The Truth About Jonathan's 3 Year Vacation

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A sabbatical is a full-on do-no-work period.
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Right now, it seems like torture.
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My identity is wrapped up in it.
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I would feel immense amounts of guilt.
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There's no way in the world a three-year sabbatical would have happened had I not sold the business.
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I don't care how premium you want to be, you're going to lose customers.
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If value is higher than price, people leave.
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And so the way I think you use AI more is literally every single thing you do start with AI, even if you think it's dumb.
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And then another situation where all I can do is tell this person they need to cut this person out of their life and run.
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Welcome everyone back to the podcast that has no name, that we try to manufacture debate and disagreement, but still fail to do so.
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And the podcast that we still fail to have really good nicknames for each other.
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But I am... Oh, that's right.
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I have it.
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I haven't brought mine back for you.
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I haven't even tried yet.
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Well, currently we're at the Sultan of Service and the Pharaoh of Franchising, and it has a decent ring to it.
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I've never been called a Pharaoh, but that's what we're sticking with until we hear otherwise in the comments.
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But for today's cold open, since how we do this is we alternate back and forth each week, and we'll stick with that until we see a better way.
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I'm liking it so far.
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Yeah, I like it.
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So for this cool little bit, I wanted to mix it up.
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You know, we've been doing some hot takes.
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I want to do more visual.
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So we're going to see if this works.
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Visual.
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Yeah, I'm going to have Jay show you two images, and I'll preface each one, okay?
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So there's three scenarios.
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The first scenario is that gas vehicles are outlawed.
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All right.
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So whether this this administration or the next administration or aliens come along and no gas powered vehicles and you're forced to switch your vehicle fleet in your home service business.
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So I'm going to show you two images and I just want to get your opinions and your hot take.
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Oh, you can even do a long answer in terms of which one you would recommend for certain people.
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The first one is the Slate, the Slate truck that just came out.
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So, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I got that image here.
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We got twenty four thousand nine hundred fifty dollars starting now.
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We got really having to cram the equipment on there.
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Yeah, yeah.
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You know, you scale things up and down with a high a little bit.
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They're five and a half feet.
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Come on now.
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Okay, so that's version one.
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This is your first option.
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Okay, now again.
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That looks cool.
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I like the look.
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It does look cool.
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It also got a lot of Instagram comments when I posted it.
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Second option is the Cybertruck.
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Okay, a little more expensive.
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We do have a little more power.
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I don't know about the deck here.
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I don't even know what happened with the ramp situation.
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But nonetheless, if you had to choose between the two, you can give all the caveats in the world if you'd like based upon which service.
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But if you had... Can you pull a trailer?
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I'm just showing you the images.
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Which one, if tomorrow CityTurf was forced, would you be switching to either Cybertrucks or SlateTrucks?
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It'd have to be the Cybertruck.
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Oh.
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Because there is more room at the end of the day.
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Is there?
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Is there, though?
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They're both five and a half feet?
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The back.
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So the bed on the other one's really five and a half feet?
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Yeah.
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I mean, it's the same?
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Because the single cab.
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Yeah.
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Oh.
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But the thing is, I don't even know if the Slate could handle that much weight in the back because the Cybertruck could definitely pull a trailer.
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Yeah, and the thing about the Cybertruck is with that depreciation curve, they're going to become desirable.
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They might be as much as a Slate at some point.
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Not really, but...
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Okay, so we're going with the Cybertruck.
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Okay, yeah, but you threw me with the bad thing.
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Well, I know over the years...
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Huh.
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I think the other one is way cooler.
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If I just wanted one on the road for pure looks, at least at the moment, I like the other one.
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I like the small size of the slate.
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I like the price point of the slate.
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You just haven't given me a lot of options here.
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Will five and a half feet really hold...
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Like, could you, you could probably make it work for past.
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You couldn't make it work for Furt.
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Like for Furt and stuff, you'd have to pull a trailer.
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If you had a tank.
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Yeah.
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I got trailer covered in the third option here.
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So don't worry.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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So for now though, we're going with the slate.
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Assuming that.
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I think the slate's cooler.
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If I have to pull a trailer, go with this.
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And you get two for the, you get two for the price of one, two for the price of one.
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But you have no stereo.
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You have, have you seen the inside of these things?
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Yeah, but you can't use your phone and it has, oh no, it's like a- You have to bring your speaker.
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You're right.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I have to bring your Bluetooth speaker.
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Oh man, I gotta love it.
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Okay, all right.
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I think they're clever.
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I wonder how they're going to do.
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Okay.
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It's really interesting.
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Okay, next one.
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Best guerrilla marketing.
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Okay, so you have to use no Facebook ads, no Google ads.
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I know you love postcards.
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Not happening.
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You have some sort of budget.
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We'll get there.
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But you have to do one or the other.
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First one.
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is going to be branding on a space rocket.
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No disclosure, just all of a sudden at the next launch event, your logo is at the top, okay?
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That's option number one.
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Do I have to be able to make this work economically, like be able to afford it?
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Or does that not matter?
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You know, in the world of SpaceX, we don't think about numbers.
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We don't do any spreadsheet math.
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We just send it to the moon.
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So- Okay.
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So-
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Now, let's assume the budget for a moment.
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You have the same budget.
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OK, so let's.
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OK, let's just make up real numbers.
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Five million dollars to put your logo on SpaceX rocket.
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OK. OK. Now, the next thing we're going to show you, you have five million dollars.
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So you could do more than one of these.
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But the next option is to do it on a hot air balloon.
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OK, here it is.
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Now, you could probably get quite a few of these for five million dollars.
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So, okay.
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So I could spend, yeah.
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You have the same budget, 5 million, either on SpaceX rocket, go into the moon.
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Literally.
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You're going to go to the moon and then you got hot air balloons.
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If it's literally going to the moon for the first time, I mean, first time as in with I'm not getting into that debate.
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Um, then I'll take that one.
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And especially if it blows up, that'd be very good for marketing as well.
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But I guess the ads write themselves, you know, blow up to get incredible publicity.
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So but the hot air balloon thing would actually be cool because for five million, I assume you'd be able to have a ton of these things.
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But I don't you'd have to really manufacture getting the press to actually pay attention to it.
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That's that would be the hard part of that strategy.
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Whereas with the SpaceX thing, the going to the moon thing, I think a lot of people are ignoring the SpaceX launches at this point.
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with publicity okay so you're going to spacex rocket i think so if it's going to the moon yes yes it's going to the moon okay if it's not going to moon i'm going with the other direction if it's just bringing up satellites or ai in space who cares okay so but if i could put a bunch of hot air balloons all over my market that's the thing that's really that's why i chose the hot air balloon is because i just i do like 500 of these things
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oh yeah no that'd be amazing oh yeah like you actually drive results in your market now if you say spacex you know i don't really care if someone in abu dhabi wants their lawn mode i can't serve right right agreed so yeah okay all right but if it goes to the moon okay everybody's paying attention exactly exactly okay we got one more okay um so this is like you can take this a couple different directions okay these are far-fetched ideas okay
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As if the others weren't, you know, the other ones are very realistic.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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These ones are a little more far fetched, little in the future, just a few years, but you've got to choose which one is the most viable or you think is going to happen.
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Like the plausibility of it happening is more real.
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Okay?
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Okay.
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And so if you had to put your money on this and invest into it, in CityTurf, which one would you use?
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So first up is going to be a drone.
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You saw this one.
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We spoiled this one before.
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Oh, yeah, yeah.
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The drone delivering a robot mower.
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There you go.
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Probably from the SpaceX satellite situation, dropping them.
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That's probably how these are distributed.
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So we got the Augusta Lawn Care drone dropping a Husqvarna robot mower.
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Because, you know, one of your beefs against these robot mowers is like, who's going to manage them?
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Who's going to move them?
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Security.
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What if they die?
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What if they need maintenance?
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Hey, I solved it.
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We're just going to have a drone go pick it up.
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And they're already doing Amazon Air drone deliveries.
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So I feel like putting a robot on there isn't much more of a payload compared to a few books.
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So that's option number one.
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All right.
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Those things aren't that heavy.
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That was my pitch.
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That was my pitch.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Second one.
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Second one is the cyber cab.
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Now the cyber cab doesn't have a bed, but we could put a trailer on it.
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And so in this case, you'd have the employee in the backseat.
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They'd be able to have lunch, text, be on TikTok, et cetera, show up refreshed to the next lawn, and then they just will hop out and use the lawnmower instead of the robot mower.
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So really this is, are we talking self-driving or are we talking about robots?
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Which one's going to dominate first?
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Take it away, my friend.
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which is going to dominate.
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Well, I like the vision of the other one better.
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I'll put it that way.
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That's the one I would want to nominate the row.
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The robot one dropping on this one.
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Yeah.
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Like if I, if drones could fly in and drop up three robots off and let them own and pick them all back up and move them, that'd be epic.
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We're not far away.
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I like that one.
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We're not far away.
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I feel like when we're going public, I just need to show this image.
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And immediately we are going to have our $2.2 trillion IPO.
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There it is.
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There you go.
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You could be.
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And I like this one because this one comes in with video cameras.
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Able to immediately examine the whole property, find all the things they're about to complain about, upsell them everything they need.
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This is the dream right here.
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Honestly, we just partner up with Amazon while they're delivering your books and your prescriptions.
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They can also have the lawn mowed.
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Mow your lawn.
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It's simple.
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Unfortunately, they're going to have to wait for four hours.
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Actually, you're going to have to wait for about a day for that stupid Husqvarna mower to finish its job.
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Oh, no, no.
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It can go do other deliveries.
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And then when you were ready to return your Amazon packages, it'll move it.
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Perfect sense.
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Okay, fantastic.
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Fantastic.
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those are good I love the branding I love that they look good you know we had to spice it up okay so what have you been working on this week JP I know you're out of town you know the commitment to the pod is appreciated we got the shirt we got the microphone brought all my gear let's go
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Yeah, no, I'm in Wyoming.
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So this week, I'm not doing a whole lot of stuff.
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I'm just going to be keeping people moving.
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So I've been hiking.
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Basically, we're hiking every day.
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And so when I'm done here, if that's what I'll do the rest of the day, and I'll check in with the team on to keep them moving.
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But this will be a low work week.
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I'll put it that way.
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Let's go.
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Cool.
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What about you?
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This week, technically, I think the day before this video goes out, I will have said publicly that I'm going to be going and starting the corporate location.
240
00:11:01.749 --> 00:11:03.751
This is the first corporate location for Augusta.
241
00:11:05.552 --> 00:11:06.952
It's not far from where you are at.
242
00:11:07.153 --> 00:11:08.934
I think, what, 30, 40 minutes?
243
00:11:09.694 --> 00:11:10.554
Yeah.
244
00:11:11.155 --> 00:11:11.695
Near Dallas.
245
00:11:11.975 --> 00:11:12.556
And so...
246
00:11:13.436 --> 00:11:14.357
I'll be going there this fall.
247
00:11:14.377 --> 00:11:17.119
We're going to live there for six months and then launch it in next spring.
248
00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:21.242
And we're testing several things that we've wanted to test.
249
00:11:21.883 --> 00:11:25.365
And there's not really anyone else besides me that's going to test it for Augusta.
250
00:11:25.386 --> 00:11:28.068
So I did the same thing three years ago for getting from like...
251
00:11:28.628 --> 00:11:30.269
the first 30 days of a location.
252
00:11:30.849 --> 00:11:35.492
And we tested door hangers, the AI, phone calls, and a couple other things.
253
00:11:35.913 --> 00:11:37.894
And so now we're testing like another group of things.
254
00:11:37.974 --> 00:11:39.415
But this is the first corporate location.
255
00:11:39.435 --> 00:11:41.356
The other locations in the past, I've owned them.
256
00:11:41.716 --> 00:11:45.519
This will be the first corporately owned location and we'll scale from there probably.
257
00:11:45.539 --> 00:11:46.379
Oh, yeah.
258
00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:48.140
So do you still own locations?
259
00:11:48.481 --> 00:11:49.041
I do, yeah.
260
00:11:49.581 --> 00:11:52.223
But they're like- And they're not considered corporate owned.
261
00:11:52.243 --> 00:11:52.783
Correct, yeah.
262
00:11:52.943 --> 00:11:53.284
Oh, okay.
263
00:11:53.704 --> 00:11:53.864
Yeah.
264
00:11:54.384 --> 00:11:54.644
Okay.
265
00:11:55.165 --> 00:11:55.305
So-
266
00:11:56.231 --> 00:12:01.034
So in other words, instead of the money going to the corporation, the money goes to you.
267
00:12:01.194 --> 00:12:01.934
Is that all you're saying?
268
00:12:01.954 --> 00:12:03.495
And then... For the existing locations.
269
00:12:03.635 --> 00:12:03.855
Yeah.
270
00:12:03.915 --> 00:12:06.877
For the ones that are starting out now, though, it'll be the corporate.
271
00:12:07.977 --> 00:12:10.839
Are you going to... Would you build more corporate locations over time?
272
00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:13.820
I know a lot of times people have them or they'll build them and sell them.
273
00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:15.681
Like, what are you thinking about?
274
00:12:15.781 --> 00:12:22.865
Like, we have increased the initial fee for new people coming into Augusta, mostly just to increase the barrier...
275
00:12:23.525 --> 00:12:27.466
and like the financial threshold for people getting in, that slows the amount of people coming in.
276
00:12:28.786 --> 00:12:35.107
And so it's either A, do I invest in infrastructure for the owners and the franchisees, or do I invest into the corporate expansion side?
277
00:12:35.367 --> 00:12:41.489
And I think I'll focus more on like both of those things in terms of like, we're not running ads for people to join Augusta.
278
00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:45.850
People, if they want to join, they can, and then we'll just make the system better.
279
00:12:46.350 --> 00:12:49.870
So that's kind of really been focused to invest the money back in.
280
00:12:50.431 --> 00:12:52.411
How many franchisees will your business support?
281
00:12:53.017 --> 00:12:54.358
In the long run or right now?
282
00:12:54.959 --> 00:12:56.400
Well, I don't know what long run means.
283
00:12:56.420 --> 00:12:58.081
You might be thinking of adding additional.
284
00:12:58.582 --> 00:13:00.644
Yeah, I don't know.
285
00:13:00.804 --> 00:13:03.566
Can you describe what right now versus long run means?
286
00:13:03.586 --> 00:13:05.368
Yeah, right now there's about 140, 150 owners with 215 to 220 locations.
287
00:13:05.388 --> 00:13:08.450
And my hope is that we have 1,000 locations and about 300 to 400 owners.
288
00:13:17.278 --> 00:13:26.863
So really focusing on allowing them to be able to scale, have multiple locations, especially in those smaller markets, have a GM, they go over the next market and start another one.
289
00:13:27.423 --> 00:13:28.664
And so that's really the focus.
290
00:13:28.844 --> 00:13:30.925
So I would say- That's what I was asking.
291
00:13:31.005 --> 00:13:37.949
Yeah, 300 to 400 would be kind of my top in terms of number of owners I'd want to service instead of doing like 1,000 owners in 1,000 locations.
292
00:13:38.525 --> 00:13:38.705
Yeah.
293
00:13:38.885 --> 00:13:39.886
Is that all U.S.-based?
294
00:13:40.446 --> 00:13:41.566
U.S., Canada, and Australia.
295
00:13:42.247 --> 00:13:42.547
Oh, okay.
296
00:13:42.767 --> 00:13:42.907
Yeah.
297
00:13:43.107 --> 00:13:44.708
Do you have some in Australia already?
298
00:13:44.768 --> 00:13:44.868
Yep.
299
00:13:44.888 --> 00:13:45.728
We have a few over there.
300
00:13:45.748 --> 00:13:46.029
You do?
301
00:13:46.049 --> 00:13:46.209
Yeah.
302
00:13:46.289 --> 00:13:49.890
And this is their off-season, so we're getting a few more to join here coming up.
303
00:13:50.010 --> 00:13:50.891
Have you ever been over there?
304
00:13:51.111 --> 00:13:51.651
Yeah, a few times.
305
00:13:51.671 --> 00:13:54.673
I actually went to Jim's Mowing two years ago.
306
00:13:54.733 --> 00:13:56.673
Oh, I think I – you did a video on that, didn't you?
307
00:13:56.693 --> 00:13:56.834
Yeah.
308
00:13:57.034 --> 00:13:57.234
Yeah.
309
00:13:57.394 --> 00:13:57.534
Yeah.
310
00:13:57.694 --> 00:13:57.894
Okay.
311
00:13:58.014 --> 00:13:58.194
Yeah.
312
00:13:58.394 --> 00:13:59.815
So I've been over there a couple times.
313
00:14:00.095 --> 00:14:01.736
But let's jump into the day's podcast.
314
00:14:01.776 --> 00:14:02.357
All right, let's do it.
315
00:14:02.377 --> 00:14:16.008
Okay, so this one is a build-off of a hot take and a question that came in because we had talked a little bit about, you know, you'd put your Professor Galloway hat on for a moment and made a comment.
316
00:14:16.028 --> 00:14:17.249
A little less liberal, but yes.
317
00:14:17.289 --> 00:14:18.069
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
318
00:14:18.129 --> 00:14:18.550
Exactly.
319
00:14:19.170 --> 00:14:20.310
But I'll read the question.
320
00:14:20.770 --> 00:14:22.851
I kind of shortened it a little bit because it was a pretty long one.
321
00:14:23.331 --> 00:14:27.452
But it said, Jonathan, you said you expect the mental health crisis to get worse.
322
00:14:28.132 --> 00:14:33.513
A lot of young men today seem lost, isolated, delaying marriage, struggling financially, or lacking purpose.
323
00:14:34.093 --> 00:14:35.314
Why do you think this is happening?
324
00:14:35.514 --> 00:14:41.195
And if a 25- or 30-year-old man asked you how to turn his life around, what would you tell him to do?
325
00:14:42.035 --> 00:14:58.906
avoid and change immediately now there's like five questions in there so i'll let you unpack it however you like i think this is a lot to do with the mental health side as well as young men and you made a specific comment around young men uh and so maybe unpack that and then what would your advice be to someone that might be feeling that way
326
00:14:59.472 --> 00:14:59.652
Yeah.
327
00:15:00.253 --> 00:15:03.075
Oh, I'm clearly no expert on this topic.
328
00:15:03.716 --> 00:15:10.522
And giving it just a little bit of thought, you know, the one thing I would kind of start it out with is I can't possibly speak to, like people are wired differently.
329
00:15:10.562 --> 00:15:15.726
And I know of some people that are just like their chemical situation appears to be a little bit different.
330
00:15:16.087 --> 00:15:17.188
I can't possibly speak to that.
331
00:15:17.308 --> 00:15:19.570
I'm not even talking to that person here.
332
00:15:19.610 --> 00:15:22.773
I'm more talking to the person where I feel like there are things in life that
333
00:15:23.373 --> 00:15:28.056
you could possibly do to impact how you're feeling the situation.
334
00:15:28.416 --> 00:15:29.937
This is a pretty complicated topic.
335
00:15:29.957 --> 00:15:33.659
And I haven't really listened to enough other people talk on this topic.
336
00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:35.320
Well, I've listened to several people talk about it.
337
00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:38.082
I don't know what the prevailing wisdom is on this.
338
00:15:38.102 --> 00:15:40.223
So I'm just kind of giving you what I think, my opinion.
339
00:15:40.924 --> 00:15:46.007
And so I don't want to minimize it for those that, you know, it's way more complicated than everything I'm about to say.
340
00:15:46.687 --> 00:15:51.208
So one of the reasons why I'm going to kind of run through some of the things that come to mind on why I'm negative.
341
00:15:51.308 --> 00:15:56.650
I think one of the biggest things, reasons I am negative in turn, well, let me put it this way.
342
00:15:56.670 --> 00:15:58.051
I'll kind of give a little bit of the end.
343
00:15:58.491 --> 00:16:02.632
I'm pretty, I'm optimistic that there's hope and.
344
00:16:03.172 --> 00:16:05.674
potential for improvement and there's a conversation happening.
345
00:16:05.694 --> 00:16:08.835
This seems to be something that people are aware of.
346
00:16:09.436 --> 00:16:10.616
There's an awareness around this.
347
00:16:11.016 --> 00:16:13.818
So I always think that's positive in terms of we can make change.
348
00:16:14.298 --> 00:16:16.039
But I would say I'm generally negative.
349
00:16:16.079 --> 00:16:17.100
This isn't going to get better.
350
00:16:17.805 --> 00:16:21.107
which is not normally where I stand on most.
351
00:16:21.147 --> 00:16:24.988
I tend to be fairly optimistic, but on this, I'm kind of negative.
352
00:16:25.229 --> 00:16:27.810
And the reasons why I'm negative, I'll kind of start at the top.
353
00:16:28.410 --> 00:16:32.732
I don't feel like, I'll just use a very elementary one, like when it comes to diet.
354
00:16:32.872 --> 00:16:36.594
I think a lot of this stuff, again, a real risk of oversimplifying here.
355
00:16:36.974 --> 00:16:44.019
But I think a lot of stuff for a lot of people, if it gets cleaned up, if they just eat differently and work out.
356
00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:51.144
It's proven that's true in so many facets of life and how people feel and their energy level and their motivation.
357
00:16:51.384 --> 00:16:55.547
So I think it's one of the contributing factors to a lot of people that are really –
358
00:16:56.147 --> 00:17:00.248
don't have any motivation or mentally beat down or beating themselves up.
359
00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:06.091
It's a, it's this vicious cycle of being trapped in this place where you just don't feel good.
360
00:17:06.231 --> 00:17:17.875
And so if your psychology, your physiology is not in a good place and your psychology is in a really bad place and it's a vicious cycle, that's brutally difficult to get out of like, oh, like very, very difficult to get out.
361
00:17:17.895 --> 00:17:20.716
So I think that right there is a top level thing.
362
00:17:20.796 --> 00:17:23.917
It's both the problem that I'm not optimistic about.
363
00:17:24.697 --> 00:17:29.058
And it's also one of the solutions that if I was talking to somebody, this is the top.
364
00:17:29.158 --> 00:17:34.019
And I have had these conversations with multiple younger people that have come to me for advice.
365
00:17:34.939 --> 00:17:40.861
This is always like the starting place in my mind, because then you get to a baseline and you figure out what's really going on.
366
00:17:41.281 --> 00:17:42.341
But you got to clean that up.
367
00:17:43.001 --> 00:17:48.242
The other thing that I think I just my theory is there's tons of contributing factors here.
368
00:17:48.363 --> 00:17:49.823
So how do you put your finger on the one?
369
00:17:50.583 --> 00:17:52.884
And just watching in my world.
370
00:17:52.904 --> 00:17:54.305
So I have two boys.
371
00:17:54.425 --> 00:18:02.270
Riley will play video games, but Riley never really – he'd play them, but he never really let himself play them a lot.
372
00:18:02.890 --> 00:18:06.532
He never really let himself be on social media that much.
373
00:18:07.012 --> 00:18:12.195
Whereas my other son, Gage, was very much on video games.
374
00:18:12.475 --> 00:18:16.538
And when we were – and I'm getting to a point here around video games –
375
00:18:17.196 --> 00:18:21.237
when we were, if I could do it again as a parent, I would have been hardcore.
376
00:18:21.757 --> 00:18:28.900
But when he was, call it 12, we moved, or younger, we moved to a different, and he moved away from all his friends.
377
00:18:29.820 --> 00:18:35.902
And I noticed on the Xbox, they'd all put on their headsets and he'd walk around the house talking to his buddies.
378
00:18:36.222 --> 00:18:38.363
They'd be on the video game playing with their buddies.
379
00:18:38.783 --> 00:18:39.643
And that was really cool.
380
00:18:39.703 --> 00:18:41.624
It's how he kept up with all his old friends.
381
00:18:41.724 --> 00:18:45.425
And so we let a lot more video game play happen
382
00:18:46.659 --> 00:18:49.322
And if I could go back and do it again, I would do it very differently.
383
00:18:49.883 --> 00:18:55.331
And I just, and I see this with so many kids his age and the video games were so different.
384
00:18:55.571 --> 00:19:00.157
I feel like I'm going to turn this into a long answer, but I think it's a very interesting, hopefully it's interesting one.
385
00:19:00.738 --> 00:19:00.858
Um,
386
00:19:01.539 --> 00:19:09.021
I think it's a different time when the Xbox and all these PlayStations turned it into this audio thing where it was like you could now talk to all your friends like you were on the phone.
387
00:19:10.121 --> 00:19:16.763
It just really – it really changed how video games worked, and that was around the time when my kids were young.
388
00:19:16.943 --> 00:19:18.443
And you think that's a positive thing?
389
00:19:18.583 --> 00:19:21.004
You think that's a positive thing because there's the social connection or not?
390
00:19:21.580 --> 00:19:22.681
I thought it was at the time.
391
00:19:22.901 --> 00:19:24.122
And I still think it's a positive.
392
00:19:24.222 --> 00:19:24.723
Oh, yeah, yeah.
393
00:19:24.803 --> 00:19:26.124
No, I think it's a positive thing.
394
00:19:26.244 --> 00:19:27.265
I'm not negative on that at all.
395
00:19:27.726 --> 00:19:28.266
I think what...
396
00:19:28.627 --> 00:19:29.708
I'm not being real clear.
397
00:19:30.048 --> 00:19:35.833
What it did with us in our house is I think we ended up letting him play video games a lot more because of it.
398
00:19:36.193 --> 00:19:37.254
Also, back then he played...
399
00:19:38.295 --> 00:19:39.375
Minecraft and stuff.
400
00:19:39.435 --> 00:19:41.476
And some of the games he was doing is building things.
401
00:19:41.736 --> 00:19:43.597
But I look back at what happened.
