Nerds On Tap

From Projects to the President: Steve Wilmer's Trailblazing Journey in the Realm of Entrepreneurship

• Nerds On Tap • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Join us for Part 1 of a captivating two-part series, as we delve into the compelling journey of Steve Wilmer, who rose from the projects of Pensacola to become a thriving entrepreneur. Drawing from his time in the Marine Corps, law enforcement, and his successes at State Farm, Steve shares insights on embracing challenges, the transformative power of stepping outside one's comfort zone, and the strategic importance of technology and smart hiring in business. This candid conversation showcases Steve's unique blend of determination, resilience, and entrepreneurial wisdom, emphasizing the value of continuous learning and growth. Don't miss this riveting chat that promises inspiration and invaluable takeaways. Stay tuned for Part 2!

Sponsors:
Digital Boardwalk Managed IT Services
Smarter Web

Special Guest:
Steve Wilmer, President, Risk Advisor Institute and Steve Speaks

Beers in Order of Appearance:

  1. Vibin' Groovable Lager
  2. Haileah Light Florida Lager

Enter to Win one of Steve Wilmer's Books HERE!
Shop Steve's Books HERE!

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Tim Shoop:

Nerds on Tap is sponsored by Digital Boardwalk, one of the fastest growing managed IT service providers in America, ranked number eight in the country, providing IT, cybersecurity and cloud management to small and medium businesses. And SmarterWeb, an AI and data-driven marketing company, the sister company of Digital Boardwalk, providing leading edge marketing services to small medium-sized businesses nationwide. Brief overview of our episode.

Tim Shoop:

Today we'll be talking to Mr Steve Wilmer, sitting right next to me, and I'll introduce him in just a minute. We're going to be talking about his rise through the ranks, where we'll learn about his amazing journey from the projects to the presidents. Then we'll go into segment two, technological savvy and entrepreneurship something that I know a lot about and I'm excited to hear Steve's take on it and then the power of public speaking and writing. And then we'll wrap it up with a surprise segment regarding motivational speakers, and then we'll get some takeaways. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Nerds on Tap. I'm your Tim ,Shoop , and I couldn't be more excited to embark on this nerdy adventure with all of you. So grab your favorite brew, because things are about to get exciting. So I met Steve a long time ago and a networking group called B&I, which-.

Tim Shoop:

Through your wife Through Kathleen? Absolutely. Yeah, I was clueless back then. I came into this B&I and you had to stand up and do speak in front of the group for 40 seconds and then 10 minutes, I think, every few months, and every time it came around to me in those early days I got sweaty palms right and I was so nervous and I would rub my palms on my pant legs before I had to speak and then I'd get up and do it. Yeah, but you did it though. I did it, and it did two things for me. It helped me overcome my anxiety, so my audiences were able to get larger and larger over the years and I finally got in front of a group of 500 people and I wasn't nervous at all. There you go, but you know and that's why I'm so excited to hear about your public speaking later in the segment.

Tim Shoop:

So met Steve a long time ago in B&I and we were both part of that, and when I saw him get up to do his 10 minutes I knew this guy's going somewhere. He had the gift to gab, he knew how to capture an audience and I was like man, I go. You know he's going to become something he grew up in the projects of Pensacola, which I didn't know about at the time. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Let me get a OORA. I knew I could get him to do it, but See, I'm not natural, we were I was in the cool branch, the Navy. Oh God, man, wait, were we your taxicab driver?

Steve Wilmer:

Every time we had a fight, the Navy would always take us somewhere, so that's pretty cool.

Tim Shoop:

After eight years of honorable service, he returned home and spent the next 10 years in law enforcement. Hey guys, hide that moonshine. Wait, prohibition's over, it's over.

Steve Wilmer:

Okay, we don't have to worry about it then, because we got beer sitting right in front of us.

Tim Shoop:

He was later recruited by State Farm and became a top producing sales agent. He resigned from State Farm and began traveling the country training other agents how to have success in sales, and I had the opportunity to watch one of his training sessions recently. So I think you folks are in for an absolute treat today. He's also authored four books, which we'll talk about in a later segment. He's an expert in writing books how to Become a Speaker and Starting a Business Three of my passions as well, steve. Although I haven't released my first book yet, his books are top 10 ways to win in life and business and nobody cares work harder. His business is the Risk Advisor Institute, which includes all of Steve Speaks master classes. Right, that's part of it. And, ladies and gentlemen, today I present from the projects to the president, mr Steve Wilmer. Welcome to the show, steve.

Steve Wilmer:

Thanks, brother. Listen before we get started. Man, I just got to tell you how proud of you I am. This is amazing. So you talk about seeing my rise. I remember new vision computers. Does your audience even know about new vision computers? Probably not. They don't even know about See, when he was in the networking group, it wasn't for digital boardwalk, it was for new vision computers. Yeah, digital boardwalk was just a thought and an idea To see where you've come from, from a thought to an idea to where you are today. I'm out there. I see you on Facebook, I see the commercials and I look on the wall and I see the Inc 5000. I see where you guys. And I remember when you met with me, we were at Cracker Barrel.

Suds:

I remember that.

Steve Wilmer:

I remember that. So we met at . He's a new vision computers and he's like man. I'm thinking about transitioning from selling computers to doing this and this. He laid it out. You know, what do you think? And I don't know anything about technology Nothing. But I knew the idea was going to be great, and so you're going to talk about starting a business. A lot of people have ideas. A lot of people have ideas, a lot of people have vision, but they never take their idea and their vision to fruition, like what you've done with digital boardwalks. I'm telling you, bro, that is absolutely to be commended. Congratulations on where you are today.

Tim Shoop:

Thanks man, I remember those days. That's a blast from the past and I got to tell you I you bring back some memories right now.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, you did it and you're still doing it. You're not finished yet, you're still doing it. Oh, I'm not done. There you go, I'm not done.

Tim Shoop:

I don't think, I don't think entrepreneurs ever, ever feel easy in our own shoes. Nope.

Tim Schaffer:

Tim has probably came up to me what 15 times saying man, you have no idea how many ideas I have in my head and look, as long as you execute on them, keep going.

Steve Wilmer:

Yep, that's what you got to do and that's what you're doing. So thanks for allowing me to be here today and share. I appreciate that.

