The Raise Playbook

Full transcript

Hey guys, welcome to the show. Yao Azpong here. We're on the Anthony Amin Show. I am your co-host, Yao, and today's topic is how do you get a raise? We're gonna start out with Anthony answering the question. Anthony, how do you get a raise?

It's a multi-factor thing, honestly. But at the end of the day, it's what are you doing for the company? And what do you supply for the business to help the business grow? So when you look at that frame and you say, okay, I do X, business gets Y. So how can I create more leverage inside of what I do to give the business a better return on its investment for me? Because that's what you are as an employee, right? You're an investment. I invest my money into you. That's why I pay you to help give me more leverage to make more money. So what can I do to help the business make more money so we can all succeed? And if I do that thing, then I deserve a raise or promotion, and that will help the company ultimately succeed, and it's a win-win for both of us.

Okay. Now, okay, so we got that. Anthony, can you, in layman terms, for those that are lost now, employees here for six months, wants a raise. How do you even start to ask for it?

Yeah, so first let's get through some common myths.

Okay.

Myth one. I've been an employee for 10 years, I do never raise. Doesn't matter.

Really? Time doesn't matter to you.

No.

Wow. You don't honor you don't reward time?

No.

That's for raises. Really? Anthony, before we deep delve into it, but don't you think time shows loyalty? So I need to reward you for your loyalty. You could have left when the business was doing bad. You could have left. So many times you could have left me high and dry. You're great at what you do. You never asked for a raise. You've been here for six, seven years. Why are they asking for a raise? Say it again. Why aren't they asking? Would you say, I know where you're going. But would you say, what if some people don't have the courage? Do you do it for them, Anthony? Do you do I know this guy? He doesn't ask for a raise, but does a great job. He's loyal. He could have worked at any gym. He has the accolades, he has the resume, but he chose to stay with me. I'm gonna reward loyalty. That's how for me, it doesn't necessarily have to be a raise, but me, I'm gonna reward loyalty. If you've been here for a long time, you're killing it, and you don't have the balls to ask you for a raise, I'm gonna do things for you. That's just me. To show you I honor and respect you, the way that you honor and respect me for this long. Thank you so much. How does Anthony what does Anthony do? That won't happen here.

You won't do it. It won't happen here. I'll explain why. Okay. If you are a business owner and you don't have a standard operating procedure on how to get a raise, then yes, it is your responsibility to reward loyalty, to reward those that try. But if a business has a standard operating procedure, what we call an SOP, then it's on the employee to follow through that, and they should know verbatim how to get a raise.

Okay.

Can you explain SLP real quick? What do I have to do in order to get a raise? That's basically you create a document. What does an employee have to do to get a raise? Write it out. Have every single thing in detail written out. Follow these steps, you will get a raise. Doesn't matter if you do it in a year, in four years, in six years, you follow these steps, you're getting a raise. This will show me who's going above and beyond.

Okay.

Because if you go above and beyond, you're gonna follow this and get a raise. Here's an example for you, y'all. Let's say you hire an employee, right? And you do film, right? But yeah, let me tell you something, man. I learned about different laundry detergents and which ones are important to use for you to do laundry. I spent hours researching different skills on what type of different laundry detergent you should use for your laundromat and it'll help the group studs. Yeah, do you care?

No.

Why? They put in the extra work, man.

No, I don't care.

They spent hours researching that and worked a long time to figure that out.

I don't care.

Why? It doesn't benefit me. It doesn't benefit the business. So does it matter then that an employee works long and hard if they're working in the wrong thing? No. It doesn't. Okay. So how does an employee know what to work on in order to benefit and get a raise? Whose fault is that? It's yours. If your employees don't know how to get a raise, if they don't, even if you have a policy and they don't know what exactly to follow, think it's a possible. That fault blames on you.

Accountability is leverage.

You're 100% right. So what can you do as an employee to create that leverage, to show your employees that are going to raise? What can Yao do in his business right now and map out a path for his employees to get a raise? Oh, create a document. What is it gonna say? Do extra value.

I mean, increase revenue. That's pretty much it. Increase revenue, um marketing, get us out there more business, just get us more business. Essentially, that's what it all comes down to. Are we further than where we were yesterday?

