Business Innovators Radio - The HVAC Coach: How Michael Johnson Shapes Business and Community

Starting point is 00:00:00 A welcome to the Homepreneur Heroes podcast, the show where we shine a spotlight on the unsung heroes of the home services industry. Join us as we delve into the inspiring stories of entrepreneurs who have turned their passion for serving homeowners into thriving businesses. Our guests share their journeys, insights, and strategies for success. Get ready to be inspired and learn from the best in the business. And now your host, Marco Salern. Welcome to the Homepreneur Heroes podcast, where we celebrate the stories of remarkable entrepreneurs in the home services industry. I am your host, Marco Salinas, and each episode, we dive into the inspiring journeys of individuals who have turned their passion for serving homeowners into successful businesses. Joining me today, I've got a very special guest, Mr. Michael James Johnson.

Starting point is 00:01:14 And I'm going to basically, instead of giving a big, long introduction about him, I'm going to just ask him questions and find out about his story and how he got where he's at today and what he's up to and how he's running his business and all that good, exciting stuff. So Michael, welcome to the Homepreneur Heroes podcast, my friend. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, man.

Starting point is 00:01:37 It's an honor. And you're actually a referral from a buddy of mine who is also an HVAC owner. And, you know, he told me that you're his coach. So Francisco was telling me, Michael knows his stuff, man. Michael's been in the game for a while. And, you know, he's hit that coaching status. So now he's kind of helping other businesses and other entrepreneurs in the same world to also grow their business. So I definitely want to touch a little bit on some of the things.

Starting point is 00:02:08 that, you know, and what you're doing right now in that regard as well. But before we do that, let's go back to the very beginning, Michael, if you would, please. Tell me a little bit about your background and what led you into getting started in the home services and HVAC industry. Sure. So I was actually in the United States Air Force for six years. And in the Air Force, I was in maintenance, right? So I worked on aircraft. And part of my job was, We worked on 300 different types of equipment, completely different types. Heating and air conditioning was one of them. So when I transitioned out, I was looking and trying to figure out which one of these 300 different types of equipment serves to most people in the community.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Right. So I initially narrow 300 down to two generators and HVAC. And then I narrowed that down to HVAC, which serves to most people in the community. Because I always wanted to do something that also helps people, right? There's satisfaction when you get to accomplish a job. Of course, you can earn money for your family, but also you have that satisfaction of, hey, you know, little old lady was freezing. and now she's warm, you know.

Starting point is 00:03:30 And so that was one of the industries where, you know, it serves pretty much everybody. God, man, I love that. You know, I'm in San Antonio, Texas. This is called Military City, USA. Okay. We've got multiple military bases. And I remember where you're at, I think that's where Fort Bragg is, right? Yep, yep, yep.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Because because of the connection with the military here, I hear that name of that base. often because typically there's a lot of back and forth between here and Fort Bragg. And so in San Antonio, grew up with military. My dad was in the Air Force. I mean, we all know multiple people that are in the military here in San Antonio. And one of the things that I find, though, is my own friends, when they left the military, a lot of times they had difficulty adjusting back to civilian life, you know, because a lot of times they did very well with the military career,

Starting point is 00:04:28 but then you come out and it's like people don't always appreciate what, you know, skills you have and what you learn and what you were doing. It doesn't always translate into the marketplace in the private sector. In other words, you know, so I think that's really brilliant the way that you were able to say, look,

Starting point is 00:04:46 I learned these things. Which of these skills can I go ahead and drop into the marketplace that are going to provide the most value is essentially what you do? did. And so, yeah, kudos to you. Kudos to you for coming up with that because that can be, you know, that could be challenging. Now, Michael, prior to the military, did you have any type of experience as an entrepreneur doing any other, you know, any other small business type stuff? No. So I joined. I was 18 years old when I joined. Right. So my big, my big bro, my big brother, who's also here in Fayville, well, he's a little outside of Fayville, but I sort of

