Clay: So you’re recording … Now when you got to your one-hundredth podcast -Please tell me about it as your business coach, I need to know.
Steve: It was awesome.
Clay: -what happened?
Steve: Well, we came in and we had a giant ice sculpture that … Thank you, Clay … That Clay and his team … It was awesome because it was like, “How did you get this here at like, six-thirty in the morning?” And we had some drinks, we had some bubbly. I think it was like, grape juice that looked like wine. So that was awesome. And so we celebrated. And now in the box that rocks, you’ve put all your stickers up for every episode. So we have our one-hundredth episode that we hit up there right past business coach Clay Clark-
Clay: Oh, there it is! Boom.
Steve: Just to the right of Clay Clark the jerk.
Clay: True. That’s a picture of me with Donald Trump hair but in my business coach attire. But the thing is, Thrivers, is that you put in the work but we as the business coaching program that we work with you, we’re honored to work with you, we wanted to celebrate. We wanted to wow because we care. And so we did. We said, “Hey, we honor you. We appreciate you. Here’s an ice sculpture”. We didn’t have to do it, it’s not written anywhere, it wasn’t part of the agreement. We just did it. And when you go the extra mile, what happens is the extra mile is a lonely mile. No one’s there with you. And so what happens is, people go “Wow”. And when people “wow”, that’s when you get word of mouth. Because from a cathartic perspective, when someone says … Well what does it mean? What does the word cathartic mean? I’m gonna pull up the actual definition here for you. But basically, cathartic is I think why the majority of people I know are on Facebook. It provides psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions, causing catharsis.
So what happens is a lot of people want to say, “Oh my gosh, that restaurant was great”. Or you might call it the business coach law of reciprocity. It’s like you feel like you’ve been given something above what you paid for, so you want to tell somebody about it. And so if you’re asking me, “What’s the best way to get a referral?” And I know this sounds brutal … I don’t ever ask for referrals. I don’t ever ask. But my whole game is to try to wow the customer. So I’m gonna start with Justin here.
Justin, the majority of the Elephant in the Room business now, the vast majority, I’d say 60-70% of new people, find us as a result of word of mouth. You know? A friend of theirs comes in, gets their haircut for a dollar, tells another friend, “Oh my gosh, it was awesome! I signed up for a membership, you should come in, too”. That’s typically the flow. But that other 30%, they come in from advertising. Facebook, search engine optimization, et cetera. Mailers, whatever. But talk to me. What are some things you do at the Elephant in the Room? On a very practical business coach basis, what’s that experience look like for somebody who’s never been in before? Describe for me, what’s step one, what’s step two? When I walk in the door, what does that feel like?
Justin: So people ask all the time, “What is a men’s grooming lounge?” And they’ll say, “You’re not a barbershop, you’re not a salon”. Exactly. We’re a men’s grooming lounge. So, it’s a man’s environment from the décor, the music, the sound. Definitely 100% respectful. But, as far as the services, with every haircut, you’re gonna get a shampoo, condition, hot towel, face moisturizer, and your choice of beverage as well. There’s other add-ons such as [inaudible 00:50:37] hand treatments, essential oil scalp massages. But your first time –
Clay: I don’t get any of these things at Sports Clips.
Justin: Right.
Clay: I don’t get ’em at Great Clips. I know because I spy on these companies. How is it possible for a dollar?
Justin: But your first visit is gonna be a dollar.
Clay: What?!
Justin: And we want to introduce this environment because maybe you’ve never experienced it before.
Clay: It seems fishy. It seems too good to be true.
Justin: So you could probably get the McRib for a dollar? Right? And there’s probably a couple other things at McDonald’s. But what I’m saying is, come in and you find out if it’s good for you. If it’s what you enjoyed and … The guys are blown away and they tell their friends. So now they’re a promoter. I don’t pay them but they go out and they promote for my business. And it shows that 60% of the guys enjoy it, get signed up for a membership. And so you just first, you gotta give some away for free.
Clay: Thrivers, I’m trying to motivate you to do this. I want to encourage you to do this but I want you to write this down. Someone needs to write this down. The most selfish thing that you could do today … If you’re a selfish person, the most selfish thing you could do, the best thing for yourself, is to over-deliver. When you over-deliver, eventually you’ll be overpaid. When you exceed the expectations of people, you’ll eventually be overcompensated. You’ve got to find a way to wow your customers. Now if you’re an employee, wow your boss. If you’re a husband, wow your wife. If you’re a father, wow your kids. You have to over-deliver. I want to get your feedback on this Steve, ’cause obviously you’ve grown your business tremendously through word of mouth. What are some of the nuances, some of the details … What are some of the things that you do differently there at Total Lending Concepts that you feel like has generated the massive word of mouth that you now enjoy?
Steve: One of the things we do … We work with a lot of, believe it or not, self-employed people, it’s one of our niches. And another big part is first-time buyers. And what our goal is to do is to take the nervousness, the unknown, the anxiety out of the mortgage process. And one of the ways we do that is we pre-underwrite every file. So, for a lot of our customers, and really most of them, by the time they get in the car and go look at a house, their loan’s already approved. So they already know they’re approved, there’s no anxiety about it, it’s like “I’m approved. I just have to go find a house”. And that works if we get the customer engaged to give us their stuff. Sometimes people just aren’t in a big hurry to give their income docs. And sometimes, people are well-qualified, [inaudible 00:53:03] you don’t need to. Sometimes people are like, “Look. I got eight hundred credit score and a million dollars in income”. I don’t need to do that. But that’s one of the ways we do it.
The other thing is, we have a fast closing. People want to close on their house quick. So we have a twenty-one day closing guarantee.
Clay: People want to close on their house fast?
Steve: Yeah!
Clay: What?! Business coach mind blown.