The Business of Music: More Than Just a Dream | Jay Maurice

Send us a text

Step into the world of music entrepreneurship with our captivating discussion featuring Jay Maurice, founder of "Lessons in Your Home." In this episode, Jay shares the exhilarating journey of turning his passion for music into a successful nationwide business teaching music lessons. As he unfolds his story, listeners are invited to reflect on the passion that drives them and how significant relationships with students can lead to success far beyond just monetary gain. 

Jay candidly explores the early days of his career, where he had dreams of becoming a rock star but faced harsh realities. He emphasizes that understanding the business side of music education is crucial for aspiring musicians and teachers alike. Learn how Jay created a thriving community around music by focusing on interpersonal connections, nurturing each student's unique talents, and fostering a love for music. 

This episode is rich with insights about what it truly means to be a music educator in today’s world and how the simple act of teaching can create ripples of impact that last a lifetime. As questions about scaling a business and the importance of relationships in entrepreneurship arise, listeners will find themselves more engaged than ever. 

Join our conversation to discover how to turn your passion into profit, understand the nuances of teaching music, and cultivate meaningful relationships with your students. Don't miss this chance to learn from Jay’s experience and take your first steps toward a successful music journey! Tune in, and be inspired! Please subscribe, share, and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!

From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And you know the contract.
You know I had written it upmyself so it probably held zero
weight in the legal world.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
They didn't teach you that in music school, did they
no?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
they didn't.
It's not part of the waiter.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
you know curriculum, so there's not a spot where you
get no business sense whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Right, exactly.
I mean I know how to upgradeyour potato chips, you know, to
French fries and upsell, but Idon't know how to write a
contract.
But French fries and upsell,but I don't know how to write a
contract, but I did, I wrote thecontract.
We didn't sign it and it wasyears later that he started his
own business.
Dick started, dick started hisown business.
And you know what?
What a great lesson for me.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help
guide you to avoid those traps,pitfalls and dangers that lurk
when navigating the wild worldof small business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal

(00:56):
and professional goals.
So strap in adventure team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
You, you, thank you.
Oh boy, alan, we got to getgoing again.

(02:33):
I got feeling the music.
I'm feeling the love.
I'm like I got to get going.
I got to get going, going goingEverybody.
Do you love music?
I love music.
You know what?
I think?
Music actually gets my vibegoing to where I want to go.
Like if I'm doing a lot of work, I put some music on in the
background and I like to do theblues.
I'll even do a little pop.
I like to go all around it.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
You're 70s, big hair rock though.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
I am.
So I'm 70s classic rock, but Iam a closet now out of the
closet hair fan.
Yes, I like all the hair bands.
Um, I mean, I'm talkingslaughter white lion I mean I
could start to danger.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Danger people are like do what they all had.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Menacing names poison rat, poison rat, scorpions, all
of my scorpion, my favoritefirst peachy, you know, back in
the day out in the west coastthey called them peachies, not
folders.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Oh, yeah, I had peachies.
Yeah, with the athletic, thebasketball players from the
peach basket days.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
So I scratched out the squirt from my peachy baby.
So we could go on and on aboutmusic.
But music sets the vibe, setsthe tone for a lot of people and
they like it.
And you guys are listening tothis.
Going man, where the hell is hegoing?
Well, if you could make memore— that's what they always
say when they're listening toyou.
You know what they always dosay that, but here's where I'm
going.
That's why I'm here.
I land the plane.

(03:46):
Did you ever want to be a rockstar?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
No.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Okay, me neither.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
No, but I've always wanted to be able to just be in
a band, maybe play the bass andjust jam.
I think the idea of justjamming with your buddies is
maybe one of the greatest thingsyou could ever do.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
I am trying to learn how to play the guitar again.
I've had a lot of falseattempts, um, but I've always
wanted to play like like stevieraybon.
Now, that's my favorite and ifyou, if you have to pick one,
for me it's stevie raybon allday long.
I mean, I just I get to see himin person.
He was clean when he's playingand man he he just killed and he
opened for joe cocker, who waseven better.
Oh, joe cocker, back in the day, what a lot of fun.

(04:23):
But what are we talking abouthere?
Well, how do you make money inthe music business?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
you can't, you can't, it's impossible ah, totally,
it's a labor of love ohcontraire, my friends I have jay
maurice on from lessons in yourhome french.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Oh yeah, because he's maurice jay maurice, oh
contraire my friends, it'sactually an italian last name,
believe it or not.
I know it sounds, but in Sicily, which is where some of my
people are from, you do see theword Maurice, quite a bunch
around the island.
So I went to Sicily and I sureenough and we get to bond again.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Absolutely A little Paisan thing going on here, and
I am Picciolano as well.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
So all of my family was from the mountains of Sicily
and people always.
I remember asking mygrandmother once Grandma, are we
in the mafia?
No, actually not.
And I found out exactly whatthat meant.
So if you watch Goodfellas, youknow there are made men and
then there are the guys thatthey pushed around all over the
place, and so my grandfathermade a very good living running

(05:20):
his own business, and my greatuncle ran a very good business
running the food trucks, but I'mjust saying I don't know how
many sandwiches he sold.
I don't know.
It was hard to tell.
But back to this.
So we have Jay Maurice, theSicilian, who got and made it in
music.
Jay, welcome to the show.

(05:41):
Can't wait to start talkingabout your story brother.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Thank you guys for having me.
I'm super excited.
Jay, hell to the show.
Can't wait to start talkingabout your story, brother.
Thank you guys for having me.
I'm super excited Jay.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
hell yeah, man.
All right, let's rock this.
So, jay, what is the businessyou have today?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
The business I have today is called Lessons in your
Home, and one way to make moneyin the music industry is to
teach it, and so we've beenteaching private music lessons
since 1997, now going on 28years.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Wow 28 years, so you yourself are teaching Alan.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Back in the day I was a teacher, so I haven't taught
in about 16 or 17 years, but Istarted out as a teacher myself
and I started out wanting to bea rock star like you guys were
talking about.
That's exactly how I got intothis thing, to be a rock star.
So what kind of rock star wereyou going to be?
At the time I was playing musicprofessionally.

(06:31):
It was kind of the alternativeDave Matthews kind of error
there and I was kind of intothat singer, songwriter, but
rock band kind of thing, so I'dsay alternative rock and used to
play all the clubs here inAtlanta back in the mid to late
nineties and had a good timedoing it.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
I had hair and I really did want to be a rock
star even though I didn'tsucceed, and it just falls out
and it destroys your dream.
It does, but I'm wondering if Iput a little more bourbon in
his glass, do you think we'd gethim to sing a little something?

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, so what was your instrument, or how many
instruments?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
could you play.
I am a piano player, so Iplayed keyboards, played
keyboards, I did some singing,but I'm not, probably won't be
singing today for you guys.
Oh, challenge accepted.
Yeah, the bourbon could get mespeaking, you know, it could get
me singing, but primarily akeyboard player.
I play a little guitar, but notreally professionally and yeah,
that's what I did.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
So you're, you're making, you're going for the
rock star dream.
So I also love the movie MrHolland's Opus and remember this
story is the story was Richard.
Dreyfuss was going to be a rockstar and had to take a
temporary gig as a teacher in ahigh school and then fast
forward.
He retires from that school andthey all celebrate him and he
makes this amazing impact inpeople's lives.

