Podcast appearances and mentions of ken goodrich

  This week's guest on The Unbeatable Mind is a true, living, breathing example of how success can only come through hard work. Coming from truly humble beginnings, Tommy Mello talks to Mark Divine this week about how he's turned the seemingly innocuous garage door industry into a powerhouse currently set to surpass $100 million EBIDTA.    Tommy shares how he built and scaled his business from the ground up. From mowing lawns as a teenager in Michigan, to hiring top talent and building a world-class team, Tommy reveals the strategies that got him to the position he finds himself in today. He and Mark discuss leveraging equity incentive programs, fostering a culture in which staff can thrive, and Tommy's “build to sell” philosophy.    They also get personal, discussing the ups and downs that come with rapid financial success, learning the art of delegation, and the toll of “the grind.” Tommy gives his candid take on money, legacy, and health routines, and dives into the future of blue-collar work in an AI driven world. All in all, Tommy's insights are valuable for leaders, business owners, or anyone with the drive to build something big.      Key Takeaways:  Building To Sell: Tommy shares his philosophy on structuring business to make them sellable and scalable. His approach to acquisitions, greenfields, and organic growth aim to maximise value for future exits.  The Art of Recruiting: Discover how hiring is about far more than just what's on the resume. Tommy shares why he cares far more about passion and drive than technical skills, and how he can spot “unicorn” talent by paying attention to the little details.  The Power of Delegation: Listen as Tommy dishes on his personal journey of learning to let go. Grinding one hundred percent of the time is unsustainable, so he's learned to build checklists, hire smarter people, and invest in his own growth through coaches and consultants.  Marketing & Growth: Recognize how marketing for both customers and recruiting is the most valuable skill for company leadership.   As an entrepreneur, Tommy Mello has navigated the trenches, initially donning multiple hats – from sales and marketing to accounting and recruitment. However, he realized that sustainable success doesn't demand sacrificing family and friendships with relentless 14-hour shifts; it requires strategic intelligence and building invaluable connections.   So, he embarked on a journey of working smarter, not harder, focusing on cultivating the right networks. In a bid to pay it forward and support fellow home service industry entrepreneurs, he established a vibrant Facebook group. Here, he freely shares his insights and experiences while fostering a community where luminaries like Ken Goodrich, Joe Crisara, Al Levi, and other industry experts contribute their invaluable wisdom spanning branding, social media, and finance.     Tommy's Links:  Website: https://homeserviceexpert.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommymello/   Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/officialtommymello/?hl=en   Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHZz8wAvo7GEvDw04C9DDWQ  X: https://x.com/realtommymello?lang=en    Sponsors and Promotions:   Momentous: If you're interested in making a true investment in your health, why not join the best in human performance and be part of the change in raising the bar on supplements. Just go to livemomentous.com and use code DIVINE for 20% off your new routine today.

Ken Goodrich is an expert in business process, negotiation, mergers and acquisition, business planning and operations management. As Chairman of Goettl, he is widely recognized by organizations such as the Las Vegas Business Press, Top 40 Under 40 Professionals, and the Business Professional of the Year Success Club. In this episode, we talked about selling businesses, mentorship, hiring practices…

Chad Peterman is joined by industry veterans Eric Howarth, GoodLeap, and Ken Goodrich, Goettl, to discuss the transformative power of consumer financing in HVAC businesses. Eric and Ken delve into the effectiveness of consumer financing and how it can revolutionize sales growth, drawing examples from successful companies like Renewal by Anderson, Essler Group, and Moore Group. The conversation covers a spectrum of financing strategies, including using fixed-rate long-term loans and no interest, no payment options to alleviate customers' "cash separation anxiety." Additional Resources Chad on LinkedIn Chad Peterman | CEO | Author Eric Howarth on LinkedIn Ken Goodrich on LinkedIn Peterman Brothers Website Learn More About GoodLeap More on PeopleForward Network Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn

HVAC Masters Of The Hustle would like to welcome back Ken Goodrich into the Hot Seat on episode 262. On this episode Ken talks about how to set your company up for MASSIVE acquisitions. Ken has the BIGGEST acquisition in the trades space and was able to create generational wealth! If you enjoyed this episode of HVAC Masters Of The Hustle please Share, Subscribe, post a review and let me know! 

Eric and I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh Teekell, founder of SmartAC.com Josh has envisioned, developed, and built a straightforward, EASY-to-install tech product that enables Smart Maintenance plans. Josh describes the net result for HVAC and plumbing companies is for them to maximize their revenue by dramatically increasing their membership conversion rates, lowering customer attrition, and eliminating zero-fee truck rolls. SmartAC.com is an air conditioning and heating (HVAC) health-monitoring platform that digitizes the experience of AC ownership, extends equipment life, and saves homeowners money by proactive notice of the need for HVAC maintenance, alerting users & service providers of a potential breakdown before it occurs.  The sensors monitor cooling and heating performance, airflow, air filter life, and drain lines to ensure the health of critical HVAC components.  SmartAC.com membership begins at just $10 per month. It includes a lifetime warranty on the hardware, daily system health checks, discounted air filters, active water leak monitoring, real-time chat with certified HVAC experts, and monthly system health reports. 10-minute set up, no tools, no wiring. Josh's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jateekell/   https://www.smartac.com/technology   Learn more here where Ken Goodrich, Jim Bergmann and others tell you about the impact of this unique tech: https://hvac.smartac.com/   This episode was recorded in August 2023.  

With demand leads down and contractors searching for answers, we're re-releasing our famous episode with Michael E. Gerber and Ken Goodrich. Whether you heard it years ago or you haven't heard it yet, this episode is one you don't want to miss!   YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok   00:00 Intro 18:16 Does it feel equally as good to know successful people keep coming back to you? 24:10 How did you (Ken) and Michael meet and become close like you are? 49:27 What are some of the top rules for success? 57:50 Does your marketing percentage go up when you are going into a new market and what is that percentage? 1:10:15 What advice do you have for contractors through the slow season?

On this episode of Building Billions, I had the honor to sit down with Ken Goodrich, a visionary entrepreneur, renowned business leader, and inspiring figure in the world of corporate transformations during my Business Mastery Leadership Program Retreat. Ken shares his remarkable journey and the invaluable lessons he's learned throughout his career, as well as his passion for building successful businesses that leave a lasting legacy. From acquiring struggling companies to revitalizing them into industry leaders, Ken's expertise in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and operational excellence has been instrumental in transforming organizations across various sectors.  Tune in to this engaging episode to gain invaluable insights from Ken Goodrich's wealth of experience, leadership philosophies, and unwavering determination to build a legacy through transforming businesses. Don't forget to leave a review and share this episode with anyone looking to create a lasting multifigure legacy. Support the show: http://cardoneventures.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Live from the 2023 ACCA Conference and Expo for HVACR Contractors and Businesses, host Chris Yano speaks with two West Coast Home Services Titans. Join CEO of Goettl, Ken Goodrich, and CEO of Service Champions, Frank DiMarco, for a great conversation about the state of the industry!   YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok  

Hosts Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch welcome Ken Goodrich and Billy Stevens to the Service Business Mastery podcast, where they discuss mergers and acquisitions in the HVAC industry. Goodrich and Stevens, who possess a wealth of experience in the home service sector, offer their insights into the increasing EBITDA multiples and how home service entrepreneurs can benefit from these trends.  The conversation also delves into the importance of cultivating a strong company culture and creating a business model where technicians have opportunities for growth. Additionally, the guests shared their views on leveraging technology to enhance efficiency and profitability. Home service entrepreneurs looking for industry insights and growth strategies should not miss this engaging episode. SHOW NOTES Introducing Ken Goodrich and Billy Stevens [0:00] Ken shares the history of Goettl [06:36]  Ken discusses his past experiences with acquisitions and building businesses. [09:51]  Workforce development [14:49] Taking advantage  [15:32] Increasing efficiency [18: 20] Ken and Billy discuss the importance of marketing in the HVAC industry [21: 18] The Birth of Sera [22: 39] The Myth of Growth [25:20] The Power of Average People [28:20] The Importance of Technology in Business Today [30:38] The Future of Software and Home Service Companies [31:44] Improving Business Efficiency [32:48] The Best Businesses are the Boring Businesses [33:28] The Future of Technology [33: 54]   Resources And People Mentioned: Consider selling your HVAC business if the market conditions are favorable and you have a well-established company with processes and procedures in place. Utilize low-interest rates and SBA loans to acquire other companies and expand your business. Learn from experienced professionals in the industry, such as Ken Goodrich and Billy Stevens, to better understand the strategies and tactics used in successful business  This episode is kindly sponsored by Sera (visit their website) CompanyCam (visit their website), and UpFrog (visit their website) and Emerson (visit their website). Visit www.companycam.com/SBM and use code SBM for a free 2-week trial, 1:1 training and account setup, and 50% off your first two months! Join the Service Business Mastery Facebook group  

Welcome to the Waste No Day Podcast! On this episode, we're diving into the world of leadership with Ken Goodrich, an HVAC industry expert who has lost 100 pounds due to his daily walking routine and change in diet. Ken shares insights on his inspiring Facebook group called "The First Step of Ken Goodrich," where hundreds of members encourage each other to stay active and share best practices. Ken also talks about the impact of handwritten customer letters on his team's motivation and how he wishes this practice were still prevalent in today's world. He shares valuable strategies for growing a business in the service industry, emphasizing the importance of building a solid team and prioritizing the sale of club memberships to generate revenue. Join us as we learn from Ken's experiences and discover the key to winning the race in business.   Here's a breakdown of what to expect in this episode: Ken Goodrich's daily walking routine with "The First Step of Ken Goodrich" Facebook group Importance of handwritten customer letters on team motivation and building a strong team of technicians Strategies for growing a business in the service industry, including prioritizing club memberships and building a system Importance of constantly educating oneself and staying ahead of the competition, and joining best practice groups to learn from others Being a successful businessperson is about more than just being a good tradesman and the importance of operating within a business system to succeed. And so much more!   About Ken Goodrich:   Ken Goodrich is the CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning and The Sunny Plumber, both based in Las Vegas. He grew up in Las Vegas and used to accompany his father on calls for his air-conditioning business. Goodrich acquired Goettl AC in 2013, established in Phoenix in 1939 by brothers Gust and Sam Goettl. After receiving the company, he expanded it to Las Vegas in 2016. He also started The Sunny Plumber in Phoenix and Tucson, later expanding to Las Vegas and Corona, California. Goodrich has recently acquired two additional air-conditioning businesses in Las Vegas and plans to continue expanding his brands across the Southwest.   Connect with Ken Goodrich on… Website: https://www.goettl.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-d-goodrich-ba580427/     Connect with Waste No Day! Website: https://www.wastenoday.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064230695791 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/waste-no-day-a-plumbing-hvac-and/id1543265737 Tiktok: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmdBUSQcb_UtbqcYYaI6tcg Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rlvUXGWcRVpsTiVl6BR2m?si=oqkEIIf5Qdyh4CcAuSXATQ  

