Personal Note from Mike: Behind the Scenes of The Turnarounds

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today I'm not in my car making a bunch of random comments into my phone. I'm actually in the studio making this recording specifically just for the podcast. And I'm gonna share a little bit behind the scenes, what I'm working on and a little bit more about the turnarounds. And one of the things that I. It's amazing to me that when we post turnarounds on social media, whether it be Facebook or YouTube or whatever, that people that are not on the episodes, just people viewing, somehow feel like they can just beg and rag on people that are actually being presented in the show. And the thing that makes this difficult is because people do that, it's actually really hard to get people to apply to be on the turnaround show. And lots of people reach out, like, hey, can you come? I really need help, but I don't want the cameras there. And so it's one of those things, like, if you're listening to this and you see turnaround shows, please put in the comments something positive about the owner, because otherwise, people read the comments and like, oh, my goodness, I'm gonna go on this turnaround show. I'm gonna get torn to shreds by people on social media. And so they don't ask for help. And unfortunately, those are the people that need help. The people that aren't willing to reach out and are afraid to because of the cameras, unfortunately. But the only way we can really make sense of going out and doing the turnaround show is that we record it and we're able to use it for the media and drive awareness, et cetera. Cause obviously, it costs us tens of thousands. Like, now it's is literally tens of thousands of dollars to produce each show. By the time we have now, we're gonna be taking multiple people on set. Flights, hotels, cars, the whole nine yards, and then editing it for weeks too. So right now, it takes, like, a full week for what we call a stage one edit, and then another week to do stage two edit. And in between that is multiple iterations and people watching it and refining it. So if you're. If you're listening to this now, like, you're gonna see over the next month just, like, a rapid increase in how many we're put. Gonna try to be putting out one every week, but also just the quality of them as we get better and better at the editing process. But right now, literally, our biggest challenge is getting people to want to be on the show. And it is in part because people don't want to have the weakest moment, their lowest low in their business, basically be publicized to everyone online. That's not fun. I get it. And so we're really trying to, we're trying to work with this and trying to figure out how do we make sure that, number one, people are helped that actually need it, and then two, that we can keep the turnaround alive and get enough people to apply. So before I get into that, let me just say, if you need help with your business and you'd like us to come do a turnaround, we would love to do it. We really do need people to apply. So whether you're hitting a roadblock and you just cannot grow or you have problems retaining team members, your customer acquisition cost is out of whack, you're having struggles with leadership, managers that aren't showing up, employees, et cetera. We'd love to come help you. I would love to come show up. Usually it's two video cameras and myself, and we, we get in within a matter of three hours, maybe four hours top. So it's not a huge time commitment on your end. Usually we get in, we're just trying to identify the problems. I'm asking a lot of questions, and then within a matter of 20, 30 minutes, it's like, all right, here's what needs to happen, here's the game plan. And then if I can talk to other team members, et cetera, and get them to rally around that and help you, super beneficial. But more now stepping back and like, the whole vision of why I do what I do in terms of the media and Augusta and everything, is ultimately to help the struggling small business. And what Dave Ramsey really did for personal finances with the money makeover and budgeting and the debt free scream and all these things that he's done, he's been known for over the course of his career for 30, 40 years. My dream would be that in the very long term, that when someone's struggling with their small business, the question that someone asks is like, have you watched any of Mike Gandy stuff? The same way that if someone was struggling with their personal finances or with that someone would say, hey, have you listened to Dave Ramsey? Or I'll get you the money makeover book? Or what's it called? Peace Whatever. Financial Peace University, I think it's called, that would be the natural sort of inclination to recommend to someone that was struggling with their personal finances. And I would just dream that one day that we have enough impact that when someone's struggling in their business, the Natural inclination for anyone that's a listener of the show is to recommend it. Like, hey, you should go and watch the content. It's free. You can watch exactly what happens, and it breaks it down and makes it entertaining. And that's my goal, is like, the entertainment of the turnaround show is that the business principles I talk about are actually palatable and more people watch it because it is entertaining. But really the whole essence is like, get, get the carrots down alongside with the mashed potatoes and everything else that's tasty and the gravy and everything. Get, get, get the vegetables down. And the vegetables are the business principles that I know will help the businesses. And so two, two things today on the episode. One, if you want us to come to a turnaround, we would love to come. We really do need people to apply that are willing to be vulnerable, willing to share and help the community. And I understand it is a massive risk, and it is not easy when you're in their lowest moments to have someone come in and publicize that. I understand that. The second thing, though, is that because I know right now how many people want to be on the show, but they don't want the cameras around. This is why I'm literally in the process of starting to write a book. And this book was going to take me a very long time to write, and I haven't talked a whole lot about it. I thought originally I would write a book called the Blue Collar Millionaire and really just talk about fundamental business principles and frameworks that I've used building up Augusta lawn care and et cetera. But ultimately, I really do believe that my passion is for these small business owners that