Starting point is 00:05:25 or followed him. He joined the military. He was in aircraft maintenance. And when he joined, I said I was going to join. Of course, both of my grandparents, so we have a big veteran legacy in the family. Both my grandparents on both sides were our World War II veterans. Oh, man. My dad is a Vietnam veteran. And so I am in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Veterans. So it's a long, long legacy. But I didn't have any, experience in entrepreneurship, I just started looking forward before I got out because, you know, as a husband, you know, as my wife was pregnant at the time, you have to make plans ahead of time. Yeah. And that's when I started spinning my wheels and saying, hey, what am I going to do

Starting point is 00:06:12 when I get out? What's going to make the biggest impact and what's going to be the longest lasting? Which interestingly enough, Marco, this was 20 years ago when trades wasn't as in the forefront as it is now. Right. So now looking 20 years later, it's interesting that the focus is on the trades because AI and a lot of technology is eliminating a lot of sitting jobs. So we're having an influx of people trying to get into the trades, which is really working out for, you know, employers like myself.

Starting point is 00:06:50 Sure. Yeah. I don't completely understand. It makes a lot of sense. Now, when you came out, Michael, did you, did you work for somebody else for a little while? Did you kind of, is that how you kind of got your feel for how this business works before you launched your own? I did. So I worked for a company for seven months.

Starting point is 00:07:09 Oh, very short. Very short. I'll tell you what happened. So having been in for six years, you know, I had my stripes. I was a leader. I had my soldiers under me, had my paycheck. When I got out, like you said, it's. A lot of times it's hard to translate.

Starting point is 00:07:25 Even if I try to translate it, some civilian, they don't understand. Hey, this guy had people under him. This guy's got six years of doing this. To them, I was just a 24-year-old kid looking for a job. So I went from having a good paycheck to working for $8 an hour, and that wasn't going to sustain me. Right, right. So my story was I worked at the company. and one day, you know, I just woke up and said, I'm just going to do it.

Starting point is 00:07:58 And I pretty much dove into the water from the diving board, not knowing how to swim. I didn't have a life jacket. I didn't have anything. I just jumped in. Yeah, it was a rough couple years at the beginning because I knew how to fix air conditioners. Great at that, not necessarily good at running the business. And that has been my journey. over the last 20 years of learning how to be an owner,

Starting point is 00:08:25 how to take care of the customer beyond fixing their AC that one time. Got it. Michael James Johnson is the owner of, owner and president of the AC man heating and air out of North Carolina, correct? Right. Yep, right here in North Carolina. North Carolina, where it does get plenty hot still during the summer months.

Starting point is 00:08:52 It may not be South Texas, but it does get hot. That's for sure. Michael, what year did you start that business? I started in 2004. In 2004. Wow. Yeah. Okay.

Starting point is 00:09:04 So you've been self-employed for quite some time now. Like you said, 20 years. Mm-hmm. Let me ask you this. In the last 20 years, you've been running this business. What do you think sets you guys apart? Because to your point earlier, right? the trades are a lot more in the spotlight.

Starting point is 00:09:26 And I think another, I'll mention this as an aside, the cost of student loan debt and all that has played a role, I think, if people taking a step back and saying, do I just want to blindly go to college and get into $50,000 of debt? Or should I consider going to a trade school

Starting point is 00:09:44 coming out with little to no debt and making more than the majority of my peers immediately? In an industry that's, you know, industry that's, very in demand, right? So maybe you can, maybe you could kind of touch on the fact that, you know, obviously there's a lot more people that are doing it, but I'm sure you guys have some differentiators. I'm sure you guys have some, something that you feel you're very proud of that set you guys apart from all the other, you know, HVAC companies that are out there. Can

Starting point is 00:10:14 you share a little bit about that? Yeah, 100%. So as you mentioned, we're right here at Ford Bragg, which is actually the name of it now is Fort Liberty, right? So Fort Liberty is the home of the special forces, right? So when you're talking green berets, the airborne, this is home of the 82nd Airborne. Fort Liberty is the biggest military base in the United States. Wow. Period. By land size and by soldier amount.

