Michael Hadden - Entrepreneurship Through A Library of Things

Ever look around your garage and realize half of it gathers dust? We sat down with RoundAbout co‑founder and CEO Mike Haddon to explore a smarter way to live: own what you love, access what you rarely need. RoundAbout is a local “library of things” serving Forsyth County, delivering and picking up everything from pressure washers and lawn tools to pop‑up tents, party tables, and premium kitchen gear. It’s the convenience of a well‑run rental, built for real homes, busy weekends, and those once‑a‑season jobs you don’t want to overpay for.

If you’ve wondered whether a local access economy can thrive—or if you’re weighing your own leap into entrepreneurship—this conversation brings hard‑won lessons and practical next steps. 

Follow RoundAbout on Instagram and Facebook at @tryroundabout, or explore memberships at tryroundabout.com. If this story sparked ideas, share it with a friend, subscribe for more candid small‑business talks, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hi, my name is Nick Ford, and I'm the host of the Transparent Podcast, where we believe in bringing transparency to the world of small business. And this week I am joined by a guest, Mike. I will let you introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Great. Thanks, Nick. Really appreciate the opportunity to be here on the show and look forward to our conversation. So I'm Mike Haddon. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Roundabout. Roundabout is a local library of things. We operate in Vickery and soon to be West Forsyth in Forsyth County, Georgia. And essentially, we are a library of things for items that consumers might need occasionally. And we rent those, we deliver them and pick them up. And we operate pretty much as what you might think a garage in the cloud might be, where uh we virtually uh you know take reservations. So our members are able to go online to our website and check out things like tools, uh kitchen equipment, uh, outdoor gear, lawn and landscape items, uh, games, uh, outdoor games, and party essentials. So anything that you might have around the house or that you might think would be around a house, but really in a lot of cases sits idle uh most of the year. Uh we're providing access to. So we're we're really trying to change the um we're trying to change the equation of of ownership, uh, where you know you own the things that you really need, and then you can have access to the things that you just uh you just need occasionally. Uh we just started um operating in December. Uh so we're really in the early stages of our uh startup journey. Uh when I say we, it is my co-founder and I. So uh my co-founder Stratton, who's out in Utah, who does all of the technology work. Uh, and then I have um the um I have the responsibility for pretty much everything else.

Side Hustle Vs Going All In

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Nice. Very cool. Well, thank you for being on the podcast and excited to talk more about your business. It sounds like a really interesting idea, so I could definitely help a lot of people. So excited to learn more about that and how it's going here in the early stages. So, you know, the idea behind the podcast originally was I just thought more people should go into small business. Uh, I thought that, you know, when I started my business, that if more people could hear from entrepreneurs, that you know, more people who are on the fence about entrepreneurship might take the leap and and go into their own, you know, form of small business, whatever that may be, service or, you know, landscaping, or there's so many different things you could go into business for yourself doing. And so, you know, we've been doing it for, I've been doing it for about three years now. And so I think it's it's been a really a good thing to for other entrepreneurs um and what I call itpreneurs, people wanting to get into entrepreneurship. But, you know, with COVID a few years ago, a lot of, you know, a lot of people had on the podcast started their businesses during COVID. People got let go, people wanted side hustles, they wanted to have a second stream of income. So a lot of businesses kind of grew out of that. But, you know, I love listening to Shark Tank and hearing entrepreneurs pitch their ideas or pitch their businesses. And the sharks will always tell them, you know, you gotta go all in, you gotta be all in on your business, you know, quit your job. Even like the elementary school kids, I think Mr. Wonderful was like, uh, I really am disappointed you're not willing to quit elementary school to just do your business full time. But what what what do you what do you think about that? Because I got I got transparent staffing started as a side hustle. Yeah, but I knew I was gonna go full-time into it. It wasn't the long-term plan to be a side stream of income. What do you think about that? Do you think it can be done?

