SPEAKER_00 0:00

Boom. Hello, Mr. Craig. Hello, hello, Mr. Jason. How are you today? Pretty good. Pretty good. Are we gonna dive into the mailbag? Sure. Let's dive down into that bag.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

So here's a here's a conversation out of the bag that has been happening recently is just business in general. That's it. All right, we're out. Yep. Good one. See you tomorrow. So here's the problem that I that I think we all know is that the cost of a team member has almost doubled in the last fifty it definitely has doubled in the last 15 years. Yep. Right.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

You're out there in California. Especially in California. That's what I was gonna say. What's that minimum wage out there?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

17 bucks an hour, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Was that it?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I think that's what I made at my first job, like, you know, like quote unquote real job at the booze comp I saw I uh ran a booze route, delivered booze, and was the sales guy. Boo at Walters. Yeah. Hawk and Hawken, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Talk about giving the wrong thing to the wrong guy. At that time, right? So so the cost of the team has gone up, the price of acquisition has gone up with any marketing, right? And then the commission has gone down.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Has it?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So margins are tighter than ever.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Yeah. How do we how do we solve this? I mean, a lot of people are just running. That doesn't seem to the you know, I don't think that's the answer necessarily. It could be for some folks, right? But a lot of folks have debt. A lot of folks are been doing this a long time, don't know where else to go. I mean, it's scary jumping industries, jump it out and even jump at verticals, right? Mm-hmm. So what is the answer? You seem to be the guy with all the answers.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah. That's what your wife says. We we especially with AI and everything, that's the big hot topic. Uh-huh. AI. AI is gonna replace what I but it has. Well, I I would argue this. It's also created a lot of problems.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Because most of the dudes I know doing AI are constantly doing AI, and there's constant problems, and it doesn't work perfectly forever. Hey, are you talking about me? No, no, no, just uh everybody that does it. I resemble that remark. It's definitely its own hamster wheel, let's say that. It is. You definitely need a huge like the way I look at that is like you need a human managing it. Yeah. Like the I think the next iteration of AI is like AI employees, but like the a manager managing the employees.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Until the until the AGI AI is managing the people who's managing the the AIs.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I just don't see uh like I don't see a future in which you just it just does everything for you. Because I think if there was that, then you're you're done. Like you're gone.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

So like we're all gone. The well, no, I mean, like, if nobody's on the internet anymore, then what what can internet things on the internet do? Right. Nothing. Because there's no eyeballs to do it. It's like at the end of the day, it's people, people connecting with people. It's kind of like what we talk about with our TMs, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

The why do we have TMs? Because because we don't want to make our expensive folks make the dials because they're A, they'll leave, and B, they won't make the dials.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Right, right. So it's a leverage point. And it's and and this is what I always say, because because we hear it all. What if they don't speak the best English? Or what if, you know, what what what's the script and all this stuff? And and at the end of the day, or they want them to uh filter it in an exact way, ask these specific questions, it's like you don't get it. Like we just need a human talking to a human. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Right. They're the sifter. The sifter.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

If some if there's a human that will pick up the phone, get them to the agent, and the agent will keep them online.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yep. Well, yeah. I mean, the more that you have somebody who doesn't have the requirements in order to actually convert the sale, the longer you have that person on the phone, the more it impedes the ability of the person who they eventually transfer to to try to close the business, right? Like now they have rapport. You don't want them to have rapport with the with the caller. Right. Because as soon as they have rapport with the caller, now they get transferred. They're like, but I like that, but wait, I don't want to go to somebody else. Right. Right. You don't want that.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

