IT and Strategic Partnerships with Tim Ward

[00:00:00] John Morris: There’s a strong chance you’re not that far off from winning in business and at the game of life. It just takes one idea, but you gotta have unwavering belief and burning desire. If you can couple that with a lockdown strategy, that’s fueled by heart, hustle and muscle, you got a shot at winning. There’s one thing that all champions have in common.

[00:00:22] They get shit done. So welcome to the get shit done experience. So TTSG is going, yeah. GSD technologies. Again, we, I preface the story. One of your, one of our current clients, somebody, I believe, who’s a mentor to you, as well, prominent organization, pulls you aside and says, Hey, look, man, the natural progression of a lot of these companies that are providing, you Hardware.

[00:00:51] Yeah. Q Sierra, Products and so on. they’re, starting to get into the IT stuff, man. And we, need it. Like we, we’ve got, we need cabling, we need cybersecurity. The world’s changing. Yeah. Tim, why can’t you do that? Why don’t you get into that? And this person was instrumental enough in your life and you trust ’em enough.

[00:01:10] He said, you know what? Damn it. . 

[00:01:11] Tim Ward: Yeah. 

[00:01:11] John Morris: I should probably do that. Okay, so GSD technology starts 

[00:01:15] Tim Ward: 2014, 2000. It was T-T-S-G-I-T. Yeah. So we were just supplying easy solutions to customers from their I. T to their internal I. T department 2014. MSP is very, to be an MSP is very difficult, right? there’s a lot of us to companies out there that do this.

[00:01:37] And I’ve, I had a conversation. I was in, I was on a key of Sarah trip. We were on a boat. We’re going down the Danube river. So 

[00:01:45] John Morris: the picture of that was a huge boat. 

[00:01:46] Tim Ward: Yeah. And we’re going down there for a celebratory, premier dealer. I’m with, one of our competitors who’s a great guy and he’s, we’re talking about all these companies that are like, Oh, we supply it as well.

[00:02:02] initially what you are is you’re a cop of your company, 

[00:02:05] John Morris: right? That’s it hooks it up. 

[00:02:07] Tim Ward: Yeah. That hooks it up. But there, but the competitors of us are, Oh yeah, we do it as well. So we were talking and it’s different because I set up a separate, completely separate company That’s what the completely separate location that had completely different employees mindset and makeup and everything else, right?

[00:02:33] John Morris: Different logo, different brand values, different, 

[00:02:36] Tim Ward: completely separate company and TTSG stayed where it was at, right? that differentiates yourself, for in the very beginning because it’s like, Oh, yeah, you’re doing this. And so is everybody else now, but you don’t understand. We’ve completely different company.

[00:02:56] They had their own sales reps. They did their own thing. And now today where we’re at. Is we’re all moving into the same building. we can lead with G. S. D. Right. We can lead with our I. T. Solutions. our network, our disaster recovery, business continuity, fell over, fell back our cyber security. We can lead with that, and we don’t have to sell you copier.

[00:03:26] we can take care of your I. T. by itself. We have our limitations on this as well, right? for I. T. We have our limitations on this. and you have to. And if you’re going to be a good M. S. P. You have to know where your limitations and what and to stay in the box Where you’re at currently, you can’t go out and over promise and under deliver.

[00:03:51] John Morris: Yeah. I can’t do 

[00:03:52] Tim Ward: that. And when you have it and you have a backbone of a company, IT infrastructure that you’re, working with, 

[00:03:59] John Morris: you can, you can’t, there’s no failing. 

[00:04:02] Tim Ward: has anyone ever had their phones go down? Has anyone ever, I played 

[00:04:05] John Morris: golf with you week two, Saturday morning, by the way, it was more like polo than golf.

[00:04:09] We’ve laughed about that, but part of that had to do with the fact that on the tee box of hole one, You got a phone call. There was a storm from the night before, which made the greens really soft, but not an it environment. Very strong. And one of our prominent clients called you direct on the tee box.

[00:04:28] Like you just teed up the ball phone rings. You’re like, Hey, somebody else said you grabbed the phone. that’s pretty awesome. And they essentially said, look, we’re, we got a couple of things down this, went down and You immediately got on the phone and things were getting corrected immediately.

[00:04:46] Tim Ward: Yeah. that’s, the small business mindset mentality. 

[00:04:52] John Morris: There’s always savings, but it’s about way more than savings alone. Total Technology Solutions Group redefines managed print services. Excellence is the minimum standard. TTSG is a true managed print service provider, deeply understanding your technology and business goals.

[00:05:07] Your business is unique. Our solutions are tailored to your current and future business goals. Our customer first support. Approach empowers and delights TTSG can ensure your technology environment will scale as your business does. So as you navigate business and constant change partner with TTSG for premium advisement and seamless implementation of your technology goals, we set the bar high, your people deserve it.

[00:05:31] Peace of mind, powerful innovation. 

[00:05:36] Tim Ward: storm rolled in, knocked out the customer’s, power, knocked out the customer’s, internet service, 

[00:05:44] John Morris: took them off the network, took them 

[00:05:45] Tim Ward: off the network. and when anything like that happens, it’s, a big deal. It’s your, it’s, how much a minute, how much an hour does that company make?

[00:05:57] And that’s the downtime or what they are. That’s the last production of revenue. So you have to know your place. In MSP. And when you’re doing, manage it, there’s a lot of companies out there that are doing a hundred, two, three, 400 contracts and stuff. our contracts don’t start until 000.

