Today on Hindsight Hacking we are joined by TJ Slattery. TJ co-founded Zuni Street Brewing Co in Denver, CO and operated as the business manager to plan, fund, build, and launch the brewery in the Denver Highlands starting in the summer of 2015. After opening, TJ’s day-to-day revolved around the mechanics of running the business, but he also had a heavy focus on building a unique culture and finding ways to compete in the heavily saturated Denver brewery market. After exiting Zuni Street in February of 2020, TJ pivoted careers and is now a Business Advisor at Cultivate Advisors, and works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses.
Cultivate Advisors partner with small business owners to create scalable systems that allow the business to develop and grow at an accelerated rate. They are an industry agnostic and partner with business owners who are not looking for answers on their industry but more on the ‘how to’ in growing and maintaining a business. TJ works 1:1 with business owners to train, develop and coach on all the hats required in running a successful, fast-growing business. Some of those hats include Vision & Planning, Operations, Productivity, Financials, Sales, Marketing, Leadership, and Recruiting.
Connect with TJ:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/timjimslattery/
Connect with Cory and Ron:
Head over to Https://profitswithpodcasts.com to find out more about how your can easily launch and monetize a podcast.
Or maybe you would like to learn more by jumping on a call with the guys? Just book a time that works for you!
https://calendly.com/hindsighthacking/connect?back=1&month=2020-11
And you can find Cory and Ron on a few social channels!
https://follow.cool
https://www.facebook.com/coryecarter
Or you just want to check out their websites:
Https://gethhm.com
Https://impactorsmastermind.com
[00:00:00] CORY: I'm Cory Carter.
[00:00:05] RON: And I'm Ron Cool
[00:00:18] this podcast we've hacked hundreds of entrepreneurs, hindsight To help you, the listener. with Better foresight. Now, guys, if you want to know all about what we can do to help you focus on being you head over to get hhm.com, keep pushing through those ups and downs. that we all will have,
[00:00:36] CORY: we're still going to have amazing conversations with amazing people. Hindsight hacking boils down to amazing. With some amazing people
[00:00:52] oh right. Everybody. Welcome back to another episode of hindsight hacking. And today we are joined by [00:01:00] another. Another Denver a resident Mr. TJ Slattery. So for anybody that doesn't know TJ co-founded Zuni street brewing company in Denver, Colorado, and operated as the business manager plan fund build and launch the brewery in Denver Highlands, starting of 20, the summer of 2015. Now fast forward a few years and in February of 2020, TJ pivoted And came and advisor at cultivate advisors, which I know we're going to get into deep today. And he works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to grow. And scale their businesses. TJ, I am super stoked to get into this today. Welcome to the show
[00:01:42] TJ: guys. Thanks so much for the lovely introduction. Great to be here today.
[00:01:46] RON: Yea we're excited and I'm not sure where my beer is. I feel I should have a beer that's what I feel I should have right now.
[00:01:54] TJ: Never, never too early.
[00:01:55] RON: It is too early! It is. Two 30. So [00:02:00]
[00:02:00] CORY: it counts as breakfast and your
[00:02:02] RON: that's what I thought. That's how I usually wake up. But anyway, before we get too far into it, TJ, why don't you take a moment to give a little bit more backstory about who you are.
[00:02:12] TJ: So I've always been in the entrepreneurial line of work before I was with the brewery I spent a lot of time in small business management and entrepreneurship spent some time in London working with the facilities management group there and their hospitals. I then came back and started a partnership with a friend of mine who was the brewer for Zuni street. And I did the business side of the operation and he was looking for somebody to partner with too, because you want to do the beer side of it. And he used somebody to run the shit. So I was like, great, Let's let's put together. So my, my side of it was putting together all the systems and processes in a brewery startup and finding the finances to get it started finding a location, you know, getting the build out, managing the time on that, doing the build out budget. And then all of a sudden, you know, things flip and now. you're not a startup, you know, trying to get to through your runway now you're operating. So then it was working with employees and building a brand and getting a community. And it was an [00:03:00] incredible experience we operated from for three years, 2017 to 2020 before exiting in February, just before the shutdown. Really took away some amazing experiences on working in with the startup in a brewery, in a very competitive market. Like, how do we stay relevant in Denver with 85 other breweries in town? So marketing was really key building a community was essential, to having great staff. And so I've worked on all these different propellers, uh, in a startup for recruitment and leadership and marketing and see all our in-house finances. And it was amazing to have that and simultaneously work on my MBA at DU finished both of those are the same time and then pivot and say, well, what to do with this toolbox this experience of doing this from the ground up and going through all the aches and pains of a start-up find a way to be in the black, get the MBA, and then what's this good for now? And so pivoting and saying, well, this is perfect for other small businesses. And I found when I was making that pivot, the more I talk with entrepreneurs and small business owners, the more excited I got, I go into meetings for like, all right, let's talk like half an hour about operations. And I'll be there four hours later, [00:04:00] white boarding things out. What about this? And what'd you do over there? What are we going to do about this? And like, you're supposed to go for half an hour. I'm like, I know I got excited. So I found that my passion was really with helping small businesses to scale and grow and using my experience and academic education to help support them. That's how I came into work with a, to cultivate on that.
