The Void #7 ** Core Episode ** Community Work
In this episode, we’ll discuss the most effective way to get involved with your community and grow your business at the same time. It’s my belief that every business has a moral and ethical obligation to give back to their community in the largest capacity they can. As a service-based business, you are in a great position to help those in your community who might not be able to. You’ll also learn a hashtag that you can use to tag with your community work. This hashtag sends a great message to the public. It also sends a private message to other listeners of this show. Thanks for listening and thanks for sharing! Enjoy the show!
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[Music]
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hey everybody and welcome to the void a
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show dedicated to filling the void
00:08
between being an employee and becoming
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self-employed most people refer to
00:12
starting your own company as taking the
00:14
leap as if they are blindly jumping off
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a cliff and into the unknown
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this show is here to help show you that
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it doesn’t have to be that way at all
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i’ll share with you the process that i
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use for starting my company and you too
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can be on your way to starting your very
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own service-based company we’ll work
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through some common issues that are
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preventing you from starting your own
00:34
company and fulfilling your own true
00:36
potential
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as always if you like what you’re
00:39
hearing on the show please do us a favor
00:41
and help share the void with somebody
00:44
who might also be wanting to start their
00:46
own company we saw an opportunity to
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help others understand that
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self-employment is well within your
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reach
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just as our businesses have grown
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organically and by word of mouth we want
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this show to grow the same way and it
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takes two things for that to happen we
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have to put out great content and you
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have to help share our valuable message
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we know that many of you out there are
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on various
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social media groups for your various
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trades and skills and crafts
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and facebook groups for example are
01:16
begging for this kind of information
01:18
virtually every day so if you see
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somebody on one of those groups asking
01:22
questions about starting their own
01:24
business please do us a favor and drop a
01:27
link to the show
01:29
with me today is david hilton i am mitch
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schmedley by the way in which with me
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today is david did you forget that key i
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almost forgot it almost forgot it it’s
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uh
01:39
it’s night time right now so good
01:40
evening yeah good evening we haven’t
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yeah we haven’t recorded any episodes in
01:44
a little bit we’ve done morning we’ve
01:45
done evening we’ve been all over the map
01:47
and we’ve been all all over the map
01:49
marcus yeah what’s going on man how’s it
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going everybody we got marcus behind the
01:53
camera behind always heard never seen
01:57
never never never
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everybody’s doing good though right yeah
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we’re doing good everybody’s moving
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forward moving forward so in the last
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episode we talked about llc’s and
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s-corps and key performance indicators
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and tracking great episode and we also
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talked about stop trashing your fellow
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trades people even though
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i used to like to do that yeah i didn’t
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say that in the other episodes
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it’s hard not to but yeah i mean it is
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we gotta we gotta not do it so you have
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to be professional yeah we’ve talked
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about and not do it so uh and if you
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haven’t listened to that episode
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yep that’s gonna be episode six so um
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uh any any questions about the episode
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six before we get into today’s work
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no but i would like to go over
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the episodes that that we’ve done so far
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yeah yeah go ahead so uh you know we did
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episode one was really the why
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um
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and the vision of what you want your
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company to be right you know and then we
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have the preparation adversities so and
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they we broke that down into three the
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the first one was personal finance prep
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and that’s actually episode two
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and then we did the second uh
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preparation adversity and that was
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business finance preparation and that’s
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episode three
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and then
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the third preparation adversities
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adversity
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is episode four five and six now and
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when you go onto youtube and watch those
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it says
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one of three two of three three of three
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okay that’s
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that’s what that is and
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mitch put that on there which was a
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great idea to to kind of take away some
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of that confusion yeah and a lot of
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those a lot of those episodes are also
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titled core episodes those are some
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foundational episodes yes and then we’re
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going to start on the beginning
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adversities in this episode this is
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episode seven
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so it’s beginning adversity number one
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but it’s the fourth step in our plan
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which is community involvement work okay
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number five wake up do the work repeat
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that’s gonna be episode eight and then
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six is gonna be evaluate performance
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make adjustments and improve that’s
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gonna be episode nine episode so is
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there anything you wanna say about
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about that um well by now there may be a
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lot of guys that have some questions
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that you would like to email into us and
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um we will open up that email we’re
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working on that email right now it’s
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it’s in place however we’re gonna drop
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that email towards the end of episode
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nine
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we want you to get through all of the
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core adversities
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before you send in your questions so if
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you have them that’s fine just write
04:36
them down and jot them down yeah write
04:37
them down keep track of them and then by
04:38
the time you get through we’re not gonna
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go feel free to shoot us a message yeah
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so and
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um
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you know as we’re new into this we don’t
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know how much that’s going to take off
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so we’re going to do our best to get to
04:49
every single one i don’t know if there’s
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going to be two questions if there’s
04:52
maybe a hundred questions right right if
04:54
it ends up being 2000 questions it might
04:55
be a little difficult to get to listen
04:57
if there’s 2 000 i will go through as
04:59
many as i can right because to be honest
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i like per you know personal interaction
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between people right that’s why i like
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doing this show too you know i will go
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through as many as i can if there if it
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is a crazy number mitch is just going to
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be sending to me all the time hey dude
05:15
get after it i don’t know what to tell
05:16
you good luck
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all right so um
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um we are ready to dive into community
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involvement work so yes um
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what episode is this this is episode
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seven episode seven yep so step four
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the main thing the main thing that we’re
