March 17, 2026 – Latino Media Javier Marín and 7P Formula Neil Thubron

0:04 Intro 1 : Broadcasting from AM and FM stations around the country. Welcome to the Small Business Administration award-winning School for Startups Radio, where we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. w here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk, or passion. Jim Beach,

0:26 Jim Beach : Hello everyone. Welcome to another exciting edition of School for Startups radio. We got a fantastic show for you today and a bunch of great shows coming up. It’s amazing the great guests that we get. And again, I want to let everyone know I have nothing to do with it. It is a good system, which us entrepreneurs love, a good system. If you are going to start doing a podcast, do not go and find guests. Go and find publicists, because they will bring you guests repeatedly, year after year after year, and probably guests that you couldn’t get on your own today. First up, we have Javier Marin, who has written a book on the Spanish TV infrastructure, the entire world of Spanish TV and Spanish media here in the United States. I knew nothing about this, and it’s absolutely fascinating some of the things that have happened after that Neil to bigger on will be with us. He is an extreme sports fanatic and has built a coaching practice on that for business people, not for extreme sports people. Some of the things that he has done just boggle my mind, a I don’t remember any off the top of my head, but you know, a four day race, things like that, running through the desert, running through the Arctic in the middle of the night, just mind boggling stuff. Great, great interview, and then coming up with the rest of the week. We have the founder of furniture. com we have an AI legal expert to teach us about that. We have a financial planning segment. We’re going to do a really interesting segment, a segment on how this company can look at your social media and your profiles and all that and figure out what your behavioral DNA is. And that is fascinating. They did mine, and it turns out that I’m not a human. , it was fascinating. It nailed me. Absolutely nailed me. We’re going to be dealing with a new back procedure and introducing the surgeon who invented it. We’re going to talk some supply chain, because we have all the issues with the war and all of that, gasoline and a lot of other great stuff coming up. So it’s exciting week, and this is a great show. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you so much for being with us. We’ll get started in just a second.

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3:27 Jim Beach : We are back and again. Thank you so very much for being with us. I’m very excited to introduce another great guest to the show. Please welcome Javier Marin to the show. He has just released a new book called Live from America, how Latino TV conquered the United States. It is an amazing history of Univision and other Spanish-speaking TV channels. Javier also owns his own media company called Tiempo Company, which is operated out of Boston and Washington, DC, I believe. Javier, welcome to the show.

4:04 Javier Marín : How are you doing today? Very good, Jim. Thank you for the opportunity. It is

4:08 Jim Beach : My pleasure. My pleasure. So what is the overall state of Spanish-speaking media in the United States?

4:17 Javier Marín : The best way to understand the footprint of the Spanish-speaking media is to understand the immigration and community as it is right now. The community for Spanish-speaking people are right now around 62.1 million in the country. They’re spread out all around the country, and the Spanish-speaking media has been a catalyst for the growth and prosperity of that community, for good and for bad, because I understand there is also a force in the country. Has always been a force in the country to try to block the use of Spanish, but that. That force has not been effective because the Spanish language has been part of America even before 250 years. All right,

5:12 Jim Beach : And you said, for better or worse, that people have suppressed the Spanish language. Who is suppressing it and trying to stop this?

5:23 Javier Marín : That’s why it’s so important the book, not because I wrote it, but the history of Spanish-speaking media. Can answer that question by understanding the cycles of many years where there have been administrations out of white of the White House and in DC, trying to suppress the Spanish-speaking in in in the US since 1909 to the Roosevelt already tried to impose the English as the only language to be spoken in the country. But we have to understand that even the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, part of Wyoming, part of Utah, Texas has always been Spanish-speaking. And the constitution of the US do not have an official language. And the rendition of Mexico in 1884 was signed with a condition of allowed the use of a Spanish language. But to answer your question, there has always been a cycle where the government and other forces tried to suppress the use of Spanish. And when I say for the good of other words, is because there’s still, especially nowadays, a force trying to to diminish the use of a Spanish language in in the US, but, but it the importance of knowing the story is that that’s not new,

6:53 Jim Beach : Okay, so I think it’s just like sex Javier. I don’t care what you do in your bedroom. I couldn’t care less. But when you come out into the common public and are out on the street, shouldn’t everyone have the English language as the language of business and society? That’s one of the things we’ve always done. You can come, but once you get here, you need to Americanize and stop speaking Polish. You know you can do it at home, but you need to make sure your kids learn English so that they can incorporate 100% into the country. What about what are your thoughts on that I’m

7:38 Javier Marín : Completely agree the assimilation process of anybody coming to this country should be an important part the use of the language and the learning of the language. That’s definitely a fact. But at the same time, that doesn’t mean that you have to lose your language, as you perfectly said, and also your culture and and the part of the Spanish-speaking around the country and being heard more and more doesn’t mean a threat. The assimilation process is always important. We have always in my own media company, we have always been a flag. We have always show how important is to learn good English, and how can you immediately make more money by just learning the English? So it’s not just a matter of respect and embracing the system, but also economic benefits.

