Lighting for Profits - Episode 265

James shares his journey from owning a painting and power washing business to leading teams in technology and business development. Drawing from his experience at IQVIA, Sageworks, and LiveSwitch, he discusses leadership, sales, customer experience, and the lessons learned from working with startups and Fortune 500 companies.

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Episode Transcript

Welcome to Lighting for Profits.

All light. All light. All light.

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

All light. All light. All light. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the number one, the number one outdoor lighting show in Asheville, North Carolina. Guys, today is a good day. It's gonna be an awesome show. We've got the CRO, the chief revenue officer of Live switch, James Hatfield. And we were kind of joking around. I was like, wait, what's a CRO? Don't worry, this guy knows how to make money, which is why he does what he does. Got a lot of business experience. And so it's kind of one of my favorite topics. I get excited when we get to talk about making money because let's face it, a lot of business owners out there are not making a lot of money or at least not keeping a lot of money. So, um, going to be really, really cool. James Hatfield, um, got, he's, I think he's nominated for beard of the year, which is cool coming up as well. So super, um, cool, dude. If you're looking to start or grow an outdoor lighting business, today's the day. This is the episode. We're here to educate, to motivate, to help you dominate. So, uh, excited to have James on and he'll be on in just a few minutes.

Expo Tickets And Classes Offer Valuable Business Growth Opportunities

A couple things. Uh, number one, Light it Up Expo tickets are on sale now. Go to lightitup expo .com. check it out, guys. Um, you might be wondering, why are you promoting it so early? Well, um, it's March 1st, right? One through four. March 1st is a freebie day. It's included with your ticket. It's pre show classes for landscape lighting, holiday lighting, permanent lighting, outdoor audio. And so, um, these classes last year filled up and we had some people complaining. Oh, I thought it was included with my ticket. I'm like, I know it's full. So I'm just telling you right now it's first come, first serve. Um, there you don't have to get your ticket. You could wait till, you know, the day before March 1st, but you're probably going to miss out on some things if you wait so highly, um, highly recommend. Get your ticket now. It's going to be an epic show. We've got, um, 40, I don't know right now we have space for 43 vendors. This next week. Actually, uh, I'm taking the team down to Vegas because we're going to like, redo the whole room because we have so much demand for tickets and vendors. But we're so, we're probably about 50 vendors planning, um, on around 500 attendees. Uh, we're going to have speakers, we have breakouts, um, workshops, all this stuff to help you grow your business. So, so excited for that.

Coaching Resources And Supplier Training Support Outdoor Lighting Businesses

And um, the other day I was talking to someone and they go, hey, I didn't know that I listened to the podcast, but I didn't know, realize that you had a coaching business. And I was like, what? So I'm just here to tell you guys, landscape lightingsecrets. com. you, yes, we have a community coaching. We do all this training. We have resources around growing your business. Sales playbook, marketing, pricing. We have coaches that help with design, installation, um, with recruiting, with your numbers, with marketing. Like so many different things. If you want to get on a call with me and I can give you the quick rundown, Landscape Lighting secrets. Com. I feel bad cause like I'm a marketing guy so you should know these things that. Which means maybe I'm a bad marketer. But I get so distracted. I'm like, just, you know, jam out on the podcast. So check, uh, out Landscape Lighting secrets dot com. And uh, we're in the holiday lighting season, so hopefully everyone's being safe out there. Um, and everyone's, uh, you know, having a great fourth quarter. Quick, ah, shout out to Lights for Decorators and owner Jimmy Tompkins. Jimmy's, uh, become a good friend of mine. He does a ton of trainings. Um, that's one of the things I like about Lights for Decorators. They don't just sell you product. They really want to help you grow your business. So he'll help you know your numbers, make sure that you're actually growing a profitable business. They got tons of free training, support, all that stuff. So check out lights for decorators. com and hey, guys. And again in just a couple of minutes, James Hatfield with Live Switch.

A Costly Truck Repair Becomes A Lesson In Customer Experience

This, uh, this is a cool company, guys. Um, and we're not. It's not just a sales pitch or anything like that, but we are going to talk a little bit about the technology that they've developed and it's, it's incredible. But James is an awesome business guy. He knows a lot about sales. Um, he's got, he's had a really interesting background in home services and kind of in the, uh, bigger, um, business space as well. Um, before we have him on, I got to share one thing real quick. So, uh, it was three weeks ago. Um, I finally had a couple days where I could take my truck in. Actually, I dropped it off on the way to the airport because I was going out of town, and then I was going to pick it up when I came back. So I've got a diesel. And, um, I couldn't really find someone here locally, but, like, right around the house. But I basically paid $2,500. Okay, $2,500 to prove something that I've been saying for years, okay? And, uh, most businesses don't have a competition problem. They have a customer experience problem. And the scary part is there's a good chance that you, in your business, are making some of the exact same mistakes in your business without even realizing it, okay? And so here's what happened.

Unexpected Card Fees Make A Routine Service Transaction Feel Worse

Like, um, I've got a diesel. It's got about 70,000 miles on it. And I knew it was time to get some maintenance done, but I started to get, like, the lights, the indicator lights. Like, wait. Service doesn't really tell you what it is. And then all of a sudden, I see another one. It's like, IC coolant level low. So I Google that and find out what that is, and I take it in, and, uh, no big deal. It's friendly on the phone. I take it in, no problems, okay? But here's where it got interesting. When I go to pick it up again, I told you I knew it was gonna be around 2,500 bucks. They called me and they said, hey, here's what we recommend. What do you want to do? I pretty much did all of it, so. All right, we'll get it done. Um, I go to the counter, go in the store. I go to the counter. He goes, hey, I'm sure I. I'm sure they told you about our 3.2% credit card fee, right? And I'm like, no, what? They didn't tell me that. Um, and he's like, well, yeah, I mean, if. If. If you don't want to pay that, you can just do cash or. Or a check, but, uh, if you use credit card, then it's 3.2%. And I'm like, guys, come on. Like, why. Like, why are we doing. Just. Why not just put that into the pricing? I mean, on 2,500 bucks, I think it was like. It's like, around 80 bucks, you know? So it's. It's not like. It's not like I'm not gonna get the work done over 80 bucks, but it just. It just was weird, you know what I mean? Um, and I'm not gonna, like, be like, you know what? I don't have 2,500 cash. Let me come back in a couple days. So I'm obviously gonna do the credit card. It made me feel like I had a choice, but I didn't.

