Building Thriving Communities through Entrepreneurial Leadership and Ethical Business Practices

How do you build a thriving business while lifting up your community? Tim Shaffer, CEO and co-founder of SearchTires.com, joins us to reveal how his innovative business model does just that. Tim shares his journey from childhood values to modern-day entrepreneurship, emphasizing the critical role of local support and community engagement. From sponsoring youth sports to fostering genuine connections, Tim believes that leadership is all about serving others. Discover how SearchTires.com connects consumers with local tire retailers without selling anything directly, and what this unique approach means for community growth.

Stay ahead of the curve with Tim's invaluable strategies for mitigating entrepreneurial risk. Learn how daily curiosity and ongoing education can keep you inspired and informed. Tim offers practical advice on the importance of organization, seeking feedback, and learning from failures. He also underscores the value of trust and ethics in leadership, reminding us that great products should genuinely help people rather than just chase profits. Looking to get inspired by a leader who's all about giving back? Listen in, and don't forget to connect with Tim on his website or LinkedIn for more insights.

Connect with Ron
Just Make A Difference: Leading Under Pressure by Ron Harvey

“If you don’t have something to measure your growth, you won’t be self-aware or intentional about your growth.”

Learn more about Global Core Strategies

.
.
.
.
.
Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Unpacked Podcast with your host leadership consultant, Ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron's delighted to have you join us as he unpacks and shares his leadership experience, designed to help you in your leadership journey. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, Ron Harvey.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Good afternoon. This is Ron Harvey. I'm the Vice President and the Chief Operating Officer of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. It's a leadership firm based out of Columbia, south Carolina, and we spend all of our time doing one thing helping leaders become more effective at taking care of their teams, the people that help them stay in business, help them make money and take care of their customers. We believe it starts at leadership. That's why we do what we do and we want to support all of our leaders, regardless of industry.

Speaker 2: 0:52

We love the opportunity to have a conversation, but today is really about Unpack with Ron Harvey, and I invite guests from around the world, from all industries, all backgrounds. This is the first, though I've never, ever on my podcast, had a guest that actually I went to school with, from the same place, went to school, but then he went to the other high school. We won't talk about that, but you know he went to the second best high school after that, but at least the first two years he got to be at the best high school Boca Raton Community High School. Hey, tim, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for saying yes, man, welcome to the show. Thank you for saying yes, matt.

Speaker 3: 1:22

Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Ron. I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Yes, yes, I definitely want to make sure people know who you are and what you do. Can you tell us who you are, what you do, so people get an idea and be able to follow you from a business perspective and a professional perspective?

Speaker 3: 1:35

Yeah, I am Tim Schafer, CEO and co-founder of SearchTirescom, and the beautiful thing that we do is we're just like a tire matchmaker we don't sell anything. So if you go on to search tirescom, you put in your make, a model or your size, we show you all your prices in your local area so you can click the call, click to get directions, or click to go to their website and make an appointment, get the tires put on today. The reason we do this is because the tire industry it's so difficult to shop for tires and everybody knows that they keep going up and up and up. The average set's like 700 bucks now. So we're just trying to provide a service for consumers to get to their local brick and mortars who support their communities and hire their local community people and they sponsor Little League baseball teams, because a lot of these e-tailers are out there selling them online and taking that market share from them.

Speaker 3: 2:22

And very near and dear to my heart is, you know, working within your community. So we're like a national company but we're local to every community that there is because we are nationwide. And that's my goal and it's always been to help that brick and mortar that's spending the money in the communities, because everything's 100% about people and I like to take care of people, so there's no charge for it or anything like that. You just go and you get that and that's it. It's that simple.

Speaker 2: 2:47

Wow, yes, I love, tim, that you're talking about community. We both grew up in what used to be a small community, probably like a lot of other communities that now have changed drastically. But being able to put money back into your community, help out those little league programs and all those programs that won't be successful if it wasn't for people like you and I being able to pour back into those communities. So for you and companies and you and cities and your organizations, give back to your community because it matters tremendously. There's someone counting on what we're doing in that city. So we talk about unpacking here. We talk a lot about leadership. We talk about things that go well and things that's gone wrong. When you think about you starting a company and you started because you want to stay invested in the community, because people really do matter why is that so important to you as a leader, that you give back to the community? Where did that start from?