Tim Shoop:

I appreciate you being on the show and taking time out of your busy schedule.

Steve Wilmer:

So when do we drink beer, is that? Oh, that's next.

Tim Shoop:

That's next. So I appreciate that, Steve. I appreciate you bringing up old memories of the old days when I had no money and I was using every entrepreneur that starts off. I was using one credit card to pay off another credit card to pay off another one.

Steve Wilmer:

And talking about entrepreneurship everyone.

Tim Shoop:

And I made a pact. I made a pact to myself that I was never going to. I was never going to be that far in debt again and and try to get to be debt free and make every venture moving forward debt free. Yeah, and I've been debt free for a while now and I'm proud of that. But it's every entrepreneur, every entrepreneur's dream to move forward and excel to the next level. Yes, but we're never easy in our own shoes. We've always thinking of something else and another way to do things. Yep.

Steve Wilmer:

And an easier way to do thing. Continue to. You know how to grow. Yeah, one of the things about entrepreneurship and me is becoming a leader and bringing other people up as well, which is really important. So when I first started off, it was just me doing all the teaching, the speaking, the traveling, but now I've got a team so I don't have to be on the call, I don't have to do the travel this year, in 2023. I've traveled. I'm going to say even more than half as much as I, or less, I'm sorry. I've traveled less than half as much as I traveled last year. I've got other people doing it and my income has increased.

Tim Shoop:

So it's not just about working hard, it's about working smarter as well, and you're going to leverage not just, not just people, but technology to do that, and we'll get into that.

Steve Wilmer:

I can't wait to get into it.

Tim Shoop:

Steve speaks. Ladies and gentlemen, but I got to. I'm going to make Steve stop speaking for a minute so we can get into a tasty brew to start the day. If you'll notice, all the brews in front of us are lighter today because Steve requested a lighter beer. There you go. At least he didn't request Sangria like the guy in our last show and you have to go back and watch the last show. It's funny let's take it away.

Suds:

All right. Our first beer today is from the Funky Buddha Brewery in Boca Raton. It's the Funky Buddha Vibin', an American style lager balanced character with a golden hue, soft moth sweetness and subtle hop flavor. Made with pilsner malt, vienna malt, flake corn and a touch of caramel.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, I dig that.

Steve Wilmer:

All right, it's good. Yep, I like that.

Tim Shoop:

I could hit that on a Friday.

Tim Schaffer:

After what, wait a minute, we're hitting it on a Thursday after work, right now.

Tim Shoop:

We are. So we'll sip on that and we'll get into the first segment. We're going to talk about Steve's rise through the ranks, and this is my favorite part of any entrepreneur's talk because it excites me. I get excited about what, like what Steve said, what I've been able to accomplish, but I more so love to hear about what other people have done, where they came from, where they are now and where they want to go in the future. So let's get into your early life, steve. Let's talk about your, your early life, and maybe take that into your enlistment and get into the Marine Corps.

Steve Wilmer:

Give me a Hurrah, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So it's a good word for that. But let me get into this. It's Hurrah. There you go One more time.

Tim Shoop:

Hurrah, there you go. All right, there you go. Steve, tell me about your journey.

Steve Wilmer:

So we're right here at Digital Boardwalk. You guys are right here at Main Center, on 9th Avenue, and South on 9th Avenue, right where the water is, there was a projects called Aragon Court. Now Aragon is still there, but now there are million dollars homes down there. But that used to be the projects and that's where I was born and raised, right here in Pensacola, and I graduated from Pensacola High School Let me say this, barely graduated from Pensacola High School, proud of my 1.9 GPA, and the reason I'm proud of it now is because my teachers would always say shut up, steve, you talk too much, you're never gonna amount to anything. Oh, I love that. And look at me today. I love that. Look at me. Guess what I get paid to do Talk. You know my doing right now.

Tim Shoop:

There you go. My government teacher in high school sat me down one day in my senior year and said Tim, you know, because of me you're not gonna walk, wow. And I said you know, let's rephrase that a minute, because of me, you might have me another year. Gave me a D minus and passed me.

Tim Schaffer:

I walk the rest of history.

Tim Shoop:

No, I'm serious. A lot of entrepreneurs were dreamers. Yeah yeah, and that's why go ahead?

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, so I barely graduated with a high school and I don't wanna talk about the teachers, she said that but I ended up going into the Marine Corps, and the reason I listened in the Marine Corps was because I was not smart enough to go to college and become from the projects. We didn't have any money to send me to college. And, Tim, like you, talk about being a dreamer. I knew what I wanted out of life, but I did not know how I was going to achieve it Right, and so I figured that the military would give me a head start on that. And people say well, why did you join the Marine Corps? Now, you didn't know this. This would be funny. I was supposed to join the Navy.

Tim Shoop:

I know now Right.

Steve Wilmer:

A buddy of mine. We signed up in the delayed entry program and back then it was called the buddy program, where you and Frank are going to the military. So we're signed up, I'm supposed to go into the Navy. And then, like one day I see another Marine and he's like what are you gonna do when you're gonna graduate? And I said I'm gonna join the Navy. And here's what he said you better join the Navy because you couldn't make it in the Marine Corps.

Steve Wilmer:

Well, it's fighting words it's fighting words and my buddy was so mad at me because I called him and said hey, I'm not joining the Navy, I'm joining the Marine Corps, and that set the foundation for where I am today.

Tim Shoop:

That's awesome. You know, I went in the Navy because I met with the different recruiters and mine was all about who's gonna pay me a little bit more.

Steve Wilmer:

There you go, there you go. A bonus program that's like that.

Tim Shoop:

That was part of it, but that's not why I joined. I was actually gonna go in the Coast Guard and ended up choosing the Navy for a lot of reasons.

Steve Wilmer:

Nothing wrong with the Navy. My wife is a retired Navy chief, 24 years All right.

Tim Schaffer:

Very proud of her.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, very proud, yes, so super weird.

Tim Schaffer:

My older brother went to all three branches and he says out of the three he does prefer the Navy the most, but it's probably just because they didn't have to, let's say, do as much.

Steve Wilmer:

Oh, that's not true. That's the Air.

Tim Schaffer:

Force.

