I Sent My Head of Sales to Hormozi's First-Ever Offers Workshop | C.Suite Unfiltered 117

You are risking everything by doing this. It is like, if I don't do that, everything technically I've built is at risk.

This either 100% works and is the very obvious proof that Augusta is a great vehicle for you to invest in and grow your business, or it's a failure.

Like 90% of the success of that location will hinge on Jon. Everything's been going bad because like the ramps are delayed, the wrapping guys are in no rush to wrap our vehicles. We had to bribe them to pay extra to get 'em done next week when I'm there. If your business model is not changing and improving, over the course of 3, 4, 5 years, then that is a really— like, you will be wiped out, whether it be from AI or private equity. Someone else is going to take your lunch because they'll pivot and they will adapt.

Francesco, he's one of Alex's main copywriters. And he basically— this is a piece of advice he gave me— is like, make it almost illegal. Make it like someone might be like, this is not real. You can't say that online. There are 2 types of people in the world. There's dumb people and there's smart people. Dumb people don't learn from their mistakes. Smart people do. And then Alex added, And then there's geniuses, and geniuses learn from other people's mistakes. Welcome back, another episode, The C-Suite Unfiltered with Mike Andes. We are both weirdly kind of under the weather, even though we haven't interacted much. It's going around, but I have some very sad news.

Okay.

This is the last C-Suite potentially in this studio. So don't worry, we're not going anywhere. But, uh, you were moving to Texas.

Yeah.

And when you come back, We will hopefully be in our new headquarters building. Yeah.

Meaning I have a feeling we'll have one or two while we're at training here. But yes, technically speaking.

Yes, we have. It's kind of weird because you are moving away, but I'll still see you basically once a month.

Yeah.

October, we'll meet at the Equip Expo.

November training.

Kentucky, November. We have new owner training. Already have like 7 new locations ready to go for that, which is awesome.

December. December, I'll be here for Christmas.

Christmas. So you might pop into the office, do a little Secret Santa. Always a good time. So yeah, I didn't have a ton of structure for today, but I did want to start with a little bit of a surprise for you.

Okay.

So you may not know in when when this releases, it will release on September 28th.

Oh wow! You had this time.

Do you know what the significance of September 28th is?

20th is when we get there. 28th, that's the week after.

Uh, you're not on the right track.

Oh, really? It's the day for training.

I would just like to— I would just like to be the first person to publicly say congratulations on your 10-year YouTube anniversary.

Oh, really?

That you launched your YouTube channel.

Are you serious?

September 28th, 2016.

Really?

Yeah. Wow, that's 10 years Mike Andes has been on YouTube.

Yeah, that was about a month after my accident. A month and a half.

Yeah. Yeah. So I guess, how does that feel? Like you're here now. I know, I know you're not like a victory lap milestone person. Like those things don't necessarily motivate you. Anniversaries, it's like just a date on a calendar. That's fine. But I was like, I want to look this up. So I put it on my calendar to like, I set a reminder to like text you about it. And then I was like, wait, that's going to be when this releases and you'll be out of town. So I was like, I'll bring it up now. So 10 years you've been on YouTube. That's good. Thoughts, reactions. Did you ever think you'd do 10 years of YouTube videos?

No, not really. Like, when I first started, it was more like I knew that I was going to turn the business around. I had done like a few weeks of like soul searching in terms of what needed to happen. I was like, I should just document this so that if someone else has a business that's not making money and they're out in the, you know, working 80, 90 hours a week, hopefully they can learn something. And I was like, yeah, I saw a guy. I had these massive lights that were like construction lights that were halogens. They get hot. And I put one massive one in a cabinet.

It was a little—

way back. It looks like I'm up against the wall with a whiteboard, but in reality, it's a kitchenette inside of my ADU, my accessory dwelling unit, up above the garage.

Okay.

And it took the whole kitchenette. Like, it was just like, I opened up a cabinet, I put the light inside, and then that was my set. And I just had this tiny piece of garbage camera. I just pushed play or record and then record the thing and then turn it off. And it was just like trying to document that. So then Did I think I'd be in 10 years? I don't know. I have no idea.

Yeah. How many how many YouTube videos do you think you've produced? Like you and your team. Like if you include all of it's probably six or seven thousand between across multiple channels.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, I just thought that was cool. I was like 10 years you've been doing YouTube. That's pretty sweet. I don't know why you. I feel like there's. I mean, I guess it could just be the bias that I have from my perspective. But you have like three very important anniversaries in September. You have your 10-year YouTube anniversary now. You, the first, the first new owner training was in September.

Was it really?

Yes, it was September like 2019, I believe.

You sure September?

I'm 99% sure. Maybe maybe I'm off. Maybe we need to cut this out. I'm like 99% sure. I'm like 99% sure. I thought it was. Maybe I'm wrong on that. I don't know. Or maybe you launched it in September. Either way. And then I was hired 9 Septembers ago.

Oh, that's interesting. So, you know what is funny? I've always thought funny is like number of subscribers per 1,000 subscribers almost always directly correlates with the number of territories we sell at Augusta. Almost exactly.

It's like, you're just under 250?

Yeah, 247. Okay, it's always been that way, dude. Like literally, because when we launched the franchise, we only— I only had about I think 6,000 or 7,000 subscribers. And like, that's when we launched. And like almost exactly 1 to 1,000.

That's wild. So for every 10,000 subscribers on the YouTube channel is 1 franchise.

Yeah, so what would be really interesting is when we cross 1,000 locations, if I had a million subscribers.

You're gonna get there before we have 1,000 locations.

Hey, I have never had big jumps in subscribers ever. It's always been this slow, very gradual grind.

Why do you think that is? You've been doing YouTube 10 years.

I need to be better, dude.

Is it because you don't lean into like the clickbaity algorithm stuff? I do, like we try our best. We try to do the best.

Well, you do.

I mean, you guys do, and that's not like a knock on the media team or anyone who's editing this or listening, Chase. What I'm saying is like, you, you guys produce what will actually like provide value. And like, yeah, thumbnails sometimes clickbaity, titles sometimes clickbaity. Like, you have to play that game. But do you feel like there's something that you could be doing differently to increase that?

