Lighting for Profits - Episode #210

Join Meaghan Likes - serial entrepreneur, financial educator, and one of the fastest window cleaners in the world - as she shatters money myths and helps you conquer financial fears. With 7 businesses under her belt, Meaghan shares smarter ways to make, save, and give back while empowering you to build true financial freedom. Get ready to think differently, act boldly, and transform the way you see money.

Listen to Episode Here

Watch the episode

Episode Transcript

All light. All light. Here is your host, Ryan Lee

All light. All light. All light. Powered by EmeryAllen. Here is your host, Ryan Lee.

All light. All light. It's lighting for Profits. Let's go

All light. All light. All light. Let's go. It's lighting for Profits. I'm your host, Ryan Lee. Oh, did I say we're powered by EmeryAllen? That's cool. I'm, excited for today's show. I was running a little bit late. It was a little flustered. My air conditioning was a little warm, but Lindsay turned it down. And, we're gonna be good to go now. I think we're gonna be good.

If you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business today is your day

So, I don't know if you guys know this, but we are trending Lighting for Profits, the number one. The number one landscape lighting show in Davis, California. Pretty cool. Yeah, A lot of people talking about it. Northern California, they love Lighting for Profits. Today we got a great show. look, if you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business, or, heck, any business, today is your day. We got Ms. Megan likes coming on the show. She's been on here before. And, if you've heard her speak, if you've heard her on the show, you're definitely going to want to pay attention, take notes. We are here to educate and motivate to help you dominate. And, today's show is no different. So a couple reminders before we got Megan coming on again. Megan Likes, she owns like 17 million businesses, so I'm not sure how to introduce her, but we'll go with likes Accounting. Should we go with Likes Accounting? Seems like a good one. Okay. Yeah, yeah. but, excited to have her on. We're going to nerd out on all things business. We're probably going to talk a little numbers, but. But not in a bad way, in a good way. Cause we want to help you make more money. It's called Lighting for Profits, people. We want profits in your pocket so you can do more good in the world. just a quick reminder, secret summit coming up. Just three weeks, September 25th through 27th. And, there's two ways to come. You can be a part of Lighting Academy, which you can try for just a buck. Go to lightingacademy. net I think. I don't even know. but just, or shoot me a message. I don't think it's dot com. I think it's lightingacademy. net. or you can just step up to the big leagues and join Landscape Lighting Secrets. It's our members only event. We do it one time a year. So you're going to want to be in this Room. It's a mastermind. We have some speakers, some breakouts, but this is your chance to network and really form relationships. And we're big on community here at Secrets or Landscape Lighting Secrets. So hopefully you'll be there. Secret Summit. If you are already in the program and you need a promo code, hit me up. We'll make sure that you don't pay full price to come to that. So, again, that's September 25th through 27th. And even if you're not a member of Lighting Academy or Landscape Lighting Secrets and you want to hang out with the lighting community and you want to nerd out and party. September 27th, West Palm Beach Luxury Illumination. It's their 10 year anniversary party and it is going to be epic. Okay, make the trip to West Palm Beach. You're going to want to see Greg's place. His showroom is phenomenal. And if, if the only thing you did was just saw that and got inspired by what he's doing, that would make the trip worth it. Okay, so make sure you guys come and we have a registration link. It's free to come to this party and we're doing like food trucks, we're doing a live band, we're doing this guy who makes fancy cigars. I don't smoke cigars, but it looks really cool and it makes me want to smoke cigars. and so you're going to want to be at that party. It's, it's dang cool.

Landscape Lighting Secrets hosts a lighting design call twice a month

okay, again, in just a few minutes we got Megan Likes, likes accounting and owns a bunch of other businesses we're going to talk about before I have her on, real quick. So twice a month inside Landscape Lighting Secrets and Lighting Academy, we host a lighting design call. And this is your chance to get real, live, like real time. Instruction, feedback, advice on lighting design. And, Patrick Harders. He's been in the lighting industry for at least 25 years, maybe 30. this guy is the reason he runs. He normally runs these calls because he's like smarter than me, he knows more than me, he's better than me. Like he is the guy to run the lighting design calls. But today there was a, he had a conflict. And so normally if he has a conflict, we have a few subs that we reach out to. And we did and they were all tied up. So guess who got to sub the lighting design call today and that was this guy. So it was a lot of fun. I actually got like, nervous. I don't get nervous a lot anymore just because I'm, always talking about profits and pricing and sales. It's like, it's just become like who I am. But I was like, well, I haven't talked lighting design for a while, so I got the jitters. And I was like, oh, like, what if I screw up? And I had all these thoughts, right? But it was so exciting. It was fun for one to kind of get back in the, the lighting design seat and talk with the group about these things. And, I want to share just a couple things before we have Megan on. but it was, it was kind of fascinating because I was like, man, I'm not quite as comfortable, I'm not quite as confident. Like, I don't know how this is going to come out. But it was super cool.