Early Peer‑To‑Peer Lessons

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Do you think it's depends or well I I I love the idea of of the side hustle and uh you know the ability to uh kind of create something while you still have uh you know your your main steady income stream. Um and I would actually, if if it's something that that makes sense, uh I think you know more people should be doing that. Um, you know, and you know, some people's side hustle might be an Airbnb, some people's side hustle might be a booth at you know a local farmer's market trying to get a you know a food product or or something off the ground. Uh and you know, I I think that while you're testing the waters, if you're if you are able to do that with either your service or your product, uh, I would 100% recommend it. You know, one of the things that um I tried back a little bit pre-COVID, so uh 2019 to 2020 was to uh side hustle roundabout. And at that point, it was a little bit of a different model. It was more of a peer-to-peer idea where uh Nick would, you know, have his kayak and stand-up paddle board listed and and I could go online and and check it out or or rent it from Nick, right? From you. And um, you know, we we kind of struggled with the business model there. And I I think one of the challenges with side hustling and operations heavy business is where are you going to find the time? Um, you know, if you're doing this on the side as a, you know, just a little side project, makes a lot of sense. Uh, if you have a if you have a side hustle that isn't as time intensive or it it scales a little bit easier, um, where you don't necessarily have, you know, your your time isn't linear with the with the uh scale, uh, I think it makes a lot of sense. With what we're doing with roundabout, uh, it makes a little less sense. So what we did back um, you know, in that that first phase was we looked at it. There were a few other reasons why we decided to kind of shelf it and decided that, hey, if things make sense later or if we see some traction from you know the the market that we're looking at with other entrants that that might be seeing a little bit of success, we'll check this back out again and things might change in five years. And and they did. So um I'd say it really just depends on your situation. It also really depends on the kind of business that you want to establish. Again, you know, laying in, is it operationally intense? Is it operationally heavy? Uh, or you know, is it something that you know you can kind of scale um nonlinearly with, you know, and it doesn't require that, you know, one-to-one investment in your time versus and you know, roundabout doesn't either, but uh early on it's very, it's very operationally intensive.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think you know, Airbnb is a good example of uh easy side hustle, and owning real estate is just, I think, a great investment opportunity beyond being like a side hustle, but just buying real estate and doing long-term lease. Or I did an Airbnb. We owned a uh cabin up in Blue Ridge back in 2021, and we ended up only holding on to it for like a year because we had the opportunity to flip it and make a good profit off of it, and not we're gonna have to sink some money into it, and we got the opportunity to flip it, so we did, and it worked out. But that is something where you know you don't have to be operationally heavy, hopefully, as long as you don't have some terrible tenants that ruin your cabin.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

That that could happen, but yeah, you're you're spot on. And and um, you know, I I had I'd been conceptualizing the idea of roundabout for um probably the better part of a decade before we even hopped into it back in 2019, um, and just kind of watching what was going on in the marketplace. And I and I knew that this was going to be a bit of a stretch for me to try to do with a corporate job, and and it did, it turned out to be a little bit too much. So again, we we kind of shelved it. But um, just to go back to your original question, though, I I if if you can do a side hustle while maintaining that that corporate job uh or you know, whatever your steady stream of income is, absolutely. Uh, you know, another thing that factors into it though is is you know, your family, you know, how much how much you know you have to dedicate on that end, uh, in terms of you know, time with you know your wife or your significant other, uh, and your kids. So I've got three kids and they all do, you know, some sort of special activity after school, whether it be soccer or performing arts. And you know, that's that's time as well. And so, you know, I for me personally, it didn't work. Um, you know, maybe it will in the future, but I I do love the concept.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, very cool. Yeah, I think it you know, prioritizing time with family is extremely important too. It's definitely not worth sacrificing family for business or a side hustle or things like that. It'll be detrimental long term if you don't prioritize, you know, your family first. But you know, so you tested the waters, it sounds like with roundabout back in 2019 at that time as a peer-to-peer model. So, like, you know, if someone needed a lawnmower, they in their you know, their neighbor listed their lawnmower on you know, roundabout, they could rent it out for them for a couple days. Is that kind of the idea?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yep, that's the idea. Um, yeah. So, you know, and I'll I'll kind of dive in a little bit to that. You know, there there are other companies or you know, um, even nonprofits that have tried to do that. And there are so many challenges in that model with um just getting the two-sided marketplace established, and then you know, you've got the chicken and the egg, you know, which one, which comes first, the demand or the supply. And um, getting that established and knowing that it's also hyper-local. I'm I'm not going to Sandy Springs to rent that lawnmower. It needs to be a neighbor. And so if it's a ghost town, I'm never going to go back to that app and and look at it because guess what? It was it was a ghost town the first time I looked at it. And so you got to figure out a way to seed that inventory. And that's one reason why a lot of these peer-to-peer um um consumer goods, rentals, and sharing apps just haven't been able to work.

