Mike Minutes Mastermind 12/16/2024

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to another Mike Metz mastermind.

To get this party started.

I am in Phoenix. Today.

Was Tommy Mello did a turnaround and a few other meetings down here. So sorry for being a little bit late. I guess for some of you it's like 9:30. Mercy. Sorry if your text was too late. I apologize.

All right, let's jump in. Looks like there's six questions.

We'll just jump right into them.

All right, Is that good? Let's make it a little bit lower.

All right, first question is from Mr. Nanas. What is the game plan for August if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? How long will it be before Keyman isn't much of a thing? I love you being pretty hands on, but there's a concern in the back of my head. Thanks.

Yeah, this one, this one's.

One of those things where it's like.

You, you can't get both of these right. You cannot have a founder being extremely hands on and making changes in the business and being making key decisions and moving quickly without there being key men risk. So any founder led business actually has a degree of keyman risk. And so.

The question is, would there be detriment if the founder did get hit by a bus? Right. So like if Elon Musk got hit by a bus tomorrow, the stock of Tesla would cater to.

Meant like all the companies, Twitter, SpaceX, etc. Will be dramatically impacted. And so it's not necessarily to say that size is going to change that.

What it usually means I've seen at least is you actually can't tell if the founder did a great job of this until after they're gone.

Because until, until that has been done, until they're gone, you can't test this. It's very difficult to test the system outside of like the owner just being able to leave the business. Right. So but even that I think there is detriment to a founder company because you lose the vision. You can't, I should say you should, you lose, you lose the potency of the vision because someone else can catch the vision. But usually it's secondhanded. And it's not to say that they will not run the company well. For example.

Tim Cook has run the Apple very, very well and has more than like 20x the stock since Steve Jobs passed away. But they haven't made any super innovative product since arguably like the iPad, Apple Watch maybe. And so.

Whether or not the company does well, it's actually somewhat dislinked in some, some way I believe from the innovation of the company. And so I think Tim Cook did a better job of being executive at Apple. That's why the stock market has reacted the way it did. Probably in many ways has rewarded the investor far better than even if Steve Jobs was around and probably would have poured way more money into R D, probably would have done certain things that would have closed off their ecosystem more and potentially potentially led to less returns in the stock market. And so I think whether or not a company does well in the next 10 to 15 years versus in the next 50 to 100 years based on a founder leaving is like very hard to measure. And I think a lot of times you look at GE like General Electric, you look at General Motors, you look at Ford, you look at these companies been around for 100 plus years and like the founder once they left, a lot of times you actually see the business do really good for like 20, 30 years because executives come in and executives will run their business better. They just will from like a financial perspective, they will run it better. They know what what analysts want to see, they know what numbers they need to hit. And so in terms of the game plan for Augusta, I do have a pretty detailed plan on this. I'm not going to go public with this until we actually go public. And as we gear up to go public in years down the road, not right now, there will be board members appointed. So basically if something happens to the CEO and founder, the board then usually would take over the responsibility of finding a different CEO. Unless there was already a game plan in place. And usually there is. So like there is right now, but it's just a matter of would that be the key Manners is always there. The biggest key man risk to Augusta if Mike Annie gets hit by a bus is the fact that our deal flow would strictly depend 100% on Augusta Lawn Care and internally to keep growing the number of locations. I believe that we have done enough to where even if we keep doing what we just keep doing what we're doing and just keep improving it by mildly. An executive jumping into Augusta today would get to a thousand locations. I think the value proposition is there and just constantly making slight tweaks, it would actually end up getting there. I just don't know if it would have the same impact on the industry if I was here. So I plan on being here. And so I think there's key matters to any business that's founder led. I think that the 10 to 20 year horizon after a founders is gone. Many times the company does better. But in the short term, a lot of times, it'll hit the stock like crazy. You'll lose key executives over it. People that really love the founder and rallied around that vision. And so I'm pretty confident that if I was to get hit by a bus, we would have three to six months where.