If you as an employee don't know how you make your company money, you're in the wrong seat and you're doing something wrong. That's it. That's everybody's position. Everyone's position, no matter what you do. So if you're an employee, you're looking at it from at a company and you're saying, hey, I want to get a raise, what do you do that makes the company money? How can you leverage that to make more money? Yes, just do it better. Just do better. That's pretty much it. Yeah, you're right.

If if you're you just pretty much nailed it, yeah.

So that's step one. Step one is follow the employer should create a standard operating procedure of how to get a raise, or your ever manager. You should talk and bring this up. You want to keep me as an employee, let's figure out how to get a raise. How do you say that? You say how does Anthony, how does Anthony, yeah? Great question. If I come to an employee and say, I deserve a raise, what am I gonna say? F you. Right? That's not how you talk to people. I don't know why people talk to their employers different than they talk to anybody else. Like print you're talking to your spouse. You know, okay. Listen, Anthony. I need to make more money, and I'm just in the business used to make more money. So I actually went ahead and created this task that I'm gonna do that's gonna make the business this much money. So I'm gonna spend my time and energy focusing on this. So, with your approval, I would like to take over and do this. All I want is to be compensated this amount, which gives you a 10-time return off of me doing it. What are exactly gonna say now?

Heck yes! So, as an so what if who hold on though? What if you don't have insight to the numbers? Well, explain. So, like for example, one way to get a raise for me is well anybody, I think, is I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z, and that'll save you this much money because now we can eliminate this. So if you're paying 50,000 here, I'll do that. Oh, this is good. This is good. So I so you can eliminate this, uh I can take half of what that person was making, and I will do the job.

Should an employer disclose their numbers to their employees?

I see what you got. That's a good one there. That's a good one. That's a good one. Yes, because then they know what to work towards. But no, also, no, hold on, though. Hold on, though. No, also, because be careful. In doing so, you can unknowingly create enemies and and competition. Uh explain. Oh, that's easy. Oh, I'm gonna buttle the shit out of this guy. If someone knows your numbers, okay, this is just honestly speaking, yeah. That's usually how competition is born. When someone sees what can be made in that field. Nobody wants the worst thing you can do. Are you an idiot?

No, completely not. Of course not. Yeah, right. Can you Google how much money someone in your field makes?

Yes, but it's different to for every business. It's this this business is made.

So information is out there. Correct. Already.

That's that's part one, that rebuttal. So keep going. Yeah, but it's so it's yes, generally speaking, you know how much a physician makes. Very different, but very different when it's when it's specific to Anthony. There's a lot of people that do personal training, but in this specific field, a personal training gym is not a lot.

Yeah, the position you're in right now.

Yeah, yeah.

Right, your current situation, think about how much money you make. You don't say, just think it. You have it, right? How long does it take you to get there? Overall, you mean? Yeah. Well, 13 years. I've been doing it. 13 years. How many hours a week did you work towards that goal? How much sacrifice did you put in?

I mean, it's insane. Yeah. Insane.

It's just yeah. Do you think that your employee is going to do that? Oh, I see.

Okay, so let's take a different angle then.

Do you think I get what you're saying? Do you gonna risk that much of capital to do it, that much time, that much energy to do it? The answer is most likely no.

But most likely, but there's a probability still in doing revealing your numbers, you will create competition.

People are gonna still work for you at the end of the day, whether they know your numbers or don't know your numbers. Instead, I try to empower employees to become intrapreneurs. You know what intrapreneur is? An entrepreneur inside of a business. They can still leverage their own money, they can still figure out how to make more growing inside of our brand with no risk.

Do you think though it creates jealousy? Yes, it does. If someone finds out how much this person's making this person, does it create a certain amount of jealousy amongst in the workforce? The atmosphere changes now. Like, hold on, but I was doing the same work. How come she's making 20,000 more than me?

Yeah, if you worked for someone, let's say you worked for me, and you saw that someone in your same boat is paying more money too. What's your first thought? Why and how? Why and how? What's your first action now?

I'm coming to you. And saying what? I'm not gonna me personally, I'm not gonna talk about other person. How do I make more money? Like I I need I need a raise and I can do X, Y, and Z. I want to see if you're gonna repeat that. I want a raise because I'm going to do X, Y, and Z.

