Strategy & Tactics

SHAPING YOUR FUTURE

Tomas Keenan, COO of Break Free Academy, shares his insights and advice on how retailers can advance both personally and professionally while avoiding burnout.

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

Tomas Keenan, COO of Break Free Academy in Dallas, Texas learned a lot of what he knows through trial and error, sharing his business pitfalls in his book, Unf*ck Your Business: Stop Business Self-Sabotage by Getting Clear on Your Core Values NOW.

During March’s KnowledgeFestWest. Live, Keenan presented a workshop entitled “The Visionary vs. the Integrator.” At 21, he said, “I decided I knew more than my boss, or so I thought, and I opened my own business with $300 in my pocket. It lasted five years. I was a great technician, but I didn’t know anything about running a business— whether it was inventory, supplies or bookkeeping. Anything mandatory to running a business, I didn’t know. It crashed, I closed it and went to work for someone else.”

Keenan told listeners that after his first business closure, he was deep in debt, and he had to get back on his feet financially and rebuild his confidence. “It was a struggle for quite some time. Three years went by. In 2009, I got married and opened Top Class Installations, specializing in dash cams in commercial vehicles and GPS tracking.”

Today, Keenan helps people in various industries succeed in business. Break Free Academy’s goal, he said, is to help people become the best version of themselves. And part of that, he feels, is understanding the differences between visionaries and integrators.

Find Your Purpose in Life and Business

In November 2019, Keenan wrote about finding a business vision in Mobile Electronics magazine’s Strategy and Tactics column: “When you work in your business, it owns you. You don’t own it. You are at its beck and call. You’d better not get sick or hurt, and just try to have kids and be there for them and your spouse as much as you want. Not gonna happen. I learned these lessons up close and personal twice.”

to work at Break Free Academy. After owning his own business for so long, he felt unemployable. “It came down to the company culture and the lives we’re changing,” he explained. “It aligned with my purpose in life.”

In his 2019 article, Keenan wrote that purpose, mission and core values make up a vision for your life or business, and it’s important to understand these. “Before you can begin to formulate your vision, the three components—purpose, mission and your core values—should be defined,” he explained, adding that decisions will be made based on your core values and purpose in life.

Before joining Break Free, Keenan started his own business, Step it Up Academy. In the midst of building it, Break Free offered him a position. “I was already a part-time member, and I saw that I could have a bigger piece of their larger pie. The small piece I had [from becoming part of their company] was greater than any pie I would’ve had from my own business.” However, Keenan still hosts the Step it Up Entrepreneur Podcast, which readers can listen to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and via other podcast sources.

team as a sales manager, Keenan began to make what he called “massive shifts” in the company. “I started on November first 2020, and as of March 2021 we’ve grown 180 percent since I started, which is a drastic number. I’m proud of that and excited for what we’re doing.”

The mission, he said, is to elevate people “to the top of their game and help them become the most elite version of themselves.”

Learn the Difference Between Visionaries and Integrators

It’s important to understand visionaries and integrators and their differences, according to Keenan. “You should know which one you are,” he said. “Visionaries see the future. They’re creative and they have lots of innovation and drive.” While this is a positive thing, Keenan noted that visionaries often have lots of ideas, but not all of them are good. These ideas, he said, can shift the business and cause it to either succeed or fail. “A visionary knows where the business wants to go and they establish the vision.”

Integrators—Keenan falls into this category—are the opposite, he said, in that they create the future by bringing

the vision to life. “The visionary needs this assistance from the integrator to help make the dream a reality. The integrator will maintain business harmony and integrate systems and processes across the company. They will develop processes that make the company function overall.”

Integrators keep visionaries focused on useful ideas that align with the goals of the company, he added. Often, people take on both roles out of necessity. This happens when a small-business owner has no one else to rely on. In this case, he explained, “If you’re a visionary, you must also be an integrator in your business.”

A business owner must understand his or her own strengths and weaknesses, and learn where they fall on the scale, whether they’re a visionary or an integrator. Keenan said this is essential for bringing a company to the next level. When looking for a business partner, “you have to find someone who is strong where you’re weak, and vice versa. That’s why these roles are so important to understand.”

It’s important to have great ideas— which is the value of a visionary—but another person is needed to implement structures to ensure that vision comes to fruition. “If you want to grow, put in the work no one else is willing to do,” Keenan said, adding that the focus is always improving oneself as well as the company.

This is where it’s important to avoid getting stuck working in a business instead of on it. “We become skilled technicians and then it’s difficult for us to let go of control and delegate.” Delegation, he said, is a big struggle for a lot of people who often also have difficulty managing their time. Keenan said he sees this in many different industries, not just in 12-volt.

Pinpoint the Steps Needed to Accomplish the Goal

Business owners might be wondering what the next step is, and Keenan said it involves finding out where you are on the scale: “What do I need to do to make this happen? You can’t do it all yourself.

I tried that in several of my own businesses over the years. There’s not enough time in a day, and as good as you think you are at certain tasks, there’s always someone who’s better than you. That can be a tough pill to swallow.”

He described a scenario in which a technician installs an audio system and puts the vehicle back together only to realize they didn’t run the sub-wire. “We’re very structured when it comes to installation. If we forget that step, it forces us to tear it apart again. Visionaries tend to forget steps like this, while integrators will be planning the install before they even get the car into the bay.”

Finding their place on the scale will help anyone—whether they’re an owner, salesperson or a technician— understand their own strengths and weaknesses in order to improve themselves. Keenan noted that some people can be both. “People who are integrators score high on needing to be a fact-finder prior to taking action. They want to do the research.”

This involves finding out the exact steps needed to accomplish a goal. On the other hand, most visionaries take action on an idea without necessarily considering the outcome, he added. “They start taking the steps without thinking about the pieces they need to put together.”

Educate Yourself and Read, Read, Read

Readers are leaders, according to Keenan, who said that from age 17 to 35, he was not a reader. “I read every instructional manual, installation guide and Mobile Electronics magazine,” he noted, adding, “The problem was, I wasn’t learning more. I wasn’t expanding my mindset. I was stuck in my lane.”

When he was 35, he had his first child, which he said made him realize he needed to improve himself. “My business had potential and I didn’t know how to unlock it, so I looked for a business coach. The first thing he had me do was read. I said, ‘I don’t have the time.’” The business coach, Keenan said, refused to accept this. After learning how many

hours he spent in his car, he advised listening to audiobooks.

Keenan recommended Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business and Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want From Your Business by Gino Wickman and Marc C. Winters.

“Traction covers the EOS system, or the entrepreneur operational system. It outlines the structure you need to implement in your business.” The book provides exercises to help create a system and find out what a business owner specifically needs to work on, he said. “This book will provide an outline and a structure. It’s helped me and all the businesses I’ve operated in.”

In Rocket Fuel, the author discusses integrators, visionaries and the differences between the two, Keenan said. “He dives deep into this topic and says these are the main differences and this is why it’s important to the overall success of a business and its ultimate scalability.”

He added that good things didn’t start happening in his life until he expanded his mindset. “It was because I started reading,” he explained, adding that if he enjoyed an audiobook, he would buy the paperback copy and reread it.

He advised industry professionals apply these concepts to their businesses and, most of all, do the work, adding, “Make your business better.”