C. Suite Unfiltered: Starting from $0 and Reddit's Take on Augusta

Welcome back to the Mike Andes Podcast, where we discuss the ins and outs of owning a small business. If you're new here, the Mike Andes Podcast is all about taking your business to the next level. We're back with C Suite Unfiltered with your host, Mike Andes and Lee Park. Mike just left the building a couple minutes ago. So where's he headed? Well, if you haven't heard by now, Mike is headed to North Carolina to start a new Augusta location by himself in just 30 days. Yeah. This is a huge challenge even for Mike. We're gonna dive in and figure out how he's gonna P off. Plus, what did the people of Reddit have to say about Augusta? And the boys discussed the business side of professional sports as a product. Mike's going to be documenting the entire challenge over on his YouTube channel. And you can also see the video versions of these on the C suite and filtered YouTube channel. But let's get into it. Here's Mike and Lee with the show.

Hello, everyone.

Let's go.

Welcome back. Another episode of the C Suite Unfiltered podcast. I'm excited that not financial advice is catching on.

Oh, really?

Just. One of our franchisees posted some not financial advice in the Facebook.

I think I saw that. Was that Ryan?

Ryan Payne?

Yeah. What was it again?

He said if you buy.

He was in his truck.

If you buy gift cards at Lowe's for the crew as bonuses, you can count it towards materials on your.

Oh, that's not a bad idea.

On your P and L. So.

But technically you're not supposed to do that.

Yeah, I mean, it's not financial advice. He specifically said that it's not financial advice.

I got you. I got you.

We're just trying to reward our employees out here.

Oh, man. So we've changed the POD from what, Thursday to Monday?

Uh, yeah. I mean, it's been a while.

Do you like that change?

I do, yeah.

What about you?

I think it's good.

I think it's good too. Yeah, it's a little tough. Mondays are usually one of my busier days. Yeah, I know you. You work throughout the weekend, but I'm sure it's still Mondays. It's normal for you, so. Yeah, it's good. I like it. I'm good.

I get more under pressure when I know the team is under pressure, so, like, I know Mondays is a crazy day for everyone, so that usually kind of wears off on me.

Yeah, it's all good.

We're chilling.

We're surviving. This Monday particularly was, you know, it was A little fun.

Yeah.

Lots going on. But, you know, maybe for another episode, if you will. You went out and mode Saturday? Yeah, dude, tell us about it.

Oh, yeah, I did a couple modes Got knocked off a little rust. Next week I will be in North Carolina trying to start up the location. So I think actually our next episode will probably be virtual. Nice. So, yeah. Just kind of doing that. I also want to do a couple of the larger mows using one of the new mowers that we're trying to switch to and probably next year, you know, completely going away from zero turns completely in our market and so making sure that budget hours are still accurate enough for larger properties. I know we're raising prices on them, stuff like that. So it was just a good, you know.

Yeah. Half a day for all the equipment folks out there. Here you go. I'm gonna force Mike to talk about equipment. You tried the 25 inch push mower? Yeah. Bravo. As I believe how you're supposed to.

I've just been calling it Bravo, but Yeah. I noticed there's a Y before the B. Yeah. Oh, great. Yeah.

So what do you think?

I think it was good.

It was really well built. It didn't feel like it was too heavy. I never felt like it was like. Yeah. Too difficult to turn. I thought it was overall, really good machine. So I think longevity isn't super important. The bagging was phenomenal.

Yeah. It's a big shoot.

Yeah. Very, very happy with the bagging, which is big in our market because we bag everything. So. Yeah. I. I thought it was a winner. I really liked it.

Yeah.

I know the guys have liked it too. So.

Yeah. No, there you go. There's your equipment. Talk with Mike. I haven't gotten to try it yet. I'm not a big fan of the 30X.

Yeah.

Or 30 inch bush mowers anymore.

Yeah. The two blades on those. Killer two. Like, the nice thing about the Bravo whatever is one blade, so that makes things easier. There's less mechanical parts in terms of the matching up of those. So I'm a big fan. I like that.

Yeah. It's kind of cool. It's kind of sweet.

And we kind of have to because we. The Hondas are going out.

Yeah.

