Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries.

Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions.

And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats.

It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement.

We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement.

Let's get to work now.

Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Welcome back to Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here.

I am excited about the guest that is on today.

You may have seen some of his books in the space.

You can get them all over the place.

They are eye catching and this gentleman knows what he is talking about when it comes to business.

So I'm really excited to have him on today.

I'm sure we're going to dive into some really fun topics.

A couple of books he's written book came out in 2019.

You may have seen Unfuck youk Business, which is his flagship book.

And he's also working on a new one which I'm excited about.

We're going to talk about today.

It's called the G3 method.

So we'll dive into that here in a little bit.

And as far as his history goes, we're going to let him give a quick little highlight reel.

But one of the things that I really love about this gentleman is just he's so down to earth.

And you know, a lot of the trainers and coaches that you see in the space are those quote unquote gurus that don't necessarily have the background, practical experience.

But not this guy.

I've had a pleasure of getting to know him over this last several weeks and I know you all are going to enjoy this conversation today as well.

And so when I was asking him how he likes to be introduced, one of the things he said is call him anything but asshole.

So we'll make sure to when you shoot him a message, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Don't call him that unless it's, unless you're having fun.

So, because I know you're going to want to reach out to find more information about his, about his program as soon as we go through this.

But man, I'm so excited to introduce this is Thomas Keenan.

He is business extraordinaire, master of all of the things that goes on behind the scenes in your organization.

So welcome to the show, man.

It's cool to have you today.

Damn, this is awesome.

I appreciate that warm and welcome intro and just, just an honor to be here on somebody else's show.

I had a podcast for five years myself, almost 270something episodes.

Like, I understand the work that goes into this and I, I'm just truly grateful to spend, you know, an hour or so here with you and, and get some really good conversation flowing.

And the intent always for me is to just help at least one person who's going to listen and dial into the show.

Love it.

Love it.

Oh man, that's beautiful.

It's fun that you mentioned that.

Actually this is, I haven't really mentioned it much on this episode or on the, on the show recently, but we're recording in.

Let's see.

This is May 21, 2025 for everybody listening.

This month is the six year anniversary of the Close it now podcast and we are not quite to 70.

We're 242 somewhere in that range right now and two episodes a week is what we do.

So solo training and then also Fridays every interview session drops.

So thanks for that.

It's not easy.

The power of consistency is what makes it.

But Leah, before we get into this a little bit, I'd love to hear from you, man.

Give us a history, give us your highlight.

So there's two parts to this question.

Sure, go ahead, give us your highlight reel of, you know, how you earned the right to sit in the seat and, you know, get the knowledge you have that you can share and help people from, you know.

But also what we also love to hear on this show from our guests is what is the driving philosophy behind personal business or combined that keeps you moving forward?

Something that, that a thread that weaves through that everything that you do and you can answer those questions in whatever order that you would like.

I'm going to answer the second question.

This is a model that I live by.

People who follow me on social media probably have seen this 100 times.

I get eye rolls from it, from people who are around me because I say it so much.

They just like, oh, not again.

Yeah, it's really simple.

And this is how I live my life.

It's small steps forward daily.

Love it.

Because it's going back to what you said about the podcast.

It's consistency.

You know, you in your sales training, your sales coaching, it's Consistency.

It's consistency that actually turns that lead and that.

That person into a.

An actual sale.

So I found that being consistent in multiple areas of the life is.

Is how we actually make forward progress.

And if we show up every day, whether we want to or not, and we make a little bit of forward progress, we're gonna win.

We can call the day a win at that point, too.

And the.

The overall big overarching theme of that statement is this.

I find that most times, you know, we.

We show up daily, we do a little work, make a little progress, and we're like, man, we didn't get done today.

It didn't happen fast enough.

I didn't get the.

The win or the end results.

But if we show up and if we stop paying attention to the little micro wins that we get each day, if we show up and six months later, we say, okay, hold on, stop, pause, let me turn around and let's see how far we've come.

And you turn around six months later and it's like, oh, damn, I didn't realize we came 1.5 miles right on those little tiny micro steps that we, we contributed each and every day.

And you also know that some days, some days you.

You hit it out of the park and you take 10 steps, and some days you take that little micro step that you know your little baby daughter or son is going to take next to you, because that's all that you can muster that day.

Because you and I both know that sometimes we have the best intentions and we show up each and every day and we.

We give our best, but there's always outside forces that may hinder our progress, if that makes sense.

It does make sense.

Yeah.

So regardless, it's just something I've lived by.

Even the days you don't feel like it, the days that you feel crappy, the days you don't want to have a conversation with a client, maybe there's something going on in your life, personally, professionally, all of the above.

We still have to show up and do what we've basically committed to doing.

Same as you showing up consistently in this podcast for six years.

I'm sure there's been days you're like, oh, my God, I got three recordings this week.

I don't want any of them.

Still show up and do it.

And there's been some gaps, too.

You know, there's times, some situations in life where, you know, took some breaks from the podcast, but, you know, get back to it and keep going.

It's like we don't Quit.

We just rest and keep moving forward.

That's it, man.

That's it.

So back to part one of the question.

I'll give you the highlight reel.

Born and raised, Long Island, N.Y.

spent my first 40 years there.

In 2020, right in the smack middle of COVID I decided to say, f this, I had enough of my business, had enough of my business partner, had enough of the industry I was in, and I'll get into that here in a second, and decided to say, hey, you know what?

It's time to go full, full force into coaching, consulting.

And at the same point in time, I'm going to pick up my family and move halfway across the country.

Right.

So lots of moving pieces at the same time.

And.

And still to this day, one of the best decisions that I made very happy with, with where I am, where I landed.

It's funny, you know, I'm here in North Dallas, and the reason that we're having a conversation is because of someone who's extremely local to me, you know, our good friend Jonathan Bannister.

He lives like three or four blocks from me.

He's like, really close.

Nice.

So if I had to make a.

Trip, y' all are like three hours.

Yeah, dude, come on down.

We'll go to lunch, right?

So if I hadn't have come here, you know, it's one of those things where proximity lead, leads to interactions, connections, opportunities, doors open.

If I hadn't moved here, chances are I probably wouldn't have met him and him and I wouldn't do the life and the business that we do together.

I wouldn't have been introduced to you and I'm sure several other people that you and I are going to introduce each other to alone in the next six months, year, six years, whatever it turns into.

No doubt.

So, yeah, so going back to this, I'm a trained custom car audio installer.

Okay.

I was a dude in high school who couldn't get enough of cars and car audio and said, hey, that's really cool stuff.

I want to go learn more about it.

And I started reading every magazine and trade book I could on.

On the.

The art, the skill of.

Of installation.

And I trained myself well enough to get a job, worked a little bit for a year or so, and then said, you know what?

And this is a recurring theme in my life, that I'm big with patterns.

I have the ability to look back and say, oh, wait, there's a pattern.

And you have to go through it in order to actually see it.

And again, that's the whole turn around six months later and see how far you've come kind of thing.

The pattern here that started, and this is the first time it started showing up in my life is I need to go find out who the best is and I want to go learn from them.

Yeah, no doubt.

Success clues.

All right, so at that time, this is the late 90s, 1999 to be exact, there was like two places, three, maybe three places in the country that you can go, you could pay a whole bunch of money to.

And it was, it was a legit trade school for car audio installation, mobile electronics, fabrication, all that stuff.

Oh, very cool.

So living in the northeast, I sort of, kind of wanted something somewhat close to home.

And at that time there was a really awesome place up in Boston, Massachusetts and I spent three months there in the summer of 1999.

I learned from some of the best in the industry and came back home to Long island.

And within a week or so I landed a job at a really high end place.

We were doing, we were doing work for some big name people and fancy ass cars.

Like I was in my glory.

Loved it.

Sure.

Go to the Ferraris and Lamborghinis and.

Yeah, you name thousand dollars Bentleys and crazy Ferraris and you name it, it was in there.

And here I am, this 19, 20 year old kid who's literally tearing these things apart down to bare metal.

Right.

The owners would walk in and be like, oh my God, what are you doing?

You're going to put it back together with all the pieces, right?

Yeah.

So I, I got to learn a lot, get a lot of experience from an installer's perspective in that role to the point where it boosted my confidence where I was like, I'm gonna go do this myself now.

So 19 years old or 20.

I'm sorry.

I was 21 years old and started the first business.

It's called exquisite mobile electronics.

It lasted five years and I was a really good installer.

I knew what I was doing.

Was I great?

No, because I still needed years to, to get better.

But I was, I was good enough to go out there and to serve the, the public at a very high level, deliver a to them.

However, where I was lacking, sir, was the business side of the house.

I didn't know a damn thing about it.

You know, that sounds pretty familiar.

We get this entrepreneurial seizure and decide to hang out our shingle and, and then, oh, but I do good work.

Yep, yep.

And I, I had the mentality of, hey, I'm just going to start the Business people in the area know who I am and magically the work's going to come in the door.

