the REAL reason we’re moving to Texas…
In this vlog‑style announcement, Mike and Brianna Andes reveal that they will relocate to the Dallas Metroplex for a little over six months, beginning in September. The move is driven primarily by a strategic business experiment: launching a new Augusta location in northern Dallas (Carrollton) to test whether their proven model—limited services (mowing and treatments), a lean operational structure, and a heavy marketing spend—can scale in a large metropolitan market of 7‑8 million people. They plan to document the entire process with frequent vlogs (2‑4 per week), leveraging their media team (including remote member Terrell) to capture the rollout, challenges, and outcomes. Operational innovations include testing multi‑location software, van‑based crews without a central shop, and refined chemical application processes. Financial goals are a six‑figure marketing budget aimed at reaching $1 million in annual revenue (≈$84 k monthly recurring revenue) within the first year. The announcement also touches on personal motivations—escaping the Washington winter, enjoying a warmer climate, and building a new community—while noting logistical details such as the Carrollton base, Airbnb housing, travel schedule, and the need for a solid General Manager (John) to run day‑to‑day operations. The narrative emphasizes rapid decision‑making, team buy‑in, and the excitement of turning the move into both a business scaling test and a media project.
Chapters
We have an announcement. Something we've been hiding.
We've been hiding from you guys.
Mm-hmm.
Pregnancy tuts!
We're moving to Texas for 6 months. A little over 6 months. We're moving from fall until next spring.
We'll be moving in September. And this has been a plan for only 2 months? 3 months? So what had happened was one day Probably in like March, we were driving down the road after just running stairs and we were talking about taxes and how like crazy business owners get taxed here in Washington.
Well, because the millionaire tax was in California and then the millionaires tax got passed in Washington.
And so we were talking about different states and how like they're more entrepreneur-friendly, I guess, like Wyoming. Florida, Tennessee. Oh, we didn't mention Wyoming.
That was like legal stuff. Oklahoma tax stuff.
And then we were like, we were actually thinking about Tennessee, or just talking about it, and then we're like, Texas. So we talked to ChatGPT a lot, and you basically were like, what would it look like tax-wise if I made X amount in Texas versus Washington, like tax-wise.
Tax-wise, it doesn't really make sense to move there until we are about 3 times bigger.
Yeah, but that's how it started.
Yeah, that's how it started. It really weren't really— then it became a function of there were several elements of Augusta that I wanted to test, and so starting a new location made a lot of sense. And then it started converging with, okay, let's move, let's move and go do a new one, and I wanted to do it in a market that wasn't like this. The market we're in, there's like 80,000 people in Bellingham, and we have an Augusta location here. Well, I want to go show that you can also do it in a location has millions of people in the market. So that's why we're moving to Texas, more specifically the Dallas area. That's what I was going for.
Carrollton. Are we dropping that or no?
Uh, well, we're staying in Carrollton, but we're staying in Carrollton because it's sort of central to where we are starting the location, which I'm not sharing that part right now. Only Augusta knows that. Exactly. But it's, uh, in the northern Dallas market. Yeah, we're staying in Carrollton because it's central, but Carrollton is not really like a place we want to ever be at long term. So we don't know if we're gonna— if it'll be a one-time thing or if we do it every, um, year. But we're gonna start the first location for Augusta, and then the next year start another location. And then next year to another location. Copy and paste, baby, let's go.
So you're starting the Augusta location there, but you're also turning it into like a media project in the sense that you're going to be making at least like 2 to 3 vlogs a week, 3 to 4, 4. So it's like also a media project, two birds, one stone kind of thing.
Well, we want to document everything we're doing. The first time we did this was a 30-day challenge in North Carolina, but I was only there for 30 days and I had a very, very small budget. I think I spent 4 or 5 grand in marketing total. Um, and it was just a matter of getting like the first like 20, 30 customers, booking the schedule, getting the first couple trucks, a couple employees. But this is gonna like show that, but all the way to GM in place, multiple crews, filling up the route, going all the way to a million in revenue in the first year, and then doing it again the year after. But why Dallas?
