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If you're going to play the game as part of your people strategy, you're going to need to follow these rules.
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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
Hi, this is Mike Crowe, and I run home inspection business.
Speaker:In fact, I've run a couple of home inspection businesses.
Speaker:You know, true joy for me, though, has been helping literally
Speaker:thousands of home inspectors build really solid home inspection business as well.
Speaker:We can help a single man operation be able to do over three hundred
Speaker:thousand dollars a year,
Speaker:maybe all the way up
Speaker:to 400 thousand dollars a year as a single inspector operation.
Speaker:Even better for me is the 80 plus companies that we have helped
Speaker:be able to build million dollar home inspection businesses.
Speaker:I would like to help you be able to do the same thing.
Speaker:We're picking up where we left off last week.
Speaker:Chapter 16 of the Myth.
Speaker:It's all about your people strategy and the game associated with it.
Speaker:If you haven't listened to last week's episode, you should do that now.
Speaker:So here's something important.
Speaker:Let me give you some rules of the game, this is straight out of Chapter 16.
Speaker:So here are some of the rules of the game.
Speaker:Never try to figure out what you want your people to do.
Speaker:That's not the game.
Speaker:Never figure out what you want your people to do
Speaker:and then try to create a game that if it's to be seen as serious,
Speaker:the game has to actually come first, what your people do.
Speaker:Second, so the game comes first.
Speaker:Number two, never create a game for your people.
Speaker:You're unwilling to play yourself.
Speaker:You know, I have done some things a couple of times
Speaker:and I go, oh, that sounds like great.
Speaker:You know, go do that. But I'm not willing to do it now.
Speaker:You know, if I'm expecting them to do a 17 point
Speaker:introduction, I should be willing to do a 17 point introduction.
Speaker:If I'm expecting them to walk a roof and a certain pattern,
Speaker:I should be willing to walk that roof in a certain pattern.
Speaker:If I'm expecting to write something up in a report a certain way,
Speaker:then I should be willing to do that
Speaker:if I'm expecting them to answer the phones with.
Speaker:Thank you for calling Texas back. This is Mike Crowe.
Speaker:How may I serve you? Then I can expect them to do that.
Speaker:But if I'm not willing to do it, I really should not expect them to do it.
Speaker:OK. Number three,
Speaker:make sure there are specific ways of winning the game without ending it.
Speaker:This is one of the greatest things
Speaker:that I've been trying to share with people the other day.
Speaker:You know, if you look at football or baseball or basketball
Speaker:or even the Olympics, that just recently happened.
Speaker:One of the things that you're going to find is that at some point
Speaker:somebody's number one, somebody who's number two
Speaker:and somebody's number three and the World
Speaker:Series, there's somebody that's a winner and somebody that came in second.
Speaker:OK, same thing with the Super Bowl.
Speaker:Same thing with all of the games out there.
Speaker:But the true games in life are not like that.
Speaker:The true games in life are not, you know, you versus them at first versus second.
Speaker:That just isn't the way it works.
Speaker:It's you versus yourself.
Speaker:And how can we make it better next time?
Speaker:This is an important point.
Speaker:And I just want to make sure that I get it across to you.
Speaker:That game is never ending.
Speaker:Maybe until the day we die.
Speaker:But even then, if you set it up right.
Speaker:Walt Disney and Disney World is still going on out there.
Speaker:And Disney is long dead.
Speaker:Walt himself is long gone, but the game still goes on.
Speaker:OK, so make sure there are specific ways of winning the game without ending it.
Speaker:And number four, changed the game from time to time.
Speaker:The tactics, not the strategy.
Speaker:So the strategy, of course, is it's at the moral underpinning of your game's logic.
Speaker:It's the foundation of you and your people's commitment to each other.
Speaker:But change is necessary for any game can become ordinary,
Speaker:no matter how exhilarating it is.
Speaker:And so I will tell you, for instance,
Speaker:you know, when the pandemic of 2020 hit, everything had to change.
Speaker:Now, the good news is for my company is that we were already
Speaker:in the middle of changing everything.
