Brand UnSucking Adventures with a Strategy Detective - Tim Beehler is RightOffTrack

Anya Smith:
Hey there friends and listeners, okay, hey there friends and listeners of RightOffTrack, let me introduce you to the incredible Tim Beehler, a guy who's all about exploring life's many twists and turns. Seriously, his curiosity knows no bounds. From diving into sound engineering to rolling up his sleeves in steel mills, from tinkering with aquaphonics to leading as a pastor, Tim's done it all. But he's a real, but here's the real kicker. Let me try it again. But here's the real kicker. Tim's superpower is taking complex stuff that actually works and breaking it down so anyone can get it. He's like a strategy detective, uncovering the secrets behind success and then serving it up in bite-sized, easy-to-understand nuggets. He's the kind of guy who's wired to think outside the box and sees opportunities where others might miss them. From biogas to digital marketing, Tim's journey has been a wild ride of exploration. But that's not all. Tim's the go-to guy for branding. He's all about helping clients discover who they are, explore unique approaches, and then showing them how to make it all shine. His proven strategies can transform your brand and revenue streams in ways that just make sense. So let's embark on this adventure of discovery together. And now without further ado, let's dive into the mind of a passionate strategy detective and learn how he transformed his boundless curiosity into both purpose and a thriving professional journey. Please join me in welcoming the one and only Tim Veehler. Welcome.

Tim:
Thank you. Thanks for the intro a very I'm way cooler in the intro than I am in person. I promise you

Anya Smith:
I don't think so, you're so fun. Can I share how we met? Just like

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
the random

Tim:
yeah.

Anya Smith:
background. So this is one of those things where like serendipity means like technology and opportunity through technology and connection. So we met on threads,

Tim:
Yes.

Anya Smith:
right? I believe that's what it was. It was just like random, like entrepreneurial kind of vibe going on. And then you were mentioning that, I think we talked about podcasting and whatnot. And then like, I saw you posting all this great stuff. I was like, okay. We have to collaborate. Let's do something together. You're like, okay.

Tim:
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith:
And here we are.

Tim:
Yeah. From threads to here, like, that's

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
almost as big a leap as my normal life, so it makes sense to me.

Anya Smith:
threading the connection. You know, you'd be shocked. I'm actually, I met somebody from Nigeria who does a podcast there. So I'm gonna be talking at a radio show in Nigeria

Tim:
Oh,

Anya Smith:
because

Tim:
sweet.

Anya Smith:
of a thread connection.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
So if you're not that, not that you have to even go on threads, but embrace the connection of the people around the world. It's powerful.

Tim:
You know, so that's actually, I don't know where we're gonna go today, but that's been, to

Anya Smith:
Perfect.

Tim:
me, that's been like the magic of social media and how I'm building my business out has been access to people. And I don't mean that like a creepy way, like I can like proposition people and spam them or whatever, but like you just access to people, like that you don't on a day-to-day basis because you don't rub shoulders with them because you're not in those rooms, because just whatever location or geography or business, whatever, access to people. And what I have found for the most part is the vast majority of people are receptive and open to conversation, you know, chatting back and forth, whatever. It's easier to build cool relationships with people you would have never met.

Anya Smith:
Do you have, I'm sure you maybe have a strategy for this. I would assume, but is there something that you found works when you reach out with new people? Because what doesn't work, and no offense to anybody, is like I get people to be like, hello, how are you? And I'm like, I'm sorry, but I'm a mom of three boys and I'm trying

Tim:
Right.

Anya Smith:
to do this. It's hard for me to respond to somebody I don't know who's just like

Tim:
Yes.

Anya Smith:
hello, so no offense to you, but that's just the real life. What works

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
for you?

Tim:
so I think of like two things specifically, genuine interest and making it easy for them to say yes. So low barrier to entry and then like personalizing it. Like, hey, I read this thing that you talked about and it was really interesting or I watched this thing or this piece of content or this idea or I saw your comment or like, that's interesting as opposed to like, I know what a lot of people do is they're like, Hey, I'm really cool and I wanna be on your podcast. Or, hey, you do this great thing, could you get me a conversation with somebody else? It's all about me, but genuine interest. And then an easy yes. Could you tell me where that thought came from or what that experience was like? Just those things.

Anya Smith:
It's so easy and yet for some reason people have different approaches, but this one works, so definitely

Tim:
Go.

Anya Smith:
try it out. You've gathered a lot of knowledge and a lot of strategies now, but I'm sure there was kind of a learning process along the way and we mentioned a variety of experiences that predated this. Can you give me anywhere you want to go with this? What was this path leading you to now doing this business?

Tim:
Yeah, it was really interesting. So it started, it really started in 2017, 2019, 2019 is when it really started. My buddy had started a podcast and it was fantastic. He told great stories. He's got one of those voices where you want him to read you to sleep, right? It was just one of those. But then he could tie it all together at the end with like this gut punch of introspection. So I loved it. I was like, dude, what are you doing with this? Like, how are you getting out there to the world? He's like, well, I just, you know, I create it and I post it, I publish it, whatever. And at that time, my level of social media savvy was I had a Facebook account that I didn't use. So what I told him was like, all right. I'm gonna figure out social media so that we can get your message out because it's too cool to not be heard. And so I created an Instagram page for him. I'd never used Instagram before. And over the course of like six months or three months or something like that, I made 500 posts, like just crazy amount of posting, right? Just trying to figure out what works and how to create and conversation starters. It was just crazy learning. And like 95% of them were garbage. but I was kind of feeling my way into something. Eventually, anyways, we were able to build his thing up, but it got me a bug for this. And then in 2020, when COVID hit, I was a pastor at a church and we had to move to online solely. And we had a very small online presence, both social media and like live streaming services. And so I was in charge of technology and communications and then also in charge of like our live events. And so I had to really quickly learn how to live stream stuff and how to. you know, build out our email platforms so that people are getting information because they're not able to show up. And so I really, really quickly learned digital marketing and digital experience. And I found out I really liked that. And I just kind of melded that with my other skillsets to, you know, I started to morph into more branding and brand strategy. And that's kind of how I got to where I am in a nutshell.

Anya Smith:
I know, I hear a lot of like, you make it sound so like natural and easy, but going through it, like there's a lot of times like, oh, fuh, like darn it, like this could be better. We just talked about it a moment

Tim:
Oh yeah.

Anya Smith:
ago, right? If I was so, it is hard, I'm not like, oh, this is so easy. But if I got so caught up to where like, I need to be perfect or like I look at something and it's not ideal and like I should just give up, like I would never even be here, like

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
nowhere

Tim:
that's

Anya Smith:
close.

Tim:
really...

Anya Smith:
So could you share like what has maybe helped you have this? not just curiosity, but this element of perseverance and buoyancy to get through all that because it sucks. It sucks when you're like, I just don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

Tim:
Yeah, so there's two things I always talk about with clients because to me they're kind of the key to the whole thing. Working hard to be able to define or at least articulate two things, your purpose and your vision. When you have those, you have long-term trajectory, right? So it's not, hey, this thing is working now or isn't working now, I should quit and try something else. It's now there's a building block towards. x right and so that vision and those purpose that they're generally large they're generally long term and they're generally inexhaustible so like if your vision is you know cell 10 paper clips you know my hope is that you will achieve that it'll probably happen pretty quickly so when your vision's over you're like oh what do I do now with my life so if the vision is long term and it's based on your purpose like who you really are then everything is building in that direction, right? You kind of start with like that wide funnel and you're moving towards a smaller point. So all the mess ups kind of help you get there. So that's kind of how I've seen it. Like I understand what my purpose is and then I can see it as it kind of moves through things. And it's not held by one thing specifically, by an industry or a job title

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
or a career path or whatever.

