Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Create wealth through Franchising. I'm your host, Kim Daly.
Whether you're a CEO, a military vet, a real estate investor, or simply in career transition and ready to take ownership of your future, with each episode, you're going to learn valuable insights and hear inspiring stories from within the franchise industry.
On that note, my guest stories are their own. And as a franchise consultant, I do not make personal brand endorsements or earnings claims, but I do educate, motivate, and inspire dreams.
Now onto the show.
Welcome back to Create Wealth Through Franchising podcast and Kim Daly tv. Our special guest in studio today, Mike Abramowicz. Did I say that correctly?
[00:00:53] Speaker B: You nailed it.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: I love it, Mike. Welcome to the studio of Kim Daly tv.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Okay, so guys and gals, listen up. We've got a coaching episode in store for you today. So Mike, brand new friend to Kim Daly, referred to me by somebody that I know and love and you know and love because he's been a guest on my show multiple times, Mr. Chris Larson. All right, so we have something in common. This is how small the world is. So one of the very first sales jobs Kim Daily ever had was selling Cutco knives. So I meet this guy Mike and he's like, oh my God, I worked for Cutco for 20 years. I was like, seriously? I sold a few knives in my time and in fact, I still have a lot of Cutco knives down in my kitchen. This is where he started, right? And since then he's gone on. He's written nine books in the self help space, which I'd love to hear what those books are about. He's going to talk to us today about the time Rich 6. He's a husband, he's a dad. He has a wealth of knowledge to share with you from his coaching plethora. So we're going to dive into his story which is going to help him then set up more about what he calls the Time Rich six plan. So welcome Mike. Go ahead and dive in and tell us a little bit about your background, from Cutco in sales to getting involved in coaching and self help.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Thanks so much, Kim, for having me. Your energy is infectious, so I really appreciate that. Yeah, Cutco. I started selling Cutco when I was 18. I was in college as a freshman at University of South Florida. I was actually studying engineering, so I had no anticipation of like going into sales or business. But my dad owned a plumbing business his my whole life and I saw him work six days a week and I saw him grind and work. But I love that he had autonomy of running his own business. So it was kind of planted in my head that owning a business is a cool idea, but I was going to pursue engineering. So when I started selling Cutco and I saw my mentors in the business, like investing into, you know, passive income streams and creating time, freedom and travel, I'm like, this is really cool. And then I got hooked. And the personal growth side of being a business owner and the flexibility, the autonomy, I really just absolutely fell in love. So I paid my way through college selling Cutco. And when I graduated from college, they offered me a career position to teach other students on how to do what I did as a college kid. So I trained over 5,000 students on how to pay sell Cutco so they could pay their way through school. And that generated about $20 million in product sales during that time frame. But the challenge was during my 20s. I understood sales, but I didn't really understand sales management to a high level. So I really just started cutting my teeth and learning and growing and grooming myself. But I was going through life circumstances. I call it the valley of my 20s because mom passed away, my college roommate passed away. The market collapsed. I invested in three real estate deals, three properties. The market collapsed. I lost the three properties. I was belly up. Negative $130,000 in debt, near bankrupt at a 400 credit score. And it was in a really tough spot. Then 2012, 2013, I went to my first Tony Robbins event. I walked across fire. I'm now a seven time firewalker. And he said at that event, my mess is my message. And that stuck with me. I said, okay, all the stuff that I just went through my 20s, I can turn that into a gift for my 30s to help other people. And that was the birthplace of my book. So I went on a speaking tour. I started speaking to the schools. I spent 300 hours that year speaking to the Pinellas County School District, talking about how they can turn their problems and create goals and figuring out what my thoughts were. And that became my first book, which led into nine books, which led into a nonprofit to feed the homeless, where we provided a hundred thousand meals for PB and J for Tampa Bay. But then 2016, I fall in love. I'm ready to propose to my now wife. But I was like, I'm grinding. I'm doing everything. I'm doing book signings and speaking as and still running every interview and training and sales call and coaching. I hired a business coach. 