The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
Preparing to take the LEAP into Real Estate | Michael Decoufle
Michael shares his journey from Enterprise Rent-A-Car to real estate entrepreneurship, highlighting how each career step taught valuable lessons about leadership, influence, and customer service. His decision to leave corporate America wasn't about dissatisfaction but about creating a life and business fully aligned with his and his wife Cristi's deeper goals.
• Starting as a rental car agent and witnessing a tie get caught in a paper shredder (a moment that still lives in infamy)
• Working in diverse environments including South DeKalb and Kindercare, where he learned patience and adaptability
• Transitioning to franchising, where he developed skills in influencing without direct authority
• Realizing that despite corporate success, his goals required entrepreneurial freedom
• Building True Blue Mountain Group with a focus on operational excellence and customer experience
• Developing systems that create consistency in real estate transactions
• Using community involvement and networking to establish presence in Blue Ridge
• Leveraging social media connections to reach potential clients seeking vacation properties
• Understanding that when you "burn your ships" and commit fully, going back isn't an option
• Sharing his DIY disaster of accidentally drilling into a water pipe (and the smart move of putting the screw back in)
#truebluemountaingroup#realestate#bourbon#networking#KellerWilliams#KW#LOVE
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
Start like they all start, because Alan's told them this too you were moving cars. I Washing cars in a suit, getting your tie sucked into the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it's worse than the tie in the vacuum cleaner. We used to have these guys called Sunshine Boys and they were retirees. They would just do nothing but move cars for us and I watched one guy get his tie sucked in a paper shredder and it literally lifted off the trash can and sucked it towards his neck and we were all like die. So he unplugged the next day. So like yeah, were you laughing or concerned All of a sudden? Yeah, a lot of my answers today will be all of them.
Speaker 1:That is hilarious. I mean the mental image of that one is right out of office space, right? You're thinking, here he goes, he's got the safer one hand, the ties get sucked in and it's hard to go to his neck. You're like, oh my god, no one's gonna die. Welcome to the small business safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop.
Speaker 1:I think this meeting's being recorded, alan. Oh my God, brace for it. So, guys, another episode coming at you getting ready to rock and roll. We've got a great time because we have a two-parter. This is the second of the two-parters. If you didn't get the first one, go back and check out Christy Ducouflet, which we're going to figure out what we're going to title it, but I'm thinking about those titles. Are you leaning into the sex crimes thing? Hell, yeah, okay. Hashtag true crime. Hashtag true crimes. Hashtag sex crime. From sex crime, from sex crimes and masonic colors. To selling real estate in blue, it's true. Blue Bums. Come check us out, because we can help you sell your house and get you a few extra people. Isn't it so much more fun having people here in person? It?
Speaker 2:is.
Speaker 1:And they brought us a nice bottle. Oh, and who is this episode sponsored by Russell's Reserve? Ah, everybody give a cheers for that. No, so we had put Christy back in the sound booth. It would be pivotal. Are we going to ask questions of Michael? Yes, so kind of like the Mavs game, alan. So, alan, I heard about this great story on Mavs game. Yeah, let's not go there shall we Bob?
Speaker 1:Oh, come on, you can't leave the listeners hanging on that. There's probably some that don't know this. All right, go Google the match game. And it was in the what? It was? A newlywed game, actually Newlywed game. I said that Where's the strangest place you've made? Whooping Husband answers That'd be in the butt, bob. Nope, the husband answers His answer was in the field. And then the white comes out and she goes That'd be in the butt, bob. There we go, everybody, the Dooley Web Game, and that led like into 70. This is 70. So they had to blow them up. Oh my God, macon Whoopie, yeah, which is the name of the, the hockey team down in Macon, georgia. So we have a guest, we do. Nah, all right, we have a guest. This is part two, guys, all right, so we're going to work on the title.
Speaker 3:The first one.
Speaker 1:It seems to be working because we are about 5% and we've got a huge audience in Australia, as a matter of fact, canada, and we've got a huge audience in Australia, as a matter of fact, and I had one of our old guests actually reach out to me because he loved the Pooper Scooper Will Milliken episode Is that right? And he said, man, I want to get that guy.
Speaker 1:What was it about the Pooper Scooping episode he liked, I don't know? With Troy Truin and I, grow your small business out of Tasmania, not just Australia, but Tasmaniamania, which we have an open invite to go play golf and stay with.
Speaker 1:That's an island, right, I've heard, and michael's off and one and michael's over there jumping around take me, take me, take me, take me. I'm like, okay, we'll take it. That's a long flight. Do we have any more? Did we have to, uh, put christy in a sound booth and decide if we want to bring her? Christy? It'd be like the reverse pocket out, then Christy in Australia, all right. So, guys, if you didn't check out the last episode, go check it out. It's great. But Christy and Michael, he can play out here.
Speaker 1:And Christy had an incredible background where she helped root out sex trafficking, human trafficking, got to see just the worst of the worst of people and actually kept a sense of humor about it, so much so that she just had to go sell real estate. And we were in Georgia. Yeah, connect those dots. I don't know, I still don't know. But then again I got my ass in the mechanic on the gym and I'm just a stupid ass. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, all right, thank you, alan. So Michael is on the hot seat. Michael DD Play Now.
Speaker 1:Usually I say let's have him introduce himself, and you look at me and say, hey, who do we have today? But today I don't know him as well as you do, cause you guys were way, I mean way back, and I mean you're old. Yeah, so Michael's not nearly as old as I am, so okay, so all right. So, uh, you met him when automobiles were around, but obviously we did. There were cars, all right. So why don't you introduce our guest? No, just one of my dearest friends and, um, you know, he's right up there with cousin Brad, somebody I talked to multiple times a week and we used to work together in enterprise. We've actually worked together in franchising, so two different organizations. Somebody I respect tremendously. Uh, you know, just a high integrity guy. Love the way, thanks. Loves his customer service philosophy. You would too. And uh, so it's been. We've gone through a lot together.