402
00:19:43.617 --> 00:19:47.958
I think as a parent, what we got wrong is we let them play way more than we should have.
403
00:19:48.118 --> 00:19:50.619
We should have put a lot more time blocks on it than we did.
404
00:19:51.259 --> 00:19:56.780
And so this, now to the whole point, it's like this whole dopamine world that we now live in.
405
00:19:57.361 --> 00:20:01.662
Whether you're on social media or you're playing video games, it's that immediate dopamine hit.
406
00:20:02.522 --> 00:20:19.076
And I think what the big negative here is, I'm not necessarily negative on video games, but this problem with these constant dopamine hits is that as soon as we now have to encounter anything hard, where we have to work on something hard, we don't get that immediate hit.
407
00:20:19.536 --> 00:20:24.581
Our brain just wants to immediately switch back to the easy stuff, playing the video games, getting on Facebook.
408
00:20:25.181 --> 00:20:29.783
I put this as one of the single biggest, my personal theory is one of the single biggest problems.
409
00:20:30.143 --> 00:20:33.505
We've all wired ourselves to constantly be getting this dopamine hit.
410
00:20:33.545 --> 00:20:37.367
I think a lot of people are saying this one, this is not my own idea or anything like that.
411
00:20:37.427 --> 00:20:45.211
So as a parent, if I could rewind time, this is one of the single, this is the single biggest change I'd make as a parent.
412
00:20:45.251 --> 00:20:46.711
And I see it happening everywhere.
413
00:20:46.791 --> 00:20:54.255
If I built a whole world in Minecraft in one week, why is my business not operating the same level after five years, you know?
414
00:20:54.933 --> 00:20:55.514
Yeah, yeah.
415
00:20:55.614 --> 00:20:57.797
It's like, yeah, it's just there's so many things.
416
00:20:57.917 --> 00:21:01.903
It's like, and so there's just so many things that give you those constant hits.
417
00:21:02.744 --> 00:21:05.248
I really think this is one of our biggest societal problems.
418
00:21:05.849 --> 00:21:09.354
We've removed all the friction from life in so many ways now.
419
00:21:09.374 --> 00:21:09.674
Mm-hmm.
420
00:21:10.535 --> 00:21:16.016
Because, well, it's just a different time than when my parents were growing up or even your parents were growing up.
421
00:21:16.096 --> 00:21:17.997
It's like there's just less friction.
422
00:21:18.037 --> 00:21:25.178
And so I don't think that a lot of kids are having to live in a – there's different socioeconomic worlds.
423
00:21:25.218 --> 00:21:26.378
People live in different places.
424
00:21:26.418 --> 00:21:30.439
But a lot of kids don't have to live with much discomfort anymore.
425
00:21:30.479 --> 00:21:32.860
They don't have to do many hard things anymore.
426
00:21:33.860 --> 00:21:37.801
And so I just – I think that's one of our biggest problems.
427
00:21:38.221 --> 00:21:38.461
Yeah.
428
00:21:38.656 --> 00:21:40.498
I've got maybe two others.
429
00:21:40.578 --> 00:21:43.461
Another one I think of is... Quickly, Jonathan, on that topic.
430
00:21:43.701 --> 00:21:45.703
So from a parent's perspective, how do you...
431
00:21:45.723 --> 00:21:49.726
Okay, and you can use your own personal experience or be more prescriptive.
432
00:21:50.167 --> 00:22:02.278
How do you bake in elements of doing hard things without becoming the overbearing parent that takes a young person to actually rebel against you because you're forcing them into something that's not easy?
433
00:22:02.919 --> 00:22:03.079
I...
434
00:22:04.415 --> 00:22:09.020
I think the, so we'll use the cell phone as an example.
435
00:22:09.080 --> 00:22:10.201
I'll bet most parents have been through this.
436
00:22:10.221 --> 00:22:15.307
You got a young kid, you want to delay how old your kids are when they get the device.
437
00:22:16.108 --> 00:22:17.829
Every single one of their kids has the device.
438
00:22:18.390 --> 00:22:19.972
You're the only parent that's holding out.
439
00:22:20.052 --> 00:22:21.173
A lot of people face this.
440
00:22:21.854 --> 00:22:23.215
And so that is, so...
441
00:22:24.076 --> 00:22:31.538
You're battling, you kind of touched on something where I, I don't know the exact answer, but you're battling this whole, how do you kind of, how do you be strict?
442
00:22:32.418 --> 00:22:35.479
And, but at the same time, not push them away and run them off.
443
00:22:35.579 --> 00:22:38.340
And I don't, and every kid is made completely different.
444
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:41.761
You have, you can't be the same parent to each of your kids.
445
00:22:42.101 --> 00:22:47.202
So that is a very fine line, I think, as a parent where you're kind of feeling your way through it.
446
00:22:47.942 --> 00:22:51.183
And so I don't know how you answer that question properly.
447
00:22:51.403 --> 00:22:53.366
at a prescriptive level for everybody.
448
00:22:53.506 --> 00:22:55.489
I think as a parent, you've got to kind of navigate this.
449
00:22:55.929 --> 00:23:02.037
If I could do it again, I would have just put more hard limits on it and more, I like the concept of earning the time.
450
00:23:02.785 --> 00:23:09.067
Like whether it works or not, but I like the idea that you get these things done, you do these things, you get this amount of time.
451
00:23:09.747 --> 00:23:14.668
Again, you're going to, if you're a parent, I don't care what kind of family you're running, how good it might be.
452
00:23:14.989 --> 00:23:16.049
They are going to fight you.
453
00:23:16.369 --> 00:23:21.390
There is no getting around it because all their friends are on there playing and that's their social world.
454
00:23:21.871 --> 00:23:24.011
Like when I was where I grew up, I grew up in the country.
455
00:23:24.031 --> 00:23:26.272
You know, you'd go outside and play with all your friends.
456
00:23:27.338 --> 00:23:29.020
But now your friends aren't outside.
457
00:23:29.540 --> 00:23:31.042
This is how you hang out with your friends.
458
00:23:31.082 --> 00:23:37.888
If they're all in the games and you're not in the games and you're not hanging out with your friends, that's a really challenging thing for a parent.
459
00:23:37.909 --> 00:23:42.193
Because that becomes a big part of social because that's where everybody's at.
460
00:23:42.453 --> 00:23:44.335
They're either doing that or they're in sports.
461
00:23:44.355 --> 00:23:44.635
Yeah.
462
00:23:44.830 --> 00:23:53.802
And would there have been resentment for someone like Gage if you say, hey, you're not allowed to spend time with your previous friends by being on these games, for example?
463
00:23:54.203 --> 00:23:56.566
Well, and that's the perfect example of my channel.
464
00:23:56.586 --> 00:23:59.210
So Gage, for example, does not care about money.
465
00:23:59.630 --> 00:24:00.872
He doesn't care about stuff.
466
00:24:02.754 --> 00:24:04.556
He doesn't care about any of that stuff.
467
00:24:04.576 --> 00:24:07.359
He doesn't care about the name brand things.
468
00:24:08.100 --> 00:24:09.822
He only cares about friends.
469
00:24:10.223 --> 00:24:12.125
He only cares about the social element.
470
00:24:12.405 --> 00:24:16.229
And his phone is his social connection, and his games were his social connection.
471
00:24:16.690 --> 00:24:17.831
That's why it's so complicated.
472
00:24:20.374 --> 00:24:20.954
And so...
473
00:24:21.995 --> 00:24:23.216
I don't have the answer.
474
00:24:23.236 --> 00:24:25.157
I just see what the challenge is here.
475
00:24:26.177 --> 00:24:33.341
But I do think as a parent from having been through this, if I could do it again, I can only speak for myself.
476
00:24:33.862 --> 00:24:44.607
I would make a much stronger attempt to massively limit the time because I think the negatives outweigh even more the social media if I could than the games.
477
00:24:46.589 --> 00:25:03.629
One other thought I had on this one is I can't help but wonder, and this may be, again, different economic classes of people, but I can't help but wonder how many kids could never articulate this, but they've essentially watched their parents despise their jobs.
478
00:25:05.312 --> 00:25:14.801
they've watched their parents basically not be happy, arguing about money, trying to get all the stuff, get the new cars, get the bigger house, do all the things.
479
00:25:15.842 --> 00:25:24.370
And the kids observe their parents on social media or at the party talking a big game, but at home, they're not loving life.
480
00:25:24.550 --> 00:25:25.971
And the kid's like, why would I want this?
481
00:25:26.812 --> 00:25:27.994
Why would I want to play this game?
482
00:25:28.014 --> 00:25:29.656
They could never articulate that thing.
483
00:25:30.437 --> 00:25:45.014
But it's another reason why they sort of like are in no hurry to go play the normal game of life where you're going to go to college because college didn't actually even yield for their parents' jobs they love.
484
00:25:46.656 --> 00:25:49.397
get married because I think, wow, great.
485
00:25:49.477 --> 00:25:52.519
50% of people are still married, but how many of those marriages are actually any good?
486
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:55.081
Not 50%, not even close.
487
00:25:55.261 --> 00:25:57.863
I think most marriages are actually like a shell.
488
00:25:58.583 --> 00:26:01.425
Okay, so they see what's happening in their marriage.
489
00:26:01.465 --> 00:26:03.266
Like, well, do I really need that?
490
00:26:03.306 --> 00:26:04.607
Maybe they can't articulate it.
491
00:26:05.107 --> 00:26:11.030
Like there's all these things in society and in their families and in their homes that they've observed.
492
00:26:11.530 --> 00:26:14.011
And again, they're not making a decision to opt out.
493
00:26:14.532 --> 00:26:15.572
They haven't thought through it.
494
00:26:16.032 --> 00:26:19.274
They're just at a subconscious level saying, I don't care about any of that.
495
00:26:19.694 --> 00:26:23.116
I'm having more fun talking to my friends, playing my games, doing the thing.
496
00:26:23.776 --> 00:26:25.917
And so is that also part of the explanation?
497
00:26:26.678 --> 00:26:26.898
So...
498
00:26:27.763 --> 00:26:30.586
I don't know how great of an answer that is, but those are some of the things I think about.
499
00:26:30.606 --> 00:26:44.677
And I've thought about this stuff as a parent because I see, we have a lot of friends whose kids are doing really great, but I see a lot of their sons kind of being slow to move in life and it hasn't necessarily been easy.
500
00:26:44.857 --> 00:26:47.760
And they're in great families, successful families,
501
00:26:49.307 --> 00:26:55.191
And then the other thing is I've noticed and I've heard this said on social media, I feel like the girls are doing better.
502
00:26:55.351 --> 00:27:03.657
Like the girls are, when you get into the work world and you get into the college, the work world, that traditional path, the girls seem to be doing better than a lot of the guys.
503
00:27:03.697 --> 00:27:05.419
The guys seem to be moving slower.
504
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:09.562
And I don't know why that is because the girls had the same access to social media.
505
00:27:10.022 --> 00:27:14.205
The only thing that I, like only difference I can think of is they played less video games.
506
00:27:14.625 --> 00:27:16.146
So it's, it's a tough one.
507
00:27:16.166 --> 00:27:16.647
I have no idea.
508
00:27:16.667 --> 00:27:16.987
Yeah.
509
00:27:17.387 --> 00:27:20.708
I have a couple images I want to show just for data's sake.
510
00:27:21.048 --> 00:27:26.749
The first one, maybe, Jason, we can pull up the average age getting married.
511
00:27:26.849 --> 00:27:31.510
So this is over the course of the past approximately 120, 130 years.
512
00:27:31.990 --> 00:27:39.451
So very interesting that in the 60s and 70s, for example, the average man was getting married around 23 years old.
513
00:27:39.812 --> 00:27:41.292
Now that's up to 30 years old.
514
00:27:42.372 --> 00:27:46.273
and approximately the similar woman two years younger.
515
00:27:46.293 --> 00:27:49.494
Next slide shows another graph.
516
00:27:50.135 --> 00:27:54.856
I wanted to show also a little bit of the socioeconomic part, and that is, does this also have an impact?
517
00:27:54.876 --> 00:27:56.817
And that is the cost of living
518
00:27:57.577 --> 00:28:07.951
increasing so much to the point where it's almost feel like I got to opt out of the system or like it's not working for me because now this is a this graph shows house prices compared to the median household income.
519
00:28:08.291 --> 00:28:11.456
So back in the 85, it was like it's always ranged around three to 3.5x.
520
00:28:11.476 --> 00:28:12.217
Now it's like 5x.
521
00:28:12.397 --> 00:28:12.457
So
522
00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:20.663
significantly more expensive in comparison to the median house, uh, median income.
523
00:28:21.283 --> 00:28:22.463
And like, is this even attainable?
524
00:28:22.483 --> 00:28:30.247
Like if I may, if I'm coming out of college, making 60 grand or 55 grand a year, am I ever going to afford a seven or $800,000 house?
525
00:28:31.147 --> 00:28:32.828
And so the next slide, sorry, two more.
526
00:28:33.528 --> 00:28:34.328
Just some data here.
527
00:28:34.908 --> 00:28:36.609
And this is the marriage rate.
528
00:28:37.029 --> 00:28:39.829
So 78% was back in 1949, almost 79%.
529
00:28:39.909 --> 00:28:43.750
And then in 2022, it's come down to 46%, which is actually a pretty large drop.
530
00:28:43.770 --> 00:28:48.811
Like if you go from almost 80% to under 50%, we're talking about a, what, 40, almost 40% drop.
531
00:28:59.053 --> 00:29:00.494
and pretty substantial.
532
00:29:01.095 --> 00:29:04.978
And to your point, are these things going to continue?
533
00:29:05.418 --> 00:29:08.461
The last slide I have is also around more of the economic side of belief.
534
00:29:09.561 --> 00:29:13.404
And that is percentage of women married before age 30.
535
00:29:13.444 --> 00:29:15.246
Actually, this is for women.
536
00:29:15.266 --> 00:29:16.647
So I kind of flipped it over the women's side.
537
00:29:17.007 --> 00:29:21.070
But this is the percent married at the age of 30 by decade.
538
00:29:21.591 --> 00:29:23.873
And in the 1950s, it was 93%.
539
00:29:24.333 --> 00:29:25.874
Fast forward to this decade, it's 28%.
540
00:29:27.095 --> 00:29:32.919
And so pretty staggering numbers, but I wanted to kind of just like set some of the data around what Jonathan's saying.
541
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:35.641
And two questions I have, Jonathan.
542
00:29:35.861 --> 00:29:37.543
Is this a problem that needs to be solved?
543
00:29:37.623 --> 00:29:41.125
Or is this just kind of like we're evolving into this new era?
544
00:29:41.145 --> 00:29:45.188
And is it healthy to specifically the young men?
545
00:29:45.208 --> 00:29:47.030
Because that's 95% of people who listen to this.
546
00:29:47.890 --> 00:29:54.314
And if if someone is in that case, in that scenario where they're like, OK, I'm not married, I feel like I am still spinning my wheels.
547
00:29:54.334 --> 00:29:56.695
I'm 25, 28, 30 years old.
548
00:29:57.155 --> 00:29:59.496
What should be my next steps to kind of break out of that?
549
00:29:59.516 --> 00:30:00.117
Because I see it.
550
00:30:00.317 --> 00:30:02.498
I do see it as a problem for myself.
551
00:30:03.047 --> 00:30:04.108
What do you mean for yourself?
552
00:30:04.329 --> 00:30:04.769
In what way?
553
00:30:04.950 --> 00:30:08.815
If someone's watching this and they're 27, 28, they feel like they are spinning their wheels.
554
00:30:09.155 --> 00:30:15.804
They feel like they're still attacked a lot, a lot of the dopamine things of, whether it be dating apps or gaming, these elements of society.
555
00:30:15.824 --> 00:30:19.348
And they realize that there's a different path and they want to get back on the more traditional path.
556
00:30:20.069 --> 00:30:22.793
what would be some of the first things you'd be saying to them to think about?
557
00:30:23.154 --> 00:30:25.597
I know you mentioned diet, exercise.
558
00:30:25.637 --> 00:30:25.978
Yeah, yeah.
559
00:30:26.038 --> 00:30:33.629
But what would be some of the things to, as the question that came into us said, how would you turn their life around, to use their words?
560
00:30:33.649 --> 00:30:33.749
Yeah.
561
00:30:34.633 --> 00:30:38.315
Yeah, before we go there, kind of going back to those slides, I don't actually know.
562
00:30:38.335 --> 00:30:41.257
This is where I feel like you could talk this topic in circles.
563
00:30:41.297 --> 00:30:42.518
I think it's really complicated.
564
00:30:43.258 --> 00:30:49.042
I don't think I would make a strong argument that the idea that people used to get married in their early 20s was better.
565
00:30:49.382 --> 00:30:50.443
I mean, I'll go back to...
566
00:30:51.143 --> 00:30:52.143
Great, you're married.
567
00:30:52.764 --> 00:30:55.785
Or the other argument I'll use is great, you never got a divorce.
568
00:30:56.405 --> 00:30:58.506
Like there's a million people who are like, don't believe in divorce.
569
00:30:58.567 --> 00:30:59.367
They don't get divorced.
570
00:30:59.467 --> 00:31:00.868
I'm not arguing against that.
571
00:31:01.168 --> 00:31:02.528
But their kids aren't stupid.
572
00:31:03.029 --> 00:31:06.730
They're seeing that this is a miserable situation and nobody's happy.
573
00:31:06.950 --> 00:31:08.311
And maybe I don't want any part of this.
574
00:31:08.351 --> 00:31:09.272
Like, why would I want it?
575
00:31:09.772 --> 00:31:11.993
And there could be, you could make an argument.
576
00:31:12.693 --> 00:31:19.097
That getting married really young for a lot of people does not lead to a great outcome.
577
00:31:19.277 --> 00:31:20.778
Like, so great.
578
00:31:20.798 --> 00:31:21.639
You got married early.
579
00:31:22.259 --> 00:31:22.579
Great.
580
00:31:22.619 --> 00:31:23.420
You stayed married.
581
00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:24.681
Who cares?
582
00:31:25.061 --> 00:31:27.042
It was, it wasn't a life well lived.
583
00:31:27.443 --> 00:31:28.823
It wasn't a great example for your kids.
584
00:31:28.843 --> 00:31:37.589
So this is where I don't necessarily think that the data saying that getting married younger or things have changed and people are getting married older is, I'm not convinced that's actually a problem.
585
00:31:38.009 --> 00:31:39.350
I don't know how to think about that.
586
00:31:39.710 --> 00:31:40.891
I'm not convinced it's a bad thing.
587
00:31:41.571 --> 00:31:46.514
Tiffany and I got married at 21 and our joke was when Riley turned 21, we both looked at him like, and he's very well put together.
588
00:31:46.534 --> 00:31:49.116
Like, could you imagine Riley getting married right now?
589
00:31:49.436 --> 00:31:51.758
And it wasn't because he was immature or anything like this.
590
00:31:51.778 --> 00:31:52.718
Like he's 21.
591
00:31:52.958 --> 00:31:58.302
Like, you know, I think there's this argument for, so I'm not bothered by people getting older.
592
00:31:58.422 --> 00:32:04.566
It's more, but I mean, and also I look at the world that, like how in the heck do you find somebody these days
593
00:32:06.206 --> 00:32:08.627
it's like, it's so it's back then.
594
00:32:08.647 --> 00:32:16.668
I think a lot of people probably thought go way back in time, like that they only had so many options and I'll bet there was a little bit more settling.
595
00:32:16.728 --> 00:32:20.189
We'll put it that way, but that sounds a little bad, a little more settling.
596
00:32:20.369 --> 00:32:20.569
Yeah.
597
00:32:20.989 --> 00:32:21.149
And.
598
00:32:21.369 --> 00:32:23.449
They didn't know any other options.
599
00:32:23.729 --> 00:32:24.129
They only had.
600
00:32:24.189 --> 00:32:24.349
Yeah.
601
00:32:24.389 --> 00:32:26.130
It's like, this is what you do.
602
00:32:26.150 --> 00:32:30.791
Like you know, the people you went to school with, you've picked, you find somebody cause this is what I want to do.
603
00:32:31.191 --> 00:32:32.691
Now we have too many options.
604
00:32:32.711 --> 00:32:33.131
Yeah.
605
00:32:33.271 --> 00:32:34.793
So it's just the opposite problem.
606
00:32:34.813 --> 00:32:37.056
We have too many options, too many apps.
607
00:32:37.577 --> 00:32:45.447
There's too much like idealism of, you know, you're looking at social media and the person needs to be this and they need to have everything needs to be perfect.
608
00:32:45.527 --> 00:32:47.110
And you're never going to find that perfect person.
609
00:32:47.130 --> 00:32:49.953
And so it's switched to the different a different kind of a problem.
610
00:32:50.970 --> 00:32:56.193
I just feel like we've swung to a different extreme and eventually it'll probably settle somewhere in the middle.
611
00:32:57.393 --> 00:33:03.176
So my point there was, I don't look at the marriage data and say, hey, this is really bad that people are waiting.
612
00:33:03.677 --> 00:33:09.720
I do think that story, I thought that was a good slide you put up about the data around the world feels unaffordable.
613
00:33:10.060 --> 00:33:14.842
This is a big conversation politically and it's a conversation that's happening now.
614
00:33:15.043 --> 00:33:17.124
Kids are, how do they get into their homes?
615
00:33:17.164 --> 00:33:18.244
How do they afford college?
616
00:33:18.544 --> 00:33:19.165
It feels...
617
00:33:19.745 --> 00:33:20.325
too hard.
618
00:33:20.845 --> 00:33:22.886
I think that was a great slide to put up.
619
00:33:23.006 --> 00:33:24.966
I think that's got to be very, very real.
620
00:33:25.526 --> 00:33:33.308
And just like opting out of the system, because like, there's no way I'm going to be able to afford a $5,000 a month mortgage to at least have parity with the house I grew up in.
621
00:33:34.289 --> 00:33:36.709
I'm never going to be able to afford the car payment.
622
00:33:36.889 --> 00:33:38.470
I look kind of like this, I need a six figure job.
623
00:33:38.490 --> 00:33:39.210
There's no way I can do that.
624
00:33:39.230 --> 00:33:47.032
So I'm just going to opt for something that is potentially something I can feel like I have some domain authority in like a video game or something that
625
00:33:47.832 --> 00:33:52.635
might give that dopamine sooner than a career that might take me 10 or 15 years to develop.
626
00:33:53.516 --> 00:33:53.756
Yeah.
627
00:33:54.136 --> 00:33:57.458
I grew up hearing the narrative, this is what my life is supposed to be.
628
00:33:57.838 --> 00:33:59.939
Now I'm here, how am I ever going to get that life?
629
00:34:00.360 --> 00:34:01.300
And you're kind of beat down.
630
00:34:03.061 --> 00:34:03.922
That could explain a lot.
631
00:34:04.202 --> 00:34:08.444
Now, if I was just talking to an individual and we're like, hey, how do we work?
632
00:34:09.045 --> 00:34:11.246
How do we get you to where you want to go in life?
633
00:34:11.966 --> 00:34:13.527
And we're just focused on a person.
634
00:34:14.188 --> 00:34:15.869
That's where I'd get into this conversation of,
635
00:34:16.630 --> 00:34:21.851
Let's get you to a mental place where you are as sharp and optimistic.
636
00:34:21.871 --> 00:34:23.752
I just believe optimism is so important.
637
00:34:24.592 --> 00:34:28.353
This idea that you believe tomorrow has a chance of being better for you.
638
00:34:28.933 --> 00:34:33.874
And if you're just tired and you don't feel good, how could you possibly, like we've all had the experience.
639
00:34:34.254 --> 00:34:35.634
We've all been through this as a builder.
640
00:34:36.034 --> 00:34:38.855
There's those days where you're just done.
641
00:34:39.015 --> 00:34:40.055
Why am I doing this?
642
00:34:40.095 --> 00:34:41.935
There's mornings you wake up, you don't want to do any of this.
643
00:34:42.275 --> 00:34:44.096
If you perpetually live in that state,
644
00:34:44.936 --> 00:34:46.839
How could you possibly win?
645
00:34:47.419 --> 00:34:51.064
And so back to what I said at the very beginning, that is the baseline to me.
646
00:34:51.425 --> 00:35:00.817
If I'm working with an individual, we've got to get you to a place where your body is feeling as good as it can because then your mind will be operating at the best place possible.
647
00:35:04.337 --> 00:35:05.819
delete all your social media accounts.
648
00:35:05.979 --> 00:35:07.641
Doesn't mean you can't come back to them someday.
649
00:35:08.122 --> 00:35:08.662
Delete them all.
650
00:35:09.724 --> 00:35:18.074
I would tell you to install Freedom on your computer, which blocks all your websites that you don't want to be looking at and create a new habit.
651
00:35:19.493 --> 00:35:20.654
I've used that myself.
652
00:35:21.054 --> 00:35:28.699
I mean, I keep everything blocked all the time because I just noticed that I will accidentally end up looking at the news when I'm supposed to be working on something really hard.
653
00:35:29.139 --> 00:35:35.723
So it doesn't matter where you're at, even if you're in a really good place and really successful is a battle that everybody has.
654
00:35:36.223 --> 00:35:44.908
I would tell you to like literally put your video games away in the closet for a period of time and just create, because it's all about creating new routines and habits.
655
00:35:45.108 --> 00:35:45.348
Yeah.
656
00:35:45.608 --> 00:35:48.370
I that's the heart one of the really hard things for a lot of us.
657
00:35:49.191 --> 00:35:51.072
I don't care what level success you're at.
658
00:35:51.232 --> 00:35:54.254
It's it will, it will always be the thing you battle.
659
00:35:54.494 --> 00:35:55.235
We all battle it.