Speaker:And we were moving more to online, moving more to Facebook lives,
Speaker:we were moving more towards doing the Big Bang marketing online,
Speaker:because you can reach so many more people faster digitally than you can.
Speaker:Most of the time by walking in and out of places.
Speaker:But you do need to make changes.
Speaker:Now, here's what didn't change.
Speaker:Our motive didn't change.
Speaker:Our ethics didn't change. Our foundation didn't change.
Speaker:We knew what we wanted and we knew who we were
Speaker:and how we wanted people to be able to see us, perceive us.
Speaker:So none of that changed.
Speaker:But how we played the game changed.
Speaker:You know, I loved that movie Moneyball.
Speaker:Guy, what a great movie.
Speaker:Baseball didn't change, but how they played, it changed.
Speaker:We're not looking for people that are hitting home runs and long balls
Speaker:every single time.
Speaker:You know, we're measuring basically one thing and one thing only.
Speaker:Can they get on base?
Speaker:I still remember one part of the movie goes, this guy gets on base all the time,
Speaker:but it's because he's walked like seven out of eight times that he gets on base.
Speaker:So he rarely ever hits. He just gets on base and he looks over.
Speaker:The guy goes, does that count? He goes, yes, that counts.
Speaker:Good. Bring him in.
Speaker:And so how you play the game?
Speaker:A lot of times it's just as important.
Speaker:And it allows you to be able to win the game.
Speaker:And number five, never expect the game to be self-sustaining.
Speaker:People need to be reminded of it constantly.
Speaker:People need to be reminded that there is a game constantly that we are
Speaker:measuring ourselves constantly, that we are trying to improve constantly.
Speaker:This is where the management comes in to a large degree.
Speaker:We want to make sure that people get excited about it. They see it.
Speaker:They feel it is OK.
Speaker:And remember, in and of itself, the game doesn't exist.
Speaker:It is alive to the degree that people make it so OK.
Speaker:But people will have this ability
Speaker:to forget things that they start and to be distracted by trivia.
Speaker:So most great games are lost that way.
Speaker:Don't expect your people to be something they're not.
Speaker:Remind them time after time of the game,
Speaker:they're playing with you and you can't remind them too often.
Speaker:I'm just going to tell you, you can't remind them too often.
Speaker:Number six, the game has to make sense.
Speaker:You know, if the game doesn't make sense, if people can't measure it,
Speaker:if they can't see if it's muddy, if it's muddy in the middle, muddy at
Speaker:the end, and it's not really measurable, then the game will fail.
Speaker:All right. For a game that is it tested?
Speaker:Is it a game at all? A game that is it measurable?
Speaker:Is it a game at all?
Speaker:You can have the best reasons
Speaker:in the world for your game
Speaker:and still end up with a loser if the logic is not supported
Speaker:for the strong emotional commitment that is necessary to play the game.
Speaker:And if their commitment wanes, it means that
Speaker:they and most likely you have forgotten the logic.
Speaker:So you need to make sure you have that in there.
Speaker:Number seven, the game needs to be fun from time to time.
Speaker:Note that I said from time to time. He says that here in the book.
Speaker:I love that note
Speaker:that I said from time to time, no game needs to be fun all the time.
Speaker:In fact, a game is often no fun at all.
Speaker:There's part of a thrill of playing a game.
Speaker:Well, learning how to deal with the no fun part of it can actually kind of resemble
Speaker:your dignity, your your commitment, even maybe while you're falling on your face.
Speaker:And by the way, we make mistakes here.
Speaker:And I'm always amazed at how
Speaker:some people look at what we're doing here and go, wow, that's terrible.
Speaker:And they focus on the negative, the negative, the negative, the negative.
Speaker:And at some point I go, what did we do anything? Right.
Speaker:You know, well, we got paid.
Speaker:Well, there you go. That sounds promising.
Speaker:You know, and I love my dad, but sometimes my dad would say,
Speaker:you know, if we can't get this right, we just need to get out of the business.
Speaker:What I know, of course, is that
Speaker:we're never going to be perfect, we're never going to get it right
Speaker:100 percent of the time.