8:37 Jim Beach : Okay, so I 100% agree. You know, if you want to maintain your culture at home, that’s great. I think you should. But I think everyone should learn English. Are we doing a good enough job making English available, English classes to the school age kids and stuff, and then also the adults? Are we making an effort to help them learn English?

9:01 Javier Marín : Yes, and I’m not. I’m vice versa as well. You know, being bilingual is a superpower, so the learning of a Spanish for English speaking America, and the learning of English for Spanish-speaking America, it’s as the same level of importance and the same level of benefits and the type of encouragement and empowerment to learn English for adults and kids, it’s all around I think they have the force trying to suppress the use of Spanish is even weaker and weaker. Even though there is very vocal right now, it’s weaker and weaker because the number of Spanish-speaking people in the US. I mean, in the 1960s Hispanics were only 3.5 million right now is 62.1 according to the census, you always have to add about 15% more.

9:52 Jim Beach : Yeah, probably. So I would agree with that. All right, so what are the benefits of me learning Spanish as an. American. I don’t plan on going to Mexico or Spain or anywhere. So why should I learn Spanish? How is that a superpower for me?

10:10 Javier Marín : Literature, it’s always empower intellectual gain. And just to give you an idea, less than 1% of Hispanic literature is translated into English, and literature is always you know, will give you a lot of tools from from not only you know history, but also what’s happening in the Spanish-speaking world. Remember, you live in a country that is the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. So if you learn that language, that will definitely take you a little some advantages in the compared with the people that don’t do not speak it. That’s That doesn’t mean that everybody have to speak Spanish, but after you watch the halftime show of the world the World Cup, of the of the Super Bowl, that that give you an idea, it has been the largest watched halftime in the history of Super Bowl. And that doesn’t mean that you have to understand everything that was said over there, but at least to learn why was it in the Spanish and and the history will tell you how the language is so important in this country. So I don’t know if that encouraged, you know, you to learn Spanish, but your kids and your younger generations should learn Spanish, you know, not as an obligation, just as an empowerment and fulfill more intellectual capabilities. All right,

11:39 Jim Beach : Tell us about the media and how that has played a part in this story. So is Univision the most important outlet there

11:52 Javier Marín : Right now? It’s Univision and Telemundo and and the book live from America tells a history of both. But of course, Univision was the first one was the first catalyst of the growth of the of the community. And when I say catalyst, I really give a lot of importance to the evolution of Spanish-speaking media, TV, which is the national reach, because of their national reach. Remember that in the 60s, there were only three national TV networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, three allowed by the FCC. There were some rural, small TV stations around the country, but there were only three that sends National Information, national transmission. And these people, this family from Mexico, together with an American born citizen, decided to buy small TV stations around the country, and they built the fourth network under the nose of the government, under the nose of people like Rupert Murdoch, who was trying to build the fourth network and couldn’t, because he was not an American citizen until he became in 1985 so the saga is very fascinating, because it’s not only a Mexican family trying to expand their business in the US. It was the government of Ronald Reagan who also embraced the idea of having a national TV network in Spanish to spread their their their message. It was the the grit of corporate America, who also wanted the Spanish-speaking America to be prosperous and become a good market for them. So this country, as you know, is moved by two men, I believe in two main engines, the political and the economic engines, if you build, and that’s what they tried with the national TV network, if you build a massive just one Spanish-speaking market, which is what we know as the Hispanic market, one Spanish-speaking vote. What we know the Hispanic vote is a big power, and that’s that’s why I always said it’s not only the minds of a Mexican family who tried to, you know, to build a big network similar to what they had in Mexico, but also corporate America and the government, who believed that the Spanish-speaking community in the US should not be the typical immigrant enclave in other western world is part of America, and it has to be prosperous, and it is reflected on the power of the vote and the money.

14:21 Jim Beach : So let’s talk about the vote for just a second, what side or what party? I think maybe it’s changing. What party gets the most support from the Hispanics living in the United States. I think it has been automatically say Democrat, but I feel like that’s changed a little bit recently.