If you came to me and said, I'm gonna make up a name, John makes more money than me. This is unfair. This is bullshit. Do I want you on my team yellow? No, it's always over. Are you taking it accountability for doing anything?

No, no, that's disgusting. I that's why I wouldn't approach the person. So does it even matter that they know? You know what? Now, looking at it that perspective, not only that, but it's a filtering system. Are you competitive?

Extremely. See someone make more money than you. I'm fine, I'm good. Yeah, like, oh man, we're going. But in a friendly way, you're not bringing them down.

No, no, no, no, of course.

But ooh, you know, John. John gets more referrals than I do. Oh man, I need to need to bring more referrals. I want to make more than him. Because the company has a standard operating procedure.

There you go. Explains how to get around. Okay, bingo, bingo, bingo.

Based on referrals in John, he gets so much more. There you go. That's how I learn to get more referrals so I can make more than John does.

Because I was about to say, because what if employees come out to you say, Anthony, why? Why is that person making 30,000 more? Why? There you go. Are you willing to do that? Oh, we do. Oh, that's it.

That's it. You answered it. I want to let's keep this frank, and this is true. My employee is watching this. Our quarterly reviews are public to every single employee. Oh, then you solved it. Employee A knows what employee B brings in, knows what employee C is, and they all can access this document whenever they want. And on this document, it says you need to bring in four times what you output in to get a 2% raise every single quarter. They all say their rankings, every single one. It makes them hustle. The employees that are good want to competitive, want to be this person. Let's go. How do I get as good as they? What do they do? What do they bring to the table that I don't let me learn this new skill to get there and level up? So that's one way we have in order to get a raise. It's written out, it's right there. So simple. So that's one way. Another thing we're working on for our employees right now is because this is very revenue-based. Education is key to us. We're building a whole education system. Inside the education system, the more you learn, the more leverage you have, because the more people we can work with, right? You get a raise. But it's tiered. It explains. You are level three trainer, you get this amount of money. You're a level four trainer, you get this amount of money. But it's all written out.

So it's different now. You revealed the numbers in order to create an internal competition to so that the business as a whole makes more money. Because if A and B are competing against each other, slowly C being the business is going to rise due to a direct correlation with A and B competing with each other.

Brilliant. Now there's another way to get a raise. Brilliant. Let's talk about this hard one for people. Rock and roll. Yao did to me. Okay. Which is brilliant. I high-five you on this. Yao comes in when we're starting to talk about filming and everything. True story. He says, He's like, All right, I'm gonna make this amount of money worth this many hours. And we start talking. He's like, who's on your team? Who does market it for you? I remember this. Oh, you got this employee, this employee, this employee, this employee, this employee. How much does that cost you? It's called $100,000 a year. Yeah. Tell you what, Anthony. You make $50, I'll make $50. Let's split it in half. I'll hate all of it.

I remember that. Is that not a true story? Yes.

I said, how much that person make? How's that? All right, I'll save you this amount of money, I'll do all their jobs. Yeah, I remember that. So how do you get a raise? Yeah. Find a way to save your employer money.

Use yourself as leverage to save your employer money to help the company grow.

Bingo. Yeah, you're right.

And you do that by replacing people's jobs, creating people's jobs, right? End of the day, the business has no feelings. It's a business.

I was about to say that now. Hold on. So what about the person that says that's wrong? You're taking food out of people's mouths. What kind of employee uh place of employment is that? So basically, it's a competitive space. So basically, it's everyone against each other. Is that what you're pretty much telling me? Is that the kind of what is how how does Anthony respond to that?

It's not everyone against each other. It's just being in the right position and understanding the right person. And it's everyone's responsibility to see how they can help the company grow. And if you're an employee that's never thinking that you're gonna burn out and I work for the company anyway.

So then the question becomes, Anthony, does the business have any loyalty to the employees? Because if somebody new comes in and you've been here for seven years, let's talk.

Such a good let's talk, let's talk, Anthony.

We're here.

Oh man. So does it because heart says yes. How so? By morality and understanding of business is no.

So no business has employee has loyalty to employees. Why? Because the goal of business is to constantly grow. And if someone offers as a human being, yeah, you want to give sympathy to everyone.

That's important, yeah?

Empathy.