A friend of Jim Klauck,  Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door Service joins Jim today on this episode of Bring On Success. Tommy's latest book - ELEVATE was released this past week and is available with this link - Tommy wrote the book ELEVATE : Build a Business Where Everybody Wins - ELEVATE. This book will change the lives of many home service business owners.  On this episode, Tommy tells stories of how he has built a $200,000,000 home service company through elevating his team! Enjoy! Here's a fraction of what you'll learn from Tommy's book:   ✅ The structure to Elevate your team and build a company that runs by itself. In their best day they sold $512,000 and Tommy wasn't even there.   ✅ Why most advice about Culture sucks, and the right way to build a culture of A-players for your company. Tommy has 700+ employees in 19 states, and his company's retention rate is through the roof.   ✅ How to create a magnet for talent, so you'll have the best employees begging to work for you. Last month Tommy hired 50 new technicians.   Go get your copy now at:   ➡️ https://book.elevateandwin.com/jimklauck   Podcast Episode Transcription:   My friend Tommy Mello is joining me here on the bring on success show hey Tommy how are you good Jim pleasure to be here I always love these intimate sessions with you yeah with you buddy you know it's great so just read your new book it just came out everybody's talking about it elevate the five pillars it's you know really kind of a simple you know simple idea the way you set up the book and it's all about elevating your team of course you have to build the team and you elevate them and you reward them talk a little bit about the book yeah so it's five pillars leadership culture marketing recruiting systems and it really is about elevating your mindset and everybody around you I just did a shop tour with three companies and I was just explaining what is your guys's goal what do you wanna be what's your dream what's your life look like when you hit what you want you gotta have a meeting of what you wanna hit you gotta have a mindset and the book is really about just elevating build the business where everybody wins the employees win the clients win I win my partners win the vendors win and the whole industry wins and I think that in life we're taught we went and lose I just had one of my buddies Jake that's out of California um he said I can't put your book down my mind is racing it won't stop I want to grow just not my business but the people involved and you know the message goes on and on it's a couple of paragraphs but it's the ultimate compliment when somebody reads it and it's not a big book I mean it's easy to digest yeah it's easy to Lev was in the book and he said Tommy I read your book 3 hours from soup to nuts and that's what I wanted to keep it simple concise I love I I've started to really enjoy writing books and this book took Me 2 years and I think I'm gonna get faster because coming up with systems but you know first I had to figure out what the biggest things that wanted people to take and those were the pillars and these five things are just going to they're going to blast people through their mindset and the walls they have no absolutely OK so in chapter two that's the first pillar it's leadership when you touch upon what people would find in that chapter yeah so I tell stories throughout the book Tom how wrote the foreword I think the main goal of the leadership is you gotta lead by example lead from up front you know that there's a lot of chapters in the book I just are finishing the audible and it's interesting I tell a story of just we recently partnered with me and what P is able to do to accompany a smaller company by putting in systems and getting the right leaders it's amazing I feel like everybody's getting tested right now to make sure they're at a level that could go to a billion dollars and it's about growth mindset and leaders look Simon cynic wrote a book leaders you'd last and leadership is not just about tracking KPI's it's about building relationships and it's about caring and that's really what this whole book is really all about yeah and then culture is a bad word marketing is my passion and marketing I look at as recruiting marketing is very similar people don't look at marketing the same way for recruiting and it's a shame yeah no this is important um you know the recruiting piece is critical and HR is generally the most expensive piece of any business labor there's no question no almost every business it's also often for the leader for the business owners and some managers the most difficult thing because people aren't machines they have emotions they're all different they're not all motivated by the same thing and that's where I believe a lot of businesses struggle is managing people because just because you're a good technician as an HVAC guy and you leave the company to start your own so now you so you were a tech and now you start your own business and now you're like well I'll still be a tech and I'll hire people and I'll manage people then you find out well I don't like to manage people and how come people don't listen to me and how come they're not like me and how come I tell them to stay at home because I can do it better you've done something amazing by finding hiring and training and then managing a great team yeah you know what I learned this from Levi he says you've got to recruit you got to Orient well recruit hire Orient train and then retain and I our levy share some stories in there about him and his dad working for his dad and what just the nightmare the business could be without systems and processes in place you know bringing on Jody with Brad and hire really helped me understand that I was going fishing in the same spot everybody else was so looking outside of the box to find people and understanding attribution models of creating framework for hiring that we could actually compare to people because we interviewed the exact same way and it's crazy 18 player could run circles around 3:00 or 4B players yeah when you started acquiring a players and giving them systems the business becomes fun and al always calls it vanilla because you know you're not firefighting there's everything's kind of running smoothly and every time I get to this point of vanilla I decided to grow and I grow and right now I'm buried because we're going I'm gonna 10X this business again and the framework of 10 Xing is into this book it's can't get rich wrote some stuff on the back I mean it's um Danny Kerr wrote some stuff in here with repeat a breakthrough Academy I mean that it took a few people um because it really hit the points I wanted to iterate in the book and it's really just a lot of great stories it explains you know there was a hockey game and during a power play they were way down 3 three or four enough and it's amazing what a team could pull through when you're when you when you got to get things done and you got the goals and you got the mindset correctly it's really that simple you know if you think about big machines like a McDonald's any big organization has to have systems and if you don't have systems you have chaos you have a bunch of employees running around managers putting fires out and when things are systematized and everyone knows what to do and how to do it there's just less chaos and fire you know I was on this show called American I forget the name of it was years ago American entrepreneur or something like that and I said where were you guys tell me an interesting story about where you guys were recently and the American dream I think the show was called and they said well we just got done with Kentucky fried chicken and KFC now and they open a new store every 11 hours and so my brain started just it went into a new phase of thinking where I was like what would the systems need to be you would have to have a blueprint for this building you'd have to have a leasing you know understanding how to buy the property the site plan the recruiting I mean all in 11 hours how robust that could be and then be able to get the marketing to keep that place slammed it's just absolutely phenomenal when you figure out you look at McDonald's or KFC or subway what they do and how they work their model I was watching something by ray crock about how he figured out you know you probably watched the movie with that came out but the founder figured out that that owning the property where the money's at and how do you grow with the franchise model works and it's never been my cup of tea but it works out well when it's in confined space I think restaurants are a lot easier than home service because we actually we've got people from East Coast to West Coast we gotta drive we gotta book the there's a lot more capacity planning bad city planning at KFC is do I have enough chicken you know and oil not exactly yeah no you're right and the franchise system is actually a great example of one that has to be perfect because the people who often buy a franchise are not necessarily entrepreneurial and they often you know buy a job so they have to plug themselves into a system that is foolproof systems you know people always ask there's that that that show called the prophet and it's Marcus Lemonis says people product process and people ask me which ones my favorite and I would say process because the process picks the people I mean you're right process to ride along forms the checks and balances the background checks the drug tests the driving record tests I mean it makes it simple you know we've got formulas that we know this how many people we need to interview to get the right person and it always changes over the course of 1/4 because we get better and better at putting materials out there that attract eight players but any players find work they're talking to people like gas stations they're asking for the HOA president they're out there to be an I meeting representing you they're recruiting for you at a restaurant it's amazing when you build a team but they need to have structure they need to have a a manual and a handbook and they need to understand well how to ask for PTO and they every single one of my employees has a scorecard and the manner stand where they're at and comparison to their team and we take the mean we let them know we have monthly one on ones and we're changing that student to buy every two weeks so I think the one thing too is I see a lot of businesses they criticize all the time and in public we'll say we need to be better at driving we need to do this we need to do this that's for a private conversation you should only be saying the great things in public because if it's always a drag to go to one of your meetings where you're just you're getting down on everybody it's not a good culture which is discussed in the book culture is key getting back to recruiting I like the way you recruit a lot of people look for people who are desperately looking for a job you don't necessarily do that with the system with Jody you are finding people who are generally employed but are looking for something better which is always a better hire 83% of people say they'd be willing to leave their current company they're at for a better opportunity the opportunity is not always money and that's what people think it's always about money well they you know they've been proven studies over $60,000 doesn't change much for an employee over 200,000 changes 0 um for the way employees will work and the way they'll do things so how do they feel valued and communicated with them do they have an opportunity to move up in the company and it might not always be money it might be a larger challenge and understanding what people are looking for should be when somebody interviews and they ask me a million questions see you all over the Internet studied your company I want to work for one I wanna career those are the best hires because they say exactly what they wanted Jody and I talked quite often and he's like Tommy you should see these people follow you on Instagram and on TikTok and on Facebook and LinkedIn and they know everything about you they want to work with you and I wish I had the personal relationships I had ten years ago with everybody but you know we're at 700 employees now and unfortunately I can't build the price spent 5 minutes with every person 3500 minutes there's not much that time in the year sure it works so I'm sure there's been a year yeah so like yeah so Tommy what you just said is what I tell people in terms of sales which is you don't want to sell to someone you want them to buy from you which means they're already interested in you so if someone contacts you on a form online or calls in and they say I want to purchase or I you know I need a new garage door I need a new air conditioning system they've already decided that they wanna hire you versus you doing a call saying hey can we come out and look at your garage that's right so it's a lot easier when that employee or the prospective employee says Oh yeah I've heard a lot of things about Tommy Mello and a one and it's a great place to work I hear and so they're already in the mindset of I can see myself there yeah you make a great point you know I used to do indoors for radio ads with that's right up your alley I mean I you know I used to do several people going back I mean there was different people but that that they have a loyal audience and someone could call in and they say hey I heard you going back I'm buying up the door from you come out I want to buy the best package I believe in you guys I believe in what you do and that's influencer marketing in a nutshell really and there there's a huge opportunity I mean look I'm still in The Beatles stages of this business I know I'm just getting started and it feels like a different company every year because of the growth and I'm more in the technology business style than the garage door industry but I got a lot of work to do and I'm still enjoying Mondays and that's my key of why I'm going to stay in this industry for another five years decade because I don't mind going to work on Mondays I love Saturdays but I also love Monday and I think a lot of people they when you start hating Mondays is when you might want to start looking at a new career yeah so for the business owner that doesn't like Mondays and they're really having trouble liking people in the office that's often when some people decide to sell to get out and um you know you hear about it all the time there's different reasons why a company may sell or an owner may sell and that's one of them you know the other there's too old they want to cash out but some people just go ahead yeah well most business owners they did the work they were the technician and they say I could do this good as long as I could keep the phone ringing and a lot of these businesses they had just enough success to stay in business but not enough to wanna cell because the business not might not be worth a lot So what I tell these people when you're getting into business you need to start thinking about a mindset of what people want to want to work for you your goal should be to take yourself out of the business unfortunately we don't have a lot of money when we start a business so we put in our sweat equity which is 2345 years of hard work and the biggest mistake that I commonly see is the owner and his wife are the owner and his or her husband will go out and they'll say we deserve this Harley we deserve this second house that's not making sense because you're not running it out and you take the thing that finally gave back to you and you divest it instead of putting it back in and this is the key to my success was area and I had the late gratification and I was able to make some tough choices to not divest into the one thing that I finally had enough money to make investments back into the business rather than divest and that's how you go it's amazing what people think that you've done in the year but underestimate what they get done in 5 and so that's why I think knowing what you want and having clear goals on how to get there they you should know exactly how many phone calls you need the three people three companies here I went through and it showed them how to budget and I said you want to make $10 million divide that simply by your average ticket that somebody calls you need you gotta divide that by your closing rate and your booking rate and then you just multiply that by your cost to acquire a customer and then that's how much your marketing budget is and then I could tell you exactly if you guys are running three to four calls a day how many technicians you can need so now you know exactly what you need to hit to be at a $10 million company is the example I use for them and I said now you guys understand in your mind exactly what the numbers need to be now I said let's tweak a few things let's raise your average take it a little bit let's increase your conversion rate by 5% and your booking rate by 6% your marketing budget literally just cut in half hmm sure and it's crazy how it works and it really is an easy formula once you do it in the plans but I just love business and I'm just getting started I really feel like so many people are like man you've made it you you've made a lot of money you're huge and I'm like no nothing I I just I feel like I'm just getting started like I dip my toe in the water it's all relative and you're an entrepreneur you love business you love the game and you can go down the list of people whether it's a Donald Trump or an Elon Musk or any of the greats they're all still every day doing it because that's what they do if they lost everything they get it all back real quick it's amazing how quickly they can get their billions back isn't it and so I'm just reading a book that that said if you were to give just disseminate all the money across equally the same top 10% would have the money back with them for years that's because that's the type of athlete they are that that's the athlete they are they're a player and they know how to do it they will never starve they will always be prosperous and it's because of who they are and understand everybody not everybody can be that player not everybody wants to be that player Tommy Mello is that player it's who he wants to be in it's relatively easy for you I'm not saying you don't work hard but it comes easy to you just like there are some natural athletes that can run circles around me it doesn't matter how much I train OK I was never going to be a Tom Brady he had a lot of innate qualities and he worked on a scale and he became arguably the best quarterback of all time or at least you know in recently he is he's definitely the best quarterback he's and he's got the proof the proof is in the pudding the Super bowl rings I mean alternately my biggest challenge and this is something I discussed with the president of the company yesterday for five hours is I need to make sure that I enable people and get the right leadership because unfortunately some of the things I'm working on now is super complex you know Elon Musk said he needed to be the rocket science artist for the first two years till he found the right person so I think one of the things I find in common about with billionaires and people living their best life and just because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you living your best life but typically you get a lot more choices money gives you choices uh they're the best networkers and I'm in this weird position in my life where there's three things that I'm kind of looking at that I'm looking at the networking and the speaking the podcasting the I'm putting a lot of content out and then the second piece is just the love and it just recognition of my internal customers that you can't put a price on and then the third one is the KPI's the things that run the business checks and balances systems processes manuals and so I'm just like i feel like sometimes it's too much time over here not enough time here maybe too much time here not enough there so that it's this balancing act then - It's not easy I'll tell you I'm my own worst critic and don't feel like I'm where I need to be but I also I just turned 40 and I'm happy where I'm at 40 I mean obviously I'd love to have kids and get married but um as far as my professional life and what I'm doing on a daily basis I enjoy my life and I think that not a lot of people would say that not a lot of people could say that I have fun because I'm the visionary and I get to work on the vision of where we're going and how we're going to get there and how to make a better situation than in the department and it's fun when it's working together and you know you're only as strong as your weakest link but if you get that weakly strong and start building those links out the system just starts perpetually growing and it's like it's pretty and pretty passionate about it and I know where I wanna go and uh building budgets doing financial quick checks getting involved in the finance side of the business I'm getting I would say I had an associate's degree in understanding how money worked and he now I'm getting a master's degree hopefully I get a doctorate and that's you know Ken Goodrich told me when you partner with a company that understands financial engineering you're going to be a freaking you are going to be a lethal weapon after the next two to three years and I'm like all right let's go so you have grown a tremendous amount since you started a one so let's step back in time let's go back to the beginning days when you are painting garage doors if I'm not mistaken that's what you were doing I could be wrong you're right and you had a partner back then and this wasn't that long ago I mean it it may seem that to you but people who've been around for a while they're like that wasn't all that long ago tell us about the conversion because when you look back at the Tommy Mello in the beginning of a one you weren't the same guy as you are today huge change yeah you know I think the fact was I was in the field every day although I never was a garage door technician for another company I was a technician within the company I would answer all the phone calls I was a CSR I'd do the payroll so I was in the payroll division that I would do the inventory so I learned every facet but back then I would say I never wanted to spend the money to get a great employee I was good at creating revenue not good at keeping it revenues for vanity province for sanity and over the course of the 10 years that I started I started reading I read the e-mail the album sales machine the richest man of Babylon and I just started to read and then I started to go visit very successful shops in HVAC because HVAC were the godfathers of home service they were getting the biggest multiples these the guys with the private planes in 1991 next door started it was called something 5000 and Frank Blau got together and they decided partner up with a lot of companies and really focus on understanding the budget and understanding manuals and building processes and hitting making six figures and still making 15% for the company so I studied these companies in I take away 10 gold Nuggets every time I visited and I just started going more and more where every week I was going visit any other company and I'd go apply it then go again go apply it then go again and then I got some really smart people to start working with me and I slowly task about the things that I hated because they loved it you know like I don't love you know a pivot table on an excel sheet but there's certain people that just they really love that doing that it's like makes them it fulfills them it's a bright it's a brain puzzle for them to do these things and I just I've built the business that the one that I enjoy you know it's so important to understand that too that not everyone is the same that's why we may put our people through you know a disk program to really learn who they are they may not know themselves you know are they D and an I or an S and that's helpful to everyone including management and so you're right there's different players on the team not everybody can be quarterback and not everyone should be and that everybody wants to be some people you know rather block some people rather you know receive you know it's true so there's just different players and you've done a great job Tommy and number one going back to what you're saying educating yourself you basically got on the phone or e-mail said may I come see your facility give me a tour I want to learn right can I fly here and do that and so you pushed hard to get to know other people and to see how they operate you made a lot of friends in the process then you bring it back home to a one and then you put the right people in the right place and it's it seems like magic and to some extent it is but most people can't do what you do because they get in their own way they don't know when to say it's not all about me yes today I can do it better than my hire but I've got to get these new hires training because we all think when we start a business and no one else can do it no one else can do it like me get out of the way I'll do it right I mean how many times have you done that and you know back in the day look don't even show up look when my partner would go out of town I love it because I would book the phone calls and run the jobs with our booking go up 25% and we make more money than ever and I didn't realize though how to coach people and also you gotta let people fall down and get back up like I did so in the interim you might lose some money in the course of taking yourself out of the business and people don't want to deal with that they've got beer and there's another thing is a lot of people are afraid to let go of the top guy because they depend on that revenue but sometimes you make those decisions now everybody comes up and they say man this guy serious he's not gonna let that guy roll his eyes at the meetings that guy was a pretty Madonna that always put the meetings down and always you know didn't show up on Fridays and they and you left this stuff faster than everybody else sees it and it's it could be the destruction of a company very quickly so don't let the uh inmates run the insane asylum yeah you know we hear about the disease or cancer running through an organization you need to cut it out cut out the cancer I I've spent a lot of time with many of your team members some of them I consider friends and it's truly remarkable um it's almost as if do you remember the show font well you wouldn't remember fantasy island but then they say the island came out back in the late 70s OK and it was about these people who would fly into this island and when they arrived the host Mr. Rourke would say smiles everybody smiles so when the guests came it looked like everything was a happy place and everything was utterly it's kind of like when you go to a one everyone's like that but they're not told to do it that's just who they are the harmony the family everyone wants to help everybody and it's almost unheard of I mean you're on the top point something percent of organizations in the country I think that have that type of culture in any industry and so I want to compliment you on that and it's just amazing I don't know what to say it's um like I said I feel like I could be better you know it it's can't get her sat down with me years ago and said you're growing yourself everyday outside of work you're spending the time and unfortunately you're gonna grow people because of how much time you're investing into yourself and I was sitting there you know obviously I took some chips off the table it was a significant amount of money and my buddy Keegan he's you know lots and lots of money and he's buying a private jet he's doing all these things he's got a beautiful house in Naples right on the ocean and he said you know Tommy I've got some pretty unfortunate news for you he goes your circle is about to get a lot smaller and he goes because everybody's gonna say you're changing but the problem that they don't understand is they're not changing they're not growing he goes so people say I've changed but the fact is it's because I'm reading every day I'm learning and I've got great mentors around me and he's accelerating his life I mean his neighbors are multi billionaire in these 2 hours a day together talking about stocks and investments and how they do that and as these people around you they don't grow unfortunately I think it's the people around you sometimes that are going at the pace and yes what it's like if you ever went golfing and you continue to get better you got a 20 handicap it's not as fun when you hit five your handicap becomes five the golf with those people at a 20 handicap they don't challenge you and it's not an insult but if they would apply the same practice and mindset to their golf game and try to get better with you then you know what do they say about high tide raises all boats or something like that but literally I think that's um it's it's it's unfortunate but it's very good for me to hear stuff like that because I want to be friends with everybody but there's certain people that I've literally had to try to pull out of the circle not best friends these guys are going to be my lifelong friends but I'm just saying it's certain people it's like success leaves clues everywhere you add up your closest five people you hang out with them your incomes usually within 20% of theirs and so it's I'm not choosing my friends based on income I'm not that's not who I am but obviously it's kind of nice to be able to say hey listen let's go to Australia it's 10 grand the ticket it's nice when other people say that's fine this stuff you know so I like spending time with you but it's tough keeping up with you so I don't want to be taken out of your circle so I'm gonna work as much as I can to keep up with Tommy Mello you know along those lines you know when someone grows up in a small town and then they go off and maybe they go to college and they study and they become an entrepreneur and they go back 20 years later to the high school reunion and the townies are like who do you think you are you know that's that type of thing right cause you've changed you've left the town and you grew you know it's an interesting point I think the people I grew up with are pretty happy you know it's crazy what Facebook and some of these social media sites do to watch people progress they seen the hard work the blood the sweat the tears that went into it they knew it wasn't always this easy I went to my master's program with grease on my hands every day and they look at me like I was a peasant what's this garage door with the rape man doing here had some lettering on the side and it was it was kind of a joke and I'd smell like grease and I knew I did and you know some people really just they didn't wanna be around me because they were trying to move up a promotion of Honeywell and I was sitting there just trying to get my bearings and I was doing it for me you know that's interesting so I moved into a new house I'm building a new office I just got some acreage and we're building another house in in in Sandpoint ID and right now the biggest thing for me that I need in my life is order I need new habits I'm getting someone to help us with meal prep where I'm gonna have the trainer that shows up to me even though my guy does he's gonna busy all these things once I get the order back once I don't wanna have rock to get dressed I want that stuff laid out for me like a like a Lieutenant in the army I want I don't wanna pack I don't want to worry about food or vitamins and the special the things because I can't buy health and I can't buy time so those are something I'm working on so once I get the organization and the right people and the new executive assistant and I've got the content manager now like I'm going to grow 10X inefficiency and it's hard for people to comprehend that because you know Elon Musk has the same amount of time in his day that we both do Warren Buffett was talking to Bill Gates years and years ago like probably 15 years ago and he said hey OK said I'd like to get on your schedule in three days I wanna go over a really big opportunity and Warren Buffett takes his uh schedule hands it to him and he opens up the planner and he goes well you got nothing tomorrow you got nothing on Thursday you have one appointment on Friday because then you make 4,000,000 a year and he goes yeah I've got great people that work for me I assure myself where it's needed and that's it you know my schedule is still really busy but the plan is to really start to focus on the business and I'm always doing stuff and I'm letting my team do them but the more I focus on the systems and the technology and whether that be AI or data mining I see leaps and bounds but I know I need to give the love and attention and recognition each person needs and I still don't need time for networking so it's just sitting down and getting stuff done and finding a conclusion and then applying it and I think that's very hard for a lot of people they don't know what to do when they walk into their business they say no I'm supposed to make manuals and they not supposed to dial in the CRM and I should have a training center I need to hire for this person the first thing is you need some help you need to find someone good at doing some of the things you're not and that should be your top priority and to give yourself your time back start hiring for what's pulling the most of your time so you're spending 20 hours a week on payroll that's the first person you need to hire you get 28 to 20 hours back yeah you know if you're an entrepreneur and you're a sales and marketing person like I am like you are too maybe you need a good operational person that makes sense right because you see that's not my strength I'm a visionary I'm an entrepreneur I'm a sales and marketing guy and I'm a networker I'm a connector I have a piece of you and me and we end up you know often being at the same event sometimes and sometimes speaking on the same stage because we like doing that and it's also good for our business and our brands and I really don't like the minutia I'm not an operations guy and I have people who do operational stuff for people like oh you know it's amazing what you do with these podcasts for contractors and stuff and so how does this work I'm like you'll have to talk to Amanda because that's what she does I I don't know but so it's good to have these people right and often when people show up at work at 8:00 o'clock in the morning or 6:00 AM depending upon when you show up you're getting ready to put that fire out you know there's going to be a problem and that's your job really your job as the owner as the president the CEO of your companies to be the firefighter it shouldn't be you should be the visionary you should be the driver of the company and you need to put people in place to put out fires but ultimately and Tommy will agree you should have less and less and less fires overtime yeah checks and balances data integrity the systems need to be well thought out and there's always a system that's improving it's improved that there should be stuff always going on in the business of looking at one of my buddies Ryan Meacham he's a consultant and when he wrecked he explained is that we reward people to find problems in the process it's like would you want Henry Ford finding the problem on the assembly line or would you want the guy doing the same work every day to make it faster and figure out ways so say listen the problem is if two people did this instead of one I guess speed of the action line back in the day with the model well nobody knows better than that person doing it every day so giving your people a voice matters as well and rewarding them to find issues that that that's a crazy mindset thought is to say listen you guys do this every day how do you think we can improve and as long as your people are saying we should get a raise for this and a raise for this which happens say listen how do we make this more efficient and it's funny because my Xavier the videographer I have he said we were making content and the question was what's the right way to ask your boss for a raise and he's smiling and I say well the best way to do that is to come up with a win and elevate mindset and say Tommy if I were able to figure out a way to make you an extra $1,000,000 can I keep 100,000 what person in their right mind would say no to that if I figured out a way to get a higher conversion rate and I just want you to share with me a little bit and here's how you win so the goal of the book elevate is to figure out a way that everybody could win when I sit down with a vendor I don't say I need a cheaper price I say what's your one year go what's your 3 year goal what's your product some of this area where are you struggling are you planning on opening or closing any stores where do you want me to grow inorganically how could I help you guys you're in return after I do this would make it a lot easier and it's not always a cheaper price I need to get my guys in and out faster I need you to open a separate pay for us to hold our special materials I need you guys to help us out with coop at the home shows and it's going to help your brand so my mindset is always what's in it for them how can I help them and how can we come up with a win and it's not always price that there's so much value that's delivered on other things than just price it's so smart so many people try to beat up their vendors and the vendors doing you a favor that's supplier you can do a lot more than just supply a product or service to your point Tommy maybe you know they can hold the inventory somewhere at their expense maybe it'll cost 2% more 10% more for that product but it's making your life easier now you don't need another warehouse with workers in that warehouse because you're supplier is going to hold on to it and do just in time inventory delivery and so it's just a smart thing to do is to you know with your team members with your suppliers um and anyone that's involved in the business how can we help you every time I leave a call a phone call or in person I say is there anything else I can do for you today it's these simple things it's not all about me however we've learned the most important person in the room is me is you everyone wants to hear their name and see it in the lights and they want to be recognized and so it's important that we say you know what can we do for you how can we help it and we learn what turns them on and what they want and what they want is something that's going to help them And when it helps them it could ultimately help us and a lot of us are just going around in our own little bubbles and we're like it's good for me I don't care if it's good for you give me the best price and we're just circling our little bubbles right and it doesn't work out that way So what Tommy's done is he's opened everything up and said hey how can I help you help yourself which will ultimately help everybody and it's a real simple style it's in elevate it's a great book I've read the book if you want a copy of it you can order it through this podcast in the description of the podcast is a link and you can get it and before we go there's five bonuses can we quickly go through these I've got them right here yeah you got them in front of you I know I do we built them but yeah let's do bonus number one is winning ads and application page checklists OK can you talk a little bit about that well we came up with some of the things we've done in the company uh with the five bonuses basically I've tested everything out in those bonuses and I came up with things that people actually could use and I just look this book I don't make money on a book I I don't what I've learned is somebody's gonna read these books and I'm going off tangent here but for some reason it always comes back full circle when you help other people and some people call me and they say I've got this amazing opportunity for you because I read your book and I just I got so much from it this is a little bit of gratitude to payback and I don't go into this expecting anything but I've taken these five bonuses just things that I've worked on for years and I think they're going to be very applicable if I went through each one you know it's a it's minutia because they're different bonuses but let's go through the model I'll speak to them a little bit sure so the first one is winning ads yeah so you know ads that convert better and you know with all the podcasting I've done with the top marketing companies in the in North America I found out some ads that do better than others and one of the best ads is a financial adding owner new unit for as low as $27.00 a month we've been having people to respond it's a little bit longer of a process you gotta be able to answer questions but it's a great fun my bonus number two is the interview bundle learning how to interview properly I just had the author of who on my podcast and it was absolutely phenomenal I've learned so much about interviewing correctly and having a system for interviewing she compare people bonus three the seven steps to delegation I learned that through Levi al keeps coming up he's like your uncle al I love that that was great guy bonus #4 objection handling system yeah you know I learned to peel back the onion a little bit for objections you know it's not always a price thing I was explaining to the people are just giving a tour or two a lot of times I add value it doesn't cost me a lot of money so learning how to handle objections is listening and finding out a win  situation like I said I don't want to lower my prices for you from the vendor well there's ten other ways to skin this cat and finding the true objection but you might say well I want to talk to my wife about this garage door what do you think she's gonna say she's probably gonna say it's too expensive OK well we've got other options because if you're not giving options you're giving ultimatum so let's figure out something that's gonna do everything you wanted you want this to order out of any issues for 10 years you wanted to be connected to the Wi-Fi wanted to make sure to keep all the nasty bugs out you wanted it to be an attractive door from the outside what corners do you wanna cut do you want it to be not insulated we could do that we could get you into a different we could give you and do a different price bracket but we're diminishing the value and by the way the garage door delivers 100% ROI in the home it's proven six years in a row remodel magazine it's better than your kitchens or bathrooms so and to understand an objection and be able to peel it apart and peel back those layers of the onion is important an objection is just another opportunity to sell and close #5 bonus 5 is my favorite and this is probably worth the most Tommy's personal rolodex yeah so I've taken tried and true vendors and you know whether it be rapid hire or you know there's certain people on there that I just I used and it took me 10 tries to use them thought to use other renderers and I finally found the right ones that actually are proven for $200 million company and the nice thing about these vendors is I started out small and they grew with me so the tried and true and you know what I felt like I could help them out and the people the audience by getting them more work and helping them succeed in their home service company elevate is the name of the book I've read it it's fantastic and the link to order is in the description of this podcast I read Tommy's first book I think this one is a bit better two totally different books but I think as we you know move on with things we get better at stuff and I think also that book was written a few years back and Tommy has learned so much more when you look at what Tommy's learned and you know when you look at his numbers and growth you know it's not like well you know ten years ago he was doing this and now he's finally doubled the business no no no no he's like doubling it in a very short amount of time so everything that Tommy's learned over time is in elevate but EI bet most of it is probably in the last five years or less you know it's interesting take 10,000 and double it nine times so you can figure out the double a couple times a year then you spent 4 1/2 years doubling it's amazing what you could get the rule of double is just an amazing rule and it gets you to these astronomical numbers and it's harder to double when you grow but if the systems are in place it's not as hard you look at subway the first 25 years then the chart when they figured things out it's like shrink and the systems dictate the output and there's quality controls in place and that's talk about that in the book and the bonuses include some of this stuff but success leaves clues I try to give as many clues as possible if you listen to the podcast the home service expert home service millionaire book elevate build the business for everybody wins I think that's uh been very open and let people do a shop tour I'd show them everything I'm working on I I find that even open book management letting people know our numbers letting them know our profitability every single employee it doesn't matter to me my coworkers is what I call them we'll find I call them employees in the beginning and then I start calling them coworkers because I find employees that work could be belittling all my employees they're my coworkers I get the honor to work with them absolutely some people call them team members which is better than employees as well and you certainly don't want to call them tools I'm just saying OK I've heard that before as well Tommy Mello on that note thank you so much my friend I appreciate it the book is elevate it's here in the description of this podcast order it if you don't have it and then go see Tommy speak sometime bring the book with you and have him sign it that'll be an extra thank you I appreciate it!

Enjoy the exclusive RYNOx 2023 Legends Panel! Home Services legends Leland Smith, Ken Haines, Ken Goodrich, Jimmy Hiller, Dave Geiger, and Paul Kelly join Chris Yano to answer the hottest industry questions at the biggest event of the year.     

We are still here in beautiful Atlanta, GA for the AHR Expo! Today, we are joined by Ken Goodrich and Josh Teekell! Ken is the CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing while Josh is the founder and CEO of SmartAC.com, Inc. With their years of experience, they continue to provide excellent customer service and meaningful contributions to the trades!In this episode, we talked about their respective businesses and how they're doing,  their thoughts on artificial intelligence's impact on the trades, the importance of maintenance agreements, and more!You surely don't want to skip this episode featuring 2 of the game-changing leaders that we have in the trades, do you? Get your drinks and enjoy this one!What are your thoughts on the AI that's coming out now on stuff like Chat GPT?What's the importance of maintenance agreements?How do you constantly talk about a story over and over again with your team so that it doesn't erode with what you are doing, especially when you get to the size of the business that you're at?How do you get customers to become raving fans of your business?Find Ken :On The Web: https://www.goettl.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoettlTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@goettlairInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/goettlair/Find Josh :On The Web: https://www.smartac.com/Via Email: josh@smartAC.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmartACHomeTwitter: https://twitter.com/SmartACHomeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/smartachome/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jateekell/Join Our Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hvacrevealedPresented By On Purpose Media: https://www.onpurposemedia.caFor HVAC Internet Marketing reach out to us at info@onpurposemedia.ca or 888-428-0662Sponsored By: Sera Systems: https://sales.sera.tech/hvac-revealed Chiirp: https://chiirp.com/hssrProfit Rocket: https://callprofitrocket.com

Uncle Joe Crisara is America's Service Sales coach! Joe joins Jim Klauck on Bring On Success to discuss the upcoming True Grit 2023 event being held at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2nd-4th 2023. Check out this episode to learn why you and your home service team should attend. Tommy Mello from A1 Garage Door Service will be Kick Off Key Note Speaker on the Day!  Ken Goodrich from Goettle Air Conditioning and Plumbing will be speaking as well. Joe has been helping service companies for nearly 45 years and has performed services for companies just like yours.  Like you, Joe suffered frustration & heartbreak, and poured out the blood, sweat & tears it takes to survive. Over time, Joe has learned to change how he did things and was able to get more traction and better results. Joe is here today to help all of us in service businesses thrive!  Not just survive!  Space is limited to only 200 attendees! Click Here To Reserve Your Seat - Service MVP True Grit.   Imagine your business one year from now…   Your office, service, sales, and installation teams delivering that “WOW” experience to every client.   Your team creating customized premium, mid-range, and economy solutions for every customer.   Your team assisting clients to bring every opportunity to the most profitable conclusion   Motivated team members trained to provide the best service possible in every situation.   See high revenue and profit Online reviews filled with 5-star ratings and glowing praise