And to some extent it did.

Until it didn't.

Right.

And I would have these.

It was like a massive roller coaster.

I didn't know anything about sales or marketing or, or systems in a business.

It was like, hey man, I'm just going to build this shop and invest a bunch of money into it and get this whole thing set up so I can fabricate and work on cars and get all the tools I need, buy some inventory, get the supplies I need to do the work the right way.

Oh, by the way, let me sign this lease that's you know, taking four or $5,000 a month and of my profit out.

And I needed it, I needed the facility.

Learning to deal with that, leasing negotiations, dealing with.

I was in a building that had like five or six different businesses and tenants and dealing with my neighbors, my tenants next to us that had no interest in having a 20 year old kid who was a car audio installer next to them.

Yeah.

And three o' clock in the afternoon I'm testing a $10,000 audio system that we just installed.

Blasting the base.

Ye.

Yeah.

In their walls.

At the time I, I didn't give a, like, hey, it is what it is.

This is my business, I'm doing what I'm doing.

And a part of me there, yeah, cool, I get it.

You were right.

But at the same point in time now as a 45 year old, you know, grown man with a lot more experience and empathy for people, like, could you imagine a 21 year old kid moving in next to your business that you've had in place for several years?

You run a clean business, you don't make noise, you don't bother anybody and then three or four times a day the entire building is rattling because of all the crap he's doing.

Right.

That's a shock to the system to say the least.

Yeah, yeah.

Literally.

So long story short there five years into it and like I, I just, I couldn't make the business work anymore.

And it got to the point where it started impacting me mentally, physically, emotionally.

Like all the areas, business was the only thing that I focused on.

So my relationships outside of work pretty much fizzled and went to shit.

And that was with family members, that was with friends.

Like I was at the business, in the business, I was the business.

Sure.

So 17 to 20 hour days was the norm and I didn't understand that.

People didn't understand or couldn't understand My drive and want for this thing to succeed.

And it was one of those things where no matter how many hours I put into it, I couldn't outwork the problems that I had created for myself.

So I had to make that tough decision five years into it and be like, all right, well, I got to throw the towel in here.

I'm $85,000 in personal debt.

It's not a good feeling.

I'm getting notices over here to turn a damn electric off, and they're giving me notices to turn the gas off.

And if you guys know anything about the northeast in January, February, it is not warm, sir.

So it's like, you know, it's funny how life, and we'll call it, I don't know, the universe, God, whatever term people want to use here gives you opportunities oftentimes when you need them the most.

So I'm going through this struggle period here.

I'm really good at what I do, but I just.

I can't put the pieces together.

The puzzle.

Buddy of mine comes in, and I done work for this guy for years.

He owned a limo company, and he says, hey, I got a buddy of mine who has a store like this, but on a much larger scale.

He.

He just opened up another one all the way out on the east end of Long Island.

So people.

People don't realize how.

How big Long island is.

It's 100 miles from New York City to Montauk.

Oh, wow.

It's big.

It's not like I'm going to get my car in 15 minutes, drive across the other side.

Sure.

So this.

This shop is an hour or an hour and 10 minutes from my front door.

I'm talking to the guy.

Long story short, we make a deal.

I wind up going to work for this guy for a couple of years, and it was one of the best things that I could have done for myself.

Learned a lot.

He was great to me.

Still a dear friend to this day.

Matter of fact, I sent him a message over the weekend just to check in and see how he's doing.

Just one of those.

One of those people that have.

Have been that figure, mentor, father figure, leader.

Someone who just cares about you at a really deep core level and wants you to win and succeed.

Like, that's been him since the day I met him.

So he.

He kind of took me under his wing and said, hey, like, you're really good at what you do, but you need to fix.

Fix yourself in a couple areas.

And here's where.

So cool.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

And.

And he Gave me basically the keys to his kingdom and said, hey, we do everything automotive in here.

Your Specialty is the 12 volt and the audio and the electrical.

I want you to run that department over here for me.

Like, we got everything else covered and we'll, we'll, we'll train you up and help you out as much as possible.

Exactly what he did.

So three years or so into that, I started getting that itch again, that entrepreneurial itch.

I was like, man, this isn't, this isn't cool.

This is.

Terrified me.

I'm like, man, the last time I did this, I put everything into it and I walked away with less than nothing.

So, like, why, why am I being called down this road, down this path again?

And I don't know, couldn't answer that question.

But the opportunities and the doors and the things were stacking in the right order.

It was like I couldn't deny it any longer.

You can't avoid it at that point.

Yeah.

So September 2009, started the second company and it was, we called it Top Class Installations and that, that puppy started growing some legs and became real business.

It took took some time.

Had a business partner there and we, we started installing stereos and a couple of GPS tracking devices here and there.

And our, our claim to fame was we were a mobile installation company.

So even, let's say, you know, you call me up and you're like, hey, I want a remote start in my wife's car.

Cool.

We'll, I'll take your money, right?

You pay me, we'll set the appointment and I'm going to show up to your house or her office and do the install and not inconvenience anybody.

O love it.

It was great.

It was a great model and it enabled us to charge a premium for that extra service.

We did the convenience fee.

Love it.

Bingo.

Yeah.

So we did well with that.

And then the GPS tracking industry started really blowing up.

And it started giving us so many opportunities that at some point in time, we had to make the decision to basically shut down the ret side of what we were doing.

We were, we were stepping over, over dollars to pick up dimes is essentially what, what was happening.

You know, we, we started missing opportunities with these big fleet installs because we wanted to go out and do a 500 remote starter, put a head unit in someone's car for a couple hundred bucks.

Sure.

It was like, hey, that's great.

And usually they're paying us cash and there's something to say about that, but we just lost a $40,000 fleet install because we were too busy doing that stuff over there.

Yeah, that, that doesn't make any business sense.

No.

And you do that once or twice and then you say, oh, that was painful.

Yeah.

I hate the lessons that have dollars attached, but those are mistakes you only make once.

Yeah.

Bingo.

So, you know, we got real heavily involved and transitioned fully to GPS tracking.

And we were subcontractors for some of the big boys.

The Verizon's, the Tele track, Navmans AT&T& a whole bunch of other companies that are in the telematics space.

And we were basically their wrench.

So we didn't have to have the sales team, we didn't have to have the people going out knocking doors, cold calling like they, the big companies with the giant marketing budgets and the, the dozens of sales reps, they handled that all we had to do and you know, our sales.

And I started learning a little bit about sales in this company.

What we had to do was basically knock on Verizon's door long enough till they said, hey, what do you guys want?

And then convince them into letting us provide our services at a high level and prove to them that we were better than the last guy who was doing work for them.

And once we did that, it was, oh, okay, here, here's a bunch of work.

Oh, and by the way, we're going to send you work every day.

You just have to set up the system and the team that is going to receive this work from us.

That's what we did.

We built a team of, of installation coordinators, we called them and their responsibility was to answer phones, answer emails, answer sms, any way that that was that people were going to communicate with us inbound.

And these GPS companies, they all had a different platform and different system and different way that they sent work to us.

Some of them were running fancy portals on tools like Netsuite or Salesforce and we would, our responsibility was to log in or stay logged into that portal all day.

And the second one of those new tickets comes over, which by the way, that's a sale it just handed to you.

Sure.

Right.

Is to.

Okay.

At that point I think would probably be the correct term.

Yes.

100%.

100%.

We wound up becoming the preferred vendor for most telematics and camera companies in the northeast.

Wow.

And a lot of that about five years into it, I said, you know, first off, my, my now ex wife was pregnant with our first kid five years into that business and that was an eye opener for me.

I call them life altering events.

It's like, hey, you want to light a fire under your ass?

Become a dad.

No joke.

That is, that is very, very true.

I can 100% resonate with that one.

Yeah.

So here we go.

I get the notice, you know, hey, you're going to come, dad.

Cool.

And all of a sudden it's like, whoa, I got this business, we're five or so years deep into it.

Like it's doing well, I make good money, but have I given it my all?

Have I taken it 100% seriously?

And the answer was no.

So it kind of made me pause and say, well, that's not cool.

What do I do?

Like, I got this opportunity here.

Our business is doing some cool things, but it's nowhere near maxing out its potential.

Sure.

And now at this point in time, I have enough emotional intelligence and experience to say I don't know how to get to the next step.

So at that point in time, I started, you know, and dude, this is 2009, this is 2014, 2015.

Like, the Internet isn't what the Internet is today.

No, I mean Google and we're not.

That long ago of all these help, you know, best practices and all these things, at that point that stuff didn't exist.

Didn't exist.

So, you know, I hit the Googles back in the day looking for a local business coach to help us out and wound up searching through and going through a couple of them.

Finally landed on this dude.

I wound up working with him for like three years or so.

And he's the one who, who really started to drive and push me.

He saw potential in me, he saw potential in the business and he really helped us dial in and put some real systems in place.

