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To The Point - Home Services VIP Room Podcast
Jim Abrams Reveals the Service Scripts That Close More Jobs - Part 2
00:38:10
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- [00:01]
A
This is to the Point a Rhino experience voted one of the top home services, marketing and operations podcasts.
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B
Cutting through the.
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A
And getting to the point.
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B
So let's. I'm gonna move forward too on this because I also watched, you know, when I was driving back from Colorado this past weekend, I was, you know, that's a long haul from. From basically a little town called Uray just by kind of over by Telluride down to Phoenix. It's about 19 hour drive for me with three kids. But nowadays they just put on their headphones and they use all the technology and you don't hear them. But I listened to a lot of different videos and things that you've done from your speaking and stuff. And I never actually got to see you speak live in person, which I'm really bummed about. But I found a lot of clips on YouTube and I was listening to all of them. I mean, and it's really hard to take notes and drive by the way, because I'm trying to speak to my phone that's also playing the video through the truck.
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A
Dangerous.
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B
It was a little. But that's. Couldn't text it so I'm speaking to it. But you had talked about and this seems so simple, yet I still think it's overlooked and it's not mastered. And that was the key word I heard you say in it. But you talked about the three things that you must master in business. What are they?
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A
Well now I spoke for so long, I was in the business for years, so I'm not sure I got the right three things. But certainly I taught that there's only three things you can move. You can move yourself, so you can move your mind, your effort, your time, your will. That's very critical. You move your money. So you have to make a decision where are you going to spend your money to enhance it. And you move other people. And those people are a broader world, if you will. It includes your family, your friends, your associates, professionals, and the personnel working for you. So every day when you go to business, really those are the only three things that you can touch and move to move yourself forward in business. So you have to have a plan again for each one of those. Where you're going to spend your money, how you're going to spend your time, and how are you going to move your people? It's unbelievable that when you reach out to people, when you're faced with a challenge. For instance, way back when I'd gotten a patent on a special pricing that I did for SGI and On that pricing, I couldn't come up with the name of it. But our bookkeeper, Patty Myers was in a meeting with me and I said, boy, I'm just, I can't come up with a great name. And she came up with straightforward pricing. We trademarked it in. The rest is history. A lot of people use that pricing system today. So I'm not sure that's what you were looking for again, being 50 years old.
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B
Yeah, no, no, no, no. And I don't expect you to. But, but I'm going to give it to you down and you'll pick it up. But that's actually was kind of half of it. It was talking about sales and marketing. One piece and then the operations piece. That. That piece of it.
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A
Yeah. The organization of these companies are very simple. So really there's only three operational things that you do. You have to sell. So you. And sell it. Okay, that starts it. And then you have to operate the business with operational excellence. So you have to have systems and procedures in place so that once that sale is made, everything is done right, you're collecting on it. If it's finance, blah blah, blah, the system is installed correctly. And then the last thing you have to administrate your business. Those are the only three functions in these service businesses. So you have to take a look at your organization chart and make sure that you have those slots filled with, with the very best people that you possibly can and that each of them have the very best plan they can possibly put forward.
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B
Hey, did you ever pull in anybody from outside the industry and put them in those leadership roles or management roles?
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A
Oh, yeah, many times. As the company grew. In one case, Patty Myers, who I mentioned earlier, we were doing about, I think $150 million in sales at that point in time. And we were growing to be larger. This was a clockwork and I was preparing to take it public in 05 through 07 and she came to me and said, I don't want to go back to school anymore. I want to live more life so I can't continue as your cfo. So I pulled in a top notch CFO from the outside world. Most of the people I developed internally, but in some cases it accounting. When you get to a certain scale, a person has to make a decision, do they want to grow and continue to educate themselves to be able to handle that or do they have enough on their plate right now? So I have pulled from it particularly and the accounting world from outside experts.
