Episode #869
In this episode, Doug and Tim dive deep into a topic that resonates with every successful business leader: the critical importance of investing in your team. They explore why creating a culture of trust, support, and personal development not only boosts productivity but also strengthens the loyalty and commitment of your employees. You’ll hear real-life examples and actionable strategies on how to foster a work environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to contribute their best. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights on how to turn your team into a powerhouse of innovation and success. Don’t miss it!
Key Takeaways:
- Why a thriving team is the backbone of a successful business.
- Practical steps to build a culture of trust and growth.
- How investing in your team’s development pays off in the long run.
Tune in and learn how to take your leadership and your business to the next level!
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Transcription
Tim Matthews 0:00
But you have to be providing your team with the opportunity to grow. Otherwise, one of two things is going to happen. They’re going to leave to find somewhere where they can grow, or they’re going to become stagnant and disenfranchised and just lose the desire to grow. Then they’re just going to show up, do the job, check-in, and check out, which is even worse than them leaving. Yeah, you know, so you gotta provide that environment.
Doug Holt 0:38
You know, they say one of the best investments you can make is obviously an investment in yourself, but also investing back into your business. Now, do you want to know what we’ve found to be the number one way to invest back in your business? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about right now in the TPM show. Tim, thanks for being here, brother.
Tim Matthews 0:54
Pleasure.
Doug Holt 0:55
It’s awesome, man. So right now, if guys probably heard this a lot, we’re here at the TPM ranch. It’s a 106-acre ranch nestled in the foothills of the mountains, and we’ve got The Alpha Reset going on next door at the main house. Mark Smith, one of our master coaches, is leading it, along with three volunteers. There are nine men in there going through a transformational experience. And you and I are here. You’re all the way from Anglesey to Sisters, Oregon. Why are you here?
Tim Matthews 1:25
Many reasons, but one of the main reasons was the team retreat that we did, yes, both the leadership team retreat and the wider TPM team retreat that we do every year. The leadership retreat we do biannually, so twice a year, and it was so effective that we’ve chosen to make attendance mandatory for next year. Yeah, right, because the team left feeling such a sense of clarity on where we are going and why we are going in that direction, excitement from having their ideas be heard and being able to brainstorm cross-departmentally, connection from the conversations that happen at random times in the day, and the fun that we’ve had, be it the frisbee golf or the other things that we had set up for them, and with a real sense of certainty. You know, we heard it time and time again, that it’s just great for them, and this isn’t me kind of bigging us up here. Their words were that it’s great for them to have such great leaders at the helm that they believe in, that they can really feel the integrity from, and that they can really bond with too. Because our team isn’t huge. It’s coming up to about 30, mid-30s, high-30s, in people, but it’s getting to the point now whereby you and I don’t interact with every new person that comes onto the team. We try to, we try to be involved either in the interview phase—we’re usually the last interview before someone joins the team—or we’ll make an effort when they join the team to reach out to them and connect with them in some way. But, you know, even if you send a Slack message, do a voice call, it’s just not the same as being with somebody in person. So I think for the team, being able to come and meet us and spend time with us as well over several days, I think them just really getting to know us, really getting to look. They’re switched on, so they know where we’re at with our levels of authenticity and integrity and so on. Given what we do, the type of people we attract to the team, this is the stuff they love. So their radar is in tune. So by them being able to spend a few days with us, it fills them with confidence, clarity, certainty, connection. But the thing is, for this one, it was only about half of the team that was here. And it got us thinking, hang on a minute. We’re on this mission. We’ve got half the team leaving clear, connected, excited, certain, going back to a team that hasn’t been here—the other half of the team. What about the power that might exist if all the team were here, and we all left rowing in the same direction, on the same mission? It’s just—yeah, the possibilities are very exciting.
