The Void #13 – Profit Vs. Service, Hiring for Heart, Handling Bad Reviews

00:00

[Music]

00:04

hey everybody and welcome to the void a

00:06

show dedicated to filling the void

00:07

between being an employee and becoming

00:09

self-employed

00:11

most people refer to starting your own

00:13

company as taking the leap as if you’re

00:15

blindly jumping off a cliff and into the

00:17

unknown this show is here to help you

00:19

understand that it doesn’t have to be

00:21

that way throughout the course of this

00:23

show i’ll share with you the process i

00:25

used to start our company so you too can

00:28

be on your way to starting your very own

00:30

company and fulfilling your own true

00:33

potential

00:34

as always i’m your host mitch smedley

00:36

and with me is david hilton mitch what’s

00:39

up buddy hey man

00:40

i had a question

00:42

sent to me the other day on facebook

00:44

yeah what is with your really weird

00:48

girly bracelets that i’m wearing i got

00:50

them on again today my daughter made me

00:52

these okay

00:53

so i wear them with pride yeah so that’s

00:56

the answer to that question for the

00:58

actually it’s been like four or five

00:59

people that have said it’s a little

01:00

gerard butler stuff going on and law

01:02

abiding citizen that’s what that is yeah

01:04

i mean it’s not intentional she makes

01:06

them yeah i told her i said one day i’m

01:08

gonna you know sell those on the show

01:10

for and like you guys are selling those

01:12

donate the money to cheers don’t even

01:13

act like you’re gonna donate the money

01:15

to charity or something someday not

01:16

these but like one she made you you

01:18

white marcus back there he’s got a

01:20

daughter that’s about at the bracelet

01:22

making stage that’s a good idea i might

01:24

pass it on to her you know what’s in my

01:25

hallway

01:26

rubber bands millions and millions of

01:28

colored

01:29

everywhere man really yeah just

01:30

everywhere

01:32

she just she’s got this whole case you

01:33

know and she’s just she enjoys it too oh

01:35

she loves it man she tells me if i

01:37

forget him she’s like hey dad where’s

01:39

your bracelets yeah like oh they’re on

01:40

my scene i’ll go get them better go get

01:42

them i wear them with pride sometimes i

01:43

forget so i still got lego creations

01:46

that my kids have created in our bedroom

01:48

and i’ve got like their drawings from

01:49

four or five years ago still taped on

01:51

the wall oh yeah so dude our fridge

01:53

janine keeps a whole file that’s just

01:54

her drawings deceives him it gets like

01:57

there’s a lot of three-year-old it gets

01:59

hectic man oh you can’t keep it all like

02:01

that yeah yeah you can’t keep it off you

02:02

can’t you can get overloaded you got to

02:04

get rid of some stuff but yeah anyways

02:06

that’s that’s the bracelet all right

02:08

guys so we’ve got a new flavor of show

02:11

for you today um it’s kind of an

02:13

off-the-cuff thing a little bit

02:14

basically

02:16

we

02:17

when we started coming up with this show

02:19

we started coming up with a bunch of

02:20

rando like show topic ideas or things we

02:23

could discuss or whatever and we put

02:25

them all on this big giant list

02:27

so what we’re going to do today is

02:29

we are going to have marcus

02:32

surprise dave and i with a couple of

02:36

random things off the list like dave and

02:38

i know what kind of topics are on the

02:40

list but we’ve never they don’t know

02:41

which one it is well we don’t know which

02:42

one you’re going to talk about and or

02:44

which one you’re going to ask us about

02:45

and we’ve never really fleshed out these

02:48

topics or anything it’s literally like

02:50

oh we should do a show on this or we

02:52

should

02:52

try this one and first off

02:55

some late night drinking sometimes i’ll

02:57

get on there like and i’ll just oh yeah

02:59

i’ll just oh wait and i’ll type it on

03:01

there

03:02

so we have i’m not 100 sure any of them

03:04

are good this list is on a shared google

03:06

drive between the three of us so what

03:08

they all are we’ve added to this list at

03:10

any guarantee i guarantee there are some

03:13

that are completely ridiculous right now

03:15

i’m not trying to set anything up i just

03:17

i mean there’s no freaking telling

03:19

there’s some good ideas that come in at

03:20

about midnight after a couple of drinks

03:22

they’re not good i see somebody

03:24

there’s some okay ones and then there’s

03:26

some pretty good ones there’s some

03:27

pretty [ __ ] ones marcus is on some

03:29

pretty good okay so marcus all right

03:30

let’s hold on real quick as as always

03:33

everything that we talk about on this

03:35

show is going to is going to tie back to

03:37

our six core adversities that you’ll

03:39

need to overcome if you want to start a

03:41

successful company so we’ll go over them

03:43

now you go over you want me to go over

03:45

this time hey you you told me we were

03:46

doing an improv show i always do

03:49

all right so

03:50

the this is sick but then reverse it

03:54

yes

03:57

first off i love mary j blige yeah i

03:59

think she’s great so

04:01

that was missy elliott

04:03

no

04:04

that happened is it that am i messed up

04:06

what did i say

04:07

oh yeah i think i did i’m not gonna act

04:09

like i know who sings it i think he’s

04:10

right

04:12

yeah he’s right so

04:14

our core adversities we got six of them

04:16

they’re broken and i could have did the

04:18

same thing nowhere yeah i don’t dude i

04:20

messed stuff up like that we’re still on

04:22

all right you guys

04:23

go ahead go ahead okay all right all

04:24

right

04:25

so we got our core adversities broken

04:27

into two steps

04:28

uh or two sections you’ve got the

04:30

preparation adversities and then you’ve

04:32

got the beginning adversities and so the

04:33

preparation adversities are adversities

04:36

that you wanna overcome before you start

04:38

your business and then the beginning

04:39

adversities are adversities that you’re

04:41

going to want to overcome very soon

04:43

after you started your business so

04:46

the preparation adversities hour are

04:49

personal finance preparation

04:50

um business finance preparation and

04:53

systems preparation

04:55

the beginning adversities so these are

04:57

soon after you’ve started is going to be

05:00

community involvement work

05:03

and finding ways to get involved in your

05:05

community

05:06

the next one is wake up do work and

05:09

repeat or as the young kids call it

05:11

today hustle and grind

05:14

you know what i hate worse than that

05:16

is when they say adulting oh yeah yeah

05:18

dude it drives me insane i’m adulting

05:20

today no you’re not you’re just

05:22

right be an adult right stop jackassing

05:23

around okay and then the the last one is

05:26

evaluate performance make adjustments

05:28

and improve so um you’re constantly in a

05:32

perpetual state of that that one never

05:34

ever goes away in your business ever so

05:36

um as we’re being surprised with

05:40

whatever topics marcus is going to throw

05:41

at us today

05:43

we’ll probably be able to tie him back

05:45

to some of those adversities so

05:47

we’re going to see what happens we’re

05:48

going to we’re going to find out what

05:49

happens here so marcus topic number one

05:52

throw us some topics

05:54

how to handle bad reviews even when it’s

05:57

not your fault

06:00

do you want to go first or do you want

06:01

me to go for it go ahead all right so

06:03

go ahead let’s see what you got first

06:05

off i gotta stretch before i do this

06:07

when you say

06:08

i

06:09

i think i wrote that

06:11

so

06:13

currently at this moment with

06:15

our company let’s

06:17

we don’t have any bad reviews pride

06:19

cometh before the fall

06:20

right

06:21

it’s going to happen i know it’s going

06:22

to happen what are you doing but

06:25

as of right now record prestige as of

06:27

right now we were the only company in

06:29

the kansas city area with a perfect 5.0

06:32

radio i needed like a soundboard

06:35

yeah

06:36

so

06:37

that that won’t last long i’m i mean

06:40

it’s been 18 or 19 months we’re well

06:42

over 300 i think i’ve said this before

06:44

but if you can see mitch’s head swelling

06:46

on the camera then you know something is

06:49

going wrong but let’s get real here i

06:51

have worked and managed uh departments

06:53

in the past where there were plenty of

06:55

bad reviews coming in and i’m very very

06:57

familiar with how to handle them so did

06:58

you handle them personally or did was

07:00

there a part in someone in the business

07:02

that handled them both uh one of the

07:05

companies had so many upset customers

07:07

calling in that that’s not good and i’m

07:09

not [ __ ] you they literally hired a

07:11

