It's Official... We Are Franchising! | Business Bootcamp

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Business Boot Camp podcast. Today I'm going to be sharing an update on my ventures, what I'm up to, what I've been up to recently, and just kind of give you an update on some of those things. Hopefully you can learn from it. And part of this is just kind of chronicling the journey as I go through it. So that's what I'm doing today, sharing some of the different spots of what I'm learning and what I'm still trying to improve on. So before we end the show, though, a big thank you. Today's sponsor, which is Gusto, a lot of you have been asking on Facebook and things like that what payroll services I would Recommend Outside of QuickBooks. And that's always been Gusto. Not just because they sponsor the show, just because I feel like they're cheaper than QuickBooks, they offer more simplified, and more importantly, it's because they have great customer service. When you have an issue, when W2s come around, tax issues come around, when you have to fire and hire people, they're just great with customer service. They're a smaller business than QuickBooks and yet they still integrate with QuickBooks and and yet they have better service than QuickBooks. So that's my recommendation, is go to Gusto.com Bootcamp and you get a free 90 day trial of their software instead of the usual 30 that you can get on their website. So check that out. Today, go to gusto.combootcamp so today I'm going to be kind of sharing several things about my businesses that I'm kind of working on, things that we're developing, things that are in the works, and then just kind of a general update on the businesses that I'm running right now. So I'm just gonna go through them right off the bat. So first of all, is Augusta Lawn Care. And so this is the landscaping business. This is actually the five year anniversary of me starting that business when I was 18 years old. And so I'd been in lawn care since I was like 11. But then when I was 18, I started Augusta. And so it's kind of a cool thing because it's been five years this month. And this is also the month we 100% confirmed and committed to franchising the company. And so that's the big thing that we're doing this year is franchising Augusta Lawn Care. We will start selling franchises in September and I'll give you a little more details on that. But like, in general, Augusta is going through a Lot of changes right now. And the biggest changes are really the fact that we're changing the, the whole mindset of the local company and that is going from like, grow, grow, grow to more, like, become more profitable, Scale back the number of services we have, cut, trim the fat, become super profitable. And so in the past, it's been more emphasized on growth and sacrificing the profit for that growth and, you know, hiring more people and getting more trucks and expanding our shop and all those things. And now it's like, okay, we've done that, we've grown to a certain size and now we're focusing on franchising. And now we're focusing on the home, the corporate shop office becoming super, super profitable. And so there's a lot of changes around that. We had an off site meeting last month where I show a lot about like the company. Basically it's an offsite meeting with our entire team at Augusta. And we go over the numbers, we go over where we're at financially, we go over the goals and what the company's gonna be doing in the upcoming year. And so we had that meeting and it was pretty intense. And it was one of those things, you know, I always talk about having open book management and I still believe in that. And when you do that, it does lead you to a very vulnerable position because people in the company know where everything's at in terms of financials and where the money's going and things. And so you have to make sure if you're gonna have open book policy, that you have the answers to where the money's going and that you have a very clear strategy for the future of the business and so that you can justify why you're saving or why you're trying to cut back, or you're trying to make efficiencies. And so, you know, we've always been in the place of growth for the past few years, especially since I've actually started hiring people at Augusta. And so we've never really had the discussion of making cutbacks or, you know, taking things out that were fluff and we got to make more efficient and cutting out services that were, you know, maybe fun to do, but not profitable, not scalable, not gonna work well for the franchise model. And so that was a really interesting off site meeting. The people that were there and had never been to one, their words when I asked them about it were like, that is intense. But I think it was, it's a moment that's really good for the entrepreneur, the business owner, myself, in this case to really have to have the hard questions asked from the people that are closest to the action. I know people out online or my business friends, they can ask me questions about the business and stuff and that's fine. But they don't get to see the day to day. They don't see behind the scenes. They don't get to see the good, the bad and the ugly of hiring, firing people and behind, you know, kind of like the back end of me and my personality and everyone else's personality is working there and the day to day grind and all of that. And so those people are going to have the best insight, they're going to have the hardest insights to take. And it's also going to really question the business model and the decisions we're making. And so it wasn't easy, it wasn't like an easy off site because we were cutting a lot of things out. We were refocusing on what the local company locally is doing. And then it was also exciting because we are 100% committed now to going with the franchise model, something we've been playing with for two years. But now we are actually like everything's in place, everything is done. We're going to be able to start selling in September. And so it was really interesting. And I know a lot of you, since I've started talking about open book management, have asked me about your off sites. People in Proplus are really starting to develop these off site meetings and sharing with your teams and I just Recommend it Absolutely, 100%.