[00:04:20] CORY: Love that I love that. And so many, so many business owners, you know, they start something and they don't realize. All the different pieces of it. They, they, or they buy into a franchise expecting everything to just be handed to them. And, and so I kind of love how, you know, in your, in your opening statement, right, it's managed from to plan, fund, build launch. Like those are all four very different pieces and I truly don't believe. That a ton of new entrepreneurs, new business owners understand that these are four very distinct different steps. That ones must be [00:05:00] ready for. It must act on and must plan for in each, every bit of that. So walk us through that a little bit. Before we get into the. The cultivated virus advisers, because again, anybody that has success and you guys had the success at Zuni street brewing anybody that has success. Like those four elements are so crucial,
[00:05:21] TJ: Just took a lot of mindfulness and looking down the road and realizing like what, you know, put a timeline together what are we trying to get out of this? And so our, the goal is let's get open within the next 18 months to two years. Okay. Let's work back from there. What's it going to take like, well, it's going to take at least a year for a build out and, or, you know, around a year and now you've got to figure out your tanks tanks are going to up to eight or 12 months to get those in and installed, and you've got to find a location. So it kind of working back to say our we've got a really good plan on our timing and what's going to take, you know, cost to open this. So being really meticulous on the planning side, So working back and I still kept this, I'm sure with a couple of friends putting [00:06:00] together a budget for start-up, what are our tanks going to costs? What do we need for working capital? What do we need? How much are you gonna cost to build this out work with like five builders to see what can we expect this to cost to make this all happen? And then put that into your general plan. Right? So that's kind of the end goal is finished there, but then from the beginning we say, all right, we have this buisness plan to build a brewery that does X amount capacity, and that helps you on the beginning side to say, all right, what space do we need? What should it cost us per month to work, to be there? You know, what part of town is the busiest? Where can we get the most attraction? So we're working on end goal, but also coming in, coming at it from the beginning, saying is what we want out of the brewery. Where's it going to be? So once we had the end goal, we started looking at different locations. Right. This is all on the planning stage and saying, look at locations, have the business plan ready? Cause you're the hardest part of talking to a lot of entrepreneurs about this, especially to doing abrick and mortar build out is a chicken and egg to get investors. They want to know where your building's going to be. Where are you going to do all this from? To tell them about that you need to have premises, but in order to get [00:07:00] premises and for landlord or, you know, to rent to you or to get, you know, to buy a building, you need money. So it was this juggle, it took us eight months to find a location at 29th and Zuni in the Highlands. And it was talking to all different people. And just trying to figure out that puzzle piece, so you could have rubber hit the road and then once it did be ready, all right. We've been working with an architect for eight months, so what's it going to look like when we do this place? Okay. If these are the basic plans, what's it going to cost? And so it's funneling all these pieces together at the same time. Um, here's our general plan meet with investors, meet with the landlord, but also trying to budget your time. So you're not running out of money and the build out, and then just put this runway together. That's like there's rev up over, you know, a year and a half till you're finally opening day. It's sorry, I don't have a, like a more clear explanation how that process works because it is you're doing all of those pieces at once, right. You're building the plan while you're selling to investors. What it's going to look like at the end, and you're trying to sell to investors, [00:08:00] how great is this going to be without having a location? And so there is a lot of salesmanship going on, on getting buy in from a landlord or from a bank, but there's also a lot of the specific planning and like, how is this going to look and having to creativity and imagination in a, in a location like that, to put that together while you're selling. And then with my partner, having the expertise on, okay, where are we going to brew there when it's done? It was just constant moving parts, especially once we got open. I think one of the biggest things I identify with entrepreneurs and respect most about them is that I see it as like it's like running down a hill with a wheel going a hundred miles an hour while you're trying to put plates on it. Like, that's it. You're, you're juggling 12 places row. Running with the shit as it goes. And as soon as I mentioned that, the entrepreneur's like, that's it. You get it. I'm like, I know, I know I've been there. It's, you're going through a lot right now. I feel you, but it's, it's an amazing process to do all that. And it's, it's, it's incredible. Once it all comes to fruition.
[00:08:51] RON: Wow. You're giving me PTSD back to my old days like seriously. I have opened up [00:09:00] Hundreds of restaurants nationwide. And, you know, I would always go in because the owners would always think it's going to open up sooner than construction. Think it's going to open. And it's like, here's the timetable. I always give you like a. Or two after the timetable for construction and everything, because I also know it's not going to hit on time. So you have to build in some flexibility, like instantly, I was like traumatized when you were talking. I was like, oh my gosh, I've been there. I'm very scared. I don't want to go back to that
[00:09:32] TJ: your time and flexibility. And we had great a great contractor, but the other big one that can hit you is those change orders know they might give you a really, yeah. They might just give us an amazing quote, like oh perfect. And then you're six months in like, actually it's going to cost you in there. 85 grand to do this you sure?