person and paid them an annual salary

07:14

just to handle upset customers okay

07:15

what’d they do i’m interested what did

07:17

they do what was that

07:18

how did they do that so

07:21

let’s go two-fold with this one is let’s

07:23

talk about how they handled it and then

07:25

two let’s talk about how they could have

07:26

prevented that whole thing that’s fine

07:28

so start out how did they do it what was

07:29

the job you would have somebody write a

07:32

very honest review

07:33

and they would uh

07:36

uh

07:37

basically divulge a lot of bad

07:39

information about the company right that

07:40

they were taken advantage of or they

07:42

felt like they were sold something they

07:43

didn’t need or the technician that was

07:45

out there was untrained or whatever and

07:49

half the time the customer may have been

07:51

right okay at this particular company

07:54

well what the company would do is

07:56

privately i am under the assumption that

07:59

every time there’s a bad review not

08:01

every time ninety percent it’s usually

08:03

true

08:04

right right now is the is the customer

08:06

embellishing a little bit to try to grab

08:08

maybe some reaction probably maybe

08:09

sometimes but so what the company would

08:11

do is they would reach out to the

08:12

customer and ask them you know hey i

08:14

understand you did not have a five-star

08:15

experience what can i do to turn your

08:17

experience around or what can i do to

08:19

make your experience a five-star

08:20

experience now you’re saying that was

08:22

whether it was a one star or a four or a

08:24

four

08:30

so anything three and under it popped on

08:32

the radar right and so then they would

08:35

start this

08:36

long process of back and forth and

08:39

ultimately it would result in the

08:40

company refunding the customer a

08:42

substantial amount of money in exchange

08:44

for all

08:46

or more than all

08:48

plus all plus right uh in order to get

08:50

the review removed right so that is not

08:53

the right way to handle it that’s just

08:55

how that company handled it so

08:57

um in our company

09:00

we do everything we can to ensure that

09:02

every customer gets a five-star

09:04

experience well of course and so but it

09:06

would now i understand that no but i’m

09:09

devil’s advocate here if you’ve got 50

09:11

employees it’s impossible

09:13

it can be

09:14

it’s impossible

09:16

it can be it very well can be so what’s

09:18

the right i’m not talking about your

09:19

company what is the right way for a

09:22

company to do that because you brought

09:24

it up that is a big company so the right

09:26

way to do it

09:28

is to not take the adage

09:31

of don’t take this the wrong way

09:33

there’s a lot there’s a lot of companies

09:34

out there that take the adage of oh it’s

09:36

impossible it’s just going to happen and

09:38

it is what it is no no what you got to

09:40

do is you got to do everything you can

09:42

to ensure that your technicians are

09:44

delivering a five-star experience

09:46

and when a five-star experience isn’t

09:49

given and you get that in the form of a

09:52

review take it seriously

09:54

and go on and and investigate it and

09:57

figure it out

09:59

there is some truth to the fact that yes

10:01

you can’t make everybody happy however

10:04

for

10:06

like

10:07

we’re at like 325 reviews right now

10:10

right and again now i’m being real i’m

10:12

not trying to pat myself on the back

10:14

325 never so much as even a four-star

10:18

okay

10:19

and

10:20

if

10:21

a four-star or anything like that comes

10:23

in

10:24

i’m reaching out to them and i’m saying

10:26

hey i understand you didn’t have a

10:28

perfect experience

10:30

what did where did we drop the ball what

10:31

can we do to change i’m not i’m not

10:34

asking i’m not buying their review i’m

10:35

not buying them to remove their review

10:38

i’m seriously looking into where did we

10:40

drop the ball because our process is

10:42

built in a way that a customer gets a

10:45

five-star experience

10:46

and if they don’t

10:48

we need to look into why what can we do

10:50

differently right right so

10:52

um

10:53

at that previous company that i was

10:55

mentioning which is beginning step six

10:59

evaluate performance evaluate

11:00

performance make adjustments and improve

11:02

right yeah so um at that other company

11:05

so don’t take it as it’s always a bad

11:06

thing it may actually be it’s a bad

11:08

thing because you don’t want your

11:09

customers to experience that but it’s a

11:11

it’s a good thing in the fact that

11:13

you have some room to grow or is a

11:16

teaching opportunity for one of your

11:17

employees right right and so at that

11:20

other company they literally set

11:22

budgeted money aside every month for

11:25

customer refunds

11:27

yeah

11:28

and that’s a

11:29

that’s extreme an extreme situation it’s

11:31

so

11:32

it’s it’s very extreme yeah and so like

11:35

so much so that they would get nervous

11:37

if you didn’t hit your budget in that

11:39

department

11:41

yeah they would come to me and they were

11:42

like afraid that you weren’t doing

11:43

you’ve only refunded half the money we

11:45

budgeted for refunds like is is this

11:47

going to cause a shitstorm for us

11:49

uh no maybe we just did a little bit

11:51

better in the customer service

11:52

department right

11:53

so

11:54

um

11:55

there there are companies literally that

11:57

go out there operating under the

11:58

understanding that we’re gonna piss some

11:59

people off and it just is what it is so

12:01

if you had if you had a four star

12:04

right now so you you were getting into

12:06

that you call them personally real you

12:09

would call them personally true life

12:10

story

12:11

two days ago we had a four star show up

12:13

right and it’s from a customer that i

12:15

know absolutely loves us

12:17

absolutely like loves us to death

12:19

accidentally hit it or something well

12:22

i’m like there’s no way there’s no way

12:24

she gave us a four star

12:26

like i know this lady just loves us to

12:29

death so she she communicates to us

12:32

through our business messenger on

12:33

facebook and so i jumped back on our

12:35

business messenger and i said hey i’m

12:37

just following up on her service call

12:38

today did how did everything go and

12:40

she’s oh it’s amazing it’s great just

12:42

just as always you guys did amazing i

12:44

said oh that’s great i’d love to hear it

12:45

and and i’m

12:46

you know glad that i followed up with

12:48

you i noticed that you gave us a

12:51

four-star review on google

12:54

did is that is that real or do we have

12:57

some improvement that we need to make

12:59

and she says no no that’s that’s uh

13:02

that’s wrong that that shouldn’t be

13:04

i meant to hit five stars i must have

13:06

hit the wrong button

13:08

and and then she was like apologetic

13:10

like how do i fix it can i fix it can i

13:11

change it and

13:12

you know before i could even get to like

13:14

tell her how to change it

13:16

she

13:17

says oh i’ve already changed it and and

13:19

she changed it to a five and everything

13:21

so it was just accidental however my

13:23

approach with that would be the same as

13:25

it would with anybody of following up

13:27

checking on your experience and then

13:29

asking

13:31

you know where do we have room to

13:33

improve okay so and i’m going to keep

13:35

pushing you on this because i find it

13:37

very interesting yeah say you get a

13:39

three

13:40

and you call them

13:41

and she says hey your tech um

13:45

this is a just an example

13:47

your tech tracked mud in the house yep

13:50

and didn’t clean it up yep

13:52

what do you say to her well for one

13:54

we’re getting our carpets professionally

13:55

cleaned i like it obviously okay so so

13:58

you your or or say it’s not say you go

14:00

over there and inspect it do you would

14:02

that be something you would say hey can

14:03

i come over and look at it in this day

14:05

and age and if it’s okay with you i’m

14:07

only coming over so that i know whether

14:09

or not to call the carpet guy yeah no no

14:11

like i would

14:12

we so

14:14

in in cases like that

14:17

i’ll be very upfront with the customer

14:18

and be like oh if we got mud in your car

14:20

like mud on your carpets you don’t even

14:22

like act like you’re kind of wondering

14:24

should i send a carpet cleaner or not

14:26

right you just go straight to

14:28

let me call a carpet cleaning company do

14:30

you have one you like or should i call

14:31

one that i know love that answer and

14:34

again you’re not gonna send your guy if

14:35

they have one they’re in love with so um

14:39

and and then you’re gonna

14:40

you’re gonna do everything that you can

14:42

to make it right

14:43

and typically when you do have a

14:45