(07:36):
I cry like a baby after thatone, every time I haven't seen
that in a while.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
That is a good one.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
It is a great, it was a good movie and it really
tells you that your impact, uhyou, you don't have to be a rock
star to make a huge impact onpeople.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's correct.
Uh, I'll tell you a funny storyabout Mr Holland's Opus.
My mother I was a kid when thatmovie came out and my mother
wanted me to watch that movieand we're talking about Italian,
italian families, right.
So I watched that movie and I'mwatching it with my family I
think my mother, my father, mysisters are there and the movie
ends.
It was a good movie, right, itwas great.
He made an amazing impact onall these people's lives and a

(08:08):
really great story.
But my sister gets so pissed offbecause my mother showed this
movie to me and she goes yourson wants to hit it big in the
music business and you'reshowing him how to be a music
teacher.
You're killing his dream.
You know all these Italianwomen protecting my son, my son,
my son, even though I was herbrother, and that was the story

(08:28):
on that one.
So my sister got in a hugefight with my mom about showing
me that movie, mr Holland's Opus.
She didn't want to spoil mydream of becoming a rock star.
And I was probably 15 or 16 atthe time, maybe even 14, when
that movie came out and had juststarted kind of playing and
started getting into bands andthat kind of thing, but it's
terrific music and we do make alot of impact on people's lives
through teaching and it's afantastic part of what I do.

(08:50):
It's really what I love.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
So talk a little bit about what you have today in the
empire, that is, lessons inyour Home.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Well, I will Thank you so much for that invitation
to do so.
We teach about 4,500 musiclessons every single week
throughout the United States.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, it is coast to coast.
I was on your website and I sawSeattle and DC.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
All the way from Miami to Seattle.
We're up in DC and Baltimore.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Are you kind of the Uber of music lessons?

Speaker 1 (09:16):
I was Uber before we knew the word Uber.
I wish I would have understoodthe Uber concept I was
developing back in the day.
Probably could be much biggerthan we are today, but we work
with about um 500 music teacherson our team each and every week
, teaching about 4 500 lessonsacross the across the country,
um, and we do that through ninemajor metro areas.

(09:37):
Um, we even teach a lot ofvirtual lessons, so we are
teaching really almost worldwide.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Uh, especially during the pam if you're in the sticks
and you're not actuallyphysically there, you can do a
virtual lesson we can.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
There's not a lot of huge call for that.
Believe it or not, it's not asuccessful sticks aren't musical
people people are not superinterested at least my student
base aren't super interested intaking virtually.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Is he being like?
So like there's ageism, right,you're picking on old people I
am picking on.
He's picking people who likesthe country.
He's countryism man, jay, who Idid not pick you as a racist
jay, oh my god, I try I try, allright.
Well, we bring everybody onhere.
We open it up to everybody.
You can send hate mail to chrisat the trusted toolboxcom and
I'll get it to jay maurice, I'lllet him know about that,

(10:22):
because he is picking on youcountry folk.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I also saw you had a cool little video on your
website.
Oh yeah, the little animationone.
And you know, instead of thetotalitarian, slap your wrist
and scream at you and practice.
It kind of sounded like you'regoing to have fun with these
lessons.
So are you looking for acertain style of teacher?

Speaker 1 (10:42):
We are.
So, first of all, we travel toyour house, right?
So our teachers are drivingfrom home to home to home, and
that old nun that used to wrapus with the ruler when we were
taking our piano lessons, shedoesn't like to drive that much,
especially in traffic.
So we are primarily you know,we have teachers of all ages,
we're not ageist, but primarilyour- teachers, so he has some
standards apparently.

(11:04):
But our teachers are, I wouldsay, you know, primarily on the
younger age range, you know,probably from 24 to 35, who are
willing to drive from house tohouse to teach amazing kids and
we really target market our kidsstudents, you know, ages three
to 12.
We teach a lot of lessons inthat category.
Now we teach 74-year-olds, 75year old, 75 year olds, chris,

(11:25):
we would teach somebody as oldas you are, I guarantee it.
We come to the house here,we're sitting at the studio and,
um, we can definitely bringsomebody to your studio to teach
you guitar.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Get that dream alive is what I'm talking about oh, I
think I'm getting sold right nowon the podcast let's do that.
All right, look at that.
He's selling on the podcastright to me.
Now.
That's what you call anopportunist.
I like that.
So, jay, you, let's go back tohow you got this thing started,
were you?
Uh you, you were doing yourthing.
You're on the bus, you'redriving around, you're doing gig
after gig.
Did you have a corporate jobthat was feeding the income?

(11:56):
Where you just are, you sayingI'm doing this, I'm making it
happen.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Guys, when you have a degree in music.
Um, when they give you yourdiploma, they also give you an
apron and a notepad to takeorders at restaurants.
So I was working you want frieswith that?
Exactly right, they should havea class on how to be a waiter
while you're at music college,because that's what you will do
when you graduate school with amusic degree, and that's what I

(12:21):
was doing.
So I was playing gigs, chris,but I wasn't making any money
because it was original musicand I was waiting tables on the
side.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
I was actually waiting tables.
Original music sound like.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Oh we're going to have to do that, Do you guys?

Speaker 3 (12:37):
you know what?
We'll have to get some deets inthere and we'll we'll play it
out on this, All right.
So the Italian family said hey,Jay, you go off and go get a
music degree, and then we'regoing to pay for that.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Well, no, they didn't pay for it.
Oh okay, we were dead broke.
So we were that Italian familythat got pushed around by the
mafia.
There you go, exactly my motherdidn't want us to watch
Goodfellas because it madeItalians look bad.
Okay, that's where we come from, so we were probably running
from your uncle selling thosesandwiches on the truck.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
No, you wouldn't run for him, but you'd go to him and
see if he could run somenumbers.
I mean allegedly, Allegedly.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
To play the numbers.
That's exactly right.
So I'm waiting tables playinggigs and an old friend of mine
calls up and forces me literallyforces me to teach these.
What do you mean?
He forced you?
Well, it was a female.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Behind every great idea is a favor that needs to be
paid.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Seems to be a theme developing here Chris.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
So she tells me that I have to go teach these two
kids.
I tell her I'm not a teacher,never wanted to be a teacher,
didn't plan on teaching, wasn'tin my interest level.
But she was a nice friend ofmine and I agreed to go teach
these two kids piano.
The two children were childrenof two dentists and within a
couple of weeks I was teachingthe whole block, like they had

(13:58):
spread the word, and I reallylove teaching these kids.
In fact I still know them todaymy first student and his sister
.
One's a dentist, one's a prettysuccessful writer and they are
doing very well in life.
And I started teaching all thekids on this block in a very
short period of time, stoppedwaiting tables on that
particular day of the week andthen, within a very short period
of time, also had a full studio.

(14:19):
Again, what do you call it?
As a music teacher?
You call it a studio.
My studio was full, I wasteaching.
I quit the restaurant and had awaiting list of students.
I'm teaching piano lessonsbecause that's all where I'm
really qualified to teach and Idecide that this business is
going to be called Lessons inyour Home.
That's the beginning.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
So that's the beginning, and that was in 1990?
1997.
Right, that's when you startedLessons in your Home.
And so now I'm going to doanother movie reference.
He is literally Jack Black inSchool of Rock.
He is bringing the house downbecause in 19,.
I don't know what it was likethen, but you're right.
In the 70s and early 80s, whenI was forced to have to do music
lessons, and one of them waspiano, I had Mary come over and

(14:58):
teach me.
And what do we do?
Dun, dun, dun, dun dun dun, dun.
I'm not having fun.
So did you make it fun?
Then Did you start to see anangle?
Then Were you going I'm aclassically trained musician.
I'm going to teach you the wayI was taught, were you going?

