Mike Minutes Mastermind 03/25/2024

Hello Augusta Nation. Happy Monday. Hope you're having a fantastic day. I just noticed there was only three questions so I'm not going to send out a text blast this morning because it's probably a pretty quick.

Mic mint Mastermind I am in Las Vegas for the next two days. I'm@acquisite.com My coach is here, Dr. Cashy. So I kind of wanted to be here for this one next couple days and in part is because when I'm done working with on the book with Dr. Cashy I want to work on revamping the four day training at Augusta for the initial training for owners. And so he's revamped their whole training process and that's what I'm here for the next couple days. So I will share over the next couple days on the Mike minutes Masterminds what I'm learning. So many different levels of finance, deal structure.

Training, HR stuff, marketing, advertising, media. There's just a whole bunch of stuff learning. So I will report back on that and try to share any notes that I might have similar to what I did last year when I went to Jim's Mowing quick thing last On Friday, Nick had asked a question about landing pages. If you would like to make a landing page, totally fine. I do ask as it states in the franchise agreement that you do get a if you build your own landing page that you get authorized, send it to franchise gustaloncaservices.com I might have one or two edits to make sure you find inside the brand guidelines. And you're like, well that's kind of constrictive. Trust me, if there was someone close to you, you would want to make sure that their website was not going to start ranking inside yours and taking your leads and confusing people, et cetera. So that's why we do it. Create brand consistency and make sure that everyone is there's no bad actors causing any problems. So if you want to do a landing page, you're more than welcome to if you want to send them to augustalongaseservices.com estimate your territory name that is also a landing page. And then you could put all your tracking codes there from Google, Facebook, there's several other platforms you can do that on.

So yeah, feel free to check those things out. But that was to answer Nick's question from the other day. In the past we tried to do multiple landing pages. It became an absolute mess for like five different reasons. So but you can build them on your own if you'd like or just put the tracking code on that one estimate page and you can send that in to webgustalongusterpages.com or just go right into your from the dashboard edit your webpage. You can put your Google tracking code right in there and they'll put it in the site for you.

All right.

Present Share Screen.

Okie dokie. First question is from Kyle Tarvin, Central Oklahoma. Are you still using the GM distributable cash bonus schedule like March through May, June through August, September, November, or are you using regular calendar quarters? So personally we use regular calendar quarters for our general managers and regional managers and then for the regular fiscal quarters. So January through March, April through June, etc. That. Sorry, the regular quarters are for the general managers and regional managers. The offset quarters are like my March to May, for example is for our crew out in the field only because we start mowing March 1st. So that's why.

We'Ve always done that since starting profit sharing. Nick for Merry Deal how reliable is the copilot route optimization? Sometimes it seems it doesn't make the routes the way I think they should be made. But I'm wondering if the way automatic routes is more sophisticated than the way I'm thinking it should be routed. Matt has been doing the route out of order because he doesn't trust the optimization. Yeah, I've seen some inconsistencies. The thing is we basically dump all of that data into a third party routing software so you can look these up, by the way. So Trimble Maps is the one we use and the reason I want to stick with them is they have some functionality in the future I'd really like and that is turn by turn directions from inside the app down the road. I'd like to be able to use that. It's also going to be a thing that will allow us down the road so that when a customer gets a notification that you're on your way, they can actually track you from your last job to their house. So they can actually see, okay, they're five minutes away, they're three minutes away, the two minutes later driving up to my house, which is pretty cool from the client portal. So that's why I want to keep using Trimble Maps. But every time we've been like, we know this is a wrong optimization, be like, no, here's why. And there's usually something. It's almost always they come back to us. It's like something around like a apartment number and a post office box number, a highway number, throwing things off. So I've actually been Talking with Stephen George, our head of product and we're going to try to talk to like, hey, what do we need to strip out some data that we're giving you? And I have a feeling it's like the second address line that if we could probably take that out, it would make them more accurate.

So we're talking about talking with them because they run massive.

Like trucking companies. Like, they're not wrong. If they were like, they would have massive issues. So it is a matter of like, what data are we giving them for them to spit back things that are incorrect. And so there's also a couple things we're doing as soon as we add a bug, they're already designed and ready and that is just make it easier for you to quickly change the dispatch board if something is slightly off. Especially like if one goes to the end or they just need to be flipped to two visits. It'll make it way simpler and it'll be color coded way better. So that's coming. Like for example, the route or feature inside service autopilot. We're basically doing the same thing where you can just click on the jobs from the map view and be able to set your order that way. But we are talking with them like, hey, what can what. I feel like we're giving them too much information by giving them multiple lines of addresses. When you don't need the apartment number, you don't need to have the specific things. However, you need like highway numbers, right? So if you have like highway number 35, you need the number 35. That's nebulous. It's too nebulous not to take it out. So there's several things that we're thinking about and we're going to be talking to them.