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I am your host, Corey Berrier, and I am here with my man TJ Hartnett. I always screw everybody heart net? Heart net. Look, Just look. Podcast, bro. I miss everybody's last name up, so my apologies on that. [00:00:14] You're good. Tj, what's up my man? How are ya? I'm doing great. Doing great. Just at a great event last week. Ready to go to another great event this week and Philadelphia Sports, we're pretty kick butt this weekend, so it's, I'm feeling pretty good. I bet, dude. You gotta be tired. So you went to Tommy's event last weekend, right? [00:00:33] Vertical track. I did vertical track last weekend and then this weekend is Service Rocket for the service Rocket Group or, Victor Service Hero or profit Rocket, or whatever name it might be this week, But I'll be at that group that's gonna be, that's gonna be sweet. Should be a pretty good turnout. [00:00:52] They've got a lot of people, a lot of big name people coming there, there are. And from my understanding, it's gonna be plus or minus about a thousand people in attendance from all different, spaces. And there are people that chose to invest in themselves. So that kind of gets me excited, anytime you got somebody spending money to better themselves, they come with a little bit of different intentionality. So that's a cool thing. I agree with you. I totally agree. And I, one thing that I think, and I don't know if you have it, I don't know if you've experienced this or not, but do you sometimes feel like it's a, it is too much information? [00:01:29] Like it's an overload. I do, and it's one of the things that I talk about when I'm on stage was, you're gonna come and you're gonna get absolutely fed through a fire hose. Try and make sure you're taking away, at least somewhere between one and three things that you're actually gonna deploy. [00:01:46] And so when they come and you're like, Hey, that'll change our business, that'll change how we do what we do, whatever that's gonna impact us, and do it quickly. Low-hanging fruit, so to speak. Write it down, put an action plan together for it, which I'll walk 'em through how to do, and then file it away so that you can pay attention to everybody else. [00:02:06] But trying to, Oh, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna, then you're gonna get back and you ain't gonna do a damn thing. So I really try hard to guide people. Hey, one of the three things that you're gonna do that's gonna make your business run better than it did before you came and you're good. [00:02:21] Shoot, if you just do one thing better that's a win, right? So much good information comes [00:02:26] out of these events and if you try, as you said, if you try to capitalize on all of 'em, it's just you're gonna wind up, going in a circle and not being very successful. [00:02:36] TJ, right now you are actually, I should just let you introduce yourself by Apologies. Why don't you introduce yourselves, since we're halfway through the show. . There we go. No, so TJ, and I am the president and CEO of a company called the Flywheel Coaching Group. [00:02:53] We're a business coaching and training organization for the trades. But we're more boutique-like I'm not looking to be the next stars or the SGIs or those really larger groups. Because I'm just too relationship-driven and too relationship-focused to be where we're headed right now, right? [00:03:10] I wanna be able to come alongside businesses and help 'em where they're at with what they need. We do have a beginning program that we go through that we refer to as our foundational five, and everybody goes through it no matter what. But the only reason being is early in my career as a coach, I didn't do that and, inadvertently hurt some folks. [00:03:27] Where had I done it better things would've happened versus the outcome that they had helped 'em sell really out of the gate, but they weren't priced right. So you can imagine how that worked out. And so just vowed to me that I was never gonna not have the commitment. [00:03:43] Looking over these five core things before we get rolling. Regardless of whether you're a $1 million business or a $50 million business, we're looking at these and it's made things go, a whole lot better. So we're just gonna keep on doing that. What so what five things do you look at [00:04:03] So we look at your billable hour or your pricing because now we've got margin pricing that's been introduced to the game. On the service side we're gonna look at your financial statements, so your profit and loss statement, your income statement, your balance sheet. But we're looking at them not only for completeness but for structure. [00:04:24] Because what I find with most financial statements is that they're set up to make life easy for your accountant, not for you to actually make data-driven decisions about your business. . And so we're gonna, we're gonna go ahead and make sure that it's set up in a way that you can look at it and within five minutes you know where you're bleeding from and you know what's happening and why it's happening. [00:04:43] We're gonna go through, we're gonna get core values and mission statement taken care of because from a cultural standpoint, a lot of people, I'll be talking on this week, a lot of [00:04:52] people they want to have a great, healthy culture, but they've done nothing to align the people in order to create that great healthy culture. [00:04:59] And so core values and mission statement are the very foundation of that. And then lastly, as an organizational chart, I always recommend that we look out three to five years and we build the organizational chart for the company that we want to be versus the company that we are today. And it empowers the rest of the team to see not only what are they doing and what are they responsible for and who's in charge of their care, but it also sees what opportunities lie ahead and how would I go about positioning myself to be somebody that might be able to fill one of those. [00:05:29] So it just brings a lot of clarity and allows us to make way better decisions later on in the coaching than if I didn't pay attention to those things out of the gate. Dude, I'm so glad you said that because that makes, it makes complete sense here's the thing if one of those areas is off the wholly other, the whole wheel doesn't spin because there's a spoke missing. [00:05:51] And those I'm like, now I'm putting it together. . So like it, But you are a thousand percent correct. And I think one of the things that you hit on specifically, and I don't personally map out organizational charts for people because I, but I understand the value and I understand what it is. [00:06:07] That's just not my specialty, right? Yep. But it is super important, and we've all heard this, to have the right people in the right seats on the bus because if you don't, the bus's not gonna run. Not properly. No. Unfortunately, like the ADHD kids like us, you can't put us in the back of the bus. [00:06:27] We gotta sit up by the bus driver, so we behave, it's not that we're any different of a child or different of an individual, but when you put us by the bus driver's got their intent right on us. And we're doing what we need to do so we don't get in trouble. Whereas the more trustworthy kids are the ones that you're gonna put, in the back of the bus. [00:06:42] And I don't mean trustworthy from like ethics, but trustworthy from them, not every little thing distracts 'em, it's some of those challenges, but no, to your point what we uncover is more often than not, the reason that I get into it is nobody really knows what sandbox they own and what sandbox they need to ask permission to climb into. [00:07:05] And. That's where I find like 80% of the things that happen in an organization that isn't fun stem from is overlap, I [00:07:18] think is what you're, that's part of it. It is, It's it it's overlap and then it's the feelings and the beliefs and things that are tied to the overlap, being able to occur and occurring because in one person's mind it shouldn't, And then in the other person's mind, they just think they're trying to help and there are no clear boundaries. [00:07:38] And I often talk about I'll make parallels with kids all the time because I, quite honestly, all of us are still kids. We're just older and we can vote and smoke and drink. But at the end of the day, when it comes to the kid thing like I tell people give me one child that you've ever met that didn't have any rules, that didn't have responsibilities, that didn't have chores. [00:07:58] That was an amazingly well-behaved child. You can't, Nope. At the same time, share with me a child that was just an absolute nightmare. But the parents had rules and the, again, you can't, Right? So it's the same thing in an organization. These things have to exist for them to have the freedom of which they seek. [00:08:23] Yes. Not to reign them in. It's Hey, now this whole pasture out here, this whole area, go have fun and do your thing. We can do that. And it's safe because the fence that's around it, we know keeps the bad stuff out, keeps them in. And that's really what those five things do for an organization it gives us a better chance of keeping the bad things out and the good stuff in. [00:08:51] And really a lot of that, a lot of that is, is structure, which, I, you know I don't like, I like structure. I don't like being structured. Does that make sense? Like I don't Yeah, of course, it makes sense. Give me the confines with which I can work, but don't tell me how to do it. [00:09:09] Yes, Correct. A lot of our clients are that way. A lot of 'em. Large majority. Yeah. Absolutely. So as long as you know that, then you can, work with them accordingly. But it's, it, I lost what I was saying. Are you good? It was confines and things of being, being, liking structure, but not wanting someone to try and make you structured and Right. [00:09:35] And think about this when we're trying to tell our clients to do something, Do you think that's really that's the wrong approach, [00:09:44] Cory, in fairness, I'm a coach, not a consultant, so I don't tell anybody to do anything. Yeah, me either. I'm gonna ask better questions to get them to discover a better answer for themselves, and I'm gonna come alongside 'em and help them to hone a skill set that they may not have or that maybe isn't as good as it needs to be. [00:10:06] But I'm not gonna necessarily tell 'em to do. The only thing that you have to do if you're my client is you have to not be a jerk, if I come and meet with you and you're like, Hey, teach me how to take more of the customer's money, I'm now, you're not your coach, that we're done conversation over. [00:10:22] Aside from that, And the same thing towards your internal people, of course. But aside from that, if you're like, Hey, I really like to do this way, we're gonna have a conversation about it, We're gonna uncover that. Doing it that way isn't hurting anybody, it's delivering a predictable result that's desired. [00:10:37] We're gonna go, and if it is, guess what I'm gonna tell you? Good. Keep doing that next. Yeah. Like it, it's not a size fits. And I think that's one of the other big differentiators in the coaching space is a lot of these groups, if you wanna deviate from the structure or from the book, all of a sudden now you're doing it wrong. [00:10:55] The last time I checked Corey, the thing that makes us all special is our uniqueness. That's right. And so I don't want everybody, I don't want to create 50 TJs running around. I want to create 50 individuals running around that have been influenced by me in certain areas. The only reason they're influenced by me in those certain areas is cause I was fortunate enough to be influenced by a lot of people in the course of my time and my career. [00:11:23] And, I got to post a picture this week with Keith Mercurio. And what that guy has meant to my career, along with a few other folks is unquestionable, right? Did we ever go and eat dinner together and all those types No. But he's the coach that cared enough about me to force me through some things that I didn't want to deal with, right? [00:11:42] And to force me through looking at things through a different lens than the way I was looking at them. And had he not done that, I wouldn't be where I'm at today, right? And so there's a handful of those people in my career. I'm sure there is one for you. And so every chance I get to show them my gratitude, man, I make sure I take it a hundred percent. [00:12:07] A hundred percent. Those folks, they're not a [00:12:10] dime dozen. No, they're not. And when you get somebody, I've got one of my, one of my best friends. He just is the salt of the earth, the best human being that's ever been on this planet, and would give his shirt off. A lot of people are that way, but he's just different, right? He's just different, he just tends to relationships on a level that's just really, it's just really special. And it sounds like Keith is very similar to that of you. A million percent. And like I said, it's one of those things where it wasn't hours upon hours of interaction. [00:12:41] It was the right interaction at the right time with the right amount of follow-up afterward. And over the course of man, I guess now it's probably been the last 15 years we've just stayed connected. It might be. Five Facebook messages a year. It might be two phone calls. It might be running each other at an airport That's happened twice. [00:13:06] It doesn't have to be much, but as I said, when you take, not just Keith, but it's an opportunity for me to give some thanks here real quick, right? Is you take a Mark Atherstone, you take a Weldon Long, you take a Kenny Chapman, a Keith Mercurio, right? These are all guys that had such an influence on my career and in helping to shape me from when I was wet clay to what I am now, that I'm more like a dingy old pot [00:13:38] That I, I wouldn't be where I'm at if they hadn't been a part of my life. And so I just make sure that I express that gratitude when I'm near 'em. And I just, man, I really pray that, that I'll have a hundredth of the influence over somebody in the course of my career that those guys had over me. [00:13:54] Because if I do, the mission should accomplish the rest of it really doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. And I'm I agree with you. I, there's something about it, it's interesting that because, Keith treated you like you and I talked about before this show, just like we, treat the people that we deal with, which is, you do add value first. [00:14:13] And we hear that a lot of times, and it's really a kind of a buzzword for a lot of people. But really what we're talking about with the value portion is you just do stuff outta the goodness of your heart to make somebody's life better. And that's the name of the. It's a hundred percent the name of the game. [00:14:30] And it's one of those deals where we're all on this planet together. [00:14:36] If everybody would just approach it this way, which I know is utopian, I know it's not gonna happen. But if they did, it'd be a whole lot better place. And that's where I will give an insane amount of credit to Tommy Mellow and Bree Avalo at the Vertical Track event. [00:14:53] Corey, I've never been to an event in all my years. And so let's put this into perspective. I, day one for me in the trades was October 1st, 1994, right? Sorry. October 4th, 1994 was my very first day. It was where I went in and I was an apprentice and didn't know anything over the course of the last 28 years. [00:15:20] I've been to a lot of industry events. The one I was at last week was the very first time I've ever been to an industry event where the only thing that you could see no matter where you looked was people caring about each other. The three or four times I heard, like some negativity may be potentially starting up right behind it was somebody coming up and going, Hey, just real quick, I, I know you're frustrated, but is the conversation you're about to have, is that gonna get you closer to where you want to go? [00:15:55] Or is it gonna get you further away and shifted the course of the conversation? Or, Hey, I know you're hurting and everything, but are you bringing value right now, or are you tearing down and this happened across, I don't know how many, hundreds or thousands of. For three solid days. I've, But you, I've never been in an event where that was the case. [00:16:24] And so one of the rarities I, it's the longwinded post that I warned everybody about. I was like, Hey, long post rant. I just had to share it with everybody, my perspective on it on social media, not to kiss up, not to, Oh, Tommy this or Tom. The only way that happens is for you to breathe it and live it and follow it and surround yourself with other people that do the same thing and genuinely care. [00:16:53] Because any other way, it'll, you'll see it, but it won't permeate everything. [00:17:02] You can't fabricate authenticity. It was insane. I was excited to go home and see my family, but I did not wanna leave. Dang. I hate I missed that, man, here's the good news, they'll do it again. And I have to believe that it won't feel any different. [00:17:24] Because of the level of care and things that, that they're putting into it. It, just was really like you talk about value first. That entire event was valued first. And it started with them giving the shop tour of a one taking us through different areas. Then you go into the break room and there's this enormous, I'm talking like going into garage convenience store side drink thing with the same number of choices, Corey, the same number of selections of beverages, and it just took what you want. [00:17:55] If you want something, go get whatever you wanna drink. Just go have it. There are video games there. Who wants to play video games? By the way, Tommy, I'm gonna beat you at Buck Hunter one of these days. But anyway, there were a lot of opportunities there and it made you feel like you mattered. And, I was, I was on a call recently where somebody said something about, my view of culture. [00:18:16] And so I said this, I don't think people quit jobs. I don't think people quit because of their manager or their boss, right? People are like, Oh, they don't quit jobs. They quit managers. I think they quit cultures a hundred percent. I think people are somewhere where they don't feel valued, They don't feel uplifted, and they don't feel like there's opportunity. [00:18:42] And when those things happen, they don't stay. I look back at my career and look if we looked at my resume, I bet you half the people that are listening who are in leadership positions would look at my resume and go, I ain't hiring him. He stays nowhere long enough. I wasn't discontented or disillusioned, I just didn't put up with bs. [00:19:04] So if you said, This is how we are and this is what we do, and then you didn't do it, you lost me. Yeah. I don't mean to a point where there was no room for making mistakes, but you know what I'm talking about? Like these just egregious things of Oh, we care about our people and then being on the phone, talking to 'em in a matter of which that we wouldn't talk to anybody. [00:19:24] Correct. I would see that was what the case was and then I was out, [00:19:28] or I would get somewhere and see that the revenue was the primary focus, the primary objective, the only thing they cared about, and I was out. You have to. It can't be the main focus. It cannot be. It's the result. It's always the result. [00:19:44] For sure. And that was just, Simon Sinek has his most recent book, Infinite Game. Maybe one of the greatest gifts any author ever gave me was his writing that book. Because up until I read it, I did think I was disillusioned. I did think I was a discontented person with a discontent heart. [00:20:02] I did wonder, Hey, how come I haven't stayed at employers? The longest tenure of employer employment that I had was eight years after that. The next longest was like three, and then most of the rest were two or fewer. And I looked at that and I went, Man, I, what's wrong with me? And then I read that book. [00:20:27] And then I read where he talks about that very specific challenge and I went, Holy crap. I had an infinite mind working for finite-minded people. And that's what the issue was. And now I look back and I'm like, Man, I feel a whole lot different about myself. If you think about some of those places that you didn't align with, right? [00:20:52] If you go back in your Rolodex, in your head, you can probably count most of those companies are probably not doing great because if you felt the misalignment Yep. Then other people feel the misalignment. Customers feel a misalignment. Eventually, the thing is gonna burn down. Yeah. Or somebody's making money, but their marketing budget is like 15% and the employees are new every year. [00:21:19] And there's a runway for that. Eventually, that's gonna stop. It is. And that's, that, that goes into now you're talking about human beings that you're recycling through for money, and that, that's on a whole different level. That's I'm a thousand percent with you on that. [00:21:33] It was just, it was eye-opening for me to read through that and pull from it what I did and now be able to go out and deploy it. But like I said, when I was at Vertical Track, I just tell you, like I, and I, and it'll I'll probably talk about this for quite a while. [00:21:49] It'll probably be years from now and somebody will ask me a question and then I'll bring it [00:21:54] back up because it was that impactful. And there's not a way for me to really get past like my wife even said, she's Man, this really affected you. And I went, it did, It really affected me. It really, I came back. [00:22:08] Corey, I walked back into my house a better man than I left. Dang. Because I had those days with those people. [00:22:25] That sounds like my eye lost a journey, but on a different, a different plane there. But yeah, that's something on my bucket list by the way. We'll talk about that on a different day. Oh yeah. I've done it twice. It's life-changing. Yep. But that love that you felt coming home, that love that you felt in that event, it would be about 10 times that. [00:22:42] And it, it's wild and yeah, I'll talk to you about it at a later date. That's just, you've me, you've mesmerized me with that story because you just don't hear that. You don't, you, I don't hear that. You hear that, x, y, z person was there, or, Peyton Manning was there, or who. [00:22:59] but I always ask myself like, What the hell is Peyton Manning gonna teach me? I'm a, I work with people in the trades. What the hell, What is he gonna teach me? He's not gonna teach me anything, so I really don't care if he's there like that kind of stuff. Just, I just don't, I don't put much value on it. [00:23:16] That's all I'm saying. I, so I'm with you, But here's the thing. Tommy didn't have any celebrities. Oh, that's fair. But that's interesting. There were, there are celebrities to all of us in the home service space but there were no celebrities at the event, the closest thing to celebrities I would say would be Joe Polish and Ken Goodrich. [00:23:33] And if you'd say Joe Polish or Ken Goodrich to the general public then, and none of 'em gonna know who the hell those guys are. From that side of things, like they're celebrities to us and they mean a lot to us because of all they've done in our space but they're not the Mike Tysons or the Fitzgeralds or whomever that you might get to come and do a keynote speech. [00:23:54] And I'm not saying there's no value in those things, but I think it breeds a different attendee. Agreed. And a different culture of the event of what's actually happening. And so yeah, I just, thought it was super well done. I can't wait to be a part of it again. [00:24:14] And I look forward to seeing how it affects [00:24:20] how I move forward. Cause I know that there's gonna be times where stuff's gonna come up, and that's gonna be in the back of my mind of are you honoring what was gifted to you at that event with the way you're handling this situation? So I'm gonna ask you a hard question. [00:24:37] It shouldn't be a hard question, but what is, give us one thing that you took away from that event that just you feel like it was something that, if you're willing to share that. Yeah. The way we look at other people, the way we look at other people, you can look at other people, and you can judge, which look I try really hard not to do, but let's be honest, there are times I do it right. But it's even more profound than that, right? It's you're teaching a class, and somebody is disruptive in that class. [00:25:11] And right away mindset goes to, man, this guy's being a jerk. Instead of, I wonder what this guy's got going on that's making him feel or think that this is the best way to handle himself in this situation. And then taking it the next step and going, Man, I'm really grateful that he's in my class today because we met at the right time. [00:25:34] Because I am gonna be the person that's gonna care enough about him to figure that out. And I will a hundred percent guarantee you. Like I did not think about those things that way prior to that class, prior to that event I do now. And so what's that gonna do? That's just, it's just gonna make. The environment that much more inviting to be a part of and show people that, the old adage of it's easier to catch flies with honey than it is with vinegar, right? [00:26:07] Like it, I don't know why you wanna catch flies, but still . But that's the truth, right? And so you left there realizing, and I guess it's simple, but it's also somewhat profound. You left there realizing it's actually easier to be nice than it is to be a dick. Like it takes more energy to be a jerk to people than it does to just be nice. [00:26:30] I would almost argue it might take the same amount of energy. So really you could just take a pick. If it, ultimately you're not gonna lose, you're not necessarily gonna lose energy one way or another, but, so if that's the. Just make a different decision. That's just it. But to [00:26:46] me, the reason that I say more energy is because when the interaction is over, I dunno about you, but if I was a jerk to somebody, like the interaction doesn't stop at the interaction, then I think about it after the fact. [00:26:58] And sometimes I like rehash it. Yeah. I almost never do that when I was nice cuz it's just how I'm supposed to be. So it ends up taking more of my energy to be difficult or conflicting or a jerk than it does to just simply treat people the way that they deserve to be treated. Or maybe not, maybe deserves not the right word. [00:27:20] Maybe worthy is the right word. Like we're all worthy of being treated as human beings that have feelings and needs and wants and desires. A hundred percent. And I, and I especially wanna hone in on that for just a quick second. that, I, and I don't do this, but I see this happen a lot, is people will just rip people apart online. [00:27:44] And I, it bothers me, It really bothers me because you don't know what that person's going through and you're just jumping in on this bandwagon of garbage, but you know nothing. And this hasn't happened to me, so I'm not the victim here. I'm not saying this hap this never happened to me, but I just don't understand like why people, Paul, And there's a specific situation I'm thinking about that happened not long ago between two people that I know. [00:28:10] They both acted like total idiots online. And like I sat there and watched this interaction and I'm like, Y'all are supposed to be like leaders and y'all are acting like you're in prison again, which is ridiculous. And so I, I just think that. Think about how you think about how you wanna be talked to. [00:28:31] And I know that goes back to treat people how you'd wanna be treated, but really it is that simple. You probably wouldn't talk to yourself, not you or me, But some of these people wouldn't, you wouldn't talk to yourself the way you talk to other people, right? Or worse case. So here's the other one that I uncovered, right? [00:28:50] For those of us that have challenges with our internal voice, would you ever let somebody else talk to you the way that you sometimes let yourself talk to yourself? Nope. So it, it goes both ways. Corey, I a hundred percent get where you're coming from. But the answer is no. So just knock it off. [00:29:08] It's a, it's wasted energy. There's nothing good that's gonna come from it. [00:29:12] Whether it's you talking that way to somebody else, you talking that way to yourself, the only thing it's doing is creating muscle memory for you to continue talking that way. So just, yeah, stop doing it. I'll tell you, I, and this is something I've worked on really hard over the last three years I guess you could say. [00:29:31] But more importantly, and really it comes down to, it's a decision, right? And if you just look at it like that, it's just a decision that I can choose to feel like garbage or I can choose to just not let that thing affect me. And guess what? If it's not within my arm's reach, I don't really have that much control over it anyway. [00:29:54] So why am I worried about what's happening next month or what happened last month? I can't do anything about that. Nope. Right now, today, no. And alls it does is take away what. Enjoyment might be available for you today, . And that's where I think the energy de depletion comes from. Is the stress to your point about, it takes more energy to be upset because you invite negative energy into your life. [00:30:21] And I don't know about you, but I pick up on people's energy. I know when people are being genuine and when they're not. And I know if people are telling me the truth or not. Like it's just people. There's in ADHD people get this because all, most of us are impacts and most of us can see four or five steps ahead. [00:30:40] Most of us can see steps ahead for everybody else, but it's hard to do it for ourselves. Let's see. There's a whole list of things. Yeah. So I think one of the things in this space though right now that that bothers me a little bit. And I promise this is gonna be a positive thing, not a negative thing is that we don't, we're not putting enough time and attention on just simply being good people to other people in our salesmanship, right? [00:31:12] Everybody wants to learn how to be better closer. Everybody wants to learn how to be more persuasive or for what? Yes, stop all that. I just want to get to know the people better and understand what it is that they're challenged with and what they're true. Like desired state, if you will, is Cory, if you could wave a magic wand and [00:31:38] make your house feel a certain way, tell me what that would be, right? [00:31:43] What's the humidity level, What's the temperature? What's the, when the sun shines through the window, is there stuff floating in it or not? When you drink water, are you chewing it too? Like asking them questions about and then going, All right, so Cory, based on those things that we've discussed, which of them are of the top priority that you wanna make sure that I try and solve for you today? [00:32:05] It doesn't have to be more complicated than this yet. We probably spend millions of dollars as an industry making it more complicated than this. And alls we need to do is just start caring about people, apply the fifth abbot, right? The fifth habit of seek first to understand, then to be understood and get after it right? [00:32:33] Genuinely care. And I think the reason we spend millions of dollars. is because I think everybody thinks it can't possibly just be this easy . Sure. It can't possibly just be that you just have to care. No, it really is that easy, right? We talked about previous performance and things of that nature, right? [00:32:53] And so I was on a panel and I got to sit next to some ridiculous people on this panel. As far as what they've accomplished, right? We're talking Tommy Mellow, Brent Buckley, Victor Rancor Lance Bachman, right? We're all on this panel. Start talking about sales and how, back in the late nineties, early two thousands, a million dollars in sales was like a really big deal. [00:33:17] And then afterwards when we were done, I got to talking and I said, I don't really bring this up a lot, but did you know that I did 1.2 million in sales in 2000 and I didn't sell equipment? [00:33:32] And like a bunch of people just went What'd you just say ? I was like, Yeah, I did. I did a little over 1.2 million in sales as a technician in 2000. And I didn't sell equipment. It was all repairs, add-ons, accessories, enhancements, rejuvenation, no equipment. And they're like, How? And I'm like, 1.2 million worth of stuff was wanted by the customer. [00:34:02] That's it. [00:34:04] That's it. So just think we've gotta change the lens that we look through and stop being so concerned about the sales and start being concerned about how many new friends we can make and how many problems we can solve and truly care. And the problem with it is this, you can't fake it. [00:34:23] That's right. You absolutely cannot bake it because there's incongruence. I'll tell you, you're you can have a poker face, but you can't have a poker body. So your body will always tell the truth. Did you know that? Look, I could tell people I eat healthy all the time. The minute I stand up and the belly comes out, , all that's off right now. [00:34:51] I can tell you this, I'm getting a whole lot better than I used to be, which is why there's less of me now than there was 10 years ago. But no, exactly to your point, Corey, like the other side of it is this is, if I watch you for longer than today, you'll review yourself to me. Yeah. Which is why I don't like doing one and two day onsite. [00:35:16] Nope. I want, I, people are like, You're just trying to sell me more. I'm like, No, I need at least three days to see who you truly are. Yeah. Cause everybody can fake it for a day or two. You really need five days. Truly. I like to have five anyway. I like to have five as well, but when five's not available, three and four are all I'm doing. [00:35:41] If it's a one day thing, it's for me to teach a class, not to do an onsite. It's like I'll come and teach a customized class to your team, but it's not for onsite related things. One in two days is strictly for content. Let's clarify that for the audience, because that's really important. Because one thing that, Yeah, just yeah. [00:36:00] Clarify why you don't come in for one day or even two days and then leave. And my guess is whenever you come in for a how about this? You just tell me. I won't guess. You just tell me. No. So the people can select that they want to have you on site anywhere from one day to five days. And then they can do more than five days, I'm excited. I'll be not sure if it's February or March, but I'll be in Australia most of the month. Next year. So that's gonna be a good time. But when I go on site, [00:36:30] if it's for one day or two days, it's specifically for me to teach a specific class and give a specific skill set. It's not for me to uncover anything. [00:36:39] It's not for me to help solve any issues or put something in place that's not in place, cuz it's not enough time to do it. Three, four and five days is where we start getting into those other things. And quite frankly, sometimes they're not enough. And here's what I will tell you. Every onsite I've ever done, we went with an agenda. [00:36:57] And if it was a full week, by the third day, the agenda no longer looked the same as it did when I got there. Because the truth comes out what the company really needs, what the people really need is different than what we might have thought they needed virtually through Zoom meetings, right? [00:37:17] And so it's impossible to give lasting change in a day or two because people won't reveal who they truly are. The other side of it is if you don't start by uncovering beliefs, you're wasting your time on everything else you do. Because if the beliefs aren't aligned with it, you could teach people all you want. [00:37:42] Nothing's gonna change. You've gotta understand what are their beliefs, why are they there? Where did they come from, and how committed are they to them? And then once you understand all of that, then we have an opportunity. To make improvements or adjustments even. But without that, you're just really listening to yourself talk, and that's why we have this happen. [00:38:07] Oh, the guy was on site and he, after he left, we did great for a week or two, but then it went right back to where it used to be, and then we had to call him back and pay him another X, y, and Z number of dollars. That's why that happens. Yeah, of course it is. That seems like the model sometimes. [00:38:24] Yeah. My view as a coach and I'm pretty sure you're the same way. You should eventually outgrow me. Yeah. Yeah. My skill sets are what they are now. Am I constantly trying to improve them? Yes. But they are what they are. Like I'm really good at the things I'm really good at, but I stay in my lane. [00:38:44] If you wanna know. What to do to have the absolute best marketing plan you possibly can. I am not your guy. Nope. If you want me to look at your [00:38:56] marketing plan and tell you if I'd make adjustments, like I'm okay with that, but I'm not the guy to, to refine your marketing program. I'm probably not the guy to, come in and tell you what you should be doing with your office staff as far as dress code and things like that on its own. [00:39:20] But yet we hire people for this shit all the time. I don't know how you do it without looking at what everything else that's going on. And that's why I'm not any good at those things. So I'll adjust and come in. If you want your team to follow a process, if you. want beliefs aligned. [00:39:38] You want culture healthier? I'm a hundred percent your guy, but it isn't happening overnight. I'm not gonna promise it's gonna happen overnight. And there's a lot of hard work that has to get done. And I do think, and I know we're like jumping around, but welcome to adhd, is, I think that's one of the challenges of social media for us today because everyone's looking at some of these different, or operators that are out there that grew from zero to 50 million or zero to a hundred million or whatever in four years, five years, seven years. [00:40:11] So what you don't know the story behind that. You don't know what's behind the curtain of Wizard of Oz. You, we don't know how leveraged they were so that when the payoff happened, how much they actually walked away with. And here's the other thing, it also, it doesn't matter cuz it's them not you. [00:40:30] it's their team, not your team. It's their people, not your people. It so stop looking at everybody else and start looking internally and go, Hey, what do I really want for myself, my team, my clients, and my company? And then devise a plan and go get it. But stop looking at everybody else. This is where we gotta be. [00:40:50] Like those horses in the Kentucky Derby where they wear them things and the whole reason they wear those things is cuz if they could see the guy over here instead of running the race, they'd fight with him. Yeah. That's where we've gotta get, I'll be honest dude. I do that to a degree with, and similarly, like when I'm working I'll put on Bial focus music cuz it helps me dial in like the blinders. And it's important to know about these things cause it can really help. Have you ever used Bio Neural Beach before? [00:41:19] You know what I'm talking about? Hold on, . [00:41:22] Hold on, let me find it. [00:41:31] You mean this right here? [00:41:37] And you? Is that I, is that the guy on, Do you watch, Do also watch it on YouTube? I don't watch it on YouTube, but this is just literally a mix on iTunes of just continual, just that background music that helps me to just pay attention to what I'm doing. And so if I really need time of focus that the AirPods go in and I'm focused. [00:42:06] No interruptions. No interruptions cannot happen cause it, man, I just, I didn't really anticipate talking about ADHD that much. But dude, like if you really think about how bad it throws you off, just the slightest thing, and like you're married, but your wife could come into your office and say, Hey, do something completely unrelated, or something completely important. [00:42:31] And it may take, I may not get back on track for an hour, right? And that whole hour is wasted because I'm, figuring out what I'm doing. So the way I help myself with that is I write on a note the thing I'm doing, and I put that note in front of me so that way if I forget again, I could just look at the notes and see what I was doing. [00:42:54] still full transparency, right? While we're on this call, my son comes down and he's got something to put in the free, the storage freezer that's down here. And so he take, brings it down, he puts it in the storage freezer, goes back upstairs. And the whole time since he did that, my thought process is, He knows I'm on a podcast. [00:43:11] He knows I'm down here. Why in God's name did you just have to bring that down here and put that in a freezer right now? What the Yeah. And so to your point and then I hear wind outside and I keep the shade pulled on the door on purpose, right? But I hear it. And so now I'm wondering what's going on out there, , But I'm supposed to be paying attention to this [00:43:35] Yes, I get it dude. And here, let me clarify this for everybody, like it's not that we have a lack of focus, it's that we just hyperfocus sometimes on the wrong stuff and everything gets us say. That's, I [00:43:48] think the bigger difference is we don't miss a thing. If you really want like a good observer, get a ADHD person. [00:43:58] Cause nothing will happen without us noticing it. Nothing. Yes, correct. , but here's what will happen and we won't notice it. Get a new piece of furniture and put it in my house while I'm away. When I come home, I ain't gonna say nothing. Nope, nothing. Like my wife will get her haircut or whatever, and I'll do the same thing. [00:44:23] I'll get my hair cut and there's no compliments back and forth because neither one of us realize either other person got a haircut, [00:44:33] So it's a, it's a hard thing to understand until you're the one that's living with it. And you get, Let me ask you if you ever struggle with this is something that is some, if there's, if I'm having a conversation with my wife or, and it's something that I'm gonna have to ask her to do and I feel like there could be the slightest bit of friction, I'm just gonna do it my damn self. [00:44:57] I'm just not gonna, I'm just not gonna ask or I just won't do it. Period. We're both that way. Yeah. Mi Missy and I are both that way, We're both very non-confrontational and so if we think something that we might do might upset the other one. We just either take care of it ourselves or we just don't do it. [00:45:15] Yeah. You know what's interesting and there's a guy, and I can't remember the, I think it's called Love and Relationships, I think is the name of the book, Ericks. And it's a, Did you, have you ever heard of it? It's Love and respect. It's Emerson Ericks. That's exactly, that's absolutely it. And I'm like, after, I'm not sure how I got my hands on this thing, but I'm listening to it. [00:45:39] I'm like, Holy crap. Every dude that's married and every woman that's married needs to read this book because it really does clarify. The miscommunication in relationships. So this is hilarious. Wow. I can't believe we got here from where we started. So I had planned for this fall to do a spousal business owner workshop. [00:46:07] I was gonna run a vbo in Lake Norman, which is just outside of Charlotte. Yep. [00:46:14] And I was only inviting 10 couples, 10 business owner couples. And we were gonna do a one week retreat, basically spousal business owner retreat. That retreat was built off of Love and respect by Emerson Ericks was built off the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. [00:46:38] It was built off of The power of a praying husband, the power of a praying wife. It was built off of the book by the owners of Radiant Plumbing and Heating, the case beers. And then there's also something called Imago Therapy, which is a type of counseling that you can go through as a married couple. [00:47:04] Those five things were the resources that I dug into along with my findings as a coach for spousal business owners of the things they struggle with and put them together to create this week long workshop so that they could leave with the ability to work better together and the ability to know when work started and personal stopped and vice. [00:47:31] That was the whole premise of that workshop. We didn't hold it just because too many things were going on this year. And quite frankly, I did a really bad job marketing it. We will hold it in the spring. We will. Thousand. I hold it in the spring. That's gonna be killer because, and I, of course I understand the value of it. [00:47:50] Cause I've been through the books, I've been through all those. The praying one, I haven't been through that, those two, but the other ones, I've been through those. And you're right, It's, but you gotta, but you gotta want, you gotta wanna get better. You gotta wanna be able to communicate with your spouse better. [00:48:04] You gotta want a better relationship. You want, you gotta wanna have better conversations. And unless you look into these things, if anybody, you're they're not just gonna pop outta your head, right? They're not, you're not just gonna all of a sudden wake up one day and everything's gonna be great. [00:48:20] If things are not great today, you gotta make changes. No, but our business should be something that in increases our intimacy and increases our love for one another and increases our ability to dream together. It shouldn't be something that divides that. And if it is something that's dividing it well then something's not the way that it should be.[00:48:40]  [00:48:40] And it doesn't mean that you are doing anything wrong. It probably means that there's something that you're not doing because you simply don't know to do it. Yeah. And that was the whole premise of this workshop because I will tell you, when I work with spousal owners, it's the same, pardon me, It's the same seven to 10 challenges for all of them. [00:48:58] Every single one of 'em. I could make out a list of 10 challenges, and I will guarantee you that the primary challenges in their businesses are on that list. A hundred percent guaranteed. Yeah, I'm sure you're right. I am sure you. , and I think it's important, the spousal por portion, like I, I don't really care what people say. [00:49:18] Like at the end of the day, if it worked for my wife, there's no way I could do the stuff that I do. Impossible. Impossible. She's not even a part of my business. But guess what? She is a part of my business cuz she runs our house in addition to her business. She does all the crap. I don't have time or want to do for that matter. [00:49:37] And she's really good like that. And it makes my life and my work life significantly better. Yep. Amen. Amen. Yeah, I'm with you, Miss. Without Missy Flywell doesn't exist. Yeah. Period. It just, flywheel never happened with, without her. Honestly, man, without her, I'm probably still operating, to be honest with you. [00:49:58] Yeah. I'm probably still a miserable operator instead of chasing my passion, chasing, allowing the fear to get overcome. And chasing my passion of growing other people for a living and being a coach. Like the, when I found coaching, like I knew damn I found what I was put on earth to do and it took me a long time to grow the courage to actually pursue it. [00:50:23] And without her probably never happens. Cause she's a cheerleader, right? She gave us that belief that we just couldn't muster at certain times. Cuz I've been there, cheerleader's not even the word. There's just a lot of things. There's just a lot of things. But yeah, cheerleader is a primary one. [00:50:41] Supporter. That belief, The belief in the belief is the biggest thing for me. She believed accountability partner, believe in me. Accountability partner too. Big time, right? She's I'll say something and she'll be like, Oh my God, you're so humble. When I'm being an ass, when I'm saying something like, and she'll look at me and she'll be like, Oh, you're so humble. And then roll her eyes at me and . But it worked, [00:51:06] right? But it wor it works beautifully, right? It works beautifully. Not offend nothing, right? But that's, and that's the power of learning how to communicate not only in your bus, in your business, but with your spouse. [00:51:19] It's the same difference. You need to communicate with your employees, your staff, the same, same way. Yeah, but I can't wait. She joins me in July, baby. I can't wait. She'll complete a 23 year teaching career. And in June or sooner we'll see, and in July, she'll join me on the team and be an integral part of, she already is an integral part, but she'll be a day to day integral part of what? [00:51:44] Of what we do at Flywheel. People say like, How can you teach a spousal business owner class? That's how that's how cause, Cause even though she's not involved in the day to day, she's I'm married and I own a business and it's not the first time that I was married and known to business. [00:51:58] And the first time, the first go around, I was married and known a business. I wasn't very good at it. So I learned all the things that you're not supposed to do, and I learned all the ways to not handle that. Now I'm married, and I own a business again. And I gotta be honest with you; I don't know so much that I'm better as as the spouse is , but the fact of the matter is it still helped me uncover some of the things that have to happen for it to really be successful. [00:52:23] And I just think when, those types of things, you owe it to share 'em. Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. I totally agree a hundred percent. Dude, this has been such a great conversation. I know we've been all over the place, but guess what? People that listen to this show they're gonna follow this conversation cuz they follow me; great news. [00:52:44] So whenever I have somebody on, it's ADHD, and it goes all over the place, I'm like, that's cool. People listen totally fine. They'll, they, they've caught all by now. Tj I think, dude we've covered a lot of stuff today. This has been, again, it's been a fascinating conversation, and I. [00:52:59] Probably, you and I gonna have a lot more conversations after this. Yep. And I'm looking forward to that. So if you could tell everybody maybe where they can find you, how they can get ahold of you, Tell 'em whatever you wanna tell 'em. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll give you two different methods, and people think I'm crazy for giving the second one, but I'm gonna give it anyway. [00:53:16] The first way is you can go to www dot flywheel, C as in coaching, G as in a group, flywheel cg.com. You can learn about the flywheel, and you can learn about what we do. We're still building out the site, so gimme a little grace there cuz I am not the IT [00:53:32] guy. And then the second way is I'm just gonna give my direct cell phone. [00:53:35] But I'm gonna ask one thing, use text as the primary means of communication because I'm typically doing something like this, either Corey with someone like yourself or with a client or whatever. And I just can't answer it when people call. So I, I hate voicemail. Like, I hate listening to voicemails. [00:53:49] I don't know about you, but I hate it. Come of me; I'll do it. I have to look at it. I'm just, 'cause you're gonna leave me a phone number that I can't write down. Like it is what it is. Anyway, so direct cell line 2 1 5 2 7 2 9 0 3 6. So pay attention, folks, because you know when, and this is important if you're a business owner and you obviously communicate with your employees, you communicate with your customers. [00:54:18] TJ made a really good point, right? He explained really clearly how to contact him. He also explained really clearly how not to contact him. So my point in bringing that up is if you give clear, concise directions in your business like he just did with that phone. You're gonna have a way more successful time. [00:54:37] Yep. If you call me and you leave a voicemail, you've given up the right to get mad at me when I don't return your call. That's simple. That's cause I just told you not to do that. . Exactly. But people like you and me, like we gotta keep messages and stuff in one area or two, probably. It's a lot. [00:54:54] So go ahead, Corey. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me on Instagram as well. I don't have any like handles or anything. It's literally TJ Harnett no matter where you look for me. So I'll put it all in show notes. I appreciate you, my man, back at you, brother. I appreciate you having me on and look forward to staying connected and just growing this relationship, buddy. [00:55:15] I think so. It's gonna be, it's gonna be great dude. We were more light than I thought, I appreciate you, my man. Back at you bud.   TJ Hartnett CEO Flywheel Coaching  TEXT: (215)272-9036 https://www.facebook.com/groups/flywheel/permalink/5574055359356609/     I educate and develop sales teams in home services businesses, specifically plumbing and HVAC. You can go to www.hvacplumbingsales.com Relevant Links: www.Successfullifepodcast.com Please join my free Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetradeschools  Follow me at: https://www.instagram.com/coreyberrier/ www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach  #1 best-seller on Amazon, 9 Simple Steps to Sell More $H!T! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2C3HHMC  

