125 TIM BISHOP – How to Play a Bigger Game

Shelley Rogers:                 You're listening to another episode of inspiring greatness, where we share the stories of remarkable entrepreneurs. Welcome, my name is Shelley Rogers your host. Join me each week as we share experiences from amazing entrepreneurs, who have had success and failure. Listen to their stories, recommended books, technology tools and business tips. If you're an entrepreneur at startup stage or if you have a business experiencing high growth. Welcome this podcast is for you. Listen and learn from the entrepreneurs best and worst moments and hear what inspires them. Now let's begin.

Tim Bishop:                        [inaudible 00:00:43] it's about us. It's about a bigger preposition mission and vision. It's about helping people play a video game and the rituals are "ooh God". Like you don't have ... My philosophy is every day is worth fighting for.

Shelley Rogers:                 Welcome to Episode 125, you just heard a snippet from Tim Bishop who is passionate about helping people boring through the barriers to get to the next level. In today's episode Tim shares how his background in the military shaped his desire to become an entrepreneur. He provides tips and best advice for rituals for success. Go all in. Surround yourself by the right people. Aim for your highest good. Trust your instincts and the importance to pick your partnerships very, very carefully. Now we have a very special offering for you today Tim and I are teaming up to offer entrepreneurs a free 30 minute coaching session to help you get to that next level. Now this is a limited time offer. Submit your interest as soon as possible as the deadline for submissions will be December 15th 2017. Now you can submit your entry by completing our Contact Us form on our website at MaxumCorp. That's maxumcorp.com.au and just click through to the contact, Us section. And provide your contact details and in the section that says how we can help please type in free coaching promo 125. That's free coaching promo 125. Now without further delay let's dive into the episode.

                                                Enterpreneurs near and far Shelley Rogers here and thanks for joining me today. Listening to this episode where we share remarkable stories from amazing entrepreneurs to inspire you. I'm very excited to introduce our guest entrepreneur today Tim Bishop. Welcome to inspiring greatness. Are you ready to share your story to inspire our listeners.

Tim Bishop:                        I sure am Shelley. Thank you so much for having me.

Shelley Rogers:                 Now I met Tim at a client luncheon here in Brisbane a few months back. He's that type of person when you meet he's full of energy. He's a man on a mission and perhaps mission is a great word to describe Tim, because he comes from a military background. So for over a decade Tim and the business he has built have been showing people and organizations how to break through and achieve to their next level, no matter how successful they already are. He has directly impacted and enabled leaders and tens of thousands of people to play a bigger game and actually achieving what they want in areas that matter most in their business financial relationships, family career and health. So Tim thank you for being a guest on inspiring greatness.

Tim Bishop:                        Thank you so much. That's a really nice wrap. Really appreciate it.

Shelley Rogers:                 Now Tim and I have been, since we met at that luncheon trying to cross collaborate on a couple business ideas. And it's I have to share a cute little story because Tim keeps saying "I'm getting you some marketing brochures then I'll get them to you right away." And I keep following up and I'm like "gosh how long does it take to get marketing brochures. What's going on." And then I finally received this amazing and it's not a marketing brochure it's over the top. So I'll try and describe it. It's kind of like the size of a wallet. Nice little black and gold rectangular box and you open it up and it's got a huge little well not little. Basically his corporate brochure with all his mission values all of that. But then it also had these lovely business cards that had a post card in it, on these encouraging little quotes like on focus, influence, leverage and little inspiring quotes on each of these little cards. It was very, very impressive marketing for brochure Tim. I'm-

Tim Bishop:                        I'm so glad you liked it. It was worth ... It was always like I wish she doesn't think that I'm like trying to stall. We're actually really pushing to get one.

Shelley Rogers:                 Yes.

Tim Bishop:                        I'm really glad you liked it.

Shelley Rogers:                 Very original. So it sets you apart for sure. So before we dive into your entrepreneurial journey I'd just love if you could share a little bit about your personal life, what was it like in the military and how did you kind of evolve into entrepreneurial life versus military journey?

Tim Bishop:                        Oh good. Great question. If I do a bit of a throwback I joined the Army just probably late 2000, sorry beginning of 2005 January 21st, ill always remember it and signed on the dotted line and gave my life to the Commonwealth. And I know to this day I certainly loved and enjoyed it. It had its times where, it was a bit up and down. I think that's a gaining though. The thing that I took away from it was that regardless of what information people give you, the journey you're taking on. It's who you choose to be in each of those really hard moments, will determine where you go next. And I know it sounds a bit cliche but it's really amazing when you start to recognize that you don't really need to change.