Speaker 3: 3:31

It started from childhood really. I mean, you know, we grew up in a different era. We grew up when we didn't have all these distractions I call them now yes. We grew up in a time where, you know, we'd go outside and play with our friends and we would do that, and then local companies would always sponsor our little league teams Boca Jets, whatever it may be. You know, we had all that synergy and it was about bringing people together and I think that a lot of the stuff nowadays bring people apart.

Speaker 3: 3:57

They they say they have friends, facebook friends or whatever that is, but that's not a friend. Friends are people you go play in their house, you go hang out at their house and you know, and that kind of stuff. So to me, you know, it's always been like that. I mean, my first few years I grew up in the Midwest and I really learned a lot of those values, but when I moved down to Boca Raton people think it was it was culture shock because of different things, you know weather and stuff like that. However, you know, the people are pretty much the same and we think the same ways and we want to help you genuinely. I think most people genuinely want to help each other out. I think they do, and that's what's important to me is trying to find a platform to do that on.

Speaker 2: 4:35

Yes, to be able to help and leadership is really helping people and it's not a self-serving thing. So if you're going to be in a leadership role, I mean I figured out over time, you know, tim, that. So if you're going to be in a leadership role, I mean I figured out over time, you know, tim, that I got to be willing to serve other people and help other people achieve their goals and their dreams. Even on this podcast, when I start unpacking things, I always say, hey, tell us who you are, tell us how we help you. What business are you in? Because I want people to do business with people and that's every day. I mean, the brand is important and we got to do all that, but people want to genuine people. So, as you launch your company, what were some of the things you know if we can unpack for a second that you learned about yourself and what was important for you to grow your business?

Speaker 3: 5:09

Well, I learned something that I'd had for a long time, but it really you know, when you start becoming an entrepreneur and I knew I was from an early age. I mean, I was selling rocks to my neighbors, but from the Grand Canyon, but you don't know it then. So the little thing is, when you have a passion to do something, you're passionate about it, but you know how to connect the dots. And when I say that, what I mean is I know that I'm not the best at everything. Everybody knows that. However, I've always been good at identifying people that are the best at that, attracting them to come help me solve this common goal, and I hire the best people and let them do what they're great at. And I do what I'm good at. I'm organizing and showing them my vision, and then they are laying it out, and then you know they do what they do best.

Speaker 3: 5:55

I think you know, as an entrepreneur, that's one of the things that you have to be able to do. Everybody always says entrepreneurs are the smartest people. I don't necessarily believe that they're the smartest people. I think that they're smart in a different way. They're smart in being able to attract that talent and hold that talent and make the talent become part of something bigger than just themselves. That's what it's always been about. For me, it's like hey, this is my vision. How can we create this? And I'm going to let you do what you do, because you're best at it and you do that delegate effectively and get out of their own way.

Speaker 2: 6:32

How do you help them build a team, because it's the hardest thing to do.

Speaker 3: 6:35

Well, that's a skill set that is very different. I mean because, honestly, people that are entrepreneurs need to realize that sometimes they need to hire people that they don't directly align with, but they are smart in that business and they have that common goal Coming up. I worked in corporate America for 10 years but I'll say this, a lot of people were afraid to bring on people that they thought that might replace them at sometimes. And you know, what made me successful in corporate America is I'm hiring that guy that wants to take my job, because if he takes my job, then I'm going up. So it's mindset. You know, it's just a mindset of how you go to business.

Speaker 3: 7:09

Basically, what I do is I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. I have a very good database of people there. I reach out, I seek feedback from professionals in areas many times, you know, just asking about different people, and then you finally hone in on what you want and what you need and it's very detailed. Like I just hired a, a tire intelligence guy. I'm in the process of doing it right now and it's been a year and a half.

Speaker 3: 7:33

So it takes time and you got to find the right fit and, as an entrepreneur, you're going to know what it's like I mean not initially and I think one of the things that we can get kind of back, that like backfill into one of your things. But I was lucky enough when I was young to have great two mentors that mentored me through a process of when I was young and helping me, and I think part of what you do now helps people, because that's the missing point for these kids nowadays they don't have that mentor that's guiding them to what the best, shows them how to get the best out of them. Us, our education was trial and error.

