The Small Business Safari

Out Running Bears and Business Growth Planning!

• Chris Lalomia, Alan Wyatt • Season 4 • Episode 125

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What do you do when a bear is chasing you? “You just gotta run faster than the guy next to you”! Chris and Alan jump in the studio with another great one-on-one conversation. This time it’s all about balancing life and business, acquisition strategies and business growth! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(00:00) - Small Business Ownership and Celebrating Life’s Milestones

(09:46) - Planning for Business Success

(22:18) - Acquisition Strategies and Business Growth

(28:43) - Humor and Leadership in Challenging Times

(38:16) - Time Travel, Savings, and Business Pivots

(45:55) - Reminiscing, Appreciating Family, and Celebrating Friendship

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If You Loved This Episode Try These!

• 2024 Strategic Planning in Home Services

• 2024 Home Service Industry Predictions Because Economists Don’t Lie! | Mischa Fisher

• Painting Marketing Pros Founder Brandon Pierpont Unlocks the Secret for Painters and Rest of Us

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Alan Wyatt:

And it kind of goes back to uh, you know what do you do if a bear is chasing you? You just got to run faster than the other guy that you're with, and that's the way I look at business.

Chris Lalomia:

Oh, cold-knock at everybody, I don't have to run faster than you. As he looks at me and says fan, italian, screw you, alan. Solidly obese.

Chris Lalomia:

No, no, I'm striving for solidly overweight Solidly overweight, but I'm still nimble. No, I'm just a nimble. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any of your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop.

Chris Lalomia:

I say rock and roll a lot because I love rock and roll, but I love the loose rock and I am excited to be here with my rock star, alan Wyatt. You know what guys? We do this and we've been doing this for a number of years now and, of course, we're in the top 5% in podcasts. We're excited about that. Go out there and give us a follow-up, listen.

Chris Lalomia:

But let me tell you what life's all about. Alan and I, as if you've been following us, are a little seasoned, as we've been told, but life's about different stuff. It's about the journey that we're on, and one of the best things about being on the journey we're on is our kids, and Alan is about to have his oldest son get married and it's a very exciting time for him and I want him just to tell everybody kind of the layout, because I think this plan is going to be awesome here in the Athens market. But let's talk a little bit about your son, john, getting married. I know you're pumped up. You've been talking about it, so that's what life's about, man. Let's hear about that.

Alan Wyatt:

No, well and I won't take too long. But it's just, isn't it weird that we're at this stage in life but he's marrying a girl that we like a lot. We love her, you know, and we love her parents, and so we're just having a great time of these two families coming together. And we're a West Coast family, they're a very Southern family. As a matter of fact, we had to change the wedding date because her grandpa's got a hunting trip scheduled. It is the SEC championship on that night, and half the group is from Georgia and half's from Alabama. For the record, poor choice Happened to be. Well, it's great, it was a fault.

Chris Lalomia:

I've been at a wedding that was all Florida State guys and it was the Florida State Florida night. Yeah, and they lost the entire wedding party. This is years ago. This is back when I had Sydney. My daughter was one, so she couldn't say do better. Yet we brought her down with us when the wedding party went to be introduced. They're all gone and I'm sitting there with my wife going I don't know where everybody is and I found out there was a side room that had the game going and they were in there watching Florida State Florida.

Alan Wyatt:

You know what and not?

Chris Lalomia:

one person complained.

Alan Wyatt:

So I just found out today they're putting it up on a projector. So I'm like, well, that kind of sucks for the DJ because there's not going to be a whole lot of focus on dancing. But whatever, I mean it's going to be a great day and we've got around a golf on Thursday, We've got the rehearsal, We've got people coming in from the West Coast, as far as Portugal. It's not a big wedding, but it's just going to be great people having a great time. We have an amazing venue for the rehearsal dinner, a big meal, and John has fully embraced the whole Southern tradition of on rehearsal dinner night it isn't just one toast, it's a roast and he wants to just get torched. And so I am starting the night off with I'm going to try to keep it to eight minutes but of evisceration, and so that's going to be a big night.

Alan Wyatt:

And then the next day, the wedding is just going to be phenomenal. I mean everybody's super excited to come to Athens. It's such a great college town and I just can't wait. I mean there's just no stress. They're both school teachers, so there's not this, there's not a lot of pomp and circumstance, I mean, and even if you look at their wedding website, which they didn't have when you and I were there. But you know, every one of his groomsmen he's actually got an embarrassing photo and then he wrote the bio on them, which is, you know, kind of making fun of each one of them. Oh boy, if he's got the Allen Wyatt cutting humor.

Chris Lalomia:

I can only imagine how much these guys got. Yeah, he's got a much.

Alan Wyatt:

He's an English teacher, so he's got a better command of the language. So, yeah, he slices and dices pretty well, so I got to get him. I'm working on it, all right.

Chris Lalomia:

All right, everybody, you won't be able to hear this and help Allen out, but you can cheer him along. That's what this is all about. Right, you know, having kids, or getting married and finding the love of your life doing the stuff outside of things or, in my case, your kids are doing great. They are, yeah, no, that's fine. That's fine to you. You know what? In spite, of course, yeah, you know, guys, again, kids were always really important to me. Family is very important to me. My daughter, who is the infamous do better, do better. She is the infamous. Is that all you're going to do? She is the infamous of yeah, I don't know if I would have done that if I was you. So she's got a lot of lines. She just got admitted to Physicians Assistance School and she is very excited. She's been working. He has school stuff to get into.