So it is very vulnerable. There's gonna be people that get mad or unhappy and there's gonna be people that are gonna ask questions that you're like, where in the world did that come from? But I feel it's if they don't ask it and you don't give them the environment to ask questions that are hard, those things are gonna brew inside and it's gonna eventually either leak out in an outburst or it's going to lead to them talking behind your back. And so I'd much rather just be in the open and out everyone talking about it and me hearing about it and be able to walk them through certain things and explain certain things. So that was the off site meeting went really well. So yeah, like I said, the changes is we're really focusing on profitability instead of growth now. We will still grow this year. We'll probably still grow at least 20%, at least. So it's not like we're not growing, it's just that we are you know, instead of 50%, we're growing 20%, 25% probably. And so, but that 25% growth is gonna be much more profitable than if we did 50%. And so that's what we're focusing on. We're focusing on really getting really, really efficient, really, really lean systems, procedures, figuring out ways of saving money. And so the reason I'm doing that is because next year I'll be handing the day to day operations off to my employees that work for me now. And so in order for that to happen, there needs to be money that will then justify me stepping out of the business and focusing 100% of my time on the podcast, the course, the franchising, all the things that I'm doing. And so that's where my time is best spent. And so for now, this year, when I'm still involved in the day to day at Augusta, it's all about systems, efficiency, making it more lean, cutting costs, et cetera. And so there's gonna be people when you make these drastic changes in your business that you know are necessary. There's gonna be people that won't be able to hang out. There's gonna be people that I've been on your team that are not gonna, their missions, their goals are not gonna align with yours when you really open up your debt, what card you're holding, and really show what you're gonna do with the business. And so we've had that. People have left and that's fine. That's what they needed to do. And we needed to, to continue with the objectives and the goals that we have in mind. And so the last few weeks have been a lot of changes, New people coming on, some old people, couple people that have been around for a while leaving, but it was like it was just 100% necessary. And if you're at that place when you know changes need to be made in your business, I just really encourage you to make those. And it's one of those things like, I feel like when it comes to hiring and firing, especially.

The moment after that action is done, it's like, what am I feeling right now? And if it's positive, it usually means I made a good decision. And over the past couple weeks, a lot of hard conversations changes things like that. But at the end of the day, I'm like, I know it's the right thing to do. I know it's right for the business. I know it's gonna be right for the future of the company. And so you just take that feeling of like, you know what? That was the right thing to do. And I guess the future will tell the story of how that ends up.

