Stories That Move

Tommy Martin | The Tebow Group

DreamOn Studios Season 1 Episode 5

Imagine stepping into the shoes of Tommy Martin, CEO of the Tebow Group, whose life's work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship and deep-seated faith. This episode unfolds Tommy's story of transformation, from a 'latchkey kid' with a penchant for creativity in the Great Lakes to a philanthropic leader. As he takes us through the adventurous leaps and stumbles of his business ventures, we uncover the layers of passion and perseverance that mark his journey. It’s a conversation that promises as much heart as it does insight into the grit behind success.

The conversation takes a turn towards the profound joy found in uniting one's values with their vocation, and the transformative moments that underscore the power of giving. We discuss the meticulous strategy behind ensuring every dollar donated reaches the most vulnerable and reflect on the fulfillment derived from serving others.

Join us for an episode that not only spotlights the journey of a fervent entrepreneur but also ignites the spirit of generosity in us all.

The Tebow Group
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tebowgroup/

Tommy Martin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-martin/

Speaker 1:

And so when I'm on the phone with John Carter and he's saying, yeah, you know, Tim Tebow is going to invest in your health care fund, For me, it was just this really cool moment Again. I had to play it cool on the phone but I got off and, you know, first thing I did called my wife. Like you're never going to believe this, it was a. It was a really fun moment for our family.

Speaker 2:

Hey everyone, welcome back to Stories that Move brought to you by Dream On Studios. I'm Matt Duhl, and joined always with me is Mason Geiger, and today we've got an amazing guest lined up for you Tommy Martin, the CEO of the Tebow Group. But what makes Tommy's story so captivating isn't just where he is now, but the journey he took to get there.

Speaker 3:

And those lessons were vital in preparing him for the monumental task of leading the Tebow Group Under Tommy's leadership. The Tebow Group leverages business for a profound purpose to support and amplify the missions close to Tim Tebow's heart, especially focusing on helping the most vulnerable people around the world.

Speaker 2:

So don't go anywhere. This conversation with Tommy Martin is more than just a story of business success. It's a profound look at how perseverance, faith and a commitment to serving others can lead to truly impactful leadership. Without further ado, here's our conversation with Tommy Martin. Further ado, here's our conversation with Tommy Martin. Welcome back to the Dream On Studios Stories that Move podcast. My name is Matt Duhl. I'm here with my good friend and co-host, mason Geiger. How's everybody doing today? Good, good, good. We have a special guest with us today, tommy Martin. Ceo of the Tebow Group. Tommy, thank you so much for being with us today.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for having me, fellas. I'm really excited to be with you, so appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

We learned that you were a little hoodwinked into coming into this thing, that you thought this was audio only, and here we are four cameras in your face going hot with the video.

Speaker 1:

Hey, it's great. It's my first video podcast, so those of you out there, I apologize. You're going to see quickly I don't have a face for video or a voice for radio.

Speaker 2:

So, apologies to everyone. Tommy told us he loves to be behind the scenes, which we can certainly relate to, so we're all stepping out of our comfort zone just a little bit to get to know you more today. So, man, let's just dive right in. We're going to get into your, your many of your ventures and the things that you've had going on in your life, which is just incredible, but kick us off. Tell us where you're from. What life started where, where did life start? What did it look like for you in the beginnings?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so grew up in big 10 country, so Michigan, ohio. My wife was from Indiana, so I've really just hung out in that Great Lakes corridor and absolutely love it. I mean, there's nothing like the Great Lakes. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome. As you kind of grew up in this area, I mean, what are some of those early memories, things that stood out, that were just foundational to you?

Speaker 1:

You know I was that quintessential latchkey kid and you know a lot of your listeners may not even know what that was, but you know that became famous back in the 80s, right, the latchkey kid it was. You had working parents and so you know they were working their butts off and so when I would get done with school or activities I'd kind of just walk home, let myself in. That was the whole latch key. I still don't even know what a latch is, you know, but I'd let myself in and really entertain myself. Make myself dinner a lot of nights, uh, entertain myself. I read like all the time. Uh, even started reading. So I remember as a fourth grader started reading my mom's college chemistry textbook and ended up making an explosive device in the backyard. As a fourth grader, very lucky to be here with you all.

Speaker 1:

We're very blessed to be here with you all, because it did end up going off and it took out a leaf pile. Like you would not believe, I learned my lesson. I stopped doing chemistry experiments after that moment.

Speaker 2:

Well, it sounds like you passed the final as a fourth grader, so you?

Speaker 1:

know for that, for that leaf pile. I absolutely nailed it. Wow, that's incredible.

Speaker 3:

So I mean with that, what were some of those like early in those moments, like the things that started to point to like your future and the things that really, like that, intrigued you I mean, obviously, chemistry and those pieces but what the kind of looking ahead that you started to see those foundational pieces like man, this is.

Speaker 1:

These are the things I really enjoy doing when you have that time to really kind of discover who you are when you have that time to really kind of discover who you are. Yeah, so I've. I've always been a creator, a builder. You know I'd I'd build elaborate GI Joe sets or, uh, just Lego myself all day long. Uh, always would just get like laser focused whatever I was doing. And you know my wife would tell you today, um, I don't do anything halfway. And you know my wife would tell you, today, I don't do anything halfway, it's all in. And sometimes you don't need to be all in.

Speaker 1:

And so one of my mentors said an unchecked strength is a double weakness. And that is certainly the story of my life, especially as it relates to kind of going all in and in whatever I do. But you know, looking back, I had a phenomenal childhood. I had an incredible kind of just middle class upbringing. My parents divorced when I was really young, but I had incredible love from both my father and my mother. She was a school teacher and so that, hence the latchkey aspect she was just working her butt off to try to provide and and, uh, make sure I had a better life. Um, you know, my dad was doing the best he could, given, uh, all of his circumstances, um, but as a result of that I could never articulate this as a as a kid, but where most of my friends were dreaming about like, oh, I'm going to grow up and be a professional athlete, or I'm going to grow up and be a fireman, or whatever my dream was. I'm going to grow up and have a tight family and it.