And then the X marks are just too heavy. They have lots of breaking parts. And I think that's the thing that I want to see in time is the mechanisms around the handles. And it's simple enough for. I think it's good. But I think time alone will tell.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. I. I feel like if I didn't bag, I would just use standards like we do at our corporate locations in North Carolina. It just makes sense. But for us begging with side discharge, it's always a hassle when it's wet, so push mowers it is, baby.

Yeah. And we can still close 40, 50% of our jobs using push mowers, which has a higher hour, you know, budget hours, and so the rates are higher.

Yeah.

So if that was a struggle because of our market was, like, so hard to get a price, then. Yeah, you'd have to go upgrade your equipment there, too.

Right.

That makes sense. So you're. You're going to North Carolina in a week. How you feeling?

I don't know. Like, it's funny because, like, we don't have a lot of plans or trying to make it as kind of organic as possible. Like, I'm showing up. I know where I'm staying for my Airbnb, but I have no idea yet, like, storage space. We're going to find everything, so it's going to be very, like, raw and organic, and it'll just be a matter of, like, the execution. The first week will determine whether or not I hit the goal. I will know by the end of the week if. The first week, if I'm going to hit my goal. Like, I guarantee I'll know. You'll know, because it'll just be like, I need to find a general manager, I need to find an employee. I need to get trucks, equipment, and all that ironed out. I need to get a storage facility or some sort of land. And I have. I don't know the market at all. So I don't know if it's, like, where we're at in terms of mowing season. I know it's, like, past spring rush, but I know I've never mowed Bermuda. Don't even know what Bermuda looks like. So, like, it'll be really interesting. If I can do it. There's no reason why anyone else can do it, because I have no idea about the market. Don't know the climate, don't know the people. So, yeah, it'll be interesting.

What would you say you're most nervous about going into it?

I think, like, if I was honest, it's just, like, not hitting the goal or, like, just doing very poorly.

Yeah.

And then my bigger nerve, like, secondary to that is, like, just how I'm going to manage everything else and that, because, like, it's not, like, there's less happening. So.

We'Ll see. I Genuinely believe it. Just like with every location is it just comes down to the general manager. So if I can find a good general one of the first week, find a good gm, I think I'll hit it actually pretty easily because then I just have to pour on marketing and go out and pound doors and just do that. So we'll see. But it's honestly going to be more difficult because I'm not in spring rush, so it's not like leads are coming up to me. So it's going to be interesting. It's going to probably have to be more cleanups and project based work instead of recurring, which I don't like. But it's the time of year it's already going to be 90 degrees.

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask about. How you feeling about the heat, the weather change?

Trying not to think about it.

Yeah.

I got long sleeve shirts for the first time because in our market we always go down like we go like to short sleeves during heat down there. That type of heat, you wear long sleeves. So I got that. And like the hat, which I don't know hasn't come in the mail. But anyways, like the hat with the neck cover and all that. So we'll see. See how long I last for.

I melt if you don't get the hat delivered in time. I believe Tigran gave you a goat gang hat.

I don't know if it made.

Speaking of hat, I need to. Hat hat check mail.

Hat hat check mail.

Yeah, that's all I need to need a hat. Yeah. It must be sitting in my mailbox or something. Yeah. All right.

Anything else you're thinking about going into this trip? Is it just kind of going in a little blind?

We are going completely blind.

Yeah.

So I'm literally. I just know we're staying. I looked at a map the other day for like the first time. Besides when I booked on Airbnb.

I have no idea, man. Like I haven't looked at anything. So like even like every door direct mail campaign, we have like flyers that order and like we'll do that. I'll just have to like the first couple days drive the neighborhoods and. Okay, which ones would you want to hit? And I'll like just look at a map and figure things out. So definitely the part I'm not getting here is like home field advantage. Like no knowledge of like. Oh, like that side of town and this type of town. I have no idea.

Yeah.

So I was having to kind of figure it out at the beginning. It'll make good video content, I think. So we'll see what happens. Yeah.

What about your Airbnb? You're staying at. What if. What's the bonus if you can sell them as a client?

So, originally, like, the plan right now is if I can't find storage, I kind of got to run it out of the house for a second or two, which I know would make the Airbnb people mad.

Oh, yeah.

So I've got to figure that out really fast because I got to get the truck asap. I've got to get all the equipment ready to roll ASAP so I can do estimates and actually do work. Right. So I need a place to put it all, though, and they have to be the. The house at the very beginning. So we'll see what happens.

I'm excited. This will be good. And then Zach's going with you. So you got one of your main media guys going full time.