Speaker:What's important is honestly is to get it right more often than you get it wrong
Speaker:and to make sure that the numbers
Speaker:work that way, because there are days when I was out there doing inspections.
Speaker:There was no fun it at all.
Speaker:However, there was fun.
Speaker:I will tell you that sometimes when I'm sitting around
Speaker:inspectors, it's fun to talk about all the bad things that happen.
Speaker:So there's that as well.
Speaker:But make sure that the fun you plan is fun.
Speaker:So do some other things, maybe picnics or baseball games
Speaker:or parties or different things, and so that they can be fun.
Speaker:For instance, we do a lot of silly things around here.
Speaker:And our Christmas party is a blast.
Speaker:A Christmas party is a blast.
Speaker:And fun needs to be defined by your people. OK.
Speaker:If it's fun to them, then it's going to work.
Speaker:But not too often. Maybe once every six months or so.
Speaker:Something to look forward to and and maybe even then something to forget
Speaker:and get back to business so that you have that number.
Speaker:If you can't think of a good game still won.
Speaker:And I'm going to tell you, this is where I get really good.
Speaker:If I can't think of a good game, I go pick one up from somewhere else.
Speaker:Even this morning, I was talking with one of our people
Speaker:and I was talking about Abbott and Costello
Speaker:was talking about Laurel and Hardy. I was talking about the Smothers Brothers.
Speaker:And one of the things was I took part of of one of those things
Speaker:and turned them into something else that I could do in our business,
Speaker:in our marketing and make it fun.
Speaker:I stole the idea from somebody else in that essence. OK,
Speaker:and I'm going to tell you that most cases I'm not really good at playing games.
Speaker:It takes effort for me to play a game.
Speaker:But I will tell you, I'm very passionate about it
Speaker:when I play a game and I am very driven to win. OK.
Speaker:And there's nothing worse than pretending to play a game.
Speaker:And so you need to try to make sure that you're real with that.
Speaker:So the logic of the game. OK.
Speaker:And you go through the whole process here and he talks about the logic of the game.
Speaker:I'll let you work your way through that pretty much.
Speaker:But here's what a business can do.
Speaker:It can become that place of community.
Speaker:You know, it was fun.
Speaker:I have a young lady here.
Speaker:Her name is Jen Starkey that is helping me train coaches
Speaker:that will be coaching and other industries.
Speaker:And one of the things she said that we did really well around here
Speaker:and other things that we do is create a community
Speaker:and you want to make sure that you're creating that in your business.
Speaker:It can become a place where words such as integrity, intention, commitment, vision,
Speaker:and actually it can be used not as nouns, but as verbs
Speaker:and action steps in the process of producing a worthwhile result.
Speaker:So one of the reasons what I'm training people, one of the things
Speaker:they hear me say is, A, the more money we make, the more people we can help, OK?
Speaker:Because that is a worthy result.
Speaker:A worthwhile result.
Speaker:All right. So moving on, one of the things he says as we go through
Speaker:this is that your philosophy should be the philosophy of the company.
Speaker:So you need to make sure you have a worthwhile philosophy.
Speaker:If you're just trying to make money is not a real worthwhile philosophy.
Speaker:I find that a lot of times I have to be asked people like seven different times.
Speaker:Why is that important to you? Why is that important to you?
Speaker:Why is that important to you?
Speaker:And when I finally get down to is for me, a lot of times it's well,
Speaker:because I want to see other people succeed as well.
Speaker:I mean, that's like my ultimate goal is I want to see other people
Speaker:succeed as well.
Speaker:And I know that when I help other people succeed, then I get everything I want.
Speaker:And of course, that goes back
Speaker:a long time to great gentleman by the name of Zig Ziglar.
Speaker:So the idea when it's communicated to your people, both word
Speaker:and deed, you have a well planned process.
Speaker:And the importance of that cannot be overstated.
Speaker:You know, the boss, he says here in this, the boss communicated his idea through
Speaker:documented systems and through his warm moving and positive manner.
Speaker:He knew that he could communicate the orderly yet
Speaker:human process of pleasing customers to his people
Speaker:only if it were communicated to them in an orderly and human way.