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gonna talk about today is the dichotomy
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between taking care of your community
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while growing your business at the same
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time do you know what dichotomy means
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because i don’t please break do you if
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you don’t have the definition right
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there oh i’m gonna kill you i’m gonna
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roast you in front of all whoever is
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freaking watching right now no we’re
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golden okay okay
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we’ve i know we got the prep steps i
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know but if missus no i mean oh man i
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thought i was gonna hammer his ass so
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so a dichotomy is when two different
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things can be true
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at the same time okay so most people
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they think you know oh i gotta get my
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business off the ground and then i’m
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gonna do some community work of some
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charitable work
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you can actually let those play hand in
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hand and do them at the same time and so
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by the end of today’s show
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you’re going to learn exactly how
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to do that
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um so we’re talking on the the first
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beginning step this step is after you’ve
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already started your business and um uh
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we’re talking community involvement work
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so
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let’s get your mind frame right here for
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a second
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have you ever heard someone talk about
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how they wish they could donate more
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money to charity or wish they could do
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more for the community
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most likely you have
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those same people are also the same
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people that would say something like if
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i had a million dollars i would for sure
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give 10
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to charity no problem
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but i’m not so sure they would
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a lot of people talk to hear themselves
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talk well and a lot of people have
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goodness in their heart that they think
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is there
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and then when they actually have to sit
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down and write that check
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it’s hard it is hard it is hard a
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hundred thousand dollars is a lot of
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money damn right so if you bestowed a
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million bucks somehow and and you want
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to give ten percent to charity
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that’s a hundred grand that that’s tough
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first off if you i if you have said that
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ever to someone
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said hey man if i had a million dollars
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i would give 10 away we’ve all said it
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listen if you’ve said it and then that
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happened and you won some lottery do it
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yeah do you know how many people you can
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help with that right if you give that to
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childhood cancer right you know what
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they could do with that money yeah
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it’s unbelievable so if you’ve ever said
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that
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and then and then it happened to you you
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should do it yeah they’re probably not
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listening to this podcast but i want
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people to know my heart get your money
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out there right right
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so
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the the point of this is like if you’re
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not giving 10 to charity right now
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then you’re probably not going to give
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10 to charity later if you’re not
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willing to do the habit when the amounts
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are small
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then you’re probably not going to do the
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habit when the amounts are huge
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so
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i want you to slow down and think about
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a few things for a minute you at this
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point in the process you’ve crested over
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from preparation to beginning steps so
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you know right now you’re reading on
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hearing all this before you’ve started
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your business but
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think ahead for a second well say say
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someone has um or maybe you’ve already
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started
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and and they did say that maybe you’ve
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been in business for a year before you
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found the show so say they did those
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first three and now they’re like okay
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i did guys i i listened to the first
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six episodes
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three steps and i did them and i’m ready
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and
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and now
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say they waited to listen to this
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episode right you know and now they’re
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they’re prepared and they’re ready to go
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and they’re like okay what am i going to
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do first what’s going to be the most
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important start right off the bat that’s
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what we’re getting into right now so
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yeah it’s time to step back
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and try to understand the power of what
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we’re building here what you’re building
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here
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um it’s my personal belief
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that all good businesses have a moral
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and ethical responsibility to provide
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for their community
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all businesses will do this in different
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ways however
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you know a restaurant for example
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they may occasionally offer their meals
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to members of the community who are in
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need or they may also
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offer you know some form of a disaster
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recovery that you know maybe they put
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together some bachelor box lunches for
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some flood victims down by the river or
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good stuff you know a tornado strike
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we’re in the midwest so maybe a tornado
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strikes across town and there’s and
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there’s barbecue joints in our area i’m
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not going to list any of them yeah they
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do that yeah they’ll put together some
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box lunches for some victims they take a
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trailer to the area and you know they
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feed the
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medical and the emergency workers for
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free yep so
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um you know maybe a furniture company
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may hold a furniture drive to roundup
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pieces for donation or a grocery store
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might set up an arrangement with a local
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food pantry like
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there’s a lot of there’s a lot of ways
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to do this
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um
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you know how many times have have you
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heard about your local restaurant like
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we just talked about
10:38
um
10:39
you know
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donating a 500 box lunches to emergency
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workers or people you know first
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responders or whatever so
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um
