Mike Minutes Mastermind 06/19/2024

All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to their My Commutes Mastermind. Let's get started. I actually just was talking with the media team and just to answer a couple questions I saw on the Facebook group too, we are going to get Christmas light pictures. Probably a month away, though we are going to probably order some lights to get them actually here and then be able to take a bunch of photos and then have them here as props to be able to add stuff to.

So I just authorized that with Zach, so we'll be working on that. But the initial site designs that I'm looking at right now and then we'll probably have available everyone next week will not have Augusta clothed people putting the lights in, but we will get those. And it's just better that we have the props here. We can. The media team has accessibility to be able to go to a house and start putting them up and get pictures. So we will get those. The pictures will improve. So if you see the site next week, just know that those will only improve. There'll be a ton of split testing happening for the next, like, seven to eight months on the site. So if your site looks slightly different, you're like, why is my form, like, half an inch lower? Why is it narrower? Why is a different picture there? We are testing a gazillion things.

And so we have a pretty good idea of what's going to work from a design perspective, from an SEO perspective. There's no one else that does this nationally, so it's bit of a white space for us, which is a good thing. But we're going to test a ton, just like we did the first six of 12 months when we redesigned and the initial time we did the Augusta site for lawn care. So just know that's all happening in the background. Give us a little bit of time as we zero in all the different AB tests and things that we are dialing in.

All right, hey.

Jump right into questions. Fire this thing up.

All right, what do we got? Oh, we only have two today. All right. Might be a shorter day. Marcus from Texas, Not a question, but a request. I think this time of year, the whole industry is feeling more stress and burnout than usual. It'd be awesome if you can make a prayer video or a video of motivation for the industry. This was inspired by your post this morning.

All right, thank you for the request. I'll put that in the features request form. I appreciate it. I try not to be, like, overbearing with this sort of thing.

That's why I Usually do this once a year and just try to, you know, I think if you, if you're too open and blatant about this sort of thing, people will start to repel you. And my goal is not necessarily to make this the objective. It's like I want to help everyone's businesses grow really big. And if I think if I do that and have an impact, then this sort of thing will be more effective if it's sprinkled in. So that's sort of my approach on that topic. Dustin from champagne. Oh, we got a long one, ladies and gentlemen. All right, Dustin the orator. Coming in hot. Here we go. I had an employee out last week on vacation, so I got pulled back in the field for some of the week when I should be selling dumb planning on my part. One thing that I noticed in reflection from the week was that I am hard having a harder time relating to frontline staff.

I noticed that when Kyle and I were sending voice notes throughout the day to stop on to stay on top of things, team members, estimates, etc, customers, etc. The team member that I was running with has aspiration to become a GM but in my opinion has a long way to go as he is not doing the minimum to even be considered. He will not be coming to the off site meeting this Friday. It's been planned for three weeks. His excuse was no babysitter. I will risk sounding rude with the hopes that the point comes across when you get to multiple locations. Are you trying. Are we trying to are one second when you are get. When you get to multiple locations, are trying to better your team or explain what it takes to win. How do you dumb information down enough to not sound arrogant or condescending to the frontline team members while also making sure that the point gets across that a different level of commitment is expected in order to have upward mobility. This is a stupid question as I could see it coming across as arrogant. Please knock me down a level. Okay, let me. I think this might be a separate one coming up. Caleb, let me address this right now and then we'll keep moving along. Good question. First and foremost, I really am a big fan of how does this impact the team. So if you're gonna make big goals or talk about numbers like how does it impact that team? Ultimately all human beings are selfish. We want to know what's in it for us. Make it really apparent to them how they're gonna win more. Secondly, this is just my personal approach and that is like I try not to promise future positions. I just Say, hey, look, the business is gonna grow. Positions will come up. At that time, I will assess based upon these criteria and give the goalposts of how to win. So it's like, I'm going to be looking for someone who's listening to audio programs, listening to podcasts, improving themselves, trying to improve themselves mentally, physically, emotionally in business. Like, they're trying to outside of work, do extra work on themselves, become better leaders. That's probably who I'm going to be looking for as a gm. I'm not saying I don't. I have no one in mind, but if that's what you want, that's the type of criteria I'm probably going to be looking for. Right?

I'm always very careful to say, like, oh, this is my gm. I'm going to, like, groom them up. It's like, I would rather just sit back and observe, like, who is hungry, who is improving themselves, who is actively trying to learn. Listen to audiobooks. They're itching for more information, more knowledge. That GM will go far.

In terms of dumbing down the information.

Okay, because I know who's asking this. Let me just kind of reset it for a second.

