A Masterclass in Business Growth | Wade Lombard | AO 64

What actually grows a business?

Not what most people think.

In this episode of the American Operator Podcast, Wade Lombard—founder of Square Cow Moving—breaks down what it really takes to build, scale, and protect a business over the long haul.

This is not theory.
This is hard-earned experience.

The Mindset Most People Don’t Have

“Every great thing in my life is delusional on paper.”

Wade explains why obsession—not balance—is often the starting point for building something great… and why most people never get there.

Growth Isn’t What You Think

One of the biggest takeaways:

Growth is NOT a strategy.
Growth is the RESULT of a strategy.

And confusing the two can destroy a business.

The Mistake That Almost Cost Everything

Wade shares the story of:

Hiring the wrong leader
Taking their eye off the business
Watching 10 years of work unravel in 18 months

This is a masterclass in:

Culture vs. talent
Why character matters more than skill
How fast things can break when you get comfortable

What Actually Works

From rebuilding the business to scaling it stronger than ever, Wade breaks down:

How to hire the right people
What to look for in operators
Why KPIs and visibility matter
How to maintain standards as you grow
The Big Takeaway

Success breeds complacency
Complacency kills businesses

The operators who win?

They stay close to the work.
They stay obsessed.
They never take their eye off the ball.

American Operator

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• Locally Owned and Operated: https://www.locallyownedandoperated.org/

Transcript

00:00:00:02 - 00:00:20:13
Speaker 2
every great thing in my life is delusional on paper. It makes zero sense to go do. And yet we sign up for it. And when we get into business, sometimes we miss this whole idea of, I'm going to be obsessive about this. I will not do anything but but think about how to make this business successful.

00:00:20:13 - 00:00:40:03
Speaker 2
What does that mean? Funny story. A few years into our moving company. It's early in the morning. I'm on my way to work. This is a true story, by the way, and I'm driving. It's kind of overcast, but I can see there's somebody walking on 620, which is a major highway. And that's not a place you exercise.

00:00:40:03 - 00:01:07:21
Speaker 2
And she's kind of walking, and I can see ahead of me, and I can see she's walking with a lot of attitude, and, and I'm kind of half asleep, but I'm kind of like, this is interesting. And I pay attention, and I see as I get closer, she's pulling luggage behind her and she's walking. And then I look closer and there's a car tracking alongside her with the passenger door open, what looks to be her very forgive, like her husband who's trying to get her to forgive him and coaxing her into the car.

00:01:07:21 - 00:01:23:22
Speaker 2
And she's not giving it. She's waving her finger. She's not giving anything. And here I am looking at this whole thing happened and my thought was, I wonder if she needs a mover, you know what I mean? Like, you know, that's the level of, like, delusional, obsessive, crazy. You fly her.

00:01:23:22 - 00:01:24:21
Speaker 1
Out the window. Yeah.

00:01:24:23 - 00:01:31:18
Speaker 2
Exactly. Here's my card. Now, I probably should have thought of things that were nicer, but I was like, I wonder if we can capture her business.

00:01:31:18 - 00:01:52:22
Speaker 1
all right, team, we're here in studio with returning guest back to back. Champion weight. Lombard. I say champion because the first time we had. If you haven't, listen to Wade's first episode when he was with us. You're missing out, man. You know, I got. Yeah. Not in the background there like that. It's absolutely crushing the wisdom you laid out there.

00:01:52:22 - 00:02:10:12
Speaker 1
I think not only because it was raw, but it's. You have a way of delivering it where I think folks just really appreciate the, the humanness of how you're doing it. You're not talking, like, kind of a really, you know, Fancy Ted talk. It's something that I can use in my family and in my business today. So thanks for that, man.

00:02:10:12 - 00:02:26:10
Speaker 1
If y'all haven't listened to it, please tune in. But we got Wade back on the show for a very different reason. Today we're going to get really kind of specific and deep on a topic that has to do with growing a business, something that I think a lot of guys and gals get into. They're great operators, know how to lead folks.

00:02:26:10 - 00:02:37:21
Speaker 1
They understand the intricacies and the technical, and then they go, well, where's the business coming from? Right. You know, I thought this was just going to run itself. If I did those other things. Right. So, so thanks for being back on man.

00:02:37:21 - 00:02:51:08
Speaker 2
Man, I so enjoy. And we've had some time outside of the business here to spend some time over the last couple months and enjoyed our time there. And so man, this is a treat for me. This is dessert, so let's go.

00:02:51:10 - 00:03:05:12
Speaker 1
You've always been gracious. I know you're busy doing a bunch of things, man. And again, y'all listen to the first episode. I mean, why did some incredible stuff? Everything from Square Cow moving to these great ventures and high end apparel and all these things. These are really like entrepreneurs, entrepreneur operators, operator man.

00:03:05:12 - 00:03:06:17
Speaker 2
So thank you.

00:03:06:19 - 00:03:28:17
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, here's what we'll get into first. Rich want to show we got this community locally owned and operated folks. These are owners and just fans of the American Dream who are part of this community. And they get to write any question top of mind. You guys have been burning them up. You know, you can you know, as you know, they're this part of it is shared suffering.

00:03:28:17 - 00:03:44:09
Speaker 1
Right. So like they're out there going like please, someone tell me I'm not abnormal, you know? Yeah. And so, I got this question here and actually it's a it's a different one because it's not from an owner, but it's actually from a director of a chamber of commerce. Okay. Out in Missouri. Cool. And so I'll shout out Dana there, Mexico, Missouri.

00:03:44:09 - 00:03:54:21
Speaker 1
She is Dana is awesome. Dana and that whole town are just rock stars, man. They are showing, how they're showing, like how small towns can punch hard. Okay. I mean, so.

00:03:54:23 - 00:03:55:23
Speaker 2
Mexico, Missouri.

00:03:55:23 - 00:04:01:01
Speaker 1
Mexico, Missouri, they say they get mail sometimes international mail, because it goes to the Chamber of Mexico.

00:04:01:01 - 00:04:01:16
Speaker 2
Of course.

00:04:01:16 - 00:04:03:20
Speaker 1
Individual like it's in Spanish.

00:04:03:22 - 00:04:05:10
Speaker 2
You.

00:04:05:12 - 00:04:06:04
Speaker 1
What's going on?

00:04:06:05 - 00:04:07:15
Speaker 2
Hope it's like serious.

00:04:07:16 - 00:04:26:22
Speaker 1
Yeah I know it's like I don't know what this is all about. So here's a question, Dana. I think this is actually right. A wait Lombards like out here. What early decision had the biggest positive impact on your success? And then on the flip side of that, what is the one decision you would absolutely change if you could.

00:04:27:00 - 00:04:53:06
Speaker 2
Okay. So early decision that made big impact. Right out of college I got offered a job to make almost no money, $18,900 a year. Now if you remember all the way down to that level of detail, you remember how depressing it was to see that number written down anywhere. And but it was to it was to work for my hero, who's now my hero.

00:04:53:06 - 00:05:13:20
Speaker 2
At the time, he was just somebody admired. And, I had just gotten married just a couple of weeks outside of college. We graduated, and Kimberly and I got married. And, you know, at this point, I wasn't a bachelor who could, you know, go live in a in a tent somewhere. I had responsibilities, you know, and I was 21 years old.

00:05:13:22 - 00:05:36:00
Speaker 2
I just graduated from college and had a decision to make. I could have gone to make twice that, at least pretty easily. And yet I wanted to be as close to this particular person as I could, and I was willing to sacrifice in order to do it, in order to, in order to just be around. And here's what we know.

00:05:36:00 - 00:06:01:21
Speaker 2
And I say this a lot, had some young guys from my church, the house the other night were doing the small group called Career Lab, and I taught, I talked about how more is caught than taught with our kids. Let your kids catch you doing things. Because in the times that I've sat down and taught my kids things, sure, they learn, but they learn a whole lot more just catching me do things.

00:06:01:23 - 00:06:20:07
Speaker 2
And that was really how I would define this first job I had, you know, I had an opportunity. It wasn't like he sat me down and like, let's talk about leadership. Yeah, but I caught him doing a lot of great leadership. And I spent about three years working for this man. And to this day, he. He is my hero.

00:06:20:08 - 00:06:47:00
Speaker 2
And I think the world of him. Smartest man I've ever been around. But in order to gain that insight, I had to sacrifice. And I would never change it. Not for a second. And it's the best, best decision I've ever made because it laid the it laid the framework for so many things that I, to this day, use in how I lead businesses and how I lead, you know, in my community and church and these kinds of things, my family.