Speaker 2 (15:14):
I'm a classically trained musician.
I'm going to teach you the wayI was taught.
You know, whenever you ask hima question, the look on his face
as he's thinking about theanswers.
Like which one should I tellhim I?

Speaker 3 (15:20):
know, it's really funny I mean, I'm telling you,
this is the guy.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
Guys, this might be the one you might have to go on
YouTube and listen, but thenevery once in a while, because
his facial expressions arepriceless.
I want to know what he'sthinking before he actually
tells us what he chooses to tellus.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I'm thinking that you guys are a really good time,
like, I'm really enjoyingtalking to you, and we spoke
before we started the podcastand I was really excited about
it.
So I'm like, yeah, what storydo I want to go with?
And I also want to be real.
So I am classically trained,you know, and it's what I did.
But what Lessons in your homeis about, and what it was about

(15:56):
back then, even though I wasn'tsmart enough to realize it, it
wasn't about the particular kindof music that I was teaching to
the children.
It was about the relationshipthat I was having with my
students, and that relationshipis extremely valuable.
I, um, coming from a largefamily.
I love kids.
You know, like it's kind oflike your cousins and your, you
know, your older cousin comesand grabs you by the head, he
gives you a noogie and you justyou banter with your cousins all

(16:18):
the time, and so I didn't knowwhat I was doing, but I was just
kind of being a family memberto these, to these families that
I was working with, um, and atthe same time, I became part of
their families as well.
So that just like was soexciting my network of family
members, my network of communitymembers, my people.
They were just great.
I can't tell you that when Irun into one of these families

(16:39):
now that I taught 27 years ago,the hug is like you're seeing an
aunt or an uncle or a lostcousin that you haven't seen in
a while feeling.
So it would be great if it wasthe music and I was teaching
them how to play ACDC, which wedid all sorts of fun stuff, but
we also learned how to play.
You know Bach and Mozart andsome jazz as well.

(16:59):
You know maybe some Stevie RayVaughan.
But it was really about therelationship, the way we talk to
children, the way that and it'snot children, because we do
teach adults as well, and I didteach plenty of adults it's
about the way that you speak topeople and about the way you
care about people.
And so I think the music isnumber two.
It's number two actually on thesuccess level.

(17:20):
The first one is therelationship we form.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
That's a great point that everybody needs to file
away a little bit.
Again, back to Simon Sinek.
Everybody loves to quote thiswhat's your, why your?
Why in 97 was my, why was I?
Don't want to freaking waittables anymore, I just want to
make it big as a rock star thatthese guys can help me and I can
build my rock star on the backsof children and just claw my
way up.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
That's my why that's not a very altruistic why, Chris
.
Well, I'm projecting my whyYou're such a Machiavellian
creature.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Well, hey, let me tell you my why.
When I first got started, Iwould do anything to anybody at
any time.
I think it's the real why?

Speaker 1 (17:56):
I mean, I think it's the real why all the time when
we talk to young business owners?
Why to, to you know, um, tomake a means, you know means to
the end.
To get to that stage, Idefinitely wanted to be a rock
star.
Five years after I startedteaching, I still wanted to be a
rock star.
It was only after some timethat I gave up that dream.
Um, it was only after some timethat I gave up that dream, when
I realized you know, I saidwhen I wasn't smart enough to
realize it back in the day whenyou realized how important the

(18:18):
work was that you're doing.
That's where you start tochange Like, that's where it
really starts to grow.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
And that's the big thing, I think and I've said
this on other podcasts I go onthere and say my why has evolved
over time.
I mean, my why in the beginningwas absolutely to do everything
to anybody at any time to makea buck.
And now my why is A big boat.
Well, don't forget that truckthat pulls it, chris Jansen.
No, right now I have 38employees.

(18:44):
I have 38 families that counton what we're doing and how
we're doing it, and it makes abig difference.
Oh those people, yeah well, thepeople on my way up the top, off
the backs of my employees.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Extracting more out of their wallet.
But you can tell.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
So Jay just exuded exactly why people and this is
why this has grown is that hiswhy was?
It was in there, but hismentality was the other way.
He's like I mean, I realizeit's a relationship.
So now, if you grew yourbusiness, your culture starts
with you at the top.
So you're going through this,you, you, uh, you're doing your
own coaching, uh, your ownteaching.

(19:18):
When did you decide to getsomebody else to start to make
money out of them?

Speaker 1 (19:21):
I'm at a local music store.
A couple of my couple, thecouple that owns the local music
store.
They've become accustomed to mecoming in there and spending my
money on material so I couldteach kids in walks a lady.
Her name was linda I don't knowif I'm allowed to say her last
name.
Anyway, linda's in there and,um, she's talking to the owners
of this music store saying thatshe wants to become a teacher,
that she doesn't know how toteach music, but she'd like to

(19:44):
do this because she's married.
Her husband's, I guess, the mainbread that's a sign from god
and she wants to teach the houseand they literally point to me
across the store well, being amusic thing, staying on the
music thing, baby, let's keepgoing.
God could be involved in this,he's definitely involved.
And so they send her over to meand I start giving Linda
students off my waiting list.
That's how it starts.
No intention of doing that, nodirection to do that.

(20:05):
We just start giving studentsto Linda.
And then I met a couple otherteachers.
I liked Linda.
I remember when Linda used topay for my Corolla back in 1997
and 1998.
Linda, I remember when Lindaused to pay for my Corolla back
in 1997 and 1998.
And I thought, holy cow, thisis great, she's paying for my
car.
And that was the beginning.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
You know that's leverage, right, I was
leveraging my relationships tohave Linda pay for a Corolla.
I mean, it's going to be honest, so let's go back to this.
So he sees an opportunity, hesees his opportunity right, Sees
and seizes, keeps it going.
But then what did he do?
He says B's and C's, keeps itgoing.
But then what did he do?
He says, hey, Linda, I'm goingto give you a competitor
potentially who could stealeverything you just gave her.
And you didn't even think thatway.
You thought, well, no, I'm justgiving her what I can't do.
That's a really hard thing fora lot of us to do is to share

(20:46):
with others in the sandbox.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Well, okay maybe one guy?
Yeah, I was going to say are wetalking about others or is this
really?
Whose therapy session is this?

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Alan Please.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
I do realize it's yours.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
The Red Hot Chili Peppers said give it away, give
it away, give it away, give itaway.
Now he's gave it away.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Give it away.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
give it away now, Chris hates the Chili Peppers, I
do.
Why.
Why would you hate the Red Hots?
Not a fan.
I love the drummer.
That dude can kill it.
I mean, it's a guy who played,so I have.
I played a couple instrumentsas a kid, but anyway, okay.

(21:25):
So yes, maybe we could start aband.
We know what I played saxophone.
Baby tenor, how do you playanything?

Speaker 1 (21:31):
cowbell maybe oh, I got a fever, I got a fever, more
cowbell another reference.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Let's go um so well, I got a question.
All right, keep going.
All right.
So you have linda, and at thetime, you're not really thinking
, you know, do our theories jive?
Do we have the same approach?
So, at some point, though,you've created this culture.
Where did that happen?
When did you decide?
No, this is what my business isgoing to look like, and I'm

(21:58):
going to bring people on my teamthat actually fit what my
vision is yeah, that's a greatquestion, because when we were
six teachers boom one it waszero when it was six teachers,
we all.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
It was very easy to keep that culture under control.
But you know, at some point intime you guys are how much
bourbon have we had?
We?