[00:09:48] RON: I would be the person they would send in when it's like a week out. And there's zero chance. It's going to open okay. And so I would go in and I think Cory knows this [00:10:00] story. Like I went into this one restaurant and literally they had, they had nothing ready to go. And the health inspector wouldn't check you off until like you were ready to open. Right. And I go, we're opening Friday and this is Monday. And he goes, there's no way I go. There is a way, and you're going to come back. You're going to come back on Thursday and approve me and we'll be done. And, oh my gosh, like we got it. But it was crazy long hours because if you wait until the last minute to send in, I was known as the fireman. If you send them the fireman or the person at the end to just like, get it together as quick as possible, like it's stressful, it's stressful for everyone involved. Like just plan it appropriately. So I love that you, you work yourself back and then yeah, you got a budget in some time. Oh my gosh.
[00:10:48] TJ: I think what, as a, as a business person, entrepreneur, someone who is getting into beer with the city to give plan Denver city of Denver, specially, to get planning until you mentioned the health [00:11:00] department. I think I blacked out parts of that experience in my mind. That was the most painful. We were like, we have to get that like, no, there's a little there. Wasn't there, wasn't a cap on that one electrical panel and we're going to come back in two weeks. You're like, like hyperventilating, a little thing on the inspection. Oh,
[00:11:17] RON: I remember pulling him aside. And I go look, man, cause he said the only way we're going to come in or he goes, I won't be back for a month is what he told me. And this was on Tuesday and I go, you're coming back Thursday and he goes, you're not, he goes, I don't have time on Thursday. You really need to come back? And I remember talking to him for like three hours and the contractor said, dude, there's zero chance. He's coming back on Thursday. I go, I swear. If you don't have your stuff done by Thursday yeah, there'll be someone else in here on Thursday, but you're going to be done and everything will be set up. I told the guy this way, I told the health inspector, I go, I'm pretty sure you should come back on Thursday. Cause what I think is happening since I'm not [00:12:00] completely involved is I think they're doing training on Thursday and I know we can't train in the building until I probably shouldn't say this on the air really until we get checked off by the health department. He goes oh! If I come on Thursday and they're in here, they're going to get fined. Then I go, well, I'm just, I'm just letting you know.
[00:12:22] TJ: Nice, so he's licking at his chops.
[00:12:24] RON: Yeah. He goes through his work time is the training. I go the trainings at nine 30, man. I'm going to be here, said okay he shows up. He shows up at nine 30. Where's the training.I go It's actually across the street. I stopped them because I didn't want to get fine, but since you're here, let's check it out. And he signed off when we got it open
[00:12:43] TJ: I was going to ask how you got them to come back. It's brilliant. He only came back cause he thought he was going to screw you.
[00:12:52] RON: Yea Exactly it was great I was just from corporate and it was helping somebody else. It was, it was awesome. I loved it. Anyway. Anyway. All right. [00:13:00] So you opened up a brewery, right? And I think like every guy on the planet either wants one. of two things a brewery or a sports bar, like everyone wants to open one of those, I wanted to open one. I still want to open one.
[00:13:14] CORY: Like, I mean, I do a sports bar all day long, so
[00:13:18] RON: Yea Exactly I was telling my wife, I go, if we have this sports bar, I can just go to work at the sports bar. And she said, no, but I tried. I tried Cory the answer was no, but anyway, so I think everyone sees the glamour and, you know, Corey and I both being in franchising. You know, you get those people that they think you, you put up a sign. And instantly business will come because it's a restaurant people need to eat. And it's really easy money when it's not. No, it is not. What did you have? One of those moments that after you opened it, like one you're super excited. You're excited that it's grand opening people came. Did it stay busy? Did you have the natural [00:14:00] drop-off how did that.
[00:14:02] TJ: We are really successful from, from opening, at least what we wanted to get in the door. And over the first couple of, I think, any brewry the first two or three months, you're just, you know, roofs off. But then there's usually, I think it's a curve. Like you're the new brewry in town everybody wants to try it and then inevitably, you're going to come back to like a regular stuff. You gonna have to kind of go from there. And we did experience a bit of that by month four or five. And then, uh, you know, it was a pivot. It's like, all right, well, how, how do we become and stay relevant in the mind's eye of the Denver public for the remainder of this. Right. And you know, a big, a big point of contention that I was had with my partner was, well, what are we, what are we selling here? And again, as a sales person, I piss him off all the time, because ifat the end of the day. you know it's a business guy. We're selling widgets it's product. And I made the mistake of telling my partner one time, like, like something about product and he freaked out. Cause it's it's beer, it's Jesus' blood. Right. It's important. Right. And, but to me, it's like, well, we can't, we can't go to Denver and say, we've got the best beer in town. One Everybody can say that. And to, you know, [00:15:00] its customers can be fickle and it's like, what have you done for us lately? And you have new releases and bring people and everything else, but at least spent so much time, all that time. We're building out, I'm going to explore their breweries. Like 18 months. I went to every brewery in town. What do you like, what don't you like, why are they busy? What are they busy? What, you know, the, what's the sound? What's the lighting, what are the, you know, the bartenders like, and really it's like, well, we need to create an environment for.