Yeah. So he's been, like, watching all those sorts of vlogs and, like, trying to get in, like, the motive, because, like, it's just we don't know what's coming. So it's like, we'll see what happens. Like, there's just so many storylines we know could happen. Like, if an employee joins and they're really good or if they're really bad or if there's firings or good customers, bad customers. Like, there's so many things that can happen. I'm more interested more or less, though, like, doing the 30 days and really just getting on video camera. So, like, when our franchisees join, they can watch literally every single day, their first 30 days, and it should help them ramp up, too. So it's definitely not for, like, the person has, like, $100 in their pocket, wants to start a longer business. It's definitely for someone who has 60 to $80,000 and wants to go start a location, scale it up quickly. And so, because, like, I will not be able to. I can't spend more than four hours a day working on it without sleep if I'm not gonna, like, not sleep. So it comes from more of an investor perspective, and I can't be on the field of working if I am, man, I can't do that very long. I have to get stuff done at night then. So, anyways, it'll just be interesting. We'll see how it goes.

Yeah, I'm interested to see the interview process. Are you gonna do the interviews at the Airbnb, or are you gonna do them at, like, a Starbucks?

I don't Know, probably Starbucks storage unit. I don't know. I don't know if there's Starbucks there. I'm sure there is, but, like, I just don't know. So that's the guys up on the other side of Charlotte that have my locations. They're like an hour away, I think or so. And so we just got them shop space, which we will not be able to share until afterwards because, like, we haven't got the vintage and edited for the media team. And we want to make sure June is just my footage like nothing else.

Right.

But yeah, they now have a shop space coming up here in the next couple weeks where they'll be able to do like interviews and things. But I don't know what I'm gonna have. I. I hope I can do like a storage facility, but. Yeah, you know, don't know.

All right.

It's really hard to find storage facilities right now supposedly in like, Charlotte market because it's grown so much and then people don't want to have like, businesses and things like that. So, like, I did do one quick search for storage facilities and like, no one has space.

Yeah.

So I'm a little bit concerned about that when we show up. But again, I kind of have in the back pocket I have a three bedroom, two bath house that like, has its own driveway. Yeah. So we can make it work.

Hopefully we can hide out there. Nice. Well. Yeah, everyone just stay tuned because Mike and I will do these episodes virtually and maybe we'll get a little bit more behind the scenes takes.

I'm a little concerned, like, my energy level, like, even like today after, like, just working the office all day is like super low. Yeah. And so now I gotta, like, do that on top of it. I'm a little concerned about that. But on the flip side, like, after working outside Saturday, like, I feel really good getting that much like just oxygen and like fresh air. So we'll see what happens. Yeah.

That's what they say about the south, the humidity. That's.

Yeah. It'll get you, you know, that's what it gets.

Yeah.

I was born in Kentucky, dude. So I shouldn't. I should be able to like, you know, be immune to it or something. But yeah, it's gonna be more. Honestly, like what you will not get on camera is gonna be more of a physical thing for me and like, mental. Like. Like, I'll be trying to do everything else. It'll be more of that than like, oh, is this business gonna work? Like, I know what. Yeah. Needs to get done. It's Just a matter of, like, I also need to run Copilot. I need to stay in touch with Command center. I have a lot of meetings with developers. I'm hiring multiple developers throughout June that are starting. So, like, it's just going to be just a time thing.

What's. If you don't mind sharing, do you have a subscriber goal with the media team? Like, this vlog should produce X subscribers.

We kind of went over numbers this morning. Like, we kind of are hoping for 10,000 views a video. If we get to 30,000, we're going to consider it, like, a big win. And then in terms of subscriber count, there are some incentives tied to how many subscribers we gain, because it's going to be completely based upon, like, how well Zach does. Yeah. So he'll be carrying the team, so we'll see how it goes.

I like it. I'll throw on a prize to the media team. I don't know what the subscriber goal is, but I'd say by the end of June, if they break 90.

Okay, that. That's easy.

Yeah, that's easy.

That'd be easy.

All right, well, that's. That's why it's not a big, big thing. I'll. I'll bring them lunch one day.

Okay, let's go.

They break 90 by the end of June, I'll bring them lunch. So whatever they want, I'll bring it.

Okay.

I feel like that is pretty easy.