In today's show, we are putting Ken Goodrich in your passenger seat to discuss some grit. Grit is the determination to see something through despite the adversity that plans to stop you. It is something essential to business and something that all competitors have. Whether you are an athlete, businessman, or tech in a truck, grit will serve you well in life and in career. Ken Goodrich is well acquainted with both adversity and grit. An industry titan, he has built business after business over 50 years; but along the way made plenty of mistakes. The current CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning and Plumbing, Ken has been both a tech in the truck and an entrepreneur behind the desk. On today's show, Ken talks about the things he learned from the school of hard knocks and how in the end, grit made the difference.

 Want to learn digital marketing? Look no further than the Successful Life Podcast. Hosted by Corey Berrier, this podcast features interviews with top experts in SEO, PPC, and other digital marketing strategies.   Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I am your host, Corey Berrier, and here with my man, Jeff Bowab. What's up, Jeff? Corey, man, it's nice to see you again. Nice to be on the show. Yes, sir. It's been a. We've been trying to get this thing going for a couple of months now. I got to meet; I just want to tell a quick story. I got to meet you, Jeff, at the revolt event, and, For I'm not going to call out how old you are. You're probably in your late forties, but you moved quicker than any dude on that. I will say I enjoyed it, I'm glad we were on the same team for football, and I wish I were the age you called out. I'm a little bit older, so you know, you pay the price the next couple of days. The hamstrings were screaming the next couple of days. Yeah, without a doubt. Jeff, tell everybody a little; I know you're the vice president of Sales for Ryno Strategic Solutions. If you want just to give a little bit of a high-level overview of who you are and what you do and a little bit about Rhino, that'd be great. For sure. Thanks. So we are a digital marketing company for the trades. We aim to be the most reputable digital marketing company in the trades to all English-speaking Lang. Company or countries. So been in the trades for about 15 years. Our specialty started out as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. I know some verticals near and dear to your heart as well. In the last year or so, we recently got into the roofing space, which is where we met again. We do some other things as well. Garage doors, stuff like that. But that's been our niche over the last 15 years. We also have, as we were talking about before, a podcast the point is probably currently the number one podcast in the home services space. Cory, not to plug another podcast on your podcast cause I love yours as well. I'll be honest; Jeff probably has two shows a month. I talk about something that you guys are doing because I love listening to the people you bring on because I get to learn something from everybody. And I'll just tell you, as of recent Ryan. This guy was on, and he may have been on the last time or show before last; as soon as I heard him talking and understanding what the problem is that our friend Dan Antonelli, he's a year out, I thought I needed to connect with this guy because I need this guy in my back pocket. So I.  And because of your guy's podcast, I connected with this gentleman, and now we have a strategic partnership. That's because of you guys. I would've never, and it would've never happened if I hadn't been for you guys. I love Ryan. I got to meet him at we did an event in Nashville together. First time I met him in person, and he's so intentional. His thought process is so systematic. And then his designs are unique. When he did, I'm sure he showed you some stuff. When he sent us his playbook on, how he went to market, what his thought process was, and then ultimately, how some of the design looked. I like him, and his core values align with ryno's core values. So I was glad I could make the introduction for you guys. Yeah, for sure. He's super, and his brother's super too. I got a chance to chat with him for a little while, and they're just good people. And I think they've got something. Anyhow. I guess that was just a quick note to add to that, which I enjoy. I do enjoy the show. So you guys have got some exciting things coming up. I know. I know you've got some exciting things coming up in November, right? Are you referring to my vacation or the first show that we go to? Maybe both. Yeah, I'm going to. I will be taking a long-needed vacation here in a coup next Saturday. But after I get back, we've got some things going on. One is both roofs related this year. We're returning for our second year as a VIP sponsor at Roof Con in Orlando, roofing.com. November 6th through the. We'll be in Orlando with our friends from Revolt and Roof Con. Super excited about that. And if anyone's listening and has never been to that event, I can tell you it's a banger. Then we'll go to the first week of December to the Roofing Process Conference with Dimitri Lapinski. He's putting that on out in Las Vegas. And that is December 1st and second. I believe it's at the MGM. Don't quote me. But we'll also be partying on the third because that's my birthday, and someone else's for rhino's birthday. So we're probably going to stay a day over, hang out in Vegas, and have a good time. That's going to be awesome. Need, that's going to be remarkable. Is Dimitri, do I know Dimitri? I think I know. He's pretty; he's an influencer on Facebook for sure. I'm sure you've seen his stuff with Dmitri Lapinski. You could look him up. He does many great things for the industry, so we're excited to do Roof con and that. Then we'll come back around in early next year. Rhino in. It puts on, I believe, the most reputable H V A C plumbing electrical event in the industry. We've just recently announced, I know you've seen Nelly will be performing at the event. We have not announced our main headliner yet, but last year we had Mike Tyson, the Great Mike Tyson, and Larry Fitzgerald from the Cardinals. Going to be a first-time Hall of Fame, first-ballot hall of Famer. The year before that, we had Gary Vaynerchuck and Terry Nicolson. So this year it's going to be amazing. 50. Of the country's top plumbing, electrical, and HVAC contractors. It's essentially like a day-and-a-half think tank. Everything that's going on in the industry, how you can get better, and how you can scale your business will have some great speakers. Terry Nicholson from practice S10 will be there. Dave Geiger from Horizon will be there. I think Ken Goodrich will be back from the ghetto. He'll be there, and I believe Ken Haynes from the Wrench Group will be back. He was at our first one as well. So man, really fantastic lineup. Super man. That sounds awesome. It's so funny. I was just talking to John Miraca yesterday. We were just talking about him coming to the event this year, and he was just telling me how much he enjoyed it last year. So on and so forth. I didn't think about that when we were talking earlier. It's invite-only, correct? It's you have to purchase a ticket. So we make it very exclusive. The tickets are expensive, but I can tell you the return on investment that people have walked away from relationships to the strategies that they've learned. I don't want to, you. Give it away. But Ken Goodrich gave some excellent tips last year on how to negotiate with suppliers and things like that. It has changed the game, I believe. There are a lot of significant events. I'm probably a little biased, but I think this is the best one out there. It's almost like magic. It's tough to explain what happens in those groups. It's tough to explain. The conversations develop once you get in that room, and it's hard. It's hard even to imagine because I think a lot of those conversations start, from a place, because most people are there because they want to help one another. I would be willing to bet everybody's there to help one another. So when you have that many people with a servant at heart in one place, it's incredible what can happen. Agreed. I think Ryno tries to be a servant leader in the market. We're a for-profit business like everybody. One of our core values is genuinely caring and giving back we want to be able to do those things for people. So I think just edifying the industry has been our goal. And I think our thought process is, to your point, if you're a servant leader, Zig Ziegler said, If you help enough people get what they want, you will automatically get what you want. So I think Rhino believes the same. We want to give back. We want to serve the industry, and we know because of that, people will be drawn to what we do. A hundred percent. That is an excellent lead-in for my next question, which I wanted to ask you. I hear Chris talk about this a lot. And you and I have talked about it. You guys do one day a month, and I can't remember what day it is or how the structure is, but can you just talk about the service that you do that one day a month? I think it's imperative to highlight that. Because most comp, I think most, I don't know if most companies do that. I guess they probably do not I haven't run across too many that consistently provide. Service like you're about to tell us about. So I'd love to hear about that. Yeah, and I know we talked about this kind of off, off the show, and we're excited about we do service days. It used to be one day a month, but rhino's gotten so big we had to split it up into two days because most non-profits we volunteer at can't handle the number of people we have. So what it is, again, one of our core values is, giving back. To be a ryno, you must be on board with us to give back to the community. I was just out in Phoenix last week and participated in a service day there, and we worked at a wildlife refuge for animals and most birds, but they do have some other things. So we got to see some bald eagles, some condos, So they're doing a cool thing and so our team probably of about, 30 or 40 people on this day. We gave back, cleaned up, cleaned cages, cleaned, trimmed things, and picked up trash just to support this organization. Because Ryno wants, we do believe in serving our local community. And then, for those of us that are remote, like me, I live in Virginia. We go out and serve our local communities. So, I've got a church that I like to volunteer at. So that's what I do. A couple of other people work at Parks and things like that. So it's a huge part of what we do at Rhino. And we also like to align ourselves with potential clients who believe in giving back. Like one of my favorite clients that we work with, they give back at any hour. So we like to align ourselves and walk the. Sure it makes sense. It breeds a pretty great company culture when you do things like that. Yeah. One the items, if someone has seen our website and, we try to send out our recruiting videos that touch on all of these things, the culture at Rhino, the giving back, how we treat our teammates and care for them, we are a big believer in that because of you. Of course, we go to work for a paycheck, but people want to be part of something bigger than just that. Most people, especially younger people, are not necessarily motivated by money. It's. Sense of accomplishment, culture, and working for a great team. The team cares about their work; their work is essential. And I think that Rhino checks all of those boxes from the giving back and the employer standpoint. So if people are looking for a great company, I feel Ryno is an excellent place to be a part of. It certainly sounds that way. I think that you mentioned something, and then I just drew a complete blank. That's all right. It'll come back to me. Oh, you mentioned that people want more than money. That this is precisely what I just talked about at Connect for PHCC. You're right. You're a hundred percent right, and I wonder. Chris is about my age, so I wonder if he understands this because I get it. I understand I'm an old soul, but I also appreciate the younger generation cause I'm right there in the middle. And he's, I think he's the, I think he's the same age as I am. And so I guess that makes it really, I think it makes it a lot easier to swallow both cols, Generations, The old, like the boomer generation, so to speak, and then the Gen Zs and the millennials. But I think a lot of folks in the trades don't think, I know it's really hard to get their head wrapped around bringing these younger people in and doing things a bit differently than how they've been doing them. Yeah, I agree. It's funny, even though I'm on the sales side, we'll talk to a lot of sales folks that want to come on board to Ryno, and their number one driver is also not money, which is, crazy to me growing up in kind of the Glen Gary, Glen Ross, type of generation boiler room, things like that where you want to be able to serve people. One of the great things about what we do at Rhino is, yes, people want to. By, by our marketing services, but we're serving them. We talk a lot in our meetings. Hey, if it's Corey's, H V A C, Corey's gotta pay his people, and Corey's gotta put food on his table. So we're very mindful of that. We're here to serve those folks. We want to go above and beyond for them because we know whatever investment they make with us, it's a lot for them. Yeah, it is crucial. Like money is essential. Don't get me wrong. We all need to pay our bills, and people wanna make money. But I do think people. To be a part of a team and the greater good of something. So that's, again it's a cool thing about what we do, and I think it resonates with many of our customers. I'm sure it does. I'm sure it does. It is as it should be, and I think it's a good representation of how companies should look at things because I do believe that if you have a good company culture If you have core values, you hire and fire by your core values. I think that you got a good org. You've probably got an excellent organization. . Yeah, I agree. And then plus Rhino throws the best Christmas party anyone's ever seen. So if anyone ever filed us on social media last year, we had Flow Rider at our Christmas party the year before we had Julio rest in peace and tone lo, and even if you remember, way back, we had a young mc who sang Bust to move. So yes. We do some incredible things. We are big believers. Work hard, but we're going to reward our team and play hard. Our Christmas parties are pretty legendary. We have a lot of clients that want to come, and it's just to reward the Rhino team. That is super. So, Corey, you can't go. No offense. I can't come. Dang, it. So I was waiting for you to say, but Corey, you could come. That is fantastic. So Jeff, let me see here. Let me just look at my notes here. I was going to ask you about a couple of other things. I know people want to know about shifting a little bit over to more of the business. You know this, Every marketing company says they can do a million different things. They all say they can do this, that another, and they can do it better than everybody else. So why? Why would somebody? What makes you all different? Yeah, I think that's a great question because I believe our contractors get asked the same thing by homeowners, right? Hey, somebody came out and looked at my HVAC system. How are you guys different? And I don't, I think, I don't know if that's the correct question. It understands what the customer needs because we all have strategies like, I'm a huge sports guy, and look at quarterbacks, right? Some throw the ball better than others, but they have different mechanics. Some are running quarterbacks; some are throwing quarterbacks. Some move around the pocket, and some don't. There are always other ways you can do things, but the most important thing, as a marketing company, is understanding what the client wants and their cadence. The company is honest, the marketing company, being honest and saying, yes, we're excellent at that. I often think the same way in the industry and with contractors. They will tell people what they want to hear to acquire their business. Knowing that they don't, that they're not excellent in that. And I can tell you; there are a lot of times that I'll tell customers like, We would love to serve you as a client, but we're not excellent in what you're asking us to do. Or, That's not what we do. I'd be glad to refer you over to somebody else of the people that we work with. But if I'm being frank with you, That's not what we do. So I think one thing Rhino is excellent at, and I'm constantly talking to our team about, is another core value, transparency. Be transparent. Tell them if someone asks you to do something that doesn't align with what we do. And. 99 times out of a hundred, they'll appreciate that. They're going to say, Thank you for being so honest. Other companies have just tried to grab my money and wanted to sign me up as perfect examples. Many customers will come to us and say, I'm unhappy with what's going on currently with my other marketing company; we'll take a look and say, Hey, look that. We can't work on it, or it will not convert correctly. It's not going to deliver the highest ROI now, but I'll say other companies will take it because they know there's a lot of money in the marketing, not necessarily in the website. So we'll tell people, Hey, if you want to work with Ryno, here's the solution, and it's probably going to include a new website. You don't have to do that. Everyone else will take your money and take your business without doing. And then what's going to happen is you'll be back in the same boat you were in right now, unhappy with your results. And then you'll come back to Rhino a year later and go, I should have listened to you guys because now it costs me double because I had to go through another lousy scenario. So I think that's what makes us different. A couple of other things. We've been in the space for 15 years, and all we do is trades like plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and roofing garage doors. That's all we do. If you said to me, Hey, we also own a restaurant in our local town. We couldn't help you. We don't know the restaurant game; it's slightly different. We're going to be fully transparent with them. We're also not going to push them to sell them anything. We'll educate them on what's going on with their marketing, and they could leave that meeting with us and be much more educated. It probably improved some things without signing up for Rhino. Back to the enlightenment. We want to edify and educate the industry, and hopefully, people will say, I align with that. That's how we treat our customers. We would like to do business with you. Absolutely. Interestingly, you say it. I and I didn't, I didn't know that's exactly how you did it, to be honest with you. But that's precisely how I work with people. I in, in, I, I used something similar to what you guys do, not with the team you do, but. So I listen to people's calls, right? That's how I understand what the problems are. I listen to CSRs, and I listen to the technicians, and I figure out where the problems are, and there are always problems with every single company out there. I don't care who you are; there's always a problem, and I'm not saying that it's a big problem that you need to fix, but there are always problems, and there are always things you can improve on. And so that gives me a perfect look. Exactly what's happening, and then I can give you the exact solution to fix that problem instead of just giving you a blanket solution, as many people do. I just don't; I don't believe in that anyway, so I provide that report after I do all the calls and do all my analysis, then I provide that report. And then, if the customer wants to move forward, then great if then we could talk about that. But if they don't, you've got a pretty good amount of information to go off of. . Yeah, agreed. A hundred percent. We're believers of the old sales; school was transactional. Hey, would you like to buy this widget? How much does it cost? It cost $5. Would you like to buy it? Yes or no? Now we've moved into because we have so many resources at our hands to be consultants. Tell me your pain points because, no offense, Mr. HVAC contractor, there are 50 people. Within 10 miles of you, that also do HVAC. So, people aren't buying your box; they're buying your solution to their problem. So we want to be consultants to people that call in and give them some good advice, whether they go with Rhino or not. We want to be suitable to the industry and treat the industry well. Eventually, all, we always say, all roads lead back to Ryno. Eventually, they're going to come back to us regardless. If we've done an excellent job for them if we've cheated them correctly, and if we've stood by our values of educating the customer versus trying to sell them to do something. The excellent news is that RYNO is in a position. We don't need to sell anybody anything. We're, we do well. We've earned our reputation in the industry. So we try to educate folks; even if you want to call us up and ask us some questions and you have no intention of coming over to Rhino, we'll still help you. I love that. I think it's crucial too. That resource. I think it's important, and I agree with you. You know this because I talked briefly with you the other day. And just like I mentioned with Ryan, it makes sense for me to be aligned with people who can do the things that I can't do because that helps everybody around me and makes me look good. And it helps my customer. Yeah. It also makes me the. Is that why you wanted to be on my football team? Because you couldn't catch the ball. That's right. . I'm just playing with you, man. I really can't see the ball. I really could not grab the ball. I'm really; you're an excellent pass rusher. You're an excellent pass rusher and a blocker. I could block a little bit. There you go. Yeah. That was so much fun. Poor Josh's leg was destroyed. We'll never forget that weekend. We will never forget that week. It's so impactful. I believe they just finished up the other one, right? They did. They do 3, 4, 5 of them a year. I think I've been to like five of 'em now. So always love going and just the brotherhood. That's how we met. And it's almost like your college roommate or something. You just stay in touch. Yeah, it's probably the, it's, it is by far the most impactful event that I have been to for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoyed it, and to anybody, and I, you don't even have to be a roofer to go and get something out of this event. I think if you're any trades for that wrong era, hell, if you're a man and you want to go into a group where you can learn from other men in your industry, this is that's where I would recommend people go. Yeah. Personal development was just as significant as business development. Yep. So anyone listening, Revolt is a great group. And there are other folks outside of HVAC or roofing contractors who are on in the group. For sure. So you all alright, so you said that Roofing's reasonably new to RYNO, and I know that, so you've been dabbling in that space for about a year now, right? Yeah, we've been a little over a year now. Chris and I went to, I think, our first introduction; we went to I e a couple of years ago, which was in Vegas, to see just check out the landscape. We sat in it on some marketing breakout groups there and thought, Wow. They are behind when it comes to digital marketing. So we thought it was an excellent place to be able to serveBleed as we do in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. We started making some key meetings with some industry leaders, like Hunter at Revolt and John died, the American contractor. I bled over to Roof Con last year. We got to meet some incredible people. Aaron Christie with Indy Roof, Paul Reed, and Eric Opim with, Roofers in Recovery. A great group. So it's just been amazing how it's steamrolled; it's been like an avalanche picking up. And we are super excited, here in Wow, three weeks to be back in Orlando to do that. We've. Chris will be on the marketing panel there. Mike Venidis he's our chief Experience officer at Ryno. He will be doing a breakout, and then this year, I'll be doing a keynote on the main stage. So we got three people from Rhino talking about some great stuff. So we're super excited. That's incredible. I'm, yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for you. It will be a huge event, and I believe they've sold out all the sponsorship. I'm pretty sure that sold; I saw that not long ago. I think. Are you going to be going, Corey? I'm planning to be there, yes. All right. I will sneak you into the v I p. Party last day. But yeah, it's a great event. Very intentional. Touchdown. Tim Tebow's going to be there speaking. John Maxwell will be back. You can't get better than John Maxwell. So I'm humbled that I will be on the same stage as those guys. I bet that's super. I think Tim Tebo is at the event that's going on right now. I think he is he's pretty in demand. You talk about a servant leader that gives back. He's got great faith; he is a big believer in giving back. So I like touchdown Timmy, and I think he got a raw deal in the NFL. I'm just going to go on record and. I don't remember exactly, to be honest. I don't know exactly what happened, but I did; I do remember he things went sideways for him. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's okay. He's doing; I think his calling was, serving the world and giving back and things like that outside of football. The good news is I think football gave them the platform to be able to do that. I think you're; I think that's probably a fair assessment. For sure. So you mentioned Michael's, the chief cust say, what was he again? Does experience officer go into? Can you explain that to me real quick? Yeah. We're big believers of, So Mike, man, Mike's got an incredible story. I want to tag him in this so he can see it. But Mike started off on our call listening and reporting team, right? So one of the things that we provide for all our clients is we listen to all the calls that come in for many reasons to tell you what campaign it comes from at SEO, Pay Per Click, and Google Guarantee. What cities did it come from? Was it a repair job? Was it a new roof job? So we want to give you a lot of valuable data to help you determine your return on investment. So Mike started in the call listening and reporting team, and he has moved up. He's been with the organization for over ten years now. That says a lot about him as far as his staying power goes and you. We are such a believer in giving that customer a great experience. So Mike heads that up now. He and I work closely on a couple of projects together. I can't, can't say enough great things about him. He's at Service World right now, as we discussed. He does a great job within Rhino to make sure that our customer-facing teams and teams that give our customers experience, that he makes sure that runs super. That is, that, that's, that, that's a great story. I've interacted with Mike a couple of times. And he seemed to be super friendly. Yeah. Super nice guy. Yeah, he's excellent. He was giving me a hard time at about six o'clock this morning, texting me about something. So Mike's a great guy. He lives and breathes the core values of Rhino, and again, he started off at the very bottom to work his way up to the executive team at Rhinos. So great. That is, that's a super story. So  I want to go back for just one second. You mentioned something said when we were at one of the events a couple of years ago, we noticed that the roofing industry was a bit behind your current HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. So what are you seeing now? It's fast forward a couple of years. What are you seeing now? How and are. Are there other areas in which roofing's also behind, or are they catching up? How does that look now? I think on the job estimation side, some of the software people are still debating on the best software out there to do roof estimations and send out proposals. So that's something that I've seen. I just think, for whatever reason, they've just seemed to be a little behind. And I think some of the guys I've talked to would agree. And I can only really speak from a marketing standpoint. They've been doing some just rudimentary, some beginning marketing. And it's like many roofers we talk about haven't experienced Google, right? Like they just haven't taken. Leap into Google, and I always ask everyone when I talk to them, I'm like, All right, forget roofing for a second. What do we do if we need something in life, clothes, vacations, or home services? We pull out our phones and start to do a search. So I tell people like, you're not there representing on Google. in your personal life, you just told me you use Google for everything. Why would roofs be any different? They wouldn't be right. Even if. People will say I chase storms, it's insurance work, and things like that. Guess what? If you knock on their door, if you leave a flyer, if you make contact with them, they're probably still, when you leave their house, they're going to Google you. And if everything you've said about your business, if your website does not match up to those words, they're going to be like, Man, this guy's like a slick salesperson. Not only crucial for a direct lead that comes in, but really for the protection of your brand, your current business, and then all of your word of mouth, you want to make sure that website is set up so it's going to convert. And again, this is. Also, profit's going to be one if someone needs a roof. There's no storm damage or anything, but the roof is 18, 20 years old, and it's had some leak. Now it's time for a roof. They're going to Google like roofing contractors, roof repair roofers near me in the market where you're in Fort Lauderdale, Virginia Beach, Raleigh, North Carolina. You've got to be there, right? Not only for the people looking for you but those who don't know they're looking for you. They haven't made a decision on who they're going to use. It's starting to get a little bit better, right? And that's, again, why we're here and why we speak so much and why we try to do education. So I think it's gotten better, but I still think there's work to do in the industry. . I'm glad you are helping those guys out. You brought up Google, you said when you brought up Google, ago, I want, I want to ask you, have you seen issues with Google? My business, And I'll tell you why I'm asking this question. My Google, my business got flagged, and it has taken me six months to figure out what happened. And guess what? I just pulled something out of the air, and that's what I think happened. It's a pretty solid guess that's what happened. But are you seeing that with a lot of your local companies? Is Google my business action funny for you guys? Cause I hear this more often than not. There have been a couple of hiccups here recently, and Google, my business, believe it or not, changed its name to its Google business profile now. So that's the new thing. But there have been a couple of hiccups, and I think that's why it's essential to have a marketing company that, you know, has access to Google because, as you probably know, Google. It is not on a timeframe like you might be on a timescale. Google is not on your timeframe, and they're hard to get ahold of sometimes. So you want to have a marketing company that understands how the maps work and the Google business profile, like how you tag things in there. Like you want to make sure you're with a company. It's like me saying, Eh, there's a roof. My roof has a. I could probably go watch some YouTube videos and bump my way around, but that's not what I do. I would call a roofer. So I always tell roofers, Why do you treat your marketing differently? You should outsource it to an expert because Mr. Roofer, you would tell me, Don't get up on your roof and try to fix that roof. You're probably going to do some additional damage you don't know. I tell the roofers the same thing. Stop messing around in your marketing; you're probably doing some ancillary damage you don't even know about. Call an expert. Yeah. And really, and for anybody that's listening, and this is, if this resonates with you like it's not a, it's not a call. The marketing's not really; it's not a cost. And I think a lot of people look at the market. As a line item, as a cost. But I wouldn't argue; I would guarantee that pouring money into marketing should net you more money. That's why you pour money into marketing to make more money. If you've had an experience with someone that hasn't happened, then maybe I can understand being frustrated because I've been there. I think we've all been there at some point. At the end of the day, you have to find somebody you can trust to show you what those results will be. Yeah. Agreed. And I often tell the business owner, " Forget your business for a second. Let's see how life operates, right? I have been to Dunkin Donuts before, and for the most part, they nail my coffee all the. But there have been times they messed up my order and gave me the wrong coffee. It wasn't what I wanted and didn't taste as consistent as the other hundred they had provided me. But that doesn't mean that all coffee places are wrong. It just means they just messed up. Conversely, contractors are the same way, right? So I had to replace my roof and HVAC over the last couple of years. Talk to a bunch of people. Just because I talked to one roofer who's not, Legitimate or is telling me things that aren't true. It doesn't mean that all roofing companies are evil. Inherent marketing is the same way, right? So many people get those, that tunnel vision, the roofers get tunnel vision and go, If I've had a bad experience in marketing, that means all marketing companies are evil. No, it's no different than any other ecosystem we deal with. I've got a guy that cuts my grass like he's fantastic. The person before him was not unique. That didn't mean I should give up on trying to have my grass cut. This guy's amazing. So marketing is the same way, right? You. Just because you've had a bad experience doesn't mean that all marketing companies are evil. And I always chuckle to myself, and I giggle with the contractor. I'm like, you realize that the contracting space doesn't always have the best reputation, right? Now you're one of the good guys, and you must overcome that. Marketing is no different. Coffee is no other. Going out to a restaurant is no different, right? I've got my favorite. They have served me a stake one time. That was not great. But the overall experience with them it's been amazing. So treat your marketing the same way. Get your blinders off for a second, right? And realize that just because you've had a bad experience doesn't mean the industry is terrible. That's right. And ask, ask a lot of questions. If you don't understand something, just ask the. And if you don't understand it, then ask it. Ask it a different way. But if you ask enough questions to enough people, you'll get the answer. Agreed. And again, you want somebody with some teeth in the game that's been around for a while, Rhino, 15 years. We've been in the digital space really since digital has been a thing. So that's super important. And you want to ensure you're getting an education again, not just somebody selling you because. Some of the most challenged clients are people that go with the cheap marketing solution, right? Or the affordable marketing company. Our best customers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our most challenged customers sometimes are someone who tries to go the cheap route, and I would also assume that's the same in roofing and HVAC and plumbing, right? If you need to do a roofing job for $12,500, let's say, and the guy's trying to get you down to $9,900, I would bet my life that's going to be a challenging customer, right? Cause the only thing they see is cost, they don't understand the value. And look at bottled water. You'll sometimes pay $2 for it at the grocery store. In a vending machine, sometimes you might pay $4 for it. If you go to a football game, you might pay $7 for it. Yeah. Why is that? The water's no different, right? It's the perception of value. So marketing is the same way. Make sure you're getting with a company, even coaching, right? You're in the coaching space. We talked about this off the air. Some coaches don't do things the right way. But, it'll take clients to know they can't provide what they're looking for. And I know that you want to align yourself. Corey wants to align himself with customers that are trying to scale, wanna do things the right way, and are looking for good positive feedback on the coaching side; it resonated with me what you said when we were talking about you can always find opportunities. And Tiger Woods had a swing coach, right? Like he was the best golfer. Debatable, but I think he was the best golfer to walk the planet. But in the beginning, he had a swing coach who still did not because the swing coach is better than him at golf, but because they could see things that he couldn't see in the heat of the moment. So I think what you do is fantastic because it ties into what we do, and we have a lot of people who will come to us and say, Hey, we're not getting enough leads, and I'll go a hold. Let me go into your Ryno Tracks reporting and say, " Wow, did you realize that your closing percentage is 20% lower than the industry average? I don't think it's a lead issue. I think it's turning that call into an appointment issue, and you can also do that. On your end. So I like that we're able to align that way and show a customer like, Hey, here's something that we're seeing, and this is good coaching for you like we like. Right? That's right. Yeah, a hundred percent in you. You can't be everything to everybody. If you can't do something, just tell somebody you can't do it because you will have a better result. Yeah. Why would you try to sell somebody something you can't do? How can you even imagine that's going to turn out well? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's a, perhaps that's a risk something people take. I don't understand it. It seems like a not a good recipe if you ask me it. It's a recipe for short-term gain but long-term pain. Agreed. A hundred percent. And people can see right through that. And this, you said, you mentioned, our brain. The way we grew up was to go for the money because we, we watched all of these crazy movies when we were younger, and that is, it is different, it is an extra time and it is hard separating that, those two right there, there was a time, I'm sure for you when you realize I've got a shift how I'm approaching customers because this old sales crap that we were taught is just, that's just not working. Yeah. Times have changed. Again, it was easy in the seventies, eighties, and nineties to be very transactional. Hey, do you need this? How much does it cost? Here's how much it costs. Yes, I need this. And look, transactional sales still play a part. And where we're at in life. The real successful relationship builders are the ones that find out about your business and your core values, and how you're trying to connect with customers. Because again, no offense, plenty of roofers out there, plenty of HVAC contractors, plumbing, and electrical contractors. People want more, and they want to consume content. They want to feel good about doing business with you. They want to connect with you from a digital perspective, right? And they know that you do plumbing; they know that you do HVAC, right? No, no offense. And so I think that move to the. The consultative selling process has come a long way in the last 20 years. I agree. I agree. It's, it is the way to sell at this point. And it's interesting when I tell people that I work with people in sales, I have to clarify what that means because it's not what you think it means. It's just not; it's; I'm not going to come in and teach your people how to beat Grant Cardone because that's just not how I roll. Yeah, It's not, and if that's what you want, I'm not your guy, and I'll tell you that, and I'm cool telling you that; I don't think it's anybody; it's not worth my time or yours for me to tell you I can do something that I can't. Yeah. Anyhow. I think it's a great I, yeah. I love that, and I'm glad that everybody, I feel like people are looking at it that way a lot more now, and that makes me feel good. It makes me feel like people are changing the way they're the lens I'm looking through. Which is good. Jeff, this has been a fantastic conversation. I appreciate this show today. And if you could if you wanna tell any, if you wanna leave everybody with where they can find you or the last word or whatever you'd like to say, have at it. Yeah. One, I want to say thank you, man. I enjoy following your stuff on social media. I think you are bringing some much-needed emphasis on coaching to the industry. So anyone listening, if you have thought about doing some coaching or getting some diagnosis, reach out to Corey. He's also entertaining to follow on social media. So thank you for that. Thanks for having me on. RYNO, again, if you're interested in just talking with us to get an education on your digital marketing or just some opinions like, " Hey, run some stuff by me. I think our team is excellent for that too. You can find us on social media. Ryno. You can look us up on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to the Point Home Services podcast. If you want to reach out to me specifically, you could J B o w a b rhino ss.com. That's my email address. I'll also throw my cell phone out there because our clients are our family, and they can reach me pretty much. I sleep a little bit more than you, Corey, but they can reach me 20 hours a day, let's say. So if they want to text me or call me seven five one zero two one one six seven one. Most of our rhino clients have my cell phone anyway, but as I said, I'm not up 24 hours a day like Corey is. But you'll probably get a response pretty much till 10:00 PM Eastern and then back up at 4:00 PM Eastern. There you go. Jeff, thank you by man, and yes, we definitely, we both do agree on how little we need to sleep to perform every day. That's it, man. That's I'm dead. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. Thanks, Corey. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. www.Roofcon.com Use code "Corey" for 10% off.  I educate and develop sales teams in your home services businesses, specifically plumbing and HVAC. You can go to www.hvacplumbingsales.com. Text me 919.896.9999   You can also visit the Successful Life Podcast at www.Successfullifepodcast.com.     You can download my #1 best-seller on Amazon. Relevant Links: Please join my free Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetradeschools  Follow me at: https://www.instagram.com/coreyberrier/   www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach   https://thetradeschools.com/  9 Simple Steps to Sell More $H!T! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2C3HHMC Jeff Bowab Vice President of Sales at RYNO Strategic Solutions About Jeff Bowab: Jeff is the Director of Business Development at RYNO Strategic Solutions; a leading Digital Marketing company focused on the home services industry since 2008. He has been in Sales and Leadership for the past 25 years and is a proven leader in the Advertising / Digital Marketing Space. Jeff started his career in telephone sales and has worked his way into leading several organizations as Vice President of Sales. His specialty is leading teams and growing revenue. When Jeff is not working, you can find him with his family, on the golf course, or exploring the latest and most excellent restaurants around Virginia Beach. Discussion Topics:Leadership,Sales, Business development and Team Building Social: LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/jeff-bowab-95b35514a Contact: Phone: (757) 510-2671 Email: jbowab@rynoss.com 22601 N 17th Ave, #250 - Phoenix, AZ 85027 | (877) 964-2233 | 

Dan Antonelli, author of Branded Not Blanded, joins me on this episode. Dan talks to the importance of creating the right brand for your home service company. Dan will be signing his new book at the upcoming Vertical Track conference in Phoenix, AZ from October 12th-14th. (More about Vertical Track below...) Get Your Copy of Dan's Book Today -   Dan wrote Branded Not Blanded   The Blueprint for a Killer Home Service Brand. Now is the time to invest in your home service branding and build a brand that is unique and disruptive. This book gives you the blueprint for how to build a brand that stands out, attracts the right clients and employees, and wins the hearts and minds of your ideal customer. Covering the basics from naming and tagline to the logistics of building a disruptive wrap, you'll learn how better branding yields a much-improved marketing ROI and a smaller marketing budget. This book features real case studies from home service business owners. You'll read about the results their new brands have had, and the effect not only on revenue but internal culture. Imagine your home service brand standing out instead of just fitting in (blanding). What would happen for your home service business if it had a unique, and disruptive brand that people remembered when they needed service? Written by Dan Antonelli, the Creative Director and President of KickCharge™ Creative, this book leverages his nearly 30-year track record of developing some of the most successful home service brands in the country. With over 2000 brands to his credit, Dan shares his winning formula to get inside home consumers' minds and help create a brand that connects them to your home service company. When it comes to branding, home service companies have two choices: Build a disruptive brand and spend less on marketing or overspend on marketing to overcome a poor brand. Most choose the latter, which creates an opportunity for your company to take market share by building a truly disruptive brand! The Vertical Track speaker list runs deep with other great speakers as well including Tommy Mello, Ken Goodrich, Joe Polish, Ellen Rohr, Keith Mercurio and many more! Oh, and I, Jim Klauck, will be dropping some Marketing Nuggets for everyone on Friday afternoon!  See you there! If you have not registered for the event yet get in while there is still room.  Click here for Vertical Track details - Vertical Track Conference Vertical Track.  

