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10 Things Learned While Growing a Business pt 2
Episode 3225th October 2021 • The Home Inspector Marketing Podcast • Mike Crow
00:00:00 00:18:33

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We're back with part 2 of 10 things learned while growing a business. If you missed part 1 be sure to go back and listen!

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Who is Mike Crow?

Mike Crow is a Marketing and Business Expert who has built and managed multiple 7-figure businesses, including two 7-figure inspection firms.

For the past 15 years, he's coached thousands of other inspection business owners and has personally helped 100+ companies grow to $1,000,000+ in annual revenue. He has also helped multiple single-inspector operations earn 6-figure annual revenues (some surpassing $300,000).

Mike can teach any entrepreneur how to systematize and market their business to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Transcripts

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All right, John, this is one of my favorites.

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Yes.

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And this comes directly from Mike.

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Everything takes twice as long as you think, and is twice as expensive

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Oh my gosh.

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Everything takes twice as long as you think, and is twice as expensive

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And bill, you and I are working through this insurance thing, you know,

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with the licensing and everything.

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How long did it take us to get our license.

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Incredibly ridiculously long.

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And then how long did it take me to go get my fingerprints done?

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Okay.

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You know, had to go twice or three times because you know, of different

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things and then you waiting on this date to give you something right.

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And then you're waiting on this and then people tell you, oh,

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money will start coming in here.

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It hasn't yet.

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Okay.

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And so, everything takes twice as long costs, twice as much.

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Okay.

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And you get about half the results you want.

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Now I have been told that Mike, this is true for you.

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True for Mike, because I'm an Uber optimist.

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I expect things to go.

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Right.

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I expect things to work.

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I expect things to produce.

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I expect, you know, and I will tell you I'd much rather have

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expectations of things going, right.

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Instead of people walking around saying, oh, here's what could go wrong.

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All right.

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. Most of you guys all know I bought myself this incredible new vehicle.

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It's like my it's like my midlife crisis.

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It's like my post midlife crisis vehicle.

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All right.

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My midlife crisis vehicle was my mustang okay.

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And it was a Mustang convertible.

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It was an incredible car and a lot of fun with it.

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Okay.

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But it has Sirius radio and I've been waiting for a Sirius radio

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for, I can't even tell you how long.

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And one of the reasons is because every time I would go visit

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somewhere and I would get a rent car.

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That had Sirius XM radio.

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I would start pumping it through.

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And I found this guy who I'd seen in who I'd heard about Joel Osteen.

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Okay.

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And I will tell you that guy is incredibly motivating.

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So now almost every day he is like channel number one on my xm radio

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and I listened to him and he has this silly little joke

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he tells at the beginning of every sermon, he has a pattern.

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He has a system, a, you could almost write down his principles if you

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listen to enough of his presentation.

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Okay.

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But he talks about how people sometimes are optimist and

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some people are pessimists.

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And here's the truth is optimists have an incredible.

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Opportunity above other people that was not quite the right word but

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opportunity because they just, they see the opportunity more than pessimists.

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I was reading through something the other day and it may have come from the book.

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I'm trying to remember where it came from.

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I think it actually came off of TikTok believe it or not.

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And this was guy, it was saying, so in college, we got all these

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graduates to do something.

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And we said, Hey, we'll give you a hundred dollars.

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And all we need you to do is take a look at 30 pages of the New York times.

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And do something for us.

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And so they signed up all these graduate students.

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He said, the first thing you learn is that the test is

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never what they tell you it is.

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Okay.

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It's never what they tell you it is.

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And he said, so here's the test guys.

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And he said, one is, they gave him a whole series of things, but one of the questions

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in there was, do you think you're lucky or do you think you're unlucky?

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Okay.

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Or do you think you're not lucky?

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Okay. And the vast majority of people said

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Okay.

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Then say that we're unlucky, but they're not lucky.

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All right.

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So I will tell you, I go around and one of my Crow principles to some

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degree is that I'm just damn lucky.

