Main MenuTwo service business owners each decide that they have become tired of the “hamster wheel” grind and want to grow their businesses. They start studying.
Time goes by and we visit these two service business owners again but discover that only one of them has actually achieved what he set out to achieve – a bigger, more profitable business with superstar employees, a stronger brand, and more income.
The other service business owner doesn’t seem to have changed at all. He still shows up daily, grinds it out on his hamster wheel, faces daily frustration and wonders if tomorrow will be any different (it won’t be).
Why did one have the successful results he had while the other didn’t seem to move away from the rut he was in? Nearly 100% of the time, it’s because of the one who achieved success got there because of the level of importance he placed on the change.
The successful service business owner desired the improvement in his business so much that he thought about it and worked toward it every moment of the day. The struggling service business owner thought about it sometimes and worked toward it sometimes.
In my book Service Business Mastery, I describe how real change and achievement only happens when you view it as important as oxygen.
Your body needs oxygen to live and you are hardwired to do ANYTHING to breathe. People breathe unconsciously – until they can’t breathe. Have you ever seen someone who is choking? All social customs about being polite and mild-mannered in a public place go out the window and they struggle and fight to breathe. Their lives depend on it and they’ll do anything they can to breathe again.
That is how you need to be about the improvement of your business. If you desire real, positive, long-lasting change in your business, you need to treat it with as much “fight-to-live” effort as you would breathing.
Here’s what it will mean for your business: The short-term changes will be difficult because you’ll still be working with the bad habits and wrong-thinking patterns that you once worked through. And, you’ll still be running your business and trying to juggle everything that you used to juggle while still trying to make new changes. This is where a lot of people stop because they are frustrated – they want to improve their business so it’s more successful (and so they work less) but in the short term it seems like they work more!
I promise you, it gets better. It’s really just the changeover in your thinking and habits that is challenging and messy and a lot of work. In the long-term, it’s well-worth the effort and you will look back on this challenging time as being a small price to pay for the new (and better) reality.
Keep this in mind always: Nothing worthwhile was ever achieved easily. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it and then it wouldn’t seem as worthwhile! If you truly want the change you dream of, you need to FIGHT for it like you would fight for oxygen.
Hey, Mike Agugliaro, bringing you another fast-track business breakthrough. Are you ready for this one? Come on. I know, once you get on a roll watching these videos, you don’t want to stop. It’s like brain fuel. It just brings you in and charges you up. It’s funny, a lot of times, I’ll go back, and I’ll watch my own videos, especially if I’m doing a quick edit and sending it to my team. I’m like “Damn, that was good”. Look, not good like ego Mike, that was good. I was like “Man, am I doing that?” It’s a spot check. The more of these I do, the more empowered I get to spot check and make sure my team is doing it.
A lot of times, I send these videos to my team so they can watch. You guys know, I’m a big advocate about doing videos, because I can type this out, I can put a fancy picture. You won’t get it like I’m explaining now. You won’t get the emotion and the power. Today, I’m going to deliver … Yes, I know, it’s one of my favorite ones. Here’s the thing. Are you ready for this? Take out a piece of paper. Get it, come on quick. Get a piece of paper or your computer. Ready? Type this down. Why, w-h-y? You’re like, what the … He’s lost all sense of reality. Probably. I probably did. Here’s the thing. All the magic happens in answering the why. You have to understand why.
Here’s the thing. I want to know what my employees like. I have a window, and there’s a bird. Let’s just take a look real quick so you know I’m not crazy. That’s outside. It’s gone. It made me a liar. All right, it’s cool. We’re back. Oh, it’s back again. I turn that thing and it went away. All right, I won’t get distracted. Sometimes, I get that guy thing, it’s like squirrel, boom, and we’re totally distracted we’re looking away. Answering the why, I ask the employees when they come aboard and they join our team, “Hey, why are you here?” They’re like, “I want a great career”. Okay, cool that sounds real nice. “Why are you really here?” “Well, I need a job”. “Why do you need a job?” “Well, I need money”. “Well, why do you need money?” You see how I’m funneling this down? I know what they think is why, but the real why is about 10, 20 layers down.
