FreeMind Network: Unveiling The Grit
Unlock Wealth and Freedom: Tim Calise's Business Growth Blueprint | EP81 - FreeMind Network Podcast
In Episode 81, we welcome Tim Calise, the founder of Apex Coaching Group, to share his proven strategies for business growth and success. Whether you're a service business owner, founder, or CEO, learn how to scale your business, implement recurring revenue models, and build effective systems and processes. Tim's journey from entrepreneurial challenges to significant achievements offers valuable lessons for anyone looking to boost their business revenue and prepare for eventual sale. Join us as we dive into practical tips and inspiring stories that can transform your business and unlock new opportunities.
Key Topics Covered:
Business growth strategies
Recurring revenue models
Building scalable systems and processes
Preparing your business for sale
Insights from successful entrepreneurs
Time Stamps:
0:00 - Introduction
1:00 - Tim's Background and Experience
5:00 - Key Strategies for Business Growth
10:00 - Implementing Recurring Revenue Models
15:00 - Building Effective Systems and Processes
20:00 - Preparing Your Business for Sale
25:00 - Tim's Personal Entrepreneurial Journey
30:00 - Conclusion and Key Takeaways
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Question for You:
What is your biggest challenge in growing your business? Let us know in the comments below!
#BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #BusinessCoaching #TimKis #RecurringRevenue #BusinessSuccess #ScalingBusiness #Consulting
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- Duration:
- 31m
- Broadcast on:
- 17 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
- You know my story, right? Rise the fame from the pain and glory, right? Heard from a soul, see ribs on a mike snake? - Tim Kalisa, I run a coaching, consulting and investing business under, primarily under my own name. I help service business owners, founders, CEOs, traditionally between one and five million a year in revenue, who either have or want to have a basis of recurring revenue in their business. And I officially founded the business a couple of years ago, call it 2022, but I've been doing this work for the better part of 20 years in various capacities. - Tell me a little bit about for your coaching and consulting, kind of what are, what are the certain, not necessarily naming names, but what types of businesses, obviously, with the revenue being from one million to five million, that's a huge growth rate and a lot of complexities. And no, at that stage, you're not really set into concrete infrastructure, you're still building a lot. So, I mean, that's amazing that that's what you're going into. I mean, that's a really, you know, a lot of people do consulting and want to go to corporations where it's just, you know, go through the motions and do all that stuff. So tell me what drew you down the path of the one million to five million, 'cause that's the exciting, that's where the magic happens. - Yeah, absolutely. And I think it really stems, Nate, quite frankly, from I have this unique mix of background and personality, meaning I, on one hand, have a thing on my desk here that says I love spreadsheets and I like systems and I like thinking in that way. But this other side of me, having been in the trenches as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as someone who's taken ideas that actually had the fortitude, I guess, to get punched in the face as many times as you have to to be able to stay in this game. There's just something about, you know, you mentioned you come out of the kind of the creative side. I was never creative in the traditional sense. You don't want me to paint or sculpt or anything like that. But the way that I express my creative juices is taking this idea or the kind of the small ember of a fire and using product and using storytelling and understanding the market, be able to translate that idea into something that has legs. And so I think this, and some of my background is I've gone from kind of doing the bed at all on red all the way through to raising hundreds of millions of dollars for a hedge fund that I started in my early 20s. And so I understand how investors think. I understand how to tell the story for capital partners. And, you know, I think we've all seen it, either experienced it ourselves or heard about it from someone kind of in our circles. Entrepreneurs, by and large, are a different breed. And ultimately, with all the sacrifice that is required, they want to have a payoff at the end. And so often 90% of businesses never sell because they never get to be in a position to sell. And so if I can help craft the narrative from the beginning with an eye towards optionality down the road, I think it just helps entrepreneurs. And this is my call it small way of giving back to folks 'cause it's what I needed, you know, a decade ago and it was like, you know, hope was dim and I didn't have a big network of people around me to help. That's really, there's a real power to that. And I think of it in the CPG world and specifically in food and beverage, you see that a lot where you see like a meteoric rise and then they might have not sold at the right time and might have wrote it in too far or maybe