Backable

Tim Krotiris
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

If you could listen to every conversation within the walls of a High Performance Business Growth Consultancy, do you believe you could improve your business? At worst, could you at least reinforce your own opinions, optimise ideas and use some insights to accelerate your performance each day? This is the next best thing. Covering key business ideas from areas including leadership, partnerships and the realities of business challenges. What does it really take to grow? Access insights from the Philotimo Performance Centre, industry experts, quiet achievers and business builders sharing their experiences.

  1. 5d ago

    Radical Candour or a Licence to Be Rude?

    Some owners use honesty to clear the air. Others use it as a licence to be rude. Tim and Elana work out which one radical candour has become, then turn the spotlight back on the one person who can’t step out of it: the owner. Elana opens with a question from a book she’d been reading: is radical candour still useful, or has it quietly become an excuse? Tim Krotiris (TK) doesn’t soften his answer. People take the part that suits them and forget that what they’re handing over is often their truth, not the truth. From there, the two co-founders work through what direct communication looks like inside a growing business. They cover why a plateau usually starts the day people stop naming the actual problem. Elana explains why she was raised on the idea that her job is to be clearly understood, and they share the story of why a company value built on that idea didn’t survive. TK explains why pilots with twenty years in the cockpit still run a checklist, while “John does it his way” runs so many of the businesses he’s walked into. And they argue that if you own the company, nobody really lets you down. Then they turn it on themselves. Each names where they need to lift their game next quarter, before TK lands the line the whole episode has been building towards. If you’ve been honest with your team and still watched nothing change, this one’s for you. Key takeaways Honesty isn’t a licence to be rude. It’s your truth, delivered so it actually lands.Saying it isn’t the same as being understood. That part is on the person talking.People can’t stack wins if they can’t see the scoreboard. Give every role a clear picture of success.If you own the business, nobody lets you down. You either set them up to win or chose to accept less.Feeling bad is a pause, not a plan. The next action is the point.Backable is active business intelligence that works before you ask, so it doesn’t all sit on you. We back you, so you can back yourself. Free to start → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Connect with us Backable on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/ TK on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotiris Elana on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/elanaharari/  Backable on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/ TK on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/ Elana on LinkedIn →https://www.linkedin.com/in/elanaharari/

  2. Oct 5

    How 1 Dead Plant Can Change Your Business

    It started with a dead plant. Years ago we began a simple game: remove one thing from the business every day. Day one was the plant. By day ten it was a bench full of junk. Eventually it led us to our client reporting, which was thorough, took our team half the week, and was read properly by fewer than one in ten clients. That reporting now takes two minutes. TK, Elana and Nigel talk about what happens when you start removing things instead of adding them: - Why owners stop doing the thing that brought them the most leads- Why delegating isn't finished the day you hire someone- Why a new business development manager rarely fixes a sales problem on their own- Finding the real bottleneck in your business- Knowing your customer acquisition cost well enough to spot a guarantee that isn't one- Clearing the mental load when you're too busy to grow Hosted by Tim Krotiris (TK) and Elana Harari, co-founders of Backable, with partner Nigel Walton. Backable is active business intelligence that works before you ask, so it doesn't all sit on you. We back you, so you can back yourself. Free to start: https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Chapters00:00 Remove One Thing Every Day01:48 Reports Under 10% of Clients Read07:02 Decluttering Starts With a Dead Plant11:12 Why Owners Abandon What Works15:01 Owner Taking On Every Job17:20 Why Your BDM Hire Fails19:04 Find Your Business Bottleneck25:32 Know Your Customer Acquisition Cost29:29 Clearing an Owner's Mental Load36:03 Cancel the Meeting, See What Happens The podcast is for the mindset the platform is for the execution: 🚀 Join Backable for free → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Instagram:Backable → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/TK → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotirisElana →https://www.instagram.com/elanaharari/Nigel → https://www.instagram.com/this_backable_life LinkedIn:Backable → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/TK → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/Elana →https://www.linkedin.com/in/elanaharari/Nigel → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton/ Listen:Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6XApple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

  3. Sep 29

    You Built It Alone. You Don't Have to Grow It Alone.

