WinRate Consulting's Blog

How to Build Unshakeable Confidence and Stop Giving Consent to Inferiority

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:15:00 GMT

In a world full of opinions and judgments, it's easy to find ourselves feeling inferior and questioning our capabilities. However, as Eleanor Roosevelt wisely said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." This powerful statement reminds us that we have control over our self-perception and confidence. In this blog post, we will explore how to stop giving consent to feelings of inferiority and build unshakeable self-assurance by defining our version of success and executing relentlessly.

Define Your Version of Winning:

The first step in gaining control over your self-esteem is defining what winning looks like to you. This is not about conforming to societal standards or comparing yourself to others; it's about understanding your passions, strengths, and personal goals. Take some time to reflect on what truly brings you joy and fulfillment. Is it a successful career, meaningful relationships, personal growth, or a combination of these factors? Allow your dreams and aspirations to shape your definition of winning.

Remember, success is subjective, and there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Embrace your uniqueness and create a vision that aligns with your values and desires. Once you have a clear picture of your destination, you can start mapping out the journey to get there.

The Power of Execution:

Defining your version of success is only the beginning. The real magic lies in execution. It's not enough to dream about your goals; you must actively pursue them. Embrace a mindset of relentless execution, where you take consistent actions to bring your aspirations to life. It's essential to understand that failure is an inevitable part of the process. You will stumble; you will face obstacles, but that's not a reason to give up.

Failure is not a sign of weakness but a stepping stone towards growth and improvement. Each setback teaches you valuable lessons, strengthens your resilience, and refines your approach. So, don't be afraid to fail; instead, see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Building Confidence Through Execution:

As you continue to execute your version of winning, something incredible starts to happen. The more you take action and make progress, the more confidence you build in yourself and your abilities. This newfound confidence gradually diminishes the little voice in your head that once filled you with doubt and insecurity.

You begin to recognize your worth and acknowledge your achievements. The opinions of others lose their power over you because you are rooted in the knowledge of your efforts and accomplishments. With each successful step forward, you become less affected by comparisons with others because you understand that your journey is unique and incomparable.

Embrace Your Inner Badass:

With consistent execution and growing confidence, you'll reach a point where your mindset undergoes a profound shift. Instead of dwelling on feelings of inferiority, you start to embrace your inner badass. You recognize your strengths, celebrate your wins, and acknowledge the hard work you've put into achieving your goals.

That little voice that once whispered doubt and negativity is replaced by a fierce champion who believes in you, cheering you on every step of the way. You realize that you are capable of greatness, and there's no need to compare yourself to anyone else.

Conclusion: Embracing Your Inner Power and Unleashing Your Potential:

In conclusion, the journey towards stopping the consent to inferiority and building unshakable confidence starts with defining your version of winning. Embrace your uniqueness and create a vision that reflects your true desires. From there, take consistent actions to execute on your goals, accepting failure as a natural part of the process. Through continuous effort and growth, you'll find yourself growing more confident, and the opinions of others will hold less power over you.

So, take that first step today—define your version of winning, believe in yourself with #zerodoubt, and witness how your world transforms. Remember, you are a force to be reckoned with, and when you believe in yourself, there's nothing you cannot achieve. Keep pushing forward, and success will be within your grasp. You've got this!

Filling Your Cup: Embracing Extreme Accountability for a Radically Transformed Life

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Life can be overwhelming, with endless demands pulling us in different directions. We often find ourselves striving to be everything for everyone, neglecting our own well-being in the process. It's like trying to pour from an empty cup, hoping to make a difference in the lives of those around us without taking care of ourselves first. But what if we chose a different path? What if we embraced extreme accountability in our lives and started prioritizing our own body, mind, and spirit? This journey of self-care and personal growth can lead to profound transformations, not just for ourselves but for everyone we touch. In this blog post, we'll explore the transformative power of self-investment and how it can impact the lives of our loved ones.

The Refusal to Neglect Ourselves:

In our quest to be everything for everyone, we often forget that we deserve the same love and attention we pour into others. Neglecting our own needs can leave us feeling depleted, resentful, and unable to offer our best selves to the world. The turning point comes when we recognize the importance of filling our own cup first. By acknowledging that self-care is not selfish, we open the door to a new chapter of personal growth and fulfillment.

The Season of Extreme Accountability:

Imagine entering a season of extreme accountability, where we take full responsibility for our choices and actions. This means making decisions that align with the life we truly want to live, rather than conforming to societal expectations or external pressures. Taking ownership of our lives empowers us to steer our journey in the direction of happiness, purpose, and authenticity.

The Journey to Self-Discovery:

Embarking on this path of self-discovery is no easy feat. It requires courage, determination, and a willingness to face our flaws and failures. We may stumble along the way, but each setback becomes an opportunity for growth and learning. Through self-reflection and the pursuit of harmony, we gradually uncover the core essence of our being—the person we were meant to be.

A Cup Overflowing with Abundance:

As we invest in ourselves and allow our cup to fill, we experience a profound transformation. The abundance within us spills over into every aspect of our lives. Our relationships deepen as we have more to give emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We become a beacon of positivity, radiating love, compassion, and understanding to those around us.

Changing Lives, Starting with Our Own:

The true power of filling our own cup lies in its ripple effect. By taking care of ourselves first, we become catalysts for positive change in the lives of our loved ones. Our overflowing cup enables us to support others with a renewed vigor, inspiring them to embark on their journey of self-improvement.

Conclusion: Embrace the Journey, Overflow with Impact:

The journey of extreme accountability and self-investment is undoubtedly challenging, but its rewards are immeasurable. As we pour into our own body, mind, and spirit, we unlock a wellspring of abundance that can radically and permanently change the lives of everyone we touch. Yes, it takes effort, and yes, we will stumble along the way, but the destination is one of authenticity, fulfillment, and meaningful connections. So let's begin the adventure of filling our cups and empowering ourselves to make a difference in the world, one step at a time. Together, we can create a world where every cup overflows with love, compassion, and positive change

The Power of Mindset: Embracing Challenges and Growing Stronger Together

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Introduction: Embracing Challenges and the Power of Mindset:

Life is a rollercoaster ride filled with ups and downs, and sometimes, it can throw unexpected challenges our way. As much as we'd love for everything to go smoothly, that's not always the case. But here's the thing: the way we perceive and respond to these challenges can make all the difference between feeling defeated and emerging stronger than ever before. In this blog post, we'll explore the power of mindset and how adopting a positive perspective can transform hurdles into stepping stones towards success.

Embrace the Journey, Embrace the Challenges:

This morning, our team encountered a series of unfortunate events - vehicles breaking down, sweltering heat, and rising tensions. It would have been easy to give in to frustration and throw in the towel. But instead, we took a collective breath and realized that things happen either "to us" or "for us," and it's our choice to decide which perspective to adopt. We recognized that challenges are an inevitable part of life and business, and it's in overcoming them that we grow stronger and wiser.

In Unity Lies Strength:

In the face of adversity, we regrouped as a team, finding solace in the warehouse. Together, we brainstormed solutions and provided support to one another. It's moments like these that remind us of the importance of teamwork and unity. When everyone rows in the same direction, the journey becomes smoother, and obstacles seem less daunting. The camaraderie and collaboration within a team can uplift everyone's spirits and enhance problem-solving capabilities.

The Real Face of Success:

In today's social media-driven world, it's easy to fall into the trap of comparing our lives and businesses with the glamorous façade presented online. However, it's crucial to remember that behind every success story lies a myriad of challenges and struggles. No one is exempt from the trials of life; it's how we face and overcome them that define us.

Building Resilience and Taking Control:

Life isn't about avoiding challenges; it's about building resilience and facing them head-on. By acknowledging that we have control over our responses and actions, we empower ourselves to shape our circumstances. Blaming external factors for our setbacks only perpetuates a victim mentality. Instead, we must adopt a proactive attitude and take responsibility for the direction we choose to go.

"If It's Meant to Be, It's Up to Me":

This simple phrase holds a profound truth. We often wait for things to fall into place, thinking that destiny will pave the way for us. While some things may be beyond our control, there's much we can influence through our choices and determination. Success is not solely determined by fate; it's a culmination of hard work, perseverance, and a positive mindset.

The Path to Success Through a Positive Mindset:

Mindset is indeed everything. The way we perceive challenges, work as a team, and take control of our lives determines our path to success. Embracing the journey, both its triumphs and tribulations, allows us to grow stronger and more resilient. So, the next time you encounter a rough patch, remember that you have the power to turn obstacles into opportunities. Together, as a united team, with a positive outlook, we can conquer any challenge that comes our way and emerge even stronger than before.

Unlocking Business Success: The Power of Measuring Metrics

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 10:15:00 GMT

The Importance of Measuring Business Metrics

If you're a business owner, you've probably come across the phrases, "What gets measured, gets done" and "What gets measured, gets improved." These maxims, often attributed to the management guru Peter Drucker, emphasize the importance of tracking and analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) to achieve success. However, the roots of this wisdom trace back even further, possibly to the 1500s, with the original phrase being, "If you can measure it, you can manage it."
Regardless of its origins, the message remains clear: measuring essential aspects of your business provides you with vital data that propels you towards your goals. Unfortunately, many business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders overlook this crucial aspect, resulting in missed opportunities and uninformed decision-making. In this blog post, we'll explore the power of measuring business metrics and how it can be a game changer for your company's success.

The Significance of Measuring Business Metrics

In the fast-paced and competitive world of business, making informed decisions is paramount. Without relevant data, business owners and leaders are navigating in the dark, relying on intuition alone, which can be a recipe for disaster. Metrics and KPIs serve as the guiding lights that illuminate the path to success.
When you measure key aspects of your business, you gain valuable insights into its performance. These insights empower you to:

Track Progress: Measuring KPIs allows you to monitor progress towards your business objectives. It provides a clear picture of how far you've come and how much further you need to go.
Identify Weaknesses and Opportunities: Metrics highlight areas of your business that may require improvement or optimization. Likewise, they uncover potential opportunities for growth that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Make Data-Driven Decisions: Relying on real-time data rather than gut feelings enables you to make informed and objective decisions. This reduces the risk of costly mistakes and increases the chances of success.
Enhance Accountability: When you have quantifiable metrics, you can hold yourself and your team accountable for results. It fosters a culture of responsibility and motivation.

The Problem and the Solution

Despite the evident benefits of measuring business metrics, many entrepreneurs and leaders neglect this essential practice. They may feel overwhelmed by data analysis, lack understanding of which metrics to track, or simply be unaware of the potential impact on their business.
The good news is that there is a solution to this problem—a strategic marketing planning worksheet. This invaluable tool helps plan and track key data, providing you with real-time information to make informed business decisions. Those who have embraced this approach have seen remarkable improvements in their business performance.

Conclusion: Embrace the Metrics and Soar to Success

In the journey of entrepreneurship, it's crucial to have a clear sense of direction and the means to reach your destination. Measuring business metrics acts as your compass, guiding you towards success. By tracking and analyzing key performance indicators, you gain the insights needed to make informed decisions, identify growth opportunities, and improve your business continually.
So, it's time to embrace the power of measuring metrics and set your business on a trajectory to greatness. Let's work together to make your business the best it can be. Remember, it's time to �55349;�56898;�55349;�56932; �55349;�56893;�55349;�56922; �55349;�56898;�55349;�56935;�55349;�56922;�55349;�56918;�55349;�56937;❗️

Setting Realistic Targets: Strategies for Analyzing and Adjusting Your Progress

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Are you tired of constantly chasing moving targets? Do you find yourself setting goals only to push them further when you're close to reaching them? It's a common struggle many of us face. We understand the frustration and the feeling of never doing enough, which can eventually lead to burnout. But what if there was a better way? In this article, we dive deep into the art of goal setting and offer valuable insights on how to know when it's time to change, adjust, or push a target. Join us as we explore strategies to break free from the cycle of dissatisfaction and find fulfillment in your journey towards success.

The Downside of Moving the Finish Line: Why Constantly Pushing Targets Leads to Burnout and Dissatisfaction

We see a lot of times people set a revenue target, let's say a million dollars. They get to $800,000, they're like, "All right, let's make it 1.2," right? Like, "Hey, I want to lose 20 pounds," and they get close, they're like, "Let's push it to 25 pounds." And the downside of that, to start off, is like you're never doing enough and you never actually get there and it eventually leads to burnout, in my opinion. It's ultimately something that I think causes people to never be satisfied or happy or fulfilled or feeling like the effort they're putting in is actually getting them results. Even though it's getting them results, they're never actually getting to the finish line because they keep moving the finish line. So my opinion is complete the initiative fully, then analyze and adjust what the next stage could be. I think so many people view targets as a finite peak, where this is the target, when we get there, that's it. And ultimately, that's just not it. The mission goes on, the intentionality continues, the initiative continues, the focus continues, your life continues. Just because you hit a certain target doesn't mean that the mission's over.
We use quarterly initiatives, and I think creating piecemeal together to implement a part of the process, then reanalyze and adjust going into the following quarter is a really big way to make sure that you are progressing forward at all times. Also, it allows you to check the box. We finished this for the quarter and we'll analyze and adjust for next quarter's initiatives. Ultimately, I feel like too many people move the goalpost when they get close. Should you never do it? No, I mean, sometimes if you set a million dollar target for the year and you're at $999,000 in June, you should probably adjust the target. But ultimately, so many people get stuck in that constantly pushing, constantly pushing, constantly pushing, that they end up in this whirlwind of dissatisfaction with what they have because it's never enough because what enough is continues to evolve.

The Power of Outside Perspective: Leveraging Team Input for Target Analysis and Evolution

I would say if you get to a target substantially faster than expected, reanalyze the target and timeline. If you undersold yourself in your capacity, it's important to reestablish priorities within that ecosystem, whatever that is. Obviously, this is a very generic question about any targets or goals, and so it can be difficult to align specifically to what you're looking for, but bringing in the people on your team, bringing in your spouse, bringing in confidants or coaches to say, "Hey, this is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm evolving." They may have perspectives that you don't. So when you get to a certain like, "Hey, I had planned on a million. We're at a million in June, what do I do next? How do I evolve this?" Because there's going to be some context to your situation that your expedited growth or your speed to get to that destination will have you somewhat distracted where you haven't had the time to properly think through the details of the actual situation.
Bring in outside perspective. Like for me, I'm not allowed to change a target or initiative or goal without bringing in my team's input. It allows me to get other perspectives, because sometimes, I'd say a lot of times, I might think we're close, but because we got there something else broke and there's people on the team trying to fix that other thing. And maybe my perspective is we got there, but a bunch of other problems arose because of that. And pushing a target too far or pushing it too many times will lead your entire team to feeling like they're not enough or burnout or whatever. And you're like, "Well, my team just doesn't want to work. They're a bunch of bitches." Maybe. Maybe that's the case, and there's definitely some truth to that, but I think ultimately people want to know what the target is, they want to get to that target, they want to feel the accomplishment, and then they want to reset it.

Unlocking Success: The Winning Formula of Setting, Completing, and Resetting Targets

My suggestion would be to set a target, complete the target, then reanalyze and adjust and set a new target. Don't do it before you get there because if you do it before you get there, sometimes you haven't learned the lessons you need to learn for the next level. If you are at $800,000 and you had a million dollar target and you say, "Well, let's push it to $2 million," you haven't learned the lessons yet necessary to accomplish and maintain $2 million.

So I would say set the target, complete the target, then analyze and adjust and reset from there. It allows everybody to stay on board, allows everybody to operate with a similar consistency and speed, and ultimately allows you to accomplish more in a given period of time because people like the carrot. They like feeling the accomplishment, and then if they feel this certain level of we'll just say decompression, and then they're re-energized to hit the next target because we've proven that we can set a target and get there. It's very important to allow people to feel that. Ultimately that'll allow you to win fast and win often!

Live with Purpose: The Power of Intentionality in Everyday Life

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Are you caught up in the fast-paced whirlwind of life, overlooking the precious minutes that pass by? Have you ever taken things for granted, assuming they'll always be there? We hear you. Life's unexpected turns can shake us to the core, making us question our complacency and the value we place on every fleeting moment. Join us as we dive into personal stories that will resonate with your struggles, reminding you of the importance of intentionality and embracing each minute as if it were the last.

Humbling Moments that Put Life's Fragility into Perspective

Today I want to talk about taking advantage of and understanding every minute is important. There have been times in my life that I've either been a part of or seen things, that really puts into perspective how quickly life can change. It's easy to become complacent and to take things for granted, that the people will be there, that the things will be there, that your kids will be there, and it's just not always true.
One of my clients experienced a jobsite fatality. That's a call you just never want to get, right? Everything's going fine, business is booming, money's coming in, employees are happy, clients are happy. Boom, one mistake, and that company will never be the same, realistically.
If your familiar with my social media, I'm sure you've seen that I had a bit of a side-by-side accident a while back. We went out and we rode for four or five hours. We rode hard. We had fun. We were having a good time. And then towards the end of the day, Tiff and I were riding on one of the little dirt tracks that are there and went into one of the turns a little too quick and I rolled it. I rolled the side-by-side over and I, like most masculine men who are super cocky, was not wearing my seatbelt. I got thrown around a little bit. I walked away with some bumps and bruises, but I could have just as easily gotten thrown out of that and gotten really hurt or worse. It was a little overwhelming. It was one minute you're fine, the next minute you're flipping over. Lesson learned. But definitely going to be getting some harnesses installed.
One weekend, Tiff and I went out with the boys to do a little exploring. Tiff and I will take the boys, we call them our adventure weekends. We just go to do some cool shit somewhere, and we drove to Greenville. And Sunday morning we went to this really, really cool playground that was on the side right next to a smaller, more regional airport. And so you're literally a hundred feet off the runway and you're just... It's a really cool playground. You're watching planes, these smaller propeller planes, and small jets and stuff take off and land, which is really cool. But about halfway through the day we were there, this elderly woman mistakenly drove her car through the exterior gate, and she was 10 feet away from running a kid over. She came barreling through the gate, the fence. She just went to park in her parking spot, which is on the other side of the fence and just never stopped, just barreled right through the fence, went right into the playground area. I mean, luckily there was no one on that side of the playground when it happened, but there were people on that side all day. MJ and I were sitting at one of the picnic tables. I was helping him, we were playing Pokémon GO. Then, BOOM, car just barrels through the fence, could have hit somebody, right?

Embracing Caution and Intentionality: A Wake-Up Call for Appreciating Life's Moments

These are all potentially life changing events. And those things happen all the time. You always hear like, "Oh, it happens, but it wouldn't happen to me." And I'm not saying I didn't have an appreciation for the details and the importance of intentionality. I mean, I think most of you guys know I'm a pretty intentional person, but those three things happened in less than a one month period.
And I just want you guys to be cautious of that. Be cautious of taking things for granted. Be cautious of becoming complacent. Be cautious of wishing moments away. Be cautious of not being intentional with your time. Be cautious of how you talk to people. Be cautious of how you leave conversations. Be cautious of how you leave people in their emotional state. Tiff and I have a rule, we never go to bed angry. If it means we're up all night talking because we got to work through some shit, we're up all night talking, going through some shit. But we don't go to sleep angry. It's just a really bad thing to do. So with my kids, I'm trying really hard to be in intentional with my time with them. It's not a quantity thing, it's a quality thing. I don't have a ton of time with the kids, but when I do, I try to be intentional with it. Taking the kids to school is a big thing for me. So for me, it's very important.

The Urgency of Now: Embracing Intentionality for a Fulfilling Life

So from that perspective, look, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, but I think there's a lot of people out there that need a reminder that what you have right now, you may not have forever. The people, the things you're doing, the places you go, the ability you have to come and go as you please, and to do all the things that you do, man, in a heartbeat, in literally a heartbeat, you go from just hanging out, chilling, everything's fine, to boom, your life's never the same again.