Anya Smith:
And I'm curious, I'm somebody who has struggled because you're like, Anja, you need to just focus in and then you will conquer the world. But my brain's like, squirrel, squirrel.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
But I also, to be honest with you, I'm kind of learning that that's okay for me because, and I don't mean to be too distracted, I have a lot of different ideas and passions and to me, they bring me to life. They energize me, they help me see the overlap. of opportunities and kind of bridge them together in really magical ways. So I'm curious if you can give me a little mini coaching advice. It can be harsh. What would you say to somebody like me who's starting it's month three today from meta layoff to being here with you? And I'm still finding my path. I'm really kind of embracing this element, like not to niche down too early, but really explore and find connections and be okay with that. So What would you like, what's the strategy you think of somebody starting? Because I think there's so much I could do and I want to find something that's not overwhelming, but also not pigeonhole myself

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
to where I'm like, I'm not really enjoying just this.

Tim:
Yeah, that's always

Anya Smith:
If

Tim:
hard.

Anya Smith:
you don't mind, if you don't mind,

Tim:
No, yeah, I

Anya Smith:
for a

Tim:
don't

Anya Smith:
friend of

Tim:
have

Anya Smith:
mine.

Tim:
a problem. I don't have a problem with squirrel chasers. I think it's good. I think it's healthy. You could. So if that's your personality type, you could do that and find a lot of success because what I see a lot of people doing is like, well, okay, I need to do this thing to be successful. They just put their head down and they do it. And it does become successful and they hate it because they've given up all this, there's opportunity costs for everything. So they've given up all these other things. So you could do that or you could do what I try to do with a lot of clients and we'll say, this is kind of our year goal. And then quarterly, these are the things that we're going, these are the tactics we're gonna use to try to get to that. And every quarter those tactics change. So that gives people an opportunity to explore new things that maybe they've learned in the prior quarter or that they wanted to try, but maybe it's not as. priority right now. So for you right now, let's say it's to get the audio version of this podcast really, really busted, right? And then maybe next is to get the video part of this podcast going. And then,

Anya Smith:
in

Tim:
you

Anya Smith:
progress.

Tim:
know, I don't know, maybe, maybe there's two podcasts or the podcast, the big one, and maybe there's a little exploration one. But you do that in quarter three, you know, or you stage it out so that A, you don't take it all on at once and destroy everything, and B, you have something

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
to look forward to. Okay,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
this sucks right now or this part I'm not digging, but next month I'm switching anyway, so I'm gonna ride this out to see what happens. If I love it, maybe I'll put it back in the bag. If I hate it, I can just dump it and move on to something else. So it just gives a little bit of flexibility while also building towards something.

Anya Smith:
I think I lost you for a moment, but we'll edit that out. Can you hear me?

Tim:
Yes. Yes, there you are.

Anya Smith:
Okay, okay, there we are. We are back. Yeah, so you mentioned about flexibility, but do you

Tim:
You're

Anya Smith:
mind me mentioning,

Tim:
going to be

Anya Smith:
it

Tim:
sick.

Anya Smith:
sounds like from your journey, you also had a lot of different changes. I'm curious, how did you, what was maybe the benefit of having those different experiences? Instead of seeing it as like, oh, I was kind of scattered and it's a negative thing, but do you see it as a chain that actually helped you find your purpose and kind of gave you different strengths and superpowers along the way?

Tim:
Yeah, with everything, I think, you know, I got a buddy who says everything is a teacher, right? So if you embrace that mentality, which I haven't always, by the way, I'm not, do not, we just talked about this the other day in our podcast, which we just recorded the first episode of the other day. But like, don't let

Anya Smith:
Congratulations!

Tim:
me, thank you, don't let me blow smoke

Anya Smith:
That's awesome.

Tim:
up your rear. Like, I'm not a guru, I don't have this stuff figured out, like, I'm not up here telling people what to do. I can tell you what I have done and- what I have learned so far from it and what hopefully has helped in flying. But yeah, I think the broad-based knowledge has helped me, especially as a consultant, because I'm able to speak to a lot of different industries and personalities and target audiences. And so a lot of approaches, and I learned a lot of different systems and processes, which I'm actually like, I'm a process, I'm a process-stition by nature. And so like learning how different industries and companies create processes and do that. Like that's helped me.

Anya Smith:
Sorry, I'm. I might have lost you for a moment. You were, and we'll see if the audio catches up, but it was saying I learned a lot of processes, and that's where I could, I stopped hearing it, but maybe the recording will show up a little better. Apologies.

Tim:
Oh, so the processes part, like I'm a process station by nature and I love to tweak and

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
play with those things and make them better. And so I've learned a lot of those different ones from all these, you know, experiences which I'm able to now bring in. What it makes me is a little more, again, I think flexible is a great word, that there's not one way of doing it. I've seen different industries, different markets, different audiences, different products do it different ways and be successful. And so. With my clients, it's about finding what it is that will make you successful, what works for you.

Anya Smith:
And in your work, again, I talked about strategy. That seems to be like your brain gets excited about what is the strategy under your process.

Tim:
Bye bye.

Anya Smith:
Was that always the case or did you find that to be the crucial part that you just enjoy diving into?

Tim:
Yeah, I don't think it was always the case. When I was starting on social media with the guys podcast, you know, I was creating content and I actually, I started getting requests from other people to help them create their content. And I got to work with some influencers kind of early on in my thing, my journey there. And what I realized is that, like I would say like, hey, you know, like, what's the goal for the... You know, like what and it'd be like, oh that I'd get more likes and follows I was like cool, but is there like a goal like you got like a offer or service like no I just hope the people follow so what I realized like

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
a lot of people just they were just doing stuff without like kind of end goal or purpose or vision in mind and for me was I Was like well, you're I mean, it's cool. It's fine. You seem to be wasting a lot of money and time to not get anywhere or to not So to me, the strategy part was like, well, like, what are we trying to accomplish? And a lot of people hadn't thought that through. Or it was misaligned, you know, like, oh, well, I want to sell this, I want to sell my coaching service, or I want to sell this hoodie I made or something like that. It was like, well, nothing you're doing points people in that direction. Like, none of these actions are gonna, you know, there's no equal sign to your end result there that I can see, and my guess is your audience can't either. So I think that's where the strategy part came from. for me was like, if we're gonna spend time, we're gonna invest energy, something we're passionate about, like, do we know, at least have an idea, and that can change, but like, do we know what we're actually

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
trying to accomplish with it?

Anya Smith:
Absolutely, absolutely. And one question I had in mind also is, sorry, I got distracted, like the audio keeps coming out and I'm hoping this, we'll edit this out, hoping it's just me on my end and I'll let you know. And I'm just like very, very sorry about that. But I'm curious about social strategy. You had a post just the other day of it today about just consistently posting on Instagram is not a strategy.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
And I'm curious, what are some like the common misconceptions of strategies on social that don't work?

