We Spent $50K on THIS Instead of Ads

To purchase a booth, to fly your team out, to create all the banners, all of that, like, there are real costs associated. Like, by the time you add it all up, it's thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands.

The cost is all everyone's wages.

You know, let's just call—

if it's the whole thing cost us $50 grand, if I spent all that on Facebook ads, I'd probably get more customers, uh, in terms of people joining HomeWorks.

Like, there isn't necessarily a measurable return on, I bought this huge banner that says HomeWorks and nothing else, and it's going to be up for 2 days at an event, and then it's gonna be in a closet the rest of the year.

I would've hoped that by now I had at least 20 to 50 customers, but we had to turn the ads off pretty quickly. So, um, we'll see if we can make anything happen the last like 4 to 6 weeks of the season.

That dashboard that I showed you, like, it took me less than a day to like build it out and make it effectively where it is right now, and it's almost flawless. Like, I give it one manual check at 3 PM every day and I just say go.

I think within 6 to 12 months, if you're not having an MCP and you're not having an open API that has like pretty much all the data available I think you're gonna be left behind.

Welcome back, another episode, DC Suite Unfiltered with Mike Andes. You are in Texas. We are not in studio. How you doing, sir?

Good, man. I think, what, what if we just named this DC Suite Unfiltered with Lee Park? I think that might, might roll off the tongue easier.

DC Suite Unfiltered with Lee Park. Yeah, but nobody, there's no name wrecking.

You have to do clout, bro.

Let's go. No, I don't need, I don't need the clout, man. I'm, I'm part of the team. So, uh, uh, yeah. How you are in Texas? How is that going?

Yep. Uh, good. Like they had like 2 months of no rain. And so yesterday and today, the first time it has rained since. So I'm excited because the grass should start growing. So people actually should need their lawn mowed. Uh, so next week we start running the ads again. We turned them on for a couple of days and people will see that in the vlog, but like leads coming in when you don't even have any of the equipment set up, like we didn't last week. So this week we have 2 vans completely finished, ready to go. Next week we turn on the ads and then we'll get the other 2 vans done.

So cool.

Should be good.

And as of right now, I guess by the time this releases, it'll probably match up pretty well with how the vlogs are coming up and actually might even be behind. Uh, do you have people hired outside of John or people in the pipeline? Yep.

We have 2 locked in as of yesterday. We had their technician training and we got them like coming on. So next week we start the ads. The week after that, the first employee starts and the other employee is very flexible. Uh, in terms of when he starts. So like basically once we have a full route, we'll bring him on.

Nice. I know this is obviously a business experiment, but I don't want to get into all of that. You have the vlogs, you have the websites, you have the trackers. So like, how is Mike Andes personally doing in Texas? Enjoying it? I'm assuming eating lots of meat and barbecue.

Uh, not, not really. Not a lot. So next week I actually start with, uh, my— I have a new coach for, for health stuff.

Oh, cool.

And I've never had someone do, uh, my diet. Oh, so I'll be on a meal plan, dude. I'll be eating the same thing every day.

Nice.

But that, that's, you know, they say abs are made in the kitchen. So, uh, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be doing that for the first time ever. Uh, but we've made it out a couple times, but it's mostly just to get out of the house. Like, I've been working a lot. So I, I had warned Bree, I'm like, hey, the first 6 to 8 weeks, like really 4 to 6 weeks, um, I'm gonna be working a lot more. And it's mostly because like buying the trucks, the vans, equipment, I'm not working on the business. I don't have to be doing it, but that's the best content. Like if I don't have those shots, we can't use them the rest of the vlogs. The next 6 months, like when I talk about going to site 1, I need to have a shot of me going to site 1 ideally. Um, and then yeah, there's just been, um, you know, obviously delays on every single front. I would've hoped that by now I had at least 20 to 50 customers, but we had to turn the ads off pretty quickly. So, um, we'll see if we can make anything happen the last like 4 to 6 weeks of the season. Yeah.

I think, I think you'll get something going. I, I personally enjoyed watching you do the— what is it, the Z spreader or whatever it's called?

Yeah, Z sprayer.

Z sprayer. That was— it was great to see you back on a piece of equipment because, yeah, those are touchy, dude. We, we rarely use stand-ons, so that was— it was fun to see that.

Yeah, I, I— hey, I did pretty good, I'm not gonna lie. I was surprised. I surprised myself. It came right back. Yeah, it's like riding a bike, dude.

Yeah, awesome. Um, any, any cool, like, Like personal developments in Texas? Like, is it like you found a restaurant you like, you found a park, you know, we just want to, we just want to make sure Mike Andes the person is okay here.

Uh, yeah, right. So, uh, Bree got me probably my favorite, uh, birthday present ever. Before we came here, she gave me, she bought me a membership to Sweat House. And so they, it's like, it's called, it's called contrast therapy. So it's just a cold plunge, a sauna, and a vitamin C shower. It's a shower with incense. Yeah. Most bougie thing ever. Like ever. But it's so nice, dude. And then, and then the other thing is I have 2 phones now, so they last about 10 to 12 minutes before they overheat in the sauna. So I rotate them out.

Oh my God.

In the sauna. So I can just work and do it. Like, that's what I'm like doing all like the daily posts, like all the media stuff. I just, I'm in the sauna going back and forth between phones. It's great.

I love that. So we need to get Apple or, you know, Jensen Huang, someone from Nvidia, make, Make a device that allows peak entrepreneurs that are optimizing in the sauna to operate without—

It's like, hey, if we can figure out how to make these things waterproof, surely we can make them last more than 10 minutes at 175 degrees.