14:43 Javier Marín : Oh, it’s always changed. It’s a pendulum, depending on how the narrative is, is is being spread to the community, the narrative and the behavior of the government, it is always changing. It’s like the three. Networks in the US now we have more, you know, we have more, and with a little bit of, you know, you know what Fox tends to talk and you know what CNN tends to talk, but the big national networks try to, you know, to embrace both, both trending political side, but, but the Spanish-speaking right now, in this moment, is changing by ZIP codes, depending on on what’s happening to the community, depending what the leadership is is approaching them, how the leadership is approaching them. So right now, with the new technology, the cell phones, you know, of the world and the technology platforms is changing the way narratives are being spread. But still, Telemundo and innovation are the largest Spanish-speaking media in the US, and are the ones who have the biggest reach nationwide

15:59 Neil Thubron : And the

16:02 Jim Beach : Voting patterns. Does it change depending on how long someone has been in the United States, I feel like a good number of the people I’ve heard this, I don’t know if it’s true. I’d be interested to see a lot of the Hispanics that migrated here legally are very upset about illegal immigration.

16:25 Neil Thubron : Does that sound true to you?

16:28 Javier Marín : Yes, it is true. w you have to understand the language capabilities and what’s happening within the community. Out of the 60, let’s say 65 million, about 25 million do not speak good English now, according to the census, so the Spanish-speaking media is so important, and political leaders needs to give importance to this particular part of the community, the other 40 million that are bilinguals, And a lot of them are, you know, have legal status in the country, I would say almost all of them have legal status in the country. Are also being approached by political leaders and corporate America to get their vote and their pockets. So it all depends, right now, even by that’s why, instead of saying states or cities by ZIP codes, there are zip codes in America that are 70% Spanish-speaking seven zero. And I’m not talking about Florida and California, right.

17:32 Jim Beach : Tell us about your company. Tiempo company. What is your what are the what do you do? How much? Let’s just go with that. How about what do

17:42 Javier Marín : You do? Yeah, it started as a as a traditional newspaper in Boston, in 2003 Spanish-speaking newspaper. It was a community of about half a million Spanish speakers in Massachusetts with an important level of of education and proficiency in in the language. And then it grew. The company grew to Washington DC when Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post. The Washington Post used to own Spanish newspaper called tiempo Latino, I ended up buying it in 2016 so the company grew, you know, like seven times by this acquisition and and now it holds three operations, two locals, one in Boston and one in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. And the other is a national with a national reach, which is Tiempo Company. It’s all Spanish-speaking, and it’s local news in Massachusetts and the DMV, and then national news.

18:43 Jim Beach : All right,

18:44 Jim Beach : How were you able to purchase that, the company from the Washington Post? It sounds like that would cost a lot of money. Did it cost a lot of money?

18:54 Javier Marín : Well, it was a very friendly and imagine I was buying an outlet from Jeff Bezos. So the the idea was the sustainability of the newspaper, where to which was very important for him. And so it was me negotiating a, I would say a partnership. At that time, was a partnership with the Washington Post. They still print my my newspaper, but I used to have my office at the Washington Post for the first two years, we have a revenue share operation with inserts. And so it was mainly print, the whole transition into into digital, then the transformation of the business. It became under my umbrella and my family. But at the beginning was a very friendly transaction in which Bezos wanted to sell the Spanish-speaking paper of the Washington Post into the hands of somebody that will keep it sustainable and the organization of the post make sure that that I, that I could have it sustainable for several years. So they guided me on the on the process.

19:58 Jim Beach : Well, that sounds pretty. Be like a great arrangement. Did you actually get to meet Jeff Bezos as part of the process?

20:07 Javier Marín : Unfortunately, not. I did meet his closed circle of investment transaction. But I did. I did have the full support of the of the high management of the Washington Post at the time. Excellent.

20:21 Jim Beach : And how has it been since you left their umbrella? Has You said you’ve grown it seven times? Did I hear that?

20:29 Javier Marín : Well, no, when I bought it, it was already seven times bigger of my company in in Boston. So it represented a big growth for for my company. It has been going very well. I had to, I had to delegate the day to day to my second generation, not because I’m too old, but the technology goes so fast that in news media, if you don’t embrace technology, I wouldn’t say ahead of time, but at the same time, everything is changing. You will, you will lose, or you will fail, like many legacy and legacy, and traditionally has been failing, so now that is in the hands of my nephew, is under the leadership of the company as a CEO, and that’s how I you know, I started dedicating my time on writing the book about the history of Spanish-speaking media, Because the book wasn’t planned to be published just recently. The research that I’m publishing in this book, live from America, is a research that I have been working since I started my business in 2003 I wanted to understand how the biggest and most successful Spanish-speaking media did it, and that’s how I did this research for my own consumption, but then I realized that nobody have told the story, and that’s how I decided to, you know, to take some time and out of the day to day of the company that is on under my second generation, and take time to write the book.

