Speaker 1this is to the point of Lionel Experience. Probably one of the top home services marketing and operations podcast cutting through the bullshit and getting to the point.
Speaker 0So let's I'm going to move forward to on this because I also watched, you know, when I was driving back from Colorado this past weekend, I was, you know, um, that's a long haul from from, uh, basically a little town called URAV just by kind of where I tell you ride down the Phoenix, it's about nine to an hour drive for me, uh, with three kids. So, um, but nowadays they just put on their headphones and they use all the technology and you don't hear them. Um, but I listen to a lot of different videos and things that you've done for me speaking and stuff and I never actually got to see you speak live in person, which I'm really bummed about. So, but I found a lot of clips on YouTube and I was listening to all of them. I mean, and it's really hard to take notes and drive by the way, because I'm trying to speak to my phone that's also playing the video through the, through the truck. I mean, It was a little bit, but that's what, I couldn't text it, so I'm speaking to it. But you had talked about, and this seems so simple, yet I still think it's overlooked, and it's not mastered, and that was the key word I heard you saying it. But you talked about the three things that you must master in business. What are they?
Speaker 1Well, now that spoke for so long, I was in the middle of it. Yeah, so I'm not sure I got the right three things. But certainly I taught that there's only three things you can move. You can move yourself so you can move your mind, your effort, your time, your will. That's very critical. You move your money so you have to make a decision where are you going to spend your money to enhance it? And you move other people. And those people are a broader world, if you will. It includes your family, your friends, your associates, professionals, and the personnel working for you. So, every day when you go to business, really, those are the only three things that you can touch and move to move yourself forward in business. So, you have to have a plan again for each one of those where you're going to spend your money, how you're going to spend your time and how you're going to move your people. It's unbelievable that when you reach out to people when you're faced with a challenge, for instance, way back when I got in a patent on a special pricing that I did for SGI. And on that pricing, I couldn't come up with the name of it. But our bookkeeper, Patty Myers, was in a meeting with me and I said, boy, I'm just, I can't come up with a great name. And she came up with straightforward pricing. We trademarked it in the rest of history. A lot of people use that pricing system today. So I'm not sure that's what you were looking for again, being 50 years old.
Speaker 0Yeah, no, no, no. No, I don't expect you to, but I'm going to give you to you down, and you'll pick it up. But that's actually was kind of half of it. It was talking about sales and marketing. Okay. I want peace and then the operations piece that that piece of it.
Speaker 1Yeah, the organization of these companies are very simple. So really there's only three operational things that you do. You have to sell, so you've got to get a leave and sell it. Okay, that starts. And then you have to operate the business with operational excellence. So you have to have systems and procedures in place so that once that sale is made, everything is done right. You're collecting on it. If it's finance, blah, blah, blah, the system is installed correctly. And then the last thing you have to administer to business. Those are the only three functions in these service businesses. So you have to take a look at your organization chart and make sure that you have those slots filled with the very best people that you possibly can. And that each of them have the very best plan that can possibly put forward.
Speaker 0Hey, did you ever pull an anybody from outside the industry and put them in those leadership roles
Speaker 1Oh yeah, many times, as the company grew, in one case, petting myers, who I mentioned earlier, we were doing about, I think $150 million in sales at that point in time. And we were growing to be larger. This was a clockwork, and I was preparing to take a public in 05 through 07. and she came to me and said, you know, I don't want to go back to school anymore. I want to live more life. So I can't continue as your CFL. So I pulled in a top-notch CFL from the outside world. Most of people I developed internally, but in some cases IT accounting when you get to a certain scale, a person has to make a decision. Do they want to grow and continue to educate themselves to be able to handle that? Or do they have enough on their plate right now? So I have pulled from IT particularly and the accounting world from outside experts.
