The Ups and Downs of Starting a Business

In this episode, Ryan interviews John Wanniger, a successful entrepreneur in Omaha, NE who has started over 45 businesses in his lifetime. Tune in to learn more about John and how his life experiences opening businesses can change your outlook on true entrepreneurship. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And then look at this. You get to like bring your your little microphone in, set it all up because you're a popular guy.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Song song song.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

You know. Oh, you better get that figured out over there. What the hell? What'd you build here? I mean, it's it's supposed to be a pretty big thing.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Uh oh, a fill.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Oh, that's not the. Are you like ready for this? I gotta go adjust my camera. Yeah. Make it so I look better. You gotta look a little better. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I gotta get rid of it. I'm gonna zoom in a little bit. Oh, that might be a little bit too much, but that might be a little better. I got that. Does it look better? I think that looks better. Hey. I mean you can like see us and everything, and we're like live. Oh, we are. Yeah. Excellent. I mean it really does matter until we like post it and everything. Yeah, it doesn't really matter. Then we're live. It's true. Then everybody knows.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

So then like you so if we make a mess up, can you fix it?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah. But not on this one. Like on the podcast, you can't, because you're just recording live now. So I can like I can pick and choose pieces out of there that I want, but I mean you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I better shut my alarms off so they don't keep going off all freaking.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

You're kind of a popular guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Yeah, I don't know about that. I'm just saying. Alright, no. That's all I gotta say about that. Alright. You better bring that microphone. I gotta go do a home inspection. I gotta go do a home inspection yet, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

So I think that's a good place to start because there's probably a lot of people that are like, How do you guys even know each other? How did this all start? And I'm I honestly I don't remember the first place we met. It was a small village in Vietnam.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

We met in Nam. Yeah. Back in the end of a dog hole, a foxhole or a dog hole or whatever those are called. Yep. Yeah. No, you can tell we know what we're talking about. Yeah. Very intelligent. Um, remember uh back in the day when I remember you first started selling real estate, like you were fresh, and I was old at that time already. But I think that Ryan Potter guy old.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah. Like this guy looks fit, he kind of knows what he's doing. And I was like, alright, I'll give this guy a try. And then I think we started, so we started using you for home inspections. Yeah, I think. And then you started Red Rhino. Yeah. And then we started using you for like red rhino and like roofing stuff. And then red termite to do our termite inspections. So I was kind of like, hey, this is great. If we can use John and his companies for like a one-stop shop for everything. Yeah. You were a smart guy to do that.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Well, I don't know about smart. It's uh seemed like, well, a little convenient, so let's put it all under one umbrella. Yeah. So yeah. Back in the day, we you know, when I first started, I had geez, we had everything handyman services, re key services, all of that stuff. Just because it's like, well, it's convenient for the customer, yeah. The realtors, and as long as they did a good job, they'd continue to use us. You're dang right. That's right. That's why I continue to use you.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Tell you what. Can you uh can you kind of back everybody up though? Like where you grew up. We already addressed how we got connected, but tell us a little bit about like where you grew up, what brought you to Omaha, and then we can kind of start digging into some of this business talk.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah. Uh I grew up in Coon Rapids, Iowa. Yeah, that's a real town in Iowa. Coon Rapids. Farm Kid, one of uh ten kids, um nine that uh were living. Um we lost one when she was a baby, but farm kid, you know, grew up in the uh really in the eighties, it was a tough time when farming was uh a tough environment. My dad was a huge farmer, but we were losing our butts, and uh you got to experience um a challenging time. And it obvious the thing out of that taught us a lot as kids in an early time is the value of hard work and integrity. And uh, you know, I always say when our dad passed, he didn't leave us much, but he left us a lot. So um, you know, because he taught us the value of hard work and taking care of other people. I think that's kind of where I've gotten the passion for for uh customer service and and uh helping others succeed. Yeah. And uh in that farming, I was gonna farm, I had uh crops and hogs and cattle, you know, right out of high school. During high school, I started having my own stuff when I was 14. But, you know, I planned on farming my entire life, but um after high school, you know, just uh continued to farm and a few days before school started at northwest Missouri State, a buddy of mine helped me, or hollered at me and said, Hey, can I take your truck and haul my stuff to college? And I'm like, Yeah, sure, I know. It's on a Thursday, I said, I'll I'll just ride down with you and Friday we load up my truck and and uh you know I was still wearing the cowboy boots, but I had a big old belt buckle, leather belt, cowboy hat, you know, or you know, um, and uh went to northwest Missouri State. Keep in mind it's still somewhat of a cowboy college, but we went to a fraternity party that night and uh signed up for classes the next day. Nice. So that uh a fraternity party changed my life. I was like, wait, this is a real deal? People get get to do this. This is something that people go out and do, and yeah, it's like and parents send their kids to school to do this. Weird. Yeah, it sure beat working as hard as I was gonna end up uh doing. Yeah, so uh Monday I ended up going to classes. My dad was disappointed. That's that was probably the toughest thing, is I was the last kid of all of them to potentially farm. And uh my other siblings, some of them had suffered through bankruptcy and and challenges there. And uh my dad never filed bankruptcy, but he he was very broke at that time and but a very large farmer, but that was a a negative when you're paying 18-19% interest on farm ground. But yeah, I ended up uh going to school. Um wasn't very good.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah. And people were complaining about six percent interest today.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Yeah, you know that but it's it's all relative. And it and back then you had 18, 19%. You weren't there was no chance of making money, it's just how much money you're gonna lose. Yeah, you know, home loans were same that same ballpark. Um, I remember my first house down in Merryville was 14.3 or something like that. Yeah. Um, but we bought like it was a $17,000 house. Our payment was only like $4,000 a month. Right. No. Um but uh it was a good time.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Um $4,000 a month on a $17,000 payment. You you got ripped off, dude. Yeah, it was like uh not very good.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah. Uh but yeah, no, we and then college was just you know, I wasn't much for studying. I did have one semester where I made the B honor roll. There you go. That was the first one, and it was completely it's like a it was a ski slope from there. Um, but uh it was it was interesting. Um learned a lot, not a not in class, I just learned a lot in life. Um I had a little bit of a drinking issue. I was a I was kind of a rare kid at the time because I was one of those that I worked a lot and worked hard when I was young and made some made a few bucks. I went to college like thirty, forty thousand dollars in nineteen eighty seven. That was quite a bit of money then. Yeah. Um but over the next twelve months I blew all of that and another seventeen grand on partying and cars and and uh that's smart young men do. Yeah, you know and like well you put me in that environment. I was like, geez, it was crazy. Great time. I mean, I see where your kids want to go to college, not for the education part, yeah, the social life. Um but uh yeah, I uh then had a little bit of challenge with alcohol, ended up uh totaling six cars, had four OWIs or DWIs, whatever you call them. Um never I the last accident was pretty bad. Um the others were were bad, but didn't put me in the hospital or anything. But the last one was pretty significant and uh ended up in a hospital and the uh courts said you bet you know either go through alcohol rehab and quit drinking or uh you're gonna go to jail for a while. That didn't sound very appealing.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