00:06:47:02 - 00:06:57:20
Speaker 2
And it was because I had an opportunity just to kind of shadow this guy for a couple of years and literally pours coffee and, you know, jump on a flight with him somewhere and just be around.

00:06:57:22 - 00:07:05:23
Speaker 1
And you have the wisdom to know that this seems like things most people regret not taking an opportunity like they had, you know, at that age to do that.

00:07:05:23 - 00:07:26:12
Speaker 1
Hey, y'all. Quick break here at American operator. We believe that small business is the backbone of this country, but more and more Main Street getting swallowed up by big corporations, wall Street or some of them are just shutting down. If you've ever thought about building something of your own, or just being a part of saving the American Dream, head on over to American operator.com.

00:07:26:14 - 00:07:37:01
Speaker 1
It's your one stop shop for inspiration stories, and you'll get to join this really great community of patriots that believe our country still worth fighting for. All right. Back to the show.

00:07:37:15 - 00:08:03:15
Speaker 2
You know, I think that I've always been a really good judge of winners, which is which is partly like I've really enjoyed being around this place. And, you know, I, I walked in and met you the first time. I'm like, I want to know more about what this place is about. Yeah. Because I have a pretty decent level of discernment about folks that are making not just an impact economically, but an impact beyond the economics.

00:08:03:17 - 00:08:25:01
Speaker 2
And I can't take any credit for that. It's just always been something naturally had. And so I had this curiosity where I'm like, okay, I want to learn more about this guy. I want to learn more about how he thinks. I want to learn more about how he inspires people, because I've never been around somebody that does a better job of just casting vision and inspiring.

00:08:25:03 - 00:08:40:20
Speaker 2
And so I think it was a natural instinct for me to say, you know what, I'm going to throw caution to the wind. Kimberly was a bartender at the time, and she made a lot more money than I did. And, and I will say, I gotta I gotta back it up with with Kimberly saying, go for it.

00:08:41:00 - 00:08:54:04
Speaker 2
You know, I mean, just for she never second guess me for a second. And you know, we, you know, rice and beans, beans, rice for the first couple of years, you know, and, but it was a special time and I'll never forget it. And it's something I'll never regret for sure.

00:08:54:04 - 00:09:06:21
Speaker 1
Man, before we go to the second part of that thing, can you can you put me back in that time? What is something you caught from him that you were like, as you still use today? Like, even if it's an action or a way he thought about it. Do you have.

00:09:06:21 - 00:09:40:09
Speaker 2
Anything? Absolutely. And it's one that is going to feel probably different than perhaps you would assume. This idea of grace. And he never used that word. But one of his executives in is a university setting is higher education. And one of the, you know, vice presidents or administrators would do something that would warrant being fired. And he would extend Grace and I and it was so obvious to me, is this young buck, I'm going like this.

00:09:40:09 - 00:09:41:03
Speaker 2
If you've ever had an.

00:09:41:03 - 00:09:42:09
Speaker 1
Opportunity, this guy needs to go.

00:09:42:10 - 00:10:13:05
Speaker 2
Yeah, this guy's got to go. This guy. And then a student would do something that reserved some kind of harsh punitive reaction, and he would extend grace. Now, this guy is not somebody who is just wired that way. He's a guy who's work the muscle of I extend grace and I find ways to do that. He does it when he but he couples it with vision and he says, hey, I want to let you know I'm not going to let you go.

00:10:13:07 - 00:10:29:19
Speaker 2
I'm not going to kick you out of school. And here's why. But here's what I want you to go do. Here's what I want you to take this gift, and I want you to run with it. And I would watch with my own eyes as people would receive a gift they didn't, deserve. They would digest this knowing they didn't deserve it.

00:10:29:19 - 00:10:46:20
Speaker 2
And then they would go and run with it, and then they would go make an impact like I've never seen before. Well, and so that watching that and here's Dale growing up in a home where there was always food in the fridge, there was always gas in the tank, you know, I just didn't ever have a great level of need in my life.

00:10:46:23 - 00:11:04:09
Speaker 2
And so I didn't extend grace to very many people because I thought, what? You can't why can't you do this wife thing, this life things. Easy, man. Come on. Because it always was easy for me. And so watching this guy extend grace to people was, was life changing. And I've tried to model that as best I can since then.

00:11:04:14 - 00:11:09:07
Speaker 2
I certainly haven't met him at the level he's at, but it changed me forever.

00:11:09:09 - 00:11:11:08
Speaker 1
What an incredible thing. That's a gift, man.

00:11:11:09 - 00:11:12:07
Speaker 2
It's a gift.

00:11:12:09 - 00:11:25:07
Speaker 1
And I guess you had a gut check that that was going to happen. Yeah. Wow. What about something you and I call a regret? And the way Dana writes it is like, what's something that you would change if you could? Is there something in your life that you go, yeah. Wish you could dance?

00:11:25:07 - 00:11:51:13
Speaker 2
I'm never sure, man. We it you know, we hired the wrong person in about 2015, 2016 at the moving company. And you know, Craig Rochelle says our biggest threat to current success is our biggest threat to future success is current success. Because our default mode is never urgency. Our default mode is complacency. I'm going to say it again.

00:11:51:13 - 00:12:19:22
Speaker 2
Our biggest threat to future success is current success, because our default mode is complacency, not urgency. Okay, here's the idea. Our DNA is wired towards comfort. We're always going to be seeking it. In about 2015. We've been going out this thing for about 8 or 9 years, and we worked our tails off. I mean, we worked 12, 14, 16 hour days, work six days a week, and we were tired and we had some success.

00:12:19:22 - 00:12:44:05
Speaker 2
That phone was ringing. We were we were ordering trucks as much as like we were or in lunch. We're expanding across the across the the region. Central Texas. And we got comfortable and some young guy comes along. He was brilliant. He was incredible at not just looking at data and deriving strategy, but going in and evangelizing that strategy.

00:12:44:07 - 00:12:59:11
Speaker 2
In, in really creating a lot of influence within the company. And honestly, we took our eye off the ball. We just we were like, hey, we're going to get a corporate office out here. We're going to meet with you guys a couple days a week, check in, and in 18 months he unravel ten years of work.

00:12:59:13 - 00:13:00:11
Speaker 1
Holy smoke.

00:13:00:12 - 00:13:20:07
Speaker 2
And guess what? We let him do it. Not because we knew, but because we got comfortable. Because we we we lived out our biggest threat to their future success being our current success. So how do we do it? He went out and he believed in growth as well. We're like, we believe in growth too. And guess what?

00:13:20:09 - 00:13:37:21
Speaker 2
Growth was our strategy. JC growth isn't a strategy. Growth is the result of a good strategy. That's right okay. Yeah. It's like loyalty. Loyalty as a result. You know what I mean. Growth is a result. It's not an actually strategy. So he believed in growth as well. But he believed in growth at all at all costs, whatever it took.

00:13:37:21 - 00:14:04:06
Speaker 2
And so he hired people that we would never let into our business. And little by little, employee by employee, that wasn't the right culture fit. I'm telling you, it takes a split second to unravel a business. It does not take long when you take your eye off the ball. Biggest regret I would I would go into my office, I would lay down on the ground and I would do breathing exercises so I wouldn't have a panic attack.

00:14:04:06 - 00:14:23:10
Speaker 2
When we kind of, when we kind of got our head above water and we saw what was going on, and it was terrible. And we spent the next two years fixing everything. And since then, the pain of that situation, we brought on our best, metrics and KPIs where we knew exactly what was going on in every branch at all times.

00:14:23:10 - 00:14:40:18
Speaker 2
We knew exactly we had our thumb on the pulse of every single situation where we knew and to this day, number of auto accidents where our labor eight is, where our damage rate is, where our sales are at all time. We know in real time because of the pain of that situation, we were like, we can never let this happen again.

00:14:40:20 - 00:15:01:18
Speaker 2
We actually had this declaration that we did in 2018 where we said basically it was about 12 different nine if we wrote down and said, we will never make this mistake again. And I use this illustration, recently, you know, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, you know, we had no chance. I mean, on paper, it was the most ridiculous thing.

00:15:01:18 - 00:15:20:23
Speaker 2
I mean, British had the best Navy, the best army. They were. And we were. Well, it was in Hamilton. Outgunned, outmanned. I mean, we were a joke. Yeah, well, they signed it. We. No, no. July for 1776. But we fought for five more years. I love that I love that idea. We signed it and then we went back to fighting.

00:15:21:01 - 00:15:46:19
Speaker 2
So this idea, we did a declaration in 2018 and for the next 2 to 3 years, we just fought and we went back to the office. We started answering phones. We started hiring our employees directly. We swept every corner of the warehouse and we came back stronger than ever. We've been strong since that moment, but the pain of hiring the wrong person and then giving them enough rope to hang all of us with is there's almost nothing worse.

