220. The most powerful tool an entrepreneur can master... w/ Guest: Idan Shpizear

What transforms a simple business transaction into a life-changing moment of connection? For Idan Shpizear, founder of 911 Restoration, the answer lies in truly seeing people first, then addressing their practical needs.

When Idan arrived in America with barely $1,000 and limited English skills, the path forward wasn't clear. Sharing a one-bedroom apartment with four friends, they had exactly 30 days to make enough money for rent. Their entry point? Carpet cleaning – communicating through hand gestures while slowly building vocabulary specific to their trade.

The pivotal moment came when Idan was called to extract water from a flooded home. While his team charged $600 for the extraction, another company arrived afterward, bringing equipment and charging $15,000 for full restoration services. But something crucial was missing: they completely ignored the homeowner's emotional distress.

This observation sparked the revolutionary "Fresh Start" philosophy that would define 911 Restoration. Idan recognized that during property disasters, homeowners experience emotional disasters simultaneously. By teaching his team to take deep breaths before entering homes, genuinely listen to concerns, and help clients see possibility amidst chaos, he created both a thriving business and a vehicle for positive impact.

From this human-centered approach, Idan built a franchise empire now spanning 120 owners across 330 territories. His leadership philosophy evolved too – regularly asking himself "If I fired myself today, why would I hire me back?" led him to transition from CEO to founder, recognizing he could add more value by building momentum in specific projects rather than managing daily operations.

Perhaps most profound is Idan's perspective on wealth: "Real wealth is based on our ability to really experience every moment." This wisdom extends beyond business to encompass the true measure of a successful life – being fully present for each interaction, challenge, and opportunity.

Connect with Idan on LinkedIn to learn more about his fresh start approach to business and life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Re-Recording
• 1:54 Coming to America with a Dream
• 8:10 Learning English in a New Country
• 16:32 From Carpet Cleaning to Restoration Business
• 29:03 Building the Fresh Start Culture
• 39:00 The Journey to Franchising
• 46:45 From CEO to Founder Role

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yeah, it's Mindset Cafe. We all about that mindset. Gotta stay focused, never settle for less. It's all in your head how you think you manifest. So get ready to rise, cause we about to be the best. Gotta switch it up. Gotta break the old habits. Get your mind right. Turn your dreams into habits. No negative vibes, only positive thoughts.

Speaker 2: 0:20

What is up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Mindset Cafe podcast. Man, I do have to say, me and this amazing guest have just been recording for the last 30 minutes and crushing it until me only realized that I wasn't even recording. So we're about to run some of it back. But, honestly, I already know, and I don't even want to give them too much of an intro, because this was just. We just started off with, right out the gate, so much information being dropped. But Idan Shapiro is on the show and he has been dropping knowledge for the last 30 minutes, so we're going to run it back for you guys to be able to listen to.

Speaker 2: 0:55

He is the CEO and founder of 911 Restoration and, honestly, his story is something you guys need to take your notebooks out and get ready, because I've been just in awe of a lot of his story. But you know, I'll give you guys some of the stuff that we've been talking about. He came to this country and he started with, you know, basically no reassurance and he came here with a friend not knowing, basically, if it was going to work out. The things that he thought of the American dream was quickly found out that he you know, it was all just that. You know, it was this image in his head.

Speaker 2: 1:32

He got here with you know a little over, you know a thousand dollars, and was able to buy a car and essentially get a place to live with his buddies and realize, like we need to make money, right, so you don't, if you want to, just you know, we'll touch from right there. Just your your first thoughts of you know when you first came to the country and we'll kind of dive in on that point. But you know, guys, I do want to say one more time take your notebooks out, cause this, this man, is full of knowledge, but it don't let's, let's dive in in there. Look, you got to this country, in in. What was it like?

Speaker 1: 2:06

yeah. So, as you said, where you know, save a thousand dollar and came here didn't really speak the language, didn't really know the culture or anything, just saw in the movie. You know, america, money grows in the trees. Everything is super easy. Every house come with a pool. We're going to be rich in two minutes and and landed here and we discover the opportunity is definitely here, but we need to put a lot of work in, right, the size is here, the system is. What's amazing? I mean, especially when you come from a different country, the system here really supports you, right. It's not stopping you from reaching the goals or the heights that you want to reach.

Speaker 1: 2:45

So, for us, coming to America was, you know, it was a huge learning experience. Right, it was a big stretch for us, going from a place of learning a new language, learning a new culture, not really having enough money. I mean, as you said, we knew that in 30 days we need to make enough money to pay rent, even though we're five guys in one bedroom apartment, so each one of us paid about $150. But for us it was. We have 30 days to make enough money, right? So that really was our welcome to America and somebody was nice enough to give us a job as a carpet cleaner. Right, they gave us a two-day training.