Come on. Dude, that's savage. 175, is that normal? I don't know. I don't sauna often. It's like I sauna if it has it at the hotel I'm staying at. It's like, I'll go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you get over 200, that starts to get a little more like you're singeing the hairs on your nose. But 175 is, is pretty easy.

All right. Nice. I love it. Well, um, let's get into some of the topics I had prepared for us today. So by the time this releases, it will be releasing the week before the biggest event in our industry, and that is the Equip Expo in Louisville, Kentucky.

Second, second biggest after Blue Collar Summit. Come on now.

That's true.

I apologize.

Strike that from the record. Strike it from the record. Um, the second biggest industry. Well, I, I would argue it's—

You could say it's the biggest annual. It's because you could, you could say it's the biggest annual because Blue Collar Summit is semi—

The biggest annual event in our, in the green industry, specifically the Equip Expo. Blue Collar Summit is really all home service businesses. So it's in a league of its own. Uh, get your tickets now, bluecollarsummit.com. We are like 110 days out, I believe.

Is it really? Wow.

I'm pretty— yeah, I have a 100-day marker on my calendar. So we're like 110 days out. You were going back. It's been 3 years, 2, 3 years since you've been.

Since I've actually been to Expo, at least 3. It could be 4. At least 3.

No, because we did the con— well, we did the conference in Louisville right before the Expo. That was 3 years ago, which you didn't go to.

I didn't go though.

I went for a day and I didn't have a booth. Well, I went for 2 days, the 2 days. And I just walked around with the owners and talked to people and had conversations and talked to vendors. Um, shout out Wright Mowers. I think that's who we got that year. So that was great.

Um, oh yeah, you, you were doing the preferred vendor kick. Let's go.

I was going around trying to get preferred vendors and, you know, seeing if anybody wanted to join Augusta. But anyways, so it's been 4 years since you've actually been to the expo. Why are you going back?

I'd say the biggest reason is obviously the rebrand to HomeWorks. You know, I, and so making a bit of a big splash, I think. So getting a bigger booth, it's like a really big booth. It's what, 10 by 10? So it's 4, it's 4 times bigger than our usual size booth. And so yeah, just, just, it's one of those things where it's like you put a stake in the ground and see people in the real world, especially with software. I came from non-software to software. Most of them, they're from the software world. Uh, that have built. And so I, I think it's useful to see real people and see the brand in person and go talk to them and interact with them. So members of the team will be there, uh, Homeworks members will be there, uh, we have a couple brand ambassadors that'll be in the booth. And so it's just, I don't expect like sign a bunch of people up. It's really just saying, hey, we're, we're playing in the big leagues and like We are, uh, we're here to stay.

So yeah. So you have a booth, Homeworks booth. Thankfully, I was also invited, so I get— there's an Augusta corner of the Homeworks booth if anyone's interested.

Yes, put Lee off in the corner over there.

I'll be the guy in the yellow. Everyone else will be in those cool orange. Uh, I'll be in the— well, I'll probably be in black and yellow. Um, but you, you got the booth. You kind of said staking the ground, seeing people, meeting them face to face. Members of your team will be there. actual users of the product will be there as like brand ambassadors to talk to people about it. But is there like a specific goal? Like what would make this trip a win? Because obviously to purchase a booth, to fly your team out, to create all the banners, all of that, like there are real costs associated. Like by the time you add it all up, it's thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands. I don't know how much a booth is now at the expo. Like, is there a goal? Is there a greater reason as to like why you're willing to expense all of that?

Yeah, I think the booth—I could be wrong—but I think it's twenty grand. It's it's not cheap. Yeah, yeah. Um, and it's not—that's not really the cost. The cost is all everyone's wages. But um, why am I doing it? I think there's sometimes when it comes to branding, it's not like customer acquisition cost, right? So if I spent, you know, let's just call if it's the whole thing cost us fifty grand. If I spent all that on Facebook ads, I'd probably get more customers in terms of people joining homeworks. But I think when you're thinking long term, very long term, when it comes to branding, you do things slightly different. It's kind of like we talk about with Jonathan sometimes on the podcast, like charging fuel surcharges or credit card processing, passing along the customer. These are little nicks, like knocking on people's doors at 6 PM. In the short term, you make more money. In the short term, it's probably good on paper. But what does it do for the brand in 10, 15, 20 years? And because I'm not like trying to build this thing to sell it or trying to like get out in 5 years. I'm trying to build this for like the rest of my life. And so I would like to have good branding and like your name is the only thing that people, you're gonna keep forever. And it's not just my personal brand. The big reason why we're going to is 'cause like Homeworks brand changed. And so this is the first Equip Expo since Homeworks was revealed and we changed the branding. So I think these are long-term investments that in 3 years when someone's like, I'm really disappointed in my software, or like my, I feel like I'm outgrowing my software, I saw Mike, I saw the team at Homeworks. They were great. Now let me go give them a shot. Um, and so whether or not that happens within 12 months or 36 months, I don't really care. Um, my hope is that if someone walks by that booth, that, uh, they can get, get face to the name and build some trust so that down the road when they make a buying decision, that we're there.

Yeah, I think that's great. So kind of, I guess, going in that direction, it sounds like an evolutionary shift for you to get real podcasty in the sense of you're talking about like the brand, not just like Your personal brand or the brand of HomeWorks. But like, there is an element of brand and that's something that, you know, now we're pivoting from the home service business owners is like, hey, can you do like direct, like intent-based marketing, a Google ad? Like they search for your services and you pop up. Like you're saying, this is the exact opposite of that. Like there isn't necessarily measurable return on, I bought this huge banner that says HomeWorks and nothing else. And it's going to be up for 2 days at an event, and then it's going to be in a closet the rest of the year. So it's an interesting thing for you to say, like, this is the shift of like the brand. When did you— or how do you even start to make those calculations? Or even is there even a calculation? Because this is what all, you know, companies do, right? Like, this is like you watch a football game. It's like, this was the Allstate Insurance pass of the game. And it's like, that has nothing to do with the game. But like, It is, it's, it's brand. So when do you start to make that calculation?

