If YOU DIED... Would your Business Survive?

WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.431 --> 00:00:05.472
38% of owners say that they want to sell their business in the next three to five years.
2
00:00:05.592 --> 00:00:10.014
They said that they don't have a plan yet to be prepared to sell the business.
3
00:00:10.054 --> 00:00:10.254
Okay.
4
00:00:10.354 --> 00:00:12.954
If I get hit by a bus, very clear instructions of who takes over.
5
00:00:13.114 --> 00:00:15.615
Ultimately, like there needs to be a leader at the top of this organization.
6
00:00:15.675 --> 00:00:16.815
There shouldn't be this void.
7
00:00:17.295 --> 00:00:23.297
And I think, I think for some owner operators, they actually almost feel pride in that if they didn't show up to work or they got hit by a bus, things would stop.
8
00:00:23.497 --> 00:00:31.120
The grieving period between the time something happens to you and the time they can act on selling your accounts, it's the window's too short.
9
00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:32.840
Those accounts are all gonna just disperse.
10
00:00:33.080 --> 00:00:35.921
They're gonna go find other, the business is completely worthless.
11
00:00:36.202 --> 00:00:42.724
Like if you get hit by a bus and they've joined because of you, there's a big chance a bunch of them leave if they're not a very good game plan.
12
00:00:42.964 --> 00:00:47.828
For as long as I can remember, in my file cabinet, I have a if I die folder.
13
00:00:48.008 --> 00:00:49.269
And it says if I die.
14
00:00:49.289 --> 00:00:49.709
That's so cool.
15
00:00:49.769 --> 00:00:50.550
And it's filed.
16
00:00:50.730 --> 00:00:55.494
Tells you where to look for everything, what we got, what to do, who to call.
17
00:00:55.674 --> 00:00:56.635
Welcome back, everyone.
18
00:00:57.796 --> 00:00:59.717
Jonathan Potoschnick, Mike Andes.
19
00:00:59.977 --> 00:01:01.319
We're here for another week.
20
00:01:01.419 --> 00:01:02.760
I just wanted to first off say.
21
00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:03.100
Howdy.
22
00:01:03.340 --> 00:01:06.483
It has been three months and we have not missed a single week.
23
00:01:06.983 --> 00:01:08.244
So shout out to Jonathan.
24
00:01:08.264 --> 00:01:15.668
Jonathan has traveled the world carrying a microphone and his camera and his suitcase to make sure we stayed on track here.
25
00:01:16.289 --> 00:01:20.832
And so thank you to Jonathan for humoring us and being here.
26
00:01:20.852 --> 00:01:26.515
The real test, the real test is I'm dedicated this, you know, I've not, I've missed some five for 50 videos, but I'm here.
27
00:01:26.555 --> 00:01:29.097
I'm dedicated, but the real test is coming.
28
00:01:29.137 --> 00:01:30.238
I get this Alaska trip.
29
00:01:30.278 --> 00:01:31.718
So, but we'll solve for that.
30
00:01:31.859 --> 00:01:33.219
I'm determined to be.
31
00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:36.562
It's like a coach in the gym.
32
00:01:36.882 --> 00:01:40.164
You just get the coach to make sure you show up on a regular cadence.
33
00:01:40.184 --> 00:01:41.125
That's right.
34
00:01:41.225 --> 00:01:43.006
I've got personal accountability here.
35
00:01:43.026 --> 00:01:43.866
I can't let you down.
36
00:01:43.886 --> 00:01:44.387
I got to show up.
37
00:01:45.027 --> 00:01:45.407
All right.
38
00:01:45.828 --> 00:01:46.448
I have a few things.
39
00:01:46.608 --> 00:01:51.511
Second thing is based upon your non-financial advice, because see, we aren't just about hearing things.
40
00:01:51.531 --> 00:01:52.412
We take action on it.
41
00:01:53.512 --> 00:01:55.973
you talked about AI and how it's going to make us all dumb.
42
00:01:56.053 --> 00:02:03.536
So I determined today, not a single trace of AI has been used in my docket, not a single piece.
43
00:02:03.836 --> 00:02:06.276
So anything I say is a hundred percent original thought.
44
00:02:07.317 --> 00:02:07.537
Okay.
45
00:02:07.557 --> 00:02:12.458
Because we don't want to become idiots and allow the AI robots to take over.
46
00:02:12.498 --> 00:02:13.879
So that was the second thing.
47
00:02:14.279 --> 00:02:15.319
Third piece of advice.
48
00:02:15.559 --> 00:02:20.281
I want everyone to know that when we raz each other, we do take notes.
49
00:02:21.021 --> 00:02:24.823
When Jonathan's over there riding, when I'm over here riding, we're taking notes.
50
00:02:25.243 --> 00:02:32.806
And Jonathan made a fantastic website at cityturfreviews.com after last week's Razz.
51
00:02:33.206 --> 00:02:38.969
And so although it is friendly competition, Iron Sharpens Iron, fantastic website.
52
00:02:39.369 --> 00:02:40.109
Very proud.
53
00:02:41.130 --> 00:02:41.550
That's cool.
54
00:02:41.570 --> 00:02:42.790
I didn't know if you'd see that.
55
00:02:42.830 --> 00:02:43.211
Oh, yeah.
56
00:02:43.231 --> 00:02:46.232
What's funny is last night I was getting ready for the pod.
57
00:02:46.772 --> 00:02:49.094
And I was like, oh man, he mentioned that.
58
00:02:49.154 --> 00:02:51.615
I need to make sure he got that before it went out.
59
00:02:51.856 --> 00:02:52.316
Oh, yeah.
60
00:02:52.336 --> 00:02:53.156
But I knew he wrote it down.
61
00:02:53.437 --> 00:02:54.617
I'm sure surely he'll.
62
00:02:54.797 --> 00:02:55.778
But I'm just making sure.
63
00:02:55.818 --> 00:02:56.759
I don't want someone else to buy it.
64
00:02:57.179 --> 00:02:58.660
And so I just quickly typed it in.
65
00:02:58.880 --> 00:02:59.661
This is late last night.
66
00:02:59.681 --> 00:03:00.121
I'm in bed.
67
00:03:00.922 --> 00:03:03.103
And sure enough, it's a beautiful looking website.
68
00:03:03.243 --> 00:03:03.924
I'm very proud.
69
00:03:04.644 --> 00:03:06.887
And I will take small credit.
70
00:03:07.007 --> 00:03:10.030
I did expect a small little footnote at the bottom.
71
00:03:10.751 --> 00:03:11.652
Inspired by my candy.
72
00:03:11.672 --> 00:03:15.055
Yeah, Home Service Millionaire podcast, time code, last week's channel.
73
00:03:15.095 --> 00:03:15.696
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
74
00:03:15.716 --> 00:03:16.296
Okay, all right.
75
00:03:16.316 --> 00:03:19.400
And then the last thing I had, okay, this is flowers.
76
00:03:20.140 --> 00:03:23.664
Several months ago, and hopefully the editors can cut back to this,
77
00:03:24.665 --> 00:03:30.407
You mentioned that you thought AI was going to go in the direction of a router, which is... Oh, yeah.
78
00:03:30.507 --> 00:03:31.047
I do believe that.
79
00:03:31.067 --> 00:03:35.289
Here's where the prompt is, or here's what I'm asking, and then it determines the cheapest model.
80
00:03:35.749 --> 00:03:42.591
And I, like, especially in the past couple weeks, this has become a really important topic, and I think this is the way the world is moving.
81
00:03:42.871 --> 00:03:49.574
But you were one of the first people that I heard talk a lot about, hey, this is not going to be I choose my model.
82
00:03:49.594 --> 00:03:51.615
This is I have access to 10 models.
83
00:03:51.635 --> 00:03:52.315
I...
84
00:03:52.875 --> 00:03:58.977
For low weight, cheap prompts, I can get a much easier output for a lower cost, lower token cost.
85
00:03:59.557 --> 00:04:02.838
If I was betting, I'm actually betting on a lower token cost in the future.
86
00:04:03.018 --> 00:04:06.059
The models right now are pretty dang amazing.
87
00:04:06.259 --> 00:04:08.179
Imagine what they're going to be in two years.
88
00:04:08.540 --> 00:04:13.801
From a software standpoint, what I think is going to happen is within your software, you have the equivalent of what I'll call a router.
89
00:04:14.081 --> 00:04:16.822
And in that router, I'm going to plug in multiple models.
90
00:04:17.302 --> 00:04:18.866
Some are going to be open source models.
91
00:04:19.347 --> 00:04:21.251
Some might be the most recent Claude model.
92
00:04:21.531 --> 00:04:26.402
Inside the software, I am going to route and use the right model for the right problem.
93
00:04:26.930 --> 00:04:28.912
And so shout out to Jonathan Potoschnick.
94
00:04:29.312 --> 00:04:32.534
He is looking into the future and bringing those things forward.
95
00:04:32.954 --> 00:04:41.640
And so just in case we ever do it, I just want to go back to the fact that he also said we will probably go to driverless vehicles before the drones.
96
00:04:41.780 --> 00:04:45.123
And so all of the predictions that he has made, I'm sure, will happen very shortly.
97
00:04:45.843 --> 00:04:46.724
Oh, if only.
98
00:04:46.744 --> 00:04:48.945
Yeah, we'll make sure we always cut them.
99
00:04:49.005 --> 00:04:53.929
Just like all in pod, we will make sure we only clip the parts where we were right and we will bring those forward.
100
00:04:54.805 --> 00:04:56.167
Only pull forward 1% of my predictions.
101
00:04:56.207 --> 00:04:57.528
That's all you'll be able to pull forward.
102
00:04:57.568 --> 00:04:59.971
If you predict enough, eventually you'll be right.
103
00:05:00.131 --> 00:05:00.992
Yeah, exactly.
104
00:05:01.553 --> 00:05:01.993
Oh, man.
105
00:05:02.074 --> 00:05:03.135
Well, I stole the show.
106
00:05:03.275 --> 00:05:04.556
Today is... No, no, it's great.
107
00:05:04.576 --> 00:05:05.658
You're in the driver's seat, so...
108
00:05:06.271 --> 00:05:06.851
Yeah, yeah.
109
00:05:06.891 --> 00:05:08.453
So, hey, everybody, good to see you.
110
00:05:08.973 --> 00:05:18.500
So along the lines of predictions, I wanted to bring back some predictions, some stuff that I've been thinking about that I really get excited.
111
00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:22.703
Some of these things are just predictions, but a few of them are like things I really get excited about.
112
00:05:23.063 --> 00:05:26.946
And a few of them, we've kind of talked about them before, and I might want to phrase them differently.
113
00:05:27.166 --> 00:05:30.529
But they're things I think about, and so I'm just kind of curious your take on these.
114
00:05:31.729 --> 00:05:33.210
This will be a pretty easy one for you.
115
00:05:33.250 --> 00:05:35.951
And then you texted me right before the show.
116
00:05:36.532 --> 00:05:38.713
And I really want to talk about what you just texted me about.
117
00:05:38.833 --> 00:05:41.294
So let's dig into that.
118
00:05:41.354 --> 00:05:44.195
So I've got, I don't know, seven or eight predictions for you here.
119
00:05:44.916 --> 00:05:47.457
And I wrote them yesterday.
120
00:05:48.217 --> 00:05:50.458
And I'll be really curious to hear what you say.
121
00:05:50.558 --> 00:05:51.039
All right.
122
00:05:51.159 --> 00:05:54.580
So first one, this came from a conversation I just had this week.
123
00:05:54.620 --> 00:05:59.883
And it came from something I've thought about going back a decade as a risk to the city turf business.
124
00:06:00.774 --> 00:06:04.235
And then I had this conversation yesterday and it kind of brought it back up.
125
00:06:04.595 --> 00:06:13.919
So the scenario is a U.S. state does what Europe or Canada has done a bit of when we're talking about chemicals.
126
00:06:14.539 --> 00:06:16.900
So it could be fertilization we control or could be pest control.
127
00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:22.182
So there is a model that exists outside the United States where.
128
00:06:22.202 --> 00:06:22.302
Yeah.
129
00:06:23.893 --> 00:06:29.314
chemical usage is banned and you can't sell pest control or fertilization weed control.
130
00:06:29.474 --> 00:06:31.375
Let's call it weed control as a recurring service.
131
00:06:31.815 --> 00:06:34.656
You can only sell it as a one time.
132
00:06:34.676 --> 00:06:36.416
Like, in other words, I've got a roach in my house.
133
00:06:36.436 --> 00:06:40.237
You can come treat it, but you can't sell me into a contract to keep coming and treating roaches.
134
00:06:41.437 --> 00:06:46.098
So the, all the questions I'm about to give you, do you think there's, this could happen?
135
00:06:46.118 --> 00:06:48.919
Yes or no in the United States within the next five years?
136
00:06:48.939 --> 00:06:49.199
Yeah.
137
00:06:50.164 --> 00:06:56.627
Do you think a scenario like that could happen, that a California, a New Jersey, a New York, because that's where it would happen, Oregon.
138
00:06:56.687 --> 00:07:03.029
Yeah, I was literally about to say no, and then you brought up the state name, and you're like, okay, I do see a world of which that might happen.
139
00:07:03.209 --> 00:07:06.531
Because they lead the stuff, these things that happen to us.
140
00:07:06.551 --> 00:07:11.272
So could you imagine in the next five years something like that happening in one of those states?
141
00:07:12.073 --> 00:07:12.513
Oh, man.
142
00:07:13.013 --> 00:07:14.234
Yeah, one of those states, yeah.
143
00:07:14.414 --> 00:07:18.395
I don't think it'll happen in most states, especially in five years,
144
00:07:21.374 --> 00:07:23.115
My question becomes, what's the alternative?
145
00:07:23.135 --> 00:07:26.038
Like, where do they go buy that service from in the future?
146
00:07:26.458 --> 00:07:29.400
Or is it strictly something that we have to work around?
147
00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:33.283
For example, it's like, well, it's one-time services, but we charge your card each time.
148
00:07:33.603 --> 00:07:35.245
Well, are you on a contract?
149
00:07:35.325 --> 00:07:37.026
If not, does that really validate it?
150
00:07:37.426 --> 00:07:39.568
I feel like there'd be a lot of loopholes.
151
00:07:40.629 --> 00:07:41.550
But what were your thoughts?
152
00:07:41.570 --> 00:07:41.730
Yeah.
153
00:07:42.725 --> 00:07:46.749
Interestingly, a friend of mine that this kind of this whole conversation came up.
154
00:07:46.769 --> 00:07:55.557
We were talking yesterday at dinner and he said what they've done in some of the other countries is they've essentially done the one time and then they sell you an insurance product.
155
00:07:56.397 --> 00:07:57.779
So they're now selling insurance.
156
00:07:57.819 --> 00:08:01.922
So if you need them to come back, you come back under insurance instead of under recurring.
157
00:08:01.942 --> 00:08:02.203
Got it.
158
00:08:02.843 --> 00:08:04.524
And so, of course, there will be loopholes.
159
00:08:04.544 --> 00:08:06.144
There's always workarounds and loopholes.
160
00:08:06.204 --> 00:08:08.145
Entrepreneurs are smart.
161
00:08:08.325 --> 00:08:08.925
They're savvy.
162
00:08:08.985 --> 00:08:10.846
We are smarter than the lawmakers.
163
00:08:11.706 --> 00:08:14.007
And we move way faster.
164
00:08:14.047 --> 00:08:15.507
So, all right, next one.
165
00:08:15.947 --> 00:08:24.610
So selling through text message and email becomes fully automated and it's the way most companies sell, again, within five years.
166
00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:25.911
So fully automated.
167
00:08:26.031 --> 00:08:26.591
Okay.
168
00:08:27.211 --> 00:08:28.112
What were your thoughts?
169
00:08:29.412 --> 00:08:30.312
I think there's a chance.
170
00:08:30.472 --> 00:08:31.993
Fully automated in five years?
171
00:08:33.051 --> 00:08:33.551
To sell.
172
00:08:33.571 --> 00:08:34.372
The majority?
173
00:08:34.412 --> 00:08:35.512
Like the majority of sales?
174
00:08:36.073 --> 00:08:37.093
People that will buy software.
175
00:08:38.174 --> 00:08:39.354
Oh, okay.
176
00:08:39.875 --> 00:08:52.181
I'm thinking pest control, fertilization, weed control, lawn mowing, house cleaning, window cleaning, not HVAC, not plumbing, not some of that break-fix stuff that you have to literally roll a truck to see what the problem is and diagnose it.
177
00:08:52.522 --> 00:08:56.284
So are you saying, okay, so let's just use lawn mowing, for example.
178
00:08:56.304 --> 00:08:58.065
You're thinking they...
179
00:08:58.945 --> 00:09:04.228
I assume they text in and then AI is feeding them the pricing, collecting their card information, et cetera.
180
00:09:05.128 --> 00:09:05.248
Yeah.
181
00:09:05.268 --> 00:09:05.368
Yeah.
182
00:09:05.449 --> 00:09:06.829
I mean, you're, you're already getting there.
183
00:09:06.849 --> 00:09:08.470
You're publishing your prices online.
184
00:09:08.530 --> 00:09:18.776
You're, uh, you already know the pricing, small, medium, large, you use technology to figure out the size of the property and you have all your scripting, your scenarios built.
185
00:09:19.436 --> 00:09:23.378
Your AI is completely trained on all your customer service and call recordings and
186
00:09:24.595 --> 00:09:26.537
And it's a combination of AI plus automation.
187
00:09:26.577 --> 00:09:28.259
It's going to, it just has the conversation.
188
00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:28.699
We're close.
189
00:09:28.739 --> 00:09:29.440
We're pretty much there.
190
00:09:29.520 --> 00:09:32.702
It's more a matter of, will it be industry standard?
191
00:09:32.782 --> 00:09:33.803
That's what I was kind of thinking.
192
00:09:33.823 --> 00:09:35.825
Like, is the majority of businesses going to do that?
193
00:09:35.945 --> 00:09:37.086
No, I don't think so.
194
00:09:37.506 --> 00:09:38.527
But will it be possible?
195
00:09:38.587 --> 00:09:39.888
Like, yes, 100%.
196
00:09:40.189 --> 00:09:40.569
For sure.
197
00:09:41.209 --> 00:09:41.410
Yeah.
198
00:09:41.730 --> 00:09:42.991
I think there'll be technology to do it.
199
00:09:43.071 --> 00:09:43.952
I think it's a big opportunity.
200
00:09:43.972 --> 00:09:44.832
Yeah, I agree.
201
00:09:45.133 --> 00:09:47.234
I saw on your site, text us.
202
00:09:47.775 --> 00:09:48.295
That was great.
203
00:09:48.415 --> 00:09:48.976
That was really good.
204
00:09:48.996 --> 00:09:49.797
Oh, we've been pushing it.
205
00:09:50.317 --> 00:09:50.937
Yeah, I've got that.
206
00:09:50.997 --> 00:09:54.559
I mean, if you look at the CityTurf site too, this is everywhere through my stuff.
207
00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:57.961
I'd say for most of the year, been pushing that pretty hard.
208
00:09:57.981 --> 00:10:05.345
I think we implemented every chat at the end of last year, but it was kind of, I can't remember, but we're kind of using it.
209
00:10:05.566 --> 00:10:10.929
But now that I'm reworking lots of stuff, then it's going into a lot of our messaging.
210
00:10:11.129 --> 00:10:13.190
It's our general message of easy.
211
00:10:13.350 --> 00:10:13.810
That is text.
212
00:10:13.890 --> 00:10:14.631
Fast and easy.
213
00:10:14.991 --> 00:10:16.011
Yeah.
214
00:10:16.272 --> 00:10:18.233
But no, still massive numbers call.
215
00:10:18.893 --> 00:10:29.338
One of my problems, interestingly enough, was I, for a long time, have done call attribution using random generated numbers.
216
00:10:29.518 --> 00:10:31.019
So you could tie it back to a truck.
217
00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:33.660
You tie it back to whatever the case might be.
218
00:10:34.220 --> 00:10:37.202
Created a whole new problem, which was people were texting those numbers.
219
00:10:37.482 --> 00:10:37.722
Yeah.
220
00:10:38.621 --> 00:10:39.642
So I had to kill that.
221
00:10:39.942 --> 00:10:42.044
I still got to find a solution for that problem.
222
00:10:42.324 --> 00:10:51.312
And there are solutions, but- That's my, that's like sort of my thought is like, it has to almost be automated because in a way, I don't want to create another channel that have to be monitoring 24 seven.
223
00:10:51.513 --> 00:10:56.937
Because phones are enough for me to have to like think about, hey, I'm going to be any incoming message I need to be able to field.
224
00:10:57.598 --> 00:11:10.125
Whereas like if we gave them the number that is inside of like their CRM, like Homeworks, for example, we need to be going inside that CRM and making sure any inbound text is being responded to quickly because it's like the phone.
225
00:11:10.145 --> 00:11:12.667
If you don't answer it, you know, the lead is gone.
226
00:11:13.637 --> 00:11:15.778
Yeah, we only use one texting number.
227
00:11:15.798 --> 00:11:16.599
It's our main phone number.
228
00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:18.360
It's the main phone numbers, our texting number.
229
00:11:18.380 --> 00:11:18.740
And that's it.
230
00:11:18.760 --> 00:11:20.241
We don't want all these other texting numbers.
231
00:11:20.301 --> 00:11:20.921
It's a nightmare.
232
00:11:20.961 --> 00:11:30.667
So it's created an attribution problem, which is why I'm very aware that we're, you know, we can deal with it, but I'm very aware of how many phone calls we get even still versus text messaging.
233
00:11:30.847 --> 00:11:31.407
But it's growing.
234
00:11:31.868 --> 00:11:32.348
It's growing.
235
00:11:32.488 --> 00:11:37.191
This was kind of my belief I've had for like two years that this text messaging thing really matters.
236
00:11:37.791 --> 00:11:42.834
So- Now you got my wheels turning of how I can take 200 numbers and somehow figure out a way to make it work.
237
00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:44.821
Well, there are ways to do it.
238
00:11:44.842 --> 00:11:49.008
Like we use what converts, but then you end up paying for all your text messaging twice.
239
00:11:49.869 --> 00:11:51.071
And then it just creates holes.
240
00:11:51.091 --> 00:11:56.018
Like you know how the dream is that every system talks together and everything's connected with an API.
241
00:11:56.579 --> 00:11:58.842
You live in software a while, you know APIs break.
242
00:11:58.882 --> 00:11:59.082
Like,
243
00:11:59.523 --> 00:12:02.225
QuickBooks changes something, you know, and it breaks.
244
00:12:02.505 --> 00:12:06.828
And now you have 90 connections with every, you know, LLMs and different models.
245
00:12:07.068 --> 00:12:07.749
Stuff breaks.
246
00:12:07.769 --> 00:12:09.690
And you're always like, or they deprecate.
247
00:12:10.390 --> 00:12:11.611
There's all this stuff you got to do.
248
00:12:12.071 --> 00:12:13.993
Well, now I kind of think about the same thing.
249
00:12:14.053 --> 00:12:15.614
It's like, okay, they text to this number.
250
00:12:15.654 --> 00:12:17.235
That number's got to pass it to this number.
251
00:12:17.275 --> 00:12:19.757
And then when you respond, it's got to go back through that chain.
252
00:12:19.777 --> 00:12:24.660
Like you can just imagine how you look like an idiot eventually because people don't think you're responding to it.
253
00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:24.860
Yeah.
254
00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:26.742
So it makes me nervous.
255
00:12:26.883 --> 00:12:27.644
I don't like that.
256
00:12:27.724 --> 00:12:30.487
So there's a solution, but it's not a solution I like.
257
00:12:30.507 --> 00:12:31.328
All right.
258
00:12:31.348 --> 00:12:34.773
Well, I'm going to write this down for a problem to think about at two in the morning.
259
00:12:34.833 --> 00:12:35.193
Yeah, yeah.
260
00:12:35.314 --> 00:12:35.614
Oh, good.
261
00:12:35.634 --> 00:12:36.775
Tell me when you solve the problem for me.
262
00:12:36.856 --> 00:12:37.336
Yeah, right.
263
00:12:37.436 --> 00:12:39.459
All right.
264
00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:40.380
Okay.
265
00:12:40.400 --> 00:12:41.442
So another one.
266
00:12:42.548 --> 00:12:44.850
Okay, this is a robotic lawnmower thing.
267
00:12:44.990 --> 00:12:46.091
I cannot let this go.
268
00:12:46.111 --> 00:12:46.211
Okay.
269
00:12:46.911 --> 00:12:47.732
I can't let this go.
270
00:12:47.792 --> 00:12:52.656
I've got a new robotic lawnmower, my third one since 2019, and I love this one.
271
00:12:52.936 --> 00:12:56.639
If you could just predict in the next three months like last time, it'll happen this time.
272
00:12:56.659 --> 00:12:57.980
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
273
00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:00.461
So I've reframed the question for you.
274
00:13:01.522 --> 00:13:01.882
All right.
275
00:13:01.902 --> 00:13:08.607
So households making over $100,000 a year in income that have a half an acre or greater.
276
00:13:08.627 --> 00:13:09.188
Okay.
277
00:13:10.375 --> 00:13:15.098
Do you think we could get 10% penetration in the market?
278
00:13:15.138 --> 00:13:17.760
10% of them use a robotic mower within five years.
279
00:13:18.260 --> 00:13:18.761
Who's we?
280
00:13:18.781 --> 00:13:20.562
Like, is that the manufacturer selling it or?
281
00:13:20.862 --> 00:13:22.263
Oh, we as the industry.
282
00:13:22.283 --> 00:13:22.924
Oh, the industry?
283
00:13:22.944 --> 00:13:23.184
Okay.
284
00:13:23.284 --> 00:13:25.445
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
285
00:13:26.106 --> 00:13:26.726
I think so.