Speaker 1: 3:25

We bought a Volvo in 1978 for about $800. So each one of us was $400 or $500, including insurance and registration and all that. And we shoved the carpet cleaning machine in the back of the car and we just got a few addresses. So we need to go there and clean carpet. Now, we barely spoke the language, so for us it was how do we sell carpet cleaning Not really speaking the language? I just need to figure out a few words. Speaking with my hands. I'm here to clean the carpet, right, doing all the movement and everything, and yeah, so that's how we started, and so I mean, we didn't even talk about this before.

Speaker 2: 4:03

But I didn't even talk about this before, but I didn't even. I didn't even think about this part too, not speaking the language and everything. When? When I mean, obviously you speak, amazing, you know English now. So, like what, when did you decide to start learning English? Like how was that transition Cause? I mean, I know English is probably there. I don't know this, but this is what I've heard is English is probably one of the hardest languages to learn. I've heard is English is probably one of the hardest languages to learn.

Speaker 1: 4:30

So how was that process for you? So we just knew we have to learning. I mean, I'll tell you how bad it was, right? So when we parked the car on the side of the street you know, sometime you cannot park on Monday or Tuesday or Thursday, right, the days that you can or cannot park we used to stop people on the side of the road and ask them if it's okay to park today. This is how bad it was.

Speaker 1: 4:51

But the way we practice is first of all, so. We got a few kind of keywords that we can use when we come in to clean the carpet. But then every opportunity, right, we're driving down the roads. It's like let's try to read every sign, every commercial, let's try to say it out loud, let's just practice and say it again and again and again, getting a newsletter, the newspaper and just sitting there and just trying really hard to start pronouncing every word.

Speaker 1: 5:23

It's very different when you learn the language. When you are in the place where this is the only language that people speak like, you learn it much, much faster, right? So it's not. It's not the same thing that if I was in israel and trying to learn english, I'm actually in america, surrounded by here, it, it's everywhere around me, so it's much, much faster, especially when you learn a specific vocabulary, right? So I, I was very focused on what do I say when I get to the house? How can I speak with a client? So, my, we got better, but in very limited level of conversation, right? So, even if I went out to a bar and I met a girl, probably I will talk to her about carpet cleaning, because this is where most of my vocabulary. To give you an example. But look, within the first year, we pretty much knew all the words that we need to know around the business world carpet cleaning, the type of shampoos, the machine and everything that we use. That was pretty good. And then we kept expanding.

Speaker 2: 6:28

No, that's, that's awesome, and I think that you know that does probably help. You know, being surrounded by it, and I mean, something we were talking about previously is that you had that no plan B mentality. Right, it was. This is the dream, you know, and it was a lot of people try to use that. You know I have, you know, no plan B.

Speaker 2: 6:49

It's like you, you painted a perfect picture of it because you were saying, like, I didn't have anything to go back to, right, like, like, even though I was struggling here, there was opportunity here, and so one of the references that we were talking about was you know, you were just driving down the street and you were seeing cars that you know you could put money down and just, you know, make a car payment, like that's not something that you were normally used to back in Israel. Right, and so I think we take that for granted a lot of times is not just the ability to communicate, but the ability and opportunity that we do have here in America. Right, because it's it's, we're just born into it and we think that you know one, I know, traveling to other places, and you know, people from America feel so entitled. They think everyone speaks English and it's like you know, try to learn the language a little bit. But you know, realizing that, again, you traveled here with nothing.

Speaker 2: 7:47

You, you lived in an apartment. You know five guys in a single bedroom and you got a job. Right, people that say they can't get a job, it's like there's jobs out there. You know what are you willing to do and so let's, let's take a turn on. You now are working as a carpet cleaner, Right, and one of the biggest things that I think you mentioned is something that you noticed from the client as you were, you know, about to clean someone's carpets. Let's dive into that a little bit.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Yeah, so that's kind of how we went from the carpet cleaning to the restoration, right. So probably about seven, eight months in we got a call for a flooded house and now we knew nothing about the restoration side of the business, nothing about blowers and dehumidifiers and insurance and exactimate completely out of our experience. So we came in. It was about three bedrooms completely flooded. We extract the water. We charged $600. For us it was a lot of money. We celebrated that night by eating Chinese food. It was a big, big day for us. But as we were there extracting the water, another company came in and they came in and they brought blowers and humidifiers and starting to pull the carpet and move furniture and we were like what's going on here?

Speaker 1: 8:57

Because we didn't know anything about this part. We thought you just extract the water and you let it dry and that's it. So one we notice okay, there's a much bigger project here that we knew nothing about. Later we discovered that they charge $15,000. Now, so, as much as I'm very thankful for my $600, $15,000 sounds very, very good to me, especially because I'm already here, right?

Speaker 1: 9:21

And the second thing that we notice is they're not really paying attention to the homeowner. Right, the homeowner is standing there with us and he is going through an emotional disaster. He's asking us questions that I have no idea how to answer is like who is going to pay for it? The insurance company is going to cover it, how it's going to work, and on and on and on. And I'm saying, okay, this company came in, they're doing this big project. They got him to sign this long agreement. He has no idea what's going on. Something seems off to me. And then we left, and then, a month after, we had the same scenario and the same scenario. So it's happened a few times. And at one point I'm standing there and I'm saying like, okay, I want to get into this business, but I want to do it from a different approach. I want to pay attention to the homeowner, because I think the right way to approach this thing is, first of all, let's work with the human being that is in front of us, that's going through an emotional disaster, and then I'll take care of the the rest of the structure, but human first.