Speaker 0Got it, but the plan is, I think the thing that you really hit home on is you have to master these things and if you can't do it, you get to find somebody that can help master for you. And I thought that was critical because you can't be to really be competitive and kind of hit to your run to your plan if you have one of those in place and to get it done right and to not bleed money. You have all these things mastered and I think that's where some thought like you might be good at too and you have to ask on the other one or whatever it is, but the plan was to master all three of it and if you can't do it, be vulnerable enough to know that you can't do it, or stuff or where enough to know that you can't do it, it finds by that, that can help you master that piece of it. So that's what I thought was really impactful from it. And I don't expect, you know, I think what's been great is I need, probably seeing a lot of this over the years. I know you've seen a lot of this over the years is just how, Um, much people are willing to actually help if you ask them for help, you know, in this industry. So, you know, and really the last, I would say, you know, having me having been this business 15 years, I've kind of seen this sit, you know, the sit best practice groups over the years and it's kind of been like the same. But over the last. say three or so years, I've really seen some consultants, you know, and groups kind of come out of the woodworks. And something I think is really important for our listeners to hear is, I'll take a step back. I know that you genuinely care about helping the contractor and helping people and helping them grow and they're like, they're helping their families or success, they're all the things. Like you care about the customer service and like customer service is so mission critical for, well, so mission critical for you. Do what's right, do the right thing, do a good. But I believe that way that people shouldn't be getting taking advantage of, and sometimes they don't know what to look for. And when you have all of these contract, or excuse me, like, these consultants and stuff coming out of the woodwork, sometimes you don't know what questions to ask because what you see might not be what you get, right? It's easy today in a social media world like this to kind of put on a front, if you will. You know, like whatever perceived value of that person, but then what you actually get is, you know, not what you thought you were going to get. Is there a way that these guys could identify that before going down that path? Like, could it be something as simple as, hey, go back and look through the history and see if they ever actually ran a business?
Speaker 1That's what I would say. It's shocking to me how many failed contractors actually run. Consulting firms. It's shocking and it's not. So they have some knowledge. They know where the business person is vulnerable and hence they can come at that person in that area of vulnerability and claim superior knowledge because they probably do have superior knowledge in that one realm generally with contractors that's administratively. So most contractors are lost administratively, or IT-wise, they really don't know what they're doing. They hope somebody else will take care of it for them, and they don't really apply oversight there so they can get into difficulty. But some of the largest groups out there are actually led by field contractors. So it's it's It's shocking to me. I would probably ask just as you mentioned, show me your financial statement at the beginning because nobody else had done it. So I used to walk around at our meetings, John Young required me to bring my financial statement that actually showed that I did 12 million dollars in sales that actually showed that I dropped $1.4 million to the bottom line after paying myself $300,000 a year. So, you know, it was evidence, and he actually had me carrying my tax reports with me too. So, and I remember somebody, it was actually Ron McKan out of Houston came up to me and said, you're way too young to be doing this. And I said, well, Ron, you know, last year I made a substantial amount of money and I've got my evidence here. I said, how'd you do last year? So, I'll tough year last year, we lost two and a half percent. We've been in business for 80 years, so we're going to survive there. He said, how do you do? I said, well, last year, I made 16.5% for profitability on a business that was six times his size. Nice to have. And I've been in business now for eight years, or whatever it was at the time that we launched it. and of course that made him stop and think and he didn't join. He didn't join until he came down to my company, down we were down in Missouri River Valley that laid their flooded, but I built a brand new business down there, 27,000 square feet and he visited it and he said, you don't always keep it this way, do you? And I said, yeah, this is how it looks. He said, I could eat lunch off your warehouse floor. That's why I probably wouldn't choose to do that. So if you're right, you could. It's very clean. So that was my endorsement, was my financial statement. I was running a business. Anybody could come in and take a look at it. There was no hiding from it. And John had a direct mail piece that was just tearing up the world at that time. And he had all the results from that. So I think those of us that are real are able to indicate that. And we also are able to indicate where our weaknesses are. So like when I started physical therapy, I'm certainly not a physical therapist. However, I brought in some of the best physical therapists in the world to join my team and explained everybody, I can't fix anybody, but I can fix your business. And that I think they should look at it.
Speaker 0Got it. So a quick question. When you were carrying around those tax, like your tax records and all those things to prove it, you know, that makes me think of as you started your first business Yeah, I think that's the right show we prove it, let's see. So I think this is a good, I mean, well, when I ask that question because I really, really want our listeners to not have to have that potential negative impact on the business. Because obviously some of them are pretty expensive. Like, you know, and I also notice that some might be better in one of those, one of those like three things better than you're like with method maybe the really good at sales, you know, but maybe not ops, you know, or so. And then they, I don't know if they try to bring in somebody to try and master that piece of it to me, that person's not quite a master. So I think it's just hard to sip through to find out like if I'm going to spin. 30,000, 20,000 dollars on the coach. For some businesses, that's a decent chunk of either trying to find somebody to help them fix the problems that they're already having, or fix some of the things that they're already having, and that can be a big expense. If you don't get the right return on it, so I hear too many horror stories, which is why I bring it up, and what I can is just, Is there something that can be identified to bypass a potential hurdle or a grenade if you will, you know, in the business too. So that's why I asked that question. I just curious to hear your your input because you've seen a lot of of this throughout the years.