                                                When I was in military I found it very challenging but I found every challenge you got was the one you were ready for. And even if you didn't have everything you needed, the challenge actually held the learning in it. So I would constantly push myself and I did make a lot of mistakes as an officer because I went through Duntroon and got my commission into Queensland. The best thing I think I enjoyed more mainly was leading other men and women. I absolutely loved it. It was the best job in the world at the time, until I created this one and I don't like quite calling it a job but a mission. It was a new mission.

                                                And I think I found myself in employment, I went over to I was actually based on the safe side, which is really convenient for me but not so convenient for a lot of my friends because when you go on deployment you don't get to pick where you get to go all the time. So I was placed in the command zone in a location known as A map. Air made air base and it's firstly safe compared to say ... trying to recall any of those areas across the river and a lot of friends coming across.

                                                Through interactions, I realized there is something missing. And this is where the idea of the business was born, just before I left on deployment I just know really good extraordinary men and women being caught behind really ordinary frames of thought. And I just could see it in them. I used to see it on all the soldiers and still to this day I have great relations with all of my soldiers killed because I just realized that leaders aren't doing the things I want to do, they are doing the things I know I don't want to do. How to get done have to be the first to do it and I have to be willing to ask for help. And put their ego at the door, aim for service always. Teamwork to share the results and be the first in and the last out. And I found that which was really fascinating thing to see that even with all the training that people were getting there was this thing that was missing. And to suddenly leave the army and start a company known as next level. And that's why we are here today.

Shelley Rogers:                 How many years were you in the army?

Tim Bishop:                        Just under 10 years. I would probably even argue and say it was about 11, because even when I left, I think I left in 2012. I can't remember when I was fully signed off probably before the end of 2012. And I still continued to work with military numbers very closely for nearly two years, I still do to this day. I work closely with a lot of some of the senior leaders and officers within the [inaudible 00:09:15] it was incredible men and women there doing what they're doing really. Very similar mission they really see the value in ... So a lot of leaders do.

                                                There's unfortunately nothing against the defense. It's like any organization that has a long series, a large amount of time on the earth. They have some interesting characters that are just sitting in places that just tend to cause blockage. So it's a must watch.

Shelley Rogers:                 Yes, it is.

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah, it's a nice way of saying because I can't speak on its behalf but I can definitely say that from my experience down. There's a reason why we have good leaders and bad leaders. You need both of them so that you can look at the ones that inspire you and see who you can become if you put in the work and effort and the love and the care and then there's obviously the other contrast, which is look at what will happen to you if you don't honor the basics. I was saying this to Nathaniel. He's our Academy director. He and I were talking and I had it slip out when it's not in your plan, it's not in your ritual. So success towards who you are becoming then it will go into your ritual or you plan for failure. And it happens automatically. So I watched a lot of unfortunately good people not know how to fully engage who they were, hence they succumbed to really low level and lacking quality challenges and it's really unfortunate to see it happen so.

Shelley Rogers:                 So you touched a little bit about the Academy maybe share a little bit more about Next Level and what sort of programs you have to offer.

Tim Bishop:                        Oh good. This is how we connected. I think when we were meeting, we met at that luncheon. Which is really cool and it was definitely cool. They got a bit messy with the crowd but it was good fun.

Shelley Rogers:                 It was fun.

Tim Bishop:                        That particular ... He is a friend of yours kind of ours. I mean if I do go back in time a little bit, what happened was when I left the defense I had a really good boss. He said Tim you're really good, you really hyper fit, you're always highly energetic. And you know he seemed to be. And at times you seem to be really, really good at getting people to do things like influencing them. And he said ... he himself, he was a really great man, hyper smart. I had a number of good leaders but this specifically was a major at the time. Major [inaudible 00:11:47] another guy Major [inaudible 00:11:48] They had different men but different leadership styles in them.

                                                I got out, I a took a year off to just see what was possible. I planned on returning because I just wanted to see what it would be like. And the minute I got out. I started my first gig with a group in Cannes. It was an excellent division Exxon-Mobile branch off and this one worked for the CEO there and his team. Realized there's so much cross-pollination between what I had experienced and learned in the military and started mixing with all this learning, in the year off. And so 2012 I spent a lot of time just working on myself like who did I want to become where do I want to go. What was I doing with my life. This really went really deep because I had a lot of challenges, personal challenges at the time.

                                                Recently I had a partner who went through some challenges while I was in deployment who left and it was really upsetting and like it would be for most people. He had a lot of dark challenges family was going through a huge amount of financial distress. My father lost 17 million he was in a company that was going through some dark times. Eyes on the family as it were, we're also going through some trouble times. You can imagine like this is all going on and you just like all the stress is just overwhelming. And I just decided like who do I need to be? What type of man would I need to be, to be able to lead myself through all this. And I just snapped and I just took that year to salvage pretty much every penny I had from savings on employment and spending all on myself and my investors probably 75 to 100 thousand dollars in my first year off.

