We’ve reached the end of the E Myth. Mike shares his final thoughts on everything we’ve learned with this book. Also a look forward to the next book we’ll be going through!
If you want to reach Mike or have a question for him, contact us at hello@coachblueprint.com
Transcript
Hi, this is Mike Crow, 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:Hey everybody, this is Mike Crow, and I am so excited today.
Speaker:It's always nice to finish
Speaker:something you started, you know, and we have been working through the book,
Speaker:The E Myth and if you go to buy it, it's going to be called The E Myth Revisited.
Speaker:This is the one I originally worked out of that literally changed my business.
Speaker:And we are going through the very last part of the book on this.
Speaker:And so it's actually called The epilogue. It's not even a chapter.
Speaker:No, it's called the epilogue bringing the dream back to American business.
Speaker:And, you know, the funny thing was this. I was looking at this.
Speaker:I also realized I had made a series of notes here
Speaker:in the back of the book of things that I wanted to try to get done.
Speaker:Now, they're not to Intel.
Speaker:They're pretty broad.
Speaker:But I think maybe this will help you understand how to take some
Speaker:of the information that we've been working with out of the book
Speaker:and put it into your business as well.
Speaker:And the truth is, I've done all of these
Speaker:and so much more since I read the book way, way, way back.
Speaker:OK, so in the epilog, bringing the dream back to the American business,
Speaker:one of the things that says right up front
Speaker:here is that this book is not simply a prescription for success.
Speaker:It's more of a call to arms.
Speaker:But even then, it's not a call to arms to do battle.
Speaker:OK, it's a call to learning.
Speaker:And that's what this book was for me.
Speaker:I had studied a lot of books and learned from a lot of books,
Speaker:but this book was so straightforward and so organized that it helped me
Speaker:understand how to structure my business.
Speaker:So what I learned I could put into the business
Speaker:in the form of different systems in top of all that, he says.
Speaker:So it really is talking about how to feel, think, act differently
Speaker:and more productively, more humanely even than our existing skills
Speaker:and and our current understanding allow. And
Speaker:I'm still not perfect that this sometimes people tell me I'm too harsh,
Speaker:I'm too cold, I'm too direct, and then I'm never satisfied.
Speaker:And I'm sure to some degree, all of that's correct.
Speaker:You know, one of my greatest lines from Star Trek, not Star Trek Star Wars
Speaker:at one point is, you know, Han Solo was talking to the person who got the
Speaker:Falcon from and I'm sure you know, in the name of that.
Speaker:And he said, I've heard a lot about you.
Speaker:And the guy looks up at it and goes, and it's all true.
Speaker:All right. So to some degree, that's my whole philosophy, is
Speaker:when people say, man, I've heard a lot about you.
Speaker:It's all true, buddy.
Speaker:OK, so one of the things it talks about
Speaker:is that, you know, boundaries that once kind of served us,
Speaker:whether they were geographically, politically, socially, emotionally, OK,
Speaker:if you put all this into place , a lot of those go away.
Speaker:And I've seen all of these go away in one form or another for people.
Speaker:Geographically, boundaries have gone away.
Speaker:Politically, boundaries have gone away.
Speaker:Socially, boundaries have really gone away.
Speaker:And emotionally boundaries have gone away.
Speaker:When you understand what we're doing here.
Speaker:And so the rules are constantly, constantly changing.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:People cannot live without boundaries, though.
Speaker:They need some kind of boundaries and they need some kind of structure.
Speaker:They need some kind of rules.
Speaker:And what I'm really saying is they need a system. OK.
Speaker:So it's so difficult for us to do anything about our business.
Speaker:How in the world are we going to do anything about the world?
Speaker:So if it's hard to do stuff in our business,
Speaker:how are we going to do anything with the world?
Speaker:And I will tell you,
Speaker:that was a barrier that was set for me, and I've been able to overcome that.
Speaker:In fact, one of the things I tell people
Speaker:all the time is be successful and be around those that are successful.
Speaker:And the more money we make, the more people we can help.
Speaker:And all of that really has helped me be able to change the world a little bit.
Speaker:Am I changing the whole world? Of course not.
