Malcolm Marshall

A letter to Nina who gave us a 1 star review that lowered our Google Rating to 4.2 stars: Thank you Nina Your review was exactly what we needed We had ignored our Google rating long enough, and although your purpose was vindictive, it lit a fire under our team that will forever benefit our business You didn’t just help us create a system to build our positive reviews You also brought our team together, working toward a common goal And the team hasn’t stopped there Seeing our rating increase has put an even bigger focus on quality and customer experience And it’s all because of you

A Facebook trick you may not know: @ followers Using @ followers tags all of your followers at once, notifying them of your post Yesterday, I used @ followers on a post that performed well but lost momentum I asked followers to like & share to spread the word The result: 33% increase in shares 28% increase in likes 11.5% increase in people reached I don’t use it often, only on key posts to maximize reach But when I use it, it’s effective, and a great way to drive results

I’m only trying to sell a follow so I guess I can be honest This year we forecasted $2 million of growth $2 million would be our slowest growth year since 2019 We are currently off track to hit this goal Based on sales in Jan/Feb we may not even comp last year I’m hopeful that we will find ourselves back on track by the end of March though Lead volume took off 3 weeks ago and I’m confident it will translate into sales — Here’s why I’d rather be open about slow sales than go silent. 1. I can get input from the X community. A lot of you have more experience in sales, marketing, and business in general. It’d be stupid of me to hide my results and not receive that advice. 2. I can share what works to get back on track, or what doesn’t work, and help others with my successes and failures. 3. If I am going to help people with what I know, and have you help me with what you know, I need a network. I build that with a follow. People want to follow people they can learn from and trust. Not people who go dark when things get tough. — It’s definitively easier to share what’s working. Probably because it sparks a different emotion that makes you want to tell people about it. I find myself sharing the good more than the bad. But I won’t hide from the bad. It’s a part of the story too.

You should act more important than you are when managing your time But you should act less important than you are when managing your team This can create a major conflict I’m struggling to find the right balance

Something amazing happened today My teenage son asked me to play catch If you don’t have a teenage son that may not seem miraculous But at about 11 they stop asking It didn’t just happen though. The day unfolded just right. In a sense I got lucky! Here’s how it went down👇🏻 My son and I started the day off at church. It was just us two. Mom overslept and his little brothers were spread across friends and grandparents. On the way I took a minute to tell him I was proud of him (thanks @trevizo_gabe for the weekend challenge). He tried to change the subject but I stopped the conversation and made him acknowledge me. This was the first of a series of small dad wins. At church we interacted with some subtle elbows. They were hard to sneak in with a congregation of 80 but we managed not to get caught. It was fun. After church we met mom for lunch. We checked his grades at the table. All 90 and above. My mind was blown. He’s smart enough to be an A student but never puts in the effort. “How proud of me are you now?” he joked. When we left he rode home with me. This never happens. He always rides with mom. I should have noticed something was different, that I was winning at dadding, but I didn’t even think about it in the moment. On the way home he mentioned his back was hurting. I told him I could stretch with him at home to see if we could loosen it up. When we got home he showed me a video of him running the 100 meter dash in his track meet last Thursday. I noticed a couple mistakes he made coming out of the blocks. I asked if he wanted advice or just wanted me to watch (dad hack, never offer your teenage son advice without asking first). He said he wanted my feedback, and after I gave it, he asked me if I’d go to the track with him one day this week to practice. I was starting to notice I was on his good side at that point. After that we stretched. He was super tight. Somehow my middle aged body was more flexible than his. The stretches helped though, and he loosened up and was feeling better. Then the miracle happened. He said “hey dad, you want to play catch?” “What?” I said, in disbelief. He repeated himself, confirming I hadn’t misheard. We went out and played catch up until the minute he had to go to baseball practice. We mixed in a few curves and knuckleballs and long tossed so he could prove he can throw the ball farther than me now. It was a blast. It had been too long! — As I reflected on this anomaly of a day I realized I just experienced how to win the favor of my teenage son. I had accidentally put together a sequence of small dad wins. And this was a playbook for how to get some quality time with him. So I’m sharing it here, hoping other dads can use my new playbook and experience the miracle of their teenage sons asking them to play catch.

