Two Weeks Away And The Business Still Runs

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Two weeks on the road sounds like a break until you realize it is also the best way to find out if your business is actually built to run without you. We drove to back-to-back home inspection conferences and mastermind meetings, Dallas first and then Orlando, and used the whole trip as a real-world test of our systems, automations, and backup support. If you own a service business and you have ever wondered whether you are a business owner or just the most stressed employee, this one will hit close to home.

Between the practical lessons, we share the fun parts of choosing the slow route: leveling up to van camping, discovering why Buc-ees is strangely perfect for overnight stops, squeezing in Ozarks hiking, and timing New Orleans right by visiting the week after Mardi Gras when the French Quarter is clean, friendly, and not packed. We also take a weird detour into history with the Bonnie and Clyde ambush site museum, talk about what made it feel creepy, and yes, we put our feet in the Fountain of Youth before a breakfast stop that turns into an unexpected crayon moment.

On the business side, we talk scheduling, operations, and what “smooth” really looks like when you are gone for 14 days: fewer fires, clearer processes, and a team that can handle the normal flow. We also mention a new scheduling system we are building, aimed at home inspectors first but designed with the broader service industry in mind. If you want a more resilient business and fewer surprises, listen through and then tell us: what is the first thing that would break if you left for two weeks. Subscribe, share this with another owner who needs a systems wake-up call, and leave a review if it helps.

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com) 

NBC4 news segments: The importance of home inspections, and what to look for | NBC4 WCMH-TV

Advice from experts: Don’t skip the home inspection | NBC4 WCMH-TV

OSU student’s mysterious symptoms end up tied to apartment’s air quality | NBC4 WCMH-TV

How to save money by winterizing your home | NBC4 WCMH-TV

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
Hey everybody, it's been about three two weeks,
three weeks since we recorded anepisode.
So Laura and I have been busy.
Yeah, we are we are back todoing this.
So here's something we did.
We had two conferences to go tofor the home inspections.

SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
Back to back ish.

SPEAKER_02 (00:21):
Conferences slash mastermind meetings.
So one was in Dallas, and thenthe other one was in Orlando.
So what we did, instead of we'renot real big.
Yeah, Laura hates flying.
So we drove there, which firstof all, a lot of people think
that's crazy.
But we drove to Dallas, and thenwe had about a week.

(00:45):
So instead of driving all theway back to Ohio, then going
back down to Orlando, we justwent to Dallas, took our time
working out to Orlando, and thenwe came back up.
So we were gone two weeks, buttwo-week time frame is a good
way to test your businesssystems to make certain
everything runs well withoutyou.

(01:08):
If it runs well without you,then you know you got a good
like business and you're notlike self-employed.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19):
So some of the things we did though, because
Laura and I treat things as uhyou know, we're trying to treat
things as much as play andenjoyment as we can.
So on the way down to Dallas,well, first of all, we got a
brand new van.

SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
So we have taken car camping to the next level.

SPEAKER_02 (01:35):
Car camping to the next level.
So it's gonna be van camping.
I still gotta build a bed in theback of that thing, but we had
an air mattress, and we wouldjust pull over, check things
out.
I went to my Bucky, to a Bucky'sfor the first time.

SPEAKER_01 (01:46):
We got him to pop his Bucky's cherry.

SPEAKER_02 (01:49):
Pop that Bucky Cherry.
So I so I went to Bucky's.
I Bucky loves it.
Bucky, or somebody was in acostume, was at the first Bucky
we went into.
We got a picture with Bucky.
That's on the Facebook page.
Look for that, look for a gymtrough, and look at the scroll
down that Facebook stream.
You'll see a Bucky there, me andLaura.

(02:10):
Um Walla Jerky.
That that was pretty cool.
And then you get the tastejerky, like the deli, and yeah,
and their brisket sandwiches,those are good.

SPEAKER_01 (02:20):
Dude, I tried telling you for how many
freaking years?
And no, no.
It's it's it's a it it's mything now.
I just refuse to go to Bucky's.

