Do you really need to be born into an elite family, have an MBA from Harvard or a corporate legacy to be a truly successful executive?
Welcome back to Speak Out, the podcast for high-performing introverts, including you, social introverts where we reveal the charisma and communication secrets of A-listers so that you get the recognition and the opportunities you have earned.
I am your host, Laura Camacho, your magical executive presence coach, godmother, and strategist.
By the end of today's conversation with Timothy Rexius, you will learn.
You will know how to build trust and loyalty with your team, even when you're just starting out.
Three signs that you can tell someone is ready for leadership, ready for more responsibility.
How to give them ownership.
And finally, practical tactics to develop your people, boost performance and create a culture where everyone wins.
Well, we have a multiple entrepreneur on the show today, Timothy Rexius, and he is going to talk to us about having presence when you don't have any privilege, when you don't know what you're doing.
Maybe you maybe your dad wasn't a corporate leader.
Maybe your mom was not president of Citibank.
We're going to learn about that.
So welcome to the show, Timothy.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm honored to be here.
No, it's great.
So how did you learn the importance of presenting yourself with authority, but not too cold?
You know, you got to have that balance of warmth and competence and confidence.
How did you figure that out?
I mean, honestly, I think it comes from a place of gratitude as much as anything.
I grew up in a great household, but when I was out at 18, you were out, you were on your own, and that's it, the safety net.
And I struggled.
I ended up homeless in my car when I was 19 for about six months.
I lived in a 1983 Delta 88 Oldsmobile.
I always joke with the high school kids.
When I speak at high schools, I'm like they were like oh my goodness.
I'm like, yeah, but back then we made cars, right?
They were 38 feet long.
It was like a two bedroom apartment.
So I had plenty of room.
We glided down the highway.
And so I really built myself up from the ground up, and it gave me a sense of gratitude for the people around me that I worked with, that I partnered with.
And as I've owned four companies and we're doing business now in 16 countries and I have a very large network, I remember what it was like.
I've never forgot the cold nights and the hungry stomach.
And it just makes me more appreciative of those around me that are willing to drive like I drive and reward them with that type of leadership.
Oh, that's great.
That is fantastic.
So you're saying that you're able to show up fully because you have gratitude for being there for the other people?
And I guess that switches the focus from you to other people, right?
Okay.
But so how does that apply?
I'm sure there must've been a situation where you were intimidated or the stakes felt high.
Like if you bombed it, you were going to not be in a good place.
How did you deal with that?
It really stems back to.
I left self-employment in my twenties, worked for a big company.
I did very well.
I succeeded very well.
But you get into some of these situations where you have managers where it's do as I say, not as I do.
Yeah, yeah.
And I just never respected it.
I mean, I gave the respect.
I was raised right.
I'm always going to respect people.
But deep down, I'm like, okay, that's a lesson on how I don't want to do this.
And it's very easy when you get to be the boss to not do those things, to feel like you're above it.
In a lesson.
It was about 10, 12 years ago and I had some employees and they didn't realize I was Texting.
First became a thing, right.
And texting, for all the younger people out there, texting wasn't always a thing, okay?
Correct.
And texting became a thing and I think we were all bad at it 12, 13 years ago and not realizing who's in the group text.
And so I had employees at my retail locations and I put in the group text hey, the toilet is clogged at the Maple store.
And an employee at the time who I liked a lot was like well, I don't get paid enough to to plunge toilets.
And they didn't realize I was on the group text.
So Saturday morning, there I am.
And he's like, what are you doing?
I'm like plunging the toilet.
I wouldn't want to put you out.
And I just kind of smiled and I, he goes, no, I got, no, that's okay.
I'll do this.
And so I did, I cleaned it up and he goes, okay, lesson learned.
I go, not quite yet.
I go one.
You're only ever going to rise up if you realize that every person in an industry, in a company, is just as important as the next.
It's a machine.