00:15:46:20 - 00:15:54:08
Speaker 1
Wow. Do you think with that same person. But you kept the eye on the ball? Would that still have happened?

00:15:54:10 - 00:16:01:11
Speaker 2
I think that you can fix almost everything but character. Yeah, and this person lacked character, unfortunately.

00:16:02:09 - 00:16:23:16
Speaker 2
And we would have seen it sooner. And we would have ushered him out as politely and grace filled as we could. But I can't fix character. And so that person with that kind of pragmatic, and lack of moral compass would have never made it. It just wouldn't have worked. It would have never worked.

00:16:23:21 - 00:16:43:15
Speaker 1
Yeah. I think for folks who probably tuned in right now, the reason it's kind of tinkered in my brain a little longer. We just got done with a chat with some students at the University of Texas who are, oddly enough, and I hate saying it to them. So I did say to you, I said, you guys spend a lot of money on doing something to buy a business for the guy who probably didn't even have a GED, who started the business.

00:16:43:15 - 00:16:45:07
Speaker 2
That's right. Who's done very well.

00:16:45:08 - 00:17:03:04
Speaker 1
He's doing very well, like very, very well for himself. But I appreciate the hustle they're going through in the at least the self acknowledgment. And one of the things that one of the guys asked, he goes, what do you look for in these folks you bring on to these businesses? What which is the right question? It's like everybody else has in some some finance questions here and some things.

00:17:03:04 - 00:17:21:10
Speaker 1
He has a really cool question. And the only way I knew how to answer it was answer it by telling him a story about a real thing we're facing right now. I said, right now we have a business. We're looking at that we absolutely like. It's a great business. But one of the key things in that business, I've been up to this little small town.

00:17:21:15 - 00:17:42:11
Speaker 1
I go and observe what they're doing. They're just cranking away and they're awesome. But there's a person that works at the business that you can tell is critical to the human infrastructure, that business. But it's a tough cookie, like, not easy to get along with. I'm curious about how you, as an operator deal with that situation, and there's probably a couple answers.

00:17:42:13 - 00:18:05:00
Speaker 1
I go by the answer, not, I had a guy who kind of does our operator intake, talent intake and interviews our future potential owners here. So I'm looking for the guy whose first thought is, I wonder what their families like. Like, the question should go through a human experiment of, like, maybe why is this person this way not well, and let me get a performance in together.

00:18:05:00 - 00:18:22:21
Speaker 1
Let me get them to go get in line all these other things. Right, which maybe it's so necessary. Sure that though I don't I didn't tell him. I said, I don't know how to teach that, though. I hardly even know how to find that sometimes, like interviewing for that is difficult. It's hard, but it is the absolute unlock because everything else I can teach, I can't teach that piece, man.

00:18:22:22 - 00:18:43:06
Speaker 2
Well, there's a couple of things that come to mind. When, when I think about this, you know, in some of this, it came from a training I did about two years ago on hiring and questions to ask. And it was really fascinating. One of the things that we were we were talking about, this is this whole idea is how does this person deal with hard things in life?

00:18:43:08 - 00:19:03:15
Speaker 2
How do they manage hard things? You have to dig in. You have to ask questions about what some hard things you've dealt with and how did you go through it. And this became a real situation. And with our moving company, we're selling franchises across the country. And last year we sat down with a with a candidate. He made it all the way down the funnel to where he got here to Austin where we do called meet the team day and we take him to dinner.

00:19:03:15 - 00:19:24:05
Speaker 2
And then we do this whole song and dance the next day. But there's a we are. I spent about the first 30 minutes talking him out of it, literally. That's the first part of my sales pitch. This is the reasons you don't want to do this. Yeah. And when I was in the conversation with the with this particular gentleman the night before dinner, he had I, I'm pretty good at digging in on people and asking questions.

00:19:24:05 - 00:19:41:21
Speaker 2
I'm pretty inquisitive and very Socratic. And there were about three different scenarios work scenarios where he was the victim. And this struck me. And so about a week later, I called my director of franchising. He's my business partner, love him to death. And I said, hey, man, I've I've got a bit of a red flag on this guy.

00:19:41:22 - 00:20:06:04
Speaker 2
So, at a minimum, I think you need to call him, have a hard conversation before he signs and he said he would and he did. And I have to give this person credit. He called and he felt satisfied. And eight months later, that guy trying to get out of his franchise, the way he dealt with adversity was such a great indicator of his stick to Itiveness in this scenario, with a franchise.

00:20:06:06 - 00:20:32:21
Speaker 2
And so the the other thing that I thought was interesting is does this person have long term relationships? Again, kind of hard to dig in on, but they said specifically men, do you have men in your life and have they been in your life for a long time? Those that have long term relationships, especially when it comes to men, women, it's very natural.

00:20:32:23 - 00:20:44:05
Speaker 2
Relationships is very natural. But for men it's it's less natural. But those that do, they tend to have a better track record for winning and success. I thought both of those things were really interesting.

00:20:44:09 - 00:21:01:02
Speaker 1
I can see that, man. Yeah, well, kids, guys were kind of, you know, not a matter of if a when you do get out with each other and fight. It also shows you like, were you able to repair that in a way that continues to go forward. Are you going fishing through weekends from now? That's interesting. Yeah. And thought about it that way either.

00:21:01:07 - 00:21:03:02
Speaker 2
That's why I thought it was really fascinating.

00:21:03:02 - 00:21:07:08
Speaker 1
Is that something you just asked like, hey, you got anybody that you've been in a long friend with a long time? I'm just curious, like, what's the question?

00:21:07:08 - 00:21:22:19
Speaker 2
Yeah. So what I what I'll typically try to say is something like, hey, tell me when you're not trying to find a franchise, what do you like to do for fun? That's the easy way. If they say, well, you know, I like to play golf, I'm like, oh, you do any golf trips with friends? No, I mean, I just play by myself, okay?

00:21:22:21 - 00:21:38:23
Speaker 2
Or. Oh, man, I got five buddies from high school, man. We do a trip every year. Yeah, we've been doing it for 20 years, man. It's my favorite. There's ways of, like, trying to figure out, like, what people, you know, required. And another one for me. Is it as an indicator as people don't talk about their family. They do have one, but they don't talk about it.

00:21:39:03 - 00:21:59:08
Speaker 2
They don't talk about their wife. They'll talk about their children. And that's a bit of an indicator about where the priorities are. Like, I kind of want to hear that stuff. Now I am inquiring about your life and this is a very casual conversation. This isn't during an interview. This isn't during a formal setting where at dinner. But there's a couple of things I just want to know, because here's the deal I want a real relationship.

00:21:59:10 - 00:22:12:00
Speaker 2
I don't want this to be transactional. I want it to be relational. And I think we're going to win better as it is. And so I'm looking for those type of things to see if I can kind of dig in and see what this person is kind of wired. And if that fits. Yeah.

00:22:12:02 - 00:22:36:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, man, I dig it. Well, and I think when you have that, it kind of like extends into our problems. We're going to get to growth stuff here. But I think this is such a salient thing to talk through. The other thing that came up in that convo today was about, when we interview folks or talk to folks who who are potential candidates to run these things, one of the things I listened for you just prompted something in my brain is.

00:22:37:01 - 00:22:55:09
Speaker 1
How do you deal with bad news? Like, I'm just always curious about what your first reaction is. Yeah. And this is hard to find because I think people know what the right answer is. So I always listen to how they tell me the answer, not what they say, because the right answer is, well, communicate that. Let whoever you know let the boss know.

00:22:55:11 - 00:23:29:04
Speaker 1
I start work at a city that's a very common. That's a that should be the very textbook answer. I always look for how they respond or how they deliver it. Okay. And what I'm listening for is this like, it's almost hard to capture. It's in these micro expressions and by no means in mind, like it's just something that just over years of watching people, I look for this like almost a remorse if they have a remorse in their face, as they're saying this, you can tell that they've done it before and they hated disappointing somebody, but that means they actually did it right, which means a lot about their character.

00:23:29:06 - 00:23:40:14
Speaker 1
You know what I mean? It's like a good son or daughter like you. Just like, you know, I don't want to tell dad this, but, I mean, because I have too much respect for him. I got to tell him, right? And I don't honor it. It is an honor. And it. Right. This is remorse. Is honor in their face.

00:23:40:16 - 00:23:44:18
Speaker 1
Whereas when someone has just given me a textbook answer, you can just tell. There's just like there's no just.

00:23:44:18 - 00:23:46:07
Speaker 2
Pull the lever. Yeah, yeah.