                                                And pretty much all the money I had in that area. Just reading and learning and then I think it was just that toward the end of the year my first things I made about nine thousand dollars on my first year. I remember looking at my account and going wow I might have lost it all. This is so goddamn hard.

Shelley Rogers:                 What did I do?

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah, my why did I do this? What did I do wrong and then you know and you cut yourself tell yourself really sad stories and you can see whether we get stuck in. And I thought what a great experience all the challenges I'm getting right now are shaping me into who I need to be and I would constantly refrain. Well I wouldn't be positive I wouldn't just be like positive thinking any of that any thought I had, had to be followed with immediate action. Some sort of immediate action and I knew, which action It had to be, because it was the one that was uncomfortable. I was like goddamn so I spent a lot of time just uncomfortable like just fooling myself and picked up some really awesome opportunities. Did a lot of training with one on one ... did a lot of sea work privately. There was a lot of contrast really because I did ... I worked with a lot of young girls, a young age girls. I was working with a lot of people's kids.

Shelley Rogers:                 Right.

Tim Bishop:                        Then I worked with them. And then it would just be this big mix and then I spoke to a friend of mine and he said would you want a session privately in the basement of where you live? And I'm like yeah sure, I do. And then I worked with some West park managers. Long story short the business started getting really confusing for me because I was working with corporates and all the work I was doing would get handed onto a big provider, which would irritate me because all the hard work would be undone. Their contract would be in the millions. I was scraping tin and I started to realize that wait a minute I've got to shift how I see my value my time and I think it went from this if I shared this with humbly It was like about 9000 in my first year. [inaudible 00:15:29] into a hot three figures in the third and then just into million in the fourth fifth We came all the way and I thought Wow.

                                                And then all this people asking how did you do it? How did you do 6 figures a month? How do you do those kind of days? We don't have any marketing skills. The only marketing we have got is the one you got to experience. I think the focus is I never focused on trying to make money. It is one of the biggest mistakes people can fall into. I've got to make money and you don't you've got to make a difference and you've got to measure it. If you can't measure it then it doesn't apply and you still need to be okay with making a profit, which means you're just spending less to make a great product than someone's willing to buy. And I just started realizing that everyone has what they need. Everyone really does have what they need. And that's what we called the company put together and called it Next Level group. And everyone has a next level and we change it from what coaching and training Australasia to group because it was a group.

                                                We realized that it wasn't a good model I didn't want to be the ... I will always be the face founder for all the company but I wanted the team to realize that they were a bit like the Avengers squad but that's how we do it. Every single person or team can facilitate. They are trained to the teeth. We make sure that they can deliver. They know how to position. We fund them and we give them the best training so that they can take on chaos and uncertainty and they can win the hearts and minds of another decision maker. So that's where academy comes into it.

                                                So it's a big full circle but I had to explain that as a pretext to how academies ... Which was the basement, the five guys I met and we grew from the five people on a weekend and two or three years we've got three or four hundred members. And it's crazy to think well you know like so many good people that need help. Because you think of a lot of people that's not there's like two million people on Bourbon and I'm in Santa Monica now just with the team. We're just doing some training internally for us. We just want to get away.

Shelley Rogers:                 Yes, Tim and I are both in Brisbane, but I had to catch up with him when he's in LA. Its such a small world.

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah, yeah. Such a small world. And I think that's the beauty, I think I get to travel. Yeah you can do that too. You can do it. And I think that's where academy stemmed into business, which was how we met Mario. I just believed in those two, just those examples mainly too much. But that particular comment all these they are great men they have, they're great people and they just had some strategies and things they were writing and they were getting in their own way. And so we went from the academy that was half a million dollar earning and not even half a million dollar ... Any small start up individual aiming self mastery and I use that word specifically. Master yourself, business excellence literature influence.

                                                We run money day trading systems and cycles every quarter. So they run quarterly every year nonstop every weekend. And the reason for that kind of training is short term training doesn't work unless you've got high touch points with hot topic people. You have the ability to maintain your accountability everyone has the best intent when they step into those things but they have patterns they have been running for so long that we know that to break that you've got to give them touch points consistently so that they can rewrite and that's where Academy was born. Hence, that was showing people how to play bigger gamble. Which is their motto and tagline, which is showing people play a bigger game. It's our vision and it becomes the clients vision, which is what is their bigger game.

                                                And then business with business to business arm was born, which is the second arm of the business, which is half a million through to about 6, 7 million dollar premier kind of business and we got just under probably since we started that in the last paying months we're got 30 clients. And they're great, great people. It is like getting a lot is not the point, you want ... Because then you have capacity issues and you want quality control and you want to make sure you always deliver on your promise. That's why they came because that's the whole point of the exchange and money is the trust thing.