Yeah, I. I think 90 is easy. 95, 000 subscribers. What we're talking on YouTube is doable, and a hundred thousand, I'd considered, like, a real win.

Same.

Yeah.

That's kind of why I was like, 90 seems very achievable, and then it seems like a struggle and never go.

Like, 150, dude, let's go. It's. Regardless of whether or not I get it. See, the bottom line is, like, I'm spending a lot of money on this. So, like, regardless of what subscriber count, it doesn't do anything because, like, the amount of money I'm just spending on equipment and trucks and everything. Like, and then Zach and I for, like, the entire, you know, he's working, like, 12 hours a day. Like, it's expensive. So the location needs to actually succeed when we leave. Right. And it needs to actually do well. And so I have to actually train the general manager and, like, do everything as of a regular business, not like a show. And then, like, we're out and everything gets close, closed down.

And then last thing on this too. The general manager will then come to July training, franchisee training, which is really cool. Yeah. So it kind of sets them up for like a perfect path to success.

Yeah. And if I fail and like I can't get a general manager, I think the worst case scenario is I basically like wasted 60 to 80 grand and then like the trucks and equipment we'd ship off to another location. So that's always like in the back of my head too. I'm like ah, if I don't do it a good just, you know, just go there. It's like ah, it's just not working out. We'll make some fun videos and come back. That's like worst case, it'll succeed.

It'll be good. I'm excited. I'm very excited.

So.

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Cool. Switching it up here.

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on Reddit? What about it as a platform?

I don't use it.

Yeah. You know what it is obviously.

Yeah, yeah. Like it's votes and like it's kind of like the Twitter of like longer form. I would say like you upvote things and you comment on things. We actually use it to hire someone at the, on the media team. So. But it's definitely like you get some crazy commenters. Right? It's definitely you get the, I won't say the scum of the Internet but like you can open yourself up to a lot of.

What'S it called? Like extremes, extreme perspectives.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

It's like the kind of like most popular Internet chat room.

Right.

With subcategories. I feel like that's a good summation. I mean most people know what it is. I just want to know your initial thoughts, you know. So I did something.

Oh.

I was like, let's look up Augusta lawn care on Reddit. Oh, no way. Have you ever done this?

No, I don't look up anything.

See this is. I was.

I look up my selfie.

Here's a thought experiment.

Okay.

So I just thought, you know, let's see, let's.

I looked up my Augusta long hairs. Gonna have a bunch of negative stuff about it because of my shorts probably.

So this. So this was a while ago. I did this. We could look it up. We can look up right now. But this was the most interesting thing I saw. We actually didn't know. There wasn't much. We weren't on Reddit much, so that's a good thing. I also looked up your name. Not much on there.

Yeah. Okay.

So good, good things. But here's the one. This is from three months ago.

Okay.

And it's in the Reddit. It's in the Reddit category, backslash anti mlm.

Okay.

So that's where. That's where we're at. That's the subreddit or whatever they call it.

I don't understand what an MLM is, but. Yeah.

So is Augusta Lawn Care Services a scam? Mlm.

Who posted this?

This is. Was posted by Redditor.

Dude, this is how you know a real podcaster. We're talking about Reddit red eyed, fragrant potential 81. That is who posted this.

Username's always giveaway of where this person's coming from. Yeah. All right.

Is Augusta Lawn Care Services a scam or slash pyramid scheme? I know someone who spent 20k just to buy into the franchise, and his goal is to only have people work for him for 2 years before they start their own location by spending 20k to buy into the franchise.

Two things was the first thing I forget. Okay, sorry, continue.

Does anyone have any information on this Augusta long services.com you just.

And then people respond.

Yeah, yeah, really? Just the main post.

Oh, dude, people actually like know.

Yeah, dude, you have two posts mentioning you on Reddit. It seems like a scam to me. And there's no real benefit to buying into the franchise. Dot, dot, dot. Yeah. All right.