SPEAKER_02 (02:28):
I just don't want to go to Bucky's just to bug Laura.
Really, I mean that's that'sthat's what it is.
It's all played.
But anyway, now I'm I'm I likeBucky's, it was a good place.
Great place is the car camp.

SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
Oh, yeah, huge, huge parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 (02:42):
Well lit in the van.
You can't, you know, we're notgetting light to shine into our
eyes no matter how we positionthe place to sleep and clean
bathrooms, food at all hours ofthe day.

SPEAKER_01 (02:54):
Open 24-7.
I don't have to worry about, youknow, we're hitting five, six
o'clock and things are closing.
And I'm like, well, crap, wheream I gonna go to the restroom at
two in the morning?

SPEAKER_02 (03:04):
Oh, like Ireland, things close early.
We when we're in Ireland, we'reoff season, so that may affect
it a little bit.
But anyway, on the trip toDallas, we we we like hiking,
nature.
So we stopped, we ended up inthe Ozarks.
Gorgeous.
Gorgeous, did a little bit ofhiking around there, that was
nice.
We did Dallas, where we hadreally really just in the

(03:27):
meeting, didn't really sightseetoo much in Dallas.
We we've been to Dallas manytimes before.
Well, we've been in Dallas.

SPEAKER_01 (03:33):
Well, we were technically in Fort Worth when
we did.

SPEAKER_02 (03:35):
Fort Worth, yes.
And then we went to Grandby,because it was a cute little
town that some men mentionedwhile we're at the meeting.
Checked out Grandby, Texas, cutetown, kind of back in the 50s.

SPEAKER_01 (03:48):
Every freaking block had like wine tasting wine, like
every literally every block inthis town.

SPEAKER_02 (03:55):
There's this little center area that is nice little
shops and I think, but yeah,winery, like it, like there's
there's eight in this goingaround this little center.
Then we end up near New Orleansas we slowly made our way back
to well to Orlando, and it wasthe week after Mardi Gras.

(04:17):
So we just missed Mardi Gras.
Which I'm thinking now, andwe've been to Mardi Gras before
a couple times.
I think the week after MardiGras is the best time to go
check out the French quarterbecause it's not stupidly
crowded.
The city just cleaned up becauseof Mardi Gras.

SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
So it didn't smell at all.
Like it was nice.
This was probably the best NewOrleans trip I think we've ever
had.

SPEAKER_02 (04:44):
Yeah, not crowded, but it's friendly, not really
any crazy, stupid, drunk people.
So it it was nice.
So if you're going to go to NewOrleans, man, the week after
Mardi Gras, I think that is thebest time.
And there is a KOA 30 minutesfrom the French quarter.

SPEAKER_01 (05:00):
And that is a new one.
Like it's only been within thelast year or two that it's been
opened.
So it it's brand new.
It's got really nice facilities.
We did some laundry there.

SPEAKER_02 (05:12):
Yeah, it was a nice place.
So we did that, and then we fromthere, and I can't remember if
it's before or after.
This is a little bit of ouradventures, driving, and we had
time to kill.
All of a sudden, I see Bonnieand Clyde Ambush Museum, a sign
for that.

SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
I'm like, what is this?

SPEAKER_02 (05:31):
What the heck is that?
So there we go.
We go over there.
It is a little, it is a veryrun-down town.
Um, they they could definitelyneed visitors, but I can't
remember the name of the town.
But anyway, it was the loc themuseum is the site of where
there used to be a littlerestaurant, little deli, where

(05:52):
Bine and Clyde stopped at andhad their ended up being their
last meal before they drove downthe road about seven miles and
got ambushed by uh police andand got shot.
But it's an interestingbuilding.
Check it out check it out whileit's still there.
Because they I I hope theylisten to this because they got

(06:13):
some electrical stuff they needto check out and to make it
safe, because there's electricaluh home inspector, can't shut
shit off.
I'm walking across extensioncords that are strewn across the
floor, like plugged intoextension cords, and they're
duct taped down to the floor soyou don't trip on them, but the
duct tape is wearing out becauseit's been walked on so much.

