 Hey, good afternoon everybody, Tom Stewart here after Liz Trotter and our guest today is Olu August and this is smart business moves What's going on? Hey, good to see you Olu So we're gonna we need to start with the weather report. How much snow is not your front door Not talking Liz, but I know It's snowed from 5 4 a.m. I think actually 4 a.m. Yesterday to 10 p.m. Oh Yeah, and The I think we man, I don't know how much snow we got all I know is it was awful Now it's still the same as yesterday This morning it was 17 degrees right now is like 26 So we're supposed to 26 is not heating up 11 so Don't get cold up to you got you don't even build Heaters in your home, right? That isn't a picture of my glass of ice Tom so you can see it Yeah, hey Denny Yeah, everybody everybody has known I see it's not I see over there my daughter I Have a little video of my grandbaby going down her backyard hill on a sled in Texas in Texas in Texas Yeah, the weather has been all weird this year Yeah, yeah Friday night Friday night Saturday morning the temperatures supposed to get below freezing here Everybody's gonna have to like button up the whole entire city will shut down banks clothes grocery stores clothes Hopefully hopefully you guys got to go out and get some toilet paper now if it's gonna get below freezing red red milk Okay, like only half joking. This is the true thing. I was at his house I think it somewhere around marches probably Hang on school closed and I was like what white school clothes like there's no I don't see anything There's no snow. There's no nothing. He's like, oh it got cold Like what he's like, yeah, it got cold. I was like wait close because the school closes because it's cold He's like, yeah kids here don't have coats They don't need them. They don't need them, right? That's a different Yeah, yeah As if you don't have coats and it gets below freezing that makes sense to close a little kids Yeah, I wouldn't care. I said my kids out Freeze pretty fast No, they don't they don't they they stay out there until They'll stay out there forever with no jacket We went out the other day and my daughter hops out of the car with a sweater on and I'm like Why don't you have your jacket on I left that at home? What do you like left it at home? And I'm over here freezing and I got a jacket on me. I got gloves on your hat on me. I'm freezing but she's fine No, no kids just I Remember my daughter like didn't want to wear a jacket because it didn't look cute with her dress, you know, it's not cute I won't be called beauty's pain, you know, I'll be cold All right, whatever All right, so we we did the weather thing didn't eat which weather like over there Yeah, she's in Colorado, you know, it's bad Monday is gonna be 80s for me Where are you going Columbia? Oh, yeah Lisa shawl is went to is it today? Yeah, Aruba You know, it's Two months, I think She's gonna be there for two months Maybe it's a mom. I'm not sure in my brain It's two months, but it might be double last week. She went last year She went for two weeks and now it's month sunshining. We had snow back in time for foundations I leave and then I meet my family in Miami for family vacation and then After foundations is when I come back up here. So that's gonna be around like close to April You said it you start it go ahead you started the whole foundation Got tell me these rules just like after foundations last year when I was running around in a circle chanting My hazing I forgot it until he just mentioned This year is foundations 13 we all go to Charleston. We have a big huge mansion And oh, isn't that a great picture of Trisha Lake go down? I love that Such a good picture Or she was over here. No, she's in Yeah You just went scrolled right pie right by her again Page yeah, go I want to go Go to events. Yeah, see right there at the bottom of the page see her look up Okay, anyway, so our foundations and So how it works is there's like 12 rooms you get a room you stand there for a week and You go through this foundational education program to build the foundations in your slushie though from all the stuff Yeah, but build the foundations for your business and So we have a lot of different things that we do we've been doing this a long time For quite a few years now We have a lot of different rituals that we follow and we do things always do that this way do this this way and Always there last year for his first time. He's he's responsible for all of the marketing and At the end we're out in a parking lot tell from here I don't know you you guys go. Hey, there's this thing that we have to do we do it You're like, oh, I forgot we have to do it every so yeah to close up foundations Yeah, and we get in this circle. I think there's a video of it Yeah, somebody has a video but I don't have a video of it. I don't know why Wait, can I can I mention the goats in the hoods or no, so what the goats in the hoods sure go for yeah So we get in this circle we start chanting I don't know what we chanting Foundations Yeah, exactly and Tom and Liz just cracking up Denets cracking up as well. We're all just kind of running around in a circle, but I guess it was this made-up initiation to have We're telling him that he has to do all of these things shake his foot in the center But if you know me I'm very much a winner when in Rome person like let's do it Totally dead I was like I wasn't even laughing at first because you were like so in it. I was committed I've become one with the ritual It's like the breakfast analogy the check it makes a contribution, but the pig is committed and you were committed No You started off with the insult Liz asking me if I had a filter on everything Yeah, I I told them I was gonna stay here and just look handsome for this meeting. You know I did not say you look different If I have a filter All upset because I didn't ask him but y'all tell me tell me tell me the truth Look at Olu and tell me he doesn't look amazing. Come on now You