Choosing Inventory And Local Demand

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah. So I imagine there's other challenges with it being the model that you have now, which is I assume you have the inventory. So how do you keep enough inventory? And like, do you have certain products that you know are going to be popular? Like around here, I would imagine. I mean, it could be a variety of things, but like boating equipment or stuff with like Lanier being close, or how do you decide what's an inventory?

SPEAKER_01 10:53

So it's still a little bit early. Um, we've done a lot of research on uh lending libraries and and tool libraries across the US and and you know, even uh uh outside of the US, um, which is actually where they're a lot more popular. There, as you can imagine, there's there's a lot more um acceptance and adoption of libraries of things in Eastern Europe, um, which is where a lot of the kind of good ideas in the space come from. But ultimately, it's you know pretty universal for tools. Like certain tools are are going to be more popular than than others, but it also depends on the kind of the demographic of the area that you're servicing. So, you know, we're testing it in Vickery, which for those of you who aren't aware, Vickery is a mixed-use community, which is new urbanist, which you've got uh housing stock that ranges from small condos all the way up to um estate mansions all in all in the same neighborhood. So we're able to kind of test out who really likes what more. Um, you know, are the people in the condos going to use uh certain things more frequently than the people in the in the in the large estate houses? Or are they or those folks even you know in our customer profile of of people that we would want to uh target as potential customers? But ultimately to answer your question, it's a um it's a bit of kind of being stuck in a dark closet and trying to find your way out, um, but with a little bit of research. And you know, this day and age, with uh the amount of research you can get done with with generative AI tools, you can find out a lot of information in a very short time to help you with your hypotheses. But at the end of the day, you've really got to test it out. And so, you know, where I'm getting at though now is we're still really early. Uh, I could list off to you the things that have been used. And you know, some of them are pretty fun and interesting, but I know they're just not gonna get used that much. But ultimately, think of we're in Forsyth County in Georgia, and in about a month, everything's gonna be yellow-green, right? Because of all the pollen. So uh pressure washers are definitely gonna be uh in demand. I've had a few people already reach out and ask me about pressure washers. So uh we've got those, we've got uh I've got people asking for fold-out tables and chairs, which you know starts to get into the party rental space, but ultimately we're not trying to solve for the person's problem that it has a hundred-person party. We're just trying to solve for the use case where they need two extra tables and some chairs for a little event that they're having, or they need that extra pop-up tent. Um, so you know, those are the kinds of things that I think will end up um really kind of turning in the inventory. But we also want to have a really broad inventory to make sure that you know it resonates with folks to say, hey, you know what, anything that I really need, I can get with roundabout.

The Spark: Too Much Stuff, Not Enough Use

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah, that makes that makes total sense. Very cool. Well, so what initially gave you the idea for the business when you first had the the idea for it?

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Uh, you know, I I it was early on, we had just been married, and this was probably 2007, 2008 time frame, and we had accumulated a bunch of stuff, and I just started looking around like, I'm never gonna use this stuff, uh, or I'm gonna use it very rarely. And, you know, a little bit of altruistic mindset there of I could let people borrow this, or you know, you know, you see other people's garages and you say, hey, you know, that is never getting used. And you know, why wouldn't it make sense if we could just I could rent that from them for something a lot less than what I'm gonna pay Home Depot to either purchase it or or rent like an auger. Um, and so you know, you really started thinking about that. And I saw another website that was out there, it was called um neighbor goods, like neighborhoods but with goods. And this was pre-mobile app uh timeframe. So it wasn't very easy for people to get their inventory on. There was so much friction that, you know, unless you had some really dedicated people to on the supply side, it was never going to take off. And that's unfortunately what happened with them was they just could never um solve for you know getting the supply side big enough. But that idea just kind of kicked around with me. And I and and uh the logic in it, at least to me, seemed like you know, this is a no-brainer. Why, why, why wouldn't I let people borrow stuff that I don't really, I don't mind getting banged up or that um I'm never, never gonna use that I that I own. Like I have, you know, just thinking back to um what we got with our uh you know, wedding registry stuff. We got like a 20-court all-clad stock pot. You know, it's great for doing something like a low country boil or you know, boiling some crab in, but I can count on one hand in almost 20 years the number of times that I've used that really nice, probably$350 all-clad stock pot. And it might even be more than that now. I don't know what those what those go for these days. But um, you know, that's a durable product that's gonna last a long time, that you know, can be used by a number of people. And literally, it's just been sitting in the pantry for almost two decades. Uh, so you know, that's just you know, one case in point of things that we all have that never get used and that would be better off getting used and you know, giving some life to it. But uh, you know, also I don't think that that's gonna break very easily, right? So um, but going back to your original, you know, the original question, it's you know, how'd I come up with the idea? It was just kind of seeing all of this stuff and knowing that it could get used more and it should be getting used more, instead of you know, Mike and Nita having a$350 stock pot that gets used five times.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I can think of things that I have sitting around the house that have barely been used. Like we have a pasta maker that was like an expensive pasta maker that my wife had been wanting and asking for. It's like a$400 thing, and she has used it once in like a decade. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