286
00:13:26.906 --> 00:13:28.768
Someone would have to market it well.
287
00:13:28.788 --> 00:13:30.509
I think these manufacturers stink at marketing.
288
00:13:31.218 --> 00:13:33.959
Now, I think it's going to have to be the service providers that pull this off.
289
00:13:33.979 --> 00:13:38.481
Yeah, but I don't know if anyone will do it because it'll jeopardize most of their existing legacy revenue.
290
00:13:39.081 --> 00:13:40.061
See, I don't think so.
291
00:13:40.081 --> 00:13:40.261
Okay.
292
00:13:40.381 --> 00:13:41.161
I don't think so.
293
00:13:41.782 --> 00:13:42.742
Okay.
294
00:13:43.662 --> 00:13:46.463
I hold to my theory from like four years ago.
295
00:13:48.124 --> 00:13:56.587
You sell it, if the mower cost gets cheap enough and the mower gets good enough, then you sell it exactly the way you sell it now.
296
00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:03.220
It's like, so if it's 150 bucks a week to mow the bigger property, it's 150 bucks with the mower.
297
00:14:04.094 --> 00:14:04.974
You change nothing.
298
00:14:05.815 --> 00:14:09.716
Everything, you still show up on Friday, you just do edge, weed, eat, and blow, but you don't mow it anymore.
299
00:14:10.896 --> 00:14:14.117
And you just sell exactly the same way.
300
00:14:14.638 --> 00:14:19.359
The fewer things you change, the fewer things you have to discuss with them, the more likely they are to buy.
301
00:14:19.439 --> 00:14:20.359
I haven't proven any of this.
302
00:14:20.379 --> 00:14:21.100
This is my theory.
303
00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:22.100
I like it.
304
00:14:22.220 --> 00:14:23.020
Trust me, I like it.
305
00:14:23.100 --> 00:14:27.342
I just run into all these problems in my head of like, okay, so I know we don't have to do the wire anymore.
306
00:14:27.362 --> 00:14:27.862
Okay.
307
00:14:27.942 --> 00:14:31.825
But what if there's steps into the backyard and then there's a gate and I've got a bill?
308
00:14:31.905 --> 00:14:32.165
Oh, yeah.
309
00:14:32.185 --> 00:14:34.307
You still have to profile the property.
310
00:14:34.347 --> 00:14:34.827
Right.
311
00:14:34.847 --> 00:14:35.768
There's no getting around that.
312
00:14:35.788 --> 00:14:35.888
Yeah.
313
00:14:35.928 --> 00:14:37.089
It's not going to work for everybody.
314
00:14:37.109 --> 00:14:39.711
That's why my bar is all the way down to 10%.
315
00:14:39.891 --> 00:14:40.211
Okay.
316
00:14:41.472 --> 00:14:45.595
But if it's 10% of my customers, I don't know if I want to change my business model.
317
00:14:45.615 --> 00:14:46.116
That's the thing.
318
00:14:46.236 --> 00:14:47.317
I would just probably cut it out.
319
00:14:48.777 --> 00:14:50.639
I wouldn't do it if it's 10% of my customers.
320
00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:52.901
I think I can – well, I don't know what I can do.
321
00:14:52.941 --> 00:14:54.002
I'm just thinking about it again.
322
00:14:54.062 --> 00:14:58.047
Even Philip responded to a message last night to me, and he even brought it back up.
323
00:14:58.067 --> 00:15:04.193
Like, Philip has not exactly been gung-ho on this because we've tested stuff, and it's like just a giant disappointment.
324
00:15:04.233 --> 00:15:05.134
So even he mentioned it.
325
00:15:05.535 --> 00:15:07.497
But I'm really loving my new equipment.
326
00:15:07.577 --> 00:15:10.300
And so – I just want to say, I hate to be –
327
00:15:10.880 --> 00:15:11.963
you know, the wet blanket here.
328
00:15:11.983 --> 00:15:20.239
But I think every time you've gotten a robot mower, you've been very excited about this technology for about three to six months.
329
00:15:20.259 --> 00:15:20.900
Yeah.
330
00:15:21.365 --> 00:15:23.145
I've been excited for 10 years.
331
00:15:23.866 --> 00:15:26.326
Anyway, I've turned these short questions into long ones.
332
00:15:26.346 --> 00:15:30.547
But I, yeah, to really finish up my thought, you'd have to profile the property.
333
00:15:30.627 --> 00:15:34.248
I think in my market, way more than 10% of my properties will support it.
334
00:15:34.648 --> 00:15:34.868
Okay.
335
00:15:34.888 --> 00:15:38.228
So I was thinking like a national 10% for the sake of the question.
336
00:15:38.609 --> 00:15:42.349
I wouldn't touch it if I didn't think I could get like 40% of my clients to take it.
337
00:15:42.589 --> 00:15:45.690
But it's perfect for me because I don't actually want to mow anybody's yard.
338
00:15:45.790 --> 00:15:46.010
Yeah.
339
00:15:46.370 --> 00:15:50.552
I would much rather have the robot and I don't want a hundred percent penetration.
340
00:15:50.592 --> 00:16:04.897
I want maybe like 40 would even be great because if, cause you've got to be able to handle now we're turning this into, you know, not where I meant to take it, but you've got to be able to handle when something happens that you still have a lot of crews that you could deploy to do the catch up.
341
00:16:04.977 --> 00:16:10.099
If you go to a hundred percent robot mower and you get rained out for a week and you're two weeks, your motorcade catch up.
342
00:16:10.119 --> 00:16:12.800
Or if you go to a hundred percent in this particular client,
343
00:16:13.340 --> 00:16:16.764
was doing something in the backyard, like a whole new irrigation system, the mower can't catch up.
344
00:16:16.784 --> 00:16:18.586
You need to be able to drop real equipment on it.
345
00:16:18.807 --> 00:16:21.009
And if you've eliminated all that, that's a problem.
346
00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:23.432
So anyway, discussion for another day.
347
00:16:23.452 --> 00:16:23.933
Oh yeah.
348
00:16:24.133 --> 00:16:27.317
I was just, I was just lowering the bar to see if I could get what you would say.
349
00:16:27.337 --> 00:16:30.461
So what's new about, what's this new equipment?
350
00:16:30.501 --> 00:16:31.382
Is it Husqvarna?
351
00:16:31.402 --> 00:16:31.762
What is it?
352
00:16:31.862 --> 00:16:32.062
Honda?
353
00:16:32.083 --> 00:16:32.203
Honda?
354
00:16:32.614 --> 00:16:34.155
No, it's a segue.
355
00:16:35.055 --> 00:16:35.515
Navamow.
356
00:16:35.615 --> 00:16:36.235
Okay, okay.
357
00:16:36.255 --> 00:16:38.196
So, yeah, so it's mowing.
358
00:16:38.276 --> 00:16:40.157
I have it mow my property.
359
00:16:40.497 --> 00:16:44.378
You've been to my place, but my backyard's just under an acre.
360
00:16:44.518 --> 00:16:45.598
The grass part is.
361
00:16:46.179 --> 00:16:49.300
My whole property is closer, but everything's so landscaped.
362
00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:52.081
So it mows three times a week.
363
00:16:52.841 --> 00:16:54.101
Keeps it exactly perfect.
364
00:16:55.262 --> 00:16:56.242
No boundary wire.
365
00:16:57.162 --> 00:16:58.123
Mows in straight lines.
366
00:16:58.503 --> 00:16:59.763
Changes direction every time.
367
00:17:00.563 --> 00:17:01.824
I've had zero issues.
368
00:17:04.122 --> 00:17:10.188
And it can, it basically takes four hours, three times a week to mow my yard, plus some charging time.
369
00:17:10.208 --> 00:17:11.969
It does have to go back to its station three times.
370
00:17:11.989 --> 00:17:14.251
So it takes just under four hours.
371
00:17:14.451 --> 00:17:19.255
It takes about four hours to do the mowing once a day, but it takes about seven hours with the charging.
372
00:17:20.036 --> 00:17:23.819
And so I just run it at night and it rose three times a week.
373
00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:27.142
I think the ideal customer profile for this is someone with over $100,000.
374
00:17:27.162 --> 00:17:27.322
Right.
375
00:17:29.231 --> 00:17:30.312
one segment of lawn.
376
00:17:30.432 --> 00:17:32.092
So no gaps in between.
377
00:17:32.112 --> 00:17:36.174
It helps tremendously, but it can cross, it can cross, but it's got to be able to cross.
378
00:17:36.214 --> 00:17:40.835
The big kicker is they own a lawn care business and make content about lawn care.
379
00:17:41.235 --> 00:17:43.636
And it makes for good content that they can make sense.
380
00:17:43.696 --> 00:17:47.397
Yeah, but I'm not, I'm not trying to sell anybody on it.
381
00:17:47.457 --> 00:17:49.038
I just can't quit thinking about it.
382
00:17:49.158 --> 00:17:51.159
There's always an opportunity to come back in.
383
00:17:51.179 --> 00:17:53.960
You know, you're no longer, Robin no longer exists, Jonathan.
384
00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:54.940
You can come back in.
385
00:17:55.500 --> 00:17:56.221
No, I'm not.
386
00:17:56.301 --> 00:17:56.622
I'm not.
387
00:17:56.782 --> 00:17:59.045
I'm not trying to make any money on robot mowers.
388
00:17:59.206 --> 00:18:05.014
Look, Philip, maybe that's the one time he'll come on the show is to convince you that we need to go back to robotic mowers.
389
00:18:05.896 --> 00:18:07.697
I don't think he'll push that hard for that.
390
00:18:08.178 --> 00:18:08.418
All right.
391
00:18:08.438 --> 00:18:09.379
I got us way distracted.
392
00:18:09.399 --> 00:18:10.359
I just love the topic.
393
00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:11.100
I can't let it go.
394
00:18:11.120 --> 00:18:12.041
So, all right.
395
00:18:12.501 --> 00:18:13.002
A few more.
396
00:18:13.742 --> 00:18:18.246
A PE-backed home service company does a bigger IPO than Service Titan.
397
00:18:18.306 --> 00:18:21.308
So somebody serving home services, it could be a roll-up.
398
00:18:21.748 --> 00:18:25.131
And Service Titan was, I think, around $7 billion, $8 billion, somewhere in that range.
399
00:18:25.471 --> 00:18:28.934
So it could be any company serving home services, right?
400
00:18:30.368 --> 00:18:31.449
Is there one coming?
401
00:18:31.969 --> 00:18:35.352
Do you think one could happen of that size anytime in the next five years?
402
00:18:35.633 --> 00:18:38.335
And when you say service time, that's like the tech side.
403
00:18:39.236 --> 00:18:40.897
Yeah, but they were serving home services.
404
00:18:41.198 --> 00:18:45.501
So just any, there's been no other real significant IPO that I know of
405
00:18:46.422 --> 00:18:53.228
that I can remember hearing about in a long time that they in any way catered to the home service industry.
406
00:18:53.248 --> 00:18:56.190
But now home services is such a news topic.
407
00:18:56.530 --> 00:18:57.071
Five years?
408
00:18:57.271 --> 00:19:00.994
Do you think, yeah, five years, do you think there'll be one that's bigger than Service Titan?
409
00:19:01.054 --> 00:19:01.554
Not bigger.
410
00:19:01.794 --> 00:19:03.276
I think something over a billion, yes.
411
00:19:03.556 --> 00:19:05.037
But I don't think bigger than Service Titan.
412
00:19:05.978 --> 00:19:07.199
Yeah, I don't think so either.
413
00:19:07.339 --> 00:19:08.500
Okay, three more.
414
00:19:08.520 --> 00:19:11.122
Look, I'm going to try to go, I feel I don't need 9 billion.
415
00:19:11.262 --> 00:19:13.284
I just need over 1 billion.
416
00:19:13.464 --> 00:19:14.505
Are you going in five years?
417
00:19:15.853 --> 00:19:16.353
Come on now.
418
00:19:16.613 --> 00:19:18.535
Come on now.
419
00:19:18.855 --> 00:19:21.997
We do need a lot of smaller IPOs in the United States.
420
00:19:22.017 --> 00:19:24.378
We need a bigger IPO market again in the United States.
421
00:19:24.438 --> 00:19:25.199
This year has been crazy.
422
00:19:25.219 --> 00:19:27.020
And if that happened, that would be really good for you.
423
00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:27.940
It would be.
424
00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:29.621
But I need it to slow down.
425
00:19:29.661 --> 00:19:31.942
Like right now, I feel like we're going through this bubble of IPOs.
426
00:19:32.223 --> 00:19:33.523
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, boys.
427
00:19:33.904 --> 00:19:35.505
Give me six or seven more years.
428
00:19:36.365 --> 00:19:37.647
We've had nothing for a while.
429
00:19:37.687 --> 00:19:39.530
They come in, it comes and goes in seasons.
430
00:19:39.550 --> 00:19:41.073
What you need is a smaller IPO.
431
00:19:41.273 --> 00:19:43.617
No, I don't mean smaller IPO market like less.
432
00:19:44.017 --> 00:19:46.121
I mean, like we need smaller companies.
433
00:19:46.141 --> 00:19:46.902
They're profitable.
434
00:19:47.002 --> 00:19:47.803
Yeah.
435
00:19:48.645 --> 00:19:49.426
Yeah.
436
00:19:49.466 --> 00:19:50.548
But if he wasn't.
437
00:19:51.932 --> 00:19:55.496
What was Google when they, I thought Google was like 30 billion when they IPO'd.
438
00:19:55.936 --> 00:19:59.900
But I mean, way back there used to be multi-hundred million dollar companies that could IPO.
439
00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:02.202
What was broadcast.com back in the day?
440
00:20:02.283 --> 00:20:04.064
Small, like 25 million.
441
00:20:04.084 --> 00:20:08.469
You know, if we could get more companies into the market, that'd be great for you.
442
00:20:08.489 --> 00:20:09.650
And I think it'd be good for the market.
443
00:20:10.551 --> 00:20:11.392
Anyway, different topic.
444
00:20:11.693 --> 00:20:14.455
Well, on my roadshow, I'll bring this clip back up.
445
00:20:14.836 --> 00:20:16.097
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
446
00:20:16.217 --> 00:20:17.118
Yeah, they'll listen.
447
00:20:17.198 --> 00:20:17.738
All right.
448
00:20:18.299 --> 00:20:19.480
All right.
449
00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:25.885
Smart glasses become a standard for technicians, like feeding them real-time instructions and data.
450
00:20:26.406 --> 00:20:27.086
In five years?
451
00:20:27.106 --> 00:20:27.607
In five years.
452
00:20:27.627 --> 00:20:30.850
I know you're gung-ho in this, but I see too many flaws with this.
453
00:20:31.679 --> 00:20:31.859
Yep.
454
00:20:32.320 --> 00:20:34.301
Do you think five years?
455
00:20:34.321 --> 00:20:34.381
No.
456
00:20:34.642 --> 00:20:35.142
Okay.
457
00:20:35.262 --> 00:20:35.782
No, I don't.
458
00:20:35.823 --> 00:20:36.543
But I'm very good.
459
00:20:36.583 --> 00:20:41.287
If you said five years, I was going to be like, bro, I don't know if I agree with you on that.
460
00:20:41.928 --> 00:20:46.672
I am so, this is right there running a parallel with my robotic mower dream.
461
00:20:48.613 --> 00:20:52.094
I remember the first time when you brought this up on stage, I was like, dude, that's genius.
462
00:20:52.414 --> 00:20:55.015
And I remember going home and doing all this research about it.
463
00:20:55.296 --> 00:21:01.498
And then there's this other software that has now basically taken metaglasses and tried to go through it into their CRM.
464
00:21:01.898 --> 00:21:03.439
And it is so buggy.
465
00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:05.159
It is so buggy.
466
00:21:05.539 --> 00:21:07.560
It's just, I want it so bad.
467
00:21:07.580 --> 00:21:09.121
But I, too, don't believe five years.
468
00:21:09.161 --> 00:21:13.262
Like, drone, like your little, from a few episodes ago, you had the drone dropping the robot mower.
469
00:21:13.282 --> 00:21:13.762
My thesis.
470
00:21:13.842 --> 00:21:14.783
Give me that and glasses.
471
00:21:14.803 --> 00:21:15.143
Thank you.
472
00:21:15.763 --> 00:21:16.703
Driverless cars.
473
00:21:16.763 --> 00:21:17.443
I love that world.
474
00:21:17.463 --> 00:21:18.284
Fantastic.
475
00:21:18.524 --> 00:21:21.044
We don't even need to wait five more years for an IPO.
476
00:21:21.064 --> 00:21:22.264
We have it right here, folks.
477
00:21:22.564 --> 00:21:22.985
You know it.
478
00:21:23.185 --> 00:21:24.105
I want that world.
479
00:21:24.125 --> 00:21:26.525
So, yes, I just keep hanging on to hope.
480
00:21:26.765 --> 00:21:28.326
But all right.
481
00:21:29.686 --> 00:21:31.066
Kind of this speed to lead thing.
482
00:21:31.486 --> 00:21:32.887
So right now, it's just like LSA.
483
00:21:32.907 --> 00:21:34.087
You got to respond really fast.
484
00:21:34.507 --> 00:21:38.908
So the speed to lead thing gets so extreme because everybody's doing it.
485
00:21:39.831 --> 00:21:42.932
Google's forcing it, but it's just your competition is going to force it.
486
00:21:43.392 --> 00:21:55.916
So it gets so extreme that if you actually as a company want to talk to the client, we've kind of talked about this just slightly before, but if you actually want to take them to the phone and talk to them, you have a very high risk of losing the deal.
487
00:21:56.216 --> 00:21:59.357
Like, what do you think that could be where we're going in five years?
488
00:22:00.678 --> 00:22:07.100
Everybody is moving so fast with software, pricing online, pricing through text, pricing through email.
489
00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:07.240
Yeah.
490
00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:17.343
Google collecting prices and everybody's now enabled with technology to respond really quick that if you even try to take them to the phone, you're probably going to kill the deal.
491
00:22:17.743 --> 00:22:20.944
Is that do you think that becomes a reality?
492
00:22:20.964 --> 00:22:24.905
I think you're overly optimistic at the tech forwardness of our home service industry.
493
00:22:25.325 --> 00:22:25.765
You do.
494
00:22:25.785 --> 00:22:26.245
You do.
495
00:22:26.305 --> 00:22:31.547
OK, like I think in our world and even people listening, it will feel that way.
496
00:22:32.247 --> 00:22:43.531
But when you look at the broad home service industry and like how many people use any software, let alone like I'm struggling to get people to get Google reviews or like claim their Google business profile.
497
00:22:44.051 --> 00:22:48.953
I'm not super concerned about them automating away these things because they're just so far behind.
498
00:22:49.473 --> 00:22:58.116
And like you look at how long credit cards have been around and still to this day, 53 percent of payments processed through homeworks is check.
499
00:22:58.677 --> 00:22:59.237
Wait, really?
500
00:22:59.257 --> 00:22:59.497
Yeah.
501
00:22:59.517 --> 00:22:59.657
Yeah.
502
00:23:01.810 --> 00:23:03.592
Maybe I've been become a bit disconnected.
503
00:23:04.373 --> 00:23:07.695
And so I just I would love to for that to be the truth.
504
00:23:07.975 --> 00:23:10.077
I think it would improve the professionalism of the industry.
505
00:23:10.097 --> 00:23:10.718
So I'd be a fan.
506
00:23:11.358 --> 00:23:13.280
I just do not see the adoption broadly.
507
00:23:13.380 --> 00:23:15.061
I think the top 10 percent.
508
00:23:15.101 --> 00:23:16.562
And yes, they will make more money.
509
00:23:16.582 --> 00:23:18.884
They will like broad adoption.
510
00:23:20.526 --> 00:23:20.946
What do you think?
511
00:23:21.486 --> 00:23:23.348
Oh, yeah.
512
00:23:24.918 --> 00:23:27.899
I think there's a risk of that.
513
00:23:28.239 --> 00:23:30.760
But now you've got me questioning myself here.
514
00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:33.740
If you're talking to $10 and $15 million owners, yes.
515
00:23:33.881 --> 00:23:35.601
I generally live in a...
516
00:23:35.961 --> 00:23:37.482
This is where it's like, you know what?
517
00:23:37.542 --> 00:23:40.582
I've been out of SA for seven years.
518
00:23:42.243 --> 00:23:43.803
I know a ton of people who own big companies.
519
00:23:44.944 --> 00:23:47.964
My academy group, all those guys have got bigger companies now.
520
00:23:48.005 --> 00:23:49.425
Just like that I still keep up with.
521
00:23:51.918 --> 00:23:53.180
I'm in tech.
522
00:23:53.961 --> 00:23:56.944
Or I was in tech, but my brain is still living in tech.
523
00:23:56.964 --> 00:23:57.345
You're right.
524
00:23:57.405 --> 00:24:05.034
I mean, I think I haven't really worked with a lot of the smaller companies in quite some time, and it's an interesting perspective.
525
00:24:05.595 --> 00:24:08.598
Jonathan, I'm trying to paint you as not out of touch here.
526
00:24:08.618 --> 00:24:09.540
Yeah, well, I'm...
527
00:24:10.981 --> 00:24:12.182
So I'm trying to get back.
528
00:24:12.402 --> 00:24:19.625
Someone texted me the other day that said, we really got to know how Jonathan spent $450,000 on longevity.
529
00:24:20.005 --> 00:24:22.066
I'm like, that is a topic for another day.
530
00:24:23.186 --> 00:24:24.507
Yeah, I'll do a video on that.
531
00:24:24.567 --> 00:24:26.467
It's not going to be as crazy.
532
00:24:26.567 --> 00:24:29.288
Well, it will be as crazy as people might think.
533
00:24:29.569 --> 00:24:30.709
You can spend it pretty fast.
534
00:24:31.109 --> 00:24:34.931
So yeah, yeah, that does sound.
535
00:24:34.991 --> 00:24:37.552
But it's not quite as crazy as you think.
536
00:24:37.572 --> 00:24:37.772
Yeah.
537
00:24:39.995 --> 00:24:40.376
I don't know.
538
00:24:40.556 --> 00:24:41.176
This is this.
539
00:24:41.657 --> 00:24:47.224
What exactly you're seeing happening with me right now is exactly my argument against AI blowing up the whole world.
540
00:24:47.524 --> 00:24:53.951
Technology people that live in technology and see where it's going, which is who I think I am to a degree.
541
00:24:54.852 --> 00:24:56.274
I'm not as close to it as I used to be.
542
00:24:57.709 --> 00:25:00.291
see what's happening and think it's going to happen really fast.
543
00:25:00.531 --> 00:25:05.095
But the human adoption and the government puts the brakes on it in a massive way.
544
00:25:05.656 --> 00:25:09.799
And so I do agree with everything that you're saying.
545
00:25:09.819 --> 00:25:14.623
But hey, your news feed is filled with AI, tech, private equity.
546
00:25:15.204 --> 00:25:18.727
Most people, they're scrolling through TikTok for cat videos.
547
00:25:19.813 --> 00:25:23.137
I don't think they're adopting some of this stuff anytime soon.
548
00:25:23.457 --> 00:25:28.042
They're just happy that the next video is a cat video after their first one because of AI.
549
00:25:28.922 --> 00:25:29.603
You know what?
550
00:25:29.623 --> 00:25:29.723
I do.
551
00:25:29.823 --> 00:25:30.244
You're right.
552
00:25:30.344 --> 00:25:30.644
I do.
553
00:25:30.864 --> 00:25:40.093
I think I would, outside these questions, my general argument would actually be that I don't think most people will adopt it because –
554
00:25:41.493 --> 00:25:45.855
My concern for those people is more severe than it's ever been.
555
00:25:45.875 --> 00:25:46.976
I agree with that.
556
00:25:47.016 --> 00:25:48.757
They're going to get really badly hurt.
557
00:25:49.237 --> 00:25:52.319
So I and I've done a video on that in five for 50 recently.
558
00:25:52.479 --> 00:25:54.099
I'm legitimately concerned.
559
00:25:54.620 --> 00:25:55.700
I think it's like the case.
560
00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:58.702
What we've seen in the economy with K-shape is going to happen in home services.
561
00:25:59.861 --> 00:26:11.444
Yeah, and so I guess if I have that concern, I do have an underlying belief that we are starting to see a change in technology where some of this stuff is legitimately going to go faster.
562
00:26:11.904 --> 00:26:17.905
One of my reasons why I argue that this, I'm not arguing that robotic mowers are finally going to really happen.
563
00:26:17.945 --> 00:26:21.866
I'm not arguing that all this stuff is, I'm not arguing that glasses are going to be here in five years.
564
00:26:21.886 --> 00:26:25.587
My answer to that was, I think we're going to be way closer, but we're not going to be there.
565
00:26:25.987 --> 00:26:28.648
But I do think something has fundamentally changed.
566
00:26:29.508 --> 00:26:35.271
And it used to be like go back seven years, six years to 19 to 20.
567
00:26:36.451 --> 00:26:40.953
There were not this many people working on really big problems like they were.
568
00:26:40.973 --> 00:26:43.174
They were working that people would go.
569
00:26:43.415 --> 00:26:46.236
They were working on finance and finance arbitrage and they.
570
00:26:46.476 --> 00:26:50.758
But now there are lots of people working on new technologies like.
571
00:26:51.038 --> 00:27:03.935
The amount of brainpower working on AI, the amount of brainpower working on robotics, the amount of brainpower working on life science, the amount of kids coming out of school and going into that stuff has just skyrocketed in the last six or seven years.
572
00:27:04.896 --> 00:27:09.141
You can't convince me that doesn't mean everything goes way faster now.
573
00:27:10.064 --> 00:27:20.212
So then my argument why I was wrong on robots when I thought it was going to happen faster was because I missed the fact that not many people were actually working on it.
