"Gutsy. You really have to have an iron stomach."
As the President and CEO of Evolve Business Advisory, Tom Greenwood is an expert in managing, structuring, and scaling companies for explosive growth organically or through strategic partnerships. Over the past 28 years, he’s devoted his life to providing entrepreneurs with the horsepower they need to make their dreams come true.
Tom’s thorough understanding of global business cultures, operations, markets, and sales channels; combined with his international network of senior level contacts allows him to effectively bridge global business practices in order to achieve substantial, quantitative results through the design and implementation of both long and short-term growth plans.
Evolve’s approach is simple – If there isn’t a path, make one! Unlike other advisories and venture capitalists, Evolve prides itself on being uniquely hands-on, providing small businesses and start-ups the full support they require to reach new heights.
Tom believes that the strong teams and collaborative work practices lay the foundation for any successful business. Luckily, he has an extraordinary talent for selecting, leading, coaching and motivating his employees to exceed objectives, enhance growth and achieve greatness. He is committed to diversity and social responsibility and lets these core principles act as a driving force for his company.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Tom Greenwood: My name is Tom Greenwood, and I’m the President and CEO of Evolve Business Advisory. Evolve was created for the sole purpose of helping small businesses Change, Transform and Grow. For the past 28 years, we’ve provided our clients with the horsepower they need to improve operational efficiencies, penetrate new markets, increase revenue and make their dreams come true. Our vision for the future is to continue empowering entrepreneurs to reach their full potential.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Tom Greenwood: I was that child. My family didn’t grow up with a lot of money. My mother and I used to drive around the city where we lived, in her big Kingswood Station Wagon, and would look and find houses that put furniture on their front lawn. If we found something we liked, we would pick it up. One of the things that we saw was a desk when I was 12 years old. I begged my mother for it. We strapped it on top of her big Station Wagon, took it home, and we put it in the basement. Then, my mother bought me a stapler to go on the desk. It was the best gift I had at that time. I would sit down in my basement “office”, practicing my signatures, at just 12. I have a fond memory of sitting there, scribbling on pieces of paper, filing things in my desk drawer, and stapling things together. I never really knew exactly what I wanted to do or thought about what my path was going to be.
How did I get here today? I think that’s the lightning in a bottle that most people are looking for. There is no exact ‘how.’ I went to film school after high school and then I went to business school for a bit. I started building my career in my early 20s. My first major job was at 23, running a division for a major company in North America, and I never looked back. I started my own company in 2010, because I saw the need for support in small businesses and new businesses. I wanted to give them what they needed to turn them into successful, multinational corporations.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Tom Greenwood: People in our organization know me really well and would agree that I am who I am! The person they see at work every day is the same person I am outside of work too.
Everyone knows I am very passionate about social causes, women’s rights, environmental issues, and our youth. My passion to help with mental health and homelessness issues are something people may be surprised about though. In the United States, we find ourselves at a crossroads of issues that are plaguing our country, but some of the biggest issues are mental health and the homelessness. As a country, we don’t take care of our mental health well, and certainly don’t take care of homelessness. I’m passionate about trying to figure out what I can do personally, and what our company can do on a bigger scale. I also want to help people understand what the mental health crisis is doing to our cities and towns, and how it’s a direct contributor to the homelessness crisis. Mental health is a direct contributor to crime as well.
I think it may be surprising that I used to play beach volleyball when I was younger, since I’m only 5-feet 8-inches tall!
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Tom Greenwood: Gutsy. You really have to have an iron stomach. An entrepreneur has to be a master at eating the “suck.” Every single day and every single turn, especially when you’re starting your business, you go up these roller coasters of the highest of highs, which are amazing, and these lowest of lows, where you think you’re going to quit and give up. The reality is that the most successful businesses and entrepreneurs understand what that “suck” is, and understand how to move on and say, “Okay, what’s next? How can I do it next? What can I do better? How can I be successful today?” Not giving up and focusing on what you truly believe in is what makes a great entrepreneur.
Being able to go through the bad times and understand that the bad times are only a small pin in the massive pegboard of life, and that too will end. If you keep doing what you believe you’re doing, and you’re doing it for the right reasons, you will be a successful entrepreneur. You just have to realize that every day isn’t great, every day isn’t bad, it’s somewhere in between. The eventual goal is that most days are better than the others. A successful entrepreneur needs to know you have to take the bad with the good, and there’s probably more bad in the beginning.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Tom Greenwood: I don’t think there is any other way! For me, there is nothing more important than providing a supportive and inclusive environment – whether it’s my life or my work. Everyone is a human being, and it’s our job as human beings and corporations to support the wonderful people that make our operations successful, every single day. We will never look at it in any other way – we are all humans, and have red blood running through our veins. At the end of the day, we’re going to support the people that work for us, regardless of who they are or where they came from.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Tom Greenwood: Pre-COVID, during COVID, and post-COVID, you always have to think about how to reinvent yourself, be disruptive, and how to make your businesses, company or product stand out above everyone else. Challenging the status quo is not as easy as it sounds though. There are so many entrepreneurs and business leaders that get into a comfort zone and stay there. A comfort zone is a death sentence. If you don’t challenge yourself, you’re going to lose your business. We always advocate to challenge the status quo – from marketing, to product development, to service offering, and beyond. Anything we do, we say, “F*** it,” let’s try it and see if we can make it work.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Tom Greenwood: I would tell them that I have the greatest job in the world! What we do on a daily basis is help people realize their dreams. I’m the luckiest person to get to work with such amazing people everyday, and that I get to help people with small businesses and help them build their dreams. All of our offices, teams, clients, external partners and beyond are truly incredible.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Tom Greenwood: One of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make for my company was changing its name. As an entrepreneur, you have a desire to dream big and stay bright-eyed. Once your business starts getting more successful, the more belief, and time you give to it and the more it becomes part of your DNA. Our original name was how we were known for many years, but a lot of our marketing and PR teams believed we needed a name to better represent our evolving company. And that is exactly how we came up with our current name, “Evolve.” It was a difficult decision because I felt extremely tied to the original name. Now, Evolve has become a name I love, and it truly represents our business and who we are today. It ended up being one of our best decisions. It really helped us guide our entire messaging and what we wanted to deliver to our clients.
The second biggest decision I’ve made for Evolve happened two years ago. After years of offering my clients a laundry list of things we could do for them – I knew we really needed to focus our attention and energy on three pivotal, core pillars of service. Now that we have our three core pillars in place, it helps our Evolve team know where to focus energy, while also letting our clients know exactly who we are, what we are doing and how we deliver results for them.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Tom Greenwood: I have a few. One of my most useless talents is having an immense amount of useless television and movie knowledge from specifically the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s decades. Second, I interestingly have a significant amount of knowledge about famous Canadians, since my family is all Canadian.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Tom Greenwood: The title would be, “Fuck it!”. Easily. Every time you come to a fork in the road, or you need to come to a decision in life, everybody should just say, “F*** it,” especially as an entrepreneur. With decisions, we try this, or try that – sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. If you don’t have the ability and desire to try different things, and not be afraid of trying them, then being successful in life and business is never going to work for you. The way I’ve gotten to where I am is by constantly saying, “F*** it,” and challenging myself to go down paths where I may not know what’s going to happen, but I’m willing to find out and willing to take the benefits and the consequences.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Tom Greenwood for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Tom Greenwood or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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