2016, he had an experience in India to help Scale a company from 6 million to 30 million with a team of 1400 employees underneath him. So he was came back to the states and started teaching small business owners how to corporatize their small business to buy back time. So I was like all right, I'll do that. So we corporatize my direct sales business on how to for me to work from home and for those that don't understand Cutco, everything was in home presentations, in office interviews, in office training. And I was creating a virtual environment of virtually selling Cutco through Zoom or like interviewing people from Zoom before. That was a cool thing to do. So we were really on the cutting edge of innovation of how to leverage offshore virtual assistants and how to create automations inside of like our CRM and how to use virtual technology a little bit before is relevant creating internal communication channels using WhatsApp versus having everyone call me constantly. So it was really simple stuff but it created a profound difference. Covid hits 2020 and everything is virtual. So we were poised and ready to rock, which we did and we crushed it. I mean we broke nearly every record and we provided a thousand jobs during 2020. We did about two and a half million in sales that year and it was awesome. Then my son was born December 31, 2020. He was born at 26 weeks weighing 1 pound 4 ounces. And I didn't know how long we were going to be in the hospital with him but it turned out we were in the NICU with him for eight and a half months. So 254 days. So my wife becomes a full time medical mom. She has to leave her corporate position. And I called up my business coach and I said dude, Andrew, my business, my office just ran without me for these eight and a half months. It did over $1.3 million in sales without me there, generated a quarter million in revenue, provided 600 jobs over six figures in profits without me there. Do you think we could teach other business owners together how to do this? He said let's find out. And that's the birthplace of what I'm doing now with Better Than Rich where we've now helped hundreds of other business owners buy back time through the time Rich six which we'll dive into of what that means. But that's like the long short version of why I'm doing what I'm doing right now. It came out of circumstance more than anything. My son is doing well. He's three and a half now. He is off the ventilator. He's on a ventilator and trach for two years. He's off of that. He's still on a feeding pump, but we're starting to learn how to eat by mouth and starting to learn how to walk. Cognitively is great. He's in school. And we have our daughter Ella, who's nine months old now. So we've completed her family and it's been quite the journey, to say the least. Kim. But that's the very long short of how I got to doing what I'm doing, where I'm helping busy business owners buy back time so they could spend that time on what matters most to them. Because you never know when a circumstance might happen. It might not be my circumstance, but maybe they just want to take a vacation and not be married to their cell phone or their laptop, for crying out loud. Like, we could help business owners buy back time in all different ways.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: I don't even know where to begin on all that. What a journey for those people who are out there listening. It's like, you know, oftentimes when we tell the stories here on, you know, Kim Daily tv, you hear it's a short interview. So the people only get to the good stuff, right? They skip all the hard parts. But for every mountaintop business owner, there are valleys. The valley of the 20s. I loved how you said that. And I've had many valleys of 20. I've been at business ownership now for 27 years. And so, like, I love that story. And I love how you went to Tony Robbins and, you know, one nugget. It's like these conferences that franchisors put on for franchisees. It's like, just go. If you walk away with one nugget, your mess is your message. It can potentially change your entire life. Like, you empowered yourself from that one message. You were ready to hear that and you turned it around. Let's just start with what is better than rich. Let's start with the definition of what you mean before we get into the better than rich. Quick six.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: So we, we define better than rich. Well, first we have to know what it means to be rich. So we define rich as 3x freedom. Time, money, and location freedom. So what's better than 3x freedom is having those that 3x freedom while having fulfillment and being present with the relationships and the things that matter most to us. So what's the point of having wealthy money but not being present or having quality relationships or friendships or meaningful fulfillment in the things that we're doing? So that's how we define. At least I define Better than rich. So we want to help business owners become rich, which is having the 3x freedom, while simultaneously making sure we're staying true to the priorities that matter most to that business owner as well.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: And I love that and I support that. The one thing I want to ask you, Mike, is do you believe though, that, look, you've had the ups and downs through the years that got you to the point where you could create systems, and the reason you were able to be away from your business for so long was because you had systems. But I'm guessing also because you had the will, you had the tenacity, you had a team of people that were bought into your mission. You had established a lot of things that were right for that moment in your life. So where I struggle with a lot of candidates coming into franchise ownership or people thinking about investing in franchising is they hear the word turnkey and they think, all right, I'm going to buy the business and I'm going to get right to what Mike is saying. Time freedom. And I'm just like, I think you're setting yourself up to be miserable. I think you have to go through some ups and downs and be in it. Not necessarily the owner, operator, but as the CEO of that business, I think you have to be more present in the beginning in order to launch a business. Would you disagree with that statement?