Speaker 2:You know are we talking about me well, oh yeah, you're here okay yeah, so no, but Michael is somebody again.
Speaker 1:going back to the integrity, just a high integrity guy met him in the corporate world. He's been with three different corporate organizations that I can think of, um very successful. He can actually speak corporate and do very well in the corporate game. But he's apparently got a little bit of an entrepreneurial streak as well which you know two of those organizations I think allowed you to kind of um lean into that a little bit. And where this podcast is going to end up is that he has now left the corporate world to work with his wife in a small town and they live in the same house and they're going to be in business together. This is partner, partner, partner partner, partner it is so wrapped around the axle.
Speaker 1:It's going to be interesting to hear about it. I can't wait to unpack all this. So, michael, I'm so interested in the first thing. First is Alan says did you see that Alan is now oh, alan's over there picking daisies. Alan will be right back. This bottle of Russell's is almost empty. All right, so again, not me. What do you mean, though? You take the biggest gulp of everybody that was just the next four.
Speaker 2:You go to the next four and went to the bottom. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know what happened. Yeah, wasn't me, not me. By the way, I just want to go on. I heard saying this is the longest I've never had Christy Sandigan to meet. Then you've been in the same room together. I know. You know what it's not working. She is in the sound room behind the pillows. You know what? We're going to go take a picture of this on Instagram. We're going to put this on Instagram, where Christy is hiding behind the pillows, by the way, there's so much work.
Speaker 2:I feel like we're like in third grade you sunk my metal ship. I feel like I have a fort. I don't know if our listeners will quite get this, but I hope they do.
Speaker 1:Pew, pew, pew. No, you're dead. I'm not dead, You're dead. I've got you All right. Now back to Michael, shall we? First of all, Alan loves to say he's a good collector of people, but he surrounds himself with good and interesting people. I'm pretty sure to surround yourself with sucky people, Right? So I know he's been very excited about getting us all together to do this. So, Michael, you came out of school and you went corporate.
Speaker 2:And what was your first job and what were you thinking you were going to do with that first job at college? Wow, so I chased a girl in jacksonville, florida, and answered an ad in the paper for enterprise rent-a-car and that was something I remember the brown rat paper car. I was like, how do they drive? You can be, can't see out on the windshield, gotta be my deal. And so yeah, that's what people used to ask. It's the question.
Speaker 1:How do you see out of the corner? But that's so. You answered that in the newspaper.
Speaker 2:Yes, I went to farms and noble I don't know if that place is still around. There are got the Sunday paper in Jacksonville Florida, which probably 40 or 50 Sunday papers across the United States. I picked Jacksonville Florida and yeah, that's. I'll get to know.
Speaker 1:Allen in a strange way. So you go to Enterprise, but did you know the background of how good they were at finding good talent and then grooming that great talent? Did you have any idea what that was? Or was it just? Hey, seems like a gig I could do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so good, fantastic question. I didn't realize it until the first re-interview questions and I realized I'm not on spring break here, I'm actually getting a job and with some highly skilled, highly competitive, qualified people and I'm like, okay, I think this is my home. It was just kind of that deal.
Speaker 1:So you saw that challenge and you went, oh yeah, right off the bat. And you went, I'm in. Oh yeah, you want this challenge.
Speaker 2:A lot of black people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you were digging it, so you dug the culture, you got into it, and so you start, like they all start and cause Alan's told them this too you were moving cars cars in a suit, getting your tie sucked into the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it's worse than tie the vacuum cleaner. We used to have these guys called sunshine boys, so there were retirees. They would just do nothing but move cars for us and I watched one guy get his tie sucked in a paper shredder and it it literally lifted off the trash can and stuff towards his neck and we were all in a tie. I'd be like unplugged the next day, so like die, unplug the next thing. Were you laughing or concerned? All the way, a lot of my answers today will be all the way.
Speaker 1:That is hilarious. I mean the mental image of that. One is right out of office space, right? You're thinking, here he goes, he's got the safe in one hand, the ties get sucked in and it started to go to his neck. You're like, oh my God, no one's going to die, true, no one's going to die, all right. So obviously that's sealed in your brain. Don't worry, there's counseling for that. Actually, I know a great one. Her name is Christy. She could help you out with that. So, all right, so you keep moving on. So obviously you we've talked about this and I shouldn't say it, but let's go back. You didn't know this, the listeners don't know this, but you became very successful with Enterprise and you got the letter, just like Alan. How did that go?
Speaker 2:Wow. So we talked about it in the last episode, a little bit like the struggle is the way right If you go back to the Stoics right. And so I was in Jacksonville, florida, and then left to go to Atlanta. It took me to motion that I didn't get close to family. I had some family here, family concerns, and so that struggle taught me a lot and maybe, maybe that'll help me in the future, who knows. But uh, so I took that to motion and I worked my way right back up. I knew the system like any other company. If you know the system, you can do it. The only differential is how quality the people are. And so, gosh, I've come back to Atlanta. This guy, alan, with really big size 14 shoes, maybe size 20 shoes, he came in and got promoted from Oregon and I was like I can aspire to be that guy. That's the guy I want to follow.
Speaker 1:I wasn't exactly, you know, that hard to surpass, I mean mentally. You know it's like oh, he can get there. I, oh, please, oh, come on, come on, yeah. Okay, all right, she's had enough. Okay, Christy's coming in Story of my life.
Speaker 3:I hear a lot of stories about Alan taking Michael and the crew on like a lot of fun excursions and I don't know fun events that it is true.
Speaker 2:He's the only person the only person I ever had Waffle House three times in 24 hours. That is true.
Speaker 1:We worked hard and then, when we did well, we played office. So you guys need fun. Alan and I only have get up. I want Alan. You know, if you take a dolphin on your course, maybe you get to know him. He's not salty at all, he's not over it. Did we really get to Waffle's? Not salty at all, he's still he's not over.