Be intentional. Be smart. Look out for yourself. Look out for those around you. Be a leader. Have intentionality and go be great this week. The only way you're going to win fast and win often is if you are showing extreme intentionality in how you do what you do, where you do it, and who you do it with. Have zero doubt. You need zero doubt in yourself to know, and the only way to do that is to do everything you're supposed to be doing anyway.

Know Your Worth: The Key to Success in Business

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Unlocking Your Worth: The Power of Value-Driven Pricing

Are you tired of undercharging for your products or services? Feeling undervalued and struggling to maximize your business's profitability? We understand the frustrations and challenges you face as a business owner. At WinRate Consulting, with over five years of experience helping entrepreneurs like you, we've witnessed the transformative impact of value-driven pricing strategies. In today's article, we delve into the importance of recognizing your worth and aligning it with the prices you set. Join us on this journey of discovering the key to sustainable business growth and success.

The Pitfalls of Undercharging and the Importance of Fair Pricing

This was probably the first time, I would say, I went viral on the Facebooks. I made a post, I think it was Saturday, about a transaction I had with the guy in Charlotte who detailed my vehicles. So this post I made, it starts with, "This is what doing business with friends and good people should look like." It's got 218 shares, which is absolutely insane. Look, you might be some crazy influencer out there getting massive amounts of engagement, but 218 shares on a post has got to be one of the highest engaged posts I've ever made. But let me give you a little background on the story. So I've been using the same guy. He's a small business owner, has a brick and mortar location to detail my vehicles. I wanted to deal with somebody beyond just the neighborhood guy that comes in around, charges 50 bucks for detailing. I saw recently that he had increased his pricing. I was like, "Okay, cool, I get it. Businesses everywhere are raising prices. So it makes sense." I was out of town that week in Dallas for Apex events and Tiff was there alone, so I was like, "Hey man, can you help us out and come switch the vehicles out?" So he showed up, I think a Tuesday night, dropped his car at my house, picked up the Challenger, brought the Challenger back the next day, picked up the Jeep, brought the Jeep back the next day, picked up the truck, brought the truck back, picked up his car.
So he did this over three days, really four days. And so he literally made it possible for us to do business with him that week because Tiff would've just had a really hard time being here without me being able to pull that off with everything else she had going on. So huge, huge value. Well, here comes the invoice. From what I saw, he had raised his prices of $300 per vehicle, which I think is pretty fair. I've seen higher. He does an incredible job, and he also went above and beyond to come and pick the vehicles up instead of making us drop them off. So I get an invoice for $700 and I'm like, "Huh, that doesn't seem right. So let me reach out to him." I said, "Hey, man, I thought it was $300 a vehicle." And his response was, "That's my updated pricing. I can't, in my right mind, charge a good and repeat client that price when I'm doing three vehicles for them." And if you didn't see the post, here's my response, "Fuck that. You're in business. Business needs to make a profit. You won't be around to support me if you're not charging the right amount of money. I'll pay the invoice once it's adjusted to the correct pricing." I see this happen all over the place. This is not just him. He's incredible. He's located in Charlotte. If you need his contact information, just reach out to me, shoot me a DM or something, I'll get you connected. But this is a message to all business owners out there, you have to charge what you know you're supposed to charge specifically to friends or family. If you are not a business owner out there, stop expecting your friends and family-owned businesses to give you a fucking discount.

Calculating Your Worth and Recognizing the Value You Bring

It's an epidemic of sorts, but really, here's what I think the underlying problem is. I don't think most people understand how to calculate their worth to understand their value. Say it however you want. Their value to understand their worth is probably the right way to say it, understanding the value that you bring compared to the worth of your product or service. I had to do the same thing with our housekeeper. We call her our house manager. She does dishes and laundry and grocery shopping and odds and ends and things around the house for decluttering and all kinds of stuff. And I was like, "Look, this is what you charge per hour, but this is really what it takes. This is really the value that you bring." If you understand the value you bring to your client base, whether it's saving them time, saving them effort, saving them money, your worth has to equate to that, or you're just another discounted service provider that won't be around that long.
And so I challenge you right now, raise your prices. Everybody in the world is raising their prices right now. If you have not raised your prices in years, you are probably on the verge of going out of business within the next 12 to 18 months. Just look at gas prices. I mean, if you drive at all for your job, or you buy anything from the store or Amazon or whatever, everything's gone up in price. If you have not increased what you're charging, do it immediately. I like just, quote, unquote "tiptoeing in". Raise it by 20%. Give that price to your next 10 to 20 prospects. See what happens. If everybody says no, maybe we need to readjust. If everybody says yes, you probably need to raise it a little bit more and get to that point where you are worth what people are willing to pay you for the value that you bring. Period.
There are coaches out there that charge a hundred dollars a month, and there's coaches out there that charge 25 to $30,000 a month. It's all about the value that you bring. I'm somewhere in the middle right now. I'm not at the top, I'm not at the bottom. But when I started, it was like, "What will people pay me?" Now that I have a track record and there's proof of the value that I bring, I can charge more. That's over the course of three to four years, but you have to understand the value that you bring. You have to understand the value of that person not having the service that you bring. Let's just use my house manager, my detail guy here. He saved us 10 to 15 hours last week in transfer of people, transfer of vehicles, doing the actual cleaning ourselves that would've been subpar comparatively.
And so if you look at what is the time worth of your target audience. For this guy, he does primarily high-end vehicles. Saving the time of his clients is the biggest thing that he does. And those people with typically, high-end vehicles, they typically make a lot of money per hour. So what are you saving them by going above and beyond to picking up their vehicles and bringing them back and going the extra mile and all that? He's probably still undercharging me at 300, but hey, that's his thing right now. He's got to figure that out, but he sure as hell can't undercharge somebody who's using him because of the value that he brings.
Same thing with my house manager. The amount of time she saves us in just the little things like the dishes, the laundry, the cleaning up, the wiping down the counters, the whatever it is around the house, the decluttering of closets. She saves us a ton of time, and she also allows us to spend more of the time that we have doing the things we want to do with our family instead of spending nights and evenings and weekends doing the stupid fucking chores that she does for us. And that for me, it's stupid. If you like doing laundry, you like doing dishes, whatever, that's on you. That's not what I like spending my time doing. It's not what I like spending my time watching my wife do. So we pay somebody else to do that.

Understanding Your Value and Embracing Your Worth

But no matter what it is you do, whether it's remodel work or service or product, understand the value that your product service brings to your ideal client, and that should equate to the worth that you charge people. What is it worth to them? It should be worth the value that it brings to them. So if you don't know what that is, ask people. Ask your previous client, say, "What's the biggest value that we brought? What did that save you? How much money or time or effort or energy did that save you," so you can better understand what the value of your product or service is. A lot of times, people can't imagine not having you. But a lot of times, if you're just dealing with friends or family, they're probably trying to see how they can get a deal when they would go... They're not going to fucking... They're not buying Jordan's at a discount. They're not buying fucking cars at a discount. They're not buying the shit that they really want at a discount. So stop being the person giving the discount when you don't have to.
If you know that the dollar figure that you charge is worth it for the value that you bring, be intentional about maintaining that because it's your job to be profitable, okay? It's not your job to live up to the expectations of everybody around you from a discount perspective. So know your worth starts with understanding your value. Get out there this week and get intentional. Like I said, if you have not raised your prices in years, you're already behind the eight ball, you're already probably on the verge of living paycheck to paycheck, if not worse, you're heavily in debt. And it's not anybody's fault but your own. You can say, "Well, all these people, customers just ain't got money right now." Bullshit. Look at fucking NFTs, look at baseball cards, look at cars right now, look at boats and ATVs and all the fucking fun shit. You can't find it right now.

House prices through the roof. That's because people are spending money. So don't tell me people don't want to spend money right now. They just don't see the value in what you offer. Maybe it's because you don't see the value in what you offer, and it's probably because of the price you charge. Bottom line is people with money pay for value. They're less worried about the dollar figure and more worried about the experience and the value they get. So if you can't charge what you need to charge to stay profitable, fix your fucking process. Make it more valuable and get out there, and make sure you earn your ability to stay in business. That's your job. You're the captain of the ship. So embrace your worth, understand your value, and take confident steps towards a prosperous and fulfilling entrepreneurial journey. Let your pricing reflect the value you bring and watch your business thrive.

Living Up to Your Own Expectations: Setting the Standard and Being the Example

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Are you tired of trying to fit into someone else's mold? Do you find yourself comparing your journey to the highlight reels of others? We understand the struggles of living up to external expectations. At WinRate Consulting, with over 5 years of experience working with business owners, we've witnessed the transformative power of setting your own standards and embracing your unique strengths. In this article, we delve into the importance of living up to your own expectations, being authentic, and finding fulfillment on your own terms. Discover how to break free from societal pressures and create a path that aligns with your true potential.

Setting Proper Expectations: Unleashing Your True Potential

I've been saying this a lot lately: "Touch the line," "Play through the whistle," "Set the standard," "Be the example," it all comes back to a common and I think underestimated theme of you have to live up to the expectation that you set for yourself. But that comes back to setting proper expectations to yourself.
I'm pretty fired up. Pastor Steven Furtick with Elevation Church had a killer, killer talk about understanding and living and moving into what you are made for. He used the analogy of a fish trying to fly or a bird trying to swim. Both suck at doing the other person's job. And I think so many of us are out there right now comparing ourselves to the highlight reel of social media, comparing ourselves to the gross revenue numbers of our competition or friends, comparing ourselves to the image of what the other people around you think you're supposed to be, comparing yourself to this fabricated image and trying to force yourself into this square peg into a round hole type situation.

Embracing Your Unique Calling: Harnessing the Power of Empathy and Communication

Ultimately, setting the standard and being the example comes back to you living up to and setting the standard and being the example of what you know need to do, being all in on who you are supposed to be, because the more you push yourself into these other waters, the more you push yourself into doing things that you are just not built to do, the more your insecurities, the more your anxieties, the more you're going to not live up to them, which makes the compounding effect of trying to do things you're not supposed to be doing or not built to be doing and then failing, and then insecurities creeping in, and then trying again, and then failing. And then your insecurity's creeping in and your anxiety's creeping in and your depression's creeping in, because you're over here trying to be something that you are not built to be.
I don't pretend or believe that... I don't have a lot of sympathy in my life, but I have an incredible amount of empathy. And I think owning that and knowing that... And there's a lot of people out there that think Mike's an asshole. The people who truly know me knows that Mike, me, comes from a place of love with everything I do, the people I want to help, the things I try to do, the way I deliver things. I deliver things in the way that I think people need to hear them, not want to hear them. I deliver the information that I believe people need to hear, not want to hear. And that makes me the bad guy sometimes. That makes me the asshole sometimes.
But I will tell you, there's not a single client I've worked with that does not believe or at least truly understand that I'm coming from a place of absolute love and care. But my empathy, empathy is my skillset. Empathy and communication is where I belong. I grew up just being the menace, being the person that was always talking, being the person that was always trying to be the center of attention. And I'm sure at some point, someone told me, "Well, Mike, not everybody cares what you have to say." Good.
But if I would've stopped talking back then, the amount of people I wouldn't have impacted through my empathy, through my ability to communicate. And I'm setting the standard in my life about what I believe a champion looks like in the discipline, in the mental toughness, in the routines, in the success and the way that I represent myself and my family and my wife and my church and my clients. And I want to represent the thing that I'm trying to coach people to get to so I'm not some sort of hypocrite. There's a lot of hypocritical coaches out there or just leaders in general. Take the word coaches out of it. There's a lot of hypocritical leaders out there, right?
And it's one of those things where if you just don't lean into and understand who are you, what are you here for, what are you built for, why were you given those tools and skillsets and abilities that you were in, why were you not given other skillsets, abilities that you were like... Dude, I've always wished I could be an artist. I've always been fascinated by people who are creative in the way that they sing, the way that they paint, the way that they draw, the way that they sculpt. I have always been fascinated by artists. But if I sat here and tried to sell paint for a living or paintings for a living or sculptures for a living, I'd be a broke ass dude.
But my creativity and my ability to be an artist is with my words. My ability to communicate and put things together in a way that leave an impact on my audience is my creative outlet. It is the way that I use artistry in myself. And if I were to try to fight that and I went just like, "I want to be an artist so badly," I'd probably get better at some point, but I would never be or reach the potential or reach the influence that I would using my words and my communication and my empathy.

Unleashing Your Authenticity: Building Your Business on Your Own Terms

So for you, playing through the whistle, touching the line, setting the standard, being the example, it's all about understanding what it is you are trying to live up to for yourself, being the best at what you're the best at and being okay with what you suck at. Everybody sucks at something.
I'm getting tired of the amount of people out there pushing your get rich quick shit and teaching people what their business is supposed to look like. It's your fucking business. Build it the way you want. I know for a fact there are people that I used to think were friends that don't like me anymore. I know for a fact there are people out there that used to appreciate or be around me that don't want to be around me anymore. But I'm going all in on being the best version of who I believe I need to be.
It's not going to be for everybody. My results are not going to live up to everybody. I might never be a 10 million dollar company, but I'll be pretty happy building a three million dollar company, impacting hundreds of lives a year, if not thousands of lives a year. Even the way I'm bringing on coaches onto the team right now, the way we're throwing our first revenue generating event the end of March, I don't know if it's going to be successful or not, but we're going for it, because that's what I think we should do right now. It's what I think would be the best suited use of our talents right now. And I'm taking my team and saying, "What are we best at? And let's use that to our advantage."

Embrace Your Unique Path: Defying Expectations and Finding Fulfillment

So I'm going to challenge you. What are you doing this week to take advantage of the things that you're great at and to overcome or ignore or avoid the things that you suck at? I don't care what anybody else tells you. If you know you're great at something, go after it passionately. If you know suck at something, be okay sucking at it. I'm really okay with what I'm good at and I'm really okay with what I'm bad at, and I'm really okay not knowing everything. But what I do know, I know very confidently. I stay in my lane and I do the best I can to deliver my opinions and my feelings and my emotions as authentically and directly as I can.
And I'm not doing it for you. I've never once done this for you. I do this because if I hold it in and I don't let it out and I'm not honest with people to the best of my ability when I feel it's the right thing to do, I get completely bottled up on the inside. I get completely wound up. I get extreme depression, extreme anxiety. So I put this up out there because it makes me feel better. And that's enough for me. And that should be enough for you. You should go do what you want to do the way you want to do because it fulfills you, not because of the other people around you. And the faster and the quicker you figure that out, the faster and the quicker you're going to lose this anchor of the depression, the anxiety, the frustration, the disappointment because you're trying to be your fit into this box that somebody else told you you need to fit into. And I'm telling you, you don't. I'm telling you you don't have to. I'm telling you it's okay to set the standard and be the example of what you believe it needs to look like, not compared to anybody else.

Unleash Your Full Potential: Embrace Your Unique Path to Success

In this article, we've delved into the importance of setting proper expectations for yourself, staying true to who you are, and embracing your strengths and weaknesses. At WinRate Consulting, we have over 5 years of experience helping business owners navigate their journeys and achieve success.
Now, it's time for you to take action. This week, commit to touching the line, playing through the whistle, and setting the standard in your own life. Work diligently, go the extra mile, and fearlessly express your beliefs and opinions. Remember, being polarizing can lead to immense growth and success.
Get after this week with unwavering determination. Make it great, win fast, and win often. Have zero doubt in your abilities and embrace who you are. Be relentless and seize every opportunity on your journey towards success.

Maximizing the Value of Coaching: Understanding and Measuring ROI

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Are you considering hiring a coach to take your business to the next level? Do you find yourself wondering how to measure the return on investment (ROI) for coaching services? We understand the challenges and questions that come with making such a decision. At WinRate Consulting, with over 5 years of experience helping business owners succeed, we have had countless conversations about ROI. In this article, we will walk you through a simple equation to determine the ROI of coaching services, helping you understand the value and potential impact on your business's growth and profitability.

Determining ROI: Unlocking the Value of Coaching Services

When considering hiring a coach, one of the biggest questions that often arises is how to measure the return on investment (ROI) for coaching services. This dilemma is not exclusive to WinRate Consulting; it applies to anyone exploring the possibility of working with a coach. To shed light on this crucial aspect, let's walk through a scenario together—while we focus on helping businesses improve, you can adapt the principles to suit your own situation.
To begin, let's delve into a fundamental question: "What's the average value of your clients?" Taking both gross and net values into account, determine the average size of your projects and the corresponding profit margin. For instance, if your average project is $15,000 with a net profit of $1,500 (10%), ask yourself this: "By hiring WinRate Consulting, do you believe you can generate more than one additional project per month through our collaboration?" In nearly all cases, the answer is a resounding "yes," leading to an immediate return on investment within the first month.
At WinRate Consulting, we offer a range of packages starting from $1,500 per month, encompassing two one-on-one coaching calls and two group calls. While the pricing may vary based on factors such as service offerings, delivery format, and frequency, the underlying principle remains the same. If you anticipate securing more than one additional project per month by partnering with us, the ROI becomes evident. Even though the investment level may differ depending on your circumstances, whether you operate in the half-million to a hundred-million-dollar range or fall within the one to five million range, the opportunity to make substantial changes in your business exists with an investment of $18,000 to $30,000 per year.

Matching Expectations for a Successful Coaching Partnership

When selling a product or service, understanding your potential client's average project size and profit margin is crucial. If a client reveals an average project size of $199 with a 10% profit margin, they may require a different coaching approach or timing. It could also prompt a deeper exploration into finding a more valuable problem they can solve to enhance their earning potential. As an example, I recently helped a client increase their client value from $6,000 or $7,000 to $30,000 per year, resulting in a return of $150,000 within a month. These transformative outcomes are real and achievable.
If you're considering hiring a coach, it's essential to assess what results you need to obtain to justify the investment. Since the early stages of my coaching practice, I have always offered a money-back guarantee. If clients don't perceive the value within the agreed contract period, I will gladly refund their investment. While results may vary, I'm proud to share that no client who has completed the contract has requested a refund. However, I have parted ways with individuals who were unwilling to put in the necessary effort. Sometimes, the work required doesn't align with their preferences or mindset. I have a specific methodology that I believe yields results, and if that approach doesn't resonate with you, it's best to find a coaching style that does. This is where the abundance of content I provide proves helpful, as it allows prospective clients to gain insight into my philosophy before making a hiring decision.

Assessing Return on Investment and Potential Loss

In any coaching program, the coach should have "skin in the game" when it comes to delivering value. With over 300 clients and only a few instances of parting ways, I take pride in the fact that no client has completed a contract and requested a refund due to a lack of value on my end. This commitment reflects my belief that there should be a clear and tangible return on investment in coaching, along with a specific deadline to achieve it.
While I may be revealing my playbook, my mindset is one of abundance, and I firmly believe there are countless individuals who could benefit from my help, many of whom are unaware of my existence. When considering hiring a coach, it's important to assess your average client value and determine the number of additional clients you anticipate gaining from the coaching. Does the calculation make sense to you? Will it result in a worthwhile return on investment?
It's crucial not to get stuck on the initial monthly cost or the total annual investment. Instead, focus on whether the coaching can help you achieve the desired outcomes. Additionally, consider the consequences of not seeking help. What problems will persist? What mistakes might you make? What financial challenges could arise? It's not solely about how much money you'll make by hiring a coach; it's also about how much money you stand to lose by not taking action.

Maximizing ROI and the Power of Investment

At Winrate Consulting, we understand the importance of helping our prospects determine the value and return on investment they can expect from coaching services. Trust and belief in the coach you hire are vital, as is the willingness to listen and implement their guidance. Our track record of delivering results speaks for itself, with countless satisfied clients who have achieved remarkable outcomes by simply doing the work we ask of them.
While the investment in coaching may initially cause some apprehension, we believe that a slightly higher price point often leads to better results. Over the years, we have observed that clients who are more financially committed tend to be more invested in achieving their goals. It's essential to prioritize and value the coaching process, as it motivates individuals to show up and put in the necessary effort.
We hope this insight has provided value and guidance on how to effectively sell your product or service to your own clients. Investing in a coach can yield significant returns, regardless of the amount paid. At Winrate Consulting, we have a strong roster of about a hundred paying clients, and the outstanding results we've achieved this year are a testament to the impact of our approach.
As you navigate your own journey, remember to win fast and win often. Investing in yourself and seeking the guidance of a coach can truly be worth it. Take the next step towards your success and growth with confidence.