Everyone would be like, oh, man, like, what's going on? Like, where's the leadership? But, like, there would be. There's a clear plan in place and I have videos of literally what to do for each of the brands. So. But this will become probably more clear. I'd say 20, 26. I'll be more public about it. Um, it's just like right now there are certain things I need to see in order to be able to be more public about it. And then as we get. As you get closer to being a public company, it's like the benefits of, like a publicly traded company as you have a board. There's lots of different fail safes for that sort of thing. Good question, Mr. Anonymous. Congrats on the engagement. Thank you. How. How will being engaged and married and eventually having kids affect Augusta? Will we see a drop in attention given to us? Will you hire a CEO or other people as you get more busy? Wow. These are. These are different questions today. All right. As you get more busy and want to spend more time with the family, I don't mean to get in your personal life, but we don't want to be forgotten. Thank you. Yeah, that's interesting. These two questions honestly are set by the same person or not, but these are kind of like both sides of this, of the same coin. Right. It's like, in one regard, you want the founder involved, but you also don't want them too involved. So if they got hit by a bus, then it affect the business. And so.

I think as a business grows, the decisions made are the most important thing for an executive. And I genuinely believe I'm still in my hustle phase mostly because of lack of capital. But as capital becomes more abundant, you hire people that have done it before, and then really the allocation of resources and finding that talent is actually the main thing. And then making decisions like, I have made less and less decisions in the business this year and I believe that will continue. But as they are rolled out, and you'll see this a lot in the end of January.

This will be done well. And the reason for that is because as the impact of the decisions increase, they need to be done with more calculus, they need to be done with more data, they need to be Done. Done wiser. And so every single time I've made a mistake in my career, it has become. Because I have.

I have taken action too swiftly on things that were irreversible, and I have moved too slowly on things that were reversible. And so judging between those two things and making better decisions actually comes. Happens better when you work less. And so there. There are a lot of times I will slow down my decisions simply because I know I'm working crazy amounts of hours. And I'll slow down. We'll just wait on some stuff until I am a little bit more rested and like, make a clear decision. Well, does that mean I'm gonna make perfect decisions? No, I'm gonna make plenty of mistakes. But in terms of, like, how me being engaged, married, eventually having kids will affect Augusta. Cool stat.

Getting married, on average, you make more money. Having kids, you have also more money simply because. Simply due to the fact that there is a sense of scarcity and a sense of urgency for making money.

I. I've never lost that. I'm very afraid of losing my money. I've been pretty transparent with that. That's why I don't spend a ton of money outside of like some family stuff with vacation, the boat. And the boat is like $600 a month. And then the vacation, I can usually get away with like 20 grand.

Outside of that, like, I live in an apartment. Once we're married, we will still live in an apartment.

And so.

In terms of. I think it actually will do. This is what I've already seen over the past seven, eight months is I get extremely efficient. So you guys have probably seen over the past, like six months, me, I was doing a lot of efficiency stuff. I'm trying to optimize for this. Right. And so you're actually. I. I believe that over the past 12 months, I've probably gotten. I get two minutes worth of work for one minute of time now just because of like, really optimizing. So I had an assistant and was okay, like, let's go through every single thing and like streamline this like, to anyone can do it. Create a system for every single thing, from email to text messages, to how whatsapps are handled, how bills are paid, how like every little thing.

And what would be like using Trello, using the reminders app, using Google tasks, like using automations, like to be in Zapier to like automate a lot of the stuff that I do and send myself reports and things like that.

And so I think what actually this does. And again, I'm talking my own book, so take it with a grain of salt. I actually think what this does is it forces you to let go of the things that fill your time and pare down to the things that actually matter. Because you're doing this usually for the sake of a relationship. I will also say, again, I'm not defending this. I'm just like making broad statements here. I will say.

This whole notion that I think has served Augusta Nation well over the past eight to nine months of slowing down and being more calculated probably comes because of this sort of mentality of trying to go this direction in my life. And so I think it served us all well to be a little more calculated than I have in the past. And like I just mentioned, in terms of moving quickly on decisions that were irreversible, being.