I bet the pasta was delicious though.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Oh, it was great. Yeah, she did a great job, which you know, why not why not try it again? Not to nudge her on that. But yeah, there's things like that that are expensive, good equipment that is gonna last a long time, like the stockpot you're talking about that someone else should be using. Why wet it to collect dust when it could it could be you know being put to good use? So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

I think now the made the major use now, and my kids probably won't listen to this, is my wife hiding candy in it so that they can't find the candy. So it's getting used, just not really for what a stock pot's intended purpose.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Just not the intended use, yeah. Yeah. So before I had started uh transparent staffing, and um I'd already been in the recruiting space, but I looked into I'd wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was like 16, 18 years old. I had my granddad owned a life insurance company in in Dallas, Texas. And so I saw him as an entrepreneur and wanted to do it too. And I looked into franchising, and there's a few franchise ideas that kick around as far as like buying a franchise. One that I really looked into pretty heavily was a coffee shop franchise. And you know, for me, the further I went down that rabbit hole talking to I talked to franchise brokers that kind of partner you with different franchises. And the more I looked into it, the more I felt like I really want to work for myself. And it feels like if I buy a franchise, I'm still working for someone else, at least on some level. You get the playbook, which is great. You get you know, they have a successful model, hopefully, with like a coffee shop or there's so many different franchises you can buy into. And so hopefully you have a playbook that works, but you still got to follow their rules. You you're gonna owe them money every month, you know, they're gonna take a percent of your revenue. And so I just felt like I'm working for someone else still. I really want to start my own thing. So I started transparent staffing from the ground up. And it sounds like that's what you do with roundabout, but had you kicked around buying a business or what were you, you know.

Franchise Paths And True Ownership

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Honestly, there was it never entered my thought process, you know. As as I exited um e-Trade and Morgan Stanley, uh, which is a whole nother you know backstory. I was I was there for 25 years, and you know, I got to the point where anytime you're you're in a career for 25 years, you you start to think, okay, is this it? Is this what I'm gonna do? And you know, kind of push this all the way through to retirement, or do I want do I want to write another chapter in this book? And ultimately I I made the really hard decision uh to say, hey, I want to go in a different direction. And it, you know, having had this idea kicking around in my head for years, uh, in various, you know, shapes and forms, I knew that this was what I wanted to try out. And you know, I know, you know, uh coming into it, you know, fully aware that this is a new concept, this is something that changes consumer behaviors. It's not like, hey, I build it and and they're gonna come. This isn't field of dreams. So, you know, knowing full well that there's a there's a chance that that this thing doesn't work out, that it doesn't resonate with with the customer, um, I still felt like this, I'd regret it if I didn't try to do it myself. And you know, I had built up a lot of expertise in certain areas, especially customer experience and and customer support over the years with with my uh uh roles with it within eTrade and Morgan Stanley, so that you know, I felt pretty comfortable knowing, hey, this is what I want to build, this is how I want to do it, this is how I want to market it. So um could I take a playbook from a franchise and and do something and and probably be um happy with with what I was doing? Yeah, but I I think that I still would have regretted not doing this thing that had been clanking around in my head for years. Um now that that's in no way, shape, or form a knock on on uh the franchise model. It's actually something that we've you know kicked around for you know potential growth scenarios for roundabout, um, which you know that's still pie in the sky um ideas that that uh you know we're we're we hope we have that problem at some point. Uh but the um you know the the the whole franchise model, I think it's it's great for someone who does want the independence of not working for that big company. Um you've got a nice playbook, like you were saying, uh, you know, at least with some franchises, you have a nice playbook, but you're still you know ultimately beholden to the brand. And uh you have you know some requirements that I don't really have. So starting something fully from scratch, uh other than you know staying within the bounds of of the law, uh there's a whole lot of um flexibility that I that I have that uh you wouldn't have with a franchise. And you know, saying if I were fortunate enough to have enough money to and and enough you know uh acumen and and uh clout to get a Chick fil A franchise, you know, ultimately the Chick fil A franchise, you're working for Chick fil A. Um, and you know, somebody that listens to this may have a Chick fil A franchise or know more about. It than I do, but the way I see that is if you're working with a huge brand and marketing machine um like a Chick-fil-A, uh that that seems very corporate to me, even though you you do have a lot of skin in the game. Uh, but if you're you know going in with a smaller company that's still feeling their way out, and um, you know, you're able to kind of influence the growth of that company, that might be a better situation um for somebody who's more entrepreneurial um and you know wants to be able to influence a business or or a brand. So anyway, just my sense on on the franchise model. I actually, you know, support it. I think it's great in the right scenario, just not not necessarily for me on this side. It might be for roundabout on the growth side, uh, but we'll we'll see. We'll cross that bridge.