Steve Wilmer:

The Navy works.

Tim Schaffer:

It's the Air Force. But that's what. That's his words, not mine.

Tim Shoop:

You know we could talk Navy Air Force, army Marines all day long, because you know it's part of our, it's part. Someone said history, your history will always be part of you. Yep, but it's not where you're going, right.

Steve Wilmer:

It was a foundation. Regardless of me personally this is just me I believe that every person that graduates from high school should be required to spend a couple of years in any military branch or a technical school or a technical school. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Tim Shoop:

Kathleen and I were talking about that the other day.

Steve Wilmer:

I'm telling you, man, the military. It allows you to get outside your comfort zone. You get around people you wouldn't normally be around you, around people from different cultures, different backgrounds, different races, different religions. I believe that we would not have maybe even half the issues we have in this country, but I still. I just had a Marine Corps reunion right here in Pensacola. Normally it's up in North Carolina. This year that came down to Pensacola. So imagine this two weekends ago you got a bunch of Marines here in Pensacola and we're talking about Marines that I served with back in the 80s. We're talking about over 30 years ago and we picked back up just like nothing has happened. It's a brotherhood.

Steve Wilmer:

It is a brotherhood there. I don't even think you have colleges that do stuff like that. You know what I mean. So it is an absolute brotherhood.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, I think you make a good point. I really don't want to take us too far down this hole, because our country does have a problem and I think everybody's trying to embrace it right now and get us out of that. But it's really hard with everything going on. I'm gonna tell you a little story. I don't want to get too deep into this, but when I was I think 11, 11 or 12, I'm an Army brat joined the Navy, pissed off my dad Nothing against the Army, but it was just an inside joke. And when we moved to Germany let me tell you something I grew up in Maryland prior to that, a place called Middletown. There weren't any black people in that area. I didn't even know. And this is early 70, early mid 70s.

Tim Shoop:

So we're still in that whole era of transition, I guess I would call it, and it's a little sad, but here's the deal. My mom, old school German, hadn't been. She really wasn't integrated with multicultural and all that stuff. And we moved to Germany and the first kid I brought home from my baseball team to play in my room, his name was Terence. I'll never forget it, black kid, good friend of mine, I mean, we hung out all the time and I remember seeing the reaction and I'm not throwing my mom, my mom, god rest her soul. Now I'm throwing her in the bus. But she just came from that Culture of non-integration, didn't understand and didn't. It's like, what are you doing? Yeah, it's, you know, but that's where we're coming from and we're still not out of it.

Steve Wilmer:

Yep military. I'm telling you because you don't have a choice, and what you end up finding out Tim, and we can end it with this what you end up finding out is this we're all really just the same. We want the same things for our families, we want the same things out of our lives, and there's not much difference from it.

Tim Shoop:

You know, this isn't what our show is about today, folks. I love that we've brought this into the show because it is an important topic. So now I'm gonna lighten up the show a little bit. We talked beer a little bit earlier. I wanna ask you a question. I looked this up the other day Is there a thing called crayon beer, and how?

Suds:

does that?

Tim Shoop:

wait a minute now. I've never heard of this. Apparently, this is a marine thing, so I'm gonna bring it up and I wanna know a little bit more about it. You're on a nerds on tap show. You're gonna have to talk about crayon beer.

Steve Wilmer:

So I don't know about crayon beer, but the joke is marines eat crayons.

Tim Schaffer:

Oh, is that right.

Steve Wilmer:

That's. The joke is, you know that we're stupid. We eat crayons, oh, okay, and you know we kind of take pride in it. It's like, yep, red is my favorite. You know my favorite flavor? Oh, that's you know. Just Well, I'm sorry I brought it up. No, don't be okay, it's a joke between the branches of service. So I am 100% okay with it. And now that you mentioned it, I might try to mix some of my red crayon with beer. I would taste.

Tim Shoop:

Now you don't think I brought that up cause I'm an old Navy guy, maybe. I probably you know the Marine Corps the Marine Corps is the department of the Navy, just so you know.

Steve Wilmer:

So yeah, it's the men's department.

Tim Schaffer:

It is beer. Now, that was a burn.

Tim Shoop:

All right. So returning to civilian life, speed, returning to civilian life, which, you know, just coming back into civilian life was tough for me. It was tough for me to transition into that. It was a little bit of a liberation, if you will, to a degree, because I felt, wow, I'm free, but then we had lack of structure, so that was tough for me to make that transition. Let's talk about your transition out of military and how you ended up in law enforcement.

Steve Wilmer:

Yes, that's what I was looking for. So, military, you transition and you think to yourself, well, maybe the police department, paramilitary, the structure, the rank and different things like that. And so when I left the Marine Corps, that was the first thing that I did is I became a right here police officer with the city and then the county and did that for seven years here locally and then fast forward, meet my wife we were talking about there earlier we go to Memphis, we get stationed in Illinois and then another three years at Great Lakes Police Department up in Illinois. So total of 10 years, that's what we had in the morning.

Steve Wilmer:

We had a house in Waukegan.

Tim Shoop:

Illinois, just to hang out in a little bar called the Circus Pub just off of. I got in a lot of trouble there.

Steve Wilmer:

I'm not even gonna go into that, but you're right, that's exactly where we were. Yeah, but those of you out there who are thinking about being an entrepreneur, thinking about starting a business, I know we're gonna get into that. So I'm gonna say something here that is 100% true. Now listen to the words. It's 100% true, but I'm not saying that it's 100% right. And here's what I want you to always remember you are paid according to the problem that you can solve. That's good. You are not paid according to how important the job is. I'm not saying that it's right. I'm saying that it's true.

Steve Wilmer:

Whether you like it or not, when you solve a big problem, people pay you more for it. Okay, so I'll give you an example. We just finished talking about what I do. I speak, I talk. Okay, I don't have to put on a uniform anymore. I don't have to run into a burning building. I don't have to run into the building where a guy has a gun. I don't have to do any of that.

