IAM1252 – CEO Creates a Healthy and Natural Alternative Medicine for His Clients
Podcast Interview with Tim O'Brien
Tim has extensive experience in the health and wellness industry. He began his career in 2003 at GNC franchises, then became District Manager in 2005. In 2008, he became the manager of Elite Nutrition. During those years, he built a solid foundation of knowledge and expertise. His passion and success gave him the vision to open his own business.
Tim believes in educating and empowering individuals to make lifelong, healthy choices and changes. His desire is to help each person reach their health potential. His energy is contagious, and he’s excited about helping YOU.
- CEO Story: When Tim was young, his mom was battling cancer and found a natural alternative that changed his mom’s life. At 18, Tim wanted to make an impact, and so he joined health and wellness and began his career in 2003. Finally, in 2010, he and his wife opened their own health food store and they keep on growing.
- Business Service: They have a wellness consultant. They create an impact for their clients and empower and educate them in health and wellness.
- Secret Sauce: Souls before sales. You do what’s right for the customer and the sales will take care of themselves.
- CEO Hack: A book he read, Driven by Eternity – to work on eternal matters; Find out what your difference maker is. Quality. Humility.
- CEO Nugget: Having the right people in the company and learning to let go of the wrong people.
- CEO Defined: Servant leadership. Serving your team. Be empathetic and sympathetic in times of their greatest need.
Website: findyourhealthyplace.com
Instagram: @applewellness
Facebook: findyourhealthyplaceTHP
Be sure to use the coupon below to avail a huge discount on their products!
Coupon Code: IAMCEO
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Transcription
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00:12 – Intro
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share the valuable info you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:39 – Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tim O'Brien of Finding Your healthyplace.com Tim is Super excited to have you on the show.
00:49 – Tim O'Brien
Super pumped to be here, man. Thanks for having me.
00:51 – Gresham Harkless
Yes, absolutely. Should definitely be loads of fun. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about him. So you can hear about some of those awesome things that he's doing. And Tim has extensive experience in the health and wellness industry. He began his career in 2003 at GNC franchises and then became district manager in 2005. In 2008, he became the manager of elite nutrition. During those years, he built a solid foundation of knowledge and expertise. His passion and success gave him the vision to open his own business.
And Tim believes in educating and empowering individuals to make life-long, healthy choices and changes. And his desire to help each person reach their health potential. His energy is contagious and he's excited about helping you. He loves spending time with his beautiful family, church activities, traveling, and extreme sports. And one insightful fact about Tim is that he knows how to juggle and ride the unicycle. So, Tim, you're a man of many talents. Super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
01:47 – Tim O'Brien
I'm ready to rock.
01:48 – Gresham Harkless
Let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on a little bit when I read your bio. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. We'll let you start off the awesome work you're doing.
01:58 – Tim O'Brien
Cool. Yeah, my mom fought through cancer when I was 5 or 6 years old. After going through radiation, and chemotherapy, she walked into a health food store, dude, and met a guy named John. Her life was changed by that encounter because it started a cascade of conversations, and consultations, introducing her to natural alternatives that helped her recovery. I mean, she would point back to that and say that was a game changer for her and a life changer for her. Through that experience, she became a manager at a health food store in a little town called Muskego, Wisconsin.
Folks were battling cancer like she did, and she'd take their hand and show them about natural alternatives, chronic pain, stress, anxiety, depression, and people who were heavily medicated. And she'd say, hey, let's connect with your pharmacist because I got some ideas here. And she'd be getting these people off of pharmaceutical medications. And so then as a little guy, I didn't care. Right. And then all of a sudden I was struck when I was around 18, 19 years old when I had one of those Scott encounters in my life where my life was changed. And I was like, dang, I want to do something powerful with my life.