    Every big jump in our business came right after something broke: a client, a person, or an idea we were holding too tight. TK and Elana talk about the move every growing business has to make, from lone wolf to wolf pack. Why the thing you're holding onto is often what's holding the business back. Why the transition feels worse before it feels better: more people, less money, and wondering whether it was worth it. And why having someone who'll tell you the truth matters more than any system. They also properly disagree — on stress versus pressure, and on whether you should ever go back. IN THIS EPISODE00:00 Lone wolf to wolf pack02:39 Every breakthrough started with something breaking04:17 The owners who can't let go of their own mistake05:14 Having someone who'll tell you the truth07:17 Outgrowing people, and when "great culture" hides it09:14 The day Elana realised she wasn't that important10:32 Why you can't scale doing it all yourself12:56 Working less and getting paid more15:39 What you won't let go of17:26 Hold yourself to the standard you'd set an employee19:29 Stress or pressure? We disagree23:26 Why you need a North Star26:17 Being okay with being wrong29:20 Why the transition feels worse before it gets better32:43 Burn the boats, or keep a way back?36:14 Small business owners aren't idiots38:03 Ten of you versus one of you39:17 Building a business someone would buy41:00 You don't have to lead your own business41:35 Building the life you want through your business There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from carrying a business by yourself. Backable is your AI co-founder — it knows your business, your goals and what you need next. Free to start:  https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Instagram:Backable → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/TK → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotirisElana →https://www.instagram.com/elanaharari/Nigel → https://www.instagram.com/this_backable_life LinkedIn:Backable → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/TK → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/Elana →https://www.linkedin.com/in/elanaharari/Nigel → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton/ Listen:Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6XApple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

  4. Sep 22

    They Lost a Million Dollars and Doubled Down

    “I think you need an internal arrogance. When you commit to something, you're all in on it, not half in. Fear is confining your ability to make the right decision.”- TK A team of 20-year-old founders lost a million dollars and doubled down anyway, and it worked. In this raw, unscripted episode, Tim (TK) and Elana (Lana) pull apart what that kind of risk actually costs, starting with their own: two hundred boxes of premium Italian yarn they didn't need, bought instead of running a small, lean test first. Then it gets personal. Elana says she likes the product, but doesn't love it, and the disagreement that follows happens live, on mic, completely unscripted. Fear, control, and what it actually costs to play it safe all come up, including the line from Tim that gives this episode its spine: real commitment only works when you're all in, not half in, because fear is what's making the decision for you otherwise. What We Discuss in This Episode •  [00:05:35] The Dumb Call Test: Why purposefully spending more than you make feels entirely different from standard operational stress, and how to know if you're making a calculated bet or a reckless gamble. •  [00:10:58] The Italian Fabric Trap: Tim and Elana on the hilarious, painful story of buying 200 boxes of premium Italian yarn instead of running a small, lean test, and how close it came to being a real problem. •  [00:13:14] They Lost a Million Dollars: how a team of young 20-year-old entrepreneurs lost $1 million, secured fresh lines of credit on pure vision, doubled down, and scaled past $100M. Not Tim and Elana's story, theirs to admire and argue with. •  [00:15:47] The Barista's Collapsed Timeline: Tim breaks down a real conversation with a barista that proves how “safety” is actually a slow-motion way to run out of momentum. •  [00:21:07] The Arrogance of Commitment: why true execution takes an “internal arrogance” to go all in, and how fear confines your ability to make clean, decisive calls. This is the line the episode is built around. •  [00:26:11] The Coffee Machine Resource Test: Tim on why he refused to buy a new coffee machine while raising capital, and how investors actually read where you allocate resources. •  [00:29:46] The Like vs. Love Debate: a heated, unscripted disagreement between Tim and Elana on whether attachment to your product is a liability or a strength. 🚀 Join Backable for free → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Instagram:Backable → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/TK → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotirisElana →https://www.instagram.com/elanaharari/Nigel → https://www.instagram.com/this_backable_life LinkedIn:Backable → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/TK → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/Elana →https://www.linkedin.com/in/elanaharari/Nigel → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton/ Listen:Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6XApple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

