Tim McDonald, founder of Creatingiz and former HuffPost community director, says the best relationships come from connecting with people different from you. His advice: stay authentic, focus on being the best in your niche, and remember Lily Tomlin's line, "I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody."
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Tim McDonald with us. He's the founder of Creatingiz and former director of community at HuffPost. So welcome to the show, Tim.
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Really excited to blast a few of these questions with you really quick.
Of course, thanks for joining us and we'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Tim, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, you know, this one made me really think to one of my first jobs I ever had. And my manager at the time used to tell me, because our CEO's office was right at the corner of the building where the driveway from behind the building, which is where the employee parking lot was, overlooked. And so he saw everybody coming and going every day. And my manager always told me, he said, Tim, if you want to make an impact with the CEO, do not ever leave at 5 PM when everybody else is leaving, because he notices that. He goes, leave 5, 10 minutes later and you will stick out from the crowd. He goes, and if you need to be somewhere on time, just talk to me and leave early. He goes, because if the CEO ever comes and asks me— he won't probably ever do that, but if he does, you got my permission to do it because you needed to be somewhere, but you won't be like one of these ones running out as soon as the bell rings. And I think that underlying valuable message to me was that, you know, when we don't do what the masses do, that's our opportunity to stand out and be extraordinary.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, well, I am somebody who's made a living in the last several years. Really, when I look back on it, it's been probably since my school days of building communities. And obviously, when I was in high school and college, we didn't have internet, so it wasn't online communities, but it was communities. So, I've really been building communities. And communities I found some of the best relationships have come from when it's so easy for us to find people that are just like us, that have commonalities with us and connect with them. But really, the most valuable relationships I think I've found are when I find people with distinct differences from me, different cultures, different language, different ways of thinking, different political thoughts, different, you know, different ideologies, and really have had the opportunity to really dig deep and find out what we actually had in common. Because once we have that, we can start forming that relationship, and then our differences are what allow us to learn and grow from each other once we know that we have that relationship solidified based upon our commonalities.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Yeah, well, I think this is one thing, um, and I think this came from Greg Hartle. I don't know if you know him or have ever talked with him. If you haven't, I suggest you get him on one of these. But he made a comment to me that was, you know, why did— when I, when I brought up an idea of opening up a coffee shop and becoming the next Starbucks, his immediate question was, why do you want to become the next Starbucks? Why don't you just become the best coffee shop in your neighborhood. And that has left me with the impact of really starting to identify being the best doesn't mean that we always need to be the biggest. We don't need to be the one who scales to become the largest. We don't need to become the next XYZ, Google, Facebook, you know, Microsoft, whatever name you want to put in there. We just need to be the best that we can be at making a purposeful impact on not only our lives, but everybody that we come in contact with, with what we do.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Ah, yes. I think I was really good at being similar to how I am nowadays, but I missed about 30 years of my life not going by this advice. So, I'm glad you asked this question. It would be, "Tim, do not ever stop being yourself and following your own path." Because what I have learned is more and more people, and our society condition us to think that we need to think in a certain way and behave in a certain way. We see this from our parents as kids, and we see it in school. And I think the workplace is one of the worst. You have dress code, you have times you need to be there, you have certain equipment that you need to use, you can't have facial hair, you, you know, blah, blah, blah, the list goes on. And what I really think is that we really need to when we're young, not give up that ideology of who we are as our own person and our own path. We need to remember that for the rest of our lives. So, if I could go back and tell myself never to forget that, I would definitely do that. It would have saved me about 30 years of conforming to what society told me I should be.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
I talk about this quite a bit. I think when we stop beating ourselves up for not being happy all the time, When we learn that sadness, pain, fear, and other emotions are all part of living, then we can truly appreciate happiness as much as each of these other emotions and what they have to be able to teach us all.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Oh, there are so many books I've gotten some great takeaways from, but I think this one, because it's a little bit different and I'll explain why. Is Trusting the Currents by Linda Polio. And the reason why it stands out as being different is it's not a business book. It's not a bibliography of a successful person. It's a spiritual fiction book. But what it did was it really taught me how we can learn from listening to what's happening around us, both with people and in nature, that when we start to learn how to trust those things, and understand that they're all happening for a reason, that we finally can start to learn to trust ourselves.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
This one is something I've heard since I was a lot younger, but it's from Lily Tomlin, and it is, "I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody." And the reason why that's one of my favorite quotes is I got this on a thank you letter for attending a Work Revolution Summit in New York City. Several years ago, and I had it hanging up my desk, and I still got it up at my desk at home now in front of me down here in Tampa. And the one thing that it reminds me is every time I start thinking, I wish somebody would do something about this, I remember that I am somebody in this quote and start thinking, what can I do? What action can I take right now to do something about it?
I love that quote. Thanks so much, Tim. Uh, the last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Oh yeah, well, I always tell people they could just Google me, and when you find the results, I'm not the ex-NFL football player, or am I not a Nashville guitarist? Although I have met plenty of other Tim McDonalds, so I've actually had conversations with both of those people. But really, the best place to find me is you can find me on Twitter @TAMcDonald. It's not Tam McDonald, it's T-A McDonald, M-C-D-O-N-A-L-D. And really, on LinkedIn and Instagram, I'm Tim A. McDonald, so T-I-M-A. M-C-D-O-N-A-L-D. And on Facebook, you can just find me at Tim.McDonald on Facebook, and that's where you can really find me. But really, if you want to see what other people write about me, anything else, I always say just Google me, and as long as it's not the ex-NFL football player or the guitarist, because I do not know how to play guitar, you will know that you probably have the right person.
Awesome, man. Thank you so much again for coming on. We really appreciate it.
Hey, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.
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