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Most business owners are not entrepreneurs.
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They're just people that created a job.
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We saw almost a doubling of our AI traffic and leads coming from ChatDBT, people saying that on the phone, like, I saw you on ChatDBT.
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And because they get so busy, it hides the big problems of the business, like bad pricing, bad cash flow, bloated payroll.
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The most sophisticated winning companies are going to shift back to a mode of, go get the client I want.
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In hindsight, looking back, it's like, this is exactly the life we build.
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And so for anyone that's like, in the five years, one day you will look back on this, you'll probably won't change much, assuming that you get through that, and you start to be able to build a life with optionality.
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Try way more stuff.
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And just see what works.
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There's so many different ways to live life.
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In the same podcast, we talked about trying new things and like as many things as possible, but also being like, stay focused on your industry.
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Don't get distracted, like head down for a period of time where it is grind mode.
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And so I think there's that dichotomy of like, you might set aside 10 years, but okay, here we go.
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Five for 50.
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Like you put the five years for the 50 years of that life that you want to build.
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Hey, everyone.
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Welcome back to...
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The show that Mike and I don't have a name for.
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We're open to suggestions there.
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We are.
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We're open there.
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It's like naming a child.
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It's like we have to name ourselves.
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We have to name the podcast.
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Yeah, we need lots of names.
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And then I think this is number five, right?
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Yeah.
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Am I correct on that?
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Number five.
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We initially said we're going to do three.
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We'll see if we both like it.
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We're still doing it.
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So I guess we're going to keep going.
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It seems that way.
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As long as you guys keep telling us you like it.
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So today I've got another new one for Mike and I, and I, of course, gave him a heads up on this one so he could put a little bit of thought into it.
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So we are each going to give you three hot takes.
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What I'm looking for is, do you have a reaction of, wait, like, wait, what?
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Like, do you have that kind of reaction?
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Like, what did they say?
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Mm-hmm.
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We're not going to defend them.
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We're not going to explain them.
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Brianna said she thinks you're trying to get me canceled on this one.
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I'm not trying to get you canceled.
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I'm given three as well.
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The notes for this was like, make sure it's, what was the word you used?
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Like some of the people would be like shocked about or something like that.
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I was like, oh man, here we go.
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Well, I don't know.
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Maybe I didn't even go too far with the shock.
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So anyway, they're just takes that maybe not everybody would agree with.
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Okay.
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That's where I'm going.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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You can get off.
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That way I can temper mine.
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Okay.
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There you go.
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All right.
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I'll kick it off.
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So here's what we're going to do.
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We're going to do six of them.
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Three from me, three from Mike.
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I will now go first.
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And we're going to number them like one, two, three.
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The reason for that is if something grabs you, you're like, wait a second, I'm not sure.
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I want to know more.
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I want you to comment below with the number.
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Yeah.
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And if we get a bunch of comments on one, we'll go into this in another episode.
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Yeah.
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JP one, two, and three, MA one, two, three.
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Perfect.
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Down below.
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Yeah, that'd be- Give us your feedback.
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That'd be perfect.
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Okay.
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So I thought about mine.
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All right.
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So number one is-
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The right business partner is one of the most significant competitive advantages you can have in business.
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And everybody telling you that a business partner is bad just hasn't had the right one.
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Very good.
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All right.
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My second one is most business owners are not entrepreneurs.
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They're just people that created a job.
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Okay.
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All right.
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That's pretty good.
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That got a little more edgy.
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We're going the right direction.
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Yeah, yeah.
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This is where hopefully I didn't make you make yours too edgy.
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We can always try this again and I can always try to step it up.
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All right.
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We'll calculate how edgy it is based on how any unsubscribes we have on this.
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Yeah.
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I didn't take any political or religious stances here.
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I'm out here.
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Okay.
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All right.
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All right.
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Very good.
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Well, next time I may have to step mine up.
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All right.
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Number three.
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How you treat your body is how you run your business over the long term.
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And most owners do not get the connection.
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Yeah, that's good.
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All right.
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Those are my three.
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Okay.
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All right, Mike.
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I'll jump into mine.
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All right.
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My first one, I did take some edge off of my third one.
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All right.
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So my first one is someone with one-sided staunch political beliefs is a red flag to me.
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So if I'm thinking about partnership or hiring, like someone that really like doesn't matter what happens.
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This is the way I see the world because X, Y and Z.
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They have a red flag.
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OK, that is not that's not not too strong.
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All right.
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Number two, the lack of humility keeps people poor.
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And my third one is, okay, this one's a little longer because I had to think through it a little bit.
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So big businesses will use fax machines.
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There are businesses today that are huge that use fax machines.
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But big businesses were built on the back of the phone book.
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And I believe that you don't scale a business using old technology.
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So if you look at technology, it's been like telegrams, USPS, the mail system, things like figuring out the phone and then fax and then internet and then email and then building a website and then SMS.
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And now it's like we've gone to mobile, AI, future is probably robotics.
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And I think for those that are listening and trying to grow a business,
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being on the edge of that is important, even though there's evidence that there are big businesses that are still using old technology.
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So that was that last part.
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That last part is probably the statement.
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Yeah, I had a much more different one.
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Something along the lines of AI boomers of today are the fax machine artists of yesterday.
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I had some other creative, more edgy take on it, but- Say that one again for me.
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I didn't quite comprehend it.
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Well, there are still people today that will look at AI and be like, hey, I'm not using it.
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I don't need it.
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I have a big business and I'm still doing my things through fax or I do it through email, the old fashioned way.
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And because they have a $20 million business or a $50 million business, someone else will look at them like, oh, I need to do that.
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in order to win, when in reality, they were the first one to adopt, let's just call it AAA lawn care, because it ranked well in the phone book.
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And that was the modern AI of their day.
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And so just because now they've built a big business and have the fax machine does not mean you should use the fax machine to grow the business.
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Anyways.
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Yeah, very good.
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Okay.
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All right.
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So those are four.
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You're going to rank on his first three.
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So again, in the comments, if anything grabs you, nothing has to grab you.
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But if it does, put JP1, JP2, or M1 or M2, you get the idea.
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Six comments, you know, just give us six comments.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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So Mike, what have you been working on the last week?
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Okay, so we've been working on creating a good rev share program for homework.
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So we've never had like any sort of referral program.
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And so I've been working on it because I didn't want to do the classic like, hey, give a month, get a month kind of thing.
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And so we're going more the affiliate route, which is revenue share.
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So we're working on how does it actually work on the back end where if a member gives a month for someone else, but then they get 25% of revenue on an ongoing basis.
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And so we're just workshopping how does that work.
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Oh, okay.
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Or homeworks.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Or the software.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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Correct.
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Okay.
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So affiliate program makes perfect sense.
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That's what I've been working on.
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What about you?
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Have you arrived?
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You don't have.
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Yeah.
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And I'll answer that.
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You don't have to give out the economics, but have you figured out the number that you can realistically give out for the longterm?
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Yeah.
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We, we, right now, again, I'm doing this prematurely, but you don't have to say it.
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25% of what we're working on right now.
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I kind of was like, where was the point where I would wake up and be like, I want to share this message, especially for people that have like some audience on social media or they're in a group.
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Like.
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I was like, okay, a month of free doesn't do anything for anyone.
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Like we're talking about a few hundred dollars.
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But if I can build up kind of the side business almost as an influencer, like it makes sense if I get 25% of the revenue.
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And so we've gone back in February, we bundled up users into our subscriptions.
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So it raised the price when in reality it just bundled the users.
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But that kind of allowed us the extra margin to be able to do the program.
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Okay.
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Unlimited user bundle?
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Like if you have... No, just 10 and 20.
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Yeah, there's tiers.
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Okay, so tiers.
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Okay, all right.
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How did you think about that when you guys did service autopilot?
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Because it wasn't unlimited.
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You had just individual users.
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Yeah, we did the individual.
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But I think if I were selling, if I was building a new service autopilot today, I would think about it completely different.
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Would you basically like $1,000 a month, but it's unlimited?
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Or how would you think about it?
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I still think about this stuff, even though I don't have it.
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That's what I'm asking.
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Yeah, so what I originally thought I was going to do a new service autopilot, my idea was that we would start at $1,000 a month.
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There would be no lesser service.
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It was a whole new idea.
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It was a new approach, everything.
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And in that scenario, I wanted to just bundle in all the users.
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But where I got stuck and I had never had a reason to figure it out was, like, wait a second, for the very type of client that starts at $1,000 a month,
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like some of these guys might have 150 users.
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And that's a real cost to us over time, especially as you start to implement imagery and just some other cool things, video.
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And I had been brainstorming and kind of testing this idea to be able to take pictures of things and have it translate into the different languages.
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And so I was like, is there a different model than having somebody type into a mobile app?
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I won't get into the weeds on that.
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And so some of that stuff would come with an additional cost.
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And so I wasn't sure that my idea of unlimited users would work, but that's what I would want to be able to sell.
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Like the dream would be, could you just sell one price, build whatever you want to build?
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It's one price, but there are legit costs that come with doing that.
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yeah the video thing has been for us like because like we now allow uh it's like a 12 minute video can go in um 500 megabytes it compresses down to 50 but yeah it's a real cost on like certain you know servers and storage and all the rest it adds up over time it's incredible yes you will you know and we'll figure out how the data just builds and builds and so what have you been working on go ahead sorry yeah so the last week
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A project that I've started and stopped over time this year, and frankly, probably last year too, was really nailing down a very sophisticated thematic marketing calendar for CityTurf.
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And it doesn't sound like that big of a deal to do it and build it out.
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But...
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I guess it has been because I just keep procrastinating.
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It's generally been framed out and generally thought through, but it just wasn't production ready.
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So I've been trying to get that wrapped up this week.
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I've got a little ways to go on that one.
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And the marketing calendar to me is this imperative, critical item that –
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dictates projects and timelines and everything else.
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And then somewhat paired with that is something else that I already made a massive amount of progress on.
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I think that was towards the end of last year, and I'm trying to get it done now.
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I've kind of brought it back.
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And it's this idea of moving away.
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I don't know if we've talked about this or I've mentioned it to somebody else.
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This idea of moving away, of thinking about roles in a company and thinking about tasks.
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And where that was motivated, and I'm just thinking about it right now on the marketing side of the business.
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What motivated that is when I started getting back involved in CityTurf to work on marketing, my premise was me, one employee, and all contractors.
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And instead of building on a marketing team, like I would have had at Service Autopilot.
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And so now I'm thinking about it, though, it's like for every task you have, there's really three different types of solutions.
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There's an employee, there's a contractor, and there's an agent.
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And so I'm trying to go through and literally document every single thing that has to get done at any interval level from weekly to once a year.
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And then it's assigned to an employee, a contractor, an agent.
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Very cool.
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And that's a lot of work, more than it sounds.
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For the calendar, is it sequencing and timing or the creation of the templates and the, I guess, copy itself?
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On the calendar, it's the deliverables.
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So it's this campaign needs to drop here.
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Step two needs to drop here.
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These things need to be loaded on the truck.
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This is the theme of the period.
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A theme would might, because all marketing needs to be coordinated.
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Like it needs to stack.
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So in other words,
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This is the month that we're really talking about deep root feeding of trees.
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So that needs to message across social, across door hangers, across what we call recommendation door hangers, across postcards, whatever the touch is that might hit the market, whether it be client, new acquisition of clients or be expansion of existing clients growing the value of the account.
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There needs to be these themes to what's going on.
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So in other words, everything's being supported.
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If you're getting an email in your inbox and you're on Facebook, I want you to be seeing similar messaging from us.
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It's all support.
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It all makes everything work better.
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So there's more to it than that, but that's the gist of what the calendar does.
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And then the last thing I'll say is the calendar, if it's a deadline-driven, then for each of those activities,
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The way I've got the calendar built, it would say this one needs to start four weeks in advance.
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I built my own tool.
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Can't help it with Cloud Code.
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I built my own marketing calendar system.
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And so I can flip it where I can look at when things need to start versus when they need to deliver.
274
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Very cool.
275
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So, yeah.
276
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So that's the project.
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Let's go.
278
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Yeah.
279
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The challenging part for us on social and marketing is because we create the creative for all the owners, the organic content is very difficult to time up with their individual markets.
280
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Based on that.
281
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Yeah.
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Like their emails and text blasts might be individual, their market.
283
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But like, how do I create organic that goes on 200 Facebook accounts?
284
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That's somewhat right.
285
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So it's kind of like.
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That's a totally different problem.
287
00:14:17.061 --> 00:14:19.204
But AI is going to be very helpful with that.
288
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Because people have their background looking local to their area.
289
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Yeah.
290
00:14:26.859 --> 00:14:27.039
Yeah.
291
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If you, if you basically train your model or your agent or whatever on every individual markets, timing and pain points.
292
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I haven't got there yet.
293
00:14:34.024 --> 00:14:35.045
I haven't got there yet.
294
00:14:35.625 --> 00:14:36.926
That was a, it's a lot of work.
295
00:14:37.126 --> 00:14:38.387
This stuff is so easy to say.
296
00:14:38.407 --> 00:14:41.569
It's so much work to build it, but, but you could see where that could go.
297
00:14:41.610 --> 00:14:45.112
Like once you train it, it could automatically figure out all the dates for you.
298
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Yeah.
299
00:14:45.893 --> 00:14:46.593
So yeah.
300
00:14:46.993 --> 00:14:47.154
Yeah.
301
00:14:47.534 --> 00:14:48.695
Again, easier said than done.
302
00:14:49.255 --> 00:14:49.535
All right.
303
00:14:50.015 --> 00:14:51.856
So I got five things on our docket today.
304
00:14:52.697 --> 00:15:04.223
And the first one I dropped on here, and I know you've seen it, is this idea that there's this risk of price commoditization coming to the market.
305
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And the example I would give is that...
306
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And I want to get your thinking on this.
307
00:15:11.491 --> 00:15:28.434
But the example I'd give, and you're kind of a little bit in the middle of this in the sense that if you can price online, quote online, close online, that's a risk factor for price commoditization in the sense that if a lot of people are doing it, they might be making a decision based on price.
308
00:15:29.875 --> 00:15:35.216
And I think a lot of companies have that dream of, I just want to sell you and sign you up online.
309
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I don't want to talk to you.
310
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And then...
311
00:15:38.358 --> 00:15:45.365
What also has inspired this, and I've not had personal experience with this, but I've been hearing a little bit more about it.
312
00:15:45.545 --> 00:15:47.086
And I'm curious if you have any experience with it.
313
00:15:47.507 --> 00:15:51.550
It's this new Google feature functionality that they're testing.
314
00:15:51.831 --> 00:15:56.315
I've heard a couple different names for it, but one of the names I've most heard is Ask Google.
315
00:15:56.715 --> 00:16:00.358
the ask for me or like it's where they go out and get pricing.
316
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So you can go to Google.
317
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You want to get a price on low mowing.
318
00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:05.601
It will literally go look up pricing.
319
00:16:05.641 --> 00:16:10.065
If it can't find it, it might call the company and get the pricing for that service or message.
320
00:16:10.245 --> 00:16:11.506
It'll actually message text.
321
00:16:11.526 --> 00:16:11.726
Yeah.
322
00:16:12.406 --> 00:16:12.606
Yeah.
323
00:16:12.827 --> 00:16:13.607
Yeah, exactly.
324
00:16:14.148 --> 00:16:14.588
So, yeah,
325
00:16:16.135 --> 00:16:21.158
That's a game changer if this becomes, it's not that big of a deal when it's just a couple companies doing it.
326
00:16:21.438 --> 00:16:34.365
But when the market as a whole moves this way, and if Google finds that this works significantly for them, meaning they'll implement it, then, yeah, this changes how we sell.
327
00:16:34.525 --> 00:16:35.865
So how are you thinking about this stuff?
328
00:16:35.885 --> 00:16:36.906
You're right in the middle of it.
329
00:16:37.126 --> 00:16:37.866
Buy Google stock.
330
00:16:37.906 --> 00:16:39.167
No, I'm joking.
331
00:16:39.307 --> 00:16:40.667
Yeah.
332
00:16:41.047 --> 00:16:46.649
Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on this because it's something that I felt we were going to get here anyways, eventually.
333
00:16:46.669 --> 00:16:48.069
So we've been planning for a while.
334
00:16:48.309 --> 00:16:55.952
I think first off, for those that are afraid of what's going to happen, I think a lot of us, we sell out of our own pocket.
335
00:16:55.972 --> 00:16:57.072
This is what Alex calls it.
336
00:16:57.472 --> 00:17:02.054
And that is, we just assume people want the lowest price because that's how we've always operated.
337
00:17:02.554 --> 00:17:05.815
And we're not the ideal customer profile that we're actually trying to sell to.
338
00:17:05.835 --> 00:17:06.195
Yeah.
339
00:17:06.415 --> 00:17:09.497
And the reason I say it is because price is just one piece of the buying decision.
340
00:17:09.797 --> 00:17:13.040
I think that overall, we should just embrace this.
341
00:17:13.080 --> 00:17:15.441
Like, again, technology is going to keep moving on.
342
00:17:15.882 --> 00:17:18.704
If I'm going to go against it, I'm not going to put my pricing on my website.
343
00:17:18.844 --> 00:17:21.205
I'm going to make it really difficult for people to get pricing.
344
00:17:21.225 --> 00:17:23.067
I'm going to be opaque as possible.
345
00:17:23.487 --> 00:17:24.328
I think you're going to lose.
346
00:17:25.348 --> 00:17:34.672
And I think giving the algorithm what it wants is important in this case, especially because so much traffic does come from Google, they're going to reward the websites that are doing this.
347
00:17:35.252 --> 00:17:42.835
And so recently at Augusta, for example, in our FAQ sections for every location, we give the exact prices that it's going to be for a small, medium, or large property.
348
00:17:43.095 --> 00:17:51.158
We give the square footage ranges because if their agent knows their address, it can actually give them pricing based upon just that.
349
00:17:51.998 --> 00:18:00.627
And I think what's really important is to make, as we look in the year or two ahead, I think people are going to start giving their agent a credit card and allowing them to actually check out.
350
00:18:00.647 --> 00:18:09.256
Because right now with the Google feature, it will call, it will communicate via text, especially around local service, Google local services.
351
00:18:09.757 --> 00:18:11.959
It's really baked well into that feature.
352
00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:12.920
And.
353
00:18:13.961 --> 00:18:19.842
Right now, it still requires us to give a price or it requires us to have it on our website for the agent to go.
354
00:18:20.083 --> 00:18:20.983
It's not checking out.
355
00:18:21.623 --> 00:18:27.984
And I'm interested to see if that level of trust with an agent is ever going to happen with home services.
356
00:18:29.125 --> 00:18:37.227
Because I think it's different when it comes to price checking, say, something on Amazon or an e-commerce or DTC product versus home services.
357
00:18:37.287 --> 00:18:37.607
Because...
358
00:18:38.747 --> 00:18:46.930
I always say this, like when someone walks up to your door and delivers something from Amazon, they stay on your driveway and they do not get on your lawn.
359
00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:48.310
They do not go inside your house.
360
00:18:48.950 --> 00:18:55.833
Home services inevitably for most of our services, it requires us to get in areas of the property that the customer has to have a certain level of trust.
361
00:18:56.673 --> 00:19:07.015
And that's where I think this gap might exist and it might take some while, a while for the market to adjust because I'm very much OK if I want Nike Jordans to go in here.
362
00:19:07.035 --> 00:19:09.276
Like, hey, yeah, find me the best price, ship it to my address.
363
00:19:09.456 --> 00:19:10.696
Here's my credit card information.
364
00:19:10.856 --> 00:19:11.216
Let's go.
365
00:19:12.017 --> 00:19:18.018
I also think that the reason I would do that and trust my agent is because I have brand equity with Nike.
366
00:19:18.798 --> 00:19:20.339
I know that Nike will send me good shoes.
367
00:19:20.899 --> 00:19:29.925
And so I think that this is going to only compound the importance of brand and why I think brand in all of this is going to win because branding equals confidence.
368
00:19:29.945 --> 00:19:31.126
The same way I see the Nike swoosh.
369
00:19:31.406 --> 00:19:34.568
I just immediately can, I can have confidence in my agent.
370
00:19:34.588 --> 00:19:37.050
When I get that delivered to my house, it's going to be a good shoe.
371
00:19:37.350 --> 00:19:46.256
I think the same thing is going to become true for home services is like, if they've seen your trucks, if they have seen your own social media, if they see great reviews, they
372
00:19:46.436 --> 00:19:49.818
Then when their agent says, hey, this is it's $70 per week.
373
00:19:50.058 --> 00:19:51.259
Would you like me to go ahead and purchase that?
374
00:19:51.439 --> 00:20:03.405
They say yes, because I do believe there's going to be more trust and confidence required for a home service product than a DTC or a hard good that I'm going to have shipped to me from Amazon.
375
00:20:03.805 --> 00:20:05.046
That's kind of like my general thesis.
376
00:20:05.086 --> 00:20:09.709
But like, I do believe the biggest thing we have to be prepared for is agents checking out.
377
00:20:10.389 --> 00:20:13.791
Right now, the thing that you also, for those that are listening, it's like, oh, I do instant quotes.
378
00:20:14.191 --> 00:20:21.055
Be very careful because if that pricing is behind them having to put their information, most of these AIA tools will not see it.
379
00:20:21.596 --> 00:20:28.319
And so this is why putting like an FAQ section or having a pricing page so they can actually see the information will be important.
380
00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:31.121
That's really good advice right there.
381
00:20:31.161 --> 00:20:32.102
What about from your perspective?
382
00:20:33.002 --> 00:20:34.103
Have you played with it at all?
383
00:20:35.669 --> 00:20:58.665
played with the google ask like ask prices i haven't no i haven't it's funny actually i was how do you play with it i haven't yeah just type in like a service near me and most of the time it'll show up in local services so okay under local services where they're promoting currently the most by the time this comes out it'll probably be different but like right now under local services because they've always had the call and the message now right above that there's a little
384
00:21:00.606 --> 00:21:07.350
And then you put in what you want and then it sends out the message to those and it sends it back to you whenever they respond.
385
00:21:08.911 --> 00:21:15.796
I think though that the agent is the part that like you've talked about in the past, like our agents will be doing its own thing and then like verifying.
386
00:21:16.556 --> 00:21:21.380
I think when people start getting comfortable putting a credit card with their AI, that's when this will really take off.
387
00:21:21.540 --> 00:21:28.624
The thing that actually was interesting, Jonathan, is I actually thought of you when I saw this on the docket, when you had mentioned that that moving company, they stole like $80,000 worth of stuff
388
00:21:29.605 --> 00:21:30.525
when they moved your house.
389
00:21:31.046 --> 00:21:36.709
I think one burn like that is what causes a homeowner to be like, I'm gonna check the reviews myself.
390
00:21:37.209 --> 00:21:38.409
I wanna go look at their website.
391
00:21:38.750 --> 00:21:40.811
And that's where brand will start to come into play.
392
00:21:41.151 --> 00:21:46.033
And this is where I think the destruction of the contractor model could come in because they don't have a brand.
393
00:21:46.193 --> 00:21:49.395
They change their business every three or four years, they get away from bad reviews.
394
00:21:49.955 --> 00:21:56.038
So I actually thought of you when I saw it on the docket because someone like yourself, even though your agent might say, hey, this is the cheapest option.
395
00:21:56.259 --> 00:21:58.600
That's not the biggest buying decision for you.
396
00:21:59.340 --> 00:22:08.024
And so I think our ideal customer looks at the price as a data point, but is also having a lot of other parts of the decision that come into play.
397
00:22:08.284 --> 00:22:11.125
And for the person that's just going to go shop my price, I don't want them as a customer.
398
00:22:11.625 --> 00:22:18.308
And so I think it'll really divide, like, the middle ground of home services might get ate up here.
399
00:22:18.849 --> 00:22:21.630
But the people that go premium, they're not competing in price now anyways.
400
00:22:22.410 --> 00:22:24.331
And the people who go low, they will win.
401
00:22:24.531 --> 00:22:28.373
They will get all these very low, cheap prices that, you know, the AI can scrub.
402
00:22:28.673 --> 00:22:29.154
Several things.
403
00:22:29.515 --> 00:22:31.699
You mentioned a good way to play with it.
404
00:22:31.719 --> 00:22:35.507
Was there a service or a trade that you're noticing it used on more right now?
405
00:22:35.862 --> 00:22:38.644
I haven't played with enough different industries.
406
00:22:38.684 --> 00:22:39.925
I've played with maybe four or five.
407
00:22:40.345 --> 00:22:42.927
I've definitely played with lawn care and landscaping.
408
00:22:43.467 --> 00:22:44.488
I did painting and fencing.
409
00:22:44.508 --> 00:22:47.090
Those are the four I know I've been playing with, but it's changing.
410
00:22:47.110 --> 00:22:54.835
Like if you go into incognito mode versus Safari versus Chrome, see three different experiences where they're putting the badge.
411
00:22:54.855 --> 00:22:56.256
Like they're doing so much testing right now.
412
00:22:56.576 --> 00:23:00.379
So whenever they do testing, I just know that there's resources being deployed towards this.
413
00:23:01.099 --> 00:23:03.101
And I think it's going to be very interesting to,
414
00:23:03.881 --> 00:23:04.802
how your website looks.
415
00:23:04.822 --> 00:23:06.304
You actually alluded to this in your last video.
416
00:23:06.324 --> 00:23:08.527
It's like in the past, SEO is the main thing.
417
00:23:08.547 --> 00:23:16.958
This is like, can your website be easily digested by an AI agent will become the most important part, I think, going forward.
418
00:23:17.659 --> 00:23:17.859
Yeah.
419
00:23:18.580 --> 00:23:19.501
Yeah, I agree with that.
420
00:23:19.581 --> 00:23:21.264
And then the other part of it is...
421
00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:31.644
You've got to support, there's going to be a period here where you've got to support, actually maybe forever, but for quite a period here, you're going to have to support multiple ways to convert.
422
00:23:31.704 --> 00:23:33.745
So you still have to convert by phone.
423
00:23:34.705 --> 00:23:36.606
I still think that's going to hold up for a long time.
424
00:23:36.986 --> 00:23:38.927
You're going to have to consider agents.
425
00:23:39.588 --> 00:23:43.450
You're going to have to consider maybe selling via text and email.
426
00:23:43.950 --> 00:23:45.251
You're going to have to consider...
427
00:23:46.920 --> 00:23:50.582
They're getting a, like the model you're running right now where you can get a price online and sign up.
428
00:23:50.602 --> 00:23:54.424
There's a lot of different models that are all going to have to work at the exact same time.
429
00:23:54.984 --> 00:24:05.590
And one of the challenges that's frankly always been a challenge, and I don't know what the solution is right now, is it's always, it's always been the problem of balancing SEO optimization with conversion focused copy.
430
00:24:05.770 --> 00:24:05.930
Yep.
431
00:24:06.670 --> 00:24:07.450
And design.
432
00:24:07.570 --> 00:24:08.171
And just design.
433
00:24:08.191 --> 00:24:08.691
And design.
434
00:24:08.831 --> 00:24:09.911
And design 100%.
435
00:24:10.751 --> 00:24:19.614
And so, I mean, from my experience, the more you go towards quality conversion copy, the lesser your site performs and ranks.
436
00:24:20.774 --> 00:24:31.958
But if we're going to live in a world where we're selling online and they're making a decision online, not necessarily just through an agent, then conversion matters in a massive way.
437
00:24:32.558 --> 00:24:35.339
Conversion quality, copy quality.
438
00:24:36.670 --> 00:24:39.553
This is a really, really challenging one to navigate right now.
439
00:24:39.573 --> 00:24:41.554
And I'm trying to figure it out.
440
00:24:41.835 --> 00:24:43.656
And I don't have that answer.
441
00:24:44.997 --> 00:24:47.059
One of the questions I have about the agents.
442
00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:53.124
So I'll say I've got some thoughts, but I will generally say I don't think I had any points of disagreement with what you said.
443
00:24:53.144 --> 00:24:54.505
I'm completely aligned.
444
00:24:55.566 --> 00:25:00.391
One thing I don't know is how fast, and I guess none of us know, how fast are these agents really going to happen?
445
00:25:00.731 --> 00:25:03.133
Is this my robot prediction again?
446
00:25:03.293 --> 00:25:07.756
Like, is it the, hey, I think, you know, in five years, robots are going to be a thing.
447
00:25:07.796 --> 00:25:11.238
And we're like, hey, I think in a year, agents are going to be buying for people.
448
00:25:11.258 --> 00:25:14.240
It's like, yeah, they will, but for 3% of the market.
449
00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:17.622
Like how fast, I'm not saying that 3% is a real number.
450
00:25:18.022 --> 00:25:25.406
I don't have a feel for how fast my wife, like Tiffany is going to let an agent start buying stuff for her.
451
00:25:26.267 --> 00:25:27.287
I'm just not, I don't know.
452
00:25:28.668 --> 00:25:30.409
My parents, not a chance in the world.
453
00:25:30.830 --> 00:25:32.791
You know, it's like, so...
454
00:25:34.468 --> 00:25:36.229
And different markets are going to be different.
455
00:25:36.329 --> 00:25:40.292
My market is a more affluent tech forward market.
456
00:25:40.532 --> 00:25:48.998
There's a lot of people that move to this market where I'm at that are maybe a little more tech enabled or like tech a little more than say other markets.
457
00:25:49.038 --> 00:25:49.319
Okay.
458
00:25:49.339 --> 00:25:51.400
That market will probably adapt to this a little quicker.
459
00:25:51.420 --> 00:25:52.981
So there's so much going on here.
460
00:25:53.001 --> 00:25:54.342
This one's a complicated one.
461
00:25:55.643 --> 00:25:58.405
When you, so way back, this goes way back, like,
462
00:26:00.073 --> 00:26:06.442
2015, 16, 17, some testing that I was involved in.
463
00:26:06.463 --> 00:26:07.965
This is around pricing tools.
464
00:26:08.025 --> 00:26:09.367
Some testing I was involved in.
465
00:26:09.807 --> 00:26:14.855
Also, I can't remember all the companies, but because of Service Autopilot, everybody that
466
00:26:15.115 --> 00:26:20.057
owned one of these Uber for lawn care companies or anybody that had a price would price online.
467
00:26:20.377 --> 00:26:21.537
A lot of it was Uber for lawn care.
468
00:26:21.557 --> 00:26:25.298
They all wanted to in some way deal with us at service autopilot.
469
00:26:25.318 --> 00:26:26.278
They wanted to buy us.
470
00:26:26.558 --> 00:26:27.819
They want to partner with us.
471
00:26:27.879 --> 00:26:29.179
They wanted, they all wanted to.
472
00:26:29.199 --> 00:26:30.880
So I got to talk to all of the big names.
473
00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:46.706
And one of the things that I learned over time back then was that a lot of the business that was coming through the online pricing was for mowing specifically tended to be a little bit more of the biweekly work, a little less of the weekly type work.
474
00:26:47.407 --> 00:26:49.648
Is that still true in this?
475
00:26:50.328 --> 00:26:51.989
You know, here it is in 2026.
476
00:26:52.349 --> 00:26:52.949
What do you see?
477
00:26:55.314 --> 00:26:57.115
I can't speak for those services.
478
00:26:57.135 --> 00:27:00.416
I can only speak for the instant quotes I'm seeing.
479
00:27:00.996 --> 00:27:04.197
It all comes down to how you position the weekly versus the biweekly.
480
00:27:04.878 --> 00:27:08.199
And so if you're like, hey, I want the weekly services, great.
481
00:27:08.239 --> 00:27:13.761
You're just going to have to promote that from a pricing perspective so that when they're comparing the two, it becomes the obvious choice.
482
00:27:14.121 --> 00:27:18.442
And then there's other owners who are like, I don't care about the weekly or the biweekly thing.
483
00:27:18.842 --> 00:27:22.944
I won't have any difference between the cost of weekly and biweekly because it's just normal in my market, for example.
484
00:27:22.964 --> 00:27:23.344
Yeah.
485
00:27:23.764 --> 00:27:30.906
Um, but yeah, what's really interesting with all this is like we, I can see the data across all the sites on Fragusta as well as like all the home service web design stuff.
486
00:27:31.327 --> 00:27:37.388
It is so interesting that percentage, that ratio of like Google search, where am I getting click links?
487
00:27:37.949 --> 00:27:41.410
And then what's coming through a AEO or like chat to PT, et cetera.
488
00:27:42.370 --> 00:27:44.372
It's so interesting because you would change your site.
489
00:27:44.392 --> 00:27:45.713
It actually adjusts very quickly.
490
00:27:46.193 --> 00:27:48.235
It's faster than SEO.
491
00:27:48.715 --> 00:27:49.696
I'll say that.
492
00:27:50.556 --> 00:27:52.998
We were able to make several changes for Augusta this past spring.
493
00:27:53.639 --> 00:28:03.667
In six weeks, we saw almost a doubling of our AI traffic and leads coming from ChatDBT, people saying that on the phone, like, I saw you on ChatDBT.
494
00:28:04.047 --> 00:28:10.191
And so I agree that there's going to be a period of time before someone puts a card on file and lets their agent go buy lawn care.
495
00:28:10.211 --> 00:28:10.312
Yeah.
496
00:28:10.952 --> 00:28:15.715
but they're still going to search on Google and Google's going to prioritize who's giving the information.
497
00:28:15.875 --> 00:28:19.478
Like who's giving me the clean data to be able to present to that user.
498
00:28:20.178 --> 00:28:24.561
Yeah, and they're going to ask ChatGPT and Claude and everybody for the recommendation.
499
00:28:24.821 --> 00:28:31.686
I was sort of separating more of the, they're going to use their agent to make the decision and sign up that I was separating that part.
500
00:28:31.766 --> 00:28:32.847
That's a good clarification.
501
00:28:32.867 --> 00:28:39.111
I think what would be super cool is like, hey, agent, like give me the five prices, but then compare like other benefits of the different services.
502
00:28:39.131 --> 00:28:40.252
How long have they been business?
503
00:28:41.092 --> 00:28:42.793
Are they part of a national chain?
504
00:28:43.053 --> 00:28:52.396
Like these are the other aspects I think as a consumer, I'd be okay with my agent giving me the information, but I don't even get to play the game if I'm not showing up on that board.
505
00:28:53.097 --> 00:28:55.938
And that's where I feel like the people that's like, I'm going to hide prices.
506
00:28:56.238 --> 00:29:03.120
Like because of the instant mowing quote thing I just launched people, a lot of people were saying is like, you're basically commoditizing the industry, bring all the prices down.
507
00:29:03.140 --> 00:29:03.461
Oh really?
508
00:29:03.681 --> 00:29:03.901
Yeah.
509
00:29:03.941 --> 00:29:07.102
Because now we're all going to have these, you know, everyone's going to be seeing their prices.
510
00:29:07.122 --> 00:29:09.443
They have to remember I probably a thousand people out of,
511
00:29:09.943 --> 00:29:14.105
600,000 landscapers on the, on that thing right now.
512
00:29:14.565 --> 00:29:20.087
But I believe that you have to show up whether or not the agent's going to buy.
513
00:29:20.107 --> 00:29:23.249
I have to show up in those, in those few categories.
514
00:29:23.729 --> 00:29:33.533
And it's very interesting to see the percentages over the last seven, eight months from chat to BT and even just people saying on the phone that they're, they're looking on those places.
515
00:29:34.163 --> 00:29:36.826
I do think it's changing where I agree with you on that topic.
516
00:29:36.966 --> 00:29:38.627
You're just not going to be able to hide from this anymore.
517
00:29:38.647 --> 00:29:48.396
It's something on my planning calendar for CityTurf in terms of, in fact, there's a little bit of a project we're working on right now that will expose more of our pricing.
518
00:29:48.657 --> 00:29:49.577
But it's a hotly...
519
00:29:50.298 --> 00:29:54.440
contested conversation internally, but this I'm with you.
520
00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:55.881
And the fact, this is where it's going.
521
00:29:56.261 --> 00:30:02.845
My hope has been that as we publish pricing, what the market will do is adjust to our pricing.
522
00:30:03.725 --> 00:30:10.429
Like instead of them like, Oh, Hey, I'm going to be $2 cheaper, which they might, it'll give them the courage to raise their prices to what they need to be in the market.
523
00:30:10.769 --> 00:30:11.870
And we know what pricing needs.
524
00:30:12.050 --> 00:30:15.653
And brand is enough to be able to take a $5 t-shirt and I pay $100 for it.
525
00:30:16.133 --> 00:30:21.477
And so the delta between the average price of my market and what people are willing to pay will come down to brand.
526
00:30:21.557 --> 00:30:31.444
Yeah, so my biggest thoughts coming into this to finally get back to that were for us at CityTurf, we lose one of our single biggest competitive advantages.
527
00:30:31.484 --> 00:30:32.385
We can win on the phone.
528
00:30:33.515 --> 00:30:35.456
And so that's a disappointment.
529
00:30:35.816 --> 00:30:38.338
We've built the business around being able to do that.
530
00:30:38.398 --> 00:30:41.540
So we'll just have to figure out how to like, you know, win this one.
531
00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:42.660
Yeah, you'll figure it out.
532
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:45.802
So, but it's just, it's unfortunate.
533
00:30:45.902 --> 00:30:49.684
You know, anytime you have to change, it's like, oh, this is a bummer, but this is the world we now live in.
534
00:30:49.744 --> 00:30:51.045
So that was point one.
535
00:30:51.705 --> 00:30:52.446
The other one was,
536
00:30:52.926 --> 00:30:54.067
Can I make a counterpoint on that?
537
00:30:54.147 --> 00:30:54.827
Can I make a counterpoint?
538
00:30:54.847 --> 00:30:55.268
Yeah, please.
539
00:30:55.448 --> 00:30:55.748
Yeah, yeah.
540
00:30:55.888 --> 00:31:01.032
I actually think the people that have conquered and figured out the phone will dominate in this area.
541
00:31:01.452 --> 00:31:09.838
Because now if the agent is making the decision and someone else doesn't call them right away and doesn't have an upsell motion once they've already seen the price, for example –
542
00:31:12.369 --> 00:31:13.710
I think that person will still lose.
543
00:31:14.371 --> 00:31:18.033
And I still think we want to buy from people we trust and the, and the relationships are important.
544
00:31:18.194 --> 00:31:26.140
And if you figured out phone calls or you figure out a way to have an in-person meeting with customers and do quality control, it'll still be the winner.
545
00:31:26.780 --> 00:31:29.743
And so even for our phone agents, like, again, like we have all these agents.
546
00:31:29.763 --> 00:31:30.944
They're like, Hey, what's happening here?
547
00:31:30.964 --> 00:31:34.086
Are we just going to be processing everything through the agents now?
548
00:31:34.326 --> 00:31:37.048
Like, Hey, look, as soon as they get accepted job, we're calling them.
549
00:31:37.869 --> 00:31:38.811
and making that connection.
550
00:31:38.871 --> 00:31:40.634
And that's what someone else can't do.
551
00:31:40.975 --> 00:31:43.820
So I still think it's going to be- By having the phone team.
552
00:31:44.081 --> 00:31:44.241
Yeah.
553
00:31:44.441 --> 00:31:45.203
Yeah, I would not-
554
00:31:46.430 --> 00:31:48.232
There's no chance I'd limit my phone team.
555
00:31:48.312 --> 00:31:51.235
I would continue to use them.
556
00:31:51.495 --> 00:31:53.077
The more you touch the client, the more you win.
557
00:31:53.117 --> 00:32:05.970
I mean, I am convinced that a future that's heavily dominated by AI is a future where experience and relationships and in-person starts to matter more than ever, and that becomes the biggest differentiator of all.
558
00:32:06.330 --> 00:32:07.351
Everybody wants...
559
00:32:08.072 --> 00:32:10.993
AI to make everything easy and allow them to be invisible.