Speaker 2 (22:20):
haven't even got started yet.
Man Not even a half a group.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
Wow, we can't focus.
This is three years of yeah,jay is just too much fun.
I mean, come on, we know it'sgoing to be fun.
This is a great episode.
Everybody Keep rolling, are yousure?

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh, let's go.
Okay, let's do it.
So at some point in time, let'ssee when, was there an epiphany
?
One night I came home fromteaching.
We didn't have cell phones backin the day, right, I had a
business phone.
I had an answering machine.
My wife used to answer theanswering machine at home and
one night she said the phonehasn't stopped ringing.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Speaker 1 (22:51):
I don't know.
So I start listening to themessages and I pick up the phone
and I schedule a lesson.
And I pick up the phone and Ischedule a lesson.
And I schedule a lesson, and Ischedule a lesson.
And in one night I scheduled 30lessons.
Okay, that's a lot for a fewhours.
And I said, holy shit, thisthing's for real.
Let's build a website, let'sget you know.

(23:11):
Let's get a phone number, let'sget a business card.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
What year was that building a website?
Let's go back.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
I think we built our first website in probably 2002,
2003, maybe, so he was on theother side of the internet.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, so those 30 calls are all organic.
I mean everybody's just talkingand they.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
I used to run a postcard campaign.
I used to print the postcardsmyself.
I had a cutter.
I'm cutting the postcards.
My mom and dad were stampingthe postcards and I was such an
idiot to not realize how crazy a10% return was on my postcards.
I used to send out 100postcards and I used to get 10
students and I did not know thatthat was an unbelievable thing.

(23:49):
All right, everybody.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Now we need to see the look on Chris's face YouTube
right here Go, All righteverybody.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Now we need to see the look on Chris's face YouTube
right here.
Go with me.
What the fuck I mean 10%, dude.
I was lucky if I got 0.1%.
Really, oh my God.
Yeah, back in eight.
That's really bad.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Chris, I know it is Because that faded, right.
I mean the postcard thing faded.
For me I think it was a uniquecard and it just kind of worked.
The picture on it was ugly.
Have you guys ever read uglymarketing books?
It was an ugly picture, itdidn't work, it wasn't flashy,
but it was different and westarted getting calls and so
when I hung up the phone thatnight in the last call or it may

(24:26):
have been too late to callpeople back I walked downstairs
and talked to my wife and I saidI'm going to have to stop
teaching.
This is different.
I'm kind of thinking this isnow.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
I'm thinking about the years, probably 04.
So you're seven years in andyou realize that you had Linda
last name can't be said becauseshe's a witness protection
partner Absolutely.
And do we have another teacher?

Speaker 1 (24:46):
that you also.
Oh yeah, we had a good 15teachers at that time probably
15, 20 teachers maybe so you hadto become admin, absolutely,
absolutely, and I said I'm gonnahave to stop teaching.
And then, six months later, Ihad stopped teaching and that
was the end of teaching for meall right.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Was that an easy transition to get out of
teaching and and touchingstudents?
And I didn't mean it like thatwhere are we going easy?

Speaker 1 (25:08):
easy on that.
There was never any touchingguys talking.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
We never yes, we never got weren, we weren't
there.
But was that a hard transitionto get out of actually doing the
work that you loved and thenmove to the admin, or was that
something you're like?

Speaker 1 (25:21):
man, I'm feeling it.
Man.
Maybe you guys can relate,because I think one of the
hardest things an entrepreneurdoes is realize that someone
else could do what they weredoing when they were a
solopreneur just as well.
And you're not the mostimportant part of the cog have
you gotten that?
Never had that epiphany nonever for you.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Seriously, I swear to god, I think everybody else is
an idiot.
No, I'm joking, okay, of course.
Yeah, I mean, my handyman canabsolutely kill around the house
.
I mean they can writeeverything and I use kill, like,
I'm talking, like, but theytruly I talk.
They are my artists, right?
That's why my challenge to themevery day is St Francis of
Assisi said and we quote himagain Are we going to use the F
word this time?

(25:58):
Not this time?
Okay, all right, I can, becauseSt Francis fucking Assisi said
if you work with your hands,you're a laborer.
If you work with your head andyour hands, you're a carpenter.
A lot of my guys felt like theywere carpenters.
With your heart, your head andyour hands, you're an artist.
I want you to be an artistevery day, because what you do
in a home is voodoo to thosepeople that you do and you know

(26:18):
how you're doing it, but theydon't know what you're doing,
especially in today's day andage, and working in people's
houses, and so you are doingthat.
You were the artist, you werethe CC, and now you were
starting to spread the word.
Are you falling out there?

Speaker 1 (26:33):
I think I'm there.
I'm kind of deep into it.
I just want to know.
So did you have a hard timeletting go of swinging the
hammer yourself?

Speaker 3 (26:38):
No, that was easy.
The managing part was hard forme to let go.
So letting go and hiring myfirst general manager, a year
ago here in Atlanta was veryhard for me to do so.
For me it was really easy togive up the technician stuff
because those guys were betteryou were right Watching these
people do the work in the home.
You watching people teach otherkids.
You're like, wow, that's.
And they had the enthusiasm.

(26:59):
You're like, oh, I had that too, kid.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Hey, son, I could have done that.
I guess for me I uh, the harderpart was not the admin stuff
and and and taking control ofthat, it was giving away that
relationship that I had withfamilies.
I thought that was reallylargely important.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
So you didn't hang on to a couple of them.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
No, I had to cut it off cold turkey.
Plus, I had the.
Uh, you know, I started havingkids.
I wanted to be at home withthem and we teach after school.
So, um, you know when?
When I wanted to be home, whenthey were home, or at least have
some ability to see them.
All right.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
So your why started to evolve.
So now your, your why became.
You know what?
I'm willing to give up thatrelationship because my why
became I want to be there for mykids.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Totally pretty cool, alan yeah, I'm not sure that.
Why is the definition thatsimon cynic uses?

Speaker 3 (27:47):
I know I, but I'm using my own you know, your why
is kind of fluid.
My why is definitely fluid anddefinitely fungible.
How many whys do we go throughin a lifetime?
I mean that's.
I think that's another partwhen you your why is kind of
fluid.
My why is definitely fluid anddefinitely fungible, how many?
whys do we go through in alifetime?
I mean, I think that's anotherpart when you talk about what
we're trying to get done andtrying to accomplish.
And again, that impact, that MrHolland's Opus, because when I
heard your story I'm like, oh myGod, he is Mr Holland's Opus

(28:08):
because you hit it.
He is nationwide helping peopleand he's not just helping one
kid, he's helping a kid whogrows into an adult and then has
kids and they go.
You know what?
Because I would tell you, everykid has to have a musical.
I made my kids do it andeverybody has to have a musical.
I think you've got to have thatoutlet and we're missing that

(28:29):
now because we're going to thisvideo gaming thing, because
they've actually said that youcan be a better analyst, you can
be a better engineer if youhave the musical background.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
I've told you this story.
You know about my father.
Yeah, very much anauthoritarian.
I didn't have a decision that Icould make my entire life
growing up, except for one.
Do you want piano lessons?
I said no.
So the one choice I got.
I made the wrong choice and Ihave regretted it to this day I

(29:01):
agree, because I had pianolessons.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
We had a stand-up piano and as a guy now who's in
the remodeling business anddoing all this stuff, I would
tell you know what's going down.
People are getting rid of theirpianos and they go hey, can you
donate this somebody?
I'm like no yeah, I said it'd bebetter if you just broke it
down.
You could fire, you can use thewood for uh firewood and we can
sell the uh.
That's awful.
It is horrible.
Nobody wants a piano anymorebecause they have keyboards.