Speaker 1And some actually mislead people, unfortunately, because of profits themselves, so I've seen consultants that actually have an advertising firm on the side that direct the client over to the advertising firm. And they're just looking at how much money can I take from this client, and I hope they make it. You know, an early one that I saw that was very large. uh, offered a market analysis for like $35,000. And really a college student could have done the market analysis. All I did was show how many people lived in the community, what the opportunity they perceived could be done HVAC wise. And it was so sad to see these guys do it. Obviously, it's not just tied to HVAC, it's very, very common in physical therapy, so although we now have between our company owned operations and franchisees, almost 500, I can't tell you how many of them had spent over $75,000 with exactly the same trade consultant in this case physical therapy and got no result whatsoever,
Speaker 0That's what I'm trying to buy past. Listen.
Speaker 1It's terrible when that happens. You're vulnerable because you're desperate. One guy a new back in St. Louis actually paid a guy $50,000. Food down to Florida gave him $50,000. Because the guy promised some even best. The court of a million dollars in his business. And then show him how to make it. But he had to give him $50,000. So good faith. It was all just a con. So it was terrible that that happened to that guy and that was the end of his business because he borrowed money from his friends and relatives just with hope and prayer.
Speaker 0Yeah, that's no good. That's not a good. That's not a good model.
Speaker 1Guys listening, but he won't go in and install a system for you.
Speaker 0Unreal. Well, I mean, I mean, even just, I mean, we're talking about this, but a lot of things over the last, like, really over the last few, I mean, really COVID. I mean, change things up a little bit too and just to how you react to it and the outcome of it. And in a lot of ways, I think there's some good that came from it as well for our industry and on the exposure of it being, you know, a, um, Oh, God, I've heard the term I was called, the, oh my God, any essential business, essential business, think, geez. And so, you know, it's essential. You have to have it. We were still able to work, you know, and our contractors, you know, were really growing in this time, like really growing in these years. But there's also some gem that, didn't like they made they like like you kind of made the decision to start to go outside and look and sell like city and try these other things and compare yourself against the nation. Some people didn't they froze they didn't make a decision. And so sometimes you have to be willing to just be like I got to make a change or maybe reinvent yourself or do whatever and so I had read another. Either I watched a video or I read this one or the two I can't remember this serenity prayer, like if you remember what that is and that kind of that method of reinventing yourself and let me segway into this for you before you respond to that on what that is. Because I'm in the marketing world, I noticed a lot of, not necessarily our customers, but just because I'm pretty active in the whole entire industry as a whole, a lot of businesses that had poor brands really really struggle. Um, the brand equity was very, very low. And I think of anything, um, a lot of what COVID did to was really exposed how important, how incredibly important brand is. And so sometimes, you know, in that moment, you can't fix brand that fast. So you would have had to have done something else. But something that I thought kind of plays, you know, plays along with that was your piece that you spoke on the Serenity Prayer. Can you explain to our listeners what that was all about, or at least what the intent of that is?
Speaker 1Sure. First of all, I heard it. My son actually gave it to me when it was okay. Yeah. So, um, so I heard it. I did not know it was related to AA.
Speaker 0Right.
Speaker 1I'm not, I'm not an alcoholic. Not that. What was the people to go to AA and recover, but I know they used this prayer. Right. And the person simply says, Lord, give me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change. The courage to change those things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. And I apply this to life on a constant basis, especially when I was diagnosed with cancer. What am I going to do? I've got a cancer growing inside my kidney, it's life threatening. It's totally outside of my control. So I have to rely on the professionals, the doctors, and I had lots of input as to not to do it with surgery, or not to do it with chemo and try a different route. But ultimately, I had to make these decisions. So fortunately for me, I chose the medical route and I had to courage to follow through and and to hurt, you know, chemo is no fun. Surgery having your kidney removed is no joy. but it took courage and you know I had the knowledge to know the difference between the two if I just accepted what was going to happen which I considered since I'm in my 70s. I'm about to turn 75. What I had the serenity to be able to accept that I wouldn't live and I had I had both. So I had to make that decision. Do I act on the courage which is not a very good looking thing? On the other hand, if I had the serenity, I kind of think Kevin's going to be a cool place. So it was a difficult decision for me to make, but my family was adamant that I do everything I good to stay on work. So I did. And that prayer helped at that point in time.