560
00:32:11.013 --> 00:32:12.374
And that won't be the winning strategy.
561
00:32:12.574 --> 00:32:13.715
It's my, my bet.
562
00:32:13.735 --> 00:32:14.435
I agree.
563
00:32:14.535 --> 00:32:14.735
It'll.
564
00:32:15.255 --> 00:32:15.415
Yeah.
565
00:32:15.676 --> 00:32:15.976
I think.
566
00:32:16.836 --> 00:32:17.216
Yeah.
567
00:32:17.456 --> 00:32:17.997
I'm not going to go there.
568
00:32:18.057 --> 00:32:18.657
I get off topic.
569
00:32:19.277 --> 00:32:20.978
My number one was exactly what you said.
570
00:32:20.998 --> 00:32:21.538
It was brand.
571
00:32:22.178 --> 00:32:23.399
That is the strategy.
572
00:32:23.419 --> 00:32:26.901
When I started city turf, I didn't believe in brand.
573
00:32:26.981 --> 00:32:29.542
And what I mean by that is I didn't think I could create brand.
574
00:32:30.242 --> 00:32:30.642
I had.
575
00:32:31.403 --> 00:32:35.985
And so I, I had really been led to believe that by Dan Kennedy.
576
00:32:36.565 --> 00:32:37.766
And I agree with what he said.
577
00:32:38.406 --> 00:32:39.307
I 100% agree.
578
00:32:39.327 --> 00:32:41.128
I probably generally agree with what he said in that.
579
00:32:41.509 --> 00:32:46.472
Like a brand is a byproduct of something that happens over time because you just keep doing the right things.
580
00:32:46.892 --> 00:32:49.014
I didn't think I could go out and buy brand.
581
00:32:49.074 --> 00:32:50.235
I didn't have the money to do it.
582
00:32:50.295 --> 00:32:51.095
I couldn't build it.
583
00:32:51.116 --> 00:32:53.457
It would just happen over a period of time.
584
00:32:54.078 --> 00:33:03.665
And so my theory was the way you build brand over time, and I think it's correct, is you just, you do what you say, but doing what you say means there's,
585
00:33:04.425 --> 00:33:06.766
It means exactly that, but it's about quality.
586
00:33:06.966 --> 00:33:08.127
It's about customer service.
587
00:33:08.507 --> 00:33:11.729
So in the beginning of CityTurf, the bet was on customer service.
588
00:33:11.789 --> 00:33:13.450
We always overspent in the office.
589
00:33:13.490 --> 00:33:17.832
Today, to this day, we're probably overstaffed in the office compared to most everybody.
590
00:33:18.612 --> 00:33:20.993
But I just believe that's part of brand.
591
00:33:21.434 --> 00:33:22.934
And so that's where we've invested.
592
00:33:22.974 --> 00:33:24.835
And I believe that was the right bet.
593
00:33:25.296 --> 00:33:27.577
And I would double down on that bet moving forward.
594
00:33:27.637 --> 00:33:30.098
So everything you said about brand was exactly my thesis.
595
00:33:30.698 --> 00:33:33.720
And then the other one that I think about here
596
00:33:34.971 --> 00:33:43.410
is, and this is more than just about pricing being commoditized, in this world that we're moving into where the future might not be
597
00:33:44.762 --> 00:33:48.584
10, 20 links on a page that I can scan and pick from.
598
00:33:48.644 --> 00:33:52.066
It might be three results coming back in Chabby GPT.
599
00:33:52.466 --> 00:33:56.828
It might be an agent just giving the answer and signing you up on a credit card.
600
00:33:57.409 --> 00:34:01.070
That's a very scary proposition, even for a company that has a lot of money.
601
00:34:01.511 --> 00:34:05.773
Because if you have had any experience with SEO, you know that
602
00:34:06.926 --> 00:34:10.028
Anything can take you out of the running or drop you down that list.
603
00:34:10.048 --> 00:34:12.670
Like there's a lot of, it moves around.
604
00:34:13.351 --> 00:34:22.217
And so that general belief along with this pricing commoditization and commoditization, I think it's just a fair word, but we'll see.
605
00:34:23.586 --> 00:34:29.511
I think we shift to a market or a world where you have to go, we go back to the old school.
606
00:34:29.871 --> 00:34:31.793
We go back to you go get the client.
607
00:34:32.353 --> 00:34:34.695
You shift back to more stuff in the mailbox.
608
00:34:35.115 --> 00:34:42.962
It's not the only thing you do, but the most sophisticated winning companies are going to shift back to a mode of go get the client I want.
609
00:34:43.993 --> 00:34:47.558
And that means you have to use like the old guerrilla marketing techniques.
610
00:34:47.618 --> 00:34:53.085
It means you bring back the old school marketing techniques, you show up in the mailbox, you show up on the door, those types of things.
611
00:34:53.105 --> 00:35:00.455
So I think there's going to be a resurgence of those types of activities for the companies that are dominant and strong.
612
00:35:01.208 --> 00:35:04.112
Yeah, I think it's a good caveat too for people listening to this.
613
00:35:04.132 --> 00:35:05.013
I want to be really clear.
614
00:35:05.714 --> 00:35:11.202
Between 5% and 15% of traffic, depending on how well they're doing it, is actually coming from AI right now.
615
00:35:11.302 --> 00:35:15.969
We are still seeing the vast majority of traffic coming from Google search, Google search,
616
00:35:16.830 --> 00:35:19.691
people finding your site organically off your truck, et cetera.
617
00:35:20.011 --> 00:35:24.272
So I put it as a caveat because I think some people will hear this and be like, I've got to blow up everything.
618
00:35:24.312 --> 00:35:25.213
The site's changing.
619
00:35:25.253 --> 00:35:26.793
We're putting, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
620
00:35:27.113 --> 00:35:29.354
Be very careful, especially if you do have good SEO.
621
00:35:29.874 --> 00:35:34.616
And especially if you do have a good strategy that's working right now, because it's not where all of your current leads are.
622
00:35:34.756 --> 00:35:39.957
However, it has doubled in terms of the percentage over the past 12 months across home service web design.
623
00:35:40.617 --> 00:35:45.579
And so I just be like, it's on the hockey stick, but it's still a very small part of your business.
624
00:35:46.132 --> 00:35:49.796
But a 15% if it's that high in some markets is a meaningful part.
625
00:35:49.856 --> 00:35:52.098
So I think the word there would be iteration.
626
00:35:52.478 --> 00:35:53.960
That's a really good call out.
627
00:35:54.120 --> 00:35:55.001
And it's both, right?
628
00:35:55.021 --> 00:35:59.165
You got to be on the door and it's got to be dialed in for an agent.
629
00:35:59.886 --> 00:36:00.086
Yep.
630
00:36:00.607 --> 00:36:00.787
Yep.
631
00:36:01.488 --> 00:36:01.768
All right.
632
00:36:02.749 --> 00:36:08.415
Second item I had for us was one that's come up before and...
633
00:36:10.837 --> 00:36:12.479
You can make this as narrow as you want.
634
00:36:12.939 --> 00:36:14.340
I've given this one some thought as well.
635
00:36:14.380 --> 00:36:20.146
So it's this conversation we've had about why do businesses, why do they fall apart?
636
00:36:20.226 --> 00:36:21.067
Why do they collapse?
637
00:36:21.127 --> 00:36:21.827
Why do they fail?
638
00:36:22.528 --> 00:36:24.850
And you must have hit a nerve.
639
00:36:24.970 --> 00:36:28.394
And it's not like there's a million comments on this, but the word divorce got used.
640
00:36:28.454 --> 00:36:30.395
And I saw divorce come up in the comments.
641
00:36:30.455 --> 00:36:31.717
It's like it must have...
642
00:36:32.808 --> 00:36:34.589
I don't think people picked up on it.
643
00:36:35.070 --> 00:36:46.717
And so I'd like to give you an opportunity to talk about this from your experience over all these years with all the different companies you've worked with, all the shows you've done, where you've seen all kinds of problems.
644
00:36:47.098 --> 00:36:58.025
Bucket a few of these items or take it in any direction you want, but bucket a few of these items that you see that you feel like are common reasons why people, their business won't work out.
645
00:36:58.105 --> 00:37:02.348
It would be warnings for people to be thinking about as they're going down this road.
646
00:37:02.944 --> 00:37:05.685
Yeah, I tried to kind of bucket into just the most common theme.
647
00:37:05.705 --> 00:37:11.246
So what I actually did yesterday is I looked at all the turnaround shows and then I looked at all the locations of Augusta have closed.
648
00:37:11.586 --> 00:37:16.227
And then I looked at all the locations of home service web design that we've seen them close their business.
649
00:37:16.467 --> 00:37:18.828
So I tried to actually bucket them somewhat.
650
00:37:19.368 --> 00:37:24.849
So the first was, I tried, this was a tough one to like label, but it was mostly just confusing revenue growth with success.
651
00:37:25.390 --> 00:37:26.550
So like this,
652
00:37:28.178 --> 00:37:31.679
treadmill of like, I need more trucks, I need more employees, I need more jobs.
653
00:37:31.759 --> 00:37:39.722
And because they get so busy, it hides the big problems of the business, like bad pricing, bad cashflow, bloated payroll, especially as they get past a million.
654
00:37:39.742 --> 00:37:45.124
All of a sudden they're hiring a mechanic and three office people and an estimator and a salesperson.
655
00:37:45.484 --> 00:37:51.086
So that was the first one is like a lot of confusion of what revenue growth means.
656
00:37:51.166 --> 00:37:53.227
It is not directly attributed to success.
657
00:37:54.628 --> 00:37:56.569
And just basically getting beyond their skis.
658
00:37:56.989 --> 00:38:00.372
The second one was they grow past their ability to manage.
659
00:38:01.073 --> 00:38:04.415
And so their fast growth exposes weak systems.
660
00:38:04.775 --> 00:38:08.318
So whether it be they start hiring the wrong people, they don't know how to do job costing.
661
00:38:10.100 --> 00:38:12.221
There's a lack of accountability on the team.
662
00:38:12.762 --> 00:38:14.683
So there's no roles or departments.
663
00:38:14.723 --> 00:38:19.467
But ultimately, it was the lack of the manager to stay up with the business.
664
00:38:19.887 --> 00:38:22.791
And like we talked about last week, hey, that is something you can improve.
665
00:38:22.831 --> 00:38:26.475
You can increase your personal capacity, especially as a leader, as a manager.
666
00:38:26.815 --> 00:38:35.546
But a lot of times, I have to just be honest and be like, they grew the business past their personal capacity as a leader, whether it be they grew too fast or they just had...
667
00:38:36.407 --> 00:38:41.569
So idiosyncrasies or issues or ways of leading and managing that caused people not to want to work for them.
668
00:38:41.969 --> 00:38:42.969
It repelled customers.
669
00:38:44.030 --> 00:38:49.512
And unfortunately, I still see that as like a big reason people fail, especially they start to really grow.
670
00:38:49.532 --> 00:38:53.233
They just don't have the skill of leadership.
671
00:38:53.373 --> 00:38:56.414
The third one is you kind of mentioned that you said the word divorce.
672
00:38:57.155 --> 00:39:02.377
But I kind of buckled it, bucketed into the owner's personal life starts leaking into the business.
673
00:39:03.097 --> 00:39:04.878
And this could even be around health stuff.
674
00:39:05.138 --> 00:39:05.678
Yeah.
675
00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:10.662
If you're 150 pounds overweight, it's going to be harder to grow a business when you're stressful.
676
00:39:11.202 --> 00:39:18.225
It's also going to be hard to do that when you also have some conflict at home or between the family members or there's an emergency in the family.
677
00:39:18.586 --> 00:39:21.567
There's some conflict like those things together.
678
00:39:21.587 --> 00:39:23.988
The personal life starting to leak into the business.
679
00:39:24.468 --> 00:39:26.089
A lot of times I see it stall the business.
680
00:39:26.849 --> 00:39:29.611
In worst case scenario, I see it cause it to go under.
681
00:39:30.712 --> 00:39:38.822
A divorce, ultimately, if a business is bigger, especially if it hasn't been set up correctly, is almost always a death sentence for a business that's doing under $3 million in revenue.
682
00:39:39.422 --> 00:39:47.492
Not only because of legally the 50% separation, it's the distraction of the entrepreneur and the leader not being on the business for 6 to 12 months.
683
00:39:48.433 --> 00:39:49.915
And depending on how ugly it gets.
684
00:39:50.456 --> 00:39:54.321
And then a lot of times if it's like you got to settle for a certain amount of cash, the business doesn't have that kind of cash.
685
00:39:54.581 --> 00:39:56.443
You take on a bunch of debt, you leverage the business.
686
00:39:56.724 --> 00:39:58.386
It just gets really messy.
687
00:39:58.506 --> 00:40:03.732
And then the last one I came up with was debt and using debt to hide problems.
688
00:40:04.353 --> 00:40:06.195
So we talked about debt last week.
689
00:40:07.270 --> 00:40:10.252
Good debt, I think, buys more capacity to be able to grow.
690
00:40:10.652 --> 00:40:15.936
But bad debt, I feel, covers bad pricing, bad labor, slow sales.
691
00:40:16.016 --> 00:40:18.578
You can just juice a bunch of ads and you'll get more leads.
692
00:40:19.418 --> 00:40:20.939
Also, bloated owner lifestyle.
693
00:40:21.300 --> 00:40:24.262
The lifestyle of the entrepreneur is so bloated or it's...
694
00:40:24.762 --> 00:40:48.545
built so it's sucking all the cash out of the business and then you use debt to basically make sure that it can be sustainable and so those are kind of the major buckets i threw it into and eventually it catches up um with someone if either of any of those four buckets are over leveraged or whether it be personal whether it be the debt side uh whether it be someone above their skis from a leadership perspective in the long term it kind of catches up with them
695
00:40:48.887 --> 00:40:53.570
doing service autopilot, doing academy, I've seen a lot of stuff over the years like you have.
696
00:40:54.351 --> 00:40:57.513
And I tend to think about things as predominantly in two buckets.
697
00:40:58.474 --> 00:41:02.797
And one is debt, but I'm going to give a little bit different take on debt.
698
00:41:03.238 --> 00:41:04.559
And then the other one is burnout.
699
00:41:04.599 --> 00:41:09.102
Those are the two things that, but it's, it's, we'll use debt as my example.
700
00:41:09.422 --> 00:41:11.624
So when you hear debt, it might be like, okay, I,
701
00:41:12.728 --> 00:41:17.991
This person, this company went out and they financed their trucks and they financed their equipment.
702
00:41:18.011 --> 00:41:19.552
Then they got into a line of credit.
703
00:41:19.972 --> 00:41:22.274
Then they didn't build up enough money going into winter.
704
00:41:22.334 --> 00:41:23.795
Their line of credit was already tapped.
705
00:41:23.915 --> 00:41:24.635
They get in trouble.
706
00:41:24.695 --> 00:41:26.176
They're hitting the credit cards.
707
00:41:26.717 --> 00:41:31.059
That's probably what most people would picture when I talk about debt.
708
00:41:31.800 --> 00:41:36.603
But debt is a result of many other things that were happening.
709
00:41:36.623 --> 00:41:37.003
Right.
710
00:41:37.674 --> 00:41:39.758
And you touched on a number of those.
711
00:41:39.939 --> 00:41:42.043
The one around personal lifestyle is a big one.
712
00:41:42.945 --> 00:41:44.948
If you have $100,000 on your line of credit...
713
00:41:47.265 --> 00:41:54.189
And then you're in some, it's either a business problem or you have too big of a house, too many car payments.
714
00:41:54.229 --> 00:41:55.450
Like you're taking too many vacations.
715
00:41:55.470 --> 00:42:05.356
Like if you have a hundred thousand dollars on a line of credit and you just went on a 12,000, $15,000 vacation, you basically finance that vacation because you have a line of credit.
716
00:42:05.376 --> 00:42:06.857
You could have paid that off, but yeah,
717
00:42:08.298 --> 00:42:10.899
I think debt a lot of times is less about...
718
00:42:11.139 --> 00:42:16.601
I also have... One that I've seen that results in debt is the buying of accounts or businesses to get started.
719
00:42:16.941 --> 00:42:19.882
And eventually you realize, oh, wow, I way overpaid for that thing.
720
00:42:19.902 --> 00:42:21.282
A lot of people make it work.
721
00:42:21.562 --> 00:42:22.782
Some people don't make it work.
722
00:42:23.443 --> 00:42:24.383
So that's been one.
723
00:42:24.423 --> 00:42:33.566
But the debt from what I've normally seen, when I think about it, is it's debt made possible not fixing something.
724
00:42:34.666 --> 00:42:37.207
And so it happens gradually.
725
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:42.529
And I've seen some really, I've seen this now too many times.
726
00:42:44.120 --> 00:42:49.884
People go under because they don't pay their payroll taxes and they don't pay their sales tax or one or the other.
727
00:42:50.004 --> 00:42:51.486
And you will be destroyed over that.
728
00:42:51.506 --> 00:42:53.187
The government doesn't let you out on that stuff.
729
00:42:53.787 --> 00:42:55.228
That's a version of debt to me.
730
00:42:55.308 --> 00:42:58.791
And so there was a symptom that preceded you not doing that.
731
00:42:59.011 --> 00:43:02.294
Much like there's a symptom that preceded this accumulation of debt.
732
00:43:02.574 --> 00:43:03.875
Pricing didn't get fixed.
733
00:43:04.195 --> 00:43:05.216
You did too many things.
734
00:43:05.256 --> 00:43:07.377
It's all the stuff we talk about all the time.
735
00:43:07.918 --> 00:43:12.942
And what happened is one day when you find yourself in a tough spot,
736
00:43:14.113 --> 00:43:19.195
and you have access to debt, whether it's just financing the trucks or financing the equipment.
737
00:43:19.235 --> 00:43:20.696
Again, I'm not saying those things are bad.
738
00:43:21.156 --> 00:43:30.739
You can do that and say, there's nothing wrong with this because this is what everybody does, but it doesn't set off a fire alarm in your mind to really ask the question, why are we doing this?
739
00:43:31.100 --> 00:43:33.040
Are we doing this because we're really growing fast?
740
00:43:33.060 --> 00:43:35.601
A lot of people say, I'm investing in my business.
741
00:43:35.661 --> 00:43:36.382
I'm growing fast.
742
00:43:36.422 --> 00:43:36.682
I'm like,
743
00:43:37.362 --> 00:43:38.744
Are you really growing fast?
744
00:43:38.824 --> 00:43:43.209
I mean, like adding another crew is not that fast.
745
00:43:43.269 --> 00:43:45.732
Like, you know, it's like, it's just not.
746
00:43:46.113 --> 00:43:47.354
So what are we talking about?
747
00:43:47.374 --> 00:43:47.955
We say growing fast.
748
00:43:47.975 --> 00:43:51.219
So a lot of people will say they're growing fast or I'm growing the business, I'm investing in it.
749
00:43:52.189 --> 00:43:53.690
And the fire alarm was never set off.
750
00:43:53.730 --> 00:43:59.033
And so they never went through a checklist of all the things that could have led to them needing to do that.
751
00:43:59.393 --> 00:44:04.055
So just because you're financing your trucks or you're using a line of credit does not mean something's broken.
752
00:44:04.395 --> 00:44:11.759
But I think because that stuff is so widely used, so acceptable, it doesn't make any of us think about, was this even necessary in the first place?
753
00:44:12.280 --> 00:44:16.602
And so that's how I, when I'm talking about debt, that's one of the biggest reasons.
754
00:44:17.627 --> 00:44:18.669
I've seen people get in debt.
755
00:44:18.729 --> 00:44:23.074
It's not that somebody said, Hey, I'm just going to finance everything and grow as fast as I can.
756
00:44:23.434 --> 00:44:31.463
It was little micro decisions that built year after year, where they didn't go back and fix stuff, analyze things.
757
00:44:32.385 --> 00:44:36.128
they made wrong decisions and it all stacks and you end up with debt.
758
00:44:36.669 --> 00:44:38.351
And then you end up with new kinds of debt.
759
00:44:38.391 --> 00:44:41.754
Like eventually you're into the line and then eventually you're into your credit cards.
760
00:44:41.794 --> 00:44:45.537
And then eventually you're into the Amex and Amex says, you got to pay the bill.
761
00:44:45.557 --> 00:44:46.578
Like it builds.
762
00:44:47.139 --> 00:44:48.119
I've seen that a lot.
763
00:44:48.160 --> 00:44:52.183
You could almost say all, all business failure is actually an accumulation of debt.
764
00:44:52.243 --> 00:44:53.304
Just one type of debt.
765
00:44:53.524 --> 00:44:55.106
Like you could have physical debt.
766
00:44:55.326 --> 00:44:58.049
Like you have not worked out for years.
767
00:44:58.069 --> 00:44:58.529
Yeah.
768
00:44:58.589 --> 00:45:00.110
You have not slept well for years.
769
00:45:00.190 --> 00:45:04.112
And eventually, the bill comes due, and you're being rushed to the ER.
770
00:45:04.192 --> 00:45:05.493
Or same thing with a relationship.
771
00:45:05.993 --> 00:45:11.616
It's like, yeah, divorce is the end result of an accumulation of relationship debt that's accumulated over the course of time.
772
00:45:11.816 --> 00:45:12.776
Yeah, yeah.
773
00:45:12.896 --> 00:45:13.257
And so-
774
00:45:14.137 --> 00:45:17.100
It just sort of dawned on me when we were going to talk about this.
775
00:45:17.120 --> 00:45:25.127
It's like, I want to give a little more color and context to debt because it's just so easy to picture as you bought, you finance some trucks and et cetera, et cetera.
776
00:45:25.347 --> 00:45:26.628
Like, no, how'd you get there?
777
00:45:27.068 --> 00:45:27.509
Right.
778
00:45:27.629 --> 00:45:28.890
And really think about that.
779
00:45:28.910 --> 00:45:30.672
And that's what I see.
780
00:45:30.952 --> 00:45:33.494
It's this slow rolling process.
781
00:45:34.645 --> 00:45:37.486
thing that happens where one day you're just too much debt.
782
00:45:37.506 --> 00:45:42.288
And I've argued, probably said, I don't, we've only done five shows now, but I probably said it here.
783
00:45:42.348 --> 00:45:46.630
I just am so convinced that that ERC money bailed out so many people.
784
00:45:47.930 --> 00:45:49.831
And it's a perfect example for this.
785
00:45:50.251 --> 00:45:53.633
If you got a giant ERC check, what did you do with it?
786
00:45:54.233 --> 00:45:55.653
Did you buy some cool cars?
787
00:45:55.693 --> 00:45:56.934
Did you upgrade your house?
788
00:45:59.089 --> 00:46:01.390
Did you just pay off debts?
789
00:46:01.590 --> 00:46:05.732
Like if that's the extent of what you did, nothing changed.
790
00:46:06.333 --> 00:46:17.598
So whatever the stresses were, the frustrations were, whatever the debts that had been accumulated were, if they haven't already built back by now, they're going to come back because nothing changed.
791
00:46:17.878 --> 00:46:20.700
And that's what I think most of America did with their ERC money.
792
00:46:21.320 --> 00:46:22.221
And it gets addictive.
793
00:46:22.281 --> 00:46:24.762
So then when that runs out, you'll probably go into debt.
794
00:46:25.282 --> 00:46:25.502
Yeah.
795
00:46:25.863 --> 00:46:27.043
To sustain that lifestyle.
796
00:46:27.063 --> 00:46:27.224
Yeah.
797
00:46:27.484 --> 00:46:27.664
Yeah.
798
00:46:28.084 --> 00:46:29.505
And again, I want to be super clear here.
799
00:46:29.745 --> 00:46:36.871
Just because you got ERC, just because you have them down and stuff, does not mean you have a lousy business that's going to burn down.
800
00:46:36.891 --> 00:46:37.651
I don't mean that.
801
00:46:37.671 --> 00:46:40.834
I'm just saying this is what happens to really great people.
802
00:46:41.314 --> 00:46:42.855
They're running so fast.
803
00:46:43.135 --> 00:46:44.356
They're moving so fast.
804
00:46:44.396 --> 00:46:45.077
It's like, okay.
805
00:46:45.557 --> 00:46:48.078
Yes, let's just finance the trucks and you're on to the next thing.
806
00:46:48.398 --> 00:46:52.958
It's a little bit to this idea that we've talked about where it's like, okay, there are seasons.
807
00:46:52.998 --> 00:46:54.079
You've talked about seasons.
808
00:46:54.459 --> 00:47:00.460
There's the go for it, put on the gas, we're building season, and then there's the cleanup season.
809
00:47:00.940 --> 00:47:02.480
Are you doing the cleanup stuff?
810
00:47:02.540 --> 00:47:04.961
Are you looking at how we got here?
811
00:47:05.441 --> 00:47:09.222
Because when people don't look at how they got here, one day you wake up and it's gone.
812
00:47:09.542 --> 00:47:13.443
That's why I'm so big on the debt thing.
813
00:47:16.043 --> 00:47:22.705
it's the accumulation of bad decisions that results in the debt, not so much a strategy.
814
00:47:23.685 --> 00:47:27.706
And then the other one is this burnout, which is also the accumulation of bad decisions.
815
00:47:27.746 --> 00:47:38.649
Like it's the, it's what you said about, you know, like around management, not learning how, I don't remember how you worded it, but not getting the right people in place, not learning how to lead and manage properly, not doing all these things.
816
00:47:39.569 --> 00:47:40.509
Going too fast.
817
00:47:40.549 --> 00:47:41.590
There's all these things.
818
00:47:41.650 --> 00:47:42.830
Doing too many things.
819
00:47:43.130 --> 00:47:44.650
Getting excited about somebody else's business.
820
00:47:44.670 --> 00:47:45.971
Say, wow, they're making all that money over there.
821
00:47:45.991 --> 00:47:47.011
I'm going to do that service too.
822
00:47:47.051 --> 00:47:54.153
It's like all that adds up to just complete and utter burnout, which might ultimately also result in debt, which furthers burnout.
823
00:47:54.413 --> 00:47:59.175
So these are the two big ones that I believe most people end up living in.
824
00:47:59.735 --> 00:48:00.475
So those are my two.
825
00:48:01.038 --> 00:48:03.980
Yeah, like the burnout one's tough, even when it comes to like mental health.
826
00:48:04.120 --> 00:48:05.782
I know you've seen it in a few people.
827
00:48:05.842 --> 00:48:06.282
I've seen it.
828
00:48:06.302 --> 00:48:12.167
It's like it's one of those ones that's so unique because sometimes it might their business was fine.
829
00:48:12.307 --> 00:48:13.488
They actually built it just fine.
830
00:48:13.848 --> 00:48:17.150
And then all of a sudden a chemical in their brain goes out and they're burned out.
831
00:48:17.190 --> 00:48:19.112
Like all of a sudden their personal capacity just gets whacked.
832
00:48:19.132 --> 00:48:19.372
You're done.
833
00:48:19.692 --> 00:48:25.396
And that's why, to your point, like last week, growing is so important to a certain size where it can run without you.
834
00:48:25.616 --> 00:48:34.881
And that's where I'm a big advocate of like sometimes the best way to prevent burnout is make sure you're not doing those low-level tasks for decades on end and building to a point.
835
00:48:34.921 --> 00:48:36.783
And, yes, maybe you take on a little debt.
836
00:48:36.823 --> 00:48:45.348
Maybe you put a little more risk into the business to get it to the size to where something like that happening, whether it be a personal thing, a physical thing, doesn't wipe you out.
837
00:48:46.068 --> 00:48:47.229
And that's where I'm more of the promo.
838
00:48:47.249 --> 00:48:53.015
Hey, we should build a business to a certain size to prevent that burnout potentially from affecting the business.
839
00:48:53.575 --> 00:48:53.775
Yeah.
840
00:48:54.997 --> 00:49:01.262
Yeah, you made me think of, I'm a, I am all of, I've always been the guy that's like,
841
00:49:02.075 --> 00:49:03.536
I'm perfectly happy to outwork you.
842
00:49:03.756 --> 00:49:06.218
I mean, I'm definitely... That's my mindset.
843
00:49:06.319 --> 00:49:07.379
I will outwork you.
844
00:49:07.820 --> 00:49:09.942
I've always liked this concept of the slightest edge.
845
00:49:10.302 --> 00:49:12.163
Like if you don't... You could look it up if you don't know what it is.
846
00:49:12.183 --> 00:49:12.864
Like I just like...
847
00:49:13.164 --> 00:49:13.424
I like...
848
00:49:13.625 --> 00:49:15.226
I will do whatever it takes.
849
00:49:15.466 --> 00:49:17.988
I will win through sheer force.
850
00:49:18.108 --> 00:49:20.831
But as I've gotten more mature in business, it's like...
851
00:49:21.491 --> 00:49:22.072
I don't know.
852
00:49:22.292 --> 00:49:24.474
I mean, like, yes and no for seasons.
853
00:49:25.114 --> 00:49:30.219
And so I think, and then you take somebody like a Gary Vee, and there's so much, it's like the hustle culture concept.
854
00:49:30.239 --> 00:49:34.423
Like, there's some really good lessons in that, especially for younger people.
855
00:49:35.184 --> 00:49:39.347
But then there comes a place where it's like, okay, that had a season and that makes sense.
856
00:49:39.848 --> 00:49:41.690
But if you're still living in pure...
857
00:49:42.720 --> 00:49:46.862
adrenaline, all in, whatever it takes all the time.
858
00:49:47.142 --> 00:49:48.322
It's kind of like the debt thing.
859
00:49:48.342 --> 00:49:58.346
It's like, wait, if I'm still having to live this way after five years of business or seven years, maybe that should set off again my fire alarm analogy and say, well, why am I having to do this?
860
00:49:58.707 --> 00:50:00.667
What didn't we build quite right?
861
00:50:00.747 --> 00:50:01.868
What am I not doing?
862
00:50:02.148 --> 00:50:04.929
Because there are other people that do not live this way.
863
00:50:05.329 --> 00:50:06.610
And so that's a...
864
00:50:07.270 --> 00:50:09.151
Just something else that I've also noticed.
865
00:50:09.191 --> 00:50:12.673
It's so easy for all of us to say, back to my debt thing, we're investing in the business.
866
00:50:12.753 --> 00:50:13.753
We're building the business.
867
00:50:13.773 --> 00:50:14.414
This is okay.
868
00:50:14.914 --> 00:50:21.637
And you can make the same argument with just never-ending, all-in, hard work, outworking everybody else, the hustle culture things.
869
00:50:22.618 --> 00:50:30.322
Yeah, that's good, but there should come a point where you could let off the gas a bit and you could still win.
870
00:50:31.375 --> 00:50:31.495
Yeah.
871
00:50:31.515 --> 00:50:32.616
Does that resonate with you at all?
872
00:50:32.736 --> 00:50:33.917
Or how do you feel about that one?
873
00:50:34.117 --> 00:50:41.061
I feel like I've kind of made this transition in the past few years because realizing that you can't outwork a problem is very humbling.
874
00:50:41.822 --> 00:50:45.564
But realizing that the decisions you make is the highest leverage thing you can do in a day.
875
00:50:46.085 --> 00:50:51.108
And then realizing that when you overwork or you're hustling all the time, you make poor decisions.
876
00:50:52.209 --> 00:50:58.133
And so having some really public failures when I made bad decisions probably was a result of
877
00:50:59.742 --> 00:51:03.824
being the hustle, I'm going to work all the time, and then making a decision after not having slept for all night.
878
00:51:04.525 --> 00:51:08.907
So I've purposely been much more a matter of like, decisions are the highest leverage task I can do.
879
00:51:09.968 --> 00:51:15.691
If anything goes against that, as the business has grown, I need to protect that at all costs, which means I have to sleep.
880
00:51:16.032 --> 00:51:18.253
And if I don't sleep, no decisions the next day.
881
00:51:18.533 --> 00:51:22.615
I was talking to Nick, one of the leaders here, and he was we were talking about some stuff.
882
00:51:22.635 --> 00:51:26.537
I'm like, if I don't sleep well, I basically it's like there's no decisions being made today.
883
00:51:26.778 --> 00:51:36.583
Like there's no consequential six week, two months commitments happening because I understand now that a poor decision could have huge implications for the organization.
884
00:51:36.923 --> 00:51:39.505
And that is the most highest leverage task for me.
885
00:51:39.525 --> 00:51:40.925
And this really came as a result.
886
00:51:40.945 --> 00:51:43.747
Like Jeff Bezos says, like he makes two or three good decisions a day.
887
00:51:51.055 --> 00:51:55.378
And like his morning is like the most chill, like wake up and everyone can rag on that all they want.
888
00:51:55.418 --> 00:52:02.544
But the reason he's at where he's at today is because he's realized that making two or three good decisions is the highest leverage thing for him to do.
889
00:52:02.884 --> 00:52:11.011
And anything that would prevent you from being in the right mental state or physical state to be able to make those decisions well is bad.
890
00:52:11.511 --> 00:52:17.156
And that hustle culture kind of goes right up against that mentality of being in a state where I make a good decision.
891
00:52:17.977 --> 00:52:18.177
Yeah.
892
00:52:18.597 --> 00:52:18.778
Yeah.
893
00:52:18.818 --> 00:52:21.280
And the story of life is it's never black or white.
894
00:52:21.300 --> 00:52:22.240
It's never either or.
895
00:52:22.280 --> 00:52:23.561
It's like a little bit of all of it.
896
00:52:23.601 --> 00:52:25.283
It's like, yeah, there's a time for hustle.
897
00:52:25.303 --> 00:52:26.343
Like, absolutely.
898
00:52:26.824 --> 00:52:27.144
You go.
899
00:52:27.204 --> 00:52:27.364
Yeah.
900
00:52:27.564 --> 00:52:29.746
So I agree with all that.
901
00:52:31.207 --> 00:52:31.687
Let's move on.
902
00:52:31.867 --> 00:52:32.088
All right.
903
00:52:32.328 --> 00:52:32.628
You ready?
904
00:52:33.068 --> 00:52:33.289
Okay.
905
00:52:33.769 --> 00:52:34.029
All right.
906
00:52:34.129 --> 00:52:36.991
So I think this is an important one.
907
00:52:37.932 --> 00:52:44.997
If you're using AI and you're asking your model questions, how much...
908
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:53.701
Mike, what's your opinion on how much trust should a person put into Claude or ChatGPT when they're asking for business advice?
909
00:52:54.061 --> 00:52:54.881
You could take it that way.
910
00:52:54.901 --> 00:52:58.261
You could even go a layer deeper and say, hey, I'm working on marketing strategy.
911
00:52:58.281 --> 00:52:59.622
I'm writing marketing copy.
912
00:52:59.642 --> 00:53:02.062
Or how do I have this conversation with a team member?
913
00:53:02.122 --> 00:53:07.983
Whatever the scenario is, how much do you think about how much you believe the answer you're getting back?
914
00:53:08.043 --> 00:53:08.683
Is it truth?
915
00:53:09.124 --> 00:53:10.284
Is it the best strategy?
916
00:53:11.124 --> 00:53:11.564
What do you think?
917
00:53:11.876 --> 00:53:16.779
Yeah, I look at it much more as it's giving me directionally correct information.
918
00:53:18.140 --> 00:53:21.242
Like you mentioned, I think, a couple weeks ago, like AI is a guessing machine at the end of the day.
919
00:53:21.982 --> 00:53:24.324
And what I always like to think about... A prediction machine.
920
00:53:24.344 --> 00:53:25.064
Prediction machine, yes.
921
00:53:25.585 --> 00:53:30.488
And the output of what it gives me is trained on the internet.
922
00:53:30.508 --> 00:53:30.628
Right.
923
00:53:31.468 --> 00:53:32.849
the aggregate of the entire internet.
924
00:53:33.209 --> 00:53:41.132
So if I take everything the internet says and take the average of it, that's what AI is giving me, especially if I don't give it any contextual data.
925
00:53:41.712 --> 00:53:46.154
And so I believe that the output that I get from it is only as good as the input I give it.
926
00:53:46.834 --> 00:53:49.175
And I think the businesses that have organized data...
927
00:53:50.235 --> 00:53:54.779
organized numbers, contextual data, they'll be the ones that can make use of the AI.
928
00:53:55.119 --> 00:54:04.787
But if you just give AI like a random question about your business, you're going to get a 50 percentile aggregate of what the world thinks on the internet.
929
00:54:05.848 --> 00:54:08.730
And who knows what someone's saying on the internet that it could be trained on.
930
00:54:09.531 --> 00:54:15.136
And I think it gets really dangerous when owners are seeking validation instead of actually seeking the truth.
931
00:54:16.807 --> 00:54:21.269
Do they really want to know the problems in their business and why the marketing strategy won't work?
932
00:54:21.609 --> 00:54:24.650
Or they just say, hey, this is what I'm thinking, and then the AI validates it.
933
00:54:25.170 --> 00:54:27.331
Now they have more confidence in the wrong decision.
934
00:54:28.171 --> 00:54:34.293
And I see a lot of times, yes, you can use a prompt or a way of making sure that it doesn't just validate what you say.
935
00:54:34.333 --> 00:54:37.254
You can tell, hey, be my sparring partner, find holes.
936
00:54:37.434 --> 00:54:41.276
That's where I feel the most value in AI for me is like, here's what I'm thinking.
937
00:54:41.356 --> 00:54:41.676
Here's my...
938
00:54:42.336 --> 00:54:43.156
I want you to find the holes.
939
00:54:43.216 --> 00:54:44.337
Why will this not work?
940
00:54:44.897 --> 00:54:55.471
Because it seems to do a better job at finding holes than finding the one specific way that I should go and thinking of it much more of a sparring partner for what decision I'm making and refining it.
941
00:54:55.591 --> 00:54:57.093
I think that's really good at refining.
942
00:54:57.694 --> 00:55:00.838
But if you just blanketly say, I want to grow my business this year by double...
943
00:55:01.539 --> 00:55:02.219
What should I do?
944
00:55:02.920 --> 00:55:06.021
You're going to get the most average output ever.
945
00:55:06.922 --> 00:55:09.963
And if you don't have organized inputs in terms of like, what's my close ratio?
946
00:55:10.244 --> 00:55:11.504
What's my P&L look like?
947
00:55:11.985 --> 00:55:14.166
To give it, it's also just going to be even more generic.
948
00:55:14.726 --> 00:55:21.850
And so I think in general, I like it as more of a honing tool and a stock partner approach.
949
00:55:22.809 --> 00:55:38.598
I think putting into the prompt, I think everyone should have a master prompt so it has full context of your role, what your objectives are at the business, the financials of the business, your personal why, so it can optimize its response around those things instead of looking at the internet.
950
00:55:39.099 --> 00:55:45.763
I think most people just don't give it enough context to actually make it a useful tool and therefore they end up just gaining more confidence in their bad decisions.
951
00:55:46.403 --> 00:55:51.186
But from your perspective, have you found the same thing or how do you use it?
952
00:55:53.299 --> 00:55:55.260
Well, I'd agree with everything you said.
953
00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:58.702
A couple of things I'll add to it and I can kind of answer how I use it.
954
00:55:59.202 --> 00:56:01.243
I'll just reiterate first what you said.
955
00:56:01.823 --> 00:56:06.005
The way I most like using it is I want it to argue against me.
956
00:56:06.165 --> 00:56:07.626
I want it to make a case.
957
00:56:07.706 --> 00:56:11.308
I want it to take a stand against my position or my thinking.
958
00:56:11.788 --> 00:56:13.309
And I want it to tell me why I'm wrong.
959
00:56:14.250 --> 00:56:20.473
I want it to argue both sides or I would ask it maybe like, how would this person solve this problem?
960
00:56:20.493 --> 00:56:21.133
Yeah.
961
00:56:21.273 --> 00:56:22.154
Like that kind of a thing.