[00:06:22] that include it. If you’re serious about what you have and you’re paying a price per seat, and you’re serious about protecting your company with all the cyber threats and everything else that we have today. Okay. You’re going to be serious about your MSP. 

[00:06:35] John Morris: I think the other thing that I’ve learned that is interesting is, when you look at labor costs and you also look at asset protection of the total brand and IP and intellectual property, in many cases, small to mid sized business owners are looking at their working capital and their costs of doing business, and they’re making a decision whether or not they should invest into getting a director of IT or a IT manager or CTO, whatever it might be.

[00:06:59] And, That is, in many cases, a really good decision, but in some cases, they would be better off having a fractional CTO. Which in essence is what GSD is going to operate as potentially for a third of the cost, maybe half the cost of what they would be paying that manager, that director, that C CIO or CTO.

[00:07:22] but with 15 people, supporting that organization. 

[00:07:27] Tim Ward: When you, look at that’s a good point. When you look at, and you take a look at that, not one person fits all the boxes, right? 

[00:07:34] John Morris: So 

[00:07:36] Tim Ward: you can’t, And I T it’s a lot like marketing, you can’t as far as job roles and responsibilities, right?

[00:07:43] Not as an overall industry, but job roles and responsibilities. you’re a specialist, especially in this 

[00:07:52] John Morris: thing, 

[00:07:53] Tim Ward: right? You’re, this is where you’re a specialist in this, Department of I. T. When you start to look at building an I. T. force in an internal I. T. company, you’ve got level one level two.

[00:08:07] You’ve got level three and then all the way up to engineer. You’ve got help desk. You’ve got networking. You’ve got a network engineer. You’ve got, infrastructure. There’s a lot going on. So Customers come with, clients of ours, don’t want to do that. they’re bread and butter is doing something else.

[00:08:27] Yeah. And they outsource that. This is our space. Outsource it to the professionals to go from there. And there’s a long way for us to go too. we’re a very, small MSP, right? 

[00:08:42] John Morris: There’s another part to that though, Tim, too, for directors and managers and CIOs. all the things you just listed off.

[00:08:50] all fall under one person at an organization to handle all of those things efficiently, effectively. We talked to a lot of these folks who can’t go on vacation or they go on vacation. They’re called several times. It’s interrupted. if they needed to take a leave of absence, They’re leaving the company holding the bag.

[00:09:09] So the pressure that is on some of these directors and CIOs is burning them out to where the turnover in that role is almost worse than a CMO. CMO’s life expectancy at an organization is like two and a half years. they’re turning them over very fast. Having an MSP along with a director of I.

[00:09:31] T., which typically is a director of one, one, one in the department, just freed up that director of I. T. to be more of a strategist and, to be proactive while other people are handling the, manipulation of the engine. 

[00:09:47] Tim Ward: Yeah, no, that’s a good point. what you’re. You’re looking at in this, landscape today right now is, and for the last 5 to 7 years is really, MSPs are really evolving, right?

[00:10:05] they’re, offering a lot more services, where a company would have a help desk person and then a director of I. T. That director of I. T. would get 2 or 3 projects done a year. 

[00:10:18] Because they, had to do a server refresh. They got to do an oh three 65 migration, and then they’ve got to do a, phones, they’re going to replace the phones.

[00:10:27] We’ve got three. And then they tell the CFO, we’ve got three projects this year. Here’s our budget and blah, blah, blah. And then when all hell breaks loose and the year goes on and they’re behind on schedule to the projects and they’re doing it themselves. And now they’ve got a level one help desk person that’s stacked up and not returning phone calls to their internal employees to get stuff fixed.

[00:10:48] They find themselves in this, 

[00:10:51] John Morris: eye of the storm. 

[00:10:52] Tim Ward: Yeah. It’s the eye of the storm. it’s the whole entire tornado that’s going to just wipe them out. 

[00:10:58] John Morris: And then they’re held accountable to that. Cause it’s all under their name. 

[00:11:03] Tim Ward: because that’s what they, budgeted that they’re in charge of everything.

[00:11:08] So when they budget for it and when they, and they speak up and they tell leadership that this is what we’re going to do. And then all of a sudden it’s like, all right, then, what does leadership think? All right. T guys, 

[00:11:17] you failed, 

[00:11:17] Yeah. T guy sucks. And then they start looking for, and we want to get there before.

[00:11:21] But that happens. We would love. So we’re not 

[00:11:23] John Morris: replacing the director. We’re actually protecting. 

[00:11:26] Tim Ward: Yeah. So what, are awesome? what we do really is we compliment the I. T. director. The C. I. O. I. T. director helped us and we. 

[00:11:37] John Morris: Probably make the CFO pretty happy too. 

[00:11:39] Tim Ward: And the CFO becomes very, happy with their services.

[00:11:42] and then, with the cost of what they’re spending and also service, it’s not cheap either. there’s a, whole laundry list of things that you don’t want to do as a managed service provider. that I still think a ton of companies are making the mistake of doing. And I’ve, learned from the best, I’ve learned and had conversations with people that are building data centers and my one buddy’s got, an entire like 50, 000 square foot building that’s like Fort Knox, right? And, he’s, he’s got all of his, the smartest people in the company that are sitting and running this data center and they’re running the ops center.

[00:12:22] And it’s a complete, it’s like NASDAQ, right? the whole thing with all the screens, he’s got some of the largest screens in Illinois. Yeah, those are the types of companies that are doing it right. They’re doing it right. Because they, don’t have to go get customers. They want to work with the customers that want to work with them.