00:23:46:07 - 00:23:57:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. Well, the slot machine. Yeah. This is what you want, right? Here you go. Have it. So anyway, thanks for that because I think these are just some of these things that often when you're thinking about character, it is hard to measure. But it is there if you're paying attention to it.

00:23:57:23 - 00:23:59:00
Speaker 2
Absolutely. Yeah.

00:23:59:03 - 00:24:17:17
Speaker 1
Absolutely. Yeah. We can go down the rabbit hole on this one. Okay. Let's talk about growth I do I let me set the stage, I set the table. And let's take it wherever you want to go. Why. Because it has been top of mind for you. One of the things that we're observing in a lot of these new owners, the new generation coming through, is, there's a lot of exciting things there.

00:24:17:19 - 00:24:37:11
Speaker 1
They're energetic, they're fired up, there's super intelligent, a lot of systems and processes so automatic for them. The use of AI, like, all these things, is incredible to see. You know, we were at a business the other day, and the way they do customer intake, they have this, they have this wall. As long as this wall is full of different color coded clipboards, it's all done on paper.

00:24:37:11 - 00:24:46:16
Speaker 1
There's there's no computer system. This is a CRM. It's okay. But it's also like, man, they've built a multi-million dollar business doing it this way. Sure. Rock and roll.

00:24:46:16 - 00:24:48:02
Speaker 2
Man. Yeah, absolutely. What works.

00:24:48:02 - 00:25:10:19
Speaker 1
For you? Yeah. What works for you? Yeah. But they had this natural, like, the that new generation of folks coming up, man. These new owners, new operators just have, like, a lot of things to be excited about. The things that I see them suffer is two things. And what we're trying to do is get a get around to figuring out how to help them more, and maybe even how to to, to, look for this talent, maybe this natural skill.

00:25:10:21 - 00:25:30:08
Speaker 1
It comes down to business development, sales. But I'll paint the problem, which is the beginning of this thing. Start putting great systems in place. A lot of them are great people, leaders. So, you know, the team is gelling everything, but the looking at the faucet and it's just dripping. And they're wondering like, well, we got all these things in place, but we don't have any work to do because there's no new business coming in.

00:25:30:10 - 00:25:46:04
Speaker 1
And, and then at first it's okay. And then it gets more scary and then they go like, oh crap, where do I go? And it's paralyzing. Yeah. It's almost like they have no ability. It's not even in the library of skills to pool. They don't even know where to start. Right. So then we get to get involved to help them in these things.

00:25:46:04 - 00:25:50:15
Speaker 1
And a lot of the natural tendencies is Google ads some kind of thing. You know what I mean?

00:25:50:16 - 00:25:54:21
Speaker 2
Oh, man, I've got so much to say. So I'm tracking. Let's go.

00:25:54:23 - 00:26:19:01
Speaker 1
So where do you want to take this? I think what I'm trying to ultimately get to, I'm trying to help people help. The idea behind like that is actually had an old mentor of mine tell me one day he goes at the helm. Your job is to make sure that, like, things are coming in the other stuff, you hire, train and develop and maybe you pitch it sometimes for.

00:26:19:03 - 00:26:31:00
Speaker 1
But at the end of the day, once all that's set, your job is to make sure people know who you are and you get business in the door. That is your job, right? And it's actually a tough thing that I mean, I think it's it's kind of an interesting thing to train. So where do you want to take that?

00:26:31:00 - 00:26:33:22
Speaker 1
I just what thoughts do you have on that and how can we help folks kind of think about it?

00:26:33:22 - 00:26:50:04
Speaker 2
Absolutely. Okay. First of all, here's the deal. I don't care if you're the smartest person in the room, and I don't care if you're the hardest working person in the room. If you can't make the phone ring, none of it matters. No. Yeah, none of it matters. Okay, so I did a talk at the conference, a few weeks ago.

00:26:50:04 - 00:27:09:04
Speaker 2
We. Exquisite. We're cal movers. We have a conference. We bring everybody in from around the country, and we talk about our theme for the year, and it's called Grow on Purpose this year, which is one of our which is one of our, our five core values. And I started developing this talk that I gave at the end of 25.

00:27:09:09 - 00:27:24:00
Speaker 2
And I may have mentioned it to you guys. We went out to dinner a few months ago. I don't think so, but I may have. So I'm going to start kind of left of center and I'm going to move back. Okay. I watched two videos that both use the same word, and the word itself captured some thinking in my mind.

00:27:24:00 - 00:27:47:13
Speaker 2
And so one of the videos was talking about, and the word is delusional. And one of the, one of the, one of the videos was talking about those that are delusional, positive succeed, and they win, and they do it quicker than almost everybody else. And this person said those that feel that the the universe is conspiring for them, not against them.

00:27:47:14 - 00:28:08:19
Speaker 2
They win the day being delusional, positive. Okay, well it's a bit flaky, but I can get my head around it. The second one is this guy totally unrelated, but it was close enough video that I watch on a reel or something like that that it captured my attention. This guy talked about being delusional, self forgiving. Now this is one I got to really work on for myself because of my personality type.

00:28:08:19 - 00:28:32:17
Speaker 2
I deal with a lot with shame. Shame is kind of how I deal with adversity. So when I look in the rearview mirror, I look at regret, humiliation, embarrassment, things I said, things I've done that just bring me shame. And this particular guy said those that have delusional self-forgiveness, they, they, they hear the music from Seinfeld. When they think about something, it's embarrassing, you know, from their past, and they just move on.

00:28:32:22 - 00:28:57:00
Speaker 2
They forgive themselves immediately, like in a delusional level, he said. They live a happier life. So both of these, these videos pop up and they just it just captured him like, this is really interesting. Now I'm taking that same word and I'm not using him in the context that these two videos did, but the word itself kind of grabbed me and I wanted to use it as it relates to our franchises around the country that we have right now.

00:28:57:02 - 00:29:36:02
Speaker 2
And here's what we've found. Over the last year, we sold 36 units. Last year. We're on pace to probably be about 50 to 55 this year. Franchises for Squircle movers, those that do the best are obsessive. Jay-Z I'm talking. They eat, sleep, and they're delusional. You know what's delusional? Starting a moving company in 2008. It's delusional. Yeah, it's delusional to to my, you know, the job I had before that was I probably had a, you know, maybe a $5 million budget had I had it, you know, an assistant I had a staff, I had big problems.

00:29:36:02 - 00:30:02:15
Speaker 2
And then my biggest problem on any given day was, how do I get this heavy item from upstairs, downstairs? We were delusional. We're like, okay, this is our new problem. Let's go get it. We were delusional in moving to a city we'd never been to, to start a business we had no experience in. And I believe that it takes a level of delusion for most people to go in and kind of accomplish the things that they want to accomplish.

00:30:02:21 - 00:30:19:01
Speaker 2
You know, it's delusional signing on to be married to somebody for the rest of your life, that's delusional. The best decision I've ever made. Yeah, having children is delusional. I am going to pay for this thing for a minimum of 18 years on paper. Does it make.

00:30:19:01 - 00:30:22:16
Speaker 1
Sense? Why am I racking stack? I got a couple of them now.

00:30:22:17 - 00:30:25:04
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. I'm going to just say

00:30:25:04 - 00:30:45:15
Speaker 2
every great thing in my life is delusional on paper. It makes zero sense to go do. And yet we sign up for it. And when we get into business, sometimes we miss this whole idea of, I'm going to be obsessive about this. I will not do anything but but think about how to make this business successful.

00:30:45:15 - 00:31:05:05
Speaker 2
What does that mean? Funny story. A few years into our moving company. It's early in the morning. I'm on my way to work. This is a true story, by the way, and I'm driving. It's kind of overcast, but I can see there's somebody walking on 620, which is a major highway. And that's not a place you exercise.

00:31:05:05 - 00:31:32:23
Speaker 2
And she's kind of walking, and I can see ahead of me, and I can see she's walking with a lot of attitude, and, and I'm kind of half asleep, but I'm kind of like, this is interesting. And I pay attention, and I see as I get closer, she's pulling luggage behind her and she's walking. And then I look closer and there's a car tracking alongside her with the passenger door open, what looks to be her very forgive, like her husband who's trying to get her to forgive him and coaxing her into the car.

00:31:32:23 - 00:31:49:00
Speaker 2
And she's not giving it. She's waving her finger. She's not giving anything. And here I am looking at this whole thing happened and my thought was, I wonder if she needs a mover, you know what I mean? Like, you know, that's the level of, like, delusional, obsessive, crazy. You fly her.

00:31:49:00 - 00:31:49:23
Speaker 1
Out the window. Yeah.