Well, the goal is to grow the business and have impact. It's not to get more views and subscribers. But I don't think I'd do anything different because I don't want— I don't want followers that are there for humor or like crazy stuff. I want business owners. Like, that's who I care about. So I'd be very happy if I hit 1 million subscribers when we hit 1,000 territories.

Do you think you would— you would just have more subscribers if you want more general business advice?

I think a challenge is going to bring a lot more general people. Yeah, but I would love to have the same correlation, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How many subscribers are you hoping to get? I guess we'll pivot to that. You're moving to Texas this weekend.

Very sad.

We will miss you here.

Yeah.

But how many subscribers? What is the subscriber goal count? Uh, let's see if I can do this. Is it to break 300? Is it 260, 275?

Uh, no, it's, it's just 300.

Okay.

So the reason what I'm looking for—

In 6 months? Like you wanna hit 300?

Yeah, I've shown you this.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I— oh, did I just show you my lock screen?

You're good. I've seen that though.

Yeah.

I knew what you were gonna show.

So it's just my lock screen. It has like the targets for this project specifically to keep my head in the game.

I love how you put one specifically for me in my department and never like verbally said it. You were just like, check this out, guys. I'm like, cool. No, no, no. That's my goal. That's what we talk about all the time.

That's my goal for the project.

Yeah, no, I know.

Whether or not you sell it, that's someone has to fulfill it.

Someone has to bring the deliverable. So that's cool. 300,000 subscribers over the next six months. So basically 50,000 subscribers. So you're looking at 10 a month, 10k a month.

Yeah, 10k a month, which is would be our biggest big jump ever.

Yeah.

We've never grown like that.

Are you putting in terms of percentage how many like? resources from your media team are you putting towards this project alone? Like, is that going to be the primary team's focus, or is it like you just have a team of the editors just always edit, the thumbnail people always do the thumbnail? Like, I don't know.

It kind of blends a lot. Like stuff, for example, like with August, like with what you're working on with ad stuff, homework stuff, it all blends. Like the media team is not just like Mike Andes, right? It is very much like we have Blue Collar Summit coming up. So like everyone does everything. And there's pros and cons to that. I think the pros outweigh the cons because they all understand why they're doing what they're doing because they see it fit into the broader ecosystem. So like, why do we do this random podcast with Mike and Lee? It's like, well, like Lee is able to then talk to people and they know who he is and they understand that because they're also working on an ad for the franchise. And it's like there's just pros and cons. Yeah.

I had someone actually on a sales call yesterday interested in joining Augusta. They referenced the podcast. You Me, Liz, and Josh did.

Whoa.

Like 6 or 7 years ago.

Yeah, way back.

We were kind of like debating like projects and recurring. It was like one of your debate style ones. And it was cool because it was— he thought it was interesting that like we had the perspective of like Liz from the office and then me and Josh from the field and then you as the owner. So maybe we— I don't know if we bring that format back in some way, shape, or form.

In that tiny little table? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go.

But yeah, it was wild that he referenced that. He was like, yeah, it was like Liz. And I was like, okay, Liz has been in maybe some recent content, you know? And then he's like, yeah, and this other guy, Josh, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, pause. That's a long time ago. So anyways, as you go to Texas, you have to send this to Josh. Huh?

You have to send this to Josh.

Yeah, definitely. Shout out Josh. Great guy. One of the OG Augusta.

He was in my Friday video. They brought— they did some great callbacks on my last Friday video. The one where I'm just sitting down talking about it.

Oh, it was great. That was great. I just listened to it.

I didn't see the visuals. The callbacks were crazy. For the first time ever, my dad got a cameo of him at the pulpit preaching.

Let's go, dude.

I was like, wow, they did some investigative journalism for that one.

Dude, let's go. John Andes just winning people over for the Lord, baby. That's awesome. No, I didn't watch that one. I apologize. A lot of your— when I know you're monologuing, I just listen. I don't see the visuals. The visuals are nice. Shout out to media team. Make the visuals look nice for this. But I just listen to it. So anyways, final thoughts before you head to Texas. I know you posted something in the Home Service Boardroom. I'm not going to share that. I don't have a screenshot of it. I'm not going to read it. If you want to get Mike Andes' thoughts, you know, Like and subscribe. I'll send you a link, you know, and you can see his unfiltered opinions on certain things in the Home Service Boardroom. But you posted it. I would call it a vulnerable post for you about this Texas challenge. So maybe lean into that post a little bit for the C-suite audience that might not be in the Home Service Boardroom. What is Mike Andes feeling right now before he goes to Texas?

Yeah, like you can control everything you possibly can. And but there's always variables that can go awry. Most of it has to do with people because humans are fickle and we all have health and family, etc. So you try to control everything you possibly can. But ultimately, I'm kind of putting like my entire reputation on the line. And so I think like I made this post the other day and it kind of took off and Brianna read the comments. I stay away from posts that go viral because it brings an audience typically that is like, Very much saying stupid stuff.

Yeah.

And I like I always read my comments typically, but when it goes viral-ish and you get random new people, they'll say stuff that like I just don't need it in my head.

Yeah.

Especially going into a challenge where you already have enough doubts in your head. So, but she's like no, like it was all really positive. And she's like the ones that actually the best though, she said, are the people that you can tell are really like good business owners when you go to their profile. They have big businesses, and they're the ones that are identifying that like you are risking everything by doing this. And because, like, if I'm gonna share the budget, which I'm— like, the video's coming out next week of, like, my budget. I'm gonna share my customer acquisition costs. I'm gonna share all those things. And I'm saying, like, by a year, I have to hit this target in revenue, and it's all gonna be recurring, and I'm gonna show all of it. Then it is like, if I don't do that, everything technically I've built is at risk.

Mm-hmm.

And so that is a lot. Like, everyone that watches this knows the business content and would likely support me hitting my goal, but there's gonna be plenty of people very much looking for the opportunity for me not to. And so, yeah, it's just like, it needs to work. And so when I originally pitched this, it was like, hey, I'm gonna start up a location and then like, I just need to show the first 90 days. And then we all had the meeting and Nick was like, this must work.

Yeah.

Maybe you did.

It was me and then Nick doubled down. Yeah, yeah.

Like, this must work and it must continue forever kind of thing.

Yeah, you pitched it to us and in your like package of how you pitched it to us, there were too many if statements for me.