Missing Tire Rotation Documentation Undermines Confidence In The Shop

You know what I mean? Um, and they might be the greatest oil changers in the history of diesel oil changes. Um, they might be, like, the best mechanics in the world. But now I'm irritated. Like, I thought, hey, this is great. Drop my truck off, pay the thing, get the maintenance. I'm good. But now all of a sudden, it's just one little thing where I'm like, I'm sure. I'm sure they told you about it, right? I'm like, what? Just charge me. Like, I don't need to do this. Like, why? You know, so that one little thing. Now all of a sudden, he gave me the printout. He goes, here's your receipt. And I start looking at it because I'm thinking, okay, now my radar's up. And I look through the receipt, and I notice it doesn't say oil change. I'm, um, sorry. Uh, tires rotation. Um, because I was getting, like, the differential fluid done. Like a bunch of stuff, right? But I said, hey, make sure I get the tires rotated. And I didn't see it on the receipt. And so I said, hey, did the, uh. Did the guys rotate the tires? And he looks at his paperwork and he goes, yeah, yeah, it looks like he wrote it down. And I was like, well, that's the paper when I came in that the guy who took my order of all the things that need to get done, like, he wrote that. But that doesn't mean that they actually did it. That's just what I asked them to do. Um, and he's like, no, I'm sure they did. Um, I'm like, but. But it's not on my receipt. And he goes, oh, well, it looks like you got it for free. It's your lucky day. And I'm like, well, hold on here. Like, I'm not lucky. Like, I'm. I. I didn't come to get lucky. I just came to get my. Like, these things done. And one of the things, I wanted my tires rotated. And, um, now I don't know if my tires were rotated because you're saying that it was written down means it does, but it didn't get on my thing. And he's like, well, yeah, but, you know, we're not going to charge you. I'm like, I know, but I would rather pay and know that my tires got rotated. Like, how do I know? I don't. I can't go look at my tires and Be like, oh, yeah, like, I didn't put, like, a number on them and see if they were rotated. Like, I just have no idea.

Poor Vehicle Handoff And Persistent Warning Light Break Trust

So that's number two. So I'm like, well, okay, I, uh, just gonna believe the guy. So I pay the bill. He hands my. My keys, and he goes, hey, man, you're good to go. Your truck's just on the north, uh, side of the lot there. Uh, if you have any problems finding it, you know, just. Or getting it out, let me know. You know, we've been stacked lately. And I'm like, okay, so just go around the north side of the building and find my truck. Okay? And again, like, you know, I've been to other places, uh, where they actually, like, pull the truck up, um, maybe walk you out. And I. I'm a grown man. I don't need another man to walk me out. I don't need them to pull it up. But you know what? Uh, I don't really want to walk around the north side of the lot. Okay? And so I walk to the north lot, and there's no truck. There's lots of trucks, but not mine. So I keep walking. And now we're on the west side of the lot, and I find my truck. So I'm like, okay, not a big deal. And I open up the door, and what do I find inside? You know, they put the paper in there to keep it clean from the oil and the grease and stuff like that, which I can appreciate. I mean, uh. Ah, that's great, right? But now it's still in there. So now I got to throw away this nasty paper that they've had their oil and grease, and I get to grab that. And what do I do with it? Do I just keep it in my truck? There's no garbage around. How do I throw this away? Um, maybe I'm just being a little B. I don't know. But, uh, it just kept stacking up, right? So now I got this garbage I got to throw away, and there's no garbage. And then I start my truck. And I start my truck, and guess what? The light comes on. I see coolant level low, and I'm like, oh, uh, man, what are we doing here? So I drive to the front, and I get out, and I go inside. I said, hey, um, uh, is this normal? Like, the light's still on? Is. I mean, does it need to be reset or something? Or did you guys do it? And he's like, oh, yeah, no worries, man. Um, that's just normal. It's just Part of the. How the code works. You need to start the truck six times and drive it 50 miles. And I'm like, okay. But it. You know, it still says, so anyway, now, it's been weeks. I promise you, I've driven my truck more than 50 miles. I have not kept track of the mileage, but I know it's been 50 because I've been to the airport several times. I promise I've started more than six times. And even as of today, this morning when I started up, I see coolant level low. Oh, uh, super frustrating. So now I'm wondering, like, do I. Do I need to take it somewhere else? Like, how much work did they actually do for that? 2500. There's really no evidence. I don't. I don't believe them anymore. The. The trust has been broken, right? And normally you don't know. You don't know if the tires were rotated. You don't know if the oil was changed. I mean, you just believe them. You just trust them because you trust them, right?

Simple Customer-Focused Improvements Can Make Businesses Stand Out

But here's the lesson I want you to take from this real quick. It's not that hard to win in business, you guys. I mean, if you think about it, like, none of the things I just told you about and complained about it didn't take an incredible amount of talent. Like, you don't need a college education. You don't need a certification. You don't need to spend thousands, tens of thousands of dollars on some fancy marketing. Um, you just need to, like, give a crap. Like, just start thinking about your customer, right? Um, what if they would have just built that credit card fee into the price and just said, hey, man, here's the total blah, blah, blah, and I paid. You know, what if they would have just actually confirmed that the tires were rotated and had a checklist? Um, there's another oil change. I think it's Jiffy Lube or whatever. When you go get it done, they have their checklist, and they go through and they actually upsell you tons of items. Hey, we checked out your wipers. They look like they might need a thing. You want us to check those or no? Hey, we saw your air filter. Like, they have a checklist. So it's like you feel whether or not they did it, you don't actually know, but you believe them because there's a checklist. In this case, I didn't believe these guys. What if they just would have pulled the truck up to the front? What if they would have removed the paper floor mat? I mean, all these Things. What if they would have just reset that light so I didn't have to, like, go back now and schedule a visit for them to, like, reset the code? Right. What if they just said, hey, man, we. We really appreciate you trusting us with your truck. Everything's done. Here's what we took care of. Here's what you need to go know moving forward. Here's your checklist, right? And that's what I'm seeing about business. Like, it's not that hard to win. Like, there's so many businesses that aren't answering their phones today, they're not doing what they said they're going to do. Because, you know, being great at fixing trucks again, they might be the best. I might have gotten, like, the best oil filter in the world. I have no idea. The best fuel filter, like, all this stuff, right? But I don't care. Now I'm like, I just don't feel valued as a customer. And the same thing is true in your outdoor lighting business.

Outdoor Lighting Excellence Requires Clean Work And Excellent Service

You might be the greatest lighting designer in the world. You might know everything there is about beam spreads, color temperatures, voltage drop, the fixtures, the transformers, the connectors. Like, your. Your installations are just on point, but you can still screw up the customer experience by not answering your phone, not following up, showing up late, leaving trash on the property. I remember one time I had a customer, we spent late. He spent like $50,000 with us and the lights. Trust me, our guys killed it, right? It was. Looked awesome. But I got one picture, and he texts me a picture of his hand with a bunch of little wire clippings. You know, when you strip the wire, bunch of little wire clippings, like a screw, some staples, like some. Just some small stuff. And that's what he focused on. So now we weren't taking care of. We weren't worried about the customer experience. We left some trash on his property, okay? And so I see people doing this all the time. People are worried about their competition, they're worried about the economy, worried about getting more leads. All these different things, right? Um, meanwhile, you're overlooking the simplest things that would make a huge difference in your business. Make your customers your raving fans. And they would love doing business with you, getting you referrals. Repeat business. That's how you build a business, okay? Because if you're spending money to acquire a customer and you're just getting one thing out of them, it's. It's hard to scale. But when you can focus on the lifetime value, you can kind of spend unlimited money to acquire new Customers because you're increasing lifetime value. Okay? So just remember, you're not just in the outdoor lighting business. You are truly in the customer service business. You just happen to design and install some really freaking awesome lighting. Okay? So, um, learn from my $2,500 investment, I'm going to call it, so I feel better in this learning moment. Um, and take, uh, care of your customers. Don't just be great at lighting, but be great at business. And, uh, don't make your customers walk around to the north side of the lot, which happens to be the west side of the lot, and leave trash in there. That's my rant. Hopefully, um, you guys can take something away from that. But seriously, like, be in the customer service business. Your future self will thank you.