Chris Lalomia:

In fact, very hard to get into, as I've learned, because this is the second go around. She got in, she is thrilled, so we will soon be quasi empty nesters again. So she's going to go off and go to school. But what I'm so thrilled about there is that she stuck to her plan and she's not making a lot of money. Right, it's not about money. She's not doing it, but she loves taking care of people. She loves the health care industry. You know, my mother was a nurse. It was never my passion, but she is doing it and I love watching her follow her passion and we're able to help her do it. So that's not the reason. And if it sounded like I'd taken credit for that, no, not doing it. And then my son, who has always wanted to be a lawyer since he was in middle school, is a senior in college at UGA Godox. Two time natural champions and three years in a row of undefeated seasons oh my gosh, I didn't realize all that.

Alan Wyatt:

Enjoy it while you can. Yeah, it's amazing.

Chris Lalomia:

Yeah, it is, but you guys are both nicks, you're all right.

Alan Wyatt:

So Ducks are doing just fine this year. You're gonna do it yeah.

Chris Lalomia:

Actually, maybe doing a lot finer, a lot sooner than everybody thinks, by the way, might get that rematch. I'm looking forward to.

Alan Wyatt:

I think that was a dark, dark day. Oh, that might be. So Austin got his LSAT score.

Chris Lalomia:

He had a target LSAT score. I didn't know what that meant. Again, I'm not a lawyer. That's, of course, definitely not my passion. I definitely need a lawyer in the family and very close to me, because I can only lean on my friend Troy. So much for all the legal shit I'm throwing through. I'm joking, everybody will know. Do it. But he got his number and so now he's going to apply to 10 different schools and I couldn't be prouder of this kid. This kid's been through a ton. He is a very, very intelligent kid who has to work through a number of things, and this guy is just freaking, killing it. Man, I'm just so proud of him. So, yeah, we've had a good week.

Alan Wyatt:

You know you never stop worrying about your kids and it's just amazing when they take a step like that and you go. You know what? I think they're going to be OK. I think they're going to be OK.

Chris Lalomia:

Yeah, in spite of me, in spite of you, yep, so here we are. We're talking about planning, but what life is? And that's before that though.

Alan Wyatt:

I have a gift for you. All right, man, what do you got? Well, you remember our buddy Tim Duff from Next Gen Lighting. Yeah, and you remember when he was here.

Alan Wyatt:

You had a bottle of lens I did, and all of a sudden he just got super excited because apparently the bottles have different corks on them. They've got a little horse on it. For anybody that doesn't know, they're bourbon and it has a letter on it. I'm going to hand it to Chris without you guys knowing that I did that, and so you know one will have a B, one will have an A and or L, a and T O N S. So, anyway, it was kind of a funny reaction that you had, as he just sort of said hey, can I have this? And took it with him, because it's kind of a thing to collect all the letters.

Alan Wyatt:

No-transcript, each horse is different. It's like the. If you put them side by side, they actually look like they're running a race Right Now. Did you know, though, there's two ends? I do because plant tons and they're and they're different. I did not know. Yeah, the two ends are different, so you may not have your full blends. Uh oh. So anyway, uh, you know, uh, life is is a journey that we've all gone through, but in plantons we can definitely both agree.

Chris Lalomia:

Right now, there's only one T. There's only one T and he got my boy a guy T. Yeah, well, because my T is going to my buddy, troy, who is T? Uh, lifelong friend, great friend, the one that you and I party with a lot. He is my lawyer, he's the one who bailed me out of wait. Troy is the man, so T is getting his T back.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, that's exciting. So anyway, tim wanted me to make sure to to give that to you.

Chris Lalomia:

Well, tim, thank you for giving my T back and I can't wait to see you again. We're gonna party again, but we got to do all that. So that's life, right, and. But we do business to do life. Um, and people ask me uh, hey man, you seem like you have a lot of fun with life. I'm like I do, and there's times when it gets me down. I mean it just beats the absolute crap out of me. I mean it's got me down, I'm bloody dumb down, I'm out.

Chris Lalomia:

But what do you do as an entrepreneur? You get back up, because we solve problems every, each and every day, right, and we make it happen. But one of the things that I am really passionate about, and I'm very proud of myself of sticking to this discipline, is that once a year, in my seasonal business of handyman and remodeling here at the trust toolbox we're usually a little slower at this time of year for me to be the leading activity. And, uh, in the last episode we talked about key performance indicators. Today in my world, in november, leading up to thanksgiving which, by the way, people is only one damn day Right, and christmas only one damn day.

Alan Wyatt:

It's really a full week plus a little on either end, right and you go to christmas in new years and it's like a two week hospital.

Chris Lalomia:

But Viva Las Vegas, but no. So I can't do a lot to move the needle right now. As a business owner, I can't go out there and drum up more work. The fish aren't swimming.

Alan Wyatt:

You can't scream at people and make them work harder.

Chris Lalomia:

I but yeah, I do that.

Alan Wyatt:

Well, I mean that's.