So I threw an intervention with a gentleman from my hometown, uh, my family, uh a lot of support in uh I was in the hospital in college or in high school or in Carroll, Iowa, and I remember there was prom going on that night, um, and uh the local high school uh local school there. I was in from Coon Rapids and we were in Carroll, and I just remember a ton of people in the hallway that were that were from Kemper or in Carroll High uh and uh that were in the hallway and that meant a a lot to me that these young kids were uh there in support of me um during this intervention, how that all happened, I really don't know, but I just remember that. And uh so I went through rehab in Manning, Iowa. Great facility. It worked changed my life and probably trajectory my entire family's life because my dad quit drinking at the same time and sat across the table from me and and uh made my f made my entire family a lot closer. That's when and I I point that period of time is to a period of where we started letting each other know that we love 'em and and to even to this day it's uh it's uh carries on. So it's uh it was more than just about me and drinking. So we gain we gained a lot out of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

But what I mean I think about that, like what that probably meant to you for your dad sitting across from you and like growing up. I mean you said you your your dad was kind of disappointed because you didn't want to be a farmer. And so what was it like? Like what was that relationship with your dad like like growing up?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Um, you know, both my dad and my mom uh was you know, I look back on it as one thing. At the time I you don't realize it as a kid, um, but you know, you really let him down and the distress and the pain I put him through. Mm-hmm. My mom and even tell me the other day and she'd tear up even today when she starts talking about, but when the phone ring at midnight or two o'clock in the morning, she knew it was me calling and said, Hey, I had an accident, and she'd start crying before the phone, she answered the phone. And she's she'll tear up today when she tells that story. So it made me you know, it tells you how impactful our behaviors as a child are on our parents, and you know, we're both p you know dads today and yeah. Um to see our kids suffer and uh challenges they go through. Um but they uh they don't know they don't realize the pain that puts us in. And uh, you know, I've got I've had my kids do things that I you know that were things I didn't agree with or things that uh they didn't realize the impact of or um that you know I can only imagine the pain I put my parents through at that time because of how minor the things are them are painful to me, the things I did were much more significant. Not that I'm uh telling kids that they should go do some of the stupid stuff I did, but um it's just I wish kids could understand the how much the parents love them and how much uh how that relationship really works. Yeah. So what brought you to Omaha? How'd you go from Oh god, yeah. So in college to Omaha. Yeah, in college I ended up uh after I quit drinking, three months later I bought a bar with three of my buddies. That's smart. Yeah, it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. You know that um so but I it actually was the best thing that happened in my life. If I look back, it's like the one thing you know that probably changed my life. The quit uh not drinking was something that happened, but I think it's the success of my not drinking happened because I bought the bar. And the reason I say that is um I drank to put myself in an environment that was fun and you know, I wanted people to accept me. Before I drank, um before I quit drinking, I would not talk to people. I was very sh I was very quiet into other people. So when I drank, that put me, you know, uh in the ability to communicate with others, you know, guys, girls, didn't matter. And um, but then when I quit drinking, and then I bought the bar, I was the owner of the bar. Everybody wants to talk to the owner of the bar, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

And me and my buddies had a a fantastic time for that first year. Um, I wasn't drinking, they were. They both all three of them continued to drink. And uh a year later I bought two of those guys out. I haven't really talked to them since. Um but the other guy stayed in for another year or two, then I bought him out, and uh him he was getting married to a local girl at the time, and so he went off and hadn't seen him in a long time, but um he came and started living in Blair uh years ago, and he quit drinking eighteen years ago now. Wow. And uh after he quit drinking, he came and looked me up and we've been best friends again ever since. And he lives two miles south of me. Talk to him every morning. So it's good stuff. Yeah, he's you know, friends. I'm a huge fan of friends and family. Yeah, yeah, relationships are everything to me.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