Starting point is 00:10:42 Had no idea. So, yeah, it's incredible. We have a really rich culture of military, a legacy of military. Now, myself, as a veteran-owned company here in the richest military community, in my opinion, it makes a big difference because I understand my customers, right? So for us, a lot of our policies are built on what the customer needs as military, as veterans, as veteran families. And I'll give me an example, we have a no cancellation policy. Period. So we're not going to cancel your job. And you know how it is when you hire contractors.

Starting point is 00:11:25 They don't show up. They don't give estimates. They don't. And that's tough, but it's especially tough when a spouse is home and one spouse is over in Iraq or Afghanistan or Spain. And that spouse is saying, hey, can you handle it? Now you have a young spouse, maybe a wife, maybe a young husband. And they're handling it by themselves. And that brings a certain level of. stress, right? And my husband's not here. He's asking me to handle it. And contractors aren't showing up this, that since I understand that world, we built those policies around that. Right. So we'll communicate and say, hey, it's no problem. You know, we're going to show up on time. If we have to cancel, it's going to be because it's a hurricane outside. Yeah. And if we cancel, we're going to call you. We're going to let you know who's coming. So you're going to get a text, who's coming to your house. You're going to get a photo of that person who's coming to your house. All this is based

Starting point is 00:12:22 around understanding our veteran and military community. Right. So that's what I would say is number one. Number two, it's not just me saying that. We have over 800 five-star reviews online, right? That says that about us. So being a veteran, knowing that world, knowing what our community needs, in serving them exactly where they need is our biggest differentiator. I love that, man. And you got all the third party recognition to back it up in the form of those of those Google reviews because we can sit here and to our own horn all day long. But at the end of the day, if somebody else is not backing that up and validating it,

Starting point is 00:13:04 it doesn't mean a whole whole lot, right? And so those reviews basically speak for themselves. So yeah, no, I love that, man. That is huge. Now, usually when I meet business owners that have been running a company for 20 years, they're not as involved anymore in, you know, some of the nitty gritty stuff. Occasionally they'll go and get their hands dirty. But, you know, you probably are familiar with this idea of working on the business versus working in the business, right?

Starting point is 00:13:32 I learned that from a gentleman by the name of Michael Gerber that has a book called The E-Mith. And he kind of first introduced me to that concept of you eventually do need to find your way out of the nitty gritty, the day-to-day grind, you know. But it doesn't mean that you can't still get in there and make sure that you're, that you know what's going on, that you're on top of things, that you're down, getting dirty with your team so they know you're, that you're, you know, you're part of the, you're part of that whole equation. But I'm really curious.

Starting point is 00:13:59 I like to ask this question to the entrepreneur that's running the business, especially for a while. Can you kind of walk me through a typical day or maybe a week in your life as a, you know, as what I call a home prenear. Yeah, yeah. So for me, my job as the owner, and I like that you mentioned the e-myth, I'm not even going to get started with how many times I read that book. Right?

Starting point is 00:14:25 Because that's a book you read, then you read it again, then you read again. And basically what he teaches in that book is every company has a technician, an owner, and a manager, right? So oftentimes home service companies. companies, when they're small, the owner is the technician, which is fine, you know, because you're putting your heart in it. But there's no owner who's doing what an owner should do. And that's your question. So for me, my job as an owner is to create systems every day so that the business runs the way I envision it to run. Right. So, and I'll give an example. Our core values spell out the word hero because we're here for a brag. We have our military. military people are heroes. So we have honor. We honor our community. We honor our customers. Excellence. We do

Starting point is 00:15:20 everything in excellence. Reliability. I told you some of the systems are built around not canceling, showing up on time. And then outreach. We reach out to our community. We support our community through initiatives, which is sometimes financial, you know, stuff like that. So a day in my life would be getting up, communicating with the employees, right? Good morning. You know, you do that. You want to have a good company culture. And then after that, I'm going to look and see what systems are working in the business. What's broken? Okay, have we been showing up late? Why have we been showing up late? Is it the employee's fault? Probably not. Maybe I'm not supporting them. What's going on with them? Interview them, build a system, support them. Put that system.