Speaker 1: 10:21

So after that day, every extra dollar we made we invested back in the business. We bought blowers, we bought humidifiers and we just keep buying enough equipment so we can start doing our own work. Next call we got, we did everything, beginning to end, and we really paid attention to the homeowner. So I walked in. Homeowner is in front of me. What's going on? I'm just going to be here, I'm going to listen to. What is it that you're trying to achieve today and how are you going to deal with everything that's going on? And I noticed there is a shift in the relationship, like there is a real appreciation to our approach to it. And then we did the entire project and then we started doing another one and another one. We're not so many I mean, it was every so often but we start seeing that it's working. The way we're treating the customers makes a difference. You know, I can even share a story. That was kind of when we became independent.

Speaker 1: 11:16

But not far from where I live today, we got a call over the weekend and I'm getting to the house and I'm standing outside and I'm hearing screaming inside the house. So the husband screamed at the wife and the stressed out and I'm like, holy shit, I'm going to walk out of this place. And I know it's stressful. I'm like, ok, take a deep breath. We are here to bring calmness. First of all, I want to help them to calm down so we can take care of it. So I'm walking in, paying attention, go through my process, kind of try to bring some calmness into their house. Everybody came down, we did the entire project, everything was great.

Speaker 1: 11:51

A week after I'm getting a phone call from the husband, from the homeowner. I'm like, hey, what's going on? Hey, idan, how are you? How can I help you? Idan, I'm just having a really hard day. I just wanted to talk to you for five minutes Because when you came over to our house you really helped me to find this space, the calmness, and at that moment I'm like, okay, it's working.

Speaker 1: 12:19

That's really what we can do as a company. That was a moment for me that I remember I'm sitting there I'm like, okay, that's the culture I want to build. I want to build something that get more people to feel this way. And I realize I'm saying, if I'm doing it the right way, right, the way we're approaching it, the different in the rest of the day for that family can go from screaming and yelling and stress to of the day for that family can go from screaming and yelling and stress to sitting around having a calm conversation, seeing the positive in the negative. And I think if I can be the company that played that role in people's life, that is a blessing, so I can build something amazing.

Speaker 1: 13:00

It's very lucrative. It's great business to be in the restoration business, but I can also do something good for people, right? That's where we came up with this kind of the idea of the culture of the fresh start, right. This is we want to bring fresh starts to people's life. We want to build the fresh start culture right, and the idea behind the fresh start is that every moment have unlimited amount of possibilities. It depends what you choose to focus on, right? So if I can come in to people when they're going through a disaster or trying to build a business or whatever it is, and I can bring that mindset, that space so people can shift their focus from something negative to something positive, and I can play a small part of it.

Speaker 2: 13:46

I'm happy. That's amazing. They're going through an emotional disaster, right, and when you notice this because, especially, you know being an entrepreneur and you you know running a company you kind of and if you start getting into just the mundane routine of everything, well then that means your employees are too right, your team is too Like if they follow what you do, right. And so what you noticed was another company that had already been doing that. They're viewing the dollar. They had the client sign. It is what it is. The project is now getting done.

Speaker 2: 14:20

You should be happy that the project's done. It's like, take a second, realize that their life just came to a halt for a second. They can't do their normal daily things that made them feel safe, comfortable, all those things. And you're like this is not how business should be done, and a lot of people want to become entrepreneurs, I think, because they see the dollar sign right. I mean, like even you, you notice that you know $600 versus $15,000, right, people see that illusion, but then they forget that you know to get there and even pass. There it's.

Speaker 2: 14:57

You're dealing with people, right. You're selling to people, you're servicing people, like at the end of the day, it's all about the people that you're serving and if you do that correctly, then, like you've you've experienced, you get the referrals. You get people that just call you Cause you know, because you're a company and you're a person that goes above and beyond Right. Too many times entrepreneurs especially will be like oh sorry, I don't work at this time, call me at 8 am tomorrow. It's like what is five minutes, 10 minutes, like to affect someone's life. You know, like they're calling you because they view you as a role model or as that person they feel safe with right. So it's like viewing that in in what you've done shows that like if you just value people, things work out, or tend to work out a lot better.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Yeah, you know people want to work with people that care right, that have passion to what they do. Work with people that care right, that have passion to what they do right. It's a look you're. You are developing something. I'm sure if you walk into your gym and I work with somebody that he really cares and you're passionate and you have the knowledge and he really pays attention to me makes the biggest difference in the world. You know there was a research by by harvard.