Oh, empathy, yeah, empathy. Right? Empathy is the important. I understand what's going on, but we need to grow as a company. Like, honestly, that's just the end of the day. The business needs to make money. Because this is what happens, and you make you see this all the time. If redefined fitness goes bankrupt, all the employees go get jobs. Hurt them for a week. Who gets screwed in a million dollars of debt with three leases signed? No one he owes everything back and now has to live in the streets. So, what should Anthony prioritize all over everyone else, irregardless of loyalty? Crazy, bro! So basically, yeah, you're right. The business. Yeah, you're right. I'm not gonna you know what? You want me to prioritize loyalty? I have a really good idea.

What?

You pay off my debt. And you know what? We got a deal, man. I don't have to worry about going backup anymore. We're good. Let's figure something out how this works. I'm happy, man. You as a god, but what we need to reward the risk takers. You reward the risk takers. You and this is what screws me up all the time. And employees say it's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair. You can go start a business. I ain't stopping you. Go. Oh, I don't want to take that debt on.

Exactly. I love that. I love that perspective because yes, it puts things in perspective from the other side. And people only, especially employees, they only look at it from their perspective. You're not rewarding loyalty. This is unfair. It's a instead of a collaborative space, it's competitive. Yeah, it's business.

We have to grow. Your business grows, right? Do you want the same employees you had when you first started? No. That didn't leverage up with you? No. No.

No.

You want the employees, you're always gonna you haven't hired your best employer yet. No business. Okay, really?

Okay.

Really? All brands have yet to hire their best employee as they grow. Because you know what happens? And my wife said this to me, and I was brilliant. I was like, yes. Just like Anthony. I'm looking for a nursing job. I'm desperate. I need money. I'm gonna work my ass off, right? I don't look up this little mom and pop doctor office to go work for. Where were my first go-tos? The big dogs. Northwell. The big dogs. Catholic health, because they're known. Big dog. I'm a huge time marketer. I love marketing. I'm obsessed. I want to work like I'm gonna bring skills in so high. Uh Coca-Cola, like all these big brands. I want to work for a big brand. That's where I belong. I'm gonna hustle my ass up. You're an you're an investment bank. What does Goldman Sachs do? That the leverage they have, they have a 30-day competitive trial window. They hire a hundred people, compete all them against sure they only keep one. And they all know that. Oh and they in order to even start that trial, you have to go through 30 one-on-one interviews. Oh wow. Like it's but they want the best of the best.

That's how you get the best of the so you just say it's But the best of the best only want to work for them because they're a big company. It has to be it has to go both ways. There has to be benefits on both ways. Period. At the end of the day, the business is only going to be loyal to itself. Yes, no one is safe. Period.

Comfortability ad something? Mm-hmm. I'm gonna look directly to you guys. To you guys on this one, because he doesn't even know what I'm gonna say right now. See this dude. That even means the CEO.

Elaborate on that one.

If you as a founder and a CEO don't level up with your business as your business grows, you are in the wrong seat. Yeah. You do not deserve to be in that seat because now you're you're doing a disservice to that business. You replace yourself like a lot of other people do.

Hey, go on the next question. Now talking about getting a raise. Does Anthony have the guts? Can he muster the strength, God forbid, to one day replace himself for the betterment of the company? Yes or no? I will, but I'm gonna have to exhaust all options first.

Hold on, hold on. Let me explain. Explain, dude. I think my biggest skill in life, but in business, is I've accepted the fact I know nothing. I take I like to say I know nothing. And that gives it the opportunity to learn.

Okay.

I listen to podcasts, read audiobooks, talk to people every single day. I get I got that Spotify review, and I'm a huge Alex Himose fan. I got top 1% for Hermosis, and he's got millions of people in there. I got it's like you're a top 1% listener. Like I obsess because I need to learn. I need to learn how to be a better CEO. Because how can I expect my employees to level themselves up and grow and to take accountability for that if I don't do it as a CEO? And if it gets to a point that Anthony is no longer able to learn and no longer able to level up, I need to give it to someone else that can come. Yes. You will. You say you don't care? Yeah, I will. Wow. Okay.

It was for the betterment of the business 100%. So if that fire burns out one day, it's like I think I'm done. It's not even the fire burning out. Willingness. Do you have the willingness to learn at the same rate?