Navigating Leadership Challenges: Lessons Learned from a Difficult Week

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Are you facing tough challenges as a business leader?
Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed and unsure about the best way to navigate through difficult situations?
We understand the struggles you're going through. At WinRate Consulting, we've spent the past five years assisting numerous business owners like yourself, helping them overcome obstacles and achieve their goals. Drawing from our extensive experience, we want to share valuable insights and effective strategies to guide you on your leadership journey.
In this article, we will explore the lessons we've learned and delve into the importance of prioritizing your mission, making tough decisions, and taking action. Discover how you can steer your business towards success, even in the face of adversity.

Hitting Rock Bottom: Navigating the Toughest Week of Leadership

This one's going to hurt, this how things manage, how I manage when things get tough in the business. I'll tell you right now, the first week of January was the hardest leadership week of my life and I've been a leader for a long time and I've been leading this company for a long time. Before that, I was the captain of a sports team or whatever. I've been leading people for a long time and the first week of January was the most difficult leadership week.

Striving for Perfection: Overcoming Unattainable Strategies and Fostering a Supportive Environment

I built some strategies that were not attainable and then built an environment where people felt like they needed to be perfect. This is an example, I'm going to tell you how I've kind of overcame them so that you can look at some things and make some comparisons in your own world. We run a high performance environment, our coaching staff's high performers, our client base are high performers, and in general our operations staff are high performers. What I built was strategies, game plans, and perspectives based on high performance. How that was interpreted by the staff was that mistakes were unacceptable, even though I've never yelled at anybody but they just believe the standard is set so high that if you're making a mistake, you just don't belong.
Ultimately I had to fire and reallocate and moved people around. As many of you know, Tiff, my wife has worked for me for the last two years after I quote unquote "retired" her from corporate America and last week got to fire my wife, and not because of failure, but because of her inability to accept that she was overwhelmed and could not execute the game plan as it was developed. What that did was it created stress amongst the entire operations team. All of them broke in the same day for different reasons at different times. You want to talk about a long day, have an entire group of employees break in front of you at different times for different reasons. And the emotions! I care about my people, I care about my clients, I care about my coaches, I care about my operation staff. I truly love these people, and if you've worked with me, you know that. That hurt and it hurt bad because I knew it was my fault. I knew that all they were trying to do was live up and ultimately I put too much on everybody's plate and none of them had, we'll say the opening, the comfort level, the belief that they could come and express I failed and not be minimized as a part of the team.
Learning through this, I had to basically, we'll say demote Tiff to mother because that's what she really wanted to be. We homeschool our kids and blending that life family, we work from home, this is my house. We work from our house 'cause it's just not time for me to get an office yet. I just know I'm not ready for that and the business doesn't need it. Employees come here on a regular basis. We shoot content here, and so the family and my business is just one world. Tiff was trying to balance it all. That example she set had Alicia, Mia, and Lindsay also trying to balance everything and break a little bit on the inside.

Overcoming Challenges and Putting the Mission First

When faced with challenges, I had to analyze and adjust in order to overcome them. While many people tend to spend a lot of time analyzing and adjusting before taking action, that approach often hinders progress. On the other hand, taking quick action and implementing ideas can lead to mistakes. I experienced one of the most emotionally challenging weeks recently when I had to let go of one of our coaches. It was a difficult decision but necessary due to a misalignment of values. Although this coach was a great person with valuable expertise in certain areas, their misaligned values posed a problem for the team and the mission.

I share this experience to emphasize that as a leader, it is your responsibility to make tough decisions and have difficult conversations. If not you, then who? You must ensure that the mission takes precedence over personal emotions or insecurities. Putting yourself first would mean delaying actions or decisions based on how you feel at the moment. However, the mission should always be the top priority, even if it means facing challenges head-on.

In my case, I have a personal mantra that guides my actions: "Nothing comes above the mission, including you as the leader." This mindset allows me to prioritize the mission over my own emotions, fears, or lack of experience. It ensures that I take swift action when needed. It is crucial to avoid putting personal concerns ahead of the mission. Otherwise, you risk hindering progress and causing others to struggle.

Analyzing the situation that led to the problem, I realized that we had overloaded our team without providing a space for discussing performance issues or feelings of being overwhelmed. While we had regular team meetings, I made a mistake by not creating an opportunity for individuals to express their concerns or discuss their struggles freely. Recognizing this, I took action by redistributing tasks, repositioning team members, and realigning priorities. In a small business, it is common for individuals to wear multiple hats, assuming they can handle it all just as the business owner can. However, this assumption is false. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, along with the ability to hold people accountable for staying in their lanes, are crucial for success.

Once the problem was identified and analyzed, I made the necessary adjustments, even though it was painful. While I valued having certain individuals in the business, I had to acknowledge that what had worked before was not going to work moving forward. In this particular case, the need to homeschool our children and the inability to find a qualified nanny meant that we couldn't continue with the same structure. This realization led to difficult conversations and emotional moments, but I remained focused on realigning ourselves with the mission.

The process I follow in such situations involves determining the problem, analyzing what needs to be done, and taking aggressive action. In this instance, the mission statement served as our guiding principle: to simplify and systemize the growth of home service companies while making an impact with every conversation we have. I had to take myself out of the equation, no matter how painful, and prioritize the mission above personal attachments or achievements. Firing a coach was one of the most challenging conversations I've had as a leader, but it was necessary for the mission's success.

It is important to remember that as your mission evolves, the mission statement should remain intact. This means that ongoing decisions and actions will need to be analyzed and adjusted to align with the evolving mission. The journey toward success involves continuously evaluating and adapting to ensure the mission remains the top priority.

Trusting Yourself and Upholding the Mission

Taking action and trusting yourself to make the right decisions based on a clear heart, a full mind, and alignment with core values in the mission statement is crucial. While disagreements, people's reactions, and even firings may occur, it's important to remember that upholding the mission is the primary responsibility. Others may have their own missions and may be hurt by the decisions made, but as a leader, protecting the mission must remain paramount.
Putting oneself aside and prioritizing the mission can be one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. It requires making difficult decisions and taking action even in the face of personal emotions. However, ensuring the mission's protection and success is essential.
To embark on this process, it is vital to first define your mission clearly. Without a clear mission, this approach may not yield the desired results. By looking objectively at the situation and removing personal emotions, you can identify what needs to happen to realign the problem with a solution that supports the mission.
Remember, no one has it all figured out, and making mistakes and experiencing failures is part of the journey. What sets successful leaders apart is their commitment to protecting the mission and making hard decisions when necessary. Reflect on your actions and the measures you are taking to ensure that you, your company, and your mission can continue to achieve victories rapidly and consistently.
Ultimately, with trust in your abilities and a focus on the mission, you can navigate challenges, overcome obstacles, and lead your team towards continued success.

Don't GET Ready...STAY Ready!

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 10:15:00 GMT

Not a lot of people are going to like this post.... I strongly suggest you pay attention, I strongly suggest you share this, I strongly suggest you don't take it personally, but you take action from it. Bottom line is, and I don't care who you are, what you believe, as an entrepreneur, people take you more seriously if you're somewhat in shape, if you're taking care of yourself. I'm not saying you can't enjoy yourself, I'm not saying you need to be 6% body fat, but here's the reality. People who are in shape are able to demonstrate a level of discipline, mental toughness, consistency, self care, self love, self respect that can only be seen by taking care of your physical appearance, okay? If you were going in and trying to find a wealth advisor and they showed up in a fucking Corolla and they get out and they're in JNCO jeans and some Vans, you're probably not going to give that person $1 million of your money to manage. No different in entrepreneurship, especially, especially if you are somebody who wants to be publicly recognized as a person of value, interest, and influence.
Look, if you want to sit behind a desk and you don't care what people think about you, and you don't care about going out there and building an audience and you don't care about what or how people are going to know, like, and trust you, if you don't care about growing your company, if you don't care about being on stages, if you don't care about building a social presence, fine, be fat. I don't care. But if you are somebody who is trying to level up and be the top of the top, if you're somebody who's trying to stand out from the 1%, if you're somebody who's trying to be on stages, if you're somebody who's trying to grow your team, if you're somebody who's trying to grow their influence, if you're somebody who's trying to grow their wealth, if you're somebody who gives a shit at all, start by giving a shit about you. Start by giving a shit about yourself. Start by being disciplined and consistent in what you do with your time and how you work out and what clothes you wear and how you brush your teeth and how you diet.
People say, "Man, Mike, it's hard when you're traveling and stuff." I know it's hard. That's what makes it cool. That's what makes you stand out because people know it's hard to stay in shape. People know it's hard to eat right when you're traveling. People know it's difficult to be consistent day in and day out and day in and day out and year after year after year. That's what makes being in shape so powerful. Look, I am not 5% body fat, chiseled abs. I also am working on this, but I will tell you, every time people see me, I'm in a little bit better shape. Right now I'm bulking, so people see me and say, "Fuck, Mike's talking about bulking and I see him and shit, it's working. He's doing it. Mike does what he says he's going to do. Mike has discipline. Mike has mental toughness. Mike has fortitude. Mike has grit. Mike has self-care. Mike has self-love. Mike is somebody that I can look up to and trust because Mike is doing something that I don't believe I can or I can't or whatever it is." But especially if you want to be on stage, you want to build an audience, you want to build a YouTube channel, you want to build a podcast, even though you can't see me, I promise you, if you're somebody who's not taking care of themselves, you are not being taken with as much sincerity as possible.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's just a me thing. Maybe I just struggle with this because I struggle with my own self-image and I struggle with my own self body challenges, but I am very confident. I am very confident that if you look at people who are on stages right now, look at the top 50 speakers list. These are the top 50 speakers in the world. None of them are overweight. They're in different levels of fitness, they're in different levels of self care, but I'll tell you right now, they care about themselves. They put themselves first. They have discipline. They have mental toughness, and that's why they get on these stages. They don't get on stages and then get that shit. You're not going to just show up on stage one day and be fit as fuck and mentally tough and think you're just going to own the room. Or you may not even know if the opportunity's going to present itself and you can't just get ready to be on stage in a week or two if someone gives you an opportunity. You can't be like, "Oh, my clothes don't fit right, right now. Oh, I don't like the way I look right now. Oh, I wish I would've dieted, but I wish I had more time to get ready." Fuck that getting ready, stay ready.
I had to up my shirts. Extra larges don't fit me anymore. I don't love that. I've spent my majority of my adult life trying to lose weight. Here I am trying to gain it. It's weird. It's a mental fuck. But I'm going to get on stages, I'm going to be proud because I know the work I'm putting in. At the end of the year when this whole thing comes together and it all pays off, and I am proud of what I've built, people won't be able to take that from you. I did that. People can't take it from you when your mental toughness is where it's supposed to be and your confidence level's through the roof because you committed to being in shape or you committed to get in shape, or you committed to staying in shape or whatever it is.
I don't think I'm alone in this. I don't think I'm the only person out there that respects people who respects themselves first at a much higher level. If you right now are not respecting yourself, if you're not taking care of yourself, I promise you, other people are not going to respect you and take care of you and help you and help you accomplish things you want to accomplish because it's hard to help people that don't want to help themselves. If you can't be consistent for you, why would I trust you to be consistent for me? If I can't trust you to put yourself first, how can I trust you to put me where I belong in that equation?

Get yourself in shape.

Be proud of who you are.

Be proud of what you look like.

If you're proud of how you look, fine, I'm not judging you, but I know for a fact most people aren't. Most people are not proud, and that's why they get up on stage when they have an opportunity or they get an audience, whether that's in person, online, whatever, and they lack their confidence. They lack the ability to get up there and be proud of who they are.

I beg you, I'm challenging you even, go get your ass in shape and tell me that your opportunities don't grow and that your influence doesn't grow and your confidence doesn't grow.

It's the championship mindset.

It's about staying ready, not getting ready, go make it happen!

Key Lessons for Building a Successful Business: Strategies for Client Retention

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 15:52:00 GMT

Are you struggling to retain clients and achieve consistent business growth?
Do you find yourself searching for effective strategies to keep your customers coming back year after year?
At WinRate Consulting, we understand the challenges you face in building lasting client relationships. With over five years of experience helping business owners like you, we have identified key factors that lead to client retention and sustained success. In this article, we will share valuable insights and proven techniques that will empower you to win fast, win often, and keep your clients returning year after year.
Discover the secrets to creating a high client retention environment and achieving long-term business growth.

The Power of Proactive Communication

In my journey of growing various businesses, including WinRate Consulting, A Champion Shoes, remodeling and roofing ventures, and even in my corporate sales experience, I've discovered a few key factors that make people want to do business with me. One of the most crucial elements is maintaining a high level of proactive communication. Our goal at WinRate is to provide our clients with a seamless and effortless business experience. We understand that decision fatigue and confusion can arise when there are numerous variables involved. To counteract this, we strive to over-communicate by sharing information about contract terms, payment terms, event updates, agendas, calls, and expectations. While I acknowledge that I'm not perfect in this aspect, I believe in being honest and transparent about our shortcomings with our client base. Additionally, we are not afraid to take risks and communicate our uncertainties, always giving our best and being willing to learn, implement, analyze, and adjust. By proactively communicating in an aggressive manner, we create an environment where clients feel comfortable and assured of our integrity.

If you're currently keeping things tightly controlled and not prioritizing proactive communication, I highly recommend adopting this approach. Even in your pricing model, consider implementing an open structure that breaks down costs by units such as square foot or linear foot. This proactive communication fosters consistency and trust, enabling people to confidently engage in business with you.

The Art of Over-Delivering

Another vital aspect of our approach is always striving to over-deliver. While some may argue that we don't charge enough for what we offer, I firmly disagree. We are not underpriced; instead, we consistently go above and beyond the price point to provide exceptional value. Our clients can attest to this. Let me share an example: During an ACS (A Champion Shoes) fundraiser, seven couples paid $10,000 per couple to spend a weekend at our home. It turned out to be an incredible event, and one of the most common feedback we received was how easy and enjoyable the weekend was. We meticulously planned every detail, eliminated guesswork, and ensured a seamless delivery of value. From meticulously crafted menus and transportation arrangements to clear communication about what to pack, we over-delivered on the entire experience, including the quality of food, the event itself, and even the alcohol served.

If you've attended any of our Champion Circle events, you know that even after two years, we continue to surpass expectations and deliver beyond what was promised.

One weakness, if you may call it that, is that I have never been solely fixated on profit margins. I firmly believe in investing in providing exceptional experiences for both our employees and clients. Although this mindset may lead to overspending at times, it ultimately contributes to our high renewal rate. In fact, we recently made the decision to increase the price of our events after realizing that

Guiding Clients through Future Challenges

Perhaps one of the most profound lessons I've learned about client retention is the importance of helping them anticipate and navigate objections, challenges, and hurdles before they even arise. This lesson seamlessly intertwines with proactive communication, but it goes beyond that. It's about saying to clients, "Here are the areas where you might struggle next year. Here's where you can benefit. Here's where you may not immediately see the value." Whether you have a monthly recurring model or you're focused on renewals, guiding clients to understand what lies ahead is crucial. Many of our clients and audience members are experiencing seasons they've never encountered before, and it's our duty to shed light on their path. Just this morning, I had a DM conversation with someone who has been a friend and audience member for a while. I explained to him what he can expect in the coming year and emphasized how having a coach and being part of a community will be instrumental in his success. By helping people anticipate and address problems they aren't even aware of yet, we showcase the value of our services before they fully realize it.

Most of our clients surpass their own expectations, driven by the results they achieve in their businesses. Therefore, it's not simply about pushing for renewals, but rather about guiding clients strategically. In some cases, I've even advised individuals that it might not be the right time for them to renew. I encourage them to spend more time working on the areas we've already focused on and specialized in. However, for those who are an ideal fit, we ensure they understand the progress made this year and outline a strategic plan for the next, including the potential challenges they may encounter. We demonstrate how our guidance can help them overcome these obstacles and achieve their goals.

Unlocking High Client Retention: Proactive Communication, Over delivery, and Future Vision

In conclusion, at WinRate Consulting, we bring over five years of experience in helping business owners achieve high client retention. We understand the struggles and challenges that come with retaining clients, whether in the coaching space, fundraising, sales, or corporate settings. Our expertise extends across various industries, allowing us to offer valuable insights and strategies to connect with your audience and enhance client retention.
By implementing the three essential elements discussed—proactive communication, over delivery, and future vision—you can create a high client retention environment that keeps your clients coming back year after year. We have witnessed firsthand the success of these principles as we have seen clients renew for multiple years, trusting in our ability to deliver exceptional value and guide them towards their goals.
To connect with WinRate Consulting and access further resources, we encourage you to visit our website, subscribe to our blogs, and follow us on our social media channels. Stay updated on our upcoming videos, podcasts, and posts, where we delve into granular details and provide actionable insights to help you succeed in client retention.
By implementing the strategies and tactics we have shared, you can win fast and win often, ensuring your clients remain loyal and continue to choose your business over the competition. Unlock the power of client retention with WinRate Consulting and experience sustainable growth in your business.
Next Steps: Visit our website, subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on social media to gain exclusive access to our expertise and resources. Join our thriving community of business owners and professionals who are dedicated to achieving high client retention and driving their businesses towards long-term success. Together, let's create a lasting impact and maintain strong relationships with our valued clients.

How We Create a Memorable Customer Experience

Tue, 30 May 2023 10:15:00 GMT

I talk a lot about setting the standard and being the example across the board. One way that I mean this is that I really, really focus and I'm heavily interested in making sure our clients have an "above and beyond" experience. Something that they don't have, don't experience, or just at a baseline have not seen other people do.
One of the biggest ways we do that is with our custom boxes. We send out custom boxes for anyone who's been a guest on the Big Stud podcast. But the also cool part is this shows up on their front door. This goes through UPS and everybody that sees this is like, "Oh, what's the Big Stud about?" It's about the client experience, but it also has some personal promotion in there.
Also for our WinRate clients, we have a WinRate box. On the top panel, it states "Win Fast, Win Often". When they open the box, same thing..."Win Fast, Win Often". In the box, we put a book, a handwritten card, a coin, stickers, a mug, a hat, etc all the different things.
We do this to make sure our clients feel like we are absolutely paying attention to them and are trying to make sure they have the best experience possible.

This is not that expensive, but it absolutely helps you differentiate yourself to your customers whenever you bring them on.

You're trying to help them retain, or ultimately trying to make them just feel appreciated.

These are just little things you can do in your business today that will lead to a great impact!

