Trailer Talk with Big Rentals: Balancing Automation and Personal Touch in Rental Services | 048

Get a Big Rentals Demo: https://calendly.com/ryan-keen/trailer-hustle-big-rentals

Download the Trailer Hustle APP: Trailer Hustle App

Watch the first Big Rentals Interview here: https://youtu.be/hPKczJMbXkQ

In this episode, Justin Martin and Ryan Keen discuss innovative strategies for trailer rental businesses, including marketplace protections, automation, customer engagement, and new software features. They share insights on balancing automation with personal touch, handling out-of-state breakdowns, and leveraging AI tools to enhance customer support. Justin Martin and Ryan Keen discuss the nuances of trailer rental business, data collection, customer interactions, and future features. They share insights on virtual assistants, business growth, and platform improvements, emphasizing authenticity and continuous innovation.

Key Topics

• Marketplace damage protection implementation
• The importance of balancing automation with human support
• New software features including customizable questions and AI chatbot
• Strategies for building customer loyalty and relationships
• Handling out-of-state breakdowns and customer service excellence Data collection and analysis in trailer rentals
• Customer interactions and feedback handling
• Future platform features and improvements

trailer rental, marketplace protection, automation, customer support, AI chatbot, business growth, rental management, support systems, software updates Trailer Rental, Business Growth, Data Analytics, Customer Service, Platform Features, Virtual Assistants, Entrepreneurship, SaaS, Marketplaces, User Feedback

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Trailer Hustle Podcast. My name is Justin, and this is the Trailer Owners Network. I'm very glad that you guys are here with me today. And I have somebody else with me today that you guys seemed to like because that episode got a good amount of views, and I'm gonna bring them in. We got Ryan from Big Rentals joining me today. So we can just kind of talk some shop and uh kick it for a few minutes. Uh Ryan, say what's up, man. Welcome. What's going on? Thank you for having me again. Of course, man. Of course, yeah. You're uh a lot of people liked uh the conversation that we had, and I think we're gonna I'm gonna replicate that a little bit with other people. So um not just you know other business owners or partners of trailer hustle like you guys, but uh, you know, other people that rent trailers, do junk removal, all that. I mean, I just want to start hearing more and more people's stories because you know, I talk to a lot of people, but not everybody talks to a lot of people on a personal level of like how'd you get your start? Because the way you got started, the way I got started, like it's gonna be different, you know, than how somebody else might. So the more stories people hear, the better it probably will be.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I also forgot to mention today's actually our nine-year anniversary of starting trailer rentals. Renting trailers? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I forgot to mention that. Nice, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

So but nine years accounting. At what point are you guys gonna stop renting trailers? I'm curious about that. And for those that don't know like complicated, yeah. Yeah, too. It gets too hard to manage. Yeah, that's true. Um, for those that are that are tuning in, um, you know, Ryan and I have known each other for quite a while through originally just from being trailer renters, and then of course through the groups. And um, as Big Rentals and HQ Rant kind of got its um its legs and started doing its thing, you know, we talked more and more and more. Now we work together and um um do a little bit of promotion together, and um, I'm a customer of the product as well. So it's uh it's been it's been pretty great. Um, but Ryan has been a uh a trailer renter for officially nine years. Congrats, man. Uh had a fleet of over 30 trailers, and that's correct, right? Over 30 or at 30.

unknown 1:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yeah, man. That's uh that's a pretty big uh pretty big accomplishment, man. Um you know, and I think uh if I remember correctly, if you haven't watched the last episode, I'll link it down below. Um I'm also gonna link um if you guys want to, at any point you like anything that you hear if we do talk about big rentals or HQ Rent. If you guys want to know anything more about that, you could set up a call with Ryan and his team. Just click the link down below and you guys can uh get a demo from them. Takes like 15, 20 minutes just to kind of see what it's all about, what it entails, and how it can help your business. Um, but in any case, um yeah, I mean, uh I'm curious at what point, uh, I probably off subject of it for a second, but I'm curious at what point you guys are going to have Big Reynolds HQ Rent just kind of take the reins uh and and get rid of the rental side of things altogether. Because I think you're you have less trailers now. You've been slowly kind of thinning the herd a little bit, as I have, as trailer hustle is kind of ballooned up. Um you guys are doing way bigger stuff than I'm doing, but I'm just curious uh what conversations you and uh Pablo have had about that.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Whenever it gets too complicated. That's kind of what we told each other. Wherever it gets too much and we're not as soon as it starts seeing stuff go down, and then it's like then we'll you know, cut ties a little bit there. But I mean, right now we enjoy it. We actually test our whole entire product through our rental company. So it's a nice thing to have where every single feature we build, we run it and test it through our own rental company before we release it to people. So that's kind of just our our RD in a sense for the whole entire software and features we build. So that's kind of nice about having it as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

I didn't even I don't know. I mean it's common sense, but I didn't I can't say that I sat here and thought, like, oh yeah, because normally, like with me, sure, I can test the trailer hustle app or I can test a functionality or whatever, but until real world other people use it, it's kind of like, you know, I I really don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Then that's your your proof right there. Yeah. At least run it their own system and see how it works. Yeah, if there's bugs, it goes back to the team, it can goes back into production. Until it gives our our knob approval, then we'll release it to everyone.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah, no, that's that's cool. And it's also a testament to um the conversation that people have a lot of like, can I work a full-time job and start a trailer rental company? Like I know that I think you guys originally had like a transport company or something, and then it kind of pivoted to um to rentals and that kind of thing. But um, you know, just it goes to show you can you can build multiple things at at once. And I've told my story plenty of times as far as like working in retail, crazy hours, whatever, um, and then building the trailer rental side and eventually being able to go full time. But you guys, I mean, you had a much bigger operation than than I had when I quit my job, and you guys are building this this thing, you know. It's pretty, pretty, uh, pretty badass, man. That's pretty awesome. Absolutely. So um, what are what are some of the I know you guys have been since our last conversation, you've been working on some some new stuff. One of them I was excited about, um, which was adding the custom questions. Um I know when I talked to you and Pablo about it, I was like, yeah, hell yeah, do that, do that. You know, let's see Pablo.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

We're in a Waffle House in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Yeah, that's right. Uh yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. We went down for the uh for the picnic when you guys were down for the picnic, and uh, you guys got that that that done really fast too. Um and uh Pablo, man, that guy just just any idea, he's like, hmm, takes out his phone, like, all right, got it.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

