EPISODE 1: GaryVee Inspired Me to Start a Daily Vlog

Okay. So what I presented to him was that we could have saved the job if he had talked to them on the job site. She could have called me and I would have said that she at least needed to pay for materials because he ordered him last week and then probably talked her into doing the job. But he said that he tried everything he could, tried to sell the job, payment, installments and everything. And they were mad that after they cancelled they even showed up at all with materials.

So.

So at this point, yeah, I get that that's annoying.

Yeah. Oh, and I totally get where he's coming from. So he's just had enough. So for now we're going to transfer the number over to them. They're going to take all their calls and emails back and.

Yeah, so did we make call notes?

We did not. So where, where we failed was we put a job, a note in the customer intelligence that there had been a call and that the job was canceled, but we did not send a note to the franchisee. We probably could have still salvaged the job at that point. And we didn't give him a call, note, a text, nor did we cancel the job on the dispatch board. All three of them should have been done.

So yeah, like, so we failed on.

Three counts on that one. And he did everything he could this morning trying to get it.

Yeah.

So I did ask him what the cost was to have somebody come and haul it all away. Yeah, I don't know if we're responsible for any of that.

Okay. A follow up question I had was, was that one that should have had a 50% down invoice?

It was only $1,800. Okay, okay, I did check that. Well, it might have been a multi day job. I need, I can check that. It could have been 1,800 for the one day I would need to.

Okay, yeah, let's check on that. Just so that we can address everything.

How are we answering the phone without a call?

Good point.

We need to address that right now. Yeah, in the busyness of the day or whatever.

But even just like the FYIs and stuff.

But that's pretty serious.

Something that affects a job is like a huge misstep.

Because if that happened with us, we would have immediately, I would have totally immediately we would have tried to call them and say, hey, we've already ordered materials. And he had specifically called her and said, I can't get them there by Thursday last week, but I'll order them today. So she, I told him she should be paying for that. You ordered the materials.

So the 1800, it could have been a multi day. I was seeing 1800, it was over 2000.

So we address every single, you know, thing that we messed up.

Right. So maybe if it was over 3,000, they would have had to pay a 50% down also.

Yeah.

Which we didn't get.

I'm pretty sure that we have every opportunity to learn from it.

But the day after he talked to her was the next day that she called and canceled, which would have been the first and today is the fifth.

So say that again. She called on the first to cancel and spend four days.

Yeah. So but if she didn't put the note in there, I would have no record of anything whatsoever. I know that would probably blaming him.

But the. Well, the idea is like, why is there no one spot? And not calling up like that is what it's like.

I'm struggling so hard.

It's in the wrong place. And then the email was taken out and I told her it's more important that you cancel the job and let him know. Then taken her email out. Which doesn't matter.

Yeah, like, it's. It's a thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars mistake.

So we definitely want to, like, find the root cause with any issues with training or communication or expectations on our end.

Because, like, if you pick up the.

Phone, there needs to be a call. Period. End of story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And in that case, I would have let him know by text because that's a pretty big deal. So that he could instantly call and cancel. But delivery, even.

He had all the yardage delivered, all the sod delivered and dumped.

We know that when they leave a call note that the franchisee is getting an email. Do they know that?

They do know that. Yeah. But it's a little bit more confusing when we're doing their full service. If they're checking their email, like with.

Him.

It would go to his account. But that's Corpus at Augusta, which.

That's fine though. We did our job in 1980.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I'm just saying, like.

And now we dropped the ball because.

He didn't make it. Even if we would have made a.

Call note, I'd be okay with that.

It would have been on us to make sure he knew, though.

Right.

Because we're the full service person. We're his office manager. So it should have been like, there's two things that we messed up.

Right.

Because if there's no call note and Arcadia didn't get that message saying, like, oh, we got to make sure that Everything's good for Ryan, right?

Or get a 50 down or.

Yeah.

Very frustrating. So I'm waiting for him to get back to me about the amount of money to haul it away.

One of the loads didn't get dumped because he had the driver sit there while he tried to sell him the job. So that's good. One of the loads of something. He had his driver sit there while he tried to negotiate with him.

So they didn't dump it.

