Happy Marriage, Happy Business... It all starts at the C.O.R.E. | Capability Amplifier EP#117

Enough sex and sex all the time.

We've been married 28 years, know each other in five. There's nothing we don't know about each other. And when I get in trouble, my marriage is when I certain amount of time, there was always something in my brain that was thinking about when's the next time I'm going to get sex. And I recognize that a lot of these business owners were doing the same thing. Whereas if you're having struggle in your.

Hey.

Hey. Welcome to another episode of Capability Amplifier. This is Mike Hanigs. I'm here today with Dino Watt. Hi, Dino.

Hi.

All right.

Good to be here.

It's so good to be here. And I'm going to get this thing officially rolling with a little intro about you. All right, all right, here goes.

So I've never, ever met a business owner who's 100% satisfied with their team, their culture, and their productivity. And as a founder or a business owner, an entrepreneur, you're probably thinking that right now and you're saying to yourself, I wish I could find someone to fix our team now. And when it's time to sell your business, one with a great culture is worth 10 times more. And the fastest way to 10x your business is to improve your culture. Now, every founder needs a guy, and Dino's your guy. And with a name like that, you can't go wrong. Right now, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dino the Fixer. Dino Watt, who for over 15 years has helped hundreds of businesses and thousands of team members with something he calls his core system. That improves every month. So core dramatically increases team loyalty, productivity and happiness. Business revenue, founders income and time off, but the value of a business when you choose to sell. Now, I originally met Dino about 12 years ago. He was a client of mine, and we stayed in touch over the years, he and his wife Shannon. Now, the best part about him is, and I'm going to show you a little clip right now.

He's not just a great coach and advisor. He's an amazing speaker and an entertainer, too. And check out those sexy dance moves.

Come on now.

All right. I love it, though. I love it. Now, here's one of the things about Dino that I love, is one of the smartest strategies I've ever seen to get hired because the teams demand him. Teams watch him present. They get all amped up, and then they go to the owners and demand that they work with Dino and his team to fix their teams. So think about it. You, the founder, benefit from effortless team fixing genius. Now, I think the best way to start this interview today is with a little clip from a recently canceled director, Woody Allen. Because it's my job to be as politically correct as possible and politically correct clinically. All right, so here's that fun little clip.

The day in Brooklyn was the last day.

I remember really having a good time. We never have any laughs anymore is the problem. I've been moody and dissatisfied. How often do you sleep together? Do you have sex often?

Hardly ever. Maybe three times a week.

Constantly. I'd say three times a week. Now, I originally wanted to name this episode Not Enough Sex and Sex all the Time. So we're going to hear a few stories and see his core principles. But first, you, Dino, tell us, why did you want me to play that clip in the first place?

Well, because the first thing I always do is help people understand perspective, and everyone's perspective is completely different. I don't care if you have trained that person or you've worked with them for a long time. I've known my wife since we were five years old. We've been married 28 years. Know each other in five. There's nothing we don't know about each other. And when I get in trouble in my marriage is when I just assume I know how she's going to react. Well, I think that's the same in our business, right? Totally. I train this person. We work together for X amount of years. I told them about this last week, and yet they're not seeing it the same way you are.

Right on.

So perspective changes everything when you really understand it.

Happy marriage and then happy business.

Yeah, totally.

That's really good. That's really good. So I think the next question then is, how'd you get into the business of culture and team building in the first place?

Yeah. I did not expect to be in this space at all. My whole focus was about relationships, helping marriages get stronger. I come from a broken family. My mom and dad divorced when I was 8 years old. And that whole story of seeing them, the two people I love most in the world fight with each other all the time and hate each other. And when I got married to Shannon, one of the things that we sat and talked about, because she saw this, obviously she's not Mrs. Weird Vibes, so she saw all of that. And we said, I don't want that. What do we have to do to make sure we don't have that? And we created certain systems and processes and put them into place. And cut to a few years later, I actually started teaching that And I taught it around business principles because I would say, well, especially guys. I don't know. I know, Mike, you're really in touch with your feelings, but not a lot of guys.

I'm still a rotten animal part of the time. No doubt about it. No doubt about it.

But you know what? I don't know. I just didn't want to. First of all, I didn't want to be a counselor. I don't want to be a therapist. I didn't want people to talk about their feelings. What I want to do is put some practical ideas in place, which Shannon and I did. When we do X, then we get Y. So that worked out really well. Had a couple of really great clients who saw the power of this in their own relationship, but also saw how when they were better in their marriage, they end up being better bosses. Right?

So true.

I had this theory that you only have so much bandwidth in your brain. Right. There's so much research around. Can't multitask. Multitasking is not real. You can switch between ideas real fast, but you can't multitask. But I realized you only had so much bandwidth in your brain. And the basic theory was this. And this is. Can we be. We can be kind of raw on this, right?

We can be super raw. I like raw. It's the best.

So I had this theory, because it happened to me, that if I hadn't had sex in a certain amount of time, there was always something in my brain that was thinking about, when's the next time I'm gonna get sex? And I recognized that a lot of these business owners were doing the same thing. Whereas if you're having struggle in your relationship, struggle in your marriage or whatever, and you haven't had sex in a while, then that means that that part of your bandwidth is being taken up and you can't be as productive as creative. All this stuff in your marriage.

Right on.

And so if I could help them have better relationship, and that was just sex, better communication, connection, all that stuff with their spouse, then all of a sudden, they're better entrepreneurs, they're better leaders. And so I started putting those practices into place. Had a couple of guys really have success with that, and then start referring me to other people. And those guys saw the benefit inside their business with the culture. Culture, connection, communication. That's all a part of the business, too. Same thing in your relationship. So it kind of all came together that way.

Right, Right. Well. And I've seen this in you over the more than decade. I've Seen you is I love the way Shannon loves you, but I also love the way your clients love you. And by the way, this doesn't just go for male founders and business owners. You've got a variety. It's not like this is all about men business owners, it's about women, too, because what you manage to do, and in a lot of the practices that you've worked in a lot of the businesses, the staff is predominantly female.

That's right.

So managing that.

Is really important. So let's talk a little bit about what you do, because I think that'll contextualize the system that you developed. When we get into core and how it all works together, and we're going to go through some case studies, there's some great tools, we've got a secondary video that goes even deeper into the system. And I think I just want to echo what I said in the very beginning.

Businesses with great culture attract better employees, 100%. They stick around longer, they're more productive, they go the extra mile, and everyone's happier, everyone's making more money, and that makes for happy customers and clients. And it doesn't matter what industry you're in. So that's kind of the universal here. But I think when you look at the fact that you've systemized it and combined practicality, systemization along with the deep eq, the emotional side, that's the magic that Dino brings, plus the entertainment, which I can't.

It's like you can't get anyone's attention until they fall in love with you first. And that's what you figured out how to do, and that's what creates the trust which then gets shared with the founder.

So. Well, you even said something at the very beginning that I wanted just to touch on about how I do. I really focus on the team members first. Now, when I'm speaking in an event, I speak at a lot of industry events. Right. And so I understand something very important that not a lot of speakers get. 99% of the people in that room don't actually want to be there. They're being paid to be there. Right. So you've got an audience. I was just spoken at an event, had a thousand people in that room. I knew that 950 of them did not want to be there. And if I would have got up on stage and said, hey, I will offer you $1 and the next hour free to do whatever you want, and you still will get the CE that you want out of this, every single person would take that one Two.

One, two. Oh, crap, I screwed it up. One, two.

Give yourselves a huge round of applause.

So what I had to realize is, how do I get this room full of people who don't actually want to be there? Sure, there are some who want to learn, but the truth of the matter is they'd rather be at their families or somewhere else. It's not like when you're going to something like a traffic and conversion. Right. Every single person that signs up for tracking conversion wants to be there because they want to grow their business. They're entrepreneurs. This is completely different. So I realized I had to get people on my side and get them really like me. So they'll listen and then go, oh, this wasn't threatening. This didn't make me feel bad. Oh, cool. I want to take this home. And also back to the office. And that's the secret sauce that's been for me for a while. And again, this goes back to the culture thing. I go. I go into an office, into a room, saying, how do I create a culture inside that room? Well, they'll follow me, they'll listen to what I say, and they'll want more of it. Well, isn't that what we want out of our employees?