All the software notes and ideas in his phone, and that's why he just pulls it up and goes through the whole entire thing. Yeah, that's it's wild production.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yeah, it was it was funny. It was like midnight, we're walking across the street to this uh this waffle house, and no idea where we were though. What's that?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

No idea where we were.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah, I don't remember. We were outside of we were in or just outside of Ocala somewhere. I don't I don't remember the actual name of the little town we're in or whatever. But we were there for three hours talking. Yeah. So waiting for a fist fight to break out, you know. But um, but yeah, we were just kind of talking shop and doing our thing. I was just like, you know, like I I ask a lot of questions. I want to vet my customers better before the booking just comes in to me. I want, I mean, if the booking comes in, that's fine. But instead of just waiting for their license, waiting for their insurance, waiting for all that stuff, I can get them to answer the questions right out of the gate. Like uh for me, the questions that I've input on mine is um, what are your rental intentions? What do you plan to use the trailer for? Because that eliminates a lot of people that they're either using it for something that I don't want them to use it for, even if the trailer's equipped for it, I'm selfish. And sometimes I just don't want people using it for certain things. Um, that just makes me uncomfortable. Um, or um getting their year make a model, um, trim level, all that kind of stuff, um, you know, to avoid those people trying to pick up your car hauler with a Ford Taurus or something, um, which we know happens a lot. Um, it can. So I think it it's it's cool because it's not a big friction point from when I tested it and from my what my customers are six. I've asked them, but it's it's not a huge friction point for the customers um at all. I mean, it just they just go through the process, boom, they answer the quick questions, it's it's nothing. So anyway, so yeah, so I ask about towing vehicle, I ask about rental intentions, and then I ask about uh yes or no, do you have a functioning brake controller? And I apply that. Um, one cool thing, and then and I know I just kind of took over and said what it is, but I think you're about to beat me to it. Yeah, probably. But the cool thing is I can dedicate specific questions to specific trailers. Like I might not necessarily need a brake controller question on my six by 12 utility trailer, you know? Um, so it's pretty cool where I can apply them all to all of them. But anyway, so tell us if I've missed anything, tell us a little bit more about that if you can, and then uh other things you have going on, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah. I mean, so you kind of hit the nail on the head there with that. You got rundown of things. What's nice with those questions, though, they're fully customizable to you. So there's no kind of set pre-questions of those. So you can do like free text, you can do multiple choice, single select. So you kind of make it to however you like there. And like you mentioned, you can be very specific on which that trailer that might apply to. So, you know, you don't care about the brake control on a utility trailer, right? Or you may not care about their towing vehicle for a smaller trailer, right? Because usually pretty versatile. So that's the nice thing about those as well. And that's why we we got a lot of good feedback from those adding those in.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

So yeah, and then what I was talking about with the Waffle House thing was, you know, or where when we were when we were there, is that was an idea that we all kind of came up with while we were there, kind of shooting the breeze about it. Um, something that I wanted and probably just like types it in or whatever. And then what what was it? I mean, this has only been removed by a month and a half when you guys hit me up and it's like, hey, we've added some questions. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah, you know, it's like it's been out for like a couple weeks now.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

So yeah, yeah, no, it's uh it's that's super cool. Um, you have another tool that you texted me about, and I don't I'm sorry if I'm spoiling something, I can cut this out if need be, but you have a uh an AI um kind of helper. Chat bot. Yeah, a chatbot, thank you. Um that was pretty impressive to me because I I tried to stump it. As soon as you said it to me, I'm like, let me tell them how it sucks, you know, just being goofy about it. But it actually worked exactly how it was.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

You're the guy that said Ryan sucks. I saw that response come through. I saw a response, like someone said Ryan sucks. So that's probably you.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I don't think that was me. Actually, I know for a fact it wasn't me. Okay, I don't think it was me. But um, yeah, so that's probably it. Well, by the way, that's really good for people to know that you can see what they type in back in. But I it's it's cool that it's there because I know that you guys have been hiring like crazy. You hit probably 20 people, didn't you? Or 19. Yeah, at least hit 20. 20, 20 um staff members with uh or team members with uh Big Reynolds. That's that's huge. And even with that, I know that it came up in the group a couple of times of like um people having a hard time finding the phone number or something like that, which I didn't have a hard time finding it, but I could see where some folks might. I mean, you know, some people are less are more technically challenged than others. It is what it is. But if it's on every page or close to every page and you have access to it, that'd be pretty great. Because like I said, I tried to stump the thing and it walked me through everything. I even like your brand new questions that just got added. I went in there and was like, uh, how do I, and you may have seen this, but I was like, uh, how do I add questions to my trailers or whatever? And it just walked me through everything step by step. I was like, it was pretty, it was pretty great. I mean, it was just as good as like a chat GPT helping walk me through, you know, modifying something on on my website that I did or Shopify or whatever, or you know, in my computer. So um, so that was cool. But um just to reiterate, you and I have talked about this off camera before um about over-automating things, and it's good that you guys are not just gonna, you know, let that replace five or six employees and then all right, well, customer service is taken care of, you know what I mean? Like you guys are still active and and uh ready to answer phones and that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean automating things is great. It's great, but at some point there's there's only so much it can do for you, right? And you know, not a lot of people, we work with all life's walks of life. So, you know, we want to be there for for anyone, whether they are the technical per kind or the untechnical kind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