Hiring, Processes, And Earning The Right To Scale

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yeah, yeah, definitely that could be an option for you with you know franchise into other markets and things like that. Um, yeah, I mean, I the franchise idea I think is great too. I think it's a great way to pass that down something to your kids. You know, if you have a franchise, you could pass it down to them to run eventually. You know, the Chick-fil-A model. I don't know if they're even, I'm curious to research that more, but I they call them operators rather than like franchisees. I wonder what kind of like actual ownership they have over anything really, or if they're just really operating the store and running the store and getting they're probably getting paid a percent of you know profits and stuff like that. But but yeah, it's uh it's a different model. It's definitely something I would still be open to in the future, but not uh it wasn't the right timing for me. I wanted to have something of my own that I could create from scratch, and so that's what I did. But you know, scaling um for me has been challenging, just you know, hiring people, uh trying to grow a team under me. You know, I have uh it's basically just me right now with some 1099 contractors, so I don't have any full-time employees right now. I, you know, finding the the right way to scale is challenging, especially for me, it's a it's a total service-based business. So duplicating myself isn't really an option. Uh, but trying to make more out of my time is, and so I've done well with that. But how do you, I know you're super early phases, but how do you view scaling roundabout and how do you grow it? And are you looking at other markets to target next?

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Or uh, you know, there's so many directions I can go with that. Uh, first off, you know, you're you're you're established and congrats on that. And I think you you've done you know good enough job just to get yourself to the point where you know you you can even think about you know, how do how would I scale this? How would I you know get you know nicked nick times two? The you know, with with me, I think you know, my growth uh strategy is okay, let's prove this out, let's make sure that this is a service uh that people will pay for. Uh it that it resonates, that the brand is something that uh has the ability to scale. Uh and I could totally sidetrack this with uh you know a kind of a trademark and intellectual property thing that I just kind of found out about last week that you know we've got to look into. It's the curse of the founder owning every single thing, is that guess what? You own the legal side, you've got to deal with the attorneys, you've got to deal with um, you know, the marketing, you've got to deal with the the branding, all that. And you know, I I have to do it myself, right? It's you know, and of course, like you said, you have some 1099 contractors, and I've used freelance workers to help me out with the branding. I've used uh attorneys to help me out with, you know, doing our uh terms and conditions and our our privacy policy documents and you know all the all the gnarly stuff that you definitely want an attorney working on. Um and then, you know, how do I get to the point where I know that I'm gonna need someone else to come into the company and help me with you know these three functions, right? Because in a startup, you're doing everything. And then the next person is doing pretty much everything as well. Um, and then you know it starts to it starts to gradually evolve into the different disciplines of business. Um, but I'm a long way off from that. And you know, the way I the way I see it is uh once I've proven and earned the right to hire someone, and I've got my ideas on you know where I might need to hire first, probably going to be operationally, where you know, if we're delivering and picking things up, we're probably gonna need some uh some staff to do that, which would be less on the strategic front and more on the operations front, and you know, probably just um a W-2 driver or two. Um, that's where I see myself going in the near future. But then you've got to put your processes in place and you've also got to start building your culture um so that you don't lose, you really don't lose track of and and um kind of lose the identity that you're looking to create with your brand. Um you know, I again I'm I'm learning as I go uh on on what that might look like. And you can read so many either horror stories or success stories for you know people that successfully scaled or you know ran into problems along the way that you kind of know what potholes to look out for uh and what you know what pitfalls to avoid, but it's still every single one of these is different. Um you know, the the the process of business is it's kind of like an infinite game with any number of of different routes that you can go down. And some of them take you down the path to failure and some of them take you down the path to success. But um the growth, the growth piece is um, I think it's all about earning it. And then you can start to deal with with the problems of okay, how I've I've earned the I've earned the right to hire people and I've earned the right to kind of scale this business by creating something that people want. And now how do I how do I um figure out what's the right direction? So like I was mentioning earlier with the franchise question, that might be a way to scale. You know, it could also just be, you know, grow based off of you know plowing uh profits back into the business and you know grow that way. Um and there there are other models. Uh there's there's a few companies out there that I've taken a look at that uh are doing great things in the in the sharing and access economy space. Um that you know, some are venture-backed, some of them are crowdfunding backed, some of them are going out and finding independent providers, kind of like gig economy workers that have their own inventory of things that operate as little small businesses. Um, but there's so many different ways to do it. Haven't thought of a great way, or I haven't thought of the right way yet for roundabout. Um, just going back to reiterate, I just think you got to earn that by um you gotta earn earn the ability to step into that problem by solving some other problems first.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's uh yeah, scaling um it's a challenge and it's something that you don't want to do too fast either. Are you are you familiar with uh Jekyll brewing that was in Alpharetta and them closing down?