Speaker 2:Did we really get to Waffle House three times on that trip? Yeah and oh, I don't need.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't, it was the CFF.
Speaker 2:Awards. Thing that we went to Biloxi right right after 9-11 was this when we went to the Georgia Tech game. Yeah, and we started cheering against Georgia Tech and we went to Waffle House. I did not.
Speaker 1:And then we had Waffle House before. How single were you?
Speaker 2:I stand, corrected Technically. I said corrected for the audience here that's not watching this. We went to the Varsity after tailgating, then to Georgia Tech, then to Waffle House and then dropped into another Waffle House in Mississippi. Wow, so it was a well you can imagine. Yeah, that must have house in Mississippi. Wow, so it was a well you can imagine yeah, that was a.
Speaker 1:That must've been a fun car to be in. You'll see, yeah, varsity Waffle House. And keep the windows rolled up, boys. Oh, this smells really good. Oh, Dutch oven Can't say that, All right, let's keep going. All right, so team building. So your idol Alan takes you to the varsity.
Speaker 2:That's a little strong.
Speaker 1:I'm a big ass either.
Speaker 2:Yes, you are Again for the listeners at home don't picture Alan's ass, but I would say that one of the things that totally I subscribed to right after meeting alan was work for somebody because you don't want to disappoint them at the same time. That person is probably going to throw a chair on the court like bobby knight. I just know that that could happen.
Speaker 1:It never will happen, but that was one of my little things so so for people unlike you, chris, who tend to be just sort of nice and just kind of hoping that people do a good job because they're supposed to, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:Every once in a while. I hope everybody does it right. Yeah, I do, and I tell them when they're not self-admitted. It's okay If you tend to be a nice and optimistic kind of person. Every once in a while you just got to chuck a chair across the court like Bobby Knight, just to let them know that you can't. So I'm more Bobby Knight than anybody. I convinced him that, and I have four dead trash cans and one that still sits in my office, just so everybody knows exactly what I can do to a trash can. Yeah, and he's the last metal one that made it Because I didn't to it for our skin. Yeah, and he's the last metal one that made it Because our words didn't make it. So, yeah, couldn't make it. But I'll tell you what, though I don't think anybody can kick a trash can for the market Really, trash can Olympics.
Speaker 3:I don't think anybody can kick it.
Speaker 1:And I still have the welts on my shins to prove that the car doesn't move when you kick it. Yeah, but everybody wants to do that too in the office. But, but we digress, let's go back to that and and let's talk about how nice managers do this. All right. So, honestly, you had a great run. You said you know enterprise. Hey, I got to move back to Atlanta. You move, you meet this awesome guy over here, the big ass idol, howdy gal, and you keep rolling and you continue to have success. And then when did you decide to say, all right, I'm done. Wow, so I had so interested.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, just kick me off the mic if I'm going too long here. But so I worked at Enterprise for a while, mostly working in South DeKalb, which is kind of ironic, right, and so there's mostly 90% African-American folks, and God really taught me patience there. And so my next gig was Kindercare, learning Centers, which is not hardcore retail and I worked with 90% females, and so I think that's like part of my path to success is learning patience, right, learning to be different than you, learning what it takes to kind of set your knowledge and your experience aside and learn something new. And so that's, yeah, that's. That was the step that kind of got me back to. The next step is when Alan and I reunited the band and franchising, and, uh, those experiences were fantastic, really, really, really fantastic.
Speaker 1:All right. So you left, you did uh, you stayed in South Dakota. You do gender care, yep, um. However, somewhere along the line you ended up in Arizona. Was that a? Was that a thing?
Speaker 2:No, no it could be.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I've never heard that story.
Speaker 2:I heard 120 kids got busted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to set that one aside.
Speaker 2:I think we put a pin in that one. That's episode three that won't air yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you, and it's about to get really juicy.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's 124 proof. So yeah, I went to Kindercare, partly because they I'm saluting. There's a weird thing. There's a sign conversation going on in front of me that I can't hear.
Speaker 1:You know what the worst part is Is that most people driving in their cars can't hear that anyway, and all they hear is this whisper back on bullshit nose. I thought that was Christy and then they usually message me and let me know how bad the song was, so continuing on.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so Kindercare at the time was recruiting a bunch of people from Enterprise and they were looking to change the environment of promoting teachers to management, to learning and maybe there's somebody else that knows the sales culture of business to consumer a little bit better and so they were changing the culture of skincare. So there was oh gosh, I joined like seven or eight, one of them you worked with.
Speaker 1:You had these people move over from enterprise to buy into a kinder care franchise.
Speaker 2:No, not a franchise, it was a corporate store. They were all corporate stores. Oh, we were all area regional managers.
Speaker 1:Oh, I did not know that. Okay, so you even knowingly moved over to help snotting those kids. I remember him telling me he goes it's kind of the same thing. You have the same metrics, except for, instead of our financials being based on a per car basis, it's a per kid basis a little bit, yeah, but there's a huge difference. Um, I mean, and this is a horrible story, but like, in one of the centers there was a child that died, yeah, oh no you know, and I mean you know, we have this day in my life we we've.
Speaker 1:We had some horrible things happen at enterprise where people were gunned down in our vehicles. I mean, they were the, you know, the official rental car company of the Flair's Ball in Atlanta and so it was, you know, it was just all kinds of crazy stuff. But then when he told me that story about how I've had a lot of customer service, difficult phone calls not that that was tough man, the phone- call somebody.
Speaker 2:Phone calls Not that that was tough. The phone call somebody passes away in your center. It's a. It's a long day, that's a that's a low life, yep Right. It is what it is, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's tough, all right. So, uh, thank you, alan, now let's get. So he came out of it. So we're out of bourbon and I hit a bummer. I'm sorry, but I mean it's a, it's a big deal and I mean it's it's testament to him that I mean cause I could see in in enterprise. I mean we could handle almost anything customer service wise, but we were still kind of like chipper and oh hey, no problem, lots of care that you know, that kind of immense. You can't have that when somebody's child just died and it wasn't because anything happened, it was just.