So some people just respond differently to it, you know. I I know for me, if if I can automate at anything, I'm just like representative. Like I'm you could probably solve my problem in three seconds. I don't care, I want to talk to somebody. Um, it's just how I am. Um, and I'm sure a lot of people are that way. It was probably a lot of people that are like, dude, I'll just use chatbot, yeah, answer my question. Great. Um, a lot of it's probably just embracing it. But the other thing, I know that y'all have other automations and other things going on, but that was um something we could touch on because um we talked about it. I did a uh uh uh episode all about Google reviews, and one of the things that a lot of people liked, like a big takeaway, was asking the customer for the review and then texting it to them right then. It wasn't like a um, you know, an automated email or something that came in after the rental was finished or something like that. And those those have their place for sure, but it's just another example how if you over-automate your process, you you lose a lot of that human touch and it can turn some people away, or you just won't, you know, the it's not as effective as people like to think, you know, customers and people in general, they're not as uh engaging or engaged with the automated stuff as much as you might like to think. So um I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Well, you know, people I've I've been doing it for years. A lot of my repeat customers, right? They just get to know you. And then they're the ones that you know book all the time and they come back and it's because they know you, right? They can go to probably people someone closer to them, but they'll come back to you because they know you. Right. So it kind of goes a long way with that.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah. Well, I mean, I talk about all the time. F last year and the year before, it was just under 40% of my revenue is returned customers, and like these are customers I've built relationships with. And if you don't build relationships with them, they're yeah, why would they use you? I mean, sure, if it's automated and it's easy and all great, there's probably, I'm sure there's a space for that where um you'll get a certain amount of customers because of that kind of process, but I don't know, man. And the and I maybe I'm just weird about it, but if things are like over automated or I have no human interaction with something, I usually just don't mess with it. That's just me personally. Um, you know, I want somebody I can talk to if something goes wrong. I you know, all that kind of stuff. So so anyway, so I think you guys are doing it really well. Everything that I see you guys are adding, it's um it's pretty uh pretty cool. And it's not none of it scares me. I guess I guess is the point.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Where's we want investment to support? That's like a big thing. We're always pushing is support, support, support. So yeah, making those changes.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Yeah, not even necessarily like uh, you know, I can't imagine that there's a lot of people that are confused or have problems with your stuff because I think your software is the easiest thing out there um to use. It's crazy easy. Um, but like everything, you have a learning curve. So I'm sure that a lot of staff stuff is like getting people onboarded, um, doing some outbound calls and outreach and stuff like that. Um, and uh making sure people are at least comfortable with the system. And you know, there's gonna be people that do have questions, of course, but it is very, very, very easy. Um that's really cool, man. Um, what else is new, man? I know that there's some marketplace changes. Um tell me about those, man.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Yeah, we started offering a coverage on marketplace on our main big rounds website. So that means every rental that goes through that has a coverage for full damage pretty much. So the trail will be fully covered for the full value on the if it goes through our marketplace. So that's kind of that peace of mind that people are looking for on a product like that. So we're super excited to announce that. We've been running it since February. So been kind of keeping it quiet a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's I mean, I don't think that's something to keep quiet. That's a big that's a big thing. Um how how does it work? Does a customer pay for it? Is it just automatic? Like how does how does it work? Yeah, so it's automatically added to every booking made. And are you charging a premium for that or anything like that, or how's how's it work?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

It goes straight to the the the backing company.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

No kidding. Yeah.

unknown 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Wow. Okay, so so I know that there's the percentage cut that you guys get when you, you know, because actually I just had uh how many? I think I had like four rentals from you guys. Um between last week and a lot popping up. Yeah, there was a lot of them. Um so that was that was cool. Appreciate you guys sending them to me. Um, but uh I I I I still pay the standard 20% commission, no big deal. I I I have no issue with that personally because I didn't have to do anything to get them. You guys did it. Um so are you guys just taking some of that 20% commission essentially and applying that to the company that that as the protection?

SPEAKER_00 14:38

So the it's just another charge on the each booking that gets added to them. That goes straight to them.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Okay, got it. Okay, got it. So the customer is technically paying for it, but the the partner's not paying for it, the customer's paying for it. Okay, and it's a mandatory thing. Correct. That's cool. Well well, um, what's the average cost of it? Like is that a percentage of the rental or it's a percentage of the value. Got it. Okay, got it. That's cool. And so if if it comes to the marketplace and something happens, what's the process?

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Is it something where they file a claim with you or what? You s file a claim with us, you just give us all the information, and we'll send a request for all the information, we'll get that and get you taken care of. We'd like to have the stuff done within a week. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah. That's that's pretty pretty cool. Is it a is it like does it is like a total loss coverage, or is it hey, if somebody destroyed my fender and they don't want to pay for it, like what what exactly does it cover? Total loss. Total loss, okay, got it. So it's not like uh, hey, they jag knife and in my toolbox, what do I do?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

No, no, they're still deductible for that stuff. Um, and all that varies. So they're still deductible. It's like a normal policy, yeah, right? You don't just damage a trailer and then say, oh, I paid a coverage, walk away. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. It's normal policy.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

That's cool though. I mean, it gives you extra peace of mind because I know that with the marketplace thing, there's certainly less control from the host side or the partner side, we'll say. Um, you know, the actual rental company, because I haven't had full conversations with them. I haven't, you know, felt them out. I haven't seen that they're a dummy. I haven't seen, you know, I haven't seen any of that stuff. It just comes through. Boom. And then of course I send them the link to the software and they complete the booking. Um, so it is good to have that extra peace of mind. Um now, of course, there you have to always be, if you're watching this, just know you still have to be willing to pull the plug when needed. Um, you know, if something comes up. But um, but no, it's it's really cool to have that added um peace of mind. Now, everybody's gonna say this because it popped in my head. If you're adding an additional charge to the customer and it's a mandatory thing, have you guys noticed any scenario where people are getting to checkout and they're backing out? Has that number increased? I know people do it sometimes, they want to see the total number, but have you noticed an increase in people backing out of the checkout, or have you noticed a decrease in just online bookings in general?

SPEAKER_00 16:51

I don't have that data. I don't have that data on me. I know we are collecting that data. Uh, we are very data heavy, but I don't have that data on me to kind of get like a solid answer on that. I just know that we're we're constantly building our SEO at the same time on our main big realms website. So it's just constant kind of going up no matter what. So it's hard to tell what that game changer is when we're making so many changes constantly. Right. So whether that whether that's SEO, whether that is the price of things, who knows?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Yeah, I guess the the one to look at would be abandoned checkouts. That's probably the uh the big one to stare at if you're if you're adding anything else or adding other fees. Um far though, I haven't had a single, and I've gotten a lot of bookings from you guys, and I know a lot of guys that do um get a bunch of them. And uh I can't say that I've had a single customer ever complain about a fee or anything. And matter of fact, there was one time somebody did mention a fee that was on there, and I just explained to him, hey, it's a third-party company that you found. From now on, you know, here's my here's my number, just call me. And I know that you don't want to hear that, but I yeah, I use your software, so it doesn't matter really. Um but uh but yeah, I mean that's that's essentially what it is. And you know what? Listen, I'm gonna say what everybody else is thinking. That's what we that's what people do on marketplaces. It is what it is, okay? You want 100% of that customer um the next time you can do it. So um, so one of those things. So um, but yeah, it's uh I I haven't had anybody I haven't had anything come up that I couldn't explain very easily with the way that you guys operate. And uh so far I've been pretty damn happy with it. And by the way, you're the only marketplace that I've actually gotten a booking on. I took my trailers off the other ones. I'm not on uh you know the other uh two or three uh names that come up quite a bit. Um I I just never got a booking ever. In fact, um the one booking I did get, I ended up canceling on the guy because he's just a dumb dumb. I was like, I'm like, no, man, this guy's not taking my equipment. Yeah, but um, but no, that's um that's pretty uh that's pretty cool. What else, man? Um oh that that coverage you just mentioned, is that something that eventually might be offered in any other places? Like we could opt into it with like your software side or your software customers, or hopefully. Hopefully. Hopefully, not putting on the spot too guys. We'll leave it there. We'll leave it there, Justin. Totally fair. Totally fair. Um yeah, heard that. Heard that. Um sorry, I know that like sometimes we might want to just talk trailers and stuff like that, but I'm I'm always curious about um you're curious about business. Yeah, man, I've yeah, I like that stuff, and I also like to know what's coming and be in the know and all that kind of thing. And also I want to bring it to the trailer hustle community so they know what's up because you got a lot of a lot of customers that are in my community that are in, you know, not my community, the trailer hustle community. Um, so uh yeah, so it's nice to bring it to those guys and and gals and let them know what's uh what's happening. And sometimes there's like a I didn't know I could do that. You know, it could be one of those things that you just see the right the right click.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