                                                And then we had corporate So corporates were anything above 7 to 8 million all the way to about 250 million. We are working with clients in ... A couple of clients, we're not with any one over a billion yet but we are working with a client well into the, she's in the 800 million. And they're interesting because they're different to say 100 million different is they've got more money. What I think is funny is this people are people, they all want the same thing they all want to live large. They want to be great. Love life and really enjoy it.

Shelley Rogers:                 Couple of things that I wanted to highlight. First off your business model because when you're coaching and mentoring clients it's hard scale. You've done a very good job at not only diversifying your different programs you have but also bringing on academy and team members to help you achieve that growth. And I love that your core values the number one core value you have is results and just by sharing what you're talking about right now in your business model. You could tell you know get to the next level it's all about helping those people get to the next level and achieve results. So thank you for sharing a little bit about the next level.

                                                You've talked a little bit about how your corporate corporal in the Army giving you some advice but is there like what has been the very best advice somebody has given you?

Tim Bishop:                        My goodness. I did say to you before we had this I don't want to know the questions because [crosstalk 00:21:15]. Best advice I ever got. God I've been given so many gold nuggets. Specifically from someone in the military?

Shelley Rogers:                 No, just overall.

Tim Bishop:                        Okay. So the best advice I ever got was-

Shelley Rogers:                 I know it's a tough one.

Tim Bishop:                        It would have been. It's a tough one I think the best advice I've ever been given was something that I use today, which was probably said to me by I think from my mum and dad. And it was reinforced by some of the staff, the men and women I work with in the sense, which is a conclusion I can't really rephrase I remember how it made me see. Which was going in on that 1% of you that wants that dream. That's it-

Shelley Rogers:                 So only adopt that 1%?

Tim Bishop:                        Go all in on that 1% of you that wants the dream, because 99% of you is going to constantly get in the way, fight you, make you sleep in. Tell you how hard it's going to be, it's going to hold you back. Not that, that 99% doesn't want you to win it's just that biological safety catch that just won't turn off sometimes. So I just run off on that. I thought I was in the army and I loved it. I joined the army to help my family and serve. I loved it and then realized probably few years in I was like "oh no I'm actually right off track, this is not who I want to become." I can actually remember the exact moment when it hit me in the head. I absolutely adored Tony Robbins but he frustrated me, because I would watch all these people learn something and then walk and not do anything. And I thought I get that he says it's like a dream you've got to give it a go every day. But when that becomes your business model it really hurts. I'm like that's like the business model is if we can build a reliance then you'll keep coming back to it and that's great. That's a really smart business move.

                                                But I'm like. But what if you could turn them in. What if you had that number. I'm not by any means saying that he's done the wrong thing. He's done a right thing because thanks to people like him that I'm doing what I'm doing. And I just find it very interesting that there's a gap there, what if we could fill that gap. What if we could do that. And I remember sitting on deployment and I had a lot of my seniors at the time was like what are you listening to Tim. I was just putting headphones on listening to Tony Robbins. He was like "tiny what?" And I said Tony Robbins. And he's like "oh that big guy" and I'm like yeah he is. Why isn't he [inaudible 00:23:48] great he is a great genius smart guy and he knows what he is doing. And he is like you do know that he was never in the army. And for some reason it just hit me like a hammer. I thought "oh God my whole world just went upside down" I went yeah. And that was it.

                                                [inaudible 00:24:08] was gone I realized that was my rubber sandwich. I had to leave the army and go build my dream, which was I wanted to build an army on the outside that could stand alone.

Shelley Rogers:                 Nice and you're doing that. So congratulations.[crosstalk 00:24:21] you have highly high energy, what personal habits or key mindsets contribute to your success and how do you maintain them?

Tim Bishop:                        First one is get around the right people. You've got to get around the right people. That was probably the first automatic thing for me. I realized that even if you don't have the skill set the ability and the belief then get around people that do and it's infectious. You must get around the right people. That to me was automatic I didn't figure that it just came out. You must get around people, so I've made sure that even in the team we've got the best people in the team. And people ask me how did you find Sarah, how did you find Ross. I go how did you find UCLA. How did you find me. it's the same rules. Be that, that's one way of connecting with someone like that and now be there. You know I'm working with probably with someone that most people would kill to work with, but I'm not killing to work with him. He came to me and said I want you to help me be a better man. And I thought sure let's look at that. I don't have kids yet but I know what's it like to be a child and what I would expect from a father or mother. So there is that ability to relate no matter what the challenge is. That was one of my first rituals, you've got to be around the right people consistently and be very careful who you spend time with.