Speaker 2:It was a True, but the common thread was obsessed over the customer experience.
Speaker 1:Oh, here we go, Alan. Let's obsess over the customer experience.
Speaker 1:No but it's true, because you talked about that, you know, and again, your wife who got to see the worst of the worst and you had this happen to you and that's a low light. I mean, it's tough Anytime something tough hits you like that, but if you think about the customer experience, there's nothing you guys could have done or prevented. Potentially, I don't know. But it's not even getting back Now you have to go after it and you still need to go solve that problem and figure out what the next steps are. True, so you go, do all that. You've worked your kinder care. I want to keep arcing to find out when did you leave kinder care?
Speaker 3:hold on before you get there. I've been saying one thing hold on one minute michael, I'm gonna use that.
Speaker 1:That's gonna be the name of this. Hold on, hold on one minute, hold on one minute. I have to say something.
Speaker 3:But Michael had talked about, like now, that he works with primarily women and that was when him and I met and that was a big conversation that we had because I worked with mostly men and at the time he was working with mostly women. And it was an interesting discussion that we had actually when we met Because we were like I think that helps us get along.
Speaker 2:That was what you're saying.
Speaker 3:Because he was used to dealing with women.
Speaker 2:And you're still harder than the first time and I'm just. It's just an interesting dynamic.
Speaker 3:Uh, it was an interesting time in our lives, for us to meet each other when, the where we were in our lives at the time and what, what professional position we were in our lives as well. That was interesting, but yeah, okay, I digress.
Speaker 1:No, you did not digress.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:So you know what I love and we're gonna we're gonna hold that one later. Uh is that you're the hardest one I've ever worked with you. You went into business with me, so let's continue on. This is the Massacism Massacre episode.
Speaker 2:We will bring it home.
Speaker 1:We're going to bring this all home. It's going to be like how I met your mother.
Speaker 2:We're going to bring it all home. He doesn't know that. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. All right, oh, wow, beautiful, let's continue Back. Oh, wow, beautiful. Let's continue Back to the kinder care and let's get off the killing kids. Well, it's tough. I mean, you're talking about trustedtoolboxcom for all your hate mail, right there. Let me tell you about this. And especially if you think the drywall's bad, just wait, because I've had people act like I killed their kid over bad drywall jobs. You're just leaning into this, aren't you? I am, so let's continue on. All right, back to Kinder Care.
Speaker 3:Let's move Come on Ben.
Speaker 1:How about drywalling your kitten in the wall? That was a kid's story, kid's story. All right, another episode Okay. So, another episode, okay. So you lead Kindercare at Nawa. What are you doing?
Speaker 2:Well. So we got the band back together. So I went into franchising with Big Al, which is so interesting because every company I worked for really had strong brand standards. Didn't really know what that meant until I joined the franchising. What that you know. Everybody has to work to a brand standard and you have to enforce that. That was fun, except with employees. You could hire them, you could fire them, you could promote them, you could demote them, you could bonus them, you could dot pay and with franchisees, as Alan explained to me rather quickly, you got influence. And so that was a very, very interesting step in my life how to influence people that I knew how to do but didn't rely on.
Speaker 1:Because you couldn't control, you couldn't command to control.
Speaker 2:Again back to.
Speaker 1:Christy and her background. You know military. You get an order, you do not. Christy had a gun.
Speaker 2:What's the order for that.
Speaker 1:Christy still has a gun. I love that might have a good mother. Right now she kind of does. Did you hear that? I know I got. I got a little nervous already.
Speaker 2:You just went over her everyday carry. It's like a 45 compact and metal straw. But let's move on. Michael actually made a headboard. Did you not make that headboard?
Speaker 1:Yes, with the secret compartment for both our guns. For both our guns by the bed.
Speaker 2:Why not?
Speaker 1:Where you sleep. Yes, yeah, let's go back real quick. Why Chris doesn't have any guns in his house? Because I would not be the first one to use them.
Speaker 2:And I'm not putting the other one.
Speaker 1:There is no way I'm putting it anywhere near the other one. I dare you Do you want to tell the story about the unfortunate Amazon delivery guy.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:First of all, this segment is about me.
Speaker 1:Chrissy and second of all.
Speaker 2:Chrissy got in a lot of trouble Because I was too honest.
Speaker 1:He did ask if he wanted some water, Did his arm heal. Fuck you wouldn't it. But water solves everything.
Speaker 2:Alright, we got the band back together.
Speaker 1:And you're right. People say, hey, I'm going to go buy a business. I'm going to go buy a business.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go buy a business.
Speaker 1:The first time I've been flipped off by somebody other than Chris on this podcast and I hate doing this.
Speaker 2:I did flip Chris. No, chris did. Oh, and of course she did double bird. Don't I just double bird you?
Speaker 1:That's three birds so far.
Speaker 2:Yep One stone.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's a great one, alright, let's go. So franchising, you realize? Now I'm dealing with South Dakota, atlanta. I'm dealing with women, now I'm dealing with franchisees. Clearly, I hate myself. I don't like working with people that are fun to work with, because franchisees they sound so happy, they're like oh yes, I can't wait to do this, oh, I'm going to do this, and you go hey, you're not doing it the right way. Oh, yeah, but I'm so much smarter than you. Yeah, okay, but I'm not getting the results I want. So can I have my money back? I want to just interject. I think what Michael's point was is that he had a lot of experience working with people who were not like him and, as a result, he had to learn to take a step back and listen to people and hear where they're coming from, and it it helped him be better at what he was doing.
Speaker 2:A thousand percent. I mean you got to thank you, I want to put the knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, make sure we coming, or or. Or he could grab his gun, or Brad Christie's gun, I don't somebody's, I mean. Or he could grab his gun, or Greg Christie's gun, I don't know. Somebody's gun I don't know.