are struggling and they don't have hope and they feel like they're lost and they want to give up and they're just at their wit's end because I know what it's like to be there and it's a horrible place to be. And I, through the turnaround show, hope that it helps people. But ultimately, those business nuggets that are spread out throughout the turnaround show, I want those accessible in, like, one place. And so the turnaround book that we're going to be making over the next year or two is. And when I say we, it's like myself, editor, my coach, et cetera. As we're doing that, the goal is to be able to take the stories from the turnaround show and use those examples of principles that I know work when it comes to turning on a business. Because when I go into these businesses, there's only about 10 to 15 different things. I say there's different characters, there are different business industries, there's different sizes of business, there's different employees and how everything is set up. But ultimately, business fundamentals are so universal, it's incredible to me just how much, like, the number one thing I look at this is what we've been trying to figure out. The book is like, when you walk into a turnaround, what are you actually thinking? What numbers are you looking at to be able to come with a diagnosis so quickly? And like, the first thing I'm looking at is cash. Like, two things if you're taking a road trip. Number one, how much gas is in the tank and then what's your consumption of the gas? And you need to know this in order to be able to actually safely reach your destination. And the same thing is true when it comes to your business. If you don't know exactly how much cash in your cash reserves you have, that's like gas in the tank. You could potentially run out of fuel. You could run out of cash in the growth of your business, and that would be the equivalent. Also, that's really like the balance sheet, like, how much money, how much cash reserve you have. That's your balance sheet. And then your profit and loss statement is the story of your business. It's really like, are you losing money? Are you unprofitable or are you profitable? Are you increasing the amount of cash flow or the amount of cash reserves that you have? And it's kind of like your fuel gauge. Are you increasing the amount of fuel you have cash in the bank, or are you decreasing? And how fast is that happening? And so when I walk into a business, the first thing I'm looking at is cash in those two places. Balance sheet and profit and loss statement. So from there, the rest of the business breaks down in terms like, okay, well, what happens if they don't have a lot of cash and their close ratio is high? What happens if they have a lot of cash and the close ratio is low? These are all the type of things that I am kind of like synthesizing in lifetime in these turnarounds. And what we're trying to do with the book is give someone a roadmap so they can actually have diagnostic tools. Be like, okay, I am, like, in a really bad cash position. Here's what I should do. Because of these specific things, I can quickly measure and diagnose in my business. And that's the whole goal of the book is like. And it's Been honestly quite difficult because a lot of it, I just love business. I thought about business for a very long time and I just love it. And so when I step into these situations and I'm asking all these questions, really what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to figure out what piece of advice should I give this person based upon all these inputs and what we're trying to make with, operationalize with the book is how do I give this book to like one of my managers and they could go do a turnaround for me using the book, just simply asking the right questions and figuring out exactly the diagnostic tools to be able to tell this person confidently this is what you should do in your business to turn it around. And so that's like the long term goal. And then we use the turnaround videos to drive traffic, not to buy a book, but hopefully to gain awareness. To someone who is struggling sees the turnaround show, it's entertaining. They get one or two little bits of information throughout one episode and then you'll get the book where just chock full of exactly what I'm using inside the turnaround to actually make them work. And so that's like the long term vision. And so right now, especially, I think in the next year, two years, our biggest struggle is just gonna be convincing owners to be vulnerable enough to be on the turnaround episodes. And so if you'd like to be on the episodes, I would love to have you on there. I'm making this exclusive for the podcast and for the text group and to be able to be applied to the show for February. So if you're watching this later on, we'd still love you to apply. But specifically February 2024, we have several spots available. I'd love to fill it with one of you. So go to mikeandys.com turnaround you're going to submit a quick video, exactly what you need help with and what the struggles are. And we would love to be of service. We fly out, it doesn't cost you a single penny. And if you wanted to book a coaching call with me for one hour, it's literally 1300 bucks. You can go to mikeannies.com coach and see that. I'll literally be at your place for like three to four hours. Won't cost you a single penny. We'll fly out there, we'll do everything in terms of cost, but hopefully help your business and hopefully be able to capture and document what was said in your lowest. And then in a year come back and you've changed the business and turned things around and you're successful. And I truly believe that is the testament to what principles we speak about is like seeing the turnarounds actually occur and actually happen. And unfortunately the ones who don't listen and don't heed the advice, they end up failing. And that's not something I relish in. It's probably not something we'll even make videos about because I don't want to come across like it is. I am saying told you so but like that does happen too and I see it in the businesses. Once we leave they don't implement and I hear back later like they either went out of business or they had to cut way back and it's not fun. I don't enjoy talking about that but I really hope that by seeing this over and over and over again that people can start to begin to see that what is being talked about and the principles that is the testament of it is whether or not that business gets turned around. If you need our help, I would love to be there. Mikeandies.com turnaround I love you all and hope you have a fantastic day.