In this real life episode, Forest Tuff, Founder and CEO of One Vision Productions, shares how he trains and EMPOWERS leaders, entrepreneurs, technical subject-matter experts, professionals, and speakers to prepare for business growth, impactful presentations, and high-potential opportunities. .
You will discover:
– Why should an entrepreneur have a life coach
– The surprising secret to balancing work and life as a founder
– The number one thing holding you back
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And I am here with yet another and I’m in another high demand coach. And that is the one and only Forrest Tuff a fellow Atlanta and a visionary leader, an entrepreneur, film producer, business and life coach, and a keynote speaker. He is the CEO and founder of one vision productions, which is an award winning media and branding agency whose clients range from small businesses and government agencies to Fortune 100 corporations. Just before we got on, I heard the exciting news that he was announced one of Georgia’s trends, most influential leaders in all of the states. So you are in for an absolute treat today for us. I’m so excited to have you here. We can go on and on about your accolades. But I’d love to just tell us your story. What What were you doing before getting into all this business and life coaching and how that ultimately leads you to make the leap?
Forrest Tuff
No, first of all, was great to be here, Scott, and thank you so much. When I first started in life, you couldn’t tell me I wasn’t gonna play professional basketball. That was my thing I wanted to be in the NBA, I wanted to play professionally. So I pursued that. And I pursued it to the division one level. And unfortunately, I had a injury to my shooting hand, but I was actually put into the College Hall of Fame. So I had a great run. And in that space, as well, I learned leadership and working with teams that didn’t know it at the time that that would translate to the business world. But that’s where it started. Coming out. You know, my first job was at footlocker, I’m in sales, I’m now retail, I’m not feeling my best, I’ll be honest with you, you know, here I am this elite athlete. Now I’m changing shoes, but I didn’t recognize it in this space is where I really got to talk to people. And I really learned the value of sales. Because that’s the nature of business, you have to sale you have to connect with people. And so working in that space for a while I stayed in the retail industry for years, I moved into corporate sales. And in 2001, I started my first online retail business. And in 2004, is when I started Wine vision production. So I’ll be celebrating 20 years in January. So that’s the longest short of how I got in that business. And I’m in the business of storytelling. So with media with companies, we’re telling stories, and that’s how I then translated into becoming a speaker and telling stories. Now I’m working as a coach, you know, as a business mentor, and that’s how I connect with people. And I think that’s the thing I like to connect with people tell stories, and find ways to motivate them to achieve their greatest.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. And now what would you say then? Because you’re a busy man, just just like two minutes on your resume easy. This is a busy busy guy, what would you say in all of that, what’s the most important work you’re doing for your clients today?
Forrest Tuff
I think the most important work is to help them find out the direction they need to go. That is one of the that aha moment for people is a great feeling. Because most people have the talent, the skills, they have the resources necessary. It’s just sometimes it’s like I say in the video production business, we can brand brand brand, until it’s time to do it for ourselves. So having someone find that aha moment for themselves is a very rewarding thing to be to be honest.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. And one of the things that I noticed about the work that you do in particular is you do a pretty cool blend of both life coaching and business coaching. So I’d love for you to just kind of differentiate those two, in your own words, well, what’s the difference between business coaching and life coaching and, and then I’ve got a couple of questions. I’d like to dig in on that a little further after that.
Forrest Tuff
Okay, I’ll say this after I was in business for about 10 years, I joined an organization called score their small resource partner with the Small Business Administration. So I was a mentor for eight years. And during that time, I learned to work with business owners, small business owners, teaching them how to start a business, and how to sustain their business. So that’s why I really found a lot of my footing before I actually started my coaching business. And, you know, I told you before, I’m a people person, I love to engage people, I love to find out what makes them tick and how to get to the certain places. So for me, the business coaching, I learned with score, I learned how to be a business mentor. And so as I started to get my coaching, certifications, that kind of went right into it. Now, the life purpose coaching and all these other certifications, a lot of this stemmed from just my own journey in life, failing, you know, having those successes and learning how to overcoming. So using these personal things that I’ve learned, and now using training, to help people who go through the same thing that we do, most people deal with the same thing emotions, you know, they feel sad about themselves, they’re not as confident or they’re just trying to overcome family things. So for me, it’s my life experience and also just being invested in people that allowed me to get into both of those lines.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And, and so I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, it’s becoming more and more common to have a business coach, you know, And sometimes it’s a good thing. So there’s not a good thing. But more often than not, it’s a great move in the right direction. I think what I find is a lot less common are entrepreneurs that have someone particularly looking at the life side of things. And, and you know what that coaching looks like? What what are we? What’s the cost of not paying attention to some of those things early on?