added too many line extensions that drag down the debt and all this. And then all of a sudden it's liquidated and it's going somewhere else. And I feel that because I've, in my life, I wasn't, I'm like you though. I'm not, I can sort of express myself creatively with a pen and paper and stuff like that, but I'm more, I'm conceptually creative. So like, I love to be surrounded with artists and creative people who can add to the creativity that comes out of my head. So I'm a natural creator and a natural builder, our natural connector, I'm sorry, not creator. So what I do is like, I'll connect two people together, listen intently on what's going on and then find the common glue that connects them and then show them and be like, hey, you guys, you like this and you like this and you both want to do this, go execute this. So in my life, what's happening is, is I'm starting to do that. I could always have been doing that, but I'm starting to monetize it. So I'm actually starting, like I've, in the past few years I have a, there's a vodka in Pennsylvania, across all the whole state and all the state stores. That's a dill pickle vodka called Salva Dilly. And that was a pickle client that I had that I was just selling here at liquor stores and he had no aspirations of doing anything. And then I had a vodka client that was selling the vodka to the same liquor store. And then one day I'm walking in and I'm selling both and I'm like pulling up the trends and I'm seeing that dill pickle infused items that a food and beverage space are trending. And I got them both together and I said, all right, why don't you guys make a dill pickle vodka? And they both were like, this is awesome. We don't have to go prospecting. We don't have to go qualifying co-packers or partners, like you have a trusted connection. And watching that magic happen just sent me off on a big trajectory of like, you know what? I don't actually have to create my own things because I have a superpower connecting people and seeing the needs that both have. And then create, what I create is the two needs into something of a concept. - I love that. That's phenomenal. It's very much how I believe that we're all creative people deep down and at the power of the, I actually run a small group called the co-creator community. And it's simply just based on the idea that you can't read the label from inside the bottle. You need objectivity. Like, how many times have we been just a degree away from where we needed to be and we just couldn't see it? Like, oh, it's right in front of me the whole time. Somebody else's perspective is sometimes needed to be able to unlock that, you know, that thing that, right? You know, and so it's under that banner of, you know, it's who you know, not what you know sometimes. And, you know, transformations do happen, you know, outside of the concept of isolation. So that's a lot where I've been able to get to, you know, where I'm at. - I fully agree with you. And when you're talking about too with the judging of book facts cover, like, I got a shaved head of six, three, I'm on the, you know, 250 pounds, I got tattoos on my legs, everything. People judge me so differently than when they actually get to know me and hear what comes out of my mouth. 'Cause they're, it's just, and I actually like come to like, it's a real fun experience to like watch people's visceral reactions and like, and all of them are like, I really let you were done or I really didn't think you were this or I really didn't think you were that. I'm like, I'm like, whatever, guys, like, you know, people just kind of, they think I've like, floated around for 20 years aimlessly, you know, and we really haven't been building, I'm building to the future. (laughing) You can tell like, as far as our philosophies, we're locking step on this. So go back for me with, you had said about consulting prior to starting your own business. Walk me through what that experience was like and what you were doing. And then kind of walk me through that pivotal moment where you decided to carve your own path and start your own business. - Yeah, so I think my entrepreneurial journey starts back in like middle school. I was the kid who had ideas and probably just naively, just didn't know that no was a thing. And so it was like, so as an example, I grew up playing lacrosse, I grew up in the Northeast. And my school didn't have a team. I played for the town. And so in fifth grade, whatever it was, I, you know, got the catalog for, you know, know how much all the equipment costs. And I pitched the head of my school, like, oh, for next dollars, we can have a team. So completely self-serving, but it allowed me to kind of flex some of those muscles of like, all right, how do I take this idea and actually hopefully turn it into something? And then that fast forward into college, I went to school in Washington DC. My sophomore year in college, I started a late night snack delivery business in DC for college students, which was awesome. Again, somewhat self-serving, but a lot of fun along the way, right? And then the year after that, I started a used textbook exchange platform, which was very similar to what is now half.com. - Yes, I did the same thing. - Okay, we did it in high school and in college, I stood outside the school