customer that you that has

14:47

legitimately fallen through the cracks

14:50

and had a less than perfect experience

14:51

and that’s what that’s where i’m going

14:53

with this yeah is i’m pushing you

14:55

because customers do fall through the

14:56

cracks and it’s not because the guys

14:58

aren’t trained yeah sometimes it’s

15:00

unintentional sometimes things happen

15:01

yep one more example

15:03

you’ve pretty much answered that

15:05

let me finish that one so um when you do

15:07

have that customer that falls through

15:08

the cracks and everything else

15:10

it’s not

15:11

this is where people a lot of people go

15:12

wrong is they go in wanting to do the

15:15

minimum that they can to try to achieve

15:16

the result

15:18

but what they don’t understand is if a

15:19

customer felt in a position to give you

15:22

a less than perfect rating that’s a

15:24

customer that wants to be a passionate

15:27

advocate for your business

15:29

they just had they’re honest and they

15:31

had a less than perfect experience so a

15:33

lot of times if you spend a little bit

15:35

of time with that customer and truly

15:36

care about

15:38

you know i don’t want to say throw

15:39

caution to the wind and throw the

15:41

finances out the window but you do what

15:43

it takes to make it right for that

15:44

customer

15:45

they will all of a sudden turn their low

15:47

review into a five-star review and now

15:49

they’re going to be a promoter for your

15:51

company because that’s an advertisement

15:53

right because

15:56

we’re all allowed to make mistakes

15:59

the true judge of a company or a

16:00

person’s character is how they handle

16:02

their mistakes when they made one

16:04

finally so i was waiting for you to give

16:06

that type of answer and i was like i

16:08

didn’t want to push you to it right

16:09

right i knew if i listen i had like

16:11

three more examples i was going to make

16:12

you answer but

16:14

it only took a couple so yeah good i

16:16

like it i like it a lot that’s um that’s

16:18

100

16:20

that’s exactly

16:21

what you said there is exactly what you

16:23

should do right the um and if you do

16:26

that

16:27

if you do that

16:29

you get a customer for life right

16:31

they’ve changed their review

16:33

and you have

16:35

added another aspect of your company

16:38

right to another aspect to your company

16:40

right you know what i mean because

16:41

they’re now that if

16:43

so if someone and a lot of people do

16:45

this before they’ll hire somebody if

16:46

they don’t have word of mouth

16:48

confirmation that you’re good they will

16:50

read your reviews

16:52

well guess where that review is going if

16:53

you have the opportunity to post that

16:54

somewhere right that review is going at

16:56

the top right and that can change

16:58

someone’s mind yeah

16:59

yeah they uh

17:01

um

17:02

the former company that i worked at they

17:04

just like understood that yeah we’re

17:06

gonna get a lot of bad reviews because

17:09

they were like very very profit driven

17:11

and so they would sell customers things

17:13

that they didn’t need and they would

17:15

um

17:16

they would inflate the price of repairs

17:18

if the option to do so was there and and

17:21

all of this stuff and so

17:22

they just understood that yeah some

17:24

people are gonna write us a bad review

17:25

and it just is what it is that’s just

17:27

non-ethical behavior yeah you know what

17:29

i mean if you’re gonna do that right

17:30

right profitable

17:32

not ethical yeah exactly and let me just

17:34

one more part

17:36

so if

17:39

i completely lost what i was going to

17:40

say no um cut them off i know messed me

17:43

up

17:45

i have no idea where i was going with

17:46

that

17:48

real life

17:48

but ultimately

17:50

to summarize that since we kind of went

17:52

over a bunch

17:53

take the review seriously

17:56

call them up

17:57

and

17:58

or i don’t want to say call

18:00

communicate to them on the messaging or

18:02

communication platform that they

18:04

originally came to you on so like the

18:06

one accidental four star that we got

18:09

was on she’s never once we’ve never

18:11

talked to her on the phone

18:12

she messages us for every call and so i

18:15

went back to the messaging platform that

18:16

she was comfortable with and

18:18

communicated to her for that so um but

18:20

then you do whatever it takes to make it

18:22

right we’re plumbers

18:24

if if if a hvac guy makes a mistake then

18:28

somebody’s house is hot when it should

18:30

be cold or it’s cold when it should be

18:32

hot right if an electrician makes a

18:34

mistake a breaker isn’t working or

18:36

light’s not working right in this day

18:38

and age very seldom are electrician’s

18:39

gonna cause house fires today um

18:42

plumbers on the other hand when plumbers

18:44

make mistakes it’s usually a wet mess

18:47

right and so

18:48

um yeah there could be some serious

18:50

money involved there’s some serious

18:51

money because it’s hardwood floor right

18:53

um and so um you you gotta there’s

18:57

there’s guys that’ll be like oh well let

18:58

me let me bring a fan over from the shop

19:00

and drive that up for you if i screwed

19:01

up or something like no no call in the

19:03

professional

19:04

that’s gonna give them the peace of mind

19:06

that they truly got taken care of yeah

19:08

so i remember what my thought was yep

19:10

what you said at the very beginning of

19:11

that was i try to

19:14

train the guys

19:15

that’s what it comes down to 90 of them

19:18

if you’re training them to do the right

19:20

thing

19:21

you won’t have those issues right that’s

19:23

what i wanted to bring up right then i

19:25

lost my training yeah but yeah so

19:27

training preparing the guys hey sitting

19:29

down and having a meeting about hey

19:31

guys

19:32

when these people put a three on here

19:35

i’m calling them and if it’s something

19:37

you did i’m coming down on you and they

19:39

so we i am i’m trying to prepare you men

19:43

or women right to make the right

19:45

decisions and be the best that you can

19:47

be when you’re out there yeah and that’s

19:48

the culture that you want to try to

19:50

breed in your company that’s why that’s

19:52

when i first

19:54

when i first met mitch he was telling me

19:55

about that and uh i was

19:58

i was telling him that that’s the

20:00

importance of their guys actually buying

20:02

in to what you have the passion they

20:04

need to embody the passion that you have

20:06

right yeah right and a lot of things go

20:08

into that training taking care of your

20:10

guys hiring good pay hiring like yeah we

20:14

beat those things to death

20:15

on the first episode but right you know

20:17

we said that on a previous episode i

20:19

can’t teach a guy to give a [ __ ] but i

20:20

can teach him how to plumb and so if i

20:22

if i hire a guy with heart and it cares

20:25

yeah i can teach him about anything and

20:26

so when i’m interviewing people i’m

20:28

interviewing them for their heart and

20:29

for their passion

20:31

and and if their skills are a little low

20:33

i can i can deal with that yeah um but

20:37

another real life example

20:39

we traded in all of our vehicles

20:41

recently to a local dealer here in town

20:44

and got newer vehicles that were bigger

20:45

and taller and gave us more room

20:47

ironically one of the guys i know

20:49

bought one of our old vehicles from that

20:52

dealer oh really yeah

20:54

he messaged me actually it was actually

20:56

a conversation on facebook one messenger

20:57

but anyway um he said hey we actually

21:00

picked up one of your old vehicles and

21:02

i’m like oh cool you know and he said

21:04

whatever you’re doing you’re hiring the

21:06

right guys because this vehicle was like

21:07

in the best condition we’ve ever seen

21:09

for what a plumber’s van would look like

21:11

right it’s not right all the hell right

21:13

and and so i had to hit him with a

21:14

hammer no just give you a nice little

21:16

cherry on one side that heart that we’re

21:18

hiring carries all the way through to

21:20

the condition that they keep their

21:22

vehicles in yeah how well they keep them

21:24

organized and everything else so you’re

21:26

gonna see guy you’re gonna see a guy’s

21:28

ability to have heart and caring and

21:29

compassion long before they even see a

21:31

customer yeah culture of the company is

21:33

a big thing yeah it’s huge which leads

21:35

to my next topic unless you have no go

21:37

ahead let’s go

21:38

marcus next question fire away dawg

21:41

finding good workers keeping them around

21:44

i think i wrote this one too

21:46

finding good work do you want me to

21:47

switch up and give you a uh

21:49

a uh mitch mitch one no no no no no i

21:52

think that’s a great segue for that

21:53

right no it’s

