Discover how two inspiring veterans, Joseph Martinez and Chris Benson, turned their military experience into a thriving business that empowers fellow servicemen and women. This episode takes you through their remarkable journey from the battlegrounds of Afghanistan to the competitive world of entrepreneurship with Troops Haul Junk. With insights from Joseph, the Chief Operations Officer, we promise you'll walk away with valuable lessons on leadership, resilience, and the unique challenges veterans face when stepping into the business world.
Immerse yourself in the veteran's perspective on franchising and business ownership. Our conversation sheds light on the often unspoken hurdles veterans encounter in civilian life and how Troops Haul Junk aims to bridge this gap by offering franchise opportunities. We talk about the power of community, emphasizing values like integrity and loyalty, and how these create a supportive network that honors their service while helping improve financial security.
We also dive into practical advice for aspiring franchisees and budding entrepreneurs. Joseph shares his story of transition, offering pearls of wisdom on financial literacy, standing out in a crowded market, and the significance of mentorship. Learn how to harness military skills for business success and the therapeutic benefits of camaraderie in a civilian context. Whether you're a veteran or someone looking for inspiration, this episode offers a rich tapestry of insights that can guide you on your entrepreneurial path.
Please join me on my different platforms and follow along my journey towards FIRE.
https://laswell.veteran.cards/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
This entire military is one cohesive, dedicated force
.
And the threats to our nations?
They don't sleep.
They're watching our every move.
Iran, russia, china, northKorea, isis, al-qaeda they may
be watching this right now.
Our military should not bemistaken for our cable news gab
(01:00):
fest show.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We don't care what you look like, we don't care who
you voted for, who you worship,what you worship, who you love.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when
he died or if you knew who yourfather was.
We have been honed into amachine of lethal moving parts
that you would be wise to avoid.
If you know what's good for you, we will not be intimidated.
We will not be intimidated.
We will not back down.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's the war.
We don't want war.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But if you want war with the United States of
America, there's one thing I canpromise you, so help me.
God, someone else will raiseyour sons and daughters.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Find us on the web at mbradious.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Military.
I'm a certified financialsocial worker.
I was in the Air Force for 14years and then I paid off
$20,000 of debt while I wasactive duty within three years
as an E3.
So that's kind of like I gotreally into personal finance and
so I've been really passionateabout that ever since, and that
(02:20):
was 10, 12 years ago now.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a certified
financial social worker.
So we kind of get into, youknow, dealing with finances but
then also kind of dealing withthe psychology behind finances,
like the you know, the mentalside of things.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy
when it comes to finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
All right, man, we are back.
It's been a minute.
This is Money in the Military,on Military Broadcast Radio,
where we're giving veterans avoice, and we've got two special
guests here and we do have alittle bit of a time crunch.
We want to get everything in asmuch as possible and value
everyone's time here.
So we already had Chris Bensonon a couple weeks ago and he
(03:14):
told us a little bit about hisstory and how he got into vet
cars and things like that.
But this episode we're reallygoing to focus on franchising
and kind of getting a little bitof you know, what does it take
to become a franchisee andthings like that.
So thank you, Chris, for comingback.
But then we have someone elsehere that is also part of your
(03:38):
team and your story.
So, Joseph Martinez, just realquick, if you could just give us
a little bit of a backstory,like what your military
background and then how you gotinto where you are now.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Sure, sure.
First of all, that's a hell ofan intro.
I like it.
Second, I'm going to try andkeep it real short, right,
because Chris and I amlong-winded.
Long story short.
In 2013, I was medaced out ofafghanistan, spent the next
couple of years in recovery.
While in recovery, I wasdisconnected from my tribe,
which is what happens to a lotof us veterans.
I was feeling lost.
(04:13):
I couldn't find my place insociety.
I decided to launch a smallone-man junk removal operation
in stafford, virginia.
I continue to build it morelike a franchise than just a
junk removal business andthrough the videos that I
produce to this point about 600or so on YouTube, just
chronicling the day in the lifeof a junk removal hauler.
(04:35):
Chris saw some of those videos,reached out, liked what I was
doing.
We joined forces and we createdTroops Haul Junk.
We joined forces and we createdTroops Hall Junk very first
exclusively available junkremoval service to veterans and
first responders only.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
And we're very proud of that.
Yeah, that's awesome and youknow like we mentioned Chris.
That was pretty good.
That was nice and short andsweet.
So, um, well, it looks like,chris, we can't hear you.
So, uh, yeah, I think we mighthave to.
Let's see.
Did we lose your, your audioagain?
Let me see.
All right, hold on.
I think I heard you then justsay something real quick Hmm,
(05:27):
all right, give me one second,let me.
Yeah, this is, this is live TV,or live broadcasting.
This happens sometimes.
All right, give me one second.
Let me pull you back and youback, all right, so you're muted
.
Can you unmute yourself realquick?
Still can't hear you, okay.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
I got you Okay.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
So it's playing through my speaker.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Gotcha.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
As long as you can hear me, let's roll with it.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Okay, all right.
Yeah, I know you got a hard outhere in a few minutes, so can
you just briefly kind of Chris,if you want to talk a little bit
about um, about how you gotinto troops, all junk and then
what?
What has it meant for you sinceyou've been part of the uh, the
team?
Speaker 7 (06:13):
Yeah.
So, as Joseph mentioned earlier, he started chronicling his day
day in the life of junk removaland he had put out a video at
one point looking for otherlike-minded veterans that wanted
to help him grow, expand hismission, expand the brand.
We got to talking, gotconnected.
(06:34):
We had a lot in common.
We were both infantry, we bothserved in the Army infantry,
both were in Afghanistan.
We just connected on a lot ofdifferent levels and from there
we just slowly created the brandthat we have today through.
You know trial and error.
You know things that worked,things that didn't work, created
our operations, manuals, sops,standard operating procedures
(06:58):
and so on from there.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
You know, joey, a lot of veterans who are leaving the
military don't necessarily wantto get a job.
Many of them areentrepreneurial minded and when
they're going through theprocess of getting out, you know
all the debriefing and stufflike that.
The military does a prettydecent job of showing you how to
build your resume and how tointerview and so forth, but they
(07:23):
don't do a very good job oftailoring to the entrepreneur,
cater to the entrepreneur whoreally wants to open up his own
business, and you know a lot ofus.
I served 16 years in theinfantry.
Chris has a number of years aswell over 10, I believe and when
we got out I felt verydisconnected, like I couldn't
(07:44):
find my place in society and Ireally just wanted to be around
my tribe again.
And what we have created is anorganization that you're in
(08:10):
business for themselves andcreate a legacy for their family
and hopefully change theirfinancial standing in life.
So we're very proud of whatwe've done.
Like Chris said, we made a lotof mistakes, a lot of trial and
error, but our franchisees aregoing to be able to take
advantage of all of the mistakeswe made, so they don't have to
(08:32):
make them and, to my knowledge,we are the only junk removal
franchise system exclusive toveterans, say first responders.
I'm talking about firefighters,law enforcement officers, emts,
because, as you know, we allwear the uniform when we deploy
to a combat zone.
As veterans, we're on the frontlines.
(08:53):
But our hometown heroes, ourfirst responders, are also on
the front lines as well.
Chris and I look at thoseindividuals as brothers and
sisters as well.
So we open our doors andwelcome any of those individuals
to come be a part of oursisters as well.
So we open our doors andwelcome any of those individuals
to come be a part of our familyas well.
I love that.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
So I think Chris had mentioned previously in his last
episode that you guys have kindof taken what you learned from
other businesses franchises andbasically got rid of all the
stuff or got rid of all the junk, if you will and then took the
good stuff and then you kind ofmade it your own.
(09:31):
So can you give a little bit ofinsight into what does that
look like?
What have you guys learned andhow do you improve your business
that way?
Speaker 7 (09:42):
Yeah, for the past I'd say year and a half or so
we've been on the franchisetrail and that whole time even
some of the parts leading up tothat point, going through the
franchise disclosure process andstuff with our attorney and
everything I have always reachedout to individuals that I know
either run a franchise or havestarted their own franchise as a
(10:02):
franchisor and I like to just,you know, pick their brain.
Just have a one-to-one meeting,a sit down, have some coffee,
you have a phone call, have avideo call like this, and just
learn what the process was.
You know what their why was,what their mission was, purpose,
especially for the franchisees.
I want to know how was youronboarding process?
How do your franchisors treatyou?
(10:24):
How was it you know yourfranchise disclosures?
Do they uphold everything thatwas mentioned to you that you
signed in your contract?
I like to know those thingsbecause I want and Joseph wants
the individuals who come on withus, we want them to know that
we're one of them.
We're not.
You know I don't want to useyou know any language or
(10:44):
anything like that.
But you know I don't want touse any language or anything
like that.
But there are certain businessowners out there that they get
too big for their pants and theydon't really care.
They care more about thenumbers, about how many
territories they have and howmany dollars are coming to them.
Joseph and I aren't like that.
We're fine if we grew one ortwo a year.
We're fine with that.
We're looking for quality overquantity, so I hope that makes
(11:07):
sense for that.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Chris brings up a great point.
Okay, there are any number ofservice industry companies
around the nation who arefranchises and they bring in
anyone and everyone into theirfranchise system and what ends
up happening is, one, they givefranchising a bad name, but two,
the individual who suffers.
In our case, right, if we wereone of those types of companies,
(11:31):
the individual who would sufferwould be the veteran.
We don't want everybody andanybody.
We're very, very selective asto who we want to bring onto
into the tribe.
We vet extremely well.
We look at several key factorsin the individual's life, both
personal and financial, in orderto look at the whole person
(11:53):
concept.
It's just like putting a fireteam together.
You know, you want everyone tobe on the same footing to be
able to accomplish the missionand not have a wink link within
the organization.
A weak link in the organizationis not going to accomplish the
mission.
So we're on a track to reallycreate something for longevity,
(12:14):
something that can be admired byall of the other junk removal
companies in the industry and anexample of a company that sets
the example standard.
So you know, like Chris said, alot of these companies, they
just they're.
They're interested in thedollar signs are interested in
how many territories they can,they can create every year.
That's not us.
You know, we use the corevalues that we learned in the
(12:36):
military on honesty, integrity,hard work, dedication, loyalty
and we take these things thatwe've learned and we apply them
to our company.
And the funny thing, there's nomagic formula about building
amazing.
It's just you get back to thebasics and you implement those
basics day after day after day,and they will come, they will
contact you.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Awesome.