look good. All right. I wanted you to tell me that you had I have a filter on Heavy filter all right, so What we're talking about foundations here today and Why why why are we talking about foundations? Because it makes sense. You're stuck in your business if you're looking for the next level if you're just trying to Get out of this rut and you need actionable things to put together You know the thing is this this uh I see it happen a lot. We go to conferences, right and foundation is not a conference but we go to conferences and There's a lot of value But there's not enough workshop time right we get really high off the information And then we get back home and it's like okay. Well, what do I do? Where do I start and Sometimes we end up not executing on anything And it happens all the time and I pride myself on execution But I'll tell you like I don't execute on every single thing that I I learned at a convention or something like that So with foundations It's It's mainly workshop Right. Well, we'll have the classes. We'll talk about different things But we're building we're building we're putting things together not only that but every single person has one on one time With the coaches and everything so we're diving into your company specific needs. Um, there was I mean One thing for example, uh, I went through someone's uh marketing last year and their google account And we found that that person they were paying a monthly fee for To do their marketing wasn't even touching their things right and they were able to call that person right then and there so We're diving in Tom is diving into the numbers. Liz the role play. Oh my goodness. By the way, Liz has this awesome role play I don't know what you call it. Liz be better I had to pretend that I was like mad and Liz had to work. So by the way, this is the card. I keep it and uh, I gave one to chelsea too I Had to pretend that I was mad and Liz's job was to get over get get through this This counseling, you know, like there's a write-up and at the end I was supposed to feel good about being written up or being spoken to and I'm like, man, she is good So you learn these strategies that you can go and implement in your company Because I mean when when it comes to the people aspect everything is people. So I think that's such a valuable valuable one. Liz right there But not only that the numbers you need to know which levers that you can pull To that's going to affect which part of your company. So Tom has actually he was talking to me probably a few weeks ago. Tom. We're talking about growth in scale You want to talk about that Tom and how this? Yeah All right, I remember I was I was sober. You're so You didn't you didn't sound you were slurring your words. There's growth True Yeah, come on down the foundations, it'll be awesome No, it's awesome What were you seriously? I wasn't there You want to talk about it Tom? You can you can start the discussion you you called me and you had a question Yeah, so I I have a really ambitious goal and I wanted to talk to Tom about it because I'm trying to figure out The next level where do I go? How do I get to that goal? And we were talking about the requirements in order to scale a company and different level levers that you have to Be able to pull and how that lever plays into different parts of your company One example being doing rate increases, right? A lot of people don't do rate increases But how rate increases will I think I just I did a rate increase and I showed that within A year I was going to have $30,000 extra just by doing like this rate increase on Made central but different things like that being able to pull these levers and seeing how it affects different parts of your business And Tom was talking and Tom I gotta do is justice so I'm gonna pause and you're gonna finish it up But there's a difference between growth and scale right and if you look at it like you're You're you're going you're Going along and you're growing your business to grow in the business But at a certain point you hit a wall and you can't grow past that wall And what you need to do is you need to scale past that wall in time go ahead take it from there No No Hey, I'm here. That's good. The thinking was that you could grow a big business by diversifying And it was like well, I can do carpet cleaning. I can do window washing. It's like we're in the client's home Why not do it? Yeah, why don't we do all of that? It's like well, you can generate more revenue that way But if you want to build a really big business, it's about operational excellence It's about getting the processes in place that are scalable and don't confuse scale with growth you can grow by cutting their lawn and washing their windows, but if you want to scale You need to pick one service and do it at a very high level and You can grow to a point and then You you do you hit a wall and it's usually it's not usually it's one of three things It's either an organizational issue where you need to change your organization structure Think about it, you know, I start cleaning homes by myself and I can do that until I'm cleaning two homes a day And now I got to do something out of hire somebody So I can hire somebody to clean with me and maybe do that two or three times and then I hit a wall Because I can't keep up with all of that. I need to hire a supervisor to Help, you know, direct the labor and I do that I'm over a wall and I can go until I hit something again And then I need to make another organizational change and before you know it You're really big and you've got managers who are managing supervisors who are managing In a cleaning technician and so on and so forth The second thing that you'll hit the wall is basically an understanding of the financial structure And it starts off with I got to find homes to claim Liz how many times have we coached people and they spend their time? You know, this is the office that I'm going to be doing and this is