We are franchising. I know a lot of you have asked here and there about it because I've mentioned it a long time ago. It's always been the end goal of Augusta. And so we are going to be franchising. I've changed the model somewhat in order to allow it to really accommodate someone that's actually wanting to start the company from home. So they don't need a big shop like we have. They don't need a bunch of employees. They're going to actually start building by themselves without employees from their house. Super low cost. Basically a work from home opportunity to get started and then they can grow their business from there. And so the thing that I'm making different about Augusta Lawn Care, the franchise is that it's gonna be low cost to get in. You don't have to have employees to get started. But most importantly, the franchise fees will be solid throughout. They'll be set. It will not be a royalty fee, it will not be a percentage. So for most franchises out there, especially all of them in the landscaping industry have a percentage.5 to 10% of gross revenue goes to the franchisor. The problem with that model is as you grow, you are having to spend more and more to the franchisor. Yet you've learned all the systems and procedures and they've educated in what to do. And so what I want to do is make a model where actually incentivizes the franchisor to grow their business, scale up, make it bigger, and create a saleable asset. A business that is doing seven plus figures and not being all the cash being taken out, funneled out to the franchisor. So what we're making is business that actually encourages people to grow their business as franchisees. And so there's gonna be a set dollar amount per month that comes out. And that was all inspired by me owning Anytime Fitness, that they have the same model. It doesn't matter if you do 5,000amonth in revenue or 400,000amonth in revenue at Anytime Fitness, you pay a set free franchise fee regardless. And that's what we're doing with Augusta. And no one else in the industry has done that in the landscaping franchise world. And I feel like that's the future of franchising because it makes the business like allows the growth of the business and therefore the asset, therefore the franchisee wins. And in my opinion, if franchisees are winning, that's when a franchisor grows, scales, builds and they're successful. And so I know it's not like the highest growth for me up front by having a set fee. And I know I went against the advice of lawyers and different, you know, we're going through the whole process obviously of getting the franchise set up. So the advisors and things like that, a lot of them was like, no, you want to cut of the action, you want to cut of the action. I'm like no, no, no. I want them to have the action and I get the cut to cover the back end costs. And so we really need to really scale this out. I'm not going for 100, 200 franchisees. I want to do 800 to 1,000 of these franchisees. And in order to do that, two things have to be done. Number one, low barrier to entry in terms of costs, startup capital. And two is I don't want to be taking out cash out of their businesses because I want them to create seven figure companies that they can actually sell and retire or sell and make a really good living. And so that's what we're building. And we're going to be selling franchise licenses across the United States in September. So we will not be set up for across the world. That will be years down the road. But for right now, September will be ready for selling licenses and selling territories in September if you're interested in that. It's super preliminary. We don't have, you know, I can't sell one yet, but if you go to augustalawncareservices.com franchise you can actually just fill in a form of interest and then you'll get some information down the road. This is not set up yet. I cannot sell you a franchise. I can't sell you a territory no matter how much you plead for it. I can't sell it right now in September. We can, but if you want information, if it's interesting to you, just fill out that form. And not right away, but down the road. As we get closer to September, we'll start vetting people that have given their information. Basically, like I said, it's going to be low cost. Startup people for under $40,000 can get into the franchise. They can actually business start mowing lawns, start making money with like startup capital, everything in effect with under $40,000 from their home. So super low cost. I'm really going to be going after that 20 to 35 year old demographic, people coming out of college, people come even out of high school that have some trade school experience or something like that. They want to work for themselves. They're tired of an office job, they get a degree that's not useful. I feel like so many millennials are coming to me with those problems. Having student debt, not being able to make a have a job that makes more than 15 bucks with a four year degree and $40,000 worth of student debt. And I feel like I can make them $100,000 in revenue within the first 12 months of their business by using the systems we have in place and the marketing and things from Augusta. So if you go to Augusta Lawn Care Services.com franchise, you can fill out that form and that whole website is going to be completely revamped come September once we launch the franchise. So right now our website's going to be kaput