him, but I did. I did check him now that I recall the names of all the clients and make sure everybody knows what's up and some people are already in the loop.
Tim 43:30
Right, right. Exactly. So yeah, so here we are two years later, right. whole different perspective. You know, not 100% turn, but I'd say probably a 75% turn you really you really come to appreciate the things in life that are most important to you. That being not only your time in the business but your time away from the business as well say more about that
Mark 43:59
right and more about what I believe what you're saying. And I think that's hard to understand for a lot of people when it when it just sounds like no, be more balanced smell the roses. And that just pisses off a lot of entrepreneurs including me and it's like, you know, I'm trying to do something I don't want to smell a rose How does a rose fit into my my workload here? It's not it doesn't seem mission driven. But I've come to find some wisdom in that. So how did it How did you connect time away from work as truly meaningful for you?
Tim 44:30
So, you know, it's you take this, you take this road, that is like all of a sudden we're looking at it from a different view. Right? If you're looking at the forest, I'll take my lake house for an example. One way I look out at the forest the other way I look out at the the water, both of them very different landscapes. Now I get to take a look at both of them equally because of In the past, I would just look at the water and go, Oh, it's great to be at the lake. But now I sit on the back deck and enjoy the forest as well. And by balancing my home life and my family life with my entrepreneurial, you know, growth and business life, it's a lot different. And it's a lot different and you need to take, I find that I'm so much happier. And it really hasn't affected the bottom line, which is a big piece of why entrepreneurs think that they've got to be at it 100% of the time, 24 hours a day, I'm not saying I've taken the throat taken off of the throttle on the business, I'm still measuring and looking at metrics for the business, and making sure the business is performing the way it should be. Right. But I have taken a different approach on how I deal with my life. And that is spending more time enjoying the things that are important to me, because, man, when you get hit with that, you died, you're not coming back, you don't get it, you don't get an opportunity to go finish those things that you didn't do. Or take that trip that you always wanted to take or go, you know, enjoy time with people that you want to enjoy time with.
Mark 46:31
Right? So let's let's stay on that for a sec, because I this when the word balance comes up, I still i think i patently reject the word I don't think it's useful. I think people hear and they tune out. And I don't think it tells the story. I do think that there is two words that I think are really helpful and more helpful to me and describing and one is healthy. And in this case, maybe holistic, and focus. And because balance tends to end up being it sounds like Like you said, taking the foot off the gas balance is slow down here, try a little less hard, don't stress out so much don't set the goal so high. And that's that, to me is what balance ends up kind of sounding like even though this may not be what it means. But focus. Talk about focus, because it especially in those first couple of days. Well, both of those now and then in the first couple of days, weeks, rather, you got to two hours a week will say work, you got to choose well, is that is that not an allegory for how you spend your energy for the next two years? Like, look, I gotta make a count, I got to focus because I can't do everything. It's not useful. It's not workable.
Tim 47:42
Absolutely, focus is a is a good word to describe that. Because the things I was doing up to that point, was doing everything. And certain things got focus certain things became priority, right. But taking those and really assessing what is the business doing? And how do I contribute to the business? And what do we get the best results out of? Right. And I agree with you balance isn't balance isn't, oh, just take your foot off the gas and go spend time with you disgusting time on the lake, or go, you know, that kind of thing. Because you can't do that. You have to make sure that you've got somebody that's taking care of the tasks at hand that need to be done in the business. And a lot of that has been my ability to delegate out more than more than I was used to doing. I had a certain level of expectation and I have very high expectations, right? I mean, I'm, I'm a retailer's worst nightmare. From from automotive repairs to you know, having my front doors painted on my house, right? It's like, no, that's not gonna do it, you know, those kinds of situations. So I have those kind of expectations for the employees that work in the business. And sometimes, you know, I think my expectations are higher than what our customers expectations are, which is where it should be. You know, you want to exceed the expectations of your customers. And you can still say focused, and make sure that level of service is provided to your customers. I'm doing it today, and it feels great.