Totally.

They'll follow me, they'll listen to what I have to say, and they'll want to do more for me. That's the exact same model that I create there. So you asked what I do. I know it sounds kind of trite. Say I create great leaders based upon the relationship side of things. Based upon. And true relationship stuff. I know a lot of people talk about relationship stuff, and, oh, yeah, we gotta have better relationships. MIT did all this study recently about how culture is the number one thing that's going to retain people. That's going to be the movement forward in our industry. And people have kind of talked about that for a while. But real relationships mean that you got to get raw with yourself, and then you also have to care about that person so that they connect you. Caring about them, thinking more in their life outside of the business to you, and they want to have more loyalty and stay with you. So I create great leaders, and I unify teams, and it's so much fun. I have a great time doing it.

Yeah.

I don't know if anybody else does, but I have a great time doing it.

No, well, I've watched it, and that's part of the fun. And when you were describing this, it reminds me a little metaphor when I was young. So I grew up in a little Tiny town where we had gravel roads in Minnesota. And when it'd rain, there'd be this huge deluge of water. And all us kids used to run outside, and we'd carve little trails in the gravel.

The water would go down. And I think the metaphor is for what you do, which is. Okay, so a lot of the teams oftentimes, I mean, a founder will say, hey, I want that guy. They get it right away, and they're like, God, if I just had that guy getting things going, great. But if the team says, bring this guy in, and then you carve the trail and the gravel, so then it creates a river and everything stays in one place versus otherwise, you're just washing a whole bunch of stuff down. It literally can destroy a street. And then you transfer that.

That example to the founder. And when you've got that momentum, you've got the energy, you've got the system at work. So with that, you ready to go down the core? Do you have something else to add to the.

No, I think it's a great analogy. I'm actually literally seeing that today. I was talking to you before we got on. I'm dealing with a big corporation. The corporations.

Managers or regional reps, they're the ones who saw me, and now they're going to the corporations saying they're in Paris. These people have never seen me. But this whole. I think it was 10 people that were on that phone call. Now I've got this army of people going to them saying, you need to hire Dino right now. So, yeah, it's good stuff.

Well done. Well done. I love that. I love that. Well, now you're gonna have this awesome interview and even more great content.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, of course.

So let's dig into core and how it all works together. First of all, what does core stand for? And hear some case studies, some examples. Get into the meat.

Well, the core stands for culture, operations, relationships, and excellence. And what I did is I realized that in every business and every relationship, there's a center thing that we can either strengthen, and it gives us more out of other parts of the business. I don't typically go in and talk to companies about specifically money right away or about some other different processes that you just have a lot of consultants come in and do I talk about these four core areas? Because just, like, the core of my stomach. Right. Like, when I walked in, you were nice enough to notice I've lost a little bit of weight.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, since the last time we were together. Huge difference. And it's not just the weight. You clearly like. Yeah, right. No, I mean, I see it in your neck. I see it, I mean everywhere. It's awesome.

Great job. Thank you. I appreciate that. And what's interesting is that I, with my trainers, whether they be virtual or in person, they're always talking about strengthening your core, right? If I'm doing curls, focus on your core. If I'm doing sit ups, focus on your core, all that stuff. Well, it's the number one thing that if you strengthen that, then everything else will get stronger around it. But also if you loosen that, right? If you, if you weaken that, you look at people walking around today and the way their guts are and stuff like that, everything else is going to be flabby too. So same thing in your business. If you work on these four areas, strengthen them, everything else is going to get better. You're going to have a better hiring process, you're going to have better money, all that stuff. So we start with culture, with everybody talks about culture. And when I first look at cultures, I look at companies like Disney and Apple and all these companies that are really easy to understand. But I think you can have, and this has been a bit of an argument between my, my company itself, even my team members. I think you can have a not great product, but if you have a strong culture, you're still gonna win.

Yeah, totally.

McDonald's is a good example of that, right? No one's gonna argue McDonald's has a great product. Now, admittedly, their fries are like crack, right? I mean, they keep coming back, but that's not good for you. And they have a culture. They have a culture of it's cheap, it's easy, it's consistent, you know what you're getting every single time. No one's surprised. No one goes to a McDonald's drive and it's like, wow, I didn't expect this to be so wonderful this time.

You put the same flavor potion in all the dog or cat meat that they use to make the burgers. You're right, you're right.

That's right. And so you know what you're going to get, right? But the culture's there. Vape cigarettes, same type of thing, right? Juul cigarettes or the same type of thing. They don't have a great product for you, but they have a great culture around it. And so they understand the power of creating a good culture. Then you take your operations and a lot of people focus on the what to do as opposed to who am I hiring and why am I hiring to do the thing. Why are they doing this system? Why are they the ones responsible for this? And then we go into relationships, which, of course, is, to me, the center of everything. You have bad relationships. If you're a bad leader, it's gonna come out in the end. So you, first taking care of you, then your team, then the actual clients, and then lastly is excellence. How do you go to the next level? So I really feel like if you work on those four things over and over again, but more importantly this, Mike, is that it's not just about you and your company. I train the team members to do the exact same thing in their homes. You see, in your home, you can have a culture. You can have operations, relationships, and excellence. And the secret sauce to what I do, I believe, is I come into team members and I say, I don't care about making you better employees. That's not my job. My job is to help you get more in your life outside. More money, more time, more passion, more excitement, more relationships. Because if you, as the business owner, are able to be the person that helps them get more outside, they equate that to you. And they're bringing that into the office.

Right on.

We see that in the opposite. Right. We hear all the time people complaining about them bringing their drama and all this stuff into the office, because that's what they do. You bring your outside life into the office. Let's improve that. And we're gonna have better employees and better work environment.

Yeah, well. And it's so easy. I know in the past, and I still have this tendency, but I definitely did in the past, I used to say, and I joke with other founders, we're jealous lovers, which is we want all of our employees attention. And the truth is, if they're out getting sprinkled with goodness outside, it makes them better. And if they're going to abandon you, they're thinking about it anyway. So that is. It can be counterintuitive, but it makes a ton of sense. And again, I think it takes someone leading by example and also establishing that. And it just goes to show, you know, you need a diplomat between the two sides to bring them together in the first place.

That's a good word, diplomat. I call myself favorite uncle Dino. Right.

Because, hey, Dino, come on over here.

Yeah.

Not in the goomba, in a way of, you know, you've got Zach. Right. And I know there are times where you've told Zach, hey, Zach, you should do this or do that or whatever. And Zach's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Whatever, dad. But then favorite uncle Tommy comes over and says the exact same thing. He's like, oh my gosh, that's brilliant. I'm totally going to do that. And you're sitting in the back going, I've talked about this before. Same thing happens in business, right? I come in, I become, I'm fun, I'm engaging, I'm non threatening. And so when I talk to the founders and I say, what is it that you're struggling with the most? What can I help you with the most? Like, man, I've talked to these people over and over again. Go back to perspective, right? I've told them over and over and over again, do this thing. And I swear they never do it. Dino comes in, says the exact same thing, but says in a different way. And he's funny and non threatening. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. We should totally do this. And they do it and they do it. And so it's just one of those things where I know if I come and say it one way and I say it in a way that's helping them get what they want in their life, it's gonna change it completely.

Here's how you remind me of Tony Robbins. It was, he said to me, 80% of what I do is entertainment, 20% of its content. And I was like. And I was like, what do you mean? Because I was all about productivity and getting more done and being effective and.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I knew that was my problem. Lack of discipline. I had this whole deal.