Speaker 2:Let's go, can you tell me I'm pretty speak at this point.
Speaker 1:But yeah, no absolutely.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we got the band back together. We're working at our first franchise together, or as a franchise war, Sorry, boo-boo. And so that's where I cut my teeth in franchising. And so it was interesting, like, why did I get into it? I wanted to work with you, obviously. That was cool. It didn't work Saturdays and Sundays. That was very good. We had so much fun. We had a ton of fun. But the best story of that is I told my boss, which I still call her boss, told my boss, which I still call her boss Can I mention her name? I won't, boss, fantastic. She was like hey, when do you want to start? I'm like well, I've got a vacation plan. Do you mind if I take the vacation somewhere in the middle of my first three months? She's like yeah, not a problem, I'll shoot an email of the dates. Great, my first day at work.
Speaker 1:She's like hey, where are those dates you're taking off? I'm like 27 days in June, Trip to Africa. To what Son are you shitting me right now as a small business owner when you hire a real estate agent to work on an EQ? Oh, I see the questions. What'd you learn from that? Yeah. And when you say millennial, I don't know. Take 27 days off. Yeah, you need 2.7 days. Yeah. And when you say millennial, I don't know, take 27 days off, oh yeah. You need 2.7. Yeah, yeah, and we still laugh about that.
Speaker 2:But like, hey, I sent you an email and you approved it. You didn't read it, oops, so wow, so that's where we went.
Speaker 1:All right, so we keep going that way. You work in the franchising world, you work in another bunch of franchising concepts, continuing serving the skills figuring out what's going on.
Speaker 2:So I left that organization. I went to an organization that actually puts people in a position to make career options, career choices, and it was a franchising concept around franchising. In a weird way, there are people that hate their boss, hate their job, want more money, want more time off that laid off, and so our franchising concept was essentially, how do we be career advocates for them and help them make choices in a coaching way, which was fantastic, right up my alley. How do we coach people to make the best choice? And often enough, that choice was franchising. Sometimes it was getting hooked up with a recruiter, sometimes it was staying in their job, sometimes they could find their own job. Sometimes it was getting hooked up with a recruiter, sometimes it was staying in their job, sometimes they could find their own job. Sometimes it was yeah, just stop working because you're where you need to be.
Speaker 1:It must have been super rewarding for you to be able to do that at the time. I mean with all your recruits, it's certainly a state test, yeah, and of course you can see your motivation Again. It's not about just trying to get that whole money buck and getting the franchise consulting see if they get placed, but you're trying to help somebody really truly find a good place absolutely, absolutely and and that was fantastic.
Speaker 2:And you know I'm gonna try to connect the dots here back to the last episode, but you know when, when christy made that big change, when I made the big change, one of the things that we looked at is goals are super important and you know, I don't know if Chrissy realized that, but when we talked about she talks about making more money, it was about her having self-worth. It was also what is the money going to do for her? Right, it's going to have her move to a mountain town. It was going to have her retire early. It was going to have her retire early. It was going to have her provide college for the kids. It was more about the purpose of the money than actually the money. That was one of the things that working you coach people. The goals are probably the most important thing. That will really pull you through difficult times and it'll pull you towards great times.
Speaker 1:That's a great, honestly, man. That is deep thought right there and I'm going to make it undeep real quick. But it's like Nick Saban when he got his teams together at Alabama, which I hate, alabama.
Speaker 1:But you've got to respect it. You've got to respect this is that he did not say gentlemen, our goal this year is to win the national championship. Never, ever, said that ever. He always talks about your goals, your intermediate goals, your short-term goals, because that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:I'm training another guy at my office in sales and I'm like, hey, look, these are the estimates you've got to write. I said you're going to write them down in a piece of paper. I said when you write one and send it, you check the box. I said, and when you check four of those five, then we're done. I said, and you're going to feel better about yourself. And then what's that's going to do? What that's going to do is a hundred percent, commission guy, at the end of the month you're going to make more money.
Speaker 1:I said, but you can't sit there and go oh, I can't make money, oh, I gotta make money. Oh, it's all about the money when you guys don't know. It's about returning that phone call. It's about doing that, showing us that in way that I was supposed to. It's about about doing the networking, about taking those that time throughout the week to build that business and do the business development goals. I love that why? Yeah, yeah, all right, where do you want to go? I know where I want to go, so I want to fast forward to this. So you do that. Michael, you know enough about me, let's talk more about me please.
Speaker 2:It was more about less me and more him. Thank you.
Speaker 1:You know what, Michael? I have an opening as a podcast guest host. You know what? Hey, Michael, why don't you come golf on my golf course here?
Speaker 2:We have to go home on the way home between you and me.
Speaker 1:Uh, you're definitely golfing here and christy's invited.
Speaker 2:She's a dirty handicap not too bad. Yeah, let's see what she's.
Speaker 1:Any money on the court it's just going to be your court. There's never a fourth. We always play three, I always play three, I don't know. I always think three people. Okay, fine, um fine, all right, so we'll come to the end. I want to talk about this. So you've decided to make it ultimately yeah, a great partner. Clearly you guys people have so much. You can see, the chemistry is there, and now you guys are going to start a real estate agency in Blue Ridge, georgia. So let's go back to it. Plug it again. This is the second episode True Blue Mountain, grim. We got it right, thank you, I just wanted to make sure we had it right.
Speaker 2:I called the phone number.
Speaker 1:So you're jumping in. You're like you know what, I'm going to get it, and now what?
Speaker 2:I don't know if I can know, I'm going to backtrack a little bit. Why did we do it Like backpedal you a little bit? Why did we do it? Like, honestly, we sat down about a year ago and we're like, what do we really want to do? Like we, we've always been successful, land goals in front of us. Like we, we've paid off our debt and we're going to build a house and we're going to do a house we turn into near the BV. Then we're going to go to the mountains no goals. And it was a period of time when we were just lost, right, it was like, well, we've got everything we want.
Speaker 3:I had to become a real estate agent. Mom, you got it. Yeah, not like big goals. Like that was a survival goal.
Speaker 2:It was a survival goal. And then we're like but you know what? We want more, and so we set it down, and it was like the corporate job just didn't fulfill the goals. Not from income, not from a lifestyle, wealth equity we just didn't get what we really needed. And so I've been coaching people into entrepreneurship for five and a half years. I think I need to do it. My goals were that thick and so the corporate world just didn't do it. It's great for some people.
Speaker 1:You're making a leap for the first time in your life. You're making a leap for the first time and you're in your life, you're being lying blindly, right. So this is tough right, because who had healthcare?
Speaker 2:Well, that's my project for next week.
Speaker 1:Oh episode 3.4 actually, yeah, actually, we got a big guy. We've had a mom right now. Yeah, I use it.
Speaker 2:So I told my dog. Yeah, yeah I think got a guy in blue Richard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we do, do that Broker in Georgia.
Speaker 2:We'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:I know they're hip nation. Hip nation, is it yeah?
Speaker 2:I listened to that episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with Brian Hill Amazing, but he blew the roof off of healthcare and I mean, the more he's going to get. You did it right. Uh, I did, I'm on it, yeah, and I will tell you, my whole family's on it. And, uh, sydney, who's in nashville, north carolina, so there's a primary care up there too, nice. Yeah, that just happened. But anyway, let's go back to you. So you're, you guys are here, we go, so you, you're taking the lead. Do you feel like you have a safety net? Do you feel like you have an opt-out or do you feel like this is it? Man Chit's in the middle, all in.
Speaker 2:Let's see. So all the ships were burned. I would say, right, we have no plan B. We're in trouble with no plan B, right? No backup plans. We have to make this one work, and certainly there could be a plan B, and there's certainly. We've just never really discussed it as like we could do this. This has to work.
Speaker 3:Well, we're all in. I mean we could sell everything and move back to Phoenix and start over. Why? I mean, yeah, but that's not. We'd love it. It doesn't fulfill our why I mean yeah, it doesn't fulfill our, why, like, as far as moving forward, this is our all in. We're all in, we don't have a backup.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a different question.
Speaker 3:We could go back.
Speaker 1:So right, so I get, we got the. We can go back. Um, does that make you feel better, that you know you could always fall back, or do you feel like, at this stage in life, even if everything just goes to total shit?
Speaker 3:we know we can pay our bills and we have a place to live.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that part.
Speaker 2:I mean that part to me at least, I know we wouldn't be like homeless and not have but I think, most importantly, christy is like where we want to go is so important to us, like our why is so defined, our goal is so defined, Like when we think about it. I know what that looks like, I know what that tastes like, I know what that feels like. It's so compelling, it's not fulfilling to think about going back.
Speaker 3:It's just not fulfilling. Telling it's not fulfilling, to think about going back, it's just not fulfilling.
Speaker 1:The only safety net is that we wouldn't be homeless, but it's not a fulfilling thing People have asked me this too, because when I took the leap and I jumped and Alan did the same, I said you know what? What made me feel better is that I was 37 and even if it totally freaking failed, I could pick myself back up and go find a job at 42 or 40. Um, now here I am, um, a lot older than that, 17. Way older, way older. So I I'm I'm unemployable at this point. You look pretty good. Thank you for 72. So, um, the point is, is that now you know when I look at it and go, you know failure is not an option. You know you look back on that mission. I love spades, by the way, so I want you to get to that, but I just did that help you? Or was that never even part of your thought process?
Speaker 3:I mean, there is a Walmart in Blue Ridge. I could be a breeder. I've been to that.
Speaker 1:Walmart. I've been to that Walmart. I've never seen so many pajamas that she'd not be able to.
Speaker 2:I saw that here in Johns Creek. It is what it is. Let's move along with that conversation. No, I honestly think there's no turning back. I can't trade dollars for fun. We both need to determine how much we need to work, how much money we need to make where we work, how we work to find our own success, and I think that is compelling. That in itself is compelling, let alone to the personal goals we have. Like, I just couldn't think about going back to being limited.
Speaker 1:No, I love where you guys are going and I think uh up in that area is great, so talk to us about so you've jumped in. What have you done to ignite the group? What are we doing? What are you doing to get this? Uh, so you've got a four-person team you are two of. We got two of the four person team up, the yeah yeah yeah, yeah, blue bound group yeah, no alan alan no, alan, alan, alan. Steve Whitpaw Alan.
Speaker 2:And so it's very interesting. So, like I'm an ops guy and so easily it's how do we develop the operational procedures for the company? It's, everybody knows that we're going to do that. We're going to be obsessed through the client experience. I mentioned that I feel a little bit like herding cats in the nicest way possible, because we have people that I Mean. Every year she has a go, yeah, well enough, and everybody on our team has a GSD hat. We get shit done and right and but everybody that's been successful on our team has muscled it.
Speaker 1:What a great line, right They'd must. Yes, yeah, I'm gonna actually get that bad.
Speaker 3:I'm going to actually get that badge. I'm going to put that next to my.
Speaker 1:Phoenix PD. A little red meat to the host. Not going to lie, I put the Phoenix PD and the GSD on the fleets from now on and a nice trucker hat too.
Speaker 2:You can't just do like a.
Speaker 1:You know, I should get you guys some merch. I'll get you guys merch. We got some great trucker hats.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, honestly, it's like herding cats a little bit, but at the same time it's so fulfilling because people that are really good at what they do could forget about operations An incredible, great point.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm just dying, because Christy's over there rolling her eyes. I'm in the sales.
Speaker 2:She is not.
Speaker 1:She's batting her eyelashes. You know what she's saying. She goes Michael, you're so awesome. You're right, you are my big idol. Anyway, but the operational process, that's what creates that great customer experience. Right, it's that repeatable process that you know that when you go to your group for a transaction, you're going to get this, this and this, and at the end, you're going to get the outcome.
Speaker 3:Of course it was Not this, this and this, and at the end you're going to get the outcome it's a little garbage personality.
Speaker 1:Sorry, of course, it was Not the process at all. No, it is this must be so much fun.
Speaker 2:Listen, we banter all day. It makes us go to sleep well at night. There's nothing left over at that point. But we obsess over the operational process so that I'll get lost to it. It's like operational process so that I'll get lost to it, cause, like Christie's batting her out, let's just let me again. She's like I'm so pretty over here, so, but um no, still the people that do what they need to do like do it at a high level, and when you have good processes, the only the only mistake you can have is have wrong people in your group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no-transcript and call you back for more work and in your case, transactions aren't as quickly done and transact as you guys. But the process is so important and I think that's the big differentiator. A lot of people will go well, I'm going to go with her because she's in my church, or I'm going to go with him because my son said that he knows what she is doing. This is the biggest value move For a lot of us. This is our biggest personal investment. Now I don't know what's happened in Blue Ridge, if it's their second homes or first homes, but I got to believe there's still a pretty big transaction.
Speaker 3:I don't think it matters if it's your first home or second home. It's still a huge process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot of money, A thousand percent. And our process is so funny. Our processes are around us, what's convenient for us, what's good for us. But then in person We've talked about that so much how do we change the sales culture, language from it's a deal to hey, we helped the family achieve a goal? What's your goal for it? You want to sell 200 ounces next year? No, we want to have 200 families happy Little things like that, that process alone of being client-focused rather than us-focused. And it's funny. Last night we sat at a table with seven other realtors. All of them had the same philosophy they all wanted to invest in Blue Ridge. It was all about the client, it was all about the customer. It wasn't about what's good for them. So how do you differentiate?
Speaker 1:Right, because I would say, if you had seven others that weren't with you, that were there, I know I would They'd be in a ditch. They would be.
Speaker 2:There's no way they'd get out of that place.
Speaker 1:There's no way to get out of that place alive. I mean, I don't have a gun, but I have other words You've got to be consistent. Consistency. But how are you? Are you doing any advertising?
Speaker 3:Not yet but I think heavy, heavy referrals and I think it's the honesty and the direct client experience and the honesty that we're in, it's very heavy referral right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very interesting how many of our clients come from other clients, like, for instance, the police officer that you were talking about, kim right, she's referred. As for clients, she trusts you, she trusts that other law enforcement people are going to feel like, oh, they're not going to get hanky, they're really comfortable with our experience.
Speaker 1:So, Alan, this is where we're going to help them. Uh-oh, that's right. Referrals are not the way to grow your business. While it is a great component, there are other things we need to do, right. So let's do some other things. So you just said I'm interested in the police department and I give back, and so I happen to know the Blue Ridge Police Department for totally different reasons.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:How fast were you going? Now that I know, now that I know I wouldn't get out of that one? But how about a luncheon for the blue right, Doing things and giving back, but then up there in a small town community, what are ways you guys could advertise that would help other people think about it? Because I had a lot of single handymen ago. Chris, I'm just built on referrals. I'm like, listen, bro, you can only do so many friends and family and eventually, especially in tough times, you need to have that bigger base, and so that's why I've always put 4% into advertising here in Atlanta. But again, I'm always running this roll call.
Speaker 2:What did you do yesterday Christy Yesterday? Oh my God, You're so good on a Christy yesterday oh my god so good on a podcast.
Speaker 1:No, hey, christy you don't when they're looking at you.
Speaker 2:We spent the entire day right nice it was a long day it's a long day yesterday, and so eventually people are like why are you here? We're just helping you. Then the questions ask more questions, ask more questions asked and eventually they're like what do you do? Oh, we're with Keller Williams and this is our day of giving. This is what we're doing. We don't force it, we just people will ask questions. You show up, they want to know why you're always present. They want to know why you're always volunteering. People ask questions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, back to the other one. I've heard this great phrase called the elephant leg hug. You never said elephant to me.
Speaker 2:I never did say elephant.
Speaker 1:I always use leg hug, but I have used that line some of the time. But you're right, you're sitting there and they go. Why are you here? Oh well, as a matter of fact, I'm a real estate agent, so can I hope you saw your house? Goodbye. That's like LinkedIn. Those messages will be all good. They say, hey, do you need help with your digital media? Hey, I just really enjoyed your podcast episode with XYZ. I would like to know if you need to help with your finances. I'm like come on, man. I mean, come on, yeah, I can do that. That's where a personal connection comes in Real estate agents, totally a personal connection comes in Real estate agents totally a personal connection, but in a small town. I was interested because I think a lot of people need to know what can you do in a small town to move the needle? Besides the networking, because what you guys are doing, that's a lot of personal time and sweat equity. What are some other things we could be doing?
Speaker 3:Well, most of our I would say a huge portion of our clients are people from out of town.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:People that are buying a second home or a vacation home For the half-packs.
Speaker 1:How do the people from Florida know about you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I spend a lot of time on social media.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep. We reach out to other real estate teams in Florida With real accounts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, with real accounts. Really, that was a whole nother thing that was extremely traumatic for me to switch from all of my fake undercover names to my real name. We didn't even get into that. I had nightmares for like a month. I'm having to like put my real name on social media.
Speaker 2:It's just as simple as, like your instincts, we didn't get into this but like the four or five things you've learned as a police officer undercover. So Christie goes to like a Keller Williams training there's like a hundred agents and saw online training. She started writing down their names find out what offices that work that and then she spent the next day just call them. Hey, I saw you in the training yesterday. You have any clients want to work in the mountains, want to bingo? And so you just like you're instinctively, you just figured out how to like skip, trace that job to that conclusion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love this. I think, as you guys move on again on the air counseling, we talked about doing something like this. If it were me and I were them and I'm trying to coach him I'm going to coach him right now I would say I love what you guys are doing. Networking, However, I still like the social media presence. I like the hashtags going have you thought about Vacation Blue Ridge? And then here's the other thing I do I hijack all the Vacation Blue Ridge rental things and you start doing the anti on that and that's the campaigns that work back. I'm talking in code, but if you want to know more about what I'm talking about, Chris at thetrusttoolboxcom because I can't code it out because Google's listening, All right, Google.
Speaker 1:We are so confused right now. No, I know, but this is what they they. They don't want to they. They got me, they got me. I love how you guys are getting back in there. Great community, I think a great. Again. It's a small community, but it's a small community where a big community is coming involved. But the big community must be part of the small community, isn't that an interesting little dynamic? And so that's like vacation towns that people see, seaports on the Gulf and everywhere around the nation. Here we go, alan. Let's go to the final two questions. Oh, and I can't wait to hear Michael's answer on this.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, oh boy. Finally, can we just ask one? I need to ask one question of Alan. I know we need to wrap this up. Did you do the one-man bobsled today? No, I never did.
Speaker 1:Does Chris don't go on, man bobsled. No, I don't think he does. Okay, I want to know. No, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no no no, no, no, no. Hey guys, go listen. Man push this thing out. Man, do me a favor, do Alan a favor. We all want to hear from him.
Speaker 1:Alan needs Alan a favor to buy a building. Anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2:What are your two questions? Bring it.
Speaker 1:We already asked the book. We've already asked about a favorite feature of their home. So we know that. But what we really want to know is that we're so interested in the customer experience. We talked about it because we're kind of customer experience freaks. Are you kidding me right now? Yes, we are. So, Michael, no, I'm scared. What is a customer service at Peebham yours when you are the customer? I've been doing the same thing and you get to get to because we did not let a person answer at a restaurant.
Speaker 2:The general manager comes up to you and says the food's good, right, a lot of choices there. And then you know he's looking at the next table, like how many tables do I have to get done in the next hour? That's crazy. But the number one at a restaurant is do not touch my plate without asking. I cannot stand somebody grab my plate and they have it at chest level and they're like you're done, right?
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't like. So, I don't like that. And a little secret through this entire episode we didn't talk about this. But Michael is an excellent chef. Right, he is. And I know, I know, alan, you love to cook and I do too, and so you've even said he's excellent. He's an excellent chef, which I I trust Alan's judgment completely. So, obviously, the restaurant, it's always an easy one for us to use, but I use the restaurant analogy so often, even in homework, homework, homework experiences, because we're contractors, we're allowed to be dirty, we're allowed to be late, we're allowed to, you know smoke and you know kick our cigarette and put it on your hardwood floors and then kick your dog, and you still kind of like us because you're like, ah well, well, alan won't like you particularly, right, I know Alan wouldn't love you so, but in restaurants you've got to be on point. If you want to deliver that service, you've got to be on point.
Speaker 3:This man is French and he wants to soff up every last bit of sauce on his plate with whatever bread went over. And if you take a plate before it completely leaks clean, he will chop your hands, Love it.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:It's true that he leads in with a true that. All right, alan, you ready? Yeah, I want a DIY nightmare story Now. Alan and I just don't want regular run of the mill. We want Emergency services. What? Dismemberment, dismemberment.
Speaker 2:Some sort of squirting of bodily fluid, mostly blood.
Speaker 1:Free Fire, cool Water, flo Four Water. Flood something for me.
Speaker 2:Kill something, rip your finger off we might have squirting and water available here on this one Shoot, god dang. So my daughter's about to be born. I thought it would be fantastic and soft oh shit, I can't believe I'm not going to say born. I thought it would be like fantastic to install oh shit, I can't believe I'm not going to say this. It's so stupid.
Speaker 2:I'm going to install one of those wire racks right above the washer dryer. It's a simple project A couple of anchors ahead and then on the side, and so I'm like I'll get the stud finder out, I'll make sure my studs are wrapped. I want to get water pipes. That's the hot water, cold water. Where the washer's at Bingo Got that nailed, go to the side walls. I'm like let's go find a stud. There can't be any water there right. Throw a screw in on the exterior wall that faces outside and wow, that's weird. Like which Cruz starts weeping. So I back it out and I got a stream of water from one side of the laundry room hitting the other side of the laundry room.
Speaker 1:I'm not laughing with. I'm laughing, not laughing at. I'm laughing with yes.
Speaker 2:And I'm like that's weird. And so like, well, how do I fix this? So we're like, well, screw it back in. And so I did. I screwed it back in to stop the water. And then I called a plumber and he's like, oh, it's not good. And I'm like, well, no, it's surely not good, it's water. He's like, no, your entire exterior wall is not insulated. I'm like, oh, I was due for a flood anyways. That pipe was going to freeze and so there's no insulation at all. But it turned out to be the pipes that fend the upstairs back room.
Speaker 1:I didn't even think they could do that. Number one. Smartest thing he did was put it back in. Yes, you don't realize that. So when you shoot a nail through your finger, leave it Trust me.
Speaker 2:I have a whole bunch of those too.
Speaker 1:I have a whole bunch of nails, the hand, the hand clamps right, the hand clamp never works, but when you screw a pipe it hit it and you pull it back out and start going, put it right back in and call somebody because it's holding it for as long as it can. I can't tell you how many nails and screws I've seen that have rusted over time and people are like who knew? I'm like I know, you didn't know at the time, but you know 20, 20 years later, don't you? Yeah, you, that's awesome. Guys, we learned something today. We have learned a lot about getting into real estate.
Speaker 1:No, you've learned a lot about what it takes to get out of the corporate world. You sat there and taught everybody about how smart you were being in the corporate world and then you get out and you said you know what? Watch this because I'm about to go. Prove you all that I can know how to do it. So get out there and keep doing it. Let's make it happen. We got to go. We're going to be back next week. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Safari. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in a wild world of small business ownership higher altitude you're looking for in a wild world of small business ownership. And until next time, make it a great day.
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