Mike Minutes Mastermind 02/04/2025

Hello Augusta Nation. Before we get started today, I wanted to show the instant pricing from the QR codes and what you can expect once you go through that system. So I'm going to show the pro shop real quick and show one of these. So this is the one for mowing a little bigger here.

Shout out to the coaches. I know Nick is going to post a picture later today. The they were in town yesterday and this morning doing training with Nick and Lee. The new coaches in the program going through a whole bunch of test cases and frameworks, etc. So looking forward to that. Thank you to them for their service to the community, to Augusta Nation. Inside of the pro shop there are three of these instant quote door hangers that now have the QR codes. I'm just going to show you example kind of what this is going to look like. This isn't for the lawn mowing.

So here I'm just going to put my location name. Wait one second. Here we go. So let's just do whatcom and then at augusta.

Oncare services.com that would pop up down here below. Same thing here. You do need to make sure on the back here at least your.

Email here is typed out. The reason is this is how Command center distinguishes which location the lead goes to. So do please make sure that you do put this in here. Whatever your location name is in your email, very important. Obviously you could clear these out if you wanted to leave them blank. That's totally fine. It would then leave them blank if you would want.

To leave the pricing separate. So there's that. Okay. Now the big thing is the QR code. Now assuming command center is going to take your, your.

Your estimate forms coming from here or your accepted estimates, I should say then you really don't need to do anything. But you could change out this QR code to whatever you want. Now I'm going to show you what that form is actually going to look like once the customer scans it. So I'm on desktop but if you look on mobile.

It looks a little bit different because. Let me just stop this screen share. Give me one second. So it looks a little bit different on mobile just because on desktop we have a bunch of more background space. So the yellow is kind of a little more highlighted. On the mobile it's not that way just because it's a smaller. It's much more about the form. So this is what it looks like. It says complete this form to accept your quote. Now remember if we go back to here what it is saying on let me Just throw these numbers back in here, make this tidy. 49. Okay, cool. So back on here.

You can see it says take a photo to accept your quote. So they could go ahead and scan this QR code. And again we avoided the word scan QR code. Some people don't know what that means but if they take out their photo on their, on their camera and they put it over this, like if you know what QR codes are, this doesn't phase you. But if you don't know what QR codes are, you don't know to open up your camera app. So we are trying to be careful of that. So they would then take out their phone, open up their camera, scan this bad boy to accept their quote. So we make the verbiage much more not like to see your prices or get more information like scan this and you're going to accept your quote. So when they do that it's going to go directly to here. Complete this form to accept your quote. Five questions. It's going to take you less than two minutes. Okay, great. Not too bad. All right, my name is Mike Andy's.

Next. My email.

My phone number.

And then my address.

Most of the time the deck I just had people have pre filled in, it'd be very quick. They just tap their buttons on their phones because they have saved information and they can drop a file here. If you're on a mobile device on my desktop it's saying browse files on a mobile device. When they click on this it immediately opens up their camera roll. But from here just take a photo of your door hanger. Last step. They would then submit this and you can see here on the bottom, it kind of walks us through the three different or five different steps to completion. So they know it's going to just be five. They click submit and immediately they are going to be getting an email that says hey, thank you for submission and actually has the form for them as well as a picture that they attached it's all in a form to them immediately it's going to command center and they're going to be getting the information processing the accepted estimate in which case would fire off automations to you to schedule them as well as firing off automations to collect their card information, et cetera. So this is a constant work in progress. There are all the additions and adjustments based upon us tracking these forms and the conversion. Obviously the number one focus right now is on the website forms from getting a credit card on file. That'd be something down the road. We would also be able to bake into this, but we want to refine this just like we did last year with the instant pricing on the websites, refining this process first before we add another step of collecting card information. So that's what that looks like. Feel free if you want to. You can also scan this here from the pro shop and see what it kind of looks like from your mobile device. Just know that if you do submit as of the day, the command center is going to start processing those. So just be careful. It might throw a monkey wrench if you start doing duplicates, et cetera. So just be careful of that.