(29:25):
Nobody wants a baby grandunless they're trying to show
off to their friends.
Nobody wants any of that.
So I'm sure you see a differentstory, jay, but but when I see
people remodeling now they havethese standups and they're
asking hey, can't you donate toa donated to a church or a youth
center?
And I'm like no, they don'twant them.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
I can tell you guys, one of the worst gigs to be a
salesman of is a piano.
They last too long.
Okay, my piano at home is a1925 piano.
It is a hundred years old thisyear.
It has been rebuilt.
But now that it's been rebuiltit's going to last another 75
years.
You know so grandma had thispiano.
You know, passes it down andthen and then the mom passes it

(30:02):
down to the kids.
And now you're remodeling theirhouses.
They have a piano in there.
I say hold onto it, give themlessons.
You know that's right.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Hey, everybody don't throw it away, Jay.
It lessens in your home.
So, Jay, as you continue togrow, you did the internet
before the internet was cool.
Well, internet was now not.
It was cool because of thedot-com bust.
I happened to be in consultingat the time.
I hadn't started my biz.
You're growing it, but you'retrying to figure out how to grow
it.
When did you decide to grow itoutside of Atlanta?

(30:31):
That was exactly my question.
That's a great question that Iasked.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
No, it was just a routine question, but one that
needed to be asked.
So you grew it to a certainpoint in Atlanta where you can
touch.
I guess we're back at thefinger.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Can you teach him to play?

Speaker 2 (30:47):
guitar with just one finger.
Well, it's funny, he brought upthe question.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
You liked the question and I was thinking that
that should be the next thingthat I should share.
You like the question and I wasthinking that that should be
the next thing that I shouldshare.
Yeah, so we're getting a lot ofsynergy here.
There's a lot of, there's a lotof special things going on.
They bring this all togetherAbsolutely.
So there's a lot of thingsgoing on this room.
We built everything aroundpeople.
Linda was a person.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Roy, was the other team.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, we don't know where she is now, but we always
built it around people.
So when we the next school thatwe opened up was in Houston,
Texas, why?
Because there was a personthere.
There was a person there, anold friend, that said I'd love
to do what you do with my wife,yeah, baby, did you guys catch
that.
I love it.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Hey, I do now, right.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
So we started doing that all together, the three of
us With his wife, and thensometimes my wife would come as
well when we'd go to Houston.
Hey, let's get swinging.
You should have been at therecitals.
They were a great time, and Ijust because that was one of the
greatest lessons I learned inbusiness when that guy stole my
business model years later afterwe started it.

(31:49):
He stole it, absolutely he did.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
He's one of my largest competitors.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm sitting at his kitchen table and we're talking
about the deal.
You guys know this, you've beenin business.
And I said um, I don't want tomention names.
I said how are you going tofeel when I'm sending?

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Let's call him Dick.
Okay, I like that.
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
So I said hey, dick how are you going to feel when
I'm sending you these checks?
Right, and because he was goingto be what we now term our
regional directors we have aregional director that runs
every one of the cities that wework in.
I said, hey, dick, I like that.
Thank you.
So, alan, I like you.

(32:27):
Man, I appreciate that.
Um, can I say that again?
I asked him hey, dick, um, howare you going to feel when I'm
giving you checks?
Oh, what did Dick say?
He said, jay, we are friendsCause.
I said, and you know thatthere's another check coming to
me in the same amount, you know,or a very large amount, for
doing my share.
And he said you are sharingthis opportunity with my wife
and I.
We're all doing it together and, um, we're not going to have a

(32:51):
hard time about this.
I said well, here's a contract.
Even better, and you know thecontract, you know I had written
it up myself, so it probablyheld zero um weight in the legal
world.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
I didn't teach you that music school.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
They didn't.
It's not part of the waiter.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
you know curriculum, so there's not a spot where you
get no business sense whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Right, exactly.
I mean, I know how to upgradeyour potato chips, you know to
french fries and upsell, but Idon't know how to write a
contract.
But I did.
I wrote the contract.
We didn't sign it and it wasyears later that he started his
own business.
Dick started.
Dick started his own businessand you know what?
What a great lesson for me.
So, like, that's awesome, right, because you get to learn about

(33:31):
people, you get to learn aboutwins and losses, and and you get
to learn about what to do next.
So I'm actually I really don'tregret that that that happened.
I think it was a great lessonfor me.
It was a, it was a great way tomove forward.
And you know what?
What would you have donedifferent?
Well, I would have had a lawyerdraw up a contract Okay, good
question and I would haveunderstood what rights he does

(33:54):
have.
Because, as angry as I could beat Dick, the truth is I
couldn't stop him from doingwhat he did legally.
Really I couldn't.
It would be like tellingsomebody that works at your
hamburger shop that they can'topen up their own hamburger shop
.
You can't stop somebody fromthere enough.
And I don't think and I and Ikind of know that he didn't
really steal anything.

(34:14):
He didn't solicit, which is theonly thing I could stop him
from doing right.
He didn't solicit.
To the best of my knowledge,every teacher we had on staff
was still our teacher after heleft.
Every client we had that weused on staff was still our
teacher after he left.
Every client we had that weused to teach was still our
client.
So in hindsight the only thingI wish he would have done is my
friend has said I don't like thedirection this is going.
I want to do it myself andbecause then he would still be

(34:35):
my friend all right.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
So let's go back to that, because this is a big one.
People talk about this.
Well, I'm going to put anon-competing place.
I'm going to get myself allcorrect.
Guess what, guys, getting anon-compete does not for nothing
from yeah, in fact, dick'scoming after you, yep, and he's
coming after you, and he's hardand he is going to make sure
that it's not going to work.
So so were you fueled by dickafter that um, no, I don't hang

(34:56):
on, alan, before we go, becausethis is an important point.
Wait a minute.
Yeah, that was huge.
Hold on, yeah, yeah, no,because, because definitely not,
alan.
So I've had what.
I can't tell you how many guyswho worked with me and now have
their own handyman business theycan't even touch because, uh,
touch where I'm at, because I'm.
There's plenty of it to goaround, like you just thought
about.
You thought about a theory ofabundance.

(35:18):
Right, you had the abundancemind mentality and you went that
way.
It is so easy to go the otherway and get really big and
figure out how to take out acouple of tires.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Well, let me ask you this Do you have anything
proprietary now, though, that no, we really don't have anything
proprietary.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
I will say my software.
So we developed our ownsoftware.
It was a huge point of growthfor us.
I would mention that would belike the second thing, Like we
started investing in technology.
We saw the operations going.
I knew what we needed.
We started investing technology.
Everything exploded and yeah,you can't use my software.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
But so, for example, your piano teachers you don't
necessarily have like this is,this is a culture we want and
this is kind of how we're ourphilosophy on teaching kids.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I'm not sure you can.
I'm not sure you could havepropriety on culture, can you no
?
But but no, I do not have.
You can have propriety onculture, can you no?