Tim:
Yeah, so

Anya Smith:
And advice around

Tim:
just

Anya Smith:
that.

Tim:
posting all the time doesn't do anything for you. And again, that comes back to like, what are you posting for? What are you posting about? To what end, right? Like, you could just post every day. And I did, like I told you, I did 500 posts in like 60 days or something like that. Like I know about posting a lot of content and for a lot of people. And it wasn't until I sat back and was like, okay, this is what we're trying to do. So now I need to structure my content. in a specific way. So a lot of people just think like, I'm just gonna go out there and post and people are gonna follow me. You know, that day was over 10 years ago. When Instagram started, you could post a picture of an egg and you get the most likes of anything ever. But that's gone. And so now it's intentionality. So that's one of the things. The other thing that people confuse is tactics and strategy. So tactics are the things that you do. and strategy is the approach that you take. It has more to do with the result that you want to see. So again, a tactic would be to post on Instagram. That might be a tactic for you. Like I'm going to post content on Instagram. That's one of the tactics. Cool. The strategy guides that tactic. So it'll be this kind of content put out in this kind of way, in this kind of format with this feel and this, you know, whatever. That's the strategy behind it. So they get those things really messed up. And then the last thing. that everybody says, right? That's that likes ain't cash, followers ain't customers. Like you can build followers, you can build an engagement bank and that's good and it could be helpful. But if you don't know how to convert people, and again, I don't mean that in a sleazy way, like, hey, everybody should pay me money. But if you don't know how to inspire people or motivate them to whatever end you're trying to do, even if it's not a financial end, even if the end is like a mind shift, if you don't know how to convert people. Like if it's just, oh man, your pictures are really well edited, well that's cool. I want you to change the way you think about your finances. You know, like, it's understanding how to convert people. I think you're muted, Anya. Can you hear me? I know. You are muted currently. I see your little mute sign.

Anya Smith:
I was doing so well. I was on a such a roll. Okay,

Tim:
There

Anya Smith:
there

Tim:
you are. Oh,

Anya Smith:
I

Tim:
I

Anya Smith:
am

Tim:
thought it

Anya Smith:
back,

Tim:
was killer too.

Anya Smith:
back.

Tim:
I thought it was so good.

Anya Smith:
My editor is gonna be so excited about

Tim:
Ha

Anya Smith:
this

Tim:
ha!

Anya Smith:
episode. Thank you to him. But I was gonna say, I love that your page has these client testimonials. And the theme that I saw through them is like that they were able to, with your like find who they are in this work. And then when they embrace that authenticity, like they were able to share, you know, their value in a very personal way and that has helped them. So, Can you maybe touch on the way that authenticity has not, that lack of authenticity is hurting people, or trying to copy somebody else fully without thinking about themselves and their unique way to do it is hurting them, and how to be authentic in a way that's manageable too, because it can be hard to try to always post and put yourself all the time. It could be such a drag from what other stuff you're doing to actually make money.

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
How do you balance all that?

Tim:
yeah, oh yeah, we'll just break that right down. You know, there's a saying in social media that's been around for a long time, but they say that content is king, right? And so make great content and things will happen for you. And to some degree, it's kind of true, but I think that context is king. And, because context

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Tim:
is what helps people connect to you, right, so you could do the exact same thing that, pick any account that you want, you could do the exact same thing that they do. and not get those results. There's a reason for that, that there's a context to it that makes sense for who they are, what they're trying to do, and who their audience is. If you don't understand that context for yourself, you're probably A, not gonna get the results, and if you did get the results, you'd probably hate the process or whatever. So for me, it's a very personalized thing, and that came from what I talked about earlier. If you understand your purpose and your vision, it's this narrowing process of getting there. It changes how you interact with it. It's no longer trying to do things It's no longer like I gotta I gotta figure out something to make I gotta figure out a way to talk to people It's it's kind of unlocking that inner you know I think about I was thinking about the Saturday night live skip Where Christopher Walken's plays Bruce Dickinson? It's the more cowbells get for all the listeners

Anya Smith:
Yes, I love that.

Tim:
Yes, so there's a There's a part with Christopher Walken and I would love to try to do the voice, but I can't. Just imagine Christopher Walken's voice.

Anya Smith:
Yes.

Tim:
And they're like, you're the Bruce Dickinson. Like, I can't believe this is happening. And he's like, hey guys, I'm just like you. Put on my pants every morning, one leg at a time, except when my pants are on, I make gold records. And so like, I think about that, like when you know your purpose, like when I wake up in the morning, I put my pants on, I make gold records. Like, you just know what you do. You have that clarity of who you are and what you're accomplishing. It changes the rest of the game for you. So it makes things easier, but it also unlocks doors you hadn't thought of. And to me, that's the real thing. When people are in life coaching or they're therapists, they're like, I do these therapist things. I do these life coaching things. I talk about the, when you understand your purpose and who you are, you can do so many different things. And those are the things that actually make people resonate with you. And it stands out. it's interesting and you like. And it's a much different way to approach it. So that's why I always kind of go from that. Like if you can get that context of who you are and then bring that to the table, no matter what your industry is or what you're selling or not selling or giving away or whatever, it works much better.

Anya Smith:
And we talked about like, it could be overwhelming to explore all the resources out there legit and BS and whatnot, about what strategy you should follow. So how do you stay on top of that to kind of summarize it to help find what is actually legitimate and then help all of us and your clients with that?

Tim:
Yeah, I mean a lot of it's testing. Like again, context is super important. So you could take someone else's strategy again and it will not work for you. So part of it is I do a lot of the testing, I do a lot of the reading and researching because I wanna see what kinds of things are out there, what kind of different ways I haven't thought of for combining things. And then again, I try to bring that into the context of the person that I'm working with, right? This thing works, but does it make sense in your context with your audience, with your offer? And... what you want people to think about you, right? Cause that's really important perception. So this doesn't work for you, doesn't make sense. And then a lot of times we just build out, you know, we build out custom strategies based on who they are, take little pieces here. But I created this, basically a library of like all the stuff that

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
I researched. And I was like, oh, I've got this, I've got all this stuff. And so I actually, I made it, I made it a product for me. I was like, well, I'll just, I'll just sell the links to the ones that I know that have worked well or that I've used with clients to some success. And... At least that gives people a starting place for some of these things. These do work, they have worked. Will they work for you? I don't know, but you might be able to experiment with it and tweak it to your thing. So that's been kind of an interesting road for me as well. Moving into some digital products just

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
off my research.

Anya Smith:
I love that. And if you don't mind sharing, we don't have to go like in specific names or anything. Can you share maybe a story of two people who like started working with you and how going from like what wasn't working for them to like a strategy, like shape their whole approach and help them find success, whatever

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
that means for them.