So just a curiosity you knowlike we have military members
from all different walks of likein their journey, so they might
be either active duty right nowor they're transitioning, or
they're already veterans, somaybe could you speak to what
would make a good perspectivefranchisee from your guys'
(13:19):
perspective.
Can't hear you, chris, you'remuted.
Speaker 7 (13:32):
Chris, am I still muted?
You're good now Got me.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah you're good Okay .
Speaker 7 (13:42):
The franchisee that we're looking for, as Joseph
mentioned.
I mentioned earlier about thequality of a quantity that we're
looking for.
As Joseph mentioned, Imentioned earlier about the
quality of a quantity we'relooking for the franchisee that
possesses the leadership skills,that wants to be a member of a
team, wants that camaraderiethat they've missed, wants to be
a part of the brotherhood,wants to have someone that they
can consider as a battle buddy.
(14:02):
If you will Consider us assomeone that you can call text,
you've got some problems goingon.
I guarantee you that one of ushave been through it or someone
else within our organization hasgone through it.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
So you're never alone .
Speaker 7 (14:15):
As Joseph mentioned, be.
You're in business for yourself, but you're not by yourself.
We're looking at things likenot just everybody, like a
franchise, any franchise wouldjust take anyone they got two
feet in the heartbeat and thefinances to do so.
That's not us.
We're looking for theindividuals that you know.
They, they, we take a look atyour credit, we take a look at
your finances.
We, we want to make sure youhave, you know, that three to
(14:37):
six month buffer because we'regoing to be real with you.
You can have this awesomebranding, you can have these
awesome guys that have all thisexperience to lead you, but at
the end of the day, there are noguarantees and in business in
general, within the first or twoyears, those are a pivotal
point of any business that youstart, no matter what it is.
You have to know that yourcompany can sustain.
(15:01):
Without you, you may not makeanything the first year.
That may go back towards theresources, the assets, equipment
, things like that payroll toget people, all that stuff,
marketing efforts, you name it.
So we want to make sure thatindividual is is, you know,
steadfast, strong.
They've got, you know,financial resources already to
(15:25):
do so.
There's I, you know, out ofmaybe 100 people.
We've only moved forward withjust a handful of individuals
that are still in the pipeline.
Due to these reasons, we're notjust looking for anybody, we're
looking for the cream of thecrop.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
We're looking for an individual and this is cliche,
but really an individual.
Yeah, we're looking for anindividual and this is cliche,
but really an individual.
Yeah, we're looking for anindividual, even though it is
cliche.
An individual who works well asa member of a team right,
because you can go into businessfor yourself.
But when you do that, it's justyou.
You have no one to call on, noone's going to check on you.
No one's going to check on you,no one's going to advise you or
(16:05):
mentor you.
When you become part of afranchise, you are tapping into
a network of individuals who areat different stages in the
development of their franchiselocation, but also you're able
to tap into, in our example, theexperience, the combined
experience that Chris and I haveamassed over, I'm going to say,
(16:26):
10, 12 years in the junkremoval industry.
You know, junk removal is morethan just picking up a piece of
a widget and putting it in yourtruck and trailer.
Anybody can do that.
Where individuals run intoproblems is they don't have the
mentorship and the guidanceregarding taxes, regarding how
to maximize capital purchase,regarding local laws and
(16:51):
regulations, and just littlethings that you run into every
day that are either going tomake you or break your junk
removal company.
So when an individual taps intoa franchise, we like to say
they're in business forthemselves, but not by
themselves, but really they'retapping into the resources of a
vast team of individuals.
We have publicists, we havemarketers, we have writers, we
(17:13):
have photographers.
We have a list, a long list ofindividuals who can be called on
to provide anything that ourfranchisees need.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
So we're just looking for an individual who can work
well as a member of the teamokay, yeah, because I've, you
know, I've been a littlestarting my own entrepreneurial
journey and I've I've alwaysheard that it's a very lonely
journey.
So I really like the idea thatyou're you're incorporating a
team element, you're bringingback that military mindset of
you know, like you said, beingon a, you know, a squad, being,
(17:46):
you know, part of a team, a fireteam, and I really I really
liked that.
I think that really appealed toa lot of veterans too, like you
said, who are maybe strugglingwith, you know, reintegrating
back into the civilian world,which can be very tough, you
know, losing that sense ofmission, losing that sense of
camaraderie and team dynamics.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
you um you lose your sense of purpose.
You know, as males, as male, uh, as a male species, um, we tend
to.
As men, we tend to identify whowe are with what we do.
Right, that's a big hang-upthat that males have.
And when we've served X numberof years in the military, we're
(18:28):
in the uniform, you know,proudly being a soldier, sailor,
airman or marine every day, andthen we're no longer a soldier,
sailor, airman or marinebecause you know we left the
military.
We lose ourselves, we lose ouridentity and you know, within
our troops haul junk family.
I speak to individuals on theteam regularly and every day,
(18:49):
and not just about businessmatters.
We talk about family.
They might have a challengethat they need advice on.
You know we are mentors, we areguides, we're also franchise
developers as well.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Yeah, I really love that level of support.
Yeah, I really love that levelof support.
Um, it sounds like that's um,that's pretty huge that you
don't get in normalentrepreneurial or journey um.
So, um, I'm just curious.
Um, you know that we kind oftalked a little bit about the
what makes a good, uh,franchisee, but, uh, you know,
are you able to give any kind oflike, uh, general numbers to
(19:27):
like if, in order to besuccessful, you might need to
have this kind of capital tostart out, or is that kind of
something that you do on like aonboarding call?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, we take our candidates through a very long
development process and itbegins with the first telephone
call they reach out to us.
We tell them just a little bitabout what we're doing and the
mission that we're on.
Usually it's typically a30-minute phone call.
We'll give them a couple ofweeks to kind of digest and
(19:59):
research what we've spoken about.
At that point we'll meet upagain on a second phone call if
they're interested.
On the second phone call thingsare going to get a lot more
serious.
We're going to talk about someof their goals and what they
hope to accomplish.
You know how long have theywanted to be in business?
You know, is the family onboard with them getting into
business?
And after we've had thatdiscussion you know we'll have
another discussion a few weekslater We'll bring those
(20:22):
individuals that are importantto the candidate to make that
decision, important to thecandidate to make that decision.
And we'll get into more in-depth, like their background as far
as finances, their militaryhistory, their credit report,
background checks and so forth.
And after we've gone allthrough the process and we've
been able to determine thatthese individuals meet the
minimum requirements, minimumbeing as far as capital, we like
(20:45):
to see an individual that hasat least three to six months of
operating capital in reserve.
Now that figure of three to sixmonths is going to be different
for everybody who comes to thetable, because an individual may
be ready to join the team andhe already has the equipment
necessary, like a truck, apickup truck or a dump truck,
(21:08):
maybe some trailers, but it'sgoing to be more for an
individual who comes to thetable without that stuff.
So it varies and we take it ona case by case basis as far as
working capital to cover threeto six months, but at a minimum
good credit, honorable discharge, honorable service, clean
background, absolutely nocriminal history or whatsoever
(21:31):
anything like that.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Nice, okay, any good, I guess nuggets of wisdom that
(21:57):
you've learned on your journeyand that we make a part on some
listeners that might beinterested in jumping ship and
jumping on board with you guys.
We have had individuals and Iwon't say any names or brands or
anything like that but we dohave some individuals that we
know of that are unhappy wherethey're at.
They, some of them, have madethe wrong decision but they're
kind of stuck in that decisionand of course you know,
obviously, if they find a wayout of that once, once they find
(22:19):
their way out of where they'reat, then we, you know they can
potentially become a candidateof ours, obviously that to meet
our qualifications at the time,how they are now or at the time
they are in the future.
So I would just say, think ofTroops, all Junk, as a
mentorship, guidance,brotherhood.
We're bringing back thecamaraderie.
(22:40):
We're bringing back the ownersof the company, our boots on the
ground with you.
We both own our own junk removalcompanies.
We're on the ground within ouroutfits every day.
Our own junk removal companies.
We're on the ground within ouroutfits every day.
We come to you, we train you onsite, the owners that you're
talking to right here.
You don't call a 1-800 numberwhen you need support or speak
to someone in India or Canada orwherever they might be.
(23:02):
You speak to us, you have ourpersonal line.
You speak to us, you have ourpersonal line.
You know that you can.
We can get back to you within aday or less, sometimes within
the hour, wouldn't you say,joseph, some franchisees or
employees or anybody will reachout.
We're usually back to themwithin an hour, but 24 hours at
the most if it's an email orsomething like that.
But we are very responsive, weare dedicated and that's just
(23:26):
the way that Joseph and I bothwant to run things.
We don't like the way that Itell a lot of people that a lot
of the reasons I got intostarting this franchise is
because I don't like franchises.
There was a lot of negativeswhen I wrote down the pros and
cons.
There were a lot of cons tofranchising, so I felt, you know
, I don't think I could fit inwith any other model that's out
(23:46):
there currently.
So why don't we just start ourown and make it the best we can
make it?
And if anybody brings up anyyou know key points, any
mentions, anything that might bebetter, joseph and I are all
ears.
It's not our way or the highway.
We're definitely open towhatever is going to help grow
everybody.
If it's not going to hurt usand it can only help well, then
(24:06):
we're all leaders.
Nice, you don't get thatnowadays.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah, no, that's very hard to find these days.
Well, it's top of the hour.
I know you said, chris, thatyou might have to jump off.
We're going to have to take aquick break, a musical break
anyway.
So I appreciate you.
Are you still going to jump offnow, or are you going to be
(24:35):
able to?
Speaker 7 (24:35):
stay.
Oh yeah, I'll head out thebreak.
That's perfect.
I do appreciate you bringing meback on.
I know a few weeks ago wementioned veteran cards and I
know you're happy with yours aswell.
Absolutely.
That's great Thanks, and I knowyou're happy with yours as well
.
Absolutely Thanks for having me.
I'll let Joseph take it fromhere.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
You're in good hands, like all states, all right, so
yeah, we'll take a quick breakand then, when we come back,
we'll continue the conversationwith Joseph Martinez.
Have a good night.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
See you, chris, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Military broadcast radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice find us on theweb at mbradious opinions
expressed in this program arethose of the speakers and do not
necessarily reflect the viewsor positions of any entities
they represent find us on theweb at mbradious.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
All right, we are back.
That was a little musicalinterlude from our good friend
Noah Peterson, marine Corpsveteran out of San Antonio.
He's been on the MilitaryBroadcast Radio network before.
So we always like to highlight,you know, veteran musicians.