Steve Wilmer:

I would say that being a police officer is more important than what I do. I would also say even being a United States Marine is more important than what I do, but that's not how we're paid. If you can solve a big problem, you get paid. So think about it. I know y'all not, you're not going to like this, but if you're going to be a business owner, you got to think about the problems that you can solve for your customers. The bigger the problem, the more you're paid. Yeah, so you can watch this. You can graduate high school and as long as you do not have a felony arrest or anything like that on your record and you can pass a couple of physical tests, you can go be a police officer. You can't just graduate high school and decide I'm going to be a professional speaker and make $10 bucks.

Tim Shoop:

No, I 100% agree with that. It takes practice. Digital boardwalk. Yes, of networking Digital boardwalk, I would never been able to do what I do now, 20 years ago.

Steve Wilmer:

Bro, you're listed in the Inc 5000.

Tim Shoop:

Hey, that's a five-year straight buddy.

Steve Wilmer:

I saw it 18, 19, 20. Do you think the average person can do that? It's harder to do. Here's my point, team it's harder to do that than to be a teacher. It's harder to do what I do than to be a police officer. And so, because we do the things that are harder to do that the average person cannot do, you're paid accordingly, yeah.

Tim Shoop:

I think that toughness, dexterity, being able to have patience for your drive to one day come to fruition I think that's part of an entrepreneur. I think it's easy to go take a job anywhere you can take a job. I was employed by other people. We all have been. The thing is, though, is starting a company is easy.

Steve Wilmer:

It is this contradicts what you said, steve, no, no, no, starting a company is easy, because all you gotta do is get an LLC. Guess what you got a company.

Tim Shoop:

But making it last past a year. Yes, that's the hard thing, because it's more than just being able to have a credit card and an idea. You have to have the determination and a very thick skin to deal with not one rejection, not two rejections, but a million rejections along the way. I don't care if it's bills coming in that you can't pay or knocking on that door and someone telling you to go, bug off because they're not buying. You just got to keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it, and your revenue is a big part of it as well.

Steve Wilmer:

Again, for me, increasing revenue this is how I make my living, about what I do. It's how my wife makes her living now, by what she does. So, again, if you're thinking about starting a business, writing a book, whatever the case may be, here's what I'll say. I'm not telling you that it would be easy, but I'm telling you that it'll be worth it. If you can stay true, if you can stay focused, then I guarantee you that you're going to have the success that you're looking for.

Tim Shoop:

Don't quit. That's the biggest thing. Do not quit. You know, steve, I watched part of one of your presentations the other day, like I said earlier, and the first thing you did was make some young man come up on stage and do 10 pushups. And he was eager to do it because he wanted to be a top producer, and we'll talk about that here in a minute. We're going to transition into State Farm and get into that, but you could tell this young kid was very ambitious and he's probably going to end up being one of the top producers at State Farm when he gets through.

Steve Wilmer:

I hope so.

Tim Shoop:

Absolutely. But what I was getting at is I bet he didn't quit halfway through those pushups did he no.

Steve Wilmer:

And you know, if you remember, I think this was Chicago, right, yep. So in that it's only 10 pushups. So he struggled, I'm going to say right around seven, but he pushed through it and I even made a comment about afterwards. I said, you know, in life and sales and business, things are going to get hard, things are going to get difficult. You're going to struggle. You may think that you can't do another one, you can't take another step, you can't make another phone call, you can't take another note, but if you keep going and keep moving, you're going to have the success you're looking for. That's it, man.

Tim Shoop:

I preach, preach man. Transition to State Farm, becoming a top producer at State Farm. What kind of? What kind of thick skin and drive did that? How long did it take?

Steve Wilmer:

My goodness it, it's still going. So how long did it take? You never stopped learning. You never stopped developing that thick skin. So 2008,. I started with John Kazia because I met John in the same networking group that we're talking about. So I started with John Kazia in 2008. I was with another company and I had gotten a taste of entrepreneurship. Okay so transition from the police department to the post office. A lot of people don't know I used to be a mailman for three or four years.

Tim Shoop:

I didn't know that I have an FU, that's a mailman Been doing it for like 25 years.

Tim Schaffer:

There you go. I did it seasonal just to see how it was. If I liked or not, man, it was tough, way tough, for that I never imagined.

Steve Wilmer:

I carried mail in the Waukegan snow. Tim. I carried mail in the Waukegan snow.

Tim Schaffer:

All right that's pretty tough, not here in Florida. Well, walk outside in Florida middle of summer about what Wait? What was that timeline?

Tim Shoop:

that wasn't during that early blizzard of the early 90s that you were, oh no, no, no, that was prior.

Steve Wilmer:

Police officers like 2000?.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah.

Steve Wilmer:

I'm sorry, mailman was 2000, maybe 2001, something like that.

Tim Shoop:

I was in Waukegan in the early 90s in this massive blizzard.

Steve Wilmer:

I was here in the early 90s. That was a police officer.

Tim Shoop:

So tell me about being a top producer. What does it take?

Steve Wilmer:

Oh, my goodness, it takes what you said earlier. It does take determination. It takes not quitting and in order to do that, always tell people you got to start with your why. When people tell me they want to be a top producer, the first thing I ask them and they really can't answer a lot of times is why? Because if you don't understand your why, why do you want to write a book? Why do you want to be a business owner? Why do you want to be a top producer? When the storms come and we all know that in entrepreneurship, the storms are coming right but when you understand your why, the obstacle ceases to exist. Because now you know why you're doing it. So let me share this with you.

Steve Wilmer:

You heard my story about where I grew up in Aragon Court, right down here. So I had taped to my desk. At State Farm, being brand new, I had taped to my desk my why statement. Cool, all right. Why do I want to be a top producer? Why do I want to make money? Here's what the statement. Years and years. Here's what the statement says. I refuse to let my children, judah, josiah, joy and Jaina, grow up in the projects the way that I did, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they have the opportunities that I did not have.

Tim Shoop:

Wow.

Steve Wilmer:

Let me say it again yeah, do it.

Steve Wilmer:

I refuse to let my children, judah, josiah Joy and Jaina, grow up in the projects the way that I did, and I'm willing to do whatever I have to do to make sure they have the opportunities that I did not have. That was taped to my desk. So if Tim, as a prospect, came in, it didn't matter to me that he said no. It didn't matter to me that he gave me all these objections. It didn't matter to me that he didn't want to talk about life insurance or disability insurance. I refuse to let my children, judah, josiah Joy and Jaina, grow up in the projects the way that I did, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to give them the opportunities that I did not have. It was taped to my desk. It kept me focused on my why I was doing this, to make sure that I didn't quit.