You can have a great car and a great engine and great gas, but if you have no tires, you're going nowhere.
And it doesn't matter what it is.
And you have a great car, great tires, great gas, but there's no door handle.
You're not getting in the car.
Every part is important.
And I said, two, I have six children.
So trust me.
You're not going to gross me out.
They do more disgusting things than anybody else on the planet.
So it doesn't bother me.
And I think because of that I've got such phenomenal loyalty from my staff and my business partners, because I like to be the first one to work.
I don't want to be outworked.
I worked very hard to get here and it wasn't just to show off.
It was because I think we can do something together.
And because I had a lot of bad managers.
To be honest with you, where I'm like okay, I like where he did this, but I don't like these four things.
I'm not going to do that.
So, since you have several companies and you have a lot of employees, what is it that, when you have somebody that you know is ready for senior leadership not team lead, but like somebody who's really ready to step up, versus somebody who thinks they are but they're not
I'm glad you brought that up.
So every business partner I have in every company that I own is a former employee.
All of them.
Oh, really?
All of them.
And so I look at employment differently.
Employment of anyone is a long-term future business partner interview.
And if you really look at every employee, everyone on your team, as an asset, not a liability, and your job is to foster them into the best version of themselves.
And if you're going to pour that much time and energy into someone and let them go work for your competition no no no no, no.
You see talent.
You find a way to partner them up.
Because Owners put in time.
Owners don't have 40-hour work weeks.
Owners do the extra things.
They understand that sense of urgency when someone leaves a social media message or an email, or the extra care when you're shipping out a box out of the warehouse just for a direct-to-consumer order off the website.
Doesn't matter what it is.
Employees clock out and forget and don't worry about it until Mondays.
I make deals with my high school age employees, my college age employees.
Really?
Tell me.
I say, tell you what, you do a killer job from here at this retail store.
I want you to list the top three things you want to learn in the next six months, whether it's got to do with this job or not.
And I will go out of my way to teach you those three things.
Whatever it might be, videography, social media, public speaking, event management, doesn't matter.
We're doing crazy things all the time.
I want to be a page in your storybook.
And if you find someone with such immense talent, then you're going to find a company to start for them.
Otherwise, you're foolish for pouring that much energy and not capitalizing on the long-term investment.
And so when I really get to the point where I give them a budget and then you really see how somebody's going to operate, because it's not even their money
And if they'll take extra care with your money when it's your money together as a partnership.
Now you know what they're made of.
And so you get into getting to know your people.
It's not a superficial relationship.
It's a family.
A lot of people say that though.
A lot of people say it and they think it's good for the mission statement, for the website or the wall when they have guests come in.
I look at it differently.
Without all of these people, my job would be next to impossible, if not impossible at all.
Another thing you said about seeing employees as an asset reminds me of another guest who works in technology.
He gave this metaphor similar to what you're saying, but I think you'll appreciate it.
He said to see yourself as an investor and your team as your portfolio, and that you want to deliver the best ROI for the company right.
I look at employees like this.
Everyone's seen a social media video back when cryptocurrency first came, a thing like 15 years ago, right?
And somebody spent like 60,000 Bitcoin to buy a Domino's pizza.
And now we're like, you're nuts.
And he was so cool.
So I look at it as, okay, when you first get hired, you're Bitcoin at a penny.
I'm not going to sell you off at a hundred bucks.
I want to see you through to your full investment.
And as the CEO of these companies, I can tell you right now, I mean, yeah, I'm very busy.
My schedule's insane, but I have never been bothered by an employee of any sort in any phase of their employment, coming up like hey, I really want to learn this.
Or I hate to bother you, but this really interests me.
If I can ever be a part of that, just let me know.
I'd love to learn that.
I have never gone like, are you kidding me?
No, I'm like, hey, that's awesome.
Let me get you in touch with this person.
Yeah, but once you sit down for this meeting, because you're showing me that you want to learn something.