“Why do you need money?” “Well, I’ve got to feed my kids”. “Okay, why do they need to eat?” “Well, I need to give them a home”. “But why?” Let’s get to this why. Once I know it’s because I want to create an amazing lifestyle for my family, and I want to serve them like a father should serve, at the highest possible level, I never want to let my family and children down. I’m like, “Okay cool I got it. That’s your why”. Now, I can stack everything to help you get to your why. When you’re not getting to your why, what do I do? Some people say. “Mike, you’re a little crude when you do this”, but look, when I know your why, my job as an owner is to help you get to your why.
If you’re not bonusing, you’re not getting clients, you’re not growing, I’m like, “Hey, I just want to ask you a question. Based on the results you’ve been getting lately, based on what you’ve been doing, how has that been serving your why, your family?” They’re like, “Oh, no”. I’m like, “No, don’t look down. Tilt your head up”. This is not about depression, and oh, man I’m failing. No, it’s about snap out, and let’s look. What do you need? Is it mindset, skill set or action set? What do you need to fix it? The same thing with a business. Why do you have a what? Why do I do this? What is my why? I told you guys my why, whoever is watching this, a hundred times. I’m creating a movement to change more business owner lives than anybody on the planet.
When you think of Anthony Robbins, in the motivational change life world, they’re one, he’s the one. I’m the one, that’s my why, that anything else is unacceptable. That’s my movement. That’s what I’m doing. I’m very clear on my why. Everything gets aligned with it. I don’t let anything get fuzzy or get in the way of my why. It’s not a crude thing. It’s an understanding thing. Same thing as when you ask your kids. You’re like, “Hey, why did you throw the rock?” They’re like, “Well, I was just playing, and it hit the window”. “Okay, but why?” “Well, I wanted to have fun”. You end up where really, the kid just wanted to see if he threw a rock at the window, would it break. I’m cool with that.
Let me know your why. I may not love it, I may not agree with it, it may cost me personal money, but I want to know the why that drives you, what makes you do the things you do, what made you do the things you do, what will make you do the things you do. Those three different ways mean three different things. One, get real clear on your personal why. Second, understand the why of everybody you’re working with. What is their why? The more you can serve others, get their why, the more they’ll serve you in return. It’s one of the biggest questions. Understanding the why of what fuels you, what you need, these types of things has been one of my driving forces, and also one of my keys to unlock the doors in business owners and really figure out why they’re in the position they’re in, because maybe they didn’t identify one of these things.
Remember, once I identify it, and once I align it, now I can fix it. Now I can give you skill sets. Now I can help your mindset believe things in a different way, create that wiring like we talk about. I can do those different things. Today, here’s your action. You got the word written down, “why”, and the question mark? I just want you to answer, just to yours. Why are you doing what you’re doing? If your answer is I don’t know, then you’re unclear and you have to answer that. Once you answer that, things will start to change. I don’t know if they’re going to change for the better or worse, but they’re going to change. Change is inevitable.
All right, I’m Mike Agugliaro. I’m wishing you a better than why day, and I want to help you get massive wealth, tons of freedom and market domination. Have a better than great day. Double boom … Boom.
Hey, Mike Agugliaro here, bring you, yes you, another fast track business breakthrough method. Something that you can take and implement today, I’m not bringing you stuff that you have to study for 10 years, I’m giving you action stuff. Real world things that change the game. Things I’ve used myself, I’m not giving you anything I don’t use myself today, or have used in the last 10 years, that have changed my life. Today, today’s about personal KPIs, and you’re like, “Okay Mike, what the hell is this KPI thing. I’ve heard of it, I don’t understand.” It’s Key Performance Indicator, K-P-I. Now don’t get all … Don’t worry about getting to fancy, let’s just understand that you got to have a measurement of some kind.
How do you know that you’re improving if you don’t have a measurement. The second thing is when you have a measurement, you know … Sometimes you want to reduce the KPI, right? Let’s an example, if I want a percentage of call backs, or repeat business, I might want to improve that. Sometimes KPI on call backs, if I have too many call backs, I want to reduce that. KPIs move, but in the end, every one has a line in the sand where you want to be. Today I really want to talk about personal KPIs, because we have so many business things. Here’s the deal, I know many really people, amazing businesses, no family, divorced, destroyed, they’re unhealthy, they’re dying, but great business, right? Lots of money, dying.