Speaker 1:

You know, it wasn't until much later in life that I could actually articulate that, but I always gravitated toward these friends that had this close family unit where you know, their um, mom and dad are both there and they're able to sit down and have family dinner together. Uh, just became something. I wanted to be around a lot, and so that was part of my driver. Again, never could have articulated that, even as a high school student or college student, but it was certainly a driver. So, between building things and then wanting to have this like incredible family, and again, my parents they loved me the best they possibly could. This is zero complaints, zero complaints. Um, given what a divorce leads to and causes, I had, like you know, one of the best outcomes you could ever have when divorce is in the mix. So I'm not complaining, but it certainly created a hole that I wanted to fill with my own family. And then the third piece that kind of comes together with building in this family is the summer before high school.

Speaker 1:

I really dedicated my life to serving Jesus and you know I don't have a better way to say it, I'm not trying to be over religious with it it was just what's my true north gonna be? What am I gonna do with my life? Who am I going to serve? And you know it's like do I serve myself, do I serve some other God or do I serve Jesus? And ultimately came to strongly believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and I'm, you know, unashamed to talk about it that way.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome, Incredible, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that. So for you, as you are kind of putting those pieces together, those you know, desires driven by family, driven by faith, and then you have, I mean, one of the most impressive runs of school that I've seen. Just looking at your LinkedIn profile, you've gone to more school than I can add up.

Speaker 1:

Man, I don't know if that's impressive though.

Speaker 2:

I mean.

Speaker 1:

Matt, I love you know y'all can go check out my LinkedIn and one of the things you'll see there is my undergrad was, I don't know, six or seven, eight years, and I used to always joke because you know the movie Tommy Boy, I mean he stole my name. I mean, let's start with that. I think he's older than me, but you know, chris Farley is like getting teased, you know, and and they say a lot of people go to school for seven years and like yeah they're called doctors, and so that was always me.

Speaker 1:

I, you know. Undergrad, uh, I started off at Taylor university. Um, loved it. I mean it's as far as what I would call my, like you know, alma mater, it would be Taylor. Even though I was only there my freshman year, just had such a great experience and it was actually where I met my wife. That's a fun story, maybe we come back to that. But I ended up finishing up my undergrad at Indiana University in Fort Wayne, because that's where my you know eventual wife was was attending, and I knew I wanted to marry her, so moved up to be closer to her, but I truly skipped more classes than I went to, so hence part of why it took so long.

Speaker 1:

Because I started building businesses and started my first companies as I was still in college and just really had this sense of. We'd sit in a marketing class and I couldn't have articulated it as this audience of one concept that we now talk about, like how do you have, how do you talk to one specific consumer at a time in the way that they need to hear it, and we're figuring out how to do that digitally. I couldn't have told you that back then. This concept of audience of one. But I was already starting to think about it and you know, seeing gosh, I can. If I have a potential customer I want to work with, I can Google, stock them and learn so much about them. And I remember going into class one day and I tell my marketing professor he's talking about marketing and I'm like, well, like how about we get to know our customers better? And he's like, well, what do you mean? Like how would you do that? And I pull out this dossier that I had done on him and I'm telling him about his property taxes. I'm telling him about jobs that nobody knew he had. I'm telling him about his family and where his kids are now living and working.

Speaker 3:

And it freaked him out but I was like this is an a oh yeah, he had me teach the rest of the class.

Speaker 1:

I mean, he was really cool, he's a great man, but had me teach the rest of the class that day, but it was just kind of that foresight of like, well, we can now know our customer in a whole different way than we've ever been able to and I got to be kind of at the forefront of that whole movement online. And you know, today that's just normally go on LinkedIn, you can find out about somebody's entire school history and think that you know. Wow, they've been doing a lot of colleges yes, too many to not be a doctor.

Speaker 2:

Well, you're being humble because you know I see you ended up at Harvard business school through a leadership program there. So you, you started off undergrad studying finances right and working through.

Speaker 1:

So actually to be fair for your audience, I am the proud graduate of a general studies degree from undergrad.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay, awesome. And then, when did the financial stuff kick in for you then?

Speaker 1:

So I ended up doing an internship with a guy that my wife's family knew well. I didn't know what he did, I just needed a job. You know, I wanted to marry this woman, and so I needed a job and started an internship. And you know, a few weeks later I figured out, oh, they do some kind of financial stuff. And I actually fell in love with it. It was you know what what a financial advisor, what, what the good ones are able to do is really help people change their lives in a way that matters. And I fell in love with that. You know, it wasn't so much like this specific, this investment or that investment. It was more the idea sit down and learn what someone's dreams are and help them go achieve it. Yeah, sounds a little bit like what Dream On Studios is kind of all about.

Speaker 3:

But that's.

Speaker 1:

That's where it started for me on the financial side was really just helping people achieve their dreams and I fell in love with that and then decided to go really deep on the education side. So, you know, parlayed the whole general studies into a really robust financial academic background. But the love for the work came first and I think that's very different than what I see with so many students today is they're almost pushed to decide what their major is when they're 18 years old and some people know, and awesome, if you know, that that's great. I started out as a triple major in bible, youth ministry and music and I found out I am terrible at all three of those, so I would love to be great at my bible someday right right.

Speaker 1:

But, um, you know, I had to go through a lot and then graduating as a general studies major and still somehow ending up in Harvard business school. Um, you know that it's just testament to I'm glad I experimented, I'm glad I tried a lot of things out to figure out what actually stuck and and it it really wasn't my first business that took off, or my second or my third. Those were very different types of businesses.

Speaker 1:

It was my fourth company that actually took off. And so, um you know, had I not experimented, had I not just kept kind of trying to build new things, it never would have hit that point where the fourth company skyrockets and my life is very different today as a result.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, that's awesome and I I I recently saw on one of your LinkedIn posts you talk about those three failures of you. Know the company and I love the, the ice cream company and the, the, the yellow snow, the Mountain Dew, slushy. Oh, you had to bring up the yellow snow.

Speaker 1:

Matt. So yes, we had an ice cream store and our most popular item with middle school boys was a product we called yellow snow. It was a Mountain Dew and and a ice slushy type thing. I think there was some ice cream in there, but we called it yellow snow. It was a huge hit with the middle school boys.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Not with anyone else.