Number one is you need to simplify your designs if you want to scale

I decided to share some projects, of mine, some that I had taken photos myself and some that I had hired a professional photographer. but I shared a couple things. I want to share those with you today. Number one is you need to simplify your designs if you want to scale. And what I mean by that is in landscape lighting, we tend to have this, very artistic side of us that wants to just lean in hard to that and make sure everything's perfect. Because it's like a portrait, it's a painting and it's awesome. It's something that can help differentiate us and make us not a commodity. But it can also be the thing that hinders us. Because if you're just getting started and you're only doing, you know, a couple jobs a month or something like that, like you, you can do that, right? But what you don't think is, think about is like, what's going to happen like two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, when that person calls you back and they need maintenance. And that's what most people don't think about when they're starting their business is like, what's going to happen down the road. So if you go in and customize and you have like all these different styles of lamps, different colors of color, temperatures, different levels of brightness and beam spreads, that's a lot to keep track of. It's a lot to inventory. And then if someone calls you out to replace a lamp and it's supposed to be, you know, a seven watt, ah, a hundred degree. And you're like, well, I don't have that on my truck. And now I gotta go back to my shop and then I gotta come back and like, that's where you can lose a lot of money because you're not being efficient. And so I figured out ways to actually check the box of being an artist and check the box of being a business that can scale. And it's basically just simplifying your design process. And so it doesn't mean that you can't have exquisite projects. And it doesn't mean if someone's going to spend 100 grand, okay, maybe we make a small variance for them, maybe we'll throw them some special stuff. But I'm talking your regular ten twenty thousand dollar projects that you can throw in in a couple days. You don't want to over complicate these. And so I recommend doing one color temperature. It's usually 2700K or it's usually 3000K. So pick one color temperature. And then you just want to pick like two lamps, a four watt and a seven watt. You can do so much with two 700k and a four watt and a seven watt dot Then the only then the last thing is a four watt and a seven watt is each going to have a 40 degree and a 60 degree. And if you will have that, that's basically four lamps because you have a four watt, that's a 40 degree and one that's a 60 degree. Then you have a seven watt, that's a 40 degree AND a 60 degree. So these four lamps you could do a lot with. And it doesn't mean that you're not going to have a wash light here and there, but even a downlight you could do a 4 watt 60 degree. there's, and I showed some, some pictures which I don't have the luxury right now to show pictures, but you can do a lot with these four different lamps, right? that looks like you're maybe utilizing more than you really are. And it's, it's with, it's designing with intention. So number one, I just want to make sure that you simplify your designs to scale because most people aren't charging accordingly. If you want it to be a masterpiece, like every job you go on you probably have to charge more than $10,000. Because when you start adding up like what insurance is going to cost and overhead and labor and materials, you got to kind of crank out 10k a day if you want to build this efficient machine. And what I found is the artists, they're doing like $10,000 and it's taking them three days because they're so custom and they want it to be perfect. And it's like that's cool. And all it's just you're not going to make any money. That's not a business, that's a nonprofit. So you need to change your tax code. and then the second thing is design with intention. So, you're going to simplify, but then you're going to design with intention. Meaning when you go and talk with your clients and you just show them, like, a picture of a house, they're like, oh, that looks good. And you have, like, one up light on a tree, let's say. Of course it looks good because they didn't have anything to compare it against. But if you show them, a picture of a tree with just one light on it, on the front of it, and then you show them another picture where, like, one's on the left, one's on the right now has, like, a dark stripe down the middle of the tree. And now it looks more 3D instead of like a flat tree. Well, now you're selling with design. You're. You're selling with intention, and you're not selling fixtures. You're not selling a commodity. Now you're explaining why you're an artist. Because homeowners don't know. They don't know what they don't know. Before I got into lighting, I didn't know why you would need five lights on a tree. It's like, that's stupid. Just get one light, flood the house. They don't know. So the problem is we get so educated on what we do that it becomes the new norm. And we assume that everyone has our same knowledge. And that's just not true. And so it's really important that you explain your why. And what's cool about lighting is we don't even have to explain it. We can show it. So as you build your portfolio and some people aren't going to let you. They're not going to spend to have 2, 3, 4, 5 lights on a tree, and they're only going to have one. And that's fine. Like, do it. You're just not going to check the box of being an artist that day. But you're still going to be a successful business owner. So check that box, take a picture and show people what it looks like with one light. And then when those people let you open up the checkbook and they go, yes, we love your ideas. We love what you're doing. Take pictures of that. And then you can show people, like, you like A or B better. And then people are gonna be like, I like B better. It's like, okay, cool. It does cost a lot more money. But explaining your why is gonna help you guys differentiate yourself. And, and like when people say, oh man, people are ruining the market and flooding the market and there's all these low, low price people, like, who cares? Like if you're selling to the right person, that's, that's, that's gonna help you. Because the red flag isn't why are you so expensive? The red flag is why are they so cheap? And you can show them, not just tell, but show them why your proposal and your design is that much better.

We talked about light levels, we talked about how to use darkness and shadows

So wanted to share that with you guys real quick. and I was fired up. It was fun. It was fun to do something new, because normally I host like the sales calls and, and the business stuff and all that. So it was really cool to talk lighting design. We talked about light levels, we talked about how to use darkness and shadows to your advantage. so that if, you know, if you light everything and kind of nothing is special, it's like, oh, cool stuff's lit. but it's really, really cool. I'm addicted to light. I was reminded today that I still am passionate about lighting and I probably always will be. okay, so let's see, where's my background music? Oh, there it is.

Emory Allen offers discounted contractor pricing for landscape lighting installations

Speaking of lighting design, nothing hurts a quality landscape lighting install quite like flickering bolts, bulbs, a yellow fringe around the perimeter of the beam spread or bulbs that burn out after a few on and off cycles. Don't jeopardize your customers experience by using a budget bulb. If you want to go out of your way to provide a world class customer experience, choose Emory Allen. At the end of the day, it's what's on the inside that counts. Take advantage of Emory Allen's world class customer Service and get 10 off your first order. All you need to do is, is just email tomgmrealon. com and he will hook you up. So email tomg@emerald. com mention lighting for profits unless you want to pay more because he will hook you up with that discounted contractor pricing. And they're just, they're just a good family. It's cool. Cool to have their support. They've been supporting the podcast for years now and our events and everything. So go check them out. If you haven't. Tom g@emeryallen. com. don't go to their website. Don't usually some people do and then they just pay more.

Last time I heard you nerd out, you went viral on YouTube

All right, I think it's time. I think Megan's ready. I Know I'm ready. Let's get the intro music coming. Oh, there it is. Welcome to the show, Ms. Megan likes.

How are you, long lost friend? How are you?

Yeah, this is what we have to do. Schedule podcasts together to. To get caught up, huh?

So silly. So silly. I haven't nerd you heard you nerd out in a while. That was. That was pretty nerdy.

Oh, I love it.

You're nerding out about money and, like, more money, and then I'm doing math about how much money. Yeah, that was fun. That was like all about M. Last time I heard you nerd out, you went viral. Do you remember that? And it was like one light versus two lights. I don't know.

Oh, yeah. Yes. That was fun. All I was doing, I was like, hey, guys. It was right before I came out with Lighting Academy. I was like, here's some new stuff I put together. Check it out. There was no intention, but, like, I just put it out there. And, yeah, the world got pissed. They were like, why would you light trees? Like you're killing the bugs. And I was like, open your door and let the bugs in your house then if you love bugs so much. And I, I kind of got defensive, but I. Not really like, I just. I was having fun.

I remembered just looking at the views. I was just counting. I was like, look at this guy. He's just going nuts. It was great. Yeah.

Ah, it's. I'm a one time Wonder. It was 2 million views. And, since then I get like.

200, you know, there you go. But you are trending in Davis, California this week.

Oh, isn't that cool?

You're welcome.

Yeah. Yeah, you must have been, you've been promoting, pre. Promoting the show, telling everyone in Davis. Huh?

Huh? To all my friends. Hey, this is like my favorite podcast. I listen to it all the time.

Megan Likes talks to Ryan Lee about how to build profitable businesses

All right, so, so much I want. I want to declare a couple things on today's show, but before that, would you. You've been on the show before, but there's some people that don't listen to every episode. I know. Shame on them.