Speaker:It is very, very, very few people that have changed the whole world.
Speaker:All right. However, I have changed my corner of it
Speaker:and I have changed this industry and the way a lot of people think with it.
Speaker:Here's one of the problems
Speaker:that comes with that, though, because the world's not the problem.
Speaker:You and I are the problem. All right.
Speaker:The world's not in chaos.
Speaker:A lot of times people say it
Speaker:is, by the way, but it's honestly, it's people that are in chaos.
Speaker:And honestly, we are in chaos.
Speaker:I was in chaos when I needed this book, when I discovered this book,
Speaker:when I had this book presented to me.
Speaker:And maybe you are, maybe you're not.
Speaker:And it's OK if you are and it's OK if you're not.
Speaker:In fact, it's great if you're not.
Speaker:Either way, you can take this information and move forward.
Speaker:And the world's apparent chaos is truly
Speaker:only a reflection of the inner chaos from people.
Speaker:In that way, if the world reflects a lack of good sense
Speaker:is because each one of us reflects that.
Speaker:And if the world acts, if it doesn't know what it's doing,
Speaker:is because each one of us acts that way.
Speaker:And if the world is violent and greedy and heartless and inhumane
Speaker:and often just plain stupid, maybe it's because you and I are that way.
Speaker:I'd like to say maybe it was because I was that way.
Speaker:My world is a lot better at this point.
Speaker:So the world is going to be changed and the world is always
Speaker:changing our world, the world we live in.
Speaker:We can change that now.
Speaker:We can change it with the way we live our lives.
Speaker:And it helps in a lot of different ways here.
Speaker:And if you think about this whole process, you do that either
Speaker:with your business or with your job or whatever it is.
Speaker:And that, you know,
Speaker:that's exactly what we're trying to make sure that we talk about here.
Speaker:A small business is a place that responds
Speaker:instantly to any action we take.
Speaker:I don't know if it response instantly, but I think it does.
Speaker:If we market, we get business.
Speaker:If we don't market, we don't get business.
Speaker:A business is a place
Speaker:where we can practice implementing ideas in a way that changes lives.
Speaker:A place where we can begin to test all of the assumptions.
Speaker:That we have about ourselves.
Speaker:It's a place where questions are at least as important as the answers.
Speaker:In fact, one of the things that coaches have taught me over the years is,
Speaker:Mike, you're saying you want answers, but you may be asking the wrong question.
Speaker:And so the questions and a lot of cases are more important than the answers,
Speaker:because you've got to try to get that right as well.
Speaker:So it's a place where generalizations can give way to specifics.
Speaker:Your business, your business is a place that demands your attention.
Speaker:It's a place where rules must be followed in order preserved.
Speaker:It's a place where, you know,
Speaker:you can see things be practical and not necessarily idealistic now.
Speaker:I'm very idealistic.
Speaker:But in my business, on a
Speaker:day to day basis, I am very, very practical.
Speaker:In fact, once a week I sit down and go over the numbers with our general manager,
Speaker:and sometimes I sit down with the inspector managers and I go over numbers
Speaker:and I go over numbers on our vehicles and I go over numbers on our phone calls.
Speaker:I go over numbers all the time.
Speaker:So in business, I'm very practical.
Speaker:Past that, though, just running this business, I'm very idealistic.
Speaker:And I think the two can be one as long as you get the other. Right.
Speaker:You cannot be idealistic, though, and be successful at it.
Speaker:If you can't be practical and get the numbers right.
Speaker:So it's kind of an important thing.
Speaker:There be a place where idealism must be present for the practical to serve it.
Speaker:That's his next sentence here, which is exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker:You know, your business is a place where idealism must be present.
Speaker:But you need the practical to make sure that it's serving it.
Speaker:It's a place where the world is reduced to manageable size.
Speaker:Your business brings the world down to a manageable size.
Speaker:Inside of all that, small enough to be responsive, but big enough to test
Speaker:everything we have and a true practice.
Speaker:All that's what our business is.
Speaker:It's a true practice hall.
Speaker:There are businesses really our own little world.
Speaker:It's our our world where we get to test things
Speaker:and do things and see the results in it quickly.