Speaker 1: 16:10

I mean, I read it many, many years ago. I use it in my conviction and how I speak with my franchisees that if the doctor spent five more minutes with a patient, the chances for him to get sued goes down by 85%. Five more minutes Because now we have the relationship, now I'm not just a number for you. You actually showed me some careness, right. So the same thing, when I kind of look at the fresh start mentality, one of the things that I did with my inspectors, with people that went out to the house, is I want you to, before you walk into the house, I want you to do this thing Just take three deep breaths, relax.

Speaker 1: 16:53

I want you to put everything inside and I want you to focus on how you are going to serve the people that are in front of you, and the biggest gift that you can give them is just listen to them. Just listen, that's it. People over underestimate the importance of actually listening to somebody, right? How many times with the husband and wives and friend is like just listen to me already, right, because we are so busy with our own monkey mind all the time. So that's teaching our guys to listen makes such a big difference, because when people feel that somebody is actually listening to them, the relationship is there.

Speaker 2: 17:35

It is so true, a hundred percent, like if you listen, you can also answer the questions that the person has concerns to, and not just you know. And when I say listen, like how you're saying it too is you know, you're not just sitting there and agreeing and agreeing just waiting to say your next sentence that you've had in your head. You're sitting there listening and then you address what they're saying, even if it's a statement, you reassure them that you know what they just said and that typically creates a better bond and a better relationship, because the person feels validated, they feel heard, and so forth. But also you, typically, you don't need to. You know, let's say we'll go into sales. Right, salespeople. A new salesperson tries to sell the product or sell the service. Right, A great salesperson. You know sales, the sales, the solution. But then an amazing salesperson just listens and addresses the concerns.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Exactly. So one of the things that I'm doing with our business development people that getting out there and build relationships and you're not allowed to pitch Yep, I only want you to listen good enough until you find ways to add value, and it doesn't need to be about the work that we are in. So when I used to go out there and meet people that manage buildings or adjusters and on and on, I used to ask a lot of questions and then I try to figure out what is their goal, what is it that they are trying to achieve and can I help them achieve their goal? Regardless of water, mold or fire, can I help them achieve their goal. So, if you want to go from managing apartment building with 40 units and you want to go to somebody that is 150 units, what is it in his journey that he need to learn that he can add more value so he can grow in his career? And then sometime I'll go back to the office, or a day or two days after I'll send them like an article that talks about how to advance, nothing about what I do, because it's it's it's become so clear. It's it's building relationship like people want especially.

Speaker 1: 19:49

Look in our business water, mold and fire. People hoping that it's never going to happen to them. Right, it's not something that they're thinking, okay, the summer then I need to, you know, clean my carpet, do earth cleaning, do different things, do my roofing Mold, water, fire. I hope I'm never going to need to work with you. So it's really relationship-based, because I never know when it's going to happen, but I want to know that we're building a meaningful relationship. So when it's happened, you know that I'm here for you. Right, and today are a I don't know if you have a chance to see it, but our commercial online we have video commercials. That's saying we hope we never get to work with you because if we do, we know it's not a good day for you.

Speaker 1: 20:31

But if you, do need us we'll be able to serve and work with you, right?

Speaker 2: 20:35

so we're really connecting to this emotional part of it no, definitely, and actually I was just going to say that too. So that's so funny, that's your commercial. I was like you know, you're building a relationship, and what I was going to say is like letting them know like I hope I never you don't have to work with you, because that means it's it's not a good day or it's it's not. You know you're not, you're going through a disaster. So it's so funny that you said that that's your commercial, because that was literally what was going through my head, but at the same time, realizing that, like the person that you're building a relationship with, it might never happen to them, right, but it doesn't mean that they don't have their own network of people, that it does happen to someone in there. And then you come top of mind because you built a relationship and you built a friend. That's someone that they can trust. You know that actually valued and listened just to their life and what's going on, enough, so much that you know they're like this person cares just about me as a person.

Speaker 2: 21:27

I can't imagine you know how much they actually care about their clients, exactly, exactly, you know so. So now, all of a sudden, you have this company. It's thriving, right. You go, you, you started building out a team and you know, testing stuff out, and we were talking about, like the unknown right and being an entrepreneur and being comfortable with being in the unknown. Now I want to take a pivot in that and say what was that time that you realized that you wanted to franchise this? Because, as I can speak from experience, that is a step into the unknown that I learned very quickly. It is a lot more than you think it is yeah, so I got the same experience.

Speaker 1: 22:12

So 2000, the end of 2005, is when Katrina happened, right. So we went out to New York. At that point I had many tracks, a lot of equipment, we have great team in place, and on and on. So when Katrina happened, it's like you know what I want to get out there and we had a few relationship also and, um, I said I want to experience it's going to be to work in this type of scenario. So we went out.

Speaker 1: 22:33

There was a devastation, people lost everything and yeah, there was so much work and there was many other restoration companies that came in to do work from different places in the US, right, so we're not really competing with each other, we just work for everybody. We even share clients because we have a huge waiting list for everybody. We even share clients because we have a huge waiting list. And so I got to meet a lot of other restoration owners and we were very open with each other because we're not really competing. And what I realized again and again and again that most of them been in the business for 15 years, 20 years, and they're averaging around 700, 000 a million dollar a year 1.2.

