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#261 - Solocast, Brief History Of Grimsmo Knives
164 Plays3 years ago
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John Grimsmo breaks down the barrier with a brief history of starting Grimsmo Knives. Its not always easy, but it is the most rewarding thing that they have ever set out to achieve. Personal and professional growth is immense.
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Transcript
Introduction to Solo Episode
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Business of Machining, Episode 261. My name is John Grimsmough and this is another solo cast. My good friend John Saunders will not be joining us today, so I get to talk to you guys. This week, because I'm on my own, I don't have this back and forth patter chatter,
00:00:20
Speaker
I kind of just want to do a big monologue on business.
From Hobby to Business
00:00:23
Speaker
I want to talk to you guys about some of the challenges and struggles and growth that we've gone through in the past 10 plus years in business making Grimsman Ives. So when I started this, 2011 is when Grimsman Ives started. I'd been a struggling entrepreneur for several years before that, five, six, something like that.
00:00:46
Speaker
And I literally thought I would just be that crazy guy in my garage for years. Never would have employees, never considered it. It was just, I just wanted cool stuff, cool tools, make cool things and run my own show. And that's how this started. And then it's grown and grown and grown.
Growth and Mindset
00:01:06
Speaker
And now 10 years later,
00:01:08
Speaker
more than 10 years later. We have a staff of 10 people and a big shop and huge expenses and big machinery and we're doing amazing things and I love it. But it's a much different now than the foundation that I
00:01:20
Speaker
came into this with. But that's how it works. When you're in the beginning of something, you don't think about what the end is like. You don't know. You can't imagine the strength you'll have to have at that point because you don't have that now. And it's hard to put two and two together and realize I will grow into that role as necessary as the business evolves, as I evolve and grow. And for the past, well, almost all of that 10 years, I've been on huge
00:01:50
Speaker
personal growth, personal development mindset where I'm trying to become better. I'm trying to improve myself and the way I think and the way I act and the way I treat myself and my body and honestly, the way I talk to myself. That internal conversation inside your head is more important than most people let on to believe. And when I find myself in that
00:02:15
Speaker
arguing mindset where I'm just talking to myself in an arguing fashion either with somebody else's voice in my head or with my own voice. It's not a healthy place to be, so I really try to snap myself out of that. But it's this strength and courage and determination and skill to run a business that only comes with practice.
Company Culture and Problem-Solving
00:02:37
Speaker
It's like you can't build big muscles if you don't put in the time, the work, the sets and reps.
00:02:43
Speaker
You can't be a great machinist if you don't break a couple end mills. You can't run a great business if you don't try and just keep trying to improve. None of this comes to you. None of this happens automatically. You have to actually work your butt off for every single ounce of success you intend to have.
00:03:06
Speaker
We have all these examples out there of the tech companies that make gajillions of dollars and you're like, oh man, it's so easy for them. Well, they have their own level of stresses and things they have to overcome as well. And it's not a comparison because we're in the manufacturing business. It's a linear growth. It's not this like, oh, we just got a billion dollars of investment. We're good. So being a product-based company,
00:03:36
Speaker
It's just time, man. Our products have evolved, our processes, our methods, just the way we think about things. And as a company, we're really trying hard now to communicate that and to talk about that. And we have our team meetings at 12 o'clock every single day, almost always outside no matter the weather.
Facing Challenges and Execution
00:03:58
Speaker
and trying to impart that on the team so that everybody is free to speak up and improve and has that development mindset where it's like, you know, it's okay right now, but we can do better, or this is a problem, we need to address that, we need to fix it. And as a company, that is the mindset I'm trying to impart. And it's working. I mean, everybody on the team is bringing up things that need to be fixed, and then we're coming up with solutions to fix them.
00:04:26
Speaker
And as much as I love ideas, ideas are worthless without execution. So if you bring me an idea, at least bring me one theory of a solution. Otherwise, you're just putting your problem on somebody else's plate and expecting them to fix it. And that is where a lot of problems lie because
00:04:48
Speaker
because when it's your problem and you give it to somebody else, it's not somebody else's problem. Like they don't care as much as you do because you need the solution. So that's where people need to work together and improve that. So anyway, I'm uh,
Struggles and Continuous Evolution
00:05:04
Speaker
been going through some business challenges the past few weeks and making some large decisions that have big consequences and big upsides. I'm not going to get into any specifics, but just wanted to mention that
00:05:22
Speaker
We're at an amazing level in our business. We're making good money, excellent gross revenues, and a great team of people, great shop, great process, great machinery. I love it. It's still challenging. There are challenges that I'm facing now that did not exist five years ago. I didn't even know. It's like I knew the big boy companies with hundreds of people deal with this kind of stuff, but I don't deal with it. They're starting to come up.
00:05:50
Speaker
I'm growing, I'm expanding in ways that I didn't know I would have to do. And I heard somewhere that whatever level you're at in life, whatever challenges you're facing, we all have our struggles, we all have our problems personally, professionally. All of the challenges you're going through are necessary to grow you and build you
00:06:18
Speaker
to the person that you want to be, especially if you're conscious of who you want to be. The struggles are necessary. They build you, they shape you, they form you, and they create you into the person you will need to be to face bigger problems in the future. And we don't like to think about that because I don't like to think five years from now I'm going to have to deal with even bigger problems. But
00:06:44
Speaker
The fact of the reality is I want to be strong enough by then to be able to handle that or grow into that role as it comes up.
Leadership Transition
00:06:51
Speaker
So I'm doing everything I can personally, mentally, professionally to grow myself so that I can handle challenges as they come up. And it's not easy. I love my business. I love our company. I love our staff.
00:07:14
Speaker
business is hard. You know, I don't want to complain, but life is great. But it's not always easy. And it's not supposed to be easy. You know, there's no free lunch here. Anyway, that's about all I've got there.
00:07:32
Speaker
Other than that, classic business and machining updates, our shop is running amazingly well. I as an owner, I'm actually transitioning into a role where I'm less directly hands-on and more overseeing and more planning and developing and growth future oriented. It's weird the past year or so.
00:07:55
Speaker
handing off more of my responsibilities to the team so that they can grow and thrive and handle things on their own. So I don't have to micromanage everything or do the tasks myself. And that is, it's weird to wrap my head around that. It's weird to get used to that. But it's working and it's thriving. And I like it. And the staff is growing and improving and taking on new challenges. And I can no longer
00:08:23
Speaker
come in and solve all of the problems.
Episode Conclusion and Future Plans
00:08:26
Speaker
That was years ago. Now I encourage everybody to solve problems on their own. I'm happy to help, happy to advise, happy to be there, but I need a business that works, not just one that relies on the founder, who knows a bit about everything, but not everything about everything, to come in and save the day.
00:08:52
Speaker
So anyway, it's a transition that I'm going through. I don't talk about a lot, but it's part of that growth, part of that struggle that is necessary to get me and this business to where I want it to be. And we're doing it. It's just not easy.
00:09:14
Speaker
Hope you guys are doing great. I'm going to cut it off there for a little quick little solo cast for you guys. Sondras and I should be back next week for our regularly scheduled 45-minute chat session. Thank you all for listening, and I hope you have an amazing day. Bye.