Too quick footed on certain things. So I think it'll probably slow me down a little bit in that regard to be a little bit more conservative. I don't think it's a bad thing. As the company grows and ensuring that things are more tested, more refined, have better processing systems in place, and when the things are rolled out, we just nail it. Like, I don't want to be known for being innovative. I want to be known for when I roll things out, then I nail it. And that's a different perception than I think even a year and a half ago. And so will you see a drop in attention? I don't know. Like, keep in mind I've been in a relationship for a while now, so there has been no thought, a drop of attention. I wake up earlier now than ever. I work more hours, more than ever. I don't, I'm not as physically exhausted because the work I do now compared to seven, eight years ago when I was at the field is very different. So back in the day, I would work 10, 12 hours in the field and then you go do computer work. Now I can work significantly more hours because I'm behind a computer. It's just a different type of work. And so I didn't go to the gym for the first three to four years of Augusta because I was working in the field so much. I would, I just do some body weight exercises and then I was on the field doing tons of cardio every single day. So but this, this, this has, has forced me to be extremely focused. And so you see my schedule, for example, which again, you can always see it if you want mikeannies.com calendar.

You can see the windows of time. And to be honest, that's not an Easy schedule to put up with as a significant other. I'm an extremely distracted person in terms of focusing on the business, but those time blocks have allowed me to make sure it's okay. Look, I am like 100% of focus on the business and then I try to switch, like 100% focus on, you know, relationship stuff. So do I think it'll have less attention? Absolutely not. Like, that's unequivocally an unequivocal no. So I actually have no doubt about that. It was the first thing that I ever brought up in our relationship. All right, Mr. Anonymous Mike, I want you to congratulate you and let you know how incredibly happy I am for you and your soon to be bride. Thank you. If I may, I do have a couple questions in regard to how it will affect you and the business. Wow. We have. We have some questions today, folks. Wow. All right.

If I may, I do have a couple questions in regard to how it will affect you and the business. Please do not feel obligated to answer certain questions if you feel they get too personal for comfort. I completely respect your effort to keep her out of the spotlight, at least for the time being. I really thought these through to sound as unintrusive to your personal life as possible. Please excuse me if I did a port up. I do not mind these questions. I look to you all as family. It's totally fine. So just, just know I did not read these questions before. So as these come up, if I blush or anything crazy, this is just. I'm just reading these as you all are seeing these. Okay. Are you expected her, expecting her and her yourself to be similar to the Hermosi way of things where she is deeply embedded in the business, or will she be separate and not part of the business? This mostly serves as a question, as a preface for number two, in which the former of these two options would kind of negate some of the following questions. Okay, let me just answer this one.

I'm not forcing either of these options on, on.

On her at all. And I don't know which way these will go. We have thoughts and we have ideas of how this could play out.

And so it's definitely not going to be the hormones away from the beginning. I can tell you that in part because at her age, I was. I was horrible at business. And so she's younger than I am. And not the age has any impact on someone's aptitude. But in terms of our approach in this, we are not forcing either direction. She has to be somewhat involved in the businesses most, because that's my life. And I was very clear from the beginning that that was not going to change. And the number one thing that I can say about her is she has. She has not tried to change my goals or tried to change the way I look, I view work. And it's extremely. Is the. Like it was. You can. You guys will meet her, conference, you can ask me this stuff. It was the first thing we talked about. And I said, like, this is how it's going to be and like, I don't want to put on this face that it's going to change because I would rather die. And so for now, though, we don't. We haven't made a decision on this, and there won't be a decision. You will see her around at the conference.

And I think that my temperament has changed a lot over the past seven, eight months because of it. And I think it'll be a positive thing for myself as a leader. And I don't know, like, the. The level of involvement in the business, I don't see it ever being as close as Layla and Alex. 100%. Not that I know we don't want that, but in terms of her involvement in that level, we are not forcing any direction right now. I've talked to Jonathan Patosnik a lot about this. Tiffany, his wife. Um, we've become very friendly. I haven't met Tiffany directly, but Jonathan. I have spoke about this in length. Jonathan's been a huge help to me. And so this is a big topic for him and I. And he's very passionate about his relationship, his family. I really respect him. And. And I have talked to him a lot about this being in him, gone through some of these things before. He got married very young to Tiffany. Tiffany, his wife, I guess I shouldn't say some things. You know, she had different things throughout her life in terms of career, and even now, it's kind of like wondering what she does. And so it's a. It's a good problem to have when you have plenty of money and like they do. And now he's exited and. But it also leads, like, where do I fit in? What's the project? What's my go to for a spouse that has. Does not have that burning passion to just build businesses. So. All right, let's move on because there's several questions. Number two, as we reach the end of the five years, to make it obvious that Gus is the best, which I would say you delivered on, what is the updated timeline for Mike and He's mentioned transitioning to a lower gear of growth to focus the obviously needed time on a spouse and family. I asked this because I know sometimes the Lord has different plans for us when it comes to timing. Dude, this is deep. All right, buckle in here, folks. So does this timing change what you have said in the past in regards to a few more years of the grind, or was this the expected timeline? So I kind of have said for several years, like, hey, my 20s, I am all in on the businesses in the 30s, when I reach my 30s, I will likely get a family. I'll get married and have a family. That was kind of like always my timeline. Now, that wing said, if you would have asked me a year and a half ago that if I would be engaged right now, I would have absolutely, unequivocally said no. And so when you. When you find someone that. Okay, the. I don't want to make it sound like I'm telling people what to do.

