I saw Mike’s pictures of him and Rob next to the old van like 2 years ago. Reached out to Mike, talked to him, and couldn’t have been more skeptical. I thought this guy probably has a big business and he’s getting ready to fail. He’s just trying to increase revenue. When I left to come here, I still didn’t know whether or not it was bullshit or not. I’ll tell you what, the problems that I was having … Every time one would come up, Mike would have another video that he was talking about, or another post, or another article that he sent me, or something on his podcast that spoke to that.
I thought, “You know what? It’s a small investment to go flush this guy out and see if he’s got it, or if he doesn’t. He’s willing to give me 100% of my money back after the first day if I think he’s full of it.” I thought, “You know what? 6500 bucks? Boom. I’ll check it out. Worst case scenario, he’s going to give me 6500 cash. No better way to put cash in my pocket than that.”
I don’t know if you’ve got enough tape in the digital file for that. My company is doing well. We’re strong. We have profit, but we’re unable to grow. We don’t have any systems. I’ve got employees that I feel hold me hostage. There’s a lot of programs and things for growth that we don’t have in place that I know we need to get into place, but where do you start? As a business owner, you get this overwhelming feeling of, “I got all these things that are wrong. How do I start this?” I wanted to come see what he was doing.
[inaudible 00:01:47] in his shop you can hold him accountable. You can look at his systems. You can see what he’s got going on. You can talk to his employees. He keeps nothing off of the table. It’s, “Go ahead.” It’s a free-for-all here, man. He leaves it all out there. He’s been able, so far, to help me prioritize what needs to get done, why it needs to get done, how it’s going to get done, and what the actual money that it’s going to put back in my pocket is, and that’s been invaluable.
Over the last 5 or 6 years that we’ve had a service business, we’ve got … Now we’re at 40 years of a construction business, 5, 6 years of a service business. You probably may be in another organization. The whole ego contest, “What’s your billable hour? How many trucks do you have? How much revenue are you doing?” People keep making you feel like you’re small potatoes. They leave this carrot dangling out in front of you as to where you can go and what you can do. Mike is the exact opposite. He was a tradesman. He didn’t own a different business and decide to come into the trades. The guy gets it. It’s real.
He comes in, “I’ve eaten insulation.” That’s no bullshit. The guy’s eaten insulation. His whole delivery, everything, is not something that he’s polished and perfected as far as the way he speaks. It’s real. It’s from the gut. It’s from inside. You get that when you watch his videos. You think, “Is this somebody who’s trying to play that card so that they can be a little different than everybody else?” The guy is different. 100% different. There’s nothing that is the same with him as anybody else. He comes in. He delivers full content. He answers your questions. He doesn’t make you feel small. There’s no ego. The ego’s checked at the door our there. It’s just how it is.
There’s people in here with $20 million companies. Mike’s got a $30 plus million company. I’ve got a $2 million company, a $3 million company. There’s guys that just started. They’ve got a $500,000 company. We’re all playing on the same field. He doesn’t allow any of that egotistical crap to come into the room. He’s fixing. You find out that the guy who’s at 500,000 has great insight and great ideas and can help. Mike shows you how to use that. He takes the guy who’s at $20 million, shows you what he’s doing, what he’s doing wrong, why you don’t want to do that. If you want to go to $20 million, you can put it into play. I’ve been making calls back at night on break. We’re already implementing. Things are already changing.
I’ll make another million dollars next year with outbound calling framework. Done. Go from 2.5 million to 3.5 million, and I’m going to spend 30 grand to do it. We operate at a 17% profitability. That’s $170,000 next year my family’s going to have in their pocket. Diversifying my revenue streams. Okay, so you start making money. What do you do to keep other money coming in? How you deal with your employees, being the alpha dog, letting them know you’re the alpha dog. Becoming a warrior? At first I thought the whole warrior thing was corny. That’s what we are. We’re warriors. We’re family warriors. We’re leaders of both of those things. Mike shows you what that means.
Yeah, you’ll laugh at me now. I know a lot of people who are going to see this video, or possibly see this video, and they’re going to be like, “Oh, the big guy’s down there drinking the Kool-Aid.” The big guy drank the Kool-Aid. You come down here. I guarantee you you will drink the Kool-Aid. You’ll learn how to be a warrior. It’s not just a corny concept. Maybe it’s a little bit corny. He’s got the knives and all that. But that’s really who Mike is, and he believes it, and it fits.