I get those texts sometimes, like, wait, I can do this.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Like, yeah, it happened to me, dude. Like you remember you text me, I was like, oh, I can do that. I was like, how do I send this thing to the cut? You just click this button. I'm like, okay, I'm an idiot. You know, so so yeah. One thing I wish that you guys would do more of is, and I know that you're focused on a million things right now, but all these people you're hiring, you should hire someone to make some dedicated how-to videos. You know what I mean? Like uh like walkthroughs and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

We are they're coming, they're coming right now. Since we add more, we're widening our bandwidth in a sense. So we're getting some more time to kind of take a step back a little bit and kind of just make some content for you know our current product, even though it is constantly changing, so those videos do get outdated very quick, but it's more just adding some more videos to some stuff and you know, having a uh a gallery of things that people can go through, but at the same time, they can still always call us, right? Call us and just ask. And I know they feel like I like feel bad for calling you, it's like call us, right? Yeah, or use the chat bot. Use a chat bot, call us, whatever you want to do, whatever you're comfortable with.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm certainly more of a visual learner for sure. So, like if there's like a video showing, you know, but it also is very frustrating because I know you're talking about what things get outdated, it's a big chore for you guys because if you change something now, you have to go back and remove a video because if somebody finds an old video because it's a little bit better with the keywords, they find that one first. They're like, it doesn't work, it doesn't match, you know. Yeah, like if I'm in uh Adobe Premiere Pro or Photoshop and I'm like wanting to edit something and I find a video from like the 2020 version, I'm just like, it's not the same, the button's not there, you know. So that can be funny.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

And then now all the stuff's like, I'm not see equipment header, right? Okay. Right, yeah, go find that one.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

So yeah. So, but uh, but no, that's uh that's really cool. But I'm I'm I'm certainly the type where I like to see that you know, a video showing specifically what it is and and all that stuff. But uh at the same time, I can follow direction um using chatbot or just get you guys on the phone if I have a problem or something like that. So we can help you out with it, we can do it for you, whatever you want. Yeah. Now, you guys have shown time and time again how receptive you are to ideas and to, hey, this feature would be really cool. Hey, what if it did this? What if it did that? And I know there's a lot of companies that talk about how feature heavy they are, and they talk about, oh, we do all this, we do all that. One thing I will say, and then and I have a follow up to this, is you guys haven't rolled anything out that I've seen that was buggy or that had issues or was hard to get the hang of um or just was kind of pointless feeling. So I I applaud you for that because everything that you outlock that you roll out, the masses, it's not like a niche, like, okay, 10% of our audience can do like you're rolling out things that help the you know the vast majority of people that use your platform, whether it be marketplace, you know, your website and software customers, what have you. So that is awesome. But if people have really cool ideas, I mean, look, you know not everybody's going to Waffle House with you at midnight, you know, talking shop with you and Pablo. I will though. Like me. I won't turn out and go to Waffle House. So um, but yeah, yeah, just make sure you stretch beforehand in case you get into a fist fight. But uh but um how can people reach out to you and give you these ideas? Because I'm sure you guys, I imagine you'd be willing to hear anybody out on a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean you can always reach out to your either rep, you can shoot me a text if you have my number, you know, email us, whatever you want to do there. Because we always it's always one of those things where one, we don't want a buggy product, because a buggy product can, you know, that either affects the customer side or your end and you're not doing stuff, your business stops because of it. So that kind of goes back to the first one we started talking about where we want to test our whole product. So that's kind of a nice thing there. Um, but we're always feedback head. We won't since our product is built by us from the ground up, so we can do absolutely anything. The sky's the limit on it. But at the same time, we don't want to just build into the abyss and just start building stuff just to build stuff. So we're always just trying to, like, hey, what do you want? Right? What what really would make that game changer that move that needle in your business to want to either make your life easier or just take like help you get more business? That's really what is at the end of the day. People just want more bookings. So it's like, let's figure out how to get more bookings together. Let's make your life easier.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yeah, yeah. And and that's that's kind of what I've seen from you guys. And that's another reason why I was eager to jump on board, not just as a customer, but also as a brand partner um with you guys, is because I feel like you're doing a lot of things right in those regards. Like, I would much rather have a company that does really, really well with like, you know, 10 things and consistently adding more little by little versus companies that just throw a ton of like, look at all this shit we can do. And it's like cool. It'd be overwhelming too. Yeah, yeah. It's overwhelming. It's hard to navigate, all this kind of stuff. There's a lot, there's a lot of that out there, man. And uh, you know, I talk to a lot of people too that are getting started and I see them join the group every day. Um, you know, people on the social media is commenting. I'm always like, yo, click this link and talk to Big Reynolds, like they're gonna show you what's up. Um, and that's the other thing, too, is if you if you dive in right out of the gate and you find it like, you know, God forbid that first product that you sign up with is like overwhelming. You're already overwhelmed for the majority of people, a lot of people, and I mean maybe not the majority, but a lot of people, when they get started in this, they're pretty nervous, you know. I mean, and you've seen it, people have a hard time sometimes in their gut justifying paying for a website. Or I can do it myself. It's like, okay, yeah, you can do it yourself, but is it gonna be as good as this? No. Is it gonna, you know, and it's marginally cheaper? It's not, you know, people have a hard time because they're nervous with that, with that startup thing anyway. If you compound all that on top of, you know, getting a complicated process or a hard-to-use system or something that just doesn't make sense to you or whatever, you know. I know people that are using other products that they just quit using the back end and they're only using the like the website that was offered, you know, because like the back end. Yeah, they're like, I just take cash and I take square. Like I might even use the rest of the stuff because it's so complicated. So it's cool that you guys have focused on the things you're focusing on. And I tell everybody, I'm like, listen, it's the easiest thing. I've tried a lot of stuff, I've worked with other companies, I've done all kinds of stuff in this realm, and um, it's definitely the easiest thing to uh to use. So that's cool. You guys are building on out, uh, in my opinion, the the right way. But people that have good ideas, there's people that sometimes will surprise me, you know. I'm like, shit, I never thought of that. You know, like that's yeah, that would be really cool, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

