#4 - Steve Holmes - Bouncing Back: The Story of SpringFree Trampoline's Disruptive Leap (Part 2)
Summary:
How did Steve Holmes revolutionize the trampoline industry, but with a focus on safety?
Steve Holmes saw a critical gap in the market, with retailers selling trampolines without considering the potential for injuries. Instead of accepting this status quo, he dived into the problem, seeking a solution that would prioritize safety. His encounter with Jim Senegal from Costco, a person who shared his concern for safety, sparked an idea. The market was ripe for a safe trampoline, and that's exactly what he set out to create. Join Steve Holmes in this episode as he recounts his journey of creating the world's safest trampoline. Discover the story of innovation, commitment, and the recognition of a market opportunity that led to a revolution in the trampoline industry. This episode is packed with insights on how to identify market needs, invent novel solutions, and successfully bring them to consumers. Tune in now and start your journey towards understanding the art of innovation in market spaces.
Links and Resources Mentioned:
Transcript:
Steve Holmes:
I've learned that most of the flaws that take place in business by people, because I said before, the best part of business is people, the worst part of business is people. The single biggest reason that people fail is they lack clarity. Now, somebody may say, Well, they have a job description. What more do they need? I'll say, Yeah, but that job description doesn't tell them necessarily how their job impacts the company's success, and it doesn't tell them the direction the company is going and how they see themselves fitting in.
Tim Sweetman:
Hey, folks, thanks so much for listening to the Tension podcast. This is part two of two of an interview I was able to do. If you want to hear the full interview, go back one week, listen to part one, and come back here.
My guest today is Steve Holmes. Steve is the President and Chief Executive Officer of I CL Management. It's an investment and management company. In his capacity at I CL, he has been instrumental in the development of numerous business ventures, including Spring Free Trampoline, which we talk about a ton in this episode, as well as Verify Technologies, just to name two. He founded Spring Free Trampoline in 2003 and serves as the chief bouncing officer where he oversees its growth and development. Now Springfree is sold in over 31 countries globally. He founded Verify Technologies, which is a world leader in security surveillance for the mobile workplace in 1998 and serves as their chief executive officer. Previously, he participated in the creation of and growth of Club Link Corporation, Canada's largest private golf course operator, and Advantex Marketing international. Born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, he currently lives in Toronto. He chairs the board of Tyndale University College and Seminary. The Holmes family is also actively involved in the Youth Unlimited in Toronto, Muskoka Wood Sports Resort, and many other Canadian camps, among others. He's a chartered accountant and holds a bachelor's degree in business management from Ryerson University.
Tim Sweetman:
Without further ado, Steve Holmes. That leads me exactly to the follow up question, which is, what are you seeing? What are the challenges that you are facing now? I think there's so many people that got super excited, including even in my business. With restaurants, we thought we were going to get obliterated. And then 2020 and 2021, we were able to pivot and use drive throughs and we're able to be very, very successful successful. And now, this year, the cost of goods are going up. Things are very, very challenging for everyone. And we almost got lulled to sleep a little bit the last two years. I would love to hear how you're approaching this year and next year. Really, it's the next 3 to 5 years. What are the challenges and how are you processing and thinking through that and believe you need to lead in these next couple of years?
Steve Holmes:
There's always some great tools, whether you look at Simon Sittick's start with why, whether he used Patrick Lencioni's book, The Advantage, whether you look at John Wooden's, The Pyramid of Success. There are tons of tools. I'm just going to say to you that one of the single most important things that we've determined internally is that we are fully and 100 % aligned corporately within our employee base. Everybody has to understand, okay, why do we exist? How do we behave? What do we do? How do we define success? What do we need to do in the next six months? And who's going to do what? And those six simple questions which come from Patrick's book, The Advantage, those simple six questions really drive our decision making in this pandemic, post pandemic world. Our existence is really clear because it has to be aspirational. In our business. From the standpoint of our spring free trampoline business, we exist to inspire joyful moments. We exist to inspire joyful moments. Inventory and warehouses sitting is not achieving that existence. So we've had to decide what does it mean for us to value getting trampolines in the market to actually continue to inspire joyful moments for families and for our shareholders and for ourselves.