And Every great CEO I've ever met, I've met some of the biggest.
They love to teach.
What brings you joy?
What's your outside of monetary goal?
That's also too.
Okay, let's say I make you rich.
This is the one that gets them.
What are you doing with it?
Ooh, the ghost faces, right?
And they're like, well, what are you doing with yours?
And I'll tell them immediately what my plan is.
I already know.
Wife and I are giving it all away.
We already know what we're doing.
All of it.
And my kids are part of this.
They understand the whole goal.
I have family meetings once a quarter with my children and their spouses or their boyfriends girlfriends, whatever.
I'm like, okay, here's the crazy things we're doing.
Here's the end goal.
And they always know what we're reaching for.
Your company sound very homey to me.
Like I feel already that I could show up and have a job there.
I'll put that as my goal.
If the podcasting coaching ever fails, I'm moving to Omaha.
But what about someone who is afraid of public speaking, afraid of speaking up?
They just lack confidence.
How did you overcome that confidence gap?
Were you just born with confidence?
Does sleeping in your car give you confidence?
I failed speech in high school twice.
And now it's all I do.
I love doing it, but it's also, I think a lot of this got to do with passion behind my paycheck.
I like what I do.
I think it's honorable.
All my companies are mostly surrounded by about health and nutrition and wellness and healthy eating and gyms and fitness.
And I think helping somebody look and feel their best is honorable, but not everyone's got the same skillset, and nor do I want them to.
And so when I speak at the high schools universities, the first thing I say is you need to have an honest audit of yourself.
What are you good at and what are you not good at?
What are you afraid of?
And does that mean you're not good at it or you're just afraid of it?
There's a difference.
Like my wife, who's gotten so much better at public speaking.
But when we first got it, she's like, oh, please, God.
And my daughter's kind of inherited that.
So I do these public speeches.
I'm always like, hey, everyone wave at my daughter.
And they just turn those white.
And just trying to break them out of that habit.
And I just told them.
I'm like, if you're doing everything with clear intentions, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Don't ever lie.
If you don't know something, just be honest.
Trying to pretend to be something that you're not is that?
Imposter syndrome is where people really get that fear they're going to get busted out.
And here I am, I have all these accolades and I get asked questions.
I'm like, honestly, I don't know the answer to that question.
And people are like, well, it's like the honesty, it's fun.
And It's identifying.
There needs to be a good number two and a good number three and a good number five and a good 10th person in line.
You need those people.
I mean, the machine doesn't work without it.
Not everyone can be the steering wheel in a car.
Somebody has to be the door handle.
Right.
Otherwise you can't get in.
So when your people are reporting to you, have you ever had employees that just are giving you TMI?
Like it's just... in the weeds, every single detail.
And you're like, no, I just need the top line.
How do you teach them that?
That happens a lot.
You find they're very detail-oriented people that have to tell the story and I appreciate the story.
And so when we do that, I schedule time.
Everything's calendar.
How much time?
I'm like, listen, we have 15 minutes.
And I just said like, start out with this, this, and this.
And if we have time left over, I want to hear or hear the story.
I kind of just structure my meetings.
And so I put them in a calendar.
I send out the calendar invite, whatever.
I have seven calendars.
I say, have I earmarked 15 minutes?
Like, listen, I need to know these details first.
So let's just get to that.
And after that, the next six, seven minutes is yours.
And if they're going to get in the weeds of the details, if they want to bring up something else, they can, as long as we get to business first.
And so it's all about just structuring the meeting.
Yeah.
So I've taken away, for those of you who have employees that have a hard time summarizing, to use the agenda, the clock, the meeting time as a way to help them.
And if you're trying to be more concise yourself, imagine that you have, instead of 30 minutes, you have 15.
Or if you have 15, you really have five.
Like, what would you say?
Oh, yeah.
So I used to say, I book in 20 minutes.
I set it at 15.