Speaker 3: 8:08

So, I always say the biggest thing to me is you've got to in the common goal and you got to be open to instruction. Because even myself, I remember I was in a meeting in 2014. I'll never forget the meeting. I kept saying I want it like this, I want it like this. And the guy just looked at me and he said, hey, listen. And he's a very high profile guy in an industry and he says, hey, listen, you got to understand that no one cares what you want I. You got to understand that no one cares what you want. I'm like, excuse me. He goes no, you put it out there on the internet and customers are going to tell you what they want. And I'm like, oh, that makes sense and that's part of getting out of your own self way. Right, you got to be open to that, testing and seeing what they really want. And then how can you provide that for them better?

Speaker 2: 8:46

I love it. So what I'm unpacking here, packing here, is you got to be coachable. You got to have some mentors around you and you got to be coachable. I mean, if you're, even LeBron James has a coach and I tell people he's naturally talented, but he wanted to be better than just a naturally talented piece, because there's some art and science to play in that game and he wanted to be coached and become smarter intellectual capital. He wanted to become better. So, if you're listening, you have to be coachable, otherwise it's hard to get help, it's hard to grow. So when you think about yeah, you think about your journey, you think about where you are. You're in corporate America. Now you're in entrepreneurship. If you can give us a list of three things that's really worked well for you as you go on this journey of entrepreneurship, what's important? What have you done that's been successful?

Speaker 3: 9:58

no-transcript. Number one is consistent practice. You practice your area. You want to be in there and consistently practicing. You seek feedback, and I'm not saying seek feedback from your buddies. You need to seek feedback from adversaries, because you need to get that true feedback from a bunch of different multiple sources.

Speaker 3: 10:20

And then, in your industry, your niche, whatever it is, stay updated. You need to be updated daily. You need to read. I'm not the book reader. I do read books, but you know them. Guys say you got to read this one. Hey, different things work for different people. I stay updated daily. I want to know if there's any new news in my niche and what it is.

Speaker 3: 10:39

Learn actively that's another thing. You got to engage with every piece of knowledge that's out there to try to continue to learn, and you got to learn that from multiple resources. Right, I'm not really into politics or anything like that, but you can't take one side or the other side. You need to take all sides, because that's how you formulate that. And then, of course, curiosity. You always have to be curious of what's working, what's not working, and one of the things is my big thing, even for myself if you don't schedule it, it's not going to happen. So you've got to stay organized.

Speaker 3: 11:07

And, last but not least, one of the most important thing is guys, listen, you have to stay inspired in what you're doing. If you can't stay inspired, you're not going to do it, it's just not going to happen. And part of that is, you know, feeding back into. We've all done it. You chase money. Don't chase money. Chase to be the best product and the best service you can provide for people, because the byproduct will come and that will be money. But you got to stay inspired to build your product and if that works and resonates with people, the byproduct will always be money, like it is everything.

Speaker 2: 11:41

Yeah, and I was over at Captain no. So if you didn't listen, the things that you shared, tim is the North Star. Know where you're headed, which is super important. Practice what it is Like. Practice, practice, practice. Then you said be disciplined, like if you're supposed to stay disciplined, and don't go after every shiny object or distraction that's going to show up. There are tons of them. Social media will distract you in a heartbeat and what other people are doing will distract you in a heartbeat. Get feedback. You know you shared hey, ask for feedback. Get feedback regularly. Stay current, like research. Look and see what's really happening in your industry. You also share. You said read Like read up on stuff, learn actively. You know you also share it with them. Be curious what else is happening around you, what are you not aware of? You say stay organized. You say stay inspired. Phenomenal. You ran through about 10 things that help people really become effective, whether you're an entrepreneur or whether you're in corporate America. How do you help leaders deal with risk?

Speaker 3: 12:32

So mitigating risk. Wow, that's our old Achilles heel for everybody, right? Because every idea we come up with, it's going to be the best thing ever. So mitigating risk. It's funny enough. I have this sheet that I've produced over the years. It has like 15 questions. Like when I have an idea, I'll go down them. 15 questions, I don't know exactly, I can't rebate them off the top of my mind or whatever, regurgitate them, but you ask yourself the questions filled out. The last time I did was for search stars, and that was in 2010, when I thought of this idea, and so I had a template where I'd ask myself the questions and when I answered it, it all lined up. Then I would put it into play there's so many by being in that niche and you be honest to yourself and you got to do that to mitigate risk. You do it. The final thing is, it's always going to be a risk in entrepreneurship when you're taking out that war. Blue ocean. No one's ever done what we've done, and I'm going to tell you this.