Yeah.

And I was like, We have to remove the if statement. Like, this either works or it's a massive failure.

Yeah.

Like, there are no if statements. If X happens, we do Y. If A happens, we do B. It was like, take those out. This either 100% works and is the very obvious proof that Augusta is a great vehicle for you to invest in and grow your business, or it's a failure. And I think you win via transparency as well. Like, and I don't think it's going to fail. I think obviously I've worked with you. I wouldn't have worked with you for this many years if I thought it was going to fail. All of your crazy ideas we've tried, there have been a few failures along the way. I would say some of the failures along the way were more so distractions. Yeah, this is the core of what you do every single day. And so the likelihood of failure is there. But I like— if I were a betting man, which sometimes I am, just came back from Vegas, I'm like, I'm all in on this. Like, I'm 100% all in. Like, I will blindly follow and trust, and I think it's going to be awesome.

Yeah, like 90% of the success of that location will hinge on John. And so hopefully if things go bad, I will take the brunt of that. But he deserves 100% of the praise if it goes right. And because it all hinges on him, all hinges like this. So like this week, like everything's been going bad because like the ramps are delayed. The wrapping guys are in no rush to wrap our vehicles. We had to bribe them to pay extra to get them done next week when I'm there. And then like he's hiring very, like very quickly. And so it'll be interesting. We've never grown a location at Augusta this fast.

Yeah.

And we've never done it. during the offseason.

Yeah.

So, like, again, publicly in the videos, I will say— now I can say this to this audience, but like publicly on the vlog, I will say $1 million in a year. Like, the next level though is like, I want to do it within 6 months, 3 and a half of those months of which the grass doesn't grow. And we don't do property cleanups, leaf cleanups, bush cleaning, bush trimming. And so, that is going to be— if I can do it within 6 months by the time I leave, that's really the goal. And then to be able to hand it off to John and it still continued to grow. And I really want to go back and have a second location.

Cool.

Within the year. We'll see. We'll see.

Yeah, I love that. That's awesome. Yeah, it's just interesting because obviously I talk— my main job is talking to people interested in joining Augusta. And it's so interesting that all the little rabbit trails that people want to go down and that's like, well, you know, what do you guys define as a cleanup? Or can I do this service? Or what if I offer this? Or like, you know, sometimes we do grading or like, can I do that under Augusta? And I'm like, Yeah, sure, you could do that. But like, I'm not— I wouldn't join McDonald's and say, hey guys, you know how many tacos Taco Bell sells? Do you know Taco Bell sells—

I bet McDonald's has tried tacos.

Tens of millions. Well, they got the wraps and stuff. They're tortilla adjacent.

Tortilla adjacent.

But what I'm saying is it's like— and I'm not like— I am comparing us to McDonald's for the sake of metaphor or analogy. I'm not comparing us in terms of like the market share of McDonald's.

I'll take billions of dollars.

100%. But what I'm saying is it's just I, I, what I'm so excited about is to just like, when this is successful, I'm speaking that into existence. We're positive here. Positive outlook. When this is successful, it will just be like the stop trying to sell tacos. Yeah. Just sell burgers.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Like this is the model. And I think people get so distorted by that because lawn care and landscaping and all the business owners I've talked to inside Augusta, outside Augusta, at your conferences, at Equip Expo, it's like, Yeah. So we wanted to grow, so we added this. We wanted to grow, so we started selling this product. We wanted to grow, so I got this certification. It's like, why didn't you just double down on the thing that was working? And I think that's what I'm excited about with this experiment is like showing that doubling down.

Mm-hmm.

Like you are now showing the, okay, we've built a franchise network. We've done this for 7 years. The model's built, the sales funnels are built, the web presence, the, the systems, the backend, the command center, all of that is dialed at this point and it will continue to improve. Now I'm just gonna show you what happens when you push all your chips in the middle. And say, I'm just going to do this thing.

Yeah. Like, I would say, like, for any— because, like, what people will say to you is, like, from my first vlog in 2023 till now, like, the model has changed. I was like, yes, if the model has not changed, you should get out of any franchise. And if your business looks like the same way it did back in 2023, you should also really take a hard look in the mirror. And so in the past 3 years since I last did that challenge, over 3 years, like simplification, So much more important, especially as more and more owners have gone to multiple locations. And I have seen more in the past 3 years. I have talked to a lot more business owners. I've seen a lot more industries and it just becomes very apparent. And so instead of just taking the theory that I know is true, I have to just go exemplify it so that we can pivot for Augusta Nation. And one thing you'll be interested about that video from last week is number 5, where I talk about this year, like the gut punch of realizing that everything I'd always taught Augusta has led them to A lot of people getting to a million dollars, but it's also the thing that will bottleneck them from growing beyond that. And I need to exemplify like, okay, past a million, going to 10 is very different. Like the way that you lead, the way that you compensate, the way that you create systems is going to look very different because getting to a million, yeah, like what we did in North Carolina just needed more time to get there in terms of like, yeah, you had projects and cleanups and like all these other things. But when you're going to scale a business that you leave in 6 months, and after it has crossed $1 million and you hand all the keys over to your general manager, that's a very different business model you have to build.

Mmhmm.

And so, I think a lot of people will be confused by that. And I would just say, like, if your model, if your business model is not changing and improving over the course of 3, 4, 5 years, then that is a really— like, you will be wiped out, whether it be from AI or private equity. Someone else is gonna take your lunch 'cause they'll pivot and they will adapt new technology improvements to the system. And so, We've talked about a lot, especially the last like 12 to 24 months inside of Augusta. But I need to, I need to exemplify and lead by example. And I always talk about how like leading by example is usually an entry-level form of leadership because it doesn't scale very well. The nice thing with content is I can capture it and then that can scale. And so me leading by example and me doing one location won't do anything for Augusta, but me capturing on video is now the thing that I can put in front of them. I don't really need like, I need proof. I'm not really doing it for that. It's an example that, okay, we saw what Mike did in South Carolina, in North Carolina.

Mm-hmm.

Now we've seen what he's done now. And like, which of these do I want? Do I want the one location where I'm the operator? I'm doing the door hangers. I'm very involved. If I want this other option, which is going to be scalable, have a general manager, I need to operate a completely different level. And I get frustrated when people say that's all theory. And that they— that it doesn't work when it's like, no, I know this works. I'm just going to go do it now. So there is a, a recipe to follow.