Tim Shoop:

Now, did you ever practice verbal exercises throughout the day where you repeated that? Why? Statement?

Steve Wilmer:

I didn't have to, because it was taped to my desk, so I saw it every day.

Tim Shoop:

You saw it every day.

Steve Wilmer:

Because we talked about fear, we talked about nervousness, we talked about getting uncomfortable, getting out of your comfort zone. So, even though I had been a Marine, even though I had done the job of being a police officer and I mean we're talking about I've been in shootings, Marine course I mean, oh my goodness, I was afraid in sales. Can you imagine that this guy was a police officer as United States Marine infantry for those Marines out there? We're talking about infantry. We ain't talking about pushing no paper right. 0311, 22 infantry.

Tim Shoop:

What was your biggest fear? What was your biggest fear when you sat across the table from someone and had to sell that policy?

Steve Wilmer:

I'm so glad Rejection. I want to hear it. You said it, yet you get it. It's rejection, it's the no, it is the no.

Tim Shoop:

So something that very few people know is that I went to California not to go to Silicon Valley and end up back in IT, which is what ended up happening. I went out there to be an actor. I lived in a tent, I had no money, I was technically homeless. I went to audition after audition after audition and the rejections wore me down. I mean, I ended up doing a few things, but the rejections wore me down, yep, and I had no idea. I had no idea at the time that when I started my first business, that was prepping me for it yes, I was A, I was stepping outside of my comfort zone, my little box that I had always been in that box of comfort.

Tim Shoop:

You know what I'm talking about, of course. You know you sit in that. We all sit in a comfort box that's comfortable to us. We travel to certain restaurants that we like to return to. All those little things. The human, the human psychology, the human psyche psyche does not like change. We do not like change as humans. Change is what creates the evolution of your personal journey, remember.

Tim Schaffer:

Now you got me preaching Steve. Remember, we're talking about time travel question and we all kept picking the past because we didn't want to go to the future, because we didn't know what to expect and we were scared of whatever possible outcome. So we picked the safe of the past.

Steve Wilmer:

And the comfort zone. The comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.

Tim Shoop:

So I gotta write that we take away number one.

Steve Wilmer:

Repeated this is your first takeaway. The comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there. And so you talk about change. You know I would say this change is inevitable. Growth is optional. Even digital boardwalk has changed from the first day that you started.

Tim Shoop:

Oh yeah, like like every single, every every few months. We change, we still change that you have to.

Steve Wilmer:

I'm looking at your wall and I saw is it woman? Hmm, what do your wall wow me, wow me wow me? But a part of it talks about innovation. Yeah, you got to be innovative, yeah, you got to change in business. So I got a, I got a business partner. His name is Tim. Tim talks and he's talking about change and Tim says when the pace of change in your industry outpaces the pace of change in your business, the end is near.

Tim Shoop:

You know that that is huge. There's some change on the horizon for digital boardwalk that I can't talk about on this show.

Tim Shoop:

There better be. But the ink is still drying and when we talk about it it is going to create massive change and massive growth for us. But I was watching the industry and following everybody and you're either you're either waffling organically, just kinda, you know, or you're getting gobbled up, or you're being gobbled. I didn't want any of those, I wanted to be you know. Hey, the first thing about an entrepreneur is we don't just have thick skin, we don't just think outside of our box, but we're gamblers. We gamble, we gamble.

Tim Shoop:

You have to be now Take risk.

Steve Wilmer:

What are you saying? Is we take risk?

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, well I don't put money into a slot machine Right right, right right.

Steve Wilmer:

Not knowing what the ROI is gonna be, we take calculated risk. Yeah, yeah. That's why I love poker so much I think.

Tim Shoop:

That's you know and you calculate risk, is a better way to say it. I'm not a word guy, I'm not a wordsmith, so I actually create my own words for anything I ask my CPA. He's like what? Oh, I know what you're talking about, because we talked about this earlier. You talked about roles in a company and you talked about how you know we get paid. We get paid for problems we solve Right. Here's the thing. My title is CEO. There's two types of CEOs. There's founder CEOs, which is what I am, and then there's CEOs that are brought in to big companies to run it Correct. I don't know half of what those people know. I'm still learning. One day, I hope to become that. So I like to say I'm overpaid for some of the things that I do, but I'm always learning. You see all these books behind me. Your books are going to be up here too.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, I got that one, just so you know the busy leaders hand.

Tim Shoop:

We use that in here to do round table sessions and we'll get into that. But I will tell you something Books are a big part of what I used to hate reading. I Read all the time. Now I'm constantly learning and constantly bettering my skill set. So let's talk about your books, steve. So I want to wait, I want to step back. Tell me how you're training these agents across the country, and then let's get into your books.

Steve Wilmer:

So how am I training the agents across the country? We talk about transition Technology.

Suds:

Oh, I love it.

Steve Wilmer:

And I fought against technology. Initially, I fought against technology simply because, I mean, I'm old school, I don't know a lot about technology, and what happened is I was traveling the country and I still love to do this from time to time but when I first started, I was traveling the country. I've been to 49 states. Only state I have not been to is North Dakota. So if you're in North Dakota, go ahead and book me so I can check that off. And so I'm traveling from city to city, sometimes Tim two cities a week. And then something happened in 2020, in about January, february, march of 2020. Can anybody remember?

Tim Shoop:

I don't remember anything about 2020 because, I don't remember a whole lot about 2020 because I think I spent a lot of time for it.

Steve Wilmer:

So think about this. I'm booked in March. I might have been booked out to maybe August or so, and one by one, because of COVID man, one by one, I saw things begin to disappear. Now, this is how I'm making my living. I want you all to listen to this. This is how I'm making my living traveling to cities, speaking and teaching. And so what happened is? It forced me to think outside the box. It forced me to start to use technology, and then I started to do Zoom training. I started to use technology, and 2020, up until that point, was the biggest revenue year we'd had. That's awesome.