So well, and I think that's why we get along so great, right? Because we understand the importance of relationships. Like if you don't have a relationship with someone, you know, what is there to to honestly really live for, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Yeah, well, I I mean I see kids who aren't talking to their parents or parents that aren't talking to those siblings, or you know, um, I said yeah, I haven't talked to dad in six years. It's like I mean, I don't and sometimes there's probably a situation that's yeah, you know, something happened that's really horrible or something, and that's unfortunate. But you know, it's you know, uh well he treated my he always liked my sister better, or he always, you know, took you know did this. And it's like it's like I really want to see people mend those relationships because one day they're gonna be gone. Yep. Not that I you know, you I don't you don't want to have regret because at some point time you're not gonna be able to um have that conversation and you know what change your life potentially. Yeah. And then you know what, uh there's more people involved in the world than than you and that person. There's kids around you that maybe see that you're not talking to your your dad or your sister, your brother, your cousin, your uncle, whatever the case might be is. And uh I just believe in mending those relationships. Like Garth Brooks, mend fences. That's right. So and and you have friends in low places. I definitely have friends in low places. Uh but uh I have a lot of friends in high places, and I'm the friend in low places. Yeah, that's not true. Nah. That's not true at all. I don't even care. I don't care. I I mean that's something I've been blessed with. Uh of all my if people look at things like as values, yeah. The most valuable thing in my life is my relationship with people. You know, my I got blessed to have an amazing family. Yeah. Amazing kids, uh, amazing wife, amazing brothers and sisters, my friend my friends. I have a I I have a fairly large pool of close friends. You know, a lot of people say they have one or two best friends. Yeah. I would say, you know, I'm pretty blessed to have a a larger group of of close friends than that. I'd second that. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, I just love I mean I love I mean, I just love uh the relationship. But they gotta be good people, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, absolutely. You know, uh I mean that you surround yourself with like I was just having this conversation with some clients of mine last night, like I brought them some some dinner because they just had a baby and we're catching up on life. And um I'm like, you know, who are you guys? I asked them the question, like, who are you guys hanging out with right now, you know? And and they're like a lot of our friends from like our church group, you know, because like they have kids that are around the same age, and I'm like, that's the same way as us. Like a lot of our a lot of the people we're hanging out with right now are like our kids, our kids' parents, yeah, right, and those are have become like our closest friends through like sports or school or church or whatever, and uh, and I think it helps to be doing life with people that are like in the same season, yeah. Like-minded, you know, like yeah, like you can relate to you know, there's some things that like you might share with me, and I'm like, John, I I'm not there yet. And then there's other times where I'm like, hey, I need some advice because you've been there before. Like you can give me which we do, like we have we have lunches and stuff and we talk about life, and um, but I think like it's good to have you know, like somebody in my church, uh like growing up in high school, like really challenged me with like, hey, who's a Paul in your life? And the sense of like who's mentoring you, who's like the guy that you look up to that's like pouring into your life from like all different levels, who's like the Barnabas in your life, who's like your close friend going through the same season, but they're gonna like not sugarcoat anything, right? Like, so if you're if you're screwing up with your wife and your marriage, like he's gonna call you out on it, or your kids, or whatever, like and then the other one was who's your Timothy? Like, so Paul had Timothy in in biblical times, you know, where he was mentoring this younger one to like take his place, and so I've always like kept that in the back of my mind of like, hey, who's who's the Paul in my life? Who's like the Barnabas in my life, and who's like the Timothy? Like, who am I getting wisdom from? You know, and then like who's going through the same stuff as me that can like relate with me, and then like hey, who's probably the kid or the person younger than me that like is just getting married or like is just going through that where it's like oh man, you're in you're in honeymoon stage right now, but like wait until you start having kids and all this other stuff, but like just I think it's good, and then I think it's good for us. Like we have we have a great friendship. Oh absolutely, we have uh a business relationship, but like we both know like we could care less about that, like we care more about the family and the friendship. Um but it I've got some questions I want to ask you because for those that don't know, like you've started numerous like businesses. Couple, and uh maybe we can have you list them all out. You're gonna remember them all? There's forty-four of them. Forty four. Forty-five. Okay, so a guy that has started 45 businesses, right? Like, I got asked the question the other day. I'm getting I was getting interviewed by a guy who's writing a book for like successful entrepreneurs, right? You know, and he asked me the question, like, if you could have one thing, like right now in your life, what would that one thing be?

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Anything?

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I was like, man, anything? So I kind of sat there and I was like, honestly, like I think for me that'd be peace. Like peace of mind. I would want just peace because I feel like I'm just constantly like my brain, I try to explain it to my wife, I'm like, my brain doesn't ever shut off. You know, like I can come home and I can go other places and I can go on vacation or whatever, but I'm still thinking about something. Like it's just constantly running, right? Like, oh crap, I gotta do this when I get home, or I gotta like if I could just have peace of mind where it's like I none of that stuff matters, like that's what I would like want. But what would you say? Like what you know peace of mind, a guy that's started 45 businesses.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah, you know, I I create some of my own chaos, there's no doubt about that. Um and I've had this conversation in different levels at different in different parameters, but I like starting businesses because I like the challenge of seeing if I can make things tick. You know, and um I've started 44 businesses, I've only had one that didn't work, but I still think that's one of the businesses that I could still crush it with if I put it back to on the table. But other than that, I've I've made them all successful, sold them off, merged them, still have them, gave them to somebody, um, whatever, you know, but um I like the challenge.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

But as I was talking to somebody this morning um about this, um I have a few friends, so um people like, oh my gosh, that's awesome. You got all these businesses, different revenue streams, and yeah, you know, that's so awesome, cool that you're doing that. And if I would give a piece of advice to anybody is don't do what I did. Yeah. Do one thing. I got buddies of mine, uh several of them, that have been extremely successful and like super close friends that I admire and I I love them, um, several of them that are that are that but they do one thing and do it very well. They're the best at it. I got I can name four or five of them right now off the top of my head that, you know, um they're amazing at their business, uh, but they're amazing people on top of that. But the The thing is with um like when owning multiple businesses, the thing is if I fix something in this business over here or see an issue over here, I fix that. If it's it it relates to 10 or 20 percent of my life. Yeah. So I gotta fix something here, I gotta fix something here, and I gotta fix something here, I gotta fix something here. And there's issues in all of them at all the time. Where if you have one machine and you fix something, it goes through the whole system. Yep. And you know, and you're generally not going to find yourself fixing that same issue again. Um not that you won't, but you'll have a different challenge. Um there'll always be something to fix, but that's when you're fixing something in one machine, you're then that machine will grow. But when you're fixing one thing in here, one thing here, one thing in here, you you will always have this 20% just got fixed, but the other 80% still has some chaos in it. Yeah, and that's where you know you you're talking about peace of mind, and I can't tell you last time I had peace of mind. Yeah, my my you know, my brain runs 180 miles an hour all the time, and you know, I'm continually, you know, start 44 businesses. You know how many businesses I didn't start? Yeah. Probably quadruple that of ideas I've had. Um you know, and uh um I love the idea of creation part of, you know, um I feel there's some part of me that's what I was built for, or you know, and but how do I how do I uh maximize the you know, start up a business process and hand it off to somebody else? Um but uh I um you know I'm still blessed. I mean God's given me a lot of opportunities and there's I always find that one thing is uh people say that sometimes it's like maybe God took some opportunities off the table for you. You know, why did that not work out? Well maybe God didn't think it was a good idea. Yeah. And sometimes it's tough for me to think that way, but I'm like, God didn't give me a chance to figure it out, you know. Yeah. Or or there's a lot of times it's like, God, why are you testing me? You know, and uh um I I'm not I'm not a guy that goes to church on a regular basis, sorry mom. Um she knows that, but I'm very spiritual. I talk to God every day. Um and uh probably should go to church because that's a little bit of time I could give up to him, but as much as I talk to him throughout the day, he probably doesn't want to hear me anymore anyway. But um you know the the the I guess I get hung up on this peace of mind thing is like I I wish and that's one of the things I when I do talk to God and at nighttime and it's like how can you create peace of mind when there's chaos in your life, as much chaos as there is going on? And uh so I try to find ways to eliminate the chaos. You know, 10's like I fix it over here and there's chaos over here. But um have if people can find a way to s keep their life simple, and I get them they all want to succeed and take risks and stuff, but you know, just keep them calculated.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