store and I was like, "I'll give you more money than that." And I flipped it all on Amazon. - There you go. So that's, I did the same thing for pre Amazon. That's where I started. I did that in 2001, 2002. And so-- - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, I was 2003, I'm like behind you. - We're right there. And so I just always loved that. And then always like numbers, always like math, you know, wanted to do something in finance. And I did, but I didn't wanna do the traditional banking route. I was far too, you know, kind of soft edges for, you know, probably a professional environment like that. And at that time, alternative investments were the hottest thing. Hedge funds, private equity, all of that kind of stuff. And I joined a guy who had no desire to actually run a financial firm. But being entrepreneurial, I said, "You keep doing what you're doing," which would be the equivalent for those listening of like, "He handled delivery and I handled everything else." So I was like, "I'm gonna build a business around you. "I'll acquire the customer, I'll service the customer, "I'll do communications, I'll do operations, "the whole nine yards." And we grazed that. We went from a tiny, tiny, tiny business of managing like a half a million dollars, which in money management terms is the equivalent of having like your mom buy your, you know, low ticket product. You know, like you're not even, you're barely at the starting line. - Yeah, one retirement fund. - Yeah, yeah. - Exactly, exactly. And over almost three, three and a half years, I raised $350 million for that fund. We became the top pump fund in our category. So at 24, I had a billion dollar line of credit and a roster of investors who were able, I was able to convince that I was the, you know, the most confident guy, I guess, or the guy who they should give their money to with the most amount of confidence in our market. And so out of 900 square feet in a tiny office, we were one of the top rated funds of our time and had an absolute blast doing it. It was probably one of the most fun times, but it taught me so much about how to look at businesses, how to evaluate them, how investors look at business, how do they think about acquisitions, and all of that kind of led me to when I started kind of my own real, you know, I'll say a real business, a business of size, it allowed me to have that lens of reverse engineering, what a capital partner might want. So if they were to look at the business, you know, do we have a concentration of revenue in one or two clients, which is a big no-no, right? 'Cause if they fire you, the business valuation changes, you know, dramatically. Am I the one in the middle of the business? Can I extract myself? Can I build process? Like all these things that we hear about, I just learned those kind of from the other side of the lens and then was able to build those into a number of companies after that hedge fund experience. So. - That, wow, I'm so happy we met him. This is awesome, I love that story. And that's like, I have a few friends that went into, so I graduate, we're probably, it sounds like about the same age. So I graduated high school in 2003. - Yeah, I graduated in 2000. So I'm a couple of years behind you. - 'Cause I remember the guys like that were seniors and then going and graduating from there. A lot of it was hedge fund, it was the finance, it was a lot of those avenues. And when I went to, I went to Drexel University in Philadelphia and went to the business school there. And all of my friends are engineers. I played rugby there with all engineers, but I was like the black sheep in the business school. And I met a lot of hedge fund guys. And actually in hindsight, looking back, there was a period of time that I spent, I started this business when I was in a senior at Drexel and I was booking bands around Philadelphia. And that was how I made my money. I was like doing shows and booking bands and then that got me into wholesale distribution, got me into the beer industry and then fast track. Like before I knew it, I was a vice president of a $125 million beer distributor. And I'm like sitting there like, okay, what do I do now? I'm 24, 25 years old. I got a black AMX, I'm good to go. And I'm just running, running to the races, man. And I love that there's not many people like you and I that had like had hit the fire at the right time in your 20s when you had like just a real tear of the fire. (laughs) And also from a bunch of-- - Absolutely. - While it was fun to know, like it was also so confusing, you know, 'cause you weren't like, you weren't meant to-- - 100%. - I wasn't mentally equipped for the responsibility stuff. - No, no, not at all. It's so funny you mentioned that because anyone I speak to, they're like, yeah, 22, 23, like I was just trying to figure out like, how do I get up on time to go to work? And like I can't even put myself in those shoes. And like, but in the middle of a tear point, you articulated better than I could. It's just like, you're in the middle of a firefight and you don't have that context at the time of like, oh, okay, like this is how this is actually gonna go. Just you're like, you're riding the bull, I guess at that point. - Context of, is this really sustainable? Maybe