[00:12:41] So it’s like when we’re trying to push our solution on a customer, we’re like, go back up. It’s I know you 

[00:12:46] John Morris: just became salesy. 

[00:12:47] Tim Ward: Yeah. And then when it happens and you get in and they don’t want to be, put in that box. The customer’s got to be put in a box, right? They’ve got to understand that there’s limitations to what they’re trying to do and to stay in this, to stay in this cost effective.

[00:13:01] And once they get out of this box, it’s going to go to an entirely. Yeah, you, yeah, 

[00:13:05] John Morris: exactly. 

[00:13:06] Tim Ward: That’s going to, you 

[00:13:07] John Morris: might want it at this price, but you’re asking, you can’t, ask for a Mercedes at a Ford price 

[00:13:11] Tim Ward: and you can’t get the service of the reliability of, something like that as well.

[00:13:17] Companies are doing it wrong. And it’s, and when you know that you’re doing it right and you’ve got the right game plan and you’ve got the right structure in place and you’ve talked to the best of the best and, you’re running stuff by, friends and colleagues and, mentors and it becomes a very easy.

[00:13:40] Process to continue to go out and get net new clients and, to spread the word that GSD is doing really well and that we’ve, the beginning of the year, we had a goal of what we wanted to be at, or we’re already at the goal six months in there’s six more months of, we’re seven months in there’s, five more months left of the year, we’ve got huge opportunity.

[00:14:06] while still staying in our box of specialty, to do really, well, but yeah, to get back to like where we were at is like copier companies want to be it companies because they see the, that, and don’t get me wrong, the market’s great copier, the copy industry is fantastic.

[00:14:27] And it’s, always done well. And it’s opened doors up for companies to get into it and, but the copiers are. That’s one thing, but you find is, that the I. T. guy is really making decisions for copiers. So what he finds out, he goes, Oh, hey, we got some projects over here for you to do right.

[00:14:46] John Morris: We’re 

[00:14:46] Tim Ward: running millions of miles of, not millions, hundreds of, thousands of, miles. Right of cabling through buildings and everything else. And so on and so forth. Those are the projects, the, access points and the data and the servers and, migrations and stuff like that.

[00:15:05] That’s what the I. T. guy wants to see. It’s like the copiers are like a second. 

[00:15:10] John Morris: Yeah, it’s oh, gosh, I gotta deal with this. 

[00:15:12] Tim Ward: Yeah, it’s like a second. Actually, the It’s actually, that’s exactly how it’s 

[00:15:15] John Morris: like an annoyance. oh, come on. Yeah. And this is not what I was educated to do. I’ve got all this expertise that I’m worrying about a copy machine.

[00:15:23] Come on. So okay, fine. Hand that over to us. We’ll take care of that. So free you up to go do the thing that you love to do. Yeah. 

[00:15:29] Tim Ward: Yeah, I know. Absolutely. And that’s, where we’ve come from. there’s a very, heavy push on copiers from 2000 and nine. like you said, we’re incorporated 2000 and 10.

[00:15:41] So it’s gonna be 15 years in 2025 November of 2025. So we 

[00:15:46] John Morris: have a bash. 

[00:15:47] Tim Ward: Yeah, big, parties. But when you look at it and you go copiers got us to where we are today, 

[00:15:54] John Morris: Shame on us. If we drop that, 

[00:15:55] Tim Ward: yeah, it is going to get us 

[00:15:57] John Morris: to where we, yeah, 

[00:15:58] Tim Ward: it’s going to, it’s just going to, it’s going to cap. It’s going to completely like, it’s going to be a times 

[00:16:07] John Morris: 10 

[00:16:08] Tim Ward: of where we’re going to where we started.

[00:16:14] we were a 15 million company before COVID, right? Covid, slashed us and, brought us down a third or whatever. So we’re a 10 million company on copier side, right? We got it. We’ll be an 11 million company, right? or a 12 million company this year, right? it in the short amount of time is going to be half of that this 

[00:16:40] John Morris: year.

[00:16:40] Yeah, it’s crazy. And 

[00:16:42] Tim Ward: in a short amount of time, and we really didn’t get it going until about four years ago, right? Like we had our little build, you’ve got 

[00:16:48] John Morris: to build your name. Yeah. I got a couple of projects. 

[00:16:50] Tim Ward: Yeah. So we, for four years, we were screwed. It’s 

[00:16:52] John Morris: a fairly long sales cycle as well. 

[00:16:54] Tim Ward: And we were screwing around for four years too.

[00:16:55] we were just taking our current customers and stuff like that and everything else. We really didn’t have a go to market strategy until about four years ago. And now we’re refining that go to market strategy, throughout this year. We’re going to, we’re going to open up the go to market strategy next year.

[00:17:08] Yeah. at our, in our January meeting, but that’s where I’m at this year is going to be what it is. we’re going to be at where we’re at and that’s what it is. 2025 is going to be astronomical. Yeah. It’s going to be ridiculous because we’ve got the, we’ve got the talent. We’ve got the, we’ve got the, 

[00:17:30] John Morris: the boulders rolling.

[00:17:31] Yeah, absolutely. It’s just gotta, 

[00:17:34] Tim Ward: yeah, A hundred percent. 

[00:17:35] John Morris: Gotta give it a big tug. Yeah. Big push. 

[00:17:38] Tim Ward: Yeah. And it’s just, that’s where we’re at. That’s what we’re doing. Stressful. 

[00:17:43] John Morris: Yeah. 

