Mike Minutes Mastermind 09/11/2023

Happy Monday. Augusta Nation opening. Super well, hope you had a great weekend. Let's go ahead and started.

Drop this into the Facebook group.

If you missed it on Friday afternoon, Lee made a or dropped a video post on the Facebook group for franchisee of the year nomination. And so probably after today, probably tomorrow, that nomination process will be ended and then the voting process will begin. So this is the exact same way that we did the Franchise Advisory Council, and that is nomination. Then there's gonna be a list of people that are nominated and that will go on the ballot. So if you have not looked at that yet, feel free to look at the Facebook group. There is a form to fill out. If you just want to nominate 1, 2, 3 people, as many people as you think are should get are eligible to be on the ballot. Feel free to fill that in and then those will be, if not tomorrow, probably Wednesday. That will then go on the ballot and it'll be a separate form for voting on the franchisee of the year. That again, you'll see how in the video instructions, I kind of talk a lot about how people have helped you and really the helpingness of the individual. And then.

Once those top three come in, the coaches and myself will be looking at other things like how they running their business, do they follow the systems of Augusta and other things that come up in their coaching calls to determine who's the actual franchisee of the year. But I want to make sure that in those top three, if there are people that are quietly helping a lot of people, that those are brought, those people are brought out of the shadows. So again, video with my instructions is on the Facebook group post on Friday. Fill out that form. If you'd like to nominate anyone, you can. You do not need to nominate anyone. If no one, like blows you away this past year, that's totally fine. But again, think in terms of just 20, 23, not the past, you know, three years. All right, I think that's all I had for announcements.

I'm interested to see what questions came in today. Let's see here. Present Share screen.

All right, first one's from Tyler Kukle. What does the preparation look like for your coaching calls? Could you. Oh, that's a good question. Could you further explain what it is about his perspective that demands the price he charges? Oh, that's a good question.

So. So let's tackle the first one. So in my remarkable, I have a special notebook for all the things that I think about, I would want to talk about with him. This is what I'd recommend Everyone do as you're going throughout your day, in your week, in your month. So I have a specific notebook that I literally just go over. I have my notes from my call with him and then I have, after I digest everything that we went over on the call, I'll then sit and write for a few minutes about thoughts for my next call and then I'll add that list as.

As time goes on over the next week, between or two weeks or whatever. So I usually have about three page of notes, including the stuff from the call and then the things that I think about right after the call and then I a running list of, in the notebook digitally of what I want to talk about in the next call. So how I personally have said I like to do my calls is like, hey, for the first five minutes I'm going to talk and we're just going to share. I'm going to share what I'm thinking, I'm going to share things I'm struggling with. I'm going to share my wins. What else do I got in here? I'm going to share my, my brain, where my brain is at and then we'll jump in and then we'll go really deep based upon my sharing. So like, like I said before, he doesn't do any preparation for the calls. It is 100 on me to come up with what we're going to talk about and it is guided by what I share a lot of times. So what was the second part, sorry, of your question? Could you further explain what is about the perspective that demands the price he charges? Honestly, it's because he's seen it. He's seen what I'm doing at a higher level. That's all that I care about. And so when you think about a coach, you know, he isn't like me. He doesn't have a cell phone, he doesn't run a crazy life, he doesn't run a whole bunch of businesses.

He is much more of an academic. He actually did exactly what I did. And that is he got his doctorate when he was 22. I didn't do that, but that was my path that I was on.

So he understands some of like the stuff that I went through when I was younger. And so that's interesting, but not necessarily necessary. But what's interesting, what is interesting is he has seen other people that he has coached operate at an extremely high level that is 10 to 15 times what I currently do. And he's seen their problems and they have spoke highly of him. And so.

I think that Most of the time we try to fix the engine when we just need to fix the fuel. And a lot of times we're all like, we want mechanics and like, how do I do this? And like the structure of things And I want, like to fix the problem. It's like, you don't need a mechanic, need better fuel. And the fuel is typically like what's happening in between your brain.

And that is like, how are you thinking about things? How do you process stuff? And are you just not thinking about a perspective because you have been trained to do so otherwise, or you have always seen it a certain way and you need something to counteract that. And have you. Do you have a certain mindset that is could be either incorrect or unbalanced?

And that's where he's really good at. He's very good at thinking about different perspectives, challenging me on my ideologies. And then from that, usually I get very creative in terms of how to fix things. And so, you know, I have this keynote I'm working on about constraints. And like, constraints breed creativity. And so when there's a constraint in the business, either A, you quit or, or B, if there's a constraint, like for example, you don't have capital, it requires you to then get creative with solving the problems in your business because having that constraint fixed, like just more money given to you, would immediately fix the problem. But in the world of reality, where you cannot have limitless capital, creativity is required to overcome the constraints in your business. So whether that be creativity, like holding a sign on the side of the road and asking for estimates, or going out and doing door hangers, or like the list goes on and on, posting on your personal Facebook and trying to get employees, doing things with your employees to be able to improve retention or attract new talent wherever there is a constraint. Creativity is typically breeded.