Starting point is 00:16:10 in place. What's next? What's in the business that's broken or not working or what's working really well? Building those systems so that when I'm not there, because this is what happens in a business, right? The bigger the business gets, the further Marco gets from it, the further his vision and his heart gets from the business. That's right. If that happens, that means that Marco has stepped back and he hasn't left things in place for the team to look at and say, okay, well, Marco's not here. For example, I'm leaving the country next week for my 20th wedding anniversary. Okay. Congratulations, my friend.

Starting point is 00:16:51 Thank you. I won't be here. Thank you. So I won't be here. Okay. But what is here are the policies and the systems in place. So when the team has a question or a situation, they can go to that book and say, okay, this is what my wants done. And that's my job every day to create that.

Starting point is 00:17:11 I love it. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. And you're right. Gerber really, really hones in on those systems. And he uses McDonald's franchises as kind of his model as his example, right? Say what you will about their food, what have you. That really doesn't matter. They've got a system that allows, you know, little pimply face kids to basically run a billion, you know, billion dollar operation there, you know? Yeah. So there's something to be said about systemization within your business, whether, whether you're, you know, slang in burgers or HVAC or whatever.

Starting point is 00:17:49 It doesn't really matter. The point is any business, you can implement those strategies and allow you to be able to step away for a little while and not come back to basically an empty parking lot. Yeah. And it's in systems are intimidating to. people because they hear that word systems processes and you say, well, I don't know how to create a system or process. Well, one of the coaches that I work with, his name is Caleb Winager, right? He breaks it down just like this. A system is not hard to create. All the system is, if you sit down like today, if you created a system on

Starting point is 00:18:24 podcast and you're not here and your wife is going to do the podcast or your son or your employee, creating a system is just writing down everything that you did today to set up this meeting. Okay. Do I send Michael an email confirmation? This is how you do it, right? Who do you send it to? This person. So you just write those simple things down.

Starting point is 00:18:46 Who, what, when. That's a very basic system. And then over time, as you implement that and you notice some things don't work, you add to it, you add to it, you take away. Yep. So, you know, it's, it can sound intimidating at first, but really it's just writing down something that someone can read when you're not there. And that's a test on the system. If you read this and you say, if I'm not there to explain this, can they do it? If the answer is no, you need to work on it a little more.

Starting point is 00:19:19 Right. Very true. Very true. I love that. And I think that kind of segues into what I was mentioning earlier. You're doing coaching now. you've been running a business for 20 years. You know your stuff.

Starting point is 00:19:32 You've got your SOPs in place. You know, all these things, right, that are there that a lot of the earlier and younger businesses probably don't have set up yet. So can you maybe give some advice to somebody that's either considering starting their own home service business or maybe they just recently kicked one off? What would you do if you could go back in a time and start your, you know, AC man, heating and air all over again. If I could start all over again and talk to that 24-year-old kid, it would be a long time. First, I would say sit right here and pay attention, right? But I would say

Starting point is 00:20:10 step one would be you're going to build this with the idea from day one that you're going to move out of your way, right? That's step one. Because typically it's not built like that. It's built and I'm just going to start. And if I get enough work, then I'll hire someone. But we have to work. backwards. From day one, I'm going to build this as though I'm going to hire someone on day one. Sure. What that means is you're going to start writing down those job descriptions, right? Day one, what I would do if I'm a small business, hire someone to answer that phone, right? Because we can't work and answer the phone at the same time. And if you really dig into how much it cost a business when a phone is not answered, you will get depressed.