  5. Sep 15

    The Speedboat Advantage: How to Out-Decide Your Competitors

    Right now, the business landscape is exhausted. Between rapid AI shifts, economic uncertainty, and post-COVID adjustments, business owners are hitting a massive wall of decision fatigue. But in this solo episode, TK explains why this industry-wide tiredness is actually the greatest commercial opportunity of your lifetime—if you know how to use your small business advantage. TK shares a powerful story of a family business competing against multi-billion dollar multinationals, proving that unlimited resources mean nothing if your decision-making loop takes six months. In a fast-moving market, the biggest killer is not making the wrong decision—it is making decisions way too slow. WHAT WE UNPACK: The Agility Edge: Why a small business is a speedboat that can easily out-maneuver a slow, bureaucratic corporate tanker.The Daily Lunch Board Meeting: How one high-performing business bypassed board approvals to make critical, market-winning decisions every single day.The Stop-Loss Strategy: How to set strict time and metric triggers on your decisions so you can act fast and course-correct without fear.Firing Profitable Assets: Why elite investors and business owners kill off profitable products or clients that are sucking too much of their emotional energy.The 3-Decision Challenge: The exact exercise to run today to completely change your operational velocity in the next six months.If you are feeling overwhelmed, tired, or stuck in analysis paralysis, this episode is your tactical guide to falling in love with fast decisions and turning economic friction into your unfair advantage. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Cold Open: The Speedboat Advantage1:08 - Decision fatigue in Australia post-COVID and AI shifts2:03 - The Speedboat Edge: TK's friend's multi-million dollar advantage3:29 - The Daily Lunch Board Meeting: Daily decisions vs. 6-month corporate delays4:22 - Falling in love with making decisions quickly4:57 - The real killer in business: Speed of decision-making5:52 - The unfair advantage of small business agility6:56 - The relationship trap: Why we delay hard choices in business8:01 - Using "Stop-Loss" rules to evaluate and kill off energy-sucking tasks9:09 - Putting a time limit on risk (Why timing is everything)10:22 - The 3-Decision Challenge: What to kill today to change the next 6 months11:30 - Triggering innovation from negative friction CONNECT WITH BACKABLE: 🚀 Join Backable free → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia📸 Follow Backable on Instagram → https://instagram.com/backableai📸 Follow TK on Instagram → https://instagram.com/timkrotiris📸 Follow Nigel on Instagram → https://instagram.com/this_backable_life💼 Backable on LinkedIn → https://linkedin.com/company/backableai💼 TK on LinkedIn → https://linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris (00:37) - Marker 01

  6. Sep 1

    The $8,000 "Freebie": Why Free Lead Magnets Attract the Wrong Clients

    In this episode, TK breaks down the exact moment he flipped the script on his agency's lead generation model: taking a high-value resource they used to give away as a free lead magnet, putting an $8,000 price tag on it, and watching client conversion rates actually increase.   If you are currently burning team capacity on low-value "freebie seekers" or settling for a comfortable "B+ Life" because growth feels too risky, this episode is a diagnostic intervention for your operations, pricing, and business mindset.   ·       What we cover: ·       • The $8,000 PDF: Why charging for your "lead magnet" filters for the right clients. ·       • The Advisor Test: How to know when you’ve officially outgrown your current team or external advisors. ·       • Wasting 30% of Your Week: The operational cost of unexamined client reports that nobody is actually reading. ·       • Escaping the "B+ Life" Trap: Why privately owned businesses flatline when owners choose predictable certainty over expansive risk. 🚀 Join Backable for free → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Instagram:Backable → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/TK → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotirisNigel → https://www.instagram.com/this_backable_life LinkedIn:Backable → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/TK → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/Nigel → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton/ Listen:Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6XApple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

