Full Written Transcript of The Episode

Matt Tompkins: What is your value as business owners? We’re never really given an instruction manual on how to know what our time is worth or what a fair price is that we should be charging for our services. And as we’re starting out, it’s very easy for us to undervalue our business and what it is truly worth. In this episode, we’ll learn how it all comes down to having the right mindset.

We’re joined by Amy Nakai, the owner of Rooted Tree Specialists, who’s going to show us the power of having the right mindset to find success even when the odds May be stacked against you.

Matt Tompkins: Hello and welcome back to the Midwest Mindset, the podcast that gives you the small business owner, the big Agency Secrets to Marketing.

I’m Matt Tompkins of two Brothers Creative, where we believe every business deserves affordable and effective marketing. Since we’re talking about how to know our value today on the podcast, I think it’s apropos that we share where we actually started out as business owners.

You know, we’re embarrassed sometimes to share just how much we have devalued ourselves in the past. So I’ll take the first step here. Okay, I’ll put myself out there because I found this slip of paper here, this real life invoice. You can hear it. I’m holding it in my hand that I found when we moved here to our new studio. And this was for some video production that I did back in the day.

I’m going to say back in the day and not give you a specific date because that would embarrass me perhaps a little bit. That might take it a little too far because it wasn’t that long ago. So I went out and I filmed a bunch of live speaking events and charged $100 in total to film each of these events and then just $100 in total to edit everything together.

Matt Tompkins: Now $200 in total for all of this production work that equaled, I’m guessing, probably 15 to 20 hours, if not more. Of my time. I mean, I was basically working for free. I was basically paying to do this work. I share this, though, because this is common.

This is normal. I think all of us have done this where we undervalue our services. We don’t know what our actual value or our worth really is. It takes a lot of years to gain the confidence and the wisdom to know what we’re worth. Now, our guest today, Amy Nakai, has found success in a male dominated industry. She has forged her own path and she has found her success.

I think if I were to describe it in one word, it would be mindset. It is finding the right mindset and investing in yourself so that you have the energy, the passion and the confidence to know your value. I asked Amy where she gets this energy, this positivity, and it turns out the secret is you can actually shape and form the mindset that we take to work with us every single day.

Amy Nakai: I love to listen to positive podcasts. I love to watch positivity, YouTube videos. I love listening to positivity. It just fuels your.

It’s absolutely changed my persona. And so I just exude a ton of confidence, a ton of positivity because I absolutely love that I went from being a negative.

I mean, everybody in college would say I was a pessimistic. I would just look constantly at the negative and I’ve completely done a 180. I just when somebody says something like, if somebody cuts me off, I’m like, Man, they must have needed the bathroom a lot more than I did or something to that nature. I just always look towards the.

Matt Tompkins: Positive, having the right attitude, the right approach, That positive mindset is important, but mindset is so much more than that.

Mindset is applying that with routine and discipline every single day. One of the things I appreciate about Amy and her story is that she didn’t just want to do something to do it and try it. She actually wanted to be great at it. So she is constantly educating herself, learning and growing to perfect her craft and get better in her own industry.

Amy Nakai: So I am an ultramarathon runner, so I run an ultra marathon is anything more than a marathon. So I run through the forest all the time. I love it and I just love trees because they were ever changing. It’s not like the road running where you’re just everything is mundane in the same trees are ever changing.

And so I really did seek something that was in the forest in nature, was in another company, and then went on to become a GM and then was like, You know what? I can just do this myself. I absolutely love it. Got my well, I got my arborist license before that, but got my arborist license, my pesticide license and just continued to go to school for those things. So I think.

Matt Tompkins: One of the most challenging things about knowing your value is actually sticking to your value because it’s very easy for us to devalue ourselves, to lower our price, to think, Oh, well, if our competitors are doing it at this price, I have to be lower or we’re challenged or questioned as to why we should be charging what we charge.

Amy Nakai: And I can’t tell you how many times clients will say, Oh, it’s just climbing, I just need to trim those two branches or just something.

Okay. It’s a lot more intense than that. It’s a lot more work than that. And then we’re taking thousands upon thousands of wood like pieces, pounds of wood down. Like it’s not. Oh, it’s this easy thing. It’s always more complicated than it looks.