[00:15:23] Like a specific group and like find a way to target this. So it was actually a class I had taken earlier that for my MBA at the U was co-creating the customer experience. And it's like, let's talk about everything in the place except for the product. I.E the beer And let's make this about the experience when you come in, like, yeah, they're going to have a beer, obviously. That's what we're all about, but what's talk about, and is it is a psychological value in some of the best advertisers do this. Like apple does this, you come in and you're thinking about everything except the money you're about to spend on this new phone. You're thinking about the full experience. So I started doing for the place was developing programs that had something for everybody. [00:16:00] So by the time I left, I was doing music five, six nights a week for 2020. It was except for, I think Monday we had live music or entertainment every night, a week. We had trivia on Tuesdays. We had a mug club of the 150 plus people. We had a run club that was doing upwards of 50 people. We had a big block party once a month we had dog adoptions. We had a huge pride month. We had know every holiday you could think of. We would like push it out for that month. And so it's like, let's make this a place that people just know something's happening. Like at first it was, oh, can we get, can we get food trucks every day of the week? And then after six months, like you cannot not have a food truck. People. There'll be a food truck and something else going on. And so it did make my job harder, but it just became this hub of like, well, we need something to do. Let's go to Zuni. Cause it's gonna have something going on and it's gonna be welcoming and it's going to have the right music and temperature and like everything that when I go in there, uh, fuck yea I feel great
[00:16:54] RON: right.
[00:16:55] TJ: And yeah, I'm going to have a beer and I'll probably going to have many, but that's not, that's not your [00:17:00] competitive advantage. And my ex partner had gone. well you have done well, you won a couple of awards of GABF, like fantastic. That's going to be a hook for people that really care about, you know, But what keeps people every day, all the time. It's like, what makes this special to them? Like, this is where I met my fiance, this is a where my buddies go and hang out, we can all meet here. This is where I can bring my dogs just, you know, it's, it's making it something for everybody. It just keeping it like always something going on, which was exhausting. but Like, you know, is a huge vehicle for creating.
[00:17:28] CORY: So cool. And you bring up apple and you kind of based off of that, like, it is so much more than just that widget. It's so much more than just that beer and you might get what, 5%, 2% of the people that come for that ribbon that come for that beer specifically every time, but then yeah, everybody else is coming for that community in that place that you've developed. So so cool so, so now transitioned to what you do. As an advisor, how, how does, how did this experience assist you [00:18:00] as now you're out there helping small business owners wear the hats of marketing or wear the hats of operations or, or doing the sales or doing, you know, all the different things that they must do. Like kind of walk us through, like, how did that transition and everything that you learned opening the brewery. To now you're helping, you know, those other businesses.
[00:18:21] TJ: So one of the main things that attracted me to being a business advisor for small businesses and working with cultivates specifically is that I just, I love entrepreneurs, the lifestyle, the mindset. The ability to start and run or operate or grow a business, I think is one of the, maybe most undervalue. But like for me, the most appreciated in my mind, there should be the most appreciated skill set that there is because it takes sort of being fricking crazy to do what we do to get that loan and put your house on the line to like, you know, have major COVID at home because you're working and becoming a work a holic and this is your new baby, but these are the people that are innovating and starting new businesses and being [00:19:00] creative and they're job creators. And they're taking care of their employees. And like, if you're a good owner, you're building culture that they look after for you look after each other, they're being paid well, they're respected employees. Like this is the hardest thing you can. And I think there's jobs where you can go and maybe be a investment banker and like it's more life draining and soul sucking. I don't know if it's as hard what those guys are doing because you're managing eight departments. It's the most fascinating career that you can have. So as an advisor, I work with people in every different kind of industry. I get to work with people that have a company in blockchain. One of my clients is a restaurant of a client and, you know, security and fire alarm installations. So it's all of the places. These are the people I like to talk with the most and that I can help them with their problems. So I like to come out in the way, the way things are set up, I'll meet with clients, you know, twice a month, you know, a couple of hour sessions and we'll roll through and put a roadmap together. To help get them to the next level. A lot of entrepreneurs kind of get stuck. They'll get to a certain level of your planning of your capabilities of, you know, imagine it to be like, I want to keep going. So I [00:20:00] love having people like get to that next part. Like all right? Like you want to grow, but your sales are solved. Let's dig into your sales. Who are your clients? How often do you get in touch with them? What's your beauty process say, okay, you're selling like crazy, but now you can't keep up with. Well, let's work on who you're recruiting. How are you going to find these people? How are you training them? How you, and then once you have a team, what is your leadership style? So I love digging in and just helping entrepreneurs to make their problems better problems. They're always going to have problems. The trick is making them like improve those as you go. So I liked having to pivot because I want to continue working with entrepreneurs and I'll, I'll be an owner again, at some point, you know, start something or buy something again. But in the meantime, I'm just loving working with this wide variety of owners and operators and entrepreneurs and helping them on their day to day and just like, how can we continue to make you better? But as I, as I improve as a professional individual,
[00:20:48] RON: And you gave me PTSD again over the last like couple of months, like, cause that was Corey and I's actual structure of what was just happening to us over the last couple of months for sure.you know because [00:21:00] again, you get somewhere by the skills or talents you have, and then when you get to that point, you have to. Find a new way of doing things to get to the next level. And then you'd find a new way of doing things to get to the next level. You have to bring other people in that are the right people that fit your culture and all of that stuff in order to keep growing. Right. So yeah. Holy smokes.