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: I don't disagree, but I will say that there are ways for you to buy back time by Dan Martell. For those watching the video, his book Buy Back youk Time is a fantastic resource where if you are going into and you want something truly turnkey, there is a process that you can take. With what I know now, I could have been a little bit more time free instead of that grind season with what I know now. For example, he talks about the replacement ladder. So first is administrative, then he says admin, then marketing, then fulfillment, then sales, then leadership. So if we replace in that order, and using his principle, the 1080 10, where I do the first 10%, you do the middle 80% and then I do the last 10%, and that way I'm only starting things and ending things While the middle 80% is getting done by someone else. And he also says 80% done by someone else is 100% awesome. So business owners just understanding the ideal of smart delegation, letting go of control. Intellectually, if we want to turn key and completely remove ourselves from our business, that sounds great in concept, but we want to do it intelligently. 10,010 is a great philosophy. Letting go of control, 80% done by someone else is 100% awesome. And replacing people in the order of the lowest wage tasks first and building from there versus spending our dollars and hiring experts. Because now your business is reliant on a high wage, high talent person. And if that high wage, high talent person disappears, so does your infrastructure of your business. So that's why I recommend building predictability with lower wage workers. And there's always, obviously situations, always the boss. But if you're starting out and you just spend a lot of money upfront, I don't think hiring an expert is the only strategy. It's a strategy, but it might not be the only strategy. So obviously we go a lot of different directions here, Kim, but that's my answer to your question.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: No, I love it. And I think then it just implies that you have to become a leader of people is what you're saying, right? Like you want your time back. It seems obvious, but common sense is not always so common. You have to then become the leader. Because a lot of times where I'm going with this, Mike, is a lot of times people will say, well, I bought a business to be semi absent, but I can't be semi absent. And I'm like, is it the business doesn't really afford for that or you are not willing to grow into the leader that was capable of directing people to your mission and your values and be loyal to you when you weren't there. And therein lies like the river that divides that conversation. So I live in that place all the time between what is semi absentee ownership or semi involved and how do I actually do this and do it well? So I think this is an awesome conversation and I think what you're about to say with your programs could actually be an answered prayer to a lot of franchisees out there who are struggling with this problem. I want that, I bought a business to have that, but I can't figure out how to get there. So let's get into your program.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: So the timer is six. It's six principles that worked for me to help me buy back time. So number one is boundaries. If you want to protect your time, you need to know what you're protecting, your prior, what are your priorities? So if you want this time freedom, well, it's like be explicit. For what? Is it for family? Is it for health? Is it for community involvement? What do you want to protect the time for? For example, if someone called you at two in the morning while you're making love to your spouse, you're probably not going to answer the phone. It's a gross example. But it's important to understand that means it's out of bounds. So you need to clearly define what is inbounds and what is out of bounds before you can say, I just want time, freedom. It's like, what are your boundaries? That's number one. Number two is communication guidelines. Communication guidelines, which is how do you want people to communicate with you and get your attention. What deems an email versus a text message versus a phone call versus a zoom meeting versus in person. And so if you can communicate that to your prospects, meaning your talent prospects and your client prospects, and also your talent, that works for you along with those relationships that people are just trying to get your attention. Communicate explicitly how you want them to communicate with you so they could honor what your requests are. That's number two is communication guidelines. Number three, systems. The way I define systems is if, then processes. That's it. If this, then that. Now this one is a little bit more complex. So I'm just going to break it down to the simplest form. There are four pillars in business. Four pillars attract, convert, onboard, retain. And those four are for your clients and also for your talent. You attract your talent lead gen, or you attract your clients. Converting them, interviewing them, or run the sales conversation, onboarding them, the transition training or transitioning your clients. And then retention, which is for your talent, your staff meetings, your meeting cadence, your culture, your growth opportunities, or for client, it's your maximization, referrals, reviews, testimonials, ascension offers. So all of those inside those four pillars have if thens. We want to create predictability on if thens for each of those, like flowcharts. That's your system. Those are the first three boundaries. Communication guidelines systems. Number four is Playbooks. Playbooks is the documentation of all of those events. You could call those SOPs, standard operating procedures. You call them Playbooks. Whatever it is to document. Videos are the arcane. That's what Dan Martell talks about. He calls it the camcorder method. Record yourself doing it or have someone