574
00:27:21.173 --> 00:27:26.838
You would look at, like, say, cars, and you would think about how many people were working on that.
575
00:27:26.858 --> 00:27:32.242
And you would say, well, gosh, if we can make a car do this, even if it's not fully autonomous, how can we not make a mower do this?
576
00:27:32.282 --> 00:27:37.046
Well, the reason was there wasn't enough money going into robots and there weren't enough people working on it.
577
00:27:37.066 --> 00:27:39.328
Now we got so many people working on this stuff.
578
00:27:39.908 --> 00:27:46.632
That's where I think I'm starting to say, wait a second, some of my timelines I put 10 years out, could they pull in a little bit?
579
00:27:47.192 --> 00:27:50.234
That's where I think I'm coming from a little on this.
580
00:27:50.554 --> 00:27:53.536
But I still think I'm highly at risk of being overly optimistic.
581
00:27:53.736 --> 00:27:54.497
Yeah, it's funny.
582
00:27:54.697 --> 00:27:56.458
Over the past couple of years, as it's been...
583
00:27:57.078 --> 00:27:59.461
In the back moment, like, oh man, this is like so important.
584
00:27:59.521 --> 00:28:00.662
We've got to stay on the cutting edge.
585
00:28:01.122 --> 00:28:14.376
Every time it gets really hard around it, though, like actually making the APIs talk to each other, doing encryption, getting financial data transmitted, doing attribution, figuring out if a lead came from Facebook or Google, like every time it gets hard, I'm like, okay, this is why 95% won't do it.
586
00:28:16.018 --> 00:28:19.620
And so that's always been my motivation when I feel like this is a hard spot.
587
00:28:19.860 --> 00:28:21.301
This is a technical challenge.
588
00:28:21.541 --> 00:28:25.323
Like, why am I beating my head up against this tiny little pixel or this tiny little...
589
00:28:25.343 --> 00:28:33.488
It's like, this is where everyone's going to stop because conceptually it'll sound so easy and they'll listen to this podcast and be like, oh, it's going to... And then they'll hit this thing and then there'll be friction.
590
00:28:33.508 --> 00:28:37.570
And I just believe that 95% won't go past that right now.
591
00:28:38.531 --> 00:28:39.591
Yeah.
592
00:28:39.731 --> 00:28:44.254
And I feel, to your point, I feel obligated to...
593
00:28:45.357 --> 00:28:48.220
make sure that they're aware and that they have the tools, et cetera.
594
00:28:48.260 --> 00:28:54.726
But there's a certain level that you have to apply yourself to actually pushing through that hard spot and figuring things out.
595
00:28:55.266 --> 00:28:57.808
And maybe one day it'll all be easy with AI.
596
00:28:57.828 --> 00:29:05.816
But I find that every time if you're like on the edge of the technology, you are going to have to push through what most people would just be like, okay, this is hard here.
597
00:29:06.636 --> 00:29:06.836
Yeah.
598
00:29:07.517 --> 00:29:07.737
Yeah.
599
00:29:08.217 --> 00:29:08.477
Yeah.
600
00:29:08.597 --> 00:29:12.920
When we do these episodes and we think about the docket, I always want to make sure that it's interesting to people.
601
00:29:12.940 --> 00:29:16.042
And I know a lot of people listen, they're smaller, they're not ready for this stuff.
602
00:29:16.583 --> 00:29:23.167
And so I picture a lot of people riding on a lawnmower, a lot of people driving in their truck, you know, then a lot of bigger companies hopefully listen as well.
603
00:29:23.807 --> 00:29:30.892
And, and so what I hope to gain for a lot of people is just this real awareness where you're hearing this thing over and over again.
604
00:29:30.932 --> 00:29:32.072
And maybe it's, it's,
605
00:29:33.198 --> 00:29:35.759
makes you move a little faster, implement some of this a little faster.
606
00:29:35.779 --> 00:29:38.500
You don't need to be cutting edge and think a little bigger.
607
00:29:38.600 --> 00:29:43.302
Or as your business gets bigger, you've kind of already heard this conversation from us a few times.
608
00:29:43.663 --> 00:29:44.563
And it's not foreign.
609
00:29:44.603 --> 00:29:45.143
It's not scary.
610
00:29:45.163 --> 00:29:46.864
It's like, oh, I kind of have an idea what to do here.
611
00:29:47.224 --> 00:29:48.865
That's what I hope people get from this.
612
00:29:48.885 --> 00:29:55.888
And that's why while we're having bigger conversations than maybe most people are ready for, I hope they see the value in that.
613
00:29:56.508 --> 00:29:57.628
It grows your mindset too.
614
00:29:57.848 --> 00:29:59.329
I think it makes you more optimistic.
615
00:29:59.349 --> 00:30:00.749
Like, wow, this is what I could do.
616
00:30:01.029 --> 00:30:02.170
This is what I could become.
617
00:30:02.310 --> 00:30:04.250
I like that kind of framing.
618
00:30:04.270 --> 00:30:06.551
And not being afraid by the terminology too.
619
00:30:06.571 --> 00:30:13.373
Like even like as we're planning this whole rollout with homework, just like I don't want the words MCP to get people messed up.
620
00:30:13.493 --> 00:30:20.435
I need them to understand like just go to Claude, do these three things, ask this question, be blown away, and understand that's just the tip of the iceberg.
621
00:30:20.455 --> 00:30:20.555
Yeah.
622
00:30:21.255 --> 00:30:25.977
And not being afraid of AI, a lot of the news, okay, should I use Claude?
623
00:30:25.997 --> 00:30:27.217
Should I use chat?
624
00:30:27.657 --> 00:30:28.898
Don't be afraid by that stuff.
625
00:30:28.938 --> 00:30:39.162
A lot of it is the high-flutin'-tootin' people that stand behind microphones and talk all day long use these big words to appear like they're somehow above all of us or like they know something.
626
00:30:39.182 --> 00:30:39.802
They're super smart.
627
00:30:40.202 --> 00:30:46.705
And it's not difficult, but it will take you being okay with being uncomfortable in a world that you might not feel as...
628
00:30:48.145 --> 00:31:12.525
organic to as on a mower or with a belt of of tools on your on your on your tool belt and i think that the people that embrace that feeling of hey this is not does not feel good to it does not feel natural to me but can push through that they're gonna win yep another one that most people won't do and we'll wrap with this one and it's technology again
629
00:31:14.428 --> 00:31:21.030
Do you think within five years, a homeowner would be comfortable having a drone hover above their property while the team is working?
630
00:31:21.450 --> 00:31:23.130
So people are using body cams now.
631
00:31:23.590 --> 00:31:25.271
People have cameras on their trucks.
632
00:31:25.371 --> 00:31:26.451
Again, small number.
633
00:31:26.851 --> 00:31:27.891
I admit, small number.
634
00:31:28.511 --> 00:31:31.772
But guys, cruise, home service companies are wearing body cams.
635
00:31:31.932 --> 00:31:35.693
Home service companies have trucks that pull up and they have a camera that are recording the front yard.
636
00:31:35.973 --> 00:31:38.714
It's like, that was happening when I was doing SA.
637
00:31:39.494 --> 00:31:40.434
I still owned SA.
638
00:31:40.454 --> 00:31:41.214
That was a long time ago.
639
00:31:45.595 --> 00:31:51.661
Would the homeowner be comfortable with that, knowing that their backyard's getting recorded, their property's getting recorded?
640
00:31:51.701 --> 00:31:52.762
While we're on the property?
641
00:31:53.482 --> 00:31:54.403
Yeah, while we're on the property.
642
00:31:54.423 --> 00:31:58.107
And is the reason for something like roofing, or is it just for like, hey, I want to see in the backyard too?
643
00:31:58.127 --> 00:31:58.307
Yeah.
644
00:31:59.437 --> 00:32:01.038
Yeah, it could be roofing.
645
00:32:01.059 --> 00:32:05.603
It could be this is how we're monitoring what gets done, what doesn't get done, the quality of work.
646
00:32:05.923 --> 00:32:08.405
You could see where the bushes are if they need trimming.
647
00:32:08.445 --> 00:32:09.386
I get feeds up sales.
648
00:32:09.426 --> 00:32:13.009
It could do a million things from accountability to up sales to quality.
649
00:32:13.510 --> 00:32:17.133
It solves the rolling trucks for inspections, all kinds of stuff.
650
00:32:18.654 --> 00:32:19.195
Possible.
651
00:32:19.315 --> 00:32:19.715
Yes.
652
00:32:20.936 --> 00:32:22.458
I don't think it's to be broadly accepted.
653
00:32:22.478 --> 00:32:22.578
Yeah.
654
00:32:24.310 --> 00:32:30.054
Yeah, I think you have articulated that nothing that I'm dreaming of will be broadly accepted.
655
00:32:32.075 --> 00:32:33.656
But well, yeah, but brought from the home.
656
00:32:33.696 --> 00:32:41.441
I just wanted to, because way back CityTurf text, this is, I think I was doing SA, we tested body cams and the client didn't like it.
657
00:32:41.741 --> 00:32:42.081
Really?
658
00:32:42.241 --> 00:32:43.702
I thought it would be the technicians.
659
00:32:45.643 --> 00:32:48.325
No, from the conversations I had, it was the client.
660
00:32:48.425 --> 00:32:52.768
Interesting, because my first thought when you said drones was the technicians are going to feel weird about that.
661
00:32:54.336 --> 00:32:55.297
Oh, yeah.
662
00:32:55.317 --> 00:32:58.759
I was just thinking about the homeowner from my previous experiences.
663
00:32:58.979 --> 00:32:59.800
Yeah, that's interesting.
664
00:33:00.820 --> 00:33:05.243
And so, but I've talked to some other people that are running body cams now and they say the client doesn't care.
665
00:33:06.224 --> 00:33:07.284
That's interesting.
666
00:33:07.625 --> 00:33:12.448
And then the tech only turns their body cam on when they're, so ignition, ignition.
667
00:33:13.008 --> 00:33:15.430
Get out of the truck, camera on, back in the truck, camera off.
668
00:33:15.450 --> 00:33:16.390
Are they going to remember to push it?
669
00:33:17.511 --> 00:33:17.651
Mm-hmm.
670
00:33:18.051 --> 00:33:18.572
Oh, man.
671
00:33:18.592 --> 00:33:18.692
Yeah.
672
00:33:20.245 --> 00:33:22.548
That's right, but I mean, I haven't gone down this road very far.
673
00:33:22.568 --> 00:33:28.535
Every time I'm dying to do an upsell, they forget to turn on the stinking camera.
674
00:33:29.436 --> 00:33:29.997
All right, so.
675
00:33:31.034 --> 00:33:34.336
Tell me about the text that you sent today because that's very interesting news.
676
00:33:35.076 --> 00:33:37.918
I wasn't familiar with it until you sent me that message.
677
00:33:38.018 --> 00:33:38.598
LSA is dying.
678
00:33:39.199 --> 00:33:40.399
It has gone the way.
679
00:33:40.419 --> 00:33:40.819
Is it dying?
680
00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:42.480
It's going the way of the dodo bird.
681
00:33:42.660 --> 00:33:44.502
Well, as it's known.
682
00:33:45.002 --> 00:33:46.563
Okay, I interpret it differently.
683
00:33:46.663 --> 00:33:50.545
I interpret LSA's last staying, but you're going to manage it more like Google Ads.
684
00:33:51.650 --> 00:33:54.993
Uh, so I guess we'll find out cause it's coming out next month.
685
00:33:55.013 --> 00:33:55.453
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
686
00:33:55.493 --> 00:34:01.078
But from what, what we can interpret is that there's basically is moving into P max, which is performance max inside of Google.
687
00:34:01.098 --> 00:34:01.418
Okay.
688
00:34:01.779 --> 00:34:03.200
It will not have its own dashboard.
689
00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:07.604
And that's, I think to me, that's local services is a different dashboard.
690
00:34:08.024 --> 00:34:15.650
Now you're just going to go to Google ads and inside of P max will be a bidding strategy per on a per lead basis instead of a more like Google ads.
691
00:34:15.690 --> 00:34:16.051
Correct.
692
00:34:17.134 --> 00:34:23.899
And so when I brought to our team, I guess leads are like, hey, this isn't going to change out much for us because we're already running Pmax.
693
00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:30.104
It's just going to be a different bidding strategy because now it's not going to be based on clicks as much as the leads.
694
00:34:31.605 --> 00:34:34.167
What's interesting is they're going to be combining it on the page.
695
00:34:34.267 --> 00:34:40.792
So on Google, in the past, you've had like Google ad slots and then you had Google LSA different.
696
00:34:41.553 --> 00:34:42.754
Supposedly, those are going to be together.
697
00:34:42.774 --> 00:34:43.854
I don't know what that's going to look like.
698
00:34:44.908 --> 00:34:49.595
But from what I can tell, the word LSA will not be known in 2028.
699
00:34:51.337 --> 00:34:51.637
Okay.
700
00:34:52.238 --> 00:34:57.145
It sounds like, do you think we define what's going on clear enough for people watching?
701
00:34:57.185 --> 00:34:58.467
Or do you want to say a few things?
702
00:34:58.507 --> 00:34:58.927
No, I agree.
703
00:34:58.947 --> 00:34:59.228
Go ahead.
704
00:34:59.328 --> 00:35:01.551
Go ahead and go ahead and get them to surface level for it.
705
00:35:02.466 --> 00:35:03.506
Oh, this is your thing, man.
706
00:35:03.526 --> 00:35:04.387
You sent me the link.
707
00:35:04.407 --> 00:35:09.128
So basically, Google wants their stock price to go up higher.
708
00:35:09.348 --> 00:35:13.390
They're like, these lawn care professionals are making way too much money off of us.
709
00:35:13.810 --> 00:35:17.491
We've got to extract every single dollar we possibly can from them.
710
00:35:17.931 --> 00:35:19.772
And so they're like, forget this LSA thing.
711
00:35:19.792 --> 00:35:25.134
Let's move them into our Google Ads platform so we can have a bidding strategy instead of a flat fee per lead.
712
00:35:25.274 --> 00:35:26.615
That's basically what happened.
713
00:35:27.215 --> 00:35:30.396
And we're going to take it hook, line, and sinker.
714
00:35:31.370 --> 00:35:33.372
Okay, so you did a much better job than if I'd explained it.
715
00:35:33.452 --> 00:35:34.373
I would have been in the weeds.
716
00:35:34.393 --> 00:35:34.854
That's good.
717
00:35:35.775 --> 00:35:36.896
That is what's happening, I think.
718
00:35:36.956 --> 00:35:39.759
From my brief reading, very quickly before we jumped on here.
719
00:35:40.119 --> 00:35:41.841
Back to what we talked about before.
720
00:35:42.702 --> 00:35:43.362
Buy the stock.
721
00:35:43.422 --> 00:35:43.863
Google.
722
00:35:43.923 --> 00:35:44.584
Exactly.
723
00:35:46.165 --> 00:35:48.187
Yeah, so I'm under the impression that you said it.
724
00:35:48.467 --> 00:35:51.551
It's just they're going to deprecate, kill the...
725
00:35:52.833 --> 00:35:56.417
LSA, you're now going to manage it exactly where you manage Google Ads.
726
00:35:57.058 --> 00:36:05.767
And then if, just to make sure we're all on the same page, right now you could put a weekly amount on LSA or what you're willing to pay.
727
00:36:06.087 --> 00:36:10.492
Now you're going to actually bid like you would bid on Google Ads or what we used to call AdWords.
728
00:36:10.752 --> 00:36:11.333
Is that correct?
729
00:36:11.433 --> 00:36:13.215
Is that your interpretation?
730
00:36:13.335 --> 00:36:14.516
Google Ads, as it's
731
00:36:15.317 --> 00:36:22.942
in its basic form, is blue links, and you typically are getting some sort of cost per link click, and you're optimizing your keywords.
732
00:36:23.662 --> 00:36:30.487
Performance Max is a more broad across banner ads, video, and...
733
00:36:31.367 --> 00:36:32.807
The text, the blue links.
734
00:36:33.167 --> 00:36:37.228
So across search, display network, as well as video on YouTube.
735
00:36:37.808 --> 00:36:46.010
And so they're basically bringing LSA into that now, where now there'll be all of those inside of Performance Max or PMAX campaign.
736
00:36:46.310 --> 00:36:50.551
And so they've been rolling out LSA now for probably what, like six, seven years.
737
00:36:50.971 --> 00:36:53.511
And then PMAX has also been slowing this rollout too.
738
00:36:53.852 --> 00:36:56.112
And so we kind of figured they'd eventually converge.
739
00:36:56.432 --> 00:36:59.013
We just didn't know if it would go PMAX into LSA,
740
00:37:01.653 --> 00:37:06.916
cool LSA into PMAX because PMAX is used in other industries outside of local services.
741
00:37:07.476 --> 00:37:13.319
And so they're basically just absorbing it into the, in my opinion, product that worked best for them and simplifying it.
742
00:37:13.619 --> 00:37:19.883
For a lot of people, it's actually going to be better though, because it is simplifying this whole notion of having two separate dashboards, logins.
743
00:37:20.983 --> 00:37:22.124
Set up the whole nine yards.
744
00:37:22.164 --> 00:37:23.846
Their login was terrible.
745
00:37:23.906 --> 00:37:25.247
And this is horrible.
746
00:37:25.327 --> 00:37:28.270
And it was hard for you to share it with team members to manage it.
747
00:37:28.350 --> 00:37:29.531
It's just a lot of stuff I didn't like.
748
00:37:30.171 --> 00:37:34.335
Now, is your reading of this that you will still be...
749
00:37:36.042 --> 00:37:37.603
you won't be able to write ad copy.
750
00:37:37.864 --> 00:37:41.046
It'll still be the same exact structure as it is now.
751
00:37:41.146 --> 00:37:42.748
I don't know on that part.
752
00:37:42.788 --> 00:37:44.129
They're not really sharing that stuff.
753
00:37:44.449 --> 00:37:46.992
Literally is this morning that it came out.
754
00:37:47.352 --> 00:37:50.274
And so by the time this airs, there could be more information about it.
755
00:37:50.575 --> 00:37:50.995
That's true.
756
00:37:51.075 --> 00:37:51.475
It'll be a week.
757
00:37:51.595 --> 00:37:52.516
But I don't know.
758
00:37:52.556 --> 00:37:54.218
Like that's our biggest question.
759
00:37:54.318 --> 00:37:56.420
It's like, what's the UI going to look like?
760
00:37:57.140 --> 00:37:58.842
And are they... How do you rate leads?
761
00:37:58.862 --> 00:37:59.623
How do you do all that stuff?
762
00:37:59.663 --> 00:38:03.307
And what I'm really thinking about is like the AI version of this.
763
00:38:03.548 --> 00:38:07.312
Where are they going to go with this being more of a voice-related thing?
764
00:38:07.332 --> 00:38:09.695
Because now they're pulling that right into PMAX.
765
00:38:10.115 --> 00:38:12.038
And so that's where I'm trying to figure out
766
00:38:12.478 --> 00:38:14.440
But in terms of our execution is not going to change.
767
00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:17.542
I think for anyone that is running LSA right now, be very careful.
768
00:38:17.602 --> 00:38:31.713
If you don't do anything, they're going to be bringing your budget over to Google ads and enabling a whole bunch of AI features that will likely double or triple your spend on stuff that's trashed, like display network or because the display network can be shown.
769
00:38:31.733 --> 00:38:33.274
Okay, really quick.
770
00:38:33.695 --> 00:38:34.175
To anybody.
771
00:38:34.195 --> 00:38:34.916
Yeah, to anyone.
772
00:38:34.936 --> 00:38:36.597
Like if I spin up an a...
773
00:38:39.367 --> 00:39:07.907
crazy website site places you don't want your brand showing up but i can as a web developer just put a little part in there for google ads to show up as a display network and anytime someone clicks on that i get a cut of it and so a lot of times the display network is low quality and so you want to be careful if you don't do anything you will likely see a big jump in spend with less quality leads and so i just encourage everyone that when they hop over it's going to be august it starts but then all the way through 2027 they're going to keep rolling new industries in
774
00:39:09.105 --> 00:39:12.828
Yeah, from the article you sent me, it sounds like lawn care, pest control.
775
00:39:12.848 --> 00:39:14.469
They've been seeing the podcast.
776
00:39:14.489 --> 00:39:18.913
They're like, my goodness, this guy's spending $450,000 on longevity.
777
00:39:18.953 --> 00:39:21.355
He could absolutely afford more on LSA.
778
00:39:21.815 --> 00:39:23.157
So we'll roll this out first.
779
00:39:23.177 --> 00:39:23.777
Yes, exactly.
780
00:39:23.857 --> 00:39:25.318
Probably in Dallas.
781
00:39:25.338 --> 00:39:26.880
Goodness gracious.
782
00:39:26.900 --> 00:39:28.381
Yeah, probably.
783
00:39:28.401 --> 00:39:28.801
Thank you.
784
00:39:28.941 --> 00:39:30.563
Everybody can thank me that's in Dallas.
785
00:39:30.643 --> 00:39:31.023
That's right.
786
00:39:31.083 --> 00:39:31.523
Exactly.
787
00:39:32.084 --> 00:39:32.344
All right.
788
00:39:32.404 --> 00:39:33.225
What have you been working on?
789
00:39:33.705 --> 00:39:35.066
Uh, it's the same stuff.
790
00:39:35.106 --> 00:39:37.068
It's going to be the same stuff for the next four or five weeks.
791
00:39:37.208 --> 00:39:39.290
Calendar, MCP and API.
792
00:39:39.670 --> 00:39:42.212
I should say the thing I'm really trying to focus on is the GoToM.
793
00:39:42.293 --> 00:39:43.634
You're there coding away on this?
794
00:39:43.654 --> 00:39:44.574
Oh yeah, all the way.
795
00:39:44.594 --> 00:39:45.355
No, no.
796
00:39:45.575 --> 00:39:50.760
Mostly like you talked about, like just like where are we at, what needs to be before we go general audience.
797
00:39:51.120 --> 00:39:53.482
So I've pushed that a little bit forward.
798
00:39:53.942 --> 00:39:56.524
We were going to wait another few weeks and...
799
00:39:57.185 --> 00:40:03.531
we were basically waiting for creating events, estimates, and invoices directly from your agent.
800
00:40:03.951 --> 00:40:15.802
And we said, hey, instead of just... We're going to push it out before that and then feather that in in the first three to four weeks because I see it as if I'm starting out, I don't really want it to be like...
801
00:40:16.462 --> 00:40:19.165
creating invoices or estimates or events right off the rip.
802
00:40:19.465 --> 00:40:21.287
I'm going to probably use it for dashboards.
803
00:40:21.307 --> 00:40:23.809
I'm going to use it for some admin related tasks.
804
00:40:24.109 --> 00:40:28.313
And so we feel like we can add that in later on, especially once people get a little more educated.
805
00:40:28.674 --> 00:40:30.576
But the go to market has been really important.
806
00:40:30.596 --> 00:40:33.779
Sorry, go to market is like, how do we message this to everyone?
807
00:40:34.499 --> 00:40:41.961
and make it really simple, have guides for people to get started and give free access for like, say the first 30 days so people can experience it, use it.
808
00:40:41.981 --> 00:40:51.604
We have tutorials for them to do the basics and then have examples of the beta users that have done extensive work inside of their accounts to build more workflows.
809
00:40:52.305 --> 00:40:55.065
And yeah, how do I present this to everyone in a
810
00:40:57.286 --> 00:40:59.107
lofty thing that maybe 5% can use.
811
00:40:59.127 --> 00:41:01.588
How can I get 20 or 30% adoption is my goal right now.
812
00:41:01.828 --> 00:41:02.008
Yeah.
813
00:41:02.088 --> 00:41:03.209
It's really been my focus.
814
00:41:03.749 --> 00:41:07.490
So when we roll it out, it's hopefully very useful.
815
00:41:07.851 --> 00:41:10.792
Do you happen to know if you, when you.
816
00:41:11.192 --> 00:41:12.933
Are you going to ask me a technical question?
817
00:41:14.053 --> 00:41:14.493
Very much.
818
00:41:14.513 --> 00:41:15.354
It's a code based.
819
00:41:15.374 --> 00:41:15.574
Okay.
820
00:41:15.814 --> 00:41:16.354
Give it a shot.
821
00:41:16.514 --> 00:41:17.315
We'll give it a shot.
822
00:41:17.355 --> 00:41:18.095
We'll give it a shot.
823
00:41:19.258 --> 00:41:24.341
Well, actually, this is a technical question, but I'm kind of curious on when I think about stuff like this.
824
00:41:24.401 --> 00:41:27.463
One of the things that really scares me is we'll call it the audit side.
825
00:41:27.804 --> 00:41:30.725
So person calls in and says, hey, you created this event for me.
826
00:41:31.486 --> 00:41:32.306
It got scheduled.
827
00:41:32.427 --> 00:41:33.287
I sent a tech out.
828
00:41:33.767 --> 00:41:34.308
It shouldn't have been.
829
00:41:34.328 --> 00:41:34.748
We did it.
830
00:41:34.788 --> 00:41:35.589
We should have never done it.
831
00:41:35.649 --> 00:41:37.170
Like you can just imagine.
832
00:41:38.390 --> 00:41:40.132
Not because code goes rogue.
833
00:41:40.412 --> 00:41:42.193
Just a million ways this could happen.
834
00:41:42.513 --> 00:41:48.898
You have Bob, the owner, talking to the system, but you also have Mary in the office talking to the system.
835
00:41:50.078 --> 00:41:55.242
She was doing something and she accidentally created an event.
836
00:41:55.422 --> 00:41:57.203
I was curious how you think about it.
837
00:41:57.223 --> 00:42:03.488
Do you know if you guys are doing detailed audit trails or event logs where it's logging every single click in action?
