161 | My #1 Rule in Business and it’s the most profitable rule.

My number one rule in business is probably not what you think it is. It's not money, it's not freedom, it's not the thing that every business guru it's not the thing that every business guru is screaming at you to chase. And when I finally tell you what it actually is, I bet half of you are gonna roll your eyes at me. But it might just be the most profitable rule you've got. So what is it? Well, that's what we're gonna dive into in today's.

That's what we're gonna dive into in today's episode.

Welcome back to the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. Listen, on today's episode, I promise there will be some serious value bombs getting dropped. So get ready. Cause today I'm finally telling you because today I'm gonna tell you the one rule I've used to build all my companies around. The one thing I care about more than the widget, more than the services, and more than the money. So here it is. My number one rule.

Have fun and enjoy the people you're doing it with. That's it. That's the whole thing. And I already know, half of you just rolled your eyes at me. Have fun? Come on, man. I got payroll Friday, two techs called out this morning, and a customer threatening a chargeback. Fun is the last thing on my mind. I hear ya. But give me the next 15 minutes Because I'm gonna show you why fun is not because I'm gonna show you why fun is not the soft, fluffy, nice to have thing you think it is. It's the most powerful, ⁓ most profitable, and most underrated weapon you've got in this entire. And by the end, I'm gonna hand you three letter game. I'm gonna hand you a three letter game you can run starting tomorrow. So let me explain why am I locked in on this.

Here's what I've learned over 20 plus years in the industry. When you're having fun, real fun, it creates energy.

And energy is contagious. You can feel it the you can feel it the second you walk into a shop. You felt it. You walk into one company, the techs are dragging, nobody's talking, the air's just heavy, everybody's just kind of going through the motions. And then you walk into another shop. There's music playing, the everybody's chatting, there's this energy in the room, guys are busting each other, it's chops.

There's a name on the whiteboard of somebody who absolutely crushed it last week. It's the same trade. ⁓ Same trucks. Probably the same CRM.

there's a completely different feeling. That feeling, that's the energy. Here's the most, here's the part most owners miss. Your customers, they feel it too. A homeowner can tell the difference between a tech who's grinding through a miserable day and a tech who actually loves where he works. And a tech who actually loves and a tech who actually loves where they work.

People buy from energy. People stay loyal. People stay loyal to energy. So when I say my number one rule is fun, I'm not talking about goofing off and ignoring the work. I'm talking about building a place with so much good energy that everybody, your team and your customers, want to be a part of it. And that energy comes down to three things.I put them right into the word itself. ⁓ F ⁓ U ⁓ N. Let me walk you through it. The F stands for forget the widget. Now hear me out, because this one trips people up. You're in the home service business. You install water heaters, you swap out condensers, you pull panels, you fix garage doors, and somewhere along the way, a lot of owners fall in love with the widget.

The unit, the part, the service. They make their entire business about the thing. And look, you gotta do great work. The quality has to be there, no question about it.

But here's the trap: the widget was never the point. Nobody, and I mean nobody, got into this business because they were passionate about a 40-gallon water heater. You got into it to build something, to provide, to create a life for you and your family and for the people who work for you. The widget is just the vehicle, it's how you get things done.

It's how you get to do the things you actually love, which is building something with a group of people you care about. When you forget that, when the whole company becomes all about the widget and the numbers and the units installed, you suck the soul right out of it. Everybody starts to feel like a cog. The job goes transactional and transactional businesses are miserable to work in and easy to walk away from. So forget the widget.

So forget the widget. That doesn't mean do sloppy work. It means don't let the widget be the point. The point is the people, the energy, the experience. Get that part right and the widget sells themselves.

The you stands for uplift your people. This is where the energy actually comes from. And here's the hard truth: starts with you.

You are the thermostat of your company, not the thermometer. The thermostat. You set the temperature. If you walk into the shop stressed, ⁓ scowling, barking out orders, head buried in your phone, that becomes the culture. Your people are watching the way. Your people are watching you way more than they're listening to you. But flip it. You walk in with energy.

You know your guys' kids' names. You catch somebody doing something right and you call it out in front of the whole team.

You celebrate the wins. The five-star review that came in yesterday. The the tech who sold the most memberships. The new guy who nailed his first solo call.

You've also got their back when custom when customers are being unreasonable. That's uplifting your people. That's pouring in.

And most of the time, doesn't cost you a dime. A shout out in the morning huddle, ride along with the tech just to see how he's doing something. Ride along with the tech just to see how he's doing, not to inspect him, just to hang out with him.

Remembering that one of your installers just had a baby, that stuff compounds. Because when people full because when people because when people feel poured into, they pour back. They show up early. They go the extra mile on the job.

They talk about your company like it's theirs because it feels like theirs. And you can't buy that with a dollar an hour raise. You build it by uplifting your people every single day. In the N. This might be the most important one. N stands for never kill the vibe. So

So you've forgotten the widget, you're uplifting your people, the energy is building. Now your job is to protect it. ⁓ Guard it like the most valuable asset you own, because it is. And here's what's killing it faster than anything else. ⁓ One toxic person you refuse to deal with. You know exactly who I'm talking about. The constant complainer, the person who poisons the break room. The

we've always done it that way, anchor who drags down every new idea. The tech who is a gr the tech who's great with a wrench but treats everybody around them like garbage. A lot of owners tolerate that person. A lot of owners tolerate that person because they are too good to lose. And I'm telling you, ⁓ nobody is too good to lose if they're killing the vibe for everyone else.

Your A players are watching what you tolerate. the second they see you let one bad attitude run the show, you start losing the exact people you want to keep.

But it's not just other people. Sometimes the killing, sometime the thing killing the vibe, sometimes the thing killing the vibe is you. Your bad day, your stress, your frustration that got nothing. Your frustration that's got nothing to do with the team. You are the thermostat, remember. So ⁓ guard your own energy too. Take the bad day, leave it in the truck.

Walk in ready to set the right temperature. ⁓ Never kill the vibe. Protect the energy at all costs. So put it all together. Forget the widget. Uplift your people. ⁓ Never kill the vibe. Fun.

Do these three things consistently, and here's what you build ⁓ a place where people don't want leave. And think about what that's actually worth. Your best tech doesn't bounce for 50 cents more down the road because he loves where he works. Recruiting gets easier because your people are the one telling their buddies, man, you got to come over here and work.

Your customers feel the energy through the phone, through the front door, through the install, and they come back and they refer you. That's a badass culture. That is the place, that's a place people want to belong to. And it did not come from a fancy comp plan or a slick piece of software. It came from fun. That's why fun is my number one rule. Not because I don't care about the business.

Because I care about it so much that I refuse to build it any other way. So here's what I want you to do this week. Pick one of those letters. Forget the widget. Uplift your people. Never kill the vibe. And go make one move on it tomorrow. And go make one move on it tomorrow. Just one. A shout out in the huddle, a ride along just to connect. The hard conversation with a person killing your vibe. Just one.

And if this one hits home, do me a favor. Share it with another owner who needs to hear it. And hit that button and hit that follow button so you don't miss what's coming next.

New episode every week, and I promise you it's worth a listen. Because listen, at the end of the day, I don't care about the widget. I don't care about the service. I only care about the fun. Because the fun builds the energy. The energy builds the culture. The culture builds everything else. So have fun out there. Enjoy the people you do it with and go build something worth belonging to. This is Freedom Blueprint Podcast. Until next time, keep having fun.

Keep enjoying your people and as always, keep crushing it.