[00:21:22] TJ: Yeah, it's kinda, it's kinda eerie on the head, but a lot of those problems, they transcend that's why. Industry agnostic. I probably won't work with a banker. I don't, I don't know how that would work out, but there is a few firms that it's not really my wheelhouse, but generally industry agnostic, because at the end of the day, one it's widgets too. It's the same problems, but with a different service, different products, maybe different industry, but it's the same skill sets that as a business owner, a business-minded person, I'm a great ying and I love finding industry experts. Like my ex partner was a brewer who was a yang and we worked really well together. Like. You make some awesome beer, make a ton of it and do it all the time. And I'll make [00:22:00] it profitable and we're just going to have this ying yang. And that's why that's the foreign partners now who have that industry expertise. It can be at any spot, but they want somebody to kind of help them with the, the basics and the business so they can keep a float and work on those balancing those two growth versus scale.
[00:22:13] CORY: So good. All right. So in that journey, you talk about the two times a month. Like, how do you prepare. How are you preparing these clients like Ron and I, I mean, we have different things and we help people launch their podcast. We edit their podcast, right. And so we prepare them in a sense of what they need to do to launch, and then what they need to do to stay consistent and maintain and grow. And so. With such a variation of business types. I'm sure every single one is a little bit different than steps that you need to take to get them prepared, to make the most out of those two sessions a month. So, yeah, what's that kind of process for you with such a various of ownership
[00:22:55] TJ: We spend a lot of time with cultivate working with clients at the onset. So we've, we [00:23:00] started off with a two hour free advising session. And this is pre pre agreement. It's just, let's see if we're going to work out a lot more about cultivate about myself. Then we do this deep dive on the business owners business, and we go through, we call our 6 propellers so it was financials, sales, marketing, recruitment, leadership productivity, and we go through and see, what are your biggest pain points? And then we dive in a bit deeper and say, okay, like obviously productivity is a problem that you're chasing a ton of shiny red balls. You're not getting anything done. And we have other pieces under that deep dive that we can say, what's pull these out. What's the first thing we should be working on. And so by the time we're done with that session, we've got a roadmap of at least the next three to six months. of things that we can be working on a dialing out, like what's hurting you most. And it's really just asking a ton of questions and listening and pro. On what's bottom the business. And then once that, you know, once they bounce out, maybe on scale is all right in six months, shoot, we do need to look at your website, but right now your biggest thing is managing your employees and having accountabilities, you know, [00:24:00] sessions. So it's, it's really taking that free session to deep dive, ask a million questions and see what's hurting them. So we can start, you know, with those. The first meeting as well. We slow things down a lot. We, it, our partnering meeting. So we really kind of set the road, set the tone for how we'll be operating together. We don't work as vendors or suppliers you'll work as like non-equity partners, an unbiased third party to come in and work with you as like a co-pilot. So we're kind of setting the tone there. We do, you know, really hard and on that roadmap to make sure we have we're aligned on what those goals are. And we're trying to go, and after slowing it down, like really nitpicking through everything on a business, it's like, Now we know we can prioritize and let's start knocking this out. And so just working out from that early planning session, like we talked about before with this partnership to early planning, slow it down and get all this figured out and then rubber hits the road and we're like accelerate our client's growth to a ridiculous degree.
[00:24:52] RON: I love that. You set expectations. I think a lot of people when they get clients, especially. You know, the entrepreneurial space. [00:25:00] I think they skip that step. Right. So there's been a couple of people that we've had to set expectations where they've never done a funnel or ads, and they're like, I'm going to create, this is my first funnel and I'm going to make a million dollars. And we're like, yeah. And you're not. So let's talk about why not right. Let's set some expectations. How about we start. None. Right. You're going to make $0. And if you're cool with that, then if you make a dollar, you're happy. But you know, I think that's the biggest piece where setting those expectations, people just gloss over that because they're just excited. They have a client. And then in the long-term that sets up issues for you on a bigger scale, because you could never get to meet. Their expectation is, Hey, you don't know what it is or you haven't helped create it.
[00:25:43] TJ: Yep. Right. Big, big time attrition issue. Yeah. We had found the, one of the biggest ways that we ensure staying power with those relationships and partnerships is our partnering meeting and they want to get going as fast as they can. Like we know we're going to get there. Just bear with me. This is so [00:26:00] important. Let's really get to the bottom of it really align. And once we get that taken care of, we can go, but Bonanza, but we got to figure it out. So, yeah. Good. Very good point.
[00:26:09] CORY: All right. So let's shift gears a little bit and, you know, hindsight hacking. our goal we gotta, we gotta hack your hindsight to give our audience than our listeners clear foresight. So with that in mind, if you could go back, TJ, I don't know if it's your first class that's led you down entrepreneurship or it's the launch phase of opening the brewery. or Before that what's, what's kind of that number one thing that you wish you knew as you started down this entrepreneurial journey.