So you know, if you're anaspiring musician, a veteran,
(27:53):
you want to get your stuff outthere, then hit us up, let us
know and we'll try to get you onthe air.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Funky very entertaining.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, I saw you dance in the background.
I must have hit a nerve for you, but that was good.
Oh, you saw me, I did.
Yeah, I saw you dance in thebackground.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I must have hit a nerve for you, but that was good
oh you saw me.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
I did.
Yeah, I could see you in thebackground, but that's all good.
I won't share the video withanyone else.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
We weren't going to share that right.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
All right.
So yeah, we're back here withJoseph Martinez, so your
official title is can you kindof give us what your official
title is at Troops All Junk.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Sure, I'm the Chief Operations Officer of Troops.
All Junk Brands our franchise.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Awesome, okay.
So yeah, before we went off tobreak, you and Chris were
talking and I did want to I washoping that, since this is money
in the military and you knowlike it's, it's, it's, you know
we're we're talking aboutfinances, obviously,
entrepreneurship is, is, uh, isit costs money.
You know, you gotta have money.
So, uh, I was going to ask uh,you know from, oh, it looks like
(29:02):
we lost him.
Um, all right, well, we'll givehim a second to come back and
let's see.
I guess in the meantime, wewill just be patient.
But, yeah, what I was going toactually ask him about was, you
know, like, what are some goodfinancial tips for getting into
(29:26):
the franchisee space?
So, we'll give him a second tocome back.
This is a live broadcasting foryou, you know, um, it's, uh,
it's, it's, uh, it's always aninteresting experience.
So, um, well, while we're,while we're waiting, um, let's
see.
Well, while we're waiting,let's see.
(29:46):
So, we did have Chris on hereand that's his second interview,
so we're excited to have himback and maybe we'll have him on
again.
But let's see, let me see if Ican reach out to him and see if
(30:13):
he's, because we did have someissues earlier.
But yeah, things are oh, herewe go, got him back.
All right, so we lost you, butwe got you back.
Sorry about that.
Like we said before, we got on,every once in a while there are
(30:33):
some glitches that happen livebroadcasting.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
When you're live right.
It just happens.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Yes, it just happens.
You actually have a background.
Actually, before we were onthere, you were talking about
your military background.
Can you give a little bit ofwhat you actually did while you
were in the service, or well?
Speaker 5 (30:53):
yeah, I spent yeah, yeah, go ahead.
I spent the majority of my timein the infantry US Army, 11
Bravo and then I spent a numberof years in recruiting command
three years as a recruiter andanother three years as a
recruiter and another threeyears as a recruiter trainer.
I thought being a recruiter wasmy own hours.
(31:15):
As long as I made my mission, Iwas able to go fishing.
So in 2013, I was medevaced outof Afghanistan.
I was honorably discharged,medically discharged, 100% from
the US Army and I began myjourney of healing.
And you know, for the first twoto three years of my healing
(31:42):
process, I was in a funk.
I looked at going back to work.
It just wasn't free, it justwasn't for me.
I had a few jobs here and thereand I just experienced that
lack of camaraderie, just thelack of doing things the way
that I was used to doing themserving in the Army.
So you know, I've always beenAll right.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Well, it looks like we lost him again.
I think he was saying his Wi-Fiis a little spotty, but we'll
take another quick break andhopefully when he comes back
we'll be able to keep him on fora little while.
All right, so stand by and wewill be back with Joseph.
Speaker 6 (32:20):
Martinez.
Yes, since I'd seen his face,not much had changed, just a
(32:45):
different time, different place.
When I shook his hand, I knewsomething had changed.
This was a different man fromthe one I knew back then alright
(33:12):
, looks like we got you back.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
I was started the song, but I figured we'll you
know, since time is of theessence, we'll get you back on
the broadcast.
I'll continue, just in casethere's another break.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Long story short.
I figured.
Well, you know, since time isof the essence, we'll get you
back on the broadcast.
I'll continue, just in casethere's another break.
Long story short.
I live in a military town.
I live right outside ofQuantico United States Marine
Corps base, so I'm surrounded byMarines Joy.
I had a neighbor who was aMarine, who was being reassigned
, and she knew I had a truck andtrailer and asked if you know,
(33:45):
if I wouldn't mind helping herout.
So I did, and then I had alight bulb, I had an epiphany,
if you will.
And then she also asked wouldit be okay if she put my number
out to her Marines who neededhelp with moving junk and trash
from their home to the landfill?
And at that point I knew I wasonto something and initially I
(34:05):
began advertising on a verysmall scale locally.
But it just exploded on its own.
I branded my company as amilitary-owned and operated junk
removal company.
So our trucks are camouflaged,our uniforms are very strapped.
We maintain military-stylehaircuts.
So our trucks are camouflage,our uniforms are very strapped,
we maintain military stylehaircuts.
(34:26):
So you know, anyone who'sinterested in succeeding, you
have to stand out from the oceanof, in my case, junk haulers in
my particular area and we standout, we get noticed.
And you know it's not onlygetting noticed, it's about
going above and beyond what thecustomer expects, and that's
(34:46):
what we do.
I had a client recently who,when we completed the junk
removal project, they said thatwe didn't have to sweep up.
And you know my guys said well,it's our pleasure to sweep up,
and that's what we do.
We want to go above and beyondour customers' expectations.
The customer was blown away,and that's what we do.
We want to go above and beyondour customers' expectations.
The customer was blown away.
So it's just the little thingsthese days that will set you
(35:08):
apart.
If you walk into a Walmart, forexample, I dare you, I
challenge you to find a salesassociate to help you.
They're not available.
And if you do find one, they'renot interested in helping you.
They're not available, and ifyou do find one, they're not
interested in helping you.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
You know we've brought back customer service
and that has been one of themajor keys to our success and
growth within the junk removalindustry.
Nice, that's awesome and I mean, like I said, that is.
It is hard to find these daysactual good customer service.
And then I think most peoplewould prefer to give their
business to a veteran ownedbusiness anyways, you know, just
because it makes them feel good, you know, helping out a
veteran business.
So so it's kind of one of those, like you know, mutually
(35:52):
beneficial, like people feelgood about it, and then you know
you're gainfully employed aswell.
So before we were having issues, I would, I wanted to see if
you could give us maybe somefinancial tips or some things
that you learned along the waywhen you were just starting out,
transitioning out and startingthis business, and maybe when
(36:12):
you started to scale up.
What are some good nuggets thatyou learned about just personal
finances or business financesthat you might could share with
our audience personal financesor business finances that you
might could share with with ouraudience.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
I have two.
One of them is always chargewhat you're worth, right.
You can't grow a company ifyou're competing on price.
You know, if I price a junkremoval job at a very low rate,
that I know I'm undervaluing myservices.
Let's say $200, right.
And then the customer calls oneof my competitors and she says
(36:47):
hey, troops, all Junk, quote me$200.
Well, my competitor says $175.
And it's just going to go likea ping pong ball and everyone is
racing to the bottom.
You know you're in business toprovide a valuable service, but
you're also in business tocharge what you're worth, right.
(37:07):
So that's my first piece ofadvice charge what you're worth.
My second piece of advice ismaintain accurate books, pay
your taxes right.
Read books, pay your taxesright.
Do everything by the book.
Because in the process ofgrowing your company, if you are
(37:28):
taking payment under the table,if you're not maintaining
adequately capitalized businessaccount, right, if you ever
decide you want to sell thebusiness, how much is your
business really worth if youcan't testify to its worth on
paper?
Right?
And that's the mistake that alot of individuals make.
(37:48):
You know I talk to and mentor alot of haulers within my
industry all across the nationand you know these guys are
posting photos of their brandnew 2024,.
You know Dodge Ram 2500 fullydecked out and they got a boat
and so forth.
But they're not running theirbusiness properly.
And when you build a businessimproperly, you're building your
(38:13):
business like a house of cardsand just as soon as you're able
to make it, you can lose it allvery quickly.
And that's one thing that Chrisand I decided to do from the
very beginning.
We asked ourselves how can webulletproof our business, right?
Well, we're going to createoperations manuals because,
guarantee, you talk to 10 out of20 businesses and or you talk
(38:37):
to 20 businesses and 10 of thoseguys or more don't have
operations manuals.
You know they don't havestandard operating procedures
written down, um, and they'rejust not doing it.
They're not building theirbusiness in the correct manner.
They're not building forlongevity.
I can lay my head down at nightand know that I did everything
(38:58):
by the book today and that Iknow that we are a very
attractive option for anindividual who's looking for a
solid company of which to begina business relationship with.
So those are my two tips Chargewhat you're worth.
Build your business by the book.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Awesome.
So if you were talking to don'tknow, in the air force we had
taps.
I don't know if you guys did,you guys have taps when you
separated um.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
But uh, you know, I know a lot of people complain
that transition assistance likeit's like a a um a module trend
where they help you withtransition assistance and so
forth, uh, resume writing,interview skills and so forth
right, yeah, they have that whenI left the military.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
Okay.
So if you were to speak tothose people who are literally
about to transition out of theservice and let's say they were
interested about becoming afranchisee but maybe their
finances were not quite thereyet or maybe they don't have a
business background and they'renot sure how to start, and you
mentioned, and Chris hadmentioned, that you guys do a
(40:06):
lot of mentoring.
But would you say that someonewho's just separating is an
actually good candidate forjumping in with you guys?
Or would you give them somehomework and you know some
reading to do and, like you know, go to Boots, to Business or
anything like that that youwould recommend to kind of get
(40:27):
the ball rolling for them sothey can jump right into your
guys' business?
Did I lose you?
Speaker 5 (40:44):
I'm still here.
You're coming in broken anddistorted.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Okay, so we lost him again.
All right, so it looks likewe're having some regular issues
here.
Let me see, all right, herehe's back.
All right issues here.
(41:09):
Let me see, all right, herehe's back, all right.
Um, yeah, so uh, I don't knowhow much you caught of what, uh,
what I was saying, butbasically, if you were to give a
briefing to those people whowere just about to transition
out of the service, what kind ofadvice you know like financial
advice, or you know motivationaltips would you give them if
they're literally just startingtheir franchisee journey?
Speaker 5 (41:28):
Believe in yourself, right?
That's a lot easier to say thanit is to do, but in practical
terms, learn to cut out thestatic, learn to ignore the
static in life.
If you want to develop your ownbusiness right, if that's what
you have in your heart, ifthat's your goal to be the
(41:48):
captain of your destiny you'regoing to have to develop a skill
that prevents you fromabsorbing all the negative
comments.
You know your friends andfamily are going to try to deter
you from risking and going intobusiness for yourself.