Speaker:You know, it's kind of funny sometimes my wife, I love her so much
Speaker:and I think it says race on applications and different things,
Speaker:and she's gotten to the point where she likes to say human, human.
Speaker:I'm part of the human race, you know, because we all are.
Speaker:And it's important for us to to make sure that we act
Speaker:human in everything that we do.
Speaker:So as the manager, continue to explain this to the guy, he said
Speaker:the hiring process was comprised of several distinct components.
Speaker:And then he went through all those components like a scripted
Speaker:presentation, communicating the idea and the group meeting with each applicant
Speaker:individually to discuss their reactions and feelings about the idea.
Speaker:Note number three, notification of the successful candidate by telephone.
Speaker:And even then, it's a scripted presentation.
Speaker:No for notification of the unsuccessful applicant still calling them
Speaker:and telling them thank you.
Speaker:Maybe even having a standard letter signed by the interviewer
Speaker:and then five on the first day of training.
Speaker:Boy, this gets so fun.
Speaker:On the first day of training
Speaker:should include certain activities for both the boss and the new employee.
Speaker:So, again, reviewing the boss's idea, summarizing the systems
Speaker:through which the entire system brings the idea to reality.
Speaker:Taking the new employee on a tour of the facility,
Speaker:answering clearly and fully all the employees questions,
Speaker:issuing the employee uniform and his manual, reviewing the operations
Speaker:manual, including the strategic objective, the organizational strategy,
Speaker:the position contract and the employee's position,
Speaker:and then completing his employment papers.
Speaker:You know, this is so fresh for me, Jonathan.
Speaker:My oldest son was bringing on a new person the other day, and I watched him
Speaker:go through all this.
Speaker:He walked the gentleman through all of our office space.
Speaker:He talked about what it was going to be like being trained.
Speaker:He talked about the systems. He talked about the routines.
Speaker:Of course, he got his paperwork filled out, talked about uniforms.
Speaker:And it was so it's so much fun seeing this being done
Speaker:inside my own company by my oldest son.
Speaker:So here's the question Are you beginning to understand that systematizing
Speaker:your business need not be a de humanizing experience, but
Speaker:in fact quite the opposite, that in order to get your people to do what you want,
Speaker:you first have to create an environment that will make it possible.
Speaker:That's so important, let me say it again.
Speaker:To get people to do what you want.
Speaker:You first have to create an environment that will make it possible
Speaker:to make them want to be there, to make them glad that they're there.
Speaker:I was just talking
Speaker:with my younger son the other day, and he has just taken a new job.
Speaker:And he said that the people that originally started
Speaker:the company, one had died and then one basically retired.
Speaker:And so they brought in these people
Speaker:to take over the business and run the business and everything.
Speaker:And the first thing the guy came in and did
Speaker:or the people came in and did that were now running the company was.
Speaker:What's your job? What do you do here?
Speaker:Why is that necessary?
Speaker:And two main things happened out of that.
Speaker:One was they got rid of people that they didn't think the job was necessary.
Speaker:What do you mean what you know.
Speaker:Thank you, but thank you for playing, but not today.
Speaker:The other thing they got rid of was anybody that was difficult.
Speaker:Anybody that was difficult.
Speaker:And so my son said it's great because the only people that are left,
Speaker:they're the only people that are
Speaker:left in the company are the ones that have really important jobs.
Speaker:And the people that want to be there.
Speaker:He said it's such a great place to work.
Speaker:He says it's such a great place to work.
Speaker:And so I had a chance to sit with him
Speaker:at family night last night and talk about that.
Speaker:So with that idea, you can finally say, just as maybe the young manager
Speaker:did here, you know, this is where we really shine.
Speaker:And I will tell you again.
Speaker:Are we perfect at this?
Speaker:No, we're not. Do I make mistakes?
Speaker:Yes, I do. Do I say something to an employee from time to time?
Speaker:I wish I hadn't said.
Speaker:Yeah. You know, every week sometimes it feels like every day,
Speaker:every month for sure, I say something, I go back there .