Speaker 1:

And that ice cream store lasted for one summer, so boys couldn't support. No, it was not the right demographic to build a business.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. So you develop those three businesses while you're while you're in school. Um, I mean, I just just take us through. I mean I'm sure we probably spend the rest of our time just talking about this.

Speaker 1:

But what are some of my failures? Yeah, but we know, we learn in our failures right. Like.

Speaker 2:

those are those growth points, those are those things that we look back on in hindsight and that was the Instagram post I saw was you. 22 years later, you started to see some of the why of what was happening. So what are some of those learnings that you had along the way that really shaped who you are today?

Speaker 1:

Wow had to go deep, matt. So you know, one of the things that I think is a challenge in life is we don't always know why the difficult circumstances are happening. We don't always know what God's shaping us for and we don't always get resolution for that. But I do believe that he has an incredible plan and purpose and calling for our lives and I got the incredible gift out of God's kindness. I actually got to see what those failures meant.

Speaker 1:

It was 20 some years later, might have been 25 years later, but I actually got to see what he was preparing me for back in those moments that they felt like total failure and, just to roll through it quickly, I had tried different businesses. It was in this era where this, you know, this brand new concept of rich dad, poor dad, had come out and taken the world by storm. This idea of you need to build up passive income so that you can just sit there on the beach and bask in money coming into your bank account every month when you're not there and you know it parlayed into the four hour work week. Uh, from Tim Ferriss this was part of it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But, um, so you know I was just trying different things, trying different businesses, trying to build and I love it my first company that I built we ended up getting three customers, so it was fantastic and you know, I actually had a pretty good product. What I didn't know was anything about how to market. And if I had that same company today, oh my gosh, it would just go crush it. I'm confident because we'd put some digital behind it and you know, we'd engage with Dream On Studios and that thing would like go to the moon, absolutely, yeah so, but I learned kind of how to build a system.

Speaker 1:

And so, you know, if we think about business, I like to break it down to kind of four main components. We've got our people, we've got our process, we've got our customer, which really gets into our service, and then we've got our results. And so, if I look back at any of those businesses, there was a gaping hole somewhere there. Those businesses, there was a gaping hole somewhere there and, uh, I just hadn't, you know, I just didn't have the experience yet to know how to, uh, how to navigate those things. One of them I just started with a terrible business plan and I was like, oh that, you know, in hindsight, that just was a terrible idea. So, um, went through a pretty dark period. Coming out of the other side of that, though, felt very much like a failure, felt a lot of shame from like I, I can't even take care of my family, the way that I want to.

Speaker 1:

Um, and it became a catalyst and, uh, ultimately kind of prepared me for business number four. And business number four was a financial service firm. We specialized in serving some of the leading doctors around the country and just built incredible relationships, and I'm so grateful. Before he got into politics, ben Carson was really recognized as one of the top neurosurgeons in the world Right, um, just the leading voice in medicine. And what I liked was I just trusted him as a man of character and a man of faith. And so, after I'd written a financial book for doctors, I was sitting there thinking like gosh, if I could have anyone in the world endorse this book, who would it be? And it was an easy answer for me it was Ben Carson. Here's a guy that he's so well-respected in medicine. Um, he shares this faith worldview and, uh, and he was so gracious, he endorsed my book, didn't ask for royalty, didn't ask for any of the things that he could have, he was just gracious enough to endorse it, and that really put our company on the map.

Speaker 1:

We ended up blowing up nationwide. Um, and we were right at another pivotal moment. It was as we were launching. It was 2007, 2008,. And the financial markets were just plummeting. This was back from the you know massive market meltdown with mortgages and all those things and uh, but we were starting from scratch. So we like had nothing to lose. And the rest of the industry is like burying their heads in the sand because they don't want to talk to anyone, because, you know, their accounts just went from a million dollars down to six hundred thousand dollars and so they don't want to call anyone.

Speaker 1:

Well, we had nothing to lose and we had everything to gain. So we were calling everybody. And on top of that it was we were one of the first businesses that I'm aware of to really embrace video conferencing. So this is back, I mean really in this period, 2007, eight, nine, early, when most financial firms weren't even allowed to do video conferencing, and we came in as an independent firm and we said, yeah, we have no problem, you want to meet with clients through video conference? No problem. So we rolled it out nationwide very quickly and that's what allowed us to expand so aggressively. It was just the at the time, it was a completely unfair advantage. So I mean, if you think about it, go all the way up to COVID happening. I'd already been running businesses that were video conference based for 15 years.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 1:

So we were able to roll out video conferencing very quickly when COVID hit and kind of hit the ground running without missing a beat in all of our companies you know to. To go back to what you had asked, matt, about the lessons I'd learned from those those early companies, there was a piece of me that for a couple of decades, still felt some, some failure, some shame, you know all these things, cause I put my family through a lot. I mean, we took on $250,000 of personal debt along the way just to survive in business, and it was brutal. It was brutal, you know. Again, I ended up going through some pretty intense depression and I'm, you know, I'm so thankful by God's grace, you know, he brought me out of that, you know. So it really wasn't.

Speaker 1:

For years later I finally, just in the last eight months, had an opportunity to experience a week at work where I needed lessons that came from all three of those original business failures and I needed them in one week, wow, and so that was finally like, uh, you know, a little bit of a healing moment for me to be like, okay, you know, get over it, you needed that, yeah, you needed that, and had I not gone through that failure quote failure you know that really turned into just lessons that were going to prepare me for something I would need 25 years later in one week.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

It felt like some closure and that's why I say I really attribute it to the kindness of God. A lot of people don't get to feel that closure necessarily on some of their biggest challenges or where they felt failure. I, through God's kindness, actually got to experience closure in that and it was pretty cool.

Speaker 3:

It's amazing.

Speaker 2:

It's awesome.

Speaker 3:

I love that. So through that you're talking a little about family and then going through that journey with you. Let's rewind back. So, Taylor, freshman year, there you meet your now wife.

Speaker 1:

Talk us through.

Speaker 3:

I hear there's like a $5 bill involved in this.

Speaker 1:

Oh, there is man you did your homework, mason, so, yeah. So, going back, it's my freshman year at Taylor University and again, I love Taylor. Out of all the schools you find on LinkedIn, that would most be my alma mater, and I've gone on to do some really fun stuff working with their Shark Tank program, you know, just getting the future generation of entrepreneurs excited about how business can actually be an incredible force for good. Yeah, so really excited about that. But it's my freshman year. I don't even know I'm interested in business yet I'm still a triple music Bible and youth ministry major.