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B
Got it. But the, but the plan is, I think the thing that you really hit home on is you have to master these things and if you can't do it, you gotta find somebody that can help master it for you. And I thought that was critical because you can't be, you know, to really be competitive and kind of hit to your run to your plan if you have one of those in place and to get it done right and to not bleed money. You have all to have all these things mastered. And I think that's where some fault like you might be good at.2 and you, and you are, you know, half assed on the other one or, or whatever it is. But the plan was to master all three of it and if you can't do it, be vulnerable enough to know that you can't do it or self aware enough to know that you can't do it and find somebody that can help you master that piece of it. So that's what I thought was really impactful from it. And I don't expect, you know, I think what's been great is, and you've probably seen a lot of this over the years, I know you've seen a lot of this over the years is just how much people are willing to actually help if you ask them for help, you know, in this industry. So you know, and really the last I would say, you know, having me having been in this business 15 years, I've kind of seen the set, you know, the set best practice groups over the years and it's kind of been like the same. But over the last say three or so years I've really seen some consultants, you know, and groups kind of come out of the woodworks and, and, and something I think is really important for our listeners to hear is I'll take a step back. I know, I know that, you know, you genuinely care about helping the contractor and helping people and helping them grow. And they're like, they're, they're held, their families, their success, they're all the things like you care about the customer service and like customer service is so mission critical for, was so mission critical for you. Do what's right, do the right thing, do it good. But I believe that way that people shouldn't be getting taken advantage of and sometimes they don't know what to look for. And when you have all these contract or, excuse me, like these consultants and stuff coming out of the woodwork, sometimes you don't know what questions to ask because what you see might not be what you get right. And it's easy. Today in a social media world like this to kind of put on a front, if you will, you know, like whatever you perceived value of that person. But then what you actually get is, you know, not what you thought you were going to get. But is there a way that these guys could identify that before going down that path? Like, could it be something as simple as, hey, go back and look through the history and see if they ever actually ran a business?
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A
That's what I would say. It's shocking to me how many failed contractors actually run consulting firms. It's shocking, and it's not so they have some knowledge. They know where the business person is vulnerable, and hence they can come at that person and in that area of vulnerability and claim superior knowledge, because they probably do have superior knowledge in that one realm. Generally with contractors, it's administratively. So most contractors are lost administratively, or it wise, they really don't know what they're doing. They hope somebody else will take care of it for them. And they don't really apply oversight there, so they can get into difficulty. But some of the largest groups out there are actually led by field contractors. So it's. It's shocking to me. I would probably ask, just as you mentioned, hey, show me your financial statement at the beginning, because nobody else had done it. So I used to walk around at our meetings. John Young required me to bring my financial statement that actually showed that I did $12 million in sales. That actually showed that I dropped $1.4 million to the bottom line after paying myself $300,000 a year. So, you know, it was evidence. And he actually had me carry my tax reports with me, too. So. And I remember some. It was actually Ron McCann out of Houston came up to me and said, you're way too young to be doing this. And I said, well, Ron, last year I made a substantial amount of money, and I've got my evidence here. I said, how'd you do last year? He said, oh, tough year. Last year we lost two and a half percent, but we've been in business for 80 years, so we're going to survive it. He said, how'd you do? I said, well, last year I made 16.5% profitability on a business that was six times his size. And I've been in business now for eight years or whatever it was at the time that we launched it. And of course, that made him stop and think. And he didn't join. He didn't join until he came down to my company, down. We were down in the Missouri River Valley that later flooded, but he built A brand new business down there, 27,000 square feet. And he visited it and he said, you don't always keep it this way, do you? And I said, yeah, this is how it looks. He said, I could eat lunch off your warehouse floor. I said, well, I probably wouldn't choose to do that. I said, but you're right, you could. It's very clean. So that was my endorsement, was my financial statement. I was running a business. Anybody could come in and take a look at it. There was no hiding from it. And John had a direct mail piece that was just tearing up the world at that time and he had all the results from that. So I think those of us that are real are able to indicate that and we also are able to indicate where our weaknesses are. So like when I started physical therapy, I'm certainly not a physical therapist. However, I brought in some of the best physical therapists in the world to join my team and explain to everybody, I can't fix anybody, but I can fix your business. And that, that I think they should look at.
- [09:45]
B
Got it. So quick question. When you were carrying around those tax like your tax records and all those things to prove it. Attention to the point listeners. Branding has never been more important. Is your brand in serious need of an upgrade? Do you have a new company and need a new brand but don't want to wait six months or pay a ridiculous amount to get it done? If your brand looks like everyone else's, well, guess what, you are everyone else. But Prolific, they build brands that dominate from the first Google search to the driveway. Prolific brand design can help you be more of you because you are the unique difference that sets you apart from all your competitors. So let's be real for a second. Your brand is either winning new customers or costing you money. Just ask some of our clients like Ken Goodrich, Ishmael Valdez, my boy Chad Peterman and even myself. Prolific Brand Design is the creative pros behind some of the best home services, logos, truck wraps, websites and now email marketing campaigns. Wouldn't you love it if your email marketing open rates were 30, 40, 50%? And don't go into the spam folder. Hell, that's how we roll at Prolific. So check them out at prolific brand design.com and ask for the to the point promo. Prolific Brand Design. Be more of you. Be prolific. You know that makes me think of is you started your first business in the show me state.