Matt Tompkins: So let’s get into how we establish what our value is in the first place. And I think we really have to look inward and we have to identify what makes us unique. I mean, people can get the same thing or similar products or services pretty much anywhere these days.

What is it that makes your business unique? And I think that really boils down to the experience you’re providing for your customers.

Amy Nakai: I think knowing how you’re different and why you’re different. I am different because our arborists that are climbing are certified arborists. Our climbers excuse me, our climbers are certified arborists, so they know how to make the proper cuts and why To make the proper cuts. So then our mission then comes back to we care truly not our mission. That’s not our mission. But we care truly about the clients.

And so we’re presenting a product, a service that is better than most people because we spend time. We didn’t just train any 18 year old how to wield a chainsaw.

We showed value to the clients on getting them trained and making sure that they do that, and then with showing the value of making sure every client knows, Hey, this is why we care, This is why we might be more expensive, because we’re different. Because we’re different this way.

Matt Tompkins: What we’re talking about here is shifting from this cost based pricing mindset to a value based pricing mindset.

And knowing what your value is is a lot more than just the cost to make that product or deliver that service. It is knowing what sets you apart from your competitors and other companies in your market.

Amy Nakai: When you have clients who say, Hey, I got another estimate, hey, I got another estimate, and I upfront tell them you will absolutely find other less expensive estimates out there. But I just know the service that we provide for you.

And thank you so much for sharing that information. I value feedback. Here’s why we’re different. Here’s the value that we provide. And so I think depending on the client, some people just don’t want to be inundated with the minutia.

But building that value for them and sharing that with them on every single like this is why we’re worth more is because we care about your product and your house, not just dropping a huge log on your fence or anything like that. And we have insurance. And so that’s a lot of times too. So I would say a lot from different clients. We’ve heard estimates that other companies share.

Matt Tompkins: Listen, price is important, but it’s not everything. And the risk is that it can quickly turn into a race to the bottom.

Who’s going to have the cheapest price? Cheap, cheap, cheap. And people I’ll tell you right now, we do not want cheap and we want a fair price, but we want a price based on true value. If you’re about to have heart surgery, would you rather have the cheapest doctor or the best doctor?

Amy Nakai: My goal is truly I do care about your dollar, but the service that you’re providing. So in that race to the bottom dollar, it’s really how do you value your clients? I mean, we had one that we got done a lot quicker than we were expecting. I mean, I am telling you, I put a ton of money on this because I thought it was going to be a lot more complicated than it was.

It ended up not taking as quite as long. It went flawlessly smooth. And so we came down and we said, we’ll take $1,000 off and not so they can see. I don’t I’m not money hungry for that. And that is definitely coming across in hopefully in everything that we do so that clients see that we really do care about the client, not just the dollar.

Matt Tompkins: So how do we charge more? A fundamental component is trust. Consumers have to trust in the value that you are putting out there.

So if you want to have a higher price point, you need to be honest and transparent. And if we’re being honest here, many businesses don’t want that. They don’t want you to know how much money they’re making on that product or service. But if you can be transparent and honest, you can establish trust. And once trust is established, then you determine you set the value for your business.

Amy Nakai: Especially when right now you’re trying to pinch every penny because it’s just super valuable. Groceries are more. And so what am I what are you wanting that dollar for? What are you bringing to me that’s different than this? I think if you read clients so because you can get way overboard. Some people don’t want every single detail, but truly every single client is.

I will let them know up front you will find less expensive bids. Here’s why we are more. More expensive is because we value your property.

We value your trees long term and the community so that we train our arborists and dump fees are more expensive and gasoline or diesel is more expensive. But we truly value your tree whether you’re here five, ten, 15 years from now and whether you use me or not. This is why we are more.

And so I think building that value in every single aspect of what you do to every single client gives you that confidence too, and gives you that know we are worth it.

Matt Tompkins: You want to focus on the end result. What is life look like after you’re done, after they’ve purchased your product or they’ve hired you for your services? We yes, want to have as much information, the specs, the facts, because there are clients who want a lot of that. But it really helps when at least when it comes to marketing your business, getting your message out to paint that picture, if you will, to show what the end result looks like.