Speaker 3: 13:24

We kicked this up in 2014. We had a lot of feedback, a lot of press and all that stuff, and we had it run for two years and it failed. It failed because we were trying to serve two masters and we thought we had it figured out there, me and my partner. You know I headed up, but I'm going to tell you this when you think you know something, that's when you need to research more and you need to split because we were trying to police two masters. We put this new iteration out there and we said you know what we're going to do. We're going to build the best product to make the tire prices available for all the retailers, to the consumer. How much, how long and where are you at? That's basically what they want to know, most of them, and we're going to provide that for them and nothing else. And that's what we're going to be on. When we do that, the byproduct is they're going to go to the retailers brick and mortar and they're going to get those tires installed.

Speaker 3: 14:08

So mitigate risk again is first to have it, asking yourself a series of questions of is it really going to work? And be honest with yourself and ask others those questions. Not that you always need validations from some people, because some people they'll just be. It'll be negative no matter what, and entrepreneurs tend to be always overly optimistic. But you do have to hear the pragmatism, and it's so. Them are the big things. For me I mean me and my team has created as a group is phenomenal. We've already helped over 1.2 million customers save an average of $111 on a set of tires. Nowadays that's big money because electric bill whatever it may be, so I am definitely passionate about it. I know it's working now, but to get to that we had to really fail first, and I don't count really anything as a fail, it's just you learn a way not to do it.

Speaker 3: 14:53

I don't count really anything as a fail.

Speaker 3: 14:55

It's just you learn a way not to do it. And then we come back in late 2021 and we started spinning this up in a different way and we discover things that we didn't have and had some new ideas. It's always about timing, too right so 2014, the market was really ready for it either. Now they're more apt to it because of all the digital age. So some of the things I do to mitigate I know I went on for a lot there, but mitigation is a big thing because you have to be honest with yourself because if you don't, you're going to cost yourself a lot of money.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Yes, yes, no and I think perfect response I don't think it was long at all is because that's something that leaders struggle with, because it's scary, it's the unknown and you can lose everything you've worked for and your family can pay the price for it. You know you can feel real bad and your confidence can take a hit. You know there are a lot of things that are a byproduct of if it doesn't work, but the reality is, if it does work and it only takes out of 100, you need one time for it to work.

Speaker 3: 15:44

That's great, and a lot of people don't like to hear you know that it's a bad idea or something like that, but you have to come to terms with it. If you talk to 20 people and 19 of them say that's probably not going to work, chances are as long as they're diverse enough and you're asking the right people you need. And it's hard to put it down because you thought of it right. So Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 16:05

I mean, it's your thought and, at the end of the day, leaders, if you listen to the podcast and you're sharing time with us today is get feedback is what we're saying and then put the work in and be consistent. If the feedback says it won't work, then the question that comes to mind for me, tim, is what could I modify for it to work? If anything and sometimes there's nothing you can modify it just it's not a good product and you may like it and it may have solved your problem, but it's not something that's going to be on the market long-term and not every product survives. Matter of fact, more products fail than survive. That's reality. More products fail. You think about where we are now. Let's shift a little bit from the market segment. I want to shift to the people side of it. Right now, tim, across the board, leaders that are running organizations like ours. Our staff wants to have a leader they trust, but trust is at all time low in our country. How do we turn that around?

Speaker 3: 16:55

You got to earn it. First of all, you know a lot of things. I'll say is probably repeated a hundred times, but I wouldn't ask someone to do something that I wouldn't do myself and I wouldn't market something that I didn't feel. My moral compass is pretty strong. I was raised with a pretty strong moral compass, so I would say those couple of things. But I would just say that, as a leader, to build trust, it is earned and like for me, what I do is my guys see me sending them stuff at 12 AM, 3 AM.

Speaker 3: 17:22

They got to know you're vested in your business. It's just not a business to make money and it's just not a business to do something. It's honestly, it's a lifestyle, right? I mean, when you're the entrepreneur and you're leading your team, it's your lifestyle, because when they come to work for you, I've always looked at it like this they're not an employee of mine or they're not a partner or whatever they are. I'm responsible for them and their family. That's the way I look at it. That's a big responsibility and you need to be doing all the things you need to be. It's like, hey, they're working hard, so I don't have to do anything.