So that's that's something I want to move into. So you you kind of open that door right there, but like I think a lot of people, you know, I'll have a lot of people like come up to me and be like, man, I just wish I had like the courage to like step out of my comfort zone and like take a risk, you know. Like you guys are like people refer to me and Vanessa a lot as like you know, you guys are risk takers and you're willing to like risk everything to like start something, and I'm like, well, like if you believe in something as much as you do, like I think you should be willing to like risk some of that, right? But I think the question I want to ask is like how did you like how do you make those decisions where you're like I understand that this is a risky decision, and I may be putting a lot on the line here, but like I'm investing in this thing because I think it's gonna work. Like, how do you make those decisions, or like how do you decide whether or not if the risk is too big, or like this is a risk I'm willing to take?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

You know, that there's part of that is that to me it's if it's not a risk. Um to me and most if I'm thinking about something, I just you know, I have ability to think it through. It's like if I'm gonna do it, I don't think about the risk because I just know I'll figure it out. You know, you jump out of an airplane, I'll s I'll sew the parachute on the way down. And I do that a lot. You know, back in the day, um my friend Jerry would uh kind of joke, but it was true. I mean, give me a week, I'd start up a new business. And and I'd have it up and running in in a week. Most people take years to figure that out or take the chance to do that. I I had started several businesses when on a say a napkin but or less, and those businesses would turn around and make a quarter million bucks next year. Yeah. Um it's you know, that to me there is no risk in it. It it's it's really your willing what's your commitment? You know, the I I did some business brokerage stuff for a while there and I really stopped doing it for the most part, but I'd have people come up and said, you know, they're looking at buying a business, and you know, and I said, Well, you know, what's your investment level? And they said, Well, you got a million bucks, but I really I'm I'm willing to invest 250. I'm like, Okay, so you're not committed. Yeah, you're willing to so you you're basically planning to fail right out of the gate, and they don't see it the same way necessarily, but to me it's like you're leaving yourself, you know, or it's it's the burn the boats theory, right? Yep. You know, if you're gonna go attack the island, you want to win, you turn around and you burn your boats because there's no way out. So the only way in uh is by victory. So you're gonna commit. And I see guys all the day, you know, still today. I see, you know, I've got a guy I I work with a little bit, um he uh has a business and you know he wants to be home with family at night all the time. And I get that. It's obviously family's extremely important, but I'll tell you what, if that business doesn't suc succeed, your family's gonna be in a world of hurt. And so you gotta make a decision if you're willing to commit, if you're committed, that might mean for a while you have to give up some family time. Yeah. You know, and uh if that means you gotta put six months in of you know, work until eight o'clock at night, are you committed to doing that? And you say, Well, I'm not really willing. No, then you're not.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

There is no if you know, it's either you're in or out. And that doesn't mean you don't you don't care about your family. In a matter of fact, I look at it the other way is you care so much about your family, you're gonna make what you're gonna put the work in. Yeah, the easy way out is to go go home and spend time with your family. And I don't you can not see it that way, but yeah, your family's future is much longer than that six months. Yeah. It's good. So and I see that a lot, and people are they tell themselves a story in their head to make themselves feel better that they want to spend time with family, that's horse shit. Yeah, horse crap. Can we cuss on here? I don't know. Um but the other thing about that um that I think about with people is they look at what I do as, oh, you made it take so many risks. It's like absolutely not. I don't I just know how hard I'm willing to work. Yeah. There ain't no risk in that. So you go to your nine to five or your eight to five or eight to four, whatever it is, and you walk in tomorrow, you may not have a job. I got I got buddies that you know on a got fired here last year, making four or five hundred grand a year, ball. Not anymore.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