That would be pretty cool, actually, and then we'll start building it.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Yeah, yeah. I wonder if that's something you could build into your chat bot. Um, you know, like I've got an idea.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

You know, and then it and then it turns into kind of like a yeah, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Then it turns into kind of like a submission, if if you will, a submission. Are you writing this down? Yeah. Oh yeah, look at that live on air. But uh no, it uh that would be pretty cool as a hey, I've got an idea. You know, could could um HQ Ren or Big Reynolds offer XYZ or what if we did this? That would be kind of cool as you know. I've got an idea.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Give me a week, Justin. All right, oh yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

So all right, I'll tell you what. If you do that, you're coming back on, we're gonna show everybody and we're gonna run right here. 30 minutes into this episode or wherever we are, uh, we're gonna reference this clip if y'all build that up. But I think it'd be I think it'd be kind of cool, you know. Great way to, I mean, you've talked before how you're you're basically just a big data mining machine. And um, you know, it'd be a good way because there's a lot of there's a lot of uh smart people out there, man. There's a lot of dumb people that say some shit, and you're just like, why did that come from you? It's working from New York, yeah. So but it's like uh it's it's it's cool because you just never know that one line somebody says that makes your wheel turn in just a different direction. You're like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah, never know.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

I'm a dumb guy, by the way. So people say things that impress me all the time. But I'm no genius either, Justin. Just to be honest. Like uh that's fair. That's fair. I'll run trailers. Dumb guys having a conversation. Um but uh man, um, I think that would be uh that would be really cool. And um, you know what's funny is I'm giving you that idea. I need to put that on the app. I am uh finish.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

What's that? Race to the finish.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Yeah, yeah. I need to put that on the uh the trail. Well, you'll get it done way quicker than me, trust me. A lot of people don't uh dude, I had somebody think that I was like that I had like this big thing going on. I'm like, bro, it is me. Yeah, it's it's it's me. I don't uh I don't have like investors or any like a like dude, I'm just employees.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I've been trying to tell you get people, but you just keep telling me no.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Bro, I actually I did hire a virtual assistant recently. I tried it. That's big, Justin. I hired two of them. They both were terrible. They were terrible, dude. So I gotta find the right one. And and really what it was is like I want to start pitching the app to different types of companies and and different types of people to get them on there. And I want to start really growing the depth of, I really want to I want to get a good infrastructure of companies or a good um, I don't know the right word to use, um, uh diverse type of customer or companies on the app, like more dealerships, more service shops, more you know. So I want to the right way. Of course, we can use social media, we can do ads and all, but I want to call people, you know, like I want to get on the phone, hey man, I'm gonna send you an email, I'm gonna show you everything about the app. I'd love for you to join it. It's free unless you want other features, great. Um, five bucks.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

It's five bucks.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

What, five bucks an hour?

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Uh no, a month.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

A month. Oh, the app. The app, yes. Yeah, it's five. Well, there is a free version, which is great. Um, then we have the light, and then we have the pro, five bucks or fifty bucks a month. And there's annual plans too where you get two months for free. So it just depends on the features that you want. If you want maintenance logs, you want doc uploads, you know, all that. We got pre-rental checklists coming. Uh, we've got a uh probably a red flag registry that's gonna be coming soon as well, a proper one. It's a lot of legality surrounding that stuff because of um customer data. Yeah, personal information. Yeah, like you like a lot of people haven't opted in, but people are putting their information out there and it's made public. So it's you gotta be careful with all that. So we're gonna do it right, kind of like you guys. Like I uh it's not super feature heavy, but each feature that comes out is gonna be very well thought out, hopefully, and uh and right, and hopefully we're the bugs are behind us. But anyway, um, what was I saying before uh before that? Man, I totally lost it. Waffle House went straight back to Waffle House? It's on my mind right now. That's about it. It looks like it. Okay, I remember. We were talking about virtual assistants, and yeah, there's a whole bunch that just got cut out that you guys couldn't see because I could not remember at all what we were talking about. So anyway, yeah, so I hired a virtual assistant finally, speaking of hire people, and the first person I hired, all I wanted them to do is I created this the CRM arc, I created a forum that has business information, you know, contacting, like all the stuff that you would gather um ahead of time. And I said, Hey, all I want you to do is give me lists of companies and these specific cities, right? Tell like I just want I want to be able to open up this list and start making phone calls, okay, and start pitching the app and getting more people on the app. And the first person had no idea what I was talking about. I'm like, look, and by the way, English was their first language. They were a US-based person, the whole thing. They just cannot grasp what I was doing. And I'm like, I don't know how many other ways I could explain. So anyway, I got rid of them, and then I hired another person, and this person was in Pakistan. Very, very smart person. This person was very, very, very smart. I mean, that I was speaking to them, like, you know, we did like a video call to discuss the project and discuss the things that I was doing. And I was just like, geez, man, this person's like they had like a periodic table thing on the back. I'm like, this person's smart, you know. They got a poster of the periodic table. Come on. But um, but no, they were very, very smart. They seemed great, everything was fine. But when the list came back, they had like a hundred companies like to start. They're like, hey, check out the first 100 that I did. And I'm like, well, you know, first I interview them like, what, what do you do to gather this data? And they told me some of the software they use, and they told me, of course, we use some AI and everything. I'm like, well, do you double check and verify everything and make sure that it's all correct? Like, yeah, absolutely. We do this, we do that. Okay, great. They did the first hundred companies, they billed me the hourly, whatever. I start going through it, and it was like companies that are not at all somebody that would be on the app, like just random, weird companies. And I'm like, what did what did you verify? Exactly. Oh, that it's an accurate website, and that it's this, that it's that. And then I keep going through the list, and there was some of them that were repeated like six times. Same company name, same everything. I'm just like, all right, and so there ended up being like probably 60 companies in total. Of those 60 companies, maybe like eight or nine of them were actual companies that I felt would have been appropriate to call and try and pitch the app to. So I was like, all right, so I canceled that contract, whatever. So I'm in the process of finding somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