You know those individuals thatare closest to you are the ones
(42:10):
that are probably going to tellyou to not start that business
because they care about you,right?
But you have to understand thatmost of those types of comments
come from a place of fear andif you're fearful, you will
never accomplish anything ofsubstance in your life.
You have to take a risk, youhave to believe in yourself and
(42:33):
if you continue to trainyourself to cut out that static,
to not listen to those negativecomments, to keep focused and
keep moving forward, one daywill eventually reach your goal.
But you know there's so manyindividuals who've never done it
and they're going to tell youyou shouldn't do it either.
Don't listen to thoseindividuals you know.
Do your due diligence.
(42:54):
Research the franchise thatyou're interested in getting
involved with.
Research the business that youwant to start right, become a
subject matter expert anddevelop all of those skills that
one must learn to be successfulin business.
But first and foremost, youhave to learn to ignore the
static.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
I like that.
That's definitely somethingthat I've come across as well.
But, yeah, I appreciate yousaying that.
You know I've definitelysomething that's come, I've come
across as well, but uh, um, butyeah, no, I appreciate you you
saying that and I hopefully thatresonates with uh, with some
listeners out there who might be, you know, struggling with you
know that that next step ormaybe, like like chris was
saying, he's like he knew earlyon that he wasn't going to be,
(43:37):
he was going to have anotherboss, like he was.
Like he knew that early on andum, and that was what one of his
driving, driving forces um, hestarted small.
It sounded like you know thesame thing with you started
small and then kind ofeventually scaled up and and uh,
kind of went from there, um,but I am curious about it it's
(44:00):
easy to stay motivated when thephone is ringing, when customers
are calling you.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
When the phone isn't ringing and you're all by
yourself and you're doubtingyourself, what do you do then?
Right, that's when you have torely on these skills that you've
developed.
You have to be resilient.
Be resilient, okay be resilient.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Okay, so if somebody were interested in let's say
they heard this episode and theywanted to go ahead and jump in
headfirst, what would yourecommend?
How would they get the processrolling with you guys and what
would those first?
I know you mentioned like aphone call, but how would they
(44:44):
reach out to you?
Speaker 5 (44:46):
Sure, yeah, very simple.
You have a websitetroopshalljunkcom and they could
visit that website, clickopportunity tab and then they'll
be required to fill out what wecall a request for information.
It's just basic information.
Chris or myself will receivethat information.
We'll reach out either via textor by telephone call or email,
(45:09):
requesting a time.
That's most convenient.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
Looks like he jumped off again.
Well, let's see, we'll give hima few seconds to come back.
He's been coming back in prettyquickly, all right.
Live broadcasting people, it'salways an adventure there.
(45:35):
He is All right, we're back.
Speaker 5 (45:38):
It's a winner tonight , huh.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
It's all good.
It's all good, it's all goodbut?
Speaker 5 (45:44):
but to continue, you know it all starts with a phone
call and um, and you know,individuals don't need to be
intimidated about making thatcall.
Sometimes we, we take a callfrom an individual who reaches
out.
You can tell they're kind ofnervous and all that.
Look fellas.
Um, I didn't score very high onthe asvab, hence the reason
they put me in the infantry.
You know, I I like to think I'ma smart guy, but I'm just an
average guy.
We're looking to spread ourmessage to the right individuals
(46:07):
.
If you're interested in owningyour own business, if you're
interested in the franchisemodel, if you want a kick-ass
brand with awesome support,awesome resources and
infrastructure that's juststarting out at the ground level
, right now is the time to makethat call.
You know you may not like whatwe say, but we're going to give
(46:28):
it to you bluntly, we're goingto give it to you truthfully.
The highest level of respectthat one person can have for
another is to give you the truthright here, right between the
eyes, so that you can moveforward and make decisions that
are best for you and your family.
Visit troopsalljunkcom.
(46:48):
Fill out that request forinformation.
Speaker 4 (46:49):
We'll reach out and we'll take it from there.
Okay, and you had mentionedthat you guys were or you're
looking at doing a podcast.
Is that correct?
Is that something that's on thehorizon?
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (46:58):
I am.
I'm looking at developing apodcast because business has
always been my first love.
My second love has always beenmentorship.
In 2021, I mentored 118individuals at no cost to them.
Every Sunday morning for threehours I was on the telephone
with several individuals, to thedetriment of my family.
(47:20):
My wife got a wife got a littleupset, you know so when I
scaled down the mentorship, shewas happy about that.
But through podcasting I want toinspire other veterans, not
just to get into our franchiseor any franchise, but to get
into business for themselves.
You know, when I was lost as anewly medically retired veteran,
(47:45):
like I said, I couldn't, Ididn't find my spot.
But when I began hauling junkhauling junk was not my purpose,
but my purpose was feeling asif I had a purpose again.
Junk removal was just thevehicle being able to connect
with the many veterans hereright outside of Quantico.
(48:06):
You know, I always say you canput two veterans together who
don't know each other.
Put them in a room and withinfive minutes we're going to find
common ground.
It's very healing, joey,absolutely.
When I meet a veteran that Ihold junk for right, it's not
just a junk removal service butalso experiencing something that
(48:26):
I call junk removal therapy.
It's that feeling that you'redoing something worthwhile,
you're on a mission, you're partof a team once again, and
that's one of the main thingsthat we talk about with
individuals who call us.
You know many individuals.
They don't know they're missingthe team.
They don't know they're missingbeing part of the tribe, but
(49:09):
when they find out what we'reall about.
They want to be part of ourtribe once again.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
That's beautiful, and so with this podcast you're
kind of still in the earlystages, or do you have, like, a
launch date or anything planned?
Speaker 5 (49:23):
You know, organization was one of my
greatest skills.
Right, I'm the kicking the doordown kind of guy.
I'm not the creating theoperations order kind of guy, so
I'm playing it by ear.
I have a couple of individualslined up already.
I'm looking at launching byNovember no, december one and
(49:46):
really I just want to talk toindividuals who are veterans,
who are in business to haveimpart wisdom on my viewers,
inspire my viewers and let themknow if they can do it.
If I can do it, you can do itas well.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
I love that, and then that's actually a big thing.
You know, on military broadcastradio, like you know, we have
tons of different you know showsand different genres and you
know.
So I mean, I don't know ifyou're interested, but you could
, you could always be part ofMBR and, you know, basically use
us as a platform to kind of dosome of the heavy lifting for
(50:22):
you.
But but if you've already gotsomething in the works, that's
fine too.
It's just, you know, MBR iskind of unique in the sense that
you know we're a nonprofit andyou know the whole mission is to
basically help veterans createpodcasts.
So that's how I got started inthis whole thing.
Wow, I didn't know that?
Speaker 5 (50:40):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to tap into your into your
resources for sure.
Speaker 4 (50:48):
Okay, absolutely yeah , cause it sounds like, uh, you
know, if you're you're in thatearly stages of the you know the
cause, like the logistical sideof you know the podcast
industry is is a lot to kind ofunpack.
So, um, yeah, like MBR has beenreally helpful in that sense.
So we can talk about thatoffline if you want, and I can
introduce you to Joel and he'skind of like the head honcho and
(51:12):
yeah, we could do somethingfrom there if you want.
But yeah, I mean really, youknow, as soon as I heard about
Chris and then he was talkingabout you, I was like you know,
this is the kind of story that Iwant to tell.
I heard about Chris and then hewas talking about you.
I was like you know, these are,this is the kind of story that
I want to tell and, and yourguys's you know vision, for you
(51:33):
know, you're not just, you'renot just running a business,
you're helping other veterans.
You know, run the business andI really like that.
And then I mean I'm sure thattrickles down to where other
they're hiring other veteranstoo, like their buddies, and
they're like that trickles downto where other they're hiring
other veterans to like theirbuddies and they're like you
know, so it kind of it's, it'screating all these positive
ripples in in the um, in thecommunity.
So I really I really love thatand resonated with you guys as
uh, um story, uh and so um butum, but yeah, I mean um.
(51:59):
So, with that being being said,we're actually getting close to
time.
Is there any last minute, lastwords of wisdom, any words of
inspiration that you have forthe MBR audience and any
aspiring franchisees?
Speaker 5 (52:16):
Definitely, once again, believe in yourself.
Right, you have to believe inwhat you're doing in order to
succeed.
But above and beyond all ofthat, you have to understand
that there is absolutely noguarantee that anyone will
succeed in any business,regardless of the mentorship,
(52:37):
the branding and so forth.
So franchises have a bad nameBecause a lot of bad people ran
franchises have a bad namebecause a lot of bad people ran
franchises in the early 60s whenfranchising really hit the
mainstream.
So, regardless of what businessone looks into, and
specifically franchises have agood understanding of how a
franchise system works, and wealways suggest to every one of
(53:01):
the individuals who we speak tothat speak to an attorney, have
the attorney look at ourfranchise disclosure documents
to ensure that they'relegitimate.
And for those of our viewers whodon't know what franchise
disclosure documents arecommonly referred to as FDDs
every franchise, whether it's aMcDonald's, a Baskin Robbins or
a Troops Hall junk, will have adocument that has 23 different
(53:25):
subsections and it tells youeverything about the franchise
system what's expected of you,what's expected of the
management, what the fees are,the term and duration of the
contract.
It's easy enough to understand,but we never want to take for
granted the fact that we, assomeone who isn't an attorney,
(53:47):
can understand a franchisedisclosure document in regards
of how simple it is.
So we always suggest toindividuals to take the time to
take those FDDs to an attorneyand let a qualified individual
review the documents before yousign anything, because it's a
contract and when you areinvolved in a contract, well,
(54:08):
we're all big boys here.
We're supposed to do our duediligence to ensure that we know
what we're getting ourselvesinto.
So, chris, and I highly suggestjust to check out really
indepthly what you're thinkingabout getting involved with I
love that.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Do your due diligence , cross your t, dot your I's and
all that stuff so well, joseph,I really, I really appreciate
you taking the time out to tellyour story, to tell us about
your business and to give ussome really good advice for any,
any aspiring franchisee.
So with that we're going to.
(54:44):
We're going to end the stream,but I just want to thank you
again.
Thank you for your service andI will look forward to getting
your podcast out there or atleast helping in any way that I
can.
So I appreciate everything andwe'll catch you guys on the next
stream.
Speaker 5 (55:02):
Yeah, joey, pleasure meeting you.
Thanks for allowing me a fewminutes to spread my message on
your show.
Thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
All right, you guys take care, thank you.
Speaker 3 (55:12):
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to
Military Broadcast Radio.