Al Levi, author of The 7-Power Contractor joins me on this episode. Al reveals some of what he will talking about at the upcoming Vertical Track conference in Phoenix, AZ from October 12th-14th. The Vertical Track speaker list runs deep with other great speakers as well including Tommy Mello, Ken Goodrich, Joe Polish, Ellen Rohr, Keith Mercurio and many more! Oh, and I, Jim Klauck, will be dropping some Marketing Nuggets for everyone on Friday afternoon!  See you there! If you have not registered for the event yet get in while there is still room.  Click here for Vertical Track details - Vertical Track Conference Vertical Track.   More about Al Levi... Al Levi, The 7-Power Contractor, is a business consultant, teacher, author, and successful former contractor who helps other contractors learn to run their businesses with less stress and more success through his book, online one-of-a kind Operating Manuals program, and he's been a long-running columnist for Plumbing & Mechanical magazine. Jim and Al discuss the issues contractors deal with on a day-to-day basis and discuss solutions through the 7- Power Contractor method. Check Out Al's Website - 7 Power Contractor 7 Power Contractor.   Get Your Copy of Al's Book Today -   Al Levi wrote 7 Power Contractor : 7 Power Contractor.

This is a must listen podcast!  Tommy Mello from A1 Garage Door Service joins me today on the program. Tommy talks about the upcoming Vertical Track Conference in Phoenix, AZ - October 12th-14th.  Speakers from the likes of Ken Goodrich, Ellen Rohr, Joe Polish, Keith Mercurio and many more! If you have not registered for the event yet get in while there is still room.  Click here for Vertical Track details - Vertical Track Conference Vertical Track.    

A lot of things in life come full circle, and today as we celebrate Toolbox for the Trades' 100th episode, we're bringing back one of our most impactful and well known guests. Ken Goodrich, CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing, was our first guest way back in April of 2020 and today he makes a triumphant return for the show's 100th episode. 100 episodes is a lot of ground to cover, but there's no shortage of insight from Ken to help you build your business. Ken's wisdom was so profound, my show's producer was scribbling away notes on how to run his business better. Join us as we discuss: - How Ken pushed the envelope and built a $250M dollar company (11:13) - Recruitment pitches that work for today's labor market (23:13) - Private equity and how it can help grow your business (37:04) - Ken's advice on how to deal with investors at scale (52:58) Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast: - Ken Goodrich - Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing - The E-Myth HVAC Contractor You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Toolbox of the Trades on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here. Listening on a desktop & can't see the links? Just search for Toolbox of the Trades in your favorite podcast player.

Ready for round two? To The Point superstar Ken Goodrich brings us home with everything you need to know about private equity and how to MAXIMIZE the value of your business.

What is the whole private equity game about, anyways? Join To The Point superstar Ken Goodrich for part one of a complete MASTERCLASS on what you need to know to win (or learn!) about private equity.

Live from ACCA Conference 2022, host Chris Yano and superstar guest co-host Ken Goodrich speak with Brian Sloan! President of TR Miller, Brian discusses how he was able to 10x his home services business in just under 6 years.

Jerry McGuire, President of PuriFi Labs joins To The Point to set the record straight about IAQ. Live from AHR Expo 2022, host Chris Yano and co-host Ken Goodrich talk to Jerry about finding the proof amongst the promises in the world of IAQ.

Ken Goodrich joins David Heimer live on stage at the Barefoot Roundtable in Palm Springs. Ken discusses merges and acquisitions in our industry, and gives advice for anyone buying or selling a business. Bonus: Ken gives his “secret” for weight loss.

Live from AHR Expo 2022, Ken Goodrich once again joins To The Point! Ken shares some exciting news about his 1,000 day plan to 10x the value of his company, and shares valuable insights into the core vitals of running a highly successful business.

Welcome back to The B Dawson Show! This week, we talk to HVAC industry veteran Ken Goodrich. We talk about his journey in the HVAC industry and the steps he took to go from decent business to BOOMING business.  Support the show: http://cardoneventures.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join us as Ken Goodrich takes us through the 7 Centers of Management Attention! In this fourth and final part of our 4-episode series, we'll be looking at the last part of the equation that ties it all together: Client Fulfillment. We know you'll enjoy this incredible episode, and hope you're finding value in Ken's BILLION-dollar building blocks for use to grow your business!

Join us live from Service World Expo 2021 as Ken Goodrich takes us through the 7 Centers of Management Attention! In this third part of our 4-episode series, we'll be looking at Lead Generation and Lead Conversion, the parts of your business that you need to keep the lights on! 

Ken Goodrich is the CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing. Since 1939, Goettl has innovated severe weather heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems throughout the Southwest US. They serve customers in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and California. Ken has over 30 years of experience acquiring, integrating, and developing HVAC, plumbing, and contracting businesses. He focuses on developing high-performance leadership teams and has a track record of helping companies generate rapid growth and value creation. Ken has also served on several local and national trade organizations. He has served as President of the Southern Nevada Air Conditioning Refrigeration Service Contractors Association (SNARSCA) and as a Board Member for the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA). Currently, he serves as a CSN Foundation Trustee and a Trustee for the J. Duncan Goodrich Air Conditioning Technology Laboratory at the College of Southern Nevada. In this episode… What's the best way to grow your business? According to Ken Goodrich, acquisitions are the least expensive — and most effective — way to expand your company. As someone with plenty of acquisition experience under his belt, Ken is here to tell you everything you need to know about the process.  At the age of 10, Ken got his start in the heating and air conditioning business by holding the flashlight for his father during late-night calls. After his father passed, Ken worked hard to buy the business, quickly growing the company from a single employee in a van to 30 employees. Now, his company employs over 850 team members throughout the Southwest. His motto is “we do things the right way, not the easy way.” With an open mindset and vast experience, Ken has learned the right way to grow, sell, and acquire businesses. In this episode of the Multiply You Podcast, Austin Clark sits down with Ken Goodrich, CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing, to talk about buying and selling businesses. Ken discusses the ups and downs within his 30 years of acquisition, the value of networking and lead generation, and the best practices for acquiring and rebranding a business. Stay tuned!

When you list “features and benefits” in your ads, you are speaking to the customer who is currently, consciously in the market for your product. What percentage of the public do you suppose that might be? One percent? I doubt it. In most categories, it is only a tiny fraction of one percent. But what about the remaining 99.9 percent? When they aren't in the market for your product, they have no interest in your features and benefits. Do you remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare? This is my letter to the rabbit: “Dear Rabbit, quit waiting until the last minute to advertise, hoping to impress the unwitting customer who has not already chosen a preferred provider. Be like the Tortoise. Impress future customers with stories that tug at their attention and make them smile and you will become their preferred provider. It takes courage and patience, but it's how you win the race.” Looking back at your career, can you describe the moment when your foot first fell onto the path that brought you to where you are today?“I was a 10-year-old boy holding a flashlight for my Dad…” “I won the race by only 20 seconds, so he beat the shit out of me…” “I was in the drive-through line at McDonald's…” “I was looking at my brand-new baby boy and thinking about the kinds of things that happen to people when they're least expecting it…” Those are the opening lines of the origin stories of Ken Goodrich of Goettl Air Conditioning, Mark Jennison of IAMACOMEBACK.com, Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, and Tim Schmidt of the United States Concealed Carry Association. People listen to the TED Talk of Simon Sinek and realize the importance of “Start with Why,” but they never really know how to do it. Most of them describe the outcome they are hoping to create, or they just approach their Unique Selling Proposition from a new and different angle. If you want to “Start with Why,” write your Origin Story.If your origin story could be told by anyone else in your category, you have not created an origin story; you are telling us about your passion. Or you are telling us what you hope to accomplish. Have you ever read the bio of an artist? “I have loved painting since I was 4 years old.” “I knew I wanted to be a painter when I was 3.” “My mother tells me that I was painting before I could talk.” Those are not the opening lines of origin stories. Those are just people describing the longevity of their passion. If a jeweler says his “Why” is that he wants to “help people celebrate the important moments in their lives,” this is not an Origin Story. He is just telling us what he hopes to accomplish. To prove my point, these are the excellent opening lines of 8 different origin stories from 8 different jewelers:“Tom Heflin was a railroad conductor. His wife had a sister…” “Standing at the engagement ring counter, I felt like Oliver Twist asking for another bowl of porridge…” “Five years before Teddy Roosevelt led the Rough Riders, Simon Schiffman stepped off the train to stretch his legs…” “My Dad was a house painter. He taught me to sand and scrape paint old paint until my fingers were aching and raw…” “During Hurricane Betsy in ‘65, my Dad moved us into his jewelry design studio…” “When I opened the store I had no money. We didn't have the money for inventory, so I…” “Morris Jacobs immigrated to America as a boy. He came through Galveston…” “My Dad died in a car crash when I was 3 years old. So my Uncle Joe taught me…” As those 8 jewelers just demonstrated, origin stories are not interchangeable.There is no template, no pattern to follow. There is only a snapshot of a fleeting moment, a remembered glimpse of an unfocused future, a haunting voice that has whispered all your life, “Keep trying.” When was the moment that your foot first fell onto the path that brought you to where you are? Send your Origin Story to indy@wizardofads.com and he will send you something weird and wonderful and worthless from the...

To The Point HOF guest Ken Goodrich is back! Join us as Ken takes us through 7 Centers of Management Attention. In this second part of our multi-episode series, we'll be looking at Money and Marketing, and how your relationship with the two go hand-in-hand with the operations and growth of your business.

Ken Goodrich is an expert in business process, negotiation, mergers and acquisition, business planning and operations management. As CEO of Goettl, he is widely recognized by organizations such as the Las Vegas Business Press, Top 40 Under 40 Professionals, and the Business Professional of the Year Success Club, He has been successful at flipping companies and has nearly 3 decades of experience in acquiring, integrating and developing HVAC, plumbing and contracting businesses. In this episode, we talked about business acquisition tips and signals, understanding your cash flow, hiring from outside the industry, effective employee training...

Ken Goodrich is an expert in business process, negotiation, mergers and acquisition, business planning and operations management. As CEO of Goettl, he is widely recognized by organizations such as the Las Vegas Business Press, Top 40 Under 40 Professionals, and the Business Professional of the Year Success Club, He has been successful at flipping companies and has nearly 3 decades of experience in acquiring, integrating and developing HVAC, plumbing and contracting businesses. In this episode, we talked about business acquisition tips and signals, understanding your cash flow, hiring from outside the industry, effective employee training...

To The Point HOF guest Ken Goodrich is back! Join us as Ken takes us through 7 Centers of Management Attention. In this first part of a multi-episode series, we'll be looking at Management and Leadership--the two pieces you have to have in place if you want to grow your business to the next level.