[00:26:39] TJ: I wish I knew how to be a better communicator with my business partner. I learned that from my personal life partner and in hindsight, looking at how it was with my partner, we were friends for 20 years going into this. We don't really talk to for. Yeah, it's really, it's really sad. It was one of the reason I don't go into buisness with friends, but we had our own specific ones, but I think one of [00:27:00] the big ones was we kind of assumed that we had a lot of things figured out just between us and whether it was for that, or just from us not being great communicators. There's a lot of things that came up that we weren't aligned with that we didn't have the same vision, didn't have the same goals or values. And we were just bumping heads all the time. And I didn't know how to slow things down. At the time and say, Hey, we need to stop right now. I need to sit down. I need to hear what's up, what the hell's the matter. And like get to the bottom of it. And like, is this something that we can fix? How can be more communicated? So I stopped pissing you off so much and like really dive in and not wanting to be during the Bush and just say what really is the problem. And to try to set, I think ahead of time set things that we agree to on we're going to communicate no matter what every week was not for an hour meeting, I don't care what it's about, make it happen with the things on the table and just started putting, I think in hindsight, put things in line. Like we can't let this part of our relationship go. Because if that goes, what else could happen? So I think putting some more parameters around that relationship, but just being, knowing how to be a better, [00:28:00] less avoided communicator would have helped a lot.
[00:28:02] RON: Yeah. Because business partners is like another marriage.
[00:28:06] TJ: Yeah.
[00:28:08] RON: You're married again.
[00:28:10] CORY: I did not say I do Ron.
[00:28:12] RON: You did, you did you
[00:28:12] CORY: No that's a, that's a huge point to just with communication, obviously for anything we do. But, but for, I assume with, as an advisor, TJ, you're working with ownership w you know, whether there's solo preneurs or, or not like the communication's gotta be part of your system as they talk with vendors, as they talk with employees, as they talk with customers, however, it looks right, like the whole. Whole shebang. It's gotta be involved in that. Like I know Ron and I that's huge for us. We meet every week for sure. And we spend way too much time on zoom anyway daily, but we have a team meeting, a daily huddle with, you know, half of our team, eight 30 every morning for 15, 20 minutes. And that cause that communication is such a such a great point.
[00:28:55] TJ: Yep. And it's, you know, it's no, we practice what we preach at cultivate. You know, I've got [00:29:00] a weekly meeting with my cohort leader. We talk almost every day about clients and best practices. We have like a, a Western division of huddle that we have as some more thing. And, you know, a weekly company meeting it's, it's great how much those lines of communication are open. And there's something, if somebody falls through the cracks or something's off, it's just a constant stream of communication. And also we, we coach. Conflict management, we coach on assurtive behavior. And so we're able to practice what we preach, you know, week in, week out on, if someone's not meeting goals or somebody is doing this or that, the things that we're teaching, coaching our clients on we're using internally to grow as a company.
[00:29:38] RON: That's great. I love that you teach conflict management because I think a lot of people don't don't teach that and they don't know how to fight correctly. I like to say because people usually fight to win instead of resolve right. Or finding the right. find the Find the coexistence piece instead of just, I want to win the fight.
[00:29:56] TJ: It's huge. Everybody wants to, especially with business guys, everybody wants to [00:30:00] win. And there's again, of this assertive behavior is more like a negotiative approach. Most people come at come at a situation where we're either very passive or aggressive and that's like, naturally, you're one of the other, it's so rare to get to me as naturally assertive, which is a combination where it's like, I need to get my objectives done, but I understand you have your own. Let's find . A way we can make this happen together and that's just a sort of approach versus I don't know where we're going to do it this way. Follow me, or else versus yeah. You know, we can do it your way. That's, that's fine. I'll, I'll get what I need some else. Right. That's aggressive and passive. And it means so much to teach people a sort of behavior where we it's a constant, like let's do this together.
[00:30:37] CORY: Yeah, definitely. All right. So, so with your, your twice a month, usually it looks like you, you add cultivating, you guys have a six month kind of first engagement that people sign on for, right. So what's kind of that whole. Goal. Like obviously every restaurant, every, uh, ownership is going to have probably different goals, but what's as, when do you know, you've succeeded across that six [00:31:00] months? When do you really have the results that you're trying to drive for these clients of yours? How do you know it's a win,
[00:31:06] TJ: you know, We try to pull out a lot in that partner meeting and the free advising session is we talked a lot about your vision and your goals. Short-term long-term I got off the phone with a prospect this morning, who I think would be a great client as a handyman up in the mountains. And he's like short term. I just need a second van, but I need to get the financing to get a second unit, but I need to be able to, I don't know all these little paths, but like to get that second van would be everything, or do you get premises? So we will short term. Yeah, let's knock that out. We can get in a second van. I can help you, help you to get there, but long-term all right. Maybe I want to get to 5 million exit value. let's get to that. But there's a lot of short term things we can find. We need to get you an assistant. We need to get you X, Y, and Z. So early on it's like the things that people are they're like just out of reach. They can't quite figure it out as all as short-term goals that we can write down early. To make those attainable than the first three to six months by the one with the restaurant [00:32:00] owner that I work with. And he's like, I got out of the restaurant, like I'm working on therestaurant, one of the first goals. So I can work on the business instead of just in it. And we hit, like, after two months, it's like, I did it. I got the people in place. I trust what they're doing. I can like get out and actually work on the business instead of just being in the kitchen all the time, like we did it, we did it. And it was just, you'll write these goals down and then make sure you that you acknowledged them when you, when you surpassed it.