Shelley Rogers:                 Surround yourself with the right people and I found too that if I can really know my strengths and weaknesses and then find people that complement my weaknesses and we complement each other, it really helps as well to propel quicker and faster.

Tim Bishop:                        Absolutely. It's so true. I think that I think you hear things like go on, but you say, go on in and double down your strength and forget your weaknesses or something like that. I think you should always ... You can take that for granted, for what it is. I mean he's brilliant, brilliant at what he's doing. I'd also be very cautious because he's a unicorn. But he's worked very, very hard. When I say unicorn, I'm not saying he's lucky. I'm saying that he's a very unique man. When he says he doesn't read a lot, doesn't do those things, some people can take that too literally. I think that people need to understand that you need to know that you're not Lebron. You've got to put the work in. You can't just hope to read a book and hope that, that does the work for you. So that would come to my second thing, which is you've got to double down on your craft. So aim for mastery and mastery of self first.

                                                Mastery of self like always timeless things. You've just got to aim for mastering yourself, which is state management. Manage your thoughts, think, reflect, write, read healthy, look and care after your body. Go back to a little DA VINCI. Just the little things like that I think that people have missed. They're Looking for answers that are sitting right in front of them. I think one of the biggest challenges today is not a shortage of information but a shortage of wisdom. People understand how to regurgitate but they don't understand that quality experiences are just time in motion, but absorption of what really went on that moment. So you can connect with others. And I found that that was where I started to realize that when you really start to dig deep down into who you are and you start to realize who you always were. So the whole could be fine that we use, which is who could you become and who showed you how, is that the person that you want to become has been there and it's not some goofy mystical thing, it's just being there. It's just along the way. You just got in your own way, and you've let everyone else's ... not by choice, sometimes by choice, but sometimes by not, and you've let the outer world just impact the inner world.

                                                We do so much corporate stuff ... We're doing traditional consulting, corporate strategy, elite leadership performance, drive revenue, bottom line. All the stuff that's all mechanical. It's so easy to do. The thing is, it's getting people to do it. That's the trick in getting what you promised your client.

Shelley Rogers:                 Getting the results.

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah.

Shelley Rogers:                 And you touched on rituals and I see this in my clients as well, and I've been surrounding myself with other entrepreneurs for over 20 years and I keep hearing people say "oh! You know, a year ago I was doing this ritual where I was thinking great thoughts and I was journaling and I was reflecting. And that was the best year ever had. And why did I stop? Why did it get away from it? I got to go back and replicate what was working." So I can't stress enough how important rituals and staying healthy mindset positive thoughts is for success in business. And it isn't easy. I think a lot of people ... I'm going to start my own business because I want to travel, and I want to do this and then they're, "oh! Crap this is actually really hard."

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah it is. But I might add ... and I know I said that before as well, it's not hard in a don't do this. It's like, only do this if you really want to do this. If you want to be a ... Like honestly I'm only doing this show because I believe I can be one of the best in the world of it. Not arrogantly but very confidently because I go, "I'm not doing this to get a quick win. I'm doing this to live my entire life job doing it." So I'm not in any rush. I'm only 31 years old. And in those last three to four years, being able to do the time in the military, build a company, then linking with people like yourselves and still turn around and go, "it's not about me, it's about us. It's about a bigger purpose mission and vision. It's about helping other people play a bigger game, and the rituals is ... Oh God! You don't have ... My philosophy is, every day's worth fighting for.

                                                And I have three pillars that guide me. Which is mind, body and mission and not mind, body and spirit. Like it came to me like probably a young man I was 15. And I was listening to an SAS Captain, at the time it was British and he was a friend of ours, and he was actually the guy who caused me the most pain. And I think that's why people need to double down their pain. Use it to their leverage. He said to me, "you're too soft." I was really grossly over weight at a young age. And he said. "you're too soft. You know I'd break you in a heartbeat at your age. You should just stay at home, live with your parents ... And he was being quite adamant. That's what made it painful. It wasn't like tongue in cheek. And he had a really rich accent and I was that hurt. It's one thing looking up to a hero, but it's another thing having that same hero destroy you. And I thought, "he didn't destroy me. He just gave me my greatest gift." And I realized that I had a poor, I had a weak mind. I had a weak body, and I had no ... What a mission was. So what the heck could I ever be great? And so I just spent the rest of my years to that point, shaping myself to have a very clear strong mind, body and mission.

                                                And you have all three of those. And I'm not saying, "become a super athlete." If you're an athlete that's a caveat. You've got to have a strong mind and a strong body. If you don't, you're not a lead athlete. But to just be a high performing human being, which everyone has ... Everyone has that capacity. Everyone has that ability and they'll say not everyone has that. I'm like, they do! They're a human being. Human beings have the ability. But you can't say what someone hasn't got, until you've shown them how to exploit their barriers, their weaknesses. Because the body and the mind have the ability to heal, rejuvenate, regenerate, evolve. So you can't put limits on people because they'll do it themselves. And that's the best bit about being human. Is that you don't know your limit until you push it and it breaks and then you go to the next one. And that's what makes people great.