I want to make an impact. I want to make a difference in this world. And all of a sudden, looking back at the road that was behind me, I was like, maybe I want to do this health and wellness thing. So that's what started my journey in the health and wellness industry. I got a job like your bio that you read there with GNC franchises. And then 2010, maybe I was like, okay, Becky, my beautiful wife, we're like, let's start our own health food store in a town called Fitchburg, Wisconsin, which is right outside of Madison.
And fast forward 11 going on 12 years later, we have 4 brick-and-mortar stores. We have a website, findyourhealthyplace.com. We have 2 brands, livelyvitaminco.com, and wild theory.com. And the mission is simple. It's like the person that's in front of you, impact them, empower them, educate them. Let's have as many people as possible just find their health journey. Let's add some fire to their journey. And that's all we do every day. Me and my team. I got the best team in the world. Got great family support. My wife and I, co-own and run the company together. That's my beginning.
04:03 – Gresham Harkless
Yes, and I absolutely love that because I think when we think about, you know, impact and purpose and so many of those things that, you know, you kind of touched on and have been talking about, we forget that often it's unique to ourselves. And often that purpose is something that you start to understand and realize that's ours. And when you lean more into that, it reminds people of leaning into their purpose.
They get to find their lane, and run their race, like I usually like to say. But it's so important to make sure that you do that because even if it's quote-unquote a small thing, it has that domino effect that can affect generations upon generations upon generations. I know you touched a little bit on your brands. I wanted to throw down a little bit more to hear if there's anything that you didn't kind of touch on how you serve your clients and how you're making that impact on that day.
04:43 – Tim O'Brien
Yeah, so in our industry, early on, I asked the question, you know, how is it done? And most of us get the picture of, you know, since GMC is my beginning, maybe I can pick on them just a little bit. You know, you can often run into that teenage high schooler with that protein bucket who gets a $2 commission and we'll sell you that protein bucket. They don't necessarily like to know a whole ton about health and wellness. So early on I was like, okay, I don't want to do a commission. I want to educate people because that's what happened in my mom's story that changed your life.
So when you go to findyourhealthyplace.com and you go to the live chat feature on our website, you're not talking to like a customer service agent. You're talking to a wellness consultant who went through 3 months of training before they could fully hit the floor, so to speak, with the souls before sales mentality that we fight for in our culture where they're not getting a commission. Our team gets bonuses based on the growth of our company with gross profit.
So they're not tempted because I've been in the commission model and nothing wrong with the commission model, you're tempted sometimes to sell that which isn't the best for the customer. So in our model, the motivation is to sell that which is going to help the customer the most so that they're impacted hashtag impact. So their life is changed, right? And they affect those around them. It's all about impact, which will also be the best win for the store because they'll keep buying that product forever and tell everybody they know about you. So that's our model is to impact power and educate every customer to learn, grow, and create a lifelong foundation of health and wellness.
06:24 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I absolutely love that. I want to definitely 0 in on, you know, the phrase that you said, you know, souls before sales. I think that's so huge because I often say we forget about the human aspect of business, often the human aspect of life, and getting to have that manifest itself in the live chat feature and being able to kind of have those connections and relationships. Do you think that is a strong kind of maybe foundational element to what I like to call your secret sauce? I think you feel kind of sexual part. It makes you unique. Do you think it's that mission? It sounds like that vision and how that has manifested itself.
06:52 – Tim O'Brien
It is, dude, because my life was at stake. You know, like what I didn't share earlier through my teen years, I got into drugs and didn't care about my life. I would say now looking back that I hated myself. I just didn't care. I didn't care if I lived or died. I did a lot of stupid stuff. Thankful I'm alive today. And I had that God encounter, so to speak, that radically changed my life. I was like, okay, I want my life to be God's and I wanna do something of value on this planet. And so what should I do?”
And that's the moment where he laid the road before me, so to speak, the path with GNC, and then the path with opening up the Healthy Place and now the path with findyourhealthyplace.com and these other brands that we're working on. And What happened early on after we first opened our store, I was praying to God, and I was like, Lord, bring customers, give me sales. I need sales. And it struck me like an arrow, bro. Do you care about sales as much as you care about sales?