[00:32:26] RON: I love that. Or acknowledging or taking your wins. Right. So got to have a win in place. So that's good. Yeah. So that goes back to the whole restaurant thing. So many owners don't understand that you have to be in the business for just a hot minute until you get it going. At least that's what I've seen, especially if you only have one restaurant anyway. So when, when you're putting things together and you have a client and maybe they. Do you only work with startups or do you help people that are in business for awhile to help organize their business structure a little bit? Or [00:33:00] do you really like the beginning phases?
[00:33:01] TJ: It typically clients have been around for a year or two plus. Because they have It's funny. And I see the same thing on so many entrepreneurs are in the startup phase. It's at the Mike Tyson quote, like everybody's got a plan till they get punched in the mouth. So it's, it's really hard to approach. And I was the same way. I think if somebody approached me as a sub, I'm like, forget you. I don't know what I'm doing. I got this whole plan. Like, all those things are going to put together. Like I work in the craziness I got this and it's not until you get a year or two. And you're like, oh my God, I could use some help or wow, I did everything I wanted to do, but I don't know what's next. What can I get to where's the next level? Or I could, I could leverage some outside knowledge to achieve the goals that I know I want to get to. So usually that like one or two years, you know, they're operating, they're bringing cash in. So they're, you know, if you're really strapped or you're a startup, it's hard to justify one to pay for pay for help. So we try to find groups it's a better fit when they're not really strapped because then they can, you know, pay for the. Month and [00:34:00] month out. But yeah, it didn't offer a couple of years. It helps them a few employees, because then that also puts on the, you know, the leadership and recruitment lever, where are, I've got these people now, what do I do? And they're already on the stages of growing and scaling. You know, the biggest thing is finding people that have the open, open mindset. They want to change their business. They really want to grow up, but don't know how and are eager to listen and it can be, but the hubris, the entrepreneurial hubris aside for a minute, I think I could actually learn something. And so it's hard finding that, that mindset and it takes, sometimes it takes a little bit of experience. With their business before they can get to that point.
[00:34:34] CORY: Yeah. 100%. And Ron and I, you know, in the online space, if any time we're, we're talking to somebody, like if you are a coach, you should probably have a coach, right? Like you, if you're in the field of trying to help develop someone else in some fashion, like you should probably be developing yourself in that same fashion. And so, but, but it starts with that mindset. It starts with that open mind. To be [00:35:00] willing to take that feedback and stuff from someone else. And I know I personally won't work with anybody. That's not had that doesn't have that. Right. If they don't have a coach, you're probably will never be my coach. If you aren't out there, like really trying to better yourself, that, and you have to have an open mindset to do that, then you are not the right person for, for me, for sure. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure Rons on the same page. So, but all right. So last question from me regarding the, your whole process with cultivate as an advisor, you've got, again, you helping people through the vision and the planning. Early on you're meeting with them twice a week. You're working on operations and productivity and the financial aspect, which I guess we could have a, probably a full 30 minute episode on, on just that. But what's your favorite part about it? Like, what's the one thing when you get to a certain point with an owner or an entrepreneur and you get to a certain point of like, oh yeah, today. We're teaching this today, we're going to deep dive in their parts. Like, what is, what does that one thing for you that you just [00:36:00] truly love when you, when you're working with them,
[00:36:03] TJ: it's different for everybody, but it's when you can find that aha moment and you need for what, or knowing that you have a skill set, that somebody is like unfathomable for them to understand it. Like the one friend that's a client. It was like, I would love to be able to read my P and L and understand and I'm like, yes, let's talk about it. This is the, you know, for me, it's, it's bread and butter, but for you, it's going to be crazy information that you're going to be able to digest and know your business so much better. A couple of other clients will like, you will find something on their P and L that's going to be like, what are you paying for that, for it, take that off. Or you're working with that guy. Let me put you with this other person, save you $2,000 a month. You can pay for my services, but going and helping them with aha moments or just little hacks that can help their business. And there's so many things that I think for a lot of us. Are, it seems like bread and butter, but for someone that is running their business, but their background's more an industry expert for something else that you can bring to [00:37:00] them that changes their world and brings so much value. And for you, you're like, great. Let's say this is for me. This is. I live in, breathe this stuff for you. This is going to, you know, could you over the six figure mark for your take home? Like let's dig into it. So I think it's those aha moments of, to me stuff that's like simple for them, like earth shattering. And when you see that, like that moment, like, yes, you did it. We did it all right. Now let's go implement it and save you some money and get you some sleep.
[00:37:28] RON: Love it love it I know there's people listening that are like, I need TJ and like that they need a shirt that says I need TJ, because I know that people are like, oh my gosh, I want to connect with him. I need to like, get his services today. Where can they find you TJ? Great.