Do you think— and we'll just go full transparency here.

Okay.

Do you think there will be inherent advantages available to Augusta owners that won't be available to the public based on this experience?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

In what way?

Well, okay, I'll be as blunt as you want me to.

I'm just saying.

Poor people will pull this card throughout the entire challenge. Like, sure, you could do this because you have Augusta and you have the website and you have Augusta Leagues and you have Command Center. And like I told Brandon, I'm like, to those people, I will say, yeah, so that's why you should join. So that's one. And the other one, the other thing will be people that are like, you have so much money, of course you can do this. And again, I will say like, yes, for the person that does have money, they can do this.

Mm-hmm.

And so I think it aligns with where we're trying to go, which is trying to take the million-dollar operator much higher inside of Augusta to be able to copy and paste, have multiple locations, lead as a leader and not as an operator. And so it aligns directly with our objectives. I also have to realize that that is maybe 10% of my audience. And so that's why we don't expect these to like crush on views when I'm going deep on ad strategy and, you know, why we do certain things with training and onboarding. But I think it will be, at the very least, the recipe that I need to make this change for Augusta. And we need to turn this corner to turn operators into CEOs. And it'll be the next 5 years. I think a lot of people will point back to this as a challenge. And so, like, that's my main focus. All the media stuff and like everything else that's going to come is like very much tangential. How do you say that?

Tangential.

Tangential. There you go. From that main core.

Got it.

Objective.

So you feel like— and this is me just trying to, like, summarize it all into one kind of cohesive thought— North Carolina got us to prove, hey, this is kind of an owner-operator model. You can do it with low cash, like you can find success quickly, you can scale quickly.

You just need work ethic.

You just need work ethic.

Run a gajillion miles doing door hangers, knock on doors, hold a sign next to the road. You get a few customers a week and get your first employee within a couple of months and you slowly scale.

Yeah. And the Augusta brand will support that because you did highlight like Command Center was taking your calls and other things. But this is just the next— and that got us to where we sold more franchises, more people subscribed, like we had more people joining and saying like, okay, I feel confident that if this guy could do it, I could do it. Now this is just like a completely different ballgame. Like you went from that, just to use like a bad analogy, that was, you know, Friday Night Lights, high school football. Now you're, you're going pro, like you're in the NFL, like there are millions of dollars at stake.

Yeah.

Like hypothetically. There are hypothetical millions of dollars at stake to basically prove, hey, do you have massive amounts of liquidity? Are you looking for investment opportunities? To that person that's like, of course you can do it because you have the money. It's like, yeah. And there are other people out there with money that are looking for good investment opportunities and business opportunities to, one, stimulate their local economy, provide jobs for great employees, build something with actual enterprise value, and do something that they enjoy.

Yeah. And there's a very high probability in 5 years I'll do this again at even a higher level. which I'll probably start 10 at the same time.

Sweet.

And that would be before we go public. And to show that this is like not just where you can invest $500,000 to $1 million, you can take $10 million and scale this very quickly. So I will probably do this again in 5 years. And so this is the evolution at which we're trying to grow. And my hope is that if an operator enters, it's like the 7 stages of success and like the 21 stages of success for all of Augusta Nation. It's like, where do I— everyone's at a different place on this board, but we're all trying to get to the next stage of our career. And I need to extend how far someone can grow inside the system. And I need to show that, hey, if you have $1 million, you can scale quickly. If you're just getting started, you can also grow from one location, build into profit mode and go through these stages a little slower pace because you don't have the capital. And that's fine. But ultimately it's like, where do you want to go is not a million-dollar business that you're tied to working 80 hours a week, doing running around doing door hangers. That's not what I want for the owners. And I don't think it's in their best interest for the long term to be able to hand that off, have enterprise value, sell the business. And like, I am very aware that when we go public, that will be the exit strategy for a lot of our entry— our new owners, like the owners that are joining now and have for the past 5 years. When they have 4 or 5, 10 locations, their exit strategy, we go public and their valuations all double. And so I need to prove that money being put into this system works at a— that does not require operators. It requires It just requires capital and plug that into the systems. And so, yes, Augusta Leads is a massive advantage. I would not be doing that this year without Augusta Leads. The ability to have a bunch of data of like what happens when we plug in tens of thousands of dollars into the system? What happens on Facebook ads? What happens with Google ads? What's the trends? Like I know so much data that we didn't know even a year and a half ago. And so having that is going to be like a big unlock. Having command center with dedicated agents like. We're testing that program. Like, that's a huge unlock. Having homework, like figure out the stinking chemical treatment application so like we can plug it into everything we're already doing. Like, these are all things that are important.

So yeah, I love that.

But you said you were in Vegas recently, so maybe share with the pod what your takeaways from ACQ Offers Workshop.