Doug Holt 4:30
Yeah, like most people, we have remote workers right here in Sisters, Oregon. We have two of our key members—or three, I should say—living in the area, the Bend, Oregon area, coming through. And I think we had about 70% of our team here for this one. But you guys got to understand that our team is based in Canada. We have men in England, men in Wales, men in Scotland, men in Cyprus—well, I’m thinking of the people that were here. Oh. Sorry, and we didn’t have anybody from Ireland, by the way. I just made that one up. South Africa, South Africa. So people from South Africa, flying here and all over the United States, from the West Coast to Central to Mountain Time to the East Coast of the U.S., all converging together. And we had our leadership team before that, where we had already had offsite leadership meetings and brought everybody in to get all in alignment, because we really think of ourselves as a movement. We don’t think of ourselves as a business or a company. It’s a movement, and we’re out for something big. Our mission is to save 10—this year, 10,000 children by saving their fathers first. That is our true north, and that’s what everybody’s aligned at. So now you’ve got people from South Africa, from the UK, Canada, the U.S., all being represented on a 106-acre ranch that we own for our retreats. And they’re bonding, the conversations, and talking about the men that we serve and all the things that we do. And here’s our vision. This is where we’re going, and getting your team excited and involved. And just for me, Tim, just seeing the level of love. You know, we always talk about it. People can work anywhere. They choose to work for TPM because of what we do, the mission we’re on, the men that we serve. And it’s very heart-centered, because these people leave their families. They leave their comfort. They’re coming here. We don’t tell them what they’re going to be doing while they’re here. We don’t give them much information. And this particular one was all about bonding. Darcy, who is on our team, put together an Olympic Games. You guys can all imagine, get your team together, all kinds of games. And it was so much fun. It was great to win second place. I wish it was first. I don’t know what it was like to get sixth place, Tim, but I’m sure that was good too. But we’re swimming in the pond. We’re doing all kinds of great things. And frisbee golf was a blast, especially with, you know, making people do weird things at the frisbee golf, you know, a different element to it, and then really, just people getting to know each other cross-departmentally, I think was huge for us—realizing where—and a lot of guys, what you resonated with this is, do your departments actually know each other and know what the left hand is doing versus the right hand, and how you can dance in harmony together?
Tim Matthews 7:14
Yeah, the bonding piece is huge. Having fun together is huge. I think also just getting to know one another. Yeah, you know, it’s like the guys that attend The Brotherhood events. They often tell us those little conversations they’ll have, either over a morning coffee or a random conversation over lunch, or who they sat next to at dinner, or when we go for a trip on the way there. It’s within those conversations that a lot of the insights and the richness and the connection is really made.
Doug Holt 7:45
Hey guys, I wanted to interrupt this episode because it’s dawned on me that many of you guys aren’t aware that we actually have a book on how to save your marriage without talking about it. Now, thousands of men have read it. They’ve reviewed it, and I want to give you the opportunity to do the same if you’re interested in grabbing it. It’s a short read, but it’s helped a lot of men, just like you, and maybe you’re not interested in The Activation Method yet, but this is a small entry point that can really turn things around for you. Go over to Amazon; we have it priced as cheap as Amazon will let us, and that way you have a resource that you can use right now to start getting some results in your marriage. Now let’s get back to the episode.
Tim Matthews 8:22
The same was true of our team. You know, I think of the last night when I said to the team, you and I delivered a little bit of a speech, if you will, to the team before we sat down for dinner. And one of the things we said was, “Hey, I want you to find the people who you haven’t yet connected with.” For me personally, there were two people, and we then kind of broke out to mingle, if you will. There was an open bar, and some people were drinking. Some people weren’t. But obviously Brandon came up to us and started to talk, tell us about 75 Hard, yeah, which was fantastic, because he, to me, I was one of the people he hadn’t connected with, which was great, because initially he wasn’t one of my two. So it was awesome that I became one of his. And it was in that conversation about 75 Hard—I didn’t even know he’d completed 75 Hard. I heard within the team of advisors, a sales team advisor to men on whether to join the program or not. I knew that a competition had been suggested. I didn’t know who had started it. Didn’t know who had completed it. So for you and I to stand there and just share in Brandon’s experience and ask him questions and triumph, yeah, it was huge. Just consider and reflect on how much he had grown, yeah, from this time last year to now, was huge, and that would never have happened had we not had the team together in person, had we not chosen to encourage the team to connect and find something out about one another that they may not have known. And for me, at least, it’s in those moments where I really feel like I get to know somebody, I really get a glimpse into who they really are. Like Brandon completing the 75 Hard says a lot about who he—not who he is in general, but certainly who he’s been over the past six months. And I get a glimpse into his life, a glimpse into his soul, a glimpse into who he is. And I love that, because in doing so, for me personally, I definitely feel a lot more connected to the person in that moment.