838
00:42:03.808 --> 00:42:05.949
This is for my own curiosity.
839
00:42:05.969 --> 00:42:06.330
Do you know...
840
00:42:07.010 --> 00:42:08.130
any of the details behind the scenes.
841
00:42:08.150 --> 00:42:12.011
That's mostly why we haven't released it GA is because like we have to go through the logs.
842
00:42:12.031 --> 00:42:14.232
We have to go through like, we have to give guardrails.
843
00:42:14.252 --> 00:42:14.952
And it's like, it's AI.
844
00:42:15.032 --> 00:42:16.052
It's like, wait a second.
845
00:42:16.072 --> 00:42:22.894
We're going through every single use case one by one and figure out where this could go wrong and put parameters on this and give warnings.
846
00:42:23.374 --> 00:42:29.656
And so it's honestly like as much as it'll feel like magic, it has not been magic on the backend.
847
00:42:29.836 --> 00:42:30.416
Oh yeah.
848
00:42:30.696 --> 00:42:32.257
This stuff, and this stuff's scary.
849
00:42:32.317 --> 00:42:32.577
Yeah.
850
00:42:32.677 --> 00:42:32.977
Oh yeah.
851
00:42:33.877 --> 00:42:37.879
I remember when we released our automation platform back in 2015.
852
00:42:38.159 --> 00:42:41.180
I remember the Starbucks I was sitting in when you guys released that.
853
00:42:41.840 --> 00:42:42.260
Oh, really?
854
00:42:42.380 --> 00:42:42.580
Okay.
855
00:42:42.600 --> 00:42:43.441
I remember.
856
00:42:43.921 --> 00:42:50.143
We put so much thought into not letting people get into loops because there's just so many things that can go wrong.
857
00:42:50.783 --> 00:42:53.026
And somehow it took a little while.
858
00:42:53.046 --> 00:42:56.351
Somebody found a to do loop in like four seconds.
859
00:42:56.812 --> 00:42:58.975
500,000 to do's were created.
860
00:42:58.995 --> 00:43:02.840
You know, it's like it's like, why did the database just go to us?
861
00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:03.161
Creep.
862
00:43:03.241 --> 00:43:05.544
And you've got to you've got to trace that stuff back.
863
00:43:06.343 --> 00:43:11.025
And like now, I mean, that's, you could do it really fast in automation, but you could do anything.
864
00:43:11.045 --> 00:43:18.748
I could just, I could just imagine Mary thinks she's in her personal chat GPT account and she's just talking away and nope, she's in the work account.
865
00:43:18.808 --> 00:43:22.610
Literally, literally, we made a million dollars yesterday, boss.
866
00:43:22.630 --> 00:43:23.410
It was great.
867
00:43:24.359 --> 00:43:27.640
And now somehow you guys got to figure out how to unwind all those invoices.
868
00:43:27.740 --> 00:43:29.960
Like, this is the scary stuff, but it's so awesome, too.
869
00:43:30.440 --> 00:43:31.761
So, yeah.
870
00:43:31.961 --> 00:43:33.621
Anyway, that's my own curiosity.
871
00:43:34.121 --> 00:43:36.862
I feel like a rate limit on, for example, daily is annoying.
872
00:43:36.882 --> 00:43:39.202
Because I don't want to wait until tomorrow to finish my invoicing.
873
00:43:39.222 --> 00:43:40.123
I just want to get done today.
874
00:43:40.543 --> 00:43:48.725
But then by making it monthly rate limits, now I open up the possibility that 30 times more tokens can go through, and they do make more errors.
875
00:43:49.205 --> 00:43:53.306
And so there's a lot of this tension of me and how I want it to go.
876
00:43:54.866 --> 00:44:14.682
the potential downfalls of some of the technology so yeah on that note um i was building something over on friday night yeah tiffany was out so yeah so it's friday night dude i've adopted your i have now adopted your strategy i'm working late now you you said it a
877
00:44:18.565 --> 00:44:20.286
Brandon's like, I just want you to stay in bed.
878
00:44:20.306 --> 00:44:23.108
You can just work here in bed, but I don't really want you going on.
879
00:44:23.528 --> 00:44:24.089
Game on.
880
00:44:24.369 --> 00:44:25.389
So I got my little stand.
881
00:44:25.409 --> 00:44:27.211
I pull out now and I just go to.
882
00:44:27.231 --> 00:44:28.151
Yeah, you got your little table.
883
00:44:28.171 --> 00:44:28.391
Yeah.
884
00:44:28.912 --> 00:44:29.152
Yeah.
885
00:44:29.232 --> 00:44:32.014
It's I would encourage you not to get stuck in this.
886
00:44:32.114 --> 00:44:36.517
I am so frustrated, but my brain will not be quiet.
887
00:44:37.117 --> 00:44:40.079
And so I mean, last, anyway, I could ramble.
888
00:44:40.299 --> 00:44:41.339
Anyway, little warning.
889
00:44:41.379 --> 00:44:43.320
This should be, this is not my non-financial advice.
890
00:44:43.340 --> 00:44:46.622
This is my, this should be my non-financial advice or it's kind of financial actually.
891
00:44:47.042 --> 00:44:49.743
So I was just really, it actually happened.
892
00:44:49.763 --> 00:44:51.644
There's, there's a, I'm not really ready to talk about it.
893
00:44:51.664 --> 00:44:55.846
It has, it's like, it has nothing to do with anybody here, but that's be watching.
894
00:44:56.227 --> 00:45:00.969
But, um, there's a project that I just have had on my mind for three years that I want to build.
895
00:45:00.989 --> 00:45:01.209
Okay.
896
00:45:01.549 --> 00:45:02.730
And so I just decided to build it.
897
00:45:03.410 --> 00:45:08.212
And what actually inspired it is I did that review site.
898
00:45:08.352 --> 00:45:10.453
I'm really happy with my review site.
899
00:45:10.473 --> 00:45:12.835
I'm officially a UI UX designer.
900
00:45:13.235 --> 00:45:14.475
I make websites now.
901
00:45:15.176 --> 00:45:16.356
Yeah, yep, yep.
902
00:45:17.037 --> 00:45:19.898
And ChatGPT knows so much about me.
903
00:45:20.538 --> 00:45:22.399
So I bounced between ChatGPT and Claude.
904
00:45:22.639 --> 00:45:23.720
And so I was using Codex.
905
00:45:24.720 --> 00:45:25.460
So ChatGPT.
906
00:45:25.901 --> 00:45:28.002
And it knows so much about me.
907
00:45:29.488 --> 00:45:32.589
It did such a great job helping me generate that review site.
908
00:45:33.049 --> 00:45:37.150
I did some work, but I got to be honest, I didn't do that much work.
909
00:45:37.730 --> 00:45:40.291
It was so good from the beginning.
910
00:45:40.891 --> 00:45:42.431
How long do you think it took you to build it?
911
00:45:43.331 --> 00:45:43.652
One hour.
912
00:45:44.032 --> 00:45:44.432
Really?
913
00:45:44.492 --> 00:45:45.212
That's pretty good.
914
00:45:45.272 --> 00:45:46.252
Yeah.
915
00:45:46.332 --> 00:45:47.652
I did that right after our show.
916
00:45:47.812 --> 00:45:49.673
I ate dinner, and then I'm like...
917
00:45:50.520 --> 00:45:56.845
I'm like, so yeah, I guess we'll tell, man, we haven't even got to our talking yet, but okay.
918
00:45:57.225 --> 00:46:00.347
After we did this show last Wednesday, I had dinner.
919
00:46:01.228 --> 00:46:05.551
I had my little ideas from our show and I'm like, I'm just going to get the domain.
920
00:46:05.831 --> 00:46:06.612
So I get the domain.
921
00:46:06.632 --> 00:46:07.873
Oh, Venus is super slow.
922
00:46:07.973 --> 00:46:09.794
Once you have the domain now, it's so easy to connect.
923
00:46:09.814 --> 00:46:14.998
Then I'm like, yeah, it's like, well, I'm just going to see if I can like spin this thing up real quick.
924
00:46:15.258 --> 00:46:19.081
So I used the whatever 5.6 soul or whatever the codex.
925
00:46:19.481 --> 00:46:21.083
And so I give it a prompt.
926
00:46:21.183 --> 00:46:25.967
I use Whisperflow, talk out my whole prompt, tell it I wanted to write it a little bit in the third person.
927
00:46:26.207 --> 00:46:27.728
But it wasn't a great prompt.
928
00:46:27.748 --> 00:46:31.892
It was like, to be fair, to not give myself too much credit, it was...
929
00:46:33.052 --> 00:46:38.874
It was just like first attempt, decent prompt in an account that has tons of information.
930
00:46:39.674 --> 00:46:41.375
And I told it what I wanted to do.
931
00:46:41.815 --> 00:46:43.075
It generated that site.
932
00:46:43.476 --> 00:46:47.477
And I'm like, holy cow, I don't have much to change.
933
00:46:47.597 --> 00:46:48.377
It was that good.
934
00:46:48.397 --> 00:46:49.298
So I made some copy edits.
935
00:46:49.318 --> 00:46:52.459
Did you have to remove much text or not?
936
00:46:53.159 --> 00:46:55.500
No, I mean, I made some, I just talked to it and made some copy.
937
00:46:55.520 --> 00:46:59.401
I haven't used chat much for website creation.
938
00:46:59.921 --> 00:47:02.242
And that's usually my biggest beef is like, there's too much text.
939
00:47:03.710 --> 00:47:04.371
Oh, no, no.
940
00:47:04.431 --> 00:47:08.554
But I do a lot of tech stuff because I do a lot of writing with it.
941
00:47:08.834 --> 00:47:13.678
And to write one email still takes me a long time because I just go back and forth and back and forth on it.
942
00:47:13.939 --> 00:47:16.201
So it's just got so much context from me.
943
00:47:16.601 --> 00:47:18.463
So that's probably why it got it so good.
944
00:47:19.704 --> 00:47:21.765
But I told it to scrape Google reviews.
945
00:47:21.825 --> 00:47:23.407
I told it to go get my score.
946
00:47:23.447 --> 00:47:25.188
I told it to build out all the live links.
947
00:47:25.228 --> 00:47:26.970
I told it to go to CityTurf.
948
00:47:26.990 --> 00:47:28.151
It did all the linking.
949
00:47:28.191 --> 00:47:29.011
It did everything.
950
00:47:29.031 --> 00:47:29.292
That's great.
951
00:47:29.852 --> 00:47:31.914
And so anyway, here's a question that's all right.
952
00:47:31.934 --> 00:47:32.435
We gotta go deep.
953
00:47:32.455 --> 00:47:33.015
We gotta go deep.
954
00:47:33.455 --> 00:47:33.716
Okay.
955
00:47:33.776 --> 00:47:34.016
Okay.
956
00:47:34.036 --> 00:47:34.356
Okay.
957
00:47:34.396 --> 00:47:35.477
We love, you know, rabbit trails.
958
00:47:35.537 --> 00:47:43.365
So question, do you put your words in, create a prompt and then inject that later on?
959
00:47:43.465 --> 00:47:45.427
Or do you just talk to it as it's building?
960
00:47:46.508 --> 00:47:47.869
Or do you create like a master?
961
00:47:47.909 --> 00:47:53.154
Hey, I'm going to work with you through making the prompt that then I, I one time drop it into the website.
962
00:47:54.483 --> 00:47:56.064
Oh, like have it help me create the prompt?
963
00:47:56.885 --> 00:47:57.605
I used to do that.
964
00:47:57.626 --> 00:47:58.486
I don't do that much anymore.
965
00:47:58.506 --> 00:47:58.746
Interesting.
966
00:47:58.766 --> 00:47:58.927
Okay.
967
00:47:59.087 --> 00:48:01.388
I mainly, I'm not negative on that.
968
00:48:01.408 --> 00:48:03.210
Somehow I've just sort of moved away from that.
969
00:48:04.291 --> 00:48:05.912
I literally use it so much.
970
00:48:06.933 --> 00:48:09.435
You know, like I said, that's where my whole thing last week was coming from.
971
00:48:10.624 --> 00:48:14.847
I really try to do the creative dump first because I'm getting, it was great.
972
00:48:14.967 --> 00:48:15.908
I loved your coffee.
973
00:48:16.228 --> 00:48:20.291
It was really good, but it's, but it's using copy that I have already created.
974
00:48:20.331 --> 00:48:21.352
That is my copy.
975
00:48:21.532 --> 00:48:21.632
Yeah.
976
00:48:21.672 --> 00:48:21.932
It's good.
977
00:48:21.992 --> 00:48:23.133
It's so it's, yeah.
978
00:48:23.173 --> 00:48:28.697
So that it's, it hits on these really key points that I is a part of the brand.
979
00:48:28.777 --> 00:48:30.358
I have a whole brand language guide.
980
00:48:30.819 --> 00:48:32.180
See, I'm leaving big gaps here.
981
00:48:32.200 --> 00:48:33.040
I have style guides.
982
00:48:33.320 --> 00:48:34.521
I have language guides.
983
00:48:34.561 --> 00:48:36.203
I've created all this stuff like these.
984
00:48:36.463 --> 00:48:37.664
This is what city turf says.
985
00:48:37.724 --> 00:48:38.965
This is how city turf sounds.
986
00:48:38.985 --> 00:48:39.505
Yeah.
987
00:48:39.745 --> 00:48:42.266
That's how it's able to do this so quickly.
988
00:48:42.326 --> 00:48:55.809
That's kind of a big thing to leave out actually that, that, you know, cause if I, if I walked up to a, a, uh, just Tiffany's, well, she doesn't use chat to me, but if I went to her account and prompted under her name, I'd get a lousy site problem.
989
00:48:55.849 --> 00:48:59.710
So it matters, but I know, sorry, I keep interrupting.
990
00:48:59.790 --> 00:49:00.111
You're good.
991
00:49:00.131 --> 00:49:00.411
You're good.
992
00:49:00.431 --> 00:49:00.711
You're good.
993
00:49:00.731 --> 00:49:01.311
But I saw it.
994
00:49:01.371 --> 00:49:02.451
I was like, this is so good.
995
00:49:02.811 --> 00:49:04.992
And sure enough, it's 11 o'clock, but you know what?
996
00:49:05.592 --> 00:49:07.213
We have to, we have to compete.
997
00:49:07.573 --> 00:49:09.035
So I'm like, I'm going to time myself.
998
00:49:09.055 --> 00:49:10.856
I'm going to see how fast I can make one of my own.
999
00:49:11.036 --> 00:49:12.597
Cause I knew you'd had design guides.
1000
00:49:12.757 --> 00:49:15.699
By the way, for everyone listening, we did not plan this conversation.
1001
00:49:16.039 --> 00:49:16.600
No, no.
1002
00:49:16.680 --> 00:49:18.001
I got to just see what happens here.
1003
00:49:18.761 --> 00:49:19.862
Cause I was blown away.
1004
00:49:19.882 --> 00:49:20.683
I thought you did a great job.
1005
00:49:20.943 --> 00:49:22.304
And if you did an hour, that was really good.
1006
00:49:22.324 --> 00:49:24.606
Cause I took at least an hour and a half to two hours.
1007
00:49:25.166 --> 00:49:27.928
But to your point, I think an hour, I think an hour is legit.
1008
00:49:27.948 --> 00:49:28.628
I think that's honest.
1009
00:49:28.648 --> 00:49:30.270
I don't, I think that's very, yeah.
1010
00:49:30.310 --> 00:49:30.530
Yeah.
1011
00:49:30.850 --> 00:49:32.791
For me too, it was like I had to remove some copy.
1012
00:49:32.811 --> 00:49:33.872
I had to change.
1013
00:49:34.212 --> 00:49:38.835
I feel like I do a better job than AI, like speaking the copy, the hooks, et cetera.
1014
00:49:39.575 --> 00:49:42.277
But it does a really good job at some elements of SEO.
1015
00:49:42.497 --> 00:49:45.519
So for example, I wanted to push it more in the direction of like sales copy.
1016
00:49:46.039 --> 00:49:51.923
And it was more like, hey, if you're wanting to make this SEO friendly and actually rank, you're going to want to change some of these things.
1017
00:49:51.943 --> 00:49:57.306
So I had to pull back kind of like the sales person in me and like let the SEO go a little further.
1018
00:49:57.326 --> 00:49:57.666
Yeah.
1019
00:49:58.062 --> 00:49:58.982
Oh, that's so annoying.
1020
00:49:59.262 --> 00:50:01.843
So citychurfreviews.com.
1021
00:50:01.903 --> 00:50:02.964
So you've got one now?
1022
00:50:03.044 --> 00:50:04.404
AugustaLogCareReviews.com.
1023
00:50:04.604 --> 00:50:05.045
Let's go.
1024
00:50:05.065 --> 00:50:06.085
I'm going to look it up.
1025
00:50:06.285 --> 00:50:06.845
Yeah, let's go.
1026
00:50:09.146 --> 00:50:10.186
I was more about...
1027
00:50:10.507 --> 00:50:10.927
Sorry.
1028
00:50:11.247 --> 00:50:13.948
The one piece of copy I loved about yours, I forget, use your headline.
1029
00:50:13.968 --> 00:50:15.088
It was really, really solid.
1030
00:50:15.548 --> 00:50:24.912
And then the one I've been leaning to for more broad case Augusta stuff is 100,000 Happy Customers Can't Be Wrong.
1031
00:50:25.778 --> 00:50:27.660
And so kind of leaning into that.
1032
00:50:27.920 --> 00:50:31.283
So that's some of the, I always have this list of copy I like.
1033
00:50:31.663 --> 00:50:32.924
And I ripped that off of someone.
1034
00:50:33.125 --> 00:50:33.505
I forget.
1035
00:50:34.386 --> 00:50:39.510
It was a derivative of like the billions of hamburgers served at McDonald's.
1036
00:50:39.931 --> 00:50:41.031
It can't be wrong.
1037
00:50:41.092 --> 00:50:41.932
It's been used.
1038
00:50:41.952 --> 00:50:44.835
Like I've heard, somewhere I've heard that kind of thing and I don't know where.
1039
00:50:44.855 --> 00:50:46.176
And I put the hamburger thing together.
1040
00:50:46.196 --> 00:50:47.898
I'm like, okay, we've served over 100,000.
1041
00:50:48.178 --> 00:50:49.859
And so that's kind of been my little tagline.
1042
00:50:51.200 --> 00:50:51.641
I like it.
1043
00:50:53.096 --> 00:50:57.978
Well, all of this to say what I was originally going to say is I did that city turf thing.
1044
00:50:58.018 --> 00:50:59.559
It got me like, dang, this game.
1045
00:51:00.039 --> 00:51:03.381
And I've built lots because I use Claude Design for some other stuff.
1046
00:51:03.441 --> 00:51:05.442
And so I use these tools.
1047
00:51:05.502 --> 00:51:07.503
But that was so fast.
1048
00:51:07.943 --> 00:51:12.325
I wonder if this idea that I've been thinking about for like three years, if I could work on that.
1049
00:51:12.345 --> 00:51:14.126
Well, it sent me down a rabbit trail on Friday night.
1050
00:51:14.146 --> 00:51:14.526
I worked on it.
1051
00:51:14.546 --> 00:51:15.847
I worked almost all day Saturday.
1052
00:51:15.867 --> 00:51:16.227
Yeah.
1053
00:51:16.507 --> 00:51:18.868
And this is all I was going to say.
1054
00:51:18.888 --> 00:51:20.789
I don't remember what the lead into it was.
1055
00:51:21.190 --> 00:51:28.474
I forgot that in Claude, no, in ChatGPT, I have it automatically hit my credit card every 120 bucks.
1056
00:51:31.255 --> 00:51:34.177
You get a call from Tiffany like, honey.
1057
00:51:35.137 --> 00:51:37.779
I get extra for this clothing budget this month.
1058
00:51:38.820 --> 00:51:45.165
Well, it kept saying when I was working in Claude that the team has ran out of credits, but then it just kept working.
1059
00:51:45.245 --> 00:51:45.926
I'm like, I don't.
1060
00:51:46.126 --> 00:51:46.727
This is great.
1061
00:51:47.067 --> 00:51:49.229
I have officially had the system.
1062
00:51:50.930 --> 00:51:51.130
Yeah.
1063
00:51:51.490 --> 00:51:53.352
So I ran up a $700 bill in a 24-hour period.
1064
00:51:53.372 --> 00:51:53.492
Woo!
1065
00:51:56.444 --> 00:51:57.425
I've never done that.
1066
00:51:57.485 --> 00:51:58.286
Never done that.
1067
00:51:58.406 --> 00:51:59.467
I don't even know how I did that.
1068
00:51:59.487 --> 00:52:00.649
That's amazing.
1069
00:52:02.130 --> 00:52:05.153
Not on the review site.
1070
00:52:05.173 --> 00:52:06.535
That was like, that didn't cost anything.
1071
00:52:06.575 --> 00:52:08.417
It was this other thing.
1072
00:52:08.897 --> 00:52:09.658
I've never done that.
1073
00:52:09.698 --> 00:52:12.160
So that's a little side reminder for anybody.
1074
00:52:12.180 --> 00:52:13.782
Like, don't let it off.
1075
00:52:13.802 --> 00:52:14.863
Charge your credit card.
1076
00:52:15.103 --> 00:52:17.526
I think I would have still done it because I wanted to do what I was doing.
1077
00:52:17.586 --> 00:52:19.408
But I've never done that before.
1078
00:52:19.728 --> 00:52:20.028
Oh, yeah.
1079
00:52:20.108 --> 00:52:25.012
I remember one time I was in Manus and I put to Max as a, hey, I want you to refactor the code.
1080
00:52:25.032 --> 00:52:25.812
I've made a bunch of changes.
1081
00:52:25.852 --> 00:52:26.653
I clean things up.
1082
00:52:26.693 --> 00:52:27.133
Well, that'd be.
1083
00:52:27.153 --> 00:52:29.255
And I walked away from it and like an hour.
1084
00:52:29.335 --> 00:52:30.075
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
1085
00:52:30.115 --> 00:52:31.056
Now slow down.
1086
00:52:31.596 --> 00:52:37.421
But like the Max consumes like four or five times as money tokens on their airplane.
1087
00:52:37.541 --> 00:52:39.542
OK, we have gone a solid hour.
1088
00:52:40.002 --> 00:52:41.804
And is that what you worked on?
1089
00:52:41.924 --> 00:52:42.804
Is that what you were sharing?
1090
00:52:43.625 --> 00:52:45.346
Or what else have you been working on this week?
1091
00:52:45.386 --> 00:52:46.087
No, no, no, no.
1092
00:52:47.368 --> 00:52:48.249
Oh, yeah.
1093
00:52:48.309 --> 00:52:49.190
Real fast.
1094
00:52:49.370 --> 00:52:53.014
I've had a number of friends coming through shooting videos this week.
1095
00:52:53.074 --> 00:53:00.141
So I'm trying to get ahead on my five for 50 videos because I'm being such a I'm so focused on my other stuff.
1096
00:53:00.181 --> 00:53:02.463
I'm being bad about getting my five for 50 videos.
1097
00:53:02.563 --> 00:53:04.145
What happened to your chief?
1098
00:53:04.465 --> 00:53:05.226
What was it?
1099
00:53:05.986 --> 00:53:08.509
Chief encouragement officer?
1100
00:53:08.549 --> 00:53:09.089
No, chief.
1101
00:53:10.037 --> 00:53:11.058
accountability officer.
1102
00:53:11.098 --> 00:53:13.519
The guy that's supposed to text you and tell you to get stuff done.
1103
00:53:13.639 --> 00:53:14.500
Oh, yeah.
1104
00:53:14.580 --> 00:53:15.741
A chief annoyance officer.
1105
00:53:15.781 --> 00:53:16.241
There you go.
1106
00:53:16.421 --> 00:53:17.902
I only have him doing CityTurf stuff.
1107
00:53:17.922 --> 00:53:18.422
Oh, come on.
1108
00:53:18.522 --> 00:53:21.284
Whoever you are, we need to get on the 5 for 50 train.
1109
00:53:21.344 --> 00:53:22.925
I'm going to give him the 5 for 50 eventually.
1110
00:53:23.005 --> 00:53:24.086
I just need to style.
1111
00:53:24.266 --> 00:53:25.787
CityTurf is my most important thing.
1112
00:53:25.807 --> 00:53:27.968
You can give me his number and I will help him.
1113
00:53:27.988 --> 00:53:29.549
We can get a little automation.
1114
00:53:29.569 --> 00:53:30.049
There you go.
1115
00:53:30.069 --> 00:53:30.950
There you go.
1116
00:53:31.210 --> 00:53:31.950
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1117
00:53:31.970 --> 00:53:36.132
So I have him completely focused on taking down Augusta in Texas right now.
1118
00:53:36.152 --> 00:53:36.452
There it is.
1119
00:53:36.632 --> 00:53:38.293
I don't want to distract him with 5 for 50.
1120
00:53:38.313 --> 00:53:38.593
Let's go.
1121
00:53:38.653 --> 00:53:39.253
Let's go.
1122
00:53:39.493 --> 00:53:41.374
All right.
1123
00:53:41.414 --> 00:53:42.415
So let's do the docket.
1124
00:53:42.435 --> 00:53:45.876
Depending on how long we go, maybe we'll move a few around.
1125
00:53:45.896 --> 00:53:46.676
We'll see what happens here.
1126
00:53:46.716 --> 00:53:50.878
So kind of setting these questions up for anybody listening.
1127
00:53:50.898 --> 00:53:52.959
You'll kind of hear some references to private equity.
1128
00:53:52.979 --> 00:53:56.200
I feel like we've been talking about private equity a lot, so I'm a little sensitive to that.
1129
00:53:56.220 --> 00:53:57.741
You're like, I don't care about private equity.