962
00:56:22.174 --> 00:56:23.556
Like use other personas.
963
00:56:24.497 --> 00:56:28.141
And maybe have it give me the answer from five different personas.
964
00:56:28.862 --> 00:56:35.230
Or I'll ask it to take a completely novel approach that it doesn't think anybody would ever do or use.
965
00:56:35.290 --> 00:56:36.992
Basically, it's everything you said.
966
00:56:37.032 --> 00:56:38.093
You're trying to get it...
967
00:56:38.894 --> 00:56:44.597
via the prompt to give you completely out of the norm, not average answers.
968
00:56:45.097 --> 00:56:51.801
And so I'm looking at it as a brainstorming partner to help me think through things.
969
00:56:52.802 --> 00:56:54.703
But I'm still going to have to make the decision.
970
00:56:54.723 --> 00:56:57.184
I have to constantly challenge it.
971
00:56:57.504 --> 00:56:58.625
I have to push back on it.
972
00:56:58.725 --> 00:57:00.046
I want it to do the same to me.
973
00:57:00.606 --> 00:57:02.667
So you had said that.
974
00:57:02.987 --> 00:57:05.209
That's core to the way I would use it.
975
00:57:06.029 --> 00:57:10.152
Another thing I would say is for important stuff, I run it through multiple models.
976
00:57:12.033 --> 00:57:14.375
And I do everything I just said through multiple models.
977
00:57:14.395 --> 00:57:19.359
So everything takes more time, but I feel like you end up with much better output.
978
00:57:19.379 --> 00:57:22.281
At the end of the day, I would remind you, you've got to make the decision.
979
00:57:22.341 --> 00:57:27.085
I see it in myself because I use the model so much and I'm doing so much work right now.
980
00:57:27.865 --> 00:57:40.989
and thinking about so many things, it's really nice for it just to say at the bottom, I would go with this one, I would go with a or you've probably experienced that if you use it a lot, it'll give you a list is like, I would use a is the best one.
981
00:57:41.009 --> 00:57:49.091
And you just so I find myself being tempted to take its answers a lot of times, because it's easier, it like brings down the mental load.
982
00:57:49.111 --> 00:57:51.312
I was like, I just want to get this done, want to make a decision.
983
00:57:51.652 --> 00:57:54.933
And I and I, it's not that I don't necessarily agree with a lot of those answers.
984
00:57:54.973 --> 00:57:55.093
But
985
00:57:56.473 --> 00:57:57.853
you've got to be really, really careful.
986
00:57:57.993 --> 00:58:07.115
You can really get, because you want to go quick, you can really get into a bad place of like believing the answer and it sounds right.
987
00:58:08.236 --> 00:58:11.996
And so I think you, it's not that the answers, like some answers are just blatantly bad.
988
00:58:12.116 --> 00:58:13.937
I still feel that way today.
989
00:58:14.357 --> 00:58:18.478
I constantly deal with stuff like that is unbelievably terrible advice.
990
00:58:20.279 --> 00:58:22.620
And so I might have said it on here.
991
00:58:23.220 --> 00:58:24.221
I talk too much.
992
00:58:25.202 --> 00:58:26.763
I'm so glad I'm not 20 right now.
993
00:58:26.863 --> 00:58:39.191
I'm so glad because if I was 20, I'd probably believe everything that is telling me, but I've got enough context in life and I've done enough thinking and had enough experiences like, wait a second, that does not make any sense.
994
00:58:39.231 --> 00:58:40.012
It's that kind of a thing.
995
00:58:40.052 --> 00:58:42.833
So that just constantly reminds me I've got to be careful.
996
00:58:43.594 --> 00:58:45.855
Maybe one of the biggest points I would make is
997
00:58:46.716 --> 00:58:53.959
and there are some studies around this, that the way you state your prompt can lead it.
998
00:58:55.099 --> 00:58:58.281
So if you say, this is what I'm thinking,
999
00:58:59.500 --> 00:59:01.522
Or this is how I'm thinking about it.
1000
00:59:02.003 --> 00:59:03.584
Or this is what I've come up with.
1001
00:59:04.145 --> 00:59:07.648
Anything like that where you've already hinted at this angle.
1002
00:59:07.688 --> 00:59:08.949
This is what I'm thinking.
1003
00:59:09.389 --> 00:59:14.934
The studies show you're way more likely to get an answer that confirms it.
1004
00:59:15.255 --> 00:59:22.782
And so I oftentimes, when it's important, will either take a completely opposite stance of what I believe and tell it to challenge me.
1005
00:59:23.803 --> 00:59:26.684
or I'll be extremely careful in how I say it.
1006
00:59:28.164 --> 00:59:30.725
But I'm constantly having it, you know, challenge me.
1007
00:59:30.785 --> 00:59:32.526
I would say that's probably the takeaway.
1008
00:59:32.586 --> 00:59:34.446
I just push back constantly.
1009
00:59:34.966 --> 00:59:38.167
If I'm writing a marketing piece, I'm constantly rewriting and say, what about this?
1010
00:59:38.187 --> 00:59:44.109
Like, you know, and just like, I always feel like I talk to it a little bit mean sometimes, like I wouldn't even talk to another person.
1011
00:59:44.549 --> 00:59:46.830
And so I think that's how you got to use it.
1012
00:59:47.038 --> 00:59:48.099
Yeah.
1013
00:59:48.139 --> 00:59:49.101
Back to my hot take.
1014
00:59:49.301 --> 00:59:52.385
It's the person that can't challenge their thoughts and opinions politically.
1015
00:59:52.585 --> 00:59:53.186
Red flag.
1016
00:59:53.586 --> 00:59:54.447
Same thing with AI.
1017
00:59:54.567 --> 00:59:54.908
Yeah.
1018
00:59:55.148 --> 00:59:55.969
Yeah.
1019
00:59:56.209 --> 00:59:56.650
Yeah.
1020
00:59:56.730 --> 00:59:57.150
Good point.
1021
00:59:57.271 --> 00:59:59.934
Do you use it much like when you're doing the vibe coding thing?
1022
00:59:59.994 --> 01:00:02.817
Are you doing it much when you're working out or walking?
1023
01:00:03.178 --> 01:00:05.280
Or do you do like build your prompt?
1024
01:00:06.101 --> 01:00:09.444
using that, and then you go and put it into Claude later on?
1025
01:00:09.484 --> 01:00:14.348
Are you actually in Claude, like doing like Whisperflow or talking to it?
1026
01:00:14.769 --> 01:00:17.891
Or do you usually build the prompt while you're running out about?
1027
01:00:18.392 --> 01:00:19.352
A prompt to do what?
1028
01:00:19.393 --> 01:00:21.454
Are you saying to code something or a prompt in general?
1029
01:00:21.714 --> 01:00:25.438
You had mentioned the other day, like the estimating tool that you've been building, all of that.
1030
01:00:26.098 --> 01:00:26.419
Okay.
1031
01:00:26.679 --> 01:00:26.979
Yeah.
1032
01:00:26.999 --> 01:00:32.684
So the real work happens when I'm sitting in front of it using Whisperflow.
1033
01:00:33.967 --> 01:00:41.032
But I love, I think Grok's still my favorite, but Claude has really gotten better with the conversational approach.
1034
01:00:41.993 --> 01:00:46.136
Grok's not my favorite tool, but from a conversation flow, it's very easy.
1035
01:00:46.416 --> 01:00:49.559
But I'm now, because I think Claude is so much personally, I think it's better.
1036
01:00:49.919 --> 01:00:51.020
I'm now having my conversation.
1037
01:00:51.040 --> 01:00:53.962
I've switched recently to now I have my conversations in Claude.
1038
01:00:54.502 --> 01:00:56.044
And so let's say I was out,
1039
01:00:56.957 --> 01:01:00.440
walking, I will have this thing I want to work on.
1040
01:01:00.460 --> 01:01:02.903
Like we'll use the estimating system as an example.
1041
01:01:02.923 --> 01:01:05.746
So I have this, I want to work on this estimating system.
1042
01:01:06.606 --> 01:01:12.933
And so I will have a conversation with it, brainstorming the estimating system, what needs to be in it.
1043
01:01:13.333 --> 01:01:17.197
I'll have it go out and do all this deep research, or I tell it to do deep research, she knows what it does.
1044
01:01:17.457 --> 01:01:19.058
You know, I can use words like that.
1045
01:01:19.519 --> 01:01:22.101
And so, you know, and I'll give it very specific.
1046
01:01:22.121 --> 01:01:23.021
I want you to do this.
1047
01:01:23.041 --> 01:01:24.102
I want you to go research here.
1048
01:01:24.122 --> 01:01:24.963
I want you to look at this.
1049
01:01:25.003 --> 01:01:27.145
I want you to look at these screens, these designs.
1050
01:01:27.165 --> 01:01:28.185
I want you to do all this stuff.
1051
01:01:28.205 --> 01:01:30.687
I want you to look at these feature sets across these products.
1052
01:01:31.308 --> 01:01:32.809
And tons of information.
1053
01:01:32.849 --> 01:01:33.630
And we just talk.
1054
01:01:34.190 --> 01:01:38.534
And so maybe like sometimes I'll walk an hour, an hour and a half doing just that.
1055
01:01:38.895 --> 01:01:47.503
And then what I'll do is I'll have it summarize that all of our decisions and all the things I said I agreed on or while we're talking, I'll be like, hey, don't lose that point.
1056
01:01:47.563 --> 01:01:49.064
I need that surfaced again later.
1057
01:01:49.124 --> 01:01:49.685
Remember that.
1058
01:01:50.045 --> 01:01:52.227
I have it then give me a final document
1059
01:01:53.570 --> 01:01:57.911
I like to do documents because the threads constantly compress.
1060
01:01:57.971 --> 01:02:03.213
Like in Claude, you'll see if you're, I don't know if it does in the free version, but in the paid version, you'll see it compress.
1061
01:02:04.073 --> 01:02:08.995
In ChatGPT, it's compressing behind the scenes or it's losing its context window.
1062
01:02:09.435 --> 01:02:12.336
And so you're losing all this knowledge you don't even realize you're losing.
1063
01:02:12.356 --> 01:02:13.396
So I'm constantly...
1064
01:02:14.076 --> 01:02:17.377
having it keep either an MD file, which is just a markdown file.
1065
01:02:17.397 --> 01:02:23.320
It's like the native file structure for them, or I'll have it create literally a Word document or something like that.
1066
01:02:23.380 --> 01:02:34.704
And I'm constantly uploading that or updating that document, saving it off to my computer, then sometimes dropping it back into Claude or ChatGPT so that it refreshes its memory, like where we're really at.
1067
01:02:34.724 --> 01:02:36.025
That's a really important point.
1068
01:02:36.045 --> 01:02:36.225
So...
1069
01:02:36.905 --> 01:02:41.787
The start to answer your question, I sometimes I'll just like, I'm inspired to work on this problem.
1070
01:02:42.107 --> 01:02:43.487
It could be a code problem.
1071
01:02:43.527 --> 01:02:45.508
It could be, I want to learn something.
1072
01:02:45.568 --> 01:02:46.188
It could be anything.
1073
01:02:46.268 --> 01:02:47.769
I'll just walk and talk.
1074
01:02:48.249 --> 01:02:52.570
And then all the knowledge, I will dump that knowledge into a document so it doesn't get lost.
1075
01:02:52.970 --> 01:03:04.934
Now, if to answer the next part of the question, like let's say I was working on designing something, I sit in front of my computer running multiple agents, just talking to it, iterating and trying things.
1076
01:03:07.390 --> 01:03:11.796
That part, the actual design, I'm having it constantly change stuff on the screen and do it.
1077
01:03:12.216 --> 01:03:12.637
That's how I'm...
1078
01:03:13.037 --> 01:03:13.978
So it's a little bit different.
1079
01:03:14.519 --> 01:03:15.140
Yeah, that was awesome.
1080
01:03:15.160 --> 01:03:15.961
Did I answer your question?
1081
01:03:15.981 --> 01:03:16.601
Yeah, that was great.
1082
01:03:16.742 --> 01:03:22.669
I think the building part for me had been really helpful as explaining to me how it's building.
1083
01:03:23.069 --> 01:03:25.873
It's like if someone's actually building something with AI...
1084
01:03:26.233 --> 01:03:29.274
Like for me to learn, hey, I don't want you just to go do it.
1085
01:03:29.354 --> 01:03:31.115
I need to explain like, what are you doing the front end?
1086
01:03:31.135 --> 01:03:31.936
What are you doing the back end?
1087
01:03:32.036 --> 01:03:34.357
Why did this need to happen from a technical perspective?
1088
01:03:34.597 --> 01:03:36.778
I want to explain why this bug is happening.
1089
01:03:37.238 --> 01:03:39.219
And like, I want to know why, what you're doing.
1090
01:03:39.599 --> 01:03:44.801
It's been really helpful even just like to learn the, the lingo of the engineers, a lot of it for me.
1091
01:03:44.981 --> 01:03:45.262
Yeah.
1092
01:03:45.462 --> 01:03:47.162
And you definitely have to give it RHEL.
1093
01:03:47.242 --> 01:03:48.303
So as an example,
1094
01:03:50.305 --> 01:03:53.866
like let's just say you were building a website just to bring it down.
1095
01:03:53.906 --> 01:04:01.729
So a lot of people, when they build a website, let's just say your website is 10 pages and you'll build this file called like a CSS file.
1096
01:04:01.970 --> 01:04:02.750
It's a style.
1097
01:04:02.890 --> 01:04:10.573
It's a file that dictates the font sizes, the sizing of the headers, the font, the point size, the color.
1098
01:04:10.593 --> 01:04:18.576
So it creates this structure for how the whole website looks and you can go update this file and it will essentially update the whole website.
1099
01:04:18.896 --> 01:04:20.958
Or another example would be you create a template.
1100
01:04:21.079 --> 01:04:24.162
And a template might say, hey, the header of my website looks like this.
1101
01:04:24.242 --> 01:04:25.784
The footer of my website looks like this.
1102
01:04:26.104 --> 01:04:28.687
So it's got a structure, and you just apply that template to every page.
1103
01:04:28.707 --> 01:04:38.598
So every time you create a new page, like you have an about page, and now you add a contact us page, you don't have to go recode the header and the footer.
1104
01:04:38.618 --> 01:04:39.579
It just inherits that.
1105
01:04:39.680 --> 01:04:39.920
Okay.
1106
01:04:40.474 --> 01:04:48.636
Things you've got to kind of watch out with these tools is they might, as they're writing your code, build a separate CSS file for every single page.
1107
01:04:49.036 --> 01:04:50.916
Yeah, they'll do all these crazy things.
1108
01:04:50.976 --> 01:04:54.717
And so you've got to really talk to it and keep it on the rails.
1109
01:04:54.757 --> 01:04:59.638
And then after you get the output, you have to constantly go back.
1110
01:04:59.698 --> 01:05:02.219
It's like where I talk about challenging it earlier.
1111
01:05:02.239 --> 01:05:03.619
I was talking about constantly challenging it.
1112
01:05:03.899 --> 01:05:08.140
You have to constantly challenge it and say, I want you to go do this, check this, check this.
1113
01:05:08.180 --> 01:05:08.901
Did you do this?
1114
01:05:09.241 --> 01:05:10.301
Did you make this mistake?
1115
01:05:10.761 --> 01:05:13.463
Did you lose anything from three designs ago?
1116
01:05:13.763 --> 01:05:15.785
You have to just constantly go through that.
1117
01:05:16.545 --> 01:05:20.328
And that's really imperative to the quality output.
1118
01:05:20.648 --> 01:05:26.151
And then if you're building something bigger, you need to tell it what database you're using, what your data structures are.
1119
01:05:26.572 --> 01:05:31.655
You need to tell it where it's going to be hosted, if you're going to link in other products.
1120
01:05:31.675 --> 01:05:34.597
So this is where this stuff starts to get a little more complex.
1121
01:05:34.857 --> 01:05:36.899
But you've got to be very, very clear about that stuff.
1122
01:05:36.919 --> 01:05:38.440
Because if you do the design...
1123
01:05:39.060 --> 01:05:46.643
and you don't go to that degree, then when you go to write code, it's going to be a lot of fixing.
1124
01:05:46.823 --> 01:05:50.165
And in the fixing is where you're going to end up with a lot of spaghetti code and problems.
1125
01:05:50.245 --> 01:05:52.226
And so that's a little bit of how I think about it.
1126
01:05:52.626 --> 01:06:00.890
Yeah, and so it's funny because with home service web design, with all of this, it's very much, someone can say, hey, take the site, copy this over in cloud code.
1127
01:06:01.350 --> 01:06:06.792
And like, we very, very much like, let's just go trips where they fall, where they may for home service web design.
1128
01:06:07.092 --> 01:06:07.453
Because...
1129
01:06:08.733 --> 01:06:09.614
we've lost clients.
1130
01:06:09.734 --> 01:06:12.897
They go build this and they just literally just put in like, copy this.
1131
01:06:13.577 --> 01:06:20.844
And then we've had this past week, three people come back and it was a function of, we saw their source code once they came back.
1132
01:06:20.864 --> 01:06:22.265
And it was like, exactly what you said.
1133
01:06:23.246 --> 01:06:29.711
Multiple CSS files, like the headers, like everything was messed up on the backend, even though the front end looked fine.
1134
01:06:29.731 --> 01:06:34.415
I think that's where a lot of times when it comes to the code side, it's easy to fall into the trap of like, Oh, I built this thing.
1135
01:06:34.435 --> 01:06:36.177
It's like, well, you've built a mockup.
1136
01:06:36.937 --> 01:06:39.599
And, and like, there is so much more behind this.
1137
01:06:39.999 --> 01:06:43.161
And they came back because within three weeks, it's just like the leaves dropped off.
1138
01:06:43.581 --> 01:06:47.103
So it's possible, but building it correctly, I think is, is important.
1139
01:06:47.884 --> 01:06:48.224
It is.
1140
01:06:48.564 --> 01:06:49.825
And we don't, we've kind of talked about this.
1141
01:06:49.845 --> 01:06:54.048
We don't have to go too far down the road, but I think about this a lot because it's advanced so much.
1142
01:06:54.068 --> 01:06:58.790
I mean, I, I even like, should I just build my own thing for city turf?
1143
01:06:58.810 --> 01:06:59.971
I know how to do all this.
1144
01:07:00.491 --> 01:07:03.813
And we've talked about this, but the problem is that,
1145
01:07:05.251 --> 01:07:09.174
I think this is the challenge that we're all just going to have to figure out what the right strategy is.
1146
01:07:09.514 --> 01:07:12.175
On one hand, yeah, it's only going to get better from here.
1147
01:07:12.195 --> 01:07:14.377
So we're probably going to be able to build a lot of these things.
1148
01:07:15.097 --> 01:07:22.242
But if I'm distracted or if Philip was distracted or somebody else, that's a massive distraction from just growing the business.
1149
01:07:22.262 --> 01:07:24.423
And so that's a huge opportunity cost.
1150
01:07:24.523 --> 01:07:27.906
So, yeah, while we're going to be able to do it, would that even make a lot of sense?
1151
01:07:28.778 --> 01:07:37.307
And then the other one is if you kind of will use the spaghetti code example or just as things evolve over time, it's not that.
1152
01:07:37.487 --> 01:07:38.749
It's pretty good.
1153
01:07:39.650 --> 01:07:46.257
The tools are amazing about building something brand new, like from scratch where it's just a white sheet of paper.
1154
01:07:46.637 --> 01:07:48.639
It's the going back and changing it.
1155
01:07:48.659 --> 01:07:49.300
Yeah.
1156
01:07:50.277 --> 01:07:51.017
Regressions.
1157
01:07:51.137 --> 01:07:51.758
Regressions.
1158
01:07:51.778 --> 01:07:52.218
Yeah.
1159
01:07:52.238 --> 01:07:52.398
Yeah.
1160
01:07:52.458 --> 01:08:03.342
And so I suspect, I mean, it will get so much better, but I, I just can't help but think even years out into the future, you're going to need a person, a human to get involved as well.
1161
01:08:03.362 --> 01:08:12.426
And so back to a point I've probably made before, it's like, if you could buy a piece of software for 300 bucks a month and an IT guy is going to cost 150, 180 an hour or 200 an hour to do this, like, yeah.
1162
01:08:14.447 --> 01:08:16.769
one or two edits a month, I could have just bought the software.
1163
01:08:16.809 --> 01:08:18.410
Nobody's having to worry about this thing.
1164
01:08:18.710 --> 01:08:38.062
So I kind of feel like for a city turf or for a normal business, the only reason you're going to code most of these systems in the future is because your use case is so specific, or there's something you're going to do that's such a huge competitive advantage, that would never make sense for another company to build for you.
1165
01:08:39.143 --> 01:08:42.087
then that might necessitate building your own tech.
1166
01:08:42.127 --> 01:08:44.930
But other than that, I don't think it's going to make much sense.
1167
01:08:45.792 --> 01:08:51.859
And again, we've talked about all this stuff, but I'm just constantly thinking about it, trying to figure out what is the ideal here.
1168
01:08:52.180 --> 01:08:55.824
And that's still where I live on this whole thing, even as amazing as it all is.
1169
01:08:56.367 --> 01:09:04.373
Yeah, I think back to talking for everyone listening, the use case of AI is likely much more a business sparring partner.
1170
01:09:04.393 --> 01:09:06.735
And I think everyone can use it for that.
1171
01:09:07.295 --> 01:09:11.338
Whether or not the 5% of people are actually to go code stuff and buy of code things is another case.
1172
01:09:11.759 --> 01:09:16.802
But I think some of the things that we've mentioned are like create a master prompt, giving it your data.
1173
01:09:17.143 --> 01:09:20.085
Like obviously people are very sensitive about the security and things.
1174
01:09:20.105 --> 01:09:24.948
But like if your P&L is going to be classified information,
1175
01:09:26.047 --> 01:09:32.351
Um, I don't know who you're working for, but like if, if the AI has that, it'll give you way better prompts.
1176
01:09:33.432 --> 01:09:52.645
And if it knows the goals of what you're trying to do, if it knows how much you need to live personal, like your personal budget so that you don't like to be able to run through the idea of like debt, for example, we talked about that, the ability for it to poke holes and why you think you need the debt or need to go extend your line of credit or buy another truck is an excellent use case for everyone.
1177
01:09:52.885 --> 01:09:53.166
Um, yeah.
1178
01:09:53.946 --> 01:09:57.227
So I just don't want us to get in the cloud code situation.
1179
01:09:57.307 --> 01:09:57.948
Yeah, yeah.
1180
01:09:57.968 --> 01:10:04.490
95% of people are, they just need to think about how can I use AI to poke holes in my current strategies and ideas for the business?
1181
01:10:05.011 --> 01:10:05.991
Yeah, I'm glad you brought us back.
1182
01:10:06.071 --> 01:10:09.472
I can get so excited about this stuff because I love that world.
1183
01:10:09.532 --> 01:10:11.253
And it's just, I'm thinking about it all the time.
1184
01:10:11.613 --> 01:10:13.174
So, all right.
1185
01:10:13.694 --> 01:10:17.936
Another topic for us is, it's kind of similar to an earlier topic.
1186
01:10:17.956 --> 01:10:20.617
You've seen so many businesses, met so many people.
1187
01:10:21.667 --> 01:10:26.731
Talk through what you think makes up just a fantastic business owner.
1188
01:10:26.751 --> 01:10:38.041
Like what are the characteristics of the best business owners and the way that we might all think about this are these are clues as to what we want to develop in ourselves and what we want to be thinking about working on.
1189
01:10:38.614 --> 01:10:40.415
Maybe I'll give one and we'll bounce it back and forth.
1190
01:10:40.435 --> 01:10:43.196
So I'll give one, then you give one of yours because I have a few listed.
1191
01:10:43.836 --> 01:10:44.316
I do too.
1192
01:10:44.556 --> 01:10:45.477
I have quite a few.
1193
01:10:45.837 --> 01:10:47.458
The first one I had was just patience.
1194
01:10:48.118 --> 01:10:51.699
And I kind of deferred, like Alex has a great working definition of patience.
1195
01:10:51.719 --> 01:10:53.060
And that is like, what do you do in the meantime?
1196
01:10:53.640 --> 01:10:57.622
Mine is a high pain tolerance for boring execution.
1197
01:10:58.202 --> 01:11:00.683
So someone who thinks in terms of years instead of weeks and months.
1198
01:11:01.663 --> 01:11:06.645
And so a lot of times people will be like, I want to grow my business next six months or 12 months.
1199
01:11:06.865 --> 01:11:11.487
When I hear someone say like for the next 10 years, I'm doing this over the next five years, we're going to be focused on AI.
1200
01:11:11.747 --> 01:11:25.153
Like that's when I have a lot more credence to their leadership because I see the person that thinks in longer time horizons usually gets to the finish line instead of the person that is constantly finding a new finish line every few weeks.
1201
01:11:25.753 --> 01:11:30.036
So my first one is patience and having that high pain tolerance for the boring execution.
1202
01:11:30.056 --> 01:11:33.699
And sometimes the boring execution is not doing anything.
1203
01:11:33.839 --> 01:11:33.999
Yeah.
1204
01:11:34.139 --> 01:11:36.441
Especially as the business grows, you have to let things play out.
1205
01:11:36.461 --> 01:11:37.982
You have to see the data.
1206
01:11:38.163 --> 01:11:40.144
Like there's a lot of things like even with AI, I want to do.
1207
01:11:40.184 --> 01:11:45.308
And like, no, we need six months of seeing how this instant quote form works before we make another decision.
1208
01:11:45.548 --> 01:11:47.990
And that's sometimes that patience is sometimes the hard part.
1209
01:11:48.771 --> 01:11:48.891
Yeah.
1210
01:11:48.911 --> 01:11:49.011
Yeah.
1211
01:11:49.943 --> 01:11:50.483
That's a good one.
1212
01:11:50.724 --> 01:11:55.927
I can't actually believe I didn't put that on my list because that is like a core philosophy I have in life.
1213
01:11:56.247 --> 01:11:57.168
But it didn't make my list.
1214
01:11:58.308 --> 01:12:01.570
I think, and I've got a bunch, so we'll just volley back and forth here.
1215
01:12:01.630 --> 01:12:05.153
Someone who is very outcome focused versus
1216
01:12:06.284 --> 01:12:07.265
I need the credit focused.
1217
01:12:07.785 --> 01:12:09.486
So you could take outcome focused in another way.
1218
01:12:09.526 --> 01:12:17.692
But I think a person that is like they need the credit versus I just want the outcome inside the organization and I want my team to win.
1219
01:12:17.872 --> 01:12:18.933
I want them to look good.
1220
01:12:19.213 --> 01:12:20.194
I think that's a big one.
1221
01:12:20.394 --> 01:12:22.055
What's funny is that's my fourth one.
1222
01:12:22.196 --> 01:12:25.358
I put absorbed criticism and pitchforks praise.
1223
01:12:25.718 --> 01:12:30.682
So like the person that when bad things are happening to the organization, they take ownership of it.
1224
01:12:31.222 --> 01:12:34.407
But then when good things happen, it's like, oh, yeah, they're great.
1225
01:12:34.587 --> 01:12:35.829
And that person is awesome.
1226
01:12:35.889 --> 01:12:36.871
And they're amazing.
1227
01:12:37.231 --> 01:12:43.100
I find the person that can do that usually attracts really great talent, which is that's probably the reason why they're successful.
1228
01:12:43.120 --> 01:12:43.221
Yeah.
1229
01:12:43.800 --> 01:12:50.862
But the thing that gets them to be able to attract and retain that talent is the fact that they absorb criticism, pitchfork praise.
1230
01:12:51.063 --> 01:12:54.104
I'll probably have a theme here for the first few, very people focused.
1231
01:12:54.744 --> 01:12:56.404
It's kind of, it's got a similarity.
1232
01:12:56.424 --> 01:13:00.546
You're really focused in investing in your team, helping the team grow.
1233
01:13:02.166 --> 01:13:06.088
You legitimately care about where they end up in life, where they end up in the business.
1234
01:13:06.108 --> 01:13:12.470
Like it's, there's a real focus on the people inside the organization and getting the right people in the organization.
1235
01:13:13.392 --> 01:13:16.897
This is boring because mine's very similar.
1236
01:13:16.957 --> 01:13:17.397
All right.
1237
01:13:17.558 --> 01:13:18.118
Skip.
1238
01:13:18.339 --> 01:13:18.879
You skip.
1239
01:13:18.899 --> 01:13:19.059
Yeah.
1240
01:13:19.260 --> 01:13:25.528
My next one was a leadership team stays with them long-term and there's a, you avoid churn at the top of the organization.
1241
01:13:26.420 --> 01:13:27.300
That's a great one.
1242
01:13:27.320 --> 01:13:29.701
I actually didn't have my list, but I also believe that one too.
1243
01:13:29.901 --> 01:13:31.721
This is why you can have a never ending list here.
1244
01:13:31.741 --> 01:13:32.161
That's great.
1245
01:13:32.641 --> 01:13:32.742
Yeah.
1246
01:13:32.782 --> 01:13:34.742
I think like, was there anything else on that one or I cut you off?
1247
01:13:34.822 --> 01:13:36.562
No, yours kind of ties into mine.
1248
01:13:36.582 --> 01:13:40.203
I think doing what you just said, which is investing in your team, caring about them.
1249
01:13:40.703 --> 01:13:43.404
That's the thing that probably leads to the, the leadership team staying.
1250
01:13:43.804 --> 01:13:46.785
But I think a lot of times it also has a downstream effect of like having a vision.
1251
01:13:47.345 --> 01:13:54.394
being able to cast that vision and clearly define it for everyone, making sure it's big enough for them to fit their goals inside of correct compensation, like all those things.
1252
01:13:54.454 --> 01:13:58.700
But yeah, the leadership team staying with them for a long time is, I've seen that one be successful.
1253
01:13:59.465 --> 01:14:03.487
Still another people one, and for anybody that listens to me often, you've probably heard this kind of thing.
1254
01:14:03.547 --> 01:14:10.571
It's like hiring people around you that fill in the gaps where you're weak and do the things you don't love.
1255
01:14:11.251 --> 01:14:13.012
I think that's absolutely imperative.
1256
01:14:13.072 --> 01:14:14.633
That's the building of a team to me.
1257
01:14:14.673 --> 01:14:17.954
If you thought about it from a football analogy, you're not hiring 10 quarterbacks.
1258
01:14:17.975 --> 01:14:20.136
You're hiring all these different positions.
1259
01:14:20.156 --> 01:14:20.896
That's the same thing.
1260
01:14:20.916 --> 01:14:28.040
You're very thoughtful about who's getting on the team, and you're thoughtful about who you are versus who you're not.
1261
01:14:28.300 --> 01:14:28.440
Mm-hmm.
1262
01:14:29.107 --> 01:14:30.288
Yeah, I got my last one.
1263
01:14:31.029 --> 01:14:33.190
I say they're emotionally stable.
1264
01:14:33.991 --> 01:14:37.814
And so I think that in part, business has so many highs and lows.
1265
01:14:38.675 --> 01:14:43.179
If you ride that wave, you eventually quit.
1266
01:14:43.899 --> 01:14:48.503
And I also think that the person that's more emotionally stable attracts better managers and
1267
01:14:48.763 --> 01:14:51.825
and keeps them longer because they don't overreact to things.
1268
01:14:52.785 --> 01:15:12.116
And this is something I know I've mentioned to you that I admire about you, and I've looked at from afar, but the ability to take in a high-stress situation to bring it down, and then when there are times when everyone's euphoric to be able to bring it down, when everyone's mad at you to be able to make sure you're not going too low.
1269
01:15:12.396 --> 01:15:14.357
So I've always said higher lows, lower highs.
1270
01:15:14.817 --> 01:15:18.479
So emotionally stable would be certainly an ingredient of successful entrepreneurs.
1271
01:15:19.047 --> 01:15:19.687
Yeah, I would agree.
1272
01:15:20.528 --> 01:15:21.308
I'll give a couple more.
1273
01:15:21.328 --> 01:15:22.809
I think, did you just have the four?
1274
01:15:22.929 --> 01:15:23.449
That's all I had.
1275
01:15:23.949 --> 01:15:25.330
Okay, I'll rattle off a couple more.
1276
01:15:25.370 --> 01:15:34.434
You could go down this list, but something I've observed in people, Mike, I think I'd put you in this bucket.
1277
01:15:34.834 --> 01:15:37.216
I'll title it Swipe and Deploy.
1278
01:15:37.636 --> 01:15:41.618
So this idea that you could go read a book,
1279
01:15:42.430 --> 01:15:43.872
that has all this great wisdom in it.
1280
01:15:43.972 --> 01:15:47.355
Or you could watch a YouTube video from somebody that's clearly done it.
1281
01:15:48.216 --> 01:15:50.619
And you take that idea and you just do it.
1282
01:15:51.380 --> 01:15:53.082
There's not much of that, actually.
1283
01:15:53.142 --> 01:15:58.007
One of the things I've noticed is a lot of people are like, they'll hear it, but they don't do anything with it.
1284
01:15:58.067 --> 01:16:02.191
Or they'll hear it and they're like, going to change it in 90 different ways versus like,
1285
01:16:02.892 --> 01:16:05.293
This guy is running a $100 million business.
1286
01:16:05.333 --> 01:16:06.434
He's tested these things.
1287
01:16:06.494 --> 01:16:07.854
Maybe just do it.
1288
01:16:08.475 --> 01:16:09.255
It'll just be done.
1289
01:16:09.635 --> 01:16:10.856
And so there's this idea.
1290
01:16:10.956 --> 01:16:18.700
I've really noticed that some of the people that move really fast, they'll listen to the right source, and then they'll just take the idea and do it.
1291
01:16:19.741 --> 01:16:31.411
I think it goes back to the AI thing we were talking about, too, is you might have almost a risk if you do that using AI because you take what it says and you go do it.
1292
01:16:31.471 --> 01:16:32.913
And it might be wrong information.
1293
01:16:33.333 --> 01:16:43.282
And this is like Alex made a video about this yesterday is like you will still want to have the reputation of the person telling you that information or that decision making process for them.
1294
01:16:43.662 --> 01:16:45.084
And you will weigh out their value.
1295
01:16:46.217 --> 01:16:48.279
credibility, and that's something that AI doesn't have.
1296
01:16:48.599 --> 01:16:50.361
It is just a prediction machine.
1297
01:16:50.882 --> 01:17:04.275
And so the ability to be able to listen to someone, understand their credibility, and then just take action on it to your point, super valuable, taking the wrong advice and taking a whole lot of execution towards it can also lead to a lot of wasted time and damage.
1298
01:17:04.295 --> 01:17:04.515
Yeah.
1299
01:17:05.016 --> 01:17:05.236
Yeah.
1300
01:17:05.396 --> 01:17:05.576
Yeah.
1301
01:17:06.617 --> 01:17:06.797
Yeah.
1302
01:17:06.978 --> 01:17:07.678
I would agree with that.
1303
01:17:08.519 --> 01:17:09.140
A couple more
1304
01:17:10.611 --> 01:17:13.977
I describe this one as the person that always shows up.
1305
01:17:14.017 --> 01:17:18.344
So I just so believe that it all comes down to being an example.
1306
01:17:19.706 --> 01:17:20.808
You're an example of everything.
1307
01:17:21.088 --> 01:17:21.970
You're an example.
1308
01:17:22.531 --> 01:17:24.494
If you have kids, you're an example to your team.
1309
01:17:24.534 --> 01:17:24.694
So,
1310
01:17:26.285 --> 01:17:27.786
the action is everything.
1311
01:17:27.806 --> 01:17:32.088
It's like, so you could say whatever you want, you could train people however you want, but are you doing it?
1312
01:17:32.809 --> 01:17:47.017
And so the always showing up is knowing, like you'll always come through, you'll always be there, you're not delaying, you're always on the meeting, you're highly dependable, and you are running out in front of everybody else.
1313
01:17:47.057 --> 01:17:48.718
Like you're who people want to emulate.
1314
01:17:48.818 --> 01:17:53.161
I just think that is really critical because I believe in this idea of the example.
1315
01:17:53.721 --> 01:17:54.201
And then...
1316
01:17:55.543 --> 01:17:55.983
Two more.
1317
01:17:57.123 --> 01:18:00.044
This one, I think, is just such a... Not everybody does this.
1318
01:18:00.445 --> 01:18:01.985
I think this has been huge for me.
1319
01:18:02.365 --> 01:18:04.386
But I've seen some other people do it really well.
1320
01:18:04.506 --> 01:18:06.226
And I think it's just a competitive advantage.
1321
01:18:06.586 --> 01:18:10.428
And it's this idea that you can borrow from other industries.
1322
01:18:11.048 --> 01:18:14.109
So as an example, let's say that we're all in the...
1323
01:18:14.249 --> 01:18:17.730
In this example, let's say you're in the green industry, lawn care,
1324
01:18:18.290 --> 01:18:25.975
The idea that you could look at HVAC or plumbing or something completely non-related, you could look at an e-commerce company and think about how they do messaging.
1325
01:18:26.295 --> 01:18:31.518
And you're swiping these ideas from non-connected businesses and you're applying them to your business.
1326
01:18:31.558 --> 01:18:33.299
That is such a competitive advantage.
1327
01:18:33.319 --> 01:18:34.120
Yeah.
1328
01:18:34.320 --> 01:18:40.884
that I think some people are just masters at coming up with these unique business model approaches by doing that.
1329
01:18:41.284 --> 01:18:43.825
And then the last one I have to put on my list, I think it's a person's good money.
1330
01:18:44.485 --> 01:18:50.028
Because it's so easy to, I just see so many people get themselves in trouble financially.
1331
01:18:50.068 --> 01:18:52.510
And so the money thing is really important.
1332
01:18:52.530 --> 01:18:56.312
And I think earlier I made the statement, probably shouldn't be...
1333
01:18:57.112 --> 01:18:58.294
I made a statement about partners.
1334
01:18:58.354 --> 01:18:59.615
I'm not supposed to comment on that.
1335
01:18:59.635 --> 01:19:04.842
But I think one of the biggest reasons why partnerships go bad is the partners aren't aligned on money.
1336
01:19:05.403 --> 01:19:06.905
You got one that's careful with money.
1337
01:19:06.965 --> 01:19:09.448
It's the same reason why marriages can go bad.
1338
01:19:09.468 --> 01:19:13.193
And money is this really critical thing to ending up with something great.
1339
01:19:13.253 --> 01:19:14.395
So that was my list.
1340
01:19:14.575 --> 01:19:16.096
Okay, we're going down a rabbit trail.
1341
01:19:16.376 --> 01:19:18.057
Alignment on money with a partner.
1342
01:19:18.097 --> 01:19:19.898
I know we're deep in this rabbit trail here.
1343
01:19:20.578 --> 01:19:22.620
A business partner?
1344
01:19:22.820 --> 01:19:23.480
Business partner.
1345
01:19:23.840 --> 01:19:25.661
Could be even a personal partner.
1346
01:19:26.722 --> 01:19:28.923
But how have you found alignment with money?
1347
01:19:29.423 --> 01:19:32.265
Is it more in the picking process, like choosing the right partner?
1348
01:19:32.945 --> 01:19:40.810
Or is there a cadence of meetings or communication mechanisms to make sure that the partnership does have good communication around money?
1349
01:19:41.282 --> 01:19:42.524
I think it starts with who you pick.
1350
01:19:43.124 --> 01:19:44.506
I think you figure that out ahead of time.
1351
01:19:44.526 --> 01:19:48.371
I don't, I just don't think for so many, I like that statement.
1352
01:19:48.391 --> 01:19:52.135
I don't know if it was from the book, who or top grading.
1353
01:19:52.155 --> 01:19:52.656
There's a book.
1354
01:19:52.676 --> 01:19:54.338
It's like people will be who they've been.