Mark 49:41
They really don't. From a whole I'm gonna bring these two concepts together. You got emotional talking about who was important in your life. And but this is a whole thing as an ecosystem, like you said, like the business doesn't, you can't just like pretend it doesn't exist. It feeds the whole thing. So you take a step back and you look at your whole life. Your family, your friends, your business, your like house? Yeah. When you look through your, your lens now the new posts your second chance lens? How do you focus? How do you look at that? How do you see it differently? And how do you focus in eliminate? I guess the opposite, the most important part focus is easy to understand. The hard part to understand is to focus on three things, you have to say no 97. So when you so how do you say no to the 97? And how does that process work in your mind?
Tim 50:35
There's not enough time in the day to get it all done. Right. One of those one of those things was is that how do you? I'll tell you, you know, emails come in all day long. And that's another way to focus is how do I focus on the important things in those email communications? What's important to me? You know, in a, you have to take that concept and apply it to when I go into my office today, what am I going to focus on? What's the most important things? And some things are not going to get done? Like you said, the 90% are not going to get done? You're hoping that's not one of the most important things in your business? Right? And that's where the focus comes in. How do we focus on what's really important today? Because when that event happened in my life, there was a lot on my to do list that may or may not have ever gotten done.
Mark 51:35
So when you when you focus now, is it just you have an innate intuitive sense of like, Fs? I'm not spending any time with that? Or is there a consciousness that says Like, if I were to do this, this is going to be the old life? And I don't want the old life back? I'm going to say no to this with a great deal more conviction, or maybe any conviction at all? And before I would have said, Yes, the Is there a consciousness to how you choose where you're putting your energy? Or are you just sort of like, man, I just can't go back.
Tim 52:08
There is definitely a consciousness to the energy. Because I've got a second opportunity. And because of that second opportunity, there's a lot less tolerance. And sometimes that tolerance comes out in a strange guy. I'll give you an example. My wife took her her Highlander that she's got leased up to the automotive repair shop. And they sold her on one of those fuel treatment things for like 200 bucks, right? And she called me and I was at the cardiologist. I was at the cardiologist for an appointment. Okay. And my heart starts racing. And I like you did what you you've got a fuel treatment on a vehicle that you least that you're turning in in two months, and you paid $200 for this, put the guy on the phone, oh, I've already left, what's his phone number, and the tolerance level has begun, is just totally dropped, right? Like I used to tolerate that kind of stuff. They all whatever, you know, let it go. You know, it's 200 bucks, no big deal. Just don't ever do that again. Now. Now Tim is going to call that auto shop, he's going to get a refund, he's going to do Don't ever take advantage of my wife like that again, you know, really lowered my tolerance level of
Mark 53:38
anything that you went on that story. I thought you're gonna we're gonna go. So I'm curious. Because I would have thought I was like, you know, it's all small stuff move along. But you're like, no, I gotta be real. And so rather than stuffing down your frustration, you're like, No, I'm just gonna let it go. Do you? First of all, how did it end? Did you get the refund? Okay, I
Tim 53:59
got the refund.
Mark 54:01
That's inspiration. It was cathartic and you felt resolution.
Tim 54:07
But hold on. But no, no, but hold on. I got the refund. But spend another hour and a half at the cardiac cardio cardiologist office. Because my heart Ray was through the roof. They were about to meet me in the hospital. And he's like, What is going on? Your heart rate is like,
Mark 54:25
the healthiest thing for you, man. I get it your priority?
Tim 54:29
Was it it? Was it right? It was like, oh, man, I got so worked up, you know, I need to I need to not do that. He's like, absolutely. You need not to do that.
Mark 54:38
Not my office. So that's interesting. So I think there's some real wisdom in this. And I don't think people would talk about it like this so that you're, you're not afraid to be you. That's what I heard is that that's not fair. Is that close what you're saying?
Tim 54:51
Absolutely.
Mark 54:53
So other ways that that manifests in a reduced amount of stress, because I'm kind of guessing that what that what that did was it spiked To you and didn't look good, but you were able to let go. And as opposed to carrying that around, like every time you drove by the car in a place after that, you know, tech guy, take advantage of my car arrive. And that's just adding up. But now you're on to do that. Now you can look at that guy Really? Really? He gave me all the way back. And I like that guy.