And he said, because if I can win your attention and your heart and keep you in a place of having fun, that content's gonna have a lot more impact. And how the hell do you think I can go for five days? That's when he used to do seven day events too. It was just like non stop, man, you know, 18 hour days and you go until 4 in the morning and be like, we're gonna be back here at 10, you know, and so what you do really, really effectively is you bring in that entertainment value. You bring in the content like it's a bridge. Then you can have the same conversation. But it's not from a militant leader. It's from someone who leads with the heart, leads with the entertainment aspect. And that's what gets the again, the river moving down during the rainstorm.

And there's another aspect of that, Mike, is that, you know, we can only take in so much content when we're sitting there listening and we're at events and you've been to these events before where, especially the corporate type stuff where it's just plowing on information, information, information, and these people are not going to take it all in. And we already know through studies that if you don't repeat it or teach it within 24 hours, you're going to lose about 75% of whatever it is you learned. Well, I want to go in and I want to entertain so that their brain is opened up to the thing and yet they'll also retain things. I'm not plowing them with too much information. I'm giving them just enough to make them go, oh, that's cool. This last week I did an event where I spoke at and I wanted to do.

A message that made them really feel like they were heard. And so I took a big risk. But at the end I had people come up to me saying, I can't believe you had us laughing in one minute and crying in the next. It's like, yeah, that's right. Cause I'm touching on all those points. So that's what you have to be able to bring to your team members and they'll appreciate you for it so much more. Yeah, yeah, I love that. 80% is the entertainment.

Well, here's what I'll say then. This is the hook. It's Dino Watt is the Tony Robbins of creating company culture. He combines entertainment, emotion and common sense.

On the book front cover.

Just like that. Just like that. How do you like that one, my friend?

Love it. That's awesome.

It let's continue on because I know you've got like some good case studies too, some real life practical examples. So let's get into some kind of meat and potatoes. How does this work? What happens? How fast does it work? And let's get into some of the real specifics that produce some results. This is the rubber meets the road show.

Here's the thing is that I want to make sure everybody understands that you need all four parts of the core to make things work consistently. And what you'll find in a lot of the testimonials or the case studies that we're going to talk about are people who had pieces but were missing some of the other pieces. So we didn't just come in and do one thing. We worked on all of them, but they were lacking in this little area here. So for example, Jason west is a naturopath chiropractor. He's out of Pocatello, Idaho.

I, you know what, I actually have met him. I don't remember why. You know what he Was an old client, too.

Yes, he was.

Was he? Did you. You didn't happen to meet him at one of my events, did you?

No, I sent him to you.

Oh, my God.

I sent him to you. And he. At one point, you know, when you were doing the whole system set up, like, you can do all of this one and the whole rig, he bought that, and he has that.

So I remember he was like, oh, yeah, okay. What a great guy. What a great guy.

So smart. He's got that little white patch thing on his.

Yes, yeah, yeah. Where did he get that? How's that happen? Right.

I think it's isn' like, only, like, no one told people about it. Yeah. So he was a client. He was a friend of mine. He actually was a friend of Garrett Gunderson's, who you know as well. I don't know if he's been on the show or not, but I know that you've.

I've been to the show. I've been to the show.

Yeah.

Oh, twice.

His comedy show.

I have a great story offline for you about that.

Okay. All right. Well, Garrett introduced Jason to me. Jason and I started working together. And basically, Jason was doing really, really well. Like, he had some good stuff going on. His practice had been around for 100 years. Like, this is grandfather's. His great, great grandfather's practice. 100 years. And as he's being successful, he gets to this place of going, I should be super happy right now. Right? Everything's going well. And as he says.

The train pulled into the station, and he was like, is this it? Is this it? There's got to be more. So we focus a lot on culture. We went in and said, okay, Jason, there's three things that you have to understand. You need to understand that you need a better vision that everybody can understand. I think people just really create too complicated a vision. Mission statements, vision statements that go on for a paragraph or two or three. No one knows that.

No.

If you think about big companies like Disney, what's Disney's big vision? It's relatable and retailable. The happiest place on earth. Apple. Think different. It's got to be relatable and retailable. So we went in and said, hey, Jason, what is your relatable, retailable vision? And then we broke that down to his understanding how to create better core values to make people actually enrolled into the idea. This is part of who they are. And by the way, generic core values suck.

Totally. I always say. Here's what I was just thinking about This. I was with the group this weekend, and it's like, you talk too much and say too little.

Yes.

And that's the problem.

Totally. There's a great clip online somewhere where it has this thing about that, about some.

What's a Braveheart type thing. At the end of, they're saying this big old long speech, and they're like, can you just say, let's just go get. Let's just kick their butt. We won, or whatever. But, yeah, we all do that. We talk too much and say too little. And he had these core values that were generic as well, that were like, integrity, honesty, customer service. I always say, what. That's the worst core value to have. Because what's the opposite? Like, what's the other. What can you do besides that? Make it bigger? Because if you're gonna say that our core value is honesty, well, I would hope so. Right. That's my test, actually. I have a test for core values that if somebody tells me their core value, and at the end of them telling me the core value, I could be like, well, I would hope so.

Yeah.

Honesty should just be kind of the cost of doing business. Right. You don't have to make that a core value. If you do, there's a problem. So we expanded on his core values, made things like being the best part of our patient's day and radical transpar, as opposed to honesty. And then we took that to support. How does he make every single person in his team feel supported? Well, one of the secret sauces was us understanding who his team members were and what their passion was. He had a girl in his office who wanted to be her goal in life. No joke. Her goal in life was to be Snow White at Disneyland. She wanted to be the character of Snow White Disneyland because she loved people and she wanted to be around people. However, she wasn't in the position that he needed her to be. She was actually working in the back office. So he created a position for her to be the. I think it was like the director of customer relations or something, where she just came out to make people happy. That's all she did. She came out, and it was now her living in her genius and him using that genius for it. So anyways, we create this idea, we go in, do all this stuff, and in a year, he generates another 500k in his business that he didn't have before. Yeah, but the secret was he actually worked 52 days less. So when we got together, he said, dino, I don't want to work Fridays anymore. I want to go four day week. I want three day weekends. I love to dirt bike with my kids. I love to do all that stuff. I want to do that.

Hey, this is Mike Koenigs. Sorry to interrupt the podcast, but if you're an action taker and ready to transform and reinvent yourself and your business, go to connecttomike.com to learn more and book a conversation with me right now. All right, back to the episode.

So we did. Now he's a single practice doctor. Now he's got multiple associates, but back then, he had one doctor. Him. His. I think it was eight team members. That's it. So to generate that much more money with that much work and less was a big deal for him. So that's what I'm talking about when you create a culture like that. He did this thing, Mike, where he created Day of Awesomeness. This is part of the culture. He wanted everybody to feel like they're awesome. So I think it was Thursdays I have this in my first book. And Thursdays he created a day of Awesomeness. And basically they put name tags on it, said, hi, my name is Dino, and I'm awesome because. Or why I'm awesome because you fill in the blank.

Yeah.

I love that he put this online. He put this on Facebook.

Wow.

He had people who would come to his office. They didn't have an appointment, but they wanted to get a sticker that said I'm awesome because. And they wanted to share why they're awesome. That's when I talk about, you create a magnetic culture and you get people coming to your office because they just want to be a part of the experience. I call it for team members and for patients, I call it ruining them. When I first meet with teams, I'll say, hey, listen, my goal is to ruin you. And they all kind of look at me like this. I'm like, in a good way. Disney ruined me. Now, I know, Mike, you have some challenges with the actual park of Disney.

Yep. Yep. Love the cartoons. Don't like the place. That's just me standing in line. Not my favorite thing.

But one of the things that working for Disney did for me is it made me go through Disney University and I had to have the Disney mindset. And now, 30 years later, 30 years later, I am ruined by Disney because I walk into an office and I'll see an overflowing trash can. I'd be like, what's the deal? Last week, I was in an office, and they had this area of their office that was open to the public. But nobody really went back there because they never guided people there. But it was a storage room, basically, that was open, no door. It's freaking me out. Like, seriously, I was having some reaction to it. Like, people could see that.

Plus, that's horrible feng shui. Horrible feng shui.