Yeah, because they were upset about where he was parked.

So not good. The customer in for them.

Yeah. We just want to make sure that we analyze every part of it so that we can correct every thing.

It doesn't matter how busy it is. You need to be making a call now.

Absolutely.

Like, there's nothing in the. Like, what producer in the office is not going to do anything?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was no forward movement at the back.

So as soon as we get that number from him, I think we should stop all this stuff. Number one, so that he instantly feels the pain of it and realizes how much we gave for him. And number two, take Georgia, who are receptive.

Georgia's three times bigger.

Yeah, but they're receptive to systems.

I want to make sure we.

Yeah, but we dropped the ball on the system.

Adjust every single thing before we.

There's nothing wrong with.

It's our fault.

No, it was 100% our fault. And he is understanding and fine. Well, you should hear this one. This last one is really good.

Oh, trust me, I tried to salvage the job. I talked to the lady I spoke with, and I talked to her son. They're elderly. I didn't think they were going to be able to do it when I first did it.

But if their stimulus is coming in.

And they wanted to get their yard redone, I had our truck driver wait there, and he called me and put me on speakers so I could speak to them. I offered payment arrangements, and no matter what I did, I just couldn't get it done. They were super irate. The material even got delivered after they canceled it and was blocking part of their driveway, which is where we told them we had to dump the material because there was nowhere else to put it. And, yeah, I think I did everything I could just to not get a negative review at this point. Point I couldn't talk him into doing the job. But, yeah, we're familiar with that also. It was the first time in five years I've ever had material get delivered to a job that had been canceled. Not something super common for us.

I Mean, he was very nice from his very first thing this morning when.

He made his decision that he was canceling.

Yeah.

Well, we had told him in everything we do, we are going to try our best and if we can't meet your needs, just tell me.

Yeah. So whatever the cost is for the.

To move that hall, pay for it.

Yeah, I'll tell him that maybe he didn't have to pay for it. Maybe because he could take the product back, not the sod.

But you've already dumped it. It's like.

No, but he's saying he had the truck driver wait maybe on the sand and the soil.

Whatever his cost for the job, whatever.

It is, I will let him know that.

And we really messed that up and we can't take a gust on it because it's our issue.

Yeah.

It's not like having them being better is going to make us make sure we get comments. Right.

That's what I'm saying. We need to address everything before we.

I don't care how busy it is. You get a phone call you need to put.

So we should have a meeting before this goes on. Can we tell Sammy 11 she's on.

Wait, we have a meeting today?

No, I'm just saying we should say something.

I just need a reminder for everyone.

Okay.

Just, you know, it's just. There's just something that needs to be said. Like, it's just we forget, I guess.

But like, but they need to understand the magnitude of something she said. Oh, that makes me really mad.

Yeah, I can just. I can just talk everyone out and say something.

It's. Sure. And it's also like we discussed with our team this morning, it's the lifetime value of a customer.

Yeah.

And the only reason they're here is that they came.

Hey, everyone, real quick, if I got.

Everyone'S real quick attention. So at.

Today we had a bit of a lapse on. We forgot to do a call note on a canceled job. And so we got to make sure if we make a call, we make call notes for them. Otherwise they show up to a property like this happened. They show up to probably a bunch of materials they've dumped. They're ready to go. And the customer's like, I've canceled. So we've got to make the call notes even if we're not taking the action inside of their profile. Just a reminder. I know we do it 99.9% of the time, but just a reminder. Okay, so I'll make a. Liz will make a comment on the chat too, but just make sure we do that because it really, really. We've lost him. He's not gonna have us take calls anymore, which it's our fault. We just have to eat it. We're gonna pay him back for whatever was dumped there. It just. We gotta make sure he do call notes, so. All right, thank you.

Frustrations. Frustrations.

Okay.

What are we talking about today? So let's see here. Let's play that one that I was talking about on TikTok. Yes, I did the. Exactly. The one right here. I saw that. Yeah, yeah, this is. This is like. Like, this had 2 million views.

Oh, did you go, oh, I really.

Oh, yeah.

People were tearing up.

The robbery.

That's hilarious.

That is. I just.