M. They don't live in Davis, that's why.

Yeah, but they might go back. But for those that don't know who Megan likes is. You want to just do a quick intro?

sure. I'm Megan Likes. I made Ryan be my friend a long time ago in a trade show hallway, when I heard that he was helping people build more profitable businesses. And then he kind of went viral in my, like, Mastermind Chat. And people are like, have you heard about this, this, this thing, it's called landscape lighting, where you can make a bunch of money in one day. And there's this guy who's teaching us how to sell it and do it well. His name's Ryan Lee. And you have like a two name name. It's always Ryan Lee. Not just Ryan, Ryan Lee. yeah. And so I'm an accountant. I love to count money. I love to count money in home, service companies. I also am a window cleaner. I own a window cleaning company. and then I have a bunch of other businesses. I just really love talking about how to find your financial freedom and to build your financial future. And, Ryan and I have kind of paralleled for the past. I don't know, it's been four years now since we did that lock in that one time that we locked ourselves on Zoom for two consecutive days. and I feel like we have a very common mission, which is like, I want you to do more math so that you can charge more. And then people, they get like a little nervous and hesitant. And so then I'm like, well, you need to meet Ryan. Because he doesn't seem to get nervous and hesitant, except for when he's about to talk about Kelvins of Lights. I don't know, that's a, that's a weird look on you, you being nervous about talking about lights. anyhow, and I, and I'm like, so you just need to sell better. And Ryan, Ryan's a pretty good sales guy and he's got some pretty good sales systems. And there's a couple other weird quirks there. Like, you need to know your website address, please. Like, let's just. I always take notes when he's doing his intro. Come on, just look at is it. net, is it not. net? please say it's not. net anymore. We've moved to the few future.

I know I'm weird. It's like I, wasn't available, but I already want the name. Yeah, it's.n et everyone just go to net lightingacademy. net okay. Don't worry. The other ones are dot com. So it's kind of like the redheaded stepchild. It's like, you know, she'll earn her. com over time, but not right now.

Well, and I can't really give him too much because one time he gave me a domain he and I were naming something. He's like, I think I own that one. And they just gifted it to me. So, yeah, Ryan, I'm a fan. He. Huge fan. And I love what we're doing here on the podcast. Talking about money, making more money, keeping more money. yeah. And doing more with less.

Very cool. I love it.

Well, um, you mentioned a lot of really good things. And you're like, when I met you, I was like, whoa

Well, you mentioned a lot of really good things. I. We. We aligned so well. We have. We have, like, this. Different ways to get there. Right? And I. And you're like, when I met you, I was like, whoa. Like, I know. Like, I should do these things, but she actually teaches people how to do it. Right. And that was cool because I was like. And me too. I was, like, taking notes. Like, how do I do that? Like, I've. I know I should do that, but I'm not doing it, so. really, really cool.

How many businesses do you own? Ah, it's fluid

So how many businesses do you own?

Ah, it's fluid. I think the answer is eight today. I have failed many times, so people get so excited about the number of businesses. And my mentor's like, megan, that doesn't count. You shouldn't count that. so I have failed six times in business in the past less than 10 years. so they're not all perfect. They're not all sunshine and rainbow, and they don't all make a shit ton of money, so they're not all over a million dollars. and then I'm like, how do you count it? I mean, if you count it by employees, like, we have about 50 employees across those eight companies. If you count it by profitability, one of my businesses at, like, 75% net profit. M. You count it? Yeah. If you count it based on impact, Like, I have a nonprofit that actually doesn't make that much or net that much, but it helps thousands of girls every year. Like, so it's fluid, but I think technical active registrations attached to the Megan Likes name. Or our parent company is eight today.

That's amazing. So besides the nonprofit, which one. Which one has has become your favorite right now?

Oh, that's tricky. So we just launched a new one that did over six figures in the first 30 days, and that was really fun. Like, that's. That's rare. that feels braggy. But that can't be my favorite because that's, like, the shiny new object. Like, it's like, six weeks old. And, you know, I haven't seen all of the. Ah, Andy, come on, man. This is when Ryan's gonna be like, megan, Remember that time you gave me a domain? Can you go hook me up, please?

Pretty sure someone bought it. And then they're like, I'll sell it to ryan Lee for 9K. because that's probably why it's dot net. I probably looked that up and I was like, nine grand. Like, we don't make that much money.

Somebody did that to me once. They bought NobodyLikesAccounting. com and then they said that they would sell it to me later when I needed it bad enough. And I was like, that's not fair. I also bought, somebody's retired one. Like, they had one. It was Dom. He had one and it expired. And I noticed. And so I picked it up and I was like, someday he's gonna wonder what he's gonna do.

That's awesome.

When you, like, have multiple pages of website domains.

I know. And I. I buy them. I. I think you might be the only person I've gifted a domain to so far. So there you go. But I did think, oh, that's kind of cool, like, over time, because I just always buy them. It's like, just reach out. Hey, I noticed you're doing this. I. I'm sending you this domain. That's a cool gift.

Yeah, it was, it was good. profits to freedom. com was the domain, if you're wondering what it was. So thanks for that, Ryan. That was good. And I love that his brain worked like that. He picked it up a year or two before I needed it. It was great.

Well, hopefully you make millions and then I can just fly on your private jet every once in a while. That's all. That's all I ask.

No, even I always get confused. You're buying the private jet and picking me up because you have a bunch of kids. So, like, you. And you like to fly first class. So, like, you need the private jet first.

Yeah. Yeah.

Megan Likes: One day I'm declaring Ryan Lee and I will do podcast

So, one thing I want to declare before we get. We're going to get into some nerdy. Nerdy stuff.

So nervous with your declarations. Especially when I'm 12 months. Let's see. Go ahead.

I know. So they're like, lighting for profits is awesome. I don't have a. A date. Someone asked me, like, how long are you going to do it for? And I was like, until I'm done with it. Like, it could be next week. I don't know. Like, I'm not. Not saying I'm not announcing anything, but, like, once I'm done with it, I'm like, no. I'm living in this phase of my life where I'm just doing what I want to do. And that doesn't mean every day is awesome and every week there's Certain things where I'm like, I don't want to do this right now, but I do want to do it because I know it's the right thing. but when I'm done, I'm just going to be, like, done. But I want to do another podcast that isn't so specific to Lighting for Profits. And I was like, man, I got this. It's already done. In my head. I already have the theme. I already have the stuff. I already have the things. And you're gonna. You and I, we're co hosts, and we're doing this. It was. It was actually supposed to start nine months ago, January of this year. And I. You know, I didn't. I didn't make it happen, but one day I'm declaring Megan and Ryan Lee will be doing a podcast together. It's going to change the world. It's going to be epic because it's going to.

He already had the name. I think he already had the domain. But this has been an imaginary Ryan Lee plan for a while, so more than nine months. This has been ongoing. But.

Well, yeah, the plan started well before that, but the. The start date was January 2025.

Right, right. Well, someday. Someday. This is his declaration that someday. He likes the idea, of us shooting the shit publicly and having people listen to us. And. And when he says we're going to change the world, I mean, we really are, because they're going to be more profitable and they're going to be happier.