Speaker 1: 23:11

Now I'm brand new in this country and my business is really striving um and I'm like what's going on here? I barely speak the language. I'm new here. I got to this number. These guys are amazing guys. They really care, they're there, they're doing the work, like why they're stuck. And then I noticed that as much as I spend more time with them, they really. They can talk to me for hours about the blowers and the way they set up the van and the way they cut the wall and how to set up exactly. So they're very lost in the trade itself. And in my mind, like, okay, I can talk about it for 10 minutes, but let's talk about strategy and customer experience and sale and vision and where you want to go and here and there. So I didn't hear this conversation.

Speaker 1: 23:56

So I said to a few of the guys just kind of test the water. I said listen, you're a great guy, you know how to do the work, I'm sure you can take care of your clients. You are the stand-up, fresh start mentality. What if we'll try something? We'll create some agreement between us and let's see if I can help you grow? To where is it that you really want to grow? Right? Because it was very clear to me that when those guys started the business they didn't have the dream and said you know what, in 10 years from today, I still want to be in the truck and carry blowers. I'm sure it wasn't their dream. Right, they have a certain lifestyle. There is a certain thing that they wanted to achieve. But over time people started giving up on their dreams because life happened. So I said if I can be the one that can help them cross the numbers and we can work together, so let's see how it's going to work. My mantra was and it still is today can we do one plus one equal five type of thing? If we come together, can we make something better together? So I came back to la, I reached out back to some of the guys and we we gave it a try, right? So first guy was about seven, seven hundred thousand. We started the relationship a year in the business group.

Speaker 1: 25:07

I did with another one and another one and another one and I only used license agreement. I didn't think about franchising. I didn't really know so much about franchising. I knew the idea of McDonald's. I knew the idea of like food chain, not really thinking about any of it.

Speaker 1: 25:23

By my 10th license agreement. The lawyer that wrote the license agreement for me. He's like Idan, you cannot keep doing this license agreement. It's not allowed. They're using your name, they're using your colors, they're using the logo. You are becoming a franchise and I'm like, okay, I know the concept, but what it means. It's like Idan, if you want to keep doing this way, you need to become a franchise.

Speaker 1: 25:49

And I probably went through the same thing that you went holy franchise agreement and fdd and registration and on and on. So I just jumped through the process, really going into this unknown, but I knew that I can add value. That was very clear to me because I did again and again and again and again. It worked and that's really how we became a franchise. My my idea at one point that I'm saying, wow, great guys, different experiences, different perspective. What if I can get a hundred people in the room carrying the same logo and sharing the fresh start? That was my thing. Can we make the fresh start mentality all around the United States? Can it really be done? And we just went for it.

Speaker 1: 26:40

So that's, really how we did our franchise.

Speaker 2: 26:42

No, I mean that's so funny. I mean, when I went to a franchise, I started seeing the difference between licensing and franchising and I was like it kind of looks the same, right. And so I ended up hiring a franchise advisor first and he was like, yeah, you can't do what you want to do. We're putting logos on the walls. And I was like, oh, I got you and I actually just helped a friend. They did the same thing as you. They went licensing. They had nine locations that were franchises under a licensing agreement and I was like, guys, you got to be careful, like you know. But so how many locations are you guys at now?

Speaker 1: 27:20

So we have about 120 owners. We're covering about 330 territories. We're growing into Canada. Yeah, we have a lot of exciting things happening.

Speaker 2: 27:29

Dang All right. Well, I mean, that's amazing. That is a huge accomplishment. When did you guys start franchising? What year was you guys launched?

Speaker 1: 27:39

So we started the franchising process around 2007. We officially started franchising around 2009.

Speaker 2: 27:48

Okay, officially, yeah, oh wow, around 2007. We officially start franchising around 2009. Okay, yeah, oh wow. And that was during like the, the stock crash and and everything like that too. So it was not, it was not in a necessarily a good time to escalate a business, but I mean, look, at you now.

Speaker 1: 28:03

You know, at the same time I went through the process of the. So, besides building the franchise, I also had a few other businesses. I had a kiosk in different malls. We had about 150 people working for us in different kiosks. We invested a lot in real estate and here and there and around 2008,. Yeah, everything's starting to really crushed. Yeah, everything's starting to really crushed. So we went through that. As we're franchising, as we're opening our location, as we're making some changes, yeah, it was crazy times.

Speaker 2: 28:41

So I mean, are you?

Speaker 1: 28:41

still in all those different industries, or are you?

Speaker 1: 28:42

you know, I mean of course, I have now different investment and different things that I'm involved in, but no, at one point that's kind of going into the mindset right, and breaking through our own limitation and ideas that we are holding, and on and on. So no, at one point I basically let go of all my other businesses that I was involved in. I also had the online. So, because we figure out how to generate leads online and the way I finance the franchise growth, I start up an online lead generation company. So we basically served about a hundred businesses around here just doing PPC, seo, building websites and on and on and on.