That's true. I didn't go there. But that's a good argument. I'll do next time. But all of it's about how do you attract the right people to work with? And so in this case with Jason, all of a sudden, the right people are being attracted. That dude, he works with NBA players. He has a group of people work on a pipeline. I don't know if that pipeline's still working right now, though, because of our. But we won't go into that.

No, no.

With our government. But that pipeline workers up in Alaska charter a plane to come down to see him.

Wow.

Pocatello, Idaho. Like, this is nowhere.

This sounds like.

Yeehaw. It totally is. Sorry for all the people in Pocatello.

Idaho, but no, we love it there.

Yeah, it's amazing.

It's America's second Disney.

It's not a huge metropolis. This is what I'm saying. Right. And so. But people charter an aircraft to come. People like a prince from Dubai is coming to see this guy. That's the point, is that you create a culture.

People will totally.

Yeah.

Well, plus, the other thing that we. You and I have talked about is when you've got a great culture that basically writes your marketing for you. Absolutely right. People come in and they start performing the story of the culture, and so do the employees. I mean, it's just got this cascade effect.

So.

All right, we could spend a week on that. I know. One more thing. One more thing.

You don't even know that I do this, Mike. And you just said that, which is so crazy. So I take people through a core values creation process, and what, I'm gonna spoil it now, but that's okay. Probably team members aren't gonna listen to this. At the end of the process, what I do is they've done all four hours worth of work, all this crazy stuff. We get them dialed down. And at the end, I do what I call as my magic trick and what it really is, I show them how they did this on their own. I don't guide them in any specific way, but at the end, I read their core values as if it's a story of the story of the practice.

Totally.

And at the end, you get this gasp. Everyone's like, oh, my gosh we did this. So that's your story. Your core values are your stories. Totally.

I completely agree.

No idea. I did that. And so thank you for leaving. Well done. Well done.

All right, so that's the C in core, which is culture. Now let's go on to what is O?

So O is the operations. And a lot of people think about, like, how we do things. A, B, C, D. This goes to this goes to that. But the number one thing we focus on is the why and making sure that you're hiring from why and hiring the right people. I use companies like Zappos as examples. I use companies like Disney, too, that there's a specific process you need to take people through in order to understand that they're here for their why. And you need to give people an out as well. I think sometimes we forget as leaders that you hired somebody, you're taking a risk on that person, but that person's also taking a risk on you. And they don't want to fail. They want to make sure that they're doing what's right. I had a doctor recently who this girl just was not working out. Like, you could just see she was only doing what she was told to do. He would say, hey, your job is to sterilize chairs. She'd go out and sterilize the chairs, and she would come back. And no joke, when I was there, I walked by, and there's a little lab area. And I walk by, and I just see this girl just standing there, almost like a Roomba. You know what a Roomba is?

Yeah, we got one right outside the studio.

Okay. So, yeah, so she was like a Roomba. She did her job and she came.

Back and she went for the recharge. Yeah.

And I said. I was like, what. What's going on with her? And he's like, yeah, that's our problem is she only does what we tell her to do. She doesn't do anything extra.

Sounds like she needed an operating system upgrade. That's what. You know, those Roombas things. Yeah.

She needed to upgrade that. And so I. He's like, yeah, I don't think it's working out. I think. Have you ever thought that maybe she knows she's not working out either and you need to give her permission to quit? And he went, no. So he went to her that day and he said, you know what? I want you to know that we really appreciate the work you're doing, but if you feel in any way this isn't a fit for you, it's okay. The next day she comes and she says, thank you so much for letting me know that. Because I felt so bad that I wanted to quit, but you took a chance on me. And I wasn't going to quit because I just felt bad, but you gave me permission to leave. Now that's what I'm talking about. When we talk about operations, we want the right people in the right place working from their why. We want to make sure that we have the right systems in place for them to be successful in everything they do. And we want to make sure that they're the right person in the right seat. So we talk about responsibilities. So we have to make sure that the operations aren't just the technical thing like you were talking about earlier with Tony. No, just give me the thing to do. Give me the. No. We need to make sure that people are working from Hawaii. Matter of fact, Garrett says this that I love, and I use this quote from him all the time, and I give him credit for it, which is that when you hire people for a task, you create enslavement for yourself. But when you hire people for a role, you create freedom. And that's what we want to focus on the most. In my second book, Hire and Fire Like a Boss, I talk about this idea that nothing will ruin a great employee faster than watching you tolerate a bad one. And that's where we have to look at with operations. And that's key. I actually should probably write a book all about that because it's so true. It's just one of those things. Yeah. It's fascinating to see the shift in people's brain when they realize that you want me here for my why not just for what I can do? Got it.

Well, I know you've built a lot of processes that revolve around this, so can you take us through maybe either a case study? Well, you already did a case study, but just kind of go through the process that you bring in and you lay down. Because what you really do is you created an operating system, a whole downloadable, easy to adapt mindset that becomes part of the culture. So why don't you talk a little bit about that?

Well, most challenges with people, I call them problem child. Problem children. When you have a problem with somebody in your office, right. You have this problem child, they're usually because of two reasons. Either it's a personality issue or it's a performance issue. And so what I have doctors do or leaders do is I will have them sit down and I'll say, okay, sit down with your team member and tell them exactly what the problem is. Sometimes personality issues can become performance issues, right? So you need to sit down and say, this is exactly what the problem is. Now let's create a goal within four weeks to change that. We give them a goal and we give them a benchmark as well. So we have four weeks. We give them two weeks to check in to see what's going on. You can ask me any question, you can ask for any resources. We want you to succeed, so we're gonna do whatever we can to help you succeed. And I don't care how long this person's been with your company. Now, the key is this, is that you're gonna find out within 24 to 48 hours that this person takes it seriously and wants to make a shift and change or not. And you'll know by the way that they react and by who they talk to. If they start going out to their team members and be like, I can't believe they did this, or they said that, or I'm so upset about that, they need to be fired right away, and I say, love them into another job. Because we have to have a certain standard for people. But that process allows you to actually see what's going on. You're giving them a chance. You're giving the opportunity, but it gives them a chance to see what's going on. I have a doctor client of mine a while ago. His name's Dave. And when I walked in, I'm not kidding, Mike. You know, when you have your secretary, receptionist at a normal business, you would hope that that person, you know, looks nice.

Yeah.

Yeah, right? You would think maybe. I thought this person was like a temp. I thought the real person must be on vacation because this girl had the biggest. What do you call it? Rbf. Is it the resting bitch face? Is that okay?

Yeah.

So I walk up and I'm thinking, there's no way she knew I was coming. She knew I was a consultant. I introduced myself. Hi, I'm Dino.

You would put on her angry makeup.

For the day, fake it for a minute. She. And I was like, what is up? Well, come to find out, this girl had worked for him for 11 years in that position. And I was like, dude, what's the deal? Seriously? And he said, I know, but, you know, deep down, she's a really nice person. And I was like, well, I'm not going to see the deep down Dave. I don't have enough time to create that relationship. Most of your team members don't either. So we have this conversation and we actually find out that there's a few people in his office who are like this. And he had just gotten so many to the place of I just need a warm body. I just need somebody to fill in that position. Like we talked about. I needed a task to be fulfilled. And we found out that he had quite a few what I call staph infections. I don't use the word staff. I use the word team. Because staff is something you don't want. Right. It's an infection nobody wants. Well, there was this girl and then the other person who was his sales department, which in his world is called a treatment coordinator. She had a husband who was a pilot and that pilot. And so anyways, it's so free when they had a weekend off instead of having the three day weekend especially it was a holiday weekend. She demanded that she would have the day before everybody else and the day after everybody else off as well because she had to fly standby. And it wasn't fair that if she couldn't get on that flight the day before or the way coming home that she didn't have the full week off or the weekend off. So every quarter she would have extra. This is her sales department or his sales department. So he had two people in his office, one rbf, who is a terrible front desk person, and then his salesperson who was not there most of the time.

Yeah.