You know, first and foremost, in terms of like the fact that we do the 3F program. Franchisee your givenness. And as if an employee works for two years, you get in for free. That's the part they left out. The employee works there for two years, they get in for free. There's no cost. Yeah. So there is no $20,000. And this has been very successful in a lot of brands I look up to, especially companies like Domino's, for example, where you cannot work or become a franchisee without having worked there for X amount of years. And So I think it's the best way to keep the culture is that becomes actually eventually what you have to do. And it's like you have to work in an Augusta lawn care location in order to become an owner. And so the challenging part with that is you then block off all investors from coming in. And that's typically where you see the most growth. So typically what happens is a company like Domino's, they actually do that later on. And usually once they see like cultural decline, they're like, okay, you cannot join now unless you've been like a manager or you've been an employee at a Domino's location. So yeah, the 3F program has been used by a lot of our guys and it's not really great for us as operators because like my locations, I lose my best people. Usually my best people would have left after six months and moved on to something else had I not had that program. So it's really a retention and employee retention tool.

Yeah, so. So the top comment here is there are a couple of videos about on YouTube, but it appears to be a franchise and not an mlm.

Someone knows what they're talking about.

It's basically a business that you own and work in. Like if you bought a McDonald's restaurant, I was like, oh, cool. Someone like, with common sense, right?

So MLMs, dude have a bad rap, but they're actually like the, the model that it should be is good. The problem is people take it and misuse it. But like, it's. It's not, it's not like the actual. An MLM in its purest form of you get people underneath you, you get a percentage of everything that they sell is not a bad model. The problem is when you have infinite trails. So you say if they sell and you get percentage, but they sell, and then it becomes a pyramid. But, but for example, if it was like, hey, look, you're a sales rep, let's call you a sales manager with salespeople underneath you, and you get a commission of everything that they sell. That's a very normal sales position. It's when you start saying, okay, the person behind that and then behind that and behind that. And then, because the game of just how many people do you recruit, right? What it should be is like, look, you can get as many people underneath you and you get a percentage of everything that they get. And you do one level. In my opinion, like a three tier system for MLM actually works really well. Cause like in every other organization, you call that person a sales manager, right? And they Get a percentage of everything underneath them. Is that a multi level marketing? No, but the problem with these, all these fall into is they have such long tiers that they go into and then it just becomes a game of how many people do you recruit? And then everyone needs to buy your packages and they have people, a bunch of inventory sitting in their closet.

Yeah, exactly. So this is. No, you're good. No, that was a perfect explanation. You explained it way better than I could have. So someone replied to that comment, essentially defending us, for lack of a better word. He said, I worry about the quote, work for him for two years, then get your own franchise, unquote bit. Surely that only works so many times before they run out of potential territories in the area.

Well, no, what you run out of is his employees that want to own their own business. Yeah, right. And so, you know, you look at the people who've used the 3F program, it's all very young guys, usually started from very little. They work really, really, really hard. They have a lot of sweat equity, they don't have a lot of money. And so that's the person who takes advantage of it. It's not going to be the person that is like, I am going to work for you for two years so I can get a free $20,000. Like, that doesn't make any sense to someone who's running a business already. Right, right. And so everyone always thinks like, oh, people are going to take advantage of the 3F program. It's like, no, if someone is a business owner, they're not going to come push a lawnmower for us for two years to save 20 grand. Because they run the math and like, oh, that's $2 an hour. Right. Like, or $5 an hour. Whatever they are saving, it's not worth it. So we've never had Anyone misuse the 3F program by working for a location for 2 years when they have the money for 20 grand. Never has happened and it never will because it doesn't make sense mathematically.

Yeah.

And as someone who actively hires for your largest corporate location, it is a good hook for high skill individuals that are interviewing like, hey, eventually if you want to start your own business, we have this program. You lay it out in front of them and they're like, that's awesome. I didn't know that. I don't want to be pushing mowers in two years.

Yeah, like, it's great.

I don't want you to either.

Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, surprisingly the comments are pretty tame. Nothing else crazy. This One this, another comment. Someone said one advantage to buying into the franchise models, you get a protected territory, unlike mlls that, that will gladly sign up people that live next door to each other and let them compete for the same customer. So that's what you're talking about. Like this infinite line of people. You know, I sell, you sell, you sell, you sell. And then all of a sudden they're just sitting on inventory.

Yeah, but it's still different. Just having exclusive territories does not make an MLM versus not because Subway for example does not have a exclusive territories. They can put, you know, four on one street. But again, there's a different franchise model. Right. If we had 40,000 locations, we wouldn't be giving away territories either. Yeah, because you just, you can't, you physically can't. So it's just a matter of like supply and like. Yeah, if there's a lot of people wanting the franchise, you can reduce the amount that you're giving away. So like when we first started we were giving like 8, 10 mile radiuses. Well now I'm doing like 2 and 3 mile radiuses for my locations. And so just because as you get more and more you can restrict the demand. Right, and so that's what we're doing too.