So that those jobs disappear instantly. You know, with technology and AI and robotics and everything else come across the world and how fast that stuff's changing, yeah. You are way less control than I am. Yep. Now, those things may eliminate, you know, you may end up a little robot on your roof putting a roof on, but it ain't tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Amen to that. That'd still be kind of weird. Yeah. You know, you wait. Like I I think, well, I mean, we we've had this conversation a little bit. Um when it comes to like the future of AI and like our businesses, and you know, how that's gonna change. And um, you know, one one of the reasons I left the brokerage that I was with and with the brokerage that I'm now with with my team is like I saw that they saw the importance of AI and just how that's gonna shape and change like our industry, and they're a very tech-driven company, and so they're always thinking about like, hey, we're gonna go hire well one, we're gonna go hire this guy and a whole bunch of other people that are gonna run our tech, and they're gonna run and take these ideas that these agents and these and the team are bringing to them, and how it's gonna correlate to the real estate industry, and we're gonna implement it. We need to create an app, we're gonna do it. We need to create this, we're gonna do it. Like, and they've started to do that stuff already where I feel like there's you've got people that are like scared of AI that are like, oh, it's gonna change the world and it's gonna take my job and it's gonna or you've got people that are like, No, we're gonna pivot and adapt and change with AI and with technology and make ourselves and our businesses better by it, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Yeah, I think I think that's short. I think I think the world's gonna change in ways we can't even fathom. Yeah, I agree. Um, and I think technology is going to eliminate an incredible amount of jobs, but it ain't today, probably ain't tomorrow, and probably ain't next year. Um so at the end of the day, you know, you gotta be aware of AI and you gotta figure out how to utilize it to your best of your ability in your various businesses. You know, we got to do way better at it in everything that we do, we need to do way better. But, you know, you're not gonna see a robot inspecting houses, you're not gonna see a robot and put your roof on. Um technology can go, you can go scan your products at the uh, you know, a beauty store, uh self-checkout, but they can't create that personal relationship that that we want our teams to build with people. Um, you know, uh, as I say about with Beauty First and Snooze, our retail businesses, the one thing that we can do that technology and robots and AI will never be able to do is help people feel better about who they are because they came into our stores. Yeah. And uh, you know, through a compliment, through you know, kind gestures, through uh education, um, the things that we ask our team members to do in those retail locations are um in in really life-changing scenarios, and you may consumers or you know, whoever's watching us may not you think that's a little bit of uh hogwash, but it's to me it's just about the whole relationship thing we were starting to talk with earlier, is that that's what we're you know, as humans, um I think it's one of the most powerful things we can do is help people, yeah, or is to help people feel better about who they are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Yeah, I mean that's one big thing that we did and we stressed like when we were building the pickleball club. Like, how do we build a community in a place where people feel loved and excited and appreciated to like come in and they're just coming to play a game, right? But like it's much more bigger than that, right? Like it's every single time that person steps through the door, the person at the front desk or those on staff know their name and they're saying, Hey John, how's it going? Like, yeah, you know, how long have you been playing today? You know, like there's that personal connection there, and that's a lot of the feedback that we've already had from like our clientele, you know, it's just like this place is different, like when we walk through the door, it's just different, you know, and like that's what you're talking about. The same thing with Beauty First, and it's just different as you go in there and you get that repeat clientele, and then they tell their friends and they're like, You just gotta go experience like this place because they care about you.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

It you go to certain re I got certain restaurants I freaking love. Yeah, you know, Max Mow's out in Elkhorn is one of them. And uh I walk in there, they know what I want, um, they know my name, they know pretty much what I've been doing. Yep, and they're always great people. The guy, Max, that owns a place, is just awesome. And you know, I love the gin the genuinely of it. Yeah. And uh I got a few of those spots. Yeah, you do.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

But at the We went to another one of those spots where it's like the waitress knows your name, knows what you order. Yeah. Like is is great.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Yeah, you know, it makes you it's a feel good, right? Yeah. And that's what we want to go through life um doing. And uh the more of those we can create, the better life becomes. Yep. And you know what? And the people that are at that, the the waitresses and Max, you know, I want them to feel better because the connection we have, um, it's not just about me, it's about it's it's both of us. Yeah. So I love it.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

So true. Yep. So looking back at 45 businesses, what would you say has been the biggest challenge?

SPEAKER_00 35:59

It's always people. Yeah. Um in what way? You know, and and to my fault, honestly, um, because people aren't wired the same way I am, right? And it's and and I would always have an expectation out of them to have the same desire that I have. Well, I'm the owner of the business, right? Yeah. But even other owners aren't wired the same way I am. I'm like, I'm hyper focused on success and accomplishing great things. Where I mean we talked about some people want to be home at six o'clock at night, even if they're the owner, that's why they bought the business. Yeah. Um, so they're they're just different levels of success. You know, he's succeeding because he's home at six o'clock at night with his child. Yeah. That's I get it. Just not me. You know, I I that's extremely important. Me, I love being able to see my kids as much as I possibly can. And uh and when I'm working, I often think about them, well that's why I call them. I'll say, you know, just check on, see how they're doing, tell 'em I love them and every day. You know, but uh, you know, um people is definitely the the biggest hurdle. Um and then customers, high expectations and you know, expecting things out of you that you can you can't deliver even though you feel like you're over delivering and uh hate to let people down, and so uh that's uh takes the wind out of your sails pretty quickly when that happens. Um you know I I believe I'm uh over deliverer of exceptional service, but when somebody thinks you failed at that, that's uh uh takes it out of you. And and when your people that what you work with team members don't want to don't deliver the same level of exceptional service that you believe in and and your customers are unhappy, that's extremely um unsettling to me.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

So you know, we I will say today, I mean, um we're at a point where we've got a lot of great people and we've continually raised the bar of the level of people that we are uh allowing to be around and uh be a part of our operations at all levels and um retail stores we just got great people at Beauty First, and I'm impressed all the time by uh the quality of that our team's built there. Yeah. And snooze, you know, even though that's a fairly new business. I love snooze commercials. Yeah, you know, it's all about that's all about having fun. But uh, you know, the people are like they genuinely care, you know, it comes from our reviews like I the guy's delivering mattresses, right? Yeah, yeah. And the people are in the reviews that they leave are like, you know, I I just like give that guy a big old kudo all the time. But uh, you know, roofing sales, you know, we're not changing people's lives, but uh we're making an impact.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