Yeah, it's very hard to attribute, right? So like, for example, the Allstate thing, it's like, will you in 3 years when you're considering changing your auto insurance, like, you know, I'm gonna choose Allstate because 3 years ago they made a replay and that pass was great and it said Allstate right before it. So, but it is, it's sowing seeds. It's also showing that like, we are not an amateur player anymore. And so they're the big boys in the industry. And when it comes to software, I think the same thing with Augusta. That's why we have the booth there for that as well. Like, I'm very happy to, to go up against Grounds Guys or the US Lawns when it comes to franchising side in terms of what we offer and the value we offer, the performance of the locations. And then same thing is true with the software. You know, I don't think there's any perfect software and we certainly have our bumps and bruises and things that we're still improving. And I just think that we're on a faster track of improvement. than the other ones. And so for every person making a decision to join software, some of them will decide whether we are ahead or behind, et cetera. But I do believe our rate of progress is very high. And so when I look at, you know, 20 or 30 years down the road, I think we'll be in a good spot. And I hope that along that journey, when everyone's making the calculus as to who they're gonna have soft— whose software they're gonna run on, that we enter that conversation, whether that be at conf— at this, at the Equip Expo or in a year or in 5 years from now or 10 years from now. It's just very different timeline that I'm thinking about.

Are you expecting any turf wars with any of the big software companies that are there?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'll go talk to all of them.

Yeah. So I think, I think that's good. And I think it shows like the collaboration. It's like, hey, if we are trying to help home service business owners, like they're going to have a niche, you're going to have a niche. And obviously I ask that question as a joke. It's tongue in cheek. But I think there is that element of, you know, There are kind of like, I'm sure, rumblings of like, oh, like Homeworks is coming, Mike Andes is coming, right? Like, oh, he hasn't been here for years. Like, you know, and do you even— do you ever think about that? Or are you just like, hey, I'm playing my own game. Like, it doesn't matter whether I'm there or whether I'm not because you haven't been there for 4 years. So I'm sure people will, will talk about that. I mean, in 4 years, your channel has probably grown, what, 50, 100, how many thousand subscribers? I mean, your views, millions and millions more. Like, so all the products you've launched in the last 4 years and changes you've made, I'm sure there are kind of like some rumblings of like, oh, Mike Andes He's coming back, his brands are going to be back. Do you think about that at all? Or are you like, dude, we're just playing our game?

Yeah, I know we're on their radar now, especially this past year. Um, I don't take any really— it just doesn't change what I'm doing. Like, what am I going to do? Like, okay, let's say that's true. What am I going to change about like, I just, we still have problems. We still have bugs. We still have things we're trying to improve at Command Center and Augusta. And I just got to stay focused on that.

Yeah, I love that. So with the—

I gotta show more emotion. Hey, this is funny. All right, so on the mastermind, did you see that question about someone saying what they said about me?

Was it like yesterday? Was it like the most recent mastermind?

I don't remember a couple days, but they were like saying I was non-emotional. Yeah, it was the last one.

Okay, I'm like a day or two behind on masterminds, but anyways.

Oh man, you'll really like it. You'll really like it. It was basically someone saying I was super unemotional about like a really— like we had a big day and like hit some records. And so I just like said it casually and they're like, They were like, man, I don't know about— like, I was thinking when we go public, we go to New York, have a big party. And I was like, you know, maybe Mike won't be partying because he's like lower highs, higher lows type situation. And so then they pick it up on the vlog and they're like, you know, we really need you to show more emotion. Like all the things you're working on on your phone all day long, you're just like heads down, you're frustrated about— we need to know about that. And I'm like, no, no, like it's not productive. Like I will say stuff that I know will get resolved. And it was so funny because I talk about it with them, right? And then as I'm working with Command Center, Like I'm seeing stuff from Command Center happening at the location. And like, usually I just say, you know, I'd have my negative dialogue in my head, wouldn't go anywhere. They're like, we need to know about it. So it's so funny cuz the very first time I share all like my thoughts and like how like, this is, this is not working. And then turns out like 2 hours later, it, it was not Command Center's fault.

Yeah.

It was the, it was our fault, like on our end. And, uh, cuz we were not putting in the notes, uh, the call notes. So, um, Anyways, uh, I think it is. Yeah. I'm like, I think this, this just reminded me of that because there's just nothing you're going to do if your competitors are thinking about you. Like, how is that going to change your behavior?

So. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's funny because I deal with that a lot is, you know, people will get on a call with me and they're like, oh, well, I had a call with, just so you know, I had a call with Neighborly. I'm like, awesome. Like, great. Glad you had a call with them. What'd you learn? Like, anything look good? You know, and I appreciate the transparency, but it's also like, it doesn't affect me. Like, let's see if Augusta is a good fit for you. And if it's not, I hope Neighborly or another brand is. But the goal is like, we know our model, we know what we're doing, we know the direction we're heading in, we have our mission of changing the level of professionalism in the industry. We're going to hit 1,000 locations, we're going to IPO in 10 to 12 years. And if you want to be on that train, and it makes sense for you financially, great. And if not, like, No worries. Go talk to Neighborly or other people.

