Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [01:52] Tony Lillios discusses how buying an ice cream truck ignited his entrepreneurial spirit
- [04:45] The impact of working at Ideo on Tony’s product design philosophy
- [05:51] Insights on working with Apple’s design team
- [08:53] Starting Spec Products and navigating early business challenges
- [12:30] How Tony navigated personal and professional upheaval
- [16:06] Breaking through cultural narratives and reshaping personal and professional life
- [19:22] Why Spec Products transitioned from consulting to creating cases for Apple and Motorola
- [22:50] The game-changing impact of Apple’s ‘Antennagate’ case recall on Spec Products
- [25:45] Creating a colorful, diverse company culture at Spec Products
- [29:25] Tony’s move from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe and its connection to starting a family
- [37:39] Meeting Richard Branson and the lessons Tony learned from his approach to life and business
- [40:43] How did Tony get into doing Ironman?
- [52:37] The emotional impact of rewarding Spec employees after the company’s acquisition
- [56:54] Tony’s ‘Integral Path’ approach to personal and professional development
In this episode…
Many people chase goals relentlessly, only to feel an unsettling emptiness once they achieve them. Focusing solely on success and external validation can leave a person feeling disconnected from their true self, even if they excel professionally. The question becomes: how can you redefine your relationship with achievement to foster a more fulfilling, integrated life? Tony Lillios shares his journey of rethinking goal-setting after realizing that accomplishing more wasn’t enough. He emphasizes the importance of viewing goals not as endpoints but as tools for personal growth. Tony’s “Integral Path” approach helps individuals use goals to propel meaningful change while focusing on the unfolding process of self-development, not just the outcome. He also encourages embracing uncharted territories — whether in business or personal — by stepping into uncertainty with intention and resilience. Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Tony Lillios, leadership coach and Founder of Spec Products, about navigating new frontiers in life and business. Tony shared how embracing uncharted territories has manifested in a vibrant, fulfilling life. They discuss Tony’s experience with founding a company and selling it to Samsonite, becoming a single gay father through surrogacy, and undertaking endurance challenges like swimming across Crater Lake.Resources Mentioned In This Episode
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Tony Lillios: LinkedIn | Website
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization
Special Mention(s)
- Mark Friedler on LinkedIn
- Chip Conley on LinkedIn
- The Rebel Rules: Daring to be Yourself in Business by Chip Conley
Quotable Moments:
- “This town needs an ice cream truck, and I’m going to be the one to bring it.”
- “I realized I could create the world I live in, not just be a consumer in it.”
- “It was a moment where I thought, ‘What else am I convincing myself I cannot do?'”
- “The amount of money spent in development can be a drop in the bucket compared to actually marketing and releasing a product.”
- “Stepping through into uncharted territory becomes a practice, and I’m doing the thing I didn’t think was possible.”
Action Steps:
- Start with a passion: Embrace a personal interest or hobby as a springboard for innovation, just as Tony did with his ice cream truck. This allows you to leverage genuine enthusiasm and create a more engaging business or personal project.
- Embrace learning and growth: Seek opportunities to develop skills in areas unfamiliar to you, like Tony’s experience at IDEO, to diversify your capabilities and adapt to market changes effectively.
- Overcome fear through action: Face your fears head-on by engaging in challenging activities, such as physical competitions or wild swimming, enhancing your resilience and confidence in other areas of life.
- Foster a vibrant company culture: Encourage authenticity and diversity within your team, as seen with Spec Products, to create a dynamic work environment that attracts and retains top talent.