21:55

first off finding good workers

21:57

is extremely difficult

21:59

okay

22:00

i’m gonna i’m gonna take it from

22:02

you’re on your own and you’re hiring

22:04

your first guy

22:05

number one is call the guys that you

22:07

already know

22:09

okay i’m gonna give a couple different

22:10

answers if you know guys of heart that

22:13

are you’re not poaching them right

22:15

you’re calling them all and you’re

22:17

asking them hey

22:19

you happy everything going good yeah man

22:21

everything’s great love it you know

22:23

don’t push them right call the next guy

22:25

yeah man i

22:27

i i don’t know it’s okay you know i’ve

22:28

been been thinking about leaving hey bud

22:31

you know i’ve been on my own right yeah

22:33

i’m looking right there you

22:35

automatically have a candidate you trust

22:38

that you know

22:39

okay

22:41

that’s a great way to start

22:42

say you’ve hired three guys and you’re

22:44

looking for guys what do you do

22:47

first thing you do is you ask the guys

22:50

that already work for you if they know

22:53

guys that are unhappy right okay you’ve

22:57

already sound familiar you’ve already

22:59

pre-vetted those guys right by doing

23:01

that

23:02

okay

23:03

same thing if you have a few guys

23:06

hey i know a couple guys that are

23:08

already on my list that i’ve you know

23:11

had my eye on i used to work for him 10

23:13

years ago at

23:14

i don’t want to say anybody

23:18

you know pedro’s plumbing or whatever

23:21

i call those guys hey man you happy

23:23

everything going good can we get lunch

23:25

you go to lunch with those guys okay now

23:27

and i’m talking from a small business

23:31

perspective i’m not talking about a big

23:33

company that’s got 50 guys already you

23:35

know what i mean you’ve pre-vetted those

23:37

guys you already know their character

23:39

you already know their heart their work

23:40

ethic yeah you already know what what

23:43

they expect from a good employer

23:46

right and you’ve basically done half the

23:48

work right out of the gate yep what

23:50

about someone who doesn’t have that that

23:52

uh

23:53

well first off if you’re if you’re if

23:55

you’re coming from a plumbing organ

23:58

anyone that’s starting a i’m just i keep

24:00

saying plumbing because mitch is a

24:01

plumber

24:02

hvac guy if i’m starting an hvac company

24:05

i’ve already worked at some

24:07

so that’s okay you know what i mean it’s

24:09

almost a i don’t mean to say void

24:11

question but

24:12

you’ve got guys you know you know people

24:14

okay and i mean you’re you’re out there

24:16

reaching out you know guys you’ve worked

24:18

with you know

24:19

you know who’s back when i asked that i

24:20

was mean like what happened if all the

24:23

guys that if not if none of them none of

24:26

them pan out i want to stay here i’m

24:27

happy yeah you’ve called i don’t know

24:30

what do you do mitch

24:32

you yeah i’m asking you a question what

24:34

do you do

24:35

that’s it this is this is an area that’s

24:38

what i do yeah i and i think that’s a

24:40

wise approach

24:42

i’m gonna you know what i’m gonna give

24:43

you a personal story that happened to me

24:45

today i didn’t think i was gonna tell

24:46

you guys this someone that i used to

24:47

work for

24:49

okay that i know

24:50

has hired no one in a very long time

24:54

calls me today and says hey

24:57

you wanna have lunch today

24:58

okay i go have lunch with him he’s been

25:00

looking literally for eight months to

25:03

find someone for eight months that can

25:05

do a lot of different things okay not

25:07

i’m not talking about he’s just needs a

25:09

plumber just he needs somebody that does

25:10

a lot of different things yeah well i

25:12

fit that mold yeah you know what he’s

25:14

doing the same thing that i just said

25:16

he’s calling everyone that’s ever worked

25:18

for him uh everyone that has that skill

25:20

set and he’s going through that process

25:23

of

25:24

trying to find someone to fit his

25:26

specific standards for what he needs

25:29

you know what i mean no i did not take

25:31

the job

25:33

right but you know i still

25:35

you know i respect that most people when

25:37

you call them even

25:39

even if you’re even if they’re not

25:41

interested they will still sit down with

25:43

you and when you

25:45

i gave him the name of a couple of other

25:47

guys yeah you know that i know and that

25:49

i trust so you’re saying it’s a it’s a

25:51

high chance you’re going to find someone

25:52

it is a high chance you’re going to find

25:54

somebody

25:55

now if you’re looking for six

25:57

good luck yeah you know what i mean it

25:59

especially now listen when when i first

26:01

started out

26:03

you could get guys

26:05

and this is just kind of a

26:07

thing of the times

26:08

really if you needed three plumbers i’ve

26:12

said this before i got mitch’s first

26:14

plumbing job we worked together

26:16

back then

26:17

it was higher and fire

26:20

they would get rid of three guys and

26:21

bring three guys in that didn’t know

26:23

nothing okay because guys wanted to work

26:26

you know i mean you had to have a job

26:28

that’s just what people did and you

26:30

would just filter those guys out on the

26:32

job it it’s not like that anymore

26:34

you know what i mean it just

26:36

it just doesn’t work like that

26:38

now guys you have to have someone that

26:40

they can plug directly in

26:43

that’s going to get the job done or just

26:45

needs a minimal amount of training yeah

26:47

but like i was saying you know i didn’t

26:49

take the job

26:50

and you know obviously he respected that

26:52

and i gave him the number

26:54

and names of a couple other guys two

26:57

guys yeah i won’t say who they are but

26:59

hey reach out to these guys yeah now if

27:01

those guys can’t work out i’m sure they

27:03

know a couple guys that they would you

27:04

know feel good about giving the

27:06

information to yeah you know i mean

27:08

that’s kind of a long-winded answer for

27:10

that but i mean what do you do like

27:11

marcus says if you can’t literally can’t

27:13

find anybody what do you do

27:15

all right so

27:17

we

27:18

what do you do what have you done i know

27:20

that your first two guys my first you

27:22

knew you got those guys basically saying

27:24

yeah

27:25

yeah well kind of the same it was still

27:27

a struggle though so of course it’s a

27:29

struggle when you’re going from you

27:30

being the only guy to adding one it’s

27:34

hard for to get people to to come on

27:36

board right because they all they’re

27:38

going is off of you and you could be

27:39

selling them a line of [ __ ] right

27:41

you own the company you’re trying to

27:42

hire somebody and that’s the thing of if

27:44

you if you call people you know right

27:47

and they do trust you that automatically

27:49

gives you a little bit of a leg up it

27:51

gives you some buy-in right yeah so um

27:54

first of all and you got to go way back

27:56

on this

27:57

let’s say you haven’t started your

27:58

company yet or even if you have

28:01

this takes some time

28:04

go put yourself back into working for

28:07

somebody else

28:08

first off i love this

28:10

like ambush show that we have oh i love

28:12

it

28:13

so

28:15

marcus back there eating pringles

28:17

just you know you’re pouring the makers

28:19

drinking whiskey and

28:20

some beers and uh telling the [ __ ]

28:23

that’s actually happened so put yourself

28:26

back into an environment where you were

28:28

working for somebody else

28:31

what did that employer do

28:33

that everyone

28:35

hated

28:37

hired guys you had to train that’s what

28:39

i hated it’s a

28:40

i mean it’s an open-ended question right

28:41

yeah it is identify answers identify

28:44

what that is

28:45

and fix it with your company

28:48

fix it before you’ve ever hired anybody

28:50

or if you’ve already hired people

28:52

put a plan in place to fix that so

28:55

whatever it is

28:58

i mean you can’t let the inmates run the

28:59

prison but at the same token like i had

29:02

said on a former show man the inmates

29:03

are almost running the prison now well

29:06

i had said on a not i don’t mean you

29:08

yeah the workforce yeah i said on a

29:11

former show that um marcus making a

29:13

million dollars one year we’re not even

29:14

sure he knows what he’s doing

29:17

one of the one of the guys i recently

29:18

hired the company that they worked for

29:20

had a had a policy in place where they

29:22

got a point system for basically how

29:24

many minutes they arrived

29:26

behind the promised time to a customer’s

29:28

house right

29:30

well that’s such a that’s such a

29:31

[ __ ] rule to have right instead of

29:34

promising a customer we’ll be there by

29:35

10 you tell them we’ll be there between

29:37

10 and 10 30.