[00:17:44] Tim Ward: Yeah. it’s fun. because this is the market, this is the, arena that I played in my, whole career is the technology market.

[00:17:54] So to see this, then also now you’ve got, you’re bringing in AI and automation, which we just had our automation guy here last, on Tuesday. 

[00:18:03] John Morris: It just, it’s off the hook. 

[00:18:05] Tim Ward: Yeah. And then AI is just going to be, 

[00:18:09] John Morris: frees up creativity. It frees up people to think deeper, to think of the next thing.

[00:18:14] It’s not, as you mentioned the other day, it’s not replacing people. If you’re thinking that way, then you’re not using it. Yeah. This, should. This should help you to do more in a given day. This should help you to be more creative. This should help you to be more targeted in your approach to write better copy, to have a better marketing strategy, to, to create better lists, to not miss anything.

[00:18:36] Sure. and then to create a better customer experience and, bigger advantages. And that’s what 

[00:18:42] Tim Ward: it’s all about. It’s if, you’re going to, if you’re going to build these companies and you’re getting this and their foundation is ready and now we’re ready to scale. Whether it’s, purchase a couple of companies, whether it’s, organically grow into other, geographical territories, or, it’s all about that customer experience because without the customer, we have nothing.

[00:19:06] If the customer is not happy, we’re not happy. If we’re not happy, it goes trickle down all the way. Your wife’s not happy. Kids aren’t happy. everything. So it trickles all the way down. So the customer is always most important. And that’s how we’ve always been. when you, get to the bottom of it and what I said is the copiers are like an afterthought, right?

[00:19:29] But copiers it’s, we gain so much more traction and so much more market space for the copiers when you’re in on it. So it’s are they are, the manufacturers gonna be upset? No, they’re not gonna be upset. They should be propelled. Yeah. They should be pushing you to, to be getting into that, to that one 

[00:19:46] John Morris: opens the door for the other a hundred percent.

[00:19:47] Like 

[00:19:48] Tim Ward: Yeah. we’re still, our, revenue’s going up. 

[00:19:51] John Morris: Yeah. On both. 

[00:19:52] Tim Ward: On, both. our revenue’s going up. It’s, we’re gonna do very well. Next year we’re gonna do even better. and our projections for it are going off the charts. 

[00:20:05] John Morris: So we talked about vision 2020 happens a lot of folks, a lot of folks are, crazy putting up those shutters, right?

[00:20:14] The tornado shutters. Yeah. While you’re doing that and you’re protecting the, herd and, you’re, having a trim. Some of the organization, because you got to protect the greater good of the total organization. You’re not alone in that. How many business owners that are listening or CEOs had to do something very similar.

[00:20:32] Of course, the intention always is that you want to help everyone and take care of everyone. But at the end of the day, the resources and the economic conditions and the strategy only allow you to do so much. I think based on where we are now, hindsight, you could go back and say those were the absolute right decisions.

[00:20:48] Tim Ward: yeah. 

[00:20:49] John Morris: Part of those decisions, however, were 2020 design, where you started to get to maybe tap into a little bit of your personal interests, having a marketing degree and liking to dabble in this. but you also saw an opening in that businesses typically when they have to cut costs, control costs.

[00:21:10] One of the first things they look to is to minimize their marketing spend. And in many cases, that means people. So they eliminated some of their, marketing team. You saw that as a fantastic opportunity to bring in marketing people, but not in the TTSG, Why not just start another brand? Talk about that.

[00:21:30] How did 2020 come to fruition? 

[00:21:33] Tim Ward: Yeah, it was 2020s company was, built on the, backbone of, a marketing, our marketing department within TTSG. I knew that I wanted to expand the marketing department from TTSG. And a company had gone under in 2020 from the pandemic. And there was employees out there that I said, okay, I scooped those employees up and I was like, okay, the big thing for me was these guys are really going to hindsight.

[00:22:00] They’re going to look at this and go, what a horrible decision was to not market, not, and not brand and not do all that. This is a horrible thing. I’m like, somebody has got to have better vision, 2020 vision, it’s always. Hindsight’s always 2020, right? So I was like, oh, that’s the name of a 2020 design, So that was just, that was 

[00:22:21] John Morris: funny. Like probably just like in the car thinking, right? And you’re like, there it is. 2020. 

[00:22:25] Tim Ward: Yeah. It’s like, when 

[00:22:26] John Morris: I talked to you, you were talking about the podcast and I’m like, what are we going to call it? You’re like GST. Get shit done. Get shit done. That’s it. That’s just it.

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[00:23:24] Tim Ward: it came up at a conference room and it was like, Hey, this is great. I got four employees from a company and I had our three. So we had a little team of seven and really all the services that we offer for marketing are exactly what the customers need. And to get themselves into marketing, the funny thing about marketing is once you get into marketing, you’re like, why didn’t I do this for 20?

[00:23:44] John Morris: Yeah, for real. 

[00:23:45] Tim Ward: And then can you imagine where our business would be if I got into this? People knew who 

[00:23:49] John Morris: the hell we were. Yeah. I knew where to go. 

[00:23:51] Tim Ward: Yeah. No, that too. But also if we’ve been doing it for marketing for three years, can you imagine if we drew it for nine where we’d be like, that’s the funny thing that we hear 

[00:24:00] John Morris: so many small businesses out there.

[00:24:02] I talk about this in our podcast. Podcast episode one, that there’s huge companies out there with an inferior product, but they know how to market, they know how to brand, they know how to get that name out there. Yeah. So the marketplace is actually consuming an inferior product because it’s more known.