10:48
not all businesses are in the position
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to offer their day-to-day services to
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the community
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so like a mortgage company for example
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they can’t really donate mortgages to
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the community no
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so you know i mean they could they could
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pay someone’s house off maybe you know
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but but that’s not what we’re talking
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about right right so you know these
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these companies aren’t exempt from the
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morality of giving back to their
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community uh they just need to do it in
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a different way you know maybe they’re
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maybe they’re volunteering with the
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local restaurant to help deliver those
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box lines or maybe the restaurant
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doesn’t have the money
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to do that and they’re and they’re
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paying the rest maybe to do it maybe
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they’re kicking the money to the
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restaurant and the restaurants donating
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the time and the the hey we’ll pay for
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the resources to prepare them we’ll pay
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for the hard costs
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you guys pay for the man labor and we’ll
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do it together right and there’s nothing
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wrong with
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uh partnering up with other businesses
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you know in your area and saying hey man
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what can we do yeah you know yeah can we
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go out and
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uh maybe have a fundraiser right you
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know we’ll provide the food
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you pay for the food we’ll do all the
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manpower
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if any of your employees want to help
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with the manpower
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we would accept you know accept that
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right maybe they’re they’re willing to
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do
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that the point is
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all of that energy and all of that
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effort and all of that money brings
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awareness to your business
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awareness to your community that you’re
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not just there to make money that you’re
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there to be a part of that community and
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that is what is very valuable yeah
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so
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so
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we first have to understand that every
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business has an obligation to look out
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for those in their community there are
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people in our community that are
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disadvantaged in some way or another
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and
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it’s it’s the responsibility of those
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who have to help look out for those who
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don’t have
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um
12:48
your business is as this podcast is kind
12:50
of geared towards service related
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businesses
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your business needs to do very much of
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the same
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you have one key advantage however
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you probably already know the service
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that you can provide to the community
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you know if you’re an electrician or a
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plumber or an hvac repair person or a
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handyman or a general contractor
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you can provide your day-to-day services
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for the community
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free of charge and listen that’s
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that’s not a big hit on you either yeah
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it’s kind of
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easier for guys like that to
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to do those things you know hey yeah
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it’s really easy for me to give away two
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service calls a week yeah that’s
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dude you’re talking nothing yeah in the
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grand scheme of the of what happens in a
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year
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two calls a week
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come on right that’s not a lot of money
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now it can be a little scary especially
13:46
like you’re starting your business and
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here we are like you know we’re going
13:50
through this podcast before you’ve
13:51
probably started your business or maybe
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you recently started it and now you’re
13:54
talking about like donating some time
13:57
right you’re hardly making ends meet as
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it is and now you’re wanting me to
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donate time
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but i can promise you that you will
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never regret a single hour you spend no
14:08
donating your time talents or resources
14:10
back to the community and listen if
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he’s not telling you you have to
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um
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do that
14:19
if you’re a one-man shop and you’re
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rolling hard and you’re working hard and
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you’ve you don’t have you don’t think
14:26
you have time for that but you want to
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do something you can always donate money
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you can you know what i mean
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it is more personable for you to donate
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your time right you know but but when
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people see you write a check
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that has a lot of impact as well yeah it
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it really does and then maybe maybe the
14:44
next year after you have some guys
14:46
you can do that
14:48
but there is
14:49
if you’re part of the chamber or which
14:51
you should be
14:52
okay you should be part of your chamber
14:54
of commerce um
14:56
when they when people in that group see
14:58
that you’ve written a check and you’re
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just you know you say hey i don’t i
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don’t have time to do that but i’m
15:03
willing to put some money up there like
15:04
oh right thank you right you know
15:08
and it means a lot to them that you’re
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willing to do that yeah even if you
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don’t have the time
15:13
so
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the reason we’re bringing this up and
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the reason we’ve made an entire episode
15:18
dedicated to just this is because
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unfortunately
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most businesses are so focused on profit
15:25
that their community sacrifices and they
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don’t realize what they’re really
15:29
missing with it so
15:31
um people have this overt vision of a
15:34
successful business one day
15:36
participating in charity work and you
15:39
know most dream that you know i’ll make
15:41
it big one day and then i’ll be able to
15:42
make a big difference um but but you
15:46
don’t realize that if the habit is to be
15:48
there when you’re big the habit needs to
15:50
be there when you’re small you need to
15:52
start if you think it’s in your heart to
15:54
do it
15:55
it’s easier to start small absolutely
15:57
when you’re big
15:58
yeah make the commitment to do it right
16:01
so don’t be soft about it community work
16:03
as pertains to business is usually very
16:06
quote unquote iffy right and what what i
16:09
mean by that is well
16:11
we hear this often all the times
16:13
companies will say that they’ll consider
16:14
charity work
16:16
towards the end of the month if it’s
16:18
been
16:19
you know if they have the time if they
16:21
have the money if they have the
16:22
resources if it’s been a good month and
16:25
all of this stuff and and the problem is
16:27
they put so many ifs in front of
16:29
actually doing it
16:31
that it’s so iffy that it’s probably
16:33
never going to get done
16:34
and if you if you put anything on the
16:36
back burner like that it’s not going to
16:38
get done so for you to fulfill your
16:41
moral obligation as a business you need
16:44
to make it a habit from your very first
16:47
month in business so for those that are
16:49
listening to the show that haven’t yet
16:50
started it
16:52
plan on doing something your first month
16:55
in let’s talk about
16:57
before we get too far past that
17:00
let’s talk about the real
17:02
um i don’t want to say meat and potatoes
17:04
but i’m gonna say it um when you do
17:06
those things that’s advertisement
17:09
it can be okay it’s
17:11
and it’s not it sounds bad
17:14
for you to say
17:16
oh i’m doing this for advertisement and
17:19
i want to look good in my community okay
17:21
but it’s hand in hand when you when you
17:24
give from your heart
17:26
and you
17:27
dedicate your time and your money people
17:29
see that yeah and
17:31
and they know
17:33
that
17:34
you’re a good business yeah and they
17:36
want to give you a chance to move
17:38
forward and that is advertisement even
17:41
though it’s not advertisement i would
17:43
call i mean i would call it more of a uh
17:46
you’re making an impact on a group of
17:49
people that will give you a very good
17:52
word of mouth referral yeah not
17:54
necessarily advertisement as much