I'll just call Justin. I'll give you the I'll give you the sauce. All right. I appreciate it. Sounds good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

The thing is, like, I could very easily just Google it and start calling, but I was trying to take your advice and like bring somebody else into the fold to kind of help with stuff so I can just open up my list and there it is. You know, somebody's constantly updating it, somebody's constantly creating new things for me to do. Um, you know, growing pains. What are you gonna do? So you know, and the average to the average person watching this, if you're like, dude, just pick up the phone and call people, like Google it. There is so and you know this, Ryan. So I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to whoever's saying that and thinking that right now, you. Um, there is so many things on a daily basis that when you have a software company or a media company or a whatever you want to call it, that like Ryan and myself, there's and everybody's got their shit. Everybody's time is important. I get it. If I can get someone to make me a list and it costs me, you know, an extra 100 bucks a week or something like that, yeah, I'm I'm gonna do it. I mean it's to save that much time, and it could be 15 minutes. Dude, I book my days in 15 minute intervals, it feels like. Like, you know, if somebody wastes an hour and a half of my time, that's a big deal to me. You know what I mean? Like that's that's a big deal. So, and no worries, there's no puns coming about you wasting my time. I was waiting for it. I was about to show it back at you. I can see it on your face, yeah. Like, like what? You about to say that? Okay. But um, but anyway, so it's it's absolutely worth it to me to hire somebody to help with that kind of stuff. So um, but yeah, but yeah, yeah, I don't know. I didn't know. I have the answer for you after this call. I can share it with you. Yeah. All right, I'll take it. When you guys first got started, before you hired like 20 people, I mean, is that kind of how you started? You started with a virtual assistant or what?

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Yeah, I was a virtual assistant, and then it was just me and Pablo. So I was, you know, calling people, talking to people. You know, we had the website up and we were just getting some quotes in and just started just calling people, right? That's how the value just gotta just gotta grind through it at the beginning. Don't care like what size business you are, you still have to just grind through it. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

So Yeah, it can be it's a little different for me though, because like number one, I'm a one-man team. Okay, whatever, that's fine. But number two, is like if you get somebody to sign up, you've got a you know, like you've got what I would call real revenue coming in, you know. Like it feels like it's you know, that's that's this money coming in. With me, it's like I'm I'm pitching a free product of people. You know what I'm saying? Of course, you know, there's there's ways to monetize it with, you know, I mean, lack of full transparency with people like you guys, you know, yeah. Um being pro members and of course doing some advertising here and there. Um, and then of course, people that want the more features, of course, hopefully we convert them, but um, but yeah, so it's a little it's a little different. So I've been a little more reluctant to bring somebody on where it's been like, you know, I'm going to do everything myself and all that, but it's not sustainable, especially if you want to scale and grow, as as you guys know. And you've you've been through way more of that roller coaster than I have at this point. Um, but uh, but I'm I'm reaching that point.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

So it's really in depth on VAs. I've been using VAs for six years, and people probably don't really care about it, but um just get a VA. As long as you have that process in place, just give them copy and copy and paste and they're gone.

SPEAKER_02 34:56

Yeah. So yeah, I uh you know what was funny is when you and I first talked about this months ago, okay. You're telling me about your one, you know, one of your guys that you really liked that you have on board, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna look into it. And I I even sat there and I put together a list. I was like, okay, here's a list of all the things that that I think somebody else could probably do. And then I told you to do that, right? I told like take every single one of your processes and put it on paper. I did. It took a long time because as you know, it's like I got a lot of arms to this thing. But when I did your head goes everywhere too, Justin, by the way. It does, yeah, yeah, it does. But I did that, it was all organized, and I was like proud of it. It's like great. And then I even like I typed it all out and I gave it to ChatGPT. I was like, hey, write this out in a way that somebody that doesn't know the trailer industry could understand. Like I tried to do all those things. I even had Perplexity do it as well. Perplexity is not as good with creative writing and things like that as ChatGPT, but I've got subscriptions of both. And uh I I thought that it was really well done. And then when I finally got on the a call with like one of the first one or two people, I was trying to pitch to them this list, and I'm thinking, like, there's no way I'm gonna have somebody else do that. Like, I gotta do that. You know, there's the I don't know, man. I just couldn't release, I couldn't let go. You know, so that's that's trouble I gotta get over. It'd be different if they were like if they knew trailers and they knew the industry, you know, and I could I could hire them on and work alongside them.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

It's so rare to find someone who knows all that stuff. I know, right? I know.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

There's there's a handful of people that have told me they'd be willing to work with me and help and all that stuff, but it's like, and and some of them are great people. It's just, I don't know, man. I'm I'm I'm I'm such a weird spot with it, man. You know, and that's in a in a way it's good because it's gotten trailer hustle and and my rental company and my other two businesses got never it's got them to where they are, and I'm happy with that, but I want them to go way bigger, and I know that it's there's gonna have to be like a step, there's gonna have to be some release to other people to they'll be growing pains. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm experiencing them now.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Nothing. I like how this podcast turned from like big rounds of talking about trailers to just general business advice.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Hey man, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

You know, we don't have to have a full structure, you know.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

I like it. Yeah, but um, but yeah, I think um I I don't know. I'm gonna try it again. I'm gonna I'm gonna I've still got my list. I'm gonna go in and refine it, make it good, and then I'm gonna pass it on. Um, but again, it's I do have all right, all right. I do have one guy that I use, and it he actually is terrific, kind of expensive. He's 35 bucks an hour. But he does really good stuff. He's also a paralegal, so he can kind of give me a little bit of advice here and there, whatever. Um, but he does, he does some really good stuff, and he's very good with like, you know, way better than me with like Google Sheets and Excel and and you know, all those types of uh programs. So if I have like um uh in fact, I've got him helping me on um uh a few of my contracts, we're redoing a few of the contracts, and he's actually using some of his actual uh attorney buddies, whatever, to kind of help me out with it. So I'm really happy about that. But um, we just added the uh equipment rental contract that he redid for us. We just did a lease-to-owned contract we put on the website he redid for us. He redid my stationary dump trailer rental contract because the the previous one was just kind of a nightmare, the way that I set it up. Um, like I got all the verbiage from somebody, but the way that I actually set it up sucked. So we get I let him redo that. So I'm finding success with that, but I don't know, I don't know that I want to pay somebody 35 bucks an hour to just make a list of companies for me. You know what I mean? I need to find someone that's cheaper, but still doing an okay job. So efficient enough. Yeah, yeah. What kind of what if if you don't mind me asking, and if it's private, it's private, but like what kind of like basic tasks did you start out with with your guy when you first brought him on? Like, what were the kind of things that you had him doing?