1355
01:19:54.799 --> 01:19:55.099
I don't know.
1356
01:19:55.119 --> 01:19:57.161
Maybe that's a different book, but I just so believe that.
1357
01:19:57.202 --> 01:19:57.822
I just don't.
1358
01:19:58.652 --> 01:20:00.353
Maybe it's a pessimist.
1359
01:20:00.373 --> 01:20:02.674
I'm not a pessimist, but maybe it's a pessimistic attitude.
1360
01:20:02.694 --> 01:20:04.795
But I guess I've been beat down enough over time.
1361
01:20:04.815 --> 01:20:07.176
It's like, yeah, people are kind of who they are.
1362
01:20:07.196 --> 01:20:08.936
It's really hard to create change.
1363
01:20:09.797 --> 01:20:22.002
And so I feel like if I'm coming into a situation with a partner that is not money minded in the way that I think they, that aligns with me, I just, I think it's too risky.
1364
01:20:22.042 --> 01:20:22.142
Yeah.
1365
01:20:22.477 --> 01:20:26.981
What clues or indicators of that being successful or unsuccessful are you looking for?
1366
01:20:27.581 --> 01:20:28.662
How they run their personal life.
1367
01:20:29.102 --> 01:20:29.343
Okay.
1368
01:20:29.883 --> 01:20:30.463
I don't know how to.
1369
01:20:30.564 --> 01:20:34.227
I mean, that's one of the biggest ones is how do they spend money in their personal life?
1370
01:20:35.688 --> 01:20:37.469
Interesting.
1371
01:20:37.489 --> 01:20:37.769
Yeah.
1372
01:20:37.789 --> 01:20:43.014
Yeah, like when I got to know Brianna, the first thing I was like, I was looking at how her mom handled money.
1373
01:20:43.034 --> 01:20:45.075
Because I knew that's how she would handle money.
1374
01:20:45.436 --> 01:20:45.776
Yeah.
1375
01:20:45.816 --> 01:20:51.881
That was a big clue for me, like an indicator of like, okay, how she looks at money is probably how this will be handled in the future.
1376
01:20:52.591 --> 01:20:54.376
If I had made that decision, I wouldn't be married.
1377
01:20:58.127 --> 01:20:59.368
You know, we can all overcome.
1378
01:20:59.588 --> 01:21:00.689
We can all get through it.
1379
01:21:01.109 --> 01:21:03.271
Well, no, no, no, no.
1380
01:21:03.491 --> 01:21:08.836
So Tiffany and her family was the saver and they would make fun of her and say she was cheap because she saved.
1381
01:21:09.156 --> 01:21:09.556
Ah, okay.
1382
01:21:09.937 --> 01:21:13.239
And so if I modeled other people, we wouldn't have got married.
1383
01:21:13.640 --> 01:21:15.962
It's like, if I thought that's who she'd become.
1384
01:21:15.982 --> 01:21:19.464
So some of these things I think back because I got married so young.
1385
01:21:19.885 --> 01:21:23.708
I think back, it's like, man, was I thinking about this stuff when I was 20, 21 years old?
1386
01:21:23.728 --> 01:21:24.389
I must've been.
1387
01:21:25.069 --> 01:21:29.113
because, you know, but she was she was wired that way.
1388
01:21:29.133 --> 01:21:32.817
But then in in my business partnerships that have not worked out.
1389
01:21:34.539 --> 01:21:38.302
It's almost all been about money, actually, for me.
1390
01:21:38.543 --> 01:21:42.086
And when you look at their personal finances, is it like extravagant living?
1391
01:21:42.687 --> 01:21:45.630
Is it like bad investments or just bad decision making?
1392
01:21:45.890 --> 01:21:48.633
What's the red flag for the partnerships that don't work out?
1393
01:21:49.612 --> 01:21:55.257
I can forgive bad investments because we all learn and get better over time.
1394
01:21:56.278 --> 01:22:00.882
But the red flag is how they live in their personal lives.
1395
01:22:02.544 --> 01:22:07.288
I had one experience where nobody really had any money when the business got started.
1396
01:22:08.309 --> 01:22:14.215
And so when money started being made, then you discovered how everybody lives in their personal life.
1397
01:22:15.230 --> 01:22:20.793
And it was an example where everybody just starts buying bigger homes, bunches of cars.
1398
01:22:21.233 --> 01:22:26.195
And so it's what I call personal life starts driving business decisions.
1399
01:22:27.476 --> 01:22:35.519
And so that was one that's like, that wasn't an ideal situation, but I didn't know it going into it because of the age and all that.
1400
01:22:36.079 --> 01:22:38.541
So I think personal life tells everything.
1401
01:22:38.601 --> 01:22:39.501
It just tells everything.
1402
01:22:40.052 --> 01:22:50.718
How would you handle if someone is in a business partnership or let's just even say a marriage partnership where they see their partner handling money incorrectly or having these bad habits?
1403
01:22:51.378 --> 01:22:52.079
How do you approach it?
1404
01:22:52.539 --> 01:23:03.265
Do we just break the thing off or is there a way to be like, hey, I don't see how this is going to impact the business or the relationship in a positive way because of these negative habits around money?
1405
01:23:03.966 --> 01:23:04.786
Yeah, I think you can.
1406
01:23:04.946 --> 01:23:05.607
I think you can.
1407
01:23:05.627 --> 01:23:05.827
Yeah.
1408
01:23:06.772 --> 01:23:08.213
I think it's all conversation.
1409
01:23:08.533 --> 01:23:12.795
Like, I mean, if it's married, if you're married, I'm thinking like, well, you're kind of too late here.
1410
01:23:12.815 --> 01:23:15.896
You're going to have to try to work this one out.
1411
01:23:16.696 --> 01:23:22.499
But, you know, going into that relationship, you know, that's where I'll go back a little bit against my people are who they've always been.
1412
01:23:22.539 --> 01:23:27.401
I think there's a lot of stuff in life that can get resolved through conversation or improved.
1413
01:23:28.222 --> 01:23:30.783
I mean, you know, I'll give actually some kind of behind the scenes.
1414
01:23:30.843 --> 01:23:33.264
So my situation was the inverse.
1415
01:23:34.616 --> 01:23:35.957
I don't know if I've actually ever talked about this.
1416
01:23:36.338 --> 01:23:45.345
So when I saved every dollar I made since I was 14, I was like, when I would graduate high school, I had at least $100,000 or more.
1417
01:23:45.945 --> 01:23:48.047
The equivalent of like, for sure.
1418
01:23:48.608 --> 01:23:50.329
When I got married, I probably had almost $200,000.
1419
01:23:50.349 --> 01:23:50.909
I got married at 21.
1420
01:23:53.313 --> 01:23:55.114
And so back in those days.
1421
01:23:55.754 --> 01:23:59.175
And so I had a bunch of money and I was hardcore.
1422
01:23:59.195 --> 01:24:01.616
So I get a software job at 19.
1423
01:24:02.056 --> 01:24:04.477
Tiffany gets a teaching job when she's 20.
1424
01:24:04.637 --> 01:24:06.438
As a teacher, we get married at 21.
1425
01:24:06.898 --> 01:24:08.659
We didn't spend a dollar of her paycheck.
1426
01:24:08.839 --> 01:24:10.600
So this is the opposite scenario.
1427
01:24:11.140 --> 01:24:12.600
And I was just hardcore.
1428
01:24:12.660 --> 01:24:15.401
I constantly made her feel guilty about spending money.
1429
01:24:15.862 --> 01:24:17.222
I made her stressed about it.
1430
01:24:17.242 --> 01:24:19.203
It's like PTSD kind of situation.
1431
01:24:19.223 --> 01:24:20.663
Like we had all these goals.
1432
01:24:20.683 --> 01:24:21.824
I was gonna say the best.
1433
01:24:22.424 --> 01:24:31.630
And so I think the reason I tell that story is that's an example where some conversations, you know, eventually resulted in me like dialing it down a level.
1434
01:24:33.171 --> 01:24:39.696
And so I do think like that helped, you know, talking about understanding her perspective made a big difference.
1435
01:24:39.736 --> 01:24:44.639
And so I do think you could talk about these things and you can make progress and you can set rules up.
1436
01:24:45.019 --> 01:24:50.203
But like in the business scenario, it could be that, okay, the solution isn't just us
1437
01:24:50.623 --> 01:24:51.284
talking about it.
1438
01:24:51.404 --> 01:24:52.966
It's we need to bring in a third party.
1439
01:24:53.307 --> 01:25:02.880
The third party could be like a consultant or a coach or it could be a really strong, not CPA, but like an accounting business CPA kind of person.
1440
01:25:03.200 --> 01:25:06.404
And that third party is the non-biased voice.
1441
01:25:07.253 --> 01:25:17.621
So it'd be kind of like if you were doing marriage counseling and you both trusted the counselor and you trusted them enough to accept their insights.
1442
01:25:18.021 --> 01:25:22.945
Like that person might be able to say something to you, whereas your spouse, if they say it to you, you don't hear it.
1443
01:25:23.045 --> 01:25:24.626
Like it's just, you know, it's that kind of a thing.
1444
01:25:24.946 --> 01:25:27.548
And so I think that's how I would probably approach this.
1445
01:25:27.608 --> 01:25:35.774
If we had a vision in our business, I would go try to bring somebody in that helps us talk through this and think through this thing and gives their professional opinion.
1446
01:25:36.975 --> 01:25:38.136
That that'd be my answer.
1447
01:25:38.296 --> 01:25:40.018
Another, another use case for AI.
1448
01:25:40.719 --> 01:25:41.659
Yeah.
1449
01:25:41.739 --> 01:25:42.100
Yeah.
1450
01:25:42.240 --> 01:25:42.660
Yeah.
1451
01:25:43.801 --> 01:25:47.044
I feel like you'll still argue like I don't notice it's wrong.
1452
01:25:47.084 --> 01:25:47.304
Yeah.
1453
01:25:47.384 --> 01:25:49.286
It's probably pull it from Reddit someplace, you know?
1454
01:25:49.306 --> 01:25:50.307
Yeah.
1455
01:25:51.248 --> 01:25:53.610
Well, you had a great kind of final question.
1456
01:25:53.630 --> 01:25:53.770
Yeah.
1457
01:25:53.790 --> 01:25:54.110
Yeah.
1458
01:25:54.170 --> 01:25:55.011
Very thought broken.
1459
01:25:55.031 --> 01:25:55.772
So go ahead and tee it up.
1460
01:25:56.241 --> 01:25:58.503
Yeah, I wanted to do something a little unique here.
1461
01:25:59.384 --> 01:26:00.886
It's business-related, but not.
1462
01:26:01.446 --> 01:26:02.908
And I'll answer it as well.
1463
01:26:03.248 --> 01:26:18.744
But the question that I proposed to Mike was, if you die and you wake up the exact same age as you are today, so the world, everything is exactly the same as it is today, but you have no money,
1464
01:26:19.782 --> 01:26:20.883
You have no contacts.
1465
01:26:21.123 --> 01:26:22.484
You don't have the relationships.
1466
01:26:22.504 --> 01:26:23.805
Like you've lost everything.
1467
01:26:23.825 --> 01:26:25.487
You have no stuff.
1468
01:26:25.607 --> 01:26:27.909
It's just all you have is what's in your brain.
1469
01:26:28.790 --> 01:26:30.251
And history is the same as it was.
1470
01:26:30.291 --> 01:26:32.873
You can't go like bet on Google.
1471
01:26:32.893 --> 01:26:36.036
You know, it's like you didn't wake up 20 years ago and you get to make all the right bets.
1472
01:26:36.897 --> 01:26:39.859
Like what would you do in life?
1473
01:26:40.720 --> 01:26:42.241
Like what life would you create?
1474
01:26:43.002 --> 01:26:44.543
How would it be different than what you've done?
1475
01:26:45.064 --> 01:26:46.545
It's that kind of a thought exercise.
1476
01:26:46.565 --> 01:26:46.745
Yeah.
1477
01:26:47.013 --> 01:26:48.094
I'm interested to see what you say.
1478
01:26:48.374 --> 01:26:49.454
You, you, you start off.
1479
01:26:49.935 --> 01:26:50.615
Okay, sure.
1480
01:26:51.856 --> 01:26:55.217
Um, so I only thought about it from a few stance, a few things.
1481
01:26:55.598 --> 01:26:59.620
So, um, starting kind of at the business thing, I won't spend much time on this one.
1482
01:26:59.640 --> 01:27:00.860
Cause we've talked about it before.
1483
01:27:00.880 --> 01:27:06.803
Um, I would be very attracted to figuring out how to wiggle my way into the private equity world in some way.
1484
01:27:07.824 --> 01:27:07.944
Um,
1485
01:27:08.630 --> 01:27:12.232
And or because I don't have money, I don't know how else I would do it.
1486
01:27:13.153 --> 01:27:32.325
But I just think there's a real angle with my knowledge around private equity focused on home services, applying technology, sophisticated finance knowledge like KPIs, tracking, understanding the numbers that move a business, marketing, like really bringing sophistication in those areas to home services businesses.
1487
01:27:32.345 --> 01:27:35.547
I think there's this real opportunity to buy them up and build something incredible.
1488
01:27:36.515 --> 01:27:55.043
But if I were to go a different direction, which is really what then I would normally think about the other area that I'm highly attracted to in this world is something around education and rebuilding the way people learn and modernizing that, especially as you get to younger people.
1489
01:27:55.403 --> 01:27:59.486
Like what could education look like for younger people coming up?
1490
01:27:59.946 --> 01:28:04.109
I always think about it like in business education because I'm so passionate about entrepreneurship.
1491
01:28:04.149 --> 01:28:07.491
I just think it's like one of the great gifts if you get to do that in life.
1492
01:28:08.331 --> 01:28:12.594
But I'm also, just in general, some other day we could talk about this.
1493
01:28:12.634 --> 01:28:16.076
I took Riley out of school when he finished his freshman year of high school.
1494
01:28:17.117 --> 01:28:19.838
And it's just one of the single best things we ever did.
1495
01:28:20.619 --> 01:28:23.441
And so I just really rethinking...
1496
01:28:24.423 --> 01:28:30.507
especially high school, but middle school and high school education would be absolutely fascinating.
1497
01:28:30.547 --> 01:28:33.268
I could go to work on that problem with other really smart people.
1498
01:28:33.588 --> 01:28:34.369
So that'd be one thing.
1499
01:28:35.229 --> 01:28:40.993
Another thing I thought about, or the other thing I would do immediately, I know nobody, I have no friends anymore.
1500
01:28:41.733 --> 01:28:43.394
I have no relationships.
1501
01:28:44.055 --> 01:28:47.657
Whatever the thing is I'm going into, I would go find a super entrepreneur,
1502
01:28:49.549 --> 01:28:51.490
we'll just assume I figured out how to pay for this.
1503
01:28:52.530 --> 01:28:54.691
I would go get in a high level business.
1504
01:28:54.931 --> 01:28:55.211
IOUs.
1505
01:28:55.251 --> 01:28:56.192
Yeah, yeah, IOUs, yes.
1506
01:28:56.212 --> 01:28:59.033
Yeah, lots and lots of debt.
1507
01:28:59.293 --> 01:29:01.713
Future stock in whatever I make in the future.
1508
01:29:02.374 --> 01:29:03.814
Yeah, yes, exactly.
1509
01:29:04.835 --> 01:29:07.696
So I would, have you ever heard of this?
1510
01:29:07.976 --> 01:29:09.136
This is kind of derail like I do.
1511
01:29:09.176 --> 01:29:11.257
Have you ever heard of a book called The Unincorporated Man?
1512
01:29:11.277 --> 01:29:11.337
No.
1513
01:29:12.663 --> 01:29:14.864
Yeah, there's this book called The Unincorporated Man.
1514
01:29:15.624 --> 01:29:18.725
The first book is really good, or at least I thought it was.
1515
01:29:18.945 --> 01:29:20.105
The second book's pretty good.
1516
01:29:20.125 --> 01:29:24.207
The third book, I started fading on it, but it's this idea that society changes.
1517
01:29:24.827 --> 01:29:26.147
It has to get reinvented.
1518
01:29:26.567 --> 01:29:31.149
And everybody, there's basically every human is walking around
1519
01:29:32.618 --> 01:29:32.938
equity.
1520
01:29:33.058 --> 01:29:37.843
Like you can, your parents get 20% of the equity in you when you're born.
1521
01:29:38.264 --> 01:29:42.769
People can make investments in you and they'll earn part of your earnings in the future.
1522
01:29:43.150 --> 01:29:47.915
So the whole, it basically is making the whole world a bunch of capitalists and people are capitalists.
1523
01:29:48.235 --> 01:29:49.417
It's a fascinating concept.
1524
01:29:49.477 --> 01:29:50.598
It's a futuristic book.
1525
01:29:50.698 --> 01:29:55.701
Not going to lie, when you said uncorporated man, I didn't know where you were going with that.
1526
01:29:55.761 --> 01:29:56.161
Oh, yeah, yeah.
1527
01:29:56.181 --> 01:29:57.422
That could go in a very different direction.
1528
01:29:57.442 --> 01:29:57.902
Yeah, yeah.
1529
01:29:58.082 --> 01:29:58.342
All right.
1530
01:29:58.443 --> 01:29:59.483
All right.
1531
01:29:59.583 --> 01:30:07.168
So I would go get into some high-level, sophisticated business group to rebuild my network, my connections, and my friends.
1532
01:30:07.188 --> 01:30:09.809
I think that would be really interesting.
1533
01:30:10.289 --> 01:30:15.052
And then something that's, again, maybe I went a little too far down the road.
1534
01:30:15.072 --> 01:30:16.933
Well, no, I'll use my example.
1535
01:30:16.973 --> 01:30:18.894
So I wouldn't live anywhere.
1536
01:30:19.235 --> 01:30:19.715
I'd float.
1537
01:30:19.735 --> 01:30:20.055
Yeah.
1538
01:30:20.924 --> 01:30:28.294
I would, so there's this, I could never do this being married, but there's this guy that's a billionaire.
1539
01:30:28.314 --> 01:30:29.415
We heard Tiffany can change.
1540
01:30:29.515 --> 01:30:30.557
We heard Tiffany can change.
1541
01:30:31.037 --> 01:30:33.500
Yeah, she won't go for it.
1542
01:30:33.520 --> 01:30:34.782
She wants, I love my house.
1543
01:30:34.842 --> 01:30:37.145
I'd have a hard time leaving my house, but she wants a nest.
1544
01:30:37.165 --> 01:30:37.666
Yeah.
1545
01:30:38.066 --> 01:30:40.727
Like, so, but I could float.
1546
01:30:40.907 --> 01:30:41.808
I could just live.
1547
01:30:41.948 --> 01:30:45.009
Like, so there's this guy that, I can't remember who the guy's, Dave.
1548
01:30:45.069 --> 01:30:46.110
I heard about him a long time ago.
1549
01:30:46.130 --> 01:30:48.531
He sold every asset, everything he had.
1550
01:30:48.551 --> 01:30:49.431
Well, assets, the wrong word.
1551
01:30:49.451 --> 01:30:50.131
He kept investments.
1552
01:30:50.151 --> 01:30:52.692
He sold all his stuff except for his airplane.
1553
01:30:53.433 --> 01:30:54.933
And he just lives in hotels.
1554
01:30:55.454 --> 01:30:57.655
And he has assistants pre-rent all his stuff.
1555
01:30:57.675 --> 01:30:59.235
So he might live in a hotel for two months.
1556
01:30:59.976 --> 01:31:00.836
And he just floats.
1557
01:31:01.396 --> 01:31:03.297
I would like to try that for a period of time.
1558
01:31:03.897 --> 01:31:07.299
So that would be the other change I'd make is I would just try...
1559
01:31:08.059 --> 01:31:13.150
living in completely different places around the world and work the whole time.
1560
01:31:15.103 --> 01:31:16.805
And the only asset I'd own is a race car.
1561
01:31:18.526 --> 01:31:19.627
One car would be a race car.
1562
01:31:19.767 --> 01:31:20.848
You don't have any possessions.
1563
01:31:20.868 --> 01:31:21.569
You don't have no money.
1564
01:31:21.589 --> 01:31:22.550
How are you going to afford that?
1565
01:31:22.570 --> 01:31:23.070
Yeah, I know.
1566
01:31:23.090 --> 01:31:29.655
Well, that's where, as I started talking through this, like, wait a second, I took this in the wrong direction when I was thinking about it.
1567
01:31:30.116 --> 01:31:32.238
I still associate somebody to it.
1568
01:31:32.258 --> 01:31:43.447
But the biggest one was, the two takeaways would be, I'd probably do something in education and I would float versus setting down roots and try to have a bunch of experiences I had never had before.
1569
01:31:43.846 --> 01:31:50.393
Well, I figured you could still have the race car as long as you wait a few more years and the Ferrari Luché is sitting in there.
1570
01:31:50.433 --> 01:31:51.233
No one wants it.
1571
01:31:51.293 --> 01:31:52.354
You can have that one.
1572
01:31:52.475 --> 01:31:53.996
I'll be able to get that thing for $10,000.
1573
01:31:54.036 --> 01:31:54.977
That's right.
1574
01:31:56.739 --> 01:31:57.119
Oh, man.
1575
01:31:57.440 --> 01:32:01.423
Yeah, so I asked Bree about this and we tried to think through it.
1576
01:32:01.443 --> 01:32:02.104
I think it might...
1577
01:32:04.086 --> 01:32:10.691
Our answers might differ a little bit because you have so much more experience and those things would be a larger drawdown.
1578
01:32:11.051 --> 01:32:14.954
Whereas I'm kind of like accumulating those things early in those stages.
1579
01:32:14.974 --> 01:32:15.714
Yeah, yeah.
1580
01:32:16.034 --> 01:32:18.176
So I feel like we were like really racking our brains.
1581
01:32:18.216 --> 01:32:20.538
We feel like it'd be a very similar like what we're doing now.
1582
01:32:21.378 --> 01:32:27.780
I think one thing I've talked to you personally about what we're about to do is probably very tied to this notion, though.
1583
01:32:28.080 --> 01:32:33.862
It's like if we what kind of life would I live if there was a blank slate is very similar to what we're about to do.
1584
01:32:33.882 --> 01:32:40.884
And it's just like take bigger swings and trying to break up the monotony kind of your point about like moving around.
1585
01:32:40.924 --> 01:32:41.144
I think.
1586
01:32:41.864 --> 01:32:49.947
I've always thought about, I heard this, I don't know who said this, but like life feels like it speeds up as you age because you just consistently keep doing the same thing.
1587
01:32:50.408 --> 01:32:53.669
So when you're a kid, like summer feels like years, like massive.
1588
01:32:53.889 --> 01:32:55.510
And then now it's like three months gone.
1589
01:32:56.010 --> 01:33:00.312
And a lot of it's just because now as an adult, 90% of your day looks exactly the same.
1590
01:33:00.552 --> 01:33:01.532
So it goes by faster.
1591
01:33:01.812 --> 01:33:03.833
Whereas for a kid, every single thing is new.
1592
01:33:04.073 --> 01:33:08.175
Like this room, this popsicle, this air, like everything is big.
1593
01:33:09.316 --> 01:33:20.204
And so to your point, kind of like the floating idea, but like you're putting yourself in new scenarios, new circumstances that breaks up the monotony and just trying to live as many lives as you can in one.
1594
01:33:20.904 --> 01:33:26.889
And you can slow like how we phrased it was like slow life down by breaking up the monotony.
1595
01:33:27.409 --> 01:33:30.872
And that's probably the thing that we are navigating towards.
1596
01:33:31.683 --> 01:33:32.845
Yeah, I like that answer.
1597
01:33:32.885 --> 01:33:38.572
And actually, when I was kind of go, because I proposed a question first thinking about you when I put it on the docket.
1598
01:33:38.592 --> 01:33:40.995
And then it's like, okay, well, I have to think about this for myself.
1599
01:33:41.776 --> 01:33:42.417
And yeah.
1600
01:33:43.499 --> 01:33:49.140
My conclusion was, and I've thought this before, I'm just like so unbelievably thankful for the life I've got to live.
1601
01:33:49.160 --> 01:33:52.761
Like I couldn't imagine in many ways doing it that differently.
1602
01:33:52.781 --> 01:33:58.302
Like it's been, it's clearly not all gone to plan, but it's like, I just couldn't imagine changing it that much.
1603
01:33:58.342 --> 01:34:04.663
I'm really like, but if I have to go a different direction, the blank slate was the novelty and trying new things.
1604
01:34:04.703 --> 01:34:08.003
And I love, I think that's, not everybody's wired this way, but I'd love that idea.
1605
01:34:08.023 --> 01:34:09.463
Like you have one life.
1606
01:34:09.503 --> 01:34:11.904
Like I think people should try way more stuff.
1607
01:34:12.084 --> 01:34:12.464
Mm-hmm.
1608
01:34:12.604 --> 01:34:14.445
and just see what works.
1609
01:34:14.465 --> 01:34:16.026
There's so many different ways to live life.
1610
01:34:16.446 --> 01:34:25.270
And I think it's interesting because in the same podcast, we talked about trying new things and as many things as possible, but also being like, stay focused on your industry.
1611
01:34:25.330 --> 01:34:26.351
Don't get distracted.
1612
01:34:26.371 --> 01:34:29.513
Head down for a period of time where it is grind mode.
1613
01:34:30.013 --> 01:34:34.755
And so I think there's that dichotomy of you might set aside 10 years, but okay, here we go.
1614
01:34:34.775 --> 01:34:36.016
Five for 50.
1615
01:34:36.256 --> 01:34:40.058
You put the five years for the 50 years of that life that you want to build.
1616
01:34:40.584 --> 01:34:41.706
That's exactly what I was going to say.
1617
01:34:41.726 --> 01:34:41.986
You got me.
1618
01:34:42.206 --> 01:34:43.848
I had to put the pitch in just right.
1619
01:34:43.969 --> 01:34:45.371
Thank you for doing that.
1620
01:34:45.391 --> 01:34:46.252
Subscribe today.
1621
01:34:47.854 --> 01:34:51.980
You do the work to buy the optionality in life to get to try all the stuff.
1622
01:34:52.785 --> 01:35:00.494
Yeah, and I think whether someone looks up to you or what I've done, it's like, we have both done the five and we have the privilege of saying- Done the five a few times.
1623
01:35:00.514 --> 01:35:01.515
Yeah, yeah.
1624
01:35:02.636 --> 01:35:09.404
We've done that period and now we have the opportunity to be able to say we wouldn't really do a whole lot different because we put that time in.
1625
01:35:09.424 --> 01:35:11.506
And I think if you've talked to me or you've-
1626
01:35:12.147 --> 01:35:18.073
for me not so many years ago, several years back, is like during those times, maybe we didn't feel like that.
1627
01:35:18.473 --> 01:35:25.660
We would have our life a little different or we would have preferred a little bit of a change of industry or a little easier time.
1628
01:35:25.680 --> 01:35:29.244
But in hindsight, looking back, it's like this is exactly the life we build.
1629
01:35:29.504 --> 01:35:31.646
And so for anyone that's like in the five years,
1630
01:35:32.680 --> 01:35:34.861
And you're like, one day you will look back on this.
1631
01:35:34.881 --> 01:35:36.122
You'll probably won't change much.
1632
01:35:36.262 --> 01:35:39.703
Assuming that you get through that and you start to be able to build a life with optionality.
1633
01:35:39.723 --> 01:35:40.564
I like.
1634
01:35:40.584 --> 01:35:42.024
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
1635
01:35:42.644 --> 01:35:44.325
Any last thoughts before we wrap up?
1636
01:35:44.625 --> 01:35:45.746
Non-financial advice.
1637
01:35:45.826 --> 01:35:46.486
I'll be honest.
1638
01:35:46.526 --> 01:35:51.088
My non-financial advice was to not buy the Ferrari Luché.
1639
01:35:51.448 --> 01:35:53.349
So I kind of let the cat out of the bag.
1640
01:35:53.509 --> 01:35:54.690
What were your thoughts on that one?
1641
01:35:55.210 --> 01:35:57.911
Oh my gosh.
1642
01:35:58.151 --> 01:36:00.532
I don't really get on social media much.
1643
01:36:01.233 --> 01:36:01.393
And.
1644
01:36:02.914 --> 01:36:04.135
I try to be pretty focused.
1645
01:36:04.235 --> 01:36:06.836
That stupid car screwed me all up.
1646
01:36:07.076 --> 01:36:08.737
Now your algorithm just like pack.
1647
01:36:09.497 --> 01:36:12.859
I was like, I mean that I've, I've had three Ferraris.
1648
01:36:12.879 --> 01:36:13.740
I got two of them now.
1649
01:36:14.240 --> 01:36:15.821
I, uh, it's, uh,
1650
01:36:16.988 --> 01:36:17.869
That's the brand.
1651
01:36:17.889 --> 01:36:24.092
Like when I was 10 years old, Ferrari was like a motivating factor of how I've ended up here.
1652
01:36:24.232 --> 01:36:25.293
I wanted that in life.
1653
01:36:25.913 --> 01:36:28.254
And like that car sucks.
1654
01:36:28.314 --> 01:36:29.815
There's no other way to say it.
1655
01:36:30.396 --> 01:36:31.036
It was funny.
1656
01:36:31.136 --> 01:36:39.120
I saw this comparison of like a Tesla and it was like a $99,000 performance model three versus, and it'd be on every single spec.
1657
01:36:39.181 --> 01:36:40.241
And then price was like 99,000, 650,000.
1658
01:36:40.261 --> 01:36:40.581
It's crazy.
1659
01:36:40.601 --> 01:36:40.962
Wow.
1660
01:36:43.683 --> 01:36:49.088
I know they've done some really cool technology things inside that car and it's all being lost because of the exterior.
1661
01:36:49.108 --> 01:36:51.210
And I'm not even really that bothered by the interior.
1662
01:36:51.230 --> 01:36:52.512
I think the interior is kind of interesting.
1663
01:36:52.912 --> 01:36:53.112
Yeah.
1664
01:36:53.332 --> 01:36:55.474
It's the exterior that drives me nuts.
1665
01:36:55.514 --> 01:36:59.398
And I, the argument is they're trying to go after completely different model markets.
1666
01:36:59.418 --> 01:37:01.100
Like, I don't know, but it's,
1667
01:37:02.549 --> 01:37:03.870
It's shocking.
1668
01:37:04.210 --> 01:37:05.091
I texted my brother.
1669
01:37:05.111 --> 01:37:09.995
My brother's in Florence right now, and he's renting three different Ferraris.
1670
01:37:10.215 --> 01:37:12.917
While he's in Florence, he has three different Ferraris.
1671
01:37:12.957 --> 01:37:13.837
He's trying them out.
1672
01:37:14.158 --> 01:37:16.940
And so he's not really a car guy.
1673
01:37:16.980 --> 01:37:19.081
He doesn't normally care about this stuff, but he's just trying them.
1674
01:37:19.562 --> 01:37:24.225
And so I texted in this thing, and my brother has texted me like 20 memes for
1675
01:37:24.485 --> 01:37:53.779
sense and so i'm constantly now being distracted looking at those things or going out listening to car reviews on this thing but nobody's saying everybody's saying the exact same thing like it just makes no sense so it's funny because they went out and got johnny ive to make it right and yeah and so it was interesting to see like a non-car person trying to make but to brand's point that's what is so damaging like you make the wrong decision with something like that and all that brand equity well not just their brand equity their market cap also gets hit hard
1676
01:37:54.099 --> 01:37:54.279
Yeah.
1677
01:37:54.539 --> 01:37:57.241
And so, yeah, the Johnny Ive.
1678
01:37:57.341 --> 01:38:01.805
So Andrew, my brother has sent me an AI generated video.
1679
01:38:02.085 --> 01:38:06.888
And basically, it was like Johnny Ive talking to Ferrari, and he can't figure out what to do.
1680
01:38:06.948 --> 01:38:11.812
So he just decides to take all his plans from when he was designing the Apple car, just turn them in as his Ferrari.
1681
01:38:11.892 --> 01:38:12.112
Yeah.
1682
01:38:12.472 --> 01:38:15.935
And it's like, you know, that kind of it does, it feels like that could have been an Apple car.
1683
01:38:16.095 --> 01:38:16.375
Totally.
1684
01:38:16.395 --> 01:38:16.895
A hundred percent.
1685
01:38:16.915 --> 01:38:17.596
I thought the same thing.
1686
01:38:18.116 --> 01:38:18.356
Yeah.
1687
01:38:18.576 --> 01:38:21.657
So anyway, yeah, that was a giant disappointment.
1688
01:38:21.677 --> 01:38:22.977
You're not any non-financial advice.
1689
01:38:23.257 --> 01:38:24.218
I know I'm putting you on the spot.
1690
01:38:24.258 --> 01:38:25.458
Non-financial advice.
1691
01:38:25.778 --> 01:38:28.259
It can be financial or non-financial.
1692
01:38:29.719 --> 01:38:30.060
Okay.
1693
01:38:30.080 --> 01:38:30.720
So any advice.
1694
01:38:32.292 --> 01:38:39.577
You know, I hadn't thought this through in advance, but the thing that came to mind to me, for me, maybe it plays a little bit on what I just said.
1695
01:38:39.637 --> 01:38:48.603
So when I used to do Academy, which was the coaching group, if you won our competition, annual competition, we sent you on a $15,000 vacation.
1696
01:38:49.684 --> 01:38:56.869
And I will say, and then also in Academy, we did four trips a year, three trips with the elite members.
1697
01:38:58.089 --> 01:38:58.270
And...
1698
01:38:59.209 --> 01:39:09.495
I feel like a lot of the people in Academy, their heads down, working, building their companies, almost never did trips, especially outside the United States.
1699
01:39:10.215 --> 01:39:14.778
And today, so many of those individuals travel outside the United States,
1700
01:39:15.258 --> 01:39:16.380
do all kinds of trips.
1701
01:39:16.400 --> 01:39:18.783
Like it like broadened their horizons in a sense.
1702
01:39:18.823 --> 01:39:22.088
I'm not saying it was just because of me, but they were just like heads down.
1703
01:39:22.108 --> 01:39:25.894
And maybe I pulled that forward a little bit in their life because we'd go have this experience.
1704
01:39:25.914 --> 01:39:27.176
Like this experience is so great.
1705
01:39:27.436 --> 01:39:28.638
And then they brought into their lives.
1706
01:39:29.179 --> 01:39:31.162
I would tell you that, um,
1707
01:39:32.589 --> 01:39:41.037
that this idea that you pull some of this stuff forward in your life earlier is incredibly valuable for a couple reasons.
1708
01:39:41.837 --> 01:39:43.599
One, it's really good for relationships.
1709
01:39:43.679 --> 01:39:52.827
If you're married and you're just heads down all the time, getting away from the business and going and doing something with your spouse, I think is incredibly important.
1710
01:39:53.268 --> 01:39:58.793
But also, it's this idea that if you're just go, go, go, and you never disconnect,
1711
01:40:00.662 --> 01:40:02.825
you lose, I think, a lot of the great ideas.
1712
01:40:02.885 --> 01:40:05.208
When you come back fresh, you look at things differently.
1713
01:40:05.288 --> 01:40:06.509
You have new ideas.
1714
01:40:07.250 --> 01:40:08.452
There's so much value in it.
1715
01:40:08.492 --> 01:40:16.702
So I'm not saying go do some two-week vacation in Italy, but I am saying, could you try to start engineering some ideas
1716
01:40:17.604 --> 01:40:41.596
inexpensive trips in your life and they may start out as a long weekend you leave thursday night you come back sunday night and eventually could you eventually go do something outside the united states for a week or 10 days 10 days is only a week gone from work i think everybody that does this has a richer life and so that would be my challenge to you is like what would that be this non-financialist advice is brought to you by tiffany potoshnik
1717
01:40:43.082 --> 01:40:44.763
I'm actually the one, I'm the one.
1718
01:40:44.803 --> 01:40:55.771
Like if my joke is like the other day, what she said is not true, but she's like, if we were walking last night, she's like, if you died, I'd sell the house because it costs so much to manage.
1719
01:40:55.851 --> 01:41:00.735
It's like, you can afford if I'm gone to pay for it.
1720
01:41:00.775 --> 01:41:04.117
But my joke was to her is if I died, you'd immediately get $600,000 a year back.
1721
01:41:05.518 --> 01:41:07.500
Because we wouldn't travel every year so much.
1722
01:41:07.940 --> 01:41:09.842
And so I'm the one that does that.
1723
01:41:09.902 --> 01:41:12.544
Like if it was left to Tiffany, she'd cut the, I don't know if that made sense.
1724
01:41:12.564 --> 01:41:14.485
The point was she wouldn't travel like me.
1725
01:41:14.505 --> 01:41:15.886
It's like, she loves doing it.
1726
01:41:15.926 --> 01:41:16.667
She loves the idea of it.
1727
01:41:16.967 --> 01:41:18.268
She didn't want to do all the planning.
1728
01:41:18.348 --> 01:41:20.090
She would be, she likes being at home.
1729
01:41:20.630 --> 01:41:24.473
So I'm the guy that's pushing that travel, travel, travel, but she loves it when we do it.
1730
01:41:24.894 --> 01:41:25.234
Awesome.
1731
01:41:25.474 --> 01:41:25.814
I love it.
1732
01:41:26.355 --> 01:41:27.916
Another episode in the books.
1733
01:41:28.136 --> 01:41:29.017
Did you give us your advice?
1734
01:41:29.097 --> 01:41:30.978
Mine was not buying the Ferrari.
1735
01:41:31.299 --> 01:41:33.260
And that is the best advice of the show.
1736
01:41:34.956 --> 01:41:35.718
All right, we'll see you all.
1737
01:41:35.738 --> 01:41:36.320
Thank you for watching.
1738
01:41:36.340 --> 01:41:36.961
See you later.
1
00:00:00.191 --> 00:00:02.432
Most business owners are not entrepreneurs.
2
00:00:02.652 --> 00:00:04.253
They're just people that created a job.
3
00:00:04.554 --> 00:00:13.378
We saw almost a doubling of our AI traffic and leads coming from ChatDBT, people saying that on the phone, like, I saw you on ChatDBT.
4
00:00:13.659 --> 00:00:20.362
And because they get so busy, it hides the big problems of the business, like bad pricing, bad cash flow, bloated payroll.
5
00:00:20.402 --> 00:00:27.066
The most sophisticated winning companies are going to shift back to a mode of, go get the client I want.
6
00:00:27.246 --> 00:00:30.150
In hindsight, looking back, it's like, this is exactly the life we build.
7
00:00:30.410 --> 00:00:38.901
And so for anyone that's like, in the five years, one day you will look back on this, you'll probably won't change much, assuming that you get through that, and you start to be able to build a life with optionality.
8
00:00:39.301 --> 00:00:40.383
Try way more stuff.
9
00:00:41.084 --> 00:00:42.946
And just see what works.
10
00:00:42.966 --> 00:00:44.508
There's so many different ways to live life.
11
00:00:44.748 --> 00:00:52.313
In the same podcast, we talked about trying new things and like as many things as possible, but also being like, stay focused on your industry.
12
00:00:52.373 --> 00:00:56.576
Don't get distracted, like head down for a period of time where it is grind mode.
13
00:00:57.076 --> 00:01:01.800
And so I think there's that dichotomy of like, you might set aside 10 years, but okay, here we go.
14
00:01:01.820 --> 00:01:02.540
Five for 50.
15
00:01:02.860 --> 00:01:07.123
Like you put the five years for the 50 years of that life that you want to build.
16
00:01:07.223 --> 00:01:07.704
Hey, everyone.
17
00:01:07.744 --> 00:01:08.724
Welcome back to...
18
00:01:09.964 --> 00:01:13.425
The show that Mike and I don't have a name for.