Chris Lalomia:

I'm talking about the other, the other one hour I have in less than a day because I have seven hours to do that. Come on now. But no, it's, it was a business owner. I can't move the needle, but what I can do is I can lay the plans for the next year, because I'll have a 12 month plan every single year, going into january, one. I have unwavered, 15 and a half years I've done it every year. Have I made the plan? No, how?

Alan Wyatt:

often do you look at the plan?

Chris Lalomia:

I look at the plan quarterly, okay and uh, do I make the plan? No, I suck, but I definitely plan. Well, that was a long pause if you're driving and you thought you just dropped us, you didn't, I just like it was a really dramatic pause and I thought, like, were you waiting for me to say?

Alan Wyatt:

no, you weren't. It was a dramatic pause, thank you. Yeah, if you don't plan, and we're effect, if you do not have a target, then you're just blindly firing your arrow.

Chris Lalomia:

I love it. One of the ones we talked about, uh, one of the episodes we talked about way back when, was gap versus gain. And alan says chris, did you read the book? I'm like no, since then I have. Yeah, but here's the answer is that you got to have a plan. People, general patent in world war two and I'm a huge world war two Fan, I know alan's a big history aficionado but general patent always said a good plan finally executed is better than a great plan never executed. You got to have a plan because if you don't have a plan and it blows, and uh it, you have no idea where you're going. But if you have a plan that gets blown up, well, good, I guess what we do? We get up, we're bloody, we're beating, we're hitting, we're tight, but don't you still know what the goal is.

Alan Wyatt:

You just adapt and improvise. And we've used this reference before. Same thing, world war two. I mean eisenhower planned for six months. I mean it was unbelievable the amount of planning he put into it. I mean having sappers go in and and and get soil samples of the beach, just so they knew what kind of a load it could take. And just unbelievable amount of planning. And then, of course, you know, the rain came in, they Bombers overshot the beach and they dropped the people all over the place. But everybody knew what their goal was, what their mission was, and they managed to figure it out.

Chris Lalomia:

Have a plan and let it get blown up. I have said this over and over and over have a plan and let it get blown up, but react to it right. So here we are, we're rocking into, we're rocking, rocking, rocking cool moonwalking, here we go.

Alan Wyatt:

We're moonwalking into 2024.

Chris Lalomia:

Here we go, 2024. What's gonna happen? We don't know. We just had micha fisher on. Go back and listen to that episode if you haven't. Great economist, one of the best economists I've ever listened to, because he's, he's cool, he is so cool. He's really cool.

Alan Wyatt:

He's just sitting there in a t-shirt, dude throwing big words out.

Chris Lalomia:

It was dude, all right. How many words? Did you have to go back and look up on the dictionary after? Because I did. I was like back to wall street journal days like, oh my god, I don't understand what he said.

Alan Wyatt:

No, but it made you feel. I mean I just felt so dumb the whole time and I mean I had questions, but I'm like is that one too dumb to ask?

Chris Lalomia:

and probably Go back and listen to it, guys, because you can't ask questions and guess what. He'll never think we're too dumb. He thinks we're cool because he's an economist in a really cool industry. He's actually building his own house, so we didn't even talk about that, which is really cool.

Alan Wyatt:

So he knows he's an economist who actually he's gotten his hands dirty, yep and firm boy and he's a big fan of small business. I mean, I really respect that, because I get kind of tired Of hearing what people think you've never actually freaking done a thing, yeah, no dude.

Chris Lalomia:

He was awesome and so he helps set the stage for me planning my 2024. Open your mind, open your ears, listen, hear what people are doing, but then take the time to formulate it. Here we go. So how was your 2023, chris? I'm glad you asked him. He that wasn't even prompted, thank you. No, all right. My 23 was good. Our revenues up. Um, my leads were down. My leads are gonna be down about 13 percent here in the atlanta market.

Chris Lalomia:

Um, I, if you go back and listen to a long time ago podcast, I thought and I listened to a bunch of people in 23 that 23 would be a down year, so I leaned into it. I spent an extra $80,000 this year in advertising gold nugget and it paid off, because the first six months we cranked it when everybody else is falling off. Now we're falling off seasonally, like everybody else is a little bit quicker than I'd hoped. Um, however, look at my kpi is my key performance indicators. Uh, if you go back and listen to the last episode, you'll hear that I found that, uh, we're closing better. Why? Because I also realized that one of my problems was we weren't closing as well as we should. At the kitchen table, we were not closing.

Alan Wyatt:

Did you start doing the sandwich close, so we didn't do the sandwich close. I see now you could just go freaking to the moon if you start doing the sandwich. Come on, Paul person, that episode.

Chris Lalomia:

If you haven't listened to that one, guys, one of the most entertaining episodes I've ever listened to. I mean the guy went from selling windows in the house at 14 to doing WWE announcing, back to selling. I mean the guy is a blast. I mean for the mob.

Alan Wyatt:

It was the. Oh, yeah, yeah, hey, uh, you had to wait for a couple of people to pass away before he could come on our episode Tales of the Tin man. Yeah, it was so good, that was really good. Sandwich. Close those money.

Chris Lalomia:

That was the best, yeah, but we, uh, I actually brought a sales consultant in and intentionally once a month I brought not only my sales team in, I brought my project managers in, I brought my office staff in and we all learned a little bit better on how to close and stay with it. One of the things I'll tell you guys if you don't have a sales process, get one. And I saw a preachy because here's my sales process. Wing it, wing it, motherfuckers, I can do it. I can do.