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Um I saw the space in downtown Alpharetta um was up for a week.

Goals, Grit, And Corporate Vs Startup Success

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Yeah, a friend, a friend of ours was the head, well was yeah, he was the head chef for the Alfredo location, and then he was helping open the new locations. And I think it was like two years ago or so, he called me and he was like, I think this is going downhill. Like they're he tried to open too many restaurants too fast. And that was a bummer because I mean they were serving stuff in Truist Park, and he had all those locations open up. I think they had like they're up to like five maybe by the time he had to close things down. So that's an example of trying to scale too fast, and that's a very capital-intensive business.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Yeah, yeah, and that's um, you see that a lot with restaurants and or you know, breweries. Um unfortunately, it happens, and you know, you lose something that um you know is was adding value to the to the area, right? And you know, the fact yeah, they had they had great beer. Um I enjoyed yeah, I enjoyed going to their original brewery location off of um it was off Edison Drive back by the Alpharetta entrance to the Greenway a few times because I worked over by there when e-Traits offices were there. And uh, you know, it's just sad when you see somebody's kind of dream and business um kind of go go the wrong direction. But to your point, it's growth. And if you don't watch that, you you may you may uh get a little bit out over your skis.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you don't want to try to do too much too quick or it can be detrimental for sure. Um, well, so I I love studying successful people. And you know, I have a couple things on the podcast from like uh guy named Art Williams who has this awesome do-it speech just talking about uh his success within the insurance business. And then I love stuff like Tony Robbins, or there's a guy named Ernest Nightingale who's like a a generation past, you know, that was a Tony Robbins type person just speaking success. And I have this quote on my desk from Michael Jordan, and he's talking about success. It says, I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games 26 times. I was trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that's why I've succeeded. So I love that idea of like you gotta take shots, like you gotta, you know, take take risks, and um, that's how people become successful. And so, you know, I love sending successful people, but you've been in the corporate world for like 25 years with e-trade and Morgan Stanley, I believe you said. So what do you see in successful people that makes them you know separate themselves, I guess?