Shelley Rogers:                 Yeah. Everybody has the ability. I think a lot of times or I believe it's the determination to get there. And how bad you want it.

Tim Bishop:                        100 percent. I was going to say, I would love to reverse because it's really weird to have questions and not be able to ask questions back. I'm going to get you on our podcast for sure. I would love to turn around and ask you,"how did you do it?" Because I know you've got an incredible journey and still have many chapters to go. That's what makes it so exciting about doing this. I think that when ... If I can just use my personal vision and it's actually not my personality, it's my personal vision but it's the company's vision, which it is to play big. When you really aim for your highest good. Not your highest intention. I think because sometimes your intention never matches the projection of it. Aim for your highest good. What's your north star in life? And it doesn't comes straight away. You've got to figure that out. The universe has done its part. You're here. Okay? Now do yours. And I think it's really fair.

                                                And I'm not religious. But I'm not an atheist. So people are like, "what are you? On the fence?" I'm like, no I don't really play that game. I don't want to ... I'm all for whatever one wants to practice and believe, as long as it doesn't harm anyone. And if it helps people smile and laugh, you go do that. You play that instrument. You play that tune. And I play my tune and I'm a big science guy, but I'm also quite spiritual. So I think that the universe has done its part, you've got to go do yours. Show up, play your big game. And even if you don't know how, ask because someone will come. I think that was probably the biggest ... That's my main ritual. Lesson I learned, which is ... I know you asked me originally, but it's ... especially with men, don't let your testosterone get in the way. Don't be stubborn-

Shelley Rogers:                 Check their ego at the door. Yeah.

Tim Bishop:                        Take your damn ego and be okay that we're here for each other. And I think that I had met a lot of senior women ... but actually I will tell, I will say, my best mentors have been female. A lot of the men I look up to, two or three of them, I worked close in defense, who were my mentors. They were great from a military angle. Like the high precision thinking and action orientation and busting in doors and weapons and they were great at hunting crafts. And then I went to women to learn how to influence, communicate, do rapport, use all those ... I wanted to learn how to think logically. Become, how do I use the word seductive. And I found really good mentors that could teach me that.

                                                They were ... Shelly, one of my mentors was Alice Hemingway. You look her up, she's like five feet, beautiful woman. We still talk today. And is she was incredible. She sang ... "What? You went to a mentor for that? I'm like, "look, you try. If you don't try, you never know. You got to ... The discomfort you feel could be that avenue you needed to go down to figure out the rest of the algorithm that's missing in your life. It may not feel like it's the right thing at the time, but you don't know until you go there. We still talk today and she's incredible. She's world class. And my mom's right up there-

Shelley Rogers:                 Mentors are hugely important. I can't stress enough. And I've actually had another interview earlier today and I've shared that sometimes that you can have more than one mentor depending on what you're going through. You can choose-

Tim Bishop:                        Agreed.

Shelley Rogers:                 A different mentor to get you through to that next level. And speaking of the next level, do you have technology tips or tools that help you get to the next level? What do you find helpful in your business?

Tim Bishop:                        The first thing I can't stress enough, is use google calendar. Use something that manages and coordinates your time and cycles. First rule, where you put your time is what plant will grow like that's it. End of story. If you can't ... The first mistake I've ever made was like, "oh I don't need a diary. I don't need that." I used to think, "I'll just remember." It's the dumbest thing you can do. Your brain's a blender. You throw something in there, it's brrr, It's gone. I cannot stress enough that you have a diary, a hint. Like a ... When I say ... I know this is not technology but I'm like, "let's go primitive." Pen and pad must be with you at all times. And use google calendar. I use google calendar like religiously.

Shelley Rogers:                 Me, I'm a stickler for my time and my calendars as well. Once it's in there, like if there's work out or we have family things going on, they rarely get moved. We have them color coded too. What's definitely not movable. We have to share calendars for family. It's definitely is a tool that I use and I depend on for sure. Besides-

Tim Bishop:                        You're probably another tech. Oops. Sorry again-

Shelley Rogers:                 No, go ahead.

Tim Bishop:                        Now I'm going say, I know there's one but I had three in my mind. Kindle, if you like to read and study and follow, because It's got the ability to ... It's got audible, whisper sync and it's not an ad for it, but I'm a big promoter of anything that I know works and is good for you. Kindle books and kindle audio in that one feature, I mean you don't have any excuse. Obviously with YouTube and everything you've got and then ... You've just got to obtain people. You can't go past ... I think its called slack it's actually built ... Just an awesome communication platform.