The content we're going to put out on this thing. Because I already have these. You don't know this, but, like, I already have these imaginary conversations while I'm.

Driving in my truck with Megan Likes. Yeah.

And I'm like, so, Megan, what would you do in this situation? And then you talk, and I wait for you to respond a little bit. It's. It's not like I don't allow you the full three minutes, but I let you respond for, like, a few seconds, and then I'm like, yeah, that's totally what it is. And then I. Yeah, so it's already been done. I just have to, like, record it.

That was. That was good. I. I want to, like. Can I participate in one of these imaginary conversations someday? No, because tell me what I said or what I. What you needed me to say in that moment. That is a sign of a good friendship, though. Like, I've called Ryan SOS911 on many occasions. but I don't call him as often now because I know he's Gonna say, he's gonna be like, up, just do the thing.

Or.

Yeah, you said you're gonna do that two weeks ago. Raise your prices. That's what he's gonna tell me.

The solution to everything.

Focus. Stop.

All right, so we're.

We're gonna do the podcast declaration that we're gonna have an imaginary podcast in the future of the two of us.

Well, no, it's not gonna be imaginary at that point.

Right. Someday will be a real non imaginary with real conversations that other people can listen to.

I think it's going to be awesome because you just have a way. You have a better way of like, I don't know. It's going to be awesome.

I. Many times it will happen today. I'm sure I'll be like, so what you meant to say was. Or what you were trying to say was. And then I'm like, yeah, that. Obviously that's already happened to us once since we've been on this call. I was like, so you meant to like. And he's like, oh, I totally did. You're right. I just forgot.

Megan is going to speak at Light IT UP Expo 2026

Yeah. We're announcing, Megan is. Megan likes. This is the first time we've announced this. No. 1. We haven't announced any speakers yet, but Megan is going to be one of our speakers at Light IT UP Expo 2026 in Orlando, Florida. Let the cat out of the bag right here.

I. Wow, what a good idea. I've always wanted to speak at Light it up, and it's gonna be in Orlando and it's gonna be in March. It's gonna be so fun. Oh, Ryan, you're the best. It's gonna be great.

We're probably gonna sell out, in the next 30 minutes. I would say now, so.

Well, if we don't give them any good content except for us shooting the shit, then we're not gonna sell out. So we need to.

Dude, are you kidding me?

What do you like about the window cleaning business? Like what?

All right, I do have some questions, for you. but did you ask, are. Yeah, you kind of did answer. What do you like about the window cleaning business? Like what?

Yeah, I didn't answer, but that is still the same answer. It's still my favorite. I absolutely love the window cleaning business because it's simple and it's developed. Like, for those of you that are listening to this and you're in grind mode or you're in build mode, like, it's exhausting and it's hard and, like, one of the ways that Ryan and I became friends is, like, we would have to build Systems together because it takes a lot of energy to put together a system. And, the good news is there are things like landscape lighting secrets that will help you with systems. Right? So you don't have to start from scratch, but it's still really exhausting. And so what I love about the window cleaning company now is we can go to something like the huge convention which Ryan did not go to this year. we missed you very much. but you can go somewhere and you can be like, hm, how, what do I need to tweak? Like, what do I need to focus on? And it's these little tiny tweaks. And those little tiny tweaks can add up to like significant differences. for us, we're at like a 35% gross growth rate this year with these little tiny tweaks. And I love that. Like, I just, it's fun because the people are there, the clients are there, the systems are there. But it's not perfect. We're not like sailing off into the sunset. I'm still doing stuff, but, but it's fun stuff and it's stuff that makes a big difference. And now we're impacting other people's lives.

What are some tweaks? Like, what are some of these small things you do that compound and apply leverage?

Ryan Haskell says keeping your business simple is key to success

So I loved your fun fact of the week this week. And what I heard you say was keep it simple. What I heard you say was just try to productize this custom solution that you're giving. And I feel like more of us could listen to those first 14 minutes again and really hear it. we're headed into Christmas light season and I know in landscape lighting you're like, either you love it or you hate it, that's fine. But the idea is like, until you've mastered how to price profitably for roof lines, you probably don't have any business doing trees or bushes or minis or porches or decorations or like the, the. I don't know, I feel like the simple things are the best things. So in our window cleaning company, we have really focused this year on simplifying. So I'm talking about goals. Like how many jobs do we need to book a day? Stupid simple number. But it took us like 45 days of all hands on deck, every single person company just focusing on that number. What is the goal of how many jobs we book a day? Or breaking down a really big annual goal into like bite sized daily goals and then showing people, okay, how do we stack how many days we actually hit the goal? or, like, getting Even just the KPIs by position. I know that feels different. In landscape lighting businesses, you don't tend to have as many employees, because you make a lot more money and you're a lot more profitable. And that's why I think it's just so sexy and fun, the business that you're in. But for us, like, we need to make it really simple. We're doing this with our bookkeepers at the accounting company right now. Like, how do they know that every day they did a good job? Well, that's my job as the boss, is to give them, like, three ways to win every day. And you know what? That's really freaking hard to be like, because I want them to do. I want them to answer every email, and I want them to, you know, categorize every day, whatever it is that you think that they should be doing. I just have to keep simplifying and get it down to something that we can celebrate. And then we have to take a minute and celebrate it when we. When we hit those metrics. So simplifying. This has been the year of simplifying the businesses and simplifying the goals and simplifying the wins and then staying consistent. I don't know. I feel like, as entrepreneurs, we get distracted by, like, the next shiny object, the next big thing, the next big goal. And no, I. I need to keep it cool and just celebrate. Like, hey, you booked seven jobs yesterday. That was the sixth day in the row that you booked seven jobs. You're amazing. I love you. Way to go. And then I get. I did my thing. Like, I just celebrated them for doing their thing.

I'm. I'm. I'm taking notes, that you said a lot of really good things, but all those things were intentional. I m. Think most businesses, most business owners, we're just running. I m mean, we don't have time to be intentional. We're just like, holy cow, I got to answer this phone call. I got to return this. And then we still go to bed, and we still have 17 things that we didn't get done. So I think when. I know. I used to drive me crazy when I'd hear people say, work on your business, not in your business. I'm like, what the. What the hell does that mean? You know? Well, what you just talked about was a perfect example of working on your business. Like, schedule four hours every Tuesday or, an hour every Thursday, whatever it is. And. Okay, what are you going to do? KPIs by position this week are you going to do daily goals? How are you going to simplify this? How are you going to celebrate someone? I personally suck at celebrating. You know that, right? Because not even just myself, but even with my team. Like, in. In a meeting we had last week.