record themselves doing it. So it's documented. You have a library number five team. The team that's executing those plays have predictability. It's documented. There's a resource. How many times if you run a franchise, it's like, I want the shop cleaned up before you leave at night. What does that mean? How is it documented? Is there a video showing them exactly what cleaned up looks like? Is there a checklist that we're following? That's what I mean, by the documentation, the sop, the playbook, and then the team that's executing that play. Then the last one is number six, which is tech, the technology that you're going to use to enforce any of this, that could be like a CRM, like how are you keeping track of all your clients? Or it could be an internal communication platform like a Slack, or it could be a learning management software like a Kajabi or a thinkific for training. But what are the technology AI that you're using? What is the technology that's going to support the team to have them be more effective with their time? So that way it could help them be more productive. So boundaries, communication guidelines, and then systems, playbooks and team and tech. That six, in that order, is what allowed me to have the time, freedom and buyback time in the multiple businesses that I've started and created and launched to be where I'm at now. And just for context, Kim, Last year in 2023, my work weeks were 9 to 4. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 9 to 1 on Friday. Monday's our personal day. Saturday, my wife had a personal day. I spend time with our son. Sunday is family day. And every morning for myself and every evening for the family. And that was a staple in 2023, while saving over six figures, while moving to a new city, while donating and providing to over a hundred families. And I share that because that is what I mean by time. Rich I also took nine full weeks off last year too, for family vacations. We took a three week road trip. That's what I want for business owners. It doesn't have to be grind, grind, grind all the time. And it doesn't have to be, oh, complete freedom where I do absolutely nothing. Because you probably do find purpose in what you're doing. So it's like, what is the balance between those? That's why I Love that. Tom Rich 6.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Hey, Daily Coach fans, if you're ready to begin your own journey to find the perfect franchise, please email me right now at inquiremdaily tv. My services are totally free for you. That's inquiremdaily tv. Now back to the show.
It's so clear why you're successful, right? It's just you're intentional. You have clear vision, you have clear focus, you have clear systems. You're executing with efficiency, proficiency, right? Because you know exactly what you're trying to do every day. It's awesome. You're amazing. So when people come to you and a business owner comes to you, where does this begin? Because I think a lot of people listening may be like, well, wait a minute, Kim and Mike, didn't I buy a franchise that's going to provide all of this? And I think the franchise provides some of that and some of the training on that, but not necessarily in the cohesive pattern that you've put it together as a playbook, if you will. Because this is the thinking part to running a business, not the strategy part of if you're, you know, running a senior care business, how to successfully provide care in the home for people, which is what the franchise would provide. The strategy part, this is more the implementation of business principles. How you think, how you talk and how you act, which is actually what leads to success. And most franchisors aren't really offering all of that. Maybe some of that. So if somebody was to reach out to you, where does this conversation begin with you?
[00:19:45] Speaker B: It would begin with, I call it gsd. So get stuff done. So that's what we will start with. We have to figure out what is the stuff that needs to get done. What we provide is very much done for you and done with you. So if the stuff that needs to get done is like lead nurturing or lead generation or social media or administrative or inbox management, then we're going to start with installing a team of AI powered virtual assistants into the business to handle all the administrative stuff. If that's what's taxing. If it's more high level, like execution of the strategy, then we go into the GSD pattern which is we hop on and we're going to get those things done. Right then and there is it building those playbooks. You need to have a better ad place on Indeed.com. you need a better process where it's like I, my ad doesn't bowl any applications. No one wants to work now. It's like, okay, let's revise your ad. Let's do that. I have so many applications. Great. Well, what's the conversion process? Maybe we need to look into the hiring process. My people always quit. I can't retain people. Okay, let's walk through the whole journey of expectations, meeting the experience of what we're promising them in the interview process compared to what they're experiencing, the actual fulfillment of doing the job. And let's monitor that and audit that. So it's like it really just depends if it's in the talent journey, if it's in the client journey. We'll figure out the pain point. What is the lead domino that's going to create 3x return on revenue and buying back 10 hours of their time. We're going to park there, find that lead domino, and then build out processes and playbooks and systems to tackle that lead domino first. And then when the next lead domino reveals itself, we'll pimp that one. And that's essentially what we get done with them. So it's like, think about like high level consulting or being like an operator, like a COO or an operator for this franchisee that says, hey, the company gave me the playground in the vehicle. But they're not like coming in and doing the stuff with me. That's where myself and my team will come in and do these things with you and for you. Depending on what those needs are, whether it's like installing our team, we have a team of 45 to 50 individuals and installing them into the business, or if it's, you know, something where it's like just the council that's needed, but most of the time it's just getting stuff done. That's what these business owners want. So that's what we're providing for them.