660
00:35:55.355 --> 00:35:55.855
I battle it.
661
00:35:56.196 --> 00:35:58.677
You're constantly fighting bad routines.
662
00:35:59.118 --> 00:36:02.440
And so you've, you've got to get temptations out of your life.
663
00:36:02.620 --> 00:36:05.162
It's like if you don't want to eat junk, then don't have junk in your fridge.
664
00:36:06.342 --> 00:36:12.704
If you don't wanna go out drinking all the time, then don't hang out with friends that go out drinking every night and are constantly texting you to go do it.
665
00:36:12.744 --> 00:36:14.645
Like you've gotta change your environment.
666
00:36:14.685 --> 00:36:17.085
So those are the places where I would start.
667
00:36:17.785 --> 00:36:21.827
And then the other one is like, what's the thing you could do?
668
00:36:21.847 --> 00:36:26.488
And this is pretty common advice, but what's the thing you could do that makes you kind of nervous?
669
00:36:26.508 --> 00:36:29.589
You're afraid to go out and start a business.
670
00:36:29.609 --> 00:36:31.229
You're afraid to go get this job.
671
00:36:31.249 --> 00:36:33.130
You're afraid to, there's something.
672
00:36:34.330 --> 00:36:40.555
That kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, where I feel like as parents, we've been at risk of making things too easy for our kids.
673
00:36:41.055 --> 00:36:49.101
And over time, you learn confidence and resilience and enduring pain.
674
00:36:49.402 --> 00:36:56.127
You learn that by doing stuff you don't want to do and doing it over and over, like in small doses, a little more and a little more.
675
00:36:56.167 --> 00:36:56.847
And eventually...
676
00:36:57.688 --> 00:37:00.010
you develop these skills.
677
00:37:00.070 --> 00:37:01.651
It's kind of, we've talked about this before.
678
00:37:01.671 --> 00:37:14.141
It's this idea that in business, a lot of growing a big business is around this idea that over time, you get kicked in the face enough times with a problem that you don't know how you're gonna solve it, but you keep solving the problems.
679
00:37:14.482 --> 00:37:18.245
And when you look back, you're like, we always engineer, we solution a problem.
680
00:37:18.265 --> 00:37:19.106
We always solve the problems.
681
00:37:19.386 --> 00:37:20.427
That builds confidence.
682
00:37:21.047 --> 00:37:23.710
So that you'll spend more money on marketing when it's scary.
683
00:37:23.730 --> 00:37:25.531
You'll hire the next person when it's scary.
684
00:37:25.832 --> 00:37:29.335
You'll go do the things that you don't want to do, even though they're scary.
685
00:37:29.355 --> 00:37:36.061
Because if you look back at the story of your business and of your life, I've been through that a million times and it's worked out.
686
00:37:36.281 --> 00:37:41.726
But if you don't ever get that experience, then you never build the confidence.
687
00:37:41.746 --> 00:37:42.267
Yeah.
688
00:37:42.556 --> 00:37:49.401
And so if I was advising somebody, I would say, what are these micro little things we can go do that you're nervous about doing?
689
00:37:49.421 --> 00:37:52.223
And just take that little baby step and let's start doing them.
690
00:37:52.783 --> 00:37:58.967
And then you grow that resilience muscle or you get comfortable with discomfort and you grow confidence.
691
00:37:59.027 --> 00:38:07.353
And that is, I just really believe that where most guys are made to do hard things, to do.
692
00:38:08.881 --> 00:38:10.181
get out there and try things.
693
00:38:10.561 --> 00:38:16.683
And so you've got to put, if you're not doing that, then I just think there's a gap in most people's lives.
694
00:38:16.723 --> 00:38:19.324
And so you've got to kind of force yourself into that environment.
695
00:38:19.344 --> 00:38:22.365
And then you've got to surround yourself with people doing that kind of stuff.
696
00:38:22.385 --> 00:38:25.986
Like back to the common knowledge, who are you hanging out with?
697
00:38:26.446 --> 00:38:30.747
Those are some of the basic things that are just really basic, but I think they work.
698
00:38:31.234 --> 00:38:37.259
Yeah, one of the things you said that I agree with a lot is the optionality creating discontentment.
699
00:38:37.279 --> 00:38:38.340
You can say those exact words.
700
00:38:38.901 --> 00:38:44.166
But I think of like when you go to Denny's, for example, you have like 200 different options to choose from.
701
00:38:44.786 --> 00:38:45.507
Very visual.
702
00:38:45.527 --> 00:38:46.648
You have a lot of options.
703
00:38:46.668 --> 00:38:49.110
A lot of times you just like get overwhelmed with like, what am I going to order?
704
00:38:49.530 --> 00:38:53.073
And regardless of what you order, you always kind of think about the other 199 options you could have had.
705
00:38:53.714 --> 00:38:54.034
And it...
706
00:38:54.835 --> 00:39:08.648
I feel like in a way, whether it be relationships and dating apps, whether it be even business, like a lot of times we talk about how easy it is to get into business, but it's also, you know, contributes in a way I feel to, well, I, I should go start this other business and this other business.
707
00:39:08.668 --> 00:39:10.309
I talked to someone yesterday, I had five businesses.
708
00:39:10.970 --> 00:39:16.815
drop shipping, automotive, golf carts, a couple other things he's working on.
709
00:39:17.275 --> 00:39:19.176
And in ways, because it's so easy to start.
710
00:39:19.477 --> 00:39:22.499
Like it's like, I got Shopify, I can have a business up in one hour.
711
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:25.581
I can start the social media thing and have this other thing going up.
712
00:39:25.882 --> 00:39:31.846
And so I feel in a way, the one thing I was thinking, like if I was talking to someone, I would almost say remove options.
713
00:39:32.187 --> 00:39:32.307
Like,
714
00:39:32.807 --> 00:39:34.668
Give yourself no option but to go to the gym.
715
00:39:35.068 --> 00:39:38.090
Give yourself no option but to go to this job every single day and make more money.
716
00:39:38.350 --> 00:39:44.954
Give yourself no option by gaining skills instead of just thinking about the short-term money because the skill lasts with you forever.
717
00:39:44.974 --> 00:39:50.478
The amount that you're getting paid, especially in your 20s, is so low no matter what because you don't have any skills.
718
00:39:50.958 --> 00:39:55.341
But if you can gain skills, even if you don't make a lot of money, that's what compounds in the long run.
719
00:39:55.641 --> 00:40:01.885
And this is where internships, getting around the right people is so valuable because that skill sticks with you forever
720
00:40:02.605 --> 00:40:11.170
But a lot of times we're optimizing for the extra couple dollars per hour with the extra little incremental step instead of thinking like, I have 40 year career.
721
00:40:11.490 --> 00:40:15.313
If I can gain skills in this first 10 years, those things will stick with me forever.
722
00:40:15.815 --> 00:40:16.916
Yeah, well, that's really good.
723
00:40:16.956 --> 00:40:19.117
And that was the premise of my five for 50 name.
724
00:40:19.157 --> 00:40:35.489
The one of the motivating factors for the name was that so many entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs, are looking around beating themselves up thinking that they're failing, because they haven't achieved some amount of success that they're seeing on YouTube, or Facebook, and so much of that isn't even real.
725
00:40:35.510 --> 00:40:35.770
Mm hmm.
726
00:40:36.490 --> 00:40:39.673
And, and they're thinking they're behind or they're losing.
727
00:40:39.853 --> 00:40:43.536
And then how many people just sort of give up or think I'm not good enough.
728
00:40:43.576 --> 00:40:45.697
And it's not even slightly true.
729
00:40:46.418 --> 00:40:49.620
And that is, I think that's a huge problem right now.
730
00:40:49.720 --> 00:40:54.024
People are, they're seeing themselves in a negative light when they shouldn't be.
731
00:40:54.444 --> 00:40:55.264
It's really hard.
732
00:40:55.445 --> 00:40:55.645
Mm hmm.
733
00:40:56.145 --> 00:40:56.986
It takes years.
734
00:40:57.606 --> 00:40:58.607
You got to go all in.
735
00:40:58.647 --> 00:40:59.888
You connect to your point.
736
00:41:00.108 --> 00:41:01.609
That's what made me think to say this.
737
00:41:02.270 --> 00:41:04.652
There's a big investment in those early years.
738
00:41:04.732 --> 00:41:05.653
Call it your 20s.
739
00:41:05.973 --> 00:41:08.475
Or for some people that started a little later, cool, your 30s.
740
00:41:08.875 --> 00:41:09.436
Who cares?
741
00:41:09.456 --> 00:41:13.439
Because you're going to live for decades and decades after that.
742
00:41:14.340 --> 00:41:15.861
I'll give you this example.
743
00:41:16.001 --> 00:41:16.101
I...
744
00:41:17.582 --> 00:41:25.173
I know somebody who's just like really beat down in their career and wishes they had gone another direction and they're in their early 40s.
745
00:41:26.074 --> 00:41:28.657
And they feel like it's too late to start over.
746
00:41:29.218 --> 00:41:31.722
It's like, you've only been in the work world for 20 years.
747
00:41:31.742 --> 00:41:31.942
Yeah.
748
00:41:32.903 --> 00:41:36.084
you've got 20 or 30 years more to go.
749
00:41:36.364 --> 00:41:39.945
Are you really just going to mail it in at 40 and say, well, too late.
750
00:41:40.185 --> 00:41:42.846
So I guess the rest of my life, I'm going to be dissatisfied as well.
751
00:41:43.226 --> 00:41:48.468
I think there's this also, to your point, like the 20s or early 30s, great time to be investing.
752
00:41:48.488 --> 00:41:50.409
There's so much life in front of you.
753
00:41:50.809 --> 00:41:53.129
That is really, really important not to forget.
754
00:41:53.670 --> 00:41:56.691
At any point, it's probably worth reinventing yourself.
755
00:41:58.171 --> 00:42:07.842
And investing if we will your future self 10 years from now, possibly say, Oh, gosh, I wish you hadn't possibly invested to make our life better.
756
00:42:07.902 --> 00:42:15.650
Now, your future self is never going to be disappointed that you reinvented yourself learned new skills, put your head down, fix things now.
757
00:42:16.772 --> 00:42:17.633
I like that frame.
758
00:42:18.192 --> 00:42:27.934
Speaking of like wanting to quit, wanting to just getting discouraged, speaking about this individual at 40 years old, but any age really, you recently made a video.
759
00:42:27.954 --> 00:42:29.194
The title caught me.
760
00:42:29.514 --> 00:42:31.114
It was more of a Q&A style video.
761
00:42:31.194 --> 00:42:33.795
And one of the topics was like, is this, is it worth it?
762
00:42:34.395 --> 00:42:39.416
Like all the stress, all the mental strain and pressure, is it worth it?
763
00:42:39.856 --> 00:42:43.796
And so I haven't actually finished the video, but the title got me thinking.
764
00:42:44.116 --> 00:42:46.417
And so I made a video yesterday.
765
00:42:46.437 --> 00:42:47.617
It'll come out probably a couple months.
766
00:42:47.737 --> 00:42:47.917
Yeah.
767
00:42:48.021 --> 00:42:57.448
But I was trying to isolate what are some of the reasons why people get to that stage of wanting to quit in business or like stressed out, burnout, et cetera.
768
00:42:57.708 --> 00:43:06.454
And so I kind of bucket into three or sorry, four categories, three of which are skill based, one of which is like the wild west that I can't label.
769
00:43:06.875 --> 00:43:11.298
So like the first one is I run into a sales skill gap.
770
00:43:11.518 --> 00:43:12.579
Like I just can't get more leads.
771
00:43:12.599 --> 00:43:16.142
I get so frustrated because year after year after year, I just can't grow the business.
772
00:43:16.902 --> 00:43:17.863
Um, it's slop.
773
00:43:18.023 --> 00:43:20.306
So SL is leadership.
774
00:43:20.726 --> 00:43:27.214
It's like, I can't get anyone else to run the business or do a project without me being involved.
775
00:43:27.534 --> 00:43:28.996
I constantly feel like I'm micromanaging.
776
00:43:29.036 --> 00:43:32.660
If I turn my back, stuff messes up and like, I fail as a leader.
777
00:43:33.680 --> 00:43:36.141
Again, the positive thing is that these are skills that can be learned.
778
00:43:36.722 --> 00:43:37.982
The last one was operations.
779
00:43:38.062 --> 00:43:42.024
And it was like, I cannot get my technicians to just do a high quality job.
780
00:43:42.064 --> 00:43:45.665
Therefore, I'm going to go back to me solo, or I'm going to retreat the business or keep it small.
781
00:43:46.145 --> 00:43:48.967
And this, again, operations is a skill.
782
00:43:49.027 --> 00:43:51.028
It's like, what training methods do I have?
783
00:43:51.448 --> 00:43:53.048
What compensation models do I have?
784
00:43:53.969 --> 00:43:56.390
What kind of SOPs for one-on-one meetings do I have?
785
00:43:56.610 --> 00:43:57.330
These are skills.
786
00:43:57.630 --> 00:44:01.432
The last one of the four, the framework I kind of created was personal.
787
00:44:01.852 --> 00:44:03.053
And that was the one that's the hardest.
788
00:44:03.514 --> 00:44:11.861
Because chemicals in your brain, it is your weight, it is your personal relationship, is the mental health not only of yours, but then the people around you.
789
00:44:13.083 --> 00:44:14.364
Who knows what decisions they're making?
790
00:44:14.504 --> 00:44:15.205
Now it affects you.
791
00:44:15.225 --> 00:44:17.427
You show up to work and you didn't sleep all night because you're managing...
792
00:44:18.007 --> 00:44:19.688
something with their personal issue.
793
00:44:20.289 --> 00:44:24.972
And all of these things eventually lead to the stress of building a business is stressful in and of itself.
794
00:44:25.312 --> 00:44:42.345
But when you compound it with either A, beating yourself up against a wall and feeling like you do not have the skill to get the business to the next level and eventually just giving up or stressed out, wanting to throw down burnout, or the personal aspects, which we've touched on around health, et cetera, just feeling completely crippling.
795
00:44:42.425 --> 00:44:45.107
And when you have personal stress and business stress,
796
00:44:45.767 --> 00:44:47.707
And you don't want to give up the personal side, i.e.
797
00:44:48.128 --> 00:44:54.429
a relationship, your family, the people you're meant to lead, even from a patriarchal perspective.
798
00:44:54.769 --> 00:44:56.310
A lot of times the business is the one that gets cut.
799
00:44:56.530 --> 00:44:58.390
It's like, well, I've got to cut it.
800
00:44:58.870 --> 00:45:09.873
And not say that's the wrong or right thing, but I've just tried to bucket those four different categories of what are these stresses and then what action steps can you take to do?
801
00:45:10.013 --> 00:45:18.337
to gain the skill or prevent or create defenses in your personal life to avoid the cataclysmic failure of quitting.
802
00:45:18.817 --> 00:45:19.038
Yeah.
803
00:45:19.358 --> 00:45:22.639
But I mean, my reaction to that is those are all great points.
804
00:45:24.440 --> 00:45:30.924
One of the things that I thought of when you were saying that is, I think a lot of the people look at their situation.
805
00:45:31.624 --> 00:45:32.845
You used a skill example.
806
00:45:32.965 --> 00:45:35.706
So there's something not working.
807
00:45:36.346 --> 00:45:37.427
They can't find the right people.
808
00:45:38.083 --> 00:45:45.447
And instead of looking at what I would encourage people to do is say, okay, can you look around and find examples of people where this is working?
809
00:45:45.947 --> 00:45:51.790
Can you find examples of businesses that are finding people and are hiring and are getting bigger?
810
00:45:52.350 --> 00:45:55.392
Can you find examples in your market of people doing this?
811
00:45:55.792 --> 00:46:01.275
If you can find any examples whatsoever, that tells you it's a skills gap.
812
00:46:02.315 --> 00:46:04.176
It tells you it's a fixable problem.
813
00:46:04.556 --> 00:46:09.918
And so I would, so many people, I think, unfortunately, phrase in their mind, this is a negative.
814
00:46:10.318 --> 00:46:11.518
I can't do this thing.
815
00:46:11.538 --> 00:46:12.579
I can't find these people.
816
00:46:13.079 --> 00:46:16.820
I can't make this thing work or what I can't find any good clients.
817
00:46:16.840 --> 00:46:17.560
There are no good clients.
818
00:46:17.580 --> 00:46:18.701
There are no good employees.
819
00:46:19.181 --> 00:46:22.062
And I would encourage people to reframe this and look around.
820
00:46:22.782 --> 00:46:24.242
Because I think this is where it starts.
821
00:46:24.302 --> 00:46:31.404
If you can look around and find examples of it working, that should give you hope and it should tell you that this is in fact possible.
822
00:46:31.744 --> 00:46:36.304
So now I just need to go on the journey to figure out the how and who can help me figure this out.
823
00:46:36.785 --> 00:46:45.626
Because there's a lot of business owners out there and most business owners are just normal people of normal intelligence.
824
00:46:46.726 --> 00:46:49.427
Most business owners are not necessarily like crazy.
825
00:46:49.547 --> 00:46:50.547
They're not Elon Musk.
826
00:46:51.740 --> 00:46:57.724
Most of us are just pretty normal people that just put our heads down and figured it out and got really good at a certain thing in life.
827
00:46:58.345 --> 00:47:01.888
And for most people beating themselves up, they're just as capable of everybody else.
828
00:47:02.588 --> 00:47:08.693
And so I would really encourage you to look for people that are doing it to give yourself proof it's possible.
829
00:47:09.073 --> 00:47:10.795
The personal side's a little different.
830
00:47:10.835 --> 00:47:16.640
That's a tough one because that gets into some pretty brutal decisions around what you cut out of your life.
831
00:47:17.305 --> 00:47:18.907
And people have differing opinions on this.
832
00:47:18.947 --> 00:47:22.771
Like I, if I have a toxic family member, I'm of the opinion I'll cut them out.
833
00:47:23.252 --> 00:47:25.755
But not everybody would agree with that because it's family.
834
00:47:26.235 --> 00:47:30.460
But I do think that, you know, and so I'm not giving advice on that one.
835
00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:36.947
But I do think that you have to, or the way I would choose to live my life is if, um,
836
00:47:37.588 --> 00:47:38.489
you know, I've got to opt.
837
00:47:38.989 --> 00:47:49.540
If somebody's toxic and you've made all the effort you can to try to improve that relationship and fix that thing, there comes a point where it's just abuse and you shouldn't live in an abusive environment.
838
00:47:49.800 --> 00:47:53.724
And that literally does create a lot of problems for business owners.
839
00:47:54.084 --> 00:47:55.125
Sometimes they're the problem.
840
00:47:55.285 --> 00:47:56.146
I mean, let's be frank.
841
00:47:56.907 --> 00:48:00.831
Sometimes they're the ones creating the issue in their personal life.
842
00:48:00.891 --> 00:48:01.811
But yeah,
843
00:48:02.472 --> 00:48:09.433
On that one, I think you have to sort of go through a checklist of, have I done everything I can to fix this situation?
844
00:48:09.753 --> 00:48:17.795
Have I, you know, I like that example of, you know, when you're unhappy with another person, instead of finding all the faults with that person, have you fixed all the stuff with yourself first?
845
00:48:18.155 --> 00:48:19.415
I like that kind of thinking.
846
00:48:19.875 --> 00:48:20.715
It's really hard to do.
847
00:48:20.776 --> 00:48:26.517
So I would be saying, like, if I've got this person in my life, that's just constant conflict and problems.
848
00:48:26.537 --> 00:48:28.137
Have I done everything in myself first?
849
00:48:28.717 --> 00:48:29.377
to try to fix this.
850
00:48:29.417 --> 00:48:33.959
And if I have, there comes a point for some people, you have to cut this stuff out of your life.
851
00:48:33.979 --> 00:48:36.160
That gets into, again, a more complicated conversation.
852
00:48:36.260 --> 00:48:48.666
But I have seen enough examples where I do think some people are living in personal situations that will make it impossible for them to ever be successful in business, because they're such a mess.
853
00:48:50.146 --> 00:48:51.387
Where do you stand on that kind of stuff?
854
00:48:51.897 --> 00:48:55.458
Yeah, it's personal side is just so hard because you have to ask.
855
00:48:55.519 --> 00:48:56.659
It's so personalized, right?
856
00:48:56.679 --> 00:48:57.099
It is.
857
00:48:57.179 --> 00:48:59.480
So if you say, hey, cut people that are toxic out of your life.
858
00:48:59.500 --> 00:49:00.000
Yes, it does.
859
00:49:00.020 --> 00:49:04.982
It makes great for Instagram because you get both sides of the extremes then coming into the comments.
860
00:49:05.463 --> 00:49:06.463
But it's not that way.
861
00:49:06.523 --> 00:49:09.704
Like every situation is so individual.
862
00:49:09.905 --> 00:49:15.847
Like I'm thinking of two very different cases right now inside Augusta, where one very difficult situation.
863
00:49:16.928 --> 00:49:21.933
friction in a relationship because of depression and needing to get medication, et cetera, and working through a problem together.
864
00:49:22.794 --> 00:49:24.255
But still very difficult nonetheless.
865
00:49:24.636 --> 00:49:30.041
And then another situation where all I can do is tell this person they need to cut this person out of their life and run.
866
00:49:30.582 --> 00:49:30.762
Yeah.
867
00:49:31.262 --> 00:49:33.183
And how do you create a framework for that?
868
00:49:33.603 --> 00:49:38.424
How do you say, well, because it's very similar, but yet there's so many different little scenarios that go into it.
869
00:49:38.544 --> 00:49:46.427
And I always like, the thing that always, I think I might've mentioned this before, is I always like to keep myself humble by saying like, my brain is just a bag of chemicals.
870
00:49:47.287 --> 00:49:54.810
And whether it be some bad sleep, too much caffeine, a little bit of jet lag could put me off and make a bad decision.
871
00:49:55.830 --> 00:50:01.032
It's when someone starts to make that repeated over and over and over again, whether it be an employee, I've got to cut them.
872
00:50:01.052 --> 00:50:02.913
Like they're part of the team.
873
00:50:03.033 --> 00:50:10.715
The hard part is when that person, when you've married that person, when that person is your spouse, when that person is your significant other or a child.
874
00:50:10.735 --> 00:50:14.817
Like where's this line of commitment?
875
00:50:15.497 --> 00:50:18.921
versus doing what's right for the whole organism.
876
00:50:18.941 --> 00:50:21.524
Like eventually, if there's a cancer, I gotta sever the whole arm off.
877
00:50:21.545 --> 00:50:24.488
And that's not fun and exciting, but I'm trying to save the rest of the body.
878
00:50:24.889 --> 00:50:29.815
And that's usually a pretty easy analogy when it comes to business, because like get rid of the employee, they're a cancer, the organization.
879
00:50:30.075 --> 00:50:32.217
But what happens when that person lives in your house?
880
00:50:32.918 --> 00:50:33.559
Not the same.
881
00:50:33.719 --> 00:50:34.761
It's hard, very hard.
882
00:50:35.313 --> 00:50:37.955
And this is the challenge with having conversations like this.
883
00:50:39.196 --> 00:50:51.044
This has always been my problem with answering questions, even from the stage, is I feel a lot of responsibility around giving accurate advice.
884
00:50:51.925 --> 00:50:56.228
And when you're talking at this level, prescriptive, general advice.
885
00:50:57.062 --> 00:51:01.065
and you're getting into these kinds of topics, oh, I almost don't even like having the conversation.
886
00:51:01.285 --> 00:51:19.600
I wouldn't have the conversation one-on-one because to what you just said, every situation is so different and it's so complicated and it's so hard that you really wanna be able to spend some time talking to that person and trying to help them work through that thing versus hoping they find their solution watching a YouTube video.
887
00:51:20.191 --> 00:51:28.535
And I think the reason I put this question as the first one, though, is because I do believe that talking about it gives some sort of hope to someone that might be working through it.
888
00:51:28.775 --> 00:51:31.336
And also for the person that is struggling with it, realize they're not alone.
889
00:51:32.336 --> 00:51:45.782
Most people have gone through some sort of scenario where they're going to have to make these hard decisions, whether it be in their personal life, whether it be cutting people out of their life, getting rid of certain aspects like video games or whatever it might be that is not serving them well or their future self.
890
00:51:46.422 --> 00:51:54.730
And not talking about it is, in my opinion, almost as damaging as just, hey, I'm not going to go there because we can't give anyone a perfect answer.
891
00:51:55.391 --> 00:51:58.193
But it is just it impacts so many people's lives.
892
00:51:58.493 --> 00:52:00.856
And so I appreciate you fancying it on the first question.
893
00:52:01.516 --> 00:52:01.796
Yeah.
894
00:52:01.957 --> 00:52:07.101
And then last I'd say this stuff is building businesses is so hard and.
895
00:52:08.438 --> 00:52:13.303
Living a great life is so hard and having a great marriage is so hard and raising good kids.
896
00:52:13.363 --> 00:52:22.633
It's all so hard and so much of the, what we see now in the world we live in, just it's all the fake.
897
00:52:23.293 --> 00:52:24.014
It's not real.
898
00:52:24.434 --> 00:52:28.999
And back to what I've said, people feel guilty and people also sell easy.
899
00:52:29.179 --> 00:52:29.479
Every...
900
00:52:30.180 --> 00:52:37.005
Everybody trying to make money, whether selling coaching or information or buying software or whatever, everybody's selling easy.
901
00:52:37.625 --> 00:52:42.048
Because if you sell, it's going to be brutal.
902
00:52:42.709 --> 00:52:44.590
You're going to hate your life for the next five years.
903
00:52:44.630 --> 00:52:45.851
Nobody buys that thing.