And I think it's like it's it's a good metaphor of how we just get in the weeds with everything, right? At the end of the day, the only reason why there's someone on the front lines is to connect a human with a human so that the human that is being connected, which is the agent, doesn't have to sit there all that time and go through and, you know, hear the no's, hear the hang ups, like all that other stuff. So it's just leverage. So going back to the original question, what do we do? Is I think in any kind of contract, like contraction type period. So if it's, you know, economical, like if we're going through a recession or whatever, who gets affected by everything the most? The lower end, right? There's always a higher end, a higher end market that gets affected the least. So, like in this, it's like if if we're dealing with margin, tighter margins, then I say we need to cut out the bottom, the bottom team. And I've been thinking about this a lot. Like, we need to not have those lower end members on our team because they don't make you that much money. Where if you paid, let's say, a third more and got just spot on A players, and then you got them things like a TM, leads, or whatever, invested a little bit more in them, but you're gonna get triple the production you would out of that lower end without the frustration and the pushback and everything else. So I think it's more of developing a players and less of them and getting them more tools to be more productive.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Right. Yeah. Like there's no other way. So, dude, I mean, here's here's a great example of doing it the wrong way back, you know, I don't know, probably 15 years ago when I was still trying to figure everything out. I mean, I'm still trying to figure everything out, but but even more so, old 15-year-old ago, Craig, would hire, had B players, probably some C players, and would instead of trying to make the players do better, I thought I was, right? But I thought, oh, they're just maxed. So I just need to bring on more. So bring up more people who were also B players. And now instead of actually increasing production, all I've done is taken that pie and made more slices out of it, right? No growth. And and just scratching my head going, what's going on here? You know, I mean, now I could see it so clearly, but but back then it was like, what? But we brought on somebody else, you know, and it just it wouldn't increase because there was no there was no lever pushing more opportunities in, right? Right. Because they're not making opportunities. And I guess that go that goes and aligns with what you're talking about, is we don't all of a sudden have more opportunities just because we brought up more players, right? You gotta you have to put something in front of them because if you if if I don't, then there's an agent down the street that does. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

I said agent. Yeah. Yeah. And but I think also it's it's that higher end. So like here's here's the feeling and the pain. I'm making less money. I can't afford I I need to look at the bottom of the barrel, basically. I have this budget and I can't afford more expensive people.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Well, that's a that's a decision that's gonna kill you.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah, but like that's the real feeling, right? Is like oh yeah, that's the feeling. Yeah, and you want to hire less like somebody, you know, maybe I can find someone who's who's not as good or or, you know, that's in a different situation and I can bring them in and make them a rock star, which has happened before. You know, sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

But if you're gonna play the numbers.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah. But like, what about what if you just got somebody who was a lot more money, maybe 10 bucks an hour more, you know? Well, all of a sudden, there's a lot less people going after that person. Because most people go for the cheapest people. Yep. Right. So then, so then that's a that's a benefit, right? Then that person that's getting hired for 10 bucks more an hour, they are much more grateful because they know that everybody else else is 10 bucks less. But then how how do I make that work? Well, then the question that then the next problem is, well, how do we get 10 bucks more an hour out of hiring this person?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Well, one thing is you don't have turnover from it, right? You right there it pays for itself, that extra $10.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, but like on a daily basis. So like I would say, I would say like setting the direction, like setting the what I like to do is below standard, standard, and above standard, which is like a a red, yellow, green system that I told you, where it's you define what are the quantifiable actions per day, per week, per month, per year for the person that's red is if you're in this zone, you're gonna like you can't be like you're basically fired. Yellow is like your standard, but you could be doing better. And then there's above standard. Anything above that, you're you're rocking. And so that sets a clear path for that person to understand what success looks like. But not only them, because they're gonna have a different version of success because they've been in other agencies, they've been, you know, other jobs or whatever. They can see what your version of success is. And so you guys are on the same page. But then also you know this that when you when you do the red section, the below standard, like the the what you don't accept, you need to set that to where with the $10 more an hour, this is the section that if they're hitting these numbers, it's not worth it to my agency. So there's a clarity piece to this. It's you as the owner, you gotta be clear and you gotta kind of have the balls enough to like, to like set these standards for your agency, set these standards for yourself, being able to look for higher end talent. And if you do this, the you know, A players are a lot easier, like they're they're more self-managing.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

So it becomes easier. Well, sure. I think it becomes harder for us because we have to have like a little bit of faith at the beginning, because it is more out of pocket at the beginning. But I think that's where that clarity piece comes in. If you can set the direction, you you have your standards for your agency, you get on the same path or you get on the same um the same page as your new team member, then it's simple. You you have the quantifiable numbers of what's acceptable, not acceptable, fireable, right? And then they self-select in or out.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Just by their actions.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