Funny, funny story. So the other day we had tech training, right? So we were going to the coworking space. They had a little conference center. I get there, it's pouring down rain. I park, I run inside. I go to the bathroom so bad. I had a huge steak, like massive steak the night before. That morning I had a smoothie, spinach smoothie, and man, I need to go to the bathroom. So I am tearing in. I'm running around the coworking because it's like this circle of offices. I'm running around. I hadn't gone to the bathroom at the office yet, so I'm running around. And sure enough, as I'm running by, in the corner is a Grounds Guys office logo. So they're in our office. It's great. So I was on the vlog later on in the day, not right there. Goodness, I had to go to the bathroom so bad. But later on the day, I had Terrell come with me to the camera. I'm like, hey, whoever's this here, come say hi to me. Like, I'm not here very often, but I know you're here, so come say hi.

Yeah.

So hopefully they come say hi to me.

Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. Yeah. So I think essentially what you're saying is like, just play your own game. Like, we can all be nice. There's enough out there. But there is kind of like that, like, you know, and I hate that I always reference him, but he is a big influence on us in our organization is like Alex Hormozi. He has that one that's like, he has this one quote. It's like so short and sweet, but it's basically like, essentially, this is my bad paraphrase. It's like, don't be mean, but be a killer. You know, like something along those lines of like, I will go all the way to the edge of like burying you, but I won't. So like, how do you balance that too? Because like, business is competition. Like you are trying to take market share, you are trying to get more customers, but you can also extend your hand to whoever owns that Grounds Guys location and be like, hey, like we can help each other. Like I could give you referrals for work we don't do. You could potentially give me referrals. So like, what, what is that balance that you see?

I, I just don't think about this at all. Yeah. Like we need to become better. And the number one core value of Augusta and what we're trying to do is constant improvement. That's all I focus on. Yeah. So we can improve tech training. So like we did tech training the other day and I'm like, hey, these 3 things, like we can make it better. And back and forth commands, like we're trying to make it better. And so I'm gonna hop on and follow, like try and make Homeworks better. Like that's all I focus on. And, uh, that's The only thing I can control. I can control if someone else does something else. Like I can control that we jumped on the MCP and API bandwagon the first at HomeWorks. I'm really happy about that. And like we're working on the dispatch board, but I can only control those things. I cannot control anyone else does. And so time spent, energy spent, emotion spent on those other things is just a waste of time.

Yeah. What are your thoughts on just pivoting? I wanna go back to the MCP and API conversation because I am a total novice, and I'm sure people would want to hear more of your like—

Dude, you're, you've been doing lots of fun stuff with AI with HubSpot and ChatGPT.

I've been trying to, well, you just saw, that's a recent, I, I don't try to show you a lot of what I'm working on because it's very much like, um, uh, I'm the, I'm, I'm halfway to Chamath. I am move slow and break things. So I'm like slowly breaking things because I'm, because I'm integrating across so many different platforms and like HubSpot is a behemoth and like I get a warning message every single time I like try to automate something in ChatGPT that integrates with HubSpot. It's like— You take the elephant approach.

The elephant approach, slow and break things.

Slow and break things. That's what it seems like. But it's also like, I have to do it in between calls. And like, I can't disrupt the flow of all the information. It's a whole lot. It's a whole lot of stuff. All right. I'm a busy department. Okay. I have a lot to manage myself. So I've been working on that stuff. But what I was gonna say is kind of the emotion side of it. So I want to pivot because you asked me about acquisition.com. And I felt like Um, going to the workshop. And I felt like my answer to you was generally vanilla and kind of gave like an overall, like, this is what it was. But one of the things that I think I've, I've really started to real— or that I took away from the way they presented their offer and the way that they communicate, and it actually relates back to you saying, you know, an owner said, oh, Mike's too unemotional or too, you know, um, lower highs, higher lows, too even keel. I've started to lean into being kind of the opposite of that on sales calls and in the new video I just recorded. It's much more, Fast and loose. It's more high energy. It's more relaxed, less buttoned up. Previous videos and video sales letters, webinars that I've done, it's been very rigid and buttoned up. But the main— Eddie, who is like Alex's right-hand man, the main guy, he was the exact opposite of Alex in terms of demeanor and communication style, like super fast talking, Tons of witty off-the-cuff jokes, like very like left, right, center, moving all around the room, like everything. And I was like, I like that balance. Like it almost balances out. And so I was like, could I take more of that approach? And I don't have to necessarily be like the buttoned up, like even keel, lower high, higher lows sales guy for Mike. You can do that and kind of have the status of like, okay, this guy's an industry expert. His sales guy is more off the wall. I don't know. And like, I think I've— I think I've buttoned myself up a lot over the years and tried to become more professional, but I'm like, maybe I should shift back and lean into the like, hey, this is who I am. And I'm like really confident that this Augusta thing is great. And I'm not the expert, but like we have experts on our team that are going to help you. So I don't know, I guess there's no question there, but like that's an evolutionary change I'm making right now. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it's good when like there are different personalities that kind of play off the founder and CEO? Do you think it's better when there's kind of this like— Uniform, because, because like Jocko's team, like to give you a different example, Jocko's team, they're all the same. They have the exact same speaking cadence. They all like same words per minute, same presentation style, everything. And they're all, most all of them are military background. So there's some influence there, but that's the opposite. Like every single person that presented at acquisition.com on Alex's team, all drastically different personalities, communication styles. And I don't know if that was for you at like the scaling workshop, but at offers workshop, they were all very different. And so what are your thoughts on that? Like, I guess like homogeneity as an organization, like consistency or playing in or leaning into the variety. Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Well, unfortunately for everyone listening, they will not be able to see your video webinar because now I'm there on my mugshot is on there for the first 6 to 7 minutes and they have to sign up. They have to fill out a form for you, I think, right?