- [11:13]
A
Yeah, but you're right.
- [11:17]
B
Show me. Prove it. Let's see. So I think this is a good, I mean well, when I asked that question because I really, really want our listeners to not have to have that potential negative impact on the business because obviously some of them are pretty expensive, like, you know, and, and I also noticed that, that some might be better in one of those, one of those like three things better than the other. Like well, maybe they're really good at sales, you know, but maybe not ops, you know, or so and then they, I don't know if they try to bring in somebody to try and master that piece of it too. Maybe that person's not quite a master. So I think it's just hard to sift through to find out like if I'm going to spend, you know, 30,000, $20,000 on a, on a coach. For some businesses that's a, that's a decent chunk of money. They're trying to find somebody to help them fix the problems that they're already having, you know, or fix some of the things, you know, that they're already having. And that's, that can be a big expense if you don't get the right return on it. So I hear too many horror stories, which is why I bring it up. And when I can is just, is there something that can be identified to bypass a potential hurdle or grenade if you will, you know, in the business too. So that's why I asked that question. I'm just curious to hear your input because you've seen a lot of this throughout the years.
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A
Yes. And some actually mislead people unfortunately because it profits themselves. So I've seen consultants that actually have an advertising firm on the side that direct the client over to the advertising firm and they're just looking at how much money can I take from this client and I hope they make it. An early one that I saw that was very large, offered a market analysis for like $35,000. And really a college student could have done the market analysis. All it did was show how many people lived in the community, what the opportunity they perceived could be done H Vac wise. And it was so sad to see these guys do it. Obviously it's not just tied to H Vac. It's very, very common in physical therapy. So although we now have between our company owned operations and franchisees, almost 550, I can't tell you how many of them had spent over $75,000 with exactly the same trade consultant, in this case physical therapy and got no result whatsoever. Every single one of them went backwards in terms of success.
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B
Brutal. That's why I'm trying to Bypass listeners.
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A
It's terrible when that happens and you're vulnerable because you're desperate. One guy I Knew back in St. Louis actually paid a guy $50,000, flew down to Florida, gave him $50,000. And because the guy promised him he'd invest a quarter of a million dollars in his business and then show him how to make it, but he had to give him 50,000 to show good faith. It was all just a con. So it was. It was terrible that that happened to that guy, and that was the end of his business because he borrowed money from his friends and relatives just with hope and prayer.
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B
Yeah, that's no good. That's not a good. That's not a good business model.
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A
God's listening, but he won't go and install a system for you.
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B
Unreal. Well, I mean. I mean, even just. I mean, we're talking about this, but a lot has changed over the last. Like, really over the last few. I mean, really covet. I mean, change. Kind of change things up a little bit, too, and just how you react to it and the outcome of it. And in a lot of ways, I think there's some good that came from it as well for our industry and on the exposure. Exposure of it being, you know, a. Oh, God, I forget the term. What was called the. Oh, my God. An essential business. Essential business. Think. Jeez. And so, you know, it's essential. You have to have it. Like, we were still able to work, you know, and our contractors, you know, were really growing in this time, like, really growing in these years. But there's also some. Jim, that didn't. Like, they made. They, you know, like. Like you kind of made the decision to start to go outside and look in Salt Lake City and try these other things and compare yourself against the nation. Some people didn't. They froze. They didn't make a decision. And so sometimes you have to be willing to just be like, I got to make a change, or maybe reinvent yourself or do whatever. And so I had read another. Either I watched a video or I read this one of the two. I can't remember at this point in time, but to the point listeners, listen up. What if the biggest thing holding back your business isn't marketing? You're hiring, but your bennies. The benefits. For home service companies, a better 401k can be the difference between great techs and losing them to the shop right down the street. Basic Capital, our newest sponsor, is the only 401k built to actually put your team on a real path to retirement. Companies that switch over. See higher participation, happier teams, and dramatically low turnover because your crew finally gets a plan that's a true benefit, not just a checkbox. Don't wait until your best people walk, make the move and click the link below to get 12 months with 0 employer fees when you join basic capital. You had talked about the Serenity Prayer, like, if you remember what that is and that kind of, that method of re, you know, reinventing yourself. And let me segue into this for you before you respond to that on what that is. Because I'm in the marketing world, I noticed a lot of, not necessarily our customers, but just because I'm pretty active in the whole entire industry as a whole. A lot of businesses that had poor brands really, really struggle. The brand equity was very, very low. And I think if anything, a lot of what Covid did too, was really expose how incredibly important brand is. And so sometimes in that moment, you can't fix brand that fast, so you would have had to have done something else. But something that I thought kind of plays, you know, plays along with that. Was your piece that you spoke on the Serenity Prayer. Can you explain to our listeners what that was all about, or at least what the intent of that is?