Steve Holmes:
So we have highly focused on generating cash and preserving cash in order that we can invest cash later. So to generate cash in this very trail of the changing time, we've taken unprecedented new pricing policies, and we've tried to support our wholesale retailers in that process as well. So we have taken unprecedented pricing policy changes. Why? Because it's way better for us to meet our objective of existence of inspiring joyful moments while it's in somebody's backyard, even if we got less money for it than it is for it sitting in the warehouse. So that's one thing we've done. The second thing that we've done really, really well in this post pandemic world is we've made sure that every one of our employees understands how we will succeed. And so we believe there are three pillars to our success, three anchors, and we can't violate those anchors. And those three anchors are product excellence. So we will not compromise on our product excellence. The second anchor for us, our second anchor internally, as we look at our business, is creating raving fans. That anchor is not just customers, that's employees, that's shareholders, that's suppliers. We want to create raving fans.
Steve Holmes:
So our behavior and how we do that and how we behave is critical. The third is create healthy growth. And healthy growth, in fairness, sometimes means that you have to shut stuff down or make some tough decisions or whatever the case may be in order to protect your sofa future growth. And those are the anchors that our business is based on. And so as we come out of this pandemic, as long as we have our existence clear and our anchors in a good foundation, we are so easily equipped to make decisions. You see, it's business businesses that don't have anchors and don't have their clear existence and aspirational statement, their why value and assignment, clinics, those are the business who then struggle because they start throwing mud at the wall. They try this, they try that, they try this, and they don't have a foundational anchor that says, Okay, these are the things that will ensure our success. And we won't violate those. So if you said to me, Hey, Steve, I can sell you 50,000 triplees, but you got to do it at X, Y, Z, and you're going to have to fire most of your employees and shut down your own factory and do this.
Steve Holmes:
We take those anchors and say, Okay, is that going to generate raving fans? Is it going to ensure we have product excellence? And is it going to drive us to future healthy growth? Because you come out of this pandemic, whether you're in the food business, whatever business you work, you need to know what are those anchors of success and don't violate them.
Tim Sweetman:
That's so helpful. I feel like more than ever, I feel like this draw to just go back to the basics and return to the values that got you started in the first place. That's what got you to this point and not to be distracted by the super high highs or the super low lows and to be able to push through those. You talked about in another interview about a phone call you had with your dad or a conversation back in I think it was 1995. You've gone through and that's one of the things that just strikes me, pun intended, about your ability to bounce back through challenges. But it hasn't always been, you haven't always been in these 2020, 2021 situations where things are like, Man, sales are off the chart, things are going great. What was that conversation like? What was that phone call that happened in 1985. Can you share a little bit more about that?
Steve Holmes:
Anybody who said they haven't faced challenges is lying. We've all faced them. You can be the richest man in the world. You face challenges because usually we'll find out that you've had five marriages. So something didn't go right. I made massive mistakes. I made massive mistakes in my life and I continue to make mistakes. Trust me, all you got to do is swall my wife for 39 years and she'll tell you. But here's what I had as a foundation. One is I came from a place where I was taught by my parents that identifying and finding my faith journey was my responsibility. You don't inherit your faith. You have to have it and identify it and find it for yourself. So that was one. So I understood that. And in that process, I was able to learn that there was some foundational things that will never, ever change. And that is one that God loved me and that my parents loved It's amazing when I hear about people who have had fallouts with their parents and I scratch my head and say, how is that possible? Because I know as a father myself and as a grandfather of eight now, there's very little my kids could ever do that I wouldn't forgive them for and still love them.
Steve Holmes:
My conversation with my dad in 1995 was rooted on a really bad mistake I had made being selfish and greedy and in clear errors and judgment because I thought I was infallible and I thought I could do whatever I wanted and there were no consequences to bad decisions and bad behaviors. I had to make that phone call to my dad and wrestle with where I was in my own decision making. And he said to me, with absolute clarity, you know that God loves you and you know your mother and I love you and there's nothing you will do that will impact that. But you also know the mistake you made and you have to own it. And to own it in life, in fairness to him, you know this better than I do, I'm sure. We all have three choices when mistakes or bad judge man comes. One, you deny it. No, it's not me. Not my problem. No, that was Tim. Tim did that. I just happened to be in the room. But Tim did it. That's one. Two, that's actually blame shift. Denied is another. So I blamed you on that one, Tim.