I mean, I think I think uh people don't always realize like the kind of things that are actually like I know a lot of roofers and a lot of roofing businesses because I'm like in real estate, you know, we're constantly dealing with them all the time. But um I think what I appreciate is the fact that like you and Ben and and other guys, like if I need something or I need something got called out on an inspection or whatever, it's like, hey, can you guys just come take a look, you know, and tell us honestly like what you think? And there's been numerous times where you or Ben come over and you're like, this this doesn't need to get fixed, you know, this is this is normal or this isn't a big issue, and it's gonna cost you $300 to do this, not a new roof, you know, like different things like that, where it's like I think people appreciate that, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Like, but yeah, well, it's like you know, one thing I tell Ben and the guys is that uh we're there to help our real estate agents sell friends or sell houses, yeah sell friends too. Yeah, sell friends' houses. No, I mean we're there to help them put transactions together, right? And that's doing the right thing for our customer, doing the right thing for them. You know, if it if a repair needs to be made, you know, get it done efficiently. Yeah, but you know, too, it's like if you call me at four o'clock in the afternoon, if we got a chance to go look at the roof that day, we're gonna go look at that, you know. We're you know, because we realize you guys are on time frames, and you know, if we that's just the over-delivering part of our business that not everybody's willing to do, but that's what I want out of our team, yeah, is to over-deliver.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Yeah, I like that. So um, we've kind of talked about this a little bit, like, I mean, but I want to kind of go into a little bit too of like people from the outside don't always know the sacrifice and the things that like I mean, I would say for me, this is a it I'm glad that it's becoming more and more of a conversation to have, but like just the mental like draining and stress and anxiety and everything that goes along with like I can't imagine 45 businesses because I've got two and I feel like there's just this immense amount of pressure all the time because you have like like we've been talking about, you have these high standards, right? Of like I just want everybody to have a great experience, and I want everybody to like I don't want anybody to be unhappy, you know, and I I want people to say good things and whatnot, you know, and sometimes you can't control issues or things that like come up, but like there's also other times where like I I remember recently I was sharing this with Vanessa one night, and you know, there's the ups and downs of real estate, right? And it's just like you can have one month where you sell seven, eight, nine homes, and then you can have two months where you sell one, you know, and it's just this constant, like and then you know, I think too, like there's the constant startover, right? Like, so every year you're like, doesn't matter how many houses you sold last year, like you're back at zero, and you gotta go rebuild that again.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

And um, and that can be mentally draining, especially when there's things that are out of your control, like the market and interest rates and all these other things. And there's times where like literally, I I mean, some of my darkest times of like driving down the road and being like, I just I could drive off the road right now and like just like take my life, and and and it's not like um, but it's like you get beat down over and over again sometimes, and you're just like, Man, like I I like there was one night, this was not long ago. This was probably like eight months ago, ten months ago, where we were kind of going through like this pretty dark time of just like trying to sell our house and like business not being great and like all these other things, and I'm like, Yeah, I was on the interstate, and like the thought that I like was sitting there dwelling on for like a good 15-20 seconds was like I could just run my car into the side of the semi or underneath the semi right now and just yeah, have it be over, you know, like and I think we all go through like a lot of those things when we're getting beat down or when things are tough, and but from the outside, like it's hard because it's like I don't feel like people view us that way, right? Like people view us.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Well they always see the they always see the shiny, yeah. Right? They always see the wins, they don't see the the challenges, yeah. You know, and uh if I people look my life from the outside, they think I got life made all the time and you know, it's not been that way. Yeah. You know, just um I've had times where I've uh been broke three times in my life. You know, people, you know, being broke sucks. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, being broke with kids really sucks. Yeah. So, um and it's a lot of pressure. Um, I grew up in a time when uh during the eighties and we're seeing farmers commit suicide because of the egg economy and you know that that still sticks with me today, my um not because of financial situation, but a one of my best friends when he was um eighteen committed suicide. And uh that that was that was tough because he was one of my best buddies. Um but it was like six months later that that really hit me. Um but the thing I I kind of picked up from then uh that somebody told me at that time is the the art the the act of taking one's life um doesn't make the problems go away. It shifts them. It shifts them to those people that are still around. Yeah. And uh and I've I've dealt with the that um several times in my life. Yeah I've had that challenge in my life and thought about it you know actually take steps a couple times towards that but obviously stopped myself and thought through it and you know and you know at the end of the day those are the lowest times in your life so the thing yeah you know when we're at that situation and you're going through that it doesn't uh seem like it but that's probably the lowest right yeah yeah the next day is going to be higher and uh it doesn't mean immediately the next day too it's like I mean I remember a time that I was not all that long ago eight nine years ago um that uh I was in a really bad spot financially and just the um a lot of things were bad and uh I had a buddy of mine a very close friend of mine let me living in a free apartment um I had a hundred ninety nine dollar a month truck lease it was just you know the things are tough like uh and I remember uh sitting in this apartment that he let me have for a while um like two o'clock in the morning I'm just and I'm sitting there just stressed I remember just you know sweating and just I just didn't know what I was gonna do. I had to take I had my little girls and um my ex-wife at the time and uh was we were just in a tough spot and um and uh my I had uh with my girlfriend at that time um I just didn't I was in a tough spot mentally and uh uh something came over me that night about I just said it was like two o'clock in the morning. Something just came over me and just changed like it was instant like um you know you're not gonna worry about stuff anymore. And I don't know why or what what it was but it you know I'm sure it was God speaking to me and but after that you know it just things shifted. Um things started figuring themselves out. I was I was always getting up doing putting in the work but it just it was a different environment but uh I didn't I really didn't s worry about things uh moving forward because as as I tell everybody worrying do worry is a a waste because it you you worry about things that doesn't change the outcome. Actions the only thing it will change the outcome and the the outcome may be set and maybe it's gonna happen anyway so it doesn't do any good to worry about it. Um so yeah um you know that that was a a pivotal point in my you know the recent life that um I think back to quite a bit is you know doesn't mean I don't stress about things occasionally but I think I'm more think through things than I stress about them and and you know am I making the right decision um or is there a better opportunity or should I be doing this? Um it's not necessarily stress it just you know it's probably just thoughts. Yeah. Um but uh the um you know the I the thing with the the thought of taking one's life today especially um young kids and that's why I have this band I wear on my wrist it says you know you matter um it's play for page which is a teen suic uh teen uh mental health awareness um a great couple here they lost their daughter um she was uh senior at Scut played softball there and her name is obviously Paige but it's a charity that means a lot to me because I have three daughters and um you know they were at a time where they were um you know you know that that concerned me because they're dealing with certain things and kids today have those cell phones yeah and they are you know people can be tough on the other end of them. Um they can say and do things and share it with people all over and they don't know the impact of what they're doing. Yeah. Um you know I recently heard some um 12 year old committed suicide here in in the community it's it's heartbreaking it's like to think that that actually happens. Yeah because and it's because you know somebody made him feel inferior or said something about him or made something up about him or maybe it was true but they didn't they shared something that was private.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