Speaker 3 (36:07):
But you have it though.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
But no, I do not have books and materials.
So we create an environment, wecreate a community right, and
that's what we do.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
So if I become one of your teachers and I want to
stick with hot cross buns, I'mfine and Chris can go Stevie Ray
Vaughan right out of the gate.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Absolutely, and all of my teachers are independent
contractors as well.
Bond right out of the gate.
Absolutely, and all of myteachers are independent
contractors as well.
So um they I can't dictate whatthey're teaching or how they're
teaching it but you're not justfeeding them.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
So let's go back to this Cause.
Then we only got.
We got 10 minutes left.
So you're just not teachingthem how to teach, but you're
teaching them I'm going to giveyou leads, but you're not just
being the lead provider, you'reactually.
You're given culture.
I know you are.
So how do you get your cultureand your?
I want that relationship.
You guys got to develop thatrelationship with that client,
that kid, that whoever's astudent tell us how you do that.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
So we work on it more than anything else.
It starts from the minute weinterview that teacher, the
minute we orientate that teacher.
We do continuing workshops.
None of the workshops we offerto our teachers are on how to
teach their instrument, not oneof them.
We never teach a drum teacherhow to teach drums, a guitar
teacher how to teach guitar wenever do that.
They know.
We teach them how to say hello.
We teach them how to looksomebody in the eye.

(37:16):
We teach them how to respond toa normal, typical 10-year-old
who's not practicing theirinstrument.
But you have to go there eachand every week and teach them.
We teach them that that's okayBecause, remember, guys like me
we're weird, we're wacko.
I practiced my instrument, Iliked playing it, but our kids
don't.
You know, 99 out of 100 kidsaren't like me.

(37:36):
I'm strange.
So they're normal kids.
Their mom signed them up forlessons.
They got an opportunity to playguitar, drums, violin, voice
and what we do is we teach thoseteachers how to respond to a
student who's not practicing andthat the relationship is more
important.
So we have workshops onrelationship.
We have workshops how torespond to a distant child,
because the kids are in theirphones.

(37:57):
Now, right, they're on the apps.
They're not looking people inthe eye, which is part of what
makes us important, becausewe're interacting with them
one-on-one.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Oh, that's huge, I didn't think about that, right.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Think about what he's doing.
So he, he's creating this.
So let's go back to these.
You have 4,500, 4,500 teachers.
How many have been with youlonger than a year?
Oh, a lot a lot.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
So, gosh, I would say probably over half of our
teachers have been with us forfive or more years.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
So don't kill that.
So don't worry about that one,let's talk about this.
So here we go, here he is, he'snationwide.
How did I meet Jay?
I met Jay because he's part ofour mastermind group and he was
in a different group than mineand I met him in a quarterly
meeting and I was like man, thiscat has it going on.
Man, he's so cool, I know, butbut think the.
He's thinking about hisbusiness.
And if you think about whathe's talking about with his

(38:44):
business, it can translate toany business.
So why did you decide to jointhis mastermind group and how
has that helped you with this?
And I'm not trying to pitchChris Hanks in the group, yes, I
am, he's all you know thatbecause he is.
He is Yoda Well.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
I think as business owners, we learned that every
one of us has the same type ofproblems, and the opportunity to
share with one another andbuild a community of business
owners is extremely enticing.
I had an energy level that Ihadn't felt in a long time.
The very first time I went toone of our mastermind groups

(39:22):
Like I wanted to run throughbrick walls, I wanted to like
fly if I could, because, um,you're energized.
You kind of get in touch withyour um, with your why again,
and you keep on touching thatwhy over and over and over again
and, um, what a beautiful thing.
And then when you learn, Itouched my wife.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
It's like how many times do you touch?

Speaker 3 (39:41):
your wife.
But seriously, Alan, I mean,what he's saying is exactly what
that group does for me as wellas I get back in there.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
I mean they just give you an ass beating every time
you're on the hot seat oh yeahoh, that is a win beneath the
wings before.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
No, before we got on the call, jay has come to one of
my groups because he's in adifferent group of our uh
association.
And uh, he came in.
I said doesn't it suck to getthe hot seat?
And he went on the hot seat inone of our groups, yeah, and he
had never been in our but youliked it.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Well, when we met at one of those large meetings,
chris was touching me, and sothat's how come we got to be
really good friends really quick, because it was a strong he's.
It was a strong, you know, kindof touch and he's got a very
firm grip you know what smartlist I got you bateman.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
You know what?
Come on, this is way I got youBateman.
You know what?
Come on, this is way betterthan you.
Come on Arnett, this is crap.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
No, but what a special group it is and I would
encourage any business owner itdoesn't have to be our group, it
could be somebody else's groupbut to be around other business
owners Because you're hurtingyourself.
If you're not, you have tolearn from others.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
We've talked about this and, um, you know, again,
chris, at the trusted toolboxcom, I'll give 30 minutes to
anybody who wants to listen.
You kind of, you know I'll.
I'll.
Anybody wants to talk about it,we'll talk about it.
It's not my mastermind group.
Again, I talk about thisbecause people say hey, chris,
how do I join your mastermind?
I'm like, well, we're inAtlanta, number one, um, but the
the group is amazing.
And here's why.

(41:02):
When I first started, no way.
When you first started, no way.
You had to teach lessons, youhad to put bread on the table,
bro, and then, of course, whenyou started, you weren't married
.
I started, I had like all thisbig money and I had kids in
private school.
I had to make bucks, man, andit wouldn't happen.
But once you get there, it's agreat great trajectory.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
When you look back on that, do you not realize how
big of a dumbass you were?
Oh and I'm speaking for myselftoo.
Yeah, I know and I.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
I told jay about uh, we haven't talked about your
story in a long time.
We're gonna go back to thebeginning of our episodes if you
ever want to hear alan's story.
Alan is an incredible businessowner and I I've said this
before, I'll say it again you'rethe most successful failed
entrepreneur I've ever met yeahalan, would you do it again?

Speaker 2 (41:49):
I have succeeded and failed in both the corporate and
entrepreneurial worlds I got itall, but would you be a dumb
ass again?
I think that's just my natureit's so fun.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
It's fun to be a dumb ass.
It's fun to try.
You know it doesn't feel goodat the time nothing happens.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
When you look back on it.
Yeah, you know it's fun that wejoke about it and I remember
watching alan.
It is nothing he could havedone in 2008 to get out of this.
There's just no way.
I I don't care how smart youare, you can't be warren buffett
.
You can't be jeff bezos, youcan't be steve jobs nothing in
the business he was in gets youout of this.
I don't give two shits aboutanybody says I don't care what

(42:25):
consultant out there and youwant to call me chris at the
trusted toolboxcom, give me thathate mail because I want to
hear it, baby.
But there's no way, because Iwatched it happen and I sat
there and I shed tears with himon this because I was like, oh
my god, it's just you're, you'rea great guy in the wrong
freaking business, bro, and itjust sucks.
And here I getting started andI'm getting my teeth kicked in

(42:46):
hemorrhaging money.
I mean, I went from makingmoney to Right.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Every one of those is a check.
Yeah, I'm just painting apicture for the audience.
Thank you, okay.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
All right.
So let's go back to Jay, shallwe?
Yeah, let's All right.
So, jay.
So here you are now.
How?
So?
Here you are now.
How have you?
What are your plans?
You're going to go Nate.
You're going to go worldwide.
You're going to go universal,you're going to go the whole
universe.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
What are we doing?
Yeah, we're going to grow.
We're going to continue to grow.
We're going to grow within eachand every one of the cities we
already work in.
We're starting new cities andwe'll be in Kansas City and
Arizona within the next 12months Phoenix and we're going
to continue to grow and we'regoing to continue to help music
teachers.
That's what we're really doing.
You know we haven't talkedabout music teachers, but we're
really helping music teachers,young people who have passion.