And I can't learn that skill, and it's taking me a long time. I'm gonna find a CEO that knows that skill, pay them to come in, be the CEO of the company, and either keep them there or use them to learn that skill, level myself up, and then when I'm good and ready, okay, I'll take it back. I'll learn the skill that I understand.

So for entrepreneurs, business owners, you cannot hold your employees to a certain standard if you're not holding yourself. You have to be constantly willing to level up, you have to be constantly willing to grow because if you don't, it's gonna be a direct reflection on your business. And you wonder why your employees are lazy, you wonder why you're not bringing in more money, because you're not doing anything to level up your business or yourself. There's no new rules, no new implementation of new skills, program, nothing. Things have stayed the same, and that's why your employees have stayed the same, and that's why your revenue has hit a cap. You have to level up on that time, like you said, number one one percent. Listen on Alex Hamosi. What are you doing on the days that you are not working, the days you're not in an office? What are you doing to level up those skills? Then it makes sense to hold the employees accountable. Wow, so the business place is not safe, so it's a competitive space, and it should be a competitive space in all businesses. So getting a raise. Okay, so people come and ask for it. That's how you ask for a raise, that's how you get a raise. Anthony, is there a cap on how much your employees can get?

No. Why? Why would I put a stupid artificial cap on there? Good. So that brings me to the next question. Okay.

I'm gonna ask it. Yeah, go for it. Does Anthony terminate an employee when making too much to cut cut cost to save money? Depends on their output. So you're okay with keeping an employee that's I don't want to say draining the company of money, but taking a large percentage.

In the history of redefined fitness, except literally this last month, every em 20% of my employees make more than me.

That's a whole nother episode. Well, business owners, do you pay your employees more? That's a phenomenal episode.

How much leverage does your employee give you? Yeah. If I don't, it doesn't matter if they make $100,000 a year or $50,000 a year. How much leverage do I get off of that employee? Now it goes off of about a multiple. So we'll use four times as the standard because that's what we use here. If you make $100,000 a year, you better be bringing in $400,000 a year. If you're making $50,000, you better bring in $200,000 a year, right? So it's different numbers. Now, if that employer paying $100k a year brings in $300,000, and the employer I'm paying $50 brings in $200, I'm getting rid of the higher one.

Yes.

If this employer making $50 brings in $100, even though that employee makes it $100 is bringing $400, we're getting rid of the bottom one first. Yeah, see what you do. Because there's no leverage on there. It's all about pulling the right levers and figuring out who makes the most money. Now that now business is the most money.

And great job. Thanks for being transparent and Frank. Just be Frank as well on this side. Not all business owners think like that. Not all. Not all. Then they'll never grow. Yeah. Oh, there's some people that honor loyalty. There's some people that don't want a competitive space. What big I mean, what where? I mean, there's businesses that honor you worked here for a lot. How many businesses are you going to? I've been here for 25 years. I've been here for 30 years.

And maybe not the people that stay with you the longest but level up with you are the best employees you should keep and you should hold them tight. Here's the caveat.

They level up with you. Okay, so let me ask you: do you have any long-term employees that have leveled up with you? You do. Yeah. There's everyone that's been here for over two, three, four years has leveled up with you, guaranteed.

I have a trainer that started with me day one. She's still here.

And has leveled up with you.

She has leveled up her training to keep up with the way the training is going. Okay, okay.

Okay.

So you don't have any favorites?

You don't favorites? No, you should never have.

I'm keeping you.

There's no, oh, I like her because you let me be very clear. I'm a human. Let's let's break this out because this is so important to understand. It's so much easier to say, this is the way I think, this is the way I enact things, and then it is to take action on things. Because you I am a human. I have gotten in my head so many times. I really like this person, they're really cool. I like hanging out with them, I like talking to them. But yeah, let me tell you, man. Because then what happens is I keep that person because I like them and I really genuinely want to be around them. And then I end up waiting to fire them, and it gets worse and it gets worse. Swapping gets worse, and then I fire them, and then I'm like, holy shit. Yes, I saw this much leak through. There's this much much. Oh man, there's a pile of trash they were bearing.

Yes, and that is why I had to learn in business. Business is life. It taught me so much. Be very careful of emotions. Every decision you've ever made when you're emotional, 90% of it has been bad.

