Intentional Success with Tom Stimson

Sometime in the 1980s, I did a small show in Destin, Florida. The beaches were empty, the restaurants were closed, and the audience was maybe 100 people. The keynote was NFL legend Nick Buoniconti, but he'd brought along a secondary speaker on his very first gig: Terry Bradshaw. Terry sat next to me at the console for 45 minutes, asked about every knob, and went up there and knocked it out. In thi...

This Monday Morning Drive is a love letter to freelancers. Some of you are good. Some of you are great. The gap between the two isn't technical expertise. The gap is self-awareness, and it appears in the details. Good freelancers get called once. Great freelancers get the next call. https://www.trstimson.com/good-vs-great-freelancers/

Strategy is engineering what you want to happen based on what you think will happen, and most businesses never get there. In this episode, I walk through a self-evaluation exercise to clear your head and four strategic questions that will move your business forward: adjacent products your customers need, untapped buyers for your current services, constrained capacity you can solve, and missing app...

This week's Monday Morning Drive covers the squeaky-wheel problem with rules, the vacation-in-May example, the truck-loading rule we all know, and why adult conversations beat black-and-white answers every time. https://www.trstimson.com/stop-writing-rules/

Your team would rather stay up all night flowing gear across the country than pick up the phone and order a screen. That's job cost mentality, and it's killing your profit. In this episode, I break down why outsourcing is the key to scalability, the three kinds of sub-rentals and why only one is a problem, and how to build a glue inventory that makes outsourcing easier. If you're avoiding outsourc...

Overstaffing is the quiet problem nobody wants to talk about. This week's Monday Morning Drive names the three lies, shows how to spot them in your own team, and gives you the self-talk that replaces them. https://www.trstimson.com/the-three-lies-keeping-you-overstaffed/

Cash flow is the number one conversation I have with clients, and the instinct is always the same: I need more revenue. But revenue is a band-aid. If your overhead is wrong or your cost of goods sold is out of control, more revenue just perpetuates the cycle. In this episode, I walk through how to diagnose your cash flow problem in the right order: overhead first, cost of goods sold second, revenu...

A reliable, flat revenue stream isn't normal for our industry. It never will be. So we chase windfalls: big, one-off jobs that look like manna from heaven on the P&L. Revenue, though, isn't the point. Profit is. https://www.trstimson.com/windfall-is-lying-about-your-size/

This week's Monday Morning Drive walks through the filter, the value proposition, and what to do with the price shopper who won't give up the line-item detail. Quality isn't flexible. Price is. https://www.trstimson.com/slow-down-when-the-phone-starts-ringing/

Operations says everything is hard. Sales says everything is easy. Neither is helpful, and both are at the root of why your teams can't communicate. In this episode, I break down how to fix the sales-to-operations gap by leading with show levels rather than gear lists, establishing a single source of truth in your system, and drawing clear lines between responsibility and accountability. Agree on...

This week's Monday Morning Drive is about the three inputs that separate owners who move forward from owners who stay stuck: data, facts, and decisions. The cheapest fix isn't the cheap hire. https://www.trstimson.com/manpower-wont-fix-a-brain-problem/

Your account executives are taking orders. Your sales director is managing accounts. And your $2 million company has a CEO. Titles matter to the outside world, but inside your organization, the roles are what count. In this episode, I break down every selling sphere role, from account executive to business development, and explain what each one actually does, when you need them, and why most compa...

When I started in this industry, I was a freelancer looking for gigs. I'd stop by rental offices, talk to the rental manager, and find out where their trucks were going. If I hung around long enough, an account executive would run in needing an operator at the Hyatt tomorrow. The rental manager would look at me and ask, "Are you available?" Off I'd go. That was the rental era. And too many AV comp...

The hardest word in business is no. So we say yes to everything and figure it out later. Thriving companies do the opposite. They start every opportunity as a no and find reasons to make it a yes. In this episode, I break down how successful companies apply no strategically to revenue, investments, and scope, and why three things have to be in sync before you say yes to anything: appropriate reven...

Growth doesn't have to mean piling on more business. It can mean improving the quality of the business you already have. This week's Monday Morning Drive explains how to cycle out non-ideal customers and replace them with better ones. https://www.trstimson.com/stop-retaining-bad-customers/

Your weekly production meeting is probably three hours of redundant updates, hijacked conversations, and circular debates that end without a decision. That's not planning. In this episode, I break down how to replace your bloated production meeting with a fast, focused planning meeting that covers three things: staffing, gear flow, and logistics. Only talk about what's changed. Distribute informat...

Recruiting is marketing. If top freelancers and strong hires aren't lining up at your door, the problem isn't them. It's what they see when they look at your company. The best hire you can make starts with firing somebody who doesn't fit. https://www.trstimson.com/why-nobody-wants-to-work-for-you/

When you don't ask enough questions, you don't exclude enough from your proposal. You include too much, overshoot the budget, and send a document full of guesses. Then the buyer tells you everything you got wrong. In this episode, I break down the four questions you need answered before you write any proposal, how to match your proposal format to the buyer's top priority, and why fewer questions a...

Walk out into your warehouse on the busiest day of the year. All the gear that earns money is out on shows. Take a look at what's left. Ideally, you'll find a warehouse that's neat as a pin, with everything in its place and deep storage organized and labeled. If the gear is out, your warehouse would look like a showplace. But you won't find that. Instead, you'll find a hot mess. https://www.trstim...

You're missing stuff on show pulls. Everybody's pointing fingers. And you keep telling yourself it's human error. It's not. It's a process error. In this episode, I break down how to fix your warehouse operations by slowing down show prep, adding a third checkpoint when gear goes on the truck, prioritizing check-in over check-out, and scheduling your day to avoid surprises. Every show prep can go...

You can't fix every problem in your business. And if you tried, you'd never have time to run it. Rough edges are fine. The question is where to put your energy. Scalability solves a different problem. It's the single practice that fixes more issues, faster, and more efficiently than any other approach I've taught. https://www.trstimson.com/scalability-fixes-more-than-you-think/

If you were starting a technical production company today, what would you do differently?  Whether you came up as a freelancer with gear or a technical producer who knows how to get shows done, most of us followed the same old playbook: buy more gear, hire more people, own everything.  In this episode, I break down what the new model looks like for both paths, why owning the glue items matters mor...

Years ago, I sat having drinks with an account executive after a big medical convention at the Anatole in Dallas. I had 40 or 50 crew members there from my staffing company, and we'd just finished settling the bill. I asked him about his pricing strategy. He pulled a pen from his pocket, held it up, and said, "This is what makes money." This week's Monday Morning Drive post covers five rules for c...

You keep saying you can't find great freelancers. But do great freelancers want to work for you? In this episode, I break down what separates good from great across all levels of shows, from meatball AV to mission-critical production. The difference isn't expertise. It's self-awareness, people skills, dress codes, wearing a lot of hats, and having a healthy relationship with money. If you're a fre...

Every November, I get the same call. A business owner stares at next year's calendar, sees nothing confirmed for January, and panics. The conversation is always short. Zero marketing. A website and nothing more. Every lead comes from word of mouth. And now they want a miracle in 90 days. Marketing can't deliver that miracle. But picking up the phone can. Call every buyer you've worked with. Ask if...