Starting point is 00:21:00 Right. Yes. Right. You're looking at the lifetime value of a customer is very high. And if you don't answer, guess who the, when you don't answer, can you imagine, Marco, in these day and age of Google, they call your company. You don't answer. How fast are they calling the next company?

Starting point is 00:21:18 Right. Maybe less than 15 seconds, 20 seconds. That's right. They're just going to go down the line. Day one, hire someone to answer that phone for you. Step two, start writing down everything that you have to do so that when you do hire a second person, you can just hand it to them. Yeah. Right.

Starting point is 00:21:39 Yeah. That's great. That is good stuff. Yeah. So, do you have, is there anything that in the 20 year journey that stands out to you, Michael, as far as a very memorable experience or maybe a success story that you might be able to share from this last 20 years, that kind of stands out to you a little bit? bit? Yeah, there's a, so I remember I was about seven years into business and I was so completely overwhelmed, right? So I think at that point, I had a seven-year-old son. So right now I have an 18-year-old or 16-year-old and a 10, right? So I think my oldest son was about seven or eight. And I think I had a

Starting point is 00:22:20 two-year-old, something like that. I was overwhelmed because I was fixing the air conditioners. I was answering the phone. I was doing sales leads. I was ordering equipment. I was doing so much. I was working, man, probably 78 hours a week, 70 to 80. Yeah. But guess what?

Starting point is 00:22:39 I didn't have any money to show for it. I didn't know my numbers at all. So I'm working, working, working, broke. Don't know why. Just confused. And I remember I sat in my van and cried. it's one of my most memorable days. I get teared up telling you right now.

Starting point is 00:22:59 I sat in that van and cried. And I said, Lord, I'm tired of just kind of being stressed. I'm tired of trying to do it on my own. And I prayed. I said, Lord, if you will help me, I will stand on faith and I'll walk out on that water. Right. So that was step one. Step one was admitting I don't know anything.

Starting point is 00:23:20 Okay. step two for me was leaning on the Lord. Yep. And then step three was going and find some help. Yeah. You know, who, because it's not just admitting that there's levels, right? Sure. Going out and finding some help to do it.

Starting point is 00:23:36 And that one of the big lessons is right now in 2024, not a day goes by in a business coaching. It doesn't matter who I talk to. And we have clients all over the country. clients in Canada, right? Yep. Not a meeting goes by in 2024 when we don't talk about the leads. There are very few leads in 2024 because of the economy.

Starting point is 00:24:03 People are pinching their pennies like never before. Business owners are scared. They're terrified. But this is what me as a 20-year business veteran, if there's one lesson that you need to know is you need to have tenacity. because with business comes ups and downs. If you think about it, every year is a new challenge. In 2020, what did we have?

Starting point is 00:24:29 COVID. We had COVID. It was the worst thing. We were all thinking this is going to be the end of everything. Right. And that kind of went away. 2021. What happened?

Starting point is 00:24:42 Nobody was working. Everybody was home because the government was paying. Oh, my gosh, we don't have workers. We thought COVID was bad. This is the worst thing in history. This is going to end it all. That went away. And then 2021, end of it, 2022. What happened? Supply chain problems. Now we can't even buy things to do our job. Oh, my gosh, this is worse. And if you notice there's a trend. Now in 2024, there's no leads. Every year brings challenges. Right. So it's just you accept that there's a challenge. I grew up in the family that I have. and I grew up in Los Angeles, big city, we didn't have money, black guy. Every day is a challenge. Sure. When I wake up in the morning, challenge, right?