You know one thing, okay, this is like a really dumb. This might seem dumb, too, as a point. Speaking shorter sentences is really, really helpful. It will not come across as condescending, but it will come across as understandable. I've been catching myself a bunch with this recently, and even in the way I write emails, if you want it to be understood, write in shorter sentences. And then same thing with, like, verbs like using certain big words and things like that. Just cut it all out. You can get. You can get the point across without having to sound arrogant or sound fancy. And that can be tough sometimes in terms of relating to them. This is very normal as you move from labor to manager. And then when you switch into architect, like, you're in that mode right now where you're crossing 800,000amillion between the two locations. You're in architect mode. And an architect steps away from the building and assesses the management and the laborers from afar. And that's why you feel that somewhat of a bit of separation and just a matter of, like, you know, if you didn't, you could jump in and help and be with them more, but you'll probably top around. You won't. You'll grow much more. Right? You're not going to get more and more locations. You're not going to grow revenue, therefore stunting their growth and their ability to become general managers and make more money, et cetera. So how is that important for them? Hey, the reason I'm stepping away, the reason that you might not see me as much, the reason I feel horrible by the fact that I don't, I don't feel as close to you is the fact that I'm trying to grow the business to be able to give you a career like ramp that you can actually grow with the company instead of having to leave and go get something else. So again like trying to bring it back to like how is it important for them and helpful for them. All right. I also know that I have not done a great job explaining what it takes to become a GM or move up in the company. Kyle just took it upon himself to ask questions about the business and P and L listen, the audible account, take on leadership tasks, et cetera. My main focus for this off site meeting for this weekend is to hopefully motivate the team to want to move up and show them the path of what it takes to get there. I'm planning to post a YouTube video on the Facebook page and would love feedback from everyone on what you think. This video will be sent to the team prior to the off site so they will have time to re watch, think about what they all think about what all was said and hopefully formulate good questions rather than being told all the info in person and being put on the spot. The expectation will be that the teams watch this video prior to the offsite and use dinner and activity time to ask questions that they and their spouses have about the video and path to get to the next position. Any pointers on creating this video would be greatly appreciated. Hook by the end of this video you will have the path to get out of the field and running a location meet problem. I need GM solution what I expect a frontline team member to do in order to be considered ready for a GM role Case Study okay, so I like this. I would make the problem and solution not about you but about them. Again like no one cares about you. I love I love you. I love you Dustin but no one cares.

As much as we all love you. No one cares. So I would say the problem is I don't make like from the perspective of the team member. I don't make enough money. I want to be able to be more than a laborer. I don't think I can do lawn care and landscaping for next 20 years on my body solution Become a general manager.

Case Study here's how you do it Kyle Right so make it about Them. Like, if you can always just think about, like, no one. If you always have this, this notion, like, it'll actually really help. It'll really help with a lot of things. But if you can say no one cares about me. And I know it's like a negative point of view. And yes, it's very much from Alex. No one cares about me. They just want to be all getting ahead in their life. Okay, well, how can I make sure that my goals and ambitions align with theirs? Because if I can align my goals with theirs and they do well, it means I'll do well as a bet, as a side benefit. Like, it'll. It'll happen and I won't have to force it. It'll just happen because they're being successful. So make it about them being successful. Like, their problem is they don't make enough money and they physically, they don't want to be doing lawn care landscaping for the next 10 years. Your CTA is bringing questions the off site to bring more clarity to your specific case. I like that. Cta.

Yeah, I like that. So I would. I like the questions part about clarity that's very vague. Like to bring clarity. This. Ask questions. I would say bring questions.

Of any roadblocks you see to achieving this goal for you.

So like how you broke it down? See how that was so beautiful. Round of applause for Dustin. Very good. Very good hook. In this video, you have a path to getting in the field, running a location. Yeah, so. So see how your hook was about them? But then you switched it to you. You said, I need GMs. That's not the pro. That's not the problem. The problem is I want to know as an employee how I'm gonna get out of the field, make money. Great, you got my attention. What's the problem? I don't make enough money. And I, you know, after six months of being in the field every single year, I start to burn out. And I don't think I'm gonna be able to do this. My back is given out on me. Great. Over the next five, 10 years, here's what the business is gonna do in terms of growth. Here's what you can do to make sure that you become a general manager or move up inside the org and then just define the goal post. That's what I like to say. We do what we call internal mic minutes, where like once every month or two, I'll share a video with an internal team. And I'm like, hey, I just wanted to make sure the goal posts are clear. And then if you want to run for it, you can. If you don't, that's fine. You'll be a great individual contributor. But if you want to excel and if you wanna get on the cutting edge and like be at the forefront, it's going to require constant change and it's going to. And here are the things that are going to require for you to be able to do that. And if you don't want to, that's fine. You can be a worker and some people are happy with it and they just love the fact they can just eat the same thing each day. And that's awesome. But if you don't want that, here's a go post of how to get forward, get ahead.