I know lots of people, tons of freedom, and they’re boating, and going to Disney Land, life’s perfect, and no business, and they’re bleeding to death, right? Today I want to talk to you about the personal KPI. I have this thing on my wrist, here. This is a good example. This is one of those Up 24, it measures things, then I just keep this band on it, because the thing falls. Not the greatest design, hooks on your jacket, falls off. Don’t worry about the design, there’s lots of other ones out there. Worry about the KPI that I have. What I started was I said, “Huh, I wonder if sleep could be affecting my performance,” and if I needed to know what the perfect sleep was. Here’s the thing, so many people want to shove you in a box, they want to say …
I remember going to the doctor and they’re like, “Oh your weight, you’re borderline obese,” and I’m like, “What? You want to shove me in a box of obesity? Who are you ranking this against?” I’m thinking the guy that’s … You’re telling me I should be 175 pound, well, I probably got more ass muscle than him, or something. Don’t put me in a classification, I’m unclassifiable, you guys figured it out. If you’re watching me, there’s no class for me, I built it that way by design for myself, but I do know that there’s a certain amount of sleep that I want. Forget about what the doctors and gurus say, who cares? It’s about you. Is there are any 2 people, or any 2 businesses, the same in the world? No, none are at the same place at the same time. We think different, we act different, all things are different.
What you can do is, this thing will measure my sleep. First I have to create a foundation, where am I at now? Where am I at? I’m sleeping and I was registering it, I was sleeping about 5 hours a night, 6 hours, that was not giving it to me, but look, it’s not so much about the amount of sleep, it’s more about the quality of the sleep. In a 5 hour time, I was only sleeping real good for about 2 hours, the 3 hours is what they called restless sleep. I know where I’m at, and I know that wasn’t serving me, so I said, “Okay, let’s just see what can I do to add 45 minutes of better sleep to it?” Now all of the sudden I have it measured, I’m getting about 7 hours sleep, and with 7 hours sleep I’m getting about 4 hours of prime sleep, and 4 hours of that little healing, wrestling state, or whatever they call it, or maybe it’s reversed. I can tell you this is how I feel when I’m getting that type of sleep.
Now that I know that I might say, “Well let me see what 7 1/2 feels like.” I’m doing my own self KPI test, and if it feels good, then I do it. If it doesn’t I back off, because there’s no secret formula for you. So many people like, “I’m going to go on this health diet.” It’s like, “Yeah that’s great.” That might help some, it won’t help others because there’s … The only magic formula is the one that you take information, it makes sense, you test, and then you go. I know a lot of people that follow formula 100%, they never lose weight, they never gain the muscle, lots of problems.
What else is a personal KPI? What about free time? Is that a KPI of how much time you need, or how much time you want, personally to yourself. Is there a KPI for how much time you won’t spend on Facebook watching videos like this, or on the internet? That can be a KPI. This one has a KPI for how much I’m going to walk today, or move. The cool thing about this thing, and they all do this, there’s tons of these, I’m not selling you on something. There’s lots of them out there. The thing is if I’m sitting stagnant for more than 2 hours this thing buzzes, you know what it says? It goes, “Bzz,” and it’s like, “Get the F up off your ass.” That’s what it … It doesn’t say that, but that’s what I hear, and I’m like, “Okay, boom, I gotta get up, I gotta move.” As you go from being a …
It’s funny a lot of business owners they’re like, “Oh, I’m a business owner,” and I’m like, “Okay, what do you do?” “Well I go out every day in a truck.” I’m like, “Ah, you got a job. That’s good, you’ve got a glorified job, that’s all you got.” You’re not a business owner. Business owners not running out there putting in a water heater, or twisting a wrench, or putting chemicals on something. That’s not a business owner, that’s an employee.” A business owner might be sitting in the chair, and as you start sitting you can sit longer and longer, so you want to have these personal KPIs. This can change the game for you, because we neglect that side.
