Business
Welcome back to another episode of the Business and BBQ Podcast with Tim Herriage. On this episode, Tim interviews his friend Jeff Tennyson about entrepreneurship, work-life balance, organizational culture, and intentional leadership.Jeff has held basically every position in the book at organizations big and small, and the thing he has found that makes or breaks a company is its culture. Having a good culture where employees are respected, and the focus is on profit, growth, and fun is more impactful on the bottom line of the company than strategy every single time. Because of his diverse work experiences, Jeff has been able to observe great cultures as well as toxic ones, and he makes it his mission now, as the CEO of Lima One Capital to always foster an intentional and healthy culture. If you were to show up at their Greenville, SC, you might walk right into Bagel Mondays or Beer Cart Thursdays, which is not something that can be said of most companies.Lima One Capital is a nationwide lender to real estate investors who can apply for funding for (1) fix and flips, (2) rental properties, or (3) multifamily properties. Lima One currently has 130 employees, provides about 400 loans per month in 43 states, and is on track to loan over $1 billion this year. One of the other interesting and innovative aspects of their culture is the Leadership Lab meetings that occur once per month for Directors and above, where the focus is “fighting for the highest good of those we serve.” Out of this, Jeff created the customer service vision for Lima One where employees are to own every moment and invest in every opportunity.As he has gained more life experience, Jeff has been more intentional about adhering to a better work-life balance, prioritizing what is important to him during each season. He also talks about the pressure that many people feel to “have it all together”, but he brings up the point that no one knows what is going on in your back of stage even when your front of stage is picture perfect. To young entrepreneurs, Jeff emphasizes the importance of knowing what you want to measure and considering your capital base and the way that each decision might affect your risk profile. Having a handle on these two aspects of business and properly implementing your plan will help reduce a lot of the stress you might be carrying, and don’t forget that mistakes are only bad if you don’t learn from them.Links:Audible trial promotional link: https://www.audibletrial.com/thHubSpot promotional link: https://www.hubspot.com/th “Measure What Matters” book: https://amzn.to/2LH9txnConnect with Jeff: https://limaone.com/ https://twitter.com/jgtennysonConnect with Tim:https://timherriage.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/herriagehttps://twitter.com/timherriagehttps://www.facebook.com/timherriage/https://www.facebook.com/groups/timherriage/https://www.instagram.com/timherriage/ With business questions: ask@timherriage.comWith BBQ questions: bbq@timherriage.com