But he had just created this culture inside of his office that that was okay. He didn't want to deal with it. And so the relation or the people that he had in the office weren't working from the right. They weren't there for the right reasons.

Yeah.

So we go in, we start putting this stuff together again. All four processes. C O R E. Well, I said it's a magnetic culture. It also retracts the wrong people. In six months, he had a 90% turnover in his office. That freaked him out. Right. Like that would. That would freak any business owner out. I'm getting 90% of my people are gonna be new.

Mm.

Two people stayed. One was an amazing assistant. The other one was his sister who was doing a great job at what she was doing. But it opened the door for a brand new set of attitude and right people. And all of a sudden the shift happens. He's happier, he's more relaxed. He's spending time with his family. He's not falling asleep when he gets home on the couch because he's so exhausted and weary from his day. He's actually back as a husband, as A father loving what he does. And now it's completely shifted his business. He is happy at work, he's engaged, he's enjoying what he's doing, and everybody else around him is too. He's built a real amazing culture there. So, again, just little shifts that make a huge difference in their life. And being able to sit down, I actually didn't have this process before when we were talking about with the sit down thing, it was because of him that I created this process and went, oh, we gotta have an actual system to get people out. And he got people out super fast. To the right people in.

That's so good. It's a great story. And back to the. Yeah. Right ones, wrong ones. Okay, so let's go down. So that would be the operations. The operations. What's the R? What's the R?

R is the one that's the most important, I think, out of all of them. And it really is the nucleus to everything. It's the center, the epicenter for everything we do, which is the relationships. Right. And it's real easy for people to think about. Of course. Yeah. Dino. Yeah, we gotta have relationships. When we talk about the order of importance being you first, team second, and then your clients last, that, I think, is where a lot of people get challenged with. Because a lot of leaders look at, well, where does the money come from? Money comes from my customers, it comes from my patients. It comes from anybody who's going to pay me money. So I got to pay attention to and focus on them. But that's not true, because your team members have to come first, because if you do right by your team members, they're gonna do right by your clients every single time. You have this in your business. Right. You got Abby, you've got your team members who really make us as clients feel important, feel like we're being paid attention to. It really has. I mean, it does make a bit difference. And now I'm like, ooh, okay. Mike has set up a system to where it makes me feel good and make me feel important. I talk about often. Again, I'll go back to Disney. Well, Steve Jobs. How long has Steve been gone?

He's been dead 10 years. 10 years.

You still go into an Apple Store and you still feel the presence of Steve Jobs.

Total DNA transfer.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And still the most valuable company in the world most of the time.

Right. Which tells us two things. Number one, everyone's replaceable. Even Steve Jobs was replaceable. But what he did is he left that DNA, that imprint, so that his Team members, every single one. Listen, there are no geniuses at the Apple Store, but you have a genius bar because he left that imprint to make you feel like you're a genius, that you're talking to somebody who knows what they're talking about.

It is a beautiful, brilliant frame.

It really is. Right. And look how many people are trying to repeat it. Yeah. I have clients in the dental and ortho space who are trying to repeat that same feel inside their office. When you create that relationship of feeling of importance, it trickles down for sure. But the biggest challenge, of course, is taking care of you, taking care of yourself.

Yeah.

I have a client up in Michigan, or no, sorry, Wisconsin. And she is someone who. I call her Dr. Jackie. And she is young, like, she's 36. And she had hired all the process people. Right. She hired everybody who would tell her how to put this system into place and how to answer phones and how to collect billing, all that stuff. Did great. The thing that she was missing was this idea. She's a mom, she's a wife. She works with everybody else in her office as a mom and a wife as well. And she knew that she wasn't taking care of herself and creating the cultivating the team aspect of that, the relationship there, as well as she could.

Yeah.

So that's where her focus was when she hired me. She was like, dino, seriously, I just need us to feel like a family. I need us to feel more connected to one another. And she's someone who. She had another consultant who knew what I did, suggest me, because that consultant was really good at doing what she did, but not that leadership aspect of it and taking care of you. She wanted to focus on her relationship with her spouse, who her husband worked in the business with her. She wanted to work on the relationship and that balance of being a mom, as she saw it, quote, good mom and a great business owner. And so we focused all on that. How do you build that relationship together? How do you build that family aspect inside of it? Building a true team? And she just can't fully disclose the numbers, but she just partnered with a very large, what we call a dental organization. Venture capitalist, if you will.

Yeah, yeah. Basically a PE firm, potentially. Yeah.

30, 36 years old, she never has to worry about money again in her life.

Yeah.

Now think about that as a mom, even as a. As a dad, to be able to go, I never have to worry about money again. I can do whatever I want. I can keep doing things.

Sounds terrible, Dino. Sounds terrible. Yeah, it's.

But that's the peace of mind, Right. That allows her to have that. And she absolutely is in a place of abundance, a place of gratitude, and so is all of her team members. She has a relationship with her team so strong that even when they're going through some rough patches, she has a team member who had some challenges mentally recently. And.

Everybody on the team just rallied around this person to let her know that she's loved, she's taken care of, and she's getting through it because of that. And that's what we want, is we want these real strong relationships inside of them. And I talked about ruining earlier, right? Some of these team members might not stay with her forever. Most likely won't. And anybody who's listening right now, that's the same idea. You're gonna have turnover. But if you can create a situation where, just like me with Disney, it ruined me. I will always have that. And I want these team members to look back and go, yeah, wherever I go to work, maybe I get transferred, maybe I move, whatever. I am going to hold that company. Her office is going to be the bar that every team member is going to measure. Anything else they do up against that forever. And that's a real special place to be. Whether you work for Disney, Apple, any of the Zappos, all the you want to have somebody go, all right, this place is cool to work at, but it's not quite Dino, you know, Dino's office or Koenigs, or if Abby ever leaves you, which I know, I think you have a contract, she can never leave you. But if she ever did break that contract and leave you, then hopefully she'd be looking at that going like, you know what? This is fine. But it's not like working with Mike Hannigs.

Yeah, well, my hope would be, right, and this is coming from a very genuine place, is I want my team members to feel like they get to express themselves and not just be heard, but feel like they're participating in someone else's life purpose. Cause that's how I feel with what I get to do is I get to upgrade souls. And so if they get to participate in a full soul upgrade and.

The feeling of service that you get from such a thing, and I think that mindset is transferable. And I don't know if I would have been able to communicate unless I was listening to you right now and thinking about it through that lens.

Upgrade souls. That's cool. That's really neat. I think that oftentimes we forget to ask ourselves those deeper questions that Will help move the needle for us. We live in such a world of I do a whole training around questions, and how do you ask yourself better questions? How do you ask other people better questions? And we often live in the surface level thing, right? Of what do you want? Well, I want more money or I want more time or more freedom. Those are all good things. Okay, but what's the deeper of that? And I think we have created a situation in our society where we're so used to those surface level questions that we don't go deep with one another. We also don't go deep with ourselves. And when I talk about relationships, I train specifically on making sure that they're asking questions that take everything deeper so that the person actually feels like and understands that you care about them. When you just said that, Mike. I want to upgrade souls. I want my team members to know they're in a process of upgrading souls. I'd say that's pretty intense, and it's also very rewarding. And I think that's what we're all about on this earth anyway, is connecting with one another, making sure we're all connecting at a certain level. And if you are providing a space for your team members to be able to do that for your clients, that's huge. And it's felt and it radiates throughout the entire business.

That's really, really profound. Really profound. So.

Let'S go into the E in core.