Speaker 1: 29:26

And, yeah, I like to jump into different places and then integrate everything together. It's just I love it, yeah. But at a certain point I'm like, okay, franchise is the way we want to go. That's going to be the main business. There's people that I want to make sure that I add as much value as I can to my franchisees. So I want to bring the marketing just for my franchisees. I develop technology for other companies. I brought it in just for my franchisees, right? So I went through the process of like bringing everything together and really staying focused on just let me make sure that my franchisees are super successful. I mean as much as I can. Of course, we need both of us to collaborate to find success, but yeah, we went through that process.

Speaker 2: 30:13

No, I mean that's so awesome and I mean I think that's the hard thing is like as an entrepreneur you always see that shiny object right and being able to not contain yourself but essentially hold yourself accountable, to be all about one thing or or you know your core things, is definitely difficult. I mean, believe me, I'm guilty of it as well.

Speaker 1: 30:37

The way we wire this ideas all the time. Right, you cannot even stop it. It's like, oh wow, I see an opportunity here. I see an opportunity here. But you know, learning that it's building a team. I'm very proud of the team that we have today in place. I mean we have Miri. She's our CEO today. I moved to the founder position about three years ago. We've been working together now for almost 20 years, 15 plus years, you know so great relationship, great people in place.

Speaker 1: 31:10

Yeah, so sometimes, as you say, we get excited because we see the opportunity. We want to make it happen, we know how to make it happen, but then there's a lot more to it than building a team making sure that there's alignment. Do we really want to do it? That's the big thing. How much do you really want it? Right? It's something that we need to clarify again and again, to make sure that we're not doing things just because the idea of it is great, but to make sure that every cell in our body is really aligned and and committed and we're really into it to build it. But it's not easy.

Speaker 2: 31:46

No, I mean, that's something that's interesting that you said, like you brought a CEO on and you moved to the founder position. Right, what was that mindset shift for you being like, okay, I need someone to, or I want someone to replace me on the CEO part, and you know, continue to scale and grow and take that, you know, not backseat, but different seat, essentially as the founder.

Speaker 1: 32:13

Yeah it's really understanding strength and weaknesses, right. So you know, there is, as a founder, I mean especially with me. I'm great in starting things, building momentum, putting the right people together, but when it comes to a certain size, that it's all about processes and things need to work in a certain way and the way we scale the company. I just started saying she can do it much, much better than me. And if I play a different position, it's more of jumping in whenever they need me, taking on specific projects, help with things that are more marketing sales, being out there doing what I'm doing right now, right, so kind of really working on getting our name out there. And then I mean, look, four months ago I jumped in and I started working with the franchise sales team. Right, I saw that I can add value. There's some changes that we want to implement. So for me to jump in, work on a project for three, four, five months and then hand it back to the team, that's something that I love to do. That's something that I feel that I can add much, much more value than being the CEO.

Speaker 1: 33:23

I was great as a CEO to a certain point and then it's not really my thing. I'm getting bored in the day-to-day yeah, right, at a certain point I know that I can add more value and build momentum is a big thing for me, right. So for me to jump in and build momentum kind of going, spirit, energy, passion, understanding the whole business at the same time, the ability to focus on something so specific and take it from zero to a hundred instead of doing it in two years because I have freedom, I can do it in four months, right. So I see now she's great CEO. I'm great as I will go and help and see what needs to be done. And going back to really having a clear vision where is it that we want to get, why we want to get there, making sure that everybody has a very clear what is it that they really want?

Speaker 1: 34:24

That's become a very big part of our conversation, especially in the past two or three months, because it's amazing to have processes. It's very important, you know, holding people accountable, job description, seeing exactly how we're being very efficient as a business, but you need to make sure that the spirit is there.

Speaker 2: 34:42

Yeah, that is huge, it's a very very important part yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:46

No, that's huge, I mean. So what was it like for you? You know, growing a company and I mean it sounds like you're the visionary type, right, instead of like the integrator and so forth, which I mean I can definitely say I'm more of that visionary. You know, I put the hat on of the integrator as needed, the hat on of the integrator as needed, but what was that like for you? Running now a team and franchise locations, you know, for 10, 10, 12 years, you know, because you said she's been the last three years ish, right. So you know what was that like for you growing a team, managing all the different employees, the franchisees and all that kind of stuff. How was that for you?

Speaker 1: 35:28

It was good. I I always enjoyed it. I just wasn't as so I liked. Maybe it was will be too much, but I love to give freedom Right.

Speaker 1: 35:42

So if, if I feel that we're aligned on the, on the vision, and you can see what I'm seeing at this point. I love to give a lot of freedom Now. That can work very well when you build a company to a certain degree, but now we need to start implementing more processes, more accountability, like to make sure. Now we're going from, you know, for example, five people in the marketing department to 30 people in the marketing department. Okay, now we need a lot more structure, right?