Speaker 0Well, you know, if you think about, you know, even though, like you said, A.A. really kind of coined that as there, like, you know, my dad wasn't that, like, in and out of it, lots of times. And so, um, and it's like, it's literally a disease. It's hard to get past.
Speaker 1And so I would have to be concerned my early years. I stopped when I remarried because I just, I saw kids growing up in a society where they will never go to a party where there's adults present that alcohol will not be served. They just don't see that world. So I stopped drinking now 17 years ago. So I didn't have a, but I like a lot of contractors. I think particularly after running leads at 10 o'clock at night, you go home, your wife's I'm talking to me every week so you're not going out with other salesmen right and say hey man I sold an $8,000 system now you're gonna come home at one o'clock in the morning and you've had too much drink and get up the next day so I figured that was enough of that
Speaker 0Well, can you think about during COVID? That's like a great, that will be a great prayer for that particular point in time, right? Like that kind of is what it hits on. So it works. It's not like it was putting the Bible just for alcoholics. That's not what it is. It's just, but I thought that was really interesting given the time, you know, the time, timing that we're in, you know? And so, just based on all of these decades of experience you have in seeing the industry and always kind of being like first to do different things, try different things, like even in technology on selling directly online, all these things you kind of been at the forefront on. What are your thoughts on the future of the HVAC world like post-COVID? And I know we're still kind of technically in an issue, but what are your thoughts like in just this industry? Like do you have anything you thought about? I've had any conversations around like, hey, this is what business is going to look like moving forward in the trades like any of that type of stuff.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm pretty confident that the equipment itself will become a commodity. I mean, there's just too much money and too much power in the world, driving all high ticket items to becoming commodities, whether it's an automobile, not you see it for houses. So the only reason that hasn't happened yet is the people with all the money had and figured out how to manage the labor force. But the equipment itself begs to be sold directly to the consumer with the labor force installing it. Perhaps as early as five years from now, it might take ten. This industry doesn't change quickly. But within five to ten years, the opportunity where everybody's making all their money right now is not going to be here in the future. In the same fashion, you're really going to have to learn how to manage labor. Unfortunately, with consumer financing, and marketing contractors have become reliant on selling equipment at, in my opinion, a little bit too high in flavored prices in driving margins up because they're giving labor whatever they ask. So when I hear what labor is being demanded and getting these days, I love it because I love the front end guys, but it's probably gone beyond reasonableness and that would concern me. So I do not think that contractors today are really good at being able to manage their labor force and really manage and really effective business. What brought that back is in physical therapy. Unmeasured the government actually says, hey, here's what Medicare will pay too bad. It doesn't matter how good you get. We're not paying you anymore. And they just reduced it. So their efficiency has to be the key driving factor, right, to be a good businessman. And that particular field, you really have to understand and you really have to learn how to drive that, because it's not a product sale type business. That's going to happen in HVAC. So, in HVAC, as the equipment becomes commoditized and sold directly over the internet to be installed by another group of people, the labor force is out there, managing the efficiency of that labor is going to become critical.
Speaker 0Yeah. I mean, that's great. I've seen it. And I've been hearing about it for years, too, and I've even dabbled in a little bit, too, because that's kind of my world. Well, it is my world, not kind of my world. But it's got to be, right? Like, you know, I had a great, you know, Darren Dixon. Yeah. And they're not become, um, fear not become friends. And so, uh, and he never had a lot of conversations around just his world and my world and like there, there's a lot of overlap. And I love those conversations because I love the technology aspect. I love the Uber, I use air quotes, um, Uberization of potential HVAC, you know, replacements and sales. So, um, to me, I think, uh, just from paying attention to what I think. So yeah, I'm always curious to hear everyone else is a pinning, especially yours, because you've been in this thing so long, and you've seen so many different transitions. But... What's next for you, man? Like, I know you retired like 15 times. So, but what's next for you, man? Like, what are you gonna dab them in your 75, right? That's, you've over, give beat cancer. You've done all these things. Like, what's next for you, Jim? I mean, I know you got the book coming out, like your new book, and it's, the baby is on the island, and which we'll talk on in a minute. But like, what's next, man? You're just gonna, are you actually gonna retire and relax?