(43:32):
Right, they're studying music,they're playing music, they're
gigging and they need an outletand instead of driving Uber,
instead of waiting tables, theycan share the knowledge that
they have, that you want tolearn.
You expressed that you'd liketo play guitar, and that makes a
musician feel amazing.
When we can teach you how toplay Stairway to Heaven and you

(43:54):
play Stairway to Heaven for yourwife and she kisses you like
she hasn't kissed you in years,chris, can you imagine that kiss
?
Wow, that gives a great feelingto the person who's helping you
.
This kid can sell brothers, allright.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
You learned it.
He didn't learn that in musicschool either.
He did not.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Wait.
Well, I had to learn music toget my kiss.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Okay, because this is not in the tractor of the women
.
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I had to learn how to cook.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
I had to learn how to cook.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Yeah well, yeah, we were rock stars.
Jay learn how to cook.
Yeah well, yeah, we, we wererock stars.
Jay was a rock star.
You know he's got a honey athome, you know?
All right, everybody.
Hey, jay, how can everybodyfind you?
How can everybody find outwhat's going on?
Do this thing absolutely so.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
My name is jay maurice.
You google me.
You're going to find lessons inyour home, but you could also
just look up lessons in yourhome anywhere will pop up on any
browser you've got and give usa call.
You won't reach reach me, butif you want to talk to me, just
ask for me and they'll transferyou to me.
You'll talk to whoever'slocally at your school because
we really are run locally bylocal teachers and in local
regions, so give them a call.
Lessonsinyourhomenet.

(44:54):
The lessons is plural.
You can gocom.
You could spell it wrong.
You'll find us online.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
I got to do the four questions, man, because I got to
know Jay's going to answer this.
Cat's so cool, let's do it.
All.
Right, jay, give us a book youwould recommend to all of our
listeners.
Guys trying to scale a business, thinking they're going to
start their own business, thinkthey've got the world by the
tail what's a book?

Speaker 1 (45:13):
I want to go avant-garde here.
Let's do it, because I justreviewed this, the Structure of
Scientific Revolutions by ThomasKuhn.
Okay, this book has nothing todo with business.
Do you like this, have you?

Speaker 2 (45:25):
read it, Alan.
Oh, I just love the voluminoustitle.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Okay, and so this Chris just went stoic.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
You know, what it reminds me of is have you ever
been to Maple Street Biscuits?
Yeah, yes.
And then they have a questionand that's how they call out
your order.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
No, you've never seen that.
No, I've never read that It'llbe like your favorite superhero
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
And one day it was a book you'd like to read, and so
I said the Complete Works ofUlysses S Grant, and that way
they had to yell it out.
So as soon as you said that theStructure of Scientific
Revolutions.
That would have been a greatone, holy shit.
Write that down.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Write that down, bookmark it.
It's a book that defines how weuse the word paradigm now, and
I love the fact that things areconstantly changing.
For business owners, thelandscape tomorrow is not what
it is today.
So structure of scientificrevolutions.
We thought the earth was flat.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
So there's a business application to this, I think
there is Okay, I love it.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
All right, I like it.
What's the favorite feature ofyour?

Speaker 1 (46:27):
home.
Oh, favorite feature my office.
Because I bought the home froma wealthy lawyer when I wasn't
so wealthy and he built abeautiful custom bookcase behind
me, Nice.
So when I sit in there and I doa call, like a zoom call, I
feel like a God, a Greek God,sitting back there with this
bookshelf.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
You have a lot of fake books in there.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
I only have books that I've read, so there's like
eight up there.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Nice.
You know what, jay?
We've Got to do a zoom call soI could have you go.
Am I talking to God?
Yes, chris, you are.
Thank you, all right here.
I thought it was going to be a1925 piano, but all right, let's
keep going.
No, because he can do thatevery time, because he can
tickle the ivory.
He's got surprises.
Well, the office looks out atthe piano, all right.
So, jay, we don't talk aboutthis, but we do talk about this

(47:12):
because we are customer servicefreaks, absolutely bigot, and
we're on it.
Let's go.
What did you just say?
We're big on it.
I'm a bigot.
I thought you just called me abigot.
No, no, I'm picking up newwords for my daughter.
So what is the customer servicepet peeve of yours when you're
out there and you're thecustomer?

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Being asked if I want something that they already
know I need.
Give it to me.
Give it.
Why do you ask?
Why does somebody come by andask you if you want more water,
fill it up.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Usually for me it's.
Would you like another beer?
Is it empty?
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Thank you.
Thank you, quit asking forthings that we know that people
make.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
That's a great question Asking the obvious.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
Yeah, I just got done doing this with my guys and
that's called because Jay and Iwere at a mastermind group.
We had Victor Antonio come inand talk about sales oh yeah.
And he, victor and talk aboutsales oh yeah.
And Victor is a god when itcomes to sales.
He rocked it.
Oh my God, unbelievable.
Oh, I fall at the altar ofVictor.
Actually, we're going to getVictor here.
The reason we got Victor tothat one is because I came up to

(48:13):
him and I got it on video.
I said, scott, you got a videoof this.
I came up there and go look you, you're going to have to drive
to fucking Atlanta and nobodythere is going to listen to you,
but you've got to come teach ushow to do sales better.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
He goes with that sales presentation.
Why would I not do it?
I said, let's do it so you knewhim before you brought him to
the group.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
No, Hank's, introduced him and said Hank, he
said, would you come?
And I said, hank, is that whatyou just said?
I said let me go over there andtell him how it's going to go
down.
Good, yeah, he's phenomenal,buy it for me.
This guy was probably the bestsales coach I've seen, since I
mean I don't know man, I want toput up there with ziggler.
I mean he was that.
Wow, yeah, dude, phenomenalthat good, yeah, this guy's got

(48:58):
it going on what's his book?
victor antonio?
He's got four of them.
Four, four, All right.
Let's go back to Jay.
You're a great speaker, Allright.
So give us a DIY nightmarestory, Because I love working on
homes and I wanted to know whatyou did, music boy in your home
.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Well, we finished our basement, okay.
And when we bought the home,you guys have houses and you
know your wife always wins,right.
So we bought the perfect housefor her, but not for me, because
it didn't have a finishedbasement.
And she said baby, when we buythis house?
She did, she looked at me andshe said baby, baby with the
smoldering.
Oh yeah, absolutely Cause youknow, she got her way.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
She goes when you buy .

Speaker 1 (49:37):
When we buy this house, you can have the basement
finished.
And I looked at my real estateagent and I said how much do you
think it will cost me to finishthis basement?
And the real estate agent said25,000.
And I said see how?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
see, I wasn't that bright.
Now wait a minute.
Chris is laughing because it'sreally cheap and you were going
that's really expensive.
So, baby, I'm in.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
I said it's really expensive but it's doable.
So we bought the house.
Three weeks later I hadsomebody come down there and it
was an $85,000 quote back many,many years ago.
So of course I went with theguy who gave me the $35,000
quote to do at least an $85,000basement on a bad day.
Great move, jay.
Yeah, thank you so much.