And I was like, Whoa, that is way too smart for me to come up with. Like that totally came from God, you know? And so that's where Souls Before Sales came from. It's intrinsic to our company. Every conversation we have, if an employee is worried about their numbers or their average per sale, like hold on dude. Souls before sales, like you do what's right for the customer every single time, and the sales will take care of themselves.
08:09 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, no, I appreciate that so much. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So, this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
08:21 – Tim O'Brien
The first book that kind of comes to mind is Driven by Eternity. For me, it clicked something in my brain where it's like, we have 80 years on planet Earth. Let's use our 80 years to affect eternal matters versus just the right now kind of thing. You know, my teen years, it was all about smoking and getting drunk. And after I met God, it was like, Whoa. And after that book, like we have 80 years, let's make it count for eternity because we can impact lives forever. One of my CEO hacks, find out what your difference maker is. Why would somebody shop with you buy from you or hire your service over somebody else?
And there's going to be a temptation to invest in a million things because there's a million parts to your business, invest ruthlessly into your difference maker. When we hired a new consultant, we had to create a training program, And they'd have to go through that training before they were ready to work with customers. I mean, imagine hiring somebody and then not being able to use them for 3 months. It was really tough to do. And then there are other opportunities where you can invest in something like quality, right? I can make more money if I sell this, but if I sell this, it'll have a higher chance of helping them and I lose money in that transaction.
So that's our other difference makers like quality. Oh, I got one more dude. I really believe that the more you realize how small you are, like you don't have all the answers. You don't have all the strengths. You can't do it all alone. The more you aren't the know-it-all-all, the more you can invite and trust a team around you that has other strengths and together you can go much farther. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, take somebody with you. The further I get, the more I realize how much I need my team and how much my team's strengths I depend on. And it's just crazy, dude, to see those strengths come together. And I think that takes maybe a level of humility, might be a CEO hack I would throw out there too.
10:28 – Gresham Harkless
Exactly. So you might've already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
10:42 – Tim O'Brien
I don't know if this is the right saying, but quicker to fire. When you let somebody go and you say to yourself, Oh, I wish I would have done that 2 years ago. A rotten pumpkin in a garden of pumpkins will always rot the pumpkins around it. And if you care about your team at all, you will get the rotten pumpkins the heck out of your company. I have 3 to 7 terminations that I've made that took way too long. And especially the 3, 1 of which is still heavily impacting my life. Man, it's like, don't make business emotional.
Especially if you're somebody that really wants to make it work, you know, whether it's for your ego, cause I, an ego sometimes like, I want to figure this out for this guy. He's a lost boy, so to speak. Maybe I can speak to him. Maybe I can encourage him. Maybe I can lead him. Maybe I can guide him. And he continues to destroy your company in more ways than you'll ever know. And you finally let him go and you're like, ooh, so I'm like re-signing up right now, right in front of you. I'm like, Tim, you let those guys go sooner or faster because they destroy so much.
As a business owner, it's so tiring to think about letting an employee go, especially if they're at a higher level, and then retraining somebody, getting them up to speed. It's so stressful, it's tiring. And I promise you will just be thanking yourself all day long. If you just get the wrong people off the bus, and get the right people on the bus, it'll be less work in the end and less stress. It's also so often the best for them to let them go so that they can face other challenges and maybe learn from their mistakes and protecting them is not actually loving them.
12:20 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, we often forget that sometimes by letting people go, it's not that we're not loving them. We're actually having that opportunity for them to find where they're supposed to be. It's easier said than done, of course. So absolutely appreciate that.
12:31 – Tim O'Brien
But that's my nugget, bro. That's my nugget.
12:33 – Gresham Harkless
I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different clinical CEOs on the show. So Tim, what does being a CEO mean to you?