17:57
word of mouth referral is advertisement
17:59
it is you know what it is
18:01
and when i say i i do this all the time
18:03
now i don’t understand why but where
18:07
advertisement i don’t mean you’re taking
18:09
an ad out right right you know what i
18:11
mean right
18:12
it’s is we’re going to talk about this a
18:14
little bit more uh later
18:18
your business will grow when you do this
18:20
but that can’t be why you do it you need
18:23
to do it because it’s the responsibility
18:26
of your business to do yes so just know
18:30
and be prepared that your business will
18:31
grow because of it yes so um
18:35
let’s
18:36
as we’ve done with a lot of this through
18:39
a lot of the other parts of the show
18:41
we’re talking about things but then i’m
18:42
also going to give you some examples of
18:44
like how i did it when i started our
18:46
company
18:48
when i was planning our business
18:50
i wanted to make sure that community
18:52
involvement was part of our monthly
18:54
routine
18:56
i made this matter very important to
18:59
myself and my business i watched other
19:01
companies wait until the end of the
19:02
month with all those ifs and mites and
19:05
maybes
19:06
and ironically they just never had the
19:09
resources to get it done and these are
19:11
multi-million dollar companies
19:13
that would
19:15
not find a way to take care of their
19:16
community
19:17
um
19:19
and and so
19:20
i saw how all of those decisions ended
19:23
with little to no community work each
19:25
month and so i made the decision that
19:27
that would not be the case for our
19:28
company
19:30
so
19:31
again
19:32
it was a decision a conscious decision
19:34
to make community work happen
19:37
every month and in order to make it
19:40
happen every month
19:42
i wanted to happen i wanted it to happen
19:44
at the beginning of the month
19:46
not the end of the month i didn’t want
19:48
it to be risk of oh we got busy and we
19:51
didn’t have time to do it
19:52
so
19:53
this developed into a program that we
19:57
called family first and we kind of share
19:59
about this program using the hashtag
20:01
family first
20:02
um
20:03
but but our view
20:06
was that we would serve our community
20:09
really well and we view our community as
20:11
our family and family comes first
20:14
and ultimately this evolved into the
20:17
mission statement for our company um we
20:20
have a mission statement for our company
20:22
and that mission statement is to serve
20:25
our community so well that we may be
20:27
able to or i’m sorry i said that right
20:29
i’m gonna say read that again to service
20:31
our community so well that we may be
20:34
able to serve our community in return
20:38
and so um
20:40
this is such an important thing to us
20:43
that i had a big
20:47
uh picture
20:48
made of
20:51
our
20:52
uh mission statement and this hangs in
20:54
our office dave it’s is it is this
20:56
what’s over here yeah okay
20:58
i got it leaning over here against the
21:00
wall and this thing’s this thing’s kind
21:01
of big so it’s going to be weird to see
21:03
it here in the podcast damn it mitch
21:05
[ __ ]
21:06
it’s uh
21:07
i got it it’s huge i got it i got it
21:10
dude i got your crazy boom mic in the
21:12
way hey don’t judge my boom mic but it’s
21:14
bigger than yours don’t be jealous
21:16
you know that
21:18
so i had that made and it hangs in our
21:20
office and it’s got our mission to keep
21:21
going
21:22
on it and everything else but can you
21:24
see that
21:25
keep going down down bring it down a
21:27
little bit more
21:28
i want them to see the there we go yeah
21:31
there we go
21:32
so
21:33
um
21:34
you know
21:35
our mission in the community work is so
21:37
important to us that that’s one of the
21:40
few pieces of anything that hangs in our
21:42
office all right you can put that away
21:44
now david
21:45
thank you man now listen i want to say
21:47
um just real quick
21:50
um you want to take it mars
21:54
i want to say just you know real quick
21:57
so when we did this and we started this
22:00
um
22:01
we didn’t want to
22:02
like push any of our businesses on the
22:05
podcast
22:07
but i told mitch that i thought it was
22:09
really important
22:10
to do that yep because it just it shows
22:13
it’s a great example of
22:15
of what you should do thank you marcus
22:18
um
22:19
and i wanted to do that even though you
22:21
know it doesn’t benefit me right
22:23
i think it’s very important and i and i
22:25
love it right when you when you had that
22:27
out and i and i saw that first
22:30
facebook post you know a couple years
22:33
has it been two full years
22:34
no not quite
22:36
18 months
22:38
but then that wasn’t right at the very
22:39
beginning was it or just maybe like a
22:41
month in so i had that made like two or
22:43
three months after into business i
22:44
thought so yeah i mean i was blown away
22:47
and i wish
22:49
to be honest i’m a little jealous when
22:51
when i started my company i didn’t
22:53
i didn’t do that right and i thought man
22:55
if i
22:56
man that’s such a it’s just
22:59
it’s a humbling thing when you see other
23:01
people
23:02
donating to their community right and
23:04
it’s very important and you know we
23:06
talked about it before this show hey you
23:08
know no we should we should talk about
23:11
it and we should point it out yeah and i
23:12
just i commend you on that and i’m not
23:15
kissing mitch’s ass okay because i don’t
23:16
have to i
23:18
i if you’re starting your company and
23:20
you do something like that
23:23
thank you yeah good on you right okay
23:25
good on you
23:26
and if this is an inspiration
23:28
um for you to give back to your
23:30
community
23:32
great i’m happy right you know what i
23:33
mean i’m happy i’m glad that you know
23:36
that
23:37
that if you’re inspired you took it and
23:39
ran with it yeah and i don’t mean to
23:40
babble on about it but i just i it’s
23:43
very important to me personally right
23:45
right so
23:46
so why not to interrupt what you were
23:47
talking about
23:49
you’re fine um what our program is the
23:51
way that we decided we would give back
23:53
to the community
23:54
is we identify people in our community
23:58
who have necessary plumbing repair needs
24:01
but who simply can’t afford them and we
24:04
block out our schedules on the first
24:07
business day of every month and we
24:09
schedule these customers just as we
24:11
would any other customer and we go to
24:13
their homes and we make these necessary
24:15
plumbing repairs absolutely free of
24:17
charge
24:18
um
24:19
most it’s great yeah it’s great most of
24:22
these people are incredibly grateful for
24:24
the work that we do um some
24:27
some personalities take a little bit
24:29
longer to comprehend
24:30
the value of what they’re receiving some
24:32
people but that’s not why you’re doing
24:34
it no no right right right no
24:35
doing it and you’re glad to do it yeah
24:37
i’m just giving people a heads up like
24:38
if you’re going to do something similar
24:40
to this some people are going to be
24:41
struggles yeah some people are going to
24:43
be grateful other people are almost
24:44
going to seem like they’re taking
24:45
advantage of you but
24:47
um do it anyway if you’ve committed to
24:49
do it well and i don’t think they’re
24:50
really taking advantage of you i think
24:52
some people are so afraid of scams and
24:54
weird things in this world that they’re
24:56
they just it takes longer for it to hit
24:58
them that holy cow i just yeah done for
25:00
free litigious society yeah has really
25:04
ruined a lot of the great things that
25:05
people do yeah you know and it
25:08
and you just like mitch said you need to
25:10
be prepared for those things yeah so in
25:12
the first six months of our business
25:15
um we only had one plumbing truck on the
25:17
road and i was the one running that
25:19
plumbing truck
25:20
we had super mitch we had performed
25:24
we had performed fourteen thousand
25:26
dollars in plumbing repairs for the
25:28
community at no charge hey man that’s
25:31
great yeah so that is great some houses
25:34
received minor repairs like new toilet
25:36
flappers or you know we augered a
25:38
clogged toilet or something like that
25:40
dumb stuff that you know a little old
25:42
lady to
25:44
to her that’s a big to me that’s not a
25:46
big deal right because i can do it right
25:47
right but to a little lady that’s on her
25:49
own yeah it’s a huge deal well and even
25:52
though it doesn’t cost you any money
25:53
it’s still a huge deal right right you
25:56
know some homes received repairs of
25:58
broken you know pipes or new water
26:00
heaters so um the the key things that we
26:03
the key metrics that we held for our
26:05
program was they had to be necessary
26:07
plumbing repair needs and any any person
26:11
that signed up for that program
26:13
when we left their house their house
26:15
needed to be sanitary safe and usable in
26:18
regards to plumbing um so
26:21
that that was kind of our boundaries for
26:23
the program we’ve met some great people
26:25
through the program they’re they’re some
26:26
of the nicest people we’ve ever met
26:28
through that program it’s kind of neat
26:30
listen let’s
26:32
i don’t want to be that guy but i’m
26:34
going to say something um
26:37
when you do those things for someone you
26:39
expect nothing
26:41
okay correct
26:42
but when that
26:44
person
26:45
or family
26:46
tells 10 other people
26:49
that’s advertisement
26:51
okay you’re not doing it for that reason
26:53
right okay
26:55
a lot of those if you go to they don’t
26:57
say anything to anybody because they’re
26:58
ashamed that they couldn’t pay for it
27:00
and that’s no advertisement right but
27:03
there is a very s
27:04
there is a huge benefit to your soul and
27:07
the way you feel
27:08
and what happens in your community and
27:11
there could there is a small benefit
27:14
of
27:15
to your company right as well down the
27:17
road and and that’s not why you’re doing
27:19
it right and i understand that and i i
27:21
just want to make sure people know that
27:24
there is a benefit but that’s not why
27:26
you’re doing it yeah so yeah
27:28
that’s not why mitch started doing that
27:30
right dave keeps mentioning kind of the
27:32
advertisement word and in business
27:34
you’ve got three different ways for
27:35
people to understand or hear about your
27:37
company you’ve got advertisement you’ve
27:38
got marketing and you’ve got branding
27:40
yes um okay we’re gonna break it down a
27:42
little bit yeah yeah so
27:44
this is more of like a branding thing
27:46
right you you are setting your brand
27:49
your brand is like your mo it’s it’s how
27:51
you operate
27:52
and this is more of a brand you’re going
27:54
to be
27:55
nobody else does this in town no and and
27:58
i’m not saying that’s a brag i’m saying
27:59
there may be there may be one say
28:01
there’s 20 guys in the town maybe one
28:04
other guy doesn’t maybe and you know and
28:06
if they do it’s gonna be like they
28:08
waited until that opportunity came to
28:10
them and they just accepted it i can
28:12
guarantee you nobody is proactive like
28:14
we are yes about seeking people out
28:17
step out and do it right and so that has
28:19
developed into our brand and your brand
28:22
is like your character it’s a business
28:24
and so our brand is we take care of our
28:27
community and and people that can afford
28:30
to pay they pay us and people that can’t
28:31
afford to pay well we still take care of
28:33
them yeah and so and that’s huge
28:35
um some of the customers that we’ve
28:37
served through this program have went on
28:39
to regain their financial footing and
28:41
they still call us out to their home and
28:42
they now they pay us for service and
28:44
that’s that’s part of it
28:48
advertisement branding
28:50
branding
28:51
but you know what you’ve gained
28:53
you’ve gained a customer for life right
28:55
and you didn’t even mean to do it yeah
28:58
yeah by being a good person yep you know
29:01
and like i’ve said this before on this
29:03
show i’m not a yin and yang guy
29:06
hey man that stuff comes around it does
29:08
it does you know we’ve we’ve had other
29:10
customers that
29:11
that have needed a little longer to
29:13
regain their financial footing and and
29:15
we we have some that probably never will
29:17
but we’ve revisited their home
29:20
you know another time or two or three
29:22
times additional helping them out so
29:25
one of the key things that we do though
29:26
is we never question their position or
29:29
or why they need our help that’s not our
29:33
job you’re saying you just do it we are
29:35
simply happy to be in the position to
29:37
help them so it’s not like we have this
29:40
formal application process and you have
29:42
to show that you’re poor or some
29:44
something like it’s not just
29:46
literally
29:47
