Serial entrepreneur Timothy Simpson shares how he used company vehicles as rewards in his cleaning business and built revenue through email lists. He emphasizes surrounding yourself with successful mentors, reading Think and Grow Rich, and going the extra mile as a differentiator.
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Thank you for listening to the Business Blast podcast. So for all my listeners out there that have been wanting to do your own podcast, I'd like to introduce to you Anchor. Anchor is a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, distributing, and monetizing your podcast. So before I found Anchor, I had never actually done a podcast because all the research that I had gathered made it seem very complex. Then I found Anchor, and Anchor makes podcasting extremely simple. So if you want to do your own podcast, go to anchor.fm/start. I can't wait to hear your podcast. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Timothy Simpson with us, aka Tim the Motivator. He is a serial entrepreneur who has owned and operated 12 businesses in 7 different industries and is now a business coach consultant. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks for having me, Tyler.
Of course. Grateful to have you on. Always good to have a fellow Gamecock on the show. So the first one we got for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Okay, now is most of your audience authors or just entrepreneurs in general?
Both. I mean, I'd say mostly entrepreneurs, but a lot of them are authors as well.
Okay, well, I'll give a blended story then, alright? Because I'm also a self-published author. Like, I have a children's self-help book on Amazon called No Training Wheels. Oh, yeah, and I self-published like several courses and workbooks and, you know, different basically tools to help other aspiring entrepreneurs or existing entrepreneurs. So the story or testimony I'll tell is kind of a reference to being the author and then my janitorial company. All right, so just say I have a course, a master course called My Janitor Drives a Benz. Alright, now I also have an ebook called My Janitor Drives a Benz: How to Start a Six-Figure Company, Cleaning Company. Alright, now what, how that transpired, and I was actually the janitor at 30, this was 2010, that was driving the Benz. So that's kind of where that came from. And basically, long story short, my commercial cleaning van, the motor, I had two blown motors in two different vans. And I had contracts at the time with restaurants, Bonefish Grill, Outback, and Carrabba's, actually here in Columbia off of Arbors and 294 Stroud. And so as a result of my vans going down, the motors blowing, I basically started driving my Mercedes to clean up. So I was the janitor driving the Benz. Now I used that in my master course to get basically my fellow cleaning business owners to think outside the box because generally you wouldn't think, okay, a janitor driving a Mercedes-Benz, but just say how I think, you know, very optimistic and out of the box. I think, hey, if you own the company, you can drive what you want. So just say I was also the janitor driving a brand new Dodge Challenger with a Hemi engine. I also was a janitor driving an H2 Hummer to do buffing, you know, because I always use my cleaning vans to basically pay for my toys, like the luxury cars. But at the same token, you know, if the vans went down, I still have to run my business. So whatever vehicle I have available, I'm gonna use that vehicle.
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
That's awesome, man. So next one I got for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Okay, now this, I just said I'm into digital marketing now. Everyone should understand that we're in a digital era, meaning some of the biggest companies in the world are web-based. You look at Amazon, Alibaba, Google, and Facebook, for instance. Alright, so being that we're in a digital era, just like you might hear, uh, uh, Tai Lopez or, um, Gary Vee say, you want to build an email list early and often. Now, the one thing I wish I had a mentor for, or somebody would say, hey, look, start building the email list, uh, I would have been further along. And an email list is really, really, really powerful. And I'll just give a brief example why. Well, how? So I just say you got 1,000 people in your email list, all right? You just published a book, whether you self-publish or go through someone else, all right? So you got 1,000 people in your email list, all right? You send out an email blast through an email subscriber or a landing page, all right? 500 people respond. Just say your book is priced at $19.99. Alright, you would basically make 500 times, we'll just say $20. So just say you could potentially make $10,000 in one email blast. So that's kind of the power of an email list.
Yeah, no, email lists are extremely important. And yes, Gary is one of my favorite people and Tai is amazing as well. So next one for you is, what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry specific?
Okay, overall I would say, uh, you basically wanna, you wanna listen to the podcast like this. You wanna basically listen to positive people because there's so many negative people, or I call them 9-to-5 thinkers, meaning they, they've given up on their dream or their aspirations or that business they want to start. So it's like that energy could be, uh, contagious. So you, like they say, your net worth determines your network. So if you surround yourself by winners, whether they're virtual people that you listen to and they pour into you, or physical mentors, you want to surround yourself by positive, optimistic people and get positive reinforcement in your life daily. And when I say daily, let's just say I've been listening to people like Les Brown, Eric Thomas, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy for years. And this would date back to my college years at Carolina. So like 2000, 1999 and 2000, I've been basically engaging in self-education and positive affirmations and just listening to positive speakers on podcasts.
Yes. And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Well, that's a good question. I would say don't fall for the distractions. Stay focused. Like, I think I heard a podcast on— it might have been Gary Vee. He's talking about focus. So just staying focused in general. Because I just say, for instance, we're related to college. In college, most females usually get their work done first and then party second, whereas guys We party first and then we try to get the work done. So I would tell my younger self to stay focused. I think I would be a lot further in life if I didn't get distracted. We'll say that.
And then kind of go a little bit down a different path. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I learned, just like probably most people that made a lot of money, I learned that material things is not the key. To happiness. Like Les Brown said, money is not that important, but it's right up there next to oxygen. However, self-love, I would say, is probably going to lead you closer to the notion of happiness. And it really, I would say happiness comes from a balance, a balance of doing what you like to do and being able to express yourself as a human.
And then excited for your answer on this next one. What is the best book that you've read and what's the number one thing you learned from that?
Oh wow, by far, by far, Think and Grow Rich. And I would say Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I highly endorse that, you know, and Rich Dad Poor Dad. But Think and Grow Rich, I would say it has the most elements to help you as far as in life and business and relationships. Now the biggest thing I pulled from it was, I would say, going the extra mile. And I would say when you're building a business or creating a life, going the extra mile will really separate the winners from the losers. All right, a winner would not give up because, you know, the income for that business is not manifesting yet. They would just basically keep going. They would, you know, provide great customer service. They would put in the, you know, the 10 to 20 hours a day that's needed to build some businesses. They would engage in self-education. They would go the extra mile with the clients they got, no matter how much the client is paying. So I would say going the extra mile would take you further in life in Think and Grow Rich.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote, and actually I just saw it on Facebook, Les Brown says, "The greatest form of revenge is massive success." The greatest form of revenge is massive success.
Yes, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you is where can our audience best find you online?
Okay, I'm usually on LinkedIn and it's under my government name Timothy Sampson. I'm on LinkedIn a lot. I share a lot of value on there. My website is timthemotivator.com, as spelled timthemotivator.com. And then on Facebook, you can basically put in Tim the Motivator. It'll either bring you to my personal or my business page.