where my desk is going to be And I think I'm going to get to credenza as well And I've got a 99 design thing going on and I've got like five logos are really like and by the way This is the the the website designer. It's like go clean a house Wait, we had I wish I could say this it only happened once but we did have one person that had All of the most amazing everything had not cleaned even one home yet And they were running from it. Yeah, they would come back with you know, hey, this is how we're going to wrap our cars And I think I'm going to start off with three of them and it's like Yeah, anyway Yeah, but truly you have to nothing you can talk about all the other metrics But initially you just got to find homes to clean And then you'll hit a wall and then you really need to start getting better about pricing and my really Do I know the allowed time and I'm am I really applying the appropriate Revenue per labor hour and do I have mechanisms to do like rate increases rate adjustments? And How productive are your people? How right? How efficient is everybody? And that's when you hit another wall And then it really gets into the whole payroll to revenue thing and your costs are good sold And I'm cleaning a bunch of homes and I'm getting a good price But I'm still not making the profit that I need to be off of those and it's really, you know Controlling your variable costs And you go on and on and on and the third area is technology You can start off running your business off of a desk calendar And then you can kind of get You know some google sheets and a few other things and you can go for a while and then you hit another wall And before you know it you need a product like made central. I mean i'm not I shouldn't say that i'm not trying to sell software here, but you know Yeah The technology is the is the third area where you hit walls. So Organization Financial model and technology and they all represent walls and that's the difference in growth and scale Yeah So you can build a bunch of small businesses none of them scalable But all i'm throwing off some cash or you can focus on one and really focus on Operational excellence really focus on getting the processes in place And then if you're able to you know get that to To to really you know good size you've scaled a business And then you can take the same things you learned in the same process you have And layer it over into other businesses and before you know it you're making millions of dollars Just sure That's kind of what we're focused on right now You know getting that since that conversation with you it's like focus it on that one thing And getting it to a point where it's scalable You know and scale wet a high rate not just like oh, well, we're gonna add another million dollars, right? How do we add another 10 2030 so and if and if it wasn't for that discussion you'd probably be shoveling snow? 100% you know, you're not even wrong. I mean, I'm just looking at the past couple years I felt like a I was behaving like an 80d dog for lack of a better term You know just trying to go here trying to go here trying to go here where I had this company that Still required my every bit of energy that I wasn't devoting to it. So definitely, uh, yeah One of the things that I really like about foundations too So I like one of my favorite things is what you said, although how we have like a class and then we have a workshop for that class Build the thing and then we have another class and then a workshop for that class build that thing I love that but um another thing that I really love about foundation Two more things. I have to say both of them One is that the program changes every single year. It's People think it's the exact same program. It's not. I mean, there are foundational things that have to happen But that's different What we are teaching this year for foundations 13 is not exactly the same thing is what we had to teach before covid things are different now how Businesses we're running the people are different. Everything's different. So the Especially in your area marketing right every single technology is completely different to make that. Yeah, yeah So many things. I I'm kind of lucky. I have the people thing and yes While people do change right and what their expectations and all of that That feels easy to me, right? But there are some systemic things about people that you can put in place Even if they you know expectations are different and that kind of stuff A lot of some of the people stuff though you're dealing with different people today than you were. I mean this is We're calling this foundations 13 And we haven't skipped any this started off as foundations one And the the demographics the psychographics What motivates people and just the workforce that we're dealing with Today is different than when we did this the first time That's true. Absolutely every way that we do is is different And so that's that's one of the things that I absolutely love and then the second thing that I really love too is If you stay the whole time stay for the entire event We send you home with An annual plan. How are you going to put all of this stuff into Place over the course of the next year now, some of you are probably thinking Yeah, it's gonna take me a year. Yes a lot of stuff y'all You can't like build a strong foundation in one week We can give you all the foundational information. We can get you started in all of these areas But you're gonna have to go deep to be able to build to that to that What you're trying to build that next bigger thing? So I love that we send people home with that annual plan And then the thing I think that's really nice about it Also is anybody that signs up for foundations get six months in the circle So we give them support while they're building The their plan and while they're putting that plan in place and implementing. So I love that You know, it's a challenge that uh, it's going to take a year thing You