[00:37:47] TJ: Let's see. I think you guys have my information for LinkedIn if it's on there, but. Find me on LinkedIn or drop me an email. It's tj@cultivateadvisors.com. Also shoot, shoot [00:38:00] me a text. Give me a call at (303) 515-0942. And through your guys' podcast, I'd love to put out a few free advising sessions. So depending on people writing in and happy to, you know, three through the podcast. Those two, our deep dives on, so your listeners businesses. So we can take a look and see if there's anyway we can help them. And if those don't work out through that time, they still get their whole roadmap and any modeling that we do and that's the value they get from putting their time in with me,
[00:38:26] RON: Nice
[00:38:27] CORY: it pays to listen or watch the show here. So anybody that, if they want to join you or take you up on that free session, they just need to email you or connect with you on LinkedIn. And say they heard you on hindsight hacking and they want to get that roadmap going. Is that right?
[00:38:45] TJ: That's right. Yeah. I'm not sure what a post is. It makes it easier to is on the site or I'll do a post later as well. But shoot the contact information, let me know that they found me on your guys' cast and we'll go From there
[00:38:57] CORY: Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes. I'll put it in the [00:39:00] comments to where this is live in our Facebook group and, and then, you know, hopefully, hopefully some people take you up on that offer maybe who knows maybe Ron and I will find ourselves
[00:39:10] RON: I may have heard you on the show called hindsight hacking
[00:39:15] CORY: all right. everyboby thanks TJ. It's been a blast. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for being a fellow Denver residents. And we will talk soon
[00:39:25] RON: thanks.
[00:39:26] TJ: Cheers guys. Thanks for having me.
[00:39:28] CORY: Oh, right. Ron, it looks like a roadmap might be in our future. We can actually meet TJ in person because
[00:39:37] RON: people do those things anymore.
[00:39:39] CORY: Some people meet in person, but that was long ago maybe before 20, 20. Well, you live, you live next to Kansas, so I don't go meet you on purpose because I don't want to drive that.
[00:39:50] RON: When we worked together, like in person, I saw you less than what I see in,
[00:39:53] CORY: you know, everyone's waiting. What takeaways do we have today?
[00:39:58] RON: I love a [00:40:00] couple of things, but I'm going to talk about, you got to have the right mindset in order to be able to implement. What TJ is going to do, and you have to check your ego at the door, right? So you hire and it's, it's crazy. Cause people will hire experts and then tell the experts what to do and then make the experts conform to what they're doing. That isn't working. Right. Super frustrating. Like you hire the expert, let the expert be the expert to help you. So that's one, the, these two, I have two other ones that are tied. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with this one. Look into the future. Understand where you want to go map it out backwards, give yourself some breathing room and then just work the plan that you've got.
[00:40:46] CORY: Yeah. That's, that's kinda where I was going to go to. Like, you've got to work backwards, right? TJ you've you've got to see where you want to be. Otherwise you'll never get where you want to go, but, but one other piece too, is the communication, right? Like you [00:41:00] and I have talked about this before, but there'd be for your marriage. Your kids for your employees, for your clients, whatever it is, like the communication standards that you set are the ones that will either make or break your business, your partnership, your relationship, or whatever. Right. So definitely that communication is absolutely key. And so, you know, before you start that relationship, ask yourself, right? Like, How, how do you want to be in that relationship on the communication side? Do you want to be the one that responds every two seconds, Mr. Ron? Cool. Or do you want to, you know, actually make sure that we're having a daily huddle, right? Because we didn't like the way the communication was at one point with something. Right. So it's just, you've got to take a look and have that conversation and it's, it's so important to, I believe 100% for any successful business.
[00:41:57] RON: Uh, one last thing, one last thing, and then we're leaving. [00:42:00] Set the expectations with your clients with everybody set the expectation at the beginning. That was the other one that I was going to not say, but I felt it was super important
[00:42:08] CORY: to important alright
[00:42:10] RON: because how many people don't set the expectations up front. And then everyone's just frustrated in the relationship and you know, where frustration leads. They come work with Corey and Ron.
[00:42:20] CORY: All right. So anybody that heard the takeaways, but missed the rest of the show? You're going to go off to check it out soon because you don't want to miss all the wonderful things TJ was saying today. And you know, you know, if you're, if you're watching, come on over, thank you for watching the live in the Facebook group. And if you're listening. Why did you miss it and watch it? Don't watch it. You got to come to the Facebook group. So facebook.com/groups/profits with
[00:42:45] RON: Alright guys, I have a good day.
[00:42:47] CORY: Did you know that hindsight acting media agency? We do all things podcasts from lunch. If you're already doing 10,000 downloads in a week, we handle everything. All you have to do, record it and forget it.
[00:42:58] FEMALE: Guys if you're launching a [00:43:00] podcast to get with these guys, I could not honestly hit the charts without them.
[00:43:04] MALE: I'm not getting paid for thisBut working with both of you, the professionalism and the system that you guys had for launch the podcast, you guys killed it.
[00:43:14] RON: We went to help the impactors create an impact. I just letting you be you and not worry about all this other crazy stuff connect with us. All the links will be in the show notes. See you next time. Go create an impact. .