And it took a really long slow period of time for these things to go in place and start to work.

But what they did was really set us up for success, which was coming in a couple years when the bigger work started coming in.

Sure.

So, you know, for instance, you know, at this point in time we were doing, we get called up to do a fleet of 3, 4, 500 installs, 150 installs here, and we could do it, but the processes that we had in place were inefficient.

By the time we were done working with this guy, we got a call from the New York City Board of Education that said, hey, we got 5,000 school buses.

You got 90 days to do it.

Can you do it?

And like, of course the answer is yes.

We're just going to figure it out.

Forces you to reimagine how you do things.

Yeah.

But by that time, we had dialed in the process, we had dialed in the systems and it was like, yeah, okay, send them over.

We got this.

And because we had built so many systems at that point in time, we had made things so much more efficient.

We were able to get that workload done for them and actually make a ton of money in a really short period of time.

So if we hadn't done that work, you know, two, three years prior when that opportunity came knocking, it would have been like, well, we can take 10% of what you're offering us.

Whoever wants to say that, like someone, someone knocks on your door, says, hey, I got a $400,000 project, do you want it?

Oh, I'm sorry, I, I only have the bandwidth to take 10 of that project from you.

God, that makes you feel gross inside even thinking about it.

Yeah, of course it does.

Of course it does.

So it's.

These are the things, these are the real world experiences that I've had in crashing and burning a business and building one that was successful, exiting that business.

And then, you know, now I moved down to Texas, I get full time into coaching and consulting and that just lights me up internally.

That fires me up as a human being.

I love doing it and, and helping other small business owners, mostly into service based companies.

Really say, hey, what, what processes do you need?

What system do you need?

Like, what does this look like on the back end of your business?

Because I'm going to, I'm going to talk smack on, on sales trainers here for a minute.

Go for it in the best way.

I love it.

I, I don't like sales trainers either.

So sales trainers, motivational speakers, they all have a place.

And I'm grateful for, for all of the people who wear that title because I think it's truly needed.

But most put so much focus and emphasis onto the front end of the business, the marketing and the sales, which is, they're the sexier sides of business.

They really are.

And I'm 100 on board, you need them.

Without marketing, there is no sales.

Without sales, there is no business.

True.

Okay.

It's the mantra that I live by with my clients.

It's the classic expression.

I think this is a zig ziglar.

Nothing happens till something gets sold.

Yep.

Bingo.

Bingo.

So the problem that I saw and kept seeing over and over again, and I experienced this in my own business too, is like, hey, we just outsold our ability to fulfill.

Yep.

That's a painful Problem to have.

I have been there.

I.

I'm almost there right now, in fact.

Yeah.

So then the question comes in.

All right, well, if you look at business as a series of pipes, like, so you start your business today and you have marketing.

You put a 1 inch diameter pipe in there.

Sales.

You put a 1 inch diameter pipe in There.

Fulfillment.

You put a 1 inch diameter Pipe in there.

Cool.

Well, at some point in time, if you have enough leads coming through your pipeline, that 1 inch diameter pipe is not going to be a diameter large enough to funnel all your leads to.

Well, I got to upgrade that to a 2.5.

Cool.

You upgrade it.

So that means you.

You're investing in your marketing.

You're hiring someone like our buddy Jonathan to really dial in and do some awesome things on the back end for your marketing purposes.

Now you got this lead generation machine.

Cool.

Well, do you have the sales process?

Do you have the sales pipeline?

Do you have the sales training?

Do you have the sales scripts and the team in place to support that 2.5 inch diameter that's coming in?

So cool.

This is.

This is a flow.

So we upgraded the leads because now we got more leads coming in.

Now we have to upgrade the sales team and the sales system to handle the leads.

And now eventually what's going to happen?

The sales team is going to outsell the fulfillment pipe, which is still one inch in diameter.

So now we got to crank that sucker up too.

Yeah, it's this constraints theory.

What's our next constraint?

Bingo.

Love it.

Yeah.

So that's the short version of the story, sir.

I know we covered a lot of information there too.

No, that's beautiful, man.

And I love it.

It makes sense.

It makes me.

There's so much I want to unpack out of this.

We don't have time for.

We don't have 12 hours in this podcast.

Let's circle back real quick.

I want to park on something for just a second, then we'll get back into this.

I love how you started all of this with the micro steps and measuring backwards.

I just relaunched the Close it now book club, which of course, everybody's invited to.

But a book we did last year is the Gap in the Gain, which is.

Was really, really instrumental for me because.

And I want to park on this because so many people in this community are those performers and achievers, and we're so constantly focused on, you know, if my goal is, you know, 10 million and I've only sold 9.5 million, oh, I suck.

I'm awful.

But where Everybody else is, oh, my God, I'd kill to be exactly where you are.

And so remembering to have the gratitude and measure backwards is so important in that along the way, even when we don't feel like we made progress.

Well, that's just our own bad, negative self talk.

And so there's truly.

This is important to emphasize that for a sec before we kind of get back into the systems that were where we're headed.

Yeah, for sure.

I agree with you 100%.

It's kind of like, you know, anybody here has done 75 hard and knows what it is.

You know, one of the things they have you do in that, in that program is you got to take a progress picture each of the 75 days you're going through it.

And it's so you can look back and you can actually see the progress step by step, day in and day out.

Yeah.

So I get it.

Well, so let's get into the systems because I know this is huge and so many people in there in their different journeys, you know, and I've worked with.

And you're exactly right, I work.

That's part of why I've opened up a portion of my, you know, closing now where we start to really analyze and look at this type of thing.

But, you know, we can.

There's so many teams that I've gone in and got the sales team going, and it's like, wait a minute, you.

You guys were not prepared for this.

So when I, in my first part of my journey here, you know, several years ago, working with companies, you know, I didn't, I didn't know what I didn't know as far as that goes.

I lived it.

I've grown companies, but it just worked.

Yeah.

And so now I'm coming in and it's like, wait a minute.

Let's have a discussion of how many, how many crews do you have?

Let's have a production conversation before we ever talk about the sales.

Because the last thing I want to do is come in and, you know, we'll book you guys out a month, but then everybody's angry at the company.

Yeah.

So getting into that a little bit, what are some of the things that you really look for first when you're, you know, service level, doing a discovery, what.

And I guess weave into this, you know, maybe a couple of, you know, some red flags that people can analyze, self analyze and say, hey, maybe I need help here that maybe they don't even realize.

Yeah, I know when a lot of people are growing companies, they don't Know what they don't know.

Like your first experience with your company, you just didn't, just didn't even know that I'd need to know this stuff.

Yep.

Two things.

Oh, my clients who listen to this, they're all going to roll their eyes and say, oh, I knew he's going to say this because I hate it.

Okay.

It's one of those things where like, you just got to get real.

Sandwich.

Yeah.

Yeah.

First thing is a time study for the, for the founder or the owner of the company.

Second thing is we run a full blown SWOT analysis on the company, top to bottom.

So we cover everything.

So the, we always start with the time study.

Anybody who works with me, who has worked with me in the past, they know the second they sign that contract and come in and start working, the first thing Tom's gonna ask me to do is this two week long time study.

That's just awful.

But we, we gotta do it.

That's what tells us a.

We're figuring out what your WPH is, what your worth per hour is as the owner of the company and every.

I don't care if you're a business owner, if you're an employee, a technician, everybody should know that KPI for themselves.

Worth per hour.

Yes.

The fastest, easiest way to calculate it without doing all crazy fancy crap in Excel is to take the amount of money that you made last year and divide it by 2080.

2080.

That'll give you a really rough idea of what your worth per hour is.

So we take that as the baseline KPI and say, okay, well you know, you did X amount of money last year.

Your, your cape, your worth per hour is 130 bucks an hour.

Cool.

So that tells me out of the gate that anything, any task, whether it's at home, whether it's at work, if it, if it's below $130 an hour and you're doing it personally, you're costing yourself and your company money.

See this a lot with the trades.

I'll give you a real world example.

I do a lot of work in the car stereo industry still, as you can imagine, since I spent so many years there.

I have a client, a husband and wife client, they're out of Lawton, Oklahoma.

They got a really successful like small town, local car stereo store.

Been in business 30 years.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

I walk in there a couple months ago and it's like, Nick, the hell's your washing machine doing in the shop?

He's like, wow, man.

Yes.

Started taking it.

He goes it stopped working.

So I brought it to the shop and I started taking it apart because I'm gonna fix it.

This guy's got more work come in the door and his phone's ringing off the hook because we, we built systems that are working.

Okay.

He just bought the building next door.

It's under full blown renovation, and he's, he's expanding and he's now doing vinyl wrap and tint and truck accessories on top of the car audio he's doing.

To say he's got a couple of things going on is an understatement, right?

So they're trying to work on his washing machine.

And like I said to him, and his wife's there too, and you know, at this point in time, we're good friends.

