SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In Episode 1119 of the podcast Screw the Commute, Tom Antion explains the importance of making “small, immediate corrections” in business and leadership instead of waiting until problems become major issues.
He begins with an analogy from his days as a freelance charter pilot. New pilots often overcorrect when they drift off course, causing them to zigzag and waste time. His flight instructor taught him to make small, immediate corrections to stay steadily on course. Tom applies this lesson directly to business management.
Key points from the episode:
• Small problems should be addressed immediately before they grow into larger ones.
• Waiting too long to correct employee mistakes creates resentment, confusion, and emotional blowups.
• Delayed corrections feel like punishment to employees because they often don’t understand what triggered the reaction.
• Immediate corrections create better learning because the issue is still fresh in everyone’s mind.
• Consistent accountability builds a “culture of precision” where employees know details matter.
• High performers improve and become more self-correcting in that environment.
• Low performers who dislike accountability often leave on their own.
• Small corrections feel like coaching, while large delayed corrections feel like attacks.
Tom emphasizes that business owners should avoid “letting weeds become trees” or “letting leaks become floods.” By correcting issues early and calmly, leaders create smoother operations, lower turnover, and longer-lasting employee relationships.
The episode closes with promotions for his mentor program and online school, where he encourages people to learn practical, marketable business skills rather than spending heavily on traditional colleges without clear career outcomes.

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Episode 1119 – Small Immediate Corrections
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.
[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1119 of Screw the Commute podcast. 1119. Wow. All right. Today we're going to talk about small, immediate corrections and how they can really help your business out and your, your mental attitude about what's going on in your business. And let's see, I hope you didn't miss episode 1118. That was perils of partnerships. All the deep doo doo. You can get in by jumping into a partnership without really thinking it through. All right, pick up a copy of my automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Version 3.0 is the latest. And in there you will see me talking about short keys. But it's not. It's not a program anymore. It's a browser extension, but still very, very powerful. And check out my mentor program, greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by SCHEV.
[00:01:26] Okay. Some of you know that I was a freelance charter pilot a long time ago. And when I was first getting my flying lessons is where I got this concept of small, immediate corrections from my flying instructor. So what happens with new pilots is when they're learning, they get off course. And so they make a really sharp turn back towards the course and they inevitably overshoot it and go way past it. And then they they make another sharp turn way back to the course, and they zig zag all the way. It takes like three times as long to get to their destination.
[00:02:16] Well, it was hammered into me when I was first flying Tom you got to make small, immediate corrections so that instead of zigzagging, you're maybe wiggling a little bit, but you're staying right on course with these small, immediate corrections. And I was thinking about how that applied to business. And, and I want to talk to you about that a little bit today. See, when I first started in business long, long time ago, I wanted to be the nice guy, the nice boss. And what I would do is I'd let problems gather and, and keep going without me saying anything about them until it got to the breaking Aching point where things were really bad. Had to make a giant correction. Everybody's mad. The employees are mad. They think I'm yelling at them or treating them poorly now because I waited too long. The analogies are kind of cute. It says you don't want weeds to become trees, okay? And you don't want leeks to become floods. I thought those were pretty good. Now, one of the key words in this small, immediate corrections is immediate. See, if you don't correct things immediately, by the time you get around to correcting them, it was forgotten what exactly happened. And the learning experience is not as good. And and then if you let things slide and this is talking about you now, if you let things slide, you're building resentment in yourself.
[00:04:03] You're thinking like, why am I paying this person? They keep screwing up and then it gets to the point where you blow up at them over something small and they're like, where in the heck did that come out of? Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed? Did you not get any sleep last night? Or are you in trouble with your spouse? I mean, they're not thinking they've been making this mistake all along. They're thinking there's something wrong with you. So another good thing about small, immediate corrections is that you build a culture of precision. So I want the people thinking, hey, Tom notices everything, and the high performance performers are going to fix stuff and pay more attention to to problems so that I don't notice them and have to say anything to them. And the low performers, guess what they'll do? They'll leave, right? Because there's they they can't stand getting corrected all the time. And they don't want to fix it. They just want to loaf around. So either way, you as the business owner, win the high performers fix stuff and you have less and less need to correct them and the low performers leave. So you want the people in your organization to think, okay, accountability is normal, but if you're making big corrections all the time, it feels like to them, punishment.
[00:05:32] But small corrections actually feel like coaching. Okay. You're coaching me to be better. That's wonderful. Okay, so start getting the mindset of small, immediate corrections. Don't wait until it blows up. It's just bad for you overall. You're going to have higher turnover because people are going to feel like they're getting punished all the time. And, you know, things go along smoothly. They don't even know anything's wrong. And then boom, you come out of left field and hit him in the head with a baseball bat? No. That's bad for your long term. See, I've had people work for me years long, long, long, long time. Because I make small, immediate corrections. It doesn't sound like punishment. Sounds like. Okay, you're coaching me to be better. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingtraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning. Probably save you a couple hundred grand by going to some stupid four year university or college where you're just going to be paying for for booze and partying and eating and, and they still come out and have no marketable skills. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.