Speaker 1:

And we had this thing called Spiritual Emphasis Week, and in Spiritual Emphasis Week you had to go to chapel every day that week and for freshmen they took attendance and it was the same speaker every day of that week and for me I thought that was cruel and unusual punishment, like what. But I got there the first day and the speaker was actually really, really good. He was incredible, and so I was like, okay, this isn't so bad, I'll be back tomorrow. And it came back Tuesday, wednesday. Well, that speaker made a big mistake Friday that week. He brought his daughter with him, and the way I like to tell this story is I took one look at her and was out of the game.

Speaker 3:

And I was 17 years old.

Speaker 1:

I was 17 years old at the time. Take one, look at her, I'm out of the game. She would tell you there's a little bit more, that there's about a two month period where we ended up hanging out one night and you know she liked me first and all this stuff. But here's the reality. If if y'all saw her, I am. What happens when a four marries a 10? And becomes a seven as a result.

Speaker 1:

So, like, that is the truth, um, and so, yeah, we hit it off and then, you know, is that was the moment again, I couldn't have articulated it yet, mason, but at that moment, um, I realized, like man, her family was so cool, they were so tight, they would get together every week, you know, they would have, uh, they were just all like best friends of each other. And I'm like I went on the team and just loved it. I felt as much in love with her family as I fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. You know, and now I'm 18 years old and all I can think about is man, how do I get myself in a position where I can marry this woman? And you know it's fun. People often ask me. You know, her father was the pastor of the largest church in Fort Wayne, and so people would often ask me locally gosh, what was it like to ask the pastor if he could marry his daughter? Well, the third time went really well.

Speaker 2:

So you know, the first time I did get some practice the first time I was barely 18 years old.

Speaker 1:

By like maybe a couple months, I show up an hourly at this poor man's house, and it wasn't so much. Can I marry your daughter? It was hey, I want to marry your daughter someday. What do I need to do to get myself in that position? And he was so gracious, so gracious. He said you know, tommy, when you take your vows, there's two things that you commit to on your wedding day One is to provide and the other is to protect. And so that's what we would expect of you. And so you know, if you have a plan for those things, that's what we're looking for. And then you know. Again, he's incredibly gracious, but he's like you know, when it comes to things like providing, like just making sure you can support your family, and you know, maybe, things like health insurance. And I kid you not guys, I looked at him. I was like what's that? I had no clue what health insurance was. I was a freshman in college. I think I'd gone to the health clinic once. So this incredibly gracious man has become my most important mentor in life. Just an incredible influence for me. Important mentor in life? Yeah, just an incredible influence for me, um, but uh, that was definitely my driver.

Speaker 1:

And so as I got into working, I remember, you know, I was working two full-time jobs at the same time At one point. One of those was in the men's clothing department at a big department store, and at lunch I would go. They had a vending machine and in this vending machine they had peanut M&Ms. Well, at the time peanut M&Ms was doing this million dollar giveaway sweepstakes. So I kid you, not every single day at lunch I would go buy a pack of peanut M&Ms and I would just open that thing up and my heart would just sink Like actually actual disappointment. It's a little bit ridiculous when I hear myself say it, but actual disappointment. I didn't win the million dollars from the M&Ms because I thought that's how I'm going to go marry this woman and instead it's like, no, you're going to actually go work your tail off and, you know, go build a life together. And you know I wasn't ready for that million dollars, had it even happened. Um, but that's how I thought I was going to get there and then just continue to work hard, continue to build businesses, and uh was able to get married. I was 20, she was 21. And one of the things that had brought us together was not just our, our love for the extended family, but we had also both felt very called. Even when we were dating, we talked about it. We'd both felt called to adopt internationally, and so it was such an easy thing that brought us together, and so we ended up going down that path pretty young. We got married I was 20, she was 21. And then began the adoption process when I was 23,. She was 24. Ended up adopting a little girl from a country, moldova, which is right next to Ukraine. So a lot of people have heard about Moldova now because they've taken so many Ukrainian refugees. Um, but I always, I always like to tell the story.

Speaker 1:

We we had to fill out this form that I don't I don't really have a better term for it, so I just call it the plain God form, because what it asks you is would you accept a child that has one leg? And we were like, well, yeah, would you accept a child who's blind? Yes, would you accept a child with a cleft palate? Yes, anything. That was a physical issue. We were like, yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Then they ask would you accept a child that has mental challenges? Then they ask would you accept a child that has mental challenges? And we said no, because we just didn't feel equipped to handle that. You know, at the time we were going to bring a child home, we knew we'd be like 25. And we're like no way, we are not equipped to handle this.

Speaker 1:

And I always like to say God was just laughing like no, you're not yet, but I'm going to get you there, because we adopted a little girl not knowing that she had severe special needs, and so she just turned 21 years old yesterday, but she will always be my little five-year-old mentally, so that you know she's kind of capped at about a five-year-old cognitive level and we had said, no, way, we're not equipped for that. And you know, god said well, you're not, but I'm going to get you there. And so it's been incredible. And then, of course, as things would happen, the day we adopted her we found out my wife was pregnant and so, and then she got pregnant again pretty quickly thereafter, so we ended up with three kids in diapers all at the same time.

Speaker 2:

I don't remember my life at that stage, craziest 20 year old life of anyone I've ever.

Speaker 1:

It was wild it was, I mean here we are in school failed businesses all happening at the same time as we're figuring out.

Speaker 1:

We didn't even know our daughter had special needs for almost a year after bringing her home. We just thought she was delayed from the orphanage and so, yeah, we're going through. Failed business, failed business, failed business. Here's three children in diapers and yeah, it was. It was a lot. And so one of the things that I talk about on LinkedIn is marriage, and I think so often people go into it thinking that it's always supposed to be easy and great, and yet one of the things I've never been afraid to do is sit down with people who have gone before me and have already had experience. I love inviting people to lunch that I have no business inviting, and at some point I'll tell you there's only been one person who's ever turned me down for lunch.