I'm sure that happens with you too.

Like someone comes in as a client and it expands into friendship and Absolutely.

I said, hey, Jessica, it's like, how long has that washing machine been here?

She's like, two weeks.

So I was like, let me ask you a question.

How's laundry getting done at home now?

It's funny, before we started this call, you and I were talking about washing machine issues.

I had just gotten done with my washing machine issue like a week prior, so.

And I got seven kids.

I got a whole army over here.

So I understand what missing one or two days of laundry does to a household.

Oh, no joke.

Right now, two weeks and he's got three kids at home and a wife.

Right?

Like, dude, you guys are backed up where your poor wife, who also works full time and owns the business with you, is out doing laundry at a laundromat or going to her mom's house or something.

Like, no one's got time for that.

So I, I, and he's a numbers guy.

Like he, he's a dude who knows numbers in his head and just can do the calculations.

I said, nick, do you remember what your worth per hour is last time we did the exercise?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool.

Do you know that I just called in a repair guy to fix my washing machine last week and it cost me $153 and change?

He was like, no way.

I'm like, probably done in a day.

It was done the next day.

So he's like, no way.

I'm like, dude, get on Google, go find a local repair guy and call him.

Bring him here to the shopping.

I don't care if it comes to the house or not.

Like, get somebody over here who's a professional, fix this shit for you so you can get back to doing what you're the best at.

Yeah, he did come here and go reinstall it for you.

You don't need to mess with this.

Shouldn't be doing it.

So long story short, he did.

That guy came in, fixed it.

It was under 200 bucks.

And he was all said and done.

But these are the kind of things that we need to look out for.

And this is, this is an example that crossed, you know, personal into business.

But what does it look like in the business that you're doing?

So if you're $130 an hour employee, what are you sending invoices for?

You know what, what are you doing?

Scheduling appointments with.

With people.

What are you doing?

Doing data entry.

Like you should have people doing that for you.

So this exercise gives us a glimpse into where the owner is actually spending their time.

And when we have the data, we're making data driven decisions based upon this time study.

This is where the G3 method comes into and why I'm so adamant about this darn book.

It's like what systems do we need to build to get you out of your own way?

Yeah.

And the data that you give me is going to give me the answers into what needs to get addressed first.

I like that.

And that rolls right into G3.

And I'll explain what G3 is here.

I got 12 chapters worth of G3.

Okay.

So we can go super deep into it.

But I'm going to give, I'm going to give you the high level overview.

Good.

And it's simple.

Everybody that's listening by the book.

It's coming out.

Yeah, it's coming out here.

In a minute of July we'll have this sucker ready to rock and roll.

Roll.

And I'm super excited for this one.

The G3 method at its core is real simple.

It's G1 is you got to get it done.

So you have to go do the task yourself.

Get it done.

Good enough.

You don't have to be the expert.

You don't to be the best in the world.

You have to have a good deep like intrinsic understanding of what's required to take it from start to finish.

Okay.

You have to understand it well enough to get to G2, which is get it documented.

So get it done.

Get the sucker documented.

And again, I'm not asking you to make it a perfect documentation.

I'm not asking you to pop open your damn keyboard and type it in, record a loom video, Open up zoom like this and record the video.

Store it someplace, Send it to, to Transcription, throw it into chat GBT and say, create an sop.

Like, dude, there's the excuses today.

I have zero tolerance for them, especially with today's technology and the free technology that's out.

No doubt.

Yeah.

It costs anything to do that.

No, it doesn't cost you anything.

Like, stop with the.

That you can't document and you can't put SOPs in place in your business.

Like, you can spend five to 10 minutes on chat GBT and upload a transcript, and that sucker is going to kick out Something that is 1000% better than nothing.

No, no joke.

No joke.

So that's G1, which is get it done.

G2 is get it documented.

And G3 is.

This is the big one.

This is the pain point for most people who like to do everything themselves.

And I understand it well because I was that guy for so many years.

It's get it delegated, get it done, get it documented, get it delegated.

The delegated piece can definitely zip off into a couple directions.

Right.

So the first question is, okay, do I have somebody on my team who I can effectively delegate this to?

And if the answer is yes, cool.

Have a conversation with them and put it on their plate.

Yeah.

Here's the system, here's the approach.

Let me know when it's done.

Yeah.

Let me train you on this additional task I need you to do for me.

Here's the expectation of what done looks like and how long it should take.

Yeah.

Obviously there's a couple other routes this can go if you don't have a person on the team.

The question is, well, do I need to hire somebody for this?

And that brings us into a whole other conversation about what it looks like to hire and onboard somebody.

Yeah.

And I do a ton of that.

Etc.

Yeah.

Like, what does the role look like?

What.

What is the actual task?

The descriptions, all of that stuff.

What does the salary look like?

You know, where are we pulling these people from?

Do we have a hiring process?

Do we have a system in place?

Do we have an interview process in place?

And then the one that's missed the most, the most of all small business owners, because they can sort of kind of figure out hiring.

Not great.

But usually they do.

The one that they miss the most and they drop the ball on the hardest is an onboarding process.

Oh, yeah, you hired the guy.

Cool.

And now he shows up, and for the first two weeks, he sits there in a corner and stares at you because he's got nothing to do.

Yep.

It's just amazing.

It is.

It Is so, so coming up and helping clients develop what that, that documentation is for onboarding.

But going back into G3, I want to on that some more.

There's some other avenues that you can go down too.

You know, we're, we're talking technology here.

Oftentimes you got to start asking yourself the question where it's like, well, before I, I, I try to delegate this, is there a way where I can do something else?

Can I automate it?

And one of the other good questions, and this one rocks a lot of boats because people, I get a lot of pushback in this one.

Instead of automate it, instead of delegate it, can you eliminate it?

Like, do you even need to do this?

Yes.

Yes.

It's one of my favorites.

Yep.

And you've heard this before.

It's like, well, we've always done it that way.

I don't give a.

We're here to change things and, and make you better.

Just because you did that for the past five years doesn't mean the new version of you and your company needs to continue doing it.

No.

Oh, man.

I have this conversation with companies and with owners a lot.

If it's like, if I hear those words come out of your mouth, we're going to have a hard conversation about it because there's, there's no what got you here won't get you there.

There you go.

Yeah.

Yep.

So those are some other, you know, contributing factors you got to consider before you just, you know, blindly delegate it to somebody.

And it's, it's stuff that I dive into heavily in the book as well.

But these are real world scenarios that I myself have lived more times than I want to even admit.

And, you know, now I have the honor of helping dozens of business owners on a weekly basis navigate these tr.

These troubles and these choppy waters and build the right systems and processes they need to basically make their companies more efficient.

So the ultimate goal here is, I want you to, to using a Dan Martell word here, you know, buy back your time.

I want you to figure out how we can buy back your time and you can get other people to help you in your company.

Because the, the end goal here is not for you to work inside of your business 20 hours a day until you have no life and no relationship with your family and your kids.

Yeah, no joke.

I did a series recently.

It was called Roots and Wings about raising family and, and how to create antifragile children.

And the biggest term that I, one of the biggest ones I took out of that is this mindset around, are you a businessman with a family or are you a family man with a business?

Because those are two very different things when it comes to priority.

Yeah, yeah, I understand that at a really deep level.

It took me getting divorced from a woman I was together with for 20, 20 plus years, married 14, had three kids with her, and then getting into a relationship with another high performing entrepreneur and it was like, hey, you got three businesses, I got two.

How do we make all this work and still be present?

Are we ever gonna have time for each other ever?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it was, it was us intentionally putting boundaries in place and saying us first, then the kids than the business.

And it's, it's asked backwards because if you go with the call it the hustle culture that's, you know, preached by the gurus here in America, like, you know, you work harder kind of, kind of mindset.

Yeah, work your face off.

Yeah.

You mean you got excuses.

Nobody cares.

Work harder.

Yeah, I get it.

And I'm not saying you don't need hard work to succeed.

You do.

But at what, what's the cost that you're giving up at the same point in time too?

So all about this.

I'm all about work in your inspired flow, within your zone of genius.

And you can accomplish so much more in a shorter amount of time.

We work more efficiently by establishing systems and doing all these things.

So, man, I love this conversation.

We're on the same page very much with this.

So G1, G2, G3, get it done, get it documented, get it delegated.

Yes, sir.

That's a huge band.

It seems like at first glance, such an easy roadmap.

Where's the stumbling blocks where people run into when they take this and like, okay, this is what I'm going to do because you mentioned it earlier, it's that prioritization.

So talk to us a little bit about that.

How do we know where to start?

Because, yeah, I'm literally.

I could look at my to do list and like, God, there's 85 things in there and I just added five more from my brain right now while we're talking.

Yeah.

Where do we even get going on it?

Yeah, most, most small business owners get stuck in the get it done face and they, they get so good and so efficient at the get it done portion of it where it's like, you know, I hire you to come work with me and it's like, dude, it's gonna take me 35 minutes to explain to you how to do this.