Chris Lalomia:

I got a charming guy yeah, it's me, of course, I'm the big Italian, I'm right in front of you. Come on, you ever love me. Come on now. Bye now. Come on, bye now, bye now, bye now, bye now, bye now. One would want to want to want to. What would? What if I 15, 15, one foot to 95. I got to do, let's go, let's go, do it, do it. Oh, it's on. So good, good.

Alan Wyatt:

And so I mean it's worth repeating. Your leads were down how much 15%? And your sales were up how much 22%. So you had less opportunity and made more money because you focused on your sales process. I did, yeah, what an amazing thing.

Chris Lalomia:

Yeah, thanks, man. That was cool, so I'll take some credit, because planning showed me that I saw it was going to be down so I leaned in some more leads. I saw that leads were going to be down and I leaned in to more sales.

Alan Wyatt:

So when you're talking about strategic planning for the next year and you've got a plan for every month are you just talking about basics like ad spend, or are you forecasting employees? Are you we're going to implement this kind of training we're going to I mean, what's all on that? That's a great question.

Chris Lalomia:

Another one. Damn it. I hate giving you props Just, but that's the process I go through. Just accept it. So I start from the beginning. I gush with good questions. So 24 here in the US is going to be an election year. Now Misha said elections don't matter and Alan said Alan said elections don't matter. Yeah, you guys both said it. I'm both telling you guys. You're wrong. I'm sorry, misha, misha ain't listening to this because we were a little too dumb for him, but he may, he might, he might just, he might just figure you know what, misha, you might listen to this because I'm telling you, man, my experience is elections change People's behavior and opinions, and that goes back to my old school consulting technology days.

Chris Lalomia:

is that uncertainty breeds, no buy. Certainty brings by.

Alan Wyatt:

I just have a hard time thinking if my wife wants the kitchen remodeled, oh, let's wait and see if Trump or Biden get freaking reelected.

Chris Lalomia:

You need to be the man in that house, alan, and we need to remodel that kitchen. By the way, I've been in that kitchen. We're going to remodel that kitchen. I know what's going to happen and don't worry, judy, he's kitchen. Are you making fun of my kitchen? I'm not, but Judy needs a new kitchen.

Alan Wyatt:

Judy wants a new kitchen. Judy's getting new kitchen. Who does the cooking?

Chris Lalomia:

Yeah, judy, yeah, judy, you don't listen to these, but call me, I'll take care of it. Hey, judy, call me. So uncertainty brings and breeds no decisions. So you're going to wait. And every election year I've seen it happen they wait, they wait. Every election happens, all right. So how are you strategic planning around that? Here we go at 24. I think it's going to be down year 24 in my market, always with the negative waves. I'm sorry, but it's home services. So when I say down, here's what I mean. I'm in Atlanta, where a lot of people are moving to. I'm in Atlanta, the great state of Georgia, who, even as early as this last weekend, two of my friends who came from California I played golf with over the weekend, both said kudos to your governor.

Alan Wyatt:

I'm like I know I love that that's governor ever and hopefully they don't vote like they did in.

Chris Lalomia:

California, and I hope I, because I'm telling you this guy did it. He has made Georgia business friendly. He has made Georgia tax friendly. He has made Georgia a place that you want to bring your family and raise your family, and I think a lot of people are moving here for that. So I think that's going to help us. However, I do feel as if there is only so much discretionary spend we all have in our house or in our portfolio and our house, even though it's our number one asset. We want experiences, so we want to travel, we want to go places. So this Thanksgiving ask yourself, did you travel to go see family? Did you fly? Next spring, are you, are you planning a trip to Europe, asia, australia? You are probably. I got one. See big daddy's playing it already. Look at that, judy, call me. We're going to get that. We're going to get that kitchen figured out. Skip that trip.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, no, you don't need a Portugese.

Chris Lalomia:

No, no more Portugal, judy, let's get to Rome, oh yeah.

Alan Wyatt:

You're in the home family. I can't even do that. I can't. I checkmate baby. Oh my God.

Chris Lalomia:

Hey, hey, I just put Ellen's mic on mute and Judy call me. Judy call me early, all right, but that's what's happening. So, because you go to Rome, guys, I don't care how cheap you do it, it's a 10 grand expense, I mean, it's a big, significant expense for a lot of us. Right, if you're doing that, you're not spending in the house. So I think that's going to happen. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to double down on sales training, I'm going to double down on advertising with the right channels that work for me, and I'm actually I'm actually going to back up and, guys, I got a chance to acquire a company. I think I'm going to do it.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, I'm going to dig into that a little bit oh it's pretty crazy.

Chris Lalomia:

Here we go so I guess the answer is yes, here we go. So, guys, I had a chance because I mean we talk about I joke about it a lot, but we're the biggest handyman in Atlanta and I had a smaller handyman company come talk to me and say look, I'm out, I'm done, cause this business is hard. He goes, but I'd like to get out. So we've been talking and I'm like all right in negotiations and strategies. We've learned Rob Macklin M&A business. That episode was amazing.

Alan Wyatt:

The other bad ass on the long list of bad asses we had this last year on the podcast Freaking bad ass bro, right, wasn't he?