Sponsor Message And Guest Welcome Set Up The Business Conversation

Okay, um, hey, you guys know this. Friends don't let friends install garbage lamps, okay? If you want less callbacks, you want that better customer experience, more referrals, more repeat business, then just stick with Emory Allen. Emory Allen makes premium LED lamps for lighting professionals who demand the best. So don't settle for less. Upgrade your designs, installations with Emory Allen. Um, all you need to do is email jacksonlryallen. com it's jacksonlmeryallen. com and he will hook you up. Just mention that you heard about him here on Lighting for Profits, and he's got your back with that discounted contractor pricing. All right, guys, it is time. I'm super stoked. I told you we got an awesome guest. So let's get the music going and get our guest coming on the show. Welcome to the show, Mr. James Hatfield. What's up, James?

What's up? Uh, Ryan, thanks for having me today, man. M Appreciate it,

man. I am stoked to have you. I love talking business. I love talking revenue. Chief revenue Officer, how to grow businesses. So we're gonna have a lot of fun today. Thanks for taking time out of your day.

Oh, uh, yeah. Looking forward to discussion. I think we're gonna have some interesting things to talk about, even based on your monologue in the beginning. There so much liquid gold in that story.

Oh, man, I can't help it, you know?

James Shares His Contractor Background And Live Switch Mission

Like, it's just like a disease now for me when I go and see things where they're either optimized like, crazy good, and you have those experiences, and you're taking notes like, dude, I'm totally implementing this. Or the opposite, and you're just like, man, like, why are you guys doing this? Like, why are you making me work to be your customer so hard? Well, do me a favor. Just do a quick introduction of yourself, um, of who you are and what you do and what's going on.

Like you said, Ryan, chief revenue officer here at Live Switch. Uh, but that said, I'm a contractor at heart. Um, my father built the house I was born in, my grandfather built his house. And, uh, I grew up working my hands. And I used to own Painting Power Washing commercial residential contracting company and thought I'd do that till the day I died. And then my whole life changed when I got fell into technology. And we'll talk about that. But current, uh, company, uh, we bought this company six years ago and we specialize in live video. And we help you skip the trip in the truck or that callback or seeing what someone else is seeing. Kind of like the new school version of an X tell walkie talkie. And we wrap everything we do in AI to save your hands on the keyboard. Because I've never met a contractor who likes typing on the keyboard. So, um, we'll talk all about it, but we, we've got an interesting approach to customer experience. And speed, delete and race to the face is what I like to call it.

Okay, very cool. Well, I'm excited to, uh, dive into that a little bit and kind of let people see a preview of what Life Switch is and how it can help them. Before I get there, I do want to ask you about if it's okay about like, your contracting business.

Accounting Education Leads Contractor To Build A Successful Technology Company

Because I remember when I started my lighting business, um, I thought that that's just what I would do forever too. Like, you just kind of, you just kind of like, well, this is what I do and I make money and like, why would I do anything else? And then usually something happens to that changes it. Whether it's, you know, a partnership, economic, clients, whatever it is. What was it for you that got you out of that painting business? That. Because then all of a sudden you had like a 180. Now then you're like this home tech wizard and sales training and all this other stuff that had nothing to do with home services. How did that even happen?

Well, I went to a little person called my bookkeeper, my accountant. They'd speak English to me. I wouldn't understand a word coming out of their mouth. I was like, I don't understand this person. And I knew it wasn't good. I mean, I just need to know, can I make payroll and is there a little bit left over for me to feed the family? Like, that's all I really need to know. But there's fancy language I don't know if anybody else listening can relate, but sometimes we nod our heads, acting like we know what someone's saying. Meanwhile, I'm like, I got no clue

what

they're saying. So I decided to go to business school with some focus on accounting while I ran my.

Oh, really?

Companies in my cruise. I did in the evening. Yeah, I did it because I just. I kind of felt like I didn't want to be in that situation again, especially around money. Um, and I just wasn't taught that. I mean, my grandfather taught me how to do home services, and that that's what I was good at. I was good with my hands. Um, but I needed. I saw a hole, right? Like, sometimes we need coaching, right? Sometimes we need training. Sometimes we need some extra help. And, uh, sometimes you just got to go the extra mile, right? I could pay for the bookkeeper. They were happy to take my money, and they still did. Um, but I just knew in my heart that that was something I needed to do to attack. So I did that. And that changed everything for me because I met my current business partner. We've been together over 23 years now. And he was going to a little school called Duke University, getting his mba. At the same time, a guy named Tim Cook was who just stepped down from Lean Apple Computers. But my business partner was working on a little thing called AI although we didn't call it AI 23 years ago. We called it an expert system. We could literally take my income statement and balance sheet from my accountant, run it through his program, and it would tell me in plain language how I was doing first. That was

23 years ago,

huh? Uh-huh. I didn't even know the computer. I just thought what he was doing was witchcraft. I. I couldn't.

That's so sweet.

I was like, what are you doing? How are you doing this? And I love it. And you're solving the problem I have as a business owner. And he looks at me and he's like, can you sell it? I was like, well, I don't know if I can sell it. I don't own a computer. I got an XTEL walkie talkie. I played paint guns and water guns, and I still use the carbon copy white, pink, yellow sheets, and, you know, get referral business. Like, I don't know if I can sell software. Like, geez, first of all, I think I gotta get a computer. So. But when I believe in something, I don't know if you're like me, like, I'm throwing my weight behind it. I Was like, this will change where I come from. And so we took that company from nothing to Inc. 500 for three years, one of the fastest growing companies in the country. Eventually we sold it to private Equity. She's a $6 billion company and she runs all the banks in North America. So that kind of worked out.

Openness Networking And Sharing Expertise Create Unexpected Business Opportunities

That's crazy, man. Yeah, that's so cool. Thanks for sharing. I mean, I, I, uh, It just goes to show you, like, you don't have to know. Like, did you know that you were going to start that company and grow it to Inc. 500? And like, at some point maybe you started to figure it out, but, like, there's no way you could have known that. You were just trying to go get a, uh, financial education for your painting business.

That was it. That was it. And then life has a way of throwing you sideways sometimes. I just believed in it, you know? Like, I was like, this will change. Like, I can typically see, see things that, uh, will come in the future. Like, um, People call me like a futurist. So like, sometimes I'll speak English to people now and they're like, yeah, I don't believe you. Like, I don't know. Like, no, no, I can see it so clearly so that I could see well, I could see clearly is how it could help people in my chair. Like, I, I just knew it because I experienced it. And so that gave me the drive to go and build. And I'm a big thinker now and I, I wanted to change where I came from. And we did.