[00:24:18] Yeah. And then meanwhile, you got small to midsize business owners that have all the heart, all the passion. They just don’t have the financial resources. They’re not investing into marketing. Yeah. They have a superior product and service, but people don’t know who the hell they are. 

[00:24:31] Tim Ward: Yeah. That’s.

[00:24:32] That’s what happens. we probably have, we’re a small boutique marketing firm. We don’t have all that many, customers, probably 60, 70 customers, which is nice. It’s, a, great business. it’s, Fun because you’re helping somebody else out with their tell their story.

[00:24:54] Like tomorrow I’ve got a great appointment. it’s like with a landscaping company or like it’s a huge landscaping company and it’s like the owner called me. It was like, I need your help. And all of a sudden you’re like, oh, okay. Then you look, you’re like, wow, this business has been around for 40 years.

[00:25:13] Yeah, 

[00:25:14] John Morris: and their marketing has been a logo on the side of a truck in many cases, 

[00:25:17] Tim Ward: multiple colors, all different, all different font. 

[00:25:21] John Morris: Yeah. 

[00:25:21] Tim Ward: They, nobody, nobody knows what it’s, so it’s just all the branding and everything. It’s just, there’s so much to talk about in the marketing side. I’m sure it probably could be another 

[00:25:29] John Morris: exciting.

[00:25:30] Yeah. It could be, 

[00:25:30] Tim Ward: it could be another episode. 

[00:25:31] John Morris: There you go. 

[00:25:32] Tim Ward: Yeah. And the, and the people at, 2020 are phenomenal, right? and they’re experts. They’ve been doing it for. one of them has been doing it for 25 years, right? and then you can get into PPC and you get into Google and then you can get in videography and photography and then small.

[00:25:51] So there’s like a commercial on 

[00:25:53] John Morris: end and put, there’s an engine in marketing that is so intriguing when you start to dive into like how Google analytics works and how pay per click works. It’s like off the hook and for a small to midsize business owner that, doesn’t have the benefit of having a huge sales force.

[00:26:12] They meant in many cases are the sales force to have a funnel of leads coming in that have awareness and already have an idea that are inbound landing in your lap. So now all you have to do is advise and consult into an agreement. It changes the game for companies pretty quick. 

[00:26:30] Tim Ward: That’s a great point.

[00:26:32] we’ve, had a customer that, we have a customer that we started with in 2020 with five locations up to 17 or 20 locations now. 

[00:26:40] John Morris: It’s crazy. 

[00:26:41] Tim Ward: But he, tells us, he’s this was because of you guys. You, I didn’t have the, I had the vision for the company, but I just didn’t have the vision for the marketing side.

[00:26:49] I didn’t have the vision for the marketing side. My team had the vision for the marketing side. So they took it apart. They did the entire, analysis. They, get it down. They give you a, a la carte type of, menu. Everyone thinks marketing is so expensive. It can be, you can get into a cost effective marketing plan to start with, to move, the needle, 

[00:27:12] John Morris: see the return, and then move, scale it up or back.

[00:27:14] Yeah. 

[00:27:14] Tim Ward: Whatever you need to do. And it’s a completely customizable program with 2020. We’re here for you, right? when you really look at it, that company is going to do phenomenal. we’ve just, we’ve got a, we’ve got a trio. 

[00:27:28] John Morris: Yeah. 

[00:27:28] Tim Ward: Like it’s just all right there. It’s perfect. It’s great. 

[00:27:31] John Morris: All right.

[00:27:31] So the premise as we talked about is how people get shit done. So we needed to give you a little bit of a story of what the brands are, what’s the organization. Tim is the CEO and founder of the organization. So it’s important. That you understand who’s behind the curtain, pulling the strings and out front, who’s out there talking to people and building these relationships.

[00:27:52] this was not designed in any way, shape or form to, to be, an infomercial about, our brands. But Tim is the CEO and it’s important that you understand what is it we do and how these brands are built. But now I really want to get into, the man here for a second. so I’m always curious to learn.

[00:28:15] and you, said this and by the way, if you don’t think I’m listening, you’re going to learn how much I’m listening. Over the course of our time, because you will see it in my content. Create, you’re going to say something and I will turn it into a post and you won’t even realize that I was listening, but I, take stuff in.

[00:28:33] You said one time you are a creature of habit. You like you, you literally wake up at this time. You’re at the bank. This, okay. Has it always been that way or much like a successful salesperson, have you developed your sales formula, your entrepreneurial formula, and you are just working that system?

[00:28:55] Describe you wake up. First off, do you wake up happy? And then what is, what are the steps that you go through to get shit done? 

[00:29:03] Tim Ward: It’s been since I’ve been, I was in sports playing, growing up, right? It’s always been a rigorous schedule of events. And, when you, do, when you’re part of a team and you’re, responsible for being places on time and everything else, it’s a schedule.

[00:29:22] So it’s, you don’t, my, not my form. There’s no 

[00:29:25] John Morris: winging it. 

[00:29:26] Tim Ward: Yeah. There’s no winging it. My four month old is put a little. Yeah, that happens. In my schedule, but no, it’s four 30 in the morning. Yeah. you’re waking up at four 30 in the morning. It’s a cold plunge. It’s a workout. Yeah.

[00:29:36] John Morris: Shit. Now I got to change my alarm. 

[00:29:38] Tim Ward: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s four 30 in the morning. It’s a cold plunge, a workout. It’s a sauna. It’s a hot tub. It’s a, a shower and then it’s out the door and then it’s the same. It’s the same. Listen, when I was in sales, okay. But when I was off cue and I felt different, I can feel it because I wasn’t paying attention to my schedule.