I think the E might be the hardest one for a lot of people. I think relationships, focusing on yourself, that can be challenging. Right. Because we're givers and we want to help people and stuff. And you don't want to feel selfish. But E for me, is a bit challenging because E is about excellence, and it's really easy to get in that space of, well, we're doing well, we're doing good, can't complain. So I actually have a measurement that I do for all of my doctors, where my doctors, I talk about this idea of, you're running your business in three different ways, either through disdain, default, or design. And disdain is the. It's everybody else's fault. I can't, you know, the economy, the government, my competition, all of that. It's everybody else's fault. You're pointing the finger out, and this is where a lot of people are, especially right now, because it's easy to do that. Matter of fact, the news tells us to do that, that it's okay. It's everybody else's fault. The inflation, the problems that are going on. So that Disdain is prevalent. And then default is where most people are in their business, though, because especially if they're kind of successful. Hey, they look successful from the outside. They're making money, they're doing all right. So that's the default one where a lot of us are. And I can tell you I've definitely been there. I'm making money, I'm making. Family's Fed bills are paid.

Totally.

Can go on vacation once, twice a year if I want. Right. That's not bad. Totally.

Yeah. You fall in love with the status quo, it gets comfortable.

Totally.

And then some part of you starts to rot.

That's so true. That's a good word. Rot.

It is.

Because you feel like there's something else. You know, the key words that I listen for the phrase is it's fine or I can't complain. Right. Who am I to complain? I got this all going on from.

Minnesota, where I'm from, my mom and dad. I would say it's not that bad.

It's not.

It could be someone lost an arm. It's not that bad. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm. I'm not kidding.

And that's true. Right. We fall into that trap. So that's the default person.

And then fall in love with mediocrity.

But that's the thing, like you said, it rots because, you know, there's another level. There's another thing inside. You're like, dang, what else could I be doing? Or if only. Right. Only I didn't have to worry about this. I could do that. That.

So what's this, another Tony Robbins ism? Never should on other people.

All over yourself. Right. Then the third is design. And design is a whole other level. And design is where excellence comes in. Because design is where you say, where I am right now, this is just a building block to the next thing. And some people will even try to tamp you down. Right. You have people in your life who'll be like, hey, like, why are you pushing so hard? Why are you doing this? It's okay. And it's because we live in a world of mediocrity. And so good is where a lot of people end up being fine. Okay? But excellence requires three very specific things. And if you look at everybody in our world who has achieved another level, whether it be Richard Branson, whether it be even. I read this thing once about how Socrates. Socrates had a student who. I'm sorry. Socrates had a mentor in his life to help him see things he couldn't see. Now you think About. Socrates is a great philosopher. Right. He obviously thinks for he thinks not like he's living nowadays. He thought for a living. We have people like that in our life right now. We've got great athletes, we've got great business people. All of them have one thing in common, and it's having a mentor, Having somebody that can see things that they can't see. I use Tiger woods as an example all the time. Fascinating. Here's a guy who has. And I know he's struggling right now, but throughout his career, this guy's done amazing things. And he's always had specifically three different coaches. None of them. None of them ever won a PGA Tour, not a single one. But what they could see is they could see the difference between a shift of one inch in his swing, how he holds his hand, how he positions his feet.

Yeah, all of that.

Now he's always, obviously got other people mindset, people we hear about. You know, I'm not a huge sports person, but I love sports analogies and examples. And Phil Jackson was famous for having people really understand the mental game as opposed to just the physical game and really visualizing what you do. The number one thing that you have to have for excellence is a mentor. Have somebody to see what you can't see. And it might not be in what one place in your life, it might be in a different place in your life that you even thought about it. Right. Matter of fact, I'm in this industry and doing what I do because I had somebody who believed in having mentors in every aspect of his life, health, relationships, whatever. And he hired me to do the relationship side of things, saw that I saw things a little differently, and suggested me to other people. Then you have to take that and look at that. Of how am I going to take the. The mentor side of things and be learning all the time? Now I have dyslexia. I don't know if we mentioned this before, but I have dyslexia.

I knew that it's so common for high EQ people, quite frankly. That's one thing I've noticed. Some of the best salespeople dyslexic.

There's a study that came out recently. I think it was Harvard, and they talked about how we need to stop. Or as an article, we need to stop categorizing dyslexia as a learning disability. And it's more like a superpower, totally, because you can see things that other people can't see without exception.

That's been my experience.

It's fascinating too Because I didn't know that my whole life I thought I was. I was in the red reading group, you know, growing up. You know what I'm talking about?

I got lumped in because I did not learn like anyone else. You know, it's like I was totally a kinesthetic learner.

Yes.

And I had. I have to do. I'm not a good student at all.

I'm a really good listener. Like, I can hear stuff and retain.

That you are.

But I didn't know that. Right. So I thought I couldn't learn. Matter of fact, I was told that when I was a kid, my three brothers and I had to take this assessment. My mom tells us a story now that when we got done with the assessment, the person brought my mom in and basically said, hey, don't ever expect your kids to be anything more than like auto mechanics or construction workers. This is back in the 70s, right?

Right, right.

And good for my mom. And there's nothing wrong with auto mechanics or construction workers. Right. But my mom was like, I'm not telling my kids that. No way am I going to tell them that.

Totally.

And they didn't even test me for dyslexia at the time. I didn't know I was dyslexic until I had my son tested because he was having some challenges. And I looked at his test and I was going, what? Oh, that's totally me. And I see those things. And now I have to do things to warm up my brain. But the point is that I thought I couldn't learn. And if you are in a space of thinking you can't learn, then you're not going to have growth.

Yeah. And the industrial learning system does not accommodate.

That's right.

People that are. I'll just say, like you and me.

That's 100% correct. So if you're in a place of thinking you can't learn, then you're not going to learn. But there's the other side of that too, unfortunately. We have people, and I deal with very smart people who think they don't need to learn anymore. They've learned it all. Now they'll say, no, no, no, Dino, I'll learn this technical thing. Or there's new techn technology. I want to learn about that.

They're going to rely on their own superpowers, which has been industrial learning.

That's right. And put your nose to the grindstone and just figure it out. And that's one of the big challenges that I see with a lot of these. A lot of my clients. Is that where they will say, I'm having a struggle, I'm having a challenge. How do I get out of this? Oh, I just work harder. Oh, I just really put more time, effort. Matter of fact, you had an interview recently that I listened to with francom doctor. Is it frank home or Francom friend come. Okay, where he said this in his thing, where he went, what do I do? I just work harder. I wanted to get more successful. I just got to put more time and effort into it, even though I'm leaving my family behind and I'm not focusing on those things. Right. That's a lot of people's mindset. And so if you're in the place of I don't know how to learn or I can't learn or I've learned it all, and I know nobody's going to admit that, but that's kind of how they feel. It's like, I got this far by putting my nose to the grindstone doing this. Why should I learn more about this thing that doesn't feel like it's connected to my thing? If it's not the technical thing that I do, if it's not a process or a program, why should I learn about relationships, mindset, scarcity versus abundance. Right. All that stuff? And so that's the second part of excellence, is understanding what you don't know, I don't know what I don't know, so I'm gonna learn more. And then the third thing is something that I think a lot of people struggle with is this idea of celebrating their successes and really, in a big way, being willing to say, hey, you know what? I decided to or I made it to work on time, or I made it to work without getting a ticket. Even small successes lead to big successes. Or we can look at things like, hey, I've been in business for five years or 10 years, or I have these many team members, or I hired a successful person to do X. Those are things to celebrate because the more we celebrate those successes, the more we're going to get them coming to us. I use football players as an example that you. It's fascinating. Are you a big football fan or anything like that?

I was not born with the pay attention to sports gene.

Me neither. That's awesome. I love that about you. But I understand the value. I appreciate.

I enjoy it. I'll sit in, I'll watch it. And if I get like, I've got a lot of wealthy friends that take me to games. I always say, oh, nice.

Okay.

The but however is. I'm a lot more interested in the architecture and thinking about. I wonder what would happen if all of. If that part of the thing started. That's where my brain goes.

See, my brain goes to. When's the halftime show? And is it going to be any good.

Entertainment?

That's right. I want to have entertainment. What's going to go on. Wow, those are interesting colors. Or what are the cheerleaders doing down there? Right. Like, that's my thing. But what's interesting to me about football in general, and I think it's every sport, but football is very fascinating because if you have a football player and the team's going down the field and they get a, you know, a yard further towards the goal. Yeah, they celebrate like, it's crazy. They get first down. It's nuts. Everyone's going crazy. The whole crowd, everybody. They're celebrating the entire way down the field. They don't wait till the actual goal.