Yes.

But if you book augustafranchise.com. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'll get there. augustalawncare.com/franchise. You can see my six to seven minute like sales. Could we change it to where it's now a what's it called?

VSL.

VSL. There you go. So video VSL of me, and then once you book a call with Lee, then you get his thirty to forty minute video long presentation. But to answer your question, yeah, like unfortunately the word diversity has been like kicked around the past like six or seven years, and I think misconstrued. I think that the reason you want diversity is because. Differing thought. And so different personalities, different communication styles, different ways of thinking is important to be able to maximize the amount of people that you can actually reach. And so if you are only trying to go after one demographic, whether it be politically or whether it be from a financial perspective, like you probably want one certain type of person to be able to talk to that 10%, 20%, 30% of the audience. But when you're trying to get everyone to go in the same direction, I think diversity is really important. in diversity of thought, diversity of opinions, diversity of backgrounds, diversity of a lot of things to be able to get the most rounded way of attacking a problem. And so, you know, if you want to switch from elephant to monkey, you know, here and there, that's fine. You know, it's good.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just trying to lean into it more. I don't know whether you're calling me an elephant or a monkey, but either way, I'll take it as a compliment.

It's either— it's either build fast and break things or it's build slow and build slow and still break things.

Which is what I'm doing.

I don't know.

It was just interesting. That was, that was a takeaway. It's like after you leave a conference like that, I think it's, or seminar workshop or whatever you wanna call it, I think it's easy to like take away the surface level stuff and like you have your notes and you're like, okay, like I'll, I'll review my notes and I'll implement certain things from my notes and I'll like change this slide or this wording or this deliverable or whatever. But then it's like, what's the next layer? Like looking at the nuance of it. So anyways, just a random rant.

He's trying to, Lee's trying to find a, a reason as to why he can slip, start slipping jokes into sales presentations. He's like, hey guys, I got this great joke I want to tell you before we get started on the sales call.

Um, I do have one in the webinar that I recorded. I used like a very serious picture of you. It was, it was, it was from one of the thumbnails, one of the thumbnails from yours and Jonathan's pod. And it was like, you're like very serious. And I'm like, and then one of my bullet points is like, Mike starts to like reconsider the business model or whatever. And I was like, and see here in this slide, Mike is very clearly reconsidering or like whatever. So I'm leaning into it more.

Let's go.

Anyways, pivoting way back to, I guess, less humor would be, uh, OpenAPI MCP access. So you said HomeWorks was, um, one of the first kind of home service CRMs to lean into that. So I guess for anybody that's been living under a rock and has no idea what that is, what did you do and why were you the first home service CRM to offer OpenAPI and MCP access?

So MCP is basically your agent talking to your software and seeing all your data. API is things like custom reports and custom dashboards that are constantly pulling data in lifetime so you can build custom stuff for your business, i.e., vibe coding typically. And so I don't know why other people aren't doing it sooner because the reason we've had to wait even until later this year is because we are switching everything from PHP into a new code base that is actually a solid enough API to be able to connect everything to. Because if you connect bad code to AI, it's just going to give you, as everyone calls it, AI slop. But in reality, you're giving it bad inputs. And so this is why, as we are moving things from the old code base into the new code base, almost every week we're adding more capabilities of the API and the MCP. It's because it's in the new code base where we have confidence that it's actually going to be accurate. It's like one, one, one part, for example, that I would love to put in the, uh, to be able to put in the MCP that we don't have right now is recurring series, the ability for it to create recurring series, create off seasons, because that code is still in PHP and we need to bring it over into the new code base. Once that happens, you could basically all your scheduling automated 100%, basically from Homeworks. People are already doing it for one-time projects. And so, um, you know, I think the future of being able to talk to your agent, move. We already had, last week was like, you can move jobs off. So you'd be like, oh, so-and-so called out. Instead of going into the software and reassigning them, you're just like, hey, John called out. Can you reassign all those jobs over to Billy and then move 2 of those jobs off the next day because he's not going to have time? That can happen already. And so we just keep adding more capability as we move the code from the old land of PHP into React and Next.js, which is just a new code language that's much more sturdy, much more So like we have confidence that when you actually talk to your agent, it's pulling the right data. And, uh, it's never fast enough. It's been, uh, 4 and a half months now since we started moving it all over. But over the next few months, uh, even in the spring rush as we move everything over, it's just gonna get like super capable. It's gonna be where you're like, you're in Claude or in ChatGPT more than HomeWorks, just because it's just so easy to talk to it in plain English. But you need that system of record. You need the dispatch board. You need all those things there, uh, for like the mobile app to connect to it, all these other aspects, you know, Stripe, all these other connections. But I think it's gonna be a game changer. So I'm looking forward to it.

Do you think, and one of the things that you just said there is, I think you might be in Claude or your chatbot or whatever, potentially more than the actual software itself. Do you think that's maybe why some of these, like, legacy CRMs are hesitant to give that kind of access because they almost want to, and I'm not using this word, you know, in a negative sense, but like gatekeep The access to information or the tools or the automations? Like what, what is that their reasoning as to why they might not wanna lean into this as quickly?