21:57 Jim Beach : All right, I think it’s a good idea that I like the idea of the younger generation being more technically advanced, so well done. When I think of Spanish TV, the first thing I think of is the telenovela.

22:15 Neil Thubron : How important business.

22:18 Javier Marín : Telenovela is a big business and a big part of the of the narrative spread by the Spanish-speaking TV telenovelas is the is the right connection between the Spanish-speaking society and whoever owns this tribute and decide which telenovela will be spread. So it’s different. It’s much. It’s very different than English speaking soap operas. So just to give you a technical difference, soap operas in the US never end. The soap operas in the telenovelas has an ending. The social, socio economic living of our community is represented in the in the telenovelas. So telenovelas, news and comedy and of course, sports, soccer, are the key parts of the programming of Spanish-speaking and a lot of them are different, have different perspective than the English speaking programming, and that’s why it has you know, keep being successful.

23:20 Jim Beach : You mentioned sports and soccer is the Hispanic community is excited for the World Cup, or more excited about the World Cup than a normal American?

23:32 Neil Thubron : It’s big part

23:33 Javier Marín : Of like a religion in a Spanish-speaking communities, Spanish-speaking America is is into a huge celebration for the for the World Cup that will be played in Mexico, US

23:47 Neil Thubron : And Canada. Yes,

23:50 Jim Beach : Well, I’m more excited than I’ve ever been as well. I think I get mad at the American sports, and have become much more interested in soccer and some of the other sports. I think a lot of Americans are feeling that way. So where will the Mexican what Mexican venue will host the World Cup? Is it Mexico City?

24:12 Javier Marín : Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, three cities. The inaugural Game of the World Cup will be played in Mexico, and the final game we’ll be playing in New Jersey. And let me, you know, make a comment about what you just said about the the American sports in the Spanish-speaking, the US. You would, you would be impressed how baseball is so big and getting bigger and bigger. And an NFL, the American football, it’s also huge in the Spanish-speaking us. Actually the Super Bowl is more, you know, more and more the increasing viewers. So that frustration that you just expressed in the Spanish-speaking America is is different at the baseball. Football and soccer and and football and basketball are huge in the community. Hockey, not so much.

25:09 Jim Beach : Yeah, I don’t like hockey either. Do you think that? Well, which American League will be the first one to have Mexico City affiliate or franchise. You think that NFL will be there soon, or baseball? I think NFL is trying very hard to expand.

25:32 Javier Marín : Yeah, I would say NFL will be the first one. Baseball is already working with affiliates. I was just in El Paso doing a book presentation and signing bars and novels over there, and I saw I was taken to visit the baseball stadium in El Paso, and the team is called El Paso Chihuahua, which is the two regions in the border, and it’s a very successful baseball team. It’s from the franchise of the San Diego Padres AAA team. That’s just to give you an idea how you know both countries are connected through sports

26:09 Jim Beach : And become more connected with each other. I think it’s a great way to help with the simulation that we were talking about. Correct?

26:18 Javier Marín : Yes, right. What’s

26:21 Jim Beach : The future for your business? For the Tiempo, what are your goals? There for your nephews?

26:29 Javier Marín : Technology is key, and technology is changing by the hour. AI, it’s disrupting the news and information for good and for the worst. Again, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, especially in the Spanish language, so our role as a company and the leadership is to embrace technology and at the same time solidify the reputation of the brand that has more than than three decades in the audience. So I believe that the future for Spanish-speaking news media, because of the technology changing, requires a highly reputational brands and personalities that that, in other words, I can easily see that in a year, or less than a year, you will hear your voice not being coming from you because of AI somebody is going to do a fake Jim somewhere. So the people, the people to really believe in what Jim is saying, will go to your channel, to whatever you tell your people that your channel is the right one. So I believe that the brandings of news, especially with with high reputation, will will survive. But embracing the ever changing technology, for example, we have a rule in the company that we do not sign any contract of a technology use for more than a year, because everything is changing.

28:06 Jim Beach : Have you ever had any thought in publishing an English version of your product?

28:12 Javier Marín : It is actually of the product on the company, the book? Yeah, it is published in both languages, Spanish and from tiempo, the

28:20 Jim Beach : You know, the magazine, the newspaper that you do in Spanish, should also be in English, I think, so that English people can become more ingrained with what your message is and what’s happening throughout the Latino community.

28:35 Javier Marín : Yeah, technology is being so effective in the translation world, Jim, that I can assure you that in less than a year, you will be able to read whatever we said in very good English with no need of me doing one extra effort. Excellent.