1130
00:53:57.761 --> 00:53:58.681
I'm not selling to private equity.
1131
00:53:58.701 --> 00:53:59.702
I'm not worried about private equity.
1132
00:54:00.422 --> 00:54:04.145
So when you hear this, like, don't like shut down your brain and say, I'm tired of listening to private.
1133
00:54:04.225 --> 00:54:09.910
I'm phrasing it this way more to kind of link back to some conversations and then talk through our businesses.
1134
00:54:09.950 --> 00:54:12.092
It's it's not really about private equity.
1135
00:54:12.332 --> 00:54:13.993
So I just wanted to kind of put that out there.
1136
00:54:14.053 --> 00:54:16.776
If so, you don't you don't like turn off the video.
1137
00:54:16.796 --> 00:54:18.837
You got to you got to feed the narrative.
1138
00:54:19.158 --> 00:54:22.460
Like the only reason I do turnarounds is to go out and buy struggling businesses.
1139
00:54:22.580 --> 00:54:23.741
Like we got to feed.
1140
00:54:24.342 --> 00:54:25.583
Oh, right, right, right, right.
1141
00:54:26.043 --> 00:54:26.524
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1142
00:54:27.364 --> 00:54:27.625
Yeah.
1143
00:54:28.505 --> 00:54:35.848
Like the early days of service autopilot, my very first clients that were in Texas, they wanted me to sign an agreement saying I wasn't going to steal all their accounts.
1144
00:54:36.068 --> 00:54:41.810
I'm like, I'm pretty sure I'm so busy just trying to make this business go.
1145
00:54:42.351 --> 00:54:46.892
I'm not going to be, you know, like, I don't know, calling Miss Smith because she's in my system.
1146
00:54:47.072 --> 00:54:50.554
So yeah, so yeah, let's feed bad narratives, silly narratives.
1147
00:54:50.634 --> 00:54:50.854
All right.
1148
00:54:51.474 --> 00:54:52.155
Okay.
1149
00:54:53.095 --> 00:54:58.077
So the question here is, and this goes back to last week, we were talking about like how much market share could you get?
1150
00:54:59.545 --> 00:55:02.347
And so we didn't really arrive at a number.
1151
00:55:02.367 --> 00:55:08.511
We said that, hey, CAC is really how you, you know, you just keep going till the CAC makes no sense.
1152
00:55:08.551 --> 00:55:09.751
But who knows what that means.
1153
00:55:10.332 --> 00:55:13.113
But there is a narrative in the private equity world.
1154
00:55:13.394 --> 00:55:15.195
And again, this is not about private equity.
1155
00:55:16.295 --> 00:55:18.557
But it does raise some interesting topics where.
1156
00:55:19.832 --> 00:55:24.814
In home services, there really isn't, and across the trades, we're not just talking green industry or past.
1157
00:55:25.534 --> 00:55:35.799
Across the trades, there's not, even in HVAC where there's been tons and tons of roll-ups, there's still no one company that is just dominant from a market share standpoint.
1158
00:55:35.819 --> 00:55:36.039
Yeah.
1159
00:55:36.679 --> 00:55:41.961
Home services is still really fragmented, meaning there's just tons of smaller companies, tons of competitors.
1160
00:55:42.001 --> 00:55:45.683
And so you might remember from last week, we used the word thesis.
1161
00:55:45.963 --> 00:55:47.483
Yeah, private equity has a thesis.
1162
00:55:47.864 --> 00:55:50.605
Well, a thesis might be it's fragmented.
1163
00:55:50.645 --> 00:55:51.785
We could roll them all up.
1164
00:55:51.825 --> 00:55:52.525
We could buy them up.
1165
00:55:52.565 --> 00:55:53.646
It's a big opportunity.
1166
00:55:54.386 --> 00:55:56.787
And there's a lot of truth in that.
1167
00:55:56.807 --> 00:55:58.048
There's just so many companies.
1168
00:55:58.088 --> 00:56:01.109
We could buy them up and build a really big, great company.
1169
00:56:01.809 --> 00:56:05.972
Another version of a thesis would be that private equity would have.
1170
00:56:06.473 --> 00:56:13.178
If anybody listens to Cody Sanchez and so many other people are talking the same line, it's, this has been predicted for a long time.
1171
00:56:13.718 --> 00:56:15.820
There's a lot of people that are going to age out in the trades.
1172
00:56:15.840 --> 00:56:16.721
They're getting older.
1173
00:56:17.081 --> 00:56:18.962
The kids are not going to turn the business over to the kids.
1174
00:56:18.982 --> 00:56:19.923
They're going to want to sell.
1175
00:56:20.023 --> 00:56:25.027
So another thesis is lots of these companies are coming to the market at some point in the future.
1176
00:56:25.507 --> 00:56:29.330
And so we'll be able to buy up a lot of these companies because owners are going to want to get out.
1177
00:56:29.350 --> 00:56:30.151
Yeah.
1178
00:56:30.291 --> 00:56:32.552
And so that's something that's happening right now.
1179
00:56:33.272 --> 00:56:38.474
So it tracks a lot of private equity to our industries, all the trades.
1180
00:56:39.195 --> 00:56:44.637
And so the question, and I'll kind of frame it as a question for Mike and I, but it's really a question for everyone.
1181
00:56:44.977 --> 00:56:51.220
It's like, as this happens, as more private equity, more investors, and again, it could be...
1182
00:56:52.040 --> 00:56:55.284
more individual people, guys selling software companies coming into the trades.
1183
00:56:55.324 --> 00:56:57.065
It could be, it doesn't have to be private equity.
1184
00:56:57.085 --> 00:57:02.751
We always just use private equity to represent the idea that money is coming in.
1185
00:57:02.932 --> 00:57:08.037
Like now people from all kinds of other businesses could be saying, hey, I wanna now own a business in the trades.
1186
00:57:08.057 --> 00:57:10.119
This could come from anywhere, not just private equity.
1187
00:57:10.139 --> 00:57:13.282
But as these people and this money comes in,
1188
00:57:14.632 --> 00:57:20.176
it does create a lot more competition and maybe more sophisticated competition for Augusta, for CityTurf.
1189
00:57:20.676 --> 00:57:26.541
So how do our companies and how do your companies compete with this money and sophistication that's coming in?
1190
00:57:27.221 --> 00:57:29.963
And maybe two ways to think about this is one, how do we compete?
1191
00:57:29.983 --> 00:57:30.724
But another one is,
1192
00:57:31.585 --> 00:57:33.447
We've very lightly talked on this.
1193
00:57:34.348 --> 00:57:35.969
Is this good, bad?
1194
00:57:36.029 --> 00:57:36.770
Does it matter?
1195
00:57:37.210 --> 00:57:38.912
Is this something to even care about?
1196
00:57:40.534 --> 00:57:44.117
And this is a big framing, but I want to take it one step further.
1197
00:57:44.497 --> 00:57:48.501
A lot of people know Tommy Mello, know who he is, like him, look up to him.
1198
00:57:48.821 --> 00:57:50.103
Tommy Mello is private equity.
1199
00:57:50.383 --> 00:57:52.305
Tommy Mello is exactly what people don't like.
1200
00:57:53.470 --> 00:57:56.775
And so, I mean, I like Tommy.
1201
00:57:56.815 --> 00:57:57.456
No, no, no.
1202
00:57:57.956 --> 00:57:58.617
But he's done.
1203
00:57:58.677 --> 00:58:00.199
He's a it's still a found.
1204
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:03.744
But people will say private equity is bad, but they like Tommy.
1205
00:58:04.265 --> 00:58:06.728
And the difference is Tommy's still leading his company.
1206
00:58:06.928 --> 00:58:07.770
I'm not knocking the guy.
1207
00:58:07.810 --> 00:58:08.851
He's sharp.
1208
00:58:09.071 --> 00:58:09.252
OK.
1209
00:58:09.732 --> 00:58:09.952
All right.
1210
00:58:10.052 --> 00:58:14.574
So, but, but you do have, you can hold two competing ideas in your head.
1211
00:58:14.614 --> 00:58:17.496
You can dislike private equity, but you like Tommy, he's private equity.
1212
00:58:18.036 --> 00:58:18.336
Okay.
1213
00:58:18.476 --> 00:58:26.060
And so, but, and the reason I bring him up is he's probably the single best example of somebody that's really moving fast and doing a big thing.
1214
00:58:26.620 --> 00:58:30.362
And so if you think about his thing, is he hurting the garage door industry?
1215
00:58:30.762 --> 00:58:32.983
Is he hurting the small garage door companies?
1216
00:58:33.003 --> 00:58:33.383
Yeah.
1217
00:58:34.242 --> 00:58:35.022
Does he matter?
1218
00:58:35.183 --> 00:58:36.743
Like, is it bad for the industry?
1219
00:58:37.504 --> 00:58:39.044
And so that's kind of a way to think about it.
1220
00:58:39.064 --> 00:58:42.366
Because if you picture a Tommy, what if there's a Tommy in your industry?
1221
00:58:42.386 --> 00:58:45.708
Because most people can't picture somebody, but they can picture him.
1222
00:58:46.148 --> 00:58:48.469
And you see he's spreading out across states.
1223
00:58:48.489 --> 00:58:49.710
He's buying up companies.
1224
00:58:49.730 --> 00:58:51.371
He's going fast.
1225
00:58:51.511 --> 00:58:53.092
They're really good at selling.
1226
00:58:53.952 --> 00:58:54.793
They're aggressive.
1227
00:58:54.813 --> 00:58:56.073
They have a huge marketing budget.
1228
00:58:56.093 --> 00:58:56.994
They know their data.
1229
00:58:57.234 --> 00:58:58.114
They do technology.
1230
00:58:58.134 --> 00:58:59.055
They do all the stuff.
1231
00:58:59.415 --> 00:59:03.277
So when I frame this question, Tommy's coming to compete with you, whatever trade you're in.
1232
00:59:04.131 --> 00:59:04.972
Are you worried about that?
1233
00:59:06.715 --> 00:59:07.637
And how do we think about this?
1234
00:59:07.657 --> 00:59:09.840
So that's kind of the big setup here.
1235
00:59:09.900 --> 00:59:10.602
How do you think about that?
1236
00:59:11.603 --> 00:59:13.684
Yeah, so a couple things came to mind.
1237
00:59:13.764 --> 00:59:16.706
I was looking at the question slightly different, but I think it still works really good.
1238
00:59:17.206 --> 00:59:26.130
And that is my biggest qualm with private equity in general, again, I'm talking generalities, is their time horizon.
1239
00:59:27.291 --> 00:59:39.157
And many times because the fund needs to sell or get ready for the next time they sell the business or turn it or raise another fund, that's usually five years, maybe seven.
1240
00:59:40.157 --> 00:59:40.317
And-
1241
00:59:41.498 --> 00:59:48.503
I feel like a lot of times it leads to the perverse incentives of cutting support, going very aggressive on marketing, etc.
1242
00:59:49.163 --> 00:59:51.745
And then someone's left holding the bag.
1243
00:59:52.065 --> 00:59:59.370
And I think your point about Tommy and like, would you want that in your hometown or in your industry is a really good way to frame it.
1244
01:00:00.070 --> 01:00:14.095
And I think the part that I would say for that specific example is like, I think Tommy has done a good job of showing what is needed to make a great technician when it comes to training them and the amount that they invest into their training.
1245
01:00:14.456 --> 01:00:19.397
Now, someone could argue that they have all the money so they can invest six weeks of training into a new garage door technician.
1246
01:00:19.678 --> 01:00:25.460
But my question is for the person that's next door and thinking that's a bad thing is how much are you how much are you training your new technicians?
1247
01:00:26.220 --> 01:00:30.802
Are you training them on how to do the work, how to talk to the customer, what to say, what not to say?
1248
01:00:30.962 --> 01:00:36.004
They spend six weeks and fly them from around the country to go to the headquarter building for six weeks.
1249
01:00:36.824 --> 01:00:50.330
And so when I look at is it good for the industry, if that forces the local competition to say, I'm going to spend a little more time training my technicians so they talk to the customer better, they know how to do the work better, they don't do shoddy work,
1250
01:00:51.220 --> 01:00:52.301
I think that's good for the industry.
1251
01:00:52.922 --> 01:01:01.730
I don't know specifically that case, like garage doors example, is I don't know if he's putting pressure downwards on pricing or if he's pushing people out of the market.
1252
01:01:01.810 --> 01:01:04.492
I doubt he's putting pressure on pricing, but I don't know, yeah.
1253
01:01:04.612 --> 01:01:10.097
And so that part I don't know, but I think when I think about professionalism, what do I expect from my garage door tech?
1254
01:01:10.438 --> 01:01:13.521
If someone like that moves into town, I do think as a broad stroke,
1255
01:01:13.981 --> 01:01:15.682
the overall industry's perception.
1256
01:01:15.702 --> 01:01:22.987
When I'm training the technicians, I show up in a wrap truck, I'm insured, I make sure I do a good quality job, I ask a review, I can talk to the customer.
1257
01:01:23.267 --> 01:01:26.470
I think that's good for the industry and that's where my mind generally goes.
1258
01:01:27.532 --> 01:01:31.635
I think how to beat that person is usually having a longer term horizon.
1259
01:01:31.995 --> 01:01:35.278
And now I'm not talking about Tommy specifically because he's still involved.
1260
01:01:35.538 --> 01:01:39.601
But if a private equity company comes in directly, they put a different CEO and they take out the founder.
1261
01:01:39.861 --> 01:01:47.426
The way I compete with them is I think in terms of 20 to 40 years, I'm not thinking about two to three years, cutting every single thing possible.
1262
01:01:48.227 --> 01:01:54.871
Like you mentioned last week, the last two points on the P&L of killing the culture, sharpening the pencil so much.
1263
01:01:55.451 --> 01:01:59.534
I think that we lean into our unique selling proposition that PE can't do.
1264
01:01:59.554 --> 01:02:01.375
Like PE can have lower prices.
1265
01:02:01.395 --> 01:02:03.496
They can compete with us and lose a bunch of money.
1266
01:02:03.516 --> 01:02:04.957
They can have a huge marketing budget.
1267
01:02:04.977 --> 01:02:09.220
So they win the mind share of our audience because they're in front of them all the time.
1268
01:02:09.860 --> 01:02:19.683
But like, if your unique selling proposition is you have personal service, you've been in that area for 20, 30 years and have good connections with a lot of the locals, your social media is local.
1269
01:02:19.783 --> 01:02:21.664
It's not this branded national thing.
1270
01:02:21.904 --> 01:02:26.645
It's the biggest thing we struggle with at Augusta is like, we have to create marketing for 200 locations.
1271
01:02:27.406 --> 01:02:29.086
If you're in the local market, you're like, that's a threat.
1272
01:02:29.166 --> 01:02:34.748
You know, you can create social media that has Main Street and shows your city hall.
1273
01:02:35.388 --> 01:02:36.068
I can't do that.
1274
01:02:36.609 --> 01:02:37.289
And so I think...
1275
01:02:38.169 --> 01:02:40.272
To answer the original question, like how do you compete with them?
1276
01:02:40.793 --> 01:02:48.384
It's you lean into unique selling proposition and have a longer term horizon in terms of when you want benefit to be returning back from you.
1277
01:02:48.504 --> 01:02:50.907
And it's not three or four or five years or this quarter.
1278
01:02:51.588 --> 01:02:53.591
It is a much longer term horizon.
1279
01:02:54.733 --> 01:02:54.833
Yeah.
1280
01:02:54.853 --> 01:02:54.973
Yeah.
1281
01:02:55.593 --> 01:02:56.133
Yeah, I agree.
1282
01:02:57.194 --> 01:03:01.116
I don't really worry too terribly much for the smaller companies.
1283
01:03:01.296 --> 01:03:09.360
And the reason I don't worry for the smaller companies is that, especially the guy in a truck, a guy with a couple crews, it's very much about what you said.
1284
01:03:09.400 --> 01:03:10.221
It's about local.
1285
01:03:10.641 --> 01:03:17.145
The stuff I bet on back in the early days of CityTurf quality and high customer service, I think that continues to win.
1286
01:03:17.165 --> 01:03:17.265
Yeah.
1287
01:03:18.025 --> 01:03:20.828
I think it's one of your most defensive plays.
1288
01:03:21.288 --> 01:03:27.934
The localization, as you said, everything, you know, a brand, as I like to think about it, is basically just doing what you say you're going to do.
1289
01:03:28.274 --> 01:03:30.576
So figuring out what is our brand promise?
1290
01:03:30.616 --> 01:03:31.577
What is it as a company?
1291
01:03:32.037 --> 01:03:34.079
And you know, it doesn't even have to be worded that complicated.
1292
01:03:34.119 --> 01:03:35.560
It's like, what do we promise as a company?
1293
01:03:35.900 --> 01:03:42.967
What are the things we promise we'll give you as our client, as trusting us and trying us and going with us and then actually doing it?
1294
01:03:43.567 --> 01:03:48.008
And so many companies break that trust or inconsistent in that trust.
1295
01:03:48.448 --> 01:03:52.189
And that's what hurts their reputation over a longer period of time.
1296
01:03:52.409 --> 01:04:02.051
To your point, if you have a long time horizon, then you are very focused on never breaking that trust, never breaking that brand promise, because that's all you got.
1297
01:04:02.571 --> 01:04:07.672
And if you build that and you just you hire to that and you fire to that, you do all that.
1298
01:04:07.692 --> 01:04:11.553
Like it sort of in my mind takes care of itself to a degree.
1299
01:04:11.573 --> 01:04:11.673
Yeah.
1300
01:04:12.533 --> 01:04:25.300
And but as you get to become a bigger company, you know, this is where the P coming in, especially a P company still ran by the founder who's able to kind of keep the original culture and feel of the company.
1301
01:04:27.601 --> 01:04:31.523
You know, the increased marketing spend is a real problem, is my opinion.
1302
01:04:31.543 --> 01:04:33.885
I think that is a real legitimate challenge.
1303
01:04:34.625 --> 01:04:36.086
And so it's something I do think about.
1304
01:04:37.608 --> 01:04:53.434
Yeah, one thing I was thinking about, and I take this question slightly differently, but I think it's still in this world, is like one thing I think private equity kind of underestimates when it comes to home services is, for example, in software,
1305
01:04:54.114 --> 01:05:07.325
I can come in, blitz the market, spend gobs of money on marketing, overspend my CAC like crazy, but then I can immediately, down the road, I can cut marketing expenses, I can cut support, and I can make a profitable business.
1306
01:05:07.826 --> 01:05:14.591
And I think they might be underestimating that our biggest cost is labor, and you can't just turn labor off.
1307
01:05:15.052 --> 01:05:16.173
Like, it is a direct cost.
1308
01:05:16.233 --> 01:05:22.318
It's not, like, direct cost in software is running the servers, it's the actual, you know,
1309
01:05:22.898 --> 01:05:27.484
storage of the data, maybe some, like, it's not the engineers.
1310
01:05:27.524 --> 01:05:28.485
The engineers can get cut.
1311
01:05:28.765 --> 01:05:34.011
And so if I can reduce headcount in a software business, I can make my profit margins skyrocket.
1312
01:05:34.432 --> 01:05:39.397
In home services, if you cut your business expense, which is your labor, you can't keep revenue going up.
1313
01:05:40.058 --> 01:05:51.826
And so I think that's where I feel like sometimes I've seen some of these roll ups not do great or they don't have great financial performance is they're expecting to juice the marketing, get customers, keep them for a long time.
1314
01:05:51.866 --> 01:05:59.051
But they'll be able to cut somewhere and 40 percent, 50 percent of your revenue is going out the door to wages and you can't cut that.
1315
01:05:59.071 --> 01:06:00.292
Like it's a direct cost.
1316
01:06:00.372 --> 01:06:03.894
It's very different than software where labor doesn't fall underneath cogs.
1317
01:06:04.474 --> 01:06:06.276
And so I think that might be.
1318
01:06:07.400 --> 01:06:16.526
something that they are somewhat misattributing, and they can cut the salaries or even management or technicians, and then somehow they're going to keep them around.
1319
01:06:17.107 --> 01:06:18.788
It's not a spreadsheet.
1320
01:06:18.868 --> 01:06:24.992
These technicians are not going to take a huge pay cut, and if you're going to overpay them for some period of time, you can't cut their wages.
1321
01:06:25.012 --> 01:06:29.535
When was the last time we cut wages and we thought the culture was going to go well?
1322
01:06:29.856 --> 01:06:32.157
You can't scale up and down labor super fast.
1323
01:06:32.738 --> 01:06:33.758
You just cannot do it.
1324
01:06:33.919 --> 01:06:35.680
Until you have robots from Jonathan.
1325
01:06:35.700 --> 01:06:35.800
Yeah.
1326
01:06:36.260 --> 01:06:37.522
Yeah, yeah, for me.
1327
01:06:37.662 --> 01:06:38.342
It won't be for me.
1328
01:06:38.803 --> 01:06:40.505
I'm just hoping somebody else.
1329
01:06:40.585 --> 01:06:42.607
Well, along those lines, too, another thing.
1330
01:06:43.829 --> 01:06:45.791
And again, we'll go back to tactics here in a second.
1331
01:06:46.211 --> 01:06:51.758
In, say, software strategy, enterprise software strategy, you can come in and take market share
1332
01:06:53.118 --> 01:06:54.699
And then you get lock-in.
1333
01:06:55.379 --> 01:07:01.802
Once you've got somebody on the platform, it's really hard to switch depending on what that platform is.
1334
01:07:01.962 --> 01:07:03.983
And so you can raise prices.
1335
01:07:04.943 --> 01:07:08.905
And also, if you run that playbook for long enough...
1336
01:07:09.725 --> 01:07:17.309
You could become such the dominant name in software that there really aren't even that many alternatives anymore that can do what you do.
1337
01:07:17.989 --> 01:07:20.751
And so you have this pricing power to keep raising prices.
1338
01:07:20.871 --> 01:07:23.092
I don't believe you have that pricing power in home services.
1339
01:07:23.712 --> 01:07:24.233
Switching costs.
1340
01:07:24.253 --> 01:07:24.793
The idea...
1341
01:07:25.883 --> 01:07:32.265
Yeah, like the idea that you can just go double your prices overnight, that's what people say that aren't in the business.
1342
01:07:32.285 --> 01:07:42.468
Like it's, that's what teeny, anyway, it's just not possible for a big ginormous company at scale or you will just create massive amounts of churn.
1343
01:07:42.968 --> 01:07:45.269
And so you can't run those same playbooks.
1344
01:07:46.109 --> 01:07:53.412
And so back to the tactics, I think it's the same, like to give people comfort that worry about this stuff
1345
01:07:54.823 --> 01:08:08.029
it's the same way you prevent being disrupted by a great competitor coming into your market, is the same way you build a really great company that you like and want to own for a long time, is the same way you build a company that can be sold.
1346
01:08:08.049 --> 01:08:10.150
It's like it's all the same stuff.
1347
01:08:10.170 --> 01:08:10.470
Yeah.
1348
01:08:11.072 --> 01:08:22.858
And it's just the basics of being really great at recruiting people, being really great at taking care of people, being really great at helping people see why they want to be at your company and legitimately want to be there.
1349
01:08:23.158 --> 01:08:33.543
And then doing the exact same thing with the clients, running a really great operational team, having really great people, being thoughtful about how you do raise prices and when you raise prices, being thoughtful about what you do and don't do.
1350
01:08:33.683 --> 01:08:34.924
All this stuff we always talk about.
1351
01:08:35.744 --> 01:08:39.205
Great customer service, great quality, inspecting the work.
1352
01:08:41.046 --> 01:08:42.347
That is the playbook.
1353
01:08:42.527 --> 01:08:46.728
And it doesn't actually change at all because competition is coming into the market.
1354
01:08:47.248 --> 01:08:56.152
But what does change is that you might have been able to coast when it comes to sales and marketing.
1355
01:08:57.020 --> 01:09:10.872
Meaning that you could grow this thing by referrals slowly over time, get some reviews, ask for some referrals, wait for the word of mouth, do a little bit of this and a little bit of that from an ad standpoint.
1356
01:09:11.493 --> 01:09:12.974
And you just sort of grow.
1357
01:09:13.154 --> 01:09:18.959
And that does, I think, when there's more and more and more competition and good competition, that doesn't work as well anymore.
1358
01:09:19.159 --> 01:09:22.443
It still works, but it just doesn't get you the business you want.
1359
01:09:22.463 --> 01:09:24.605
You plateau faster and you get stuck.
1360
01:09:24.945 --> 01:09:35.316
And so I think the biggest thing that happens when these types of companies come into the market is you need to learn how to do the marketing side and you need to step up your sales game.
1361
01:09:35.877 --> 01:09:37.439
I don't think you need to be hardcore sales.
1362
01:09:37.659 --> 01:09:39.721
Actually, I'd like to talk about that just a little bit before we move on.
1363
01:09:39.761 --> 01:09:42.603
But you need to step out for your sales and marketing game.
1364
01:09:42.623 --> 01:09:46.087
Because if you don't, that's where I think most companies will get hurt.
1365
01:09:46.547 --> 01:09:50.851
Most guys that just want to build a one or two truck business, that's a different story.
1366
01:09:50.891 --> 01:09:51.271
Because...
1367
01:09:51.872 --> 01:09:53.613
That requires so few clients.
1368
01:09:54.053 --> 01:10:06.177
You can build those businesses to two trucks, and then you can just start letting the lesser quality clients fall off and bringing in the next client at the higher price, and you just slowly keep improving this business.
1369
01:10:06.857 --> 01:10:19.181
You don't have the risk I'm talking about, but the guys that are wanting to build bigger in the market, this kind of competition massively changes how critical it is to learn your marketing and sales skills.
1370
01:10:19.261 --> 01:10:21.202
Back to our hot takes coming to fruition.