Steve Wilmer:

So, even when things began to slow down 2021, people are easing back in. Some people still didn't want to meet. Some people are yeah, come out and meet. We kept the technology piece in 2021. 2022, full swing come talk, speak, teach, you know grub. We kept the technology piece and now what happened is because of technology. It allowed me to not have to be in so many places physically. As long as I used technology, I was able to reach. So I haven't physically been to North Dakota, but I've trained people using technology in North Dakota. Get them on a Zoom call.

Tim Shoop:

Yes, yeah, it's changed the entire landscape of how we work. And you know, heading into 2020, I remember how scared I was when we had to move everybody remote. And you've got to remember we're not just removing all our employees remote, we're moving all of our customers remote because we are a technology company. So I was scared to death. The good news is I wasn't scared for our customers because we were already prepped. We already had all the tools in place, with all of our customer infrastructures, to basically turn a key and they were remote.

Tim Shoop:

It was so easy for our customers to work remote. It was for us too, but I never had employees working remote. The good news is I had already built a multitude probably about 10 or 15 dashboards that manage KPIs and metrics and those things. And this is what I noticed, folks, and this is a good takeaway when we moved all of our employees remote, within 90 days, I saw an uptick in all of our metrics as far as efficiencies go, and I went wait a minute, how can this be happening? They're all remote. I know they're taking breaks, that's fine, but efficiency went up and it's because there were no distractions. So, fast forward to end of 2023, where we are now 90% of my workforce still works 100% remote and there's a reason for that and we've loosened up the reins and we've empowered them and we let them thrive without being micromanaged.

Tim Shoop:

And we're thriving.

Steve Wilmer:

I think when people love what they do and how they do it, then they're going to excel and they're going to love what they do. Man, when I wake up in the morning, I look at my calendar. What time is my first training call? So I wake up in the morning, I'm at the house, I'm able to kiss my wife by, she heads off to her business. The kids can drive now they drive themselves to school. Wash my face, get washed up. Go make me a cup of coffee. I go upstairs in my office, close the door, turn on the technology and I am in umpteen cities across the country. Yeah, that's awesome. You know what I mean.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, I have those meetings every day. I love it, so I love it. So not you. But imagine. But think about what if it's an employee and their life is totally different? They get up in the morning. They're not kissing their wife or husband, you know. Goodbye, like their head off, their head off somewhere too. They may have to go to a building, right, and they'll do it, you know. But if you gave them the opportunity that they can do that at home, in the comforts of their own home, I personally think and like you said, production went up because they love what they're doing. Zero stress. I'm at home, I eat my lunch, I head back upstairs to my office, and technology has totally changed our business.

Tim Shoop:

When you walk through the halls of digital boardwalk, it's kind of scarce right. It's a bigger building than the amount of people that we have in there. It didn't used to be that it was packed at the seams. I was looking for new real estate when COVID hit. We were shopping, I was meeting with realtors, but what did you see? What did you notice on their screens other than the gauges and the remote activity that they were doing with our customers? Did you see any interactivity with video?

Steve Wilmer:

I saw the memory of the guy. Yeah, like they were talking to another guy, they're on teams, yeah.

Tim Shoop:

And they are constantly on video all day long using our bandwidth, and they do that for reason, so it creates a sort of camaraderie, yeah, like they're all sitting together, but they're there, are hundreds, of hundreds of miles apart. So it's beautiful. It's beautiful what technology is done.

Tim Shoop:

We're going to keep this moving forward, because we're only going into segment two and this is generally an hour to an hour and a half show at the longest. So we've got to get moving Before we do our second tasting, I want to talk about Steve's books. Did you bring any with you, by the way? I did not, okay, so that's all right, ladies and gentlemen.

Steve Wilmer:

But we're still going to give two away.

Tim Shoop:

Steve's going to give two books away. The first one is called 10 to Win and the second one is called Nobody Cares Work Harder.

Suds:

That's right, nobody Cares.

Tim Shoop:

That's funny because I think my dad used to say that to me, cause it's true. So we are going to throw when you see this episode come out. We're going to have a promo prior to the episode on social media with a QR code and if you go ahead and click that QR code, you can pretend you'll go into a drawing to win one of Steve's books, if that's all right. So, suds, go ahead and take it away. We're going to do the second beer.

Suds:

The second beer is from the unbranded brewery in Hialeah, florida. I didn't write this description, they did. It's the Hialeah Light American Light Lager, a beer made for Haleah. Very crushable, bright and refreshing, with a very present flavor throughout.

Steve Wilmer:

Why didn't you take credit for writing that? That was pretty cool.

Tim Shoop:

They wrote that they wrote it. He just doesn't know how to pronounce it?

Tim Schaffer:

Is it crushable, crushable?

Tim Shoop:

That's a light body. Now we went with a lot of lighter beers here in today's episode and it's a light-bodied beer. It's got a little bit of a tang. I was thinking the same thing.

Steve Wilmer:

I don't know if I taste it like a little pineapple or something, I don't know. Is it crushable?

Tim Shoop:

It's crushable. It is crushable. Here's the deal. We are beer connoisseurs, we're not beer makers, so we will bring the beer on, we'll drink it, we'll chat about it and we'll jump right back into entrepreneurship, business and technology. I kind of like it. I don't like it as much as the first one we just tried, but it's definitely a drinkable beer. It's a little different. So now we're going to get into technological savvy in entrepreneurship. Now Steve already talked about how technology has changed the efficiency of his evolution and not only producing revenue, but being able to connect with people using technology, and he specifically earlier talked about zoom. But I know, by watching Steve and following Steve, I've seen him use some other technologies and I'm hoping we'll get into that. Yes, steve's perspective on hiring and leveraging tech experts for business growth what do you look for in a tech expert? Let's start there and then we'll get into the pieces and parts 100%.

Steve Wilmer:

It's needing to do things in your business that you know that needs to happen in your business, but you don't either A or know how to do it or don't want to do it. Yeah, okay, so I mentioned zoom, but there are some other tech things that we use that I hired out, so they're companies, and again I have an assistant her name is Beth. Everybody needs to Beth, so Beth finds these companies Like for all of our. It's called infusion soft or max max, something I don't know, but they handle all of our clients, all of our customers, payments, stripes, authorized. net. I got a social media guy.