And it's going to take me six minutes to do it myself.

So I know I hired you.

I know I'm paying for you.

I don't want to deal with the.

I don't want to deal with you asking me 45 questions about how to do this.

And if I do it right now, quickly, in six minutes, I know for a fact it's going to get done.

Right.

According.

Right.

According to me.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

And, and they just, it's the curse of a small business owner.

They just do it all themselves.

That's, that's a pain point right there.

Right.

So it's, it's the next.

And that, that all comes with the time study.

We're figuring out what those areas are.

The next big thing that we didn't dive into yet is the SWOT analysis.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Yeah, actually, before we go to that, I've really been actually just doing.

I'm in the middle of a time study for, for myself.

I know a lot of people out there that are listening have maybe heard that term, maybe not.

And most people don't even know what it is.

Can you give a super quick explanation of what a time study actually is and how they would go through that before we get into the SWOT analysis?

Yeah, for sure.

And I appreciate you asking me on details because, you know, my brain sometimes just thinks like, oh, everyone knows what that is.

I cover this real heavy in my first book, unfuck your business.

And it was one of those things where I was put through a version of it through the coaches that I had hired.

And then like most people, I took it, adapted it to fit my style, my methodology, and then boom, I've got my version of it that you can find in the book.

Two weeks, right?

Minimum three days.

But ideally it's two weeks and it's writing down and documenting every single thing you do in 15 minute increments for two weeks.

That's why it sucks.

Okay?

It's very granular.

But ultimately we're trying to establish patterns in seeing where you, the human being and the business owner are spending the majority of your time.

I can tell you right off the bat, most business owners, they're going to spend a lot more time in the bathroom than they think they are.

Right.

And when you document this, like, whoa, I didn't realize I was in a toilet for that long.

Okay.

We spend a lot more time scrolling and doom scrolling social media than we think.

And we spend a lot more time doing business than we do business.

And the time study is going to Tell us specifically what or where we're spending those times.

And now it's like, oh cool, here's the study.

So let me give you, let me dive in a bit further here, give you some more explanation.

I come up with this time study and I have, I have buckets that I have my.

So you do the whole time study, you write everything down and then you start taking those, those blocks of time and dropping them into the appropriate buckets to quantify what that time should have brought into you, the return.

So I go with $10 an hour buckets, 100 $1,010,000 an hour buckets.

Okay, right.

The $10,000 an hour buckets, that's you working on you, that's you hosting events and speaking on stage and podcasting and, and going to the gym and spending family things that you can't make enough money to repay you for.

That.

Sure.

The thousand dollar an hour task that, you know, you closing big deals, building systems for your team, hiring for your team, working with a coach or a consultant to make your business or yourself better.

Those fall into the thousand dollar an hour buckets.

The hundred dollar an hour bucket.

That's, you know, that's your sales, that's your market, a lot of your, your operations that keep the overall system of your business functional.

Right.

A lot of managerial stuff would fall into there.

And then your, your low bucket, your $10 an hour bucket, that's all your, your data entry, your basic things, the things that you must do to keep your business operational, but they don't necessarily need to be done by you, the leader, the founder, the owner of the company.

Got it?

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's, that's the, the biggest breakdown.

So what I find, what I found.

And this is going back to like I wrote the book.

And I wrote the book.

2018, it was launched 2019, two years ago.

So we're in 2020.

So 2023, I finally had enough people come to me and say, hey, how do I do the time study?

And meanwhile I'm thinking, like, I give you this fancy ass PDF that I had a graphic designer make and build and it looks great.

It can't be more clear.

And what people wanted was more of an actual system.

Okay, Makes sense for everything.

Yeah.

So like I, I know enough to be dangerous in tools like Excel or Google sheets, but I'm not the expert there.

So I went on to Fiverr, searched up a dude and had him build this really cool tracking spreadsheet for the time study.

So now it's, it's just a drop down.

You went to what you did.

And, and depending upon what you did, it automatically associates the right dol to.

To your time.

Yeah.

So just leave this tab open and go in and so.

Yep.

So it's okay.

I'm going to restate back to what I think you're, what I'm hearing to, to help some people, some clarity here.

Sure.

We literally start the day whenever the our day starts.

If it's 8am or whatever it is.

Set a timer that will go off every 15 minutes to remind us, stop, track what you did the last 15 minutes.

Stop track what you did the last 15 minutes for the entire day.

Yeah.

And then with, with this tool, just go to the drop down, pick the right one.

Boom.

And just keep going through that process.

Keep going through the process.

Yeah.

And I tell people too, it's like, hey, I don't, I don't expect you to stop.

Like, for instance, you and I are here, we're here for an hour, hour and change to record this podcast.

I'm not stopping every 15 minutes to go fill out my tracker.

Right.

Be a reasonable human being.

Get through the task, whatever you're doing, and then throughout the day, mark it down.

Don't wait until the end of the day because you're going to forget you're human.

Right.

But get, get this filled out as on time or as close to on time as possible so you can really track what you're doing and where your time was spent.

I can imagine.

Last kind of thought I have before we kind of move into this.

I've been really working on eliminating kind of.

It's creeped into my language and I just, I use it.

I hate filler words and weak words.

I can imagine that.

And the way that we treat this time study is very similar to the way that we do a lot of other things in our life where we don't think that we're doing exactly what we're doing and we give ourselves all of this grace, but we wouldn't give it to someone else.

And so it helps us to face reality in a way that you don't measure it.

You can't manage it.

We're really smacking ourselves in the face with this crystal clear reality of, of where is my time actually going.

Yeah, the, the harsh reality is this.

Usually two to three days into the time study people have had enough and they're so sickened by the, the data that they're recording that it's a blaringly obvious problem of what they need to fix and what they need to fix fast.

So oftentimes I'll have someone reach out to me like, dude, I'm three days into this.

I.

I gotta stop.

Okay, cool.

I'm not pushing you to do two full weeks.

If you've learned the lesson, if it's this painful three days in, that's enough for you to start making new choices and changing your actions.

We're ready to move forward.

That was the other thought that came to mind.

I could imagine that the two weeks would vary based on either that or also the more that people start.

I can also imagine this scenario where the more people start measuring it, they course correct along the way.

So.

Or you've got two weeks, ideally to give, you know, maybe a handful of days a week to get into the, the process of truly understanding what your life as a system looks like.

Yeah.

So I'll give you the, the reasoning behind the two weeks.

Okay.

You're a married guy, right?

100%.

Yeah.

You have in laws that I'm sure you've met.

Yes, I used to.

Okay, got it.

So the first time I met my in laws, I was on my best behavior.

Okay.

And that lasted for a little while.

And then after a while, and this is with any relationship, this is with someone that you hire, someone you work for, someone, whoever.

Your guard drops after a while and your, your actual self shows.

It's like if you've taken like a disc assessment, they have your, your actual personality versus your projected personality when you first meet people.

And they vary.

So this, the first week is because you know you're going to be on your best behavior with the time study.

Oh, I'm going to record my time.

I got to make sure this data looks perfect.

And you go in there and you have it as perfect as possible.

And by week two, you're so damn exhausted.

Like this is, this is crazy.

Ridiculous.

And then you get back to your normal patterns.

Yeah.

So if you can get through the two weeks, cool.

It'll give you more accurate data.

But you know, at this point in time, like I don't harp on anyone to do two weeks because I understand the amount of effort and energy that goes into recording this information even for a two or three day period.

I, you know, I can see where that would tell you Someone's drive and determination to improve also is like how, where is their tenacity and where's their, their grit in any assignment?

So you know what type of client they're going to be as well.

So kind of from the coaching perspective.

Yeah.

For Sure, I love it.

Well, let's move into, let's move into swat.

But, and so you have to define this for people because, yeah, I've studied marketing for a lot of years and in order to be great at sales, you have to think like a marketer a lot of times.

But this is a new term for a lot of people.

Yeah, it is.

I learned this, you know, years ago going through a bunch of trainings and stuff.

And above and beyond just coaching.

I know you've done this stuff too, where I had opportunities to go in and work with some company where I was like, hey, you pay us a whole bunch of money and you come in and we're going to train you for a week.

All right, cool.

And it's like, hey, well, you know, if it's a company that I trust, that I respect and there's leadership there that I can learn from, I'm all for it.

So, you know, I, over the years, I don't even know how much money I've, I've invested into my own education.

I'm not a college educated person, but I've invested it in other avenues, other ways.

So I got trained on, on swat.

Right?

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

And now, I mean, there's not a point in time in any company that I own that I consult for that I don't do a SWOT analysis every 90 days.

Nice.

Okay.

Yeah, it is.

And it's, it's necessary because the way the human psyche works too is after 90 days, we start to kind of fall off if we don't have a nuclear plan or, or target in place.

And the SWOT analysis, if done correctly on the back side of the SWOT analysis, we're going to choose action items for the next 90 days.