28:54 Jim Beach : Javier, I hope your book sells very well. It’s a really interesting topic, and thank you for being with us. How do we find out more and get in touch with

29:01 Neil Thubron : You. Well, the best way is

29:03 Javier Marín : That, yeah, the book is available in the Amazon Barnes and bles of the world. And I would love if your your listeners, have a bookstores in your neighborhood, tell your bookstore to get the book. It’s very has a very effective distribution, but at the same time, it has a website, live from America book. com, over there, you can find not only events related to the book, but also where is for sale, and also me. Personally, I have a sub stack account, Javier Jay Marin, and in that that channel, you can also contact me directly. Thank you so much, Jim for the opportunity.

29:40 Jim Beach : Thank you for being here and great story. We’d love to have an update in a year or two. So thank you very much. Thank you, and we will be right back. You.

30:00 Intro 2 : Olis, well, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a wonderful question, actually.

30:07 Intro 2 : Oh my gosh, I love the opportunity to do this. Thank you, Jim, wow, that’s, that’s, that’s a great one. You know, that is a phenomenal question. That’s a great question. And, and I don’t have a great answer, that’s a great question. Oh, that is such a loaded question, and that’s actually a really good question.

30:24 Intro 2 : School for Startups radio,

30:28 Jim Beach : Welcome back to the show again. Thank you so very much for being with us. Very excited to introduce my next great guest. Please welcome Neil Thubron to the show. His last name is T h, u, b, r, O, N. He is an executive coach and mentor. He is combining military and extreme sports and the ability to teach leadership and sales to one is His name is a Viking name, and I just thought that was really appropriate for what he is doing now with the extreme sports and the military and all of that. He has a company called X, N, E, R, G, which is part of another company called extreme energy, and both of those are designed to help people become better and achieve more. He has a 7p learning method, and hopefully we can talk about that today. Neil, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

31:28 Neil Thubron : Yeah, fantastic. Thanks, Jim. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m absolutely fantastic today. Thank you.

31:33 Jim Beach : And he is best selling author of a book called Yukon, and that is where I think he talks about the 7p method. Tell me about your extreme sports and how that fits into the larger picture for you today.

31:48 Neil Thubron : Okay, all right, yeah, so I’ve always been interested in pushing limits. And you know, pushing limits physically is one of the easier things to focus on, and I guess over the over the years, you know, I did, I did quite a lot with the military and lots of hard physical stuff with them. And then I did my first marathon that led into ultra marathons and Iron Man triathlons and and then that wasn’t enough, and I wanted to do something that was a multi day. So I got into desert running and did the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara desert in Morocco. Did a few desert marathons, did some 100 mile runs, including one around Mont Blanc. And then my my big 300 mile achievement was in the just below the Arctic Circle in the northwest part of Canada, where I managed to win that event. But it’s always been about pushing the boundaries, finding what you’re capable of, and yeah, just learning a lot about yourself through physical endurance. Unbelievable.

32:55 Jim Beach : I can’t imagine doing those things. You’re much more of a man than I am. That sounds crazy, but you’re the desert running, and that’s a multi day event.

33:08 Neil Thubron : Yeah, it’s six days. Oh my, six stages. Seven days, carrying all your food, clothes, sleeping, everything except water. You get given water on Route. But I wouldn’t say it’s about being more of a man. It’s just a different learning how yourself and express yourself.

33:27 Jim Beach : Well, I think it’s that you’re more of a man than I am, so I’m just gonna stick with that.

33:33 Neil Thubron : All right, thank you.

33:35 Jim Beach : And tell me about the coaching that you do, and how do you I don’t know, do you coach low life people like me who can’t run that far? Talk to me about your coaching business. Yeah.

33:48 Neil Thubron : So I don’t personally coach people to run or to do extreme events. I do have some coaches that do that in my ultra running business, but no, my focus is on helping founders, business owners, business leaders, to develop and be better in what they’re doing or try or be ready to transition to the next stage of whatever they want to do. So that’s the executive mentoring and coaching that I do today, and it’s a real variety of helping. You know, founders just starting companies and struggling with some of the mindset that’s needed for that through to those that are trying to scale and and they’re they’re trying to move themselves out of the business, rather than working in business, and build a leadership team. So I help them with that. And just recently, I’ve started working with founders when they get involved in selling to VC or PE firms, and they’re having to transition out of businesses and get used to being not the owner and founder of the business anymore. So that’s the kind of stages I work with people at.

34:58 Jim Beach : All right? What are they lacking? Lacking when they come to you?