As we wrap up today's show, wewant to remind you that the
podcast of today's episode willbe available right after we go
off the air, so if you missedany part of the show or want to
listen again, be sure to checkit out.
(55:34):
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter and we are committed to
giving you a platform to sharethem.
That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice, so don't forget to
(55:55):
catch the podcast and stayconnected with us Giving our
veterans a voice.
Introducing LT Defense Tactical Gear, your
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
This entire military is one cohesive, dedicated force
.
And the threats to our nations?
They don't sleep.
They're watching our every move.
Iran, russia, china, northKorea, isis, al-qaeda they may
be watching this right now.
Our military should not bemistaken for our cable news gab
(01:00):
fest show.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We don't care what you look like, we don't care who
you voted for, who you worship,what you worship, who you love.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It doesn't matter if your dad left you millions when
he died or if you knew who yourfather was.
We have been honed into amachine of lethal moving parts
that you would be wise to avoid.
If you know what's good for you, we will not be intimidated.
We will not be intimidated.
We will not back down.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's the war.
We don't want war.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But if you want war with the United States of
America, there's one thing I canpromise you, so help me.
God, someone else will raiseyour sons and daughters.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Military Broadcast Radio, the station that's giving
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Speaker 2 (01:53):
Find us on the web at mbradious.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Military.
I'm a certified financialsocial worker.
I was in the Air Force for 14years and then I paid off
$20,000 of debt while I wasactive duty within three years
as an E3.
So that's kind of like I gotreally into personal finance and
so I've been really passionateabout that ever since, and that
(02:20):
was 10, 12 years ago now.
So since then I became a socialworker and now I'm a certified
financial social worker.
So we kind of get into, youknow, dealing with finances but
then also kind of dealing withthe psychology behind finances,
like the you know, the mentalside of things.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So Ladies and gentlemen, your battle buddy
when it comes to finances.
Please welcome the fire socialworker, joey Laswell.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
All right, man, we are back.
It's been a minute.
This is Money in the Military,on Military Broadcast Radio,
where we're giving veterans avoice, and we've got two special
guests here and we do have alittle bit of a time crunch.
We want to get everything in asmuch as possible and value
everyone's time here.
So we already had Chris Bensonon a couple weeks ago and he
(03:14):
told us a little bit about hisstory and how he got into vet
cars and things like that.
But this episode we're reallygoing to focus on franchising
and kind of getting a little bitof you know, what does it take
to become a franchisee andthings like that.
So thank you, Chris, for comingback.
But then we have someone elsehere that is also part of your
(03:38):
team and your story.
So, Joseph Martinez, just realquick, if you could just give us
a little bit of a backstory,like what your military
background and then how you gotinto where you are now.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Sure, sure.
First of all, that's a hell ofan intro.
I like it.
Second, I'm going to try andkeep it real short, right,
because Chris and I amlong-winded.
Long story short.
In 2013, I was medaced out ofafghanistan, spent the next
couple of years in recovery.
While in recovery, I wasdisconnected from my tribe,
which is what happens to a lotof us veterans.
I was feeling lost.
(04:13):
I couldn't find my place insociety.
I decided to launch a smallone-man junk removal operation
in stafford, virginia.
I continue to build it morelike a franchise than just a
junk removal business andthrough the videos that I
produce to this point about 600or so on YouTube, just
chronicling the day in the lifeof a junk removal hauler.
(04:35):
Chris saw some of those videos,reached out, liked what I was
doing.
We joined forces and we createdTroops Haul Junk.
We joined forces and we createdTroops Hall Junk very first
exclusively available junkremoval service to veterans and
first responders only.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
And we're very proud of that.
Yeah, that's awesome and youknow like we mentioned Chris.
That was pretty good.
That was nice and short andsweet.
So, um, well, it looks like,chris, we can't hear you.
So, uh, yeah, I think we mighthave to.
Let's see.
Did we lose your, your audioagain?
Let me see.
All right, hold on.
I think I heard you then justsay something real quick Hmm,
(05:27):
all right, give me one second,let me.
Yeah, this is, this is live TV,or live broadcasting.
This happens sometimes.
All right, give me one second.
Let me pull you back and youback, all right, so you're muted
.
Can you unmute yourself realquick?
Still can't hear you, okay.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
I got you Okay.
Speaker 7 (05:52):
So it's playing through my speaker.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Gotcha.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
As long as you can hear me, let's roll with it.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Okay, all right.
Yeah, I know you got a hard outhere in a few minutes, so can
you just briefly kind of Chris,if you want to talk a little bit
about um, about how you gotinto troops, all junk and then
what?
What has it meant for you sinceyou've been part of the uh, the
team?
Speaker 7 (06:13):
Yeah.
So, as Joseph mentioned earlier, he started chronicling his day
day in the life of junk removaland he had put out a video at
one point looking for otherlike-minded veterans that wanted
to help him grow, expand hismission, expand the brand.
We got to talking, gotconnected.
(06:34):
We had a lot in common.
We were both infantry, we bothserved in the Army infantry,
both were in Afghanistan.
We just connected on a lot ofdifferent levels and from there
we just slowly created the brandthat we have today through.
You know trial and error.
You know things that worked,things that didn't work, created
our operations, manuals, sops,standard operating procedures
(06:58):
and so on from there.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
You know, joey, a lot of veterans who are leaving the
military don't necessarily wantto get a job.
Many of them areentrepreneurial minded and when
they're going through theprocess of getting out, you know
all the debriefing and stufflike that.
The military does a prettydecent job of showing you how to
build your resume and how tointerview and so forth, but they
(07:23):
don't do a very good job oftailoring to the entrepreneur,
cater to the entrepreneur whoreally wants to open up his own
business, and you know a lot ofus.
I served 16 years in theinfantry.
Chris has a number of years aswell over 10, I believe and when
we got out I felt verydisconnected, like I couldn't
(07:44):
find my place in society and Ireally just wanted to be around
my tribe again.
And what we have created is anorganization that you're in
(08:10):
business for themselves andcreate a legacy for their family
and hopefully change theirfinancial standing in life.
So we're very proud of whatwe've done.
Like Chris said, we made a lotof mistakes, a lot of trial and
error, but our franchisees aregoing to be able to take
advantage of all of the mistakeswe made, so they don't have to
(08:32):
make them and, to my knowledge,we are the only junk removal
franchise system exclusive toveterans, say first responders.
I'm talking about firefighters,law enforcement officers, emts,
because, as you know, we allwear the uniform when we deploy
to a combat zone.
As veterans, we're on the frontlines.
(08:53):
But our hometown heroes, ourfirst responders, are also on
the front lines as well.
Chris and I look at thoseindividuals as brothers and
sisters as well.
So we open our doors andwelcome any of those individuals
to come be a part of oursisters as well.
So we open our doors andwelcome any of those individuals
to come be a part of our familyas well.
I love that.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
So I think Chris had mentioned previously in his last
episode that you guys have kindof taken what you learned from
other businesses franchises andbasically got rid of all the
stuff or got rid of all the junk, if you will and then took the
good stuff and then you kind ofmade it your own.
(09:31):
So can you give a little bit ofinsight into what does that
look like?
What have you guys learned andhow do you improve your business
that way?
Speaker 7 (09:42):
Yeah, for the past I'd say year and a half or so
we've been on the franchisetrail and that whole time even
some of the parts leading up tothat point, going through the
franchise disclosure process andstuff with our attorney and
everything I have always reachedout to individuals that I know
either run a franchise or havestarted their own franchise as a
(10:02):
franchisor and I like to just,you know, pick their brain.
Just have a one-to-one meeting,a sit down, have some coffee,
you have a phone call, have avideo call like this, and just
learn what the process was.
You know what their why was,what their mission was, purpose,
especially for the franchisees.
I want to know how was youronboarding process?
How do your franchisors treatyou?
(10:24):
How was it you know yourfranchise disclosures?
Do they uphold everything thatwas mentioned to you that you
signed in your contract?
I like to know those thingsbecause I want and Joseph wants
the individuals who come on withus, we want them to know that
we're one of them.
We're not.
You know I don't want to useyou know any language or
(10:44):
anything like that.
But you know I don't want touse any language or anything
like that.
But there are certain businessowners out there that they get
too big for their pants and theydon't really care.
They care more about thenumbers, about how many
territories they have and howmany dollars are coming to them.
Joseph and I aren't like that.
We're fine if we grew one ortwo a year.
We're fine with that.
We're looking for quality overquantity, so I hope that makes
(11:07):
sense for that.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Chris brings up a great point.
Okay, there are any number ofservice industry companies
around the nation who arefranchises and they bring in
anyone and everyone into theirfranchise system and what ends
up happening is, one, they givefranchising a bad name, but two,
the individual who suffers.
In our case, right, if we wereone of those types of companies,
(11:31):
the individual who would sufferwould be the veteran.
We don't want everybody andanybody.
We're very, very selective asto who we want to bring onto
into the tribe.
We vet extremely well.
We look at several key factorsin the individual's life, both
personal and financial, in orderto look at the whole person
(11:53):
concept.
It's just like putting a fireteam together.
You know, you want everyone tobe on the same footing to be
able to accomplish the missionand not have a wink link within
the organization.
A weak link in the organizationis not going to accomplish the
mission.
So we're on a track to reallycreate something for longevity,
(12:14):
something that can be admired byall of the other junk removal
companies in the industry and anexample of a company that sets
the example standard.
So you know, like Chris said, alot of these companies, they
just they're.
They're interested in thedollar signs are interested in
how many territories they can,they can create every year.
That's not us.
You know, we use the corevalues that we learned in the
(12:36):
military on honesty, integrity,hard work, dedication, loyalty
and we take these things thatwe've learned and we apply them
to our company.
And the funny thing, there's nomagic formula about building
amazing.
It's just you get back to thebasics and you implement those
basics day after day after day,and they will come, they will
contact you.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Awesome.
So just a curiosity you knowlike we have military members
from all different walks of likein their journey, so they might
be either active duty right nowor they're transitioning, or
they're already veterans, somaybe could you speak to what
would make a good perspectivefranchisee from your guys'
(13:19):
perspective.
Can't hear you, chris, you'remuted.
Speaker 7 (13:32):
Chris, am I still muted?
You're good now Got me.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah you're good Okay .
Speaker 7 (13:42):
The franchisee that we're looking for, as Joseph
mentioned.
I mentioned earlier about thequality of a quantity that we're
looking for.