The number 1 thing these personal KPIs, like mind, and health, if you neglect that, how does the rest work? If you lost your health today, you got cancer, diabetes, god forbid you got any of those things, how would the business work? No we know it would naturally decline. Pretty much universal, unless you have someone else that’s exactly like you, that can run the show, it’s gonna start to die. I want you to pay attention, here’s your action items today. Pick 3 KPIs, personal KPIs, could be the amount of time you want to spend with your family, it could be a KPI is being home for dinner 4 times a week, or 3 times a week. Just get started. Understand the KPI, where you are, where you want to go, and then you can solve how to get there. Don’t worry about that now, first let’s just understand. Pick 3 personal KPIs that you want, write them down, and let’s see where you’re at, and then make a tweak to improve it, that’s all I want you to do.
Anthony Robbins I heard him say, boy it’s a long time ago, he said, “One millimeter, that’s all you’re looking for.” If you take that 1 millimeter, it doesn’t sound like a lot, one millimeter is this. If you run 1 millimeter add a mile, it’s huge, it’s giant. It’s a lot of those one millimeter, those little changes that equate to big things. I’m Mike Agugliaro, I’m wishing you a better than great day, today and every day. I just want to help you get massive wealth, tons of freedom, and market domination.
Hey. Mike Aguilar bringing you another fast track business breakthrough. What are we going to cover today? Today, we’re going to cover on state of mind. What state are you running in? Here’s the thing, you’ve got to stack and pound on top of your state. What happens is, you’re either in a mid-level state where you’re just running. You’re doing your thing. You’re in a lower-level state, you’re like, “Things are miserable. Things aren’t working out.” Or, you’re in a jacked-up state. You’re like, “Boom. Look at me. I’m going and I’m driving and my mind just keeps doing it. I can stack on that.”
The thing is, you have to have a meter. You have to be able to self-check your own state you’re in. Look, here’s what’s important about state. There’s state and then there’s this physiology, and physiology can control the state. Like Anthony Robbins, when you’re at one of his events, if you do this and you try to be really happy when you’re in a real slouched-over, depressed mode, it’s almost impossible; very, very hard to do that. You can fake it, but it’s hard because your physiology, how you hold yourself, creates a certain amount of state.
I always say, “Look, it’s not what you do a lot, or what you say, it’s how you say it.” It’s not what you do, it’s how you look when you do it. A lot of times, I come in, and I’m, if you haven’t figured out, I’m a pretty intense individual. I drive intensity in myself. Other people don’t understand the intensity. Even just the other day, my partner asked me, “Man, are you pissed off or something?” I’m like, “No, I’m just intense today. I have so many things to do that I’m in this zone.”
A lot of times, our wives don’t understand that unless you explain to them like, “I’m in the zone.” That’s why a lot of times, my wife, she’ll say, “Hey, can I say something? Can I talk now?” I’m like, “Not right now. Not right now.” When I’m in the zone, nothing gets in. If you’re saying stuff, it’s like this. It’s like dun-dun-dun. It don’t even enter, so when I’m done I’m like, “What did you say again?” That don’t work real well. What worked is I made sure that my wife, Jennifer, understands when I’m in state, I’m in there. Don’t, let’s not jump in at that point. Don’t give me things. Ask me when I can step so I can be present 100%.
You got to have that state. The other thing is, you got to let other people understand when you’re in there. Because when I would walk in the building, I’m like, and that might look like mad, sad, depressed, angry; but, it’s none of those. It’s focus. Because when I walk into the door, I’m on a sprint. I’m like, “Okay. Boom. Let’s do it, Man. Let’s do it.” I’m in fighting mode in a good way. I’m like, “Task? Boom. Tackle it. Okay. Come on. Bring on the task. Tackle it.” Because I had my top 5 urgent things I’m doing today. I don’t have this fuzzy, I’m over here like, “Hey, what am I going to do,” like I’m wondering what I’m going to do. I’m like, “Boom. Top 5 things.” When I tackle those, I tackle them to the very best of my ability, now I can move on and I can throw a couple more in today. I can throw more in there.