That is a huge component to establishing your value for your business. Amy also hit on something that I am very passionate and coach people on all the time, and that is to not do what other people are doing, especially big companies, just because you see them doing it. We often try and emulate and we don’t ask why we’re doing it.

Amy Nakai: I think there’s in our industry, there’s so many companies that, well, this is the way we solve this problem. This is the way we trim this tree, this is the way we solve this insect or this disease or anything like that.

Just because they’ve done it the same way for five, ten, 15 years. So because I am younger in the scene, I haven’t been doing this for 15, 20 years. I wasn’t handed a company. We built it it from the ground, from the ground up. I’m the first female owner operator that I’m out there doing it in the trenches with them. So I am.

How can we be different in the community? I’m spending time doing research. We’re spending time learning because trees are ever changing and insects are ever changing. And so if you have a product that you’re providing or a service that you’re providing for the community and you know you’re different, if you focus on that, it naturally comes out of you.

And this is why I’m different and I’m okay with being different because I’m solving a problem in the community. I’m solving this need this way so I’m able to charge more. And here’s why. And I love what Slater said about, you know, if it’s what good. Fair. Good. Fair or good? Cheap and good.

Matt Tompkins: Cheap or fast?

Amy Nakai: Yes. Good. Cheap and fast. Yes. I love that. Because you’ve set yourself apart for this is my value and this is why we are going to be more expensive. Not all the time, but truly like why we do charge more because we have certified this or because we do spend time doing research on this.

Matt Tompkins: Some of the best business coaches, they will work with you to get to the real you first because it starts with you. It starts with us on an individual level to establish the right mindset, and then that will transform the business around us.

And Amy talks about this with her business and how they even came up with her. Her motto, her slogan for rooted tree specialists and being rooted not just in your community, but in yourself.

Amy Nakai: I actually did. We I came up with the motto first, and then we came up with it because then we came up with the name because I just truly am rooted in the community for the community and why that’s important. But if you’re rooted in who you are and confident in who you are, it oozes out of you and here’s why it’s okay.

And then people start to see that authenticity. But truly who you are. And I think that’s how we’ve been successful. I’m not trying to pull one over on somebody. I looked at this lady. We went and evaluated this tree and she said, Well, I’m already getting it treated by this. And I looked at her and I looked and but it still has this problem. Where are you paying money? I don’t understand it, But they’ve been doing the same thing for the last 20 years. And I think if you’re providing a service or a product or anything that feel confident that you are providing that different than your competitor and it’s okay to charge more.

Matt Tompkins: When we started this podcast, I asked Amy how she has this level of energy and positivity, and she mentioned that, you know, she listens to a lot of positive podcasts and that sounds like a little thing, but it really is not, because what we’re talking about here is knowing your value, you do that by establishing the right mindset and mindset is not something that’s just it doesn’t just happen overnight.

It doesn’t just change instantly because we want it to like anything else. It takes discipline and routine every single day. What we put into our body, both the substance, the food and also what we put into our mind, what we consume, what we listen to, the books that we read, the people that we surround ourselves with. That is what truly sets our mindset every day.

Amy Nakai: Absolutely, Yeah. If you’re listening to I mean, there’s so much negativity around us, I feel like all the time and it’s just so easy to get bogged down. So if you’re just listening to positivity, it truly does, or reading books that are about positivity, it truly does change who you are.

Matt Tompkins: Everybody is looking for this big secret to success. I can tell you firsthand that Amy is like many of these successful entrepreneurs and business owners that I’ve had the chance to talk to have on this podcast and work with over the years.

And it’s really the opposite. It’s not a big secret. It’s the little things. It’s the little things that end up mattering the most. It’s positive affirmations on a daily basis. It’s focusing on the people that we surround ourselves with, those five people around us that make us who we are or who we’re going to become. It’s the little things that matter most. Mindset is a daily commitment. It requires discipline and routine, as Amy has showcased here on this episode.

But it is what is going to define your success, not just as a business owner and an entrepreneur, but as an individual, as a person. Thanks once again for Amy Nakai joining us here on the podcast, and thank you for joining us. We have a link. You can find out more about rooted tree specialists and Amy Nakai in the show notes, and we’ll see you in the next episode.