Spending Saturday morning watching call center trainings We’ll save $90,000 moving our call center to Belize We’re initially focused on inbound calls but I’m excited for how outbound can help us generate more leads This training is very well done. Great job @coleruudjohnson Cole walks through all things setup. Things like country selection, office best practices, rent, utilities, scripts, etc He talks about call center teams. Managers, callers, hiring, team structure, and more. And he talks about how to monetize your call center. Whether your purpose is to create a call center as your primary business, or it’s a vertical integration (like mine) and you want to monetize it, he teaches you how to acquire clients and scale your call center as a business. — If you’re interested in a call center i’m happy to tell you what I’ve learned so far If you’re ready to pull the trigger, @coleruudjohnson team has been a great partner for us

Nina gave us a 1 star review in November and I want to thank her for it Not because her review was legit Nina was wrong. This was one of those unavoidable, bad customer situations. She left it to be vindictive But she didn’t know about the fire she was about to start in our business — Customers are always complimentary of our company Most of our new business comes from referrals Our team takes pride in working for POOL-ology So when Nina left her review and our Google rating fell to 4.2 stars our team was PISSED We knew that rating wasn’t representative of the service we provide There was a time when we used to ask for positive reviews and our rating reflected it But we had gotten away from that very necessary practice and our new reviews had become customers sharing their negative experiences So the team came together to make a change — To be clear, we didn’t change anything about our service, at least not intentionally But we changed what we did after the service We started asking for customers to leave reviews after all equipment repairs And we started working through a list of our weekly maintenance customers asking about 50/month to help us by leaving a rating on Google (we didn’t ask them all at once because we didn’t want a sudden 200 review spike 🚩) The result from making these two small changes has been phenomenal We have added 84 five star reviews in 4 months And we are four reviews away from 4.7 stars — Thank you Nina Your review was exactly what we needed We had ignored our Google rating long enough and the team needed you to light a fire under us You didn’t just help us create a system to forever build our positive reviews You also brought our team together, working toward a common goal And the team hasn’t stopped their Seeing our rating increase has put an even bigger focus on quality and customer experience And it’s all because of you

We pay our EOS implementer $6,000 per day. Here’s six reasons why he’s worth it. 1. Our implementer coordinates our quarterly and annual meetings. He provides a top notch location, snacks, drinks, and lunch. All we have to do is focus on making the meeting a success. 2. Our implementer has a method for helping us extract business issues. The methods are planned into our quarterly agenda. Some methods are the same each meeting and some aren’t, but there are always discovery exercises to help us uncover issues. 3. Our implementer forces us to address confrontation. If he senses conflict within the team he brings it to the front of discussion to ensure we resolve it. 4. Our implementer acts as an executive coach. On top of providing tools and resources, he listens to our conversations and provides suggestions and support in leadership and professional development. 5. Our implementer adds an additional layer of accountability. We respect him. The team wants to perform well to show him that we work hard and do what we say we are going to do. 6. Our implementer makes us more successful at implementing EOS. Our leadership team is investing countless hours to making EOS a success. Investing in an implementer is investing into making sure those hours pay off at their highest return. Would you self implement or hire an EOS implementer for $6000 a day?

Logan Forsythe can make anyone go VIRAL His company, Media Scaling, guarantees clients up to 150 million impressions in 90 days How do they do it? Mass content distribution – 3000 to 5000 posts per month They’ve only been in business for a year but have scaled to 7 figures while producing over 2.5 billion views and 18 million followers for their clients After hearing about their success, I dove into their business to understand how it works I was so convinced that I even invested in their product Here’s how he does it The Strategy Logan’s company uses a strategy known as “Social SEO” to make clients “omnipresent” They create 25-50 accounts for their clients across five social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat The accounts have name variations like Tai Lopez Reels, Tai Lopez Clips, or Tai Lopez Fan Page Then they take the clients’ long form video content, make it into shorts using their proven virality frameworks, and post the shorts across the accounts on all social platforms The algorithms on video platforms use facial recognition to identify who’s in the video and understand that the creators’ videos are getting views The result is that all accounts are boosted The traffic from the secondary accounts is directed back to the primary account to skyrocket growth It’s like backlinks for your short form video content The result: 150 million impressions in 90 days and hundreds of thousands of new followers The Process It takes a lot of people to pull this off Logan’s company sets up a 10-15 person team around each client The team includes 5-8 editors, 2-3 social media managers, copywriters, team leads, a clips coordinator, data analyst, and virality engineer (cool title right?) The client provides video content from recordings that already exist to the team and the team uses the content to start making videos When the clips are finished the copywriter adds headlines and descriptions and sends the posts to the virality engineer The virality engineer is basically quality control. They review the videos and copy, and make sure they fit into the viral frameworks that drive videos to the top While the first videos are being created, social media managers are creating new accounts They warm the accounts up, occasionally posting and engaging with other peoples content After a few weeks they launch full scale, posting 3-6 times per account per day Some accounts experience fast results and others take time But in the background of the posts the data is being meticulously analyzed Adjustments are made to accounts - some receiving more posts, some receiving less - in a constant effort to optimize each account and the campaigns overall performance Results ramp up over 90 days as accounts are fine tuned and a following is built Ultimately reaching hundreds of millions of people The Business Media Scaling’s strategy and methodology came from Logan’s business partner Spencer Murphy Before starting the business, Spencer was hired by a top creator where he implemented and fine tuned the Social SEO strategy Having this model in place allowed Spencer and Logan to scale Media Scaling quickly and produce results for top creators from day one But one of the most interesting things about Media Scaling is how open they are with their methods and business model Logan spreads the word about the business in tell all interviews and podcasts On their website, they provide access to free tools like their Content Virality Guide, Viral Content Database, and Viral Hooks Framework They also offer a free course that includes 17 videos and 1.5 hours of content, introducing hooks, editing, and scaling systems They understand that what they’ve learned and what they’ve built is so hard to duplicate that they don’t have to build in the dark And by building in public they can build trust In fact, after viewing several of Logan’s interviews and Media Scaling’s free online tools, I was so confident in their product that I purchased their Short Form Mastery program The program includes live coaching, weekly cohort calls, and over 15 hours of training videos I’m confident that the course will take our business content to the top — After watching a Brett Melanowski podcast featuring Logan I was intrigued with his methods and what I could learn to apply to my own business So I started looking for more content featuring Logan I went to his YouTube channel and was surprised to find just a few videos I followed anyways, and the next day I was notified that he had posted a new video I was notified again the next day and the next day I realized that Logan was at the beginning of posting content to start his own personal brand He’s even posting on X @LoganForsyth_ If you are interested in skyrocketing your content and creating viral videos, I would suggest you follow What better way to learn than from the master himself

