Full Transcript for Building an Empire: Business and Real Estate Success Stories with Entrepreneurs Mike and Bo

out, like, how do we scale our marketing, how do we increase our revenues? 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:34.241 And, having 32 companies, I'm willing to bet that you guys have a lot of insights that are going to be valuable Me. 00:02:34.241 --> 00:02:44.000 I come from a background of doing marketing predominantly for local to mid-sized home service companies and I know you guys have some home service companies in your portfolio. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:55.108 But if you could, I just want to get a little bit of background of like, how this all started maybe that first company, how you, you know, saw the growth in that, and then how you've scaled this into 32 businesses. 00:02:56.632 --> 00:03:01.169 Sure, so I'm Mike, this is Beau and we live in Bullhead City, arizona. 00:03:01.169 --> 00:03:10.979 Like you said, I knew right away when I was younger, just by selling the things I was making and just as a little hustler kid, six years old, knocking on doors. 00:03:10.979 --> 00:03:14.000 So I kind of knew early on that I was going to be self-employed. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:20.466 But my first opportunity came when I, after graduation from high school, I was looking for an opportunity. 00:03:20.466 --> 00:03:47.537 There was a second cousin type situation that we met up, didn't even know him but he had a small chain of video stores in Minnesota, talked to him and I came back to Arizona, did my research, kept, found a few locations, but possible locations for video stores Anyways, got into the video business was the first thing that I did and I knew right away in business that I the one video store it took off, it was, you know, doing crazy business. 00:03:47.537 --> 00:03:52.000 The first state opened but I knew early on that one wasn't going to be enough for me, one of anything. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:01.629 So once I realized that, then I realized that I have to be in businesses that back then it was Kmart and Walmart or whatever that they didn't, they weren't in. 00:04:01.629 --> 00:04:12.000 So I knew that I had to have enough money to pay the bills, pay myself, and then have enough profit left over where I could have a manager run those companies and be able to take money to go open another business. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 So I started out pretty young knowing that I wanted to scale for whatever reason. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.959 I just knew that wasn't going to be enough, and so that's what got me started on that. 00:04:20.884 --> 00:04:23.959 Later on I got into the laundry business and it was the same mentality. 00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:30.959 I opened my first laundry mat, realized that wasn't going to be enough, so opened a small chain of laundry mats around our area. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:38.949 Then I hit all the apartment complexes, took over theirs or added laundry to their facilities, rv parks, and just kept scaling on. 00:04:38.949 --> 00:04:42.423 You know, whether it was car washes, every business I've done, I always had to. 00:04:42.423 --> 00:04:46.812 Once I started scaling I had no other choice because there's only so much time in a day. 00:04:46.812 --> 00:04:56.891 So I'm only getting into business and let's both can attest to that that have enough profits, where you don't have to sit behind the counter of the Slurpee store or tire store. 00:04:56.891 --> 00:04:59.805 Whatever business you're in we recognize right away. 00:04:59.805 --> 00:05:09.000 We have to be able to have someone, after we put our systems in place, that can take over, pay that person a good wage and then have enough profits to go and do something else with. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:14.033 So that's how we got started, or how I got started in that, in knowing I was going to scale. 00:05:14.997 --> 00:05:15.317 Great, great. 00:05:15.317 --> 00:05:19.000 It was kind of the same and, honestly, like, mike and I have been best friends for probably 25 years. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.980 We didn't start doing business till about 10 years ago. 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:27.000 So the big scale upscale for us was probably over the last 10 years of doing business together. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:32.307 But we had the same philosophies, we were best friends, we were just always talking but we kind of just had our own things going. 00:05:32.307 --> 00:05:39.228 But it's always been the same, like with him it's customer service, with me it's customer service and then scaling. 00:05:39.247 --> 00:05:41.000 We were never happy with doing one thing. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:43.778 We just call ourselves entrepreneurial cowboys. 00:05:43.778 --> 00:05:45.464 Man, we are freaks about it. 00:05:45.464 --> 00:05:47.300 There's never enough, there's never. 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:50.831 You know, like you watch social media and you gotta figure out what your endgame is. 00:05:50.831 --> 00:05:52.526 We still don't know what our endgame is. 00:05:52.526 --> 00:05:55.507 If another building comes on the market, we are chasing. 00:05:55.507 --> 00:05:59.204 If we're on the market, we're not on the door, so we just we're. 00:05:59.204 --> 00:06:00.949 We're obsessive, compulsive about it. 00:06:00.949 --> 00:06:04.747 We're serial entrepreneurs and you know the money comes. 00:06:04.747 --> 00:06:11.572 If you, if you put in the hard work and good customer service, take care of your people, build your culture, it'll take off and it'll thrive for you. 00:06:11.572 --> 00:06:15.980 And a lot of people don't realize that it's not a switch, flip of a switch and you change. 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:19.550 It's just dedication and hard work and persistence and shit happens. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:31.673 And then one more thing on that, on that scaling is out of those 32 companies you mentioned we don't have, out of all those companies I only own one business that I own sole provider. 00:06:31.673 --> 00:06:49.324 So we recognized early on we to recognize amazing people that are experts in their industry and by being you know