And this is what I don't like. And I wish it was different. And I wish if comment below if you have a solution to this. I have fired people I genuinely like. Genuinely like I like you as a person. I am okay with continuing relationship outside of work. I don't care. Let's be friends. We can fit and vibe on that. He's just not a good employee. Hey, they don't even want to talk to me taking it in a day. But it goes back to the number one rule. That person never took accountability for themselves. Ever. That's why they blame the employer for the reason they got fired instead of accountability for themselves about what they did in order to get fired. That's right. Richard took accountability for themselves and said, Oh, I screwed up on this. You could be friends with your employees after you stop working somewhere.

Hey, and and so you and I differ now. I'm not interested in being friends with any employees. I learned my lesson, boy, that I learned. I am not interested. For those that work with me, I like you guys, I speculate, but there's one thing I always say for those that I just did an episode on this, I always tell my employees from the beginning, we are not friends. I want to make that very clear. After I'm talking. Oh I thought you, I got you. Yeah, I got you. You fire someone who no longer work for you. I didn't understand what you mean. Oh, okay. I thought you meant at that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I have old employees that like block me on everything, avoiding contact with me and shit. It's like, why? Who cares, man? It didn't work out working for me. Who cares? I the amount of garbage you left when you fall out of the gym, I'm not gonna sit here and blame you and call you an asshole, like in your personal life. You just weren't a good employee. Guess what?

And that behavior, they're gonna do to the next employer, they're gonna blame someone else and tell you. Yes, accountability is leverage. That's your slogan. They're gonna blame the next employee. They do not change. You just happen to catch them, you just happen to meet them on their journey. And they did it to you, and they're gonna do it to the next person. And um, hey, Anthony, so we're talking about promotions, how to get promoted. Now it makes sense. Leverage, create leverage, learn how to cut costs for the business and be willing to ask. You have to, you have to have the eagerness, you have to ask, you have to muster the strength to ask. How do I get it? And also find out if there's any document put in place or system where that you can get a raise. Here's another question. If you checked all those boxes, you asked, you found a way to create leverage, there's documentation on how to create how to uh get a raise. What if the employee responds, no? The employer would not want to give a raise right now. Even though you showed X, Y, and Z. What does the employee do, Anthony? Whose fault is it? It's still the employee uh employees' fault. Yeah, why, Anthony? They're in the wrong company. Bingo. I was waiting for you to say that. So what's your they do? Quit right away? No, leverage. Bingo.

How do you create leverage? Come on, man. Come on, man. Apply to more jobs, exactly. Get job offers. Bingo. Use the leverage of those job offers. Really interesting stat. Wow. You want to hear interesting stat? Yeah. My employees are listening to this. No, I'm just teasing. I don't care if you follow this. You know the number one way to make more money?

Oh.

Job hop. Statistically. Not so not emotionally, not morality. Yeah, I don't like it. Statistically, you make more money by job hopping because you use the the offers you get as leverage to jump up quickly as opposed to staying in the wrong company. And this I blame on the employers. Because employers, those that have employees that do that, don't have systems of how their employees can make more money. Oh, I see what you say.

They cap them.

Also job.

So they have no choice. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Big systems you work for are usually cappier, they don't have any more money. Correct. You feel stuck, and then you're forced to drop them. That's where that culture came about. That's what people are doing and how to make money. And you can go, it's stats everyone. Get the experience here, boom. So as an employee, it's your responsibility. Figure out how to make all your employees make more money, have those standard operating procedures in place. Correct. So they don't feel the need to go do that, and you give them the opportunity to grow. Because I know if someone job hops from here, right, they might go make more money, but they're gonna be capped to that money for a long time. Because how many employers have a week? And the rate of in this industry. The rate of growth here is fast. Yeah, it doesn't exist. So they're gonna jump, make more money, and be stuck there for eternity and lose between two and four percent every single year. Oh wow. Why? Why is that? Yeah.

Inflation. Damn.

That was a good episode, Anthony. Yeah, I appreciate you doing this thing. For you guys, comment right now something at your work, so either as an employee, that you can take accountability for to get a raise. What can you do for your company to get a raise? And then my employers. Comment below how you can keep yourself accountable to make sure your employees know how to and get a raise. Don't forget to like, subscribe, share. See you there. Peace.