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I get lucky all the time when I'm sitting at the poker table and somebody goes,

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golly, I cannot believe you pulled that card And I go, you know, sometimes

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it's just better to be lucky than good, you know, I just, I just, I am lucky.

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All right.

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So here's the test they're reading through 30 pages of New York times, right.

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And he says, I want you to count the number of headlines, and I want

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you to count the number of pictures.

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And if you get that right , then we will give you a hundred dollars.

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All right.

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And so everybody sits down and they start reading and start taking a look at it.

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Now, inside that 30 pages is this little ad that runs down the side.

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And it says, if you're reading this ad and you're reading it pretty much in

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the entirety, then you will know that all you have to do is now say I saw

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this ad and bring it up to me and I'll give you your hundred dollars and you

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don't have to count the headlines and you don't have to count the pictures.

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80%

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of the people that said they were lucky, caught that ad

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hardly anybody, hardly anybody.

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I'm not sure anybody that said they were unlucky, caught the ad.

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And he said the conclusion, to some degree that we derived from this is

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that people that are optimistic, people that are, that feel like they're lucky.

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Part of the reason they're lucky is because they're more observant they're

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taking a bigger picture than most people.

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Now you've all seen the, where the gorilla walks through the middle, you

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know, bouncing the ball and everything.

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And people were saying, look at the white jerseys and tell me how many

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times the white jerseys bounce the ball.

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And while you're counting that the gorilla walks through and you don't even see it.

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And I'm going to be honest with you.

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I didn't see the stupid gorilla or the first time either.

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What an effective learning tool though, that tells you, you need to be more

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observant to the whole process sometimes.

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Cool.

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What's next, John?

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Number seven, listening is your secret weapon for marketing sales and service,

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which by the way, we all consider subsets of service because in each of those

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phases, marketing, sales, and service, we're looking to bring value to the

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people that we're interacting with.

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A good example of this would be are you looking for

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exactly how you can bring value to your mavens.

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Well, then if you ask them the right questions and listen to

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what they say, they will tell you specifically how you can step in

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and serve them and bring them value.

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Yep.

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Absolutely.

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Now I'm going to, I'm going to re-tweak this just a little bit because I'm Mike.

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Okay.

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Uh, Listening is your secret weapon for marketing sales and service,

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which by the way, It's all marketing

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the service we deliver.

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, we're marketing the service we deliver.

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It's all marketing to me and John I want to be very clear.

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I'm not saying you're wrong.

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I'm not saying that at all.

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Okay.

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What we're talking about, maybe more of a philosophy.

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Yeah.

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Depending on how you see it.

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I think Barbara Cochran, if she read this she'd go listening is your secret

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weapon for marketing sales and service, which by the way, it's all sales.

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I guarantee you, she would say it, but she would emphasize it.

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And here's a secret.

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We all have this tendency to become really good at one thing.

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And we think that one thing is what not only defines us, but creates our success.

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And if my one thing is, I told people, if you cut me open, I

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bleed marketing all over the place.

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Okay.

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Jenn, you want to add something?

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I just want to add where the background or the perspective behind that philosophy

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that we came up with that, that everything is service because that

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came out of the coaching world where a lot of people, when they first start,

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they struggle with the concept of sales.

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They struggle with the concept of selling.

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They struggle with the concept of marketing.

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They don't want to self promote.

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They just want to help people.

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They just want to serve people.

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So that framework all came from the place.

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People want to serve others.

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And so that's why Barbara Corcoran, it would be sales because the truth

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is that even when you're coaching somebody you're still selling when

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you're like, you're still selling.

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And the truth is you're still marketing because you're still

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moving them to a place where they're ready to take the next step.

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So exactly what you said, Mike, it's all the same thing, regardless of the

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frame, you look at it, but the intention of the quote behind it is to make

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people feel comfortable with showing up.

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Yep, absolutely.

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And John, thank you for sharing that.

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Number eight, John.

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If you want to build a real business and not just a job, you have to build a team.

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And then I think about the concept that we talk about a lot around the

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office, which is future banking.

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So what can we invest now to get more time and money later?

