Shopping for Mike’s Dream Car + Birthday Weekend

It is August 29th. You probably couldn't even see that. I don't feel like it's fall yet, but I am trying to embrace it by wearing a fall-themed shirt. When is the first day of fall? Let's look.

Fall?

Is it really?

No, when is the first day of fall?

Oh, I don't know. Starbucks already made it the first day of fall.

Oh yeah, well, if Starbucks says it's fall, then it's definitely fall. Did you get a car wash?

Yep.

Per chance? Okay, good. Because whenever I took your car in, they were taking— they took 4 hours to service Mike's car and I was waiting for it.

Oh, and they asked if you wanted it?

Um, they had initially asked and like when I first got there. I was like, yeah, sure. And then it took so long, I walked up and I was like, hey, if you guys haven't watched it yet, don't worry about it because it takes even longer. Anywho, something exciting happened yesterday. It depends on how you look at it if it's exciting or not, but—

We haven't raised prices at HomeWorks for 4 years, so we raised prices the other day. Not on the Price Lock members that were with us from the beginning, but everyone else. And so it was important that we can keep, uh, Investing into the team and the product. I gotta get this guy's thing. Oh, hello. Ready?

Let's go ahead and make sure you're in neutral.

Cool. Do you want this back or do you want me to throw it away? I'm good, thank you. Appreciate it.

We're going to the car wash. This was like a holiday whenever I was growing up. Shout out Costco for having cheap car washes if you get gas.

Was I supposed to talk more? Oh, uh, update on price increase. Uh, not one single member left. Not one single person so far.

Yeah, obviously we never want to do that.

Our Our goal is always be efficient with the money we have. But with the amount of infrastructure build-out with API, MCP access, we're not charging anything for tokens. But it is nice to— oh snap!

No, no, no, no, no, no!

How do I turn it off, Banza?

His windshield wipers are on.

Is that bad?

Did it tear them up? I got it off.

Okay.

What were we talking about? Crisis briefs?

Yes.

Yeah, so I want to do it in as humane a way as possible. So basically, if someone was unhappy, they can book a direct call with me. And so I didn't wanna make it where it's like, this is your price increase, suck it up. It was like, look, I understand there's people going through tough times right now. We have not raised prices in 4 years because I didn't think that the product was where it needed to be at. And so we've lost millions of dollars putting money back into the business to make sure it got to that level, but ultimately it needs to be sustainable. And we're like so underpriced in the market, we keep getting large companies that it works great for and they consistently tell us, we almost didn't go with you guys because— It was too expensive. You're literally half or less than half of what we were paying before.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, like if you have a $3 million company, we have a couple join this week, you're paying $1,000 plus a month. So when you, when before, it's like a third of that for us. We're still way cheaper than that, we're still half. But anyways, we just make sure that it's sustainable, it's not losing money, and that we can keep investing in the product. 'Cause it's a lot of money to buy, like last week there was 36,000 people or connections to the MCP access. Like, we pay, we're paying for all of that. So anyways, that doesn't mean anything to anyone. They don't really care about that. They just know that their price goes up and I understand that. So we're trying to be sensitive. I have a call with anyone that's unsatisfied next week and we'll talk to them directly. But so far, not one single person has left. And the few people that had concerns or issues with it, the support team was able to walk them through it, explain why, and then give them the link directly access to my calendar. So we'll see how it goes. But it's funny, it's like, I always tell people on the Turnaround Show or Owners of a Gust, like, always raise your prices. It's like literally the thing that no one does in home services, but it's still hard.

Michael had to practice what he preached— raise prices. After the price increase happened, we had a whole wellness day planned for Michael just in case. We were just preparing for a lot of hate coming online and Facebook groups and everything like that. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as anticipated.

Go, people, you have the right-of-way! Goodness.

How much you want to bet they're Canadian? They are. Canadians can't drive.

It would be so funny if Brianna joined the call one time and turned on her camera and it was the baby face.

I just don't age. What can I say?

You need a bald cap, bro.

Totally.

Go bald cap. All right. Welcome, everybody. Good morning.

Biggest question mark that I have today, and it's good that you're here, Bri, is for you with that follow-up call.

Yeah.

What's the status on that?

I texted him after I saw your message in ClickUp and he rescheduled for The 7th, if that's Monday.

Yeah, Labor Day.

Yes.

Yeah, at the very latest, because that wraps up editing on Wednesday.