Steve Holmes:
So blame shifting, there's denying. No, that didn't happen. And then there's three taking responsibility. In 1995, I got reinforced that by my father, which was simply this. You understand the decisions you made. You understand the mistakes. You must go it on. You must correct, and you must ensure that you work really hard not to commit them again. But there's no guarantee you won't. So remember the foundations. God loves you. Your mother and I love you, your wife loves you, your kids love you. But you've got to be responsible for the decisions you make and you got to own it. You can't blame somebody else and you can't deny them. That lesson that I was reinforced, it's not that I didn't understand or didn't know it, but what he reinforced in me in 1995 will stick with me because he isn't physically here anymore. He died in 2012, and yet his impact lives in my life every day.
Tim Sweetman:
So the thing I think about now having kids and thinking about legacy, and it's those moments that are so impactful and so important because they are going to last beyond my years. And it's incredible to hear that story because not only is it encouraging to hear, but it also just reminded the power of my words and what I say and how I share them and the lessons that are along the way that get us through those difficult times and all that.
Steve Holmes:
One of the things that's so critical for us as young leaders, because even though I'm 60, I still view myself as young leaders who are... Let me go back, leaders who are still learning, learning leaders. We're still in that category. One of the things that's so critical for us is to understand the power that we have in that leadership role in the example we set. If we have a fundamental problem in the world today, it's all the people who are leading, rarely take responsibility for their actions. The consequences that their actions take, and I won't get any specifics because I don't want to be political, but I think all of us can spend a few minutes right now and recognize people who have been put in positions of power and leadership who have not taken responsibility for the consequences that their actions have caused. They blame somebody else for their denied responsibility, and we're suffering for that in today's world every day.
Tim Sweetman:
What does it look like for you practically to be a student of business, to continue to learn? That continuous learner, is it true that you have a book that's pretty important in your life? I've heard a couple of folks talk about this.
Steve Holmes:
We all have journals, right? But what's so funny, and even about me is that my thoughts are really not that valuable. But taking thoughts from yourself or other people, even is critical. So my book is full of things that I have got from somebody else. Read, experienced, heard, listened. It's a scrapbook. That's all it is. It's a scrapbook of life's lessons. And every day, I carry it with me no matter where I am. So every single day. And I've almost lost it a couple of times, but so far so good. I had one of my staff who said to me the other day that they'd be prepared to digitize the whole book for me. And I said, no, maybe you should and put it in a safety deposit box for me. But this has been something as a resource to me. So my advice to young business people is do not rely on your ability to remember great advice. You will not remember it when you need it. You know, when we were kids, we were taught to learn scripture and keep learning scripture and learning scripture and learning scripture. And when you need it, you will bring it back and it will come back to you.
Steve Holmes:
And that is absolutely true. But business lessons aren't Scripture lessons. Some of them will easily come back really quick, the ones that have stuck in you and you reinforce. But I just randomly picked the page. And here's what rule number. It happens to be 10 rules of doing business. Somebody wrote it. Life is not fair getting used to it. That was one. It's not a bad thing. So I just happened to turn to that page. So what I would say to you is I chose a long time ago, this is probably 30 years in the making. I chose that when I see or learn or experience something, it gets put in the scrap in the book is full. Somebody said to me, When's book two starting? And I said, I don't know because I can't part with this one. So I'm trying to figure out how to add pages and you'll see at the back of the book, here's a funny thing. At the back of the book, I've got an envelope now that contains a bunch of but you never stop learning. And I'm convinced that having access to this information, not one book, the key principles is way easier than holding a library of books that I don't read.
Tim Sweetman:
Are you looking for new ways to navigate the many tensions in your life? Do you want to learn how to embrace these tensions to create innovative solutions you never thought possible? Then you're going to want to check out the Tension Newsletter dedicated dedicated to exploring all of the many, many tensions we encounter in life. Each week, we delve into topics like work life balance, profit versus people, profit versus purpose, the political and social tensions that all impact us. Our contributors, including myself, will offer insights and practical advice on how to embrace these tensions and create solutions and innovations that can transform your life. So if you're ready to take your life to the next level and learn how to harness the power of tension to drive innovation and growth, ask you to sign up for our newsletter today. You won't want to miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the tensions that shape our lives and discover new ways to thrive as human beings directly to your inbox. All right, back to the show.