Perspectives - Michael Gerber [00:01:00] [00:00:00] Sharon: [00:00:00] Everybody welcome to this episode of Perspectives. I am so thrilled to introduce today's guest to you. You may have heard a little bit of his voice before you may have recognized his voice, and I'm not going to reveal his name because I truly believe nearly all of our viewers will know this man have read his book and hopefully be applying some of the messages that are in it.[00:01:25] He is an extraordinary, innovative, extraordinary human being. He's so warm and generous. He's an entrepreneur. He's definitely a thought leader. He's the author of so far and counting 21 books, including a mega selling business book that really is considered probably, the most important, if not one of the most important business books in the world ever written, he published it in back in 1986, he did a review of it in 1995, and it has been selling as a bestseller since [00:02:00] then, which is incredible. The Wall Street Journal named this book, the number one business book of all time.[00:02:06] It sold millions of copies. Its expertise has been applied throughout businesses throughout the world in 29 languages, the world's number one, small business guru because of his series of books. And since founding his organization and a number of different companies, he has served in excess of a hundred thousand small business clients, helping them successfully transform their business, including my businesses.[00:02:38] His dream is to transform the state of small business worldwide. This is of course, Michael Gerber. He's a fabulous human being. We met way back in 2006. We were at a convention together. I had a very baby stage. He had a much, a biggest stage and I managed to catch him just as he was going on stage. And I shared with him a challenge I was having.[00:03:00] [00:02:59] Straight out having just met me. He said, you need to get over your narcissistic urge to be on stage, being the only one who can deliver that thing that needs to stop right now. Then he swept off onto stage and I thought all hell, Michael Gerber, there he goes. Then later I got into a smaller room. I paid the upsell.[00:03:17] I got into a smaller ring. That was just 20 of us. And I was the only one who asked questions. I apologized at one point for taking up the whole time, but I had Michael Gerber for an hour. So he's book, the E-Myth, is obviously the book I was speaking about . The E-Myth and the message he gave me has been the backbone, the vision, the guiding posts for how I've built my coaching businesses.[00:03:44] I credit the systems at our businesses. And how I've replaced myself in my businesses with Michael Gerber and his message in the E-Myth. It is considered one of the top business books ever written, but he's written others as well. So we're going to be talking in this conversation [00:04:00] about The E-Myth Revisited, Awaken the Entrepreneur Within and Beyond the E-Myth.[00:04:04] And I'm going to be asking him at the end about what is a legacy. The message is so simple in the E-Myth and in the books he's written yet seems so smoky to too many people. I really trust this podcast, helps anybody viewing it, how to think about their lives and their businesses and how they are creating their legacy.[00:04:26] And here he is without further await awaiting, Mr. Michael Gerber. Hey, Michael. Hello. [00:04:35] Michael: [00:04:35] How are you? I'm good. I'm fine. How are you? Well,[00:04:46] well, you're wonderful. [00:04:50] Sharon: [00:04:50] I've been doing my reading. Wonderful. I read them in sequence. I read The EMyth Revisited, then Awakening the [00:05:00] Entrepreneur Within and then Beyond the EMyth in 2016. And I noticed the, the story act -was that by design? So I noticed the hero's journey that you had in the three.[00:05:15] Was that a deliberate or my just over noticing something that wasn't there. [00:05:23] Michael: [00:05:23] First of all, you're not over noticing anything. I can absolutely promise you that. On the other hand, the books showed up at the time they were called to show up. So, no, I didn't plan from the very beginning at revisited that I wouldn’t be right.[00:05:44] Awakening the Entrepreneur within I didn't plan it - it just showed up. So I might say that my entire history has [00:06:00] been simply, it just showed up and I, I, so I'm not going to take credit for some grand scheme. Yeah. Um, all be it that the grand scheme does exist.[00:06:17] Sharon: [00:06:17] It is. So to me, there's the ordinary world. So in the hero's journey, I think you're familiar with Joseph Campbell's work in the, yes, the hero has a thousand mass or a hundred mass, a lot of mass. This one is ordinary world to me, pointing out why ordinary world should be painful to us. And we'll oversee, unpack this in more detail for our viewers who aren't familiar with your work, which would be staggering, like three people.[00:06:43] But to me, this was ordinary world pointing out why the problem is and why staying there should be painful. And then you give indications on where the extraordinary world is. Then we get into this book and you really paying a great and magnificent picture of the universe. When you [00:07:00] get out of ordinary world and into extraordinary world.[00:07:02] And in this one, you show us how to be your own hero, which to me is the ultimate mythological journey that ultimately, we should be inspiring ourselves. So by the time we get to this book, I almost felt like a graduate. I felt like I was I'd graduated too. [00:07:20] Michael: [00:07:20] Well, it's wonderful the way you envision it.[00:07:25] Um, the way you've interpreted it. And I say, it's wonderful because you're bringing your own experience to the listener, to the reader, to the thinker, the dreamer, the storyteller, the leader, you're bringing your own experience to it. And as you bring your own experience to it, you're bringing that internal life forum that has revealed itself to you.[00:07:52] Sharon: [00:07:52] Yeah, that's how I saw it. And it meant a lot to me that I felt that you were with me as I built my business all those years ago. [00:08:00] So it has been very significant to the building of our businesses. E-Myth is where it began for me. The E-Myth is required reading for entire (TCI) curriculum. So, so far that would be in existence.[00:08:13] That's literally tens of thousands of people. I consider it. The first book people should read when they're endeavoring to start a business. Because as you say in the E-Myth, don't start the business until you recognize yourself and what you're going to do wrong. If you don't have this information. So to me, it's you, you don't start the Monopoly game until, you know, the game to me, you don't start the business until, you know, the game you're about to play.[00:08:41] And most people start not even knowing the game they signed up for. They're playing Scrabble when they're actually playing Monopoly. They don't [00:08:50] Michael: [00:08:50] even know what a game. [00:08:52] Sharon: [00:08:52] Yes. [00:08:54] Michael: [00:08:54] Because they don't even know what to game. They're completely absorbed [00:09:00] in self. And not self in the, with the great S but self with the little less, I'm doing it, doing it, doing self, doing it, doing it, doing itself, then want to be doing it doing itself.[00:09:16] And it's such a tragedy. It's such a tragedy because we both know, we all know as we're speaking about this year, um, that, that little self, um, absorbed as he or she. Um, invariably is, um, misses the whole point of self and it is a tragedy and it breeds a tragedy and we become absorbed in that tragedy to the point where there is no future beyond that little self, as I say, doing it, [00:10:00] doing it, doing it, doing it busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.[00:10:04] So yeah, they're unaware of the game. We're about to play. And that's what revisit it was all about the game we're about to play. And my primary aim, my strategic objective, my organizational strategy, my management strategy might, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I’m working on it, not in it, working on it, not in it, working above it, beyond it and so forth and so forth.[00:10:32] And that's the key to this game that you've been playing you individually had been playing and then you've been inviting every single one of your clients I presume to play. [00:10:49] Sharon: [00:10:49] Yes. Yeah. I really took on board a couple of times. You've said particularly about coaches because obviously one of the business I have is a coaching school.[00:10:58] Uh, [00:11:00] Coaches to me. And I do want to unpack the E-Myth and talk about the principles of the book for those who aren't familiar with a malicious dive into what really struck me, Michael was - I think coaches have the biggest entrepreneurial seizure of them. All practitioners who think the skill is the business, the doing of that coaching session of selling one hour of their time is the point is missing the point.[00:11:27] And Michael I've been saying for 18 years, 18 years, I have been speaking this language of how are you replacing yourself? And we designed the program. So anybody who wants to replace themselves can, but still do you notice people's, uh, vision. To letting go of the technician. You must see it the way I see it.[00:11:50] They're just holding on so tight to their hourly rate. Yeah, of [00:11:55] Michael: [00:11:55] course. And it's been that way since the very beginning. And it [00:12:00] continues today. Um, the solar preneur thing, um, which is, um, sort of agreeing there's an entrepreneur. Um, within that, just to get beyond that so that we can get back to doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it, and creating this whole mythology.[00:12:26] That is so destructive of the solopreneur. Um, there is no such thing as a solopreneur. There never has been. There never will be. It's simply a guy doing it, doing it and doing it, doing it and missing the entire freaking point. So yes, that you've been so invested in driving your students beyond that at the coach level and with the clients of that coach, speaks [00:13:00] magnitudes about what you've been attempting to do.[00:13:06] I don't know how successfully you've done that. Other than to say that I know you've succeeded at growing an enterprise. Yeah, upon that. [00:13:18] Sharon: [00:13:18] I think we hit some success. Well, okay. So we have lots of success with the people who hear the message the way I heard you. So I simply am an advocate of that message that I heard from you all those years ago, because I studied the E-Myth when I started my business and the way I feel about it, Michael if this I can, in all conscience know I have the successes I've had with my coaching school.[00:13:42] If I hadn't given my students, the reason why I have this success. So for every minute we teach them a coaching skill. I have to, I also match it with one minute. So for every hour of coaching skill, there was an hour of training. And how to think about working on your business because I [00:14:00] canl conscience it two decades later.[00:14:02] So I've had all this success because I built an enterprise that replaced me. I haven't worked to my business for nearly 10 years now, whilst I just taught everybody else had to just be stuck in their businesses. So the message has been very consistent, mainly for my conscience, because I couldn't look at people and say, I want you to sell your time for money, because that will help me.[00:14:23] So the message has been there all the way through the people who come to us because they want to feel great about themselves. That's what they get the people who want to have some part time income. That's what they get. People want full-time income and just love coaching the practitioner. I encourage them to stay in their lane.[00:14:40] You don't have to become an entrepreneur. You don't have to replace yourself as long as you know that when you go on holiday, so does your income, and that's what you want to sign up for. We will teach you that. And then there's the next cohort who say, well, I'm going to learn the skill, turn it into a system so I can step back and [00:15:00] replicate myself.[00:15:01] So we have four distinct groups throughout our programs. [00:15:05] Michael: [00:15:05] I got it. To me, in my mindset, so to speak is to continually challenge the first, the second, the third to come face to face with the fourth. Yes, because in my heart, my soul in my spirit, that when one fails to do that, they fail to take themselves on to the degree that is simply waiting for them to do that.[00:15:46] And when they fail to do that, they're failing to bring to those students, their coaching, the true spirit that is possible, [00:16:00] once they awaken to it. So it's like each and every one of them, the first and the second and the third. And then the fourth is simply a potentially a movable object, who I'm determined to upset.[00:16:30] Sharon: [00:16:30] That's it perfectly 70%. So a hundred percent start here, 70% end up in the fourth cohort. We just the whole time just,[00:16:43] Michael: [00:16:43] and you're saying, and you're saying, join me. Yeah, that's what you're, it's an invitation. It's not an exclusive creation. It's an invitation. Join me, join me. I live in a world you've never [00:17:00] seen before I live in an experience you've never had before. Join me, join me. I know you enjoy where you are. I know you feel safe where you are.[00:17:11] I know you feel productive where you are and all of those are self-righteous and probably true, but they're not the game that's waiting. To be played info. Yeah. Discover who you could potentially bring to this table in order to transform the state of the people you're engaging with every day. So you get to do that.[00:17:45] And so, because you get to do that, what else are you going to do? I mean, what else is [00:17:55] Sharon: [00:17:55] there to do? What else is there to do that to [00:18:00] me, you, you are the song that needs to be sung and everything else is the harmony. So the message of the E-Myth revisited to me is the major song. It's the backbone that should guide any movement towards building a business.[00:18:14] And I know you had your own epiphany Michael, many years ago, not too many years ago, it was like yesterday, but you had your first epiphany when it's incredible story. If anybody who anybody, if the millions of people could possibly not have read the E-Myth revisited, the I'm speaking to two people right now, there is a moment in their book where you share that you, you knew there was a piece missing.[00:18:37] And it was a blinding flash of this is so obvious once you saw it. Can you tell us, do you mind repeating that story? Because I think it's an might [00:18:47] Michael: [00:18:47] I can, uh, you're going to have to lead me into it. [00:18:52] Sharon: [00:18:52] Allow drop a few more breadcrumbs for you. It's the moment you realize this in [00:19:00] 1977 and you walked into a McDonald's hamburger joint.[00:19:03] Uh, [00:19:04] Michael: [00:19:04] not enough. Okay. Well, sure. It's more than enough. I walked into a McDonald's hamburger joint to get a hamburger. And I suddenly came to realize that this McDonald's hamburger joint was significantly beyond what I went there to get. What I actually got was the realization of what a system truly meant.[00:19:42] I became enraptured by the. Possibility that I could do the very same thing in short, that I was going to create the McDonald's of small business development services that McDonald's of [00:20:00] small business coaching services that McDonald's of small business consulting services. And my dream, um, truly came to me at that point that I'm going to transform the state of small business worldwide.[00:20:15] And the only way that could be done is if I did what Ray Kroc did at McDonald's. So yeah, I saw the franchise and I fell in love with it. I realized that it was the first time I'd actually understood it as I did in that very. The library compelling moment. It struck me. And it's true when I say this, that this is how it happens with entrepreneurs.[00:20:53] It finds you, you don't find it, but you have to be [00:21:00] a blank piece of paper. And beginner's mind at the process ensured there has to be something completely out of the way. You have to be completely open to the possibility that something astonishing is going to happen to me and that something is finishing is waiting to happen.[00:21:20] So when you talked about your realization, something astonishing happened to you, as you experienced the E-Myth revisited and allowed it to take you in. It was that Holy moly experience. It's that sudden seeing. And that sudden seeing is unlike anything else that happens to us. And thank God it's happening.[00:21:53] Sharon: [00:21:53] Thanks. I'm glad it happened for me, but I have to say, Mike, I see a lot of people who see the message here, the message you grew with the [00:22:00] message and then ignore it. So they're not having to me the obvious of epiphany. [00:22:05] Michael: [00:22:05] No, of course they ignored because they're afraid of it. They're afraid of it. You understand?[00:22:13] It's just, it's just that they're afraid of it because they are challenged by it to become someone they're terrified. They'll never become. I can't do that. I can't do that is what rises within them. I can't do that. I can't do that. And what if I did, what if I did, what then? What would happen? You follow me.[00:22:44] Sharon: [00:22:44] Yeah. And it's also, I don't know how to do that, but of course. [00:22:48] Michael: [00:22:48] Yeah, of course. I don't know how to do that. I've never done that. I have no idea, but [00:22:53] Sharon: [00:22:53] yeah, all I've done is sold my time for money. I don't understand that it could be any other way. [00:23:00] Well, [00:23:00] Michael: [00:23:00] I see that knowing my time for money is so hard anyway.[00:23:04] Yes. Yeah. It's so hard. And it, I mean to then think about going beyond spelling my time for money and actually creating a methodology through which everybody could sell their time for money, meaning replacing myself in that. It's just. Far too threatening. [00:23:29] Sharon: [00:23:29] Hm. And I do notice that people who have, are exposed to the message long enough, eventually start hearing it sometime for you use walked into McDonald's for me, I picked up the E-Myth and I met you for the very first time.[00:23:43] That was enough. But for others, repetition becomes, starts breeding familiarity, which breeds more comfort. I have noticed as people have moved throughout programs, they get more comfortable with the idea of letting go of the tightness and starting to look at the, on instead of in the business. Have you noticed that [00:24:00] as well, that sometimes familiarity helps the epiphany become a reality?[00:24:05] Michael: [00:24:05] Well, yes. I've noticed it because they become more familiar with the store. My co-author of the E-Myth HVHC. Contractor, Ken Goodrich when he started with the events, not when he started as an HPAC contractor, but when he started with the E-Myth and that's after he failed as an HVHC contractor, he read the book, then he read the book a second time.[00:24:41] Ken Goodrich read the book 39 times. Yes. Yeah. Think about that. [00:24:46] Sharon: [00:24:46] 39 times. I read it five times in my fifth year in business. [00:24:54] Michael: [00:24:54] You're as crazy as I am. What can I? Yeah, but it struck me, it [00:25:00] struck me, it struck me, it struck me and each time he read it, he saw something more. Each time he read it, he saw something more.[00:25:08] So each time he saw something more, he was capable of thinking beyond where he was to grade something he'd never done before. Yeah. So yes, I have seen that. I know that. I've heard that again and again and again and again. Unfortunately, and sadly, I just don't hear it enough. I wish I could hear it.[00:25:35] A million times, you understand that literally we could transform the state of entrepreneurship worldwide. You and I could actually do that to a degree. Never imagined possible before. [00:25:54] Sharon: [00:25:54] Yes I [00:25:55] Michael: [00:25:55] do. Yep. If somehow, if some way we [00:26:00] were able to literally drag them, kicking and shaking and whatever they were to get them to do the first thing.[00:26:12] And then the second thing, and then the third thing and in the process of get, getting them to do the first thing and the second thing, and the third thing. Suddenly the fourth thing would get done almost on its own. [00:26:27] Sharon: [00:26:27] Yes, that's right. And that in and get out of the inertia the way I see you've got to get out of the initial inertia.[00:26:35] It's like getting a rocket ship out of gravity and the rock, the energy it takes to get the rocket ship going is massive. And I get that first burn is hard, but the burn gets easier as gravity gets less. And eventually we're just, it's automatic. But people got to get past that first rocket burn. Cause that burn, it hurts.[00:26:54] Michael: [00:26:54] Yes. And they've got to get past it. There's no question, but they have to get past [00:26:59] Sharon: [00:26:59] it [00:27:00] and they have to go through [00:27:01] Michael: [00:27:01] it. Yeah, yeah. Right. You can't do it for them. You can't do it for them. You can't do it for them. You can't take that pain away. Yeah. That's cheating but the truth is once that pain is experienced, once they break through that barrier, it takes them the next step and the next step and the next step.[00:27:31] And suddenly they're in a liberation stage, which is a state all of its own. Yeah. So our job, your job, my job, your job, more than my job now in these days, um, your job is to see that through. Yep , no matter what your job is to see that through your job, isn't to say. But it's too difficult for it's too difficult for your [00:28:00] job.[00:28:00] Isn't to pass that your job is to pursue that with everything you've got. [00:28:08] Sharon: [00:28:08] Yup. Yup. I love that. I can you share with our viewers plays Michael from the E-Myth a little bit about this fatal assumption, the assumption that if we understand the technical work, that somehow we'll have a business model, can you share this fatal assumption, which I really think is the entrepreneurial seizure that you talk so beautifully about.[00:28:28] Can you introduce our viewers to your thinking around that? [00:28:32] Michael: [00:28:32] Well, the fatal assumption is that if I can do what I've set out to do, then it will liberate me to do more. Um, and it's just not true. Um, I had this great [00:29:00] conversation with a wonderful partner of mine and there is a. Process that is called for it to awaken the entrepreneur within that requires one to think turnkey, if one is ever to do turnkey and until one does turnkey, one will never become turn key.[00:29:40] Yeah. So it's a process. One has to engage in that is transformational. I've said to Mark saying it to you. I'll say it to the world that the word is transformation. [00:30:00] Transformation is the key transformation means. To go beyond what I know to be true, discover what I will never know how to do until I've passed through that window of[00:30:29] transformation. Okay. Um, transformation is what occurs and it occurs to a degree that is in some sense of the word, um, terrifying. That's why most don't it's terrifying because what we're really asking people to do is to become [00:31:00] who they aren't, not who they are, who they, aren't not who they are. When I talk about a blank piece of paper and beginner's mind to become who you aren't rather than who you are.[00:31:20] And there's no experience that will enable one to grow comfortable with the possibility of becoming who I'm not, who I'm not is everything that's waiting in. The wings speaking. In a strange language,[00:31:50] somebody who is caught up in who I am,[00:31:58] tragically [00:32:00] consumed by who I [00:32:01] Sharon: [00:32:01] am. And by what I do by what I do is by what's in front of us, not what's who [00:32:09] Michael: [00:32:09] I am is what I do. What I do was, yeah, I am. That's why I say until I,[00:32:18] until I truly understand it, turn key. I will never become turnkey. And until I become turn key, I'll never truly understand the transformation that occurs in that. Not glib moment. Yeah. Now I don't know whether that makes sense to anybody we're talking to right now. [00:32:53] Sharon: [00:32:53] I'm going to give you an example of it now.[00:32:55] So I remember our conversation. So we had two conversations that day. There [00:33:00] was the conversation where it was the narcissistic seizure that you slapped me for. That was fantastic. And then we went into a smaller room cause I bought a ticket to your very elite room and it was, I always get into the smallest rooms wherever I can, Michael, where the biggest investment is going to be the smallest room, which means the most access Michael, there were.[00:33:18] 1520 people in that room. And not one person asked you a question. I was the only person who asked you a question. It blew my mind. So I had this whole hour of you mentoring me in front of 20 other people. I'll take it any day of the week. It was fantastic. So we discussed when we're about to share with you.[00:33:37] I, what I did to build this business and it's turned over hundreds of millions of dollars is the following. I started out with the E-Myth. This is a true story guys. I started out with this book and Michael's advice, which I'm happy to share right now. It's basically the E-Myth. And I was a technician knowing I was a technician with very little skill [00:34:00] in anything I needed.[00:34:02] I set out, in the E-Myth the skills I needed in advance. So ahead of me, Michael, I had a blueprint of all the categories of skills I would need. To follow your message. And they were all empty. None of them had anything written in them. I didn't know how to do any of it. So, business skills, marketing skills, sales skills, leadership skills, delegation, project management, skills, performance management skills, finance skills, seven categories were blank.[00:34:33] And I didn't even have coaching skills. So, I had this blank. So, they want, I did was I began filling in where I was. So, I started getting some coaching skills and developing speaking skills. As I did that, I began documenting what worked. That was my first move towards replacing me. So, every step I took that worked with a client and was really successful and quote on, because I was very, very successful coach.[00:34:59] I [00:35:00] documented, as I documented it, I put it into a system. I was creating my first client fulfillment system. Didn't have the language for this, but that's what I was doing. This is for anybody listening, it's not just coaches, its consultants, practitioners, justas anybody who thinks they are stuck in the, doing the, doing the doing it.[00:35:19] Isn't true. So I began documenting it. Then I began looking for patents in the system, Michael. So I knew it'd be a progressive turnkey system that someone else could walk through. Then I began having little groups. Exactly. As you did testing and asking them, what is it you want? What is it you need? How is this going to work for you?[00:35:40] What's your greatest fear? What's your greatest concern. What's keeping you awake at night. And I began building that into the system. Then I had my first training where I charged for it and I started revealing it and I got more feedback. And as I did that, I began building the skills in the other seven areas.[00:35:58] I went from zero to a [00:36:00] million dollars profit in two years. In my fourth year, I made $4 million following a 300 page book and one hour of your advice. So that's somebody who had no coaching skills when they began, I had to learn all of this and at the end of that, so at the 12 year mark, I had an entire vision for myself and we get to talk about personal transformation.[00:36:24] In a moment, I had a vision for myself. Michael is one of the things you said to me was, it's not a business transformation. It's a personal transformation. I had no idea what you meant, but I went away and thought about it. So what is the personal transformation I need? I need to grow into the person who can handle this because today this person can't handle any of that.[00:36:44] I can't handle. Having a team. I couldn't handle the finances at that level. So I had to grow personally to keep up with what I expected to be my legacy in my business. And I had a 12 year plan to replace myself. And on the [00:37:00] 12th year I walked out of my business and I'd replaced myself. And now haven't worked in this business.[00:37:05] That's doing better without me in the last eight and a half years, simply by following all of these steps. So I am the biggest advocate that this is doable for us. [00:37:17] Michael: [00:37:17] So you've just described the evolution of an enterprise, a company of one to a company of 1000. You've just described beyond the E-Myth the evolution of an enterprise from a company of one to a company of 1000.[00:37:32] You literally did it. Yup. Yup. By step by step, [00:37:37] Sharon: [00:37:37] by step, by step by step. [00:37:39] Michael: [00:37:39] Yep. Exactly. As I defined it, In that book that you bought for $12. So hear me, [00:37:51] Sharon: [00:37:51] I paid $500 for that hour with you.