You know, it's. It's just cool to hear because I'm like getting inspired a little bit here just on like, not exactly what you did, but like how you did it. Because when I ran my lighting business, I was just like, head down, work, make money, go home. Like, I was very like, just blinders on. And I feel like I would have been so much more successful had I been like a little bit more open to like, what else was happening in other markets and other industries. And I have a marketing degree. I have an mba. And I was just still head down. And you know, it makes me think like, uh, we just launched our own white label version of go high level called Luxio Lab. My partner in that business was someone I met when I joined a mastermind and I was receiving coaching, a $40,000 coaching program. And I met him there. And then you kind of keep in touch. I had hired him to build funnels and stuff like that. And then all of a sudden, now we're business Partners. Um, meeting you was directly from another mastermind I was in that I met some friends and then all of a sudden they refer and then they're friends with you and then they like, like all these things happen. And so I'm hoping people listening just realize that like, you don't have to know why you're going to go to the event. You don't have to know why you're going to register for the webinar. Like whatever it is that you're thinking about. And, and you don't want to just do shiny object syndrome and just go to everything. But if, if it feels right and you, you might get value. Like, go to it. And you just never, like, be open minded. Don't just go to be like, okay, I'm gonna go take notes. Like, it might be in the hallway that you meet your future business partner like me. It might be starting a business help starting a business that goes on the Inc. 500 and has a freaking awesome exit. And then now you're doing something totally different. So that's cool.

Yeah. I think the value and the gold nugget you're talking about, Ryan, is the value of networking and putting yourself in places where you could meet somebody that could become your business partner, could become your biggest customer, could become a vendor that you need or a coach that you need, or you just, you, you can't catch any fish if you don't have your line in the water. You know what I mean? And so, and there's ways to do it now digitally, that I coach a lot of people. I used to have, once upon a time, a million followers in fantasy football and did radio shows with Tiki Barber and Google because I just put myself out there. Excuse me. I, uh, just random aside, but this little website came out called YouTube and they started putting cameras in the laptop. And I'm, I got data driven, right. I went to school for accounting again, so I got to learn data and stats and numbers. Well, I started watching football by the stats and I started saying beating the snot out of people because I was really good at picking up people on the waiver wire. So I was like, I wonder if I can just try this little YouTube thing. I'll put myself out there. And who knows? Well, the first couple videos, nothing. Well, the fourth video explosion. Well, the New York Times put my video on the New York Times.

That's sick. And

that was my entryway into becoming very famous in fantasy football. But I, I had to put myself out there. Kind of like you are right now. Ryan, you're putting yourself out there, trying to change your industry, trying to help people. I just want to help people in that case, when fantasy football. But it can be. Take a lot of courage to put yourself out there or just stick your hand out and say hello, or digitally share something that you've learned, right? You go and you learn something. Don't be a dead end, like, turn around, like, hey, guys, like, check this out, you know, or document what you're doing on the job. When you're putting in awesome lighting. Do before and afters. Take film videos of your guys doing the work and put it out there and connect with people. Hit the connect button. You don't have to message everybody. But when you give and you learn and you give and you learn and you give, telling you, I don't care what industry you're in, it'll change, uh, change your bottom line and top line and your checkbook. And you don't even mean to. You're just trying to add value wherever you're planted.

Love that message. I love it. I, again, I feel like I. If I would have heard that, you know, 15 years ago, whatever, I probably wouldn't have heard it because I would have been listening to the podcast. I just didn't have that mind, but it just wouldn't have made sense to me. Now I've. I try to live that principle. Like, the more I give, the more I get. You can't explain it until it just happens, you know, and you just give without thinking about receiving. It just happens.

Plan For Freedom By Documenting Processes And Replacing Yourself

Um, so you talk with. I mean, you've helped a lot of, like, small businesses. Um, if you were to get back, let's say you're in it, put yourself in the outdoor lighting industry, right? And you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm partnering. And you and I were partnering on a business like now with AI and just like the world that we live in now, um, what are some things that you see a lot of people either missing out on or doing inappropriately or incorrectly that, you know, this is. This is what I would double down on.

People sometimes live in the moment, right? Like today, have enough. Has enough trouble of its own that they don't think about the end of the movie and then work their way backwards. Give your desire at the end of the movie. What is your desire? Everyone's might be a little different, right? Um, but let's say the end of your desire. At the end of it, you. You'd like to exit, build a great company that you'd be proud of leave a legacy. How do you get there? Right. And how could you even exit? So you need to roll it to what you're doing today. And so there's a book recommendation. I don't make a dollar off this book. In fact, uh, I've been recommending this book, and somehow the author found out I was recommending it another week. Um, but it's so good. It's required reading. Um, for me. Like, if I was gonna coach you or if you wanted help from me, I'd say you need to read this book first before we even talk. It's called making money is killing your business. Okay. This book you get on Audible, you should listen to it, read it multiple times. It's going to teach you how to do this thing called freedom. So if you're running lighting company right now and you haven't done this thing called take a vacation, I don't know if you've heard of it. It's a weird concept.

No, we've never heard of it. Yeah, tell

us. Some business owners have never heard of. What is this vacation you speak of? This is where you actually get to walk away from your business for a period of time, and then when you return, you don't find a dumpster fire. It actually continued to run. Well, you need to learn how to free yourself. And we start there by documenting all of our process, putting names next to each one of the steps on the process. Unfortunately, you're probably going to write your own name a lot. All right. But then we're going to work towards removing your name and learning how to fire yourself. I find a lot of business owners. If I became your business partner, Ryan, and when the lighting, I'd be working so hard to make myself redundant or to fire myself as fast as I can, because I would be hiring the right people and scaling the business to remove myself so the business could run on its own. I like to actually operate and own a business, not make myself a job.

Yeah, uh, we're definitely aligned there.

Training Delegation And Patience Help Owners Escape Operational Bottlenecks

What do you say to the person who says, well, I, I, I've heard that. I know that. But I've, I've tried hiring, and they just can't do it as well as I can. And it's like, it's just faster for me to do it than spend time training this person that then probably isn't going to do it as good as me, and I might even let them go six months from now.

That person will never sell their company for a real good money, and that person will never be able to take a vacation. And I feel bad for them because they're struggling with a thing called pride. When you say that you can do it better than everybody else, then you are not in, uh, a coach's mentality. And the truth is you probably can do it better than everyone else. But if you could teach someone to do it 90% as good as you can, and in some cases they will do it better than you.