Yes. So great pivot there. I was at Acquisition.com. I got a couple of pictures. Maybe the media team could put them up. So I went to their Offers Workshop. This was their first ever offers workshop. They've done scaling workshops, they've done sales workshops, lots of different stuff, you know, tons of different tiers of things that you can get access to with them. But this one was specifically around the offer and basically, hey, if, if your offer is the bottleneck for business growth, like come here, learn from us, we'll help you dial that in, create a better offer, and you'll walk away with actionable items. And so I was there for 2 days. First day was all presentation style. So speakers up on stage going through slide decks, all different advisors from Alex's team. So Alex didn't speak day one. Day 2, what they did is they grouped you by revenue and there was a roundtable session. Unfortunately, well, I mean, this is, this is my takeaway. I feel like I should have been in the, the largest revenue group, but we put in the revenue that like the corporate of Augusta does, like this office does in terms of command center and franchise fees. And so the questions were a little lower level in that regard, whereas if I was in that next room, like system-wide, because there were a couple of businesses there that, that were doing beyond $10 million in annual revenue, which they said is like pretty rare. Like typically they're like 1 to 10 is kind of their core audience. And there was a gentleman I met, awesome guy. He has like 8 med spas. They all do like between $1.5 to like $3 million each. And so like he's in that band. So anyways, grouped by revenue for like roundtables where the advisors came and you got more tactical hands-on advice from them. And then the second half of the second day was more speakers. Then Alex came and spoke on stage. So generally speaking, Biggest takeaways. One, they just operate at a different level. Like it is, but at a different level that feels achievable. It's like I could get there if I continue to remove skill gaps. So that was number one. They all just move quicker. Their advice is just so spot on. And in terms of their advice and how they operate on a different level, they cut through all the noise and BS. That was like one of my favorite things. Like any question someone asked, It was like, why do you think that? Why would you say that? Why does that not work? Tell me how X is working, but Y isn't. And they get you to truly like either defend your own thesis or they push you to see something different that maybe you didn't see. And that's like the whole reason you go to a workshop or a live event is to get those experiences. So I loved how they just like cut through BS of so many people's questions, even some of my own thoughts. So I don't know if you had like specific questions. I guess I could just ramble. But it was really cool to just see how they operate live. And they use all of Alex's frames in terms of how they communicate, how they ask questions. Like Alex has many pieces of content out there, but this one, like he repeats it a lot. He says, if you're in sales, like these are the 2 magic questions or 2 magic phrases. Give me an example. Tell me more. So give me an example of why that's a problem. Tell me more about that problem. And it was so funny to see it in the roundtable sessions because I'm with like It's just like one of Alex's advisors and then like 20 people. And someone would be like, well, we have a problem in our business because X, Y, and Z doesn't work and we want to know how we could solve that. And the advisor would go, hmm, tell me more about that problem. And then they tell more and he's like, well, give me a real-world example of how that works. And so the advisor gets like real hands-on tactical examples of why something might not work. They dig deeper into what might actually be the issue, and then they can act on the advice. So I thought it was cool to see like, What Alex teaches his people also do. I don't think that's something that we internally as because because I'm just equate like if Mike and Alex are CEO founder and then teams underneath, like we all try to speak your language, like the 4L framework, the five stages of growth, like all of these things. And I thought that was cool that even all these guys are the high-level operators maybe have been in businesses that aren't ACQ or AQC. What is it? AQC? ACQ? ACQ?

AQC?

AQC?

I always flip it.

Oh my word! It's a QC.

Yeah, yeah, acquisition.

Yeah, no, ACQ. ACQ. Anyways, it's cool that like all these guys are high-level operators outside of ACQ, but they have adopted the language and frames that Alex used. So generally speaking, that was my ramblings. I don't know if you had specific questions. Happy to answer anything.

That was great. We've already talked.

Yeah.

So I just wanted to make sure you had opportunity to share the pod.

I'll give something that I thought was great. All these guys are just like killers too. Like, I just love the way they present themselves. Not like physically, but you can just tell they're just like so calm, cool, and collected. They're like they're like what what is it? They're like a springboard. Like there's so much potential energy, and they wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, and then they attack. They like gather, gather, gather data, gather data, gather data, understand the problem, understand the problem, and then it's just like boom solution at 100 miles an hour. I just love that. It was so cool to see it live. So. Francesco, he's one of Alex's main copywriters. I was like, I have to ask him a question. Like, I have some very specific questions. And he basically— this is a piece of advice he gave me. He's like, if you're writing copy— so here's a freebie for everyone. If you're writing copy, write 5 pieces of copy. Piece number 1 over here is the most generic vanilla advertisement ever. Like, join Augusta, it's a great franchise. Super generic blah copy. He's like, number 5 over here, Make it almost illegal. Make it like someone might be like, "This is not real. You can't say that online." Like Augusta will change your life, and you'll have the best team ever, and like you'll never have to worry about money again, and blah blah blah blah blah. Like make it illegal, and that's like a bad example in real time. And then he's like, and then make it less generic, make it less crazy, and that's pieces two and four. And then piece number three is what you actually. Put out online. Like, that's your copy. So start with generic. You need a foundation of like, this is like what we offer. Go crazy illegal. This is, this is like the over-the-top promise. And then work towards the middle between those two.

Mm-hmm.

I thought that was a really cool, like, just creative thought process instead of I need to make good copy. Well, what, what's good copy? What is a good ad? What is a good email? What is a good follow-up sequence? It's like, that's an actual exercise you can use to start developing your skills of making better copy. So I thought that was a really cool piece of advice. So I'm like re-going through all my emails of like same thing. I'm like, man, this email's way too generic, man. This one needs to lean more to the crazy side because like the value in this email is massive, but I'm not leaning into that side as much as I should be. And so it's a really cool lens to start dialing stuff in on.

Yeah.

Anyways. Yeah, it was fun. Thank you for letting me go. I had a blast.

Yeah, it's awesome.

All right, so that was acquisition.com. This is, this is a wild one. All right. I didn't think that I would ever see this. You left a comment on a political post.

Yeah, I did.

Locally.

It wasn't really a political post. It was an economic post.

Yeah. Yeah. Mike Andes left a comment, an online comment.

I think it's apolitical. 100% apolitical.

Mike Andes left an online comment.

If you can't agree that the government spends our tax dollars poorly, then we got a problem.

Yeah. So this is from Bellingham Metro News. Big, big news hub here locally. So this The specifics of it don't really matter, but basically they said, hey, we're working on a story about a bunch of recent business closures across the county.

Which there are a ton of, ton of businesses.

There are a lot. And so that's, that's the headline. Not gonna read the whole story.

Which has been very detrimental to our livelihood. Like, some of my favorite restaurants have gone out of business.

Fair. Um, so anyways, that's it. I'm not gonna like read the whole article of the Post, but I will read the response from Mike Andes.

Oh man.

And when I saw this, I was like, there's no way. But, but it's true. Mike responded.

It was the most liked comment.

It was. I went and liked it right away. All right, so I'll put the— have the The media team put this up. Tax the rich makes perfect sense until you realize that the rich move across state lines.

Can.

Can move, can move across state lines and internationally. They are also the ones that have the discretionary income to spend on eating out, tourism, and other local businesses and support the local economy. I might try to summarize some of these points. I grew up in Whatcom County. I love this place. My wife and I go to lots of the restaurants weekly. We have over 100 employees. But the way Washington is going, it makes it very difficult to justify staying here. Next week, we're moving towards Texas. Here's the big one. We will be working towards moving the corporation outside of Washington. We have a large office building that took 6 years to get permitting due to red tape. And by that time, we've 3x'd our headcount. Another contributing factor, we simply cannot grow our business with the bureaucracy when the bureaucracy moves so slow. Then you said with the new millionaire's tax, if I am 5% profitable, I'm getting penalized. They will soon run out of millionaires and lower tax brackets will have income tax that drives up my employees' cost of living. Those living the American dream don't feel welcome here anymore. It's sad. Signed, Mike Andes.