29:39

or 10 and 10 10 and 11 right yeah give

29:42

them give

29:43

give give some workable realistic things

29:45

for real life to have we’re not saying

29:47

the directv noon to four

29:49

right right we’re saying realistic

29:50

realistic 15 years so half hour a half

29:53

hour is realistic right right but as far

29:55

as it comes to like hiring the person

29:57

these people would get points if they

29:59

showed up a minute late i mean they were

30:00

so freaking particular with it what’s

30:03

the best way to piss your employee off

30:05

oh you showed up one minute micromanage

30:07

them right that’s totally forget about

30:09

what you did yesterday how late you

30:10

worked the nights before or anything

30:12

like there’s never a policy that removes

30:14

points yeah it’s only a policy that adds

30:16

points right what’d they do they had to

30:17

go in the office

30:19

who knows but but what i’m saying is

30:22

that that’s such a bs thing that comes

30:24

on there that you don’t have

30:27

you don’t have anything that you can

30:28

work with so fix that right whatever

30:31

that is and then

30:33

um

30:34

once you have those things that

30:36

everybody hates corrected and you have a

30:38

plan in place for how your business is

30:40

going to run different

30:42

then

30:43

grow at a rate that your team can handle

30:46

not at a rate that your marketing budget

30:49

can handle

30:50

i see this problem all the time where

30:53

businesses dump a whole lot of money

30:55

into marketing and they’re not ready for

30:57

all the calls that come in from that

30:59

marketing well then they’re flooded with

31:01

calls and all they see they don’t see

31:04

all the work that they have coming in

31:05

they see the work they’re losing because

31:08

they marketed more than their team can

31:09

handle yeah okay so then they rapidly

31:12

hire everybody that they can and they’re

31:14

they’re sending people out into the

31:15

workforce that aren’t quite trained and

31:16

they’re not quite ready and your views

31:18

are bad and then your reviews are well

31:20

yeah that’s what that’s the end case

31:21

right but then you know they don’t quite

31:23

blend with the team they’re not the

31:24

right quite personality and everything

31:26

else and the culture takes a dive

31:29

because they spent too much money on

31:30

marketing or marketing was too effective

31:32

yeah so gets back to training and

31:33

culture grow at a rate your team can

31:35

handle

31:36

not that your marketing can handle

31:38

that’s number two and then number three

31:42

is

31:42

let your people

31:44

[ __ ] up

31:46

and i cannot stress that enough

31:49

so many people

31:51

get so pissed off when when their people

31:53

make a mistake oh my god i made a

31:55

mistake he flooded this customer’s house

31:57

i’m firing him i’m writing him up he

31:59

does that again he’s gone right well you

32:01

don’t want to know how i became a really

32:03

freaking awesome plumber

32:04

i’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life

32:08

that’s how i get not in my life but like

32:09

my plumbing life my career

32:11

i’ve put pipes together wrong i’ve

32:13

flooded houses i’ve done that stuff

32:15

before and if you’re a hair cutter

32:17

you’re going to cut somebody’s hair

32:18

wrong if you’re a lawn mower usually a

32:20

color thing when it’s in the hairdresser

32:22

man it comes out a little yeah a little

32:24

or you burn their hair off pink instead

32:26

of red oh [ __ ] so or or if you’re a

32:29

landscaper and you accidentally take the

32:31

weed eater and you know trim off her

32:33

prized azaleas or some whatever the case

32:35

may be right

32:37

we learn from making mistakes so if you

32:40

have an employee that’s recently made a

32:42

mistake and you handle that correctly

32:45

you now have a better employee after

32:47

that’s over opposed to hiring someone

32:48

new is going to potentially make right

32:50

same mistake you hire somebody okay

32:52

you’re gone you fire them and now you go

32:54

hire somebody new and you just you just

32:56

hired somebody that’s ready to go make

32:58

those same mistakes again right or even

33:00

more and that’s an answer to the the

33:01

second part of the question how do you

33:03

keep those that’s how you keep people

33:04

right right so not having but keeping

33:06

the mistakes cannot be malicious with

33:08

intent and they cannot they have to so

33:12

when our guys make a mistake it’s it’s

33:13

it’s a on it like if you make a mistake

33:15

and you stay on the team right it’s an

33:17

honest mistake

33:18

and and it’s it’s one that it would like

33:21

it was either truly accidental or it was

33:24

a mistake that was made in the best

33:26

interest of the company or the customer

33:28

uh a company and the customer well

33:30

sometimes things just happen too

33:32

sometimes things just happen hey man i

33:34

was putting those stops on let me and i

33:36

complete i i thought i tightened the hot

33:39

and cold and yep i didn’t get the hot

33:41

tight all the way and man that thing

33:42

shot off of there yeah that’s like a

33:44

workmanship mistake yeah let me give you

33:45

another example

33:46

that’s an accident so so the the the

33:49

thing that we were talking about before

33:51

were one of the guys that happens every

33:53

house he goes to now you got a question

33:54

yeah yeah now you got a problem no like

33:56

um

33:57

the guy

33:58

i talked about in our previous episode

34:00

where they had a the previous company

34:02

had a policy in place where if you drove

34:03

away from a customer’s house

34:05

without clocking out of the job yeah

34:07

so i think we talked about it yeah and

34:09

so

34:10

um that is a that’s a discussion you

34:13

could have with the guy right it’s not a

34:15

mistake he he did that with intent

34:17

because it was in the best interest of

34:19

the customer the customer didn’t want to

34:20

see you leave their house and then

34:22

parked in front of their house for 15

34:23

minutes right yeah so he pulled down the

34:26

street went around the corner went to a

34:27

gas station and his work wrote him up

34:28

because he went to a gas station while

34:30

clocked in on the job

34:32

when

34:32

he could have just stayed clocked in on

34:34

the job creeped the customer out because

34:35

he was sitting in front of their house

34:36

for another 15 minutes the same end

34:38

result happened only he was thinking

34:40

ahead and thinking and benefited the

34:42

customer and drove out of their view

34:44

a real life thing that happened in our

34:45

company like a month and a half ago

34:47

we have a policy where we always go over

34:49

all repair pricing before any work is

34:51

ever done so that there are no surprises

34:54

the customer knows exactly what they’re

34:55

getting and they know exactly what

34:56

they’re going to pay for it before any

34:58

work is done

35:00

we were in a customer’s house to do some

35:02

work when you say we you or your our

35:04

company our company and this is a very

35:07

fancy house

35:08

on the lake it’s got like six bathrooms

35:12

okay

35:13

um and and the guy is very busy

35:16

professional

35:17

he didn’t have time to meet us there his

35:19

wife met us there and and i i mean this

35:21

with the best

35:22

that i can mean it the wife was clueless

35:24

about anything that goes on in the house

35:26

okay he takes care of it he takes care

35:28

of the the wife just whatever goes on

35:30

there she’s just clueless right she’s

35:32

just a relationship yeah you cannot

35:33

communicate home repairs to the wife

35:36

she’s gonna mix it all up she’s not

35:37

gonna relate to the husband very well

35:38

whatever we cleared a list of repairs to

35:40

do with the customer he became busy and

35:42

was tied up in meetings for hours

35:44

these repairs had to do with him either

35:46

having hot water or not having hot water

35:48

over the weekend like we were there on a

35:50

friday afternoon so something came up

35:51

and you just did it something came up

35:53

the repairs needed to escalate

35:55

it took the what was going to be a one

35:57

thousand dollar repair bill to a

35:59

thirteen hundred dollar repair bill

36:01

mike

36:02

my guys know that they can do this

36:03

without even asking me he did the he did

36:06

what was in the best interest of the

36:07

customer and ultimately the company

36:10

and he advanced to the thirteen hundred

36:12

dollar repair level without asking the

36:15

customer because the customer was on a

36:16

did he ask you no he knows he doesn’t

36:19

have to he doesn’t have to uh you gave

36:21

him that that authority they have that

36:23

authority to do what’s in the best

36:24

interest of the company in the customer

36:26

in a sense he did that’s that’s your lo

36:27

that’s your little

36:29

i shouldn’t say little that’s your

36:30

business motto yeah if you’re doing

36:32

what’s in the best interest of the

36:33

customer

36:34

right do it dude and so he made the 1300

36:37

repair he got all done

36:39

he he emailed the customer an invoice

36:42

granted he never had a chance to

36:43

communicate that the repairs needed to

36:45

move up a little bit

36:46

so the customer gets this emailed

36:48

invoice and it’s 300 more than he agreed