- Acknowledge and mentorship: Reach out to mentors, like Tony’s connection with Chip Conley, and openly express gratitude for their guidance, fostering a culture of learning and appreciation.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution. We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work. What do you need to start a podcast? When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk. The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate. We make distribution easy We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a copy for each episode and promote your show across social media. Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more. The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast. Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships. Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win? Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall. Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00 All right. Welcome, everyone. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about how to live an uncharted life, how to step into uncharted territories. We’re all doing it all the time. But my guest, Tony Lillios, is going to tell you about how he’s done it, and I think you’ll be inspired by his story, so stay tuned. Intro: 00:17 Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show. John Corcoran: 00:33 All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week I get to talk to interesting CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies. We’ve had Kinkos, we’ve had gusto, we’ve had Activision Blizzard. Check out the archives. Lots of great episodes that you can check out there. And of course, this episode is brought to you by rise25, where we help B2B businesses get client referrals and strategic partnerships with done-for-you podcasts and content marketing. Check it out at Rise25.com. And of course, I also want to give a shout out to Mark Friedler of Gig Enterprise Technology and Sales Leadership. Mark is a mutual friend of our guest here today, and he told us he kind of made a connection between us. I’d known of Tony, but I’m really excited to dive into his backstory here today. So Tony, so glad to have you here today. And first of all, you and I know each other through the EO World Entrepreneurs Organization. I love to start people’s stories by asking them about what they were like as a kid. And you’ve got an amazing story. I literally never heard this before, 1000 plus interviews, but you bought an ice cream truck. You took matters into your own hands. You’re growing up in the suburbs and you’re like, damn it, my town does not have an ice cream truck. It should have an ice cream truck. And you went out and you bought one. I want to hear that story. Tony Lillios: 01:52 Yeah, I’m 17 years old, and I was talking to a kid at a, like, a swim club, and I was making a reference to an ice cream truck. Like, I thought it was just this pervasive. Everybody knew what it was. And this kid gave me, like, this blank stare, like, what are you talking about? He didn’t even know what an ice cream truck was. I was like a truck. John Corcoran: 02:10 Delivers ice cream. Tony Lillios: 02:11 That’s crazy. That is crazy. To your door. They ring a bell. Like what? And so that should not be. John Corcoran: 02:18 Foreign to anyone. Tony Lillios: 02:19 No, it should not. So I took matters into my own hands. I’m like this kid before I leave his town and go out west, for I was in Connecticut. Suburban Connecticut. I was like, I need to get an ice cream truck. And I’m going to, like, make sure this town knows all these. This next generation of kids are not deprived of what this experience of an ice cream truck is. John Corcoran: 02:39 And the crazy thing is your town actually had a connection to Pez candy, so it’s not like it wasn’t familiar to the idea of sweets for children. Tony Lillios: 02:46 Exactly. Pez candy orange, Connecticut is where I’m from. And no matter where I’m in the world, I love, like, flipping over the back of the package and going orange, Connecticut. It rocks. John Corcoran: 02:57 Well, I think you are purchasing that ice cream truck. It’s such a great example for the rest of your life preview, because there’s gonna be other things that you did in your life that were uncharted, that were breaking new ground, things that maybe you thought you couldn’t do even before you did them. Once you did them, you realized that they were possible for you. So we’ll get into that in a moment. But what was it like running this ice cream truck? Was it a profitable business for you? Tony Lillios: 03:25 We ran it as cash on a with no accounting and a cash based business. So it was profitable because somehow we were able to buy more inventory and pay ourselves. And but it was just purely for the experience, you know, it was sustainable , was it able to fuel itself, was it able to deliver the goods to the kids? That was really all I was after. Yeah. But it was kind of a first step. I mean, there were smaller steps before that, but it was a first step of me getting into this space of like, I can make my world like I lived in suburban Connecticut and I felt like the world came at me. This was like, in my own little way, my first step of like, oh, I get to like, create the world I live in some, some aspect of it. I don’t just get to be a consumer, I actually can participate. And doing that was kind of like that was the first kind of bigger step for me. And then once I came to California, like all kinds of things happened there. But that was kind of an initial step there. John Corcoran: 04:31 Yeah. So you go to California, you actually spent some some time at Ideo now. Tell those who don’t know what Ido is, I think I’m saying it right. I do tell people what I do and how that impacted you. Tony