Speaker 1Well, I've been very blessed. I have nine grandchildren now. They range from 13 to less than one, four of them out on the west coast. My wife just left this morning. I'll be joining her next week out in LA. So we see the kids out there. And as long as I can get down on the floor and have these kids crawl over me or go out on the boat with them. That's the predominant part of my life. I still have business owners reach out to me. I will give them time. I do charge for the time because my time is valuable.
Speaker 0Sure.
Speaker 1And if they don't pay, I found out they don't really value it anyway. So, but when somebody comes and pays me for a day, they listen a lot more, they take notes, and invariably they go back and do what I've suggested to say. So, I do some of that still in all different types of businesses. Usually, by request from a friend that says, hey, I got this guy that's struggling, can you help him out or whatever? So, that's what I'm doing these days. I think I'm sure to plan right now, so I've lived my whole life with 10-year plans because of the cancer, COVID, and all that other stuff. I think I did not. Well, I know I have not set down and say, okay Jim, were you going to be when you're 85? Because I had questions whether I'd see 85. So I probably need to write a new plan.
Speaker 0I'd love to add something to your plan if I can talk you into it. And this is purely selfishness. I put on this little eerie bitty event, very private, invite only, type of event called Rhinox Service Summit. Terry spoke at it last year. It's very small. I've never gotten to see you speak live. I've never gotten to see that. I want to see it. It's a very tiny group of various established contractors and also some that are just trying to get that knowledge from you as well too, but I would love it if I could talk to you and to even doing a small little speaking role and guess what, It's not till it won't be till February of next year, but I'm just going to throw a little teaser out there to see if I can talk you into, pulling you out of that non-life-speaking thing and giving you like a little 30-minute spiel there, or even a Q&A, whatever it takes, I'm in to make it happen.
Speaker 1Well, I'd probably be happy to do it. Send me an invite and I'll look at my calendar.
Speaker 0Wonderful. I'll take that, I'll take that and run with it because I would love to see that. I want to close with this too. And again, it's been about an hour and I appreciate the time. And like you said, I think time is our most valuable asset to you, can't get it back. I didn't know you're still consulting. That's fantastic. I don't know if that's something that I can share on your behalf on how somebody can connect with you. If it's through someone through you, they want to do those types of things. Is there a way I should do that?
Speaker 1Or I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can I can
Speaker 0got it. I'll share that as well on the show notes so that way they can see that. Great. I didn't know you're still doing that. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1No, not everybody knows, but occasionally people request.
Speaker 0Well, and so also you have the book coming out and they'll be able to get that in audio format.
Speaker 1Yeah, so if they want that, they can go the same address, my son will respond to them, and they can either take a electronic in the form, or if they've got a little bit of patience, it'll be a hard print and probably three months.
Speaker 0OK, perfect. Yeah, they'll only have a couple of months on. Give them a look at the hard cover. I have a hard time listening to audio because I have space out. And if I read the book, I have to highlight as I go. So that way, when I space out, I can go back to my highlights. I'm a product of ADHD and then I would just say the last thing is in regards to that book You have this 10 steps to business success that kind of is like a big piece a big piece of that I just want you to if you wouldn't mind If you remember the the actual like one through 10 the order of it all I have them written that Would you mind just sharing what those are? She can let her listeners know kind of the foundation of what it's about?