Shelley Rogers:                 Funny you should say that because I'm wrapping up this year's podcast and I've looked at all the technology tools and slack was the number one most recommended for my guests. Yeah. So definitely-

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah. It's awesome.

Shelley Rogers:                 Yeah. Another thing besides Kindle, I use app called Blinkist and it just summarizes books for you and short little snippets or blinkists they call it and they also have an audio version too. Which is pretty cool.

Tim Bishop:                        I should use it.

Shelley Rogers:                 I want to hear your worst entrepreneurial moment. Can you just share that story and what lessons did you learn?

Tim Bishop:                        The worst entrepreneurial journey I made, straight up with I guess ... Not control ... Going off the initial feeling when you meet someone, as the feeling it will be later. So what I mean by that is, partnering with the wrong people

Shelley Rogers:                 So not trusting your instincts?

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah, Not trusting your instincts and I'm pretty ... I'm not really ropy guy so I would just keep giving. And that's probably it. People thought it's a really dangerous thing. Because you just trust people. I'm like, "No. In my old world you just had to do it to get things done." Because we had vision, guides, rules, mission ... Left and right. With these things in place to make sure that things didn't go wrong. So we always made sure that we did the right thing by trusting each other. So it really just came down to you honoring the men and women left and right of you. So there was just ... I can say that even in an entrepreneurial journey, as an individual as a sole pre neur or as a couple or whatever it is, make sure you pick your partnerships very, very carefully. I cannot stress that enough. I am very fortunate that I've been able to manage whatever challenges I came across. But the pain that I've seen it cause my family, the pain I've seen it cause a lot of our business clients. Before we even got to them, they came to us with a problem. It's really just unfortunate to see, look at all that time and energy that's now being lost because of a decision that wasn't made-

Shelley Rogers:                 So what would you have done differently?

Tim Bishop:                        What would I have done differently?

Shelley Rogers:                 I mean it's easy to look back and say oh! I should have-

Tim Bishop:                        I should have gone off ... I hate using the word instinct ... I would have said probably instinct, intuition but it would have been a mix of I should have challenged earlier. Much earlier instead of ... What I confused was the subtle small thing as just a small thing. When really, it was a mushroom cloud in a distance. That it was just travelling towards me, and I should have moved quickly, but I didn't, and it hit me really, really hard. So I was very ... When I say damaging, it's not damaging. I'm not going to go into the details, but it was very much "Wow! What a great lesson! What a great lesson!"

Shelley Rogers:                 So if you go into partnership next time what would you do differently?

Tim Bishop:                        What I would have done differently now this time, it's just made sure that I'm very clear so the team is vision advised. And when I say vision advised, it’s like a vision so big, you may not get it small enough that you can do it every day. And so I was completely game. Everyone does that. Yeah we're in Santa Monica. It's a bit of play, it's a bit of work, but when we're back in business same thing. So we're just doing what we do. Anywhere we go in the world but add values in our standards are here to ... just like your body automatically breathes, it's got to be done. And it's daily. Not just when you wants to. It's done most often when you don't want to do it. And that's what I would do differently. I think I just let it slip like I was like, "oh that's just who that person is." And I didn't push, when I really should have done it. So I would have gone back to vision-

Shelley Rogers:                 And I believed that core values. If you don't have a shared core values, whether your partners or even employees and staff, if you tie core values to your hiring process it gives the staff a purpose and a lot of times. People are at a job and they don't even know what the purpose of the business. They don't understand the core values. And so tying those two of rewards based system really helps the company just get that bond and grow, and achieve success. Get to the next level. There we go.

Tim Bishop:                        That's why we did. I mean that's not why we did it. I did it because everyone was like "go on." I just sat there and I was talking to a friend anyway, he said "yeah to the next level." Everyone's like go on everyone has one. Don't compare yourself to other ... Compare yourself to you. But a company or a business is just a collective of people. So that collective has a one. And that's why it's called business. And I like the way you said it. You're tying it together and that the company's purpose and individuals' purpose need to meet or you're going to have some seriously misalignment.

Shelley Rogers:                 Exactly. What inspires you right now, Tim?

Tim Bishop:                        First thing that came to my mind was life. Actually ... I think I might be careful. I don't want anyone to ... I'm not morbid. I'm actually a big, I meditate on death every day. So I'm a big ... I reflect on it's as a very humbling like here we like stoic kind of philosophy. I think it brings a lot of color to life so don't waste your time. People go "oh! That's a weird way of thinking." I'm like Everyone has their own style. I've just looked at who are high performing people and there is this common theme, which I picked up which is, in order to know when you're at your best you've got to know when you're at your worst. So I'm super inclined at life, because I know what it's like ... I could imagine what it's like when you may not be there. And I don't mean that as end of, full stop gone forever, I mean just a different energy, a different journey. So I find that what inspires me is the hidden potential and possibility within life, wrapped in business because for me business is about service. It's about bringing value to the world. And you've got to do it commercially and culturally. That inspires me every day.