not. (laughs) - Yeah, yep, exactly, exactly. - Yeah, so when you do that, I mean, so for me specifically, like I was out and my job was consumer activation. So I was constantly on the road, I was traveling all over the country and just engaging hand to hand with consumers. And whether it be at beer festivals and events, it was meet the brewery nights, it was tastings, it was, I would stand in a grocery store with a folding table and as people walked in, I'd be sampling out products. It was like any and everything from that to like full scale, like renting out an arena for a consumer experience and having like seven bands play and all these other things. So that was all in my 20s. So it's all walkly through like when you're also from your standpoint, you're sitting here with this success. I'm assuming you're not married yet. - I got married right at the end of that 2007 timeframe. So right at the end of that story. - So then, yeah, so. (laughs) - At the end of it, so you get married and then the whole life change is not a bad way. It's just everything kind of changes out and everything settles in. When you, what point did you guys transition from that hedge fund to the next project? - Yeah, so for those that were around in the 2006, 2007, 2007, 2008 timeframe, most people are familiar with the fact that the US financial markets and the economy effectively melted down in September, October of 2008. If you go a year and a half before that time, that is when the cracks started to show. And if you watch the big short, the movie, that's the timeframe they're talking about is when those that wanted to look could start to see some signs of stress, right? So our strategy without going too deep into it required what I'm just gonna very basically call a normal environment, meaning markets should go up and down. In that timeframe, markets were not acting normally for lack of a better term. And so we had a choice to make. And in 2007, we either had to kind of change our stripes and change our philosophy to match where what was happening kind of around us, which is like going outside of your core competency is the best equivalent I can give you. Or we just say, you know what, what got us here is not gonna get us any further, we're just not gonna play the game. And so in October of 2007, I called all of our investors and said, we think that this is the precursor to something that's not gonna bode well for all of us. So we're selling all of our investments and we're gonna cash and we're gonna like protect ourselves. We're not gonna charge any fees, but leave your money with us. And when things normalize or start to look better, we're gonna go back and invest again. Or that's option A or option B, you can take your money back. And everybody asked for their money back. So 1231 of '07, we voluntarily effectively returned $350 million of capital that I had spent pretty much my entire three and a half years crisscrossing the world to raise, we gave it all back voluntarily because we thought it was the right thing to do. And so we were a little early, but that was the end of that chapter. And I was in a plate, newly married in a location that I had no friends or family, really. I had just been there for work and my wife wasn't from there either. And so we said, let's go back closer to family. And so after I wrapped up our hedge fund in middle of '08, we moved back to the Northeast where my wife and I are both from. - So I don't, you know, to share as much as you want from a personal level, but I like to, I like to really, I've lived a similar part of loss. So had really nice spikes and had all those things. And then really had the, I had the share if it's not going to my defer with the foreclosure ones. - Yeah. - So, you know, it didn't end up going to fruition. I pulled things together in a resourceful way, but I've been there. Walk me through as much as you want to share with what that's like from the home side of things. So now you come home and you're with your wife and you have a child now and you've just done that. And you have a wealth of integrity. And you're trying to explain that to people. We're like, you have more integrity than anybody else in this industry. 'Cause that's what you just told me. Like I, you have integrity. Like, and you have, you have just a way about your way. The fact that you're willing to do that, walk me into the home life and how to do you guys as a family unit, move forward with that to then give you the opportunity to then start new adventures and stuff from there. As opposed to where in that moment, a lot of people would have crumbled, went to a corporate job and they would be slaying stocks or something like that and doing whatever now. - Yeah, so it was psychologically was very difficult from the standpoint of my identity at that time. Professionally was wrapped up in the work that I had been doing and everybody kind of has a, every position, every job has a scoreboard, right? That you can say, like, here's the number on the wall and that tells you something about how well I've done. In our world, it was how many and what the assets that you manage and things like that. So I was effectively restarting the counter. After winning the game, it would be the equivalent of like getting to midway through the fourth quarter or something like that