Lillios: 04:45 Yeah. They were the first kind of product design consulting firm. So they were setting up shop where companies like Apple, you know, Medtronic, all these companies that were looking for innovation and kind of had stalled in their own kind of four walls. They would go outside to a company like Ideo to come up with innovative ideas. People who kind of think out of the box. We were multidisciplinary. We’d work in a variety of industries, so we didn’t kind of come at the problem the same old way. So whenever a revolution was being looked for in a company, they would often come to Edo at that time to break down barriers. And so I graduated college. My first job was at Ideo. And you know, before I know it, the first thing I’m doing is designing laptops for Apple. Like, I’m like, I can’t believe this little like, 20, 22 year old kid is like, you know, being charged with a fair amount of responsibility. It was shocking to me how small the teams were that actually made the things that were so widely distributed. John Corcoran: 05:50 Now, what era was this? Because, you know, there’s Johnny. I was kind of okay for Johnny. Tony Lillios: 05:55 Johnny actually joined while I was working with Apple, but not as a leader. So he wasn’t the leader then? So this is. John Corcoran: 06:02 What were your impressions of Johnny? I’ve. Tony Lillios: 06:05 I don’t have any strong impressions of him. He was kind of in the mix. All those guys that he was with in the ID group, they were definitely like they were in a separate building, high security special, you know, they were very looked after. They were like the cows that get the massage and, you know, like, well, Apple’s. John Corcoran: 06:25 Famously secretive about their designs for a long time, at least when Steve Jobs was there, nothing leaked. You know, after Steve Jobs, I think more things have leaked and we just we’re recording this actually, just recently, just yesterday, Apple had one of its big product releases of their new iPhones. But, you know, for many years nothing would come out and these massive products would suddenly come out. And no one had heard of it before. Tony Lillios: 06:49 So one of them I mean, I can talk a lot about it, but one of the things that is not obvious to the public is that we would spend time designing all kinds of products all the way to tooling, like these are finished products. Like, you know, I have some like sitting around in storage, like finished products, and they never go to market because and you’re like, oh my gosh, we’ve spent all this time and energy and effort. But the amount of money that is spent in development is like a drop in the bucket compared to actually marketing and releasing and distributing. And so if they get to go time and it’s not right, they’ll pull the plug often. So this isn’t like, oh, that one project they did that is like par for the course. I would almost say it was like 1 in 3, 1 in 4 projects would get all the way to the end and then not go, not happening. John Corcoran: 07:44 And what was that like for you? Was that hard to deal with, that kind of rejection, you know, working on something for a long time and then having it not, not actually be released to the public. Tony Lillios: 07:52 Yeah. So my younger self was shocked, you know, jaw on the floor. How could you possibly because you believe in this thing? You put all your blood, sweat and tears. I think on the other side, my kind of budding entrepreneur side realized, oh, it’s a bigger picture. It’s not just about the product, you know? And Apple isn’t just killing it because they just designed killer products. They get how to like, enter a market and make a splash and how to connect dots. And so it was yeah, it was a great business lesson and a very embodied one. It was like, my gosh, we’ve spent, you know, nine months, a year and a half, you know, working on this thing. Yeah. We’re just going to put it on a dusty shelf in the back. And yeah. John Corcoran: 08:37 You know, you spend a few years at Ideo and then you go out and you start your own design and engineering firm. You’re based out of Palo Alto, California. What was that like starting that up was that, you know, clients come knocking on your door. Was it difficult finding clients in the early days? Tony Lillios: 08:53 Yeah. So there were four of us that spun off from the idea to start spec product design. So we started as a consulting firm and right out the gate we had relationships with Apple, Cisco, Dell, and they sought us out. We didn’t go after them. We were taught, you know, that’s a you know, that’s not ethical. We shouldn’t be doing that. But they would come knocking on the door going, where are those guys? And we’re like, hi, we’re here to such a point. That idea at one point got really aggressive with us. And they’re like, you, you can’t, you need to stop working with those clients. You know, that’s a violation. It wasn’t a mechanical violation of any contract, but they were, you know, essentially pulling the ethics card. And that can be. John Corcoran: 09:34 Pretty scary, too. Tony Lillios: 09:35 I can remember them walking in. We’re like cornered in our one entrance. They walked in our front door and it was like they were flanked. John Corcoran: 09:42 They physically walked in to tell you this. Not like a nasty email. Tony Lillios: 09:47 No, they were just down the street. There are two blocks away. And so we’re like, oh, based on who the characters are walking in this door, we’re like, oh, this isn’t going to go well. John Corcoran: 09:55 And who was it? Was it like the head lawyer was. Tony Lillios: 09:58 I’m not going to name names at this point, but it was. But I mean, it. John Corcoran: 10:00 Was someone with enough stature. It wasn’t the janitor who was showing up. You’re a little.Pages: 1 2