Forrest Tuff
Failed marriages, bad relationships with the kids, you know, not having solid relationships with your friends. The thing I learned about entrepreneurship is it’s just not about glitz and glamour and money. For me fulfillment in life is my children saying, Hey, that was there, he was able to come to the games, he was able to come to the recitals, you know, my wife, saying that I was there for her, I could support her and be there with her and things that she went through. So for me, it’s not just about the business that’s just not about making money. I think for me, the value is in having a fulfilled life, having my legacy for me, which are my kids, that’s my legacy. That’s my greatest legacy. And for them to appreciate what I did not see it as a hindrance to the relationship we had. That was the the path that I chose. So for me, focusing on those values is what helps me to have a complete life.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And what would you say to someone that because I mean, every entrepreneur struggles with this, I think it’s one of the things that folks who are not entrepreneurs don’t quite understand about the journeys, how personal it is, and, and it’s perfectly personal in a really practical way, if that doesn’t get done tonight, by you, and no one else is going to do it. But your kids got their last game of the season. So how do you help folks to navigate what is what could constantly be that role conflict between building a business that can get up off the ground, and being the best at home as a mom or dad or sister, brother, whatever it may be?
Forrest Tuff
Well, it’s a delicate balance. And I’m not gonna say that you get it right 100% of the time. But I do think oftentimes, for me, will work this communication, really am an open communication with my children, with my wife, actually letting them come into my world and see the business side, not just the bacon side of it, not just bringing home the money, but hey, let’s look at the process, I want you to be my help on this job, I want you to come out. And they get to see the internal problems that I deal with and how I have to work with people. And when you get to the place where now you have people that you can work with and lead with being able to delegate so that they can see those opportunities, but also understanding there are times when you may not be able to attend something, but now they have a working understanding as opposed to this. A daddy wasn’t there. And as we had this little song, we just say with what was a comedian named Austin Powers. And I saw it, I was like, daddy wasn’t there. So we just laugh, you know, and we make jokes about it. But it gave them an understanding of the business. And they also learn to appreciate the sacrifices.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And and so on a similar note, one of the things you kept coming back to, in the last couple of answers is this idea of values. And I think again, in the corporate world, thanks to a Drucker back in the day, Jim Collins more, we’re starting to get more and more used to corporate values. But that’s not what you’re talking about here. Right? I mean, might be an element of it. But tell me what you mean by values and how they help lead these types of decisions?
Forrest Tuff
Well, let’s be honest, a corporation at certain larger scales, then other things that they have to pay attention to, you know, you have the stakeholders, and there’s so many things that there’s so many moving pieces as an entrepreneur, oftentimes, you may not have all those moving pieces initially. So your concerns are a little different. And one of the things that I recognize, at first, it was just all on me, the buck stopped and ended with me. And so I had to be very cognizant of that point. But as you start to include other people, and now other people’s lives are being affected by your decisions, then you start to recognize that, Hey, I can’t just make decisions that benefit me, I have to make decisions that may look at the whole. So I think for corporations, they may not have started out with that. Let’s talk about the individual value, because the individual wasn’t the bottom line. It was the growth of the company, and all of the individuals that were piece of that puzzle. So I think as companies grow, and as small businesses grow, they will learn to understand some of those, but I think corporations are now getting to the place where they’re trying to come and institute some of these values, because society deems it so it’s like, they’re like, Hey, we’ve got to have it now.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. Yeah. And and so I think one of the cool things for entrepreneurs is that they get an opportunity to kind of do that their way on the front end. You know, there aren’t this set of values that they have to kind of fall in line with. There’s no existing structure. How would you how would you counsel someone who’s thinking, hey, I want to set these values up for my business from day one, what would you say?
Forrest Tuff
Well, we talked earlier, and I was telling you, I had a background in retail. And they had the saying the customer was always right. So one of the things that I focused on in starting my business, when I put together my mission, my value statement, my vision, you know, those are the initial things you want to kind of focus on when you’re getting your business started, is I wanted to make sure I focused on customer service, I wanted to make sure that since I had this ability to really focus on people, make sure that we give a customer service experience, what do you want to be remembered for? Of course, great work, but people how they were treated people, they always have the saying that people don’t remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel. So that’s where we focused our business, like how do we make you feel during this process, and once you receive that great work, it just really compounds the feeling. So for me, that’s where I would advise you to start with, hey, focusing on the values and and realizing, at the end of the day, if you’re in business, you’re in business with people.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. Yeah. Now, you said this. And this is true for just about every entrepreneur starting out, you know, the buck stops or starts and stops with you. And and so one of the things that I saw in some of your talks were this idea of mindset, right? One of the biggest things holding us back is mindset, how’s that showing up in the day to day life of a founder or entrepreneur?