35:01 Neil Thubron : Well, that’s a really good question. I think typically, what they’re

35:07 Neil Thubron : Lacking is, actually, that’s a good, great question. What they’re lacking is a strategy for how to get to what they need to get to, and that quite often comes from the fact that they don’t know what they don’t know. So there’s a blind spot, and that blind spot might be because they’ve never done it before, or they just have had time to think about it, and so it’s helping bring light to some of that dark in the blind spots. That’s a key part of coaching and mentoring, and I think the other part is having a clear direction and intention from where they want to go personally, not with their business, but how they want to grow personally, and where they want to take themselves, their family, their life. And that’s quite often they haven’t thought about that. They know exactly where they want to take the business, but they haven’t thought about what does that mean for them and how they want to develop their lives.

36:00 Jim Beach : Why does their life at home matter?

36:04 Neil Thubron : So one of one of the basic principles I start coaching is you’ve got to start at the bottom, the foundations of the pyramid. Because if you’re physically, physical health and mental health are not strong, and your relationships are not strong, then the motivation the person who turns up to work is a very different person. And when it comes to planning the future, the future is is not just about me, it’s about we about the people you’re going to help on the way, or the people you’re bringing with you the life you want to create. And it’s actually the first P, and the 7p formula you you mentioned is purpose, and being absolutely clear on the purpose of your why. And the most important purpose is not why, it’s good for me, but why. Who else is going to benefit from this?

36:59 Jim Beach : Is there a skill set that your clients need to work on sales or leadership, or is it just studying themselves? Do they have new skills to learn as well?

37:12 Neil Thubron : Yeah, yeah. Again, another great question. So leadership is definitely part of it, especially for people who are founders that are slow, slowly growing their business, and they might have three or four employees to start with, and then that scales to maybe 1220, and then they’ve got to bring a layer of supervision in. And the way you manage individual contributors, and the way you manage especially in a small business where they’re doing multiple jobs, multiple tasks, and the way you manage first line managers or supervisors is a different skill set, and you don’t go and hunt that and learn that a coach or a leadership coach or mentor can really help. Just give you some structure, some techniques to help build that leadership layer and how you develop that management system that allows that layer to work as well. Because the worst thing you can do is delegate someone and then interfere. You need to delegate someone and then empower and that’s one trouble with.

38:21 Jim Beach : Well, I love that line. You can’t the worst thing you can do is delegate and then interfere. We will tweet that one out. Neil, I love that line. That is great advice. Great advice. I’m wondering how much of the military and your leadership that you learn there can apply to someone who’s not in the military and just the CEO of their little business. You know, I think that you having all of this military training, is it? How does it transfer to someone who doesn’t have military training and who’s not as strong as you perhaps, I don’t mean physically strong, I mean emotionally, mentally, all of that.

39:06 Neil Thubron : Yeah, and I think, and I see this in pretty much every day, with whoever I work with, what, what? One of the things you learn at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst when you go through there doing your officer training is about how you how you delegate responsibility, and how you enable people to get on and do their role, but trust them to get on and do it. So if you’re giving someone, if you need to get a task done, as a platoon commander, you go to your sergeant. You say, Sergeant, this is what I need the platoon to do. Or you go get the corporals together that manage the three sections, and you say, right, this is what I need you to do. What you do is you manage through hierarchy, and then you trust the hierarchy to deliver I think that’s a key skill that you learn in the military, that you. That is difficult for people in the normal business world to just give that clear instruction and then let them get on with it. And so that is a that’s definitely something that I learn, and I do every day when I’m working with people, is that’s what something I learned in the Royal Academy Sandhurst, and that’s something that I try and instill in people every day.

40:25 Jim Beach : All right, you’ve given me a task, Neil, and you’ve walked away, and then a week later, you see something very troubling that indicates that I’m not doing it correctly. How do you respond?

40:36 Neil Thubron : Yeah, I’m not someone who gives instructions to people. Coaches don’t tell people what to do. Coaches people help them see a way forward.

40:46 Jim Beach : But you’re with businesses and employees, so maybe not for your clients. Maybe you have an employee or something that’s just you can tell they’re not on track for that project.