Like, we don't even have their own business. Or, like, I did look at some.

Of the profiles and just, like, saw.

Like, we didn't have anything. Like, I was like.

So you don't have any money, but you're trying to get more lawn care and mowing customers? Here's how you can do it. Don't knock on someone's door. Is it fun? Is it exc. Is it glamorous? No, you're probably really nervous, especially if you're an introvert. But trust me, if you go knock on someone's door, hand them a little pamphlet and say, hey, my name is Mike, I'd love to do lawn care landscaping services for you. Let me know. Give me a call if you need anything. Say goodbye. Trust me. Low cost, high impact, and you can get started today.

That's good.

That one was done.

Yeah, that one's good.

Yeah.

How you been? Good.

How are you?

Very good, Very good.

Sorry about that.

Usually I do these in my studio. Today I figured I was gonna come do at the office, and apparently the AirPods did not cooperate.

Yeah, this is fun.

Cool.

Awesome. So tell me a little bit, kind.

Of what you've been up to.

I know I look at your form.

And kind of like the Fremont area and things, but you didn't really share too much in terms of, like, do.

You have a landscaping business now?

Things like that. Maybe just kind of fill me in a bit.

Okay. Where I'm at now.

I am employed full time, and I think it was in 20, 19, 18 or 19, I decided, hey, I'm going to mow lawns on the. On the side. Like maybe a day or something, you know, with the goal. My girls are turning nine, I thought, you know, I'll just do this kind of like a hobby, you know, maybe when they're old enough, it'll give them something to do to earn some money and. And see where it goes.

But.

I'm not.

I don't know.

I'm not really that kind of a person to have a hobby. I like making money. Yeah.

So.

The thing, you know, we're in.

Fremont.

And my wife. That's where we want to stay. I don't know how good the market is here. It's not very.

Affluent, the households. I would say the cost of living here is really low.

We've made so much content, but a lot of it's redundant. So, like, this is just kind of one of our ideas to shake things up while still giving valuable information.

Yeah, Yeah.

I don't mind if formality is going.

To be like, hey, like, there's a good shot here. Like, can you walk and do this? Like, this morning when, like, Liz is like, well, if you get the camera ready, Like, I'm like, I don't care. The camera. Like, I want to live my life. Like, let's go. So that part, there's a balance, I think. But I don't mind, like, something like this. Like, hey, I want a certain shot to be a little bit more choreographed. But I get what you're saying. Like, this feels more authentic, too. Like, with the background wonderful in new music.

Oh, man.

The goal is for someone watching to be able to pick up on nuances of business that they aren't otherwise going to in tips and tricks video. And, like, that's what Gary Vee was for me. Right. I didn't watch Gary Vee to learn Facebook ads or learn how to do social media. I watched because 1% of the video was something about strategy, about massive growth. They have, like, locations around the world. So, like, what does that feel like versus now? Like, US, we have 39 locations, but all in the US and Canada.

What does it feel like to go.

International, deal with different cultures?

What is it like to have to.

Be traveling so much? Like, that's something I learned from him. Like, how do you manage that? Because that will probably be me one day. Right? So it's the nuances that I feel like you can't get picked up in. Like, hey, let's shoot a video about X. It has to be like, just follow me around.

Yeah, exactly.

And there are people that have asked me, like, hey, like, I'm not in lawn care and landscaping, but I want to, like, pay you to come follow you for a day. I'm like, look, I'm gonna be awkward. You're gonna be awkward. You're getting in My way, you're not gonna like how fast I move. Like just like this is for them too. Right. But the bigger part is.

That someone can watch, they can put it together with like the monthly financial statements and know what's going on.

Really.

Sorry.

No, that's good.

If you have people that are like reaching out, being like, can I pay you money to follow you around?

Yeah.

There's value doing this sort of format.

Right.

Like we.

That already tells us that there's an audience. Just a matter of how big it is. And then by like, you know, making constant content in the vlog style, you can grow that audience too and like just keep that solid real life information there.

Yeah.

Without making it too.

Because just see how it rolls. Because I do not expect a lot of views.

The first few.

