My phone rang yesterday with a number I didn’t recognize.
I almost let it go to voicemail. I’m glad I didn’t.
Let me back up, because that call didn’t come out of nowhere. I’ve got a friend I’ve known for decades. Helpful guy, the kind who connects people just because he can. Earlier this week he introduced me over text to a sales professional named Ben, a guy who excels at franchise sales. A quick text thread, a couple of names exchanged, and that was that.
Then yesterday, Ben called.
Now, I get pitched all the time. Most pitches open the exact same way. Here’s what I do, here’s what I charge, here’s what you’ll pay me. Ben didn’t do any of that. He asked about me. He talked about me, not him. He built rapport in the first minute and he held it for the entire conversation.
And here’s the honest part. Even with a mutual friend vouching for him, I was still on edge at the start. A little apprehensive, a little guarded. Because that’s what humans do when somebody new calls. But as the rapport built, the conversation got easier, and before long the two of us were working toward the same goal. Not his goal. Not my goal. OUR goal. How can WE help EACH OTHER?
That’s when he flipped the whole script. His ask went something like this. If I do this, that, and the other, if I pay for the ads out of my own pocket, would you allow me to add dots on the map for you? And THEN, how much would you pay me for doing that?
He led with what he could do for me. He put his own skin in the game before he asked for a dime. He asked permission to help.
I hung up the phone and thought, that was a once in a year conversation.
And then I thought, why? Why is that a once in a year conversation and not a daily occurrence?
I’ve been chewing on that question ever since, and I think I’ve got the answer. It comes down to one sentence that almost nobody says anymore.
Can I help you with anything else?
Stick with me here, because this goes deeper than customer service training.
AI Gave You Two Hours Back. So Why Are You Still Broke?
Everybody tells me the same thing. Gabe, I don’t have time. No time to network, no time to go the extra mile, no time to build something.
Except here’s the funny part. We have more time than any generation in history, and we just got handed a fresh pile of it.
The workforce studies coming out right now say workers using AI tools are saving around two hours a day. Two hours! That’s ten hours a week. That’s more than a full workday, handed back to you, every single week. And the same studies show most people have absolutely no idea what to do with it.
Think about that. The most valuable commodity on the planet just showed up on millions of doorsteps, and most folks let it sit there like a package they forgot they ordered.
Because that’s what time is. It’s the commodity. Not dollars. Dollars are just seeds you plant with your time. How you use your time is how you gain value from it, and if you waste it, no technology on earth can save you.
So the question was never whether you have time. The question is what you do the moment you get some back.
The Glorified Waiter Economy
Now, I see plenty of hustle out there. Don’t get me wrong. The younger generation is grinding. But look closely at what a lot of that grind actually is.
Let me bring you some food. By driving it to you.
Let me shuffle you from downtown to midtown. By driving you.
Let me grab your Walmart order and drop it at your door, so YOU can carry all that stuff inside and put it away yourself.
That’s real work and real sweat, and I respect anybody who gets off the couch to earn. But be honest about what it is. It’s a glorified waiter economy. It’s transactional motion. You show up, you complete the transaction, you disappear. Nobody learns your name. Nobody calls you back next month because of the extra value you delivered. There is no next question.
And before you fire off an email at me, yes, I use these services too. I need to eat, and some days I flat out don’t feel like cooking. I’d rather spend that hour producing more revenue. So on those days, absolutely, somebody bring me a sandwich!
The delivery isn’t the problem. The ceiling is.
Because in all those thousands of deliveries and rides and drop-offs, you know what almost never happens? The person doing the work never asks, is there anything else I can help you with?
The Hundred Jobs Nobody Calls Me About
Want proof? Come look at the notepad I keep running.
Gate latch needs a new bolt. The slat wall at the Airbnb needs polyurethane. Pool deck needs painting. Pool light needs replacing. And I could keep going for another hundred lines across my various properties. That list never gets shorter. It just gets reprioritized.
Now here’s the part that should make every service provider reading this sit up straight. With all of that work sitting right there, waiting, funded, and ready to go, you know how many providers have ever called ME to ask if they could help?
Zero.