  7. Aug 26

    Stop Paying Someone to Keep You Scared of AI

    Her rates halved in four years. Not because she got worse. Because nobody's buying what she thought she was selling. Episode Summary This one's for business owners who built real skill over years and are now watching the price for that skill quietly drop — while people with a fraction of the experience seem to be winning the work. Nigel brings a live case study from his own kitchen table: his wife Trisha, a hair and makeup artist watching AI and influencers reshape her entire industry in real time. TK uses it to unpack something bigger than any one trade — that clients were never really buying raw skill, they were buying a value layer (trust, distribution, speed, influence), and that layer has moved. The conversation moves from the practical (how to find the 20% of clients actually paying for what you do best) to the psychological (why letting go of an old identity feels like grief, and why that's normal) to the protective (how fear-selling gurus and manipulative algorithms profit from keeping you stuck, and the one question that shuts them down). If your industry is shifting under you and the old playbook isn't landing the way it used to, this is the reset. Key Takeaways Clients rarely compare skill against skill. They compare the total value layer around it — influence, trust, speed. Find out which one moved in your industry.Old growth books can be right about principles and wrong about mechanics. Read them for the "why," never copy the "how" blind.You are not your business. You're the steward of it — which means the business can change shape without you losing yourself.Fear-selling only works on people without a plan. Build the plan first, and the fear-mongers lose their leverage.Ask one question before you believe anything that scares you: how do I know this isn't trying to manipulate me?Connect With Us 🚀 Join Backable free → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Follow us on Instagram: Backable → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/ TK → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotiris Nigel → https://www.instagram.com/this_backable_life Connect on LinkedIn: Backable → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/ TK → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/ Nigel → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton/ Call to Action If you're feeling the ground shift under a skill you've spent years building, you're not behind — you're early to a conversation most of your industry hasn't had yet. Start there.

  8. Aug 18

    Quit the Tactic, Not the Whole Business

    There's a theory that says the smartest thing you can do is quit. TK and Elana spent the episode arguing about whether that's true — and landed somewhere neither of them expected.EPISODE SUMMARY This one's for the business owner lying awake wondering if it's time to walk away. TK and Elana — back together after three years apart on the mic — start with a theory about squirrels foraging up trees, and end up somewhere far more honest: the night, eight months ago, when Elana asked TK if he wanted to quit and get a normal job instead. He didn't hesitate.What follows is a real argument about what "giving up" actually means. TK's reframe lands hard — you don't quit the business, you quit the tactic that isn't working. The sales program, not the company. The approach, not the mission. Elana pushes back on his claim that everyone reaches their "absolute potential," and the two of them land on something that feels true for anyone building something hard: the founders who last aren't the ones who never think about quitting — they're the ones who keep quitting the right things, one at a time, and never the whole thing at once.KEY TAKEAWAYS Quitting isn't one decision — most founders don't need to quit the business, they need to quit the specific tactic that's stopped working.Borrowed advice about "when to quit" rarely holds up. The real question is opportunity cost: if the odds are 100 to 1 in your favour, take the bet.The founders who stay in it aren't fearless. They just stopped waiting to feel ready before taking the next step.CONNECT WITH US 🚀 Join Backable free → https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia Follow Backable on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/backableai/ Follow TK on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/timkrotiris Follow Nigel on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/this_backable_life Backable on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/backableai/ TK on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris/ Nigel on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton/ CALL TO ACTION If you're carrying a decision like this right now, Backable's here to help you see it clearly — not talk you into anything, just give you the evidence to make the call yourself.

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About

If you could listen to every conversation within the walls of a High Performance Business Growth Consultancy, do you believe you could improve your business? At worst, could you at least reinforce your own opinions, optimise ideas and use some insights to accelerate your performance each day? This is the next best thing. Covering key business ideas from areas including leadership, partnerships and the realities of business challenges. What does it really take to grow? Access insights from the Philotimo Performance Centre, industry experts, quiet achievers and business builders sharing their experiences.

Information

  • Creator
    Tim Krotiris
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    145
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Backable 2020 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Backable