Tim:
I think about two people in particular. So the first one, a phenomenal therapist, knows his stuff legit, but he was, again, he didn't really have a focus. He had nailed down what his, I'm gonna say, what his signature output was, right? If you got him in a room, he's one of the best therapists out there, but. He didn't know how to convey that. He didn't know how to turn his expertise into authority in digital space really, really quickly. So we just kind of boiled down, like what is your approach to therapy? Like who are you behind the therapy? So instead of talking about therapy, talk about your approach and your personal take and your opinion and your point of view, and bring in some of those tips that'll help people. And so that, I think he'd been on for. year or something on Instagram, he had like 500 some followers, he posted pretty regularly, he had a podcast, had all the, you know, had all the things.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
By next year, the following year, he had over 100,000 followers and it wasn't, it wasn't because, you know, I came up with this great strategy, it was because we just uncovered who he was and he was able to kill it because now he just felt like himself and he was able to do it. He didn't have to think about the content all the time, he just went and he had a plan and it was done and again those are probably atypical results. There's another guy who had a grid coaching business, sales coaching business, was getting a little tired of it, and he started talking about like, what is it that you actually do, like besides helping people get sales? And so we dug into that thing behind the thing, because I think a lot of people go like, I'm a sales coach, I talk about sales. But no, for him it

Anya Smith:
Thank

Tim:
was

Anya Smith:
you.

Tim:
about changing how you think, changing how you approach life, changing, you know, it's a very more

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
personal development than it was sales. And so we pivoted that,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
you know, he's a big reader of books. And so we kind of pivoted him into this space where he's not just giving summaries of books, but distilling information and helping people apply it to their lives, to their businesses, to their coaching, whatever it was. And that helped transform basically his business at this point. And so he always doing something he loves with something he loves to do. He's getting great results.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
So. A lot of times it's like the Michelangelo quote, like the statue is in the rock and we just gotta chip stuff away. And it really is, and a lot of it's just the misconception of what I do or what I have to do to be successful.

Anya Smith:
Sorry, I was a little delayed. I love those examples. Again, I'm curious, we talked about helping others. Do you have a sense of what your purpose is? It seems like I maybe have assumptions about it, but do you wanna share what was your underlying motivation right now as you see it? And it could be forming. I never think it's gonna be final.

Tim:
Yeah, I mean, my purpose statement, so I always tell people, like, once you understand your purpose, your purpose never changes. I mean, it is who you are. Your vision may change a little bit. Your mission will change fairly regularly, but your purpose, once you get it, it's pretty permanent. And so, mine is to help, basically help others create avenues for new opportunities. And that's, I mean, like, when I, when somebody tells me they're doing something, so go back to how I started. Instagram my buddy was doing a podcast. He didn't ask me to help him, but I can't help myself I'm like, oh my gosh, I think of 40 ways right now We could do this differently and I don't know anything about social media But I'll figure it out and like that's how that's how I so when a client comes and they tell me like hey I'm into this. I'm like, okay I'm gonna go do 10 hours of research even though you haven't paid me yet because I can't help myself That's who I am when my wife says she's interested in doing this thing. Oh, yeah, absolutely Let's let's figure out how to do this. Like let's make this happen We can we can do anything we need to do like

Anya Smith:
That's

Tim:
That's how

Anya Smith:
awesome.

Tim:
I'm built. So

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
I bring that into what I do. And when I understood that is when it changed everything about everything really for me.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, yeah, there's power in realizing you don't have to change who you are to serve others and to get beyond the limits. You thought, in my corporate world, I thought I had to change who I am. The energy, the things that are passionate about that, that desire to explore other facets of my strengths. And now I'm like, actually that's what makes me uniquely good at what I can offer to other people. So I love you sharing that and

Tim:
Mm. Wow.

Anya Smith:
my husband

Tim:
Have

Anya Smith:
hopefully

Tim:
you ever

Anya Smith:
finds

Tim:
done that?

Anya Smith:
it.

Tim:
Have you done that exercise on it? Do you have a personal purpose statement? I don't wanna put you on the spot.

Anya Smith:
Oh, well, I don't have a statement maybe, but my purpose is to help inspire people to live a fuller life and also to ignite meaningful connections with people.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
I'm just making that up in my head in terms of making it more pitchy.

Tim:
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith:
But I'm passionate about connecting people in a way that helps them empower one another and then inspiring people to live a fuller life. That deeply resonates with me

Tim:
and then...

Anya Smith:
on a variety of ways, whether it's through the consultations that I'm trying to do. But I see so much life and opportunity happen when you bring people together and you're like, hey, how can we make something better? How can we share your gift to some other people and help them find you? That's inspiring. And then to be nobody, nobody comes to space, like you didn't know me, but I could just reach out to you and you were kind of like, hey, yeah, let's connect and share a story. And here we are sharing learnings with people. It warms my heart. And sometimes this work is really hard and there's so much to do, but like that purpose keeps me going.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
Like on day one when I posted the podcast and nobody saw it and I was crushed because like this is my worst case scenario, right? And I was like, but I still wanna do it because that purpose to your point is still there and it's meaningful enough to me. So that's my right now

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
way of framing it.

Tim:
Yeah, so think about that. So this is what a lot of people do. They say, I am a life coach, so therefore I must do X. When you start with purpose, my purpose to inspire people to do things they wouldn't do is to help connect with others. Okay, what can you do with that? You can do almost anything with that, right? And so that's

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
where it becomes interesting. And that's where it becomes like, it's inspiring for yourself and exciting and like I don't have to just do this. I mean there's like 400 avenues I could do where this could happen. You could have a nine-to-five job and still succeed at your purpose, right? You could go back to

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
your company and succeed at that by understanding it, by doing those things. And so that's what a lot of people miss. They start with what they do and then how do I find purpose in that? Like well the purpose is actually bigger than the thing that you do. The thing that you do is an activation of the purpose. I love that. I love that you know

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
that and you're put it into work in different ways.

Anya Smith:
Can I be honest though? I've always wanted to have a purpose. And I love people, I have this purpose. And I had no clue what my purpose was until I started just without any hesitation, without nothing holding me back at this point for better or worse, just to do what I thought would bring me energy and how I could help. It wasn't because I had this clear purpose, it was just really like, hey, what do I enjoy doing and where can I add some value to other people? And so like, if you're listening to this and like me, you didn't have a purpose or you're right now like, I wish I had the sexy purpose, that sounds cool. But you're not there, like just know like, it doesn't, to me at least, it wasn't something I had all along when I started. It was really still an exploration and just really seeing what's true to me.

Tim:
Yeah, so I think of I think purpose is actually it's kind of a crappy word because it makes it makes it feel like really important really heavy and I got to me it's more like modus operandi like this is how I operate in the world's what I do no matter what context I'm in this is like this is the thing going on

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
it's the software running in the background all the time so that's why I tell people like catch yourself catch yourself being yourself and you'll find you'll figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is so figure out what your purpose is

Anya Smith:
Mmm.

Tim:
so figure out what your purpose is so how you act, how you act, ask people. You know, what am I always doing? We have a conversation, what am I always doing? You know, they might say, oh, I mean, you're always looking to comfort me, always. Or for me, you're always thinking of different ways to make things happen, right? Like, you can catch yourself being yourself. And that to me is purpose more than like how we think of it in like a business vision aspect, where like a lot of people are like, well, I don't know how to monetize that. Like, well, you don't have to monetize that. Just know that that's how you act and that's how you operate. And you can look for ways to monetize utilizing that skill set, but not monetizing that skill set specifically. So that's what I tell people, like,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
purpose sounds this big and

Anya Smith:
Can

Tim:
weighty,

Anya Smith:
I add

Tim:
but

Anya Smith:
to

Tim:
you're

Anya Smith:
that?