quality people, you attract quality people and then you hire or you partner with those and then it's just snowballed that way, every single business we're in we have a partner that's an expert in that. 00:06:50.567 --> 00:06:58.333 Absolutely so, almost like an acquisitions type of model where you'll buy into a business or invest in a business or businesses. 00:06:58.333 --> 00:07:02.185 You attract businesses and they say, hey, we need your help. 00:07:02.185 --> 00:07:09.088 Can you come in and execute on the systems, processes that you guys utilize in these other companies? 00:07:09.088 --> 00:07:10.492 Is that kind of the case there? 00:07:11.785 --> 00:07:12.567 Because of having so many. 00:07:12.567 --> 00:07:13.992 Yeah, a little bit of that. 00:07:13.992 --> 00:07:26.774 A little bit of startup from the ground up, a little bit of buying in or partnering with someone that's an expert in the field, but they've just worked for somebody else and grown their business and scale, but never had the opportunity to become an owner. 00:07:26.774 --> 00:07:29.343 And like we're partners. 00:07:29.343 --> 00:07:41.360 In Houston Motorsports, we partnered with a tremendous guy and with an entrepreneurial spirit and mind and culture and now we have five motorsports stores and he's killing it. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:44.170 We got a Michael's bunch of furniture stores. 00:07:44.170 --> 00:07:47.247 He had a young man that worked for him for probably seven or eight years. 00:07:47.247 --> 00:07:48.369 He was a manager for him. 00:07:48.369 --> 00:07:56.759 We started a storage company with him and now we have a little over 40 different storage facilities all over the country. 00:07:57.401 --> 00:08:14.314 So yeah, so it's just been taking people that we've developed relationships with, whether they're employees or other entrepreneurs, and pulled out whatever is the best qualities in them, and then our ability to put things together and make it happen. 00:08:15.086 --> 00:08:15.687 Yeah. 00:08:15.687 --> 00:08:36.094 So out of curiosity, like when you first and I want to go from that like a business initially reaches out to you because they need help, what do you find are the typical bottlenecks that the average business has that is stopping or stunting the growth of them being able to go to the next level? 00:08:36.926 --> 00:08:41.736 A lot of times it's as simple as that business not charging enough for their service or product. 00:08:41.736 --> 00:08:45.072 And if you're in the business you're in, you know helping service people. 00:08:45.072 --> 00:08:50.957 They always almost always underestimate the value of their time and stuff. 00:08:50.957 --> 00:08:57.750 So you can pretty much give someone a raise just evaluating their business, because they're probably not charging enough for the product or service. 00:08:57.750 --> 00:09:02.873 And they used to charge very little and they raised it up five years ago and now they're too nervous to raise it up

again. 00:09:02.873 --> 00:09:05.967 So the first thing to do are you charging enough? 00:09:05.967 --> 00:09:12.292 That's the very first and the easiest low hanging fruit right is charge more and you automatically are start making more. 00:09:12.692 --> 00:09:22.936 But if that's the main thing is coming in, and a lot of times what happens with them is the fact is, whenever you're undercharging or undervaluing what you do, then next thing you know you start giving menial service. 00:09:22.936 --> 00:09:24.587 So then you can't up it. 00:09:24.587 --> 00:09:43.066 So we always say charge like a badass and be a badass, and it's so fun to run a company that's involved in selling a good quality product that you believe in, and then there's no guilty feeling about getting paid for it because you know that you're giving the service and then you can hire better management to run those companies because you're charging more. 00:09:43.166 --> 00:09:53.852 So a lot of times people get stuck behind the counter or the tire store or whatever you know even contractors that we know they're just not charging enough for the service that they're offering and it's hard to find unbelievable service. 00:09:53.852 --> 00:09:58.172 So if you're able to give that and you have experts working for you, then you got to charge for it. 00:09:58.172 --> 00:10:03.595 So one thing is that is just recognizing that and then having the mindset of you can't be an entrepreneur. 00:10:03.595 --> 00:10:06.134 You can, you know, go to work every day and do that. 00:10:06.134 --> 00:10:13.028 But if you're going to have multiple tire stores or whatever business you're in, you have to be able to let go of some of the control. 00:10:13.650 --> 00:10:20.806 And a lot of people have a problem that and Bo and I are excellent with giving someone an opportunity there's the rope Either go, hang yourself or pull us along, you know. 00:10:20.806 --> 00:10:27.528 So you got to be able to let go and let people make mistakes, correct them, help them, train them up. 00:10:27.528 --> 00:10:40.861 But you got to be able to let go and a lot of people, a lot of small companies, get stuck and no, I'm the only one that can make the bread in the morning, or I'm the only one that can make the deposit, or I'm the only one that can do my books Well, if you have that mentality, you're never going to be able to scale. 00:10:40.861 --> 00:10:42.307 So you have to work through that. 00:10:42.307 --> 00:10:45.868 You got to get out of that mentality that I'm doing everything and I'm the most important person. 00:10:45.868 --> 00:10:49.908 No, you can hire your way out of it if you can train well and you have good quality people. 00:10:50.905 --> 00:10:51.126 Right. 00:10:51.126 --> 00:11:00.453 What would you say is a great quality to have or look for when hiring the right person to oversee certain tasks? 00:11:01.625 --> 00:11:03.750 Like, for instance, the person Bo just described. 00:11:03.750 --> 00:11:05.695