904
00:52:46.271 --> 00:52:51.154
And so the whole world is showing quick results, everybody knows this, and easy.
905
00:52:51.334 --> 00:52:54.316
And so people then feel like something's wrong with them.
906
00:52:54.837 --> 00:52:59.140
But when you live in this, the building of the business and doing all these things, it's not easy.
907
00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:03.524
And people need to, that's why this covers another reason why conversations like this are so good.
908
00:53:03.885 --> 00:53:07.829
I think people just believe that something's wrong with them in business.
909
00:53:08.430 --> 00:53:12.434
They have accumulated some debts trying to figure out how to be a business owner.
910
00:53:12.475 --> 00:53:16.599
Everybody had to figure out and they think it's, they're the ones that, that something's wrong with them.
911
00:53:16.619 --> 00:53:17.680
And I, you know,
912
00:53:18.387 --> 00:53:22.831
when I've talked to people like this, like, I don't think you understand how many people are in a similar situation to you.
913
00:53:23.692 --> 00:53:25.214
They think they can't find team members.
914
00:53:25.294 --> 00:53:26.876
This is what everybody feels.
915
00:53:26.896 --> 00:53:27.977
This is how I felt.
916
00:53:28.457 --> 00:53:29.818
I can't find any good clients.
917
00:53:29.838 --> 00:53:34.623
Like all these things, everybody feels all the exact same stuff, but nobody talks about it.
918
00:53:35.144 --> 00:53:40.589
All they give you is the vanity metric of, or their gross revenue or how great things are going.
919
00:53:40.609 --> 00:53:40.709
It's,
920
00:53:41.410 --> 00:53:48.114
When I did the coaching, it was one of my biggest challenges talking to individuals who I had a great relationship with.
921
00:53:48.194 --> 00:53:52.657
I felt like they didn't want to let me down, and they would not tell me reality.
922
00:53:53.117 --> 00:53:57.019
They would sugarcoat it even when we're doing coaching, and I'm talking to them on the phone.
923
00:53:57.419 --> 00:54:02.883
They would tell me a lot, but they wouldn't give me everything, and I needed everything to solve the problem.
924
00:54:03.523 --> 00:54:10.048
Because people feel like there's something wrong with them because everybody else is winning and it's not just them.
925
00:54:10.188 --> 00:54:12.610
And I actually think most people are not winning.
926
00:54:12.710 --> 00:54:14.051
It's the exact opposite.
927
00:54:14.892 --> 00:54:20.977
And the people that end up winning eventually come to terms with and live in reality and say –
928
00:54:22.403 --> 00:54:23.324
Something's not right.
929
00:54:23.684 --> 00:54:25.546
And then they go on a journey to figure out how to fix it.
930
00:54:26.046 --> 00:54:35.253
And until you get to a place to understand that, like you're just like everybody else, you're having all the same problems, you're you're going to always just think it's you and you're never going to figure it out.
931
00:54:35.674 --> 00:54:36.615
It's never going to get better.
932
00:54:36.975 --> 00:54:40.358
So I think this type of stuff is incredibly important to talk about.
933
00:54:41.340 --> 00:54:42.381
I'll say one more thing.
934
00:54:42.702 --> 00:54:43.743
I've said this many times.
935
00:54:43.783 --> 00:54:47.246
I came up learning marketing through this Dan Kennedy world.
936
00:54:47.526 --> 00:54:48.927
So I went to a bunch of Dan's events.
937
00:54:49.948 --> 00:54:57.495
And so he had this conference called the Info Summit, which was more for like mastermind groups and marketers and...
938
00:54:58.877 --> 00:54:59.838
All his stuff was for marketers.
939
00:54:59.858 --> 00:55:03.422
It would be more like people that have mastermind groups, coaching groups, sold information online.
940
00:55:03.682 --> 00:55:06.085
Way back in the day, they'd be writing e-books and selling it.
941
00:55:06.886 --> 00:55:10.309
And I went to those events over many, many years.
942
00:55:10.329 --> 00:55:13.072
And then I got to know a bunch of people in that world that were
943
00:55:13.793 --> 00:55:15.094
really successful.
944
00:55:15.894 --> 00:55:24.297
And one of the biggest observations I had is you would see people just killing it and winning for like two years, and then they disappear.
945
00:55:25.038 --> 00:55:29.119
And that was this goes back to like 2008 timeframe 2007.
946
00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:31.440
And that has always stuck with me.
947
00:55:31.460 --> 00:55:33.001
And I've been very aware of that.
948
00:55:33.621 --> 00:55:34.882
We see all the winnings.
949
00:55:35.642 --> 00:55:38.885
in the moment that they came up, but you don't see the implosion on the other side.
950
00:55:39.365 --> 00:55:49.973
How many people have built so many different businesses, started over multiple times, started a business, sold it, started a new one, started a business, closed it, started a new one, started a business, went to a different industry.
951
00:55:51.715 --> 00:55:56.579
You only see the short moment of time when they're winning, but you don't see what came before and you don't see what came after.
952
00:55:57.179 --> 00:56:01.302
And that's where people get misled and they think again, it's them.
953
00:56:01.322 --> 00:56:02.003
Yeah.
954
00:56:02.143 --> 00:56:04.265
And it's not like everybody's going through stuff.
955
00:56:04.285 --> 00:56:05.407
It's been hard for everybody.
956
00:56:06.488 --> 00:56:09.971
I think it's like this dichotomy of either a, they take it so much.
957
00:56:10.091 --> 00:56:11.813
It's just them and their problem.
958
00:56:11.833 --> 00:56:13.094
And they're the problem.
959
00:56:13.114 --> 00:56:15.837
And it comes as depression or mental health issue.
960
00:56:16.278 --> 00:56:18.580
And then the flip side is they just blame everyone else.
961
00:56:18.820 --> 00:56:19.541
It's the economy.
962
00:56:19.601 --> 00:56:20.182
It's the government.
963
00:56:20.202 --> 00:56:21.743
And now they give power to someone else.
964
00:56:22.424 --> 00:56:25.265
or it's my manufacturer, or it's my vendor or whatever.
965
00:56:26.066 --> 00:56:29.287
And now all of a sudden, they have no power to actually make change.
966
00:56:29.707 --> 00:56:48.695
And so there's almost this balance of, yes, you aren't a special snowflake in that you're the only one going to these problems, but you also do have the ability to be able to reframe this as out of your control to a skillset that I can adapt, I can learn, I can get around the right people, I can go observe, I can be humble enough to learn from someone else.
967
00:56:49.295 --> 00:56:53.746
and solve these problems in the business, that's just gonna take time longer than you would hope.
968
00:56:54.307 --> 00:56:55.069
Yeah, yeah.
969
00:56:55.530 --> 00:56:59.079
So unfortunately, it's gonna take a while, but it will work out if you do the right stuff.
970
00:56:59.210 --> 00:57:03.172
All right, let's move on to the next topic now that we've had a thorough- We spent a lot of time on that.
971
00:57:03.192 --> 00:57:04.212
An hour down in the dumps.
972
00:57:04.232 --> 00:57:06.093
Let's talk about something a little more casual.
973
00:57:06.993 --> 00:57:08.834
So this one is another question that came in.
974
00:57:08.894 --> 00:57:12.776
So as always, if you guys have questions, these are many times what prompts these discussions.
975
00:57:13.676 --> 00:57:17.538
It's about should a contractor offer an annual prepay discount?
976
00:57:18.078 --> 00:57:24.941
I have not heard this part, but they said, JP said he doesn't, and Mike encourages doing this for fertilization weed control.
977
00:57:24.961 --> 00:57:25.501
Excuse me.
978
00:57:25.713 --> 00:57:27.814
So first off, is this a true statement?
979
00:57:28.015 --> 00:57:34.939
I have not heard you say this before, and if so, maybe give your reasons as to why a prepay for an annual is not something you'd do.
980
00:57:35.539 --> 00:57:36.280
I hate prepays.
981
00:57:37.825 --> 00:57:38.486
Give me the logic.
982
00:57:38.566 --> 00:57:38.926
It's true.
983
00:57:38.946 --> 00:57:39.567
Let's see if we can.
984
00:57:39.587 --> 00:57:40.668
Yeah, yeah, I'll give it to you.
985
00:57:40.688 --> 00:57:43.670
We got to generate some controversy, so.
986
00:57:43.790 --> 00:57:44.131
Yeah, yeah.
987
00:57:44.451 --> 00:57:47.213
So, no, I have been very negative on prepays.
988
00:57:47.233 --> 00:57:47.373
Yeah.
989
00:57:47.814 --> 00:57:51.917
So, I can't remember all my, well, there's some math to it.
990
00:57:52.057 --> 00:57:53.338
Okay, let me kind of run through a list.
991
00:57:53.358 --> 00:57:54.860
Let me tell you what I first like about prepays.
992
00:57:54.880 --> 00:57:55.760
Let's start out positive.
993
00:57:55.820 --> 00:57:56.020
Okay.
994
00:57:56.481 --> 00:57:57.442
Here's what I like about prepays.
995
00:57:57.462 --> 00:57:58.142
You're taking all my ammo.
996
00:57:58.162 --> 00:58:02.126
Here you are going to play both sides of the road again, and it's going to be very balanced.
997
00:58:02.306 --> 00:58:02.506
Yeah.
998
00:58:03.614 --> 00:58:04.455
I don't think it'll be balanced.
999
00:58:04.475 --> 00:58:05.256
I'm more in the negative.
1000
00:58:05.276 --> 00:58:05.436
Okay.
1001
00:58:05.496 --> 00:58:05.796
All right.
1002
00:58:05.836 --> 00:58:06.417
Go ahead.
1003
00:58:06.497 --> 00:58:10.000
I think I'm going to say one that you're going to probably agree with though.
1004
00:58:10.861 --> 00:58:11.102
Okay.
1005
00:58:11.122 --> 00:58:14.085
So I like that this isn't the one.
1006
00:58:14.505 --> 00:58:20.111
I like that you could lock down a person in a set because a prepay is essentially, it's a version of a contract in my opinion.
1007
00:58:20.371 --> 00:58:21.552
You're locking them down a little bit.
1008
00:58:21.632 --> 00:58:21.832
Okay.
1009
00:58:22.113 --> 00:58:27.138
So it gives you time to really earn their trust and build the relationship.
1010
00:58:27.358 --> 00:58:27.618
Okay.
1011
00:58:27.658 --> 00:58:31.240
Versus somebody that might come in, you don't get them results fast enough, they just leave.
1012
00:58:31.900 --> 00:58:34.781
That's one positive in my mind of a prepay.
1013
00:58:34.901 --> 00:58:36.862
Another one is allows you to recover.
1014
00:58:36.882 --> 00:58:43.005
It allows you to bring money in to recover your cost of acquiring the client so that you can grow the business faster.
1015
00:58:43.265 --> 00:58:48.308
And then the other one, which is I'm sure you'll say, you know, it brings in cash flow faster so you can grow the business.
1016
00:58:48.568 --> 00:58:49.828
Like those are all positives to me.
1017
00:58:49.868 --> 00:58:50.589
I know there are others.
1018
00:58:51.475 --> 00:58:52.976
Okay, now for my negative ones.
1019
00:58:53.316 --> 00:59:00.199
The reason why I don't like it for CityTurf specifically, and by the way, I wouldn't tell somebody you shouldn't or can't do a prepay.
1020
00:59:00.439 --> 00:59:01.940
I'm just going to tell you why I don't love them.
1021
00:59:02.420 --> 00:59:04.221
CityTurf does not do contracts.
1022
00:59:04.842 --> 00:59:08.343
We push hard on the concept of no contracts.
1023
00:59:08.443 --> 00:59:09.264
It's risk reversal.
1024
00:59:09.284 --> 00:59:10.384
You can leave us at any time.
1025
00:59:10.785 --> 00:59:11.665
That's our positioning.
1026
00:59:12.285 --> 00:59:14.206
Prepays are like a contract.
1027
00:59:14.626 --> 00:59:15.207
That's my belief.
1028
00:59:15.227 --> 00:59:15.487
Okay.
1029
00:59:16.132 --> 00:59:26.020
And the other one, the other reason why I do not like them after doing coaching and working with so many companies is, yes, they are great for bringing in more cash to grow the business.
1030
00:59:26.380 --> 00:59:28.842
But I do not see companies understanding their numbers.
1031
00:59:29.643 --> 00:59:34.146
And they get themselves into a whole ginormous mess because they think they have way more money.
1032
00:59:34.446 --> 00:59:37.208
Same problem happens with projects and deposits.
1033
00:59:37.609 --> 00:59:40.991
People are completely confused about how much money they actually have.
1034
00:59:41.672 --> 00:59:45.095
And they find themselves getting to the end of the year in a really bad spot.
1035
00:59:45.935 --> 00:59:58.199
You can solve this problem by really understanding your business and the flow of cash in and out of your business and how much money you really have and how much of the money that's sitting in the bank is going to eventually be an expense in July, August, and September.
1036
00:59:58.599 --> 01:00:03.361
And if you can get to that place, then that takes away one of my single biggest negatives about prepays.
1037
01:00:04.101 --> 01:00:07.642
It's kind of similar to my advice on you should probably just stay out of debt.
1038
01:00:08.322 --> 01:00:13.304
It's because most people don't know their numbers and they can't use the debt without getting themselves in trouble.
1039
01:00:14.084 --> 01:00:15.225
Same argument with prepays.
1040
01:00:15.325 --> 01:00:17.386
It's not that the prepay is so bad.
1041
01:00:17.787 --> 01:00:26.153
It's that for the majority of people that I've worked with and seen over the years, and I've just seen so many problems, it's another example of how they get themselves into a mess.
1042
01:00:26.852 --> 01:00:38.421
Another one that I would say, and this is a minor one, if you're not forcing prepays, then a lot of the people that you might – I don't know this for sure, but you've got two types of people you might be bringing in.
1043
01:00:38.821 --> 01:00:42.544
Some people that are a little more price sensitive because they want to get that discount.
1044
01:00:43.425 --> 01:00:44.565
That's the only way they'll move forward.
1045
01:00:46.027 --> 01:00:47.488
I don't know if I'd bet a lot of money on that.
1046
01:00:47.528 --> 01:00:50.130
That's just the theory I've had over time if I'm not forcing it.
1047
01:00:50.750 --> 01:00:52.191
I can't argue that one very strongly.
1048
01:00:52.331 --> 01:00:58.354
The other one is a lot of the prepays, if you're not forcing it, go to the exact people that are not price sensitive whatsoever.
1049
01:00:58.995 --> 01:01:01.236
So in other words, now you're giving a person to discount.
1050
01:01:01.936 --> 01:01:02.396
It's like me.
1051
01:01:02.456 --> 01:01:05.218
If you give me a prepay option, I'm like, time value of money.
1052
01:01:05.258 --> 01:01:05.698
Heck yeah.
1053
01:01:05.958 --> 01:01:07.719
This is a better return than I'm getting the stock market.
1054
01:01:07.739 --> 01:01:08.240
I'll take it.
1055
01:01:09.164 --> 01:01:11.105
So I ended up getting a lot of those people.
1056
01:01:11.505 --> 01:01:15.188
That's costing me money, and it had no impact on them sticking with me.
1057
01:01:15.908 --> 01:01:17.529
So that's the other reason I'm negative on it.
1058
01:01:18.049 --> 01:01:19.930
Then my two single biggest ones.
1059
01:01:20.010 --> 01:01:22.312
These are the two that make the entire decision for me.
1060
01:01:22.952 --> 01:01:25.374
I despise anything around renewals.
1061
01:01:25.914 --> 01:01:26.694
I despise it.
1062
01:01:27.155 --> 01:01:29.876
And I think prepays recreate a renewal cadence.
1063
01:01:30.777 --> 01:01:31.957
And so...
1064
01:01:33.087 --> 01:01:49.973
If I have to have a conversation with them, if I have to send an email, if I have to do anything that triggers them having to make a decision to keep going, or means my team has to be making calls and following up, and then we're in this situation where they haven't responded to us, maybe they're just canceling.
1065
01:01:49.993 --> 01:01:50.613
Do we move forward?
1066
01:01:50.633 --> 01:01:51.653
Do we just drop them as a client?
1067
01:01:51.673 --> 01:01:52.193
What do we do?
1068
01:01:52.554 --> 01:01:53.574
And those people are just busy.
1069
01:01:53.594 --> 01:01:55.194
They actually had no intent of canceling.
1070
01:01:55.375 --> 01:01:56.975
Like it just creates all that complication.
1071
01:01:57.095 --> 01:01:58.516
I do not like that whatsoever.
1072
01:01:58.996 --> 01:02:01.377
And then my next one is, for me personally,
1073
01:02:02.897 --> 01:02:08.801
If I'm giving a 5% discount, and I know people give 10, the time value of money is horrendous.
1074
01:02:09.021 --> 01:02:10.321
It's not a 5% discount.
1075
01:02:10.422 --> 01:02:14.144
And I have an old Lawn Care Millionaire video on this from a long, long time ago.
1076
01:02:14.764 --> 01:02:16.265
I don't remember the numbers anymore.
1077
01:02:16.285 --> 01:02:18.486
This was probably a decade ago I did this video.
1078
01:02:18.907 --> 01:02:24.170
But if you're giving a 5% discount on, say, fertilization weed control, so you sign up in March.
1079
01:02:24.890 --> 01:02:27.812
Let's say there's, we'll just say there's six applications.
1080
01:02:27.852 --> 01:02:32.134
You sign up in March and I give you a 5% discount for the whole year.
1081
01:02:32.434 --> 01:02:34.455
The first application happens two weeks later.
1082
01:02:35.076 --> 01:02:39.258
And I just gave you a 5% discount on two weeks of your money.
1083
01:02:39.818 --> 01:02:42.260
This really, to show this right, you have to,
1084
01:02:43.260 --> 01:02:46.862
I actually didn't, I should have brought a slide to this to demonstrate it.
1085
01:02:46.882 --> 01:02:55.505
But if you think about, and this won't mean a lot to most people, the time value of money, it's not like I'm giving you a 5% of discount today and then delivering the service in 12 months.
1086
01:02:56.106 --> 01:02:59.547
I'm giving you a 5% discount on the first service I'm delivering in two weeks.
1087
01:02:59.927 --> 01:03:01.568
Time value of money, that's way more than 5%.
1088
01:03:01.888 --> 01:03:05.110
Then the next one in eight weeks, time value of money, that's way more than 5%.
1089
01:03:06.250 --> 01:03:09.673
Because I only, I gave you 5% to hold your money for two weeks.
1090
01:03:09.713 --> 01:03:12.276
I gave you a 5% discount to hold it for eight weeks.
1091
01:03:13.176 --> 01:03:15.979
And so it's very expensive money is my argument.
1092
01:03:16.519 --> 01:03:27.429
And so when you start to run the numbers on even a 5% prepay, it's a better return for me as the consumer than investing my money almost anywhere else.
1093
01:03:28.154 --> 01:03:37.778
So if somebody offers you a prepay in the services to being delivered in stages versus being delivered in one year, you should take the privé if you don't have debt and you have money.
1094
01:03:38.279 --> 01:03:41.760
And so for me as a business owner, I don't want to give up that money.
1095
01:03:42.381 --> 01:03:47.543
And I don't think that a prepay, our average client at CityTurf stays 7.2 years.
1096
01:03:47.983 --> 01:03:51.465
I don't think a prepay is going to move the needle on our retention.
1097
01:03:51.825 --> 01:03:53.466
It's only going to complicate our business.
1098
01:03:53.526 --> 01:03:55.347
And so those are the reasons I don't do it.
1099
01:03:55.947 --> 01:03:56.227
Awesome.
1100
01:03:56.858 --> 01:04:00.120
So here's the unhappy news.
1101
01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:02.542
I don't do prepaid at my locations.
1102
01:04:02.642 --> 01:04:03.262
I thought you did.
1103
01:04:03.302 --> 01:04:04.823
I thought, okay, you don't.
1104
01:04:04.843 --> 01:04:05.284
No, I don't.
1105
01:04:05.404 --> 01:04:09.106
Okay, I guess the way the question was set up was that you do.
1106
01:04:09.366 --> 01:04:15.590
Well, I give permission for people to do it and there are members of Augusta that do it specifically for fertilization weed control.
1107
01:04:16.030 --> 01:04:21.294
So I'm going to play devil's advocate because I agree with everything you said, unfortunately, but I'm going to play devil's advocate.
1108
01:04:21.894 --> 01:04:23.335
I will, don't let me forget this.
1109
01:04:23.455 --> 01:04:25.957
I am working on a concept that involves a prepaid.
1110
01:04:26.737 --> 01:04:28.438
I just slide that in there.
1111
01:04:28.538 --> 01:04:30.319
But only for the purpose of an offer.
1112
01:04:30.359 --> 01:04:31.040
Yeah, yeah, the offer.
1113
01:04:31.080 --> 01:04:31.700
Only for an offer.
1114
01:04:31.740 --> 01:04:32.180
Okay, okay.
1115
01:04:32.220 --> 01:04:32.500
Yeah, yeah.
1116
01:04:32.660 --> 01:04:33.261
Okay, so.
1117
01:04:33.321 --> 01:04:34.001
Go ahead, though.
1118
01:04:34.021 --> 01:04:34.941
My thought is this.
1119
01:04:35.722 --> 01:04:38.863
I agree with you on all premises, especially if you have cash.
1120
01:04:39.524 --> 01:04:40.484
Yes.
1121
01:04:41.165 --> 01:04:47.368
You are not working capital deficient, meaning that giving them a discount is simply taking money out of your pocket.
1122
01:04:48.088 --> 01:04:56.413
And for both of us, like when I'm starting this location, for example, I don't need to do prepay because I would rather have the higher profit margin than the money today.
1123
01:04:56.893 --> 01:04:59.174
Like there's no difference in having the money today is going to make.
1124
01:04:59.894 --> 01:05:10.520
I would say for someone in growth mode, especially getting started very small, if you're doubling and tripling the size of the business from 100,000 to 200,000 to 400,000 to 800,000, cash today is worth so much more.
1125
01:05:10.600 --> 01:05:12.161
And the alternative is going out and getting debt.
1126
01:05:12.701 --> 01:05:14.562
And so I just look at prepay as debt.
1127
01:05:14.902 --> 01:05:17.903
It's the same concept, especially when you look at a balance sheet.
1128
01:05:18.263 --> 01:05:23.444
It's a liability if I'm holding someone's money until I earn that cash over the course of a year.
1129
01:05:24.185 --> 01:05:38.449
I think for someone who has really bad credit, they just got started their business, a prepay is a way to be able to get momentum that would otherwise come from debt and they might not have access to it and it might otherwise take them four years to build a business they could build in one.
1130
01:05:39.049 --> 01:05:42.271
And so just like debt, it is a force multiplier.
1131
01:05:42.311 --> 01:05:44.832
It can help get momentum, but there's risk.
1132
01:05:44.852 --> 01:05:55.058
And the biggest risk, why that person should not still do a prepay potentially, is they don't know their numbers and they run out of money in month 10, 11, and 12 after doing all these annual pays.
1133
01:05:55.559 --> 01:06:02.483
And so my big thing is if you don't know where to put the money when you get it early, if there's no use for it, there's no point in having a prepay.
1134
01:06:03.283 --> 01:06:05.965
If you're not going to go get more customers, if you're not going to use it to double the
1135
01:06:06.883 --> 01:06:19.272
the amount of trucks you have or the crew, if you need that capital to double the size of the business and the thing limiting you from getting more customers is expansion of assets, potentially using that money is useful.
1136
01:06:19.292 --> 01:06:23.755
But again, you're putting at risk at month 10, 11, 12, running out of money.
1137
01:06:24.295 --> 01:06:27.137
And so I see it much more as debt.
1138
01:06:27.698 --> 01:06:34.483
I think the other thing is when it comes to what you mentioned is very key is if the average customer stays seven years, pointless.
1139
01:06:35.203 --> 01:06:45.993
There are some services where, for example, like pool cleaning, a couple others I've seen where the retention is significantly lower and a year might be the average size client.
1140
01:06:46.574 --> 01:06:54.701
And so if you're doing a service, say, monthly and people are canceling after six to eight services, getting them to commit to a year actually doubles your...
1141
01:06:55.422 --> 01:07:09.703
your the lifetime of the customer yeah starts to make more sense but again if you're doing a quality service i would probably want to just fix the problems as to why they're churning instead of just like using the band-aid of billing to force it um
1142
01:07:10.484 --> 01:07:13.606
I agree about the annual renewal thing.
1143
01:07:13.966 --> 01:07:15.007
I do agree about that.
1144
01:07:15.727 --> 01:07:23.512
In general, though, if I increase the number of billings, I'm going to typically increase my churn because they see it on their credit card statement more.
1145
01:07:24.012 --> 01:07:25.153
Have you seen that not to be the case?
1146
01:07:25.453 --> 01:07:26.594
Go ahead.
1147
01:07:26.674 --> 01:07:27.575
I haven't tested.
1148
01:07:28.215 --> 01:07:29.396
But the thing that I...
1149
01:07:30.036 --> 01:07:31.656
It's, it's, I see what you're saying though.
1150
01:07:31.676 --> 01:07:32.517
It's like a big decision.
1151
01:07:32.557 --> 01:07:33.397
Is it true though?
1152
01:07:33.417 --> 01:07:40.399
It's like, yeah, it's like the, the, one of the best things that we ever did at City Turf is we stopped sell.
1153
01:07:40.419 --> 01:07:41.859
This is back in the early days.
1154
01:07:42.399 --> 01:07:49.721
We stopped talking about, it's going to cost $3,800 a year because you're buying mowing, bush trimming and fertilization weed control.