Those action items have to align with the big goal that we're after for the year.

So, you know, backtrack here.

End of the year, we like to do a year end assessment, say, hey, what do we end with?

And this is a.

SWAT's involved in that too.

And it's like, hey, what are we going to accomplish for the year?

So imagine this is now November, December 2024.

What are we trying to accomplish by the close of the, the year in 2025?

We set those targets and goals.

Right?

The SWOT analysis now tells us, all right, well, what, what actions do we need to take in order to stay on track to hit those targets and goals in Q1, and then we do it in Q2 and Q3 and Q4, so on and so forth.

So this is something I like to do with the whole team if possible.

If it's a small enough team.

If it's, if it's a larger team, a larger company, you're going to say, hey, executive team, we're going to work on this, or yeah, the principal sales department's going to work on this.

Yeah.

So it's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The best way that I like to do it.

You ever see those giant post it notes that look, the yellow ones like this, they're really big ones, like 3ft.

I like to go buy one of those and you know, they stick on the wall, big old black marker.

Right.

And have someone assign someone on your team to be the scribe.

It was never me because I have the worst handwriting in the world.

I have like doctor's handwriting.

So it's like, hey, strengths.

And it's a brain dump.

We go around the whole room, everyone is willing and open to give us as much information as possible.

There's no right or wrong answer that's coming out anyone's mouth.

What are the strengths we have as a company?

It's.

It's harder than we think because, you know, oftentimes, and I know this from a personal experience, the.

My first book writing the About Me on the back cover was the most challenging piece that I've ever written in my entire life.

I was like, you know, you don't want to sound like, like, like a cocky talking about the things that you're good at, but we have to figure out what do we excel at as a company.

And it's a really good exercise to kind of start breaking the ice as well.

And that's why I like to start with the strength portion of it.

What are we great at?

What are we strong at as a company, as a unit, as a squad, as a whatever, and brain dump it until you have nothing left to talk about.

Okay, cool.

Next is weaknesses.

What do we suck at?

And this is one where everyone's like, oh, that's easy.

We're terrible at.

We need help with marketing.

Our fulfillment's terrible.

We don't.

We have poor customer communication and this starts bringing forward conversation.

Okay, cool.

Poor customer communication, but what about it?

And now we're diving layers into this thing.

Then we go over to opportunities.

What are the opportunities that are in front of us as a company that we have not capitalized on fully yet?

We'll write down the whole list and then the final one.

Threats.

What are the threats that could potentially derail us as a company from achieving the Goal that we're after this year.

Right.

So now you got these four sections internally and externally.

Yeah, I like to do internal, external.

A lot of people will take strengths and weaknesses as internal and then opportunities and threats as external.

I look at them all as hey, internal, external, bring them all in kind of deal.

I'm glad that you do because I've found that when I've seen people do the SWOT analysis and sort it like that, then they miss a lot of obvious things and obvious, the holes, they just have gaps in their perception which will inevitably lead to a collapse of a system or something down the road.

I agree 100%.

So cool.

Now we've got these long notes filled out with all this information.

What do we do with it?

Because yeah, these are great ideas.

Great list.

Yeah, great ideas.

Like we need three years to, to attack all of these.

Yeah.

So now that prioritization comes in, it sounds.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Now we got to figure out what are the action Items.

We have 90 days.

Okay, so now this isn't go and pick and choose the quickest, easiest task that you can get done in an hour.

That's not an action item.

That's a no brainer.

Assign it to somebody, let someone knock it out.

Yeah, Action items.

I'm talking about projects here.

Right.

A common one.

We don't have a CRM.

Well, it's time for us to go find one and implement that sucker.

Folks, I hate to break it to you, if you don't have a CRM in place, a number one, you need one like now, you need one like yesterday actually.

And number two, don't think you're going to be operational in 24 hours with that thing.

True.

Ain't gonna happen.

You're gonna have to go in there.

People to use it.

Yeah, exactly.

So that right there is a, is a great action item.

We want a new website.

Cool.

That's an action item because it's not happening in a week.

No.

Right.

We're not building one on WIX and expecting it to perform.

Yes, I agree.

So you know what, what are these bigger long term action items that we have and that we, we choose three to a maximum of five action items per quarter to attack as a team.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

You, what I find is this, if you go anything over five, you're setting yourself up for disappointment because like realistically you're not taking on that many big projects and still running the company and still fulfilling and still giving your clients a great experience.

Yeah, no joke.

Because then you're just only Working in the business and there's nothing going to.

Yeah.

To take care of people.

Yeah.

And.

And we also know some, some sort of service business and we're here to serve.

Yeah, yeah.

And when that phone call comes in because someone wants something or they want that big job that you've been praying for for the past year, you're not saying no to it, right?

Yeah.

Oh, sorry, I can't do that because we have an action item that's open still.

Imagine that.

You know, I can, because I've seen it happen.

I've absolutely seen it happen.

With companies that get so wrapped up in implementing, bringing on a new.

In fact, the CRM, especially in the trades, that's juggernauts of, you know, takes a year and three people on staff just to manage these things.

I think it's absurd.

This is, it doesn't need to be like that.

I agree, I agree.

So that, that's, that's the whole scoop of the SWOT analysis is, you know, figuring out what those action items need to be.

And then we take the action items and we start saying, okay, well, what has to happen?

What is a task?

Because, you know, if you look at an action item, implement a CRM.

Cool.

Like, okay, we can start thinking of a hundred different things that need to get done in order to make that happen.

Right.

So start listing out what those individual tasks are and who it's going to be assigned to on the team, who's going to own that task, what's the due date, it's due by, and how are we keeping.

This is project management, by the way.

Right.

Like, how are we going to manage this project until it's completed and we can officially check that sucker off the list?

Nice.

I love this.

This is super powerful.

It's so interesting because at first glance it sounds so simple and so common sense, but once you actually start doing gets so crazy and chaotic.

That's why I love having somebody like you to help manage the process along the way.

You're basically the project manager of the project managers, in a way is maybe one way to look at it.

Yeah, but man, so, so talk us through that.

So you've got, so you're working with somebody, you've done the time study, you've got the SWOT analysis done, you've got these lists, you've got the prioritization.

Then what's it look like helping them.

And giving them some guidance on what needs to happen and get done.

So, you know, oftentimes it's like, hey, well, I'm not the guy who's going to go implement these things for you.

And occasionally I am.

Occasionally I'll hop in the driver's seat and help them do some of that stuff.

Stuff.

Because I have a good, good enough understanding of what needs to happen that sometimes it's like, hey, you know, you're paying me five grand a month on retainer.

Like, yeah, I'm going to give you some of my time to go help out when I can.

So, you know, what does that look like?

How do we, how do we put these systems in place if it's something that I'm not experienced with?

Okay, let me go ping my network and go find the person who's a pro and then I will help you interview these people and then we will decide on the right one who's going to take this project and see it through to the finish line for us.

Specialist in.

Yeah, yeah.

Love it.

Oh, this is so good.

And I feel like we just got started and we're running up against time here, so we'll pause here super quick for everybody listening.

Have you gotten some value from this today?

And if you have and you've recognized some places in your organization where this is, it's a.

Because I know a lot of you out there.

The second we start talking about this, you're like, oh, I've got to do this immediately.

That's where, that's where Thomas comes in.

Yep.

So let everybody know how to a little bit, actually unpack a little bit of how you work with companies and how they can get a hold of you, how they can reach out.

Yeah, sure.

I'm pretty flexible on the ways that I help people.

And of course I've got some structure and some programs in place for it.

And I think anyone who doesn't is just asking for trouble.

Yeah, no doubt.

I can imagine you have your own systems.

Yep.

Imagine that.

Right?

Yeah.

So I've, I've got, I've got group, group options where people come in and we, we have a weekly call and we dive into what systems look like and, and what needs to get implemented and we do it in a group setting.

I do a lot of one on one coaching where it's like, hey, we're going to do a weekly call, hour long call via Zoom, just like what we're doing here now and we're diving into this.

If we got a screen share, if we've got to craft documents, if we have to just have conversation on a, a struggle or a problem you're having.

Cool.

We're gonna have that conversation.

My higher ticket stuff is more of my fractional COO stuff.

So I was like, cool, you hired me, we're on retainer.

And yes, not only does the coaching come along with it, but I'm also going to hop into your stuff and push buttons and pull levers with you.

I'm going to sit down and I'm going to, to run meetings with, with your team and your executive team.

I'm going to help you make the decisions.

I'm going to point you in the right direction and that, that goes into a whole other bunch of stuff.

Right?

My, my passion and my expertise and my natural abilities that I crafted as a car audio installer 20 something years ago are directly correlated and aligned with operations.

I didn't know 20 years ago that I was studying installation.

Let me, let me reframe that for you.

Okay?

In the car audio 12 volt world, we do something called integration.

And that's what you're doing.