Very cool. There will also be training videos put up on the academy next week. Brian is recording those for Command center, but he's also making your home offices in mind, those that have that in case they also want to see the process, see how the flow works. And then if you need to create your own form, you could follow that kind of sequence that I'm looking at there. We're going to constantly be adjusting it based upon conversion and tracking where people drop off, etc. Like we have for the online website stuff.

All right, what do we got here? Next up, we got questions. Boom. We have training this week starting today for new owners. Looking forward to that.

Let's go ahead and get started. Questions.

Number one from Marco. Hey, Mike, you missed some questions in the two, three minute round. Number seven. Did I really? That's horrible. I thought for sure I got them all. I'm sorry, Marco. That's horrible. If I missed it, please submit it again. I. I must have gone to the next one and then just seen 7 out of 7 and figured that was it. So I apologize. If anyone, if that was anyone's question, please resubmit it. I apologize.

Morgan Lattimore. Hey, Mike. Is there a roadmap regarding becoming a coach with Augusta? Does Command center do full services for all your locations? So is there a roadmap becoming a coach inside of Augusta? Yes. So there is a voting process for Franchise Advisory Council and then for the coaching program, there is a nomination process as well. And we also, it leans also heavily on Nick, our owner success manager in terms of who's going to be in that program. But it really comes down to if you are, when it comes available for the coaching program, just make sure you submit your application. So there's actually on the dashboard, Morgan, if you go to forms, you can submit an application to be a coach. And so if that's something you really want to do, I think you would be a very good candidate. Actually for this just in terms of training, teaching and motivating people, feel free to submit the form and then when there's an open spot we look to those forms first and then we reach out to if we need more. Right now the program's full and usually every off season there's going to be one or two coaches that they got what they need from the program. They want to move on. That's awesome. We would then go to those applications. So anytime you want, go to the applications on the dashboard and you can submit an application to be in the coaching program. Command center does full services for all my locations. Yes.

My goal there is to be able to keep my general managers out in the field as much as possible.

Morgan Latimer we have had our Google profile since 2009 ish. 2019ish. If we request to have Google merge it with our new Augusta profile, we'll be will we be flagged due to address being a house? We have 75 reviews. As long as you've been able to verify in the past without an issue, you should be able to re verify it without a problem. Well, I would say Morgan, you might want to actually just change the name of your current Google listing. Just do it that way. Just change the name and then the same process of giving us management access to your account so that we can post for you would be apply and then we go in there and make sure the SEO's match it up with your website, et cetera. So if you need help with this Morgan, feel free to email webgustalongerservices.com but yes, at training when you're here we can discuss this in more detail, but you can either a do what you're talking about merging two accounts together, but given the fact that you have all of your 75 reviews, it might just be easier to change the name on your other one. That will also usually, especially when changing a completely different brand, usually will also have to redo your verification process. So honestly you want that if someone ever broke into your account and started changing your name, etc. You would want Google to be like yo, this is flagged. So I don't think it's a bad thing but either way I think you're going to have to get reverified.

Marco Shipart Start posting that we switch we are switching to Augusta like on Instagram, Facebook next door, Google updates, etc. Almost all our trucks are yellow and I'll be showing up to our houses in person. Estimates with yellow trucks before training may Cause confusion. I don't think customers will be super confused by just a different color truck until you logo it up. I would just focus on your customer base. If you're doing this before training, I would send this out, send a notification to your customers. We do talk about this at training and how to roll it out. So you might want to wait even for that.

But I would not go public with it yet until you have all of your accounts set up, your Facebook account, Google account set up. It's already transferred over. And then you make the notification to everyone. So I don't think there's a huge rush on this, especially given the time of year. I would wait till conference or wait till training. We go over how to. How to make the transfer, the transition, without there being any negative downside for customers.

This one is from aspiring investment ninja. Okay. All right. Hey there, Mike. I hope this message finds you well and not lost in a sea of computer cart drowning and Jocko fuel. I want to check in about the investment opportunity. I filled up the initial form during the conference weekend. Received the confirmation email right away, but haven't heard anything else back. I confess I fill out the form a second time when I got home. Oh, I know who this is. What can I say? I have lost faith in you with my. I have lot I have faith in. Okay. I filled the second form. Second the. Wow. Okay, Michael, I confess I filled up the form a second time when I got home. What can I say? I have faith in you with my money. I totally understand that you're probably busier than a cat at a laser point convention.