1155
01:07:49.761 --> 01:07:52.622
And we just started talking, it's 32 bucks to mow your lawn.
1156
01:07:53.442 --> 01:07:55.283
And then we just charged your credit card for the 32 bucks.
1157
01:07:56.924 --> 01:08:00.313
The $3,800 created a household conversation.
1158
01:08:00.333 --> 01:08:01.115
So...
1159
01:08:03.062 --> 01:08:11.747
That little lesson does make me wonder, it's like, okay, like throughout the year, sure, they're not thinking about canceling, but when the next $3,800 charge comes up, do they think about it?
1160
01:08:12.687 --> 01:08:16.489
So that's where I don't know if that argument holds up.
1161
01:08:16.829 --> 01:08:17.990
I just don't know, I haven't tested it.
1162
01:08:18.470 --> 01:08:20.491
But the 3,800 feels like a new decision.
1163
01:08:20.511 --> 01:08:28.675
Whereas if you're just gonna continue getting your $32 charge here and your $71 charge there and your periodic bush trimming charge for 400 bucks,
1164
01:08:30.356 --> 01:08:33.397
Each time those things happen, does that really start a family conversation?
1165
01:08:33.697 --> 01:08:35.458
Or is it the big expense that starts it?
1166
01:08:35.798 --> 01:08:39.679
If you think about how they do it in software, like how do people do contracts in software?
1167
01:08:40.379 --> 01:08:44.881
They have you sign contracts during your peak seasonality.
1168
01:08:45.421 --> 01:08:45.681
Why?
1169
01:08:45.841 --> 01:08:47.261
Because it's too hard to switch.
1170
01:08:47.721 --> 01:08:50.822
You probably are thinking about... Maybe I wasn't clear.
1171
01:08:50.862 --> 01:08:52.523
So let's use a service autopilot example.
1172
01:08:52.543 --> 01:08:55.524
If you're a service autopilot, I know that...
1173
01:08:56.224 --> 01:09:03.308
You are going to be heads down consumed probably from depending on what part of the country you live in starting in March or April.
1174
01:09:03.528 --> 01:09:03.728
Careful.
1175
01:09:03.748 --> 01:09:04.448
Going through.
1176
01:09:04.468 --> 01:09:06.309
This is a sore topic for some people right now.
1177
01:09:08.130 --> 01:09:09.831
Are you, do you do?
1178
01:09:09.871 --> 01:09:11.452
No, service auto pie just raised prices.
1179
01:09:12.812 --> 01:09:13.273
Oh, really?
1180
01:09:13.313 --> 01:09:13.833
Yeah.
1181
01:09:14.053 --> 01:09:14.713
Oh, okay.
1182
01:09:15.053 --> 01:09:16.254
Well, but everybody does it.
1183
01:09:16.334 --> 01:09:17.475
It's not just a service auto pie.
1184
01:09:17.515 --> 01:09:18.375
I just own service auto pie.
1185
01:09:18.395 --> 01:09:19.376
So I'm giving you my data.
1186
01:09:19.396 --> 01:09:19.636
Yeah.
1187
01:09:20.552 --> 01:09:22.813
Does Surface AutoPay do contracts on everybody?
1188
01:09:23.633 --> 01:09:24.614
No, but Clearant does.
1189
01:09:25.314 --> 01:09:29.155
So the payment processor, to get out of the payment processing, you have to pay a fee now to get out.
1190
01:09:29.696 --> 01:09:31.096
Do most payment companies do that?
1191
01:09:31.616 --> 01:09:32.257
Not like Stripe.
1192
01:09:32.337 --> 01:09:32.757
These days?
1193
01:09:32.977 --> 01:09:33.697
Not like Stripe.
1194
01:09:33.717 --> 01:09:34.697
Stripe's different.
1195
01:09:34.758 --> 01:09:35.958
Stripe's not in most payment companies.
1196
01:09:36.018 --> 01:09:36.618
Yeah, yeah.
1197
01:09:36.638 --> 01:09:38.219
No, but like, yeah.
1198
01:09:38.459 --> 01:09:40.620
They don't for the software side, but they do for the...
1199
01:09:41.409 --> 01:09:42.190
Clear it does.
1200
01:09:42.490 --> 01:09:43.991
Yeah, maybe I'm going down a road I shouldn't have.
1201
01:09:44.011 --> 01:09:46.473
I'm not trying to pick on anybody, but I'm just trying to give an example.
1202
01:09:46.493 --> 01:09:50.176
Like, let's say Jonathan owns Service Autopilot and Jonathan's instituting contracts.
1203
01:09:50.357 --> 01:09:53.419
I will tell you exactly what I do from a logical standpoint.
1204
01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:58.223
I know that you as the buyer, you're really busy March, April, May, June, July.
1205
01:09:58.423 --> 01:10:00.065
You're too busy to change your software.
1206
01:10:00.325 --> 01:10:08.352
So I would want your contract renewal to happen during that time because you're gonna have to pre-plan way in advance
1207
01:10:08.972 --> 01:10:11.954
to start replacing the software before your contract renews.
1208
01:10:12.014 --> 01:10:13.315
And most people may not do that.
1209
01:10:13.636 --> 01:10:18.840
And so when the contract renewal comes up, you're like, oh my gosh, it's $5,000 or whatever the number is.
1210
01:10:18.860 --> 01:10:20.841
You're like, well, I'm too busy to do it now.
1211
01:10:20.942 --> 01:10:22.082
I'll deal with it next year.
1212
01:10:22.543 --> 01:10:24.684
That's how I would be thinking about it.
1213
01:10:25.485 --> 01:10:35.871
And so, but in the lawn care business, like when is the, or the most of these trades, when is that moment where you have too much pain, where you can't just cancel the thing?
1214
01:10:36.751 --> 01:10:43.975
And so that's why I think the big bill definitely piques your attention and creates a family discussion.
1215
01:10:44.216 --> 01:10:45.356
Again, I've not tested it.
1216
01:10:45.436 --> 01:10:50.039
It's just my assumption, knowing how I would have thought about contracts in the software business.
1217
01:10:50.498 --> 01:10:58.841
My only other pro just to be devil's advocate is less admin time for things like credit card bouncing out there.
1218
01:10:59.261 --> 01:11:01.002
Their email didn't go through.
1219
01:11:01.062 --> 01:11:02.002
I can't get ahold of them.
1220
01:11:02.022 --> 01:11:05.143
They're not putting a new card on file, all that sort of stuff.
1221
01:11:05.363 --> 01:11:12.826
But again, I don't think it's necessarily worth five or 10%, but that would be my other devil's advocate is less billing cycles equals less admin time, less expense.
1222
01:11:13.226 --> 01:11:18.928
But I think, I think the one thing that I, when I was thinking about this is your average lifetime of the customer.
1223
01:11:19.488 --> 01:11:25.791
If it's on average, you're keeping a customer for six months, getting them to commit to a year is a big, a big boost.
1224
01:11:25.831 --> 01:11:33.794
But to your point, if you're keeping a customer for seven years, what's the point of making taking a big chunk of your margin and giving that to the customer?
1225
01:11:33.875 --> 01:11:36.756
We know you can because you do a good enough job to keep them for a long term.
1226
01:11:36.956 --> 01:11:40.638
I think there are some services where the retention is not that long.
1227
01:11:40.938 --> 01:11:45.880
And that's when maybe an annual contract can increase significantly how long people stay with you.
1228
01:11:46.240 --> 01:11:49.062
Like I could see door knocking, door knocking and selling.
1229
01:11:49.162 --> 01:11:49.322
Yep.
1230
01:11:49.743 --> 01:11:52.765
Probably not a bad idea because there's so many, so much.
1231
01:11:53.366 --> 01:11:59.911
I wish I hadn't done that after the fact, or you felt a little pressured into it, or they, the spouse bought it and they go, the husband, the husband's or the wife.
1232
01:12:00.011 --> 01:12:01.412
And like, why did you buy that?
1233
01:12:02.192 --> 01:12:04.634
You know, it's like, so the contract is a good thing there.
1234
01:12:05.035 --> 01:12:11.399
You know, the, the one I thought was the most compelling argument that you made is the one where you're an individual that doesn't have good credit.
1235
01:12:12.420 --> 01:12:16.722
And this is the only way you're going to build the business and you're going to figure out your numbers.
1236
01:12:16.762 --> 01:12:17.782
So you do this safely.
1237
01:12:18.182 --> 01:12:23.524
That's the strongest argument of them to me, based on my experience.
1238
01:12:24.064 --> 01:12:32.447
If you are a company that doesn't have the money, but you have decent credit, I tell you, use a line of credit because it's way cheaper money before you use.
1239
01:12:32.547 --> 01:12:35.248
But know your numbers before you do the prepay thing.
1240
01:12:35.288 --> 01:12:37.429
But I thought that one was a pretty strong argument.
1241
01:12:37.449 --> 01:12:41.270
That may be for some people, the only way you're going to get the business off the ground.
1242
01:12:42.010 --> 01:12:44.731
And I'd much rather you be in business and not be in business.
1243
01:12:44.771 --> 01:12:46.452
Just understand the numbers.
1244
01:12:46.552 --> 01:12:48.413
And I like that one.
1245
01:12:49.153 --> 01:12:58.097
And on that one, too, I'd say the caveat or like the safety guard is like, reduce, keep the amount of annual pays below what your net profit was last year in terms of percentage.
1246
01:12:58.497 --> 01:13:01.278
So let's say your last year's percentage was 20% profit margin.
1247
01:13:01.558 --> 01:13:04.439
Don't let more than 20% of your customers do prepay.
1248
01:13:04.900 --> 01:13:13.543
But if you do it and you get 20% of your cash up front, you might very well be able to go get another truck, a second crew, and double the size of the business for that year.
1249
01:13:14.203 --> 01:13:21.446
Same thing could be said about debt, but still potential option if you just do not have the ability to get any sort of credit whatsoever.
1250
01:13:21.806 --> 01:13:22.206
Yep.
1251
01:13:22.626 --> 01:13:22.907
Okay.
1252
01:13:22.967 --> 01:13:26.268
Well, we kind of agree, unfortunately, but I just have to be devil's advocate.
1253
01:13:26.668 --> 01:13:27.209
So, okay.
1254
01:13:27.409 --> 01:13:27.649
All right.
1255
01:13:27.909 --> 01:13:28.169
Okay.
1256
01:13:28.329 --> 01:13:29.290
Let's move on to the next question.
1257
01:13:29.310 --> 01:13:30.330
We're talking about the middle class.
1258
01:13:30.570 --> 01:13:31.211
Is it shrinking?
1259
01:13:31.351 --> 01:13:34.732
If so, what does this mean for ID, for the ideal business model?
1260
01:13:35.132 --> 01:13:36.093
Should we go premium?
1261
01:13:36.373 --> 01:13:38.694
Should we go volume or stay in the middle?
1262
01:13:38.794 --> 01:13:43.617
I do have a couple images I wanted to show on this just to exemplify what's being said here.
1263
01:13:44.197 --> 01:13:48.319
And that is, you know, it's very politically sound to say about the middle class disappearing.
1264
01:13:49.219 --> 01:13:49.419
Yeah.
1265
01:13:49.519 --> 01:13:50.620
I feel like the data says it.
1266
01:13:50.680 --> 01:13:52.901
Yeah, but let's go ahead and show a couple of these examples.
1267
01:13:52.921 --> 01:13:54.562
Question three is, yeah, that's right there, Jace.
1268
01:13:54.742 --> 01:13:57.983
So this is percent of shares of U.S. households by total money income.
1269
01:13:58.023 --> 01:14:00.485
It's in 2023 dollars, so it is adjusted.
1270
01:14:01.125 --> 01:14:04.867
And you can see just pretty, just by the blues, the colors.
1271
01:14:05.147 --> 01:14:07.568
High income, middle income, low income.
1272
01:14:08.348 --> 01:14:11.251
and that the high income is making up more and more.
1273
01:14:11.471 --> 01:14:13.914
The middle is getting shrunk down.
1274
01:14:14.254 --> 01:14:15.736
I didn't like this chart as much as the next one.
1275
01:14:15.796 --> 01:14:20.480
So this is the share of total U.S. household income held by the middle class.
1276
01:14:21.221 --> 01:14:24.424
And it basically says it's been falling every single decade since the 70s.
1277
01:14:24.724 --> 01:14:26.026
So 62% was in 1970.
1278
01:14:26.046 --> 01:14:27.227
It's down to 43%.
1279
01:14:32.772 --> 01:14:42.219
And the upper income has gone from approximately, I'd say 29 to 48% of income being held by the upper class.
1280
01:14:42.599 --> 01:14:53.827
So when we take this information and then we say, okay, how does this impact home services, service businesses at large, honestly, any business at large, what are your takeaways from this data?
1281
01:14:54.325 --> 01:14:55.785
I don't see how this data changes.
1282
01:14:56.046 --> 01:14:57.066
I believe this data.
1283
01:14:57.306 --> 01:15:03.528
It's been a, as you've just shown, it's been a story that's been told for a long time now.
1284
01:15:03.568 --> 01:15:04.748
The data's been supporting it.
1285
01:15:05.088 --> 01:15:09.410
And I feel like COVID probably made it worse because the...
1286
01:15:10.110 --> 01:15:11.390
I don't know what you call it.
1287
01:15:11.410 --> 01:15:17.512
Let's just say the families that are kind of 75 to 120, 50, 150,000.
1288
01:15:17.532 --> 01:15:17.872
I don't know.
1289
01:15:18.112 --> 01:15:18.372
Whatever.
1290
01:15:18.392 --> 01:15:19.812
I don't know what that range should be.
1291
01:15:19.853 --> 01:15:24.234
But they've been hit really hard because housing costs have gone way up.
1292
01:15:24.294 --> 01:15:25.234
Everybody's been hit hard.
1293
01:15:25.254 --> 01:15:26.474
But even that, we'll call it.
1294
01:15:26.494 --> 01:15:29.035
I don't know if that's the middle class, but I'm calling that the middle class.
1295
01:15:29.715 --> 01:15:39.901
But they've been hit really hard too, just like the people at the bottom of the ladder have been hit really hard with fuel and groceries and housing costs.
1296
01:15:39.921 --> 01:15:42.363
But so have that middle class.
1297
01:15:43.195 --> 01:15:46.457
So I believe this data, and I don't see what's going to change it, frankly.
1298
01:15:46.737 --> 01:15:47.938
I think it's going to continue.
1299
01:15:48.499 --> 01:15:51.300
So I do think that the middle class is shrinking.
1300
01:15:51.961 --> 01:15:56.104
And if you listen to economics or finance, you'll hear this term.
1301
01:15:56.284 --> 01:16:00.507
Sometimes you'll hear it called a barbell, but oftentimes you'll hear it called a K-shaped economy.
1302
01:16:01.282 --> 01:16:08.628
which means the upper, the high earners, the upper class, those with wealth, that number is just like a picture of K. It's just going up.
1303
01:16:09.168 --> 01:16:12.691
And then there's a whole bottom class that's just going down.
1304
01:16:13.171 --> 01:16:14.633
That's just getting worse for them.
1305
01:16:15.033 --> 01:16:17.495
And it's getting better for the people that have the money.
1306
01:16:18.215 --> 01:16:20.797
And so there's multiple economies that we live in.
1307
01:16:21.398 --> 01:16:24.881
And so it's easy for somebody to that's living.
1308
01:16:25.781 --> 01:16:37.077
On the part of the K that's going up to feel like everything's going great in society and going great in the country and everything's just fine, but they're living in a completely different world than a huge part of the population.
1309
01:16:37.978 --> 01:16:40.661
And so that's what they call the K-shaped economy.
1310
01:16:41.442 --> 01:16:47.844
And so the middle class is shrinking in that more people are moving up or more people are moving down.
1311
01:16:48.585 --> 01:16:49.485
That's the gist of it.
1312
01:16:49.825 --> 01:16:50.485
I believe that.
1313
01:16:51.286 --> 01:17:01.630
From a strategic standpoint, I think if you can build a business on a premium offering, I think that is a very fantastic place to be.
1314
01:17:02.310 --> 01:17:05.791
That's not the business CityTurf has built or is even trying to build right now.
1315
01:17:06.431 --> 01:17:10.173
But I think any business you can build serving the ultra-affluent industry,
1316
01:17:12.076 --> 01:17:19.440
the wealthy is just the place to, to be that I I've mentioned before, there's this guy I used to listen to named Bruce Williams.
1317
01:17:20.100 --> 01:17:22.101
Uh, when I was in high school, he had his talk rate show.
1318
01:17:22.542 --> 01:17:29.405
I remember his statements like, um, sell to the masses, live with the classes, sell to the classes, live to the, with the masses.
1319
01:17:29.746 --> 01:17:32.907
It's the exact opposite of where we are today.
1320
01:17:32.927 --> 01:17:37.950
I, I, if you're going to sell to the masses, um,
1321
01:17:38.550 --> 01:17:41.052
you have to sell an incredible amount.
1322
01:17:41.432 --> 01:17:43.373
You have to build a really, really big business.
1323
01:17:43.953 --> 01:17:58.221
So most of the people that we're talking to here that want to build a smaller business, you might think about just getting into the market however you can get into the market to learn your business, learn how to deliver the service, learn how to sell.
1324
01:17:58.801 --> 01:18:02.844
I'm less concerned about anybody doing everything perfect and right.
1325
01:18:02.904 --> 01:18:05.305
I'm more concerned about you just getting started and learning.
1326
01:18:05.565 --> 01:18:12.894
Kind of going back to our earlier conversation, in your 20s, just learn everything you can learn, get all the experience you can learn, build.
1327
01:18:13.595 --> 01:18:14.656
It's kind of the same thing here.
1328
01:18:14.676 --> 01:18:16.558
When you're early in business, it's that same thing.
1329
01:18:16.598 --> 01:18:17.599
Just learn everything.
1330
01:18:18.140 --> 01:18:21.644
And then once you start to learn and you start to...
1331
01:18:22.485 --> 01:18:26.306
get good at a few things, and you start to be confident in the service you're delivering.
1332
01:18:26.346 --> 01:18:27.206
And you start to...
1333
01:18:29.167 --> 01:18:29.887
I'll use the example.
1334
01:18:29.907 --> 01:18:34.808
When I started out CityTurf, I didn't even know how to keep weeds from growing back in a flower bed.
1335
01:18:34.848 --> 01:18:36.348
I didn't know the names of my bushes.
1336
01:18:36.368 --> 01:18:37.649
I didn't know the names of my trees.
1337
01:18:37.669 --> 01:18:38.549
I didn't know any of those things.
1338
01:18:38.949 --> 01:18:43.670
I was in no place to be selling a premium service to the highest end client.
1339
01:18:44.090 --> 01:18:48.291
But over time, our company as we are today, we could be full premium.
1340
01:18:48.311 --> 01:18:51.292
We are perfectly positioned in expertise and knowledge to be
1341
01:18:52.712 --> 01:18:54.033
But we weren't in the early days.
1342
01:18:54.113 --> 01:19:01.436
So as a business owner, I'm most concerned about you getting into business, getting good, and then considering how you might move up the food chain.
1343
01:19:01.956 --> 01:19:07.318
My point here is that if for those that really desire building a smaller business, you're
1344
01:19:07.558 --> 01:19:12.141
To you, I would say it's absolutely imperative you know who you're going after.
1345
01:19:12.821 --> 01:19:16.503
It's absolutely imperative that you try to move a little more premium.
1346
01:19:17.083 --> 01:19:22.166
And that because of what's happening in the economy, what's happening in the world that I don't believe is going to reverse.
1347
01:19:22.846 --> 01:19:25.068
The way CityTurf approaches this is...
1348
01:19:26.028 --> 01:19:28.089
We are more middle class to upper.
1349
01:19:28.329 --> 01:19:29.309
That's kind of where we're at.
1350
01:19:29.909 --> 01:19:34.770
I personally think the middle class, the middle part of the market is still a really good part of the market.
1351
01:19:35.370 --> 01:19:43.832
And so the way I think about the business is, and Mike, you've alluded several times to my love of postcards.
1352
01:19:44.993 --> 01:19:53.535
I don't actually like postcards because they're the fastest way to blow money, but I like postcards because they let me go get my exact client.
1353
01:19:54.039 --> 01:19:56.320
That's why we want hot air balloons instead of SpaceX.
1354
01:19:56.400 --> 01:19:58.580
Yeah, yeah.
1355
01:19:58.840 --> 01:20:04.081
Going knocking on a door, door hangers, postcards, those let me go get the best clients.
1356
01:20:04.101 --> 01:20:12.043
So the way I see the world in terms of the business I want to build, if I'm going to build big, so we're talking about now building big, not building a smaller business.
1357
01:20:12.083 --> 01:20:15.464
Building smaller, I encourage you to try to go premium as your skill set.
1358
01:20:16.244 --> 01:20:16.805
allows it.
1359
01:20:17.285 --> 01:20:24.212
If you're building small, I'm sorry, big, then I think you can, then the approach I'm taking is middle to upper.
1360
01:20:24.872 --> 01:20:29.777
Because I think there's going to be a strong middle class for a long time.
1361
01:20:29.817 --> 01:20:31.318
It's just that it's getting smaller.
1362
01:20:31.599 --> 01:20:32.920
So I'm not trying to run from that
1363
01:20:33.420 --> 01:20:36.903
I'm not trying to, and all premium is a harder business, in my opinion.
1364
01:20:37.223 --> 01:20:38.644
It's a more demanding business.
1365
01:20:39.285 --> 01:20:42.748
It's, you know, there's a, people have higher expectations.
1366
01:20:43.568 --> 01:20:48.612
My example is they call you on Thursday about the party they're having on Friday, and then they're mad that you can't get out there.
1367
01:20:49.373 --> 01:20:53.236
It's just, there's different kinds of problems that come with the premium business.
1368
01:20:53.796 --> 01:20:53.956
Now,
1369
01:20:54.717 --> 01:20:59.126
Also, I should say, if you're going premium, I'm imagining that you're charging at premium rates.
1370
01:20:59.847 --> 01:21:04.176
If you haven't adjusted your pricing accordingly to be one of the most expensive prices,
1371
01:21:04.938 --> 01:21:06.419
And you're keeping your business small.
1372
01:21:06.439 --> 01:21:07.620
You've become quite expensive.
1373
01:21:07.640 --> 01:21:09.961
You're high touch, high service, premium.
1374
01:21:10.182 --> 01:21:11.863
That's a really interesting business.
1375
01:21:12.503 --> 01:21:14.684
But for the city turf, that's not the business we're building.
1376
01:21:14.704 --> 01:21:16.085
We're building middle class up.
1377
01:21:16.766 --> 01:21:21.088
And the reason I brought up the postcard thing is because the best way for me to go...
1378
01:21:21.128 --> 01:21:30.114
If I look at my data, I might see inside my data that 10% of my clients or 5% of my clients deliver 30% of my revenue, even in the type of business we...
1379
01:21:30.354 --> 01:21:30.614
have.
1380
01:21:30.894 --> 01:21:35.616
So if I want to grow my business faster, then I go get more of the 5% type of clients.
1381
01:21:35.656 --> 01:21:37.236
It's the fastest way to grow the business.
1382
01:21:37.516 --> 01:21:39.277
That's why I like offline marketing.
1383
01:21:39.297 --> 01:21:40.597
I go get the best client.
1384
01:21:41.178 --> 01:21:42.918
So that's how I'm thinking about that.
1385
01:21:43.178 --> 01:21:45.659
But I do not want to be at the budget end of this market.
1386
01:21:45.939 --> 01:21:46.880
I don't want to be there now.
1387
01:21:47.460 --> 01:21:48.940
I didn't want to be there a decade ago.
1388
01:21:49.320 --> 01:21:52.101
And I absolutely do not want to be there in the future.
1389
01:21:52.181 --> 01:21:54.142
I think that is the worst kind of business to own.
1390
01:21:54.706 --> 01:21:55.266
Yeah, I agree.
1391
01:21:55.346 --> 01:22:00.409
And I think some people fall into the trap on this is they think premium is only premium pricing.
1392
01:22:01.150 --> 01:22:04.692
But if your value does not match the price, you're going to lose customers.
1393
01:22:05.012 --> 01:22:09.675
And so that's where you'll get the people that say, I raised prices and everyone left or everyone's so cheap.
1394
01:22:09.755 --> 01:22:14.758
It's like, no, if the value is not high enough, I don't care how premium you want to be.
1395
01:22:14.838 --> 01:22:15.859
You're going to lose customers.
1396
01:22:16.219 --> 01:22:17.780
If value is higher than price, people leave.
1397
01:22:18.520 --> 01:22:21.521
And so I would be pushing people before they think about, oh, I want to go premium.
1398
01:22:21.541 --> 01:22:21.942
Okay, great.
1399
01:22:21.962 --> 01:22:23.002
I want to build a million dollar business.
1400
01:22:23.022 --> 01:22:26.984
It's a smaller business, be very premium, high margin, high touch, et cetera.
1401
01:22:27.344 --> 01:22:27.884
Okay, great.
1402
01:22:28.264 --> 01:22:31.546
We've all got to improve your customer experience to the point where that's premium.
1403
01:22:32.126 --> 01:22:36.928
And the reason it's so easy to say, I want to go premium and raise your prices because that's an email away from being premium in the market.
1404
01:22:37.368 --> 01:22:41.009
But what's a lot harder to do is change your UI of your website.
1405
01:22:41.469 --> 01:22:53.812
You're making sure you're tech enabled, make sure that people can easily set up services that there's so many, all the friction in the sales process, the renewal process, whatever communication loops you have with the customer is all super streamlined.
1406
01:22:54.253 --> 01:23:02.935
Like is your communication actually premium compared to your competition or do you still just answer the phone when you feel like it or the next day?
