Michael Girdley

Would you rather own:

1- The manufacturer of the lift
2- The dealer/servicer
3- The rental company
4- The contractor using it

Rank them best to worst business to own.

(Bonus for explaining your answer.)

Only 5 of 102 candidates followed the instructions in our job ad recently.

Two takeaways:

• Hiring is still super tough
• Small, specific hurdles in your job posting will save a bunch of time

No-fluff resources for small businesses | Girdley's Small Business MBA Templates, guides, and walkthroughs for common small business problems, from entrepreneur and holdco owner Michael Girdley.

I've built free resources on everything from great business ideas to hiring, meetings, and growing an audience on social media.

But my Dr Evil Master Plan is to ask for your email address to get them.

(Then, I'll send you Chili's menu tips.)

girdley.beehiiv.com/c/resources

1) Go to VRBO / Airbnb
2) Find a rental you like.
3) Identify the property manager firm in listing
4) Google firm name
5) Book property on their website
6) Save $400

Every. Single. Time.

I asked an auditor:

"What's the #1 way to prevent theft as a business owner?"

He said:

"Simple. Each month, review every transaction. Don't hide that you're doing it."

Michael Girdley | The Low-Risk Business Cheat Sheet Your 3-minute guide to starting durable businesses.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for 30 years now.

I’ve started 12+ businesses.

I wrote a 40-page guide.

Boiled it down to 4.

Download free!

girdley.com/products/lr...

If you’ve had them, what’s helped you? Reply below.

(Also, I’m pretty sure this is the first ‘panic attack’ thread in the history of X. LFG!)

Thanks for reading.

3- Reframe.

Another trick is to shift the "what if" in your mind spinning to "even if."

So, instead of worrying about what could happen, think through how you'd be ok even if that thing happened.

Just shifts your mindset entirely.

2- Write it all down.

A psychiatrist taught me a trick.

Take notes of exactly how you feel leading up to a panic attack.

What were the triggers, etc?

In my case, I’d get so mad I had to take notes that the attacks subsided.

1- Prescribed drugs are OK.

Anti-depressants and even a "backup" bottle of Xanax are nothing to be ashamed of.

Just having the option is often enough to calm you down.

Of course, these drugs are no joke and should be taken seriously.

HOW TO DEAL WITH PANIC ATTACKS (they suck)

Get too stressed in life and business -> they can happen.

Many leaders have had them, whether you recognize it or not.

Three thoughts:

"Hire smart people. Leave them alone."

Terrible advice.

One reason CEO roles are so draining:

There's no boss to give you positive reinforcement for good work.

Michael Girdley | The Low-Risk Business Cheat Sheet Your 3-minute guide to starting durable businesses.

I boiled my 40-page business incubation system down to 4 pages.

And made it free. 

But I’m still harvesting your email for nefarious purposes!

girdley.com/products/lr...

This needs fixing. 

And I’m not the expert here, but I do think building more damn houses would be a good start.

What do you think? What did I get wrong?

And if you learned something, share it with a friend!

So older generations are working their whole life to have a great retirement with big houses, nice things and free time to spend with grandkids…

But chasing that dream is precisely what’s stopping them from getting grandkids.

Don’t ask for things because you just might get them!

Ironically, the US is also going through another crisis:

A declining birth rate. 

Younger people aren’t having kids… because it’s too expensive.

And the biggest cost in childrearing? It’s your house.

The median home price in 2023 was $408,806, the highest ever recorded.

And 2024 is the least affordable housing market since 1985.
h.

Unfortunately, this hits their kids like a ton of bricks.

And millennials are the second biggest generation in history… chasing the shortest supply.

And by now, the equation is: 

Huge buying market + lack of supply + high interest rates + soft wage growth

All those homeowners want prices to keep rising.

And so, the NIMBY is born — because when fewer houses get built, the price keeps rising. 

By 2022, the total US housing shortage is 4.5 million homes.

In 1989, the average household had $60,000 in wealth in their home equity.

By 2022, that average was $323,000.

If you’d put down a $20k down payment, you’d make 13x your money in 20 years. 

Not bad.

Meanwhile, homeowners were building a ton of wealth.

How? 

The combination of 30-year mortgages, cheap interest, and gov’t deductions on mortgage interest.

And when Reagan deregulated housing finance, money started sloshing around hugely.

Before, your local bank held your house’s mortgage.

Now, companies could pile mortgages into securities and sell them on the market.

But back to America.

Starting in the 1980s, we saw the beginning of today’s problems: 

Housing started turning from “buildings people live in” into a financial instrument.

By the way: it’s not a new playbook.

Do you know who else created private home ownership after a period of unrest?

The Chinese did it in the early 90s after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Put people in their cars in suburbs and watching TV at home, and they’re much less likely to congregate and revolt.

Like how fun is a protest if people are flying by you at 75 mph?

Plus, if you’ve worked your whole life to own property, why throw that away in a revolution?

In the 1950s, counterculture started to be a thing. 

You had the red scare threat of communism.

And the anti-war stuff starts in the 1960s.

But why?

There were many reasons — urban renewal, the rise of car culture, etc.

But one lesser-known factor?

Homeownership is a tool to reduce civic unrest.

Once upon a time, homes were for, well, living in.

After WWII, the U.S. government pushed hard to make home ownership the “American Dream.”

It worked — ownership rates went up by 50%.

From 42% at war-time to 63% just 15 years later.

Not long ago, the housing market hit its lowest point in 30+ years.

For many Gen Z and Millennials, buying a house is as realistic as flying to Mars.

How did we screw this up so badly? 

Let’s dig in, Margot-Robbie-in-a-bathtub style.