Yeah, so this guy actually has a pretty good take. He says looking at the website, they will help you with advertising, back end stuff like website business software, plus training for it. If you started from scratch on your own, you'd have to figure this out by yourself. And branding seems to be the in thing now for lawn care companies. At least from what I've seen on YouTube. Gone are the days when a couple of guys in torn jeans and T shirts drive around in a beat up pickup. I mean it's just historical. Underscore, Ger, underscore 3054. But.

Guys in torn jeans and T shirts drive around a beat up pickup truck and cut grass. Now you want vehicle wraps, uniforms, merch, et cetera, to show your professional company, oh look at that, he gets it. And if you look and act the part and grow the business to the point that it becomes too large for the founders to run, then you sell it. But at Augusta you don't. If you follow the systems, it's not going to get too large for the founders to run. It's a very cookie cutter model that you can follow to a point and eventually if you want to sell out, great, but you don't have to.

Yeah. So yeah, I think, I think what people fail to realize is that I believe this industry have massive consolidation. And the reason it hasn't had consolidation, everyone thinks it's always going to be fragmented is because we, we have the hardest thing to systematize and that is labor. Right. And so what we've always thought, and I was listening to Sam Altman talk about this and I'm probably going to butcher the way he explained it, but it was what exactly I talked about a couple years ago when I talk about robots and say like hey, that's like way down the road. Software is going to be the thing that we need to think about first. I put that out, I think in December 2021 when I talked about the future of technology in this industry and my future predictions for this injury. And there's two things. One, that software would be much more important than hardware for the next five years and that we had see consolidation. And the reason that consolidation will happen is once software gets to the point where it's for the select few, the high top ones, they can then become way more efficient. Right. And so whether it be like AI working command center and using software making things more efficient and optimizing, we can, we can do jobs now for 30, $35 and would have otherwise had to be 50 because we were less, way less efficient. And so when everyone looks at what we can charge in this industry and say oh I could so and so can do it way cheaper. You know, guy down the street, you know, some, you know Pablo, I said this, my video, they like Pablo can do it for $20. And like the high school kids willing for $15, they, what they don't have access to potentially is technology and AI that can make someone else 50% more efficient, charge the same price, but make more money. And so I believe that consolidate, that will create consolidation because now you can, you're going to get big money, starting to move into the market. And so I don't know where I was going with that, but there you have it.

Yeah, I love it. That's great. So that, that's a gust of lawn care on Reddit. Yeah, that's it.

We only had one of my candies.

I will look it up right now. Let's look them up in tandem.

I don't know if I've ever actually been on Reddit and search things. I, you know, I probably looked it up like when I'm searching on Google and then they sometimes like stuff pulls up.

Yeah, this was totally like a random late night thought I was like I should search, I should search this on Reddit. And so I did nothing with your name and Augusta.

Let's just do Mike Andy's. There's got to be some sort of garbage.

Oh, Robert Kiyosaki confronts Grant Cardone. Mike Andes, who has invested in both real estate with Grant Cardone, explains the pros and cons.

Oh, that's a video I made.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's an older video. That's nine months ago. Huh.

That's funny. That video blew up. I think it has like half a million views.

Wait, really?

Yeah.

Holy cow. Well, yeah, it's on Reddit. No, you're not really on Reddit.

Let's go. Thank the Lord.

Some of the stuff about the Andes Mountains.

Let's go.

It's pretty cool. There's one about a ufo.

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So, everybody's favorite sports back?

Yeah, yeah.

Wnba.

So I was. I was at a restaurant. I saw this being played. I didn't know it just started, by the way. I thought it's always been a thing.

Oh, no, no. Like the season.

The new season.

Come on, man.

Oh, okay. I didn't know that storm. All I knew. No. Is that no one cared at the restaurant that it was playing. And like, my first thought was like, why don't they change it to something that people are watch.

Yeah.

But anyways. Yeah.

So it was just interesting. Brittney Griner. Do you remember the name? No, you don't? You don't remember. This is big news. Like a year ago. So she got detained in Russia. She was. She had drugs on her person. She got detained. She was like illegally held in Russia.

And then they traded for like, we.

Traded for an arms dealer. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

So fair.