know, how much time is going to pass in a year a year? It's going to pass anyways Yeah, you know, so why not be better for it? The thing that I love is You know, we get to sleep in late. We like have a lot of parties and It's a lot of goof off time Yeah, I know No more People are gonna come for the rager they're gonna be like, yeah, we're here to party We should warn people. I mean this is this is serious business and we work we we Get up early. We walk long work long. We you know, it's you're basically 24 seven, I mean There's a lot of there's there's fun. We have fun doing it and you build relation Do I not party fun though, you've got to make sure everybody knows But building your business is fun working can be fun. You're you build You build relationships and friendships through Foundations that are special that will stick with you the rest of your life Yeah, how many times do we hear that time and time again? Yeah We have multiple people that we work with that are still friends with the people that they met in foundations They still they travel together best friends, right? We have a lot of people But it's a good point though. Tell what didn't he f 11 and f 12 changed my business and mindset Yeah, great and you're coming again. So a lot of people Come multiple multiple times. Sarah Mitchell. How many times she come? A few Huh Nina, I mean quite we had quite a few people that have come We have a lot of people that have come twice And fewer people that have come along a lot of people. Yeah, a lot of a lot of people um Because you just can't absorb everything and as you're even over that course of that year your business is going to grow Guaranteed and now you're gonna be like, oh goodness I planned for where I was and wow here. I I'm already at this next level And honestly part of it is the just the experience they want to have that experience again An exposure Yeah, you know because I I'm personally speaking. I'm not part of any Entrepreneur organizations in my area the only time I'm around other entrepreneurs is when I'm traveling Um to either conferences something like that so being in The mansion with a small group you get to form these relationships And you get to you know, you like call these people. Hey, I'm dealing with this. I'm going through this And um that that alone is just worth so much because sometimes you get around your family get around your friends that don't understand this journey And you you almost hesitate to share your wins because one you might it might feel like uh, You're bragging and you're also hesitant to share your your struggles because of how they might perceive it and they They haven't been there or they're not going through it. So they can't help you through it a lot of times So I mean me personally I felt Like just in my area sometimes I feel really isolated and as self-imposed isolation I'm sure I could find an entrepreneurial group but being in the mansion having those people that are in your industry that are going through What you're going through that you can share your wins your losses and there's a lot of tears, man I I swear I'm thinking Liz pinches people The amount of tears. No, but uh, you know, you just yeah, it's been a week with us. You'll cry It's not a lie. It's not a lie. You're the marketing guy, right? I mean really it is It's emotional when you have big breakthroughs, you know, you do feel different. I mean and tom I'm never gonna forget the foundations. Was it 10? Maybe Where in your course you're like, I want the breakthroughs. I want them to get the big having breakthroughs When we go through the kpis I make people cry and it's not For the pain, but when it clicks There's always somebody when it clicks. Oh my god. I finally understand I can do it. Oh my gosh. It's such a Such a feeling of relief too to know. Oh my gosh. I get it. I really get it and now I I mean, I feel bad saying this but so many People in our industry, they're small and they're hustling hustling hustling I mean, this is a hustling industry. People will work hard in our industry But so much of the times they're not really building Real businesses. They're just working so hard Trying to Do stuff to get stuff done And so when you see people Make the breakthrough of Oh I can actually build a real business Now. Yes. Yes, you can and that's really that's really the the good news the good news part of it is that Anybody can do this really It's not a matter of you know It's a matter of knowing how there's so many people out there that are Burning the calories are working really hard, but they just Don't have the framework and they aren't working on the right things at the right time More framework. Yeah, tom more framework working on the right things at the right time Because look how many people we know that have gotten all the education. They know all the stuff We ask them the questions. They have all the answers. Yes. I know I know But don't know how to do don't know how to do the stuff Yeah, how to make it happen And being willing to execute on that framework as well. I think that's you know Even if you execute 50 percent at least you'll be better off than if you execute, you don't execute at all right, you have the framework you're executing and That's really big right there having the system and then executing on that system and doing it actually doing it Right now not trying to do it not working toward it Not Preparing to do it right getting all this stuff in the background done so that I can do it not that actually Doing it. Yeah, and that's spending too much time in the in the planning committee. That's where ideas go to die planning committees Yeah, I like that. Yeah, that's good Uh, I was going to see something else that I thought was really Oh How many times have we seen this time? Somebody says, okay, I'm gonna sign up for Foundations and then they're like no at the last minute. They're like no, I just can't do it this year I can't and then the next