36:50

upon well he sends us an email

36:53

and and says hey what’s going on i’m not

36:55

happy

36:56

this repair is 300 more and all this

36:59

we let them know that hey we encountered

37:01

a problem

37:02

and we were faced with a decision of

37:04

either get your hot water back on

37:06

for the weekend or like walk away from

37:08

it because we we didn’t want to use

37:10

policy to prevent the customer from

37:12

being satisfied right so

37:14

we we just went ahead and advanced it

37:17

and and once he heard all of that

37:20

he became okay with it but

37:23

that was that that could have gone south

37:24

right if if he would have called in and

37:26

said hey what’s up with this 300 repair

37:28

bill and we didn’t handle it correctly

37:30

it could have gone the other way but

37:32

that was a mistake that it’s not even

37:35

really a mistake like my guy was behind

37:37

in a hard place i would call that

37:39

an accident right but not a not a i

37:42

don’t know traditional accident it’s

37:44

you’re stuck between a rock and a hard

37:46

place and you have to make a decision

37:47

right and and truly that’s where a lot

37:49

of mistakes kind of come from but my guy

37:51

knows that

37:52

if like worse comes to worst let’s say

37:54

the customer says no i only approved a

37:55

thousand i’m not going to do it a

37:56

thousand i would have eaten a 300 bucks

37:58

yeah because my guy did the right thing

38:00

it wouldn’t be a big deal right he got

38:02

them back into hot water in their five

38:03

or six bathroom house for the weekend

38:04

and listen if if mitch if that guy would

38:07

have called and been a a huge dick about

38:09

it right and mitch ate to 300

38:11

and and made the guy happy and said hey

38:13

look man i’ll eat it yeah

38:16

it’s a messed up situation you know i

38:18

and if you’re honest with him and say

38:20

hey i don’t totally agree with it but i

38:21

will do it because we were in a weird

38:23

situation

38:24

guess what

38:25

that guy’s probably a customer for life

38:27

right right you know what i mean right

38:29

even even if deep down he knows hey i

38:31

got that guy for 300 bucks right well

38:33

guess what he got that guy for 300 bucks

38:35

and next time he’s still going to call

38:37

him he’s still going to call so

38:39

he’s still going to like pass pass the

38:42

smedley name on as well yeah

38:44

right right right hey man they did this

38:45

they got my hot water on

38:47

and because i didn’t approve it yeah

38:49

they gave me the 300 bucks

38:51

and he tells two people that so that’s

38:53

how that’s how you get and keep

38:55

employees is is you create a culture

38:58

that they love right it’s the opposite

39:00

of the culture that they hated where

39:01

they came from but also you empower them

39:04

to do the right thing because ultimately

39:06

that’s what people want to do exactly

39:08

when when people are doing the wrong

39:09

thing at other companies they’re doing

39:11

it because they’re kind of in a

39:12

situation where they have to in order to

39:13

succeed oh of course because it’s all

39:14

profit driven right right yeah right not

39:16

all companies but you’re right not all

39:18

but a lot the bad ones where there’s a

39:20

lot of problems yeah yeah yeah they’re

39:22

like hey sell sell sell sell and then it

39:24

makes you make just it makes you make

39:26

choices that you normally wouldn’t make

39:29

if you were on your own right right

39:31

right right and if if those guys are on

39:32

some kind of performance-based pay or

39:35

whatever and they’re performing

39:37

lower than average that week and they’re

39:38

looking at like a low paycheck and their

39:40

family’s not going to eat if they don’t

39:41

perform well guess what you’ve put that

39:43

guy in a position where now he has to be

39:45

unethical to the customer in order to

39:47

look out for his own paycheck and that’s

39:49

not a good position to put your guy in

39:50

so

39:51

fix all those things and then

39:53

let them make mistakes

39:55

so and and i’ll take it even one more

39:58

level and you don’t necessarily mean i

40:00

mean you do mean let them make mistakes

40:02

but don’t come down on them

40:04

like

40:06

a ton of bricks right if they do make an

40:08

honest

40:09

right right and take it even one level

40:11

further it’ll keep those guys there take

40:13

it even one level further if one guy

40:15

makes a mistake

40:17

and and he learned from it guess what

40:19

the whole team can learn from it yeah so

40:21

talk about it to the whole team

40:22

and the guy might get embarrassed maybe

40:24

i don’t know but as soon as he’s all of

40:27

a sudden seeing that we do this every

40:28

time somebody makes a mistake yeah

40:30

that’s that culture

40:31

exactly that’s the culture right right

40:34

so let the entire team benefit from one

40:37

guy making a mistake yeah i like it

40:39

that’s how i do it and it’s worked

40:41

really well when i’ve been able to and

40:42

this goes back to my entire management

40:44

career when i have been able to manage

40:46

under that philosophy

40:48

guys stick around i have never had a guy

40:50

quit me

40:51

never once well

40:53

because of work related

40:55

stuff right yeah right i’ve seen guys

40:58

move guys yeah guys like i had one guy

41:00

leave because he was going to be with

41:01

his dad

41:02

yeah yeah yeah i like to get him a

41:04

little bit you know think but

41:06

i have been at places where i was not

41:08

allowed to manage under that philosophy

41:09

and it was the highest turnover place

41:11

ever which put me in a very weird

41:12

cultural position because now i’m stuck

41:14

in a place with crazy high turnover and

41:15

i’m not used to that and it’s because i

41:16

can’t manage and that’s those rules and

41:18

that’s like when we started out you know

41:20

how it was yeah it was one in one out

41:22

one in one out and it was literally

41:24

every two weeks yeah every two to three

41:26

weeks it was two or three guys out i

41:29

can’t remember they found a bunch of

41:30

guys well enough guys that were good

41:33

to stick around well i can’t remember

41:34

how long you worked there before i

41:36

started working there almost two oh

41:38

before you started working there yeah

41:39

yeah yeah three months yeah it wasn’t

41:41

long but what was funny was like hey do

41:43

you the moment you know anybody i was

41:45

like i was like dude you need to hire my

41:47

friend yeah the moment the moment dave

41:48

and i were both there together

41:51

i bet they only went through

41:53

two maybe three people after that yeah

41:56

for a little while and then they got to

41:58

their team of like nine or ten and it

41:59

was just and then it’s solid yeah solid

42:01

from then oh so yeah

42:03

that’s how it was that’s what they were

42:04

going up they just it was a door and no

42:06

one gave a [ __ ] if you came in and you

42:08

didn’t do exactly what they wanted and

42:10

perform at a high level you were down

42:12

the road and the next guy was in yep i

42:14

mean it was literally

42:16

is is pretty wild it was crazy culture

42:18

is like a flywheel

42:20

and a flywheel sitting there not moving

42:24

it takes an enormous amount of effort to

42:26

get it going right you have to push on

42:29

it really really hard it’s a lot of fun

42:31

first off you have to read that

42:32

somewhere is that just from the heart no

42:33

no this is culture this is how i

42:36

envision culture that’s right legit so i

42:38

like that eventually

42:40

eventually you push on this flywheel

42:42

like your first push is the hardest push

42:45

ever right and it’ll move and if you

42:46

don’t push it again it’s going to slow

42:48

down and stop yeah it’s going to roll

42:49

over and stop your next push because

42:51

it’s already moving a little bit your

42:53

next push gets a little bit easier and

42:55

your next push gets a little bit easier

42:57

and eventually

43:00

let’s say you hire three or four people

43:03

now that flywheel has some momentum yeah

43:06

and it becomes a lot more stable yeah

43:08

and it becomes a lot more

43:10

consistent right and now the flywheel

43:12

starts working for you

43:14

right um and so big engines have

43:17

flywheels flywheels help the engine

43:20

right so your team of great culture is

43:23

this flywheel that actually starts

43:24

working for you and on a long enough

43:26

timeline now your culture

43:29

driven team

43:30

goes out to the public and says

43:33

i got a guy

43:35

that would be great here right so when

43:36

you have a spot available and that’s

43:38

what we know yeah that’s

43:40

you know you’ve got this

43:42

this group of guys well then if if it is

43:45

great that next group of guys says the

43:46

same thing the next group of guys and

43:48

then

43:49

i’ve already easy to find guys i’ve

43:50

already got our next two hires lined up

43:53

perfect

43:54

am i one of them i didn’t no he better

43:57

be

43:58

we want good culture

43:59

no thanks

44:01

no thanks i didn’t these these are guys

44:03

that reached out to me and they said

44:05

when you’re ready i want to come on dave

44:07

will stop the uh the flywheel right i’ll

44:09

just

44:10

put a little i will stone cold rock that

44:12

[ __ ] [ __ ]