Forrest Tuff
Well, every day, I mean, listen, I’m celebrating 20 years in January, but guess what? I’m going, Wow, I’m not on the cutting edge curve after 20 years of being in this business. Mindset is a constant, constant, state and in everyone, it’s something that I deal with. So mindset management is having to tell yourself, okay, let’s look at your strengths and weaknesses. Now, let’s look at these opportunities. And now let’s look at how do you manage those and not let it be defunct? Make a decision, you know, if you find out, hey, I can’t do this anymore, then how can you get it accomplished? So as far as looking at problems and solutions, always say just face it head on? It’s okay. If you’re, if you may have been 10 years ago, you might have been the most cutting edge thing happening. And now, you may not be that way. So look into the people that can help you to continue that space.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. it’s such a great point, because I think so many things, we kind of see them as hills to be taken. Or once I’ve got once I’ve conquered that hill, I can move on to the next one. And that somehow those the past hills just kind of go away. But are you making the argument that this is just something that we’re gonna keep coming back to, you’re gonna keep battling? And if so, what does what does being content in that process look like? If it’s, if it’s almost a destination where we want to ride?
Forrest Tuff
You have to be willing to end it also. I’m just one of those people that I’m okay. With something ending. If it’s unnecessary, you know, add a great one. We’ve done a great job. And we’re at this place where a, maybe we want to sell maybe we can’t, but is it okay to end it. But one of the things that I say for me as an entrepreneur is I found other ways to pivot into other spaces. Because now I find that same energy that I had, when I started my media company, I found that now as I’m speaking more, and I’m traveling, if I’m coaching, I find that same energy. So for me, it’s been able to find other avenues where I can still be an impact, as I still have this sustainable company. But now, if these things change, and if I find myself I can’t stay in that same headspace, then I have something to do. And so that’s work for me.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. So good. So I’m wondering if you could almost put a bow on things. First, I got a question for you here. I’d like to ask all my guests and it’s this. What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? Well, what’s that one thing that if everyone would listening or watching could just get this? That would mean the world to you?
Forrest Tuff
If they could just go to force tough.com and contact me, that would be the best secret that’s being killed? I think for me, honestly, if I can honestly answer this, honestly, I would love for more people to know about what I do. I think as entrepreneurs, we you know, we think we made it we haven’t there’s a cap, I would love to reach so many more people to share some of the information that I have. And it’s just a matter of growth and reaching out. So I think honestly, I’m being very honest, on that question. I would like more people to know about what I do and what I offer and to be able to help others.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And someone out there listening. Who would you say? Who would you say that you can help the most and what’s the challenge that they’re facing right now?
Forrest Tuff
People that are in leadership, leading small teams, you know, up to 10 people 10-20 people, small teams, project managers, those who are looking to increase their credit or finances or business credit, and just to understand how to navigate the world of entrepreneurship and business, those would be my ideal clients. And also, when I also say like project managers, that works out into the film and TV industry, because those are the people that I find myself coaching people that actually lead teams, and they just need to understand how to work within this different because like I said, I don’t have a traditional corporate background. So many of my, many of my clients work in the film and TV industry, they work in the project management industry, their business leaders are entrepreneurs. So I have a variety of different people that I work with. But it’s just that will be my sweet spot, those that are looking to find ways to navigate that, and also have a balance within their life.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And one more question for you here. And then we’ll make sure we get that website address more time in just a second. But we’re going to have you take off your coach, speaker, advisor, consultant hat, and put on your CEO hat, what’s the next stage of growth look like for you as a leader, and what challenge we have to overcome to get there?
Forrest Tuff
I think for me, it’s the continuing education. You know, every year I try to take a certification, and something that I may not be versed in, you know, I remember in 2021, I took the DEA as di certification, because there’s so many things that are changing. And oftentimes, a lot of people won’t admit that based on when they came up, and when they raise it in moles, how you see things. And so for me, it’s just staying moldable and learning new things and making sure that I don’t allow myself to become so rigid in my thinking that I can’t grow, or that I can’t see the potential and others because I don’t know how to recognize it. So for me, it’s to continue training, and also to continue running my business in a manner and hopefully, that he continues to grow exponentially over the next 20 years.
Scott Ritzheimer
A lot we can all learn from that. So forth before I let you go, what’s the best way for folks to get in touch with you? They sent me an eye this guy’s onto something they’re resonating with everywhere. Do you have to say, I’m going to get in touch with you.
Forrest Tuff
So you can go to forresttuff.com That’s to Rs, two T’s two F’s, forresttuff.com. And you can find every platform that I’m available on you can email me, call me. And let’s just get a conversation going.
Scott Ritzheimer
That sounds great. Well Forrest, thank you so much. It’s just a privilege and honor having you here congrats on the recent award here in Georgia and for those of you listening watching today, you know your time and attention means the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Forrest Tuff
Forrest Tuff is a visionary leader, entrepreneur, film producer, business and life coach, and keynote speaker. He is the CEO and Founder of One Vision Productions, an award-winning media and branding agency whose clients range from small businesses and government agencies to Fortune 100 corporations. It was voted “Best of Georgia” in 2022 and listed since 2015 as one of Atlanta’s “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” by the National Association for Business Resources. Recognized among Atlanta’s Most Powerful Leaders and the Top 100 Transformational Leaders by the John Maxwell Team, he is a Master Life Coach and Master Certified Motivational Speaker.
Want to learn more about Forrest Tuff’s work at One Vision Productions? Check out his website at https://www.forresttuff.com
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