Just Be Competent

Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson and welcome to a slightly annoyed Marketing in Your Car. Welcome to the Marketing in Your Car podcast where you can increase your traffic, conversions, and sales in just 10 minutes a day. And now here's your host, Russell Brunson. Alright, so I was not planning on doing a podcast today, but I am so shocked at people's incompetence. I just wanted to share something with you guys. So this, I'm gonna give you the moral first and I'll give you the story later. So the moral of the story is this: just be competent. That's it. It shouldn't be that hard. Just be competent. Be competent in your job. You do it all day, every single day. You don't have to be amazing. You don't have to be phenomenal. I hope you try to be, but at least just be competent. It's not that hard. Oh man, this should be a lesson for all people everywhere. Alright, so the backstory. So today is Saturday. My kids They wanted to camp, actually this is kind of funny because this story actually leads to someone else being incompetent on top of it. Alright, so my kids wanted to go camping last night. So we had a campfire outside our house, which was cool, and we set the tent and we slept outside. And it was a really good time. And I woke up this morning, looked out over the field next to my house, and it has grown huge. And I thought, you know what? Today I'm gonna go rent a mower like I did last year and just mow these weeds down. 'cause that sounds like a fun thing to do on a Saturday, right? So I call up Tate's Rental, I'm like, hey guys, this is the deal, I want to rent the same mower I rented last time. Actually, first I said, I need to rent a weed mower. And they're like, alright, do you want a blah blah or a blah blah? And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. They're like, well, do you want this or this? I'm like, I don't know the difference. I'm like, I have a huge field I got with tall weeds I need to mow down, what do you recommend? He's like, oh, you need this kind. I'm like, okay, cool. I was like, I rented last year, is that the same? I want the same thing I got last year. He's like, yep, done. I'm like, okay, cool. I said, do I need to reserve it? He said, yeah, you need to reserve it because people check these out all the time. So I was like, okay, cool, reserve me. He said, when are you gonna be here? I said, I'll be here in 30 minutes. He's like, cool, I'll see you in 30 minutes. Jump in the car, drive on down, I get to Tate's, I walk in, go to the front desk dude, I'm like, hey man, I'm here to pick up my mower thing. And then he's like, what's your name? I told him my name, he's like, "The mower's not back yet." I'm like, "What do you mean?" He's like, "The mower's not back." I'm like, "Back from where?" He's like, "From the person who already has it." I'm like, "I reserved it, therefore it should be here for me." He's like, "Well, there's no mower here." I'm like, "All right, well, I'm here and I came to pick it up and I reserved it, so do you have another one?" He's like, "Nope, there's no other ones here." I'm like, "Okay." He's like, "Well, if you come back in 2 hours, the guy should have the mower back." I'm like, "Dude." I'm like, "I don't need it in 2 hours, I need it today. That's why I called ahead, that's why I reserved it, that's why I came down because," I need it today. I need it right now. That's why I reserved it. That's why I drove all the way across town to come and get it from you. And he's like, oh, well, sorry, man. You have to come back in 2 hours. I'm like, so there's no other thing I can rent from here that can chop down weeds? I got huge weeds. I need to chop them down. He's like, nope, nothing else. I'm like, are you kidding me? The guy on the phone told me there were a bunch of them here and I need to come down before some people got them. He's like, yeah, nothing here, man. I'm like, so I'm starting to get Russell angry, which is like I want to start throwing fists and stuff, right? And then the guy from across the table's like, hey, why don't you just give him one of the other ones? Those guys haven't picked up theirs yet. I'm like, are you kidding me? So there's a whole bunch of them out there and I'm the first one here. I had them reserved and you're reserving it for somebody else who hasn't even showed up yet. And because of that you're telling me they're not even here. Oh man, I was like, and so the guy's like, oh okay, I guess I could do that. I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? So they were there. Someone else had reserved them, but you were holding them for someone else who had reserved them, even though I had reserved one. For someone else who's coming in the future because apparently you thought that person was more important than me because for whatever reason, like, and it all was going through my head as I'm sitting there angrily staring at