and being up by 20 and then forefitting effectively. And so it really had an impact psychologically because it was, I had done all the work, like the ball, like the plates were spinning and then it all stopped. And so I had to reinvent myself literally on a very, very short timeframe to try to continue to, we had done well enough that I could take a little bit of time off, but it wasn't like I was retiring at 24 or something like that. But I had to reconstitute what my identity was and making that choice of where do I go next. It took me about six months almost to kind of figure out what the next step was. But again, I also was laden with this entrepreneurial mindset of I want to do things my way. And there's a lot of ego that was in that, especially in my mid 20s. I kind of wanted to be my own boss. And so I was looking for things that I could do, that I could be moderately successful at at that time and still be flexible and provide and things like that. So my life has been separated effectively in three big chapters. That was the end of chapter one, which started kind of a big chapter two, which left the next kind of 10 to 12 years. And that was me getting into the fitness industry. So, and happened to tell you about that. Coming through that, so you're in that six month period, you're re-emerging into a new industry, that's awesome. - Yeah, so my wife and I met as division one athletes, we were both rowers in college. And so health and fitness was always kind of something we were interested in personally. And so when we moved back to the Northeast, we were in the Southeast for my hedge fund time. My wife Googled personal training in the town that we were living in. And there was a banner ad at the top that said, basically automated personal training 24/7, 365. I was like, that's interesting, I need a trainer. Like, I wonder what this is all about. And it turned out it was a concept called Coco Fit Club, K-O-K-O Fit Club. And the idea was they had taken an old like universal machine and wired it up, this is before Peloton, before Fitbit, before woo, before all of these concepts even existed. And they created prescriptive strength training for the masses. So 24 hours a day, you can walk into a facility and it would say, hey Nate, today we're gonna do these seven exercises. I already, I know where, I know your goals. So I've chosen the seven for today. I've ordered them in the right way. I've chosen the weights that you should be lifter and lower. I've chosen the pace that you should be doing it and the number of reps. So you literally just have to follow along. I was like, this is really cool. Like, this is the next generation. This is the technological revolution of fitness. And this is 2008. So I was like, this is cool. And so I wanted to be an investor in the company. They said they're not taking investors, but they're building brick and mortar locations all around the country. And do we wanna kind of be part of that? And so from 2009 to 2016, we built eight locations, built them up to a multi-seven figure run rate, revenue run rate had 15, 18,000 members throughout that time, paying, being on a boutique fitness program. And so it was awesome. And the end of that story was we in 2018, we had started carrying a product called Prestige Labs, which was a supplement brand that we had gotten affiliated with. And they had a like a sales competition. And the payoff was if you were with the top eight or whatever it was, you got an all expense paid trip to Austin, Texas to meet the founders. So we sold, I think I was number five in the country, we sold a lot of product in a pretty short period of time 'cause we had distribution, won a trip and got to meet the founders. And the last day we're sitting around a table and it's like, you know, kind of like a hot seat consulting session. And everybody's going around like, yeah, you know, I need like, how do I sell more in my gym? How do I hire better trainers, all that stuff? And at the end it came to me and I was like, I don't really want to run a gym. I have other aspirations. And so the guy said, you should sell all your gyms because you are in the wrong opportunity vehicle. And that guy, his name is Alex Vermozi. A lot of people know him to be acquisition.com. And it was the best advice I got. I sold my gyms and then I joined Alex and Layla as the executive, one of the executive team members at gym launch about a year later and helped build gym launch prestige labs and Alan up till the exit to when we sold the American Pacific group two years ago. - Congratulations, Tim. That's a story and a half right there. - That was, yeah, so it's a fortuitous, weird things have happened throughout my career, but I was in the right place at the right time with the right people. - That's correct, that's what you said at the beginning is to be yourself and to be authentic and to be genuine. The fact that you weren't just a yes man and went to that meeting, went through the trip, like everybody's like, oh, tell them your thoughts. And you're like, well, I think it should be blue instead of black, you're just like, no, I just, this is not my passion, I'm good at it, but that doesn't mean it necessarily is our passion. And to be so transparent and honest and authentic, you should be rewarded with something