EPISODE 15 – JOHN TOWSLEY – ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP, IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW AND FIGURING OUT HOW TO MAKE IT WORK

Today we are talking with John Towsley, Owner of Bwyze, and until recently also owner of Mindmuze. Bwyze is an IT service management company that offers eLearning products and services for IT Services. Mindmuze is a Learning innovations company that creates powerful learning experiences.

John is a leader and an innovator in the IT and eLearning spaces. He started out as a systems analyst and quickly moved up the corporate ladder. John has been the president of 5 different organizations, two of which he was the founder and owner. He has been able to see a need in the market, assess the risk and come up with a business solution that meets the needs of the market in real time.  

John has this uncanny ability to get people to think about the big picture and overall goals. He is an out of the box thinker and offers alternatives that people are not even thinking about in the moment. John does not shy away from taking on challenges and is always able to figure out the root cause along with solutions to fix the issue. He believes there is always a way to figure something out to make it work.  John is very stoic under pressure and never seems to let anything rattle his cage – at least that is what I thought until our conversation today. I am excited to share John’s story with you as there are so many wise thoughts and ideas that you might be able to take away and apply to your own life.

In this episode, John and I discuss the following:

• Growing up in a small community, his love for the outdoors, importance of good mentors and taking action to make things happen
• How being involved in Boy Scouts provided him with so many opportunities and new experiences, and how it influenced his view of the world and his desire to contribute and achieve success
• Working at an early age to make money to be able to afford what you really want
• Differences between theory and reality in a working environment with regards to processes and behaviours
• Differences between tropical reality vs western reality and how it helped keep things in perspective
• Importance of being disciplined when it matters the most
• Challenges of getting a job during a recession
• Letting a good advocate help you find your next opportunity
• Recognizing when you make mistakes and figuring out how to fix it
• The start and evolution of the technology industry
• How a leveraged buy out works
• Seeing an opportunity and becoming a “low risk” entrepreneur by running a business with other people’s money
• What to do when your company runs out of money and what happens when you need to bootstrap your company
• Challenges of being a committed leader, managing employees and the stress that comes along with it
• Definition of an entrepreneur, what it means, understanding the risks and how it has become trendy
• The personal toll on your mental health as an entrepreneur and learning to manage stress
• People’s perception of what your life is like vs the reality of what it really is
• Importance of recognizing what is important in life
• Self identifying when you are not the right person for the job and taking action to move on
• Acquiring companies, becoming a deal junky and knowing when it is time to stop
• Stigmas associated with mental health issues and finding ways to get manage your mental health
• Determination and underlying thoughts of figuring out how to get it done and how to survive
• Managing stress by using benchmarks and reframing things to keep everything in perspective
• Perception of others and social stigma of failing
• Value of measuring the downside risk and being able to quantify it to help with your decision making
• Identifying what you like and do not like doing in the business
• Starting and growing a business to get cash flow positive quickly
• Seeing opportunities, assessing risk and knowing when to take a chance
• Benefits and challenges of having a business partner
• How to make a business partnership work by finding the right business partner and then utilizing your natural gifts and skill sets
• Starting out in an emerging industry where there is opportunity and room for growth
• Advantages of understanding your industry and knowing how to pivot, fill a gap and start a new business to fulfill a need
• Importance of understanding cash flow and how it affects your business
• What happens in a time of crisis and how your base level training can play a significant role
• What being lucky means and how you can be lucky too
• Importance of listening to your existing clients and when you hear an opportunity acting on it right away
• How to get enough cash to keep going and make your business salable
• Focusing on what needs to happen and then taking action to get it done
• What life is really about

I loved this conversation with John and I hope you do too!

If you would like more information on John you can visit:

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtowsley/