Bring On Success with Winning Service Professionals

Tommy Mello From A1 Garage Door Discusses His Book - ELEVATE With Jim Klauck

A friend of Jim Klauck,  Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door Service joins Jim today on this episode of Bring On Success.
Tommy's latest book - ELEVATE was released this past week and is available with this link - Tommy wrote the book ELEVATE : Build a Business Where Everybody Wins - ELEVATE.
This book will change the lives of many home service business owners.  On this episode, Tommy tells stories of how he has built a $200,000,000 home service company through elevating his team!
Enjoy!
Here’s a fraction of what you’ll learn from Tommy's book:
 
✅ The structure to Elevate your team and build a company that runs by itself. In their best day they sold $512,000 and Tommy wasn't even there.
 
✅ Why most advice about Culture sucks, and the right way to build a culture of A-players for your company. Tommy has 700+ employees in 19 states, and his company’s retention rate is through the roof.
 
✅ How to create a magnet for talent, so you'll have the best employees begging to work for you. Last month Tommy hired 50 new technicians.
 
Go get your copy now at:
 
➡️ https://book.elevateandwin.com/jimklauck
 
Podcast Episode Transcription:
 
My friend Tommy Mello is joining me here on the bring on success show hey Tommy how are you good Jim pleasure to be here I always love these intimate sessions with you yeah with you buddy you know it's great so just read your new book it just came out everybody's talking about it elevate the five pillars it's you know really kind of a simple you know simple idea the way you set up the book and it's all about elevating your team of course you have to build the team and you elevate them and you reward them talk a little bit about the book yeah so it's five pillars leadership culture marketing recruiting systems and it really is about elevating your mindset and everybody around you I just did a shop tour with three companies and I was just explaining what is your guys's goal what do you wanna be what's your dream what's your life look like when you hit what you want you gotta have a meeting of what you wanna hit you gotta have a mindset and the book is really about just elevating build the business where everybody wins the employees win the clients win I win my partners win the vendors win and the whole industry wins and I think that in life we're taught we went and lose I just had one of my buddies Jake that's out of California um he said I can't put your book down my mind is racing it won't stop I want to grow just not my business but the people involved and you know the message goes on and on it's a couple of paragraphs but it's the ultimate compliment when somebody reads it and it's not a big book I mean it's easy to digest yeah it's easy to Lev was in the book and he said Tommy I read your book 3 hours from soup to nuts and that's what I wanted to keep it simple concise I love I I've started to really enjoy writing books and this book took Me 2 years and I think I'm gonna get faster because coming up with systems but you know first I had to figure out what the biggest things that wanted people to take and those were the pillars and these five things are just going to they're going to blast people through their mindset and the walls they have no absolutely OK so in chapter two that's the first pillar it's leadership when you touch upon what people would find in that chapter yeah so I tell stories throughout the book Tom how wrote the foreword I think the main goal of the leadership is you gotta lead by example lead from up front you know that there's a lot of chapters in the book I just are finishing the audible and it's interesting I tell a story of just we recently partnered with me and what P is able to do to accompany a smaller company by putting in systems and getting the right leaders it's amazing I feel like everybody's getting tested right now to make sure they're at a level that could go to a billion dollars and it's about growth mindset and leaders look Simon cynic wrote a book leaders you'd last and leadership is not just about tracking KPI's it's about building relationships and it's about caring and that's really what this whole book is really all about yeah and then culture is a bad word marketing is my passion and marketing I look at as recruiting marketing is very similar people don't look at marketing the same way for recruiting and it's a shame yeah no this is important um you know the recruiting piece is critical and HR is generally the most expensive piece of any business labor there's no question no almost every business it's also often for the leader for the business owners and some managers the most difficult thing because people aren't machines they have emotions they're all different they're not all motivated by the same thing and that's where I believe a lot of businesses struggle is managing people because just because you're a good technician as an HVAC guy and you leave the company to start your own so now you so you were a tech and now you start your own business and now you're like well I'll still be a tech and I'll hire people and I'll manage people then you find out well I don't like to manage people and how come people don't listen to me and how come they're not like me and how come I tell them to stay at home because I can do it better you've done something amazing by finding hiring and training and then managing a great team yeah you know what I learned this from Levi he says you've got to recruit you got to Orient well recruit hire Orient train and then retain and I our levy share some stories in there about him and his dad working for his dad and what just the nightmare the business could be without systems and processes in place you know bringing on Jody with Brad and hire really helped me understand that I was going fishing in the same spot everybody else was so looking outside of the box to find people and understanding attribution models of creating framework for hiring that we could actually compare to people because we interviewed the exact same way and it's crazy 18 player could run circles around 3:00 or 4B players yeah when you started acquiring a players and giving them systems the business becomes fun and al always calls it vanilla because you know you're not firefighting there's everything's kind of running smoothly and every time I get to this point of vanilla I decided to grow and I grow and right now I'm buried because we're going I'm gonna 10X this business again and the framework of 10 Xing is into this book it's can't get rich wrote some stuff on the back I mean it's um Danny Kerr wrote some stuff in here with repeat a breakthrough Academy I mean that it took a few people um because it really hit the points I wanted to iterate in the book and it's really just a lot of great stories it explains you know there was a hockey game and during a power play they were way down 3 three or four enough and it's amazing what a team could pull through when you're when you when you got to get things done and you got the goals and you got the mindset correctly it's really that simple you know if you think about big machines like a McDonald's any big organization has to have systems and if you don't have systems you have chaos you have a bunch of employees running around managers putting fires out and when things are systematized and everyone knows what to do and how to do it there's just less chaos and fire you know I was on this show called American I forget the name of it was years ago American entrepreneur or something like that and I said where were you guys tell me an interesting story about where you guys were recently and the American dream I think the show was called and they said well we just got done with Kentucky fried chicken and KFC now and they open a new store every 11 hours and so my brain started just it went into a new phase of thinking where I was like what would the systems need to be you would have to have a blueprint for this building you'd have to have a leasing you know understanding how to buy the property the site plan the recruiting I mean all in 11 hours how robust that could be and then be able to get the marketing to keep that place slammed it's just absolutely phenomenal when you figure out you look at McDonald's or KFC or subway what they do and how they work their model I was watching something by ray crock about how he figured out you know you probably watched the movie with that came out but the founder figured out that that owning the property where the money's at and how do you grow with the franchise model works and it's never been my cup of tea but it works out well when it's in confined space I think restaurants are a lot easier than home service because we actually we've got people from East Coast to West Coast we gotta drive we gotta book the there's a lot more capacity planning bad city planning at KFC is do I have enough chicken you know and oil not exactly yeah no you're right and the franchise system is actually a great example of one that has to be perfect because the people who often buy a franchise are not necessarily entrepreneurial and they often you know buy a job so they have to plug themselves into a system that is foolproof systems you know people always ask there's that that that show called the prophet and it's Marcus Lemonis says people product process and people ask me which ones my favorite and I would say process because the process picks the people I mean you're right process to ride along forms the checks and balances the background checks the drug tests the driving record tests I mean it makes it simple you know we've got formulas that we know this how many people we need to interview to get the right person and it always changes over the course of 1/4 because we get better and better at putting materials out there that attract eight players but any players find work they're talking to people like gas stations they're asking for the HOA president they're out there to be an I meeting representing you they're recruiting for you at a restaurant it's amazing when you build a team but they need to have structure they need to have a a manual and a handbook and they need to understand well how to ask for PTO and they every single one of my employees has a scorecard and the manner stand where they're at and comparison to their team and we take the mean we let them know we have monthly one on ones and we're changing that student to buy every two weeks so I think the one thing too is I see a lot of businesses they criticize all the time and in public we'll say we need to be better at driving we need to do this we need to do this that's for a private conversation you should only be saying the great things in public because if it's always a drag to go to one of your meetings where you're just you're getting down on everybody it's not a good culture which is discussed in the book culture is key getting back to recruiting I like the way you recruit a lot of people look for people who are desperately looking for a job you don't necessarily do that with the system with Jody you are finding people who are generally employed but are looking for something better which is always a better hire 83% of people say they'd be willing to leave their current company they're at for a better opportunity the opportunity is not always money and that's what people think it's always about money well they you know they've been proven studies over $60,000 doesn't change much for an employee over 200,000 changes 0 um for the way employees will work and the way they'll do things so how do they feel valued and communicated with them do they have an opportunity to move up in the company and it might not always be money it might be a larger challenge and understanding what people are looking for should be when somebody interviews and they ask me a million questions see you all over the Internet studied your company I want to work for one I wanna career those are the best hires because they say exactly what they wanted Jody and I talked quite often and he's like Tommy you should see these people follow you on Instagram and on TikTok and on Facebook and LinkedIn and they know everything about you they want to work with you and I wish I had the personal relationships I had ten years ago with everybody but you know we're at 700 employees now and unfortunately I can't build the price spent 5 minutes with every person 3500 minutes there's not much that time in the year sure it works so I'm sure there's been a year yeah so like yeah so Tommy what you just said is what I tell people in terms of sales which is you don't want to sell to someone you want them to buy from you which means they're already interested in you so if someone contacts you on a form online or calls in and they say I want to purchase or I you know I need a new garage door I need a new air conditioning system they've already decided that they wanna hire you versus you doing a call saying hey can we come out and look at your garage that's right so it's a lot easier when that employee or the prospective employee says Oh yeah I've heard a lot of things about Tommy Mello and a one and it's a great place to work I hear and so they're already in the mindset of I can see myself there yeah you make a great point you know I used to do indoors for radio ads with that's right up your alley I mean I you know I used to do several people going back I mean there was different people but that that they have a loyal audience and someone could call in and they say hey I heard you going back I'm buying up the door from you come out I want to buy the best package I believe in you guys I believe in what you do and that's influencer marketing in a nutshell really and there there's a huge opportunity I mean look I'm still in The Beatles stages of this business I know I'm just getting started and it feels like a different company every year because of the growth and I'm more in the technology business style than the garage door industry but I got a lot of work to do and I'm still enjoying Mondays and that's my key of why I'm going to stay in this industry for another five years decade because I don't mind going to work on Mondays I love Saturdays but I also love Monday and I think a lot of people they when you start hating Mondays is when you might want to start looking at a new career yeah so for the business owner that doesn't like Mondays and they're really having trouble liking people in the office that's often when some people decide to sell to get out and um you know you hear about it all the time there's different reasons why a company may sell or an owner may sell and that's one of them you know the other there's too old they want to cash out but some people just go ahead yeah well most business owners they did the work they were the technician and they say I could do this good as long as I could keep the phone ringing and a lot of these businesses they had just enough success to stay in business but not enough to wanna cell because the business not might not be worth a lot So what I tell these people when you're getting into business you need to start thinking about a mindset of what people want to want to work for you your goal should be to take yourself out of the business unfortunately we don't have a lot of money when we start a business so we put in our sweat equity which is 2345 years of hard work and the biggest mistake that I commonly see is the owner and his wife are the owner and his or her husband will go out and they'll say we deserve this Harley we deserve this second house that's not making sense because you're not running it out and you take the thing that finally gave back to you and you divest it instead of putting it back in and this is the key to my success was area and I had the late gratification and I was able to make some tough choices to not divest into the one thing that I finally had enough money to make investments back into the business rather than divest and that's how you go it's amazing what people think that you've done in the year but underestimate what they get done in 5 and so that's why I think knowing what you want and having clear goals on how to get there they you should know exactly how many phone calls you need the three people three companies here I went through and it showed them how to budget and I said you want to make $10 million divide that simply by your average ticket that somebody calls you need you gotta divide that by your closing rate and your booking rate and then you just multiply that by your cost to acquire a customer and then that's how much your marketing budget is and then I could tell you exactly if you guys are running three to four calls a day how many technicians you can need so now you know exactly what you need to hit to be at a $10 million company is the example I use for them and I said now you guys understand in your mind exactly what the numbers need to be now I said let's tweak a few things let's raise your average take it a little bit let's increase your conversion rate by 5% and your booking rate by 6% your marketing budget literally just cut in half hmm sure and it's crazy how it works and it really is an easy formula once you do it in the plans but I just love business and I'm just getting started I really feel like so many people are like man you've made it you you've made a lot of money you're huge and I'm like no nothing I I just I feel like I'm just getting started like I dip my toe in the water it's all relative and you're an entrepreneur you love business you love the game and you can go down the list of people whether it's a Donald Trump or an Elon Musk or any of the greats they're all still every day doing it because that's what they do if they lost everything they get it all back real quick it's amazing how quickly they can get their billions back isn't it and so I'm just reading a book that that said if you were to give just disseminate all the money across equally the same top 10% would have the money back with them for years that's because that's the type of athlete they are that that's the athlete they are they're a player and they know how to do it they will never starve they will always be prosperous and it's because of who they are and understand everybody not everybody can be that player not everybody wants to be that player Tommy Mello is that player it's who he wants to be in it's relatively easy for you I'm not saying you don't work hard but it comes easy to you just like there are some natural athletes that can run circles around me it doesn't matter how much I train OK I was never going to be a Tom Brady he had a lot of innate qualities and he worked on a scale and he became arguably the best quarterback of all time or at least you know in recently he is he's definitely the best quarterback he's and he's got the proof the proof is in the pudding the Super bowl rings I mean alternately my biggest challenge and this is something I discussed with the president of the company yesterday for five hours is I need to make sure that I enable people and get the right leadership because unfortunately some of the things I'm working on now is super complex you know Elon Musk said he needed to be the rocket science artist for the first two years till he found the right person so I think one of the things I find in common about with billionaires and people living their best life and just because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you living your best life but typically you get a lot more choices money gives you choices uh they're the best networkers and I'm in this weird position in my life where there's three things that I'm kind of looking at that I'm looking at the networking and the speaking the podcasting the I'm putting a lot of content out and then the second piece is just the love and it just recognition of my internal customers that you can't put a price on and then the third one is the KPI's the things that run the business checks and balances systems processes manuals and so I'm just like i feel like sometimes it's too much time over here not enough time here maybe too much time here not enough there so that it's this balancing act then - It's not easy I'll tell you I’m my own worst critic and don't feel like I'm where I need to be but I also I just turned 40 and I'm happy where I'm at 40 I mean obviously I'd love to have kids and get married but um as far as my professional life and what I'm doing on a daily basis I enjoy my life and I think that not a lot of people would say that not a lot of people could say that I have fun because I'm the visionary and I get to work on the vision of where we're going and how we're going to get there and how to make a better situation than in the department and it's fun when it's working together and you know you're only as strong as your weakest link but if you get that weakly strong and start building those links out the system just starts perpetually growing and it's like it's pretty and pretty passionate about it and I know where I wanna go and uh building budgets doing financial quick checks getting involved in the finance side of the business I'm getting I would say I had an associate’s degree in understanding how money worked and he now I'm getting a master’s degree hopefully I get a doctorate and that's you know Ken Goodrich told me when you partner with a company that understands financial engineering you're going to be a freaking you are going to be a lethal weapon after the next two to three years and I'm like all right let's go so you have grown a tremendous amount since you started a one so let's step back in time let's go back to the beginning days when you are painting garage doors if I'm not mistaken that's what you were doing I could be wrong you're right and you had a partner back then and this wasn't that long ago I mean it it may seem that to you but people who've been around for a while they're like that wasn't all that long ago tell us about the conversion because when you look back at the Tommy Mello in the beginning of a one you weren't the same guy as you are today huge change yeah you know I think the fact was I was in the field every day although I never was a garage door technician for another company I was a technician within the company I would answer all the phone calls I was a CSR I'd do the payroll so I was in the payroll division that I would do the inventory so I learned every facet but back then I would say I never wanted to spend the money to get a great employee I was good at creating revenue not good at keeping it revenues for vanity province for sanity and over the course of the 10 years that I started I started reading I read the e-mail the album sales machine the richest man of Babylon and I just started to read and then I started to go visit very successful shops in HVAC because HVAC were the godfathers of home service they were getting the biggest multiples these the guys with the private planes in 1991 next door started it was called something 5000 and Frank Blau got together and they decided partner up with a lot of companies and really focus on understanding the budget and understanding manuals and building processes and hitting making six figures and still making 15% for the company so I studied these companies in I take away 10 gold Nuggets every time I visited and I just started going more and more where every week I was going visit any other company and I'd go apply it then go again go apply it then go again and then I got some really smart people to start working with me and I slowly task about the things that I hated because they loved it you know like I don't love you know a pivot table on an excel sheet but there's certain people that just they really love that doing that it's like makes them it fulfills them it's a bright it's a brain puzzle for them to do these things and I just I've built the business that the one that I enjoy you know it's so important to understand that too that not everyone is the same that's why we may put our people through you know a disk program to really learn who they are they may not know themselves you know are they D and an I or an S and that's helpful to everyone including management and so you're right there's different players on the team not everybody can be quarterback and not everyone should be and that everybody wants to be some people you know rather block some people rather you know receive you know it's true so there's just different players and you've done a great job Tommy and number one going back to what you're saying educating yourself you basically got on the phone or e-mail said may I come see your facility give me a tour I want to learn right can I fly here and do that and so you pushed hard to get to know other people and to see how they operate you made a lot of friends in the process then you bring it back home to a one and then you put the right people in the right place and it's it seems like magic and to some extent it is but most people can't do what you do because they get in their own way they don't know when to say it's not all about me yes today I can do it better than my hire but I've got to get these new hires training because we all think when we start a business and no one else can do it no one else can do it like me get out of the way I'll do it right I mean how many times have you done that and you know back in the day look don't even show up look when my partner would go out of town I love it because I would book the phone calls and run the jobs with our booking go up 25% and we make more money than ever and I didn't realize though how to coach people and also you gotta let people fall down and get back up like I did so in the interim you might lose some money in the course of taking yourself out of the business and people don't want to deal with that they've got beer and there's another thing is a lot of people are afraid to let go of the top guy because they depend on that revenue but sometimes you make those decisions now everybody comes up and they say man this guy serious he's not gonna let that guy roll his eyes at the meetings that guy was a pretty Madonna that always put the meetings down and always you know didn't show up on Fridays and they and you left this stuff faster than everybody else sees it and it's it could be the destruction of a company very quickly so don't let the uh inmates run the insane asylum yeah you know we hear about the disease or cancer running through an organization you need to cut it out cut out the cancer I I've spent a lot of time with many of your team members some of them I consider friends and it's truly remarkable um it's almost as if do you remember the show font well you wouldn't remember fantasy island but then they say the island came out back in the late 70s OK and it was about these people who would fly into this island and when they arrived the host Mr. Rourke would say smiles everybody smiles so when the guests came it looked like everything was a happy place and everything was utterly it's kind of like when you go to a one everyone's like that but they're not told to do it that's just who they are the harmony the family everyone wants to help everybody and it's almost unheard of I mean you're on the top point something percent of organizations in the country I think that have that type of culture in any industry and so I want to compliment you on that and it's just amazing I don't know what to say it's um like I said I feel like I could be better you know it it's can't get her sat down with me years ago and said you're growing yourself everyday outside of work you're spending the time and unfortunately you're gonna grow people because of how much time you're investing into yourself and I was sitting there you know obviously I took some chips off the table it was a significant amount of money and my buddy Keegan he's you know lots and lots of money and he's buying a private jet he's doing all these things he's got a beautiful house in Naples right on the ocean and he said you know Tommy I've got some pretty unfortunate news for you he goes your circle is about to get a lot smaller and he goes because everybody's gonna say you're changing but the problem that they don't understand is they're not changing they're not growing he goes so people say I've changed but the fact is it's because I'm reading every day I'm learning and I've got great mentors around me and he's accelerating his life I mean his neighbors are multi billionaire in these 2 hours a day together talking about stocks and investments and how they do that and as these people around you they don't grow unfortunately I think it's the people around you sometimes that are going at the pace and yes what it's like if you ever went golfing and you continue to get better you got a 20 handicap it's not as fun when you hit five your handicap becomes five the golf with those people at a 20 handicap they don't challenge you and it's not an insult but if they would apply the same practice and mindset to their golf game and try to get better with you then you know what do they say about high tide raises all boats or something like that but literally I think that's um it's it's it's unfortunate but it's very good for me to hear stuff like that because I want to be friends with everybody but there's certain people that I've literally had to try to pull out of the circle not best friends these guys are going to be my lifelong friends but I'm just saying it's certain people it's like success leaves clues everywhere you add up your closest five people you hang out with them your incomes usually within 20% of theirs and so it's I'm not choosing my friends based on income I'm not that's not who I am but obviously it's kind of nice to be able to say hey listen let's go to Australia it's 10 grand the ticket it's nice when other people say that's fine this stuff you know so I like spending time with you but it's tough keeping up with you so I don't want to be taken out of your circle so I'm gonna work as much as I can to keep up with Tommy Mello you know along those lines you know when someone grows up in a small town and then they go off and maybe they go to college and they study and they become an entrepreneur and they go back 20 years later to the high school reunion and the townies are like who do you think you are you know that's that type of thing right cause you've changed you've left the town and you grew you know it's an interesting point I think the people I grew up with are pretty happy you know it's crazy what Facebook and some of these social media sites do to watch people progress they seen the hard work the blood the sweat the tears that went into it they knew it wasn't always this easy I went to my master’s program with grease on my hands every day and they look at me like I was a peasant what's this garage door with the rape man doing here had some lettering on the side and it was it was kind of a joke and I'd smell like grease and I knew I did and you know some people really just they didn't wanna be around me because they were trying to move up a promotion of Honeywell and I was sitting there just trying to get my bearings and I was doing it for me you know that's interesting so I moved into a new house I'm building a new office I just got some acreage and we're building another house in in in Sandpoint ID and right now the biggest thing for me that I need in my life is order I need new habits I'm getting someone to help us with meal prep where I'm gonna have the trainer that shows up to me even though my guy does he's gonna busy all these things once I get the order back once I don't wanna have rock to get dressed I want that stuff laid out for me like a like a Lieutenant in the army I want I don't wanna pack I don't want to worry about food or vitamins and the special the things because I can't buy health and I can't buy time so those are something I'm working on so once I get the organization and the right people and the new executive assistant and I've got the content manager now like I'm going to grow 10X inefficiency and it's hard for people to comprehend that because you know Elon Musk has the same amount of time in his day that we both do Warren Buffett was talking to Bill Gates years and years ago like probably 15 years ago and he said hey OK said I'd like to get on your schedule in three days I wanna go over a really big opportunity and Warren Buffett takes his uh schedule hands it to him and he opens up the planner and he goes well you got nothing tomorrow you got nothing on Thursday you have one appointment on Friday because then you make 4,000,000 a year and he goes yeah I've got great people that work for me I assure myself where it's needed and that's it you know my schedule is still really busy but the plan is to really start to focus on the business and I'm always doing stuff and I'm letting my team do them but the more I focus on the systems and the technology and whether that be AI or data mining I see leaps and bounds but I know I need to give the love and attention and recognition each person needs and I still don't need time for networking so it's just sitting down and getting stuff done and finding a conclusion and then applying it and I think that's very hard for a lot of people they don't know what to do when they walk into their business they say no I'm supposed to make manuals and they not supposed to dial in the CRM and I should have a training center I need to hire for this person the first thing is you need some help you need to find someone good at doing some of the things you're not and that should be your top priority and to give yourself your time back start hiring for what's pulling the most of your time so you're spending 20 hours a week on payroll that's the first person you need to hire you get 28 to 20 hours back yeah you know if you're an entrepreneur and you're a sales and marketing person like I am like you are too maybe you need a good operational person that makes sense right because you see that's not my strength I'm a visionary I'm an entrepreneur I'm a sales and marketing guy and I'm a networker I'm a connector I have a piece of you and me and we end up you know often being at the same event sometimes and sometimes speaking on the same stage because we like doing that and it's also good for our business and our brands and I really don't like the minutia I'm not an operations guy and I have people who do operational stuff for people like oh you know it's amazing what you do with these podcasts for contractors and stuff and so how does this work I'm like you'll have to talk to Amanda because that's what she does I I don't know but so it's good to have these people right and often when people show up at work at 8:00 o'clock in the morning or 6:00 AM depending upon when you show up you're getting ready to put that fire out you know there's going to be a problem and that's your job really your job as the owner as the president the CEO of your companies to be the firefighter it shouldn't be you should be the visionary you should be the driver of the company and you need to put people in place to put out fires but ultimately and Tommy will agree you should have less and less and less fires overtime yeah checks and balances data integrity the systems need to be well thought out and there's always a system that's improving it's improved that there should be stuff always going on in the business of looking at one of my buddies Ryan Meacham he's a consultant and when he wrecked he explained is that we reward people to find problems in the process it's like would you want Henry Ford finding the problem on the assembly line or would you want the guy doing the same work every day to make it faster and figure out ways so say listen the problem is if two people did this instead of one I guess speed of the action line back in the day with the model well nobody knows better than that person doing it every day so giving your people a voice matters as well and rewarding them to find issues that that that's a crazy mindset thought is to say listen you guys do this every day how do you think we can improve and as long as your people are saying we should get a raise for this and a raise for this which happens say listen how do we make this more efficient and it's funny because my Xavier the videographer I have he said we were making content and the question was what's the right way to ask your boss for a raise and he's smiling and I say well the best way to do that is to come up with a win and elevate mindset and say Tommy if I were able to figure out a way to make you an extra $1,000,000 can I keep 100,000 what person in their right mind would say no to that if I figured out a way to get a higher conversion rate and I just want you to share with me a little bit and here's how you win so the goal of the book elevate is to figure out a way that everybody could win when I sit down with a vendor I don't say I need a cheaper price I say what's your one year go what's your 3 year goal what's your product some of this area where are you struggling are you planning on opening or closing any stores where do you want me to grow inorganically how could I help you guys you're in return after I do this would make it a lot easier and it's not always a cheaper price I need to get my guys in and out faster I need you to open a separate pay for us to hold our special materials I need you guys to help us out with coop at the home shows and it's going to help your brand so my mindset is always what's in it for them how can I help them and how can we come up with a win and it's not always price that there's so much value that's delivered on other things than just price it's so smart so many people try to beat up their vendors and the vendors doing you a favor that's supplier you can do a lot more than just supply a product or service to your point Tommy maybe you know they can hold the inventory somewhere at their expense maybe it'll cost 2% more 10% more for that product but it's making your life easier now you don't need another warehouse with workers in that warehouse because you're supplier is going to hold on to it and do just in time inventory delivery and so it's just a smart thing to do is to you know with your team members with your suppliers um and anyone that's involved in the business how can we help you every time I leave a call a phone call or in person I say is there anything else I can do for you today it's these simple things it's not all about me however we've learned the most important person in the room is me is you everyone wants to hear their name and see it in the lights and they want to be recognized and so it's important that we say you know what can we do for you how can we help it and we learn what turns them on and what they want and what they want is something that's going to help them And when it helps them it could ultimately help us and a lot of us are just going around in our own little bubbles and we're like it's good for me I don't care if it's good for you give me the best price and we're just circling our little bubbles right and it doesn't work out that way So what Tommy's done is he's opened everything up and said hey how can I help you help yourself which will ultimately help everybody and it's a real simple style it's in elevate it's a great book I've read the book if you want a copy of it you can order it through this podcast in the description of the podcast is a link and you can get it and before we go there's five bonuses can we quickly go through these I've got them right here yeah you got them in front of you I know I do we built them but yeah let's do bonus number one is winning ads and application page checklists OK can you talk a little bit about that well we came up with some of the things we've done in the company uh with the five bonuses basically I've tested everything out in those bonuses and I came up with things that people actually could use and I just look this book I don't make money on a book I I don't what I've learned is somebody's gonna read these books and I'm going off tangent here but for some reason it always comes back full circle when you help other people and some people call me and they say I've got this amazing opportunity for you because I read your book and I just I got so much from it this is a little bit of gratitude to payback and I don't go into this expecting anything but I've taken these five bonuses just things that I've worked on for years and I think they're going to be very applicable if I went through each one you know it's a it's minutia because they're different bonuses but let's go through the model I'll speak to them a little bit sure so the first one is winning ads yeah so you know ads that convert better and you know with all the podcasting I've done with the top marketing companies in the in North America I found out some ads that do better than others and one of the best ads is a financial adding owner new unit for as low as $27.00 a month we've been having people to respond it's a little bit longer of a process you gotta be able to answer questions but it's a great fun my bonus number two is the interview bundle learning how to interview properly I just had the author of who on my podcast and it was absolutely phenomenal I've learned so much about interviewing correctly and having a system for interviewing she compare people bonus three the seven steps to delegation I learned that through Levi al keeps coming up he's like your uncle al I love that that was great guy bonus #4 objection handling system yeah you know I learned to peel back the onion a little bit for objections you know it's not always a price thing I was explaining to the people are just giving a tour or two a lot of times I add value it doesn't cost me a lot of money so learning how to handle objections is listening and finding out a win  situation like I said I don't want to lower my prices for you from the vendor well there's ten other ways to skin this cat and finding the true objection but you might say well I want to talk to my wife about this garage door what do you think she's gonna say she's probably gonna say it's too expensive OK well we've got other options because if you're not giving options you're giving ultimatum so let's figure out something that's gonna do everything you wanted you want this to order out of any issues for 10 years you wanted to be connected to the Wi-Fi wanted to make sure to keep all the nasty bugs out you wanted it to be an attractive door from the outside what corners do you wanna cut do you want it to be not insulated we could do that we could get you into a different we could give you and do a different price bracket but we're diminishing the value and by the way the garage door delivers 100% ROI in the home it's proven six years in a row remodel magazine it's better than your kitchens or bathrooms so and to understand an objection and be able to peel it apart and peel back those layers of the onion is important an objection is just another opportunity to sell and close #5 bonus 5 is my favorite and this is probably worth the most Tommy's personal rolodex yeah so I've taken tried and true vendors and you know whether it be rapid hire or you know there's certain people on there that I just I used and it took me 10 tries to use them thought to use other renderers and I finally found the right ones that actually are proven for $200 million company and the nice thing about these vendors is I started out small and they grew with me so the tried and true and you know what I felt like I could help them out and the people the audience by getting them more work and helping them succeed in their home service company elevate is the name of the book I've read it it's fantastic and the link to order is in the description of this podcast I read Tommy's first book I think this one is a bit better two totally different books but I think as we you know move on with things we get better at stuff and I think also that book was written a few years back and Tommy has learned so much more when you look at what Tommy's learned and you know when you look at his numbers and growth you know it's not like well you know ten years ago he was doing this and now he's finally doubled the business no no no no he's like doubling it in a very short amount of time so everything that Tommy's learned over time is in elevate but EI bet most of it is probably in the last five years or less you know it's interesting take 10,000 and double it nine times so you can figure out the double a couple times a year then you spent 4 1/2 years doubling it's amazing what you could get the rule of double is just an amazing rule and it gets you to these astronomical numbers and it's harder to double when you grow but if the systems are in place it's not as hard you look at subway the first 25 years then the chart when they figured things out it's like shrink and the systems dictate the output and there's quality controls in place and that's talk about that in the book and the bonuses include some of this stuff but success leaves clues I try to give as many clues as possible if you listen to the podcast the home service expert home service millionaire book elevate build the business for everybody wins I think that's uh been very open and let people do a shop tour I'd show them everything I'm working on I I find that even open book management letting people know our numbers letting them know our profitability every single employee it doesn't matter to me my coworkers is what I call them we'll find I call them employees in the beginning and then I start calling them coworkers because I find employees that work could be belittling all my employees they're my coworkers I get the honor to work with them absolutely some people call them team members which is better than employees as well and you certainly don't want to call them tools I'm just saying OK I've heard that before as well Tommy Mello on that note thank you so much my friend I appreciate it the book is elevate it's here in the description of this podcast order it if you don't have it and then go see Tommy speak sometime bring the book with you and have him sign it that'll be an extra thank you I appreciate it!

Marcus Sheridan of ’They Ask, You Answer’ Joins Jim Klauck on Bring On Success

Marcus Sheridan from Impact, a digital marketing agency helping small businesses gain exposure and credibility through strategic content marketing, joins Jim Klauck on this episode of Bring On Success.
Marcus wrote the book They Ask You Answer : They Ask You Answer.
This book has changed the lives of many business owners.  On this episode, Marcus tells his story of how he and his partners almost lost their swimming pool business due the recession back in 2008.
In this episode you will learn how adding content through, blogs, audio, and video will not only bring your company credibility but will also help to rank on search engines such as Google.
To contact Marcus you can email him- marcus@marcussheridan.com
or schedule and appointment - https://www.impactplus.com/services/schedule-now
Enjoy!
Podcast Episode Transcription:
 
Welcome to the bring on success program everybody I am Jim Klauck I have a great guest today he's an author he's a speaker he's an entrepreneur he's a business owner and last but not least besides a fisherman he is a husband and
father Marcus Sheridan welcome to the program it's real to be here Jim we're gonna have a good day we are going to have a great day a fantastic day I'm living the dream I know you are we had a chance to connect a few weeks ago in Orlando and it was a pleasure meeting you there yeah yeah great time in Orlando and you know it's that time of year getting around and speaking to a lot of different audiences and you know my favorites are the blue collar ones I've done a bunch
of those uh so far this year so it's great it's great to see some of the movements out there too it's crazy just last week I was with um um a group of blue collar folks and they said so let's talk about Ai and I was like I never thought in 2023 I was going to be talking about AI with blue collar but it's what's up that's what's happening man so a lot of things happen in this world right now actually when you spoke at the soft wash a palooza conference somebody had brought up chat GPT yeah and I'm like oh all right Marcus catch the ball and run with it and you did great I mean because that's the big thing now I mean everyone's trying this thing out right and you know I've heard that maybe Google's going to have to really catch up I've even heard rumors are going to go out of business but they probably won't well they've been working on something uh for a while and they've they actually have a system uh it's it's in some beta and they've got some testers out there already I mean you know what what happened though is is Google's trying to be a little bit more conservative in terms of launch Chat GPT comes out first to Market really with something aggressive like like well chat GPT and and then suddenly
 
you know there's more boardroom meetings happening at Google over the last 60 days than there have been over the last
 
like five years right but that's but that's what we see in the history of
 
businesses again and again and again oftentimes we don't move until we're forced to move
 
by our competition and the great ones and not that Google isn't great as a
 
business I mean whatever you want to say about them I mean they their their results speak for themselves right in
 
terms of the impact they've had on on the world and on our lives and you know their verb for Pete's sake right but
 
thing about it is that if you can be proactive as a business and not wait for
 
your competitors to do this that whatever the thing might be you know I was I was uh just and I know we're
 
jumping ahead here but I was had this uh a couple uh roofers come to me a roofing
2:40
conference the other day and they said Marcus we heard you like three years ago and we put a pricing calculator on our
 
website which they were one of the first in the entire Roofing industry to put a pricing calculator on their website uh
2:51
and most people listen to this right now would say there's no way a roofer could put a pricing calculator on the website and of course they did it and they're
2:56
killing it because of it now what happens though is they do it and then two others do it and then four others do
 
it and then it becomes the norm in the space and it gets to the point where if you don't have one well you're not in
 
the game just like there's a lot of people that resisted even a website right in 2000 and of course today you
 