12:41 – Tim O'Brien
CEO to me means serving your team, servant leadership. This is a little cheesy, but you know the org chart where top down, right? Like I love the idea of flipping that around. And I try to walk this out in my connection with my team is where I am at the bottom. And how can I serve my team? And whether it's the lowest person on the totem pole, so to speak, that's what it means to be a CEO. Literally, surveying the entirety of your team and asking, how can I serve you? How can I help to be aware of what they're going through enough to be able to be sensitive, empathetic, sympathetic, and there for them in their times of greatest need? And I think the further you sow into that, the better of a CEO you are.
13:37 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Tim, truly appreciate that. Of course, appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you want to let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.
13:51 – Tim O'Brien
Thanks, bro. Yeah, I mean, life is a gift and life is worth fighting for. Health is worth fighting for. And the loved ones that are in your life, their lives and health is worth fighting for. And when you are heavily medicated and dying and not healthy, you can't glow. Your fire, you know, struggles to grow. Whatever it looks like, whether it's, you know, stage 3 cancer like my mom was at where her light was, it was tough for her to glow. You need to fight for your life and you need to fight for your health and you need to fight for those you love and their lives and their health because it's such a gift and it's worth investing in.
And there are natural alternatives out there. You don't have to buy from my website. What I tell people is natural alternatives work. And I'm not against all pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs treat a symptom and then have a host of negatives on your body. They have side effects, they damage their chemicals, and they hurt your body. And natural nutrients treat that same symptom and then strengthen your body. They help your body, they nourish your body. I want to impact that vein. So that's my message, bro.
14:59 – Gresham Harkless
Nice. I truly appreciate that. And people that want to get in touch with you and get ahold of you, and I think you might've had an offer as well too. What's the best way for us to do that?
15:06 – Tim O'Brien
Oh, yes. So first off, dude, we created a coupon code for your listeners, I am the CEO, and that'll get you 30% off the full price. My email though, if you ever want to email me specifically, Tim at findyourhealthyplace.com. I love questions. I love helping people with their health. So does my team. And you can hit our website anytime, findyourhealthyplace.com. There's a live chat bubble. They will guide you and tell you what the natural world has to say. You can follow us on Facebook at The Healthy Place. You can follow us on Instagram. I think we're still called Apple Wellness, formerly known as Apple Wellness on Instagram. We wanna help you learn, grow, and create. So however you connect with us, we'd love to help you.
15:41 – Gresham Harkless
I truly appreciate that Tim made it even easier. We're gonna have links and information in the show notes. I think so many times we talked about service and being able to kind of serve others and make that impact. We often forget about ourselves and we don't serve ourselves. We don't have that opportunity to be that star and shine as brightly as we could. So I appreciate you so much and reminding us of that and sharing ways that we can do that as well, too. So I definitely appreciate you, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:05 – Tim O'Brien
Appreciate you, too, man. Thank you so much.
16:07 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:12 - Intro
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share the valuable info you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:39 - Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tim O'Brien of Finding Your healthyplace.com Tim is Super excited to have you on the show.
00:49 - Tim O'Brien
Super pumped to be here, man. Thanks for having me.
00:51 - Gresham Harkless
Yes, absolutely. Should definitely be loads of fun. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about him. So you can hear about some of those awesome things that he's doing. And Tim has extensive experience in the health and wellness industry. He began his career in 2003 at GNC franchises and then became district manager in 2005. In 2008, he became the manager of elite nutrition. During those years, he built a solid foundation of knowledge and expertise. His passion and success gave him the vision to open his own business.
And Tim believes in educating and empowering individuals to make life-long, healthy choices and changes. And his desire to help each person reach their health potential. His energy is contagious and he's excited about helping you. He loves spending time with his beautiful family, church activities, traveling, and extreme sports. And one insightful fact about Tim is that he knows how to juggle and ride the unicycle. So, Tim, you're a man of many talents. Super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
01:47 - Tim O'Brien
I'm ready to rock.
01:48 - Gresham Harkless
Let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on a little bit when I read your bio. I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. We'll let you start off the awesome work you're doing.