You’ve got to have your top 5 urgent. You have to be in the right state of mind to do that and you have to have the right physiology. You have to be standing, acting, breathing the right way so you can get it done.
Here’s your action item today. I just want to ask you a question. If your life that way, if you woke up and you’re in the right state, you woke up and you’re like, “Boom, boom.” You’re like, “Okay, good. I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready.” You’re like, “Okay, I’ve got the right physiology, I’m walking in, I’m like, ‘Boom, leadership. Leader, leader, leader.’ I’m like, ‘Give me my top 5 things, where is it? All right, one, boom. I do it until I’m done. Next one, two, boom. I do it until I’m done. Three, boom. I do it until I’m done.’ ” How would every day, how would your business and your life change then? Good answer. You’re like, “It would be amazing.”
But you’re like, “I’m old and I’m half crippled. I’m young and I don’t know what to do. I’ve broken so many things. I’m in debt. All these things. I can’t find good guys. My marketing’s wrong.” I got it. I got it. In that position, that way you’re acting, holding yourself in that state of mind, you can’t do nothing. You can’t improve anything.
I just want you to say one thing. If tomorrow or right now you got off this and you stood up and you shook that off, and you said, “Here I am.” You got to let people know what intensity looks like, because if you’ve been walking around the last ten years like a broken f’n zombie or something, they ain’t going to get it when you snap up. They’re going to think you’re going to die or you took some kind of drugs or something. You have to let them know, “I’m working on a new level of intensity, intensity to get results. That’s what I’m going to live in. That’s the world I’m going to live in. I’m going to keep my mind in state, in the state to accomplish things. I’m going to keep my body. I’m going to hold myself like a leader.”
The sooner you hold yourself like a leader, with your shoulders up, back. You’ve got that eye contact. You’ve got that nice breath of air. Then you can get things done. That’s your action. That’s your action. Change your state, your physiology. You’ll get massive results. I guarantee on that. I guarantee.
I’m Mike Aguilar with so much level of intensity right now. I can feel every last bit of it. For you. That’s why I’m delivering it to you in this state. Because I want you to feel what’s possible. Every one of you can do it. I don’t care. I see people with one leg, no legs, no arms and no legs, have amazing state and physiology and change the world. That means you can do it, too. I’m wishing you a better and great day today and every day and I just want to help you get massive wealth, tons of freedom, market domination. Have a better and great day.
Hey! Mike Agugliaro here. I’m bringing you another fast track business breakthrough method. You ready for this one today? Come on, come on. Let me hear. Say, “Bring it on, Mike. Bring it on. I’m going to implement it and implement it and make change.”
Today I want to talk about systems. I want to give you the fastest way to create a system, because I love this subject and I hate this subject. All my classes and every time I talk to somebody I’m like, “Hey! Did you read the book The E-Myth?” They’re like, “Yeah, I read it. Read it a hundred times.” I’m like, “Cool! How many systems you got in place in your company?” “A couple. None.” I’m like, most read book, most un-utilized, most un-understood book, I think, on the planet. Maybe next to the Bible or one of these other things. Right? I don’t get it, because the thing is, it sounds good but you never really get the format.
I’m going to give you a simple formula that you could create a system today. Something that’s going to stop a piece of insanity in your business and make improvement. It’s going to be that quick. Now, in my four day event I give actual systems. I can’t do that because I’m not posting a piece of paper, but I’m going to give you the quickest way.
Identify the problem. The thing that keeps repeating itself that’s causing either lack of efficiency, lack of dollars, or it’s pulling back the company. Identify one. Let’s say, trucks being left open at night or my building is being left open at night. There’s the problem. It gets left open and what’s it cause? There’s risk of theft, people can come in, whatever. Those are the problems.
Here’s what I need to know. Who, what, where, why, when and tell me more. Who does this system have to talk to? When does it apply? Why does it apply? What do they need to do on a consistent basis? Right? Who, what, where, why, when, and then tell me more. What are any other details I need you to think about? It’s like, look. Every night the last person in the building has to shut off the lights, pull the doors shut, check the trucks in the parking lot. This is what they do. At any time you stop here or there’s a problem, you’re then to notify somebody or take this action. That’s it. That’s it. It’s not rocket science. Just pick one right now. It’s that easy.