Speaker 3: 17:52

No, no, entrepreneurship is not easy and you know it never shuts off. And the advice I would give to people is you earn trust through actions, acts of service and showing your people you can do it. You know a funny, a quick story. I'll tell no-transcript. Yeah, I can take out garbage, there's nothing wrong with me, and I'd stand on their counter. I would help them bring up customers and stuff like that, because you got to let them know that I was in your position five years ago and look, there is forward motion. You can get to that spot. You just got to put the work in and sometimes it's not fun. But that's the journey in life, right? Not everything is easier. Everybody would be doing it.

Speaker 2: 18:44

Absolutely yeah, and I love it. So, tim, phenomenal answers, love the energy that you're bringing in the business that you're in. As we begin to wrap up, is there anything you want to leave with our audience about something that you've learned that you still use, whether it's from someone that's been in business or you learned it in business. What's something that you've learned? You know you have a good moral compass. What would you leave with our audience that you've learned that you still hold true today to be successful?

Speaker 3: 19:15

question Never chase money, never make it about money, never. I will tell you that's the most corrupt thing. And I'm not saying having money is corrupt. I'm just saying if your business plan is all about making money probably going to fail. Your business plan has to be about a great product that's going to help people. Then we're the things that are really successful. If you look at all aspects of everyone that's done really well in life, they created a great product that was easy to use and to help people. If you can do those two things, you're pretty much on the right track. But if your product I mean when I talk to entrepreneurs and you know we kind of invest in other companies at some points too and if they say, oh, I'm going to make a ton of money- yeah, I'm out.

Speaker 2: 19:49

Yes, yes yes, yes, and for all you that are listening, you know I love that. You say, hey, money's not corrupt, but make a product that's going to serve and help people, and if you can come up with a solution, that's where it's a business opportunity. So I totally agree Everybody wants to be compensated, but what I don't want to be is manipulated so you can make money. I want it to be something that actually serves us well and takes care of us and, by the way, I don't mind paying you for that product or service. So, tim, how do people reach you? If they want to reach out to you, they want to connect or they want to use your product or your service, what would you share with us so we can reach out to you later?

Speaker 3: 20:23

They can go to searchstarscom at the end the bottom of of thousands of people using our site, like every few days. I still get every email from every customer and I respond. And then, of course, tim schafer on linkedin. I mean I'll respond and I'll tell you this I'm open to help anybody that I can add great mentors and I'm not a coach or anything like that. I can just give you personal opinions on what I think and stuff like that I'd be happy to share and I would be happy to come back and give you an update and probably probably less than a year from now, things are going to be drastically different with search. We're gaining traction every day we're coming out with a new iteration that's really going to help people and we sponsor charity. We have a charity on there now as well that we sponsor, because you know that's another thing. You got to give back, you got to you know I believe in the karma thing man.

Speaker 2: 21:08

We know we'll have you back on simply because there's a classmate now. So he has a special place in my heart. You know Bobcat the Bobcats. You know he switched over to Shark.

Speaker 3: 21:17

And we didn't know that until we talked before this. It wasn't pre-known, we just figured it out, but we were great days growing up then. When we grew up, it was a great day then.

Speaker 2: 21:27

Yes, well, we will connect. When I'm in South Florida, I'll reach out to you and we'll talk offline, but for everyone that's listening again, tim has given you his email. He told you who he was and how you can buy your tires at a better price and go out and use it, leverage it and support small businesses. 80% of businesses in our country are small business. We cannot make it without you supporting us. We want to offer the best products and services too, so please pay attention to all the small businesses. We need your support and we have great products and service.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Again, this is Ron Harvey, the Vice President, the Chief Operating Officer of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Everything we do is about leadership development and helping you be a better leader to have a better team. It starts with us taking care of building trust, looking out for making sure families are safe. Our goal is to ensure you're good as a leader. We'd love for you to continue to follow us on Global Course Strategies and Consulting and, if you're interested in joining the podcast, reach out to our team. We'll be happy. There's a link that tells you how to get in and come be a part of it. Of course, they're going to vet you to make sure that you're coming on. We don't give any questions in advance. Tim came on, knew nothing, we just have a real conversation. So thank you for joining Tim and I. It's been a pleasure and we hope to see you next time on another podcast, where another guest from around our country will be joining us and sharing some really great information with you. Thank you everyone for joining Unpacked with Ron Harvey.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpacked Podcast with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron unpacks sound advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are, for the people you serve, because people always matter.