40:58 Neil Thubron : Yeah, and I get most common questions I get from people is, you know, I’ve given this person this task to do, and they haven’t done it the way I wanted them to, or they just haven’t got on with it. And it all comes down to situational leadership. So there’s a model, which I was taught in back in the 90s, when I did my first management course called situational leadership and how you delegate. It’s really important how you delegate to each individual. If someone is new and they’re they don’t understand exactly what’s needed. Of them, they might be new to the task, they might be new in the role, new to the skills that they need. You have to give them some real detail, and then you have to quite closely manage them. Someone who’s really experienced at the other end of the scale, they may need just a one line instruction, so I need this by then, and then they go and do it. But if you swap that round, if you micromanage or manage in detail, the person who’s very experienced, they’re going to be pretty unhappy with that. And if you the least experienced people, if you just give them a one-line instruction, they’re going to be lost and then, and then following it. The most important thing is the management system to track what they’re doing. Don’t just give them a task and let them go. You have to just check in to make sure they’re okay, and it’s happening

42:19 Jim Beach : All right, now I’m looking at your book, UConn, achieve any big goal using the 7p formula for success, and it’s five star rated on the Amazon thing. And I just released a book about five, six months ago, and I was so impressed with my cover. I love my cover. And then I’m looking at UConn, your cover. Damn. Your cover is better. Neil, it’s the coolest picture of you ever. Your eyelashes are frozen solid with ice. Oh, my God, this picture is so cool. Looks like you’re the studliest man on earth in this picture. I’m gonna have to redo my cover. w, maybe I’ll just put you on my cover. Walk us through the 7p formula for success and sales success as well.

43:08 Neil Thubron : Yeah. Okay, so the 7p formula for success was something that I came up with on the second halfway through the race, and I just gone through, you know, an incredibly hard evening. It got down to minus 55 degrees centigrade. I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit, but it’s very cold, and it was a really tough evening. And out of 45 people that started, only six people were still going after that first night. And as I was going into that second afternoon, it just occurred to me that I keep managing to achieve these big, difficult, almost impossible goals. So there must be a formula I could use to help others, and that was why I came up with the 7p formula. And it was very straightforward. I’ll just quickly run through. So the first P is purpose. Know the why? Know why you’re doing this for you and who else is going to benefit from it. The second P is preparation, and do specific preparation that is relevant to what you’re going to do and learn from others as well during your preparation. The third P is plan, but build a detailed plan of how you’re going to get from A to B, or in a business, how you’re going to get from zero to your first 100,000 or your first 500,000 so build a plan. Then the fourth P is pledge, and this is where you step over that start line. You make a commitment. This is not a nice to have. This is not a might. This is a must. So you step over that start line, your physiology changes. You know, your chest puffs out. You look up, and that’s when you know there’s only one way to go, and that’s forward. The fifth P is perception, because no plan survives contact with the enemy. So you’re always having to adapt your. Plan and always having to change the sixth P is about pain, building a pain strategy before you step over the start line, so that you’ve got the mentors to speak to. You’ve got something that’s going to build you up when you’re feeling down, that’s going to help you through those stressful times. Could be music, it could be food, it could be something that’s going to help you, but plan it early on, so you’ve got a pain strategy. And then the seventh piece is perseverance, because you only ever fail if you stop.

45:26 Jim Beach : And you thought of that while running across the desert,

45:30 Neil Thubron : Well, the Arctic.

45:33 Jim Beach : How does your mind? Is that? How you get through the pain and the struggle? By putting your mind on something else, distracting yourself from the pain that you are enduring.

45:46 Neil Thubron : Yeah, yes, for sure, because you’ve got, I mean, I had six days and 19 hours, and a lot of that was in my own head, on my own, in the dark most of the time as well, because it was in February and part of Canada. So yes, absolutely, I’ve got a lot of time to think. But also, you know, part of the perception when you’re doing an event is you’re constantly got this dashboard going in your head. You’re constantly thinking, especially in those temperatures, you know, how my feet feeling, does everything okay, how my hands when was the last time I had something to drink? When was the last time I had something to eat. There’s a corner coming up. So if I take the short part of this corner, you’ve always got stuff going on in your head that is occupying your mind about the actual event. But yeah, I had lots of time to think, and I kept up with that seven step strategy.

46:37 Jim Beach : I couldn’t do that. I would, I would not remember the steps after a mile, and then again, I’m amazingly impressed with your ability to do that when you are facing I want to change the topic a little bit. Yeah, what’s the difference between entrepreneurs and CEOs from a fortune 500 company? How do you treat entrepreneurs differently, and what do they need to think about differently than someone who’s planning on being an executive at a big company?

47:08 Neil Thubron : Yeah, I think the simple answer to that is the people I work with who are in large corporates or within a corporate infrastructure, you’ve got to learn how to manage other people. And so you’ve got to learn how to manage egos and departments, and you’ve got to learn how to manage upwards the politics and be Be careful with with how you’re saying things and what you’re saying. Really understand other people as well as an entrepreneur, as you’re growing, you can build that leadership team around you, and typically your person at the top who is setting that culture, that structure. The Challenge entrepreneurs have is, how do I build the right culture and the right team with the right values as we grow. And as I’m not involved in everything, I think those are the two differences.