His name is Denny, our partner. 00:11:05.695 --> 00:11:07.288 He brought in the storage business. 00:11:07.288 --> 00:11:08.735 He brought the first deal to us. 00:11:08.735 --> 00:11:12.028 That's how it happened and he asked if I wanted to be a partner. 00:11:12.028 --> 00:11:14.054 And I didn't want to be a partner first. 00:11:14.054 --> 00:11:19.168 I was going to just help him how to finance, how to deal with banks, how to write the letter of intent, how to get an extension. 00:11:19.168 --> 00:11:24.792 When you weren't able to do it, it wasn't until the last day that he was going to lose it that I go okay, now I'll be your partner. 00:11:24.792 --> 00:11:27.490 And this is, you know, go down to the bank and get a check. 00:11:27.490 --> 00:11:28.557 And it made it all happen. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:33.311 But when you ask that question, what we look for is total honesty. 00:11:33.311 --> 00:11:36.778 You got to be a transparent, humble person to be around us. 00:11:36.778 --> 00:11:41.054 Yeah, and there's so many people that aren't that we don't have out of all those companies. 00:11:41.054 --> 00:11:42.568 We don't have any partner lawsuits. 00:11:42.568 --> 00:11:44.333 We don't have anything going on like that. 00:11:44.333 --> 00:11:51.826 You just got to find really quality people, someone that's humble, that's generous, that is not greedy. 00:11:51.826 --> 00:11:53.028 Greed comes up a lot. 00:11:53.028 --> 00:11:58.397 So we so, during the period they're getting to know that person, if any of those things come up, we just bail out. 00:11:58.397 --> 00:11:59.221 We're not going to be. 00:11:59.221 --> 00:12:00.427 We're not going to change someone. 00:12:00.427 --> 00:12:10.418 We're not trying to change anybody as far as if you're a greedy type person or you're not humble, but you just got to be humble and totally appreciated, we appreciate everything but we just want more, and so it's. 00:12:10.418 --> 00:12:11.243 We're both. 00:12:11.243 --> 00:12:15.788 We have different ways of doing something, but we're going after the same ball, so we try to find people with that same mindset. 00:12:18.188 --> 00:12:18.428 Yeah. 00:12:18.428 --> 00:12:31.149 So I'm curious about you know, right now, if you watch the news, they say that we're in a recession, that we have, that we're navigating through a recession. 00:12:31.149 --> 00:12:33.572 I have my personal belief. 00:12:33.572 --> 00:12:39.813 I feel like recession starts here the moment you start pushing that and start believing in that. 00:12:39.854 --> 00:13:02.211 that that's kind of like you'll attract that level of economy, if you will, I want to note, at running 32 businesses, I feel like you would have enough of a testing pool to be able to say I don't feel a recession, or you have the same mindset that it really does come down to the individual. 00:13:02.211 --> 00:13:04.072 I'd like your kind of take on that. 00:13:04.465 --> 00:13:10.847 I'll tell you, mike has a philosophy

in business and, honestly, we make each other better because there's pros and cons to each way. 00:13:10.847 --> 00:13:13.755 One of our ways of chasing that same football every day. 00:13:13.755 --> 00:13:18.072 But he runs every business every day that he gets up. 00:13:18.072 --> 00:13:19.216 It's a Super Bowl baby. 00:13:19.216 --> 00:13:25.937 And if you chase it like that every day of your life, who worries about the gas prices? 00:13:25.937 --> 00:13:27.149 Who worries about recession? 00:13:27.149 --> 00:13:31.370 Don't worry about any of that stuff If you're staying to the path and grinding every day. 00:13:31.410 --> 00:13:36.232 Now, obviously, things are kind of slowing up a little bit for us in different businesses. 00:13:36.232 --> 00:13:40.970 It doesn't mean that we're focusing a little bit more on this or that and making sure that we're staying on top of our training. 00:13:40.970 --> 00:13:46.157 But it's not like even whenever things were going well, it wasn't like we were sitting back celebrating. 00:13:46.157 --> 00:13:50.475 It wasn't like, oh OK, now's the time to let's just enjoy this time. 00:13:50.475 --> 00:13:52.812 We constantly push every day. 00:13:52.812 --> 00:13:57.344 You know what I mean Once you go to the gym and you can consistently go to the gym and then you get fit. 00:13:57.344 --> 00:13:58.610 Do you just stop getting fit? 00:13:58.610 --> 00:13:59.750 No, you keep going. 00:13:59.750 --> 00:14:01.169 You keep trying to get to that next goal. 00:14:01.169 --> 00:14:06.029 A winner never feels like he's accomplished, and it's the same way in business. 00:14:06.049 --> 00:14:06.873 Absolutely. 00:14:07.225 --> 00:14:12.356 Even yesterday I was at one of my furniture stores and I go, there is a tied movement. 00:14:12.356 --> 00:14:16.033 These interest rates go up, but they've gone up a lot. 00:14:16.033 --> 00:14:18.753 So he's still selling the shit out of pools. 00:14:18.753 --> 00:14:21.511 I'm still selling a lot of furniture, but guess what? 00:14:21.511 --> 00:14:22.794 It was easier before. 00:14:22.794 --> 00:14:23.937 Let's go back a year and a half. 00:14:23.937 --> 00:14:24.528 It was easier. 00:14:25.105 --> 00:14:26.349 But what are you going to do? 00:14:26.349 --> 00:14:27.192 Quit? 00:14:27.192 --> 00:14:29.571 No, you just you can't get in that mindset. 00:14:29.571 --> 00:14:30.528 Like you said, it's in your head. 00:14:30.528 --> 00:14:35.716 So I've made money in recessions, out of recessions, in recessions, out of recessions. 00:14:35.716 --> 00:14:41.645 So you make small adjustments, but if you're doing everything right, you're running lean, you're acting like it's a super bull. 00:14:41.645 --> 00:14:43.089 Every day, you're always. 00:14:43.089 --> 00:14:43.770 There's always to be. 00:14:43.770 --> 00:14:45.033 A headwind came coming up. 00:14:45.033 --> 00:14:49.230 It might be COVID, it might be a recession, it might be competition coming to town. 00:14:49.230 --> 00:14:53.263

But when competition comes to town and the businesses we're in, we're already. 00:14:53.263 --> 00:14:57.475 We don't have to change nothing because we're acting as though competitions come in every day. 00:14:57.475 --> 00:15:01.495 They're recessing every day and keep your foot on the throttle and never let up. 00:15:01.495 --> 00:15:03.410 So there's, we don't give ourselves breaks to go. 00:15:03.410 --> 00:15:10.847 So some days it's harder to sell a sofa or rent a storage place or get a fab contract or whatever all the businesses were in. 00:15:10.847 --> 00:15:12.131 But guess what? 00:15:12.131 --> 00:15:15.006 Some days it's easy, some days it's hard, but you still throw. 00:15:15.006 --> 00:15:15.789 You still go fishing every day. 00:15:15.789 --> 00:15:18.171 You just always are hammering down. 00:15:19.014 --> 00:15:36.793 Yeah, so so me being a marketing guy and knowing that you guys have a variety of you know different service companies and home service companies, I want to get your take on like some of the things that a business should be implementing or doing and utilizing within their marketing plans in 2023. 