how we get this well i’m going to go
29:50
over that later about how we get that
29:51
work um
29:53
so as as we were putting all this
29:55
together we knew it would be good but we
29:57
didn’t really know how it would be good
29:59
um
30:00
the decisions that led to us creating
30:02
the mission statement that we launched
30:03
our business with and that we created
30:05
this family first program we weren’t
30:08
prepared for how well the community
30:11
would respond
30:12
to this noble gesture
30:15
we weren’t ready for the floods of phone
30:18
calls that would come our way from
30:20
people that had heard about what we do
30:22
every month and because of that they
30:24
want us to be their plumber instead of
30:26
anybody else
30:28
we often hear about how doing good deeds
30:31
rewards you in mysterious mysterious
30:33
ways but this one wasn’t even mysterious
30:35
our family first customers became some
30:38
of our loudest cheerleaders when it came
30:41
to referrals on social media
30:43
so yes
30:45
even people who had never used our
30:47
services before but had only heard about
30:51
our family first program began to refer
30:54
our company to their family and their
30:55
friends and again on social media just
30:58
like we talked about yeah just like we
31:00
were saying and and so one other thing
31:02
and we weren’t prepared for this one of
31:04
the neat things that happened over on
31:06
you a little bit did it yes so like
31:08
within the first
31:10
two months of business
31:12
um and i’ve still got screenshots of
31:13
this because it’s just it almost brings
31:16
tears to your eyes like how well it was
31:18
received
31:19
in the first two months of business
31:22
you know every every city out there has
31:24
got like a community page on facebook
31:27
and
31:28
in within two months
31:30
somebody would make a post on that one
31:31
of those pages saying hey i need a
31:33
plumber who should i call
31:35
and all of a sudden they started
31:37
referring our company at an incredible
31:40
rate and usually usually you’ll get 10
31:42
or 12 responses and it’ll be like 8 or
31:44
10 different companies maybe a company
31:46
gets mentioned
31:47
twice you know yeah
31:49
well one of the things that happened is
31:50
as our community
31:52
adopted this program from us so well
31:55
that we were getting referred at a rate
31:58
of six to one
32:00
over any other company in our community
32:04
and it was those are great numbers it it
32:07
almost felt like we were cheating i’m
32:09
gonna be a hundred percent honest with
32:11
you it felt like you were cheating but
32:12
it also at the same time humble punched
32:14
you right in the face you’re like oh my
32:16
god well the reason it felt like we were
32:19
cheating is because when you make the
32:20
decision to donate one entire day every
32:24
month to the community
32:25
it’s you think it’s gonna
32:29
now i know it’s nothing but ahead of
32:30
time you think it’s like risky and
32:32
you’re going to bury you and so
32:34
i made that decision not knowing what
32:36
was going to happen and then all of a
32:38
sudden look what happens
32:40
now we’re like flooded with work because
32:43
the community wants to take care of
32:46
somebody who takes care of the community
32:49
and
32:50
so over the next few months we were we
32:52
were like flooded with work and and this
32:55
is part of how we hit our goals that we
32:57
hit in the first three months of
32:58
business
32:59
um
33:00
another cool thing that we did
33:03
was as we would approach so people knew
33:05
about this program and sometimes that
33:07
first business day of the month it would
33:08
fill up naturally we would have people
33:10
email us throughout the month and we
33:12
would get them on that first day
33:13
schedule
33:14
some months we would show up to that
33:16
first day maybe we’re a week and a half
33:18
out and you know my wife she does all of
33:20
our uh all of our office work and
33:23
answers the phones and everything else
33:24
she would text me throughout the day and
33:26
she’s like hey i’m looking ahead on the
33:27
first day of the month and it’s pretty
33:29
empty we still have a lot of room
33:31
and so what i would do is i would go on
33:33
to the local community pages and i would
33:36
you say community pages what do you mean
33:38
like on on social media or facebook okay
33:40
and and i would introduce myself you
33:42
know hey i’m i’m mitch with with
33:45
smith smedley plumbing if you forgot it
33:47
yeah and i’m not trying to name drop our
33:49
business here no i know you’re not um
33:51
i’m just you know i would say you know
33:52
hey i’m mentioning
33:53
a little bit and and we do this really
33:56
cool thing every month where we dedicate
33:57
the first business day of the months to
33:59
taking care of our communities so if you
34:00
know of anybody in the community that
34:02
has necessary plumbing repair needs but
34:04
simply no way to afford them
34:07
let us know and and how we would ask
34:09
that they let us know we wouldn’t ask
34:10
that they comment on those posts because
34:12
that can be really embarrassing like
34:14
yeah nobody wants to admit publicly on
34:16
social media that they need these they
34:18
would have to call or email and we we
34:20
did it all through email yeah um just
34:22
you know kindly send an email to and we
34:24
gave them the email address and they
34:25
would email us
34:26
and and how did you call those
34:29
so if so they don’t mean to get off
34:31
track but say someone’s um
34:37
say
34:38
i had a grandmother that didn’t want to
34:43
she was too ashamed to say i needed my
34:45
water heater
34:46
but then i heard about it and i said hey
34:48
in the email so how would you contact
34:51
that grandmother and say hey i’m coming
34:53
to do your [ __ ] for free we would simply
34:55
ask the customer like okay
34:56
they would tell us you know grandma’s
34:58
probably not gonna want us to do that
34:59
yeah that’s that’s what i mean by this
35:01
and so we would ask him like well we’re
35:02
willing to so
35:04
is it better if you call grandma or
35:05
should we call grandma and and sometimes
35:08
it was both like they would call grandma
35:09
and grandma would still say no and then
35:10
we would call grandma and grandma would
35:12
start crying and be like
35:14
i told her not to tell you and yeah it’s
35:16
like well it’s too late
35:18
and
35:19
i’ve got you penciled in for like 10 to
35:21
noon on that first day i’m coming girl
35:24
like we you almost have to be assertive
35:26
yeah because
35:27
one of the weirdest things people people
35:30
are proud and they don’t want help right
35:33
because they don’t want pity and they
35:34
don’t want shame and they think that
35:36
they have
35:37
and there’s nothing wrong with that
35:38
because especially if they’re older
35:40
people yep you know they have they’ve
35:43
gone their whole lives without ever
35:45
asking or needing to ask for help right
35:48
so
35:49
what’s weird about the types of like
35:52
this is how you know you’re in a genuine
35:54
scenario of somebody who needs this
35:56
they’re usually going to be downplaying
35:59
the severity of their own position yeah
36:01
and they’re gonna say something like
36:04
you know i really appreciate what you’re
36:05
doing
36:06
and i know there’s probably some other
36:08
people out there who need this more than
36:10
i do so i really appreciate that you’re
36:12
taking care of me yeah and
36:15
they’re humble about it i did i didn’t
36:17
plan on telling the story but i will
36:19
um
36:20
our
36:22
like third month in or fourth month in
36:25
got notified of a lady who hadn’t had
36:28
usable bathrooms in her house for two
36:31
years oh jesus she had a drain line clog
36:34
that affected both of her bathrooms but
36:36
her kitchen like in her like in her
36:38
basement or alec out in the yard no
36:40
inner house
36:41
her kitchen sink worked just fine and
36:43
her laundry worked just fine but her
36:45
bathrooms did not drain oh so she had
36:48
been going to the neighbors to shower
36:50
and she had been using the restroom at
36:52
the gas station down the road for two
36:54
years how old is this lady can i ask you
36:56
uh yeah she’s she was probably in her
36:59
late 50s mid 50s maybe
37:02
um okay and so
37:04
um
37:05
we got told so the person who tipped us
37:08
off to her was her neighbor the one that
37:09
she was using the shower yeah okay and
37:12
so we called her up and told her we
37:14
would love to take care of her her stuff
37:16
and she’s like you know
37:18
long story short a plumber went out
37:19
there to take care of it charged her 600
37:21
bucks
37:22
never got it fixed said he was gonna
37:24
leave and go get some parts and then
37:25
just never showed back up and that was
37:27
the last 600 she had brutal and so we we
37:31
went out there and this was again back
37:32
when i was still by myself before we had
37:34
a team of guys and um
37:37
um
37:38
it took me about four hours of working
37:42
with a drain auger and replacing some
37:44
drain lines but we got her back up and
37:46
going
37:47
and that’s it two years
37:49
two years two years right right four
37:51
hours of work and she’s back going right
37:53
makes me sick to my stomach and and so
37:56
she was speechless
37:58
she was so uncomfortable
38:01
about what we did she didn’t even know
38:03
she didn’t even know how to respond
38:05
about five hours later i get a phone
38:08
call from an out-of-state number
38:10
and i answered it and he called my
38:12
personal phone because when i’m headed
38:14
to a customer’s home i called her i call
38:16
him
38:16
my phone to say i’m heading your way
38:18
yeah he called my personal phone because
38:19
it’s totally on yeah yeah and so i
38:21
answered it and and uh
38:24
and he said hey i understand you were at
38:26
this customer’s house earlier today
38:28
i said yeah and he goes well
38:30
i want to let you know that’s my mom
38:32
and and this guy started like crying on
38:34
the phone because he
38:36
felt so bad for his mom being in that
38:38
position but he himself wasn’t in a
38:40
position to pay a plumber to come out
38:42
and get his mom’s stuff done
38:45
so brutal
38:47
that one was really cool then a month
38:49
later
38:50
we got introduced again a neighbor
38:52
called us and said hey
38:54
my neighbor he comes over every day and
38:56
gets two five gallon buckets of water
39:00
from my spigot outside and he does this
39:02
every day he doesn’t have water in his
39:04
home and they were letting him do it and
39:06
obviously they were limitable you know
39:08
and so
39:09
he
39:10
they gave us his number and they said
39:11
we’ve already told you we were going to
39:12
call him and let you know so he’s
39:14
expecting your call and and they said we
39:17
don’t know what you’re getting into
39:19
and so
39:20
um
39:22
we we go over there and come to find out
39:25
he hasn’t had hot water in three years
39:29
oh [ __ ]
39:30
he hasn’t had running water in his home
39:33
for two years and it wasn’t because he
39:35
wasn’t paying bills
39:37
it was his hot water tank busted
39:40
and so
39:41
she had to turn it off right and then he
39:43
started getting water line leaks and the
39:45
leaks were bad like they got bad enough
39:46
to where he had to turn the water off
39:48
and then he would turn it on when he
39:49
would use it and then he would turn it
39:50
back off
39:51
unfinished basement i’m sure
39:54
like a seller type yeah and so man so
39:57
then the leaks got so bad that he had to
39:59
turn it off well and obviously he
40:00
doesn’t have much money and so he called
40:02
the water department and said just turn
40:03
my water service off because i can’t
40:05
turn it on so they turn his water
40:07
service off and then
40:08
like a month later the health department
40:11
shows up to evict him from his home
40:13
because it’s against health code to live
40:15
in a house without running water
40:17
and their metric for that is do you have
40:18
water service or not yeah so he turns
40:21
his water service back on he’s paying
40:23
the minimum monthly fees every month not
40:25
using a drop of water just so he doesn’t
40:26
get evicted yeah like 15 bucks a month
40:28
he’s paying for a meter charge that one
40:31
was a special case because it took me
40:33
like two and a half days of work so i
40:36
went out there one day and i did a lot
40:38
of work he still didn’t have water back
40:40
um i went out there another day and
40:44
replaced his water heater and got all of
40:46
his water back going
40:48
but he was still there was a problem
40:50
with his water line outside that the
40:51
city was still threatening to shut him
40:53
off for and so like after the meter
40:55
before the house was it leaking or what
40:57
no um he was missing some like meter
41:00
covers and stuff come on dude yeah and
41:03
so