00:31:50:01 - 00:31:56:20
Speaker 2
Exactly. Here's my card. Now, I probably should have thought of things that were nicer, but I was like, I wonder if we can capture her business.

00:31:56:20 - 00:32:11:22
Speaker 2
Okay, so what does that mean? Those that have a mentality of I have no plan B, this is the only option I will out if I will do this and win it this or I will die trying.

00:32:12:00 - 00:32:32:03
Speaker 2
We those folks win. And we've watched we've watched the data in our franchise units, those that operate. I'm talking the guys that call us ten times a day. Hey, man, I got a situation. This is what's going on. This customer needs this. I don't know if we can do it, but it's going to require this many trucks. I mean, that guy that got crushes.

00:32:32:03 - 00:32:56:19
Speaker 2
Yeah. Okay. That drip on the faucet is exactly a great illustration. And so we're big on guerilla marketing in our business. And so every time what I try to teach is every time you get that pit in your stomach, like, we don't have as much work on the books as I want. Literally at that moment, you stand up and you go get in your car and you go market.

00:32:56:21 - 00:33:16:23
Speaker 2
I think the kiss of death in small business in 2026 is this overreliance on digital marketing. You gotta have it. You you have to have it. It is a part of your business and your whole strategy. It is not an if. It is your whole strategy, you're waiting on the phone to ring because digital marketing is going to bring it.

00:33:17:01 - 00:33:37:20
Speaker 2
You're you're probably setting yourself up for either really, really slow growth, no growth or a slow death. It cannot be the whole strategy. And so you write down ten different ways that you're going to guerrilla market, whatever that looks like. For us, it's sort of facilities, it's apartment buildings, it's retirement homes. And so we became obsessed with this stuff.

00:33:37:20 - 00:33:55:07
Speaker 2
So we would go, you can did you know you can buy out a donut shop at like 11 a.m.? Everything else they've got for like $30, they'll just pack it all up and let you take it because they're done for the day. They got to get rid of everything. We'd walk in 11 a.m., we'd clear them out, and we would go, and we would tape our car to the inside of a donut box, and we would just go.

00:33:55:07 - 00:34:16:22
Speaker 2
And our car spilled. Amazing, by the way, that we just go to a party, we just hand them out and people will go into the break room, open it up in our car, be right there. I would put bundles of of our cards like ten at a time with a rubber band, and I'd put 15 bundles in my passenger seat, knowing that I would get to about 2 or 3 different places to hand out cards, and I would get rejected, they would say, I don't.

00:34:16:22 - 00:34:32:04
Speaker 2
We're not taking these get out of here. And I would feel that demoralized feeling we've all felt when we're trying to do business development. But I would put them in my passenger seat because I would know mentally I'm say, I'm not going home or back to the office, so that seat's empty, because if I was just like, I'm going to go do a few, I would give up.

00:34:32:05 - 00:34:49:17
Speaker 2
Instead. I'm like, there's ten in here. I'm going to I will not go back. And these little mind tricks of like that, that false it's going to stop dripping. It's going to get we're going to go full bore because I'm obsessed with it. I am absolutely delusional in my belief that we can make this happen. And so that's what we did.

00:34:49:17 - 00:35:06:15
Speaker 2
We joined networking groups. We showed up to chamber. We didn't go to Mexico, but we would we would do whatever it took every we would, we would be in the middle of a move. I would take off my moving shirt, put on a polo drive to a networking event, hand my car to every person. Super embarrassing, by the way, and out of my comfort zone.

00:35:06:17 - 00:35:22:07
Speaker 2
Put my moving shirt back on and go out and help with a move. Another story right when we started the business, we're a few months in. My wife and I take our. At the time we only had two kids. We had our two boys and we went to chick fil A, probably the most expensive meal we had that month.

00:35:22:09 - 00:35:40:15
Speaker 2
And my wife from the Deep South, she chat. You met Kimberly, she chat up anybody? Yeah. So she searched, chatting up this guy who's trying to eat alone. Probably trying to enjoy just his evening and not be bothered. But Kimberly was like, we're from Alabama, you know, how are you in this kind of thing? And I'm just over there and I've got and I'm going to draw this illustration like this.

00:35:40:15 - 00:35:58:08
Speaker 2
You got the angel on this side and the devil on this side of the cartoon, you know, and the angel saying, you're a business. Now give everybody your card and the devil's like you are a psycho. If you give everybody your card and it's like, you got to you can't, you got to, you can't. This is what going back and forth, back and forth and just feeling again.

00:35:58:08 - 00:36:13:15
Speaker 2
This shame of like everybody's a target and that sense of like this is making them uncomfortable and it makes me uncomfortable. I can't do it. And finally I relented and I gave this guy my card in us, and I even sold it terribly. I'm like, you probably never going to move, but if you did, you know it'd be cool.

00:36:13:15 - 00:36:36:13
Speaker 2
Be probably not it it'd be cool to use this, right? This is truly how the conversation went. That guy moved five times in two years. I'm not kidding you. What is he running from? I don't care, he. His checks cleared and. And his name was. His name is Gary. I remember it to this day. He probably kept our lights on for those two months, but he he, you know, he had to get out of his house and go into storage.

00:36:36:13 - 00:36:59:00
Speaker 2
You went to storage for rental and then the rental to the houses building. And it was this kind of he spent a lot of money with us, but it was through this absurd, passive, delusional I we would not allow ourselves to imagine anything but winning and making the phone ring and knowing that we're not the best movers in town.

00:36:59:00 - 00:37:20:23
Speaker 2
I will tell you, we weren't. And we probably still aren't. And we had no longevity. We had no contact list. We hadn't. We didn't have a lot of hope. But what we had was is an obsessive, delusional belief that we can make that faucet go full bore. And so that's all we focused on is, is literally standing up and going.

00:37:20:23 - 00:37:40:06
Speaker 2
And we just went all the time. And, and I know it's hard to sense that in people. So now we start asking for it when they're in our office and they're looking to buy a franchise. We say, let me tell you what this is going to require. It will require a level of obsession. And so when I talk about 30 minutes, we're trying to talk them out of it.

00:37:40:08 - 00:37:55:22
Speaker 2
Most of that is because what happens when you try to talk somebody out of because something is so hard? One of two things happen. Either they say I work hard and they drive a stake in the ground, or like I'm about to prove it to this guy. Yeah. Or they run. And so I want them to meet that fork in the road.

00:37:56:03 - 00:38:13:21
Speaker 2
And I tell them, I say at the end of today, you're either going to say or at the end of this, you know, the, the eventual thing in the next week or so, you're going to make a decision of yes or no, I'm going to do this if your decision is yes, that's a win. And if it's no, it's a win either way.

00:38:13:21 - 00:38:32:19
Speaker 2
It's a win because you've given you all the information on to make this decision. We've given you, we've opened the kimono, you know everything we know. But it will require a level of obsession and delusion that that you may not have ever tapped into in our expectation is you're going to do just that.

00:38:32:21 - 00:38:47:03
Speaker 1
Is that wait early days was that is that and still today just thinking about wait Lombard, is that your natural programing or did you know. Hey, man, if I don't do this thing, like, did you know, almost mechanically, this wasn't going to work. Like, not having that obsession.

00:38:47:07 - 00:39:19:01
Speaker 2
So, there is a bit of natural programing, but it was more circumstantial. It was 2008. It was the Great Recession. It was a housing crisis. And I owned a moving company, and I had two kids. And so, you know, there was a reality to the situation where there was no plan B, this is going to work. And if you can't, if you're not in that situation, I told it, I told a guy last week in this same scenario that I was just painting.

00:39:19:01 - 00:39:39:10
Speaker 2
I said, my fear with you is you've had already had success and you're already comfortable. I'll just call it out, man. This is my concern about you is that you're already comfortable and it's really hard to gear down. It's really hard to go back into those low gears where it's going slow and you're going uphill. That's hard man, when you've already you're already up in sixth gear.

00:39:39:10 - 00:39:53:09
Speaker 2
You made some money, you've had some success, you've had a liquidity event and the gear back down. And I looked him straight in the eye and I said, that's my biggest fear for you. Can you do that? Because if you can't, let's just let's just go to the other side of the fork and say, no. And we're all good.

00:39:53:09 - 00:40:05:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, but it's going to require that. And so I think for us at the time, gearing down was the only option we had. And we stepped up and we did it.

00:40:05:02 - 00:40:33:03
Speaker 1
The obsessive delusional part, I think that you sparked a memory in my mind. I was, in the service, in the military. There's like, there's kind of two worlds of people. It's sometimes in it and sometimes post when you become a veteran, there are these folks that are just like, they're all about it. They were in the hat, you know, they they just, you know, they're we you got your whole resume on the back of their window because every military school or badge they earn, they're putting a sticker on the back of the truck or whatever.