I had like, I will shake Ryan. I'm like, stop it. We are not moving on to the next conversation until you give yourself a pat on the back or you give me a high five or you do a happy dance. Like, as entrepreneurs, we are like, we crush a goal. A big, big. Haskell. Like, a big goal, and then we're off to the next thing. And it's just exhausting. It's a grind. You gotta take a minute and be like, holy cow, I did a thing, or, holy cow, they did a thing. Right. It was a big thing.

Yeah. The problem is we. I. I don't know. I just assume everyone thinks, like, me. I know that's not how it is, but there are a lot of people that think like this, that, like, our team will know when something's like, everything's good, and unless if you hear from me, then you know it's bad. Right? That's how we. That's how we manage. Like, the natural person manages, like, no. And they're like, well, am I doing good? Well, of course you're doing good, because if I'm not yelling at you, you're doing great.

I. No news is good news.

Yeah, that's exactly it. That's like the default manager style right there. And so.

Trevor: Creating a culture of good job is incredibly important

But when you get intentional and say, you know what? We're going to celebrate the things, we're going to celebrate, those Daily wins, the KPIs, and we think we don't need that because we don't. Like, as entrepreneurs, you don't need that. Otherwise, if you did, you wouldn't be an entrepreneur, because most of the time, your life would suck because you can't celebrate a lot of stuff at first, you know?

So we think as entrepreneurs, like, we respond to, like, well, challenge me. Tell me I can't. Right? Like, that's how. That's how you're going to get me to go. Not, like, by saying, good job. Like, I don't even hear the good job. It, like, default filters out. I can't even hear the good job. But our people are not like us in that way. The people that choose not to be entrepreneurs, that choose to, like, trust us with their careers and with their families and with their mortgages, like, they really care what we think and they can't read our Minds. And they want to know that they're doing a good job. And they deserve to know that they're doing a good job. And I agree it's hard and exhausting and painful, but it is so necessary. And, and once you create a culture of good job and not just. We're not talking about like, you know, baloney, pat on the back, like, hey, man, good job. No, we're talking about like, very explicit being like, I see you, you did this great thing. And man, what a difference that made. When you tell somebody that it's the best thing. And then when they start telling each other that, it's so fun. It's not, it's not, I'm gonna say native. It's not like they're not born doing that. You have to breed a culture of that. But you, I mean, I think, Ryan, you're a sales guy. Like, sales countries, they, they feed on this stuff. It is all energy and mojo. Like, the better the energy, the better the mojo. Like the better the sales numbers. And it's, it's contagious. It's. But you know, bad cultures are also contagious.

Well, I screwed up here too, because when I hired my first salesperson, again, I expected him to be like, me, like, I don't need. You could never tell me, good job. I'm still going to dominate. Like, this is not something I need. And so I'm like, just thinking in my mind, she's killing it. But I wouldn't say, dude, you're killing it, bro. Like, let's go, let's go celebrate, you know, because like, not that I'm trying to not say those things, but yeah, you find out, wow, these, these, these sales guys are very emotional. They, they, they, they thrive on that.

They're kind of fragile. They're a little fragile. They need like a lot of affirmations, but I don't have time, patience, or like the maternal instincts to give those affirmations. So where we've built systems is we show them how to know they did a good job. They can self reflect every day if they did a good job or a bad job. And then we tell them that they need to tell us that they did a great job and we just create this culture of winning. Like in our WINS channel, you can brag on yourself. That's a lot. You can totally do that. And you can brag on other people's, yeah, Trevor's saying that fragile is accurate. I mean, I think we all are fragile at some level. And we're all a little bit sensitive at some level, and yet we like to pretend like we're not, especially men. No offense, but I don't need that. I'm like, yeah, but you light up when I say great job.

Hold on. This is not going the direction. No, we're not talking about feelings. Let's move on.

Move on, move on. Next.

This is not. That's a different show.

Cultures feed on positive energy, and it takes a lot of energy to start them and build them, but once you do, it is so contagious. It's just amazing. It feels great. It's a culture of winning.

I think Trevor should go to therapy. Just saying. Okay, is that.

So how did you get your business? I'm in this, like,

So how did you get your business? I'm in this, like, I'm in this, like, mindset recently of like, what in the hell is taking you guys so long? When I say you guys, I mean everybody. Like, we. We stay in the. The, the work hard zone too long. Like, I gotta sacrifice. I gotta. I gotta grind. Like, people just get. Stay stuck there. What's. What's the key? And I know some of these things are the key, like create KPI's position, like, create culture. Then you can replace yourself. But, like, is there anything else? Or is that. That just, like, how do we get to have this business that runs without us doing the grind?

So you and I have talked about this a little bit. I think it comes down to you. And this is definitely me thing. a lot of things shifted for me mid year last year. It's been about 15 months since I started to feel the shift. and, there are people that I've actually paid a lot of money to that would probably argue it started maybe 12 months before that. But it's been an evolution. And the problem is me. It's always us as leaders. I kind of got addicted to fixing it because it. I'd get the dopamine hit every time I was the guy that did the thing. And then, you know what that turns into. The bottleneck.

Yeah, you're the fixer.

but we love. I mean, that. That rush of like, I did it, you know, like. But then m. It's the whack a mole. You. The bigger my companies grew, the more companies I started, the more things there were to fix. And, you know, I then became that linch point. And it. Yeah, it's tricky, but I feel like when we say what's taking it so long is usually us. And I'm in a couple of companies right now. I'm in A couple of partnerships and, like, we build up leadership teams. Like, I invested in leadership. Probably too early. I'm learning this year that I forgot. I just skipped the whole management training part of investing in my teams. I just promote people to their highest level in confidence. And I'd be like, what's wrong with you? You're a great technician. Why can't you manage people? And then I'd like, through tens of thousands of leadership development dollars at them. And then I'm like, what's wrong with you? You're a great leader. Why can't you manage people? And now it turns out it's like the simplest thing. You just got to teach them how to be a manager so that they can manage other people and then they can go be a leader. Weird. So basic. but this idea that, like, ah, I lost my train of thought. I don't remember what the idea was, but it was good. It was in there somewhere.

It sounded. I mean, I was like, yes, yes, keep going, yes. And then you're like, wait, I forgot. well, you talk about developing people and you, you fast forwarded them to leaders when you forgot to train them how to be a manager first. And we're talking about how to get. Get out of the. The grind phase. And we're the weakest link. Like, how can we do it faster? How do we accelerate time? And I think you're right. Like, I'm a. I know I'm addicted to chaos. Like, I like to be the fixer. So, like, when everything's running smooth, it's like, all right, I'm going to self sabotage. I'm going to do this podcast with Megan so that I have less time to work on my main business, because then something will break and then I can solve it.