Speaker:He goes on to say here that we can't change our lives
Speaker:by starting out there by like starting outside our business.
Speaker:We have to change it inside our business.
Speaker:We can only change our lives and create a world of our own.
Speaker:If we first understand how such a world is constructed,
Speaker:how it works and the rules of the game.
Speaker:That's what we've been talking about here.
Speaker:This whole book is the rules of the game.
Speaker:And so if you think about things, we're talking about creating a business
Speaker:development program. We're talking about the franchise prototype.
Speaker:My business is a franchise prototype.
Speaker:Now, I'm not selling franchises, but my business is built in such a way
Speaker:that anybody could step in and take a look at the manuals,
Speaker:take a look at the numbers and start reproducing what I'm doing.
Speaker:And you need to make sure that your business is set up that way.
Speaker:So, one, if you ever decide you want to sell it, you can.
Speaker:And two, you can start hiring other people to do parts of the business.
Speaker:So you don't have to go into that.
Speaker:So take a look at it from this points of view, innovation,
Speaker:quantification and orchestration.
Speaker:You know, they become the practice that brings us and our opponents,
Speaker:whoever they might be,
Speaker:to the discovery of our limits, our weaknesses and our strengths.
Speaker:All right. So innovation, quantification and orchestration
Speaker:provide the belief system for our business.
Speaker:Let we say that again.
Speaker:Innovation, quantification and orchestration.
Speaker:Provide the belief system for our business.
Speaker:The philosophical bedrock of our interaction with the world.
Speaker:And, you know, they become our source for learning and creating
Speaker:and expanding beyond our own self-imposed limits.
Speaker:I had self-imposed limits by the time I got to high school.
Speaker:And by the way, it is young children.
Speaker:We don't really have very many self-imposed limits,
Speaker:but we learn to have self imposing limits.
Speaker:Now, what you need to learn is to get rid of those self-imposed limits
Speaker:and start creating something bigger than yourself, even inside of that.
Speaker:And so it's all about kind of having an idea for action.
Speaker:So when you hear something, you know, you'll forget it when you see something.
Speaker:You'll remember it when you start doing something.
Speaker:You actually start to understand it.
Speaker:And by the way, this is part of what I teach people
Speaker:when they're training people, right?
Speaker:Yeah. You want to tell them and you want them to see it.
Speaker:But when they start doing it, that's when they really start understanding why
Speaker:it needs to be done that way.
Speaker:You know, one of my best commercials I think I ever saw.
Speaker:I don't remember.
Speaker:And it may have been several versions of this at the airport,
Speaker:but the guy that's loading the luggage on and off,
Speaker:he just walking through the airport and looking at the people,
Speaker:the people that have luggage out there that's going to be on that plane.
Speaker:And then at some point, I think it's the pilot
Speaker:that's walking through and he's just looking at the people.
Speaker:And these are the people, you know, that he's
Speaker:going to be flying from point A to point B. All right.
Speaker:And then you see somebody else and a ladies walking through
Speaker:and she's like the lady that is the one that takes the phone calls
Speaker:and talks to people and helps them get their flight straight and everything.
Speaker:And she realizes that these people out here is why she does what she does.
Speaker:And sometimes I think we forget about that.
Speaker:In fact, one of the the funniest things that I hear people say so often is,
Speaker:you know, this would be a great business if it weren't for the people,
Speaker:you know. So, you know,
Speaker:you could probably be a great parent if it weren't for the kids, you know.
Speaker:But that's just the way the world works.
Speaker:So you want to try to make sure, though, that not only that, you understand
Speaker:why you're doing it,
Speaker:you want to be able to teach other people to understand why it's done that way.
Speaker:All right. Here's what he's going to say.
Speaker:He says, I ask you not to think about,
Speaker:you know, a lot of the little pieces in a way, OK?
Speaker:Or the big overall thing, even in the way it's time to act, because until you do
Speaker:until you actually take action, you're not going to really understand it.
Speaker:I have all the time I have people tell me that's too complicated.
Speaker:And then they do it.
Speaker:They go, oh, I wasn't as complicated as I think.