Tim 55:23
Absolutely. And I, you're exactly right. I didn't carry that. I didn't carry that past that moment. I addressed it, I took care of it. And I find that I'm doing that more often. In client communications and personal relationships in all facets of life.
Mark 55:44
So here's here's where I'm gonna borrow this from Renee Brown. Barbara, you familiar with Renee and her? Okay. It's fantastic. She's a researcher from from University of Houston. Many people know her. She's, she's Oprah, you know, launched she's, she's Ted, she's everywhere. She's awesome. Got a great series of books that talk about a lot of things, not the least of which is boundaries. And she she has this sort of formula that that has been very instructive for me is if you have resentment, if there's something that you feel kind of lingering frustration about that did you might label as resentment that is because there was a boundary, you did not defend for yourself, there was something that you were a friend infringed upon something you wanted to do differently, that you didn't protect. And, and I'm seeing that this is a real real, this what you're after what you're doing, you're saying, I'm no longer willing to sacrifice my needs and my desires. And and I'm gonna, I'm gonna fight a little more aggressively up front, if I have to win a pay a short term price for long term gain. That is, I get to feel like I'm living free and honestly, and I get to live on my terms.
Tim 56:49
Absolutely. Yeah. You hit the nail on the
Mark 56:53
head with that, what are the things you're doing right now in the business on a daily basis that just could reinforce that? And yeah, what do you what are you doing, especially in the day, I really want to kind of refocus, you're in the business today, what would be so markedly different in the business today, then at the worst time before the heart attack.
Tim 57:13
So the things that are being different today is is addressing those issues, those employee related issues, those work performance issues, right? I address those immediately now. And I used to ponder on them, right? There was time where it's like, ah, he'll change, she'll change, the numbers will change, they'll show up, you know, now know, the tolerance is is down here. The tolerance for that kind of stuff is it gets addressed immediately, it gets corrected, the behaviors change, or they leave, or they get released from the business. That's, that's a huge change. Before I would, I would procrastinate, like most of us that, you know, deal with Employee Resource capabilities. It's like, okay, you know, and even in the interview process, like I'm very direct in the interview process, these are my expectations of you, as an employee, do you think you fit into our organization like this? Right? It's like, this is what we expect. If you can't meet those expectations, or exceed those expectations, then you're not a good fit for our organization. And you should probably look for something different. You mentioned
Mark 58:34
earlier about delegation, and I wrote it down, because I wanted to talk about that clearly connected, how do you see the role of your team now in terms of delegation differently than you did before?
Tim 58:49
So that delegation, you know, I have to have to keep in mind that my time is, is limited on the earth. I don't know when that moment is going to come. But I have to be prepared for it. Just like a business continuity and disaster recovery plan is things that we do for our clients. I need to have a plan that this business can operate without me that succession plan, right. And I need the people in place that know what I do and how I go about doing it, to make sure that if I step away, or I'm taken away from the business, that it can continue on without interruption. And so I've taken and I've made steps to bring in employees and bring in new people on the team that that understand how things are done, even in my role.
Mark 59:49
Okay, do you have a plan? Like a contingency plan if something were something what would happen if there was another bad health situation for you again,
Tim 1:00:02
Yes, yeah, that plan is now in place. That plan is in place. So hopefully we never have to use it right? It's kind of like business. It's kind of like a hurricane in Texas, right? You hope you never get one. But when you do, you pull out the boat and you pull out the, you know, pull out the document and walk through the process, that process is now in place. And so, so many people, just like business continuity and disaster recovery. So many people don't want to take the time to do it. until they've had the had the event, right. And I'm guilty of it succession planning, thinking I was invisible, and I was always gonna be here, you know, shoot my grandmother live to 103 years old. I'm only halfway through
Mark 1:00:52
the day, man, lots more to do.