- [16:57]
A
Sure. First of all, I heard it. My son actually gave it to me
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B
when he was right.
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A
Yeah, yeah, so. So I heard it. I did not know it was related to aa. So I'm not an alcoholic. Not that opposed to people that go to AA and recovery, but I know they use this prayer, right? And the prayer simply says, lord, give me the serenity to those things I cannot change, the courage to change those things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And I apply this to life on a constant basis, especially when I was diagnosed with cancer. What am I going to do? I've got a cancer growing inside my kidney. It's life threatening. It's totally outside of my control. So I have to rely on the professionals, the doctors. And I had lots of input as to not to do it with surgery or not to do it with chemo and try a different route. But ultimately I had to make these decisions. So fortunately for me, I chose the medical route and I had the courage to follow through. And it hurt. Chemo's no fun. Surgery. Having your kidney removed is no joy, but it took courage. And I had the knowledge to know the difference between the two. If I just accepted what was going to happen, which I considered since I'm in my 70s, I'm about to turn 75, would I have the serenity to be able to accept that I wouldn't live. I had both, so I had to make that decision. Do I act on the courage, which is not a very good looking thing. On the other hand, if I had the serenity, I kind of think heaven's going to be a cool place. So it was a difficult decision for me to make. But my family was adamant that I do everything I could to stay on earth. So I did. And that prayer helped at that point in time.
- [18:43]
C
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- [19:32]
B
Well, you know, if you think about, you know, even though like you said, AA really kind of coined that as their like, you know much and my dad wasn't that like in and out and out of it lots of times. And so and I, it's like, it's literally a disease. It's hard to get past.
- [19:46]
A
And I was a heavy drinker in my early years. I stopped when I remarried because I just, I saw kids growing up in a society where they will never go to a party where there's adults present that alcohol will not be served. They just don't see that world. So I stopped drinking now 17 years ago, so I didn't have AA, but I like a lot of contractors. I think particularly after running leads at 10 o' clock at night, you go home, your wife's in bed asleep, hey honey, I just sold a $8,000 system. Stop talking to me, I'm asleep. So you end up going out with other salesmen, right? And say, hey man, I sold an $8,000 system. How do you do it? And then you come home at 1 o' clock in the morning and you've had too much to drink and get up the next day. So I figured that was enough of that.
- [20:34]
B
Well, can you. I think about during COVID that's like a great, that would be a great prayer for that particular point in time. Right? Like that kind of is what it hits on. So it works. It's not like it was put in the Bible just for alcoholics. That's not what it is. It's just so. But I thought that was really interesting given the time, you know, the time timing that we're in. And so just based on all these decades of experience you have and seeing in the industry and always kind of being like first to do different things, try different things, like even in technology, on, you know, selling direct online, you know, directly online, all these things you've kind of been at the forefront on. What are your thoughts on the future of the H Vac world? Like post Covid. And I know we're still kind of technically in it ish, but what are your thoughts like in just this industry? Like, do you have anything you thought about, have you had any conversations around, like, hey, this is what business is going to look like moving forward in the, in the trades, like any of that type of stuff. In home services, speed to lead is everything. Chirp stands out. By transforming your communication strategy with Chirp, accelerate your lead response time with instant sms, text messaging, email and ringless voicemail automation. Chirp's cutting edge technology ensures you're the first and the most persistent, helping you close more deals than ever. But that's not all. Say goodbye to missed opportunities with Chirp's incredible follow up system. Keep your leads engaged and moving smoothly through your sales funnel without lifting a finger. And with Chirp, deep integrations with top CRMs like Service Titan, Housecall Pro and Jobber, you can launch laser targeted campaigns to connect with the exact right leads at the exact right time. Automation creates efficiency. Efficiency unlocks scalability. With Chirp, you can automate speed to lead. Estimate follow ups, rehash abandoned call follow ups, canceled job follow ups, review requests outbounding to your list, annual reminders, membership expiration, follow ups and so much more. So stop chasing leads, capture them, connect faster and close more deals with Chirp. Contact Chirp today and elevate your communication game.