Tim:
doing something right

Anya Smith:
What's

Tim:
now

Anya Smith:
funny,

Tim:
that

Anya Smith:
you mentioned

Tim:
is

Anya Smith:
like,

Tim:
you.

Anya Smith:
I've been reflecting

Tim:
Catch yourself

Anya Smith:
now them

Tim:
doing

Anya Smith:
on

Tim:
it

Anya Smith:
this

Tim:
and

Anya Smith:
process,

Tim:
then figure out

Anya Smith:
like

Tim:
how to

Anya Smith:
some

Tim:
do it

Anya Smith:
things

Tim:
intentionally.

Anya Smith:
that I didn't really appreciate about myself before I went into this. And one I was like, I really enjoy unique people. Like some people might even find them like weird or just like, you know, their own people. And not that I always have to like agree with them, but I was always drawn to somebody who's doing something unique on their own terms and like having that vision for themselves.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
And the other thing, I wasn't even much. like present on social media much, but always like, oh, I wish I could share this learning with other. Like in my head, I was like, this is how I would say it, but I didn't wanna annoy my Facebook friends with all of that. I was holding it back, but those habits were already there and I wasn't paying attention to them. So it's very curious, like when you do find your journey, it's not like something just miraculously, I'm a new person,

Tim:
Right.

Anya Smith:
it's really some of those things and the threads are coming out and you're noticing them more. And like, oh wow, that was there all along.

Tim:
Yep, yeah, it's just removing the things that you're doing that don't kind of bring that to life. And then, like I said, figuring out what it is and just doing it intentionally. Like, okay, so now you know that about yourself. So what can I do today to intentionally bring that, that purpose and that vision in the world? And then when you start to think like that, then the opportunities show up everywhere and it just gets more exciting and more interesting and hopefully more fun.

Anya Smith:
Yeah. And then monetizable. Like

Tim:
and monitor it.

Anya Smith:
I think you offer value first, you explore, you give your heart and like, maybe not everybody will agree with us. Maybe they have like the solid monetization strategy, which is very like dun, but at least for me, it feels better to be doing some things that align with what I feel like is right for me and my style and my personality, and I'm helping others in a way that only I can uniquely do. And like, it just opens up more opportunities.

Tim:
No.

Anya Smith:
Like I'm still forming that, but I'm really excited about the path that's been covering this way.

Tim:
Yeah, that's awesome. I love it.

Anya Smith:
Okay, one thing I'm also really excited to talk about is the strategy sessions membership, not to like make it overly pitchy, but like it is a great resource, right? And like, can you share with me, like what was the idea behind this? And like, who can get value out of this?

Tim:
Yeah, so if you go back to what I said, I can't help myself with people,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
I wanna help people. So when it becomes a business, obviously there's that tension between how can I help everybody that's ever existed on this earth and how can I pay for groceries for my family? So I wanted a spectrum.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
Consulting with me is pretty expensive because I typically, not always, but I have good results. I feel like I'm good at what I do. I feel like it's something that adds value to the business that I'm working with. I don't have a problem charging for that. On the other end of the spectrum, I wanna help more people. So I started this membership, which is like, to me is very low. Cost,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
cost to value ratio is really high in the value side. So it's $150 for an entire year. And you get 12 workshops with me. There's Q and A during those workshops. You know, you get the replays afterwards. You get one 30 minute strategy session with me. You get access to like half off coaching calls with me for the duration. Like I just, I try to make it accessible. For people

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
who maybe their business isn't there yet or they've never invested in themselves because that's also a hard step for some people Like that first kind

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
of especially online digital investing so I Enjoy teaching and I enjoy consulting and I wanted to get into more of that line So that's what I started this membership for it's for people really Who have a business and who are looking to grow it or create new revenue streams? but don't really know like the brass tacks behind it, don't know the strategies, don't know the tactics, don't know the backend stuff that works. And so, you know, I'll do workshops on all that and Q&A to help people implement it into their businesses.

Anya Smith:
Can I add to that? I'm honestly, I looked at it, I was like, oh, that actually sounds good for me. I'm still forming a little bit, but I probably will reach out in the next month or so just to work with you on some of that, enjoying that. Because what I'm finding as a new entrepreneur, there's so much stuff out there is overwhelming,

Tim:
Over and out.

Anya Smith:
as to your point. And also, I see you show up every day on different platforms, doing all that, showing sound advice and strategy. And so that gives me a sense of trust versus like, You'd be like, oh, you can be making money while you sleep

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
on a beach. And if only you do this. And they're like, oh, and they're holding a baby. And they're like, yes, I could be making so much money. Like, okay, I don't know. That seems a little bit like, and then you dive in, like it's so much harder and only like 1% of a 1% makes any money out of it. So my point is that seeing you show up every day for your audience and like really be mindful of like, what's the strategy that can help others and seeing the testimonials like. makes me trust the value that you're bringing and kind of your approach and the reason behind it.

Tim:
Oh, I appreciate that. If we do get to work together, that's fantastic. If we continue to do

Anya Smith:
Yeah,

Tim:
that,

Anya Smith:
no

Tim:
we'll

Anya Smith:
BS,

Tim:
let you know.

Anya Smith:
no BS. I was like, oh, this could be helpful for me. And I'm like still forming a little bit, but like in the next month or so, I'll be like, that's right. Oh, I know roughly what I want to do. Like I'm still testing out a little thing. So yeah, I'll be in touch.

Tim:
Well, that helped me learn from you too. So that's what, like, I don't have a community because I actually suck at communities. Like, I just suck. But in the membership, in the workshops, we try to get people to connect with each other there during those times, learn from each other because everybody's got their own set of expertise and experience and so that's a big piece of it. Like, you bring so much to the table in that group setting. You'd learn, you'd teach. It's a cool way to do it.

Anya Smith:
Okay, well I will come in, what is it? In September, I'll reach out. So join this, if you're listening in September, I will be part of this community,

Tim:
Right on.

Anya Smith:
that's my promise to you. If you wanna join all this crazy.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
One thing you mentioned a little bit early, if you don't mind us touching it, and you can share as much or little as you want, but you mentioned there's a podcast, there's a first episode. What? Like, tell us all about that.

Tim:
Yeah, so again, the guy that I originally worked with, it got me on the social media, meeting up with a team

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
whose name is Anthony, Anthony David Allen, and he's a mindset coach, he's a fabulous speaker, like just a great speaker and thinker. And he's really into mindfulness, presence, gratitude, these things that I suck at cultivating myself, but I always try. And so we put together a podcast called the awful life podcast, um, which

Anya Smith:
Yes.

Tim:
is a, you know, a dad, you gotta have a dad pun. So awe, a w E

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
full F U L right. Full of awe. Um, and the idea is like

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
really seeing the regular moments of your life is awe inspiring and kind of diving into those and finding gratitude and appreciation and presence. Um, so we share stories

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
and we kind of try to challenge a little bit. We have a bunch of dry dad humor banter that we think is witty. and enjoyable. And so it hasn't, we

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
recorded the first episode, it has not launched yet, it's probably gonna launch in the next three weeks is our goal. Record two more, launch, and go for it.

Anya Smith:
Sorry. Oh, sorry. I'm so sorry about the audio delays.

Tim:
Alright.

Anya Smith:
But I'm excited to check it out. So when is the episode coming up? I might've missed that.