Pick one that’s a problem. Okay? You’re employees have to do some kind of paperwork; they don’t do it. Okay, perfect. Who? The employees. Where? When they’re done with the job. Okay, so who, where, what. What has to be done? This paperwork has to be filled out every time. We’ve got who, what, where. Why does it have to be filled out? Because if we don’t get it filled out, there’s risks. There’s liabilities. We can’t close the process in accounts receivable. It holds things. It causes these setbacks and these road blocks. Right? When’s it got to be done? We already answered that. I got who, what, where, why, when. At the time of the job. That answers every area. Tell me more. Be neat on your paperwork. Send it through this email. Okay?
Now how long, just based on what I said right there, and I’ve only been talking for two minutes and I’m probably solving something in most of your businesses you’ve been trying for twenty years to do.
Give it a title. Here’s the system. Here’s the date. Here’s the department. Answer who, what, where, why, when. Tell more of the details about it. Implement it. Fixed. Now, where does the breakdown for systems happen? It happens because you don’t follow up to spot check. I have a whole list of things as a business owner. A whole list. Long list that I, once a month, I bring my team in or I’ll walk around and say, “Hey! How’s this form doing?”
We have a form that we call an easy prep form. This is any time we’re going to do a big job the customer gets this form of a sequence of things they need to do before we come out, because I go so tired. Here’s the simple system. I got so tired of pulling up and there’s cars in the driveway. The dogs and cats are running around the house. The kids are running around the house. There’s stuff in the area I have to work. I got so frustrated from this, I said, okay, simple system. Who, what, where, why, when. Tell me more. Built it. Now when a job is sold and a customer agreed that we’re going to do it, they have their check-off list. Cars out of the driveway, parking lot.
Now just ask yourself, this one video, if you just built that one thing real quick. Another thing that I give, and I know I say give it at the four day. It’s not to convince you to come or anything. I’m just telling you we’ve built these resources. That’s why I call it Fast Track Academy, because I take you like that. You don’t even have to take the three minutes. I give it to you, modify it, and you’re done in a day. That’s the power of it, but I want to teach you how to do it.
You answer the questions. Now when we go to a customer’s house our guys pull in the driveway, they get out, there’s no dogs, there’s no cats, we’re not moving all kinds of crap from the area. If you just save fifteen minutes a day, fifteen minutes a day, no matter what business you’re in, if you save fifteen minutes a day, what does that equate to over a year? Now I didn’t do the math in minutes and stuff, but you can do that if you want. Let’s just say a lot of [inaudible 00:04:41] time. A lot of time. Who has time to throw away? Any of you guys have time to just, like I’ll give it away. If you have so much time you can give it away, come hang out with me. I got tons of stuff I would love for you to do.
All right. Today is how to build a simple system that quick. Here’s your action. Stop watching this video, type, sketch out a quick system, get it implemented this week. Okay? Do a follow-up on it. If things have to change on it, make a tweak to it, implement it again. Next week pick another one. If you did one a week over a year, how many systems would you have built? How many? Fifty-two. Fifty-two systems.
If you ever want to sell your business for anything, all the time guys are like, “Hey, I want to sell my business.” I’m like, “What do you do?” Crappy customers, you don’t have good employees, you have bad equipment, you sold crappy product, you have no systems in place. I’m like, “Oh, cool. Here’s five bucks.” Right? You’re worth next to nothing. People are like, I’ll buy the number. Oh yeah. You’re going to buy the number of a whole bunch of shitty customers who aren’t even your right type of avatar; but if you have systems in place, systems created results and efficiency. Now someone goes, “That’s good.” Plug and play. Let me take it and pop it in here.
I hope this is making sense to you. Action items. You got to build a system. Build one a week. That’s fifty-two in a year. I’m Mike Agugliaro, and I’m wishing you a better than great day. Better than system-great day, and I’m looking to help you get to massive wealth, tons of freedom, market domination. Have a better than great day. Boom.