pretty soon. But just go to that one augustaloncareservices.com franchise, fill out the form if that's of interest to you or if you know of a young person, 20 to 35, that might really be passionate about landscaping, passionate about owning a business, passionate about doing something that's going to be low risk in terms of the amount of money they need to start up. So there's that. That's what Augusta is all about right now. That's the update for that. And we're really looking for in September starting with 10 franchisees. So if 100 of you fill out that form, just know that we're probably just going to start with 10 in September. So we will vet out, choose. We want to make sure those first 10 are incredibly successful. And I'm not going to open the doors up to everyone right off the bat. So fill out the form, we'll vet people, we'll get information, we'll go through that whole process in September and make sure that by next spring you're set up, ready to go to start your business, your market. So that's Augusta. That's number one. Number two is Anytime Fitness. So as you know, last year I bought Anytime Fitness, which is the gym right next door to the studio that I'm in right now. And so that facility has done really, really well. Obviously, we're not building the brand because Anytime Fitness, I'm a franchisee. But like I said, we're done. Augusta and all the knowledge that I've got from Anytime Fitness, that's really the reason I've got the confidence to, to launch Augusta as a franchise, is all the things I've learned from Anytime Fitness over the course of the past year. So like a year ago is When I was going into buying the franchise, the gym, and now a year later, we're franchising Augusta. And I'm using a lot of the things that they have done. The franchisor, Anytime Fitness, their training methods, the way they do their back end, the way they do metrics, the way the rankings, all the things that they do, the way they do their franchise fees, all of that backend stuff, I wanted to learn firsthand as a franchisee. I wanted to see the pain points of the franchisees. What are they complaining about, what do they not like? And so I've learned a lot. And so that's the experience that I'm going to be using to really launch Augusta and know what franchisees need, because I've been a franchisee for the past year and I know it works. What people like, what people don't like, and what we can do as a franchisor to become different than everyone else in our industry. And so. But over the course of the past year, we have ran Anytime Fitness. We have gotten to the top 300 clubs. They have 4,500 clubs around the world, and we just got into the top 300 recognition. So every year they give out these awards. The top 300 is what they call Club Purple. So we are in that for the first time that the club has been around. And so it's now in that category right now. Like this month they have ranking systems. I think this month we're like 140th, 146th club in their whole system. And so that's been a lot of fun, really taking it from an underperforming club. Not like horrible, but it's been improved, basically. It was not by no means, like, I didn't get it for free. I had to pay quite a bit because it was cash flow and really doing well. And we've just really been able to scale it up, make it a lot more profitable and increase the training revenues and plus cover the mortgage and everything that the loan aspect. And so it's been really, really well. Within 45 days or so of me buying the club, I was able to get all my cash out of it. So that was really helpful. And really the learning experience, taking away from Anytime Fitness has been great and it's allowed me to make cash to where I can take a gut, not have to take any money out of Augusta. And right now, over the next several months, we're putting a lot of money into setting up the franchise, making sure everything is legally done 100% correctly and gonna make sure. We set up these franchisees for success, especially those first 10. Like, they gotta kill it. And so I'm just super dedicated to that. And so because of that, that money that we're making from Augusta can be reinvested back into the franchise. And I've been able to do that because the gym has been making good money. So it's been really, really awesome. We are, you know, by no means are we perfect. Like, my goodness. Even, like I alluded to at Augusta, some people had to leave because there was disagreements or, like, not disagreements or their goals weren't aligned with the companies. Like, so there's, you know, having this platform where I talk about my businesses and things, it can be seen, like, oh, everything's great, everything's wonderful. Everything's just trucking along and you're making millions of dollars. And that's not necessarily the case. Like, there's a grind. Every day's hard. There's hard decisions. There's always things messing up. There's always disappointments, setbacks and things like that. Like, this whole franchise thing has been years in the making. And so it's only recently that we've pulled the trigger and, like, are set now to do it in September. So same thing with Anytime Fitness. You know, I'm not. I can't sit back and say I'm perfect on my track record. Even since being there, Like, I feel like we could do a lot more training. And what I mean by training is, you know, for years, Anytime Fitness has been the. The really just been the. The most