Tim:
That's okay, we're shooting for about three weeks from now, so I think it's like September 20

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
something-ish.

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
Whatever the Monday is of September, the September 20s.

Anya Smith:
Okay, so September 21st, you're

Tim:
21st.

Anya Smith:
right. Oh no, I'm sorry, that's August. My calendar. Okay, September 25th is a Monday and

Tim:
Okay,

Anya Smith:
there's September 18th.

Tim:
that's it

Anya Smith:
So

Tim:
then. Yeah, there's only

Anya Smith:
one of

Tim:
one,

Anya Smith:
those,

Tim:
there's

Anya Smith:
one

Tim:
only

Anya Smith:
of those.

Tim:
one Monday in the 20s. Yes.

Anya Smith:
Okay, September 25th, that's exciting. I'm really excited to see like your, and was he doing a different podcast before that and now he's doing both or are you kind of combining both this into this

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
one channel?

Tim:
he'd stopped podcasting a little while ago. He was doing the Attention to Life podcast, which was,

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
to me, I was always very mad that he backed

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Tim:
away from it, but life and all that. And so I'm more of like, I'm like his accountability buddy in this podcast. I'm the play-by-play and he's like the color man, the commentator. But I make him show up so he can do a podcast though, because it's great.

Anya Smith:
I'm excited to check it out. That sounds fantastic. And it's obviously hard work, but like, I think there's so many voices we need in the world that are just positive and bring good thoughts into what we do and a different reflection. Like I think our perspective and reflection is so powerful

Tim:
Mm-mm.

Anya Smith:
and just taking a moment to even like, you know, find gratitude, to appreciate things, have funny humor

Tim:
Yeah!

Anya Smith:
is fantastic. What's funny is I did a video just the other day on Instagram, I don't know if you saw, I described, we have a cherry point on top of our hill. because there are two chairs on it.

Tim:
Hmm.

Anya Smith:
My husband doesn't find that funny, but. But

Tim:
Uhhh...

Anya Smith:
I punt it up, so looking

Tim:
How can

Anya Smith:
forward

Tim:
he not

Anya Smith:
to

Tim:
find

Anya Smith:
it.

Tim:
it funny? Because that's a dad joke. Like, that fits the mold. Like... It's there. Anyway.

Anya Smith:
I don't know, I have the dad joke mentality

Tim:
No.

Anya Smith:
for some reason and he just doesn't appreciate it, but it's okay. We work in other ways.

Tim:
You bring your light, you know what I mean?

Anya Smith:
Yeah, yeah, you know, we're still five years strong. So I feel like he's kind of, he's stuck now for life.

Tim:
Awesome. Oh, love that.

Anya Smith:
I'm curious also, one thing we talked about, like how we started is we met on threads and you're on Instagram. Like what is your advice for people? I know there's always different opinions. And I'm not saying like that I'm right or wrong about how to expand your social presence, whether it's be on one social platform, whether it's go on all of them, like. Is there a strategy that you think people should take or kind of adapt to their own needs around that?

Tim:
Yeah, so to me the strategy, I don't form any strategy without understanding someone's goals, even if they're just their current goals, right? We try to get big goal vision, whatever, but sometimes it's just where we're at. So to me, like how many social platforms and which social platforms, do I need social platforms? Like all of that ties into the goal. And so the question is always yes or no, or the answer is always yes or no, depending on

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
what your situation is. Like who are you trying to connect with? What are you trying to connect with them about? And that, to me, that will tell us where this should be. Some people end up with a brick and mortar. Some people end up with a podcast. Some people end up with a TikTok or five channels or Reddit. Nobody even considers

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
Reddit as a platform, but that's a viable platform for a lot of different reasons. And so it's like,

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
what's your goal? This is where it probably makes the most sense. And let's... Let's test it, you know, we're gonna give it a go for three months and we're gonna see what happens here.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, you know, it's funny, I'm trying to also explore Discord right now, which I've never done, but that's like a developer channel I'm trying to explore for a client. And the important point, like, it's also very important to recognize what doesn't work. Like, even if you, I don't know, you can maybe share your timeline around that, but there are times where like when I started, I wanted to do this comp- well, not competition, but reward element to the podcast. And it's like for eight weeks and like I got, I made all the stuff. I have little cute notebooks and like little swag stuff that was going to ship out. And I did it for two weeks to realize that people that were winning because they were just being, didn't even know about it. They were just doing other kinds of stuff, their

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
heart. And I was like, well, this is like a lot more stress for what it's worth. So I'll have it, you know, a good lesson, maybe a little bit of investment that I could have saved. Well, I'll have it for later, you know? So like that didn't work. And I wasn't like, oh, but I'm going to see it through.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
Cause it's not working and just spend my energy on that. So, um, also good to have like less ego, but not working.

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
Let's, let's, let's

Tim:
yeah,

Anya Smith:
go.

Tim:
objectivity is good and measuring things. Like I think that's why I always try to set like three month goals. I'm gonna do this for three months, win, lose, or draw, unless it's like an absolute bomb because we didn't realize how much time it was actually gonna take or, you know, people are actively against you doing like, people are shunning you and shaming you, like whatever. Unless it's this huge bomb, like we're gonna stick with it for three months, we're gonna analyze it, we're gonna say like, this worked, this didn't work. let's can that thing. But I think what a lot of people do is they do like what you talked about, like they start really, really big with something and they don't check all the pieces and then they go like, well, then I got to do this, and this, and this, and the other things that I have going on. And then so they

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
get overwhelmed and they don't just quit that thing, they quit like all of it. Cause like, I'm just so tired. None of it's working and they get like this, you know, negative

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
mindset around it. So that's why I think timelines are really, really crucial testing out things. starting small, like what's the smallest viable thing I could do, and then just being consistent with it, because I think consistency really is a lot of the key. If you have an intention and you're being consistent, things generally will grow or advance or progress in a positive way over time.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, and sometimes what I hear people, because I'm interviewing a lot of amazing people, and sometimes people who are growing now, they have several thousand, you know, 100,000 people in their audience, but they talk about like, you have to do it even when it's not working, right? Even when you're not seeing much results. But what helped them sometimes is just knowing that others can do it. And that's like part of the motivation for the podcast is like when you see somebody else, they can relate to like, yes, it's hard right now, but I know it's possible. And that's so powerful. Like I have a friend who's amazing and like, he's not even that much on social, but he's doing incredible things. And like, just talking to him, he's like, well, this was what year one was like, and this is how I grew. And like, I grew this

Tim:
Yes.

Anya Smith:
much like for five years. And I was like, that is so helpful to hear and knowing that it's

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
possible.

Tim:
yeah, I think that's huge. It's good to listen to other people who have done it and who are kind of honest and open about how it happened. And then it's also important to remember that, again, to go back to context, it's not gonna look like that for you, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it. And it doesn't mean that it's not successful if it looks a little bit different than that or if it comes differently. Because that's the other thing, expectations play a big role in this, right? people like I want to have a coaching program that makes me $30,000 a month and then they get an opportunity to do you know speaking events for $10,000 a month they're like well but I had this idea about doing coaching or consulting for 30 you know like the offer the business is there like it looks different than you thought it was

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
going to look an opportunity to present that doesn't mean you have to take every opportunity but don't be so precious about the pathway

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
as opposed to you know like letting the business kind of grow and define itself to some degree.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, I think if people are listening, maybe they're like, oh, this seems like we're saying one thing and then we're adapting this way. I think that's the beauty is you find different strategies that work with you through different moments in your life. Like when things are going well, you're like, oh, this strategy, well, even the mindset, different parts of the day, when you're struggling, this element of looking at others, for example, can be very helpful to lift you up, right? Or like when you are doing really, really well, you're like, well, maybe I need to be more critical about all the other options because I need to find out what works for me. And like that may sound contradictory, just like you figure out different things that work for you along the way and can help you in different situations and struggles. At least that's what I found,

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
you

Tim:
absolutely.