Why did we pick Dallas?
Lots of reasons. So we are originally— like, let me try to think.
We liked Austin a lot, but it's expensive there. That was not the reason.
No, we thought Austin was pretty small.
Oh, because the market's so good in Dallas.
Yeah, the market for the, for the, the location we're starting is really good. It's a solid, really good county.
It's also a massive area. Like, I'm not just talking about the heart of Dallas, we're talking about the Metroplex. It's huge. So like, think Frisco, McKinney, um, I don't know the ones on this side. Dallas, Fort Worth, Carrollton, Plano. Plano's on this side. Anyways, um, yeah, it's massive. It's definitely a market to be explored, and you have a couple locations, like one in Plano, one in Wylie. Wylie. So what are your goals for this move?
First off is to prove a few things. So we're doing a few things that are new at the location. So 3 years ago when we did it at North Carolina, we tested instant quote door hangers, QR codes, and AI. Uh, answering the phones, as well as I was the first location ever that did homework.
So— oh, seriously?
Yeah, I did homework before, like 6 months before Augusta did.
That's cool.
So figuring out some of the kinks there. So now there's a few things we want to do. One is multi-location stuff inside of Homeworks can be improved, so we want to iron that out, and I want to do it like hands-on. Same thing with chemical applications, which I want to have it done by next spring rush, but like If I can get there, iron out the kinks and make it really good over the winter, that'd be helpful. 'Cause realistically the location won't launch till next spring. Like we're gonna get there late this year and then like figure out the market, maybe get a couple trucks on the road, but then it'll be next spring where I actually blitz the market. Some of the software stuff and then also, uh, showing that the model works in a large metropolitan area. Also showing that if you wanna scale very quickly, you don't have a $5,000 budget. Like, I'm gonna spend $100,000 in the first year on marketing, but the objective is to get to $1 million in revenue, uh, like a run rate of recurring revenue. So about— you get over about $83,000, $84,000 in monthly recurring revenue. We're only doing 2 services, just mowing and treatments. That's it. No property cleanups, no bush trimming, no bed maintenance, no mulch installs, just treatments and mowing. And we're going to also test vans. So some locations, I guess, already have done this. It's not like brand new, but I want to test it and then document the process. And that is vans for the crew, so the, their equipment goes in the van, they take the van home, and then they start their route in the morning from their house instead of a shop. So no shop space, no office, no in-person estimates. All will be handled by Command Center, uh, and just trying to keep a very, very simple model.
We have a whole notes, like I have notes folder shared, all the details about our Texas checklist.
The deets.
All of like the dates we'll be traveling and like—
Oh yeah.
The goals that you set were in a different notes.
Well, I'm only allowed to spend 10 hours, like part of the media side is I'm only allowed to spend 10 hours per week because like there's obviously like a lot of stuff. As a part of the challenge. Yeah. Augusta, over on Augusta, and homeworks. So I can only spend 10 hours a week. So the objective is to show from day one I'm getting a GM, from day one they're hiring, they're doing everything. And we recently went to Texas and we didn't show you guys.
Oh, well, kind of. I like— it dropped a little bit. It was probably so obvious. I showed us going to Sur La Table doing a couple's cooking class thing. That was in Dallas. I don't know if I ever said where it was. But yeah, we went to Dallas right after a turnaround show, turnaround trip, and we met the GM, took him and his wife out for dinner, just explored the place, looked around a little bit.
Sniffed.
You know, we got a little sniffer out.
Went up and down the neighborhood.
Yeah. We actually toured the house that we were Airbnbing there in Carrollton. So we just like got a little feel for the place. And yeah, I'm so excited. Excited. Obviously it'll be good for the businesses and everything, and I'm excited to just be in a new area and like have a sense of community. Because even while we were there, the vibes there are so much different than up here. Like, I miss the southern— the Southeast a lot, to be honest. Like, everyone's not so head down to themselves, like Yeah, they're not, um, ostriching, you know, sticking their head in the ground. They're like, yeah, I'm just excited to build a community there, be in a new area, meet new people.