Chris Lalomia:

But he helped formulate my discussion and my thought process. And then Chris Hanks, who's been on our podcast Yoda, of course, is helping me, guide me through the process of like all right, here's how we can do it. It's a win-win for both of us. I think we're gonna figure it out how to do it. We're naming terms and we're naming conditions.

Alan Wyatt:

We're figuring out price and we work it out, but you're not doing this because you're expecting 2024 to be crappy. That's how you're gonna grow.

Chris Lalomia:

No, correct, I think, and that's my growth strategy. So I'm looking at this as an advertising expense and I'm actually still kind of formulating the whole thing through. But I think that's the way I'm gonna look at this is that I'm gonna pull back in a couple of advertising sources and I'm gonna go look, I can grab this customer set, I can grab this customer list, I can market it back with my products and offerings and services at a better rate than he does. He's willing to stay on and help me grow it.

Alan Wyatt:

And what are some of the things that you're thinking about? Cause, just off the top of my head, I'm like, okay, you buy somebody else's business. I don't know what kind of marketing plan that they had, but when somebody else answers the, how are you keeping those customers?

Chris Lalomia:

Yeah, that's a great question. I don't know how I'm gonna do that tactically. I know I'm gonna do that generationally, because I'm gonna hit them with a whole bunch of emails and I'm probably gonna go print media to them Like, hey, look at home, you know these guys, they won't know what's gonna hit them.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, dude, I'm coming home. I know I'm tick talking all over you.

Chris Lalomia:

Hey, back big day D-Day. Remember the plan? Yeah, guys are flying everywhere, parachutes dropping somewhere, bombs are flopping somewhere. I'm gonna hit them all. So that's where I'm gonna put my money. So that's one big key strategy for me is to lean into this year with an acquisition. Now it came to me, I sought it out, but I really enamored by it and the more I thought it through for the last three months. So, as impulsive as I am, this is a pretty analytical move.

Alan Wyatt:

I'm more analytical than people probably realize and you have a very strategic. Well, you have a goal to get to a certain size so that, should you choose to exit, you can't and you'd attract the interest of real money, and this is part of that.

Chris Lalomia:

This is definitely part of the overall strategy. Yeah, and that's why I'm excited about it, and that's where, as I get a chance to pause in Thanksgiving time, christmas because I said it was only two weeks, it's really a whole month we're gonna hit Christmas parties. I don't even have kids in school anymore and I'm going to a Christmas musical. I'm like what, how did I get sucked into that one?

Alan Wyatt:

Can you bet on?

Chris Lalomia:

it. Oh, I'm taking side out. Oh, you know what guys, I just figured out it was a side hustle, Side hustle yeah, oh, my God, I think this thing is gonna go with hour five, hour five.

Chris Lalomia:

That's the overrunner. Who wants action? Oh, that would have been the best, but no, back to the biz. So why do we do this stuff? We do this for our families, but when we talk about the biz, I'm really excited about this stuff, the acquisition that one's a big part for me for 2024. Looking at 24, though, guys, don't kid yourself. The election stops. It stops things. It starts emergency stuff, but stops enhancements aging in place and if it's important to the family, find the family. Here's the other thing. I found you ready, I'm ready. Misha didn't talk about this, but the savings rate of our country has dropped to negative again.

Alan Wyatt:

We're not very good at that. We don't have money.

Chris Lalomia:

We don't have money. So how do we help people with their number one asset in their portfolio, the place they put their heads down, the place that they could lose the most money in their house? They don't always appreciate everybody.

Alan Wyatt:

I just want to go on record slightly disagreeing with you or at least giving you a little bit of a different way to look at it, because what I'm hearing you say are kind of absolutes. Nobody's spending money, everybody waits in a recession and the way I look at it it's a slowdown, but we still are in a city of six million people. When you count all the extra counties, there's still a lot of people doing business, it's true, and it kind of goes back to what do you do if a bear is chasing you? You just got to run faster than the other guy that you're with, and that's the way I look at business.

Chris Lalomia:

Oh, cold-knock at everybody. I don't have to run faster than you. As he looks at me and says fan, Italian, You're you, Alan. Solidly obese.

Alan Wyatt:

No.

Chris Lalomia:

I'm striving for the solidly overweight. Solidly overweight, but I'm still nimble. No, actually, I never was.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, I just got to run faster than you, and then I'll be fine Great point, though that actually all right.

Chris Lalomia:

So now we're going to segue in a little bit of Alan time. Yeah, alan's in the commercial real estate business. Here we are, 2024, looking. What do you see you? Actually, you showed your hand on one. Don't be all in like that. Be micro recession thinking, be opportunistic, right?

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, it's been an interesting time. So my partner and I, historically 80% of our business is investment purchase and so basically we're helping people buy a building that has a revenue stream so that they can you know, that's part of their income portfolio and 100% of our business was referral and repeat, and so we would typically put three buildings under contract every two months. Just boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Find a deal, you know, find the right investor or put it under contract. Well, the economy obviously got superheated. Inflation started taking off. The government's intentionally trying to kind of kill the economy and land it gently which there's just no way to really time that but the interest rates have gone up. How?

Chris Lalomia:

do you think about? How do you feel about your government right now? Fuck that.