00:15:36.793 --> 00:15:50.375 Some of the things that you've seen be either tried and true which is weird, because for me, I've marketed companies and seen success on things like traditional newspaper and direct mail, which oftentimes that stuff gets overlooked in 2023. 00:15:50.375 --> 00:15:58.697 But also know, on the flip side, there's you know, a lot of stuff in the digital landscape that you have to utilize and you have to have as part of your marketing game plan. 00:15:58.697 --> 00:16:07.354 But I'd be curious to hear you know what you guys are seeing is like the some of the top, like this is our biggest lead driver in 2023. 00:16:08.865 --> 00:16:10.509 For me and the businesses we're in. 00:16:10.509 --> 00:16:23.533 Call it a coincidence, call it you know, whatever you want, but the companies that were involved in, the ones that embrace the social media, facebook's free, the ones that embrace it what a coincidence. 00:16:23.533 --> 00:16:28.296 They seem to do better than the ones that are always struggling to, you know, keep posting and keep doing it. 00:16:28.296 --> 00:16:33.027 So to me it's all digital now and we believe me, I do the mail flyers, I do newspaper. 00:16:33.027 --> 00:16:37.669 Still, in the smaller communities that we're in, we do radio, we do, we're doing everything. 00:16:37.669 --> 00:16:45.731 But at the end of the day, the ones, the buildings and businesses that we buy, are the older guys that aren't using any of that. 00:16:45.731 --> 00:16:46.869 They're the low hanging fruit. 00:16:46.869 --> 00:16:49.115 So anybody that's listening that you know. 00:16:49.115 --> 00:16:51.044 Well, we just never got updated our website. 00:16:51.044 --> 00:16:53.293 We had it built 10 years ago or whatever. 00:16:53.565 --> 00:16:56.846 But unless you're using social media, you're dying, and I don't care what. 00:16:56.846 --> 00:16:58.472 Even if you're a dentist, you know. 00:16:58.472 --> 00:17:01.466 Whatever it is, you have to be embracing social media. 00:17:01.466 --> 00:17:02.691 You've hit on, you know. 00:17:02.691 --> 00:17:04.909 You know all the points and everyone else you know knows them also. 00:17:04.909 --> 00:17:08.667 But it's the easiest thing to do, but it's the hardest thing to do, right, yeah? 00:17:09.434 --> 00:17:10.458 Yeah, yeah. 00:17:10.458 --> 00:17:29.880 So it's like in some cases they don't value the thing that's free, like they don't realize that just you know, just consistently putting out like a before and after post if you're a power washing company or just a quality post about a online review that you got, or even just a push for online reviews. 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:31.444 I think it was a significant piece. 00:17:32.377 --> 00:17:38.762 Yeah, no, we got a press washing guy that we're coaching through and he's hitting us up and it's just like social media, social media, man. 00:17:38.762 --> 00:17:39.945 Come on, I'm telling you, do it. 00:17:39.945 --> 00:17:41.525 And the guy's super disciplined. 00:17:41.525 --> 00:17:43.478 It's not that he's lazy and he's not doing it, no, it's good. 00:17:43.478 --> 00:17:45.144 And so this was probably six months ago. 00:17:45.144 --> 00:17:46.752 Dude, I get up every morning. 00:17:46.752 --> 00:17:51.077 That dude is like he's up at three o'clock in the morning and he's posting some picture of him pressure washing something. 00:17:51.077 --> 00:17:53.809 But I guarantee you his business is scaling. 00:17:53.809 --> 00:17:56.161 Yes, small community, small, young entrepreneur man. 00:17:56.161 --> 00:17:57.044 I am rooting for him. 00:17:57.105 --> 00:17:58.834 Every time he calls for a pick up the phone. 00:17:58.834 --> 00:18:03.090 He's getting all the big jobs you know and how you know. 00:18:03.090 --> 00:18:07.571 There's so many people that go buy pressure washer and think they're in business, but he literally is in business. 00:18:07.653 --> 00:18:16.490 He's got all the contracts and he's doing it right and at the end of the day, if you're marketing who you are more than your product, you're going to sell People buy from people. 00:18:17.173 --> 00:18:22.218 You know as long as you're providing a good service, obviously, but you shouldn't be in business if you're not providing a good service. 00:18:22.218 --> 00:18:24.409 But people want to buy from people, even us. 00:18:24.409 --> 00:18:30.905 When we first started in social media and just doing the Mike and Bo brand, it was more just to get out to who we are. 00:18:30.905 --> 00:18:33.422 Before you meet us, I want you to know who we are. 00:18:33.422 --> 00:18:41.638 I want, I want people you know whether it's a banker, whether it's a realtor, whether it's, you know, a possible partner down the road or, you know, just hard money investor. 00:18:41.638 --> 00:18:47.144 What's the best way for them

to really get, truly get the inside to you without meeting you and spending you know? 00:18:47.144 --> 00:18:50.740 Hours and hours sitting in front of one another, getting to know each other, going to dinners, having lunches. 00:18:50.740 --> 00:18:52.203 Do you get on my social media? 00:18:52.203 --> 00:18:57.134 You'll know who I am, because I'm the same in social media than I am in my personal life and in my business life. 00:18:57.936 --> 00:19:01.465 Yeah, no, I would say you know, and for me, you know, I'm a testament to it. 00:19:01.465 --> 00:19:09.332 That and I still even though you know I'm a marketing guy the social media. 00:19:09.332 --> 00:19:15.876 I always say I'm like the house cleaner that's had a dirty house, that has a dirty house, like it's crazy. 00:19:15.876 --> 00:19:41.307 Like me, marketing another business has always been like, that's my, my strong suit, I'm great at it, and when it comes to my stuff, we're actually interviewing people because I want somebody that actually does it for me, because I just have a challenge with it and even with the limited amount of stuff that I do on my own social media, this podcast was, you know, you can't have a podcast in 2023 and it not hit social media. 00:19:41.307 --> 00:19:45.277 It's what created, you know, built up the agency to where we are now. 00:19:45.277 --> 00:19:56.546 It's just that, consistently, it's the only marketing we do is the podcast putting out the clips on social media, and we're really about to like figure out okay, well, how do we really 10x what we're doing? 