1571 – Figuring Out Your Organizational Health with The Bravery Strategy’s Tim McDiarmid

0:28Hey there, thoughtful listener. million in revenue. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you.

0:58with us right now tim mcdermott tim uh some may be surprised as you start talking you're and you've leaned into this as a brand uh your website is tim the girl.com and not only that you have a very thriving catering business um but you also are the founder of the bravery strategy which we'll be talking about. But Tim, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. All right. So I'd love to have you kind of give us an overview of the impact that you have in the world today. So I started my business, I moved to San Antonio from New York City 12 years ago. And at the time, I had zero understanding of San Antonio.

1:46I was a full-time single parent of a young child. So I would say I got into business as an accidental entrepreneur. I remember when someone called me an entrepreneur for the first time and I was like, what? So that then led to over time, I established a business that is now a hospitality company called the Good Kind Hospitality Group. I am the CEO, started as a chef, more creative through time and many trials and tribulations. You know, I raised a bunch of money for growth. I got into the growth of my business with a bad business partner. I mean, name any sort of business mistake and I have had it happen.

2:34So I, the last, I'd say five years, I really with my own business. So we have a restaurant, a catering company and a acre event venue in downtown San Antonio. I realized that I, and I think this happens for many entrepreneurs is you just get ahead of yourself and you think that you can control the world. And if you don't control the world, all the pieces are going to come crumbling down. And I hit pretty massive burnout then COVID hit. So it wasn't like COVID hit. And then I got burned out. Um, and at the time I started doing coaching. So I taught myself all the parts of the business and I realized that the amount of people, particularly I'd say in hospitality, and I would even say in my experience, my niche is definitely passion, you know, mission driven businesses, meaning that, you know, purpose and people come before profits.

3:41Obviously you need profits to make sense, to keep your business going. But I really buckled down and implemented very structured systems in my business in order to be able to free myself from it. So I am no longer involved at all in day-to-day in the hospitality company. I still, I still am active, but I am not involved in day-to-day. So I started the bravery strategy, which is a coaching and consulting business in order to help people hone down and figure out their organizational health. and then to be able, I come in either for, you know, long-term working with the team, working with entrepreneurs, but also with very specific deep dives with entrepreneurs who've been in business, you know, four to five years, they've reached, you know, let's say two to 10 million in revenue.

4:42And they are still the one that makes everything happen. And so it's like, how do you then go dive into your organizational health piece apart? I think it's very easy for entrepreneurs to, you know, everyone can come up with a mission statement and core values. How much are they actually doing anything with your business, right? Like, does anyone that works for you actually, could they recite them unless they're like written on their piece of paper? So that is where I have a partner in this business. We also, she does more startup and people wanting to get clarity and identify kind of what they want to start.

5:24I come in more as the asking the hard questions, helping people get clarity on where they want to go. You've run, Tim, a very successful catering company and hospitality group. Obviously, you're working with some decent teams. Um, so I can imagine that, um, especially, um, you know, if you're, um, kind of working more with, and maybe more entry level staff that, you know, they haven't necessarily perfected the art of catering. So they might be new or to the space. It can be very tempting to constantly kind of micromanage and be involved in how things are. how have how have you how did you walk that because you want to provide excellent service um but at the same time you cannot drive yourself crazy i don't know if you've ever watched party down um have you seen that show it's a comedy but um anyway so one of the other catering companies i mean she's just just this incredibly um it's christen bell and so she's just incredibly micromanaging every aspect of it and like everything she's just so high strung and i'm like you can't do that I mean it's just right well it's not sustainable yeah you can do it short term yes you can do it I mean you can do it until you die like but that'll be pretty quick if you continue to do it I know people that still run that way um and that is like how did I so yeah I mean it's it's also a very like you said entry-level position it's a very difficult and very unique business.

7:06And I, as I like to say, I mean, it's, it's not a friend and I that both own restaurants and hospitality businesses used to say, you know, it's where the misfits come, but we mean that in a very loving way, right? Like there are people, including me that didn't want, you know, regular nine to five jobs. It's a very inclusive and very, just by its nature, a very inclusive and very diverse industry. And so in that, I mean, I just, I think, again, I'll just go again and again and again, it is all about systems. And I don't mean systems that you, that you make up, but no one follows. It's also not sustainable to be checking every single minute of every day.

7:50Like it's, it's a bigger issue. Do, do people know what the identity of your company is. Do you know? Right. So I really think that until you get these, you know, I work, I've done a lot of training and I've, I've had many coaches over many years, but one of my coaches I've had for four years, I do a lot of training with him. It's called six levers and it's sort of this organizational health. And then the six levers are identity, focus, cohesion, leadership, rhythm, and momentum. It would take me a long time to break them all down, but basically in order to, even for things to trickle down to the brand new out of high school intern person that wants to learn how to serve tables, right?