Alan Wyatt:

Well, that you know, and part of me is like I get why they're doing it. I mean, they're destroying my industry. The weird thing is is, in my opinion, the economy is still really strong. There's certain sectors and Misha talked about it there's certain sectors that have been hit, and real estate's been one of them, but there's still a ton of people that want to buy stuff and there's still a ton of money, whether it's local money, California money, new York money, chinese money, you know, european money and they want to hunk of Georgia Pollution Island money. Yeah, I haven't run across that yet, but, and so you know, the fact is is that if anything is a reasonably good opportunity, it's gone instantly. And we're still seeing in the residential real estate we don't have enough houses and there's just not that much inventory. So, again, if somebody puts their house on the market, it's a decent house. Maybe they don't have 75 offers in the weekend, but they're gonna have 12.

Chris Lalomia:

I just heard the same thing this last weekend 32 offers yeah To what, what?

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, it's nuts. So we haven't done an investment purchase in quite some time and so when we're 100% repeat and referral and 80% investment purchase, the other 20% I'd say would be, you know, owner occupied purchase, like if you wanted to buy a building, or if you owned a building you wanted to sell it. It would be that. And then occasionally we'll take a lease deal and it's just usually a referral. Somebody would care about either is looking for a lease or they have somebody they care about and we'll do something like that. But that'll be really geographically restricted. So you know what are we gonna do this year and you know. So I mean happy to talk about it a little bit.

Chris Lalomia:

But I don't like you to land the plane. What are you guys gonna do?

Alan Wyatt:

Oh, really. So I'm the one flying around too much. I've sat here and listened to you for an episode and a half. Probably for two and a half years I've sat and listened to you. Oh what I know, I'm Ed McMahon or I'm Andy.

Chris Lalomia:

Rigger, land the plane. We're coming back to Kurnack.

Alan Wyatt:

Well, so I've got like five or six points, so is each one at its own landing, or really? Did you think I was gonna sum up my whole life in two minutes so we can get back to Chris. We did talk enough about me, we talked about your son.

Chris Lalomia:

I gave you props in the sun. Yeah, I appreciate that. I mean that was a huge gift for me.

Alan Wyatt:

I recognize you're making strides. I appreciate that. Thank you, you know what?

Chris Lalomia:

Therapist has said the same thing. She goes and who are you married to? Again, and Alan's name came up. She goes who's the son? No, no, no, I'm married, I'm heterosexual.

Chris Lalomia:

But, however, I have a podcast with Alan, so he's a partner Well yes, I'm your partner Well a big betty, yeah All right, let's go back to the five points because actually, all jokes aside, back to a commercial real estate. I think commercial real estate was revolved. Real estate drives our economy here in the US and it is the backbone. And when the backbone goes, that was 2008, bro right, it just completely cratered the entire economy.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, that was kind of a banking thing that really led to it. But I mean, real estate.

Alan Wyatt:

You know as far as how I look at things like this, I mean, downturns don't phase me, go back to running away from the bear. I just have to run faster than you. And so some of the things that we are doing, I think, are going to apply to a lot of the folks that are listening who happen to be in home services. And the first one is just not to panic. And you have to realize you're Wait, don't panic, stop panicking. Yeah, okay, I'm back. Yeah, or quit panicking.

Alan Wyatt:

You know you're the leader of your business and there's always going to be ebbs and flows, and what are you going to do with it? I mean, the cards are dealt, how are you going to play your hand? And you know, I am sure, if you have a, you know if you're out there and you have a number of employees, one of the biggest challenges is when you have a cancer employee and how hard it is to get rid of that cancer and the effect that the cancer can be. Well, guess what? If you're panicking, you're bitching about the economy, you're worried about leads being down, guess what? You're the cancer and your business will not survive if you're the cancer. Look at the soothsayer.

Chris Lalomia:

You know what he's actually come in? He's actually crossed his legs. He looks like Buddha right now. He's put a cape over himself. It's just crazy. And this turban I don't know what the hell that came from. But anyway, he said it don't be the cancer. Right, you can't lead. If you're the cancer, be the one they want to follow.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know. I mean, yeah, go back to the military. There's been no successful attack led by somebody going huh, I'm not so sure about this. I think we're going to get slaughtered. You know, I mean it. Just it doesn't work. And so don't lose your sense of humor. And it's kind of interesting to me when I think about our podcast. I just love all of our guests that we have on, but don't you find it interesting? Obviously, we enjoy the ones that have a great sense of humor, and I'm finding that it's sometimes the younger ones who don't have a sense of humor, because they think, I don't know, maybe it makes them look weak. No wait, I can I can?

Chris Lalomia:

I'll tell you, it's imposter syndrome. So I got promoted very early. You did too. Yep, think back on when we first started, yeah, yeah, our first jobs. We were like when are they going to figure out, I don't belong here, right? And when I was 33 years old, my closest direct report in age was 45 years. Yeah, and I had to be command and control. Peter Drucker thought I had to do it, stayed banks and I was wrong. Guys, I should have emoted better. I should have done better. I mean literally. I had to have a box of Kleenex in my office because two of my direct reports were females and every time they came in they cried, and I was not emotionally equipped to do that at 33. You shouldn't have made them cry, well so anyway, hey, don't cancel me, but they deserve.