Tim 1:00:54
Got lots more to do lots more to do, right. So
Mark 1:00:58
delegation, seems like a powerful thing. And I want to provide a little more color in that. And that reminds me, you said, you said this. And it reminds me when I sold my business, there was a time after I sold the business. And I didn't really have a job yet. And the company that bought mine, and was figuring some things out. But I did have some tasks that were either sort of just disposition of the old business, or things I was doing a new business. And so I had things I needed to do. But I had very scarce amount of amounts of time to do it. Because I had lots of things going on in my world that would suddenly take my time. And so I have a plan for all the things I was going to get done that week, or even that day. And I would see like seven major things. And then last but not gonna work. Okay, five majors, okay, like, routinely, I would be down to like the one thing, like if I'm going to get one thing done today, what was it going to be? And after like six or 10 weeks of that, I remember thinking, wow, you know, in the old days, I was busy for 12 or 14 hours, and I felt like nothing was getting done. And now like I look at this one thing per day plan, and I can't believe how much is getting done. This is incredible. This focus is really making an impact. And and I think that flows into the idea of delegation, when you can start getting these things off to somebody else's plate, and you're sort of focused on what matters most to you and your highest contribution, there seems to be kind of a doubling down and multiplier effect on your ability to make a positive impact is is that what you experienced in your delegation?
Tim 1:02:27
Yeah, it is what I experienced in my delegation. So I'll go back to my training and American Express that we talked about earlier in the conversation. So one of the programs American Express had in place was the Franklin Covey, you know, time management, we're gonna get, you get a planner. Everybody got a planner, everybody went to training, right? priorities, ABCs, one, two threes, you know, make things a priority and prioritize them, not only business, but personal as well. Put it on the calendar, prioritize it, make sure it's on the calendar, put the most important things first, right, make those if this doesn't happen, today, something detrimental is going to happen. Right? That's an A one category that has got to happen today, it's got to be completed. And that, that C three item is one of those like, Hey, man, if I had extra time, and I could get something, you know, I needed something to do. There's something to do, but it's not gonna be life threatening, it's not gonna, it doesn't happen. It's not a big deal. If it never happens, it's not a big deal. Right? If I if I don't respond to that email from, you know, whoever it was that, you know, some advertising email or something like that, if I don't act on that, nothing's gonna happen. There's no result, whether I respond or not respond to that communication. And that's how I prioritize my day, is I take those a tasks and make sure the eight tasks get those
Mark 1:04:07
not familiar with, with one of those is the priority. And one of those is the low severity, impact and urgency.
Tim 1:04:15
severe impact. Yep, yep, yep. Exactly. So and that plays it not not only in the business, don't just plan it and apply those to your business, but apply it to your personal life as well. Like, if I'm gonna be taking my wife out for dinner, and I want to make that in a task. You know, that's, that's a commitment that I'm making to that person. I'm not going to take you know, and say a client urges matter comes up, and I got to call her and say, Oh, you know, we plan to go out for dinner. You know, I got to take this call, and I'm not going to make it for dinner. No, I tell the client you know, I got another commitment on my calendar and I've got to follow through with that commitment, but you I'm happy to follow back up with you tomorrow morning, or later that evening, right, I realized the issue that you have is is highly critical or are very important to you, but I have something that I've committed to. And that might be dinner with my wife. Right? They don't, it doesn't matter whether it's dinner with your wife, or dinner with your most important client, it's been prioritized on the calendar, and it is the thing that's going to happen. And nothing comes in the way of that. So. But taking, taking a delegating, we're talking about delegation, right? Is delegating stuff off. As an entrepreneur, as a business development, you know, the guy that built the company, it's really hard to let go, very hard to let go. So for me to let go of a relationship that I've had with a client for 20 years and say, you're now the account manager, for this client, take extremely good care with them. I've watched their kids be born, I've watched their kids get married, you know, I've watched them, their kids have kids. Right? In some cases, you know, so this relationship with this customer is is deep, it's, it's very close to my heart. And so I need you to really be bringing your A game to take care of this customer. And letting go of that is hard to do. Be delegating that off to someone and finding that right person, making sure you got the right
Mark 1:06:42
back, I was gonna say like, we're talking about letting go the vine, that's the concept of delegation, and there's two pieces you have to have, and you have to a let go. That's the and B into the hands of somebody who can catch it right? You have to have both. And if you're if you're if for some reason delegation isn't working it, make sure you've checked both. Because if you've got the right person, and you just simply can't get your fingers to let go, then you got to work on that. But if your fingers won't let go and look at the person and go, Oh, the reason I won't let go is I can see that it's gonna be a bad bad outcome. And and I just wasn't aware of my own inability to address that piece of the problem, which it sounds like that was a big factor for your, your your ability to let go was, what sounds like was way enhanced by your enforcement, enforcement, the right word, clarity, of expectations, and making sure that if somebody was not in the position to do the work that was expected that you call that out, and you addressed it rather than pretending everything's okay.