year they're like, okay I have to sign up. Well, how much have you grown since last year? Well, I'm kind of flat Yeah, how many years you're going to be flat? How many years you're going to have 5% especially if you're a small company? You have 5% growth 10% growth Come on. You didn't have to be that way. Yeah, I mean I get it you you got to Get it you got to get to the point, you know emotionally and logically where you're ready to do it, but time is definitely a dimension and you know We've been doing this, you know, I've been in this is the 30th year anniversary for castle keepers. Okay Happy happy anniversary happy 33 And you're older You know, there was nothing like this 30 years ago. There was no facebook. There was no ARC si there was no And we figured a lot of stuff out, but it took us a long Time and it's so cool said here in 2024 you can You know the stuff that took years and years and years to figure out and to learn You can condense that Some regards in a week I mean, it's Welcome to 2024 And I think that's uh Oh, go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I was just gonna Agree with that that statement. I mean, I wasn't in the cleaning space 30 years ago Were you even born 30? Guys, remember, I'm a older 20 year old member. We talked about this earlier. He wasn't even walking yet We all are I was born. I'm three. I'm three years older than castle keepers Um but no for for sure the the things that are available to us now is I spent the first two years just wasting time trying to figure it out Because partial ego and then thinking I was smart enough to figure it out by myself and 100 i believe if I You know kept on trying I would have gotten there eventually, right? There's no offensive What's about it? You're even going to sacrifice your time or your money, right? So you can like It took me five years to hit a million and six years. I don't count. COVID. It was a blank year, right? so So five years to grow a million dollar company Knowing what I know now I could probably do it in three years in a good market using the same resources as when I started and that's not that much money so It's It's condensing the time like what's your time worth, right? um and I'm not I'm not saying this to brag my my family and I were taking a Uh vacation we're going to african the kids are gonna we're gonna do a safari and everything and um That's that's where I want to spend my time. I don't want to spend my time Beating my head trying to figure it out now. Yes. I'm still trying to grow We're trying to get to the next levels and everything But I do have that ability to do that because we're able to condense We were able to condense the time so if I didn't spend two years Trying to get figure it out. I would have been here sooner, right? And who knows where so what's what's your time worth Is really what you have to ask yourself I think the other part is like just people are afraid like what if I spend this And it doesn't work because I remember like it's a scary place to be where You know that you you have to pay your rent right, um, you have to get groceries And you have this business your your baby And you're trying to grow it and you know, you know, your family has comments about You know your cleaning houses or whatever it is And you're looking at this Say again less now. Thank you. Yeah less now. Um, yeah, but I remember my mom like she had a comment for everything You know, um Especially your background Yeah Understand. Yeah, like what the hell are you doing? Yeah yeah, but, uh You're trying to get to this goal and you know like hey If I spend this what if it doesn't work Well, what if it does Right, and what if you can condense that time and really excel your company and have that uh You know work life balance if that's what you want I I go through periods of being super unbalanced and then balance. So I'm in my balance phase right now, but after my trip. I'll be very unbalanced Yeah Or or you'll be balanced in a different way. Yeah. Yeah. So this is never it's equal delivery Familiately balanced or is there medication for that? Oh, yes Uh Well, another another thing that is really I think is really awesome about foundations going to that exact thing. You know, what if it doesn't work? This is something that nobody ever wants to tell you about any program Not there is no program out there that works 100 of the time for 100 of the people I know that's not a popular thing Nobody wants to hear that But it it is true like like we were talking about the person before that Built her entire company before she ever cleaned the house. She had a lot of money. She invested a lot of money And never never actually cleans anything right that can happen But If you're the kind of person that really Wants to build your company you have a strong desire to build your company not build somebody else's company You don't you don't want to run franchise. You don't want to do it somebody else's way You have ideas similar to you. Oh lu similar to me tom. We have ideas. We have We we have things that we want to do go ahead talk. We use the word non prescriptive. Yeah I don't think so We should probably throw that it because this that's one of the things that makes this unique. Yeah Yeah, that it is non prescriptive We ask a lot of questions So you're going to ask us questions people at foundations will ask us questions We'll ask you a ton of questions before we even start. There's a very comprehensive survey with questions and we collect a bunch of data and We know a lot about you your business what your objectives are and you basically get a clearer understanding of those things too and this is all before you even You know show up at the mansion Well, we have to do that too because we we tweak the program for the participants So we don't have an option there. We have to get this information. I mean the foundational stuff is foundational stuff, but What we're going to deliver is going to be tweaked to