Chris Lalomia:

No, you can't say that, Bob Kitty. No, we're still good friends today. But it was it. It was just that hard. But back to it. When you're young, you're not sure who you are yet, right, right, and I think that's a huge part. But back to the. Is your land in five. Where are we on point for? Three eight seven.

Alan Wyatt:

This is a world tour, baby. There's no landing. Jonas Bros.

Chris Lalomia:

I got a refuel plane and Alan Wyatt with Taylor Swift, yeah, as the backup band.

Alan Wyatt:

I got a tanker plane. Follow me around, we're going to refuel midair. But no, keep your sense of humor. So you think about all that. Yeah, presidents Obama great sense of humor. W great sense of humor Clinton great Reagan great sense of humor Lincoln.

Alan Wyatt:

You know how big a fan I am of Lincoln. Think about the leadership situation he was in and the crap storm he was dealt with. He gets elected president, which he knew the second. He gets elected president. The South's going to secede, which they did. The Northern newspapers thought he was a hick from the middle of nowhere. He had to sneak into Washington just to get to office because if you think about it from the White House, you could see Robert E Lee's family's property. He's surrounded by Southern sympathizers and he ends up leading the nation just with his own guts through the bloodiest conflict we've ever gone through. Oh, by the way, his wife was crazy. He had kids who died and he had. He's the funniest, freaking guy. I mean, if you ever read Lincoln's quotes, I mean he's absolutely hilarious. He was self-effacing. I definitely would say that, oh, my God, that guy, yeah. So I mean, what a great example. Don't lose your head. Keep your sense of humor. That's the first thing you got to do when the crap goes down.

Chris Lalomia:

I love it, yeah. Second, you know what? When the shit smells, laugh.

Alan Wyatt:

Go All right, Keep thinking big picture, you know, Okay. So, like you talked about, you know it's going to be slow. So what do you do? Take an opportunity to train, Go back to blocking and tackling. When you were so busy you probably didn't care, nor did you have the time to look for leaks in your business, whether it was with vendors or with processes or anything like that. So it's an awesome opportunity.

Chris Lalomia:

So you're saying plug the dike with the leak yeah.

Alan Wyatt:

No, that's not exactly what I said, but I'm saying you know the leak with the dike.

Chris Lalomia:

Plug the leak with your thumb.

Alan Wyatt:

I don't know as long as you don't say plug the dike with your.

Chris Lalomia:

Whoa hello. All right, here we go. So listen to Alan. You have a solid, because when you're rolling and the money's just flying in, you are missing the leaks. Find the leaks. You got time, everybody's got time right now. Come on now, educate yourself.

Alan Wyatt:

Educate your people working with sales process.

Chris Lalomia:

Get us done, Amen brother, I challenge your vendors Tell it preacher, All right.

Alan Wyatt:

So okay, here's another. This is I wrote it down. It's kind of a little smart, assy, but time travel and save for a rainy day. Or time travel and save for a rainy day, see if you haven't been saving for a rainy day, or marrying a accountant who already did that, which I did. But you should always be kind of having a war chest fund. And if you have and I'm telling, if you are worried about next year A war chest fund, a war chest oh.

Chris Lalomia:

But basically I'm doing time travel with that. Let's say you're gonna have and, by the way, everybody I've met his wife, and if she should be Catholic, because we'll probably change her someday- yeah, she is, she is, she is, I love that lady and she's amazing.

Alan Wyatt:

But yeah. So I would say to somebody who's worried about next year but let's say you have a business that does tend to finish strong in November and December. Put some of that away Right and budget Budget so that Back that truck up.

Chris Lalomia:

Alan has just taken you to the mountain. Everybody, here's the big year, right? You just put a bunch of money in your account. You're like, yeah, big dog, everybody's getting presents. I'm talking hovercrafts, I'm talking boats, nessas boats. I'm pulling trailers. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Back that truck up, put it away. Put it in a savings account that you can't see, because that's huge, yeah, give yourself a longer runway and then that way you're not going to.

Alan Wyatt:

Sometimes people make really bad decisions when they've got short-term pressure and you need to be thinking long-term as a business leader.

Chris Lalomia:

So I shouldn't get the cigarette boat. No, no, well, you can't. Big daddy, come on now.

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, that's okay, because my you got a lot of big, big clad waterskiers to pull behind you.

Chris Lalomia:

Huh, I know, dude, but my lake's only a mile long. I can get that thing done in 0.05 seconds. I buy that thing, yes. Thank you, alan. I knew I needed to get that.

Alan Wyatt:

I just needed to. I think that's the way. The third point was was have Chris buy a cigarette boat, that's right. Okay, next one.

Alan Wyatt:

So and Misha talked about it you got to pivot and I'm going to say pivot slightly. So we have our lane that I already talked about. That we swim in in commercial real estate, but when 80% of that is really taken away of the repeat and referral and the investment purchase but I do have the other 20% that we just sort of did, like somebody wanted to buy or sell a building kind of came along. Well, now we're actually going after that, or the leasing somebody. If I give you an example, I'd be at a networking event and somebody's saying, yeah, I'm thinking about get a couple of thousand square feet and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's good. You know where are you thinking about? You know, I wouldn't even now I might go. Well, I'd be happy to talk to you about that, so we might be leaning into those. So we're pivoting slightly. We don't want to get away from our core, we're still staying in our lane, but we're just kind of emphasizing the areas that are still vibrant right now as opposed to the ones that aren't.