19
00:01:13.445 --> 00:01:15.346
We're open to suggestions there.
20
00:01:15.366 --> 00:01:15.686
We are.
21
00:01:15.746 --> 00:01:16.246
We're open there.
22
00:01:16.266 --> 00:01:17.187
It's like naming a child.
23
00:01:17.267 --> 00:01:18.547
It's like we have to name ourselves.
24
00:01:18.567 --> 00:01:19.748
We have to name the podcast.
25
00:01:20.608 --> 00:01:21.828
Yeah, we need lots of names.
26
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And then I think this is number five, right?
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Yeah.
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Am I correct on that?
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Number five.
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We initially said we're going to do three.
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We'll see if we both like it.
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We're still doing it.
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So I guess we're going to keep going.
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It seems that way.
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As long as you guys keep telling us you like it.
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So today I've got another new one for Mike and I, and I, of course, gave him a heads up on this one so he could put a little bit of thought into it.
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So we are each going to give you three hot takes.
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What I'm looking for is, do you have a reaction of, wait, like, wait, what?
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Like, do you have that kind of reaction?
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Like, what did they say?
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Mm-hmm.
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We're not going to defend them.
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We're not going to explain them.
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Brianna said she thinks you're trying to get me canceled on this one.
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I'm not trying to get you canceled.
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I'm given three as well.
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The notes for this was like, make sure it's, what was the word you used?
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Like some of the people would be like shocked about or something like that.
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I was like, oh man, here we go.
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Well, I don't know.
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Maybe I didn't even go too far with the shock.
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So anyway, they're just takes that maybe not everybody would agree with.
53
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Okay.
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That's where I'm going.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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You can get off.
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That way I can temper mine.
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Okay.
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There you go.
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All right.
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I'll kick it off.
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So here's what we're going to do.
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We're going to do six of them.
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Three from me, three from Mike.
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I will now go first.
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And we're going to number them like one, two, three.
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The reason for that is if something grabs you, you're like, wait a second, I'm not sure.
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I want to know more.
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I want you to comment below with the number.
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Yeah.
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And if we get a bunch of comments on one, we'll go into this in another episode.
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Yeah.
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JP one, two, and three, MA one, two, three.
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Perfect.
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Down below.
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Yeah, that'd be- Give us your feedback.
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That'd be perfect.
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Okay.
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So I thought about mine.
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All right.
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So number one is-
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The right business partner is one of the most significant competitive advantages you can have in business.
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And everybody telling you that a business partner is bad just hasn't had the right one.
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Very good.
86
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All right.
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My second one is most business owners are not entrepreneurs.
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They're just people that created a job.
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Okay.
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All right.
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That's pretty good.
92
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That got a little more edgy.
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We're going the right direction.
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Yeah, yeah.
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This is where hopefully I didn't make you make yours too edgy.
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We can always try this again and I can always try to step it up.
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All right.
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We'll calculate how edgy it is based on how any unsubscribes we have on this.
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Yeah.
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I didn't take any political or religious stances here.
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I'm out here.
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Okay.
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All right.
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All right.
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Very good.
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Well, next time I may have to step mine up.
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All right.
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Number three.
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How you treat your body is how you run your business over the long term.
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And most owners do not get the connection.
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Yeah, that's good.
112
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All right.
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Those are my three.
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Okay.
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All right, Mike.
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I'll jump into mine.
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All right.
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My first one, I did take some edge off of my third one.
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All right.
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So my first one is someone with one-sided staunch political beliefs is a red flag to me.
121
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So if I'm thinking about partnership or hiring, like someone that really like doesn't matter what happens.
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This is the way I see the world because X, Y and Z.
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They have a red flag.
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OK, that is not that's not not too strong.
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All right.
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Number two, the lack of humility keeps people poor.
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And my third one is, okay, this one's a little longer because I had to think through it a little bit.
128
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So big businesses will use fax machines.
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There are businesses today that are huge that use fax machines.
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But big businesses were built on the back of the phone book.
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And I believe that you don't scale a business using old technology.
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So if you look at technology, it's been like telegrams, USPS, the mail system, things like figuring out the phone and then fax and then internet and then email and then building a website and then SMS.
133
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And now it's like we've gone to mobile, AI, future is probably robotics.
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And I think for those that are listening and trying to grow a business,
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being on the edge of that is important, even though there's evidence that there are big businesses that are still using old technology.
136
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So that was that last part.
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That last part is probably the statement.
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Yeah, I had a much more different one.
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Something along the lines of AI boomers of today are the fax machine artists of yesterday.
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I had some other creative, more edgy take on it, but- Say that one again for me.
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I didn't quite comprehend it.
142
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Well, there are still people today that will look at AI and be like, hey, I'm not using it.
143
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I don't need it.
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I have a big business and I'm still doing my things through fax or I do it through email, the old fashioned way.
145
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And because they have a $20 million business or a $50 million business, someone else will look at them like, oh, I need to do that.
146
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in order to win, when in reality, they were the first one to adopt, let's just call it AAA lawn care, because it ranked well in the phone book.
147
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And that was the modern AI of their day.
148
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And so just because now they've built a big business and have the fax machine does not mean you should use the fax machine to grow the business.
149
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Anyways.
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Yeah, very good.
151
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Okay.
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All right.
153
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So those are four.
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You're going to rank on his first three.
155
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So again, in the comments, if anything grabs you, nothing has to grab you.
156
00:06:25.982 --> 00:06:32.444
But if it does, put JP1, JP2, or M1 or M2, you get the idea.
157
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Six comments, you know, just give us six comments.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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All right.
161
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So Mike, what have you been working on the last week?
162
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Okay, so we've been working on creating a good rev share program for homework.
163
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So we've never had like any sort of referral program.
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And so I've been working on it because I didn't want to do the classic like, hey, give a month, get a month kind of thing.
165
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And so we're going more the affiliate route, which is revenue share.
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So we're working on how does it actually work on the back end where if a member gives a month for someone else, but then they get 25% of revenue on an ongoing basis.
167
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And so we're just workshopping how does that work.
168
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Oh, okay.
169
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Or homeworks.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Or the software.
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Okay.
174
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Yeah.
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Correct.
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Okay.
177
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So affiliate program makes perfect sense.
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That's what I've been working on.
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What about you?
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Have you arrived?
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You don't have.
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Yeah.
183
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And I'll answer that.
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You don't have to give out the economics, but have you figured out the number that you can realistically give out for the longterm?
185
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Yeah.
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We, we, right now, again, I'm doing this prematurely, but you don't have to say it.
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25% of what we're working on right now.
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I kind of was like, where was the point where I would wake up and be like, I want to share this message, especially for people that have like some audience on social media or they're in a group.
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Like.
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I was like, okay, a month of free doesn't do anything for anyone.
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Like we're talking about a few hundred dollars.
192
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But if I can build up kind of the side business almost as an influencer, like it makes sense if I get 25% of the revenue.
193
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And so we've gone back in February, we bundled up users into our subscriptions.
194
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So it raised the price when in reality it just bundled the users.
195
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But that kind of allowed us the extra margin to be able to do the program.
196
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Okay.
197
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Unlimited user bundle?
198
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Like if you have... No, just 10 and 20.
199
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Yeah, there's tiers.
200
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Okay, so tiers.
201
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Okay, all right.
202
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How did you think about that when you guys did service autopilot?
203
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Because it wasn't unlimited.
204
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You had just individual users.
205
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Yeah, we did the individual.
206
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But I think if I were selling, if I was building a new service autopilot today, I would think about it completely different.
207
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Would you basically like $1,000 a month, but it's unlimited?
208
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Or how would you think about it?
209
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I still think about this stuff, even though I don't have it.
210
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That's what I'm asking.
211
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Yeah, so what I originally thought I was going to do a new service autopilot, my idea was that we would start at $1,000 a month.
212
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There would be no lesser service.
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It was a whole new idea.
214
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It was a new approach, everything.
215
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And in that scenario, I wanted to just bundle in all the users.
216
00:08:55.581 --> 00:09:03.311
But where I got stuck and I had never had a reason to figure it out was, like, wait a second, for the very type of client that starts at $1,000 a month,
217
00:09:03.972 --> 00:09:06.714
like some of these guys might have 150 users.
218
00:09:06.914 --> 00:09:13.838
And that's a real cost to us over time, especially as you start to implement imagery and just some other cool things, video.
219
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And I had been brainstorming and kind of testing this idea to be able to take pictures of things and have it translate into the different languages.
220
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And so I was like, is there a different model than having somebody type into a mobile app?
221
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I won't get into the weeds on that.
222
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And so some of that stuff would come with an additional cost.
223
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And so I wasn't sure that my idea of unlimited users would work, but that's what I would want to be able to sell.
224
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Like the dream would be, could you just sell one price, build whatever you want to build?
225
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It's one price, but there are legit costs that come with doing that.
226
00:09:49.765 --> 00:10:13.563
yeah the video thing has been for us like because like we now allow uh it's like a 12 minute video can go in um 500 megabytes it compresses down to 50 but yeah it's a real cost on like certain you know servers and storage and all the rest it adds up over time it's incredible yes you will you know and we'll figure out how the data just builds and builds and so what have you been working on go ahead sorry yeah so the last week
227
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A project that I've started and stopped over time this year, and frankly, probably last year too, was really nailing down a very sophisticated thematic marketing calendar for CityTurf.
228
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And it doesn't sound like that big of a deal to do it and build it out.
229
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But...
230
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I guess it has been because I just keep procrastinating.
231
00:10:38.435 --> 00:10:44.437
It's generally been framed out and generally thought through, but it just wasn't production ready.
232
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So I've been trying to get that wrapped up this week.
233
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I've got a little ways to go on that one.
234
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And the marketing calendar to me is this imperative, critical item that –
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dictates projects and timelines and everything else.
236
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And then somewhat paired with that is something else that I already made a massive amount of progress on.
237
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I think that was towards the end of last year, and I'm trying to get it done now.
238
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I've kind of brought it back.
239
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And it's this idea of moving away.
240
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I don't know if we've talked about this or I've mentioned it to somebody else.
241
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This idea of moving away, of thinking about roles in a company and thinking about tasks.
242
00:11:21.493 --> 00:11:26.457
And where that was motivated, and I'm just thinking about it right now on the marketing side of the business.
243
00:11:26.957 --> 00:11:36.985
What motivated that is when I started getting back involved in CityTurf to work on marketing, my premise was me, one employee, and all contractors.
244
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And instead of building on a marketing team, like I would have had at Service Autopilot.
245
00:11:42.726 --> 00:11:51.031
And so now I'm thinking about it, though, it's like for every task you have, there's really three different types of solutions.
246
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There's an employee, there's a contractor, and there's an agent.
247
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And so I'm trying to go through and literally document every single thing that has to get done at any interval level from weekly to once a year.
248
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And then it's assigned to an employee, a contractor, an agent.
249
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Very cool.
250
00:12:09.197 --> 00:12:12.378
And that's a lot of work, more than it sounds.
251
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For the calendar, is it sequencing and timing or the creation of the templates and the, I guess, copy itself?
252
00:12:22.392 --> 00:12:24.473
On the calendar, it's the deliverables.
253
00:12:25.953 --> 00:12:28.794
So it's this campaign needs to drop here.
254
00:12:29.414 --> 00:12:30.774
Step two needs to drop here.
255
00:12:31.094 --> 00:12:32.955
These things need to be loaded on the truck.
256
00:12:34.095 --> 00:12:36.015
This is the theme of the period.
257
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A theme would might, because all marketing needs to be coordinated.
258
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Like it needs to stack.
259
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So in other words,
260
00:12:42.757 --> 00:12:46.879
This is the month that we're really talking about deep root feeding of trees.
261
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So that needs to message across social, across door hangers, across what we call recommendation door hangers, across postcards, whatever the touch is that might hit the market, whether it be client, new acquisition of clients or be expansion of existing clients growing the value of the account.
262
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There needs to be these themes to what's going on.
263
00:13:08.689 --> 00:13:11.210
So in other words, everything's being supported.
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If you're getting an email in your inbox and you're on Facebook, I want you to be seeing similar messaging from us.
265
00:13:18.532 --> 00:13:19.413
It's all support.
266
00:13:19.493 --> 00:13:20.513
It all makes everything work better.
267
00:13:20.553 --> 00:13:24.194
So there's more to it than that, but that's the gist of what the calendar does.
268
00:13:24.214 --> 00:13:30.997
And then the last thing I'll say is the calendar, if it's a deadline-driven, then for each of those activities,
269
00:13:32.077 --> 00:13:37.078
The way I've got the calendar built, it would say this one needs to start four weeks in advance.
270
00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:38.779
I built my own tool.
271
00:13:39.179 --> 00:13:40.399
Can't help it with Cloud Code.
272
00:13:40.779 --> 00:13:42.540
I built my own marketing calendar system.
273
00:13:42.900 --> 00:13:47.401
And so I can flip it where I can look at when things need to start versus when they need to deliver.
274
00:13:48.041 --> 00:13:48.401
Very cool.
275
00:13:48.421 --> 00:13:49.702
So, yeah.
276
00:13:49.722 --> 00:13:50.542
So that's the project.
277
00:13:50.925 --> 00:13:51.305
Let's go.
278
00:13:51.986 --> 00:13:52.386
Yeah.
279
00:13:52.446 --> 00:14:03.953
The challenging part for us on social and marketing is because we create the creative for all the owners, the organic content is very difficult to time up with their individual markets.
280
00:14:04.493 --> 00:14:05.034
Based on that.
281
00:14:05.094 --> 00:14:05.274
Yeah.
282
00:14:05.374 --> 00:14:08.316
Like their emails and text blasts might be individual, their market.
283
00:14:08.336 --> 00:14:11.418
But like, how do I create organic that goes on 200 Facebook accounts?
284
00:14:11.698 --> 00:14:13.299
That's somewhat right.
285
00:14:13.699 --> 00:14:14.740
So it's kind of like.
286
00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:16.621
That's a totally different problem.
287
00:14:17.061 --> 00:14:19.204
But AI is going to be very helpful with that.
288
00:14:19.824 --> 00:14:25.110
Because people have their background looking local to their area.
289
00:14:25.798 --> 00:14:26.058
Yeah.
290
00:14:26.859 --> 00:14:27.039
Yeah.
291
00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:33.143
If you, if you basically train your model or your agent or whatever on every individual markets, timing and pain points.
292
00:14:33.243 --> 00:14:34.004
I haven't got there yet.
293
00:14:34.024 --> 00:14:35.045
I haven't got there yet.
294
00:14:35.625 --> 00:14:36.926
That was a, it's a lot of work.
295
00:14:37.126 --> 00:14:38.387
This stuff is so easy to say.
296
00:14:38.407 --> 00:14:41.569
It's so much work to build it, but, but you could see where that could go.
297
00:14:41.610 --> 00:14:45.112
Like once you train it, it could automatically figure out all the dates for you.
298
00:14:45.372 --> 00:14:45.552
Yeah.
299
00:14:45.893 --> 00:14:46.593
So yeah.
300
00:14:46.993 --> 00:14:47.154
Yeah.
301
00:14:47.534 --> 00:14:48.695
Again, easier said than done.
302
00:14:49.255 --> 00:14:49.535
All right.
303
00:14:50.015 --> 00:14:51.856
So I got five things on our docket today.
304
00:14:52.697 --> 00:15:04.223
And the first one I dropped on here, and I know you've seen it, is this idea that there's this risk of price commoditization coming to the market.
305
00:15:05.543 --> 00:15:08.345
And the example I would give is that...
306
00:15:09.411 --> 00:15:10.991
And I want to get your thinking on this.
307
00:15:11.491 --> 00:15:28.434
But the example I'd give, and you're kind of a little bit in the middle of this in the sense that if you can price online, quote online, close online, that's a risk factor for price commoditization in the sense that if a lot of people are doing it, they might be making a decision based on price.
308
00:15:29.875 --> 00:15:35.216
And I think a lot of companies have that dream of, I just want to sell you and sign you up online.
309
00:15:35.256 --> 00:15:36.216
I don't want to talk to you.
310
00:15:36.916 --> 00:15:37.256
And then...
311
00:15:38.358 --> 00:15:45.365
What also has inspired this, and I've not had personal experience with this, but I've been hearing a little bit more about it.
312
00:15:45.545 --> 00:15:47.086
And I'm curious if you have any experience with it.
313
00:15:47.507 --> 00:15:51.550
It's this new Google feature functionality that they're testing.
314
00:15:51.831 --> 00:15:56.315
I've heard a couple different names for it, but one of the names I've most heard is Ask Google.
315
00:15:56.715 --> 00:16:00.358
the ask for me or like it's where they go out and get pricing.
316
00:16:00.378 --> 00:16:01.338
So you can go to Google.
317
00:16:01.719 --> 00:16:03.220
You want to get a price on low mowing.
318
00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:05.601
It will literally go look up pricing.
319
00:16:05.641 --> 00:16:10.065
If it can't find it, it might call the company and get the pricing for that service or message.
320
00:16:10.245 --> 00:16:11.506
It'll actually message text.
321
00:16:11.526 --> 00:16:11.726
Yeah.
322
00:16:12.406 --> 00:16:12.606
Yeah.
323
00:16:12.827 --> 00:16:13.607
Yeah, exactly.
324
00:16:14.148 --> 00:16:14.588
So, yeah,
325
00:16:16.135 --> 00:16:21.158
That's a game changer if this becomes, it's not that big of a deal when it's just a couple companies doing it.
326
00:16:21.438 --> 00:16:34.365
But when the market as a whole moves this way, and if Google finds that this works significantly for them, meaning they'll implement it, then, yeah, this changes how we sell.
327
00:16:34.525 --> 00:16:35.865
So how are you thinking about this stuff?
328
00:16:35.885 --> 00:16:36.906
You're right in the middle of it.
329
00:16:37.126 --> 00:16:37.866
Buy Google stock.
330
00:16:37.906 --> 00:16:39.167
No, I'm joking.
331
00:16:39.307 --> 00:16:40.667
Yeah.
332
00:16:41.047 --> 00:16:46.649
Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on this because it's something that I felt we were going to get here anyways, eventually.
333
00:16:46.669 --> 00:16:48.069
So we've been planning for a while.
334
00:16:48.309 --> 00:16:55.952
I think first off, for those that are afraid of what's going to happen, I think a lot of us, we sell out of our own pocket.
335
00:16:55.972 --> 00:16:57.072
This is what Alex calls it.
336
00:16:57.472 --> 00:17:02.054
And that is, we just assume people want the lowest price because that's how we've always operated.
337
00:17:02.554 --> 00:17:05.815
And we're not the ideal customer profile that we're actually trying to sell to.
338
00:17:05.835 --> 00:17:06.195
Yeah.
339
00:17:06.415 --> 00:17:09.497
And the reason I say it is because price is just one piece of the buying decision.
340
00:17:09.797 --> 00:17:13.040
I think that overall, we should just embrace this.
341
00:17:13.080 --> 00:17:15.441
Like, again, technology is going to keep moving on.
342
00:17:15.882 --> 00:17:18.704
If I'm going to go against it, I'm not going to put my pricing on my website.
343
00:17:18.844 --> 00:17:21.205
I'm going to make it really difficult for people to get pricing.
344
00:17:21.225 --> 00:17:23.067
I'm going to be opaque as possible.
345
00:17:23.487 --> 00:17:24.328
I think you're going to lose.
346
00:17:25.348 --> 00:17:34.672
And I think giving the algorithm what it wants is important in this case, especially because so much traffic does come from Google, they're going to reward the websites that are doing this.
347
00:17:35.252 --> 00:17:42.835
And so recently at Augusta, for example, in our FAQ sections for every location, we give the exact prices that it's going to be for a small, medium, or large property.
348
00:17:43.095 --> 00:17:51.158
We give the square footage ranges because if their agent knows their address, it can actually give them pricing based upon just that.
349
00:17:51.998 --> 00:18:00.627
And I think what's really important is to make, as we look in the year or two ahead, I think people are going to start giving their agent a credit card and allowing them to actually check out.
350
00:18:00.647 --> 00:18:09.256
Because right now with the Google feature, it will call, it will communicate via text, especially around local service, Google local services.
351
00:18:09.757 --> 00:18:11.959
It's really baked well into that feature.
352
00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:12.920
And.
353
00:18:13.961 --> 00:18:19.842
Right now, it still requires us to give a price or it requires us to have it on our website for the agent to go.
354
00:18:20.083 --> 00:18:20.983
It's not checking out.
355
00:18:21.623 --> 00:18:27.984
And I'm interested to see if that level of trust with an agent is ever going to happen with home services.
356
00:18:29.125 --> 00:18:37.227
Because I think it's different when it comes to price checking, say, something on Amazon or an e-commerce or DTC product versus home services.
357
00:18:37.287 --> 00:18:37.607
Because...
358
00:18:38.747 --> 00:18:46.930
I always say this, like when someone walks up to your door and delivers something from Amazon, they stay on your driveway and they do not get on your lawn.
359
00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:48.310
They do not go inside your house.
360
00:18:48.950 --> 00:18:55.833
Home services inevitably for most of our services, it requires us to get in areas of the property that the customer has to have a certain level of trust.
361
00:18:56.673 --> 00:19:07.015
And that's where I think this gap might exist and it might take some while, a while for the market to adjust because I'm very much OK if I want Nike Jordans to go in here.
362
00:19:07.035 --> 00:19:09.276
Like, hey, yeah, find me the best price, ship it to my address.
363
00:19:09.456 --> 00:19:10.696
Here's my credit card information.
364
00:19:10.856 --> 00:19:11.216
Let's go.
365
00:19:12.017 --> 00:19:18.018
I also think that the reason I would do that and trust my agent is because I have brand equity with Nike.
366
00:19:18.798 --> 00:19:20.339
I know that Nike will send me good shoes.
367
00:19:20.899 --> 00:19:29.925
And so I think that this is going to only compound the importance of brand and why I think brand in all of this is going to win because branding equals confidence.
368
00:19:29.945 --> 00:19:31.126
The same way I see the Nike swoosh.
369
00:19:31.406 --> 00:19:34.568
I just immediately can, I can have confidence in my agent.
370
00:19:34.588 --> 00:19:37.050
When I get that delivered to my house, it's going to be a good shoe.
371
00:19:37.350 --> 00:19:46.256
I think the same thing is going to become true for home services is like, if they've seen your trucks, if they have seen your own social media, if they see great reviews, they
372
00:19:46.436 --> 00:19:49.818
Then when their agent says, hey, this is it's $70 per week.
373
00:19:50.058 --> 00:19:51.259
Would you like me to go ahead and purchase that?
374
00:19:51.439 --> 00:20:03.405
They say yes, because I do believe there's going to be more trust and confidence required for a home service product than a DTC or a hard good that I'm going to have shipped to me from Amazon.
375
00:20:03.805 --> 00:20:05.046
That's kind of like my general thesis.
376
00:20:05.086 --> 00:20:09.709
But like, I do believe the biggest thing we have to be prepared for is agents checking out.
377
00:20:10.389 --> 00:20:13.791
Right now, the thing that you also, for those that are listening, it's like, oh, I do instant quotes.
378
00:20:14.191 --> 00:20:21.055
Be very careful because if that pricing is behind them having to put their information, most of these AIA tools will not see it.
379
00:20:21.596 --> 00:20:28.319
And so this is why putting like an FAQ section or having a pricing page so they can actually see the information will be important.
380
00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:31.121
That's really good advice right there.
381
00:20:31.161 --> 00:20:32.102
What about from your perspective?
382
00:20:33.002 --> 00:20:34.103
Have you played with it at all?
383
00:20:35.669 --> 00:20:58.665
played with the google ask like ask prices i haven't no i haven't it's funny actually i was how do you play with it i haven't yeah just type in like a service near me and most of the time it'll show up in local services so okay under local services where they're promoting currently the most by the time this comes out it'll probably be different but like right now under local services because they've always had the call and the message now right above that there's a little
384
00:21:00.606 --> 00:21:07.350
And then you put in what you want and then it sends out the message to those and it sends it back to you whenever they respond.
385
00:21:08.911 --> 00:21:15.796
I think though that the agent is the part that like you've talked about in the past, like our agents will be doing its own thing and then like verifying.
386
00:21:16.556 --> 00:21:21.380
I think when people start getting comfortable putting a credit card with their AI, that's when this will really take off.
387
00:21:21.540 --> 00:21:28.624
The thing that actually was interesting, Jonathan, is I actually thought of you when I saw this on the docket, when you had mentioned that that moving company, they stole like $80,000 worth of stuff
388
00:21:29.605 --> 00:21:30.525
when they moved your house.
389
00:21:31.046 --> 00:21:36.709
I think one burn like that is what causes a homeowner to be like, I'm gonna check the reviews myself.
390
00:21:37.209 --> 00:21:38.409
I wanna go look at their website.
391
00:21:38.750 --> 00:21:40.811
And that's where brand will start to come into play.
392
00:21:41.151 --> 00:21:46.033
And this is where I think the destruction of the contractor model could come in because they don't have a brand.
393
00:21:46.193 --> 00:21:49.395
They change their business every three or four years, they get away from bad reviews.
394
00:21:49.955 --> 00:21:56.038
So I actually thought of you when I saw it on the docket because someone like yourself, even though your agent might say, hey, this is the cheapest option.
395
00:21:56.259 --> 00:21:58.600
That's not the biggest buying decision for you.
396
00:21:59.340 --> 00:22:08.024
And so I think our ideal customer looks at the price as a data point, but is also having a lot of other parts of the decision that come into play.
397
00:22:08.284 --> 00:22:11.125
And for the person that's just going to go shop my price, I don't want them as a customer.
398
00:22:11.625 --> 00:22:18.308
And so I think it'll really divide, like, the middle ground of home services might get ate up here.
399
00:22:18.849 --> 00:22:21.630
But the people that go premium, they're not competing in price now anyways.
400
00:22:22.410 --> 00:22:24.331
And the people who go low, they will win.
401
00:22:24.531 --> 00:22:28.373
They will get all these very low, cheap prices that, you know, the AI can scrub.
402
00:22:28.673 --> 00:22:29.154
Several things.
403
00:22:29.515 --> 00:22:31.699
You mentioned a good way to play with it.
404
00:22:31.719 --> 00:22:35.507
Was there a service or a trade that you're noticing it used on more right now?
405
00:22:35.862 --> 00:22:38.644
I haven't played with enough different industries.
406
00:22:38.684 --> 00:22:39.925
I've played with maybe four or five.
407
00:22:40.345 --> 00:22:42.927
I've definitely played with lawn care and landscaping.
408
00:22:43.467 --> 00:22:44.488
I did painting and fencing.
409
00:22:44.508 --> 00:22:47.090
Those are the four I know I've been playing with, but it's changing.
410
00:22:47.110 --> 00:22:54.835
Like if you go into incognito mode versus Safari versus Chrome, see three different experiences where they're putting the badge.
411
00:22:54.855 --> 00:22:56.256
Like they're doing so much testing right now.
412
00:22:56.576 --> 00:23:00.379
So whenever they do testing, I just know that there's resources being deployed towards this.
413
00:23:01.099 --> 00:23:03.101
And I think it's going to be very interesting to,
414
00:23:03.881 --> 00:23:04.802
how your website looks.
415
00:23:04.822 --> 00:23:06.304
You actually alluded to this in your last video.
416
00:23:06.324 --> 00:23:08.527
It's like in the past, SEO is the main thing.
417
00:23:08.547 --> 00:23:16.958
This is like, can your website be easily digested by an AI agent will become the most important part, I think, going forward.
418
00:23:17.659 --> 00:23:17.859
Yeah.
419
00:23:18.580 --> 00:23:19.501
Yeah, I agree with that.
420
00:23:19.581 --> 00:23:21.264
And then the other part of it is...
421
00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:31.644
You've got to support, there's going to be a period here where you've got to support, actually maybe forever, but for quite a period here, you're going to have to support multiple ways to convert.
422
00:23:31.704 --> 00:23:33.745
So you still have to convert by phone.
423
00:23:34.705 --> 00:23:36.606
I still think that's going to hold up for a long time.
424
00:23:36.986 --> 00:23:38.927
You're going to have to consider agents.
425
00:23:39.588 --> 00:23:43.450
You're going to have to consider maybe selling via text and email.
426
00:23:43.950 --> 00:23:45.251
You're going to have to consider...
427
00:23:46.920 --> 00:23:50.582
They're getting a, like the model you're running right now where you can get a price online and sign up.
428
00:23:50.602 --> 00:23:54.424
There's a lot of different models that are all going to have to work at the exact same time.
429
00:23:54.984 --> 00:24:05.590
And one of the challenges that's frankly always been a challenge, and I don't know what the solution is right now, is it's always, it's always been the problem of balancing SEO optimization with conversion focused copy.
430
00:24:05.770 --> 00:24:05.930
Yep.
431
00:24:06.670 --> 00:24:07.450
And design.
432
00:24:07.570 --> 00:24:08.171
And just design.
433
00:24:08.191 --> 00:24:08.691
And design.
434
00:24:08.831 --> 00:24:09.911
And design 100%.
435
00:24:10.751 --> 00:24:19.614
And so, I mean, from my experience, the more you go towards quality conversion copy, the lesser your site performs and ranks.
436
00:24:20.774 --> 00:24:31.958
But if we're going to live in a world where we're selling online and they're making a decision online, not necessarily just through an agent, then conversion matters in a massive way.
437
00:24:32.558 --> 00:24:35.339
Conversion quality, copy quality.
438
00:24:36.670 --> 00:24:39.553
This is a really, really challenging one to navigate right now.
439
00:24:39.573 --> 00:24:41.554
And I'm trying to figure it out.
440
00:24:41.835 --> 00:24:43.656
And I don't have that answer.
441
00:24:44.997 --> 00:24:47.059
One of the questions I have about the agents.
442
00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:53.124
So I'll say I've got some thoughts, but I will generally say I don't think I had any points of disagreement with what you said.
443
00:24:53.144 --> 00:24:54.505
I'm completely aligned.
444
00:24:55.566 --> 00:25:00.391
One thing I don't know is how fast, and I guess none of us know, how fast are these agents really going to happen?
445
00:25:00.731 --> 00:25:03.133
Is this my robot prediction again?
446
00:25:03.293 --> 00:25:07.756
Like, is it the, hey, I think, you know, in five years, robots are going to be a thing.
447
00:25:07.796 --> 00:25:11.238
And we're like, hey, I think in a year, agents are going to be buying for people.
448
00:25:11.258 --> 00:25:14.240
It's like, yeah, they will, but for 3% of the market.
449
00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:17.622
Like how fast, I'm not saying that 3% is a real number.
450
00:25:18.022 --> 00:25:25.406
I don't have a feel for how fast my wife, like Tiffany is going to let an agent start buying stuff for her.
451
00:25:26.267 --> 00:25:27.287
I'm just not, I don't know.
452
00:25:28.668 --> 00:25:30.409
My parents, not a chance in the world.
453
00:25:30.830 --> 00:25:32.791
You know, it's like, so...
454
00:25:34.468 --> 00:25:36.229
And different markets are going to be different.
455
00:25:36.329 --> 00:25:40.292
My market is a more affluent tech forward market.
456
00:25:40.532 --> 00:25:48.998
There's a lot of people that move to this market where I'm at that are maybe a little more tech enabled or like tech a little more than say other markets.
457
00:25:49.038 --> 00:25:49.319
Okay.
458
00:25:49.339 --> 00:25:51.400
That market will probably adapt to this a little quicker.
459
00:25:51.420 --> 00:25:52.981
So there's so much going on here.
460
00:25:53.001 --> 00:25:54.342
This one's a complicated one.
461
00:25:55.643 --> 00:25:58.405
When you, so way back, this goes way back, like,
462
00:26:00.073 --> 00:26:06.442
2015, 16, 17, some testing that I was involved in.
463
00:26:06.463 --> 00:26:07.965
This is around pricing tools.
464
00:26:08.025 --> 00:26:09.367
Some testing I was involved in.
465
00:26:09.807 --> 00:26:14.855
Also, I can't remember all the companies, but because of Service Autopilot, everybody that
466
00:26:15.115 --> 00:26:20.057
owned one of these Uber for lawn care companies or anybody that had a price would price online.
467
00:26:20.377 --> 00:26:21.537
A lot of it was Uber for lawn care.
468
00:26:21.557 --> 00:26:25.298
They all wanted to in some way deal with us at service autopilot.
469
00:26:25.318 --> 00:26:26.278
They wanted to buy us.
470
00:26:26.558 --> 00:26:27.819
They want to partner with us.
471
00:26:27.879 --> 00:26:29.179
They wanted, they all wanted to.
472
00:26:29.199 --> 00:26:30.880
So I got to talk to all of the big names.
473
00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:46.706
And one of the things that I learned over time back then was that a lot of the business that was coming through the online pricing was for mowing specifically tended to be a little bit more of the biweekly work, a little less of the weekly type work.
474
00:26:47.407 --> 00:26:49.648
Is that still true in this?
475
00:26:50.328 --> 00:26:51.989
You know, here it is in 2026.
476
00:26:52.349 --> 00:26:52.949
What do you see?
477
00:26:55.314 --> 00:26:57.115
I can't speak for those services.
478
00:26:57.135 --> 00:27:00.416
I can only speak for the instant quotes I'm seeing.
479
00:27:00.996 --> 00:27:04.197
It all comes down to how you position the weekly versus the biweekly.
480
00:27:04.878 --> 00:27:08.199
And so if you're like, hey, I want the weekly services, great.
481
00:27:08.239 --> 00:27:13.761
You're just going to have to promote that from a pricing perspective so that when they're comparing the two, it becomes the obvious choice.
482
00:27:14.121 --> 00:27:18.442
And then there's other owners who are like, I don't care about the weekly or the biweekly thing.
483
00:27:18.842 --> 00:27:22.944
I won't have any difference between the cost of weekly and biweekly because it's just normal in my market, for example.
484
00:27:22.964 --> 00:27:23.344
Yeah.
485
00:27:23.764 --> 00:27:30.906
Um, but yeah, what's really interesting with all this is like we, I can see the data across all the sites on Fragusta as well as like all the home service web design stuff.
486
00:27:31.327 --> 00:27:37.388
It is so interesting that percentage, that ratio of like Google search, where am I getting click links?
487
00:27:37.949 --> 00:27:41.410
And then what's coming through a AEO or like chat to PT, et cetera.
488
00:27:42.370 --> 00:27:44.372
It's so interesting because you would change your site.
489
00:27:44.392 --> 00:27:45.713
It actually adjusts very quickly.
490
00:27:46.193 --> 00:27:48.235
It's faster than SEO.
491
00:27:48.715 --> 00:27:49.696
I'll say that.
492
00:27:50.556 --> 00:27:52.998
We were able to make several changes for Augusta this past spring.
493
00:27:53.639 --> 00:28:03.667
In six weeks, we saw almost a doubling of our AI traffic and leads coming from ChatDBT, people saying that on the phone, like, I saw you on ChatDBT.
494
00:28:04.047 --> 00:28:10.191
And so I agree that there's going to be a period of time before someone puts a card on file and lets their agent go buy lawn care.
495
00:28:10.211 --> 00:28:10.312
Yeah.
496
00:28:10.952 --> 00:28:15.715
but they're still going to search on Google and Google's going to prioritize who's giving the information.
497
00:28:15.875 --> 00:28:19.478
Like who's giving me the clean data to be able to present to that user.
498
00:28:20.178 --> 00:28:24.561
Yeah, and they're going to ask ChatGPT and Claude and everybody for the recommendation.
499
00:28:24.821 --> 00:28:31.686
I was sort of separating more of the, they're going to use their agent to make the decision and sign up that I was separating that part.
500
00:28:31.766 --> 00:28:32.847
That's a good clarification.
501
00:28:32.867 --> 00:28:39.111
I think what would be super cool is like, hey, agent, like give me the five prices, but then compare like other benefits of the different services.
502
00:28:39.131 --> 00:28:40.252
How long have they been business?
503
00:28:41.092 --> 00:28:42.793
Are they part of a national chain?
504
00:28:43.053 --> 00:28:52.396
Like these are the other aspects I think as a consumer, I'd be okay with my agent giving me the information, but I don't even get to play the game if I'm not showing up on that board.
505
00:28:53.097 --> 00:28:55.938
And that's where I feel like the people that's like, I'm going to hide prices.
506
00:28:56.238 --> 00:29:03.120
Like because of the instant mowing quote thing I just launched people, a lot of people were saying is like, you're basically commoditizing the industry, bring all the prices down.
507
00:29:03.140 --> 00:29:03.461
Oh really?
508
00:29:03.681 --> 00:29:03.901
Yeah.
509
00:29:03.941 --> 00:29:07.102
Because now we're all going to have these, you know, everyone's going to be seeing their prices.
510
00:29:07.122 --> 00:29:09.443
They have to remember I probably a thousand people out of,
511
00:29:09.943 --> 00:29:14.105
600,000 landscapers on the, on that thing right now.
512
00:29:14.565 --> 00:29:20.087
But I believe that you have to show up whether or not the agent's going to buy.
513
00:29:20.107 --> 00:29:23.249
I have to show up in those, in those few categories.
514
00:29:23.729 --> 00:29:33.533
And it's very interesting to see the percentages over the last seven, eight months from chat to BT and even just people saying on the phone that they're, they're looking on those places.
515
00:29:34.163 --> 00:29:36.826
I do think it's changing where I agree with you on that topic.
516
00:29:36.966 --> 00:29:38.627
You're just not going to be able to hide from this anymore.
517
00:29:38.647 --> 00:29:48.396
It's something on my planning calendar for CityTurf in terms of, in fact, there's a little bit of a project we're working on right now that will expose more of our pricing.
518
00:29:48.657 --> 00:29:49.577
But it's a hotly...
519
00:29:50.298 --> 00:29:54.440
contested conversation internally, but this I'm with you.
520
00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:55.881
And the fact, this is where it's going.
521
00:29:56.261 --> 00:30:02.845
My hope has been that as we publish pricing, what the market will do is adjust to our pricing.
522
00:30:03.725 --> 00:30:10.429
Like instead of them like, Oh, Hey, I'm going to be $2 cheaper, which they might, it'll give them the courage to raise their prices to what they need to be in the market.
523
00:30:10.769 --> 00:30:11.870
And we know what pricing needs.
524
00:30:12.050 --> 00:30:15.653
And brand is enough to be able to take a $5 t-shirt and I pay $100 for it.
525
00:30:16.133 --> 00:30:21.477
And so the delta between the average price of my market and what people are willing to pay will come down to brand.
526
00:30:21.557 --> 00:30:31.444
Yeah, so my biggest thoughts coming into this to finally get back to that were for us at CityTurf, we lose one of our single biggest competitive advantages.
527
00:30:31.484 --> 00:30:32.385
We can win on the phone.
528
00:30:33.515 --> 00:30:35.456
And so that's a disappointment.
529
00:30:35.816 --> 00:30:38.338
We've built the business around being able to do that.
530
00:30:38.398 --> 00:30:41.540
So we'll just have to figure out how to like, you know, win this one.
531
00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:42.660
Yeah, you'll figure it out.
532
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:45.802
So, but it's just, it's unfortunate.
533
00:30:45.902 --> 00:30:49.684
You know, anytime you have to change, it's like, oh, this is a bummer, but this is the world we now live in.
534
00:30:49.744 --> 00:30:51.045
So that was point one.
535
00:30:51.705 --> 00:30:52.446
The other one was,
536
00:30:52.926 --> 00:30:54.067
Can I make a counterpoint on that?
537
00:30:54.147 --> 00:30:54.827
Can I make a counterpoint?
538
00:30:54.847 --> 00:30:55.268
Yeah, please.
539
00:30:55.448 --> 00:30:55.748
Yeah, yeah.
540
00:30:55.888 --> 00:31:01.032
I actually think the people that have conquered and figured out the phone will dominate in this area.