Every one of those jobs waits until I have time to chase somebody down. The painter who did great work on my last project? Never called back to ask what else I’ve got. The electrician? Same. The work is sitting right there and the phones stay silent.
One phone call. One simple question. That’s the entire gap between the provider who stays busy and the one who wonders where the work went.
Tuesday Night With Larry
There’s one more piece to this, and it’s got nothing to do with money.
Every Tuesday evening, me and my best friend Larry share a meal. It’s a standing tradition, and it’s one of the best hours of my week. This past Tuesday we were sitting in a fantastic restaurant. Great atmosphere, great food, great servers, the All-Star Game up on the screens. A place that should have been electric.
There were three other groups in the entire building.
Three. On a Tuesday night, with baseball’s biggest showcase on every TV.
Where did everybody go? Part of the crowd is hibernating in the living room with a controller in hand. And part of it, especially folks my age, stopped going out because the experience stopped being worth it. They rolled the dice one too many times on service that made them feel like an interruption instead of a guest.
And to the young folks working those floors, hear me out, because I want you to win. If your appearance tells me you didn’t prepare for your shift, why would I believe you prepared for my table? Presentation isn’t about style. It’s about signaling that you took the job seriously before I ever sat down.
Because people are what make this planet. Not apps. Not screens. People, sitting across from each other, sharing a meal and a laugh. We’ve made life easier than it was a century ago, and somehow we’ve made the day to day harder at the same time. We optimized away the very moments where value gets exchanged face to face.
The System We Run at Window Ninjas
At my company, we handle this with a system so simple it almost sounds silly.
If you finish all your stops early, you call your team lead and ask one question. Is there anything else we could do today?
And even before that call, you ask yourself a question at every single stop. Did I add on any services to my tickets today? Did I offer more value to the customers I was standing in front of?
That’s it. That’s the whole system. No app required, no software subscription, no consultant. Just the discipline to ask.
Here’s what I’ve noticed, though. A lot of people today feel like asking that question is prying. Intrusive. Pushy. They’d rather finish the transaction and vanish, because vanishing feels polite.
Friends, asking is not prying. Asking is being of service. There’s a customer standing in front of you with a list of needs longer than my notepad, hoping somebody will care enough to ask about it. Silence doesn’t serve them. The question does.
Pain and Reward
Let me zoom out for a second, because this is bigger than sales scripts and service tickets.
The Earth we live on is a brutal place. It will chew you up, spit you out, and press you into a hardened piece of coal. And that is exactly the point. Because this planet rewards you too.
Ever scale Mount Everest? Most of us haven’t. You basically have to meet the edge of death to reach the top. But when you do, the Earth hands you a view and a sense of accomplishment that almost nobody else alive will ever know. Pain, then reward.
When was the last time you watched an awesome sunrise over the ocean, sitting on a beach with white sand in your toes? Pain: you had to drag yourself out of bed in the dark to get there. Reward: a memory you will never forget and one more deposit in your sense of accomplishment.
See, the Earth delivers value daily. And yes, it delivers pain daily too. Don’t you just hate it when it rains on the day you had pickleball plans with your crew? The Earth is a tough place. People can be tough too.
But underneath all that toughness, every single one of us is after the same four things. We want help. We want experiences. We want friendships. And we want a sense of worth.
Here’s the part most people miss. YOU are in control of all four. Regardless of the hand you were dealt. Every one of us can enjoy the rewards this planet hands out. You just have to make it so.
Because YOU are the catalyst.
Wisdom, Money, or Friendship
Here’s the promise I’ll leave you with, and I believe it with everything I’ve got after thirty plus years of doing this.
Every time you deliver real value to another human being, you walk away with at least one of three things. Wisdom. Money. Or friendship. On the best days, you collect all three at once.
So here’s my challenge to you this week. The next time you finish early, and with the time technology keeps handing back, you will finish early, don’t disappear. Don’t retreat to the couch. Ask the question.
Can I help you with anything else?
Ask your boss. Ask your customer. Ask your neighbor with the sagging gate latch. Then stand back and watch what happens to your reputation, your wallet, and your circle of friends.
Be the phone call somebody remembers all year.
I’ll be waiting to hear from you.
Gabe
