We Need to Talk... where i need to improve in 2021

What's up, everyone? Mike Andy's here in Palm Springs. It's pretty late at night, so I'm just gonna try to keep my voice down a bit, but just got out of the hot tub and want to share a little bit with you all. Why I feel like weekends like this that I'm taking away are so important. Big part is to get focused back on your goals as business owners. We get just so stuck in the kind of minutia of getting stuff done, work schedule to do, lists, being very, very reactive. And as you go, throughout our day, we're reacting constantly to emails, phone calls, people asking us for time, people asking us for things they need, managers, employees. And regardless if you even own a business, I think it's very important to not be reactive in life. We're constantly. You're reacting to stimuluses outside of your external. The things that are external, things that are not really created by you. It's just something you're reacting to. And so getting away like this is. I do it once a year, spend three, four days. Beautiful place out here in Palm Springs. I've come the past couple years. It's gorgeous. There is no one here because Covid, but even last year there's like no one here.

Ever. So it's nice, just private place to be. But I wanted to share with you kind of a couple of my goals for this upcoming year. Things I'm trying to focus on in the business and things I think the hardest thing for me this coming year is going to be as the businesses grow, just getting better at delegation and just letting people go, letting managers just do what they do, not get in their way. And not. Not even needing a checkup meeting, not even needing a time when you say, hey, can you check in with me? Like, just. Just let them run. I emailed our general managers today. We have three. Three new locations we're starting for Augusta. One in New York, one North Carolina, one in Redmond, Washington. And I just emailed them the day. And as a general manager, we really want them to take control of the location and really feel like it's their own. And so when I told them, because they get their own, they get access to the bank accounts and the debit card and all the rest of it, right? And so I said, you know, I don't need to know your expenses. I don't even know they're coming, for example, for training. And it's all paid for by corporate, since they're general managers. And so I said, hey, look, book your flights, book your Hotel and stuff. And you don't need to run it by me. You don't need to ask how much stuff costs. I said just, just run all expenses through one question. That is, if I was spending my own money, would I make this purchase? That's the only, that's the only question. I want you to kind of run your prognosis through as to whether or not you should buy something, make a purchase as a general manager. And that's the kind of behavior I need to do more of. And that is just I've talked about before not relegating something, but delegating. Relegating in my mind is like you don't know how to do it and so you just literally hand it over to someone, cross your fingers and hope that they do okay. Whereas delegation is being so confident in their abilities that you, you manage them, you hold them accountable, but you don't micromanage. You don't get in their way. You don't get in their way of them being great delay. Get in the way of them really proving themselves and showing their worth and showing their skills and their, their value. And something I need to improve on. And it's going to be needed in 2021 because we're growing so much. And we have, we have, as of Today, we have 35 locations, Augusta Lawn Care now, and five of them are going to be corporately owned stores that we have general managers at then in 2021. You know, I don't plan on buying a whole bunch of real estate. We bought, have 10 units now. And I think in 2021 it's more about increasing the rents on those by improving the buildings, etc, just making the operations more efficient. But we're going to be starting a project called Reset Mind and Body. It's kind of a mental health project that I've been wanting to do for a long, long time. Always wished I had the money. Always wished I kind of had the opportunity. And I felt very strongly to do it now. I was gonna wait until next year, but I felt very strongly that I need to start it now with COVID and everything that's going on, people struggling.

Just adapting and coping with the stresses and the pressures that are happening right now. And so I felt very strongly to start it as soon as possible. So literally, I get back Thursday night, Friday morning, I'm meeting the contractors at the facility. We're hoping to get a lease on and just trying to work a deal where financially it makes sense, we can make it work. And I'm a big believer when it comes to a mission minded sort of goal, to make it a business, in my opinion is like the best thing because it allows the business to be sustainable and it doesn't require donations. And it's not a charity. It's an actual sustainable business that can scale, grow and help more people because the fundamental financial.

