Insight
Timberlake: Audio-only training removes visual bias during internal messaging critiques
“We have such a visible bias that I might be like, oh, I really like Sean. So I like what he's saying, even though I'm not actually truly fully listening to what he's saying. So if we're trying to make sure that all of us are consistent with our messaging, we'r…”
Insight
Timberlake: Founders should intentionally omit pitch details to spark investor dialogue
“How can I intentionally leave out some information That they will immediately jump out and be like, well, wait a minute, what about this? Or wait a minute, I know some other company's doing this. Those types of obvious questions that might arise, sometimes it'…”
Insight
Timberlake: Consulting clients don't care if the founder delivers the work
“The good news and the bad news is clients don't seem to care. They're totally happy. So we could say, okay I trained these people well, or I picked them well, But also more on a realistic term, they just want someone to help them. And as long as the person can…”
Insight
Timberlake: Career advancement often shifts people away from their core skill sets
“As you move up the ladder, you do less of what you do well, and you wind up people managing or project managing, and those aren't necessarily people's skill sets.”
Insight
Timberlake: Test new messaging on trusted contacts, not top prospects
“Ideally what you do is you find the low hanging fruit, you find the people who are the safest bets, you try to find, you don't want to go with your highest potential Customer and let's be like, let's try on some new messaging with you. Let's find somebody who …”
Insight
Timberlake: Inconsistent messaging stems from complexity, abstraction, or poor onboarding
“And one is, I would question if everybody's saying it differently, that either the messaging is too complex or too abstract, or they're just not being indoctrinated into it.”
Insight
Timberlake: Pitching customer pain and loss beats pitching product solutions
“Often we focus way too much on the solution. And while that's intuitive, like here we are, we created a solution. We really want to picture, paint the picture of what it's like to not have that solution. What is happening right now that makes this so important…”
Disclosure
Timberlake: Using Contractors Reduces Founder Stress Compared to Full-Time Employees
“Most of my work as contractors, so I don't have to, you know, they get paid for what they do, which is a little bit less of a stress than having the employees that I know that you have.”
Insight
Timberlake: Forward-looking questions in team syncs bridge vision and execution
“Even if it's just two minutes worth of, hey, Jose, what's, what are you seeing as, I don't know, some question, some profound question of like, how do you see our company evolving six months from now? Or some version of let's, yes, get all the tasks done. And …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Timberlake: Forte Consulting collectively generates over $1 million annually
“So collectively we have done more than a million. My piece is less than half of that. So I'm more or less doubling mine, but yes each year though, I think what your real question is, is have we gone higher and then have we gone lower? And each year we've actua…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Timberlake: Forte Consulting grew about 20% during the pandemic
“And so as a result of increased volume at the same rates without the commutes our business grew, I'd say it probably grew 20 to 20, probably 20%.”
Insight
Hope Timberlake: Retaining independent contractors requires providing consistent work volume
“If you want to keep them, if you want to keep them with you and you want to make sure that they don't go and get a full-time job somewhere, you need to give them enough work.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Timberlake: IRS charged $500 daily penalty for late Solo 401(k) filings
“I did not find out until maybe six weeks ago that they were going to be charging me, that the IRS would charge me 500 dollars per day of when per day that I had not filed.”
Disclosure
Timberlake: Forte Consulting underpaid support staff, causing costly turnover
“We hire people at too low of a rate. And we we're in a bind because one of the ones that we'd hired at too low of a rate after four years left.”
Disclosure
Timberlake: Forte Consulting plans to reject a renewed acquisition offer
“In fact, we have a call in two weeks from the same woman from who approached us probably three or four years ago, who is approaching us about the same thing again. And I think we're even more aligned now. We're glad we didn't do it. And I think we're feeling e…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Timberlake: First virtual assistant expanded revenue by recovering missed invoices
“And then the second we had a virtual assistant, our business grew. And it was clear first couple of reasons. One, she was finding invoices and things that we hadn't followed through on, like, you know, really dumb things that, that should have been followed th…”
Insight
Timberlake: Brand decks are useless without clear communication skills
“We spend a lot of time and a lot of money on branding or outsourcing branding, and we get these beautiful decks in return. It's like, here's our brand, but if you can't Clearly, concisely, effectively communicate that to potential employees, or to investors, o…”