I personally have never been one to wait around and be handed things. I would rather just prove and take what I want. But I know that in the short, long term, five to 10 years, my biggest constraint to growth will be finding great general managers to run locations. Do you think that after laying this out to the team, I need to continually bring this up or will this be sufficient enough then a player, GM type will step up after seeing the path and execute. Okay, so let me pause here for a second.

If I asked you what I said this before, but this like, so sticks with me. If I asked everyone here what Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary V's goal and ambition is for his career, most of us know by the New York jets, here's what's crazy. We don't even work for him, and yet we know his goals and like future aspirations. And yet people on our own teams don't know what the goal and ambition in the future of the business looks like, that, like hit me so hard when that said, the fact that I know someone's goals and like their dream is and I don't work for them, I don't even know them, never met them in person, and yet the people that I work for me every single day don't have clarity on like the future of the company and like why it exists and what the goal is. Man, I hit me like a pound of bricks. And so.

In terms of the reason I say this is because the reason we all know that is because Gary says it all the time. Like it's like a broken record. And so like how many times, like I will need to say our goal is to change the level of professional in the industry and here's how we're going to do it. We're going to make home service business owners rich. Like, until I keep Breaking that down and saying it and pounding it in and everything just comes back to that one thing over and over and over again. How do we expect our team to know what the goal is? So if your goal is and your objective is like, hey, we got to find general managers, there can be no overemphasis of that goal to the team and to you. It seems like it's happening a lot because you hear it all the time. You get new team members all the time. It's completely brand new and fresh to them. And so a lot of times you'll say this in off site and be like, oh, I said it to the team six months ago. It might be something you have to say every week, every two weeks, because you got new team members, new faces and people have to be reminded of these things in order to actually stick. As it says, I really have no leads for general managers. Take champaign. This is really the first full focus spring rush that we have had as last year we flopped. I don't want to rush the location to a gm, so I plan on being here all of next year likely. But by the end of next year we should be implementing GM and transitioning to a spot mode, to profit mode, allowing me time and taking Bloomington profits to start location three in spring of 2026. Thanks for help. So I would lay this out. This bottom part is like, here's the plan for the company, here's how you're going to make more money and here's how what we just talked about, the problem and solution, the case study is going to be possible for a couple people are sitting in this room in the next couple years. I don't know who that's going to be, but here's who that person is going to look like. We've already talked about Kyle case study and here's what Kyle did to become a general manager. If you are interested in that, go for it. If you're not interested and you just want to keep working the field, awesome too. We need everyone on the team together to be able to make money and be able to grow and provide for our families. And so just make the goal post, goal post clear as to how you're going to determine what who that GM looks like. And even if no one in that room takes you up on it, it'll be clear. So when someone new comes the team, the standards and the goal posts are clear as to who is going to get ahead.

And like be chosen for that position. I should say.

Why was Augusta's Christmas lights chosen over Augusta Holiday lights. Several reasons. There is definitely a market for holiday lights outside of Christmas. However, the vast majority of our actual whole in terms of seasonality is Christmas lights. And when you look at SEO, people still use the words Christmas lights way more than holiday lights. It's definitely something that we will keep track of and we will still rank for on SEO. But when I look at how many people search Christmas lights versus holiday lights, it's also, I know it is the whole like the fourth quarter, like the Q4 collapse. We're trying to solve that problem. I think if we ever got really established, we could start tweaking the SEO towards holiday lighting. But if you ask anyone that does Christmas lights or holiday lights still, the vast majority overwhelmingly is Christmas. Like, it's not even close. You can push for other things and you can upsell people, but I think those only happen as a result of upsells. There's not people searching for, like, I want to like, light my house up for the super bowl or light my house up for. For Easter. Most of the time, those work really well. As upsells. You already establish the Christmas lights and then you upsell them on those other services. Because if they're going to light their house for all the holidays, guess what? They're also lighting their house or Christmas. So get them on Christmas just like lawn care services. And then we upsell them those other holidays, I think is a good move. And from an SEO perspective, Christmas lights just like dominates. Like, that's what people think still. And if that ever changed, like, we would definitely progress with that. So. Good question.

All right, everyone, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your Wednesday and we will see you tomorrow. Take care.