8:41Like how do you get them right away on board with what the big picture is? And I think that that is very, very hard for entrepreneurs because you, you know, if you're, and let's say too, this is with mission-driven businesses, you, you are so close to it. And the whole, when people talk about work-life balance, I'm just like, yeah, you're clearly not an entrepreneur. Like that is not like, you're always thinking about it. And so it's so close to you. It's so embedded in you that it's, I mean, I know the amount of times I would just be looking at people and like, what is wrong with you that you don't understand what we're doing here.

9:22Right. And that is just unfair to expect people to understand. So there's many little, you know, yes, I think that systems, but it's like the rhythm, let's, you know, talk about even the rhythm letter lever, the rhythm of when you meet and with who, and I think it's so tempting. And I also would say I'm pretty particular to entrepreneurs that, you know, that are, that are founders, right? So different, I think there's right. People that have multiple companies and they have all this, you know, they're selling a product. Hospitality is a very different animal. And how important, you know, if you're working in hospitality, is it to lean into mission purpose values with new hires, as opposed to, listen, here's the job, you do the job, you're going to get paid for the job.

10:10Thanks for showing up. Where are you on the... Right. I mean, well, obviously, you know, it costs a lot to train new people. I mean, you, I really do believe, and I've done a quite, I've done a decent amount of training on keeping hiring and retaining millennials. It's a completely different subject than what things used to be in my time that people like, they're like, yeah, we need to make money. There's a, something has very much changed about the, like a work ethic. And I don't mean that, that it's very easy for people. I hear all the time, oh, millennials don't have a work ethic. No, it's just different.

10:49Right. So it's purpose matters more. People want to feel like they are, they want to be part of something bigger than them and something that matters. And I think it's very easy in hospitality for people. Oh, but we're a family. I'm like, okay, sorry. Uh, most families are very dysfunctional and most restaurant families are too. Right. Like, so I think that when people feel like that support of being part of something bigger than them, really, it will retain people. And they will also like, if you have opportunities for leadership for them, I think another big mistake entrepreneurs make is that no one can do it as good as me.

11:30Right? No one can do it as well as I can do it. That's just absolutely not true. And I remember, you know, everything in my business changed when I thought I am never hiring anybody again that is not way smarter than me in their given field. I do not want to be the one that people are coming to to ask what they're supposed to do, right? Your website, Tim, thebraverystrategy.com. Tell me what the coaching or engagement looks like. How are you actually working with folks? So as far as people that, that are just starting out. So I have a partner in this, in this business, uh, and she is a highly trained, amazing coach.

12:17She is doing people that have an idea and they're just trying to get to some clarity with what they're about to do my part in it we do uh people so a company could could hire would hire us to come and assess the health of their organization meet with the entrepreneur I would be meeting with them to like really dig in and ask the hard questions and and roadmap a strategy of how they can and have some freedom and be able to like balance out what they want in their life. I think hospitality businesses, restaurants, chef, like I started out, I like chef and creative was my original talent. What I did, that is, was my profession.

13:06And then starting a business, becoming an entrepreneur, I learned all the other side of it also. And was like, oh, wait a minute. There is so much that people, right? there's also always the thing of you don't know what you don't as soon as you know it you think you always knew it right but I realize how many people I have helped that just didn't and they don't have time when you are the one that is day-to-day like making sure everyone showed up at work and what's happening in the kitchen and it's it's intense so I will come in I can do deep dives with entrepreneurs like one-on-one ideally I'd be coming in and doing an organizational health assessment with their team because it's very, when you go work with somebody that owns the business, their take on how things are going is very different than their team's take on how things are going.

13:59So from there, we are very pragmatic as far as like, okay, so here's the different things at play. How are we, what is our strategy? And it's very different. I like to make it clear that I don't, I'm not going to go in and like come up with people's SOPs and, you know, it's like starting with your identity. Why are you doing what you're doing? Do you remember why you started this? And then work from there to be able to get people on board with what your purpose is. Yeah. All right. So again, Tim, your websites, Number one, take a look at San Antonio's favorite caterer and that the website for that is Tim, the girl dot com.

14:48And then as well for the coaching website, that's the bravery strategy dot com. And so congratulations on all this again. Tim McDermott, appreciate you. Thank you so much for the interview. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything in particular for someone on the coaching side of things, like something that you would recommend? Hey, if you're happy to be listening to this interview, it's because you're checking me out. Now you've heard of the interview. Here's the next step. What is that next step for them? The next step? I mean, I think do, I am definitely someone who's not like, do your, do a little bit of research on what you are looking for as far as a coach.

15:31I highly recommend that anyone in business should have some form of a coach. So I think the next step is to sort of, for me, I'd say, dig into, you can look up six levers, which is the training I've done with my coach. It is the basis of what we are doing. You know, yeah, I'd say, check us out and you'll find a lot of information on our website. And from there, you can do a little more research on your own to see what's the right fit for you. Awesome. All right, Tim McDermott, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

16:13Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com slash guest. If you're a listener, I'd love to shout out your business to our whole audience for free. You can do that by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or join our listener Facebook group. Just search for The Thoughtful Entrepreneur in Facebook. I'd love even if you just stop by to say hi. I'd love to meet you. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day.

16:58Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful entrepreneurs. Hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes each day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.