How long do you want to go? You want to talk about hiring strategies? I implemented something from here. I’ve already got 2 people, 2 plumbers that want to come in for interview. Wait until they see how it is when they come in. I’m going to play the game full-out, like Mike says. I’m going to lay everything on the table. When I hire somebody now, it’s no longer going to be like I’m going to ease them into how we do things. No. You know what? Here’s the deal. This is how we play. If you want to play like we play, you’re in the right spot. If you have any reservations, I’ll see you later. I’m in charge. This is how it’s going to go. This is what we’re doing. These guys are my warriors. This is my team. They’re going to go to bat for you. You’re going to go to bat for them. This is how we’re going to play the game. If you’re hesitant, I don’t need hesitation. I need somebody who’s ready to go.
Couple other organizations I’ve been a part of, I’ll mail them a check. 15,000, whatever it is, be paying them monthly. $100, $1000, $500, $600 a month. They’ll send me some stuff in the mail. It’ll be all these big boxes and books and all this. Here you got 1 book. You got an action plan. Mike’s right next to you. He’s there with you holding you accountable for how to go about this. If at any point during the time you don’t understand or you’re stumbling with it, or you’re telling him, “Hey, Mike, I’m going to do this. I’m going to play just like you say.” Then you’re going to go back to your shop and sit back and relax, and do what you were doing before. This guy is crazy enough. He will come to your shop and he will grab you by the back of the head and smash your face into the desk. That’s how committed to you being successful he is.
It’s not about ego. It’s not about a social gathering. It’s not about having friends and, “Oh I’m really cool because I know so-and-so at this shop, and he’s doing $14 million, and this guy’s doing that.” It doesn’t make a difference. It’s not about your competitor. It’s not about, “Look at what this $30 million plumbing company is doing,” and then try and copy what they’re doing. He’s changing your mindset. He’s changing the way you look at business. He’s empowering you to see your business as a player in the same business game as huge companies that aren’t even in the same industry as you. We’re talking about Bed, Bath, and Beyond versus Linens and Things. We’re looking at what Disney’s doing. Who would have thought?
The biggest excuse is you’re skeptical, and you don’t want to spend the money. I can tell you straight away, right now, look you dead in the eye, this is … The investment to get here, and let’s be honest, $6500 to come for this event. I got to take a week out of my shop, not doing things that I perceive make me money. I got to buy a hotel. I’ve got to rent a car. I’ve got to jump through all of these hoops of fire.
I can tell you that by the time I pulled up in front of Mike’s shop at 6:45 in the morning the first day I was here, I realized by watching his employees, how they set the building up, and how long they had already been here, and what they were doing, that I had made my money back. I received my investment back in a 10 minute phone conversation with Mike looking at my website before I came here. It’s nothing. You’re not going to spend the $6500 and that’s cool. I’m good with that. I know Mike is good with that. You’ll be out of business and I will crush you. My company will crush you. I guarantee it.
For a long time I was part of a couple of organizations. I realized at that point that it wasn’t working out for me. I was drinking the Kool-Aid, but it was poison Kool-Aid, and I was going to die. I went into hibernation, and I went inside of myself, and I said, “I’m really a smart guy, or I think I’m a smart guy. I’m going to figure it out on my own.” Then, what I realized is that the things that were positive about the other organizations I was in, the positivity that they brought to my business, the refueling of what I did, those were all positive things. The thing that I was missing was the how and the action.
I came here. I came to this event. Not only did I get that refueling that was so vital to my business, to get me to where we are, but now I got the how and the action. Taking yourself away, stepping out of your comfort zone, stepping out of your business, and then looking back at it from afar is probably the most valuable thing you can do. Not just for a guy like who owns the company, but for all of the leaders within my company in all of the different positions. I’m excited to get an agreement with Mike and send the girl who answers the phone here, to see how somebody else does it, because as you step outside of what you’re doing it broadens your perspective. Then you’re able to come back, implement a couple small, new, little changes that just completely change the game all in.
If you don’t want to train, you can just get fat and die, or you can say, “Hey, you know what? I did this diet. It didn’t work for me. I’m not going to quit. I’m going to try another diet, and I’m going to keep trying diets until I find one that works.” I’m fortunate enough to have made the gamble and came here, and I can tell you that this is not going to work, it’s already working.