Speaker 1:

So I encourage your listeners like get out there because the more successful someone is, the more scared people are to invite them to lunch. So when you stand out as a college student knocking on that door, a lot of times they end up saying yes, and again, there's only been one person ever that turned me down for lunch. So one of the things I did was just sat down with couples that I saw in the community or in church or wherever, and if they were in their later stage of life, but they had an incredible marriage, I wanted to understand how did that happen, and so I took them to lunch and I would just ask them like you have a marriage that I'm just incredibly impressed by Like, how did you get here?

Speaker 1:

And there was one universal answer, and only one. They weathered tough times and it was so good for me to hear that, because it really released me from feeling this pressure of, oh, my marriage is supposed to be perfect every day.

Speaker 1:

No, every great marriage I sat down with had weathered some extremely difficult times. Some of them had weathered affairs, some of them had weathered financial disaster or bankruptcy, but they all had that common thread and it took that pressure off of me and really allowed me to to look at my marriage in a whole new way, to say, okay, don't expect it's going to be perfect every day and, um, you know, we've gone through weathering those really difficult times, finding out we have a special needs child which can be a kiss of death for a lot of families, death for a lot of families. Um, going through the failure of not just one business but three, being having a mountain of debt piling on, going through pretty intense depression on my end and ultimately being able to come out of it on the other side stronger, and I'm so grateful. Today we have a marriage I never could have dreamed of back in my 20s, but it's because we worked at it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's beautiful, that's awesome.

Speaker 3:

Yes, how so in all man, that's like processing through all, like that was just so good and so beautiful, like I love um, yeah, yeah, it's in those moments and like the, the heartache and the trials, like that's where you really like that's what life's about it's those like the lows that make you like those highs feel the high um, how, and through those like the personal struggles that you had and the learnings that you took from that, then going into business and you're having these failed business, like how, that life experience, like how does that correlate, like for you and just how you approach things different, because you just have such a different perspective because of those learnings that you've had along the way yeah, I think one of the things I always try to tell people is um, don't quit.

Speaker 1:

You know it sounds so cliche, we hear it all the time, you know, but it's like if I had quit after my third failed business, if I had quit when marriage was difficult because we find out our child has special needs. You know, I could kind of go on and, on the largest business account I ever landed, ever in the history of my career, took 18 phone calls. 18 calls. And I try to tell this new generation that's out trying to learn sales and marketing and all these things like what if I quit at call 17?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

We ended up not landing the largest business account that I've ever landed, and so, um, it's kind of just that grit and determination, like I'm going to keep going, I'm going to find a way, I'm going to make a path. And another one of my incredible mentors this is a, this is a local family that's just been incredibly successful but used it for so much good in our communities in northeastern Indiana and northwest Ohio sitting down with this mentor over lunch and that's going to be a consistent theme, like most of the lessons I've learned. It was with a mentor over lunch, but one of the things he shared with me it was a concept that I just can't shake, and he said this piece. He said well, tommy, if everything goes really well, the times you've had incredible success or disastrous kind of lows, like who gets the credit for the results? And coming from this Christian worldview, it's pretty easy for me to answer that Like it's God's the hills and the valleys, like God gets the credit for the results.

Speaker 1:

And then he asked me something that was new. He's like Tommy, who gets the credit for the ideas? Cause I always kind of thought, well, those are mine. Like man, that's my part, you know, I I'm a builder, I'm coming up with this crazy stuff in my head. And I just sat there, I thought about it for a minute and I was like man, that's God's too. And so he let me sit in that for probably a minute, you know. And then he said so what's your part, what's our part? And I sat in that for another minute and I was like to show up and do the work we're called to do. And he was like that's it, that's our part. From this Christian worldview, our part is to show up and do the work that we're called to do, and God gets the credit for the results and for the ideas.

Speaker 1:

Our job is to show up and do the work and, um, that was part of what helped kind of release me from those failures. Also, like man, you know, my job was to show up and do the work. And so the times that I'm proud of her, when I showed up and faithfully did the work, regardless of the outcome, um, and the times I'm not proud of, maybe I had a huge success in business, but I know deep down I wasn't showing up and faithfully doing the work I was called to do, day in and day out.

Speaker 1:

Maybe I dodged that difficult conversation because, I didn't want to hurt somebody's feelings, or on and on. There are a lot of times where I actually had an incredible outcome but I wasn't showing up to do success that. That was actually less successful than some of those quote failures where I did show up faithfully.

Speaker 3:

Wow, wow, okay, so how? How do you process through like some of those like the end of a day to be able to look back and be like today, like I can chalk that up to a success?

Speaker 1:

Wow, you know, I think it's the perspective of showing up and doing the work in that day. And what does that look like for me? I'm a huge believer in a solid morning routine, just a huge believer in that, because that's a way to really establish your own set of priorities. And, whether you come from a faith perspective or not, that's a time you can set your own priorities. Now, those of you that come from a faith-based perspective, maybe you're doing that in combination with your time with the Lord, your devotions or whatever that may be that you're doing. But you're setting your day because the rest of the world wants to set your day for you.

Speaker 1:

And I try to tell all of our younger employees, or any chance I can turn off the dings on your computer, on your phone, like the only thing those dings are designed to do is to interrupt the flow of what's most important right now. That is the only purpose, for those dings is to be a distraction. By definition, the ding is a distraction. Why do we let this drive our lives? I'm not saying you shouldn't check in on what's happening, you know. Does your boss need you to be responsive about something? But I think everybody's more productive if they don't let their dings drive their day and so, um, turning off those things and working that plan.

Speaker 1:

And so one of the things I try to coach all of our people is set the first part of your day aside and figure out what are your top three priorities for that day and try as best as you can to get those done by 10 am, in whatever time zone you live in, because the rest of the day people are going to be interrupting you and they're going to try before that.

Speaker 1:

If the worst thing you can do is walk into the office and check your email first thing, what a beautiful way to take what's most important and get completely distracted from it. Like, don't do that. But if we get those top three things done by 10 o'clock, then we do open ourselves up some margin in our day to help others around us that need our help, and that I'm not trying to say that's a bad thing. I want to be available to support people and help them. Great, after 10 AM, cause I got to get some stuff done that nobody else is going to care about the way that I do because, by definition, that's my most important responsibility.