like that opportunity because that's, I mean, that's awesome, man. And then, yeah, to go back to anything that we do, that's what I try to, with everybody, it's funny, like the way that I structure this podcast, it actually brings out people, I'm not, I get surprised every time, but I shouldn't be because good people like yourself who are very resourceful and thoughtful and comfortable to go on a cold podcast that has no script. And I think that like, I'm always surprised to hear these stories, but it's like, that's who I'm magnetically bringing in here. And it's like, it's amazing what you guys are doing. And that story right there is awesome. And obviously, I'm a fan of Alex and everything like that and what they've done. And then what you've done, I mean, you being a part of that too. Yeah, so I'm very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, got to know Alex very well, did some work with him. And then Alex is solely responsible for the success of Jim launch. I helped run Prestige Labs for a little while, and then he talks about this software company that they built. That was the project that I took to market, that we grew from zero to 20 million a year in revenue in four and a half months. And then, you know, then that was a precursor to, I remember the day where the acquisition.com triangle, the purple triangle came to be. And so I was around during that. So it's just cool. It would be the equivalent of like, hey, remember the time where this guy Elon Musk like decided to build a car? Like, I have these stories now of, you know, I literally pictures of my kids playing with Alex Layla in our driveway and moved to Austin to live next door to them when we were building Jim launch. And so like my kids got to meet them. Yeah, so it was quite a time. So yeah, it would, it's going to be memories that will take for a long time. LinkedIn, Tim Kalise. So that's T-I-M-C-A-L-I-S-E, also on Instagram and Facebook. And if anything resonated with you, I have a free community. It's called the co-creator community that I mentioned earlier. Would love to have you as part of that. I'm always dropping stuff. We just launched it this month because I've had so many folks that have said, you know, I love everything you're all about. I may be not the right position or in a position to be able to hire you. But how can I get part of your brain? And so I've taken the opportunity to start to package up some learnings and lessons from along the way and then started to drip those out here starting this month, July of 2024. So I would love to have you as part of it there. - That's perfect. You can count us in and we have a couple of entities that we'll bring in the mix there. So we have a trading cart business. We do custom trading cards for businesses and people. That's Johnny does that. He makes them all from scratch. So they're the not nostalgic throwback retro cards. We have businesses that are doing them as employee, retention and all that stuff too. So he's cranking those out as well. And we'll show you all kinds of stuff we're doing and vice versa. So Tim, thank you so much for taking the time today. This was a pleasant surprise to learn your story. And it goes back to everybody makes fun of me as to why I don't do prep. This is why I don't do prep. Because I get to viscerally have an experience with somebody, get to learn your story from you, not from some article or anything like that. My audience can hear your story from your mouth. And I want to tell you that I also, I just love the fact of how our lives were like in parallel runs of things. I look forward to a lot of conversations of shared stories of our 20s. Likewise, likewise, that was a very pleasant surprise. - Excellent Tim. Hey, you enjoy the rest of your day and look for that email later for me. And I do, this is gonna be a lot more conversations. And I remind everybody at the end of every episode, I did not know Tim prior to this. Tim responded to a single message that said I would love to have you on my podcast and he booked and he showed up and there was no prep. There was no dinners. And I do love Joe Rogan, but I didn't take you out to dinner prior. So, you know, one of those things where it's, it's one of those jobs and everybody that can watch this, can look back and see that it is possible to see a stranger, connect with a stranger and make a difference in the world. - Love it. Appreciate you having me on there. Thank you. - And I'll talk to you later today. I'll send you. ♪ Oh my story, right ♪ ♪ Rise the fame from the pain and glory, right ♪ ♪ Heard from a source he rips all the mics ♪ ♪ Names and all sort of lights ♪ ♪ You sort of write ♪ ♪ Do you just know about the daily obsession ♪ ♪ Take a step aside to both the mink and daily confession ♪ ♪ You don't know about the daily depression ♪ ♪ And doubt that comes with it ♪ ♪ You just hear it and sweat and I'm having fun with it ♪ ♪ You don't know about being at one ticket ♪ ♪ Every one ticket telling you to cope with it ♪ ♪ Or just be done with it ♪ ♪ Channel vision, but you don't know what I go you will ♪ ♪ Keep it real, you only know what I show you ♪ ♪ Remember back in '07 ♪ ♪ Asked me where my life was headed, couldn't have told you ♪ ♪ But now I might recite these lyrics at the osu ♪ ♪ The garden get a show too ♪