1371
01:10:21.882 --> 01:10:27.667
You're not going to be able to compete with CitySurf when it has hot air balloons and it has its logo on the SpaceX launch.
1372
01:10:27.767 --> 01:10:28.467
I'm just telling you.
1373
01:10:29.468 --> 01:10:29.909
That's true.
1374
01:10:29.949 --> 01:10:31.570
It's going to be very, very difficult.
1375
01:10:34.172 --> 01:10:37.234
Actually, when I was talking there, it did make me think of something.
1376
01:10:37.275 --> 01:10:43.880
Where do you stand on the typical homeowner...
1377
01:10:45.365 --> 01:10:46.847
Do people care about door knocking?
1378
01:10:46.947 --> 01:10:47.667
I got a point here.
1379
01:10:47.707 --> 01:10:48.889
I just, it's not really a point.
1380
01:10:48.929 --> 01:10:49.389
It's a question.
1381
01:10:49.469 --> 01:10:50.250
It's a legit question.
1382
01:10:50.270 --> 01:10:54.975
Like, do you think that people are annoyed by door hangers, dislike door hangers?
1383
01:10:55.015 --> 01:10:57.037
Do people, it's like indifferent, don't care.
1384
01:10:57.077 --> 01:10:58.479
They just ignore it if they don't want to talk to them.
1385
01:10:58.499 --> 01:10:59.480
Door hangers are door knocking.
1386
01:11:00.685 --> 01:11:01.625
Sorry, door knocking.
1387
01:11:01.665 --> 01:11:01.865
Okay.
1388
01:11:02.025 --> 01:11:06.306
It's like, and it's because one of the things, like say in pest control, there's just so much door knocking.
1389
01:11:06.406 --> 01:11:11.467
I personally think they're highly annoying, except that I love to engage with them because I'm in the business.
1390
01:11:11.527 --> 01:11:14.688
Like I want to know, you know, I want to talk to them, but otherwise I can't stand door knocking.
1391
01:11:15.348 --> 01:11:19.989
And my wife can't stand it, but do people care enough that does it ever hurt their reputations?
1392
01:11:20.349 --> 01:11:25.590
Like if you built a door knocking company versus a non-door knocking company with purely marketing driven,
1393
01:11:26.830 --> 01:11:32.455
Over the long term, is the non-door knocking company liked better in the marketplace over a long time horizon?
1394
01:11:32.955 --> 01:11:35.737
Same question, because these are the same question.
1395
01:11:36.237 --> 01:11:37.258
HVAC comes in.
1396
01:11:37.278 --> 01:11:38.039
I'm sorry.
1397
01:11:38.099 --> 01:11:39.079
Private equity comes in.
1398
01:11:39.460 --> 01:11:40.561
They buy up HVAC.
1399
01:11:40.581 --> 01:11:41.221
They buy up plumbing.
1400
01:11:41.261 --> 01:11:41.962
What do you do?
1401
01:11:42.722 --> 01:11:45.324
You make all your technician salespeople.
1402
01:11:45.424 --> 01:11:46.985
They're selling everything.
1403
01:11:47.405 --> 01:11:49.667
Unit doesn't really need to be changed yet, but you know what?
1404
01:11:49.687 --> 01:11:50.727
It's probably gonna go out in a couple years.
1405
01:11:51.008 --> 01:11:51.708
Buy it today.
1406
01:11:51.788 --> 01:11:55.731
Like it's that kind of, like they are just pushing to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell.
1407
01:11:56.291 --> 01:12:04.297
And I, when I talk to like friends and people, like there's names in my market, like people are getting more and more and more turned off to those companies.
1408
01:12:05.283 --> 01:12:11.144
So where I'm going, and that's usually what comes when private equity, again, we're picking on private equity.
1409
01:12:11.164 --> 01:12:18.246
I'm just talking about, we're using it to this whole idea of money's pouring into a company to grow it as fast as you could possibly grow it.
1410
01:12:18.266 --> 01:12:20.026
However that money comes, wherever it comes from.
1411
01:12:20.726 --> 01:12:22.787
Do you think that that kind of stuff matters at all?
1412
01:12:24.127 --> 01:12:28.408
I'm not sure if door knocking hurts the company or not over the long term.
1413
01:12:28.866 --> 01:12:36.468
One point you've made that I have constantly thought about the past several weeks is the unmeasurable chipping away at the brand reputation.
1414
01:12:36.928 --> 01:12:37.948
It's hard to quantify.
1415
01:12:38.428 --> 01:12:41.169
If you go out and knock doors, you will make more business.
1416
01:12:41.189 --> 01:12:41.609
100%.
1417
01:12:42.189 --> 01:12:44.350
Hard to argue with that.
1418
01:12:44.450 --> 01:12:46.510
If you go knock on a thousand doors, you will make more money.
1419
01:12:47.071 --> 01:12:49.411
So how am I going to tell you that that's not a good thing for your business?
1420
01:12:49.811 --> 01:12:51.812
Would I rather you do that than nothing?
1421
01:12:51.852 --> 01:12:52.092
Yes.
1422
01:12:52.112 --> 01:12:52.192
Yes.
1423
01:12:52.887 --> 01:12:59.815
However, what does that do for the long-term brand reputation for the 995 people that said no and hated your guts?
1424
01:13:01.003 --> 01:13:09.208
Will you always have to rely on identifying the problem for the customer because your brand reputation is so weak that when they have a problem, they would never call you.
1425
01:13:09.788 --> 01:13:11.749
And I think that takes a long time to catch up.
1426
01:13:11.869 --> 01:13:19.434
It takes five or 10 years until everyone in your market that needs your service, that's okay with that kind of thing happening, has already done business with you.
1427
01:13:19.774 --> 01:13:25.217
And everyone else that is in the market and becomes problem aware doesn't call you because they hate your guts.
1428
01:13:26.178 --> 01:13:26.358
Yeah.
1429
01:13:27.892 --> 01:13:31.940
It's just so hard because I know what it's like to visit because it has no money and then needs to go knock on the doors.
1430
01:13:32.761 --> 01:13:34.665
But I also think that...
1431
01:13:36.407 --> 01:13:38.088
People want to come buy from you.
1432
01:13:38.429 --> 01:13:41.111
And this is why everyone thought that retail was going to die.
1433
01:13:41.131 --> 01:13:44.453
But at the end of the day, we like it because you go to a place and I expect to buy.
1434
01:13:45.274 --> 01:13:47.096
I willingly walked into this mall.
1435
01:13:47.816 --> 01:13:48.937
I will buy what I want.
1436
01:13:49.317 --> 01:13:51.299
And I don't have people coming up to me and trying to sell me stuff.
1437
01:13:51.459 --> 01:13:54.942
You hate it when you go to a store and they're all just harassing you.
1438
01:13:54.962 --> 01:13:56.263
You hate that too.
1439
01:13:56.383 --> 01:13:59.466
So you love the idea that I opted into this experience.
1440
01:14:00.346 --> 01:14:02.288
And I can make the choice.
1441
01:14:02.768 --> 01:14:05.290
When you come on my property, you're invading my privacy.
1442
01:14:05.530 --> 01:14:12.115
And I think even with like ring doorbells and like even AI stuff coming, people are going to become more and more aware of this privacy thing.
1443
01:14:14.677 --> 01:14:15.277
Data centers.
1444
01:14:16.298 --> 01:14:18.940
And I think it's to your point.
1445
01:14:19.040 --> 01:14:20.641
It's just another thing that erodes the trust.
1446
01:14:20.861 --> 01:14:22.923
And I think it takes a while to catch up, but eventually it does.
1447
01:14:23.744 --> 01:14:26.746
I also think it's a delivery of when you knock on the door, what are you saying?
1448
01:14:26.766 --> 01:14:27.046
Yeah.
1449
01:14:27.710 --> 01:14:28.931
Yeah, I totally agree with that.
1450
01:14:28.991 --> 01:14:33.293
So I'm... Yeah, I just sometimes wonder if I'm thinking about it wrong.
1451
01:14:33.593 --> 01:14:44.198
My theory for many years now has been, boy, door knocking is a really fantastic way to launch the business, but very quickly pivot it to... Like, can I get the business to scale fast enough to be able to hold...
1452
01:14:45.483 --> 01:14:51.228
afford an operational type person in my business and then pivot the whole thing to marketing driven and away from door knocking.
1453
01:14:51.348 --> 01:15:03.379
I don't, I just, I worry about the longterm effects, but I also worry about the longterm effects of this, like half the guys on the internet that are, you know, there's a lot of guys that are just teaching sell, sell hard sales.
1454
01:15:03.439 --> 01:15:04.360
And I, it works.
1455
01:15:04.480 --> 01:15:05.982
I, it all works, but,
1456
01:15:07.133 --> 01:15:09.734
my goodness, do you not pay a price eventually in the market?
1457
01:15:10.574 --> 01:15:11.835
I don't want to go to most car.
1458
01:15:12.075 --> 01:15:15.036
Sometimes Tiffany will be like, hey, I want to see what that car looks like before we buy it.
1459
01:15:15.756 --> 01:15:21.058
I was like, well, that's cool for you because I'm going to be the guy they call trying to sell the car to.
1460
01:15:21.339 --> 01:15:27.321
You get a... Or she wants to go... We were in Wyoming and she's like, hey, let's go do this walkthrough in this house.
1461
01:15:28.078 --> 01:15:32.580
And it's like, no, because I'm going to have to then talk to these people and tell them I'm not buying your house.
1462
01:15:32.600 --> 01:15:33.301
You don't want to be sold.
1463
01:15:33.321 --> 01:15:38.704
That's when you give them the one digit off on your cell phone number.
1464
01:15:39.084 --> 01:15:42.146
I just, I'm not that guy, I guess.
1465
01:15:42.186 --> 01:15:44.427
But anyway, my point is,
1466
01:15:45.929 --> 01:15:49.915
I've wondered, this is kind of maybe a selfish conversation, but hopefully it's a value to other people.
1467
01:15:49.995 --> 01:15:51.918
I was like, what is the fine line on this stuff?
1468
01:15:51.958 --> 01:15:54.301
And I think about it a lot, even with the sales.
1469
01:15:54.522 --> 01:15:58.287
Selling on the phone, constantly upselling, pressure at the front door.
1470
01:15:58.608 --> 01:16:00.410
Like a lot of this stuff where it's like, it...
1471
01:16:01.886 --> 01:16:04.828
if they're really, really good at selling, it feels like aversion to pressure.
1472
01:16:05.449 --> 01:16:07.771
So how does that even degrade the brand over time?
1473
01:16:08.151 --> 01:16:09.172
And I don't know how to think about it.
1474
01:16:09.412 --> 01:16:15.437
Yeah, and unfortunately, I think the person that has the most money can get in the places where the customer's already at and get in front of them.
1475
01:16:15.977 --> 01:16:17.898
Like to your point, someone can come in and just spend a bunch of money.
1476
01:16:18.159 --> 01:16:30.428
They're gonna do it in ways that are typically scalable, like Facebook ads or Google ads or billboards, where the customer feels like they are opting into something when they're problem aware because they've seen that messaging so many times over and over and over again.
1477
01:16:30.728 --> 01:16:35.330
And even a comment you made the other day and someone made a comment about it.
1478
01:16:35.811 --> 01:16:43.875
And that was about you reaching the spouse of the decision maker or the other decision maker via a different channel.
1479
01:16:44.175 --> 01:16:47.596
So, for example, putting a postcard to the person that called in.
1480
01:16:47.616 --> 01:16:50.618
But you need to hit you need to get to the husband and get in front of them.
1481
01:16:50.638 --> 01:16:50.758
Yeah.
1482
01:16:51.458 --> 01:16:57.261
And that again, when they called you back and said yes, they felt like they opted into it.
1483
01:16:57.421 --> 01:16:58.142
That relationship.
1484
01:16:58.162 --> 01:16:58.702
Yeah.
1485
01:16:58.802 --> 01:17:07.105
And it wasn't some sort of coercion or sales tactic that now when someone said yes at the front door, now they're being held responsible in front of their spouse for saying, why did you do that?
1486
01:17:07.665 --> 01:17:09.506
And it's just so hard to quantify.
1487
01:17:09.526 --> 01:17:11.227
It's like brand in general is hard to quantify.
1488
01:17:11.747 --> 01:17:15.908
Like you can quantify revenue, you can quantify customers, but what's your brand this month?
1489
01:17:16.308 --> 01:17:17.309
What's your brand score?
1490
01:17:17.889 --> 01:17:18.669
It doesn't exist.
1491
01:17:19.229 --> 01:17:25.572
And so it's very hard to objectively tell someone they should not do it, but it's one of those things that chips away.
1492
01:17:27.027 --> 01:17:27.608
Yeah.
1493
01:17:28.028 --> 01:17:29.690
Last thing, go back to prepays.
1494
01:17:29.710 --> 01:17:30.631
We've talked about prepays.
1495
01:17:31.952 --> 01:17:32.953
Why do you have...
1496
01:17:32.973 --> 01:17:41.621
This may be the reason why you need a prepay because you forced them at the door to buy because of the high pressure sell and you're afraid that they didn't make this choice.
1497
01:17:41.661 --> 01:17:42.763
They got pressured into it.
1498
01:17:43.083 --> 01:17:44.244
They were afraid to say no.
1499
01:17:44.985 --> 01:17:48.028
I've had Tiffany buy a couple of things over time.
1500
01:17:48.958 --> 01:17:49.979
Well, I'll give you an example.
1501
01:17:50.019 --> 01:17:56.524
We were walking in, this wasn't recent, another time we were in Jackson Hole, walking down the street, and this lady pressure, like, gets her.
1502
01:17:56.804 --> 01:17:57.405
She's so good.
1503
01:17:57.445 --> 01:17:58.746
Jonathan, stop going to Jackson Hole.
1504
01:17:58.766 --> 01:18:00.708
It sounds like you just get a whole bunch of salespeople on you.
1505
01:18:01.780 --> 01:18:03.382
We need a house, you need a car.
1506
01:18:04.223 --> 01:18:05.704
Yeah, we like Jacksonville.
1507
01:18:05.925 --> 01:18:10.350
Anyway, but case in point, again, brand and reputation.
1508
01:18:10.970 --> 01:18:15.255
The lady did such a good job pulling Tiffany off the sidewalk into the store.
1509
01:18:15.956 --> 01:18:18.218
And Tiffany, the lady pressured her.
1510
01:18:18.699 --> 01:18:21.242
And then she and I was like, I'm not going in there.
1511
01:18:21.302 --> 01:18:22.123
And I just kept walking.
1512
01:18:22.603 --> 01:18:24.445
I'm like, I'm not going in this store.
1513
01:18:24.485 --> 01:18:25.626
I'm not part of this whole thing.
1514
01:18:25.666 --> 01:18:26.908
I'm hoping Tiffany will just come out.
1515
01:18:27.188 --> 01:18:32.614
So anyway, Tiffany comes out and she ends up, she had just, she had spent $700 for a face cream.
1516
01:18:33.014 --> 01:18:33.295
Wow.
1517
01:18:33.515 --> 01:18:37.799
And she didn't really at the moment realize, somehow she's like, I didn't realize I was spending $700.
1518
01:18:38.280 --> 01:18:39.281
Then she's unhappy.
1519
01:18:39.301 --> 01:18:39.601
Oh, wow.
1520
01:18:40.382 --> 01:18:42.963
And so we've been back to Jackson Hole many times since.
1521
01:18:43.023 --> 01:18:44.624
She's walking to the other side of the street.
1522
01:18:45.325 --> 01:18:47.366
She does not like that store.
1523
01:18:47.506 --> 01:18:52.829
And so like that kind of is like if somebody were to ever say to us, hey, if we live there, we'd say never go there.
1524
01:18:52.849 --> 01:18:53.469
Don't even talk.
1525
01:18:53.509 --> 01:18:54.570
Don't even talk to those people.
1526
01:18:55.368 --> 01:19:00.414
It's another example of even going too far with the selling, like turns people off.
1527
01:19:00.454 --> 01:19:03.318
So we're really kind of out on the edges here.
1528
01:19:03.378 --> 01:19:08.885
But I do think it's something that you really have to think about and toe this fine line.
1529
01:19:08.945 --> 01:19:10.186
And I just don't quite...
1530
01:19:11.007 --> 01:19:14.011
know how, I don't know how you know how far to push it.
1531
01:19:14.071 --> 01:19:14.251
Yeah.
1532
01:19:14.792 --> 01:19:19.637
It's the same thing with me having with like media is like, how many times do I ask for the sale?
1533
01:19:19.958 --> 01:19:21.480
How many times do I mention my stuff?
1534
01:19:21.860 --> 01:19:24.123
How many times do you put a banner up that says something?
1535
01:19:24.443 --> 01:19:26.606
It's like, it's, I need that.
1536
01:19:26.666 --> 01:19:28.168
Like that lady needs to make money.
1537
01:19:28.848 --> 01:19:29.689
to have that real estate.
1538
01:19:29.709 --> 01:19:33.152
But like how many times, what's too much, right?
1539
01:19:33.192 --> 01:19:40.057
Because if she feels like that dream is valuable and is going to help Tiffany, well, she should be obligated to do whatever is required to make sure she makes the purchase.
1540
01:19:40.077 --> 01:19:48.965
But if she pushes her too far and you go too much with it, then you have buyer's remorse versus the opposite, which is a lot of times you buy the thing and you're like, this is going to solve my world.
1541
01:19:49.685 --> 01:19:52.848
And they could have paid the same amount, but they feel like they opted into it.
1542
01:19:53.368 --> 01:19:53.528
So-
1543
01:19:55.220 --> 01:20:09.288
I've said, I said it was last thing, but when, you know, I, I think if I said this before, but way back, you know, I was in, uh, going to Dan Kennedy events and I, I told this story, but under a different context and I was going to this thing called the, he had a super conference and info summit.
1544
01:20:09.348 --> 01:20:16.952
I, and I would go to his info summit, which was more like marketing people, selling marketing information and coaching and stuff like that.
1545
01:20:17.512 --> 01:20:20.034
And it was a big event, uh,
1546
01:20:20.774 --> 01:20:22.215
And just some people were killing it.
1547
01:20:22.235 --> 01:20:26.318
You know, all the names of like all the names came out of that world.
1548
01:20:26.378 --> 01:20:26.578
Yeah.
1549
01:20:26.638 --> 01:20:29.320
Like, you know, a lot of the names have built some interesting companies.
1550
01:20:30.361 --> 01:20:37.606
But there were so many people that would get on stage and you wouldn't see them the next year or or in two years, they'd be gone.
1551
01:20:37.826 --> 01:20:38.527
And so what.
1552
01:20:39.365 --> 01:20:42.706
what you have is you have all these guys that build these things really fast.
1553
01:20:42.746 --> 01:20:43.386
It sounds awesome.
1554
01:20:43.406 --> 01:20:44.127
And then they disappear.
1555
01:20:44.327 --> 01:20:44.567
Okay.
1556
01:20:44.987 --> 01:20:49.628
I always have equated a lot of that to be they can't run, they can sell.
1557
01:20:49.668 --> 01:20:51.289
They love selling, but they can't run operations.
1558
01:20:52.129 --> 01:21:00.572
But I also think there's another, like if people may remember this, if like in email marketing, you used to get this thing where like a guy would be selling his friend's course.
1559
01:21:01.152 --> 01:21:05.373
So they'd have all these affiliates where like if you sell my info product, you'll get 50% of it.
1560
01:21:05.413 --> 01:21:07.014
So they're all selling things.
1561
01:21:07.154 --> 01:21:07.995
each other's stuff.
1562
01:21:08.075 --> 01:21:13.320
They all have a list of 100,000 people, there's five guys, and they're all selling everybody's stuff and splitting the money.
1563
01:21:13.440 --> 01:21:20.667
And what would the common knowledge was, you'd eventually burn out your list, and you destroy the whole business.
1564
01:21:21.308 --> 01:21:29.676
And so it would explain why you'd go to these info summits, the best of the best, like really phenomenal marketers, really good.
1565
01:21:29.696 --> 01:21:30.457
Yeah.
1566
01:21:30.617 --> 01:21:34.578
But I mean, in some of the big names today, they've owned like seven companies.
1567
01:21:35.218 --> 01:21:40.379
They build them, they burn them down, they burn out the clients, they wear out the people, then they have to start a new business.
1568
01:21:40.660 --> 01:21:42.760
So they never build one big, great company.
1569
01:21:43.100 --> 01:21:46.601
They build a lot of decent companies and it's feast or famine in their lives.
1570
01:21:46.681 --> 01:21:47.221
I've seen it.
1571
01:21:47.581 --> 01:21:49.202
I've been in this marketing thing for long enough.
1572
01:21:50.142 --> 01:21:53.923
We don't see it in home services, but it's something that...
1573
01:21:54.923 --> 01:21:59.269
I've seen in other worlds and it's hard, heavy cells.
1574
01:21:59.370 --> 01:22:01.493
It does the exact same thing, high pressure cells.
1575
01:22:02.975 --> 01:22:08.659
Anyway, it was just another story of what I've witnessed, why it's like, how in the world do you find this bounce?
1576
01:22:08.859 --> 01:22:13.483
Because where this is coming from is like there's a million guys teaching you how to sell on YouTube.
1577
01:22:13.943 --> 01:22:18.346
And you should probably take a fair bit of that knowledge and apply the basics.
1578
01:22:18.386 --> 01:22:19.848
It'll just make what you're doing better.
1579
01:22:20.408 --> 01:22:24.871
But I think there's a fine line where you don't go as far as they're teaching you to go.
1580
01:22:25.652 --> 01:22:26.993
Nobody wants to work with that company.
1581
01:22:27.213 --> 01:22:27.373
Yeah.
1582
01:22:27.733 --> 01:22:35.417
I think as a side note for sales stuff, because like there's so many tactics, like tactics do really well when it comes to selling sales.
1583
01:22:36.297 --> 01:22:37.538
Like I will teach you how to do sales.
1584
01:22:37.558 --> 01:22:38.718
A lot of it is tactic driven.
1585
01:22:39.159 --> 01:22:48.983
And I've always torn it back to even when I get in a situation where I feel like I could use a tactic is like the first thing has to be true is that I'm doing this for the sake I genuinely care.
1586
01:22:49.263 --> 01:22:54.726
And if that is always true, that's where I feel like you never cross the line of going too hard sales.
1587
01:22:55.587 --> 01:23:03.159
And I think that's part where home services, they make the error is the initial encounter of knocking on someone's door is already over the line for most people.
1588
01:23:03.983 --> 01:23:08.326
Uh, but once someone invites me, for example, they invite you to your house for an estimate.
1589
01:23:08.606 --> 01:23:15.911
That's where I feel like the line that is crossed is when you start selling out of the fact that you want more money and you don't care about them.
1590
01:23:16.251 --> 01:23:22.034
But if you just genuinely care about the person, that's where I feel like almost sales comes naturally.
1591
01:23:22.675 --> 01:23:24.096
And it's more about just care.
1592
01:23:24.236 --> 01:23:25.557
Do you actually care about this person?
1593
01:23:25.577 --> 01:23:30.700
Cause it, cause if you do, you will explain to them why they need the new furnace, but you're going to tell them to call you in two years.
1594
01:23:32.030 --> 01:23:33.732
Yeah, that's good.
1595
01:23:33.973 --> 01:23:35.574
No, no, I wasn't trying to cut you off.
1596
01:23:35.774 --> 01:23:36.415
I was just agreeing.
1597
01:23:36.435 --> 01:23:37.697
That's really great nuance.
1598
01:23:37.977 --> 01:23:41.060
Because, yeah, the way I've been phrasing this,
1599
01:23:42.235 --> 01:23:44.517
I am very much on the side of getting good at selling.
1600
01:23:44.537 --> 01:23:47.819
And I'm very much on the side of selling your product if you're delivering a great product.
1601
01:23:48.060 --> 01:23:54.084
And really, frankly, for 95% of people listening, the problem probably isn't overselling.
1602
01:23:54.325 --> 01:23:56.846
The problem is we're not selling enough and we're not following up enough.
1603
01:23:57.147 --> 01:23:59.108
Probably having completely the wrong conversation here.
1604
01:23:59.128 --> 01:24:01.250
Having a panic attack before your first door knocking.
1605
01:24:01.290 --> 01:24:02.851
You're like, this is great news.
1606
01:24:03.131 --> 01:24:04.753
I should not be doing door knocking.
1607
01:24:05.213 --> 01:24:05.914
Yeah, yeah, no.
1608
01:24:06.054 --> 01:24:07.735
I'm actually a fan of door knocking.
1609
01:24:08.335 --> 01:24:09.777
I was, maybe, you know, like we...
1610
01:24:10.497 --> 01:24:14.361
one of the fun things about getting to do this is we get to have bigger conversations.
1611
01:24:14.441 --> 01:24:21.489
And so, um, I have, we are talking about something that maybe not everybody's dealing with yet, but yeah, most people you need to be selling.
1612
01:24:21.729 --> 01:24:22.690
I'm a fan of door knocking.
1613
01:24:22.770 --> 01:24:23.871
It's a great way to get going.
1614
01:24:24.251 --> 01:24:29.517
They'd be thoughtful about how you deliver the message, but you probably do need to be following up more than you are.
1615
01:24:31.157 --> 01:24:37.419
We have officially crossed the first question on the docket and is officially an hour and a half into the podcast.
1616
01:24:37.439 --> 01:24:37.899
Let's go.
1617
01:24:38.259 --> 01:24:40.040
I'll pair this back a little bit.
1618
01:24:40.360 --> 01:24:41.340
Okay.
1619
01:24:41.360 --> 01:24:42.600
So, all right.
1620
01:24:42.620 --> 01:24:44.561
So another one that I wanted to talk to you about.