Speaker 2:

Well, and even in that I would imagine it's you're being present in your responsibilities. That then allows you to be present later in those moments where people need you.

Speaker 1:

That's the hope yeah that's the hope, and so that morning routine for me is what kicks it off. And when I nail it, man, I get so much done. When I don't nail it, my day's like getting blown about by the wind. There's a there's a book called Ecclesiastes. It talks about this idea of getting blown about by the wind, and I really believe that is what happens to most employees today and most families. They just get blown about by the wind.

Speaker 1:

It's one activity to another, with their kids, in travel, sports or in people's jobs. It's just one ding to the next, and so most people never step back. They need that time to work on it, and most people just never take that time to work on their life, to work on their business or their job or their role, to figure out how do I make this better. And that morning routine for me is my chance to do that uninterrupted. I can work on my health, I can work on my relationship with the Lord, I can work on my priorities for the day. Those are all really powerful things and I attribute so much of the position I'm in today is because I've created kind of that disciplined regimen to at least take some time in the morning and own it for myself, so that I can be better for others the way you said, matt but so that I can also focus on the priorities that need to happen today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's rich, so good, so many good things. Focus, being present, what it means to um, yeah, just prioritize things. At the end of the day don't quit, yeah, Don't quit Gosh, no kidding.

Speaker 3:

So, coming out of that, you've had a lot of failures but you've also had, through that and the learnings, that you've had, a lot of successes. Can you walk us through kind of that journey of the successes that you've experienced in business and life?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely so, mason. I love to tell people very honestly I became an overnight success after a decade of grinding it was a little more than a decade, in fact. So you know I talked about the three companies that had not done very well and going $250,000 in personal debt just to survive in the business world. Well, the fourth company I had some incredible partners. It took off, took off like a rocket ship. Again, I am so grateful for Dr Ben Carson endorsing my book. That really helped put us on the map. And that company took off, endorsing my book. That really helped put us on the map. And that company took off Fast forward.

Speaker 1:

There came a point where I knew it was time for me to exit that business. And so I was in my mid to late thirties and was able to step away from that company and had a pretty incredible what is known in the business world as exit. It just means it's a day when you got bought out of your business and then you have to figure out what do you do with the rest of your life. And so, uh, got bought out of my portion of the company. Um, sat down with my wife because I retired for two days and by the end of the second day, I was going crazy. By the end of the first day I was going crazy. By the end of the first day she was going crazy and so sat down with her and she asked me one of the most insightful questions she could ever ask, which was what would work have to look like for you to want to keep doing it till you're 80. And you know, I kind of wrestled through that for a few days and came back and my answers were actually pretty nominal. As a number one, I don't want to wear a tie anymore. That was my number one answer, and I rarely put on a tie now Rarely. Number two answer was I want to work with people that really want help. So I, you know, at the time I was still in financial services I had a lot of clients that just really didn't value the help and support so, graciously, was able to uh, step away from those relationships and focus on the people that really wanted help the most. And then, um, then it was about that time that some great business partners came and said hey, we want to build a financial firm and we'd love your help to do it. And the company is called Vestia. So V as in victory and they have built an incredible financial firm. So I got to be along for the ride to help found and grow that company. They manage over $600 million today Just a phenomenal business. And the team there is one of the teams I trust the most to just care about people enough to do what's right and best for them, care about people enough to do what's right and best for them, even if it doesn't mean that you get to manage an extra dollar or you get to do some kind of product. So it's a really cool business. It's just building on what I fell in love with back in the early days of my financial career of helping people achieve their dreams. So the team at Vestia is doing phenomenal work. Um, I still get to be on the board and participate, so I get to still be part of that company uh, even though I'm not involved in the day to day.

Speaker 1:

And then that led to uh, as you recall, we'd built prior firms specializing in serving doctors financial needs.

Speaker 1:

Well, that led to being able to create a healthcare venture capital fund.

Speaker 1:

So Mammoth Scientific is a healthcare-focused venture capital fund and it was really built with this idea of having the actual people in the operating room help drive the decision-making of what types of investments we're going to go into actually going to benefit the end patient in a profound way and be embraced by the broader medical community of doctors and technicians and physicians assistants in a profound way.

Speaker 1:

And so mammoth scientific was really started on this premise of let's come alongside a healthcare business at the point when they're almost about to hit their most significant milestone as a company, and a milestone is just like something that's going to help propel them to success. So let's come in right before they hit that most significant milestone and let's bring in money at that time. I think of business is, um, the idea is kind of the fire, but then you need oxygen for the fire. The capital, the financial capital or investment, is the oxygen for the fire of a great idea. So let's come in, let's bring this capital or oxygen at the time the business is about to hit their most important milestone. And that's how we built the track record at Mammoth Scientific. And we're working with four incredible companies. I'm so proud to be involved with each and every one of them. They're doing life changing medical work.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 1:

So you know, I took some time to help build that up and along the way, what we realized was for a lot of private investments, people are familiar with the public market where you you know you buy a trade through their Fidelity or Schwab account. The private market is where you're buying into a private fund. You can't go do it on Fidelity or Schwab. Typically it's a private investment. Well, there's a lot of private investments being created, the families of really substantial means. You know people that have built companies and sold them for a billion dollars or more. They've moved where nearly half of their money is now in the private market and the other half may be in the public market.

Speaker 1:

So what we recognized is there's not a great mechanism for a lot of these private funds to be able to interface back with. I'll call it kind of the everyday worker. And so we said we want to put some technology behind this where the rest of the world can access some of these private investments that you wouldn't have to be a billionaire to go access good private investments. So we built some technology around that and that's what mammoth technology does today is really helps connect up financial firms with these private investment vehicles so that the financial firms can use those investment options for their clients, and so it's been really cool to help be, uh, at the forefront of some of that work, and there's an incredible team there at mammoth technology that's helping put that together.

Speaker 1:

Um, and but along the way through that, um, as we were building this healthcare fund, through a series of just fun events, um, one day I'm on the other side of a phone call and talking with this incredible man named John Carter, and John is saying, hey, we want to invest in your health care fund. And I was like OK, that sounds cool. And he's like you don't know who I am, do you?

Speaker 3:

I'm like no, not really he's like.