10 Reasons People Don't Want to Work For You

Tue, 23 May 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Today I want to talk about 10 reasons people don't want to work for you. These are in no particular order and I'm not even sure if these are the top 10. These are just the first 10 that kind of came to mind. So take notes, look at these, look at your business, review your world, your life, your situation. And find out is this something you are dealing with?
So number one, and I think this is one of the bigger ones that people maybe don't take as seriously, is just general lack of success history. What I mean by that is if you're always changing what you're doing, you're always changing how you're making money, if you're changing business types all the time, if you're changing service types all the time. If every couple years or less, every couple months you're pushing a different product or a different service or a different thing, that lack of consistency where you just do not have a history of success. I think that's really going to hurt some people. So we all know that person that's kind of looking for that get rich quick scheme and they're constantly adjusting what they're doing or how they're doing it. And I think people like that struggle getting good employees because there's just no history of success and it creates a lot of inconsistencies and no real structure to work.
Number two, I think it's just no core values. And not even written ones, but actually living by them. There are some just really bad people out there and people can sniff it out as much as you think you're hiding it. But when you do things and say things to intentionally hurt people, when you do things to get one over, when you're not operating in a win win-win scenario where there's always somebody losing in every deal you bring to the table, every approach that you make. Just no core values makes it very difficult for somebody to trust to work for you.
Number three is a poor understanding of your mission. Finding really great people, they want to get on a mission that they believe in and understand and believe they can bring value to. So if you do not have a good understanding or very clear mission that you're on, it's going to be hard to get people to want to work for you. It just absolutely is and it always will because some of the best employees out there really want to be a part of a mission they clearly understand and they clearly understand how they play a role in that mission. So get some clarity on that if you don't yet.
Number four is just general lack of awareness. People just don't know who you are. If you're all, "Social media is not for me." Well then you're just not paying attention. So just general lack of awareness. If the only time people know about you is when you're making a post to hire somebody on Indeed or some shit, you're not going to get the right employees because people want to know who they're going to work for. People want to know about you. So if your website's out of date and your social media presence is irrelevant, lack of awareness is definitely going to be a problem.
Number five, I think, is emotional leadership. What I mean by that is if you're hot and cold, some days you're great, some days you're pissed off, some days you're sad, some days you're happy. And every day you approach it from a different emotional perspective, you're going to have a really hard time getting people to want to work for you. Because people like consistency and when there isn't a lack of emotional consistency as the leader, we've all worked for that person that one day they're celebrating, the next day they're screaming, the next day they're sad, the next day they're oppressed. It makes it really hard. That is real business. That is actually an emotional rollercoaster that happens, but if you can't protect your employees from that it's going to be a challenge.
Which brings me to inconsistent leadership (number six). Where one day the way people are operating is fine, the next day it's not. You're moving roles, responsibilities a lot, or you're moving the target a lot, or you're changing expectations a lot. That's going to make it really hard for people to want to be around. Poor systems and processes (number seven). Again, employees just like consistency. They like A plus B, equals C. And when that equation changes because of inconsistent or poor systems and processes, it makes it really difficult.
Number eight, lack of roles and responsibilities. A lot of businesses start out where everybody's wearing a lot of hats and everybody just has to step up and do whatever is necessary for the mission. That is not a long-term strategy. If you do not have clear roles and responsibilities, it doesn't matter how much money you're making or how much money you're paying. People will not be fulfilled in their job because they don't really know what their job is. They don't really know what their role is. They don't really know what their responsibilities are. And it'll make it really difficult for them to want to continue to show up when every day they show up that they have a different environment that they're working in or that they're working on.
Number nine, there's no clear path for progress and advancement. People want to know that they can grow with you. They want to know they can grow responsibilities. They want to know they can grow income. They want to know they can grow opportunities. They want to know they're going to become a better person and they're going to have more opportunity to advance within their life or career by working with you. So there's no clear path for progress and advancement. I would highly suggest building that out. Just what does it take to grow here? What does it take to get promoted here? What does it take to make more money here? Whatever it might be in your world, building that clear path.
And then number 10, again, this was one that I'm not really sure should be on the top 10 list, but I think it's important that when the team doesn't win when the company wins, when you're paying yourself a bunch and everybody on your team hasn't gotten a raise in a couple years or when a big contract gets signed, no one really gets celebrated for that. If the team doesn't feel like they're winning when the company's winning, that's a big problem. In my opinion, that's one of the silent killers of a team. When everybody's working really hard, they accomplish the mission and no one feels like they won. Whether that's recognition, awards, pay increases, promotions, commissions, whatever it is. If you look at your team right now and they don't directly win when the whole mission wins, when you accomplish the goal and no one feels that they're winning, that's a problem.
Again, these are the quick first, these are the top 10 things that came to my mind. I'm sure there's some of them missing. I'm sure there's like, "Mike, you didn't think about this." I'm sure there's something, and I'm sure there's different ways to say this, but I believe those are the top 10 reasons people don't want to work for you. Just based on what I've seen. Based on what I've seen with the companies I've coached, based on what I've seen from the companies I've worked for, based on the people I'm around that do grow really strong teams. And I'm working on it right now, as you've seen the kind of meet the team podcast and posts that have been coming out. It takes a really special person to grow a really successful team, and I think these are some of the biggest things I see when people struggle with it.

So that's my list. If you have something you think I missed, screenshot this, toss it in your stories, tag me. Tell me what you think is more important than one of those top 10, and we'll go from there.

Make it a great week, everybody. Win fast, win often and have zero doubt that you are on the path to success.

Know Your Role

Tue, 16 May 2023 10:00:00 GMT

I'm going to be real honest with you...

I had a big miss understanding on what my role was as a father.
I pictured this constantly engaged, constantly entertaining, constantly playing with, constantly being at the mercy of my kids.
That is definitely needed in certain situations.
But what I devalued significantly was the power of just my presence.
Just being home.
Just being in the room.
Just being at the game.
Just being seen.
Just making them feel seen.
I made a decision when we moved to be here to support them in the all the major life changes we were making as a family.
And I learned the power of just being here.
They don’t need me to entertain them.
They don’t need me to be fully engaged in what they are doing all the time.
They just want me around.
They just want me smiling.
They just want my energy to bring positivity and confidence to them.
Come to find out that is the best time I spend with God as well.
Just allowing Him to be in my presence without expecting Him to do anything.
That’s been very powerful for me.
The quiet.
Just sitting with Him.

Allowing Him to just sit still and be present.

So know YOUR role.

3 Tips That Will Help You Close More Deals Immediately

Tue, 09 May 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Today, I'm going to give you three tips on how to close more deals immediately.
Look, sales has been my thing. I've been doing it for a long time and I actually had a hard time kind of coming up with the three things I think are key to close more deals immediately, but I really look back at my early days and what I see being done inconsistently a lot.
So number one, assume the sale. Assume you're going to go in. Assume they're going to buy. Assume that they're interested. Assume that they're not going to push back. Assume that you have a good product at the right price, that you're going to bring value, you're going to overcome their objections. I think so many people go in assuming they're not going to get the sale. Especially if you're on a losing streak right now. You've had a lot of pushback. Buyers aren't buying the same. Pricing's gone up. You're getting more nos. And you start to go in hesitant or with a negative outlook.
A positive outlook, and just visualizing success. So I used to do something in my truck before I'd go into any sales call, especially in home because you're in their environment. I'd sit there and I would visualize the deal going well. I would visualize a positive outcome. I'd visualize myself being charismatic and making them laugh and making them feel like they can trust me and making them feel like they're making a good decision. And I was really good at the visualizing, and I would just go follow through on it.
Sales is a lot of nos. It's a lot of kick in the nuts. It's a lot of struggle. It's a lot of effort sometimes for deals not to go through. But I promise you, you visualize positively, you visualize with an assume the sale perspective, and it's going to go a long way.
Two, ask for the sale. I still, I don't understand this. You do a great job. You deliver a great presentation. You do everything they want. You overcome their objections, but you never actually just say, "Hey, if I can do this, this, this, and this, are you prepared to do business with me?" Different formulas for different environments, but, "Hey, if I can deliver X scope within Y budget by Z timeframe, are you prepared to do business with me?" Or, "What's stopping you from saying yes today?" Or, "What else are you looking for to help you become more comfortable in choosing to do business with me?"
I think a lot of salespeople look at them as conflict type questions, like you're creating a contest. It's a hard question. I mean, you're forcing them to answer you honestly. But I think asking for the sale is one of the biggest misses I see in all industries from a sales perspective. People are just afraid to get the no, so they don't ask at all. They say, "Okay, well let me know if you have any questions. I can't wait to do business with you," and then they just walk out. They don't ever ask for the sale. You just assume that they're going to reach out. I still hear people, "Dude, if they want to do business with me, they'll call me." Really? Who do you think you are? That's not how this shit works, man. You've got to ask for the sale in-person. You've got to be charismatic. You've got to have great delivery. You have to communicate the story well. You have to make them feel like they can know, like, and trust you to be doing business with you, because more often than not, especially in the construction world, you're doing a very big intrusive project typically. You got to ask for the sale.
And the third, I kind of just talked about it, but follow up. I talk about follow-up Friday. I can't tell you how many times I've been posting follow up Friday on my social media.. Every week I get a DM from somebody saying, "Dude, Mike, thanks for reminding me. Man, I did five follow ups today. I closed two deals. Man, thank you so much." There's so much opportunity in that wake of unclosed deals behind you, that if you just spent two hours every week, every Friday from 1:00 to 3:00, that was when I used to do it because that's how I kind of closed out my week. Every Friday from 1:00 to 3:00 was my follow up time. I would follow up with everybody that was in a previous prospect or a proposal that was delivered or a referral partner I hadn't heard back from in a while, whatever it was. I did follow ups every Friday. And I will tell you the amount of people that just say, "Well, they'll call me if they want to do business with me." People get distracted, things come up in their life. You're just not the top priority to them like they are to you. Most of the big deals that you want, they're really important to you. You're not that important to them.
So the person who does the best job in assuming the sale, asking for the sale, and following up effectively, if you do any one of those three things, you're going to close more deals. If you do all three of those things, I guarantee you start closing more deals immediately.

If you have questions on that, if you want to understand that more, reach out to me. Shoot me a DM. Let's get you connected to one of the coaches on the team. Let's get you some advice to help you implement some of those strategies. Because, look, sales is the lifeblood of all businesses. And especially with market volatility and supply chain issues, projects are going to get pushed out, which is going to slow down cash flow. So the more deals you're bringing in, the better, right now.

So if you need help with any of that, those are the three things I think are most important from a high level perspective. Visualize success, ask for the close confidently, and follow up consistently.

If you do those three things, I guarantee you start closing more deals immediately and you'll start winning fast and winning often.

How To Get Better at Completing Things

Tue, 02 May 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Declaring what it is you want to do. You people have heard me for a long time put it out there, what I'm thinking about, what I want to do, what I want to accomplish. And a lot of times, that helps me stay more focused.
And to be honest with you, guys, there's been a lot of people, especially over the last week, see me talk on stage and stuff, a lot of people talking about how I'm one of the most disciplined people that they know, and that's very true. But I'll also tell you, that's not always the case. Sometimes I have not been as disciplined and consistent as you might want to believe about me. And I'm not super proud of that, but sometimes I need to give myself a little bit of a mental break. I need to give myself a little bit of freedom to enjoy the huge WINS we've received.
But that ends today. Some of you may already know this, some of you may not. But if you don't, you do now. I am declaring, I have had the conversations, I have put the things in motion, I have put myself in a position where I'm going to lose 10% in 10 weeks or I'll give $10,000 to charity. I started this journey about a month ago.
But what does that mean for you? I think so many people would benefit from just announcing what it is they're going to do, putting it out into the world, talking about what you're going to do, and then most people stop there. People who do make declarations stop there. What you've seen me do over the last couple years, if you followed me on social media, you followed the podcast, you followed the YouTube channel, you've seen me say I'm going to do something and then show you the daily discipline I implemented to get there.
Do I do it with a hundred percent of the things I announce? No, obviously not. I push some things to the boundaries. I push some things out there. I make some things that are wild and outrageous goals. Some come true, some don't. But I think putting it out there, and my big thing and my big motivator and the thing that kind of... my burn, as Ben Newman would call it, is I want to set the standard and be the example. I want to show people what's possible when you put your mind to something. I want to get people feeling like there's a little bit more they could give, there's a little bit more in the tank, there's a little bit more intentionality, there's a little bit more they could be doing to make their goals come true.
And I've gone off the last couple weeks about, "Tell me what you want to do and then show me your task list and your calendar, and I'll tell you how serious you are about it." I'm making this declaration (again) right now. So if you are reading right now and you see me fucking off, you see me not upholding what you think it looks like to do this challenge, if you don't see me talking about my diet, talking about my exercise routine, talking about my supplements, talking about the journey, call my ass out. There's a lot that's going to go into this journey, but I think it's important that if you are out there and you see me, I'm talking about it, I'm doing it.
And then the second thing I'm doing this year, declaring, and I've said it to my client base, I'm not sure I've said it too much out there in the open of the public, but I need to become the CEO of WinRate Consulting. Since it started, really up until right now, I have been the head coach. I have coached the most amount of people, if not all the people. I've added more coaches to the team this year. I like planting seeds with people. There's probably four or five more I have talked to about the concept of being a WinRate coach, and they're looking forward to it or excited about it. And so when the timing becomes right, I have that bullpen, that on-deck circle of coaches. So as supply or demand increases, supply can increase with it, because I'm trying to get ahead of the curve. I'm trying to get ahead of the momentum.
But getting ripped and turning into the CEO of WinRate Consulting are two of the biggest, really just scary, intimidating things I'm trying to accomplish this year. One's obviously physical, one's business. And then we're on this journey of homeschooling the boys this year as well, which will give me something personal, professionally, and for my family that gets us wildly out of our comfort zone this year.
So my challenge to you, what I suggest to you is go declare something. Go put it out there and don't just say you're going to do it. Don't just write it down. Don't just keep it to yourself. Don't just pretend it's too big or it's laughable. Honestly, at this point, if my goals don't make me laugh a little afraid like, "Ha-ha-ha. Ha. Ha-ha," like one of those little, I'm laughing, but it's out of fear, if your goals and your aspirations don't make you laugh a little bit out of how ridiculous they sound, maybe you need to dream a little bit bigger.
Be prepared to talk about the journey, talk about the wins, talk about the setbacks, talk about the frustrations. I think why there's so many people out there that respect me and look at me as somebody that they can really learn from is because I'm not afraid to tell the truth about whatever it is. I'm not afraid to declare crazy shit. I'm not afraid to document the process. I'm not afraid to talk about the wins and the losses and the frustrations.
But I'm challenging you. Go declare something wildly large. Tell everybody about it. Document the entire journey to get there, and don't fucking give up til you get there. That's where most people stop. If I get injured or something, shit hits the fan and I'm not really ready in December, I'm not going to stop. I'm going to go until I make it happen. I'm hoping that and I believe that I'll be able to make December happen.
But whether it's a revenue target or a weight loss target or growing the team or building the wealth you want, don't stop if you don't hit the target in the timeline, right? That's where so many people fail. It's just don't stop working until you get to the target. Don't stop working until you cross the finish line. Go get it. Go make it happen. And just don't stop til you get there.

That's what zero doubt is all about. There's fear, there's frustration, there's setbacks, but there's no doubt in my mind I'm going to accomplish what I say I will. You have to have zero doubt in your life. So you can get out there, and you can win fast, and you can win often, and you can be proud of yourself maybe for the first time in your whole life.

I believe in you.

How to Avoid Burnout as an Entrepreneur

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 10:00:00 GMT

How to avoid burnout as an entrepreneur - so this is something that I've, will say, evolved through, learned through, understood. Because early on, when it was just me as the only coach at WinRate Consulting, I was doing 10-12 hour days of straight back to back coaching calls. And there's a difference between exhaustion and burnout. I want to start with that. Some days you're just exhausted. You've just poured out, you've given all you've got. You didn't get a lot of sleep, maybe drank too much the night before. You're just exhausted. I don't think that's burnout. That's just, "I'm done with today."
Burnout, I think, happens when you start to start be disgusted and you stop enjoying the machine you built, the business that you built. Because even on some days when you're just like, when you first started your company, there were probably days that you were absolutely exhausted, but you were still excited to go back tomorrow. You were still enjoying it, you were still excited about it, it was still this new thing. Burnout happens, I think, when you stop enjoying the business that you built.
So I don't want to confuse exhaustion with burnout, because there are days you're going to be exhausted as an entrepreneur. There's no way around that. There's long days. There's a lot of people that are grabbing at your attention, energy. You have clients, vendors, customers, employees, family, friends, whatever. You got a whole bunch of people pulling at you. And ultimately you're going to feel like you're letting them all down because you can't give anybody your full attention when you want to, and that's exhaustion. That's going to happen. Don't avoid that. There's no easy button to avoid the hard work. Building a company is hard. There are days you're going to be exhausted.
Burnout, and specifically burnout, is when you start to hate the business that you built. And trust me, this happens to people. That happens and it's your fault. And I'm going to say this because I love you and I care about you, but burnout is your fault. What leads to burnout, and how to avoid or maybe even come back from burnout, is you built a machine the wrong way. You piecemealed it, you band-aided it, you duct taped it together. You didn't make intentional decisions. You don't have a clear vision of where you want to go. You don't have clear core values. You don't have a structure around your business. You don't have SOPs. So every day is different. That leads to burnout.
Exhaustion, normal. Long, hard days. That's how you feel like you've earned it, you deserve it, you've built it, you did it. That's exhaustion. Burnout happens when you are just physically, every single day, doing something different. You don't know why you're doing it. You don't know how to do it today. Your employees, the turnover is bad, the culture is bad, the attitude is bad, the communication is bad. So you start not looking forward to going to work because you know it's not built as good as it could be.
So one of the best ways to avoid burnout is to take the time to build systems, processes, structure, culture, core values, a clear mission, a clear vision, a clear understanding of what we're doing and how we're doing it and what success looks like for us. If you can't answer that right now, what is the mission of your company? What is the vision of where you're going next? What are the core values that judge it? If you don't know how to do that, I just released a video in the last couple of months or so about how to create core values for your business. If we want to link that somewhere right here, edit team, something like this, but I'm not going to get deep into that.
But if you can't answer those three questions, burnout is either already happening or is inevitable. Because every day you're going to show up to work and you're going to be reactive to your environment, not proactive. You're going to show up today and say, "I'm going to work as hard as I can. I'm going to come back tomorrow and I'm going to do it again." That is not a good way to run your business. You want to be more proactive. You want to make more intentional decisions.
So right now, if you're feeling burnt out, I would stop. I would send everybody home for like a week. Just tell your customers, tell your employees, "Look, I need to get control of this because I'm not enjoying it anymore. And if I'm not enjoying it, I either am or will be burnt out and the whole ship will sink." So that's the hard decision to make as an entrepreneur sometimes. Sometimes you need to stop and pivot aggressively.
Ideally, you catch it before that happens, but realistically, you have to stop and pivot aggressively, which means I'm going to stop. I'm going to figure out what we're doing. I'm going to figure out why we're doing. I'm going to figure out how we're going to do it. I'm going to figure out when we're going to do it. I'm going to figure out what core values, what's going to judge the success of our team? How are we going to hold people accountable? How are we going to reprimand? How are we going to promote? How are we going to hire? You need to develop those SOPs before you can take another step forward.
Because most people, and I've proven this in the coaching calls, I'm pointing my computer because I do all my coaching calls virtually, once I can teach you how to develop those SOPs, we'll say systems and strategies, you will start to enjoy your business again and the burnout will go away. You will still have exhaustive days, because that's just part of growing a business. You can't avoid that. But you can avoid the burnout or even come back from burnout.
Because if you're going into work tomorrow, as an owner, and you don't want to be around your employees, you don't like the way your customers are being treated, you don't like the way your processes are, you got paperwork all over the office, you have employees that show up late or don't care, you have vendors that don't do what they say they're going to do, you have bills that are passed due, credit cards that are maxed out, you have a wife that's up your ass because you're never home, you have kids that don't even like you anymore, I'd fucking hate my life too. I would feel burnt out because I would feel like I'm not winning anywhere.
But you can solve each of those problems, and I'm telling you this from experience. People pay me a whole lot of money for me to help them solve those problems. So for you to avoid burnout, start to solve some of those things proactively. Start to hire more intentionally, start to set SOPs in place so there's consistency to the work environment, start holding people accountable to the standards. Develop the standards, the core values, the way that things need to be done. Hold people accountable to that. Make sure that you're setting the standard. You're showing up on time, you're doing what's right. The team will typically fall in place or they can get off the ship. Start to develop time management skills around what needs your time and when, and hold yourself accountable to that, including time for your family and your kids.
Develop more of a mental health routine. Don't drink as much, work out, drink enough water. Even guys like Ryan and I, which most people look at and say, "These guys are pretty in control," we have each dealt with either on the verge or had burnout because we didn't have the right team, we didn't have the right people in place. We cycled through employees for a period of time. Like in 2021, I hired and fired 10 people. Literally, between ACS and WinRate, I made some hires, they didn't work out. I know Ryan went through that too at one point and made some hires, didn't work out. That can lead to frustration, that can lead to exhaustion, but it can lead to burnout as well. This might be actually the point. Sometimes business owners forget they are fully in control of what does and doesn't happen in their ecosystem. They start to become reactive to their employees, reactive to their clients, reactive to their vendors, and they start to build a business that is not what they wanted it to be, but they feel like they have to do it that way. You can decide what your business looks like. You can decide what your SOPs look like. You can decide what your daily routine looks like. You can make that decision.
But ultimately, if you want to avoid burnout, have systems in place, have consistency in place, have standards in place, have accountability in place, have a set understanding of what your ideal client looks like. Because I guarantee, right now, if you're burnt out, it's because you don't even like the customers you're working with anymore. Because you're chasing money or you're chasing this or your service is dog shit, so good customers don't even want to do business with you anymore. Maybe you have so many bad reviews, the only customers you can get are the customers no one else wants. Yeah, that's going to lead to some burnout too.
So start to build a plan, build an image, decide what you want it to look like and how you want it to run, and then don't stop till you build that. And stop allowing the standard to be minimized or digress back because you don't have employees that are willing to live up to it. Hold them to that standard or replace them.
Not firing fast enough will lead to burnout maybe faster than anything, because you just can't feel like you win. You feel like you did a good job, you feel like you poured into them, you feel like you trained them, you feel like you held them accountable, you feel like you did everything they needed. You can't even get them to show up on time. You can't get them to stop smoking in customers homes. You can't get them to stop showing up drunk or high. That's your fault. Because you don't get them to stop doing that, you fucking fire them and you hire somebody that's better, because your interview process should be based around the standards and the values and the mission of the company.
So there's a whole lot that goes into that. I'm not expecting you to take this video and change your life. But I would tell you right now, make a list of everything you don't like about your company. It could be the employees, the customers, the processes, the consistency, the culture, the communication, the price point, the content, the client satisfaction, whatever it is. Make a list of everything you don't like about your company and then start making changes to shorten that list.