Starting point is 00:25:29 So with business, we have to accept it's not the end of the world. You're not going to go broke. You're not going to go out of business. You're not. This is just a challenge for you to jump over. That's right. Right. Man, Michael, I really appreciate your humility and sharing and your

Starting point is 00:25:47 vulnerability and sharing that story, man, because that right there is a big part of the entrepreneurial journey. That's usually the part that people don't like to talk about. And then with social media, you know, you only highlight the wins. You know what I mean? So it becomes kind of a facade because it's like all you're seeing are the so-called wins that are out there, which it's, in my experience, it's not even reality. And so the reality of running a business is that you've got some really dark and painful days sometimes, man. 100%. And I've seen it, Marco, this is the blessing for me in my personal life of coming and

Starting point is 00:26:34 being a business coach because I see the back end of these businesses. And I go on Facebook and I see another story. You know, so we'll go on these calls and people will. cry and they say, you know, I'm a $300,000 in debt and I haven't paid my employees in two weeks, but they're hanging on because of loyalty. Then you go on Facebook and they're blowing up. It's the best situation in the world. It helps you as a business owner to say, you know what? There's challenges, but there's also blessings. Right. With it. The blessing as a business owner is you're home with your family. When I was a one-man show, it pains me to this day to hear my wife tell stories about when the kids were younger.

Starting point is 00:27:23 When they went to the zoo and they went, you know what, Marco, I don't remember them. You know why I don't remember them? I wasn't there. Right. So there's struggles in business, but there's also blessings. Yes. When you're free to say, you know what, hey, guys, can you handle it? I'm going to go be at the zoo with my kids.

Starting point is 00:27:41 right. And then when they need to be at the zoo with their kids, you handle it. You know, so it's, it's a back and forth. But yeah, you're 100% right. Yeah, but you know what? You touch on something really important. And this is the homepreneur heroes podcast, right? So it's the preneur aspect of that. Why do the majority of us get into business for ourselves? Mostly because we're actually looking for the freedom. We're looking to be able to get to that point where we got the time freedom because that's the part that we all share the exact same amount of, every one of us have the same amount of hours to share. We could make lots and lots of money, but we'll all still share the same amount of hours and time. And so, you know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:28:25 Being an entrepreneur is about having that freedom and flexibility. What they don't realize is what we had to go through to get there. You know what I mean? It's a sacrifice. I'll tell you a story. Please. So, and that's why we talk about, and if you look at my background, I have a book called Start With Why. The reason why I have that there, this is in my office.

Starting point is 00:28:49 That book is not placed so that you can see it when I do podcast. That book is there so I can see it. Right. This is why. Because you have to remember why you started the business. Number one, because what happens when you start growing, you start forgetting. And you start forgetting why you started the business for Marco and you start forgetting why you started the business for the people that work for you. And this is.

Starting point is 00:29:15 So for me, when I worked for that company for seven months, the number one reason why I quit, my wife was going through a miscarriage. I was working on a heat exchanger. There was two people there. I told my boss, hey, my wife just called me. She's breaking down. She just had a miscarriage. The doctor just told her, you know what he told me? he said you handle this heat exchanger and you let the doctor handle that miscarred i was bracing myself

Starting point is 00:29:46 for something like that that was my last day and this is why i say that is i left because i said i will never be absent on the day like that right that's right what happens how does that happen companies grow and then i have my schedule free because i did it to be present but what happens when your employee has to be present? Did you forget what it was like to be in that position? Right. So always remembering, I'm doing it because my family needs me, but my employees' families need them.

Starting point is 00:30:23 That's what it is to remember and to build that culture. You got me emotional. Perfectly stated, man, and I appreciate, like I said, I appreciate all the vulnerability and your transparency. I'm going to kind of start going a little bit of a different direction. I'm a big marketing guy. That's my thing. That's my passion.

Starting point is 00:30:44 That's my love. That's my dessert, so to speak. All these books right here, those are basically all, you know, business and marketing books. And so I always like to ask the business owner, how do you approach marketing and promoting your, you know, HVAC business? Okay. So that marketing, it's a deep, deep rabbit hole, Marco. Right? But I love it.

Starting point is 00:31:12 I love it because I'll tell you what marketing is not. And I'll tell you, we'll talk about what marketing is. Marketing is not posting your business on Facebook and saying, hey, guys, do you want this? That is very shallow, but 99.99% of companies that don't understand marketing do that. And then they say, nobody's hiring me. Okay. So if we get beyond that, marketing starts with being known for one. And then what are you known for?