I was typing it while I was getting changed. I think there were some grammatical errors.

I kind of skipped around a little and tried to summarize quickly. It's not all verbatim. We'll put it up on the screen.

So we're going to put this on the screen.

Why not?

Oh, man.

Mike gets political. If you've made it this far in the episode—

Political, dude.

Very political. Tax the rich. Political.

Yeah, they made that. I'm more of an eat the rich guy. No, I don't care if you're red or you're blue, left or you're right. Taxing people in general should not be a thing. Like, when— well, the whole income tax thing is messed up.

Do you like roads?

You know, I know.

Do you like emergency services?

Oh, but what about tolls? And also, if you're going to tax me, just make it across all the states. Like, I don't want to move to a place like Texas year-round. Yeah, it's 100 and some odd degrees. I would like to stay here. But when, when you make it where literally if I'm 3% to 4% profitable, anything above that, I'm going to start getting taxed on that. And like, that is stupid. Like any of these business owners locally, everyone that spends money that I am talking to locally is trying to get out of the state right now. When they passed the millionaire tax, it's basically like, hey, you're not welcome here. And so, it's like, I would love to stay here. This is the best place in the world. I will be here at least 5 months. This is for the IRS. 5 months, 29 days every single year. But like, when we start looking at the cost to— now that we have investors and people in the company like yourself that have like equity in the business, I have to really take a look at how much are we spending on taxes in this state versus, OK, if I sacrifice and go live someplace else for a few months a year, does that save everyone in this organization a huge amount of taxes? And like, the math is crazy.

Yeah.

And so, it's— states have to operate that for so long they have, because of good weather or because of whatever, they, they think people are going to stay there forever. But if you make it so hard to live here financially, people will leave.

Mm-hmm.

And I don't have to move all this office to Texas to be taxed as a Texas corporation. And so, the states have to compete to get good people in their state. And I think that's healthy, which means how do we have a vibrant economy? Well, if people are eating and not eating out, it's not the people that are like— if someone has millions of dollars, they can eat and tip and they can buy stuff. And why would you push those people away? And so I know that I can argue both sides. I also agree with taxation of people that are wealthy. I agree with that. But also, when every dollar I spend goes to the most crazy weirdness in the world, I have a hard time feeling good about my tax bill.

Yeah.

If those taxes were being spent on roads, on services that were very vital to the economy and schools and just things that I thought were really foundationally good and there wasn't waste and fraud and abuse of the system, then I would feel good about it. But like when we go through COVID and I have to deal with unemployment issues left and right because the state is just constantly handing out money and it's crushing our business, I have to take a hard look. Like, so anyways, I don't think it's left or right. I think all any good citizen should be really, really worried about taxes and the way that we are going compared to Europe. And everyone looks at Europe as like quality of life. It's like, have you ever been there before? Have you ever talked to a business owner over there? Have you ever talked to how hard it is to fire someone? How hard it is to hire someone? How the vast majority can't get more than a few employees because of that? And there's so much red tape and legalities and it moves so slow and you can't grow a business at the same speed. And so we have this very cool thing in this experiment experiment of the United States. I would like to preserve as long as possible. And so, because I believe in the free market, I would like to, as much as possible, get the government out of our lives. And yeah, that's just my stump speech.

Yeah.

And I have to act in the best interest of everyone that I am leading and is in the best interest of investors, the franchisees, employees inside this organization that we stand up for reducing taxes. And I will also say anyone making less than $100,000 shouldn't be paying income tax. So, like, I'm not against the people that have more money paying more taxes. I have a real problem with how that money is being spent. And if anyone thinks that Washington State is going to stop at the millionaire's tax, they are delusional. It's going to go down to $250,000. Then it's going to become a statewide tax. And so, I am going to— your thing, political protest— but be like, okay, I opt out of the system. Yeah.

Yeah, no, that's fair. And to use my very, very, very little example of like not doing my car tax, this is millions of dollars.

That's why they have to tax us is because you're not paying your dues.

I know I am personally responsible, but that's the whole thing is like most of the car tab, the registration, most of that spending goes directly towards the largest counties with the most transit infrastructure. That car literally never leaves the county roads here in Whatcom County.

I will pay for anything on Guy Meridian.

Yeah. No, it's like Smith and Hannigan. Like it's Smith, Hannigan, couple streets in Lynden. Like, that's it. And so like, I didn't want to pay that. But I agree with your point that like if it's not being spent towards what it actually should be spent towards, like why should we be paying it more? So like, you know, we are getting political here, but like where would you say— like you said, okay, I'm fine with the rich being taxed, like generally speaking you said that. Where should that spending go? Are you just saying it's like massive infrastructure that is just—

Get our stinking deficit under control. Yeah.

Federally.

I don't care if you're left or right, I will vote for you if you are going to actually do something about the deficit because you're just putting— we're kicking the can down the field on our next generation and we cannot sustain this. And what's happening right now with inflation going up, interest rates going up, like this is like we are walking this crazy line and we have another 30, 40 years. So everyone in office is just, just trying to kick the can down the field and get constituents to back them up by just offering more money to them. And there is no one that has the balls and they will not get get elected by saying that they're going to cut budgets, but that's what needs to happen. And so, I feel in a way like by giving more taxes, we are enabling this to keep continuing.

Mm-hmm.

And so, I will vote with my feet, which is I'm opting out of this taxation. And I just, yeah, I know it'll do nothing. I know in like 30, 40 years, like we can keep doing this whole debt thing, But I don't, I really, I don't care if it's red, red, yellow, red, is it green? What's the color?

Green Party.

Independent? I don't care what you are. If you're independent, I will vote for you if you're going to reduce the deficit and you're going to operate on a balanced budget.

But no one's going to run on that.

Like any other person in this country. We all have to have a budget. This company has a budget. We have budgets. Why in the world can this country keep printing money as if it's going to never stop.