If you don't do that, even if that list doesn't expand, at some point you just won't want to go to work anymore because you're tired of what you built. And you are in control. Stop being reactive. Stop being, we'll say, subdued by your audience, aka your customer base, your client base, your employee base, making you feel like you have to do things a certain way. If it doesn't live up to who you want to be or what you want to be known for, take massive action to fix that. Fire three people tomorrow. I promise you, the rest of people in your company, the rest of your employees will thank you for making that hard decision, and they'll start working harder to backfill the need.

But ultimately, as long as you keep building something that you don't want, eventually you'll be burnt out and you will not feel like you're winning fast or winning often.

Take care of yourself. Step into the unknown and take a risk. It's ok to take a breather. You can do this!

Can You Look Back and Say You Did Enough?

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 10:00:00 GMT

A couple of weekends ago, the Claude Squad has gone on a full family bike ride. Obviously the kids aren't getting younger. We went and bought some bikes for not just the boys, but for Tiff and I. We went on a family bike ride today, which was super cool.
It was cool to kind of see that they just had so much fun riding fast. It's the first time I've ridden a bike in a while. I've ridden a road bike in the last couple years, but got a mountain bike, something to just be able to putz around in, in the neighborhood with the boys and take the trails. There are some really cool walking trails by the house. But that was just really cool to see happen - the Claude Squad family bike ride. Really cool experience.
I've been kind of going off in some of my client groups with the money mindset, the champion circle with my one-on-one clients. I've made some posts about it. We as people, we as high performers, we as entrepreneurs, we as people that want to accomplish really fucking anything, we need to operate with more intentionality with the decisions we make, with the way we show up, with the way we communicate, the way we fuel ourself, the way we feel, the way we speak, the way we wake up, the way we work out, the way we hydrate. Everybody always talks about how time is the most valuable asset, right? We can't make more time. Make more money, can't make more time, right? We hear that all the time. But the reality is how intentional are you with those minutes, those seconds, those decisions you have to make because you can't get that time back?
You can't fuck off all day on Sunday and get that Sunday back to prepare for the week. You can't fuck off all quarter and think you're going to be ready for beach season. You can't fuck off all year and think you're going to hit your targets. But really where I think people miss it is they're not intentional with the next second, the next decision, the next idea, the next preparedness. Like the way that you show up, the way that you operate, the way that you prepare your meeting notes, the way that you prepare for your employee meetings, the way that you prepare for your whatever. The time is the dwelling, is the dwindling asset. But what you're doing with that time I think is actually more important.
Spending time and doing things you want to be doing, great. Spending time doing certain activities, great. But how intentional are you with every decision? How intentional are you showing up? How intentional are you with your relationships? How intentional are you with your body language? How intentional are you with your personal hygiene? How intentional are you with how you show up for your people, for your family, for your spouse? It's not just sometimes. It's every fucking time. It's not just when you feel like it. It's every fucking time. It's not just when all the conditions are perfect. It's every fucking time. Look back at the last seven days. Recount every decision you made, and did those decisions align with what you say you want? If you have big visions or big dreams for your life and I say, "Show me your calendar from yesterday. Show me your task list from yesterday. Show me how intentional you are preparing and organizing and executing on every move to make sure that it happens."
If you can't show me your intentional, if you can't show me you're organized in your day, if you can't show me a completed task list, I'm going to tell you your full of shit. Talked about it on Friday's fire. But I challenge you this week to not just say, I'm going to. Make the list. Make the time blocks. Make the time. Dedicate the effort. I'm not going to get off the high horse on this one because I see so many people who talk a lot about what they're going to do, but are like their actions and their moves and their decisions and the time they spend inadequately approaching those things is disappointing. I'm seeing it right now in the people in my programs who are taking action or that are being ultra intentional with their decision making, ultra intentional with what they're doing it. It's been absolutely life changing.
So get out there, ride your bike with your kids, walk through the woods with them, spend some time with them. Get passionate about something they're passionate about. Get passionate about something your wife's passionate about, your husband's passionate about. But ultimately just get intentional with how you're approaching your days, how you're approaching your time, how you're approaching the efforts. It's in your interest. It's in your interest to be able to look back at a time period and say, I nailed it. I made a post... awhile back on Facebook, by the way. But I made a post that I've never been more confident in who I am and what I'm trying to do, but also I've never been more afraid of what blind spots I might not be thinking about. I think it's a good balance right now. It keeps me focused, organized, and disciplined, while also enjoying the journey a little bit more than I have in the past.
But the only way to overcome the fear, the only way to overcome the anxiety, the only way to overcome the depression, the only way to overcome whatever it is, is to take action. When you don't take action intentionally, and it can actually make it worse because you take action and you're like, fuck I didn't do that right, or I didn't do it as well as I could have, or I let somebody down because I wasn't focused or whatever it is.
Get your mission, your vision, your core values down, pat, and then make every decision based on that, please.
You'll thank yourself later.
Get out there. Win fast, win often this week.
Zero doubt.
Go be the best version of yourself.

You'll be proud of who it is, and you'll thank yourself for making the decision to do it.

How I Built A Multi Million Dollar Company by Developing A High Performing Team

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:00:00 GMT

If you have not followed me for a while, I have about 14 employees total. Six of those employees are CEOs. They run their own multi seven-figure companies. And if you want to talk about managing high performers is difficult, CEOs suck. They're needy, they're fucking opinionated, they've got all these ideas, we're never moving fast enough. Running a team of CEOs is hard. But all six, and we'll be growing that number to 10 this year, they're all CEOs. They're all business owners, entrepreneurs, and those are guys, in theory and concept, some of the highest performers out there. Not all entrepreneurs and business owners are high performers. Most of them suck. Ours don't. They're great. But it's difficult to not just build, but maintain and keep a high performing team. So, I'm going to do three points on this one.
First, you have to be the attractive character for high performers, which means you have to operate as a high performer. You have to build a process, a routine, an image, even the content. What story are you telling has to be around high performance. And there's not a single way to do that. There's not a single definition of high performance. There's some introverts that are incredibly high performing. There's some extroverts that are very high performing. There's some unique people, athletes, non-athletes. There's not a standard, we'll say, avatar for high performance, but you have to be it at all times. If at any point people can't trust that you're actually a high performer, they're not going to trust to be a part of your team. Winners want to win. Winners want to be a part of a winning team. A players want to be around A players.
So, if you want more A players, you've got a be an A player. If you're attracting C players right now, I would start looking in the mirror. Are you taking care of your health? Are you taking care of your family? Are you taking care of your kids? Are you taking care of your company? Are you taking care of your body image? Are you brushing your teeth? Have you shaved this week? It might seem silly to you, but if you're not portraying high performance, you are not going to attract high performers. Even in just the consistency of effort. If you've been following for any period of time, I release three podcasts and two or three YouTube videos a week for the last three years. I don't miss, I don't miss, I don't not deliver, I never underdeliver on an expectation. And I promise you, I don't always want to do that.
I'm sitting here with this dude for the next three hours. We're going to shoot like 24 videos. I'm like, "I don't fucking want to do this." I don't. But there's a standard I've set of performance that high performers know you don't always want to do it, but sometimes you just have to. You don't have a choice. That's what high performance looks like. High performance isn't, "I want to be great all the time." It's, "I'm going to be great all the time no matter how I feel," right? So, I think when you look at somebody who doesn't take care of themself, is inconsistent, you've caught them in lies, those are people that an A player's not going to want to be around you. Vice versa, if you can be consistent, if you can take care of yourself, if you can be, what I would consider, a total package approach to life. I'm not great at business and I'm on my third marriage. And I'm not judging people who get divorced, but that just shows a lack of consistency.
It shows a lack of delivery. It shows some general things that high performers who want to stay married may not want to be a part of. And look, there's a lot of people who have gotten divorced that are high performers, too. I'm so tired of putting disclaimers in these damn videos because of you trolls. But there is not a single avatar to what high performance looks like. But if you are not attracting high performers right now, my first plan of action for you be look in the mirror. Where are you underdelivering in your own standards that you can take control of? And then, it'll increase the quality of the candidates and the people that you start to attract. Two, once you find these people, once they are attracted, you want to keep them, right? Well, the best way to keep them is to show them why being a part of your mission is important to them.
The what's in it for them. And I'll tell you right now, it's not money. Money is part of it. They have to know that they can support their family. They have to know they can do some things they want. But I'll tell you right now, all of my CEO coaches, they're on commission only. They only get paid. So, when they first started here, when they first signed up as a coach, there was no guarantee of income, but they showed up and they delivered, and that's why their income has grown. But money's not the biggest thing. It's impact, it's influence, it's authority, it's quality of life, it's quality in the workplace, it's enjoyment of the process. This is where we're going, and this is the role you play. And when we get there, this is what you're going to have. Well, here's your process and progress of progression through the ranks, right?
Some people want leadership roles. Some people want to be appreciated differently. Some people want to make a bigger impact on the marketplace. Whatever it is, you have to understand. That high performer has a reason that they are going to show up when they don't want to. And that's how you find and keep and get and maintain high performers is they will do the work no matter how they feel. They just will. One of my coaches got hit with the hurricane, and his house got destroyed. And he still went to Orlando two days later and spoke from stage, represented the brand well, still got his coaching calls in, still ran his business. He doesn't know what he is going to do yet because because he doesn't have a house to go back to, but he's still doing his job. You can't do that if that person doesn't understand why they're going to do it.
And you have to understand what it is they want. High performers have a very clear vision, typically, of what they want in life. Not just in their business, but outside of life. I believe if you are growing a business where people's life is to work, I think you're going to attract in the incorrect people. I think you have to understand people work to have a life. And you have to have that approach. You have to have that balance. You have to have that flexibility in routine, flexibility in approach, flexibility in location sometimes, but there has to be a standard. You have to hold them to the standard, and I've talked about that already in other videos. But you have to have a very clear understanding of who they are, what they want, and where they want to get to. If a high performer shows up and then they say, "Well, I want to be able to lead a team of 12 sales reps one day," and you don't have a plan to have a team of 12 sales reps, you should not hire that person. Even though they may be the best suited for you short-term, they will not enjoy working for you long-term. And most of us are building long-term strategies for our business. So, get really intentional at understanding who they are, what they want, where they want to go, and how you are going to get them there. I do that with specific onboarding questionnaires for employees as very specific onboarding training. I use 30, 60, 90 day progression processes to make sure people ramp appropriately, and I understand them better. And then, I do weekly. Sometimes, it's weekly, sometimes it's biweekly, with all of my key high performers. It's not everybody on the team, but everybody on the team is on the team calls every week where I pour into them. But I have conversations with people at least once a month, twice a month, maybe even every week around, "How are you doing? Where are you at?"
"Are we moving the right direction? Am I holding you to a high enough standard? Are you evolving enough to maintain part of the mission?" And if the answer is no, I'm going to fire you. And I look at it as I'm setting you free to go find something that you can be passionate about. Because I'm not here to just pay you money for half-assed effort. We either full ass or we no ass. There's no half-assing around here. And that's the rule we operate by. We go full ass on this stuff. But understanding that high performer wants to know that there's an outcome on the other side of the struggle, the sacrifice, the effort, the discipline, the mental toughness, that there's a reason they're doing that with you. And it's not for you. I think this is a common thing. "Oh, well, you work for me."
If you ever fucking look at me and tell me, "Well, Mike, I sign your checks," you're not going to need to sign any more checks for me. I don't work for anyone. And I've had some leaders pull that on me because I was a high performer, and I worked really hard and I had a lot of success and that success came with me wanting my opinion to be heard, and it wasn't. And when I would push back, I would get put in my spot, and they would lose me. Because the minute you put me in that position where I work for you, no. A high performer works with you. There's a hierarchy, there's a chain of command, but high performers need to know that they're working with somebody, not for someone. That way they're brought in, they feel a part of the strategy, they feel a part of the tip of the spear because that's where the high performer wants to be.
And then, the third is the accountability side, right? So, we've attracted the right characters, we've onboarded them, we've understood what they want, we've sold the mission really effectively, we've used personality tests and core values and onboarding strategy to make sure that we have the right people. Now, the accountability comes in. You, as a leader, need to look, I feel, need to look for ways to have conversations most people are not willing to have. I'm going to attack any reason that a high performer may not be able to maintain performance. If you're not doing a good job in your exercise, I'm going to call you out on it. If you're drinking too much, I'm going to call you out on it. If your standards at work are dropping, I'm going to call you out on it. If your body language isn't right, I'm going to call you out on it. And not like, "Dude, get your shit together." It's like, "Hey, man. I'm seeing this. This is what I'm perceiving. Help me understand." But I think if you're not proactively holding those people to a higher standard, they eventually will burn out and not want to be there anymore because maintaining them is the key. You don't want to constantly be replacing employees all the time. You want to be able to attract, onboard, train, and hold accountable to make sure that everybody is continuing to evolve. I said it earlier in another video, but if the mission is going like this and you hire somebody here, right? This person might be ahead of where you are now, but as you continue, if they don't grow, that delta, that gap between where you are and where they are now. I'm going to make sure you keep up because I'm moving fast, right? My business is evolving quickly. Between 2019, 2020, 2121, and 2022, my business grew 300% every year.
And to put that into context, it was a hundred grand to 300 grand to a million to 3 million. That's the progress. And next year we're actually going to take a little bit of a slower growth year to stabilize a little bit and prioritize profit a little bit more. But 2023 will not be as big of a percentage of growth. But that's massive growth for most companies, which means we've evolved very quickly, which means we make changes quickly, which means we're improving the client experience on a more rapid pace, which means the employees have to keep up. This is where I think people have a misconception of high performers. They actually need more standards than everybody else. I'm going to tell you why. Someone who doesn't give a shit if they're high performing or not, or exceeding expectation or not, or they're going to come in and they're going to work hard to their standard of hard, no matter what. A high performer wants to know, needs to know what the standard is so that they can exceed it.
They need to know they're living up to expectations, need to know because they stress about it. That's part of what makes them a high performer is they're hyper focused on meeting and exceeding expectations. Well, if you don't give them a lane, you're just like, "Hey man, you were killing it over there. You're here now. Good luck. Talk to you next month." They're going to fail. They're going to flounder. You're going be like, "What the hell happened? This dude was such a high performer." It's because someone probably gave him very clear standards and expectations so that that person knew when they were meeting and exceeding expectations. So, high performers actually need more of a lane, more standards, more performance KPIs than a non-high performer. It's just the truth because non-high performers don't care if they're exceeding or meeting. They're going to do their best they can, and they're going to go home.
They're going to work nine to five, and they're going to collect their paycheck. And that's okay. Every team needs some B players. But if you want to keep that high A plus player, that high delivery, high expectation, you've got to give them high expectation. You've got to hold their ass accountable to it. Those are the tough conversations, right? Because that person's typically opinionated, probably good at talking, probably great with words, probably emotional. Those are people, because that's what keeps them high performing, is they're addicted to the grind, they're addicted to the growth. It's your job to pour into them. You cannot be too busy to meet with your high performers on a regular basis, or you will lose them. Because you've got to attract them, you've got to onboard and train them, and you have to maintain and retain them. And the best way to do that is continue to pour into them, continue to evolve them.
I do that through one-on-ones. I do that through performance reviews. I do that through quarterly SWOT analysis. I do that to make sure that I'm holding them to a standard no one else ever has. And that's why myself, Mike Claudio, and WinRate Consulting gets the results we do with other CEOs and business owners because I'm going to hold you to a standard that you didn't even know you were capable of, and I'm going to help you get there. That's what high performers want, and that's what keeps high performers coming back. Yes, there has to be monetary value to that effort, but it's not what's going to keep them. Money is not the number one motivating factor for most high performers.
So, understand that.
Build a system around that. Build a process around tha.
And you'll continue to attract, onboard, and retain high performing teams so that you can get your mission to the next level.
Because all I do.
All I want is for you to WIN FAST AND WIN OFTEN!