For the people that I, I see as the most successful. So in terms of why I have a coach like this is he's very, very at pushing me into a thought process I've never thought of before and just saying things in a way that makes me like, rethink the way I've always been on this train. And for someone who is type A and typically thinks they're right and typically is handing out advice most of the time, it's good for me to be challenged in that regard.

Let's see here next one. But yeah, I am also looking at all of this through the lens of like, how do we improve our coaching? And then how do I give all of you the best advice to get the most out of your coaching and what I would say is do not rely on your coach to bring stuff to the table. So he walked me through the framework of like what he believes good coaching looks like and the number one, like they don't allow anyone to be coached by him. So like you have to go over why you want to be coached, why you think coaching is important, what you want to get out of it and know I have to be very clear and intentional of why I have him as my coach. And they won't even let you into the initial screening process without that. Fortunately I was referred by someone else so they kind of got me kind of to the front of the line on that. But in general you should the question the weight and the validity of your questions and the information you give your coach. That's all they have to work with. They only have those raw ingredients. So like when I'm writing down things like here.

So I write down exactly what I want out of the next call, I get very intentional about the things that I want to solve, the things I want to go over. I lay that at the very beginning, this is the first few minutes when I talk.

I have a little bit of things about the way I think about money and security, moving targets in terms of control.

Pain, fear, deprivation and like that feeling need for requirement for success.

And then how like most things I am cognizant of and recognize but fail to make actual changes on. And then I specifically like have very tactical things that I'm having issues with. Like for example, like co pilot bugs stress me out way too much and I have like very tactical things like I want to go over with him. So those are the type of things that are what you should I feel you should do going in a coaching call and where I feel like I will be coached on how to do coaching better just simply by being under someone that has dealt with.

You know, Deca millionaires and billionaires. So that is my two cents. Devin from Red Deer. He might what are your thoughts on me hiring a guy and giving him a base of 4 000amonth just to keep him all year round? We'll be handing out door hangers and looking for more work. Well, would you, would you do it or is this a seasonal job and lay off the check guys and just use them when it snows or give them a monthly base salary. Like if you're in an area where, you know, winter is sporadic, whether it be snow or not. I wouldn't mind you Giving someone a guarantee of hours. But I would definitely not lock it in just an hour or just like more of a salary basis. Because the difference between $4,000 a month and what they would be working getting at full time is probably, you know, maybe full. If they're working at really good P4P and they make 5,000amonth, well now all of a sudden, you know, they're, they'd rather just not work because they're guaranteed 4,000. So you're essentially, you're raising their base pay. That's essentially what this is. You're guaranteeing their hours and you're raising their base pay to the point where P4P isn't, is irrelevant. So I would rather just say, hey look, you know, after a year I guarantee 25 hours a week during the winter. After two years, I guarantee 30 hours a week. After, you know, you've been with me for three years, I'll guarantee you 40 hours a week during the winter. And then that way you can fill their schedule with things that you might need done that are on the shop or other things and you get more creative about creating work instead of, you know, them getting creative how not to work because they are guaranteed the money. Kyle From Allison Madison, Alabama Pros and Cons of Staying in LLC vs. Forming S Corp I don't think you should form an S corp. I think you should just do a Form 1120s on your tax returns which allows you to be taxed as an S corp. So I don't think you need to go form an S corp. So if you've been looking online, it's expensive. By the time you do articles incorporation, you do minutes with an attorney annually, it's different. But you can do an LLC and just file one form at the end of the year and be taxed like an S Corp.

The pros of being LLC is it's super easy to set up.

It's easier from like a articles incorporation and legal side. The big difference is the fact that you're paying the extra, you know, 15, 16% for self employment tax. And so when that becomes greater than the extra cost of doing an S corp because you're have like an extra probably 1500-2000 dollars a year in just filing that separate tax return for that.

That entity. And so there are other ramifications of costs. But when you have 15, that's when it's like now if you're making 40, $50,000 a year in profit, it's very likely you should be doing the form 1120s. But again, in order to do that you will needed to pay yourself a W2 income in that year. So you can't like file your form 1120s in February of 2024 for all of 2023 if you didn't take any W2 income inside of 2023. That's why everyone needs to talk to their accountant within the next couple months. So there is a form on on the dashboard. I'll talk more about it in like November. Ish. But you should definitely be thinking about this getting on the calendar of your CPA regardless of whether you use Brad or not. And that is like get on their calendar for a time that you're going to set aside. And same thing that with my coaching is like when I go to my cpa I look at this as like a coaching call and I am going through all my questions. I have all the very tactical things I need answered that I don't know about in terms of 1031 exchanges, entity structures, partnerships that I'm, you know, redoing stuff and restructuring things. Very tactical. And then like I want to know about this stuff. And the more prepared you are for those sort of calls, especially when it comes to professionals like bankers, accountants and lawyers, they'll respect you a lot more and they'll give you much better information if they see it. You come prepared to call.