01:58 - Tim O'Brien
Cool. Yeah, my mom fought through cancer when I was 5 or 6 years old. After going through radiation, and chemotherapy, she walked into a health food store, dude, and met a guy named John. Her life was changed by that encounter because it started a cascade of conversations, and consultations, introducing her to natural alternatives that helped her recovery. I mean, she would point back to that and say that was a game changer for her and a life changer for her. Through that experience, she became a manager at a health food store in a little town called Muskego, Wisconsin.
Folks were battling cancer like she did, and she'd take their hand and show them about natural alternatives, chronic pain, stress, anxiety, depression, and people who were heavily medicated. And she'd say, hey, let's connect with your pharmacist because I got some ideas here. And she'd be getting these people off of pharmaceutical medications. And so then as a little guy, I didn't care. Right. And then all of a sudden I was struck when I was around 18, 19 years old when I had one of those Scott encounters in my life where my life was changed. And I was like, dang, I want to do something powerful with my life.
I want to make an impact. I want to make a difference in this world. And all of a sudden, looking back at the road that was behind me, I was like, maybe I want to do this health and wellness thing. So that's what started my journey in the health and wellness industry. I got a job like your bio that you read there with GNC franchises. And then 2010, maybe I was like, okay, Becky, my beautiful wife, we're like, let's start our own health food store in a town called Fitchburg, Wisconsin, which is right outside of Madison.
And fast forward 11 going on 12 years later, we have 4 brick-and-mortar stores. We have a website, findyourhealthyplace.com. We have 2 brands, livelyvitaminco.com, and wild theory.com. And the mission is simple. It's like the person that's in front of you, impact them, empower them, educate them. Let's have as many people as possible just find their health journey. Let's add some fire to their journey. And that's all we do every day. Me and my team. I got the best team in the world. Got great family support. My wife and I, co-own and run the company together. That's my beginning.
04:03 - Gresham Harkless
Yes, and I absolutely love that because I think when we think about, you know, impact and purpose and so many of those things that, you know, you kind of touched on and have been talking about, we forget that often it's unique to ourselves. And often that purpose is something that you start to understand and realize that's ours. And when you lean more into that, it reminds people of leaning into their purpose.
They get to find their lane, and run their race, like I usually like to say. But it's so important to make sure that you do that because even if it's quote-unquote a small thing, it has that domino effect that can affect generations upon generations upon generations. I know you touched a little bit on your brands. I wanted to throw down a little bit more to hear if there's anything that you didn't kind of touch on how you serve your clients and how you're making that impact on that day.
04:43 - Tim O'Brien
Yeah, so in our industry, early on, I asked the question, you know, how is it done? And most of us get the picture of, you know, since GMC is my beginning, maybe I can pick on them just a little bit. You know, you can often run into that teenage high schooler with that protein bucket who gets a $2 commission and we'll sell you that protein bucket. They don't necessarily like to know a whole ton about health and wellness. So early on I was like, okay, I don't want to do a commission. I want to educate people because that's what happened in my mom's story that changed your life.
So when you go to findyourhealthyplace.com and you go to the live chat feature on our website, you're not talking to like a customer service agent. You're talking to a wellness consultant who went through 3 months of training before they could fully hit the floor, so to speak, with the souls before sales mentality that we fight for in our culture where they're not getting a commission. Our team gets bonuses based on the growth of our company with gross profit.
So they're not tempted because I've been in the commission model and nothing wrong with the commission model, you're tempted sometimes to sell that which isn't the best for the customer. So in our model, the motivation is to sell that which is going to help the customer the most so that they're impacted hashtag impact. So their life is changed, right? And they affect those around them. It's all about impact, which will also be the best win for the store because they'll keep buying that product forever and tell everybody they know about you. So that's our model is to impact power and educate every customer to learn, grow, and create a lifelong foundation of health and wellness.