Stop Being A Victim

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Brandon Brittingham, if you don't know who he is, I'd look into him. He's just massive, he runs the fifth-largest real estate team in the country, the biggest in Maryland. But this dude is just a really amazing human being who shares in his fondness of gorillas. He calls himself a gorilla. I call myself gorillas sometimes. But we did a couple podcasts together and one of them was on the victim mindset. And look, I know it's hard. I know things are not going your way. I know it's hard to find people. It's hard to manage expectations. It's hard to get clients to pay. It's hard to run a marriage. It's hard to run children. It's hard to have a family. It's hard to have brothers and sisters. It's hard to have parents. It's hard. Life is hard.
It doesn't matter which side of hard you pick. It's hard to be overweight. It's hard to be in shape. It's hard to be wealthy, it's hard to be poor. It's hard to have things. It's hard to not have things. And if you're sitting on one side of that saying, "Oh, it'd be easier if I had shit," no, you're fucking wrong. "It'd be easier if I had money." No, it's just different problems. And so if you are looking around at other people and acting like a victim because if you only had what they had, your life would be easier. You are absolutely full of shit. You just don't know what you don't know about that situation. You don't know what you don't know about that perspective of life. It's you don't know what you don't know about the alternative of whatever it is you have experienced.
Loving is hard. Heartbreak is hard. Being alone is hard. Being married is hard. Having money, not having money, having things, not having things, having a big business, having a small business, having a lot of clients, having very few clients, creating content, not creating content, hiring, firing, stagnation, growth, it doesn't matter what you are dealing with, it's supposed to be hard. And whoever fucking told you, whoever you're looking to say that it's supposed to be anything different, is also full of shit. People out there who are pushing around this get rich quick, abs in 30 days fucking bullshit is bullshit.
I'm sorry that you are feeling like, "Oh my God, as soon as this happens, I'll be able to relax. As soon as this happens. I'll be happy. As soon as this happens, I'll have what I want." Nope, you won't. And I'm sorry to break it to you, but you won't. The journey is the only thing that stays true. It's hard. It's supposed to be hard. And so no matter which hard you choose, the choice is yours. The victim mentality says, "Well, I can't have what I want because of all these other people or all these other influences or all these other things." No, the truth is you just haven't chosen yet. By not choosing, you make the choice. I'm going to live in whatever bullshit I'm in. I'm going to live in whatever depression. I'm going to live in whatever anxiety. I'm going to live within whatever addiction. I'm going to live in this poor mentality, this scarcity mentality, this poverty mentality. I heard someone use that over this past trip and I think that's a great terminology that kind of encompasses a lot.
If you are just destined to be poor in spirit and in mind and in health and in finances and in relationships, if you're always just looking for what you don't have when everybody else does, trust me, every single person you look to, "That if I just had their life, my life would be better," you couldn't handle the problems that person deals with. You couldn't handle the decisions that person deals with. I promise you. I promise you. So stop acting like a fucking victim. Stop acting like everything's out to get you. Stop acting like you're the only ones dealing with this. And you say, "I know I'm not the only ones dealing with this, but man, this is really hard." That's a victim mentality. Instead of saying that, saying, "I know everybody's dealing with this, so I can't wait to solve it so I can beat those people, the people who can't solve this problem, the people who can't do what I'm trying to do, the people who can't see what I see, the people who can't be as creative as I can be."
Everybody deals with problems. Everybody deals with hard. Everybody's journey is difficult. I don't care what you think. If you think anything other than that, I'm sorry, but you are wrong. And as long as you hold on to that mentality, the, "as soon as I have, I will be," you'll forever be unhappy. You'll forever be disappointed. You'll forever be depressed. You'll forever be a victim, a victim to everything outside of your control, and a victim to your own inability to take control of the decisions you can. You can decide what foods you eat. You can decide how you sleep. You can decide who you are around. You can decide what you do. You can decide what you drink. You can decide what you watch. You can decide what you listen to. You can decide what actions you take. You can decide how you'll handle obstructions and issues. You can decide how you're going to show up. You can decide how you're going to dress. You can decide who you're going to talk to and not talk to.
You can make 10 times more intentional decisions in your day than you realize if you just decide I'm going to manufacture everything I want no matter what. They turn into wins as opposed to losses. They turn into success stories instead of stagnation. They turn into wins for you as a person in your mind as I did something as opposed to, "Well, I can't do anything because of," insert whatever excuse you've been utilizing.
Because there's the other side of this. There's somebody right now who wishes they had what you have, likely that person was you 24 months ago. Most of the people who are in my audience, most people that I engage with, 24 months ago would've been praying and hoping and begging for what they have right now, but you still want to act like a victim. But you still want to act like, "If the market were just this, or the cash flow issues were just this, or if the supply chain issues are this," just stop. Stop pretending that you have any control over that, and it's what you do with it. Because somebody's going to be successful with the circumstances you have right now. Why not you? Why couldn't it be you? Why can't you change the way an industry operates because you were not willing to succumb to the shit that's not in your control when everybody else does?
It's easy to walk into an Apex room or one of my WinRate groups or be around other high performers and feel like I'm the worst. "Everybody's got it better than me." That's such a small percentage. If you look at Apex and Arete and Lions Den and WinRate, I'm going to put myself in that fucking category. You're welcome. But we're talking about less than 20,000 people total between all those programs. It might even be closer to 10,000 people total. 10,000 humans that you're comparing yourself to out of in just the United States 330 million. There are people out there right now that wish they had the life you had and you're over year acting like a little bitch victim.
I'm sorry, but I think somebody needs to hear that right now so they can make a change today. They can make a change today that could impact the rest of their year, which can impact the rest of their life. Stop acting like your problems are unique to you. Stop acting like no one can possibly understand. "My business is different. My clients are different. My market is different." It's not.
Get out there and take action on what you can control today related to who you want to be and what you want to have, and you'll be amazed at what you can manufacture in your life. I have zero doubt about that. I've lived that. I've done that. And I'm just getting started. Please, I beg you to get out there and stop acting like a victim and start acting like a champion.
Win fast, win often. Make it a great week. Not for me, but for you!

How I Built A Multi Seven Figure Business by Developing A Great Company Culture

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Building a company culture is one of the most underrated things I see, because it's really easy as the leader to get distracted by your own problems, get distracted by what's going on in your life, get distracted by the fires that pop up and you make decisions very short term. Make decisions about how is this going to solve a problem today? How is this going to create impact today? How is this going to make money today? Building a culture takes time. I look at it as farming, right? I'm a plant a seed, I'm going to water the shit out of it for a year and then it's going to develop it into a plant that provides fruit.
Employees and culture is the same thing. You have to look at it as a 6, 12, 18 month strategy pouring into somebody today that will get me this yield down the road. Even with my video people. These guys are awesome people. I'm going to pour into them and Cooper's been a great friend of Ryan's, an employee of Ryan's, and I've gotten to know him really well. But he knows what he's going to get when he shows up here because I've been planting those seeds over time. It's going to be a good shoot. It's going to be one take. It's going to go awesome. We're going to have some laughs. We're going to have some great conversations. We're going to catch up. That isn't easy but he knows what he's going to get when he shows up here every single time because the consistency is there. You can't plant a seed, water it today and then don't touch it for six weeks and think you're going to get something from that.
And building a company culture is very similar. So this is where I see a lot of shortcomings. I'm going to say some things I've learned the hard way. I think making too many changes to the mission is a challenge. I've done it. I've seen a lot of businesses do that. Who we are, what we're trying to do, our price point, who we're helping, who were hiring, what projects we're taking on, what projects we're not taking on a lot of changes to the mission. I think to have a strong company culture, there has to be a long-term strategy mindset around what is our mission, win rate. Our mission is to simplify and systemize the growth of home service companies. And I've been saying that for three years. Every week, every team call, this is our mission. If it doesn't align with that mission, it's not for us.
And sometimes that means you have to sacrifice good things in your routine, in your pricing structure, in your offers, in your client base and your employees. You got to sacrifice good for great because there's going to be some things that help your mission that you have to say no to that you have to get rid of that you have to decline, that you have to fire. Sometimes you have to fire really good employees because they're just not great in alignment with the mission and that's hard to do. Sometimes I see people adjust their mission because of the players they have. You can't do that. You can't change what you are trying to accomplish as a company or the impact you're trying to make based on the assets or resources that you have, that will dilute your culture because people aren't going to know what they're showing up for, which also bleeds into the standards.
If there's a mission, there has to be standards. SOP, standard operating procedures, but literally just like what are you expecting from your employees? What are you expecting out of them? Because what will happen, I see this a lot, your best employees, those revenue generators, they get away with a whole lot more than the other people do. You'll probably let your top sales rep get away with murder, but your receptionist gets yelled at every fucking day. No, you can't do that, that dilutes the culture. You have to have a standard across the board. And I'm going through a season right now where we're probably going to be letting go some of our employees in one of my companies just because they're good, not great. And it's not so much what they are today. This is where a lot of people fail. As your mission continues, as your journey grows, there's evolution.
And I'm going to talk about my core values here in a second, but one of our core values is continually evolve. So we're always trying to get better. So we're trying to be on this plane of increase, this plane of improvement. Well, if you have an employee that's here and it's closed, they're good, not great. Over time, that gap, that delta, will destroy the way you feel about that person. I'm sure if you've ever had an employee, dude, they were like freaking great last year. What happened? What happened is you got better and they didn't. They're actually the same person, same qualities, same standards they hold themselves accountable to. But if you don't hold everybody the same standard, they won't evolve with you, they just won't. And that will mean that I can look at today, same concept. What will this seed grow into in 12 to 18 months?
If I know right now that seed does not have a high propensity to grow into fruit that I actually want, then I'm not going to spend the next 6, 12, 18 months watering that seed 'cause I'm not going to get what I'm looking for. So same concept in being consistent with the mission over longer periods of vision. Employees are the same way and the standards need to be held the same way. Now you can't do this with your standards and think you're going to build a quality culture. One of my "I am" statements is I am going to keep a very high, clear and fair standard. Anybody who's been around me knows that I hold people to an incredibly high standard. And it's not always fun and it's not always easy, it's actually never easy, but that's what I live up to because that's what I want for my culture.
If we're going to be coaches, right? If we're going to be coaching other business owners, we have to be setting the standard and being the example. That's actually two of the things we talk about is that we will set the standard and we will be the example. Well, you can't do that if you're not literally living up to the standards that I create. So they're fair, they're clear, but they're very high and I have to do that evenly across the team or you will not get buy-in. Like you cannot let anybody not look to the standard. I see this happen a lot with family in your business, friends in your business, long-standing employees where like, dude, they've been here for 30 years, man, they just can't get on board with technology and I don't know what to do about it. You fire their ass.
There is no middle ground here. You have to hold the standard or you will dilute your own company culture and you will have people revolt or just quit because high performers that they're holding theirselves here, if you're holding everybody else here, they'll go find a team that they want to be on. The best players want to be on the best teams, and that's a fact. Winners want to win and winners want to be a part of winning teams. If you're allowing a B squad to operate, A players aren't going to want to be there. Repetition is also important. So we're going to look further ahead. We're going to hold a high standard and then we're going to repeat that mission, that vision and those standards as often as possible. I've said this for as long as I can remember. If your employees are not tired of hearing about the core values, you're not talking about them enough.
So here's ours. And I'm a big fan of acronyms 'cause I think it helps relay the message effectively. So our core values actually spell COACH. It was actually an accident and no one believes me, but I can tell you the people that were in the room were like, oh shit, that spells coach. And I'm like, ding, we're using that. But it's communicate proactively, operate with the help first mentality, appreciate everyone's time including your own, continually evolve, and have a championship mindset. We talk about these core values every week in our team meetings. We kick off our team meetings with reviewing a core value that maybe wasn't being acknowledged appropriately or executed appropriately. Maybe its, I want to highlight somebody who went above and beyond in one or more of our core values for the week. We had a great story last week where my events and volunteer manager went wildly above and beyond for one of the attendees of an event we had without being asked, without being promoted, without even asking for permission. She went and spent money on something that she knew would be the right thing to do. And you can't train that, you can only pour into that. You can only nurture that. You can, like I said, plant that seed, water it and it'll grow and bear fruit that you want. And so consistency and repetition it is. Repetition also builds trust. A culture only works if they trust what you're saying and what you're doing. So being repetitive means like, oh, this is real, this is standard. We have to believe in this because it's the only way.
You can't change all the time. You can't be changing what you're doing, who you're doing it for, where you're doing it, when you're doing it, how you're charging for it, and think people are going to buy into that. So the repetition and consistency here in what is the standard, how are we doing it? And then the fourth part, documenting the standard. So we document our SOPs, our standards, so that they can be a resource to our employees, right? Because most employees want to do what's right, but if they don't have it ironed out for them or laid out for them or documented for them, they don't have a resource they can go to.
And if they don't, they're going to try really hard on their own and they're likely going to get it wrong because their standards that you set, not they set. And so having a resource, like I've mentioned before we use Asana, it's a project management app that we have our core values built out in as well as our SOPs. So if you have a reference of how do we do this or how does this happen or when does this happen or how does this work? Or how does that work? We've built out a platform, we'll say a resource, a reference so that our employees can go see how do I do this to the standard? Not just how do I get it done, how do I do it to the standard? And we use pictures, we use loom videos, Zoom videos, mirror boards. We use all kind of different resources within that reference tool, but that allows our employees to not just know it, but then have a way to go back and reference it to make sure they're hitting the standard.
There's not a single thing you're going to do to build a perfect culture, and perfect is relative, it's very subjective, but I would say sustainable culture. It is incredibly necessary that you understand what you want it to be and you just don't accept anything less. The minute you start accepting less, you're going to hate yourself and at some point you're going to hate your business. I see a lot of business owners who allow the standard to be minimized or not handled appropriately and they end up not wanting to go to work anymore. I know a lot of business owners that allow the standard and the culture to drop so bad that they don't even want to be there anymore. And if you've done that, it's not too late, you can fix that, you can change that. But it starts with being consistent, being clear, being on top of it and just not accepting anything less.
If you have questions on that, I'd love to talk to you. Ultimately we want to help you win fast and often, that's what we talk about, so that you can build a championship version of your life!

Winning the Battle with Anxiety

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Something that comes up frequently in conversations with clients is the discussion about anxiety and depression and frustration and all that kind of stuff. I've dealt with anxiety for the majority of my life. I've been medicated for it for the majority of my life. Panic attacks, anxiety attacks, even just right now, like yesterday and today, I've been feeling really anxious, not really sure why. But one of the best things I've learned to overcome that and combat it is like getting shit done, doing work, checking things off. I think so many times when we start to feel anxious, we start to feel frustrated, we start to feel depressed, we start to overthink, we start to overanalyze, we start to underact. And I think what happens is we get in this whirlwind of emotion and feelings and that nervousness that happens kind of in your stomach area, and you just end up not completing anything, right? Because you move from one thing to the other. You can't collect your thoughts, not enough gets done.
So what I challenge you to do, if that's something you're dealing with, is make a list. Like every Sunday, Tiff and I typically make a list of 10 to 15 things we want to get done. And I'll tell you, there's nothing that helps me feel better than seeing something completed. And I don't always feel good in the moment, like yesterday, I cleaned the garage, organized it, did some laundry, did some food prep, picked up around the house, and you don't always feel good doing it, but eventually you end up sitting down looking around and realizing what you got done today and how valuable and important that was for you in the grand scheme of things.
So I don't know if you want to call it the powerless of what Andy Frisella calls it, Championship Day, Prize Fighter Day. There's a pun, don't... There's a ton of different people who call it different things. But ultimately, one of the fastest ways to get over anxiety in my opinion, is to take action and with intentionality, and it doesn't have to be big stuff. It could be reorganizing the fridge, it could be folding the laundry, it could be setting up the camera. I had an event recently, so my entire office was kind of taken apart for it. And one of the things yesterday, was just get the camera set back up and I wasn't enjoying the process, but I got it set up, got some pictures off of it from last week, and ultimately felt like I got something accomplished.
Here I am back in my clean office with the camera set up and ready to be used because I went ahead and set it up. And so that it starts to fuel you back up. It starts to pour back into you as much as incomplete tasks make you anxious, completed task give you confidence. Doing work and taking action and just doing what you need to do is not just simply taking anxiety away, it's giving confidence in. So completing that checklist, marking that thing off, doing what you're supposed to be doing, drinking your water, doing your workouts, reading, making your bed. I mean, I know one of my first ever, we'll call him a client, he signed up for the Winning Mindset Mastermind group that's still going strong 80, 90 weeks later. One of the first things that him do is just start to make his bed every day and starting to make his bed every day turned into actionable items he could see completed, which increased confidence, which I mean I think two or three years in a row, he's triple his business.
And that's not by coincidence. That's not just one thing, it's a compounding effect of things. Just like a losing streak makes you feel like crap. A winning streak makes you feel good, right? The win fast, win often mentality is not about getting wins compared to other people's opinion of what a win is or other people's scoreboard. It's winning the next decision for you. Did you get out of bed on time today? Today is we were snowed in unquote iced in the gym's closed. Schools are closed, but I was still up at 3:45. I still started reading. I read from four to five. I did yoga from five to six, so I still got my morning routine in, so now I'm feeling better. I still feel a little anxious, just being honest with you. I'm recording this right now on Monday morning, and I mean, there's still some anxiety there.
There's still some... Being a dad and being a husband and being a leader and being a business owner and being a coach is hard. There's a lot of pressures there, and I'm carrying some of them right now, even though we had a great event last week. Now my anxiety spikes on how I do it again next time. Literally, I had a room of 50 people together last week, all high performers and all discussing their battle with anxiety. And I think for me, and I think something that's worked really well for me, this doesn't work for everybody I'm sure, but for me it was simply taking action. Taking action based on a list. I have my list in Asana. It's a program I use for task management. I use it for pretty much all parts of my life. But checking that list off, building the list and then checking it off one at a time, no matter how you feel, right?
When your feelings start to integrate themselves into the way you take action, the action starts to get diluted or doesn't happen at all. So I need you to go take action this week no matter how you feel. I need you to take action this week no matter what you think. Now, I need you to take action this week no matter what the outcome is because the win is the action. The win is completing the task. The win is checking that box. So get out there this week, win fast, win off, and by winning the next decision, to win the next decision, you have to define what the win looks like. So what is it? Is it making your bed? Is it going to the gym? Is it doing your walk even though it's cold outside? Is it doing yoga? Is it doing your cold shower? These are all things you can control. I don't need to go to the gym to still manage my morning routine. It all was the same. It just happened on my couch instead of in my truck.

So I challenge you...

Get out this week.

Define what the win looks like.

Define the task list.

Check it off every single day. No matter how you do that, no matter if you write it down, if it's digital, if it's on a whiteboard somewhere, it doesn't matter to me.

But make a list every single day and don't stop the day until the list is done.

That's how championships are won.

Maximizing Productivity: Time Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 10:00:00 GMT

Time management... As you can see, I put out a lot of content. I have a lot of employees. I have a lot of clients, I have a lot of responsibilities. I'm a husband, a father. I can say I'm an athlete 'cause I work out every day, but I'm not really competitive right now. But even over the last year, as you guys kind of watched me go through that body building journey of failing and gaining 50 pounds and then backing out, there's a whole lot that goes into the world of keeping up with the things that need to get done.
So there's three primary tips I'm going to give you today to help you with your time management. First is setting the game plan. What I mean by that is looking ahead at what your top priorities are for the week. I think so many people go into today, "I'm going to work hard today and then I'll work hard tomorrow and forever and ever." You're just reacting to the world. That stereotypical firefighter type mentality where you're just chasing the next problem to solve. Not effective, not efficient, and not going to help you take control and protect your time.
So pretty much every Sunday I sit down and I look at my week and I say, "What are my top most important tasks of each day?" I think people, on Sunday, you need to do this. You write down the 25 things you want to get done that week, but there's no strategy. There's just, "Hey, there's a giant list." And then you pick and choose and cherry pick what you want to do based on what you're comfortable with or what you are most enjoying doing. And then that list tends to never get done.
So don't just create a game plan. Top priorities for the week, assign them to the day. These are the five things I want to get done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then don't stop till they're done. I think that's a big mistake people make. They have their game plan, but then they become reactive to their day and they don't get things completed. But the game plan for me on Sunday, I write my workouts for the week. I look at my food schedule. I look at my time with my family. I look at my time with my wife. I look at my time with my employees. What meetings do I have? What things do I need to prepare for?
I don't write things down. I use Asana. It's a great project management, task management tool to help you get control because you can look at calendar views, list views, projects. You can assign things to other people to make sure they get done as well. But that game plan is the first step. The game plan's great, but if you don't have a plan of when you're going to work on things, it's just also going to be very reactive and not likely to get done. So I use time blocks.
I've been doing this and preaching this and teaching this for literally a decade, but I have specific times of the week reoccurring. Every Tuesday at 11:00, we have our operations meeting. Every Friday at 10:00 we have our team meeting. But then I have certain content time blocks. I have certain employee performance time blocks. I have customer time blocks. I know if these are the things I need to get done, I can tell you exactly what time, even down to when my workouts are going to happen.
I'm doing 75 hard right now. If you don't know what that is, Google it. I'm not going to explain it right now, but it requires two workouts a day. So on Sunday, I look at my week and I say, "When am I going to get my first workout and my second workout?" And it goes on the calendar. That way I can plan ahead, plan round just to make sure things get done. Because as you can imagine, it's difficult. Calls, employee issues, text messages, content shoots, all these things that happen throughout the week.
It can be difficult to prioritize yourself. Most people do. So I literally have time blocks on my calendar that go throughout the week. That's one of the biggest weaknesses I see is people create it, but then don't protect it. You have to violently protect your time blocks because if you don't, people are going to just take it. They're going to try to eat it up. They're going to try to take it from you. They're going to try to consume it, and it allows them to feel, "Well, you're available," because literally, "I've got to be available for my people." No, you have to protect your time so you can be the best version of yourself first.
Which brings me to the third point. Once you've built the game plan, the list. Once you have the time blocks, you have to communicate those priorities to the people that are most likely to try to consume your time. If you don't tell your wife, you don't tell your kids, you don't tell your leaders, you don't tell your customers when you are and are not available, you are allowing them to try to invade your time. Which will result in you feeling bad about them needing you because you just didn't set the proper expectations.
People all the time say, "Well, I don't want to let down their expectations." Well, it's your job to set the expectations. So if you're going to have meetings, if you're going to have time blocks, if you're going to have priorities and you don't tell anybody around you what those are, you are setting yourself up for failure because no one around you is going to help you protect your time. If you don't know where to start with the list, if you have a list, do the time blocks. If you have the time blocks, start with the accountability of the people around you. If you don't do those three things, you're going to be reactive to your week. You're going to be reactive to the people around you. You're going to be reactive to your emotions throughout the week on what you want to do or feel like doing. And ultimately, you're just not setting yourself up for success to get the things you want in life. I mean that in the most sincere way possible.
Priorities cannot just be about your business. Prioritize time for you. Prioritize time for your family. Prioritize time for your friends. Prioritize time for church. Prioritize time for prayer. Prioritize time to read. Prioritize time for yourself to work out or eat or whatever it is that you want to do that helps you determine what your successful life looks like. Don't minimize that.
Don't put all of your effort into one basket because that basket might be full, but the rest might die around it.
I don't want to see that happen to anybody because I want you to WIN FAST AND WIN OFTEN!