1621
01:24:44.601 --> 01:24:47.502
And again, this is I want to get into some tactics here.
1622
01:24:48.422 --> 01:24:53.007
But I was reading something, I think it was last week, that's, is it accurate?
1623
01:24:53.107 --> 01:24:55.289
I don't know, but it caught my attention.
1624
01:24:55.309 --> 01:25:00.154
38% of owners say that they want to sell their business in the next three to five years.
1625
01:25:00.214 --> 01:25:01.335
And this was in the trades.
1626
01:25:02.776 --> 01:25:11.505
And, but in that same survey, they said that they don't have a plan yet to be prepared to sell the business.
1627
01:25:11.565 --> 01:25:11.906
And so
1628
01:25:14.120 --> 01:25:21.424
I thought it would be interesting to kind of talk through this a little bit and talk about like, what does it really, we've talked about selling your business.
1629
01:25:21.444 --> 01:25:23.605
This is less about the whole selling the business.
1630
01:25:24.286 --> 01:25:27.468
It's about like, how do you think about getting ready?
1631
01:25:28.208 --> 01:25:30.830
How do you build, think about building your business correctly?
1632
01:25:30.850 --> 01:25:31.410
Yeah.
1633
01:25:31.910 --> 01:25:35.093
Um, so it's not like, should you sell your business or anything like that?
1634
01:25:35.734 --> 01:25:47.164
Because if 38% of people are thinking about it, and I have definitely, I, I am hearing this conversation a lot from friends who are very much thinking about, cause they're getting called by private equity all the time.
1635
01:25:47.664 --> 01:25:55.311
And so my belief is that from the moment, most people say, I want to saw, and I saw your, sorry, I couldn't.
1636
01:25:56.973 --> 01:25:58.535
I saw you smile.
1637
01:25:58.875 --> 01:26:05.283
Again, this is not about private equity, but that is driving a lot of people asking me, should I sell my business?
1638
01:26:05.643 --> 01:26:06.464
How do I get ready?
1639
01:26:06.524 --> 01:26:07.606
I'm just hearing this a lot.
1640
01:26:07.626 --> 01:26:10.629
And then I, that's probably why the 38% caught my eye.
1641
01:26:10.789 --> 01:26:13.693
And I'm like, I believe that 38% is probably legit.
1642
01:26:14.213 --> 01:26:14.754
And so,
1643
01:26:17.063 --> 01:26:26.466
My belief is, though, that if you want to sell your company, from the time you decide you want to sell it, you probably need about two or three years of work to even get ready for it.
1644
01:26:26.526 --> 01:26:36.229
So I'd like to spend a little bit of time just talking through what are some of the things that you would be doing if you care about this.
1645
01:26:37.028 --> 01:26:40.449
Yeah, my thought actually went to what you said last week about a thesis.
1646
01:26:42.089 --> 01:26:53.913
Because if anyone's buying your business as a strategic, which is going to be where you have a higher multiple, they need to know if I'm going to invest more capital in this business, what's my output?
1647
01:26:54.213 --> 01:26:59.134
So return on invested capital, meaning I put a dollar of my money into your business after I buy it.
1648
01:26:59.474 --> 01:27:00.815
What's my return going to be?
1649
01:27:00.835 --> 01:27:01.715
And...
1650
01:27:02.799 --> 01:27:06.561
First off, knowing what that number is from a CAC perspective is very important.
1651
01:27:06.581 --> 01:27:13.265
Like, okay, hey, when you buy my business, you can expect that when you put a dollar of marketing in, you get $10 out, they're going to stay with you for three years.
1652
01:27:13.325 --> 01:27:15.946
So it's a one to 30 over the course of their lifespan.
1653
01:27:16.646 --> 01:27:18.007
If you know that math, that's helpful.
1654
01:27:18.527 --> 01:27:23.410
I think for a lot of people, they don't have a good thesis.
1655
01:27:23.790 --> 01:27:25.191
And I don't mean in terms of...
1656
01:27:26.148 --> 01:27:27.229
We could start in this new area.
1657
01:27:27.249 --> 01:27:27.869
We could change this.
1658
01:27:27.929 --> 01:27:34.293
I feel like a lot of times when I see someone's proposition as to why they're going to sell their business, it's like, well, why aren't you doing these things yourself?
1659
01:27:35.373 --> 01:27:37.495
And I think that's where I would first challenge someone.
1660
01:27:37.535 --> 01:27:38.515
If they're like, I want to sell my business.
1661
01:27:38.795 --> 01:27:40.276
And then they're like, okay, what's your thesis?
1662
01:27:40.316 --> 01:27:43.458
Well, we have this great opportunity to be able to do this upsell.
1663
01:27:43.938 --> 01:27:49.442
Oh, we have this great opportunity to be able to add technology or add software or be able to raise prices.
1664
01:27:49.842 --> 01:27:51.083
Why don't you just do that now?
1665
01:27:51.956 --> 01:27:57.102
And I think a lot of times that's to your point, what we talked about before is you do those things, you realize the business is pretty good.
1666
01:27:57.122 --> 01:27:58.243
Like I don't need to sell it.
1667
01:27:58.544 --> 01:28:06.093
But even if I am preparing to sell it, I would say, make sure you have done all the low hanging fruit in the thesis before you go sell.
1668
01:28:07.053 --> 01:28:15.055
That would be my word of caution is like, don't try to hand off the things that you just know you should do, but don't want to do that are really easy.
1669
01:28:15.075 --> 01:28:15.975
Like raise your prices.
1670
01:28:16.695 --> 01:28:17.976
Let's implement some software.
1671
01:28:18.036 --> 01:28:18.936
Is it gonna be a pain in the butt?
1672
01:28:18.956 --> 01:28:24.837
But yes, if you do that, immediately your thesis looks more legit and you're probably gonna get a higher multiple.
1673
01:28:25.317 --> 01:28:35.460
And so everything that you would tell the potential buyer to do, make sure whatever you can possibly do without investing more capital can be done inside the business to optimize and get it ready to sell.
1674
01:28:37.621 --> 01:28:41.104
ask yourself, can this business model be replicated?
1675
01:28:41.464 --> 01:28:43.647
Would it be an ad that you're running?
1676
01:28:44.207 --> 01:28:53.196
For example, I just talked to the previous CEO of Gym Launch Today, and he was adamant that they had exhausted their one offer and they needed to move on to something else.
1677
01:28:54.418 --> 01:28:58.081
He was a CEO underneath the private equity, so they ended up squashing that.
1678
01:28:58.622 --> 01:28:58.942
However,
1679
01:28:59.803 --> 01:29:03.446
Like, can this be replicated over and over again is a huge part of your thesis.
1680
01:29:03.887 --> 01:29:08.251
Because you might have proved it works well with one service or in one market, but can you prove it in a second one?
1681
01:29:08.631 --> 01:29:11.133
Can you do it again in a different industry?
1682
01:29:11.514 --> 01:29:13.956
Can you do it for a different type of ICP?
1683
01:29:14.516 --> 01:29:14.697
Like...
1684
01:29:15.297 --> 01:29:20.920
proving that it can be replicated so that when they know they can put more dollars and fuel on it, this thing explodes.
1685
01:29:21.460 --> 01:29:24.422
And so those are the questions I'd be asking if I was about to sell.
1686
01:29:24.762 --> 01:29:27.844
And this is super top of mind because I just talked to Jordan.
1687
01:29:28.344 --> 01:29:29.865
He was our first executive model, Augusta.
1688
01:29:30.245 --> 01:29:32.506
But he has a very clear plan, like 10 years.
1689
01:29:32.946 --> 01:29:33.947
Here's how many locations.
1690
01:29:34.587 --> 01:29:36.408
And here's when I'm going to sell for private equity.
1691
01:29:36.768 --> 01:29:42.271
Okay, if I'm doing it then, I need to become a C-Corp five years before so I can take advantage of the QSBS eligibility.
1692
01:29:42.572 --> 01:29:42.752
So...
1693
01:29:43.492 --> 01:29:49.134
to think that you're going to sell in a year or two, a lot of times you're not going to get what you want for it because you haven't planned for it.
1694
01:29:49.874 --> 01:29:53.915
And that kind of long-term thinking like 10 years, I will sell it from now.
1695
01:29:54.335 --> 01:29:57.816
I will build the business in a very different way if I'm actually planning to sell.
1696
01:29:58.916 --> 01:30:00.416
Yeah, I agree.
1697
01:30:00.456 --> 01:30:08.138
I've noticed a lot of people that have mentioned this to me tend to be in this 1 million to three or $4 million range.
1698
01:30:09.279 --> 01:30:09.979
And I think,
1699
01:30:11.620 --> 01:30:17.766
often think, okay, is this desire to sell coming from a desire to escape some pain?
1700
01:30:19.347 --> 01:30:23.911
And if that's what this is coming from, I understand it, but I don't think that's a reason to sell.
1701
01:30:24.552 --> 01:30:35.502
To your point, if I could figure out what things would fix that pain, well, number one, if I don't fix that pain before I sell, whatever pain just represents the problems in the business.
1702
01:30:35.522 --> 01:30:35.982
Right.
1703
01:30:36.349 --> 01:30:37.350
I don't have the right people.
1704
01:30:37.570 --> 01:30:39.351
Operations isn't working very well.
1705
01:30:39.371 --> 01:30:40.452
We have a lot of churn.
1706
01:30:40.933 --> 01:30:42.694
We can't figure out how to grow the business.
1707
01:30:42.734 --> 01:30:43.235
It's stalled.
1708
01:30:43.255 --> 01:30:47.919
Whatever that problem is, if you don't fix that, you're going to get a lesser valuation.
1709
01:30:48.259 --> 01:30:54.324
If you fix it, there's a much better story about how this thing's going to just keep going after the buyer buys it.
1710
01:30:54.344 --> 01:30:55.705
You're going to get a much better valuation.
1711
01:30:55.965 --> 01:30:57.867
So you kind of want to fix the problem.
1712
01:30:57.887 --> 01:30:58.267
Yeah.
1713
01:30:58.367 --> 01:31:03.151
But where I think a lot of people are coming from when they think about selling is they just want to escape the pain.
1714
01:31:03.431 --> 01:31:05.913
Well, that means you're going to get probably a lousy valuation.
1715
01:31:06.294 --> 01:31:06.894
And you're right.
1716
01:31:06.914 --> 01:31:10.918
I've always thought of this kind of one to four, one and a half to five.
1717
01:31:10.958 --> 01:31:12.179
I don't know what the number is.
1718
01:31:12.679 --> 01:31:14.300
Some people call it the no man's land.
1719
01:31:14.461 --> 01:31:17.143
It's a tough part of the business.
1720
01:31:17.423 --> 01:31:18.564
All the parts are kind of tough.
1721
01:31:18.584 --> 01:31:22.487
But this is a tough part of the business because you're getting your right people in place.
1722
01:31:23.443 --> 01:31:25.124
You can't manage everything now.
1723
01:31:25.144 --> 01:31:26.265
You've got to depend on other people.
1724
01:31:26.285 --> 01:31:27.926
You've got to build up your leaders.
1725
01:31:28.187 --> 01:31:30.809
You've got to have these machines running like your marketing machine.
1726
01:31:30.829 --> 01:31:38.134
You can't just be the guy that periodically does an email blast and periodically does this thing and it just keeps running perfectly.
1727
01:31:38.374 --> 01:31:40.496
Stuff has to keep happening in spite of you.
1728
01:31:40.796 --> 01:31:41.637
And that's hard.
1729
01:31:42.537 --> 01:31:46.259
And so, but that's also what makes the company valuable.
1730
01:31:47.099 --> 01:31:52.121
And so for most people that are thinking about selling, that's all the stuff you have to do.
1731
01:31:52.661 --> 01:31:58.384
And then what you might find is once you do that stuff, you're like, wait a second, why would I want to sell this?
1732
01:31:58.844 --> 01:32:00.064
My life's so much better.
1733
01:32:00.705 --> 01:32:03.366
I work a fraction of the time I used to work.
1734
01:32:04.166 --> 01:32:09.788
Another thought that comes to mind is if you are taking the calls with investors, just ask them how they value a company.
1735
01:32:09.808 --> 01:32:10.528
What do they care about?
1736
01:32:10.568 --> 01:32:11.268
What do they look for?
1737
01:32:11.488 --> 01:32:14.949
That kind of tells you what to build and then just go to work on building that thing.
1738
01:32:14.969 --> 01:32:26.572
So for the person that falls in the 38% or whatever that number is, I would tell you that there's a lot of work to be done and it's pretty much all the stuff we talk about week to week on these episodes.
1739
01:32:27.532 --> 01:32:31.033
and you want to be doing that work to prepare your company.
1740
01:32:31.233 --> 01:32:38.134
The other thing I would tell you is before you go to sell the company, and it really wasn't trying to make this about selling, or it's not about should you or should you not sell.
1741
01:32:38.154 --> 01:32:38.935
It's like, what do you do?
1742
01:32:39.175 --> 01:32:47.697
The other thing, I've had this conversation actually a couple times now in the last couple weeks, and I've given the same advice to people that are thinking about selling.
1743
01:32:48.017 --> 01:32:49.237
Figure out what you want to do next.
1744
01:32:50.157 --> 01:32:59.565
Because unless you're selling for so much money that you can pay the taxes and not need to work for a long time, you're gonna start eating that money pretty fast.
1745
01:33:00.906 --> 01:33:03.348
And also you're gonna get really bored pretty fast.
1746
01:33:03.388 --> 01:33:05.911
And for some people, you might even get depressed really fast.
1747
01:33:06.451 --> 01:33:12.695
And so I would tell you that if you're in the 38%, start making your plan now, start working your plan.
1748
01:33:13.015 --> 01:33:25.003
And at some point, don't get too distracted with this, figure out what next looks like so that you have a plan when you are done at the company of what you're gonna do next, both for your money and for you.
1749
01:33:25.583 --> 01:33:27.464
And for you is a really a big thing.
1750
01:33:28.245 --> 01:33:33.568
Yeah, I had one thing that you kind of triggered in my mind too, is like, if you're thinking about selling, even if it's,
1751
01:33:35.356 --> 01:33:36.536
three, four, five years down the road.
1752
01:33:36.556 --> 01:33:42.918
One thing that's been really helpful for me is to get a valuation and then have them tell me why they discounted valuation.
1753
01:33:43.378 --> 01:33:51.040
And so this is actually like a whole course I'm doing for the home service boardroom is like enterprise value being the metric as to how good is your business.
1754
01:33:51.540 --> 01:33:56.861
Like the end all be all, it wraps up your profit margins, it wraps up your systems, it wraps up the quality of revenue.
1755
01:33:56.881 --> 01:33:59.082
But at the end of the day, what is your business worth?
1756
01:33:59.722 --> 01:34:05.143
It has really helped me because like when we brought in the 5% given to the owners on the safe,
1757
01:34:06.664 --> 01:34:10.086
we have to go get a 409A evaluation and we have to do it every year.
1758
01:34:10.626 --> 01:34:13.728
And when they bring the report back to me, it's like 60 pages long.
1759
01:34:14.008 --> 01:34:18.750
And it tells me specific things that like, hey, this is why we discounted you off of this main price.
1760
01:34:19.511 --> 01:34:22.232
And that's my plan of attack to get a higher valuation.
1761
01:34:22.292 --> 01:34:24.974
And so if you're trying to sell, it's not a bad deal.
1762
01:34:25.314 --> 01:34:30.717
Even if you get a local evaluation company, you don't need a 409A evaluation necessarily, but it's like,
1763
01:34:31.357 --> 01:34:37.821
$3,000 or $4,000 and just like I want to know what the market rate is, but then why is it 30% below that?
1764
01:34:37.901 --> 01:34:38.421
Why is it 40%?
1765
01:34:38.821 --> 01:34:39.601
Is it my pricing?
1766
01:34:39.862 --> 01:34:41.122
Is it the fact that there's key man risk?
1767
01:34:41.382 --> 01:34:45.064
Is it the fact that I have to show up every single day and if I don't, things fall through the cracks?
1768
01:34:45.084 --> 01:34:47.306
Like is it because I don't know my customer acquisition cost?
1769
01:34:48.126 --> 01:34:55.052
A good valuation will tell you a lot of those things, and then that is your checklist to work on for the next three to five years to get the higher valuation.
1770
01:34:55.392 --> 01:35:02.458
And so having just a little bit of investors with me has really helped me, because now I'm trying to protect their investments, not just me.
1771
01:35:02.478 --> 01:35:05.841
Now it's like, hey, I want to make sure I show that every year I'm improving.
1772
01:35:05.861 --> 01:35:08.403
Well, here's my checklist that I need to work through.
1773
01:35:08.684 --> 01:35:09.885
You've got to improve this.
1774
01:35:10.085 --> 01:35:11.206
This CAC is not good.
1775
01:35:11.246 --> 01:35:12.247
This lifetime value, not good.
1776
01:35:12.267 --> 01:35:13.428
This churn, not good.
1777
01:35:13.488 --> 01:35:15.109
Fix these things and we'll give you this reward.
1778
01:35:16.230 --> 01:35:23.952
And then it helps when every time you run up against something that's really, really hard and you want to quit, you just know on the other side of that hard thing is this unlock of enterprise value.
1779
01:35:24.312 --> 01:35:27.112
And this is where most people quit and they don't get the business that's sellable.
1780
01:35:27.652 --> 01:35:39.075
And so I would say to anyone that's trying to sell in the next three to five years is go get a valuation, spend three or four or five grand annually, and ask that valuator to give you why they're discounting the business.
1781
01:35:39.095 --> 01:35:44.216
Because that's the difference between a business that makes a 10x in revenue and one that makes 2x in revenue.
1782
01:35:45.705 --> 01:35:46.465
That's good advice.
1783
01:35:46.985 --> 01:35:54.788
Along the lines of this idea of the value of the business is what happens to business if something happens to the owner.
1784
01:35:55.588 --> 01:36:03.571
So in your case, and then we'll also talk about it for those listening, how do you think about what happens to Augusta if something were to happen to you?
1785
01:36:04.217 --> 01:36:05.859
Yeah, so great question.
1786
01:36:05.979 --> 01:36:14.429
I think when I saw this on the docket the other day, it was literally a question inside of the mastermind that we have daily for Augusta.
1787
01:36:14.449 --> 01:36:16.791
They're like, hey, so what happens if you get hit by a bus?
1788
01:36:16.831 --> 01:36:17.032
Yeah.
1789
01:36:18.019 --> 01:36:18.520
Oh, okay.
1790
01:36:18.540 --> 01:36:19.261
So they're asking too.
1791
01:36:19.281 --> 01:36:19.461
Yeah.
1792
01:36:19.481 --> 01:36:20.222
It's very top of mind.
1793
01:36:20.242 --> 01:36:20.503
Yeah.
1794
01:36:20.523 --> 01:36:24.648
So let's talk about it for you and then talk about it for how do other people prepare.
1795
01:36:24.708 --> 01:36:24.969
Yeah.
1796
01:36:25.089 --> 01:36:31.738
So the first thing is, I only formalized this once we got investors, to be perfectly honest.
1797
01:36:32.239 --> 01:36:35.042
And so I look at two different ways, personal and then business.
1798
01:36:35.563 --> 01:36:42.365
And so on the personal side, making sure you have life insurance, making sure you have equity being held inside of a trust.
1799
01:36:42.685 --> 01:36:43.725
Those are some of the basics.
1800
01:36:43.745 --> 01:36:50.447
So the trust, making sure that your equity is held there so that if you were to get hit by a bus, you can distribute that equity correctly.
1801
01:36:50.467 --> 01:36:54.548
And the life insurance, having money immediately for your loved ones.
1802
01:36:55.288 --> 01:36:59.909
Also making sure that you have asset protection in terms of you have not been piercing the corporate veil.
1803
01:37:00.542 --> 01:37:04.323
Because my thought process is like, I'm assuming I get hit by a bus.
1804
01:37:04.363 --> 01:37:08.565
But what happens if I run into something and someone else gets hurt and they come suing me?
1805
01:37:08.985 --> 01:37:13.146
I've got to make sure that I have this really good division between church and state, i.e.
1806
01:37:13.326 --> 01:37:14.747
my personal expenses and the business.
1807
01:37:15.267 --> 01:37:17.108
So those are some of the things from a personal side.
1808
01:37:18.042 --> 01:37:20.485
On the business side, I do the same similarly.
1809
01:37:20.825 --> 01:37:22.347
I do a life insurance for the business now.
1810
01:37:23.088 --> 01:37:27.894
That way, in the event that I get hit by a bus, there's immediate liquidity for them to operate.
1811
01:37:28.475 --> 01:37:29.976
And then having a game plan for them.
1812
01:37:30.257 --> 01:37:31.618
And when I say them, I mean the leadership.
1813
01:37:31.778 --> 01:37:36.604
And so for me, it was a matter of like, okay, if I get hit by a bus, very clear instructions of who takes over.
1814
01:37:37.385 --> 01:37:39.886
Ultimately, like there needs to be a leader at the top of this organization.
1815
01:37:40.726 --> 01:37:42.587
And immediately what happens?
1816
01:37:42.627 --> 01:37:45.788
Like, yes, you get some life insurance money, but like I need people moving.
1817
01:37:46.168 --> 01:37:48.169
I need equity to be moving hands.
1818
01:37:49.109 --> 01:37:54.071
How I did it personally to answer your question was like, the person that steps in is my replacement.
1819
01:37:54.531 --> 01:37:58.913
They get tranches of equity as they do certain things, one of which is setting up a board.
1820
01:37:59.777 --> 01:38:02.838
And so for me, when I was like, who's that replacement for me?
1821
01:38:02.898 --> 01:38:07.459
It's actually someone who's really good, has really good connections and is good at recruiting.
1822
01:38:07.959 --> 01:38:15.300
Because it's likely, especially if you're, you know, 10 to 50 million in revenue, let's just say, you're going to probably need two to three people to replace you.
1823
01:38:15.901 --> 01:38:19.781
And it's probably not going to be the person that you have as that person that replaces you in the moment.
1824
01:38:19.961 --> 01:38:21.582
They're going to have to go get three people.
1825
01:38:22.676 --> 01:38:23.697
to change you out.
1826
01:38:24.058 --> 01:38:25.399
And so who gets the equity?
1827
01:38:25.880 --> 01:38:27.021
All that should be determined.
1828
01:38:27.201 --> 01:38:29.404
There should be a really good plan in place, for my opinion.
1829
01:38:29.424 --> 01:38:32.668
Actually, I have a picture of my Google Drive.
1830
01:38:32.688 --> 01:38:33.849
There's a Google Drive document.
1831
01:38:33.869 --> 01:38:34.610
There you go, let's go.
1832
01:38:34.630 --> 01:38:36.192
I don't know if you can see it.
1833
01:38:37.316 --> 01:38:39.978
Okay, so it's a tiny little folder.
1834
01:38:40.118 --> 01:38:40.879
It's on my Google Drive.
1835
01:38:40.899 --> 01:38:43.140
It says, watch this if Mike, it says dot, dot, dot.
1836
01:38:43.500 --> 01:38:45.382
And it says, watch this if Mike.
1837
01:38:45.422 --> 01:38:48.024
We might have to bleep out when I say that for YouTube.
1838
01:38:48.544 --> 01:38:55.269
But it's literally a folder there that if they open it up, there's going to be for every department of like, here's the 12-month roadmap.
1839
01:38:55.289 --> 01:38:59.432
Here's what I think you should be doing so that they're not walking off a cliff.
1840
01:39:00.032 --> 01:39:04.699
They have a roadmap, and obviously I expect them to change that and adapt to current conditions.
1841
01:39:04.719 --> 01:39:06.502
But, like, there shouldn't be this void.
1842
01:39:06.963 --> 01:39:13.031
And I think for some owner-operators, they actually almost feel pride in that if they didn't show up to work or they got hit by a bus, things would stop.
1843
01:39:13.652 --> 01:39:15.114
And I don't think that's being a good steward.
1844
01:39:15.555 --> 01:39:18.976
of whether it be employees, your family, your customers.
1845
01:39:19.756 --> 01:39:26.599
And having that plan in place and that clear chain of command is also really helpful to make sure there's not unrest with the team.
1846
01:39:26.919 --> 01:39:35.562
Like if you get hit by a bus and they've joined because of you, there's a big chance a bunch of them leave if they're not a very good game plan and the leadership knows what to do next.
1847
01:39:36.182 --> 01:39:46.335
And so personally, that's how I've tried to mitigate it as much as possible, knowing that it would be a huge loss for the company, but making sure that there's liquidity, there's equity, there's going to be board oversight.
1848
01:39:46.435 --> 01:39:48.758
So no one person can undo what we've done.
1849
01:39:49.599 --> 01:39:52.943
And then the plan of action for each department has been helpful for me too.
1850
01:39:54.428 --> 01:39:59.212
If you're a single, let's just say you're a single guy, you own a business, it's just you.
1851
01:40:00.473 --> 01:40:04.256
Well, what point do you think in your business you need to think about this kind of thing?
1852
01:40:04.276 --> 01:40:07.359
And because there's so many things to do, like it's just too many things.
1853
01:40:07.419 --> 01:40:09.540
But at what point would you even tell somebody?
1854
01:40:09.560 --> 01:40:12.503
Because I think the answer is different if you're married.
1855
01:40:13.123 --> 01:40:14.525
I think as soon as you have a dependent.
1856
01:40:15.433 --> 01:40:20.516
And I would say I would classify for me, I classify dependent as someone also needs to provide for their family.
1857
01:40:20.956 --> 01:40:24.478
And so if you're hiring a bunch of young guys, you're two or three of you, you're a bunch of young dudes.
1858
01:40:24.798 --> 01:40:26.138
They go to another job tomorrow.
1859
01:40:26.238 --> 01:40:29.140
OK, you know, don't don't spend too much time on this.