06:24 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I absolutely love that. I want to definitely 0 in on, you know, the phrase that you said, you know, souls before sales. I think that's so huge because I often say we forget about the human aspect of business, often the human aspect of life, and getting to have that manifest itself in the live chat feature and being able to kind of have those connections and relationships. Do you think that is a strong kind of maybe foundational element to what I like to call your secret sauce? I think you feel kind of sexual part. It makes you unique. Do you think it's that mission? It sounds like that vision and how that has manifested itself.
06:52 - Tim O'Brien
It is, dude, because my life was at stake. You know, like what I didn't share earlier through my teen years, I got into drugs and didn't care about my life. I would say now looking back that I hated myself. I just didn't care. I didn't care if I lived or died. I did a lot of stupid stuff. Thankful I'm alive today. And I had that God encounter, so to speak, that radically changed my life. I was like, okay, I want my life to be God's and I wanna do something of value on this planet. And so what should I do?"
And that's the moment where he laid the road before me, so to speak, the path with GNC, and then the path with opening up the Healthy Place and now the path with findyourhealthyplace.com and these other brands that we're working on. And What happened early on after we first opened our store, I was praying to God, and I was like, Lord, bring customers, give me sales. I need sales. And it struck me like an arrow, bro. Do you care about sales as much as you care about sales?
And I was like, Whoa, that is way too smart for me to come up with. Like that totally came from God, you know? And so that's where Souls Before Sales came from. It's intrinsic to our company. Every conversation we have, if an employee is worried about their numbers or their average per sale, like hold on dude. Souls before sales, like you do what's right for the customer every single time, and the sales will take care of themselves.
08:09 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, no, I appreciate that so much. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So, this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
08:21 - Tim O'Brien
The first book that kind of comes to mind is Driven by Eternity. For me, it clicked something in my brain where it's like, we have 80 years on planet Earth. Let's use our 80 years to affect eternal matters versus just the right now kind of thing. You know, my teen years, it was all about smoking and getting drunk. And after I met God, it was like, Whoa. And after that book, like we have 80 years, let's make it count for eternity because we can impact lives forever. One of my CEO hacks, find out what your difference maker is. Why would somebody shop with you buy from you or hire your service over somebody else?
And there's going to be a temptation to invest in a million things because there's a million parts to your business, invest ruthlessly into your difference maker. When we hired a new consultant, we had to create a training program, And they'd have to go through that training before they were ready to work with customers. I mean, imagine hiring somebody and then not being able to use them for 3 months. It was really tough to do. And then there are other opportunities where you can invest in something like quality, right? I can make more money if I sell this, but if I sell this, it'll have a higher chance of helping them and I lose money in that transaction.
So that's our other difference makers like quality. Oh, I got one more dude. I really believe that the more you realize how small you are, like you don't have all the answers. You don't have all the strengths. You can't do it all alone. The more you aren't the know-it-all-all, the more you can invite and trust a team around you that has other strengths and together you can go much farther. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, take somebody with you. The further I get, the more I realize how much I need my team and how much my team's strengths I depend on. And it's just crazy, dude, to see those strengths come together. And I think that takes maybe a level of humility, might be a CEO hack I would throw out there too.
10:28 - Gresham Harkless
Exactly. So you might've already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
10:42 - Tim O'Brien
I don't know if this is the right saying, but quicker to fire. When you let somebody go and you say to yourself, Oh, I wish I would have done that 2 years ago. A rotten pumpkin in a garden of pumpkins will always rot the pumpkins around it. And if you care about your team at all, you will get the rotten pumpkins the heck out of your company. I have 3 to 7 terminations that I've made that took way too long. And especially the 3, 1 of which is still heavily impacting my life. Man, it's like, don't make business emotional.
Especially if you're somebody that really wants to make it work, you know, whether it's for your ego, cause I, an ego sometimes like, I want to figure this out for this guy. He's a lost boy, so to speak. Maybe I can speak to him. Maybe I can encourage him. Maybe I can lead him. Maybe I can guide him. And he continues to destroy your company in more ways than you'll ever know. And you finally let him go and you're like, ooh, so I'm like re-signing up right now, right in front of you. I'm like, Tim, you let those guys go sooner or faster because they destroy so much.