I just want to ensure I didn't miss the vote or the investment train. Thanks for that. Yeah. So when you fill out the form, I think it says five to six weeks on there. We're kind of on track for that right now. Five to six weeks from conference. So it's going to be end of February like you before you can actually fund your account and when Carter will send you the email to actually fund the account. So I am having a good amount of attorneys and lawyers going through every little thing to make sure it's all dialed in. Like, you know, the amount of pressure on me around picking other people's money is pretty high. So, like, I'm. I'm having a lot of eyes on this to make sure it's done exactly right. The docs are very, very good, and if something happens to me, everything's going to be done correctly in terms of equity, et cetera. So I'm just making Just really trying to dot all my I's, crossing all my T's, and there's lots of interest. So I just want to make sure that the people that do get in, it's done right. So I'm kind of shooting for end of February before you'd actually be able to even start funding the accounts. And so I'll let people know here on the mastermind when that happens. But I'm having some more eyeballs from attorneys in the system inside of Carta. Carta, if you want to look it up, is basically just almost every private company that's doing any sort of raising of funds or private equity, etcetera, Will use Carda for their cap table. Who has equity, who has phantom shares, who has class A shares, who has class B shares, who has common stock, etc. And so all of that's getting ironed out really well. So Morgan Latimer, when you are hiring someone back from last season, offering the signing bonus, how do you distribute the bonus? Okay, so there's a few ways to do this. One is like when they come back, you give them money, realize that you might lose someone a week later. So that kind of stings. So what I know most people are doing for their return to work bonus.

Is, hey, you get $2,000 after the first 30 days or after spring rush. So if you come back and you work March, April, May, June 1, you get an extra bonus on your quarterly profit sharing, for example. So it's how, however much you want to do that, that's up to you. I would say if you're going to have them have to work all of spring rush to get the bonus, I'd probably increase that significantly because it's even a better like it's even really, it's really good for you. Really good. So I would probably be wor. I'd probably be willing to do say like a 1500 dollar. If they come back and at the very beginning of spring rush, like great, I have someone at least train new people and then they, if, if they're willing to do like all the way through the end entire spring rush and hold their breath, I'd probably give them 2500 or three grand because the amount of like having that person from last year throughout the entire spring rush, very valuable. So I'd probably like give them the option or you know, you choose which one is more valuable to you. Number two. Yesterday we had four interviews with potential employees. Three were no call, no show. What can we do to combat this? In the last few years I've seen this get worse and worse. Is this normal for. I would say treat them like a lead. The same way we have a four step process for following up on leads. Until someone becomes a employee and has accepts a job offer, they are not a, you know, you have not converted them. And so the same way you would follow up a lead, I would in a customer, I would follow up with an applicant. If this is the constraint of the business, the same way that getting, getting more leads could be the constraint of your business, getting more people is the constraint when you create a system around this now inside of Copilot you can make a customer type just be called applicant, make it custom, make an applicant. And then you could set up an automation that three days, two days, one days leading up to their interview they're getting text messages to confirm the appointment and also giving the information about like, about pay for performance. Hey, I would link to the careers tab page where there is literally dozens of team members inside of Augusta Nation talking about working here. Not a bad idea. You could link directly to it. Like, hey, if you, if you're wondering what it's like working here at Augusta, you know, go check this tab out. There's a whole bunch of people have worked here and they talk about the opportunities here. Really, really good opportunity. Keep them warm. It's also like a follow up process to get them to show up to the interview. If that is the constraint of the business, it should be where all your time and energy is focused. Does it matter how fast the process is to hiring someone in regards to not losing them to another employer? Yes. So we'll talk about this Morgan Ant training as well. Like this process has sped up dramatically over the past few years.