I know. Yeah,

I know you think you're special, but your mama thinks you're special too. But you're not. Like your ability to transfer and train and coach up and lead and yeah, you may have to go through 15, 20, 30 people to find that. But imagine if you just had kept going rather than stopping and then you did find that operator who loves the business, who own, you know, maybe you're giving them the title of, maybe they become the CEO, maybe they run the show, maybe they're the chief operator. Right? You will be infinitely happier owning a business like that than a business that you're the key m man or key woman of. Uh, that is a unbearable. And many people do it. But you have to do the hard work first, which is actually not finding the person. It's writing down everything you know into your process, everything you do. And then we start to go higher and give them those who can be trusted with little, can be trusted much. You start firing yourself from different parts of your step by step process. But you need to pause, take a timeout and write all that out. And yes, it is painful.

You know, you know what's interesting? I, I've had this realization in the last maybe 30 days. Over the last couple years. I've met, uh, uh, I've either met or seen behind the scenes of different companies and met people that are like, pretty dang successful like from a financial standpoint. Okay. And like, the more you like kind of get to know them and see like who they are and stuff like that, it's like, it's, it's kind of like the less impressed I was, I was like, wait, wait, what? Like you're not, you're not smart. Like, you're not smarter than me. You're not like, better, like, wait, what's going on? And I, and I had this realization. I'm interested to hear your thoughts. I feel like, so like I, I, I judge those people against like people in my community who I'm trying to help, right? And the people in my community I'm like, super impressed by. I'm like, dude, you guys are like freaking like There's. They're wicked smart, they're talented, they're drive, they work hard. And I, and I had this thought that, you know what it is? It's like their ability is actually the thing holding, like, because they can do the thing. They do it. And it's like if, if you cut, if I, uh, It's like you, you took your arms away and you actually just couldn't do the thing, what would you do? That's what these other people who are like, more financially successful have done. They're like, no, I, I don't have the. I, I don't have the ability to do this. So they just hire, like you said, they just hire people to do it, and it's like, takes off and like, they're super successful. Whereas, like, people in my community, they like, they're so good at what they do, they. They have the ability to do so much and they take it all on themselves. I'm like, guys, it's your blessing and your curse at the same time. Is that. How do you feel about that?

Oh, it's a curse. It's a, It's a curse.

Yeah,

it's a curse. It's not a blessing. Um, people to fish is so much better than giving a person a fish, right? Once a lifetime of fish, others one meal. And that's how you have to look at your business. Like you. It might take a while to teach someone to fish, might take a while to teach someone to do the work that you're doing, but the payoff is worth it. So you have to endure that and use this little thing called patience, consistency, and step back and let. Give people the opportunity to fail.

Yeah,

that's hard. That's hard. But you know what? Because you're there, you can step in when you need to. And now you can spend more time with the most important people, your customers. That's where you can make the money. Once you got your team set free and you got freedom, then you can focus on your customers, which allows you to see how well your product or service is and then translate that back to your team so you can continue to build it and scale it and you know what you want. And you have to understand, like, I want to build, like I built one of America's fastest growing companies before. I'm already on my way to building America's fast growing company now. I've learned principles to apply. And it's not luck, it's. It's a playbook.

Practical AI Should Simplify Work And Give Owners More Customer Time

Let's, um, let's talk AI for a minute. I want to pick your brain. Um, you guys are implementing AI in your own business. It's such a. It's, it's everywhere. Um, I can't tell the difference at times between, like, what is, like, real and what's hype, like, what. I feel like there's a lot of stuff that we should be doing, and then there's a lot of stuff I'm like, that's kind of like shiny object. And tomorrow that's just going to change anyway. How do you, like, what's your filter? How do you determine, like, what you should be doubling down on versus ignoring?

Yeah, I mean, a big part of AI for me is because we sell AI is learning how to make something that'll make someone else's life easier in a practical and tactical way, in a way that makes sense, in a way that's easy. I'm always looking. There's a book I require all my product team and computer scientists to read called simple by Alan Siegel. And, uh, it's all about simplification of everything and that it's a very thoughtful way to build and serve others. And when something is simple and it works and it's easy and it works every time, it gets used a lot. And people really appreciate a product or service in that way. So when we think about AI, it's a big black box. Like, what do I do with it? It doesn't. It's not made simply. It's. It's. You don't even know where to start. For a lot of folks.

Yeah,

right. If you haven't started, I always say, hey, just pick your favorite flavor and play with it. Like when I, when paint sprayers first came out, I had. I knew it. I was like, I'm gonna have to buy a couple of these. So, um, we bought a few because we were doing rolling brush and I'm old, old school, Right. So these paint sprayers were coming out and I was like, oh, we got to get some of these. So we got a couple. And I don't know about you, Ryan, but I don't read the directions.

No, I don't know how to read, actually. Yeah,

perfect. Doesn't even know you need to. So we get in there and we start firing up these paint sprayers and of course they're clogging. We're spraying the roof. We don't know how to shield. Well, it's a disaster for the first six homes. I mean, we are a non profit, but after house six, we're shielding. Well, we're keeping the thing running. We're spraying, right. We're prepping, right. And we're, we're painting houses and two thirds the time. And higher quality, happier customers. So we're making more money. We're putting out a higher quality product. This is similar to where AI Is for the trades. Go. Don't read the instructions. Just go play with the dang thing. Ask the thing what it can do, and that's where you start playing with it. Then what you're going to find is AI Is built in to a lot of the products and services that you've already purchased. I mean, look around. It's. They're building it in so you can't escape from it. So what we've done and the approach that we like to take is I like to make AI the press of one button. I like everything the press of one button. Now, uh, my truck starts with one button, right. We had paint sprayers, one pull. We like tools, as you pro know, in the contracting space that serve a purpose, easy to use and do a great job. So the way that we've approached AI is, well, we're also a video. A video company where you can walk around and talk to talk. And I mean, you've seen the guys with the voice recorders that are walking around and talking and it's recording everything.

Yep.

Super cute, Stone age

adorable.

Now, um, adorable. Well, now you can take this thing out of your pocket. It's called your phone. Right. That has like three to four cameras. And you can walk around and video and talk. And it can do practical things like write your CRM entry, write out your proposal, analyze me as a salesperson, translate this language to any language. Contractors don't like writing on keyboards. So now you just hold it. Talk, speak out loud, hit a button, let the AI do it for you. That's, uh, the kind of AI I like is that somebody has built it with me in mind and my job in mind and that I don't need an instruction manual to learn it. And it keeps me ahead and it saves me the thing that's the most valuable thing, my time.

Yeah, I love it. I like the idea of just like, you, um, know, kind of like not reading the instructions. Because I think what happens is like, people get, uh, the shiny object becomes the tool. Like right now it's like, oh, you got. If you're not using Grokbot, you know, you're a moron or whatever. But I feel like it should be more like, what's the problem and solution first? And then, and then you can find the right tool to, to match up with that,

that's it. And then free yourself for your time to work on the most important things. Right. Um, for me, the most important thing is my customer. Right. So I use AI to free me up for time so I can spend more time with my customer, uh, and get to know them more, get to know my product better. Um, because I find a lot of owners, contractors, business people, we get farther and farther away from our customer and then you end up with a customer experience like Ryan was talking about earlier. That company that was fixing your truck is far away from the customer experience. Right. And if they just did simple things to spend more time and you know, never trust a skinny chef. Right. Like, do you eat at your own restaurant? Are you eating your own service? You know, are you using your own service in this case? And that can change that customer experience and AI Time savings is what we're talking about to get you back into the place where you're going to add the most value or see the things that are going to help you add the most value.