Speaker 1Sure, and this was written for any business, not just home services. Perfect. Number one, you have to determine who people want it or need it. So people will only buy what they want or need. So we're in a good place here. We know that they need it. So you are selling a need product. And you deliver the products. So number two, is can you deliver that product or service with a competitive advantage? Usually a competitive advantage would mean less money, more conveniently, or is a better superior or more creative and unique. So you have to be able to have some differentiation between the rest of the marketplace for else it's going to be a price that people will default to price. Next you must have a name and message. And this is critical. So one hour air conditioning was always on time and you don't pay a dime, which sounds relatively easy. But that is actually in anapestic meter, the same type of thing, the doctor, Zeus used to be able to have people memorize it. So by taking a USP like always on time or you don't pay a dime, people will recall that. If they hear it seven times, so on the radio, or if they hear it seven times, where television, radio, audio, they'll remember. And next time they need to call somebody, oh, yeah, there's those guys that are always on time or whatever it might happen to be. Next is identify your pillars of success. So within every business, there are measurable categories that you must look at to see if you're properly planned and executed that would lead to those things. So like how many service calls you're going to run a year. We were running at one time 10,000 service calls a day, so, you know, when we reach that level through our franchise group and through company owned operations, that's a lot of service calls a day and you're going to make a mistake. that ring at my secretary's desk. So even though we were doing 10,000 service calls a day, if there was somebody disappointed in the country or in Canada where we had business, that call would actually come to my desk. My team then at the local center had one day to correct that problem or else I would step in and resolve it. And once that time that I stepped in, it was in Las Vegas, and it actually cost a center $85,000, because we closed down the center for the morning, had the disappointed customer come in and actually show a video to my whole team. Tell the team what the complaint was and my general manager gave her back all of her money that she paid But you know that's that's big overreach, but that was one of my pillars of success I would not have the sun go down on an unhappy customer period I had to be able to resolve that customer before I went home that night.
Speaker 0I don't love it
Speaker 1The next one I had, but there's all different pillars of success in my book, I show the restaurant ones that we developed for the restaurants. Do you have the capital necessary to succeed? That's number five. If not, can you replace it with effort? In the beginning, I had limited capital, so I was out knocking on doors, dialing on telephones, etc. Later, and for most of the rest of my life, capital has never been a problem. So now I can kind of even overwhelm companies because of the capital availability that I have. I can come in and take major presence in markets very quickly if I still choose. Next one up, number six, you have to look into mirror. Can you lead and do what is necessary? This is tough, you know, you may have to fire a person that you really care about. In many times, it's a family member. Who can you really do this? Because the business now becomes like a child. And just like an infant child, if you're not doing everything you can to keep that child alive and well, they're totally dependent upon you and so is your business. So you have to know there that you will do what you need to do. And if you can't do that, You're not, it probably is not going to work out for you. Number seven, do you have the will to do what's necessary? Now this is different. Number six is can you do it? Number seven is will you do it? And so many times, you know, you get into things that are just so difficult. I remember my last keymore thing and saying, I don't want to go today, you know, I'm so sick last time, you know, I don't want to do this today. But again, my family wanted me here. And it was what I had to do. So even though it was like this is going to be like one of the worst days of my life, I got in my car and drove myself to Kimo that day, which my Kimo was five hours when I got there and no joy as anybody that's been through it knows.
Speaker 0Sometimes that that will is harder than skill.
Speaker 1It is. I think the hardest thing, especially as you gain wealth, right? So in the early days, I'm out knocking on doors and dialing on telephones. You know, when I'm worth tens of millions of dollars, it becomes a little bit more difficult to get up in the morning and say, Oh, I'm going to go out and knock on doors to that. It's an hourly weight. Yeah. It's that mine where you have the courage to do that thing that's necessary.
Speaker 0Yeah, the motivator is different than huh.
Speaker 1Yeah, totally different. Next one up is eight. Will you define an organizational chart? Fill the necessary roles yourself early on and then hire the right people later. Generally speaking in our industry and the contractor industry, the first role you should find is a really, really, really, superstar administrator. And the reason for that is accounting for these businesses to take up inordinate amount of time. So you want to get that off of you and I'm to somebody else who that you have your time to impact the business on the top line. And you have somebody who really trusts that can carry the administration thing. For me, I need a definition too because I can't fix anything. I'm a businessman, but I'm really not a service man or an installer by any means. Number nine is will you gain the necessary knowledge, right at least a five-year plan, and subordinate to the plan putting your ego aside. And number 10 is will you develop a business culture of true meritocracy, focusing on the success of each individual working in the company, delegating authority and responsibility, and do so legally, ethically and morally. And if you do those 10 things, and there's obviously backup to them, especially on the pillars of success, so if you follow that formula in particularly that last one, nothing immoral, nothing illegal, and nothing unethical. I think you'll succeed.
Speaker 0That's great. And so there's a lot of the book kind of all built around that. Or is that just a piece of it? Is that kind of the foundation of it?
Speaker 1It's a bunch of people in broken into chapters. And then I actually tell stories behind each one of those from my career.
Speaker 0Yeah, perfect. Well, I'm excited. I want to get it and read it sounds like it's my kind of book, too, because it's an easy read. If I can crank through a book in a one plane ride from Phoenix to anywhere on the east coast, that's kind of my gauge. I know I can actually do it.