00:19:56.546 --> 00:20:02.951 Like if this small amount worked, like how do we put the freaking throttle down and just hammer more and more of that content? 00:20:03.311 --> 00:20:17.556 But for the local to midsize companies, just like a little plug of something that I think every especially home service companies should be doing is Google local service ads, like the Google green check guaranteed ads. 00:20:17.556 --> 00:20:22.306 I've seen just what I have seen for the home service companies. 00:20:22.306 --> 00:20:23.387 We've been setting up on it. 00:20:23.387 --> 00:20:26.285 We've been taking their traditional pay per click ads. 00:20:26.285 --> 00:20:27.811 You know that are yielding. 00:20:27.811 --> 00:20:37.227 You know obviously it's based on the click, but then you know whatever the actual lead cost is, we've seen in some cases we've cut their lead cost into a quarter of what they were spending. 00:20:37.227 --> 00:20:40.002 It's just insane how valuable that is. 00:20:40.344 --> 00:20:52.267 So anybody who listening to this, if you're in the home service, get with your marketing guy and tell them like hey, we got to get this thing set up because I think it's just a no brainer in how those ads work. 00:20:52.267 --> 00:20:56.599 But I want to fast forward a little bit. 00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:04.542 I want to learn from maybe some of the pitfalls and failures that you guys have had, because I'm a firm believer that failure has to be part of the equation. 00:21:04.542 --> 00:21:21.999 You know I would love to learn of you know, for each of you, a story of a setback that later, you know, turned around and went, went, went the other way, you got a bunch Go ahead and now just kidding. 00:21:22.381 --> 00:21:23.444 No, I do but. 00:21:23.444 --> 00:21:31.730 But honestly, one of the simple of swans and we're talking about small businesses here on in midsize is mistakes I made. 00:21:31.730 --> 00:21:32.311 That I didn't. 00:21:32.311 --> 00:21:33.555 I had to learn. 00:21:33.796 --> 00:21:39.294 The hard way is I didn't appreciate and didn't even know that I needed a bookkeeper. 00:21:39.294 --> 00:21:39.957 At the beginning. 00:21:39.957 --> 00:21:40.962 I was a small business. 00:21:40.962 --> 00:21:43.233 Guess what you get done working your 12 hour shift. 00:21:43.233 --> 00:21:45.965 You go home on the desk or your kitchen table and you do your books. 00:21:45.965 --> 00:21:47.834 Well, I did that for a while. 00:21:47.854 --> 00:22:02.328 It got me in trouble because I just didn't have the education to know the 941 taxes the payroll taxes, the sales tax, the state taxes, the franchise fees, anything like that and so I didn't realize the importance of a backstaff as I was growing. 00:22:02.368 --> 00:22:10.943 So I was so busy about opening the new business but I didn't pay attention enough to what it takes to keep track of all the billing and all the things that need to be taken care of. 00:22:11.386 --> 00:22:22.130 And it cost me a lot of money and penalties and interests and not paying taxes at the beginning of my career and it cost me several years where it took me three years to get caught up, and so I was four years in the business as that zero. 00:22:22.130 --> 00:22:31.765 So the best thing I could say If you're new, do not, as soon as you can, hire an accountant a qualified one, because there's a lot of bad ones out there, just like digital markers. 00:22:31.765 --> 00:22:33.506 I spent a lot of money on stuff that doesn't work. 00:22:33.506 --> 00:22:47.807 But my biggest downfall in the beginning getting starred was not understanding what it takes in the back office and having really good people, because most entrepreneurs are good at, you know, making some widget, but they're not real good at the paperwork part. 00:22:47.807 --> 00:22:55.708 But they'll put themselves in that position and it will cost you money 10 times what it's what you're gonna have to pay someone to do a good job. 00:22:55.819 --> 00:23:10.368 I think Bo would probably say yeah, that's been huge for us and now our back office is solid, I mean, and through a lot of our companies, and it hasn't always been that way, but it feels good and it allows you to do things and it frees up time that you would never you didn't realize you were losing. 00:23:10.368 --> 00:23:12.448 So obviously, time is everything. 00:23:12.448 --> 00:23:20.769 So I would

say one thing for me is recognizing talent and then, once you recognize that talent is bringing them in to maximize your time. 00:23:20.769 --> 00:23:23.307 So how, if you're doing things in a? 00:23:23.307 --> 00:23:26.205 You know, if you're an entrepreneur, you're probably working 10, 12 hours a day at least. 00:23:26.205 --> 00:23:31.986 But if, what are you doing during that 10 or 12 hours that you could be delegating away? 00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:42.926 And there was a lot of years through, from 20 to 40, that I was just trying to do everything because I didn't think that I could afford to outsource it, but I just didn't value my time enough. 00:23:42.926 --> 00:23:50.522 And then, once I did start recognizing talent and bringing people in underneath me and then training them up and then back in myself, out, back in myself, out. 00:23:50.522 --> 00:23:52.348 That's when we were really able to scale. 00:23:52.348 --> 00:23:53.542 I mean me and this guy. 00:23:53.542 --> 00:23:59.326 We grinded for so many years and then, once we got together and we used each other's expertise. 00:23:59.326 --> 00:24:09.144 And then his brother lives out in Texas and manages and pretty much runs the majority of everything out in Texas all of our commercial buildings, the storage and stuff that we have out there. 00:24:09.144 --> 00:24:23.786 Using each one of our talents and recognizing who's best at what and having some self-awareness that, hey, I'm probably the best one to negotiate, mike's probably the best one to run a meeting, his brother's probably the best one to rehab and refurbish and this and that. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:28.086 So I don't step on his toes, he doesn't step on my toes and we're all chasing that same football. 00:24:28.086 --> 00:24:32.724 And so staffing up is like partnering up it helps you to scale. 