Live Switch Uses Video To Improve Emergency Response And Business Efficiency

Very cool. Well, you touched on live switch a little bit. Tell us a little bit more like, you know, kind of what it does, what, what problem you guys were originally setting out to solve and maybe how that's changed over, over time as you advance and get to know your customers more.

Yeah, so we're uh, we bought this company six years ago. She's a 16 year old company or one of very few companies that do video live and recorded. Very uncommon. And major corporations and companies come to us to build things out like we did the super bowl last four years. If you go to MLB ballpark and scan a QR code, they put some jumbotron. We powered all that like during COVID we powered the NBA bubble and all kinds of stuff. Well, the chief of police in Washington D.C. approached our company to help reinvent our nation's 911 phone call. So the whole idea was how do we tap into the citizens cameras? Now they're carrying two to five cameras around and stream that right to the police car, fire truck or emergency medical so they can see what they're driving into. It's called situational awareness. So four years ago I woke up at 2 in the morning because I figured out, I'm like, I got it. I know what we're doing. The phone has three channels in it. It has a telephony channel when you call 91 1. So when you're talking on 91 1, I can send you an SMS text message that you can now tap on and get into your data channel. And now I can stream that video anywhere in the world. Chief loves it. Loves it. And I go, I wonder who else can use this. No app. You see what I see? And I meet this guy taking care of The Tennessee Titans, NFL team, 20 years in the FBI, doing all our security show, all the emergency response stuff. And he goes, hm, I love that. But stupid question, James. My arena in Nashville is a monster. It's huge. Can I just text my guy across the arena and he can show me what's going on so I don't have to hop in my little golf cart because that would save me a ton of time. And I was like, oh my, this is the Nextel walkie talkie. I ran my entire painting company off of, but for this generation. And so we get into the trades and I meet this really serious guy in the moving industry, like moving families and boxes and all kinds of stuff. And he's looking at my stuff and he goes, james, you are sitting on liquid gold. Like, what are you talking about? It's like, well, the most expensive thing I do as a business owner put one of my hourly rate guys on one of my trucks, burn up my diesel, driving all over South Florida where he was, and the hopes of winning business. Sometimes we go and we give a quote for moving a house. In this case, owner gets sticker shock. I'm sure nobody in landscape lighting can relate to this, but like, they get sticker shock and they're like, ooh, never mind, you know, well, that's that wasted a lot of time, money and effort. So what I'm going to do is when they call in, the lead comes in, I'm going to call them and then go to a, uh, video call as fast as possible with live switch and they can show me the job and I help, see with three things. One, if they're a tire kicker, saves me all kind of time and money. Two, small job or like a callback, I can just take care of it from my office. Or three, these guys got money I'm driving out, they're worth the trip. And I said, will you pay me American money? I love selling usernames, passwords. Well, that was four years ago. And now I got tens of thousands of users all over the world, uh, using this stuff, saving trips in the truck. And we wrapped it on AI.

Video Consultations Speed Sales And Resolve Callbacks With Better Documentation

So let's, let's talk about, like, specific use cases for outdoor lighting. We've got, um, you know, I'll give you the quick rundown of Outdoor lighting. I think you've got some customers, but, um, you know, we're getting called out to like, hey, I want it. I want new lighting on the front of my house, maybe the back. Not sure we get service, uh, calls for existing customers that have lights out. We have, uh, people who have a system that's old and they think they just want maintenance. But maybe we can go and do an upsell for new installations. Those are kind of the scenarios. We have technicians out in the field, owner, operators, salespeople, customers.

Yep. So it's going to be across all that, including marketing, repeat business, job site documentation. Right. So when that lead comes in or that callback or that staff member calls up, you're trying to get your eyes on that project as fast as possible. Because it goes both ways. Right. The customer is evaluating you as an owner because trust, which is what you lost with that truck example, they did, they lost your trust. So we got to build trust first. So that is seeing us, seeing, hey, you got the thing on, you see? And you see them. Because not every customer is worth saying yes to. So I want to actually see the state of their home. I can learn a lot about somebody by that, see the state of, uh, this case, their current lighting system, if they have it. So I can prepare and now I can start communicating to them. You might not be able to do the entire bid right there. No problem. You're determining you're worth my trip. And, uh, it's called race to the face. Let me tell you about this, because everyone's experienced this. The lead comes in, you call, you say, hey, I can be out there Thursday, three days go by, you call up, hey, I'm on my way out to come and give you a bid. Person says, don't bother, I found somebody else. I'm sure this has never happened to anyone listening, but you only lost because of speed. You didn't get a chance to bid, they didn't get to meet you, they didn't get to fall in love with you. You just lost because they just went down the list. Thank you, Google. Right?

Mhm.

So now by you connecting with them immediately when they call them, seeing you, you're starting to get what we call pot committed. Meaning they're, oh, I like this guy, they're falling for you a little bit. Right. And that helps you out the gate and then determine whether you want to go out second. Callbacks, you know, when you're installing and you put things on timers and you know, this is a new system for the people and Sometimes they weren't listening when you were explaining. I'm sure that didn't ever happen either. So they call you. Have you ever driven out just to like hit the on button?

Oh yeah, reset a gfi.

Yeah. So now let's try to reset that gfi. Still giving great customer service. They're seeing you, they're walking around the property and you show them how to do it themselves. Back to teaching someone to fish. And it's all recorded. So now after you're the, you talk to them, you can send that video to them. So if that ever happens again, check out this video and here's the link. And now have you ever been blamed for damage you didn't do? You put in a beautiful lighting system. Now the house is lit up, like in a great way. Well, people start noticing things when you shine light on it and oh no, my gutters were dented

and

you were putting up holiday lights. Well, they're uh, now looking at the gutters because you made it awesome and you lit it up for Christmas. Well, now you can say, hey, before I even got out there, I have a video of you holding, walking me around and your gutters are already dented before my team even got out. We call that covering your assets, throwing that red flag like the NFL. In addition, now I've won the job or I, I'm a senior tech and I got a junior guy up on a roof. They can get help. It's the next tele walkie talkie. It can re be recorded for future training. Future. You can have the AI write out your process for you. You can document all the work to give to a project to give to a customer. Now they got all the work pre post install where you ran all the wires, everything that you won't be able to remember when they call you back out to do repeat business six months later,

uh, you just like threw it in there because you talk about this stuff every day.

AI Video Documentation Turns Experienced Contractors’ Knowledge Into Training

But that was actually huge because earlier when I asked you about like advice for growing a business and you know, getting out of your own way and going from operator, owner, you said, you know, don't just go hire someone. You need to like document the process and make sure that you're like going to give them good training. Everyone hears that and goes, okay. And then they don't do it because like that's not sexy at all. Like, who wants to just go sit down and write out SOPs? But you just solved it too when you just said that like very quickly is like, no, you're you're literally doc, you're just documenting your SOPs and those can be wrapped up and done with AI using this technology. And you're just documenting your day to day. You're not even doing anything different. You're just pulling out your phone. So that's,

that's right.