00:40:33:04 - 00:40:54:20
Speaker 1
And then you get an entire group that's kind of just like, oh, man, another thing, you know, like you got to go do like, you know, we have these things that the these, brigade or division commanders, they'll do like a whole 4000 person run. Wow. It sounds awesome. And it looks awesome. Sure. It it's half the guys hate it, you know, because they're showing up extra early just to get in the right spot.

00:40:54:20 - 00:41:02:20
Speaker 1
And it's just like you're moving at a slow snail's pace because it's the accordion effect is real. But there's like this level of pride that comes with, you know, all the stuff.

00:41:02:20 - 00:41:03:18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:41:03:20 - 00:41:19:15
Speaker 1
I share that because I remember one time driving and thinking to myself, I was asking my wife, Kelsey, we were just Jen and I go, you know, those guys? I'm kind of paraphrasing, but it was like, you know, these guys are just all in, you know, like they just they rock out. She like that kind of happy aren't they?

00:41:19:15 - 00:41:28:01
Speaker 1
She goes, yeah, they kind of are. I was like, do you think anybody else do you think they know that everybody else kind of pokes fun of them. She get I don't think they have a clue. I think they're just in their world. You know.

00:41:28:01 - 00:41:29:12
Speaker 2
Ignorance is bliss.

00:41:29:14 - 00:41:43:13
Speaker 1
And I thought to myself, and that's where this phrase like, anytime I get, it happens less now. But early days I used to get a lot of guys wanted to come and join the military and stuff, and they asked for any advice. And the thing I usually leave them with is, if you're going to be enjoying the Kool-Aid.

00:41:43:13 - 00:41:58:08
Speaker 1
Yeah, just be in like, go, you're in, be fired up, put stickers on the back of your truck, tell war stories like be in it, read the history. Because it's really sad when you're like one foot on the dock, one in the boat.

00:41:58:08 - 00:41:58:19
Speaker 2
That's right.

00:41:58:21 - 00:42:05:06
Speaker 1
Even if you think that it's embarrassing, you know, even if people probably people are being like that freaking way, guys, it's all about that cool stuff, man.

00:42:05:06 - 00:42:05:20
Speaker 2
Kind of crazy.

00:42:06:01 - 00:42:22:04
Speaker 1
It's crazy dude. Yeah, but it is like, I think it's a weird thing to to think about, but it is something that, you know, when you think about to kind of going back to like more of, like what folks can do. Let's just say someone goes like, okay, all right, wait, I'm sitting in this seat right now. I get your delusional stuff.

00:42:22:04 - 00:42:22:19
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:42:22:21 - 00:42:32:12
Speaker 1
You know, I've been in this thing for a year and it's been me down. What can they start doing now? You talked about guerrilla stuff, but what are the things you'd say? Do these things and maybe start getting yourself into delusional mindset.

00:42:32:12 - 00:42:53:03
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm okay with a strategy that loses. I don't want it, but I'm okay. What I'm not okay with is a is no strategy at all. And so the first thing that I'm going to do and heck use Chad you use I, I mean these sources are amazing. But start building a strategy for the area in your business that isn't working.

00:42:53:03 - 00:43:11:12
Speaker 2
If that is business development, start building a strategy around it and then live and die by it. I'm talking like you don't deviate from it one bit for at least 30, 60, 90, maybe 120 days and then reevaluate. But the first thing you gotta do is you have to have a strategy. So I'm going to talk to this many people.

00:43:11:12 - 00:43:33:10
Speaker 2
I'm going to attend this many events. I will not miss. Matter of fact, I saw a saw something a few weeks ago where this guy said, allow. I'm I'm okay to suck, but not Skip. And he talks about I might not be able to give my all the time, but I will not skip. Yeah. And his thing was about working out like he's like, you know, I'll sometimes we'll go in and instead of jump on the treadmill for six miles, I'll do one mile, but I will not skip.

00:43:33:12 - 00:43:59:20
Speaker 2
I think this idea actually apply as well to business, where it's like, you can't go into every room and no, no, no, no, it's hard to be on all the time. I recognize that and there are some really, really bad days. You're allowed to suck but not skip. And so this idea of like build that strategy out. And I'm telling you, at the end of six months you can either say the strategy wasn't working, it was it wasn't the right move.

00:43:59:23 - 00:44:16:05
Speaker 2
And then you move on to a new strategy or you're going to say, we're crushing it, or we're on our way to crushing it, or we're going to dial this back, we're going to we're going to turn this up. And so the first thing you do, you have to build some kind of strategy around how many. And I still believe in relational marketing.

00:44:16:05 - 00:44:40:08
Speaker 2
I still think it matters. Here's the deal. People will fire square cow movers build it. They don't want to fire Wade. They don't want to fire Jake. They'll fire Maine shares. They'll fire, or American operator. That's just some empty void business name brand, but they don't want to fire you. And so in order to build that kind of connective tissue, you have to build a relationship.

00:44:40:10 - 00:44:50:13
Speaker 2
And you have to be kind of, I would say, pretty good at telling your story. This is why this matters. And I rarely talked about moving. Furniture is boring. It's terrible. Like, wow, you might want to hear about that.

00:44:50:15 - 00:44:52:05
Speaker 1
So when we grab the thing, yeah.

00:44:52:07 - 00:45:09:23
Speaker 2
We have a bot. And this is I talk about this with my with our call center who brings we answer every call for every, you know, franchise from around the country right here in Austin, Texas. And I say, don't sell move and moving services. Nobody calls us on accident. Like I was trying to order a pizza, but I'm going to move now.

00:45:10:00 - 00:45:30:13
Speaker 2
They know what they're calling for. They're calling. We already you know, you need to move. You know we move, right? Yeah. And so your job is to sell them. They can trust us. Why? Because 80% of the people making decisions inside the home are women, men. They want to be on and off the phone quickly, and they want to know what the value is.

00:45:30:15 - 00:45:46:04
Speaker 2
Will you now number of dollars I'm going to spend with you. Meet the value. So that's who we're trying to sell to men for women. I'm going to send us to you that you would invite Christmas dinner. That's my goal. And so what do we say? We say things like there's no subs, tips or day laborers in our groups.

00:45:46:04 - 00:46:16:11
Speaker 2
These are our guys, man. Their W-2. We trained them. We know them. We're going to send them to your living room and you're going to love them because we're trying to sell trust. So what are you trying to sell. And so understanding some of those knobs to turn like, what am I trying to sell. Not moving services, but trust and going out there and your ability to evangelize that in your community or in your industry or in in front of whoever you need to sell your story better than you sell, actually what you're doing, because that's what people are going to gravitate towards.

00:46:16:13 - 00:46:19:21
Speaker 2
They won't fire Jake. They'll they'll fire the business.

00:46:19:23 - 00:46:37:23
Speaker 1
It's dead on. Talk about storytelling a little bit more. I think that I think it's a skill. You and I, by the grace of God, have been given some gift. Gab. I think that it just comes more natural. We were actually training the team the other day. We're doing a course correction because we were noticing the way they share our story chronologically, which is arguably the worst way to tell a story.

00:46:37:23 - 00:47:00:15
Speaker 1
I mean, and it was talking to Will. It's like it's the way you experience it. Then this happened, then this happened, but it's incredibly boring. It's terrible. It's terrible. I mean, it's just like, you know, and so I understand it that there are different levels of storytelling. What would you tell somebody about how to get better at sharing their story, especially when they're a little bit of an awkward time?

00:47:00:17 - 00:47:14:01
Speaker 1
You know, I know there's a way to embrace it. I've heard some awkward time stories and these guys are engaging to me. Yeah, there's something weird about their weirdness that I want to keep paying attention to. But what you get any advice on how someone can better share their story, especially in the context of business?

00:47:14:01 - 00:47:38:21
Speaker 2
100%. First of all, people are okay with your dysfunction. Matter of fact, they resonate with it. And what I mean, I don't go in and be negative. Nancy. Nobody wants to be around somebody negative. But like if there's something going on that's real, don't be afraid to tell what's real. And so, you know, I, I talk about when you want to tell your story, talk about how you feel more.

00:47:38:21 - 00:47:57:02
Speaker 2
You talk about what's going on and be like when I walked in that room, honestly, I was terrified. So, you know, when I walk into somebody's living room, be like, hey, I'm here to sell you moving services. And honestly, like, I've been doing this that long, I'm getting used to it. But I'll tell you this, we are going to bend over backwards to make you guys happy.