you you would never think about a business without a website and we're getting that way with a lot of these other elements of let's call it the the
3:23
buyer's Journey like calculators for example yeah you know what's interesting is you brought up something right now
3:29
that I talk about all the time if you go back and I started my business check a
3:35
pro back into 2005. back in 05 there were home service companies that were just getting a website and if you go
3:41
back prior to that everyone had to get a fax machine at some point they had to get an email they had to get a website
3:49
social media and now podcasting and videos are huge and it's it's just
3:56
amazing and if someone doesn't do video if they're not doing podcasting and that
4:02
type of thing if they're not educating their customer then they are way behind and this is a
4:08
great segue to they ask you answer your book why don't you give us a little history of what
4:15
happened back in 2008-ish with your swimming pool company river pools yeah
4:20
so I started a swimming pool company in in 2001 out of college with a couple buddies and things were going okay for
4:27
us we were fighting to grow it but then 2008 2009 we've got the crash and we
4:33
legitimately were going out of business I talked to a few different Consultants they all said I should file bankruptcy
4:40
but the problem was as you know Jim and many of your listeners know business was tied to my houses and so my home or my
4:48
business partner's homes and so I lost my home if we would have lost the business and we said we've got to figure
4:54
out a way how to how to save our our company and that's when I started and by
5:00
the way that's the beauty of pain and suffering it forces us to do things that otherwise we wouldn't do right it's
5:05
always when we're in The Valleys of life right to that we find some of the greatest Innovations and ideas and we'd
5:13
pull it out of us sorry to interrupt you but yes yeah when I mean when you're down on the ground getting your teeth
5:19
kicked in you realize is that I am way greater than I thought I was and when
5:24
things were good and you're riding the great economy wave and you're like oh this is easy you really don't appreciate
5:30
what you can do when you've been beaten up like what happened to you guys in 08. yeah it's that ntl phenomena nothing to
5:37
lose right and so when you got nothing to lose suddenly the world is your oyster and so I started to read about
5:44
the internet and because I had recognized how I was changing how I was starting to use the internet for
5:49
everything and how I was starting to vet company so much more and become more and more informed as a buyer right so as I
5:57
was researching online and seeing all these fancy phrases like inbound marketing and content marketing and social media blogging whatnot what I
6:04
heard in my simple pool guy mine was you know Marcus if you just obsess over your customers questions worries
6:11
fears issues concerns and you're willing to address those on your website through
6:18
text through video through audio right then you just might save your business so I said well shoot if there's one
6:24
thing I can do is I can obsess over those questions worries Furious issues concerns I can address those on our website that's what I'm going to do
6:30
we're going to become the best teachers in the world when it comes to in our case fiberglass swimming pools and so
6:35
over the next two years every single night literally every single night I'd sit there and write an article or
6:42
produce a video on my website after everybody in my house had gone to bed and uh addressing a question a worry a
6:49
fear and we became the most traffic swimming pool builder website in the world
6:55
and it saved the business and I saw that it was working so well that I started to write about what I and what we were
7:02
doing as a company and eventually that would become a book called they ask you answer and they ask you answer it's now been read a couple
7:08
hundred thousand times around the world and it's been embraced by a lot a lot of businesses a ton in the Home Services
7:13
space it does extremely well because if you look at it anything that involves
7:19
heavy decision making and research um
7:25
and especially works well when you sell in the home
7:31
they ask you answer it's just a home run for this and so they ask you answer has
7:37
been embraced by lots of people uh within different Home Improvement home services and uh it's very very
7:45
exciting it's very cool to see and I'm getting crazy case studies almost every day now from people around the world
7:50
I'll tell you what's really amazing about this and correct me if I'm wrong but you're the Pioneer in this so when
7:58
you were desperate back in 08 and I've I've read your book four times
8:04
I'm a big fan right I I mean I I'm telling you we have adopted your system
8:10
um and and we basically subscribe to it if you will for for our clients and it you know it just makes sense so back in
8:17
2008 here you are you're you're scratching and clawing at anything you
8:23
did not know your investment at three o'clock in the morning by writing articles and blogging and and recording
8:29
videos was going to pay off did you I didn't know but I knew that was the
8:35
only real in my mind option at that point we we didn't really have a plan B right it was like okay I can either lose
8:41
my home I could stay up late and I can start to do these things which is also why I don't always have a lot of empathy
8:46
for people that tell me you know we don't have the time to do any of this stuff Marcus because I can't really what it is is you don't you're not you're not
8:52
enough pain yet you start to feel that pain suddenly we find the time to do that which we value right I mean that's
8:58
just the way that that life works I didn't know but within about six months I knew I was on to something really
9:04
special and within a year I knew my life would never be the same what is inbound marketing for the people
9:11
who are watching and listening to this they hear about it my audience and my
9:16
clients are blue collar contractors for the most part so they're really trying
9:21
to get up to speed and stay on top of technology so they've heard about this
9:27
what does that mean inbound yeah in simplest terms it's the opposite of outbound which
9:36
was the traditional way old school way that we would get in front of people and
9:43
that's that's really the phrase of inba of outbound is you're jumping in front you're interrupting people and so in
9:50
that in this case outbound back in the day was radio and it was TV these were the commercials that you didn't really
9:56
want to hear but they just were part of the program it was the you know the placement in some type of publication
10:02
whatever that thing was so all those things were were outbound inbound is
10:07
when they're looking for you and they come to you you're not interrupting them
10:13
and so the best analogy that I could give you is the classic middle school
10:18
dance and at the middle school dance there's uh we'll just call it two types
10:25
of guys and girls too but it's two types of guys there's the guy that has the
10:30
girls around him and he can choose who he dances with or is there's the guy
10:35
that's tapping every girl on their shoulder and they're just really hoping they're not the one that he he's gonna
10:41
tap right now which one has a better experience at the dance well the one that can pick and choose has a better
10:48
experience at the dance and so the idea is we as businesses attract those that
10:54
we are aligned with so they don't feel interrupted by us because we've given them something and that something
11:00
generally is knowledge it's information it's Comfort it's understanding right because they're going through this thing
11:07
called a buyer's Journey which by the way it used to be called a a sales process but now it's clearly a buyer's
11:12
Journey because they're clearly in charge of how this game is played anybody that thinks otherwise is sorely
11:19
mistaken so they're going through this journey just like you and I we Vet companies all the time and whoever's
11:24
willing to feed us the most whoever's who is willing to be more honest more transparent than anybody else that's who
11:31
we're probably going to be most aligned with and then therefore that's who we're probably going to reach out to fill out that form on that website call them
11:37
directly that's an inbound lead and they're closing percentages of course are much higher one of which is because
11:44
they really want to have a conversation second of which is they're more informed than your traditional outbound lead
11:52
I love inbound so for everyone who needs a little clarification you much rather have
11:59
someone not be sold by you you rather have them buy from you you do not want
12:04
to sell people you want to inform educate be available yeah and spread those little seeds out
12:12
there and then when that buyer that prospective buyer decides that they've
12:18
sold themselves on your service and products they will then contact you after reading about you watching your
12:24
videos listening to podcasts and that's the beauty of it we all rather have someone buy from us
12:31
than us have to sell you are almost a hundred percent more able to close when
12:37
someone contacts you after they've spent a tremendous amount of time researching you as a matter of fact in your bookmark
12:43
as you talk about there's a couple of examples but you talk about people who spent hours researching your pool
12:50
company and it was like a slam dunk talk about that well it's interesting we have
12:55
found this in pretty much every industry that we've worked with um and because I've got an agency that
13:01
helps companies do they ask you answer so we've got incredible amounts of data and what I found with my pool companies
13:07
what we found again and again is that there's this Tipping Point number of let's call it content consumption that
13:14
if somebody consumes a certain amount of content on your website the the there's a hockey stick growth
13:20
when it comes to the closing rates and so in our case with the pool company what I found was if somebody read 30 or
13:27
more pages of our website before the initial sales appointment in the home they would buy 80 of the time
13:34
now if they didn't hit that magical number of 30 the closing rates were roughly 25 and 25 is the average closing
13:42
rate in the swimming pool industry one out of four homes you go into will turn into a closed deal and so we could go
13:49
from one out of four basically to four out of five simply by ensuring that they had
13:56
consumed in this case viewed watch listened to 30 pieces of our content and so that's when we said oh my goodness we
14:02
got to change the way we sell so we got very very intentional about the way we sell and of course we call that today
14:08
assignment selling and assignment selling is something that you can Google really easily and find a bunch if you're
14:14
listening to this right now on it but especially in the Home Services space it's it's stinking magical and the way
14:20
it works Jim is you know oftentimes Prospect reaches out to us
14:26
we might you know ask them a few questions and then we say okay I'm coming out to give you a quote but we
14:33
haven't really done what we need to do to make sure they are well informed well
14:39
educated they understand the basics because the mistake that we oftentimes make and this is in its prolific in Home
14:45
Services as you know is we spend way too much in the home way too much time teaching not enough time selling right
14:52
in the sense that ideally by the time you get to the home when I say selling what I'm referring to is
14:59
they they already know the basics because they had heard it from you they had seen it from you they've already
15:04
learned it from you so they're not asking you things so like so what is it what is the difference between a
15:10
fiberglass and a concrete pool what the heck if somebody's asking that question they're probably not buying that day because they should already know the
15:16
answer to that question that's my job as a salesperson to make sure they know that before I go to the home so every
15:22
person that's listening to this right now that's in sales if I said to them are there certain questions that when
15:28
someone asks you this question you know they're not ready to buy every single one that's been in the game for any
15:34
period of time would say oh absolutely there's just indicators that they're not ready to buy if somebody says to me well
15:40
how much does a fiberglass pool cost like I've got no sense for it like what what can I expect to spend they're
15:45
probably not ready to buy because they have no sense for things you know it and like I said if if somebody doesn't have
15:52
know the difference between the types of in-ground swimming pools they're probably not going to buy so they should
15:58
know these things and so assignment selling ensures that they know these things by if I'm having a conversation
16:05
with you Jim and let me just give you a quick example of how it sounds because anybody that's listening to this could do this and it's going to make a big
16:11
difference on you so let's say hypothetically Jim you call me up I'd say you'll Marcus I'm checking out your
16:16
website could you could you come out to my house this Friday and give me a quote for a swimming pool or whatever the thing is right and I say sure now it
16:24
used to be that I would just go out to the house but understanding the power of these 30 page views and what it does to
16:30
the closing rates I would now say something like this you say Marcus can you come out to my house this Friday give me a quote for a pool and I say Jim
16:37
I'd love to come out to your house but you're getting ready to spend a lot of money and if you're going to spend a lot of money I know you don't want to make
16:42
any mistakes and so as to make sure you don't make any mistakes I'm going to send you two things while we're talking on the phone right now so the first
16:48
thing I'm going to send you is a video that shows you in the entire install process of a fiberglass pool going in a
16:53
backyard so you're going to see what it looks like the excavation pool going in the ground patio going around to clean up the whole nine and this way when I
17:00
come out to your house on Friday you're not going to say to me so Marcus what does this process look like you're already going to know now time out that
17:05
just saved me 30 minutes on the sales appointment now the second thing I'm going to send you Jim is a buyer's guide this buyer's guide is great because it's
17:11
going to answer a lot of the questions that you have about fiberglass pools that nobody's been and willing or bothered to answer for you online like
17:17
should I get a heater with my pool what's the best type of feeder should be gas should it be electric should it heat
17:23
and cool my water should it be solar should I get a cover with my pool what's the best type of cover should we match should it be solid should it be solar so
17:30
this guide it's a little bit long Jim it's about 30 pages but I promise you it'll be well worth your time Jim will
17:36
you take the time to review these things before our appointment on Friday and 90
17:41
of the time Jim says yes sure I'd love to and if he does that I know he's going to buy 80 of the time the problem that
17:48
most um uh folks salespeople have when they have a sales appointment
17:54
they'll say something like hey I've got a couple videos on my website or I got this you know one article it'd be great
18:00
if you could give it a look that is a fail now it's nice that you have those but you need to learn to intentionally
18:06
integrate them into your sales process and this is the power of the teacher
18:11
this is the power of producing great content because the right of he or she who teaches is greater than the rights
18:17
of he or she who does not teach and so the fact that I have this Mecca of information on my website allows me to
18:24
say to you here's my expectations before I meet with you Jim I want you to read this and I want you to watch this and if
18:29
you do that it's going to save us a tremendous amount of time it's going to prevent these mistakes that's called assignment selling everybody should be
18:34
doing it very very few are it is so simple but it makes sense and I ...
 