541
00:31:01.452 --> 00:31:09.838
Because now if the agent is making the decision and someone else doesn't call them right away and doesn't have an upsell motion once they've already seen the price, for example –
542
00:31:12.369 --> 00:31:13.710
I think that person will still lose.
543
00:31:14.371 --> 00:31:18.033
And I still think we want to buy from people we trust and the, and the relationships are important.
544
00:31:18.194 --> 00:31:26.140
And if you figured out phone calls or you figure out a way to have an in-person meeting with customers and do quality control, it'll still be the winner.
545
00:31:26.780 --> 00:31:29.743
And so even for our phone agents, like, again, like we have all these agents.
546
00:31:29.763 --> 00:31:30.944
They're like, Hey, what's happening here?
547
00:31:30.964 --> 00:31:34.086
Are we just going to be processing everything through the agents now?
548
00:31:34.326 --> 00:31:37.048
Like, Hey, look, as soon as they get accepted job, we're calling them.
549
00:31:37.869 --> 00:31:38.811
and making that connection.
550
00:31:38.871 --> 00:31:40.634
And that's what someone else can't do.
551
00:31:40.975 --> 00:31:43.820
So I still think it's going to be- By having the phone team.
552
00:31:44.081 --> 00:31:44.241
Yeah.
553
00:31:44.441 --> 00:31:45.203
Yeah, I would not-
554
00:31:46.430 --> 00:31:48.232
There's no chance I'd limit my phone team.
555
00:31:48.312 --> 00:31:51.235
I would continue to use them.
556
00:31:51.495 --> 00:31:53.077
The more you touch the client, the more you win.
557
00:31:53.117 --> 00:32:05.970
I mean, I am convinced that a future that's heavily dominated by AI is a future where experience and relationships and in-person starts to matter more than ever, and that becomes the biggest differentiator of all.
558
00:32:06.330 --> 00:32:07.351
Everybody wants...
559
00:32:08.072 --> 00:32:10.993
AI to make everything easy and allow them to be invisible.
560
00:32:11.013 --> 00:32:12.374
And that won't be the winning strategy.
561
00:32:12.574 --> 00:32:13.715
It's my, my bet.
562
00:32:13.735 --> 00:32:14.435
I agree.
563
00:32:14.535 --> 00:32:14.735
It'll.
564
00:32:15.255 --> 00:32:15.415
Yeah.
565
00:32:15.676 --> 00:32:15.976
I think.
566
00:32:16.836 --> 00:32:17.216
Yeah.
567
00:32:17.456 --> 00:32:17.997
I'm not going to go there.
568
00:32:18.057 --> 00:32:18.657
I get off topic.
569
00:32:19.277 --> 00:32:20.978
My number one was exactly what you said.
570
00:32:20.998 --> 00:32:21.538
It was brand.
571
00:32:22.178 --> 00:32:23.399
That is the strategy.
572
00:32:23.419 --> 00:32:26.901
When I started city turf, I didn't believe in brand.
573
00:32:26.981 --> 00:32:29.542
And what I mean by that is I didn't think I could create brand.
574
00:32:30.242 --> 00:32:30.642
I had.
575
00:32:31.403 --> 00:32:35.985
And so I, I had really been led to believe that by Dan Kennedy.
576
00:32:36.565 --> 00:32:37.766
And I agree with what he said.
577
00:32:38.406 --> 00:32:39.307
I 100% agree.
578
00:32:39.327 --> 00:32:41.128
I probably generally agree with what he said in that.
579
00:32:41.509 --> 00:32:46.472
Like a brand is a byproduct of something that happens over time because you just keep doing the right things.
580
00:32:46.892 --> 00:32:49.014
I didn't think I could go out and buy brand.
581
00:32:49.074 --> 00:32:50.235
I didn't have the money to do it.
582
00:32:50.295 --> 00:32:51.095
I couldn't build it.
583
00:32:51.116 --> 00:32:53.457
It would just happen over a period of time.
584
00:32:54.078 --> 00:33:03.665
And so my theory was the way you build brand over time, and I think it's correct, is you just, you do what you say, but doing what you say means there's,
585
00:33:04.425 --> 00:33:06.766
It means exactly that, but it's about quality.
586
00:33:06.966 --> 00:33:08.127
It's about customer service.
587
00:33:08.507 --> 00:33:11.729
So in the beginning of CityTurf, the bet was on customer service.
588
00:33:11.789 --> 00:33:13.450
We always overspent in the office.
589
00:33:13.490 --> 00:33:17.832
Today, to this day, we're probably overstaffed in the office compared to most everybody.
590
00:33:18.612 --> 00:33:20.993
But I just believe that's part of brand.
591
00:33:21.434 --> 00:33:22.934
And so that's where we've invested.
592
00:33:22.974 --> 00:33:24.835
And I believe that was the right bet.
593
00:33:25.296 --> 00:33:27.577
And I would double down on that bet moving forward.
594
00:33:27.637 --> 00:33:30.098
So everything you said about brand was exactly my thesis.
595
00:33:30.698 --> 00:33:33.720
And then the other one that I think about here
596
00:33:34.971 --> 00:33:43.410
is, and this is more than just about pricing being commoditized, in this world that we're moving into where the future might not be
597
00:33:44.762 --> 00:33:48.584
10, 20 links on a page that I can scan and pick from.
598
00:33:48.644 --> 00:33:52.066
It might be three results coming back in Chabby GPT.
599
00:33:52.466 --> 00:33:56.828
It might be an agent just giving the answer and signing you up on a credit card.
600
00:33:57.409 --> 00:34:01.070
That's a very scary proposition, even for a company that has a lot of money.
601
00:34:01.511 --> 00:34:05.773
Because if you have had any experience with SEO, you know that
602
00:34:06.926 --> 00:34:10.028
Anything can take you out of the running or drop you down that list.
603
00:34:10.048 --> 00:34:12.670
Like there's a lot of, it moves around.
604
00:34:13.351 --> 00:34:22.217
And so that general belief along with this pricing commoditization and commoditization, I think it's just a fair word, but we'll see.
605
00:34:23.586 --> 00:34:29.511
I think we shift to a market or a world where you have to go, we go back to the old school.
606
00:34:29.871 --> 00:34:31.793
We go back to you go get the client.
607
00:34:32.353 --> 00:34:34.695
You shift back to more stuff in the mailbox.
608
00:34:35.115 --> 00:34:42.962
It's not the only thing you do, but the most sophisticated winning companies are going to shift back to a mode of go get the client I want.
609
00:34:43.993 --> 00:34:47.558
And that means you have to use like the old guerrilla marketing techniques.
610
00:34:47.618 --> 00:34:53.085
It means you bring back the old school marketing techniques, you show up in the mailbox, you show up on the door, those types of things.
611
00:34:53.105 --> 00:35:00.455
So I think there's going to be a resurgence of those types of activities for the companies that are dominant and strong.
612
00:35:01.208 --> 00:35:04.112
Yeah, I think it's a good caveat too for people listening to this.
613
00:35:04.132 --> 00:35:05.013
I want to be really clear.
614
00:35:05.714 --> 00:35:11.202
Between 5% and 15% of traffic, depending on how well they're doing it, is actually coming from AI right now.
615
00:35:11.302 --> 00:35:15.969
We are still seeing the vast majority of traffic coming from Google search, Google search,
616
00:35:16.830 --> 00:35:19.691
people finding your site organically off your truck, et cetera.
617
00:35:20.011 --> 00:35:24.272
So I put it as a caveat because I think some people will hear this and be like, I've got to blow up everything.
618
00:35:24.312 --> 00:35:25.213
The site's changing.
619
00:35:25.253 --> 00:35:26.793
We're putting, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
620
00:35:27.113 --> 00:35:29.354
Be very careful, especially if you do have good SEO.
621
00:35:29.874 --> 00:35:34.616
And especially if you do have a good strategy that's working right now, because it's not where all of your current leads are.
622
00:35:34.756 --> 00:35:39.957
However, it has doubled in terms of the percentage over the past 12 months across home service web design.
623
00:35:40.617 --> 00:35:45.579
And so I just be like, it's on the hockey stick, but it's still a very small part of your business.
624
00:35:46.132 --> 00:35:49.796
But a 15% if it's that high in some markets is a meaningful part.
625
00:35:49.856 --> 00:35:52.098
So I think the word there would be iteration.
626
00:35:52.478 --> 00:35:53.960
That's a really good call out.
627
00:35:54.120 --> 00:35:55.001
And it's both, right?
628
00:35:55.021 --> 00:35:59.165
You got to be on the door and it's got to be dialed in for an agent.
629
00:35:59.886 --> 00:36:00.086
Yep.
630
00:36:00.607 --> 00:36:00.787
Yep.
631
00:36:01.488 --> 00:36:01.768
All right.
632
00:36:02.749 --> 00:36:08.415
Second item I had for us was one that's come up before and...
633
00:36:10.837 --> 00:36:12.479
You can make this as narrow as you want.
634
00:36:12.939 --> 00:36:14.340
I've given this one some thought as well.
635
00:36:14.380 --> 00:36:20.146
So it's this conversation we've had about why do businesses, why do they fall apart?
636
00:36:20.226 --> 00:36:21.067
Why do they collapse?
637
00:36:21.127 --> 00:36:21.827
Why do they fail?
638
00:36:22.528 --> 00:36:24.850
And you must have hit a nerve.
639
00:36:24.970 --> 00:36:28.394
And it's not like there's a million comments on this, but the word divorce got used.
640
00:36:28.454 --> 00:36:30.395
And I saw divorce come up in the comments.
641
00:36:30.455 --> 00:36:31.717
It's like it must have...
642
00:36:32.808 --> 00:36:34.589
I don't think people picked up on it.
643
00:36:35.070 --> 00:36:46.717
And so I'd like to give you an opportunity to talk about this from your experience over all these years with all the different companies you've worked with, all the shows you've done, where you've seen all kinds of problems.
644
00:36:47.098 --> 00:36:58.025
Bucket a few of these items or take it in any direction you want, but bucket a few of these items that you see that you feel like are common reasons why people, their business won't work out.
645
00:36:58.105 --> 00:37:02.348
It would be warnings for people to be thinking about as they're going down this road.
646
00:37:02.944 --> 00:37:05.685
Yeah, I tried to kind of bucket into just the most common theme.
647
00:37:05.705 --> 00:37:11.246
So what I actually did yesterday is I looked at all the turnaround shows and then I looked at all the locations of Augusta have closed.
648
00:37:11.586 --> 00:37:16.227
And then I looked at all the locations of home service web design that we've seen them close their business.
649
00:37:16.467 --> 00:37:18.828
So I tried to actually bucket them somewhat.
650
00:37:19.368 --> 00:37:24.849
So the first was, I tried, this was a tough one to like label, but it was mostly just confusing revenue growth with success.
651
00:37:25.390 --> 00:37:26.550
So like this,
652
00:37:28.178 --> 00:37:31.679
treadmill of like, I need more trucks, I need more employees, I need more jobs.
653
00:37:31.759 --> 00:37:39.722
And because they get so busy, it hides the big problems of the business, like bad pricing, bad cashflow, bloated payroll, especially as they get past a million.
654
00:37:39.742 --> 00:37:45.124
All of a sudden they're hiring a mechanic and three office people and an estimator and a salesperson.
655
00:37:45.484 --> 00:37:51.086
So that was the first one is like a lot of confusion of what revenue growth means.
656
00:37:51.166 --> 00:37:53.227
It is not directly attributed to success.
657
00:37:54.628 --> 00:37:56.569
And just basically getting beyond their skis.
658
00:37:56.989 --> 00:38:00.372
The second one was they grow past their ability to manage.
659
00:38:01.073 --> 00:38:04.415
And so their fast growth exposes weak systems.
660
00:38:04.775 --> 00:38:08.318
So whether it be they start hiring the wrong people, they don't know how to do job costing.
661
00:38:10.100 --> 00:38:12.221
There's a lack of accountability on the team.
662
00:38:12.762 --> 00:38:14.683
So there's no roles or departments.
663
00:38:14.723 --> 00:38:19.467
But ultimately, it was the lack of the manager to stay up with the business.
664
00:38:19.887 --> 00:38:22.791
And like we talked about last week, hey, that is something you can improve.
665
00:38:22.831 --> 00:38:26.475
You can increase your personal capacity, especially as a leader, as a manager.
666
00:38:26.815 --> 00:38:35.546
But a lot of times, I have to just be honest and be like, they grew the business past their personal capacity as a leader, whether it be they grew too fast or they just had...
667
00:38:36.407 --> 00:38:41.569
So idiosyncrasies or issues or ways of leading and managing that caused people not to want to work for them.
668
00:38:41.969 --> 00:38:42.969
It repelled customers.
669
00:38:44.030 --> 00:38:49.512
And unfortunately, I still see that as like a big reason people fail, especially they start to really grow.
670
00:38:49.532 --> 00:38:53.233
They just don't have the skill of leadership.
671
00:38:53.373 --> 00:38:56.414
The third one is you kind of mentioned that you said the word divorce.
672
00:38:57.155 --> 00:39:02.377
But I kind of buckled it, bucketed into the owner's personal life starts leaking into the business.
673
00:39:03.097 --> 00:39:04.878
And this could even be around health stuff.
674
00:39:05.138 --> 00:39:05.678
Yeah.
675
00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:10.662
If you're 150 pounds overweight, it's going to be harder to grow a business when you're stressful.
676
00:39:11.202 --> 00:39:18.225
It's also going to be hard to do that when you also have some conflict at home or between the family members or there's an emergency in the family.
677
00:39:18.586 --> 00:39:21.567
There's some conflict like those things together.
678
00:39:21.587 --> 00:39:23.988
The personal life starting to leak into the business.
679
00:39:24.468 --> 00:39:26.089
A lot of times I see it stall the business.
680
00:39:26.849 --> 00:39:29.611
In worst case scenario, I see it cause it to go under.
681
00:39:30.712 --> 00:39:38.822
A divorce, ultimately, if a business is bigger, especially if it hasn't been set up correctly, is almost always a death sentence for a business that's doing under $3 million in revenue.
682
00:39:39.422 --> 00:39:47.492
Not only because of legally the 50% separation, it's the distraction of the entrepreneur and the leader not being on the business for 6 to 12 months.
683
00:39:48.433 --> 00:39:49.915
And depending on how ugly it gets.
684
00:39:50.456 --> 00:39:54.321
And then a lot of times if it's like you got to settle for a certain amount of cash, the business doesn't have that kind of cash.
685
00:39:54.581 --> 00:39:56.443
You take on a bunch of debt, you leverage the business.
686
00:39:56.724 --> 00:39:58.386
It just gets really messy.
687
00:39:58.506 --> 00:40:03.732
And then the last one I came up with was debt and using debt to hide problems.
688
00:40:04.353 --> 00:40:06.195
So we talked about debt last week.
689
00:40:07.270 --> 00:40:10.252
Good debt, I think, buys more capacity to be able to grow.
690
00:40:10.652 --> 00:40:15.936
But bad debt, I feel, covers bad pricing, bad labor, slow sales.
691
00:40:16.016 --> 00:40:18.578
You can just juice a bunch of ads and you'll get more leads.
692
00:40:19.418 --> 00:40:20.939
Also, bloated owner lifestyle.
693
00:40:21.300 --> 00:40:24.262
The lifestyle of the entrepreneur is so bloated or it's...
694
00:40:24.762 --> 00:40:48.545
built so it's sucking all the cash out of the business and then you use debt to basically make sure that it can be sustainable and so those are kind of the major buckets i threw it into and eventually it catches up um with someone if either of any of those four buckets are over leveraged or whether it be personal whether it be the debt side uh whether it be someone above their skis from a leadership perspective in the long term it kind of catches up with them
695
00:40:48.887 --> 00:40:53.570
doing service autopilot, doing academy, I've seen a lot of stuff over the years like you have.
696
00:40:54.351 --> 00:40:57.513
And I tend to think about things as predominantly in two buckets.
697
00:40:58.474 --> 00:41:02.797
And one is debt, but I'm going to give a little bit different take on debt.
698
00:41:03.238 --> 00:41:04.559
And then the other one is burnout.
699
00:41:04.599 --> 00:41:09.102
Those are the two things that, but it's, it's, we'll use debt as my example.
700
00:41:09.422 --> 00:41:11.624
So when you hear debt, it might be like, okay, I,
701
00:41:12.728 --> 00:41:17.991
This person, this company went out and they financed their trucks and they financed their equipment.
702
00:41:18.011 --> 00:41:19.552
Then they got into a line of credit.
703
00:41:19.972 --> 00:41:22.274
Then they didn't build up enough money going into winter.
704
00:41:22.334 --> 00:41:23.795
Their line of credit was already tapped.
705
00:41:23.915 --> 00:41:24.635
They get in trouble.
706
00:41:24.695 --> 00:41:26.176
They're hitting the credit cards.
707
00:41:26.717 --> 00:41:31.059
That's probably what most people would picture when I talk about debt.
708
00:41:31.800 --> 00:41:36.603
But debt is a result of many other things that were happening.
709
00:41:36.623 --> 00:41:37.003
Right.
710
00:41:37.674 --> 00:41:39.758
And you touched on a number of those.
711
00:41:39.939 --> 00:41:42.043
The one around personal lifestyle is a big one.
712
00:41:42.945 --> 00:41:44.948
If you have $100,000 on your line of credit...
713
00:41:47.265 --> 00:41:54.189
And then you're in some, it's either a business problem or you have too big of a house, too many car payments.
714
00:41:54.229 --> 00:41:55.450
Like you're taking too many vacations.
715
00:41:55.470 --> 00:42:05.356
Like if you have a hundred thousand dollars on a line of credit and you just went on a 12,000, $15,000 vacation, you basically finance that vacation because you have a line of credit.
716
00:42:05.376 --> 00:42:06.857
You could have paid that off, but yeah,
717
00:42:08.298 --> 00:42:10.899
I think debt a lot of times is less about...
718
00:42:11.139 --> 00:42:16.601
I also have... One that I've seen that results in debt is the buying of accounts or businesses to get started.
719
00:42:16.941 --> 00:42:19.882
And eventually you realize, oh, wow, I way overpaid for that thing.
720
00:42:19.902 --> 00:42:21.282
A lot of people make it work.
721
00:42:21.562 --> 00:42:22.782
Some people don't make it work.
722
00:42:23.443 --> 00:42:24.383
So that's been one.
723
00:42:24.423 --> 00:42:33.566
But the debt from what I've normally seen, when I think about it, is it's debt made possible not fixing something.
724
00:42:34.666 --> 00:42:37.207
And so it happens gradually.
725
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:42.529
And I've seen some really, I've seen this now too many times.
726
00:42:44.120 --> 00:42:49.884
People go under because they don't pay their payroll taxes and they don't pay their sales tax or one or the other.
727
00:42:50.004 --> 00:42:51.486
And you will be destroyed over that.
728
00:42:51.506 --> 00:42:53.187
The government doesn't let you out on that stuff.
729
00:42:53.787 --> 00:42:55.228
That's a version of debt to me.
730
00:42:55.308 --> 00:42:58.791
And so there was a symptom that preceded you not doing that.
731
00:42:59.011 --> 00:43:02.294
Much like there's a symptom that preceded this accumulation of debt.
732
00:43:02.574 --> 00:43:03.875
Pricing didn't get fixed.
733
00:43:04.195 --> 00:43:05.216
You did too many things.
734
00:43:05.256 --> 00:43:07.377
It's all the stuff we talk about all the time.
735
00:43:07.918 --> 00:43:12.942
And what happened is one day when you find yourself in a tough spot,
736
00:43:14.113 --> 00:43:19.195
and you have access to debt, whether it's just financing the trucks or financing the equipment.
737
00:43:19.235 --> 00:43:20.696
Again, I'm not saying those things are bad.
738
00:43:21.156 --> 00:43:30.739
You can do that and say, there's nothing wrong with this because this is what everybody does, but it doesn't set off a fire alarm in your mind to really ask the question, why are we doing this?
739
00:43:31.100 --> 00:43:33.040
Are we doing this because we're really growing fast?
740
00:43:33.060 --> 00:43:35.601
A lot of people say, I'm investing in my business.
741
00:43:35.661 --> 00:43:36.382
I'm growing fast.
742
00:43:36.422 --> 00:43:36.682
I'm like,
743
00:43:37.362 --> 00:43:38.744
Are you really growing fast?
744
00:43:38.824 --> 00:43:43.209
I mean, like adding another crew is not that fast.
745
00:43:43.269 --> 00:43:45.732
Like, you know, it's like, it's just not.
746
00:43:46.113 --> 00:43:47.354
So what are we talking about?
747
00:43:47.374 --> 00:43:47.955
We say growing fast.
748
00:43:47.975 --> 00:43:51.219
So a lot of people will say they're growing fast or I'm growing the business, I'm investing in it.
749
00:43:52.189 --> 00:43:53.690
And the fire alarm was never set off.
750
00:43:53.730 --> 00:43:59.033
And so they never went through a checklist of all the things that could have led to them needing to do that.
751
00:43:59.393 --> 00:44:04.055
So just because you're financing your trucks or you're using a line of credit does not mean something's broken.
752
00:44:04.395 --> 00:44:11.759
But I think because that stuff is so widely used, so acceptable, it doesn't make any of us think about, was this even necessary in the first place?
753
00:44:12.280 --> 00:44:16.602
And so that's how I, when I'm talking about debt, that's one of the biggest reasons.
754
00:44:17.627 --> 00:44:18.669
I've seen people get in debt.
755
00:44:18.729 --> 00:44:23.074
It's not that somebody said, Hey, I'm just going to finance everything and grow as fast as I can.
756
00:44:23.434 --> 00:44:31.463
It was little micro decisions that built year after year, where they didn't go back and fix stuff, analyze things.
757
00:44:32.385 --> 00:44:36.128
they made wrong decisions and it all stacks and you end up with debt.
758
00:44:36.669 --> 00:44:38.351
And then you end up with new kinds of debt.
759
00:44:38.391 --> 00:44:41.754
Like eventually you're into the line and then eventually you're into your credit cards.
760
00:44:41.794 --> 00:44:45.537
And then eventually you're into the Amex and Amex says, you got to pay the bill.
761
00:44:45.557 --> 00:44:46.578
Like it builds.
762
00:44:47.139 --> 00:44:48.119
I've seen that a lot.
763
00:44:48.160 --> 00:44:52.183
You could almost say all, all business failure is actually an accumulation of debt.
764
00:44:52.243 --> 00:44:53.304
Just one type of debt.
765
00:44:53.524 --> 00:44:55.106
Like you could have physical debt.
766
00:44:55.326 --> 00:44:58.049
Like you have not worked out for years.
767
00:44:58.069 --> 00:44:58.529
Yeah.
768
00:44:58.589 --> 00:45:00.110
You have not slept well for years.
769
00:45:00.190 --> 00:45:04.112
And eventually, the bill comes due, and you're being rushed to the ER.
770
00:45:04.192 --> 00:45:05.493
Or same thing with a relationship.
771
00:45:05.993 --> 00:45:11.616
It's like, yeah, divorce is the end result of an accumulation of relationship debt that's accumulated over the course of time.
772
00:45:11.816 --> 00:45:12.776
Yeah, yeah.
773
00:45:12.896 --> 00:45:13.257
And so-
774
00:45:14.137 --> 00:45:17.100
It just sort of dawned on me when we were going to talk about this.
775
00:45:17.120 --> 00:45:25.127
It's like, I want to give a little more color and context to debt because it's just so easy to picture as you bought, you finance some trucks and et cetera, et cetera.
776
00:45:25.347 --> 00:45:26.628
Like, no, how'd you get there?
777
00:45:27.068 --> 00:45:27.509
Right.
778
00:45:27.629 --> 00:45:28.890
And really think about that.
779
00:45:28.910 --> 00:45:30.672
And that's what I see.
780
00:45:30.952 --> 00:45:33.494
It's this slow rolling process.
781
00:45:34.645 --> 00:45:37.486
thing that happens where one day you're just too much debt.
782
00:45:37.506 --> 00:45:42.288
And I've argued, probably said, I don't, we've only done five shows now, but I probably said it here.
783
00:45:42.348 --> 00:45:46.630
I just am so convinced that that ERC money bailed out so many people.
784
00:45:47.930 --> 00:45:49.831
And it's a perfect example for this.
785
00:45:50.251 --> 00:45:53.633
If you got a giant ERC check, what did you do with it?
786
00:45:54.233 --> 00:45:55.653
Did you buy some cool cars?
787
00:45:55.693 --> 00:45:56.934
Did you upgrade your house?
788
00:45:59.089 --> 00:46:01.390
Did you just pay off debts?
789
00:46:01.590 --> 00:46:05.732
Like if that's the extent of what you did, nothing changed.
790
00:46:06.333 --> 00:46:17.598
So whatever the stresses were, the frustrations were, whatever the debts that had been accumulated were, if they haven't already built back by now, they're going to come back because nothing changed.
791
00:46:17.878 --> 00:46:20.700
And that's what I think most of America did with their ERC money.
792
00:46:21.320 --> 00:46:22.221
And it gets addictive.
793
00:46:22.281 --> 00:46:24.762
So then when that runs out, you'll probably go into debt.
794
00:46:25.282 --> 00:46:25.502
Yeah.
795
00:46:25.863 --> 00:46:27.043
To sustain that lifestyle.
796
00:46:27.063 --> 00:46:27.224
Yeah.
797
00:46:27.484 --> 00:46:27.664
Yeah.
798
00:46:28.084 --> 00:46:29.505
And again, I want to be super clear here.
799
00:46:29.745 --> 00:46:36.871
Just because you got ERC, just because you have them down and stuff, does not mean you have a lousy business that's going to burn down.
800
00:46:36.891 --> 00:46:37.651
I don't mean that.
801
00:46:37.671 --> 00:46:40.834
I'm just saying this is what happens to really great people.
802
00:46:41.314 --> 00:46:42.855
They're running so fast.
803
00:46:43.135 --> 00:46:44.356
They're moving so fast.
804
00:46:44.396 --> 00:46:45.077
It's like, okay.
805
00:46:45.557 --> 00:46:48.078
Yes, let's just finance the trucks and you're on to the next thing.
806
00:46:48.398 --> 00:46:52.958
It's a little bit to this idea that we've talked about where it's like, okay, there are seasons.
807
00:46:52.998 --> 00:46:54.079
You've talked about seasons.
808
00:46:54.459 --> 00:47:00.460
There's the go for it, put on the gas, we're building season, and then there's the cleanup season.
809
00:47:00.940 --> 00:47:02.480
Are you doing the cleanup stuff?
810
00:47:02.540 --> 00:47:04.961
Are you looking at how we got here?
811
00:47:05.441 --> 00:47:09.222
Because when people don't look at how they got here, one day you wake up and it's gone.
812
00:47:09.542 --> 00:47:13.443
That's why I'm so big on the debt thing.
813
00:47:16.043 --> 00:47:22.705
it's the accumulation of bad decisions that results in the debt, not so much a strategy.
814
00:47:23.685 --> 00:47:27.706
And then the other one is this burnout, which is also the accumulation of bad decisions.
815
00:47:27.746 --> 00:47:38.649
Like it's the, it's what you said about, you know, like around management, not learning how, I don't remember how you worded it, but not getting the right people in place, not learning how to lead and manage properly, not doing all these things.
816
00:47:39.569 --> 00:47:40.509
Going too fast.
817
00:47:40.549 --> 00:47:41.590
There's all these things.
818
00:47:41.650 --> 00:47:42.830
Doing too many things.
819
00:47:43.130 --> 00:47:44.650
Getting excited about somebody else's business.
820
00:47:44.670 --> 00:47:45.971
Say, wow, they're making all that money over there.
821
00:47:45.991 --> 00:47:47.011
I'm going to do that service too.
822
00:47:47.051 --> 00:47:54.153
It's like all that adds up to just complete and utter burnout, which might ultimately also result in debt, which furthers burnout.
823
00:47:54.413 --> 00:47:59.175
So these are the two big ones that I believe most people end up living in.
824
00:47:59.735 --> 00:48:00.475
So those are my two.
825
00:48:01.038 --> 00:48:03.980
Yeah, like the burnout one's tough, even when it comes to like mental health.
826
00:48:04.120 --> 00:48:05.782
I know you've seen it in a few people.
827
00:48:05.842 --> 00:48:06.282
I've seen it.
828
00:48:06.302 --> 00:48:12.167
It's like it's one of those ones that's so unique because sometimes it might their business was fine.
829
00:48:12.307 --> 00:48:13.488
They actually built it just fine.
830
00:48:13.848 --> 00:48:17.150
And then all of a sudden a chemical in their brain goes out and they're burned out.
831
00:48:17.190 --> 00:48:19.112
Like all of a sudden their personal capacity just gets whacked.
832
00:48:19.132 --> 00:48:19.372
You're done.
833
00:48:19.692 --> 00:48:25.396
And that's why, to your point, like last week, growing is so important to a certain size where it can run without you.
834
00:48:25.616 --> 00:48:34.881
And that's where I'm a big advocate of like sometimes the best way to prevent burnout is make sure you're not doing those low-level tasks for decades on end and building to a point.
835
00:48:34.921 --> 00:48:36.783
And, yes, maybe you take on a little debt.
836
00:48:36.823 --> 00:48:45.348
Maybe you put a little more risk into the business to get it to the size to where something like that happening, whether it be a personal thing, a physical thing, doesn't wipe you out.
837
00:48:46.068 --> 00:48:47.229
And that's where I'm more of the promo.
838
00:48:47.249 --> 00:48:53.015
Hey, we should build a business to a certain size to prevent that burnout potentially from affecting the business.
839
00:48:53.575 --> 00:48:53.775
Yeah.
840
00:48:54.997 --> 00:49:01.262
Yeah, you made me think of, I'm a, I am all of, I've always been the guy that's like,
841
00:49:02.075 --> 00:49:03.536
I'm perfectly happy to outwork you.
842
00:49:03.756 --> 00:49:06.218
I mean, I'm definitely... That's my mindset.
843
00:49:06.319 --> 00:49:07.379
I will outwork you.
844
00:49:07.820 --> 00:49:09.942
I've always liked this concept of the slightest edge.
845
00:49:10.302 --> 00:49:12.163
Like if you don't... You could look it up if you don't know what it is.
846
00:49:12.183 --> 00:49:12.864
Like I just like...
847
00:49:13.164 --> 00:49:13.424
I like...
848
00:49:13.625 --> 00:49:15.226
I will do whatever it takes.
849
00:49:15.466 --> 00:49:17.988
I will win through sheer force.
850
00:49:18.108 --> 00:49:20.831
But as I've gotten more mature in business, it's like...
851
00:49:21.491 --> 00:49:22.072
I don't know.
852
00:49:22.292 --> 00:49:24.474
I mean, like, yes and no for seasons.
853
00:49:25.114 --> 00:49:30.219
And so I think, and then you take somebody like a Gary Vee, and there's so much, it's like the hustle culture concept.
854
00:49:30.239 --> 00:49:34.423
Like, there's some really good lessons in that, especially for younger people.
855
00:49:35.184 --> 00:49:39.347
But then there comes a place where it's like, okay, that had a season and that makes sense.
856
00:49:39.848 --> 00:49:41.690
But if you're still living in pure...
857
00:49:42.720 --> 00:49:46.862
adrenaline, all in, whatever it takes all the time.
858
00:49:47.142 --> 00:49:48.322
It's kind of like the debt thing.
859
00:49:48.342 --> 00:49:58.346
It's like, wait, if I'm still having to live this way after five years of business or seven years, maybe that should set off again my fire alarm analogy and say, well, why am I having to do this?
860
00:49:58.707 --> 00:50:00.667
What didn't we build quite right?
861
00:50:00.747 --> 00:50:01.868
What am I not doing?
862
00:50:02.148 --> 00:50:04.929
Because there are other people that do not live this way.
863
00:50:05.329 --> 00:50:06.610
And so that's a...
864
00:50:07.270 --> 00:50:09.151
Just something else that I've also noticed.
865
00:50:09.191 --> 00:50:12.673
It's so easy for all of us to say, back to my debt thing, we're investing in the business.
866
00:50:12.753 --> 00:50:13.753
We're building the business.
867
00:50:13.773 --> 00:50:14.414
This is okay.
868
00:50:14.914 --> 00:50:21.637
And you can make the same argument with just never-ending, all-in, hard work, outworking everybody else, the hustle culture things.
869
00:50:22.618 --> 00:50:30.322
Yeah, that's good, but there should come a point where you could let off the gas a bit and you could still win.
870
00:50:31.375 --> 00:50:31.495
Yeah.
871
00:50:31.515 --> 00:50:32.616
Does that resonate with you at all?
872
00:50:32.736 --> 00:50:33.917
Or how do you feel about that one?
873
00:50:34.117 --> 00:50:41.061
I feel like I've kind of made this transition in the past few years because realizing that you can't outwork a problem is very humbling.
874
00:50:41.822 --> 00:50:45.564
But realizing that the decisions you make is the highest leverage thing you can do in a day.
875
00:50:46.085 --> 00:50:51.108
And then realizing that when you overwork or you're hustling all the time, you make poor decisions.
876
00:50:52.209 --> 00:50:58.133
And so having some really public failures when I made bad decisions probably was a result of
877
00:50:59.742 --> 00:51:03.824
being the hustle, I'm going to work all the time, and then making a decision after not having slept for all night.
878
00:51:04.525 --> 00:51:08.907
So I've purposely been much more a matter of like, decisions are the highest leverage task I can do.
879
00:51:09.968 --> 00:51:15.691
If anything goes against that, as the business has grown, I need to protect that at all costs, which means I have to sleep.
880
00:51:16.032 --> 00:51:18.253
And if I don't sleep, no decisions the next day.
881
00:51:18.533 --> 00:51:22.615
I was talking to Nick, one of the leaders here, and he was we were talking about some stuff.
882
00:51:22.635 --> 00:51:26.537
I'm like, if I don't sleep well, I basically it's like there's no decisions being made today.
883
00:51:26.778 --> 00:51:36.583
Like there's no consequential six week, two months commitments happening because I understand now that a poor decision could have huge implications for the organization.
884
00:51:36.923 --> 00:51:39.505
And that is the most highest leverage task for me.
885
00:51:39.525 --> 00:51:40.925
And this really came as a result.
886
00:51:40.945 --> 00:51:43.747
Like Jeff Bezos says, like he makes two or three good decisions a day.
887
00:51:51.055 --> 00:51:55.378
And like his morning is like the most chill, like wake up and everyone can rag on that all they want.
888
00:51:55.418 --> 00:52:02.544
But the reason he's at where he's at today is because he's realized that making two or three good decisions is the highest leverage thing for him to do.
889
00:52:02.884 --> 00:52:11.011
And anything that would prevent you from being in the right mental state or physical state to be able to make those decisions well is bad.
890
00:52:11.511 --> 00:52:17.156
And that hustle culture kind of goes right up against that mentality of being in a state where I make a good decision.
891
00:52:17.977 --> 00:52:18.177
Yeah.
892
00:52:18.597 --> 00:52:18.778
Yeah.
893
00:52:18.818 --> 00:52:21.280
And the story of life is it's never black or white.
894
00:52:21.300 --> 00:52:22.240
It's never either or.
895
00:52:22.280 --> 00:52:23.561
It's like a little bit of all of it.
896
00:52:23.601 --> 00:52:25.283
It's like, yeah, there's a time for hustle.
897
00:52:25.303 --> 00:52:26.343
Like, absolutely.
898
00:52:26.824 --> 00:52:27.144
You go.
899
00:52:27.204 --> 00:52:27.364
Yeah.
900
00:52:27.564 --> 00:52:29.746
So I agree with all that.
901
00:52:31.207 --> 00:52:31.687
Let's move on.
902
00:52:31.867 --> 00:52:32.088
All right.
903
00:52:32.328 --> 00:52:32.628
You ready?
904
00:52:33.068 --> 00:52:33.289
Okay.
905
00:52:33.769 --> 00:52:34.029
All right.
906
00:52:34.129 --> 00:52:36.991
So I think this is an important one.
907
00:52:37.932 --> 00:52:44.997
If you're using AI and you're asking your model questions, how much...
908
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:53.701
Mike, what's your opinion on how much trust should a person put into Claude or ChatGPT when they're asking for business advice?
909
00:52:54.061 --> 00:52:54.881
You could take it that way.
910
00:52:54.901 --> 00:52:58.261
You could even go a layer deeper and say, hey, I'm working on marketing strategy.
911
00:52:58.281 --> 00:52:59.622
I'm writing marketing copy.
912
00:52:59.642 --> 00:53:02.062
Or how do I have this conversation with a team member?
913
00:53:02.122 --> 00:53:07.983
Whatever the scenario is, how much do you think about how much you believe the answer you're getting back?
914
00:53:08.043 --> 00:53:08.683
Is it truth?
915
00:53:09.124 --> 00:53:10.284
Is it the best strategy?
916
00:53:11.124 --> 00:53:11.564
What do you think?
917
00:53:11.876 --> 00:53:16.779
Yeah, I look at it much more as it's giving me directionally correct information.
918
00:53:18.140 --> 00:53:21.242
Like you mentioned, I think, a couple weeks ago, like AI is a guessing machine at the end of the day.
919
00:53:21.982 --> 00:53:24.324
And what I always like to think about... A prediction machine.
920
00:53:24.344 --> 00:53:25.064
Prediction machine, yes.
921
00:53:25.585 --> 00:53:30.488
And the output of what it gives me is trained on the internet.
922
00:53:30.508 --> 00:53:30.628
Right.
923
00:53:31.468 --> 00:53:32.849
the aggregate of the entire internet.
924
00:53:33.209 --> 00:53:41.132
So if I take everything the internet says and take the average of it, that's what AI is giving me, especially if I don't give it any contextual data.
925
00:53:41.712 --> 00:53:46.154
And so I believe that the output that I get from it is only as good as the input I give it.
926
00:53:46.834 --> 00:53:49.175
And I think the businesses that have organized data...
927
00:53:50.235 --> 00:53:54.779
organized numbers, contextual data, they'll be the ones that can make use of the AI.
928
00:53:55.119 --> 00:54:04.787
But if you just give AI like a random question about your business, you're going to get a 50 percentile aggregate of what the world thinks on the internet.
929
00:54:05.848 --> 00:54:08.730
And who knows what someone's saying on the internet that it could be trained on.
930
00:54:09.531 --> 00:54:15.136
And I think it gets really dangerous when owners are seeking validation instead of actually seeking the truth.
931
00:54:16.807 --> 00:54:21.269
Do they really want to know the problems in their business and why the marketing strategy won't work?
932
00:54:21.609 --> 00:54:24.650
Or they just say, hey, this is what I'm thinking, and then the AI validates it.
933
00:54:25.170 --> 00:54:27.331
Now they have more confidence in the wrong decision.
934
00:54:28.171 --> 00:54:34.293
And I see a lot of times, yes, you can use a prompt or a way of making sure that it doesn't just validate what you say.
935
00:54:34.333 --> 00:54:37.254
You can tell, hey, be my sparring partner, find holes.
936
00:54:37.434 --> 00:54:41.276
That's where I feel the most value in AI for me is like, here's what I'm thinking.
937
00:54:41.356 --> 00:54:41.676
Here's my...
938
00:54:42.336 --> 00:54:43.156
I want you to find the holes.
939
00:54:43.216 --> 00:54:44.337
Why will this not work?
940
00:54:44.897 --> 00:54:55.471
Because it seems to do a better job at finding holes than finding the one specific way that I should go and thinking of it much more of a sparring partner for what decision I'm making and refining it.
941
00:54:55.591 --> 00:54:57.093
I think that's really good at refining.
942
00:54:57.694 --> 00:55:00.838
But if you just blanketly say, I want to grow my business this year by double...