In most of today's newer cars, you have to integrate aftermarket electronics into a factory electrical system.

There are certain tools, certain components that you cannot pull out of the car because they're part of the system.

I do the same thing from an operations perspective now 20 something years later, where it's like, hey, I'm going to help you guys implement the correct solution into your already existing company.

So a lot of the critical thinking, a lot of the troubleshooting, a lot of the overall thought process that I developed so many years ago directly carries over into this new line of work that I do.

And it amazes me every day of how aligned they are are while being two completely separate things.

Oh, no doubt.

That's.

It makes so much sense the way you just explained it as well.

Because you can't just come in and, you know, wipe the slate clean and be like, okay, we're starting over with a brand new business.

When somebody's been in place for, you know, two, five, 20 years.

Yep.

Yeah.

Beautiful.

If that's the case, I just start them all myself.

Yeah, let's just start, let's start some companies.

If it's easy, everybody would do it.

That's the truth.

I love it, man.

Quick side note, I definitely want you to give everybody how to get in touch with you.

I love where this conversation started and I saved it so we got through a lot of the content.

You know, I resonate so much with the high end car audio because my high school vehicle is a 67 Chevelle Malibu and we took it down to the first alarm place and they.

They drilled a hole through my metal dashboard and lost my ever loving mind.

The second I rolled up in the middle of their install and saw them doing this, I was like, do you have any idea what you just did to the value of this vehicle?

And so we immediately got it away from them and took it down to the high end place.

And you'll know what these terms mean.

Anybody that's into car audio.

In 1996 I had the Alpine Dash with a Phoenix gold sub.

Oh yeah.

Custom built for the.

That lived in the trunk and Alpine all around.

And it was like the coolest thing.

I had the baddest system in all of my high school.

Oh yeah.

Love it, man.

And so yeah, it was good times.

So totally resonate with you.

You know, we.

I spent.

I saved for all summer.

Yep.

Spent cash for this thing and you know, counted out.

I remember the moment I was counting out these, you know, $2,500 at the time.

You know, I think it's total like $3200 in 1996 for this big money save money on and was like, oh my God.

So the six disc changer under the.

Oh yeah, I love it.

Nobody.

All these young bucks nowadays don't even know what that.

What's a CD changer?

What's a CD changer?

Or you'd have to get out and go into the trunk to change it.

Yep.

Because you got tired of listening to the same six CDs for the last six months.

I got to get in the truck again anyway know, man.

Well, how does everybody get a hold of you, man?

So you've got step up, step it, step it up.

Academy.com.

that's the website.

That's the best place.

Go to the website.

You can also find me on.

On Connectwith Thomas.com.

there's no H in my name.

So it's actually my name is formally Tomas.

Oh nice.

That's the Puerto Rican side of me coming out.

Yep.

So connectwith thomas.com.

that's just a landing page that links out to all my social media accounts as well as a website.

Website as well.

But yeah, those, those are the two best places you can go there.

I'm easy to find on the Internet.

Search my name and.

And you know, I'll give you a quick story here, make you laugh.

I was so mad at my parents as a kid.

Like you gave me this boring name Tom.

Right.

And like you spelled it weird.

And now I go my whole life and nobody can spell my name properly because there's no h.

In it.

And I didn't realize the blessing that they were giving me in my later years of my career, especially as a marketer.

I don't have an H in my name.

So when you type in Thomas Keenan or Tomas Keenan, like, dude, I'm, I'm right there.

Yeah, it's like, oh, thank you mom and dad.

So I was, you know, the ungrateful kid my whole childhood growing up like you gave me this dumb name and here I am.

Thank you.

Oh, that's beautiful.

And for everybody listening, I will have both of these.

So stepitupacademy.com and connect with Tomas.

I will make sure to have those in the show notes.

So if you're in drive time university like most of you are right now, don't, don't try to, you know, wreck your vehicle trying to make a note of that.

Open the show notes when you get parked and be safe and connect with, connect with Tomas because he definitely knows what the hell he's doing when it comes to building and scaling businesses.

Real quick, give us a cool like story or two from companies when you've, you know, where they were before you worked with them and then like a 12 month out, 12, 24 month out type of, you know, a couple cool success stories.

Yeah, I'm going to go back to Nick and Jessica because that was pretty fresh start.

So I've, I've known, this is a cool story.

I've known Nick and again, he owns place called High Volume Car Audio, High Volume Car Stereo in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Family business.

Been in business 30 years.

He's, he's owned it the last 10 years after his uncle passed away and he grew up in that shop working for his uncle.

Sure.

2019, my book releases.

A couple weeks later I get a, I got a call from the president of the mea, the Mobile Electronics association, who's a dear friend.

Now he calls me up and he goes, hey.

And you got to keep in mind like for two years I'm pounding on this guy's door saying, hey, I want to go, I want to go teach at your events.

I want to speak.

I want to speak.

And he gave me no time.

So my book goes live.

And there's lots of lessons there, folks.

If you have the inclination to go write a book, do it because it's going to open more doors than you'll ever even possibly recognize or realize.

So I write this book.

It goes out weekend later I get a phone call from this dude, come speak at my next event.

It's in.

I was Living in New York at the time.

He goes, it's in Dallas at the Omni Hotel in, in.

In like the heart of Dallas.

Cool.

So fly down there, speak at this event.

The day that I speak, I.

I go up to the hotel pool bar.

I'm hanging out.

Like this hotel is filled with people from this event.

It's a big old event.

There's like 4, 000 people there and there's this dude in the pool, it's Nick.

So I wind up having this like real long heart to heart conversation with him.

He just lost his mom.

Cool.

Not cool, but, you know, just developed cells.

No like and trust.

Started developing the rapport that builds upon the know like and trust.

We need built a relationship first.

Right.

We need those three components to equal a sale.

So fast forward I'm now on the speaking circuit for MEA Every year I do three or four events for them.

So fast forward I like every year I'm speaking at these events and he shows up to two or three of them depending upon where they are in the country.

This past September, we're in Dallas again and he's sitting in the front row.

He always sits in the front row of any of my sessions.

He's sitting in the front row.

His wife is there after the class.

He comes over and he's like, I'm finally ready.

Goes, I'm.

I'm done with the bs, I'm done with the struggling.

I know where capable of more and I'm finally in a position where I don't think I'm going to waste your time.

Cool.

I respect that.

Yeah.

Great self awareness.

Bingo.

And like I've grown a lot since I first met him and so is he, so is his business.

So his relationship a whole nine yards.

Right.

This is just becoming a better human each and every day.

So start working with him in September this past year.

And he goes, the piece of the story that I cut out is he goes, I only want to work with you if your wife comes to and like cool.

Like my woman, she's, she's.

I met her, she edited my first book and she's a high performance mindset and leadership coach.

Like she.

And she's also studied psychology to the nth degree.

She knows more about the human psyche than most people even forget.

So.

All right, cool.

We'll put together a deal and we'll get this thing where we both come up and do some work with you.

So put together a deal.

They agree to it, the transaction goes smoothly and he says, would you be willing to come to my store.

Now, I typically only go on site to a client if a, they're local, like within a 20 or 30 minute drive or they're paying me 10 grand for an on site assessment.

Sure.

Okay.

So he paid me in full for a six month term.

So that was one of the reasons I decided, yeah, I'm gonna go.

And second, it wasn't that far of a drive from us to get to Oklahoma from where we are in Dallas.

I'll go there, almost throw a rock and cross the line from where you're at.

Yeah.

So we go up there, we spend the day and I got a really good feel about his facility.

He owns the building already, which is, he's in a great position.

He owns a lot behind his building.

He owns the home that he's in free and clear, by the way.

And he also has a rental house, which is the first house he bought.

So he's got a real estate portfolio that's dialed in already.

And he knows that he needs to expand his shop because he has limited bays where he can actually do the work.

He bought the lot behind his building with the intentions to build a brand new facility.

But after he did all the architectural drawings and all that stuff, it was like an $850,000 investment.

Yeah, no doubt.

He's like, I love it.

He goes, but I'm just not there yet.

I can't, I can't.

He's.

I'm not willing to take on that amount of debt because it just makes me too nervous.

Cool.

I get it.

Within an hour, we start running through the numbers and the sales and the processes that he has in place.

And we uncover this is 2025 now because, I'm sorry, September 2024.

We uncover that he hasn't raised his labor rates since 2020.

In the middle of COVID it.

So Mike, Nick, you got to raise your labor rates, dude.

And like this, this is what I suggest it is.

And, and the way that we do it in the, in the 12VT car stereo industry is it's pretty simple.

What's your local car mechanic?

I'm sorry, what's your local car dealer charging their hourly rate?

And if you go to Hyundai, if you go to Honda, if you go to Toyota, you'll see their hourly rates are typically like 110 to $150 an hour.

Hour.

Like, bro, you're, you're billing like 75, 85 bucks an hour still.

Yeah.