[00:29:59] So for life, it’s been like that. If I get off 

[00:30:05] John Morris: mentally, if I 

[00:30:06] Tim Ward: get off mentally, I just go back and I go. Now I’m old enough to know that it’s like, Hey, dude, you got to get on the system. Yeah. You got to get your shit together. You got to get back to the, it’s like when I travel, it’s I did a lot of traveling for national accounts, right?

[00:30:22] And I went out and for TTSG, but it’s like when I travel, I come back and I’ll be like, Oh my God, I’m on, I feel like I’m just kabobulated. I don’t know what’s going on in the business. I feel out of control. It’s a bubble. Cause you’re not following schedule. So it’s a schedule. So like when I told you I was there, so we wanted to, to off me as they say in Chicago 

[00:30:41] John Morris: on a live view.

[00:30:43] Yeah, 

[00:30:43] Tim Ward: yeah, 

[00:30:43] So if somebody wanted to, it would be very easy. It’s a, I get it. I get up at this time. I get in the car between a five minute time for him. 

[00:30:50] John Morris: Please don’t give details. We love you. 

[00:30:53] Tim Ward: I go to the same place for a cup of tea in the morning and I’m, I get the car washed and then I, and I go in and it’s, those little car wash places where they give you the pass, like 20 bucks a month, yeah, right through and it’s, I, it’s right down the street.

[00:31:09] I’m, at the office. it’s the same thing every morning, it’s the age. What does that 

[00:31:14] John Morris: do for you? And it, Would that be a strong recommendation that you would make? 

[00:31:23] Tim Ward: 100%. You can’t do anything with that schedule. It’s the only thing that hasn’t changed over, over, ever for sales is you find a schedule that works.

[00:31:36] Why would you ever change it? Ever once you become, once you have your schedule in place and once you have your everything that is, that’s set, there’s only a little, pieces that you adapt, like when social, like business media came out, like linkedin, right? Dabble that in. I can go back to when I first started my career and I knew how many phone calls I was doing, how many appointments I was doing.

[00:32:01] The tick marks, counting them off 

[00:32:03] John Morris: by fives. 

[00:32:03] Tim Ward: Yeah, but even in the schedule of the boxes, Monday through Friday. You knew it. Of where I was at, I was doing phones for this amount of time, I had three appointments here. So you have it that 

[00:32:10] John Morris: aggressively blocked off. 

[00:32:12] Tim Ward: Yeah, a hundred percent. And it’s now it’s ingrained in my head now.

[00:32:15] It’s I know 

[00:32:16] John Morris: it’s almost it’s just muscle memory. It’s wake up and do it. 

[00:32:19] Tim Ward: Yeah, you have to do it now. there’s other things that you have to do. There’s a, you’ve got your own calendar to do. You’ve got your own journal that you’re doing. You’ve got your own. there’s just there’s more to it now.

[00:32:32] And just what it was, 25 years ago for me, 

[00:32:37] John Morris: Tim, I got to tell you that, in my career, I’ve been in a ton of sales departments. I’ve been out in the field. I’ve been in the office. I’ve been in and out inside sales. I’ve led teams dot. But now I get calls from salespeople in my role.

[00:32:54] People want to sell stuff. It’s bad. Yeah. Yeah, it’s bad. People are reading me decks. They’re reading the deck to me. Yeah They don’t ask any questions. It’s pure We used to make fun of the professional presenters in our office like you’re not a closer or you’re a professional presenter Yeah, like what are you gonna you’re waiting for them to be like, oh, okay.

[00:33:17] Great. Now I’ll say yes I didn’t know you were gonna have the tada moment I would imagine that CEOs and founders listening to this probably have a similar feeling because they look at all, they’re always looking at revenue. They’re always looking at their company and they’re going, wait a minute, we do this great of work.

[00:33:33] Why are we only growing at a 5 percent clip? what is happening? Sure. And I got to tell you that I’m getting a lot of these calls. I see it. Why is there such a problem right now? In people’s ability to sell, transfer energy, transfer conviction and, and create reasons for people to buy. 

[00:33:56] Tim Ward: I don’t, it’s a great question.

[00:34:00] I 

[00:34:00] John Morris: mean, it’s true. Am I wrong? 

[00:34:01] Tim Ward: That’s a great question. I just think it’s the lack that the lack of being, a consultant. See, if you get. If, first of all, if you’re trying to sell somebody something, do you want to sell somebody to that’s waiting for you to sell them or do you want to bring a product to them, rave about it and walk away, leaving them with more wow, that was great.

[00:34:29] That was, that’s a service, a product or a service based, or service based organization, all three levels and all three companies. And then walk away and then intrigue them, right? there’s just too much. It’s too much. It’s too much. LinkedIn. It’s too many. CRM. It’s too many. CRM. It’s this and that.

[00:34:49] It’s this. Oh my God. The amount of 

[00:34:51] John Morris: shit you have to plug in to, to make sure a manager knows like every little fight. are we over tracking things that is bogging down? Yeah. And, meanwhile, you just said in life, don’t wing it. 

[00:35:07] Tim Ward: Yeah. 

[00:35:08] John Morris: Why are salespeople winging it? 

[00:35:10] Tim Ward: Yeah, because they’re not, educated.

[00:35:13] I just think that they’re not educated. They’re not, salespeople that are, that they’re put into a position. There’s a lot of positions that are open now that are, that, you were an entry level position and all of a sudden you’re getting hired in as a major account rep or a senior level engineer, or, all the different.

