The V3 Strategy: How Vision, Values, and Vehicles Drive Entrepreneurial Success

Introduction

What separates successful entrepreneurs from the 91% of people who never venture into building their own business? According to Tim Ryan, founder of Blue Swipe and Your Life Ventures, it's having a framework that aligns your vision, values, and the right vehicle for growth. In a recent episode of The Nathan Newberry Podcast, Tim shares his journey from an $8-per-hour cold caller at 17 to the CEO of multiple successful companies. His insights reveal how early challenges prepared him for entrepreneurial success, why sales skills are fundamental for any business owner, and how mentorship can dramatically accelerate your path to success. Whether you're currently employed but dreaming of starting your own venture, or already running a business that needs scaling, Tim's V3 Strategy offers a roadmap for creating meaningful growth while staying aligned with your core values.

Finding Your Mission: The Foundation of High Performance

When asked about what high performance means to him, Tim emphasizes that it starts with clarity of purpose:

"Performance for me, I think begins with knowing your mission. Like if you know what you're working towards, then that gives speed. You don't know where you're going, I think that you tend to slow down."

This mission-driven approach creates velocity in your work and life—not just by working more hours, but by maximizing the impact of the time you spend. As Tim explains, "Sometimes it's not the hours you put in, it's the work you put into the hours."

High performance requires three key elements according to Tim:

1. Clear mission and objectives that guide your actions and decisions
2. Elimination of distractions to maintain focus on critical tasks
3. The ability to be present in different areas of your life, whether working on your mission or spending time with family

This balanced approach prevents burnout while maintaining momentum toward your goals. By knowing what you're working toward, you can move at a higher velocity and make faster progress than those without clear direction.

What's particularly powerful about Tim's perspective is how his early life experiences shaped this mission-focused mindset. Growing up with financial instability and frequent moves (six times in a decade due to his father's corporate layoffs), Tim learned firsthand the importance of having control over your income. This became the catalyst for his entrepreneurial journey.

"Early on, I grew up in a world, I realized I was a little different...what I've realized is that that was actually the preparation I needed to become a business owner. I had to learn how to manage instability, I had to learn how to make new friends quickly, I had to learn how to solution-seek."

Rather than viewing these challenging experiences as setbacks, Tim recognized them as preparation for entrepreneurship, illustrating how our greatest challenges often contain the seeds of our future success.

The Importance of Sales Skills for Entrepreneurial Success

One of the most valuable insights Tim shares is how his first job—an $8-per-hour position cold-calling businesses for a payments company at age 17—laid the foundation for his future success as an entrepreneur.

"It was an incredibly key skill, and I think it's the skill I see most, you know, entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs lack. They don't know how to sell."

Tim points out a common misconception about sales that prevents many business owners from embracing this critical skill:

"Sales is almost like this dirty word because people conjure up a picture of a salesperson who's trying to persuade them or convince them or pressure them into something that they don't want, when actually that's not what real sales is. Real sales is actually finding out what people want and showing them how to get it."

This customer-centric definition of sales transforms it from something manipulative into a service that genuinely helps people achieve their goals. Tim's early sales experience taught him practical skills that transferred to every aspect of business:

• Keeping messages concise to maintain interest
• Finding the root of what customers want instead of focusing on features
• Creating compelling marketing materials instead of lengthy, boring content
• Using initial benefit statements to focus on the customer's needs
• Recognizing that the customer is the hero of the journey, not the salesperson

These sales fundamentals became the basis for Tim's marketing approach and even how he structures his businesses today. His experience demonstrates that sales skills are transferable across environments and essential for any business owner.

"If you don't understand what makes people buy, you're not going to be a company that's going to sell products."

The V3 Strategy: Aligning Vision, Values, and Vehicles

After years of building successful businesses and mentoring others, Tim developed what he calls the V3 Strategy—a framework that helps entrepreneurs create businesses aligned with their deepest values while achieving their vision.

Vision: Your Clear Destination

The first V is Vision—having absolute clarity about what you want your life to look like:

"A vision is not just like having a new car, having a house. It's like, what is the happiness you want to have in your life? What do you want your marriage to be like? What do you want the day-to-day life to look like?"

This comprehensive vision becomes your destination—the target you're constantly moving toward. Without this clarity, Tim believes you'll move slowly or in circles, never making meaningful progress.