convenient. They've had the convenient model that's been. Their brand is, like, open 24 7, 247 access, clean gyms, you know, really convenient because in your local market, it's in, you know, at a mall, it's like, close to your neighborhood. It's not way out of way because not big. And so their model is all. Their brand has always been Anytime Fitness. It's always been about convenience. And now they're trying to change branding to become more of a coaching model. So really, because now convenience is not a differentiating factor because so many other gyms are 24 7. So many other gyms have lots of locations. So many gyms have key card access. So the differentiating factor can no longer be convenience, and it has to be something else. And so what they're really pushing is coaching, and that is like, team training, personal training, and having trainers that are involved with all of your members. And so it's been really interesting being part of that transition, too. And Seeing, okay, like what can we do as we start Augusta's franchise to really make sure we're set up on a branding level for the next 10, 15 years. And we don't short sight ourselves and be like, oh, we are the small residential lawn mowing only. But then 10 years down the road we're trying to figure out landscaping or like other installation. Like how do we, from a branding perspective make sure we aren't too narrow minded from the get go? So that's been really interesting. Anytime fitness is changing that model, changing their branding. And so I feel like we have a lot of room for improvement in our club still on the training side, we've done really well with membership. We really increased membership. Just the membership increases. A loan has paid for the mortgage for the loans. That's been really super awesome. Training, we have increased by about 70%. I feel like we can triple what we do right now for training easily. And so we're really focusing on that, really developing a sales model, sales system for our trainers. And it's something that I didn't push really at the beginning. Last year I didn't push it at all because number one, I wanted to focus on the sales aspect for the membership side because I could have quicker, really fast impact by making some changes on that. But secondly, it was because I didn't want to take the trainers who had always been doing things a certain way and shock them too much. I didn't want to, okay, we're changing the way you sell and the way you do fitness consultations the way you like. I didn't want to change too much from the get go. And so now though, we're really focusing, honing in on their sales system, how we do get leads, how they have consultations, how they get sold, having a price presentation, having a follow up system, like all of those things are really focused on training. And so training has always been a big part of retaining our members. It's been a big part of taking the average member value per month and increasing that. And so like even in, in the membership side, we've done really well. We've been able to raise prices and increase the number of members. And so like we are in the top three 50 clubs in the entire franchise of member value per month. And so that's really important to me because you don't need as many members and you make more profit. But also I think we can do even better by having them instead of a fifty dollar a month membership, selling them a $100 a month training package on top of that, that triples from 50 to $150.

The value of that member per month. And so that's really important to me. Training is super important to me. Figuring out the sales system is what we're really focusing on right now. So my club manager is having now bi weekly meetings with the trainers to go their systems, their procedures, their follow up rates, their call, like pre consult contacts with the clients, figuring out what they say, how they say it, how they do the price presentation and really make sure it's more of an informative sales process instead of like some sort of pushy like you have to buy training thing. Like I want to make sure it's professional. It's from a medical science perspective. So that's what we've been focusing on at any time. Fitness and it's something we still are working on. Number three is kind of like for me is like all my online stuff. So this is like landscape business course, business bootcamp podcast that you're listening to now and Pro plus. And so what's going on right now in kind of that sphere is right now I'm really gearing up for Landscape Summit 2020. So that's in January, January 16th to 18th. It's three days in Bellingham for landscapers around the country. Last year we had it, it was great. It was our first one, it was proof of concept, it went well. And now we're gonna like really focus on it. So starting to get geared up for that, doing some promo stuff, getting ready. People have already started to buy tickets from landscapebusinesscourse.com conference. But that's something that is really on the horizon right now. Pro plus has been really, really awesome. It's allowed me to generate enough revenue to get the studio within the past few months and build this place out and get it ready for training facility. So like after the conference we'll be starting to be able to have live seminars here, which I'm really excited about. And so that's all been a part of Proplus and their contribution financially. It's a monthly