Doug Holt 10:29
I agree. This is our third year doing it, and I’ve run, previous to this, a lot of remote organizations that I’ve had the privilege of running, and I’ve never brought them all together from around the world. And I think this is a must-do, 100%. And to be clear, we had 70% attendance roughly. I’m just doing the mental math about how many people showed up versus how many we have on the team. About 70%, and it’s also important to note that we’ve done a lot of new hiring recently and brought new people on board. We don’t let new hires come in if they haven’t gone through their 90-day probationary period before the cutoff for the retreat registration. I just want to give context to that. So if some of those guys are listening and thinking, “Wait a minute. I wanted to be there, and I would have raised that number to 90% attendance, but I couldn’t make it. You know, I wasn’t allowed to.” We do have to organize something. I mean, if you guys have organized something for a three-day event for 20-some people, it can be a challenge to do so. And shout out to the team that pulled that off and did such a remarkable job. And the late-night conversations and the early morning and the guys seeing the team do their Alpha Rise and Shine together.
Tim Matthews 11:41
Working out together, doing the partner exercises.
Doug Holt 11:45
Yeah, it was great. Phenomenal bonding experiences. We wanted to share this with you because it got so much richness for us. And we’re on a big mission, right? The movement is on a big, big mission. And when I think about that, I think about, okay, what mission are you guys on? Guys listening to this with your companies. We’re businessmen too, and so business is important. But are you connecting the culture of your business to the community that you want to thrive in? Are you bringing your teams together? Maybe you just need to bring your sales and marketing team together. Maybe that’s a good start, right? Because they need to talk. Or maybe you need to bring fulfillment in with somebody else, or what have you. But in this era, in my opinion, Tim, where so many people are working hybrid or remote, I think it’s imperative to bring those people together and remember the human element.
Tim Matthews 12:30
Well, connection is the number one thing people crave right now, because we are more disconnected than ever before, and proximity doesn’t equal connection. So even for the guys that are listening that own a brick-and-mortar business or whatever, have their team together in a building, doesn’t mean they know one another that well. Doesn’t mean they’re connected. There can be a lot of stories that get told, a lot of mud that stacks on the glass. So bringing them together from a connection element is really—I’m not talking about doing kind of cheesy team-building exercises. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about real connection, real fun, real adventure, and equally investing in them. I mean, A players, the number one thing an A player wants—well, there’s two—meaning and growth. Yep, the two things they want, not money. An A player isn’t obsessed by the money. They make sure they want a certain level of income in order to, you know, do whatever. But they’re also aware that, hey, I would take less money to be part of something that’s meaningful and provides me an environment where I’m going to grow, both personally and professionally. That is far more important. That’s what we found with a lot of our team. Our team could be doing anything, anywhere—they’re very talented—they choose to be here, and to your point, because of the mission we’re on, the vision that we have, the meaning that that then gives them, the purpose it gives them. You know, when the men share their wins and the team share the wins, it’s meaningful. And then the other piece of that is the growth. That growth could come in the form of a conversation, that growth could come in the form of a growth plan—that could come in many different ways, right? But you got to be providing your team with the opportunity to grow. Otherwise, one of two things is going to happen. They’re going to leave to find somewhere where they can grow, or they’re going to become stagnant and disenfranchised and just lose the desire to grow. And then they’re just going to show up, do the job, check in, check out, which is even worse than them leaving. Yeah, you know, so you gotta provide that environment, yeah?
Doug Holt 14:56
I mean, it’s a huge financial and time outlay. It costs a lot of money to bring in, you know, 20-some people from around the world, feed them, fly them in, board them, everything else. It’s a huge financial expense. And at TPM, our big thing is we pour the money back into the movement as much as we can because we just serve the men. Like, our staff doesn’t fly first class or any of that, because the movement itself is so important to us. But I’ll tell you guys listening to this, that the investment in the people that you’re with is worth it. It is absolutely worth it. And you remember them, the bonds that they share. And not all of them are going to be with you for the whole ride. They’re just not; that’s just the way it works, but the fact that you’re able to share that moment with them is priceless 100%. So gentlemen, as we always say, in the moment of insight, take massive action. Tim and I wanted to share that with you. We’re just coming off of this retreat not too long ago as we record this, and it’s absolutely impactful. So many learnings, not only to help us grow our business, but also to get different departments talking together and just be able to bond, realizing the people that we work with. We choose to spend the time with our real people too, with real families, real problems, but also real dreams, and hopefully, we can all achieve those together. And I want you guys to achieve your dreams too. See you next time on The Powerful Man Show.