SPEAKER_00 38:40

I don't even remember. He just kind of was like there, right? It's like if I need help with something, therefore I was like, he he used to help with some of the trailer rental stuff, right? Where it's like if I was like somewhere and I couldn't get to a computer, I just knew I could always text him and say, Hey, can you do this really quick? And he knew the whole software, so just did it. I'm like, cool. Kind of there, just help me out, keeping charge of like doing some book stuff for me too. Just like keeping track of the bookkeeping and just really odd jobs, and we're just like a second hand to me. That's pretty much the biggest thing. So interesting.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

Yeah, yeah. I I think I think maybe for me it's a little daunting because it's like if I were to bring like let's just say bookkeeping. Say I hired a virtual assistant just to handle bookkeeping or whatever. I have I have four websites, like online stores, that bring revenue in. I have my Stripe account that gets paid out from big rentals. I have brand partners and I have other deals set up with different people that that are just direct deposits, um, and to an even different account than all those are all set up in. I have uh dude, it's just there's so much, and it's like, man, do I want to give I don't know, man. It's like, do I want to give somebody I don't know like access to all that? I don't know. I I know you have to do that in business, but man, it's it's just it's a it's a lot, it's very daunting for me to break all that down and hey, here you go, here's what we need to do, or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

And now also I love your transparency, Justin. You're really open. Really open. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

I don't know. I believe in authenticity, man. Uh, you know, and and and the other thing is I uh I like to I'm gonna try and not sound big headed with this, which is difficult with the size of this thing, but uh, but I uh I have a lot going on, I do a lot of things, and I like to show it because I want people to see like the stuff is possible, like this stuff is not impossible to do. That's why I made a video showing my basic rental setup, you know. Like you would think because I make videos and a lot of people watch them and you know, all this stuff, like I would be like, I want to show off like my my diamond-plated, you know, rental process. And it's like, no, man, like I'm I don't know. I I I take a lot of pride in just being authentic and just being a regular dude. And um I believe a lot will come out of helping others. A lot of people have helped me. Um, and anyway, I just want to continue doing that. And yeah, I'm I'm pretty much an open book with the way I operate and the stuff that I do, man, because um I want people to know you can you can do it. Like, there's more hours in the day than you actually think, you know. And I know we sit here and we talk about, man, there's not enough time of the day. Like I know we say both of them, yeah, but truly it a lot of it, I think, is your your your tolerance threshold. Like, how much can you stack on before your quality of life? You're gonna lose some quality of life no matter what when you start a business. That's just as what it is. But eventually your quality of life will, you know, be much better. So you just have to, I guess, figure out like where your threshold is. Mine is very high. I I do a whole lot of stuff. Um, I've got an amazing supportive partner. So it's like, you know, she understands what I do, and well, she understands that it requires a lot of me to do this stuff. She might not know exactly what it is that I do what I do, and sometimes she has a good graph. I don't think anybody does. But um, but no, man, I uh just to skin the cat one other way, is like I I I want people to see that it's absolutely possible. You can be a regular dude, and this stuff is absolutely possible. And I did all this while still working full-time as well. You know, when I quit working at Rooms2Go, I was in and I was in commission sales and all that. I had all four of these ent entities. I mean, I basically was operating kind of the same way. I was in the process of building the app. I was in the process of this, the process of that. I mean, all that stuff was already happening, so all that can be done. So I I talk about it just kind of candidly, maybe, maybe to my detriment in some cases, but I want people to know that it's possible. You can do this stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

You just have to start. I feel like it's the biggest thing. We'll talk to people. I I know you talk to people, I talk to people all the time, right? And they're like, I'm just not sure if I should do it, right? It's like, well, you gotta start, right? To figure out whether one way or the other. And you know, I was picking up muck and horse stalls and going to college and doing trailer rentals. So it's a whole mixture of things, and you just gotta start and just push yourself. You don't you don't know until you start. That's the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Yeah, yeah. And and also starting with the idea of like, number one, it's okay if it fails, but number two, it ain't gonna fail. You know what I mean? Like it's it's it's a weird if you haven't experienced that before, it can be kind of a weird feeling, you know, because of course you want to get into something with like you want as much information as possible, you want to know the downside, but you also don't want to think about it, right? Um but you and you you get into it like I'm gonna hustle and I'm gonna make all this happen. You know, so it's I don't know, it can be it can be kind of a weird feeling, and it's it's tough when I hear people say things like, Oh, I'm just gonna see if it's gonna work. Let me just see if it works. It's like okay. This isn't a movie that you can watch, you know, um, the first 10 minutes of it and see if it's gonna be a good movie or not, to see if you want to finish it. You know, like it's it's it's it's different than that. Like you you can't do this thing half ass or you know, like when you start, start. Like you have to understand you're starting a business. This isn't this sure as we call it side hustle and all that stuff, but it's uh it's a real business that that you're starting here. You can't go in, you know, just half cock and think it's gonna be successful. You know, it won't be successful, and then you're gonna say, and we And I know that you and I have talked about this off camera, but how many people, dude, say they either get out of the business, they quit, they say it failed, all these buzzwords, all these things that happen when they get out of the business, but they never really got into the business. You know, like, oh, I just made a couple of listings to see if there's interest. That's all you did. You know, there's so many things you gotta do, man, to prepare and to make sure you do it the right way and see if it's gonna be a real thing or not.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