That's massive.

That's right. And the people that have been doing this a while, if you've been in your industry 10, 20, 30 years, I'm. Please listen to me right now. And I don't care if you use live switch or not. I could care less. You are the best candidate for process documentation ever. Because when you go around and again, 20 years of and you talk, it's different than the first year guy walking around with a camera talking. That 20 years of experience starts leaking out of your head. And as you talk and as you video, you can have the AI write out your process. You just have to talk and walk and video record. Let the AI write out all that boring process document stuff that we're talking about. But getting that liquid gold out of your head and into the hands of your team and your future team, this is what, this is where the practical tactical AI and video can change your life. And so I implore you, 20, 30 year vets, don't say, ah, don't do it. You are the best. Like, I implore you to use this.

You know what's cool about what you're talking about too is like when you, when you talk something out, it's a different language than you, when you type something out. And um, I use whisper flow to like do a ton of stuff now, like pretty much everything because I just don't like typing. But, um, you, you tend to elaborate, you tend to get into a little bit more details and stuff like that. So even before technology was there, I'd go on my phone and on my notes app. When I prepare for a podcast. I'm sitting on my couch usually and I'm thinking like, okay, I got this guest, I got James Hatfield coming on. This is what I like about James and this is where I think we could go. And I'm talking out loud because if I type that my mind naturally wants to type as minimal as possible. Like I just wanted like as succinct as possible because I don't like typing. But when you talk it out, you get, you tend to elaborate. And so that's what I love about your technology is like you get to build these SOPs and not type them out and not make them like the short Man's version. That was not, uh, that was not a dig at a short man. But the short version version. But the actual like this is the detailed process that me as a 20 year vet needs to get done every single time. That's his gold.

And on top of it, it's recorded on video. Because a lot of us love this site called YouTube I talked about earlier because sometimes we are visual. Like some of us can't read it and connect the dots. So now you're going to have it written out for the reader and then you're going to have it video for the visual people. Remember, you're going to have different types of learners in your business as you onboard people and they're going to need different varieties to learn. And so between written out and video connected.

Love it.

It's amazing.

A Quick Game Reveals James’s Sports Preference And Personality

That's cool. Hey, we got to do our game real quick. Uh, I don't know if you. I didn't. I don't think I told you about this, but we've got a little game that we're going to play to get to know James a little bit better. Is that okay? You mind playing?

Let's go for it.

All right.

I don't mind.

It's called you make the call. So uh, we got some business ones, we got some fun ones, but you get, you get to just choose, you know. So this is. You make the call. It's powered by call source if you guys, uh, need help following up. Um, these guys are a US based outbound call center. So you basically get a 50% off your first month. They'll call your last 40 prospects and get them re engaged till they'll call them till they buy or die. So check out call Source, guys. It's try.callsource. com LFP. It's in the show notes as well. James, let's play. You make the call. Um,

you

m mentioned, you mentioned sports. Let's NBA, uh, or mlb.

NBA.

NBA or NFL.

NFL.

NFL or NHL?

NFL.

Is NFL the top? Is there other sports?

Did I mention I had a million followers in fantasy football?

You did. Yeah. I kind of thought, okay,

NFL, man.

All right. NFL for the win.

James Chooses Beach Travel Barbecue And Pizza For Everyday Enjoyment

Um, let's talk vacations. Uh, I give you a free vacation. Uh, you're going to take two weeks on a beach or two weeks exploring a new country or go to the mountains somewhere.

I live in the mountains, so I'll take the two weeks in the beach.

Yeah. Is there a place you've been where you're like, yeah, that's where I'd Go back.

I mean, where I grew up in the outer banks of North Carolina is pretty great.

Yeah.

But I. I owe my wife a trip to New Zealand.

Okay. Uh, have you guys been there before?

No, not yet, but that is. It's on the I owe my wife list for taking care of four kids.

Cool. I like that. I've never been there either. New Zealand. Um, let's talk food. You, um, gotta eat one. Well, actually, before that, Mexican or barbecue?

A barbecue, man. From the South.

Yeah. Barbecue might beat everyone. Barbecue or steak?

Steak on the barbecue.

Yeah. Okay,

I gotta go

steak on the barbecue. Uh, or sushi?

Steak on the barbecue.

All right. Steak on a barbecue. Tailgating at an NFL game. Who's your team? Who's your NFL team?

Carolina Panthers.

Makes sense. Kind of adds up. Yeah. Um, you get to

eat.

You can eat one meal for the rest of your life. What's on the plate? Same meal.

Same meal on a plate Every. This is impossible. Um,

you make the call, man. I didn't say it was gonna be easy. I just said it was gonna be worth it.

That is not easy, brother. Um, just give me some pizza, man.

Yeah,

you can eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I'm trying to think. I gotta eat this every meal.

Every meal. Yeah. I

gotta go, Pete. I gotta go. Pizza man.

All right. I'd probably do that steak on the barbecue thing you were talking about. About, but. All right.

James Values Warren Buffett Small Towns And A Dream Front Porch

You get to, uh. Would you rather have dinner with Elon Musk or Warren Buffett?

Huh? Warren Buffett.

Warren Buffett. You get a million dollars and. But you got to spend it in 24 hours. All of it in 24 hours. Otherwise, it's gone. What are you buying?

Nothing. I'm giving it away. I already got everything I need.

You have to buy. You have to buy something. You can't give it away.

I gotta buy something now. Can't give it away.

If you. If you can successfully spend a million in the 24 hours, then it'll gift 5 million to somebody else. We'll say that.

All right.

You have to spend it.

I get a contractor to do my front porch.

Nice.

Make it dope.

Yeah,

dope. Dopest. Front porch. I'm spending all on the front porch.

Uh, I love that. Just like, if this thing is. It better be badass. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Just like Drew, everyone drooling on it. Might as well just go all out having to spend a million bucks.

Dude, I just had a client tell me they did a. A big holiday lighting job. Christmas lighting. First of all, the job was $60,000. I mean, that's for Christmas lights. That's freaking epic. The customer gave every installer plus the salesperson. So four people, a thousand dollar tip each. And that is what I'm talking about. Like, they, they. Because they can, you know.

Yeah.

It's like, you guys are awesome. You're out here working. They obviously provided a good customer experience, because I doubt he's gonna have the same experience I did with the diesel thing. And it's like, you know what? I'm gonna hook these guys up. Uh, that, uh, just stuff like that. That's why, like, your million dollar front porch thing would just be so sweet.

Oh, it would be sweet for a million bucks. It's like I'd be shining.

Yeah. All right. Um. Is that all I got? Okay. Big market or small town? You're getting back into the, uh, into the trades. You gonna choose a big market or a small town?

Oh, small town.

Why is that?

I like quiet. I like local. I like rural. It's where I live. I love that, uh, I like that kind of customer.

Yeah.