I would give 'em the benefit of the doubt that they're smarter than that. You have to be really stupid to think that, um, realistically. Um, I, I am confused though. Like I think they're all gonna do it. I think within 6 to 12 months, if you're not having an MCP and you're not having an open API that has like pretty much all the data available, I think you're gonna be left behind. So I think they're all gonna do it. I watched Jobber's launch last week and I was confused because they started rolling out like custom reports and stuff. I was like, you're never gonna be able to compete with Claude or OpenAI. Like, why not just open up your data and then let people build on their platform? I don't know. There's always the approach. Everyone always talks about like Apple being very closed off versus Android being much more open source. And so maybe I'm wrong. I could be very wrong on this. I think we're all guessing at this point, but I happen to believe that the, let's just call them frontier labs, the frontier models, they're going to out-resource any software in terms of building capabilities when it comes to AI. And if you can't connect your data to it and you're just trying to build your own thing that has like maybe 10 options or 50 options or 100 options when theirs allows millions or infinite numbers of capabilities and customization. I happen to believe like more in the open source side of things, which is like, let them run with it. And then you give them all the data, like give, organize your data and architecture to where everything is accessible. And that's the way I'm going. And that's my bet. And I could be very wrong, but I just don't see it changing. Like every other software I'm using, that's what I'm thinking about. And what I said a few months ago is true. It's like, if you were starting a business or you're thinking about switching software, the only question I'm asking is how much data access are you giving me? To MCP and API. That's the only thing I'd be thinking about because I know any hole in that software I can plug or customize to my liking using vibe coding and the data as long as it's exposed to me. If it's not, then you are handcuffed to whatever's inside that software. And so as you grow, if you're going to 10x your business, you're going to go from $1 million to $10 million, you're going to probably change software 3 times, or you create a software that gives you all the data and then you're able to, you know, your custom little estimating tool, plug it in. Your custom little upsell referral engine thing that you build for your team, your custom tracking door hangers, you could plug that in. And I think that's the future. That's the bet I'm making. And no one knows. We're all just guessing at this point. So I could be very wrong in that you can make a much more sophisticated, polished version of a product when you don't have to open up and create what's called a headless piece of software, which is, hey, we will give you all the guts. You can design it how you want. And I'm betting on more of that. And I think I believe that in 12 months, Jobber, Service Autopilot, they better, like I would imagine they have an MCP and API, very readily accessible connector on Claude, et cetera.

But if not, then I will, I have chosen this path and we are going all Yeah, yeah, it'd just be, it'd be interesting if they didn't because I just, I just Googled it while you were giving that answer is, um, Salesforce and HubSpot both have OpenAPI and MCP access and they are 2 of the biggest CRMs literally in the world. And so like I'm in HubSpot and I'm able to integrate it with my chat and I was using Chatwork and I was working using Codex and like these things like show you some of the stuff that I've been building on the backend that like I, would just be handcuffed to HubSpot systems, which even from my previous coach's perspective are like chunky at best in terms of reporting and dashboards like that. That dashboard that I showed you, like it took me less than a day to like build it out and make it effectively where it is right now. And it's almost flawless. Like I give it one manual check at 3 p.m. every day and I just say go and it like fires. And that took me like a day to like work out all the kinks. But inside of HubSpot, I wouldn't have been able to build something that clean with like exactly that data I needed in a snapshot format without like being an expert. So it's just interesting why you would, I guess, be hesitant to lean into that more.

Yeah. Well, like Salesforce just launched their MCP 2 weeks ago.

Right. Yeah. And I know that's—

Of course they brand it like, of course, like if you watch the ads, it's like this groundbreaking new technology and it's like, it's an MCP access. Like it's not crazy.

And HubSpot's been a while. HubSpot's been open for at least—

They're one of the first.

Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, I didn't know if there, you had another follow-up to that.

Yeah, no, not really. I think, I just think that it's a feature, but we're all guessing at this point. Everything's moving so fast. A year ago, no one was thinking about MCP and API access as much because it was just not as accessible before OpenClaw and then, uh, Claude Code. And now ChatGPT has an excellent product. I'm so thankful I stayed with ChatGPT throughout the bumps and the bruises. The first half of 2026, you're like, oh, you're still using ChatGPT.

Ugh.

Now it's like, It's pretty good. And so I think what's interesting— sorry to cut you off. I think the past year everyone's been focused on code. I think we're gonna see this evolution. I'm just guessing. I think we're gonna see this evolution as I think we've asymptoted or plateaued the amount of development on the code side. I'm just guessing. I have no idea. I'm literally speaking outta my hat here, figuratively. I think we've asymptoted the progress because when you see these releases, they're cool, they're great, they're awesome, they're better, but they're not like ChatGPT-3 to ChatGPT-4 or ChatGPT-4 to ChatGPT-5. The jumps aren't there. I think what's going to happen is this is going to go from the 5% of people that are actually using these paid plans and they're going to start focusing on the consumer who isn't going to use as much compute, but is going to have great use cases for this. For example, Meta Muse. Now we got ChatGPT, it comes out with Dots. And then we got GrokBot. These are all consumer-facing, easy to access, less code-heavy, less focused on MCP and API, just like, just go do it. Like, just take care of this thing for me, make a reservation for me.

Exactly. And I think where that is favorable for them is it's web-based, right? It's like, in terms of what the consumer is going to want. Hey, look at my Google Calendar. Hey, look, can you book me that restaurant reservation? Hey, search for the cheapest flight in this date range. Like, it isn't going to be this massive database of information. It's like, it will just use travel sites. It will use certain, you know, reservation.com or whatever, OpenTable, you know, it's just going to use these web-based features, but it's just going to do the, the manual part that you as the consumer don't want to do. So I completely agree with you there. Are you, I guess you're, you're so integrated in it, but do you see value as like a consumer wanting to get some, like a personal bot for your personal life? Or are you just so ingrained in all your business stuff? Like, what are your thoughts?