For myself. When I found someone that I think would compliment me in every single way, kind of checked all the boxes, and I was very, very stubborn on several things that there was that it was like, all green lights. And given whoever this is, mention the Lord and you get the green light there, it's a matter of, okay, this is time. And I'm not going to move.

What's the word?

Without caution, but I'm going to move forward. And so in terms of the five years, make it obvious. I actually think that next month I will. I will share several things I actually believe will make this through. And so at conference, there's several things we're releasing that we've been working on for a very, very long time. And I've told a couple of them, the Franchise Advisory Council, and a couple things that we're releasing later this year. That has been a long, long time in the works and would not have been possible unless we had copilot control and backend. And so I do believe we're going to hit that. I think it'll be obvious in January. I don't think we're quite there yet, but I think in January it'll be enough to say, hey, I crossed the threshold. But we still have a long ways to go. Like, if you think that crossing that threshold is somehow the finish line, that is not the truth. We have so much further we can go. And I think it can really, really create that value gap between that threshold and where we can. What we can do.

In terms of me going into a lower year of growth.

I have never worked harder than 2024. Like, I. I have no doubt about that. And when once you meet.

Her, you'll know. You'll see. Like, I think it'll help a lot of people. You'll kind of notice, like, why I changed probably my Persona a little bit in terms of just being a little more relaxed and calm. And I think it makes me a better decision maker. And so I think if I can have that compliment to me, it'll help me in business, and more importantly, it'll help me as a leader. And it definitely does not taken away the drive. It will. I don't believe it ever will. And this is. These are conversations that I have had at length with her because it is extremely important to me. And I have like, quoted quote, I would rather give up, like, I would rather die than to have to give up all the business stuff. And so she knows the level of importance is to me. She knows the importance of all of you. She actually knows probably most of your. Not most, a lot of your names. Because I talk about everything with her. And so, yeah, I look forward to her meeting you guys a lot. Like, a ton. I was going to wait until conference, but I didn't want you all finding out.

Through the grapevine. And so that's why I said it right away. I was definitely set on trying to make it a surprise to all of you, but I didn't want anyone inside Augusta Nation finding out vicariously from someone else. So that's why, like, literally, you all were the very first people I let know outside of my parents and her parents, obviously, after the engagement. So you guys mean a lot to me. Number three. Are there any other major changes to Copilot and Augusta that come out of this? No. Terms of terms of her? No. 100%. Not again. I want to tell you how truly I happy I am for you that you have found the one. I wish all y' all nothing the best no matter what matters may come. Love you, brother. Yeah, Cool. Thank you. I appreciate it. I know there's, you know, questions around this sort of thing when someone else is going to get involved in.

You know, the founder's life, and I think it'll be actually very positive. And I've just seen, like, the way I've changed over the past past half year and. And the level of work has not decreased. It'll take. It takes a very special person to live with me. I've said that for forever.

So, you know, I wake up at 2, 3 o' clock many times. I just want to work. And so that can be for someone who's insecure, that can be very debilitating to be like. Like.