make sure that you are able to absorb it and be able to put it into your business and Uh, if we have a group of people that needs a lot of marketing help might spend a little bit more time on marketing So everybody shows up typically on a saturday Sunday and then saturday is A play day. Um, we nothing is scheduled for for saturday Sunday morning is kind of a play day, but midday sunday. We start having one-on-one sessions and We spend a couple hours with with with with every person who's there going through all their assessments all their data and getting clarity on what their goals and objectives and the outcome that they're looking to get and kind of getting The week planned out. This is how you're going to use how we're going to use this week So you can get the most value out of what we're going to be doing here this week We have is it 24? Like presentations that we do over the course of the week monday through friday 25 20, I don't know it's somewhere in there 20 some Where either olu, liz or myself will be doing a presentation on marketing, you know, organization culture sales apis numbers, it's just, you know basically Every every function within the process flowchart of running a house cleaning business So while one of us is doing a presentation the other two are Doing one-on-one Basically coaching sessions. Yeah And then after the presentation, we'll all get back together and there's a workshop that's basically based on the the presentation that we we we just saw and you know This probably isn't great marketing either, but it's it's a good outcome sometimes through that process it becomes evident that You really don't even want to be in the house cleaning business and you might get a better return off of your time and treasure if you sold your business and did something else and That's happened before and we've gotten thanked for that afterwards. I mean, it's you know Not often that's not a common thing, but that is something that Objective but we're not you know if if if if if you're that fringe case We're not gonna just load you up with a bunch of material and tell you to go out and do this if it's evident That it really isn't what you want to be doing But if it wasn't for that They'd still be out there today hitting their head against the wall being miserable Many times they're working Themselves into bankruptcy. How many times have we seen that Tom? I would say this is top of my head no no data to support this but I would say over 70 percent of the people that we see coming into foundations the first time Are on a path to bankruptcy and have no clue Would you agree? Oh 70 percent's a big number, but it's a surprising number and that's one of the things that we I mean Tough love is still love. Okay, and we will tell you that you're going you're going broke You don't know You don't know you might not know it yet, but You know we can see it happening And when it happened and then you know, how do you go broke? It was it was really slow until We got to the end and then it happens really fast. Yeah That that's a hard conversation for people But what I have found is that the vast majority of the time they already know They're just afraid to look at it afraid to think about it. Um, I'm I'm reminded of Somebody that came through the program And had a posted note that they would put On there on their computer to cover up their bank balance whenever it was because it was so Scary scary, you know it this business is really really scary It can feel even scarier than it really is But when you understand The numbers and understand what they're telling you It doesn't it's not scary anymore. Oh, you have strategies, you know the truth You know how to do the things you feel so Invigorated That's all it takes. Oh, I can do that But I do want to say to to go to tom's word prescriptive so This is not a prescriptive program, but It is very directional. We do point out some things that If you have a payroll percenter revenue of 70 percent Sorry that has to change. I'm sorry. We'll let you we'll help you Decide how you want to change it. There's options about how to fix that how to move that number But that number can't stay like that. I'm sorry So in some ways we are prescriptive and we can explain to you This is how many homes you're going to have to clean in order to Break even if you get it down to 40 percent. This is how much profit you would be making Cleaning, you know, half of those homes and this is how you get there from here We can can give you a roadmap and we give you options Here are some options if you don't want to do that. You don't like that You want to charge this small amount of money for whatever? Okay Then this is how you're gonna have to do that if you're gonna do that There are our there's a path for you But so we will say We're going to tell you some of the hard stuff That is hard to hear but you Part of the tears is why part of it part of it is you will be telling us what your strategy is to get to where it is You want to go and yeah, we'll tell you we'll put numbers to it and tell you well with that strategy This is really how much of that you're going to have to do do you really? You know, how do you feel about that? Yeah, how are we going to make that work and then well, this is what that's going to look like and sooner or later you'll Either say yeah, I could a lot of work But I can do it or you come to the conclusion that that ain't going to work is it Okay, well, let's modify our our strategy But it's a lot better doing it there rather than finding out through real life experience Yeah, or for those people that have Year over year over year Not made the change they keep trying they're doing new things. They're going to classes They're they're trying to do the new things, but nothing is helping nothing is fixing it Ah that that breakthrough is what? Really gosh, it just feels so good to get past that. I don't know what to do thing Let's just do it. Let's just here. Here's