00:47:57:02 - 00:48:19:23
Speaker 2
That is our goal. But I'm a little slow when I'm getting this inventory today because I haven't been at this very long. I just told them I'm not that good. I've been doing in a short amount of time, but I'm also completely devoted to making sure that they're happy. People are going to hire that guy more than they're hiring the guy that's 20 year vet that comes in and acts and treats them rudely, that tells them, we're going to come in, we're going to bring two guys.

00:48:19:23 - 00:48:37:08
Speaker 2
This is what we're going to do. We're going to wrap items. We're going to do a senior quote later today. They're fine with your authentic self, but they also want to know how you feel. And so as quick as much as possible insert that into your story. And so when we moved here we were scared to death. Honestly, we'd never been here before.

00:48:37:10 - 00:48:53:22
Speaker 2
I was like, we don't know anything about Texas. I don't have boots or hat, you know, I don't have cattle or a hat. But we were so eager to win, you know, that that was more important than how we felt. So we were scared and we were countries cornbread. But here we are, and we're just doing our best to make this thing work.

00:48:54:00 - 00:49:12:16
Speaker 2
I would literally say those kinds of things. I'm scared. We're country, but we're doing our best and people want to pull for that guy. And it was real. It wasn't fake. Today, I can't tell that story. I have a different story now. I got three kids. I'm going to be an empty nester in 18 months. I don't even know what me and my wife were going to do.

00:49:12:16 - 00:49:28:20
Speaker 2
I mean, it'll be Wheel of Fortune. Then we're going to bed. You know what I mean? Like, but that's the reality. We don't know what we're going to do. You know, people want to know what's really going on. They want to know how you feel more than they want to know exactly the chronological order of anything. And they're okay if it's a little dysfunctional.

00:49:28:22 - 00:49:45:12
Speaker 1
Yeah. This is that relate ability. Right. Because they are two 100%. Yeah. They got something and then they go like okay, I trust you because I see you I see me in you. That's right. Yeah I think that's the that's the part we guard. It's the thing we don't that's the straight-A student way of doing it. This is why business owners are often not great.

00:49:45:15 - 00:50:02:18
Speaker 1
We're not great students, right. You know, it's the you know, what is the thing that makes, you know, what makes them kind of connect with people when you think about, like, how it is that. These guys and guys are sitting there going, okay, tracking way I'm going to go out there, I'm gonna start I'm going to start moving.

00:50:02:18 - 00:50:17:00
Speaker 1
I'm going to throw some things on the, on the I'm going to. But there are some things on paper I'm going to commit to it 90, 120 days. These are things I'm going to do, maybe work on better share my story. Anything else comes to mind that they can kind of like start just getting themselves to move that need a little bit more.

00:50:17:02 - 00:50:36:04
Speaker 2
Well, what I think a lot of people forget about is if you can tweak a few different KPIs just a little bit, the end result is crazy. So I'll, I'll give you an example. So let's say that you're working with currently you're averaging, you know, five leads a week. A lot of people are like, we need ten leads a week.

00:50:36:07 - 00:51:03:20
Speaker 2
You know, you need six and a half. And then if I can convert right now we're converting 45% of those. All you need to do, you need you need to try to get to 50. And then if you can upsell them your average ticket is $900. I mean, if you can get them to 980, I mean, we're talking incremental things and you do that over the over 52 weeks, and you look at that number, you can't imagine how much it's changed.

00:51:03:20 - 00:51:24:11
Speaker 2
It is it is enormous. And so getting yourself to understand I don't need to change everything. I need to change a lot of little things, which could mean anything like this in the moving industry. Hey, you want to let you know we also offer packing services. And so if you guys want us to come in, pack and packing the headache, I mean, everybody hates packing.

00:51:24:13 - 00:51:41:13
Speaker 2
You want us to come in a pack? We'd love to help you with that. Like. No, I think I got it like, no worries. Okay. So you didn't upsell them in that situation. Okay. Call them ten days before and say, hey, we're just checking in. I know you're going to pack everything, but I tell you, the bears, the kitchen.

00:51:41:15 - 00:51:52:05
Speaker 2
Why don't you just let us come in and help you just with the kitchen, and then we'll be there a couple of hours. We'll get your kitchen knocked out, and then we'll get out of there. You can't imagine how many people are like, yes, I am terrified.

00:51:52:11 - 00:51:55:08
Speaker 1
Because that target is getting this exactly right. And they're like, we don't even start.

00:51:55:09 - 00:51:58:05
Speaker 2
We haven't even put an item in a box.

00:51:58:07 - 00:51:59:07
Speaker 1
When you invite the box.

00:51:59:07 - 00:52:14:07
Speaker 2
That's right. And so you show up to pack them. Yeah. And half the house isn't packed. And you say, why don't we do all the walk around? We're going to get the kitchen. You want to go and do this? What about the garage over here. And then before they're moving in two days, they're freaking out and they're just say yes.

00:52:14:07 - 00:52:35:16
Speaker 2
Yes, you do it all. So you just went from all we have is their move to upselling them with the kitchen in the kitchen turned in to have to have the house with packing. It's an incremental thing, and it might not feel like that big of a deal. You do that enough. The difference is unbelievable. And so, so many people get lost in weaning twice as many leads.

00:52:35:16 - 00:52:50:01
Speaker 2
We need to convert not 45%. We need to convert 90%. That's totally unrealistic. You just can't do it. And so what can you do this just a little bit. Hey, can we sell you boxes and paper? We know you're going to pack. We'll drop them off at your house up. Sell them just a little bit. Yeah. We'll send you a box list.

00:52:50:01 - 00:53:06:00
Speaker 2
You let us know what you need. We'll bring them to your house. You have to deal with it. Yeah, that'd be nice. These little things make a really big difference. And if you can start building them into your whole cycle, chances are, even next week, we call. This is what we do this. This is just how we do it.

00:53:06:01 - 00:53:32:08
Speaker 2
The difference will be tremendous. And the extra care that they hear from you, hey, they call me, just check in on packing. And it's a lot of them are like, no, we're good. We're like, okay, well, if something changes, let us know. Guess what? That person is more inclined to refer you now. Yeah. To somebody else. Because ten days before they call just to check in and see how you doing these type of things again feel negligible.

00:53:32:10 - 00:53:54:06
Speaker 2
They feel, like they're not earth shattering and they're not. And that's exactly why you should be doing them. And if you spend an hour a day doing that stuff. But here's what happens, Jake. People will open their email on Monday, and before they know it's midway through Wednesday and all they've done is email, we can get lost in email for three days because you know why?

00:53:54:08 - 00:53:57:09
Speaker 2
It's Comfort City USA.

00:53:57:11 - 00:53:58:11
Speaker 1
Filing it away.

00:53:58:12 - 00:54:12:04
Speaker 2
So the archive I'm organized. Yeah. And you before you know you've whittled your life away and your business away looking at email. Yeah. Stand up. Go get in your vehicle and go market.

00:54:12:06 - 00:54:18:03
Speaker 1
No one is going to be mad at you for doing that. No, no. This is dig on truth, man. Last thing. Way.

00:54:18:07 - 00:54:19:05
Speaker 2
Okay.

00:54:19:07 - 00:54:47:00
Speaker 1
Last thing for this one. I feel like I got so much more that we want to. I guarantee you folks are going to be asking more questions. We'll get you back in. Cool. This part here always made sense to me, but I know it breaks people's brains. And so I want to get your thoughts on it. And you might be completely against what I have to say here on this one, but I do believe that part of the job, being an owner, running something, operating, is also doing the things that have no direct transactional value, you know, and I don't ever know you can measure it.

00:54:47:02 - 00:55:08:13
Speaker 1
Example is. Wednesday I'm going to spend two hours that morning grabbing a coffee with the local chamber director. And then I'm also going to go ahead and they got a small owners group in the evening. You know, right before I go home and have dinner, I'm going to do a little happy hour with them and just kind of meet some of the folks.

00:55:08:15 - 00:55:24:21
Speaker 1
None of them by roofing. They don't, you know, but I'm just going to go out there and hang out. Does that stuff matter? Is it worth your time? Is it something that, like you find has big leverage later? Just kind of how do you think about those things? To me, it always makes sense to do. Yeah. What's your thoughts.

00:55:24:23 - 00:55:48:13
Speaker 2
So. I'm going to I'm going to say first of all that this is not a place of deep comfort for me, but someone like you and I can walk in that room and kind of do do the dance and be okay. My oldest, who's a severe introvert, not severe, actually, that's not fair. But he's introverted. That would be a much heavier lift for him.

