a word of prayer...

Hey everyone, it's Mike andes. Today is January 1, 2022. It's insane that an entire year has now been is behind us. And I had to make this video because I truly believe that no one can get anywhere special by themselves. I also believe that no real movement or great company or anything of the nature where a great impact is made can, can be done with just one person. So the fact of the matter is that this channel is named after me, Mike Andes. But the bottom line is that the businesses I've built and this channel and everything that I do is mostly because of the people that are around me and the people that support the vision that I'm trying to lead. And this video is one of very few that I actually take the time to say thank you to all of them. And first and foremost, I want to say thank you to all of the franchisees at Augusta Lawn Care. We now have over 75 of them and every single one, to me, it just blows my mind that someone would trust me to lead their brand, lead their company. And I think as time goes on and we continue to develop and invest so much in software, it'll become more and more apparent that joining Augusta is like a no brainer. But for the first few that have joined the past couple years, it's a lot of trust and to that is a lot of responsibility to myself as well as my abilities to have to grow in order to accommodate that company and the brand of Augusta Lawn Care. So first of all, all the franchisees across North America that have stepped up and supported the brand, the vision of what we're trying to do at Augusta Lawn Care, which is to change the level of professionalism and in the landscape industry. So a big thank you to all of them. On a more individual basis, I'm going to name people's names and I know it's a horrible thing to do and I'm going to forget names. So if you're listening to this and you work closely with me, I apologize. I literally just made a list of several people on my phone here and I wanted to specifically say their name and say thank you to them. And I know I'll forget people. So shame on me for even making a video like this. But first, let me say thank you to Liz. Liz is my operations manager for really all the businesses and is the only person that kind of works throughout the whole all the different companies, whether it be Augusta Lawn Care, but then also my real estate and everything come from command center to the local shop. She just kind of is My second in command. If I need something done, I'm going to Liz. If I need someone fired and I don't have time to deal with it, I'm going to go to Liz. If I need people hired, I need 20 people hired next week, I'm going to Liz. So Liz is there for everything for me and I owe a lot to her. And a big reason why I make these videos, this video, I should say, is because I am not the type where I take victory laps. I do not celebrate when we hit certain milestones. I enjoy the journey so much that it's like, oh, great, we hit 50 franchisees, let's go. Like, I don't party about it. I don't celebrate. I don't do that sort of thing. I, um. And I have a lot of more intrinsic motivation than just, you know, I'm going to put this goal of like, if I do this, I'll get X or I'll, I'll buy myself a house or buy myself. Like, I'm not really motivated by those things. But that being said, I don't take the time to pat myself on the back, but the people around me deserve most of the credit. And therefore this video, one of the hundreds that will come each year, is the pat on the back that is deserved by so many and, and none less than Liz that supports me so much in everything that I do, all the different businesses and really has a higher level view of everything that I'm doing and the vision of what we're trying to do with the whole industry. So a big thank you to Liz, also to Lee, Lonnie and Marcus. They're kind of also inside of the core group of our managers. Lee sells franchises. He also does all of the franchise coaching and is very instrumental in what we've done this past year in terms of allowing me to really focus on the software and building the system of Augusta Lawn Care and not just on daily operations of fires that are going on at franchisees or potentially even just selling franchises. So again, the last thing I let go of is selling. And now I've let that go completely. And Leah done a tremendous job of that. Lonnie, overlooking all of Command Center. I'm not going to list everyone in Command center there's. Because there are just so many great, great, great people that work there and part of the team. And when I look at, you know, teams and employees, at the end of the day, it's a job. People come, they got to make a living. And I just hope that when they come two Things happen. One, they get along with people they work with, and two, that because of working for one of my businesses, it gets them further ahead in their career, whether that be internally and they move up inside the organization or they go someplace else. But because of the skills and the things they learned at Augusta or one of my companies, they're able to make more money, have better career prospects, be a manager, and do something cool that aligns more with their goals. Now, I hope that they stay with us, but I'm really indifferent to whether or not they stay with Augusta. I want them to get ahead, and if I can make a place where people work and get to the next stage of their career, I'm thrilled. So, Liz, Lonnie Lee, Marcus, my core four, we have meetings on a quarterly basis. They're instrumental. Marcus is they the general manager at the local shop, and he's closer to me in terms of the general managers because not only proximity and I do go there twice a week for meetings, but also because so much of what we test at Augusta for the whole system starts with that local shop. And so everything that we're trying there and testing and doing usually starts with that location. So the fact that Marcus Mayo stepped into that role is phenomenal this year. And Marcus's goal within 12 months is