this guy, was like, just be competent. Like, this is your job. I saw you here last year when I ran things. Like, you should know how this thing works. Like, you don't have to be good at your job. Just be competent. That's all I'm asking for you to do, right? And then I go out there to get the thing and they bring out, they haul the thing over to me and it's not the same one. It's half the size of the other one. Dude, this is like half the size. Oh, the one that you got last year is broken. I'm like, why didn't someone tell me that an hour ago when I called you on the phone trying to get that specific one? And he's like, I don't know. I'm like, okay. And he brings it out and he's kind of staring there. I'm like, so do you got a trailer for it? He's like, oh, you need a trailer? I'm like, yeah. I'm not gonna carry this thing by my hands. Normally they come with a trailer. The one I rented last year came with a trailer. He's like, well, that's 'cause it was bigger. I'm like, okay, well, I'm just like, this is what you guys do for a living. Wouldn't the guy at the front desk have been like, hey, do you need a trailer? 'Cause most people do, as opposed to just assume that I didn't need it anyway. So there you go, you guys, just be competent. It's not that hard. Like, this is what you do for a living. Just think through it. Look at it from the customer's perspective. Okay, another good example of incompetency as it relates to my field. We were, oh man, so we were, trying to get rid of the goat heads in this field. There's millions of goat heads. Some of you guys call them pickers, different names for them. There's little things that like you step on and they jam in your feet and it hurts really bad, right? So like right now, if my kids will walk in the field, if you took one step in the field, you'd pull your foot up with like 15 of these goat heads in your feet. Like it's horrible. And so I'm trying to get rid of the goat head problem. So I hired this dude to come and to scrape the top like 2 inches of dirt off, put it in a dump truck and take it away. Therefore, goat heads will be gone. I can then poison the crap out of the ground and make sure nothing ever grows back, right? So we called a dude. I'm like, hey, this is what I want. He's like, no, you need to rototill them under. And I was like, dude, the goat heads that are stabbing our feet are seeds. Therefore, if I roll them under, they will be planting seeds and more will grow. He's like, no, that's not how it works. I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's how it works. Even if it doesn't— even that's not how it works, I don't care. I want the goat heads gone. I want you to scrape the top 2 inches of soil off my property, dump them in dump truck, and take them away from here so they disappear forever. That's all I want. I don't care about "This is me as a customer, I wanna pay you anything you want to make this thing happen." And so the guy comes out, he's like, "Well, the weeds are too long." Or actually, he hadn't come out first. I knew the weeds were too long, so we hired goats. I think I did a podcast on this. So we brought these goats in, they came for a week, they ate all the food down, it was awesome. Kids had a good time. Field's now down nothing, perfect time to come in and scrape all this field off. So we call the dude, have him come scrape it. He says, "Well, I need to come see the field first." I'm like, "Okay, cool." So he comes and he looks at said field. Looks around, surveys it, comes back with a quote saying, based on the size and everything in this field, this is the quote. And said, cool, come out and scrape this and dump it. He said, okay, I'll be out next week. Next week comes, he decides to not show up because whatever reason, his own excuse. So it doesn't show up. So now we're a week past goats being here and the fields are growing faster. So I'm like, dude, You gotta hurry because the freaking weeds are growing back. Come and scrape this before I have to hire goats again to come scrape this thing down. He's like, okay, I'm coming. So then he comes out the next week with his tractors to do what I have paid him to do, and then he calls Melanie on the phone. The first thing he does— so Melanie's my assistant— calls Melanie on the phone. First thing he does is start complaining about, hey, the weeds are too long, I can't, I can't, I can't take anything away. He's like, you have to come in and mow these weeds down, then I could come and actually pull them away. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, are you incompetent? Are you seriously this incompetent? 