As Joseph mentioned, Imentioned earlier about the
quality of a quantity we'relooking for the franchisee that
possesses the leadership skills,that wants to be a member of a
team, wants that camaraderiethat they've missed, wants to be
a part of the brotherhood,wants to have someone that they
can consider as a battle buddy.
(14:02):
If you will Consider us assomeone that you can call text,
you've got some problems goingon.
I guarantee you that one of ushave been through it or someone
else within our organization hasgone through it.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
So you're never alone .
Speaker 7 (14:15):
As Joseph mentioned, be.
You're in business for yourself, but you're not by yourself.
We're looking at things likenot just everybody, like a
franchise, any franchise wouldjust take anyone they got two
feet in the heartbeat and thefinances to do so.
That's not us.
We're looking for theindividuals that you know.
They, they, we take a look atyour credit, we take a look at
your finances.
We, we want to make sure youhave, you know, that three to
(14:37):
six month buffer because we'regoing to be real with you.
You can have this awesomebranding, you can have these
awesome guys that have all thisexperience to lead you, but at
the end of the day, there are noguarantees and in business in
general, within the first or twoyears, those are a pivotal
point of any business that youstart, no matter what it is.
You have to know that yourcompany can sustain.
(15:01):
Without you, you may not makeanything the first year.
That may go back towards theresources, the assets, equipment
, things like that payroll toget people, all that stuff,
marketing efforts, you name it.
So we want to make sure thatindividual is is, you know,
steadfast, strong.
They've got, you know,financial resources already to
(15:25):
do so.
There's I, you know, out ofmaybe 100 people.
We've only moved forward withjust a handful of individuals
that are still in the pipeline.
Due to these reasons, we're notjust looking for anybody, we're
looking for the cream of thecrop.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
We're looking for an individual and this is cliche,
but really an individual.
Yeah, we're looking for anindividual and this is cliche,
but really an individual.
Yeah, we're looking for anindividual, even though it is
cliche.
An individual who works well asa member of a team right,
because you can go into businessfor yourself.
But when you do that, it's justyou.
You have no one to call on, noone's going to check on you.
No one's going to check on you,no one's going to advise you or
(16:05):
mentor you.
When you become part of afranchise, you are tapping into
a network of individuals who areat different stages in the
development of their franchiselocation, but also you're able
to tap into, in our example, theexperience, the combined
experience that Chris and I haveamassed over, I'm going to say,
(16:26):
10, 12 years in the junkremoval industry.
You know, junk removal is morethan just picking up a piece of
a widget and putting it in yourtruck and trailer.
Anybody can do that.
Where individuals run intoproblems is they don't have the
mentorship and the guidanceregarding taxes, regarding how
to maximize capital purchase,regarding local laws and
(16:51):
regulations, and just littlethings that you run into every
day that are either going tomake you or break your junk
removal company.
So when an individual taps intoa franchise, we like to say
they're in business forthemselves, but not by
themselves, but really they'retapping into the resources of a
vast team of individuals.
We have publicists, we havemarketers, we have writers, we
(17:13):
have photographers.
We have a list, a long list ofindividuals who can be called on
to provide anything that ourfranchisees need.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
So we're just looking for an individual who can work
well as a member of the teamokay, yeah, because I've, you
know, I've been a littlestarting my own entrepreneurial
journey and I've I've alwaysheard that it's a very lonely
journey.
So I really like the idea thatyou're you're incorporating a
team element, you're bringingback that military mindset of
you know, like you said, beingon a, you know, a squad, being,
(17:46):
you know, part of a team, a fireteam, and I really I really
liked that.
I think that really appealed toa lot of veterans too, like you
said, who are maybe strugglingwith, you know, reintegrating
back into the civilian world,which can be very tough, you
know, losing that sense ofmission, losing that sense of
camaraderie and team dynamics.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
you um you lose your sense of purpose.
You know, as males, as male, uh, as a male species, um, we tend
to.
As men, we tend to identify whowe are with what we do.
Right, that's a big hang-upthat that males have.
And when we've served X numberof years in the military, we're
(18:28):
in the uniform, you know,proudly being a soldier, sailor,
airman or marine every day, andthen we're no longer a soldier,
sailor, airman or marinebecause you know we left the
military.
We lose ourselves, we lose ouridentity and you know, within
our troops haul junk family.
I speak to individuals on theteam regularly and every day,
(18:49):
and not just about businessmatters.
We talk about family.
They might have a challengethat they need advice on.
You know we are mentors, we areguides, we're also franchise
developers as well.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Yeah, I really love that level of support.
Yeah, I really love that levelof support.
Um, it sounds like that's um,that's pretty huge that you
don't get in normalentrepreneurial or journey um.
So, um, I'm just curious.
Um, you know that we kind oftalked a little bit about the
what makes a good, uh,franchisee, but, uh, you know,
are you able to give any kind oflike, uh, general numbers to
(19:27):
like if, in order to besuccessful, you might need to
have this kind of capital tostart out, or is that kind of
something that you do on like aonboarding call?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, we take our candidates through a very long
development process and itbegins with the first telephone
call they reach out to us.
We tell them just a little bitabout what we're doing and the
mission that we're on.
Usually it's typically a30-minute phone call.
We'll give them a couple ofweeks to kind of digest and
(19:59):
research what we've spoken about.
At that point we'll meet upagain on a second phone call if
they're interested.
On the second phone call thingsare going to get a lot more
serious.
We're going to talk about someof their goals and what they
hope to accomplish.
You know how long have theywanted to be in business?
You know, is the family onboard with them getting into
business?
And after we've had thatdiscussion you know we'll have
another discussion a few weekslater We'll bring those
(20:22):
individuals that are importantto the candidate to make that
decision, important to thecandidate to make that decision.
And we'll get into more in-depth, like their background as far
as finances, their militaryhistory, their credit report,
background checks and so forth.
And after we've gone allthrough the process and we've
been able to determine thatthese individuals meet the
minimum requirements, minimumbeing as far as capital, we like
(20:45):
to see an individual that hasat least three to six months of
operating capital in reserve.
Now that figure of three to sixmonths is going to be different
for everybody who comes to thetable, because an individual may
be ready to join the team andhe already has the equipment
necessary, like a truck, apickup truck or a dump truck,
(21:08):
maybe some trailers, but it'sgoing to be more for an
individual who comes to thetable without that stuff.
So it varies and we take it ona case by case basis as far as
working capital to cover threeto six months, but at a minimum
good credit, honorable discharge, honorable service, clean
background, absolutely nocriminal history or whatsoever
(21:31):
anything like that.
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Nice, okay, any good, I guess nuggets of wisdom that
(21:57):
you've learned on your journeyand that we make a part on some
listeners that might beinterested in jumping ship and
jumping on board with you guys.
We have had individuals and Iwon't say any names or brands or
anything like that but we dohave some individuals that we
know of that are unhappy wherethey're at.
They, some of them, have madethe wrong decision but they're
kind of stuck in that decisionand of course you know,
obviously, if they find a wayout of that once, once they find
(22:19):
their way out of where they'reat, then we, you know they can
potentially become a candidateof ours, obviously that to meet
our qualifications at the time,how they are now or at the time
they are in the future.
So I would just say, think ofTroops, all Junk, as a
mentorship, guidance,brotherhood.
We're bringing back thecamaraderie.
(22:40):
We're bringing back the ownersof the company, our boots on the
ground with you.
We both own our own junk removalcompanies.
We're on the ground within ouroutfits every day.
Our own junk removal companies.
We're on the ground within ouroutfits every day.
We come to you, we train you onsite, the owners that you're
talking to right here.
You don't call a 1-800 numberwhen you need support or speak
to someone in India or Canada orwherever they might be.
(23:02):
You speak to us, you have ourpersonal line.
You speak to us, you have ourpersonal line.
You know that you can.
We can get back to you within aday or less, sometimes within
the hour, wouldn't you say,joseph, some franchisees or
employees or anybody will reachout.
We're usually back to themwithin an hour, but 24 hours at
the most if it's an email orsomething like that.
But we are very responsive, weare dedicated and that's just
(23:26):
the way that Joseph and I bothwant to run things.
We don't like the way that Itell a lot of people that a lot
of the reasons I got intostarting this franchise is
because I don't like franchises.
There was a lot of negativeswhen I wrote down the pros and
cons.
There were a lot of cons tofranchising, so I felt, you know
, I don't think I could fit inwith any other model that's out
(23:46):
there currently.
So why don't we just start ourown and make it the best we can
make it?
And if anybody brings up anyyou know key points, any
mentions, anything that might bebetter, joseph and I are all
ears.
It's not our way or the highway.
We're definitely open towhatever is going to help grow
everybody.
If it's not going to hurt usand it can only help well, then
(24:06):
we're all leaders.
Nice, you don't get thatnowadays.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Yeah, no, that's very hard to find these days.
Well, it's top of the hour.
I know you said, chris, thatyou might have to jump off.
We're going to have to take aquick break, a musical break
anyway.
So I appreciate you.
Are you still going to jump offnow, or are you going to be
(24:35):
able to?
Speaker 7 (24:35):
stay.
Oh yeah, I'll head out thebreak.
That's perfect.
I do appreciate you bringing meback on.
I know a few weeks ago wementioned veteran cards and I
know you're happy with yours aswell.
Absolutely.
That's great Thanks, and I knowyou're happy with yours as well
.
Absolutely Thanks for having me.
I'll let Joseph take it fromhere.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
You're in good hands, like all states, all right, so
yeah, we'll take a quick breakand then, when we come back,
we'll continue the conversationwith Joseph Martinez.
Have a good night.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Awesome.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
See you, chris, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Military broadcast radio, the station that's giving
veterans a voice find us on theweb at mbradious opinions
expressed in this program arethose of the speakers and do not
necessarily reflect the viewsor positions of any entities
they represent find us on theweb at mbradious.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
All right, we are back.
That was a little musicalinterlude from our good friend
Noah Peterson, marine Corpsveteran out of San Antonio.
He's been on the MilitaryBroadcast Radio network before.
So we always like to highlight,you know, veteran musicians.
So you know, if you're anaspiring musician, a veteran,
(27:53):
you want to get your stuff outthere, then hit us up, let us
know and we'll try to get you onthe air.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Funky very entertaining.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, I saw you dance in the background.
I must have hit a nerve for you, but that was good.
Oh, you saw me, I did.
Yeah, I saw you dance in thebackground.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I must have hit a nerve for you, but that was good
oh you saw me.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
I did.
Yeah, I could see you in thebackground, but that's all good.
I won't share the video withanyone else.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
We weren't going to share that right.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
All right.