Speaker:But, you know, I also had people tell me sometimes,
Speaker:Mike, it's too simple, but that's too simple.
Speaker:And yet they do it and they go, wow, look at what happened when I did that.
Speaker:So sometimes that's when you do it,
Speaker:when you actually put it into action, you begin to understand how easy it is.
Speaker:I remember when I was a young young man and I had a friend and he had a big sister
Speaker:and she was in high school and she had a book of like calculus.
Speaker:And I looked at that book and went there, and there's no way
Speaker:I'm ever going to understand that.
Speaker:And then when I got older and I got into learning
Speaker:algebra and learning calculus, and I went, wow, that's that.
Speaker:Look, it's just formulas.
Speaker:And it was a lot less complicated because I grew up and because I learned
Speaker:what I needed to do from here to there to be able to get there.
Speaker:It's kind of fun because my youngest daughter now teaches honors, calculus
Speaker:and pre AP calculus, I think they call it, and all that good stuff .
Speaker:So you need to act OK.
Speaker:And as soon as you act, you'll begin to understand.
Speaker:And when you do, then there will be nothing left to think about.
Speaker:You'll be on your way.
Speaker:Once you start acting,
Speaker:you won't be thinking about why things don't work or this or that.
Speaker:You'll actually be thinking of what you need to get done.
Speaker:And then there's a lot of creative thought in there.
Speaker:And this is at the point where you start
Speaker:really beginning to innovate things and really move things forward.
Speaker:I had so much fun going through this book with you,
Speaker:and I do want to give credit to my my Aivi guy
Speaker:and there that's making this possible and getting this all out there for you.
Speaker:Just what an incredible guy.
Speaker:And I want to tell him thank you for bearing with me,
Speaker:because some days I'm coming in and going, OK, let's do one. All right.
Speaker:You know, and sometimes I'm going,
Speaker:oh, I'm sorry, I can't show up today for whatever reason.
Speaker:Sometimes it had to do with the fact
Speaker:that we had some deaths in the family this year.
Speaker:Sometimes it had to do with other people having emergencies or business
Speaker:needing me somewhere.
Speaker:So I want to say I want to say thank you to him.
Speaker:The other thing that he pointed out to me
Speaker:is that we have just recently set up a new website.
Speaker:You can go out to home inspector marketing secrets dot com, home
Speaker:inspector marketing secrets, dot com slash formulas, slash
Speaker:formulas, efo r m u l s home inspector marketing secrets, dot com slash formulas.
Speaker:And out there, you're going to see
Speaker:some of the systems that I built and some of the formulas that I built
Speaker:to help Singleman operations be able to become what I call Ironmen.
Speaker:And they're doing:Speaker:And the formulas, the same formulas that I help
Speaker:teach people, that I built a million dollar home inspection businesses.
Speaker:And keep in mind.
Speaker:And if you're a home inspector, you know this.
Speaker:But for other people, a million dollars doesn't sound like a big business
Speaker:until you realize in the home inspection business to do anywhere from 100 to 150
Speaker:thousand is considered really good every year.
Speaker:And yet I've helped over 100 companies be able to get to the point
Speaker:where they're running million dollar companies.
Speaker:Our company is running well, well over two million,
Speaker:and they're getting ready to hit three million.
Speaker:And hopefully the next time
Speaker:we get a chance to say hi, I can tell you that we're at that point, I don't know.
Speaker:So here are some of the systems that I went back and I made notes.
Speaker:So I said, hey, I want to set up inspections more systematically.
Speaker:I want to start with a lower level of skill with the person
Speaker:that I need to be a home inspector so I can teach them the system.
Speaker:Even if we have an inspector that comes in that's already licensed
Speaker:and already been out there two years.
Speaker:I generally have a lot that I need to teach them.
Speaker:And it's very common.
Speaker:In fact, I don't I can't think of a time that it hasn't happened
Speaker:when I was doing it.
Speaker:Within two weeks, they go I've learned more in two weeks with you
Speaker:as a home inspector than I learned the whole two years
Speaker:that I was out there in the field on my own, which doesn't surprise me.
Speaker:The reason that is, of course, is because we put the systems in place
Speaker:and we systematically created the business the way we want.