[00:35:29] All the different 

[00:35:30] John Morris: terms, whatever it is, account manager, advisor, 

[00:35:34] Tim Ward: but what, executive sales executive. so what really basically is that you’re not, it takes 7 to 10 times to, to get a customer to listen to you, like a potential client, a prospect to listen to you. 

[00:35:52] John Morris: When you say, listen, that’s different than, taking your call or hearing the presentation.

[00:35:59] You’re, very specifically saying, listen to you. 

[00:36:02] Tim Ward: Yeah, they’re not, they’re, giving you their time, which is precious. And thank you very much for doing that to all of our sales rep, by the way, because they’re working out really well. But my thing is that, you look at, you look at what salespeople are doing and it’s just like bombarding, they’re just like, They’re just throwing everything against the, the wall and seeing what’s next and it’s really not, it’s like when you see back, when you see the, B to B like, back to bit or, business to business, it’s to me, every time I see it, I’m like, it’s back to basics, right?

[00:36:39] Because if you really just took the same, schedule that I had 25 years ago, And you sprinkle some of the new things, but you don’t get over, you don’t over inundate yourself with that. You just do, you’ve got to start the year off and you’ve got to, and you’ve got to get to where we’re at in July right now, right?

[00:37:00] You’ve had seven months of data. If you start off and saying, here’s what I’m going to do and sprinkle this in here. And I’m just going to do a little bit of this. We should know where you’re at of what you’re doing. If that’s not working. Okay. We should probably stop. Maybe 

[00:37:13] John Morris: it’s time to. 

[00:37:14] Tim Ward: Maybe it’s not, it’s not the thing for you to do.

[00:37:18] when you really, they’re just, they’re not, they’re selling. It’s just create the relationship. you’re out there. 

[00:37:29] John Morris: Act as if. 

[00:37:30] Tim Ward: Yeah. you’re a consultant. 

[00:37:32] John Morris: Yeah. 

[00:37:33] Tim Ward: At the end of the day, you really, what are we, all doing? We’re consulting on, we’re consulting somebody to make a decision that’s benefiting us and them.

[00:37:41] Yeah. And it’s, you’ve got to show the benefit and they know that we’re benefiting because it’s our services that we’re taking away from a competitor. sales is a really sales is a sticky, it’s a sticky subject. there’s people that sell completely different ways. There’s completely different ways to sell the same product and there’s successful people that do it completely different than I would do it.

[00:38:08] And that’s, what’s so cool about it. It’s. 

[00:38:11] John Morris: yeah, but you got to find your you got to find your path. You got to own it. Yeah, but I agree with you. I think, the first thing. The first thing that I was taught is you have to be convicted. You have to believe so much in what you do and what you’re saying.

[00:38:24] And if you can’t do that, if you can’t convince yourself that you would buy from you, why the hell should I buy from you? if you’re bored with what you’re saying, what makes you think that I should be excited to hear what you’re saying? So I think that’s a, that’s an interesting Challenge that I’m seeing in many cases when I get some of these phone calls, I’m like, you don’t even love the product.

[00:38:48] It appears like they’re 

[00:38:49] Tim Ward: not educated on it. If you’re not educated on it, you’re not, you’re not hyped up about it because you probably don’t even know what it does. 

[00:39:00] or what’s the benefit of you calling me to tell me what my benefit is 

[00:39:03] John Morris: or have you called up to somebody that is in your book of business that is getting that value and said, Hey man, teach me something.

[00:39:09] What is this thing doing for you? Tell me how it’s changing your life. is it improved your cash flow? Are you more profitable? are you sleeping better? if you can’t get that stuff out, then how the hell do you talk to the next client? 

[00:39:24] Tim Ward: Yeah, no, it’s super, important, it’s also like with this podcast, right?

[00:39:30] It’s like this podcast is, going to be, is going to be here for a while, right? It’d be here for a while. Okay. when you see it, it’s a great room. It’s a completely soundproof and we’ve got all the technology here and everything else. We’ve got John here. Thank you very much. But the podcast, right?

[00:39:51] It’s if we can teach about anything, like just, maybe one set, it’s one episode just, and somebody gets something from that. Totally worth it. Totally. A hundred percent. 

[00:40:08] John Morris: Yeah. 

[00:40:08] Tim Ward: So it’s like when we have, a lineup, Of, of super cool people of great things happening for, the podcast.

[00:40:17] your episode drops, I think today or did drop today. It should be dropping any second. Yeah. So it should be any second that it’s going to drop. I’m going to be the second episode, 

[00:40:26] John Morris: third, 

[00:40:27] Tim Ward: or the I’m going to be. 

[00:40:28] John Morris: Episode three. 

[00:40:30] Tim Ward: I’m going to be episode three. So I’m going to be episode three. Brian’s going to be episode two on 29th for number 29.

[00:40:40] this is going to be, it’s going to be entertaining. It’s going to be educational. It’s going to, it’s going to have real life stories of people. And, for, from Chicago, you’re going to know a lot of these companies that the CEOs and CFOs and CI, all the C level C people that are coming in.

[00:41:00] it’s going to be great. But I hope that they can learn something, and, or just call us up or talk to us or come by because that’s what this is for. it’s to bring our current customers in. Show off a little bit, show what a great place we have, that 

[00:41:22] John Morris: feeling, 

[00:41:24] Tim Ward: bring them in, give them a space to talk about what their business has done, whether or not they built it, whether or not they bought it, whether or not they started from scratch.