So I want to. I want to serve the people that I want. Like, I like. I don't like big market people. But I'm just saying, small market's my jam.

Yeah, I hear you. Phone, uh, call or text. Follow up.

Oh, uh, for follow up, phone call.

Phone call

all day

and recruit for talent or attitude.

My question sucks. It's, uh, so that's hard. A, uh, talent. I have to go talent right now. Oh, that pains me to say

it is. Yeah. Well, I, I ask it because a lot of people will say, oh, well, you know, don't worry about the talents, the attitude, and all this other stuff. But sometimes that doesn't work.

Yeah. And I'm solving crazy hard problems, so I have to have talent.

Yeah. Very cool. Well, thanks for playing. Uh, you make the call, James. Appreciate it.

That was fun.

Kind of fun to get, uh, to know our guests on a different level. So you're gonna go to New Zealand and eat pizza and steak and hopefully warrant meet Warren Buffett and. Yeah, just chill on the beach for a couple weeks.

And when I get back, I'll be on my melon dow porch.

Yes. Like, that's my kind of philanthropy is just like, providing people opportunity. Like, I. I've never just. I don't get those same thing, like when I just give someone something, but when I hire someone and give them that opportunity and then like, overpay them and stuff like that. Like that. That's my kind of philanthropy. I like that.

Me too. And I did it. I rebuilt a whole 100 year old house. So. So.

Oh, really? Is that where you're at now? That was the house you grew

up in? We were done at 3Kids and the adoption agency called and had a fourth, so we took the fourth and we outgrew that. I touched every inch of.

That's awesome.

My wife cried all the way out leaving it because I knocked that joker out of the park. But anyway,

um, all right, well, as we wrap up here, um, yeah.

Simple AI Experiments Can Help Small Business Owners Find Clarity

Is there any other, any other thoughts you want to share around technology? AI is a big topic. Um, I think, you know, like I said, I think just a lot of, A lot of people out there are looking for not just tools, but things that they could be doing internally. Um, have you, do you got any, like, cool stories or concepts you've. You've heard of how people are using AI in their small business? Just that, you know, kind of a DIY type solution just to help bring efficiencies, simplify processes, things like that.

I mean, with a lot of guys that I, I'm training, I'm like, hey, let's just go to Google Gemini and start talking to it and creating long channels of conversation. Um, because there's so many questions that you're gonna have. I mean, this is in your personal life too. But I'm not talking to the AI whiz kids right now. Right. I'm talking to like the people that are just starting to figure it out. I really think you go Gemini, put it on pro level and just have different channels of what you're talking through and about whatever topic you want, whether it's your business, whether it's a decision you're trying to make personally, whether it's your investments, whether it's anything. And start, just start there. I promise you, it will help you. It'll be unbelievable if you can just, if you just start there. I think that's really most of the audience. That's probably what, where they need to go right now.

You know, it's funny, I bought this AI course. I think I guess I'll call it a course. And uh, the, the lady teaching it, um, had lots of, lots of really cool stuff and whatnot. But then anytime someone had a question, you know, she just said the kind of what you just said. It's like, just ask AI, you know, like, because that's really what you're looking for. It's like when people just have to get comfortable. You don't have to even know what question to ask. Just start talking about it, and then all of a sudden you're like, you know what? This is one challenge. I don't even know if you could help me with this, but this happens every single day or every single week, or this is kind of where I want to be. And, and. And I like that you kind of tie in. What you said earlier is like, most people actually don't know what they want. They don't know really where they're going. And so they. They tend to stay stuck because they're actually not moving anywhere. And so five years goes by and they're where they're at. So I think you could use AI to help you get clarity on, like, what you want, you know?

Yes, yes. And I like it. I like to recommend things that people might actually use, do, and benefit from, because sometimes you get too fancy with it. People just check out, they do nothing, and they're like, well, I'll get to it when I get to it, I guess. Or I ain't going to get to it.

Listeners Can Contact James And Receive A Live Switch Discount

All right, um, I forgot, too. As we wrap up here, we're. You guys are doing an offer for our listeners. Um.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah, Tell. Tell us about that and tell us how people can get a hold of you and.

Yeah, Ah, yeah, um, get a hold of me. If you want me personally, just go to LinkedIn, look up James Hatfield. Like the Hatfields and McCoys and Live Switch. L I V E S W I T C H Reach out. I'll give you time. If you're interested in what we built, go to live switch. com, go ask for a demo. Say you heard about us from Ryan Lee and that you'll get 10% off. Okay, so we've got that for you for listening in today.

Very cool. That's awesome. So liveswitch. com or you can look up James Hatfield on LinkedIn. 10, uh, percent off for all podcast listeners. I will say not. I don't want to make the podcast listeners feel bad, but if you're in Landscape Lighting Secrets, make sure you tell James's team that you are a member because you are getting actually even more of a hookup, which. Thank you. Thank you, James. Thank you, Life Switch team. Appreciate you guys. Um, but don't feel bad if you're only getting 10, it's still 10, you know what I mean? Uh, but if you are in Landscape, uh, Lighting Secrets, make sure you mention that. And, uh, don't lie because they are going to confirm that you're a member. So that's awesome, man.

Strong Vendor Partnerships Complement Coaching And Business Masterminds

Well, thanks so much for coming on here. Um, love what you guys are doing. So cool to see. And I love partnering up, which is why we've done that inside of our. Our, uh, basically our partner program, inside landscape, lighting, secrets, with stuff like this that can really just help these guys. Because, you know, I. Coaching is. Is interesting. I mean, we have, like, you see different angles and stuff like that, but we really need partners like you that can really help, um, increase efficiency and drive, uh, production and. And really help these guys grow. So, uh, kudos to you guys, your team, what you guys are doing. I just. I think it's awesome. So I'm glad to be associated with you guys.

Yeah, thanks for having us. I think for most business owners, having a mastermind group and then a vendor group, the right vendors are. Can be. And I've heard it from that mouths of owners, like, just as powerful as their mastermind group. So the right vendors, not the ones that are just looking to get your credit card out of your back pocket, that's not the right vendor.

James Assigns Reading And Encourages Listeners To Share Useful Lessons

Love it, man. Well, anything else you want to share before we wrap up here?

Uh, a challenge, some homework. One. Read that making money killing your business book, and the challenge is don't be a dead end. You don't even have to share this episode. But go. Ryan probably isn't making bazillions of dollars off of this. He's doing this for his industry because he wants to give back. And don't be a dead end. Turn around and share it somewhere on social or tell somebody in your team about it and, you know, tell them to tune in. So that would be. And you don't have to even do this episode. Please do do a different one.

Nice. That's awesome, man. Well, I appreciate you coming on here. Thanks for your time, James. Thanks for, uh, your friendship and partnership, and looking forward to the next one.

Me too.

All right, guys, take James up on his challenge. Um, I did. I did. I started listening to that book a few weeks ago when you recommended it to it. So I'm listening to that now. Make sure you guys check it out and. And, uh, don't be a dead end. Great advice, guys. Have an awesome week. See you guys later.