(50:17):
So smart.
So after firing him we actuallyrehired him to finish it.
There's a little story there.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
So we didn't do it with a.
They didn't pull permits.
First mistake, like he didn'tpull permits.
And then the permit police camebecause my neighbor was pissed
off that there was a lot of carsout in the driveway, or what
have you?
Your neighbor's is their nameDick, yeah, great relatives of
my old business partner, dickVictor Jr so they had just

(50:49):
drywed it and my wife and I weredown there and we were just, it
was beautiful, the basement wasgreat, it was lovely.
The permit police came in andthey said gotta tear it all up.
The contractor's there.
He's like I'll open up any spotyou want, just tell me where
you want yeah right thing to do,yeah right, all of it they're
like take it all the way down.
So I look at the contractor andI said, hey, man, I feel bad
because I knew that he wasn'tpulling permits.
Okay, I'm going to just behonest there.

(51:10):
And I said I'll buy the newdrywall, right?
He said Jay, no, no, no, thisis my fault.
I should have pulled it.
I'm going to pay for thedrywall.
I said I'll buy the new drywall.
He said no, no, no.
And used to be a.
When my father was alive, hewas a plasterer for the first
half of his life First.
And so I said you're notputting that drywall back up,

(51:32):
are you?
And they said no, no, no, no,we're not putting the drywall
back up.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
It was like two by three strips.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
And so I walked down there the next day after the day
after the permit guy comes andgives us a clean bill of health
and they're starting to put thedrywall up.
So I said, hey, we're not doingit.
I said I told you I'd pay forthe drywall.
No, no, no, no, you don't haveto do that.
So anyway, long story short,fired the guy and then, like a
year later, the basement remainsunfinished.
A year later he hires somebodyI know.

(51:58):
She calls me up and says um,Steven, sorry about the way we
broke up, you get what you payfor.
You guys know that.
That's why you should call thetrusted tool, Don't you think
you put?

Speaker 2 (52:12):
enough mud on used sheetrock to make it look good.
I can.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
I can Should you, though, but no.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Of course not why not Well sorry.
Who cares?
It's just mud.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
It's going to be safe he talked about.
Let me tell you how I grew up.
I grew up in a house where Ihad to learn how to plaster and
then I had to go work on otherpeople's houses because my dad
says oh yeah, my son knowsplaster you talked about
drinking in college or workyou're doing.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
No, I, I used to do it when I was a kid.
Uh, again, are you talkingabout drinking in college, or
all right?

Speaker 3 (52:43):
you know what?
Nobody's listening more.
So I'm gonna tell you thisstory.
So I go to a college and, uh, Iwork in a machine shop.
And then my dad would say, uh,anytime one of his friends would
say, yeah, we just worked onthat.
He goes yeah, my son, I'll comeover, we'll do it, and we'd
work for beer.
Well, he'd get the beer, I'dget nothing.
And so I went to college, youknow, and uh, playing football,
doing the whole thing, come homeon break and he goes, hey, uh,

(53:05):
mr putra needs his his screenroom, needs his sun porch done,
and we're up in Michigan.
I'm like, yeah, sure he goes.
Yeah, we're starting at 8 am.
I'm a college kid, by the way,and we're off season, so I was
not used to waking up at 8 amanymore.
So we get there.
And this is back when we didn'thave screw guns and all the

(53:27):
fancy tools we have now and Ihad to hammer and I was missing
everything.
It was like one to the right,one to the left, one in the
center.
So if you're really, if youknow how to drive, you know it's
one set, two, drive, three,finish right.
I was going one right one leftone there and they're watching
me and and, uh, and I'm becausethey they had me certain the
ceiling.
I am hung over as shit becauseI've been out that day before,

(53:49):
because I just got back fromcollege and so, uh, greg putra
is his name says to my dad let'stake a break, let's get a beer.
And, uh, my dad looks at me andmy dad has never had a problem
with me drinking.
I mean underage, whatever.
That's the whole thing aboutthe italian family, I think.
And michigan, it was never abig deal.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Yeah, it was never true, what else are you gonna my
?

Speaker 3 (54:08):
dad never, my dad never hit it, you know.
So I never felt like it was asecret.
You know, I went to college andit was a secret Like oh God
Anyway.
So we have a couple of beers,we get up there Chris is on a
roll, baby.
I'm like, boom, I'm hanging.
I got my head up there, hair ofthe dog and all of a sudden

(54:35):
you're striking the nails.
Dude, I'm going one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two,
three.
We get done and I'm sweating myass off beers everywhere, you
know whatever.
And uh, greg looks at my dadand says that kid can hand, he
can hang.
I'm like I said that's calledalcohol.
It hits performance spreads.
Wow, he goes, give that kid abeer, that kid can roll.
I did.
I like those guys put up liketwo sheets.
I put like four.
After that, that was but.
But you know, back to yourthing though, which, again,
nobody's listening anymore.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
So it's no, yes they are because your stories are
engaging and they areinformative.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
This, this one, is enriching this one was so fun
because we finished his sunroomand then we muddled it off and
then I came back the next dayand then we did the second coat
and he finished because I didn'thave to finish it.
But but being a plasterer isreally hard, my guys.
Nobody knows how to plaster.
I grew up having to learn howto plaster.
That's a really that's an art,and then, by the way, that art's

(55:23):
almost gone Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Yeah, cause sheetrock's not plaster right.
No, yeah, because sheetrock'snot plaster right now.
Plaster is plaster, yeah, um,but I remember watching my
father work.
He did that stuff so seamlessly, so effortlessly, you know,
even when we were dry, walling,like if I was doing a project
myself.
I'd be over there trying to putmud on that shit and he'd just
come over and go get out of theway done.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
You're right, beautiful yeah, it's an art.
You know again, that's what Italk about with my guys.
You, you're artists, absolutely, they really are.
And it's underappreciatedbecause people like Jay always
pick the lowest guy.
Well, you said mistake.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
So the gold nugget is that, jay, he didn't say
mistake.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Yeah, he didn't say mistake.
Don't be like Jay.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
No, be higher quality Bullshit.
I say be like Jay, right, whatdid Jay do are?
oh that jay, I stay in there, oh, yeah, and then.
Oh, by the way, I'm nationwidemotherfucker.
How about that?
Huh, chris?
Are you nationwide?
Chris?
Do you own a hotel with ahelipad?
No, and pickleball courts?
No, he's got, he got pickleballcourt.
Jay is doing the right thing.
Man, lessons in your home,figured out?

(56:20):
Do you have a summer cabin upin michigan?
Well, it's funny, as he pulledup to the house.
Uh, I don't have a summer cabin, michigan, but I can come to
mine and we can go fishing.
We're good, or I'll go to myin-laws.
You got to get through the gatefirst.
Well, all right, but you knowwhat?
Here's where I'm going to end.
So you started with.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Linda, we have one more question, don't we?

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Do we?
I think so.
No, we did it the other way.
Now we're.
Here's my question.
When you first started, lindapaid for your Corolla.
Yeah, what are you driving now?
A Chevy Silverado.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Let's go big dog.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
You know what?
You can't beat the dog out ofit.
Let's go.
That's what I'm driving,because it ain't a Ford,
motherfucker, that ain't a Ford,that's a Chevy Silverado.
Hey everybody, have you heard?

Speaker 2 (57:02):
something.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
Oh, you want to be friends with Alan.
It's Chris atthetrixertoolboxcom.
Hey guys, keep sending me thoseemails.
Keep reaching out to me.
I love talking to everybodyabout what you're doing.
If you're listening to thisstill, keep making it happen,
because you know what.
This day doesn't happen everyday.
It happens because you've gotto have it every day after day
after day.
Get up tomorrow morning andsolve a freaking problem.

(57:25):
Let's get out of here.
Cheers.