So yeah, we're back here withJoseph Martinez, so your
official title is can you kindof give us what your official
title is at Troops All Junk.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
Sure, I'm the Chief Operations Officer of Troops.
All Junk Brands our franchise.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Awesome, okay.
So yeah, before we went off tobreak, you and Chris were
talking and I did want to I washoping that, since this is money
in the military and you knowlike it's, it's, it's, you know
we're we're talking aboutfinances, obviously,
entrepreneurship is, is, uh, isit costs money.
You know, you gotta have money.
So, uh, I was going to ask uh,you know from, oh, it looks like
(29:02):
we lost him.
Um, all right, well, we'll givehim a second to come back and
let's see.
I guess in the meantime, wewill just be patient.
But, yeah, what I was going toactually ask him about was, you
know, like, what are some goodfinancial tips for getting into
(29:26):
the franchisee space?
So, we'll give him a second tocome back.
This is a live broadcasting foryou, you know, um, it's, uh,
it's, it's, uh, it's always aninteresting experience.
So, um, well, while we're,while we're waiting, um, let's
see.
Well, while we're waiting,let's see.
(29:46):
So, we did have Chris on hereand that's his second interview,
so we're excited to have himback and maybe we'll have him on
again.
But let's see, let me see if Ican reach out to him and see if
(30:13):
he's, because we did have someissues earlier.
But yeah, things are oh, herewe go, got him back.
All right, so we lost you, butwe got you back.
Sorry about that.
Like we said before, we got on,every once in a while there are
(30:33):
some glitches that happen livebroadcasting.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
When you're live right.
It just happens.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Yes, it just happens.
You actually have a background.
Actually, before we were onthere, you were talking about
your military background.
Can you give a little bit ofwhat you actually did while you
were in the service, or well?
Speaker 5 (30:53):
yeah, I spent yeah, yeah, go ahead.
I spent the majority of my timein the infantry US Army, 11
Bravo and then I spent a numberof years in recruiting command
three years as a recruiter andanother three years as a
recruiter and another threeyears as a recruiter trainer.
I thought being a recruiter wasmy own hours.
(31:15):
As long as I made my mission, Iwas able to go fishing.
So in 2013, I was medevaced outof Afghanistan.
I was honorably discharged,medically discharged, 100% from
the US Army and I began myjourney of healing.
And you know, for the first twoto three years of my healing
(31:42):
process, I was in a funk.
I looked at going back to work.
It just wasn't free, it justwasn't for me.
I had a few jobs here and thereand I just experienced that
lack of camaraderie, just thelack of doing things the way
that I was used to doing themserving in the Army.
So you know, I've always beenAll right.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Well, it looks like we lost him again.
I think he was saying his Wi-Fiis a little spotty, but we'll
take another quick break andhopefully when he comes back
we'll be able to keep him on fora little while.
All right, so stand by and wewill be back with Joseph.
Speaker 6 (32:20):
Martinez.
Yes, since I'd seen his face,not much had changed, just a
(32:45):
different time, different place.
When I shook his hand, I knewsomething had changed.
This was a different man fromthe one I knew back then alright
(33:12):
, looks like we got you back.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
I was started the song, but I figured we'll you
know, since time is of theessence, we'll get you back on
the broadcast.
I'll continue, just in casethere's another break.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Long story short.
I figured.
Well, you know, since time isof the essence, we'll get you
back on the broadcast.
I'll continue, just in casethere's another break.
Long story short.
I live in a military town.
I live right outside ofQuantico United States Marine
Corps base, so I'm surrounded byMarines Joy.
I had a neighbor who was aMarine, who was being reassigned
, and she knew I had a truck andtrailer and asked if you know,
(33:45):
if I wouldn't mind helping herout.
So I did, and then I had alight bulb, I had an epiphany,
if you will.
And then she also asked wouldit be okay if she put my number
out to her Marines who neededhelp with moving junk and trash
from their home to the landfill?
And at that point I knew I wasonto something and initially I
(34:05):
began advertising on a verysmall scale locally.
But it just exploded on its own.
I branded my company as amilitary-owned and operated junk
removal company.
So our trucks are camouflaged,our uniforms are very strapped.
We maintain military-stylehaircuts.
So our trucks are camouflage,our uniforms are very strapped,
we maintain military stylehaircuts.
(34:26):
So you know, anyone who'sinterested in succeeding, you
have to stand out from the oceanof, in my case, junk haulers in
my particular area and we standout, we get noticed.
And you know it's not onlygetting noticed, it's about
going above and beyond what thecustomer expects, and that's
(34:46):
what we do.
I had a client recently who,when we completed the junk
removal project, they said thatwe didn't have to sweep up.
And you know my guys said well,it's our pleasure to sweep up,
and that's what we do.
We want to go above and beyondour customers' expectations.
The customer was blown away,and that's what we do.
We want to go above and beyondour customers' expectations.
The customer was blown away.
So it's just the little thingsthese days that will set you
(35:08):
apart.
If you walk into a Walmart, forexample, I dare you, I
challenge you to find a salesassociate to help you.
They're not available.
And if you do find one, they'renot interested in helping you.
They're not available, and ifyou do find one, they're not
interested in helping you.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
You know we've brought back customer service
and that has been one of themajor keys to our success and
growth within the junk removalindustry.
Nice, that's awesome and I mean, like I said, that is.
It is hard to find these daysactual good customer service.
And then I think most peoplewould prefer to give their
business to a veteran ownedbusiness anyways, you know, just
because it makes them feel good, you know, helping out a
veteran business.
So so it's kind of one of those, like you know, mutually
(35:52):
beneficial, like people feelgood about it, and then you know
you're gainfully employed aswell.
So before we were having issues, I would, I wanted to see if
you could give us maybe somefinancial tips or some things
that you learned along the waywhen you were just starting out,
transitioning out and startingthis business, and maybe when
(36:12):
you started to scale up.
What are some good nuggets thatyou learned about just personal
finances or business financesthat you might could share with
our audience personal financesor business finances that you
might could share with with ouraudience.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
I have two.
One of them is always chargewhat you're worth, right.
You can't grow a company ifyou're competing on price.
You know, if I price a junkremoval job at a very low rate,
that I know I'm undervaluing myservices.
Let's say $200, right.
And then the customer calls oneof my competitors and she says
(36:47):
hey, troops, all Junk, quote me$200.
Well, my competitor says $175.
And it's just going to go likea ping pong ball and everyone is
racing to the bottom.
You know you're in business toprovide a valuable service, but
you're also in business tocharge what you're worth, right.
(37:07):
So that's my first piece ofadvice charge what you're worth.
My second piece of advice ismaintain accurate books, pay
your taxes right.
Read books, pay your taxesright.
Do everything by the book.
Because in the process ofgrowing your company, if you are
(37:28):
taking payment under the table,if you're not maintaining
adequately capitalized businessaccount, right, if you ever
decide you want to sell thebusiness, how much is your
business really worth if youcan't testify to its worth on
paper?
Right?
And that's the mistake that alot of individuals make.
(37:48):
You know I talk to and mentor alot of haulers within my
industry all across the nationand you know these guys are
posting photos of their brandnew 2024,.
You know Dodge Ram 2500 fullydecked out and they got a boat
and so forth.
But they're not running theirbusiness properly.
And when you build a businessimproperly, you're building your
(38:13):
business like a house of cardsand just as soon as you're able
to make it, you can lose it allvery quickly.
And that's one thing that Chrisand I decided to do from the
very beginning.
We asked ourselves how can webulletproof our business, right?
Well, we're going to createoperations manuals because,
guarantee, you talk to 10 out of20 businesses and or you talk
(38:37):
to 20 businesses and 10 of thoseguys or more don't have
operations manuals.
You know they don't havestandard operating procedures
written down, um, and they'rejust not doing it.
They're not building theirbusiness in the correct manner.
They're not building forlongevity.
I can lay my head down at nightand know that I did everything
(38:58):
by the book today and that Iknow that we are a very
attractive option for anindividual who's looking for a
solid company of which to begina business relationship with.
So those are my two tips Chargewhat you're worth.
Build your business by the book.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
Awesome.
So if you were talking to don'tknow, in the air force we had
taps.
I don't know if you guys did,you guys have taps when you
separated um.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
But uh, you know, I know a lot of people complain
that transition assistance likeit's like a a um a module trend
where they help you withtransition assistance and so
forth, uh, resume writing,interview skills and so forth
right, yeah, they have that whenI left the military.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
Okay.
So if you were to speak tothose people who are literally
about to transition out of theservice and let's say they were
interested about becoming afranchisee but maybe their
finances were not quite thereyet or maybe they don't have a
business background and they'renot sure how to start, and you
mentioned, and Chris hadmentioned, that you guys do a
(40:06):
lot of mentoring.
But would you say that someonewho's just separating is an
actually good candidate forjumping in with you guys?
Or would you give them somehomework and you know some
reading to do and, like you know, go to Boots, to Business or
anything like that that youwould recommend to kind of get
(40:27):
the ball rolling for them sothey can jump right into your
guys' business?
Did I lose you?
Speaker 5 (40:44):
I'm still here.
You're coming in broken anddistorted.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Okay, so we lost him again.
All right, so it looks likewe're having some regular issues
here.
Let me see, all right, herehe's back.
All right issues here.
(41:09):
Let me see, all right, herehe's back, all right.
Um, yeah, so uh, I don't knowhow much you caught of what, uh,
what I was saying, butbasically, if you were to give a
briefing to those people whowere just about to transition
out of the service, what kind ofadvice you know like financial
advice, or you know motivationaltips would you give them if
they're literally just startingtheir franchisee journey?
Speaker 5 (41:28):
Believe in yourself, right?
That's a lot easier to say thanit is to do, but in practical
terms, learn to cut out thestatic, learn to ignore the
static in life.
If you want to develop your ownbusiness right, if that's what
you have in your heart, ifthat's your goal to be the
(41:48):
captain of your destiny you'regoing to have to develop a skill
that prevents you fromabsorbing all the negative
comments.
You know your friends andfamily are going to try to deter
you from risking and going intobusiness for yourself.
You know those individuals thatare closest to you are the ones
(42:10):
that are probably going to tellyou to not start that business
because they care about you,right?
But you have to understand thatmost of those types of comments
come from a place of fear andif you're fearful, you will
never accomplish anything ofsubstance in your life.
You have to take a risk, youhave to believe in yourself and
(42:33):
if you continue to trainyourself to cut out that static,
to not listen to those negativecomments, to keep focused and
keep moving forward, one daywill eventually reach your goal.