00:24:32.724 --> 00:24:38.588 Or you just keep doing the same grind every day and you're not maximizing what your value is. 00:24:38.588 --> 00:24:40.547 You're not realizing what your value is. 00:24:40.547 --> 00:24:42.567 You should be running your value every day. 00:24:42.567 --> 00:24:46.646 As a kid I don't know for you, but it was always like, hey, work on those weaknesses. 00:24:46.646 --> 00:24:48.827 You got to go take some more training and this and that. 00:24:48.827 --> 00:24:54.207 Now, that is true a little bit, but run it what you're good at and then staff up on the things that you're not. 00:24:54.207 --> 00:24:57.307 And once you do that, it took off. 00:24:57.307 --> 00:24:57.769 For us, man. 00:24:57.769 --> 00:24:59.001 I mean, it's still. 00:24:59.001 --> 00:25:13.003 We're in awe of all the shit that we got going on, but because we let it go and let people manage things and we've staffed up and scaled, it's easier to do the things that we're doing today than what it was from 20 to 40 when we were running businesses. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:25.646 So I know you guys hit on social media being a valuable and useful tool for attracting new business, attracting customers and getting some of that market share. 00:25:25.646 --> 00:25:32.967 How do you feel it does on the recruitment aspect of recruiting people into the business? 00:25:32.967 --> 00:25:35.406 Do you think that has a strong pull as well? 00:25:35.406 --> 00:25:38.364 100%, oh, definitely yeah. 00:25:38.625 --> 00:25:39.166 No, definitely. 00:25:39.166 --> 00:25:42.461 I mean whether it's employees or relationships, it's. 00:25:42.461 --> 00:25:49.384 We've gotten so much from social media of people that want to do business with us or want to come work for us. 00:25:49.384 --> 00:25:58.564 Yeah, because we've had a lot of employees that have turned into millionaires because we ended up, they grinded, they showed the discipline and persistence and so boom next thing. 00:25:58.564 --> 00:26:05.442 You know, there was something there that we latched onto and that we mentored them and became partners and scaled with them. 00:26:05.743 --> 00:26:08.030 Yeah, 100% Very cool. 00:26:08.050 --> 00:26:08.171 Yeah. 00:26:08.820 --> 00:26:12.451 So there's been a couple of football references so far. 00:26:12.451 --> 00:26:31.867 We went into the Super Bowl and now I want to get into like almost like a two minute drill type of deal, as we're approaching the fourth quarter of the year, which is where everybody's going to try to run and crush and get as much revenue in as they can before the clock runs out. 00:26:31.867 --> 00:26:41.787 What do you think are some things that businesses should be thinking about right now if they're trying to like really expand going into this last quarter of the year? 00:26:43.339 --> 00:26:49.023 For me, I think what we talked about earlier there's a lot of fear in the market and a lot of fear in entrepreneurs, a lot of fear at the banks. 00:26:49.023 --> 00:26:50.905 So there's just a lot of fear. 00:26:50.905 --> 00:26:56.224 I mean, obviously you brought it up, so you and you're asking us, so there's a fear out there. 00:26:56.224 --> 00:26:57.628 That is palatable. 00:26:57.628 --> 00:27:03.188 People are feeling it, but if you're in business, you got to, this will pass also. 00:27:03.188 --> 00:27:12.388 So whatever you're planning on doing, I would say just be moving forward as fast as you can, because you got to keep growing through thick or thin. 00:27:12.388 --> 00:27:26.128 So if you take, because right now there's a sentiment like, oh, I'll just pause and wait for interest rates to go down, well, we just had lunch with a guy in Texas, 80 years old, has multiple shopping centers, and I can't wait to sit down and have lunch with him. 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:28.608 I go well, david, what do you think of these interest rates? 00:27:28.608 --> 00:27:31.160 You know God, how are we gonna start making money again Now? 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:34.226 They went from three and a half to, you know, seven, eight, nine percent. 00:27:34.226 --> 00:27:35.553 Now he goes. 00:27:35.553

--> 00:27:36.395 What are you talking about? 00:27:36.395 --> 00:27:37.112 I'm 80 years old. 00:27:37.112 --> 00:27:38.356 I've been self-employed my whole life. 00:27:38.356 --> 00:27:42.260 I never seen those three and a half and 4% interest loans ever. 00:27:42.260 --> 00:27:44.518 I've always made money at seven and eight. 00:27:44.518 --> 00:27:45.192 So he goes. 00:27:45.192 --> 00:27:48.080 I don't even know what you're talking about, it doesn't matter, you just had a break. 00:27:48.080 --> 00:27:48.349 He goes. 00:27:48.349 --> 00:27:49.253 It's never coming back. 00:27:49.253 --> 00:27:58.477 So, with that mind, if the interest rates are always going to be where they're at and of course they change you got to act as if hey, how are you going to make money, how are you going to grow your business in today's market? 00:27:58.477 --> 00:27:58.979 Right now? 00:27:58.979 --> 00:28:00.134 You can't wait. 00:28:00.134 --> 00:28:01.473 You got to be moving forward. 00:28:02.609 --> 00:28:04.217 I love that freaking perspective. 00:28:04.770 --> 00:28:05.373 I love that. 00:28:07.830 --> 00:28:09.537 The years of the low interest rates. 00:28:09.537 --> 00:28:11.877 Those were like gimme years for them, I'm sure. 00:28:12.651 --> 00:28:13.977 Hey, we had a Christmas right. 00:28:13.977 --> 00:28:15.374 It lasted seven years. 00:28:15.374 --> 00:28:16.237 It was great. 00:28:16.237 --> 00:28:17.140 What are you going to do? 00:28:17.140 --> 00:28:18.255 Wait for that to come again? 00:28:18.255 --> 00:28:19.314 It's never coming. 00:28:19.314 --> 00:28:21.457 What if the interest rates only go up? 00:28:21.457 --> 00:28:23.076 Well, you're going to try to quit making money. 00:28:23.076 --> 00:28:24.335 You're going to go to work for the post office. 00:28:25.211 --> 00:28:25.472 Yeah. 00:28:26.349 --> 00:28:34.252 Yeah, and you think 80 years, like he's seen it all 80 years he's seen it all, Never seen three and a half percent of these loans commercial loans. 00:28:35.156 --> 00:28:36.835 So, wow, very, very cool. 00:28:36.835 --> 00:28:39.278 So we're not stopping on anything that we're doing. 00:28:39.278 --> 00:28:41.818 I mean, honestly, we're just pushing forward even harder. 00:28:41.818 --> 00:28:44.117 I mean, we're just grinding that much more to try and be. 00:28:44.117 --> 00:28:52.357 We're well diversified in multiple different sectors, but even in each one of our companies we look to diversify within that company. 00:28:52.357 --> 00:28:53.816 I've got a swimming pool company. 00:28:53.816 --> 00:28:56.999 I couldn't build all the swimming pools that we were selling. 00:28:56.999 --> 00:28:59.656 Well, now it's slowing up and I staffed up. 00:28:59.656 --> 00:29:00.259 So guess what? 00:29:00.259 --> 00:29:01.714 Had a sales meeting the other day. 00:29:01.714 --> 00:29:03.696 Hey guys, we built all these pools. 00:29:03.696 --> 00:29:05.215 We've been in business nearly 20 years. 00:29:05.215 --> 00:29:06.695 How about some more