SPEAKER_01 (06:36):
Well, and then there's the battery that's
powering, like the car batterythat was powering lights.
I saw two car batteries withextension cords the whole time
through here.
He's like, Did you see thoseelectric cords?
Did you see those extensioncords?
This place is gonna catch fire.
It's a fire trap.
This is a fire trap.
I'm amazed it's still around.

SPEAKER_02 (06:54):
So I'm hoping they get that stuff fixed, but really
interesting, kind of creepy aswell.

SPEAKER_01 (07:00):
Yeah, very creepy.

SPEAKER_02 (07:03):
Because the movie movies, there's been a plus.
Several movies, and I didn'tseen those things since I was
little, so we were gonna watchthose, but I kind of think they
kind of romanticized Bonnie andClyde because this is right
after the depression, so peoplewere like against wealthy
people, it seemed like.
So it kind of seemed that mayhave been the theme why people
were like them.

SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
Mother taught him poor people were good, rich
people were bad.
Just period end story.
As she's beating the living crapout of him, so obviously she
wasn't that good.

SPEAKER_02 (07:33):
Correct.
So the psychology background wehave is like, all right, we
gotta we gotta do a deep dive ofthat, but there's really no
point in that.
So anyway, we did that, and thenthey had a memorial where they
were shot at the ambush site,and that was I didn't I do not
get this at all.
Bonnie and Clyde, they were theywere thieves, murderers,

(07:54):
murderers, and there's a littlememorial, and then people
nowadays are start are coming upand dropping off like gifts
gifts, like uh beers, beads,sodas, candy, shots of sodium
chloride, sodium like insyringes of sodium chloride, no

(08:14):
needle, but I I think you usethose to irrigate wounds, which
by had a very serious, they allhad some injuries because
they've been fighting andavoiding the police and getting
injured.
Car accidents and shots and sowe did that, then that then
shortly after that, heading moretoward Orlando, here came oh
Leonard Skinner too.
It's a Leonard Skinner memorial.

SPEAKER_01 (08:35):
I'm like, what the heck is this?

SPEAKER_02 (08:37):
I don't know anything about Leonard Skinner.
Why is there a memorial?
Well, you may know, I did not.
Their plane crashed, I don'tknow what year.
77.
Their plane crashed, and threeof them the band members died,
or are three.
Was it three?
Not all were band members, onewas a sister of the band
members.
Anyway, there's memorial forthat because that was a plane

(08:59):
crash.

SPEAKER_01 (08:59):
That was a living co-pilot died.

SPEAKER_02 (09:02):
Yep.
So then we went on to Orlando.
No, Ponta Leon.

SPEAKER_01 (09:08):
Ponta de Leon.
We stuck our Tootsies in thefountain of youth.

SPEAKER_02 (09:12):
Yep, yep.
So it's gonna make us any anyyounger.
But then, all right, so then thevery next day, we are going to
get breakfast because we are inFlorida.
We're in Florida, obviously,heading toward Orlando.
We go to, I think it was a firstwatch restaurant, which is good
good food.
Yeah.
Laura secretly tells the hostessto get me uh crayons.

(09:35):
Yeah, you think I was much ofthis crayons and the little
collaring sheet that they havefor little kids, okay?
And I was like, look down, likelike we like what what'd you
guys do?
She's like, oh no, no.
The host is like, no, no, she'sgonna make sure you're taken
care of.
I'm like, all right.
Then she hands me the crayons,but five minutes later, Laura,

(09:56):
five minutes later, but you'refive to ten minutes later, Laura
is the one with the crayonscollaring like a little kid.

SPEAKER_01 (10:02):
You weren't entertaining me.

SPEAKER_02 (10:03):
So I think the fountain of youth had more
effect on her than it did me.

SPEAKER_01 (10:07):
But then I am younger.

SPEAKER_02 (10:09):
You are younger, right?
Yeah, so you don't have to go toget in a collaring age.

