Backable

"No one would pay that much." "The market's shrinking." Every business runs on a few stories nobody questions. TK and Nigel pull them apart, starting with the day TK's agency put an $8,000 price tag on the thing it used to give away free.

In this episode:
- Nigel's daughter Indie announces she can do a backflip, with zero evidence
- The $8,000 free offer that brought in more clients, and better ones
- Reports that ate 30 to 35% of every consultant's week, and the question nobody asked
- Why most businesses stop growing: they didn't run out of market
- The loneliness of backing yourself when nobody else can see it yet

Chapters:
00:00 The stories companies tell themselves
00:13 Indie's backflip: "I'm great at it"
01:08 We charged $8,000 for our free offer
03:00 Reports nobody read ate 30% of our week
05:28 They didn't run out of market
06:45 Same price objection, different confidence
09:07 She said she could do it
12:27 When only you believe in it

Free scorecard - Which stories is your business running on?: [SCORECARD LINK]
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IXK0EGPumBs
Join Backable: https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia

Hosted by Nigel Walton and TK (Tim Krotiris), CEO and co-founder of Backable.
Relentlessly loyal to business owners.
---- to here --

Feeling behind on AI? You're not, and you don't need an expert to get started.

Free prompt pack from this episode - a 20-minute desk audit and five prompts to hand your busywork to AI: [DOWNLOAD LINK]

In this episode, TK (Tim Krotiris), Founder and CEO of Backable, answers the question business owners ask us more than any other right now: am I too far behind on AI? He compares this moment to the late-1990s dot-com boom, when everyone said you'd missed out unless you were online, and explains why the early noise always settles. He shares what building an AI product four times over has taught us, why spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to catch up often leaves owners no better off, and how to start using AI in your business by simply asking it to help. He finishes with three things every business owner should know about AI right now.

In this episode:
00:00 Feeling behind on AI
00:31 AI and the dot-com boom
01:27 Why AI feels so fast
02:11 Rebuilding our AI product four times
03:03 You don't need an AI expert
04:13 Start with your core business
04:58 Ask AI to help your business
06:08 Stay curious, not anxious, about AI
07:05 Using AI to clear your desk
08:31 The AI noise era
09:11 Three things to know about AI
09:50 Will AI take every job?
10:39 Block out the AI hype
11:53 About Backable

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.

Relentlessly loyal to business owners.
Free to start: https://backable.ai/?via=backablemedia

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCu5iJiD0VT6hEOS_EgcAGjw

Follow Backable
Instagram: https://instagram.com/backableai
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/backableai

Follow the team
TK: https://instagram.com/timkrotiris | https://linkedin.com/in/timkrotiris
Lana: https://instagram.com/elanaharari | https://linkedin.com/in/elanaharari
Nigel: https://instagram.com/this_backable_life | https://linkedin.com/in/nigelwalton

Out-think. Out-execute. Out-grow.

We sat in a pub in Carlton working out how to make our first $1 million, charging $60 a week for social media. It was a lot of clients, and that plan had to die so the business could grow.

TK says most businesses rebuild their model 4 or 5 times on the way to $20 to $40 million. In this episode: what it felt like to let the first one go, the member who walked into our office in tears, and the AI that finally got TK to take a day off.

In this episode
00:00 The Carlton pub maths
00:33 A member walked in and hugged us all
02:42 600 pages of how-tos, in the bin
04:01 Rebuilding the model four or five times
04:59 Scaling back once you got what you wanted
05:51 When you're not the leader for the next stage
06:52 Life-changing money, now what?
07:58 Do you remember your first client?
08:17 Five posts a week for $60
09:31 The year everyone had to pay for ads
10:01 A $28,000 first wage
10:27 Cracking $1 million for the first time
12:11 The AI that told TK to take a day off

TK (Tim Krotiris) is CEO and co-founder of Backable, a Melbourne-based AI membership platform for small and medium business owners. Nigel Walton is the podcast co-host.

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/timkrotiris
Elana →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/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6X
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491
YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

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/

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

Chapters
00:00 Remove One Thing Every Day
01:48 Reports Under 10% of Clients Read
07:02 Decluttering Starts With a Dead Plant
11:12 Why Owners Abandon What Works
15:01 Owner Taking On Every Job
17:20 Why Your BDM Hire Fails
19:04 Find Your Business Bottleneck
25:32 Know Your Customer Acquisition Cost
29:29 Clearing an Owner's Mental Load
36:03 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/timkrotiris
Elana →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/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6X
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491
YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

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 EPISODE
00:00 Lone wolf to wolf pack
02:39 Every breakthrough started with something breaking
04:17 The owners who can't let go of their own mistake
05:14 Having someone who'll tell you the truth
07:17 Outgrowing people, and when "great culture" hides it
09:14 The day Elana realised she wasn't that important
10:32 Why you can't scale doing it all yourself
12:56 Working less and getting paid more
15:39 What you won't let go of
17:26 Hold yourself to the standard you'd set an employee
19:29 Stress or pressure? We disagree
23:26 Why you need a North Star
26:17 Being okay with being wrong
29:20 Why the transition feels worse before it gets better
32:43 Burn the boats, or keep a way back?
36:14 Small business owners aren't idiots
38:03 Ten of you versus one of you
39:17 Building a business someone would buy
41:00 You don't have to lead your own business
41:35 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/timkrotiris
Elana →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/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6X
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491
YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

“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/timkrotiris
Elana →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/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6X
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491
YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ

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 Advantage
1:08 - Decision fatigue in Australia post-COVID and AI shifts
2:03 - The Speedboat Edge: TK's friend's multi-million dollar advantage
3:29 - The Daily Lunch Board Meeting: Daily decisions vs. 6-month corporate delays
4:22 - Falling in love with making decisions quickly
4:57 - The real killer in business: Speed of decision-making
5:52 - The unfair advantage of small business agility
6:56 - The relationship trap: Why we delay hard choices in business
8:01 - Using "Stop-Loss" rules to evaluate and kill off energy-sucking tasks
9:09 - 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 months
11:30 - 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

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/timkrotiris
Nigel → 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/6hff8VLWJLBFxY89SUwz6X
Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/backable/id1495129491
YouTube Music → https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7cZKg7ojx5ZBMM6ZnqIysBlBIrQ2loZ