Tim Sweetman:
With some of the remaining time, I want to hear about how you lead with clarity. That has been a theme that I've heard from you in almost every interview you've done. I've heard it from others that have talked about you as well. Talk about what that looks like. That's a huge piece of your philosophy, it sounds like, of leading people. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Steve Holmes:
I've learned that most of the flaws that take place in business by people, because I said before, the best part of business is people, the worst part of business is people. The single biggest reason that people fail is they lack clarity. Now, somebody may say, Well, they have a job description. What more do they need? I'll say, Yeah, but that job does description doesn't tell them necessarily how their job impacts the company's success, and it doesn't tell them the direction the company is going and how they see themselves fitting in. There's so many things that's missing in that job description because in order to get clarity, it's a continuum of communication. You create clarity, then you overcommunicate clarity. This is in Patrick Wojnarowicz book, The Advantage, that he wrote in 2012. And he's just done an excellent job of articulating. But the concept of clarity has gone back for a long time. The importance of clarity. I can show you examples of that going back into the early time of Roman clarity, clarity, clarity. I reinforce it as best I can. First, I create it, then I try it over, communicate it, and then I try and communicate it again, which are those principles.
Steve Holmes:
We believe that every employee should be able to answer three questions every morning when they get up and look in the mirror. What's my job today? If I do it well, how does that impact the company in achieving its goals? And if both of those things happen, how do I contribute to the well being of my family by how do I get paid? Go back to Dan Payne. People want mastery, autonomy, and purpose. Money isn't their driver. But if you take money off the table, people want mastery, autonomy, and purpose. That's what you get with clarity. You get to control your own ability to be motivated. You get to control your ability to be confident to do the job. You have the ability to master that competency, and you have a clear purpose. You have a clear understanding of what the purpose is. Money is something we all have to factor because I don't know about you, but my wife raised three kids and together we raised those children. I probably didn't contribute what I should have. And we understood the economic requirements of having children and what it meant to put food on the table, clothes on their back and shelter over their head.
Steve Holmes:
My kids now have kids. And so there is a requirement, especially in today's terms, where you've got economic costs of inflation are going out of control. What does it mean to be a good steward? How do you manage debt? All of that. So what I would say to you in today's terms, with your employer, clearly understanding, if your employer hasn't given you clarity, and if you're a business person who's employing people and you haven't given absolute clarity, you need to do it so that those people can answer those questions. Hey, what do you need me to do? And if I do it well, how does it impact the company for achieving its goals? And how does that turn translate into me supporting my family? And when you get those pieces, you're amazed at how quickly people could be motivated and utilize their competencies to their full potential.
Tim Sweetman:
It's the dream when you're leading, that can happen. So you started developing the culture within your organizations around this idea of wholeocracy. Maybe folks have not heard that phrase before. What is that and how are you working that out in.
Steve Holmes:
Your organization? Holocracy is really hard to achieve, to be honest. But wholeocracy, basically, and we haven't done it as well as I would like, and the reason we haven't done it is we still do have some hierarchical decision making and authority. Whereas in a pure holocracy, the people manage the business. It's a self managing circumstance. People understand their role, they understand the impact it has on their collective objectives and people self govern, self manage, that's the purest form of holocracy. What we want to do in that in the context of bureaucracy is give people the understanding of what they're responsible for, where their bounds of authority are so that they can behave effectively. What we don't want to do is create bureaucratic process by wondering, what are my approvals? What can I do? What can't I do? Should I do this? Should I not do this? We want people to have the clear understanding what is their responsibility, and with that responsibility comes authority. You and I both know if you have responsibility and no authority, you'll ultimately just feel paralyzed. And if you have all the authority and no responsibility, you'll eventually behave it.
Steve Holmes:
There's a big difference between sometimes being a boss and being a leader. If you want to try and be a leader, what you have to do is ensure that you're coaching employees and you're creating an environment of goodwill. And to do that, you have to give them that sense of responsibility and authority. And when people fail, it's a learning moment. And you find out whether or not they have the competencies to continue to do that. And you hope that they never fail so big that you've got a failure to clean up?
Tim Sweetman:
One of the biggest questions and probably my big final question to you, and love for you to talk as long as you want about this, because I think it's a big question, what does success look like for you? I think that's something that as a business owner for myself, I'm thinking a lot about. I'm not just talking about just in business, but as you look out over your life and think about a lot of young leaders, how would you approach that question and how do you end up answering that question?