Do you know, I've never thought of that before. Maybe that's why I'm not. I'm like, yeah, it's. I've been like, get to the end.

Right?

Get the end.

That's right.

I don't care. You know, I'm not a pro. I'm not. I'm not a happy with the process guy.

Right. You want to get to the end of the. But football players show us you get every inch is another celebration. Matter of fact, you know, we both know Bo Eason and his example of what he's done in his life. He tells a story of Jerry Rice and how Jerry Rice has it in his DNA to whenever he touches that ball, he's going to the end zone.

Totally.

It's be. We. We have to have that more in our life of, like, what's that little step to get here? Even if we're not gonna do the end zone, we're going to celebrate all the way down the field. Well, we don't do that enough in our businesses. Totally. And so.

I ran into a client who was super successful when it comes to culture and operations. He had it down. I mentioned the Apple store thing. This guy had his business built up as if it was like a Mac store. You walked in. It was different than everybody else's business that he'd been into, especially in this industry. And he just had it dialed in. He had the right people there. He hired from y. He had people who. He was orthodontist. And he said that his job was to create the little mini orthodontist. So he didn't have to do as much work. Right. He thought his three jobs were, number one, to create a treatment plan, number two, to make sure the treatment plan was happening, and number three, to make moms happy. That was his rule. And so in order to do that, he had to create these little mini orthodontists. And he did. But where he was lacking was in the R and the E because he couldn't see what he couldn't see. And so.

So relationship and excellence.

Relationships and excellence. So he actually tells the story from stage. So I know that he'd be okay with me talking about this, but he reached out to me the day his wife left him, and he's like, dino, I have some big plans. I have big ideas for what I want to do with my business, and I know I can't do it without my wife, so I need help. So we get together and we work together. As a matter of fact, you remember that show Super Nanny? Did you remember?

I know what it is.

You know what it is.

Yeah, I know what it is.

So basically, have a lady come, English lady, who come into your house and spend some days, three, four, five days.

With you to say, Mrs. Doubtfire. Not exactly.

Not really. Kind of like that. Where she would come in and say, hey, this isn't a good way to discipline your kids. Or this is why you're not getting the result from them that you want. And she'd literally be in their home with them. Now, how many people would like, yeah.

I remember seeing clips of this. Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

I mean, it was a reframe of epic proportions.

That's right.

Great.

Sit here, do this. Same thing you'd want in your business, right, to have somebody coming in, say, hey, this is how you should set up your studio. Or this is how you should talk to your clients or whatever you want to do with that. But he had me do that. So Shannon and I were working together at this point with this, and we actually went out to his house, and his wife had come back, and they wanted to work on their marriage, and they had five kids at the time. Wow. And we spent two weeks in their home working on. Hey, when you say this, this is why she reacts like that. Don't do this. Instead, do this. And we super nannied them for two weeks. Now, I don't do that with all my clients. I did that every once in a while back then. But what he recognized was, after we get done, it's being very successful. He says, dino, in my office, I'm married to 20 other work wives. I don't communicate well with them either. If I'm not doing that well here with my spouse, I know I'm not doing it well in my office. What can we do? So he hired me as the mentor of the office to come in and help them see what they couldn't see. Again, this guy's super successful, very good business, but he wanted to take it to a whole nother level. Couldn't do that without the relationship, the core relationship he had. And understanding that he couldn't see what he couldn't see, he was standing in the jar trying to read the label. So I come in and the couple of things that were really beneficial about this is that my whole experience up to that point was not in their industry. So all the consultants that he had ever hired before were people who were. Let's just say they were. They worked the front desk and then they worked theirselves into another position, another position, another position. And then they were like, oh, I have a really cool system about this. I'm going to become a consultant. And that's what we end up happening with a lot of consultants in any business. Right. They're really good at this thing. They have a system, a formula, process. Let's go teach other people how to do that thing. But the thing that I had that nobody else had was I wasn't from the industry. So I'm looking at what they're doing in their business like a business. I'm looking at all the things they're doing with fresh eyes. And so I come in and I say, well, why do you do that? I'm questioning, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? And all of a sudden things start shifting. Oh, why are you accepting that from your manager? Why are you accepting this from your team member? And we started shifting. How come you're not looking at your business in the sense of marketing this way? So they start shifting and they shift and shift and shift. Well, obviously it's not just from what I did, but a big portion of that relationship side and that excellence side helped them out, see things differently. So he took his business and what he wanted to do. I didn't know it at the time, but I remember sitting down at the table and him saying, dino, this is what I want to do now that I've got this in place. He wanted to take his business and basically franchise model and go across the country. Cut to.

He now has 350 offices around the country. He just partnered with a venture capitalist firm for a valuation of $2.5 billion. This is a guy who started out with one office in the middle of Texas, and now, less than seven years later.

Has a valuation for his company for over $2.5 billion. And we talk about all the time. He says it from the stage all the time. He's like, it would not have happened unless I had the mentor to show me how I could strengthen my relationship and see things that I couldn't see. That, to me, is the most valuable part of it, because he's not only that. You said, wow, at five kids. They now have three more kids. They have eight kids all together. And they built their fantasy ranch in the middle of Texas. He's amazing. He's doing such good stuff. But I love seeing that because it all came from his humility of being able to say, okay, I don't know what. I don't know. I can't see what I can't see. You gotta point it out to me. And he also is the person who kind of pushed me into a specific industry that I never thought I'd be in. So it's really been fascinating to see. But understanding that we have to work on all four areas, not just one. And if you loosen one, everything else kind of falls apart. Right. On nobody. Have you seen those guys, those memes where you have the guy with the one arm that's super buff and the other one that's not. Cause all he does is curls. Or he's got only strong arms and he's got flabby little legs.

Eggs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can't do that. You got to work on everything or it's not all going to be strong.

Well, and. And so for. For one thing, congratulations. It is a great case study. And it also explains why. Moving forward.

Yeah.

Dino Watts negotiating royalties. Yeah. Every deal you do, I'm learning that from you.

I love that idea. I'm totally.

Exactly. All right. We're talking if there's a mega upside.

That's right. That's right.

Because.

Or what do you call them? Phantom stocks.

Yeah.

Right. I love that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. There's a whole variety. It's sort of like what I call it is. You know, it's. It's. It's, you know, it's revenue plus generation.

Yeah. Participate.

Never tax anyone on their own money, but on the increase.

Yeah, the increase. Revenue. Right. Love it.

And that is. It's. It's very profound. So let's. Let's go down a path. So we didn't. Went through core.

Yep.

Some good case studies. And there's. There's two things here. One of them is what I'm hoping is that folks have been listening to you, are inspired, and they're like, okay, I gotta get this guy in my business. And so we've got some great tools, some great giveaways to give away, and another video where we went down even deeper. So let's just assume that founder brings Dino Watt in. You're everyone's best friend. The team's inspired.

The team's happier, the customers and clients are happier, people are more productive. You're making more money. Valuation of the business is increased, more time off. And if founder wants to sell business, they're going to get more in the valuation. The business is more systemized. And that is the thing that's hard to measure, which is the value of culture and what that does for the business. But it's immediately apparent.

Well, Mike, I have a. So there's a company that does these kind of buyouts or partnerships that I've worked with a few times. And they're a broker. Basically, they're a broker, go out to find the highest bidder for these practices.

They have not only had conversations with me around the idea of, hey, we want good EBITDA and all that stuff, that's great. But the culture side of things helps us even more so because if we can sell a company that we don't have to restructure, that we don't have to get everybody bought in, and we get everybody, all the team members excited about this because now they're gonna get more. It makes it so much easier. Right? But there's also. There's a friend of mine, her name is Nick. And Nick, her job is to go out to these companies and. And after the deal's kind of done, like, they've inked some things that the intent is there, she goes out, and her job is to go into the practice and spend two days with a practice and to find out, how are they actually working, what's the culture like inside? And she goes back and reports on two things, leadership and culture. And they will determine their ultimate valuation for that practice based upon her judgment of those two things. And oftentimes she'll call me up and be like, dino, we gotta get you into this practice, or, Dino, we gotta. Because it's so important for them to know that they aren't gonna have revolt and rebellion from the team members. Because what's the worst thing to happen once you sell your practice?