remodels? 00:29:06.695 --> 00:29:07.835 Let's push some remodels. 00:29:07.835 --> 00:29:08.974 How about some landscaping? 00:29:08.974 --> 00:29:10.816 Back in the day, I went through 08. 00:29:10.816 --> 00:29:12.075 It was a crunch man. 00:29:12.075 --> 00:29:16.976 I started doing epoxy floors and I mean I did anything and everything to grind and crunch through it. 00:29:16.976 --> 00:29:22.374 There's always something else out there, or you just sit back and go ah, that's what I do and it's slow right now. 00:29:22.690 --> 00:29:23.894 Lost my investor's money. 00:29:23.894 --> 00:29:26.131 Dang it, yeah, no. 00:29:28.632 --> 00:29:29.496 Yeah, absolutely. 00:29:29.496 --> 00:29:41.720 I mean, I love that, even just that pivot mindset of OK, well, maybe people aren't doing as many installs, but we could do liner replacements, tile replacements, pump replacements. 00:29:41.720 --> 00:29:50.614 There's so much on the other end of that thing where even just right on down to traditional service or like an opening and closing, yeah, 100%. 00:29:51.730 --> 00:29:55.816 And we got a database of 20 years of pools and we got a great relationship. 00:29:55.816 --> 00:29:57.477 We're five star across everything. 00:29:57.477 --> 00:29:58.694 So get back out. 00:29:58.694 --> 00:29:59.755 They're going to love to see you. 00:29:59.755 --> 00:30:02.077 They don't even realize that they need your services. 00:30:02.077 --> 00:30:03.576 So, no, we're not going to market them. 00:30:03.576 --> 00:30:04.814 We're going to go knock on doors. 00:30:04.814 --> 00:30:05.798 We got a database. 00:30:05.798 --> 00:30:06.952 We're going to make phone calls. 00:30:06.952 --> 00:30:08.057 Oh OK. 00:30:08.176 --> 00:30:08.458 Yeah. 00:30:09.351 --> 00:30:12.019 But it's coaching your people through that stuff too. 00:30:12.569 --> 00:30:16.151 We have one business partner that he goes, he goes. 00:30:16.151 --> 00:30:17.696 The fish are in the ocean. 00:30:17.696 --> 00:30:19.876 They eat every single day. 00:30:19.876 --> 00:30:21.394 You're just using the wrong lure. 00:30:21.394 --> 00:30:23.217 So that's what. 00:30:23.217 --> 00:30:24.163 Switch up. 00:30:24.163 --> 00:30:24.946 You got to try something new. 00:30:24.946 --> 00:30:25.410 Change up the bait. 00:30:25.410 --> 00:30:27.210 The fish are eating every day just because you're not catching them. 00:30:27.210 --> 00:30:28.516 We caught them last week in the same spot. 00:30:28.516 --> 00:30:30.636 They're still out there and they're still going to eat lunch today. 00:30:30.636 --> 00:30:34.797 You just aren't using the right lure, so we just always got to be hustling man. 00:30:36.390 --> 00:30:48.740 Yeah, so as we get close to rounding out the episode, I always like to give every guest an opportunity to just plug where it is that you in your guys' case. 00:30:48.740 --> 00:30:50.457 I know I follow you on TikTok. 00:30:50.457 --> 00:30:52.778 I'm sure you're on every other platform there is. 00:30:52.778 --> 00:31:06.118 But if you don't mind, just kind of share a little bit of where people can go to follow you if they want to check out more content, or if they're interested in the businesses or if they're local to the service area of what you guys do. 00:31:06.118 --> 00:31:08.256 Feel free to share whatever you guys got. 00:31:08.256 --> 00:31:11.238 That way people know where to follow you and connect. 00:31:11.869 --> 00:31:13.134 So we're on all platforms. 00:31:13.134 --> 00:31:17.977 We are going to be starting up a podcast here soon, but we're on YouTube. 00:31:17.977 --> 00:31:21.678 We're on Facebook, instagram, linkedin. 00:31:21.678 --> 00:31:32.257 Tiktok obviously is where you're following us, but we're getting ready to start our courses, so we've been putting a lot of effort into recording and putting our courses work together. 00:31:32.257 --> 00:31:39.834 You'll end up seeing that ads popping up on Instagram, tiktok, stuff like that for those courses, but we should be rolling those out here in the next two, three months. 00:31:40.470 --> 00:31:48.136 We also do Zoom calls once a week every Thursday at 4 o'clock, just if anybody's got that entrepreneurial spirit and they want some coaching in that. 00:31:48.136 --> 00:32:02.234 It's a real good networking in a mastermind type situation where you get a lot of good people in there that are all just talking about their business and their opportunities and probably it's an hour long, so for 30 minutes we're giving a spill on a different topic every week and then we opened up the Q&A. 00:32:02.234 --> 00:32:03.278 So it's really good. 00:32:03.278 --> 00:32:06.775 I mean, we enjoy it as much as the people that are on there and there's a lot of value in it. 00:32:06.775 --> 00:32:11.176 It's a lot of groundbreaking entrepreneurs that just never had an opportunity or a mentor to talk to. 00:32:11.176 --> 00:32:13.396 We're kind of serving as that mentor for them. 00:32:13.396 --> 00:32:17.893 So I would say that's probably the best place to reach out to us Business-wise. 00:32:17.952 --> 00:32:21.592 Houston Motorsports if you're in the Houston area, we got five different locations out there. 00:32:21.592 --> 00:32:24.057 We're in a small community here in Arizona. 00:32:24.057 --> 00:32:26.798 We own a Mojave storage. 00:32:26.798 --> 00:32:28.355 We own Mattress, land and Furniture. 00:32:28.355 --> 00:32:30.056 I got a bread distribution company. 00:32:30.056 --> 00:32:32.739 I got aquatic construction, aquatic pools. 00:32:32.739 --> 00:32:34.917 We got court fabrication out in Texas. 00:32:34.917 --> 00:32:37.037 We got aquatic pools of Houston. 00:32:37.037 --> 00:32:39.113 We got some verbos. 00:32:40.650 --> 00:32:47.275 We got a lot of stuff in a lot of different areas, but check it out on our social media and you'll find some of our businesses and I guarantee you go in and check them out. 00:32:47.275 --> 00:32:48.558 You're going to have a good experience.