your path or the Where I go thing because I feel like a lot of uh People have this number in their head. They're like, oh, I want to build a million dollar company I want to build a million dollar company. Oh, why? Right? What is it about that number? Is it because it sounds nice because Sometimes you'll you'll get into it and realize man. I can really have a good lifestyle at 500,000 or A little less, right? So it's all about how like where are you trying to get to So a lot of people don't know they know they want to get to this number But they don't understand the the reason why and what that number looks like because at a million you might Have a little bit more office staff and it might reduce a little bit of your income So if you're if you want to stay there, you know a lot of things So many so many different things. Yeah. So tom, I'd like to talk a little bit if you don't mind about Foundations of success series that we are doing starting in february um So for everybody that anybody that hasn't seen this yet tom will probably pop it up here on the there's an event It's called the foundations of success series And what we're going to be doing here is every second and fourth tuesday We will be doing teach well down tom so we can see the different Categories though on the right. Yeah All right Yeah, I think keep going down on the right where it shows That looks like the left on my screen. So I don't know the other. Oh, okay My right. Yeah, right there where it says see more Go up a wee bit from there Right above the logo. There you go where it says see more Right here right in the center. Yeah there and so we'll be talking about these topics by month. We'll be talking about um All of the different things that you need to be learning how to do to achieve success in these different areas So this first month we'll be talking about leadership success because it starts with you You're the leader of your company and if you're not setting yourself up for success You can't set your company up for success. So we're going to start here Each week. They're like I said, there are two two classes in a month the first class We'll be talking about those This is how we're starting it out. Anyway, um, we'll be talking about those top leadership habits and Strategies that you need to know and practice and live For leadership success and we'll we'll dig deep and know What those are why you need to know them et cetera and how how they're going to impact your company and then in the second week of The month it sounds weird, but the second I guess lesson of the month We'll be talking about how to do those specific things We'll provide you with a tool at least one tool to help you actually move forward in this area So if it's hiring and firing We're going to tell you some of the obviously what are the different best practices and what are the things you have to do But we're also going to tell you how to do it. We're going to give you some tools Use this do this thing and get it done. Hopefully before your next class Which is really similar to how we run foundations We're going to teach you the thing and then we're going to tell you go do the thing Right. We're going to have a workshop. So we're going to do the same thing here. We're going to tell you what to do And we're going to say here. Here's the tool go do the thing get it done before our next class and so this is just sort of a mini introduction to foundations of success these foundational ideas and things that you have to do To build your company up to build a true company build a real company and not just keep grinding on Working working hard or working more Build that We're not really big on just telling people This is what you need to do. Just just do it this way, you know, really We believe that you need to understand the the the what and the why before you get to the how So is it is it fair to say that the first Session is the what and the why and once we have all of that Then when you start talking about the how there's different ways of doing the howl And it just makes a whole lot more sense and you get better outcomes that way Yeah But but really Bottom line is you have to implement on these things older said that earlier, right? It doesn't it doesn't help to have all the knowledge if you're not actually making the stuff happen You got to you got to get her done y'all So that's pretty much what we are going to be doing now For those of you that are used to tom and i not really charging for stuff that we do Actually all of her stuff online. We did go back and forth on this um And we decided that we are going to charge something you see that's a very tiny price point Especially compared to foundations um But we want you to have we want everyone to be able to take this this um Success series and to go through this program We want everyone to be able to afford it and we want everyone to be able to have a little bit of skin in the game A little bit of something there make you come make you do the thing Make you work for it. We'll remind you don't be losing your money. Go do your work now come on Don't just put this information up on his shelf Like we can tend to do when we take a class right like okay good information I'm gonna get to that next week. I'm gonna get to that next month. I'm gonna get to that next whenever we're gonna push you forward and help you get going so um, we do have a Uh first month free use the discount code. You see it right here all caps first month free exclamation point Check it out. See what you think see if you think it'll be helpful See if you you like this methodology if you do great It might be something that's going to help you a good introduction to sort of this idea of Building up your company um foundation only So we're really hoping you sign up and take a look. I mean it's zero risk to to do that and We think this has the potential of being something that's going to help a whole lot of people in the industry, you