And I would expect though that like I'd say 80% of the frustrations around it will be solved with just a couple added features on our end that we can control that are going to be ready to go as soon as we're outside the bugs.

Excuse me. Landsmith Tallahassee, Florida Hey Mike, hope you're doing well and as always, thank you for being here for us. My question is regarding a concern on door hangers in my market. Another stigma behind doing them is it's just a numbers game and they work okay. However, last year I experienced about a 0.5 return on them, maybe slightly less, with the majority of them being underpriced. I'm definitely okay with this return. However, this year I have exactly 0% return in the last 1500 or so that I've put out. Last year we did about 10,000. Door hangers can be a pretty discouraging form of marketing when it's not working. Also, I'm not sure if I exhausted the places I'm going and therefore I get no more return, but I'm just not sure what to do. I really want them to work however. I feel like this is just another form. But I just, I feel like if this was any other form marketing the answer would be to pivot because it's not working. But it seems like there's just so much belief behind these that we give them a little more leeway, myself included. I know I could my could maybe drop the prices on them, but I don't want every yard I get to be a yard that we don't hit P4P on either. What are your thoughts and suggestions for how I could get better results to a decent sample size to where I can determine whether or not my efforts elsewhere. 3 Another time marketing that can produce quick results that we've seen like door signs, online marketing, etc. So great, great question here. So remember with any form of marketing that is not intent based, it is going to extricately link to the demand. So what that means is.

If I have a keyword search for Google based on lawn care, someone will only see my ad if they are looking for lawn care. Therefore the results will seem much more consistent in terms of cost per click or even cost per lead.

More cost per click. But when it comes to something like putting out door hangers, doing Facebook ads, doing YouTube ads, anything that you're just promoting and you're hoping people see it and then they that triggers like I need service. You, you will see a massive in in uptake when there is demand for your service because there's actual pain. Until there's pain, no one needs your services. And so just getting in front of them isn't going to do you any good.

And that's just the harsh reality. So I would say on this one is two things. Number one Landon, if you have 0.5% that's not bad. That means that out of every 200 you get a new customer. That means technically you could probably get one to one customer every two and a half hours of doing door hangers. Which means if you're paying someone 20 bucks an hour, your customer acquisition cost is probably like 60 to $80. Not bad. But if you're getting 0% out of 1500, not good. My question is, is everyone needing service right now and the Grass is growing like crazy because that's the time when that type of marketing will do its best. And so I don't believe ever in blindly following any sort of marketing. And I don't accept the fact that door hangers work in all markets. Um, I've seen some where they don't and that's fine. And you'll have to test and move on to a different channel. What I have seen though across every single location is consistency over the course of two to three years wins out. I've seen multiple locations that really struggled to like get any sort of traction. But they just kept, they kept marketing, they kept being on the platform, they knew that eventually it would work if they just kept doing it. And they stayed applying themselves to that. But despite not have their gaps were like their customer acquisition cost went above $200 and then all of a sudden, year three, year four, people have seen the brand, there's a big demand curve and bam, it just takes off. And so I think consistency is very important. I would say if you're doing door hangers as close as you can get that door hanger to the actual pain, the problem the better. And so if, if you're not in the middle of like gangbusters growth and spring rush, I'd probably say that's probably why. And I would give it some time because in two to might get calls from those door hangers. I still remember went to South Park. I was getting calls three and four weeks afterwards of doing my first initial round of door hangers before I was leaving.