But that, like, never— that never gets anyone elected.

I know.

Which is sad.

I understand.

Because it's, what have you done for me lately?

There will be a day of reckoning, right? So, like, I don't care. Like, you look at the current administration, they stink at spending money. They are horrible. There's so much fraud and abuse in the Republican Party, in the Democratic Party. And I think it's bad. So, if you are— if someone's willing, I believe eventually it gets so bad that someone does win. Someone who is gonna come in and is just gonna like, we're gonna have 5 years of pain and you're not going to like the economy for the next 5 years, but we have to reset this debt cycle. And I believe eventually we'll opt into it. I think we first have to go through socialism first, 'cause everyone is such on this gravy train.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then the new solution is you tax the rich, you take, give a bunch of free stuff to people, and that is what we all think is good. And that's why we look at Europe and like, oh, it's done so well. And it's like, you are out of your mind. And like, if you go to Europe right now, gas is $11 to $12 a gallon. So, if you want to have that system—

Petrol.

Petrol, yes.

Sorry.

Liters. And so, like, the way that we are going with all this inflation is what Europe has gone through. And it is because of these mechanics. And I am not against taxation. I am against the way we spend the taxes. And I spend a lot of money in taxes. This corporation spends a lot of money in taxes. And I think eventually people like me get fed up enough till we remove, until we start voting across party lines in order to make sure that things happen. And this constant notion that we just constantly keep spending our future generations' money is crazy. And it is fine until it's not for them and it will not affect us. And there's got to be someone that is like, okay, this is not going to be good for my kids or my grandkids. And this experiment of democracy is going to go by the wayside if we don't do anything about it.

So what's what happens after democracy? Or do you think we try to fix it? Like, are you are you a pessimist or an optimist?

Oh, I'm an optimist. Well, but about like the holistic system of democracy, I would like it to continue. I'm obviously a huge beneficiary of it, so it's easy to put as soon as you win at the game, it's easy to put it's a target on your back. So I have won because of the Open market because I can put tons of effort in and be able to take huge risks and be able to have borrow money and all these things. And I just hope that experiment continues. Not not really like my kids. Like I'm not really into that. I just would. I would hope that I the 18-year-old version of me that was sick and tired of the way I had been living has this opportunity in 100 years to do it again, whether it be in a different industry or in in longer. I don't care. It's like I just hope that someone else. I'm fighting for that guy. I make content for him, like that version of me. And I would like that to still be the case in 100 years. I say, if you just put your head down and work for 10 years, you can build something. And I don't want that to go away. And I know what it's like in other markets. And like, for everyone that says these things, I just ask you, go talk to people that live in Europe. Go talk to people in Africa. Go talk to people in China.

Australia.

In person.

Oh, yeah, dude.

Yeah. Yeah.

I talk to a lot of Aussies.

Yeah. So, Yeah, we've been sold a bill of goods and we're going to go in a bad direction. And I don't think it's a political post. I really don't. I think that is an American patriot's post.

Yeah.

Because the current administration that's red is extremely horrible at fiscal— fiscally and cannot save money for anything. We have not cut the budget. We have not been fiscally responsible. There's so much corruption. There is so much fraud in terms of who's in political office. And it's all bad. So I don't care if you're left, right, you're all, you're all part of the problem. And I just hope that eventually, eventually we turn the tide.

Yeah.

But we're going to bat. We're going to bat.

It was interesting for you to say that we have to go through socialism first because I've felt that.

Oh yeah.

And I'm not like politically versed. You know, I listen to some stuff. I try to stay informed, mildly informed, but I'm no expert. But I have felt that. I'm like, I feel like the experiment has to go through that. We have to get— it has to get worse before it gets better. And then someone has to step in and say, hey, It's worse. It might get even more worse, but we can correct the ship. Like, we can rip this all apart, strip it down to its bones, and rebuild the thing. And so that's why Mike Andes voting AOC in 2028. Oh, right. Official endorsement.

She be a socialist 100%, dude.

Yeah.

Well, if you want to get through faster, dude, these politicians, they have no idea what's going on in the world.

So stupid. Clip that, dude.

It's crazy. Like, everyone's dealing with inflation and all this stuff and that they're spending more money. It's stupid. Yeah, but it's gonna get through. Like, socialism is gonna win the next election cycle. It's gonna win the midterms. It's gonna win in 2028. And it is gonna be because of good marketing. And so when we see things like free grocery stores, we will see the 5 that are successful and we're like, oh, we should roll this out. Like, this is great. This is a good thing. This is good for the people that don't have anything. And redistribution works great until it doesn't. And that is when people like me opt out of the system. And so, you know, when you're on the other side and when you've been successful, everyone again has plenty of guns trained on you. But I don't believe that that was a political post. And people, of course, made it political. Like, what do they say? Like, have— don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Yeah, some guy responded.

Sounds like you'll enjoy Texas. It has nothing to do with politics. Yeah. And unfortunately, I think my generation has been burned by COVID and everything that happened. And we've seen what's happened to politics and we are jaded and we want reform and reform is gonna go in the way of socialism. But socialism is expensive and we cannot afford it. And the social experiment will not work out. And so, I believe it'll be the next 5 to 10 years, maybe 15, of everyone pushing hard in that direction.

Yeah.

But eventually the debt catches us. Eventually, we can't spend. And it's happening like it's shifting right now. We can't get people to buy our debt because they're like, I don't know if you're going to be able to pay this back. And now all of a sudden we have 5-plus percent Treasury bonds. That used to be like 2% and 3%. That's double our interest. We spend more now on interest than we pay for things like schools. And so anyways, that's my rant for the day. I do not believe that's a political post. If you think that's a political post, you've been brainwashed. I don't think it's a political post.

I was just making a joke. It's a bit for the pod. I don't think it's political because taxes are just part of the system we've created. And you can have specific opinions on tax and where spending goes and it not be specifically aligned with a party. I do agree with that. So I was just being tongue-in-cheek calling it political.