You know, there's always, there's always the one side of me is like, you know, like, let's just get away from all this technology. Let's just live life. I would like to call the restaurant, make my reservation. There's always that part of me. And then I'm like, you know, I don't really feel like calling anyone right now. I'm just gonna go tell my bot to go book it. So, um, I'm obviously much more on the tech side. I think there's a balance. Yeah, I'm actually becoming— I'm using it less in some cases because a lot of things that you can run on a scheduled basis. So like those things, like they take off my time. So for example, when I'm all these, like every day we're getting hundreds of comments, right? From YouTube and Facebook, et cetera. Well, I'm not gonna respond to them, but I would like to just stay engaged with the audience, see what people are thinking, et cetera. So what I do is I just have my ChatGPT go in there and be like, hey, If someone's just saying something nice, like heart them, say thank you, and let it go. If there's asking a question though, compile those while I'm working out. You can read them off my ears. I'll just respond back to one at a time and then you go make the comments. Uh, and I don't get to all the comments because of that, because like maybe I can get to 50 to 100, but if there's like 400, I'm not gonna get them all. But it, it is very useful to be able to not have to log into YouTube Studio, not log into my, you know, Facebook Business Suite and just get all in one spot while I'm working out and just like talking to it. Uh, very useful, saves me a lot of time and I'm able to connect with the audience, which I like to do. I don't want to be the person that's like, just post and like, don't ever look at the comments. Um, once you get over the initial angst of what people say about everything that you're doing, um, I do think it's useful to connect with the audience, see what they're thinking, what their reactions are. And so that's how I've been using like a useful— it's more scheduled, but like when I'm writing someone a message, I do not use AI.

Yeah.

Like very rarely, minus email. Email, if you're going to use email, all AI, but like WhatsApp, iMessage, like Slack even. I don't use any AI. I would like to communicate as a human. I don't know. That's just like—

yeah.

And I also think like as a receiver, I know it's like we all have this incredible instinct with AI to be able to know when it's AI. Uh, and I think getting an AI-generated message just seems less personal.

Yeah.

And, uh, you know, I could be wrong.

No, I 100% agree with you. I'm fully in that camp. Like any WhatsApp message I send, Anything that I provide to someone who's interested in Augusta, if it's a long email, yeah, I'm running it through my chat just as like a check. Like, hey, does this, does this information flow correctly? Could I structure it differently? Not like write this for me, but I did have this feeling the other day where I had someone who just recently joined Augusta down in South Carolina, new owner, super excited to work with him. His first email to me was like really long, and then my next email to him was like really long, and then he emailed me back really long. And then I was like, I wonder if he thinks like our AIs are just talking. I'm like, at some point, like, are we even human? You know? Because I'm like, because it's that like, and I don't think he wrote his emails to me with AI. I think it was just he had a lot of questions and he's excited and he's a new owner. Like, that's awesome. And I was like, man, but my response to him is really long. Like, I hope he doesn't think that I like just asked AI to respond for me. Because I'm like, it's almost like now I'm like hesitant, you know? So one thing that I've—

That's why I'm using, Go ahead.

Go ahead. I was just gonna say one thing that I've done, especially when people have questions about like, you know, their territory when they're joining Augusta. Like, hey, I want questions about my, like, my territory or some of the metrics, or can you walk me through X, Y, or Z about Augusta? I've been leaning into Loom even more. Yeah. Because I can just make a video that it's personal. It's like, there's Lee, there's his face. He's talking to me and sharing his screen. So that's like, I guess like my pro tip is like, if you're ever worried someone thinks you're gonna say something AI, just Make 'em a video and then you like, it completely adds that personal connection element.

Yeah. But the thing is that soon you go, I would say within a few more months, even video, someone could really doubt that too. Yeah. Like the new stuff with Higgsfield is so good and SeaDance, um, in terms of the models for video generation. But I think what's interesting is what we will, when we want to communicate personally, we will always look for the the hardest version of an AI communicative, like, style. So to your point, you went to video cuz text is so easy to do with AI. I think the written letter will come back.

Yeah.

I think 2027 is the year of the written letter and we're gonna have to like get our hand back out and like cripple it. Like as we're writing like the 10th line or our hand is hurting, I think it's gonna come back because it's gonna be harder to do that. And then, you know, I'm sure so AutoPen or whatever, someone will figure something out, but like. I think it's interesting how as technology comes in, we actually shift when we want to show personality, we shift to a different mechanism. So I agree with you, like Loom, audio notes, things like that, uh, allowing ums and ahs. And like, even when I'm typing, sometimes I'll, ah, I'll leave that mistake in. They'll know it's not AI. Yeah. But until, until AI gets smart enough to like, oh, I know how he types. And like, I will throw the occasional mistake in just to make sure it doesn't look like it's AI.

So. Yeah. Yeah. Even that too. Like I, I had one where I sent like a really long email and I did like, I 100% uploaded it into my like chatbot because I was like, this is— they were asking a lot of questions and like great questions. I was like, hey, I know that my chatbots have all the context to answer like all of these questions. I don't need to sit and like type for 20 minutes or even like Whisper flow it. Like, I just don't. Like, it's, it's not worth my time. It's not worth the prospect's time. Like, let me just run this through my chatbots and then I'll manually edit. So I went and manually edited it and I intentionally left something out because I was like, you know what, I'll follow up.

I feel that.

I'll follow up and be like, oh, hey, forgot to put this in as well. By the way, these are the X, Y, and Z other things you asked about. And it's like, it shows that like, hey, I personally read through everything and I'm giving you as much detailed information as I can. But I also don't need to sit and write you a personal email for 20 minutes when like literally every question that you're asking is stored in like my chatbots. So like, why would I? It's a disservice to myself and to that person to like do that, in my, in my honest opinion. Like if the information is accessible and the resources I have, why would I? Make myself manually process it all when like it's somewhere else. So there's a balance.