People was still calling from them. So I wouldn't discount it yet. And I wouldn't say that they don't work well. I would say is they don't work at this time of year. The same way that if you went and did snow plowing services, door hangers in the middle of summer, you would expect to get a lot of leads. So I would say is okay, let's do another 1500 over the next three to four weeks and let's see if they convert better because if they do, what we're going to do is next year we're not going to start doing door hangers until the end of March. And so timing, don't throw the baby out with the bath water, whatever it's called, the dishwater bath water, whatever it's called. And that is like, oh, door hangers don't work well. Wait, what if you had a 1% return on those if you waited till April and May. So just be careful with judging a platform Instead of timing, very important. If you look at the yard dogs video, for example, on Friday, we went into depth on it with them. We didn't include most of it in the video. And I was like, they were blaming everything on the con. Like, getting started every season at the beginning of each year as why people were canceling. It's like, no, no, no, they're not canceling because you're starting. That's simply when they told you they wanted to cancel. Why are they canceling? Is it because the price? Did they move like I need? Actually, why not when, but why? And so I would do the same thing with your marketing. I was like, don't assume any platform doesn't work because. Because a lot of our marketing has to do with timing. So test it throughout the spring rush and then know, okay, here's the demand curve of mowing. I can almost guarantee you the demand curve of your door hangers will follow that exactly.

And you'll just know, okay, next year, I'm not doing door hangers three to four weeks before mowing season. I'm going to do it when the grass is growing, because that has proven to work. And then when you consider. When you say last year, I guarantee you that was in probably June, July, August or beyond. So again, you know, 0.5% return is there, but what if. What if it's 1% during April and May and now we do it in March a little early and zero percent, like, oh, sick, it doesn't work. Well, maybe not now, but it may not. It does not mean it won't work in the future or at different times of the year because we have a very seasonal business. Like, the same thing is true. Like, every industry is like this, by the way. And the reason we get thrown into seasonality is because we actually have, like, things that grow in seasons. But like the gym, for example, my customer acquisition cost is five times more during the fall from, like, September through December compared to January. Five times. So do I spend all my marketing dollars in January? Yeah, all of them. And so to say that, oh, like, door hangers don't work or postcards don't work or Facebook ads don't work. Well, yeah, if I'm putting them out in the middle of September when no one's thinking about.

Going to a gym, like, I'm not going to get a good return, that same marketing avenue at a different time cashes in. The same thing is true for, like, almost every single business has some sort of demand curve. And seasonality.

Good was good input. Thanks A lot. You got Landon. Keep your head up, brother. Yeah. Keep in mind your 0.5 is good and it light is likely. I'm going to guess that you did that at the end of the third quarter of last year. Great. Third I would recommend doing for everyone is like break your marketing performance into four quarters. The door hangers, great. I put, I put out 1500 each quarter. What was the return on them throughout? Okay, there's your demand curve. Okay. Q2, that's when I go all in. Okay. Really, really did well on Facebook ads for leaf cleanups in Q3, but did not do great for projects in summer. So, like again, this takes time and it's something that every single market is so different. The only way to know this in your market is the test or if you have another owner that's within 30 minutes drive of you, I would say it's likely that they're probably gonna be pretty close to you. So I would definitely. This is why it's so important at conference, like get to know owners around you because you guys can like massively expedite how much you learn about the demand curve of your marketing platforms in your geographical location by just talking all the time. Like, I'm, I'm in the Washington group. I don't contribute a lot, but I see everything that's going on and they're always sharing. Hey, I sent out this text message. Here's the, here's what the word said and it crushed. This one stunk. Here's what I did. This is, this just worked. I sent this email out. Here's what I said. I got 30, 30 ads from this. Like, the more you guys can share with people that are within 30 to 60 minute drive of you, if you start going outside that, it's going to be a lot of variation. But like especially the ones that are close to you, like the more the better. And even the Washington group, there's people that are three, four hours away, but they keep everyone together in this group and it can share best practices. What's working now is like the most important thing. And what's working now for you is not going to be what's going to be working well for someone else four states over or in a different growing zone or in a different time zone or a different, have different type of grasses. So that's why it's so important to. I just recommend everyone and we're going to be doing this in the future at training and that is actually creating WhatsApp groups for trainees to stay connected and and then introducing them to other groups that are local to them. Something I really want to do because I just see consistently when I look across the map of a Gust nation, which ones are most successful are the ones that are tightly knit together in geographical. And then they communicate a bunch because they can just literally like, hey, guys, today I sent out the text. Compared to yesterday, it doubled the amount of people responded because the weather's nice. Everyone should be sending it right now. It can just really, really, really increase your uptake. So, everyone have a fantastic day. I'm going to go try to learn a few things and I will report back on the next Mike minute, Mastermind. And I'll be taking notes because later this year, we do want to revamp the training for new owners. And of course, if you're not coming in person, we will record it when it happens later this year. But Dr. Cash and I think we can go through every single slide, every single, every single minute, and it will take a very long time. So I am not looking forward to it. But it'll be in the long run, I think. Really good. All right, love you all. Have a great week. Take care.