Um in these you know I was when I was growing up as an as a freshman in high school I weighed 89 pounds. I was tiny I was small than any girl in our class and I got picked on all the time. Most people would not s realize that today but um I didn't I uh it was a challenge for me to to cope with that and uh I didn't you know didn't you know but I'll just be tough or toughen up and yeah it's easier said than done and uh when the you know the kids in my class and the other classmen you know were um always picking on you I s you know there's other kids in my class that had it worse than me too. That's the other thing. You know but um and I was probably one of those guys that picked on them occasionally so look back and regret that and I always tried to make that up over time when I'd see those kids moving you know after I got out of high school I made sure I let them know that they mattered to me.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

So um I think if you know I'm the Play for Page Foundation um to me has become a pretty important fundraiser, you know, charity for me because I think it hits on something that most of us don't want to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about teen suicide or suicide in general. But it's it's a real deal and it's a real concern. Yeah. And um you know and I'm sure we call it mental health or whatever but um the fact of the matter is that kids are taking their own lives over things that at the end of the day aren't that big a deal.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

But you know we are uh we're not as adults we're parents we don't want to deal with it we don't want to talk about it they will get through it and uh sometimes parents don't know how to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

They don't know what to say. Um or they don't know what to look for. That's the other thing it's like you know I can speak from experience I don't you you you uh kids hide it well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

Um so it's uh what like what's so can you share like you don't have to say their names but so your daughters their ages uh 18 24 and 25 and what have you now that they're older right and and you know you just mentioned like hey it's not always something that is talked about or like that is seen but there's there's certain signs or whatever like what have you learned through conversations with them like just how real or how much it has impacted them and what is that twofold what has that changed in you as a father to like encourage them and check in with them and that sort of thing does that make sense yeah you know just I'm gonna say because because of my personal experience with this challenge uh over the years is I've always wanted to make sure that my daughters knew I loved them.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

So whether I see them on a daily basis and you know when we were going through divorce I didn't see them on a regular basis um but I talked to them every day and I told them I love them probably multiple times every day. I wanted to make sure they knew that um and uh even like Bella when she was a junior and senior in high school I would every morning before school I'd take her Starbucks at 7 30 in the morning and you know I'd put that before work because that 30 seconds or 15 seconds in some cases of connection was just that important because you just gotta let them know that they matter. It's like it for and we get busy as parents and uh the and I and we got our own stresses and we don't realize you know it's hard for us to put their concerns you know on our plate.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

But uh I uh I I think that's an area that uh I mean that's that's something I'll take away from today because I feel like there's a lot of times where my kids ask me to do something and I'm too busy. You know like my kid one of my kids right now is like Dad will you come shoot with me? You know it's like no I gotta go I gotta go finish this. You know and it's like work is constantly like if there's no work sure you know but if there's if there's work that needs to be done it's like I don't have time for you right now. And and I think that's the challenge of that balance and sacrifice right but like what you're saying is I mean it's 15 20 minutes maybe sometimes you know to like 15 20 seconds like yeah believe me they don't want to hang out with you for two hours.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

Yeah yeah but if you can let them know for five ten fifteen minutes that they matter yeah you know and and uh and I was not good at that as growing up when they were little because I worked a lot and uh but boy I love my girls. I mean I love them with the end of the earth um I think about 'em all the time uh I do anything for them doesn't I mean to a fault. Yeah um but you know we um as parents it's uh you know you got to uh that balance is tough. Yeah and uh we do have stresses as parents today that we didn't I would say the stresses are different. My mom and dad had a lot of stresses and their their parents had stresses at different levels that we you know we think oh well they had it easy back then. No they had you know everybody's stresses that they have in their lives are they may be different. I I can handle a lot more stress than my mom as an example. Yeah but my mom will stress about um you know not getting to church on time and I'll stress about uh you know five businesses and kids and finances and you know things are a much higher level but uh but that doesn't make that stress of my mom any less significant to her. Yeah and the same thing is to our our significant others you know the stresses that you know my wife has versus the stresses I have mine are different maybe significant in my eyes but hers the stresses that she has are just as significant in her eyes and just different and I think with kids um today that's even more relevant because they are accentuated their stresses are um sometimes like the social medias and stuff it's um friends and the things that uh uh we just dealt with differently as as when we were kids two questions and then we can wrap up all right um first one is if you like now that you've had I mean I would say good what almost 30 years of running businesses right coming up on 40 he looks really young everybody um so coming up on 40 years like we've kind of talked about this a little bit um and I just kind of want to know your opinion on this as far as the different kinds of decades that we've gone through right like our 20s you know what motivated us in our 20s and our 30s what motivated us to like keep going or like what motivates you now I mean and is that difficult when you're like I've got 45 businesses I don't need any more like they're successful they're what's the motivation now with all that stuff and moving forward for you like what gets you out of bed to be like this is why I do what I do? Um I think we go back to what we were talking about earlier is peace of mind. Yeah I'm I'm putting myself through the chaos now so I can hopefully have peace of mind in the near future. And you know some guys are grateful I mean I got buddies who have significant businesses and they they don't have near the stress I do or and I like I said don't they stress you know work on their plate that I do. Um you know and you know I'm and I'm grateful for them and uh I'm happy for them and I just uh admire and want to be I just want to get there. Uh you know and I look back at my twenties everything was about fun and just you know I took advantage of every opportunity all the time it just I never I just did it. I didn't think about it. I you know I was building businesses and didn't realize what I was doing. I was started building apartments in Maryville Missouri I didn't I just was doing it. I didn't know it was a business I was just having fun. I was making money I'd I had like eight thousand dollars of uh discretionary income on real estate in nineteen ninety three you know what's that equivalent today I didn't know that I didn't know what that was about I just thought that's what you did because it was fun um and then you know then in the 30s it was I be you know when I uh very much more competitive you know about it wanted to be the best wanted to win um I'd say in the forties I'd sold most of my businesses I think when I turned 40 I sold a bunch of businesses and uh and didn't realize what I had at the time you know the the I had a cash machine at the time I sold the businesses now I had some cash. Yeah oh shees I'm burning through this pretty quickly. Yeah. Um so um you know I the the power of cash flow uh and my buddy Jerry um quoted him a couple times but he you don't realize the power of cash flow versus net worth you mean you have a high net worth but if you don't have cash flow you don't it doesn't help you. Yeah you gotta put that money to work and uh I didn't realize what I had then um so he spent most of my forties building back a machine and uh to create cash flow and uh uh that was forties were challenging times for me. Um but you know figured it out. That's you know I'm I'm grateful for God that He gave me the ability to to um the skills to do what I do. But uh um I'm hoping that here in my later fifties that I can create peace of mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:58