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Yeah, and I think it's maybe a little bit different in the corporate world than it is in the startup world, but you know, there's yeah, there's overlap. The Venn diagram definitely has has some uh uh overlapping circles there. But um I'm gonna take it, you know, one for each, or or you know, maybe a little bit of uh thoughts on on each. So on the on the corporate side, um there is a there's a huge focus on execution, a huge um a huge focus on um organization, and then also uh which I think this is this is universal, but uh when you start to get into a larger organization, there's a huge difference between so e-trade, it's a little backstory. Um I started working at e-trade in 2000. So it was at the time, I think it was two weeks after the all-time high in the NASDAQ, right before the whole dot-com implosion. Uh so I started working there, was fortunate to make it through some rounds of layoffs and um because everybody was impacted during that window. Uh, and then um came up all the way through the customer support ranks. Uh so I was, you know, when I first started, you know,$11.21 an hour phone rep, right? And then uh worked my way up into management and leadership positions. And, you know, by you know, you can imagine we went through the dot-com bubble, we went through, you know, some of the you know scandals, the Enrons and the WorldComs and the accounting scandals, and then we went through the uh the Great Recession. Um, and then you know, there were a number of other crises that that came up over the course of a 20-year career. And then uh Morgan Stanley purchased e-Trade in uh in 2020. So this was actually announced in February of 2020, and of course, March 2020, everything goes crazy with COVID. Uh, and then you go through that five-year period of uh integrating a smaller firm, e-Trade, into a much larger firm, Morgan Stanley. Uh, and some things became apparent very quickly on the differences between e-Trade. And, you know, I was in a decent leadership position at e-Trade and had, you know, built up my reputation as someone who can execute and get things done and lead large teams. And then at Morgan Stanley, you kind of got to go back in and you know make a name for yourself again and and meet a whole bunch of new people. And there's uh you know different personalities and and um you know the pedigree at Morgan Stanley was uh I'd never seen so many Ivy League people in my life. And you know, I I went to the University of Florida, which here in Georgia is maybe a you know kind of a a bit of a uh you know, a bit of a problem with all the bulldogs around here, but um University of Florida is a pretty good state school, and uh I was pretty proud of that, and I still am. Uh, you know, but now you're up against people vying for similar jobs that you know went to Wharton, that went to Harvard, that got their MBA. You know, one person that I saw had their um, this might be not in the right order, but they had their undergrad from Harvard, their master's from their MBA from Yale, and then got a doctorate at Stanford. And so you run into those types of people and it's like, wow, okay, this is this is a whole nother ball game at at Morgan Stanley and this huge Wall Street firm. But that's you know, neither here nor there. Um, you can be successful anywhere with the right amount of determination and effort. And um, one thing I will say is when you start to get into a very large company, uh it also becomes on uh a bit of networking and uh making sure that you know the right people, that you're you're in the right conversations, and um and that's a critical thing that you need to be doing. And it's a little bit different doing it within a massive um Wall Street firm or bank than it is in the in the startup world. So um in the startup world, you know, networking is totally different. It's like finding out who in my community or in my space can kind of help me with this problem that I'm looking to get solved. Okay, I need to hire people, but I don't have a, I don't have a recruiting firm, I don't have a recruiting uh group anymore or an HR group or a talent group anymore. Um, that, you know, as somebody in leadership at a Morgan Stanley, you just lean on your legal team or you lean on your HR team or you lean on your you know TNA team to you know help you get things done. Whereas in in startup space, you're getting those done. Or you're leaning on people that you know that can help you get that done. Um, and so I think it's still a critical element. But the other thing is within the startup space is you have to be well-rounded. You have to um you have to bring the energy every day. And you have to, you have to hold that candle up or that torch up for your business all the time. And you know, anybody who loves the company that they work for kind of does that. Uh so in the corporate world, you're kind of doing that. You're wearing the E train shirt or the Morgan Stanley shirt, but that's not your job 100%. Whereas for a startup founder, that's your job. You have to represent, you are your brand, you are your business. So there's a big difference there. But that area in the middle where those Venn diagrams overlap all day long, it's determination and effort. And how much, how much are you going to persevere to do the things that you either want to do, need to do, have to do to survive, um, it's all about perseverance. So I think it's I think that's just universal. And then there's different little, you know, sub-elements of success in in those different, and those um, you know, kind of different bubbles.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, succeeding in the corporate environment, in a career, and moving up the kind of corporate career ladder, uh, and then being successful in small business as an entrepreneur. There, there are certain skill sets and things that lend themselves well to each of those kind of separately. But then there's universal things like, you know, I think there's this uh podcast that's on the the transparent podcast that's Ernest Nightingale, and he had this um thing called the strangest secret where he talked about you know the thing that separates successful people is they have goals. That's what you know, and that you'll become what you think about. So like I have a goal on my desk for like what I want to do revenue-wise for the year for my business. And so I look at that every day. And according to Ernest Nightingale, if I look at that every day, it'll happen because you'll become what you think about. So you think about what you want to, you know, be successful. And I think like the thing that separates successful people in general, like corporate or entrepreneurship or small business, is they have goals, they know where they're going. You know, a ship without a destination is never gonna reach the destination.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