[00:37:57] Michael: [00:37:57] You spent for that hour with me, [00:38:00] but we never spent any more time after that. You took it. You got it. You did it. You took it. You got it. You did it. I want to say to you how extraordinary. That is how extraordinary that is and what a gift that is to every single human being you work with and your company's work with since and what a gift that's going to be when you actually go beyond that too, because while you've arrived at a space and a place that very few people will ever arrive at, you're still on your way.[00:38:47] Sharon: [00:38:47] Yes, [00:38:49] Michael: [00:38:49] you are still on your way. Yeah, and that's gotta be immensely [00:38:56] Sharon: [00:38:56] exciting to you. It's wonderful. [00:39:00] Rereading your books makes me realize the gaps that we have, that we haven't taken care of everything. So we're doing what you did recently. We're going back and relooking and redefining how this needs to be based on your message.[00:39:13] So my husband and I J JP and I we've spent the last three days discussing your books. We've both been devouring them again and asking ourselves questions about our businesses based on, we just were Gerber-ing everything. Just so you know, the, every business we have, I don't know how many we own. We're Gerber-ing all our businesses right now, that's become part of our new policy in the company.[00:39:37] Michael: [00:39:37] I love it. I absolutely love it. [00:39:41] Sharon: [00:39:41] So let's go right back to a very basic step. There are three levels of thinking the way. Michael sees things. So there's the technician, the doing the, doing the doing there's the manager who is meant to monitor, manage and measure the systems that make the, doing the, doing the doing possible.[00:39:58] And then the [00:40:00] entrepreneur who has even stepped beyond that and is leading and inspiring the manager to manage the systems and to bring the vision to life. What do you see is preventing people moving from technician? Let's just get them to manager. Let's just get them to that first step. What do you think the block is?[00:40:20] Or what's the biggest challenge you see that we can help them with? Well, [00:40:24] Michael: [00:40:24] the biggest challenge is actually expecting them to, okay, so hear me. The reason they don't is because we don't expect them to. So in most organizations, there is very little expectation of the evolution. Of the enterprise, Eric, we have a technician, who's doing it, doing it, doing it, doing it.[00:40:50] They're either bad at it. They're mediocre at it, or they're good at it. And a handful of very, very small handful are expert at it. [00:41:00] What Ben, nobody wishes to do is to take the expert at it. And move them on to become a manager of that, because we don't want to lose the results they produce as an expert at that.[00:41:16] So the thing that's missing in the organization is literally the expectation that everyone moves, [00:41:23] Sharon: [00:41:23] that you're really shortsighted, [00:41:25] Michael: [00:41:25] everyone moves, and that means up or out [00:41:32] Sharon: [00:41:32] up or out. Yep. Or across I've had people in my company who decided they're not going to ever be an expert in that thing. And they've go found another thing in our company where they can bring their passion to lighter.[00:41:43] We can be. Yeah. [00:41:44] Michael: [00:41:44] But you understand, you asked the question, so what what's missing and what's missing is the expectation that everyone moves [00:41:56] Sharon: [00:41:56] in their own business. What's missing for them. Why, [00:42:00] why does a coach just stay [00:42:03] Michael: [00:42:03] Included, that is, it's never been a mindset that effectively says I'm only going to do this until this occurs.[00:42:16] I'm here to make that occur. In short, I'm not here to make this occur continuously. The system is here to do that. I'm here to move beyond that work, to grow that work to the point that that work can work an exponentially greater degree than it's capable of doing right now. I'm here to grow my enterprise.[00:42:44] I'm here to grow the company. From a company of one to a company of 1000. So there is not that there. And if that's not there, it doesn't happen. You understand it, it has to, it has to live in the [00:43:00] mind and heart and soul of the individual we're speaking to. So how does that occur? Yeah, that has to occur through the interface that individual has with a leader.[00:43:18] So there has to be expectation that everybody moves. Everybody moves. Yeah. His expectation is that most people don't in short that if I can find somebody who's really good at this, I want to keep them doing this because. Not doing this means they're going to be ineffective at doing that. Yes. So the expectation is an inhibitor.[00:43:55] Sharon: [00:43:55] I think this is same for business owners, all for technicians who are in their own [00:44:00] businesses. They don't have that expectation of themselves. Even though they hear the message there.  I come across a lot of people who can't envision how they would move out of selling their time for money too.[00:44:14] They don't know what to work on when I say work on your business. And even when we explain the steps, which are all available, they still seem to have this gap that that can happen for themselves. [00:44:26] Michael: [00:44:26] Well, of course it's. Yes, but yes, but yes, but as you heard it, you know, it, you recognize it. And it's right there in the way of anything magical happening.[00:44:39] Um, there is no magic possible when the, the thinking about it is so steroid sterility of that position, one takes that is so inhibiting. Yeah. [00:45:00] So that's why very, very simple. That's why so transform that. And you suddenly find yourself in a new world. [00:45:08] Sharon: [00:45:08] One of the things you talk about beautifully and passionately about Michael is none of this is for business.[00:45:13] All of this is for life and that this is a personal transcending journey to get there. You definitely think very, big picture. I love the way you think the big picture you see that if this mind isn't operating at that level, none of this doing. The way we want to change, it can happen. You speak about transformation and transcending that we need to work on our lives.[00:45:39] If we expect our business to transcend as well. Can you speak to that a little bit? I love when you speak about that, because I do believe my business is there to support the life I want to have it isn't that my life is my business. [00:45:54] Michael: [00:45:54] I had a wonderful conversation, a continuing conversation in, [00:46:00] with a small group participating in what we call Radical U.[00:46:04]  Radical You is our new school, for awakening the entrepreneur within ordinary people. And, I created a small group as a test of students who were going through the normal curriculum of Radical You. So they can get some experience of feedback in the conversation that's awakened in each of these weekly classes.[00:46:41] And this particular conversation arose within a lovely gentleman from Israel who happens to be a real estate agent, independent agent. And I introduced him to my [00:47:00] co-author of the E-Myth real estate agent. And he said to me, a few meetings back. He said, when he met him, he simply took it for granted that the guy knew something that he would be best.[00:47:25] Committed to learn, but he never truly appreciated the profound, profound impact that it could have on him. He said, I feel so ashamed that I didn't value the profound life force that just meeting that man would bring to me. [00:48:00] Yeah. And he said, it just struck me one moment. It was like this own, my God.[00:48:10] He's talking about my life. Yeah. He's not talking about real estate. He's talking about my life. He continued to say that. And all of the experiences he's shared in this group, I have about 23 students in this group. They all come, we all come together every other week. As he's sharing this, he is sharing this with tears, and this is a man in his early fifties.[00:48:49] He's describing the profound meaning of this to his life, to his [00:49:00] relationship, with his children, to his relationship, with his wife, to his relationship, with his clients, to his relationship, with his work. And he's describing this. With such passion that is so far beyond[00:49:24] income so far beyond. [00:49:28] Sharon: [00:49:28] Yes.[00:49:33] Michael: [00:49:33] Okay. It says though, when you say, how could I possibly have been alive in this work without what he shared with me? I felt so ashamed. He said today[00:49:55] too. So missed the point. Hmm. [00:50:00] So when we speak about that, It's far beyond any language we can bring to the task. [00:50:13] Sharon: [00:50:13] Yes. Yes. I love that [00:50:15] Michael: [00:50:15] life, Michael. It's my life. My God. It's my life. You're speaking about not my job. [00:50:30] Sharon: [00:50:30] Yup. How I view me? Who am I? And I'm not the task in front of me. I just not, I'm the legacy.[00:50:39] I'm the vision. I'm what I'm. If I don't inspire me, I'm not doing it right. I've gotta be my inspiration. That's what it is to me, Michael, [00:50:50] Michael: [00:50:50] if I don't rise to this occasion, To experience the [00:51:00] eloquence of it. I've missed everything. [00:51:05] Sharon: [00:51:05] Yeah. And it's worth saying for anybody who's viewing this or listening to this and not getting it it's worth pursuing until you get it.[00:51:14] Just start with the E-Myth Revisited or go to Radical U.com and just start somewhere with exposing yourself to this type of thinking. That's what I did, Michael. It was very foreign to me. I'd been raised on sell, sell an hour for 25 bucks. So that sounds just mind blowing. I just trained my brain in your thinking when I began.[00:51:42] I just trained my brain in how you thought about it. So I read this book many times. I just kept thinking, how would my, how do I need to look about this? So I'm applying the E-Myth. Am I letting myself right now down right now, because I'm not thinking about this in terms of a visionary. And I just kept challenging myself because you give so many ways to [00:52:00] look at it.[00:52:00] Michael, it's doable for all of us. If we're willing to stop stagnating on yesterday's thinking and challenge what goes in here, it's all about how we think. Everything we build is an idea. That's all it is. It is not the next widget that we're turning out. It's the idea of what that widget represents.[00:52:19] That's the widget, is a widget to a technician, to a manager and as a system and to a visionary and a later, and our entrepreneur, it is freedom. It’s a widget it a fricking widget. [00:52:33] Michael: [00:52:33] Well, and the only thing that you folks who are listening to us ramble on right now need to know is it's all real. You understand, this is not something were concocting out of thin air.[00:52:50] It's all real. It's real for us. The experience is alive in us. And what we're saying to you, and this is [00:53:00] what's so important about is it can be alive to you as well. And if it isn't. You're paying an enormous price for the loss of it. [00:53:14] Sharon: [00:53:14] Yes. [00:53:15] Michael: [00:53:15] You just got to do the work. You just got to do the work. Hear me.[00:53:19] You're just got to do the work. And the beauty of it is it's all spelled out for you. It's a freaking system. [00:53:27] Sharon: [00:53:27] It is a system. Let's talk about that. Yes. So one of the things you say is systems enable you to keep your word. I believe, systems equal trust. Consistency in systems, equal trust. And I think that's parallel to the way you look at it.[00:53:44] If something is chaotic, unreliable, inconsistent, made up on the spot, I don't believe that person's put the thought into it necessary for me to entrust them with my dollar. My dollar goes two way. There is consistency, [00:54:00] stability, replicability, and sustainability. That's what I'm looking for. Then I know there's the potentiality for a relationship in business.[00:54:09] Michael: [00:54:09] Yes. And that exists right now, um, with everything you do. Every single day and anyone who's sitting here with us right now can put their faith in that because it's worked for ordinary people in extraordinary ways, again and again, and again, and again, it's the system stupid. That's the genius of McDonald's it's the system stupid.[00:54:37] You're going to have 37,000 stores throughout the world doing one thing one way called our way McDonald's way and produce and replicate that identical experience again and again and again and again and again, which means that you and I can do that. [00:55:00] And hear me if I'm saying, which means you and I can do that.[00:55:04] Holy moly, what else do I want? But the integrity of that fact, that I've just stated that you and I can do that. We can, we can do that. And we have, and that's, what's so absolutely exciting about that. We have done that and now you [00:55:26] Sharon: [00:55:26] can. Yup. That's true. We're going to move into awaking, the entrepreneur within, and I love what you say on balance.[00:55:34] I you're the first person I've met, who feels the same way I do about balance. I believe FA it's a figment of our imagination. I think it's arbitrary. Eight hours, eight hours, eight hours. You don't go on holiday and do eight hours, eight hours, eight hours. So why in your real life do you do eight, eight and eight.[00:55:50] If your passions flowing and you've got the vision, you just do the foot. What do you want? You want people who want balance to me, to worried [00:56:00] about, , stability and sameness and stagnation. Is there anything you'd want to speak to about that? Michael? We want to wake up entrepreneurs who are listening.[00:56:11] Michael: [00:56:11] You hear me hear me? Uh, let, let me speak to it in a prophetic way. That the entrepreneur is actually four distinct people. Yes. A dreamer, a thinker, a storyteller, and a leader. The dreamer has a dream. The thinker has a vision. The storyteller has a purpose and the leader has a mission. So our job, because I'm saying we're going to awaken the true entrepreneur within every human being who says.[00:56:50] Helped me the job is to discover the dream, the vision, the purpose, and the mission. So that's what we do. What [00:57:00] we call it the dreaming room. We engage an individual, any individual who says, take me there, take me there. If you dare take me there. I want to discover what you mean. When you say the dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller, and the leader.[00:57:19] I have a dream. I have a vision. I have a purpose. I have a mission. Take me there. And what we do in Radical U is to take an individual through that process.[00:57:30] Sharon: [00:57:30] That's [00:57:30] Michael: [00:57:30] right. That. One can say I have a dream. In my case, my dream was to transform the state of small business worldwide, have a dream to transform the state of small business.[00:57:44] Worldwide. Every single human being on the planet must have a dream. Because without a dream, it's just what it's just doing it, doing it, doing it. [00:58:00] So I'm saying we're going to awaken the entrepreneur within every human being on the planet by discovering your dream. And I've written it down to transform this state of blank worldwide.[00:58:14] Yup. What's your blank. And simply the question, what's your blank. That's the great result you're here to produce. That's what a dream is a great result. You're here to produce. The second is your vision and your vision is the form your company is going to take. So in my case way back then in 1977, I had a dream to transform the state of small business worldwide.[00:58:45] My vision. Was to invent the McDonald's of small business consulting services. Get it McDonald's was that template, the model that [00:59:00] I utilized in order to envision the company I was setting out to create. So I had a great result to produce my dream, to transform the state of small business worldwide and the vision of the company to which I would achieve that result.[00:59:19] And that was my vision. The next question became, so what's my purpose. The dreamer has a dream. The thinker has a vision. The storyteller has a purpose. My purpose was to make certain that every single small business owner who was attracted to my dream and to my vision could effectively become a successful as a McDonald's franchisee.[00:59:47] Get, it could become a successful as a McDonald's franchisee. That was my purpose. And finally, my mission. My mission was [01:00:00] very, very straightforward. It was to invent the business development system that would enable me to realize my dream, my vision, and my purpose, the dreamer, the thinker, the storyteller, the leader, get this to the degree you engage in that process.[01:00:19] Michael, I have a dream. My dream is to transform the state of blank worldwide. I have a vision. My vision is to invent the McDonald's of blank [01:00:31] Sharon: [01:00:31] to achieve, [01:00:34] Michael: [01:00:34] to fulfill the dream. I have a purpose. My purpose is to attract and et cetera, and so forth in order to be as successful as blank. And my mission was to invent the system that makes all that possible.[01:00:53] You got it. Turnkey. Yep. Absolutely. Replicable. Yes. [01:01:00] And they're in resides awakening. The entrepreneur within the heart of that book is the process that I've just sketched out and the opportunities that make it possible to literally invent a company that could be scaled just like Ray Kroc scaled.[01:01:23] McDonald's [01:01:25] Sharon: [01:01:25] well, the moment you have a dream, like you just said, the moment, your dreams, that big, you got to lift yourself out of the technician. You got to lift yourself out of the doing and the join because it's so beautiful and magnificent. It's got legacy in there as well. [01:01:42] Michael: [01:01:42] Yeah. Or you can say my dream is to make a hundred thousand dollars a year.[01:01:51] You understand you suddenly have gone from being a dreamer. Yeah. To being something significantly less than [01:02:00] that, because the dream is never about me. The dream is about it. I'm here to transform the state of the world. I'm here to awaken the spirit of imagination. I'm here to become a entrepreneur world-class to a degree I'd never imagined before.[01:02:26] I'm here to pursue the impossible through a process that makes it possible for me to achieve it. So. The job isn't to satisfy one's small instincts. Yeah. The job is to take them beyond [01:02:51] Sharon: [01:02:51] it's not our job. And when we do this is not about solving the immediate problem we have right now, the problem we have right now is not anything to do with the dream.[01:03:00] [01:02:59] The dream is about others. It's who we're going to serve. It's how are we going to make a difference? It's how are we going to leave a footprint? The problem we've got now, I need cash right now that can't be turned into a dream. Cause that's not that soul about lack and hoarding and hyping and wanting a solution and feeling crisis and urgency dreams are built on way past that.[01:03:23] So we can set a hundred thousand dollars goal and think that's a dream. It just can't be so [01:03:29] Michael: [01:03:29] effectively. We're really saying I'm here to awaken the dreamer within you. Yeah. That's what you were saying to every single person who comes through your doors. We're here to awaken the dreamer within you. We're not here to make a successful coach out of a perspective, entrepreneur.[01:03:46] We're not here to create a successful doer, um, in, in inhabiting the life of a successful creator. We're here to discover the creator within the [01:04:00] creator, within the Imagineer, within, as Walt Disney called them. And that's who we're here to pursue with everything we've got. Now, hear me. That's gonna scare the living daylights out of you because the one in you who is terrified of not becoming successful in our ordinary life.[01:04:27] Is going to be absolutely blown out of their socket when I say, yeah, we're not here to do that. Anyway, we're here to step beyond that anyway. And the process through which we do that is very much like the process that a US Navy seal does.[01:04:53] Sharon: [01:04:53] You don't get a bell, you don't get to tap out. [01:04:58] Michael: [01:04:58] Yeah. But I'm not [01:05:00] good as that. I'm not as big as that. I'm not as exceptional as that. No, of course. You're not. None of us are, but we'll be, you will get the degree. You simply say I will. So if you have the determination to become someone you're not. We have the process to which to enable you to do that where there's a will.[01:05:31] There's a way if you've got, we got the way, if you've got the will, we've got the way that's effectively what you're saying to every single person who comes through your door. If you've got the will, we got the way don't believe us. Let me show you. Let me show you. Let me show you. Let me show you. Mary, did you have the will, Mary Johnny?[01:05:53] Did you have the will? Jodi, did you have the will Jerry? Did you have the will? [01:05:59] Sharon: [01:05:59] Yeah, we say to [01:06:00] everybody, we said, everybody bring you and your willingness to give it a go. We will take care of how it unfolds because we get so many people asking before they join. How does it work? How do I fly? What do. If you read them, don't worry about it.[01:06:17] The, how is all has been taken care of for years, for decades, we've got the, how it's a proven methodology, your ability to apply what works instead of letting your ego take over and thinking you're going to know best. And you want to find your own way. We're going to save you years, absolutely years. If you just follow this methodology versus trying to figure it out for yourself.[01:06:40] Michael: [01:06:40] Yep. [01:06:42] Sharon: [01:06:42] You also talk about comfort versus challenge. [01:06:47] Michael: [01:06:47] Oh, I do. [01:06:48] Sharon: [01:06:48] You do God. I should put myself in a position where I'm challenged. That is a direct Michael Gerber quote and you had just sneak in awakening when you're 69 years old and you [01:07:00] felt like you'd been asleep up until then. So that was before, beyond the E-Myth terrace chair with us.[01:07:05] What the second epiphany was please.[01:07:09] Michael: [01:07:09] Well, well, you understand that my entire life has been challenged Every single thing I've ever done has been a challenge,, because I was never prepared to do it because I didn't know how to do. If I had known how to do what it would have already done it. I didn't know how to do it, but I never allowed that to stop me from pursuing it.[01:07:37] So the pursuit of it was key. The pursuit of it was key and it revealed itself to me, pursuit of it was key and it revealed itself to me. And in the revelation of it, I changed. So in the revelation of it, I changed. It's [01:08:00] not because I changed it's because it changed me. Hmm, every single one of you have to understand that it's not about you.[01:08:10] It's not about what you know how to do. It's not about anything you are prepared to do. It's about opening your heart and mind to it, to understand it will work. It's wondrous way on you. When you make yourself available, it's making yourself available. It's like saying to Sharon, Sharon I'm here, I'm yours.[01:08:37] Teach me, and then doing what you're being taught to do. And as you do what you're being taught to do, it's going to speak to you. And it's going to say things to you. Nobody's ever said to you before, hear me you're in for a shock [01:09:00] because the world isn't what you think it is. Hmm, the experience. Isn't what you believe it to be.[01:09:08] The opportunity is nowhere even close to what you imagine. It will be. All of this is an exercise that takes you beyond who you are to discover who you potentially can rise to be speaking to you. Come play with me, come play with me, come play with me. And suddenly you say, Oh my God, how come I never seen that before you follow me?[01:09:45] It's so extraordinary. And you have this experience over and over and over and over again. I know you do. I know you do because you pursue it. In exactly the same way as that. I have you pursue it with [01:10:00] everything you've got. And when you don't, you pay the price for not having pursued it with everything you've got, then something happens, something happens, it's a revelation.[01:10:13] And that revelation is an exquisite and you can then turn to every single person around you and say, Oh my God, you'll never believe what just happened. Welcome. And there [01:10:26] Sharon: [01:10:26] it is, Michael, I'm going to ask you this question. You talk about legacy a lot, and I believe we're here to inspire ourselves. How are you going towards fulfilling what you believe your legacy potentially could be?[01:10:43] Michael: [01:10:43] Well, what can I say? We already have every human being has a legacy. Um, it's right there right now. Um, you can't avoid it. You can't ignore it. Um, every [01:11:00] single one of us has a legacy and that legacy is either failure, success beyond success, beyond belief. Um, it's in so many different ways and shapes and forms, but every one of us have a legacy.[01:11:15] Um, mine is what I ultimately end up having done. And I don't know yet what that is. I [01:11:29] Sharon: [01:11:29] love it. [01:11:30] Michael: [01:11:30] You understand? I have absolutely no idea yet actually is. Do you realize that just in this conversation, my legacy could have been altered to a degree beyond anything I ever imagined it's possible to become.[01:11:51] That's how I envisioned in view my life. I love that every single day is [01:12:00] contributing to my legacy and I have no idea, nah, everything that I've done with all the people that I've moved with, ever, all the moving and shaking and making and breaking all of that step one would have to say, well, Gerber, you certainly certainly must have a clearer idea about your legacy than most of us.[01:12:27] And I'd say not. [01:12:31] Sharon: [01:12:31] I love it. [01:12:34] Michael: [01:12:34] I know the day I done the day, there will be one. Yeah. I just don't know what it is. And it's as exciting to me right here. Right now at this moment. To think about that as it was the very first day I began on this band. [01:12:59] Sharon: [01:12:59] Yeah. [01:13:00] Just wonderful. I am driven a lot by thinking about when I'm way too old to do anything about it.[01:13:11] I want to make sure I look back and I did it, whatever that brave thing is, whatever that inspiring thing is when it's too late, I don't want to be left with all those moments that I could have embraced. And I turned away for ease or comfort. That's what challenge means to me to do the thing that's going to lift me.[01:13:31] So when I, in that moment, when I take my last breath and I made the person, I could have been it's may the gap isn't there. That's what drives me, Michael, that's me being my fullest truest self in my last breath. The could of been is who I am. I want that to be the same thing. [01:13:50] Michael: [01:13:50] I got it. And God bless. And may your wish your will come to realization.[01:14:00] [01:14:00] But you have no idea what that's going to look like. Absolutely none. Thank God. [01:14:09] Sharon: [01:14:09] Yes. [01:14:10] Michael: [01:14:10] Thank God you have absolutely no idea what that's going to look like. It's being born at this very moment. [01:14:17] Sharon: [01:14:17] It is [01:14:17] Michael: [01:14:17] at this very moment. It's being born so [01:14:25] Sharon: [01:14:25] wonderful. You're a wonderful human being, your energy and your sparkle and your generosity.[01:14:34] Is it something you've cultivated or is it just how you came out? So it [01:14:40] Michael: [01:14:40] just showed up. So what can I get? And it's been a delight. Thank you for having me here. Um, thank you for the conversation. Thank you for the honor of your pursuit of the impossible, utilizing my work to the degree that you have and going beyond my work [01:15:00] to touch the lives of thousands upon thousands, upon thousands of people, may you be blessed, um, in the most, absolutely phenomenal way possible for what you've done and what you're about to do.[01:15:15] I've loved it. [01:15:15] Sharon: [01:15:15] Here's the same for you. I loved it as well. Michael, where would you like people to get in touch with you and to discover more of your work? You mentioned radical you, can you share a little bit about where we can find that and what we can expect? [01:15:28] Michael: [01:15:28] Just come to Michael E, Gerber.com michael@michaelgerber.com.[01:15:33] And just say, Hey, I heard you speak to Sharon. I just heard you talk about all these wonderful things. And we'd just love to do with love, to do with love to do it. And I know that Sharon will find a way to make it happen. And if she doesn't, I will say [01:15:54] Sharon: [01:15:54] exactly right. [01:15:56] Michael: [01:15:56] They've got that promise on the table.[01:15:58] Um, just let's leave [01:16:00] it at that. And we'll find many, many ways to, um, tell your world and world your tilt.[01:16:14] Sharon: [01:16:14] Thanks so much, Michael. [01:17:00]