Foundation is strong enough to sustain it without donations. And charity, which is never constant, never produces inherent value to the customer. And so this, this place is, I'm very much looking forward to the reset is going to be a big piece, but again, I don't have the time to be there. And so again, hiring someone that I trust so much and know that whatever they do, I can trust their decisions making skills. I know that what they're trying to do is in the best interest of the business, my best interest, and just being able to trust them 100% and realizing that people are going to make mistakes, people are going to make errors, they're going to mess up and make a loss of money. But that all in all, me not getting bogged down in what they're doing and I've already hired them to do, is number one, keeping the business overall from growing and succeeding because I need to be focusing on strategy and other things. And then it keeps them from really obtaining their full potential because they have the abilities, they have the skills. And I think that most people, they do want to see their full potential come to manifestation and be able to flex their wings in your organization. So if you have a manager, if you have an employee that as you go into 2021, you know you're going to grow, you know, you know you're going to expand or you have a business idea, like just trust them. You know, like I talked about this at conference and that is everyone says, oh, you got to earn my trust, like I'll see how you work out. I'm a big believer in like trusting someone 100% and then letting them mess it up, you know, letting them mess up my trust because I feel like when you trust someone, the amount of trust that comes back to you is reciprocated is so much greater when.

They see that you trust them and they pour right back into it. I believe that. And so that's kind of like my big goals in 2021. Just kind of learning how to manage so much going on with so many locations, selling locations. We're scaling up command center for the franchisees massively because just it's like exponential growth in terms of the number of leads that are coming in so learning all of that, we're building software on several fronts for the franchisees.

Just so much stuff going on. So 2021, for me, honestly, if there was one word when it comes to business and the goals I have, it's delegate. I have to, like, if I hold on to anything this year, it's not good. Everything that I can possibly let other people take a hold of and run with the better. And I really feel like it's so much more fulfilling as an employee, as someone who believes in what we're trying to do, just to let them run with it. And they can take pride in ownership even though they don't have equity, but they feel like they. They contributed. I feel like when you make decisions for someone all the time without letting them just go for it, that they don't. They can't take ownership because they don't own the idea. They don't own anything. And you're telling what they do. They're cog in the machine. A lot of people think that's kind of like the New age thing. It's like, oh, people don't want to, like, work hard and they just don't want to be a cog in the machine and all this sort of thing. But it's true. It's true. Like, if you're going to try to have millennials, if you're going to try to hire younger, a younger workforce, they want to be part of something. And so I feel like that's my goal, is to make the something really cool, really awesome, and then allow people just like to maximize their potential. Potential and leave it, not leave it untapped. So that's kind of my goals for this year, in a nutshell, is to delegate a lot more and let people run with things, Let them make mistakes if they need to, to learn, grow, expand themselves and their skill set. Literally getting kicked out of the pool here because they're closing down. It's getting late at night here. But.

If you're making your goals this year, if you're looking for 2021.

I just encourage you to think about other people first. Your employees first, your customers first, your community first. And just a few years ago, I remember thinking, like, man, if I could just make the business do a million in revenue, that would just be like a dream. That's all I could think of. And then you get there and you realize there's so much more you can do in terms of hiring other people and allowing people to grow, and you feel more responsible to really take advantage of what's been given to you. I feel very responsible for what's been given to me with Augusta. I think it's a massive opportunity and I feel responsible to make sure it grows to where it should be. And that has the impact in the industry that it should. And I'm looking forward to it. It's gonna be crazy awesome. And to be able to do something like reset that I'm so passionate about outside of business, but it's still going to be a business and be profitable, is.

Very, very blessed this trip. Just looking back, even in the past year since I was here last, I like coming to the same place, honestly, because it gives you some frame of reference of like, where you were at and what you were doing the year before. And honestly, 2020 was pretty brutal for so many people. And looking back at what Covid did and everything like that. But, man, like, so much has changed. Like, you know, I'm just so thankful to God. Thank. So thankful for my family, my team back home and franchisees. Just so many people. And you kind of look back and reflect on what incredible year 2021, 2020 was and just how awesome 2021 is going to be. It's just amazing. This is so cool. I love this little place here out here. This is a little pool here area.

Super nice, relaxing. I like to get here at the middle of the night. No one's out here.

Get a little relaxation in before I go back. Gonna go work on some automations for the franchisees. But I enjoy it, man. Like.

You know, I don't. I don't really. I don't feel burnt out. People always think, are you gonna burn out? You're gonna. You're gonna burn out. Like, you need to take more time off, man. I love it. Love seeing the impact that it has on people and changes, you know, their opportunities in life, their perspective in life. That's what I live for, man. I love it. So I just want to say thank you. I know these videos like this are mostly me just reflecting and saying thank you, but I can't say it enough and everyone watching. People have supported me so much over 2020 and made all of this possible. I really appreciate it. So, anyways, take care everyone. We'll see you tomorrow.