1407
01:23:03.435 --> 01:23:09.096
And so before someone says, I want to be a premium brand, because that makes sense to me, I'm going to raise my prices.
1408
01:23:09.316 --> 01:23:12.217
Be very careful because you might have a very hard time out getting new customers.
1409
01:23:12.397 --> 01:23:24.779
You might keep your existing customers, but you have a very hard time getting new customers at your higher prices if your customer experience at every single facet of the customer journey is not really locked tight.
1410
01:23:25.440 --> 01:23:27.020
I agree.
1411
01:23:28.340 --> 01:23:31.761
What would you say is the single worst and hardest part about owning a business?
1412
01:23:33.063 --> 01:23:35.306
Ooh, the worst part about owning a business?
1413
01:23:36.067 --> 01:23:36.767
Yeah, the hardest.
1414
01:23:36.988 --> 01:23:39.010
Well, let's say the hardest part of a business.
1415
01:23:39.490 --> 01:23:43.896
What's the hardest part of building a business and owning and managing a business for the long term?
1416
01:23:44.516 --> 01:23:47.019
I'm going to see if you say what I think it is.
1417
01:23:47.600 --> 01:23:49.342
The hardest part about owning a business?
1418
01:23:49.963 --> 01:23:50.543
And building it.
1419
01:23:51.024 --> 01:23:52.025
Probably the team.
1420
01:23:52.525 --> 01:23:53.126
Attracting great teams.
1421
01:23:53.146 --> 01:23:53.487
Exactly.
1422
01:23:53.507 --> 01:23:53.767
Exactly.
1423
01:23:54.126 --> 01:23:54.306
Okay.
1424
01:23:54.767 --> 01:23:54.947
Yes.
1425
01:23:55.127 --> 01:23:58.350
That's, I was hoping you were getting answered that way.
1426
01:23:58.570 --> 01:23:58.831
Okay.
1427
01:23:59.311 --> 01:24:01.133
I was like, is he trying to go marketing?
1428
01:24:01.213 --> 01:24:02.374
I need to have a different answer.
1429
01:24:02.394 --> 01:24:04.116
I'm like, I'm just going to answer what I think is true.
1430
01:24:04.136 --> 01:24:06.438
That's what, yeah, that's what I thought.
1431
01:24:06.518 --> 01:24:09.020
I think the team and the people are the hardest thing.
1432
01:24:09.040 --> 01:24:09.681
What do we all say?
1433
01:24:09.701 --> 01:24:10.782
We can't find any good people.
1434
01:24:11.102 --> 01:24:12.303
My people don't stick around.
1435
01:24:12.804 --> 01:24:14.025
These, they don't do it.
1436
01:24:14.085 --> 01:24:14.466
Like what?
1437
01:24:14.546 --> 01:24:15.126
I can't get them.
1438
01:24:15.146 --> 01:24:15.527
I can't,
1439
01:24:16.007 --> 01:24:17.508
like there's a million complaints.
1440
01:24:18.208 --> 01:24:24.770
That problem never resolves itself when you're selling budget because you don't have any money to hire the best people.
1441
01:24:25.230 --> 01:24:31.213
The way you solve almost everything you hate about owning a company is by solving the people problem.
1442
01:24:31.913 --> 01:24:41.776
And if you aren't, if you're down too far down market, you just can't afford, you can't pay the best employees, the highest rates and sell work at the cheapest price.
1443
01:24:41.796 --> 01:24:42.597
You have to sell work
1444
01:24:43.397 --> 01:24:45.998
Upper market so that you can afford upper market people.
1445
01:24:47.198 --> 01:24:58.740
So if you want to get away from everything that's horrible about a business, which is not great people and not being able to attract good people to your company, the only solution is going up market from a pricing standpoint.
1446
01:24:59.100 --> 01:25:02.861
And then everything you said, Mike, supports being able to go up market.
1447
01:25:03.301 --> 01:25:07.021
That's my single simplest argument for why you want to do this.
1448
01:25:07.081 --> 01:25:10.182
Because if you don't, you will forever have a painful business.
1449
01:25:10.202 --> 01:25:10.642
Yeah.
1450
01:25:11.062 --> 01:25:15.264
And never be able to afford to go get the next customer using acquisition.
1451
01:25:15.284 --> 01:25:17.204
You'll always be at the mercy of word of mouth.
1452
01:25:17.224 --> 01:25:17.724
Right, 100%.
1453
01:25:17.764 --> 01:25:18.965
Because it's the only thing you can afford.
1454
01:25:19.005 --> 01:25:19.565
Which is so slow.
1455
01:25:19.585 --> 01:25:19.845
Yeah.
1456
01:25:19.865 --> 01:25:20.585
And it's so slow.
1457
01:25:20.726 --> 01:25:22.866
So you can't grow out of your problems very quick.
1458
01:25:22.886 --> 01:25:24.247
You have the problems for a very long time.
1459
01:25:24.907 --> 01:25:27.488
Speaking of a very long time, the next question is...
1460
01:25:28.108 --> 01:25:33.609
Is it better to sell or build and hold forever when it comes to your business?
1461
01:25:34.170 --> 01:25:36.730
Now, I did a little bit of research, and I'll tee this one up.
1462
01:25:37.530 --> 01:25:41.911
This is probably a biased source because it's from the Exit Planning Institute.
1463
01:25:42.672 --> 01:25:46.433
But they said that 76% of owners who sell regret it within one year.
1464
01:25:47.233 --> 01:25:47.453
And...
1465
01:25:48.173 --> 01:25:52.495
I have my opinions on selling versus keeping it forever and who should and who should not.
1466
01:25:53.015 --> 01:26:01.278
But given that you have had a business like it's owned for decades and then you've sold one like service autopilot, from your perspective, where do you land on this?
1467
01:26:01.318 --> 01:26:05.239
But then also what would be your more generalized opinion for the masses?
1468
01:26:06.058 --> 01:26:15.909
For me personally, while we sold service autopilot, and it was an amazing experience because I learned a lot doing it, it's cool to get a nice big check.
1469
01:26:16.150 --> 01:26:17.491
I mean, all that's cool.
1470
01:26:18.012 --> 01:26:23.258
I would hope everybody gets to have a chance to do something like that, but it didn't change my mind.
1471
01:26:24.599 --> 01:26:32.884
I still feel that I'm in the camp of I want to build and hold, but whatever I'm building, I want to build it in a way that it could be sold at any moment.
1472
01:26:33.445 --> 01:26:35.026
But I'll use CityTurf as an example.
1473
01:26:35.186 --> 01:26:38.388
I, Frank, it's like something I give almost no thought to.
1474
01:26:38.488 --> 01:26:41.009
I could not care less about serving that business.
1475
01:26:41.429 --> 01:26:45.292
In my perfect world, that business is still around in 40 years now.
1476
01:26:46.312 --> 01:26:49.435
And we are, we have a killer team.
1477
01:26:50.136 --> 01:26:51.257
Their life is good.
1478
01:26:51.957 --> 01:26:55.921
We, we, the owners have a lot of freedom.
1479
01:26:56.782 --> 01:26:57.782
We make a lot of money.
1480
01:26:58.683 --> 01:27:02.927
Our clients love us in the market and we don't live in fear that something bad is going to happen to our business.
1481
01:27:02.947 --> 01:27:04.608
If I could build that, I just want to own that.
1482
01:27:04.629 --> 01:27:05.029
Yeah.
1483
01:27:05.752 --> 01:27:13.138
I use the example that you're, let's say that you have a business that's making you $400,000 a year.
1484
01:27:13.779 --> 01:27:18.463
And I know that's a lot of money, but it's making you $400,000 a year, you can live a great life.
1485
01:27:19.444 --> 01:27:28.131
And, but to take enough money off the table, pay taxes to be able to earn $400,000 a year in return that you can spend without running, running out of money.
1486
01:27:28.851 --> 01:27:30.813
That is a very different thing.
1487
01:27:31.353 --> 01:27:32.054
that's different.
1488
01:27:32.074 --> 01:27:32.714
That's hard.
1489
01:27:32.794 --> 01:27:47.184
And that's mentally hard for somebody to go from, I had a paycheck, it felt stable to I'm having to spend down my money every month, or I'm having, or man, I, I'm having to spend money to live in the stock markets down 25% right now.
1490
01:27:47.325 --> 01:27:50.047
I don't, that is a, the psychology is so different.
1491
01:27:50.607 --> 01:27:57.452
And I've talked to so many people that are incredibly wealthy and living off investments, no matter how much money you have
1492
01:28:00.974 --> 01:28:02.076
It's just universal.
1493
01:28:02.877 --> 01:28:09.224
Losing that steady paycheck as a business owner felt so much better than living on investments.
1494
01:28:09.264 --> 01:28:11.147
And so the psychology here is difficult.
1495
01:28:11.968 --> 01:28:17.294
I'm comfortable with it, but it's still weird.
1496
01:28:17.434 --> 01:28:19.617
And I do get paid because I get paid from city turf.
1497
01:28:21.315 --> 01:28:26.779
But in my mind, I'm living off investments because I've always thought of CityTurf as just an investment.
1498
01:28:27.500 --> 01:28:34.185
So I think for most people, the whole sell would be way more uncomfortable than they think it would be.
1499
01:28:34.605 --> 01:28:36.707
It would be really cool for a short period of time.
1500
01:28:36.747 --> 01:28:38.688
And afterwards, it's a whole new world.
1501
01:28:38.728 --> 01:28:39.729
It creates a lot of discomfort.
1502
01:28:40.049 --> 01:28:44.112
And I suspect that's where whatever the big number is that says people...
1503
01:28:45.513 --> 01:28:47.354
were disappointed they wouldn't have done it again.
1504
01:28:47.934 --> 01:28:52.155
The other reason I think a lot of people are disappointed is because who they sell to probably disappoints them.
1505
01:28:52.856 --> 01:28:56.657
I think a lot of people sell with an earn out and they don't get their earn out.
1506
01:28:57.097 --> 01:29:05.100
I think a lot of people sell with the expectation that where they kept some equity in the business that one day they'd get a big paycheck and it just doesn't ever happen.
1507
01:29:05.200 --> 01:29:07.821
And so most of the money they got was in the early sell.
1508
01:29:08.001 --> 01:29:09.822
Those are all the ways you could be disappointed.
1509
01:29:10.482 --> 01:29:13.707
And this idea that you just build this really great company, it takes really great care of you.
1510
01:29:13.848 --> 01:29:14.909
I love that idea.
1511
01:29:15.370 --> 01:29:23.003
So I'm firmly in the camp of I want to build something that lasts and persists for a really long time, but I want it to be built in such a way it could be sold.
1512
01:29:23.567 --> 01:29:31.390
Yeah, I think when I think about home services specifically, actually any business, I was talking to a coffee shop the owner the other day is selling it to his general manager.
1513
01:29:31.430 --> 01:29:35.072
And I was trying to convince him, like, I don't think this is going to solve your problem.
1514
01:29:35.352 --> 01:29:42.514
But all that being said, I think a lot of times it's we're looking for liquidity after putting money back into the business for so long.
1515
01:29:43.175 --> 01:29:50.938
And the idea of having the liquidity is so appealing, even though we know maybe from a stock from a tax perspective, it's not efficient.
1516
01:29:51.518 --> 01:29:54.800
from a even personal gratification perspective, we might lose out.
1517
01:29:54.960 --> 01:29:57.021
But it's like, I just wanna have some breathing room.
1518
01:29:57.441 --> 01:30:04.925
And I think I would encourage a lot of people, if they're wanting to buy and hold, but have liquidity is like, step back for a minute and realize you can create liquidity in the business.
1519
01:30:05.305 --> 01:30:09.988
It just might mean, okay, instead of growing every single year, let's dial it back a bit.
1520
01:30:10.028 --> 01:30:11.428
Let's increase our prices.
1521
01:30:11.448 --> 01:30:18.172
Let's go into profit mode, raising prices a little bit, just up by a little bit, optimizing, could very well create the liquidity you're looking for.
1522
01:30:18.772 --> 01:30:21.655
in a much more tax efficient way without having to sell the business.
1523
01:30:22.116 --> 01:30:35.351
Or even potentially at a bigger size, even if you had a minority stake ownership, someone to buy in so you can create liquidity, feel like you had that event of the cash injection and have the adjustment in your personal lifestyle if needs be.
1524
01:30:36.052 --> 01:30:41.374
but then still stay owning and operating and controlling the business.
1525
01:30:42.214 --> 01:30:45.415
And I'd say that's the more viable approach for most people.
1526
01:30:45.435 --> 01:30:58.719
It's just like build the business slightly different, change the horizon from the next five years to 50, and you'll slow down a little bit and create the liquidity to keep your head in the game instead of constantly thinking about, I'm going to sell this thing, I'm going to sell this thing, and then you start making bad decisions in the meantime.
1527
01:30:59.079 --> 01:30:59.259
Yeah.
1528
01:30:59.943 --> 01:31:07.665
Yeah, I would not discourage anyone from selling, but I've had a lot of conversations where people have asked me about selling.
1529
01:31:08.166 --> 01:31:11.106
So I usually don't hear myself saying, oh, you shouldn't sell.
1530
01:31:11.587 --> 01:31:13.827
What I usually hear myself saying is it's way too early.
1531
01:31:14.427 --> 01:31:18.009
You're worried about the future economy or you're worried about something.
1532
01:31:18.029 --> 01:31:18.949
So that's creating fear.
1533
01:31:19.589 --> 01:31:24.251
which is leading you to want to sell early, but you're not going to take enough money off the table to be safe.
1534
01:31:24.692 --> 01:31:29.634
And if you're worried about, oh, something bad's going to happen in the future in the economy, I should get my money now.
1535
01:31:30.074 --> 01:31:30.614
Who's going to buy it?
1536
01:31:30.635 --> 01:31:32.175
Where are you going to put your money?
1537
01:31:32.215 --> 01:31:32.736
Oh, yeah.
1538
01:31:33.056 --> 01:31:34.256
Where are you going to put your money?
1539
01:31:34.276 --> 01:31:35.197
You can't keep it in cash.
1540
01:31:35.217 --> 01:31:35.977
You'll get destroyed.
1541
01:31:36.517 --> 01:31:38.218
You will lose badly if you're in cash.
1542
01:31:38.338 --> 01:31:40.059
And so you've got to invest it elsewhere.
1543
01:31:40.099 --> 01:31:41.080
So that's at risk too.
1544
01:31:41.100 --> 01:31:41.720
Yeah.
1545
01:31:41.860 --> 01:31:46.845
And so most people, I would say, here's the other thing that gets tough.
1546
01:31:46.905 --> 01:31:52.531
If you've got a big business and it's in a really popular trade and you're getting offered 10 or 15 times profits right now,
1547
01:31:53.336 --> 01:31:59.679
My gosh, it is kind of hard to say, you're willing to pay me for 15 years into the future of all the work I'm going to do right now.
1548
01:32:00.199 --> 01:32:02.180
That to be assuming your business doesn't keep growing.
1549
01:32:02.640 --> 01:32:04.201
That starts to get kind of crazy.
1550
01:32:04.441 --> 01:32:12.385
Like where you, but, but even for a lot of those people, the very person that could get 15 times, their business is exceptional and it's growing really fast.
1551
01:32:12.805 --> 01:32:19.108
So that's 15 times this year, but next year it might be the equivalent of you got paid eight times profits because of just the speed of growth.
1552
01:32:19.808 --> 01:32:26.337
And so, again, for most people, I usually say, hey, yeah, maybe you should sell it.
1553
01:32:26.377 --> 01:32:31.884
But based on the speed your business is growing and how good it is, I keep building for at least three more years.
1554
01:32:32.084 --> 01:32:34.708
So it's usually people are thinking about selling, in my opinion, too early.
1555
01:32:35.003 --> 01:32:45.030
I like the idea of what's the multiple, and basically it's the multiple in future cash flows, but in five years, what's the multiple if you continue at your current rate of growth?
1556
01:32:45.531 --> 01:32:46.311
Yeah, exactly.
1557
01:32:46.331 --> 01:32:52.656
And after you've just saved a third of it off in taxes, if they gave you one lump sum, now it also changes the multiple very quickly.
1558
01:32:52.676 --> 01:33:02.563
Oh, it's 10, okay, now it's actually seven based on taxes, and then based upon in three, four years, based upon our current rate of growth, this is actually a two or three, it starts to look less appealing.
1559
01:33:03.263 --> 01:33:14.292
And as someone who has never had the sale from the outside, I have never talked to someone that sold and was like, oh, I want exactly what they felt like the day after.
1560
01:33:14.312 --> 01:33:18.095
I've always been I've always asked them, like, how do you feel right after?
1561
01:33:18.115 --> 01:33:19.596
And did it change anything?
1562
01:33:19.896 --> 01:33:20.737
Did it accomplish?
1563
01:33:20.757 --> 01:33:22.498
And it's like, well, no, I had money before.
1564
01:33:22.598 --> 01:33:24.539
Assuming you can have some liquidity from the business.
1565
01:33:24.579 --> 01:33:26.081
Like, what do you what's going to change right after?
1566
01:33:26.101 --> 01:33:26.201
Yeah.
1567
01:33:26.621 --> 01:33:28.323
I'm just going to wake up and not have a team.
1568
01:33:28.343 --> 01:33:29.164
I'm going to wake up.
1569
01:33:29.184 --> 01:33:32.507
I'm not going to have any, I would lose some purpose.
1570
01:33:33.108 --> 01:33:41.717
And that feeling, I feel I see people make weird decisions sometimes because of that loss of purpose or not having a plan for after the sale.
1571
01:33:42.418 --> 01:33:46.963
And that leads me to my last question of the day, if you don't mind, about sabbatical.
1572
01:33:47.403 --> 01:33:47.583
Sure.
1573
01:33:47.823 --> 01:33:48.083
Okay.
1574
01:33:48.403 --> 01:33:52.145
So I kind of like hinged in there of like, what's after a sale?
1575
01:33:52.965 --> 01:33:54.926
You, after you did a sale, went on a sabbatical.
1576
01:33:55.486 --> 01:33:56.486
Now I want you to talk about that.
1577
01:33:56.526 --> 01:34:05.889
And then I want to, I want to bring it to people who are still in business and how they could use this potentially even before they make a big sale or they exit or don't have anything to work on necessarily in the immediate.
1578
01:34:06.910 --> 01:34:16.033
But what did you learn taking a sabbatical, maybe define that for those that have not heard you talk about in the past of what you did after selling the business and what you learned from that process?
1579
01:34:16.669 --> 01:34:22.379
Yeah, that's a pretty good tie into the last question because in my example, when I sold my business, nothing changed.
1580
01:34:22.459 --> 01:34:23.501
I already had my house.
1581
01:34:26.038 --> 01:34:31.860
The only two things I can come up with that I really did differently immediately is I bought a racing simulator.
1582
01:34:32.500 --> 01:34:36.822
And I bought a new, and Tiffany and I bought a $10,000 mattress, which I wouldn't have spent before.
1583
01:34:37.122 --> 01:34:37.822
And I had the money.
1584
01:34:38.282 --> 01:34:40.263
That's all I could come up with.
1585
01:34:40.283 --> 01:34:40.563
Worth it.
1586
01:34:40.583 --> 01:34:43.644
So in my world, I don't know if it was worth it.
1587
01:34:43.724 --> 01:34:47.085
But actually, I don't think either one of them were actually worth it.
1588
01:34:47.305 --> 01:34:50.449
But so, but the sabbatical, that was the difference.
1589
01:34:50.469 --> 01:34:51.831
So that's why this was a nice little tie in.
1590
01:34:51.871 --> 01:34:57.417
But from a money standpoint, like the person that can get a really big exit already had money probably.
1591
01:34:57.658 --> 01:34:57.818
Right.
1592
01:34:59.082 --> 01:35:02.204
And so we already were living the life we wanted.
1593
01:35:02.524 --> 01:35:06.947
So the big ginormous change for us, for me, was the sabbatical.
1594
01:35:07.447 --> 01:35:10.589
And John and I, a little backup here, context on this.
1595
01:35:11.250 --> 01:35:17.153
John and I had, it was probably more me than John that was already talking about this idea of taking a break.
1596
01:35:17.373 --> 01:35:21.416
So I had already been thinking about this idea before we sold the business.
1597
01:35:21.836 --> 01:35:24.458
And maybe even before we thought about selling the business.
1598
01:35:25.358 --> 01:35:29.381
And I was wondering if we could get to a place where every few years we each took 90 days.
1599
01:35:30.182 --> 01:35:31.763
And I thought that would be really cool.
1600
01:35:32.383 --> 01:35:37.026
And so I wanted to be able to go take these long vacations and not work at all.
1601
01:35:37.807 --> 01:35:41.530
And I felt like the business was completely to a place where that would have been no problem.
1602
01:35:42.070 --> 01:35:44.051
And so I had already started this conversation.
1603
01:35:44.712 --> 01:35:49.275
And then after we sold the business and I stuck around till like April or May of 21, um,
1604
01:35:50.436 --> 01:35:54.679
But frankly, my job was quite easy because everything had been pretty much handed off.
1605
01:35:55.379 --> 01:35:56.159
I stuck around.
1606
01:35:56.560 --> 01:35:57.740
We were completely remote.
1607
01:35:58.001 --> 01:36:04.044
I mean, it felt like by the time we got to in 2021, I felt like I was barely working, even though I was still there a bit.
1608
01:36:04.565 --> 01:36:09.628
So as soon as my time was done, I basically started the sabbatical.
1609
01:36:09.968 --> 01:36:12.990
That would not have happened had I not not what I did that.
1610
01:36:13.030 --> 01:36:14.751
There's no way in the world.
1611
01:36:15.491 --> 01:36:18.332
a three-year sabbatical would have happened had I not sold the business.
1612
01:36:18.352 --> 01:36:20.413
So that's probably the single biggest thing.
1613
01:36:20.693 --> 01:36:23.054
And CityTurf was in a place and had been for a long time.
1614
01:36:23.074 --> 01:36:24.314
I didn't have to do anything there.
1615
01:36:24.354 --> 01:36:26.415
So I had no complications.
1616
01:36:27.395 --> 01:36:31.416
And then Academy, my coaching thing, got sold with the service autopilot business.
1617
01:36:31.456 --> 01:36:37.778
So that would have, had that not happened, then it would have been harder for me to take the sabbatical because I had to be part of that coaching business.
1618
01:36:37.798 --> 01:36:39.419
So anyway, the setup was...
1619
01:36:40.079 --> 01:36:41.741
the sale actually made this possible.
1620
01:36:42.322 --> 01:36:45.265
And I think you were asking, what did I, were you saying, what did I learn?
1621
01:36:45.605 --> 01:36:47.387
Can you remind me what the question was?
1622
01:36:47.708 --> 01:36:55.336
Yeah, what did you learn about either yourself or even for someone that, let's just say for a moment, they've made a sale or they're between businesses, would you recommend it?
1623
01:36:55.356 --> 01:36:57.038
But more importantly, how would you structure it?
1624
01:36:57.579 --> 01:36:59.782
Yeah, so I'll just tell you what I did first.
1625
01:37:00.585 --> 01:37:02.547
Man, I 100% recommend it.
1626
01:37:02.567 --> 01:37:04.889
And I would 100% recommend it without a sale.
1627
01:37:04.909 --> 01:37:08.972
But you've got to build the business to a place where the business can support it.
1628
01:37:09.692 --> 01:37:11.734
And I don't know how to...
1629
01:37:11.974 --> 01:37:12.395
I think...
1630
01:37:12.995 --> 01:37:14.476
I'm trying to think of what it did for me.
1631
01:37:18.384 --> 01:37:23.467
I, what I see most business owners do is they sell their companies and they immediately jump into something.
1632
01:37:23.487 --> 01:37:27.489
They become angel investors, investing in other people's businesses.
1633
01:37:27.529 --> 01:37:31.731
You get pulled in, you're busy, you sell your business, you immediately start another business.
1634
01:37:31.771 --> 01:37:34.072
That's what I see every single person do.
1635
01:37:34.873 --> 01:37:37.814
And that would have been the easy and natural thing for me to do.
1636
01:37:38.034 --> 01:37:41.776
In fact, the whole idea of taking a long sabbatical made me feel a little guilty.
1637
01:37:42.077 --> 01:37:42.237
Like,
1638
01:37:42.937 --> 01:37:48.221
I should, I'm losing momentum or I should be, I'm getting older.
1639
01:37:48.281 --> 01:37:49.662
I should go do this thing now.
1640
01:37:50.363 --> 01:37:56.347
That kind of thinking and taking the sabbatical kind of wiped all that stuff away.
1641
01:37:56.687 --> 01:38:00.390
It also, it's your identity is so much in your business.
1642
01:38:00.851 --> 01:38:03.453
I think there's no way to not have that be the case.
1643
01:38:05.197 --> 01:38:06.578
And I really loved my business.
1644
01:38:06.618 --> 01:38:07.739
I love service autopilot.
1645
01:38:07.759 --> 01:38:08.559
I love the clients.
1646
01:38:08.579 --> 01:38:09.140
I love the team.
1647
01:38:09.160 --> 01:38:09.900
I love the academy.
1648
01:38:10.160 --> 01:38:11.181
I love all that stuff.
1649
01:38:11.721 --> 01:38:15.364
Taking the break completely separated me from that identity.
1650
01:38:16.024 --> 01:38:25.271
I don't know that I could have been, if I just jumped into the next business and started building a new software company or built a new coaching business, I would have never had the chance to part with the identity.
1651
01:38:25.771 --> 01:38:30.875
And I think taking the long sabbatical legitimately got me to a place where I'm
1652
01:38:31.735 --> 01:38:33.515
I was completely separated from that identity.