Yeah, there's a lot of people. I think there's like 7 or 8 million people in the Metroplex, DFW.
Million?
Yeah, there's— yeah, there's more people, more restaurants.
Very good.
More gyms.
That's the real reason we're moving.
So we did a little investigative journalism. We We went over there, checked all the gyms, restaurants, drove all over the place.
I already know what gym I wanna join. We also just wanna disappear from this winter, from the Washington winter.
Yeah, that is a plus. It's not really the main reason why, but it is a plus 'cause it's the best place in the world to be in Washington for like May till September. Outside of that, you wanna be elsewhere. Dallas can still get cold, don't get me wrong. Yeah, or have tornadoes.
Our luck, we'll probably get snow in Dallas whenever we're there because it is North Texas, but at least you won't have like rain 24/7. But that's definitely not the reason why we're doing it. The winters up here are really not that bad. It's just a slight plus. Also, like, we'll be having to come back here at least like once a month for like Augusta training or coming back for Christmas, conference, going to my parents for Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, conference.
A lot of traveling. So every single month.
We're kind of going to be living all over the United States for 6 months. It was a very, to be honest, spur of the moment thing.
Also spur of the moment.
Well, it was.
It's been months.
No, from like whenever we made the decision though, it was very fast.
Oh, making the decision.
And then everything fell into place so quickly, like a puzzle. So like one of our main concerns, or one of Mike Andes' main concerns, was like, who's going to document all this, right? Cuz like the media team is up here And we have a couple remote members on the media team, one of them being Terrell who lives in Tennessee. So like he was our obvious choice. He's the one that comes on the turnarounds with us. But we were both like, man, we don't know if Terrell would want to like, you know, uproot his whole life and move somewhere else for 6 months. Cause like we know like that's a huge ask. That's crazy. But Mike tried anyway. He was like, yo dude, he gave him like a whole document, right? Of all the details. And he was just like, talk to your wife about this.
Well, we ironed out all the nitty-gritty details.
Yeah.
And then we knew there was a few key people that needed buy-in. And the reason things fell into place once we went public with it, because you and I both knew, but once we went public with it, we knew there was like 10 people we needed to get on board with it.
Oh, you're right.
Yeah. And they all were just like, it was like bam, bam, bam, bam. Yes. They came back after a few days.
Weren't most of them, like the leadership team, like, yes, this is the obvious answer.
Oh yeah, after a couple meetings. Yeah, we talked about it quite a bit. But Terrell was amazing because they had been talking about like they felt like there was something else they needed to be doing or wanted to do. And then I contacted him out of the blue, was like, hey, I'm thinking about hiring someone in Dallas. Uh, before I do that, just wanted to run it by you, see if you and your wife would want to move there for 6 months. And he was like, yeah, actually we were just talking about this and and I'll give you a final answer by the end of the week. Yeah. And so then that week, I think it was in that weekend, the weekend after we like got our Airbnbs, because like that was a big kicker before we started scheduling, was getting someone to video everything.
Yeah. And we like, we were talking about how difficult it would be if we kind of just got someone random, because it's like they'd have to get basically trained up on Mike's content, or at least understand Augusta and what Mike's mission there was. And it was just so much easier to get someone who was already on the team, understood the workflow, was already trained up in the software that the media team uses. Like, it was seriously a miracle in my mind. And I don't want to speak for Terrell and Mikayla, shout out, but Terrell had mentioned like they had felt a little bit of a draw towards Dallas specifically, which was like insane.
Really?
Insane. Yes. Anywho, the way that all fell into place was just like definitely more confirmation for us.
That's why we went pretty quick, I think, there.
Yeah, exactly.