I mean it's investing in your business, right? Like it is odd how in this, and and I've been there and thought this way, you know, so there's a caveat. It's is it's odd that in this business, this world, that we we try to save so much money and really like go cheap on the inputs, right? Where I mean, just e take McDonald's. Let's just let's just it's a business, right? Let's take take McDonald's. If McDonald's wit, well, maybe they do go cheap on the inputs, uh, take in and out. You know, that they're not going to do well if they decide, hey, we're gonna get the worst potatoes because we got them half off. We're gonna get the the these you know budget beef that's it's it's on the edge, it's it's not as fresh as normal, but we're gonna save some money. Like the second they do that, they're losing money, right? They don't have a line out the door anymore. They don't have, you know, they don't have their their magic. And and that that's the same with any business. Like if you're going cheap, like there's a difference between going cheap and being fiscally responsible, right? Like you don't just hire 50 people when you need three. Like that would be irresponsible, right? But the flip of it, you don't limp along on one and think that something's gonna change in a month. Right. Like the like the only way to grow is by injecting something into the business, right? Like that's there's no magic way around that.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Even if you don't want to grow, even if you're downsizing, sure. Like, I I would much rather work with A players and a less, like, I I mean, the amount of headaches I've had with C players is unbelievable. It's like so crazy. It's so taxing. And there's no A player that likes to even work next to a C player. So you're just, I mean, it's kind of like it's it's the law of attraction. Like, what what is your agency attracting? Like a bunch of crappy people or a bunch of good people, you know? And it comes down to work ethic, it comes down to all ethics in general. And it's like, what do you want to be around? Because at the end of the day, we're at work a lot. And I mean, what do you want to be around? What are you building? We're sustaining. We're sustaining.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah. I mean, then look what you're competing with. Let's bring in and out in McDonald's back up again. How much, how much do they start at? I mean, I think it's probably everywhere, but certainly in California, what, 25 bucks an hour? Okay. How much is that a year full time? Mucho. 40 something. Yeah. I mean, so you're like, we're in a world that we're we're trying to pay less sometimes than McDonald's. And let's think about that. What's easier? To go, you know, throw an apron on and go down there and flip burgers for eight hours? Or come in here. Well, guess what? You need to go out and get your license first, and then you could come work here. Really? Screw that. I'm gonna go down to McDonald's, right? 100%.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

So how do you how do you keep how do you keep and find a players? So I would say this. First thing is you need to set a vision that's big. No A player wants to work for an agency that does not think big, right? Which, if your vision's big, you realize that your standards that you're willing to put up with and not put up with need to be higher than because that higher vision, you need to raise your standards. And then two, and I think this is the most important thing, especially with after hiring so many people in the past, is like you need to have a vision for them because they have a vision for themselves. And I know in interviews it's all, oh yeah, I just want blah, blah, blah. It's so surface-y, right. But like they have a vision for their life. And if you can set a high vision that's as high as theirs or even bigger than theirs, that's exciting because a vision will pull someone forward in a direction. And that pull is much greater than any push motive uh motivation, which is like, you know, firing or like the the negative stuff, right? That that's like a push and it it gets tiring, that kind of motivation. But the pull motivation is is a much stronger motivation and it's a self, a self-motivation that they that they would have. So that setting that vision for them is huge.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

It's like working for the empire or working for the rebel alliance. The rebel alliance has has a shared vision. They they have this crazy belief that they could beat this huge thing that just built the Death Star. And then on the other side of it, right? You have like nobody, nobody is really happy working for the Emperor, right? Right. I mean, so which one is it? Like, look at look at, I mean, as cheese ball as it sounds to go into Star Wars, it is a great metaphor on the way things work, the way life is, you know, because there's a lot of similarities and it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

So I think that's a good mailbag.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

I think we I think we wrap that up tight.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, I mean, I chased everybody away with a little Star Wars talk.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

So if you're still on this, join our school group. I mean, I'm sure it's somewhere in the in the notes. There's a ton of resources. There's the book, the book, million dollar agency book.com. Which is hilarious that, dude. So I I know I say this all the time, but we literally wrote the book. It took us two years, and pretty much when we were done with it, AI could have helped us immensely. This was actually really written. Really written. Really written with AI, actual intelligence.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Or a little actual. Yeah, don't say that it sounds like I mean, literally, it was probably what they they published it, and then then I think ChatGPT, uh, what was it, 3.5? Is that what was the first one? I don't know. Who cares? I mean, I don't even use ChatGPT anymore. And that's a mailbag. Mailbag.