But you know there's so manyindividuals who've never done it
and they're going to tell youyou shouldn't do it either.
Don't listen to thoseindividuals you know.
Do your due diligence.
(42:54):
Research the franchise thatyou're interested in getting
involved with.
Research the business that youwant to start right, become a
subject matter expert anddevelop all of those skills that
one must learn to be successfulin business.
But first and foremost, youhave to learn to ignore the
static.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
I like that.
That's definitely somethingthat I've come across as well.
But, yeah, I appreciate yousaying that.
You know I've definitelysomething that's come, I've come
across as well, but uh, um, butyeah, no, I appreciate you you
saying that and I hopefully thatresonates with uh, with some
listeners out there who might be, you know, struggling with you
know that that next step ormaybe, like like chris was
saying, he's like he knew earlyon that he wasn't going to be,
(43:37):
he was going to have anotherboss, like he was.
Like he knew that early on andum, and that was what one of his
driving, driving forces um, hestarted small.
It sounded like you know thesame thing with you started
small and then kind ofeventually scaled up and and uh,
kind of went from there, um,but I am curious about it it's
(44:00):
easy to stay motivated when thephone is ringing, when customers
are calling you.
Speaker 5 (44:04):
When the phone isn't ringing and you're all by
yourself and you're doubtingyourself, what do you do then?
Right, that's when you have torely on these skills that you've
developed.
You have to be resilient.
Be resilient, okay be resilient.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Okay, so if somebody were interested in let's say
they heard this episode and theywanted to go ahead and jump in
headfirst, what would yourecommend?
How would they get the processrolling with you guys and what
would those first?
I know you mentioned like aphone call, but how would they
(44:44):
reach out to you?
Speaker 5 (44:46):
Sure, yeah, very simple.
You have a websitetroopshalljunkcom and they could
visit that website, clickopportunity tab and then they'll
be required to fill out what wecall a request for information.
It's just basic information.
Chris or myself will receivethat information.
We'll reach out either via textor by telephone call or email,
(45:09):
requesting a time.
That's most convenient.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
Looks like he jumped off again.
Well, let's see, we'll give hima few seconds to come back.
He's been coming back in prettyquickly, all right.
Live broadcasting people, it'salways an adventure there.
(45:35):
He is All right, we're back.
Speaker 5 (45:38):
It's a winner tonight , huh.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
It's all good.
It's all good, it's all goodbut?
Speaker 5 (45:44):
but to continue, you know it all starts with a phone
call and um, and you know,individuals don't need to be
intimidated about making thatcall.
Sometimes we, we take a callfrom an individual who reaches
out.
You can tell they're kind ofnervous and all that.
Look fellas.
Um, I didn't score very high onthe asvab, hence the reason
they put me in the infantry.
You know, I I like to think I'ma smart guy, but I'm just an
average guy.
We're looking to spread ourmessage to the right individuals
(46:07):
.
If you're interested in owningyour own business, if you're
interested in the franchisemodel, if you want a kick-ass
brand with awesome support,awesome resources and
infrastructure that's juststarting out at the ground level
, right now is the time to makethat call.
You know you may not like whatwe say, but we're going to give
(46:28):
it to you bluntly, we're goingto give it to you truthfully.
The highest level of respectthat one person can have for
another is to give you the truthright here, right between the
eyes, so that you can moveforward and make decisions that
are best for you and your family.
Visit troopsalljunkcom.
(46:48):
Fill out that request forinformation.
Speaker 4 (46:49):
We'll reach out and we'll take it from there.
Okay, and you had mentionedthat you guys were or you're
looking at doing a podcast.
Is that correct?
Is that something that's on thehorizon?
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (46:58):
I am.
I'm looking at developing apodcast because business has
always been my first love.
My second love has always beenmentorship.
In 2021, I mentored 118individuals at no cost to them.
Every Sunday morning for threehours I was on the telephone
with several individuals, to thedetriment of my family.
(47:20):
My wife got a wife got a littleupset, you know so when I
scaled down the mentorship, shewas happy about that.
But through podcasting I want toinspire other veterans, not
just to get into our franchiseor any franchise, but to get
into business for themselves.
You know, when I was lost as anewly medically retired veteran,
(47:45):
like I said, I couldn't, Ididn't find my spot.
But when I began hauling junkhauling junk was not my purpose,
but my purpose was feeling asif I had a purpose again.
Junk removal was just thevehicle being able to connect
with the many veterans hereright outside of Quantico.
(48:06):
You know, I always say you canput two veterans together who
don't know each other.
Put them in a room and withinfive minutes we're going to find
common ground.
It's very healing, joey,absolutely.
When I meet a veteran that Ihold junk for right, it's not
just a junk removal service butalso experiencing something that
(48:26):
I call junk removal therapy.
It's that feeling that you'redoing something worthwhile,
you're on a mission, you're partof a team once again, and
that's one of the main thingsthat we talk about with
individuals who call us.
You know many individuals.
They don't know they're missingthe team.
They don't know they're missingbeing part of the tribe, but
(49:09):
when they find out what we'reall about.
They want to be part of ourtribe once again.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
That's beautiful, and so with this podcast you're
kind of still in the earlystages, or do you have, like, a
launch date or anything planned?
Speaker 5 (49:23):
You know, organization was one of my
greatest skills.
Right, I'm the kicking the doordown kind of guy.
I'm not the creating theoperations order kind of guy, so
I'm playing it by ear.
I have a couple of individualslined up already.
I'm looking at launching byNovember no, december one and
(49:46):
really I just want to talk toindividuals who are veterans,
who are in business to haveimpart wisdom on my viewers,
inspire my viewers and let themknow if they can do it.
If I can do it, you can do itas well.
Speaker 4 (50:00):
I love that, and then that's actually a big thing.
You know, on military broadcastradio, like you know, we have
tons of different you know showsand different genres and you
know.
So I mean, I don't know ifyou're interested, but you could
, you could always be part ofMBR and, you know, basically use
us as a platform to kind of dosome of the heavy lifting for
(50:22):
you.
But but if you've already gotsomething in the works, that's
fine too.
It's just, you know, MBR iskind of unique in the sense that
you know we're a nonprofit andyou know the whole mission is to
basically help veterans createpodcasts.
So that's how I got started inthis whole thing.
Wow, I didn't know that?
Speaker 5 (50:40):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to tap into your into your
resources for sure.
Speaker 4 (50:48):
Okay, absolutely yeah , cause it sounds like, uh, you
know, if you're you're in thatearly stages of the you know the
cause, like the logistical sideof you know the podcast
industry is is a lot to kind ofunpack.
So, um, yeah, like MBR has beenreally helpful in that sense.
So we can talk about thatoffline if you want, and I can
introduce you to Joel and he'skind of like the head honcho and
(51:12):
yeah, we could do somethingfrom there if you want.
But yeah, I mean really, youknow, as soon as I heard about
Chris and then he was talkingabout you, I was like you know,
this is the kind of story that Iwant to tell.
I heard about Chris and then hewas talking about you.
I was like you know, these are,this is the kind of story that
I want to tell and, and yourguys's you know vision, for you
(51:33):
know, you're not just, you'renot just running a business,
you're helping other veterans.
You know, run the business andI really like that.
And then I mean I'm sure thattrickles down to where other
they're hiring other veteranstoo, like their buddies, and
they're like that trickles downto where other they're hiring
other veterans to like theirbuddies and they're like you
know, so it kind of it's, it'screating all these positive
ripples in in the um, in thecommunity.
So I really I really love thatand resonated with you guys as
uh, um story, uh and so um butum, but yeah, I mean um.
(51:59):
So, with that being being said,we're actually getting close to
time.
Is there any last minute, lastwords of wisdom, any words of
inspiration that you have forthe MBR audience and any
aspiring franchisees?
Speaker 5 (52:16):
Definitely, once again, believe in yourself.
Right, you have to believe inwhat you're doing in order to
succeed.
But above and beyond all ofthat, you have to understand
that there is absolutely noguarantee that anyone will
succeed in any business,regardless of the mentorship,
(52:37):
the branding and so forth.
So franchises have a bad nameBecause a lot of bad people ran
franchises have a bad namebecause a lot of bad people ran
franchises in the early 60s whenfranchising really hit the
mainstream.
So, regardless of what businessone looks into, and
specifically franchises have agood understanding of how a
franchise system works, and wealways suggest to every one of
(53:01):
the individuals who we speak tothat speak to an attorney, have
the attorney look at ourfranchise disclosure documents
to ensure that they'relegitimate.
And for those of our viewers whodon't know what franchise
disclosure documents arecommonly referred to as FDDs
every franchise, whether it's aMcDonald's, a Baskin Robbins or
a Troops Hall junk, will have adocument that has 23 different
(53:25):
subsections and it tells youeverything about the franchise
system what's expected of you,what's expected of the
management, what the fees are,the term and duration of the
contract.
It's easy enough to understand,but we never want to take for
granted the fact that we, assomeone who isn't an attorney,
(53:47):
can understand a franchisedisclosure document in regards
of how simple it is.
So we always suggest toindividuals to take the time to
take those FDDs to an attorneyand let a qualified individual
review the documents before yousign anything, because it's a
contract and when you areinvolved in a contract, well,
(54:08):
we're all big boys here.
We're supposed to do our duediligence to ensure that we know
what we're getting ourselvesinto.
So, chris, and I highly suggestjust to check out really
indepthly what you're thinkingabout getting involved with I
love that.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Do your due diligence , cross your t, dot your I's and
all that stuff so well, joseph,I really, I really appreciate
you taking the time out to tellyour story, to tell us about
your business and to give ussome really good advice for any,
any aspiring franchisee.
So with that we're going to.
(54:44):
We're going to end the stream,but I just want to thank you
again.
Thank you for your service andI will look forward to getting
your podcast out there or atleast helping in any way that I
can.
So I appreciate everything andwe'll catch you guys on the next
stream.
Speaker 5 (55:02):
Yeah, joey, pleasure meeting you.
Thanks for allowing me a fewminutes to spread my message on
your show.
Thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
All right, you guys take care, thank you.
Speaker 3 (55:12):
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to
Military Broadcast Radio.
As we wrap up today's show, wewant to remind you that the
podcast of today's episode willbe available right after we go
off the air, so if you missedany part of the show or want to
listen again, be sure to checkit out.
(55:34):
And remember we're here tosupport and honor our veterans.
Your stories and experiencesmatter and we are committed to
giving you a platform to sharethem.
That's right.
We're here to give our veteransa voice, so don't forget to
(55:55):
catch the podcast and stayconnected with us Giving our
veterans a voice.
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