00:55:48:18 - 00:56:15:19
Speaker 2
And so I want to recognize it's not for everybody in terms of their natural instinct to do it. But I think everybody needs to work the muscle into it. And when we work a muscle, it gets it gets more and more strong. Okay. I was, talking to my business partner at the carpet company, yesterday. We meet every Wednesday morning, and we're actually talking about where we met a networking group in 2009, 16 years ago.

00:56:15:21 - 00:56:36:18
Speaker 2
That's where we met. And we're now business partners. We joined up eight years ago for this carpet company, and we started naming the people from that networking business. That's that networking group that still sends us business, not annually all the time to this day sends us business over and we send them business. We reciprocate to this day.

00:56:36:19 - 00:56:58:11
Speaker 2
And I think we got to maybe nine, ten, 11 names from this one networking group from 16 years ago. And then we have breakfast every Tuesday. And we did that for 5 or 6 years. And by the way, we hadn't been in these groups in over a decade. It, 100% works, people. Okay. People want to help you grow your business.

00:56:58:11 - 00:57:20:15
Speaker 2
People don't know how to help you grow your business. You have to ask them to help you grow your business. So we get to the end of a move. We knew the client was happy. It's a hey, you know, we built this business, but people telling other people, would you mind just sharing? Sharing about us? You know, there's a lady sit in a cubicle next to that's moving, and I'm going to tell her tomorrow because we triggered her.

00:57:20:17 - 00:57:41:13
Speaker 2
She shared us. Hey, would you mind leaving us a Google review? It's no big deal if you can't, but man, it would make a big difference. Yeah, sure. People want to help you grow your business. They don't know how these networking groups, chamber groups, are literally built around helping other people grow their businesses. And those people are there to want to help you and you want to help them.

00:57:41:15 - 00:58:03:00
Speaker 2
And so going, showing up, putting your best foot forward help and those that live open handed, that give the most, get the most. And I know are like, okay, Wade, we're going to go in the karma thing. Yeah, we're going to go with the karma thing. Those that give the most hey, listen, there's a guy over here and he some AV services I know this what you guys do I'm going to send him your number.

00:58:03:00 - 00:58:24:06
Speaker 2
I just want to let you know who's coming from that guy. Get so much business back to him from a million different ways, you can't even count it. And so go in with this posture of, I'm going to live open handed, and I'm going to give as much as I can, knowing that if nobody else wade this rando guy believes that that's going to come back and it's going to bless me.

00:58:24:08 - 00:58:27:07
Speaker 2
That's how that's how I believe.

00:58:27:09 - 00:58:42:13
Speaker 1
We'll see it. I mean, yeah, I think it's not a it's hard when you're programed in a certain way to kind of see and get, especially if you're in survival mode. Yeah. You're like, really? Is this really worth my time? You know, I'm going to go out there and canoodle there's a lot of guys that go like, you know, they'll go like, oh man, that's not me.

00:58:42:13 - 00:58:56:19
Speaker 1
I don't do that. I don't do that schmooze and stuff. Right. And I think, I mean, they're is that I guess but I think, I hope folks understand like way now trying to get out here and talking about it is this, Gosh, I love what you say here. You know, like, they don't know how to help you.

00:58:56:19 - 00:59:13:07
Speaker 1
They want you to get to tell them. They also are like this entire thing. If you take the business part out of all of it, it's just like we're all naturally programed. We want to serve each other. That's right. Like. And it is where we get fulfillment. That's right. You know, it is the thing that we are hardwired for.

00:59:13:09 - 00:59:34:22
Speaker 1
And so these are just extensions of the ability for us to get to practice that kind of stuff, whatever that might be. You know, and I think that that it's one of those things that, yeah, it's hard to measure in the short term sometimes, but I can tell you now, similar to you, how many times, years down the road, someone thought of me to go do something because of something we did for whatever it might be, right?

00:59:35:00 - 00:59:40:15
Speaker 1
And oftentimes it's not a little thing that comes back around. It's huge, man. It is a big thing.

00:59:40:15 - 00:59:41:10
Speaker 2
Absolutely.

00:59:41:10 - 00:59:44:22
Speaker 1
Which I think that's the hard part, though, is recognizing. Right, is that kind of stuff.

00:59:45:01 - 01:00:02:16
Speaker 2
I ran into a lady that we were in this same networking group with. Her name is Christina. I ran into her three days ago and she said, you're never going to believe it, she said. And this had nothing to do with, you know, referral had given her anything. But she said, she's a designer. And she said, we just got a job to design a restaurant downtown.

01:00:02:16 - 01:00:25:01
Speaker 2
Awesome. For a michelin star chef. And we sat there and she she talked to me about it. I gave her a high five. I'm like, you're crushing it. And then we parted ways. Okay? Because of a relationship from 15 years ago, I and she put ourselves in a position to celebrate each other when you win. So there's a whole nother piece of that we don't even think about.

01:00:25:01 - 01:00:40:13
Speaker 2
We're like, when are you going to make my phone ring? Well, what about the fact that I'm going to high five you and Adeboye you? Because when you're crushing him and because we have a relationship, nobody's going to be your bigger cheerleader than me. And so here we are 15 years later. I'm like, Christina, you're crushing it. I'm so proud of you.

01:00:40:13 - 01:00:55:12
Speaker 2
I can't wait to get to that restaurant. You're going to get me in over there. And she's like, I'm going to get you in. I'm like, let's do it. That's just a nice thing to have somebody there. If nothing else to say. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud to know you. You've got this in you that is special.

01:00:55:12 - 01:00:59:16
Speaker 2
And without that networking group, I would not have had been able to have that conversation. And it's cool.

01:00:59:18 - 01:01:18:03
Speaker 1
It's the best man. It's what this is all about. It's what it's all about. I think it's it's life's hard in so many different ways. Why not have a bunch of folks who see it and can kind of just give you that quick attaboy. Atta girl. Yeah, it does make a difference way, brother, I can't. I mean this every time we get a chat, it's like, this is fun, man.

01:01:18:04 - 01:01:33:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, man. For those that are out there right now. And something resonated like, please, like we do, fire off a question. Send us a note. Let's make Wade come back on here and share some more things. We're off camera. I mean, there's so many great things that we go down rabbit holes on that. I think you just have a great perspective on.

01:01:33:09 - 01:01:49:15
Speaker 1
But man, it's lived experience. It's not like a guy who's talking theory. So I always appreciate you coming in, man. Sharing the good word and also just keeping it real and raw. I think as folks are sitting there, my hope is that they leave this going, okay, it's not big things. That's right. I think that's the go to.

01:01:49:17 - 01:01:57:23
Speaker 1
I had a friend the other day go oh man I finally get certified in it. I was like why right. You know. Right. It's where your thought goes certification. No man.

01:01:57:23 - 01:01:58:21
Speaker 2
Sweat the small stuff.

01:01:59:01 - 01:02:03:20
Speaker 1
Yeah. Just go do the little things. That's right. What else. Anything else.

01:02:03:22 - 01:02:17:23
Speaker 2
No I, I would, I would just double down on that. I mean, you know, we we do we tell ourselves these laws that the, the difference between where I am and where I want to go are these big things or that company down the street. They have access to technology I don't have. They have access to people. I don't have.

01:02:18:01 - 01:02:33:13
Speaker 2
You know, at square Cat, we make our guys took the shirts in 30s into a move, their shirt tails tucked out. Right. Yeah. But when they knock on the door that morning, the client opens door and our guys look them, look them in the eye and their shirt tails tucked in. They say, hey, I'm Wade in the square, I'm movers.

01:02:33:15 - 01:02:54:07
Speaker 2
And they look past us and our truck is clean. The dashboards clean. Subconsciously they tell themselves they take care of themselves. They're going to take care of me today. How do we do paperwork? How do we make calls? Words. We use words of affirmation. You guys, you move pool tables. Absolutely. We love it. I'm not kidding. Like we always say, if these were heavy, there weren't stairs.

01:02:54:07 - 01:03:09:17
Speaker 2
We'd be out of business. You know, we say that kind of stuff right? Because it matters. These are small things, but small things stacked up on top of each other make a big difference in the difference between where you are and where you want to be. I guarantee you are a bunch of little bitty things and you say, hey, our company.

01:03:09:17 - 01:03:27:09
Speaker 2
We embrace small things. We don't Heisman arm small things, we embrace them. And so this is the reason we do it. And this is the kind of thing that we are. We are pushing for as operators and entrepreneurs, as business owners is know this is what we're all about. Don't lose sight of the small things. We embrace it.

01:03:27:09 - 01:03:53:15
Speaker 1
Thanks for tuning in to the American Operator Podcast, where we celebrate the backbone of America small business owners and operators like you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll never miss out on more of these stories and insights from people who keep our community strong. Until next time, keep building, keep operating and keep America moving forward.