𝕏 and TikTok have one thing in common You never know what’s going to catch 🔥 We started posting on TikTok in January We’ve posted 72 times in those 6 weeks And we finally had a video hit Why? I have no idea It’s a lot like the other videos we’ve put out But this one has 4x-40x the views What do you think are the keys to a viral post? And what do you think made this video do better than the others?

How to make $150k a year cleaning pools 4.5 days week. No employees, just you, a net and a brush. The setup I’d set my work week for Tuesday-Friday cleaning 12 pools a day. Monday is a flex day. I’d only work Mondays if I’m behind on repairs or need to follow up on things. Maybe some office work if my VA asked me to look over anything. If I didn’t have any of that, I’d be fishing or golfing. I would service your pool every week. Well, not every week. I’d take off the entire week of Christmas and Thanksgiving, one week in the Summer, and one week in the Winter. You’d know this about my service, and I’d be able to manage your pool so that everything would be fine while I’m gone. It wouldn’t be an employee servicing your pool. It would be ME. The GOAT of pools. Ok, not really, but better than your average employed service tech, and with a lot more give a damn. It’d be a premium service and so it’d be offered at a premium price. I’d start service off at $275/month, chemicals included. I’d fill my service route through organic, grass roots marketing. Customer acquisition costs would be very small to start, and zero once I’ve established my route. When the route is full I’d start a wait list and begin to increase price to new customers $25-$50 each until I determine the maximum the market would accept. I’d expect that to be at least $325/month. I’d do filter cleans and repairs myself. Based on my current business that averages about $1,250 per customer per year. My Cost of Goods Sold would include chemicals and equipment needed for service, and repair parts. I’d budget 15% for chems and equipment and 65% for parts. Other expenses would include cost of truck, phone, insurance, vehicle maintenance, fuel, a virtual assistant, an operating software, Quickbooks, and other admin costs. You may be asking, why a virtual assistant? The answer is because this is a cush job if you let it be. I’m going to make $150,000 chilling by the pool. I don’t want the phone to ring and interrupt my podcast and I don’t want to be doing bookwork on the weekends. I’m going to pay someone $11/hr part time in the Philippines and they’ll do most of that for me. Sounds to good to be true, huh? Well it’s not. Here’s how the numbers break down: Revenue 48 pools @ $325/month = $187,200 Filter cleans and Repairs for 48 pools producing $500 labor and $750 parts each = $60,000 COGS Chemicals and equipment @ 15% service revenue = $28,080 Repair parts @ 65% of parts revenue = $23,400 Credit card fees @ 3% revenue = $7,416 Expenses Used Truck/Phone/Insurance $800/month = $9,600 Fuel = $4,800/year Software and other office expenses = $3,600 Virtual Assistant = $14,300 Totals Revenue: $247,200 COGS: -$58,896 Expenses: -$32,300 -- Earnings: $156,004 Would you take this job? What’s stopping you?

8 Suprises from my first 8 weeks on 𝕏 1. Had an in person meeting with @joshuamschultz . We talked about business and family. 2. @KenziesPoolBoy and I met to compare our proprietary pool service software. His is better. 3. Joined @apentz on his Small Business Mentor podcast. 4. Was given a great call center contact from @jcolesimpson . Now @coleruudjohnson is helping with our call center implementation. 5. I’m scheduled to join @JakeMRichards on his Salary to CEO podcast next week. 6. Had a zoom call with @KirkNewcombe to discuss our experiences leading pool companies. 7. Won free coffee from @MouyyadA . 8. I have a call on Wednesday for advice from @website_joe on building a “sports shed”. His post on his sports shed had tons of interest. Make sure you give him a follow so you don’t miss the great information he’ll be sharing about it. I joined this platform to see if there were marketing opportunities for my company. I had no idea how helpful and engaging the X community would be.