Kyle Mass in Alabama. Let's say you're going to 2024 with enough capital, pay off any loans for mowers and other equipment from the previous year. Would you pay off everything or hold on to capital until after spring rush, then decide. The reason I question to wait until after spring rush is because I noticed we usually don't start making profit for the year until mid year and the back half of the year. My goal number one goal for next year is to slow down growth and focus more on the profit side for at least one year. Great. So keep in mind by paying off debts, you do eliminate that monthly payment. So it's going to actually increase your gross. Your gross or your net profit, not your gross but your net. And because you won't have these payments coming out every single. The thing that I would probably be looking at in addition to what you just talked about, which is 100% agree with and that's the most important thing is but the second asterisk to that would be what's your interest rate on this debt? Right. If you're paying no interest, I would definitely just wait. If you're paying 2, 3% interest, I'd probably wait too if you're paying 5, 6, 7% interest now, it's a matter of like, okay, that's basically the nominal interest rate. Now you're going to pay a couple extra hundred depending on your principal to keep that debt until the middle of next year. Just pay it off in a more comfortable time. I'd probably wait as well. But if you're paying 11 but 12, 13% interest now, all of a sudden it becomes a little bit more important to pay that off sooner. So interest rate is something that definitely be thinking about. Definitely on a coaching call they can give you more clarity if you give them these numbers about what your principal is, what your interest rate is and what your monthly payment. Because that monthly payment, all that capital now gets unlocked and given to you throughout spring rush. So keep that in mind. But in general, I would say wait until you have gotten through spring rush to pay off your loans. I've seen too many people get very cash heavy in October, November and December. They pay off all their loans and then like okay, I'll be fine. Like I just got to make it the next couple months of winter. They make it through the next couple months of winter, they hit spring, they get a bunch of leads and they need to hire people, they need to get more equipment, but they don't have a capital and now they've closed all their lines of credit, they don't have those loans and now interest rates are going to be significantly higher next spring than they were 12, 24 months ago. If you got debt back then. So just keep that in mind. It's not a bad thing to spend an extra few hundred dollars or even a couple thousand dollars on interest over the next 612 months just to get yourself through spring rush and feeling uncomfortable to the point where it's like you know, you just feel way less capital constraints. Kyle, Madison, Alabama.

Rowing season is already is getting ready to end and leaf season is soon to begin with. Would you send an opt out email for fall services like we do winter services? We typically will continue biweekly services to mulch leaves until all leaves have fallen. Is this a good approach in addition to one click estimates?

So there's two things that are going through my head. One is I would only do this if you are charging the same price as you do for mowing. The way you worded this, it seems like that's what you're doing. We typically will continue biweeklies to mulch leaves until all leaves have fallen. What I would probably do instead of doing an opt out email, I would probably just send an email saying, okay and make it very positive. Hey, as we go throughout the mowing season, we're going to continue your bi weekly services just so you can mulch up the leaves. You don't have to worry about it. We're just going to continue at the same price in the same schedule and just send the email out and make it all very positive. And no reason to opt out because you're already going through the latter half of the fall anyways when you're mowing. So like you're going to have to kind of be mowing there anyways. Winter services is like, people don't need it done and I'm not going to be going to their house mow anyways. So they like, there would be nothing for me to do if they don't want winter services done. Whereas in your case, if they don't want the leaves molten up over the next couple months, well, you're already going to be there for mowing, right? So it's just the frequency that they might change up on you. So as long as the price is staying the same, I would just keep doing what you're doing. I would potentially send an email telling all of your customers, hey, no reason to worry, we got you covered. We're going to mulch up all your leaves. No price change. Same bi weekly, same schedule as usual. It'll continue throughout the months and just leave it at that and like make it very positive. You'll get a few people email you back like, hey, I want to, you know, quit mowing sooner. We don't really care about the leaves. You'll get a few people and then winter services. Make that your one opt out hard crush towards the end of the mowing season. That'd just be my recommendation. Again, talk to a coach. They'll get war in the weeds with your specific situation.

Reminder to put in nominations or franchise of the year names will put out for voting soon. Yes, very good. All right, I think that's all I got for today. Have fantastic Monday. Have a fantastic week. See you guys tomorrow.