Speaker:Now, this is where it starts getting fun.
Speaker:Start making a set of tapes.
Speaker:Is that Ajmi? A little bit.
Speaker:So audios or videos. OK.
Speaker:So you could start teaching people what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Speaker:One of the reasons we're successful is because the way our systems
Speaker:give our customers and clients
Speaker:the same consistent treatment each and every time we work for them .
Speaker:Let me say this again. I want to make sure that you hear it.
Speaker:One of the reasons my company is so successful,
Speaker:one of the reasons the companies that I help become Ironmen,
Speaker:300 to 400 thousand dollars a year, maybe more, or companies
Speaker:become other million dollar companies, is because of the systems,
Speaker:because of the way the systems give our customers and our clients
Speaker:the same consistent treatment each and every time we work for them.
Speaker:And then I started making a list of some of the the audios and videos
Speaker:I wanted to make.
Speaker:So we have a system on answering the phone.
Speaker:And I wanted to learn how to quantify that. And we've done that.
Speaker:I wanted to make a routine of an inspection.
Speaker:You know, I say this now.
Speaker:What I want you to understand is when I started the home inspection,
Speaker:there wasn't a routine.
Speaker:Now everybody says, oh, yeah, our routine is blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:OK, well, I wish that had been there when I started.
Speaker:It is now, of course, in our business. And here's the other thing is our.
Speaker:Is different than 95 percent of all home inspection companies out there.
Speaker:When I start teaching, people are routine and why we do it, they go, Huh?
Speaker:Let me give that a try.
Speaker:And it changes the whole perspective for your client and your customer
Speaker:so that they get a more consistent treatment each and every time.
Speaker:And then we also built a system for marketing marketing online now.
Speaker:But back then, it was marketing at real estate offices.
Speaker:We set up a system for our office procedures.
Speaker:I remember one time I came in with my oldest daughter
Speaker:and we said, hey, when the paperwork comes in from the inspectors,
Speaker:what procedure, what system does that paperwork go through?
Speaker:And we eventually sat down and created exactly the way
Speaker:we want the paperwork to be put together by the inspectors.
Speaker:Now, there's actually less paperwork now than there used to be
Speaker:because a lot of it's digital now, but we still have it set up exactly
Speaker:the way with where the check is put on there or the credit card
Speaker:number is put on there. This piece and this part up here.
Speaker:So it can be signed so we can make copies and then put that on top of everything.
Speaker:Make sure the check goes into the bank. Make sure the credit card.
Speaker:So we took it step by step, by step by step.
Speaker:And then once it went there, it went into the stack
Speaker:and then it went through like four or five or six different steps.
Speaker:And then it was eventually filed into the file cabinets.
Speaker:OK, so one of our systems was setting up office procedures.
Speaker:And then the last one I have written here,
Speaker:and it's written in a different color ink.
Speaker:So it makes me think I, I added it in later.
Speaker:But, you know, how does an inspector maintain his image
Speaker:when he's out there in the field?
Speaker:How does an inspector maintain his image when he's out there in the field?
Speaker:One of the things that we've tried to teach inspectors is what I call the W,
Speaker:where they understand,
Speaker:hey, here's where you start, here's overwhelm, here's competency.
Speaker:Here is complacency, and here's where significance lies for you as an inspector.
Speaker:But it's not just understanding that.
Speaker:It's the different steps and systems in place in each of those
Speaker:all the way from start to finish in that, you know, we have a 17 point
Speaker:I think it's actually an
Speaker:18 point introduction now that we do at the beginning of every inspection.
Speaker:And we're always working on improving that and trying to help teach people to that.
Speaker:So that is been an exciting adventure.
Speaker:Now, here's the cool thing is I wrote a book years ago.
Speaker:I don't even know how long ago.
Speaker:Let's see. Back in. Wow. I don't know. It's been a long time.
Speaker:I wrote this book.
Speaker:The cool thing is that
Speaker:the information in this book is still working today for people.
Speaker:So I took a lot of the systems that I created for the home inspection business.
Speaker:And I put it into this book called Home Inspector Marketing Secrets
Speaker:How to Double Your Home Inspection Business in 12 Months Guaranteed.