44:15

so all right man next one hey we have

44:17

time for one we got time for one more

44:18

one more what do we got

44:20

focusing on profit versus focusing on

44:24

service man these are all tying together

44:26

i was going to say is that i could i

44:28

could pick a different if you want no no

44:30

it’s crazy how they all tie together

44:31

read it one more time

44:33

focusing on profit versus focusing on

44:35

service

44:37

do i want to answer that from a morality

44:39

standport standpoint or a

44:42

business standpoint

44:44

both first off

44:47

all business

44:48

and all everything you do

44:51

is from a philosophy standpoint right

44:54

it’s from a morality standpoint okay

44:57

we’ve talked about this a hundred times

45:00

in the first episodes right

45:02

so if you focus on profit

45:06

you’re making the wrong decision

45:07

okay if you’re focusing on

45:10

being a better spouse

45:12

being a better father

45:14

having more time for your family

45:16

being a pillar in your community

45:18

paying people the right wage

45:20

the profit comes

45:22

that’s just what happens okay it when

45:25

you start with a solid base

45:27

and that should be your base yep the

45:30

profit just comes after that if you if

45:32

you come at it from a

45:35

sense of profit only and you think of

45:38

everything and i’m saying this is an

45:40

extreme

45:41

hey i’m gonna pay this guy two dollars

45:43

an hour or less so i can make some more

45:44

money i’m gonna buy the cheap material

45:47

so i can make two more dollars

45:49

i’m gonna buy the cheap van with no

45:51

stickering so i can make three more

45:53

dollars right that is not

45:56

going to flourish

45:58

and become something great right all

46:00

you’re doing oh

46:02

you’re i don’t want to say you’re a

46:03

piece of [ __ ] but

46:05

that is not the way to look at

46:08

building your business right it’s just

46:10

not going to happen you have to think of

46:12

it as a man i can’t believe i’m gonna

46:16

stay this hippie holistic here it is

46:17

like a sexy

46:19

holistic approach he’s a hippie he just

46:21

didn’t want to admit it that’s what it

46:22

is balanced approach i mean am i wrong

46:25

no you’re right it has to be balanced so

46:27

it has to come

46:29

from a sense of

46:30

i’m not doing this for money i’m doing

46:33

this man this sounds so dumb i can’t

46:35

believe it’s coming out of my mouth

46:37

i’m doing this for the

46:39

for the betterment of everyone

46:41

okay yeah i’m gonna build a business i’m

46:44

gonna take care of my employees i’m

46:46

gonna take take care of my family i’m

46:48

gonna take care of my community

46:50

and if you do all those things

46:52

your business is gonna take off yeah is

46:55

there’s no doubt my if

46:57

if i didn’t think those things were true

46:59

this podcast would be [ __ ] right

47:01

right okay but i believe that yeah okay

47:05

i mean i can’t say it any

47:07

any more

47:08

simply than that yeah that’s just what i

47:11

believe so

47:13

big corporations not to jump in and just

47:15

take the answer to the question but i

47:17

mean big corporations look at businesses

47:20

through

47:21

balance sheets they look at them through

47:23

profit and loss statements they look at

47:24

them through all these reports that

47:26

these higher up executives see

47:28

that they’re trying to manage

47:30

a service driven business

47:33

through spreadsheets

47:35

through balance sheets i know i’ve sat

47:38

in those big corporate meetings yeah and

47:41

you get this you know regional exec

47:43

flies in and oh we gotta

47:45

clean the shop the regional execs coming

47:47

in like let’s make it you know yeah it

47:49

shouldn’t be that way trap that’s what

47:50

it should be right right right so then

47:52

the the regional exec comes in and he’s

47:55

looking at all the reports and he he

47:56

didn’t in this particular instance he

47:58

doesn’t even look at our team he doesn’t

48:00

care about the team he doesn’t care

48:01

about the trucks he doesn’t care about

48:02

anything he’s sitting there looking at

48:03

reports and he’s going yeah what can we

48:05

do to get that up i have a point

48:07

what can we do to get that cost down two

48:09

points yeah what can we do to turn this

48:11

revenue he’s talking percentage when he

48:12

says yeah yeah yeah so they’re literally

48:15

looking at running a company through

48:16

sheets yeah and that doesn’t work i mean

48:19

i shouldn’t say that it works it it can

48:21

if you came from the ground

48:23

that’s right that’s the problem with a

48:25

lot man i can’t even say this either

48:26

that’s a problem with a lot of america

48:28

right now yeah yeah yeah the you know so

48:30

like right now i will be able to run our

48:33

business through that sheet

48:36

later on because i know when i talk

48:38

about like what can i do to get this

48:40

down a little bit

48:41

it’s not running the business through

48:43

sheets it’s how can i change our service

48:46

protocol right to enhance these numbers

48:50

right because you’re not looking at the

48:51

number like a number so the guy

48:53

says how do i raise this two percent

48:56

he doesn’t even know

48:58

how you would do that he’s asking

49:00

someone else how do we do this right you

49:03

would be in the position or i would be

49:04

in the position position to say

49:06

okay this number’s down

49:08

i know who to talk to about that right i

49:10

know what i can personally do

49:12

to make that better yeah you know what i

49:14

mean that’s a huge that when he gets

49:17

black and white when you use profit as a

49:19

motivator to manage your business

49:22

you start doing things just like you

49:23

were saying earlier you start doing

49:25

things that are

49:27

the antithesis of customer service oh i

49:29

like that word yeah yeah that’s a big

49:31

word for you it’s the opposite of taking

49:34

care of the customer okay yeah it is so

49:36

in other words like what can we do to

49:38

lower these costs well we’re just going

49:39

to buy cheaper material what can we do

49:41

to raise our profit well we’re just

49:43

going to raise our prices without doing

49:44

anything to reflect that you know they

49:46

start doing these arbitrary things to

49:48

move numbers around

49:49

and the customer suffers okay um those

49:52

same customers are those same companies

49:55

typically have a pretty impressive

49:57

marketing budget too

49:59

and so

50:00

um

50:01

it’s amazing when small companies get

50:03

big

50:05

they almost lose their grasp of reality

50:07

they do of what

50:09

they lose the grasp of

50:11

what did it take for me to get here

50:12

right right and all of a sudden

50:14

everything yeah they changed their

50:15

mindset yeah from

50:17

i want to be part of the community and i

50:19

want to do these things and they may

50:21

have even been thinking

50:23

you know in the line of i want to just

50:25

make money

50:26

but

50:27

it took

50:29

serious community effort to get them

50:31

there and then once they got there there

50:32

all of a sudden they’re just like

50:35

negating from yeah yeah they just they

50:37

just go off the freaking deep end or

50:38

they hire a bunch of people that don’t

50:41

have that that sense of

50:44

i don’t want to say small time but that

50:46

small time sense of i know everything

50:48

that it took to get here yeah right and

50:50

they let it overtake their company yeah

50:53

that’s the biggest problem when

50:53

companies sell out to big corporate

50:55

companies too

50:56

i think we’re thinking of the same guy

50:57

but

50:58

what um

51:00

the way i look at it here’s how you stay

51:02

service driven rather than profit

51:04

driving dod but not dod

51:06

[Laughter]