Speaker:I wish I hadn't said that or I wish I had said it easier.
Speaker:I wish I had said it different.
Speaker:But I will tell you, every day without fail, every day without fail.
Speaker:I'm telling people how much I appreciate them, how much I am so glad they're here.
Speaker:And what we are doing here and why what we're doing here is important.
Speaker:People have to know that what they're doing is important.
Speaker:And by the way, in the old days, people did it because they had to for a living.
Speaker:We live in a day in a time where people get to choose where they want to work.
Speaker:They can go work at McDonald's
Speaker:and make minimum wage and maybe make fifteen dollars an hour.
Speaker:I don't know. OK.
Speaker:Or they could choose to work in a place that makes a difference.
Speaker:You know, there used
Speaker:to be the president of Pepsi-Cola and Steve Jobs recruited him.
Speaker:And finally, one of the things that really got Steve Jobs to move the guy
Speaker:from Pepsi over to Apple was he said this.
Speaker:Do you want to sell sugar water your entire life?
Speaker:Or would you like to do something that will change the world?
Speaker:And I try to remind the people that are working here with me
Speaker:that what we do here is changing the world, we're changing how people move
Speaker:into homes, we're changing how real estate agents work with their clients.
Speaker:We're changing how home inspectors are working with the home
Speaker:buyers and different folks as well.
Speaker:And we have a simple purpose, and that is helping people help themselves.
Speaker:And that's our overlying big objective here.
Speaker:Now, I'm not saying yours needs to be that.
Speaker:In fact, I'd be a little surprised if that was exactly yours.
Speaker:I won't be upset about it, OK, because I think it's pretty damn good go.
Speaker:But I will tell you that at some point.
Speaker:Figure out what will make your company have a bigger meaning
Speaker:than just doing home inspections, than just earning money.
Speaker:Now, I will tell you, money is how we measure whether you're winning or not.
Speaker:And sometimes people get upset by that.
Speaker:Well, that's just a shame.
Speaker:But here's the other thing is the more money you make,
Speaker:the more people you can help.
Speaker:All right. Well, that was a little bit long tonight.
Speaker:And the next time we're actually going to go
Speaker:into your marketing strategy, which is Chapter 17.
Speaker:And I will tell you that I've enjoyed this so much.
Speaker:And we've only got a few chapters left.
Speaker:We've only got a few chapters left.
Speaker:And boy, I'll tell you what, they're going to be some big ones.
Speaker:And then I'm going to try to summarize some of this as well.
Speaker:Just remember this.
Speaker:You get a choice of what you want to do in life.
Speaker:And hopefully you work for a company
Speaker:that thinks that this level plays at this level.
Speaker:And if you can't find that company, then build one yourself
Speaker:and maybe you're building your company already.
Speaker:And if you are, then let me or let someone help you build that.
Speaker:You know, there's a good chance I will never be your coach. And that's OK.
Speaker:Find a coach somewhere, someone that can coach you on how to put that together.
Speaker:You know, I've been so excited.
Speaker:We've had a number of people respond to me and go, hey, Mike,
Speaker:I want to find out more about your private coaching group or private
Speaker:coaching clients and different things.
Speaker:And if that's something you're interested in, well, then send an email
Speaker:to hello at Coach Blueprint dot com.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:Look me up on Facebook. I'm not there every day. Not even close.
Speaker:But I do get on there on a regular basis and say hi.
Speaker:And I look at people and people send me a friend request.
Speaker:Well, then I usually accept them, especially especially when I see
Speaker:that they're with a home inspection business,
Speaker:because my heart bleeds for home inspectors.
Speaker:But the truth is, anybody in business and trying to grow a business,
Speaker:my heart bleeds for you as well, because you know what?
Speaker:You're doing something that is so important
Speaker:and it's going to affect not just your life, not just your family,
Speaker:but hundreds, thousands of other people's lives as well.
Speaker:And of course, you need to make sure you find the right people
Speaker:that are willing to help you accomplish that.
Speaker:Bottom line here.
Speaker:Be successful and be around those that are successful.