943
00:55:01.539 --> 00:55:02.219
What should I do?
944
00:55:02.920 --> 00:55:06.021
You're going to get the most average output ever.
945
00:55:06.922 --> 00:55:09.963
And if you don't have organized inputs in terms of like, what's my close ratio?
946
00:55:10.244 --> 00:55:11.504
What's my P&L look like?
947
00:55:11.985 --> 00:55:14.166
To give it, it's also just going to be even more generic.
948
00:55:14.726 --> 00:55:21.850
And so I think in general, I like it as more of a honing tool and a stock partner approach.
949
00:55:22.809 --> 00:55:38.598
I think putting into the prompt, I think everyone should have a master prompt so it has full context of your role, what your objectives are at the business, the financials of the business, your personal why, so it can optimize its response around those things instead of looking at the internet.
950
00:55:39.099 --> 00:55:45.763
I think most people just don't give it enough context to actually make it a useful tool and therefore they end up just gaining more confidence in their bad decisions.
951
00:55:46.403 --> 00:55:51.186
But from your perspective, have you found the same thing or how do you use it?
952
00:55:53.299 --> 00:55:55.260
Well, I'd agree with everything you said.
953
00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:58.702
A couple of things I'll add to it and I can kind of answer how I use it.
954
00:55:59.202 --> 00:56:01.243
I'll just reiterate first what you said.
955
00:56:01.823 --> 00:56:06.005
The way I most like using it is I want it to argue against me.
956
00:56:06.165 --> 00:56:07.626
I want it to make a case.
957
00:56:07.706 --> 00:56:11.308
I want it to take a stand against my position or my thinking.
958
00:56:11.788 --> 00:56:13.309
And I want it to tell me why I'm wrong.
959
00:56:14.250 --> 00:56:20.473
I want it to argue both sides or I would ask it maybe like, how would this person solve this problem?
960
00:56:20.493 --> 00:56:21.133
Yeah.
961
00:56:21.273 --> 00:56:22.154
Like that kind of a thing.
962
00:56:22.174 --> 00:56:23.556
Like use other personas.
963
00:56:24.497 --> 00:56:28.141
And maybe have it give me the answer from five different personas.
964
00:56:28.862 --> 00:56:35.230
Or I'll ask it to take a completely novel approach that it doesn't think anybody would ever do or use.
965
00:56:35.290 --> 00:56:36.992
Basically, it's everything you said.
966
00:56:37.032 --> 00:56:38.093
You're trying to get it...
967
00:56:38.894 --> 00:56:44.597
via the prompt to give you completely out of the norm, not average answers.
968
00:56:45.097 --> 00:56:51.801
And so I'm looking at it as a brainstorming partner to help me think through things.
969
00:56:52.802 --> 00:56:54.703
But I'm still going to have to make the decision.
970
00:56:54.723 --> 00:56:57.184
I have to constantly challenge it.
971
00:56:57.504 --> 00:56:58.625
I have to push back on it.
972
00:56:58.725 --> 00:57:00.046
I want it to do the same to me.
973
00:57:00.606 --> 00:57:02.667
So you had said that.
974
00:57:02.987 --> 00:57:05.209
That's core to the way I would use it.
975
00:57:06.029 --> 00:57:10.152
Another thing I would say is for important stuff, I run it through multiple models.
976
00:57:12.033 --> 00:57:14.375
And I do everything I just said through multiple models.
977
00:57:14.395 --> 00:57:19.359
So everything takes more time, but I feel like you end up with much better output.
978
00:57:19.379 --> 00:57:22.281
At the end of the day, I would remind you, you've got to make the decision.
979
00:57:22.341 --> 00:57:27.085
I see it in myself because I use the model so much and I'm doing so much work right now.
980
00:57:27.865 --> 00:57:40.989
and thinking about so many things, it's really nice for it just to say at the bottom, I would go with this one, I would go with a or you've probably experienced that if you use it a lot, it'll give you a list is like, I would use a is the best one.
981
00:57:41.009 --> 00:57:49.091
And you just so I find myself being tempted to take its answers a lot of times, because it's easier, it like brings down the mental load.
982
00:57:49.111 --> 00:57:51.312
I was like, I just want to get this done, want to make a decision.
983
00:57:51.652 --> 00:57:54.933
And I and I, it's not that I don't necessarily agree with a lot of those answers.
984
00:57:54.973 --> 00:57:55.093
But
985
00:57:56.473 --> 00:57:57.853
you've got to be really, really careful.
986
00:57:57.993 --> 00:58:07.115
You can really get, because you want to go quick, you can really get into a bad place of like believing the answer and it sounds right.
987
00:58:08.236 --> 00:58:11.996
And so I think you, it's not that the answers, like some answers are just blatantly bad.
988
00:58:12.116 --> 00:58:13.937
I still feel that way today.
989
00:58:14.357 --> 00:58:18.478
I constantly deal with stuff like that is unbelievably terrible advice.
990
00:58:20.279 --> 00:58:22.620
And so I might have said it on here.
991
00:58:23.220 --> 00:58:24.221
I talk too much.
992
00:58:25.202 --> 00:58:26.763
I'm so glad I'm not 20 right now.
993
00:58:26.863 --> 00:58:39.191
I'm so glad because if I was 20, I'd probably believe everything that is telling me, but I've got enough context in life and I've done enough thinking and had enough experiences like, wait a second, that does not make any sense.
994
00:58:39.231 --> 00:58:40.012
It's that kind of a thing.
995
00:58:40.052 --> 00:58:42.833
So that just constantly reminds me I've got to be careful.
996
00:58:43.594 --> 00:58:45.855
Maybe one of the biggest points I would make is
997
00:58:46.716 --> 00:58:53.959
and there are some studies around this, that the way you state your prompt can lead it.
998
00:58:55.099 --> 00:58:58.281
So if you say, this is what I'm thinking,
999
00:58:59.500 --> 00:59:01.522
Or this is how I'm thinking about it.
1000
00:59:02.003 --> 00:59:03.584
Or this is what I've come up with.
1001
00:59:04.145 --> 00:59:07.648
Anything like that where you've already hinted at this angle.
1002
00:59:07.688 --> 00:59:08.949
This is what I'm thinking.
1003
00:59:09.389 --> 00:59:14.934
The studies show you're way more likely to get an answer that confirms it.
1004
00:59:15.255 --> 00:59:22.782
And so I oftentimes, when it's important, will either take a completely opposite stance of what I believe and tell it to challenge me.
1005
00:59:23.803 --> 00:59:26.684
or I'll be extremely careful in how I say it.
1006
00:59:28.164 --> 00:59:30.725
But I'm constantly having it, you know, challenge me.
1007
00:59:30.785 --> 00:59:32.526
I would say that's probably the takeaway.
1008
00:59:32.586 --> 00:59:34.446
I just push back constantly.
1009
00:59:34.966 --> 00:59:38.167
If I'm writing a marketing piece, I'm constantly rewriting and say, what about this?
1010
00:59:38.187 --> 00:59:44.109
Like, you know, and just like, I always feel like I talk to it a little bit mean sometimes, like I wouldn't even talk to another person.
1011
00:59:44.549 --> 00:59:46.830
And so I think that's how you got to use it.
1012
00:59:47.038 --> 00:59:48.099
Yeah.
1013
00:59:48.139 --> 00:59:49.101
Back to my hot take.
1014
00:59:49.301 --> 00:59:52.385
It's the person that can't challenge their thoughts and opinions politically.
1015
00:59:52.585 --> 00:59:53.186
Red flag.
1016
00:59:53.586 --> 00:59:54.447
Same thing with AI.
1017
00:59:54.567 --> 00:59:54.908
Yeah.
1018
00:59:55.148 --> 00:59:55.969
Yeah.
1019
00:59:56.209 --> 00:59:56.650
Yeah.
1020
00:59:56.730 --> 00:59:57.150
Good point.
1021
00:59:57.271 --> 00:59:59.934
Do you use it much like when you're doing the vibe coding thing?
1022
00:59:59.994 --> 01:00:02.817
Are you doing it much when you're working out or walking?
1023
01:00:03.178 --> 01:00:05.280
Or do you do like build your prompt?
1024
01:00:06.101 --> 01:00:09.444
using that, and then you go and put it into Claude later on?
1025
01:00:09.484 --> 01:00:14.348
Are you actually in Claude, like doing like Whisperflow or talking to it?
1026
01:00:14.769 --> 01:00:17.891
Or do you usually build the prompt while you're running out about?
1027
01:00:18.392 --> 01:00:19.352
A prompt to do what?
1028
01:00:19.393 --> 01:00:21.454
Are you saying to code something or a prompt in general?
1029
01:00:21.714 --> 01:00:25.438
You had mentioned the other day, like the estimating tool that you've been building, all of that.
1030
01:00:26.098 --> 01:00:26.419
Okay.
1031
01:00:26.679 --> 01:00:26.979
Yeah.
1032
01:00:26.999 --> 01:00:32.684
So the real work happens when I'm sitting in front of it using Whisperflow.
1033
01:00:33.967 --> 01:00:41.032
But I love, I think Grok's still my favorite, but Claude has really gotten better with the conversational approach.
1034
01:00:41.993 --> 01:00:46.136
Grok's not my favorite tool, but from a conversation flow, it's very easy.
1035
01:00:46.416 --> 01:00:49.559
But I'm now, because I think Claude is so much personally, I think it's better.
1036
01:00:49.919 --> 01:00:51.020
I'm now having my conversation.
1037
01:00:51.040 --> 01:00:53.962
I've switched recently to now I have my conversations in Claude.
1038
01:00:54.502 --> 01:00:56.044
And so let's say I was out,
1039
01:00:56.957 --> 01:01:00.440
walking, I will have this thing I want to work on.
1040
01:01:00.460 --> 01:01:02.903
Like we'll use the estimating system as an example.
1041
01:01:02.923 --> 01:01:05.746
So I have this, I want to work on this estimating system.
1042
01:01:06.606 --> 01:01:12.933
And so I will have a conversation with it, brainstorming the estimating system, what needs to be in it.
1043
01:01:13.333 --> 01:01:17.197
I'll have it go out and do all this deep research, or I tell it to do deep research, she knows what it does.
1044
01:01:17.457 --> 01:01:19.058
You know, I can use words like that.
1045
01:01:19.519 --> 01:01:22.101
And so, you know, and I'll give it very specific.
1046
01:01:22.121 --> 01:01:23.021
I want you to do this.
1047
01:01:23.041 --> 01:01:24.102
I want you to go research here.
1048
01:01:24.122 --> 01:01:24.963
I want you to look at this.
1049
01:01:25.003 --> 01:01:27.145
I want you to look at these screens, these designs.
1050
01:01:27.165 --> 01:01:28.185
I want you to do all this stuff.
1051
01:01:28.205 --> 01:01:30.687
I want you to look at these feature sets across these products.
1052
01:01:31.308 --> 01:01:32.809
And tons of information.
1053
01:01:32.849 --> 01:01:33.630
And we just talk.
1054
01:01:34.190 --> 01:01:38.534
And so maybe like sometimes I'll walk an hour, an hour and a half doing just that.
1055
01:01:38.895 --> 01:01:47.503
And then what I'll do is I'll have it summarize that all of our decisions and all the things I said I agreed on or while we're talking, I'll be like, hey, don't lose that point.
1056
01:01:47.563 --> 01:01:49.064
I need that surfaced again later.
1057
01:01:49.124 --> 01:01:49.685
Remember that.
1058
01:01:50.045 --> 01:01:52.227
I have it then give me a final document
1059
01:01:53.570 --> 01:01:57.911
I like to do documents because the threads constantly compress.
1060
01:01:57.971 --> 01:02:03.213
Like in Claude, you'll see if you're, I don't know if it does in the free version, but in the paid version, you'll see it compress.
1061
01:02:04.073 --> 01:02:08.995
In ChatGPT, it's compressing behind the scenes or it's losing its context window.
1062
01:02:09.435 --> 01:02:12.336
And so you're losing all this knowledge you don't even realize you're losing.
1063
01:02:12.356 --> 01:02:13.396
So I'm constantly...
1064
01:02:14.076 --> 01:02:17.377
having it keep either an MD file, which is just a markdown file.
1065
01:02:17.397 --> 01:02:23.320
It's like the native file structure for them, or I'll have it create literally a Word document or something like that.
1066
01:02:23.380 --> 01:02:34.704
And I'm constantly uploading that or updating that document, saving it off to my computer, then sometimes dropping it back into Claude or ChatGPT so that it refreshes its memory, like where we're really at.
1067
01:02:34.724 --> 01:02:36.025
That's a really important point.
1068
01:02:36.045 --> 01:02:36.225
So...
1069
01:02:36.905 --> 01:02:41.787
The start to answer your question, I sometimes I'll just like, I'm inspired to work on this problem.
1070
01:02:42.107 --> 01:02:43.487
It could be a code problem.
1071
01:02:43.527 --> 01:02:45.508
It could be, I want to learn something.
1072
01:02:45.568 --> 01:02:46.188
It could be anything.
1073
01:02:46.268 --> 01:02:47.769
I'll just walk and talk.
1074
01:02:48.249 --> 01:02:52.570
And then all the knowledge, I will dump that knowledge into a document so it doesn't get lost.
1075
01:02:52.970 --> 01:03:04.934
Now, if to answer the next part of the question, like let's say I was working on designing something, I sit in front of my computer running multiple agents, just talking to it, iterating and trying things.
1076
01:03:07.390 --> 01:03:11.796
That part, the actual design, I'm having it constantly change stuff on the screen and do it.
1077
01:03:12.216 --> 01:03:12.637
That's how I'm...
1078
01:03:13.037 --> 01:03:13.978
So it's a little bit different.
1079
01:03:14.519 --> 01:03:15.140
Yeah, that was awesome.
1080
01:03:15.160 --> 01:03:15.961
Did I answer your question?
1081
01:03:15.981 --> 01:03:16.601
Yeah, that was great.
1082
01:03:16.742 --> 01:03:22.669
I think the building part for me had been really helpful as explaining to me how it's building.
1083
01:03:23.069 --> 01:03:25.873
It's like if someone's actually building something with AI...
1084
01:03:26.233 --> 01:03:29.274
Like for me to learn, hey, I don't want you just to go do it.
1085
01:03:29.354 --> 01:03:31.115
I need to explain like, what are you doing the front end?
1086
01:03:31.135 --> 01:03:31.936
What are you doing the back end?
1087
01:03:32.036 --> 01:03:34.357
Why did this need to happen from a technical perspective?
1088
01:03:34.597 --> 01:03:36.778
I want to explain why this bug is happening.
1089
01:03:37.238 --> 01:03:39.219
And like, I want to know why, what you're doing.
1090
01:03:39.599 --> 01:03:44.801
It's been really helpful even just like to learn the, the lingo of the engineers, a lot of it for me.
1091
01:03:44.981 --> 01:03:45.262
Yeah.
1092
01:03:45.462 --> 01:03:47.162
And you definitely have to give it RHEL.
1093
01:03:47.242 --> 01:03:48.303
So as an example,
1094
01:03:50.305 --> 01:03:53.866
like let's just say you were building a website just to bring it down.
1095
01:03:53.906 --> 01:04:01.729
So a lot of people, when they build a website, let's just say your website is 10 pages and you'll build this file called like a CSS file.
1096
01:04:01.970 --> 01:04:02.750
It's a style.
1097
01:04:02.890 --> 01:04:10.573
It's a file that dictates the font sizes, the sizing of the headers, the font, the point size, the color.
1098
01:04:10.593 --> 01:04:18.576
So it creates this structure for how the whole website looks and you can go update this file and it will essentially update the whole website.
1099
01:04:18.896 --> 01:04:20.958
Or another example would be you create a template.
1100
01:04:21.079 --> 01:04:24.162
And a template might say, hey, the header of my website looks like this.
1101
01:04:24.242 --> 01:04:25.784
The footer of my website looks like this.
1102
01:04:26.104 --> 01:04:28.687
So it's got a structure, and you just apply that template to every page.
1103
01:04:28.707 --> 01:04:38.598
So every time you create a new page, like you have an about page, and now you add a contact us page, you don't have to go recode the header and the footer.
1104
01:04:38.618 --> 01:04:39.579
It just inherits that.
1105
01:04:39.680 --> 01:04:39.920
Okay.
1106
01:04:40.474 --> 01:04:48.636
Things you've got to kind of watch out with these tools is they might, as they're writing your code, build a separate CSS file for every single page.
1107
01:04:49.036 --> 01:04:50.916
Yeah, they'll do all these crazy things.
1108
01:04:50.976 --> 01:04:54.717
And so you've got to really talk to it and keep it on the rails.
1109
01:04:54.757 --> 01:04:59.638
And then after you get the output, you have to constantly go back.
1110
01:04:59.698 --> 01:05:02.219
It's like where I talk about challenging it earlier.
1111
01:05:02.239 --> 01:05:03.619
I was talking about constantly challenging it.
1112
01:05:03.899 --> 01:05:08.140
You have to constantly challenge it and say, I want you to go do this, check this, check this.
1113
01:05:08.180 --> 01:05:08.901
Did you do this?
1114
01:05:09.241 --> 01:05:10.301
Did you make this mistake?
1115
01:05:10.761 --> 01:05:13.463
Did you lose anything from three designs ago?
1116
01:05:13.763 --> 01:05:15.785
You have to just constantly go through that.
1117
01:05:16.545 --> 01:05:20.328
And that's really imperative to the quality output.
1118
01:05:20.648 --> 01:05:26.151
And then if you're building something bigger, you need to tell it what database you're using, what your data structures are.
1119
01:05:26.572 --> 01:05:31.655
You need to tell it where it's going to be hosted, if you're going to link in other products.
1120
01:05:31.675 --> 01:05:34.597
So this is where this stuff starts to get a little more complex.
1121
01:05:34.857 --> 01:05:36.899
But you've got to be very, very clear about that stuff.
1122
01:05:36.919 --> 01:05:38.440
Because if you do the design...
1123
01:05:39.060 --> 01:05:46.643
and you don't go to that degree, then when you go to write code, it's going to be a lot of fixing.
1124
01:05:46.823 --> 01:05:50.165
And in the fixing is where you're going to end up with a lot of spaghetti code and problems.
1125
01:05:50.245 --> 01:05:52.226
And so that's a little bit of how I think about it.
1126
01:05:52.626 --> 01:06:00.890
Yeah, and so it's funny because with home service web design, with all of this, it's very much, someone can say, hey, take the site, copy this over in cloud code.
1127
01:06:01.350 --> 01:06:06.792
And like, we very, very much like, let's just go trips where they fall, where they may for home service web design.
1128
01:06:07.092 --> 01:06:07.453
Because...
1129
01:06:08.733 --> 01:06:09.614
we've lost clients.
1130
01:06:09.734 --> 01:06:12.897
They go build this and they just literally just put in like, copy this.
1131
01:06:13.577 --> 01:06:20.844
And then we've had this past week, three people come back and it was a function of, we saw their source code once they came back.
1132
01:06:20.864 --> 01:06:22.265
And it was like, exactly what you said.
1133
01:06:23.246 --> 01:06:29.711
Multiple CSS files, like the headers, like everything was messed up on the backend, even though the front end looked fine.
1134
01:06:29.731 --> 01:06:34.415
I think that's where a lot of times when it comes to the code side, it's easy to fall into the trap of like, Oh, I built this thing.
1135
01:06:34.435 --> 01:06:36.177
It's like, well, you've built a mockup.
1136
01:06:36.937 --> 01:06:39.599
And, and like, there is so much more behind this.
1137
01:06:39.999 --> 01:06:43.161
And they came back because within three weeks, it's just like the leaves dropped off.
1138
01:06:43.581 --> 01:06:47.103
So it's possible, but building it correctly, I think is, is important.
1139
01:06:47.884 --> 01:06:48.224
It is.
1140
01:06:48.564 --> 01:06:49.825
And we don't, we've kind of talked about this.
1141
01:06:49.845 --> 01:06:54.048
We don't have to go too far down the road, but I think about this a lot because it's advanced so much.
1142
01:06:54.068 --> 01:06:58.790
I mean, I, I even like, should I just build my own thing for city turf?
1143
01:06:58.810 --> 01:06:59.971
I know how to do all this.
1144
01:07:00.491 --> 01:07:03.813
And we've talked about this, but the problem is that,
1145
01:07:05.251 --> 01:07:09.174
I think this is the challenge that we're all just going to have to figure out what the right strategy is.
1146
01:07:09.514 --> 01:07:12.175
On one hand, yeah, it's only going to get better from here.
1147
01:07:12.195 --> 01:07:14.377
So we're probably going to be able to build a lot of these things.
1148
01:07:15.097 --> 01:07:22.242
But if I'm distracted or if Philip was distracted or somebody else, that's a massive distraction from just growing the business.
1149
01:07:22.262 --> 01:07:24.423
And so that's a huge opportunity cost.
1150
01:07:24.523 --> 01:07:27.906
So, yeah, while we're going to be able to do it, would that even make a lot of sense?
1151
01:07:28.778 --> 01:07:37.307
And then the other one is if you kind of will use the spaghetti code example or just as things evolve over time, it's not that.
1152
01:07:37.487 --> 01:07:38.749
It's pretty good.
1153
01:07:39.650 --> 01:07:46.257
The tools are amazing about building something brand new, like from scratch where it's just a white sheet of paper.
1154
01:07:46.637 --> 01:07:48.639
It's the going back and changing it.
1155
01:07:48.659 --> 01:07:49.300
Yeah.
1156
01:07:50.277 --> 01:07:51.017
Regressions.
1157
01:07:51.137 --> 01:07:51.758
Regressions.
1158
01:07:51.778 --> 01:07:52.218
Yeah.
1159
01:07:52.238 --> 01:07:52.398
Yeah.
1160
01:07:52.458 --> 01:08:03.342
And so I suspect, I mean, it will get so much better, but I, I just can't help but think even years out into the future, you're going to need a person, a human to get involved as well.
1161
01:08:03.362 --> 01:08:12.426
And so back to a point I've probably made before, it's like, if you could buy a piece of software for 300 bucks a month and an IT guy is going to cost 150, 180 an hour or 200 an hour to do this, like, yeah.
1162
01:08:14.447 --> 01:08:16.769
one or two edits a month, I could have just bought the software.
1163
01:08:16.809 --> 01:08:18.410
Nobody's having to worry about this thing.
1164
01:08:18.710 --> 01:08:38.062
So I kind of feel like for a city turf or for a normal business, the only reason you're going to code most of these systems in the future is because your use case is so specific, or there's something you're going to do that's such a huge competitive advantage, that would never make sense for another company to build for you.
1165
01:08:39.143 --> 01:08:42.087
then that might necessitate building your own tech.
1166
01:08:42.127 --> 01:08:44.930
But other than that, I don't think it's going to make much sense.
1167
01:08:45.792 --> 01:08:51.859
And again, we've talked about all this stuff, but I'm just constantly thinking about it, trying to figure out what is the ideal here.
1168
01:08:52.180 --> 01:08:55.824
And that's still where I live on this whole thing, even as amazing as it all is.
1169
01:08:56.367 --> 01:09:04.373
Yeah, I think back to talking for everyone listening, the use case of AI is likely much more a business sparring partner.
1170
01:09:04.393 --> 01:09:06.735
And I think everyone can use it for that.
1171
01:09:07.295 --> 01:09:11.338
Whether or not the 5% of people are actually to go code stuff and buy of code things is another case.
1172
01:09:11.759 --> 01:09:16.802
But I think some of the things that we've mentioned are like create a master prompt, giving it your data.
1173
01:09:17.143 --> 01:09:20.085
Like obviously people are very sensitive about the security and things.
1174
01:09:20.105 --> 01:09:24.948
But like if your P&L is going to be classified information,
1175
01:09:26.047 --> 01:09:32.351
Um, I don't know who you're working for, but like if, if the AI has that, it'll give you way better prompts.
1176
01:09:33.432 --> 01:09:52.645
And if it knows the goals of what you're trying to do, if it knows how much you need to live personal, like your personal budget so that you don't like to be able to run through the idea of like debt, for example, we talked about that, the ability for it to poke holes and why you think you need the debt or need to go extend your line of credit or buy another truck is an excellent use case for everyone.
1177
01:09:52.885 --> 01:09:53.166
Um, yeah.
1178
01:09:53.946 --> 01:09:57.227
So I just don't want us to get in the cloud code situation.
1179
01:09:57.307 --> 01:09:57.948
Yeah, yeah.
1180
01:09:57.968 --> 01:10:04.490
95% of people are, they just need to think about how can I use AI to poke holes in my current strategies and ideas for the business?
1181
01:10:05.011 --> 01:10:05.991
Yeah, I'm glad you brought us back.
1182
01:10:06.071 --> 01:10:09.472
I can get so excited about this stuff because I love that world.
1183
01:10:09.532 --> 01:10:11.253
And it's just, I'm thinking about it all the time.
1184
01:10:11.613 --> 01:10:13.174
So, all right.
1185
01:10:13.694 --> 01:10:17.936
Another topic for us is, it's kind of similar to an earlier topic.
1186
01:10:17.956 --> 01:10:20.617
You've seen so many businesses, met so many people.
1187
01:10:21.667 --> 01:10:26.731
Talk through what you think makes up just a fantastic business owner.
1188
01:10:26.751 --> 01:10:38.041
Like what are the characteristics of the best business owners and the way that we might all think about this are these are clues as to what we want to develop in ourselves and what we want to be thinking about working on.
1189
01:10:38.614 --> 01:10:40.415
Maybe I'll give one and we'll bounce it back and forth.
1190
01:10:40.435 --> 01:10:43.196
So I'll give one, then you give one of yours because I have a few listed.
1191
01:10:43.836 --> 01:10:44.316
I do too.
1192
01:10:44.556 --> 01:10:45.477
I have quite a few.
1193
01:10:45.837 --> 01:10:47.458
The first one I had was just patience.
1194
01:10:48.118 --> 01:10:51.699
And I kind of deferred, like Alex has a great working definition of patience.
1195
01:10:51.719 --> 01:10:53.060
And that is like, what do you do in the meantime?
1196
01:10:53.640 --> 01:10:57.622
Mine is a high pain tolerance for boring execution.
1197
01:10:58.202 --> 01:11:00.683
So someone who thinks in terms of years instead of weeks and months.
1198
01:11:01.663 --> 01:11:06.645
And so a lot of times people will be like, I want to grow my business next six months or 12 months.
1199
01:11:06.865 --> 01:11:11.487
When I hear someone say like for the next 10 years, I'm doing this over the next five years, we're going to be focused on AI.
1200
01:11:11.747 --> 01:11:25.153
Like that's when I have a lot more credence to their leadership because I see the person that thinks in longer time horizons usually gets to the finish line instead of the person that is constantly finding a new finish line every few weeks.
1201
01:11:25.753 --> 01:11:30.036
So my first one is patience and having that high pain tolerance for the boring execution.
1202
01:11:30.056 --> 01:11:33.699
And sometimes the boring execution is not doing anything.
1203
01:11:33.839 --> 01:11:33.999
Yeah.
1204
01:11:34.139 --> 01:11:36.441
Especially as the business grows, you have to let things play out.
1205
01:11:36.461 --> 01:11:37.982
You have to see the data.
1206
01:11:38.163 --> 01:11:40.144
Like there's a lot of things like even with AI, I want to do.
1207
01:11:40.184 --> 01:11:45.308
And like, no, we need six months of seeing how this instant quote form works before we make another decision.
1208
01:11:45.548 --> 01:11:47.990
And that's sometimes that patience is sometimes the hard part.
1209
01:11:48.771 --> 01:11:48.891
Yeah.
1210
01:11:48.911 --> 01:11:49.011
Yeah.
1211
01:11:49.943 --> 01:11:50.483
That's a good one.
1212
01:11:50.724 --> 01:11:55.927
I can't actually believe I didn't put that on my list because that is like a core philosophy I have in life.
1213
01:11:56.247 --> 01:11:57.168
But it didn't make my list.
1214
01:11:58.308 --> 01:12:01.570
I think, and I've got a bunch, so we'll just volley back and forth here.
1215
01:12:01.630 --> 01:12:05.153
Someone who is very outcome focused versus
1216
01:12:06.284 --> 01:12:07.265
I need the credit focused.
1217
01:12:07.785 --> 01:12:09.486
So you could take outcome focused in another way.
1218
01:12:09.526 --> 01:12:17.692
But I think a person that is like they need the credit versus I just want the outcome inside the organization and I want my team to win.
1219
01:12:17.872 --> 01:12:18.933
I want them to look good.
1220
01:12:19.213 --> 01:12:20.194
I think that's a big one.
1221
01:12:20.394 --> 01:12:22.055
What's funny is that's my fourth one.
1222
01:12:22.196 --> 01:12:25.358
I put absorbed criticism and pitchforks praise.
1223
01:12:25.718 --> 01:12:30.682
So like the person that when bad things are happening to the organization, they take ownership of it.
1224
01:12:31.222 --> 01:12:34.407
But then when good things happen, it's like, oh, yeah, they're great.
1225
01:12:34.587 --> 01:12:35.829
And that person is awesome.
1226
01:12:35.889 --> 01:12:36.871
And they're amazing.
1227
01:12:37.231 --> 01:12:43.100
I find the person that can do that usually attracts really great talent, which is that's probably the reason why they're successful.
1228
01:12:43.120 --> 01:12:43.221
Yeah.
1229
01:12:43.800 --> 01:12:50.862
But the thing that gets them to be able to attract and retain that talent is the fact that they absorb criticism, pitchfork praise.
1230
01:12:51.063 --> 01:12:54.104
I'll probably have a theme here for the first few, very people focused.
1231
01:12:54.744 --> 01:12:56.404
It's kind of, it's got a similarity.
1232
01:12:56.424 --> 01:13:00.546
You're really focused in investing in your team, helping the team grow.
1233
01:13:02.166 --> 01:13:06.088
You legitimately care about where they end up in life, where they end up in the business.
1234
01:13:06.108 --> 01:13:12.470
Like it's, there's a real focus on the people inside the organization and getting the right people in the organization.
1235
01:13:13.392 --> 01:13:16.897
This is boring because mine's very similar.
1236
01:13:16.957 --> 01:13:17.397
All right.
1237
01:13:17.558 --> 01:13:18.118
Skip.
1238
01:13:18.339 --> 01:13:18.879
You skip.
1239
01:13:18.899 --> 01:13:19.059
Yeah.
1240
01:13:19.260 --> 01:13:25.528
My next one was a leadership team stays with them long-term and there's a, you avoid churn at the top of the organization.
1241
01:13:26.420 --> 01:13:27.300
That's a great one.
1242
01:13:27.320 --> 01:13:29.701
I actually didn't have my list, but I also believe that one too.
1243
01:13:29.901 --> 01:13:31.721
This is why you can have a never ending list here.
1244
01:13:31.741 --> 01:13:32.161
That's great.
1245
01:13:32.641 --> 01:13:32.742
Yeah.
1246
01:13:32.782 --> 01:13:34.742
I think like, was there anything else on that one or I cut you off?
1247
01:13:34.822 --> 01:13:36.562
No, yours kind of ties into mine.
1248
01:13:36.582 --> 01:13:40.203
I think doing what you just said, which is investing in your team, caring about them.
1249
01:13:40.703 --> 01:13:43.404
That's the thing that probably leads to the, the leadership team staying.
1250
01:13:43.804 --> 01:13:46.785
But I think a lot of times it also has a downstream effect of like having a vision.
1251
01:13:47.345 --> 01:13:54.394
being able to cast that vision and clearly define it for everyone, making sure it's big enough for them to fit their goals inside of correct compensation, like all those things.
1252
01:13:54.454 --> 01:13:58.700
But yeah, the leadership team staying with them for a long time is, I've seen that one be successful.
1253
01:13:59.465 --> 01:14:03.487
Still another people one, and for anybody that listens to me often, you've probably heard this kind of thing.
1254
01:14:03.547 --> 01:14:10.571
It's like hiring people around you that fill in the gaps where you're weak and do the things you don't love.
1255
01:14:11.251 --> 01:14:13.012
I think that's absolutely imperative.
1256
01:14:13.072 --> 01:14:14.633
That's the building of a team to me.
1257
01:14:14.673 --> 01:14:17.954
If you thought about it from a football analogy, you're not hiring 10 quarterbacks.
1258
01:14:17.975 --> 01:14:20.136
You're hiring all these different positions.
1259
01:14:20.156 --> 01:14:20.896
That's the same thing.
1260
01:14:20.916 --> 01:14:28.040
You're very thoughtful about who's getting on the team, and you're thoughtful about who you are versus who you're not.
1261
01:14:28.300 --> 01:14:28.440
Mm-hmm.
1262
01:14:29.107 --> 01:14:30.288
Yeah, I got my last one.
1263
01:14:31.029 --> 01:14:33.190
I say they're emotionally stable.
1264
01:14:33.991 --> 01:14:37.814
And so I think that in part, business has so many highs and lows.
1265
01:14:38.675 --> 01:14:43.179
If you ride that wave, you eventually quit.
1266
01:14:43.899 --> 01:14:48.503
And I also think that the person that's more emotionally stable attracts better managers and
1267
01:14:48.763 --> 01:14:51.825
and keeps them longer because they don't overreact to things.
1268
01:14:52.785 --> 01:15:12.116
And this is something I know I've mentioned to you that I admire about you, and I've looked at from afar, but the ability to take in a high-stress situation to bring it down, and then when there are times when everyone's euphoric to be able to bring it down, when everyone's mad at you to be able to make sure you're not going too low.
1269
01:15:12.396 --> 01:15:14.357
So I've always said higher lows, lower highs.
1270
01:15:14.817 --> 01:15:18.479
So emotionally stable would be certainly an ingredient of successful entrepreneurs.
1271
01:15:19.047 --> 01:15:19.687
Yeah, I would agree.
1272
01:15:20.528 --> 01:15:21.308
I'll give a couple more.
1273
01:15:21.328 --> 01:15:22.809
I think, did you just have the four?
1274
01:15:22.929 --> 01:15:23.449
That's all I had.
1275
01:15:23.949 --> 01:15:25.330
Okay, I'll rattle off a couple more.
1276
01:15:25.370 --> 01:15:34.434
You could go down this list, but something I've observed in people, Mike, I think I'd put you in this bucket.
1277
01:15:34.834 --> 01:15:37.216
I'll title it Swipe and Deploy.
1278
01:15:37.636 --> 01:15:41.618
So this idea that you could go read a book,
1279
01:15:42.430 --> 01:15:43.872
that has all this great wisdom in it.
1280
01:15:43.972 --> 01:15:47.355
Or you could watch a YouTube video from somebody that's clearly done it.
1281
01:15:48.216 --> 01:15:50.619
And you take that idea and you just do it.
1282
01:15:51.380 --> 01:15:53.082
There's not much of that, actually.
1283
01:15:53.142 --> 01:15:58.007
One of the things I've noticed is a lot of people are like, they'll hear it, but they don't do anything with it.
1284
01:15:58.067 --> 01:16:02.191
Or they'll hear it and they're like, going to change it in 90 different ways versus like,
1285
01:16:02.892 --> 01:16:05.293
This guy is running a $100 million business.
1286
01:16:05.333 --> 01:16:06.434
He's tested these things.
1287
01:16:06.494 --> 01:16:07.854
Maybe just do it.
1288
01:16:08.475 --> 01:16:09.255
It'll just be done.
1289
01:16:09.635 --> 01:16:10.856
And so there's this idea.
1290
01:16:10.956 --> 01:16:18.700
I've really noticed that some of the people that move really fast, they'll listen to the right source, and then they'll just take the idea and do it.
1291
01:16:19.741 --> 01:16:31.411
I think it goes back to the AI thing we were talking about, too, is you might have almost a risk if you do that using AI because you take what it says and you go do it.
1292
01:16:31.471 --> 01:16:32.913
And it might be wrong information.
1293
01:16:33.333 --> 01:16:43.282
And this is like Alex made a video about this yesterday is like you will still want to have the reputation of the person telling you that information or that decision making process for them.
1294
01:16:43.662 --> 01:16:45.084
And you will weigh out their value.
1295
01:16:46.217 --> 01:16:48.279
credibility, and that's something that AI doesn't have.
1296
01:16:48.599 --> 01:16:50.361
It is just a prediction machine.
1297
01:16:50.882 --> 01:17:04.275
And so the ability to be able to listen to someone, understand their credibility, and then just take action on it to your point, super valuable, taking the wrong advice and taking a whole lot of execution towards it can also lead to a lot of wasted time and damage.
1298
01:17:04.295 --> 01:17:04.515
Yeah.
1299
01:17:05.016 --> 01:17:05.236
Yeah.
1300
01:17:05.396 --> 01:17:05.576
Yeah.
1301
01:17:06.617 --> 01:17:06.797
Yeah.
1302
01:17:06.978 --> 01:17:07.678
I would agree with that.
1303
01:17:08.519 --> 01:17:09.140
A couple more
1304
01:17:10.611 --> 01:17:13.977
I describe this one as the person that always shows up.
1305
01:17:14.017 --> 01:17:18.344
So I just so believe that it all comes down to being an example.
1306
01:17:19.706 --> 01:17:20.808
You're an example of everything.
1307
01:17:21.088 --> 01:17:21.970
You're an example.
1308
01:17:22.531 --> 01:17:24.494
If you have kids, you're an example to your team.
1309
01:17:24.534 --> 01:17:24.694
So,
1310
01:17:26.285 --> 01:17:27.786
the action is everything.
1311
01:17:27.806 --> 01:17:32.088
It's like, so you could say whatever you want, you could train people however you want, but are you doing it?
1312
01:17:32.809 --> 01:17:47.017
And so the always showing up is knowing, like you'll always come through, you'll always be there, you're not delaying, you're always on the meeting, you're highly dependable, and you are running out in front of everybody else.
1313
01:17:47.057 --> 01:17:48.718
Like you're who people want to emulate.
1314
01:17:48.818 --> 01:17:53.161
I just think that is really critical because I believe in this idea of the example.
1315
01:17:53.721 --> 01:17:54.201
And then...
1316
01:17:55.543 --> 01:17:55.983
Two more.
1317
01:17:57.123 --> 01:18:00.044
This one, I think, is just such a... Not everybody does this.
1318
01:18:00.445 --> 01:18:01.985
I think this has been huge for me.
1319
01:18:02.365 --> 01:18:04.386
But I've seen some other people do it really well.
1320
01:18:04.506 --> 01:18:06.226
And I think it's just a competitive advantage.
1321
01:18:06.586 --> 01:18:10.428
And it's this idea that you can borrow from other industries.
1322
01:18:11.048 --> 01:18:14.109
So as an example, let's say that we're all in the...
1323
01:18:14.249 --> 01:18:17.730
In this example, let's say you're in the green industry, lawn care,
1324
01:18:18.290 --> 01:18:25.975
The idea that you could look at HVAC or plumbing or something completely non-related, you could look at an e-commerce company and think about how they do messaging.
1325
01:18:26.295 --> 01:18:31.518
And you're swiping these ideas from non-connected businesses and you're applying them to your business.
1326
01:18:31.558 --> 01:18:33.299
That is such a competitive advantage.
1327
01:18:33.319 --> 01:18:34.120
Yeah.
1328
01:18:34.320 --> 01:18:40.884
that I think some people are just masters at coming up with these unique business model approaches by doing that.
1329
01:18:41.284 --> 01:18:43.825
And then the last one I have to put on my list, I think it's a person's good money.
1330
01:18:44.485 --> 01:18:50.028
Because it's so easy to, I just see so many people get themselves in trouble financially.
1331
01:18:50.068 --> 01:18:52.510
And so the money thing is really important.
1332
01:18:52.530 --> 01:18:56.312
And I think earlier I made the statement, probably shouldn't be...