Today my pool company spent $10,000 on pigs, chickens, goats, and steers $10,000 on animals we’ll never see We go to the Bell County Youth Livestock Show every year to support the children of our customers and friends But the auctions isn’t what it used to be When I was kid selling a pig in the fair the animal was physically there I walked it through a pin while people from the community competed to be the top bidder When the sale was over, the pig went with the buyer But they changed the system during COVID and never went back Now animals are bought through a buying group which is really just a sheet of paper to collect donations The animal isn’t at the sale, just the kid holding their ribbon And you don’t get the animals. They went home with the exhibitor several days before But the principle is the same Kids work hard for months feeding, exercising, and grooming their animals And the community comes together to reward them for their hard work I’m incredibly lucky to be able to support the kids of my customers and friends And give back to a cause that once supported me

We decreased ad spend 40% and doubled viewer retention And all I changed was 3 seconds of a video Here’s how we did it: Our content agency put together a great video It’s an Office parody featuring kids as pool designers It’s entertaining, it’s fun, it deserves views But the first six seconds were of me The way people view media today, I didn’t think they’d hang on to see the good stuff I knew we needed to build curiosity So I had the agency add a hook We took a clip of one of the kids saying “Are we getting paid for this” and we added it to the front of the video Then enters me, loud and demanding. My theory was the change would make people curious enough to hang around and see these adorable kids design pools But we didn’t just assume the edit was going to work better than the original We tested it We put both videos on the TikTok ads platform We showed the videos to the same audience, with the same headline, and the same call to action buttons. Everything was controlled. The only variable was the video. And the results were that our viewer retention more than doubled on the edited video. Here’s what the data looked like. But the impact of the hook didn’t stop there. When I turned the ads off I noticed that the edited video had 40% less ad expense but the same number of views It cost us less to show the video that people were watching longer We understood that we needed to capture the attention of viewers, but the impact of a 3 second change at the beginning of a video was even more than we expected

Today I saved $90,000 by moving my call center to Belize When I was pitched on an off shore call center I wasn’t interested I associated it with the experience of calling my credit card company But when they told me about costs I decided to hear them out The numbers were great and very simple. They looked like this: $5.50 per rep per hour. $3.50 pays for the rep and $2.00 pays for a fractional manager, equipment, rent, and other overhead. We need 3 reps for 8 hours a day. The total annual cost is: $21,840 for reps $12,480 for manager and overhead OR $34,320 all in If I duplicated this call center in my home office, I’d be paying a minimum of $15 per rep per hour. Applying normal overhead costs for rent, equipment, taxes, benefits, etc. I estimate a cost near $125,000. That’s a $90,000 annual savings. -- But the savings alone wasn’t enough to sell me. I had to overcome that “credit card call center” stigma The consultants explained that Belize is an “English first” country which didn't mean much to me. I needed to hear them myself. We set up a call with a Belize call center so we could hear them read through a script I've included the recording of the call so you can hear it yourself. (The video is a stock overlay for effect but the audio is from our actual call) Pretty hard to hear an accent, even when you're listening for it. -- The final step was to understand the calls we receive We wanted to ensure that we could create the proper call flow for any situation We spent two hours writing down every possible call for each of our business segments We talked over each type of call and how it could be handled We talked about operational changes we need to make for a call center work for us Ultimately, we got comfortable with every scenario -- After understanding costs, the customer experience, and call flow, it started to seem like the only good solution was a Belize call center. Today we finalized that decision I’m excited about how this is going to change the customer experience I’m excited about the operational changes this will force us to accelerate And I’m excited about how we can reappropriate $90,000 to grow our business

Small Wins for the Win! How do you keep customers happy in a process that takes 15 weeks from contract to completion? Small Wins We're implementing a customer experience process that ensures customers never go more than 7 days without experiencing a win. But it's been a challenge. Why? Because finding small wins every 7 days, especially during phases like pre or post construction, isn’t easy. So, what do we do? Find ways to make insignificant tasks seem like wins. "We submitted for your permit today. I'm going to send you a video letting you know” - win! "Your equipment was ordered and received. Here's a picture with your name posted on it” - win! And then, sometimes, there are big wins. How do we make big wins more special? "Your gunite pool shell was shot today. Here’s a gift with some subtle symbolism to remind you you'll be swimming soon” - win! The small wins let customers know there's a team working for them between the big wins. And when we combine those small wins with the big wins, it adds up to a one-of-a-kind, best-in-industry customer experience.