Yeah, everyone quits.

Everyone's Gone. I don't wanna be corporate. I'm outta here. So it's really crucial for that to happen. And it's especially nowadays, more than ever, nowadays more than ever, to know that that's there is crucial. If you're not thinking about that, you're gonna lose out a ton of money.

Totally.

Yeah.

Well. And that's where the golden handcuffs work way against the founder. Because.

What the founder's thinking, I'm gonna get this big check and it's like, well, not really. You're gonna get a little bit now and you're gonna get the rest after we get results and wah, wah.

It's fascinating you say that to me because I was on a plane, I think, two weeks ago, and the guy sitting next to me, we ended up starting talking. He had a helicopter ambulance business.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, he built this thing up and he said basically that same thing to me. He said, yeah, I built this whole thing up. It's great and I sold it. But part of my contract is I gotta be here for five years. And I spend every day thinking, what am I gonna do next? I can't wait to get out of this. I feel like I'm stuck here. I can't move forward. I don't get my big payout unless I'm here for the five years. He's three years in, he's got no, no tears to go. And he goes, the last three years has been so long. The next few years are gonna be longer.

Yeah, yeah. I was good for 90 days. Five exits I've had. I lasted 90 days. Well, and, and I did. What I did is I said, rather get less and get all of it now because I'm a bad employee. Yeah, I'm not gonna be a good, good employee. I'll be good when you need me for what I'm best at. But I'm not good at playing patty cake. And I've never had a boss and I'm like, so I really get that. And I would say most founders I know are that way. You just gotta move on and you gotta know yourself and make sure you negotiate. So I think for the sake of a founder, do this now. So let's get into. I'd like to know, describe what it's like to work with Dino Watt. What's your program? Where do people go to to learn more and get more?

Well, the first thing they're going to do is they're going to come to my house. Actually, I do a retreat at my house where I only have like 20 leaders, as I like to cap it, about 20 people, where they come and we're going to spend two days just really digging into.

So it's an immersive workshop.

Very immersive. Yeah. And it's not, you know, it's not overbearing and it doesn't have a lot of other people. Like you're going to learn from other people in that group too, because you're going to see a lot of variety of different things. And then from there we're going to decide, hey, are we fit? And what's interesting is it is reverse of what we talked about at the very beginning. If people see me at an event, most likely the team members are going to say, hey, we got to get Dino into the office. And I'll do that. I'll come to the office and I'll do a two day visit or one day visit, depending on what the needs are. But for the most part, I want to get the founders to see, oh, this is really important for me to understand what I want out of this experience in my business. So that's what we dive into there. It's very relaxed, very fun conversation that we're having. Fun with you. I know, right? Exactly. I might not be doing a lot of dances and stuff for them because that's more for the team members. But yeah, they're gonna see that we're gonna have a good time. And then from there we talk about how do we continue this conversation in a coaching manner to where we have more of a regular conversation and get the team all enrolled too. The thing that I tell a lot of my clients is, is most people don't think about this when they hire on a consultant or a coach is the last thing you really need is another job. And you don't think about that. And so you go in and you get a consultant, hoping it's going to give you one result, not realizing it's going to require more work from you as well. And so that's why I think a lot of coaching and consulting peters out. I really work on getting you into the mindset of being a true leader. Now the next step is to create what I call a core team inside of your team. Not necessarily your management, not necessarily the leaders in your practice, but the people who I call are your advocates. The people have your back. The people that you know, if you were to give them a task, they're going to do it and they're going to help support you. So you're not sitting there going like, oh, great, another job. I have to do. That's crucial because I want you to have more freedom, not more. Now, I will tell you in fairness, probably the first month, maybe month and a half, you are going to have some more work to do because I got to get to know what's going on in your head and what you truly want. But after that, now we're just working on that the entire time.

Well, and as someone who's done a lot of workshops, I know for a fact the value of that. You can accomplish so much. And the fact that you're with other founders is a massive difference because.

We all learn better that way. And the relationships, the deals that can be made, it's not just the experience, it's what happens after that. And of course, you do one on one too, but it's a brilliant model. I know that from past experience.

I wonder, Mike, on your experience too, since you said that, do you find that people from different industries totally open up the mindset from somebody? I think sometimes I have people who will say, well, I just want only founders of this, or I only want doctors, or I only want this. And I'm like, no way. You want to have a mix of other people because you're getting outside of your mindset.

The more diversity, the more men, the more women, the more pure diversity, cultural diversity, industry diversity, and even business size diversity, the better because.

And again, part of what happens is lifelong relationships are created when you get people with common values in the room.

Yeah.

And I love, like, that's something that you, you have is you have so much diverse experience in so many different industries. That makes a big difference. But also, you know, you've, you've dealt with, you know, $2 million businesses, just like someone who's got it. Something that's valued at two and a half billion.

Right.

Okay. Well, the fact of the matter is, somewhere along the way, he started there first and he started before there, as did.

A female entrepreneur's got different challenges, but being able to experience that. So the experiential emotional learnings are so nuanced, they can't be taught in a classroom. They've gotta be in real life. And that's where in a workshop, you can get a year's worth of work done in two days.

100%.

That's what I love about your model.

So true.

Yep, Yep. Okay, so where do they go and what's the application process like? How's that for a setup? How's that, that for a setup?

That's a good setup there. So they're Going to go to the fix my team, fix our team now.com and they're going to figure out or they're going to give us an application, they're going to let us know what is their challenge with or what they think they're challenged with. And then we're going to have a conversation. We're just going to get on a call, have a conversation and see if they're the right fit and if I'm the right fit for them to come out to the house and do the workshop. And it's really super simple process, very easy. I don't like to overcomplicate things. Things like to make it straightforward. If it's not a fit, it's not a fit. Cool. And if it is, let's get something done.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, I love the process, I love the model, I love your content and I love who you are. I love your wife and you. You know, it's been great spending time with Shannon and you and now that you're newly empty nesters, oh, it's the best. What a great life.

Mike, join us.

Yeah, I am. You know, as a matter of fact, for the record, my son is 2020 today that we're.

That's right. Yeah, that's right.

So. And we're experiencing the better share of empty nesting. You know, they're never.

Matter of fact, it's funny you say they're never because in I think a week, we're gonna have three of our kids back home for a month. So Shannon and I are really having discussions about this. Like, wait a minute, so I can't walk around naked right now. Okay. Crap.

Yeah, no, I really understand. So again, it's fix our team now. Go there, you take a brief assessment, fill in the blanks, what you're going to find. If you didn't figure this out already, Dino's super easy to talk to and he's a straight shooter. He's just going to tell you right away, look, I know exactly what you need. And he will be able to dig in deep. And part of the reason why this model works so well is because he starts with you. The first operating system upgrade begins with you, and then it's the team. And he's got a very flexible program. It's gonna be customized for you, but what you need to know is he's got systems, he's got mounds of great content and resources. And by the way, @fixerteamnow.com there's also an additional download video because Dino and I have recorded a special webinar where we actually go through more of the process. So if you're more of a fact finder, you need some more detail, you can dive in deeper and you'll also get a, a really good sense of what a systemized process is as well. So with that, anything else that you.

Want to finish up, there's also quiz up there, right? They can do the QR code. We have a quiz where you can actually test and see where their culture is. Right now there's four different values of a culture. They can see right there how toxic or hopefully not toxic their culture is. Great.

Fantastic. All right, so with that, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. This is Capability Amplifier. My name is Mike King. This is Dino Watt and we are going to wish you a great day, a great week, great month and your best year ever. So long, let's say goodbye.

Bye, everybody.