know, not Not everybody is able to make it to uh the mansion every year. You might think that you're not Ready to do that. I mean this is a low risk no cost way You know plugging in at least uh taking a step in the journey I love the outline too Do you love that uh next january? I love next january is personal fulfillment success So at the end of the year, let's look back on over the course of the year. Let's see Oh, yeah What did you fulfill on your personal desires? Did you have personal success for you now? What other people call success? But for you what you call success So I I love that. I'm excited about I know it's I know it's a while away, but I'm still excited about it Uh, I think also we want to say about this time I feel like there was one more thing but I can't think what it was I'm going to drop the link and Make it really easy in chat to make it really easy for for people to get more information or to Sign up if anybody has any questions. Can they like I guess we're we're in facebook and you know core profit builders, I guess as a way. I mean We're not hold. We're not hard to get a hold of no And if you facebook friend me I I I say yes to all of my friend requests I know not everybody does but I do Um and you DM me. I'll answer your questions. I answer questions with people every single day Bottom line is Tom and I how long have we been committed? Oh, she's so cute. How long she is I'm gonna get into your back and and draw a mustache on her face Trish is getting a mustache Love you for that she would actually all the people I know she'd probably be one of the only people that would be like That looks good But how long seriously have we been committed to Really really really professionalizing this industry not just You know trying to do some more work. We really believe in and The value in professionalizing the industry Spending years That gates. I mean we started arc see Over 20 years ago You know Definitely part of it. Yeah training programs certification programs You know it's you know Don't get me wrong. You know, we run our own businesses. There's definitely a profit mode of and some of the things that we're doing but At the heart of it, you know, we're just trying to Help all businesses, you know We can professionalize the industry. We all win Yeah, I agree. Yeah, what what is the uh a rising tide lifts all boats? Oh, yeah Yeah, so I mean I really believe that and we've seen that happen That's not just something that people say because 10 years ago Everybody wanted to be a million dollar company and wow there were none Right there. It's like two Everybody knew and now everybody's better. Everybody's smarter. Everybody's doing more of the right things and everyone's getting better Every single one of us is better You know, we uh, we did a mca live event in phoenix last week at uh, sarah mitchell's place and We do the benchmarking off the core kpi's and just some other metrics as well and you know Over 50 of the companies are made central and doing over a million dollars a year We're happy I mean, that's not necessarily representative of the industry as a whole But but even even that's a number that blows my mind having, you know Experienced how rare number that was 20 years ago arguably even 10 years ago. Yeah, even 10 years ago. Yeah I was just uh Different different times But seriously really right of rising ty does lift all boats as we all get better We all are more professional. We all do things better and we hold each other up Right, we all are in support of each other and how many times have people Teased us tom about well for the entire year of covet going live every single day What's your motive? professionalism We've done a we've done a lot of things with Been asked and I mean, that's you know, we don't we're at the top of the hour So we don't you know, luckily we don't have to get into all of that but A lot of times we do stuff with I don't know because it seems like it needs to be done Yeah, yeah, it's for you. It's for us Everything that we do for you is also for us build us on It's a very little secret and a lot of this stuff, you know, it's it's Just as much makes You know, we learn and it's It's fun We do we do. All right. I know we got to get out of here. Um, but just last real quick Olu what is one thing that you're teaching? At foundations this year, and I know I'm putting you on spot. I didn't give you About this at all. But what's one thing that you're teaching this year at foundations that you think people will be like, oh, wow, that's good So I can't just say sales and marketing, huh? so I'm I I hate talking about unproving things as this pertains to me But I believe I found a way to get our customer cost per acquisition for recurring customers To the same price as a cost to just get a lead so And this isn't my method by the way I brows y'all this means from somebody else in a different industry and we've adopted it and um You know, so I think that's gonna if we can reduce that cost and still get the same amount of customers And I think it's gonna be a better lead too. So I'm gonna be talking about that during foundations. Oh, that's good. I like it That's exciting. All right. Thanks. Thanks for sharing And we were chatting a little bit about all the really cool stuff that artificial intelligence chat gpt things like that are Talking about how it's changing. That wasn't even part of what we were doing last year, right? It will be this year Yeah, yeah, sure We had a little bit of chat. We had a little bit of chat conversation We were telling everybody, you know, what the future looks like. Yeah Yeah, but now I mean For a while, but the future is here in that regard. Yeah, what's the new future tom? I'm gonna gotta wait until march to find out I'm looking forward to it. All right. We need to get out of here. We're holding people up now We'll uh, be back next wednesday five o'clock eastern till then take care. Bye. Bye. Bye y'all take care y'all