- [22:53]
A
Yeah, I'm pretty confident that the equipment itself will become a commodity. I mean, there's just too much money and too much power in the world, driving all high ticket items to becoming commodities. Whether it's an automobile, now you see it for houses. So the only reason that hasn't happened yet is the people with all the money haven't figured out how to manage the labor force. But the equipment itself begs to be sold directly to the consumer with the labor force installing it. I do think that's going to happen at some time. Perhaps as early as five years from now. It might take 10. This industry doesn't change quickly, but within five to 10 years, the opportunity where everybody's making all their money right now is not going to be here in the future. In the same fashion, you're really going to have to learn how to manage labor. Unfortunately, with consumer financing and marketing, contractors have become reliant on selling equipment at, in my opinion, a little bit too high. Inflated prices and driving margins up because they're giving labor whatever they ask. So when I hear what labor is being demanded and getting these days, I love it because I love the front end guys. But it's probably gone beyond reasonableness and that would concern me. So I do not think that contractors today are really good at being able to manage their labor force and really manage a really effective business. What brought that back is in physical therapy. I measured. The government actually says, hey, here's what Medicare will pay. Too bad it doesn't matter how good you get, we're not paying you anymore and they just reduced it. Their efficiency has to be the key driving factor to be a good businessman in that particular field. You really have to understand labor efficiency and you really have to learn how to drive that because it's not a product sale type business. That's going to happen in H Vac. In H vac, as the equipment becomes commoditized and sold directly over the Internet to be installed by another group of people, the labor forces out there managing the efficiency of that labor is going to become critical.
- [25:04]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's great. I seen it and I've been hearing about it for years too. And I've even dabbled in it a little bit too, because that's kind of my world. Well, it is my world, not kind of my world, but it's got to be right. Like I, you know, I had a great, you know, Darren. Darren Dixon. Yeah, and Darren, I become Darren, I become friends. And so, and he and I have had a lot of conversations around just his world and my world. And like there, there's a lot of overlap. And I love those conversations because I love the technology aspect. I love the Uber, I use air quotes. Uberization of potential H Vac replacements and sales. So to me, I think it's not a if it's a win, and that's a very soon win, I believe, just from paying attention to what I think. So I'm always curious to hear, you know, everyone else's opinion, especially yours. Cause you've been in this thing so long and you've seen so many different transitions. But what's next for you, man? Like, I know you've retired like 15 times, so. But what's next for you, man? Like, what are you gonna DAB him? You're 75, right? That's you've over, you've beat cancer, you've done all these things. Like what's next for you, Jim? I mean, I know you got the book coming out like your new book and it's the baby is on the island and which we'll talk on in a minute. But like, what's next, man? You just gonna. Are you actually gonna retire and relax?
- [26:28]
A
Well, I've been very blessed. I have nine grandchildren now. They range age from 13 to less than 14 of them out on the west coast. My wife just left this morning. I'll be joining her next week out in la. So we see the kids out there and as long as I can get down on the floor and have these kids crawl over me or go out on the boat with them, that's the predominant part of my life. I still have business owners reach out to me. I will give them time. I do charge for the time because my time is valuable and if they don't pay, I found out they don't really value it anyway. But when somebody comes and pays me for a day, they listen a lot more, they take notes and invariably they go back and do what I suggested to say. So I do some of that still in all different types of businesses, usually by request from a friend that says, hey, I got this guy that's struggling, can you help them out? Or whatever. So that's what I'm doing these days. I think I'm short of plan right now. So I've lived my whole life with 10 year plans because of the cancer Covid and all that other stuff. I think I did not. Well, I know I have not sat down and say, okay, Jim, where are you going to be when you're 85? Because I had questions whether I'd see 85. So I probably need to write a new plan.