The Man in the Arena

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:00:00 GMT

I want you to save this.
I want you to remember this.
I'm going to tell you a quote that I read every single day. It's The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt. I'm going to give it to you so you have somewhere to go back and read it throughout the year as you need it, because I think I want more people to be in the arena this year.
I want more people taking action this year. I want more people understanding that there is no fame, fortune, and reward to being on the sidelines and in the stands you have to be on the fucking field. So let's go!
"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs; who come short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt.

Get out there this year.

Win fast, win often.

Set your gate, your daily plan, set your intention, set your target, set your initiatives.

Get after it because no matter what, at the end of the year, if you know you were in the arena doing the deeds all year, you'll be satisfied no matter what the outcomes actually are.

Touch the line this year.

Play through the whistle.

Do not let one moment go by this year where you are not intentionally trying to win.

Stop being a passenger in your own life and get in the arena!

The Contractor's Guide to Business Automation Tips and Tools

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Automating your company - my personal perception, this is not common. This is not one of those things that a lot of people are saying, but I don't like automating the client experience. I like automating internal communications, and I'm going to explain what I mean by that. More and more and more as you see self-checkouts, you see automated stuff. For example, you see one click purchase on Amazon. People are able to do things in their life without human interaction. In some sense, that's good. In some sense, I think it creates a muted customer experience across different platforms, different organizations, different businesses, different we'll say verticals, and it creates an environment where there's no differentiating between different businesses. My personal opinion is that you should not automate your client experience. I am heavy human environment in there.
We used to when we onboarded coaching clients, at first it was an email, an automated email. You signed a contract, you got an automated generic email. Then we went to a custom email that came from my operations manager. Now we're doing a live onboarding call with my operations manager to get you queued in as fast as possible. And if I look at how long it took customers to get onboard into the program when it was an automated message, compared to a custom message, compared to a human message, we've decreased the time from two to three weeks to a day or two. And we've also sped the comfortability of our client experience into believing they made a great decision. From the sales process when I was selling remodeling, to the sales process when I was selling roofing, especially in roof and rail, there's people saying, "You can sell online, you can do virtual reports, virtual tours, get the customer to take the photos."
I get it. You're trying to create efficiencies in your business to make more money with less people. I totally, I do not disagree with that as a concept, but I do disagree that people in the marketplace are not looking for human interaction. The downside is most of your employees suck at empathy. Most of your employees suck at communication, which is why you want to automate it. You're trying to protect your brand. You're trying to protect the client experience. What you're actually doing is muting it. You're diluting it, and you're creating it where it looks just like everybody else's. And so if you want to automate things, automate internal communication. When a project gets approved, automated message to the scheduler, when estimate goes out, out, automated message for a follow-up, automated task for a follow-up, automated email internally, automated bill pay, automate this, automate that, automate the communication internally.
You can use most CRMs. I'm a big fan of JobProgress, Markate, Buildertrend. There's different levels of CRMs. There's thousands of them. I've done a couple different videos on what CRMs I recommend. You got to pick one that works for you. There is not a rule of thumb here, but you want to use your CRM to automate certain things internally. An example would be, and this is maybe a blend of internal and external. Let's say you schedule a client for production. You say, "Hey, contract signed, deposit's paid. We're putting you on the schedule." You can set your CRM to once you schedule something, an email goes to the sales rep, and an email goes to the homeowner, but then you, part of your SOP would be sales rep calls the homeowner. So you're blending both together. So the automated saying, because the salesperson doesn't know, and the homeowners know when you're scheduling or operations person schedules the person on the calendar. They just don't know.
There's no way for them to be alerted in a normal environment. And like client will call the sales rep, "Hey man, when we scheduling," and they're like, "I don't know. I haven't heard." You call. "Oh, they're scheduled for two days from now." I'm like, now you have this incongruent communication happening within the business. So I'm for and I promote automating that initial email. "Hey, your project has been scheduled for next Thursday. We should arrive at 10:00 AM." Automated email goes to the sales rep and the homeowner. Perfect, but your SOP then needs to be, "Sales rep when you receive those emails, your next step is to call the owner. 'Hey, just want to see if you got the email. We'll be there 10 o'clock. I'll be there at 11 just to check, make sure everything's going all right. Do you have any questions? Are there any concerns?'" "'Is there any reason we can't operate on your property next Thursday at 10 o'clock?'" That is that human element where the alerts happen automated, but the communication is still interpersonal. It's still human to human. It's still an approach that makes that customer feel like you are just bought into their experience. I'm not saying that we're not headed in a direction where being easy to do business with and where millennials like to purchase online is not something that you can't implement into your company. But when it comes to automating communication and processes, I am not a fan of putting a customer behind an email in their engagement with you. Because ultimately, people build relationships with people, not brands, not logos, not processes. They build relationships with people. And the better job you can do to create a relationship between human to human, the higher retention, the higher referral, the higher renewal, the higher testimonials, better overall client experience you're going to get because they're going to like the person.
If you don't trust your sales team, if you don't trust your organization, if you don't trust your operations manager to communicate to homeowners in a way that you think builds that trust, fire them or train them. Don't alleviate it by automating things that dilute, mute and ultimately destroy the human to human engagement that your customers have with your brand. I'll tell you, I've sold remodeling. I have sold roofing. I have sold high ticket. I have sold low ticket. I have sold technology. I have sold coaching. I've sold a lot of different things, both homeowners, B2B and B2G, which is business to government. I've been across the board on this. What has made me the most success and the most money is people trusting Mike. Nothing has been more valuable than people trusting Mike, not a process, not an automation, not a talk track, not a copywriting, not an email, not some special in-house digital presentation of what I'm offering you, me, the human.
And yes, I am a very good communicator, and that's just proven over the last decade. I'm different, but you can train your people to be different too. So look at automation to simplify and create consistency to the process internally. But I would suggest highly that you keep a very tight leash on a human to human engagement with your customer base because there's nothing tying that person to a person. And if they don't, they'll just as easily move on to the next automated message that just looks a little prettier, and that's not the type of business I want to run. So if you have questions on that, you have concerns, you have things you want to figure out, you have some things you're trying to do in your business, reach out. Shoot me a DM, shoot me an email, connect with me, comment below. I'll engage with you.

It's still me. I don't have a team doing all that stuff. They edit it, they distribute it, but I still am the one that's engaging with everything. I want to help you. This is what we do for a living. We help contractors simplify and systemize their business growth by having impact with every conversation we have. That's the mission we're on. That's how we do it. Things just like this are things we can help you do to increase your overall kind value, increase your revenues, increase your profits, and ultimately help you win fast and win often.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 11:00:00 GMT

The saying “Careful what you wish/pray for!” hit me differently this morning….
I have been guilty of this too so don’t think I am not talking to myself here.
A lot of times I’ve used this saying both for myself and for others it’s because when you get what you prayed for you get the challenges that come with it that you didn’t know about or were prepared for.
The growth you prayed for comes with challenges.
The spouse you prayed for comes with challenges.
The kids you prayed for come with challenges.
The money you prayed for comes with challenges.
Then we tend to complain or beat ourselves up or start to get negative about the challenge of it all….
For the first time maybe ever this morning it hit me….
Be careful what you complain about. Because if the challenge is removed it could mean the thing you prayed for is removed along with it…. It could show the universe you are not appreciative of the gift it provided and it will take it away.
I don’t know why this hit me differently this morning but it landed like a nuclear bomb on my heart.
Careful what you complain about seems 10x more powerful of an exercise than careful what you pray for…
Don’t be careful with prayer.
Dream, wish, and pray BIGGER!
Then be careful about what you complain about when it shows up!
Winning isn’t supposed to be easy….
But so many of us including me get surprised when hard shows up!
#WinFastWinOften also means struggle fast struggle often! So we must #ContinuallyEvolve

3 Things You Can Do to Develop a Leadership Team

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Today I want to talk about three things you can be doing to develop a leadership team in your business. I'm the owner of WinRate Consulting and host of the Big Stud Podcast, but developing leadership within your organization is the only way you get out and actually get to enjoy your time, enjoy the money, and feel like you're not stuck in place. I was talking to a client today actually about how he felt like he was in quicksand because these little tasks kept pulling him back in. He wasn't able to get out and become the visionary and start to lead his company. He was too busy as chief technician. He was getting pulled into all the little monotonous details.
And so to do that, there's a mindset shift that needs to happen where you're able to let go of the day-to-day and start to develop strategies where you have other people on your team who are leaders in place and ultimately leaders in charge. I don't want to say there's not a silver bullet for this. I think every environment's a little different, every person's a little different. I think developing leadership is not a standard protocol. I believe there are some nuances to it, depending on variables. But there are three things I think that are absolutely imperative in order for you to not just start to build, but maintain a quality leadership team. The first, and I don't think this is going to be a shock to anybody, but clear job description, roles, and responsibilities.
What I see what happens a lot when people start developing leadership teams is there's no clear lane to say, "What are you in charge of or not?" And people are in and out of their lanes, which creates complexity and it creates lack of confidence and it creates lack of clarity on what is my job and not. And then people start stepping on each other's toes and like, "Oh, I thought you had it this week. Well, you had it last week." And it becomes really convoluted. So when you put a leader in place, it's very important they have a clear understanding of their job description, roles, and responsibilities, so that they know what they are in charge of. And if you don't do that, it's going to be convoluted, you're going to be stepping in each other's toes. It's not going to be fun. Everybody who's done that knows exactly what I'm talking about and would probably agree with me that it's a terrible way to do it.
So job description, role, responsibilities, first step. If you cannot tell me what someone's job description is, what role they play and what their responsibilities are, you are not in a position to even hire a leader because you don't actually know what you're hiring for. You'll say, "Oh, man. I just need help, man. I just need someone to take some of this shit off my plate, man. Come on. Come on, Mike. Come on, Ron. Dude, you look cool, man. We drink beer together. Let's go. You can be a leader on my team." That's not how it works. Never worked that way. So that first part, job description, roles, responsibility. Second, once you have those responsibilities outlined, you should shoot to have every single responsibility listed has a clear, measurable, and trackable metric that judges the success of that responsibility.
It could be days on site, a number of proposals sent. It could be AR/AP reporting. It can be convoluted to answer that question and complex. But every responsibility should have a metric. Because if you don't do that, you're going to run the risk of saying, "Well, it seems like you're doing a good job, or it seems like you're falling short." And then your leadership style becomes very opinionated. And when it's opinionated, trust me, it becomes confrontational. Because the minute you have an opinion about somebody else, they're going to try to defend themselves. They're going to push back. They're going to try to prove you wrong. The metrics should tell whether or not that person's right or wrong. Go back and check out my video on core values about how to use it as a management leadership tool.
But specifically in this scenario, having clear metrics for each responsibility will allow you to lead that person more effectively because it takes the emotion out of the leadership. Now it's an objective measurement tool that says, "Hey, you are or not performing." Especially early on in business, you tend to hire your friends as leaders because you know and trust each other. And then it becomes harder to hold them accountable or even harder to fire them because it becomes very opinionated whether or not they are doing their jobs or not. So having an objective measurement tool, such as a key performance indicator dashboard, KPI dashboard, or it's just in general specific metrics that judge the responsibilities and how well they're effectively executing on them. Third, we call it a continual evolution strategy, CES.
I don't know, we use three letter words for everything. But a continual evolution strategy, what that looks like is on a quarterly basis, analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, aka SWOT analysis of each key leader, and then creating a 90-day initiative plan to take advantage of their strengths, improve their weaknesses, go out after some opportunities and protect themselves against some threats. I just went through this process with my team. We did it as a company, and I did it with individual leaders on my team as well. This allows you to continually evolve those people. Because if you're not pouring into them, a lot of times they just become stagnant, they become complacent, or they stop evolving as the business evolves. I'm sure everybody's had an experience where one of their leaders used to be great and now sucks.
Well, what happened is the business evolved and got more complex, more challenging, but the asset didn't. The human asset did not evolve. They're the same they were a year ago. And they were probably perfect a year ago where you were. But because you stopped pouring into them and evolving them, the business outpaced them. And so now we'll say, "What got you here is not going to get you there." There's some truth to that. But there's also some you didn't fucking bring them with you. There's also some you left them behind because you got so busy doing your job, you stopped pouring into your team. So continual training, continual evolution strategies developed around understanding their SWOT analysis and creating initiatives, so that they can evolve with you as a company and not get left behind. Recap, three things you need to do to start developing leaders on your team.

First - job description, roles, responsibilities. Second - metrics that measure the success of each of those responsibilities. Third - have a continual evolution strategy in place, so that you're pouring into your leaders every 90 days, so that they can keep up with the pace the company is growing at. That's a great way for you to create long-term success that gets you out of the business and stops you from having to spend so much time in the weeds, in that quicksand feeling like you just can't get out. If you have questions on that, feel free to reach out.

Check out winrateconsulting.com if you have more questions about how to bring a coach into your ecosystem. We've just built a whole new frequently asked question page, and we have some client success stories on the website now as well. So I'd love to hear from you, love to help you, love to connect you with one of the coaches on the team, whatever that might look like. But for now, take that advice, go start developing a leader, so you can stop being the chief technician within your company. So ultimately, you can win fast and win often.

11 Low Cost Marketing Ideas for your Contracting Business

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 11:00:00 GMT

Here are 11 marketing tips for your construction company. Number one is Facebook. Facebook personal, business, Facebook groups, Facebook stories. There's a number of ways to use Facebook, but ultimately in 2020, the average American adult spent four hours a day on Facebook. It's just where your audience is. There's free options. There's paid options. There's a lot of different ways to utilize Facebook, but ultimately it's one of the primary places you should be marketing your company.

Number two is Instagram. So Instagram also is owned by Facebook, but it operates a little bit differently. Facebook is more content rich. Instagram is more just entertainment. You want to put videos. You want to use pictures. You want to use the stories. You want to use reels. You want to use IGTV. There's a lot of different length, formatted, and size content you can use, but ultimately on Instagram, you want to be entertaining. People use Instagram as a distraction. They're just scrolling their feed. You've got to grab their attention. The stories are used for more raw and authentic video, just selfies walking around job sites where your story is more the curated, edited, fancier, better looking professional content.

Number three is TikTok. I've been a little on the fence about it, but ultimately what I have found with working through some of my customers who are using TikTok effectively is it's a really good way to take a boring service, a boring product, and make it entertaining. One of the best ones is The Window Wizard. Rocky owns a window cleaning company in Fort Worth, Dallas, Texas, and ultimately he's used TikTok to blow his brand up because he's found a way to use the music and use the filters and use TikTok to make a very boring window washing company entertaining and fun to work with.

Number four is YouTube. Obviously you are here. You're watching YouTube. You're on YouTube. You use YouTube for a lot of how-tos and probably ways to do things for your business and in your business. Ultimately, a lot of people use YouTube when they're trying to make decisions on something. So creating educational content around the decision process of your customers, ways that they can understand what makes a good contractor in your space, but really just putting out educational content that's consistent and really targeted for your audience, right? And ultimately you want to make sure you have good titles, you have good thumbnails, you put a little bit of effort behind it, and a lot of people will get there.

YouTube is the number two search engine in the world. Obviously, it's owned by the number one search engine, which is Google. So when people type things into the Google search, YouTube is going to come up pretty quickly and pretty high in the rankings because Google wants to drive you to the YouTube platform. So creating educational content around your problems, the problems that your customers have, the problems that you solve is a great way to build a brand and get out there more consistently.

Number five is a podcast. So I have been using the Big Stud podcast now for over two years has been my number one revenue producing activity. One of the benefits of a podcast is you don't need a lot of equipment. It's pretty inexpensive, if not free. There's a lot of ways to go about it, but ultimately you can just talk into a mic and put the information out there. Also, it's easy to bring in guests and do interviews. So you can interview influential people in your marketplace, influential people in your industry, whoever that might be. But you can also bring on other educators on your podcast for your specific audience.
Ultimately, a podcast is one of the easiest pieces of content to create. It's literally a microphone. You can probably ... Not probably. You can just talk into your phone on a voice recording and upload it to Anchor and be able to start a podcast. So I highly suggest it as a really easy way. Just get your thoughts out there, educate people, entertain people with who you are as a brand, which ultimately every company is just an extension of the personal brand of the owner, in my opinion. So starting a podcast is a great way to market your company.

Number six is networking groups like B&I or Nary. There's a ton of them out there in different cities. But networking in person allows you to build a much stronger relationship with people, allows you to articulate who you are, what you do. It allows you to bring value to these groups, which means you get value from these groups. But ultimately people buy from who they know, like, and trust. And the best way to become known, liked, and trusted is be in person with people on a regular basis. So getting out there, getting in front of these groups, getting consistent with adding value in those environments will allow you to get more value in marketing your company in networking groups.

Number seven are lunch and learns. What I mean by a lunch and learn is either taking lunch in to let's say a real estate office or a property management company or even hosting one in your facility for your target audience or referral partners. A great example would be if you're a remodeling contractor and you do a lot of design build stuff, bring in customers, bring in designers, bring in architects into your office and doing a lunch and learn on the process of the remodeling and budgeting and design and what works and what doesn't work allows you to be the authority in that space, allows you to be the educator, which makes you the expert in that space.

So doing these lunch and learns by either going to offices like real estate, like property management, or hosting your own lunch and learns brings people into your facility and allows them to see how you operate, see what you're doing, see what's new. Basically educating them on whatever you are an expert at and allows them to go out and be a better steward of your business and sell your value for you in the marketplace to their customers or audience wherever they're at.

Number eight is mailers. I'm not a big fan of just generic cold mailers to an entire community. I know it works and I know some people have had success with it. I'm just not a fan of it, but it can be done. What I am a fan of, and I've seen a lot of people do this successfully, is taking all of your old leads, taking all of your old proposals, things that people that didn't say yes, and mailing those people. There's probably 50, 100, maybe 200 people over the last year, depending the size of your company, who did not hire you, but you did meet with. You did give them an experience. You did give them a proposal. You did engage with them, so that mailer is not cold. They're going to remember your name. They're going to remember your business. That makes them more likely to open it, and that direct mailer in that specific of an approach I think can have a lot of value.

I just learned about somebody that's doing that more recently and they turned that into multiple six figures in business for their company over the last year. So getting more intentional with who's getting the mailer as opposed to just broad spectrum mailing.