41:04
first off the water
41:05
i know they’re picky dude this is joke
41:07
but i’m gonna you know what i had a i’m
41:09
not gonna say anything yeah i had a leak
41:11
and district 13
41:12
[ __ ] screwed me
41:14
and i i’m not gonna but i’m not gonna
41:16
say anything so so i had to make another
41:18
trip back out there to keep his water on
41:20
and replace a couple of water meter lids
41:21
and stuff like that uh that was in
41:23
november
41:24
um the following december christmas day
41:28
my phone rings
41:30
and it’s truck it’s that guy and he’s
41:33
known as chuck i mean it’s his name but
41:34
like if i if i go tell my wife chuck
41:37
called she knows exactly hey chuck’s on
41:38
the phone okay all right
41:40
chuck called on christmas day
41:42
because he was just
41:44
so happy that his [ __ ] was worth his
41:47
first christmas in like three or four
41:49
years where he had running water i could
41:50
see your eyes getting ready oh yeah like
41:52
i love it no that’s it is this is the
41:55
part of
41:56
it is community involvement that right
41:59
people don’t
42:00
understand how you can feel
42:04
when you do things for people right and
42:06
we’re not talk this goes beyond
42:09
business right right you know what i
42:11
mean i don’t want to get all
42:13
biblical or anything like that but if
42:16
you are in a situation where you can do
42:19
things for people yep [ __ ] do it yeah
42:22
do things for people man you can help
42:24
people and it not cost you a lot of
42:26
money but save them a ton of money it
42:30
has to start when you’re small right now
42:33
currently our company is a team of three
42:36
plumbers
42:37
and we’re getting your old guys and you
42:39
we’re getting ready to add them i don’t
42:41
know what it is getting ready to add
42:42
another
42:43
i can’t imagine what it would take to
42:45
start something like that now
42:47
but i can guarantee you it’s a whole lot
42:49
easier to start when you’re small when
42:51
you’re smaller
42:53
so for sure and you know what let’s just
42:55
why we’re talking about that do you
42:57
remember
42:59
when i first started out
43:01
and uh
43:04
i did that golf tournament
43:07
for
43:08
was your wife working for them at the
43:11
time
43:13
i can’t remember what it was exactly but
43:15
mitch’s wife was working at a place or
43:18
volunteering and volunteering at a place
43:19
yet and mitch calls me and says hey
43:23
do you think you want to be part of this
43:24
golf tournament it’s like 200
43:26
and i’m thinking
43:28
you know what am i going to do blah blah
43:29
blah we talk about it a little bit and
43:30
he says you know you can sponsor team i
43:32
think it was a thousand dollars you
43:34
could sponsor a team
43:36
get your name on a couple of holes
43:38
and i mean we’re talking small time okay
43:41
this is a super small time i i literally
43:43
had been in business for like
43:45
maybe two months and and mitch calls me
43:48
i think it was a thousand dollars
43:50
you know for a team and i said
43:53
i you know i him hauled him back back
43:55
and forth about 200 thousand dollars 200
43:57
i mean for me at the time it was a lot
43:59
of money right you know and i
44:01
i said you know what i said yeah
44:04
i said i’ll do it i’ll you know i’ll
44:06
sponsor a whole team and that gate got
44:08
my number on
44:09
uh one hole
44:11
i think it was actually two holes it was
44:13
two holes and then i got to invite four
44:16
guys to go with i had no guys right so i
44:18
took mitch and i took my friend dustin
44:21
and i took your neighbor yeah i think
44:23
this
44:24
right i mean no one could see but i mean
44:27
i didn’t know who he was because i
44:28
didn’t know who else to you know none of
44:30
my friends could get off in the middle
44:31
of the week to go play golf right
44:33
and um
44:35
and it wasn’t you know it was a lot of
44:36
money for me at the time and and i did
44:38
it and we had a great time you know we
44:40
drank beer all day and you know we
44:42
played it rained do you remember it
44:44
rained it’s a flirt with the beer girls
44:47
yeah of course
44:49
you know a creeper mitch um
44:53
but i felt my wife was the beer girl by
44:55
the way was she yes
44:57
[Laughter]
44:58
girl damn
45:00
but i felt you know at the time i
45:02
thought it was going to be a big deal
45:03
and i thought it was going to be all
45:04
this money and i wasn’t sure about it
45:06
and you know and i gave that a thousand
45:08
dollars and we had i mean we had a great
45:11
time right we it was
45:13
you know delayed because of the rain and
45:15
and um
45:18
we sucked
45:19
i think we took like
45:21
from last there’s always ringers in
45:22
those tournaments yeah and if you’ve
45:24
ever seen mitch play golf you know what
45:25
i’m talking about he’s awful but none of
45:28
us were good but we had a great time but
45:30
the satisfaction that i had
45:33
when we were done
45:34
and you know even a week later i mean i
45:37
just i felt so good and that was my
45:40
first
45:41
community involvement experience right
45:44
you know and it was forced upon me and i
45:45
was
45:46
i’m happy now that it was right you know
45:49
and
45:51
and i i bet you i got i got 10 calls
45:54
probably off of that yeah and i never
45:55
thought you know i thought that’s
45:57
that’s just money down the drain because
45:59
they’re trying to raise money for a
46:00
charity and i was fine to pay it right
46:02
but i did i you know i got 10 calls off
46:05
of that or
46:06
you know i could go back and look but it
46:08
was between 10 and 15 calls and you know
46:11
i made my money back plus well and so
46:13
the but the feeling my point is the
46:15
feeling that i had and the connection
46:17
that i felt
46:20
with those people that i didn’t know
46:23
was better than the money i made from
46:25
those calls later right the so that’s
46:28
the difference between community
46:30
advertising and community involvement
46:32
like yeah
46:33
there were there were people at that
46:34
tournament that bought advertising on
46:37
holes
46:38
that didn’t show up at the tournament
46:40
they didn’t invest themselves personally
46:42
so therefore they weren’t involved right
46:45
they just advertised at the thing yeah
46:47
they may lie to themselves and call that
46:49
community involvement oh i donated to a
46:51
charity by advertising on a whole
46:53
okay whatever it’s not community
46:55
involvement yeah
46:57
involvement is you involved in you and
46:59
we and we sat there for two hour rain
47:01
delay
47:02
you know right and shot the [ __ ] and i
47:04
talked
47:05
you know to people i’d never met before
47:07
yep and for you to put yourself out
47:09
there yeah
47:10
that’s really what community involvement
47:13
is about yeah
47:14
and i was so
47:16
i was so proud to be a part of it yeah
47:18
so like with our family first program
47:20
we’ve we were so dedicated to that we
47:22
did that like we opened our doors on
47:24
august 1st
47:26
yeah the first business day in august
47:29
now that was the rules for our program
47:30
first business day august 1st 2020 was a
47:33
saturday
47:34
so the first business day of our program
47:37
which was the following monday
47:39
we were doing family first work
47:42
we we wouldn’t know what a month looks
47:43
like without family first work uh even
47:46
ironically is the day we’re filming this
47:48
podcast my wife messaged me today what
47:51
is today i don’t know um my wife
47:54
messaged me our producers off of it it’s
47:56
january 27th
47:57
[Laughter]
47:59
my wife messaged me today and said
48:02
hey we got february 1st coming up
48:04
um
48:06
we don’t have any stuff going but our
48:08
schedule’s like slammed or we doing
48:10
family first work and i’m yes
48:13
you know what if you want to come to my
48:14
house i have a couple things you can do
48:16
we don’t not do it right we don’t know
48:18
what a month looks like without it and
48:20
so
48:21
um
48:22
you have to commit if you’re going to
48:23
commit to do something like that yeah
48:25
commit to do it we’ve we’ve never turned
48:27
a customer down for it and so as as our
48:30
staff grows our initiative grows that’s
48:31
kind of cool we’re able to take care of
48:33
even more
48:34
um do you now let me ask you a question
48:36
so when you say family
48:38
first on that day
48:40
um if you get
48:41
do you try to
48:44
take as many as you can handle that day
48:46
so you have
48:47
now that you have employees so before it
48:49
was obviously you’re probably doing one
48:51
so you’re probably doing one a month but
48:52
now you have on that day
48:54
now you have
48:55
is it three guys two guys and you so
48:57
three guys three guys um are you trying
48:59
to do three on that day or no no or how
49:02
are you handling that we block out the
49:04
whole day okay so as many as you can do
49:07
whatever you can do the most i have done
49:09
personally with seven service calls in
49:11
one day all free of charge okay um
49:14
ironically the timing with the pandemic
49:17
and some of the uh uh financial
49:19
incentives that have been sent out
49:20
through the pandemic and stuff like that
49:22
believe it or not the demand for some of
49:24
this family first work has dropped a
49:26
little bit because people have a little
49:27
money to do they’ve been given some
49:29
stimulus money and stuff like that so um
49:31
but we still seek out every month to
49:35
make sure that that day is as full as we
49:37
can make it i just talked to a my 40th
49:40
birthday was last friday
49:43
and i spent it at a blue springs chamber
49:45
of commerce annual banquet
49:47
did i text you i text you yeah i did
49:49
yeah i did but uh i gotta thank you with
49:51
an asterisk and we’re not gonna talk
49:52
about it
49:53
[Laughter]
49:54
there was a pastor that we were sitting
49:56
with at the table and my mind
49:58
immediately goes to uh he might help get
50:00
us some more family first work so here i
50:02
am chatting with him about our program
50:04
trying to get some more fame like it’s
50:06
something i actively do to seek out to
50:09
make sure that that program’s out there
50:10
so
50:12
this this program for me
50:14
is so important that i have this vision
50:19
one day that we will make such an impact
50:22
on our community
50:23
that eventually our community will name
50:27
something after this program
50:29
and
50:30
it may sound conceited or a little
50:32
selfish like oh i want something named
50:34
after me or this program no it’s taking
50:35
a lot of work to get there any community
50:38
center that’s named after somebody that
50:40
somebody deserved that right yeah they
50:42
made such an impact on their community
50:43
they they deserve that you know and i
50:45
hate why we’re just talking about that
50:47
you know i hate when people are saying
50:49
when people say oh all he did was write
50:51
a check for a million dollars right are
50:53
you freaking kidding me the guy let’s
50:55
see you do that whether he earned that
50:57
whether his parents earned that whether
50:59
he that money is going to help so many
51:02
people yeah
51:03
who cares what the freaking name on the
51:05
building is right be grateful that
51:07
that’s happening in your community yeah
51:09
my my goal is not for selfish reasons
51:11
but it’s it’s impact reasons right
51:14
if if you ever see a street or a
51:16
community center or a monument or
51:18
anything named after somebody it’s
51:19
because that person
51:21
significantly changed the landscape of
51:23
that community yeah and and i want that
51:26
for this program i want there to be you
51:28
know
51:29
years down the road for us to be able to
51:31
look back on this program and talk about
51:33
how many people’s lives we were able to
51:35
help and how many dollars in plumbing
51:37
service work that we were able to donate
51:39
do you keep track of all that i keep
51:41
tracking it for later and it’s good i i
51:43
don’t care it sounds conceited but it’s
51:45
it’s good well you keep trying that
51:47
stuff i keep track of it because it
51:48
personally it helps send the message
51:50
back to myself that we’re making a
51:52
significant impact look what we’ve done
51:54
in the first six months of doing it we
51:56
donated 14 000
52:00
back to the community through this work
52:02
so
52:03
name me another business
52:05
that donated 14 another one man business
52:08
that donated 14 000 to their community
52:11
in their first six months this is just
52:12
like when um
52:15
so say you don’t have any retirement and
52:19
all of a sudden
52:20
you get a big chunk and you’re like okay
52:24
i’m going to put 60 000 in this ira for
52:27
later
52:28
the fact that you can see that
52:31
is momentum
52:33
and inspiration to keep on moving right
52:35
and to just you know if you can go back
52:37
and look and say oh 14 000. all right
52:40
[ __ ] um next month we’re doing 18.