As a business owner, it's so tiring to think about letting an employee go, especially if they're at a higher level, and then retraining somebody, getting them up to speed. It's so stressful, it's tiring. And I promise you will just be thanking yourself all day long. If you just get the wrong people off the bus, and get the right people on the bus, it'll be less work in the end and less stress. It's also so often the best for them to let them go so that they can face other challenges and maybe learn from their mistakes and protecting them is not actually loving them.
12:20 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, we often forget that sometimes by letting people go, it's not that we're not loving them. We're actually having that opportunity for them to find where they're supposed to be. It's easier said than done, of course. So absolutely appreciate that.
12:31 - Tim O'Brien
But that's my nugget, bro. That's my nugget.
12:33 - Gresham Harkless
I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different clinical CEOs on the show. So Tim, what does being a CEO mean to you?
12:41 - Tim O'Brien
CEO to me means serving your team, servant leadership. This is a little cheesy, but you know the org chart where top down, right? Like I love the idea of flipping that around. And I try to walk this out in my connection with my team is where I am at the bottom. And how can I serve my team? And whether it's the lowest person on the totem pole, so to speak, that's what it means to be a CEO. Literally, surveying the entirety of your team and asking, how can I serve you? How can I help to be aware of what they're going through enough to be able to be sensitive, empathetic, sympathetic, and there for them in their times of greatest need? And I think the further you sow into that, the better of a CEO you are.
13:37 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Tim, truly appreciate that. Of course, appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you want to let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.
13:51 - Tim O'Brien
Thanks, bro. Yeah, I mean, life is a gift and life is worth fighting for. Health is worth fighting for. And the loved ones that are in your life, their lives and health is worth fighting for. And when you are heavily medicated and dying and not healthy, you can't glow. Your fire, you know, struggles to grow. Whatever it looks like, whether it's, you know, stage 3 cancer like my mom was at where her light was, it was tough for her to glow. You need to fight for your life and you need to fight for your health and you need to fight for those you love and their lives and their health because it's such a gift and it's worth investing in.
And there are natural alternatives out there. You don't have to buy from my website. What I tell people is natural alternatives work. And I'm not against all pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs treat a symptom and then have a host of negatives on your body. They have side effects, they damage their chemicals, and they hurt your body. And natural nutrients treat that same symptom and then strengthen your body. They help your body, they nourish your body. I want to impact that vein. So that's my message, bro.
14:59 - Gresham Harkless
Nice. I truly appreciate that. And people that want to get in touch with you and get ahold of you, and I think you might've had an offer as well too. What's the best way for us to do that?
15:06 - Tim O'Brien
Oh, yes. So first off, dude, we created a coupon code for your listeners, I am the CEO, and that'll get you 30% off the full price. My email though, if you ever want to email me specifically, Tim at findyourhealthyplace.com. I love questions. I love helping people with their health. So does my team. And you can hit our website anytime, findyourhealthyplace.com. There's a live chat bubble. They will guide you and tell you what the natural world has to say. You can follow us on Facebook at The Healthy Place. You can follow us on Instagram. I think we're still called Apple Wellness, formerly known as Apple Wellness on Instagram. We wanna help you learn, grow, and create. So however you connect with us, we'd love to help you.
15:41 - Gresham Harkless
I truly appreciate that Tim made it even easier. We're gonna have links and information in the show notes. I think so many times we talked about service and being able to kind of serve others and make that impact. We often forget about ourselves and we don't serve ourselves. We don't have that opportunity to be that star and shine as brightly as we could. So I appreciate you so much and reminding us of that and sharing ways that we can do that as well, too. So I definitely appreciate you, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:05 - Tim O'Brien
Appreciate you, too, man. Thank you so much.
16:07 - Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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