to go start his own location about two hours south of us, his own Augusta lawn care location. I would be negligent to thank everyone that works at the local shop, because they do put up with a lot of those testing measures and things that we're trying out. New software, new systems. We try them out there first. And so everyone that works at the local Bellingham location, as well as Command center. Command center is something that's growing extremely fast. Literally this week, I think we are probably hiring 15 people or so, and that's a lot of training. There's. Everything changes all the time. There's changes that happen every single week. How we do things, systems, software, just the layout of the office changes every week. And so they're very adaptive and have supported us so much. I also want to thank the general managers that I personally own their locations, and they are the general managers. So it'd be Felix out in Connecticut, as well as Chuck in North Carolina. They've done a phenomenal job as well as Tim, my brother, who started this year as a general manager and actually ended up buying his location and. And now owns that outright as a franchisee. And all of their work and effort, they treat these companies in these locations like their own. And I don't micromanage them. They do all the hiring, the marketing and any sort of benefit or gain or success from those locations is strictly tied to how much that general manager puts in. And to them, they get all the credit because this is on social media and YouTube, et cetera. I do have to say thank you to all the media team. Stephen and Zach have been my go to for all the media and as most of you have seen the past couple months, the level of production has been going up. We're hiring Alex coming on here in January as another full time editor and we're just going to continually make it better for all of you, for this community, for this industry. But they work with me every day to create this content. They have to listen to my voice, they, they have to watch my face, edit pictures of me. So sorry to them. They deserve a big thank you. As well as the entire media team, there's a whole bunch that handle all the media side, whether it be the web design and Tori and we have Shane and we have Brady and Danny and Josh that helped in the past. Dustin, our head developer, works with me with all of the software and everyone underneath him. So just a huge amount of effort that goes into not only the social media side, but everything in terms of software, web design that we've really trying to build out at Augusta and all the different products. And that leads me into thanking all of you. Whether you liked a video, you subscribed, you shared a video, or potentially you actually became a customer of lawn caremedia.com, landscapebusinesscourse.com lawn careweb design.com or even the recent lawncarebookkeeper.com, massive thank you to you. Everything that we've done on this channel in terms of getting giving content out every single day to this community is because of your support and I am eternally grateful. So as we head into 2022, there's lots of plans and goals and we have big things that we want to do. But none of this is possible, none of this is possible without the team behind me and the people that support me every single day. I'm not the easiest person to work with. I work long days and long nights and I usually send emails to all the people I mentioned here in the middle of the night. And whether it be people that have to start working closer with me, like Brad, he's working on P4P now. I have to kind of alert them, hey, look, I'm going to email you in the middle of the night. I apologize for that. Do not respond. But I know that I'm also tough to work with sometimes because I don't take victory lapse and pat everyone on the back. I look at much more of a long, long game and I'm not going to celebrate. But at this moment in time, the first of the year, I have to step back and say thank you to, to everybody. Whether you're listening, whether you work with or for me, I just have to say thank you. None of this is possible, even this camera gear and this new set, none of this is possible without so many people behind what we're trying to do. And I can't say thank you enough. Now, this is something I have never done in any of my videos and most of you know, if you've watched all my content, that I am religious. I am a Christian, and I would like to take this moment at the beginning of the year to say a word of prayer for everything that has been done in 2021 as well as the future of 2022. So if you wouldn't mind, bow your head, like to pray this prayer with me, I'd appreciate that.

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for this time that we have many virtually just perhaps bowing their head and thinking about all that you've done for us in 2021, in our businesses, in the lives of our employees and, you know, our hearts as small business owners, as providers, as leaders of our house and our businesses, how we want to grow and expand. But we have to take a step back and thank you for everything that you did for us in 2021, providing for us. It was hard for some, some were just getting started. The economy was crazy and inflation and so many different things that we talk about so often on the channel. But through it all, you've brought us through those things and we can't say thank you enough. As we look forward to 2022, we pray that the work that we do and the hours that we spend, the money we invest and everything that we would do would bring glory to you in some way. Sometimes it seems disconnected. Money seems so distant from the spiritual things at times. But Lord, truly is the goal and the vision and what we hope to accomplish is to bring others closer to you in some way shape or fashion. And in this business, in the money that we make, we just commit it all to you in this coming year and we thank you for all that you've given us. Be with us all in 2022. We appreciate your presence. In Jesus name, amen.