- [27:46]
B
I'd love to add something to your plan if I can talk you into it. And this is purely selfishness. I put on this little itty bitty event, very private invite only type event called Rhino X Service Summit. Terry spoke at it last year. It's very like small. I've never gotten to see you speak live. I'VE never gotten to see that. I want to see it. It's a very tiny group of very established contractors and also some that are just trying to get that knowledge from you as well too. But I would love it if I could talk you into even doing a small little speaking role. And guess what? Phoenix is right by la. You're just a hop, skip and a jump way over there. It's not until, it won't be until February of next year, but I'm just going to throw that little teaser out there to see if I can talk you into pulling you out of that non live speaking thing and giving you like a little 30 minute spiel there or even a Q and A. Whatever it takes, I'm in to make it happen.
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A
Well, I'd probably be happy to do it. Send me an invite and I'll look at my calendar.
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B
Wonderful. I'll take that. I'll take that and run with it because I would love to see that. I want to close with this too. And again, you know, it's been about an hour and I appreciate the time and like you said, I think time is our most valuable asset to. He can't get it back. I didn't know you're still consulting. That's fantastic. I don't know if that's something that I can share on your behalf on how somebody can connect with you. If it's through someone, through you, if they want to do those types of things. Is there a, is there a way I should do that? Or I can, I can offer to listeners.
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A
They can contact me directly. My email address for that would be J. Abrams A B R A M S at bazoom, which is B as in boy I Z Z O O M dot com.
- [29:22]
B
Got it. I'll share that as well in the show notes so that way they can see that. Great. I didn't know you were still doing that. That's fantastic.
- [29:28]
A
Yeah, not everybody knows, but occasionally people request.
- [29:31]
B
Well and so also you have the book coming out and they'll be able to get that in audio format.
- [29:37]
A
Yes, if they want that they can go the same address. My son will, one of my sons will respond to them and they can either take it electronic in the form or if they've got a little bit of patience, it'll be in hard print in probably three months.
- [29:50]
B
Okay, perfect. Yeah, they'll only have a couple months on. A couple months left for the hardcover. I have a hard time listening to audio because I space out and if I read the book I have to highlight as I go. So that way when I space out I can go back to my highlights. I'm a product of adhd. And then I would just say the last thing is in regards to that book you have this 10 steps to business success that kind of is like a big piece of that. I just want you to, if you wouldn't mind, if you remember the, the, the actual like 1 through 10, the order of it all, I have them written down. Okay, perfect.
- [30:29]
A
I don't have to test my memory here.
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B
Would you mind just sharing what those are so you can let our listeners know kind of the foundation of, of what it's about?
- [30:36]
A
Sure. And this was written for any business, not just home services.
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B
Perfect.
- [30:41]
A
Number, number one, determine do people want it or need it. So people will only buy what they want or need. So we're in a good place here. We know that they need it. So you're selling a need product. Can you deliver the product? So number two is can you deliver that product or service with a competitive advantage? Usually a competitive advantage would mean less money, more conveniently or is it better, superior or more creative and unique. So you have to be able to have some differentiation and between the rest of the marketplace or else it's going to be a price that people will default to price. Next you must have a name and message. This is critical. One hour air conditioning was always on time or you don't pay a dime. Which sounds relatively easy, but that is actually an anapestic meter. The same type of thing that Dr. Seuss used to be able to have people memorize it by taking a USP like always on time or you don't pay a dime. People will recall that if they hear it seven times. So on the radio or if they hear it seven times wherever television, radio, audio, they'll remember. And next time they need to call somebody, oh yeah, there's those guys that are always on time or whatever it might happen to be. Next is identify your pillars of success. So within every business there are measurable categories that you must look at to see if you're properly planned and executed that would lead to those things. So like how many service calls you're going to run a year. We were running at one time 10,000 service calls a day. So when we reach that level through our franchise group and through company owned operations, that's a lot of service calls a day. And you're going to make a mistake. On my service calls. One of the pillars of success, I actually had a phone number on there 87776, five, five. You win. And it was also printed right on the contract around the invoice that rang at my secretary's desk. So even though we were doing 10,000 service calls a day, if there was somebody disappointed in the country or in Canada where we had business, that call would actually come to my desk. My team then at the local center had one day to correct that problem, or else I would step in and resolve it. In one time that I stepped in, it was in Las Vegas, and it actually cost the center $85,000 because we closed down the center for the morning. Had the disappointed customer come in and actually show a video to my whole team, tell the team what the complaint was, and my general manager gave her back all of her money that she paid. But, you know, that's. That's big overreach. But that was one of my pillars of success. I would not have the sun go down on an unhappy customer, period. I had to be able to resolve that customer before I went home that night.