Speaker:We have seen people do that over and over and over again.
Speaker:I got a text from one of the latest
Speaker:private coaching clients that I have, and he's in Southern California.
Speaker:And keep in mind, we just went through a pandemic. Right.
Speaker:But he literally has doubled his business.
Speaker:He's grown his business to a whole new level
Speaker:and grew it by six figures plus all because
Speaker:of what he learned from this book and different parts as well.
Speaker:So I'm going to start going through this book piece by piece by piece
Speaker:and trying to explain each part of this to you.
Speaker:Home inspector marketing
Speaker:secrets, how to double your business in 12 months guaranteed.
Speaker:And I'm going to talk about, you know, the how plus why.
Speaker:I'm going to talk about what do you want me
Speaker:to talk about, systems for your business? I'm going to talk about refundability.
Speaker:I'm going to talk about what you need to do
Speaker:to make your business different from everybody else and why that's important.
Speaker:We're going to talk about business cards, handling the phones, handling
Speaker:your cell phone, even voicemail, making yourself referable.
Speaker:There's three things that I'm going to talk about here.
Speaker:There's more than three things, but three must that
Speaker:you do to make yourself referable.
Speaker:And then I want to talk about how do you handle a while?
Speaker:And you know what or magic words that has gotten me more referrals
Speaker:than you probably ever seen before.
Speaker:And I'm going to talk about that
Speaker:and then we're going to talk about the importance of the word asking
Speaker:and how you do that and OK, and then finding yourself a guide.
Speaker:I'm going to give you a right now moneymaking strategy.
Speaker:And then the book is just full of success stories.
Speaker:And people that I've worked with over the year,
Speaker:I'm probably not going to mention a lot of them.
Speaker:Many of them have sold their business.
Speaker:And now I have retired and gone on to do amazing and wonderful things.
Speaker:So that will be what we start with next time.
Speaker:And I do want to tell you. Thank you.
Speaker:If you made it all the way through this with me,
Speaker:the Emet revisited or the email, I want to congratulate you on that.
Speaker:You'd be surprised how many
Speaker:people start something and they don't finish it.
Speaker:If that's happening to you, it's a good chance
Speaker:you don't have somebody walking side by side with you
Speaker:that has actually already achieved what you're trying to achieve.
Speaker:You're getting ready to do something you've never done before.
Speaker:I don't know about you, but when I drive somewhere
Speaker:for the first time, it seems like it takes forever.
Speaker:But when I'm driving home, it seems much quicker.
Speaker:Well, it's because we're familiar with it,
Speaker:the same thing is for me on the inspection business.
Speaker:And and the people here with me, my son, who is the general manager,
Speaker:and our three inspector managers and the coaches that I trained inside
Speaker:my coaching program and everything, you know, they all had to do that as well.
Speaker:It's kind of like going to the top of Mount Everest.
Speaker:If you've never been,
Speaker:would you want to go all by yourself and figure it out all by yourself?
Speaker:And if you do well,
Speaker:that's not a very healthy thing to do, and it's a very deadly thing to do.
Speaker:Almost everybody has taken a guide to show them the way
Speaker:because it's so much easier, so much easier when you have somebody
Speaker:that's already been there and done that and maybe has done it several times.
Speaker:So, you know, I built my first company and it was over a million dollars,
Speaker:and I sold it for over a million dollars, which was pretty cool.
Speaker:And then I left that company and went to work and started coaching people.
Speaker:And then I decided I needed another franchise prototype or a prototype company
Speaker:so I could teach it to other people so that they could see it.
Speaker:So we built I bought Texan's back then.
Speaker:Then I started transforming it into our prototype.
Speaker:So it's here for you to be able to see and learn from as well.
Speaker:And if you'd like to come ride with us, we'll let me know that
Speaker:if you'd like for me to help you
Speaker:and stand side by side with you as you're going through this process,
Speaker:then I would be I'd be honored to be able to help you with that.
Speaker:Well, this is micro.
Speaker:And as I love to tell you, be successful and be around those that are successful,
Speaker:because the more money you make, the more people you can help.