Speaker 1: 36:13

It can't be okay. You don't give us the freedom to play around and let's figure out the thing. Of course there's room for it, but now there is a shift to it. So in the past few years, still as a CEO, I started having the feeling like I'm enjoying it, we're doing it, we're growing, but I don't think it's my thing anymore. So at this point I made sure that I have a very good operation person with me.

Speaker 1: 36:50

And then at one point it's make sure, okay, do I really need to stay the CEO, or there's somebody that can come in that really can do a great job as a CEO? And for me, honestly, at one point I feel like even a little bit of freedom, like, okay, I can go back to be entrepreneur so so was your.

Speaker 2: 37:11

Is your ceo? Was that your former coo?

Speaker 1: 37:14

yeah, yeah, okay, we've been working here for many, many years. She's been going through all the department. She knows the franchisees very well, she knows yeah and she and she's perfect for her.

Speaker 2: 37:28

No, that's that's a huge, and that's a huge thing for you too, right, you know, you, you got your, your freedom back to do what you want, contribute how you want, but you also sometimes as the founder, especially in in the early years, you know, I'm sure it was like you're the founder, the CEO, and then you get to a point where you realize that you don't have to be the CEO Like your, your business, your baby has been built, it's grown, it's a teenager or it's an adult Right, and sometimes I think some founders stay the CEO too long where they become the bottleneck, absolutely Right. So, being able to acknowledge that and realize that within yourself you know whether it's from burnout or you know whatever, you're just not having the you know the same amount of drive is like well, this person has been with me in my ride or die in this and they have that drive. Why not just give it to them and I can still be here, jump in when I want and basically give my full intention and contribution to them when I can.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Yeah, yeah, so I used to do this thing is every so often. It was every like three to six months max. I used to sit with myself and I used to go through this process and it says you're done, you're fired. Okay, you're done, why would I hire you again? Where can you add more value? And I seriously will have this conversation with myself and I will write it down.

Speaker 1: 38:59

And over time, when you do it again and again and again, you start recognizing the areas that you really add value in and how you really operate in a certain way. Right, Some people are very comfortable in process-oriented every day doing kind of not the same thing, but you know what I mean. And some people thrive when they're on for a day or for two days, jumping from one department to another department right, and I start recognizing over time that I'm much more effective when I'm working this way. So it's really the. The decision was not so much of I don't want to do it anymore, or I want to do it or burnout, or I have no energy. I love the business that I'm in. I have tons of energy. It's just where can?

Speaker 1: 39:45

I be more effective yeah, and that was the recognition of if I'm staying here, I'm not as effective and I think I'm becoming the bottleneck of the business. But if I'm going to work this way, I can add a lot more value. I can go back and build different momentum in different areas of the business while I don't have to work within that structure business, while I don't have to work within that structure. So I just recognize that when I have more freedom and being more dynamic with different parts, different areas of the business and going and learning about another business and integrating it within our business right, innovation, learning about new technologies, being part of other companies right. So that really was my insight into okay, if I give myself freedom and I work that way, I can add a lot more value to the business.

Speaker 2: 40:45

So I set up, because one of the things that I'm always aware of like OK, with our team, what is it that you're really trying to achieve?

Speaker 1: 40:54

What are your strengths and how can I get you or give you the space so you start building your own momentum in the business? And to build momentum, you want your people to be excited about what is it that they do? You want your people to be excited about what is it that they do right and help them see it in a way that is aligned within their own growth, within what they want to achieve, and also give them a sense of ownership. Right, that is a big thing for me. I want them to own it right. So I went through a thing with everybody on the team. Everybody is a CEO today. We don't have one CEO at the top. Everybody is a CEO today. We don't have one CEO at the top. Everybody is a CEO today. How would you build your department, even if you are one person, if you are, right now, the CEO of what you do, how would you do it? So we went through it and you see how people, once you change the perspective of how they look at what they do, what they do, change.

Speaker 2: 41:53

Yeah, that's huge perspective of how they look at what they do, what they do change. Yeah, that's huge. Yeah, that is huge. I mean, it is true. I mean especially if someone has buy in, and even from the business standpoint, but from the customer side Right and this is why we were talking about asking questions earlier is if you ask questions and the customer, the client, is answering the questions, especially like in the gym industry, you know they came to the gym for a reason, like they don't have a natural disaster or a home disaster, you know, but they have some disaster in one area of their life that they want to change in a sense Right and to fix that problem.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Obviously, you know they're like okay, I need to work out and eat clean, but it's like why, why do you need to do that? You know, and you ask why. And you let them start to be like okay, I think this is going to be the best remedy for me, and so forth. And typically they're going to have more buy-in, just like if you said your employees or your team, you let them be the CEO, and then they come up with some solutions and you're like that's not I mean cause we can't think of everything right. Like we have, I mean we can provide our, our take on a solution, but someone that's in the weeds of it knows a little bit more of you, know how to make it efficient, or so forth.

Speaker 2: 43:17

And then you're like I didn't even think about that, Like let's, let's try it.