I love it. That's why audio notes in WhatsApp is really cool because it deciphers between audio notes and then voice notes. So, 'cause an audio note is a file you bring in from like another app or your computer, whereas if you push the button and you record, you can tell it's different. Yeah. I kind of like that.

You're gonna like, so I guess I'll peel back the curtain here. You're going to like— so I have integrated— I've said I've been working on integrations with my G Suite, so all of my Google stuff, my HubSpot, and for my sales process. So now I have my ChatGPT writing my sales call notes for me. You're going to like how detailed they are now. Like, so I've been, I've been tweaking it to like get it to where it's like, it's good because I want it, I want it to write my notes in my voice. Like, hey, how would I write this? Like, don't— like, I don't want it overly structured. I don't want a ton of like I don't want a ton of like figures and numbers focused. Like, it's like, like when he says like, I'm married and I have 2 kids, like write that. Like, I want to know that. I want to know who this person is. But I've been messing with that. So I think you'll like it. Maybe a little too much detail, but like there was one where I was like, I forgot that he said that. Like, I forgot that the person on the call said that, but because it's in the transcript and chat was like, this is an important point. It was basically someone that was like, oh yeah, and we're doing Christmas lights this year. Like a one-sentence phrase that I missed because we were talking about his business and the services he offered. And I must have been like writing down a note or whatever. I totally missed that he said he did Christmas light installs. And so it's like the chat picked that up. I love that. So I'm leaning into it.

Are you using Whisper? Are you using WhisperFlow's meeting notes thing?

No, because I just have the free version of WhisperFlow, um, right now because I wanted to integrate it with— because of the Augusta system-wide, we have like a higher tier subscription to Google and, um, Google Meet. So all of my Google Meets record the video and audio and transcribe. So I don't need Whisperflow to transcribe. Um, I've heard that Whisperflow is marginally better in terms of picking up transcriptions, but I'm like, so far the Google transcription has been fine. And so basically I'm building a prompt in my chat to say like, hey, I had a meeting with John Smith, read the transcript, and then put the notes into HubSpot for me. And then I manually scan the notes like, okay, let's change this, that, that It picked that up maybe a little wrong or like, that's not an important note, I'll just delete that. So yeah, been working on that.

I'll be looking at those right after this call because I have— the reason Lee said I'll like the notes because I go back and I make videos for people that we think are good candidates.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. If anybody's watching this who recently booked a call with me, it's going to be good. Yeah. We have like quite a few good people interested in joining Augusta, so I'm very excited about that. All right, well, that is our time for today. I know you're a very busy man down there in the great state of Texas. Shout out Texas. Um, you know, I think Mike moving to Texas has made the Cowboys worse. I don't know. But, um, maybe not being doing good.

I don't think they get any worse. I feel like they're always bad.

All right. Do you have any not financial advice for the people?

Well, don't get 2 phones. It's not— it's overrated. You feel like a jerk. Like I was at the gym the other day juggling phones. One was on AI, the other one I was typing up an email. Yeah, let's go. At least yours is just at work though, right?

This one? Yeah, this one I leave. I don't take it with me at home.

Yeah. So I've been juggling too. It's not worth it. Just get— just bite the stinking bullet and get a phone that has like a bajillion gigabytes so you don't fill them up at 128 gigs. I was always the cheap guy, still am, that gets the 128 gigs. 128 doesn't even get like your apps And the application, like the general system data on there. Because now with all these apps, they're like 2, 4, 8 gigabytes just for the application. So anyways, that's my rant of the day. My non-financial advice is to spend more money, give it to Apple. Tim Cook has retired or he's moved on. We got to make sure the new legacy of the new CEO is embedded and upgrade the iPhone to, you know, 256, 1 terabyte. I'm sure we'll have a 2 terabyte phone soon. Just, just, just Pay the piper.

Are you gonna get the Duo?

The— No, dude, that is so stupid. You know what's so funny? Oh, where's my second phone? Oh, it's outside. But like, I had them up and I'm like, you know what, this is probably the first time I ever realized there could be a use for this. I could have 2 things going at the same time.

That's fair. No, I can see it. I can see it.

Basically just a phone, 2 of them.

Yeah, yeah, no, I can see it. Yeah, I'm excited for that to launch because usually when they launch a new groundbreaking product, All the old models drop in price. So I, 'cause I'm, I'm still rocking an iPhone 13, baby. So I'm, uh, let's go. I need to upgrade. So, um, yeah. Well, well, that's the pod. I don't really—

What's your non-financial advice?

I don't really have any, you know, I've just been focused on the grind. I guess if, if you want non-financial advice, um, just buy a new Owala. I got a new one. I just want all—

You got a new one?

All black, dude.

Dude, I, that's pretty slick. Pretty sick, dude. Um, at conference, it's gonna be so confusing 'cause we're giving out like 500 Owala yellow bottles.

Nice.

Everyone's gonna have one. I'm like, I don't know how people are gonna keep track of it. We're all just gonna be drinking, swapping spit with each other.

It's gonna be crazy. Well, that's the conference, like 3 or 4 years ago, Kevin Fairburn gave you and I those matching yellow Yetis and I think we swapped them at one point during conference.

Yeah, just the two of us. Yeah, exactly. Let alone when there's 500 people. It's gonna be crazy.

Yeah, I went all black, very sleek. I'm, I'm, I'm leaning into my villain era. I've just been getting all black. I don't know why. It's like literally everything is just black. Like, I, I don't know. So anyways, um, that's the pod. Thank you all for listening. Like and subscribe. Good luck in Texas, sir.