The Great Game Of Business - Steve Baker

Steve Baker is vice president of The Great Game of Business, Inc. Steve coauthored Get in the Game as well as the update of the number one bestseller, The Great Game of Business—20th Anniversary Edition. Known for his engaging and irreverent style, Steve is a top-rated, sought-after speaker and coach on open-book management, strategy and execution, leadership, and employee engagement.
His audiences range from Harvard University to the Department of Defense, and he is a regular at Inc. magazine’s Inc. 5000 Conference. He has served on the Board of the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and SRC Holding’s Ownership Culture Initiative.
Steve is an award-winning artist and lives in Springfield, Missouri, with his trophy wife, JoAnn, and three above-average children.
 
Click Here To Get Your FREE book - The Great Game of Business The Great Game of Business.
 
As a bonus you will also get a chapter out of Steve's book - Get In The Game.
https://www.greatgame.com/steve
 
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Joe Crisara - Service MVP - True Grit - Las Vegas - March 2nd - 4th 2023

Uncle Joe Crisara is America’s Service Sales coach! Joe joins Jim Klauck on Bring On Success to discuss the upcoming True Grit 2023 event being held at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2nd-4th 2023.
Check out this episode to learn why you and your home service team should attend.
Tommy Mello from A1 Garage Door Service will be Kick Off Key Note Speaker on the Day!  Ken Goodrich from Goettle Air Conditioning and Plumbing will be speaking as well.
Joe has been helping service companies for nearly 45 years and has performed services for companies just like yours.  Like you, Joe suffered frustration & heartbreak, and poured out the blood, sweat & tears it takes to survive. Over time, Joe has learned to change how he did things and was able to get more traction and better results.
Joe is here today to help all of us in service businesses thrive!  Not just survive! 
Space is limited to only 200 attendees!
Click Here To Reserve Your Seat - Service MVP True Grit.
 
Imagine your business one year from now…
 
Your office, service, sales, and installation teams delivering that “WOW” experience to every client.
 
Your team creating customized premium, mid-range, and economy solutions for every customer.
 
Your team assisting clients to bring every opportunity to the most profitable conclusion
 
Motivated team members trained to provide the best service possible in every situation.
 
See high revenue and profit Online reviews filled with 5-star ratings and glowing praise

AC Lockyer - Softwash A Polooza

Soft washing was developed by AC Lockyer with his knowledge and experience in plant sciences and horticulture. AC knew that the bacteria, molds, fungi, and algae growing on the exterior of buildings were more closely associated with an infection than a stain. Knowing this AC drew from his experiences and combined the technology of treating pests and fungus on plants with compatible cleaning chemicals, thereby inventing a method of soft washing.
https://softwashapolooza.com
 
 

Jerry Isenhour - Get Past The Pain Of Change In Your Business

Jerry Isenhour from CVC is my guest on this episode of Bring On Success! Jerry and I discuss how small businesses must embrace change, follow systems, and learn to let go so the business owner can "Live Their Dream"!
 
Jerry's Bio -
Jerry E. Isenhour, Sr. is a recognized expert in the field of retail and service businesses. He is a leading name in the chimney and venting industry and has been involved in it since his initial entry into the ownership and management of his first business venture. He also helped pioneer the hearth industry as it transitioned to marketing outdoor living products. This has proven to be a viable growth area for the hearth industry and has even extended into the landscape industry.
Jerry has also worked extensively within other industries, offering design, training, and marketing assistance. He has coached, consulted, and trained at various levels for a variety of businesses, including plumbing, electric, hearth sales, chimney services, landscaping, restoration, and other sales and service industries.
Contact Jerry Isenhour Jerry Isenhour.
 

Tom Ziglar - A Discussion On The Changing Landscape Of Business Today

What a thrill to talk to my friend, Tom Ziglar!  Many years ago I was very much influenced by Tom's dad, Zig Ziglar.  Zig would talk to me as I drove my car from account to account while I worked my sales route.
After almost wearing out the cassette tape in my car's tape deck, I gained the courage and inspiration to quit my job and become an entrepreneur at the age of 37.  I had a 2 year old son, and my wife was pregnant with our daughter at the time I came home and told my wife that I wanted resign from the corporate world to pursue my dreams.  The rest is history!
 
Tom and I discuss the everchanging business climate today, and how we as small business owners have to navigate these uncertain waters.  I know you will truly enjoy this episode of Bring On Success...
 
Tom Ziglar's Bio -
Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar, Inc., not only shares a last name with his father, Zig Ziglar, he also carries on his philosophy: ”You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” He is boldly taking Ziglar, Inc., into the world of social communities, Twitter, blogs, and live video webcasts to present the tried-and-true message of hope, integrity, and positive thinking to a whole new audience.
Contact Tom Ziglar Tom Ziglar.
 

Jordan Adler - Beach Money - Networking To Success

Jordan Adler is my guest on this episode of Bring On Success! I ask Jordan what made him so successful in Network Marketing.  Jordan told me - "We network in all businesses..."  Basically, in order to build a successful business we all must network on a regular to build our "Rolodex".
This is a must listen episode!  I know you will walkaway with a few great 'Nuggets' to incorporate into your business building efforts!
 
Jordan Adler's Bio -
Jordan was involved in 10 network marketing companies in his first 11 years in the business and never signed up a single distributor. At the age of 34 years old, he had less than $200 in the bank. He had $36,000 in credit card debt on 22 credit cards. He was living in a garage in Tempe, AZ and his rent was $200 a month. His jeep had been broken down for 2 years and he was taking a bus to work. His job paid him $14,000 a year after the airline he worked for had just filed bankruptcy. 36 months later, Jordan became a top earner in his company of 2 1/2 million distributors and went on to make $20 million in network marketing.
Jordan has built businesses consisting of over 200,000 distributors and nearly 500,000 customers in countries all over the globe. He’s a builder, speaker, leader, trainer and motivator. His audiences are mesmerized by his stories that inspire belief and action. Jordan sees himself as a dream broker. He lives his personal dreams on a large scale and then inspires others to go for theirs.
Contact Jordan Adler Jordan Adler.
 

Lee Roff - Lords Chimney - Entrepreneurship Discussion

Lee Roff from Lords Chimney in Houston, Texas joins Jim Klauck on this episode of the Bring On Success program.  Lee discusses how he began his chimney sweep business almost 20 years ago.
 
Jim and Lee share stories of entrepreneurship from their decades of experience growing small businesses.
 

Dan Antonelli - KickCharge Creative - Branded Not Blanded

Dan Antonelli, author of Branded Not Blanded, joins me on this episode. Dan talks to the importance of creating the right brand for your home service company. Dan will be signing his new book at the upcoming Vertical Track conference in Phoenix, AZ from October 12th-14th. (More about Vertical Track below...)
Get Your Copy of Dan's Book Today -
 
Dan wrote Branded Not Blanded
 
The Blueprint for a Killer Home Service Brand.
Now is the time to invest in your home service branding and build a brand that is unique and disruptive. This book gives you the blueprint for how to build a brand that stands out, attracts the right clients and employees, and wins the hearts and minds of your ideal customer. Covering the basics from naming and tagline to the logistics of building a disruptive wrap, you’ll learn how better branding yields a much-improved marketing ROI and a smaller marketing budget.
This book features real case studies from home service business owners. You’ll read about the results their new brands have had, and the effect not only on revenue but internal culture. Imagine your home service brand standing out instead of just fitting in (blanding). What would happen for your home service business if it had a unique, and disruptive brand that people remembered when they needed service?
Written by Dan Antonelli, the Creative Director and President of KickCharge™ Creative, this book leverages his nearly 30-year track record of developing some of the most successful home service brands in the country. With over 2000 brands to his credit, Dan shares his winning formula to get inside home consumers’ minds and help create a brand that connects them to your home service company. When it comes to branding, home service companies have two choices: Build a disruptive brand and spend less on marketing or overspend on marketing to overcome a poor brand. Most choose the latter, which creates an opportunity for your company to take market share by building a truly disruptive brand!
The Vertical Track speaker list runs deep with other great speakers as well including Tommy Mello, Ken Goodrich, Joe Polish, Ellen Rohr, Keith Mercurio and many more!
Oh, and I, Jim Klauck, will be dropping some Marketing Nuggets for everyone on Friday afternoon!  See you there!
If you have not registered for the event yet get in while there is still room.  Click here for Vertical Track details -
Vertical Track Conference Vertical Track.
 