You know and uh it's surrounding yourself with the right people, putting the right people in in place you know and we're doing that and you know I got a my nephew is helping run the roofing company and he's great. He's just young he's fantastic. He is yeah just like me um except he's taller has more hair thirty years 30 some five years younger true um yeah thanks for agreeing um but you're just you know and you're just putting people around you that you wanna that you know you can trust and um rely on and you want to help them succeed and help them win um same thing with you know beauty first or snooze and just it's all we got great leadership and uh blessed there and but I want them to I want them to all have the same thing out of life that I have and it's and it's different but peace of mind um for me is different than peace of mind for somebody who's right managing one of my stores or something. Right. But you know them you know but I want them to g achieve the things they want to achieve but they're like I said they're different. We all have our own things um but I just want to be a part of helping them be you know create the lives they want to create. So I the one thing I I have found out throughout life is that as an owner um I often want more out of life for the people that work with me than they want out of life for themselves and I gotta stop and and realize that is that what they want out of life is different than what I want and they may not want to make the six figure income they may not care about owning a house. They may not care about having a nice car you know but they just want to go home and cook dinner with their wife and watch prices right or wheel of fortune or whatever it is. But you know but I but we tend to you know um forecast what we have or what we want on that of those around us and and it's just not the that way you know so we've got guys in our roofing company that'll you know that want to make fifty sixty thousand dollars a year and I got guys that want to make two hundred yeah you know and and they're all okay yeah just uh uh just want like I said I I have a vision of helping everybody exceed great things and but great things for them might be are is different than great things to me. Yeah. And I got friends that what I consider great they consider that starter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:35

Yeah. Last question last question so I get you out of here and you can go to your inspection. You're good boy you're good. Um if there's somebody listening that's thinking about starting a business and uh they're kind of wrestling with some of the things we talked about like risk or whatever like what would be your advice to them um whether to pursue it or not?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:04

A the if the business if it's something you're looking at buying does it fund fundamentally and financially make sense is it working and B probably most important is are you really committed? You don't go start a business. If you want to start a business because you want an easier life keep doing the job you got because you'll be you're not gonna succeed you're gonna go broke because owning a business is way harder work than owning working a job and you want to say well I don't want somebody telling me what you what to do and I see this all the time at wall well I'm not gonna listen I'm gonna you know I'm gonna be my own boss that person tends to fail. Yeah and uh you know if you're not one to put in the work ethic for somebody else you're never gonna work on your own. Yeah you know and you're in the real estate world right we see a lot of people become realtors and they they think that means they can come in go as they please well if you treat being a realtor like a real career and you put in 40 50 hours a week you will crush it. You will make more money you can know what to do with and you may you may struggle a little bit out of the gate but you'll figure it out. If you're putting those kind of hours in same thing I tell my roofing guys it's the same thing. Yeah you're 1099 but if you treat it like a real job you're here at eight o'clock you work till six o'clock at night and you're putting in the effort and and when there's a storm you're putting in extra hours and working on the weekends because you're gonna have time during the winter time you're not working. Yeah you're gonna have plenty of time off yep but you'll make six figures you know multiple six figures if you do that it's it would scare most people how much money they can make but you know but if you aren't willing to commit it's like I go back to the guy that was you got a million dollars invest but you're only willing to risk two fifty keep it don't buy don't waste your money because you made why throw two fifty away if you're not willing to risk the million then you're really not committed And uh if you can buy a great business for $250 and build it into something great, it's that's you know an opportunity. But if your risk level, if you're managing your risk level off of against what you you could stand to lose, you're really that I just consider you not to be really committed. And I would my suggestion is to not do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:25

Thanks, man. Yeah, thank you. I have one fun question. All right. If money was not an issue and you could go start something or own an existing company business today, what would you what would you buy? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:44

I never never thought about that question. Um money was no object, you'd start any business.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Or existing. If there's an existing business where you're like Elon Musk, I'd go buy Tesla. Yeah. Or whatever. Like, is there a company that you're like, I'd go buy that company, or you'd be like, I'd go start this thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Hmm. You're gonna think this is dumb, but I'd farm. I love it. I would farm. I love farming. Yeah. I love growing, I love the smell of dirt, I love being out there in nature. Now I I enjoy the great things of the city and vacationing. But I love animals, I love tractors, I love I I uh uh I often look back at the chance I had to farm back in the day. I wouldn't change that at the time because the life I created was because of that decision I made, but to be able to farm with my dad would have been probably as cool as thing as I could have ever done.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Thanks for your time, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:49

Thank you, buddy. Appreciate you. Love ya.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

Love you too, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:52

All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:54

It's good stuff. Oh good stuff, man. Man,