52:42
right and the next month we’re going to
52:43
be 25 right
52:46
that visual that visualization of
52:49
this is what i’ve done and i can keep
52:51
going
52:53
that’s the reason to keep track of those
52:54
things let’s go what’s wild is i’ve
52:56
never run seven service calls in a day
53:00
on
53:00
normal days
53:02
oh [ __ ] i remember the more service
53:04
calls the most service calls i have ever
53:06
ran in a day was on a day where i wasn’t
53:09
getting paid for it
53:10
hey man that’s good yeah
53:13
um and you know what let’s talk about
53:15
just the pride situation a lot of people
53:17
will think oh well he’s just you know
53:20
people are building themselves up and
53:21
we’re
53:22
damn right
53:23
well no damn right is in i’m gonna help
53:25
as many people as i can and i’m not
53:27
ashamed to say i help these people right
53:30
because that has inspired someone else
53:32
to help those people right let’s do it
53:35
together and look what it’s evolved into
53:36
now exactly now we’re talking about it
53:38
on a podcast and hopefully inspiring a
53:40
lot of other people damn right so
53:43
um my question for everybody else out
53:45
there is what are you gonna do for your
53:49
community yeah i’ve i have personally
53:51
pushed this episode probably 20 minutes
53:53
longer than it should have been that’s
53:54
all right that’s all right but i
53:56
when you say
53:58
i’m proud of you yeah
54:00
i’m proud of me when people when people
54:02
are doing things for their community i
54:04
mean it’s
54:05
[ __ ] yeah man it’s it’s good stuff get
54:08
it so inspire someone else if if you
54:10
have a direct to customer service based
54:13
business most likely you can do your
54:16
service if you mow lawns cut hair
54:18
painting power washing deck building
54:21
roofing windows photography portraits
54:23
landscaping snow removal concrete work
54:25
flooring hvac plumbing electrical you
54:27
could keep going forever
54:29
yeah you can find ways to do that for
54:32
your community now we’re not going in
54:34
like extreme home makeover and giving
54:36
people like total bath remodels we’re
54:38
performing necessary plumbing repairs
54:41
real world things right you can do real
54:44
world things
54:46
for no money right and help someone
54:48
right so um if you’re if you’re a deck
54:50
builder you may be just rehabbing
54:52
somebody’s deck enough to make it safe
54:54
you might be not rebuilding their deck
54:56
and making it like the best thing
54:57
they’ve ever seen three
54:59
two by tens maybe it’s the stairs
55:01
yeah something simple right so uh take
55:04
hair care for example
55:06
i’ve never seen this done but it would
55:07
be freaking cool to do
55:09
you could dedicate the first day of
55:11
every month to cutting hair of members
55:14
of the community who can’t afford a
55:15
haircut you know what i’ve seen before
55:17
i’m just
55:18
just real quick example i have seen um
55:21
so like really old ladies when their
55:23
hair and this is going to sound awful
55:25
but it makes them to feel good when
55:26
they’re yeah when their hair is getting
55:28
thin it’s one of the last things they
55:29
have in life to hang on and they want
55:31
some color
55:32
you know
55:33
man if they can go to a place and that
55:36
place does it for super cheap
55:38
or or free and i’ve seen them and i’m
55:40
not gonna yep
55:42
man you have changed
55:44
their life
55:46
literally
55:47
for um for two months yeah and if you
55:50
could just keep doing
55:53
you know 10 ladies hair once a month for
55:55
two i mean can you imagine
55:58
how much better they feel about
55:59
themselves and maybe like when they’re
56:01
out there let’s say you’re a hair person
56:03
maybe it’s not once a month right maybe
56:05
it’s like before holidays or before
56:07
yeah before prom or before like a
56:10
funeral
56:11
right for a um a wedding right right you
56:15
know everyone we take
56:17
there’s a lot of stuff we take for
56:19
granted that there are people in this
56:20
community what i was gonna say so thank
56:22
you it’s funny you say that what
56:24
inspired me to do this i again i’ve got
56:26
20 years in the industry
56:28
and and from working for other companies
56:30
we would show up at
56:31
service calls where maybe our service
56:34
charge to come out was like 89 bucks
56:36
there were people that had saved for
56:38
months just to pay the service charge
56:41
yeah so that they could get a price to
56:43
learn what it was going to take to fix
56:45
it yeah
56:46
there
56:47
those people will never ever be able to
56:49
afford to fix their issues and so
56:52
at those other companies those people
56:54
were looked at like a problem they were
56:56
looked at like why are they cluttering
56:58
our schedule they’re filling our
56:59
schedule and taking the place of a
57:00
paying customer don’t think of it like
57:02
that and i completely went the other way
57:06
and and and this is actually so i had
57:07
this vision and it got it i hate that i
57:09
envy you right now right so what
57:12
happened was like okay if you can’t
57:15
like just being real if you can’t
57:17
eliminate i love it if you can’t
57:19
eliminate that type of person from
57:21
calling you for your services that can’t
57:23
afford it
57:24
why not focus them all on one day of the
57:26
month and then just do just get it done
57:29
just get it done from those 20 years of
57:31
the industry half of the repairs that
57:33
those people needed might have only
57:34
taken 20 minutes yeah
57:36
and and meanwhile those those plumbers
57:39
are spending 20 minutes explaining to
57:41
their boss why they couldn’t make a sale
57:43
or something like it’s it’s bs and so
57:45
you know what and that’s i went the
57:46
complete opposite way i don’t want to
57:48
get into societal problems right let’s
57:50
be honest that’s a [ __ ] problem right
57:52
now and that’s why i believe
57:55
every business out there has a moral and
57:58
ethical obligation to give back to their
58:00
community in some way you know what and
58:02
if it and if you and i
58:05
on this stupid ass
58:06
podcast can can turn our small little
58:10
community into a bunch of guys that do
58:12
that
58:13
it’s a success right if i gotta [ __ ]
58:15
come over here and deal with you
58:18
for 200 episodes and i make no money on
58:22
it
58:23
but that happens right i’m okay with it
58:26
i mean
58:27
it’s just
58:28
it’s very inspirational so so one last
58:30
thing and this is why this is in a this
58:32
is in a step that you need to work
58:34
through and prepare you lost jack you’re
58:36
off yeah that’s all right i’ve
58:38
completely lost track we have are off
58:40
the rails this is a great way to
58:44
introduce your new business to the
58:46
marketplace oh man so
58:49
how many times have you seen again on
58:50
some of those community pages or or
58:53
social excuse me social media pages
58:55
somebody comes up and says hey i’m
58:57
opening a hair salon and we cut hair
58:58
better than everybody else and you
59:00
should really use us and here’s our
59:01
phone number call us and nobody calls
59:03
them because
59:05
everyone’s heard that before right
59:08
they barely even read it yeah but
59:11
if you introduce your business together
59:13
i’ve got it if you introduce your
59:16
business to the market by saying
59:17
something to the effect of
59:19
hey
59:20
this is
59:21
you know killing it hair salon or
59:23
whatever you want to call your hair
59:24
first off
59:25
i’ve never heard that that’s a great
59:27
name for a hair killing it marcus
59:29
killing it hair salon yeah
59:31
dude
59:32
so kellen so i love it you introduce