You know, Pretty Griner. Just the heart of American sports.

Let's go.

Known arms dealer. So there was her first game back and she was a noted anthem protester. And she stood on Friday, she said, you know, after what she experienced a newfound appreciation for Old Glory. The Stars and Bars, if you will. Just kind of interesting. Just kind of interesting. I thought that was. I don't know if he had any thoughts on that.

We could just do that for everyone else that's kneeling in protest. Like, oh, we'll ship you off to Russia and see how you like it.

Yeah, prisoner exchange, but the opposite way. We'll give you prisoners. You give us prisoners.

It's kind of like a bit. Yeah, yeah.

But her coach. So it was an away game.

She.

I had to actually research this. So she plays for Phoenix. They had an away game in LA and the game didn't sell out. And the coach called out the LA fans. They were like, come on, it's her first game back. We got to show our support, our solidarity. And here's From a business perspective, that's.

Such a bad move PR wise. You never do that.

Yeah, I agree. And here's the thing. From a business perspective, I was like, let's, let's not even make it a social issue. Who cares if you like women's basketball? More power to you, you know, if you like watching golf, great. Enjoy watching golf. I don't care. But from a business perspective, she's saying, I am a coach and I am a part of this bad product. And you guys are at fault for not supporting this bad product.

Right.

There's two things. It'd be like, me, like at a conference, like, walking up on stage and like, not being enough. Like, enough people clapping, like, guys, come on. Like, seriously, you can't do better than that for me? Like, I deserve more. Yeah. From then on, you just shot yourself in the foot and there's not anyone gonna get anything from that. And then I just saw a headline. I didn't read it, but it was Lil Wayne after 30 minutes.

Yeah.

Said he walked off the stage because the crowd was not giving him enough energy.

It was.

They were low energy. Turns out, supposedly I look at the first few comments, supposedly he was three hours late to the concert. And it just, again, like, as soon as you put that back on, like customers or people that are supporting you and especially fans. Yeah, dudes, you are so dumb. Yeah, like, like, it was like, it's like, you're not the one that's supposed to be getting the energy. You people came and paid to see you perform and get something from you. It's an exchange of value here. And you're supposed to give us in exchange for something. And obviously no one cares about the WNBA enough to pay and come watch you. And sure enough, whatever game I was watching, I don't know which one was, there was less than three or four thousand people in the stadium. And you can tell they were, like, trying to make sure they didn't show the stands above, like the first five rows.

Oh, man, you gotta love them. Yeah. It's just interesting, too, and people want to talk about, you know, like, with a wage disparity in men's and women's sports. And it's like, like, let's. Let's take out the gender issue.

Yeah.

College football. NFL.

Yeah.

I bet 90% of people will say college or NFL's better. It's a better product. They're going to want to watch it. From a business perspective, NFL is a better product. It's cleaner. The television production is better. The coaching is better. The play is faster. It's more exciting. It's just a product. And we like NFL better and it makes more money because it's a more exciting product.

Yeah.

And the NBA is better because guys can jump 12ft in the air and break glass backboards.

Yeah.

Well, Brittney Griner, I guess, can dunk, which is kind of cool. So she's got you beat there. Brittany Griner can dunk.

You can't. That never will happen. Dude, I'd probably break my leg. Even if I jump that high to come down, I just shatter my femur.

Yeah. All right, well, that's what I got for the pod. Short one for the day.

Any non financial advice?

Non financial advice. We got to jump in. Did you. Did you have any. We've been getting bad about this.

Let me think here.

All right, so I know I did my sister's wedding on Friday. It's fantastic. Great time, great time. Efficient officiant. I was the officiant. It was great time, good party, got to see lots of friends, family, beautiful thing, beautiful day, beautiful bride. But I have some non financial advice. If you're hosting a wedding or like an event that you have people that you don't know, but it's kind of like intimate. Okay, so like a wedding, maybe a funeral, and it's getting a little dark, but just be the guy. I was that guy. Friday night rehearsal or Thursday night rehearsal. I just brought name tags and Sharpies. I didn't say anything and I just splayed them out across the table by the entrance.

Yeah.

And people Just started putting them on. This is great move. Because then by the end, I knew everyone's name.

Oh, yeah.

Instead of having to do the awkward. Oh, we met last night. Oh, we met a couple weeks ago. Oh, I know I've met you before. It's just like, I just brought name tags. I didn't even say anything. Just put them on the entry table and a bunch of sharpies.