- [33:28]
B
Got it. Love it.
- [33:30]
A
The next one up, I had, so. But there's all different pillars of success in my book. I show the restaurant ones that we develop for the restaurants. Do you have the capital necessary to succeed? That's number five. If not, can you replace it with effort? In the beginning, I had limited capital, so I was out knocking on doors, dialing on telephones, et cetera. Later, and for most the rest of my life, capital has never been a problem. So now I can kind of even overwhelm companies because of the capital availability that I have. I can come in and take major presence in markets very quickly if I so choose. Next one up, number six, you have to look in the mirror. Can you lead and do what is necessary? This is tough. You may have to fire a person that you really care about, and many times it's a family member. So can you really do this? Because the business now becomes like a child, and just like an infant child, if you're not doing everything you can to keep that child alive and well, they're totally dependent upon you, and so is your business. So you have to know there that you will do what you need to do. And if you can't do that, it probably is not going to work out for you. Number seven, do you have the will to do what's necessary? Now, this is different. Number six is, can you do it? Number seven is, will you do it? And so many times you get into things that are just so difficult. I remember my last chemo thing and saying, I don't want to go today. I was so sick last night time, you know, I don't want to do this today. But again, my family wanted me here and it was what I had to do. So even though it was like, this is going to be like one of the worst days of my life, I got in my car and drove myself to chemo that day, which my chemo was five hours when I got there and no joy. As anybody that's been through it knows
- [35:26]
B
sometimes, sometimes that will is harder than skill.
- [35:29]
A
It is, I think, the hardest thing, especially as you gain wealth. Right. So in the early days, I'm out knocking on doors and dialing on telephones. You know, when I'm worth tens of millions of dollars, it becomes a little bit more difficult to get up in the morning and say, oh, I'm gonna go out and knock on doors today. I can hardly wait. You know, it's that mind. Will you have the courage to do that thing that's necessary?
- [35:52]
B
Yeah. The motivator is different then, huh?
- [35:54]
A
Yeah, totally different. Next one up is eight. Will you define an organizational chart, Fill the necessary roles yourself early on and then hire the right people later. Generally speaking, in our industry, in the contractor industry, the first role you should find is a really, really, really superstar administrator. And the reason for that is accounting for these businesses take up inordinate amount of time. So you want to get that off of you and onto somebody else so that you have your time to impact the business on the top line and you have somebody you really trust that can carry the administration thing. For me, I needed a technician too, because I can't fix anything. I'm a businessman, but I'm really not a serviceman or an installer by any means. Number nine is will you gain the necessary knowledge, write at least a five year plan and subordinate to the plan, putting your ego aside. And number 10 is will you develop a business culture of true meritocracy, focusing on the success of each individual working in the company, delegating authority and responsibility, and do so legally, ethically and morally. And if you do those 10 things and there's obviously backup to them, especially on the pillars of success. So if you follow that formula, and particularly that last one, nothing immoral, nothing illegal and nothing unethical, I think you'll succeed.
- [37:17]
B
That's great. And so is a lot of the book kind of all built around that or is that just a piece of it? Is that kind of the foundation of. It's a bunch of pieces broken into chapters.
- [37:25]
A
And then I actually tell Stories behind each one of those from my career.
- [37:29]
B
Yeah. Perfect. Well, I'm excited. I want to get it and read it. Sounds like it's my kind of book, too, because it's an easy read. If I can crank through a book in one plane ride from Phoenix to anywhere on the east coast, that's kind of my gauge. I know I can actually do it.
- [37:45]
A
You can do it.
- [37:47]
B
Perfect.
- [37:48]
A
You probably finished Sometime Over Tennessee.