Which is why I told him no, like, five times. Which is why it's a hypothetical imaginary podcast, because it was just a distraction, which he did not need. but I do. I love that we both like the idea of it. but, yeah, I think that that's absolutely true. The self sabotaging is the worst. I feel untethered. I feel, completely unnerved when nobody needs me. It's like the weirdest sensation. And what it really means is, like, my business is thriving and it's running and everybody knows where they're going. And it's not about me, it's about them. Right? Like, now they have everything they need to go be successful. So I've been trying to shift the mentality. I don't have the right Words yet. I don't have the right thoughts about it yet, but something like, I'm stealing from my people when I do their shit right? I'm stealing from my people when I'm, when I get, when I meddle, when I'm like messing with their stuff. That is me not being a good leader. That is me not being a good boss.

Andy says being an owner of a business is robbing from your team members

That is me not being a good owner. That is me being an enabler. and I think it's just, yeah.

I think I like, I like the verbiage there. You're, you're stealing or you're robbing from your team members. I think like Andy, Andy's thing here is like, you know, the standard thing is like, we're good at a technician and then like, wait, now you got to tell me to be owner operator? Like, I don't, I just want to be technician. It's like, but you, you did start a business like, like you are here, so what do you want to do with it? And I think we're doing an injustice. I don't think it's fair to us, I don't think it's fair to our families. I don't think it's fair to our clients and for sure it's not fair to our team members. If we're not going to invest in ourselves, if we're not going to invest in the management, training, the leadership, it's like, just shut it down and go work for someone. Because you're taking on this responsibility, you're taking on this big obligation to serve these people. And it's like, if, pick, pick the route, like if you want to stay small and just do everything yourself, that's fine. Lots of people have done that for a long time. But then you're going to complain a lot like, oh my gosh, you know, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad. Or you can make that decision to go to that owner status, which an owner of a business doesn't deserve to put themselves through the. Not paying themselves for months at a time and having employees walk off a job on a Wednesday afternoon and clients giving them one star reviews, like, it's, that's a little too much chaos to be addicted to, really.

Yeah. And there I, I remembered the train of thought that I, like, was missing, which is I, once I build these cultures of, excellence, once I build these winning teams, I actually have to develop faster because they will outgrow me. And once they outgrow me, then they will leave me. And that kind of defeats the whole purpose of Having developed them. Right. So it's like, it creates this urgency. And I've seen it in every one of my companies at different levels. But if I do not develop fast enough for what that company, like doing 100k in 30 days, some of you might be like, yeah, whatever. Ryan Lee taught me how to do that in my third month. But for me, like, that was kind of the first. Yeah, it's a lot of money. And, and it's scary. It's intimidating because I'm like, this is going too fast. We have to develop our systems faster. This is a brand new from scratch business with no infrastructure. And so our first call was to a coach. Like, that's what we did. First investment was somebody to help us figure out, okay, what's our first system we got to put in place so the wheels don't fall off this bus. Because I've always said that making money is the easy part. You got people like Ryan over here teaching us how to sell it. Like, that's the easy part. Keeping the money is the hard part. Keeping the family is the hard part. Right. Keeping the time. Freedom is the hard part. The money is actually not the hard part. You're listening to this and you feel triggered. I'm sorry, I'm not discounting how hard you're working, but I think if we go back to the first 14 minutes of this episode, we over complicate things just for the sake of overcomplicating things. It's quite simple.

I know. I just want people to move faster. I, I just genuinely feel this, like, compassion.

We're back there. Just move faster.

It's just like, I, I, I don't know why, because I'm normally not a compassionate person, but I genuinely do. I'm like, gosh, it doesn't have to be this hard. Like, it can be more simple. and we already made Andy. I think it was something you said. He's now quitting.

Definitely my fault. Andy, I'm sure we can find a guy that would be happy to hire you and you can make a lot of money. It'll be great. Don't worry. It's not in 75% of businesses fail and most of them are going silently bring up. They're not even like, intentionally failing. I failed six times. That's something I'm now starting to bring into my story because I'm like, we need to normalize failure. It is hard. What we are doing is hard. It is not sunshine and rainbows. And you probably feel like you're going as Fast as you can, and you're maybe even going backwards. And that's normal. That's part of the process.

How do landscapers go faster? That was your question. How do they go faster

All right, so here's. Here's a good question for you. I. I feel like landscape, lighting, secrets we have.

We can't leave them there. How do they go faster? That was your question.

How do they go faster?

Yeah, how do they go faster?

So I was just gonna ask you.

Great. Okay.

Right. I don't want to move to the next topic until.

Are you gonna answer it? Am I gonna answer it?

You are. This is all about, Megan, Great.

I'm going to say start where you are. So if you're frustrated or if Ryan's frustrated with you that you're not going fast enough, you're not going faster. Usually we get ahead of ourselves. So start where you are. Keep it simple. Lowest hanging fruit. Every day, when I'm making decision and I've got a million people trying to get my attention in a million directions, I just think about what is hurting the worst right now. Where do I need to put my energy? What can I fix the fastest that will make the biggest impact? And I do that. And then we next day started all over Groundhog Day. Right. But if you. If you're fixing things long term, not just putting out the fire, like, I let a lot of fires burn all day, every day. Lots of things burn, and I just pray that they don't burn, down the whole house. Right. But I just. You got to go through it. Okay. Biggest impact, lowest amount of work. Usually impact has to do with dollars. Right. Do that. Fix it permanently. Like, build the system, fix it, move on.

I think that strategy is genius. In certain instances in our businesses, we're trying. Right?

next thing.

Love it. You know, it's actually. It's funny you mentioned that, because there's a ton of fires happening right now in. In Utah. And when they fight fires, I am not a fireman. I just watched the news one time, and this is what they said. So just go with me. They. They like the fires there. They actually don't try to put it out. They're just trying to prevent it from spreading. So they'll go and make the lines around it, like, hey, you know what? If it burns this, who cares, as long as it doesn't come down here, because then that will kill people. Right? So that strategy, I think, is genius. In certain instances in our businesses, we're sitting here trying. We're throwing buckets of water on it, hiking up and down the mountain, it's like, dude, just let the thing burn. Like, it's. It's not really as damaging as you think now, if it comes over here, you're gonna need to call some backup. Call Megan, call Ryan. Like, we're going to have to build a line here, because that cannot come down here. But for the most part, a lot of these fires can burn. And then I really like how instead of putting out fires, like, spend a day, spend an hour, spend a month, whatever it is, what can you do and build in your business, in your system, in your whatever, to prevent the fire from happening in the first place? Because now you solve it one time for the next 10 years instead of solving it daily for the next 10 years. Love it.

rewind that. if you're listening to this, not live, and listen to that again. That was so good.

Emory Allen: I really want to ask Ryan about budgeting

Okay, can we go on to the next thing? Because I really got to ask you this. This is probably the reason, other than the fact that I wanted to announce you're going to be speaking at Light Up Expo, and we're going to be doing a podcast together in the short. Sometime very soon, within the next.