So we did some, some research and we basically figured out, hey, you need to increase the rate I don't expect you to increase it to what it should be right away, but let's at least get a 10 bump in effective immediately.

So that 10 and then put a.

Plan in place to increase it over to keep increasing.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, that 10 bump turned into an additional $55,000 in net revenue.

Nice.

So, okay, cool.

We're winning, we're there.

And you know, one of the really plus, the good pluses of having a female partner who understands business is they take a different look at especially a male driven industry and facility shop.

They look at it and like, they may be like, oh, well, that's kind of gross.

I don't want to go in there.

And not necessarily in a bad way, but this is the input, this is the information that my client needs.

So we pull him.

And like, you guys know, you probably know this too.

Like, even our noses in our own home, we, we kind of get immuted to the smells of our own home.

Good or bad, because we're in it so frequently.

Yeah.

There's a whole study of around being nose blind to stuff.

Yeah, correct.

So wear this fresh set of eyeballs that he just paid a massive amount of money to to come in and give him real feedback and not hold punches.

And his place is, it's primo.

It's set up really nice.

It looks good.

But there's a couple of things that can just be better my.

The way that I feel it and Catherine too.

It's our duty and obligation to tell our clients not what they want to hear, but what they have to hear.

So cool.

You need to make a couple of changes here from the female perspective.

These areas of the shop need your attention first.

And then we go outside and we're looking at the front like, hey, man, you got to put some new, new pavement down here.

Some of your signs in the window can get cleaned up a little bit.

It'll be really cool if you painted.

And we're looking for a better curb appeal to this retail location.

Sure.

And he's like, yeah, man, cool.

I'm all for it.

We take a step back, closer to the street, and off to the side, we see this dingy dive bar.

And I gotta credit Catherine today.

She goes, what is that?

And can you buy it?

It's almost like putting the words into the universe and, and basically surrendering and letting the rest fall into place.

So we walk out of there that day.

Nick's got a list.

Nick and Jessica have a list of stuff they need to do.

Fix this, fix that, repair this.

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Within three or four weeks, they're sending us photographs.

They got the construction crew on site.

Like they did everything nice, right?

They got mil.

There's a military base right up the road.

They started implementing special military discounts.

So now, like, people are coming in their store more frequently because they have this better curb appeal.

So right around December, January, Nick says, hey, I got to get on a call with you guys.

Outside of our normal scope of calls.

Again, man, of course, like, you're probably the same way.

If my client sends up the bat signal, says, I need a call, I don't give a shit what's going on.

I will move things and make it happen.

Oh, no doubt.

Yeah, we would do that all the time.

Correct, Correct.

So again, I was called him and he goes, hey, you never believe what just happened because the old Korean lady who owned the bar next door just came and knocked on my door and in her broken English, asked if I was willing to buy her building.

Love it.

I get the out of here.

He's like, no, seriously.

He goes, she wants $80,000 for the building.

Whoa, that's all?

What, like that's it?

He's like, yeah.

He was like, I think I should do it, but I want to talk to some people who I trust and respect and get a third party opinion also.

Great idea.

So we had this conversation.

Long story short, he winds up putting the deal together.

He's a very well respected, honorable businessman in his area.

He called his bank up and without even submitting paperwork, applications, none of it.

His banker's like, like, yep, we got you funded.

Don't worry about it.

Nice.

So that, that's lessons right there in relationship building, even with your financial institutions.

Absolutely.

So anyway, dude, this dude winds up increasing his business.

More net sales.

We.

We give him some fresh curb appeal.

Right now we build back end systems and marketing and follow up systems.

His problem is his damn phone is ringing off the hook and he doesn't have enough installation technicians to perform.

Right back to the fulfillment problem we started talking about initially.

Yeah.

So now we're in this phase of.

All right, well, what does hiring look like and what needs to happen to bring the right people onto the team?

They're just about done with the construction at the building next door, which.

It's gorgeous.

He's sending me photographs, like on a weekly basis of the.

The progress, but full blown.

They do a lot of custom fabrication.

So they move the custom fabrication shop over to the new building.

So it's separated from the.

From the day to Day, which as you can imagine, cuts down all the dust and debris going everywhere.

Oh my gosh.

That and the odors from fiberglass and all that type of thing.

Yeah.

And that's completely sealed off from the bay next to it, which is where they're doing the, the window tint, the ppf, which is paint protection, the clear paint protection, if people are wondering, and vehicle truck accessories.

So eventually they're going to get into lift kits and tires and that kind of stuff when they get some more room for the shop.

But now they're doing bolt on, you know, brush guards, running boards, anything that you could basically have as a bolt on accessory to a truck to make it, you know, personalized.

They're doing all that stuff.

So this is one of the, the best success stories I've had in the last couple years.

And they're just a group of people that we thoroughly enjoy working with.

And like, dude, we mentioned it before, but now we're at a point where this is developed into not just a professional relationship, but it's a friendship, you know, and we get to spend time with them outside of the business sense.

They come down here and spend time with us at our house.

We go up there and, you know, hang out with them at their house and you know, do cookouts in the backyard.

So it's not just business all the time, it's life and business and it's who do I want to spend time with in both areas and can I combine the two?

Because now it's even more powerful.

I love this so much.

You, you and I operate very, very, very similar.

There's so many people across the country now that, that, you know, it just at random, we'll text each other, call each other, be like, oh my gosh, how's it going, man?

What are you up to now?

I mean, I haven't been out there in two years even or anything.

It's like, I don't care.

They don't either.

We're just like, man, you're going to this convention, let's run into each other, let's do dinner, those types of things.

I love this so much.

So one, one thing I'm hearing for anybody, if anywhere close to Lawton, Oklahoma, if you need work done on your vehicle, everything from sounds like truck accessories to the coat coat, the clear coats and things on your paint, to clearly audio, go to window tinting.

Go, go check him out.

What's the name of the shop again?

High Volume Car Stereo.

High Volume car Stereo.

I like it.

So there's a Little plug for, for him as well.

But sounds like they're doing the things the right way.

Because the last thing I want to do ever, ever is take my car to somebody who's going to drill through my dashboard, my 67 Chevelle again.

And so, and so the, the bigger lesson here, everybody is, you know, I know a lot of this was, you know, car, automotive and, and the autos.

But you're all smart people, think of these concepts and, and just go through your own business.

How can these ideas apply?

Because the exact same thing, it doesn't matter.

The widget business is business and the, and the process is the process and the flow is the flow.

So apply this to your own business and go through this work because this is the highest value work that you can possibly do in your own organization.

I'm living it in the moment.

This is what I've been working on for the last six months.

And it's not a short or easy process, but it's worth it.

So I love it, man.

Well, thanks for being on the show today.

Yeah, this is a great dude.

Or reach out.

Hop on.

Pre order that book.

He's gonna, by the time this goes up.

Tomas said that he was gonna have a, a way for people to sign up.

I'm gonna hold you to this now with some accountability.

You have a way for you to jump on and Pre order the G3 method, which I am excited about.

I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of that as well.

So we'll maybe need to do another, another episode once that comes out and I've had a chance to go through it and then I'll have informed questions for you based on the book.

Sounds good, man.

But yeah, stepitupacademy.com, connectwithtomas.com that's connectwithtomas.com and remember, everybody, don't call him asshole.

Man, this has been a good conversation.

I cannot wait to see.

Dude, I have a thousand ideas of, of potential things we could possibly even do together.

I have to get you on stage at the next event I have because this is, this is incredible stuff and I love the way that you lay it down for everybody.

Yeah.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, let me know.

I'm always willing to come up and help others and I like doing it at events because.

And you know this because you host events.

It just brings in another layer and it allows a deeper connection to other humans in that face to face interaction with them.

Yep, no doubt, no doubt.

And the energy is different.

It is when you're in that container.

You we, it gives us permission to actually deep dive and do the internal work and, and lay this stuff out in those workshop style sessions that we don't always make the time for.

Otherwise.

Yeah.

So I love events for that.

Well, any parting words, any last nuggets anyone drop on anybody or what's the one thing they can do immediately to get started into this process if they need to.

If, if that's something that, which I'm sure everybody needs to do this.

Yeah.

Stop overthinking and, and do what your gut tells you to do.

Even if other people around you tell it it's the wrong thing to do.

I like it.

That's good wisdom right there.

Trust the intuition.

Love it.

Well, thanks again, man.

And you know, it's beautiful.

This builds into the the entire philosophy of Close is work to become someone worth buying from.

And that's also by extension, work to create a business that's worth buying from.

So you heard it here first.

Everybody out there, go be somebody worth buying from.

We'll see you next time.

You've been listening to the Close it now podcast.

Our passion is to dive head first into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of hvac and home improvement and at the same time, covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

We hope you've enjoyed the show.

If you did, make sure to like, rate and review.

We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find the website@closeitnow.net find us on Instagram @thereal closeitnow and on Facebook closeitnow.

See you next time.