Starting point is 00:31:47 Number two. All right. So your image, who is Michael Johnson? Who is AC man heating and air? When somebody sees that name down here in my community, what do they think about? Do they think about those vans that cut people off in traffic? traffic. Do they think about the vans that are dirty and nasty? Do they think about, right? So first of all, your image, that's where it starts. Yep. Right. Then being known, how do you end up being known in your community? How does your company, Mike Johnson shows up in his community at church. People know me.

Starting point is 00:32:26 but how does my company show up in the community when they go to the local trade show is my company there passing out balloons to kids is my company there passing out water to people right that's the benchmark of marketing is showing up in your community and how are you showing up now in the digital age of course we can show up in the community on Facebook, on YouTube. What's what we're doing now, right? So we're showing up. We're pouring back into people. We're teaching people. We're helping businesses, which in turn helps their family, which in turn helps the community.

Starting point is 00:33:11 This is what I want to be known for. Right? So that's pretty much where marketing starts. And then I would say number two, what message are you putting out? Marco doesn't care when I say, hey Marco, we're doing maintenance specials. It's $200. Do you want to buy it? I'm just telling you what I want. Right. But what does Marco want? How do we get into persuasive

Starting point is 00:33:37 messaging where I put my homeowner hat on instead of trying to sell Marco what I want to sell him? How about I find out what Marco needs as a person, as a human, as a husband, what does Marco need? Okay, times are tight. A dirty AC is probably making his electric bill high. He does need help with that. So how can I help Marco's electric bill go down? Marco has allergies. How can I help Marco's family with his allergies?

Starting point is 00:34:10 They're sneezing all the time. Go find a solution for that. And then when you post or you do your ads, lead with that. Yeah. And too many times we have. hear people say, well, Facebook doesn't work, Google Ads doesn't work. This doesn't, yeah, because you're just telling people what you need. Right. Solve this person's problem. Solve as many problems as possible, honestly and legitimately. I'm honestly trying to help you with your allergies. Right. I honestly

Starting point is 00:34:43 help you with that. Do you think I'm going to have a problem selling? Probably not. That's right. I could not agree with you more. Yeah, absolutely. Now, out of, we talked about a couple of books, you showed me one on your desk there. Do you have kind of a favorite book, Michael, that really resonates with you the most, you know, that you've kind of read over, let's just say over the last 20 years. Business books, I would say, yeah, business book, I would say the E-Mith, number one. Profit first, number two. I have another book here called Get Different by Mike McAll.

Starting point is 00:35:24 which that's a marketing book. I would say that. Traction, I think traction is probably up there with the E-Mith. And if you're not familiar with traction, traction is about systemizing your business. It is the single go-to book for creating system for your business. Good to know. I had not heard of that one. Yeah, traction is, it's a long read, but it walks you to step. by step on how to create your core values, how to systemize your business, how to, it even helps you understand how to create your quarterly, because you have your things you need to fix now, right? Yep.

Starting point is 00:36:07 And then you have big quarterly things that you're going to knock out every quarter and we're going to buy a building. Am I going to do this? It helps you kind of systemize that. It's called the entrepreneur operating system. Because in operating system, we always. run on an operating system. As a person, Marco mentally runs on an operating system that was set up through his experiences, through his childhood experiences, through where he lives. I run on a separate one,

Starting point is 00:36:34 right? Sure. Each business runs on an operating system that's based on our personal operating system. But here's a problem, and this is what traction speaks on, is we can't run on multiple operating systems. You can only run on one. But when we bring employees in, they're all running on their own separate. Imagine if your iPhone was running on Windows, iOS, all these different things that will break. Right. So traction kind of helps you bring in the one operating system that we're all going to run on. Great book.