Know that that that level of concentration is on something other than them. And so she's extremely self, has a lot of confidence and it's important. So I look forward to you all meeting here. I really do. Joel from Lafayette I'm going through Alex Hormozi's Scaling Framework course. In one of the early videos he talks about using weekly emails and nurture leads similar to his mosey minute emails. Ah, this is a great question. I think I know this is going I think sending out weekly emails all year would become annoying for many of the people in our database. However, it made me wonder if sending weekly emails for a couple targeted times of year would increase leads and conversions on one click emails or texts. For me, the targets would be the first of the month for mowing in spring rush and late November, October for Christmas lights. Each week during those two months I could send a short, different short email with helpful information like how to prepare your own lawn for spring or how to be safe when installing Christmas lights, maybe with stats on annual injuries from lights. The email would have a CT at the bottom like a one click email to offer our service. As an alternative to do it yourself. I could also send a one click style text blast in the middle of the month after we have warmed up the client the people in our database with the emails. Do you think this would be a good idea or do you see problems for our industry type of customer? All right, so I believe that the difference here is that this is a content creator versus a product and service and so the customer calls you because they had a problem and they want you to solve it. They did not contact you because they wanted to have lawn care advice. That being said, I think this will work. And so the reason I make this distinction is because me just saying it will work leads people to think that. They said if they send more emails and they just pound people with newsletters and talk about their lawn, that'll lead to more business and it will usually decrease your click through rate on the emails that you really want them to open. And so what I think this could potentially serve and the reason I say this will work is because I would look at your emails as keeping them warm and your text messages as converting them. So I have not come out and talked about this a lot because I'm still testing some stuff with my locations and just like in general. Also.

I think in 2025 the email link thing. We're going to be able to figure out this whole robot thing. And so I'm trying not to like index on this too much because one clicks are great. It's just that the stinking spam filters now can click on links. So.

That being said, I think if you had an email strategy like this, I would love it. And I think what I would recommend doing is telling the customer that you're going to send four emails over the next four weeks and that'd be your PS at the bottom of every single one. So your PS would be your cta, which is, you know, we can do this for you. But it would also include the reason why they're getting this email. So for example, Lee is doing. I'll just use Lee as an example. That's top of mind. He's doing 12 Days of Christmas to people that he thought were good candidates to be inside of August Nation. And they were on a good call, like one or two calls and just kind of like just ghosting him. Just he hasn't heard anything from. And we only just now starting to like really focus on sales. Next year will actually be the first time we actually think about this. But he's been tracking things and so this is why it's top of mind for me. And so he's doing 12 straight days leading up to Christmas of sending it to emails. But in every single one there's a P.S. telling them why they're getting it. It's part of a 12 day sequence where, you know, I'm telling you about Augusta and blah blah, blah, and you know, click here, book a call with me, there's a cta. So I think this could work. I would one, I would tell the customer why they're getting this email and how many emails are going to get. Because if you get three emails in a row from a service and you're like, this is annoying, instead of you say, hey, this is the month leading up to spring rush. We're going to send you one email every week for the next four weeks. And in those you're offering value, you're doing a CTA and explanation of why they're getting that email. Like, hey, this is a third out of four emails leading up to the spring rush. Augusta Longcare has got you covered. If you want us to do it for you, click this link or give us a call or text us or whatever.

I think that would work. I would just. If you're going to email on a higher frequency than once a month for sales, I believe you should tell them why they won't opt out as much and they will also see the value and look forward to the fourth email because now there this is a third out of four. I would try to hide some things inside that email. If you're doing that much frequency and you're just pounding them with information, be very, very careful. You will get people opting out. I would, I would be inclined to hide things inside there that are Easter eggs for example.

Some sort of a giveaway, some sort of a what does super well by the way, if you want to do this sort of thing is do a before and after for free for a customer during your slow season. Take the pictures, do two or three of them and then prep those for emails during your lead up to your spring rush. Do you don't want to do in the middle of spring rush a bunch of free cleanups? Do them in the middle of winter, do like four houses do before and afters and then you basically roll them out over the course of the four weeks in the spring rush because now you have four cleanups. It probably cost you.