Steve Holmes:
You can use the same principles that Patrick has outlined, those six questions for your own personal life, too. Let me say this, many years ago, I was gifted to have an encounter with a man who has been a huge influence on my life. It was clear that he had a purpose. He had a faith, but he also had a purpose in that responsibility. I desperately wanted to understand how that purpose got evolved. T here's an old Japanese process about finding your purpose or mission in life or a place of perfection that pure core, which is balancing the things that you love with the things that you're good at and the things that the world needs and the things you need to get paid for. There's this concept. I use that and I use it with young people today who are coming out of university specifically. I use that and what I did was I created a self purpose statement and that becomes my anchor. Go back to those anchors of success. So it's spring free our anchors of success, a raving fans product excellence and building healthy growth, creating healthy growth. My personal anchors came from a purpose statement which says life is about giving.
Steve Holmes:
I will give intentionally and generously in order that others may benefit and then through them I'll see that benefit and all experience and it will bring a great amount of joy. When I live my life, I live in the tension because life isn't about balance. I live in the tension of each of those key words. Life is about giving. Sometimes I'm selfish and I have to go back and rebalance that and test myself against is there good heart behind you? You've got a purpose. Your purpose is about giving. And sometimes giving is to your own kids or your own family or your own circumstances that you love. Let's not be too arrogant here, but sometimes it is. And you take advantage of it. Life is about giving and I will give generously and I will do it intentionally. Those things are key words. And so I measure against those words. Just those are anchors. And if I violate those anchors, I can tell you from my own personal experience, I suffered. I'm always living in that tension between the selfishness and the servant heart. And it's finding those anchors and rooting yourself desperately in them in such a way that you can measure yourself against those anchors.
Steve Holmes:
You have them as decision making points. And when you violate them, you suffer those consequences. And sometimes what I will say to you is there's a moment where you recognize that your selfishness or your greed or your arrogance, it will ultimately create a sense of the lack of joy. So lots of people are about creating financial wealth and independence, and I applaud them for their ability to do it, which is terrific. But ultimately, they can't take it with them. There's so much more they could do to create joy in their own life with the resources that God has given them. So that's my test of myself, and that's my success. If I can keep those anchors to her, if I can be intentional and generous with my giving, and I can be thinking of others first, the joy that comes out of that is just amazing. Now, that sounds awfully ideal. And trust me, there are lots of tension, but I would encourage anyone to create their own purpose statement. And once you get that purpose statement, those become your anchors. As long as you understand those anchors, you'll have a basis by which you don't choose to violate.
Steve Holmes:
You'll make decisions that are based on the anchors of what is your purpose. Your kids will see it and your employees will see it, your family will see it, your friends will see it, and people you've never met before will see it. That's where you'll have impact.
Tim Sweetman:
Perfect way to end that. Incredible. Thank you so much for sharing and just giving of your time. It really means a lot. I know you're super busy, so I want to make sure I honor our time and your perspective and the learning and everything. It's really neat to meet folks that have that perspective and are leaning in in that way and gives me encouragement. Being 32 years old and still feel like I'm just starting.
Steve Holmes:
Well, you're the future, Tim. Let's be clear. America was built on entrepreneur capitalist perspective and it can never lose sight of that. And you guys, like you, are the future of the success of that, really the global economy. There is no hope in socialism. There is no hope in socialism, folks, if you're out there listening. And this isn't about Tim being some greedy guy wanting to be a capitalist. The reality is that our economies are based on the entrepreneurial spirits that come from young guys like Tim. And if you're out there today and you have that impact and that ability, I encourage you, you can always find me online, reach out to me. I'm always willing to talk to people. But let me say thank you for not only doing this. I don't do podcast. It's not that I don't do them, I do them. I've asked, but I couldn't do one myself because I don't have the skill set or the resources to be able to be able to dig in. But what I want you to know is your ability to even help one or help two is a huge impact on where we as nations need to go in creating young entrepreneurs who will lead us into the future and manage our country for the better.
Steve Holmes:
And I trust you continue to be encouraged. And you work as a great franchisee in a great company and with great values. And so congratulations on that. I hope success for you.
Tim Sweetman:
Hey, folks, thanks so much for listening to the Tension podcast. This was part two of a conversation that I was able to have. If you want to listen to part one, just go back one week. It would be fantastic if you would take just a couple of moments to leave a review or rate us on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help the show. Thanks so much for listening. To find out more about the Tension podcast, visit www. Tensionp od. Com, or you can find me on Twitter @Tim Sweetman.