Right now. We're doing a podcast together right this minute. Look at us manifesting our dreams. Good job, Brian. Yeah, thanks, Emory Allen. You're the best.

Hashtag emerald tom gmarylen. com okay, so here's the deal. This is what the other. This is the real reason I wanted to have you on. And I didn't know it until we started talking because I didn't have. I didn't have many notes for today's show, but I feel like Landscape Lighting Secrets has done. It's, like, awesome. Like, people come in the program, they'll literally make a hundred grand in a month. Like, it'll do crazy, and, like, they'll have, like, really cool stuff. But then this is where I haven't solved yet, and this is where I need your help. Like, three months later, they could be, like, broke. And I'm like, what? You were just, like, telling me how awesome it was and, like, how you made all this money and you did all these cool things, and then all of a sudden, they're. They don't have as much money. And so how do we not just make money, but how do you help people keep it? Because I'm like, hey, hire your replacement. Like, get an office manager, get a salesperson, get a gm. Like, do all the things. And, like, I think that's true, but I think a lot of times people don't know how much to spend. I don't want to say the B word, but they don't know how Much to spend. You know what the B word is?

I don't.

You're a finance nerd.

What is it? Oh, budget?

Is that what you're saying out loud? The B word. Okay. They don't know how much to spend on certain things and at what rate. And so, like, they'll go make, like, a hundred thousand dollars, 200,000. We've had people have three, four, five hundred thousand dollars a month, and then still, like, a couple months later being like, all right, what do you guys do for this? I'm like, what, you? How do you not know that? Like, how are you broke? So can you help us? Can you help us keep more money?

Well, you're gonna think I'm a jerk, and I've already cussed, like, four times on the podcast. I'm sorry, Emory Allen and listeners. but it's really more simple than we let it be. We try to overcomplicate it all, but here's how. You don't run out of money. Ready? You charge more than it costs you.

Okay. Interesting concept.

Isn't that so weird? Like, but we over complicate what it costs us. I was speaking. I just did five speaking engagements in seven days in two countries, in three states, and I had a guy in one of those classes, and luckily, I can't remember where I was or what my name was by the end of the seven days, but he was, like, arguing with me about the cost of his storage unit. And I'm in the front of the room, and he's in the back of the room, and we're talking about, like, I don't know, price per square foot or something related to pricing. And I'm like, you've completely missed the point. You complete. If we need to allocate, like, every hour that that storage unit is being used or not used or that office being. You've missed the point. The point is you have to charge more than it costs you so that you can be profitable. And it is our obligation, our responsibility to be as profitable as we can be, because otherwise, we should just go be employees, right? We have. We have to get rid of this dirty word of making money as evil or bad or greedy. No, if we're going to be employers, we're going to, like, let our people trust us with their careers and their families and their mortgages and their kids, colleges. I've made Ryan cry now. be profitable. and the way you're profitable is you just got to know your numbers and you got to set your pricing. Right? I really Think Ryan's dying. I'm worried.

Like, doing that was beautiful.

Okay. and then the second part of that is then you have to be disciplined and not go blow it all on stupid crap. So charge more than it costs you and then don't spend it on stupid crap. I think we could just put that on my tombstone and I could die tomorrow and I change the world and reduce the business failure rate. Right?

Yeah. Ah. So direct quote, be disciplined and don't blow it all on stupid crap.

Yep. Megan Likes, period. And. But. But. And then we can take it seriously. Like, I own an accounting company. It's called Likes Accounting. We help home service businesses with their numbers. And, our guarantee is if you work with us, you will have double digit net profitability. You will be double digit net profitable within the first six months when you stick to your budget. So we're gonna not call it the dirty B word. We're gonna call it the budget, the badass budget word, because it is the answer to all of the problems that you have, and it's actually quite fun.

As entrepreneurs, we hate being told what to do

As entrepreneurs, we hate being told what to do. But if you could shift that mindset around the budget. What I love about the budget, what I love about it is it's actually my permission to spend money. I just choose in advance how much money I'm going to spend next year. How many cool trips am I going to take my leadership team on? How many new trucks are we going to buy? How many new computers are we going to buy? Like, a budget to me is just letting me decide where I'm going to spend my money instead of waiting to the end of the year being like, holy cow, where'd it go? I worked so hard, there's nothing left. Where'd it go? So I don't know. Soapbox over, but you all need a budget. I can do it in less than eight minutes. Actually, in Ryan's top secret group, that's not that secret. There's a budget workshop from Megan Likes, where we do it in like, eight minutes. It's fantastic. You should just join the group and then watch that budget workshop, and it'll change your life. And we learn that profit is not what happens at the end, we actually plan for it. The expenses are the plug. And that's the whole point of the budget is we figure out how much can we afford to spend, and then where do we want to spend it? And then we spend it with a smile.

I, should confess. We actually changed our program so when people join, what we do is we Sell them. We have this really cool budget workshop. It's $15,000. But the good news is you get all this other stuff called landscape lighting secrets for free.

Amazing. I love that. Good thing you gave me domain. Otherwise I'd be mad at you.

Yeah, yeah. That's why. I mean, but seriously, would that not be worth it? Would you not spend 15 grand to, like, unlock this freedom and this pipeline of success for the rest of your career? Of course it'd be worth 15 grand. Like, literally, that training you did for us is worth 15. So we just sell that as 15,000, and then you get everything else for free for a year.

I was, negotiating with a guy that's kind of playing hardball about a proposal I about. And I was like, it's okay. Like, I totally understand, but here's where I'm coming from. The last time I did this at scale, the guy made $90 million in. In six months by sticking to his budget. So we're cool. Like, you can just not pay that little bit of amount, whatever it is, to join your program. Fifteen grand, like, for a budget that could make you so much money. And it's hard. I. We're not discounting. That's not hard. It's only hard because you haven't done it before. It's only hard because it's scary. But, the actual, like, doing of a budget, it's quite easy. That's why people like me exist, to make it easy and fun.

Megan: A budget is not limiting, it's empowering

All right, so I'll say the. I'll say the word budget. And here's. Here's what I. I learned from you, which I think is really cool. I'm just going to restate what you said, because I like to do that.

I blacked out, so I have no idea what I said. Please.

so the budget is. Is very much an empowering thing instead of a limiting thing. And I think most people don't want to do a freaking budget because then it limits them and says, okay, how much do I have to. Oh, yeah, I can only spend 60,000 on marketing this year. And I'm like, no. actually, when you do the budget the right way, Megan's way, it can be whatever you want. Like, it's so cool. You can literally do those vacations. You can do whatever you want. You just design your dream life. You design your dream business. And so people. Like, when people say. When I. They'll say, well, it's not in the budget. I'm like, duh. then put it in the budget. Because a budget is not limiting, it's empowering.