Tim Shoop:

You guys use. You guys use infusion soft, we use infusion. I'm very familiar with that software. I wasn't we don't use it personally, but I know it because some industry, some other MSPs use that software.

Steve Wilmer:

So it's infusion soft. And then it came out with another thing we transitioned to called max, something I don't. When I tell you I don't know anything about it other than on my phone, if I need to look up a client, I go, I click on this, it pulls the client up. You can man, I can target P. I want to target my clients that are just in the state of Colorado. Right, I want to target my clients that are just paying me this amount. I want to target my client. So when I tell you that technology is, it is, it is, we could not do our business without the technology that we have. Everything would be written in a dog on notebook If you left it up to Steve Wilmer, but I'm I'm smart enough to know that in order for me to continue to grow my business, I've got to have the technology piece. So you've got to hire people to help you solve the problems that you have in your business.

Tim Shoop:

So you rely on these people to take care of the technology part for you?

Steve Wilmer:

I don't know. I'm not big enough to be one of your.

Tim Shoop:

I'm just. I'm just, I'm just messing with it because I can, but no, I get it. So. So you, you rely on tech experts to tell you hey, this is going to work, we're going to do this, we're going to handle these pieces for you. And so when you hire these guys, tell me about, are you looking for just their skill set, or are you looking for other personal attributes other than just the skill set that comes with it?

Steve Wilmer:

So what I'm looking for is someone who can solve the problem, who can get the job done. So infusion soft, I didn't hire infusion soft, beth.

Tim Schaffer:

Okay, infusion soft.

Steve Wilmer:

Right, okay. So oh, how about this? How about this? There's a time that you may not even know what you need, right, you meant so when somebody says hey, here's what we need, we need a system that does this, that she uses these words and then I say uh, okay, why do we? Why do we need that?

Suds:

Right.

Steve Wilmer:

Because now it makes it a lot easier when you click, and I love it now. At first I'm like, why, why do we need that Now? It is so, so easy. So you need people on your team to tell you the technology that you don't have. That's going to make life so much better, going to make business, you know, so much better. So there are a few people in a few companies that we work with that I couldn't even tell you the name of yeah.

Tim Shoop:

But it just makes the business continue to move forward. But as a business owner and I know this from personal experience, not just because I'm a business owner and buy technology all the time as a technology company, but we deal with business owners and we deal with business owners that are buying our technology, and the first thing a business owner does is what.

Tim Shoop:

They don't look at what, the just what the technology solves. They look at what how much does it cost, and they they do. A savvy business owner doesn't just justify cost based on some broad spectrum of oh, it's not less than this or whatever they justify it. I'm gonna ask you this they justify it by what? And I think you told me earlier and I wanna hear you.

Steve Wilmer:

If it can solve the problem. So let me piggyback on what you just said, because this is so important. Again, we're talking to entrepreneurs, we're talking to business owners, people just thinking about starting a business. One of the worst mistakes that you can make and again I'm telling you because I made this initially One of the worst mistakes that you can make in analyzing your business is what does it cost? And I get that. But a better question is this Not only what does it cost, but what does it cost you in your business if you don't have it?

Tim Shoop:

Yeah.

Steve Wilmer:

You see what I mean.

Tim Shoop:

And where will it take me?

Steve Wilmer:

Oh, my goodness, where will it take? So if infusion costs, infusion soft costs, x amount of dollars per month, but if I didn't have it, you know how much it would cost me in revenue by not having it, how much time it would cost me to have to look up every individual.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, it's a great question how much time it would cost me.

Steve Wilmer:

You see what I mean.

Steve Wilmer:

In business owners, you're gonna make more happen than not, so why wouldn't you have it? And so I use that. So right now I have clients and so I'll tell clients. You want me to train your team, want my team? Okay, here's what it costs. And they go, what it costs it? Okay, and I say this what does it cost you if you don't? In that video that you watched, there was a point I said how much money did you guys leave on the table last year? Right, based on what I'm charging you to train your team, how much money did you leave on the table last year? That's what it cost you by not having me train your team.

Tim Shoop:

Have them look at all the processes, the workflow and how many humans in their company have to touch X, y and Z. Take the hours it takes every human in that company to touch X, y and Z and do what they need to do to get to the end result without that software. And then take their salaries and divide those hours into there and figure out what it actually cost from that perspective. And then take the additional what. You know how much time have we wasted by not having it? Factor it in over time, and it's a no-brainer almost every single time for a company to utilize technology that solves those problems.

Steve Wilmer:

That's what I'm talking about.

Tim Shoop:

That's a great question to ask, you know take and next time you go on stage say I talk to my buddy Tim I mean Tim, that's your other Tim friend Just tell him. Say he mentioned something that you know. To put a different spin on it, add up and how much it costs. You know what are the salaries of the people touching that and, divided among the hours that they're using Billable time or not. I should rephrase that non-billable time in a company is one of the biggest expenses on your payroll. In other words, if you have an employee that is doing all these mundane tasks that you're not billing out for, that costs the company money. And that's where all my dashboards and metrics come into place, because I know who is not billing time as much as the other guy. Because you're learning a lot about digital boardwalk right now, tim.

Tim Schaffer:

I have seen this already in how we have to do each ticket.

Tim Shoop:

Do you have a leaderboard?

Tim Schaffer:

Yes, I'm aware of all of it.

Tim Shoop:

Is your mug shot up on that leaderboard and does your mug shot move up and down on that leaderboard, depending on how many tickets people work and how much time they have in this stuff? I'll share that with you after today's presentation. That's and we do that because data, data, and I'm only gonna say this once data is the core of every business. If you can leverage that data to improve processes in your business, you are gonna get to the next step.

Steve Wilmer:

Yeah, I agree with that. You gotta know the data, gotta know the info.

Tim Shoop:

So let's keep moving on and let's talk about the principles of leadership and innovation and we've already kind of touched on these things, but we're gonna dive into some other things regarding the human element of it discussing leadership philosophies with a focus on smart hiring and innovation engagement or encouragement.