Okay, so, okay, quick little outfit change after that meeting. Sidebar, I love being in our new office now. This is genuinely my favorite room in the house. I just love being in here. It smells amazing thanks to the little reed diffuser I have right here on my desk. We are like officially doing the countdown for Texas. It is September first, which means we have nineteen more days left. I'm so excited. I'm about to book a second rental car for me and Mike because my car is getting shipped down, but it obviously won't be there waiting on us whenever we get there. So I think last time I used this company, it typically took them from like whenever they picked it up to whenever they dropped off like ten days to get from point A to point B. So we'll see how long it takes them this time. But anyways, we both need a car obviously while we're there because he will be driving. An Augusta van, but it has to get the ramp installed and wrapped whenever we get there, so we will both be out of a car unless I make sure we have those rented out. Last year, for— was it Black Friday? Whenever the Spartan Race company, whatever, was having a sale, we got tickets to do a 13-mile Spartan just like we did last year. It's the Beast. We booked it before we even planned on moving to Texas, and it so happened to be the day before We're moving. Like, the day before we're flying out to Texas is whenever this Spartan is. And being that I've been on a meal plan, a strict workout routine with my coach, I have not been doing running. I've been doing other forms of cardio. So if I were to do 13 miles with obstacles the day before we're moving, I don't really want to risk getting injured. Like, does that sound like a tap out? Probably. I don't really care. I'm not saying I'm not gonna do it, but I'm not saying I will do it. Does that make sense? So we'll see. Hi guys, me and you, you and me, we're doing a little experiment today. I spend a lot of time meal prepping given like my meal plan. It's the same foods over and over, so it's like not that big of a deal, but I spend quite a bit of time doing it. I saw this one girl pressure cook her chicken. She's like stuck those raw things in there for like 10 minutes and then they were done. And if I can do that instead of cooking it on the stovetop every week, that would be like such a game changer. So I'm gonna try it. I'm like weird whenever it comes to cooking raw chicken. I feel like it only belongs on the stovetop where I can like burn off the bacteria. But like putting raw chicken in a pressure cooker, I— it's like the same concept. It doesn't really make any sense. I just think it's a little weird, but we're gonna try it because if it saves me time, I'm all for that. What's even more weird to me is that whenever I looked up the recipe, it says to put the raw chicken right on this thing. Like, I don't know, I'm— I don't know, it's just raw chicken is— ugh. I heard before that you're not supposed to wash your chicken, and then I heard you're supposed to. And then I started to, and then I heard again, you're definitely not supposed to because like the bacteria can splatter on the counter surrounding the sink. So now I don't wash my chicken anymore. Oh, I should probably season them. I'll season them after the fact, right? Yeah. Oh, I am actually supposed to put a cup of some type of liquid in there. Water was recommended, but I have chicken broth and I wonder if that'll make it more flavorful. We'll do water. Unfortunately, I could only fit three in there at once, but they're slightly frozen, so I'm gonna cook them on high. It says for like twelve minutes. Moment of truth. Okay, I don't see any pink. It looks so bland. Wait, what? It worked! It's completely cooked through. It's gonna be so much easier for me to batch cook and prep food.

Wow! Also, I did change my shirt.

I just wanted to get out of my gym clothes. In case you were wondering. Okay, good to know. One thing I will say is it does seem to be a lot drier than the way I usually make it on the stove, but I think I can troubleshoot that. Like, if I probably just add more liquid in the pressure cooker, it would probably keep it moister. I don't know, but I'm a fan of this method because like batch prepping meat was always so time-consuming. It's that Saturday morning ritual, the pre-workout situation.

Yeah. Oh, I hit a big milestone this week, man. I went from extra small shirts to small shirts.

He's growing up, folks!

So these ones are gonna go bye-bye because I've been, I've been getting them gains. Oh, and I might even get a coach when we go to, uh, Texas. That's probably when I'll be starting. So I'm gonna do 6 months, and it's the first time I'll have a coach that also does my diet. So Christian— shout out Christian Nelson, head of sales at HomeWorks— um, he was my Personal trainer. I did that for like a year, but we never did nutrition. So now this will be the first time I have nutrition and lifting weights. So I'm gonna cut, then I'm gonna get more muscles.

How did the price increase call go today or last week?

We had 2 people out of everyone leave. I wrote an email to everyone about this, but the thing that made it so successful is just I don't know where the cups are.

Third time's a charm.

The big hack is in the last sentence of the email. Here's the short answer. Okay guys, we're gonna go, we're gonna go look at cars.

First of all, let's appreciate the can. I don't condone drinking energy drinks. Don't do as we do, do as we say. This is Bum's second new flavor, peaches and honey. We watch, um, the CEO of Bum, and he's the CEO of multiple other Dom. Dom. How do you say his last name?

I have no idea.

But he's a CEO of multiple million, billion dollar companies, and it's actually really cool to watch his vlogs and kind of get inspiration for those for our Texas trip. That's a sharp looking Corvette.

See how blacked out like.

Just doing a little Saturday shopping, huh?

Oh yeah, we're just dinking around.

If you ever got one, would you get an orange one?

I don't know.

I wonder how much cheaper a Corvette would be in Texas versus here, and could it be a tax write-off because it's, you know, for the business sake? Because it's in Texas during work.

Oh, this is a hardtop convertible. I've had a convertible before and you actually don't ever use it. Oh, Banza, look at the black, the red, all the carbon fiber suits. My very first car was a Honda Del Sol, had a hardtop convertible. It was a pain in the butt. It was cool, it was my first car. For like $3,000 I bought the car. Do you see what I see? We're looking, we're looking.