They see the clock.
It literally, they can see it.
It's on the timer.
You know, when people are listening to this, it's early January 2026.
So what would you tell our audience you're talking to?
Of course, extremely attractive, highly conscientious, high performers to have 2026 to be their best year yet.
What would you say?
Oh, set your priorities right from the get go.
I mean, just do it and remind yourself every morning.
We're all motivated.
I'm a highly motivated person.
It's pretty easy to let the drama of other things in life distract you from the goal.
So you need to remind yourself the goal every day, everywhere you go, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed.
So you're reminded to keep yourself on track.
It's easy for us to say it.
We all want to start out in January doing it, but we do it in February March April May, June and July.
You get all the way into the year and all of a sudden you realize you did crush that goal because you constantly put it in front of your face.
Reminded yourself, you held yourself accountable.
So it's in my car.
It's on my sink where I brush my teeth when I wake up.
It's on my nightstand.
Oh, no, it is.
And I need it in my face all the time.
Otherwise, it's pretty easy to say, maybe not today.
I'm too busy or I don't feel good.
Right.
That's amazing.
I want to hear the final story.
How did you come up with protein popcorn?
That is so strange sounding, but it sounds good, right?
You know, we're in 16 countries right now.
It's been crazy.
We're doing it in four languages.
It's nonstop nuts.
The first five years, absolute disaster.
I invented it.
It was great.
I just marketed it wrong.
Really, really, really wrong.
I marketed it to guys like me and I don't shop.
I haven't gone grocery shopping in 10 years.
My wife reminded me of that three years ago.
We rebranded it and now it's up 16,000%.
But I wanted to trick my kids and my parents eating protein without them knowing it.
Oh, wow.
Two hardest groups, kids.
I have a six-year-old trying to get this kid to eat protein that doesn't come in the form of a chicken nugget or chocolate milk.
It's like negotiating with the terrorists.
So true.
And I'm older, and so I'm softer now than I was in my older kids.
And then my parents, they're retired.
And I figured out that retirees act like fraternity kids.
All they do is drink and golf.
And more power to them, they earned it, right?
But they're also at that age where they're muscle wasting.
They're not going to eat protein bars.
They're not going to drink the shakes.
We figured out that only 10% of the population will actually do that stuff.
So I wanted to focus on the other 90%.
So I made the highest grade, highest quality protein snack that I possibly could.
Everyone likes popcorn.
Everyone, yes.
Popcorn is the number one confectionery snack item in the world.
I did not know that.
600 batches, literally before we figured out the formulation and we launched the original version was optimal performance popcorn and for five years i'm pushing and didn't work.
And then it was my wife who is the.
I mean, i outkicked my coverage of my expression.
My wife is so much smarter than i am and she's like you realize you don't even buy your own toothpaste like i do.
All that i go huh.
So i let my daughters and my wife to redesign the bags.
Rename it the omaha protein popcorn company.
That's amazing.
And now we're launching in a new country about every week.
That is so cool.
Well, I'm going to check out the white cheddar protein popcorn.
I sound great.
Well, thank you so much, Timothy, for sharing this wisdom.
I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I'm truly honored.
Thank you.
So that was very fun.
This guy is amazing, timothy.
My favorite takeaway of the six big takeaways number three was invest in people like future business partners.
I thought that was a new take and it reminds me of an episode from last year where one of our guests recommended that you see yourself as an investment manager like your, your team is this investment that you're managing, and so it's kind of a lined with that to see your employees as future business partners.
Anyway, if you've ever felt like executive presence was something that other people were born with and not you, don't worry.
It is a skill.
Yes, some people are naturally better at it than others, but I was not.
And I have an executive presence scorecard that can help you pinpoint where your presence is working for you and where it might be holding you back.
There's a link in the show notes at the top and at the bottom.
So get your copy today.
Have a fantastic afternoon or morning and I will catch you on the next episode.
