Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim “Rev” Thompson.
Hi Tim “Rev”, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started my career more than 30 years ago in live television, producing some of the biggest broadcasts in the world, including the Oscars and the Emmys. From there, I moved into the entertainment design industry, working with studios like Imaginary Forces on projects for filmmakers including David Fincher, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Tom Cruise.
Later, I joined Trailer Park, where I helped build the company’s operations during a period of rapid growth, expanding from roughly 40 employees to more than 400. That experience taught me that creative excellence alone isn’t enough. The studios that thrive are the ones that build great businesses alongside great creative.
In 2006, I founded RevThink with a simple mission: help creative entrepreneurs build businesses that are as exceptional as the work they produce. Since then, I’ve worked with more than 200 studios around the world, helping owners strengthen their sales, operations, finance, leadership, and long term strategy while preserving the creativity that made them successful in the first place.
Today, I spend my time advising founders, speaking, writing, and building a global community of creative business owners. What motivates me most is seeing talented entrepreneurs gain the confidence and clarity to build businesses that not only succeed financially, but also create better lives for their teams, their families, and themselves.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s definitely not always been a smooth road. Like most entrepreneurs, I’ve experienced the highs of rapid growth and the lows of difficult decisions, economic downturns, failed ideas, and lessons learned the hard way. Every stage of business introduces a new set of challenges, and the skills that got you here are rarely the ones that get you to the next level.
Every successful business begins by identifying a need the entrepreneur believes they can solve. The entrepreneur’s job then becomes discovering, creating, or combining the resources needed to meet that need. That’s what I call The Entrepreneurial Formula: Needs + Resources = Solutions.
Learning this lesson has helped me navigate every stage of my career. Today, when I encounter challenges or change, I no longer ask, “Why is this happening?” Instead, I ask, “What new needs are revealing themselves?” That simple shift in perspective keeps me curious, fuels innovation, and leads me to discover the resources needed to create new solutions.
As you know, we’re big fans of RevThink. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
RevThink exists to help creative entrepreneurs build businesses that are as exceptional as the work they produce. We work exclusively with owners of creative studios, agencies, and production companies, helping them master the seven disciplines of a healthy creative business: Entrepreneurship, Finance, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Production, and Creative.
What sets us apart is that we’ve lived it. I’ve spent my career inside creative businesses, from global entertainment studios to scaling companies through periods of rapid growth. That experience allows us to bridge the gap between creativity and business without asking founders to sacrifice one for the other.
Our philosophy is simple: great creative companies deserve great businesses. Too many talented founders rely on instinct, hustle, and long hours to grow. We help them replace chaos with clarity by building practical systems, developing stronger leadership, and creating sustainable growth.
What I’m most proud of isn’t the number of studios we’ve worked with or the years we’ve been in business. It’s seeing founders regain confidence, build healthier companies, and create businesses that support the lives they want to live. When creative entrepreneurs succeed, they create opportunities for their teams, better work for their clients, and lasting value for the industry as a whole.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I believe luck is real, but I don’t think it’s random.
Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to meet incredible people, work on remarkable projects, and be invited into opportunities I never could have planned. But I’ve also learned that luck tends to favor those who stay curious, build genuine relationships, and consistently create value for others.
Some of the biggest opportunities in my career came from conversations, introductions, or unexpected moments that looked like luck from the outside. In reality, they were built on years of showing up, helping people, and being prepared when opportunity arrived.
The same is true of bad luck. Economic downturns, losing clients, or watching industries change can feel like setbacks, but they’ve often become the catalyst for my greatest growth. Over the past five years, our industry has weathered COVID, industry consolidation, shrinking margins, and unprecedented technological change. Many saw those events as bad luck. We saw them as a need that wasn’t being met.
Instead of retreating, we invested in bringing people together. We built an online community of nearly 1,000 creative entrepreneurs across more than 60 countries, giving studio owners a place to learn, share, and navigate those challenges together. From the outside, it may have looked like we were in the right place at the right time. From the inside, it was the result of listening to what people needed and committing ourselves to serving them.
So today, I don’t spend much time thinking about whether something is good luck or bad luck. I believe the best way to deal with the future is to create it. When you stay curious, serve others well, and keep showing up, you create more opportunities for luck to find you.
Pricing:
- Community is Free
- Join a Small Group for $300 m
- Consulting services are customized to each client’s needs and are priced following an initial assessment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://revthink.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revthinkchief
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timtla/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RevThink