Shelley Rogers:                 Well that is inspiring. And we do have a very short time on this earth and making the best of it and doing the best we can and learning or failing forward as we say is so important to just continue on to be a better person. I'm-

Tim Bishop:                        You inspire me. You inspire me about your podcast, people you've interviewed, I've listened to your story where you've come from, where you're going, I've met your partner. It's just people, people you know where this is going?

Shelley Rogers:                 Connections. I think it's about connections too.

Tim Bishop:                        Right. It's just that people are effing awesome. You know like I want to say that that is what people are. People are so awesome. That is to call it a connection that inspires me.

Shelley Rogers:                 So we're very nearing the end of our Inspiring greatness podcast interview with Tim but what are you going to be doing this time next year?

Tim Bishop:                        What I'm I going to be doing this time next year? I'm going to be doing what I'm already doing at scale again. So I will be traveling, I will be developing, I will spend the whole day at the moment in the apartment overlooking the base just smashing my keyboard writing and reading, formulating a strategy for two different clients one each. And that is it. I love it and I want to do the same thing at scale. So I really want to help my clients win and play a bigger game. The entire world is just one human being at the time on business. You've got to build an army. So I'm just going to keep doing it, keep recruiting, keep it building.

Shelley Rogers:                 Perfect. Do you have any parting recommendations or a quote that inspires you?

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah I do. My favorite quote of all time ... My recommendation for my favorite book actually was "As a man thinketh" that's my hands down favorite book of all time As a man thinketh by James Allen. I think I listen to that probably two or three times a week and my favorite quote is by Marcus Aurelius, which is death smiles at us all. All men can do is smile back.

Shelley Rogers:                 Death smiles at us all.

Tim Bishop:                        All men can do is smile back.

Shelley Rogers:                 I'm writing that down. Well we are going to have all that on our show notes page. This concludes our Inspiring greatness interview. What is the best way that people can reach you Tim?

Tim Bishop:                        Oh goodness. The best way is to reach out by just email. We've got our Facebook our podcasts. We head out to my individual page, which I've only just launched. I get a lot of guidance for my tin. I tend not to do a lot of social media stuff at the moment. I feel like I'm caught so much on my plate right now but at the same time I'm going okay I need to get into the social world a little bit more a little bit deeper. To push the message so the best way is just through Facebook, LinkedIn. I will provide these.

Shelley Rogers:                 So it's nextlevel@nxtlvl.com.au

Tim Bishop:                        Yes. Nextlevel.com.au

Shelley Rogers:                 Yes.

Tim Bishop:                        And bishop@nxtlvl.com.au

Shelley Rogers:                 Perfect.

Tim Bishop:                        That's the email, and I think that's where we'll lead. I'll read out with you because I know we had an idea we were going to share with them.

Shelley Rogers:                 Yes we are going co-coach offer some free coaching services for people that would like to solve that number one pressing issue in their business that they need to do to get to the next level. So we will provide links on our show notes page on how you can reach out to us and we will do a video zoom 30 minute free call for helping our clients get to the next level.

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah that will be awesome. And I think that's right. That was your idea, I love it. I think it's awesome just giving some value. I mean for those who want to do it. I mean this is your shot to just get a good 30 minutes in. But please honor it, which is I think the idea I was sharing with you, which is let's say that the caveat could be that if it's a problem that you're experiencing as a business leader regardless of your stage make sure it's linked to a measurable outcome that exists in your client's world. So if it's a problem you're having, how is it helping the client?

Shelley Rogers:                 Perfect I'm excited. I hope we see tons of people calling in for that. I can't wait.

Tim Bishop:                        Yeah, that will be good. Thank you for offering us your show it's really cool.

Shelley Rogers:                 Well thanks for being on inspiring greatness podcast.

Tim Bishop:                        Thank you so much for having me. I really, really appreciate you making the time. And I'm looking forward to having you on as I would. I'm looking forward to organizing that review because it would be so cool to have you. So thank you. Thank you again.

Shelley Rogers:                 Thank you for listening and spreading the word of inspiring greatness. We have some incredible guests coming up each week. Stay tuned for what's coming up by liking us on Facebook. Search under inspiring greatness podcast, or subscribing on our Web page at Inspiring-greatness.com.au. It's that time to commit to change, time to implement ideas. It's time to maximize every day and make decisions as if you only have a limited time to be great. Learn from the experiences our guests share. It's time to go out there and inspire greatness around you.