59:35
yourself and you say hey we do this
59:36
really cool thing where on you know this
59:39
day of the month or that day of the
59:40
month or whatever we
59:42
we cut hair for people in the community
59:44
who can’t afford it and so if you want
59:46
to sign up for that here you go
59:48
well guess what now you have everyone’s
59:49
attention
59:51
and you’re going to have a flood of
59:52
people wanting to take you up on that
59:54
offer but also you’re going to have a
59:56
whole bunch of people who are looking
59:57
for a hair salon and didn’t really know
59:59
who to use but all of a sudden now they
60:01
know who to use because they want to use
60:02
the company that is invested back into
60:04
their community so
60:06
um i’ve come up with a little hashtag
60:09
for this whole thing that we’re talking
60:12
about here and i’m going to start using
60:14
it from today forward as well um as we
60:16
just mentioned uh the date of this
60:18
podcast is airing we next week we have
60:21
another family first day what is today
60:23
uh today is the 2016. say that did we
60:26
say that earlier january 27th 27th so we
60:29
have february 1st coming up and we’re
60:30
going to be doing some family first work
60:33
and so
60:34
um i always share the photos of that
60:37
family first work on our social media um
60:39
yeah i don’t share the people but i’ll
60:41
maybe share the new water heater we put
60:43
in or whatever
60:44
but and all
60:45
for me i always hashtag it family first
60:47
because that’s the name of our program
60:49
but for our listeners out there i want
60:51
you to use the hashtag
60:53
findtheneed fill the void find the need
60:58
fill the void right i like it and so
61:00
find the need fill the void this is
61:02
going to do two things when you open
61:04
your business and some somebody who
61:06
doesn’t know any better reads that
61:08
hashtag they’re gonna know exactly what
61:10
you mean they know that you’re seeking
61:12
out and searching for a need and that
61:14
you’re purposefully filling that void
61:16
right
61:17
however this hashtag’s never been used
61:19
before i researched it of course you did
61:21
right mitch is kind of if you haven’t
61:23
figured it out by now kind of kind of a
61:26
nerd and it’s you know what though it’s
61:28
okay but this is where the cool part
61:30
comes in
61:31
since nobody’s ever used this hashtag
61:32
before the only people that will ever
61:34
use it are people that listen to this
61:36
show find the need fill the void so if
61:38
you ever see somebody use this hashtag
61:41
you know they’re listening i want you to
61:43
reach out to them and tell them
61:44
congratulations on your community
61:46
involvement work it’s obvious that you
61:48
listen to the void
61:49
and i’m proud of you yeah if i see
61:52
people using this hashtag i will reach
61:54
out to them and do the exact same thing
61:56
because
61:57
again
61:58
no businesses do this
62:01
we’re in a market where there are
62:02
probably 100 plumbing companies in our
62:05
market
62:06
if if not more oh yeah i was gonna say
62:08
you might be low man there are no
62:11
plumbing companies let’s be straight too
62:13
i’m not a plumber i don’t work with
62:15
mitch no no i don’t i don’t do plumbing
62:18
but he’s right i mean there is
62:20
there is a shitload
62:22
right of plumbing companies so again
62:24
that hashtag is hashtag find the need
62:28
fill the void find the need fill the
62:30
void yep i like it it kind of you know
62:32
kind of rhymes yeah gets you together
62:34
it’s a little long for a hashtag but
62:35
it’ll work and let’s be honest here you
62:37
know when i see hashtag mitch and i are
62:39
the same age everybody
62:41
i am
62:42
i’m 40. mitch just turned 40. dave’s
62:45
older than i am mentally he’s an old
62:47
soul i’m
62:49
first off in real life i’m older and in
62:52
soul
62:53
counting i’m way older
62:55
but
62:57
he’s gonna have to sit down at me and
62:58
i’m gonna start i’m gonna have to
63:00
explain to dave what a hashtag he’s
63:02
inspired me to start doing these things
63:04
that we have talked about yeah i mean
63:06
it’s it’s really good and i mean we’re
63:08
gonna wrap up the episode here
63:10
you know um
63:12
but
63:13
this community involvement is
63:15
you know it’s close to my heart about
63:17
you know just
63:19
the amount of people that you can help
63:21
without spending
63:22
a lot of money right i mean it’s
63:25
people need to do it and we need to get
63:27
back to the old ways of your community
63:30
takes care of your community helping
63:31
each other out you know when tom i have
63:34
i literally have two neighbors i live
63:35
out on a little bit of land i get a guy
63:36
across the street and a guy next to me
63:39
tom came over to me and his wife and
63:41
said hey
63:42
can you help me replace my kitchen sink
63:46
sure man yeah right
63:48
have you bought it you know what he got
63:49
oh yeah i got it all i go over there of
63:51
course he doesn’t have it all right i’ve
63:53
got some parts i go to home depot i’ll
63:55
do the how much do i owe you you don’t
63:56
owe me nothing right we’re friends we’re
63:58
neighbors right and neighbors help each
64:01
other out yep and that’s that’s really
64:03
what
64:04
this is about and again
64:06
being involved where you’re at right now
64:09
this entire you know nationality
64:12
mindset we have of you know what’s going
64:15
on over here and what’s going on over
64:16
here and yeah you’ve got to be present
64:19
in your community where you’re at right
64:21
now what’s going on if you really want
64:23
to make changes
64:25
and and help people in your community
64:27
yeah you can’t make a change nationally
64:30
until you know how to make a change
64:31
locally damn right so this is going to
64:34
teach you to be a better person but it’s
64:36
also going to better the community that
64:38
you live in so um guys that that pretty
64:41
much sums up
64:42
this episode up we’ve been rolling long
64:45
that’s okay um remember if you like what
64:47
you’re hearing on the show please do us
64:49
a favor and help share the void with
64:50
somebody who might also want to start
64:52
their own company um
64:55
we’re we’re not paying to advertise this
64:57
show we’re letting this show grow
64:59
organically and it can be pretty damn
65:01
scary to watch somebody
65:03
um post on facebook that they’re seeking
65:06
some advice for starting their business
65:07
and some of those responses are just
65:09
plain
65:10
wrong
65:12
you know a lot of the comments are
65:13
coming from really narrow-minded people
65:15
and and you don’t even know if those
65:17
people have ever even started a company
65:18
before so
65:19
um
65:21
if if you feel that that person could be
65:23
uh receiving benefit from our show just
65:25
drop a link to whatever episode you’re
65:27
listening to just drop that link on the
65:29
show
65:30
and um
65:32
the episode you’re listening to right
65:33
now you could hit the share button and
65:35
copy
65:36
the the link to that show and then just
65:38
save it and drop it right to them and
65:39
then and if they want to go back and
65:41
listen yep you know
65:43
yep to the first episodes so um
65:46
so again we’re on we’re on spotify we’re
65:49
on youtube we’re on um apple podcasts
65:53
um we also have a facebook page called
65:56
uh uh podcast the void
65:59
um
66:00
so again we’d really help
66:02
appreciate you guys helping us out get
66:03
this message out in front of everybody
66:04
who needs it so
66:06
that’s all we have for this week
66:07
everybody
66:08
we’ll talk to you later we’ll see you
66:09
next week love you guys
66:12
[Music]