Starting point is 00:37:08 A little hard to read, in my opinion. But, you know, it's, I would say, the e-myth and traction. Got you. That's great. I love finding out what successful entrepreneurs have read and what, you know, what stood out to them. Now on that note, Michael, we're getting close to wrapping up, but I want to ask you, what are you doing 20 years later for personal development? Like, what is, what is your, where do you spend your time to make sure that you're still

Starting point is 00:37:38 kind of continuing to learn and to stay on top of, you know, the latest trends and what have you? So reading books all the time, right? And I just got a new hack. My brother told me about a lot of these audio books are on Spotify for free, which is pretty interesting. I didn't know that. Didn't know that either. Yeah, yeah. So reading books, webinars, you know, YouTube is an interesting thing because any information you want is on there. If you could just pick one short YouTube video day and learn, you know, don't get lost in 20, 30 different people. Find one person. Follow that person, right and then business coaching i'm a business coach of course but i have a coach right yes kedma is my business coach so finding someone that's beyond you that can you know that that knows how to communicate

Starting point is 00:38:35 to reach you so i would say books and find a coach and a mentor and that's how i met francisco got you yeah very wise words my friend very wise words the last question that i have for you michael is Obviously, we covered all the nitty gritty with how you started your business and how you're running it and what you're doing now. But what does your non-work time look like? Obviously, you got a beautiful marriage. You've got a beautiful family. I imagine you spend as much of it as possible with them. But what does that look like?

Starting point is 00:39:06 What do you do for fun and relaxation? So my wife and kids are my world. I've turned into quite the home body. Right. So if they're home, I'm home, but I have an 18-year-old who is into basketball. If he has a game, you know where I'm going to be. Right. And I'm going to say, hey, Marco, when the game starts, don't talk to me, right?

Starting point is 00:39:31 And when the game ends, you can talk to me. Right. I spend a lot of time at the church as a youth leader. So I'm a youth leader. I've been for 20 years. That's where my heart would be, leading my three boys, being a good. companion to my spouse, and then second to that would be really pouring into these young kids, because there's a saying that I love. It's probably my favorite thing of all time,

Starting point is 00:39:56 be the person you needed when you were a kid. And that's my goal in this era of fatherhood in my life is to be that person to someone who may not have someone that's at every game, and that's there. Love that. Love that. Yeah. Now, you mentioned earlier going down a rabbit hole, and this is one of them, but I'm still just going to throw this out there.

Starting point is 00:40:23 This whole situation that we're dealing with in our country with the whole like fatherlessness thing, it has manifested itself, you know, it's reared its ugly head. And so being a, being an involved dad in the lives of your kids is that, to me, that's the ultimate privilege. is being able to have both of your parents and being able to have your dad involved. And so when you're there going to all those basketball games and things like that, and then you're even trying to be there for some of the other kids that may may, they may not have that, right?

Starting point is 00:41:00 Man, that's the kind of stuff that really makes a difference inside of a community. No question. So I put my hat to you for doing that, Michael. And obviously, you've got an amazing story. You've accomplished a lot in the last 20 years. I'm sure it's been a very difficult ride at times, but you stuck to it. And it looks like you've gotten yourself to a place where you are truly a homepreneur hero. So again, I tip my hat to you, my friend, nothing but respect, nothing but love.

Starting point is 00:41:31 And may God continue to bless your journey and your endeavors and everything that you're doing. Thank you so very much for joining me today on this podcast. Thank you. Thank you. It was a blast. It was a blast. I would do it anytime. Fantastic. All right, my friend, well, that does it for another episode of the Homepreneur Heroes podcast. We'll catch you here next time.

Starting point is 00:41:51 All right. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Homepreneur Heroes podcast with Marco Salinas. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights from our guest's journey in the Home Services industry. Remember to subscribe to our podcast for more stories of entrepreneurial success and tips for growing your own home services business. Until next time, keep striving, keep serving, and keep being a homepreneur hero.

Business Innovators Radio - The HVAC Coach: How Michael Johnson Shapes Business and Community

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