You know, you see, just get a trailer posted up and see like, well, why is it not renting, right? I think there's so much more to it that we can that's probably a whole other podcast episode we haven't done already. Yeah. Um that's like the biggest thing when I talk to people, because I I talk to a lot of people every month, and it's like just you just gotta treat it like a real business. Otherwise, it's not gonna get win like a real business, right? You can't just treat like a side hustle and expect it to bring in that full-time money if you don't treat it like a full-time thing. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh in you know, I gave some different advice actually to uh uh a guy. Um, I won't say his name, but uh, I've got a guy that um I talked to, I think we've probably you know, I do the consultations, as a lot of you guys know, trailer hustle.com. If you want to get started on trailer rentals, click the link below, check it out, whatever. We got contracts, all kinds of stuff. But anyway, started off my relationship with him because he joined the group and then he hired me for a consultation and got all my contract templates and all that stuff. And then several months later, we did another one, then another one, and we just did another one recently, and he's he's been renting and he's been killing it, killing it, right? It's been growing like crazy, it's been doing all this stuff, and um, this was it was a different type of conversation than I normally have. I know I'm pivoting the subject just a little bit, but he didn't want to leave his full-time job, you know. Because the reason I brought this up is in my head for a second, I was like, you know, you have to kind of start this thing assuming one day this is gonna be my forever job, you know, whatever. But in his case, I think he probably started that way, but he realizes more and more how much he loves what he does. He works with pretty much his best friend, owns the company. They're making great money. Um, he's making great money, he works fully remote. Um, you know, he just loves it. And he's able to manage the business. But he was telling me, he's like, you know, the business is getting to a point where I probably should hire somebody, but I don't know if I should hire somebody or if I should just look into probably going full time and doing it. So I started asking about what he does, how much he makes, all that kind of stuff. And I was like, dude, hire somebody and start sacking away money, dude. He's the same age as me, too. He's 37. So it's like, hire somebody, start putting all that money, invest it, you know, pay off your mortgage, do what, you know, all these things. Like, if you can do that, if you love what you do and you have the ability to continue growing it and still working full-time, you love your job and you've got your benefits and you've got the safety and security of it and all that, do it. Absolutely do it.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

There's just two guys that we both know. That we both know that I've I've asked that question to both of them, and they're both like, why would I?

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Right? Like, why would I go full time when it just doesn't make sense to do full time when they can do it full time, right? But this they're like, I don't see a reason to. I don't need to.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

In fact, you and I both got a text recently from uh the same person showing off a new truck he bought from from trailer rentals, you know? That's uh so that that's that's pretty damn cool. Um it's funny how how many people kind of, you know, I I love when people share that, or like if you're like, yo, man, somebody shared such and such, you know, you never give me the input, but I'm always like, is it this person? Like, yeah, like, okay, they do what we need to. It's funny. It's cool because they they uh you know they're they're eager to share their successes and all that. But um, but yeah, it it was it was different advice than I normally give. I tell people, hey, dude, you know, if you want to be your own boss, let's do this, let's do this, let's do this, we'll get it to this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in this case, I was like, bro, hire somebody, stick with what you're doing. Now, there may come a time because that's where I was at with where I were, dude, working at Rooms to Go, man. You work like 40 hours a week. Sure, the hours can be late sometimes, but you get in late, whatever. You make low six figures and you're sitting in the AC all day. It's not like it was a discounted tire where you're, you know, ruining yourself, busting it, busting yourself up. Um, hard work. This was just you just hang out and talk to people, make money. It's great. You know, okay benefits, you know, you get your two vacations a year, yay, whatever. And I was gonna just kind of do that, run trailers as a side hustle and make good money. And it was making enough money for me to leave rooms to go for kind of a while, but I had that same idea of like, why? There's no point. Why would I do it? I'm I'm managing it just fine. Um, same with the other companies. The reason I switched is because a bunch of political shit started happening at work, and I was just like, like I stuck it out as long as I could, and I tried to help where I could, and it just I was just like, eh, you know, it got to a point where I was like, you know, this other thing's not going to piss me off. This other thing can support me. This other, you know, so that's that's why I made that transition. So you never know. This other guy I talked to, that could that could happen. That company could go under. Uh, you know, I mean, you never know what can happen in life. So it's good to have that uh that backup, you know. Um, and uh especially again, back to the authenticity thing with me is like I show people, hey, I do all this crap, you can do it too while you're working. Man, uh I'm kind of glad this came up because uh my girl and I, we uh took a vacation recently and we were just, you know, we chatting it up as we're talking as we're driving and stuff. And and one of those things was talking about people, you know, getting side hustles going and becoming their own boss and all that. And I tried to think about like, man, if all that political stuff happened with me with the company I was working for, and I didn't have anything else going on outside of it, and at that moment, then I would have, if at that moment I decided I'm gonna start my own business and I'm gonna get out of this place, it would have been a long time. I would have had a couple of years or maybe a year and a half worth of distress and anxiety and bull crap on my brain more so than I already did while trying to do this thing. So I probably wouldn't have been as effective growing my business because I just had so much crap on me and I was doing it out of like what I felt like necessity. You know, I could have just got another job, but you get what I'm saying. Yeah. So it my point is start now because you don't know what's gonna happen. You know, most of these companies, most companies, and I talk with this a lot, you are a number on a page. It sucks. But that's just the reality. Yes, they make you feel warm and fuzzy when you show up for work every day and they slap your hands and say, What's up, man? Yeah, good job, great numbers. You get three months in a row of not good numbers, they treat you different, you know, whether you think so or not. That's that's just reality. So, you know, I tell people, get your side hustle started, man, and just be prepared. If you want to just treat it as a side hustle, great, but you know, why not build it into something bigger?

unknown 50:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

All right, bro. Well, dude, uh, it was great talking to you. We're cutting this short because I know you got a meeting coming up. I got a call coming up. This went way too long. There's a whole bunch of stuff that just got cut that a lot of people they probably were like, what the hell is wrong with these guys? Anyway, um, so anyway, thank you for doing another podcast with me. Um, guys, if you want to learn more about the HQ Rent software, if you want to learn more about getting on the big rentals software, or if you want to just talk to me about it, I'll give you guys my honest take. Okay, I'm a customer of the product, I love it. I use it every single day. Um, I will tell you anything you want to know. But if you want to get it directly from the source, click the link down in the description and get a demo. Okay, it'll be the first link down below. All right, check that out. Also, join the Trailer Hustle mobile app. It is free now. Um, there's paid memories as well available depending on the features that you want to use. We've got some really great giveaways coming up. And by the way, we have the giveaways that will be getting changed, okay? Everybody will be allowed to join these giveaways soon. So, speaking of which, big rentals, Ryan, thank you again. These guys sponsor a strap giveaway on the app every single month. So it's a Vulcan Pro Series set of automotive straps. So be sure to go and join that giveaway. Um, it is Friday, April 24th, right now, at the time of recording this. I'm gonna try and get this thing uploaded tonight. So sorry if I'll missed out on this week's giveaway, but the next one will be uploaded as soon as that one ends. So uh thank you guys again, Ryan, for doing all that stuff. But um, but anyway, thanks for joining us in today's episode, guys. Thank you so much, Ryan. You have any closing words? If not, I'll just cut it out. We'll be back. All right, guys. Y'all have a great one. This is the trailer owners network. Have a great day. Thanks so much.