Tim 1:07:51
Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. And it is, is it's feeling comfortable with that person to be able to take that relationship and manage it the way you've managed it for four years, right. And make sure they have that clarity of expectations, setting, setting what those expectations are, and making sure that they're held accountable for it and addressing it immediately. When it's not happening
Mark 1:08:15
five minutes, five days, 24 hours for you.
Tim 1:08:21
Immediately, I'd say the same day, if possible. Next day at the latest. That's very much what I experienced
Mark 1:08:27
as being useful. Anything beyond that starts to kind of morph into I forgot to like it doesn't matter. It brings the stress level up.
Tim 1:08:39
Right now you're now you're now you're questioning yourself, Am I making the right decision? Is this really an issue? Are my expectations too high? You know, you start questioning yourself, when you knew immediately This was wrong, the way you're dealing with that client is wrong, right? And I need you to change the way that you interact with that client or the way that you service that client. This is what their expectations are so addressing it addressing it
Mark 1:09:07
right away. The one thing that I think is really cool is that the I the whole story of I died or I had a brush with death and now I have a new lease on life. Isn't the Take it easy smell the roses work less story here it is stop settling, stop settling, or stop marginalizing your own needs. Listen to your own heart and your own standards and actually maybe be a little tougher on the world around you so you can live the life you want. And so it's almost like a call to action to stop letting things slide as ironically a longer term antidote to to success and creating some some happiness by raising the standard of excellence. Yeah, Yeah, I would agree with that. A lot. Your Man and I, I think we kind of told it the majority of the story and I want to ask you Is there anything you feel like we you want to add, that would be remiss if we didn't cover?
Tim 1:10:15
You know, it's a, it's good to be here. It's good. As I say, it's good to be alive. I didn't I didn't want to cover one thing is I met with, I met with the staff, everybody that was involved in my recovery at the hospital, right? They had a survivor luncheon, this was a funny story. Oh my gosh. So they call the MMS crew called me, which happened to be a client of mine, we actually put in their satellite communications between them in the police department years earlier. And so they called me up and they said, Hey, you know, we're, we want to have a survivor luncheon at the hospital at St. Luke's Hospital. And we'd like to invite you, if you're, if you're up for it, we know this is an emotional thing for you. And you may need to think about it, but we'd like you to be part of it. And I said, Well, yeah, give me a couple of days, and, you know, check back in with me. Because it is emotional, very emotional. So they did they check back in and I said, Tell me a little bit more about while you're gonna, you know, be there and you're we're gonna celebrate that you're here. And that, you know, we kind of you get a chance to meet some of the people that were involved that you had no idea were involved, because you were either dead, or, you know, heavily sedated. Dead is a rifle excuse.