1653
01:38:33.535 --> 01:38:34.516
I don't feel like I need it.
1654
01:38:34.936 --> 01:38:38.617
I really feel, and I only think I could get there by taking the long break.
1655
01:38:39.337 --> 01:38:41.817
And I think that was super valuable.
1656
01:38:42.097 --> 01:38:51.799
It also gave me this really fresh perspective to say, to look back on some of the things I got wrong over the years, building my stuff, the lessons I've learned, the things I would do different.
1657
01:38:52.259 --> 01:38:53.720
You can't get that lesson.
1658
01:38:54.140 --> 01:38:57.701
And this is a buildup to eventually talking about, hey, how might you think about this?
1659
01:38:57.941 --> 01:38:59.161
You know, anybody listening to this,
1660
01:38:59.861 --> 01:39:05.446
I don't think that I could have ever got that perspective had I not taken the sabbatical.
1661
01:39:05.926 --> 01:39:10.470
I don't, for most of us, let's say you eventually get to a place where you take a two or three week vacation.
1662
01:39:10.770 --> 01:39:13.593
So you leave your business, you're still kind of checking your email.
1663
01:39:13.613 --> 01:39:18.156
You're still like, let's just say you're not doing much work, but you're still kind of checking on the business.
1664
01:39:18.997 --> 01:39:27.823
That's not a sabbatical because it probably will take you three weeks just to decompress from everything you normally have to do running the business.
1665
01:39:27.843 --> 01:39:40.931
But you haven't even got to the phase yet to thinking about the business as an outsider looking down on your business and being completely out of the weeds, completely disconnected and looking at it in a way and saying, what did I get right?
1666
01:39:40.991 --> 01:39:41.892
What did I get wrong?
1667
01:39:41.952 --> 01:39:44.095
What are we as a team and a company getting right and wrong?
1668
01:39:44.115 --> 01:39:45.456
You don't get that on a vacation.
1669
01:39:45.877 --> 01:39:50.142
You have to go through these phases, I think, where you sort of decompress.
1670
01:39:50.683 --> 01:39:58.233
Then you get to a place where you're not even really tempted to get involved in the business to a place where you start to get bored.
1671
01:39:58.733 --> 01:40:02.575
where then you start to think about the business in a completely different way.
1672
01:40:02.975 --> 01:40:06.957
And that's what I think a longer period of time, a stretch of time gives you.
1673
01:40:07.257 --> 01:40:08.698
And that's what a sabbatical gives you.
1674
01:40:09.078 --> 01:40:14.720
And so for me, it allowed me to kind of decompress from everything I did, which took quite a while, frankly.
1675
01:40:15.260 --> 01:40:18.162
Like the selling process was such a beat down and exhausting.
1676
01:40:18.182 --> 01:40:18.602
Yeah.
1677
01:40:18.782 --> 01:40:26.667
And then coming into a new world and going through that whole transition and eventually leaving the business I built was such a beatdown in transition.
1678
01:40:27.207 --> 01:40:30.109
I didn't just get over it in two months.
1679
01:40:30.169 --> 01:40:32.450
And by get over, I mean just completely decompress.
1680
01:40:32.750 --> 01:40:34.611
It took me quite a long time to do that.
1681
01:40:34.872 --> 01:40:38.014
And then I got to a place where I was like, hey, I could be happy.
1682
01:40:38.994 --> 01:40:41.055
not ever running that business again.
1683
01:40:41.095 --> 01:40:42.336
I don't need that business again.
1684
01:40:42.456 --> 01:40:42.856
I'm good.
1685
01:40:42.936 --> 01:40:44.757
I could be happy doing something completely different.
1686
01:40:45.077 --> 01:40:53.522
And then around that time is when I started to really look back on all that I had done and like, man, if I could do it again, you got to a clear mind.
1687
01:40:53.782 --> 01:40:54.402
That's the word.
1688
01:40:54.783 --> 01:40:56.163
It took a while to get to the clear mind.
1689
01:40:56.684 --> 01:40:59.045
And so it's one of the greatest things I've ever done.
1690
01:40:59.345 --> 01:41:01.886
I am so thankful I didn't start another business.
1691
01:41:02.447 --> 01:41:15.494
So my learnings, and Mike, you can ask me additional questions, but what I would tell somebody that is dedicated to owning and building a business for the long term, it all starts with building your leadership team that can run the business.
1692
01:41:16.734 --> 01:41:26.420
You can't ever do a long sabbatical unless you've got operations dialed in and all the different, if you're bigger, finance, marketing, sales, leaders.
1693
01:41:26.440 --> 01:41:32.604
You've got to eventually get to a place where you have these, for somebody building a small business, I don't know how you're ever going to do a sabbatical.
1694
01:41:33.184 --> 01:41:37.148
Because you've got to build a team of people that can run this thing while you're away.
1695
01:41:37.548 --> 01:41:50.300
If you're just leaving the business, but you're still checking email multiple times a week, if you're still having to hop on a team call, if you're still having to make sure things are happening and moving, if you're still having to look at KPIs, that's not a sabbatical.
1696
01:41:50.621 --> 01:41:53.924
A sabbatical is a full-on do-no-work period.
1697
01:41:54.504 --> 01:41:54.744
None.
1698
01:41:55.425 --> 01:42:05.933
That's a sabbatical because that's the only way in my mind you 100% disconnect and stop thinking about the business and start thinking about other things and have some of the experiences I've described.
1699
01:42:06.333 --> 01:42:13.559
So for somebody that's building a bigger business and it's going to be in the long term, my suggestion would be you first do a 30-day test.
1700
01:42:14.199 --> 01:42:15.860
Like first you just do a two-week vacation.
1701
01:42:16.081 --> 01:42:18.022
Then eventually you do a 30-day test.
1702
01:42:18.643 --> 01:42:20.104
And I think the sweet spot...
1703
01:42:20.704 --> 01:42:24.765
I mean, if you could, I just don't think a year is realistic for almost anybody, even if you're running a business.
1704
01:42:24.785 --> 01:42:33.066
So I would, what I had always thought, and I still believe this, could I have engineered 90 days, periodic 90 day sabbaticals?
1705
01:42:33.686 --> 01:42:36.507
I think, because I just don't think anybody's going to do a year.
1706
01:42:37.087 --> 01:42:37.867
I just don't believe it.
1707
01:42:38.407 --> 01:42:39.087
I wouldn't have done it.
1708
01:42:39.588 --> 01:42:42.628
No matter how good my business was going, I couldn't have left for a year.
1709
01:42:42.708 --> 01:42:43.808
I wouldn't have let myself do it.
1710
01:42:44.508 --> 01:42:45.729
So that's kind of where I stand on it.
1711
01:42:45.769 --> 01:42:47.389
90 days, I think is probably the sweet spot.
1712
01:42:47.985 --> 01:42:48.426
Okay.
1713
01:42:48.686 --> 01:42:49.106
All right.
1714
01:42:49.527 --> 01:42:53.772
I see when I go on vacation, I get within three to four days.
1715
01:42:53.852 --> 01:42:55.093
I feel like I'm unplugged.
1716
01:42:55.594 --> 01:42:56.374
I feel like that's great.
1717
01:42:56.455 --> 01:42:58.136
I feel like bored after three days.
1718
01:42:58.737 --> 01:43:02.221
But I don't know if that's just because I've never actually fully disengaged.
1719
01:43:03.122 --> 01:43:04.904
See, I think you have to get past that bored part.
1720
01:43:05.325 --> 01:43:05.425
Yeah.
1721
01:43:05.445 --> 01:43:05.625
Yeah.
1722
01:43:06.207 --> 01:43:06.968
I've never done that.
1723
01:43:07.548 --> 01:43:07.729
Yeah.
1724
01:43:07.969 --> 01:43:09.410
I mean, I've always been the same way.
1725
01:43:10.271 --> 01:43:15.396
I was able to go on vacations and, I mean, we'd go to Europe for three weeks with the boys.
1726
01:43:16.398 --> 01:43:17.699
I didn't do anything work.
1727
01:43:18.019 --> 01:43:18.279
None.
1728
01:43:18.920 --> 01:43:19.641
I didn't check in.
1729
01:43:20.302 --> 01:43:24.466
But I still think, I mean, I'd be a liar if I said I didn't check my email sometimes.
1730
01:43:24.506 --> 01:43:28.050
It's like I needed my dopamine hit going back to the beginning of the conversation.
1731
01:43:28.070 --> 01:43:28.970
So, but...
1732
01:43:30.648 --> 01:43:36.212
I don't feel like I, if I go to the beach, okay, I am bored in like a day and a half.
1733
01:43:36.272 --> 01:43:40.115
I am not, the beach is unbelievably boring to me.
1734
01:43:40.435 --> 01:43:49.902
But if I'm snowboarding or if I'm going, like doing, like if I'm in Europe and we're doing, we're moving around quite a bit, I don't get that bored.
1735
01:43:50.263 --> 01:43:50.963
So I don't know.
1736
01:43:50.983 --> 01:43:51.644
Maybe that's different.
1737
01:43:51.884 --> 01:43:52.945
You might be going to the wrong place.
1738
01:43:52.965 --> 01:43:54.526
You said you're more beach house than mountain house.
1739
01:43:54.546 --> 01:43:55.426
That may be your problem.
1740
01:43:55.547 --> 01:43:55.787
Okay.
1741
01:43:55.867 --> 01:43:57.408
You need to go ski or snowboard.
1742
01:43:57.508 --> 01:43:57.788
Okay.
1743
01:43:57.828 --> 01:43:59.209
You need to do something highly active.
1744
01:43:59.329 --> 01:43:59.870
Okay.
1745
01:44:00.510 --> 01:44:02.432
Okay.
1746
01:44:02.893 --> 01:44:05.776
So I've thought about this because I saw this on the doc and I was thinking about it.
1747
01:44:06.076 --> 01:44:08.218
And right now it seems like torture.
1748
01:44:08.559 --> 01:44:09.780
That would seem torturous to me.
1749
01:44:10.000 --> 01:44:13.264
Because, again, to your point, my identity is wrapped up in it.
1750
01:44:13.724 --> 01:44:15.366
I would feel immense amounts of...
1751
01:44:16.447 --> 01:44:16.767
guilt.
1752
01:44:17.467 --> 01:44:19.348
And third, I don't think the business is in a place yet.
1753
01:44:19.928 --> 01:44:21.788
I think I'm probably a solid year away from it.
1754
01:44:22.248 --> 01:44:29.210
And I feel like I got the businesses, like from my personal business, past 10 million, I had to restructure everything.
1755
01:44:29.590 --> 01:44:31.350
I feel like the same thing is true at 30.
1756
01:44:31.670 --> 01:44:34.111
But to a million, I feel like I have a bit of a gap there.
1757
01:44:34.171 --> 01:44:43.673
And I feel like that's when it could be useful, is around that 30, to like, get away and then look at the business a little bit differently, knowing that it's going to be a very different...
1758
01:44:44.293 --> 01:44:45.674
way to scale up to the hundred.
1759
01:44:47.295 --> 01:44:53.640
So, I'm definitely, it's definitely like in my thought, because I agree with like the premise of stepping away and seeing it from afar.
1760
01:44:53.660 --> 01:45:00.145
I just, I, the guilt and the identity part, like I have always been the person that just works all the time.
1761
01:45:00.185 --> 01:45:00.466
I work,
1762
01:45:00.986 --> 01:45:01.326
a lot.
1763
01:45:01.346 --> 01:45:02.527
That's what I did.
1764
01:45:02.567 --> 01:45:05.188
My 20s were all work.
1765
01:45:05.388 --> 01:45:07.469
When I look back, my 30s were more fun than my 20s.
1766
01:45:07.869 --> 01:45:08.709
I just worked in my 20s.
1767
01:45:08.749 --> 01:45:09.470
I'm counting on that.
1768
01:45:09.850 --> 01:45:12.851
Although, it could be much worse than my 20s.
1769
01:45:12.871 --> 01:45:16.613
I'd have to really do something really stupid to make it worse than my 20s.
1770
01:45:17.593 --> 01:45:18.514
But...
1771
01:45:19.718 --> 01:45:21.920
Okay, so six weeks is what you said to start?
1772
01:45:22.300 --> 01:45:23.341
Oh, 90 days, 90 days.
1773
01:45:23.522 --> 01:45:26.424
That would be a good one for someone in the business.
1774
01:45:26.644 --> 01:45:32.650
I would do a 30-day first, break away from the business, and then with the goal of getting to 90 days someday.
1775
01:45:33.371 --> 01:45:36.874
But this is what I'd call a luxury conversation.
1776
01:45:37.274 --> 01:45:39.817
You have to have your business in a really good place.
1777
01:45:40.397 --> 01:45:42.039
And I don't think the number matters.
1778
01:45:42.259 --> 01:45:42.900
It's more like...
1779
01:45:43.480 --> 01:45:44.520
You gave the example of 30.
1780
01:45:44.540 --> 01:45:46.441
I don't think somebody needs to have their business to 30.
1781
01:45:46.481 --> 01:45:50.562
They need to have their business to a place where they have the right leaders running the business.
1782
01:45:51.443 --> 01:45:53.843
And to me, it's heavily operational.
1783
01:45:53.883 --> 01:45:57.045
You have to have an incredibly good COO kind of person.
1784
01:45:57.705 --> 01:46:06.928
I think as a business, usually in my world, the way I run things, the business largely, a lot of the lifting gets done by the COO as the business gets big.
1785
01:46:07.208 --> 01:46:09.929
They are, to me, the single most important person in the whole business.
1786
01:46:10.689 --> 01:46:12.971
And so you have to have an incredibly good leader there.
1787
01:46:13.572 --> 01:46:27.323
If you're running the business, though, like from my perspective, I have to see a return on this time in terms of like it has to be beneficial to me long term, whether it be getting new perspective, having a set new set of fresh eyes on the business, coming up with a new strategy.
1788
01:46:27.343 --> 01:46:30.345
For me, it would be like, what's the thing that gets us from 30 to 100?
1789
01:46:31.887 --> 01:46:35.490
But in a way, that's transactional in and of itself and not really stepping away from the business.
1790
01:46:36.110 --> 01:46:38.480
And like, I don't even know how I justify it to my team.
1791
01:46:38.781 --> 01:46:40.368
Cause I don't, I don't know what the return is.
1792
01:46:41.119 --> 01:46:48.261
Well, I think, okay, I think the return is that you get to this place of clarity where you see the business differently.
1793
01:46:48.921 --> 01:46:51.042
Okay, I think I can articulate this better.
1794
01:46:51.642 --> 01:46:55.903
Two areas that I think you might see if you take a break.
1795
01:46:56.263 --> 01:47:00.604
In the beginning of the phase, it's not about getting a return.
1796
01:47:00.724 --> 01:47:01.965
It's not about doing anything.
1797
01:47:01.985 --> 01:47:03.325
It's not about getting clarity.
1798
01:47:03.685 --> 01:47:06.506
It's only about getting to a place where...
1799
01:47:07.880 --> 01:47:10.202
you've engaged your brain in something completely different.
1800
01:47:10.222 --> 01:47:12.885
This is why I don't think sitting on the beach works.
1801
01:47:13.666 --> 01:47:15.248
It's so unbelievably boring.
1802
01:47:15.268 --> 01:47:16.249
And then what do most people do?
1803
01:47:16.269 --> 01:47:16.709
They just drink.
1804
01:47:17.089 --> 01:47:18.231
So terrible choice.
1805
01:47:18.251 --> 01:47:21.234
Play video games.
1806
01:47:21.514 --> 01:47:27.420
So you find something else that you're doing and you engage your brain in a different way.
1807
01:47:28.721 --> 01:47:29.622
And then...
1808
01:47:30.583 --> 01:47:33.206
Getting to the board phase, I think is really important.
1809
01:47:33.807 --> 01:47:45.982
Finding that, this was another thing I discovered during my sabbatical, was that there's all these other things I could, I love that I could spend more time doing that I wasn't spending much time on.
1810
01:47:46.702 --> 01:47:49.606
And you, I gained that discovery from taking the break.
1811
01:47:49.846 --> 01:47:50.247
Like what?
1812
01:47:50.687 --> 01:47:56.130
I, uh, more mountain biking, more snowboarding, more racing cars, more traveling.
1813
01:47:56.650 --> 01:48:03.633
I found that I actually enjoyed, I always liked those things, but I found that I could be really happy doing a lot more of this stuff.
1814
01:48:03.853 --> 01:48:04.874
I have not figured that out.
1815
01:48:05.194 --> 01:48:06.975
I basically either want to spend time with Brian or work.
1816
01:48:07.055 --> 01:48:09.616
That's, that's essentially all that's, that's where you're at right now.
1817
01:48:09.716 --> 01:48:16.299
I, I, you know, when you were talking earlier, I was thinking when I was 30, would I have cared?
1818
01:48:16.639 --> 01:48:17.520
And I don't think so.
1819
01:48:18.520 --> 01:48:23.405
I think that some of this for me might have to have to do with being a little as I got a little bit older.
1820
01:48:23.425 --> 01:48:24.886
Yeah, but I'm trying to get that wisdom now.
1821
01:48:24.926 --> 01:48:26.328
That's why I'm wondering, is this a.
1822
01:48:26.408 --> 01:48:29.110
Well, I can tell you why this is beneficial even now.
1823
01:48:29.891 --> 01:48:38.739
OK, my theory is that you just have to go through this phase, though, of sort of disconnecting, getting bored, doing that whole thing and doing other things.
1824
01:48:39.540 --> 01:48:41.301
And then you've got to clear your mind.
1825
01:48:41.421 --> 01:48:46.864
And then the two things I think you get towards the end of the process, this is where the value is at.
1826
01:48:47.305 --> 01:48:50.307
If you want this to be an ROI, which I think it is.
1827
01:48:50.507 --> 01:48:50.647
Okay.
1828
01:48:51.188 --> 01:48:52.648
My sabbatical was an ROI for me.
1829
01:48:53.169 --> 01:48:58.630
I got very clear on what I wanted and didn't want, what the stuff I thought I wanted that I actually don't care about as much as I thought.
1830
01:48:58.890 --> 01:49:07.892
Okay, the two things I got super clear on, I looked back and realized how many things in service autopilot I was doing simply because I always did them.
1831
01:49:08.432 --> 01:49:09.933
I didn't need to be doing them.
1832
01:49:10.713 --> 01:49:16.776
So after 90 days, if you came back into this business, you'd be like, why am I involved in this part of the business this much?
1833
01:49:16.876 --> 01:49:18.857
Do you mind giving me examples?
1834
01:49:19.057 --> 01:49:21.659
Like when you said that, what was it in your mind there?
1835
01:49:22.199 --> 01:49:28.642
I was way more involved in marketing and I had a great marketing leader than I needed to be.
1836
01:49:29.283 --> 01:49:32.004
I was in more meetings than I needed to be in the meetings.
1837
01:49:32.084 --> 01:49:33.765
All your strengths, the things you're good at.
1838
01:49:34.385 --> 01:49:34.645
Yes.
1839
01:49:35.086 --> 01:49:35.266
Yeah.
1840
01:49:35.346 --> 01:49:37.969
I was a lot of the things because I had the leaders in place.
1841
01:49:38.129 --> 01:49:40.111
I was, I was more involved.
1842
01:49:40.692 --> 01:49:46.538
So I was, um, I could have been, I was doing things.
1843
01:49:47.279 --> 01:49:48.581
I'm trying to remember all the lessons.
1844
01:49:48.661 --> 01:49:53.025
Most of it was me being in meetings and having more meetings with my team.
1845
01:49:53.626 --> 01:50:06.194
than I needed to, or giving more input than I needed to give and letting them just make, I was, I was letting people make a lot of decisions, but there were still more decisions or a lot of decisions where I should have just let them make the decision and own it.
1846
01:50:06.554 --> 01:50:08.415
And I, they were still getting approval from me.
1847
01:50:08.875 --> 01:50:09.896
I noticed that quite a bit.
1848
01:50:10.396 --> 01:50:16.280
That's probably the biggest one, because again, the thing you have to remember with service all by, I had a whole leadership team running the business.
1849
01:50:17.000 --> 01:50:26.506
I was okay with this because I enjoyed it, but I was spending more time with the team on personal things that had nothing to do with the business.
1850
01:50:26.946 --> 01:50:28.868
I realized how much of my time was spent on that.
1851
01:50:29.708 --> 01:50:38.074
Another thing I realized is Academy, while I loved it, was time that was taken away from me.
1852
01:50:38.894 --> 01:50:41.276
making the business service all pilot business go faster.
1853
01:50:41.796 --> 01:50:52.063
Or what I was talking to you about a week or two ago, where I should have spent more time bouncing in and out of customer service, just to work, like do a little more coaching there.
1854
01:50:52.443 --> 01:50:54.145
So in some areas, I was too involved.
1855
01:50:54.165 --> 01:50:55.906
In other areas, I was not enough involved.
1856
01:50:56.366 --> 01:50:58.948
It was those types of observations that I had.
1857
01:50:59.208 --> 01:51:04.632
Gaining clarity almost on which areas of the business actually required or needed your time.
1858
01:51:05.132 --> 01:51:06.033
Where my time was spent.
1859
01:51:06.053 --> 01:51:06.313
Okay.
1860
01:51:07.092 --> 01:51:07.933
I loved marketing.
1861
01:51:08.153 --> 01:51:11.175
I had a great marketing leader, but I still dabbled in marketing more than needed.
1862
01:51:11.955 --> 01:51:14.457
I didn't love customer service.
1863
01:51:15.217 --> 01:51:16.798
I didn't spend as much time in customer service.
1864
01:51:17.259 --> 01:51:17.879
It's that kind of thing.
1865
01:51:18.559 --> 01:51:19.960
I love teaching and coaching.
1866
01:51:21.061 --> 01:51:26.184
Maybe I should have brought that into the software more for everybody and not just for 128 people.
1867
01:51:27.647 --> 01:51:30.988
Yeah, it's those, I think I talked to you about that one time at a Service All Buy conference.
1868
01:51:31.208 --> 01:51:38.309
Like that was one of my big, after I'd been gone from business, I think I was talking to you because you were talking about, if you were to build software again, what would you do?
1869
01:51:38.569 --> 01:51:46.311
And that was one of my big observations that came from my sabbatical was, I should have just made this for everybody and not just made this for a small group of people.
1870
01:51:47.031 --> 01:51:49.271
It was lots of little lessons like that.
1871
01:51:50.511 --> 01:51:53.032
I have a whole list of,
1872
01:51:55.347 --> 01:51:57.568
I noted a lot of these things that I had learned.
1873
01:51:58.188 --> 01:52:02.510
For someone that might have like a partner, for example, because I can see the benefits.
1874
01:52:03.150 --> 01:52:17.015
Let's say someone else is like, hey, I built the business, it's doing two, three million in revenue, it's very profitable, specifically during the off season, I could definitely take these, at least the first 30 days, maybe 90 days and kind of take this time aside, unplug.
1875
01:52:17.575 --> 01:52:18.516
But now I have a partner.
1876
01:52:19.176 --> 01:52:26.186
that is potentially the more operational driver of the business, that I need to still stay engaged with daily operations.
1877
01:52:26.747 --> 01:52:27.829
How is this going to make them feel?
1878
01:52:28.229 --> 01:52:32.075
Do I feel guilty not being there, supporting the business with them?
1879
01:52:32.776 --> 01:52:33.677
And I say this from...
1880
01:52:34.378 --> 01:52:37.599
As I'm saying this, this is how I feel to the franchisees at Augusta Lawn Care.
1881
01:52:38.819 --> 01:52:42.360
When I don't work, that's actually the first thing that pops in my mind is like, these are people that have betted on me.
1882
01:52:42.560 --> 01:52:49.221
These are people that I look into as partners in the business, and I'm not actively with them working and hustling while they're also trying to do that.
1883
01:52:49.661 --> 01:52:58.963
And so for someone that might be thinking about this, but has an operational partner in the business, what would you say to them or what should they say to the partner to make sure they can get this time to unplug?
1884
01:52:58.983 --> 01:52:59.083
Yeah.
1885
01:52:59.535 --> 01:53:05.420
Well, if I'm talking about a partner, let's not talk about the franchisees at the moment, who are partners.
1886
01:53:06.181 --> 01:53:07.542
I think that actually makes it easier.
1887
01:53:08.002 --> 01:53:19.151
Because the partner, if you have a good partner, that actually makes it feel even safer to take the sabbatical because somebody that's highly invested is now still present in the business.
1888
01:53:19.972 --> 01:53:26.115
And the reason why I believe in a sabbatical is I think it's good for if you're going to be in this game for the long term.
1889
01:53:26.515 --> 01:53:32.578
I think it's really, really good for you as a owner, as a leader to get mental clarity.
1890
01:53:32.758 --> 01:53:36.279
There are actually companies and corporations that make their people take sabbaticals.
1891
01:53:36.559 --> 01:53:38.540
This is not a this is a unique idea.
1892
01:53:38.580 --> 01:53:39.681
It's not a radical idea.
1893
01:53:40.081 --> 01:53:46.230
I remember going up to see the Motley Fool, the founders of Motley Fool in Washington years and years ago.
1894
01:53:46.710 --> 01:53:48.613
Those guys were taking sabbaticals.
1895
01:53:48.633 --> 01:53:50.836
They built them into their, to take sabbaticals.
1896
01:53:51.116 --> 01:53:52.618
I got this idea from somewhere.
1897
01:53:53.099 --> 01:53:54.621
I didn't just come up with this.
1898
01:53:55.322 --> 01:53:59.507
And I've seen other businesses where they are in these businesses for the long term.
1899
01:53:59.527 --> 01:54:01.309
They're not interested in selling.