I do not expect it. Like there's always that outside chance. Like something like putting like Gary Vee inspired me to start my daily vlog, gets quite a few people on board and like that becomes a thing and people actually say, oh, I'm gonna follow this and subscribe now that that's a possibility. But I don't think the first like 10 are gonna do well.

Plus I've never vlogged before.

Yeah.

Yeah, it'd be fine.

It'd be good, I think, you know, like, I think the biggest part of it is, is just being.

Sensitive to people who are like not comfortable around a camera and pulling out just the GoPro or your phone.

Hey everyone, welcome to the first vlog. We're going to be trying to do this every single day, at least for the next few weeks, to see how it goes. In a few weeks we're going away.

For a trip and those are more.

Like kind of daily travel vlogs. But we wanted to kind of do the next couple of weeks, see if this is something that is going to be useful for all of you to be able to kind of see the behind the scenes. So let me kind of share the inspiration behind the, the vlog, why I'm doing it, and kind of what you.

Can expect going forward with this channel here on YouTube.

So if you like more tips and little digestible 12 minute little clips, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok is definitely where you're gonna wanna be at. This is gonna become YouTube is where we really share a lot more of the daily kind of hustle and the daily building of the businesses and even some of my personal life and what's going on between meetings and all the rest of it. So that's what this is gonna Start becoming. Here's why. I watched Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk years ago. I still remember starting Augusta Lawn Care in 1718. He was just starting what he called DailyVee, which was a daily vlog of him operating his business. And the reason I liked it so much was not so much what content he was talking about, because he's in the digital agency realm. He's selling all sorts of ads to big companies and all the rest of it. That's not what my niche is. I'm doing lawn care and landscaping. But the reason I was so interested in watching that daily vlog was the fact that all the nuances of building a business and growing a big company and hiring and managing people and dealing with disappointment and, you know, strategizing all of those things is what I was really trying to pick up on. And maybe it was only like a minute or two here and there inside of a video. I wasn't really interested in, like, listening to his long keynote. I was interested in how do you deal with a problem or a situation with an employee. How did he deal with a setback, how did he deal with massive expansion internationally? Those are the things that I was trying to pick up on. And I think as my audience matured, many of us have grown businesses in the past few years, whether it be from my content or you just were growing already, and you're at the point where, like, you know, tips and tricks are nice, but you really want to see how does a business operate. Like, Now Augusta has 39 locations around the country. Like, how does my day look like? What do I do in terms of organizing my day, making sure it's structured, dealing with the team, which is, for me, the biggest part of managing company is the team, the culture, how you manage all the different pieces and parts of that team. And so I hope that the vlog is going to be able to share some of that. I think we're going to really be stretching kind of our creative capacity. But the goal here is that you can learn all the different things that go into building the business, not necessarily the tips or the tricks or the strategies and the very tangible, tactical things of how to run a lawn care business. But regardless of industry, you're in looking at a company that's growing very quickly, an operator that is very, very keenly interested in their team and their culture. And I hope that that is really what inspires you to do the same thing in your business. And I hope by showing behind the scenes, it gives you a little inspiration, a little motivation. And fill in some of the gaps that would otherwise be there if we were just sharing pieces and parts and tips and tricks. So I hope that's helpful. There'll be a lot of errors. I'm sure you'll see stuff you haven't seen before, like me getting mad, me getting grouchy, all the rest of it. But I hope that showing those behind the scenes is helpful for you in your journey to realize that it's not all fun games, rainbows, sunshine, people clapping and a bunch of hoorah. It's a lot of grind, a lot of work, a lot of disappointments, and a lot of strategy that you might not otherwise see behind the camera. So hopefully that's helpful. Make sure you subscribe, because we're going to be posting every single day. We're going to try to make it as interesting as possible because guess what, 90% of my day is very, very boring. It's like zoom calls and phone calls and meetings. So we're going to have to try to spice things up, try to make it as creative as possible. But more importantly, you'll be able to see an actual operator in action and not just someone out mowing lawns. Really growing a business, regardless of what industry in this is going to be useful, I think, for you in the future, and if it's for one or two, I'm willing to do this and I look forward to the journey with you all. Thank you so much for subscrib supporting the channel.

We'll see you tomorrow.