Speaker 1:

Well, when I say we want to invest in your health care fund, mean Tim Tebow. Wow, and I was like no way, you know, and I had to play it cool, like okay, yeah, but I had to act like it was no big deal also.

Speaker 1:

You know I didn't want to be a big fan boy, uh, although our family has always had incredible respect for Tim. In fact, after we sold our business, we had decided we didn't need our own family foundation because we loved the work that the Tebow Foundation was doing so much. You know the impact they were making for what Tim calls the real MVP, or the most vulnerable people. You know, not the most valuable player, but the most vulnerable people, the way that they were serving the real MVP. Over a decade ago, our family had already said we're all in, we love that.

Speaker 1:

And it was the same year I remember this is the same year Warren Buffett decided he didn't need his own family foundation because he loved the work that Bill Gates was doing. And so I kind of looked at that and said, well, if the second richest man in the entire world doesn't need his own family foundation, it can't be the dumbest idea I've ever had to not need our own family foundation. And one of the things we looked at was Tim's desire was that he would be able to fully fund the administrative cost of the Tebow foundation. So when an outside partner like me wanted to contribute money to the mission, that my dollars would go 100% directly to the mission to support the most vulnerable people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I mean, what an incredible case of stewardship. So for me it was kind of like why start our own thing when we'll have to start all over with new administrative costs when the Tiwa Foundation's already doing such incredible work and they're already covering that overhead cost? So it was a very easy decision we'd already made as a family that we were already all in, loved what they were doing. And so when I'm on the phone with John Carter and he's saying, yeah, you know, tim Tebow is going to invest in your healthcare fund, for me it was just this really cool moment Again. I had to play it cool on the phone but I got off and you know, first thing I did called my wife. Like you're never going to believe this. It was a. It was a really fun moment for our family and just kind of a incredible confidence booster. Also, like that, they would want to participate in what we were doing for health care, because so much of the health care we were focused on was really designed to benefit some of the most vulnerable people. So there was an incredible tie in there.

Speaker 1:

Well, fast forward a year and a half later and we just got more and more ingrained in our excitement about what the Tim Tebow Foundation was up to. If you recall, we'd adopted a special needs kid not knowing she had special needs. It's not as altruistic as it sounds, but you know, the Tim Tebow Foundation does Night to Shine. It's a worldwide prom for people with special needs. Yeah, and so our daughter had started participating in night to shine. Um, and we learned about the incredible work that the Tim Tebow foundation was doing for anti-human trafficking and anti-child exploitation. And so our family found ourselves in Guatemala with John Carter, and it turned out John was the chief financial officer at the foundation. And so we're in Guatemala celebrating Night to Shine. Our daughter has become the first international queen, because every participant is either crowned a king or a queen of gods at night to shine.

Speaker 1:

And our daughter was the first international queen. It was as close as I'll probably ever get to walking her down the aisle because she got to walk the red carpet and then I got to crown her as one of God's queens. It was so incredible. And then the next day I find myself walking down a volcano with John Carter and he says you know, I need to tell you something. I'm leaving the Tebow Foundation to go to Chick-fil-A's foundation. And I was like no, we don't want to lose you, but if we're going to lose you, what a great place to lose you. You know, obviously we love the Kathy family and and what they're up to, and wind shape and all the incredible work they're doing. Um, but pretty quickly John and I realized well, maybe I'd be a good option to take his place. Well, maybe I'd be a good option to take his place.

Speaker 1:

And it was crazy to think of that. Yeah, but I was at a, at a chapter where we'd we'd created our healthcare fund, we'd fully funded it. We knew the businesses we were going to deploy the capital into. So we knew I was going to have a lull for a bit and, uh, initially I was like no way, this is never going to work. Uh, I live in Indiana. Their headquarters is in Jacksonville, florida. Um, on and on, I kept trying to make excuses, but the more I learned about the incredible work that the Tim Tebow foundation was up to, the more I couldn't say no, and it became very clear to our family that this was what we were supposed to do, and so I came in, not on the foundation side, but actually on the for-profit side of the house. It didn't exist yet, but we ended up combining five companies into one and calling that the Tebow group. Okay, so that's where the Tebow group came from was really combining five companies that were under the hood.

Speaker 1:

We have an incredible team of today, about 25 people, but we're going on a hiring rampage. So any of you listeners out there please go check us out. You might be exactly what we need. But and our mission, this is what I love. I pinch myself, fellas. I get to wake up every day. Our mission is to fuel and amplify faith, hope and love. It's awesome. So we do that through really stewarding Tim and Demi's brands, the people that have entrusted them as their audience or their followers, and then the incredible work we get to do with investments and books and speaking and brand endorsements. We work with some just incredible companies, and what we look for are not just companies this is whether it's an investment or a brand that we want to come alongside, not just companies or investments that are going to be profitable but also have incredible mission alignment. And when we find the intersection of both of those things, man, it's lights out because we go all in with everything we've got, and that's our team's expertise and know-how, that's our brands, that's Tim and Demi.

Speaker 1:

And they're just incredible passion to serve the true most vulnerable people. When we find mission alignment with that, we're all in. Yeah, we're all in.

Speaker 2:

So when you're talking about being the fuel for faith, hope and love, that is the you know kind of the fulfillment of Tim's vision of we want to have this foundation where, when people give to that, a hundred percent is going to these MVPs, the most vulnerable people. You all are creating the funding through the for-profit side to fuel the foundation.

Speaker 1:

That's the goal, matt. That's the goal. So we want to be the fuel that covers the administrative side for the foundation, so that everybody else that partners up with us because they, too, care about the most vulnerable people. Our hope is that we can have all of their dollars going directly to supporting the most vulnerable people, and that's the fuel side, the amplify side.

Speaker 1:

I always like to let everybody know when, when we say amplify faith, hope and love, we believe that goes beyond just our own foundation. That goes to anything that we can get behind. That's truly, um, supporting the most vulnerable people. The real MVP. Yeah, so it's not just about amplifying what we're up to, because you got a lot of people out there listening or tuning in, watching where, um, you know, maybe their heart doesn't break for exactly what our hearts break for at the Tim Tebow foundation, but maybe they still have a passion for the most vulnerable people. That's awesome. Keep doing what you're doing. Yeah, um, we want to appeal to the people that they want to get in the game, and they're not in the game yet. We would love to have them come join the team and support the foundation, adopt it the way our family did, where we said this is going to be our church and the tim tebow foundation are going to be our church and the Tim Tebow Foundation are going to be our primary places where we give.