Tim Shoop:

So you know who Quint Studer is right, of course, me and Quint were chatting one day and Quint told me once in a I think we were sitting at a round table and he said I'm only gonna say this once and I've heard him say it on stage too, so it could have been there he said hire slowly, fire quickly. That resonated because I used to waffle around firing quickly because I always tried to save someone. But if you don't save someone and you have a bad hire, or if you try to save someone and they were a bad hire and they're already kind of checked out, they can become and it's also in your Chicago presentation they can become kind of a virus in your company. Oh yeah, they can bring down your top producers, right. So why don't we stop and talk about that? Let's talk about leadership philosophies with a focus on smart hiring and how smart hiring, and maybe touch on innovation a little bit with that.

Steve Wilmer:

Absolutely so. I 100% agree with what Quint Studer was talking to you about. I would listen to Gary Vee if you guys don't know what Gary Vee is. Gary Van Der Chuck, listen to that. And he talked about the same thing and he said the reason that business owners don't like to fire quickly like they should is because it says that you made a mistake and they're unwilling to. Oh, I never thought about it that way, I don't make mistakes.

Steve Wilmer:

What are you talking about? If you hire somebody, you bring them on. They're not doing what you want them to do, what you hire them to do. You're afraid to fire them because they show. Well, you made the mistake. You hired them. It's an ego check. It's an ego check. It's a pride thing.

Tim Shoop:

I say throw it out the window.

Steve Wilmer:

You have man, let me tell you something. Oh my gosh, tim, let me get me started. Leadership is so huge to me about being a business owner and have people around you that's working. Steve Jobs, I love it. Steve Jobs, one of my favorite quotes. He says you don't hire smart people and then tell them what to do. You hire smart people so they can tell you what to do, did you?

Tim Shoop:

catch that yeah. Yeah, did you catch that, yeah, nah.

Steve Wilmer:

And so there are too many leaders, too many business owners who want to be in charge, who want to make all the decisions my way or the highway. I know more than you do. They have an ego problem. They have an ego issue. Right, I hire people intentionally every watch this, guys, I'm gonna kill you. Who remembers I said I graduated high school with a what? A 1.9 GPA. I did not go to college. I have people on my team around me that have college degrees. Yeah, not one, they got a couple. I'm the only one in my company that does not have a college degree.

Tim Shoop:

So the difference that I'm hearing is you got people that are surrounding you that are book smart, yep, and you're street smart.

Steve Wilmer:

Book smart street savvy. Yeah, so listen to this. I gotta tell you.

Tim Shoop:

You're a street smart guy surrounded by book smart people, which makes you smarter than you think you are.

Steve Wilmer:

Tim, listen to this. I hired a Marine Corps officer. He was my CMO Chief Marketing Officer and I would always say this. I would always say man, I'm not that smart, man, I'm not that smart, I don't know that I'm not that smart. And here's what he says to me once he says, bro, stop saying that you're not that smart. He says we've all got degrees, college degrees, and we all work for you. I think that's pretty damn smart yeah.

Tim Shoop:

No, I agree 100%.

Steve Wilmer:

And I'm like oh, I guess that makes sense.

Tim Schaffer:

I think has nothing to do with smarts, not smart. It's just what you care about. You're just gonna pour energy into things you care about and you're gonna be better in the things you care about. It's as simple as that.

Tim Shoop:

Tim, I'm gonna ask you a question on air, yeah, and I'm afraid I might not get the answer I want, but I'm hoping I do. You've been here a little while now. Ego do I have a massive ego?

Tim Schaffer:

I think the exact opposite and I'm being as honest as I possibly can.

Tim Shoop:

Ego getting back to the ego scenario, ego is a business owner's worst enemy and there is a reason for that. I mean, we already talked about it. Ego gets in the way of executive decisions, and the other thing that gets in the way of executive decisions, if you're a founder, is that emotional attachment to your brand.

Steve Wilmer:

Now.

Tim Shoop:

I was emotionally attached to new vision. You brought up new vision early because it was my first born and I. It took my wife, kathleen you know, kathleen, it took her to talk me down and go. This is gotta go. You need to start new. You need to go back to the whiteboard and create and we need to figure out how to get rid of this, because it's not doing you a service anymore, it's not doing your because nobody was coming in the door anymore, because we were in the middle of a recession. So I'm like, wait a minute, honey, you want me to start? Sorry, I said honey, honey, she's got. She listens to all our podcasts.

Steve Wilmer:

You can't say honey.

Tim Shoop:

She found out she's getting roasted at this year's Christmas party because she listened to an earlier podcast, and I did it to see if she was listening to the podcast. And now she knows she's getting roasted for her 10 years of service at Digital Boardwalk at this year's Christmas party. So I'm gonna say it again.

Steve Wilmer:

But what was I?

Tim Shoop:

saying you said honey.

Steve Wilmer:

Oh, you were talking about Ego. Yeah, yeah, ego.

Tim Shoop:

So Ego gets in the way in that emotional attachment. I made a choice when I started Digital Boardwalk that I was not gonna become emotionally attached to any brand I create moving forward, because I can't make proper decisions that way. You try to hang on too long. It's kind of like the hiring firing thing you hang on too long. So, ladies and gentlemen, disconnect your emotional attachment from the brand. Only so much, though, because you still want the passion. Don't get rid of the passion. Just know that when your brand goes off to college and graduates and moves out, you need to know when to let go. So tasting number three Suds.

Steve Wilmer:

Let me say something that so finish with this. So think about it like this None of us is as smart as all of us.

Tim Shoop:

That's a good one.

Steve Wilmer:

So, just because you're the CEO, you're the president, you're the man who's in charge, the woman that's in charge. None of us is as smart as all of us. So I, in my company, the final decision on what we do is left up to me, but I don't make decisions regarding the company without getting feedback from the people on my team.

Tim Shoop:

That's smart. That's absolutely smart. We do the same thing here and I applaud you for that. Let's give him an applause.

Steve Wilmer:

I'd rather have a new Robert, okay.

Tim Shoop:

Well, you can get a new rock after you catch up with the rest of us and drink that damn beer, steve, so he's still working on number two. They're making me drink this, just so you know. Cheers my fellow nerds and beer lovers. Stay tuned for more nerds on tap. Oh, and one more thing Help us spread the nerdy love and the love for great brews by sharing this podcast with your friends, colleagues and fellow beer enthusiasts. Let's build a community that embraces curiosity, innovation and the enjoyment of a cold one.

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