Ken Goodrich, CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing, author and HVAC Icon, shares his strategies on surviving a recession while building the foundation for an indestructible business. Listen/view more episodes over at housecallpro.com/protalks

Kyle Gargaro, editorial director for The NEWS, talks with Ken Goodrich, CEO of Goettl Air Conditioning.

Have you ever seen a photographer look through a rectangle of forefingers and thumbs to “frame” a potential shot?Framing is even more important when using words to capture images. Advertising, like every other kind of storytelling, should always begin with a framing sequence. From what angle will you approach your subject? What will be revealed? What will be excluded? Most importantly, what will be only partially revealed, requiring your reader to supply the parts that are missing? In the prologue of John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday, a character explains the attraction of the partial reveal: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks.” “Mr. Jenkins?” “Yes, Bobby.” “How much should a hamster weigh?” We know from this framing sequence that Bobby respects the wisdom of Mr. Jenkins and feels comfortable enough around him to ask whatever is on his mind. And because Bobby feels comfortable, we feel comfortable, too. We find out later that Mr. Jenkins owns an air conditioning company. Another ad opens like this: “Mr. Jenkins told me…” “Mr. Jenkins told me…” “Mr. Jenkins told me to work on every system like it was for my mom.” These 3 employee voices frame Mr. Jenkins as a person who loves his mother and who hires people who love their mothers. We also know that Mr. Jenkins believes his customers deserve care, concern, and commitment. But the ad doesn't make these claims; we come to these conclusions on our own because of the partial reveal. “I think I know why Ken Goodrich hired me to run his plumbing company.” The famous owner of an air conditioning company is now in the plumbing business, too. And the person who runs that company for him is straightforward, plainspoken, and willing to tell us what he thinks. We arrive at these conclusions after just 14 words of framing. This is how the public was introduced to Zach Hunt. The next ad begins: “Zach, have you ever heard of the 7-year itch?” This 10-word frame skyrockets our curiosity. We want to hear Zach's answer and learn where Ken Goodrich is headed with this question. “Five years before Teddy Roosevelt led the Rough Riders, Simon Schiffman stepped off the train to stretch his legs.” Two heroic icons of American history 125 years ago… An unknown man steps off a train… Framing has set the stage. Now captivate your customer's attention by surprising them with what happens next. Roy H. Williams

You hear a lot of talk these days about how no one listens to the radio anymore.Interestingly, the people who make these claims offer no evidence beyond the fact that commercial free music can be obtained through online streaming. This reminds me of that famous malaprop by Yogi Berra, “No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded.” If you want to see raw numbers, look at the Nielsen Audio Ratings. But I submit to you, as a supplement to those happy numbers, a few observations fueled by my investment of tens of millions of dollars in advertising expenditures each year for more than 25 years. Radio advertising is more cost-effective today than it has ever been, mainly because rates have been suppressed by the myth that “no one listens anymore.” This is great for media buyers. Bad for station owners.Four of my friends own large, online companies, and each of them tells me the exact same thing. “To do real volume online, you've got to have a big enough markup to let you spend 30 to 35 percent of gross sales on marketing.” The first time I heard this, I couldn't believe my ears. Most of the advertisers I've known spend 5 to 6 percent of gross sales on advertising. The really aggressive ones spend 10 to 12 percent. “You've got to be selling products with a 10 to 20x markup or you're not going to make any money using pay-per-click,” one of them told me while the other three nodded in agreement. The smallest of their online companies does almost $40,000,000 a year. The largest did $85,000,000 last year and one-third of that was spent in online marketing. Fortunes are being made online. This isn't a secret.But any brick-and-mortar business that abandons broadcast media – and I include television in that definition – and tries to replace broadcast with pay-per-click or social media or content marketing is going to lose a fortune online. I've seen it happen again and again.Ryan Deiss is the principal of digitalmarketer.com, a highly regarded educational site for persons who need to know how to make online advertising work. When Ryan spoke to a roomful of long-term radio advertisers recently, he showed them the 8 sequential things that online marketing can accomplish. The first of these 8 was awareness. “No one in this room should be spending a penny online for awareness,” he said. “The cost of creating awareness online is incredibly expensive compared to radio. You just need to maximize the online traffic that radio can easily drive to your website.” He spent the rest of that day telling those advertisers how to generate more online leads and increase their online closing ratios while cutting their online ad budgets by half.Ryan got a thunderous applause at the end of his session. People love the advice of honest, straightforward experts. One of the business owners in the room that day was Ken Goodrich, the owner of Goettl (rhymes with kettle) Air Conditioning in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Tucson. When Ryan's session was over, Ken raised his hand to say, “My cost of lead generation for A/C system replacement was about $441 per lead, roughly the national average for my category, until I cut my online budget by half and moved all that money into 52-week radio. Two years later, the sales volume of my 78 year-old company had more than doubled, and my cost per online lead these days bounces around between $39 and $47.” Ken Goodrich went on to make it clear that his customers are still going online before they call him. Some of them are reading reviews and some are just looking for his phone number, but most are typing the name of their city and “air conditioning” into the Google search string. Goettl Air Conditioning pops up, of course, alongside all its competitors. But unlike the other companies listed in those search results, Goettl leaps off the screen. “Hey! I know those guys!” says the prospective customer. Goettl gets the click, the call, and the sale. Consistent radio advertising...

Why do old songs pop into our heads? Unheard for decades – and often a song we never even liked – there it is, filling the echo chamber of the articulatory loop of working memory in the dorsolateral prefrontal association areas of our brains. “…smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kannnng-aroo,now don't tell meeeeeeee I've nothin' to dooooo….”I whispered everything I could remember to Google. Google whispered back, http://mondaymemo.wpengine.com/flowersonthewall/ (“The Statler Brothers, Flowers on the Wall, 1966.) It won the Grammy for ‘Best Performance by a Vocal Group.'” To get the most out of your ad writer, send them your irrelevant and ridiculous passing thoughts.Don't overthink it, and don't be annoyed when most of your passing thoughts are ignored. Because occasionally, now and then, one of those passing thoughts will morph into a fabulous ad for your business. I was trying to drive “Captain Kannnng-aroo” from my mind when I heard a little email *ding* from my computer. It was Ken Goodrich, the owner of Goettl (rhymes with kettle). Crap. Ken was thinking about Captain Kangaroo, too.I turned Ken's email into a 60-second radio ad. Captain Kangaroo is the reason I own Goettl Air Conditioning. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. I'm Ken Goodrich. Here's how it happened. When I was a kid, our family had a big Zenith console television that was about the size of a small hippopotamus or a pony with very short legs. Your family probably had one, too. Anyway, the Captain was always talking about Schwinn bicycles and what made them BETTER than other bicycles. Sitting there cross-legged on the floor, the Captain convinced me to always buy GOOD quality made with REAL craftsmanship because it works better, lasts longer, and saves you money. When it comes to air conditioners, that's Goettl. But wait, it gets even weirder. I only hire technicians and installers that remind me of Mr. Green Jeans. Happy. Hard working. He just wants you to be happy.  Call Goettl. Gee Oh Ee, T-T-L. It'll keep you cool, but it's hard to spell. And if you see one of my technicians, ask them for a Goettl flashlight. (Contractor License #) You'll find the phone number at Goettl.com. Gee Oh Ee, T-T-L dot com. You've heard me say, “Entertainment is the currency that purchases the attention of the public.” And this is an example of that.Here's how to take a rambling email from a client and turn it into a highly entertaining ad: Open your ad from an interesting angle. This applies to opening lines as well as headlines in print and online. How can anyone not listen to an ad that opens with, “Captain Kangaroo is the reason I own Goettl Air Conditioning.” Make an entertaining pitch. Don't entertain, then pitch. Make the whole pitch entertaining. “…a big Zenith console television that was about the size of a small hippopotamus or a pony with very short legs.” Make the reader/listener/viewer see herself in your ad. “Your family probably had one, too.” When appropriate, tell WHY you are the way you are. (Your Genesis story.) “Sitting there cross-legged on the floor, the Captain convinced me to always buy GOOD quality made with REAL craftsmanship because it works better, lasts longer, and saves you money.” Now add “one more thing” as icing to the cake. “But wait, it gets even weirder. I only hire technicians and installers that remind me of Mr. Green Jeans.” Wrap it up in a manner that isn't painfully predictable. “And if you see one of my technicians, ask them for a Goettl flashlight.” Do you need some intellectual exercise? Ask a business friend to share a vivid, childhood memory with you in an email. Don't tell them what you're planning to do with it. Just tell them to share a story with you that “taught...

What's the secret sauce to building multi-million dollar home services empires? We're bringing you another EXCLUSIVE look at what goes down at RYNOx from the 2023 edition!Welcome to…the LEGENDS PANEL. I was joined by a panel of industry legends, including Leland Smith, Ken Haines, Ken Goodrich, Jimmy Hiller, Dave Geiger, and Paul Kelly, to discuss the hottest topics in the home services industry.These legends of HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Roofing, Garage Doors, and Home Improvement shared their insights on:✅The secrets to growing a large company: From strategic acquisitions to leadership strategies✅ Balancing ambition with personal sacrifices: Discover how to achieve success without neglecting your well-being✅ Inspiring stories of transformation: From ordinary tradesmen to multimillionaires, learn what's possible with dedication✅ Overcoming challenges and achieving work-life balance: Valuable lessons for entrepreneurs of all levelsWhat's truly inspiring is not just their achievements but their reflections on the journey. The unanimous advice? Cherish your time, both at work and with family. It's the moments spent with loved ones that fuel the drive towards success.Listen to the stories of successful entrepreneurs who started from the bottom and built empires through hard work, smart choices, and the right support system.Key TakeawaysIntro (00:00)Motivations for starting a home services business (01:57)The journey from small to large-scale operations (06:55)The most important characteristics of effective leadership (13:52)How to balance work and personal life (19:48)Critical hires that propel growth in home services businesses (26:39)Biggest growth roadblocks and how to overcome them (35:06)Personal sacrifices during business growth (53:11)Advice on integrating acquired companies (1:00:06)Additional Resources➡️ Schedule a FREE consultation here: https://rynoss.com/contact-us/Connect with our Legends WEBSITESLeland Smith - https://servicechampions.com/Ken Haines - https://www.wrenchgroup.com/Ken Goodrich - https://www.goettl.com/Jimmy Hiller - https://www.praxiss10.com/about-praxis-s-10Dave Geiger - https://www.horizonservices.com/Paul Kelly - https://www.parkerandsons.com/INSTAGRAMLeland Smith - https://www.instagram.com/servicechampions/Ken Goodrich - https://www.instagram.com/goettlair/Dave Geiger - https://www.instagram.com/horizonservices/Paul Kelly - https://www.instagram.com/parker_and_sons/FACEBOOKLeland Smith - https://www.facebook.com/ServiceChampionsKen Haines - https://www.facebook.com/wrenchgroup/Ken Goodrich - https://www.facebook.com/GoettlJimmy Hiller - https://www.facebook.com/praxiss10Dave Geiger - https://www.facebook.com/HorizonServices/Paul Kelly - https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaHVACLINKEDINLeland Smith - https://www.linkedin.com/company/service-champions-plumbing-heating-ac/Ken Haines - https://www.linkedin.com/company/thewrenchgroup/Ken Goodrich - https://www.linkedin.com/company/goettl/Jimmy Hiller - https://www.linkedin.com/company/praxiss10/Dave Geiger - https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizonservices/Paul Kelly - https://www.linkedin.com/company/parker-and-sons/TIKTOKLeland Smith - https://www.tiktok.com/@servicechampions?lang=enKen Goodrich - https://www.tiktok.com/@goettlairPaul Kelly - https://www.tiktok.com/@parker_and_sons?lang=enTWITTER/XLeland Smith - https://twitter.com/servicechampsS/Ken Goodrich - https://twitter.com/goettlairJimmy Hiller - https://twitter.com/PraxisS10Dave Geiger - https://twitter.com/horizonservicesPaul Kelly - https://twitter.com/ParkerandSonsYOUTUBELeland Smith - https://www.youtube.com/user/ServiceChampionsHVACKen Goodrich - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGzJ2yOVe0rENM4SpVj_QwJimmy Hiller - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaSjSo5H9E2OAcNjSeAr4pADave Geiger - https://www.youtube.com/user/HorizSvcsPaul Kelly - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKeUY3j38Tv9mdMIVP3oMdw/videosTo The Point Home Services Podcast is a home services podcast that gets to the point! Focused on helping HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and many other HS companies grow exponentially.

Some contractors are concerned with the state of the industry...but not Ken Goodrich! Now Chairman of Goettl, To The Point legend KG and host Chris Yano talk about what contractors of all sizes can do to compete even in an unstable market with less demand and higher competition. Listen now!YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok2:45 Comparing business models3:07 Pantheon 20234:17 Kens new position in Goettl6:15 reflection of running a business6:54 The importance of recruiting great leaders in your business9:17 transitioning from a leader in your business to a chairman role12:00 building a machine of profits and revenue14:40 the fundamentals of building your business16:40 tech enabled business model20:05 The “Art work” of an entrepreneur22:00 succeeding in an unstable market25:50 Your brand story27:10 hyper focus on your community29:57 not worrying about this recession35:30 the average book rate from your csr team41:30 One thing to do to improve your business is sit inside the call center44:49 Service World Expo46:15 Being a constant learner in your industry53:02 Smart AC56:53 Everservice1:03:20 Closing