I would pay more in taxes if that money was being spent wisely. I would be a big fan if there was transparency about where it's going, if people in political office could not benefit. From those taxes being spent in wrong places, there's just so much perverse incentive. There's no clarity. There's no what's it called transparency. And so people like Nick Shirley are important, and I don't care if you're left or right. Like you need people digging into this stuff. And so I think it's going to be like social media opens up a little bit transparency. I think after COVID, a lot of people are so jaded in my generation. Like we are going to fight for more transparency, but it will go socialism. To make things equal. And then we will not be able to afford that and we will go into more and more debt. Interest rates will go up. Inflation will go up more. Inflation does not hurt me. Inflation hurts the people that are voting for these people. And man, it's crazy. It's crazy.

Well, there you go. There's Mike's tax conversation.

I never get into politics. Never going to get into politics. As I was typing that post, I'm like, some people are going to take this political. And I do believe, though, that It just— oh, man. Anyways.

Just say it. Just say it. We're already here.

People are being tricked, man. They're being tricked to think that they can just take everything from others and that it's unfair. And I agree it's unfair. But the strategy of taking from others is not the right move. It is to look at how the money is being spent. And you can take any of our budgets. And if revenue is less than what you're spending, there's a problem. But somehow that's OK in this country. And no one's doing the math on what it costs to do these programs. And if you were in any other budget, you'd say, we can't do that. We can't spend that much on social care. We can't have the— we can't have stinking electric buses in Washington, for crying out loud, that cost 5 times as much as the gas ones because we're so progressive. Like, it's stupid.

Yeah.

That's why you're not paying your tabs. No, I'm not.

It's like Washington State, a lot of ferries in Washington State, right? That's like a trope is we have all the ferries. And they released those electric ferries, and then they weren't like holding the charge enough. So guess what they had to do? Put on diesel generators to charge the batteries. It's like, what are we doing? So anyways, anyways, we're not getting political. We're talking taxes, efficient spending. Okay, spending, efficient spending.

I have agreed. I have— I will never donate to a political party. I'll never run for office. You can clip it.

All right, fair.

Yeah, yeah.

But, but that's like, okay, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole.

Both sides are messed up, dude.

Agreed. But that's— well, I— this is where like I don't want to, you know, say anything too publicly. I'm just not—

I've gone off the deep end.

I'm not a firm believer in democracy much anymore. Like, I think it's a failed experiment.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we don't have to get into that.

So what's the alternative?

Well, there's other— there are other governmental systems, but basically look into the Italian School of Elitism. There's this guy, Curtis Yarvin. Just check it out. Effectively, monarchy is going to be the best way to govern people.

Wow.

So we're way off the deep end here. That's me soft launching it to you.

You're right. But anyways, Monarchies never work.

You'd be wrong. And this is clearly working really well. No, obviously making some jokes there, but I don't even know where we were going with that.

You were trying to wrap up the political discussion.

I was trying to wrap it up.

Yeah.

So I don't know. I don't know. I don't have lots of thoughts on that.

Yeah.

I'm not that like, I'm genuinely like, I know people know this. I'm sitting across from Mike Andes. I'm not the smart one on the pod, but I just feel like Like, I just feel like you just play your own game, like, and create impact where you can. I think local government still has a large impact on your life.

Yep.

And I think that's why you posted where you posted, because it was a local news page talking about local businesses closing. That will get eyeballs and attention on it, potentially from people that have connections or are in power locally. And so I think local government still has a lot to play, and I don't think people participate in that enough.

Yeah.

And so, do that.

Yeah, it is not political. It is not political. Yeah, fair enough. This is about America, and I would like the future self of me to have another shot at doing this.

Yeah. All right, well, not financial advice.

Oh, I haven't even thought about that.

You're good.

Okay, go ahead.

I have one from acquisition.com, obviously. So, they— one of them read— one of the advisors read a Leila Hormozi quote, and it was that there are 2 types of people in the world. There's dumb people and there's smart people. Dumb people don't learn from their mistakes. Smart people do. And then Alex added, and then there's geniuses, and geniuses learn from other people's mistakes. And I'm sure we've all heard something similar to that, but I was like, it's just so good to like hear that again. And that's, you know, where you can learn from other people's mistakes. You can learn from that business idea didn't work, so why should I go down there? They had a phrase. One of their advisors had a phrase. He was like, It was like, take the stories, not the scars. Like, take this story, learn from this story. You don't need the scars. Like, I have the scars. Take the story. Take the story, not the scars. But we're, you know, as humans, we're not the smartest sometimes. We're like, I have to get the scar myself to learn the lesson. So anyways, be a genius. That's why not financial advice.

OK, because the top of mind kind of has to relate with what we just talked about— taxes. If you are planning to sell your business down the road, consider looking into QSBS eligibility, Qualified Small Business Stock. And that basically allows you, if you hold the stock for 5 years and you're a C corp, you can, once you sell, get up to $10 million tax-free. And so, this is something that's top of mind because like I am making sure that the team is going to be able to participate in this, the leadership team, and making sure that when we go public that people have good tax outcomes. Because in 5 years, we're going to have a whole lot more taxes.

Yeah.

So, I'm making sure we're free of that. So, if you're thinking about selling, you got to have a really good strategy though because S corp is so beneficial. beneficial for your current taxes when it comes to cash flow. But if you're going to sell, you potentially might want to turn into a C corp, reduce how much distributions you're taking. Um, for those few— those 5 years, you have to hold the stock. You have to make sure you're certifying that it's QSBS eligible every single year of those 5 years. But then you can sell and tax-free, uh, to up to $10 million per person. So if you're planning for more than $10 million, give some stock to your wife, to your parents, etc. And so, I already have allocated what I want to give away, everything. I've given some to my mom, my dad, Brianna. We got it all spread out.

Perfect.

And so, that way, when, when we go public, I can, I can do the things I want to do without having tax consequences. Cool.

I love that. Well, that's some great non-financial advice.

Everyone's gonna be like, dude, he's running away from taxes all the time. It's like, you know, come on.

I think the C-suite audience is—

I feel like I can spend my tax dollars better for the community than a politician.

Fair.

I agree with that. That's all. I mean, I just, I just, like, I don't live lavish lifestyle, and if I did, that money would be pumped into the local economy.

Yeah.

And they can't do it for anything. They're gonna go put bombs in a different country for the world, you know.

The whole— now we're getting political. It's not political. That's the pod. Like and subscribe. Everyone makes everything political. We will see Mike in Texas.