Chris Lalomia:

I like it. Okay, I like what you're doing, all right.

Alan Wyatt:

I got a couple more.

Chris Lalomia:

Oh, I wasn't shutting you down. You kind of sounded like you were. Well, I'm thinking we need more bourbon. We do need some bourbon. What Hang on? Oh my God, that can't possibly be happening. Okay, we're back. We have to have Alan continue his thoughts. Go, alan, please. I don't have a bourbon in front of me, but okay, maybe I do?

Alan Wyatt:

Yeah, you do. You got the other half of the bottle on that glass. Good job, yeah. So the last one is just lean into marketing and it goes back to you know, running faster than the guy next to you when the bear is chasing you.

Alan Wyatt:

And I guarantee you most of your competitors are probably looking to cut costs when things get lean and the first thing they do is I don't need that advertising, which is the dumbest thing you can do. I mean it just sounds dumb to say it. I can't even believe it's coming out of my mouth, but it happens over and over again. I mean I've seen people do really dumb things. I know a guy who had he has a major company, a worldwide company, and when COVID hit he actually got rid of his CFO. But I guarantee you, any CFO worth their salt pays for themself just in the stuff that they find and the money that they save and the deals that they spend. Why do you think people do that, Alan? I think they panic. They're just short-sighted. They see a line item and they scratch it. Yeah, I don't know.

Chris Lalomia:

It's ego. This is why I brought the guy in this podcast. Guys, I'm telling you he is very insightful and he hit it and he just put the hammer on the nail. It's easy, and I panic and the panic move is hit the nail. The nail is oh my God, it's the biggest expense. Oh, the nail is get rid of marketing. No, you blew it, guys. You panicked. Don't panic as a seeker.

Alan Wyatt:

There's other ways to save money. Yeah, and I love the fact that you had 13% fewer leads and you increased your revenue by 22. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean there's money to be saved and money to be found, and it isn't by getting rid of your marketing budget. And so for us, we were 100% referral and so we're like, ok, I guess we better do a little marketing. So we joined a major Chamber of Commerce in the Atlanta area, at the chairman's circle level, and we're going out there and seeing those folks. We're doing little things like just looking through your LinkedIn and tapping into that, reaching out to previous clients. We never even had a website, which was funny, because we didn't need it, think about that guys.

Chris Lalomia:

Yeah, they didn't even have a website. We've been doing this thing for two flipping years and a year into it he goes we don't have a website. We don't have a website If you lost your flip in mind Again. We kind of learned we liked it.

Alan Wyatt:

We liked the fact that you had. It was. We were a speakeasy, you had to find us. So now it's like OK, we go to the Chamber, we meet Mr Graham Puba, who's the CEO of whatever, and he goes hey, check these guys out. Well, you can't find us on the net. So you know we're doing what we need to do.

Chris Lalomia:

Check them out on the net. Yeah, the net is. Give us that website ReardonWyattRealStatecom Right, wyattrealstatecom Jordan, wow, r-e-a-r-d, whatever, yeah, and you'll find out that he's the top 5% podcaster. Oh, by the way, it's here, boys, all right, small business safari. Go out there, follow, listen, check this stuff out. This guy knows what he's talking about. You know what he keeps saying. Look, I don't want bad leads. I don't want people to just talk to me. He does. You know what. Hit me up. I'll put you in contact with him, because every time I get together with Alan, we have not only a good time. Hopefully you're having one with us. We learn something, man, and it's fun, because if we ain't learning, we're dying. Let's go, alan. Point number 74.76432. Star date.

Alan Wyatt:

I think I'm going to just finish on that note, because you are well into that bottle of bourbon.

Chris Lalomia:

Ew.

Alan Wyatt:

You're just kind of tired of me talking. No, I'm not, let's talk about you, chris.

Chris Lalomia:

No, I don't want to talk about me. I love talking about you. Seriously, guys, listen to what he's talking about. This guy has a wealth of knowledge. He's been around, he is seasoned.

Alan Wyatt:

I am. I'm mature like a fine wine he is.

Chris Lalomia:

But no, I love it. We kick it back and forth, we kid around, we don't have a guest with us today. Hopefully you figure some stuff out, though.

Alan Wyatt:

I think it's good content. This kind of reminds me of the old days, right.

Chris Lalomia:

Just kicking around. I feel like it's you and I at the bar and we are so much smarter, I know.

Alan Wyatt:

After like six Guinness, we're just like dang I'm smart and good looking.

Chris Lalomia:

I'm good, you know what? And every chick wants to go home with me.

Chris Lalomia:

And every guy wants to be like me. You know what. That's what you could be too. Keep going up that mountaintop, make it happen. But again, I'm going to start with where I start. I'm going to end where I started. Family is everything For us. Family is the hugest thing and, alan, I'm so thrilled that you get to go through this life, and this is exciting. Thank you so much for sharing your life with us. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us, because, you're right, most of the time it's about me, which it should be. That's what I'm talking about, but I love having this guy around me, and I'll tell you what man Wouldn't want life without you. All right, beth, you're the man. Chris, let's get out of here. We're going big Cheers.

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Chris Lalomia

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Alan Wyatt

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