SPEAKER_00 (10:14):
Habitation investigation is the way to go.
For a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs.
From radon to malt to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go wrong.

(10:35):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_02 (10:39):
So from there we went, we made it to Orlando and
we uh we had the meeting thatwas good.
Made some uh introductionsbecause we're working on a new
scheduling system.
So if you're a home inspectorand you listen to this, get a
hold of us.
We we have a new schedulingsystem that's coming out that's
gonna uh gonna it's gonna reallykick ass and save you lots of

(11:01):
money.

SPEAKER_01 (11:02):
Well, and it's not just for home inspectors, it
could be any service industry,actually.

SPEAKER_02 (11:06):
It it it could be it could be it could be made made
for that.

SPEAKER_01 (11:09):
But we we did it primarily for the home
inspection industry becausethere's nothing out there.

SPEAKER_02 (11:14):
Yep.
So get hold of me, I'll get youinformation, maybe get on the
list to uh beta test beta testthat you know, the uh founders
thing, whatever we have forthat.
Um so we did a meeting.
Meeting was alright.
We met various people, vendorsthat some some could help us
out, maybe some you know somenot.

(11:36):
And then we came back up to Ohiowhere it was cold.

SPEAKER_01 (11:42):
Yeah, it was nice down there.

SPEAKER_02 (11:44):
We were gone for two weeks and the business ran
smoothly, which is very nice.
We had a few phone calls, but itwas nothing because there
weren't any problems.
There were no problems kind ofjust checking in, really, what's
what it seemed like.
So that's that's what we we'vebeen up to.
So if you whatever business youhave, I recommend you see how

(12:07):
how long can you be away and thewheels not fall off the
business.
What automations do you have totake care of things?

SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
What automations do you need to take care of things?

SPEAKER_02 (12:19):
Yeah, and are you able yeah.
And and this this is a good waywhere you figure that out.
Because you're gone like, holycrap, I need to do this, and I
don't have a way of getting itdone.
Well, you now you know that's asystem you need to focus on.
That's how it works.
So Laura, any any other thoughtson what we've been up to the
last two weeks?
I mean, today it's I mean, itwas like very nice yesterday,

(12:42):
and now it is gonna get coldagain.
It's Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 (12:45):
Oh, I I heard that uh what's the name of uh Buckeye
Chuck or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 (12:51):
Yeah, yeah, Bunks on a Phil, then it's Buckeye Chuck.

SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
Buckeye Chuck apparently has been arrested.
According according to aFacebook post because he was so
bad this year that the same dayhe said it was going to be an
early spring.
We had all four seasons,apparently, according to the
said post.
You had rain, freezing rain,snow, and dice temperatures.

(13:18):
So Buckeye Chuck's in trouble.

SPEAKER_02 (13:21):
Yeah, well, uh that happens.
Yeah, it happens.
Meteorologists, they're they'rethey're allowed very, you know,
air.

SPEAKER_01 (13:27):
Well, well, here's something funny.
So we've recently started umtalking with the gentleman out
of Sweden who who went throughthe school system in Sweden.
And I made a snarky responseabout Buckeye Chuck one day, and
you know, like going withBuckeye Chuck over Punks Tawny
Phil because he said spring.
And apparently in Sweden, intheir school system, they teach

(13:50):
that we as Americans actuallybelieve in Groundhog Day, and
not that it's like a satire.
Like they think that wegenuinely follow this freaking
groundhog day.
And we take that shootseriously.
And they take that seriously.
So there's your enjoyment forthe day, how other people
interpret things, and it's justit's just kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_02 (14:11):
Correct, correct.
So I think that's it for this.
Just wanted to update everybodyum that and really give
testimony that we do have greatsystems that work fantastic, and
that we have the backup, the thepeople, and the systems to get
things done, and then we'realways um available as well to
help get things done for youryour real estate transactions.
I think that's about it.

SPEAKER_01 (14:32):
Take care, everybody.
Bye.
Bye.