The Home Service Expert Podcast
Building a Business That Thrives Without You with Mike Andes
Fri, 28 Mar 2025
Tommy sits down with Mike Andes, CEO of Augusta Lawn and host of the Home Service Millionaire podcast. Mike discusses his journey in the landscaping industry, the challenges of franchising, and the importance of building systems in your business. They discuss the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs and the strategies for turning around struggling businesses, emphasizing the need for a mindset shift towards profitability and growth. Don’t forget to register for Tommy’s event, Freedom 2025! This is the event where Tommy’s billion-dollar network will break down exactly how to accelerate your business and dominate your market in 2025. For more details visit freedomevent.com For more information about Mike, visit mikeandes.com
Chapter 1: How can you succeed with a 10-year career mindset?
Think of your career in 10-year swings. And if you think of that way in your 20s, you have five, six solid swings left in you. And if you actually committed yourself for 10 years, and let's just say it didn't work out, I happen to believe you would have learned so much more and gone so much deeper in that industry, your second swing would be that much more precise.
Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week, Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now, your host. the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello.
Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text notes, N-O-T-E-S to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299.
And you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview.
All right, welcome back to the Home Service Expert. I got a special one for you guys today. Mike Andes is here. I've known Mike for a long time now. Spoke at your event, I don't know, six years ago now?
Yeah.
Has it been that long? I think it's been three or four. Three or four. Time flies. The funny thing is, is Mike's a badass when it comes to landscaping. And I had a landscaping company in Michigan and Arizona. And I love landscaping because... There's a lot of money to be made in landscaping. It's kind of hard if you're just mowing lawns with a 22-inch Honda.
But once you really master it, it's something a lot of people could get into. And you had a lot of successful people at the event. But you're a busy man. You've got your own CRM. You've got Augusta Lawn Care. You've got Anytime Fitness, and you're the host of your own podcast called the Home Service Millionaire Podcast. Very similar to mine. Yeah. But mine's a home service expert.
Yeah, I still remember way back in the day listening to your podcast when I was just my first location before we franchised, did the software, anything like that. And I remember very specifically one time. I think I might have shared this with you when you went on my podcast.
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Chapter 2: What are the challenges and benefits of franchising?
I think you should break away. I told – so I just did my orientation the last three and a half hours. I told the whole group. I said, you know what people tell me is that they feel like I'm in a time machine because I'm able to pivot to different circles and I stay humble. I never look at an entrepreneur that's ahead of me and say, I'm going to beat you. Just wait. Just wait until I get started.
I'm like, look, teach me. Yes, I've had some successes in my life. I'm very fortunate. I've got great parents. I love my family. I just respect you so much. I want to learn more. I've read all your books. I'll buy you lunch. I'll buy you dinner. I'll always pay it forward. Any stage I talk on, I'm going to tell them what you taught me. And I take notes, meticulous notes.
Can I say something on that? I really respected you a lot more, although I've always had a lot of high regard for you, when I saw the Dan Martell vlog and the way that you interact with him and that of a student instead of that of a teacher. And it, to me, proved the fact that what you teach, you actually do yourself.
And that is when you went into learner mode and student mode, and there's certain aspects you have potentially even surpassed him in, to be honest, in terms of like dollars amount, certain industries, et cetera. However, you were able to slip into learner mode, student mode. And that I really respect. I have.
I have a lot of consultants. Yeah. And I ask them questions. I never speak up. I never tell them what to do. I hired them to teach me something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I do go into student mode all the time. I mean, when I'm around my parents, I still like to listen to them and learn from them. But do you got any few books that you'd recommend that people are starting to try to kill at a business other than the E-Myth and some of these books on the wall?
Yeah, like one that I actually really like is Made in America from Sam Walton.
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