Speaker 1: 43:19

And now they're going to try it with 10 times the amount of effort they were given before, because they don't. They want their solution to work, also because now they had a contribution to it. Exactly, exactly. I'll give you. I'll give you a small example, if you want to stay on that subject for another 60 seconds. My customer service team, right.

Speaker 1: 43:33

So one day we brought all the company into big, like we had a day event kind of uh for everybody in the company, and I asked every department tell me, what is it that you do? I want to hear it in in your words what is it that you do? And the customer service team is like we're sitting there in the room and that's what we do. The phone ring, we answer the phone and then we send it to our customers, and that's it. We're basically just answering the phone and then we send it to our customers, and that's it. We're basically just answering the phone all day long and dispatching the call out. I said, okay, technically that's what you do, but let's look at what you really do.

Speaker 1: 43:59

Somebody calls you that just had an emotional disaster. His house is upside down. His biggest assets is investment in family's risk. Right now he doesn't know what to do and where to go and who to talk to. You're the first person that he gets to talk to. The way you talk to him can change his entire day. If you make him feel comfortable, if you make him feel that you got him and you're going to help him. First of all, you have a huge impact on him and his family. The second part that you do now you connect them with a service provider, with our franchisee that have the press start mentality that will go there and continue with the same message that you just shared with them. We're going to help them see the positive in the negative. How are you thinking we're impacting his life? Oh, no, we're done. Of course we're going to go there. We're going to do it right. We're going to do it right. We're going to take care of the clients. We understand that it's going to go through a disaster.

Speaker 1: 44:58

I say, okay, so this is what you do. You're actually being there for people that are going through an emotional disaster and you're making sure that the best restoration guy will get out there and help them. You need to see their body language the moment that they saw it this way. They're like, oh, wow, okay, so I do something important. I'm not just answering the phone all day long. I'm actually helping people. Yes, that's what you do. The moment that you change, help people see themselves in a different light, they carry themselves in a different way, they have more ownership over what is it that they do, because we tend to look at what we do is a very technical thing. Right in our mission statement as a company, we have nothing that talks about water, mold or fire. We are the fresh start company. That's what we do. We bring fresh starts into people's life.

Speaker 2: 45:48

No, that is true, and when you can shape someone's perspective or change their perspective, you change their reality, right? Because that's all, in my opinion. That's all reality is is just perspective on life. And so when you can shift that perspective, even of a job title or a job role or a job description, and all of a sudden they're like oh, you're right, I impact, you know, this is I impact someone's day, impact someone's life. I'm not just answering phones, right? So that is so cool, so one. I want to ask one last question, and I want to preface it by saying this is not a tombstone, this is the Adan legacy wall, right? And on this legacy wall, essentially, you can write any message, short or long, that you've learned from your life's journey, both in just regular life, in entrepreneurship. But what would be the message that you would leave for the up and coming?

Speaker 1: 46:40

generations. That real wealth is based on our ability to really experience every moment is based on our ability to really experience every moment. That's what I that is. As time goes by, um, you just realize more and more that's real wealth. It's really our ability to be present and fully enjoy every moment in our life, or not enjoy, even if you need to cry cry, right. But at this point you know, I'm seeing people that made it financially and I'm seeing people here and there and I see that everybody's so lost in their own thoughts all the time that doesn't matter what they have or where they are and what they got. They're kind of not really here. And then you see somebody that is here and you're saying, okay, this is wealth, this is real wealth. So if this is one thing that has just become more and more real for me, is that what we need to strive for, everything else is just a way for us to move through it. So we realize that being here is the real wealth and what I'm saying, being here is being present.

Speaker 2: 48:06

I love that. I love that. It is so true. I mean, at the end of the day, we don't take anything with us, right, but we do leave an imprint and an impact on the world, and that's through every conversation, every interaction that you've had with people, and that's, in my opinion, what legacy is, so that that is perfect. That is amazing. Where can people connect with you and learn more about you? Know your franchise, but also you know about you, you know if they want to connect with you personally.

Speaker 1: 48:31

Yeah, so learn more about the franchise is 911 restoration franchisecom and I'm more active on LinkedIn, so, idan Speiser, my name is unique enough and just type my name, it's going to come up.

Speaker 2: 48:46

Yeah, perfect. Well, I mean again my apologies for the first. You know 30 minutes not being recorded, but again, like this, the time flew by and you know this is the first podcast I was able to do an hour and a half essentially. You know, and without even you know, needing needing any questions, like you are a wealth of knowledge and I again, I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time out of your data. Come on and, you know, drop some knowledge for the mindset cafe, absolutely thank you.

Speaker 1: 49:15

This was great.

Speaker 2: 49:16

Really enjoyed our conversation yeah, and you're a neighbor, so we will hang out yeah, definitely Positive thoughts missing the game Life. Mindset causes shits. Got my mind on the prize. I can't be distracted. I stay on my grind. No time to be slackin'. I hustle harder. I go against the current Cause. I know my mind is rich. Still be collectin'.