1333
01:18:57.112 --> 01:18:58.294
I made a statement about partners.
1334
01:18:58.354 --> 01:18:59.615
I'm not supposed to comment on that.
1335
01:18:59.635 --> 01:19:04.842
But I think one of the biggest reasons why partnerships go bad is the partners aren't aligned on money.
1336
01:19:05.403 --> 01:19:06.905
You got one that's careful with money.
1337
01:19:06.965 --> 01:19:09.448
It's the same reason why marriages can go bad.
1338
01:19:09.468 --> 01:19:13.193
And money is this really critical thing to ending up with something great.
1339
01:19:13.253 --> 01:19:14.395
So that was my list.
1340
01:19:14.575 --> 01:19:16.096
Okay, we're going down a rabbit trail.
1341
01:19:16.376 --> 01:19:18.057
Alignment on money with a partner.
1342
01:19:18.097 --> 01:19:19.898
I know we're deep in this rabbit trail here.
1343
01:19:20.578 --> 01:19:22.620
A business partner?
1344
01:19:22.820 --> 01:19:23.480
Business partner.
1345
01:19:23.840 --> 01:19:25.661
Could be even a personal partner.
1346
01:19:26.722 --> 01:19:28.923
But how have you found alignment with money?
1347
01:19:29.423 --> 01:19:32.265
Is it more in the picking process, like choosing the right partner?
1348
01:19:32.945 --> 01:19:40.810
Or is there a cadence of meetings or communication mechanisms to make sure that the partnership does have good communication around money?
1349
01:19:41.282 --> 01:19:42.524
I think it starts with who you pick.
1350
01:19:43.124 --> 01:19:44.506
I think you figure that out ahead of time.
1351
01:19:44.526 --> 01:19:48.371
I don't, I just don't think for so many, I like that statement.
1352
01:19:48.391 --> 01:19:52.135
I don't know if it was from the book, who or top grading.
1353
01:19:52.155 --> 01:19:52.656
There's a book.
1354
01:19:52.676 --> 01:19:54.338
It's like people will be who they've been.
1355
01:19:54.799 --> 01:19:55.099
I don't know.
1356
01:19:55.119 --> 01:19:57.161
Maybe that's a different book, but I just so believe that.
1357
01:19:57.202 --> 01:19:57.822
I just don't.
1358
01:19:58.652 --> 01:20:00.353
Maybe it's a pessimist.
1359
01:20:00.373 --> 01:20:02.674
I'm not a pessimist, but maybe it's a pessimistic attitude.
1360
01:20:02.694 --> 01:20:04.795
But I guess I've been beat down enough over time.
1361
01:20:04.815 --> 01:20:07.176
It's like, yeah, people are kind of who they are.
1362
01:20:07.196 --> 01:20:08.936
It's really hard to create change.
1363
01:20:09.797 --> 01:20:22.002
And so I feel like if I'm coming into a situation with a partner that is not money minded in the way that I think they, that aligns with me, I just, I think it's too risky.
1364
01:20:22.042 --> 01:20:22.142
Yeah.
1365
01:20:22.477 --> 01:20:26.981
What clues or indicators of that being successful or unsuccessful are you looking for?
1366
01:20:27.581 --> 01:20:28.662
How they run their personal life.
1367
01:20:29.102 --> 01:20:29.343
Okay.
1368
01:20:29.883 --> 01:20:30.463
I don't know how to.
1369
01:20:30.564 --> 01:20:34.227
I mean, that's one of the biggest ones is how do they spend money in their personal life?
1370
01:20:35.688 --> 01:20:37.469
Interesting.
1371
01:20:37.489 --> 01:20:37.769
Yeah.
1372
01:20:37.789 --> 01:20:43.014
Yeah, like when I got to know Brianna, the first thing I was like, I was looking at how her mom handled money.
1373
01:20:43.034 --> 01:20:45.075
Because I knew that's how she would handle money.
1374
01:20:45.436 --> 01:20:45.776
Yeah.
1375
01:20:45.816 --> 01:20:51.881
That was a big clue for me, like an indicator of like, okay, how she looks at money is probably how this will be handled in the future.
1376
01:20:52.591 --> 01:20:54.376
If I had made that decision, I wouldn't be married.
1377
01:20:58.127 --> 01:20:59.368
You know, we can all overcome.
1378
01:20:59.588 --> 01:21:00.689
We can all get through it.
1379
01:21:01.109 --> 01:21:03.271
Well, no, no, no, no.
1380
01:21:03.491 --> 01:21:08.836
So Tiffany and her family was the saver and they would make fun of her and say she was cheap because she saved.
1381
01:21:09.156 --> 01:21:09.556
Ah, okay.
1382
01:21:09.937 --> 01:21:13.239
And so if I modeled other people, we wouldn't have got married.
1383
01:21:13.640 --> 01:21:15.962
It's like, if I thought that's who she'd become.
1384
01:21:15.982 --> 01:21:19.464
So some of these things I think back because I got married so young.
1385
01:21:19.885 --> 01:21:23.708
I think back, it's like, man, was I thinking about this stuff when I was 20, 21 years old?
1386
01:21:23.728 --> 01:21:24.389
I must've been.
1387
01:21:25.069 --> 01:21:29.113
because, you know, but she was she was wired that way.
1388
01:21:29.133 --> 01:21:32.817
But then in in my business partnerships that have not worked out.
1389
01:21:34.539 --> 01:21:38.302
It's almost all been about money, actually, for me.
1390
01:21:38.543 --> 01:21:42.086
And when you look at their personal finances, is it like extravagant living?
1391
01:21:42.687 --> 01:21:45.630
Is it like bad investments or just bad decision making?
1392
01:21:45.890 --> 01:21:48.633
What's the red flag for the partnerships that don't work out?
1393
01:21:49.612 --> 01:21:55.257
I can forgive bad investments because we all learn and get better over time.
1394
01:21:56.278 --> 01:22:00.882
But the red flag is how they live in their personal lives.
1395
01:22:02.544 --> 01:22:07.288
I had one experience where nobody really had any money when the business got started.
1396
01:22:08.309 --> 01:22:14.215
And so when money started being made, then you discovered how everybody lives in their personal life.
1397
01:22:15.230 --> 01:22:20.793
And it was an example where everybody just starts buying bigger homes, bunches of cars.
1398
01:22:21.233 --> 01:22:26.195
And so it's what I call personal life starts driving business decisions.
1399
01:22:27.476 --> 01:22:35.519
And so that was one that's like, that wasn't an ideal situation, but I didn't know it going into it because of the age and all that.
1400
01:22:36.079 --> 01:22:38.541
So I think personal life tells everything.
1401
01:22:38.601 --> 01:22:39.501
It just tells everything.
1402
01:22:40.052 --> 01:22:50.718
How would you handle if someone is in a business partnership or let's just even say a marriage partnership where they see their partner handling money incorrectly or having these bad habits?
1403
01:22:51.378 --> 01:22:52.079
How do you approach it?
1404
01:22:52.539 --> 01:23:03.265
Do we just break the thing off or is there a way to be like, hey, I don't see how this is going to impact the business or the relationship in a positive way because of these negative habits around money?
1405
01:23:03.966 --> 01:23:04.786
Yeah, I think you can.
1406
01:23:04.946 --> 01:23:05.607
I think you can.
1407
01:23:05.627 --> 01:23:05.827
Yeah.
1408
01:23:06.772 --> 01:23:08.213
I think it's all conversation.
1409
01:23:08.533 --> 01:23:12.795
Like, I mean, if it's married, if you're married, I'm thinking like, well, you're kind of too late here.
1410
01:23:12.815 --> 01:23:15.896
You're going to have to try to work this one out.
1411
01:23:16.696 --> 01:23:22.499
But, you know, going into that relationship, you know, that's where I'll go back a little bit against my people are who they've always been.
1412
01:23:22.539 --> 01:23:27.401
I think there's a lot of stuff in life that can get resolved through conversation or improved.
1413
01:23:28.222 --> 01:23:30.783
I mean, you know, I'll give actually some kind of behind the scenes.
1414
01:23:30.843 --> 01:23:33.264
So my situation was the inverse.
1415
01:23:34.616 --> 01:23:35.957
I don't know if I've actually ever talked about this.
1416
01:23:36.338 --> 01:23:45.345
So when I saved every dollar I made since I was 14, I was like, when I would graduate high school, I had at least $100,000 or more.
1417
01:23:45.945 --> 01:23:48.047
The equivalent of like, for sure.
1418
01:23:48.608 --> 01:23:50.329
When I got married, I probably had almost $200,000.
1419
01:23:50.349 --> 01:23:50.909
I got married at 21.
1420
01:23:53.313 --> 01:23:55.114
And so back in those days.
1421
01:23:55.754 --> 01:23:59.175
And so I had a bunch of money and I was hardcore.
1422
01:23:59.195 --> 01:24:01.616
So I get a software job at 19.
1423
01:24:02.056 --> 01:24:04.477
Tiffany gets a teaching job when she's 20.
1424
01:24:04.637 --> 01:24:06.438
As a teacher, we get married at 21.
1425
01:24:06.898 --> 01:24:08.659
We didn't spend a dollar of her paycheck.
1426
01:24:08.839 --> 01:24:10.600
So this is the opposite scenario.
1427
01:24:11.140 --> 01:24:12.600
And I was just hardcore.
1428
01:24:12.660 --> 01:24:15.401
I constantly made her feel guilty about spending money.
1429
01:24:15.862 --> 01:24:17.222
I made her stressed about it.
1430
01:24:17.242 --> 01:24:19.203
It's like PTSD kind of situation.
1431
01:24:19.223 --> 01:24:20.663
Like we had all these goals.
1432
01:24:20.683 --> 01:24:21.824
I was gonna say the best.
1433
01:24:22.424 --> 01:24:31.630
And so I think the reason I tell that story is that's an example where some conversations, you know, eventually resulted in me like dialing it down a level.
1434
01:24:33.171 --> 01:24:39.696
And so I do think like that helped, you know, talking about understanding her perspective made a big difference.
1435
01:24:39.736 --> 01:24:44.639
And so I do think you could talk about these things and you can make progress and you can set rules up.
1436
01:24:45.019 --> 01:24:50.203
But like in the business scenario, it could be that, okay, the solution isn't just us
1437
01:24:50.623 --> 01:24:51.284
talking about it.
1438
01:24:51.404 --> 01:24:52.966
It's we need to bring in a third party.
1439
01:24:53.307 --> 01:25:02.880
The third party could be like a consultant or a coach or it could be a really strong, not CPA, but like an accounting business CPA kind of person.
1440
01:25:03.200 --> 01:25:06.404
And that third party is the non-biased voice.
1441
01:25:07.253 --> 01:25:17.621
So it'd be kind of like if you were doing marriage counseling and you both trusted the counselor and you trusted them enough to accept their insights.
1442
01:25:18.021 --> 01:25:22.945
Like that person might be able to say something to you, whereas your spouse, if they say it to you, you don't hear it.
1443
01:25:23.045 --> 01:25:24.626
Like it's just, you know, it's that kind of a thing.
1444
01:25:24.946 --> 01:25:27.548
And so I think that's how I would probably approach this.
1445
01:25:27.608 --> 01:25:35.774
If we had a vision in our business, I would go try to bring somebody in that helps us talk through this and think through this thing and gives their professional opinion.
1446
01:25:36.975 --> 01:25:38.136
That that'd be my answer.
1447
01:25:38.296 --> 01:25:40.018
Another, another use case for AI.
1448
01:25:40.719 --> 01:25:41.659
Yeah.
1449
01:25:41.739 --> 01:25:42.100
Yeah.
1450
01:25:42.240 --> 01:25:42.660
Yeah.
1451
01:25:43.801 --> 01:25:47.044
I feel like you'll still argue like I don't notice it's wrong.
1452
01:25:47.084 --> 01:25:47.304
Yeah.
1453
01:25:47.384 --> 01:25:49.286
It's probably pull it from Reddit someplace, you know?
1454
01:25:49.306 --> 01:25:50.307
Yeah.
1455
01:25:51.248 --> 01:25:53.610
Well, you had a great kind of final question.
1456
01:25:53.630 --> 01:25:53.770
Yeah.
1457
01:25:53.790 --> 01:25:54.110
Yeah.
1458
01:25:54.170 --> 01:25:55.011
Very thought broken.
1459
01:25:55.031 --> 01:25:55.772
So go ahead and tee it up.
1460
01:25:56.241 --> 01:25:58.503
Yeah, I wanted to do something a little unique here.
1461
01:25:59.384 --> 01:26:00.886
It's business-related, but not.
1462
01:26:01.446 --> 01:26:02.908
And I'll answer it as well.
1463
01:26:03.248 --> 01:26:18.744
But the question that I proposed to Mike was, if you die and you wake up the exact same age as you are today, so the world, everything is exactly the same as it is today, but you have no money,
1464
01:26:19.782 --> 01:26:20.883
You have no contacts.
1465
01:26:21.123 --> 01:26:22.484
You don't have the relationships.
1466
01:26:22.504 --> 01:26:23.805
Like you've lost everything.
1467
01:26:23.825 --> 01:26:25.487
You have no stuff.
1468
01:26:25.607 --> 01:26:27.909
It's just all you have is what's in your brain.
1469
01:26:28.790 --> 01:26:30.251
And history is the same as it was.
1470
01:26:30.291 --> 01:26:32.873
You can't go like bet on Google.
1471
01:26:32.893 --> 01:26:36.036
You know, it's like you didn't wake up 20 years ago and you get to make all the right bets.
1472
01:26:36.897 --> 01:26:39.859
Like what would you do in life?
1473
01:26:40.720 --> 01:26:42.241
Like what life would you create?
1474
01:26:43.002 --> 01:26:44.543
How would it be different than what you've done?
1475
01:26:45.064 --> 01:26:46.545
It's that kind of a thought exercise.
1476
01:26:46.565 --> 01:26:46.745
Yeah.
1477
01:26:47.013 --> 01:26:48.094
I'm interested to see what you say.
1478
01:26:48.374 --> 01:26:49.454
You, you, you start off.
1479
01:26:49.935 --> 01:26:50.615
Okay, sure.
1480
01:26:51.856 --> 01:26:55.217
Um, so I only thought about it from a few stance, a few things.
1481
01:26:55.598 --> 01:26:59.620
So, um, starting kind of at the business thing, I won't spend much time on this one.
1482
01:26:59.640 --> 01:27:00.860
Cause we've talked about it before.
1483
01:27:00.880 --> 01:27:06.803
Um, I would be very attracted to figuring out how to wiggle my way into the private equity world in some way.
1484
01:27:07.824 --> 01:27:07.944
Um,
1485
01:27:08.630 --> 01:27:12.232
And or because I don't have money, I don't know how else I would do it.
1486
01:27:13.153 --> 01:27:32.325
But I just think there's a real angle with my knowledge around private equity focused on home services, applying technology, sophisticated finance knowledge like KPIs, tracking, understanding the numbers that move a business, marketing, like really bringing sophistication in those areas to home services businesses.
1487
01:27:32.345 --> 01:27:35.547
I think there's this real opportunity to buy them up and build something incredible.
1488
01:27:36.515 --> 01:27:55.043
But if I were to go a different direction, which is really what then I would normally think about the other area that I'm highly attracted to in this world is something around education and rebuilding the way people learn and modernizing that, especially as you get to younger people.
1489
01:27:55.403 --> 01:27:59.486
Like what could education look like for younger people coming up?
1490
01:27:59.946 --> 01:28:04.109
I always think about it like in business education because I'm so passionate about entrepreneurship.
1491
01:28:04.149 --> 01:28:07.491
I just think it's like one of the great gifts if you get to do that in life.
1492
01:28:08.331 --> 01:28:12.594
But I'm also, just in general, some other day we could talk about this.
1493
01:28:12.634 --> 01:28:16.076
I took Riley out of school when he finished his freshman year of high school.
1494
01:28:17.117 --> 01:28:19.838
And it's just one of the single best things we ever did.
1495
01:28:20.619 --> 01:28:23.441
And so I just really rethinking...
1496
01:28:24.423 --> 01:28:30.507
especially high school, but middle school and high school education would be absolutely fascinating.
1497
01:28:30.547 --> 01:28:33.268
I could go to work on that problem with other really smart people.
1498
01:28:33.588 --> 01:28:34.369
So that'd be one thing.
1499
01:28:35.229 --> 01:28:40.993
Another thing I thought about, or the other thing I would do immediately, I know nobody, I have no friends anymore.
1500
01:28:41.733 --> 01:28:43.394
I have no relationships.
1501
01:28:44.055 --> 01:28:47.657
Whatever the thing is I'm going into, I would go find a super entrepreneur,
1502
01:28:49.549 --> 01:28:51.490
we'll just assume I figured out how to pay for this.
1503
01:28:52.530 --> 01:28:54.691
I would go get in a high level business.
1504
01:28:54.931 --> 01:28:55.211
IOUs.
1505
01:28:55.251 --> 01:28:56.192
Yeah, yeah, IOUs, yes.
1506
01:28:56.212 --> 01:28:59.033
Yeah, lots and lots of debt.
1507
01:28:59.293 --> 01:29:01.713
Future stock in whatever I make in the future.
1508
01:29:02.374 --> 01:29:03.814
Yeah, yes, exactly.
1509
01:29:04.835 --> 01:29:07.696
So I would, have you ever heard of this?
1510
01:29:07.976 --> 01:29:09.136
This is kind of derail like I do.
1511
01:29:09.176 --> 01:29:11.257
Have you ever heard of a book called The Unincorporated Man?
1512
01:29:11.277 --> 01:29:11.337
No.
1513
01:29:12.663 --> 01:29:14.864
Yeah, there's this book called The Unincorporated Man.
1514
01:29:15.624 --> 01:29:18.725
The first book is really good, or at least I thought it was.
1515
01:29:18.945 --> 01:29:20.105
The second book's pretty good.
1516
01:29:20.125 --> 01:29:24.207
The third book, I started fading on it, but it's this idea that society changes.
1517
01:29:24.827 --> 01:29:26.147
It has to get reinvented.
1518
01:29:26.567 --> 01:29:31.149
And everybody, there's basically every human is walking around
1519
01:29:32.618 --> 01:29:32.938
equity.
1520
01:29:33.058 --> 01:29:37.843
Like you can, your parents get 20% of the equity in you when you're born.
1521
01:29:38.264 --> 01:29:42.769
People can make investments in you and they'll earn part of your earnings in the future.
1522
01:29:43.150 --> 01:29:47.915
So the whole, it basically is making the whole world a bunch of capitalists and people are capitalists.
1523
01:29:48.235 --> 01:29:49.417
It's a fascinating concept.
1524
01:29:49.477 --> 01:29:50.598
It's a futuristic book.
1525
01:29:50.698 --> 01:29:55.701
Not going to lie, when you said uncorporated man, I didn't know where you were going with that.
1526
01:29:55.761 --> 01:29:56.161
Oh, yeah, yeah.
1527
01:29:56.181 --> 01:29:57.422
That could go in a very different direction.
1528
01:29:57.442 --> 01:29:57.902
Yeah, yeah.
1529
01:29:58.082 --> 01:29:58.342
All right.
1530
01:29:58.443 --> 01:29:59.483
All right.
1531
01:29:59.583 --> 01:30:07.168
So I would go get into some high-level, sophisticated business group to rebuild my network, my connections, and my friends.
1532
01:30:07.188 --> 01:30:09.809
I think that would be really interesting.
1533
01:30:10.289 --> 01:30:15.052
And then something that's, again, maybe I went a little too far down the road.
1534
01:30:15.072 --> 01:30:16.933
Well, no, I'll use my example.
1535
01:30:16.973 --> 01:30:18.894
So I wouldn't live anywhere.
1536
01:30:19.235 --> 01:30:19.715
I'd float.
1537
01:30:19.735 --> 01:30:20.055
Yeah.
1538
01:30:20.924 --> 01:30:28.294
I would, so there's this, I could never do this being married, but there's this guy that's a billionaire.
1539
01:30:28.314 --> 01:30:29.415
We heard Tiffany can change.
1540
01:30:29.515 --> 01:30:30.557
We heard Tiffany can change.
1541
01:30:31.037 --> 01:30:33.500
Yeah, she won't go for it.
1542
01:30:33.520 --> 01:30:34.782
She wants, I love my house.
1543
01:30:34.842 --> 01:30:37.145
I'd have a hard time leaving my house, but she wants a nest.
1544
01:30:37.165 --> 01:30:37.666
Yeah.
1545
01:30:38.066 --> 01:30:40.727
Like, so, but I could float.
1546
01:30:40.907 --> 01:30:41.808
I could just live.
1547
01:30:41.948 --> 01:30:45.009
Like, so there's this guy that, I can't remember who the guy's, Dave.
1548
01:30:45.069 --> 01:30:46.110
I heard about him a long time ago.
1549
01:30:46.130 --> 01:30:48.531
He sold every asset, everything he had.
1550
01:30:48.551 --> 01:30:49.431
Well, assets, the wrong word.
1551
01:30:49.451 --> 01:30:50.131
He kept investments.
1552
01:30:50.151 --> 01:30:52.692
He sold all his stuff except for his airplane.
1553
01:30:53.433 --> 01:30:54.933
And he just lives in hotels.
1554
01:30:55.454 --> 01:30:57.655
And he has assistants pre-rent all his stuff.
1555
01:30:57.675 --> 01:30:59.235
So he might live in a hotel for two months.
1556
01:30:59.976 --> 01:31:00.836
And he just floats.
1557
01:31:01.396 --> 01:31:03.297
I would like to try that for a period of time.
1558
01:31:03.897 --> 01:31:07.299
So that would be the other change I'd make is I would just try...
1559
01:31:08.059 --> 01:31:13.150
living in completely different places around the world and work the whole time.
1560
01:31:15.103 --> 01:31:16.805
And the only asset I'd own is a race car.
1561
01:31:18.526 --> 01:31:19.627
One car would be a race car.
1562
01:31:19.767 --> 01:31:20.848
You don't have any possessions.
1563
01:31:20.868 --> 01:31:21.569
You don't have no money.
1564
01:31:21.589 --> 01:31:22.550
How are you going to afford that?
1565
01:31:22.570 --> 01:31:23.070
Yeah, I know.
1566
01:31:23.090 --> 01:31:29.655
Well, that's where, as I started talking through this, like, wait a second, I took this in the wrong direction when I was thinking about it.
1567
01:31:30.116 --> 01:31:32.238
I still associate somebody to it.
1568
01:31:32.258 --> 01:31:43.447
But the biggest one was, the two takeaways would be, I'd probably do something in education and I would float versus setting down roots and try to have a bunch of experiences I had never had before.
1569
01:31:43.846 --> 01:31:50.393
Well, I figured you could still have the race car as long as you wait a few more years and the Ferrari Luché is sitting in there.
1570
01:31:50.433 --> 01:31:51.233
No one wants it.
1571
01:31:51.293 --> 01:31:52.354
You can have that one.
1572
01:31:52.475 --> 01:31:53.996
I'll be able to get that thing for $10,000.
1573
01:31:54.036 --> 01:31:54.977
That's right.
1574
01:31:56.739 --> 01:31:57.119
Oh, man.
1575
01:31:57.440 --> 01:32:01.423
Yeah, so I asked Bree about this and we tried to think through it.
1576
01:32:01.443 --> 01:32:02.104
I think it might...
1577
01:32:04.086 --> 01:32:10.691
Our answers might differ a little bit because you have so much more experience and those things would be a larger drawdown.
1578
01:32:11.051 --> 01:32:14.954
Whereas I'm kind of like accumulating those things early in those stages.
1579
01:32:14.974 --> 01:32:15.714
Yeah, yeah.
1580
01:32:16.034 --> 01:32:18.176
So I feel like we were like really racking our brains.
1581
01:32:18.216 --> 01:32:20.538
We feel like it'd be a very similar like what we're doing now.
1582
01:32:21.378 --> 01:32:27.780
I think one thing I've talked to you personally about what we're about to do is probably very tied to this notion, though.
1583
01:32:28.080 --> 01:32:33.862
It's like if we what kind of life would I live if there was a blank slate is very similar to what we're about to do.
1584
01:32:33.882 --> 01:32:40.884
And it's just like take bigger swings and trying to break up the monotony kind of your point about like moving around.
1585
01:32:40.924 --> 01:32:41.144
I think.
1586
01:32:41.864 --> 01:32:49.947
I've always thought about, I heard this, I don't know who said this, but like life feels like it speeds up as you age because you just consistently keep doing the same thing.
1587
01:32:50.408 --> 01:32:53.669
So when you're a kid, like summer feels like years, like massive.
1588
01:32:53.889 --> 01:32:55.510
And then now it's like three months gone.
1589
01:32:56.010 --> 01:33:00.312
And a lot of it's just because now as an adult, 90% of your day looks exactly the same.
1590
01:33:00.552 --> 01:33:01.532
So it goes by faster.
1591
01:33:01.812 --> 01:33:03.833
Whereas for a kid, every single thing is new.
1592
01:33:04.073 --> 01:33:08.175
Like this room, this popsicle, this air, like everything is big.
1593
01:33:09.316 --> 01:33:20.204
And so to your point, kind of like the floating idea, but like you're putting yourself in new scenarios, new circumstances that breaks up the monotony and just trying to live as many lives as you can in one.
1594
01:33:20.904 --> 01:33:26.889
And you can slow like how we phrased it was like slow life down by breaking up the monotony.
1595
01:33:27.409 --> 01:33:30.872
And that's probably the thing that we are navigating towards.
1596
01:33:31.683 --> 01:33:32.845
Yeah, I like that answer.
1597
01:33:32.885 --> 01:33:38.572
And actually, when I was kind of go, because I proposed a question first thinking about you when I put it on the docket.
1598
01:33:38.592 --> 01:33:40.995
And then it's like, okay, well, I have to think about this for myself.
1599
01:33:41.776 --> 01:33:42.417
And yeah.
1600
01:33:43.499 --> 01:33:49.140
My conclusion was, and I've thought this before, I'm just like so unbelievably thankful for the life I've got to live.
1601
01:33:49.160 --> 01:33:52.761
Like I couldn't imagine in many ways doing it that differently.
1602
01:33:52.781 --> 01:33:58.302
Like it's been, it's clearly not all gone to plan, but it's like, I just couldn't imagine changing it that much.
1603
01:33:58.342 --> 01:34:04.663
I'm really like, but if I have to go a different direction, the blank slate was the novelty and trying new things.
1604
01:34:04.703 --> 01:34:08.003
And I love, I think that's, not everybody's wired this way, but I'd love that idea.
1605
01:34:08.023 --> 01:34:09.463
Like you have one life.
1606
01:34:09.503 --> 01:34:11.904
Like I think people should try way more stuff.
1607
01:34:12.084 --> 01:34:12.464
Mm-hmm.
1608
01:34:12.604 --> 01:34:14.445
and just see what works.
1609
01:34:14.465 --> 01:34:16.026
There's so many different ways to live life.
1610
01:34:16.446 --> 01:34:25.270
And I think it's interesting because in the same podcast, we talked about trying new things and as many things as possible, but also being like, stay focused on your industry.
1611
01:34:25.330 --> 01:34:26.351
Don't get distracted.
1612
01:34:26.371 --> 01:34:29.513
Head down for a period of time where it is grind mode.
1613
01:34:30.013 --> 01:34:34.755
And so I think there's that dichotomy of you might set aside 10 years, but okay, here we go.
1614
01:34:34.775 --> 01:34:36.016
Five for 50.
1615
01:34:36.256 --> 01:34:40.058
You put the five years for the 50 years of that life that you want to build.
1616
01:34:40.584 --> 01:34:41.706
That's exactly what I was going to say.
1617
01:34:41.726 --> 01:34:41.986
You got me.
1618
01:34:42.206 --> 01:34:43.848
I had to put the pitch in just right.
1619
01:34:43.969 --> 01:34:45.371
Thank you for doing that.
1620
01:34:45.391 --> 01:34:46.252
Subscribe today.
1621
01:34:47.854 --> 01:34:51.980
You do the work to buy the optionality in life to get to try all the stuff.
1622
01:34:52.785 --> 01:35:00.494
Yeah, and I think whether someone looks up to you or what I've done, it's like, we have both done the five and we have the privilege of saying- Done the five a few times.
1623
01:35:00.514 --> 01:35:01.515
Yeah, yeah.
1624
01:35:02.636 --> 01:35:09.404
We've done that period and now we have the opportunity to be able to say we wouldn't really do a whole lot different because we put that time in.
1625
01:35:09.424 --> 01:35:11.506
And I think if you've talked to me or you've-
1626
01:35:12.147 --> 01:35:18.073
for me not so many years ago, several years back, is like during those times, maybe we didn't feel like that.
1627
01:35:18.473 --> 01:35:25.660
We would have our life a little different or we would have preferred a little bit of a change of industry or a little easier time.
1628
01:35:25.680 --> 01:35:29.244
But in hindsight, looking back, it's like this is exactly the life we build.
1629
01:35:29.504 --> 01:35:31.646
And so for anyone that's like in the five years,
1630
01:35:32.680 --> 01:35:34.861
And you're like, one day you will look back on this.
1631
01:35:34.881 --> 01:35:36.122
You'll probably won't change much.
1632
01:35:36.262 --> 01:35:39.703
Assuming that you get through that and you start to be able to build a life with optionality.
1633
01:35:39.723 --> 01:35:40.564
I like.
1634
01:35:40.584 --> 01:35:42.024
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
1635
01:35:42.644 --> 01:35:44.325
Any last thoughts before we wrap up?
1636
01:35:44.625 --> 01:35:45.746
Non-financial advice.
1637
01:35:45.826 --> 01:35:46.486
I'll be honest.
1638
01:35:46.526 --> 01:35:51.088
My non-financial advice was to not buy the Ferrari Luché.
1639
01:35:51.448 --> 01:35:53.349
So I kind of let the cat out of the bag.
1640
01:35:53.509 --> 01:35:54.690
What were your thoughts on that one?
1641
01:35:55.210 --> 01:35:57.911
Oh my gosh.
1642
01:35:58.151 --> 01:36:00.532
I don't really get on social media much.
1643
01:36:01.233 --> 01:36:01.393
And.
1644
01:36:02.914 --> 01:36:04.135
I try to be pretty focused.
1645
01:36:04.235 --> 01:36:06.836
That stupid car screwed me all up.
1646
01:36:07.076 --> 01:36:08.737
Now your algorithm just like pack.
1647
01:36:09.497 --> 01:36:12.859
I was like, I mean that I've, I've had three Ferraris.
1648
01:36:12.879 --> 01:36:13.740
I got two of them now.
1649
01:36:14.240 --> 01:36:15.821
I, uh, it's, uh,
1650
01:36:16.988 --> 01:36:17.869
That's the brand.
1651
01:36:17.889 --> 01:36:24.092
Like when I was 10 years old, Ferrari was like a motivating factor of how I've ended up here.
1652
01:36:24.232 --> 01:36:25.293
I wanted that in life.
1653
01:36:25.913 --> 01:36:28.254
And like that car sucks.
1654
01:36:28.314 --> 01:36:29.815
There's no other way to say it.
1655
01:36:30.396 --> 01:36:31.036
It was funny.
1656
01:36:31.136 --> 01:36:39.120
I saw this comparison of like a Tesla and it was like a $99,000 performance model three versus, and it'd be on every single spec.
1657
01:36:39.181 --> 01:36:40.241
And then price was like 99,000, 650,000.
1658
01:36:40.261 --> 01:36:40.581
It's crazy.
1659
01:36:40.601 --> 01:36:40.962
Wow.
1660
01:36:43.683 --> 01:36:49.088
I know they've done some really cool technology things inside that car and it's all being lost because of the exterior.
1661
01:36:49.108 --> 01:36:51.210
And I'm not even really that bothered by the interior.
1662
01:36:51.230 --> 01:36:52.512
I think the interior is kind of interesting.
1663
01:36:52.912 --> 01:36:53.112
Yeah.
1664
01:36:53.332 --> 01:36:55.474
It's the exterior that drives me nuts.
1665
01:36:55.514 --> 01:36:59.398
And I, the argument is they're trying to go after completely different model markets.
1666
01:36:59.418 --> 01:37:01.100
Like, I don't know, but it's,
1667
01:37:02.549 --> 01:37:03.870
It's shocking.
1668
01:37:04.210 --> 01:37:05.091
I texted my brother.
1669
01:37:05.111 --> 01:37:09.995
My brother's in Florence right now, and he's renting three different Ferraris.
1670
01:37:10.215 --> 01:37:12.917
While he's in Florence, he has three different Ferraris.
1671
01:37:12.957 --> 01:37:13.837
He's trying them out.
1672
01:37:14.158 --> 01:37:16.940
And so he's not really a car guy.
1673
01:37:16.980 --> 01:37:19.081
He doesn't normally care about this stuff, but he's just trying them.
1674
01:37:19.562 --> 01:37:24.225
And so I texted in this thing, and my brother has texted me like 20 memes for
1675
01:37:24.485 --> 01:37:53.779
sense and so i'm constantly now being distracted looking at those things or going out listening to car reviews on this thing but nobody's saying everybody's saying the exact same thing like it just makes no sense so it's funny because they went out and got johnny ive to make it right and yeah and so it was interesting to see like a non-car person trying to make but to brand's point that's what is so damaging like you make the wrong decision with something like that and all that brand equity well not just their brand equity their market cap also gets hit hard
1676
01:37:54.099 --> 01:37:54.279
Yeah.
1677
01:37:54.539 --> 01:37:57.241
And so, yeah, the Johnny Ive.
1678
01:37:57.341 --> 01:38:01.805
So Andrew, my brother has sent me an AI generated video.
1679
01:38:02.085 --> 01:38:06.888
And basically, it was like Johnny Ive talking to Ferrari, and he can't figure out what to do.
1680
01:38:06.948 --> 01:38:11.812
So he just decides to take all his plans from when he was designing the Apple car, just turn them in as his Ferrari.
1681
01:38:11.892 --> 01:38:12.112
Yeah.
1682
01:38:12.472 --> 01:38:15.935
And it's like, you know, that kind of it does, it feels like that could have been an Apple car.
1683
01:38:16.095 --> 01:38:16.375
Totally.
1684
01:38:16.395 --> 01:38:16.895
A hundred percent.
1685
01:38:16.915 --> 01:38:17.596
I thought the same thing.
1686
01:38:18.116 --> 01:38:18.356
Yeah.
1687
01:38:18.576 --> 01:38:21.657
So anyway, yeah, that was a giant disappointment.
1688
01:38:21.677 --> 01:38:22.977
You're not any non-financial advice.
1689
01:38:23.257 --> 01:38:24.218
I know I'm putting you on the spot.
1690
01:38:24.258 --> 01:38:25.458
Non-financial advice.
1691
01:38:25.778 --> 01:38:28.259
It can be financial or non-financial.
1692
01:38:29.719 --> 01:38:30.060
Okay.
1693
01:38:30.080 --> 01:38:30.720
So any advice.
1694
01:38:32.292 --> 01:38:39.577
You know, I hadn't thought this through in advance, but the thing that came to mind to me, for me, maybe it plays a little bit on what I just said.
1695
01:38:39.637 --> 01:38:48.603
So when I used to do Academy, which was the coaching group, if you won our competition, annual competition, we sent you on a $15,000 vacation.
1696
01:38:49.684 --> 01:38:56.869
And I will say, and then also in Academy, we did four trips a year, three trips with the elite members.
1697
01:38:58.089 --> 01:38:58.270
And...
1698
01:38:59.209 --> 01:39:09.495
I feel like a lot of the people in Academy, their heads down, working, building their companies, almost never did trips, especially outside the United States.
1699
01:39:10.215 --> 01:39:14.778
And today, so many of those individuals travel outside the United States,
1700
01:39:15.258 --> 01:39:16.380
do all kinds of trips.
1701
01:39:16.400 --> 01:39:18.783
Like it like broadened their horizons in a sense.
1702
01:39:18.823 --> 01:39:22.088
I'm not saying it was just because of me, but they were just like heads down.
1703
01:39:22.108 --> 01:39:25.894
And maybe I pulled that forward a little bit in their life because we'd go have this experience.
1704
01:39:25.914 --> 01:39:27.176
Like this experience is so great.
1705
01:39:27.436 --> 01:39:28.638
And then they brought into their lives.
1706
01:39:29.179 --> 01:39:31.162
I would tell you that, um,
1707
01:39:32.589 --> 01:39:41.037
that this idea that you pull some of this stuff forward in your life earlier is incredibly valuable for a couple reasons.
1708
01:39:41.837 --> 01:39:43.599
One, it's really good for relationships.
1709
01:39:43.679 --> 01:39:52.827
If you're married and you're just heads down all the time, getting away from the business and going and doing something with your spouse, I think is incredibly important.
1710
01:39:53.268 --> 01:39:58.793
But also, it's this idea that if you're just go, go, go, and you never disconnect,
1711
01:40:00.662 --> 01:40:02.825
you lose, I think, a lot of the great ideas.
1712
01:40:02.885 --> 01:40:05.208
When you come back fresh, you look at things differently.
1713
01:40:05.288 --> 01:40:06.509
You have new ideas.
1714
01:40:07.250 --> 01:40:08.452
There's so much value in it.
1715
01:40:08.492 --> 01:40:16.702
So I'm not saying go do some two-week vacation in Italy, but I am saying, could you try to start engineering some ideas
1716
01:40:17.604 --> 01:40:41.596
inexpensive trips in your life and they may start out as a long weekend you leave thursday night you come back sunday night and eventually could you eventually go do something outside the united states for a week or 10 days 10 days is only a week gone from work i think everybody that does this has a richer life and so that would be my challenge to you is like what would that be this non-financialist advice is brought to you by tiffany potoshnik
1717
01:40:43.082 --> 01:40:44.763
I'm actually the one, I'm the one.
1718
01:40:44.803 --> 01:40:55.771
Like if my joke is like the other day, what she said is not true, but she's like, if we were walking last night, she's like, if you died, I'd sell the house because it costs so much to manage.
1719
01:40:55.851 --> 01:41:00.735
It's like, you can afford if I'm gone to pay for it.
1720
01:41:00.775 --> 01:41:04.117
But my joke was to her is if I died, you'd immediately get $600,000 a year back.
1721
01:41:05.518 --> 01:41:07.500
Because we wouldn't travel every year so much.
1722
01:41:07.940 --> 01:41:09.842
And so I'm the one that does that.
1723
01:41:09.902 --> 01:41:12.544
Like if it was left to Tiffany, she'd cut the, I don't know if that made sense.
1724
01:41:12.564 --> 01:41:14.485
The point was she wouldn't travel like me.
1725
01:41:14.505 --> 01:41:15.886
It's like, she loves doing it.
1726
01:41:15.926 --> 01:41:16.667
She loves the idea of it.
1727
01:41:16.967 --> 01:41:18.268
She didn't want to do all the planning.
1728
01:41:18.348 --> 01:41:20.090
She would be, she likes being at home.
1729
01:41:20.630 --> 01:41:24.473
So I'm the guy that's pushing that travel, travel, travel, but she loves it when we do it.
1730
01:41:24.894 --> 01:41:25.234
Awesome.
1731
01:41:25.474 --> 01:41:25.814
I love it.
1732
01:41:26.355 --> 01:41:27.916
Another episode in the books.
1733
01:41:28.136 --> 01:41:29.017
Did you give us your advice?
1734
01:41:29.097 --> 01:41:30.978
Mine was not buying the Ferrari.
1735
01:41:31.299 --> 01:41:33.260
And that is the best advice of the show.
1736
01:41:34.956 --> 01:41:35.718
All right, we'll see you all.
1737
01:41:35.738 --> 01:41:36.320
Thank you for watching.
1738
01:41:36.340 --> 01:41:36.961
See you later.