Speaker 3:

So, looking back, you're almost at the Tebow group for a year now. In this I mean your passion, heart, everything is shining through. What is a moment from this? You know past year that's really stood out to you, that's impacted you.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's so easy. It's so easy, mason. So Tim and I are sitting down for lunch with one of the most successful business people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. This gentleman's in his early eighties, and we're sharing with him the work that we're up to at the foundation and he's just like enthralled it was really cool to see. And then he looks at Tim and he says, son, really cool to see. And then he looks at Tim and he says, son, it seems like you don't have an off switch, which is true.

Speaker 3:

If you've ever met him.

Speaker 1:

I mean, go watch swamp Kings on Netflix. You will see the type of passion Tim has. That transfers from the football field to the work we do for the most vulnerable people. That's all very real. And look, I get to see him behind the scenes and he is just one of the most genuine people I've ever had the privilege of knowing. I love being around people that they're the same person, whether they're in front of you or me or someone else. And Tim is just the same guy when he's at work, whether he's giving a talk, if he's meeting people. He's just kind, he's genuine, he's authentic and he is passionate.

Speaker 1:

And so this, this wildly successful businessman, has just said to Tim son, it seems like you don't have an off switch. And Tim looks at him. He says you know, sir. And Tim looks at him. He says you know, sir, I realized that I was going to get to heaven someday and God was going to say Tim, you gave everything you had for a three-hour game. Why wouldn't you give it for me and those of us around the table? We're all just sitting there like contemplating our life choices. Have we moved from success to significance? Is what we're doing? Does it truly matter. You know, it's like you can just see the wheels on all of our heads just turning, but then so we're already like lights out. And then Tim actually drops the hammer and he says and you know, I think a lot of people are going to get to heaven well-rested, and I just don't want to be one of them. Wow.

Speaker 1:

And then it was totally lights out Like, oh my gosh. But for me I was like, let's go, like this is why I'm here. I want to feel this sense of purpose and calling. Every single day. I get out and do my job, and when I was fighting for myself, it mattered, but I want to tell everybody watching or listening when I started fighting for people that couldn't fight for themselves, it matters in a whole different way, and you know Simon Sinek has this famous YouTube. Most people have probably seen it, but he talks about start with why. If you want to have this incredible company, if you want to have this incredible culture, start with why.

Speaker 1:

Well, for me, the bottom line was my why. Previously, at the end of the day, if we were being honest, it was somewhere along the lines of me or my family or my people or whatever it may be family or my people or whatever it may be. I now get to play for a way more powerful why. I get to play for the real MVP, and it is such an honor. It's almost every day we find out about someone that their life was actually saved because of the work that we get to support through our for-profit side of the business and that is just. It's an, it's an honor and a responsibility.

Speaker 1:

In fact, one of the values at the foundation, one of the core values, is to embrace the joy and the burden of the call, and that's very real. There's incredible joy that we get to celebrate every time we find out someone's safe, but there's a burden of if we don't go do the work they might not be safe, and it's learning to embrace the balance between that. That's what I'm learning now. So, as Mason said, I'm not even a year into it full-time. That's the piece. I'm still learning how to embrace the joy and the burden. Yeah, not get overly excited when we bring one home and not get overly down the days that we don't just to do show up and do the work that we're called to do what you're saying before.

Speaker 2:

That's right.

Speaker 1:

Not responsible for those results, but doing the faithful work to show up and do the work that we're called to do, and to do it faithfully and hopefully, do it with a lot of grace and humility, and, uh, realizing that, uh, it's not because of us, that when we win it is God's, and uh, we just always want to give him the glory for what we're doing, because it's for him is why we do it. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, tommy, this has been amazing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I've already jumped out of my chair. It's so powerful.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, Absolutely Well. You've been incredibly generous with your time. Thank you for being with us, For our listeners. How can they connect with you, connect with the foundation, with the Tebow Group?

Speaker 1:

So two things If they want to connect with me, I'd encourage them to reach out on LinkedIn. Absolutely, hit me up, hit that button. Would love to connect and we try to put out content out there about family, about focus, about faith. You know, not your normal, just here's a quote for the week. We try to give real stories we call them true stories of what's going on in our lives, just trying to be real with people. What's going on in our lives, just trying to be real with people. And, as it relates to the foundation, if they go to timtebowfoundationorg, they can learn about the incredible work we're up to. I only scratched the surface. Today. We have 16 different areas that we focus on, all in support of the true MVP, the most vulnerable people, but they can learn all about that at timtebowfoundationorg. Uh, and we're sure grateful for anybody whose heart is pricked to want to get more in the game. We would love to have them on the team.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome. Well, and I can vouch for your LinkedIn Uh, it's incredible stuff. I really appreciate the stories that you share Been encouraging and challenging to us, so so good to meet you today. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for being with us.

Speaker 1:

Well, thanks Matt, thanks Mason, and also to Dream On Studios, the work that y'all are doing. I mean I walked into your studio and I thought I was on one of the coasts. I was shocked to be in the Great Lakes area. I mean you just built something really special here. So thank you for continuing to tell people's stories so powerfully. For the companies and the nonprofits that you all serve, it is really important work. So thanks for doing what you do.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Tommy, Thanks to our listeners. We look forward to seeing you next time on Stories that Move. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Stories that Move brought to you by Dream On Studios.

Speaker 3:

Make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss the next episode. And remember, if you or your organization have a story you're eager to share with the world, Dream On Studios is here to bring that story to life.

Speaker 2:

Don't hesitate to reach out. You can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or visit our website at dreamonstudiosio. We understand how overwhelming it can be trying to bring your vision and story to life, but that's why we exist, and we've walked alongside hundreds of clients doing that very thing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we believe every story has the potential to inspire, to move and to make a difference.

Speaker 2:

Let's make yours heard Until next time, keep moving forward and keep telling those stories that matter.

Speaker 3:

Take care, everyone. We'll see you next time on Stories that Move you.