Number nine is door hangers. Again, being intentional with it. My advice on door hangers is use it for the immediate homes around the projects you're already doing. Make the door hangers say something along the lines of, "Hey, we're doing work for one of your neighbors. If you have any problems or you see anything that is frustrating, if someone parks in front of your house and you need any help, here's our number. Also, here's what we do." It's a pretty simple, but it makes it more real, makes it more local, makes you more recognizable because you're saying, "I'm working with one of your neighbors." People like to know that you've worked with somebody in their neighborhood already. It gives you that better trust factor with them in the long period.

But ultimately, again, just like canvasing and dropping door hangers with no real intent, I'm not a huge fan of. There is people that have success with that. I'm just not a fan of it. But getting intentional door hangers and be able to hang them on the houses around the houses you're working on already would be a great way to go about doing it.

Number 10 for me is one of the best ones I've ever done that immediately got an ROI, and its vehicle wraps. One of the biggest misconceptions I've seen people have is that you have to do a full wrap to get the impact, and full wraps can be several thousand dollars. On almost every truck I've ever wrapped, I did a partial wrap. So I didn't cover the whole thing. I just covered the doors and maybe the front end, but a partial wrap. If you go to your local vinyl company where or your wraps and signs company and say, "I want to do a partial wrap," they'll be able to help you. It's incredibly more affordable.
But driving around town and the neighborhoods and the marketplaces that you're in and not having your information on your vehicles I think is a miss. So marketing your company via this will help you become more recognizable because you're in the same places on a regular basis driving around. It can also make you feel like a bigger company. And when I did my first one, people were like, "Man, I see you guys all over the place," and we had one truck that was wrapped. So it made us seem a little bit bigger, made us seem a little bit more important, and ultimately I did a partial wrap so it wasn't terribly expensive.

And number 11 is events. So going to events, being a part of events, going to conferences, it helps you learn from other people, but also obviously market your company. You can also hold events, like be a part of festivals or parades, anything that's going on in your market. You want to go be visible on a regular basis in your market. One of the biggest challenges with contractors is people don't trust us. They think that we're fly by night or we're not going to be around or we're not going to take care of them or we're not going to honor our work. So if you can be visible on a regular basis, just showing up and being at those festivals, events, things of that nature, even holding maybe an end of year event for your customer base at your facility, being around people just helps. So holding an event or being a part of events is a great way to get your brand out there on a consistent basis in front of the people that you want to do business with.
Look, there's a ton of different ways that you can market your business. Those are just 11 ways that I've used pretty effectively. Check out the rest of the channel, subscribe. There's a ton of videos here about marketing and lead generation and running your business more effectively. Ultimately, I'm Mike Claudio, owner of Winrate Consulting. I coach contractors and business owners for a living. I've been doing this full time for several years, and a lot of the content you see here are the lessons I help business owners implement into their companies so they can get the results they want so that they can win fast and win often.

How to Raise Prices without Losing Customers

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 11:00:00 GMT

How to go about price increases without losing customers . So it is one of those things where material price volatility, sub price volatility, employee headcount, people being overpaid for the same job as they were doing a year or two ago. Ultimately, your cost of doing business is going up and if you don't start to make a change, you're going to lose your business.
And I don't want to be a dick about it, but I know many people right now that are afraid of raising their prices because what might happen. You might lose some customers, you might lose some of the wrong customers, but if you don't make a change, you're going to lose your business. This is not a joke. This is not me being high horse here. I'm telling you, if you do not adjust your pricing, you will end up losing your business and potentially losing some customers, which I'll tell you, I've raised prices several times in my career as a general contractor, as a roofer, as a coach. You very rarely lose customers as long as the value you are bringing continues to increase.

So how do you start? One of the first things I did was I tried to just raise my average project size. So creep a little bit, maybe five or 10% in your pricing. Look, bottom line here: Someone's going to hire you at 10,000, they're going to hire you at 10, five or 11,000. Most people, 99% of people would make that decision. They're not going to not choose you over that extra 500 to $1,000. But ultimately, your entire process then, the way to not lose customers is to level up the anticipated value or the general client experience from start to finish.

If you have a well-built out website, a fully dedicated social media strategy, truck wraps, employee uniforms or shirts or polos, your perceived value goes up. And I don't care what you say, "Mike, not my market. My customers around here, they can't afford more." You're wrong. There's someone selling projects for probably twice as much as you and winning. There's a reason for that. It's the perceived value in the client's eye. It's the process, it's the trust, it's how you go about doing what you do, not just what you do.

So you have to get better at selling that. So go back, I'm not going to go all the way into this on this video, but I have plenty of videos on creating a sales process, creating that communication, creating social media, getting your website up-to-date. But ultimately, the first thing you need to do is you need to believe in the pricing. So you have to understand what it's costing you to understand what you're charging.

If you don't know what your material pricing, labor pricing overhead, all of the bills, what it costs you per day to keep your business open. If you can't answer that right now, you don't even know what you should be charging. So I'm sure you've said this at some point, like, Hey, it's going to be 15,000." The customer goes, "That sounds a little high." And you're like, "Yeah, I thought it sounded a little high too. I was just kind of guessing at it." Well, no wonder you're not confident in charging the right amount of money.

So understanding your numbers is the first way to be confident in selling at a higher price. Confidence is key here. If you're going into it second guessing or unsure or unconfident in what you are charging, the customer's going to feel that whether you believe it or not. Just like confidence then has the same effect, it bleeds into the situation. It makes them feel comfortable, it makes them feel confident, makes them feel like they can trust you. So confidence is key and the best way to get confidence in a price increases understand why you are raising it.

And if you're not tracking your numbers, if you don't have job costing, if you're not tracking material price and labor price and overhead and all those kinds of things, that's where I would start. First way to do it is begaze to gain the confidence. Second, prepare your marketplace. A lot of times consumers and homeowners feel like they're being misled. There's information being left out. There's a lot of different variables they don't feel like they're getting the whole story on.

Going in, willing to lose a job for the truth will get you more jobs than you lose. You might not get, you might lose some customers that are looking for the cheapest option, but you'll gain customers in the process. I'd rather lose two or three projects at a 10% profit margin to gain one at a 30% profit margin. That's good math. It's a third less work or it's two-thirds less work for the same amount of money, that everybody can agree that's pretty beneficial.

So once you have the confidence, you have to start communicating it to your customers. Why is the price increasing? How did you get to that price? Creating some more transparency in your proposal. I was always big. I would give people the numbers for everything. I did per unit pricing, per square foot, per linear foot for everything from faucets to drywall to paint to flooring, everything was built out per unit so the customer understood what they're paying for.

Some contractors are wildly against this. I don't know why. Consumers want to have the information and make educated decisions. So if you break it out for them, "Here's where this price came from, here's the variables, here's the measurements, here's how I got there." Not only now can they do a better apples to apples comparison and realize you included a lot more than the other guy, now they can make an educated decision on what they want to keep in, or what they want to take out.

If you say, "Hey, yeah, the kitchen's going to be about 60 grand." What about this countertop? What about this back splash? What about this appliance? How does that change the price? What if I want to do this extra thing? What if I want to add in this extra room or I want to do the floor over there? These are all questions your consumer has. They don't want to have to come to you with every little piece of detail pre-contract to get the information you need to understand and make an actual educated decision.

So giving them more information to the right consumer who appreciates the value in that will win you more projects than you lose. I'm telling you this from personal experience. Stop pretending that giving them a lump sum number is any different than them not giving you a budget. You can't do your job effectively without a budget, they can't do their job effectively of making a decision without good details. So confident, understand your pricing, deliver more information to the customer.

And the last thing you need to do is make sure without a doubt that you are utilizing your social media, and your website to qualify in the right people, and qualify out the wrong people. So if you're raising prices, your image needs to improve, your project size and what you're doing with it, the quality of the content needs to increase. Again, perceived value.

Now you need to start talking about the new type of customer, the person that's going to value your price point, or your experience, or your process the best. The more of that you do, the more confident you are, the more confident and value added your sales process is, the more details you give and the better you do on social media and your website of driving the message of who's the right customer for me, you will grow and you will make more money as you grow.

If you've been penny pinching yourself and you've been afraid to raise prices, believe me, you can charge more. You probably need to be charging more. And if not now within the next year or two, you absolutely are going to have to start charging more. So implement some of that. Raise your prices five, 10%. Do it five or 10 times.

Here's how I've always done it. Make a 10% increase, propose the next 10 people, analyze and adjust. Did six out of 10 still say yes? Try another 10%. But you have to have all those other things in place or it's going to be very difficult to go through this process because if you're walking in second guessing what you're charging, I promise you the consumer's going to feel that as well. And ultimately, if you don't do a good job telling the story of who an ideal customer for you is proactively through your content and your website and through conversations you're having, you'll just get a lot of the bad leads, which turns into more lost projects if you raise prices, because there's people out there right now that are willing to pay for quality and trust and confidence their project's going to turn out correctly.

And in any business whether you do projects or not, there are people out there right now willing to pay premium to make sure they get a premium service, and people actually deliver on what they say they will. So you could be that person. I promise you it's possible if you implement some of those things. Give it a shot, let me know. Reach out to me on Instagram @WinRate Consulting. I'd love to talk you through this or help you through this. I'd love to work with you.
Look, I coach business owners for a living. This is a great way to help offset the cost of coaching. I'm not even going to try to shy away from it. Me helping you charge where you're supposed to charge helps make you more money for the same amount of work. That's a great way to offset the expense of bringing a business coach to help fix a lot of the issues going on within your business. So again, I'm Mike Claudio, owner of WinRate Consulting, and I'd like to help you win fast and win often.

3 Habits that Keep You Poor

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 14:17:00 GMT

This is the best hack for Time Management and procrastination.
Yet 99 out of 100 won’t do this. But the 1 who will gets everything he wants.
Controlling your schedule with disciplined action.
I’m talking about time blocking.
If you’re doing it, great! How can you be doing it better?
If you haven’t done it I suggest you start by designing your perfect day.
Put it all down on your calendar for the whole week. Pick five to non-negotiables and make sure you do them. No matter what.
These are the things you promise yourself to becoming a better you.
For some that’s the exercise, core values, and who they want to become.
Now track your actual day by what you said you were going to do vs the time you did it.
What other things crept into your day that didn’t serve your ultimate goal.
What about your Important but not urgent. Find at least 30 min in your day to work on these items.
This is your consistent investment into your future.
It could be that task that has become annoying and always pushed to the side.
Training development is the biggest I see being placed to the side that is what you need to scale successfully, yet most are just focused on the here and now.
f it helps, set a timer for your 2 min, start it, and go. The two min of focus is to start the drill and get it done or as close to done in the next 30min.
Then watch how fast you get it done when you focus.
They even make sand glass timers for cheap online that can help you too.
Time Blocking is a habit not an art, so don’t overthink it.
Write out your ideal day with those nonnegotiables. The track what you did against what you said you were going to do. It's the only way to evaluate you and get better.
It helps remove another problem too...YOU.
When things are standing in your way, it’s oftentimes you and this is what holds YOU together.
Just follow the process and refine it as you go.
Make sure you are investing time into yourself to become better as a leader and owner too.
And don't be so rigid you can't use adaptability. This is why most people fail. They don't adapt to the situation and if you can't get your non negotiables done that moment then everything gets off track.
NO!
Make adjustments to your day and flip flop things if they have to be. You sometimes need more sleep because you're old like me!
Accountability, discipline, and patience are the keys to your long term success.
Time blocking works for this because you control YOU.
Then you understand where you're making good and bad investments or your time.
It's the best hack you can get for time management.

Time Management

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 10:30:00 GMT

Implement, Analyze, Adjust and Evolve!

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:29:00 GMT

When you're working in your business it's very easy to put together a plan, go through an exercise, or create something and then it sits on the shelf and collects dust. Think about it, you just spent all that time and all of those hours creating something that you truly believe is going to change your life and the trajectory of your business and then you never look at it again.
Sound familiar?
Well it happens all the time and I haven't met a single person who hasn't done that exact same thing, including myself, so you're not alone. The thing is that you just wasted a bunch of time on something you're not going to implement or use that could have been spent somewhere else towards something that generates revenue or decreases your expenses.
Business planning and execution is essential to your business and it can be hard to stay on task at times. We all know that business is a variable and your days can flux from super high to super low in an instant. The important thing when these types of days happen is that we have a defined purpose and aim for where we're going. That's where business and life planning come in.
Let's face it we all have limited time on this earth and we want to maximize our time spent here. The last thing you want to do is look back on your business or life and say "I wish I did this" or "I wish I did that." That's no way to live. Until you have a a definite purpose in your life you will be drifting in all areas. Finding that definite purpose and aim isn't easy. In fact it's one of the most important yet impactful elements you can inject into your life.
At WinRate Consulting we talk to our clients about identifying their legacy. The way you do that is by asking yourself "What do I want people to say about me when I leave this earth?"
You may be immediately putting a roadblock up in your head asking "Well I have NO idea how to answer that!"
No problem because I'm going to give you a few examples of my legacy to help you get yourself started. Before I do I want to make sure you know that this is your permission to dream big, as big as you want. I'd even tell you to put a 5 minute timer on, close your eyes, sit back in your chair, and go to that place where you're most at peace and you're 50 years out.
Can you feel that space? What the air feels like? What the environment smells like? What does it sound like? Put yourself there for a few minutes.
Then grab a sheet of paper and take another 5 minutes and write down as much as you possibly can think of that were your feelings, thoughts, the love you felt, emotions, physical feelings, anything and everything.
Most importantly think about the person you are, who are you loved by, and what do the people around you say about the qualities of you?
I'll give you an example of mine to help you so you can get a baseline...
"He was someone worthy of a great life because of the good I did in this world." "He was a fantastic husband to my wife and children." "His impact helped millions of people." "He was a humble warrior who had been through many battles that have produced uncommon strength." "He was a leader who gave away significance in success."
A lot of getting what you want is about reverse engineering everything. The only caveat behind that is there are multiple layers and it's an ever changing landscape. Time can be our best friend or our worst enemy if we let it. It just depends on how long we decide that we want to keep drifting through life without being able to enjoy true fulfillment.
That's where we start. The Legacy. What do you want people to say about you when you and more importantly we revisit it frequently throughout the year to ensure that we are producing activities that are helping us get one day closer to that legacy.
The next thing we do is we talk about 10 year goals. For most people 10 years is a long way out and they can't think 10 days in front of them. That's ok. The most important thing is that you start. I'll get to the follow up in a minute. Starting to identify what you want your life to look like in 10 years is a huge factor in your success. People vastly underestimate what they can do in 5 years and grossly overestimate what they can do in one...sometimes.
The reason for the ten year goal is you now have a closer more attainable target that aligns with your definite purpose. Your compass if you will towards that North Star or your legacy. Sometimes it's going to shift a few degrees left or right but you know the general heading that your ship is going. Here's what I do to help my clients get over this hump. We always use time as a factor because in these activities it's too easy to overthink and then get nothing done. We're looking to get out what's in your brain and down on paper.
So again we set a timer. This time 5 minutes. Do the same visualization exercise I told you about. Things become much easier for you to articulate when you engage more of your senses. Once you've written everything down then it's important to break things into different categories.
Family Friendships Marriage/Partner Relationship Health/Fitness Career Faith / Spirituality Personal Finance Fun
You may be asking yourself why "fun" is on the list? Well the answer is that you need to make sure that you enjoy your journey and the ride. Taking time for fun and to recharge your batteries is imperative to your well-being and so you can stay focused when you need to be to reach your level of success.
Once you've broken out your categories it's time to start thinking about the next 1000 day sprint. This is your three year plan and the difference here is that you are looking to map out the most elite version of yourself from today in each of the prior categories. The exercise stays the same. You have to do your visualization and put yourself in that space. Then write down every detail. Start with the physical detail that you see. When you close your eyes, what kind of shape are you in? What type of shirt and color are your wearing along with your muscles. What DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
The reason why this is so important is your physical appearance has a lot to do with your discipline and consistency in at least three of the prior categories. It's also the way our bodies handle stress and the better you are at being disciplined, consistent, and accountable then the better you'll look in your life and the longer you'll live.
Then you want to think about your mindset and be honest with yourself about how that mindset aligns with your legacy. Think about the people you're surrounded by and what they're doing in their lives? Are they ahead of you, behind you? Where are they going? This will have a major impact on your long term development.
The final piece to this exercise is the next 12 months. It's critical that you have the next 12 months of your life planned out in the prior mentioned areas. Same thing as before. Do your visualization and write down all the details with the timer. I always shoot for twenty items to accomplish in the next 12 months that are aligned with my legacy, 10 year, and 3 year vision.
Once you've done this exercise now you have you baseline. At WinRate Consulting I take my clients through this exercise multiple time a year.
Why?
Because we need to revisit this and see if anything has changed, first of all, and secondly we want to make sure that we are setting up the next month and 90 days to align with hitting our targets and goals for the year that we said we wanted.
Revisiting these daily and evaluating them weekly allows us to make sure that what we're implementing is driving us closer to those goals that we've set for ourselves. It also allows us to make those minor tweaks and adjustments so we can continue on our evolution towards our ultimate legacy. This is what helps us produce amazing ROI's for our business coaching clients especially coaching contractors.
This is just the start of where everyone begins with us here at WinRate Consulting. When you take an approach like we do by operating with our core values with our client's personal and professional best interest in mind that's how our clients see amazing results. Because they are willing to follow our lead and we're willing to help them through the entire process.
Business coaching is something that is much more than accountability for an entrepreneur. When you find the best contracting coaching company in the world, WinRate is on a mission to have that label by making an impact one conversation at a time.
WinRate Consulting has helped over 500 companies systemize and simplify their business to scale and grow their sales and marketing, operational efficiency, manage the business through financials, debt, and assets. We have clients that have been named to to Inc 5000 list and range from as small as $500,000 in revenue to $100,000,000+.

If you're interested in learning more about how we can help you with your business please reach out to us!

There's a reason it's lonely at the top

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 11:00:00 GMT

If you’re a leader and it feels a bit lonely, or you feel misunderstood there’s a reason…
Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean everyone is in line with your game plan.  Being in charge isn’t a license to operate on your own.
Your leadership is key to executing your agenda to moving your company, family, mission in the right direction.  You have to be aware that the people around you have their own agenda.
The important thing is they understand the mission and where you’re going.  It’s up to them for “how” the end results are created.  Executing strategically about how you build relationship & leadership capital with your team is critical.
How the other people around you are moving is also critical to your success as a team.  Look up, look around, ask questions, and work to understand so you can align and move in the same direction.
When you’re clear on your communication in the “what and why;” your team should have input on the “how” which creates alignment.
Make sure you keep your ego in check and lead from the front while always taking feedback of how to do it better.
#winfastwinoften #zerodoubt

There's a reason it's lonely at the top

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 11:00:00 GMT

Own a business NOT a job!

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 18:24:00 GMT

Do you own a job or a business?

As an entrepreneur it is easy to get caught up in the day to day of what you are doing. As your business grows, so should your role in the business.

If you are the business than you own a job. Can your business run successfully without you?

Or when you take time off does your business shut down? If it is the later than you own a job.

As a business owner your business should be able to run independently from you.

This does not mean that you do not play an integral role in your business, but what does that role look like?

The business owner should first hire to what they are not good at or don’t like to do. Get out of that box. If you hate selling, hire a salesperson or two. If you hate finance hire a bookkeeper and so on…

Stay in the box you like until it is time to move out of that box.

Your role should eventually be as the visionary of the business.

The right people in the right positions will allow you the time and freedom to guide the ship and take it where you want it to go.

If you plan to exit the business if you own a business rather than a job it will be a much easier sale as a new owner can step right in and take over.

If you own a job what is the upside for a buyer to invest their time and money into buying a job? The business goes where you go!

Get out of your own way and build a business and not a job.

#winfastwinoften #zerodoubt
Lyle Nearby