Al Levi - 7 - Power Contractor - Vertical Track

Al Levi, author of The 7-Power Contractor joins me on this episode. Al reveals some of what he will talking about at the upcoming Vertical Track conference in Phoenix, AZ from October 12th-14th.
The Vertical Track speaker list runs deep with other great speakers as well including Tommy Mello, Ken Goodrich, Joe Polish, Ellen Rohr, Keith Mercurio and many more!
Oh, and I, Jim Klauck, will be dropping some Marketing Nuggets for everyone on Friday afternoon!  See you there!
If you have not registered for the event yet get in while there is still room.  Click here for Vertical Track details -
Vertical Track Conference Vertical Track.
 
More about Al Levi...
Al Levi, The 7-Power Contractor, is a business consultant, teacher, author, and successful former contractor who helps other contractors learn to run theirbusinesses with less stress and more success through his book, online one-of-a kind Operating Manuals program, and he’s been a long-running columnist for Plumbing & Mechanical magazine. Jim and Al discuss the issues contractors deal with on a day-to-day basis and discuss solutions through the 7- Power Contractor method.
Check Out Al's Website - 7 Power Contractor 7 Power Contractor.
 
Get Your Copy of Al's Book Today -
 
Al Levi wrote 7 Power Contractor : 7 Power Contractor.

Tommy Mello -A1 Garage Door Service - Vertical Track

This is a must listen podcast!  Tommy Mello from A1 Garage Door Service joins me today on the program. Tommy talks about the upcoming Vertical Track Conference in Phoenix, AZ - October 12th-14th.  Speakers from the likes of Ken Goodrich, Ellen Rohr, Joe Polish, Keith Mercurio and many more!
If you have not registered for the event yet get in while there is still room.  Click here for Vertical Track details -
Vertical Track Conference Vertical Track.
 
 

AC Lockyer - Pattern Success - September 5, 2022

The 5 Keys to Pattern Success by AC Lockyer -
AC Lockyer, a third generation service professional joins Jim Klauck on this podcast to discuss AC's book "The 5 Keys to Pattern Success"!
Emulate the lifelong system that AC Lockyer has used to create and sustain success throughout his business and personal life. In his book, The 5 Keys to Pattern Success, AC reveals his five keys to pattern success, introduces a concept to develop each key, then recounts personal stories of how he used them to achieve success-even when the odds seemed insurmountable. AC’s stunning, immersive book will transform your goal-setting and execution processes, enriching your life and helping you to achieve all your life’s goals.

Al Levi -7- Power Contractor - Grow Big With Training

Al Levi, The 7-Power Contractor, is a business consultant, teacher, author, and successful former contractor who helps other contractors learn to run theirbusinesses with less stress and more success through his book, online one-of-a kind Operating Manuals program, and he’s been a long-running columnist for Plumbing & Mechanical magazine. Jim and Al discuss the issues contractors deal with on a day-to-day basis and discuss solutions through the 7- Power Contractor method.
Check Out Al's Website - 7 Power Contractor 7 Power Contractor.
 
Get Your Copy of Al's Book Today -
 
Al Levi wrote 7 Power Contractor : 7 Power Contractor.

Tommy Mello -A1 Garage Door Service

"Everyone Is A Winner"!  Tommy Mello is my guest on this podcast.  Tommy owns the fastest growing garage door company in the U.S.A. 
Tommy talks about the new book he is writing called - "Everyone Is A Winner".  That sums up Tommy's philosophy at A1 Garage Doors!
In other exciting news -
The A1 Garage Door Podcast now ranks as the #1 Garage Door Podcast in the world! 
Check Out A1's Podcast - A1 Garage Door Podcast TOP Garage Door Podcast.
 
 

Joe Crisara - Service MVP

Joe Crisara is America’s Service Sales coach! Joe has been helping service companies for nearly 45 years and has performed services for companies just like yours.  Like you, Joe suffered frustration & heartbreak, and poured out the blood, sweat & tears it takes to survive. Over time, Joe has learned to change how he did things and was able to get more traction and better results.
Joe is here today to help all of us in service businesses thrive!  Not just survive! 
Check Out Joe's Website - Service MVP SERVICE MVP.
 
Imagine your business one year from now…
 
Your office, service, sales, and installation teams delivering that “WOW” experience to every client.
 
Your team creating customized premium, mid-range, and economy solutions for every customer.
 
Your team assisting clients to bring every opportunity to the most profitable conclusion
 
Motivated team members trained to provide the best service possible in every situation.
 
See high revenue and profit Online reviews filled with 5-star ratings and glowing praise

Howard Partridge - Failure To Implement

Get Your Copy of FTI Today
 
Howard Partridge, Speaker, Business Coach and Author wrote Failure To Implement : Failure To Implement.
Check out the latest Bring On Success podcast with Jim Klauck where he interviews Howard Partridge, the author of Failure To Implement.
Why is it that we don't do the things we know we should do to be more successful? Is it a lack of time? A lack of discipline? A lack of motivation?The number one reason most people don't reach their biggest dreams and goals is what international business coach Howard Partridge calls F.T.I. Failure to Implement. Many times, people know what to do and how to do it; they just don't do it.In this podcast Howard Partridge reveals the causes of F.T.I. and offers a proven path to overcoming the tendency toward inaction. The four keys to implementation that it outlines will give you the momentum you need to propel yourself to phenomenal success.Howard has been a business owner for 35 years and has been coaching business owners, leaders, and individuals to success for more than two decades. Now you can profit from his experience and unlock the keys to your biggest dreams and goals.
Listen to end for a FREE book offer from the host, Jim Klauck.

Lenny Gray -The Door To Door Millionaire

Get Your Copy of Lenny's Book Today -
Lenny wrote the Door-to-Door Millionaire Series which includes his books: Door-to-Door Millionaire: Secrets of Making the Sale & MORE Door-to-Door Millionaire: Next-Level Training.
 
His career in the door-to-door sales industry began in the late 1990s. Along with running his own companies, my guest, Lenny Gray consults for a variety of other businesses, and teach his sales techniques and methods to a multitude of audiences. Lenny has consulted for start-ups that are generating millions of dollars in revenue, and one company that is valued at over 2 billion dollars!These resources include some of what he’s learned while knocking doors and interacting with millions of people. There isn’t a tougher environment to sell than going door to door, and Lenny’s techniques translate into any sales setting, even into daily communication with family, friends and colleagues. These methods are proven to make decent salespeople good and good salespeople great!

Ellen Rohr -Zoom Drain

I've known Ellen Rohr for years!  In 2009, I interviewed Ellen on my Bring On Success Radio Show which used to air locally on a Houston radio station.  Now Ellen is back with me on the podcast.
On this podcast Ellen shows us how to raise our prices without batting an eyelash or making excuses!  If you want your home service company to be more profitable then check out this episode!
 
Ellen started Bare Bones Biz, a venture capital and consulting company in 1995 to help folks of all ages turn their big ideas into successful businesses. 
As president of Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber, a home service company, Ellen helped grow the company from zero to $40 million in franchise sales and 47 locations in less than 2 years.  Ellen is also the COO of ZOOM DRAIN Franchising, LLC, a new drain and sewer company expanding across the USA. 

Alan O’Neill -Abacus Plumbing, A/C & Electrical

My guest today, has 41 years of experience in the home services industry and has elevated his expertise into a motivational leader and speaker who embraces change and passionately guides people into overcoming obstacles to succeed. His enthusiasm for lifelong learning has led him to become a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer and a John Maxwell Certified Speaker, Trainer, and Coach.
The company he founded in 2003 -  originally Abacus Plumbing - is a premier home services company in Houston, Texas. Under his extraordinary leadership, Abacus has achieved the Better Business Bureau Award for Excellence ten times, three of which were the prestigious Pinnacle Award -  garnered national attention for its record growth and was named one of INC 5000’s fastest growing companies in 2010 and 2011.