So yeah, I think to riff on that a little bit, um if I if I may, the uh that just made me think of something. This is going back to the Morgan Stanley days, but um the CEO at the time that eTrade was acquired, uh Morgan Stanley CEO is James Gorman. Uh he's you know, he's been out there in the media for years. He's fantastic CEO, very successful. Um, did a number of things with Morgan Stanley that you know really kind of padded his resume as you know one of the best CEOs that that they've had. Now, one thing that uh he imparted on you know some of the managing director groups um was kind of how he organized his to-do list. And you can imagine um, you know, the CEO of Morgan Stanley's got a pretty big to-do list, and there's any number of different uh areas where you could go 20 tasks deeper than you know the number one overriding thing that needs to get done in that area. Uh but he starts off his year every year with his list of 10 things that he wants to get done. And he just keeps that as his guiding light. And so to your point around you know, goals and making sure that you know where you want to go. Um, if if you don't know where you want to go, you're gonna be kind of out there rudderless, you know, in the doldrums, trying to trying to hope that you know you get blown somewhere. Uh so I've I've kind of adopted that myself in that I'll take the 10 things that I want to get done with roundabout in 2026 and I review it regularly to make sure that okay, we're on track or we're off track here. And and you know, it's it's not something that's ingenious that you know nobody would have thought of. But if you stick to it and you um and you're you're dedicated to what you're what you're focused on, you're gonna get those things done. And I'll say that like I did the same thing in 2025 for roundabout, and we only got started mid-year with roundabout. And out of the 10 things that I really wanted to get done, I can say we made progress in all 10, but we really got eight out of the 10 done, which I I think for a half a year of of work to get a start, get a startup going, um was was pretty solid. I was satisfied with that. Uh now, you know, one of those things that's on the list now is get customers, which um that's proving to be uh more of a challenge than even I had thought of knowing that it was going to be a challenge.

How To Find Roundabout And Final Advice

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Yeah, for sure. Well, it's something that you'll continue to grow and and work on. Um well, as we kind of come to a close here with the podcast, uh where can we find more about roundabout? Like if there's there's quite a few people who listen to the podcast that are local. So, you know, what would you tell people about where to find you, um, what they can look for, and that kind of thing?

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Yeah, so the probably the best way to stay engaged would be to uh just follow our social uh accounts. And so we're most active on Instagram, and that's at try roundabout. Uh, we also have Facebook, which is the same thing at try roundabout. If you're in the vicinity, uh we're on next door, but um not quite as active on next door um given the the the type of social uh the type of social platform that it is. Uh, but also uh you can just go to our website. It's tryroundabout.com. And uh you can if you're in Vickery or soon to be West Forsyth, you can sign up for an account. Uh we have three levels of membership. One of them is you know, nothing, you're not, you're not paying anything up front or anything monthly. Uh, and then two of our um monthly uh memberships where you get differing uh levels of access to the inventory. Uh, but those are the big ways. So Instagram uh and just our website. We will be out uh actually this weekend and uh on March 7th uh at Vickery Events. So there's a little market uh this weekend uh on Saturday from 10 to 5 at Vickery Village. Um I think that this may actually uh appear in feeds after that, but that's one way we'll be out at events that are local. Uh and then um you can always email me just at mike at tryroundabout.com.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Very cool. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Uh it was a great conversation. And I mean, any last uh closing words of wisdom for for people wanting to get into entrepreneurship or maybe words of caution?

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Uh well, you know, I would say that if it's something that's burning with you and you feel that you have the uh desire to execute on it, you're gonna regret it if you don't try. And you know, the other, you know, I talked to other founders and one of them uh was basically like, uh, don't do it, don't do it, don't. Do it. And when you ask them, but would you do it again? The answer is absolutely yes. Right. So it you have you have to go into it with um with the realization that this could fail. Um, don't be uh flippant with either your money or your resources or other people's money, knowing that, hey, there's a really good chance that if you're really trying something new that doesn't have a playbook, uh, that it uh that it could not go the way you want it to. But it's definitely not going to go the way you want it to if you don't try. And to kind of dive into what you uh you know laid out there with the Michael Jordan quote, you know, the other one that is you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Right. So I'd say that uh if you have the opportunity, even if it's just a side hustle, you should try it out. And um, you know, hopefully it picks up traction and gains uh gains momentum so that you know you're able to take it further. But I think you'll regret it if you don't try it.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Yeah, my yeah, that would be what I would close with too is just is just try it, you know, take the first step and whatever the idea is, test the market, test the waters, maybe put together a little business plan. It's a lot easier to at least try it than to sit on the idea and regret it later. So that's that's what I would say. Well, well, Mike, I will leave a link to try roundabout in the show notes, and then um that way people can find you. And again, thanks for being on the podcast. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. It's great to chat with you, and we'll see you at the Y.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Sounds good, man. I'll see you at the Y.

unknown 45:51

Bye.