Speaker 1You can do it. Perfect. You've probably finished some time over Tennessee.
Speaker 0Perfect. Well, no. You heard me say I got a highlight because I started to lose. I'll actually be reading something and then I'll start thinking about it in a different context that takes me down some path. I'm like, Oh, wait. I got to pay attention and I got to go back to it. So what might take you to Tennessee might take me to Quaret Carolina. Well, hey, listen, um, I'm incredibly grateful that you gave me your time that you that we're able to make this thing happen, um, again, it is, uh, it's something that I've been looking forward to just because I've never been able to actually meet you or I see you speak live of only ever seeing videos and it just made it, I know I know I had to make a little frustrating waiting so long because I typically wouldn't make, I guess, wait that long to get the questions. Yes, yeah. I was in the analysis paralysis mode because I had all these questions if you could see my notes on here too. I had so many things and I I had to go back through and rework them and try to think through man. What's the best thing I can deliver to the listeners that's you know taking my selfishness out of it and it was actually fairly difficult because I had so many things I wanted to ask and and you know just had a curiosity, but I had to, you know, try and keep my, I got to ask the right things. I'm genuinely interested in but also listeners need to hear to be able to take away and actually implement otherwise they waste their time too. So there's plenty of that in this particular episode. And I'm grateful. So thank you for spending the time with us. I hope that I hope that you enjoyed your very first podcast with me. I'm grateful to be that for you.
Speaker 1Well, great. It was very easy. So thank you.
Speaker 0Yeah, and then again, I'm going to I'm going to lean on you now that I have your email. I'm going to make sure that get to the team this Rhino X stuff to awesome your little snippet of it. So you can kind of see what it's like it's a quick little similar to what it's all about, but it's for sure right up your right up your alley. Um, I love having the the little panels to where the guests can ask, you know, questions and things like that. And anyway, I'll send you the video on it too. And if I could talk you into that love again, because I haven't got to see you speak live. So I'd like to get that done. All right. Well, listeners. I hope you took notes. If you did, if you could see if you're watching on the YouTube channel, please, if you'll see, I've got notes all over the place, and then as Jim's talking, I'm taking a lot more notes, and on the back on the front, and you know what, my writing sucks. So some of the stuff I'm up to go back and try and figure out what the heck you said too, Jim, because my writing looks a little sloppy.
Speaker 1where you have it on tape.
Speaker 0I got a long video. That's right. I can go back and re-listen to it and so I'm excited for this episode to air. I know there's a lot of people that are going to be really interested because you just have it. They haven't heard you in so long. So this is going to be a really great piece. Amen. I'm talking in the trades and this is a great way to kind of push that out to the masses. And so like I said, you know, roughly out of my time or don't just sing it being the 40,000, you know, downloads and streams on other fun stuff, people that are going to hear this message and I'm excited to be the one to to bring that to them. So I always finish this thing off Jim with the review because I live a life of gratitude. And I think that Tim, you know, for me, if our listeners, you know, they'll hear these podcasts and the leave reviews and sometimes they're not about me, they're about the guests specifically. And I enjoy being able to give that to you, you know, and so if they leave a review that's geared towards you, I'll take that and send it over to you so you can read yourself. Um, and so I like reading them. I thought they filled my cup too, right? So because I was able to bring that to them. And that's the whole point of this podcast is To be able to give back to the industry that I love and I care about and then this is just another way of doing a besides Rhino. So I'm going to finish with a review. And this one was from the White E. It's five stars. This is I really enjoy listening to every one of your podcasts. It's funny, informative, and super valuable. Super valuable. I eagerly anticipate each new episode. So Dwight E, I appreciate you sending that. Obviously listeners, leave the reviews. I love reading those things too. I love sharing them. I get been seeing quite a few come through. So I know you guys are listening to me. And I appreciate that so much. But Jim, I'm gonna say one last time. the father of HVAC success has completed podcast, numero uno and I'm excited to be at for you. So thank you again.
Speaker 1All right, thank you.
Speaker 0I'm really grateful. Listeners, I hope you really appreciate that. And like you said, too, you know, we talked about this whole thing. Like sometimes you just got to make a decision. Even if you don't know if it's going to be right or wrong, make the decision. You don't have to do everything, but you got to do something. No zero days.