- [37:51]
B
Perfect. Well, I don't know. You hear me say I got a highlight because I start to lose. I'll. I'll actually be reading something, and then I'll start thinking about it in a different context. That takes me down some path. I'm like, oh, wait, I got to pay attention and I got to go back to it. So what might take you to Tennessee might take me to Carolina. Well, hey, listen, I'm incredibly grateful that you gave me your time, that you. That we were able to make this thing happen again. It is. It's something that I've been looking forward to just because I've never been able to actually meet you or I see you speak live. I've only ever seen videos, and it just made it. I know, I know. I had to make it a little frustrating waiting so long because I typically wouldn't make, I guess, wait that long to get the questions. But the problem was. Has you ever had analysis paralysis?
- [38:37]
A
Yes.
- [38:37]
B
Yeah, I was in analysis paralysis mode because I had all these questions. If you could see my notes on here, too. I had so many things, and now I had to go back through and rework them and try to think through, man, what's the best thing I can deliver to the listeners that's, you know, taking my selfishness out of it. And it was actually fairly difficult because I had so many things I wanted to ask and. And, you know, just out of curiosity, but I had to, you know, try and keep my. I gotta ask the right things that I'm genuinely interested in. But also, listeners need to hear to be able to take away and actually implement. Otherwise, they waste their time, too. So there's plenty of that in this particular episode, and I'm grateful. So thank you for spending the time with us. I hope that you enjoyed your very first podcast with me. I'm grateful to be that for you.
- [39:21]
A
Well, great. It was very easy. So thank you.
- [39:23]
B
Yeah. And then again, I'm going to lean on you now that I have your email. I'm going to make sure that I get to the team this Rhino X stuff, too. I'll send you a Little snippet of it so you can kind of see what it's like. It's a quick little sizzle so you can see what it's all about, but it's for sure right up your, right up your alley. I love having the, the little panels too, where the, the guests kind of ask, you know, questions and things like that. And, and anyway, I'll send you the video on it, too, and if I could talk you into it, I'd love it again, because I haven't got to see you speak live, so I'd like to get that done.
- [39:53]
A
All right, great.
- [39:54]
B
Well, listeners, I hope you took notes if you did, if you could see if you're watching on the YouTube channel, piece of it, you'll see I've got notes all over the place. And then as Jim's talking, I'm taking a lot more notes. And on the back, on the front. And you know what? My writing sucks. So some of this stuff, I'm about to go back and try and figure out what the heck you said too, Jim, because my writing looks a little sloppy.
- [40:11]
A
Well, you have it on tape.
- [40:12]
B
I got it on video. That's right. We can go back and re listen to it. And so I'm excited for this episode to air. I know there's a lot of people that are going to be really interested because you just haven't, you know, they haven't heard you in so long. So this is going to be a really great piece. I mean, I'm talking, you know, at least in the, in the trades, and this is a great way to kind of push that out to the masses. And so like I said, you know, roughly, kind of by the time we're done with this thing, it'll be in the 40,000, you know, downloads and streams, all other fun stuff, people that are going to hear this message. And I'm excited to be the one to bring that to them. So I always finish this thing off, Jim, with the review, because I live a life of gratitude and I think that to, you know, well, for me, if our listeners, you know, they'll hear these podcasts and they'll leave reviews, and sometimes they're not about me, they're about the guests specifically. And I enjoy being able to give that to you, you know, and so if they, if they leave a review that's geared towards you, I'll take that and send it over to you so you can read it yourself. And so I like reading them myself. They fill my cup too. Right. So, because I was able to bring that to them. And that's the whole point of this podcast, is to be able to give back to the, you know, the industry that I love and I care about. And this is just another way of doing it besides Rhino. So I'm going to finish with the review. And this one was from Dwight E. It's five stars. It says, I really enjoy listening to every one of your podcasts. It's funny, informative, and super valuable. Super valuable. I eagerly anticipate each new episode. So, Dwight E. I appreciate you sending that. Obviously, listeners, leave the reviews. I love reading those things, too. I love sharing them. I've been seeing quite a few come through, so I know you guys are listening to me, and I appreciate that so much. But, Jim, I'm going to say one last time, the father of H Vac success has completed podcast Numero Uno, and I'm excited to be it for you. So thank you again.
- [41:59]
A
All right, thank you.
- [42:00]
B
I'm really grateful, listeners. I hope you really appreciate that. And like Keith said, too, we talked about this whole thing, like, sometimes you just gotta make a decision, even if you don't know if it's gonna be right or wrong, make the decision. You don't have to do everything, but you gotta do something. No. Zero days.