[00:41:34] Just tell the story, get some branding out there, get a following, right? whatever we can do to have our 

[00:41:40] John Morris: following become your following. Yeah, 

[00:41:42] Tim Ward: exactly. That 100%. And then also bring in perspective clients to show them a facility, take a look at what we’re doing, bring them into the podcast, have a little podcast, see what they like, see if we can use it for some marketing, go from there.

[00:42:00] with, for that, so it’s like the same thing. 

[00:42:02] John Morris: This is another give back. 

[00:42:04] Tim Ward: Yeah. 

[00:42:04] John Morris: This is another investment. Like branding is a, long play. Yeah. Much like building. It’s a really long play. It’s the cost 

[00:42:12] Tim Ward: of this room is very long to get 

[00:42:14] John Morris: it back. But that investment should come back tenfold.

[00:42:18] Again, we don’t know when. Yeah. But the investment is investing into others. When I say others, I don’t mean within this building. look, go get the Lauren, 

[00:42:29] Tim Ward: right? Go get Lauren. 

[00:42:30] John Morris: Yeah. 

[00:42:31] Tim Ward: Go get Nick. Go get Kyler. Yep. Get some of the, service people. Go get ’em all, have conversations, talk about it because this is where it’s gonna come out.

[00:42:42] They’re, gonna shine. 

[00:42:43] when they talk about their business, they’re gonna shine when they, and they believe. And what we’re doing, that’s what this is for giving them a mic, giving them a platform, showing them that they can do it and having a, great time while doing it.

[00:43:02] So look at how business has changed from 20 years ago, 25 years ago till now. Did I ever think I’d be sitting with microphone, with the headset and a microphone or anything? Not at all. I think I was going to be doing a zoom call for a podcast, probably, but to come in, these are customers, they get a car set for them.

[00:43:25] They’ll get back, get brought back. They get, there’s, whether or not we 

[00:43:29] John Morris: roll out the orange carpet, 

[00:43:30] Tim Ward: roll out the orange carpet for the TTSG, have food trucks, whatever it is, and then. and the employees see it too. It’ll happen on a Thursday or Friday. It’s good culture. It’s fun.

[00:43:43] Okay. And then we could just go from there. Creates a 

[00:43:45] John Morris: great brand experience, a great human experience, and it gives, it opens up the curtain. And I think that this is something that is very, important in this world right now that is so social media driven. And there’s so much noise is to open up the curtain and to show what people are really like at the organization.

[00:44:02] Cause at the end of the day, you’re buying from the organization, not just the products and services. Yeah. And, we hope that is, what is presented to you, by the way, Tim, I don’t know what it is, if there’s some sort of an energy kind of thing in here, because my question to you to close the show up was going to be, Hey, explain what your vision was for having a podcast.

[00:44:21] And you did that without the question. So Way to get shit done. 

[00:44:25] Tim Ward: Thank you very much. It’s a, this is a, saying that we’ve used for years. That sign behind you is probably 10 years old. That sign was, the get shit done, the painting. Yeah. It was, probably 10 years ago. anybody that’s worked with me.

[00:44:47] Anybody that’s worked for me, anybody that I’ve worked under knows that’s been my motto from day one. It’s just get shit done. Might look, it might look, structured, might look very chaotic. it might have a different feel. And there could be 

[00:45:06] John Morris: duct tape and bolts, but it’s going to get done, but it’s going to get done.

[00:45:10] Tim Ward: and that’s, it’s just, it’s. A belief that I’ve had, and I don’t feel well as a person if I’m not getting shit done. which is a very important thing, which was very funny because earlier before this podcast, my, my buddy’s retiring and he said, yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

[00:45:31] And I go, I could, he goes, but you could never do this. No, I can retire. Not a chance. Not a chance. You will have 12 

[00:45:37] John Morris: businesses by then. 

[00:45:39] Tim Ward: So yeah, we always got to feel like we’re getting shit done and I’m super excited for the podcast. I’m really happy to have you on board. That was a, big move for you.

[00:45:49] That was great. I really enjoy working with you. I think that we have a full supportive staff that’s, that’s in the building that sees, when they, When I said, Oh, we’re going to build a pocket, Oh, here’s 

[00:46:01] John Morris: another Tim idea. Yeah. Here’s another 

[00:46:03] Tim Ward: Tim idea. So my thing is, that now, after long, introduction to the podcast, the email that went through all of the interviews that you’ve done with, and the podcasting that you’ve done with all of the employees, what a great feeling that gives them a 

[00:46:17] John Morris: sample of what it feels like.

[00:46:19] Tim Ward: Unbelievable. We’ve had people in the room that didn’t even know that we were doing a podcast. Come on in, let’s sit down, let’s get, let’s put that outside. Let’s just have a conversation here. It’s so normal. If you haven’t done it, you’ve got to do it right. Because it’s, it looks like it’s awkward.

[00:46:35] It looks like you have got to be talking to this, moving it around and everything else, or you’ve got to have the headset on, but it’s. It’s so normal. It’s just having a conversation and wherever that conversation leads is where it’s where it’s going to go. So we’re going to get shit done and we’re going to continue to keep doing it.

[00:46:51] And, if you want to be on the train and, you want to be getting shit done with us. Call us up, send us an email. Get out. I’ll have a link for 

[00:47:02] John Morris: you to click. You can fill it out and I’ll be ready for you. Awesome. That’s Tim. I want to remind you, sir, you got shit done. Have a great day.

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