Anya Smith:
think.

Tim:
Yeah, learn, apply, measure, do some more, try things. I mean, experimenting is one of the biggest pieces of this.

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
Like you can have every strategy in the world, you can have all the research, you can have all that, but you don't know until you try it. And so you do have to

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
at some point put skin in the game and do the thing and then see what happens from it because you learn a lot. Like you said about yourself, like

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
part of uncovering

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
the

Anya Smith:
I'm

Tim:
errors.

Anya Smith:
going to tee this in together. So say somebody's new, they're starting out or maybe they're starting their business or even have an idea. What strategies would you like, what should they do? I think on your webpage, there's a sample strategy plan that they could fill out themselves and kind of start a starting point. What would you advise? Just somebody, somebody like, I might be, I want to do more. I want to test out this idea. Anything that would work to start.

Tim:
Yeah, so one of the things that would work is actually very aligned with what you do. Find five or 10 other people who are doing it, who have the

Anya Smith:
Mmm.

Tim:
kind of audience that you want or have the offer that you want or doing something that you think you'd like to do. And then they kind of get involved in their community, ask questions, learn, and then don't stop there. Then start to figure out, like I said a minute ago, what's the smallest viable step I can take to try this? So let's say, you want to do a podcast, right? Like, I'm really interested in podcasts, you know? I wanna start my own podcast. All right, so find 10 other podcasts that you love and figure out what

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
it is that you love about them, right? What it is. And then instead of starting a podcast, maybe be a guest on a podcast, right? Do a couple of guest appearances. Do I like this? Is this interesting? Okay, and then after that, you know, take a course or buy someone's template or do something like, they'll learn how the backend of it works. And you know, like. Just take small little steps, but you can start to build, you can start to build really easily and learn a lot without saying, okay,

Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.

Tim:
I'm building this podcast out, I'm gonna start recording 12 episodes. I'm gonna, like, I got the, I'm working on the ads platform for right now and here's the newsletter that's going alongside of it. And I've got these three social media accounts and like, just, you're gonna blow your brains out, like, way quickly. So small, small.

Anya Smith:
You're gonna laugh at me, Tim, because I feel like that relates more to what I did.

Tim:
It can be successful. That's

Anya Smith:
in.

Tim:
a great part is it can actually be successful, but I don't advise it for most people because most people get overwhelmed

Anya Smith:
Yes.

Tim:
and they quit.

Anya Smith:
Yes, absolutely. I did feel like a lot of overwhelm during this process, but I learned a lot. I learned so much and it was really rewarding looking at it back now. Like I had to make quicker decisions about what was working and not working in terms of my energy. Because when you're diving full in, like there's a bigger sacrifice you have to make in terms of your mental state, right? And what you're putting, so you have to be like, this is not a priority right now. Like this is all great, but just like right now, as I'm testing and building, this is the kind of a back burner time investment mental, whatever that is. But it's also possible. The other thing is like three months ago, I had no clue this would be possible for me. And now I'm doing it. I don't know if you imagine where you are today, like a couple of years ago, months ago, like what you'd be doing, but it's pretty amazing. Like we don't have to define ourselves with the past, but we can explore and like build that future for ourselves. Like with that strategy, with that step, with the iteration determination.

Tim:
Yeah, absolutely. And again, learning about yourself the whole time, like asking questions about yourself. I go back to this, like again, it's my purpose statement, so maybe that's why, but like helping people find opportunities to succeed. The opportunities are

Anya Smith:
Mm.

Tim:
out there and they come in ways that we hadn't thought of. And so by doing, by doing intentionally again, potentially doing your purpose, like you uncover a lot of opportunities that you had not thought of. And so. If you just sat around and created a 10-year business plan and did all this and you're gonna miss basically everything, you probably will not succeed in

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
your business plan if you just try to stick to it. So start a little bit smaller, but be intentional about what you do. That's the strategic part, right? Then learn, analyze, iterate, like move forward.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, yeah, find people like Tim, you know, like, whether there's the resources, whether there's actually coaching support, or mentors who are doing it, like you said, and kind of like learn from it to find what works for you along the way. And last thing, and feel free to add anything else that we might have missed, but what are maybe some strategies, like two, three strategies that you are really excited about, just for whatever reason, that maybe we can share with the audience?

Tim:
You froze up for the question, I think.

Anya Smith:
Oh, sorry, I was gonna say, what are maybe two or three exciting strategies that just like maybe warm your heart right now or that you think are, you know, that could be helpful to share with others right now. Maybe we haven't talked about them or just that you are finding super duper helpful, but maybe you're less known or just like that would be helping somebody on this journey. Did I freeze again?

Tim:
Yes, I don't know if it's me or you.

Anya Smith:
No, it's probably me. It's probably me. Sorry about that. So I was gonna say, what are maybe top two or three of your favorite strategies that maybe we didn't mention or that you find super helpful that we can leave our audience thinking on?

Tim:
Yeah, so there's two I can think of right now. One is out free your competition. To me, this is a phenomenal

Anya Smith:
Ooh.

Tim:
strategy. So if you know Alex Hermosy, one thing he talks about is the longer you can delay an ask, the longer you can delay your payday, the bigger it can be, both the ask, payday, all that kind of stuff. So if you're out free in the meantime, right? So you find what your competition is, what they are selling, can you give that away for free? Can you bring that? for free because you can delay the result. Not everybody's in this position. Not everybody can delay the payout, right? Some people need a paycheck right now. If you don't, this can be a super effective strategy for building an audience, building trust, building authority. I mean, if I have to pay this guy $400, but you're gonna do it for free, like I'm gonna try you first at the very least, right?

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
So. Out for your competition, I think, is a fantastic strategy. And then another

Anya Smith:
I love it.

Tim:
strategy that I don't see people doing enough on social media, which to me is a little bit nuts, is leveraging other people's audiences. And so that strategy

Anya Smith:
Hmm.

Tim:
comes from, let's say you're on Instagram, for example, you do a post collaboration, you both post it to your own accounts at the same time, so you've just doubled your audience, or you're a podcast guest, right, I'm leveraging your audience, right? So it's like, collaboration to build, a lot of people do all that and they just try to build attention. And you can do that. Or you can leverage people who have already done that by offering value to them. And you can reciprocal, you get audience attention. So if you're not collaborating in some way, if you're not doing email swaps, if you're not doing post collaborations, if you're not guest on podcast or guest blogging. You're not doing IG lives with people or Facebook lives or tiktok labs

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
or wherever you're at LinkedIn YouTube doesn't matter You're not doing these collaborative things you're missing out on Essentially free marketing free audience expansion. So out for your competition

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
Leverage other people's networks. Those are strategies that I think are fantastic and they both bring a ton of value to people. So

Anya Smith:
Yeah. And they feel good. They feel good too. Like you're actually helping people. Like the funny thing, the striking strategy actually does like at the root of the podcast strategy that I have. Like my vision was like, if I offer to share people's stories, like people who are good human beings doing good in the world, like they, and they just kindly ask them, Hey, can you share this with your network? And I try to create like resources that make it valuable to them. Like, you know, social things that are easily reshareable and just are win-win. Like that will help me expand my message

Tim:
Yes.