Mark 1:11:40
That's that's exactly, exactly. And believe me, you don't know, right? Like,
Tim 1:11:57
but, so we had this, so we got it on the plan, we picked a day, you know, okay, you're gonna show up at like, 10 o'clock, and we're gonna have a little presentation. And, you know, you'll be there for the survivor luncheon. And I and I assumed it was the survivors luncheon, right, like plural, like there would be several survivors there. I showed up in the survivor luncheon was survivor, just singular. It was about me. Right? We had 50 to 75, first responders, fire folks, ambulance folks, emergency room folks. You know, cardiac people, cath lab, people. Everybody along the process was in that room? And, you know, it was it was very emotional, right. So you know, the people that some of the nurses came up to me and said they'd been there. 20 plus years. So we've been here 20 plus years. And we've never had someone survived that heart attack, the heart attack you had happens. And unfortunately, most people don't make it. And they've been there 20 plus years, right. And they've seen it. So
Mark 1:13:22
how many times you find new depth of understanding. Because that sounds to me, like one of those moments where like, you thought you knew how grateful you are, and then you go face to face, and you're like, it adds a whole nother level you go down one more level of like, Wow, I can't believe how lucky I am. How many times that happened to you? Like Yeah, like,
Tim 1:13:43
it's still it still happens. It still happens. Like, you know, I still, you know, I'm in the car, and I play a song. And I'm like, Man, it's great to be here. You know, so, but you know, they you don't know, you don't know what tomorrow has to lead. Right? You know, know what, if you've got an opportunity to see tomorrow or not, I hate to say it, but it's true. I never saw it coming. I never saw it coming. I had no real symptoms, right. So, and unfortunately, some people don't make it. I'm just, I'm just fortunate to be here and it made it and be able to sit here and talk with you today. And share this share this information. I'm
Mark 1:14:31
so grateful, as well for just the fact that you're still in my world, in my life that I'm super grateful for that. And the trust you put in me was always very profound, and I hugely appreciate that and the trust of telling the story and how we're going to present that and so that's, that's amazing. The tricky part of your story is that it's you can't share your experience. You can only share words of advice. And so it's everybody I know, we talked about the subject, it's like, well, it sounds important. And how do I kind of bring it into my presence? How do I bring it like not having lived through a near death experience? I don't have a way to contextualize that. So get how what would you try to tell yourself knowing how hard you would it would be for you to hear yourself? You know, what would you tell your old and this isn't? I'm replacing my normal question. My normal question is, what's your passionate plea for entrepreneurs right now, but I want you to go to the filter, like, what would you try to tell your past self that would land knowing that your past self wouldn't have a way to connect with a near death experience?
Tim 1:15:42
Wow. Well, that's kind of hard to hard to hard to respond to. Because you're right, I felt that would never happen to me. Right. And now that I'm here, how do I look at it? I don't know how to respond to that.
Mark 1:16:03
Well, I mean, the more question is sort of like, what would your best attempt be to cut through your resistance as as somebody who would fit without into inventory invincible? Because I don't know. I? It's, you know, it's maybe the maybe the answer is there's nothing you can say maybe there's nothing you can say that brings it brings it home. But and maybe I will just go back to the default question, what is your most passionate plea to entrepreneurs right now, given given your perspective,
Tim 1:16:35
lower your tolerance level. Lower your tolerance level, that's the biggest thing that I've seen happen, since that event, is I've lowered my tolerance level, in all facets, and, and, and being a consumer of products and services, and being a leader of an organization, in addressing the things that you've never addressed. If If you look at today, and you say I really need to address this, because tomorrow, I'm not going to get the opportunity to address it today. address what you've been putting off. Because if you don't get to address it, ever, it'll never be addressed.
Mark 1:17:27
That's incredible. I think that exact exactly answered the question. I was trying to engineer in such a great way. Because it didn't preach to I don't think to some impossible to understand perspective. Here. You're saying like, Look, man, the best, the most important ingredient to increasing my happiness was just just accepting less BS. And everybody can use that. Whether you're gonna die at 103 or not. Everybody can use that right now. super practical. It's not an insurance policy forward. What if it's like No, do it now. Live it now? raise the bar. Just stop accepting BS. It's no one's winning.
Tim 1:18:09
That's exactly. That's exactly
Mark 1:18:12
man. This has been an incredible experience for me and I'm so grateful for the time. I think this is gonna be helpful for a lot of people and I'm really eager to hear feedback. But that's that's it I start time for today. I we've covered so much. It's been wonderful. Everybody who listens to this, please share this with with friends who you think could get some benefit out of this. But just to ending ending the conversation if somebody wants to continue the conversation or just connect with you in some way, how does somebody find you, Tim?
Tim 1:18:44
Probably the best way to find me is the company is the best IT company calm, which I love from a marketing perspective. And then my LinkedIn profile Tim Loney ti M. LONEY, you can find me on LinkedIn, pretty active on that platform. And you can connect me on LinkedIn. Thanks. Thanks so
Mark 1:19:07
much, Tim. So for that's it for today. Please subscribe, share with your friends. leave feedback so valuable. And we will see you next time on you're doing it wrong with me.
1:19:19
This is you're doing it wrong with Mark Henderson Leary for more episodes and do subscribe, go to leary.cc