I change the budgets for everyone in my companies almost every month. Every. Like, it's not perm. You don't set it once and forget it. Like, we have a budget meeting for every company every month. It's a requirement. And we change the next month budget because we didn't know what we now know. Like, if we do the budget in October, we don't know what next February is going to look like. But when February is over, we can make adjustments for March and the rest of the year. It's, it's dynamic. I never. Oh, I'm going to say it out loud and I'm going to say emphatically with that same conviction, but I don't miss goals because I set smart goals, realistic goals, and I build plans to hit my goals. Like, this is not rocket science, guys. You just got to be disciplined. And sometimes it's not sexy and sometimes it's boring, and sometimes it's lame, and sometimes your people don't need you. But I make a shit ton of money and I'm pretty happy. Like, it works. You can do it.

I love it. So you guys guarantee double digit net profit in six months.

And when, when they stick to our, budget.

When they stick to the budget and you guys. And so I like the. You do it monthly or how often do you revisit it?

M. Every month.

Every month.

You should look at your budget every month.

I do that too. I do. I, I do that too. Trust me.

Yeah, I'm sure you do. But see, Ryan likes money. We're in a race to private jets. I mean, he likes his money.

It's fun. It's, it's a, it's fun.

Trevor: Take control of your business by changing your budget

So, okay, so you do the budget. To me, it truly is abundance versus scarcity. You know, people view it as a scarcity. Like, oh, now I can't have a much, but that's why I'm such a, a, fan of raising your price. I mean, people know me for saying that now, but it's like, true because like, I can change my budget. I can change all those variables real easily. Like, you know, you say, oh, I'm going to spend 10, percent of revenue on ad spend or whatever. It's like, well, I can, I can spend the exact same dollar amount and change the percentage down to 8. Watch this. I just raised my price, right? I just increased my revenue. Like, so there. It's. You're not fixed. It's not this like, vacuum that we live in. We totally get to control our business. That's why we're business owners. Like, we own it. We can create our own rules. We can create our own economy. That's the glory of this whole thing. That's what's supposed to be. We're supposed to have freedom. We're supposed to have fun. Yet we end up being trapped. We let the budget run us, we let the business run us, and that's the disaster that we create. So I'm hoping people are taking notes on what you're talking about and really implementing this stuff.

I hope they also feel triggered not to call you out, Trevor, by let them. Because as entrepreneurs, we don't let anybody do anything for us. So what I heard Ryan say was, just take the power back. You can do this.

Love it.

And we're rooting for you, like, in our imaginary future, things that we do together, like at the Light it Up Expo, which is not imaginary. Or in the group that you get access to the budget for, which is not imaginary. Or in the past podcast episodes. we're rooting for you, and we believe in you, and this stuff works. You can do 100k in the first 30 days. Ryan will show you how. He. He doesn't have any secrets. He will. He will help you get there. You just got to be disciplined. You got to do the work. You gotta stop getting distracted by shiny objects.

Is, that. Is that a hint? Okay. It's so fun, though.

I know.

Oh, wait till you.

Leave them in some sort of positive place. Where are we leaving them today?

No, I was going to leave them with, like, let's chase shiny objects. Let's go down the rabbit holes. Let's get crazy. Let's not get focused. Like, it's so much more fun.

This is why we're never doing a podcast, isn't it? Yep.

No, it's gonna be. It's gonna be epic.

Megan Likes: Your number one asset in your world is your business

no, let's leave them with, m. I got 48 more questions, so I gotta pick one. I. I don't know why. Well, let's do this. You. I want you to kind of finish off. Just give some advice to your past self. Five, ten years ago. What do you wish someone would have told you when you were younger in business? Something that you know now that might seem simple. Maybe it's not easy, but maybe just some final advice for someone who feels stuck. Maybe they're struggling. Final advice.

This is going to hurt. So if you're not sitting down and you're listening to this, maybe sit down. If you're driving. Maybe pull over. This is going to hit you right between the eyes. Are you ready?

I'm sitting down.

You are sitting down. your number one asset in your entire world is the business that you hate and are fighting against and are robbing. If we were to, like, look at your personal balance sheet and your money as a person, for your family, for your financial future, the number one asset that all of us have, that all of us are sitting on, is that business. And we do not treat it like an asset. We do not treat it like an investment. We do not treat it with care and love. Instead, we steal from it. We take from it, we neglect it. We get mad at it. And so I wish somebody would have told me that earlier. I wish they would have been like, When I think about the Megan Likes retirement plan, the number one way to sail off into the sunset is actually that business. And if I treated it with more respect, if I took it more seriously, if I listened to what these people were saying and actually implemented, because the listening doesn't do anything. You guys just wasted 1 hour and 21 seconds of your life unless you go take action. You got to go take action. And so I wish somebody would have told me that, that this. This thing that we're doing right now that we're building is real, and it can make a real impact for our kids and for our spouses and for our parents and for our communities and for our employees, families. And so it's time to stop digging around. Like, go.

Yes.

I wish somebody would have told me that.

It's so true. I mean, it's, I would just. I have to almost remind myself of this. I should remind myself daily, but it's more like weekly, probably more like monthly. Just like gap in the gain. Like, we should be. We should really be grateful for what. What we have. And, like, these businesses are these huge assets, like you said, so that's cool.

Well, And we don't know how to value it. So if you're going to take it seriously, this is the action item. write down your personal balance sheet right now. How much cash do you have? How much investments do you have? How much is your business worth, and how much do you owe people? And we don't know how to value our business, so we don't know how to put that number on the balance sheet. But here's the thing. In your monthly family budget meeting, which I have one every month with my husband, you should also be reporting on, did your assets go up or go down. Did your actions this week increase the value of business or decrease value of your business?

Well said.

That fixes it. Yeah. So it's a good litmus test. I wish somebody had told me that. So now we've told them. And go grow your businesses to serve your family, because this stuff's hard, and we're here to help you.

Okay, thanks so much, Megan. Really appreciate you sharing everything. Looking forward to the future. Podcast together. Go do it, guys. Take Megan's advice and, learn from her mistakes. that's the fastest way to learn. That's not even from your own. Learn from others. So thanks a ton, Megan.

It's true.

All right, guys, I gotta take my daughter to dance, so you guys should go do stuff and implement

All right, guys, I gotta take my daughter to dance, so you guys should go do stuff and implement. Love you all. Oh, hey, how do people get a hold of Megan?

on Facebook, Megan likes I'm there and likesaccounting .com I forgot to.

Yeah, likes accounting. Guys, go check them out. Hire. Let's go.

Megan: That was awesome. I appreciate you, Megan

Yeah.

All right. That was awesome. I appreciate you, Megan.

I appreciate you.

I think it's.