1900
01:54:01.329 --> 01:54:02.991
They've engineered this into their business.
1901
01:54:03.411 --> 01:54:04.352
So back to the partner thing.
1902
01:54:04.372 --> 01:54:08.136
If I have a partner, I'm not just doing this so I can go to Europe for three months.
1903
01:54:08.316 --> 01:54:09.318
Like, cool.
1904
01:54:09.378 --> 01:54:10.859
That's a cool thing to do.
1905
01:54:11.620 --> 01:54:13.501
I'm or you stay home.
1906
01:54:13.541 --> 01:54:14.521
It doesn't matter what you do.
1907
01:54:15.021 --> 01:54:17.222
I'm not doing this just purely for the vacation.
1908
01:54:17.562 --> 01:54:24.344
I'm doing this to become a better version of me and a better leader of the business and to have real clarity on where I'm taking the business.
1909
01:54:24.364 --> 01:54:26.584
This is where this advice is coming from.
1910
01:54:27.284 --> 01:54:36.327
And so the partner is not complicated because I want my partner to do the very same thing because I want them to get the exact same benefits.
1911
01:54:36.787 --> 01:54:38.708
Like how much have we been doing?
1912
01:54:38.828 --> 01:54:39.468
Like this is a...
1913
01:54:40.248 --> 01:54:42.269
I don't feel like I've done a great job articulating this.
1914
01:54:42.289 --> 01:54:44.269
So as we have the conversation, you're pulling more out of me.
1915
01:54:44.569 --> 01:54:54.452
How much was I doing at service autopilot that we didn't need to do, that we had been doing because that's how we'd been doing it for the last nine years since we'd started the business?
1916
01:54:55.152 --> 01:54:57.433
Why were we running certain things the way we ran them?
1917
01:54:57.773 --> 01:54:57.933
Why?
1918
01:54:58.313 --> 01:55:01.537
Why, why did I still have certain people on the team?
1919
01:55:01.557 --> 01:55:02.518
This wasn't necessarily one.
1920
01:55:02.558 --> 01:55:05.301
Well, I did have a kind of a learning on this.
1921
01:55:05.341 --> 01:55:08.805
But why, why were people some people still on the team?
1922
01:55:09.646 --> 01:55:14.851
When I got away, and I started thinking about the business differently, I realized where I had some gaps.
1923
01:55:14.871 --> 01:55:15.372
Yeah.
1924
01:55:16.213 --> 01:55:22.357
I can't tell you exactly what it would be for you or what it would be for somebody else listening to this, but you're going to get away from this thing.
1925
01:55:22.397 --> 01:55:23.137
Disconnect.
1926
01:55:23.418 --> 01:55:24.638
You're no longer in the weeds.
1927
01:55:24.719 --> 01:55:28.481
You didn't get off a support call four hours ago.
1928
01:55:28.541 --> 01:55:33.345
You didn't get out of a design meeting last week where everything's behind.
1929
01:55:33.405 --> 01:55:34.846
All these things are off your brain.
1930
01:55:35.446 --> 01:55:38.227
And now you're not dealing with the problems of the business.
1931
01:55:38.287 --> 01:55:43.090
Now you're looking down on the business and saying, what is the right strategy?
1932
01:55:43.110 --> 01:55:45.411
Are we even going after the most important stuff?
1933
01:55:45.891 --> 01:55:49.452
Are we spending our money in the most important places, the resources in the most important places?
1934
01:55:49.833 --> 01:55:50.773
Have I built the right people?
1935
01:55:50.793 --> 01:55:51.673
Do I have a gap?
1936
01:55:51.754 --> 01:56:01.018
It's that kind of a clarity that I think is almost impossible for an owner to have when every day you're showing up and as soon as you walk through the door, here's a problem.
1937
01:56:01.518 --> 01:56:02.559
Here's the thing you've got to deal with.
1938
01:56:02.619 --> 01:56:04.020
Here's an email you've got to respond to.
1939
01:56:04.281 --> 01:56:05.282
Here's another department.
1940
01:56:05.482 --> 01:56:06.443
Here's another employee.
1941
01:56:06.463 --> 01:56:08.064
It's like, we can't get rid of them.
1942
01:56:08.104 --> 01:56:08.945
I need to get rid of them.
1943
01:56:09.265 --> 01:56:12.228
But it'll take us six months to find the replacement.
1944
01:56:12.688 --> 01:56:14.010
And they're still not bad.
1945
01:56:14.030 --> 01:56:17.273
They're just not like, that's, your brain is full.
1946
01:56:17.673 --> 01:56:23.719
That's the simplest way I can say, how do you clear your brain so you're not thinking, it's signal versus noise.
1947
01:56:23.739 --> 01:56:24.079
Yeah.
1948
01:56:24.299 --> 01:56:28.222
Like, how can you clear your brain where you're not just bombarded by noise constantly?
1949
01:56:28.543 --> 01:56:30.865
You're living above the business and you're looking down on it.
1950
01:56:31.165 --> 01:56:32.326
How do you get to a place?
1951
01:56:33.167 --> 01:56:33.567
Okay.
1952
01:56:33.587 --> 01:56:35.429
Dr. Cashy, is that the guy that you work with?
1953
01:56:35.469 --> 01:56:35.609
Yeah.
1954
01:56:36.189 --> 01:56:36.990
What's his advantage?
1955
01:56:37.010 --> 01:56:38.892
What's the advantage you have coaching somebody else?
1956
01:56:38.912 --> 01:56:40.673
What's the advantage he has when he's talking to you?
1957
01:56:41.254 --> 01:56:42.575
He is not in the weeds.
1958
01:56:42.595 --> 01:56:44.416
When you're working with somebody else, you're not in the weeds.
1959
01:56:44.877 --> 01:56:51.523
You are able to look at their business at a high level and you're able to say, okay.
1960
01:56:52.243 --> 01:57:01.933
I just make this decision, like fire this person, cut this client, this group of clients and go get these clients, raise the prices.
1961
01:57:02.694 --> 01:57:05.797
You don't have the noise in your head of the 20 reasons why that won't work.
1962
01:57:06.418 --> 01:57:12.964
You have in your brain, the example that I have coached 400 companies to raise their prices and everything,
1963
01:57:13.725 --> 01:57:15.127
Never has it gone badly.
1964
01:57:15.647 --> 01:57:22.654
I have coached 200 people to get rid of a toxic person in their organization, and everybody has thanked me.
1965
01:57:23.054 --> 01:57:26.938
As the consultant or the advisor, that's what's going on when you give somebody else advice.
1966
01:57:27.318 --> 01:57:33.264
For the person receiving the advice, they're like, oh, but that employee, that's my brother-in-law's wife.
1967
01:57:34.145 --> 01:57:35.606
Oh, I can't fire them because they...
1968
01:57:36.287 --> 01:57:39.068
Like, man, if they lose their job, they're not gonna have enough.
1969
01:57:39.568 --> 01:57:41.489
They only have one month's worth of savings.
1970
01:57:41.589 --> 01:57:42.769
Oh, they just had a baby.
1971
01:57:43.130 --> 01:57:43.670
Like you're good.
1972
01:57:43.730 --> 01:57:44.910
They have all the noise.
1973
01:57:44.950 --> 01:57:50.973
I can't raise prices because you're picturing Miss Smith, who was your first client when you started the business and she's so kind.
1974
01:57:51.213 --> 01:57:52.453
You have all this noise.
1975
01:57:52.913 --> 01:57:57.095
The advantage of you or I or someone else giving us advice is we have none of the noise.
1976
01:57:57.375 --> 01:57:59.016
We can just say, this is the best thing to do.
1977
01:57:59.256 --> 01:58:00.196
And I have data and proof.
1978
01:58:00.496 --> 01:58:05.218
When you get a sabbatical from your business and the noise is gone, you look down on your business like a consultant.
1979
01:58:05.658 --> 01:58:07.980
And you make more clear headed rational decisions.
1980
01:58:08.540 --> 01:58:09.961
That's maybe the best way to say this.
1981
01:58:10.582 --> 01:58:11.302
Does that make sense?
1982
01:58:11.843 --> 01:58:12.543
Yeah, it does.
1983
01:58:13.124 --> 01:58:17.427
And so I see the 90 days as a, it's, I think it can be phenomenal.
1984
01:58:17.467 --> 01:58:21.811
Like there's Tiffany and I traveling and being together, like me taking a break for three years.
1985
01:58:22.471 --> 01:58:24.032
That was not bad for our relationship.
1986
01:58:24.453 --> 01:58:27.095
I mean, it's also good for your personal life.
1987
01:58:28.518 --> 01:58:37.524
And, and so you can, I just think in all these different places of life, you look at things differently, you come back energized, excited, like that's another one.
1988
01:58:37.864 --> 01:58:44.148
If you could come back to your business super excited, and energized, and feeling super healthy.
1989
01:58:44.928 --> 01:58:49.630
with a clear game plan for the next five years, like that's worth big, big money.
1990
01:58:49.730 --> 01:58:51.190
And it's worth money to the franchisees.
1991
01:58:51.831 --> 01:58:53.311
It's worth money to your business partner.
1992
01:58:53.951 --> 01:59:00.674
And then you want, so when I was talking to it with John about it, I was not thinking just for me, I want John to do the same thing.
1993
01:59:00.734 --> 01:59:03.995
He's got all the same noise stuck in all this, the weeds.
1994
01:59:04.295 --> 01:59:06.796
I, I know John, like if John had done this, he would have come back.
1995
01:59:07.316 --> 01:59:08.817
Now this would be the downside.
1996
01:59:08.837 --> 01:59:10.137
John would come back with a whole new plan.
1997
01:59:10.157 --> 01:59:11.418
We'd be taking the company the whole new plan.
1998
01:59:11.598 --> 01:59:11.938
All right.
1999
01:59:11.958 --> 01:59:12.359
Direction.
2000
01:59:12.379 --> 01:59:14.281
We're starting service on Polly at 4.0.
2001
01:59:14.421 --> 01:59:15.382
Exactly.
2002
01:59:15.723 --> 01:59:17.224
While I was gone, I got bored.
2003
01:59:17.284 --> 01:59:18.466
I coded a new system.
2004
01:59:19.367 --> 01:59:20.508
Like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.
2005
01:59:20.528 --> 01:59:23.131
So, you know, I guess that could be the negative of this thing.
2006
01:59:23.251 --> 01:59:26.014
You know, you got to, you can't come back and disrupt your whole team's life.
2007
01:59:26.094 --> 01:59:28.016
But those are some of the ways I think about it.
2008
01:59:28.297 --> 01:59:28.457
Hmm.
2009
01:59:28.945 --> 01:59:31.227
And so, yeah, maybe you're not excited about now.
2010
01:59:31.628 --> 01:59:33.209
Maybe you're not ready for it now.
2011
01:59:33.269 --> 01:59:34.591
Maybe you have some more building to do.
2012
01:59:34.611 --> 01:59:35.592
Cool, do it.
2013
01:59:35.612 --> 01:59:36.333
But how can you do this?
2014
01:59:36.693 --> 01:59:39.396
I see logically why it should be something I do.
2015
01:59:39.816 --> 01:59:41.257
I see all the benefits.
2016
01:59:41.916 --> 01:59:42.116
Yeah.
2017
01:59:42.156 --> 01:59:43.276
On like the logical side.
2018
01:59:43.697 --> 01:59:46.277
I also know that'd be like hard for me.
2019
01:59:46.537 --> 01:59:48.618
Like in a lot of ways, it's hard for everybody.
2020
01:59:48.658 --> 01:59:48.858
Yeah.
2021
01:59:49.078 --> 01:59:50.819
It was hard for me and I didn't have to work.
2022
01:59:51.339 --> 01:59:52.339
It was hard for me at first.
2023
01:59:52.519 --> 01:59:52.719
Yeah.
2024
01:59:53.119 --> 01:59:56.400
And at the beginning of my break, I felt like something was wrong.
2025
01:59:56.540 --> 01:59:58.901
I felt like almost like something was wrong with me.
2026
01:59:58.981 --> 02:00:01.221
I just felt frustrated.
2027
02:00:01.241 --> 02:00:02.142
Yeah.
2028
02:00:02.362 --> 02:00:02.502
Um,
2029
02:00:03.360 --> 02:00:04.261
Something was off.
2030
02:00:04.481 --> 02:00:07.924
I mean, to the point, it's like, am I something wrong with me?
2031
02:00:09.485 --> 02:00:10.926
I couldn't put my finger on it.
2032
02:00:11.467 --> 02:00:12.788
And I came up with all kinds of scenarios.
2033
02:00:12.808 --> 02:00:14.570
Like, oh, it's because I'm not in office anymore.
2034
02:00:14.830 --> 02:00:15.530
I'm not around people.
2035
02:00:15.550 --> 02:00:16.551
And I like being around people.
2036
02:00:17.032 --> 02:00:17.492
Is that it?
2037
02:00:17.992 --> 02:00:18.893
I'm stuck in the house.
2038
02:00:18.933 --> 02:00:19.854
I'm not getting out enough.
2039
02:00:19.894 --> 02:00:20.434
Is it COVID?
2040
02:00:20.454 --> 02:00:21.515
Because I'm stuck in the house.
2041
02:00:21.856 --> 02:00:23.377
I had all these reasons.
2042
02:00:23.417 --> 02:00:26.319
And I think I just had to kind of go through this disconnect from this
2043
02:00:27.100 --> 02:00:31.028
I mean, my whole life, I have been going since I was 14 years old.
2044
02:00:31.650 --> 02:00:31.990
All in.
2045
02:00:32.070 --> 02:00:34.095
I mean, all in.
2046
02:00:35.577 --> 02:00:38.599
And so it was unbelievably valuable.
2047
02:00:38.980 --> 02:00:42.302
There's a point where, I mean, for me, it's kind of this point.
2048
02:00:42.342 --> 02:00:48.887
It's like, do you, this is, if I hadn't taken the break, I would just start the next thing and go as fast as I could on that thing.
2049
02:00:49.728 --> 02:00:52.630
And taking the break made me kind of ask, is that necessary?
2050
02:00:52.650 --> 02:00:58.194
And get super clear on what I wanted to be doing versus just trying to build something bigger or make more money.
2051
02:00:58.334 --> 02:00:59.215
I don't know.
2052
02:00:59.235 --> 02:01:00.176
I got that clarity from it.
2053
02:01:00.496 --> 02:01:01.877
Do you think I'm rambling at this point?
2054
02:01:01.937 --> 02:01:08.106
Do you think if you would have done a 90 day sabbatical with, you would have prevent, like you would have put off the sale.
2055
02:01:08.686 --> 02:01:09.488
I'm not, huh?
2056
02:01:09.708 --> 02:01:10.549
That's a great question.
2057
02:01:11.090 --> 02:01:13.053
I'm not really sure why we sold the business.
2058
02:01:13.754 --> 02:01:15.616
I don't think we were sure why we were selling the business.
2059
02:01:16.602 --> 02:01:22.823
Um, I think a little bit of why we sold the business was because we thought we could do it all over again and make it way better.
2060
02:01:23.703 --> 02:01:30.545
And so I don't know if 90 days would have done that for us, but I think there's a, you really got me thinking here.
2061
02:01:31.065 --> 02:01:35.346
I think there's a chance, but we weren't, I don't think we, I wasn't burned out.
2062
02:01:35.466 --> 02:01:36.506
I was not unhappy.
2063
02:01:36.806 --> 02:01:37.706
And John wasn't either.
2064
02:01:37.746 --> 02:01:39.367
We loved service autopilot.
2065
02:01:40.287 --> 02:01:45.628
John, I mean, I remember when we were selling the business at one point, John's like, I don't know if we should be doing this.
2066
02:01:45.648 --> 02:01:46.008
Yeah.
2067
02:01:46.841 --> 02:01:50.584
And then he gave the example of I'm going to really miss our user of conferences.
2068
02:01:51.545 --> 02:01:54.207
And he gave all I'm going to miss all these things.
2069
02:01:54.687 --> 02:01:59.851
So there was never a moment we were like where we felt this complete burnout where we needed to.
2070
02:01:59.891 --> 02:02:05.576
But I think if somebody feels a lot of burnout or frustration, then yes, I think it could very much keep you in the game.
2071
02:02:05.596 --> 02:02:06.036
Yeah.
2072
02:02:06.628 --> 02:02:09.734
Okay, well, I'm going to commit by the end of 2028 to take one.
2073
02:02:10.395 --> 02:02:11.036
I think you should.
2074
02:02:11.097 --> 02:02:15.144
Not this year, not 2027, but I can commit to the end of 2028.
2075
02:02:15.204 --> 02:02:15.705
I'll take 30 days.
2076
02:02:17.915 --> 02:02:18.335
That's great.
2077
02:02:18.355 --> 02:02:20.237
I think it would be fantastic.
2078
02:02:20.377 --> 02:02:26.022
And I can't wait till the day I can ask you, what'd you get out of it or if it was a big giant waste of time.
2079
02:02:26.243 --> 02:02:27.063
Then I can blame you.
2080
02:02:27.123 --> 02:02:27.524
It's okay.
2081
02:02:27.964 --> 02:02:29.045
Yeah, you can blame me.
2082
02:02:29.125 --> 02:02:29.926
I'll take it.
2083
02:02:30.787 --> 02:02:31.047
All right.
2084
02:02:31.067 --> 02:02:32.428
Let's wrap this thing up.
2085
02:02:32.769 --> 02:02:35.791
Any non-financial advice for the audience?
2086
02:02:35.851 --> 02:02:36.472
I got one.
2087
02:02:36.552 --> 02:02:37.253
I'll kick it off.
2088
02:02:38.213 --> 02:02:39.274
This is Bum Energy.
2089
02:02:39.794 --> 02:02:42.676
It's from C-Bum, who's a Mr. Olympian.
2090
02:02:42.756 --> 02:02:43.436
He's now retired.
2091
02:02:43.977 --> 02:02:46.518
But this is actually not why I'm promoting this.
2092
02:02:46.538 --> 02:02:47.919
So this is actually a long story.
2093
02:02:47.939 --> 02:02:48.780
So I'll try to make this short.
2094
02:02:49.500 --> 02:02:52.162
Sam Gaudet is Dan Martell's media director.
2095
02:02:52.182 --> 02:02:53.402
He started making content.
2096
02:02:53.562 --> 02:02:56.904
He made a short about silent supporters versus active supporters.
2097
02:02:57.105 --> 02:02:57.365
Okay.
2098
02:02:57.965 --> 02:02:59.406
So I'm usually a silent supporter.
2099
02:02:59.446 --> 02:03:01.247
I don't usually comment a lot.
2100
02:03:01.407 --> 02:03:03.289
I'm not really that type of person on social media.
2101
02:03:04.129 --> 02:03:08.872
However, there is a new creator in the past year or so.
2102
02:03:08.912 --> 02:03:11.394
His name is Dom Aya Kovone.
2103
02:03:11.734 --> 02:03:12.535
I'm probably saying it wrong.
2104
02:03:12.895 --> 02:03:15.077
But he's the one who actually manufactures sebum.
2105
02:03:15.537 --> 02:03:20.060
And then sebum put his name on it because he's the Olympian, Mr. Olympian.
2106
02:03:20.800 --> 02:03:20.961
And...
2107
02:03:21.721 --> 02:03:23.883
But his new channel is great, YouTube channel.
2108
02:03:24.303 --> 02:03:26.504
And so I'm trying to be an active supporter.
2109
02:03:27.105 --> 02:03:34.030
And Dom is a great entrepreneur, new creator, creates all behind the scenes of building like a $500 million.
2110
02:03:34.050 --> 02:03:39.033
They do energy drinks for bum energy, raw energy, several other stuff like that.
2111
02:03:39.053 --> 02:03:41.375
So more of a different industry.
2112
02:03:41.655 --> 02:03:45.637
It's a direct-to-consumer, DTC, but interesting nonetheless.
2113
02:03:45.738 --> 02:03:47.559
So bum energy, it's pretty good.
2114
02:03:47.599 --> 02:03:49.260
If you're talking about it, you must really like it.
2115
02:03:49.300 --> 02:03:49.941
Yeah, it's really good.
2116
02:03:50.061 --> 02:03:55.907
It's like it's only 100 milligrams of caffeine instead of like 200, which is like Celsius and the other stuff.
2117
02:03:56.448 --> 02:04:01.513
And really clean ingredients doesn't have a lot of stuff I try to keep out of drinking.
2118
02:04:02.234 --> 02:04:03.495
But yeah, very good tasting.
2119
02:04:03.775 --> 02:04:06.458
I don't really like sweet, sweet energy drinks or anything like that.
2120
02:04:06.518 --> 02:04:07.760
So I like it.
2121
02:04:08.020 --> 02:04:08.420
It's good.
2122
02:04:08.901 --> 02:04:11.564
What's in a how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee?
2123
02:04:12.082 --> 02:04:14.284
About 90 to 100 milligrams.
2124
02:04:14.965 --> 02:04:16.246
Oh, so it's similar to a cup of coffee?
2125
02:04:16.286 --> 02:04:17.067
Yep.
2126
02:04:17.467 --> 02:04:18.868
It's like Jocko's, I have those too.
2127
02:04:18.908 --> 02:04:19.549
Those are 95 milligrams.
2128
02:04:19.569 --> 02:04:19.729
Yeah.
2129
02:04:20.995 --> 02:04:21.595
There's a little bit.
2130
02:04:21.615 --> 02:04:21.796
Okay.
2131
02:04:22.396 --> 02:04:24.097
I don't know anything about energy drinks, so.
2132
02:04:24.117 --> 02:04:24.958
It's okay.
2133
02:04:25.058 --> 02:04:25.658
Just stay out of it.
2134
02:04:25.758 --> 02:04:26.238
It's okay.
2135
02:04:27.079 --> 02:04:28.560
I didn't take caffeine for years.
2136
02:04:28.660 --> 02:04:32.983
Like up until three years ago, I didn't have ever, never had any energy drinks.
2137
02:04:33.003 --> 02:04:34.944
And then I started doing Jocko's has monk fruit.
2138
02:04:34.984 --> 02:04:35.144
Okay.
2139
02:04:35.164 --> 02:04:35.945
It's sweetened with monk fruit.
2140
02:04:35.965 --> 02:04:36.085
Yep.
2141
02:04:36.565 --> 02:04:40.728
And now I, you know, I use it mostly as kind of like a warmup for my workouts.
2142
02:04:41.028 --> 02:04:42.509
So I'll usually drink it during my workouts.
2143
02:04:42.609 --> 02:04:42.829
Okay.
2144
02:04:43.098 --> 02:04:44.319
Do you work out in the morning or at night?
2145
02:04:44.579 --> 02:04:45.199
Usually in the morning.
2146
02:04:45.780 --> 02:04:46.060
Okay.
2147
02:04:46.080 --> 02:04:46.280
Yeah.
2148
02:04:46.840 --> 02:04:49.843
Do you, and you don't drink caffeine during the day just before at the very beginning?
2149
02:04:49.863 --> 02:04:52.444
Well, given the fact that it's 1 p.m.
2150
02:04:53.445 --> 02:04:53.705
Okay.
2151
02:04:53.725 --> 02:04:54.125
Nevermind.
2152
02:04:55.987 --> 02:04:56.607
I try not to.
2153
02:04:56.647 --> 02:05:00.109
I try to keep it before like 12 o'clock just to make sure I don't have trouble sleeping.
2154
02:05:00.189 --> 02:05:00.450
All right.
2155
02:05:00.790 --> 02:05:00.950
Bye.
2156
02:05:01.545 --> 02:05:05.227
All right, so my non-financial advice is around AI.
2157
02:05:06.007 --> 02:05:19.313
For those that are trying to use it more, I would tell you every single idea you have, everything you're trying to solve, anything you're trying to think through, always take it, always go to AI.
2158
02:05:19.393 --> 02:05:22.215
Even if you're like, hey, I don't know how it would help me.
2159
02:05:22.235 --> 02:05:22.975
This thing can't help me.
2160
02:05:23.235 --> 02:05:28.698
Just go to an AI model and say, I understand you may not be able to help me with this, but if you could, how would you do it?
2161
02:05:29.418 --> 02:05:38.747
Because even sometimes the feedback that comes back, it may be useless to you, but it takes no time to ask or to prompt it.
2162
02:05:39.388 --> 02:05:46.715
Sometimes even when you're trying to work on something that you think AI couldn't help you with in any possible way, it'll at least give you some ideas to look at it in a different way.
2163
02:05:47.296 --> 02:05:53.342
And so the way I think you use AI more is literally every single thing you do start with AI, even if you think it's dumb.
2164
02:05:53.888 --> 02:05:54.248
I love it.
2165
02:05:54.749 --> 02:05:55.610
There you have it, folks.
2166
02:05:56.151 --> 02:05:57.532
Another podcast in the books.
2167
02:05:57.552 --> 02:05:59.274
We broke the two-hour barrier.
2168
02:05:59.414 --> 02:05:59.955
Let's go.
2169
02:06:00.315 --> 02:06:02.718
We broke- That opening, that very first one.
2170
02:06:03.379 --> 02:06:04.840
We were on that for a long time.
2171
02:06:05.321 --> 02:06:12.890
You know, now we know, we now established that the Space X and that city turf right on the top there, $5 million to the moon, as long as it's going to the moon.
2172
02:06:12.910 --> 02:06:13.751
As long as it's going to the moon.
2173
02:06:14.231 --> 02:06:14.852
All right, that's it.
2174
02:06:14.892 --> 02:06:15.433
Thank you, everyone.
2175
02:06:15.493 --> 02:06:15.713
All right.
2176
02:06:16.053 --> 02:06:16.694
Good to see you, everyone.
2177
02:06:17.094 --> 02:06:17.295
Bye.