Anya Smith:
and drive the audience.

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
And like, I truly believe that it takes time. I'm not gonna say it's overnight, but like, I'm like really amazed of where that can

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
take you.

Tim:
can I throw in a bonus? This

Anya Smith:
Please,

Tim:
is

Anya Smith:
please,

Tim:
the one I

Anya Smith:
please.

Tim:
love, because I used to be a very reserved person and now I'll just ask. So there's a verse in the Bible and it says, you have not because you ask not. That's a strategy

Anya Smith:
Mmm.

Tim:
that a lot of people are like, oh, I'm too shy, although probably saying no, oh, it's like, just ask. I built an entire business off of being in rooms with people I don't quote belong with. Because I just asked, hey, you know. Can I help you with that? Or, hey, would you join me on this? Or, hey, I think I loved your opinion on that. Would you share that? Will you tell me more about how you got to that conclusion? Or if you don't ask people, if you

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
don't try things, it's most likely not gonna happen. And the worst that can happen is you'll be

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
in the same spot because you asked. So it's like, just try, ask.

Anya Smith:
Yeah, can I ask something dorky

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
to that? I'm still, like, I still find it a little uncomfortable to like ask for a contract or, you know, like for the money, but I think it's very important. So I do it even awkwardly. I'm like, hey, I'm new at this, but I'm trying to flex this. I'm like, I literally say those words and people that work with people know. I'm like, I'm new at this, but can we draft a contract and talk about it? Cause like it's important and I need to get better. And I can still do it awkwardly in my own style and I'll probably get

Tim:
Mm-hmm.

Anya Smith:
better at it. But like if that helps anybody, like you don't have to be like a pro and be like, oh yeah,

Tim:
Yeah.

Anya Smith:
let me see what I can offer you. I have it all down, but you can do it in your own style and just get better and better.

Tim:
Yeah, don't fake it. Yeah, touch some of it where you're at. I think most people are more gracious than we give them credit for. So if you're a nice person, you know, I mean, if you're not a nice person, maybe you lie about it a little bit. But if you're a nice person, just be honest.

Anya Smith:
I could be nicer on Tuesdays. This is so

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
fun.

Tim:
look.

Anya Smith:
I feel like, can I share something you've very candidly and this might be like, we can edit out. You're like, I feel like we don't get to see enough of your personality, like in the

Tim:
Yeah,

Anya Smith:
posts.

Tim:
yeah I know.

Anya Smith:
I'm really excited for the podcast because like it's great. The posts are great and they look gorgeous. I'm very jealous of your carousel style, by the way, FYI. But I love this. I'm really excited for the podcast to just see where you talk

Tim:
Yeah, I don't

Anya Smith:
and more

Tim:
like

Anya Smith:
of

Tim:
making

Anya Smith:
this.

Tim:
videos. And so I found like, I could probably grow faster if I made videos, I just hate doing it. I'm not gonna do it. And I'd rather honestly, like go back to like my purpose. I'd rather work on my clients

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
content. That's why I mean, I posted like five times in August. I built up enough body of work. I built up enough credibility that I don't have to create content all the time. And so I just, I'd rather just work on somebody else's stuff. It's just how I'm wired

Anya Smith:
Yeah.

Tim:
and I've kind of just stopped. So, but yeah, I appreciate it.

Anya Smith:
I love

Tim:
It's definitely, this is definitely more of a. who I am.

Anya Smith:
it. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you being here and like the audience, like I hope you're getting a variety of other strategy tips, whether it's like here's a great resource from Tim, like you can check out his, you know, Instagram with a bunch of helpful, like actionable strategies and carousels

Tim:
I'm going to

Anya Smith:
and

Tim:
say.

Anya Smith:
like all of that. And work with him closely if that is of value to you right now. And then is there anything else that we missed out Tim before we wrap up? Anything else that we could have shared? Anything I missed?

Tim:
No, I mean, I like Starbucks, so if you're out there and you like Starbucks, drop me a note that says, hey, I'm a Starbucks lover too, and then we'll just connect, like it'll be a thing. Like we're the only Starbucks lovers in the world or something.

Anya Smith:
What's your favorite drink?

Tim:
Anything blonde roast. I'm not a kind of sewer of fine coffee, but I love coffee.

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
So I have Starbucks here, I get a lot of gift cards for it, so I drink it a lot. Oh. I just love coffee. So if you love coffee, like I said, hit me up. We'll become coffee friends.

Anya Smith:
I love it. That's a really good, easy intro for Tim. Just use that. Hey, I love coffee too. Let's

Tim:
Let's

Anya Smith:
be friends.

Tim:
be friends.

Anya Smith:
Perfect. Well, my friend, you've been so generous with your time. I appreciate you showing up behind the amazing content and sharing the strategy and the tips. And for our audience, if you found something helpful, if there's one piece of advice that stood out to you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with a friend, post on Instagram or your social. I also love to hear your feedback. So. writer of you or share anything that we could do to make this podcast better. And then before we let you off the hook, there are three short, big questions and then we'll let you go.

Tim:
Alright,

Anya Smith:
Does that sound good?

Tim:
speed round.

Anya Smith:
Okay. Just first thing that comes to mind, I don't like to make it super formal like the rest of my content. What's a small habit or routine that has a big impact on your life?

Tim:
Oh gosh. I think the first thing I do every morning that grounds me is I make coffee. I do it before anything. I was

Anya Smith:
I'm

Tim:
just

Anya Smith:
shocked!

Tim:
talking about it. I do it before anything. I walk out of my room and I start to copy.

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
If I didn't do that one morning, I don't know if I would be able to find my way around my house. I'd just be lost.

Anya Smith:
Okay, okay, gotcha. So if Tim looks off or sounds off, he'd be like, have you had your coffee? Okay, second question. If you could give a TED Talk on any topic, what would it be and why?

Tim:
Oh, gosh, that's a great question. I feel like it would be on purpose, but Simon Sinek kinda owns that, so we'd have to arm wrestle for who gets that.

Anya Smith:
Okay.

Tim:
But I think it would be on that. I think it would be understanding how your purpose drives who you are.

Anya Smith:
I love that. I look forward to that Ted talk. Okay, last but not least in the positive context going off track is.

Tim:
Going off track is deciding that the ways everything else, or everybody else, or society sees success aren't the only ways. And going off track is kind of being brave and courageous enough to do the thing that you do and see where it leads, you know, instead of being confined to some other plan.

Anya Smith:
Well, thank you for sharing your purpose with us and thank you to everybody listening. I hope you found some inspiration, some awesome strategy insights and that you make your personal journey even more fulfilling through this journey with us. Thank you again and look forward to another adventure right off track next time. Take care and thank you, Tim.

Tim:
Thank you.

Anya Smith:
Okay, there we go.