What do you think, though, about name tags? When someone walks up to you and they're like, hey, and then the eyes go down your name tag. What do you think about that? Because that's a little awkward. I feel like you put it, like, right here. Just brand everyone right there.

See? Because we've done the conferences and gie and stuff, I try to get their name when they're a few steps back. Yeah, that's what you're supposed to do. So you get a quick glance down and then up.

But then what if someone has, like, really low. Yeah, you what's really cut. Let's just be unfiltered. When a girl has a dress that's a little too low and then they put their name tag there, you're like.

Oh, yeah, Should I look down?

That's fair.

That's fair. That's a good point.

Yeah. Then you're like, okay, well, I want to get their name. But if I look down right now.

What was your name again?

Oh, you could do a little hat. Do, like cats with, like, their name.

On there and be like, but that's not financial advice. If you're going to a forced intimate gathering and you don't want to do the whole name game, just be the guy that shows up a little early. Just put the name tags out. People just follow suit. We're creatures of habit. We want to fit in. They see a couple people with a name tag, they're like, I guess I'm supposed to put a name tag on. It was fantastic.

There you go. My now not financial advice. Two things, actually. One, make sure when you're sleeping, you have a cold room. Cold. So I've been listening to a podcast or listen to a podcast about sleep. So it's kind of helpful making sure it's cold. So I'm bringing it down like 65 or below. That's why it's kind of cold.

Oh, it's great. I love it.

And then the second thing. Oh, yeah, I did on Saturday, and I was kind of. I was testing out these pants because usually I wear Carhartts or like some, you know, heavier duty tactical. But when I'm going to 95 degrees and all this humidity. I need something a little lighter. So hiking pants that are breathable, that's like, those the keywords that you're going to throw in a Google. Got a couple pairs I think are really good. And I wore them on Saturday. I've never done that before, like, in my whole life. And I have not have, like, thinner material and so. It was good. It was good. Yeah.

I like that.

That's clutch.

Going back to the sleeping thing, have you seen the new phase or the new craze? Mouth tape?

Dude, I want to try this. No, I'm not gonna try it because I sleep great.

We should try this.

Really? You actually have to tape your mouth shut. Yeah. I feel like someone should just make an insert.

Just have a soother, bro.

Well, they have mouth guards and stuff.

But why not have a mouth guard that doesn't have, like a split? It just like you're putting a plug.

In your mouth, but then you locks into your teeth, but you can breathe throughout the sides of your mouth.

Dude, it just sounds, like, so hilarious.

I don't know.

Obviously you would wake up if you were dying because of, like, lack.

Well, yeah.

But, yeah, it's way healthier to breathe through your nose. Yeah, Way better for you.

Yeah. I'm a snore. I'm a snorer, so I think I do some mouth breathing. I try it.

Yeah, you should try it. But I. I've heard people that still have that even when they do their mouth, because it's not really from your mouth, it's from your neck. You're like. Your nasal pass.

I don't know. I kind of want to try it. Yeah, dude, I've seen it all over, like, Instagram and stuff.

Yeah. Maybe I should just. I just saw something. I don't know, someone said it or mentioned me. I saw an Instagram post. I don't know what I saw, but suddenly I was taping their mouth. I was like, that just looks weird.

Yeah, there's this new. There's this brand. They're doing a massive marketing campaign. I've seen it ever. It's called Hostage Tape. That's literally what they're calling it. And it's, like, prefabricated. I think it comes in a couple sizes, so it's kind of shaped to fit perfectly around your mouth.

I would imagine the biggest thing there is, like, acne and stuff. Like, that's what they have to guard against. Right.

So it's like special materials and chemicals. Yeah. So it won't stick or peel or, you know, make your skin or lips dry.

People come with the stupidest stuff, dude.

Their marketing is phenomenal.

It's all over.

It's hostage tape. So there you go.

Oh, man. The next thing is gonna be like, if you tape these two fingers together. Yeah.

Hey, you never know.

Oh, man. All right, that's the pie.

Good luck. In North Carolina.

This has been the Mike Gandies podcast. Now you have some ideas on how to take your business to the next level. And if you liked what you heard, we have tons of lectures, interviews, and more over at the Mike Candies YouTube channel. That'll be right up your app. That's all we have for you today. We'll see you next time.