51:08

the way you stay service driven instead

51:10

of pro so if you’re service driven and

51:12

if you’re service driven correctly the

51:14

profit shows up

51:15

yeah okay like this this is back to

51:17

money being like a dog right yeah

51:19

if you chase a dog it runs away we

51:21

talked about this so if you chase profit

51:23

it’s hard to find

51:25

yeah but if you focus on being kind and

51:27

gentle and profound serving

51:30

the customer good stuff right you you

51:32

focus on serving the customer and

51:34

miraculously profit shows up right yeah

51:36

so

51:37

the way to do that and and that’s i hate

51:40

to always say this that’s community

51:41

involvement work well it can be i think

51:43

i bring up community involvement work in

51:45

every episode but

51:47

but

51:48

the thing is the heart of community

51:50

involvement work and the heart of doing

51:52

your business that way are the same

51:53

thing right right

51:55

the

51:57

the way to look at this is look at it

51:58

like you’re earning customers yeah okay

52:01

big corporate companies buy customers

52:03

with their advertising and with their

52:04

marketing

52:05

so

52:06

i i always kind of chuckled at companies

52:08

with these big impressive marketing

52:09

budgets and they’re usually the highest

52:11

priced companies in town and the

52:13

customers are literally paying that

52:14

customer that company to advertise to

52:16

them of course they are i mean

52:18

like

52:20

it’s almost like they should get a

52:21

discount if they got a word of mouth

52:23

referral to that company instead of like

52:25

responded to the tv ad because

52:28

you think about it the company’s

52:29

spending you know 2 million three

52:31

million dollars a year on marketing well

52:33

how much more do they have to charge

52:34

their customers just because they’re now

52:37

spending three million dollars a year on

52:38

marketing right it’s so it’s capitalism

52:40

at its best and it’s worst at the same

52:42

exact time it’s crazy so my philosophy

52:45

on it is don’t buy customers

52:48

earn them

52:50

and the only way you can earn a customer

52:53

without buying them

52:55

is impress them so much with your level

52:58

of service and the quality of work that

53:01

you do that that customer is now going

53:03

to tell two of their friends

53:06

to other family members doesn’t matter

53:07

they’re going to tell two people about

53:09

their experience with you

53:11

now

53:12

those two people

53:14

didn’t reply to an ad they didn’t reply

53:17

to

53:18

uh a thing on tv they’re genuine they

53:20

didn’t reply to something that they got

53:22

in the mail that seems too good to be

53:23

true right

53:25

so they’re they’re calling you and they

53:27

have a whole lot more trust in you

53:28

before they even call and then when they

53:30

call and you show up they already trust

53:33

your advisement because their brother or

53:35

their sister or their friend said i had

53:37

a wonderful experience with them you’re

53:38

gonna love them right that’s how you

53:40

earn customers and what happens is we

53:44

are doing the same volume of this is how

53:46

we do it and we’re doing the same volume

53:48

of work as other companies that are

53:50

spending all of this crazy money on

53:52

marketing and we’re not having to spend

53:54

the money on marketing and so

53:57

technically

53:58

we could be making more money than those

54:01

other companies okay

54:02

but one little added thing that i do and

54:04

this helps push culture and it helps

54:06

drive this earning customer initiative

54:08

all the way through the organization is

54:10

i take what would be my marketing budget

54:13

and every month

54:15

and marcus has seen this i take what

54:17

would be our marketing budget every

54:19

month

54:20

and then i subtract out our actual

54:22

marketing expenses which are very very

54:25

low and then i take what’s left over and

54:27

i divide it amongst every member of the

54:29

company

54:30

and i give it to them

54:33

i budgeted this much money for marketing

54:35

i didn’t have to spend it because you

54:36

guys did such an awesome job marketing

54:38

for us by earning customers so have it

54:41

it’s a bonus thank you it is

54:44

it sounds

54:45

it sounds super cliche

54:47

yeah it sounds super cliche but

54:50

you are marketing you exactly you’re

54:52

marketing your branding instead of

54:54

marketing right and that and that

54:56

answers the second question also yeah

54:58

you know what i mean how do you keep

54:59

your employees right

55:01

if you pay them well you give them a

55:03

bonus for marketing and then they get a

55:05

check they continue to market right

55:06

hello so so that is economics one-on-one

55:09

right they continue to and and also they

55:12

realize how when am i going to get some

55:14

checks

55:17

so the guy the guys realize how much

55:19

easier

55:20

the the guys realize how much easier a

55:23

customer is to work with that came to us

55:25

through a word of mouth referral of

55:26

course it is and so they like that and

55:28

they want that to be repeated and so

55:30

they a long enough timeline they learn

55:32

the behaviors that days that and

55:34

everything else so that’s how i deliver

55:36

my level of passion all the way down

55:37

through our organization

55:39

is

55:40

ultimately it’s good for the business if

55:41

we keep that up right so i made it good

55:43

for them yeah and instead greedy owners

55:45

would pocket that marketing oh we didn’t

55:47

have to spend that on marketing whoop

55:48

going into my pocket yep no i gave it

55:50

right back those guys aren’t rolling it

55:52

over i know for a fact that guys that

55:54

have that they do not roll that over

55:55

right no gosh no that guess where that’s

55:57

going right in their pocket every time

55:59

it’s a personal bonus yeah they pay the

56:00

taxes on the 30 or whatever tax break

56:02

they’re in and they put that they write

56:04

their life a check and she goes and buys

56:05

a mercedes and so i don’t know what

56:07

she’s doing out there but yeah you’re

56:09

right so that’s how like so it’s easy to

56:11

say focus on service and not on profit

56:13

right but when you’re staring at the

56:14

books and you’re trying to make more

56:15

money or you need to make more money or

56:16

whatever it’s kind of hard not to focus

56:18

on profit right well these are ways that

56:20

you can

56:22

literally focus on service and then when

56:24

the profit comes you reward the great

56:28

service with money and then they do it

56:31

again and they do it again and they do

56:33

it again you’re paying for that

56:34

marketing yeah and it’s paying for

56:36

itself and everybody knows

56:38

to be honest it’s probably better

56:40

um

56:41

you know

56:42

they say what’s the what is it when they

56:44

uh when you spend you get per calls per

56:46

dollar spent in advertising it’s

56:48

probably higher yeah dollars per lead

56:50

and stuff like that it’s probably higher

56:52

when you’re giving it to those guys that

56:53

are bringing

56:55

work in than if you were to spend it on

56:57

a stupid radio station

56:59

you know no no it’s the same i mean our

57:01

phones stay ringing all the time and

57:03

i’ve got that budgeted amount no no i

57:04

mean i’m saying i if you spend it on a

57:07

for an actual commercial i think your

57:09

actual sales generation might be

57:15

your leads generated or less and the

57:17

customer’s trust factor when they’re

57:18

initially calling you is a fraction of

57:20

what it is yeah that’s what i’m saying

57:22

misunderstood yeah i was saying no and

57:24

and so agreed on that creating and

57:26

that’s why i say you have to start all

57:27

the way back at the beginning because

57:29

you got to create a process that focuses

57:32

on service that creates the profit and

57:34

then you don’t

57:35

you don’t profit it like you give it

57:37

right back to the guys so but it it it’s

57:39

that massive flywheel that takes a

57:41

little bit of motion to get going but

57:43

once you put all that effort into it to

57:45

get it going

57:47

it just it’s just like a steam

57:49

locomotive and it’s hard to slow it down

57:50

at that point so

57:52

um that’s how i focus on service rather

57:55

than profit and result in like it

57:58

results in profit so i like it that’s

58:00

what i do i like it so got you three

58:03

questions yeah that was fun we should do

58:06

that

58:08

we should do that more often so i like

58:10

how they interweave within each other as

58:11

well and a lot of times they will really

58:13

close they’re all going to kind of

58:14

intertwine a little bit so

58:16

um very interesting guys that’s our show

58:18

for today as always remember if you like

58:21

what you’re hearing on the show if

58:22

you’re getting value from the show if if

58:25

you wrote some things down or if you’re

58:26

gonna change the way you do something

58:29

because of what you just heard on this

58:30

show do us a favor and help share this

58:33

show with somebody you can either tag

58:36

this show on social media

58:39

on facebook we are at podcast the void

58:42

so if if you see somebody

58:44

um

58:46

commenting or questioning you know hey

58:47

where do i get advice for this or i’m

58:49

thinking about doing that

58:50

simply tag at podcast the void and and

58:53

we’ll pop up there um and and you can

58:56

you know say hey follow these guys or

58:58

whatever also

58:59

share like literally share the episode

59:01

that you saw with somebody yes um if

59:04

you’re subscribed to youtube and or

59:06

subscribe to youtube if you’re not right

59:08

right we’re on youtube apple podcast

59:10

spotify it’s it’s super easy to click

59:13

that link and then you just click the

59:14

share button and send it to somebody on

59:16

facebook it’s like boop boop done right

59:18

so so easy um also guys do us a favor

59:21

and again if you are getting good value

59:23

from this whatever platform you’re

59:25

listening on to this on if you’re on

59:27

youtube give us a thumbs up if you’re on

59:30

spotify or apple podcasts give us a five

59:33

star review we really appreciate it so

59:35

that helps us come up higher in the

59:38

search rankings so when people are

59:39

looking for shows or suggested shows to

59:42

them yeah those five star reviews help

59:44

us dramatically and it gets out to more

59:46

people because it’s it’s

59:48

further up the list and and remember

59:50

we’re not we don’t make any money yeah

59:51

we’re not making any money on this this

59:53

is like we’re just literally trying to

59:54

get this message in front of as many

59:56

people i mean if you’re trying to get it

59:57

if you want if you want to send me cash

59:59

i’ll take it yeah you know i mean i’ll

60:01

take your money if you want yeah

60:03

but uh guys that’s all we have for you

60:04

this show uh tune in next time and we’ll

60:06

have some more great stuff for you so

60:08

until then we’ll see you later get out

60:10

peace

The Void #13 – Profit Vs. Service, Hiring for Heart, Handling Bad Reviews – Mar 13, 2022

Full Transcript

The Void #13 – Profit Vs. Service, Hiring for Heart, Handling Bad Reviews – Mar 13, 2022

Full Transcript

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!