Seven or eight hundred dollars in labor to get those four cleanups with the pictures and then have the story. This is the more important part, the story behind why you gave it to this person for free. So even going up to Christmas, not a bad idea to be like hey, if anyone here knows of anyone in our local community that is in need of going through a rough time this time, you're would be medical bills are stacking up. Their family is overseas serving in the military. They've lost a loved one. They're just going through a hard time with something like medical stuff. Let us know. That would get a huge amount of engagement. Many times your your your post also just tell them DM you so because a lot of times they don't want to out their friends. So hey DM us. We're looking for people to be able to give away, you know, gold star families, et cetera. I would then take those four or five. I would do the story. I I would talk to the customer like hey is it fine if we share your story with our before and after pictures? Many times they're going to say yes now if they said no, I would still give them the service. I would then do four or five of those in January and February when you're slower and then when you hit March or April, have those emails ready to go. I'd be starting with the story the before and after. And then your PS is essentially hey these over the Next, you know, four weeks for sending one of these out every single week to people in quote, our territory and name that are in need of help. If you would like us to do the same thing at your property, email us back. People will not opt out of that. Especially, especially if you can get a picture with family. So you're like, are you profiting off other people? No, we're doing good and building a business on the back of it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Matt Slickey from Salem, Oregon how does seasonality factor into the Cash on hand framework? Great question. If revenue really dropped off a cliff for a month or two, would it just be adjusted? Right? If is the revenue in the bank the net or gross? For example, if I made 10k net average over those 3 months and 3k gross and the goal is to have 10k in the bank being able to cover my expensive 7k or for about a month and a half if no other revenue came in. Thanks. Okay, great, great question. If you don't know what the.

Cash in Hand framework is or the Cash on hand quadrant, two things you can do. One, go to the playlist or in Facebook on Friday it was that Mike Mint smash. Also if you go to the Academy on the dashboard scroll the bottom, we have made a new thing called the 3M frameworks. So anytime I share a framework on the Mastermind, we're going to keep in a separate playlist. You can find it there.

So the quadrant is made in a way that you can update this every single day. Now the growth is year over year as you'd have to Compare like last November 30th to this November 30th etc. So if you can literally change where you're at on that quadrant every single day based upon two factors was my year over year growth and how much cash is in the bank right now. Like literally when you open up your bank account, how much. How much cash is in the bank account? That's, that's like the, the X and Y axis of finding where you're at in that quadrant and it can change all the time. So yes, seasonality, it'll push you in a different position. Usually not based on growth because year over year but for example right now like because so many people are doing better in November, December during the revenue because of like us focusing so much on Q4 collapse and lights and wind services. Because of that, everyone will look like they're growing more this year simply due to the fact that year over year there's so much more growth in the last couple months of the year. Which is fine. That's fine. Growth doesn't won't move much because year over year your cash balance potentially could and keep in mind, keep in mind once you get above the one month you're distributing the cash so you're as the month goes on or if you're doing weekly billing as the week goes on, like it's going to dip a little bit because every time you distribute all the cash it comes right back to that top line. So keep that in mind.

Great, great question, Mr. Anonymous. First and foremost, congrats on your engagement. We're all super stoked for you. Second and much less fun Google. I remember hearing about a feature where someone submits a four to five star review on Copilot and system automatically puts it into Google for them to submit it there. Is that live or just in the works? So there is a way to this already inside of.

The current emails that we have where they have a wager sat service satisfactory and there's a yes or a no. That's an email. That's an automation. If you need help setting up talk to command center, it's also their video inside of Academy.

Secondly though, at the end of January you're going to see the new client or the customer portal for Copilot come out and then we're going to bake this directly into the portal. So that's what I'm talking I've referred to in the past. The rate us button will basically be that in inside of the portal and down the road. We have some ideas of what we can do in terms of getting more more survey type on each service without being intrusive because you can't if you ask it for too much it becomes not good.

Additionally, I assume this feature would pull from the Google review page link on Google Account settings but there's an issue. That box has google.com hard coded but the ask for review link that Google provides is a HTG. Our link ATC has been has been been able to provide a workaround. Yeah like that link right now doesn't do anything. That's why it just has google.com because like it's not we're not pulling that data right now.

Unless you're using as a merge tag. I don't know if you could use a merge tag. If it is then that's a problem. Obviously AGC's address something around this in terms of making sure it works but right now it's not being used but down the road. That's what we would use. And we make sure the google.com is out of there. So it's actually a link that is clickable from something, like from inside of your client portal. So.

Good questions. Good questions.

All right, let's see. There's one other question that just came in. One second.

I don't think we are going.

I don't think we're gonna get be forgotten. I believe Mike's gonna become a Powers marriage is a high. Is highly underrated. Love you, Mike. Thank you, Abraham. I appreciate it.

So cool. All right, that's it for today, everyone. Hopefully this wasn't too late. I appreciate you all tremendously, and I will see you tomorrow. Take care.