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: I feel like you are the engineer with an mba. I always say, like to my candidates when I meet engineers who have MBAs, I'm like, you are the smartest people I ever get to work with. Like, I'm literally listening to you, Mike, and I'm like, here's this guy. You're engineering, decided to go into the sales, right? But you carried that engineer with you and you brought it full circle, man. Because this is amazing. Like, the way that your mind is flowing, it's very impressive. And no doubt anybody listening to this is like, I'm sitting over here. Like, I'm like, man, I think I need to call my. Like, this is great. So when someone reaches out to you, do you work with people for a short duration and like you said, when the next domino comes up, they come back to you, or is this an ongoing relationship that I'm just curious what the flow of this work looks like from you to them.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Our goal is to be the operating arm for their company. So that's our goal. Like, our goal is that we are handling all their administrative for them into the foreseeable future with our VAs and handling whatever it is that's needed. And then as far as the gsd, well, usually in business it's still fairly new, but my goal is until I'm not needed. Like, if we can continue to grow a company, why not the short example? We just helped a franchise. They own a high end Lighting company and they did seven figures. Last year was great. We installed a referral program into their business in April and we're recording this in September. And they've generated $40,000 in new business just from a client maximization, meaning getting back into homes of people that previously bought from them to sell them more stuff. There was no client maximization part and they've sold 40 grand in the last, you know, 120 days. That's a new business generated. So in their first 12 months of this new opportunity of client maximization, maybe they'll create six figures plus or more. And then once we figure that out, we solve that problem. It's like, then we're going to go in and it's like, all right, what other part of the business could we find a growth opportunity that's a lead domino as an example. So there's probably going to be things until they're at like a, you know, multi seven figure into an eight figure company, then they'll probably have a new set of problems that's outside of our expertise. But to help them get to that multi 7 low 8, I think we have a lot of help that we could provide to them. Multi six to the eight.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: I feel like Kim Daly wants to start an affiliate program with you and network you right in directly to the franchisors. Because I think a lot of franchisees are thinking, I think this is what I was paying for when I bought a franchise. And I'm thinking you might be right. Well, for those who are inspired, because you're on your franchisee journey and you're thinking, I want more time, freedom. I want to be better than rich. How do people find you, Mike?
[00:24:44] Speaker B: The easiest way to go directly to me is going to be betterthanrich.com 90 day plan. That's nine zero day plan. That's what I give away on podcasts that I've been on because it goes directly to me. A lot of other things online like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, email even. It's going to be my virtual assistant or it's going to be like the AI version of me because that buys back my time. I practice what I preach, but that goes directly to my calendar. Betterthenrich.com 90day plan. And you book a call and I will do a free session with you figuring out your lead domino of exactly what you need. Whether it's your administrative. We'll just gsd, no sales call. At the end of it, I will tell you, I'll say, cool, now that we got this done, do you want this to be our first conversation or our last conversation? If it's our last one now, you can do it yourself and you have it. Or if you want to be our first convo, then we'll set up a second call and I can show you what it could look like for us to work a little bit more intimately into the future.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Amazing. We will put that URL in the show notes. Www.betterthenrich.com 90day plan.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: That's right. You got it.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: You're amazing. I am so happy to know you. Thank you for being our very special guest here today on Kim Daly tv.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Very appreciative. Well, for those who are inspired to begin your journey to find find the perfect franchise, we'll start there and then we'll get over and get you over to Mike. You know that I want to be your franchise consultant and your daily coach. Please follow the link for Kim Daly in the notes below and I will reach out to you then. And don't forget that my name is Kim Daly and I want to be your daily coach.
You can find more content just like this on my YouTube channel at KimDaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises match to you, please email me right now at inquiremdaily tv. That's inquireimdaily tv.