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And this is one of the biggest, it's one of the biggest challenges.

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And I'm going to tell you that in the beginning I thought nobody

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could do it as good as me either.

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And then I watched Jenn run the coaching call this morning and I'm sitting

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there going, damn that was pretty good.

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I'm not sure I would've said that or that.

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Okay.

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And then I watched Jonathan give a presentation to a group of

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real estate agents and he's doing all this stuff and I go, wow.

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Okay.

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And I don't know about you bill, but I go out on a home inspection and Chris, I

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bet you go out on even more frequently than I do, or bill probably combined.

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And I'm watching one of our inspectors has been with us 10 years and he crushes it.

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He catches things I would have never seen.

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He writes it up really well.

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He pulls the customer aside.

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The home buyer aside does a great job with it.

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Okay.

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But honestly, 95% of people will never know how to grow a team.

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Okay.

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They think they do.

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But they don't.

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Okay.

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And that's what makes this group of people different more than anything

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else is they know how to grow a team, how to encourage a team, how to inspire

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a team, how to help a team prioritize, how have a team literally do what they

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are supposed to do, whether it's sales or service or marketing or admin.

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Okay.

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And so, what you guys don't know is in between the coaching call this morning

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and in-between this call, I had what we called a freeze frame meeting.

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I hate freeze rate meetings.

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Okay.

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Because I always pissed somebody off.

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Because freeze frame meeting is where I have to ask the tough questions

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that nobody really wants to answer.

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Like, why did we spend money here?

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Why is the money here?

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Where does that money come from?

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Where did it go to, you know, all those meetings.

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And so freeze frame is something I created years ago to be able to once

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a week, like take a snapshot in time and tell me where all the money is.

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Okay.

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And kind of like what John said, future banking.

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I want to know where the money's coming from next week.

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Next month, six months.

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And I'm going to tell you, future banking is probably it's a term I started

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using, oh, I don't know, 20 years ago. But when I started coaching people,

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In fact, a Crow principle would be, Mike wants you to understand how powerful

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future banking is because the 95% they're banking the paycheck this week.

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Okay.

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I'm banking the paycheck 20 years from now.

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Think about that.

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I'm banking my paychecks 20 years from now.

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spend more time with my dad.

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And you know, my dad called me yesterday morning.

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He said, Mike, what are you doing today?

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And you know what

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I got to say nothing, dad, what do you want to do?

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And he said, Hey, I got a proposition for you.

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I'm going to come out and see you.

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I said, well, dad I borrowed his truck recently.

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Cause my cause Christa's moving and I said, I can, I was going

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to bring your truck back.

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And I'm just going to ask Jonathan, if they come with me and bring me

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back home or I'll catch an Uber home. And he said, yeah, that'd be great.

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So I went out and dad's proposition was, he wanted to buy me lunch for my birthday.

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Okay.

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And I got to have time with my dad, but I got to have time with my dad

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because I believe in future banking.

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Okay.

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I've been a future banking my time for the last 20 years.

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Okay.

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So there's money time, all of that.

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John number nine, every roadblock you face along the way to your dream.

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Every pitfall, every hardship, every problem you solve, and every

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experience you have as part of that journey is increasing your power

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to impact the people you serve.

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And Jenn, I think had it.

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An interesting way sort of to summarize that as far as

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that statement about advice.

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Sure.

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Yeah.

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I mean, I don't remember if this is actually what you're asking for

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John, but it's just that people want, they don't want advice,

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but they want your experience.

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Yeah.

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And guys when Jenn talked about that earlier today, I wrote in

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the notes for the coaches I wrote in there, accountability, and I

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created a new word just today. It's an old word that I created a day.

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Focus ability.

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Okay.

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Because I teach people when you're coaching.

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I don't want accountability.

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I don't need your stinkin accountability.

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Okay.

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What I need is your help to focus on what I'm trying to get

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done and how to get it done.

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Maybe why to get it done.

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Okay.

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I don't need you to beat me up going, did you get it done?

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Did you get it done?

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Did you get it done?