We're just window shopping. Got the orange one. I think Mike saw this one online. And the red one. Not at all.

Definitely not. You want to sit here?

It feels like your feet are on the ground. I know this vlog is kind of all over the place, but we've been busy, okay? We're about to move halfway across the country, you know what I'm saying? My car is getting picked up in 4 days. Ah, I'm so excited! But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about Michael's birthday, and he is turning 31 in 2 days, and I want to make this very special. To be honest, I can't really outdo myself last year. Last year I went all out. He was turning 30, you know. I vlogged it all. We took a little charter plane out above some of the San Juan Islands, and then after that I reserved an Airbnb. We had our friend who's a private chef, an incredible private chef by the way, she's so talented. She cooked him a 13-course— it was like 12— insane, like 10-course. I think it was 10-course dinner with all his favorite foods. It was insane. So it was all a surprise and it was great. It was like he said it was his probably like best birthday ever. So you know, I can't outdo that. I just still want to make it special and something that he'll remember. So I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and picked up some decorations. I have some streamers, balloons, more balloons, and some hanging things. Honestly, he is so hard to get things for because he's not like a materialistic person, but whatever objects he wants, he'll just buy it. So by the time his birthday rolls around, I'm all out of practical gifts that he could use. So I did get him a couple things from Lululemon because he loves that brand. I got him like a new I'll show you later. It's supposed to come in today. Like, it was delayed a little bit, so fingers crossed it comes in before he gets back from work. My mom got him some cinnamon sweets, which is his favorite keto desserts ever. Okay, his birthday is in 2 days. I'm setting this up. I want to spread it over the course of a few days because for my birthday, it's actually not fair. In February, we have Valentine's Day, my birthday's 3 days later, and then our wedding anniversary is on the 28th. So it's like a long time of celebrating, and bless his heart, he did so good last year. He deserves to have a few days of celebration too, not just one day. So tomorrow I have We have a dinner reservation and a private sunset boat ride because he loves boats. He loves being on the water and he doesn't know about that, so that's a surprise. And then Sunday we're going out to lunch with his parents. So it's like, you know, over the course of a few days we gotta celebrate him. He is absolutely worth celebrating. I'm gonna get this set up before he gets back from work. I have like so much time, so let's get going.

I'm gonna go get ready.

Yeah. Y'all see anything wrong with this? The I and the R popped. So it's currently BTH Day. We can't have that. So you know what that means. Back at Hobby Lobby where it all started. I was thinking about getting individual letters, but I actually think it might be smarter to just buy a whole new one because other letters might pop. So I think I'm gonna do that. And then I picked up some poppers. He's He's probably gonna have a heart attack whenever he gets home, but it would be a nice little touch. We're gonna try this again. Here's the R. What's crazy is whenever I was inflating the first ones, there were still like wrinkles in the balloon, so it didn't seem fully inflated. But I guess it was because it popped. I figure there's no harm in slightly under-inflating it if needs be. Okay, it's good enough. It's slightly under-inflated, but I I cannot risk popping this again. Naturally, there's always got to be one difficult letter. I'll have to tape that or something. But there's the final product! Whenever the I popped, I was like, you know what, whatever, kind of like a license plate, you know, leaving out the vowels on purpose, kind of quirky thing. But then the R popped and I was like, we cannot have half the word gone, basically. So I'm glad I got that replaced. I actually really like the 31 at the top. It looks super cool, so he's gonna come home to a surprise and probably a heart attack because I am so excited to use these. The lady at Hobby Lobby, she was like, you're gonna have fun cleaning that up, and I was like, I know, worth it. That was fun. Definitely took all morning, but that's okay. I got an email from the company that is taking my car to ship it to Texas. They're gonna be here in 4 days. I've got some packing to do because I like I like to stay ahead of the game, you know? I don't like to do things last minute. I've already picked out most of the clothes that I want to take, but I have these really cool handy-dandy huge vacuum sealable bags that I got from Amazon. I use these to move my clothes from Alabama to Washington and then from our apartment to this house, and they're amazing. I'm gonna start just filling these bags up with clothes so I can stay prepared, you know? We're not taking a ton of stuff with us, mostly the necessities like a coffee machine, And an instant pot. Those necessities. Okay, he's on his way home. He always shares his location with me whenever he's coming home from work. I'm so thankful for that because otherwise I wouldn't know where he is. But he's like five minutes away. He's in the garage right now.

He just pulled in.

Happy birthday!

You tied that so good.

Did I scare you? Yes. Oh my goodness, is this sweet! That is from mom. The snowflakes are from mom. Oh, that's cool.

Yeah. Whoa, we're out here on the north— in the North Pole, everybody!

We're on a sailboat.

Catamaran.

Catamaran.

42-foot catamaran.

And you've never been on one before, right?

Nope, not a sailboat.

This is our view right now. Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

Gorgeous. A little chilly.

A little.

But it's pretty great. This is where I used to always have the boat back in the day.

Whenever he was a part of a boat club.

BB.

Before Banna.