1860
01:40:29.580 --> 01:40:41.166
But if you're hiring people that have families, if you're hiring individuals that are moving across the country or they are sacrificing to work for you and they believe in this long term vision that you've cast, which we should all have.
1861
01:40:42.522 --> 01:40:49.826
I think it is right for me to ensure that if I was to be hit by a bus, that they would be okay.
1862
01:40:50.486 --> 01:40:53.228
And internally, the personal family, okay, do you have a kid?
1863
01:40:53.248 --> 01:40:53.908
Do you have a spouse?
1864
01:40:53.928 --> 01:41:04.674
Like, even, like, now it becomes pretty obvious along the personal side of, like, life insurance, division of church and state in terms of finances, and making sure that they're not going to get sued the minute you get hit by that bus.
1865
01:41:05.295 --> 01:41:05.475
Um...
1866
01:41:06.655 --> 01:41:12.922
The trust, making sure that you have regulation, like the equity shouldn't go to your three-year-old daughter the minute you get hit by a bus.
1867
01:41:13.342 --> 01:41:16.285
And so these are the type of things I think would be entry-level steps.
1868
01:41:16.405 --> 01:41:20.650
And then as the organization grows, your liability and your responsibility grows.
1869
01:41:21.010 --> 01:41:22.972
And the amount of people that are depending on you grows.
1870
01:41:23.313 --> 01:41:26.456
And that level of complexity starts to grow with it, I would say.
1871
01:41:27.077 --> 01:41:27.257
Yeah.
1872
01:41:28.098 --> 01:41:28.759
Yeah.
1873
01:41:28.859 --> 01:41:30.020
I don't have a lot to add here.
1874
01:41:30.060 --> 01:41:31.782
I would maybe just add a few points.
1875
01:41:32.143 --> 01:41:38.831
If you have a partner, you still have to do all the same stuff, but you've got a partner who can really more easily bridge the gap.
1876
01:41:39.211 --> 01:41:45.599
But then that partner, if you want the business to keep going in a meaningful way, probably needs to hire for their weakness.
1877
01:41:46.460 --> 01:41:50.762
So if you were the CEO and they were head of ops, they're probably going to need to bring somebody in.
1878
01:41:50.782 --> 01:41:57.486
Maybe that was like, let's say you were really, you were kind of the driving the sales and the growth and the push, push, push guy.
1879
01:41:57.506 --> 01:41:59.847
And they're more the make it all run really well.
1880
01:41:59.908 --> 01:42:01.468
They might need that counterpart.
1881
01:42:01.849 --> 01:42:04.090
That's where the insurance policy becomes really valuable.
1882
01:42:04.430 --> 01:42:06.131
It's very much what Mike's already said.
1883
01:42:06.691 --> 01:42:07.832
So I think about that.
1884
01:42:08.252 --> 01:42:12.675
If you're a part, if you're a partnership, you need a buy sell agreement that that's the official, uh,
1885
01:42:13.555 --> 01:42:16.616
Document that describes exactly what happens for insurance.
1886
01:42:16.636 --> 01:42:18.456
A lot of times it's called key man insurance.
1887
01:42:19.777 --> 01:42:22.998
And that's the business policy that will cover you.
1888
01:42:23.618 --> 01:42:28.379
And I had key man insurance policies on people that weren't owners in the company.
1889
01:42:29.299 --> 01:42:31.100
You know, so just a few of them.
1890
01:42:31.160 --> 01:42:34.001
So if you can use key man for non-owners as well.
1891
01:42:35.233 --> 01:42:37.655
It's the other argument why I like building bigger businesses.
1892
01:42:38.096 --> 01:42:46.844
Not everybody agrees, but if you are married and if you have a family, if it's a small little business, it's probably just going to get dissolved no matter what.
1893
01:42:47.264 --> 01:42:52.930
It's just whatever the insurance policy is, that's really what's going to happen to your family is going to get.
1894
01:42:52.970 --> 01:42:59.896
But the grieving period between the time something happens to you and the time they can act on selling your accounts,
1895
01:43:00.617 --> 01:43:01.698
it's the window's too short.
1896
01:43:01.738 --> 01:43:03.398
Those accounts are all going to just disperse.
1897
01:43:03.658 --> 01:43:06.480
They're going to go find other, the business is completely worthless.
1898
01:43:07.140 --> 01:43:13.223
And so unless the business is bigger and you have people that can continue it, the business has no value for most people.
1899
01:43:13.663 --> 01:43:17.485
And that's, so the only hope you have is if you have a partner, they keep it going.
1900
01:43:17.585 --> 01:43:24.328
Or if you get bigger and you have a leadership team and there's a plan in place, like Mike described, then you can keep it going.
1901
01:43:25.168 --> 01:43:28.470
And then the only other thing I think I'd add that maybe you didn't say,
1902
01:43:29.250 --> 01:43:41.597
that comes to mind for me is if you're not in the camp of selling the business, and I don't think most people are in the camp of selling their business, whether they think they are or they're not, they're, they're probably not going to, you should generally plan, I think for not selling your business.
1903
01:43:41.617 --> 01:43:44.358
So as you have dependents, you know,
1904
01:43:44.694 --> 01:43:47.115
wife, husband, kids, whatever.
1905
01:43:47.996 --> 01:43:53.119
This is the argument for why you periodically take money out of the business.
1906
01:43:53.159 --> 01:43:58.903
Like so many people will go for so long, 15 years, all the money back in, all the money back in.
1907
01:43:59.843 --> 01:44:04.546
And they say they're growing, but the business is getting bigger, but it's not really getting that much bigger.
1908
01:44:04.666 --> 01:44:05.987
It's really a different problem.
1909
01:44:06.107 --> 01:44:07.868
It's not really a growth problem.
1910
01:44:08.748 --> 01:44:10.970
It's a problem of not being profitable enough.
1911
01:44:11.929 --> 01:44:20.719
Or you stay in growth mode so long, push, push, push, and it is really growing, but you never, we've talked about slow down to clean things up.
1912
01:44:21.060 --> 01:44:26.907
If you never take any money off the table, you're also not preventing, you're one, not finding out if you actually have a good business.
1913
01:44:28.273 --> 01:44:35.095
Two, you're not taking any money off the table to protect your family if something does happen.
1914
01:44:35.195 --> 01:44:44.258
So this idea that you go 20 and 25 years or whatever the number is and all the money's in the business, it can work out wonderfully.
1915
01:44:44.578 --> 01:44:45.958
Maybe you do get a sell someday.
1916
01:44:46.018 --> 01:44:51.720
Maybe one day the switch flips and you go from just existing to making crazy amounts of profit.
1917
01:44:51.780 --> 01:44:52.020
Maybe.
1918
01:44:52.040 --> 01:44:52.180
Maybe.
1919
01:44:53.194 --> 01:44:58.899
But if you are building something for the long term, you need to be taking money out of the company.
1920
01:44:58.939 --> 01:45:01.222
And that money needs to be getting invested somewhere.
1921
01:45:01.602 --> 01:45:04.585
And then that and the insurance policy protects the business.
1922
01:45:04.945 --> 01:45:17.617
I'm sorry, the family, because there's just no guarantee that when you're gone, the whole business getting sold or getting pieced out or the people you have in place continuing to run it well, if you're a smaller business owner.
1923
01:45:17.837 --> 01:45:18.978
It's just there's no guarantee.
1924
01:45:19.018 --> 01:45:26.026
And so I think this is where you need a contingency plan and, you know, a second plan, not just a plan of who's going to take it over.
1925
01:45:26.507 --> 01:45:27.868
Those are those are my big thoughts.
1926
01:45:27.908 --> 01:45:33.615
It's actually one of the biggest reasons why the Coppin Pace Millionaire, it's not just about multiple locations.
1927
01:45:33.675 --> 01:45:37.859
It's about having a definitive finish line where I start taking distributions from this.
1928
01:45:38.600 --> 01:45:39.501
segment of the business.
1929
01:45:40.121 --> 01:45:46.185
And locations is, I've found a really helpful way to be like, oh, I stop at this certain number of technicians and then I optimize it.
1930
01:45:46.445 --> 01:45:47.526
I have net free cash flow.
1931
01:45:47.586 --> 01:45:57.592
And if I decide to go invest, I go start another location and I have these segments that as I'm growing the business and investing into it, I know that behind me is profitable segments.
1932
01:45:57.832 --> 01:46:02.074
that I have to break off instead of just this ever flowing 20, 30 years.
1933
01:46:02.094 --> 01:46:03.875
I've seen this over and over and they burn out.
1934
01:46:04.195 --> 01:46:12.319
And I would say this also for all this whole conversation around what, if you get hit by a bus, I see that whole, whole lot less common than someone having a mental breakdown.
1935
01:46:13.157 --> 01:46:14.757
And a lot of these same things are just burning out.
1936
01:46:14.938 --> 01:46:22.200
Because now if you burn out and you can't show up to work for a couple months, to your point, your accounts are now worthless.
1937
01:46:22.300 --> 01:46:26.321
You're not selling your business when you're burnt out and having a mental collapse.
1938
01:46:26.641 --> 01:46:30.322
And so I see that just as common as like, oh my goodness, someone passed away.
1939
01:46:30.362 --> 01:46:32.422
And now we've got to like do 911.
1940
01:46:32.903 --> 01:46:35.003
It's the same when it comes to mental stuff.
1941
01:46:35.363 --> 01:46:39.444
And for everyone that might be like, that doesn't affect me.
1942
01:46:40.065 --> 01:46:40.985
I always go back to this like,
1943
01:46:41.625 --> 01:46:42.666
I am a bag of chemicals.
1944
01:46:43.267 --> 01:46:51.898
And if there's something that goes on in your life and then you were impacted mentally within a matter of a couple months, if you can't show up, a lot of the accounts aren't worth anything.
1945
01:46:52.579 --> 01:46:58.687
And so just backing up your point, also not just being hit by a bus, but also just preparing for that as well.
1946
01:46:59.780 --> 01:47:03.383
And it may not be to you again, it may not be that you burned down business.
1947
01:47:03.423 --> 01:47:07.926
It could be that something devastating happened to somebody you care about in your own life.
1948
01:47:07.966 --> 01:47:13.069
And it just triggers something you didn't expect and you just get to a, I don't care face.
1949
01:47:13.850 --> 01:47:15.371
So it could happen in so many ways.
1950
01:47:15.571 --> 01:47:16.792
Yeah, that is a good point.
1951
01:47:16.812 --> 01:47:22.376
Cause that's the more likely, frankly, that's the more likely outcome than something happened to a person.
1952
01:47:22.636 --> 01:47:23.557
So it's a good way to frame it.
1953
01:47:23.617 --> 01:47:24.277
That was the biggest thing.
1954
01:47:24.297 --> 01:47:27.940
When I started getting prepared for like, he hit my bus, I started putting things in place.
1955
01:47:27.960 --> 01:47:29.221
Like what happens if I go off the rails?
1956
01:47:29.341 --> 01:47:29.501
Yeah.
1957
01:47:29.621 --> 01:47:34.626
Like, hey, I'm hoping I do everything possible to keep myself healthy and keep this bag of chemicals okay upstairs.
1958
01:47:35.107 --> 01:47:42.614
But, you know, if I got bonked on the head and start saying stupid stuff, like I don't want to unravel some of these things, you know, and start thinking in terms of that way.
1959
01:47:42.634 --> 01:47:47.519
You start, I don't know, I feel like being a better steward of what you're responsible for.
1960
01:47:48.460 --> 01:47:48.580
Yeah.
1961
01:47:48.600 --> 01:47:48.720
Yeah.
1962
01:47:49.966 --> 01:47:58.199
So changing topics here, going at kind of a completely different kind of question in all the content you've created over the years, I think for what, probably a decade.
1963
01:47:58.500 --> 01:47:59.641
How long have you been doing content?
1964
01:47:59.862 --> 01:48:00.483
It is 10 years.
1965
01:48:01.418 --> 01:48:01.678
Yeah, yeah.
1966
01:48:01.738 --> 01:48:02.739
I thought you said that at one time.
1967
01:48:02.779 --> 01:48:03.540
That's where I got that from.
1968
01:48:03.860 --> 01:48:06.662
So when you think about all the content you do, you think about what we're doing here.
1969
01:48:07.062 --> 01:48:13.907
You think about the amount of frankness and disclosure you give on what you're doing, how you're doing it.
1970
01:48:14.568 --> 01:48:21.473
Do you ever worry that that is hurting Augusta or hurting your businesses because you're giving away too much?
1971
01:48:21.933 --> 01:48:28.038
Yeah, I think until you give that much away, though...
1972
01:48:29.818 --> 01:48:31.979
you really haven't given enough away online.
1973
01:48:32.919 --> 01:48:42.682
In my opinion, I feel like you have to earn someone's trust and they have to have the goods to be able to go execute on it, see the results for themselves, and that trust is incurred to me.
1974
01:48:43.683 --> 01:48:48.164
But in terms of, yes, like in terms of Augusta, this is a very common theme.
1975
01:48:48.224 --> 01:48:49.685
Like, hey, you're talking about instant quotes.
1976
01:48:50.325 --> 01:48:52.085
Can we just like tame it down a little bit?
1977
01:48:52.345 --> 01:48:55.747
You're talking about like all these things we're doing on the phone or whatever.
1978
01:48:55.927 --> 01:48:56.487
Can you just like...
1979
01:48:57.347 --> 01:48:57.848
And I get it.
1980
01:48:57.988 --> 01:48:58.328
I get it.
1981
01:48:58.648 --> 01:49:03.953
And so when they come to training, I give them pretty clear expectations of that feeling.
1982
01:49:03.973 --> 01:49:05.955
Like, you are going to feel this way.
1983
01:49:07.028 --> 01:49:15.290
And I don't really have the best solve for it as much as the overall mission of the business is to change the level of professionals in the industry.
1984
01:49:15.870 --> 01:49:27.812
And that's not going to happen if I don't share what works and what doesn't, because I can get a lot more attention on what I say versus my closed group of people inside.
1985
01:49:28.092 --> 01:49:32.253
And the long-term vision of competing with every single person, yes, means I need to have a franchise that's going to be a franchise.
1986
01:49:32.353 --> 01:49:35.578
that competes with all of these other landscapes so that they raise the level.
1987
01:49:35.618 --> 01:49:37.141
Kind of like back to your point about private equity.
1988
01:49:37.501 --> 01:49:42.990
Like if people are moving into town and they're doing things in a more sophisticated way, I hope that it improves everyone's level of professionalism
1989
01:49:44.168 --> 01:49:47.371
And if I'm going to say that, I got to back it up.
1990
01:49:47.591 --> 01:49:52.334
And so this is a big thing with even Dr. Cash when I was coming out with the offseason stuff.
1991
01:49:52.354 --> 01:49:53.835
And like, here's the five ways to fix it.
1992
01:49:53.855 --> 01:49:54.596
Go through this step.
1993
01:49:54.816 --> 01:49:59.119
Here's like the very way of solving what I feel like the biggest problem in home services.
1994
01:49:59.340 --> 01:50:00.621
He said, just be very clear.
1995
01:50:01.041 --> 01:50:03.963
You sharing this is going to like, this is some trade secrets.
1996
01:50:04.083 --> 01:50:06.805
And like, this is what you say would be the secret sauce.
1997
01:50:07.105 --> 01:50:09.908
And he's like, and if you don't share this, your mission doesn't mean anything.
1998
01:50:10.628 --> 01:50:13.330
Because you don't really want to change the level of professionalism.
1999
01:50:13.470 --> 01:50:15.572
You want to gatekeep the information so you can make more money.
2000
01:50:15.592 --> 01:50:16.773
I was like, sick!
2001
01:50:17.373 --> 01:50:22.477
So that was actually a good turning point for me of like, what do I share?
2002
01:50:22.517 --> 01:50:24.279
And then what do we need to keep internally?
2003
01:50:24.479 --> 01:50:28.542
And at the end of the day, I'm not too concerned about it because I can say everything possible.
2004
01:50:28.682 --> 01:50:32.585
Every trade secret in the world and 95% of people won't take execution on it.
2005
01:50:33.546 --> 01:50:33.746
Yeah.
2006
01:50:34.427 --> 01:50:34.647
Yeah.
2007
01:50:34.707 --> 01:50:35.288
Only the best.
2008
01:50:35.368 --> 01:50:35.688
Well, yeah.
2009
01:50:37.329 --> 01:50:39.531
Yeah, most people will not do the work.
2010
01:50:39.871 --> 01:50:41.432
That's what it comes down to, unfortunately.
2011
01:50:41.532 --> 01:50:43.053
And I would like to see more people do the work.
2012
01:50:43.073 --> 01:50:46.496
Most people won't buy the URL and in a matter of a few hours have the website up.
2013
01:50:46.576 --> 01:50:47.917
I'm just saying, I'm just saying.
2014
01:50:48.157 --> 01:50:55.982
The speed to execution, like I think, I hope for people watching, they hear that and they realize like the conversation between us in a matter of a few hours, you just did it.
2015
01:50:57.243 --> 01:51:04.490
And I think so many people hear podcasts, they listen to books, they hear me talk, they read a book, whatever, and it's just noise.
2016
01:51:05.071 --> 01:51:05.871
It's entertainment.
2017
01:51:05.891 --> 01:51:06.973
They know what they need to do.
2018
01:51:07.533 --> 01:51:08.134
You're 100% right.
2019
01:51:08.174 --> 01:51:09.175
It's business entertainment.
2020
01:51:10.416 --> 01:51:12.578
And I don't know.
2021
01:51:12.638 --> 01:51:17.162
I hope that that's why competing has always been the way for me to be able to really get the change across.
2022
01:51:18.116 --> 01:51:20.338
Because people don't do stuff.
2023
01:51:20.358 --> 01:51:21.379
They hear about pay for performance.
2024
01:51:21.399 --> 01:51:24.162
They hear about you talk about a marketing calendar.
2025
01:51:24.282 --> 01:51:27.185
I was challenging people watching, have you made your marketing calendar yet?
2026
01:51:27.205 --> 01:51:29.748
Jonathan's talked about for six or seven weeks in a row.
2027
01:51:30.028 --> 01:51:33.031
Have you thought about that for your own business and actually put some pen to paper?
2028
01:51:33.712 --> 01:51:35.294
Like people just don't do stuff.
2029
01:51:35.774 --> 01:51:41.761
And so that's where I've kind of come to grips with the fact that, yes, sharing it makes you vulnerable, puts a bunch of targets all over you.
2030
01:51:42.282 --> 01:51:46.046
But it's what's required for like what I would hopefully leave as an impact.
2031
01:51:46.707 --> 01:51:51.192
And I think that most people will not execute on what we talk about.
2032
01:51:52.170 --> 01:51:52.370
Yeah.
2033
01:51:52.871 --> 01:51:53.151
Yeah.
2034
01:51:53.511 --> 01:51:54.012
I've arrived.
2035
01:51:54.072 --> 01:52:00.657
It's been probably one of my biggest disappointments is the, whether it was being doing Academy, which was great, loved it.
2036
01:52:01.218 --> 01:52:08.264
And a lot of people did like incredibly well and did a lot, but you know, frankly, a lot of people didn't do much either.
2037
01:52:08.504 --> 01:52:13.048
Like they were in for a few years and then they were gone or a few people were in for the whole time.
2038
01:52:13.108 --> 01:52:13.528
And it's like,
2039
01:52:13.808 --> 01:52:16.272
they eventually others would notice like they haven't done anything.
2040
01:52:16.452 --> 01:52:17.053
They just talk.
2041
01:52:17.393 --> 01:52:18.034
They don't do anything.
2042
01:52:18.094 --> 01:52:19.656
It's like, that's really disappointing.
2043
01:52:19.836 --> 01:52:22.139
I'd like to see people do more, but most people don't.
2044
01:52:22.460 --> 01:52:23.982
I'd always heard some stat that,
2045
01:52:25.433 --> 01:52:27.995
less than 5% of all books bought are actually ever even read.
2046
01:52:28.315 --> 01:52:28.515
Yeah.
2047
01:52:28.595 --> 01:52:30.897
Or maybe it's the first few chapters are read or something like that.
2048
01:52:31.037 --> 01:52:32.478
Like, it's just, that's the story of life.
2049
01:52:32.518 --> 01:52:33.118
Yeah.
2050
01:52:33.198 --> 01:52:39.442
This is actually the deciding, when I decided I would do Home Service Boardroom is like when I decided that we would do an accountability tracker.
2051
01:52:40.042 --> 01:52:49.348
So when we have a section that we talk about and then they have to like, they have to announce that they're taking action, like they're committing to the 30-day challenge and they have to do a one week update of how it's going.
2052
01:52:49.649 --> 01:52:51.350
And then they have to, at the end of the 30-day challenge,
2053
01:52:51.930 --> 01:52:52.691
show their progress.
2054
01:52:52.931 --> 01:52:56.475
And we put it all publicly of who did it, who started everything.
2055
01:52:56.675 --> 01:52:57.816
It's exact.
2056
01:52:57.917 --> 01:52:58.337
I like that.
2057
01:52:58.397 --> 01:52:58.938
I like it a lot.
2058
01:53:00.210 --> 01:53:06.354
Yeah, we did a, in Academy, we did a weight or a health-based one and people had Whoop devices.
2059
01:53:06.374 --> 01:53:07.235
This was a long time ago.
2060
01:53:07.255 --> 01:53:08.175
This is early days of Whoop.
2061
01:53:08.896 --> 01:53:12.058
And, but there was a spreadsheet run to Kep of where people were at.
2062
01:53:12.498 --> 01:53:13.399
I love the accountability.
2063
01:53:13.699 --> 01:53:15.701
Academy never had enough accountability in it.
2064
01:53:15.821 --> 01:53:18.743
And I think that's a big thing I'd do differently if I did it again.
2065
01:53:18.763 --> 01:53:20.344
And we might've talked about this before.
2066
01:53:20.384 --> 01:53:24.727
I just, I really feel strongly that the accountability is the magic, magic ticket.
2067
01:53:25.891 --> 01:53:26.111
All right.
2068
01:53:26.211 --> 01:53:27.693
End us off non-financial advice.
2069
01:53:27.713 --> 01:53:29.214
We've been two solid hours.
2070
01:53:29.494 --> 01:53:32.476
We didn't get to all our questions today, so we'll have to roll them into next week.
2071
01:53:33.237 --> 01:53:33.397
Yep.
2072
01:53:33.957 --> 01:53:36.859
You know, you kind of took my non-financial advice.
2073
01:53:37.280 --> 01:53:37.660
Oh, no.
2074
01:53:37.920 --> 01:53:38.280
No, no.
2075
01:53:38.340 --> 01:53:38.581
Great.
2076
01:53:38.641 --> 01:53:40.162
In a good way.
2077
01:53:40.282 --> 01:53:41.162
You said it with your business.
2078
01:53:41.182 --> 01:53:46.707
So for as long as I can remember, in my file cabinet, I have a if I die folder.
2079
01:53:46.887 --> 01:53:48.168
And it says if I die.
2080
01:53:48.188 --> 01:53:48.648
That's so cool.
2081
01:53:48.668 --> 01:53:49.409
And it's filed.
2082
01:53:49.749 --> 01:53:50.609
It's filed with my stuff.
2083
01:53:50.649 --> 01:53:52.651
And that is my advice.
2084
01:53:52.731 --> 01:53:53.712
It's all taped up.
2085
01:53:55.233 --> 01:53:56.815
You put it in a big freezer.
2086
01:53:57.135 --> 01:53:58.216
You have the ice blocks.
2087
01:53:58.236 --> 01:54:00.399
They got to really get work hard to get to it.
2088
01:54:00.919 --> 01:54:01.880
I was like, yeah, I don't.
2089
01:54:02.521 --> 01:54:03.202
I guess I didn't.
2090
01:54:04.403 --> 01:54:04.843
I don't know why.
2091
01:54:04.863 --> 01:54:06.185
I guess I didn't want to open before.
2092
01:54:07.893 --> 01:54:10.134
But I got a bunch of stuff in there.
2093
01:54:10.154 --> 01:54:14.956
It tells you where to look for everything, what we got, what to do, who to call.
2094
01:54:15.876 --> 01:54:17.597
It's got some letters in there.
2095
01:54:17.617 --> 01:54:20.318
It's got a variety of things in there that I've created.
2096
01:54:20.958 --> 01:54:23.879
And I think that's a really important thing to have if you have dependents.
2097
01:54:23.939 --> 01:54:24.840
They've got to know what to do.
2098
01:54:25.080 --> 01:54:28.401
I have the folder on my computer, and I have the folder in a file cabinet.
2099
01:54:29.141 --> 01:54:29.501
I love it.
2100
01:54:29.601 --> 01:54:40.124
All right, my non-financial advice is whatever things you've been pushing off because you're too busy, you've got all these ideas from our podcast, this is the time to start planning your off-season strategy.
2101
01:54:40.744 --> 01:54:45.485
So it's like you have all these ideas and you're like, oh, I just can't get them too busy.
2102
01:54:46.485 --> 01:54:47.185
Make note of those.
2103
01:54:47.585 --> 01:54:49.806
Like, especially with AI, you can really flesh them out.
2104
01:54:49.826 --> 01:54:54.407
Make a document where when I know I will have time, I will execute in this way.
2105
01:54:55.247 --> 01:54:58.328
And then that way, when you get to that time, you know exactly what to do.
2106
01:54:59.476 --> 01:54:59.878
That's great.
2107
01:55:00.783 --> 01:55:01.065
All right.
2108
01:55:01.085 --> 01:55:02.412
Well, thank you everyone for joining us.
2109
01:55:03.055 --> 01:55:04.463
Another podcast in the books.
2110
01:55:05.348 --> 01:55:05.790
Another one.
2111
01:55:05.850 --> 01:55:06.614
We'll see you next week.