48:05 Jim Beach : All right, very interesting. When you are working with a client, what do you do when they disagree or push back and say, I don’t think that parts for me.

48:15 Neil Thubron : Yeah, and I’ll come back to, you know, I’m not, I’m not giving someone a script or telling them this is what you need to do. So simply, someone will come to me with a problem, and we will go through, you know, coaching process to help them with that problem. And if we’re not getting it, I might say, well, what would happen if you did this? Or what would happen if this person said that? Or I might use a model like, you know, the even covid Eisenhower matrix or something like, just to help them think of a different way of looking at something. So I don’t this. I’m not giving someone a recipe for how to do it, and then I my way, the only way my job is to coach and mentor them to what works for them,

49:01 Jim Beach : All right, what if you disagree about what works for them? They say, I feel this. And you go, and I don’t know about that didn’t work for the other 42 people that I saw try that, yeah, I think

49:15 Neil Thubron : That happened to me yet, but I think if it did, I would probably

49:21 Neil Thubron : Help the person who’s thinking in a different way, and I guess I would support them, actually. But if you think that’s right for you, and you think that’s right for your business or your personality or leadership team, you know better than you know that better than anyone. So if that’s what you think, right? Let’s try it, but let’s test it before you maybe before you massively commit and damage something. Why not just try it a little bit first, just to see if it works? All right,

49:51 Jim Beach : So totally bizarre question, are you Team Harry or team William? What’s. King William? Yeah, me too. I can’t stand Harry and that woman that he married, and when he mentioned Sandhurst, I’ve been watching a lot of British history television recently. I’ve just fascinated by it. And you know, all, I guess all of the royal family, the males ended up at Sandhurst. I think even William, I’m not William Henry. Harry was invited to he didn’t qualify, right?

50:28 Neil Thubron : , he was a helicopter pilot. He threw a patches,

50:33 Jim Beach : Right, but didn’t I thought I saw somewhere that he didn’t qualify, but they let him in anyway, because he was royalty. Maybe, I don’t know. So tell us about Sandhurst. What? What is that experience like? Is it? You know, here in America, we have Hell Week, or, you know, when they torture the cadets and the new recruits and make them stay up all night in the water, upside down while parachuting? Yeah, tell me about Sandhurst, for someone who, you know, just thinks of it as the scary hell place that I would get kicked out of in two minutes.

51:09 Neil Thubron : Yeah, it’s, it’s very British traditional, if you can imagine, you know, big wood, wood panels, walls with leather chairs and oak tables and lots of silverware everywhere, and, you know, lots of pictures of famous kings and queens and soldiers and lots of battle scene paintings around it. So it’s a great big white house, very famous White House. And at the front of the house for the passing out parade. A white horse rides up the steps into the building. And actually, the room I had when I was at Sandhurst was right above that, that famous entrance. But no, it’s, it’s, you learn a lot about leadership. You learn a lot about soldiering. You learn a lot about building a team and being part of a team. You learn a lot about yourself and what you’re capable of. So it’s a great training environment, just the same as West Point is in the US.

52:09 Jim Beach : Okay, I have a feeling that it does. It just seems to me that it does better than West Point or the Naval Academy.

52:16 Neil Thubron : I don’t know, I don’t know how I judge that, to

52:20 Neil Thubron : Be honest. Yeah,

52:23 Jim Beach : We only have about a minute left. Neil, what have you not talked about that you would like to get out right now? What else do you need to share with the audience?

52:33 Neil Thubron : So you mentioned my book and my you know, that’s an opportunity there to try and I’ve just wrote that to help people with big goals or any goal, because what’s big for me is might be unachievable. For someone else, it might be doing your first 5k or going for a promotion or something. So whatever it might be, the opportunity to grow that MP for me. So that’s in my book. You can find out lots about me on my website as well. Neilthubron. com and yeah, I’m always looking to try and help people achieve more in their life than they thought they could. So I guess that’s the last message I’d like to leave.

53:18 Jim Beach : Fantastic, very well. Said, give us the URL and the social media contacts that you want to share again,

53:24 Neil Thubron : Yeah, so it’s neilthubron. com. Is my website, and you’ll find me on Instagram just by searching for my surname, because I’m the only Neil Thubron around.

53:33 Jim Beach : All right? And again, that’s t, h, u, b, r, O, N Neil. Thank you so much for being with us. It’s a great, great story, incredibly impressive, and thanks for being with us.

53:45 Neil Thubron : Absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me on Well, we are out53:48 Jim Beach : Of time for today, but very appreciative that you are with us and to our great guests. Go make a million dollars, and we’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.