subscription of like 14 companies that are in that super awesome for them because they get value. But more importantly they really bought into what we're trying to do here and I really appreciate them buying into that and supporting it financially. So we've built up the studio. We're still building stuff out for what you can't see behind the studio. We're still building out and that is for the training and for the in person seminars that we will do. Smaller groups than the conference. And so that's really exciting to me as well. And so those are some of the things we're still working on, obviously, with the Business Bootcamp podcast. Answering your question is a big part of it for me. Everything that I do kind of allows me to do the questions from Business Bootcamp podcast. Like, yes, I have sponsors and things like that, but that money, the money from the gym, the money from Pro plus, it all kind of funnels into giving me the time to answer emails. Because by far and all the way, the most emails and questions I get is from Business Bootcamp Podcast, But I don't make a whole lot of money off Business Bootcamp podcasts, But it's where I feel like I have the most impact. And so I still want to get to people's emails, answer their questions, and I get to probably 95% of my emails. I'm late on them usually, but I get to them and am able to answer people's questions, and I am able to learn from their industries, and it's been really great. And so even though it doesn't make a whole lot of money, it's something that I'm really focused, I'm passionate about, and I learn a lot as well as am able to give as much value to a larger audience that listens to this podcast. And so that's really important to me. So building out recently, this past couple months, we built out landscape business course, the Facebook group, so people can ask questions and learn on that. And I wanted to create that because there's other landscaping groups I'm a part of on Facebook and things, but negativity and some garbage stuff that happens sometimes kind of spurred me to start this group, and it's been really great. There's like six or seven hundred landscape business owners in that Facebook group, and it's growing every day. And so what's been. What's. Actually, this is a good point. If you want to make a Facebook group, what I think is like the. The key ingredient or like the most important thing is you as the moderator to do is vet out people that that should not be in the group. And so every single day, there's people trying to get in that group. I'd say one out of three actually get in, because the other two out of three are people that have, you know, they're in 80, 90, 100 other Facebook groups. They're not gonna be contributing to our groups. I don't accept them. I don't accept people that. It's not pretty obvious they have a landscaping business or they're in some sort of service based business. I know there's a few of those in there, but weeding those people out is super important to have a group that's actually centered around what you're wanting the theme of that group to be. So if you have a Facebook group that you want to cultivate a community of people, that's something that's really important, is vetting out those people because they get asked, they can ask to get into the group and you can vet their profile, see how many groups they're in, you can see what their activity is like. And I think that's really important. So anyways, that's what I've been really passionate about on the online stuff is like everything that I do kind of funds me, allows me to answer the questions, stay online with all of you and answering, you know, trying to help as much as I can in so many different areas of online stuff. You know, marketing, advertising, hiring, firing, cultural aspects. That's something I've gotten more involved in the past year or so, like developing a culture. And so that's just I appreciate everything that happens around the financial aspect to give me the opportunity to do that. And I spend as much time as I can, I'd say a few hours a day, answering your emails, questions, forms off of business Bootcamp podcast. So that's what I do there. Last thing is something I've mentioned once or twice and we super early stages of this and that is ketosis cups. So we are starting a keto friendly food line and it's actually, I'm not super involved in it. It's actually run by someone that works for me at Augusta that is super involved in food is amazing, went to school for it. And so she's really running with it. I'm just supporting it from the back end and with the gym and we use it for testing the gym with the people that work the members there and everything. And so that's really where our focus is going to be, is gyms and getting it in there at first direct to consumer. And so it's basically four different flavors that we are launching right now. We're in the process of still getting it processed and completed like ready for market. So it's been passed initially by the fda, but now they got to do an inspection in person at the commissary kitchen. And so that one's like, that one's like super early stages. We haven't even marketed, it's not for sale. And so but that's something we're working on and I'm just kind of involved in on the back end and I'm really looking forward to what that's going to do because I'm really passionate about health, nutrition and I eat very keto like in my diet. And so that's