Values: Your Guiding Principles

The second V is Values—the core principles that guide your decisions and actions:

"For most people, they're going to talk when it comes to values around their faith, maybe their family, that could be both their spouse or maybe their children, what's the legacy they want to leave...what's their fitness, and how are they aligning things with that."

Tim emphasizes that true happiness comes from living in alignment with your values. When your business decisions and daily activities reflect these core principles, you build a life you don't need to escape from.

Vehicle: Your Path to Success

The third V is Vehicle—the specific means that will take you toward your vision while honoring your values:

"There is going to have to be some type of a vehicle. It's a mission, a calling, a business, a job—there's something that's going to help you...get to that place that is going to be your vision and values."

For Tim, entrepreneurship became his vehicle. However, he notes that most people don't know how to "drive" their chosen vehicle effectively, which is where mentorship becomes crucial:

"If I use my vehicle analogy, you don't know how to drive your car. So a mentor is like your driving coach, right? It's going to be the person that's going to help you drive the vehicle."

This framework provides a clear process for evaluating opportunities and making decisions. If something doesn't align with your vision and values or doesn't help you operate your chosen vehicle more effectively, it may be something to eliminate.

The Power of Mentorship and Strategic Investment

Perhaps the most transformative insight Tim shares is the importance of investing in mentorship and expert guidance. This lesson began with a PDF he purchased online at age 17 for $45—a significant investment for him at that time:

"It changed my life because it taught me two things. First thing it taught me was the power of mentorship...Second thing he shared in the PDF was that if you wanted to be wealthy, you had to pay for the best advice out there."

This perspective shift led to a principle that dramatically accelerated Tim's success:

"He said that poor people would be the ones who would seek out free information, whereas wealthy people sought out the best information, which normally you'd have to pay for."

Tim implemented Brian Tracy's principle of investing 10% of his income into education and mentorship:

"The first year I did that, it was like the scariest thing I ever did. And lo and behold, next year, I like almost doubled my income. I did it again the next year from that, and I didn't double my income, but it grew significantly."

When he eventually stopped this practice, his income stagnated and even declined, reinforcing the value of continued investment in mentorship. Today, Tim and his wife invest heavily in coaching across all areas of their lives:

"In 2024, we probably spent over $65,000 on coaching and mentoring. In fact, my wife and I spend money for mentorship in every area of our life. We even have a sleep coach for our son."

This commitment to finding the best guidance has consistently paid dividends, from business growth to personal challenges. As Tim summarizes: "I think wealthy people pay for the best advice, and poor people search for free advice."

The most compelling aspect of Tim's mentorship philosophy is how it removes "belief blockers"—the fears and uncertainties that prevent people from taking action. By following someone who has already achieved what you want, you gain:

1. A clear roadmap that eliminates confusion about next steps
2. Confidence that comes from seeing others succeed using the same approach
3. Accountability to ensure you take consistent action
4. A community of like-minded individuals on similar journeys

For Tim, this approach allows entrepreneurs to build businesses in a 2-5 year timeframe without quitting their jobs or taking on massive debt—making entrepreneurship accessible to more people.

Conclusion: Pruning for Growth

Throughout the conversation, Tim emphasizes that success often comes not from adding more to your life, but from strategic elimination. Just as orchards require pruning for optimal fruit production, entrepreneurs must regularly assess what to remove from their lives:

"More often than not, it's like what do you need to prune and cut out of your life...What do I need to eliminate more than what do I need to add? Because it's going to give you more space to create."

This process of elimination extends to habits, activities, and even relationships that don't align with your vision and values. Tim shares personal examples, including his decision to stop drinking alcohol in 2016:

"I just realized, number one, I probably need to keep all the brain cells I have, but number two, if that's not really helping further me or get me closer to my goals, like, why even do it?"

The V3 Strategy provides a framework for making these decisions. By maintaining clarity about your vision and values, you can more easily identify which activities and relationships truly serve as vehicles to get you there—and which ones are merely distractions.

For the 91% of people who never venture into building their own business, this approach offers a path forward. Rather than diving in without direction or staying permanently on the sidelines, Tim's method allows for intentional, strategic growth aligned with your deepest values.

By investing in mentorship, mastering fundamental sales skills, and consistently aligning your actions with your vision, you can build a business that not only succeeds financially but also creates the life you truly want to live.