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You know, I don't need another six year old sitting in the back of

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the seat going, are we there yet?

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Are we there yet?

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Okay.

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I want somebody going sitting next to me going, Hey, if we

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take a left at this next exit.

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Okay.

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It's a left-hand exit.

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We're going to hit this interstate and it's going to take us here.

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That's what I want.

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And so when John talked about this, I thought it was incredible.

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And the other thing that I got out of this was I've been very,

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very fortunate in my life.

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I've never had a bankruptcy. I'm not divorced.

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I have four amazing kids, but I will tell you that you know, all of us hit

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these roadblocks, but these roadblocks help prepare us to be able to help other

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people be able to overcome some of those.

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Okay.

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And it's incredibly impactful.

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Yes.

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Remember your job is not really accountability as

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much as it is focus ability.

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Okay.

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how are you helping your people stay focused on what needs to get done today?

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And if they didn't get it done today?

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Well, something stopped them.

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What roadblock did they run into that needs to get shifted?

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Move sideways up, down, buried, you know, so that they can get

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done what they need to get done.

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John, number 10, you have to stop and take a moment to celebrate wins.

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Even the small ones.

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So completion of projects or business successes, positive things in your

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personal life, and this is really important to help you maintain.

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Positive perspective when you have those days where you feel like all you're

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doing is putting out fires or you're just caught up in the whirlwind and you

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can't zoom out to see the bird's eye view of the impact that you're making.

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Yeah.

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And John, you have a kind of a bonus one here, and by the way, before he gets

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the bonus one, guys, I celebrate wins every single day in one way or another.

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Now sometimes I'm future banking my wins.

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Like I have been counting on going on this Disney trip for a month now.

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Okay.

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So every day that's like a future win.

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So Jonathan and I went out on Amazon and we bought ourselves t-shirts a different

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t-shirt for each part different days.

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Okay.

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So we're going to magic kingdom and they have Liberty square there.

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It says Hamilton is now a Disney product or whatever because they bought it.

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And we watched it as a family and everything.

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I got a t-shirt says I'm not throwing away my shot.

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Okay.

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Which is a great line in the movie.

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If you get a chance to watch it in Jonathan Uh, Burr shot first

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and that is Hamilton shot first.

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And then it says on there, he says, I don't care.

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What you heard.

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It's Jefferson.

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Jefferson is lying.

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Okay.

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So it's another great line of the movie, but you know, we went out and a little

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win was we ordered t-shirts for the trip.

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Okay.

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John, your bonus here.

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And then we're going to run the question around the.

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Sure things.

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So gratitude is the quality of being thankful.

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It's the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

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I know we all want to work with mavens and vendors and clients and

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employees that express gratitude.

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And I just think every day is an opportunity for us to actually

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embrace that, live it out and also model gratitude for others.

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And hopefully that becomes a magnet that draws the people around you

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into a spirit of gratitude as well.

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Heck yeah.

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The more grateful you are, you'll find out the more grateful

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And I will tell you that this is one of the, this has been one of the most

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difficult things in my last year.

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If I have somebody around me that every day they're ungrateful.

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I eliminate them from my world.

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Okay.

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And it's painful.

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It's painful.

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Eliminating.

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We had this most amazing, wonderful lady at the office.

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She planted flowers.

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She did all this great stuff.

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She organized stuff.

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And every single day she complained about something.

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Okay.

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She complained about her apartment.

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She complained about the maintenance man.

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She complained about the neighbors she complained about.

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And I already said, is your maintenance man here right now?

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She went, no.

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I said, then don't bring him to my office.

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Okay.

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And we tried Jenn and I both tried.

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And by the way, we've had some people come in and leave and they

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go, this place is a damn cult.

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Okay.

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You guys are like, you know, you're, you just are not realistic.

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You, you just don't want to see the reality in the world anymore.

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And um, Uh, maybe true, you know, maybe true which by the way, my dad

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even gave you that, like yesterday, he said, son, one of the best lines

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I ever learned from you, when people tell you a piece of garbage and you

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don't really want to argue with them, you simply say, ah you might be right.

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