00:32:48.558 --> 00:32:50.557 Got a good culture, great people working behind us. 00:32:51.089 --> 00:32:52.936 And what we've done is our businesses. 00:32:52.936 --> 00:32:57.138 We've taken the profits and that's how we get our real estate. 00:32:57.138 --> 00:32:59.034 Funding is through our businesses. 00:32:59.034 --> 00:33:04.714 So we're just as much into business as we are real estate and anything that we're coaching. 00:33:04.714 --> 00:33:05.959 We're staying in our lane. 00:33:05.959 --> 00:33:07.415 We're not exaggerating on anything. 00:33:07.415 --> 00:33:14.878 You're not going to start buying our course or following us and get rich quick or anything like that Super hard more of a mindset than anything. 00:33:14.878 --> 00:33:22.634 But if you've got what it takes and you want to follow along, we're working every single day to build our brand and looking forward to it. 00:33:23.537 --> 00:33:37.671 Absolutely, and here's what I'm going to say for everybody listening or watching Go check out their TikTok, because I guarantee you, if you see the toys that these guys have just in their warehouse, it's enough to make you jealous, that's for sure, and the. 00:33:37.790 --> 00:33:47.792 thing is honestly a crazy layout you guys have over there, and we've always lived below our means and waited a long time to enjoy some of the fruits of our work. 00:33:47.792 --> 00:33:49.353 So it's been a grind. 00:33:49.353 --> 00:33:50.013 Bye now, everybody. 00:33:50.013 --> 00:33:54.467 It's just as much fun building it, as it is playing with the toys, so yeah, and honestly. 00:33:56.215 --> 00:33:57.077 I'm sorry, go ahead though. 00:33:57.117 --> 00:34:01.297 I was just gonna say the best place to reach out to us is probably just DM and us on Instagram. 00:34:01.297 --> 00:34:04.936 It's gonna be the best way for us to connect, absolutely. 00:34:04.936 --> 00:34:06.102 It's my camp before. 00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:20.443 Yeah, and before we close this out, I do want to ask about the course, like what type of stuff you guys are building into that course, just so we have a little bit more like Great to just kind of umbrella. 00:34:20.784 --> 00:34:26.106 It's wealth building, so it's wealth building through real estate and it's wealth building through business. 00:34:26.106 --> 00:34:36.538 So if, if, uh, if you're 25 years old and you're looking to get into real estate, you want to get your first acquisition, whether it be a verbo, a multifamily Commercial. 00:34:36.538 --> 00:34:47.275 We kind of just lay it out for you, the groundwork of how it works, the best way to go through it, and, uh, and just to cut out some of those, those uh, we always say, as we're older, our, our crystal ball is clearer. 00:34:47.275 --> 00:35:10.965 You know, everything was so cloudy, so we try and clear up that crystal ball for you, to show you how to acquire financing, how to acquire a property, um, and then uh, and then how to scale it, and then, on the business side, it's everything from a to z in business, yeah so and it starts with a mindset though it's really because it's not for everyone, your job, obviously it's not for everyone, and and what we do isn't for everyone it's just. 00:35:11.005 --> 00:35:16.726 We're in a part of Of time in society where the entrepreneur is kind of a celebrity now. 00:35:16.726 --> 00:35:17.742 No one used to care. 00:35:17.742 --> 00:35:19.275 That guy down the street owned a business. 00:35:19.275 --> 00:35:21.260 I, when I started knowing, gave a show what we were doing. 00:35:21.260 --> 00:35:23.126 But now it is something it's like. 00:35:23.126 --> 00:35:25.903 People want to meet the person owns of what business. 00:35:25.903 --> 00:35:35.519 But so there's a lot of people that think it's easier than it is and on our course, we just want to go hey, it's not, but if you do these things you have the right mindset that you can find success. 00:35:36.181 --> 00:35:44.905 Yeah, absolutely Well, mike and Bo, I just want to say I appreciate your time, I appreciate you guys coming on the show and and really bringing the heat. 00:35:44.905 --> 00:35:53.085 Um, you know, for those listening, I want to make it very simple for you to be able to connect with Mike and Bo. 00:35:53.085 --> 00:35:56.454 So you, you've listened to the episode, you've heard everything that they have to say. 00:35:56.454 --> 00:36:03.302 We're going to make it very simple on our website Uh, if you go to a lava hot podcast, uh, just go to the little search bar. 00:36:03.302 --> 00:36:04.606 You'll search for Mike and Bo. 00:36:04.606 --> 00:36:12.018 We're going to have a link right there for their profile, but we're going to include their, their social media, uh, access to their social media. 00:36:12.018 --> 00:36:19.755 If, for some reason, their podcast is launched Once this episode is aired, we'll go ahead and include that in there as well. 00:36:19.755 --> 00:36:24.586 But we'll have access to their website social media so you can go ahead and follow them. 00:36:24.586 --> 00:36:27.806 And then I always want to close it out with uh. 00:36:27.925 --> 00:36:31.297 If you like this episode and you want to hear other episodes, feel free to check out. 00:36:31.297 --> 00:36:35.938 You know us, a lava hot podcast, pretty much any Podcasting platform. 00:36:35.938 --> 00:36:40.047 Feel free to check us out on youtube, uh, and all of our social media as well. 00:36:40.047 --> 00:36:44.847 Uh, one thing that I always ask, because this is just something that we like to do. 00:36:44.847 --> 00:36:52.719 We, we pay for these episodes that we can bring on bright minds like Mike and Bo to share what it is that that they do, what they've done and how they've done it. 00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:59.275 Um, I just ask that you go to uh, our show anywhere and either like, subscribe or leave us a review. 00:36:59.275 --> 00:37:06.394 Um, but with that, mike and Bo, thank you so much for coming on to the show Excited to hear about the course as that starts to roll out. 00:37:06.394 --> 00:37:13.000 We'll definitely include that into our link, uh, and into your bio once that's ready to rock and roll as well, and with that, that's a wrap. 00:37:13.875 --> 00:37:14.356 Right on, man. 00:37:14.356 --> 00:37:15.076 Thank you very much. 00:37:15.076 --> 00:37:15.817 Appreciate it. 00:37:16.557 --> 00:37:20.643 You've been listening to the lava hot podcast with joseph connell jr. 00:37:20.643 --> 00:37:22.425 Do you want to level up your business? 00:37:22.425 --> 00:37:27.271 Then visit us and go lava hot dot com for a free marketing analysis.