2 weeks ago you were here, the weeds were gone. Okay, so that's the first thing. And so I'm like, yeah, well, they're tall now because you didn't show up when we hired you to show up. So it's kind of your issue now, not mine, right? Then he comes back, says, I didn't realize the field was this big. It's going to be a lot more money. I said, how did you not realize the field is this big? You came 2 weeks ago and you measured it, and based on your measurements, you gave me a quote. Like, how incompetent can you possibly be? It doesn't make any logical sense to me. Like, you came and measured it with your own measuring stuff. Wasn't me like giving you a quote what I thought it was. It was you coming, looking at it, then give me a quote based on what you saw. Anyway, and it was just like 2 or 3 things, and finally I was like, this guy is incompetent, let's fire him. So we fired him. Okay, and it's just like, I don't want people— I mean, I like for people to be good at their job. I like people to be great at their job, but I need them to at least be competent in their job. That's it. This goes for— my guess is if you're listening to this, you're probably competent, but I guarantee there's people on your team who aren't. For example, at our Funnel Hacking Live event, I found out some of the employees on my team are incompetent. It drives me crazy. We had one who— the person's job was to check people in and if they didn't have a name tag, to see if they had a name tag or whatever and then print name tags. The only role this person on my team was to do was just that. And so there's someone who came in and we had a mistake, so we had to make their name badge. Instead of being like, hey, this is my job, I'm here anyway, I got nothing else going on, I'm sitting here behind a chair playing my iPad, my only role is if someone comes up to do this, it was like complaining and rude to the customer and like all sorts of things like that. And then the next day I guess the customer forgot their name tag at their hotel room, which is like 45 minutes away, and came like, I need a name tag. Instead of being like, Oh, cool. Yes, I remember you. Let me help serve you. It was like this huge problem and why they were so upset and like pissed off and saying that you have to go back to the hotel and get in and rock me through the door and all the things. And so I'm hearing about this from somebody else. Someone on my team is treating one of our customers this way. And I'm like, why are you incompetent? Your only job is to serve our people and not be a horrible person to them. That's it. You don't have to be good at it. You just have to do it. Like, just smile. Even give a half smile. Doesn't have to be a whole smile. Just give a half smile. And help people. That's it. Like, do you not see me on stage killing myself to give a good experience to everybody? And when you come in, just do a stupid thing like that, it looks like it— just be confident. So there's the moral of today's lesson, is just be confident. If you got employees on your team you're fearful might not be confident, maybe they're good, but maybe they're not great, let them listen to this and say, hey, just be confident. It's not that hard. And after you're competent, then become good at your job. And after you're good, then focus on becoming great. And after you're great, man, like when you're great, when you're an A-player, people will pay you whatever you want. So there you go. Quit being incompetent. That's all I got. I'm going to go mow my lawn because that's what I want to do today. It's going to be fun. And hopefully I'll find someone competent to help me get these goat heads out of my yard. So my kids can play on it with their bare feet. So that's the goal. Still haven't found the competent players to help me make it possible, but that's where we're going. Alright guys, that's all I got for you today. Have an amazing time. Have a great weekend, and I'll talk to you guys soon. Hey everyone, this is Russell Brunson again. I want to thank you for listening to Marketing Your Car, and I want to make sure you're plugging into everything that we're doing on a daily basis. And so make sure that every morning you're plugging into the Marketing Your Car training. If you go to marketingyourcar.com, you can join the email list and make sure you get email notifications when new episodes come out. And you can also get links to all the transcripts of every single show we've done in the past. But then every night, well not every night, but most every night, I also do a Periscope show called the Marketing Quickie Show. And it's really fun. You can go to Periscope and search my name, Russell Brunson, and subscribe. And every single night you'll get a notification. It'll kind of chirp on your phone and you'll have me jump on there and give you kind of the end of the day thoughts and ideas and marketing strategies we've been playing with during the day. Or maybe even and, say and/or you should go to marketingquickieshow.com and over there you can subscribe, you can see past episodes, you can read the transcripts, you can have a bunch of fun. So thanks so much for being faithful listeners. Again, register at marketinginyourcar.com and also marketingquickieshow.com.