As it's just become the unemployment rate is lower. It's like if you have a really good person in front of you, you're probably not going to wait a week. You're not gonna have multiple rounds of interviews. You're probably not gonna ask for 10 referrals, et cetera or references, et cetera. So I still remember like hiring Nick Reed for example. And like I wasn't gonna hire him. His references were super good and I ended up hiring him. In the past I probably wouldn't even have. Or now I might not even call his references simply because I'm just trying to get someone who's good in front of me and I'm immediately hiring them. Just a different speed of things today. And I think he probably had other job offers literally by that same day. Even back then that he was deciding for between and that was like, I don't know, six years ago, seven years ago. So, you know, I would say like, if someone's really good and solid in front of you and you know this person's ready to roll, I'm not going to delay because there's a good chance they have three other job offers by the end of the day. Now, that being said, if I'm in the valley of decision, kind of he on, I'm gonna want references and they're not gonna be the ones on their resume. It's gonna be people that I dig up in the interview that I want to be able to get reference checks from.

What door hangers long term should we put out? The beginning of season in North Carolina and when should we start distributing them? Our season starts March 1st. Revenue goal 460k. So first off, Morgan, I would say that what has worked in the past, we know is the instant quote door hangers. What we are now testing is the QR codes on the door hangers to be able to see how that works. I, perfectly honest, have not tested out thousands and thousands of the QR codes. They're new. So I do know that the instant pricing in general has worked very well across the board in most of our markets. And so in North Carolina specifically, that's where I was at. And so, like, it worked well.

So I would talk to people in your market, like Connor Hutchinson, one of the coaches who does a lot of door hangers, and I'm sure he'll be testing the QR codes versus the other ones that they've done in the past. I happen to believe that like the QR codes will only be incremental improvement. It won't be a different new thing because it's the same concept, but we'll find out. And so I'm not going to commit yet and say definitely do the QR codes because I don't know if they work. I just, I just happen to believe they're not really a huge change. It's more of a slight improvement to make it faster process for the customer to accept the quote, more professionalized. They have record in their system. They will catch if they put the wrong email because they get the form back to them, sent in their email, things like that, and just more professional too. So I would, I would be leaning that direction. But feel free if you wanted to get like a couple thousand of each and kind of test them. Not a bad idea. Number eight, can we get the QR codes on our every door Direct marketing materials. Yeah. So this will be just like a slow process. We've done three designs now. There are more designs that will be rolling out through the entire year in terms of, as you know, landscaping becomes more important in the summer, etc. We will be rolling these out slowly and adapting to feedback we're getting and more importantly, the data of drop off at certain steps, etc. So this will be an iterative process the same way we did last year with instant pricing across the board. It was just, we're going to slowly roll this out. So keep in mind, with every door direct mail, the pricing is gonna have to be probably printed unless you're gonna write on every single one. So door hangers are usually our first degree of testing around instant pricing because it is inherently you're going one by one by one, whereas with every door mail, usually it's more mass when you get in their mailbox and they see a stamp on there, less likely that you actually wrote on there. So it's less of a importance when it comes to the way we roll out instant pricing. Okay, I got them. All good. None more of this. Missing the last question. What's up with that? All right, what else we got? We got another question here. Come here. Do we need a Jotform login? Good question, Brian. Brian. Only if you are changing the QR code. So if you're going to change the QR code, you will want to get JotForm. And then you could just go through what I just showed or scan it yourself and kind of just copy it over if you'd like to, into your own Jotform account. I think it's like I want to say 15, 20 bucks a month. If you get an individual one, we get the upgraded one because we got to get tons of storage for all of them to come into command center. So I think we're on like the premium, most premium plan. But you should be able to get away with like the secondary, like the silver plan. It's not the number of forms that you'll hit the cap on. If you're doing this individually, by the way, it is the storage of those pictures. So what you can do, though, if you really want to save extra 20, $30 a month and you're doing this on your own, delete out old forms. So then you could probably get away with the lowest package, like 10 bucks a month. But again, this is only relevant if you are doing your own drop form, your own QR code and going to your own office. If it's going to command center we got the drop form account we're covering all that cost and the QR code just leave it when you are doing the printing but to answer your question Brian if you want those to come to you and have your own form then yes you will want to have that.

A Jotform account a new QR code et cetera you also might want to do Brian if that's a pain just to set up feel free if like I know because you have you have the one gentleman starting kind of a part time admin side feel free if just these came to command center because it doesn't take but a few couple seconds for them to process these it's not going to be a a huge cost and then you don't have to worry about the jot form and QR code stuff so all right everyone I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday we will stay in touch love you all we'll see you tomorrow take care.