'Cause we were like discussing, then I did all the documentation, I went through all like what needed to fall in place. Then we talked to just a few people at Hinged On and everyone was like, "Go, yes." Especially like media, Terrell, leadership team of Augusta. And then it was like, when do we tell Augusta? Once everything was done, then like some things happened and I was like, "Hey, this is a good time to tell everyone what's happening." We knew from the beginning of the year that we were gonna focus on elements of, for the larger locations. And we launched Augusta Leads at the beginning of the year. And so those are two big things we're gonna be focused on when we go to Dallas too, is like, okay, so what happens if you spend gobs of money? Like, I'm gonna go in with a six-figure budget to be able to scale very quickly. Can we make sure that Augusta Leads can launch a location that fast efficiently? And so having means like Matt, Dakota, the Augusta Leads department, and like really knowing that we can do it, there was a lot of things that have to fall in place. And like everyone was just like, check, check, check, check, check. And then the GM, yeah, has, has, uh, proven to be super solid too. And so there's so many question marks as to like what needed to fall in place for it to work— or sorry, what, what needed to fall in place for it to— for us to do it, then what needed to fall in place ideally for it to work well. And someone like, someone like Terrell was great because it was like immediately we knew we wouldn't have to think about the media. Uh, it wasn't another like asterisk or like question mark of the project, cuz like, okay, he can document it, he can get all the footage back to the team here, they can edit it, like in the same workflow and everything. And then the GM part was the biggest thing.
Yep.
And so going through lots of videos and talking back and forth, people interviews, and then going out and meeting John and his wife. He's excellent. So he's worked in the city that we are targeting in Dallas. He's been there for 20 years. He is kind of raised there and has worked for the city and just like really good family man there. And I think it'll be really solid. The biggest part about me being there and then leaving is I have to have a super solid GM. And so I don't know if John watches these videos, but shout out John.
Shout out John and his wife. She was really sweet.
Yeah, she's awesome.
What was also crazy though about the GM is like, I was thinking it would be helpful to get someone who was already familiar with your content, and he was.
Yeah, he had already watched the stuff, and I didn't post about that at all in the video applications or the, uh, job app, like a job offer stuff.
Yeah, it was just super helpful for someone to have the context of Mike, just to understand like why this is being recorded and why and what is Augusta Nation and why is it important for the Augusta owners to like see this kind of content.
He's already in the Facebook group. He's been, he's been sleuthing, but they don't know that, do they?
Nope. Yeah, they don't know that.
Now you do.
Have fun sniffing it out.
Oh, I said his name, so then we'll figure it out now.
Yeah, but he's coming for training in August. So he'll get trained up and we're making the move in September. So 2 and a half more months. We're shipping my car there. We're going all in, folks. We'll just obviously be documenting the whole process and it'll be fun. It'll be a fun little adventure to bring you guys on. Definitely a fun chapter in our lives. Like, when else are we gonna be able to just decide one day to just leave for 6 months? Like, that's definitely the flexibility that I really, really appreciate right now. So.
You were on board pretty quick too.
Yeah. Kind of seems like a no-brainer, like for a media perspective. And like the North Carolina videos were so good. So good. And that was only a month. And that was whenever you guys had a lower budget and everything like that. And you were just like pounding out the vlogs and there was only one editor for that. But now like the whole team's gonna be on it. It's just gonna be so good. It's just gonna be so good.
And you wanted to go. And I wanted to go.
And I wanted to go. Of course. There was always something about Texas that I really liked. Yeah. I'd actually never really been to Dallas.
Had you not? No. You'd never been, oh yeah, we have in McKinney.
Oh right, yeah, our first turnaround this year was in McKinney, Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
Flashback to McKinney turnaround, boom.
Oh, don't do that to me. That's probably gonna get cut 'cause I don't have any clips from it. If there are any ladies between the age of 22 to 30 in the North Dallas area and you like to work out and you love being married, hit me up. You don't even have to like working out. You can—
you can—
you can just be alive.
I want friends.
I want to make friends in Texas. Hit me up. Brianna.andy, that's my Instagram. Is that everything?
That's everything.
That's everything. Look forward to the Texas vlogs and join us on this adventure in our move to Texas in 2 months. Bye! Bye!