something I'm really passionate about and I really want to push going forward because this is like something I love this food so much. They're ketosis, like fat bombs, basically. If you know about keto, they're like fat bombs but they're shelf stable and they don't need to be in the refrigerator and they're amazing. And so we worked a lot on testing and developing the food product, making sure it's shelf stable, making sure it's super healthy, making sure I only had 1 gram of carbs per serving. Like we worked a lot on this and so I'm really looking forward to it. We're doing a minimum viable product. Like we have not put a lot of money into this. We will not need to put a lot of money. It'll make money from the get go. We'll do sampling and things like that. But like it's not gonna be a big cash hoard. We're not pouring money on it. It's just gonna be one of those things that will grow, I think really slowly and we'll be able to really learn a lot from. And so I'm really looking forward to that. But that's pretty much it. So that's kind of the four areas. I have Augusta lawn care, I have the gym, anytime fitness. I do all the stuff online with landscape business course pro plus business bootcamp podcast, the conferencing, like that. And then now Ketosis cups is kind of something that we're developing. But the big news today, I guess is really the franchise that we're launching. If it's something of interest to you, just go to augustaloncareservices.com franchise, fill out your information and that will just allow us in a few months to get in touch with you. And it'll be a vetting process because we're only gonna launch 10 in September, 10 franchisees. Because I want to just focus really exclusively with them to make sure they're super successful. And then that will sell a lot more franchises once they're successful. So check that out if that's of interest to you. But thank you all so much for listening. All of this couldn't be possible without my team, without the people that work for me. Every single that put up with me. I'M still learning. By no means have I figured out business or how to lead people. I'm not the greatest communicator. I get pretty moody.

I take what I do very, very personally. So I kind of micromanage sometimes. And so I'm still learning. I'm still trying to figure this stuff out. I'm still every single day, like, every single year, when I look back, it's like, wow, there's so much happened in a year. Like I was just saying, in the past year, a year ago, I didn't own the gym, we didn't start Ketosis Cups, hadn't had a conference. I didn't have that second book, Zero Turn, which is now available on Audible. Like, there was Pro plus didn't exist. The studio didn't exist a year ago. And so I'm just looking so much forward to what the next year is going to be. I know that's going to be. The franchise is going to blow up. And it's just something I'm really looking forward to, helping more landscapers here at this facility, in person, the conference, helping more of you with business. Bootcamp Podcast. And so I'm just learning. And I by no means figure it out. If you worked for my team, you would see the flaws. You would see the things that I'm still working on. You'd see the areas the business is not perfected, the things that we're still trying to figure out. But I just think that perfection really is the enemy of progress. And so we're really just forging ahead. We're trying to figure things out. We're making systems, we're making procedures. And for me, personally, as a business owner, as a small business owner, as an entrepreneur, I'm still learning. I'm still trying to change and grow myself, my own self personally. So I'm still young, I still got a lot to figure out. I don't know everything. And I think the reason I say all that is just because so many times people think that I have a podcast and thereby I have everything figured out, it's just not the way it is. Just because I try to help people does not mean that I have all the answers. And some of you have asked me questions. You know, I will sometimes say I do not know because I don't. And it's just very evident if you work for me, that I don't know everything. I do make mistakes and I do have to apologize sometimes. And so I just look forward, though, to next year. Like I said, every single year, that's gone by for the past five.

You look back the year before, like, wow, so much has happened. If you actually step back. But the day to day is not easy. Day to day is not. It's not glamorous, it's hard. It's hard work, it's long hours. I put a lot of time in and it's a grind. It's not easy. I don't take a bunch of money out. I don't drive a fancy car, fancy house, none of that stuff. Like, it's just grind. Go, go, go. But the reward is this, to be able to look back at the year and be like, wow, we accomplished so much. The people around me have been able to grow and learn more and I've been able to help, hopefully some of you. And so it's been super cool. That's kind of an update. I'll try to give one of these every few months so you know where I'm at in all my businesses and what we're doing up to. And I just really, really appreciate everything you guys do. Sharing this podcast, sharing with your friends, your family, other business owners is much appreciated. So I hope you have a fantastic week and thank you so much for listening to Business Boot Camp podcast. I'm Mike Andes and I'll see you.